Chapter 1
Terry exhaled and stared at the mirror. The otter put on his glasses and, satisfied with his appearance, stepped outside. He was a sea otter with a brown body, with a patch of white starting halfway up the foreleg in the center of the width of the leg and going back to halfway across the inside of the leg and going up until it reached his pectoralis area where it ended in a semicircle. He had white tiger stripes right below each shoulder and a small amount of blue head fur stylized into three small spikes pointing outward, as well as green eyes. He wore a black button-down short-sleeved t-shirt with a left breast pocket with a white Weezer logo patch on his left sleeve and the shirt itself went down to where the patch of white began on his foreleg.

He was a member of the Arcade, one of six companies managed by the US government to end worldwide terrorism, collectively known as 6Com. Whatever the goal of 6Com was, it wasn't clear to Terry; they had just been recently formed about five to six months ago, so he had some counter-terrorist work under his belt, and he knew the members fairly well, but he was the leader, and even he wasn't fully sure if anti-terrorism was what the goal of 6Com was, after all, he had to break into RBS as well as Foxconn- those suicide nets aren't a joke, though, as he was all too aware. That escape could've gone better, he thought, as he stepped out into the common area of their base.

Chapter 2
 Terry looked around the common room, and much to his surprise, it was empty. He glanced at his watch, only to discover it was seven forty-five in the morning. "Fuck," Terry said, "I'm gonna miss breakfast."

About thirty seconds later he appeared in the dining room, where the other members sat. "About time, Terry, we were going to eat without you." The comment came from Crimson, a red wolf with a white underbelly with bloodstains on it- they were his own, but it was a story Crimson had never gone in to, and Terry never pushed. He had heterochromia, so his left eye was sea green and the right was black.

"Slept late, any word from Jay?" Jay was an FBI agent and director of the Los Angeles office. He also happened to be the team's informant.

This time it was Iceclaw's turn to speak up. Iceclaw is an arctic fox with blue nails and a black t-shirt. "Not yet, he's still searching for any DNA matches on any database, but this guy still seems to be two steps ahead of us." The man in question was a cyber-terrorist known as Phantom, a confirmed US citizen, but other than that he was an enigma, like a spectral force, hence the name Phantom.

Jason was finished eating and was taking apart a TEC-9 to clean it. Jason was a fox, and the only cub on the team, being age seven. He was brown and wore a dirty white shirt with the words The Arcade on it in the Courier font.

The others, Shade, Twinleaf, and Ko sat quietly, still eating. Ko was the oddest of the bunch, as Ko was an Eastern Dragon, dragons have been a species long thought mythological, it was quite a shock when a week ago he joined the Arcade. His main body color was green, his underbelly was white, his furry bits were brown, his claws were white and his eyes were purple. He took two forms, a run-of-the-mill, eastern dragon form, and a more erect form, where he stood at about 6' 3" and looked like most other dragons, skinnier as he went up. He usually was on the ladder form and today was no different. Shade was a dog of an indiscernible breed, had a black hoodie on, and was brown. He had grey eyes and ratty head fur. Twinleaf was an American Curl cat, who is gray with symmetrical green stripes. His ears don't fully curl back, so they curl to where the tips stand upright. His eyes are yellow.

A face flickered up on screen, a fox, nearly identical in form to Iceclaw, but green and without any clothing. It spoke, "So, how are things?" This was Data, an AI personal assistant and member of the Arcade.

"Good," Terry responded.

"I have word from the higher-ups that a mission is up for grabs, I'll let them know that you're up for it."

"Hey, at least Delta Company won't get it, if they get another mission, they may surpass us."

"Heh, yeah. See ya."

"Well then team, we have an armory to get to and a plane to board."

Chapter 3
 Terry stepped inside the armory first and began fiddling with the screen that controlled the loadout dispenser- a convenient addition developed by resident tech Iceclaw, whose hand-eye and accuracy put him ahead of most other techs and snipers.

"Just a routine assassination, right?" Jason asked.

"Should be," Terry replied, although he had a feeling that it wasn't. He finished with his loadout, a P2000 and an M9 Bayonet. He donned a flight suit and left the room.

Soon the team was in the dropship and were off.

"Hey, not for nothing, but, we're a bit short on food, so we have two days instead of three, okay?" Said Ko as he was doing a routine check. He pulled out a GameBoy Advance SP and started playing.

"We're all good on fuel," Said Iceclaw, closing the display for a couple gauges.

"Good," Terry said, looking back from the cockpit. "Also, shouldn't we have done this while we were still moored."

"Maybe, but I like to live on the edge." Iceclaw pulled out his phone and tuned out after that, but shortly stopped after his phone started ringing. Terry and Jason looked at his phone. "Yeah...  uh-huh... no, just leave it... all right... see ya." The phone call ended and everyone went awkwardly silent.

Chapter Four
 The dropship came to a stop and hovered above the drop zone. Everyone filed out of the ship but Terry. Terry spoke to the empty ship, "All right, Data, take good care of ‘er."

"Jeez, just get going Terry." Said Data, agitated. Terry found no issue with that, threw the supplies into his bag, and jumped.

I have a feeling this is going to be Foxconn all over again. Like Foxconn, the deal was simple: get in, do the dirty deed, get out. The parachute opened from his bag, he landed, and it repacked itself, waiting to be reused.

Iceclaw shut down the security systems, sending the office into disarray. "Alright," said Iceclaw, "Now we find his section and take him out."

"Hmm," said Terry, "How do I know that this isn't going to go as planned?"

Terry went first, looking at the AR screen through his glasses. He slipped into the hallway and looked for section B-16 or the processing facility. He found it and slipped inside.

He looked around and hid behind a desk while he drew his gun, waiting for an open shot when he heard the door open behind him. "Fuck," he muttered, sliding back and training the P2000 on the man who had just entered. He was armed, as he saw the silver outline of a Desert Eagle glint in his holster. This was not a complication he was expecting. 
The man who had entered was a border collie, with a blue and white pattern, his underbelly was white, and his back was blue, his muzzle and the right side of his face, up to to the eye, were white, while his left face was blue, he had red eyes that seemed to burn into what they were looking at. He had a dipstick tail with the tip white and the rest blue. He was wearing a black t-shirt.

The collie glanced around the room, and in doing so made eye contact with Terry. He grew a bit nervous, so far as Terry could tell, but regained focus quickly and drew his gun.

Terry tucked behind the desk and rolled. The lights were off, as it was night, only a few working the night shift. Terry's stunt landed him under another desk, a working employee's desk, which caused him to notice the two men with guns, and and he screamed, sending the men and women in the office into disarray, and causing both Terry and the man to lose focus, during that short time Terry regained focus a couple seconds before his assailant did, during those short seconds, he used the man's confusion to head back toward the door, and was cut off shortly before reaching the door.

The man lunged for him, and Terry slid under him. He ran out of there as fast as he could. He found a bathroom and hid inside. He heard what he assumed was the man's footsteps coming in his direction, and he left the bathroom, deciding to face whatever had approached him.

The man spoke first, "Look, can you just tell me why you came in here with a gun, to the same section I was supposed to be in, to take aim at the same guy I was supposed to kill?"

"What do you mean, ‘supposed to kill', that job was mine, he was marked for death, and I had to collect the bounty, plain and simple."

"We must have been contracted to do the same thing at the same time for some reason. Anyhow, my name is Iru."

"Nice to meet you Iru, I'm Terry." The collie in front of him was a little suspicious until Terry's team arrived.

"Well, that didn't go as planned, did it?" Jason snapped.

"Uh, no," replied Terry.

"Well then, who the hell is he?"

"He's Iru, and apparently he was contracted for the same job."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. Look, Jason, we don't have much time to dick around and sit in this hallway, we need to get back to the processing facility before they break the lock."

"Hold on," Iru said, "How did you know I locked the door with a remote key, as opposed to a keycard?"

"I know how these assassins work," Terry responded, "You're forgetting that I'm one." Iru seemed to calm down after that. What's this guy's angle?

"Look, I'll just go back with you guys, okay?"

"How do we know we can trust you?" Iceclaw asked.

"I know I seem a bit suspect," Iru replied, "However, I swear I'm just travelling back with you guys to get close to the FBI, as they seemed to lose contact with me after I took on this job; seeing as you got the same job, I assume you've been contacted by someone in the government."

"That much I'll admit, but we still shouldn't take chances like this."

"Aw c'mon, don't just leave me here to find my way back; besides, I could be a useful asset to your team."

"Fine, but we'll have to clear this with the CIA."

"Ooh, you're covert?"

"Mhm."
Chapter 5
 Soon the entire team, including Iru, were loaded onto the dropship. Terry looked at Iru, who looked down at his shirt. Does it really look that bad? Terry was promptly embarrassed, and unbuttoned his shirt, and realized it looked better and kept it this way.

"Wait," Twinleaf said, "Did we actually end up going back and taking out the target?"

"Well," Terry said, "I knew we'd fail a mission one of these days."

"I hate failure, it means no paychecks, and you know we're tight on money."

"Since when were did we ever have a stable amount of money?"

"Since before we were picked for this team."

Terry had no good response for this, so he just sat back and swept the surrounding areas for hostiles. Terry leaned back, satisfied, and set the craft to autopilot.

Terry walked from the cockpit to the main area and sat down. He instinctively cast a glance at Iru, then trained his eyes on Iceclaw's phone. Iceclaw glanced at it and waved Terry off. Terry did so, but not before wavering for a second, which caused Iceclaw to put his phone away.

Everyone settled in for a long ride when a missile hit the third engine, causing it to blow, along with a little bit of the hull. Only one person didn't escape, Ko, Terry realized during the team check that followed the incident.

"Hmm, unfortunate as it is," said Jason, "We don't have time to grieve about it now, not when we need to find out who hit our ship."

"Already ahead of you," said Iceclaw, "That ship was unmanned, but I tagged it, and its current location is heading east, outside of the city."

"Look," said Shade, "Our supplier hooked us up with a Ford Transit; modified of course, but it still looks stock."

"Should help us keep a low profile," Iru said, "but, that doesn't mean we won't lose this guy regardless, he's going west, we live in LA, we're going to need a boat."

"Glad that you mentioned that Iru, we do have a boat, docked at coordinates marked on the Transit's screen."

Chapter 6
Soon the team was loaded onto the speedboat and Iceclaw sat with a Whiplash Mk. II, a bolt rifle designed and engineered by Iceclaw, and was even more accurate than the Mark I. The rest of the team had distributed the weapons on the boat, and thus, Terry ended up with the only classic weapon on the boat, a silenced P2000, which he sat cleaning. Iru had some sort of light weapon, but he could not get a clear look. The rest had Crossfires- Crossfires being the newest mass-produced automatic weapon on the market at the moment.
"Well," said Terry, smirking, "I have a feeling that this isn't a job that's meant to be done quietly."

"How astute," shot Iceclaw

"Oh, give it a rest, you two," said Iru, as they arrived at the coordinates that the plane landed at, or as close to them as they could get on the boat.

The team climbed out and examined the island that lay ahead of them. It was a forest but had a volcano in the center.

"Looks like a supervillain's hideout," said Shade.

"Or DK Mountain," said Iceclaw.

"Well," said Jason, "Let's not waste time."

"Well said," said Crimson, as he followed the others up to the forest.

Chapter 7
The team walked up the stairs of a moderately large fortress and blew the lock off when a wave of people came rushing out to capture them. While most fell, some took off.

"Well," said Twinleaf, "That was fun!"

"Sure was," said Jason, as he wiped the blood from the stock of his gun.

"Guys, get to work, please," said Crimson as he found the ID of one of the officers that looked nearly identical to him, and put on his uniform and stuck the badge back in the pocket it was in and was glad to see that no marks were on the uniform.

"No security cameras," Iceclaw said, making sure he read the readout right.

"Okay," said Terry, "Then grab a uniform from a guy who at least matches your look in uniform and anyone who can't wait outside."

"However," said Jason, "I'll still be going in, just through the vents." He grabbed a belt sheath for a knife and slipped it on, tightening it up after doing so.

"No objections?" asked Terry, "Good, pack up and get in, then, find the big man, and kill him."

The current members disguised were Terry, Crimson, and Twinleaf, so the trio went through a security check, and into the main building.

The three then decided to split up: Twinleaf went to the barracks, Crimson went to the armory, and Terry went up to the next level.

Terry stepped into the elevator, passing by two more security checkpoints on the way. The first thing he noticed was that there were only two floors, and there was no number on the second floor, only the label "BOSS". Terry found this promising.

No sooner than he had pressed the button, he was there, it seemed. The doors swung open and Terry stepped out. Security was slightly slower than the elevator, so Terry was quick to react. They were all gagged and zip tied together, as you can zip tie about four hands in the same tie. He quickly and quietly stepped into the rotunda where the boss was pouring drinks for him and presumably Terry.

Terry's suspicions were confirmed as soon as he heard the man, a slightly chubby arctic fox, who bore a striking resemblance to Iceclaw, spoke. "Hello. Terry, right? How are you and all that? Anyway, let's get to work, shall we? I'm Glassfoot, father of Iceclaw."

Terry replied with a curt, "That's a fucking hippie name if I ever heard one, what do you want?"

Glassfoot replied, "To destroy 6Com."

"By almost killing your son?"

"While I'll admit, it isn't my best work, I have a good reason."

"What reason?"

"They claimed my kid when he was eight!"

"Bullshit, you have to either physically sign away your kid, or he's orphaned anyway."

"I get that, I do, but they made it sound like I didn't have a choice, Terry, I swear!"

"How so?"

"For one, I would be alleviated of all taxes during Iceclaw's time in the project, and I would be compensated. My wife was dead! I was out of money anyway. I couldn't afford a kid, Terry!"

"It's still your fault though, isn't it?"

"Technically, yes."

"No, not technically, you were fully conscious of the choice you were making or did you forget who you were speaking to and try to play it off?"

"You're insufferable, I can see why they'd want you."

"Gee, thanks. Now, let's cut the bullshit and get to work, all right?"

"Work? Doing what."

"Well, for one, you're going to apologize to Iceclaw, and two, you're going to try not to almost kill your son again. You're lucky that the hull is fireproof and mostly blast resistant."

"Fine, but I still need a drink.:

"No, we're moving now."

"All right, all right, let's move."

Chapter 8
 Terry and Glassfoot were now in the pilot's seat of a new dropship while they sped back to base, which they arrived at quicker- or at least what felt quicker- than usual.

The team climbed out of the dropship and Glassfoot soon followed. Glassfoot was given a car and kicked out of the base.

Terry and Iceclaw inspected the new ship for wear, Jason cleaned more weapons, Shade and Twinleaf played video games, and Crimson and Iru practiced at the shooting range.

`All was well... for now.