The air was thick with cigerette smoke,asphalt, and other smells of the city. The night sky was flecked with the weak shine of stars, diluted with street and building lights. The scene was tainted by an ear-splitting scream, originating from a scrawny juvenile jaguar, who was currently being dangled by his footpaws from the roof of an apartment building. The only other beast on the roof was a coyote with an illegal assault rifle slung across his back and a look of disgust and impatience on his face. "Oh shut up." He snapped. "I havent even shot you yet." The jaguar, who looked to be about seventeen, left off screaming, only to start moaning and begging deperately. "Come on man, i aint done nothin'! I'm tellin the truth man! You can't kill me! Its against the law! You- you're gonna have a bad mark on your conscience!" He lasted about twelve seconds before he started blubbering incoherently, tears streaming up from his eyes to get lost in his greasy dreadlocks. The coyote groaned loudly, then gave him a shake. "Will you just shut up! I swear, this is even worse than the screaming." He leaned farther over the side of the building, looking down into the jaguar's scared eyes, grinning wickedly and. "As for the law, you broke that already, so you cant have much respect for it. The conscience thing... well I'm not much of a guilt person." His grin turned into a snarl. "I'm also not much a lie person. Next time you lie..." He let go of one of the jaguar's legs, and he started screaming again. "Alright! Alright! I wont lie! I swear! Dont kill me!" The canine took a swig from a nearby bottle of gin and said, "I wont make any promises. Tick me off again and I might find myself so frustrated I'll drop what im doing... got it?" The jaguar, too terrified to respond with anything more verbal than hyperventalation, nodded furiously. "Good. Now, you were doing a job, right?" The cat nodded. "At the bank, right?" He nodded again. "With some buddies?" another nod. "Good. Isnt the truth nice? No, stop nodding. That was a rhetorical question. This one isnt though; who was behind you?" The kid stopped totally, not understanding. The coyote shook him again, saying louder, "Who put you up to it?! You werent after cash, I saw what you took! Who's behind it?!" The jaguar moaned and said, "The guy was in a fancy car and kept the windows rolled up. He told us to grab a metal suitcase with a funky symbol on it and bring it to him. We could keep everythin' else we wanted, and he'd pay us a bunch of cash. I dont know what's in the case, i dont know what he wanted it for, so PLEASE LET ME GO!" The canine rubbed his muzzle with one claw while he seemed to think it over. "Hmm... there's more than one way to interpret that. I wonder..." He made as if he was going to drop the jaguar, who shrieked and then started sobbing. The coyote hauled him up onto the building, laughing good-naturedly. He patted the kid on the back, smiling. In a single swift movement he whipped the gun off his back and brought the stock crashing down on the back of the cat's head. "Sleep tight, kid. With any luck, you'll only have a mild concussion." He walked away, swigging gin laughing as if he'd just thought of something incredibly funny.

He didnt know what was going on, but he was definitely going to find out. If nothing else, it would keep him occupied untill he could think of something better to do with his time. Besides, if there was some honest-to-god, real villainy being practiced here, he wanted to get there before some hero came along with a cliched costume and a cheesy one-liner. He hated those things almost as much as he hated gin.

End of part one




To Be Continued