FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Tires screeched as the van sped down the road, voices shouting from within the cabin as it cleared the corner and continued on its way. The driver was flooring it as he sped through the industrial park, barely missing a passing sedan that was forced to veer right to avoid a collision, bumping onto the curb before shouting out his window at the "crazy bastard".

The driver ignored him, his eyes wide with terror ash is cohorts argued in the back next to the cache of items covered by a blanket, both carrying sub-machine guns in their hands as they stared out the back window.

"Did we lose him?" One of them asked, speaking Mandarin.

"I can't see him," the other answered, voice shaken. "How did he find us?!"

"It will not mean anything if that damn ghost catches us- ah!" He jerked, pointing his gun at the window. "There! On that truck!"

The other looked, following where his cohort was aiming the barrel of his gun, to a parked company pickup bearing the company logo of 'Beaverbrook Construction' on its side, resting in a fenced property.

But there was no one there.

"You are getting jumpy!" The first shouted, this time in English, before reverting back to Mandarin. "We circle the block, ensure we are not being followed, before we head to the drop off. If he comes, we kill-"

His words caught in his throat as the driver let out a surprised cry and turned the vehicle sharply, throwing the two in the back into one another, both struggling to keep their weapons turned aside or dropping them entirely as they grabbed at anything they could for purchase, wrapped packages flying about as they fell into them. The driver quickly regained control of the vehicle, resuming their drive, only to see another flash of pale blue light ahead of him, and there he was again.

Clad in white and red, fixing the driver with a freezing glare that seemed to bore into his very soul. The driver swerved again, trying to avoid him and nearly careening into a post. This once again sent his two cohorts tumbling to the opposite side of the van, both shouting curses and demands at him but they went ignored.

The white and red phantom continued to appear and disappear spontaneously. The guns clattered to the floor as the two in the back fought to regain their balance, only to lose it again when the driver was spooked yet again. Left, right, left, left, right, straight, left. It never dawned on him that he might have been being led along...

Not until he found himself driving into a dead-end road -the final left he turned into a closed area of thee industrial park, coming to a stop in front of construction yard. Tires screeched as he made a wide right turn, desperately trying to turn around and head for the exit, but there he was again, standing by the exit. He wasn't blocking the way, but those gray eyes stared directly at the driver, seeming to burn right through them.

The driver had had enough...

He floored it, angling the van toward the white-clad caribou, engine roaring as he clenched his teeth in anticipation to splatter this freak of nature across the road. Ignoring the protests of his cohorts in the back, he was only seconds from impact...

Blink. The caribou was gone.

Tires screeched as the driver slammed on the brakes upon seeing the lamp post the caribou had been standing in front of before disappearing. He slowed the van, but not enough to stop -a deafening smash filled the air as the lamppost bent to the impact and the front of the van caved inward. An airbag deployed to cushion the driver's impact, but still it knocked him out cold. The two in the back were hurled into the seats, stunned and sore from whiplash.

Hurriedly, the two collected themselves, grabbing their weapons and opening the back door of the van as they leapt out, turning about frantically as they sought their assailant. They were breathing heavily, adrenaline surging through their bodies, making them jump at every shadow.

"Where is he?!" Demanded the first.

"Why are you asking me?!" The other shot back.

As they turned away from each other, there was a flash of light between them. They started to turn back when powerful hands gripped their weapons, yanking them up sharply and bludgeoning them with the handles of their respective weapons. One went for a knife, a hoof shot up to strike him square in the jaw. The other turned to run -a blue light flashed before him and the white-clad caribou sprang at him as if from thin air, delivering an elbow strike to his face that sent stars exploding across his vision. He collapsed with a groan, allowing the caribou to teleport back over to the thug he had kicked, knocking them unconscious with a well-placed punch as they tried to stand.

Daniel checked the two thugs, ensuring they were both unconscious before he brought a radio from the back of his belt. "Whiptail, come in," he said.

"I'm here, Warp. Did you catch the van?"

"I did. Driver and guards are down. Did you contact the police?" He asked.

"Anonymous tip over the police broadband of a speeding van in the industrial park," replied Whiptail. "You sure they can't track us when we do that?"

"If we didn't sever the connection fast enough, they could," replied Warp. "That's why it is imperative to kill the link the moment you send the tip."

"Understood,"_returned Whiptail. "_You on your way back?"

"Soon as I see the lights," replied Warp, turning to look over his shoulder, noting the flashes of blue and red in the distance. "And, speak of the devil -there they are. I'll be back in a moment."

"Coffee's hot. I'll have a cup ready for you."

"Not too much sugar this time, please."

"Mon dieu!Are you ever going to let that go?"

"There was more sugar than coffee in that cup. If I had been diabetic it'd have put me in a coma with that single sip."

"It was an accident!"

Daniel let out a laugh at the young salamander's expense, lowering his finger from his radio before vanishing in a flash of blue light as the headlights of police cruisers drew near, shining like spotlights onto the half-conscious criminals.

Unknown to the white and red clad caribou, a pair of eyes as cold as the ice caps they matched the colour of, peered through a set of binoculars, studying the caribou until he vanished in the blink of an eye and a flash of blue light, leaving only a pair of faint hoofprints where he had been standing.

Lowering the binoculars, the tiger's eyes narrowed, recounting everything he had witnessed during this pursuit between the van and the vigilante known as the Warp, adding them to all his previously archived information in his mind to log into his personal records later.

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and without looking away from the van as the police arrived, he answered it and lifted it to his ear, but said not a word, waiting for the caller to speak first. They spoke in fluent Mandarin, which seemed to serve well in emphasizing the anger they were suppressing as they spoke.

"I demand an update, Chu-Ko-Nu. We just received word that one of our vans was attacked by the Ghost. Why haven't you eliminated him yet?"

"If you expected a quick job, you are asking much," returned the tiger. "Tell me, how much do you know about this target of yours?"

"Only that he appears seemingly from nowhere and is costing us a great deal of money." The caller returned in a tone that suggested he did not truly care who this thorn in his side was, only that they were removed.

"And I can tell you why. I just saw him attacking your van," Carlos began, when the caller cut him off.

"You watched?!"

"You are paying me to kill the Ghost, not to protect your products," Carlos returned dismissively. "If you want to start renegotiating my contract, you know it will cost."

"Fine. What did you find out?"

"The target is a metafurson, or 'super' as these westerners call them," replied Carlos. "Based on what I witnessed, I would say he's a teleporter."

"Teleportation would explain how he appears so suddenly," said the caller with a hint of satisfaction, before his tone turned cross once more. "But I expect you to carry out what you are being paid to do, Chu-Ko-Nu. If you cannot eliminate him-"

"I can, I just cannot do it quickly as you want me to," interjected the tiger. "Tracking a teleporter is impossible -I must alter my strategy and make him come to me." He hummed in thought, looking at the damaged van sitting in the road where the Warp had left it. The police were searching It, pulling out the boxes of raw, unrefined opium -a vital component in the production of narcotic drugs. "...How many of your shipments has he hit?"

"This would be the third one -our labs have had no opium to refine throughout this week because of him. Why do you ask?"

"His tactics are amateurish," replied the tiger. "He's targeting your trucks, but if he really wanted to cripple your operation, he'd follow them to their destination." His eyes narrowed as scheme hatched in his mind. "Perhaps I can be of assistance to your transports after all, if you are willing to hear my plan."

~~~~~

A few days later...

"Hey Daniel."

The caribou looked up to meet the owner of the voice who had stuck their head into his office. There, in the doorway, he saw Joshua -a male gray cat who worked on the lower floor in the personal accounts department of the firm. He was roughly the same age as Daniel, a little newer to the firm compared to himself having been there for a few years now. But he was well known amongst the staff -outgoing and amiable to everyone.

As well as, like most new employees working at the McKenzie Accounting, oblivious to the nature of his clientele.

"Hi Josh. What can I do for you?" Daniel asked politely.

"Well since it is almost the end of the shift, I was inviting a few people out for pizza after work -know this great place just a few blocks away. Want to come?"

Daniel was about to decline when he had a thought, remembering that he was meeting Pierre at their 'usual place' that evening, and figured the boy might enjoy some pizza himself. He smiled, and nodded to Josh. "I do have an engagement this evening, but I think I can spare some time for a slice or two." He agreed. "My friend would probably appreciate it if I bring some dinner tonight."

"Great! We'll all go together then, since you don't have a car," said Josh. "We go right at shift's end."

"I'll be there."

With that, Josh departed, and Daniel returned his gaze to the computer screen in front of him, humming in thought as he regarded the accounts of some of his clients -people he knew were part of a less-than-honest living by spotting patterns in their transactions. Small payments that most accountants might think nothing, others who might spot the patterns would ignore them on client confidentiality -especially when the last person to open their mouth found themselves gunned down in the streets...

It was from here that Daniel could find the information on his clientele and their dirty money, much of it moved through various channels to hide their point of origin, in order to avoid taxation for the total sum which would be substantially higher. Daniel knew where the money was coming from, that he had learned long ago -opium smuggling, extortion, insurance fraud, furson trafficking and prostitution. It was disgusting, knowing that this money he was auditing for his client had come from such sources, but he went about his business as usual, compiling the statements and ensuring the records were up-to-date, all while studiously examining his client's business transactions for his next target as The Warp.

It was during this time that something caught his eye. "Employee bonus?" He muttered as he studied the transferred sum of money, eyebrow lifting at the amount. 'That's a fair sum for an employee bonus... and it's not the first one either -a similar amount went to the same account yesterday.' He hadn't thought much on it then, but that must have been one valuable employee to earn a thousand dollars twice in the same week. 'Unless this is a contract employee... my client has hired someone. But for what? New drivers to replace the ones they lost last night?'

Before coming to work that morning he had learned that the van he had chased the night before been returned to its owners, the drivers had been arrested for 'boosting' the van, taking the fall for the employers by being arrested for the possession of raw unrefined opium, and refusing to give up the identity of the supplier or the buyer they had been taking it to -indeed, Daniel would have liked that bit of information himself. He could stop the shipments from reaching them, but that was a small victory -opium was not a finite resource and the Triad could always get more, and the supplier was out of his reach across the U.S Border, on the other side of Lake Ontario.

Daniel pondered this for some time, torn away from his silent questions by the alarm on his phone reminding him that his shift was over. He logged out of his office computer, and rose to his hooves, collecting his belongings from off the desk and putting away anything he would not need immediately come the morning. With that, he closed his office, and stepped out to join Joshua and his gathered entourage.

After an hour or so of mingling with his co-workers, Daniel made an excuse that he had to meet someone, knowing Pierre would be reporting to the bunker shortly. Buying a cheese pizza to take with him, Daniel bid goodnight to Joshua, thanking him for inviting him, and boarded a bus to return home.

No sooner did Daniel step into his small apartment that he vanished from it -his usual ritual, of ensuring that nobody, even on a whim, could uncover his secret. With his door locked and his television left on, giving the illusion that he was home, the caribou was gone in a flash of light, reappearing within the concrete confines of the Bunker.

Pierre, halfway into his uniform, nearly leapt out of his unzipped bodysuit when Daniel spontaneously appeared beside him. Even after serving as his sidekick for nearly two years, Pierre still could not avoid being started when the caribou teleported into his presence -intentionally or not.

"You really need to develop some kind of advanced warning for when you're going to pop out of the aether like that!" Pierre exclaimed.

"If I did that, I wouldn't be much of a 'ghost', would I?" Daniel returned, looking at Pierre up and down. "It's not even six-thirty -why are you getting into uniform now?"

Pierre shrugged. "Why wait? I have nowhere else to be tonight," he said, pulling his uniform on the rest of the way pulling up his zipper before he reached behind him for the cowl, pulling it tight over his head before finding the eye sockets to see through. "Plus, I might have a tip on something, and I want to be ready."

"A tip on what?" Daniel asked curiously.

"I was restocking shelves at the game store where I work when I overheard a couple of kids talking about breaking into the mall that night. They probably didn't think I was listening, but one of them said a buddy of his knew where they could sell off the stuff they pilfer from the jewellery store," explained Whiptail. "If we get to the mall first, we can intercept the little miscreants."

But despite the salamander's enthusiasm, when he turned to look at Daniel, his smile faded. "Pierre, the mall has its own security guards who are on-site twenty-four hours a day," stated Daniel. "They can handle a few thieves breaking in, if they even do."

"But thieves have gotten in and out of there before without getting caught," Pierre argued. "What if they do this time?"

"If they do then it can't be helped," said Daniel, shaking his head. "We're not here to do the cop's or security guard's jobs for them, not in the sense that they aren't still needed. We're doing the tasks they can't because we operate outside of the rules they are sworn to follow."

"But... I..." Pierre struggled to find the words, but eventually had to give in to Warp's logic, as he had no words to refute it. "I just want to help my neighbourhood."

At the back of his mind, Daniel felt somewhat guilty for not giving Pierre this chance to catch the thieves, especially when he knew they were coming. But, he brushed the thought aside, knowing there was other work that needed to be done. He lifted a hand and clapped Pierre on the shoulder comfortingly. "You'll have your chance," Daniel assured him, before he lifted the pizza box still carried under his arm. "Now, we letting this get cold?"

Pierre allowed himself a smile. "I'll get the pop then," he said, turning and heading over to the refrigerator.

~~~~~

( NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Immediate reminder and disclaimer to my readers: While the areas listed below are in fact actual areas of Toronto, the following descriptions and scenarios are pure fiction and is in no way meant to imply that Bluffer's Park or Forestwood Industrial Park or their associated businesses -which for legal reasons and out of respect are left unnamed or will be rebranded for the purpose of this story- are in any way affiliated with the Hong Kong Triad. I repeat, this is pure fiction and not to be taken seriously)

Later that evening, the two were on their way out into the city, to start their nightly check of the Triad hotspots that Daniel Tonraq's many months of digging had uncovered, eventually making their way to Bluffer's Park, far across the stretching shore of Lake Ontario that Warp made his personal jurisdiction in greater Toronto from southern Etobicoke to the eastern reaches of Scarborough. Over forty kilometers of area to cover, a distance he could cross with twenty teleportations.

It was here he led his crusade against the Triad who infected the city with their filth, and it was here that he would put an end to the organization, once and for all.

Below them sat a garage, its front windows peering across the an vast yard of boats of all shapes and colours. Across the water to the south-east from this garage was the Bluffer's Park Marina -a place catered to local boat enthusiasts, where they could keep their boats safely moored until they could take them out on the vast open waters of Lake Ontario, blissfully unaware of the dark side-business only a stone's throw over the canal from where they tied up their boats.

This garage posed as a boat repair shop, and by day it indeed was, but it was yet another of the Triad's many fronts. Warp had successfully brought their fraudulent businesses in the financial district to a screeching halt, but this place was far removed and uninvolved with the dirty business in the more commercial area of Toronto. With its own dock stretching out over the canal to receive the drop-offs that came over the lake the business was ingeniously positioned, nothing seeming out of the ordinary when a boat arrived at the wharf to drop off the goods. The goods would never remain their long, however, waiting until nightfall before they would move the crates of illegal drug components to a yet unknown destination. Something that would change this night if the Warp had his way.

Above the marinas, a wood-covered ridge stood overlooking the docked boats below, beyond which lay a beautiful residential area known as Larwood Boulevard. The many trees provided ideal cover for the two costume-clad vigilantes as they watched the garage from the farthest-reaching edge of the ridge, from which they could see the garage over the swaying tops of the trees.

This was where Daniel had first seen the truck he had caught the other night. Then, his goal had been to stop the opium from being moved, and ensuring the police were able to find them. But after finding out the drivers had taken the fall, he had a new plan in mind. This time, he was going to prove both where the truck started, allowing the cops to trace back to the warehouse, and he was also going to find who they were delivering the opium to. This time he would let the van reach its destination.

"You really think they're going to send another truck so soon after losing the last one?" Whiptail asked, fingers twitching idly as he held the camera between his hands.

"The Triad here in Toronto don't have as solid a foothold on the narcotics market as, say, the Mafia," explained Warp, peering through a mini telescope as he watched the warehouse. "To put it numerically, the Mafia -if we narrowed it down to the largest family in the city hold forty six percent of the market, the Triad hold twenty one percent. While that still puts them second on the market, the Mafia are intent on taking the whole thing for themselves, and there are still the smaller families and the Yakuza who would certainly be glad to seize the opportunity."

Whiptail grimaced. "They take this stuff real serious, no?"

"It's their livelihood, and it's a very cutthroat livelihood at that," replied Warp. "One wrong move and your competition is all over you."

"You seem to sympathize despite what we're doing up here."

"I'm still a Canadian, even if some might call me a xenophobic one," replied Daniel. "These people came to Canada seeking a new future, away from the plights of their homeland, and what do they do? They bring those plights with them. It may be their livelihood but it's still crime, and deserves to be punished."

A long silence followed as the two continued to watch the warehouse. Whiptail stood listening to the distant sound of car horns honking and the sirens of an ambulance passing a few blocks away, as well as the occasional flap of Warp's cape in the wind. Yet despite the peacefulness around them, Whiptail was uneasy. There was something he wanted to talk to Warp about, yet whenever it came to mind, he could not put it into words, fearing how his mentor would react to what he had to tell him, about what the young trainee had decided to do.

Sucking in a deep breath and gathering his courage, he started to speak. "Daniel, I... I've been wanting to speak to you about something," he began somberly.

"Yes?" Warp asked, ears flicking up but not taking his eyes off the warehouse.

"I think... once we're done all this, or... maybe soon, I-" he was cut off as Warp tensed, and looked down to see the door of the garage being raised, light spilling out of the building to cast its glow into the dark parking lot beyond.

A shadow filled the doorway as a van drove out of the structure into the parking lot, and then making a right to the street. Its headlights switched on, and the engine rumbled as the vehicle merged with the street and accelerated. Warp took the binoculars from his eyes and looked over at Whiptail.

"Rain check?" He asked, slipping the mini telescope into a pouch on his belt and wrapping his cape around himself securely.

Whiptail sighed. "Yeah... rain check." He replied, hiding his disappointment. "Let's get after that van."

"Hang on," said Warp, grasping Whiptail by his arm as they lay prone across the grass, and keeping an arm over him as the master mathematician behind the mask did his work.

Calculating the approximate speed of the vehicle and its approximate height, combined with various other factors to ensure a safe and silent-as-possible landing, the Warp cast himself and his companion forth, the two of them exploding into particles of blue light before reforming instantaneously atop the van. They almost immediate started to slide along the roof of the vehicle, but both spread out their limbs and lay flat atop the vehicle, distributing their weight over the car and clenching the sides with their fingers, being careful not to reach out too far or risk being seen by the driver and/or passenger of the van.

While it was far from a comfortable ride atop this large van, which Warp began to wonder if it might need new shock absorbers as he felt every jolt of the vehicle punching him in the chest. Whiptail seemed similarly uncomfortable, but per his mentor's instructions he dared not move an inch, staying flat and motionless as they went along for the ride...

The van followed the Kingston Road eastward for some distance before it left the express road onto Markham, where its course turned north. So far, the two heroes laying atop the vehicle remained unnoticed by the occupants of the vehicle, pressed flat against the cool metal of the roof and ignoring the wind buffeting them every step of the way, causing Whiptail's unprotected eyes to tear and become bleary. Warp made a mental note to provide his partner with a new mask as soon as possible -one with the same thin, colour altering lenses his own mask possessed, that gave his eyes the dead gray colour that helped to hide his identity.

A pang of familiarity filled Warp's mind as he watched the route they were travelling. It had been in the dead of night and he had been otherwise distracted, but he was fairly certain this van was indeed travelling the same route the other one had when he had pursued it the other night. He even recognized the dead-end road he had forced the other van into as they ventured into the Forestwood Industrial park.

But where the van went, he had not expected. Pulling into the park, the vehicle proceeded to the very back of the park, rounding the last of them to reach the back row of businesses overlooking a ravine. The van made a wide turn through the parking lot before coming to a stop in front of a derelict tire shop. The shop looked like it had been closed for several years, shutters pulled down over the windows to prevent break-in, and the heavy metal door in front of the van was tightly shut. The main entrance, a aluminium door with bars to reinforce the glass center, was chained shut from the inside.

'Seems like a good place to hide a chem lab... but at the same time, this is a rather public area. Someone would surely see or smell something odd here,' thought Warp.

Before the van's engine was cut, Warp hurriedly teleported himself and Whiptail up to the roof, rising carefully to their feet and peering over the edge toward the van, watching to see what the occupants of the vehicle would do. The engine had been shut off, but the doors to either side of the van remained shut, leaving the two puzzled.

A few moments passed, and Whiptail finally broke the silence. "Why aren't they getting out?" He asked, keeping his voice low.

"Not sure," whispered Warp, rubbing his chin. "At the least, I'd expect someone to be opening the door..."

Whiptail leaned over the side, looking down as far as he could without going over or giving himself away, and then lifted himself back up, casting a wary look at Warp. "There's no light on in the shop either."

At that, Warp had an epiphany that something was wrong about this. The van had come down the exact same route that the last one he had chased before he come, and until now he had thought nothing of it, until it occurred to him that this location -this seemingly unimpressive, highly public location not even far from where he had trapped the other van, was hardly an ideal location for a chem lab. Anyone could find this place accidentally...

"Whiptail, we need to go. I think this is a-"

A whistle -so slight that he might have missed it had his senses not been on alert, but not even the teleporting vigilante had the reaction speed necessary to avoid the soundless projectile that skewered into his back following that whistle, sending pain coursing through his torso like lightning. He threw back his head and cried out in agony, falling to his hands and knees. Whiptail turned to see a short, quivering feathered shaft protruding from his mentors back. The salamander spun around and saw the reflective glint of eyes staring back at him from the darkness across the roof, garbed in dark tactical gear and carrying a crossbow in their hands.

"Who the hell is that?!" Whiptail hissed as he seized Warp and hurriedly ushered him to cover, ducking the two of them behind an air conditioning unit. A second arrow soon followed the first, ricocheting off the top of the air conditioner and making Whiptail duck instinctively. "Merdé!"

He heard footsteps approaching following a mechanical click that set his tail on edge. Frantic, he turned to Warp, holding him by the shoulders. "Warp! Port us out! Port us back to the bunker, quick!"

"Too far," he replied through grit teeth, reaching behind him and gripping the arrow buried in his back. With a grunt, he pulled it free, taking bits of his costume with it as he looked at the tip. Then, twirling it around in his hand, Warp shot to his hooves, and propelled the bolt back towards its shooter, now approaching them from across the roof.

Reacting on instinct, the white feline stepped aside, watching the discarded bolt fly past. He turned to look ahead again, but in his peripheral, his target materialized in a flash of blue light. A red-clad fist slammed across his jaw, sending the cat reeling and dropping his weapon. Yet much to Warp's own surprise, the tiger recovered almost instantly, catching himself upon his arm and striking back with a swift kick to the caribou's chest. Warp took the hit, huffing some air from his lungs, and regained his balance as the feline, who he now recognized as a white tiger, struck back.

Brandishing a long, double-edged knife, the tiger lunged at Warp, slashing and kicking at him in the same fluid motions, each strike not a second apart -he was swift! Every slash of his knife was aimed to kill, every swing or snap of his leg, to disorient or knock away. Warp avoided the death strikes with his practiced maneuvers, occasionally blocking them with his concealed bracers, and landing a counterblow that knocked the tiger back -following the block of a kick, Warp snapped his hand forward -a weak but quick strike, catching the tiger on the nose. He stumbled, and Warp brought up his other arm in an elbow strike to his cheek, feeling his elbow connect with the jawbone of his target, and certain he felt it pop loose.

The tiger growled, striking back quickly as he seized Warp by his arm, applying pressure to a spot of his wrist, causing his hand to feel alight with pain. Instinctively Warp tried to pull his arm back, until the tiger swung him around, using all the power in his hips to pull Warp off his feet and slam onto his back on the roof. Up came the knife, held above the tiger's head for only a second before it plunged toward him -Warp teleported back to the ledge where he had left Whiptail, appearing in the air and swinging his legs down to land on his hooves. The knife struck the roof, bending the tip and bringing an annoyed growl from the tiger.

"This one's tough," Warp whispered to his partner, watching the tiger as he tossed his knife into his left paw, and then gripped his slack jaw with the other, grunting as he forcefully reset the bone, testing his mouth movement before his hand grasped something behind him.

Warp didn't wait to see what it was. "Stay down!" He shouted to Whiptail before he teleported again just before the trigger of the gun was pulled.

The tiger didn't get caught unaware this time. Seeing the teleportation in his peripheral, he ducked, avoiding the outstretched arm of Warp, and in the same fluid motion spun around and slashed at him. The blade cut across his stomach, splitting the fabric of his suit but failing to cut all the way through. Reversing his hand, he drove the pommel into Warp's chest, the rib in the path of the pommel barely holding against the force of the blow. Sheer adrenaline powered him through the pain, as he twisted his body and smacked his elbow directly into the tiger's face, catching him in the eye socket.

There was a shouting beside the roof. Warp could hear boots hammering the roof of the van below, and looked over to see a man leap into being on the edge of the roof, only to be knocked back as Whiptail swung his body about, slamming the would-be attacker in the gut with his namesake, where they let out a startled cry as they summarily tumbled over the ledge and landed noisily back upon the roof of the van.

Warp counted the footsteps he heard. Four pairs, it sounded like, counting the one Whiptail had just knocked down, five if the tiger was included as well. The tiger who was already moving to retrieve his pistol and would soon be joined by men who surely had guns of their own.

His decision made, Warp turned to his partner. "Whiptail, stand fast!" He called. The Salamander stood still, Warp appearing behind him in a flash of blue, grabbing his shoulders and vanishing again with the salamander in tow.

His choice for the tactical retreat was impeccable. The tiger was back on his feet and aiming his gun just as the caribou and salamander duo vanished, his finger on the trigger stopping before he wasted a bullet and letting his arm fall to his side as he watched the other men coming over the ledge, pistols in hand.

"Hold!" He called in mandarin as one of the men took aim at him, causing them to pause. "I am contracted by the dragon, Mr. Ying Tsen."

"Where is the Ghost?" One of them demanded in English, heavily accented.

"Made like one and vanished," the tiger replied in kind, in a much clearer tone than the gangster. "I had things under control. I didn't need help from the lot of you."

"Boss's order. Kill on sight," the same English speaker retorted.

"And they're paying me to do so. You were the decoy, not the execution," retorted Carlos, pointing an accusing finger at the smaller, thinner, slanted-eyed cat. "As soon as you stepped in, they fled. I could've finished the fight without your help, and now their guard is up -it'll make it that much harder for me to carry out the job, and it is because of you three pìy?ns!"

The three men fell silent, each one exchanging a cold look with the other before fixing their collective glares on Carlos. A glare he returned. His. "If you plan on shooting me, you better make sure the first shot kills me. You won't get a second one."

One of the others leaned closer to the English speaker, though his eyes were on Carlos' dropped crossbow, both round with shock as he recognized the signature weapon of the tiger. "Chu-ko-nu," he whispered, and the thin cat's eyes widened in recognition.

"Well?" Carlos asked. "I'm waiting."

The three lowered their guns without another word, bowing their heads low to the tiger, and turned away without meeting his gaze as they hopped over the side of the roof, back onto the van where the fourth of them was waiting. They updated him on what had happened, and immediately all four piled into the van to make a hasty departure.

Carlos waited until they were gone, keeping his ears raised to listen as he stood silently atop the roof. "No sirens. Nobody heard the gunshots," he thought aloud, returning his sidearm to its holster and collecting his crossbow. "Good."

Across the roof, he found the discarded bolt he had previously fired at the Warp. Curious, he picked it up, studying the tip. The broad-headed point had only the smallest speck of blood, and several stiff fibers clinging to the edges. He turned it over in his paws, eyes narrowing -to the untrained eye it would seem that the bolt had simply just not gone deep enough to harm his target, but he knew better.

"So, not so confident in your untouchability that you neglect body armour. Seems I have underestimated you, Ghost of Toronto," he said, cleaning the bolt and sliding it back into the magazine of his crossbow. "I won't make that mistake again."

As the two appeared inside the Bunker, Warp was on the verge of collapse. His repeated teleportation in their escape having sapped all the energy from his body. Whiptail eased him into a chair, letting him catch his breath, and then ran to grab the first aid kid.

"A crazy tiger armed to the teeth -who the hell was that guy?" The salamander asked as he came running back.

"Not sure. But he was tough," replied Warp, pulling off his mask and exposing his face to air to help cool himself off. "I should've known that whole thing was a setup -they used a decoy. Brought us right into the sights of that killer."

"Don't start the pity-party routine, Daniel -even Mighty Moose slips up from time to time," said Whiptail as he returned with the first-aid kit. "Open up your uniform -let's have a look at that wound."

"I don't think there is one," replied Warp, as he pulled off his gloves, setting them aside before reaching for the Velcro fastenings of his suit, located along his arm from shoulder to wrist. After prying the seams apart, the suit fell open, exposing his torso and letting Whiptail kneel to check his back where the arrow had hit.

Whiptail brushed aside some matted fur, finding where the arrow had hit thanks to the blood -albeit a very small amount. He found the wound easily, a purple bruise marking it quite clearly on the pale skin through the fur, but as far as injury was concerned, the wound was only superficial -it had barely penetrated the top of the skin.

"Nothing more than a light puncture," said Whiptail, impressed.

Warp huffed, smiling with relief. "Then my armour did its job."

"I thought your armour couldn't stop anything larger than a nine-millimeter?" Whiptail asked.

"It can't," replied Warp, slipping his uniform back on and slapping the Velcro seams shut once more, lifting his cape and showing the crimson cloth to Whiptail. "But this is composed of Kevlar as well -even I can still be killed by an attack I don't see coming."

Whiptail beamed, impressed by his mentor's intuitiveness. "But you're alright, though? It seemed like he knocked you around a little bit."

Warp nodded. "I'll be fine," he assured him. "I received far worse sparring with my instructor, I guarantee it."

Whiptail ceded to his mentor's assurance, setting the kit aside. "So, who do you think he was? Some high-end Triad enforcer?"

"Can't say for sure," replied Warp, considering the idea. Then, remembering what he had seen in his client's account that day, he rose steadily to his hooves and trudged over to the computer on the desk ahead of him. "Maybe the deep web will have something for us."

"For a Triad enforcer?"

"I'm thinking he's a contract hitman," he replied. "This guy was clearly dangerous enough that they thought he could kill us, why not send him after us sooner?"

"Oui, I suppose that makes sense."

Seating himself before the monitor, Warp brought the screen to life with a wiggle of the mouse, and keyed in the online search engine. "Tiger... crossbow..." he said and was pleasantly surprised when there was an immediate hit. "Well, he's no secret."

"You got a hit already?" Whiptail asked, surprised.

"Unless he has a twin brother," replied Warp, rolling his chair aside to show the screen, centered upon a Wiki page under the name 'Chu-Ko-Nu'.

"What does that mean?" Whiptail asked, looking at the strange name. "Choo-ko-new? Sounds like someone sneezing while giving their name."

"It's a Chinese invention from the ancient Three Kingdoms era, also known as a 'Repeating Crossbow'," replied Warp. "In a way, the world's first semi-automatic weapon."

"So, this guy uses one of those?"

"The one he had was very modernized. Can hardly even call it a comparison." He leaned forward, reading the contents of the article. "Carlos Chang. Born 1986, Toronto Canada, to Chinese immigrant family. Karate teacher, registered level three blackbelt, and says here he served under the ERT here in the city too."

"Le quoi?"

"Oh. Emergency Response Team -sort of a SWAT unit specific to Toronto," explained Warp. "High risk, barricade hostage, counterterrorism -they do it all. Says he was a sniper."

"How'd a former supercop become a Triad goony?"

Warp read ahead in the article, searching for the answer to that question, his brow creasing with each passage as the history of the killer became more and more detailed. "He was discharged, following a barricade hostage situation in 2009. Says it was for insubordination and friendly fire, though little more than that is shown here. He served a year in prison before he was let out, and then disappeared off the grid for two years until, during a raid on a meth lab, he was spotted fleeing the scene, carrying a crossbow in hand and with an arrow buried in the skulls of the meth cook and his dealers. He has appeared multiples times at similar locations, eradicating known criminals, including aspiring crime lords, gangsters, and even bounty hunters. He is also suspected of the deaths of several detectives and Bureau of Superheroes operatives that were after him."

Whiptail's eyes widened. "Bureau operatives? You mean this guy has taken on supers?"

It seemed Warp was not the only one to have landed in the tiger's crosshairs. "It doesn't say how many have survived," he said. "I think it's safe to say this one is not to be underestimated."

"Pas de merdé," the salamander returned dryly. "So, what do we do?"

"Not much we can do. With their decoy having been successful, if there was another shipment, they probably have reached the meth lab by now," replied Warp, rubbing his chin in thought and letting out a defeated sigh. "I guess we call it an early night. I'll do another patrol around this area, but I'll take you home first."

"You sure?" Whiptail asked.

Warp nodded. "I patrol faster on my own."

"What if that guy is still out there?"

"We left him halfway across the city. Even if he knew to come back this way to look for us it'll take hours for him to get here," explained Warp. "In a city this big the odds of finding me are pretty slim."

Whiptail shrugged. "I suppose that's why he needed a decoy. It was bait."

"Precisely," Warp said, giving an approving nod. "I just wish I had seen it beforehand. But the Triads are changing their tactics, and that means they're getting desper-" he trailed off, a thought suddenly occurring to him.

"...Dan? What's wrong?" Whiptail asked, wondering why his mentor had gone silent.

Warp snapped back to attention, blinking twice and looking back at his partner. "Sorry, Pierre. I guess my mind went elsewhere for a second." He shook his head. "Anyway, costume off -let's get you home."

"Okay," agreed Whiptail, heading into the backroom for some privacy.

When Pierre returned in his casual clothes, Warp teleported him back to his home, leaving him in his bedroom before departing after bidding him goodnight. But the caribou did not go immediately back to the bunker, for he had something he had to check, at his workplace. Though tired from the repeated teleportations he had already done, he had to check on his theory, and soon he reappeared in the office of Daniel Tonraq, at McKenzie accounting.

Seating himself at the computer he would normally only be using during the day, Warp pulled up the records he had audited earlier that day, studying them carefully. Eventually, he found what he had been looking for -the so-called 'employee bonus' wired to an account he did not recognize. Memorizing the account number of the recipient, Warp logged into his station and began to carefully examine transactions over the past year. That account had not received any other payments since spring of 2012, over a year ago, and a quick check on the online search he used before confirmed his suspicion, checking if the date brought anything of interest.

The last payment this particular 'employee' received was another 'bonus', the same day a known drug manufacturer had been assassinated... and the murder weapon had been a crossbow, cause of death a single shot through the heart. The dates matched as did the account numbers...

Warp could not hold back his grin. "I've got you now." He said before he logged out of his station, shut off the computer and vanished in a flash of light, briefly illuminating the inside of his office before leaving the accounting firm in darkness again.

~~~~~

Jin Yan Foreign Conglomerate Tower...

The penthouse offered a view of the city that could only be exceeded by the CN Tower. The penthouse, more than large enough for a rather large family was owned and occupied by only one man -Yin Tsen. While he did have a family, he didn't bring them on his many business trips to Canada, keeping them far from his business. He played the role of a reclusive stock marketeer, and the owner of various insurance companies -the latter which had been coming back to haunt him repeatedly over the past year.

The Warp had all but destroyed his business. All of his fraudulent insurance offices were under investigation, the police having more evidence against him than they could ever have gathered on their own. Feigning ignorance and passing the blame onto his underlings would only buy him so much time, and with Warp still working against him, he was not safe. Worst of all, the information was leaking out -it was only a matter of time before his cohorts learned of his failure to keep control of his assets. When that happened, his apparent weakness would hurt his standing with them, and leave him vulnerable and invite them to take over what was rightfully his.

The elderly Binturong hands shook. He looked at them, glaring as if his sharp look would make them stop. They did not.

Furious, he reached for his phone, only to stop as he heard a clamour. He spun on his heel, turning toward the kitchen. That seemed to be where it had come from... the lights were off, but there was a faint blue-white glow from the kitchen. Hastily, he pulled open a drawer, revealing a hidden pistol. He took the weapon in hand, chambered a round and moved slowly toward the kitchen with the barrel pointed forward.

His first thought was that a homeless person had somehow entered his penthouse, which should not have been possible. The only way up to the penthouse was a private elevator, accessed via keycard he wore on his person -only three people in the world had one besides himself. His wife who was back in Hong Kong, and two of his top lieutenants. Nobody else. The only other way up unless they could fly was an emergency stairway leading down to the main building stairwell, but the door there was locked from the inside and required a keycard to open. He never used that door, making it impossible for him to have left it open.

He reached the kitchen door, and leapt into view, aiming his gun into the kitchen. No one. He could see the fridge was open -the door, swung ajar and bumping the counter beside it -likely the source of the noise. The source of the sound. He circled the island between himself and the fridge, checking every nook and cranny he could, searching for whoever had opened it. He then looked at the fridge, mostly empty as he very rarely ate at the penthouse, but he did keep a few delicacies and wine to chill inside. One of the bottles in the door was on its side, and he stared at it, mind reeling.

Yin Tsen was a meticulous man and could not imagine he could have set the bottle in a way that it could have fallen over, or that he could have not closed the fridge door.

Yet, he could not see any other reason for it. Slowly, he reached for the door and closed it, scoffing as he stormed out of the kitchen. "That damned vigilante is causing me to slip!" He muttered in Mandarin.

He practically ran back to his desk, slamming the pistol down by his personal terminal and picking up his phone. He dialed a number, holding it to his ear, and waited as it rang. He heard the receiver pick up, but he did not hear anyone speak. "Chang! Answer, damn you!" he snapped impatiently.

A cold voice responded in a dangerous tone. "Do. Not. Use my name, Mr. Tsen," they replied, emphasizing his own name as a reminder, also replying to him in Mandarin.

But Tsen was in no mood for it. "Silence! I heard that you confronted the Ghost earlier this evening -why did you let him get away?!"

"Your incompetent underlings got in my way," replied Chang. "I had the Warp in my sights, along with a partner whom you did not tell me about before. But as soon as your men interfered, he fled, denying me my chance to finish him."

Tsen scoffed. "If you think I will excuse your failure, under an accusation to my men, you are sorely mistaken!" He growled. "You have done well for us in the past, so you get one more chance. But you have three nights, and no more! Kill him, or our deal is off!"

"I cannot track him," Chang tried to reason, in a tone that suggested he was holding back his frustration, "and he will not fall for a decoy a second time. In a city this size it could be weeks before I encounter him again, especially if he is watching for me."

"Three. Nights. If he is not dead, Chang, then our contract is over."

"Stop. Using. My name. This is not an isolated network." Chang warned him. "You are asking the impossible."

"Then I suppose you will have to find employment elsewhere."

Warp scoffed as he heard the call ending, taking the microphone away from his ear and picking up the audio recording disk, playing back a few seconds to make sure it had caught everything and that the playback was clear. Still, he shook his head in annoyance as he slotted the device into his belt. "Of course, they had to be speaking Chinese. Going to spend hours on Google for this one," he muttered to himself before teleporting from the rooftop, returning to the bunker to translate it.

Carlos lifted the phone from his ear as the call was dropped, knuckles cracking and whitening beneath his fur as he fumed. His grip on the phone tightened, continuing to clench the phone until the screen cracked, followed by the phone collapsing, crushed in his fist. Only his glove spared him having the shards of the screen and the bits of metal burying themselves in his palm as the phone was crushed.

"Imbecilic old man," he growled, nonchalantly removing the sim card from the ruined phone and going to retrieve a spare. "Largest city in the country, and he expects me to find one man in just three nights?" Retrieving the spare phone and inserting the sim card, he set the phone aside and put a finger to his chin, humming. "This time, I will have to get creative."

He moved to the table, pushing aside some items and retrieving a map, unrolling it over the table, revealing the contents to be a map of the main city. The map had been marked multiple times with red felt pen with X's over various locations, each one in the greater Toronto area, and most of them close to the waterfront. Retrieving the marker and adding a new X to the map, over the area where he had attacked the Ghost and his unknown partner, the strange black-clad Amphibian -he had known the figure not to be reptilian, as his eyes had spotted the glassy skin behind that mask. Not the flesh of a reptile, which meant he was more likely a Salamander, not a lizard if any sort.

His contract had been for the Ghost, and not whoever this thin Salamander was. From here on he would have to be ready for both of them, but only the Ghost would die by his hand as per the contract. Now he just had to find him... somehow.

Under each of the X's was a confirmed sighting of the Ghost, either by the Triad or by the locals. Many of the X's were over front business for the Triad -the costumed vigilante certainly had his sights set upon the Hong Kong crime syndicate, and more than anyone else who dared challenge them, he had weakened their infrastructure in the city. The insurance fraud business, funding much of their day to day needs, all gone. Now he was targeting their drug trade -losing that would bankrupt the Triad presence in Toronto, and the organization would be finished in the city...

With such a though he understood Yin Tsen's anxiety, and desperation to finish this quickly for fear that to delay would give the white clad metafur a chance to further harm their operations. Every day, he was closer to succeeding in doing just that. Even Carlos had to wonder did he know how to hit these areas? How did he have such intimate knowledge of the Triad's financial system? That would certainly help him find the vigilante but finding that knowledge would take time he did not have -and would likely not endear him to Yin Tsen to have knowledge of their money, knowledge he could use to his own gain should he ever be so inclined.

Pushing the thought aside, he studied his map and renewed his notes about the Warp's sightings, drawing a line with his eyes of the X's to link of them. There was no pattern, however -they were scattered, aimed but not in any order. Every location a Triad business -offices, drug dealers, dealings, safe houses for enforcers under scrutiny.

He studied each of these at length, evaluating what each location represented. He paused in his research only once for a mug of coffee, resuming his study as he sipped the hot drink. Overtime, his eyes drifted back to each location, checking one after another until he realized what many of these markings shared. Most of them were close to the waterfront, but all of them were within sight of the CN tower. Not a single sighting of the Ghost had happened outside the main body of Toronto into the other city boroughs. At this thought, he mentally drew a wide circle around it, encompassing most of the circles in it with only a few, including where he had met him, outside of it.

'As a teleporter, he's not exactly limited to where he can operate,' he thought. 'But this seems to be the area he has taken as his own territory. Forty-eight kilometres or so. Could his teleportation have limited range or is this merely where he is most comfortable? Or, perhaps this is where the Triad are the most concentrated...'

All within sight of the CN tower... could it be- no, impossible. He shook his head at that notion. A costumed vigilante wouldn't be able to use the city's most visited landmark as his personal hideout. Someone would find it, and the police would raid it within minutes. 'Still, this is likely significant,' he thought, putting a circle around the tower as a location of interest. 'Perhaps he uses it as some sort of beacon or compass point, to find his way around. Even a teleporter has to know where they are or where they are going. So, it's also possible his hideout, even his home, are within sight of the tower as well.'

He smirked. The logic seemed sound, but he was still far from finished, and the white tiger would be researching this for hours yet...

Daniel couldn't spend much time reviewing the recording he had taken the night before, nor have time to retrieve the listening device he had left in Yin Tsen's home. By the time the white-clad superhero had returned to the bunker and started listening to it, he only managed to determine that the language on the audio disk was Mandarin Chinese -China had three official languages, two of which, Mandarin and Shanghainese, were the most commonly spoken in the country.

By the time he had identified the specific dialect, it was only two hours until sunrise and four before he had work. Having gone to the bunker early to share a pizza with Pierre and the excitement that followed hours later, Daniel had completely forgotten to take time to rest.

My god where did the time go?' he thought, leaving the device on the desk in the Bunker, before he proceeded to strip out of his uniform, changing it for the casual clothes he had brought last night. He didn't bother putting back on his tie or buttoning up his shirt, pocketing the former before he teleported out of the Bunker.

He reappeared on a rooftop, and then another, each one further away than the last, until he finally appeared in his small apartment, tossing aside his work shirt and heading immediately to his bedroom with, removing the rest of his clothes and simply falling onto his bed, sighing blissfully on the hard mattress as he relaxed, barely aware of his own limbs as they worked to get the covers over his body.

He struggled to force his mind to stop racing over the possibilities at how close he was getting to bringing down the Triad. He had all that he needed... financial records, client names attached to them, proof of the dirty dealings behind the false names and aliases. He was so close... as close as his mother had managed to bring the law down upon the Triad so long ago. She had made it this far in a single act, and now her son was poised to finish what she had started. But what he lacked was the final, damning piece of evidence that would take out the leader. Behind such a long paper trail Yin Tsen could find some defense to keep justice at bay. All that Daniel needed was to find something so damning that the system could come down on him so hard he would not have time to think.

That crutch, that one damning piece... was Chu-Ko-Nu. It seemed a stretch, but that man had been involved in so much of Yin Tsen's shady dealings, eliminating his rivals one after another, that he had the power to bring the crime lord down with a simple testimony. This meant that the Warp would have to face the assassin again sooner or later, to fight for his very life against the fallen defender.

And next time, he had to win...

"You want to go looking for him?" Pierre asked in shock as Daniel finished explaining his plan to him, once more forcing the caribou to pause the audio recording as he tried to translate it.

Daniel had known this conversation would likely be happening ever since he had arrived at the Bunker, and even after having most of the day to plan it he had known his partner would be taken aback by the notion of seeking out the man that had tried to kill him the night before.

"As I said, it's my best chance at linking Yin Tsen to the Triad and their dirty dealings. Tsen has always been obsessive in handling all business prelates actions himself, outsourcing only when necessary. This means that every time Chu-Ko-Nu has been hired by the Triad, it would be by him directly," Daniel explained. "Translating this audio will help in that regard -it'll prove the two had business, and I already have the records to show each time Tsen hired him. The last thing the courts will need, is a testimony from someone witness to at least one of the murders. Better yet, someone who was witness to all of them."

Pierre was a sharp kid, and so it did not surprise Daniel when he saw his protégé's mouth fall agape in utter shock as the meaning behind his words registered. The Salamander, as he was so prone to do I g, began to sputter in French, making his words even less coherent to Daniel. He motioned for Pierre to calm himself, take a breath, and start over.

"You want. Him. To testify, against his own employer?!" Pierre demanded. "He'll never do that! Even if we can catch him and beat him, why in the hell would he ever reveal anything about who he has worked for?"

"It's the only way to guarantee Yin Tsen will be arrested and not just let right back out. The Triad here in Toronto is weak, but they're still big enough that even if I take out all of their lieutenants, they'll always have others to take their places," explained Daniel. "Taking out the leader and freezing all of their assets is the only sure way to make sure they won't be back in business again."

"But we still have to beat Chang, Dan," reminded Pierre. "This guy is no pushover."

"It won't be us against him," said Daniel, firmly. "Only me."

Again, Pierre was shocked. "As if this plan of yours wasn't crazy enough you want to fight him alone?!" He demanded, briefly going into another French tangent before collecting himself and reverting to English. "Daniel, I'm your partner! I can't let you tackle this guy alone!"

"I am also your mentor," Daniel reminded him with assertion, taking his attention off his work and turning to face Pierre fully. "I know your limits and abilities, Pierre -Chang is far too dangerous for you to face. If I bring you into the fight, he will very likely kill you."

"No less likely than he could kill you! Did you forget he nearly took you out last night?" Pierre demanded, shocked and appalled that Daniel was even thinking of cutting him out of the confrontation with the assassin. "This is what you trained me for," he added pleadingly.

"Pierre..." began Daniel. "You have been my partner for a while now, and I've taught you to the best of my abilities. But what skills I have taught you, you still haven't mastered. Chang isn't just some street thug -he's a top tier hitman. It will be hard enough for me to fight him on equal ground -if I have to worry about you too, I won't have a chance."

At that, he saw Pierre's face contort into a scowl, and he briefly wondered if the words he chose might have been the wrong ones to say. His fears were confirmed when Pierre's creased brow twitched as he fought hard not to let how much this decision hurt him show.

"I thought you had more faith in me than this," he said, his voice breaking. "Is this why you didn't want me at the mall last night, because you didn't want to worry about me while you chased down a drug shipment?"

"Pierre, that is not-" but the Salamander didn't let him finish. Already, he was pulling his mask over his face and making a beeline toward the door, tail thrashing behind him as he walked. "Where are you going?" Daniel asked, starting to rise to his hooves.

"On patrol," he spat. "You made it pretty clear you don't want my help, so I'll go find something else to do."

"Pierre!" Daniel called after him, but he only received an answer in the form of the door being slammed, hard, the sound of the squealing hinges and heavy locks inserting themselves into place reverberating throughout the heavily insulated chamber.

Daniel turned and started to run for his uniform, intent on chasing after his partner and stop him, but stopped himself just as his hand closed around his mask. Stop him from doing what? Even angered, he knew Pierre would have more sense than to go looking after Chang on his own, and given how upset the Salamander was, if Daniel pursued him now, he would only make the situation worse. He had never expected his words to hurt the boy so much...

Replacing his mask upon the mannequin, he turned and walked back to his desk, sighing in exasperation as he decided he should give his partner some space to cool off, knowing he'd find his way back on his own when he was ready. "I'm sorry, Pierre," he said softly, and went back to the audio, to keep working on translating the recorded conversation.

Whiptail's outstretched tail snapped about the flagpole atop the store and yanked him off the ground and into the air, letting go at the last moment and flipping around the pole to avoid colliding with it. With a toss of his legs, he righted himself and landed on his feet, rolling to lessen the impact of his sudden landing.

He scoffed, moving to the ledge of the building and staring out over the street below, taking in the sight of the passing cars as he fumed. "How could he cut me out like this?" He asked aloud, though there was no one to hear him. "I thought he thought better of me, but he makes it sound like I'm a burden! The one time we're confronted by someone more dangerous than a thug and he wants me to sit it out."

Yet, despite how much he hated to be cut out of the loop, in the back of his mind he knew his mentor was probably right, though he was proud enough that he would never admit it aloud. Part of him saw this as justification, for what he planned to do -what he had been trying to tell Daniel about the night before but had been interrupted. Since then he had tried to summon the courage to tell him again what he wanted to do, but the conversation had once more been held back when Daniel told him of his plans to hunt down the assassin, Chu-Ko-Nu.

He found himself wondering, could Daniel's plan work? Could he really make a professional killer testify against his own employer? It seemed so unlikely, unrealistic even. It's not like he knew the business of being a hired gun, but they couldn't possibly make much of a living if the people who hired them thought they would sell them out, could they? From what Daniel had found out, Chang had been hired by the Triad many times -would he show loyalty to his biggest source of income?

"I dunno... he's right -this guy could be the key to bringing down this Tsen guy," Whiptail thought aloud. "But how is Dan ever going to make him fess up?"

Before he had much time to ponder this question, he heard the scrape of a foot on the tiling behind him. He scowled. "Dan, if you're here to lecture me about taking off, we're going to-" the words died in his throat as he saw the silhouette of the figure in the shadows behind him.

"Who's Dan?" The white tiger asked in a tone as cold as ice, levelling his crossbow at the Salamander.

Whiptail, in a panic, immediately tried to run, but he did not get two steps before he felt pain shooting up his back like lightning, and something brought him to a halt -his tail, caught on something. He looked behind him, and saw his tail pinned to the low wall of the building ledge, impaled by a crossbow bolt now nailing it to the concrete.

Of course this would not normally be an issue for a Salamander -he could shed his tail off and separate from it completely if he needed to and in time grow a new one, but besides having to explain his sudden lack of a tail to his parents -something he was definitely not ready for, Whiptail needed at least a few seconds to separate himself from it. Seconds that Chang was not giving him.

The tiger stormed over to him, setting aside his crossbow and going for his knife. Whiptail struck out at him, stretching his tail so as not to lose mobility and kicking at Chang's face. The tiger leaned out of the way easily. Whiptail attempted another kick -he missed again, and this time he lost his balance and fell to the roof. He scrambled, desperate to get up -Chang made no move to stop him, reacting only when Whiptail swung his leg at him again. The tiger's arm came up in a blur of motion, catching Whiptail's leg before driving the knife in his other paw into his calf. Whiptail threw back his head and screamed -the pain was excruciating! He'd never felt anything of its like before, and it only worsened as Chang extracted the blade and shoved him to the ground, placing a foot on the Salamander's chest and holding him down as the Salamander moaned and writhed in pain.

"You are spirited, but you are a long way from fighting me, kid," he said, his tone never losing its grim, cold tone. "Don't be afraid, though -I have no intention of killing you." At Whiptail's curious, tear-filled gaze, he added. "You are not on my contract, therefore not profitable. But just because I don't wish to doesn't mean I won't if you fail to cooperate," he stated, pressing his foot down on the Salamander harder and holding the knife at the tip of his nose as he stared daggers into Whiptail's eyes. "Call your boss, and bring him here,now."

Daniel had been sitting quietly, at his desk, listening to the audio and repeatedly looking up translations for Mandarin Chinese in order to understand the conversation he had records, when his earpiece started beeping. Had he not paused the recording, he might have missed hearing it, and, hoping it was Whiptail, he quickly picked it up and brought it to his ear.

"Pierre? That you?"

"Warp... I... I have a problem out here. I need-"

The words stopped. "Pierre? Pierre?!" He asked, rising briskly to his hooves.

Then came the cold words of a voice he did not recognize, a voice that sent chills down his spine as he heard its emotionless monotone, as if a demon of hell itself had answered his call.

"University Avenue, on the store above Osgoode Station, on the rooftop. You and I are going to settle things, Ghost."

Daniel nearly dropped the earpiece after hearing the voice. It was Chang -he remembered the tiger's from his listening device. He had heard it so many times now in his efforts to translate the conversation, he had no doubt it was him. But how? How did he find Whiptail? They had left no trail for him to follow -how could he have found them?

It didn't matter... Pierre needed him. In seconds, Daniel rushed over to the mannequin holding his uniform and nearly ripped it off the plastic figure. Chang had just made this fight personal...

The white tiger paced back in forth in front of the restrained Whiptail, currently lying on the roof behind him. The deadly crossbow was held in the hired killer's paws, positioned just right that he could bring it to bear when he needed it. Occasionally, he cast a glance at Whiptail, making sure the zip ties holding his wrists and ankles had not been loosened, or that his injured tail had been freed from the wall he had previously pinned it to.

A flash of light shone behind him -he spun, crossbow already raised, and found the white-clad hero in his sights, standing only twenty feet away. He noted immediately that the fur was the wrong colour -it was not white like he had seen the night before, but a light brown. The mask, the gray eyes, and the uniform were unmistakable, as was the flash of light that had announced his arrival, leaving no doubt in Chang's mind that he was looking at the real Ghost and not an imposter. The tiger could not help but smirk, lowering his weapon just enough to eye the caribou squarely.

"Got you rushing into your uniform, did I?" He asked. "No time to apply your makeup."

"Release my partner, now," the caribou returned, ignoring the tiger's comment.

"He will be released as soon as our business is concluded," the tiger retorted, before his finger pulled back the trigger of his custom crossbow, letting fly the feathered shaft toward his target's heart.

But the caribou vanished once again, the arrow flying past where he had been, on its way to bury itself into the wall of a building across the street. Before it ever reached that destination though, Warp reappeared to Chang's left, swinging his fist toward his cheek. The tiger snapped his head back, avoiding the fist, and drove the stock of his crossbow into Warp's sternum, followed with a high kick to the caribou's upper chest, sending him hurtling backward, fighting to hold his balance.

Chang pulled back the string of his crossbow, the next bolt popping into place from the magazine before he took aim again. This time the bolt nearly found its target, but once again the white-clad hero vanished in the nick of time.

Warp reappeared on a building across the street, taking a moment to assess his opponent and timing his next teleportation, hands raised as he appeared behind Carlos -the tiger spun around, and instead of firing another arrow he thrust the knife-like bayonet on the tip of the bow.

Warp felt the blade bite into the flesh of his stomach and grit his teeth, but fought his way through the pain and seized the crossbow, wrestling for control of the surprisingly heavy weapon. The grapple did not last, however -although Warp was taller than the tiger, Chang turned out to be the stronger, wrenching it out of Warp's grasp and delivering an inverted spin kick to his head in the same motion. A dazed Warp then felt the bite of the bolt as this time when Chang managed to land his shot.

Warp teleported away once more, shaking the stars from his eyes and clutching his side where the bolt had pierced him. He looked down at the arrow, relieved to find that it was not in a vital area, missing his organs and major blood vessels. The kevlar had not held -he felt his stomach turning at the sight of his impaled side, the feathered end quivering in full view.

'This is going to hurt,' he thought as he put his hand over the feathered quarrel, bracing himself. He grit his teeth, biting back his scream as he pushed the arrow through his body, reaching behind him to extract it fully, dripping with his own blood as he brought it around to look at it, studying its narrow point. "Armour piercing," he growled, and then cast it aside.

Rising to his hooves again, he produced a pair of bolas from his belt, pulling the two spherical ends apart to draw out more of the string before holding it at the middle and beginning to spin it. He waited until he had enough momentum on the bolas, and teleported back down to the roof where Chang waited. The tiger saw the distinctive flash of his teleport coming from behind, and whirled to face him, but Warp had already hurled the bolas toward him and teleported away again before Chang could fire. The tiger had no chance to move, the two whirling spheres whipping around his legs, bringing them swiftly together. He lost his balance and fell onto his back, exhaling sharply.

Opening his eyes, he saw Warp falling toward him in a leap, fist drawn back. Casting aside his crossbow, Chang rolled aside, the caribou's fist striking the roof where his head had been only a second before. Warp pursued him, intent on keeping him down -Chang threw up his bound legs as Warp lunged for him, his hard-toed boots striking him across the face and sending him careening from his hooves, falling onto his side.

Chang hastened to draw his knife, slashing the cords of the bolas to free his legs and jumping to his feet, hand going for his sidearm. Warp appeared beside him once more, seizing his gun as he tried to draw it. Instinctively, Chang's hand closed around the trigger, but the gun did not fire. Warp pulled his arm back sharply, wrenching the gun as hard as he could, managing to force Chang to release it.

The tiger spun on his hips, thrusting his knife, but Warp vanished again, appearing behind him and kicking the tiger in the back, buying him a few seconds to eject the magazine cast it aside along with the empty pistol.

Chang spun on him again, and the two lunged at one another. Fists, paws and hooves, a blur, knife clashing repeatedly with Warp's titanium bracers, once even blocking a thrust so forceful that it bent the tip of the steel blade. An arm thrust from Warp, striking Chang's hand, sent the knife sideways, but the tiger held his grip. He swung the fist of his off hand, blocked again by Warp's arm. He brought his knife back -Warp blocked it, catching his arm and attempting to disarm him of the black. Up came Chang's other hand, pressing into Warp's wrist with his thumb. Warp felt his fingers tingle, his grip loosening, and narrowly managed to pull his arms back and avoid being disemboweled by the blade.

'He attacked a pressure point in my wrist,' thought Warp. 'They don't teach that in typical PPCT courses, not even in policing.'

He had little time to consider it -Carlos was coming at him again, blade ready to slash. The caribou teleported, appearing behind Chang and swung his leg out in a roundhouse -Chang, despite not seeing Warp, predicted the attack. He sprang and turned, avoiding Warp's outstretched leg, and then hurled his knife at the teleporter. Warp turned, letting the knife hit his back -its blunted tip caught in his cape, but failed to recognize the feint until it was too late, seeing only the underside of Chang's boot before stars exploded across his eyes.

Warp hit the roof hard, pain jolting through him as his landing aggravated his wounds. He gasped for breath, lifting his head and blinking the stars from his eyes, seeing the tiger approaching him, unarmed and as out of breath as himself.

"You're good," the tiger said as he drew a spare knife, a short and narrow blade, from the side of his boot. "But it's time I get paid."

Before he could fall upon Warp to finish him off, a long appendage snapped into being and lashed itself around the tiger's throat. The tiger dropped the knife, instinct taking hold over his professional mindset as he clawed at the binding around his neck. His fingers, claws extended, scraped away flecks of dried blood on the appendage, and he knew immediately what it was.

Seizing the time Whiptail had bought him, Warp teleported, appearing above Chang and dropping as gravity took hold, whipping himself around and landing a carefully aimed elbow slam to the tiger that sent him into blackness. Chang sagged in Whiptail's grip, the Salamander retracting his mutant tail to allow the tiger to drop onto the roof as he lost consciousness. Warp landed hard beside him with a grunt. Gasping as the jolt sent pain coursing through his body like electricity. He took only a few seconds to gather himself, catching his breath, and then sat up and looked over to his partner, still bound at the wrists and ankles, but a bloodied tail waving freely about. Behind him, a blood-soaked quarrel still imbedded in the stone where it had pinned his tail.

"You okay, partner?" Warp asked.

"All things considered, probably better than you, boss man," replied Whiptail dryly.

"Touché," he replied, sitting up and slowly getting to his hooves again, before he limped over to Whiptail and knelt beside him. "Let's get those ties off," he said, producing a utility knife from a pocket on his belt and extending the blade, sawing through the ties to free his partner's hands.

"Thanks. Think my circulation was starting to slow," said Whiptail, rubbing his wrists.

"No problem. Now, let me see where you're hurt," he said. "Pulling your tail off that arrow could have some lasting damage."

Whiptail hesitated. "Well... actually," he began to say. "There's... no real injury."

"What're you talking about? Your tail was pinned by that bolt -it could've hit a nerve center or something vital. You could bleed out."

"That's just it, Dan," replied Whiptail, lifting himself onto the ledge of the roof, spreading his right leg out and lifting it, to show Warp a tear in his uniform, revealing a spot of exposed skin on his inner thigh. "I was stabbed here earlier."

"What?" Warp asked, studying the spot his partner was showing him, seeing the slit in his uniform and the bare flesh under it, his jaw falling open.

The wound had sealed, as if it had been stitched together by a doctor and left to heal for weeks, but the stitches had since been removed, leaving only the remnants of the cut to show there had ever been a wound at all, yet the blood was enough to tell him there had been a wound there recently. As if to add to his confusion, Whiptail also gestured to the end of his namesake, lifting his tail high and showing Warp where the arrow had pierced it. Indeed, there was still a very grotesque looking wound there, with fresh blood still staining the limb. But the blood was all there was. The bleeding itself had stopped, the wound was visibly near to closing, and even moving it didn't seem to bother Whiptail at all -no discomfort, nor tenderness when Warp touched it to wipe some of the blood away.

"What in the...?" He asked. "They've... healed?"

"Not even five minutes," replied Whiptail. "Pain went away, bleeding stopped, then I got a look at my leg -same thing. I don't even feel the wound anymore -like it never happened at all." He looked at his tail. "I knew Salamanders like me could regrow our tails if we ever lost them, but I didn't think we could seal wounds this fast."

"You can't," replied Warp. He reflected on the time he has spent training Whiptail and fighting crime with the salamander by his side, trying to recall any other time he had seen this happen. The battles they had fought were many, but Pierre had escaped most of the conflicts unhurt, as Warp usually had him strategically positioned to ambush fleeing gangsters or to seize intelligence while he created a distraction -much of his time had been spent outside the line of fire, at his mentor's insistence. "No life form can heal that quickly," He looked at his partner, wearing a curious expression. "Pierre... I think we've discovered a new superpower of yours."

"A new power?" He asked, his face brightening.

Warp nodded. "Yes... I think you're a regenerator. It's the only explanation for your wounds to have healed so quickly."

Whiptail looked at his leg and tail as if he was seeing the two limbs for the first time in his life, but he could not hide the pleased look on his face. "Wow," he said.

"We'll have to look into it more later," said Warp, turning to look behind him. "Let get Chang detained before he can wake up."

When Carlos awoke, he was quick to become aware of his surroundings and current situation when he found he couldn't lift his arms from behind his back or move his legs. He was tied to a chair, stripped of his armour and weapons, left only in the clothes he wore under his jumper, consisting of a tank top and shorts. He shook his head to clear it, and his skull throbbed. The aftermath of the battle came with a vengeance, the elbow strike that had knocked him out reminding him of the humiliation by leaving him with a pounding headache.

He was accustomed to such pain, and it did little to slow him as he started to take in his surroundings, what little there was. He was in a single room, concrete walls and no visible windows, a door on either side leading to unknown destinations. The chair he was bound to was a regular dining chair -albeit old and smelling of dust, his ankles cuffed to the legs and arms zip tied behind his back. His own ties, he quickly pieced together. All of his weapons, including his hidden boot knife, were gone.

In front of him sat his quarry. The Ghost, still wearing his bloodied costume, rested in an office chair in front of him, arms crossed, and eyes locked with his. Behind him, his partner sat in another chair, watching the two quietly.

Chang said nothing, just kept his glare locked upon that of the caribou seated before him, letting his expressionless demeanor show nothing of what was in his mind as it processed his options. His hidden tools were missing, his weapons lying across the room on a table next to his tactical gear, along with his business phone. The cuffs had been secured near to nerve-damaging tightness, offering no purchase as he shifted in the chair.

"Carlos Chang," the Ghost began.

"Ghost of Toronto," retorted the tiger.

"I go by the Warp, actually," returned the caribou. "And my partner, whom you wounded, is Whiptail."

"My apologies," the tiger returned sarcastically.

"Let's get to business," said Warp, uncrossing his arms and leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "For starters, how did you find us?"

Carlos smirked. In truth he had spent the whole night making theories and triangulations regarding all sightings of the Warp to create a narrow search area to try and find him, but he had always known it to be a gamble. Finding Warp's partner was sheer dumb luck, seeing him from a perch he had established for himself on a high rise and watched from through binoculars, and even more luck that he had been able to climb down fast enough to reach the boy before he moved on. The tiger had been ready to accept the loss of his contract, knowing how unlikely it would have been to find a teleporting super, but he had seen an opportunity to salvage it. Another gamble, one which had not paid off as his current predicament suggested.

When Carlos failed to answer, the Warp went on. "Fine. Next topic," he said.

"You're really new at this, aren't you?" Carlos stated suddenly.

Warp gave a slight tilt of his head. "Excuse me?"

"I've been watching you for some time now, and your movements have been rather amateurish," explained Carlos, offering no specifics on his criticism. "And this is a rather poorly executed interrogation, changing subjects of interest so quickly. You're clearly still green."

"Asking how you found me was more out of curiosity than anything," returned Warp. "I already know all I need to."

"Do you now?" Chang asked, doubtful.

"I know you work for Yin Tsen," began Warp. "Who I know is part of the Hong Kong Triad. I also know you have committed at least eighteen murders on his behalf."

"Just doing my job," Chang replied blankly, leaning back in the chair as if he were trying to relax.

"Along with," Warp continued, "the deaths of several police officers, detectives, and need I mention, operatives from the Bureau of Superheroes."

Carlos arched a brow at him. "That sounded rather personal, considering you are not a registered B.O.S Operative yourself."

"How do you know that?" Warp asked, challenging.

"You are living in a hole in the ground that looks like it was thrown together as a hasty bomb shelter," he cast his gaze about the concrete room. "You obviously do not have their funding."

Warp sighed. "My décor aside, I'm here to make you an offer, Mr. Chang. You can stay tight-lipped about your affairs with Mr. Tsen, but those murders you committed for him all came with your calling card -the arrows from your crossbow."

"Crossbows don't shoot 'arrows', idiot," Chang retorted. "They shoot bolts."

Warp's eyes narrowed. "Regardless, if I were to drag you to the Toronto police right now, you wouldn't be walking out of prison for the rest of your life. Unless you help me bring Tsen down, permanently."

"Define 'bring down'," Carlos asked curiously. "I could have killed him anytime I wanted if he had ever wronged me, and he knows it."

Warp held up a recording device clenched in his hand -a small, wireless microphone, linked no doubt to the computer on the desk behind Carlos. "You give your full testimony against Mr. Tsen to me to give to the law. Names of the deceased, dates- everything. In exchange, I tell the police it was given to me anonymously, denying all knowledge that I know how to find you, and you go free. Free to run off to wherever else someone like you might be welcome."

At that, Carlos threw back his head, exploding into laughter that resonated through the small room clearly, making it seem thrice as loud and derisive. "Oh, you really_are_ an idiot," he said. "Do you really think that would be the end of it?"

"Are you saying it wouldn't be enough?"

"Oh, it would," replied Chang. "While under the laws of privacy, you can't legally use an audio recording in court- least of all without the consent of one of the affiliated parties, in the right hands -say, a prosecutor with a bone to pick with Mr. Tsen, it'll get the legal system on his trail like a bloodhound and they'll start taking a closer look at his dealings. Someone could, say, take a closer look at his businesses -might even be able to get a warrant from a judge to look a little deeper."

The tiger leaned forward. "The question, 'Warp', is are you ready to face the consequences if your plan works?"

"If you think I fear a retaliation from the Triad, I don't," returned Warp. "You found me by sheer luck, but I cannot be tracked."

Carlos scoffed. "The Dragonheads won't go out of their way to take revenge for someone like Tsen. He's an idiot and they know it. No, the ramifications of what you do if you take down Tsen -if you remove the head of the snake that is the Triad in this city," his visage darkened, yet he wore a diabolical grin. "You will start a chain reaction that'll burn a chunk of this city to the ground. I ask again, are you ready for that?"

Warp's gray eyes narrowed, meeting Carlos' gaze without flinching. "...You're bluffing," he said.

"Am I?" He asked. "Then by all means, I'll give you my 'testimony'. My contract with Tsen is more or less fucked either way, so I may as well flip him one last middle finger before I'm on the run." He leaned back in his chair again, clearing his throat. "Boy," he looked at Whiptail, who had sat silently on the table throughout the exchange. "Bring me a drink of water -I'm parched, and I'll need a clear voice for this testimony."

Warp looked back at his partner, who was looking at him as if for consent. Warp gave him a nod, and the salamander stood up to walk over to a water cooler in the corner, while Warp once faced Chang. "Remember... full testimony, and then you go free."

"Of course," replied the tiger, still grinning even as Whiptail brought him a drink of water. He downed the contents of the glass, turning to face Warp again and clearing his throat as the caribou activated the recorder...

~~~~~

"Daniel Tonraq?"

The caribou looked up from his desk as he heard his name being spoken, and feigned surprise when he saw a single female canine in business attire, carrying a file folder under her arm and wearing a stoic expression as she entered the office, her gaze locked upon Daniel every step as she approached his desk. Behind her, at the door, he caught a hint of the blue of police uniforms and knew there was an officer outside. He regarded the woman coolly, tilting his head in a show of curiosity as he met her eyes.

"Good morning," he said. "Is there... something I can help you with?"

"I am Amanda Carl of the Amadeus Law Firm," she introduced herself, taking the folder she carried from under her arm. "I understand you are the accountant to a Mr. Yin Tsen of the Jin Yan Foreign Trade Conglomerate."

"I might be," he replied. "But as I'm sure you well know, ma'am, I cannot disclose any information about my clientele."

In a flash, she pulled a piece of paper from the envelope she carried, and practically threw it in Daniel's face as she cast it onto the desk, its lower edge brushing off his torso before landing in front of him. "This says you can. I'm sure you recognize a warrant when you see one," she returned, her tone of voice unchanged, yet somehow giving the sense that she had no intention of playing games. "I will need all of Mr. Tsen's financial records you currently possess, dating back to when he first hired you to audit his personal accounts and those before, if you can access them."

Daniel picked up the warrant and seemed to take a moment to read it. But in truth, he was holding it to hide the satisfied grin that had managed to form onto his face behind the sheet of paper as he read it. He managed to force it down, leaving only a typical, business-man smile as he looked at Ms. Carl once more.

"Then, by all means, Ms. Carl, I'll get those for you at once," offered Daniel, still fighting off his urge to smile wider.

It took only weeks before the police launched their raid on Yin Tsen's penthouse home. The evidence gathered on a thorough investigation had not only exposed Yin Tsen's late businesses as fronts for the Hong Kong Triad, but soon brought to light that he was fully involved from the very beginning, nullifying his earlier pleas of ignorance to the dealings. His warehouse, from where he moved the unrefined drug components previously revealed by the actions of the Ghost of Toronto, was searched, more product being found on the scene -product they had been unable to move, due to -by their own words, sabotage of their trucks by an unknown party.

Tsen's assets were soon frozen. His businesses and stocks now out of his control, leaving him with only his personal accounts to enlist a lawyer to assist him in court after he was arrested. A lawyer who would fail to prove his client's innocence however against the tenacious prosecution of Ms. Carl, who Daniel could not help but wonder if the woman had been waiting eagerly for this day. Certainly putting away a crime lord would be a career maker.

Carlos, a cold beer in his hand, sat watching the ongoing news feed with an unchanging expression as they recounted the investigation, particularly where his alias was mentioned. Ever since Warp had bested him, the assassin had been laying low in his safehouse, secret even from the Triad, fully expecting Tsen's loyalists and the police alike would be out looking for him even while Tsen's trial was ongoing. But if the reports were to be believed, Tsen was not walking away from this one -too much had come to light in the past year, between the shady businesses under his name, his trucks transporting drugs, and now Chang revealing him to be his employer on countless murders.

Even if by some miracle his lawyers could save him, Tsen would not see the outside of prison ever again. He was old, likely to expire before his sentence was up, and that was assuming the dragonheads did not kill him to keep him from talking about their business -he was a loose end to them. His days in the criminal underworld would soon come to an end, faster than the Triad's loss of control in the city. They were finished.

"Well, you got your victory, Warp," he said, before turning his gaze to the packed duffle bag on his table. "I guess it's time then, to leave this city before shit hits the fan."

He downed the last of the beer, throwing it nonchalant into the nearby wall to shatter before he rose to his feet and trudged across the room to his bag. But as he reached for it, he heard his phone ringing, his hand halting in its track. He drew back his hand, reaching into his pocket and lifting out the phone, thinking it was Tsen calling to curse and berate him, or maybe one of his affiliates, hoping to scare the tiger into submission for his betrayal. He looked at the number, surprised to see that it was not private -there was a name, on full display, and the area code was unfamiliar to him -probably American, he guessed.

"Who the hell is this supposed to be?" He asked, before he hit the accept button and held it to his ear, waiting.

'Good day, Mr. Chang,' a suave, European accented voice, difficult to identify through the phone, spoke to him. 'Or do you prefer Chu-Ko-Nu?'

Carlos froze, staring ahead as he tried to process what the unknown caller had said. They knew his name, and his alias, yet he had never heard the voice before -of that he was certain. But they knew who he was, and it was not an isolated line. He had checked his phone for tampering after encountering the Warp -he hadn't been carrying it when he faced the teleporting metafur, but he took no chances that the caribou might've found where he was hiding out and might have double-crossed him. All evidence had suggested Warp had never located his safehouse, however, and this caller certainly did not sound like a police officer or someone from the Bureau of Superheroes.

"...Who is this?" It was the only thing he could think to ask.

"Don't be alarmed, sir," the caller replied. "I am merely a potential employment opportunity. I have need of a man of your talents, so I am calling to offer you a job, if you are interested."

Carlos took the phone from his ear, checking the number again. After a moment, he remembered where that area code was from, and scowled as he returned the phone to his ear. "You're calling me from California -surely you can find someone a little more local to offer this job to -there's no shortage of hitmen there. Besides, maybe you don't know what's happening around here but I'm not likely to be getting over the border anytime soon."

"I have been watching, I assure you. And I have already made the arrangements. Under your chair, there is an envelope. Retrieve it if you would please."

Carlos' fur bristled and he turned sharply toward the chair he had been sitting in less than a minute before, staring at it for a long moment. An envelope, under there? This man had found his safehouse? How, and when? When had this item been dropped off when Chang hadn't left the premises in nearly two weeks?

Slowly, as one might approach an armed bomb, Carlos made his way over to the chair, kneeling to reach under it and feeling around. His fingers touched something, a crinkling following his hand, and he clenched the item between his fingers, pulling it out and sneezing as some dust flew into his face. It was already covered in a week's worth of dust... how long had this thing been here, and again how had the one who left it even found it.

When the caller said nothing else, Carlos tucked the phone between his neck and shoulder, extending a claw to pry open the envelope before carefully pulling out the contents. A passport, a plane ticket, and an I.D with the name 'Charles Lee', but bearing his image, including his signature wishbone-marking above his eyes -his most distinctive feature, yet he did not recognize the photo... it was not one he had ever had taken himself.

"I have a driver waiting in the Chinatown area. He'll take you to Manitoba, where you'll cross the border under the alias, I have provided for you," the caller explained. "He'll then take you to Chicago, where you will board a plane to where we'll meet."

"Is good help really so hard to find out there that you would go to all this trouble?" Carlos asked, ever pragmatic and suspicious until he had cause to do otherwise. This was all too conveniently timed, too well-arranged.

Until the caller went on. "For what I am going up against, I need someone who is not connected with the local muscle -too many around here are associated one way or another, but I also need someone has experience dealing with people with certain... abilities. Not so unlike what your previous employer put you up against."

_ _Carlos lowered the phone, glancing at the plane ticket and inching it out a little more to look at the destination. His eyes widened when he saw the name of the city listed on the ticket, and himself swelling with excitement.

"Now things just got interesting," he said. "You have my attention now, sir. And, as it seems I am now out of work in a city about to go up in flames, I suppose I have no real reason to refuse. Gets me out of reach of Canada's law enforcement if nothing else."

He could almost hear his caller smiling as he replied. "I look forward to meeting with you then, my good man. When you land, I will text you the address where we are to meet. No rush -I am there all night. You will find my driver at an address I will also send you shortly."

"Very well then -you have earned my attention. Consider me on my way, sir." He said as he put his new items into his duffle bag, zipping up the pocket before he threw it over his shoulder and started for the door.

"Please. My friends call me Russell."

_ _ "Is that what we are?" Carlos asked skeptically.

"By the time we're through, Mr. Chang, I foresee we shall be." The caller answered as Carlos pulled open the door, the blank screen of his television catching the partly open pocket and the plane ticket inside, revealing the destination to be caught in the reflection of the television, inverting its bold font in the screen. NOITAMLOC.

_ ~~~~~ _

Meanwhile...

"A toast to the Ghost, no?" Pierre asked as the broadcast switched from the detailing of Yin Tsen's trial to move on to weather. The salamander held up his bottle of soda pop for emphasis.

"And to the end of the Hong Kong Triad in Toronto," said Daniel, raising his own bottle, containing a light brew, and tapping it against Pierre's. "But don't sell yourself short, partner. Without you, I could have been at this for another year or two at least." He leaned forward in his chair, turning his bottle in his hand to swirl the contents, staring into space. "But we did it... we finished what my mother started years ago, bringing down the Triad," he added solemnly, leaning back in his chair again and shut his eyes, giving a contented smile. "Rest in peace, mom." He whispered.

Pierre let Daniel have his moment of melancholy as he downed half the contents of his drink, waiting another moment before he spoke what was on his mind. "Do you think there's any truth to what Chang said?"

Daniel roused himself from his reminiscence, turning to look at his partner curiously. "What?" He asked.

"About things going bad if we put Tsen away... what do you think he meant?" Pierre answered. "Do you think he was trying to tell us something?"

Daniel considered the question for only a moment before sighing. "I'm hoping it was just a scare tactic," he said. "Something to make us think twice about having Tsen put away. If there is something to what he said, well... I suppose we'll find out."

He then looked over at Pierre, and noticed the Salamander wasn't looking back. He was staring at the bottle in his hand, with a look that seemed to suggest the young man was hoping to see answers to a difficult question in those bubbles of carbon rising to the surface, fizzling within the glass chamber.

"Pierre?" Daniel asked, setting his beer bottle aside and leaning forward, trying to get his partner's attention. "What's wrong?"

"I... really don't know how to say this, Daniel..." began Pierre. "You've done a lot for me in the year I've been your sidekick."

"Partner."

"Oh, come on, you know how it works," returned Pierre, waving him off despite his chuckle. He then continued, speaking slowly as he fought to get his thoughts together. "But... I feel like I want to do more. Be a part of something bigger."

Daniel tilted his head. "Is this... because I held you back from taking on Chang?"

"After getting my ass handed to me on a silver platter by him not one hour later?" Pierre asked. "Nah, I learned that lesson. I mean I want to do something more than just swing off flagpoles here in Toronto. Do things on a grander scale, but I feel like if I do, it will seem like I don't appreciate everything you've done for me, which isn't true."

Finally mustering up his courage he turned to Daniel, wearing a face of pure guilt as he spoke what he wanted to say. "I want to join the Bureau of Superheroes."

There was a long moment of silence between the two, as Pierre contemplated -even regretted, what he had just said to the man who had mentored him for over a year now, teaching him and becoming a close friend even while teaching him discipline and tactics to use in the field. He was bracing himself as he heard Daniel's chair creaking as the caribou shifted, fully expecting Daniel to curse him for wanting to turn away from him, when their partnership had been so short and Pierre still had so much to learn.

"How long have you wanted to tell me this?" Daniel asked.

"A little while... but it's honestly been on my mind ever since I discovered my powers," answered Pierre. "You took me under your wing, taught me what I needed to survive out there in the mask. I knew you were good at what you did, and so I held back my rebel teen-ness and did what you told me. I learned much for it, and look what we accomplished, in just a year!"

He held up his hands. "The Triad, gone from the city. Who else could have pulled that off but the Warp?" He shook his head. "I'm being taught by the man who's out to free this city of foreign crime elements... and here I am with the audacity to tell you that I want to go work for the Bureau." He scoffed and shook his head. "You know... forget I brought it up. I like where I am. I..."

"Pierre," began Daniel. "It's fine. You have a right to choose. Honestly, I might not be the ideal choice for your teacher."

"Wh-what? But you've taught me so much."

"I've taught you the basics. Street level stuff that any hero in or outside the Bureau could have," the caribou said. "Aunt Tuuwa told me once that there is no greater teacher than experience, and I didn't grasp just how crucial that was until I fought a professional killer with a crossbow who killed more powerful and more experienced heroes than me. Our victory against Tsen was careful planning and strategy, but that fight with Chang, it's only by luck we survived that encounter, which could have undone so much of what we accomplished."

Daniel turned to him. "Truth is, Pierre, I'm not experienced enough to teach you. It was too soon for me to be a mentor to anyone, because even I don't fully grasp the risks that come with this life yet, just how dangerous it really is. That is wisdom I myself lack... but in the Bureau you would find that wisdom, from a more experienced hero. I have done what I can for you but what you need, I can't give."

"So... you're okay with me going? To join the Bureau?" Pierre asked.

"They will provide to Whiptail what the Warp cannot," replied Daniel. "I am content that this is not a bad decision, and frankly it's not my place to tell you no. In costume, we're student and teacher, but outside of it Pierre I have no say in what you do. If you want to join the Bureau, to be apart of something greater, I would encourage it, rather than oppose it, because it's the better course."

Pierre bit his lip, hesitating with his next suggestion. "You... could... come with me. You're the best there is around here -I can't see them turning you away."

Daniel shook his head. "I can't. My mission isn't over yet, and I can't complete it bound by the Bureaus rules and regulations. The law protects the criminals as much as it does the non, and it'll take someone who can walk on both sides to bring them down." He turned to Pierre again, smiling and clapping him on the shoulder. "But you don't have to stay tied to my crusade -don't define yourself by me. Be your own man -learn from the Bureau's more experienced heroes, and be part of something bigger, as long as it's what you want."

Pierre felt genuine relief wash over him, smiling broadly at his mentor. His friend, who had helped him reach this point and was encouraging him to move forward. He gave Daniel a nod. "Okay then," he said. "I'll do it."

Daniel nodded back, once more retrieving his soda pop and holding it up for another toast. "To the future."

"To a better tomorrow," replied Pierre, tapping his bottle against Daniel's again, and both knocked back the contents of their bottles.

"...You know, this probably means you'll have to tell your parents about your powers, and what you've been up to," Daniel reminded him.

"I know," Pierre groaned, slumping in his chair. "I am not looking forward to how my mom is going to react."

"Would it... help if I went with you?"

"Do you want my dad to come flying at you with a baseball bat?! One look at you it'll be Defcon Five!"

"I think you mean Defcon One, Pierre -five is for when a country isn't under the threat of war," Daniel corrected him. "Besides, their little boy is going to be a hero. Who wouldn't be proud of that?"

"My dad is the guy who takes out a housefly with a grenade, and my mother is running for the bomb shelter when she hears a firecracker -does that sound like it's going to end well?"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "I think you're exaggerating a little bit, partner."

"You want to come along and find out if I'm exaggerating? I'm not paying for the dentures you'll need after!"

Daniel could only burst into laughter at his partner's flustered outburst, shaking his head and popping open a second bottle of light beer to enjoy as Pierre went on in a tangent...

End of Part 2