Anthro Assassin Audition (WT)

Neon City. This glitzy, glamorous metropolis was like if Las Vegas and the the good parts of Los Angeles had a baby together, with hotels, restaurants and casinos as far as the eye could see, along with plenty of resorts along the coastline. In the dead center of the city, there stood the tallest building in the whole town, not to mention the state. At the tip top of this building was a luxurious penthouse belonging to one Maximilian Degato III, grandson of the founder of Neon City.

In this penthouse, the elevator doors open and in step two figures. One is a jackal in a dark suit and sun glasses, the other is a wolf, also dressed in a dark suit. "You're the first to arrive. The others will be here shortly, so help yourself to the bar, Mr Gray." The jackal says. The wolf gives a look of confusion. "Mr. Gray? That's not my name." "My employer insists you and the other guests assume assigned aliases for tonight." The jackal explains "As I said, the others will be here soon." With that, the jackal stepped back into the elevator, with the doors closing behind him.

Mr Gray shrugged to himself. It didn't really matter what this potential client called him. Just as long they paid for his service, which their message said they were more than willing to do. He made his way to the bar and began to mix himself a martini. About three minutes later, as he sat on a barstool sipping his drink, the elevator opened again. This time, it was a female black panther in a red dress that simultaneously covered and showed off her voluptuous figure.

"Help yourself to the bar, the rest should be here soon." The jackal repeated before closing the doors once more. "Well, hello there." The pantheress purred sensually. "Hello." Mr. Gray said in his best suave voice. The panther gracefully made her way to the bar, her hips swaying hypnotically as she did so, taking a seat beside Gray. "Mind fixing a lady a drink?" She asked, and Gray smiled "Certainly. What would you like?"

"A red wine spritzer will do."

As Gray mixed her requested cocktail, he asked "So, what's your name, madame?" She chuckled "For tonight, apparently it's Ms. Kitty. And you?" "Call me Mr. Gray. There you go, enjoy." The two of them continued to make small talk, until the elevator opened again, and there was the jackal, as well as a fox, a tiger and a polar bear, all dressed in suits and ties. "Now that everyone has arrived, we can begin." Said the Jackal "If you will all please have a seat."

The five guests all sat in armchairs arranged in a circle in the center of the penthouse. "Just to be sure, you all have your codenames, yes?" "I'm Mr. Ace." Said the fox. "Mr. Strype." Said the tiger. "Mr. Snow." The polar bear grunted. "And this is Ms. Kitty and Mr. Gray." The jackal indicated the two that had arrived first. "I'm sure you're all wondering why you were invited here. I have the answer you seek right here on my phone."

The Jackal pulled out his phone and played a recording of a distorted voice. ""Greetings. The accommodations you are currently sitting in are courtesy of Mr. Maximilian Degato, who has graciously agreed to let me borrow his penthouse for this little, for lack of a better word, audition. No doubt you are all curious as to why I've summoned you, and insist on not using your real names. So, I'll cut to the chase. I know that all five of you are among the top assassins in the world. You each earn your living by taking others out of existence for money. Whether or not those people deserve it, is inconsequential. Rested assured, this information is safe with me. I am not here to judge. Quite the contrary. I actually wish to offer you a job. Well, four of you, at least. As for the fifth, they are actually the reason why you're here."

There was a pause before the recording continued.

"As assassins, each of you has no doubt made quite the list of enemies. Friends and loved ones of those you sent to the grave, that sort of thing. In fact, one of you has a contract out on your head at this very moment. Your test is to figure out which one of you that is, and eliminate them by any means necessary. For this, I will pay the sum of ten trillion dollars, to be divided equally among the rest of you."

At this, all five guest's ears rose and their eyes widened in shock. Never before had any of them ever been offered such an obscene amount of money. For a moment, the thought of who could possibly afford to pay that much for a single assassination may have crossed their minds. But that was quickly swept aside by what they could do with such a bounty. The recording continued " You have until sunrise tomorrow morning to accomplish this task. If these conditions are not fulfilled by then, all the money is forfeit. Ah yes, and Thomas, be sure to send Mr. Degato my regards. The clock is ticking, my friends. Farewell."

Once the recording finished, Thomas, the Jackal, placed his phone back in his pocket and said "Alright, you heard your host. One of you is worth ten trillion. Figure out who it is, and it's payday for the rest of you. At your host's instruction, I will be locking down the elevator until seven AM tomorrow morning. At which time, I will come to retrieve the surviving guests. "

"Now, wait a minute!" Said Mr. Red "Just who is it that wants to hire us anyway? I think that's something anyone should know before accepting a job!" The others were rather vocal in their agreement. "Does it really matter?" Thomas replied "All you need to know is you're being offered a shit ton of cash for one job. That should be more than enough. Before I go, my employer has also instructed me to leave you each a little parting gift."

Thomas went to a nearby closet and retrieved five neatly wrapped packages, handing one to each guest. "Ta." He said as he entered the elevator one last time. The five contract killers hesitantly opened their "gifts". Inside each was a weapon. Mr Red received a pistol, Mr. Strype a garrote, Mr. Snow a hammer, Ms. Kitty a knife, and Mr. Gray a vial of poison. They all sat in silence for several moments, looking around at each other and at their gifts.

Finally, Mr. Gray spoke up. "So...I don't suppose any of you would just tell us you're the one we need to kill?" Dead silence. "Just trying to lighten the mood." Gray said with a nervous chuckle. "How do we know it's not you?" Mr. Strype said. "You don't." Gray admitted. "I've killed too many targets to count. For all I know, it could be me."

"One thing's for sure." Said Mr. Red as he counted the bullets in his pistol "This is going to be one long night "


7:30 PM - Twelve hours until sunrise


It's been about fifteen minutes since the guests were given their assignment. Barely any words have been spoken between the five, as they all contemplate just how they're going to accomplish this tricky contract.

"Well, we won't accomplish anything by sitting here in silence." Mr. Strype finally spoke "You heard our mysterious host. If we don't figure out which of us is the target, we get nothing. Then this will all have been a giant waste of time."

He looked at his watch. "We've got about twelve hours until sunrise to get this done, so I suggest we get started." Ms. Kitty took a sip from her drink before replying "And just how exactly do you propose we do that?"

Mr. Red spoke up "There's no point in keeping secrets between us. We all know that we're all assassins. So, let's think back on the highest profile hits we've done. The way I figure it, whoever has the contract on them, it must be sponsored by someone connected to somebody important. Maybe a friend or family member, like the recording said."

"Good idea." Said Mr. Gray "Who wants to go first?" "I will." Said Mr. Snow "I remember once I was hired to eliminate an ex Russian Mafia boss that was doing time in a Serbian prison. Nikolai Gregori was his name. He was due to get out on parole, and some paper pushers wanted to be sure he never saw the outside again."

"Just out of curiosity..." Said Mr. Red "How did you reach him?" Mr. Snow chuckled "It was surprisingly easy. I disguised myself as a guard and found him in solitary confinement. After that, it was a simple matter of strangling him and making it look like he hung himself with his bedsheets."

"So, do you think the Russian mob put a hit out on you for revenge?" Ms. Kitty asked, to which Mr. Snow shrugged. "It's possible. Or it could be the suits who hired me covering their tracks. So, who wants to go next?" Mr. Gray spoke up "I was contracted to take out a couple of international spies once. Victor and Amelia Florenti, or at least those were the names they were going by at the time. And when I say "couple", I mean they were in love with each other. I didn't even have to get close to them. I framed one of them to make it look like they were cheating on the other. When the other one found out, the killed their partner, and then themself. If the contract is on me, I'd bet anything it has to do with their deaths."

He looked to Mr. Strype, who shared his story next. "This one time I was hired to eliminate the head of a major cartel in South America. Lorenzo Garcia. I did so by infiltrating his ranks, and pretending to work for him, when really he was the one that I was meant to kill. He was known for his fine taste in food, so it was easy to slip cyanide into his dinner one night. The thing is, I didn't realize the one who hired me just wanted to take over his drug empire, and used me to get him out of the way. I guess it's true what they say, those kinds of people are like weeds. You get rid of one, and another takes it's place."

"So, do you think it was Garcia's family, or the sponsor that might have put a hit on you?" Asked Mr. Red "Who knows? For all I know, it could be neither. What about you?"

"Hard to say. I've done plenty of hits in my time. Not all of them justified. Off the top of my head, it might be the time I was hired to kill some ex dictator of some third world country after he escaped a revolution and was hiding out in some fancy hotel in Paris. Mustafa Alazeer, you might have heard of him. I put one between his eyes from the top of the Eiffel Tower as he was standing on his room's balcony. I suppose his supporters might have it out for me after that."

Everyone looked to Ms. Kitty, who was the only one in the room who had yet to share. "Oh, for me it's no contest. The highest profile contract I ever did was when I killed the President of the United States."

At this, everybody's jaws dropped. "You did what!?"" Exclaimed Mr. Gray "Well, technically he wasn't president yet. But it was pretty much a forgone conclusion he would have won the election if I hadn't offed him. You probably heard about it on the news. John Norton?"

"You killed John Norton?" Mr. Red asked incredulously. Ms. Kitty just smiled as she took another sip of her drink before replying "Yep. Easiest ten mill I ever made."

"But I thought he died of a heart attack?" Said Mr. Strype, and Ms. Kitty laughed "That was just a cover story. His opponent really wanted him gone for obvious reasons, so they hired me. Turns out, Johnny boy had quite the thing for felines such as myself. Once we had some privacy, it was a simple matter slitting his throat once I had him where I wanted him. Of course, the media covered up the real story, and everyone suspected his opponent, since he was now president by default, but nobody could prove it."

Mr. Red's expression suddenly turned devious. "Well then, in regards to which of us has the contract on their head, my money is on Ms. Pussycat." He said as he raised his pistol.

Before he could fire, Mr. Gray interjected "Wait! We don't know for certain it's her!" Mr. Red scoffed "Are you kidding!? She just admitted she killed a would be president! That's way higher than what any of us have done!"

"We don't know that." Mr. Gray repeated "You said so yourself, not every hit you've done was justified. It could have to do with some other hit we haven't even thought of."

Mr. Red reluctantly lowered his weapon. "Fine. But I still bet it's the broad we need to ax." Mr. Snow stood and went to the bar, retrieving a bottle of vodka and drinking from the bottle. He was soon joined by Mr. Strype, who got himself a glass of whiskey. Ms. Kitty said nothing, but she gave Mr. Gray a look that silently said "Thanks, sugar."


More to be written...