Red Hood: Origins

by TheConcernedF0X

Every Hero, no matter what type they are, are forged. They all have a story about how they became who they are now. Jason Wilde-Todd is no different. Jason Wilde-Todd is the Red Hood, a punisher style vigilante who invokes justice upon the wicked, normally with a bullet. But as with all heros the Red Hood has a orgin, a place of birth...and this story is where it is told.

7. Chapter 5: The Facility

Damn it I couldn't let it go!

This story has been on hiatus for a loonnngggggg time. In fact, I pretty much canceled it. But damnit! I just couldn't let it go! I tried working on my other stories but Jason was haunting my ass saying "you abandoned me!" So I brought this story back! Happy now Jason!?

I just can't leave things unfinished so I'm going to work my ass off to finish this story. I know it's my least popular and hardly anyone will read it but, fuck it. I'm going to finish the story, I am going to grind it out and get it done. My other stories may just be paused as I grind this story out. I'm not sure yet. All I know is there will be a marathon of chapters for this story.

I won't waste any more time with author notes. I might speak up in a few chapters but for now I'm going to write write write! If you like this story please leave a review/comment. Like it, kudo it, follow it, favorite it. You know the drill.

Marathon time!

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RHO

Jason was NOT happy. He had fallen into this trap he was in too easily and now he was up shit creek, and he didn't even have a boat. He also had no way out of this river as far as he could tell, at least right now. He got duped good, the promise of a military environment well suited to him had sounded too appealing, and he accepted their offer. Even given his suspicions and bad vibes he got from Derek Southhowl, the head of security at this facility. He thought maybe, just maybe his bad vibes came from his general dislike of wolves, but he should have gone with his gut instinct. Wolves always had it out for him, and their intentions were never pure.

As Jason was led through the stark white hallway, shackled and muzzled escorted by two wolf guards he surveyed his surroundings and mused on his predicament. Similar to the Lab it was all white with high ceilings, not a door in sight. He figured every "door" in this facility must be like the Lab's door, which meant figuring out the layout and escaping would be a hassle. It would be even more so if certain areas required security clearances. He still wasn't sure what exactly opened the doors, he hoped it was the devices he saw on every mammal's wrists, but he'd have to confirm it. If it turned out it wasn't, and say doors had to be called to open, escape would be basically impossible.

It was certainly possible, there were cameras everywhere watching every angle. There weren't any blind spots for the cameras either. "Nowhere run, nowhere to hide….fuck. There's no way I can sneak out of this place, every moment is tracked in this facility. Speaking of…there's no way this is a military project. Too secretive, and it's obvious none of these guards are actual military, maybe ex-military. Probably a private security firm run by Daggermane or Southhowl himself. If it's Southhowl I bet Daggermane used to be his superior officer… either way I bet that's the case. This is no doubt Daggermane's brainchild, privately funded by himself and donors. But no way it has official government backing, not with that mad hyena here. Dr. Anrim Zola, something tells me he and I aren't going to get along very well. He can try and make me feel pain, but he's going to fail miserably, and if I get the chance I'm going to rip his throat out, literally. So is whatever plan Daggermane has in store for me, I'm not going to be playing ball."

Jason left his thoughts as they came to an apparent dead end, but he knew it wasn't. He watched intently as the guard on his right moved his device towards the wall. The "smartwatch" briefly flashed green and soon the door was rising. "Ah so it is their smartwatch that opens the doors, at least now I know I'll need to snag one of those to start my escape."

It was then the door rose fully and Jason took in the sight before him, 199 pairs of questioning eyes. The booming voice of Daggermane amplified by a microphone then drew his attention "Ah finally! The last of you have arrived! Now I can finally start!"

Chad Howler was a 17-year-old white wolf with ice blue eyes, he was very muscular enjoying bodybuilding and working out in general…and if you asked anyone but him, a grade-A alpha male prick. He thought he was the top dog and very simply the best, he hated most prey, and he hated most predator species that didn't have packs. All in all, he was just what everyone thought of him, a prick. Chad thought most species of mammals were below wolves, and he hated small mammals most of all. But above everything else…he HATED foxes. Filthy grimy pelts that were walking wastes of oxygen, two-bit hustlers, and criminals that stank to the high heavens. There was already one here, a red vixen. Safe to say she wasn't having a fun experience.

Chad had been one of the first arrivals here and watched as mammal after mammal filtered into this place along these past two weeks. And personally, he was getting tired of waiting to hear why they were all here, why he was surrounded by so many inferior species. The only thing he could gather was they were waiting for all two hundred candidates to start, so far there were 199. That meant only one more mammal needed to show up before he figured out why he was here.

Chad was one of the few volunteers for this program. His family life wasn't the best, abusive father, useless mother, and pack. The only mammal in his pack he was close to was a distant uncle, and he happened to be the security chief at this facility. Derek Southhowl had asked him if he wanted to join this program and he happily agreed, anything to get away from home. Of course, Derek hadn't told him he'd be surrounded by inferior mammals or he might have reconsidered.

Being here these two weeks he made a few friends and formed a group that he stuck with. It consisted of a male lion, male cheetah, male polar bear, female and male tiger, and a female wolf. Currently, they were huddled together waiting with the rest of the 199 to be addressed. Apparently, today was the day the 200th mammal was due to arrive, finally. But for some reason whoever this mammal was had the facility abuzz. He couldn't fathom why though, no mammal was that special. Especially since they would be a teenager just like the rest of them. The female tiger in his entourage, Sadia looked at the guards in the room and said "look at them, they've been tense all day."

Ada, the female wolf said "I overheard some of the guards talking, there was a situation topside. This 200th mammal apparently decided to cause trouble. I think some guards may have been killed."

Brad, the cheetah scoffed. "Please. Whoever they were probably started crying like a baby saying they changed their mind and they had to get dragged in here. As far as the guards being tense, today starts the program, that means they got more responsibilities."

The polar bear, Sergei folded his arms and said "yes, no way a kid has their nerves up."

Chad was going to agree with the big bear when suddenly the door opened behind them, and their eyes and the rest pivoted to see the 200th mammal. What they saw shocked them. A red fox tod, shackled at the hands and feet, muzzled being escorted in by two guards. It was then that their host addressed them "Ah finally! The last of you have arrived! Now we can finally start!"

Chad couldn't believe his eyes. "All of this buzz….over a filthy pelt?...and why is the pelt in chains?...never mind that's how pelts should be treated."

The pelt was pushed into the room and two more guards that had lined the perimeter came over to the trio. It appeared they were unsure what to do regarding the pelt and General Daggermane said "unshackle him."

One of the guards that escorted the fox in looked up sharply in shock and let out a questioning "sir!?"

Daggermane gave the wolf a hard look. "You heard me."

The four wolves shared looks before one of the escorts began to unshackle the feet while the other unshackled his paws. Once the restraints were off they went to step away but Daggermane firmly said "the muzzle too. I highly doubt he'll try and kill any more of you just yet."

Chad tilted his head at that. "Kill anymore? These guards must be pathetic to be killed by a pelt. A teenage pelt at that."

Carefully one of the guards removed the muzzle and back away quickly, the two escorts moving back towards the door. The pelt when to go forward but stopped when one of the guards pointed their M16 in his face. The fox looked up with an unreadable expression and the door shut, Chad saw more than heard the fox huff before he turned and faced the group again, crossing his arms.

*Jason*

As Jason was led through the door he took in his surroundings. It was an expansive large white room, the ceiling massive, Jason wasn't sure how far they went underground but if they went too deep his only escape could be an elevator. Judging by the ceiling they were deep. Walkways were lining the perimeter of the room a good way up, to a height where even the tallest of mammals couldn't reach it. Directly ahead of them jutting out of the wall the same height as the walkways were what Jason could assume was a control room, probably not the control room though. Lining the perimeter on the ground was wolf guards, all armed with either MP5s or M16s. Guards lined the walkways too, these armed with M14s, and again, all of them were wolves. Just to the right of the control room was none other than General Daggermane, still giving that stupid self-satisfied smirk that Jason wanted to rip off of his face.

He then ran his eyes over the 199 mammals looking at him briefly. "199 mammals, all teens, 100 different species, male and female pairs."

Jason would observe them more closely later, right now he had bigger fish to fry. The guards were ordered to relieve him of these shackles he was wearing and he tensed himself to fight if he could just get on the other side of the door with the two guards. Unfortunately once the muzzle was off one of the guards that came to stand next to him shoved their M16 in his face daring him to try it. At that point, Jason thought realistically, "I'm literally surrounded by armed mammals, the second I start fighting one I'll be dead. I have to bide my time."

With that, the door shut and Jason let out a huff before turning to face the group and crossing his arms. "Ugh, too many mammals." Now that he was free of his chains he roamed his eyes over the 199 mammals before him, and almost all of them felt an unnerving chill run down their spines at seeing those lifeless emerald eyes analyze them all. "Good split, 25% small mammals, 25% medium mammals, 25% large mammals, and 25% extra large mammals. The small mammals seem to stick together but divide between predator and prey, typical. Same for medium mammals. The only groups that seem to not be segregating are large and extra-large. Meanwhile, the small and medium mammals are terrified of everyone. Whatever Daggermane has planned these mammals are going to get crushed. What a shame."

As Jason ran his eyes over the group his eyes logged that most mammals already didn't like him. Most mammals hated foxes after all. His eyes lingered on one particular mammal though for just a little longer than the rest, she was a pretty snow leopard, just a little taller than him with brilliant purple eyes. As everyone else's eyes held hate or indifference he saw that hers held…curiosity. That in itself was…curious. When their eyes met she actually averted her gaze unlike most, but Jason mentally shrugged it off, she probably found his eyes unnerving. Finishing his sweeping gaze he was surprised to see another fox, a red vixen. She looked more scared than anyone staying in the back in a small-knit group of small and medium predators, only five. A male raccoon, a male otter, a female coyote, a male coyote, and a female raccoon. He could tell the vixen felt unnerved by him but also relieved to see another fox, foxes stuck together after all.

The group of six the vixen was in decided to make their way toward him for whatever reason, and she scurried to follow them. Jason wanted to roll his eyes at the display, they were trying to be nice in an environment not well suited for it. They were probably going to be the first to die. Once they got within five feet of him Jason made it very clear that approaching him was not a smart idea. Baring his fangs he let out a snarl as he unsheathed his claws and flexed his paws. He wasn't in the mood to make friends. Seeing this primal display coming from him the group scurried back to where they once were, all except the vixen. She froze in fear seeing Jason act so feral but she wasn't going to be deterred, he was the only mammal she was going to feel safe around.

The vixen hesitantly moved to stand beside him but made sure to keep her distance, and Jason made sure to let her know what that was. Once she got to two feet away his lip curled upward in warning establishing the boundary. So she froze in place and turned back to face the rest, regardless of this tod's feral behavior and lifeless green eyes she felt safe around him simply because he was a fellow fox. She'd introduce herself later and see if he'd at least speak to her. Either way, she planned to stick as close as she could, hopefully, he could keep her safe, a lot of the mammals here wanted to hurt her for being a fox. Besides two sets of eyes were better than one.

Jason as much as he didn't like this vixen being close wasn't going to deny her sticking by him, to a degree. Foxes only trusted other foxes and for good reason, so he would tolerate her presence simply because she was the least liable to stab him in the back. That still didn't mean he'd be a good conversationalist or friend, it also didn't mean he'd let her break the two-foot bubble. Two feet was a stretch as it was. He'd much rather her be 30 feet away like the rest of them, who were all having hushed conversations about him. But it bothered him none, instead, he lifted his gaze and fixed his stare onto Daggermane, waiting to hear what all of this was truly about.

General Daggermane watched this entire interaction with rapt interest. "He acts like a wild animal. Dr. Telvanni might need to work on his social skills, he needs to be able to function in a real setting. Interesting, he let the vixen keep close. Is that fox companionship or is Jason a ladies mammal? Let's be real here, it's probably the first one. But….if it's the second…oh how the doctor will play."

Taking his eyes off his top contender he put on a big grin and addressed the 200. It was time they learned why they were really here. "Good day ladies and gentle mammals, as you know my name is General Daggermane! Welcome to The Facility! Yes, it's called The Facility, we have no real name for this place. Some of you have been here for two weeks, some of you have been here for two days, some of you have been here for two hours, and some of you have been here for two minutes. For this reason, none have you have seen the entire facility. Simply being limited to here the common area, the mess, and the dorms. So allow me to give you the rundown, this facility is quite expansive and state of the art. We have a large lab where you can learn everything from brain surgery to advanced chemistry and everything in between. We have incredibly advanced simulators for anything you could think of including flight, as well as these simulators for real-world scenarios. It will look like and feel like you are in the real world. We have a large armory full of every weapon imaginable and a shooting range to match it, you want to learn how to effectively use a rocket launcher? You can do it there!"

General Daggermane enjoyed seeing his "recruits" excitedly chattering amongst themselves as he listed off what the Facility had to offer, the opportunities it provided. "I'm glad to see you excited! Now I could drone on and on about what the Facility has to offer but instead, I offer these! General Daggermane held up a smartwatch identical to the ones the guards were wearing. "This is the most crucial thing we will give you at the Facility. This "smartwatch" as we call it is how you will get around the areas of the Facility you are allowed to access! It contains codes for each door and will open them automatically as you approach. It will also log your entry as it contains your credentials, who you are, your code name, age, weight, height, etc, etc. This device also has a tracker so we can track your location, NEVER take it off! It's waterproof so you can even shower with it. This device has a map with a blip that shows your location, so you can't use getting lost as an excuse! It also shows your ranking on the board! Now I know what you're thinking, what's the board?"

Daggermane's smile was getting wider, just building to the bombshell. "The board is our leaderboard! We track and score everything here! Every class you take, every certificate you earn, every time you increase the amount of weight you lift, everything! This leaderboard is meant to spark your competitive side because those in the top 10 receive enrichment bonuses. Top five even more so! Now we tracked everything you did up to being recruited, everything pertaining to use in the program of course! This granted you points on the board and your ranking, now it will be up to you to climb it and in the case of those already in the top ten, to maintain it!"

At that, a digital projector turned on displaying an empty leaderboard for all to see. "Now I will display 200 to 11! If you're on the bottom I'd work my ass off to change it!"

With a press of a bottom 11 to 200 was displayed, a picture with a mammal's full name beside the number. Jason scanned it halfheartedly, just enough to log that he was in the top 10. The vixen beside us he now knew was named Katie Redtail was dead last at 200, and he watched as she folded in on herself in embarrassment as several mammals pointed and laughed. To which Jason huffed in response, his ears registering speciesist remarks like "that's where foxes belong" and "serves her right, that fucking pelt."

That last one came from a group of a few mammals, specifically from a muscular white wolf. Looking at him and how he was looking at them Jason could tell he would be a problem. "Not one I can't handle though. Come and get me wolfie, I'll snap you in two."

Chad for his part got immense pleasure at seeing one of the pelts in last place where they belonged, along with most of the smaller mammals. Only a scare few were in the middle of the pack, but most surprisingly the male pelt wasn't on the list. "How is a fox in the top 10? This must be a mistake, but regardless there's no way he's better than me."

General Daggermane then pressed the button again saying "here's the 10 through 6 rankings!"

The rankings popped up and Jason internally raised an eyebrow. "Guess I'm in the top five."

In the bottom five was the female snow leopard that caught his eye at number 10, her name turning out to be Hanna Snowpaw. 9 was the female tiger, 8 the female wolf, 7 the male tiger, and 6 was the male lion. There were a lot of congrats and pats on the back for the bottom five, but Chad ignored that, he instead kept his attention on the leaderboard. "The pelt is in the top five!?"

Daggermane paused to let the subjects congratulate each other and such. Once he felt it had been long enough he put on his fake smile again and said "now for the top five! In fifth place will 750 points is the male polar bear Sergei Krinksimov!"

Sergei let out a bellow of triumph at being in the top five and there was a round of applause. Jason of course did not partake. "In fourth place with 875 points is the male grizzly bear Adam Smasher!"

The grizzly at seeing he was above Sergei promptly turned towards him and flipped him off. Sergei naturally wasn't a fan of that, this was a challenge after all. Daggermane saw all of this but ignored it, seeing what these teens would do was part of the experiment after all. So instead he said, "number three with 980 points is the male cheetah Brad Nimble!"

Brad pumped his fist in celebration and the little group he was a part of all congratulated him Chad included. He liked Brad the best, after all, Chad respected power, and cheetahs had it, also Brad had the same thinking he did, so they got along naturally. Besides, he knew he was going to be number one, how could he not? Daggermane then put a big old wrench in his thinking. "And in second place with 1000 points is the male wolf Chad Howler!"

Chad couldn't believe it..someone was better than him? On top of that…there was only one mammal left that hadn't been placed on the board. "There is no fucking way a filthy little.."

General Daggermane cut off his thoughts by saying "and in first place on our leaderboard with a huge 12000 points is the male fox tod, Jason Wilde Todd!"

The entire room went silent. Not only was a fox in first place, but he was also in first place with a deficit of 11000 points. This fox was well above and beyond everyone else, and it stunned the room, it also pissed a good majority off. Jason for his part was almost surprised, almost. But not really, he knew he was the smartest mammal in the room by a mile, and probably the most deadly. He'd show anyone that tested him just that.

Daggermane observed the scene before him and had to keep himself from laughing, all the faces of shock and anger due to the fact that Jason was better than them. "So most of you are probably wondering how we scored things, and why Jason here is so high above the rest of you. Well, Jason has six certified bachelor's degrees and six certified brown belts in varying martial arts. Each bachelor's degree he earned got him 1,000 points and the same for each brown belt. If he upgrades them to masters he will be rewarded 5,000 points and the same too if he gets black belts. Now I won't go too deep into the math, our method of scoring is on your smartwatches. But I gave you an idea of some goals to shoot for. It is safe to say Jason has set the bar incredibly high, and it will be really hard to knock him off that top spot."

There was a lot of murmuring as the subjects whispered among themselves, and meanwhile, Jason's expression hadn't shifted an inch. Katie for her part felt a million times safer with Jason now, he was an expert martial artist, he could definitely protect her. She was tempted to inch even closer to him but even if her tail breached the two-foot bubble his lip would curl upward in warning. So she had to keep her distance, she didn't want to piss him off especially now knowing what he was capable of.

Daggermane wanted to pat himself on the back. "All right settle down settle down! Now let's talk about what we're doing here, the rules and expectations. They are laxer than you would think. There are no required classes, no required drills, no formations, none of that. This isn't boot camp, this is something else entirely. Wake-up time is at 0800 Monday through Friday to start your day, the only penalty, if you aren't out of the dorms by 0900, is 10 points off your score. You decide what you want to learn, you go at your own pace. You are encouraged to make friends, have relationships, form groups and teams, but make sure to watch the leaderboard. There will be times when you are specifically called for special assignments and those are required to do. You ARE required to be active Monday through Friday working, whether it be working towards a degree or combat tactics. Saturday and Sunday you are allowed to take off, but if you aren't in the top 50, I wouldn't recommend that you do. You are allowed to be active 24/7, there are no hours. Meals are three times a day but the mess remains open for snacks. IF you are injured while participating in this program I highly suggest you do as much classwork as you can to keep earning points."

The subjects seemed to like the expectations so far. But he wasn't done yet. "You may have noticed earlier I mentioned codenames, by Monday I expect you all to pick out your own codenames. It's a first come first serve for submissions so if there's a duplicate whoever submitted it first gets it. Your codename is how you will be referred to from that day on, meaning you will not address each other by name nor will we. There are no calls or messages aloud to be sent outside of The Facility, no contact with the outside world and all attempts to try will be severely punished. There is a reason I stress the leaderboard so much ladies and gentlemamals, at the end of every six months the bottom ten mammals will be cut from the program. This is meant to be a little bit of a competition and we only want the best, so you have to work your asses off to stay here."

That last part caused nervous murmurs to ripple through the subjects, but Daggermane hadn't even dropped the bombshell yet. But it was high past time he did so. "Now let's talk about our mission here…our goal….what we told you when we recruited you was a lie. This is not a government-funded special military project, we will not release you when you're 18, you will not get to go home or join the military, no one knows you're here. What this is a privately funded special multi-phase experiment meant to test you to your limits. But what those are will only be known to us. When I said you will be cut from the program you will be allocated to an area that we believe you will have some use to us and you will stay there until your dying day. The top ten left will be made into a hit squad to be commanded by me killing enemies both foreign and domestic, and you will only be known by your codename. You will not be allowed to leave and have a normal life, ever. When you reach the age of uselessness only then will we allow you to "retire" meaning you will be taken to a safe house to live out the rest of your days constantly under watch and guard."

It was so pleasurable to watch the utter panic ripple through the subjects as they realized their circumstances. Some of them were already frantically looking for an escape, to which he had to tamper down a laugh. "Escape from the Facility is impossible, as none of you have access to the doors. These guards here around you are here to make sure you never leave, escort you, and discipline you when necessary. You fail to comply with their orders and you will regret it!"

At that every guard on the floor with them stepped forward and pulled out their shock batons, arcing them in warning before stepping back. Everyone was panicking at this stage, some mammals even crying in fear of becoming slaves. The top ten mammals though were confident they could handle things, and Jason simply didn't care. General Daggermane looked across the panicked faces and said "now now it's not all bad! As long as you get to the top ten and stay there you will be fine and have the best life possible! The top ten will be given anything they want to live comfortably when not on mission and stay in exotic houses in exotic locations, yes under constant watch and guard. But every want will be attended to within reason! All in all, it is not a bad deal! For those of you who fail do not worry too much, you will not be a true slave! And you will be serving your country! Fret not!"

General Daggermane's pep talk did nothing to reassure the subjects much. But quite a few solemnly thought that it was better than dying…if only they knew. "All right! My pitch is over! Guards escort them to the dorms, officially assign them their bunks, and then leave them to their devices! Dismissed!"

*later that day, a large group of teens.*

A group of about two dozen teens gathered in the common area to discuss what they had gotten themselves into and what they were going to do about it. There were talks of attempting escape, causing a riot, refusing to participate, and many other ideas. But they were all shot down one by one, none of them would work in the long run. So they all concluded that they were stuck here, but what to do about that. The group consisted of all mammals in the middle of the pack on the board so they weren't too scared about being enslaved, immediately at least. But none of them wanted to end up that way regardless, sure there weren't enough spaces in the top ten for all of them but that was a bridge to cross later.

After a lull of any real ideas being shot out the male gazelle subject spoke up. "Look! There is one thing I know for sure right now! That fucking fox in the number one slot has to go!"

The male Kudu subject was quick to agree. "He's right! There's no way any of us are going to be able to get past that score! He's just constantly going to be earning more and more points and increase that lead!"

The female elephant joined in. "They're right! You heard the General! He'll get 5,000 points for every master's degree and black belt he gets! He's already 90% there basically!"

The male lynx spoke. "Okay yeah sure, but what the heck can we do about it?"

The male gazelle who was taking lead of the discussion at this point replied "easy. We kill him."

Over half the group began laughing at the male gazelle's ridiculous idea the female giraffe firmly saying "what are you? Stupid? You heard what they said! He has six brown belts in different martial arts! How the hell could you or any of us possibly kill him!?"

The female panther interjected. "Not to mention even if we DID, we'd surely get offed by the guards for murdering a fellow subject!"

The male gazelle shook his head. "Look at the rules on your watches! Nowhere does it say we aren't allowed to kill or sabotage our way up to the top anywhere! I've looked over it five times! Think about it, what they want us to do! I bet this is what they want!"

This caused an argument among the group that lasted for about half an hour before the male gazelle got fed up. "ALRIGHT! If you cowards don't want to do it that's fine! You'll just all be enslaved while I ride to the top and live a life of comfort! And for your information on how I'm going to kill him, my left horn is a fake, it unscrews because the real one broke off when I was younger and never grew back. So while he sleeps I'm going to unscrew it and plunge it into his filthy chest! I'll accept any repercussions I get but I'll probably get pats on the back for killing a filthy fox!"

The group quieted at that before the male hyena said "you know what? I'm in. That fox has to go, fuck everything else."

The male rhino snorted and said, "I ain't letting a fox drive me to slavery, he's an issue that needs to go away."

The male kudu nodded his head. "That pelt needs to die."

The male lynx let out an idea of his own. "Fine. But why stop there? We should just wipe the entire top ten off the board. It'll give us the best chance to even it out. I mean all of us are only a couple of points off of each other but those in the top ten currently are well above us. Once things get started they could quickly get out of our reach."

The female polar bear nodded, "why not. Kill the top contenders, even out the board."

Pretty soon the entire group was in agreement, all except for one. The female cheetah subject had been listening in the entire time, pretending to be on board. But, in truth she was being a double agent for the top ten, sort of. She just wanted to impress the males in that group, minus the fox, she figured if she proved herself useful that would keep her around. So while the group was finalizing their plan to start with the fox tonight and attack the rest she slinked away intent on finding the group the male cheetah was in.

It took around 15 minutes but she found them. Chad, Brad, Sergei, Ada, the two tigers Khan and Kuna, and the lion Scar. She approached them confidently and stopped just shy and said "I need to speak to you all, urgently."

Chad, the leader of the little group looked her up and down and with his cocky tone said "what about?"

"There's a group of about two dozen of us planning to kill you all and the rest of the top ten. Tonight once we are all in our beds. Midnight to be exact. They feel threatened by you all so they think killing you will make the top ten a fair fight. They plan to start with the pelt and then come after y'all at once. Figured you would want to know."

Chad was impressed and nodded his head. "Well, apparently some mammals here have a spine. Which once's exactly?"

"Let's see. The male rhino, male lynx, male gazelle, male kudu, female and male giraffe, male and female elephant, male and female hyena, female panther, male snow leopard, female polar bear, male caracal, male Buffalo, male and female reindeer, male and female gemsbok, female camel, male deer, and the male puma."

Chad nodded. "Well now we know who to watch out for, I sat we form a little counter plan of our own. But something tells me their little plan is going to go off the rails."

Chad then let out a little grin as he said the next part. "Thank you for telling us, and hey, don't tell the others the plan on killing. They'd get suspicious otherwise."

The female cheetah smiled back a toothy grin. "I wasn't planning on it. Especially not the fox."

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60 species (that should be enough to go by right? Add to the list! Help me get to a hundred!"

Fox

Wolf

Tiger

Black bear

Brown bear

Polar bear

Grizzly bear

Giraffe

Kudu

Snow leopard

Leopard

Cheetah

Panther

Lion

Rhino

Stoat

Rabbit

Raccoon

Painted wolf

Hyena

Kangaroo

Coyote

Elephant

Weasel

Dhole

Jackal

Dingo

Reindeer

Moose

Elk

Deer

Red panda

Ferret

Caracal

Puma

Hare

Wolverine

Cougar

Badger

Maned wolf

Anteater

Camel

Skunk

Wildebeest

Meerkat

Dik-dik

Oryx

Ocelot

Serval

Goat

Sheep

Bighorn sheep

Horse

Cow

Fossa

Addax

Antelope

Water Buffalo

Gemsbok

Mink

Buffalo