They say that you should keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. That's a load of bullshit. In the end, that friend will come through for you, and that alone deserves all the closeness you can give. It rings even truer in this world gone mad. Politicians are corrupt, scamming the taxpayers to line their own pockets, taking bribes from companies to look away from particular practices, and divulging nothing but lies in order to keep the public opinion.

This is the starting point for our tale. This is the world with which we begin. Add in a couple more parts of corporations trying to extract as much money from the consumer as possible, a leader that steps forward promising to make everything better, even though it's an impossible task, and a war with a third world country for the rest of it's resources. All that's left is a little guy with no more money to give, people who stand up for what they believe in being labeled as a terrorist, and a leader that was killed for reasons he had honestly tried to fix. This is where the characters come to play. Our character isn't the little guy with nothing left, the murdered leader, or a terrorist. He's a panda.

To be more precise, he was actually an experiment forged by one of these corporations trying their hand at genetic manipulation. There's a new way to take the consumers money: Offer a fountain of youth, and freedom to be what you want to be. Splice your genes with that of animals, and charge a small fortune to do it. Little old ladies that don't want to die will pay us anything for that, won't they?

They didn't.

But, when the consumer won't or cannot buy, there is always one last customer: The Government.

Our main character was an attempt to steer public opinion away from the actuality of the situation. Pandas are cute, and cuddly. Nothing dangerous about a panda. However, when you learn about the more fierce animals that were being bred as well, you start to get a bit apprehensive. The company had a total of five prototypes. The panda, of course was but one and the other four will be introduced in good time. But the fact of the matter still remains: All the positive publicity in the world did not matter at all.

As was said, this was about the time that the leader was killed, by someone history is probably going to call a terrorist. Civil unrest erupted. The government collapsed, and our protagonists no longer had a buyer. Research and development stopped. The company offices were raided, and the breeding facilities were found, and gutted.

Except for the experiments. They had grown to be toddlers by that point, and as luck would have it, were discovered by some more than caring denizens, who refused to see any form of life have to suffer. They had no choice in being created, and it wasn't fair that they have to die when they very well could have some form of a future. Maybe they could solve the problems in the world someday. Maybe they could create a new world. Maybe they could finally bring peace to a world that so desperately needed it. However optimistic that outlook might have been, and as necessary to the story to carry it along, there is always at least one bad seed in every bunch.

And, so steps in the new antagonist: an experiment based on the genetic code of Leopards. While he was technically can be considered a brother to our panda-lad, this fellow was completely different. He was ruthless with everything and everyone. He did not take no for an answer, and was willing to step on anyone to get what he wants. Our story takes a turn for the worst.

The group of five experimentations were taken in by an elderly lady whom was kind and gentle hearted. She cared for all of them greatly, and raised them as best she could, but one old woman can only do so much. While the panda, a wolf, and a tiger stayed by and ended up taking care of her in return when her health began to fade, the leopard and the reptile fled, and while all the characters will come to be of great importance, our focus now is on the panda, and the leopard.

It was at that point on the time-line that the last of the major corporations formed together, in a final effort to survive, thus forming The Conglomerate. This large entity had money and it had manpower. It managed to throw together a hired army, and attempted to restore some form of order amongst the chaos. However, despite the sheer numbers of people who signed up to do anything in guarantee of a paycheck, leadership was hard to come by. Anyone who was worth their weight in gasoline knew that it was a mistake to allow this entity to continue their activities, lest the lessons of the past be not learned. There were those who resisted, both in the streets and in the mind. They were stopped immediately, if not by reason, then by force.

This manner, this power called our Leopard into it's ranks. He left, and joined up, quickly advancing into a leadership position, showing to those above him that he could indeed do a job, and do it well. Many a man met his death at his hand, his reptilian brother typically watching only paces away, as he was too afraid to even leave.

Of course, the Conglomerate knew about the other experiments and decided that they were necessary. It was the Leopard's job to find them, and pull them into the folds, or have them killed on the spot. This only lead to bad things occurring to the other three.

That fateful evening, in the middle of the night, a sizable group from the Conglomerate broke into the elderly woman's house. They did not find the other three, and only finding the woman on her death bed, shot her once in the head, and left. When the three returned, they found evidence of a break in and rushed to her side, only to find her deceased. The tiger was in shock, the wolf was angered, and all the panda could do was cry.

The three decided that it was appropriate to grab what things they could carry and attempt to run, as their home was no longer safe. The panda and the wolf left their tiger brethren in the room alone, in order to gather their things, however, when they returned there was no sign of him. He had vanished.

They searched for him as long as they could, but could not find him anywhere in the house. Upon further inspection, they noticed that a portion of his things were gone, and located a note that only said "This is something that I must do...". They left that night as well, vowing to find their brother at any cost.

The next few months were rough. It's hard for a human/animal hybrid to get a job when the whole of the country is trying to kill you. Eventually, they found an old run down apartment building, the tenants and landlords long since gone. The panda managed to siphon electricity from a burnt out street lamp outside, while the wolf ­tapped into the water main. It wasn't the most becoming of places to set up shop, but it worked and it was the last place that anyone would have thought to look.

Every night they went out looking for their brother, and came back and slept during the day. The searching had taken it's tolls on their health, patience, and hope. Nothing had turned up. The searching had changed. The wolf would stay back, and look through public records, news items, whatever he could find in order to find anything that seemed like it might have to do with the tiger. The panda would go out, looking in the places, in an attempt to get him before he would have the chance to get very far. Regardless of what they tried to do , they were always a step behind.

It was lonely in that apartment, just the two of them. Most of their hope had long since washed away. They were supportive of one another, and tried to feed the feelings of hope, but one can only do so much. They did various things to keep each other company, or to try to escape the loneliness. It only worked for a short time before the despair crept back in. Something had to be done.

On that night, the wolf decided to try running a sweep on the Net one more time. He had found something. A sighting a few blocks away. This had to be it! The panda ran to find him. He came to the location, and somehow, managed to catch a glimpse of his lost brother a few streets down on a corner. He yelled the tiger's name, and it would have seemed the tiger looked back, but a bus soon passed that obscured him from view, and then he was gone. He ran to try to find him again, but by that time, he was no where to be found. As soon as he had been found, he had been lost again.

This is where our tale begins. Our Main Character is walking back to the secret lair, only armed with the news that his long lost brother was in his sight, only to become lost again. A feeling of despair covers him, following him like a dark cloud as he slowly trudged back to deliver the unwelcome news. He knew that the wolf would be very displeased. It was almost as if the tiger did not want to be found. Surely, all hope was lost. Now, we may begin the story proper.