AN: Hey Guys, new year new update. Get to meet the secondary villains of this fic and learn more about them. And yes, I was inspired by Arkham Origins for this. IT's a great game.
Disclaimer: I do not own Paw Patrol
Damian Stone had been with various dangerous people in his long career. He had been with drug dealers, weapon dealers, illegal traffickers, and occasionally an international criminal organization or two. Of course, he himself was a dangerous person as the many coffins buried deep in the ground could attest to. Well, the ones that people knew about anyway. However, despite feeling little to no fear in general about...well, anything, even he knew to keep his guard up with the company that he was having inside his office. Having one assassin in your presence was dangerous, but six? Suicidal is the word most would use.
Interesting is what Damian used.
The six assassins were some of the deadliest in the business and all of them were here for the money being offered, or in the case of one of them the thrill of the hunt. Not all of them were human, and some couldn't even be called organic in some cases. But the six of them were all dangerous and kept an eye on each other. Keres was flipping a knife in her hands while keeping her legs crossed while sitting on one of the nearby chairs with her back to the wall. She was glaring the most at one who cost her the one million dollar bounty on Zuma.
His name was Lester Van Harris, aka M.B.S or Most Badass Sniper as he was known for. The assassin was long blond haired with shades over his eyes to help his identity while wearing a black tactical vest and combat jeans. Though his arms were crossed, he kept one hand on one of the two pistols he had strapped to his sides in their holsters. He was also glaring at Kernes and Damian couldn't help but smirk at the thought of a good rivalry. It would really lighten things up around here.
Over to the side was a wolf, white fur with black patches over their eyes, and staying silent with their eyes closed. He was wearing nothing but his fur and yet that didn't stop the sense that he was ready to rip the throat off of anyone who disturbed him from his meditations. What was most amazing was how big he was. He was practically half the size of a full grown man and looked big enough to eat a small child. His muscles were tight and his body sleek and smooth despite his reputation of being a bloody killer. He also had followers, supposedly, but they were not here at the moment.
One other furry little creature was a fox, but to call him one would be half right. The cybernetic assassin known as Deadtails was the one right in front of Damian's desk with no fear of the assassins before him. The gray and black armored suit he was in seemed to be fused with his body as his red oval visor gazed upward at Stone without showing any emotion. There was a small katana strapped to his back and sharp daggers that were connected to his seven tails. Yes, seven tails. Unless those japanese fox spirits were real, Damian was sure that this guy was just using six cybernetic tails to complete the image.
The next one was really somewhat annoying because the assassin in question was not physically here, but rather streaming the whole thing. A small drone, carrying a tablet, showed the young face of the psychotic genius known as \/\/1Z4rD who was just grinning and yet you could see that he was just as crazy as Stone. Something that he at least gave respect to. He had heard about this attempt to assassinate some of the Paw Patrol at the hospital and said it was just a testing phase to see how good they were. Damian, at least, appreciated the desire to see some initiative in his assassins.
The final assassin was also not human but this time wasn't canine in nature. Instead, they were feline. The snowshoe cat of white and tan mixed colors sat on a nearby couch looking utterly bored at the prospect of everyone being here and yet there was something unsettling about how the cat was just staring at nothing, zoned out completely. He was wearing nothing, barely said anything, and just stood there like he wished he was anywhere else in the world. But he was one of the assassins and had shown proof of it. Damian just wondered what the hell he was in general.
"Alright," Deadtails said, getting everyone's attention. "We waited long enough, what's this meeting about?"
"I suppose I can explain why I called you all here," Damian said as he put his hands together with a clap. "Now, you already know your targets, the prices, and all of that so we'll skip that for now. What I am here to tell you is that since this is an open contract with multiple targets, you may choose to get how many you wish and once I've confirmed a corpse you'll get the reward money."
After nobody said anything, he continued, "However, clearly there is a sense of competition here due to many of you wanting the bounty so I am here to make a few rules. One, you are free to sabotage each other as you wish so long as you don't kill each other. Also whatever you are going to do, do not let it interrupt my own personal business. Or the next open contract will be on you."
There were a few nods upon hearing this.
"Second, you are free to operate in any location in the city save for one. The Meat Packing district," Damian warned with a narrow glare. "I have...something personal being done there. I want no interruptions and I want no hints to the authorities of what I am doing. Understood?"
He then glared at \/\/1Z4rD. "And no hacking either."
"Fine, be a bore," \/\/1Z4rD grumbled while sticking his tongue out.
"Other than that? Go nuts. Kill, maim, trap, or do whatever you want just make sure they're dead," Damian said before smirking. "Any questions?"
"Are we free to leave any time?" The wolf said, making everyone's eyes on him as he opened his eyelids to reveal his piercing blue eyes. "I only desire to face Zuma. That is it. The rest I could care less about."
"...So long as one of them is dead by your hands or paws or whatever? Sure, go ahead," Stone replied with a wave of his hand.
"That is all I need to hear," The wolf said before getting up and making his way out. "Word of advice? Stay out of my way."
"Like we're going to just let you take the highest ranked target, asshole," M.B.S whispered with a snort.
"Yes, you do have a tendency to try and steal other people's kills," Keres quipped, which made M.B.S. grin.
"Next time stab faster than I can shoot," He replied, earning a dagger thrown near his face but he didn't flinch when it connected with the portrait behind him.
"When can we start?" Deadtails asked.
"Now," Damian Stone replied.
"Good," Deadtails replied before walking out with the others following him including \/\/1Z4rD's drone. The only one who didn't move was the cat.
"I don't suppose you're going to say something?" Damian asked.
The cat just looked at him and then got up and walked out the door.
"No, of course not."
After the incident at the hospital, Detective Shaw thought it best to have the place locked down and protected with police officers and SWAT. While Blue and Agent Kennedy were given protective services, Ryder and the rest of the Paw Patrol had decided to head back to the Paw Patroller to see if they could get any information on the drone that attacked them.
"Think they'll find anything?" Marshall asked as he bounced a ball off the wall and back into his hands before repeating the process. Chase was looking outside near one of the window of the Paw Patroller, keeping an eye on things just in case someone else was going to attack them. Considering that there had been three assassination attempts on either their lives or Zuma's it was becoming pretty clear they were targeted for a reason.
"If anyone can find something on digital data, it's Rocky and Ryder when they work together," Skye replied as she and Rubble drank from their water bowls.
"Do you think Zuma is okay?" Marshall asked, getting all their attention. "I mean, if there are people after us then chances are they're after him too. Ryder did say that one of them, that weird knife lady, was almost going to gut him if not for that gun shot saving him."
None of the others said anything as the worry inside their hearts began to increase, but they were then distracted by Ryder and Rocky walking in from their workstation. The serious look on their faces made it clear that they didn't have good news. Sighing, Ryder rubbed his forehead. "We have a problem."
"What kind of problem?" Chase asked.
"It's not just one assassin after us," Ryder replied.
"It's six," Rocky answered.
"Six assassins?!" Zuma shouted in shock as he stared at Frisk. He had returned to the home of the terrier who had give him the bad news based on the information he found. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, one of them even tried to attack your friends earlier. Don't worry, they're fine," Friska assured Zuma. "But there are six assassins at the moment after you. Stone put up an open bounty on your head as well as the heads of all your fellow Paw Patrollers. Obviously, you're the biggest at one million dollars."
"Gee, that makes me feel so much fricken better," Zuma grumbled with a roll of his eyes. "Do you know these assassins?"
"Not all of them, but I got their names and a decent idea of their reputations," Frisk answered with a heavy sigh. "You are up against some serious shit, kid."
"...Tell me anyway."
The first one to appear on the Paw Patroller's giant TV was one familiar to Ryder. The female knife wielding assassin who had nearly gotten him and Zuma killed. Just looking into her psychotic eyes had made everyone shiver.
"This Keres," Ryder explained as he showed various data about her. This included pictures of her killing her victim that were always done with knives that were covered in blood. "She's an assassin from Greece that has been wanted by seventeen different countries for various assassinations. Her real name is Kalliopi Antonelli, but she's shed that name for her current ones. As you can see, she uses knives for her assassinations."
A video then played showed Keres dropping down from a vent in the middle of a board meeting room between various men in suits. She first threw small daggers at the security in the room before going to work on the panicking executives with her longer dangers. She slit throats, stabbed hearts, or sliced open their stomachs to let their contents spill out. Keres finished of her last target by throwing the dagger right into their head before kissing at the camera as if she already knew she was being watched.
"Seems like she doesn't care if she's spotted or not. Stealth isn't her forte," Chase pointed out.
"Yeah, a lot of her hits are big and showman-like. We might be able to use that advantage, but Keres has managed to avoid InterPol for years so she's a talented escape artist," Ryder explained before moving to the next one.
"Then there is the sniper known as M.B.S. aka Most Badass Sniper," Frisk explained to Zuma after finishing his talk about Keres. "I'm guessing he's the one that shot that knife out of her hands to save you. Most likely to make sure he gets the bounty."
"Hope he's not expecting a thank you," Zuma pointed out.
"I doubt you'll ever meet in person since the guy has taken out people hundreds of yards away with his collection of sniper rifles," Frisk explained. "The guy's a former military sniper and still has records left in his wake. He's been all over the world and nearly a hundred people have holes in their skulls because of him. M.B.S. has a collection of a dozen or so custom made sniper rifles he uses for various occasions."
"What about close range?" Zuma asked.
"Can't help you there, but I doubt any of his targets have ever come close to meeting him face to face," Frisk answered with a shrug. "I'd watch your head while you're out there, Zuma. One wrong direction and the next thing you know you'll have a 6.5 Creedmoor coming out of your skull."
"Chances are I'll need to avoid open areas," Zuma replied but deep inside he knew facing a sniper would be difficult in general because of not just the distance they could attack from but the various directions as well. "Whose this Deadtail guy?"
"He's a robot?" Rubble asked upon seeing the picture of the cybernetic fox and all seven of his tails.
"Cyborg actually," Rocky replied as he pressed a button on the interactive monitor and showed a single normal red kitsune followed by experimentations on him while being cared for by Japanese scientists. "His real name is unknown, but he was a fox from Japan that was originally made to be part of a cybernetics soldier experiment for the government. He was pretty much fused with his suit and given extra tails that react to his mental thought. His suit contains various weapons, defenses, enhanced abilities, and other classified data we don't know about. He doesnt't need to eat or sleep or any other biological functions either."
"So more "machine than man" basically? Or fox in this case," Skye quoted.
"Yes," Rocky answered while rubbing his chin. "I might be able to find some way to get around his cybernetics but I don't know if I can fully do it. Even at half power, he'll be dangerous. Especially since he's quick, silent, and deadly like a ninja."
A news report showed a Japanese woman announcing the death of several members of the Diet along with their families and an entire security force with no pictures or videos save for small bits of the latter but even then they were blurry.
The next image came on which made the pups tilt their head.
"Is that a..."
"A cat?" Zuma asked in disbelief.
"A cat that I barely know anything about," Frisk said with a nervous grin. "But this cat, whatever their name is, what is known is that every time they appear people disappear soon after. Numerous times he's been associated with the disappearance of various individuals both human and animal. They're gone for a few days, and then turn up dead in various ways. Burned to a crisp. Cut to pieces. Electrocuted. Poison. Speared. Shot. Practically every kind of means you can kill someone has been done thanks to this cat."
"Wait, how is he doing that?" Zuma asked, trying to think of how a cat could do such a thing. A single cat couldn't just move a fully grown human around without some kind of help be it mechanical or personal.
"No idea. Like I said, there isn't much about them," Frisk answered reluctantly.
Sighing, Zuma then asked, "Well, can you tell me about someone else you do have information on?"
"We did manage to get the information about the one who used the drone," Ryder said, revealing what appeared to be called \/\/1Z4rD.
"What does that mean?" Marshall asked, tiling his head in a few different directions to see if he could get a clear understanding of the word. He even fell over a few times doing it.
"It's leek speak for Wizard," Rocky explained. "Based on the advanced coding and the fact he uses drones for weapons, it's clear they are a tech expert who uses computers and machines to assassinate their targets. We did a search for assassinations via drones and there are a number of these in the US and Canada."
News reports showing an explosive drone blowing up part of a building sky high in the air or swarms of machine gun wielding drones firing down on an armed escort were shown to the group. Chase asked, "How many do you think he has?"
"Who knows. Some of these are as small as your paws," Ryder said with a sigh. "Hacking them might be impossible. This guy is better at programming than I am."
That had gotten their attention and their worry as Ryder was a certified genius who could program even military grade hardware. For him to outright claim this guy was better? That was scary.
"The final one is the most worrying one," Ryder said, showing a white wolf on the screen. "This is Jagar."
"That's German for Hunter, right?" Zuma asked, which made Frisk nod. "And he's a white wolf?"
"A dangerous white wolf," Frisk claimed with a shiver. "The guy is considered one of the top ten assassins in the world. He doesn't use gadgets, weapons, or tricks. Just his own skill and he's assassinated every kind of high quality leader you have from politicians to generals."
Zuma didn't know why, but he soon thought back to his Master. The wolf that had trained him for months to become what he was now. Master Owiel had been a wolf as well and taught him how to use his skills as a hunter and tracker. He also told him to trust his instincts and they were telling him that this Jagar wolf should be taken as seriously as possible.
"There is also one other thing you should know," Frisk said, getting Zuma's attention. "He's got an army of followers. All wolves and dogs. They're all loyal to him and look to him as some kind of great leader. Out of all the assassins, he's the only one with an army behind him."
"So I'll have to watch out for him and his legion," Zuma muttered with frustration.
"Six assassins after your head and the heads of your friends. What are you going to do?" Frisk asked.
Zuma looked at his friend and growled. "I'm going to let them come to me and deal with them one by one. If they even think about touching my friends I'm going to make sure that they regret it. I'll burn this entire city to get to them if I have to."
"We won't let this stop us from bringing Stone to justice or helping Zuma," Ryder said to his pups who all nodded in agreement. "They might be six deadly assassins, but we're a great team and we'll bring the fight to them if they want it."
"So let them come," Zuma/Ryder said with determination.