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Jo was out of breath. He had been running since he had left the mansion. That was sometime around 10:15, 10:30pm he guessed. He stopped and looked around. His wristwatch said that it was almost 11:30pm.

Jo swore under his breath. It's only been an hour so far...

He kept moving, but he slowed his pace to regain his energy. It wasn't long until he saw something of interest. What looked like police lights where flashing around the corner. He felt compelled to take a look. He turned the corner and quietly made his way through the thick crowd of people.

What he saw caused him to gasp.

There was Henry, or at least Henry's body. Most of the rabbit's head was gone. Blown off by the looks of it. He tapped the shoulder of the otter that was next to him.

"Hey, what the hell happened here?" He asked.

The otter shook his head and turned to face the fox who addressed him. "A witness said that about 15 minutes ago or so, this rabbit came out of that parking place, and his head just kinda... blew off or something." He shook his head again. "The crime in this city is horrible. First the murder of Mr. Youngson, and now this..."

He sighed. "I'm getting out of here. You should do the same."

Jo turned back to look at Henry as the otter left. He wasn't sure what to feel. One of his friends had just been killed. But this friend had been trying to kill Neil...

A thought entered his head.

Could Neil had done this? He had shot the master. But it was accidental... Would that really mess with him so badly that he would just kill his friends?

Jo shook his head. No! No way! Neil still has some of his humanity. He would never kill his friends! No matter what!

...At least he hoped not.

The fox left the crowd and took off running again. He was more determined to find Neil than ever before. But where would he look? He stopped running again so he could think. He looked up. Across the street was a brightly lit sign that read: "Tail Bar & Dance."

He chuckled. The only gay bar in town. He remembered he went there once with Neil. They had danced themselves stupid, and drank themselves giddy. Then he thought about the chances that Neil was in there. A dense crowd makes it hard to find someone specific. The loud music makes eavesdropping nearly impossible. And it was big. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed likely.

Jo crossed the street and managed to slip in past the bouncers by merging in with a large group. He looked around. Being in here brought back some memories. He really hoped that Neil was here.

He made his way through the dance floor, weaving through all the happy, half-drunk dancers. He came out near the bar. No sign of Neil there... Jo already felt his hope leaving him. But he sat down at the bar and ordered a glass of water anyway. He questioned his actions the whole time.

I should be out looking for Neil. Why would I sit down and order a drink? He's gonna get killed why I'm here. I should have ordered a Scotch instead.

The bartender set two drinks down in front of Jo. Jo gave him a puzzled look.

"I only ordered the water." He said.

The bartender smiled. "This Martini is the courtesy of the gentleman behind you."

Jo sighed and turned around ready to slug whoever just gave him this drink. He was in no mood to be hit-on right now.

But he didn't slug the guy. In fact, he leapt up and gave him a hug.

"HOLY SHIT!! NEIL!" He shouted!

Neil embraced him and returned the hug with full force. "Jo! I knew you'd find me here!"

Jo felt like he could cry. "I've got so many questions for you!" He said.

"Can you save them until we get to my table?" He asked.

"Of course, of course!"

Neil wrapped an arm around Jo and they walked back to the booth in the dark corner that Neil had been sitting at. It was one of those really nice half-circle booths. They slide over into the far side of it and exchanged a long awaited kiss.

Jo pulled back from the kiss first and placed his paws on Neil's shoulders. He looked up at him with concerned eyes.

"What's wrong?" Neil asked.

"Have you... I want to know... Did you see any of our friends yet?" Jo said, afraid of what the answer might be.

"I did."

"Who was it?"

"Chris."

"What happened?"

"He fired a few shots at me, but I got him in the leg and fled. As much as I hated having to shoot one of our own, I'd rather cripple then than kill them."

"That's good... So, you haven't seen Henry or anyone else?"

"Nope."

Jo released a sigh of relief. Neil hadn't been the one who had killed Henry, and he still retained his humanity. But then he wondered, if Neil hadn't killed Henry... Who did?

"Neil, I think you ought to know something."

Neil took a sip of the drink he had ordered earlier. "And what would that be?"

Jo took in a deep breath and released it before he spoke. "Henry's been killed." He said quietly. His voiced was almost lost in the techno that played in the background.

Neil's eyes widened. So it's already starting, he thought. He looked at Jo with a concerned face.

"Have you run into anyone yet?" He asked.

"Just Henry's dead body..." He sighed.

Neil took another sip of his drink. "That's good." He looked Jo in the eyes. "There's more going on here than you know." He said, "Things are about to get very dangerous..."

***

"Damn that bloody panther!"

Chris cradled his injured leg as he rested against the wall of the run down building. He had met that blasted traitor in an alleyway. He almost had him too, but Neil had ducked behind a dumpster and fired around it.

Chris glanced down at his bandaged leg.

"Lucky shot." He grumbled to himself. He hated this. There was no way he could go and hunt down Neil like this. He could barely walk! In fact, Chris was still in amazement that he even made it to this building.

That was when he felt his phone start to vibrate. He quickly reached into his pocket and yanked it out. Ben was calling him.

"Jesus Christ... What the fuck does he want?"

He flipped the phone open. "What d'ya want?" he said harshly.

"Henry just killed Terry."

Chris sat up straighter. "What?" He said.

"You heard me. Henry has killed Terry."

Chris was silent for a bit. "Did you take action?" He finally asked.

"I did." Ben said, "Henry has been taken out."

"... I see. Is that all you called me for?"

"No, I wanted to let you know that I'm calling the agency."

"The agency? Already?"

"Yes. The master of this branch has been killed. And we had another traitor: Henry." He paused, "And who knows what Jo is doing. We have two of our assassin's gone, one traitor running loose, and one assassin that can't be relied on. If Jo is helping Neil, which I can almost guarantee, there is a slim chance of just the two of us succeeding in bringing Neil down. That's why-"

Ben was cut off by Chris.

"Make that zero chance." He said.

"What?"

"I said we have no chance. I fought Neil earlier, he shot me in the leg. I can barely walk."

The other end of the conversation was quiet for a bit. "Even more reason we need the agency's help." Ben finally said. "I need your location so I can get a medic to pick you up and take a look at your leg. We don't want to lose anyone else."

"K'," Chris said. "I'm in a run down building on West Avenue. Second floor."

"Alright, I'll get someone down there as soon as possible." With that, Ben hung up.

Chris closed the phone and tossed it across the room.

"A fucking medic." He growled. "Damn it all."

***

"What do you mean?" Jo asked, feeling nervous.

"Whenever the Master of an assassin branch is killed, there obviously has to be a replacement. As you know, I'm the top rank in our branch, so I should be the new Master. However, because I am responsible for the death of the old Master, I've been marked a traitor."

Jo recalled the events that took place earlier that night and shuddered.

"Traitors must be killed. And the way that our system works allows the one who kills the traitor to advance to the top rank. So the one who kills me will be able to become the new Master of this branch."

"I know all that." Jo said, "But it doesn't explain why someone has killed Henry."

"You didn't let me finish." Neil said. "We don't know what else is going on. If someone is killing off our other assassin's... I think I know what they are planning. A guild that loses the majority of their members gets replacements from the agency."

"So our suspects would be our guild members that don't like the current members." Jo chimed in.

"Exactly. So our suspects would be..."

"Ben or Terry." Jo said sternly. "I don't think Ben has ever liked anyone here. And we all tease Terry constantly, especially Henry."

"So Terry is the most plausible suspect for Henry's death?"

Jo pondered that for a bit. "I'm not so sure. The way I was told Henry died was that he came out of a parking structure and his head kind of... exploded. Not Terry's style at all."

"Good point. I think we should check out that parking structure."

"I'll check it out." Jo said, standing up, "They're looking for you, so you should stay hidden."

Neil sighed. "Are you sure you'll be okay by yourself?" He asked.

"Yeah, no reason to worry."

And before Neil could protest anymore, Jo took off toward the exit.

***

Ben swore to himself. The only other assassin that he actually had a slight amount of trust in was injured.

Nothing but a useless chunk of flesh now.

He dialed the Agency's number into his phone. He needed help of someone with skill greater than his. And as soon as he told them the "situation", he knew he'd get it.

"Hello?" Came a female's voice from the earpiece.

"Yes hello." Ben said. "We have a situation down here in Guild A-20."

"Understood. Connecting you to emergency lines. Please hold."

Ben tapped his foot to the elevator style music as he waited.

A male's voice soon came over the phone. "Guild A-20? What's the situation?"

The tiger's voice became serious. If you where going to lie, at least make it convincing.

"The Master of our branch has been assassinated by one of our own. Unfortunately, while hunting down the traitor, the others began to turn on each other. Two are dead so far, one is injured, and I seem to be the only sane one left. I need someone down here to help me remedy the situation or else this whole branch will be lost."

The other end of the conversation was silent for a bit. Ben could hear the tapping of a keyboard.

"Understood. We will have someone at your coordinates within a half hour." And the phone hung up.

It had only been about fifteen minutes before Ben's help arrived.

He couldn't have been happier.

---

A bit of a delay on this one. Ah well. I had a hard time trying to explain the reasons behind the assassin backstabbing in actual words. It was a lot clearer to me in my head. So I'm sorry if you didn't really get it.

And, oh noes! I'm introducing a new character!!!!

FYI, I'm also sorry about the lack of sexiness in this series so far. Not that I'm known for engrossing sex scenes anyway (laughs). But I've come the realize something: a deadly, cat and mouse style story isn't exactly the best type of story to throw sex into the middle of (I mean seriously, how much time do you have for sex when you are hunting/getting hunted?). But alas, I'll try whenever I get the opportunity. I mean, come on! The Battle Royal series did it! So I should be able to do it too!

And as always, comments are loved.

Until next time. Ciao.