While Winter is sleeping he hears a faint beeping sound coming from the room where he stored all his work equipment, his eyes open slowly and he sighs looks down at Tails who was completely knocked out and still holding onto him wearing one of Winter's shirts that was a little too big for him.

He rubs Tails' head and kisses him on the forehead, the fox smiles when he feels the kiss on his face his cheeks warming up when he feels the gesture of affection. Winter gets out of bed and tucks Tails back in before he leaves the room. He closes the door gently and goes to open the door with his work laptop, closing the door behind him and locking it, immediately the smell of gunpowder, dried blood and new weapons hits his nose, the lights in the floor turn on as he sits down.

The wolf opens the laptop, the beeping stops, a potential client is trying to contact him, he sits down on the chair and opens the secure communication application on his computer, the floating holographic screen displaying 1 simple message.

> Hello

Winter sighs, annoyed that someone was contacting him at that time if day.

It's 3 AM in the morning this better not be a waste of time <

> I assure you it won't be
> I have someone I want dead, and I believe you are the perfect person to get that job done

Winter rubs his face and starts typing back his response.

I will contact my team and we can discuss this further <

Before Winter can get up to go get his phone again, the computer chimes again, he turns around.

> I'm sorry, you misunderstand. I'm expecting only you to complete this job.

The wolf stands there unable to believe what this person was saying.

"...What?" Winter goes, as he comes back to his computer, he sits down and starts typing again.

That's an unreasonable request, me and my team always complete jobs together <

> For a killer of your calliber, you should be able to do anything and not have to rely on other people to get the job done.

I am capable of getting the job done by myself, but there's risks associated with going in solo, especially with all this new surveillance tech it's a nightmare <

> I've heard things about you, how ruthless, cold, calculating and brutal you are. Forgive me but that sounds like an excuse

Winter throws his hands up in the air, "What the fuck is this guy's deal"

The wolf thinks for a little bit, this guy was awfully persistent, but he was never one to turn down a job, for if he did his father would get suspicious, so he starts typing again.

Since you're so persistent, I will take this job but on one condition <

> ?

1) You're paying me quadruple your offer amount, 2) We meet face to face after the job is done <

There's no response for about a minute, then he sees the three dots in the corner pop up again.

> Very well, that can be arranged

Winter grumbles, resting his head on the desk as he watches a notification about a down payment pop up, e6.8 million in e-currency.

> Hopefully that is a sufficient amount for a down payment. I will speak to you again when the job is complete.

Winters phone vibrates in his pocket and he takes it out to see the file for the target was sent to him. He sighs and closes the lid on the computer laptop.

The wolf stands up and presses a button in the corner of the room, a small chewable gummy pops out, he takes it and pops it in his mouth before pressing another button which revealed his work clothes and weapons.

He gets them on, turns on the cameras in his mask, and selects his weapons for the job, once he's done he leaves his work room and locks it with his fingerprint. The wolf is about to leave but something stops him... Tails, not physically, but the guilt of taking off in the middle of the night and the questions the fox would have had him paralyzed.

He sighs and goes to open the door to his room where Tails was sleeping soundly, he takes his mask off his face and walks over to him, kneeling down so he can watch him sleep, he puts his hand on Tails' face making the fox smile and then plants a kiss on his face.

"I'll be back soon, little guy" Winter whispers.

Tails moans and laughs at the kiss he felt on his face. Winter stands up and sighs, attaching his mask back to his face and quietly leaving the room so he could get on his motorcycle and drive off.

The sound of the motorcycle accelerating wakes up Tails, who squeezes his eyes and opens them, he looks to his side and when he sees Winter isn't there sleeping next to him his chest tightens.

"W-Winter?" Tails says, looking around frantically.

He gets a ping on his phone: a text from Winter, he snatched his phone as fast as you could blink...

> Good morning doofus, sorry for leaving you in the middle of the night. I got a call for a family emergency and it's pretty urgent, I'll talk to you when I get back. Since you're probably seeing this at like 7 AM, I left you breakfast in the fridge.
> See you soon silly ❤️

Tails feels somewhat relieved, knowing Winter was okay... But at the same time...

"What kind of family emergency would he need to wake up at 3:17 in the morning for?" Tails asks himself out loud.

He gets up and opens the door to the room, the hallway illuminated by dim LED light on the ceiling he goes down the stairs, he opens the fridge to see Winter did indeed leave him something to eat.

The fox can pick up the faint scent of gasoline but can't figure out where it's coming from. The fox looks around the house until eventually passes a spot in the wall with some light sneaking through, he stops and goes back to where he noticed it come from, he peeks his eyes in and sees a staircase going down, white walls and LED lights going down along withe the staircase.

His heart starts to race, he thought he'd seen the whole house... But apparently he hadn't, it's made Tails wonder what else Winter was hiding from him. The fox starts looking for a way to get into the hallway, he  feels the walls, looks at books on shelves, lifts furniture, eventually he remembers something... In all the time he had spent at Winter's house, there would always be this blue clay jar Winter said had white chocolate chips, but Tails didn't remember seeing what was inside it.

He flies up to the cabinet, opens it, takes out the jar and opens it. Low and behold, there was a sleep grey remote with a button on it, he presses the button and when he does he hears mechanical whirring, he gasps and runs out to the spot in the wall it was open... He could go down the staircase, which he did, walking slowly in case there were any traps.

When the fox gets downstairs he sees several materials and a robot used to maintain a motorcycle. He walks around examining everything, Tails knows vehicle parts, and he can tell just by looking around the room that whatever Winter was riding was made for performance, speed and agility.

"Huh I didn't know he liked bikes-"

Tails then notices a black cabinet behind the robot, the fox walks to it and opens it and what he sees makes his eyes go wide, his body shake and his heart shatter... Explosives, grappling hooks, long range bullets, it was something out of an action movie.

"What" His voice breaking, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Questions, his head was full of questions, but not just those.
Denial... This couldn't be Winter's... It just couldn't... Winter was gentle, he was warm, he wouldn't hurt anyone, he was perfect!

He tells himself that... Repeatedly... But it doesn't stick, it can't stick, he can't pretend like he didn't just see all of this dangerous and illegal stuff in this cabinet. He's hurting on the inside, the voices in his head getting louder and louder, he can't take it, it's too much.

He slams the cabinet shut and runs back up the steps teary eyed, collapsing onto the floor when he gets back to the living room.

Why... Why did he lie to me? Was this too good to be true? Was he leading me on? Was he playing with my heart too?!... Is he going to kill me?!

The fox bangs a fist on the wood floor and shouts loudly, his body shaking with frustration, betrayal and anger. He wanted answers and he wanted them now.

He starts looking around the house for anything else Winter was hiding, he didn't find anything else... But he wondered what Winter was keeping in the room with the biometric lock, the fox manages to get the door open with some hot wiring and barges inside... Weapons, lots of them, various kinds, small ones, big ones, guns, knives, blasters, modifications, detonators, tactical gear, throwing knives, and a space of Winter to recharge the tech within his mask.

Tails knows he recognises the shape of the mask, but it takes him a second to realise who Winter truly was... That assassin, the one in white who saved him twice, the one who stopped him from meeting his end... He struggles to believe it but eventually accepts this newfound revelation.

Then Tails notices Winter's laptop, even though his heart was completely shattered, he opens the laptop and when he sees the chatting application, the pieces break into smaller ones.

"That... Jerk" Tails says to himself.

He squeezes his fists and growls frustratedly, he wants to know where Winter is, demand answers, make him confess, make it known how badly he's broken his heart...

And that's exactly what the frustrated fox planned on doing... He bangs his fist on the desk, a serious fiery look on his face, he was going to get to the bottom of why he didn't tell him, why he didn't reveal this secret...

---

Winter finds himself scaling the blind spots of a glassy skyscraper, using his Tails inspired ability to fly with his big tail made the task somewhat easier than if he did it with just his hands and legs. Eventually the wolf makes it to where he needs to be... Just below the floor where his target is.

He peaks over and sees a a brown rabbit drinking white wine sitting at an office desk, she appeared to be typing something, her fancy outfit was all black and her mascara was a light shade of purple. Walking around the floor were heavily armed security, all of them had laser rifles and Winter could tell they were experienced.

Do this by yourself! I've seen you work by yourself! You can do it!... Fucking prick, when I meat you I oughta toss you into a meat grinder...

Winter looks around for a way in, he finds nothing, so he resorts to using the floor below, he can feel his tail getting fatigued so he hurries and places a laser cutter on the window, within 3 seconds it slices open the glass and he flies in, his landing a little shaky but it doesn't bother him.

He looks around him, he's in a closed office space, the lights are out, the computer screens turned off. He looks around for any cameras, and when he sees one he ducks behind a desk just as it starts to rotate back to the spot where he was.

He throws a black pellet at the lens in order to stop whoever was manning them from seeing the big hole in the window, a black liquid comes out and covers the lens completely. When that problem is solved the wolf moves to the door, and opens it slowly using a drone to check if there was anyone outside, any more cameras to black out. And sure enough, there are a few more, he pushes a button on his phone and the drone fires the same pellets at them, their lenses covered in the dark coloured ooze.

The wolf slips by all the cameras, the rest of which he doesn't even need to turn off, he just slips though the blind spots, eventually he gets to the floor above. He's about to open the door until he sees an access terminal in a wall. He rips the top panel off and takes his phone from his utility belt.

He opens something on his phone and connects it to the access terminal, he watches as code spews out onto the screen until it eventually lets him into the buildings systems, the first thing he does is turn off all the CCTV cameras.

Downstairs the security officer in the lobby stands up from out of his chair when he sees all the cameras go to static, he pics up his radio and tries to alert the other security personnel, but thats what Winter took car of next... Their communications...

"Hey, all the cameras went dark! What's going on?!" He shouts into his radio.

He doesn't get a response, so he goes to try and call the lift, but Winter disables those as well, the screen showing the floors going dark just as the guard was about to call one. He starts freaking out, he tries to run to the door for the steps, but Winter locks the doors leading to them.

"Oh shit, shit, shit, shit!" He shouts.

He immediately runs to the phone and dials the police, Winter watches on the only security camera operable in the entire building as the guard frantically calls the authorities. To him there was no point in stopping him, the police wouldn't be able to get there in time, anyway and he'd make sure of that.

The wolf puts his phone away and slowly peaks out of the stairwell entrance, pulling his white pistol and a retractable sword out from his utility belt. He goes out into the hallway, his mask's x-ray vision showing him the guards patrol patterns.

It was inevitable he'd have to kill some of them, especially since a lot of them seemed more alert than others. One comes from behind an intersection in the hallway. Chatting away with another one.

"...My daughter just started primary school, she's the favourite among her teachers, god if only you knew how proud I am of her"

"You never stop blabbering about her, of course I know"

"I'm sorry but she's adorable! Once you meet her you'll understand!"

"Whatever dude let's just get this shift done and go home-"

Then he feels cold steel against the back of his neck, the other guard turns around and sees the masked white killer staring him down.

"You give a shit about your daughter right?" The wolf asks.

The guard nods nervously, his hands up in the air.

"Throw your weapons and radio down, leave the building and go home. Do not call for help, do not shout, do not make a fuss"

The other guard shakes his head, "Randolph... This guy is a nutcase! Don't listen to hi-"

Put!

In the blink of an eye, the other guards brains are out of his skull, blood spattering onto the wall and floor as his body collapses to the ground, the shell casing lands and rolls in front of him. The other one, in a sweaty panick, detaches his weapons and radio from his person and starts backing away from Winter.

"If I were you I'd reconsider your career choice... For your families sake that is' Winter says as he turns and runs off.

"Right" The guard goes as he watches him take off.

At this point the other guards are trying to do communications checks, only their communications are jammed... Winter uses this oppertunity to systemically kill them.

The first pair are cut up withe retractable sword, the blade cutting their weapons clean too, half of a rifle collapsing onto the floor as one of the armed men meets the cold hard floor.

The second pair prove to be more of a challenge, Winter doesn't have a hard tim eliminating the first guard, shooting him twice in the head, however the second one puts up more of a fight... Its a tall muscly tiger and he means business, taking a swing at the wolf. Winter drops to the ground and tries cutting him with his sword but it doesn't weaken him, it seemed to even make him angrier, he bats the wolf into the wall with his giant hands.

Winter shakes his head before ducking a blow to his head, he fires two pistols at him this time, no effect, he slides out of the way just narrowly having his mask punches off. The wolf decides to switch to high powered laser pistols, firing several bolts at the tigers body until he was too injured to stand, eventually he collapses backwards slumped over on a printer choking on blood.

The third team all fire at Winter, but a hex shield keeps the bullets and laser bolts from hitting him... The wolf smirks under his mask, activates the retractable sword and jumps in the air swinging the weapon around swiftly and skillfully, each strike on their soft fleshy body's just made more and more blood come out.

The sounds of gunfire draw the attention of the guards watching the rabbit in that room Winter was making his way to. Two of them get up and starts searching for help her escape safely, the other two get up and go to see what all the commotion is.

Before they can even set foot outside the room, they're shot in the head, falling backwards. The last two pull their guns out and fire at him, but the energy shield stops the bullets from hitting Winter. In a flash Winter runs at them, jump and shoots them both in the head while twirling threw the air, landing on the desk in front of the rabbit who jumps back as Winter aims the gun at her head.

"Hard drive... Now..." The wolf commands.

"If you want the hard drive your going to have to go threw me!" The rabbit shouts, standing up from the desk.

"Ho?... I don't have a problem killing you. My client just wants the hard drive, he didn't specify your condition when I was hired for this" Winter responds.

She lets out a shout and throws a punch at the wolf, Winter dodges it just as her fist is about to make contact with her face, and it was a good thing he did dodge her attack because the impact her fist makes when it slams into the desk with the computer on it snaps it in half and breaks the computer sitting on top of it.

Glass, plastic and wires litter the ground as she stands there, a stone cold face displayed as she gets ready for Winter's next attack.

"Oh... You're a cyborg! Now that's not something you see every day!" Winter says, laughing to himself as he holsters his gun and turns on two devices attached to the cuffs of his gloves, "Unfortunately, just because your half robot that doesn't mean you have the advantage here. Allow me to demonstrate this fact by killing you in under a minute"

A count down initiates the the peripherals of Winters vision, he runs at the rabbit and starts swinging, she dodges as fast as she can but Winter's putting everything into his attacks, adjusting to cover up weak spots in his technique. She can't find an opening, no way out, no way in. She tries to force on in by throwing her steel fist into Winter's face but that's exactly what Winter wants her to do.

He grabs her arm, yanksit upwards and uses his other as a sword cutting her arm off. A loud shriek echos throughout the hall as she collapses to her knees and screams, the pain and shock overwhelming her so much she can't fight on anymore, she grips her shaking wrist tightly.

"Monster! You'll regret this! I promise you will! Burn in hell! Psycho! Rat!"

"I've been called worse" Winter responds.

He lifts his arm up and swings his hand clean threw her neck, her headless body slumps over and the wolf can hear the mechanical machinery shutting down as the timer in his mask stops.

41 seconds... An improvement I suppose...

Then he looks at his glowing gloves for a moment, and chuckles to himself, "So that's why Spring called these Edward Scissor Hands..."

Winter nods to himself, and then he starts looking around for the hard drive, be digs around in the computer and finds the hard drive, it's slightly damaged but still functional. He scans it with his phone and finds some documents, but he noticed there were only 17 of them, the client said their were 77 pages worth of information he wanted.

Where are the other 60?

He looks around the room and then he realises... They weren't in the PC, they were in the cyborg rabbit girl he just killed. He sighs and takes a connection wire from his belt and puts it into her head, a face of shock still present as the information is downloaded onto his phone.

The wolf can see it's going to take a while so he sighs and stands up looking out the windows down below. He could see the police were on the scene, it would take them a really long time to get up to the floor he was on though, he knew that for sure.

"Thank gaia for skyscrapers..." The wolf says to himself. The wolf sits down in front of the glass admiring the view of the city below, he takes another phone from out of his pocket and starts typing to the client.

Job is done, text me the time and place you'd like to meet <

> Splendid! I shall see you soon then, until then I bid adieu

The wolf sighs and turns off his phone, his eyes focusing on the moon now, a big black dot in the centre of it gets his attention.

Are holes on the moon that big?

Then he realises it's getting larger and larger, the wolf flinches slightly wondering why the hole was growing so big, then it dawned on him, it wasn't a hole... It was a projectile and it was heading straight towards him. He doesn't have time to move out of the way as it breaks through the glass and throws him backwards threw the wall and into the hallway.

All sorts of warnings go off on his masks display as he stands back up, his ear ringing, heart pounding, blood boiling, the cameras recalibrate and the wolf, gets back up to his feet and snarls. The wolf takes a fighting stance and gets ready to move back into the room. When he gets back in his sees a familiar silhouette in threw the smoke, standing there with pent up rage... Tails, and he's far from happy.

"Fox? What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" Winter shouts, completely caught off guard by the fact Tails showed up out of the blue, and attacked him nonetheless.

"Take off that mask" Tails growls, pointing at him.

"What?" Winter goes, surprised at how angry he was.

"I said... Take off that fucking mask you lying snake!" Tails shouts, he jumps at Winter again, getting ready to spin dash into him.

The wolf can see he's mad at him, but why was he so upset? What could this killer, the completely separate identity have done to him to make him so heated?

Winter doesn't know it yet, but he's going to have a very long night...