Two actor performances in the style of a scene out of a movie.
Chicago. 1929. The streets run red with the blood from Al Capony's ruthless gangs, controlling everything from bootleg liquor to state senators. And when he needs the top driver and gunner to do his dirty work - there's no way in hell he'd choose these two bozos. But Tony Provolone is a ferret with a mission to be the best getaway driver for the mob, and the tommygun-toting grizzly bear Vinny Mozzarella will do anything to prove he's got what it takes to be the G-man. Even if they both have to fake it the whole way. When they're marked for an 'early retirement', the two have to put their differences aside and find out who set them up, before they nap with the fishes. Or something like that. Whaddya want, I ain't no college boy!
After getting chewed out by a lieutenant in the mafia for bringing stale lasagna to the gang meeting, the two are sent out on a drive by hit, the target unknown until they open an envelope presumably assigned to them. As they argue, they realize they took another duo's assignment by mistake, and the intended targets make the two very nervous.
It's supposed to be one of the easiest jobs imaginable for an introvert like Mohammed Wing. It takes years to fly a ship all the way out to Uranus and back, the only place in the solar system that goes as long without any sunlight for so long. It should be just ten years on a state-of-the-art ship playing videogames, eating good food, and letting the computers do the work. Unless a surprise happens, like an alien lifeform arrives.
Partially contractual obligations but mostly on rabbit android Warren's insistence, Mo is pressed into donning his spacesuit and exploring the recently discovered floating remains of an apparently alien starship. Even though scans indicate the ship is abandoned, the beaver is reluctant to be the first Earthling to set foot on an alien vessel. But even if he'd rather hide behind the planet's shadow and forget this discovery, he finds himself fulfilling his contract and exploring the ship.
In the future, low end jobs have been replaced with either robots, or androids where a more 'personable' interaction is needed. All are mass-produced to ensure no citizen is denied their service. At a 99% success rate, the largest producer of these wonders - Andromorph, LTD - was seated to be the world leader in anthropomorphic androids, with the 1% being swiftly, and some might say brutally, dealt with. But when one of their 'customer service' models - Unit RAE4423 - breaks out of his programming, he is hunted, framed and vilified. It is only when a group of android-rights furs contacts the unit to help them bring the message of equal rights for all humanoids, that he takes the fight to his creators - where the TRUE designs are revealed. Can 'Ray' overcome these odds and give freedom to his fellow androids, or is he doomed to be reprogrammed into a lifetime of servitude again?
RAE4423 (The bio-furs just call him 'Ray') was purchased by the 'Body Boutique' (An implant store for wealthy furs to get communication or other cybernetic enhancements installed) to be the raccoon-face of customer service. When a particularly abusive customer goes too far, Ray's standard programming crashes, only to be replaced with baser instincts of fight and flight.
It is the year 1991, and the villainous, blood-thirsty sadist Tony Caulfield, who pursued our heroes across the globe in the first volume, is only eleven years old, and not a monster. Not yet. Four stories, where psychological horror butts heads with raucous comedy and savage erotica, four stories that unearth the grotesque roots of the mystery that is Maranatha.
Once when Tony was reading his books on the top ledge of the barn, he found Puck, his family's groundskeeper, with a male prostitute. Instead of turning the doberman in, Puck convinced the young cougar to accept a promise of a future favour. Tony's father Troy has become an angry, violent drunk ever since losing his career, and when one night he beats his wife and child for trying to escape into the night, young Tony finally knows what he wants from the the secret-harboring groundskeeper.
Roger Gagnon is a humble Canadian moose happily supporting his wife and two calves with a good job selling oil equipment over the border. But when the United States elects a brash, unstable, immigrant-hating pig as their next President, things rapidly change. Now a simple business trip will turn into a insane, politically-fueled war between the richest nation on Earth and one lone moose just trying to get back to his family.
Gagnon has traveled by train across the American border hundreds of times, and it's all been quite rote. Until today. In his first trip since the new President's anti-immigration orders, the unlucky moose encounters an American pig immigrations officer all too ready to enforce the new laws as he sees fit.
It's supposed to be one of the easiest jobs imaginable for an introvert like Mohammed Wing. It takes years to fly a ship all the way out to Uranus and back, the only place in the solar system that goes as long without any sunlight for so long. It should be just ten years on a state-of-the-art ship playing videogames, eating good food, and letting the computers do the work. Unless a surprise happens, like an alien lifeform arrives.
Partially contractual obligations but mostly on rabbit android Warren's insistence, Mo is pressed into donning his spacesuit and exploring the recently discovered floating remains of an apparently alien starship. Even though scans indicate the ship is abandoned, the beaver is reluctant to be the first Earthling to set foot on an alien vessel. But even if he'd rather hide behind the planet's shadow and forget this discovery, he finds himself fulfilling his contract and exploring the ship.