Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Secrets abound

Whispers they reign

Light conquers all

Yet shadows remain

Impossible is real

Learn history’s lore

For Heaven and Hell live

Behind still closed doors

The rhythmic tapping of sharpened claws against the vintage polished rosewood echoed incessantly around the vaulted ceiling of the cavernous, darkened room; it was both a benefit, and a disadvantage, of the place acting like an amphitheater.

T-t-tap, t-t-tap, it repeated monotonously, slowly driving two of the three figures in the space to conniptions. The third was all too aware of the effect he was having on the others, but it wasn’t like he cared either; they answered to him after all, and after their last blunder he wasn’t feeling particularly merciful to boot. Nothing would come to blows for now however; they were all needed to keep everything smoothly after all, and the loss of one, no matter their slightly lower rank, meant broken alliances between all factions kept neutral by the other two. Plus, they had surprised him before, and he did not intend to be surprised by a foolish act of his own again.

“You are fully aware of the ramifications of having to resort to the fallback, aren’t you?” he toned finally, halting the tapping of his claws as he fixed his gaze on the taller of his two companions, the one who had suggested the alternative. “This means ten-fold more of a chance that the public eye may pick up on the goings on, and AOMISDOPS will stretch their reach that much further into our way to try and ensure that we do not succeed in securing our necessary details. Yes, this can still be a victory, but the ball will be far closer to their court. If they contact either a gifted or an influencer”-

“The chances of that occurring are slim to none, so what would be their advantage and our obstacle is almost certain to be in our favor,” the shortest of the three interjected, turning the first speaker’s attention to him as he waved a nonchalant hoof. “Most of the gifted are gone if not all, courtesy of the last generation’s deeds, and most mammals aren’t even aware of our existence, or the effects that influencers have.” A short huff of impatience escaped his mouth before he continued.

“We have precautions in place as well if the rare chance otherwise occurs, so you can settle your mind on that, and even if we only end up with the lesser ingredient it should be more than enough in quantity; the secondary objective will still work.”

The figure at the rosewood desk leaned forward slightly, leveling a grimace that bared dozens of needle-like teeth and revealed the slit-pupiled, almost luminous yellow eyes previously hidden by the deep shadows of the atmosphere. “Your words are disconcertingly confident for the deer under whose watch that snoop of an agent managed to make off with not only our previous catalyst but one of the physical Scripts of the Prophets,” he growled disapprovingly. “The essence of an inducer of feralism also only closes the rifts temporarily, and we all know this from experience. Or, do you forget five years ago already? We need the minds of a catalyst pair to shut it permanently and prevent others from opening!”

“I’m not a deer and you know it!” the other snapped back forcefully. “Despite outward appearances! So long as the organization is kept at a loss to further rifts, ruins, or our allies –who might I add use some of those bridges as well- and our allies are kept active in this world, then closing them won’t be difficult, and our antagonizers have only scraps to present; no one would listen to them. And you are not one to point fingers; it was your association that let AOMISDOPS locate the first ruins that brought them to awareness of all this!”

Scaled digits gripped the rosewood desk firmly enough to leave divots in the surface as the figure stood up, tail lashing as he moved to round the furniture toward the Moschus who irked him so. “You know there is only so much that can be blown up without hailing a war, you foolish-!”

At the threat of violence the third figure finally moved to intervene between the other two about to come to fists (or hooves, as the case may be). He rose warningly from his own seat to stand with a firm stance between the two and raised both paws to the others, pads facing their way. It was not a peace-making gesture either; neither of the angered two missed the sudden spark that crossed the third’s fur, almost like a faint fluorescence upon each strand of hair, and his eyes flashed the same.

“Stand down, both of you,” he snapped forcefully. “Leaders of our initiatives perhaps, and you may be head overall of this endeavor Ravelis, but you forget there is a reason we are all three here, and those who come upon power were never restricted to solely among the gifted.” His own golden brown eyes narrowed pointedly toward his scaled companion, and Ravelis let out a sigh before stepping back. Satisfied, the other turned to the Moschus.

“Arguing gets us nowhere, especially at so crucial a point,” he continued. “The agent made off with what he did and that cannot be changed; the best we can do there is hope that one of our eyes will manage to track the places he may have taken them. The catalyst is no doubt destroyed by now but they would not dare even damage the Scripts. Until then, the fallback is our best aim, and while you two have been fretting over how to correct that mess I may have already found our solution.”

“Then by all means, do enlighten us,” Ravelis drawled back, returning to his seat before gesturing with open arms. “Do you have a source for the lesser essence in quantity enough for us to work with? Or some other option we are not aware of? Time grows exceedingly short for the prime opportunity as I am sure you are aware.”

The third figure chuckled softly, before walking with slow purpose over to a grand map that hung upon one of the curving walls of the room. He flicked a low lamp on, providing just enough light to visibly illuminate the canvas as well as his long, wolf-like muzzle and striped hide, before another smaller flicker of light revealed a reddened pin that Ravelis knew had not been in his grip just a moment before.

“Oh, both actually,” he replied. “Should it come to the less desirable out, there is plenty of holicithic extract in stores near this city, but I think the other option is far, far more intriguing; Avery brought to me news of these two only days ago.”

In his other hand, a pair of distant photographs appeared, and he stabbed the pin through both of them, sticking the images against the outline of a large city that sat on a peninsula at the mouth of a wide bay. “This is almost certainly a new catalyst pair, in their primes and only just coming into the attention of the public,” he explained, waving his paw over the photos. “If we strike now, we can not only close the rifts for decades if not permanently, long enough for AOMISDOPS to lose their leads, but knowledge would never spread of what was uncovered or its significance. And, this pair would fade from memory shortly enough after their abduction that we would draw little attention to ourselves and our allies would have opportunity to gain a foothold again. The proper, original order of this earth could be reestablished within months.”

It sounded almost too good to be true, but Ravelis would trust Avery with every bit of information brought to him by her; she had yet to fail in even one of her missions. He eyed the photographs his ally had pinned up; so very the opposite of each other, but if they were close enough, well, it would be better than any catalyst they had ever had record of before.

Soon enough, he nodded. “Then we know our heading,” he announced. “Prepare to set up station near Zootopia, and make this capture happen as swiftly and silently as possible. It would be far better on all fronts if we keep ahead of the agents this time, rather than fighting them every step. You each know procedure; let’s get to work.”

Chapter Text

Turn by turn we spin around

Life a patterned dance

Expected and all that is not

‘Round the corner glance

Some days pass with little care

Others leave their mark behind

Fatigue and fun both often had

Upon the daily grind

“He moved all of two corners down the block and set up shop again; come on, he could at least put in a little bit of effort.”

“Well, it makes our job easier so I won’t complain, and he has provided us so many helpful hints in the past. You want to call him out this time?”

“Yeah, sure, why not?”

Tires turned a narrow corner and ground to a halt, before two pairs of paws hit the pavement and backtracked. Or, more accurately one pair backtracked; the other ducked around the next block up, anticipating the coming scene. It was an act that had played out an almost laughable number of times by now, each with the same eventual result. The backtracking feet sped up slightly as they rounded the corner again, before the call to arms went up.

“ZPD! Drop the merchandise and put your hands up!”

Hands did go up in a manner of speaking as the weasel the order was aimed at let out a startled yelp, but upon seeing who’d called him out, the lithe mustelid instead gathered up the small collection of faux-Roarexes he’d been trying to proffer to unsuspecting mammals and bolted down the alley behind him, his pursuer giving chase.

“Ya gotta catch me ta prove I did anything first!” the weasel called back over his shoulder, barely glancing back at the little officer on his tail as he skittered around trash cans and discarded old pizza boxes, before ducking around the next corner into a squeeze-way between the two buildings on that side of the alley. As he did so, he snagged the crate leaning precariously up against the wall with his right paw and sent it tumbling down, resulting in a loud crash and a startled yell from behind him. Thinking he was now going to get off scot free, the mammal cackled gleefully, dashing out of the squeeze space and across the sidewalk toward the next street.

A russet red foot stuck out into his escape path just as he appeared from between the buildings however, and unable to correct his trajectory the weasel collided with it full force, sending him tumbling with a yell end over end onto the concrete, fake watches flying in all directions from the final impact. A moment later, dazed and groaning on the pavement, he felt something hoist him up bodily, pull his arms behind his back and lock them in something cold and metal. A disappointed tutting sound followed shortly thereafter.

“My, my, what a harrowing pursuit! What was that, all of six seconds?” Nick chuckled, turning the beanpole-thin mammal in his grip to face him. “It’s got to be a new record time! What say you, Fluff? Think we beat last month’s best?”

A snort emanated from the squeeze space, followed shortly by the uniform-clad rabbit that produced it.

“Not sure; last month I didn’t get a crate corner to the gut while chasing him,” she griped, looking up at the fox before glaring at the weasel he held off the ground. Then a smirk formed. “These cleanups are getting easier though, with all the practice we’ve had.”

Turning her gaze fully to the weasel, Judy chuckled. “I mean, since I joined it’s been, what, sixteen times we’ve caught you red-handed?”

The weasel scowled, before muttering under his breath a disgruntled, “Eighteen.”

“Huh? What was that Wesselton?” Judy queried faux-innocently, lifting up one large ear and earning an even deeper scowl.

“Weaselton. Wee-Zel-Ton! Get it right already Flopsy!” their captive snapped.

“Eh, maybe she’ll catch on after you stop trying to offload crap merchandise on the poor public around here,” Nick chirped, reaching down and picking up one of the fallen watches now scattered on the sidewalk. “What’ve we got here this time anyway? Aluminum painted silver…oh, look at that: plastic faces! What a priceless artifact!” He turned and held it out to Judy, who was fighting to suppress a giggle and remain the more serious of the two. “Just look at it, Carrots! Must be worth a whole dollar and a half!”

Duke groaned from his hanging position. “Ugh, alright, alright, just book me already!” he pleaded. “Just quit with the jokes would you! How she stands you I can’t figure.”

Nick looked pensively at the weasel for a moment, before glancing back at the watch and then up to Judy. “Well, perhaps we can just let you off with a ticket this time if you can exchange us with the rest of these gems and, say, anything you’ve heard from the under-paw recently?” he posed innocently.

Judy shot her partner a look; she had always been a very by-the-book type (blackmailing a hustler once upon a time notwithstanding) and that hadn’t changed since she’d been paired with the fox, so this exchange Nick sometimes had with their small-time pick-ups still rubbed her a bit the wrong way, but she had to relent. Even Bogo had somehow been convinced by the fox to agree that if they managed to stop larger crimes thanks to a tip-off from a bootlegger, it was worth the small price paid (especially since this particular bootlegger usually ended up getting caught again shortly thereafter).

However, this time around Duke only deflated further and shrugged best he could with paws behind his back. “I got nuthin’,” he grumbled, “so just get it over with so I don’t have to hear yer mouth anymore.”

“Gee, the way he talks someone might think you’re annoying there, Slick,” Judy chuckled, which only deepened the smirk on Nick’s muzzle as they turned to head for the cruiser.

Reaching the car, Judy popped open the driver’s door and grabbed the radio transceiver on the dash as Nick tossed their delinquent offhandedly into the back, turning it on.

“Vehicle 22 to Dispatch, reporting in a 10-26; we’ll be heading back shortly to drop him off,” she called in.

A familiar cheery voice replied shortly thereafter, “Copy that Hopps; is it who I think it is again?”

“Yup.”

A stifled laugh-turned-snort echoed over the radio, before the voice continued, “No hints this time I take it then; what’s the tally now, 16?”

“Wesselton said it was 18, actually.”

“Weaselton!” the irate interruption snapped from the back, prompting more chuckles.

“Anyway,” Judy continued, “we’ll be there in, say, 20 minutes depending on traffic; Central’s always bad this time of day.”

“10-4. I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”

As the radio clicked off Nick was in the process of settling into his seat and buckling in, and he glanced over at Judy as he did so with a relaxed grin. “Hey, maybe people will recognize the cruiser for once instead of cutting us off like we’re not there,” he suggested. “Or maybe you’ll back off on the road rage a bit.”

“Ha ha, yeah right; the day all mammality learns how to drive correctly will be the day my dad gives up the farm for a job with computers in the city life.”

“Oohh, where’d all the optimism go?”

“Maybe this cynical fox I know rubbed off on me.”

“Ah. Explains the orange fur on your cheek; just wanted me a little closer all the time eh?”

“What?!” Judy exclaimed, flipping down her visor to check. Lo and behold, there turned out to be no wayward strands of fox fur, and she turned to glare at her partner as she started the cruiser up. “You are insufferable,” she groused, tilting her ears so that the blush that had formed at her being caught so easily again wasn’t visible to the reynard.

Nick, however, couldn’t be fooled, and only settled in his seat as they pulled out onto the road through inner Sahara Square again. “Yeah, but you know you love me,” he teased.

“Do I know that?” Judy pondered mockingly. “Yes, but only most of the time.”

In the year and a half or so since she had first stepped through those glass front doors, Judy had seen the grand spectacle of the Precinct One atrium remain unchanged through the turmoil the city threw at it, pristine and imposing to reflect its hand in justice.

Or, nearly unchanged; she was drawn to chuckle again when she spotted the grumpy Cape buffalo sticker high on the walls of the atrium beyond easy reach. No one had yet figured out how Wilde had managed to get it there, or how Bogo had failed to notice it (either that or how he didn’t care), but it had appeared only a very short while after the fox had started on the force. It had now become a favored source of amusement for just about every officer in the building, including the janitorial staff (both major reasons it had remained so long; the janitors were fine leaving it put to guard the atrium, and every officer found the fake far preferable to the glare of one particular buffalo in person).

The duo sauntered up to the reception desk, cuffed weasel in tow, and were immediately greeted over the top of the ever-present box of donuts by the tubby cheetah behind the counter. “Hopps! Wilde! Congrats on your catch!” he laughed. “How long did it take this time?”

“Oh, couldn’t have been more than six seconds or so; we’re cutting down quick,” Wilde replied in couple with a lazy salute. “You know Ben, I’ll bet by the summer’s end all it’ll take is to just drive up with the cruiser door open and he’ll jump right in!” He looked over his shoulder at Weaselton. “Unless by some miracle the Duke of Bootleg receives a godsend above changing his wayward ways.”

“Alright, enough with the theatrics,” Judy huffed, not bothering to hide her grin. “Swinton ready to take him, Ben?”

Clawhauser nodded and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Yeah, usual cell’s all unlocked and ready to go. Hey, maybe we should just put his name on it by this point; think the Chief would agree?”

“Casa de Weaselton, I like it,” Nick mused, before shuffling Duke off toward the holding cells. “You do practically live there now, don’t you Duke? Doubt Buffalo Butt will agree though.”

“Well, you can ask when you go up to see him,” Clawhauser suggested only half-seriously. “He told me to let you guys know you should head up to his office when you’re done with Weaselton. Didn’t say what for though.” The big cat gave them a sympathetic look, and Judy felt a chill run down her spine as she scooted off to catch up with Nick; impromptu office calls were rarely a good thing.

As they headed for the holding cells, the rabbit looked up at the fox; to go off his expression, absolutely nothing was out of order, and that made her suspicious.

“I take it you know something about why Bogo wants to see us?” she asked almost nonchalantly, trying not to directly accuse the fox in tone, but she knew he’d see through it anyway.

But, Nick only shook his head. “Unless he finally spotted his doppelganger in the atrium I haven’t a clue this time around,” he admitted. “And no, I’m not sorry for putting it up, and no one else here is either. But, we’ll find out shortly. Hey, Swinton! Got your favorite delinquent here again for a visit!”

With a sweep of his paw Nick moved out of the way and presented Weaselton, and the pig he spoke to snorted. “One day he will straighten out,” she replied confidently, “and I yearn for the time when I no longer smell old cigarettes coming from mustelid fur.” Taking Weaselton by his cuffs, she rolled her eyes at Nick’s offhanded salute and marched down the hall to take care of business, leaving the duo with nothing but the dreaded walk up a floor to Bogo’s office.

Judy had long since gained the full approval (and occasional, shocking compliment) of her superior, and even Nick had somehow gained the Chief’s grudging respect (though love-hate was too simple a description for their relationship), but standing in front of that frosted glass door still never failed to send dread down the spines of even the most senior officers in the precinct. It wasn’t even necessarily that he was always harsh about things, but the buffalo carried a special air about him that few could ignore.

Taking a last deep breath and steeling themselves, the pair shared a glance before Judy reached up and gave three slow, delicate knocks to the door.

“Enter.”

The monotone response gave away nothing for what to expect, so Nick cautiously reached up and pulled down the handle to swing the door open. They wasted no time in scurrying over to one of the chairs on their side of the large wood desk in the room, Nick climbing up and Judy jumping next to him on automatic so that they couldn’t slow long enough to fail to nerves. Then, they forced themselves to meet the eyes of the Cape buffalo staring them down from his own seat on the opposite side, their backs rigid as planks as he steepled his hooves in silent scrutiny of the two.

Several moments passed in silence as Bogo said nothing, tension building, before Nick finally caved under the stare and asked, “Uh, sir, if this is about the rumors going around right now, I swear the vinegar in the coffee pot two days ago was not me”-

“I already know who that was Wilde,” Bogo interrupted, leaning back, “and I had Wolfard drink it for ruining perfectly good caffeine, though I am still of the opinion he’s been influenced by your smarmy demeanor. Not to mention if it were just you I was after I wouldn’t have asked your partner to show up as well; that’s not why I called you two up here.”

“A-are we in trouble sir?” Judy asked cautiously, and the buffalo shook his head before giving a smirk of his own that was almost worse than his glare.

“No,” he replied. “I just wanted to see how long it would take for Wilde to crack this time.”

At the combination of smug expression Bogo wore and Nick’s flat-eared scowl, Judy fought back a groan; she was convinced now that her partner’s personality was beginning to affect even their boss. Another year and the entire precinct would be full of sarcastic Nick copies at this rate!

“Come now, Wilde, you think you’re the first comedian I’ve had under my watch all these years?” Bogo toned in mild amusement. “I have my methods as well, and two can play at any game; you’ll be wise to remember that. But, the reason I asked for you two is a more important matter at present.” Reaching down and pulling out a file from one of his desk drawers, Bogo set it on the desk in front of his two officers. “Since you brought Weaselton in this time I take it he has no tips to share with us this round, so I’m sorry to say we’ve hit a dead end at the moment on this case.”

Nick leaned forward slowly and picked up the file, opening it to both him and Judy. “The Bagheerson case,” he muttered. “I would have thought a simple neighborhood nip sale would have been shut down within days of that last info handout.” Looking back up to Bogo, he queried, “What happened?”

“Trunkaby and Snarlov went searching at the location of the last sighting of Bagheerson and barely caught sight of his tail before he vanished into Happytown,” Bogo explained, “and he’s apparently gone underground since; there hasn’t been report of hide nor tail of him since, so we’ve got nothing to follow up with and that makes me think it was more than just a side arm of a nip ring he’s running. But, with the connections you two have around the city and the paths I send you out on patrol through, I think you might have the best chance of happening upon a lead and I want you to keep your eyes and ears open. If you hear anything, report it immediately and we might still catch him and root out whatever else is involved here.”

“Yes sir,” the duo responded unanimously, Nick handing back the file at the same time. Bogo took it and replaced it in its drawer, before steepling his hooves once more.

“Now, the day’s nearly over so there is not much point in sending you back out on patrol,” he said, “so after you file the forms for arresting Weaselton you can consider your shifts over. I expect you two in on time tomorrow as always however, and Wilde?”

Nick tilted his head to indicate he was listening closely.

“There is a special file awaiting you on your desk; see to it that it’s not missed.”

“Yes sir,” the fox replied, giving a more formal salute than he had his comrades downstairs.

Bogo snorted, and then pointed to the door. “Alright, now out of my office.”

The two smaller mammals rapidly obeyed, scooting out the door and then down toward their shared cubicle.

“Any ideas on what the file for you is?” Judy asked, receiving a shake of the head from her partner.

“Not a clue,” he said, “but knowing ol’ Buffalo Butt it’ll be some special paperwork form to fill out for ‘unorthodox conduct’ or the like.”

“Well, if you weren’t so prone to bending the rules, we might not have to worry about paperwork like that so often, now would we?”

“Aw, come on, you know it’s one reason you love working with me,” Nick contended. “Creative solutions are always more fun.”

Judy lifted a finger to argue, but then huffed and let it slide. Much as she didn’t want to admit it, the insufferable tod was right.

Sauntering around the corner toward the offices, the duo headed straight for their own cubicle, Judy picking up her steps in a hurry to get the paperwork done and out of the way. Leaping into her custom-sized chair (after six months on the force the precinct had finally gotten everything together to actually accommodate smaller species) and swiveling toward her half of the workspace, Judy paused upon seeing the aforementioned file on Wilde’s desk.

“Huh, this doesn’t look like one of the usual paperwork files,” she mused, wheeling back again and reaching to flip the top open. “Actually, the color doesn’t match any of the ones I’m familiar…”

Her words trailed off and her ears sprung up upon seeing the contents, seconds before she clutched her sides and rolled off the chair in convulsions of laughter.

“What? What is it?” Nick asked worriedly, picking up his own pace and rushing over to look in the file. As he did so, his ears fell flat as a disbelieving look overtook his muzzle. “I…wait, no, they couldn’t have that, there was no one there that day!” he exclaimed, looking at the clearly cell phone-origin photo of him heading toward the male’s locker room after a workout in the precinct gym, appearing not only scruffy and worn out as he pulled his t-shirt off his mussed up fur, but revealing the upper hem underneath his exercise-stretched workout shorts of a pair of…carrot-print boxers.

“You wore them!” Judy exclaimed, still rolling around with laughter. “You actually wore them! Ah ha ha ha ha!”

This means more than one mammal knows about it, if the Chief had it sent to me, Nick stewed. It was Wolfard, I’ll bet it was Wolfard. Staring down at the convulsing bunny, he sighed; the damage was done, so there was nothing left to do but roll with it.

“Well, I couldn’t just let a perfectly good pair of boxers, a gift from my partner no less, go to waste, now could I?” he mused. “That would be a terrible shame, and a scar on my thrifty record. Besides, it’s only fair I guess; you make me do laundry every now and then, so I saw that those blueberry-print workout shorts I got you have also been broken in.”

A choke at the realization ended the laughter from the floor. “Nick!” Judy exclaimed, her ears turning red. “You’re supposed to just take everything down there, not sort them too!” She pouted, before her attention returned to the photo in the file. “Well, at least it turns out even Bogo has a sense of humor, and I bet this is because he knows about the sticker; I think I’ll send that one to your mother, she’ll love it.”

Now Nick paled under his fur. “Don’t you even think about it.”

“Gonna think about it; in fact…”

Click! Went the flash of a smart phone camera.

“Carrots!”

The sound of a key turning a lock broke the silence of the apartment, shortly before the door swung open to permit the two laughing officers carrying boxes of takeout to enter.

Nick flicked on the light switch with his tail as he came through the doorway and into the small kitchen, and beelined for the fridge to put his box in as, for once, Judy followed behind at a slower pace.

“No, no, but you saw that hyrax’s expression, right?” she asked, still giggling. “It’s like he couldn’t dream of ever seeing a fox eating broccoli.”

“He would have been more shocked if he’d caught you stealing pieces of my diced salmon,” Nick drawled back, turning to take Judy’s box and put it away as well. “For an herbivore you have quite the carnivorous streak.”

“Yeah, so write it off as another of my quirks to break the quo,” the rabbit pandered in return, sauntering out of the kitchen and flopping onto the sofa in the adjoined living room. “Besides, I was curious, and you can call it even for the spinach I made you try, despite that I liked yours and you hated mine.”

Nick made a face at the reminder of the experience as he closed the fridge, sauntering over to join Judy on the couch. “You rabbits are ridiculous, thinking that shrubbery tastes good,” he quipped.

“It’s an herb, not a shrub.”

“Farm nerd. However, now I’m concerned that I may have to guard my food for fear of you stealing it all from now on. My, how the tables have turned.”

Judy chuckled, before falling silent as she glanced around the room. She was rather surprised at where they had found themselves currently, if she was honest; it had only been shortly after Nick had returned from his stint in the ZPD Academy when they’d mutually decided that a shared apartment would be in their best interests, financially and convenience-wise.

Nick had insisted that her broom closet of and apartment in the Grand Pangolin complex wasn’t enough for her, and while she’d actually grown to be friendly over time with her neighbors the Oryx-Antlersons, Judy had also grown increasingly wanting of some quiet nights devoid of their near-constant, clearly contest-driven arguments (not to mention wanting at least a fridge, personal restroom that didn’t run out of warm water, a spot for at least a small TV, and...well, you get the idea).

Nick himself was also ready to leave behind the old warehouse near the bridge that he’d confessed he lived in (without rent on top of that) with only bare-bones necessities and search for a more permanent location. So, they’d pooled their resources (admittedly leaning on the fox’s more substantial after-tax-penalty resources more heavily) and located a decently priced suite not too far from the precinct with a landlord that was not only willing to lease out to the pair, but throw in a small discount after it was leaked about who they were; loathe as she was to admit it, anything to get over most mammals’ prejudices against Nick as a fox was worth it in Judy’s eyes, even if it drew more attention than she liked to herself.

The apartment had everything the pair was hoping for to start, including some base furnishings, and three small bedrooms (two for them, one in case of a visitor); the only item really missing from the space itself was the communal laundromat on the floor two down from them.

“You ever think much about how we got here?” Judy suddenly asked out of her musings. Nick looked over at her, some humorous remark already on its way out, but at her more serious expression as she gazed off into the distance it died and he too grew a bit contemplative.

“More often than I would have thought, actually,” he admitted. “Two years ago I was in the middle of scamming people out of their hard-earned money and shaming the fox name, shaming the Wilde family name; oh, how proud my mom was on that, and I could only imagine if my father were still around.”

Nick huffed at the thought, before smiling and reaching over to ruffle the fur on Judy’s head. “But, then this obnoxiously optimistic rabbit barged into my perfectly constructed system and turned my life upside down, dragging me onto a righteous path right next to her. I think Mom loves you more than me now for doing that, and I certainly wouldn’t change a thing now. Besides, this place is a whole lot nicer than an elephant’s armoire in a warehouse basement, especially in winter I’m sure.”

Judy chuckled as she fought off the offending paw and smoothed her fur down. “Nah, I think Vivian still loves her son more than some goofy bunny she’s only met a couple times, but sure, I’ll take some credit to proving to this old rascal I met that there’s something worth hanging around still in him.”

“How modest. Not to mention it must be great having such a handsome partner as me,” Nick joked, putting on a coy smile.

Judy snorted and shoved him with a paw, hiding a blush. “Right, sure; what was that about modesty? Oversized heads aren’t my cup of tea anyway, sorry Nick.”

The fox chuckled anyway, before standing up and stretching. “Well, best I be heading off to bed, Fluff,” he said, sashaying toward the bathroom door and flipping on the light within before reaching for his toothbrush. “Knowing you, we’ll be up with the sun again to get ready instead of doing the wise thing and getting all the sleep we possibly can, so better I catch up now.”

The rabbit gave another snort as she hopped down from the couch and followed after him, grabbing her own toothbrush as the fox lathered up his. “If I wasn’t around and let you sleep in you would just be a lazy bum, and then we’d be late every day,” she scoffed, starting to scrub her teeth. “Not to mention all that muscle you managed to gain at the Academy would disappear, and then so would your ‘handsome’; all the vixens in the city would cry at the loss, real tragedy to the city. I can’t permit that.”

“Hey, we’ve got the Precinct gymnasium, don’t we?” Nick protested in a pause of his brushing. “And who said I was trying to impress anyone that way? Besides, while you farm bunnies might be morning mammals, we foxes still have nocturnal tendencies.”

“Ha! Nocturnal my tail!” Judy laughed. “I’ve heard you snore right through the night on weekends when I’m on call with my parents; I think your circadian clock’s adjusted by now.”

“Ugh, save me, the technical talk’s returned!”

“I’ll make you do twenty pushups tomorrow; come on, the jogs aren’t that bad, are they?”

The fox couldn’t fully argue with her; while the exercise wasn’t his favorite thing, he did enjoy running with his partner in the mornings when nobody else was out and about; just the two of them, in air as fresh as it could get in the city, he would have never guessed a couple years before that he’d actually want that, or even be such close friends with a rabbit.

After gargling some water to wash his mouth of the remaining toothpaste, Nick patted Judy on the head again, earning a semi-exasperated eye roll from the lapine. “Like I said, heading off now to make the most of my night since I no longer have mornings,” he joked as he sauntered toward his room. “See you tomorrow Carrots!” With one last dramatic flourish of his hand, the fox disappeared within and swept his door closed with barely a sound.

Judy stared at the door for a moment, before shaking off the odd, almost jittery feeling she had at Nick’s unintentionally coy wave and washing her mouth of toothpaste as well. “Good night, Nick,” she said quietly, before turning the bathroom light off and jogging to the kitchen to dim the bulbs there as well, and then disappearing behind the closed door of her own room.

Chapter Text

A single tug on loosened thread

Can unravel the tapestry

Most simple of hidden tassels bore

And every weave falls free

Of course, the damage happens not

Of its own free will and ways

Someone must reach and pull that edge

From the cloth with tiniest frays

He was sweltering, and couldn’t do a thing about it.

They were going for low-key, but he would have thought that at least they could have been kind enough to procure a beat-up car with working air conditioning for a trek to a subtropical city at the head of summer. The window controls were manual as well, and just as old as the car of course. That, on top of the customary formal dark suit he had to wear when meeting with officials, was conspiring to put him at risk of passing out from heatstroke if he didn’t get to leave the vehicle soon. At that thought, he sighed and pressed the button on the com headset he wore.

“How much longer did you say I had to wait again?”

“Getting impatient are we? They start expecting daytime visitors at 8:30, so only a half hour or so more; you can’t just waltz in without setting off a lot of alarms otherwise, you know that.”

“Not impatient –and I resent your implication, I’ve been with the organization nearly as long as you- just starting to roast; you are aware Zootopia gets hot in summer, right? Even early in the morning, especially when sitting in the sun? There are no trees by the roads in the main plaza.”

“The car not have air conditioning or something?”

Two long ears fell down over his back on reflex, though his conversation partner couldn’t see the deadpan glare he had on. “No, it does not. Someone forgot to make sure that the little sedan they picked out for this was fully equipped for the current climate here.”

“Oh, sorry. I’ll make sure to have a chat with the outfitters; though, I guess I did just say ‘find an old car that doesn’t stand out.’”

“Ugh, just see if you can get them to send out something a little more appropriate if I have to lounge in a daytime stakeout again while I’m here. Blasted windows barely even roll down on this thing, and it’s a hand-crank.”

A chuckle came over the com. “Well, as soon as you get the ZPD to promise they’ll pass on info, you can head back to the safe house and continue surveillance there.”

He sighed and looked out the window across the park to where the building that was the focus of his current assignment sat; he at least knew a couple of the heads in the precinct, having been there once before years ago (even though feelings were not that great upon leaving, for either side), so arranging an intel feed probably wouldn’t be too much issue. His only real concern was whether or not it would amount to anything.

“And you’re sure that they had mentioned here in that message Tanya tapped into? I mean, I know it’s the so-called pinnacle of mammal diversity and all sorts of research goes on here, but I could imagine other locations with the supplies needed that would be of less risk to them, what with the low profile they like to keep.”

“Zootopia was the site of the Midnicampum fiasco early last year if I need to remind you, so they have huge stores in the area of that and related plants for research on prevention of such attacks, but I really don’t think that’s what they’re after here,” his partner replied skeptically. “We still don’t know what the so-called catalyst is, even from the sample you stole, or exactly what it was supposed to do; if whatever the source for that is occurs there then that’s probably more than enough motivation for them to risk finding it.”

“Well, we know it’s organic, so if it’s from one of the research facilities here that might make sense. This is the location of Pfurzer headquarters.”

“Have you tried getting in contact with you-know-who since you’re in the area? He might have some answers.”

“I might if I have to, but you know the bargain we struck; it’s dangerous trying to get him involved, so I can only contact if it’s deemed absolutely necessary. If they find out about him or his friends then they will send their worst here, disturbance to the public or not; not going to risk that.”

Silence responded for a moment, and he knew the other conversant was nodding her head in reluctant agreement. “I guess you’re right. It’s just the two of us out here at the moment so best not to draw a fight we may not win alone. Just get your job there done and we might not have to worry about it though; we get a lead then we might be able to head off the issue altogether.”

“I am well aware; convincing the chief here shouldn’t be a problem even if he doesn’t like me. I have clearance, after all, so he technically can’t legally obstruct me if things really go south.”

“Well, I’ve heard stories; if it’s at all a risk to his officers the chief here can be quite the stubborn mammal to sway, and this could be if word leaks. But I trust you to keep it wrapped up; I’ll be here waiting for the result when you’re done.”

“Well understood. Savage out.”

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Nick, come on! It’s time to get up!”

…

“Nick, I’m warning you…”

…

“Okay, third strike! I don’t care if you’re wearing nothing but boxers, I will come in there! You’re no different than my brothers back home!”

Silence was still all that greeted Judy, drawing an exasperated huff out of the rabbit, followed by a mischievous smirk worthy of the tod that was her current focus. Dumping water on the fox was out (last time she’d done that, they had found out just how hard it was to dry out a mattress, an experience she had no interest in repeating), but she had recently acquired a new tool that was just perfect for wake-up calls.

Dashing to her room and pulling the device from its hiding place, Judy ran back to Nick’s door and slowly turned the knob, swinging the wood structure open to reveal a very haphazard space, dominated by the bed adorned with a familiar lump under the covers. Judy stifled a sigh at the sight of Nick’s bedroom; he had what he called “worldly organization” (translation: absolute chaos that permitted only the fox to locate what he needed within the mess, but claimed to have an order to it) that drove the neat freak in her insane, but they had reached a compromise she had to uphold: she wouldn’t attempt to clean up his space, and he would in return refrain from turning her room into a mirror of his if and when he needed something from her.

Forcing herself to ignore the mess, Judy crept up over to the lump on the bed, who conveniently was holding a pillow firmly down over his head, only his paws visible, and raised her weapon.

FFWWWAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Formerly motionless fox suddenly went airborne, limbs flailing and pillow flying to the ceiling as he was startled into sudden, complete alertness, before finally coming to land with a grand thump beside his bed. As he yelped and blinked his remaining grogginess out of his eyes, Judy doubled over in gut-busting laughter at two things: first, his glorious reaction to her new alarm (in the form of a brand new air horn), and secondly, he was once again wearing her gift of carrot-prints.

Nick scowled at her as he finally moved to get up, rubbing his backside where he’d landed without blankets for cushioning and moving to straighten out his bed (the only thing kept pristine in the room, at least when he wasn’t occupying it).

“Yeah, yeah, yak it up Fluff,” he growled. “I’m awake now and without a chance of falling back asleep. Happy?”

“More than happy, actually,” Judy replied through fading giggles. “Not only does your new wake-up call work perfectly, but I see my present is still being put to good use!”

Nick paused for a moment to puzzle out her words before realizing what she meant and looking down. His ears were already flat against his head, but now his tail moved to wrap around himself self-consciously as well.

“Like I said, I don’t let perfectly good clothing go to waste,” he quipped. “Now, you going to quit being a Peeping Tomcat and let me get dressed?” His scowl suddenly turned, morphing into his classic smirk as he took on a ridiculous modeling pose. “Or, you want to tell me that you like what you see and I should be in the underwear model business instead of an officer on the streets?”

Judy groaned and turned around abruptly, ears folding down reflexively to hide her blush. “The only model you should be is the one they use to make the plaster molds for the firing range targets,” she shot back. “I think you look better in full uniform, so hurry up and get dressed; I’ll go wait in the kitchen. And you’d better not try and sneak in another nap; we’re already cutting into jogging time.”

As she left the room and closed the door, Judy missed Nick’s slight hurrying in his steps toward his closet. However, she did not manage to escape the jibing, “But that means you still think I look good, right?”

“Ugh, Nick, you are incorrigible!”

The bullpen was as rowdy as every other morning when they arrived, conversations about everything from the current cases to who was heading out to what bar that weekend running right alongside arm-wrestling competitions between Officers Froston and Tigenwell, among others. The pair of smaller officers speed-walked rapidly over to their shared chair to ensure said competitions would not end up falling off the table and flattening them (it had nearly happened several times already) and jumped up, settling in to wait for Bogo to show up for the usual morning briefing.

As they waited, Nick turned his head to regard one of his fellow officers a couple of rows back; Wolfard. It took a moment for the lupine to notice, but he flinched when he did; Wilde’s probing smirk tended to get through to nearly all but the chief.

“Bet you’re feeling pretty smug with yourself for catching that photo in the gym, huh?” the fox toned dryly. “What was the trade for with Bogo? Manage to get off one of your pranks with a warning perhaps, Ellie?”

For a moment the wolf looked at him with a lost expression, before the light went on and his eyes widened in realization. “Okay, first off, do I have to remind you every day that it’s Elliot, not Ellie?” he asked back.

“Nah, I think the short version fits you,” the fox pandered in return.

Wolfard huffed. “Ugh. Secondly, wasn’t me that took it, but I do know what photo you’re referring to. Nice carrot prints, Wilde.”

This revelation caught Nick off guard, and he pursed his lips. “Not you, really? Alright, who’s the guilty party?”

Wolfard opened his mouth to respond, before a short cough nearby drew Wilde’s attention to the tigress at the end of their table. She picked up her coffee mug and took a sip, before setting it down and catching Wilde’s eye with a smirk of her own.

The fox’s ears fell. “Oh. Really? Fangs, you’re the sneak? Wow, better up my game around these jokesters; who else knows?”

“Oh, we can keep it between us and the Chief, but if I find anything I didn’t intentionally pack in my lunch again I might tell Clawhauser,” Fangmeyer said lightly.

“You wouldn’t.”

“I hear the cheetah likes all lines of gossip, clothing choices included.”

Nick nodded contemplatively, before his smirk returned with a vengeance. “Alright, well, if it gets out further I might have to let ol’ Benji know about those posters you and Ellie have in your lockers. Fellow fans, he’d be thrilled!”

The cup had returned to the tigress’ lips, but this time the sip sprayed out over the table and her eyes dilated as she turned to Wilde. “How the heck did you…?”

“I’m a small mammal; you guys miss me walking around here more than you think you do.”

The three fell quiet for a moment, distracted only by Judy trying to hide a snicker behind her paw. Eventually, Fangmeyer’s look deflated into a defeated scowl. “Alright, you win this time; you’re secret’s safe.”

Nick chuckled. “Called a hustle, Fangs, and I’ve had a lot of practice.”

As he focused forward again, self-satisfied grin firmly plastered on, Judy leaned back and whispered to Wolfard behind her paw, “He was wearing them again this morning.”

The wolf burst out laughing, and Nick turned his gaze to his now smirking partner, mouth hanging open in disbelief. “Carrots! You traitor!”

“What? Can’t have you running too loose, now can we?” the rabbit shot back. “Like you said: it’s called a hustle, sweetheart.”

Further conversation was abruptly ended between the four of them as McHorn arrived, setting between the two smaller mammals and the others, followed shortly by Higgins shouting from the front of the room, “Atten-shun!”

Fox and rabbit turned ramrod straight as the usual chorus of pounding hooves or fists and roars of approval started echoing around the room, and the hall door opened to permit Chief Bogo in. As Higgins took his usual seat and Bogo planted himself behind the podium, the buffalo looked around the room.

To most eyes, he would have appeared displeased at the outburst that occurred in response to his arrival nearly every morning, but the officers in the room knew him too well to miss the hint of amusement tugging at the corners of his mouth. All good things had to end eventually however, so he cleared his throat and bellowed, “Alright, settle down…Shut it!”

The noise quieted, and Bogo nodded in satisfaction. “Now sit.”

2 dozen chairs slid across the floor, nearly all save for the one already holding the fox and rabbit. “Now,” the buffalo continued, “first item on the docket, we’ve got an old dog in the room; congratulations on turning 47, Wolfowitz.”

The cheers erupted anew as several officers leaned over and gave friendly punches and musses of fur to the gray wolf, and Nick leaned back with a smile and belted out, “Happy Birthday gramps! Gonna earn that ‘gray wolf’ moniker soon, eh?” prompting several guffaws.

“Alright, attention back up here,” Bogo quipped, stacking the files in his hooves. “Next up: city’s been fairly quiet recently, so not very many real cases to hand out today, other than those some of you are already handling. But, we do have a public conference for the Zootopia University’s political sciences debate today. Security was requested as a precaution since the topic is on lower working class status for varied species and audiences can get heated, so Trunkaby, Froston, Delgato, and Snarlov, you’ll be heading there today.”

The aforementioned officers stood up and headed forward, Bogo handing them their instruction file, before walking out of the room.

“Now, the rest of you, standard patrols today,” the buffalo continued. “Rhinowhitz, Anderson, you’re in Tundratown; Wolfowitz, Manesworth, Meadowlands. Wolfard, Fangmeyer, Rainforest, McHorn and Krumpanski to Sahara, Johnson and Higgins will be in Savannah, and finally, Wilde, Hopps: you’re in Canyonlands today.”

As the officers stood to leave, Bogo motioned to Nick and Judy in particular. “Don’t forget to keep an eye out,” he reminded. “That area was the last place he was seen frequently before the attempted capture.”

The duo nodded, and slipped out of the room toward the atrium.

“Think Finnick might know anything?” Judy asked as they entered the massive space. “I mean, I know you’ve been helping him try and go for more legitimate work, but he’s still got connections, right?”

Nick huffed. “Well, if we try and run him down we’d better make sure to bring a drink or two, you know how he is,” he replied. “But maybe. He might actually be in Canyonlands today; I know one of his side jobs now is painting detail down there –don’t give me that look, he’s the one that did up his van, remember?- but I wouldn’t bet on it.”

Judy shrugged and looked forward. She was half-tempted to wave to Clawhauser as they passed the front desk on their way to the garage, but he was already busy chatting animatedly with a giraffe that looked like he was starting to tire of the conversation, so the rabbit wisely decided to avoid the desk. Even if it was about the newest Gazelle news (and it probably was, and perhaps especially if it was that) and Judy was also a fan, there was a limit if it was to be healthy, and the rotund cheetah had long since passed that point of infatuation.

Without a quick chat with Clawhauser as a distraction though, Judy just barely managed to catch sight of an unfamiliar short figure entering the precinct front doors. At first, she paid them no mind; several dozen different species came through for various purposes during the day, every day. But, then she paused as her mind caught up with the details she’d subconsciously catalogued: about her height, long ears sticking up over a modified fedora, and a slick black suit that suggested serious business, all things that hearkened back to some of the celebrity rumors from back home and in a form that she’d actually once had an interest in.

Judy spun around, searching for the unfamiliar-yet-familiar character, but despite only a couple of seconds having passed and the atrium remaining mostly empty, they had vanished from sight.

“You okay there Carrots?” Nick called, pausing as well when he noted the sudden lack of lapine next to him and looking over his shoulder to locate her.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m good,” Judy brushed off, shaking her head and waving a paw in dismissal. “It was just…you didn’t happen to see a rabbit with a black suit and a fedora walk past, did you?”

Nick looked at her the same as if she might have had one too many at the bar (which, for Judy, was usually one), before shaking his head slowly. “Nnnooo, can’t say that I did, why?”

“Uh, could have sworn I had seen them just come in the front doors, but then they weren’t here anymore,” Judy replied, glancing around again. “I don’t know why, but the look brought back a couple memories, stories from around the burrow; you know, like I’d heard about them in some news or celebrity story, only the kind I’d actually like to hear.”

“Well, I’ll try to avoid the ‘all bunnies look the same’ comment,” Nick responded, “especially now that I’ve met some of your family at least once and I know it’s not true, but I’m sure there are lots of rabbits in business that wear black suits.”

“Not a business memory; you recall even in my childhood I had a thing for law enforcement.”

“Haven’t ever heard about bunnies in the ZBI either, which is the only other agency that comes to mind readily. Now come on, you know Bogo will chew us out if he finds us lollygagging out her in the atrium too long.”

Judy gave him a skeptical look as she jogged to catch up to the fox that was once more on the move. “Wow, you almost sounded responsible for a moment there,” she joked, and Nick snorted.

“Responsible? Careful, might tarnish my reputation. Nah, just don’t want any more boxer jokes heading my way today; I think between you, Bogo, Ellie, and Fangs I’ve probably had enough to last at least a month or two.”

The three sharp, pointed knocks from low down on his door startled Bogo more than they probably should have.

On the other hand, all the officers without internal duties that day were already supposed to be out, those remaining not being that short, and he had no meetings scheduled for at least another hour, so maybe the surprise was somewhat warranted. That, and he did have his Gazelle Dancer app up on his phone at that particular moment.

Quickly shutting the device off and putting it away, he reached over to grab one of the reports still needing to be looked over instead and set it in front of himself, opening it and calling out, “Come in,” as he did so.

A pair of long lagomorph ears caught the buffalo’s peripheral vision as the door swung open and then closed, and he sighed as he flipped up the first page of the report.

“I’m quite certain that I assigned you to Canyonlands with Wilde today, Hopps,” he muttered as the figure leapt into one of the chairs opposite the desk. “You should have already left; there had better be a good reason for your interruption otherwise.”

The amused, very distinctly masculine and not-Judy laugh that followed jerked Bogo’s eyes up to the rabbit standing on the chair across from him, and his eyes widened in shock.

“Well, I do apologize for disturbing your quality time with Gazelle, Adrian,” the rabbit drawled in his unforgettably succinct, near-English accent, “but I do believe you’re confusing me with someone else at the moment. Finally disproven in your beliefs about us smaller mammals, perhaps, by that other rabbit I saw downstairs?”

He was slim, made seemingly more so by the narrow black two-piece he wore, but nothing of his posture suggested frailty. The fedora was now removed, showing the trio of black stripes that crossed the white fur on either side of his face below piercing blue eyes that Bogo knew could match even his own glares; it had happened once before, and the rabbit would have likely won the stare-down had they not been interrupted, a memory the bovine did not treasure. Black-striped white ears twitched in his direction as they awaited a response; he knew the buffalo would remember him, no doubt.

“What on earth are you doing here again, Savage?” Bogo snapped, losing his taken aback expression in favor of his usual gaze of abject irritation, making it clear there was no love lost here; he wouldn’t bother refuting the claim about the Gazelle app, knowing it was both true and having been proven one too many times by Judy just how well rabbit ears could hear, so he settled for ignoring the questions sent to him.

The one in front of Bogo gave a huff of distaste at the reaction, glancing off to the side with slight disappointment but otherwise losing none of his posture. “Yes, so I understand that we did not part on the best of terms the last time I was here,” he toned. “I was called away on the Tragelan mission before I could resolve my arguments with your jurisdiction on the Nyctera murder investigation here. I don’t fault you for it though; I wasn’t entirely in the right on my thoughts of how conduct should have been undertaken either.” Blue eyes snapped up to his brown again. “It’s been ten years though, and I assure you I have matured since then so I hope you’ll at least hear me out. And please, call me Jack.”

He set his hat on the chair next to him before folding his hands. “As to why I’m here, I’m asking for your help, Adrian,” he explained. “Might perhaps be nothing, but I need relays on information relating to any cases dealing with Midnicampum or other toxic botanicals within the last year or so; you know, since that big case last spring.”

“And why should I do so?” Bogo queried disapprovingly, steepling his hooves as he looked with unmasked distrust down at the rabbit. “Passing on case intel, open or closed, can be classed as either a security breach or putting some of my officers at risk depending on what is given and what it’s used for, and you of all mammals should know I will not tolerate either, and I have little reason to trust you currently.”

“I don’t want to argue, Adrian,” Jack placated with a veiled warning, “but I will remind you that as a high level AOMISDOPS agent I have security clearance to said files, and they will be only used for the personal investigations of my team. I could go straight to Lionheart and file a direct request through the City Council for extraction of said files, but that bureaucratic nonsense wastes valuable time, and it is far easier to gain direct permission and access from the Chief of the head Precinct here instead. I am asking to save us both considerable headaches and red tape.”

He paused for a moment, before leaping directly up to the chief’s desk to look him more directly in the eyes. “Please Adrian, help us both out here,” he urged. “If the lead turns out to be nothing, then I delete all the files on my end and we leave this be afterward and maybe have time to part on better terms than last round; I have resources that I can lend to help you and your officers manage the city if you need it, and I’m more than willing especially now that the MII is proving successful. Or, if the lead turns something up, then it’s more than just Zootopia I’m fighting for here, and we might manage to prevent a disaster altogether if we’re not butting heads.”

Bogo knew he was mostly being stubborn for his image and the heck of it at that moment, but at least it had brought out a different side of Savage and it gave him time to read the rabbit. Savage’s eyes weren’t lying, so unless he was a better deceiver than Wilde (and even Hopps at times) could be, Bogo was willing to lend a grudging trust to him this time.

Not to mention that if Judy ever found out their history and that he refused Jack because he was…well, an infuriating rabbit, he’d never hear the end of it, her superior or not.

With a sigh, he relented. “Very well, Jack,” he toned dangerously, “I you have a location that I can forward intel to then hand that information here and I will send what we have, on one condition.”

Jack was already pulling out a slip of paper from the breast pocket of the white shirt under his suit coat, and he paused at this ultimatum. “And what would that be?”

“Tell me what it is that you think you’re tracking down,” Bogo answered. “You did a decent job of beating around the bush there but I won’t lend anything without background. If I know what is being looked for, not only might I be more obliged to trust you, but I can locate what might be the most relevant. You mentioned looking for Night Howler related intel; is there a group planning another savage attack?”

Jack shook his head as he handed the paper slip over. “I wish it were that simple. Here are the instructions for a secure feed; make sure you create a passcode to return to it as that link will only work once. No, the group we’re tacking is unfortunately not forthcoming on their intent, and what little we do know either doesn’t yet make sense to me or is classified to a level that I can’t even give to you. What I can say is that they’re seeking some sort of chemical derivative to stage a discreet attack with, something that will have a worldwide reaction. How, why, or exactly what they’re pinpointing is still either classified or yet unknown, which is why we’re assuming Midnicampum derivatives as a possibility and I’m here looking for intel.”

The rabbit leaned forward as his ears swiveled toward the door. “The only name we’ve picked up so far of someone who we know is in Zootopia is Bagheerson,” he toned lowly, “and we think he’s a connection point for the research labs.”

Bogo cursed under his breath; he’d had strong suspicions that case was touching on something worse, as no one went to those lengths just to escape penalties for nip distribution. The buffalo knew there were plenty of minorities out there who still stood with Bellwether’s ideas, and the polar opposite who held that predators should be on top (where he thought Bagheerson might have fit), or odd ones that sought aims far more primal than either of those, so he could assume this was an attempt along one of those lines. If lending intel to a (admittedly dislikable in his opinion) known agent helped keep more of that ridiculous chaos from taking both and disturbing his city, he would have little issue giving it.

“I have some files to sort through before I can begin looking into old cases or research, but I’ll find what I can,” he assured gruffly. “Anything else?”

Jack shook his head and held out a paw. “Not currently. However, I will be keeping in touch if anything develops.” He smiled pointedly, but politely as his paw was enveloped by Bogo’s tense hoof, and if he was bothered by the standoffish attitude the buffalo was still giving, he didn’t show it. “Good day, Adrian.”

He turned and hopped down, grabbing his hat and replacing it between his unmistakably marked ears, and headed for the door. As he opened it and stepped through though, Bogo’s last words brought him to pause again.

“You might be right on one thing, Savage, in that the lapin officer you saw changed my mind,” he said. “If I were you, I would make a point to thank Officer Hopps and her partner if you see them again, as they might be the only reason I am willing to give you the time of day instead of demanding another liaison to deal with.”

Savage gave a chuckle and sent the buffalo an amused smirk as he closed the door. “Well, I’ll certainly keep your advice in mind.”

Chapter Text

Better watch your back

This world’s never calm

Of course it’s hard to run

When you’re already in their palm

A single faulty step

Is all it takes to fall

One minor turn is missed

Eyes open to it all

You see your past mistakes

Your missed opportunities

Only hope that others see you

And don’t drop with you to your knees

Jerome Bagheerson knew that his position was a terrible one, made all the worse by the knowledge that he had put himself there because of one, small, stupid mistake on his part.

He stood trembling under the scrutinizing, overbearing presence of one of his superiors in the middle of a darkened but well-furnished room, part of a small complex at the very edge of the Meadowlands and somewhere that he’ tried to avoid ever since he’d gotten mixed up in this mess. There were a thousand stories about what happened here, and if you were found and dragged up to the complex instead of summoned more indirectly, it never ended well.

His superior’s silence made it even worse, turned away currently from the leopard in an ornate chair large enough to hide his entire form; Jerome had never seen the mammal directly, had hoped never to do so, and didn’t even know the other’s name or species. But then he went and blew it, and trying to disappear had also failed miserably. Somehow, they had known exactly where he always was. He wrung his paws and his tail twitched furiously in restrained panic, waiting to hear what the verdict would be, and the wait was almost worse torture than what he imagined any word given would entail.

“You had a promising position in the Pfurzer complex,” his superior finally spoke, still facing away from him. “Access to information, the distillations, and we gave you the finances to keep your actions quiet and report back to us. You were doing well for us for so long, and then you turned into another of a long line of flat disappointments. This could have turned out very well for you, especially since you didn’t altogether disagree with us on the interests we shared with you.”

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to”-

Jerome began to speak, but he was rapidly cut off when the chair swiveled suddenly around, golden eyes meeting his yellow-green with more to say than words would ever convey. Bagheerson didn’t know what he expected to find when he finally laid eyes on his superior, but the mammal that stood up taller than him and leaned over the small desk the chair sat behind was definitely not among the options in his head; he couldn’t even pinpoint what species he was.

The mammal had an almost canid face, but the muzzle was longer, almost possum-like in appearance as well, and the snarl he bore revealed teeth that were nothing like those of a fox or wolf. His body was slim, portraying an almost frail appearance when combined with his height, but the presence he gave off was anything but. His paws braced against the desk and ended with wickedly sharpened claws that gouged the surface, and the long tail that lashed out behind him was barred by stripes that seemed more fitting on a zebra or tiger than this creature.

“The problem, Jerome, is not any one simple slip-up on your part,” he snapped. “I would not have cared if you took a portion of your payment to purchase nip off a corner somewhere; it’s your payment, you can do as you wish with it. I wouldn’t have cared a whit either about you turning around and selling it.”

A wicked claw pointed directly at the leopard’s chest. “But, you took most of what we allotted you for business as well to buy piles of drugs rather than use it like you should have to cover your tracks at Pfurzer. You then proceeded to sell it not in, say, Happytown where officials rarely have a strong presence, but on the outskirts of Sahara, where not only are there daily patrols, but also adolescents to get you in trouble and police contacts who watch for exactly the kind of business you partook in. Had you gotten caught after all that even, fine, the bail would not have been a problem especially when nip is such a commonplace product, but you chose to run instead when the cops came looking for you, ensuring that not only would you draw a bigger spotlight to yourself, but now your access in Pfurzer is almost certainly ended without question. And why, I ask, did you feel the urgent need to run at that time, hmm?”

Jerome did not answer immediately, already knowing that the other mammal knew the answer to his own question. But his superior did not appreciate a silent response, and reached forward with a speed the cat could barely believe, grabbing the leopard by the front of his shirt and lifting him bodily off the ground with ease.

“I asked you a question!” he snarled. “I expect you to answer it: why did you run?”

This time Jerome opened his mouth to respond, but panic prevented little more than an undignified squeak from escaping. Swallowing and steeling his nerves, he rasped out, “B-because I had the serum with me.”

The other mammal nodded and lowered him to the ground, letting go and turning to fold his hands behind his back as he started to pad slowly around the corner of the desk. The purposeful, slow steps chilled Jerome’s spine like dry ice.

“That is correct,” his superior toned, sauntering at the same even pace off toward a darker portion of the room where even the leopard’s nocturnal eyes could not quite pick out what was occurring. The sound of something sliding across a shelf and what he assumed was a wooden container being opened reached his ears, however, followed by the clinking of a glass vial against claws; the serum, he assumed.

“We asked you to acquire a sample,” the other mammal spoke evenly, “so that we could test it and see if it is in fact what we required. It is, but one vial won’t do much. The next step was to gain the rest, push you into a position where you could arrange a discreet transferal of their stock, and that’s where you threw everything out of balance. When you took the one vial, you were supposed to deliver it immediately; instead, you side-tracked, stopping by to visit one of your ‘clients’ to sell the other illegal substance you had on you and gaining the attention of the police in the process, not only risking everything right there but delaying us further when every day counts by hiding out in that slum they call Happytown for a week! I was told of promising details about you, Jerome, and I do not take well to such blatant disappointment.”

The box snapped shut and was replaced on its shelf, and Jerome watched his superior turn to face him again, eyes glowing gold almost impossibly bright, especially considering how little light was available. There was nothing in that gaze that suggested a forgiveness of the mistakes he made.

“It’s rather unfortunate, really,” his superior toned with emotionless words, “how things will play out now. We’ve managed another connection with Pfurzer that’s already in an even better position than you were, and the serum was really only ever the fallback; we’ve figured out a far better target. Loose ends can’t be left though, and we can’t have you leading the authorities here either.”

The cold dread at those words that settled in Jerome’s gut nearly froze him to the spot as the other mammal advanced with methodical purpose. “N-no, wait,” he pleaded, sinking to his knees with his paws raised defensively. “I-I won’t say anything to anyone, I swear. I can still be of use to you!”

“You know, I realize now that you probably don’t even know what I am, do you?” the other mammal mused, catching the leopard off guard with the sudden and complete change in subject. At his confused, terrified expression, his superior continued. “Do you know why that is? My species has survived nearly unknown to Mammalia because we are careful; we do not take risks like letting loose cannons like you walk free. Thylacines give others the respect they earn, we do not take mistakes lightly, or windfalls for granted, and we never, ever put anything to waste.”

He leaned down to Jerome’s eye level, expression still without any notable feeling. “Of course you still have a use to us,” he said, “just not released to run back around Zootopia as you were.” The Thylacine looked up then, toward the dark ceiling high above. “You know where to drop him, right?” he asked.

Jerome was almost certain this question marked the Thylacine as off in the head (it couldn’t have been a question directed at him, he was the subject!), until his ears picked up what could only be the sound of ruffling feathers, and something massive moved in the shadows above them.

“Of course, Lotera,” a silky, feminine voice laced with malice replied. “I’m the one that put the notion forth.”

Lotera snorted, before turning his focus to the leopard again. Now, his expression did hold an emotion, and it wasn’t pleasant; it spoke of the sealing of Jerome’s fate. “You see,” he said flatly, “your use to us is as bait.” His claws clicked, and something akin to fire flashed across them as they sliced the air.

Jerome didn’t even have a chance to scream.

Despite all her time already spent in Zootopia, Judy had not yet managed to visit every part of the extensive city yet, so some of their patrols and case leads still brought her to new and exciting locations that landed her looking like a tourist all over again.

The Nocturnal District was one such place, and as they exited the tunnel from the surface in their current car and entered into the first main cavern, the rabbit’s eyes widened in wonder at the sprawling sight before them; now she realized why Nick had insisted on doing the driving today, at least as they headed down. After all, he was no doubt well-familiarized with this place and could keep his eyes on the road better than the awestruck lapine.

The Nocturnal District, or Nox as the city-goers referred to it, had been built out of a series of natural and artificial caverns that ran through the depth of the mountain range that rose up from the northern end of downtown Savannah Central, splitting Rainforest and Tundratown with the Alpine District before spreading out north of the Meadowlands. While the floors of the caves were sprawled with houses and business buildings like the rest of the urban portions of the other districts, the infrastructure was as three-dimensional as Rainforest was as well.

In the great stalagmites rising from the floor as well as along the smoothened walls of the grand space, more roads, walk paths, and buildings hewn from the rock itself rose to the ceiling, and high above their heads cables and wires crisscrossed in ziplines, tram pulleys, and even aerial walking bridges between stalactites that formed the bases of habitations that looked as much like beehives or hanging lanterns as they did houses. And everything, from the linings of homes to the high business signs, glowed with neon colors just bright enough to give ethereal outlines to the entire scene.

Nick chuckled to himself as he glanced over to see his partner’s reaction. The Nox had long since lost its shocking appeal to him (on the wrong side of the law the dark corners that filled this place were almost a second home, even to those who only skirted the edges of legality like he had), but he couldn’t deny that it was still beautiful in its own special way. The natural portions of the caves were still active after all, having formed naturally and still growing so that the faint lights were amplified by waterfalls, streams, and pools that dotted the cavern as well, and the sight was relaxing enough that even he could still enjoy it somewhat, if he worked hard enough to forget what they were there for.

More so, however, he was enjoying Judy’s shock and awe; he teased her about it sometimes, but that genuine smile and the joy she could get from even the smallest things also warmed him somewhere near to his heart (not that he’d ever admit that to her). The fact that he got to be the tour guide today and determine exactly what she would see made it even better.

“Why have we never come down here before, Nick?” Judy finally asked after a few minutes of silent gazing, when they’d descended to the cave floor and began traveling the road into the center of development. “All the days we’ve had off, all the various patrols and leads, and we’ve never once managed to get down here. I’ve been missing all this for over a year?”

“Yeah, it’s beautiful, but gotta remember Carrots,” Nick admonished as she turned to face him, “next to Happytown, this is probably the hardest to care for part of the city. Not everywhere is friendly here, and it’s easy to hide underhanded dealings. There’s a reason Finnick directed us down here for leads; if he and his associates haven’t heard anything, then down here is one of the few locations that might escape their general notice.”

“And I’ve still got to wonder sometimes how he’s managed to gain so many contacts in shady business when he never crossed the line any more than you did,” Judy mused, her eyes turning again to take in the crowds along the city sidewalks. There were plenty of animals just like she was used to aboveground, but also some species she rarely ever saw: aardvarks, hyenas, raccoons, bats, and the like, creatures most comfortable in the dark. “Unless you just danced past those stories when telling the rest.”

“No, no, I told you what he’s told me,” Nick explained. “When you’re trying to straddle the line it’s actually harder sometimes than taking the plunge all the way, so we kept our ears to the ground a lot on both sides so we’d know where the line actually was. Finnick got along better though with some of the less-than-savory, thanks to his sour appearance, which is why we can rely on him so much now for leads. That, and the fact that he’s not all bark about some of his threats, so not too many criminals actually seek to cross him either.”

Judy chuckled; she actually got along with the little tan fox rather well now, as despite his rough talk there was an understanding character underneath, but she hadn’t forgotten that day when she’d gone to find Nick and Finnick had brandished a hardwood bat at the door of his van that was bigger than he was, and done so like it weighed as much as a down feather.

Nick turned their cruiser down a winding road that snaked past a park built around a series of glittering cave pools, before pulling up to a small bar sporting the name “Glider’s Gulp,” flanked on either side by brewer’s storehouses. The facility was not flashy, but also did not appear old or run-down either; the owner kept good care of it with the resources he had to work with and always held the bar at a high standard of cleanliness, enough to keep regulars coming back again and again and advertisement only necessary via word of mouth to save money.

However, the owner also made it a point that everyone knew he was a neutral party; his records were spotless and kept that way, but he didn’t bother keeping tabs on his customers’ business. It was, in short, a quiet location and the perfect place to escape the strong arm of the law most times, and where dealers of all sorts could hustle out their relations with other less-than-savory characters. Lucky them, then, that a certain fox was well familiar with both location and owner.

The cruiser Nick and Judy had taken that day was designed to look mostly like any other car on the road, and they were in civilian garb to keep attention off them; the fox in his usual tacky green shirt and clashing tie, Judy in a dark blue blouse and gray slate pants topped off with a nondescript baseball cap. Thus, when they pulled in to the parking lot of the joint, none of the few mammals loitering outside batted an eye.

“Alright Carrots, just let me do the talking for now, ‘kay?” Nick asked, shooting her a sly grin that was hiding a slight, but genuine concern.

Judy rolled her eyes and shot him a deadpan glare. “I’m not that bad keeping up an image, Nick; I was an actress when I was younger.”

“Yes, but some of the customers that show up here occasionally can smell a fake attitude from a mile away if you don’t hide it perfectly; nothing on you, but even I’ve had some bad run-ins here before and I put on an image for years, Fluff.”

“Ugh, yeah, I’ll keep quiet unless I have to say something, happy?”

The reynard nodded, and they slipped out of the car, walking with a casual grace toward the entrance. As Nick pulled the door open and let the two of them in, Judy’s nose wrinkled at the smell; beyond the usual unpleasant smoker’s touch found in most taverns, she definitely also recognized hints of other compounds often smoked by those who didn’t care about the legality of their recreational use of said substances as well as the distinct aroma of alcohol and various non-smoked drug traces. She hazarded a glance at her partner, who certainly had a far stronger sense of smell than she did. But, though she could tell he didn’t enjoy the atmosphere here any more than she did, he was hiding it well.

The bar was mostly empty, save only a couple of booths against the walls being occupied, and they walked straight across the floor to the main bar counter itself, hopping up onto a pair of stools. Moments later the bartender/owner appeared, and Judy struggled to hide her confusion; she’d never seen a mammal like this before.

The bartender had a possum-like face, but folds of skin stretched between his limbs like a flying squirrel’s under the clearly custom-made outfit he wore, and a short, similarly webbed tail behind him. Nick was clearly well acquainted with the mammal, as he casually leaned against the bar counter and raised a paw in greeting.

“Hey, Sydney, long time no see!” he chirped. “Shoot a Jackrabbit Daniels and, uh, carrot daiquiri this way, will ya?”

The mammal gave a start as he recognized the tod at the counter, pausing for a moment to ensure he wasn’t hallucinating.

“Wilde? The heck are you doing here?” he sputtered, voice laced with an accent definitely not local, even if his vernacular was. “The last time I saw you was before you started up your Pawpsicle scam!”

“Hey now, repackaging and reselling is not a scam in the strictest sense,” Nick protested with half-seriousness. “That really how you greet an old friend and paying customer?”

“We were business acquaintances, never friends,” Sydney scoffed, scooping up a small bottle of liquor from the shelf behind him and popping the lid off before sliding it down the counter to the fox’s waiting paw. Then he turned and opened another orange-colored container and began mixing the drink Nick had ordered for Judy. “But, you do pay when you say you will, better ‘n I can say for some. But tell me, why are you really here? I saw the news a few months ago, and your name was not obscured from the article; I’ll say I’m surprised, and if that’s not another scheme beyond all your previous crazy ideas I’d say you should have long since dropped your old haunts.”

Nick chuckled, and gestured with his shoulder to the mammal as he popped a swig from the bottle. “Carrots, I’d like you to meet Sidneejah Dalma, or Sydney for short, owner of the bar here. Sydney, my good friend Judy.”

“Yes, I know who you are,” Sydney huffed, finishing her drink and handing it to Judy, who took it gingerly. “Don’t worry Hopps, went easy on the alcohol; better to have someone sober to keep your partner in line.” He ignored Nick’s scoff, and at Judy’s continued quizzical expression, even as she tried to hide it, he let out a chuckle of his own. “And let me guess, you’ve never seen a colugo before.”

“A what?” Judy asked, her expression returning full force.

This time Nick chuckled. “That’s what Sydney here is, Fluff,” he explained. “Also sometimes called flying lemurs.”

“And they day they end that ridiculous comparison will be a godsend,” Sydney huffed. “I can neither fly nor am I some ancient primate.” He placed his hands on his hips as he regarded his two odd customers. “Now, as I asked before: what are you really doing here?”

“Well, since you insist on skipping the chatty small talk,” Nick mused, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a photo, “maybe you can help us.”

Sydney took one look at the image and backed up slightly, shaking his head. “You know my rule, Wilde,” he admonished, “I hold neutrality, toward both sides. You’re welcome to do as you please here so long as you don’t mess up my bar, and you jumped to the other side of the law, but I have a business to run still and it’s hard enough in these parts without word of mouth scaring away possible customers with that ruined reputation.”

“That could be considered an obstruction of justice, refusing to cooperate,” Judy admonished in return, ignoring Nick’s displeased look. “How do you feel about inaction permitting children to end up as drug abusers?”

Sydney’s expression didn’t change.

“You know, you of all people should know the connections I have, Sydney,” Nick toned to break up the uncomfortable silence. “It wouldn’t take much to drop a word or two and attract a little better crowd down here; you run a clean establishment and that’s a little rarer than the partyers around the city would probably like to admit. In return at least glance at the photo; look, we’re just asking if this guy might have been around recently, we don’t have to say anything to him about you if we find him.”

There was a moment of tense silence, before Sydney sighed. “I’d better see the profit margin in the next couple weeks go up then, Wilde,” he huffed, before holding out his hand to receive the photo. Nick handed it over, and the colugo took a few moments to scan over it before his eyes flickered in recognition; now, had he tried to hide it at all, both Nick and Judy had already caught the change and would have called him out on it.

Instead though, he nodded as he handed the photo back. “Jerome Bagheerson,” he said flatly. “Yeah, I know the face, though the last time he was in here was weeks ago; I thought he’d actually moved up aboveground for his Pfurzer job now. Before you ask, no I didn’t catch any more than that; like I said earlier, I stay neutral. You won’t find much else here, sorry.”

“So he didn’t happen to meet anyone here, or anything else?” Judy asked, receiving a shake of the head from Sydney.

“Nope, always alone,” he replied, before his head turned at the sound of the bells on the front door chiming as it swung in, letting in a pair of small-eared dogs. “If you’ll excuse me, I must attend to other customers at the moment. You know the drill, Wilde.”

As the colugo skittered down to the other end of the counter, Judy took a sip of her drink (finding it surprisingly pleasant as well, though that may have been due to the relative paucity of actual alcohol in it) as she turned to Nick, who similarly downed another gulp of his own drink. “Alright, first off you know we’re not supposed to get drunk on the job, right?” she asked with a slightly disapproving tone.

Nick only laughed. “Don’t worry Carrots,” he replied lightly. “Takes a lot more than this little half-sized bottle to get me more than buzzed, and I know my limits. Besides, there’s a reason I had him whip you up just a daiquiri; it’s polite to have something when you’re at a place like this, you can drive out, and those don’t pack much even at full strength.”

The rabbit rolled her eyes, before taking another sip and regarding her partner again. “Fine. Secondly, looks like this was just a dead-end, since Bagheerson hasn’t been here recently at all, so what’s the next brilliant plan you’ve got?”

“Not entirely fruitless, actually,” Nick disagreed. “Yeah, not within the past few weeks as Sydney said, but we know even back then he was already working for Pfurzer and not entirely quiet about it; even a janitorial position there would’ve probably gotten him enough to shack up in a better apartment in, say, Downtown or Sahara. His move away from here’s fitting a general pattern that a lot of mammals take one way or another. But, that he did come here for a while after he landed that job means we now know where we can next look: there are several joints not too far from here where he could probably get ahold of nip to try and resell it, and finding where he might have been doing business could let us pinpoint his frequent hangouts that were kept down here and places he could still be visiting.”

Judy nodded concession, before stretching her arms. “Well, then, we shouldn’t waste time just sitting around; let’s head out and start checking up on hideouts.”

“Whoa, slow down a bit Carrots,” Nick toned in amusement. “Looks strange if you just bolt from a bar only minutes after you arrive, you know that, right? And besides, you don’t just want the two of us running from one seller’s corner to another, for the same reason.”

“Okay then, so we’ll set up a couple of stakeouts and watch for sellers. Doesn’t mean we can’t start planning now though, preferably before you get any form of tipsy.”

Nick opened his mouth to respond again, before a buzzing in his pocket halted his reply. He quirked an eyebrow as he reached down and pulled out his phone; usually if someone was trying to get ahold of them from the ZPD they’d call Judy to avoid any of Nick’s jokes, so that meant it was probably one of his old friends. Not many of them were much for using phones on a regular basis or just calling to catch up, so the list of possible mammals dwindled to basically one with a reason to contact him.

Sure enough, Finnick’s grumpy muzzle greeted him on the screen, and he quickly accepted the call and held up the phone to his ear. “Hey Fin, what’s new today? Got any good job offers recently or still at that joint in Canyonlands?”

“Nick, for once just shut your muzzle for one damn moment and just listen to me, okay?” Finnick’s deep voice snapped back harshly enough that even Judy caught the full bite of his bark from where she sat.

Nick was used to the fennec’s outwardly surly attitude, but this caught him off guard immediately; Finnick typically started off his side of the conversation with an exasperated huff or some snap at the red fox in his usual “bite your face off” note. He never flat-out told Nick to shut up.

“I’m listening,” Nick said far more softly, holding his phone closer to guard the conversation from outside ears just in case. If Judy couldn’t hear it clearly, they were both assured that no one else would, and he’d relay afterward.

“You and the rabbit get your asses over here to Hyacinth and Kapok,” Finnick responded tersely. “I...I found the leopard you’re lookin’ for, an’ it ain’t good.”

Nick knew that tone from years past, and it sent a chill down his spine; it usually meant the animal in question was in a bad enough way to unsettle even the tough shell of the smaller fox, injured…or worse. “We’ll be there as soon as possible,” he reassured. “Wait there for us if you can. Actually, wait anyway, unfortunately you’re probably going to have to give a statement now.”

“Ain’t got nowhere else to be just yet.” Translation: Finnick definitely had somewhere to be, but the scene was apparently bad enough he wasn’t moving.

The call clicked off, and Nick pocketed his phone, exchanging it for his wallet as he pulled out a couple of bills and tossed them on the counter. Catching Sydney’s eye as he did so, the fox called out, “Keep the change; gotta run,” and jerked his head for Judy to follow as he grabbed his bottle and leapt off his stool. The rabbit, not one to let anything go to waste if she could help it and unable to take her drink with her like Nick, downed what remained of the daiquiri and followed quickly after her retreating partner.

As they pushed out the front door, she finally had a chance to ask as she pulled out her set of keys to their car, “So, what’d Finnick call for?”

“In the car, Carrots,” Nick responded pointedly, his eyes flicking over their surroundings as he swung around to his door. Judy realized the same thing moments later and glanced carefully around as well as she unlocked the vehicle and jumped in herself, hoping no one had heard her slip. Luckily, it seemed not.

As soon as Nick was in and buckling himself down, he turned to look at Judy with a serious expression. “He said he found Bagheerson,” he explained, “and that tone he had meant that our suspect is at the very least badly injured for whatever reason or in a really bad position. So get driving, but, uh, try not to kill us in the process of getting us there, please? I’ll call in the report.”

Judy nodded and stuck the keys into the ignition, firing up the car and spinning them out of their parking spot and onto the road with lights flashing and siren blaring. Nick sucked in a breath and gripped the armrests of his seat, suddenly realizing his mistake: he’d been mostly joking on that first day on the force together about her driving, a she was pretty decent most of the time (save for the instances of road rage Judy suffered from; the flurry of half-curses that exited the lapine’s mouth behind slow drivers drove him to hysterics and fueled her ire further), but when anything of real urgency occurred, Judy’s driving skills became something most street racers would only dream of pulling off. She didn’t consider it life-threatening either, even if everyone else did.

Tearing down the road toward the nearest exit to the surface from the Nox and guided (or perhaps more accurately admonished in the form of panicked yells) by Nick, Judy brought them up out of the underground district in record time and into the eastern edge of the Rainforest District. Unfortunately for the fox, Rainforest was also multiple levels of mostly winding roadways often slick with artificial rain, and the intersection they were heading for was on the opposite end of the district, halfway between Happytown and Canal District. Gulping, he braced himself as best he could while Judy began navigating the roads with incredible (and terrifying) progress.

By the time they reached the quieter region of their destination, on the third (roughly) road level up alongside a massive old tree house, the armrests on Nick’s side had been thoroughly gouged by the tod’s extended claws, and when Judy finally began to slow, he had a hard time releasing his death grip and calming the wide-eyed look of terror he wore. Neither of them realized the sudden takeoff had made Nick forget to call in to dispatch entirely either.

“I-I think you managed to burn out the liquor in me,” he stammered, before clearing his throat. “They should hire you as a professional stunt driver, Carrots; any faster and you’d have made me lose the liquid too.”

“Thanks for the image,” Judy snarked, eyes and ears still forward as she spotted Finnick’s iconic van pulled off to the side of the road, the fox himself leaning uncomfortably against it. That he was not helping bandage an injured mammal, or that there were no ambulances nearby, set both her and Nick’s alarms blaring, but the banter helped her keep calmer in the situation so she continued. “But if your bladder can’t handle my driving when we’re in a hurry, maybe you should have taken a pit stop before we left the bar.”

“No one can handle your driving, Hopps; you even managed to terrify Howlton the one time he was with you while I was still in the Academy, and he’s a speed demon too.”

Judy hid a chuckle, remembering all too well the look on the Arctic Wolf’s face after they’d crossed Savannah in ten minutes flat; she knew maybe she could lay off a bit, but all time was of the essence, right?

She pulled the car over and set it in park, before the pair of them jumped out (or cautiously eased off their seat in Nick’s case) and headed toward Finnick, who noticed immediately the paled expression on the larger fox, and quirked an eyebrow.

“And the hell happened to you, Wilde?” he quipped, pushing away from his van and standing up with his paws in his pockets. “You look like death warmed over.”

“Caught a bad case of psychotic rabbit driver syndrome,” he said, jerking his thumb at a very unapologetic looking Judy.

Finnick nodded slowly, apparently deciding it wisest not to ask further, before glancing off to the side. “Uh huh. Well, realized I should have used a different phrase, because, uh…well, better you saw than I try to explain.” He started walking toward the foliage-covered path that led out toward one of the sparse establishments built into a semi-distant tree, his huge ears twitching with unease. “Had a painting gig set up over here, and was on the path gettin’ an angle so’s I could see what would look best on that wall over there,” he gestured toward the building as he walked. “Looks from a distance is just as important as up close. That’s when I...well, when I found him.”

“You didn’t phone an ambulance or the police directly?” Judy queried, and Finnick sighed.

“Ambulance won’t be much help,” he explained, “and the other’s mostly force o’ habit. I expected you te report in.” He noticed Nick’s sudden guilty look, and sighed again. “And that means we’re waitin’ out here longer for after you do that I see.”

A few more feet up, Finnick stopped, and pushed aside a fern leaf, gesturing past. Nick cautiously took the lead, Judy following close behind, but he didn’t get far before he froze, eyes shooting wide open as every hair on his body puffed straight out.

“Oh,” he said softly, feeling his stomach churn, before he felt Judy starting to step past his outstretched tail to stand beside him. “Uh, Judy, you might-might not want to”-

It was too late though, as Judy had come up next to him and spotted the same scene. She too went wide-eyed, and felt a scream die in her throat at the sight.

They’d found their suspect alright, but it wasn’t a good end to their search, not in the least.

Chapter Text

It was right there all the time

Right underneath your nose

How did you miss it day by day?

You could have grabbed it you were so close

Of course, because you lacked the key

That crucial missing piece

The final cog to crack the case

Without it answers will never release

“Ma’am? I know this is a first for you, but I need your focus so that we can finish up here; the sooner the statements are all down, the sooner you can leave and put this all out of your mind.”

Judy knew that definitely wasn’t going to be the case one way or the other; unless Bogo forcibly removed her and Nick from being part of this investigation (a very long shot considering it was them and their friends who had pulled up more in the way of leads than anyone else tracking the case), she was going to be running over that image for a very long time.

No, scratch that. Even if she was removed from the investigation she was never getting rid of that image. It wasn’t the first body Judy had ever encountered, but it was the first she and Nick had discovered as the leading officers, and probably the worst yet. It was also the first she’d seen that was rather clearly a murder victim. That was something that did not fade from memory quickly.

She looked back up at the statement recorder/sketch artist, a panda who had apparently been loaned down for a time from the 9^th Precinct in the Alpine District, with an apologetic expression; she hadn’t even managed to catch the bear’s name thanks to her current distracted state. It started with E…Ella? Elena? Something.

“Sorry,” Judy apologized, shifting in her seat as she glanced around the little room again. After Finnick’s statement had been taken, and investigators cordoned off the scene, she and Nick had been permitted a night to rest and then told to head back to Precinct One rather than wait at the scene for their statements to be gathered, as Bogo knew all too well the effect of being at the scene himself; better somewhere familiar for the officers, so nothing was skewed by high emotions. “What were you asking?”

“Whereabouts before you got your call from your friend,” the panda reiterated.

Judy nodded, clearing her head and focusing again. “We…we were in the Nocturnal District checking up on possible leads for the victim’s whereabouts; it was a bar I, uh, can’t recall the name of currently.”

“And the cause for searching the leads there?”

“Nip distribution, especially to adolescents, but we suspected there was more going on.” She glanced to the side again. “I guess we were right, looking back.”

The panda nodded, jotting down the info. “Are there any other witnesses to this, or possibly kin to the victim, that you are aware of who we should attempt to contact?”

“I’m afraid not; the victim has no listed relatives, and we haven’t heard of anyone claim they saw or heard anything near the scene though we will probably be asking around.”

“Well then, in that case, I don’t believe I have any more questions for you at this time.” Stacking the notes sitting on the table in front of her, the panda stood up and offered a paw to the rabbit. “I’m truly sorry you had to experience all this, especially so early in your career,” she empathized.

Judy let out a shaky sigh and imitated the gesture, shaking her paw as she gave an uncertain smile in return. “Comes with the territory I’m afraid, so I’d probably better get used to it. Not everything is tickets and drug busts. Thank you though, Miss, uh…”

“Minde,” the panda replied, a knowing smile forming. “Elisheva Minde; forgot my tag this morning so that’s on me. I hope you have a better rest of the day, Hopps.”

“Thanks, you too.”

As she exited the room, Judy spotted Nick almost immediately, leaning up against the wall across the hallway and fiddling with something on his phone as he waited for her per usual. His ears snapped up, followed by his gaze, as the door opened and then closed behind her, and he pocketed his phone before sauntering over to her.

“There you are,” he said lightly, placing a reassuring hand on the back of her shoulder. “Starting to worry they’d keep you in there all afternoon and I’d have to file a missing persons notice for the interview room.” He looked down at her, expression turning more serious. “How are you doing?”

Another sigh escaped the rabbit, and Judy gave a shrug. “Well, can’t say I’m doing great,” she admitted, “what with this happening and then getting no sleep last night because of it, but I could be worse off too. Ugh, I feel like I failed somewhere, like we could have prevented this somehow if we found the right clue.”

“Well, take it from someone who knows,” Nick mused softly. “Sometimes you have to accept that there are things out of your control. But that doesn’t mean you can’t keep trying to prevent anything else from happening where you do have sway; I got a job as an officer thanks to that drive of yours after all.” He paused in his walking for a moment and turned to look at Judy directly when she slowed as well. “But,” he began, “and I’ll attribute this entirely to you making me all soft and weepy so it’s your fault anyway: if you need someone to just vent to over stuff like this, then I’ll be willing to help you out there. My room’s just down the hall from yours, after all.”

The genuine smile and honest look the fox wore made something stir in Judy’s chest, and she couldn’t help but lean forward and grab Nick in a hug that he slowly returned. “Thanks Nick,” she said. “You don’t know how much that means, really.”

Nick chuckled and patted the top of her head half reassuringly, half mockingly. “I might, Carrots,” he replied. “You’ve done the same for me before. But, uh, perhaps we should keep the public hug fests to a minimum; we are still at the precinct after all. And I hate to burst the bubble now, but I got a notice from Bogo that he needs to see the two of us, presently.”

As he released her Judy reluctantly did the same, having enjoyed the warm feeling that came from the embrace and now returning to the more grim present needs of their case. “He’s probably going to let us know we’ve got a new objective for this mess,” she toned. “It’s not a drug bust anymore, it’s a murder investigation.”

“Probably right,” Nick agreed, “but best not to keep ol’ hard-horns waiting.” With a flick of his tail he moved to continue almost casually down the hall toward the chief’s office, Judy right behind him.

Judy’s mind was already poring over the facts long before they reached Bogo’s office of course. Things really didn’t seem to add up, and it bothered her; Bagheerson had been an assistant tech and a sort of secretary for one of the Pfurzer branches, but he was tagged for distributing nip in Sahara, almost a third of the way across the city from the industry complex and the apartment he lived in, and they had found him dead in Rainforest. At least the last bit somewhat matched up, since Happytown wasn’t too far off from there, but Judy had no idea what could have possibly sparked such an act toward a mammal with an otherwise unimpressive background crime-wise.

Nick noted her look out of the corner of his eye, and sighed. “I’m about to see smoke pouring out of those satellite dishes of yours Fluff,” he admonished. “At least wait until we actually talk to Bogo; you know how bad it can be to try and grab conclusions out of the air before you have everything lined up.”

“Oh don’t tell me you’re not perturbed by all this, Nick,” Judy shot back, looking up at him. “Something’s off here.”

“And that’s exactly why I‘m not stressing myself out now; I know there’s a piece missing, and until we find it we might just lead ourselves in circles. We can try and put together circumstance, but we’ve not got much for motive yet.”

They reached Bogo’s door soon enough, and after Nick knocked and the Chief’s gruff voice granted entry, they found themselves settled in one of the oversized chairs once more. Bogo’s expression did not bode well, not necessarily for the two officers facing him but for the case; his grim gaze down at the file he held was showing his age and the silver hairs his years on the force had granted him.

“Normally this early in your careers I would be pulling officers like you, Wilde in particular with only a few solid months under his belt, off of a case like this and handing it to one of the detectives here,” he toned heavily. “But, you two have brought up nearly every lead we have already on your own, from Bagheerson’s time spent in the Nox to his…discovery, in Rainforest, so I’m leaving you two where you are with support from anyone you might need it from. Wilde, I know your past is not actually dredged through Zootopia’s underbelly per se, but you’re the closest thing that we’ve got to an officer with inside knowledge, so any leads you might have on who could have held a motive, or capacity, to do this is needed. That or your contacts. Both of you can investigate areas other officers can’t get into for several reasons; use that to your advantage. I think we all know at this point there is more at play here than a drug trade gone wrong, especially since it was only nip.”

The buffalo held up the file and handed it over to Judy, who took it but didn’t yet open it. “That’s what we have so far on Bagheerson’s background,” he said. “Living quarters for the past several years, criminal background –almost nonexistent- work history, and other associations and details. I know you’re not going to like what I’m going to say next, but I need you both to go down and speak with Dr. Hydell as soon as you possibly can to see if he and his team have been able to unearth anything else in their analysis. Right now, we don’t have much to work with, since Bagheerson himself was our lead.” Another sigh, and Bogo steepled his hooves. “I’ll be honest, I have never seen a death like this in my career.”

He was right: Judy did not like the idea of seeing the coroner and possibly the body again, but she knew it was an unpleasant necessity and so swallowed back the bad taste in her mouth. “We’ll be right on it, Chief,” she said, tucking the file under her arm and jumping off the chair.

Nick paused before following, looking back at the chief with a stoic expression. “I’m not sure how much help I can actually dig up here,” he said, “as I’ve never seen stuff like this either, but I’ll see what I can do.”

“Good luck,” Bogo answered, slipping on his reading glasses as he pulled out another file to start perusing in the meantime. No matter how disturbing any one case was, he knew well there was always another stack of paperwork that needed seeing to as well. Not to mention, he wanted a moment of his own off the case before the next visit the buffalo knew was coming.

When Nick joined Judy in the hall, he ignored her impatiently thumping foot and focused on her mixed expression instead.

“I take it you’re not keen on visiting the domain of the deceased,” he mused with a half-smirk. Deadpan amethyst eyes me his emerald in response.

“You saying you take the thought of seeing…that again as a walk in the park? And you know how Hydell is.”

“Yeah, the only mammal I can’t crack and one of the few who knows he might actually get under my skin.”

“Not exactly what I meant, but sure. Let’s just get this over with, okay?”

They headed off toward the far back of the precinct, narrowly missing a second time the sight of a certain black-striped lagomorph as he slipped past and into the chief’s office, rapidly ending the buffalo’s moment of peace.

The precinct morgue was a place very few mammals would ever call welcoming or enjoyable. The few that did…well, in more ways than one they seemed often like they belonged there anyway.

The hallway down was empty as usual, and nearly as sterile looking as the morgue itself, and Judy fought to repress the shiver that passed down her spine as they slipped beyond the steel doors and plastic ribbons that separated the place from the rest of the building. Immediately the temperature dropped (always kept cold to slow decomposition), enhancing the skin-crawling atmosphere as they walked past currently empty desks where computers and chemistry equipment sat almost haphazardly in a sprawling chaos only those who worked there could decipher (much like Nick’s room, Judy thought absently, minus the whole “vials and needles” thing). Ahead, a section of hallway split off, angling toward where bodies under analysis were kept, and they turned in that direction, Judy lagging slightly so that Nick led the way.

The second room past the front data analysis section, set off to the side of the large hallway there, also appeared empty save for a single steel table in the middle, holding up something covered in a seemingly unblemished white cloth. Judy and Nick both felt their stomachs churn; they knew what (perhaps formerly who) was underneath.

“Dr. Hydell?” Judy called out, looking around the room cautiously. “Are you here?”

No answer, and after a moment Nick shrugged and started to turn around, playing unconcerned but clearly just in a hurry as well to leave. “Must be out on lunch break; don’t know how they can eat after working in here though. What a shame, guess we’ll have to come back lat”-

“’Ello!”

“AAAAHHHH!”

Vulpine and lapine simultaneously launched upward at the sudden accent-laden greeting that emanated from the small mammal at the doorway of the room. He gave an amused chuckle as the two landed again, looking over them with a disconcertingly probing gaze, before skittering into the room past them. “My, it’s like you didn’t even hear me coming!” he laughed, setting a clipboard on a lone desk nearby before shrugging off the coat he was wearing and replacing it with gloves and a plastic body gown. “Bogo told me to expect you here, but I wasn’t thinking immediately; sorry I was out, had to grab analysis results.”

Dr. Nathanael Hydell was a rusty reddish-orange-furred ferret, marked around his eyes by lighter rings of fur along with similarly pale paws and balancing a pair of small spectacles on his snout. He was only just shorter than Judy, but far thinner, and he had a serious knack for finding people’s buttons and pushing them just enough to drive them nuts after an hour or two of exposure, and that was if he liked you. The only mammal Judy knew to rival him in that manner was Nick, and the latter liked joking more than he did any actual hazing unless you frustrated him first. Combining the sense of humor with the awkward north-of-Gnu York accent he bore, Hydell usually gave people more than enough reason just by presence to appreciate the mustelid hanging around down in the back recesses of the precinct most of the time.

“I-I think we should have though the same thing,” Nick huffed, placing a hand on his chest. “One of these days you’re going to give me a genuine heart attack Nate.”

Perfectly in character, Hydell tutted at Nick’s quip as he snapped his second glove on and bolted toward the cloth-covered table. “None of that here Wilde; I don’t need two bodies to examine in one day,” he admonished with a crooked grin, in a tone that was cheerfully out of place as usual.

“So did you find anything yet?” Judy asked, ignoring the awkward back-and forth and eyeing the clipboard she knew held an array of data she would never be able to decipher.

Just like that, Hydell was off the banter and immediately in work mode as he shook his head, scampering up onto the table. “Unfortunately no,” he answered, looking as well over at the clipboard. “DNA samples only match him, and there aren’t any other traces large enough to sequence with any reliability. No prints were present, or other distinctive marks left behind either that we can reliably identify, one downside of being mostly covered in fur. What makes that worse is that it means we have no answers for this either, other than speculation.”

The ferret lifted off the edge of the cloth without warning, unveiling part of the body, and Judy winced and turned away for a moment before gathering her resolve and looking back.

Bagheerson was only just still recognizable as himself, in nearly the exact same condition as he had been when Finnick had found him on the path save for a handful of visible incisions made by either Hydell or his currently absent colleagues as part of the routine autopsy. The leopard was almost flattened, limbs jointed where they shouldn’t have been and spread out unnaturally like they’d been pressed under some grand weight, and though his head was turned away (for which both officers were thankful) Judy and Nick were sure it still held the same fearful, open-eyed gaze it had had before.

Most prominent, however, was the leopard’s chest and neck; they too were somewhat flattened like the rest of the body, but more important were a series of four perfectly straight, black gashes that ran across the mammal’s entire front, carving deeply enough to have certainly split bone and severed major arteries and veins. They looked like claw marks, but at the same time too straight, too clean, and definitely too not-natural to have been made by any other mammal’s paws.

“Trauma signs suggest he was dropped from a pretty fair height,” Hydell commented, breaking the two officers out of their stupor at the sight of the body as he pointed out the obvious appearance of a hard impact. “Fractures and organ damage –bruising and such- are all the result of a passive impact however, no signs of tensing up or conscious attempts to slow the fall, so he was definitely dead before he was dropped, pushed, or whatever may have occurred. I’d bet he was pushed or dropped off the top of one of the trees in the area as the fall was at least a hundred feet or more. However, this was almost certainly the prior cause of death here.”

He gestured with a paw over the gashes. “This occurred before the fall, lacerating the jugular and carotid and cutting through both the ribs and sternum; cauterization occurred almost simultaneously, and the shock alone probably pushed him into cardiac arrest almost the moment the injury was received.”

“Do you have any idea what could have caused wounds like that?” Judy asked.

Hydell shook his head, leaning down to examine the gashes more closely with a pensive frown. “Never seen anything like it before,” he admitted. “I would have thought a large predator might have clawed him with the orientation and size of the gashes, since the two in the middle are longer than the outer wounds, but the clean cuts look like the work of an extremely sharp blade; even sharpened claws, and they would have to be very large claws at that for this level of damage, would leave a more jagged mark behind. I would imagine some weapon designed to act like a large paw.”

The ferret stood up straight again and adjusted his glasses as he looked at his audience critically, making Judy cringe inside. “What baffles me though is the cauterization here,” he said. “It takes an incredible amount of heat to immediately sear flesh closed so that no blood escapes, especially when they’re this deep. We took samples that revealed that the depth of the burns extends a full inch below the wound surface; that kind of temperature would weaken most metals until they broke on contact as well, so if this was a weapon it wasn’t standard grade steel, copper, etcetera.”

“So we might need to look for a large mammal with access to some very specialized resources,” Nick mused. “A metalworker or technician perhaps, someone with the know-how to build a contraption that could manage this or the money to pay someone else to. What kind of devices could carry heat like that without burning the wielder though?”

“Hey, I’m just a coroner, not a metallurgist or mechanic,” Hydell quipped, scuttling off to the side of the body. “That’s the stuff you guys find out. One more thing though, also found on initial observation and it appears that they were present before he was dropped. Look here.”

As he tilted the body up (an impressive feat for the small mammal), he revealed three small holes in the leopard’s tattered shirt, underneath which were matching shallow punctures.

“Looks like someone grabbed him in a vice or clamp of some sort,” Hydell said, “since they’re present on the other side too. Might have been what they used to hold him still so they could kill him.”

“They’ve got a lot of resources then, or some very specific ones,” Judy said quietly. “I…I don’t think all this was done near the crime scene though; that would have been a lot of equipment to haul around without being noticed, especially for any mammal large enough to be able to handle something like that.” She looked up to Nick. “We should head back to the scene though, see if we can dig up any other clues or maybe find out where he was tossed from. Come on.”

“Hey, when you head out, put that clipboard by the third computer out if you could please?” Hydell called, pointing to the board he’d dropped at the desk nearby. “Tindel’s gotta enter the data while I prep the body. Sure you don’t want to stick around and watch though? It’s a fascinating process.”

“Aaannd that’s our cue,” Nick said abruptly, turning heel and grabbing the clipboard as he ushered Judy out. “You have fun with that Nate, but we’ve got a case to look into and people to interview. See ya!”

They scurried out of the room followed by Hydell’s amused, somewhat twisted chuckling, placing the clipboard at the designated desk space before exiting the morgue altogether. Judy shook herself to get rid of lingering traces of creep-feeling as she glanced back.

“Yep, hate going down there,” she huffed. “I’m all for my job, good for him he’s all for his, but…”

“Makes you feel like he’s analyzing you at the same time,” Nick finished. “I get that too; guy looks at everyone like they’re the next victim. Well, let’s not dally on that thought there Fluff; we’ve got a crime scene to revisit. But uh, first I need a coffee; I can already tell tonight’s going to be a long night.”

“You can actually manage to think about food and drinks right after being in there?” Judy asked incredulously. “Gee, what would you do without your coffee?”

“Life in the underground gives you a strong stomach. Besides, don’t want to throw off my rhythm without a boost.”

“Hey, weren’t you complaining just a few mornings ago about being nocturnal?”

“Eh, details, details.”

Jack left the precinct doors shortly after his own visit to the morgue, papers and pictures under paw and a dark glower resting under his fedora. The info he’d garnered this round about the new developments did not help at all; Bagheerson was the one lead they’d had some solid info on, and now his death left an empty hole where there should have been a trail.

Bogo had not been happy at all to see him either, that was no surprise, but he had not been shocked the lapin had shown up. He’d been even less happy to hear from Jack about how the dead mammal had removed any easy means of tracking down whatever or whoever was behind this. The buffalo had told Jack in no vague manner that he was not in a patient mood any more to deal with both him and the mess of this case, and it was only a hopeful promise that maybe similar cases from Jack’s previous endeavors or his association’s archives might provide a clue that that kept Bogo from kicking the rabbit out of his office.

The visit to the morgue had only worsened Jack’s mood. Never mind the coroner’s off-putting personality; Bagheerson was a truly disturbing sight to behold, flattened from a high fall and scarred by those infernal seared gashes as he was. Though Jack had a wider experience with animals and technology than just what was present in Zootopia, he was hard-pressed to connect the murder style with anything he had ever been familiarized with. However, there was something about this mess that rang a bell somewhere, and it infuriated him that he could not put his finger on it yet. He needed info from the AOMISDOPS database, pronto.

An equally rusty and inconspicuous looking car to the one he’d ridden in on his first trip to the precinct this round was waiting in the parking lot outside, though thankfully this one had air-conditioning in it; no more baking like a pastry when he had to wait around in the metal box. Jack unlocked the door and slid into the driver’s seat, turning on the aforementioned climate control before pulling out his phone and dialing in a number he knew by muscle memory. A couple of rings later, and his partner’s voice came in over the line sounding almost as grim as he felt. No surprise, she was the one dealing with everything in the background so she had tapped into the news first.

“How bad is it?”

“Looks like he was pushed off a tree and fell a couple hundred feet, and there are cauterized gashes deep enough to split his ribs like nothing I can clearly recall seeing before.”

“So…really bad.”

“To put it mildly. They put the rabbit and fox cops on as basically the heads of the investigation though, so they may dig up something useful as time goes on, but if Bagheerson was actually involved with the group we’re trying to find then we’re probably going to have to go back into the archives to find any similarities in past cases that we can use here, and we’ll probably have to watch the officers to make sure they don’t get caught in the firing line if things go south.”

“Hopps and Wilde, huh? My, the irony. You have info to send so that I can start cross-referencing? I’m not telepathic you know.”

‘Yes, yes, hold on one moment if you will.”

Jack pulled out another mobile device, this one not so much a phone as an interfacing camera. He held up the photos he’d garnered one by one, capturing them digitally again and sending them to his partner, followed by the background files on Bagheerson.

“Should be coming in now,” he said. “Do these gashes look familiar to you at all? I could not for the life of me say what might have caused them but I could swear I’ve at least heard of something like them being reported.”

The voice on the other end of the phone line hmmd for a moment, before she replied with a tinge of revulsion. “Can’t say I’ve ever seen that before –and you’re right, that is incredibly disturbing- but something about it does ring a bell. Hold on a minute while I check the database.”

The sound of claws on a keyboard came through the phone, and Jack absentmindedly began tapping his own digits against the armrest of his seat, observing his surroundings as a second nature. Evening was falling, so his eyesight wouldn’t be great for very long outside the reach of the streetlights, but right here he didn’t see much he thought he should worry about. What mammals were still moseying around were mostly heading home for the night, or out to some entertainment venue, and right by the police department shady types weren’t likely to linger. Everything that worried Jack was in the precinct itself nearby, lying on a table as a creepy red ferret prepped him for a final resting place.

Finally, and answer came in as his partner gave a huff that he couldn’t decipher as positive or negative. “Well, it’s not an exact match, but we’ve got something at least,” she said. “An okapi from about ten years ago or so over in South Africa was found with a singular cauterized slash across his neck. Could be a modification off of whatever that weapon was that was used here.”

South Africa; Jack cursed under his breath at the mention of the location. Of course, somehow his partner still heard it, and gave a faux-disbelieving gasp.

“My, Savage, what language! I take it you remember what was going on there that year now, don’t you?”

“The carvings, yes, shortly before they vanished; and I’ve heard you swear before, you have no grounds to call me out. Well, if we wanted evidence that it’s the same group behind this then I think we’ve got it, but we need to find out what kind of mammal would be strong enough to make a mark like that, and what the weapon is. Ten years and we still don’t know, but it’s clearly been getting upgraded.”

“Perhaps you should actually go talk with the officers on the case; I know you read their files same as I, they have the skills to spot things we might miss even if they’re still a little wet behind the ears.”

“I was already planning to,” Jack agreed, turning on the car fully as he began to back out of his parking space. “The coroner suggested they might be heading to the location they found Bagheerson now to look for evidence, which is as good a start as any here. I’ll head over there now.”

“You have your sidearm with you, in case someone was left to get rid of nosy investigators?”

“You know I never leave without it, and thanks for the reassuring thought.”

“Just checking. Anything else from the coroner that could prove of use?”

“Other than I would prefer not to encounter him in the morgue again? Creepy little weasel, no wonder he’s got that job.”

A chuckle responded, before Jack sighed. “Not a thing,” he continued. “Bagheerson’s body was nearly spotless of any really damning evidence other than how he died; we need another way in, and soon. Leanne get any further on the chemical analysis?”

“Still inconclusive.”

“Damn. Alright, I’ll get back to you after I speak with the officers and case out the area myself. Savage out.”

He ended the call and sped off down the street toward Rainforest, trying to ignore the almost worried tone of his partner, where she wasn’t joking to try and lighten the mood. They were close, but it was dangerous to form anything more than basic friendships in their line of work; Bagheerson’s condition was proof enough of the risks there were. Instead, Jack focused on the two cops he needed to speak with; they had potential too, but they could also be getting involved in things they definitely were not ready for either here. The animals he believed were behind this were careful and didn’t pull punches, which made this all the more concerning to him: now that he thought about it, if they wanted to just get rid of the leopard then none of them would have ever heard of him again. That the police had found Bagheerson in the city…there was a message here, and Jack needed to decipher it before someone else got hurt, or worse, by this mess.

Chapter Text

Enjoy it while it lasts

Your top rung in the scheme

For nature turneth fast

And your standing turns to dreams

You rode the highest heights

Unmatched you saw your fame

Till another proved your piteous might

And hunter changed within the game

Evening was fast approaching, but the fading sun did little to faze the pair stepping out of the cruiser and into the light drizzle falling on the Rainforest District. Judy had her flashlight and phone, as well as her hearing to make up for her shortcomings, and Nick could see in the dark, so night time was no hindrance to them.

However, the precipitation pattering Judy’s ears did irritate her slightly, making her twitch and shake the floppy appendages a lot more than normal as she tried to rid them of the excess moisture.

“Wouldn’t be the rainforest without rain I guess, would it?” she muttered, clomping toward the cordoned-off crime scene.

Nick overheard her and snickered as he followed behind, shaking himself a little more vigorously once and then taking the falling water in stride. “It’s not that bad, is it Fluff?” he asked lightly. “Early shower, and on the way back you can enjoy the delectable perfume of wet canine.”

“Maybe I’ll make you ride in the trunk if that’s the case.”

“What, are you saying you don’t enjoy it? Should be seen as a badge of honor!”

“It’s the mark of a fox who forgot his umbrella, more like.”

“Ouch, low blow. Alright, so back to business: did they find any other prints around the body while they had the forensics people out here?”

“Not those besides ours and Finnick,” Judy answered, sweeping aside the ferns and glancing at the tape strung out around the path. There was still an indent in the earth where the leopard had landed, and she shuddered at the reminder (and the imagined sound of him hitting ground) before stepping forward again into the space and looking around to get a more solid hold on their bearings. “So whoever left him here didn’t come down to check if their job was done, whatever the purpose was. What’s down below?”

She carefully moved away from the center of the bridge and shifted the dripping leaves aside to reach the path’s edge, disturbingly lacking in guardrails or other safety features to prevent falling off. Below, two more levels of streets snaked by, wider and more plant-filled than the one they had driven in on, and then the actual forest floor was bottomed out by a series of shallow creeks that meandered through the foliage, not really hidden by the short trees and plants bordering the roads and waterways below and so leaving a clear view all the way down.

Nick glanced over the edge as well behind Judy, gulping slightly at the long way down, before speaking. “Well, if they were trying to make him fall all the way to the bottom then there would be better places to throw him off than above us here,” he mused. “Eight out of ten times he’d land on one of those road bridges or walk paths, and he’d be even more noticeable there. Dropping him so he’d end up here was probably deliberate then.” He rubbed his chin, and took another shaky glance over. “And even if he went all the way down, those streams are rock-bottomed so he wouldn’t sink and disappear; passers-by would have noticed him, or during heavy rain the water would probably flush him down to the next big river, which runs right by Pawski’s Diner.”

“So they almost certainly tried to make him hit here,” Judy affirmed, backing up and stepping out of the plants surrounding them to get a look at the rest of the area. “The location right where we’re standing  is not very well traveled, so maybe they needed a drop that just gave them enough time to run before he was discovered. Finnick found him when scouting that building there,” she pointed to where the smaller fox had mentioned his painting job was intended to be, “but anyone looking from that direction wouldn’t necessarily see much. Uh…”

The rabbit pivoted, taking in the surroundings, and affirmed again the rather sparse level of construction altogether in this spot. A few houses and such were present, but all of them had their main windows facing elsewhere, toward better views, and businesses other than the little shop Finnick was working on were almost none. Above them, only one more road level passed by, from which vines and flowering rhododendrons blocked the view of where they stood from anyone passing on that street.

“Well, looks like unless they were watching right when Bagheerson actually fell past,” she sighed, “no one would have seen it. There goes that hope.” Her foot began thumping rapidly in her frustration, before she caught Nick watching in amusement and stopped with a huff. “Best bet is someone heard something off two nights ago, but that’s a long shot and probably not going to lead to much.”

“Might be better to look around where he may have been tossed from then,” Nick suggested, pointing his thumb up. Towering above them and arching out over the road was the nearest tree, a walk path carved into its side and snaking upward amongst the vines into the top branches where undoubtedly there were bridges and platforms that acted like lookout points for maintenance workers, access to one of the sprinkler heads that gave the district its rain most of the time (and Judy noticed in passing with some relief that the drizzle was starting to taper off), or a relaxation spot for smaller mammals looking to get away from the city for a time.

“That’s the most likely spot up there,” Nick continued. “The branches are nearly right over where we’re standing, and at night anyone actually up there would probably be hidden from view by anyone who might be below.”

“Good idea,” Judy agreed, turning at once to head back so they could access the tree’s path. “Come on then, no wasting time.”

The road from which the now-blocked bridge holding the crime scene extended off ran right alongside the trunk of their tree of interest, a short bridge connecting it to the steps running up the side of the massive plant. Judy crossed it and began bounding upward with ease and lack of concern per her usual enthusiasm; Nick followed behind somewhat more slowly and with great appreciation for the fact that there was a handhold this time to prevent falling. He typically wasn’t one to actually fear heights, but his first sting with Judy and their experience near the sky trams had been etched pretty firmly in his mind. Were he to help it, there would never be any repeats of that night.

“Come on slow poke!” Judy called from up ahead, slowing and glancing down at her partner as he carefully climbed up the steps. He paused in response and gave her a look she couldn’t quite read from that distance.

“Some of us want to avoid breaking their necks, Carrots,” Nick quipped back, resuming his pace. “Not all of us can just throw caution to the wind when we’re two hundred feet off the ground already, and climbing up stairs covered in algae and –ack!”

He sputtered as a load of water spilled off a leaf somewhere above him and drenched his face. “Plegh! Add getting an impromptu face wash to the list too! Wasn’t the rain bad enough?”

“Oh suck it up,” Judy chided, not feeling particularly remorseful as she calmly sidestepped a drenching of her own. “I recall it wasn’t five minutes ago you were telling me it wasn’t that bad, remember? Come on, still a ways up and I don’t think either of us want to be out here all night!”

“Ugh, you go on ahead Energizer; I’ll catch up, don’t worry.”

The rabbit huffed and shook her head, before turning around again and continuing to jog upward, though at a slower pace than before so she wouldn’t leave her partner behind entirely. Nick, for his part, watched her disappear around the trunk, smirking as her puffball of a tail bounced with part enthusiasm, part irritation with him. She’d strangle him if he said it out loud, but the view was adorable, and perhaps in some small part one reason why he didn’t mind lagging behind.

As the path wound its way up around the trunk, Judy glanced out into the jungle beyond, noting the lights filtering through the trees from the denser regions further in toward the city center. It gave her an odd feeling, knowing so many mammals lived nearby but an incident like this could still occur and go almost entirely unnoticed. Dark thoughts seeped in about what other atrocities could have occurred around the city and gone completely missed thanks simply to the design of the sprawling metropolis; most of the city was built to reflect natural biomes after all, and places like Rainforest and the Nox certainly had a thousand locations to hide from prying eyes what one didn’t want seen.

It was one reason why each district had its own specialized precinct trained to deal with the issues of each region (save Little Rodentia, as Judy was still the smallest official officer and the place was policed by volunteer groups and folks like Mr. Big; thieves thought twice before causing mayhem in any place watched by the mobster), in addition to its being needed simply for the size of the city. The officers of Precinct One were adaptable and could monitor any of the districts as needed, working with the other branches, but to actually keep everything in order, one needed mammals who knew their zone like the back of their paw.

Those distracting thoughts were not helping Judy at the moment though, so she shook her head and focused upward as her mind turned back to only the case at hand. Larger branches were beginning to split off from the main trunk, and Judy took the one that led out to above the path where Bagheerson had been found, paying a little more attention to the guardrails than before as the walkway narrowed with the branch.

Breaking through the canopy, the rabbit gave a sigh of relief as she walked up onto the first platform, taking in a refreshing deep breath filled with the scent of flowers. The spreading branches of the tropical trees helped to trap a fair amount of the heat and humidity below, so once one passed the leafy layer the air cooled, a slight breeze running past taking away the stifling temperatures and the view stretching out across the tops of the forest canopy. Without any natural storms coming through, only the weather produced by the odd cycling of the city was present; clouds condensed and gathered only near the Alpine District rising up from the forest in the distance, leaving clear skies for those few mammals out and about to enjoy, Judy included.

Above her, a half-moon was making its way across the sky, adding to the ambient light alongside the glow of the city as the last of the sun’s rays disappeared beyond the horizon and leaving everything in a silvery cast. In this clearer, seemingly calmer environment, Judy had a moment to start organizing her thoughts better on the case as she walked across the platform she stood on to the bridge connecting to the second, further out and more directly above the crime scene.

There was a very specific size class, she reasoned, that could have actually pulled this part of the murder off. The bridges and platforms were strong, but not designed to hold anything larger than, say, tigers or bears, and even that was pushing it up here. Any mammal that could have carried Bagheerson up here to finish the job couldn’t have surpassed the weight limit when combined with the leopard, so they were looking at a medium-range mammal as their suspect class. Unfortunately, that was still a lot of characters to sort through.

“Or,” she mused to herself, “it’s more than one mammal behind this; whoever might be strong enough to cause that kind of damage and an accomplice to get rid of the body. But, why would they”-

“Having all the fun without me up here, are we?” Nick said suddenly, chuckling slightly as Judy jerked in surprise at his having managed to get so close to her without being heard. “Should keep those ears on and working all the time there Fluff. What if someone else had wandered their way up here to cause mischief?”

“Well, then I would have expected my partner to be nearby and ready to help me rather than trying to scare the living daylights out of me,” Judy shot back as she calmed down, though she had to fold her ears down to hide the slight flush of embarrassment she felt at being so lost in her own head. “And now that you’re up here, you can put that night vision of yours to work looking for clues where I can’t see.”

“Yes ma’am,” Nick tutted. “Must be terrible, being a blind bunny in the dark.”

“Blind bunnies can still punch, Nick.”

“Always so violent,” he chuckled, beginning to traverse the platform and looking closely at the scene to try and tease out anything of use. “What were you muttering about a moment ago, by the way?”

“Oh, who we might be looking for,” Judy said, ignoring the jab at her hit-happy attitude as she turned on her flashlight and began sweeping it across the railing by her. “If it’s only one mammal, then they’re probably medium-sized like Bagheerson himself and really strong for their size to make damage like that on another mammal, even if wielding a weapon. Or, we might be dealing with multiple suspects, one muscle to finish the deed and the other the accomplice to get rid of the evidence.”

Nick hummed in agreement, peering closely at the wood near the edge of the platform. “I’d probably bet on the latter,” he said. “Easier to throw the authorities off if you’ve got different mammals working on different aspects of the job, and if one is caught it’s easier for the rest to pack up and disappear. Oh hey, might have something here; there’s a little fluffy tuft of something caught on the board.”

Judy walked over and knelt down, shining her flashlight at the spot Nick pointed out. Sure enough, there was something fluttering in the breeze, so she pulled out the pair of tweezers and an evidence baggie from the back pouch on her belt to store it away.

“I’m not so sure this is fur though,” she mused as she picked it up, looking closely at the object before shrugging and dropping it into the bag. “On the other hand, I’m not familiar with the fur of every mammal out there, so who knows?”

“I’m not seeing any other marks up here though,” Nick mused, his ears lowering as he padded on down the platform’s edge, keeping a paw on the guardrail. “There should be scuff marks if Bagheerson was dragged up here, maybe even claw marks, even if only shallow, from anyone who was dealing with the weight.”

As he shuffled along, Judy pursed her lips and hopped up to sit on the inner edge of the sloping rail, rolling her thoughts over as she turned off her light to save the battery. “Something doesn’t add up here though,” she said, “and I don’t mean why someone murdered him which is another mess entirely. The body was dropped somewhere where it wouldn’t be found for a day or two at least, but it wasn’t gotten rid of somewhere that would have made sure he remained unfound. That path is used at least sporadically by the mammals that live around here after all.”

“I was wondering the same thing actually,” Nick agreed, pausing as he leaned against the railing and glancing over at his partner, trying to ignore the worry that ran through him at seeing her balancing up there; for a moment, his mind wandered though, seeing her sitting up almost casually and swinging her legs out from the railing in the silvery moonlight. Yep, adorable even when she’s all pensive and frustrated; great backdrop too, like a cliché romance flick right before the guy walks up and kisses –whoa, whoa, whoa Nick where is your head going?! Focus!

He shook his head and cleared his throat awkwardly, tugging at his collar as he forced his mind back onto the topic at hand. “Uh...i-it’s like whoever dropped him there wanted him found eventually, but why escapes me. And if that’s true, why not just leave him on the side of one of the nearby roads instead? Only slightly higher traffic in these parts, and you’d need someone who would actually take the time to stop and investigate. Discovery time would be about the same.”

“And why drag him up to the top of the tree here just to throw him off again?” Judy added, oblivious to Nick’s stumbling moment as she gestured her hands around them. “Same effect could also have been achieved from one of the roads as well. What’s the point? None of this makes any sense!”

They both let out a simultaneous huff and looked out over the forest absently, ears twitching as they caught the sounds of the city and insects in the trees around them. This case was going nowhere fast, and had no answers they could just easily dig up like there had been in the Night Howler debacle. At least there things had kept leading from one bit of evidence to the next, (mostly out of sheer luck), but here? They were traipsing in circles.

“I’m worried this might turn out to be some sort of publicity stunt type of thing,” Nick said lowly. Turning and seeing the odd look on his partner’s face, he elaborated. “Well, there are some mammals twisted enough that they find enjoyment in hurting others and then making the public aware of it,” he explained. “If someone is killed in a spectacular, unusual fashion it’s often the work of a sadist. But, uh, if that ends up being the case, then we’ll probably be seeing more mammals being killed in the same way, and the profilers in the ZBI will probably have to be called in before someone like that ever gets caught.”

“Oh, that’s horrible!” Judy exclaimed, shuddering. “I really don’t want to think about finding more mammals like Bagheerson was. It would be like that case years ago with the Sahara Serial. Gosh I hope it doesn’t come down to that, because I…”

She trailed off, ears perking up slowly and twitching back and forth as she began glancing around, confusion rolling onto her face.

Nick noticed, and his own ears went up as his lips pursed worriedly. “Uh, Judy? What’s wrong?”

“Sshh, you hear that?” she said quietly.

Nick went silent and strained his ears for a few moments, before he shook his head. “Nnooo, can’t say that I…wait.” He spoke too soon, as the sound became audible to him, if only barely. It sounded almost like wind rushing over the trees, but it was extremely faint and a lot smoother than the noise of rustling leaves. It grew ever so slightly louder, as if it were seemingly getting nearer, and as best as Nick could tell it seemed to be coming from somewhere above them rather than at their level from the trees. There were no roads anywhere higher, and planes left shore-side Savannah, not over the Rainforest, so…

Judy’s head turned first, her more sensitive ears pinpointing the direction of the sound, but even with the light of the moon and the city she couldn’t spot anything. Nick followed her gaze, and his sharper eyes picked out a shape growing larger in the dark sky, rushing straight toward them.

“What the heck is…?” he began to ask, before it came close enough to discern the details: folded wings with feathers ruffling along them and creating the sound, an angular head with large eyes glaring right at the two of them, and a scowling, hooked beak leading the way right above a pair of huge talon-tipped feet swung forward and ready to pounce.

“Judy look out!” Nick screamed, leaping up and launching himself toward where the rabbit was still perched on the railing, but she’d finally also figured out that there was a large something hurtling their way and had leapt up to dive onto the platform at the same time. Thus, all the fox accomplished was slamming clumsily into his partner and knocking both of them off balance. He fell forward onto his front against the wooden boards as Judy teetered the other way, both of them falling just out of the path of the bird as it swept by but the backwash of its wings flaring out knocking Judy the rest of the way off the railing, falling past the edge.

Nick’s voice broke when he tried to scream again, and he desperately lunged forward between the wider bottom slats of the railing, grabbing Judy by her back paw as she fell. The momentum yanked at his arm painfully and dragged him out slightly further, and he barely caught himself on the railing with his legs and other free hand, leaving him dangling out over the edge in open air with Judy swinging precariously from his grip.

In a sudden flash, Nick realized they were in a perfect reversal of that night with Manchas, with him now preventing the two of them from falling to their deaths. He felt his muscles already beginning to burn from the strain and awkward position, and let out a groan as he craned his head back up to try and figure out where the bird that had attacked them had gone.

Not very far, apparently. The eagle (Nick could tell at least that much, from the head shape and talons it had) was massive, the wingspan no doubt nearly three times Nick’s height and broad as his tail was long, and it was banking back around for another pass, eyes fixed solely on them.

“Jud-urgh-Judy!” Nick gasped, looking back down at his partner. “C-can you grab anything to climb up? I’m slipping, and I can’t hold on much longer!”

A piercing shriek from the oversized bird punctuated the desperation of his situation, drawing closer again as it began to circle higher for a dive.

Judy glanced around frantically, but the platform they’d been on stuck well out from the tree; there was nothing nearby to grab, and nothing between her and the path a hundred fifty feet below. If Nick was slipping and the bird was heading back for them…

A breeze blowing by caused the rustling leaves of a thick vine-laden branch a short ways off to her side to catch her attention, and Judy rapidly made up her mind.

“Nick, swing me toward the tree and let me go,” she ordered.

Nick’s eyes widened in disbelief. “What?! The hell will I let you go!” he snapped, before his gaze turned toward the eagle again, its wings pumping powerfully as it set up for another stoop.

“Nick, either let me go or hold on tight and drop with me!” Judy demanded again. “Either way, swing me toward the tree, now!”

Nick froze on indecision; he’d just told himself that he would do everything he could to prevent that night near Tujunga from happening again, but here they were in the same damn spot.

But, he was not going to let Judy go, he knew that much. Another call from the eagle made his ears splay back, and Judy’s eyes widened as she spotted the giant bird silhouetted against the moonlight, dropping down toward them at a frightening speed.

Nick’s feet suddenly gave slightly, making them both jolt.

“Nick, now!!” Judy screamed.

The fox stopped thinking, and in that instant simply let himself slip, angling as best he could toward the tree. They both felt gravity take over and dropped away from the platform just as the eagle sped by a second time, screaming in frustration as its talons carved across empty air and the wooden railing instead of biting into cloth and fur.

Judy went on automatic, jerking herself and Nick toward the tree, and reached out with both paws toward the extended branch she’d spotted as Nick clamped with both his paws onto her legs. Her fingers brushed vegetation, and she grabbed onto it as hard as she could.

The branch slipped by, their momentum too much to actually stop, but Judy managed to snag one of the vines hanging below, holding on fiercely even as she groaned at the weight of herself and Nick holding her pulling her down, friction yanking strands and tufts of fur from her hands as she skidded down the length of the vine.

Judy ignored the pain however, her heart pounding wildly as she clamped her mouth closed to prevent yelling from the slide. Soon, they began to slow to the point where she could control their descent down the vine, and she glanced around, trying to get her bearings.

“Judy, please tell me you caught something!” Nick pleaded, his eyes tightly shut as he hugged her legs, and Judy glanced down at him and then past him to the road below, the one up from where they’d parked.

“Yeah, we’re good now,” she said through gritted teeth. “But we’re not done. Gonna have to drop the last ten feet or so, so get ready!”

Nick let out a sigh of relief before opening his eyes and looking down, seeing the road approaching fast but definitely at a slower rate than if they were freefalling. “Y’know, I said I’d never let that night with Manchas happen again,” he said shakily, “but here we are. I’m hanging on to you again as we fall down vines in the rainforest.” He gave a nervous laugh, before tilting his head upward again for a moment, looking for their attacker. For a few seconds, the bird appeared to have disappeared, but the haunting shriek it had echoed off the trees again only a breath later, telling them they weren’t alone yet.

They reached the end of the vine, and Nick let go of Judy and pushed away, landing on the side of the road below in a crouch as Judy followed, rolling to her feet and wincing as she glanced at her hands, the spots where her fur had been removed by the friction of their descent a hundred feet down the vine showing through in spots of swollen red and even flecks of blood. That could be taken care of later though, and she looked over at Nick with severity.

“We need to get out of here,” she said, and the fox nodded his fervent agreement.

“Call for backup,” he said, “just in case. I don’t think the bird up there is gone just yet.”

“You’re right, I’m not!” a sing-song, dark feminine voice called out from above, bringing both their heads whirling around to see the eagle coast around from behind the trunk of the tree toward them, wings flaring again as she began to circle her quarry. “You two have made this so very difficult already, so if you could kindly just stand still for a moment then this will be all over far more quickly and painlessly. Well, painlessly for me at least.”

She dove again, but this time Judy was caught less off balance, pulling her tranquilizer gun from her belt and drawing a bead on the avian, squeezing the trigger.

The dart flew straight and true, but the eagle tucked her wings and rolled effortlessly, making it skew harmlessly past and into the darkness. Then the bird flared her wings and dropped, grabbing at the rabbit again and catching her ear in a glancing blow as Judy ducked and rolled away just barely in time. The pain from the scratch wasn’t enough to throw her off, but it was enough to make her realize she probably couldn’t just duck out of the way indefinitely; she was fast, but so was the raptor.

Nick was in motion already as well, running  by and grabbing Judy by the arm as he dashed down the road, pulling her up to her feet and then alongside him.

“Time to go, time to go, time to go!” he yelled, the two of them dashing toward the sloping exit ramp that led down from the road they were on to the one where their cruiser was parked. Judy holstered her gun, getting the feeling suddenly that it wasn’t going to be much use against this antagonist who was clearly well experienced in flight and evasive tactics (not to mention that it would need to be reloaded first, something they didn’t have time for), and instead turned to speak into the radio transceiver on her shoulder.

“Clawhauser, come in!” she called urgently. Silence answered her, and she groaned. “Oh, not again –whoa!”

She and Nick dropped flat to the ground as the eagle swept past them again, Nick being forced to roll to the side as the raptor’s claws bit into the dirt and asphalt a hair’s breadth from his shoulder. He attempted to spin and aim a kick at her, but the eagle was already up and away by the time he had his feet back, leaving them only the option of scrambling to their feet and taking off again.

“Sweet cheese and –Dispatch, answer already!!”

“Aaahh!” came the shocked yell of one tubby cheetah on the other end of the line, clearly having been distracted before noticing the blinking light on his receiver. “Sorry Hopps! What’s the problem!”

“Clawhauser, this is a 10-33, we need backup at Hyacinth now! Wilde and I are being chased by an eagle with intent to harm, and my dart gun has proved useless!”

“An eagle?”

“Yes, a freaking eagle! Get someone down here!”

“Oh, on it, on it! Stay by your radio, do you copy?”

“Copy, just hurry!”

The two of them skidded down the connecting ramp and turned the corner, bolting for their cruiser and what they thought would be safety; after all, the vehicle was built to withstand even a hit from a rhino, let alone a bird. They got halfway across the road past the path before slowing to a halt, looking with despair at the sight that greeted them.

“Oh God, we’re stranded,” Nick exclaimed, ears and tail drooping in tandem.

The cruiser was a mess; all four tires were slashed, deep gashes ran through the doors, and the windshield was shattered by several puncture marks, no doubt made by the eagle that was circling high above. The car definitely wasn’t going to be going anywhere any time soon.

An amused chuckling drifted down from above, and the two officers turned to see the eagle come to land on a fizzling lamp post, shrouded in darkness herself but able to see them below all too well.

“Tsk, tsk, I told you, might as well stop running and make this easy,” she taunted. “You can try and evade me for as long as you want, but you can’t outrun me, and I can glide for long after you’ll tire out.”

“Are you the one behind Bagheerson’s death?” Judy snapped, glaring at the eagle and trying not to let the dread she felt show by demanding answers instead.

The eagle let out another laugh, ruffling her wings. “Behind it? Oh no, I’m just the delivery service,” she crooned.

There it was: the answer to how the leopard had ended up where he was, and how he’d fallen so far without anyone noticing him being dragged up the tree. Worse, it was confirmation of their other fear: someone else was working behind this too.

Nick’s blood ran cold at a third dark thought as well: this bird was strong enough to haul a hundred-something pound leopard across the forest without being seen, so she would have no problem carrying off an 80 pound fox and 40 pound rabbit either.

“What do you want from us?” he prodded to stall, to which the eagle smirked and cocked her head.

“From you?” she queried rhetorically. “I don’t want anything from you.”

With that declaration, she dropped back down toward them without any warning, talons spread out at the ready. Without a head start to go anywhere, Nick and Judy both knew that if they leapt out of the way this time, whoever the bird chose to lock onto would just be followed and grabbed with ease.

The roar of a car engine approaching from just further along down the road gave pause to the scene, before moments later an old, rusty looking tan vehicle skidded around the corner toward them. It screeched to a halt next to the pair of officers, and Judy caught a glimpse of a pair of tall, black-striped ears popping up out of the driver’s side window, followed by a white-furred paw holding something that was definitely not a tranq gun.

BAM! BAM!

A pair of shots echoed through the forest, making the pair wince at the loud report and the eagle screech in shock and dive to the side, losing her next chance at the officers as she plummeted past and flared her wings, powering upward to get out of range and line up a better attack angle.

Her targets’ eyes swiveled immediately to their unexpected aid, and pupils grew larger as the mammal popped his head fully around the side of the car. Piercing blue eyes on a face marked by unforgettable black stripes sent both their minds back to many days prior, when Judy spotted the mysterious rabbit in the atrium. It also put Judy’s mind into a mild state of celebrity shock as she remembered who it was she had been trying to recall.

“Doors are unlocked, get in now!” the lapin yelled, prompting them to action. Nick dashed forward and reached the car first, opening the door and ushering Judy inside before following and slamming the metal slab shut behind him, pushing down the lock just to make himself feel better. As soon as they were in, their rescuer settled back into the driver’s seat and spun the wheel before slamming his foot down on the accelerator, throwing them against the side of the car and then together into the seat as they launched down the road back toward the heart of the city.

“S-so what the heck is going on? And who the hell are you?” Nick spluttered as he dazedly watched Judy climb off his lap and more into the seat itself next to him (and simultaneously if absently hoping his red fur was hiding his blush), before his eyes fixed on the oddly well-dressed for the occasion male rabbit in the driver’s seat, or more particularly the actual gun in his hand. Sure, firearms weren’t illegal to own, and even Nick and Judy had their own issued weapons from the Precinct to their names just in case they were put on sketchy cases later down the road, but there were plenty of regulations around them to ensure it wasn’t just anyone that got ahold of one, let alone waved one about while driving sixty miles an hour down Rainforest side streets. Whoever this guy was had better have a good reason to be wielding one.

“Jack Savage,” the rabbit replied tersely, his eyes not leaving the road and so missing the giddy smile Judy got at hearing his name. “AOMISDOPS agent, on assignment, and to your other question, too much to answer while we’re being pursued so I’ll explain later when we’re not in possible mortal peril, sound good?”

“Yeah, sure, I guess,” Nick grumbled, trying to ignore the dark edge of that announcement and an odd flash of resentment that sparked through him at Judy’s expression. “Okay, so can you answer this one: what the hell was that thing back there? I mean, I’ve seen eagles before, but never a bird that big!”

“She’s a Haast’s eagle, rare species from New Squealand and largest raptor on earth. Avery’s also a bit large for her species.”

“Wait, wait, so you know her?!” Judy queried incredulously, her mind racing to try and put these pieces together as she dropped her excitement at meeting the rabbit that had become sort of an urban legend back home. Fangirling could come later; right now staying alive was more important.

Jack shook his head. “I’ll explain later, remember? But no, I know of her; we’re not exactly friends. Oh bloody hell…”

He’d turned to look into his side mirror, spotting something that definitely didn’t make him happy.

“Hold onto something!” he yelled as he spun the wheel, sliding onto a new road to change directions and making the cops yelp, but he was a second late in his maneuver as evidenced moments later by a horrendous screeching noise that rend the cab around them, massive talons piercing the roof of the car.

“Oh God, she’s on the roof!” Nick yelled, flattening himself into the seat and unconsciously placing an arm across Judy to protect her as he stared up at the sharp, bony appendages sticking out of the fabric above his head.

“I can see that!” Jack yelled back. “Hopps, take the wheel and head for downtown! She won’t follow us somewhere more crowded. And Wilde, make yourself useful and call your precinct to let them know where we are! Right now they’re probably sending officers back to your cruiser!”

Suddenly Jack leapt backward over his seat into the rear of the car, forcing Judy to push frantically past Nick’s arm and over into the driver’s position to take command of the wheel as he’d instructed to keep them from sliding off the road. Jack twisted around to roll the back window down (cursing the hand-crank design of the old car in the process) before he leaned out, angling his pistol upward to aim at the raptor digging into the car’s top.

Avery spotted him only a second later, and her eyes snapped wide before her wings followed suit, tearing her away from the vehicle and upward just as Jack fired a shot, the bullet barely grazing past her wing. Scowling in displeasure, she banked off to the side, weaving between the trees as she kept up with the car but staying out of Jack’s direct line of fire.

Meanwhile, Nick pulled off his shoulder radio and called into dispatch. “Clawhauser, you still there?”

“Here Wilde,” came the affirmation. “Couple of cops from Precinct Two are heading your way and Wolfard and Fangmeyer were closest to your area so they’ve been called in to assist as well; are you and Hopps okay?”

“Redirect them along Bromelia; we’re in an old tan Falcon and still being pursued.”

“What happened to the cruiser?”

“The bird killed the tires, the doors, and the windshield; rabbit named Savage came by and got us out in this car, and I don’t want to hear any jokes about being in a Falcon chased by an eagle, got it?”

“Uh, sure thing. I’ll pass your location along and…wait, did you say Savage? The Jack Savage?”

The excited fangirly tone of voice caught Nick off guard, and he glanced at Judy, who was focusing fully on the road now.

“Told you I thought I recognized him,” she said flippantly. “Guy’s got a reputation in Bunnyburrow and most of the force has probably at least heard of him.”

Nick groaned. “And yet I know everybody but this comes as mostly news to me; I think I’ve heard the name once before?”

“Consider it a blessing then Wilde, what with your past life,” Jack said through the window as he tried to line up another shot at the eagle, who remained out of his range before disappearing from view behind the trees. “Con men and criminals who are well acquainted with me typically end up in prison or reform positions; you’re a lot more useful as an officer.”

“Well, color me flattered,” Nick snarked, before his eyes widened and his ears flattened as he spotted Avery out beyond his window; she’d come around to the other side of the car unbeknownst to Jack. “Uh, Jack, you might want to shoot out the other wind- Judy move the car!!”

Avery had ducked in close in a kamikaze attempt to slam the side of the car to either tilt it over or make it spin out of control, but Judy reacted immediately to Nick’s warning and slammed on the brakes, ignoring the fox’s yelp of surprise and pain as he jolted forward against the dashboard (Jack had braced himself already and so only had to adjust his grip on the window edges) as she instead watched the eagle sail past the hood of the car, unable to correct her trajectory quickly enough. Then, the rabbit floored it again.

“Sorry about that Nick,” she said absently, to which the fox let out a growl and rubbed his nose.

“Wilde, you still there?” Clawhauser asked worriedly over the radio, bringing Nick’s attention back to the transceiver now dangling from his shoulder instead of in his hand. He moaned for a moment and rubbed his snout again, making sure nothing had broken on impact, before answering.

“Yeah, just took a dashboard to the sniffer, but we’re here.”

“Fangmeyer said she’s headed your way, going to patch you to her so you can coordinate; Bogo’s on the line too, and he’s going to try and help you get out of there without any more incidents, okay?”

“Tell him that as soon as I get a shot lined up on this bird we won’t need help,” Jack growled from the back, now tracking Avery on his side of the car again as she weaved around the vegetation.

“Oh, Savage says he’s got it under control as soon as he shoots the bird,” Wilde relayed casually, knowing full well the lapin hadn’t actually meant for him to say it almost verbatim.

“Wilde, let him know his job is getting you and Hopps back here unharmed, not killing the suspect!” Bogo’s voice came through with fury. “Track toward Vine and head toward the city.”

Jack ducked his head back inside the car just as Wilde pressed down the button to reply with a snarky comment long enough for him to yell back, “I’m not trying to kill her! But if I don’t take out a wing or seriously injure her otherwise she’ll either win here or fly off to who knows where and we’ll lose our lead!” Then he was back out the window, trying to find the raptor again.

“Wilde, we’re coming up on 207, how far in are you guys?” Fangmeyer’s voice joined the melee over the radio.

“Coming up on Vine; we’re about to switch onto thoroughfare 15,” Wilde answered, bracing himself against the seat as Judy swung another hard turn onto the road he’d just mentioned.

“Copy,” Fangmeyer answered. “We’re two minutes out then, traffic’s clear!”

Up ahead, shops and houses grew more dense, and another car passed by them heading the other way, signaling that they were getting ready to enter the more populous part of the district. Jack was both elated and frustrated by this; the former because the eagle would not follow them into the city’s heart for risk of more witnesses, something he knew she’d avoid at all costs and therefore they’d be safe, but the latter because he’d yet to manage a decent shot to bring her down and finally detain her.

He did not expect however for Avery to suddenly make one last desperate attempt to drive them off the road and get to Nick and Judy. They had reached a straight, open patch of road crossing one of the broader shallow streams in the district, and Avery knew her time was running out, even more so when she spotted flashing lights through the trees up ahead and heard the sirens approaching. She steeled herself for one more dive, calculating the trajectory of the car and Jack’s position currently where he was watching her, and so swung high above the vehicle and back out of Jack’s sights as he let off one more shot before lining herself up with the path of the car, aiming for the front passenger door through which she could see the fox.

Jack cursed and squeezed back inside, quickly rolling over and rushing to the opposite side of the car, rolling the window down at hyper speed even as Avery fell into her dive, rocketing toward them at an angle Jack had a hard time pinpointing for a bead.

The next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion to Nick as he sat almost like an audience member to the chaos around him, watching with panic out his window. Avery careened down toward the automobile, eyes locked with his and talons outstretched as she aimed directly for him. Jack popped out the window and twisted himself around at a painful angle to line up a shot, and as he squeezed his trigger the echoing blast of two more bullets leaving the barrel shattered the night air once more.

This time though, one of them found its target.

Avery screamed out in pain as the copper slug tore across the front of her left wing, ripping up more than just feathers as it zinged past. Her balance faltered as the burning sensation sapped strength in her wing, and in a failed attempt to correct herself she overcompensated and sent herself tumbling away from the car, past the side of the road and disappearing down toward the forest and stream below.

“Finally!” Jack yelled, still watching carefully to track where the eagle had gone down as he gestured to Nick and Judy. “Hopps, slow down here and wait for my signal; Wilde, call the other officers on their way and have them cover the car; I think we got her, shouldn’t wait to detain her for questioning.”

Judy did as instructed as Wilde shakily relayed the info, the latter still trying to get the image of the talons heading for him out of his head, and the car slowed to a halt along the side of the road. Moments later the cruiser driven by their coworkers pulled up and stopped right next to them, lights flashing away as the wolf and tiger inside didn’t hesitate to jump out with their tranquilizer guns drawn.

“Hopps, Wilde, you okay?” Wolfard called out, running up to the car they were in.

“Cover the vehicle, keep your weapons trained across the clearing!” Jack answered instead, leaping out of the window the rest of the way as he ran to the edge of the road bridge, looking out over the barrier set up along its edge into the forest. He cursed being a diurnal prey species in situations like this, nearly blind to what was below especially with the brighter lights behind him flashing and dappling the scene even more. “The suspect is injured, and may be grounded, but we need to move fast or else she’ll disappear in the undergrowth as well. Avery’s experienced and knows what she’s doing so”-

TSSEEEEEERR!!

A blur of feathers blasted up past the barrier, one talon kicking out and slamming into Jack’s chest, tossing him backward toward the cars again. He rolled with the unexpected blow, coming up to fire again at the same time as Wolfard and Fangmeyer let off shots of their own, but Avery was already well past easy range, her blood-strained wing slowing her only slightly now as she caught a thermal rising off the warm asphalt of the road and soared upward, disappearing into the night.

“Dammit,” Jack spat, looking on for a moment before glancing down at his suit; with that one kick the eagle had shredded the front, meaning another replacement would have to be ordered in promptly. He never knew why they were so often required to wear these outfits when their line of work led them to be ruined so often, but oh well. At least claws didn’t do much to the thin body armor beneath.

“Alright, what the hell was that, and why was it chasing you guys?” Fangmeyer snapped, still staring up at the sky between the branches high above.

“Long story apparently, if stripy bunny over there is to be believed,” Wilde huffed, stumbling out of his side of the car as Judy did the same on hers, trying to put the scattered bits of their minds back in place after that hectic ride. “He promised he’d explain it all after this mess. But, uh, I tell you one thing: I head out here again, I’m going to have my actual gun on me next time.”

Chapter Text

It’ll come out eventually

That truth you’ve tried to hide

Shuffle it around

Keep it deep down

But it will one day come to light

Better to be honest then

To lay all your cards out front

For even one

Forgotten run

Will come back to bite, not blunt

Papers shuffled in a distracted order, tapped together neatly as they were set down in the line he required them. Moments later, an accidental sweep of the arm and they were all thrown off the little desk and back onto the floor, and Jack spat a curse as he bent over to gather them up and start all over again.

Why was it so hard to focus right now? It’s not like he hadn’t had very, very late evenings before.

Maybe it was just going to be one of those days, he decided resignedly.

Or, perhaps, he ought to admit that this one case was one that was getting to him; it’d been a long chase with little to go on after all.

Either way, it was going to be an obscenely late night, that much was obvious (and he would count himself lucky if he got any rest at all before running out again). A direct attack on the local officers by one of the perps they’d been trying to keep tabs on for years now without great success, immediately following the murder of their prior main lead, and they still couldn’t even trace the damn bird back to where she’d flown. To say the least, Jack was in a foul mood over all this, and he knew Chief Bogo was going to be even more incensed. After all, the officers in question had been among those he considered his star employees, and this outing was costing the Precinct an entirely new cruiser after the damage Avery had caused had been assessed.

The lapin stacked the papers in his grip one last time to make sure they weren’t going to fly out of his hands again, and let out a sigh before turning toward the door into the conference room adjoining the space he currently occupied. He cleared his head as best he could and stood up straight, putting on the professional mask he’d perfected over the years before pushing the door open and marching in, immediately drawing the attention of everyone seated around the table inside. Small as he was, as soon as he walked into a room with that stone gaze just about everyone shut up.

Bogo was there, of course, alongside Nick and Judy (who were sharing a chair as usual, but sitting perhaps a bit closer than normal; that Nick had his tail wrapped around behind Judy did not escape Jack’s notice, but he saw no need to mention it), but in addition there were the wolf and tiger that had been sent to their aid and a moose in a long trench coat that Jack knew was one of the Precinct detectives, though his name escaped the rabbit for the time being.

Jack leapt up onto the table itself and looked around at his audience with a measured unemotional gaze, before setting down the paper stack and spreading it across the table in order for all to see the contents.

“Well,” he began, “no point in wasting any more time, so let’s get this mess sorted out.”

“Indeed; we had a drug case turned murder that’s now ended up with an attempt on the lives of my officers,” Bogo growled, his hooves steepled pointedly. “And you seem to know a lot more about it all than any of us do, so there are quite a few things that had better be explained, and promptly, agent.”

If Jack was perturbed by the veiled accusation, he didn’t so much as flinch at it. “Well, first and foremost, for those of you here who are not familiar with me,” he toned, “my name is Jack Savage, Class C-level agent for the international organization AOMISDOPS, or the Association of Mammals in Strategic Defense of Public Security. I did not come up with that name, so you may lodge complaints about it elsewhere, but what you need to know is I am on assignment here tracking suspects of concern over a multi-national security threat. However, contrary to what Bogo claimed, I do not believe that either Wilde or Hopps were at any risk of being killed by the suspect in the exchange earlier this evening.”

If he hadn’t garnered wide-eyed stares from the officers in the room at describing his position, then he certainly earned them in the form of incredulity with that last claim.

“Uh, gonna have to candidly disagree on that last one there,” Nick quipped, holding up his paw. “Pretty sure Big Bird tried knocking us off the tree at several hundred feet off the ground and then running us off the road, several times; those are things that often kill mammals.”

“Had she wanted you dead, Wilde, then it’s far more likely that she would have succeeded in her attempt, and we would not have found out until I arrived later,” Jack countered, meeting Nick’s stare as he turned one of the files at his feet toward the rest of the group. “As I told Wilde and Hopps in the car,” he continued, turning to look at Bogo, “Avery is a Haast’s eagle, the world’s largest raptorial species and an uncommon native of New Squealand. She’s large for her species too, but otherwise an epitome of their famed capabilities.

“They are specialized for forest hunting, hence why she was able to so easily keep up with us the whole way as we drove, as until they went extinct a few centuries ago the eagles hunted flightless Moa in their home country where the natural biome is thick temperate rainforest. They’re fast, agile, incredibly quiet for their size, and those who still practice ancestral hunting are renowned for their skill. If Avery had wanted to kill, she also wouldn’t have necessarily bothered getting close for the job; thanks to previous encounters I know she has decent practice bearing aerial weaponry.”

“You sound almost like you know her personally,” Bogo toned, almost accusatively. “Is this bird a rogue agent, or rival organization?”

“Perhaps closer to the latter,” Jack explained. “AOMISDOPS does have avians among our ranks as well, but as far as I am aware we’ve never had a Haast’s. No, Avery has been a subject of interest for many years in link to dozens of cases, and for many of them we’ve doubted that there are any strong connections otherwise, so we believe her to be a mercenary of sorts, sought for hire by other private parties. In this case, she may be working for a group we’ve been trying to track for some time now, with connections to both international subterfuge and inflammation of interspecies hostilities, and as you can guess more recently, Jerome Bagheerson.”

“So, Bagheerson might have been acting as an in for this group to something that Pfurzer was working on, and he messed up so they took care of him,” Judy guessed. “But, then why put him somewhere where he would be found, and if Avery wasn’t trying to kill us, what was she doing there?”

“A message,” the moose spoke up, and Jack nodded agreement.

“Yes,” he affirmed. “Thank you, uh...forgive me, but your name seems to have eluded me sir.”

“Antlermore. Owen Antlermore.”

“Ah, yes, that was it,” Jack smiled. “But yes, it may be a message to us, that the group knows that we’re looking for them, but they’re confident enough that we can’t track them that they’ll leave taunts in their wake. Unfortunately if so, thus far they’re correct in their assumptions as they’ve left little to pinpoint them by, only vague traces digitally that someone would end up here in Zootopia.

“But, leaving Bagheerson where they did I think was also meant as a baited trap,” he said. “The location was too perfect for such.”

“A trap? For who?” Judy asked, though she knew the answer already.

“For you,” Jack affirmed, noting the semi-lack of surprise to his response. “If she wasn’t there to scare you off, then they may be trying to capture the officials put on this investigation, to find out what you know and make sure they take the right precautions to throw us all off. And speaking of which, the branch Bagheerson had been working in at Pfurzer was dealing in, among other items, Midnicampum research.”

“So they may have been following the Night Howler case and its effect from last year, but we already assumed that much,” Bogo surmised. “Or in part behind it and attempting to resurrect the pandemic. We never were able to trace where Bellwether got the finances she did to run that.”

“And neither were we,” Jack said with a frown, “even though we can usually track your average underhanded interaction, so it’s good evidence that they may have had a hand. That’s one of the biggest issues with this group, which I am positive is more than one animal, maybe even more than one organization working together with the number of cases we’ve traced similar issues in around the world. They have no name to go by, even more evidence for multiple groups working internationally, and they manage to stay almost entirely off the radar until they make a public appearance like tonight. And, those appearances are almost only ever in relatively sparsely populated locations.

“Avery is an extra complicating factor on top of that; she has been seen on nearly every continent at least once, but we can find absolutely no records of where she stays, how she travels –as even an eagle can’t travel over an ocean without resting somehow- or even how she’s paid for the work she does. But, if she’s here in Zootopia somewhere, then perhaps if she or her employers show themselves again we can catch up to them and finally tease out some answers.”

“Oh good, I’m great at teasing,” Nick quipped with a grin. Judy elbowed him, but Jack ignored the comment and looked toward Wolfard and Fangmeyer.

“If anyone goes back to the crime scene,” he warned, “it should be larger officers like yourselves in case Avery returns, and preferably never alone. Injured as I may have managed to make her, she’s tenacious. Wilde and Hopps, I am putting in an official request to you both to be able to accompany you two to any further investigations on this case that you may be making, since you have been targeted once already and that means they know you are at least somewhat familiar with the situation, and of course your case appears directly tied now to my assignment.”

He saw Bogo preparing to disagree with the request, but held up a finger. “Ah, ah, Bogo, asking is formality,” he reminded. “And I asked them; if they wish me to contact them secondarily, I will oblige to them, but otherwise I will make use of my resources to ensure a partnership if other such things interfere.”

“I don’t think that should be a problem,” Judy said somewhat enthusiastically, before pausing and looking to Wilde with a questioning gaze. “Uh, if you think that’s fine, Nick,” she amended.

Jack met the fox’s gaze for a moment, and briefly thought he saw a strained expression appear on the vulpine’s face before Nick hid it away behind his usual easygoing mask.

“Sure,” he said evenly, looking at his partner to affirm his agreement, “but I’ve got one more question I have to ask first, one that’s been bugging me, and since Tiger Bunny over here seems to know a lot more about this mess than we do,” his gaze switched to Jack again, “do you know what caused those marks on Bagheerson?”

He knew the question would come up, and wished even more that he had an explanation; at least if there were, that could be a thread to tug on. Jack shook his head instead, and bent down to pull another file out into the open, holding it up. “Afraid not. Whatever it is though, appears to have been around and modified gradually for at least a decade or so. This photo was taken in South Africa, similar enough that we’re sure it’s related but the instance was also so obscure in nature we have no real background on what happened. It could be a punishment style by this group, like a signature, but a weapon to cause that I’m certain would have to be wielded by someone of substantial size.”

Jack replaced the file on the table, and looked around at those gathered, folding his arms. “At the moment we have crumbs,” he groused, “so right now anything that can be dug up could be our next best lead. Finding the responsible parties behind this is priority right now though; if they want to start up Night Howler attacks again then they may do so beyond the borders of Mammalia proper, where it would be far harder for us to control; if their attempts to get into Pfurzer have another purpose, then identifying what that goal is must be labeled a necessity. I will be convening with my sources to find any viable links to past cases of ours that may be of help, and will be here again tomorrow at promptly 8:00 in the morning. Before I start my own long night though, are there any further pressing questions that need to be answered right now?”

Nick’s paw shot up immediately, and Jack looked to him with an expectant gaze.

“Just wondering, is your fur a natural pattern, or did you dye it that way to look cool?” the fox asked, immediately earning yet another elbow to the ribs from Judy and a glare from Bogo (though Jack could see the buffalo enjoyed hearing someone poke fun at him, even if it was the resident smartass; that grudge wasn’t going away any time soon). “Ow! What? It’s a legitimate question!” Nick protested, rubbing his side and looking faux-offensively at Judy, who merely crossed her arms with a scowl.

“Not relevant to the current problem, Nick,” she growled back.

Admittedly, it was along the lines of another topic he’d expected the reynard to pull up, so Jack only let out a mildly amused huff. “I can assure you it’s natural, Wilde,” he said, “but Hopps is right: if there are no case-related questions, then I have a very long night ahead of me and it would be wise of you all to get your rest.” He turned to regard Antlermore. “Detective, I will be visiting you first in the morning, to see if the team you had on forensics found anything useful –though I can’t say I’m confident with how things are playing out- and then Hopps, Wilde, I will be finding you. A trip to Pfurzer to look into things would be a wise next step for us. Until then.”

He scooped up his papers and tucked them under his arms again before hopping with ease off the table, strolling out of the room without a glance back.

Not to say he was done there for the night though; not by a long shot. He certainly hadn’t told them everything, and he sincerely hoped that the other details would not be found soon as a necessity for them to know either. Shuffling through the relatively empty hallways (courtesy of the already late hour), he turned into an unoccupied interview room and close the door behind him, before pulling out his phone and dialing his partner once more.

“The number of loose ends you’re leaving for me to tie up over here is exhausting,” she growled. “Paperwork exists for everything you know, and getting yet another vehicle sanctioned is ridiculous. Keep this up and I’ll stick you behind the desk for a while.”

“Well, don’t worry too much if you can, because we may both be out in the field here soon,” Jack reassured. “And it’s not like I mean to make a mess; vague leads tend to do that. Avery’s confirmed here, and she seems to be targeting Wilde and Hopps, but whether because they’re the ones looking into it or for another purpose I’m not certain of yet. Wherever she’s roosting, whoever she’s working for, we need to find them, and chances are they must be holed up in the city somewhere; some location outside the main Districts would be a dangerous commute to keep an eye on things here.”

“Wonderful, save for the fact that without knowing who’s involved in this we can’t prepare well for the mammals we might be up against.”

“Yes, I am aware of that. I am going to be staying close to the two leading the case however, and if they’re key somehow or I make myself more interesting then perhaps we can lure Avery back out, or whoever else is in the shadows at the moment. They’ll be headed to Pfurzer in the morning if I can confirm steering them in that direction, which shouldn’t be difficult, and we’ll dig up what they’re after in the company for certain. That could at least narrow the field.”

“The risk of you being picked up though is not a very welcome one,” his partner sighed. “Never mind the weight the Director will bring on my head for it; you know we can’t lose you to them if we want to actually close the case.”

“I’ve put the hours I have into training for a reason. We need to narrow our search, and I’m certain identifying without doubt what they’re after is key.”

“You hope,” came the drawling reply. “The closest match to those marks came from South Africa ten years ago, Avery’s from New Squealand and been seen at least once on practically every continent and near almost every heart city on each, and whether this is a terrorist group, religious cult, or some other organization with a different aim still isn’t known with any reliability either because that Script you pilfered that they shut down the building for is barely translatable and so far hasn’t led to so much as a history quibble. What with the writing dialect on what is readable matching the African carvings I might think closer to religious or at least some ritualistic significance, but that’s still thousands of odd characters around the world to narrow down through.”

“Well, what about the company under which I found the Script?” Jack asked, absently thumbing at the files under his arm as he looked around the bare room, though not really seeing it; his mind was on the conversation, after all.

“Nothing special in and of itself; standard trade and finances office so likely just a temporary hideout for the mammal we were chasing; all the mammals that had been given leave for whatever our quarry was doing there started working like normal not a week after our fiasco, and since you left that guy hasn’t resurfaced since.”

“Of course he hasn’t. I blew my cover so he ran. It’d be a miracle to just randomly run into him again anywhere in this world, especially since he knows what I look like. They kind of blend in with other ungulates too so long as they hide the tusks, so I’d have to meet him face to face to even recognize him again.”

“Just stay vigilant; they know you’re involved without a doubt now, so you are a target anyway and not one that they’ll keep alive if they get the chance.”

“Oh, is that caring I hear in your voice?” Jack asked almost tauntingly.

“More like I don’t want to have to explain to Trevahe how I let her star agent and my partner get himself creamed on what was supposed to just be a routine rounded up and shut case,” his partner quibbled back. “But, uh, guess I might also miss your adorable presence on the side too.”

Jack closed his eyes as he pinched his brow. “I can take down drug lords and turn dictators into whimpering beggars, but I can’t manage to get you to drop the rabbit stereotypes.”

“Course not,” his partner laughed. “You always remind me of mine, and you need something at least to soften all those sharp edges of yours. Okay, back to focus: see if you can narrow down at least where they could be hiding out here. Tall order I know, what with the number of spots in Zootopia you could stash an elephant even, but still. Meanwhile, any other keywords I should look into or should I just finish up the paper tower and join you on the road?”

“I reckon you could check records for Midnicampum incidents both in Mammalia and internationally,” Jack mused. “Other than that, I’m heading out on a search, and I will update you if I find anything.”

“Got it. Tootles!”

Silence plagued them both as they walked slowly down the steps of the Precinct and toward the street their apartment complex was located on. Furriere Heights wasn’t terribly distant from the police station, but even the short few blocks provided distance enough when neither was conversing with the other to make the night seem to stretch on forever.

The lack of conversation itself was kind of getting to Judy as well, never mind straight silence, and she glanced out of the corner of her eye at Nick, sauntering along beside her. He was no more than an arm’s length away, but only subconsciously keeping with her it seemed.

Otherwise, the fox gazed at the ground like he was trying to fall through it, as if he were following an entirely different path worlds away from the rabbit next to him. It wasn’t necessarily unlike Nick to get caught in his own head Judy knew, but she was the one better known for it with her daydreaming and ever-active mind, and this time the vulpine’s mask was slipping off along with his awareness of the world around him, revealing the troubled soul beneath. Others may not have noticed, but Judy had been around Nick at close range long enough that she was starting to be able to read him as well as he could her.

He doesn’t feel guilty about earlier somehow, does he? she wondered. The idea was an almost absurd notion, she thought, considering that they certainly couldn’t have planned being attacked by an eagle of all things. And, without him having been there to catch her when she fell, there would have been no way she’d have even come up with the thought of grabbing on to the vines let alone actually managing to do so.

A dark shiver made Judy shudder at realizing just how close to death she could have actually been. Either it would have been a 150-foot fall to asphalt or dirt, or the eagle-

Not helping!

But the whole time afterward definitely suggested Nick was holding onto something. The ride back to Savannah, preparing for the quick briefing with Savage, actually sitting in the room listening to the agent….not once in all that time had Nick deigned to step more than a few feet from her side, and when he’d been close enough Judy had definitely not missed his tail coming up to wrap around behind her almost protectively, reassuringly.

Judy had read up about foxes too, as well as asked Nick directly on some of the few occasions she could actually squeeze a straight answer out of the reynard about such personal topics: foxes were rather particular about their tails, who they allowed to touch them and what kinds of gestures they would make with them. That Nick was so freely cloaking her with his, even if not consciously…okay, sure, maybe it was something they would do with close friends (even if she couldn’t recall actually reading anything about such), but something warm flushed into Judy’s cheeks and ears, and she couldn’t identify what the sensation was.

Judy hated uncertainty, especially between her and those closest to her, so being unable to tell what she was experiencing kept her quiet as she tried to piece it all together on her own. Their walk remained silent, therefore, until they actually reached the steps of their apartment building and headed inside, giving absent waves to the springbok at the reception desk as they passed and started up the stairs to their floor. Then, the rabbit couldn’t bear the somber ambience any more.

“Nick, you okay?” Judy finally asked softly, shoving down her own insecurities as she looked up at her partner again.

Nick jerked slightly, confirming to Judy that he’d been lost inside his head too, before he looked down at her and plastered on his usual sly grin.

“Who, me?” he asked in faux shock, placing a hand on his chest before exiting the stairwell, keys appearing in his other hand. “I’m fine Carrots. Though, perhaps a bit on the exhausted side; we are still up in the dead of night here after all.”

“Maybe so,” Judy replied, hurrying to keep up with him, “but I know you. Even dead tired you keep up small talk and jokes until the other person you’re with snaps at you to shut up, but you’ve been quiet and distant all evening. Is the case rattling you that much?”

When he didn’t immediately answer, and simply continued down the hallway, she added, “Nick, you said just today that you’d be there to listen to me if I needed to get things off my chest, and it should go without saying that the favor extends both ways. You know me.”

Nick paused at their door, key in the lock, before sighing and turning it to push the door open. “You know how I am about opening up to others, Judy,” he said quietly, flooring her with the rare use of her actual name for once. “I’m better at trying to laugh it off and direct the focus elsewhere. But…you’re right, better to not just bottle it up again until I explode if you taught me anything. Let’s uh, talk inside though, ‘kay?”

They entered the apartment, flipping on the lights and Judy closing the door behind them. Then she headed straight for the couch, sitting down and watching patiently as Nick shrugged off his uniform shirt, leaving on the short-sleeved white undershirt he wore to keep his uniform from being mussed up every day by his fur, and headed to the fridge. The fox popped the door open and stuck his head in, before asking half over his shoulder, “Soda?”

“Just a water I think,” Judy responded. “Thanks though.”

Nick nodded and disappeared into the fridge again, before emerging with a chilled refillable water bottle and a can of orange soda. Sauntering slowly over to the couch, he flopped down onto the end opposite from Judy, leaning back as he handed her the water bottle before cracking open the soda himself and taking a long sip.

Silence fell again then as the two both waited for the other to start speaking, and both unsure of how to start. Finally though, Nick closed his eyes and let out a sigh before muttering quietly, “Tonight kind of threw me back to the time before Pack 914.”

Had they not already been lying down flat along her back from the solemn atmosphere, Judy’s ears would have immediately fallen at that. One of the few things she had ordered herself not to pry about was Nick’s actual childhood, not after what he’d told her all that time ago on the sky tram.

But, here he was bringing a part of it up it seemed, so she forced herself to just sit calmly and wait for Nick to continue, and not just push him to do so. Eventually, her patience was rewarded.

“I made myself promises when I was young, to prove to others around me that foxes could be trusted, could be friends,” Nick said slowly, a slight rattle in his words. “I wanted to make my mother proud, especially so everything she did to support us didn’t seem to be a waste in the end. Then I let her down, hurt the one mammal I was closest to, and shut myself off because I took what those kids said to heart and spent the next phase of my life proving them right. It took twenty-three years and an overly optimistic gray fluff-ball to help me get back on track and finish keeping those promises.”

He smiled wanly and glanced over at Judy, who returned the look, before the smile fell away again. “And then,” he continued quietly, “tonight happens, and maybe it’s not rational but I feel like I broke yet another promise that I made.”

“What promise?” Judy asked carefully. “Nick, believe me when I say you did everything that you were capable of; it’s not like anyone was at fault other than Avery for what happened.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t change the fact that I feel like I failed you still,” Nick responded, and Judy’s heart fell at his words. “That night during the Missing Mammals case, that was the first time that you proved to me that I could trust you with my life, and I told myself that I wouldn’t let something like what happened that night happen again, so that you could trust me.

“Tonight I failed that; I made a blunder and ran into you, you nearly fell off the platform, and then we both nearly failed staying alive at the same time.” He paused and took another drink of his soda followed by a deep breath, before setting the drink down on the coffee table and clasping his hands together, looking dejectedly at the floor.

“You’re the closest friend I’ve ever had,” he admitted. “I can trust you with just about anything, and you dragging me out of my pathetic former life was the best thing that I could have ever had happen to me. In return, I fumbled and nearly lost that in one instant of clouded judgement.”

Judy couldn’t help herself then, setting down her water bottle and reaching over to drag the fox into a deep hug as she buried her head in his chest. Nick’s eyes widened in sudden shock at the contact, before he relaxed and returned the hug, faint slivers of a smile stretching the corners of his lips.

“Geez, and you call me emotional,” Judy sniffled, holding back a tear. “Nick, mistakes happen, and that you jumped to try and pull me away from the bird was not one of them; we just happened to have a moment of being out of sync so it didn’t go as we hoped. You can’t plan and prepare for every little thing that’s going to come up. So we had a bad night; it might be a regular thing with our line of work you know.

“But if it makes you feel better, what happened tonight didn’t in any way damage my trust in you,” she reassured, hugging him tighter. “If anything, I trust you with my life more than I ever have before. You picked falling with me over letting me go, and I think that says leagues more than you accidentally bumping into me.”

I will not cry, I will not cry, Nick stoically ordered himself as he let out a shaky chuckle. Sure enough, he was desperately blinking back a tear so Judy wouldn’t see it and tease him about it. “Even after all this mess the bunny still trusts the fox to keep her safe?” he joked mildly.

Judy finally let go of him and looked him square in the eye, smirking slightly. “Absolutely, one hundred percent,” she retorted. “And I have to say, it’s kind of cute how protective you’ve been all evening, Mr. ‘turned his tail practically into my scarf at the briefing’.”

If Nick weren’t reddish already thanks to his fur, he certainly would have been then. But he wouldn’t lose this time, he decided as he let out an awkward cough. “Oh, so it’s okay for a bunny to call a fox cute, but not the other way around? Seems a little unfair.”

“Au contraire, Nick; for you it’s not a stereotypical derogatory connotation.”

“Duly noted; from here on out I shall refrain from ever letting you touch my tail again,” Nick quipped, reaching over to ruffle Judy’s ears.

She swatted him away and crossed her arms, eyes glaring a challenge. “Then you shall keep your paws off my ears, Slick; eye for an eye.”

“Augh, not the ears! I’ve taught you too well!”

“Am I learning from the best? Yes, yes I am. But you’d better get used to it; I’m not leaving anytime soon either.”

“Oh good. Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Chapter Text

Follow the motto of that song

The one that says believe

I know it’s cliché

And so hard to stay

On that path when the earth starts to heave

But that’s the whole point of my words

To remind you to never give in

For the world is dark

Evil always embarks

Without care of the faults behind your grin

Don’t ever give up or loosen the reins

Keep searching even for miniscule leads

The villain only cheers

When the hero disappears

So focus on the truth the world needs

“Was it that difficult? Was it really that difficult? They were sitting out in the open, with nowhere else to run, and you still couldn’t even manage to capture the shirt off one of their backs?!”

Needless to say, Lotera was in a furious state of mind, pacing the room with a fervor sure to wear a rut in the linoleum beneath his paws. He glanced up, scanning absently the closed and dusty windows (and still somehow noting that he should get them cleaned despite his temper) that were located around the upper spaces of the room, letting in only the occasional sliver of light through the locked slats, before his gaze focused back on his current conversation partner, tail flicking in agitation.

In response, Avery paused in her dressing of the wound on her wing to clack her beak and shoot him a smoldering glare that any normal animal would have melted under. Just her luck though, the Thylacine was not your typical breed; he met her gaze with equal intensity, and she soon abandoned the staring contest in favor of continuing to bandage the bullet wound.

“Wanting something done easy, laying out a nice, crystal plan for it, and actually carrying it out are very different things all, Tazzy,” she spat, clipping a length of medical tape with her beak and then carefully pulling it around her wing with her talons as she held the other end still. Once her mouth was empty again she continued.

“You have any idea how hard it actually is to try and stay airborne while simultaneously catchin’ someone without killing them in the process? Never mind evading bullets at the same time? Flight is not a thing of fancy; I might be fast in the air, but a lead slug travels just a few dozen times faster than me!”

“Guns wouldn’t have been a concern if you had nabbed them off the tree in the first go,” Lotera countered, pausing again in his pacing and gesturing with his hands. “It was night time and above a dark point in the city, for crying out loud; how did they even see you coming?”

“They didn’t,” Avery snapped, flexing her wing to make sure everything was tight and in place where it needed to be. “At least, not at first,” she amended. “You ever dealt with bunny ears before? They hear everything; damn rabbit basically pointed out for the fox where to look. I ain’t even loud flying like geese are, and she heard me over a hundred yards away! Ya wanna sneak up on her, I’ll laugh at’cha when you fail. And then, when she and her ‘partner’ do something insane like, I don’t know, jump off the tree instead of run down the bridges like sane mammals would so that you’re really left in the dirt, I’ll laugh harder.”

“Fine, very well, so they’re a touch unpredictable,” Lotera sighed, steepling his fingers at having to admit that begrudging fact. “When they landed, why not catch them on the ground after? Did the ZPD actually train them that well for close encounters?”

He saw the sarcastic comment coming and held up a paw, turning instead to sink onto a chair that sat up against the wall. “No, don’t you dare say it Avery,” he warned, “I looked into their backgrounds the same as you; the fox is slippery as eel slime and the rabbit’s an overachiever. Since I’m guessing you won’t be of much help for the next few days”-

“Unless you want to serve me up to the agents for questioning, that’s an understatement, what with me munted wing here,” Avery interrupted, flexing her wing again to make a point (and wincing when it stretched a touch too far). “Gimme a week an’ maybe I’ll be able to fly without falling in front of that blasted rabbit when I strain something.”

Lotera pursed his lips, but avoided saying something uncouth at his displeasure with being interrupted.  “Yes, well, that means we’ll be having to try sending in Saber next,” he mused. “He’s terrestrial at least, so on better footing in the city here with them perhaps, and he at least has a touch more direct experience around Savage if the lapin shows up again.”

“Yeah, letting a Script get pilfered by the bunny right under his nose,” Avery huffed, awkwardly walking over to a cabinet set into the wall opposite Lotera and yanking it open with her beak, grabbing one of the bottles inside with one of her talons. “You think he’d actually have better luck now that Savage knows we’re here for certain? I’d call you a dag for that one if I didn’t know you’re actually bein’ serious.”

“We weren’t even aware that Savage was an agent until that incident,” Lotera countered, “and had no records of his actual name either, so while yes, that was a disappointment on his part for not catching onto the ruse earlier –a mammal with a demeanor like that in an accounting position, my arse- I can at least credit him for wiping our presence clean from the place afterward. The organization had nothing to follow up with.”

“Certainly more credit than Ravelis gives him.”

“Ravelis has little field experience and his concerns are more monetary than mine as well; I’ve been acquainted with Saber for far longer than he. We’ll send him in once we gain a proper handle on the schedule of our quarry and their habitations, and this time if the agent interferes again there will be someone present who can hold a captive and a gun at the same time.”

Avery finished her drink and tossed the now empty glass expertly into a trash bin near the door of the room, before looking curiously at Lotera. “Yeah, well, I know it ain’t my business mate, but I’ve got to ask: why don’t you just go down and pick them up? You’ve got the most experience, that…whatever you call it that you can do, so surely we could have been done with this mess by now if you just wrapped it up.”

Lotera shook his head and examined his claws. “If it actually must come to it, then I will,” he said, “but the last thing we want is letting AOMISDOPS know that someone like me is here, or worse, risking the public seeing me.” He glanced off to the side, out the only window in the room that was open; beyond it, the soft greens of open Meadowlands prairies rolled by, dotted by the infrequent and matching colored homesteads. It was tranquil and innocent, a true contrast to the inhabitants of that structure.

“It was a risk enough leaving the leopard as a calling card to get these two interested,” the Thylacine continued, rubbing his neck in exhaustion. “I’m certain someone working with the agents has made a connection somewhere already, and they don’t need to make any more. I know we’re short on time, that I have rushed because I know the rift will transfer eventually and the search will start all over again, but the point is not letting the whole world know. I am a last resort, and must remain so even despite my desire otherwise.”

Avery nodded slowly, brows quirked. “Right. Well, you’re the boss here, so that’s that I guess. But next time, don’t you dare yell at me for the unexpected interferences of a bunch of bogans while I was working. They messed it up, not me; I have too much at stake too to let this all go off the end.”

Lotera snorted. “Says the simple mercenary who’s here mostly because Ravelis and I promised a good payment in return.”

“Oh bloody…you know that’s a lie, Tazzy; I want the success of the cause too. Just because I’m not as picky about the result as you are ain’t grounds to sideline me.”

Lotera glanced back her way one last time, but did not respond immediately. Instead, he returned to looking out the open window contemplatively, watching a little yellow car putter by on a distant road.  

“But a result there will be,” he muttered. “Eventually there will be.”

Nick’s eyes flickered back and forth with amusement as they followed his partner, who was impatiently pacing back and forth in front of their desks. Or, more accurately, they were following the fluffy cottontail attached to his partner as it flicked around with equal impatience. He wondered if she knew how adorable she was when frustrated.

“You know, keep up at this rate and you’ll wear a hole right through the floor,” he mused nonchalantly, though for a moment he did deign to pull out his phone to check the time anyway. As suspected, they were still early, so there was plenty of time yet to irritate his friend. “Is it a crime for rabbits worldwide to not show up obscenely early for everything?”

Judy slowed and glanced over at him with lidded eyes. “He’s not early, that’s the problem,” she quipped. “We should have left by now to get there at a decent hour; you of all people know how bad traffic gets around the city. What could possibly be taking him so long?”

“Carrots?”

“What?”

He held up his phone, displaying the time, and Judy wilted at seeing just how far her personal timekeeping was currently off; indeed, the intended appointment for the meet-up with Savage was still seven minutes away.

“Urgh…not a word, Nick. Not. A. Word.”

“I promise not to say anything to anyone else about impatient bunnies who really should check their clocks more often.”

“Nick!”

The fox snickered and prepared another remark, but his chance was lost as a now-familiar pair of black-striped ears appeared from around the corner. As always, Jack had a professionally unemotional expression donned, walking primly their way and clearly already with his head on the mission.

Immediately Nick noted the darkening around his eyes however, and the ever-so-slightly slower tracking of his pupils across the scene; someone had definitely not had a proper night’s rest, and it was showing.

“Ah, there’s the third wheel,” Nick tittered, pushing off the cubicle wall with a lazy grin and alerting Judy to their approaching new company. “Looks like just one more sleepless night and you might be able to pull off a half-decent panda impression.”

“Short tongues would be more wisely tied this morning, Officer Wilde,” Jack warned sharply, his eyes losing none of the cold bite they’d had the day before and immediately dropping Nick’s opinion of the rabbit one point lower. “A full night driving around the city with no revelations was not the reassurance that I needed, and sarcasm this morning even less so.”

“You might not survive long around here then,” Nick said, ignoring the veiled threat. “Half the Precinct partners thrive on snark.”

“Yeah, and you’re the champion of that bunch,” Judy quipped.

Nick only broadened his grin. “Guilty as charged.”

“All well and good for your daily duties perhaps,” Jack huffed, “but it would behoove you to retain at least a semblance of formality with the severity of the situation here. You are likely not in danger during the day and in the center of the city as we are, but the more we dig at this, the more of a target we all paint on our backs. Are you two prepared to leave now?”

“Oh, Carrots here has been raring to go for a good ten minutes now,” Nick answered, falling in naturally behind the mentioned female rabbit as she turned to march toward the exit from the office section of the station. Jack followed alongside her, scrutinizing the pair more since he’d had little time to do so in person the day before.

Nick noticed immediately the observation, and bit back a remark; he saw the rabbit’s eyes looked more kindly on Judy than they did him, and for a brief moment he felt…something, like he wanted to push the lapin over (and maybe down a set of stairs) and walk Judy to the garage on his own. He quickly tossed the unexpected notion though, and buried the sensation in accordance with his motto for the world. Judy could no doubt handle herself after all, and much as it would be amusing to shove Savage head over heels and see how well the rabbit cartwheeled he had a sneaking suspicion that not only would it end worse for him than the rabbit, but that worse ending would probably entail a lot more than a severe reprimand for non-officer-like behavior and assault on a superior. Trained as he was for the force, an international agent was something on an entirely separate level.

They entered the garage and headed for the duo’s temporary replacement cruiser; it was unfortunately not specially adapted for smaller mammals though, instead better suited for someone like Wolfard or Swinton. Therefore to Judy’s dismay (in no small part due to him being a far more cautious driver than her, and therefore also slower, something the ever-impatient bunny ached over), Nick was the only one who could take the wheel at the moment, and she was stuck in the passenger seat. Not that Nick particularly enjoyed the position though; he still had to raise the seat up and forward almost as far as it could go, and was busy craning his neck all the time to see the mirrors in a car like this. Not to mention being in the passenger’s seat meant he could keep up his lazy outward appearance. He would be just as happy as Judy once they got their cruiser back (or, considering the damage it’d received, a new one altogether).

The fox did find something very satisfying about Jack being stuck in the back section of the vehicle however, but if the rabbit was put off by it he certainly didn’t show it, not reacting at all to being let in and then knowing it would take someone opening the door for him to let him back out later.

“So Jack,” Nick asked as he began to pull the car out, “you have any hobbies, or is it all work, no play for Tiger Bunny?”

“This line of questioning have a purpose, Officer Wilde?” Jack replied bluntly.

The fox shrugged. “Well, most people call it small talk,” he drawled back. “Beat off the awkward silence of a long, slow car ride –with mid-morning traffic we’ll be lucky to get to Pfurzer in less than 45 minutes. Plus, we know nothing about you, and it’s rather boring talking to an enigmatic stiff.”

“Nick!” Judy admonished. “There’s no call for that!”

“What, trying to get stone-faced Tiger Bunny to open up a little? Hard to make friends if you’re entirely mystery and no fun about it in the process.”

“The less others know about me, the better,” Jack said curtly. “No matter how benign they may seem, the matters of my personal life could be a weak point if told to the wrong person, and right now you have given me very little to believe you are the right person, Wilde.”

“Aw, come on Jack, we’re all on the same side here. Besides, what am I going to do if you tell me just some fun little quip about your days off?”

“Tease him incessantly if you find it amusing,” Judy snarked, to which Nicks ears fell.

“Not helping there, Carrots,” he sighed. “And you know that’s just who I am.”

“I find it highly amusing watching criminals crack under interrogation,” Jack growled, glaring up at the rear-view mirror, “but that’s as close as you need to know.”

Fox ears perked up at hearing a response, but it wasn’t quite what Nick was hoping for. “Everyone likes watching someone get what they deserve,” he huffed. “Not what I meant. Come on, you like sports? Not much for them myself, but still. What about camping? Fishing? Maybe playing chess?”

No further responses were submitted. After a few moments Nick leaned back into his seat resignedly, before remembering he needed to sit up to see everything properly in this car, and his eyes focused solely on sweeping on automatic across the street ahead. “Alright, awkward silence it is then,” he acquiesced.

Just as predicted, a good 50 minutes later the cruiser finally broke through the city’s traffic and turned onto a side street, just past the northern end of Downtown proper and right at the crux of where Tundratown, Alpine, and the city’s fully urban center began to merge.

The Pfurzer Pharmaceutical Complex was unimpressive height-wise, especially when compared to the skyscrapers that dominated the skyline only a few blocks away, but the connected series of three- and four-story matte gray buildings was still one of the largest structures in the area overall, more than a quarter mile across at the narrowest points. Naturally, having never had reason to view it up close Judy was plastered against her window as she took in the sight, eyes wide at the magnitude of the place.

“Careful, your eyes might pop out of your skull if you keep that up,” Nick remarked in amusement, drawing a dismissive huff from his partner. “This place that much of a shocker? Even after seeing spots like the Nox? Not much to look at, couldn’t even manage to put up a decent décor.”

“No, it’s just…well, I knew the pharmaceutical industry was big, but I didn’t know it was this big,” Judy admitted.

“They didn’t earn the moniker ‘Big Pharma’ for nothing Fluff; if you think this is big though, I ought to show you one of these days the manufacturing plant outside the city.”

“Wait,” Judy paused, “you mean this isn’t the plant as well?”

“Not in the slightest,” Jack replied this time, startling the two with his sudden insertion of speech after the bout of silent treatment he’d given on the ride over. “The Pfurzer Complex here is dedicated solely to research and, where applicable, refinement of raw natural products. No one uses Midnicampum in any medicines, hence why their entire stores of that product are here, for research on neural active compounds and testing new products on preventing the feral-inducing nature of the plant.”

The other two only nodded as they pulled up to the gates of the complex, Nick rolling down his window at the guard station. The dhole in uniform within held up a finger to wait for a moment as he sorted something at the desk inside before he turned and opened his own window to address them.

“Good morning, can I help you?” he asked.

Nick poked his head out of his window to make sure he was heard, but before he could speak, the dhole’s eyes widened in recognition.

“Nick?” he asked incredulously, pulling up his cap as if it would let him see the visitor better. “Nick Wilde, that you?”

The fox scrutinized the other canid for a moment, before the face clicked, and a wide smile reappeared on his face. “Frederick, what are the odds! How long you been working here?”

The dhole laughed. “Oh, a couple years now, ever since I escaped that fiasco with the tech scam; thought being a guard was a good way to deter more messes like that. Never got the chance to congratulate you yet either, for making it onto the force, so bravo! Saw it in the news a few months ago.”

“Ah, well, old news now,” Nick chuckled. “We’ll have to catch up sometime. At the present moment though, Hopps and I are on the clock and we’re here to interrogate some poor unsuspecting mammals about a recent headache of a case, so in lieu of getting smacked in the arm by punch-happy bunny over here, gonna have to skip more chit-chat for now.”

Frederick nodded, tipping his cap through the window to Judy on the other side of the car before turning to the desk in the station again, typing up something in the computer. “No, no, I understand,” he said. “Did you call ahead to ensure clearance? An appointment?”

Nick paused, and looked askance at Judy, who also winced. “I thought it was being taken care of for us,” she admitted. “Should’ve double-checked that.”

“It was, but not through the ZPD directly,” Jack spoke up from the back. “Wilde, tell your friend to look up ZIA clearance access, contingent of 3.”

Nick blinked at him, before slowly nodding and turning back to the waiting dhole. “Uh, other friend of mine here says check for a ZIA clearance notice, Freddy.”

Frederick quirked an eyebrow, before skeptically turning and typing at the computer again. A moment of later a flash of surprise ran across his face, and he hummed in curiosity. “Well, I guess that’s it,” he said, turning and pressing a button to open the gate. “I, uh, hope you guys find what you’re looking for, good luck. Oh, and Nick, before you pull away here,” he pulled a card out of his uniform pocket and handed it to the fox, “give me a call sometime, we should head out for a drink one of these days with some of the guys.”

Nick grinned and gave a lazy salute before starting to drive in. “Sure thing Freddy,” he said. “Keep up the good work!”

As they entered the parking lot for the complex, Judy smirked and looked at her partner knowingly. “Why am I not surprised that you know the security guard here?” she asked rhetorically. “You manage to have a connection just about everywhere we go.”

“It’s like I’ve said before, Carrots,” Nick grinned smugly. “I know everyone.”

“Everyone except Savage, apparently.”

“Fine, I’ll amend my statement: everyone who’s actually a regular resident of Zootopia; mysterious fluffy agents don’t count.”

They parked and Nick and Judy hopped out of the car, before the former began sauntering toward the building as if nothing were out of place.

“Nick!” Judy snapped, drawing his attention.

“What?” he queried innocently, though as he turned around his smirk was anything but.

“You gonna let Savage out of the car?”

“Aw, we can’t just leave him in there?”

“Nick, I swear…”

“Okay, okay, fine. Buzzkill.”

He walked back over to the car and swung the back door open, permitting Jack to climb out with an unamused stare at the fox. “Let’s just get this over with,” the rabbit huffed. “And Wilde, the next time you deign to leave me behind, even jokingly, I will exit the car myself and leave you in the trunk instead, with the key in with you. Understood?”

“Wow, someone really needs to loosen his springs a little,” Nick said, once again ignoring the threat and making Jack boil a touch more under the surface. “You stay that uptight and you’re going to pull something.”

Jack declined to respond, only walking ahead promptly toward the building looming before them. Judy hung back slightly, looking at Nick with a displeased expression. “What is with you two?” she asked quietly, so only her partner would hear.

Nick looked at her with mild confusion. “Something wrong?”

“Yes; I’ve withstood more than a year of your teasing, both me and other mammals. This is a little more than that; why are you insisting on aggravating him?”

“He’s asking for it in my opinion; nobody should be that lacking of a sense of humor, especially someone who’s supposed to be able to blend in. That’s what agents do, right?”

Judy sighed. “You know what, we’ll talk later. For now, please just try to focus.” She marched ahead again, leaving Nick feeling a bit set to the side. She was right though, he knew; this was more than just his usual ribbing. Why, he didn’t know, but for whatever reason being around Savage rubbed him the wrong way, and it was bringing out the sharper side of his tongue again. He’d have to sort this out later though, as right now they did have work to do.

 In stark contrast to the overall complex, the main entrance was relatively small and unassuming, a pair of thick glass doors that slid open to welcome them in. On the other side, the empty foyer was watched only by a security camera and an old chinchilla sitting behind the reception desk, looking comically small in comparison to the wide counter before her and computer screen she manned off to the side, along with the overall size of the extended desk beyond. At hearing the doors slide open, her bespectacled eyes swung up to them, squinting for a moment through her glasses as her tail twitched in mild surprise.

“Can I help you?” she asked, her voice a touch deeper than they had expected and warmer than her wizened appearance let on.

Judy took the lead, almost skipping over to the desk with her trademark chipper smile on her face. “Yes, my name is Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD,” she introduced, “and my partner Officer Wilde and I along with an associate of ours are here to look into a lead concerning a case. Would you be able to direct us to where the Midnicampum research is being conducted here?”

“Do you have a registered appointment?”

“Security clearance for three under ZIA protocol, Agent Harewile,” Jack interjected, drawing the chinchilla’s attention. She took a moment to look him over, clearly having never dealt with such an odd crew of officers and officials, before nodding and typing into the computer. Then she turned back to Jack again and asked, “Do you have an ID to confirm?”

Jack nodded, pulling a card out of his pocket and handing it over. The secretary scrutinized it for a moment before nodding and handing it back.

“All checks out,” she said, “so you’re free to investigate. The section you’re looking for is three halls down, take a left, and will be any of the labs, offices, and storage rooms on the right. Do follow all posted instructions as there may be loose chemicals or objects and we cannot be held accountable for any non-employee injuries while you are looking around.” She let out a sigh and took off her glasses, rubbing them with a cloth, giving an apologetic smile to her audience. “Sounds harsh, I know, but it’s company policy and I’m required to say it.”

“No problem ma’am,” Judy said. “We understand, and we’ll be out of your hair now. Nick, don’t touch anything.”

“Sure, point the finger at the fox.”

Nick grinned at the soft chuckle the secretary tried to hide as they turned down the tile-floored main hall, before his mind returned to another topic he’d forgotten to ask their accompanying agent earlier. However, before he could voice his inquiry, Judy beat him to it.

“So, if it’s alright to ask, Mr. Savage, or perhaps I ought to say ‘Harewile’, why was the visit arranged under ZIA instead of your actual agency, or name? Don’t the animals we’re looking for already know who you are?”

“They may, but the fewer trails they can follow directly to us the better,” Jack replied. “In some ways it’s the same game our targets are playing; feint one hand while shooting with the other. And technically, only the name is an alias; the ZIA and ZBI are both semi-autonomous government agencies within AOMISDOPS, though they focus solely nationally or in ambassador positions, so we can adopt that title while here if we so choose.”

“And, why do we get to know all this then?”

“Unfortunately, a quick Zoogle search would probably uncover that much honestly. And, as you are in on this case already, it would be very difficult and I would hear no end of it from Wilde if I’m already standing here using aliases in front of you both and tried to deny it.” He spared a glance at Nick, denoting his awareness of the fox’s acuity, and Nick smiled faintly at the accusation.

They followed the secretary’s instructions down along the halls, coming to a halt in front of the first door of many along the corridor mentioned. “Well, guess this is as good a start as any,” Judy mused, and reached forward to knock. Before her fist could make contact though the door swung unexpectedly inward, and she let out a surprised yelp as she stumbled forward slightly, unbalanced by the sudden missing support. The female sheep that had been behind the door also stepped back in surprise, hoof coming to her mouth as she glanced between the three in front of her with confusion.

“Oh! I-I wasn’t aware we were having visitors today,” she bleated. “I beg your pardon. Can I help you?”

“Uh, y-yes, I hope,” Judy stuttered a bit, clearing her throat as she tried to stave off an embarrassed blush (she could practically feel Nick’s grin drilling into the top of her head too, which certainly didn’t help) and push away the discomfiting feeling of encountering a sheep working in a Night Howler research lab; nowadays she didn’t too often believe in coincidences, but it was never a good idea to label before you had the facts.

“My name is Officer Judy Hopps, and I’m here with Officer Nick Wilde and…” she trailed off, slightly glancing at Jack knowing that she’d mess up the cover if she tried to press forward with it instead of him at this point.

Jack jumped in just in time though, clearly practiced at this, offering a paw to the sheep. “Agent Alexander Harewile, ZIA, a pleasure,” he said warmly, smooth smile appearing as he moved to get into their new company’s good graces.

The sheep took his paw in her hoof and shook it in return. “Oh, well, I’m Dr. Emma Woolston,” she introduced. “With, uh, with officers and agents here I…I’m guessing you’re looking for answers to some event that’s occurred? New mammals haven’t been going savage again, have they?”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Judy reassured. “But if you have a moment there are a few questions we’d like to ask.”

Dr. Woolston appeared to ponder the request for just a moment before nodding and stepping back. “I’m sure I have a couple of minutes that I can spare,” she acquiesced. “Not a great deal going on today beyond the usual. Please come in, but I urge you do be careful not to touch anything; there are chemicals about that can be quite nasty.” She waved a hoof past and the three stepped into the lab.

Judy noticed Jack immediately pulled out a small notepad and began jotting things down as his eyes flitted around the room, and he nodded to Nick to begin searching the space; there was no guarantee they’d find anything, but the fox had the best nose and night vision among them and if anything was hidden or out of place he might more likely notice.

It was a medium-sized space, set up with rolling steel and affixed flame-proof tables and counters along most of the perimeter and in rows across the middle of the floor; computers lined the nearest affixed table along the wall, while the rest of the furnishings were adorned with either chemical bottles and equipment or racks of protective gear. Several of the setups had flasks and vials quite prominently fill with an overly familiar bluish violet fluid (even if lighter in color and clearly diluted it was unmistakable), and both Nick and Judy experienced an involuntary chill run down their spines. It may have been a year ago, but the Night Howler epidemic was more than fresh in both their memories.

“So what can I answer for you?” Dr. Woolston asked, setting down slowly at one of the computers. “I’m afraid I don’t know everything that goes on even in this department, but hopefully I can lend a little bit of assistance.”

“Well, for starters I guess, how long have you been working here?” Judy asked, flipping out a notepad of her own.

Woolston sighed. “Oh, let’s see, it’s been at least…15 years now? Nearly half that time has been on Midnicampum research, though up until last year that was focused almost entirely on pesticidal effects since so many farmers use them as natural repellants around the fields and, believe it or not, mild sedatives.” She gave a wistful smile and shook her head. “I was just about convinced that I’d either be sent to an entirely different department despite my expertise or lose my job entirely when you and…Officer Wilde, was it?...anyway, when you two rooted out Bellwether as the perpetrator of that fiasco, as trust in sheep plummeted afterward. As you can imagine, some of my superiors and the PR department weren’t too pleased with having one working with Midnicampum after that.”

“My apologies for causing trouble like that,” Judy said softly, ears falling a touch, and her eyes met Nick’s across the room as he made his way around; he sent her a rare genuine look of sympathy.

Woolston snorted and waved the reaction off. “Oh no, no need for that,” she dismissed. “That piece of work got what she deserved, you didn’t do anything wrong; I blame Bellwether entirely. One of my closest friends is an Arctic wolf after all, and he actually has his lab just down the hall, and I’d have been even angrier if he’d been kicked out for being a predator. Besides, the other employees here vouched for me when concern swept through, nearly posed a strike when word got out, so I stayed.”

“Glad to hear such a tragedy was avoided,” Jack mused, either hiding or feigning a touch of disinterest; Nick was right about one thing, Judy decided, that the rabbit was maybe just a little too focused on professional matters only. “But more to the present matters: have there been any recent novel discoveries that we ought to be aware of that could pose a public threat, beyond the known ‘savage syndrome’ the flowers cause? All such answers will be held in full confidentiality I assure you, and will not be made public in case you’re concerned with competition, public opinion or pressure, or other concerns.”

Woolston quirked an eyebrow and chuckled slightly. “So formal,” she mused. “No, not in particular; Midnicampum has the capacity to be converted into an adrenaline-inducing drug if one had the right equipment, but we’ve not released that information to the public at all yet, and certainly wouldn’t release the process.”

“What about inquiries?”

Now it was Nick’s turn to pose a question as he sauntered back toward them all. In the process he gave Jack and Judy a glance that told them he’d picked up nothing, and sent Judy a different gaze; he’d been listening to and watching Woolston carefully, and hadn’t picked up anything suggesting she had been lying yet; if there was one good outcome of his years as a hustler, it was he could read people like a book, so his opinion reassured Judy a great deal.

“Have there been any odd requests to the company,” he continued, “or to this department in particular? Any suspicious persons, myself not included, who have visited recently?”

“None,” Woolston denied, though she smirked at the fox’s jest, “unless you want to count retailers, but they’re an odd bunch all around. There are always questions about medicinals coming in and business heads that visit on occasion, but as far as I am aware no one who has tried to contact or come in has been an unauthorized or unexpected guest; you three would be the closest to that.”

Nick nodded. “May have to ask around to other employees then,” he mused. “Perhaps someone noticed something and didn’t find a need to report it. Alright, perhaps the original reason we started in on this case has a little more to chew on: were you familiar with a certain employee here, a Jerome Bagheerson?”

The sheep’s eyes sparked recognition, and she nodded. “Yes I was actually,” she affirmed. “He acted as a records keeper, managing supplies in this branch, rather sweet mammal too it always seemed. Kept to himself a lot though, overly quiet unless you got him into a conversation first.” She shifted in her seat slightly. “Did something happen to him? There was an officer here a couple of weeks ago looking for him too, and he hadn’t been into work since a week before that from what I recall.”

“We believe him to have been involved with a criminal group we’re trying to track,” Jack answered. “With his position here he could have been an informant, even a supplier securing Midnicampum concentrates. We need to know if he sent out any communications over the time he worked here that weren’t to known retailers for official purposes or other authority figures, or if any items went missing from your labs during that time.”

Dr. Woolston fidgeted anxiously. “You’re joking, right?” she asked hopefully. “Bagheerson an informant? I…I would have never pegged him for such.”

“That’s often how the real criminals are,” Nick quipped, eyes roving the benches nearby a second time. “They’re the ones you like on the surface, want to trust; they keep masks up all the time and they’re good at not letting them slip. Bagheerson might not have always been a criminal, but at some point he got chummy with the wrong set of friends.”

“Do you have him in custody then? Did he confess anything?”

“Well, there’s no soft way to put this: he was killed by the guys he worked for or with. We chased him for distributing nip on his off hours, and apparently that attracting of attention left him as a liability.”

Woolston stared at the fox, open-mouthed. “He was killed,” she repeated disbelievingly, softly, as if she couldn’t comprehend that occurring to someone she knew.

Nick nodded. “Unfortunately. And without that informant the group may be seeking another way in here or have one already, so we need to know what might have been done while Bagheerson was here so that we know where to start looking next. They won’t pick someone in the same position most likely.”

The ewe nodded, before closing her eyes and sighing, a hoof rising to her brow. “Of all the things to find out today,” she muttered solemnly, before looking up. “It would be best then if we talk to the new supply manager; if anyone can pick up things that were off when Bagheerson was here then it would be her.” She stood up and headed for the door, gesturing them to follow her. “That office is just down a little ways; I’ll show you to it.”

They exited the room and continued down the hallway, stopping at the third door further down. Woolston reached up and knocked carefully. “Lori, you in?” she called.

A moment later the sound of papers shuffling within was followed by soft padded footsteps to the door. It opened smoothly to reveal a young female giant river otter wearing a casual red graphic T-shirt and deep olive pants, glasses balanced on her muzzle and a short shock of dark brown hair pulled back into a messy ponytail.

“Dr. Woolston,” she greeted warmly, “how can I…oh, hello!” She was distracted by the other mammals behind the sheep, blinking in surprise as she took in the sight of the officers and agent. “Was there an appointment I wasn’t aware of?”

“Lori, we talked about formalities,” Dr. Woolston drawled in amusement. “You can call me Emma. And no, no appointment per se, but these fine mammals here are looking into some details for an investigation. These are Officers Hopps and Wilde, and Agent…Harewile, yes?”

At Jack’s nod, the ewe hummed in self-satisfaction. “Got the names right for once,” she chuckled. “Officers, Agent, this is Lori Sweetwater, our new supply manager and records keeper.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Lori said, holding out her paw to shake which the others took one by one. “How can I be of assistance then?”

“We’re looking into any unusual circumstances that occurred while the former supply manager was working here,” Judy answered. “Unexpected calls, missing items that you may have noted but he didn’t, that sort of thing.”

Lori nodded. “Certainly.” She ducked away from the door and slipped gracefully over to the nearest computer in the room, which was otherwise filled with cubbies and racks full of sets of a lot of the equipment they’d seen in the lab beforehand, except half of it looked unused or at least carefully placed in order on the shelves. The otter’s fingers flew rapidly over the keyboard as she peered at the screen, eyes flickering behind her glasses.

“Let’s see, mainframe records,” she muttered, “timeclocks, attendance records –he stopped showing up a couple weeks ago, but I’m guessing you already know that.”

“He’s also six feet under, so no show is a definite certainty at this point,” Nick quipped almost nonchalantly, gauging Lori’s reaction.

The otter’s eyes immediately flicked to him in shock, the tapping at the keyboard going still, before she tried to shake off the distracting information and somewhat attempted to focus again. “Killed…I, uh, I’m guessing that means this is probably part of big news then. It’s not somebody targeting people at the company here is it?”

“Not that we’re aware of. Reasons for his death are a little further from here than that.”

Lori let out a relieved huff, before looking guilty for it. “Right. Anyway, uh…ah, call records. On company phones there were no unauthorized calls at all, so if he was working with someone he shouldn’t have been then it wasn’t on our lines.”

“Oh, hey Nick, make a note that we should contact whoever was his cell provider to get personal call records if he’s got them,” Judy said, pointing with her pen toward the fox.

Nick nodded with his usual grin. “Got it: contact phone company to act like a disgruntled girlfriend.”

Judy forced herself to stifle a snicker, but it still came out as an undignified snort. It didn’t help when Lori commented offhandedly, “That’s more on point than I’d like to admit.”

The truly obscene snort that followed from Judy made her ears blush red, and she hid them and tried to ignore the raised eyebrow Jack sent her way. “Eh heh…what about supply records?” she asked, deflecting the discomfort.

Lori smirked, recognizing the redirect for what it was, before focusing back on her computer. “Well, obviously he wouldn’t have recorded anything missing himself,” she mused, “but when I started here I do recall a couple of small discrepancies I stumbled over. Let me look again…” Rapid typing resumed, and moments later a muted PING! sounded from the machine.

“And there it is,” she said satisfactorily, turning the screen so the others could see. “I found three vials of pure Midnicampum concentrate unaccounted for. I thought perhaps it was just a miscount, but I checked three times and sent a report to management because it didn’t add up. And with you investigating here now I question it being just a false order or something similar. And…there was also a missing distillation set, burners and vials and all; that’s a lot less likely to be a miscount or lost item since one set costs several hundred dollars.”

“Wonderful; so they may be attempting to concentrate their own too,” Jack huffed, “or modifying what they stole. Nothing in a distillation series itself that can alter the compounds in Midnicampum, is there?”

“All it takes is a competent chemist with a little experience for that,” Woolston interjected.

“Is it possible then to change the molecular structure of Midnicampum toxin so the current antidotes won’t work against it then?”

“Probably, though doing so and keeping the symptoms similar would be a shot in the dark for most. One could neutralize the toxin entirely, or make it lethal in the process too.”

“So what you’re saying is the guys who might have the means to process Night Howler could turn it into a murder weapon?” Nick asked, feeling his fur stand up on the back of his neck at the thought. “As if dealing with terrorists who try to kidnap cops wasn’t bad enough; enter threat of mass genocide.”

“It’s still a one in a thousand various chances unless you know exactly what you’re doing,” Woolston countered, “and there’s a reason we keep things locked up here; I’m one of the few who could and I don’t tell others how those processes are done. Midnicampum toxin is complex, and attach anything to that molecule chain in the wrong place and you could lose any chances of modifying it further; ethers on the third carbon-nitrogen bond for example destabilize the binding sites and make it harmless.”

She turned to walk back to a far shelf in the room, a reinforced steel structure holding up locked refrigerated titanium safes, and spun the combination lock on one of them while pulling out a key from her pocket to unlock the second safety mechanism on that particular box. “This is where we store most of the concentrate stock,” she explained, “and it’s kept pure until use, so each safe has a different combination and key, and there are only a handful of mammals with access. Modifying the concentrate is difficult, and thus far we can only alter very, very small amounts, barely enough to even affect a couple of mice for example. It takes hours just to pull out a drop and prepare one of these…”

The ewe trailed off as she swung the door of the safe open fully, revealing the contents for all to see. To the visitors, nothing stood out, as they knew nothing of the stock that was supposed to be there, but Woolston and Sweetwater immediately became indicators that something was clearly wrong.

“Lori, is someone running tests that I’m not aware of?” the ewe asked softly. Lori shook her head, darting out of her chair and slipping over to the safe, hands moving in and tapping over the vials in rapid order. “No one that I’m aware of either,” she said, “and you know no one’s supposed to take more than a vial or two at a time. Everything should be here and we’re missing…uh, 1, 2, 3 4 5 6 7…we’re missing 20 vials.”

“Uh, how concentrated is that stuff, exactly?” Nick asked cautiously, ears folding back.

“Equal to the serum Bellwether used, if not more,” Woolston responded absently, still staring into the safe.

That was not a reassuring answer. “Who else has access to these safes?” Jack asked, ears perking forward stiffly.

“Company owner and the other head chemist of this department,” Woolston replied, glancing between him and the half-empty safe. “But the owner is almost never here, never actually bothers with the labs and such, and Trevor’s been here longer than I have and he’s got a spotless record.”

“So did Bagheerson until we chased him for nip possession,” Nick sighed. “Unfortunately we’re going to need to affirm alibis for everyone who would have access and I’m sorry to say that does include both of you. The four mammals who can get into the case are the prime suspects right now, trustworthy to everyone else here or not.” His eyes roamed to the other two safes on the shelf, and he pursed his lips. “What about those?”

Sheep and otter shared a worried glance, before each rushed to either of the two other safes, unlocking them as quickly as they could and swinging the doors open. Lori let out a sigh of relief at finding hers as full as it was meant to be, but Dr. Woolston stifled a yelp, stepping back to reveal another five missing glass tubes.

“That’s 25 unaccounted for,” she said softly. “Officers, we need to find out who’s responsible; that’s enough to cause a least half of Tundratown to go savage.”

“Then it’s also enough to consider this a national threat concern,” Jack said. “We need to pinpoint the culprit as soon as possible; I’m sure I can get into contact with the owner, and we must speak with the other head chemist immediately.”

“Pull the security tapes,” Nick suggested, pointing toward the camera that was watching from the corner of the room, almost unnoticeable until someone pointed it out. “They should have caught whoever’s been in here. Where’s the security office?”

“I’ll show you,” Woolston answered, shooting the safes another baleful look before closing the one she stood at and trotting toward the door. “Lori, make a note of this and alert security, let the other employees know we’re shutting down the labs for a while until this is cleared up.”

“I’m gonna find some extra locks too,” the otter quipped, her face losing the distraught expression and replacing it with angered determination. She closed the other safes carefully and skittered over to her desk again, opening and rummaging through a drawer. As agent and officers passed by again following Woolston, she looked up and locked eyes with Judy. “You let me know if and when you find out who’s stealing from under my nose, please,” she asked sternly. “Been here all of three weeks and they’re making me look incompetent right off the bat.”

“Don’t worry Mrs. Sweetwater,” Judy reassured. “You’re the one who clued us into what was missing in the first place here; you get credit for that.”

It was small comfort, but the grateful smile the otter sent her helped. As she walked out Judy glanced at Nick again, hoping for a read from him on the otter to confirm her own thoughts at the moment. He saw her expectant expression, and sent a slight wink; Lori checked out thus far at least in his opinion.

The security office was deeper within the main complex, several halls away from the labs they’d just been in and accessible only through a seeming labyrinth of corridors, but they arrived soon enough. With a flash of a badge from both Jack and Dr. Woolston to the mountain lion acting as sentry they gained access. Two more mammals, a wolf and a platypus, were inside monitoring the hundreds of screens and other equipment, and they barely moved when the newcomers stepped inside.

“National threat priority one,” Jack spoke up, garnering their full attention for a moment, “we need the video feeds for all cameras inside and within the vicinity of the supply room for the Midnicampum labs for the past month.”

“Uh, Jack, just realized something,” Nick interjected cautiously, trying to shrug off the rabbit’s irritated expression at being interrupted. “That’s going to be a lot of footage to sift through, even for the three of us together. Not gonna happen in here, in a day.”

“Well aware, Wilde,” Jack snapped curtly. “We won’t be going over it here; we’ll take the footage back to Precinct One and enlist a few other officers to help analyze it, perhaps Antlermore’s team. But we can start here and interview other employees while we are at the facility, and hopefully track down the most likely time periods someone could have broken in or slipped past notice to narrow the field.”

“And let me know if you find the culprit,” Woolston said. “That’s my career they’re stealing, so they’ve got both a pink slip and my hoof to the chin on the way for such a breach in safety protocols and our trust.”

Chapter Text

This world has no more cares

Or sense of modesty

People go where they choose

And take as they please

Sure, lock your doors

And bolt the windows down

But someone out there still knows

How to shimmy their way in

It’s worse too when it’s not

Objects or attention they want

When you’re the prize it’s a high stakes game

And then there’s no way you win

Nick was right: this mess was taking a very, very long time to sort through.

Two days had passed since their original visit to the Pfurzer complex, and other than a second stop by the facility to cover over loose ends in the form of interviewing employees who hadn’t been present the first time around (both Nick and Jack cataloguing them all for perceived signs of suspicion while Judy took word-for-word notes to be analyzed later), the entire time had been filled back to back with dull, agonizing examinations of security footage bit by bit. If there is one thing to say about staring at a computer screen watching footage of usually empty rooms for hours on end, it’s a great way to induce naps.

Despite his reservations, Bogo had reluctantly permitted both Detective Antlermore’s investigative team and Officers Wolfard and Fangmeyer to be used as additional purviewing resources on behalf of the trio heading the case. It hadn’t done much good thus far however, as the closest they’d gotten was a glitch in the supply room camera that skipped all of two seconds of time. No mammal could pull off even spinning one of the combo locks in the safes in that amount of time, let alone walk out with more than 20 vials of Night Howler concentrate without being picked up by the cameras.

Jack had voiced urgent concern that perhaps they were seeing a looped feed after the glitch or somewhere else overlaid with the proper film times, but even sending the suspected sections to the techs for digital analysis hadn’t turned up even a lick of evidence of anything yet. Small comfort though, so far in checking backgrounds and alibis for whereabouts of employees both Lori and Emma, as well as their associate Trevor Lupita, were all in the clear. If they weren’t within range of the cameras of interest, then someone had known where they’d been or they’d been at home, so the concerns on suspects were now resting on the owner of the Pfurzer Complex, of all mammals, or someone with the skill of a master burglar.

Needless to say that with no real progress, tensions were rising further amongst the investigators, especially between Nick and Jack. Judy had forgotten that first afternoon to talk to the fox about it, and all other days since they were so busy that she hadn’t had the chance or the recollection that she needed to either, so thus far the situation had gone unaddressed and likely would soon get out of hand. Of course, there wasn’t much worry about the professional agent starting something, but Nick definitely crossed lines at times. The last thing that Judy or Nick needed was for the reynard to get suspended for insubordination right in the middle of this mess.

The underhanded struggle had culminated up to this point in a silent, awkward car ride as Jack drove the two to their apartment; though the first night after the attack he’d been busy and it had slipped his mind, the striped lapin had decided quite firmly that crowded city center or not it wasn’t worth the risk of letting the two walk home alone, especially since their abode was only a short detour along the way toward his own current dwelling. Nick had protested, thinking they were safe enough walking back from the precinct, but Jack hadn’t budged, and it had nearly devolved into a shouting vs. stone-face argument had Judy not stepped in and calmed the fox down; it wasn’t a big deal, and nobody should have been drawing blood over it.

Now, Nick leaned against the passenger side window, silently watching the scenery rush by while Judy somberly observed him in turn from the back seat. At a surface glance he seemed fine, but the subtle body language gave away to her that he was definitely not all sunshine and roses. He was sitting as far off from Jack as the car permitted, shoulders set and gaze firmly in the opposite direction from the male rabbit.

Judy sighed at the sight and shook her head; she would need to do something about that, tonight if at all possible. A team could function well enough with members who didn’t like each other (the key was either at least appreciating strengths or, along Nick’s old wisdom, never letting them know you hated their guts), but it could not if blatant animosity was expressed.

Jack pulled the car up in front of Furriere Heights and put it in park, turning to look emotionlessly at the other two. “We’ll resume tomorrow as per the last few days,” he said flatly. “Until then, get rest, and if anything happens, use the pager.” He nodded to the modified paging apparatus clipped into a pouch on Nick’s belt matching the one Judy also wore, something he’d given them the first day after they’d come back from Pfurzer as a safety precaution.

Nick nodded curtly and moved to step out of the car. “Got it,” he said. “If we run out of toilet paper we’ll send in a call, no worries.”

Judy followed shortly after she sent Jack an apologetic look. The latter dismissed it, shaking his head slightly as he checked the message on his phone from his partner before driving off. He had his suspicions why Wilde chafed around him so badly, but if he was wrong it was also something he didn’t want to bring up, and it really wasn’t his place anyway in this professional relationship either.

As the car sped off Judy jogged over to Nick, grabbing his arm and halting him before he entered the building in front of them. “Nick, hold on,” she said firmly, causing the fox to turn to her, unreadable expression donned on his muzzle.

“There a problem, Carrots?” he said evenly. Judy let go of his arm and wrung her hands together briefly, before sighing.

“It could soon turn into one at the rate you’re going,” she said bluntly. “Look, Nick, a couple days ago I said we needed to talk, and until now I’ve either forgotten or haven’t had the chance, but it needs to be addressed and I can’t put it off any longer. I know you don’t like opening up about emotions and stuff, but it’s obvious that you don’t like Agent Savage. Other than his admittedly somewhat overly professional attitude about things I don’t know why, and I really can’t understand why you’re letting it show so much. What happened to your motto about not letting anyone see they got to you huh?”

Nick stared at her for a moment, and Judy watched as under his mask flashes of irritation, confusion, uncertainty, and…something that looked almost like envy ran by. Suddenly she wasn’t so sure about this talk, or how brazenly she’d just approached him with the issue, but even as a knot formed in her stomach she knew she couldn’t exactly step back now.

Finally the fox deflated, leaning back against the stone rails of the apartment complex steps and shrugging his shoulders. “I honestly don’t have an answer, Carrots,” he admitted. “No, it shouldn’t be bothering me as much as it is, but half of it is that I can’t pinpoint why. He’s not the first mammal with a stick up his ass that I’ve dealt with, but…I don’t know.” He glanced around down the street; not many mammals were out at that time of night, save the occasional car whizzing by or a pair of wolves sauntering down a distant sidewalk, none of them caring much about the fox and rabbit talking under the apartment lights.

“I do know that he treats you better than me,” Nick remarked, his muzzle contorting into a mild scowl, “but discrimination isn’t exactly something I haven’t worn as a hat most of my life either. So what if he gives me the cold shoulder, fox or not? I should be used to it.”

“Nick, I know it’s not what you’re comfortable with,” Judy said softly, “but maybe if you put a little more effort into laying off the sarcasm a bit that could help. Perhaps he’d prefer a more professional attitude, and in all honesty it would help with some of our other superiors too.”

Nick snorted. “Oh, and you were such a model of professional bunny the first couple days we dealt with him.”

“More than you; okay, so maybe he does work with me better just because I’m also a rabbit, but if you clean up your act a little that could change.”

The fox crossed his arms and sighed, looking at her with a deadpan expression. “You know me, I can’t not be sarcastic,” he quipped. “But I guess I can try a little harder. No guarantees though.”

Judy smiled and stepped forward to give the fox a quick hug, which he feigned grudging acceptance of. “Just at work,” she said. “Life wouldn’t be the same if you weren’t a pain all the time after all. As long as you’re trying,” she said as she let go, grinning up at him. “How about a little incentive though: you know if you get him to like you, he might actually participate in small talk one of these days. You could find out something you have in common with Agent Savage besides the ability to hide everything you feel.”

“Can’t hide it enough anymore apparently,” Nick muttered, giving her a short grin. “There’s this one persistent fluffball who keeps burrowing under my walls somehow.”

“Well what do you expect? I’m a rabbit; it’s one of those things we’re good at.”

“Notice to construction: I need reinforcements.”

“Thanks for the heads-up, I’ll just bring a wrecking ball.”

They both laughed as the tension began to drain away, leaving them in their usual roles again as they turned to head into their apartment, waving as usual to the springbok on nighttime desk duty.  Judy unconsciously hung back slightly as her mind began picking at everything they’d covered in the last few days, re-analyzing the more interesting bits of film she’d watched and trying to dig up clues she might have missed.

Or, at least that’s where it started; soon it began traveling along with her eyes, drifting toward her partner as he casually sauntered along ahead of her as a different set of details caught her attention. She was tired enough too that she didn’t realize what she was doing at first.

The Academy, the months of police work, and the regular exercise regimes she’d ensured the fox had stuck to (much to his chagrin) had clearly had an effect on Nick. He was still more or less the beanpole he used to be, but now even through his uniform it was apparent he’d filled out with a touch of muscle, giving his arms and torso a more toned form under his shirt.

He needed it, Judy decided, admiring something that was basically all her influence. Not to mention it made him faster, almost able to keep up with the rabbit on their runs or when chasing down a law-breaker. Her eyes drifted downward, admiring Nick’s tail as it swished back and forth in time with his steps, long and fluffy and so unlike her own tiny, unimpressive (in her opinion) cotton ball of an appendage. He used it to tease her occasionally, smacking her with it or tickling her nose with the tip and making her sneeze to his own amusement, but every now and then she’d managed to steal use of it as a pillow or blanket on their odd movie nights as well. It was even more appealing considering who it was attached to, and…

That was the point Judy finally realized not only what she was doing, but that she was not actually staring at Nick’s tail. She froze for a second, ears pinging high and ablaze with red, before she shook her head violently and grimaced.

Really? You’re ogling Nick?! He’s your partner for crying out loud, even if he is handsome, funny, and…oh cheese and crackers Judy, cut it out! If he had even a hint of an idea about this you’d never hear the end of it!

Just her luck that Nick chose that very moment to glance back to make sure she was still with him, and noticed her having an internal battle with her own mind. “Penny for your troubling thoughts there, Carrots?” he called out, snapping her eyes back to him and all of his suave sarcasm. She immediately folded her ears down, hiding her blush as best she could, and shook her head more carefully this time around.

“N-no,” she denied. “Nothing wrong. Let’s, uh, let’s just get up to the apartment; the day’s clearly been wearing on me.”

It didn’t quite work to dissuade Nick, the fox pursing his lips in mock contemplation as they began to climb the stairs. “You’re not having improper thoughts about someone we’re working with, are you?” he questioned probingly, equally insufferable grin appearing. “Oh my, what would Tiger Bunny say?”

“No!” she snapped, pushing ahead of him and all of his smarminess and giving him a smack on the arm in the process; at the same time she missed the tinge of relief that colored Nick’s face for a split second. “Absolutely not! And I certainly don’t like Savage that way. Day’s been wearing on you too if that’s what you’re picking up out of this, Slick.”

“Perhaps someone else you work with then?”

The blush deepened, but Judy managed to keep her voice even as she continued forging ahead, not daring to look back at him. “Oh shut up already.”

“Alright, whatever you say Fluff.”

Clearly he wasn’t convinced, but then Nick always held his own opinions until proven irreversibly wrong so that wasn’t a surprise. Despite his continuing to follow her up the steps with an amused smile, Judy was at least glad he did decide to drop the topic for now. It would have been so much worse had he known the real situation in her head, and any longer talking risked her giving it away for sure.

They exited the stairwell and reached the entrance to their apartment, Judy swiftly unlocking the door and pushing it open, revealing their darkened abode. She stepped inside, Nick right behind her as she reached for the light switch to turn on the living room illumination.

Nothing happened; the room remained as shrouded in the dark as before. Judy paused with confusion, looking at the switch and flicking it up and down a couple more times but to no avail. The move garnered Nick’s attention in the process, and he impassively watched with ears perked as she let out a frustrated huff.

“Odd,” she mused in disappointment. “Ugh, add it to the list of other annoying inconveniences today then. Better check the breakers, light circuit for the living room seems to have tripped.”

“On it,” Nick affirmed, slipping past her and using his better vision for the situation to make his way across the small hallway toward the closet near the kitchen where the circuit box was located.

Judy heard it first as soon as the fox exited the hall in front of the door and into the more open area proper of the living room: the faint click of a weapon’s firing mechanism being cocked. She couldn’t see where it was coming from; she only knew that Nick’s presence had triggered it.

“Nick get down!” she screamed, lunging forward and tackling her partner to the ground. He let out a pained yelp as they collided hard with the wood floor, but even that sound didn’t quite drown out the THWIT! of a dart gun firing, or the dull thunk of the resulting projectile embedding itself into the wall just above them. They both pushed themselves semi-upright and turned to look wide-eyed at the new decoration, before rolling to put one of their couches between them and the origin point.

“Breaker’s not out,” Nick blurted quietly as if that much weren’t now obvious, ears pointed straight forward as he, like Judy, tried to pick up any sounds to tell them what they were dealing with. Nothing but the cocking of the dart gun’s mechanism again reached them. It was coming from the far back of the room, near the main window, but they couldn’t tell how large the wielder was.

“You think?” Judy hissed back at Nick’s comment, peering under the couch to try and see if she could spot anything of their opponent. The low profile and distinct lack of light worked against her, and she had nothing to show for her effort. Glancing at Nick, she signaled that he needed to look over their cover; they needed to know what they were up against before they could possibly plan a counter. The vulpine grimaced, but nodded, curling his tail in on himself (and unconsciously his partner) as he propped himself up and slowly peeked over the edge of the furniture.

The shadowy figure standing in the corner was only just visible to him in the contrast of darkness and faint light from outside, shrouded by a long coat and the shape of the head thrown off by the set of night-vision goggles they wore. The one thing he could make out though was a hoof on the end of one limb. They clearly saw him as soon as he appeared too however, as the same poised limb holding the dart gun moved just slightly to the side, centering on him and firing in one smooth motion.

Nick yelped again and dropped just barely in time as the second dart skimmed right over the surface of the furniture and the top of his head, ramming the full length of its needle just like the first into the wall.

“Small ungulate, just a little taller than me,” Nick said hurriedly and as softly as he could, relying on Judy’s hearing to pick him up as he desperately tried to ignore his racing heart. “Right in the corner, by the window.”

Judy nodded, brows furrowing as she started thinking of options and tried to calm her own heart. Ungulates were often fairly quick on their reflexes like other prey animals (though likely not as fast as she or Nick) and their long legs enhanced this, but they didn’t have the greatest sense of smell compared to them and even night vision goggles had to have their limits. Perhaps a double maneuver would be able to throw them off.

After a few moments her hand flew to a pouch on her belt and flipped it open, pressing the button on the pager within; they didn’t have their guns on them, having thought they’d be safe within the city (clearly that assumption was wrong), but Jack certainly would. Then, she motioned Nick to head toward one end of the couch while she scuttled to the other; she was betting on the chance that whoever it was couldn’t deal with both of them at the same time coming in from different directions, could they?

Nick began to slink toward his end of the couch, crouching as he readied himself for a jump and watching Judy, waiting. The rabbit did the same, pausing near her end of the couch as she listened, ears swiveling rapidly as she attempted to gauge the best route.

“You know you can’t cower forever,” their intruder spoke for the first time, his voice laced with cautious confidence; he knew he had some advantage at the moment, but he clearly wasn’t stupid. “Eventually you’ll have to make a move, or I will. And any attempt to just leave of course will give me a straight shot, so please, do try.” He clicked his gun into ready position again, another dart sliding into place, and waited. The mammal knew that speaking would let them know exactly where he was standing, but now that was exactly what he wanted; it would also draw them out.

He was right. Judy and Nick glanced at each other, an unspoken agreement running between them, before they both bolted out from cover. Nick launched up into the air, curling to one side to land against the other couch and using it to springboard off toward their attacker while Judy ricocheted off the couch they’d been using as cover and twisted to get her feet out in front of her and toward her target. Only at this range did she finally have enough light to see him decently enough too: just as Nick said he was only a little taller than the fox, rather looking like a stocky or fluffy small deer, but Judy was caught off guard by one other very telltale trait: a pair of long, sharpened canine teeth protruding down from the sides of his mouth under his goggles, glinting in the low light.

The ungulate reacted immediately when they appeared, and not at all in the way they’d hoped. He side-stepped toward Judy and leveled the gun at her, firing at such a point when the rabbit had no chance to avoid the dart. At the same time his other hoof whipped up toward Nick, catching the fox in his shoulder with enough speed and strength that it spun him in midair and threw him to the side where he crashed against the windowsill, groaning from both impacts.

Judy hit the ground and rolled, but couldn’t move further when the searing pain of the dart in her right calf made itself known to her with a vengeance; it had sunk deep. She winced and yanked it out before looking up at the mammal responsible, his eyes focused on her partner as he moved to reload the gun. Already she could feel her muscles starting to weaken, vision blurring, and she knew she would pass out very shortly from the tranquilizer, but Nick had hit ground a lot harder than she had and was still slowly rolling to his feet, vulnerable to the ungulate as he leveled his gun again.

“I don’t understand why Avery had such a hard time with you two,” the Moschus mused. “All of a minute and a half and I’ll wrap this up it looks like.” His digit pressed down on the trigger just as Nick looked up again, and the fox winced, expecting to feel the burn of a dart any moment.

Judy wasn’t entirely out of the fight just yet though, and with what remained of her wavering strength she lashed out with her left foot, striking the Moschus in his own calf. The kick was hard enough to bruise, and unexpected enough that the mammal faltered in his stance when his leg buckled under him, throwing him off balance as his shot fired.

The ungulate caught himself against the edge of the nearer couch as he fell, looking up to see his shot go awry again, before twisting and landing a kick of his own against her side. His had no sedative acting behind it, strong enough to send her spinning across the floor and almost certainly bruising a rib or two. If she hadn’t been about to pass out before, that last abuse certainly did her in, and Judy closed her eyes, seeing nothing as her hold on consciousness broke completely.

Nick used the opening for what it was worth, pushing the pain of his bruised side and shoulder away forcibly and leaping at the Moschus again, his hands closing on the hoof holding the dart gun and twisting to wrench the weapon from the ungulate’s grip. It went flying across the floor to come to rest under the far couch, well out of reach of both of them.

The same hoof snapped down immediately after, dragging him with it bodily as the mammal threw Nick toward the floor again, bringing the reynard in a nearly full circle over his back in the process. Nick let go and rolled with the momentum before the move was finished, and came up standing as he faced off with the intruder again. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Judy, lying limply on the floor and out cold, and a heated anger raced through him at the sight.

“You shot my partner,” he growled, hackles rising.

The Moschus shrugged. “And you threw my gun away so I can’t do the same to you. But it’s not like I really need it now.” He dropped low and spun, lashing out with a vicious kick that Nick only barely dodged, practically falling backward on his rump to avoid it. The reynard scrambled back to his feet again only to duck a punch from the other mammal, before he then jabbed forward with his own fist, nailing the Moschus in the gut and sending him stumbling back slightly with a faint wheeze.

The wheeze was soon replaced by a chuckle however as the Moschus stood up straight again, a grin on his snout. “Well,” he drawled, “finally a little something in return; you’re stronger than you look too, that’s good. With the reputation I’d heard of the two of you hold I had expected more.”

“Come back when I’ve got my own gun and that could change,” Nick spat, tail fluffing out and lashing as he stood over Judy and watched for an opening.

The Moschus gave him none, sending in several more punches at him in rapid succession and forcing him back again. “I shot the rabbit first for a reason,” he said evenly, blocking Nick’s own swipe and attempting to grab the fox’s wrist only for Nick to pull back and slip away at the last second. “You’re both decent marksmen, but of the two you’re better than the rabbit. Neither of you have your weapons on you though, and the rabbit’s better at paw-to-paw combat than you are. You? You’re just a dodger.”

He spun into a spinning back-kick again, and this time Nick took the blow to the chest. He stumbled back and bumped off the couch, now wheezing himself, but the hit gave his opponent a moment of misplaced optimism in its result as the fox dropped to his back against the couch arm with some of the momentum and kicked out, following in with a swipe of his tail.

The ungulate cried out in surprise as he too fell back, landing hard and knocking the wind out of himself. Nick didn’t wait for him to recover, kicking him in the side again and making him double over slightly and knock his head into the foot of the other couch. Then the fox whirled and scrambled to his feet, scooping Judy up and dashing for her room, slamming the door shut.

Their apartment had a maximum of three possible exits: out the front door (definitely not an option at the moment, as Nick had seen the Moschus already getting up when he’d skedaddled, and by the time he would have gotten the door open he had a feeling that the attacker would have something to hurl at them. There was no way the dart gun was the only weapon he had on him), onto the fire escape from the living room window (a hard swing and not something he could do with Judy in his arms, let alone trying to do so with their attacker right by the window), or onto the escape from the shorter distance of her bedroom window.

Awkwardly scrabbling at the lock on the frame with one paw while he held Judy with the other, Nick frantically swiveled his ears, listening for any notice that the Moschus was coming to the door. When nothing approached that he could hear and the window pane came loose and slid upward, he let out the smallest sigh of relief he could and eased out with the arm holding Judy first before stepping onto the windowsill ledge. He teetered for a moment before setting his feet on the creaky metal railing of the fire escape, jumping down onto it and racing for the ladder down to the next level below.

PING!

The sound of something small and fast colliding with the metal near his ears made Nick yelp and duck, instinctively curling around to shield Judy before he realized the futility of such a move and focused on shimmying down the ladder even faster. Their attacker had clearly found his dart gun again, and soon the sound of creaking metal above them signaled his rapid pursuit.

“I feel I should let you know I’m a lot faster than you are,” the Moschus taunted down, not bothering to be too quiet about his pursuit. “And at this time of night, the only mammals around aren’t going to think too lowly of me chasing a fox who’s lugging an unconscious rabbit down the street.”

The horrid truth of that statement bit at Nick more than he’d liked to have admitted; of all the repercussions about the stereotypes his species was laced with, that was certainly one of the worst right now. Even with both he and Judy still wearing their uniforms, mammals were either going to turn their heads away or think something really fishy was up with him in particular.

He forced himself to ignore it though, spinning around the next platform and down the second staircase. They were only a couple of floors up from the ground, so he was almost down; all it would take was to kick the final ladder to the earth and then find a way to lose his pursuer.

A flash of brownish gray turned oddly reddish in the ambient light appeared in front of him suddenly, the Moschus having taken the shortcut and swinging deftly down the outside of the fire escape to slam both his feet into Nick’s chest, again. The fox let out a bit more than just a soft wheeze this time as his already bruised front screamed in pain and he slammed backward into the side of the last platform, temporarily losing his hold on Judy as they both slumped to the metal grating.

“Boo,” the Moschus chuckled, letting go of his hold and landing on the platform as well, pulling the dart gun out again. “Like I said: I’m faster than you are,” he drawled, taking aim, “though I appreciate the run you’ve given me. I haven’t had a workout like this in a while.”

Nick winced and closed his eyes, not willing to leave Judy even if his complaining chest right now would have allowed it, and knowing at the same time there was no way he was avoiding that dart now at such close range.

The report of something notably more powerful than a dart gun echoed off the surrounding buildings, and the Moschus yelped in surprise and pain. Nick’s eyes snapped back open immediately to see him cradling his hoof and turning to glare down at the ground, his gun having been forcefully removed from his grip and lying with a prominent hole through its middle against the far side of the platform. Nick followed the ungulate’s gaze, just in time to see a flash of black and white vaulting up and off the opposite side of the alley wall, flying toward the Moschus who only just barely ducked back in time to avoid being nailed in the head.

Jack tucked in from the miss and rolled, coming up with his gun leveled at the Moschus even as the ungulate spun in his direction and whipped out a knife, stabbing in at a speed that forced the lapin to block the blade with the barrel of his own weapon.

“Go!” he yelled at Nick. “Car’s around the corner, get in and head for the precinct! I’ll”-

He was cut off for a moment as another swipe came in, forcing him to roll, followed by a kick that had him parrying with a blocking arm. “I’ll catch up!” he finally finished. “Go!”

Nick did not wait another second, scooping up Judy over his shoulder with a groan at the strain it put on his middle and slipping down the last ladder as quickly as he could to the ground. He paused there momentarily to ensure his partner was still okay, and breathing, before taking off down the alley toward the car he could see parked at the end, the same that Jack had dropped them off in.

Jack didn’t bother watching the fox run off of course, his eyes entirely on the other figure occupying the platform he still stood on. “You know, I thought it was a one in a billion shot at running into you again Tristan,” he drawled, cocking his gun. “I guess our theory was right in the end; that operation is connected with this mess.”

“Don’t you dare use that name!” the Moschus spat, slipping the knife away and pulling out a pair of batons instead. “My name is Saber, has been for years, and you’ll do well to respect it! You would also have done well staying away from this too, but I guess that just means I have to clean up before taking care of the directive doesn’t it?” Sharp prongs slid out the ends of the batons at the push of a button, and Saber spun and lashed out, whirling the rods at an incredible speed as he moved to take Jack’s head off. “Might as well lose the gun too; you think I’d be stupid enough not to wear protection?”

Jack hadn’t survived his years as an agent for nothing however. He’d figured already that for managing a fatal shot if he’d been wanting one (other than a lucky head strike, which was nearly impossible right now unless his opponent was stunned into immobility first) his gun would probably be useless, and at this close range especially so, so he holstered it in one swift move and dropped back, letting the batons swing over him before somersaulting in reprise and shooting his feet straight up, slamming into Saber’s forearms with enough force to crack bone.

Saber saw the attack coming and moved with it however, lifting his arms and leaping into a somersault flip of his own over the rabbit, landing on the platform behind him as Jack spun around and to his feet. He stabbed one baton in toward Jack, knowing the rabbit would grab it to prevent from being impaled, and swiped the other one in around himself toward his opponent’s head. If he hit Jack, all the better; if Jack avoided it, then he’d pull the first baton in and nail him in the chest with a hard kick.

To his surprise, Jack did neither. Instead, he let go of the first baton and twisted around it, grabbing the second and pulling down to topple Saber’s balance, before bringing his elbow up and into the Moschus’ snout. Saber yelped and stumbled back, dabbing the back of his wrist to his nose and seeing a dark stain come away on it through his goggles. His scowl deepened at the sight, and he glared as Jack pressed the attack, using the stairwell railings as leverage for a spinning jump that was met with a hoof and baton against his feet, sending him off to the side.

“I have to say, in combat you’re a bit more of a decent challenge than I ever expected,” Saber quipped, taking the moment to dash for the stairwell and start sliding down. Jack knew he would go for the two officers only just now getting into the car, and grabbed the fire escape rails, hoisting himself up and over the side and rolling with the impact on the ground, coming up with a new weapon of his own pulled out of his back pocket: a curving foldable karambit, sharpened to the point it would sever hardened aluminum like butter.

“I’ve trained years for things like this so maybe that’s why; what I don’t get is why you’re going after them instead of me,” the rabbit fired back, leaping up and catching Saber’s crossed batons as the Moschus hit ground himself. “I know more about this case still than they do.”

Saber laughed, twisting the batons to release them from the curved blade’s grip and knocking the karambit away with one while he stabbed in with the other, a move the lapin pivoted away from. “You don’t know enough then, clearly,” he taunted. “But it’s not like I’d tell you anyway, wouldn’t do me any good.”

He moved for a backflip, hind hooves coming up to strike Jack in the chin and sending the rabbit flying upward before hitting the ground with a groan, before the ungulate landed and stepped forward over the prone lapin. “However,” he continued, “unlike them, in your case it’s just a liability to keep you around.” He twirled both batons in an almost theatrical arc, before driving one down toward the lapin’s back.

He saw the muzzle flash of the gun just a moment before he felt the impact against the Kevlar under his coat, nowhere near enough to kill of course but forceful and painful enough to send him backward and doubling over from the shot. In the echo of the gunshot Jack leapt up again, dropping his gun momentarily as he wielded the karambit, swiping it up to twist one of the batons Saber had lifted in defense out of the way before completing the spin and kicking the Moschus in the same spot the bullet had just hit, amplifying the pain and slamming him into the alley wall. Then the rabbit continued forward and upward, burying the point of his blade into Saber’s upper arm, earning a stifled groan and pinning him to the brick even if only momentarily.

“And you’re only lucky that you’re a lead,” Jack hissed, rearing back to punch the ungulate in the face as his other hand gripped his target’s shirt, “otherwise I would have assured that shot, or this, was a fatal hit.” He rammed his fist forward…

…straight into the grip of Saber’s good hoof. The ungulate had dropped his batons in the impact, but even unarmed he still held fast enough reflexes to counter the attack, halting the blow at least long enough to bring his other hoof into Jack’s chest. Jack heard something crack, and felt an unsurprising bolt of pain run through his middle a moment later, before he too went flying across the alley and into the far wall. He hit hard, slumped to the ground, and let out a heavy groan before trying to force as much of the pain as he mentally could away to stand up again. He’d taken worse before, after all, and this was no time to sit back and lick his wounds.

Saber saw the rabbit getting up of course, and internally cursed. With a bruised sternum from the combo of bullet and rabbit’s foot impacts as well as a now compromised shoulder (he ripped out and tossed the blade away with disgust), he wasn’t going to be able to reach the car where the officers were (amusingly, he could still see it sitting at the end of the alley; they hadn’t driven away like ordered) and pull them away before the agent caught up with him again. Better to fall back and regroup for another attack, one that got rid of Savage first, he decided, as he bent down to pick up his batons and stow them away, grimacing as the move pressured his chest more than he liked. Then he shook off his pain and vaulted down the opposite end of the alley. Lotera wouldn’t be happy to hear about this turn of events, but he’d be even less so to lose one of his better fighters to the cops for interrogation. There’d be another chance; now after all, the agent was wounded, and undoubtedly that would slow him a lot more than a properly sutured puncture should.

Jack looked up just in time to see Saber take off down the alley, and scowled as he picked himself up with another groan. Reaching back, he found the transceiver radio under his coat that he used to tune in with local law enforcement stations (surprisingly undamaged despite that last hit), and keyed into the frequency he needed.

“Precinct One dispatch,” he wheezed, feeling pain return in greater force as the adrenaline began to abate, “this is Agent Savage; we need patrols and SWAT focused through downtown Savannah Central immediately, fanning outward from the 1200 block of Thistle and Praetoria Avenue. Suspect on the loose is a male Musk Deer, 38 years old, wearing combat armor and night vision goggles with a knife wound to the left shoulder. I am taking Officers Hopps and Wilde off the streets for security purposes immediately.”

Without waiting for the cheetah’s panicked response  (he could already almost feel it building on the other end of the line), he switched the radio off and walked over to pick up both his gun and karambit nearby, wincing as he bent over for each before storing them both away. As he did so he kept an eye out around him for any counter attacks that might appear, before limping toward where he quite disappointingly found the car still sitting.

“Is it so hard for him to obey that one order?” he muttered to himself. “Head to the Precinct, all I asked.”

Nick was inside with Judy laid carefully out across the back seat, all the doors locked, and he was peering out the window with just his eyes visible through the glass. As Jack approached he seemed to relax slightly and sat up more, eyes roving the other nearby streets until the lapin reached the door, at which point he unlocked the car and Nick gave him a somewhat irritated expression as the lapin popped the driver’s door open.

“I thought I told you to head to the Precinct,” Jack quipped.

Without missing a beat Nick snapped, “One requires keys to drive a car without destroying the wiring.”

Jack looked at him, before he blinked and reached into his pocket. Sure enough, there were the keys, and an uncommon streak of humiliation raced through him. “Right. My apologies, and such a short-sight won’t happen again.”

“I called the Precinct though,” Nick said, though his look hadn’t abated, and his eyes narrowed further for other reasons when he noted Jack’s wince as the rabbit sat down. “They’ll probably be here in a minute or two.”

“I called as well,” Jack said, “but right now what we need to worry about is getting you and Hopps out of here and hope your coworkers can find Saber before he disappears. It’s a long shot unfortunately, but we are not in proper shape to try and go after him ourselves either.” He started up the car, wincing again as he shifted, before starting to pull out from the side of the street and picking up the phone in his console.

“So you know this guy?” Nick asked warily. “Do you know what he used on Judy? Who is he? Why was he in our apartment?”

“One question at a time, Wilde,” Jack snapped. “Yes, I know who he is, more or less; he’s the mammal we were targeting on our last assignment, at the time wanted for smuggling valuable archaeological items but then for possibly working in concert with a terrorist group when we found a paper trail suggesting such. From tonight, I’d say it’s more than that though, and since he’s come after you two it’s not safe for you to remain at home anymore. He’s trained as a fighter and assassin, so probably the only reason I’m still alive is that taking me out in public prior would have brought too much attention, or we simply never crossed paths.”

He began punching in numbers on reflex on his phone, not even having to look at the screen as he watched the road and their surroundings carefully. “As for Judy, since he didn’t just try to kill you then he doesn’t want you dead. Therefore, it’s probably just a standard tranquilizer solution and should start wearing off of her within the next hour.”

“And why are they not just trying to kill us?” Nick queried worriedly. “Okay, so that sounded like I have a death wish I know, but why do they need us alive?”

“At this point I hate to say I don’t know, Wilde,” Jack said, holding up the phone to his ear. “But I hope we find answers soon.” A moment later his focus changed as a voice came in through the phone, one Nick couldn’t quite pick up on; all he could tell was that it was female.

“Saber’s in the city,” Jack told whoever it was, “and I’m taking Wilde and Hopps off grid.”

…

“Yes I am calling him. Should have done so sooner now that I know more of what we’re dealing with, but things are as they are. Meet us there when you can, and call in backup to man the tech operations behind us. Savage out.”

“Wait, where are you taking us?” Nick asked warily, laying a hand protectively on his partner’s side as his tail curled around her. “The police should be able to keep us secure at the Precinct or in a safe house, and from the looks of it you need a medical check, unless that’s not a cracked rib you keep wincing from there.”

Jack glanced back at him momentarily, before letting out a sigh and starting to dial a second number on his phone. “If all goes well, to see an old friend,” he said, “one that I should have contacted long before now if this mess has anything to do with what I think it does.”

“And that would be?”

“A long story, one I’m not willing to lay out all tonight and one that he’d do a much better job of explaining. I don’t doubt the police, but Avery and Saber both found you with ease and even the best cops in Zootopia won’t match if they both come back without reservations about killing whoever’s in the way. As for me, I’ll be fine after we get where we’re going, but thank you for your concern.”

The look Nick gave him in the rear-view mirror told him what he already knew: the fox wasn’t exactly worried about him, more like the fact that with him compromised their best chance against whoever was after them was also shot. It shouldn’t have affected him much, professional relationship here and all, but Jack somehow still had to fight to keep his ears from falling. “Look, just take care of Hopps back there, and plan on getting some rest first and foremost when we arrive.” He held the phone up, and it rang a couple of times before someone picked up.

“Jack?”

The rabbit let out a long sigh and smiled wistfully. “Yeah, it’s me,” he answered. “I know this is out of the blue and it’s been a very long time, but I’ve got a big problem right now and need to ask a favor…”

Chapter Text

Surprises lie in the strangest places

Amongst foreign views and unfamiliar faces

Safety and warmth arise from the grace

Of kind hearts that open to protect and embrace

They hold their own tales and secrets as well

Their stories to be learned from on the rare times they tell

They may shock or even scare you when at first you meet

Their appearance or background make you wish to retreat

But please stay and listen to the wise and informed

They’re hidden for a purpose as they break from the norm

It wasn’t until at least halfway through their drive (a long one, as Jack insisted on weaving through the city to shake the risk of any tails that could have been following them) that Judy had finally managed to start coming around to the world of the awakened again, and even then it was mostly her somehow recognizing in her groggy state that it was Nick sitting next to her in the back of the car that kept her from immediately lashing out at the driver in her addled state of mind. After all, the last memory she had was that of being back in their apartment under attack and she was still affected by that notion; only the presence of the fox, unmoving and half-curled around her, allowed her to start grounding herself in the new present reality.

Nick was grateful, if slightly embarrassed, that for the first few minutes of his partner waking up she’d opted to curl close against his side instead of trying to beat up Jack. As amusing as it might have been to see such a thing happen, he was far more concerned about safely getting to wherever they were heading than scratching the itch of whatever inexplicable grudge he held against the lapin. For whatever reason, having Judy immediately next to him and focusing on him and him alone was rather thorough in clearing up that aspect too; Jack was no concern as long as she was right there.

Finally, after several very long minutes spent slowly putting her mental faculties back in place, Judy finally had the awareness to scoot slightly away from Nick with a blush that she hid under her folded ears and turn to Jack to ask where they were heading.

“To stay with a friend,” was all Jack said in reply, “as your apartment is clearly no longer an option.”

An odd silence then fell over the trio, all three of them either exhausted enough not to try and ask too many questions about the current situation they were in (morning would come eventually after all, and with it the time and greater security in which to start clearing things up), or both exhausted and trying to keep their focus safely on the road ahead. Jack was starting to reach the point where he would normally turn entirely stoic, focused on the mission at hand and the mission alone, but in dealing with the mammals he was currently feeling responsible for and those he was about to meet up with, he knew that staying shut up would never work at all, and instead he was doing everything in his power to keep his head clear. If he tried to play the “silent vigilante” game with his friend when they finally arrived, it would be one of the few cases where he actually feared for his reputation and mental well-being.

Judy was still awake enough at the end of the drive to notice that they were beginning to enter into a part of the city she was still not yet familiar with. They were climbing up a relatively steep slope, crossing up switchbacks on the road they were on as they rapidly gained elevation, telling her that they were starting to approach Alpine District supposedly, but the foliage around them was not composed of deciduous trees and conifers like most of that section of the city.

Instead, it looked like the Rainforest District had it been compacted and shrouded in moss, and an eerie fog was seeping between the trees and buildings around them, warping the sparse lights into odd halos and beams in the enveloping darkness and blocking any more distant views through the trees. Overall, too, it seemed as if there were very few houses and businesses that they were actually passing by, what architecture there was dominated by the most unusual organic designs, blending with the short, moss-cloaked trees.

“Where, exactly, are we?” Judy queried, glancing between the outside world and Jack (and in the process Nick noticed that she was also trying to avoid looking at the reynard present too directly at all; he found it somewhat amusing knowing she was trying to pull back on the classic rabbit clinginess she had, but also a touch saddening. He was fine with it after all, didn’t she know that?).

Before Jack could respond –and he likely wouldn’t with the atmosphere he’d been projecting into the space, Nick decided –Nick chimed in. “It’s the Cloud Forest,” he explained. “Basically it’s the halfway point between Rainforest and Alpine; resembles high elevation places on tropical mountains. Not a whole lot of mammals like it here because it’s often more humid than Rainforest itself and on warm days it can get stifling. I’ll bet Stripes’ new friend is a hermit of some sort if he’s up here.” He looked up toward Jack, hoping for some sort of either affirmation or denial, but instead he was met with nothing of the sort. “And I see that we’ll have to meet them in order to actually find out, since Tiger Bunny’s pulling the silent treatment again and staying mum on the subject.”

“Hey, does Bogo know where we are?” Judy asked. “And are we going to be able to go back onto our shifts tomorrow or is this going to be more of a safe house type thing?”

“Bogo will know you’re not staying at home soon enough,” Jack replied curtly, “but I’m not telling him where you are, not until I know what is safe and what isn’t. And also until I know exactly what we’re dealing with I’m not risking having you two back out on the streets.”

“Great. We can’t even do our jobs now.”

“You will have plenty enough to do, Hopps. I would rather not however hand you over to our targets in the process.”

Silence fell again for a time as they continued driving, heading deep into the heart of the odd sub-district, and it lasted long enough that the eyelids of both officers began drooping, threatening to close completely. Then, Jack suddenly and without warning took a tight turn to the left and seemingly almost straight into the wall of trees on either side of them.

“Whoa, Jack look out!” Judy yelled, fully alert and shooting straight up in her seat and clinging to Nick before she noticed that they had in reality turned into a very well-hidden, narrow concrete drive, only about twice the width of the car that they were in and walled in by thick vegetation on both sides. The trees growing up around them were dense enough that above them the branches wove together to form a vine-laden tunnel that extended in a weaving line ahead of them for quite a distance. The atmosphere was beyond eerie now, almost foreboding, and Judy glanced up at Nick to see if he was feeling the same way. Instead, she was greeted by a reassuring mask of a smile; if he was put off by their surroundings, he wasn’t showing it.

“This guy lives quite a ways off the beaten path, doesn’t he?” the fox mused, looking ahead down the tunnel. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say we were going to some secret spy base; I almost feel like we’re about to head underground any moment. Hey, this friend of yours have a house, or a shed in the woods here?”

“He has a house, don’t worry,” Jack replied, jerking his thumb off to his right as the tunnel opened up for a moment around them. “If you need reassurance, there it is too.”

His two passengers followed the gesture, eyes widening in confusion. There was certainly a structure standing there, seemingly half made of glass, but beyond those odd reflective extensions it was impossible to tell where building ended and forest began, so wound into a copse of trees as it was. The house looked as if it had been grown out of the very forest itself. The only thing that looked even semi-normal for the brief moment that they managed to see it, was the apparent garden encompassing the clearing around the house between it and the driveway tunnel.

Then, their glimpse of their destination was cut off, and they continued winding around down the drive in a more or less slow arc toward the habitation.

“Well, if his personality is anything like his home here, he must be quite the eccentric character,” Nick mused. “I wonder if we’ll find a room full of obscure art and poetry references while we’re here, or old-time furniture everywhere. Or, we’ll keep up the nerve-wracking atmosphere and he’ll lead us to a room full of torture weapons, right?”

Once again he paused in waiting, only to have Jack provide no response to his musings, and the vulpine and the lapine next to him resigned themselves to simply sitting back and waiting as the car finally exited the tunnel itself and pulled in under a more permanent looking metal overhang, coming to a halt next to a couple of other slightly larger vehicles only a short walk from what they assumed was the “front door” to the house.

Jack put the vehicle into park, turning off the car and gesturing for them to exit. Nick and Judy complied a moment later, taking a second as they stepped out to weather the sudden onslaught of cool, humid and floral-charged air that greeted them like a wet blanket to the snout before following the striped rabbit up the short path to the door. Jack knocked twice, and a second later an automatic lock clicked open somewhere within, permitting him to push it open and into the dimly lit interior.

“This way,” he said, stepping in and almost immediately turning right into an adjoining hallway. Judy and Nick followed suit apprehensively, glancing around at what they could see in the present gloom. The walls were relatively bare, save for a couple of seemingly homemade sketches and paintings hung up over the reddish background, and the floor was waterproof laminated hardwood; it was not what Nick expected from seeing the outside, but then they’d only thus far seen a very small portion of the house. What one wishes others to see immediately upon entering their home can be very different from the general personality of the house after all.

The hall Jack led them down was little better in terms of decoration, and through a glass door they passed Judy could see into one of the additions on the side of the building (and at a closer glance, it was clear they weren’t made of glass per se, but some sort of clear polyfiber acrylic, a far stronger material); it was a greenhouse without doubt, as she could see layer upon layer of foliage within, though no plants she recognized offhand. The corridor turned inward again, but they traveled only a short way before Jack stole a glance at the screen of his phone, checking a set of directions his friend had sent him, and turned the knob on a plain wood door on their left to push it open.

The first detail the two officers noticed was the books. The room was maybe twelve feet high, and most of it was walls lined with floor to ceiling shelves full of books of every size they could imagine. Nick was able to pick out the titles better with his stronger vision, and gave a short, low whistle at the collection: fantasy novels, documentaries, autobiographies, and several very large sections dedicated to the various sciences. Even more, many of the volumes were present in multiple copies, sized for mammals from voles to hippos; it was practically a library in the middle of this mystery character’s home.

Jack cleared his throat then, turning toward the lone section of wall that was not lined with books, and Judy and Nick only then took notice of the fact that there was a desk present as well, an occupied one. They couldn’t necessarily be blamed, as the spot was only just barely more brightly lit than the rest of the room, and the mammal there was hunched over the flat surface, working away at something hidden behind the black duster coat they wore. Nick’s nose picked up that it was a canid, medium-sized, but everything else was an unknown; the scent was odd, reminding him of his own smell slightly but definitely not a fox.

The mammal’s ears did perk up slightly at the sound Jack had made though, and a faint chuckle followed. “Yes, I heard you come in,” he said. “Just a moment while I finish this up.”

“If I waited here while you finished we’d be standing around for hours.”

“You know what I mean Jack. Don’t make me hit you with a pencil.”

Another dry chuckle, a few seconds, and a short series of pencil strokes later, and the canid set down his drawing utensil, dusted off his paws and his lap, and stood up to greet his visitors.

He was a coyote, maybe a head taller than Nick but with a similar half-lidded, scrutinizing smirk-topped expression to the one the fox usually wore. His tan and cream speckled fur deepened to marks of a more prominent and odd red and black around his eyes, ears, and paws, and as his tail flicked to the side with his movements it fluffed out notably longer and more brush-like than that of most coyotes Nick had previously met, mottled with the same odd red hues in with the typical brown. His duster flared around his legs, framing a thin figure and equally dark blue shirt and pants, but what really drew their attention were his eyes: a shocking blue-green hue that Judy would have sworn shifted their color as the coyote walked through the ever so slightly changing lighting toward them, they bore an expression that, if Nick’s looks conveyed the message of an “I know everything” persona, were the epitome of “I know of things you would never believe.” It was a somewhat disconcerting gaze, but yet at the same time the mammal still balanced it out with a warm smile that appeared as he held out his paw to the two police.

“Officers Hopps and Wilde,” he greeted cordially as first Judy and them Nick tentatively shook his hand, “pleased to finally meet you in person, though I apologize sincerely about the circumstances that led up to it. The name’s Embron, Embron Caniston; welcome to my home.”

“Pleased to meet you, Embron sir,” Judy replied to which the coyote laughed.

“Heh, sir; that’s one I haven’t heard in forever,” he chuckled. “Don’t worry, we’re informal and all friends here, especially after what I’m guessing you’ve been through recently.”

“It’s been a lot tonight, it has,” Nick admitted. “We, uh…are we going to discuss it tonight, what’s going on here, or…?”

“It would be better to wait until morning,” Embron said, shaking his head. “Since you’re not already asking certain questions yet I must assume Jack hasn’t filled you in on all the background you might now need to know, and on top of that with his coming here it’s going to be a very, very long talk. And while I might be a night mammal,” he grinned, “I’m not staying up until three in the morning chatting. Hey Jack, we expecting anyone else, or should we get arrangements set up and out of the way?”

“My partner should be arriving shortly as well,” Jack said, checking his phone before deftly tucking it out of sight again and looking up at Embron. “Having us both in the field with a new tech team supporting us would be more beneficial than only one agent acting as investigator and security detail for these two.”

“Ah. Someone I know?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

The coyote chuckled again, looking sidelong toward Nick and Judy. “Well, were it not for the extenuating circumstances I would say this get-together would almost be exciting; I don’t receive too many visitors up here,” he drawled, before noting Nick’s pensive, thoughtful expression. “Something on your mind?”

“Caniston,” Nick said slowly, looking up at Embron. “I know I’ve heard that name before. Have we met?”

“No, not personally, though I can’t say I’m surprised,” Embron replied. “Ever heard of Ampullaris?”

“Yeah, isn’t that the enzyme supplement Pfurzer distributes to help predators digest plant products more easily?”

“Indeed; I’m the one of the scientists who helped isolate the original compound and the one who put down the patent for synthetic version and source for the natural, so my name’s on the bottles. For reasons I’ll explain later I don’t advertise myself beyond it though, but anyone who might have been looking into Pfurzer for investigative –or perhaps other, older and less lawful –reasons would probably come across it.”

“That’s one of their major products,” Judy mused, not missing Embron’s insinuation under his smirk and Nick’s attempt at hiding a guilty expression, before her eyes widened. “The royalties would be huge; you’re a millionaire!”

Embron snorted. “I could be if I wanted to be,” he dismissed, “but most of it I throw back into research fund pools for my colleagues or I donate to charity. But I do keep enough around to stay mostly off people’s radar and fund my own hobbies. Keeps me busy, but with a flexible schedule.”

He straightened up and snapped his fingers then before whirling around toward the door, tail sweeping along behind him as his duster flared. “But, we can chat about my past, and yours, later on when we’re all actually at our best. We all need rest, and no point in standing around here in the reading room, so might as well take you guys off toward the guest rooms.” He glanced back at them, something knowing in his eyes that made Judy want to blush again. “I’m afraid I only have a couple of rooms right now that are decently ready at the moment, so we’ll have to discuss who will be staying in what room with who in a moment.”

Setting the door open, the coyote turned to head further down the hall the other three had walked in through with both rabbits and fox in tow. They managed to get halfway down the hall before another new voice rose up behind them, silky and snarky at the same time and slowing them all to a halt.

“Hooray, caught you before you entered the labyrinth! Figures though, I showed up right when the rain was scheduled to start up outside; sorry if the house smells like wet canine now.”

Embron turned first, not breaking his stride at all as he spun and swept past the others, drawing their eyes with him. He cast a quick and knowing glance back at Jack (and earning an exasperated eye roll in return) before a broad, slightly devious grin split his muzzle as he made a beeline for the newest arrival: a female Arctic fox dressed in a surprisingly clean, somehow fashionable greenish work suit that looked as practical as Jack’s attire did professional.

“Skye!” the coyote greeted, arms opening at the same time as the fox’s crystal blue eyes began widening. “Should have guessed it was you, with Jack here! And a clean suit for once; no auto work recently?”

“Embron you know how I feel about hugs!” Skye warned, her voice rising in a defensive, panicked pitch as she backed up with her hands out. But it was to no avail; the bigger canid reached her shortly and picked her up anyway in a strong embrace, still grinning.

“That’s why I do it,” he sniggered. “Just be glad you won’t see Scarlet until tomorrow then!”

“Uggghhhhh…maybe I’ll just head back to the base house.”

“Not a chance,” Jack called out, a faint smile appearing on his face for the first time all night as Embron lugged the white fox over to him and dropped her to her feet again there. “If we have to suffer the Caniston antics, so do you; and, we need you here anyway. Wilde, Hopps, this is my partner, Skylar Wellinger.”

The vixen brushed down and straightened her outfit after Embron’s hug, shooting him a glare which he only toothily smiled at, before extending her paw to the officers. “But please, call me Skye,” she said. “I’ve certainly heard a lot about you two; quite the drive you’ve got Hopps, and Mr. Wilde, I hope that we can put some of your acquired skills to good use in closing this mission out without too much more hassle.”

Judy didn’t miss the warm smile shared between the two, and for a moment felt something run through her veins that reddened her ears notably, but she pushed it down as she forced up a cordial smile instead.

“Please to meet you,” she said. “Agent Savage’s partner, huh? It’s an intriguing line of work it would seem.”

“Well, that’s certainly one way to put it,” Skye huffed. “A constant headache is another. As will be explained probably tomorrow, sometimes it’s more unnerving than anything else. Tonight though, late as it is, it’s wise we all get some rest and start hashing out the mess later.”

“Not gonna disagree there, and Embron’s already kind of enforcing it, but I do have one question I’ve got to ask,” Nick said, looking the vixen up and down in curiosity. Judy immediately felt the uncomfortably hot feeling in her gut slam into her at the same time, and she bit her lip to keep from saying anything out loud. “You’re an arctic fox, right? I thought they had brown summer coats at this time of year; you live in Tundratown all the time or something?”

“She’s a leucistic,” Embron interjected, looking between them.

“A what?”

“It means I always have white fur, never changes,” Skye explained, sending Embron an eye roll in the process. “Also gives me my blue eyes here.”

“Huh. First time I’ve heard of it.”

“It’s a recessive gene, not exactly a common thing. Was there a point in your asking, or…?”

“He’s just nosy,” Judy blurted, shooting her partner a glare which he absolutely ignored, and an elbow jab which he could not. Ignoring his yelp, she continued. “He likes to find out odd or embarrassing things about those around him so he can use it for blackmail or hazing ammunition.”

“Oh, well then you’ll definitely fit in here,” Embron laughed. “Though I dare say you might also find a challenge winning if you push it too much. But enough chit chat; I’ll show you to the rooms you four will be staying in. There are two beds in each, so just enough for everyone, but more importantly: do you want to be paired up males and females, or with your partners?”

“Partners,” both Nick and Jack blurted simultaneously, before their eyes shot open and they exchanged disturbed glances. Embron quirked an eyebrow, still not losing his smirk, before glancing at the two females for affirmation.

“I…I’m good with that,” Judy said slowly, trying to look casual as she shot a side look at Nick. “We share an apartment, so it can’t be that different.”

“Great,” Embron affirmed, before finally turning down the hall again. “I’ll get some ointment for you to put on your chest, Nick, and for your side Judy –and yes, before you ask I can tell you took a couple hits tonight, you’ve been wincing every now and then –but there’s not much else you can do for just bruises, and then I’ll give you a room and these two the other one.”

“Wait, what about Savage?” Judy asked. “He’s been hurt too.” Like Nick, she’d noticed Jack wincing a lot more than they had been despite him trying to hide it, and knew he’d managed to at least crack a rib in the fight that had occurred after she’d been tranquilized.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Jack,’ the coyote assured, “and yes Jack, I know what happened to you, so stop hiding it and don’t you dare tell me it’s not a big deal. You’ll be good as new come morning.” He didn’t even have to turn around to know that the lapin was shooting him a deadpan glare, but Jack didn’t press the issue; he knew from experience that it was futile, and they were right: if he didn’t get the rib taken care of it would be a serious liability if they got into a fight again.

Just as Skye had alluded in her first words on the premises, the house was an interesting labyrinth in design, the coyote leading the posse behind him around several turns and past numerous doors to dimly lit hothouses and other spaces that piqued both Judy and Nick’s interest; items that looked like either lab equipment or terrariums stacked within and not only bolstering Embron’s claim of being a scientist but making the two officers wonder just what his other hobbies were. Embron clearly caught their stares and gave them knowing looks, but commented only that things would be explained the next morning. They stopped at one of the restrooms along the way so that they coyote could fetch some household medical supplies and ointment for their injuries, but that was the only detour made.

Soon they came to a set of stairs which they descended, spilling out into a larger central space that looked almost like a lounge room at a hotel complete with a TV and several fluffy looking sofas and beanbag chairs, with another hall and three doors leading off it. Embron led them to the door nearest to their left and opened it up, flicking o the light within to reveal a cozy looking space with two neatly made medium-sized beds and a walk-in closet.

“Bathroom is over there,” he explained, pointing across the lounge, “with a shower and fur dryer if you need it. I’ll let you two decide who gets which bed and all that, and don’t worry about getting up at any particular time tomorrow, alright?” He saw Judy moving to protest, and held up a paw, one finger raised in an order as his expression turned serious. “Ah ah, my house, my rules. Jack either has already or will soon deal with your Chief, and after tonight all you need to worry about is getting enough rest to recover properly and preparing for a long talk tomorrow. And if you insist on getting up early, let me warn you now: I won’t be up and about for a while to help you navigate, and if you wander around the house alone, there are some very dangerous things here if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

There was that disconcerting feeling Judy had felt upon first entering the Cloud Forest again. Friend of Jack’s or not, this mammal was full of way too many secrets for her liking, and she was intent to dig up a few of them on her own terms.

“Don’t push it Carrots,” Nick advised, seeing her look and putting a paw on her shoulder as he grinned. “He’s forcing us to sleep in on a work day; I’m not going to complain.”

“That’s because you’re a lazy night owl of a fox,” Judy quipped back, trying to shrug his paw off.

Nick chuckled. “Me? Nocturnal? Would have never guessed.”

“Aaalllright, well you two can discuss sleeping patterns if you want, but I need to go and take care of this pair now,” Embron interjected, amused expression returning as he watched the two of them go back and forth before he stepped back from the door and ushered them in instead. “Seriously though, get some rest okay? We’ll see both of you in the morning.” He then sent them a mock salute, one so close to Nick’s usual response to Bogo that it left both him and Judy blinking in surprise as he handed them the jar of medical ointment he’d grabbed earlier along with a couple of bandages just in case, and closed the door, leaving the two of them alone in silence together for the first time that night since they had been walking through their own apartment hallways.

Judy looked down at the ointment jar in her hands before sighing, spinning open the lid and hiking up the side of her shirt to expose her bruised abdomen. She swept two fingers into the salve and then tried not to wince at the pain of contact as she rubbed it over the purple spot that was clearly visible under her fur. At the same time, she became aware of her trembling limbs as the sudden lack of distractions let her mind finally start to truly process what had come to pass earlier that night. What little adrenaline was still in her system also waned, sending her into an emotional collapse.

It hadn’t been a dream, that one was for sure; the fact that she was standing there, dealing with a blunt injury while standing in the basement guest room of a house belonging to a canine she’d never met before tonight while still shaking off the final fading headaches of a tranquilizer serum proved that out. But, she was still finding it hard to believe it had occurred at all. They were being targeted by someone, animals more than willing to even breach the privacy of their own home and under the risk of police retaliation in order to get at them.

“This all really happened, didn’t it?” she whispered, arms and ears drooping simultaneously as it hit her fully. Nick looked at her as his own ears drooped, and his heart ached both at the sight of her looking like that and at the same realization she was having when it started sinking in further. Sure, he’d been awake for the whole ordeal unlike her, but even driving around in the car watching over Judy in the back seat for an hour and a half had still kept the events of the night somewhat at bay, kept it seeming rather surreal.

Something urged him to step over to her, lifting a paw and laying it softly on her shoulder. Judy jerked slightly at the unexpected touch, before she glanced at the dark red appendage resting on her and followed it up to find his eyes. They shared a silent look for a moment, before Judy turned and hugged Nick hard, though being careful to avoid putting pressure on his chest as best she could as she let out a shuddering breath. She managed to keep from tearing up, but only just.

“Yeah, it’s really happening unfortunately,” Nick replied softly, “but hey, we’re both still here. I got a little beat up but that’s not gonna stop me from making sure it stays that way, alright?”

“Alright. Sorry for being an emotional bunny,” Judy sighed, smiling wistfully, and Nick chuckled before giving in to the temptation to ruffle the top of her head with the paw not on her shoulder still.

“I kind of have to be used to it by now, don’t I?” he quipped. “Besides, you wouldn’t be you without these moments, and really I don’t mind. But don’t tell anyone I said that, okay? I have an image to protect.”

Judy laughed and jokingly punched his arm, before he turned them both around to face the beds. “Come on, I’ll let you pick the bed you want too, how about that?” Nick offered, gesturing to the two mattresses, and Judy let him go slowly while handing him the ointment before looking over at the beds as well. Both of them would be considered huge for either of the two mammals, nearly identical and set up clearly for comfort.

“Wow, he’s got those special memory foam pillows even, doesn’t he?” she commented. “I don’t think it matters who gets which; they’re practically identical.”

“So appreciate the spirit of my selfless act,” Nick drawled, twirling his hand dramatically and making her roll her eyes before he carefully began unbuttoning his uniform and then slipping off his undershirt as well, wincing as the act pulled at the bruises on his chest before carefully applying the salve like Judy had. “Wow, I can feel it numbing me already; we should ask him where he gets this stuff.”

“If he doesn’t make it himself; you saw those rooms upstairs,” Judy said offhandedly, before finally settling on choosing the bed closest to the closet; being female, she would probably more desire the greater privacy that changing in the offset space would provide (a fact confirmed by Nick’s rather obvious lack of upper body coverings now; he had no problem showing off more skin than she, not that Judy found herself particularly minding that detail).

As she moved to sit down on the bed, another somewhat related thought occurred to the rabbit. “Oh, great, we don’t have any spare changes of clothes,” she groaned, flopping backward onto the covers dramatically. “And I’ll bet after a morning shower these are going to smell terrible to us again.”

Nick paused in his salve application and looked at her, wrinkling his nose as he realized how right she was; the odor was just noticeable to him now, and he’d been accustomed o it all evening. “If you think they’ll smell terrible to you, just imagine what I get to experience. One of the many downsides of having a canine nose.”

The rabbit sent him an apologetic look as he returned to medicating himself and placing bandages around his torso just in case, before letting out a sigh. “I’m sure we’ll figure out something though,” she thought aloud, sitting up and glancing at the closest. Curiosity soon got the better of her, and she hopped up again, wandering over to the little room.

“Makes me wonder really how much money this guy does keep around if he’s able to provide even guest places like this,” she mused, flipping on the light and stepping inside. “Oh, well what do you know? Hey Nick, guess what I found!”

To her surprise, the space was not empty; right in front of the lapine hung several sets of clothes on the lower rack of the closet, one rabbit-sized and consisting of a light purple shirt and tan shorts, another a navy button-up and olive pants sized for a fox, and a few other similarly sized clothes that looked to be meant for sleep wear if desired or more formal outfits. As if to explain the coincidence, attached to the larger set of day clothes with a piece of tape was a small note that Judy pulled off and read out loud.

“For Nick and Judy, whoever finds these first (or both of you if you end up in the same room): short notice so I’m glad I still had a few of these around, feel free to keep them too if you wish and if needed we’ll try to get some of your own clothes from your apartment. Signed, Embron.”

She held up the note as she looked at Nick with a surprisingly pleased expression. “Guess we don’t have to worry about clothes after all; we’ve gotta get him something in return for all this though. I call the shower first thing in the morning though.”

“No problem; it’ll just smell like sweaty fox around here for longer then.”

Judy declined to comment that she didn’t actually mind that fact, believe it or not; it had been rather off-putting the first few weeks she’d endured it living with Nick, but now being able to tell that the reynard was around even if she couldn’t see him calmed her. Instead, she simply closed the closet door and began stripping down to her own under armor as Nick undressed to his boxers in the outer room, the rabbit grabbing the night shirt sized for her and heading out to climb into her chosen bed as the fox wandered over toward the door of the room and flicked off the light, sending them into darkness lit only by the faint light of a digital clock on a bedtable against the far wall opposite the closet. Then he too climbed into his own bed, settling down and looking over to Judy.

“Sleep well Carrots,” he called out as he nestled in, and Judy smiled as she settled back against her own pillow before replying, “You too, Blueberries.”

The mattress and pillows were just as soft as they’d looked, but despite practically sinking into them and feeling exhaustion yanking away at her mind, Judy found she simply could not fall asleep. Tossing and turning, for the first time in a very long while she was feeling very aware of just how empty her bed was.

Judy had always been the independent one in her family, eschewing communal beds with siblings or even bunk beds and choosing instead to stake her claim on a one-rabbit room back home. And though she’d gathered a small collection of plushes at the apartment since moving out, a stuffed fox that she’d picked up in the three months following the Missing Mammals conference over a year before included, to stand in somewhat for family presence, she’d remained with that singular spirit for the most part. Having another mammal sleeping one room over hadn’t even really been a thought, other than knowing her best friend was nearby and that presence only ever being a slightly greater comfort.

Tonight, though, she could not for the life of her grow comfortable with being on her own in that bed. Her mind continued to drift to the vulpine lying mere feet away on the other bed in the room, both subconsciously and consciously wanting some warm reassurance that she wasn’t on her own after the events that had passed. Judy badgered herself for it, convincing herself that Nick wouldn’t enjoy such close company with her while falling asleep and that it would be too awkward to pass out that way too, but after several minutes of restless squirming she finally let out an exasperated, exhausted, choking huff and sat up, looking over at the other bed.

To her surprise, Nick’s ears perked at her movement and he too slowly sat up, looking at her with an expression she couldn’t make out in the dark. “Can’t sleep either?” he asked softly.

“Yeah,” she admitted. “I can’t…ugh, after tonight I just don’t feel…comfortable, sleeping alone. I shouldn’t be feeling this way, I’ve never needed other mammals around like most rabbits do, but I am and I…I don’t even have a plush with me to help.”

She waited awkwardly for a response after her admission, and a few seconds later Nick let out a long sigh, one she couldn’t identify as irritation, resignation, or relief; maybe it was a combination of all three. “These beds are probably big enough to hold four of us,” he said slowly. “You…want to take one side here and I’ll take the other?”

“I…if you don’t mind,” Judy stammered awkwardly, though she was inwardly glad that her hope was being answered and hoping that her blush wasn’t visible in the present lighting.

Nick gave a soft chuckle as he scooted over, patting the open side of the bed. “Don’t worry Fluff, I’ll allow it this one time. Sorry if it smells like day old fox though.”

“It’s not a problem,” Judy answered, giving him a grateful, if embarrassed smile and climbing out of her bed, padding over and up onto his. As Nick lay back down and she settled into her side, his lingering warmth and scent on the sheets (she was, for once, truly glad he hadn’t showered yet, as odd as that was), Judy could already feel herself relaxing far more than she ever had in the other bed, and she let out a contented breath as she closed her eyes.

“Good night Nick,” she said softly, hugging her pillow, and mere moments later she was out like a light.

Nick looked over at her, curled on the bed under the covers, and smiled as he let one hand drift down to rest just above her head; she was adorable like that, and with her asleep he had no fears admitting it. “Good night Carrots,” he replied, just barely loud enough for her to have heard if she were still awake, before closing his own eyes and drifting off as well.

Though they started off on opposite sides of the bed, as time went on the two of them unconsciously shuffled nearer to the other, Judy seeking out her friend’s warm side and Nick responding in kind, drawing her closer with one arm before eventually wrapping both of them and his tail around her, content smiles on both their faces as they fell into mirror dreams, their minds swirling around each other in tandem just as their bodies did in reality.

As soon as the door to the officers' guest room closed, Embron’s almost jovial demeanor evaporated entirely, his shoulders falling and his expression twisting into a somber gaze at the door.

 “They’re like two peas in a pod, and they can’t even see it yet,” he muttered, before his look morphed even further into a disappointed scowl as he turned to face Jack and Skye. The lapin and vulpine both flinched with a concerned swallow as his eyes, no longer their odd blue-green of before but now a piercing gold, locked with theirs. “Medical room, now,” he ordered, jerking his head off down the hall they’d yet to traverse, before marching down that direction without looking back.

Jack had only seen Embron change emotions that quickly a few times, and none of them ever bode well, especially when his looks were directed and him and his partner. Embron was a practiced actor, able to mask his thoughts better than even Jack when it was necessary, but when he returned to being himself and letting everyone see how he felt, there was no guessing about it. Both agents were smart enough too not to disobey the orders, instead scrambling to follow the coyote’s agitatedly twitching tail as it swept down the corridor.

Several closed doors and various turns afterward, the three found themselves in a sterile white space just adjacent to one of the lab-type rooms like the ones Nick and Judy had noticed before, furnished only with a couple of wide, flat tables and counters littered with a bit more than just home medical supplies. Embron pointed at the closest of the tables, and Jack unquestioningly climbed up the short steps to the top of the surface before sitting down on the edge, watching the larger canid dig through a drawer nearby.

“Who was it that attacked you?” Embron asked as he finally stood up straight again, putting on a stethoscope and turning to Jack.

“Avery was first,” Jack responded quietly, carefully shrugging off his suit jacket, shirt, and armor vest underneath (and wincing with the movement of each). “But this time it was a Moschus who calls himself Saber.”

“I know who he is,” Embron nodded, though his voice darkened as he carefully placed the free end of the stethoscope against Jack’s chest. “You should have called me as soon as you even knew Avery was around, or even once you knew any of these individuals might be in the city. What possibly could have possessed you to wait this long?!”

There was a moment of silence as the coyote listened, ascertaining what he could auditorily of Jack’s injuries, before he pulled away and Skye spoke up.

“We have protocols we have to follow, Embron,” she said. “Much as we may wish to at times, we can’t simply go and spill everything we know related to a case to civilians or even law enforcement. And up until recently, we only had suspicions, so we didn’t want to risk getting you involved; as it is now that we know the dangers are incredibly high and you could end up”-

“That’s a lot of empty air and you know it, Skye,” Embron snapped, glaring at her and shutting her up as he turned back to Jack again and placed his paws across the lapin’s bare chest. “I know all about the protocols; the first time I was involved with you guys I got to be debriefed about them in excruciating detail. I also know how much of a stickler for them Trevahe can be at times, but above all you two know what I’ve dealt with, what I am capable of, and just what is at play in this world. You want to argue protocol with me, send Trevahe here herself to talk with me, and we’ll see how long she continues to think the rules will apply in my world.

“I told you that calling me was a risk, but that wasn’t because I wanted to avoid these instances,” he continued more softly. “You still haven’t had to face the worst that these individuals can dredge up, and I can almost guarantee this time around that if this is what I think it is it will bring them out. The risk is whether or not you can continue to deal with this; I’m around for a reason, remember?”

“Of course we’re going to stay on this mission,” Jack argued, shifting where he sat as he watched Embron’s hands on his chest seem to almost glow for a second as they pressed against him. “We’ve been chasing these animals since the Italia exchange, and they’re threatening lives directly now. The Script I managed to nick from them there hasn’t told us anything, so this is our best lead”-

“You found a Script, and yet you still hadn’t managed to piece anything together or think to call me?”

Jack shut up immediately, realizing himself just how stupid they’d been as the coyote stepped back looking between him and Skye with an incredulous and disappointed stare as he crossed his arms.

“This is…oh, what was it you told me?” Embron growled. “AOMISDOPS likes only the best? It was practically laid in your face what you’re dealing with, and yet you did nothing. You’re not showing the best.”

“Well we weren’t exactly raised in the mindset you were, Embron,” Skye quipped back, and Embron’s glared settled on her.

“Really? You have a cousin who’s like me,” he shot back, “and I know he’s told you things.”

“Had.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I had a cousin like you.”

Now Skye’s voice was turning cold, to match her ancestral home. “Until last year when someone hired and assassin to take him out, thank you for bringing that up, you ass.”

Embron quirked an eyebrow, before he closed his eyes and sighed, shaking his head as he leaned against the counter. “And there’s another reason you should call me more often,” he muttered. “A reason you swore you’d call me for, in fact. Fire told me to only tell you in person; you really think Big would be dumb enough to kill of a friend of mine, let alone a legendary agent who also just happens to be a Gifted? No, he’s still around Skye, taking some time for himself while he shakes the moles from his last assignment off his tale.”

The tension that had been in the room already now grew palpable as Skye’s gaze turned incredulous as well, and infuriated. “So you mean to tell me,” she growled, hackles rising, “that my cousin has been alive all this time, and not only has he not told me, not only did you know, but you also rub it in by insisting on using that stupid nickname the first time I’m told he’s still alive?!”

“Gifteds stick together,” Embron replied smoothly, not fazed a bit by her anger. “We always have. And the nickname was a request by him, maybe as a joke to annoy you but I’m respecting it anyway. I’ll tell you where he is too as soon as you’re calm enough not to try and kill him yourself when we go find him again, but right now you haven’t given me a lot to trust that you can handle any more stress either. That goes for both of you, in fact.”

As he looked between them, Jack sighed in resignation and slipped off the table, no longer wincing when he landed and started slipping his clothes back on (though for now he left the armor vest off; this house was as safe as it got after all). “Fine,” he admitted, “so this mission has thrown us for a loop and maybe that’s our fault, but other than when we met it’s not like we’ve had a lot of experience with organizations like these; hell, I haven’t seen anything from their side since 6 years ago in Indus. Why is this particular situation so dangerous though?”

“You remember what I told you about rifts?” Embron queried. At Jack’s slow nod, he gestured his head in the general direction of the room where Nick and Judy presently were. “I remember when I told you about them, I also told you that some individuals out there believe that they can be closed, and in doing so believe they can revert this world back to the old way of life. If, and though I think personally that’s a really big if, they’re right, then those two are going to be the catalyst.”

“So that’s why Saber didn’t try to kill them,” Jack surmised. “That’s…so the material labeled as ‘catalyst’ we also found in the exchange hideout came from living mammals then, but it’s been modified somehow so we couldn’t recognize it. If…alright Embron, if God forbid they succeed, what happens?”

“First, Nick, Judy, and the rest of us will die,” Embron replied flatly, leaving no room for argument. “And then they’ll send the rest of the world into primal chaos once more."

Chapter Text

What point is there ever in only being normal?

What fun do you have in simply blending in?

The odd and eccentric change the world

The wierdos make artists, musicians, artisans

Come with us to see the mysterious places

Or simply to make yourself entertained

For we are the ones who hold the greatest secrets

We know of that which can’t be explained

While he normally wasn’t one to be prone to cuddling with plush toys at night, Nick decided that for once, whatever he was currently hugging snugly to himself was something he liked. The object fit perfectly between his arms and under his chin, reflecting his warmth (or radiating its own; he was warm, but he was pretty sure he wasn’t that warm), giving off the reassuring scent of Judy being somewhere nearby just like most of their apartment did, and was breathing at a slow, rhythmic pace that soothed him and made him want nothing more than to remain out like a light, even as a faint glow began to fill the room he was in and filter through his eyelids, hailing the break of dawn.

Wait…breathing?!

Full awareness of current surroundings slammed into Nick the moment his mind actually registered the fact that, indeed, whatever it was that he was thoroughly coiled around at that moment was in fact alive and moving ever so slightly. His eyes snapped open and quickly adjusted to the ambient lighting, provided by a narrow cellar-style window on the nearest side of the room to his bed that was funneling reflected sunlight into a space that was most definitely not his own apartment bedroom. Then, they drifted downward apprehensively as he carefully lifted his chin to see what, or who, exactly it was that he was unwittingly spooning.

It took a few moments at the odd angle and with the last bits of sleep clinging to his brain like cobwebs, but Nick soon recognized the rounded gray head and the long, black-tipped ears that lay flopped against his chest, a painfully familiar sight. But when he did, two very opposing feelings fell onto him like a pair of lead weights: elation, as this had been sort of like a situation that he had in fact imagined a few times before (not that he’d ever admit it) and Judy was one of the very few mammals that he’d ever even think of letting be this close to him, and terror. Nick knew the night before they had certainly not started out in this position, and he had absolutely no idea how Judy would react to this sudden close-quarters setting. Though it had been surprisingly comforting to him, and…something else (in the back of his mind Nick was starting to finally realize what it was, but he was at the moment still too afraid to admit it, even to himself), he immediately started thinking of only the worst possible reactions that Judy could have; disgust, fear, fury. There was no way that he was going to risk blowing up his most prized friendship over an awkward misunderstanding, so he had to get out of this, now.

The question, however, was how to avoid alerting Judy that this had ever happened. Not only was Nick almost fully entwined around her, arms clutching her middle like she was a security pillow, and his feet and tail cupped around her legs, but she too had rather firmly latched onto the arm that was trapped under her presently, making it nigh impossible to wriggle away without waking her up in the process. She’d also soon realize the sun was up, and as soon as that happened Nick knew she’d be awake and about in a heartbeat.

Nick knew the odds were stacked against him, but despite it, he tried anyway. Slowly, carefully, he shifted first his right and then left leg out and away from her, berating himself as the movement brought to his attention another awkward morning detail down below that he was very thankful baggy boxers were hiding away, especially in present company (The male’s morning curse, he growled to himself), before then carefully lifting his tail up and off Judy’s thighs.

Almost immediately the rabbit shifted in her sleep, making the fox freeze in panic as he feared she was waking up. But after several heart-pounding moments, Judy merely shuffled herself backward further against him, her back flush with his chest, and her tail pressing awkwardly against his groin.

That was a sensation that Nick most definitely didn’t need at that moment; were he not covered in red fur, he was certain that he would have looked like a ripe tomato in that instant and fairly confident that it was showing through anyway in the lighter colored areas around his muzzle and throat. His mind flashed to events he knew would (and should) never happen and he grit his teeth, practically snarling at himself in disappointment over his own twisted mind.

She’s your partner, your best friend Nick! Quit being a damn pervert and get ahold of yourself!

Now it was imperative that he got away without waking her up, but with Judy now moving to basically counter every further action he took to scoot away, he needed a distraction. Cocking his head upward, Nick grinned at seeing one of the plush memory foam pillows on the bed currently not being used, and as carefully as he could, he slowly lifted his right arm up off the lapine coiled at his front and stretched over, glad of his flexibility in reaching past Judy without further touching her but not his height as he scratched at the fluffy object uselessly for several moments, the pillow just out of reach. Scowling, he finally gave in and extended his claws, not caring what ramifications from their current host might come about if it were to be severely damaged in any way as he finally caught hold of the pillow, dragging it toward him and settling it in front of Judy.

Now came the hardest part: switching Judy’s grip from his hostage-held arm to the pillow. She was a tenacious thing, something he’d first discovered when he’d checked on her occasionally at night to find her clutching one of her stuffed rabbits (or the fox toy, he thought in amusement) as if her life depended on it, and now was likely to be no exception to that. The question was, was slow and steady going to be any more effective than just trying to yank her off? It had to be, or else he was done for.

Nick first let go of her side with his left paw, pausing to make sure she wouldn’t react before slowly angling his captive arm out toward the decoy pillow and with some difficulty pulling Judy’s own clenched paws with it. Then he reached down with his right paw and carefully grasped one of the fingers on her left paw. Pausing again, he looked down at her, and was relieved to see she hadn’t reacted yet, so he continued, easing the digit up off his arm before sliding a careful claw under the next and prying it up.

A couple of minutes later, all four fingers were being carefully held away from his arm and only her left thumb still hooked onto him. Nick maneuvered upward, unhooking it and then guiding her hand to the pillow, stifling an undignified squeak of success when she grabbed onto the foam surface and clutched it just as tightly as she had his arm. Now he was halfway done, so Nick reached back to start the same process with Judy’s right paw.

As soon as he touched her however, the light in the room brightened just a touch when outside clouds cleared for a moment, permitting a few more rays to seep into the space. That, combined with an ever-growing lack of one fox companion’s touch and body heat, caused Judy to stir, legs stretching out as she let out a long, wide-mouthed yawn completed by an involuntary “eep!” sound that under any other circumstances would have made Nick pause to simply enjoy the sheer adorableness of that moment, and her eyes flashed open.

Damn it.

The first detail Judy made notice of were the two reddish brown appendages hovering in front of her, one prominently displaying her right paw still firmly attached to it and the other frozen in the act of preparing to move it. Eyes widening, she slowly turned her head to see the rest of Nick’s body immediately behind her and his snout practically touching her twitching nose, his own face soaked in panic.

“Uhhh…Carrots, before you freak out, please let me explain,” the fox started to plead, but the effect of Judy’s sudden awakening was already in motion. With a shocked squeal she let go of his arm and sat bolt upright, twisting in the sheets and blankets as she scooted away with her ears pinging high and bright red. Clearly, her mind had managed to process the position she had at least apparently subconsciously put herself into, but not quite how it had happened.

“Nick?! What in all heck is…?”

Her voice trailed off as the rest of her memories of the night before started trickling back in: her difficulty in falling asleep after the trauma they’d been through and Nick’s slow permission to let her share his bed, and then just now how he’d been clearly trying to pull her off him. He was overall innocent in this, she started to realize; the situation was definitely her fault, brought on by her own insecurities and clinginess. Looking at Nick and seeing his scared, pleading expression, Judy knew then that she’d somehow gone too far without even trying.

“Oh sweet cheese and crackers Nick, I’m so sorry!” she blurted, scooting further away and wrapping the top blanket on the bed around herself. “I never should have asked last night, and”-

“Carrots, wait”-

“-now I made you find us like that and”-

“Fluff, if you would just listen for a”-

“I swear, I’m not that kind of rabbit, I just”-

“Judy!”

The use of her given name finally made the lapine stop talking, turning to look at Nick and seeing his expression beginning to soften to something less terrified and more understanding, embarrassed, and even a touch amused (but then, he wouldn’t be Nick if he didn’t find something funny in every situation, she decided).

“Just…stop talking, and let me explain,” he said, holding up a placating paw. “I don’t think either of us meant to end up like that, alright? You don’t exactly have a ton of control over your actions when you’re out like a log after all. Look, I was removing your grip on me so I could scoot off without disturbing you, not anything else if that’s what you were thinking before. But I wasn’t…I wasn’t trying to pull away from you because I was…disturbed by finding you next to me like that. It was….okay, so maybe a little, but that’s mostly because I’ve never had something like that happen to me before. I was trying to pull you off because I was worried about what you would think, finding us cuddled up together like that. I didn’t want to scare you, okay?”

“I didn’t…you’re sure it wasn’t me? I asked if you”-

“Judy, I’m pretty sure we both had a hand. Yesterday was rough and we’re both a little stressed out and sleeping somewhere that’s not our own apartment. I think we can overlook this as a mutual blunder. Think that’s a deal you can take, that we both just forget this?”

A tense silence fell, Judy’s ears slowly lowering as she calmed and processed Nick’s words, before she let out a long sigh that soon morphed into a giggle. “We…we’re just a couple of dorks, aren’t we?” she breathed, letting the blanket fall from her grip as the panicked tension left. “I’m worried about scaring you, you’re worried about scaring me…”

“Yeah, we’re a pair of bumbling fools,” Nick agreed, finally relaxing himself and letting his own awkward chuckle escape. “But you know you love me anyway.”

“Do I know that?”

Maybe it was Nick’s imagination, but the pause before Judy finished her usual side in their banter sounded like it was a little longer than usual.

“Yes, yes I do. But, I still call the shower first.”

That pulled a genuine laugh from the fox’s throat, and he waved at her dismissively. “Alright, get out of here then Fluff; less time you spend in the room that smells of sweaty cops the better I’m sure. Oh, and don’t forget the gift clothes either; never mind you shouldn’t be traveling in the old dirty clothes or God forbid Mystic Oasis style in this house, I’ll bet you look super cute in them!”

“Nick!”

“What? I’ll say it if it’s true, Carrots.”

Judy rolled her eyes in exasperation, knowing she wouldn’t win here, and slid off the far side of the bed. She headed to the closet to grab the purple shirt and tan pants sized for her hanging within, before opening the door to their guest room and heading for the bathroom across the lounge outside, leaving the vulpine alone with his thoughts.

Nick sighed and flopped back against his pillow, staring at the ceiling and asking himself what on earth was going on. It certainly wasn’t the first time the two of them had been put into life-threatening situations, but it certainly was the first time around that he had been feeling so ridiculously protective of her and –dare he admit it- almost possessive of Judy as a result. Since when did both of them have trouble sleeping alone either?

Or, was it really the result of recent events alone, or at all? That certainly wouldn’t do much to explain Nick’s sudden awareness of her figure, or things like his…physical reaction to her just a little while ago. It certainly wasn’t the first time a female had done that to him, but before it had always been vixens, and the cause was a known one there: usually, a superficial attraction that he rarely acted on. With Judy, it was instead coming up more as an afterthought, a side reaction to simply being around her, so…

“Oh. My. God,” Nick suddenly exclaimed, slapping a paw over his eyes with a groan. “Oh, that’s it isn’t it? My mind thinks I’m falling for a rabbit.” He groaned again and dragged his palm down his face, shaking his head. “That cannot be happening. Come on, I’m…”

He trailed off as a new tangent, and a sinking dread fell over him with another realization. “I’m falling for Judy,” he whispered, eyes widening. “I’m falling for my best friend, and there’s no way it’s mutual, not with how she reacted this morning, or…”

So that was it: suddenly he’d found himself in a one-sided attraction with the one mammal he could not afford to drive away now. She’d changed around his life, kept him grounded, made him feel like he was worth something for the first time since he’d been a kit, and if he suddenly came out and admitted that he was crushing on her…

Well, that would be it, he thought. She wouldn’t be able to tolerate being around me; it would be too awkward, working with a mammal you know is fawning over you when you don’t feel the same, and she’d end up having to leave. I…I can’t live with that.

Rolling over, he stared at the wall as a painful but in his mind better option settled in. I can’t tell her, he decided. As long as she’s around, I’ll be fine, but I can’t tell her about this; not a chance. I can’t lose her.

Half an hour later, Judy sat fully dressed in one of the beanbag chairs in the lounge room as she waited for Nick to finish his own shower so that they could finally start looking around the house. She remembered Embron’s admonition-slash-warning about being up early and the things supposedly hidden around the house, but there was no way either of them were likely to fall asleep again (not after the incident only a short while before) and it couldn’t be that early any more. And besides, she doubted there was anything she and Nick couldn’t handle; they’d survived being chased by criminals and blowing up trains, what could be worse than that?

The only thing that was grating on her was the actual waiting on Nick part; for a fox that put on the “lazy, casual mammal” persona so expertly, he took forever drying out and brushing down his fur completely, longer she was certain than even her fashion-freak sisters. Granted, the payoff was that his fluffy scarf of a tail was always in immaculate, bushy condition, but when she wanted to start searching for answers there was no reason good enough for her to have to sit around.

As she waited, curiosity drew Judy’s eyes to the door of the second room that led immediately off the lounge; she knew Jack and Skye were staying in the house as well, and she assumed that the room was one of Embron’s other guest spaces, but whether or not it was the other “ready” one that they were staying in was an unknown. At the very least, she hadn’t seen the striped rabbit or white fox pass by since she’d started waiting in the lounge. The two agents had been here before though, that much was clear, and probably knew not only the layout of the house but what all was in it, so they would likely have been more willing to get up early (against Embron’s recommendations) for whatever they would be doing to plan the next move.

Judy was tempted to get up and walk over to the door of the room and knock, just to see if they were in there, but eventually she decided against it; Jack had a busted rib or two and certainly needed sleep more than even she and Nick did, and if they were in there and hadn’t stirred already when she and her fox counterpart had started up the shower in the bathroom right adjacent, then there was no point trying to rouse them with a knock either.

Finally, after an indeterminable length of time the bathroom door opened, releasing a faint cloud of steam and one well-combed, fluffy fox dressed in his newly received clothes. He paused in the doorway and spread out his arms, looking at Judy with a grin.

“Well Carrots, how do I look?”

“Like you just stepped out of a steam room in a place that requires decent attire as opposed to your usual garb,” she drawled back, uncrossing her legs and standing up. “Looks like I need to thank Embron for another reason: he forced you to wear something tasteful for once in your life outside of uniform.”

Nick gawked at her before slinging an arm over his face and leaning back in dramatic offense. “Oh, Carrots! How your words pierce my soul, to insinuate that I don’t always look fantastic!”

You do, but not your choice of shirts on top of it all, Judy thought, though she didn’t dare say that out loud; she’d never hear the end of it if she did. Instead, she wandered over to him and landed a semi-soft punch to his shoulder, saying, “Those Pawaiian shirts of yours pierce eyeballs, so it’s only fair. Get used to it.” She glanced down the two halls on either side of them, and hummed in contemplation. “Soooo…any ideas on where we should go? The clock said it was already ten AM, so I don’t know what Embron considers to be sleeping in, but that’s more than late enough for me.”

“Wait, it’s only ten?” Nick queried, shaking his head. “My my, methinks we should go back to sleep for another few hours.”

“You lazy, incorrigible fox. Come on, we’re never in bed even close to that late anyway, and don’t tell me you don’t at least want to find out where the kitchen in this place is.”

“The lure of food, the one weakness in a desire to snooze. Mmm, yeah, I guess breakfast would be a great idea too…I wonder if we can get Embron to make blueberry pancakes; that would be perfect.”

“You and your blueberries,” Judy snickered. “While we’re at it, maybe we can find out a little more about this guy. I mean, with the number of rooms and greenhouses we passed that aren’t set up as living spaces, I feel almost like we’re in a smaller version of the Pfurzer complex.”

“Yeah, only with plants and tanks about instead of beakers and test tubes,” Nick drawled. “Unless we just haven’t passed by those spaces yet. Maybe we’re dealing with a modern-day Frankenstoat and we’ll find monsters in the back.”

“Har har. We’re not gonna find out if we just stand around here though, so come on. Let’s go this way.”

Judy turned and started softly skipping down the far hall, the one they hadn’t come in through, and Nick followed her bouncing tail with only his eyes for a moment before snapping himself out of his trance and picking up his paws, hurrying to catch up with her and falling into a sauntering walk alongside the rabbit.

The hall twisted along for a short ways before they passed a stairwell, taking them up to the ground floor of the at least three story house (it was hard to judge the height and structure in the foggy gloom the night before, so Nick and Judy were only guessing at that) where they found themselves in the eastern border hallway, several entrances to the nearest greenhouse directly in front of them and the blurry shapes of hundreds of plants visible through the condensation-frosted door panels. What drew Nick’s attention though was a door a bit further down the hall, hanging open and leading into a well-lit space. He nudged Judy and, when her attention actually returned to him, tilted his head to the doorway. Judy nodded agreement and the pair softly padded over to the entrance, cautiously peeking their heads around the corner to see what was inside.

The first thing the two noticed were the racks and shelves full of large tanks and terrariums, each decorated with both real and fake plants within and the sliding doors on each closed with odd looking locks. In a few of them there were things moving, but with the plants in the way and the distance between most of the tanks and the door, neither Nick nor Judy could make out what was in them. Judy leaned further in to try and answer that question, and in the process noticed one other very important, shocking detail: the room was otherwise occupied at the moment, and not by a mammal, or even a bird.

Stretched out across the slick floor, taking up a good half the length of the thirty foot space as its head swayed back and forth peering into a far row of terrariums while it seemingly studied what was within, was one of the largest snakes that either Nick or Judy had ever seen. Its scales were colored in wide bands of brownish olive green and cream, its tail tapping against the floor to an unknown rhythm, and its neck flattened and spread out every now and then to unseen cues.

Judy sucked in a breath and backpedaled around the corner again, flattening herself against the wall and looking at an equally wide-eyed Nick as she breathed heavily.

“You saw that, right?”

“Uh huh,” he answered softly.

“Embron has…he has giant snakes on the loose in this place!” Judy continued, glancing back again toward the door. “Is he insane? You have any idea what kind that was?”

“Uh, not a clue, but I don’t think it’s wise to hang around here to find out eith”-

The snake’s head popped out of the door suddenly, turning to look at them.

“Yaaaahhhh!!” they both yelled, scrambling back and Nick falling onto his rear in panic. At this, the snake cocked its head and pursed its lips at the awkward scene, the faintest hints of an amused smile appearing at the corners of its mouth.

“Sorry for startling you,” it said, its voice a lilting feminine tone and drawing another gasp from the two mammals. “Embron didn’t tell me we were expecting visitors.”

It took several moments for Judy to find her voice again. “I…right, visitors. Sorry, you talk?!” she blurted, before realizing the stupidity of that question.

Sure enough, the snake gave a snort as she coiled in the doorframe. “No, this is a figment of your imagination,” she snarked. “Duh I can talk. Let me guess, you guys don’t get out much beyond Zootopia or the Burrows, do you?”

“Uhhh, no, can’t say that we have,” Nick replied shakily, standing back up and rubbing his backside. “I…I knew some birds and lizards were sentient, but I didn’t realize there were snakes included too.”

“Most aren’t, so I don’t fault you there,” the snake nodded. “Elapids and vipers only managed that accomplishment.” She moved to elaborate more, but her attention was drawn to the side then by a sudden scrambling sound from down the hall, and all three of them watched as Embron skidded around the corner with wide, worried eyes.

“Nick! Judy! You guys oka- oh!”

He slowed down and relaxed at seeing the animals before him in no apparent danger, ears falling at realizing how ridiculous he likely just looked to them. Chuckling in embarrassment, he brushed down the pale blue shirt he was wearing under his seemingly ever-present duster. “Right, I forgot to tell you,” he said to the snake. “Hannah, this is Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps; Nick, Judy, meet my research assistant-slash-fellow caretaker, Hannah Ophiel.”

“This the reason you told us not to wander the house alone?” Nick asked, glancing between the two of them.

“More like the things we take care of,” Hannah drawled, “though I guess I could qualify too, cobra that I am.”

“We all could, but we can give warnings first; plants and non-sapient animals really don’t,” Embron added. “Heh, Hannah’s a pretty decent guard for things we really don’t want visitors nosing around in through; not many mammals are willing to try and fight past a king cobra.”

“Gee, couldn’t imagine why,” Nick grumbled, before looking back at the room Hannah sat in front of. “So for what purpose do you have a bunch of snakes in your house?”

“I like them,” Embron said simply. “Some make good pets, they come in a lot of colors, and others have a lot of research potential; that sort of thing. It’s part of the reason I’ve got friends like Hannah too, and speaking of snakes and friends, I ought to introduce you guys to Jacob one of these days; he works in law enforcement too, out in the southwest of Mammalia where I’m originally from.”

“And just when I thought you couldn’t possibly get weirder,” Judy muttered, drawing a grin from the coyote. “You’re from the southwest, and a coyote to boot, and yet you decided to live here in this climate instead of someplace like Sahara.”

“I like the privacy, something Sahara Square really doesn’t have, and I’ve always preferred high humidity,” Embron replied nonchalantly. “Made me outvoted in a lot of youth days family vacations. Good for the skin too, and I breathe easier. As for being weird, I’m afraid you’ve still only just scratched the surface, and you haven’t even met my sister yet.” He snapped his fingers and pointed to Hannah. “Speaking of which, you wouldn’t happen to have seen Scarlet come by, would you?”

“Nope,” Hannah replied, waving her tail dismissively. “Of course I’ve been in here all morning dealing with the new Masticophis hatchlings, but you know how she is in the mornings too.”

Embron sighed. “Right. I was hoping she’d have roused when Jack and Skye did –against my insistence they get some decent rest they were in the kitchen almost an hour ago,” he explained to Nick and Judy’s questioning looks, “-but I guess I’ll just have to make another detour then.” He gestured to the rabbit and fox and turned to start heading further down the hall. “You two should come with me; looks like I have to stick around the both of you to ensure you don’t end up stumbling into anything truly dangerous –mostly the plants to be concerned about if I’m honest- and you’ll need to eventually meet Scarlet anyway. Oh, and Hannah: let me know if the Drymarchon are still having issues feeding after today.”

“Will do,” the cobra replied cheerfully, before disappearing back into the room.

“So, just how many rooms like that do you have?” Nick wondered as they followed the coyote back into the deeper portions of the house.

Embron chuckled and glanced back at him. “What, rooms with reptiles on the loose?”

“Well that would be good to know before we run into more, but I was meaning more along the lines of rooms in your house that look more like they belong behind the scenes at a zoo or in a research facility.”

“I know what you meant, Nick, don’t worry. I can assure you that Hannah’s the only reptile in the house that you’re going to find running around on the loose, and she’s my only assistant here other than Scarlet when my sister actually decides to grace me with her help. As for your actual question…” He slowed in his walking as he mentally started counting them out, tapping them off on his fingers as far as he could there. “Well, counting the greenhouses maybe sixteen or so, and then there’re the medical rooms. You’ll also almost certainly end up seeing the training areas etc. aka Scarlet’s favorite places while you’re here, since I cannot in good conscience let you back out onto the streets without some serious training.”

“Wait, are you trying to say we’re not good enough at what we do already or something?” Judy queried defensively.

Embron snorted and shook his head. “No, not at all I assure you; the Midnicampum crisis last year was proof enough of that. But if you haven’t noticed yet, part of what you’re up against is an assassin who nearly mopped the floor with Jack, who is among the best agents AOMISDOPS has, and he’s not the worst that I expect will show up eventually either.”

“Oh yeah, that’s reassuring,” Nick snarked. “Seriously, what could they possibly want from us that warrants this?”

“That will be explained later, after breakfast,” Embron said, coming to a stop in front of a half-open door to a dark room that Judy estimated was located just on the other side of the hall from the front door; the place was confusing, and she was trying hard to make a map of it so she wouldn’t eventually get lost. “I guarantee you won’t like the answer though. Anyway, excuse me for just one moment.”

He stuck his head into the dark room and pushed the door open further, before flicking on the light within and simultaneously yelling at an impressive volume, “Up and at ‘em Scarlet!”

“AAAHHHH!!!!”

From the raised bed shrouded by hanging curtains came a scream, followed by the flailing limbs of a young ocelot as she tumbled out and onto the floor. Embron smirked and looked at the two officers standing with him, motioning for them to step back, before regarding the cat now glaring at him through her dark brown bangs.

“What the hell was that for?!” she yelled, to which Embron only shrugged.

“It’s past ten, so you should be up anyway, and mostly because I felt like it.”

The ocelot (whom Nick and Judy deduced had to be Scarlet; the red tints to her fur underneath her long hair and on her paws gave hints to the origins of the name as well) growled menacingly, and reached up to the desk next to the bed, grabbing a metal ruler off of it and hurling it with frightening accuracy at Embron’s head. For the coyote’s part, he didn’t move an inch other than to reach up and catch the impromptu projectile before looking down at it with disappointment.

“Tsk tsk, you’re slower when you’re groggy,” he prodded. “Maybe you should wake up fully before you start chucking things at my h-ow!!”

This time, he didn’t avoid the eraser that smacked into the base of his ear. “Oww…fine, I stand corrected.”

“Serves you right,” Scarlet huffed. “Now give me one good reason not to throw you against the wall and then go back to sleep; I’ve got a lesson to rest up for later today, you know.”

“We have guests, dear sister; better behavior would be advised. Not to mention I’d win that round.”

Scarlet blinked and looked past Embron finally, noticing for the first time the extra audience members present. A second later, her scowl turned over as she recognized them, standing up straight and holding out her paw.

“Wow, Hopps and Wilde! Celebrity officers; to what do we owe this honor way out in the jungle? And, uh, please ignore the sibling rivalry there.”

“We’re being targeted by some sort of twisted terrorist group apparently, so we were brought here to hide a while,” Judy replied as she accepted the cat’s paw. “But it’s nice even under these circumstances to meet potential new friends.”

“I see,” Scarlet said softly, glancing over to Embron. The coyote nodded, and she pursed her lips. “Yeah, I think we’re going to get to know each other really well then. Gonna guess Embron told you already, but I’m Scarlet, his sister.”

“Yeah, out of curiosity, is that an adoptive relationship, or…” Nick queried, deftly avoiding Judy’s attempted elbow jab.

“Real smooth Nick,” she quipped.

Scarlet chuckled and shook her head in amusement. “Well, you might be surprised, but yes, adopted early on,” she explained. “But it doesn’t matter; most mammals would think we’re otherwise related beyond our skins anyway so it might as well be like we’re blood. So, just you two to learn and hide here, or…?”

“Jack and Skye brought them, and they are up in the kitchen right now,” Embron said with a grin, “probably trying to avoid your hugs.”

“Not gonna happen,” Scarlet laughed. “Give me a minute then to get dressed will you, and I’ll find you guys upstairs okay?” With a dramatic twirl she turned around, shutting the door in front of them abruptly.

Embron snorted and made an equally dramatic gesture toward the now closed-off room. “Ladies and gentlemammals, my sister. Anyway, shall we head up for breakfast, see what the agents cooked up?”

“That sounds almost like a threat,” Nick joked, though he didn’t hesitate to turn heel and follow the coyote out as he lead them back toward the nearest staircase. “Savage Special, one bite is all you need.”

“We’ll be sure to give you the worst of it then, Nick,” Judy teased, rolling her eyes at Nick’s theatrical gasp and rock back onto his heels at her “betrayal.”

The upper floor of the house was smaller, consisting mostly of what was apparently Embron’s room and the upper entrances to balconies or greenhouses, but passing by those toward the back of the house they approached a wide entrance through which all three of them could smell tantalizing aromas involving butter, grains, and…Nick could feel himself starting to drool already, because someone was cooking with blueberries, no doubt.

On the other side of said entrance, they indeed found an impressive kitchen, laid out around a broad medium-mammal sized island with individual fridge and freezers, a wide cutting board, enough cabinets that Judy didn’t bother counting them all, a several tier oven, and an eight burner stove. All of it was illuminated by the far wall of windows leading onto a covered balcony beyond the inner dining table, making the space feel even larger.

Noticing Judy’s expression (Nick’s was too distracted by the smell of food), Embron nodded. “Yeah, I don’t use the whole thing to its greatest extent very often, but it’s useful when family visits en masse here.”

“No kidding,” Judy marveled quietly. “It’s almost as big as one of our kitchen units back home!”

“And with everything that we could possibly need to whip up just about any dish you want,” another familiar feminine voice spoke up, and at that point Judy and Nick finally registered the other mammals occupying the kitchen. Standing on a pair of stools in front of the stove, flipping what could only be blueberry pancakes over a wide griddle, was the other rabbit-fox pair in the house; both of them were also in more civilian clothing for the first time Nick and Judy had ever seen. Jack was dressed in dark brown cargo shorts and a gray V-neck short-sleeve, Skye in a blue blouse the color of her eyes and a matching skirt with darker lacing and some sort of silver chain necklace around her throat. Neither seemed particularly concerned that their clothing was getting dusted with flour and other cooking amenities either.

Jack flicked his eyes over to the pair and Embron before returning his attention to the last of the pancakes on the griddle while Skye turned and dusted herself off a little (and really mostly just leaving more white paw prints on her blouse) before smiling at the new arrivals.

“Morning everyone,” she greeted. “I hope you’re all hungry and decently rested up, because we’ve got a big stack of pancakes made from scratch and syrup here, and a lot to discuss ahead of us.”

“You just said made from scratch, and those are definitely blueberry pancakes,” Nick replied, his eyes fully on the food as his tail unconsciously wagged behind him and his hands rubbed together in anticipation. “It’s like you read my mind or something. You’re gonna need a bigger stack.”

“We have more than enough food here, Wilde,” Jack quipped. “If we end up having to make more, you are a glutton and can make your own.”

“Oh come on Jack, lighten up,” Embron admonished as he led the officers over to the dining table, or more accurately led Judy and carefully redirected Nick, as he looked over at the striped rabbit with reproof. “They had a hard night, and you made Nick his favorite breakfast –yeah, your love of blueberries isn’t exactly a secret I’m afraid Wilde- so let them indulge a little. Besides, Scarlet will be up to join us shortly and I doubt either of you forgot how she can be around food. I’ll make more if need be; you just worry about fielding the imminent embraces my sister will have ready for you.”

“Aand that’s my cue to make myself scarce,” Skye exclaimed with widening eyes, turning tail and marching briskly toward the door to the kitchen.

“You might as well get it over with,” Embron called after her, but he didn’t stop her as she reached the kitchen entrance…and ran right into the mentioned ocelot’s arms.

“Ha ha! Got you!” Scarlet trilled with glee, picking up and squeezing the fox mercilessly as the vulpine struggled, looking like she was about to pop.

“Ack! Scarlet, put me down!”

“No can do! Scarlet policy, can’t back out on my word!”

“Assault on a federal agent!”

“You got salt on you while you were cooking, eh? Here, I’ll clean it off.”

Scarlet’s tongue popped out of her grinning mouth, and Skye’s tail suddenly puffed out in a straight pole behind her, eyes bulging in panic.

“No! Scarlet!” she screamed, leaning as far away as she could.

Scarlet burst out laughing and finally acquiesced, setting the fox down and sweeping past to grab Jack in an equally tight hug as well. The lapin, for his part, merely rolled his eyes and accepted the inevitable fate, waiting patiently to be put back down before he flipped the last couple of pancakes onto the serving plate and hoisted them all up to take over to the table.

Seeing this, Judy leapt up to help him. “Whoa, that’s going to strain your ribs!” she exclaimed. “Let me help, please.”

“I assure you, Hopps, my ribs are not going to be a problem any longer,” Jack placated, turning to avoid her paws and walking past to slide the plate onto the table. But he did send her an appreciative smile, one that sent Nick’s fur on end. “But I do appreciate the gesture.”

“Ah, Embron fix up another mistake of yours?” Scarlet asked as she took a seat next to Nick. The two shared a challenging glance between each other and the pancakes, and suddenly Judy felt an urgent need to grab a couple before the whole stack vanished.

“More like an attempt on my life while protecting the two officers here,” Jack replied, catching the looks of the two predators and wisely scooting the pancake plate further down the table so that everyone else could grab their share before the fox and ocelot could ravage the rest.

“So Embron’s some sort of miracle doctor too now?” Nick queried, though he was only half listening as he quickly grabbed a towering stack of pancakes and then leaned away before Scarlet could take the rest and some of his claimed share.

“Well, I guess that could be one way of putting it,” Jack mused, “though not really accurate. That is among the other things to be explained later. I’m hoping we have at least a few days up here to recover and plan better counters before we face our troublesome foes again though; do you have any problems with helping train Hopps and Wilde, Scarlet?”

With a mouth already full of pancakes, Scarlet mumbled out an incomprehensible reply, before shooting Jack an “I’m innocent but I’m really not” smile in response to his deadpan glare and swallowing.

“Oh yeah,” she reiterated, “not a problem, so long as it doesn’t interfere too badly with my jobs.”

“And what exactly do you do, out of curiosity?” Judy queried, making her way through her pancakes at a far more civil pace than her partner or the ocelot.

“Oh, various things,” Scarlet rattled off. “Teaching martial arts classes, engineering, acting –I’ve got a few small roles so far in some movies- or weapons training.”

“Weapons training?”

“Yeah, you know; knives, swords, stars, guns, you name it. Someone has to teach new agents how to use or avoid them, and when Embron’s busy…”

She brightened suddenly and let off an unnerving smile as she looked over at her brother. “They haven’t seen that room yet, have they?”

“All in good time,” Embron waved off. “After all, we don’t want to scare them out right away. For now, breakfast.”

Nick and Judy shared worrying glances, and looked to Jack and Skye for answers, but the agents either sat emotionlessly or with equally ambiguous smiles respectively as they ate their own meals, so no hints there. At best, they’d only gathered that to at least some extent, these two new mystery mammals had some strong ties to AOMISDOPS as well, and that only meant more secrets awaiting behind the rest.

A few minutes later as Embron had sort of predicted, the coyote had ended up at the stove himself making another round of pancakes for not only Nick and Scarlet but everyone at the table (even Judy had to admit that, despite her slight skepticism toward a meal cooked by a pair of international agents being decent, Jack and Skye had done an impressive job on the pancakes, and Embron nearly as well as they), serving them out and content to smirk at his sister and Nick as they unceremoniously stuffed their faces for a second round.

Soon enough though, stomachs were growing full and dishes were being placed in the dishwasher by the oven and sinks, leaving six mammals sitting expectantly around the dining table in a tense, slightly awkward silence, glancing at each other and out the large windows at the low clouds drifting above and amongst the trees beyond.

“Well, I think we’ve waited and wasted time long enough,” Embron finally spoke up, folding his paws and resting them on the table as he looked to Nick and Judy. “You certainly have a lot of questions I’m sure, and there are things that you now absolutely need to know about our world and how the animals that are after you operate. So without further ado, let’s start talking, shall we?”

Chapter Text

I’ve seen you wandering without a clue

Lost in this labyrinthine world

Your eyes are open but they don’t yet see

The layers mar the deeper truths

The whispers in the dark

What was and is and what may still yet be

So it’s time you finally found some answers

Time you got what you’re searching for

The grounds upon which the whole world stands

Seek and ask and you may yet find

Time to open that first closed door

Know the wonders that exist, both small and grand

“I think both of you have enough experience now to know that there are layers to everything in this world,” Embron said, glancing between Nick and Judy. “Or, at least with your history I hope so; both of you started young, hopeful, naïve, and you came to learn about the darker truths of this city very quickly upon setting foot out and about here. We stand shrouded in images and half-truths, never really portraying who we are or what we really stand for until we’re thrown into the fire and the chaff’s burned away. There’s the image that most of us always try to portray, the ideal or the epitome of what we want to be seen as or a place is meant to represent. And then, there’s the reality of things, what’s hidden from first glance but really runs life itself.

“Take our fair city here as the perfect example: the claim that anyone can be anything they want to be, that anything is possible, the shining utopia of interspecies harmony and opportunity. But, is the real truth that simple? Is it that straightforward, black and white? Not a chance, and Nick, I know you know that probably as well as anyone could here. You take that surface image away, and you end up finding a complex web of facts and fiction, steps and layers to every chance present and every mammal’s ambitions here. There’s the possibility of building up to your dreams, and any animal that comes here certainly has a shot at becoming whatever it might be that they seek, but it’s nearly always a hard ladder to climb and for most of them there is a lot of work involved in every single step of the way.

“Those who choose to grab that opportunity, and never let it go, well,” the coyote gestured to himself and then to Judy, “we know where they often can end up. Those who fall behind, give up, or feel like they have no options, they develop into the other layers of the city: criminal organizations, the gray areas, the homeless or freeloaders, and so on.”

He never looked at Nick, but the fox still felt his ears fall; it sounded like a directed reminder of his old life, and at this point he wouldn’t be surprised if everyone at the table already knew about his gray endeavors. Then as if to prove it, Embron flicked the slightest of glances his way, and Nick caught it, but the coyote gave a soft smile alongside as reassurance that it wasn’t a judgement.

“The rest of the world, every aspect, has similar layers,” Embron continued. “There are the parts that you see every single day, the images that everyone more or less accepts as true, and then there are elements that only a handful know about, believe, or are willing to even comprehend. This applies culturally, geographically, even in the sciences and in our history.”

“Okay, but what exactly does all this have to do with eagles and musk deer trying to kidnap us?” Nick asked. “Are we digging into a gray area that they don’t want people knowing about? We’re cops, what else is new; why is this so different?”

“Because, Nick, simply by you and Judy being who and what you are, you’re being roped into a fight that’s been raging beneath the eyes of the general world for more than ten thousand years,” Embron replied.

That definitely got their full attention.

“Wait, wait, did you just say ten thousand years?” Judy asked incredulously. “What kind of conflict is this?”

“On one level, primal versus progress,” Scarlet answered. “But it’s way more complicated than that.”

“Of course it is,” Nick muttered, rolling his eyes. “Otherwise the ‘layers’ spiel you’ve been running here would have no purpose.”

Embron let out a tired chuckle. “There are a thousand places that I could try to start explaining too,” he sighed. “And I’m certain I’ll never cover it all either. Uh, how about we start with this: what do you know about our earth’s natural history?”

“Uh, you mean like what lives here, or how scientists think it’s billions of years old?” Judy asked.

Embron nodded. “A start. Follow that by general consensus on the process of how life evolved, the rise and fall of several eras of life before our own ever began developing, and then at, oh, probably around 30,000 years ago is the tentative agreement, something occurred to trigger simultaneous and universal sentience in all known mammal species; the psittacines, corvids, and raptorial birds; crocodilians, monitor and tegu lizard groups, and the advanced venomous snakes. That’s the point where all this mess actually began: millions, perhaps even billions back then, of animals suddenly found themselves able to think beyond the natural mantra of survival only, kill or be killed. Then, civilization as we know it began to develop because it finally had the opportunity to.

“However, peaceful interaction between predatory and prey species were extremely rare early on; naturally, the older primal ways of life still held a dominant sway most of the time. Not until the famous founding peace agreement that planted the seed for this city did it start becoming an accepted standard for living, and from then to this day there have still been factions of animals that still believe we ought to follow the old pattern we rose from: predator hunting prey, prey overpowering and dominating predators through size and sheer numbers, or complete separation of the two. Each viewpoint comes in differing levels of conviction as do all, and the most supportive of these views we generally call the Primalists.”

“Can’t say it’s a term I’ve ever heard before,” Nick said, raising one eyebrow. “You’d think a radical notion like that would come to our attention more often.”

“That’s because it’s not a term that they use for themselves usually, and they’re not all connected to each other like one organized movement because of the differing opinions even amongst themselves,” Jack interjected, leaning forward to rest his arms on the table. “Bellwether was an example of the prey-dominant view, working with a handful of mammals that shared her beliefs but unconnected, or so we originally thought, to most other groups that we’re aware of; turns out she may have gotten her funding from one of them as it would have been a perfect first step in their eyes. The individuals that are targeting you are more organized however; they are smart enough to avoid drawing general attention to themselves in any manner that they can, and may represent multiple factions of the Primalist mindset working together.”

“Overall, though, these groups have a similar general goal,” Embron added. “They wish to get rid of the balance of modern society as it currently exists in most places and bring back a more ancient form of lifestyle. Zootopia here represents basically the epitome of what they hate: species of all kinds coexisting and reaching for whatever goals they have in mind regardless of the usual limits of their ancestral positions. We represent the side of an ever-present truth of nature that they don’t want to admit: in some ways, progress and evolution means the change of the status quo, a turning of the once solid standards of life or death. We know there are options beyond that state, but they believe it was always meant as an absolute, either by choice or higher power or some misunderstood set biological fact or instinct. They don’t try and attack cities of course, because that would be horribly public and draw a backlash they’d never survive down upon them, but societal degradation and undermining they excel at.”

“Mammals like us at the table here are the kind that most of them hate with the greatest passion too,” Scarlet said.

“But why us so specifically?” Judy pressed. “I mean, if it’s because we work with both predators and prey, that’s a majority of the population.”

“It’s more than just a little more than that,” Embron negated. “You and Nick, Jack and Skye, you’re partners of the closest kind without being romantically involved, and even more so you’re law enforcers protecting the peace and the rights of others, but more than that still you’re also ancestrally mortal enemies. That makes you the worst possible offenders in existence to Primalists; natural predator and prey instead acting as best friends and ensuring the same is possible for others. You two,” he pointed at Nick and Judy, “are also celebrities in the public eye, making such a pairing glamorous, which incenses them further. And then there’s me, a mammal they hate because I represent another change of the quote-unquote ‘natural order’ that they think should be here to stay unaltered.”

“How so?” Nick asked. “I mean, I could imagine someone who dresses that eccentrically might do it just with that, but I get the feeling they don’t care about fashion, or even the habitat you decided to live in.”

“Yeah, like you’re one to talk, Mr. Blind Me with Pawaiian Shirts,” Judy snarked, drawing a snort out of Scarlet.

Embron grinned and gestured to himself dramatically. “Oh, you know you only wish you could rock a duster this fabulously, Nick,” he declared, before leaning forward and resting his chin on one paw, looking at the two of them seriously. “But no, that’s not it. You two are observant; you had to be to solve the Night Howler case like you did. Tell me, when you met me, did you notice anything odd about my appearance, clothes notwithstanding? No help from the agents allowed either since they already know the secret.”

Naturally the two officers stole glances at the agents, but Skye only offered an ambiguous smile as Jack took a sip from the mug of decaf coffee he’d procured. Nick scrutinized the coyote again, pursing his lips as Judy did the same.

Embron was rather odd for a coyote, at least compared to those that Nick had known; his dark-tipped reddish extremities, overly slender figure (though that may just have been a genetic fluke; skinny mammals weren’t exactly an odd thing overall and Nick had known one or two really thin coyotes), and his extra-long, bushy tail certainly weren’t among typical traits for the species. Was his snout narrower too, or was that just his imagination?

Judy ventured forth the first guess. “Uh, do you dye your fur?”

“Heh, nope. Guess again.”

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you’re not pure coyote,” Nick posited, gesturing to the other canid. “Carrots is onto something; never met a coyote as red as you. You have red wolf in your background somewhere?”

“Closer, but still not quite,” Embron chuckled. “You are right though; I’m not just a coyote, but my family history involves more than just the genus Canis. I’ll give you a hint, Nick: think a little closer to home.”

The fox wracked his brain for an answer, but he honestly couldn’t think of any other canine close enough to coyotes to validate Embron’s claim; once outside the genus level, most species couldn’t interbreed, so that limited choices. Finally he sighed and raised his hands in defeat.

“Alright, I give up,” he admitted. “What’s your secret?”

“Oh come on Nick, Judy, from what I’ve heard of the two of you I expected better,” Embron chided, shaking his head in disappointment. “One more hint, alright? See if you recognize it: my mother’s maiden name was Velpsman. Ring any bells?”

“Velpsman,” Judy mused. “That doesn’t sound like a coyote or even wolf surname certainly. It almost sounds like…”

She trailed off both as the pieces began to fall into place, and as she noticed Nick’s suddenly flabbergasted expression. “Nick, you okay?”

“You’re…you’re pulling our legs, right?” Nick blurted, glancing between Embron and Scarlet, and then even to Jack and Skye. When he saw no suggestions of levity, he shook his head. “You have to be. You looked up my family history and you’re trying to make a joke; ha ha, very funny. What’s this supposed to do?”

“Marie Velpsman, daughter of Jacob Velpsman, who was in turn the son of Robert and Theresa Velpsman, the former of which had a sister by the name of Lucille who married one Richard Wilde, father of Jonathan Wilde,” Embron elaborated, grinning. “On that side of the family I’ve also got ties back to the Leuran line of Germany and the Loxley heritage of England; on the other, the German Engels, though that’s beside the point I’m making here.”

Now Judy had undoubtedly caught on as well, and she shook her head in disbelief. “B-but that’s impossible!” she exclaimed. “One of the major lessons in biology, the separation of species; foxes and coyotes aren’t closely related enough to breed! Even some fox species can’t have kits together!”

“Ah ah, but that would only be true if evolution as most understand it was the sole factor that was at work in this world,” Embron dismissed. “And in fact, even as little as two hundred years ago, it may well have been irrefutably true. Historically, you’re right: interspecies marriages occurred but have always been uncommon, and where they occurred, only closely related species with genetic compatibility had even a chance of having children. And then, many of those children were sterile, unable to have kits or cubs of their own, so in many cases a stigma developed around interspecies association and hybrids.

“But, our world does not run on the ‘natural’ watch and classic evolutionary theory alone, and it never did. Due to my own existence, and my interest all around as a taxonomist, it was a subject I wanted to look into right away when I had the resources, and I found something very interesting: DNA sequencing and epigenetic marker tests on some mammal lines are coming up with anomalous changes, sudden mutations and chromosomal reordering that should normally be lethal, or at least biologically impossible without a dangerous mutagenic agent. The whole of sapient species on our earth are developing coalescent lineages within at least remotely physically compatible groups, mammals that are either showing chromosome sizes or counts that suddenly match species they’re completely unrelated to, or DNA triggers capable of shutting down entire gene families and pathways so that incompatible physiologies don’t compete and kill, but instead tend to favor one parent or another. Coyotes once could not mate with foxes, but now a select few can, and I am something that the Primalists really hate because I’m not only a hybrid that ‘shouldn’t’ occur, but a second generation which should even further be impossible.”

“The effects of coalescence are becoming more widespread and cross-family compatible as the years go by too,” Scarlet added in. “We know of a dhole-cheetah couple that has a pair of children, one taking after their mother and the other their father; one day it might go so far as to cross the ancient predator-prey divide, even though chances are low since only a handful of lines in any one species are capable of jumping the gaps. But you won’t find them publicly announcing things like this, or any research that’s easily accessible to the public or even published on the subject anywhere because anyone that attempts to do so immediately paints a target on their back. Many such pairings are killed when they announce having these children that should be nonexistent, or they live quietly, shrouded in half-truths to protect themselves. People like you, whom I don’t doubt would protect them even if just because it’s the law to do so, those who would be advocates or, possibly, even more than that, are seen as either equal or even greater threats. And especially in your case, there’s more to contend with.”

“Yeah, I was gonna ask, because as much as all this is to take in, cousins,” Nick said pointedly to which the Canistons only grinned confirmation, “it still makes it sound like we should be at risk of being gunned down, and that’s that. Crazy birds and hooved assassins trying to dart us and drag us off to who-knows-where doesn’t fit that profile other than to make a public statement somewhere which also doesn’t make sense because you also just said that these guys try to keep a really low profile and not draw attention to themselves. Also while we’re at it, why are they trying to steal a bunch of Night Howler serum if they don’t want some attention-grabbing terrorist attack somewhere?”

“Well, if one wishes to discourage interspecies cooperation and relationships, causing the partners or couples, especially pred-prey duos, to turn on each other would certainly be an effective means in fashion of Bellwether’s intent,” Jack interjected, before setting down his nearly empty mug. “However,” he continued, “you’re very correct: that’s not what they want it for. Reality is far stranger, and a lot more dangerous.”

“And this I think is where we should take this conversation elsewhere,” Embron said, standing up and cracking his neck. “I’m afraid the final reasons you’re being hunted are hard to swallow, and I find visual aids help which I won’t bring up here. So, if you’ll follow me that would be judicious.”

He gestured with a paw out the kitchen exit before sauntering off that way, Scarlet following right behind. Nick and Judy both hesitated and glanced at Jack and Skye, but the two agents only gave pointed nods and stood up to also follow the coyote and ocelot vacating the area.

“And the mystery continues,” Nick muttered, giving a shrug before offering a paw to Judy to help her out of the chair and following along as well. “I’m related to a coyote that I’ve never even heard of before and he’s all-knowing about a conspiracy I can barely believe in. Mom talked about Dad’s Loxley heritage occasionally; where was this when that came up?”

“Well, as Embron said they kind of keep these sorts of things hush-hush, so maybe she simply doesn’t know either,” Judy offered.

Nick gave her a look that suggested he was skeptical at best, but didn’t say anything as they walked out of the kitchen.

They left the top floor and descended into the basement level, Embron leading them past their guest rooms and into the far hallway to a nondescript door in the far corner of the house. There he paused, looking back at the mammals trailing behind him.

“So tell me you two,” he queried, placing his paw on the handle of the door, “are either of you two members of a faith?”

That certainly wasn’t a question they were expecting, and quite the jump in topics. The two officers shared befuddled stares, before shrugging uncertainly and looking back at Embron with equal confusion.

“Well, I believe in God, but I, uh, don’t exactly go to church actively or anything,” Judy said awkwardly.

“And I guess I believe there’s someone up there yonder,” Nick mused. “I mean, I don’t really believe in divine destiny or fate and I’ve never really pondered on it much, but uh, I’ll bet something had a hand in pushing Carrots here into my life.”

“You’re probably not wrong,” Embron nodded, “and that will at least help in accepting this a bit easier then.” He pulled out a key from an unseen pocket, and slid it into the lock in the door handle. It twisted with a satisfying click, and then the coyote turned the knob itself and pushed open the door.

“Welcome to our weapons room,” he announced, making a grand sweeping gesture as he stepped in and turned on the lights, followed by his sister. Jack and Skye insisted the officers step in next so that the two agents brought up the rear, and as they moved inside Nick and Judy both immediately caught onto the reason why: probably the same reason Embron had earlier that morning joked about scaring them off.

The walls were lined to the brim with just about every weapon either Nick or Judy had ever heard of, as well as plenty they hadn’t: guns of a hundred different kinds, knives, swords, Shuriken, batarangs, blow guns, bows and crossbows, darts, and a dozen or more other categories. Each was set up in its own section, every section with a work table either set up in front of it or stored in a slot nearby, and every single object was undeniably kept in pristine condition, maintained undamaged and, where applicable, razor sharp. At the far end of the room, four doors stood out prominently with several locks on most of them. The officers could only wonder what hid behind them.

“You…is there anything you don’t have?” Judy blurted, looking around in wide-eyed shock. “Is this even legal? What’s behind that door with the ‘E’ on it?”

“We don’t have every gun there is –the only part of our father’s expertise we didn’t really pick up on- but other than that, doubt it,” Embron said with a grin. “Yes, it’s legal, as we’re all licensed in this house and covered by AOMISDOPS association policy, and that includes, to answer your final question there, license to make and use explosives. I’m not too much of a chemist, but that is one area I took closer interest in.”

“And me even more,” Scarlet giggled. “Chemistry of big booms is awesome. But if you’re concerned, we do have some very strict rules about safety down here; you’re safe in here as long as you follow our instructions.”

“Where do you even get all this stuff?” Nick queried, staring in particular at some of the modified crossbows that he swore he’d seen before. “I mean, even with the contacts underground I used to have I’m sure half this stuff even they wouldn’t know how to get!”

“Oh, around,” Embron chuckled. “Some we order, some we get from our father custom-built, others we’ve made ourselves –like many of the smaller explosives- and then some are gifts, particularly from a certain paranoid badger friend you might know.”

“That’s it; I knew I’d seen that design somewhere! You know Honey?”

That dragged a full on laugh from the coyote. “Oh yeah, definitely. Like you Nick, we’ve got connections, though I might say it’s a case of while you might know everyone, Scarlet and I know everyone else.”

“Crazy lives equal some really crazy friends,” Scarlet agreed, picking up a throwing dart and caressing it like it was some sort of treasured pet. She saw the unnerved look Judy gave her at this, and only grinned with equal insanity, further making the rabbit question what they’d just stepped into.

“And through those doors are the sparring rings and shooting ranges,” Embron continued, pointing to two of the unmarked doors, “where you’ll probably be spending a lot of time while you’re here, but for now we’re going to head into this room.” He sauntered over to the final door, which looked more like a misplaced panel on the wall than an entrance since it had no handles or keyholes to speak of. Nick was about to make a remark about the living mammal’s general inability to phase through solid objects when the coyote lifted up his right paw and placed his palm against the door.

A faint light rippled across the surface, and the panel slid upward, revealing a darkened space with a table just barely visible inside. This time, Embron gestured for Nick and Judy to enter first, followed by the two agents, before he and Scarlet brought up the rear. The door closed behind them, sliding down to seal tightly, and for a moment they were shrouded in near-complete darkness before someone snapped their fingers and soft lights powered on around the upper corners of the room.

Judy’s eyes gravitated toward the maps that hung on the walls, not just geographic but what looked like historical timelines and social structures as well. Nick’s went to the papers and very, very old looking scrolls nestled on the shelves and in cubbies that hung from the walls under the maps above them. The room had a museum-like quality to it, but also the air of a place of serious planning and preparation.

“This looks almost like a war council room,” the reynard commented.

“That’s not entirely inaccurate,” Jack affirmed, “but this isn’t any normal war.”

“Indeed; what you’re about to learn, most animals don’t believe is even possible, let alone exists or ever occurred as the case may be,” Embron said. He turned, pulling out a long, rolled up laminated sheet of paper, and unfurled it across the table. Upon the sheet, a grand timeline of geologic history was drawn out, but with a handful of very different notes upon it as well.

“We’ll start here again,” he said, pointing to the top. “The beginning of the existence of our world.”

“This war really has some sort of connection to the universe’s beginning?” Nick snorted. “What, are we fighting celestial beings or something?”

“Or something,” Embron said flatly, though he clearly enjoyed his guests’ weirded out looks and in particular Nick’s sudden loss for a comeback. However, he simultaneously remained as serious as they’d yet seen him.

“You see, supposedly there are scientific answers for most of this time that has played out: formation of this planet, the supposed development of life, and then the evolution of that life on this planet up to the present where we stand now. But there are gaps in these explanations, either because we lack the evidence and information needed to fill them at present, or because the causations aren’t scientific in nature.”

He glanced at both of the officers. “Many mammals take other explanations though, and for good reason: the existence of something able to direct it all, even the most unexplainable events or perhaps especially those events. Some mammals posit some sort of consciousness to existence, the universe itself, while others, like Scarlet and I, strongly believe in an orchestrator, a creator; God, if you will. It’s the evidence for God that plays in part to why you’re here.”

“So you’re suggesting that this is going to be a religious discussion now?” Nick wondered, clearly developing a touch of discomfort at the notion.

“No, not quite,” Embron said. “But I’ll lay out the evidence; it’s your choice what you draw of it. For what we actually care about today, consider this part of our natural history again: sometime between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago, no one can actually agree when exactly though they lean toward older, all the species that are currently sentient today gained sapience at roughly the same time. Evolutionarily, there is no such reason or mechanism for that to occur; no advantage, because evolution favors competition between species as opposed to cooperation and unity especially between predatory and prey species. Generally this would assume only one or two species developing sentience first, and then suppressing the rest from achieving it, but instead they all gained the same level playing field. This was also the first time that we began to develop recordings of religious systems, some polytheistic but most monotheistic, and those in the latter camp usually showing some key shared traits: belief in a creator without form or with a form that matches no species image on this planet, a faith centered on unity, lifestyles that began curving away from the ancient instinctive habits of many species –such as the polygamous traits that rodents and lagomorphs are still stereotyped with even to this day, or the harems of the pinnipeds and lions.

“At the same time, of course, counters developed to most beliefs; where there is one view, someone comes up with another to oppose it either because they see it as better or often just to spite the believer, and then that becomes adopted as a lifestyle as well. That’s where the Primalists got their start.”

Embron turned and pulled out another rolled paper, and unveiled an ancient looking painting depicting a fierce war. “Some refused to believe what their neighbors did on principle or again out of spite, and wherever there’s disagreement for whatever reason, conflict erupts eventually, often violently,” he said as he swept a paw over the painting. “Some truly sought to destroy the beliefs of those who chose to seek peace and unity under a creator’s guidance. This is a representation of the War of Anterra, sometime around six thousand years ago near the present day country of Israhel; it was one such attempt, to wipe out a belief system that still persists to this day: Hebrics, followers of the Scripts. Do you notice anything about this painting that seems odd though?”

Nick and Judy leaned forward to study the piece, finding the expected images of mammals (and a smattering of birds and reptiles) engaged in battle with ancient swords, spears, and the like. Or, they soon noticed, it was most of the animals engaging as such; a handful of the individuals bore no physical weapons, but raced among the other fighters with paws or wings alight with fire, held aloft on what looked like faint currents of electricity, or holding weapons like others, but ones that were half-see through and seemed to not actually be there, yet clearly were dealing blows like the other swords and such around them. And, above the battlefield, what looked like rays of sunlight at first glance also seemed off, like they were coming out of the very air instead or rippling like the surface of a pond.

“You see them, don’t you?” Embron asked softly.

“Yeah, I think so,” Judy said slowly, “but I guess normally I wouldn’t think much of it; wouldn’t artists get creative in their works, embellish tales especially of their favored sides or the victors?”

“Normally I’d agree, but in this case it’s a bit different,” the coyote negated. “No, this is a historical accuracy in every detail. Those animals there, doing impossible things in battle on the painting, could enact such in reality. You’ve all heard stories of the various legends and myths of our past histories, from a thousand different cultures, of animals with great power, revered or reviled and sometimes even treated like gods or devils. What the mythology doesn’t tell you however is that they’re often based on real individuals that once lived, at a time where the common worldly and the supernatural mingled more easily and superstitious mammals accepted the notion readily, far more readily than the skeptics that dominate the world today. They come from both sides of the conflict, Primalists and their allies finding ways to tap into power that should have never come to this earth, and the warriors protecting their faith and fellow animals known as Gifteds, touched by God and given abilities to fight and build with.

“Once, they were common, but like as in this painting wars were too, and many on both sides were wiped from the face of the planet. Because of the atrocities and intensities of these fights, the animals that survived often relegated such things to legend or agreed to clear their existence from recorded literature entirely so that others would not seek such power and thus bring events like this back into existence.”

“Right, right,” Nick laughed, cocking an eyebrow in dubious question, “mammals who were literally like the superheroes, wizards, and witches you see in movies. Why is stuff like that all relegated to pure fiction, never even science fiction or any reliable historical records if that kind of thing happened? Something should have survived and made it into the open and people would be debating it even to today. Just one relic, even, from some highly regarded historical figure. I mean, it’s a nice story, but uh, really, what’s the truth?”

“I’m kind of siding with Nick on this one, Embron,” Judy admitted, shrugging apologetically. “There would have been something to keep them from being more than just myths.”

“How much attention do you think being rooted out as such an individual today would draw, Judy?” Jack interjected. He jerked a thumb toward the wall, where a map of Zootopia was pinned; on it, a network of photos and notes, including to their shock one of Nick and Judy together above a newspaper clipping about the Night Howler case. “When things were getting out of hand years ago with a pharmaceutical fiasco, Embron enlisted our help to clear the name of one of the researchers at Pfurzer who had discovered a controversial but possibly immensely valuable new medicine for treating diabetics, and just that was enough to have his rivals try and frame and sue him to ruin his reputation. A mammal with supernatural gifts, if they weren’t thrown onto celebrity pages like you two are now or probed at by scientists around the world, would likely attract the attention of the less tasteful mammals out there who would want to exploit those abilities. That’s not even to mention that of the Primalists themselves who would like nothing more than to remove what is solid proof that the old ways of life are no longer wise or even viable options.”

“They stay low to the ground,” Scarlet agreed, “avoiding public attention because being noticed makes a mess and it’s asking for trouble. Back when historical records were easily tampered with because there weren’t hundreds of copies in different hands, they too helped to erase records of themselves to stay safe and keep others the same. Empowered and extremist divisions on the Primalist side stay quiet for the same reason, ironically; now that there are so few either way and the modern world kind of ignores what the majority has deemed impossible, it’s a war of shadows.”

“Fine, so let’s just for a moment say that it’s true what you’re all suggesting,” Nick said, spreading his paws before holding up one finger and looking at Embron suspiciously. “If they stay so secretive, how do you know about them, and all the rest of this loony stuff?”

“Let’s just say a little sparrow told me, for one,” Embron grinned. He moved to say more, but Judy cut him off with a sudden gasp of recognition.

“Wait, you said Sparrow?” she quipped accusingly. “Would that happen to be along the lines of a master hacker that the ZPD’s been trying to find for years?”

“Perhaps.”

“So that’s a yes. You actually trust what he says?! He’s a criminal!”

“I wouldn’t argue this one, Judy,” Skye warned. “Not even the AOMISDOPS agents can track him and Embron won’t give him up. Besides, he’s also saved enough lives through secrets and tips that he’s unearthed and sent to use via the wily coyote here that he might as well have earned our respect and protection for it. Rules get bent a lot when lives are at stake; you, of all mammals, should know that.”

“But the places he’s gotten into, some of the things he’s dropped publicly, that’s breaking federal law!”

“Technically, so is tracking a crime vigilante-style, using a mob boss as an interrogation agent, and blowing up a subway train car in the Savannah Central Natural History Museum tunnel,” Scarlet drawled, twirling a claw on the table surface nonchalantly as she stared pointedly over at the lapine and clicking them together before sheathing them again. “But, I hear authorities overlooked all that on special circumstance too.”

Judy wilted at that reminder, drawing Nick to place a reassuring paw on her shoulder as the two siblings and agents shared a quick set of glances that the officers missed. After a short nod between them, Embron spoke up again.

“But, we’re getting off subject a bit here,” he said. “There’s another, far more pertinent reason why we know Gifteds existed, and even still exist, playing a role in the mess you’ve become entangled in here.”

“Then please enlighten us,” Nick huffed, raising his challenging eyebrow again.

“You’re standing in the same room as two of them,” Skye replied flatly.

The reddish reynard looked incredulously at her, followed by Judy, but the arctic vixen simply nodded toward Embron and Scarlet.

“You’ve got to be joking,” Judy exclaimed. “You two…you can do stuff like in the painting here?!”

“When it’s necessary,” Embron said. “It can take a lot of energy though, exhausting just like any other work or exercise is.” He looked at Nick and sighed; the fox clearly wasn’t buying it. “Yeah, I can see you doubt it Nick,” he huffed.

“No duh I doubt it,” Nick snapped. “Until today I’d never heard of any of this crap; it’s bad enough that you claim you’re almost directly related to me and part fox, which I could sort of buy since it’s obvious you’re a scientist and would study that sort of thing, but then you’ve gone and jumped off the deep end, also claiming that the world runs on old legends and you’re practically magic.”

“Gifted,” Embron corrected sharply. “Magic is a dangerous roundabout cheat to similar ends in line with sorcery and witchcraft. And if you need proof, ask this: you taken the time to wonder yet why Jack over there hasn’t been suffering from his formerly broken rib all morning?”

“Did…did you heal him?” Judy asked timidly, before closing her mouth and glancing to the side as Nick snorted.

“That’s terrible evidence,” the fox argued. “I just assumed that you’re versed in basic medicine, maybe a little more. It’s not impossible to set a broken rib and then have a trained agent hide any residual pain afterward I’m sure, so”-

Clearly, Embron was done debating the point. He raised his paw, cutting Nick’s rant off, and twisted two fingers in the fox’s direction. Simultaneously, Nick suddenly found his feet no longer touching the ground. His words fully died in a strangled gasp echoed by Judy’s silent shriek of panic as Embron twisted his wrist, sending the fox floating at an almost comically leisurely pace across the room until he was pressed flat against the wall, three feet off the floor.

“Nick!” Judy screamed, jumping up to help him only for Jack and Skye to both hold up a paw, indicating she should not interfere.

“Telekinesis is one of a large handful of things I am capable of,” Embron commented as if this was all commonplace to him (and Nick was finally getting the impression that, in fact, it really was) and walked over to stand in front of the reynard, flat unamused expression on his muzzle. “And as you can see it doesn’t matter if the object of my focus is alive or not; it’ll move all the same. Believe us now?”

Nick could only manage a terrified nod, and from behind Embron the equally shell-shocked partner of his stuttered out a panicked, “You-you’re not h-hurting him are you?”

“Oh, definitely not,” Embron assured. “I’d never really harm a friend, or family, unless they attempted to kill me first. Just freaking him out a little. Unfortunately I was kind of expecting this would occur eventually today, since you’re a suspicious skeptic by nature, aren’t you Nick?”

“M-maybe a little less skeptical now, heh,” Nick squeaked awkwardly, giving off the best placating grin he could in his position. Then he yelped when Embron dropped his hand and the fox followed, tripping over himself when he hit the floor and barely catching himself on all fours.

Embron nodded, before gesturing back to the table. “Well cousin, with that answered without doubt for you, do you think you’re ready to hear the last part, the full reason why the Primalists are hunting you two alive instead of just killing off their perceived threat?”

“Uhhh, I don’t know,” Nick shivered. “Can we take a breather for a moment? Sudden levitation is kind of a rattling experience, you know?”

“I do know,” Embron returned, to which Nick’s ears only dropped further.

“Here, Nick, let me help,” Judy insisted, pushing past her also frayed nerves to dart forward and reach out to help pull the fox to his feet. “Embron, was that really necessary?”

“Well, I guess pulling my staff out of thin air could have been less intrusive,” the coyote mused, before a grin split his face, “but it wouldn’t have been as funny as a flying fox, and you might have still written that off as some sort of illusion. Heh, should have gotten a photo of your faces. But to the point, would you honestly have fully believed us had either Scarlet or I not eventually demonstrated something?”

Judy fell silent, as did Nick; Embron was completely right, and both of them knew it. It was unbelievable enough that both of them were still half wondering if maybe there was some sort of powerful magnet or something hidden in the walls, but that just didn’t seem to fit what had happened either.

“H-how many of you are there?” Nick queried as he caught his breath.

Embron pursed his lips. “Good question,” he said, tapping his chin in thought. “Personally, I know a decent handful; you’ve even met a couple in fact. Around the world, I’ll bet there are at least a hundred or so though, give or take a couple dozen. Couldn’t answer how many diviners or empowered there are among the Primalists however.”

“Okay; so, I can really easily see now why they’d be after mammals like you, but uh, yeah, I need to know why Judy and I are being targeted. If that’s what we could be up against, I’d like to keep all my limbs in place in the process of getting out of this.”

“And that is related to the other oddity you two probably noticed in the painting,” Embron nodded, holding out a hand. Tentatively, Nick and Judy followed the unspoken question and joined the others at the table again, and the coyote continued.

“As you might have guessed, those aren’t rays of sunlight in the top of the painting there.” He pointed to the rippling shimmers stroked into the skyline above the painted battlefield. “We aren’t alone in existence you see, and I’m not talking about things like God, angels, or demons and spirits either; there are other worlds out there with life on them, either in this universe, or others, other dimensions perhaps, and they’re connected to each other through what we call rifts.”

Embron walked over to the shelves in the room again, and this time he pulled down several papers, one of them a very, very old parchment protected within a plastic cover. “Animals have in various sects known about rifts since the beginning of our civilizations, but like the existence of Gifteds they keep their presence quiet most of the time. This is helped by the fact that most of the time, one cannot see them with the naked eye or even detect them with special instrumentation.”

“Then how do you know where they are, or even if they’re there?” Judy asked.

“Because when they do show up on their own it’s obvious and occasionally spectacular,” Jack answered this time. “I’ve seen it once, early on not long after I first met the Canistons; they can react to Gifteds looking for them, or of their own accord they release bursts of light, split the air like the fabric of space is ripping apart, or produce waves of electric or magnetic energy. It’s rare that they do so, but when they do no one in the vicinity misses it.”

“It’s part of the origin of stories of will-o-the-wisps, or lightning in clear skies,” Skye added.

“Okay, so what do they do?” Judy queried again.

At this, Embron unrolled the protected old parchment, showing it to them. On the scroll, writing in a language they definitely didn’t recognize sprawled in minute lines across it.

“As far as we know, they’re conduits of information,” he explained. “Physical objects can’t pass through them or anything, but sometimes animals around them claim sudden visions of the other worlds, in particular one with parallels to our own; species are found there that we have here but only a single sentient race, one unlike anything in our world from what I know. Other times, writings came through etched on the ground or objects around the rift, in the language you see on the parchment here; they’re the origin of words linguists can’t manage to trace, like terms such as ‘humane,’ ‘person,’ the ‘hand’ we often use interchangeably for our front paws, or the slang ‘man’ or ‘woman’ and their derivatives that don’t match any animal species’ original lexicons. We call these the Scripts of the Prophets because at least what we’ve managed to translate details the lives and prophecies of godly visionaries, individuals with names like Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Ezekiel, and others. Religions have arisen stemming from the Scripts, attempting to live in the ways that we can as depicted here, and all too often the commandments spoken of come directly against the views of the Primalists, especially those who actively seek to defy God, the Scripts, the Gifteds and their allies, and so on.”

“So as you can imagine,” Scarlet added in, leaning over the table and sweeping a paw across the papers, “many Primalists who know about the rifts have been looking for ways to try and get rid of them, or at least prevent any means of gaining new information from them. They think that if they can pull such a feat off, they can discourage Gifteds, followers of the Scripts, anyone with a connection to the rifts, and thereby start chipping away at our modern, more peaceful ways of life.”

“That’s why they’re stealing Night Howler extract,” Jack said. “The odd toxin does more than block higher cerebellar and cerebral thinking and stimulate rage; in the paws of someone who can tap into metaphysical energy, it can cause a chain reaction that blocks out the rifts. Or even a practiced scientist who’s proficient in manipulating electromagnetic fields and other energy sources, if they can tune into the right frequencies, can do the same. However, at most there are only ever a couple of rifts open on the planet at any one time, and they have a tendency to move locations every few months when they’re open, so catching them is a difficult task, and from what Embron has said the effects of using Midnicampum are only temporary. It’s happened before, and they can only shut down the rifts for a year or two and sometimes only the rift they can access. They’re seeking a more long-lasting or permanent solution.”

“And so, finally, this is where you two come in,” Embron sighed. “The two of you, like it or not, are what we call a Catalyst Pair. Polar opposite species but inseparable because you find you complement and complete each other, and thrive off of being around one another. Following that, as you might have noticed, whenever you’re together things happen that tend to surpass believable odds. Case in point, your solving of the Night Howler Conspiracy last year; how many serendipitous ‘coincidences’ came to pass that led to you two being able to crack that case? Your chance favoritism with Alphonse Biggliani, your happening onto the Night Howler common name –and from another fox no less- the fact that Bellwether practically walked herself into a trap?”

He had a very valid point, and Nick and Judy shared an uncomfortable glance. They had called it good luck back then, but really it had to be more than that with how many things fell so right in place for them.

“Catalyst Pairs have moved forward many of the world-changing events of our history,” Embron continued. “The lion and gazelle that first put faith into the peace treaty at the founding of Zootopia were one, as were the jaguar and tapir that ended the Second War of Nations. When Catalysts show up they can move mountains, sometimes literally when they can rally countries, cultures, and Gifteds behind them, and the Primalists believe that if they can capture such a pair, that they hold the key to shutting down the rifts. Personally, I think that any reaction rifts might have to a Catalyst would be more on the positive, building rather than negating side, but I know how powers can corrupt and so perhaps they know of some secret we do not to reversing such an effect, so it’s possible even that closing the rifts would cut off the formation of other Catalysts, and the events that shaped our history may become nearly impossible to continue without them. If they can get ahold of you, it will be nearly impossible to rescue you back and they’ll whisk you away to wherever they’ve managed to locate an active rift in an instant. And from what Jack has told me, whatever method they use involves extraction of something from the pair to drive the reaction, and so I fear you would not survive beyond that point either. Once they have what they need, you’re only a threat to be eliminated.”

“So basically you’re saying that just because we found each other, we don’t have a choice in the matter of whether we’re this Catalyst or not anymore?” Nick asked, glancing with worry at Judy. A cold dread fell over him then; imagining her going through whatever the Primalists intended for them was a nightmare he couldn’t let come true. “Just because of who we are, we’re a target?”

“Until such time as they lose the current locations of the rifts, or this group is killed off completely,” Embron affirmed. “Unfortunately, there’s also always someone out there who knows, so as soon as word of a Catalyst Pair spreads, you’ll remain a target from here on out unless you can prove that you’re too dangerous to take on. Most Primalists aren’t master assassins or empowered after all, so they won’t take on someone formidable if they’re needed alive.”

“Which means it’s almost time for my favorite part in this,” Scarlet grinned, and suddenly both officers felt chills of an entirely different kind run down their spines. “You two need to train, and train hard if you’re going to survive. Every weapon out there in the other room, you’re going to learn how to use, or defend yourself against, until we can put you guys on par with Savage and Wellinger in skill at least.”

Nick groaned and face-planted into the table in front of him. “Great,” he moaned, “we’re back in the Academy all over again; this is all some sort of grand cosmic joke isn’t it?”

“Afraid not Wilde,” Jack quipped, standing up and popping out his shirt collar. “The ZPD Academy is a vacation in the Pawaiian Islands compared to the training one needs to survive the worst the rest of the world has to offer. This will be much, much harder.”

Chapter Text

The past is full of lessons learned

And not just yours alone

In fact, the best are borne from others’ lives

What you never knew

They took on full bore

And came out with stronger drives

Then it’s time for them to tell

Of what they’ve come to gain

And all that you need to do is hear

Then perhaps there will be more

Between you and them

Friends and allies you become and new lessons ever near

SWISH!!

“Aaaaahhhh! I thought I was supposed to be learning here, not just act as a target!”

“Your enemy will possibly see you as such, or at the least it’s the worst case scenario. They’ll kill you after they’re done with you after all. You must, therefore, be able to defend yourself against an imminent threat to your life, so fight as if your life depends on it at this moment too!”

Nick scrambled back to avoid another swipe of the sword wielded by Embron, the coyote staring him down as if he had no remorse or qualms about actually severely injuring the smaller fox. Of course, now that Nick knew what Embron was capable of (and Jack’s healed ribs being Exhibit A), he wasn’t sure if severe injury was out of the question since Embron could probably just repair him on the spot. It certainly helped to make his want to avoid a hit all the more real, as did the fact that the sword looked very much like it was purely authentic rather than some cheap plastic mock-up one would think you’d use for training. Embron hadn’t said anything to suggest otherwise too, and at this point Nick was afraid to ask, lest he confirm his concern.

Two days had already passed since they had first arrived at the Caniston house. Those days had been filled thus far mostly with recuperation and familiarization with their new surroundings. Nick and Judy had learned, for example, that the coyote wasn’t bluffing at all when he said there were dangers out in the open in parts of the house (and not just the cobra that wandered the grounds, or the coyote and his sister themselves). He owned such things as gympie gympie trees (a toxic plant that could cause months of pain at even a touch), desert stingbushes, and boomslangs (a colubrid snake with a venom that could cause one of the most horrifying deaths they’d ever heard of). Needless to say, it was stressed the importance of them keeping their wits about them if no one else was about to act as a guide around the house and its odd rooms.

They’d also been far more familiarized with the training rooms and weapons found in the bottom floor of the house, and given demonstrations on just how well the Canistons (and even Hannah) knew how to use them. Even the trainers for the weapons the duo used in the ZPD couldn’t hold a candle to these odd mammals, but then that no longer came as a shock. Scarlet had said straight out, after all, that she often trained the very agents from among whom their current protectors had come.

Nick held up a hand to request a pause, and dropped both hands to his knees to breathe hard as Embron acquiesced. The fox stared on in bewilderment as the sword Embron held warped and vanished from view, replaced a moment later by an ornate metal staff that the coyote nonchalantly leaned against.

“I’m never, ever going to get used to seeing that,” Nick panted, stumbling back to lean against the wall while Embron simply chuckled. “Tell me again why I have nothing to defend myself with here? If that sword was real, something to match or maybe at least a shield of some sort would be really, really nice, you know?”

“Because, though they say the best defense is a good offense,” Embron began, moving over to lean against the wall as well and idly spinning his staff under his paw, “chances are that at least the first time you are next confronted you probably won’t have any such thing to protect yourself with, or no time to get to it, and you’ll need to know how to avoid an attack with your bare paws alone. A gun might be deadlier than a sword at a distance too, but someone jumps out at you from around a corner and you’re not going to have time to draw one either. Learn to avoid, then disarm or bare-pawed defend, and then lastly how to use the weapons we have here. After all, no, I will not purposefully put you into such a situation if we can avoid it out there, but we’re covering the bases.”

The coyote stood up straight again and dematerialized the staff, before holding out a paw to Nick. “You good yet? Remember, I won’t let you have these breathers forever either; your attackers certainly won’t.”

Nick sighed, before nodding and standing upright, taking Embron’s paw and letting himself be pulled back into the middle of the room. As he did, his ears picked up the familiar, but somewhat disconcerting noises of Judy encountering a similar training regimen under Scarlet’s paws on the other side of the divider that had been pulled across the space, separating the two mats and ensuring only one-on-one training for now. Nick could only imagine the rabbit was doing better than he, driven as she was in everything.

“Alright,” Embron said, dropping into a defensive stance, “mirror me. You have much experience with paw-to-paw combat?”

“A little, with the sparring at the ZPD and with Judy.”

“Good. Then we can at least skip basics there. Weaponless fighting has a thousand different variations depending on cultures and need, but at their heart they have the same foundation: keeping yourself protected while exploiting openings given by your opponents. I’ll lead in the attack here, you deflect and try to take shots as you see them. We’ll start slowly, and build up speed. And remember: you have instincts that drive your split-second reactions; learn to drive them to your needs as the situation demands.”

Without warning, the coyote jabbed inward, his fist aiming directly for Nick’s snout. The fox knew Embron was pulling his punches, keeping them slow so that he in turn could actually move to block them, but even then he felt like he barely had the time to react, swinging his arm up in order to slide the punch off to the side and leave Embron open to a fist of his own.

Embron twisted with ease though, driving Nick’s arm down with the same that had been outstretched a moment before as his other paw came out in a quick curve in line with the side of Nick’s head. This attack the reynard wasn’t ready to block, so he dropped back and to the side to let it swing over him, keeping his feet under his center of gravity to hold his balance so he could keep watching Embron. Not that it helped though: the larger canid continued in his spin and kicked backward, catching Nick in his side and sending him tumbling.

“Oof!”

He hit the ground and rolled, knowing the coyote wouldn’t relent (because neither would a real opponent). Sure enough, Embron continued forward, spinning up for another kick while Nick was still getting to his feet again, but Nick decided it was better now to stay down, dropping to all fours and grabbing the coyote’s outstretched foot. Embron paused for a moment in surprise at the bold move, not long but just enough for Nick to yank his foot forward, pulling him off balance and sending the coyote tumbling to the floor. Even as he hit ground he laughed and looked up at Nick.

“Not bad; I’m rather impressed actually.”

“Well thanks, I”-

WHACK!!

“Augh!”

“Don’t let your guard down though!”

Embron had kicked upward with his other foot, snapping Nick in the jaw and sending the fox tumbling back again even as Embron whirled to his feet with the momentum. Nik rubbed his chin and winced, before glaring at the other canid.

“So much for not hurting friends and family.”

“Suck it up cupcake; rules are different in sparring. You telling me Judy goes easy on you in your rounds at the ZPD? Because I am, still.”

“Yeah, thanks for reminding me.”

They continued for another ten minutes or so before Nick finally pleaded for a real break, and this time Embron acquiesced because he could see the toll he was taking on the reynard. Nick winced as he tested several spots on his sides, wandering toward the door in the divider to see how Judy was doing against the odd ocelot she was paired with.

“I keep this up, and I’m going to have nothing but bruises,” he muttered. “I’ll go from red fox to black and blue fox.”

“So goes with physical training,” Embron said unsympathetically. “But if you really want,” he offered, holding out his paw,” I can fix that for now.”

“Uh, sure,” Nick cautiously agreed, looking at Embron’s outstretched arm. “How’s that work, exactly? I don’t want more pain in the process.”

“Give me your hand and I’ll show you.”

The fox’s ears splayed back in apprehension, but he slowly obeyed, taking Embron’s paw like a handshake. The coyote’s grip around him shimmered for a moment, and Nick’s fur stood on end as a sensation like warm water crossed with static ran through him. Then Embron let go just as quickly, and looked at him expectantly.

“How do you feel now?”

Nick pursed his lips, and pressed against his sides again, eyes widening when he could find no sign of the pain that had been present only moments before. “Uh, pret-pretty good, actually,” he admitted. “That’s really weird.”

“Eh, after twenty years you get used to stuff like that. Only sucks that we can’t heal ourselves, and really bad injuries take more than one Gifted to deal with, so do me a favor and never get gutted.”

“Uh huh,” Nick hummed, before his attention returned to the divider door. “Think it’s safe?”

“Scarlet’s on the other side; it’s never ‘safe’ where she is.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Hey, you asked, I answered.”

The vulpine couldn’t help the smirk that appeared as he pushed the door open; Jack had been right about one thing for sure, he had some competition here even if the coyote had a slightly different sense of humor. His mind didn’t linger long on that though as he stepped into the other sparring space and almost immediately had to avoid a grey blur that was rocketing toward him and screaming “Look out!”

“Aaahhh!”

Judy ricocheted off the wall and launched herself at the waiting cat, twisting in time with the feline so that even as Scarlet tried to grab and pin her, she simply vaulted with a hard jolt off of the ocelot’s arm and fired off to an open corner of the room.

Scarlet stumbled for only a second though, before whirling and facing off with the rabbit again, not caring about the sudden addition of an audience as she waited.

“Come on Judy, make a move,” she drawled, grinning as her tail flicked in anticipation.

Judy scoffed. “Yeah right; not falling for that again.”

“Well at least you’re a fast learner. Might take it up a touch sooner than I thought.”

Then, without looking, Scarlet’s ears flicked toward Nick and she called out, “Hey Nick, your partner’s getting way ahead of you; I heard where you are on the other side.”

“Yeah yeah, she’s always been better,” Nick sighed. “Driven little energizer bunny, never stops.”

“I take it then that you two aren’t quite ready for a breather yet?” Embron chuckled.

Scarlet stole a moment to glance at him and snorted. “She doesn’t tire. We might just be here all day, you never kno- hey!”

Like any good opponent, Judy had taken her chance as soon as it had appeared. As soon as Scarlet had looked away she’d darted forward, coming up under Scarlet’s guard and catching the cat unawares as she leapt up, intent on planting both feet firmly into her chest.

Scarlet was a cat though, and her reaction time was enhanced even compared to the general feline population. Instead of taking the hit to her chest or stomach, she leaned back and swept her arms forward, meeting Judy’s feet with her braced forearms and twisting them with the momentum. As Judy started to sail past, the rabbit already turning herself around to land and roll, Scarlet grabbed her legs and dragged her down, eliciting a squeak of surprise from Judy as she suddenly found herself pinned to the mat. She turned to jab upward at Scarlet with one paw to try and force release, only for Scarlet to grab first one arm and then the other in a locking hold and drop her fully on her front to the ground. The fight was over, for now.

“Well,” Scarlet chuckled, “that was a lot better than I was expecting for our first day. I definitely think I’ll have to take it up a level or two to really challenge you. After lunch though I’d prefer, since it’s about that time.”

“Thanks, I think,” Judy huffed. “Can you let me up now?”

Scarlet snickered and stood up, allowing the lapine to climb to her feet and brush herself off, before Judy looked over at Nick.

“I’d still rather be out solving cases,” she huffed, “but this isn’t too bad a way to spend the day.”

“Well of course you’d say that, oh atypical lagomorph,” Nick said with a smirk. “You can actually somewhat keep up with these oddballs.”

“Aww, is the big bad coy-fox kicking your tail?” Judy cooed, fluttering her eyes and clasping her paws together in baby-face fashion. Nick’s heart fluttered against his will at her expression, even if she was teasing him (or perhaps more because she was teasing him).

Embron snickered. “And I’m not even trying yet.”

“And that just makes me feel sooo much better,” Nick snarked, shaking his head and walking toward the door. “Also top in my class at the Academy, but I can’t manage to surprise you more than once.”

“Alright, don’t berate yourself too hard Nick,” Embron placated, joining him in the saunter toward the exit with the other two following shortly behind. “Scarlet and I have been doing stuff like this for almost 25 years out of necessity; of course we’re good. And I know Judy’s been training for a very long time, would have to to get into the ZPD with the odds that were against her, so she’s also got a leg up –no jokes on that please, I can see it in your eyes.”

“Wow, only a couple of days and you know me so well already,” Nick chuckled.

“Well, it’s not hard for us to find out stuff about just about anyone, particularly relatives. But that’s not it; you had the same face both Scarlet and my father make whenever they’re planning some terrible joke.”

“Oh, do teach me to catch that,” Judy requested, shooting a glance at her partner. “Maybe I can prevent his horrible puns from contaminating the air more often then.”

“You know it wouldn’t be the same without them Fluff.”

“Yeah, you might just be tolerable around the Precinct afterward.”

“Nah, I’d still be as insufferable as always.”

They traversed the weapons room at a leisurely pace, entering the hall beyond and heading for the stairs. As Scarlet predicted, it was about lunch time, so there was a silent agreement that a trip up to the kitchen was in order. As they walked, Judy asked, “Hey, any idea where Jack is today? I haven’t seen him or Skye around all morning.”

“Agency red tape to get the new situation set up, and apparently Jack gave Bogo his number and the Chief called him asking about, and I quote, ‘Where the hell are you keeping my officers’ in reference to you guys, so they had to deal with that,” Scarlet explained. “They’ll be back in the afternoon probably, if you’re missing them that much.”

“Miss them?” Nick scoffed. “I was half-hoping they’d stay absent a little longer; hard to have any fun with the ice rabbit running around glaring at everything. Does he ever unwind or relax at all?”

“If you manage to get to that point where he’s comfortable enough around you for that, either something really bad will have broken the ice or you’ll have to get to know him for a long, long time,” Embron explained.

“Worse than a near-death experience for him while helping us escape an assassin?”

“Yes, worse than that; that’s every few months for him sometimes. One can’t fault him though, his history is a dark one, but he’ll have to volunteer telling you about it. Skye’s always been the more sociable of the two.”

“Speaking of which, what brought you two to meet them?” Judy asked as they climbed the second set of stairs. “It sounds like you’ve been around each other for a while, and I’d bet my carrot pen it’s an interesting story.”

“Oh yeah, totally,” Scarlet giggled. “The tale of a young, arrogant Embron who thought he could turn the world upside down if he tried hard enough.”

“Yeah yeah, so I was naïve back then,” Embron quipped, pushing his sister in the shoulder. “That didn’t make me arrogant.”

“You’re right. Waving your big brain around in front of everyone like being smart is a banner of glory and walking around like you knew everyone’s secrets –even if that part’s partially true- is what made you arrogant. I’d bet Jack would agree with me too; you might have saved his life, but he sobered you up on reality.”

“Oh, this does sound good,” Nick grinned. “You saved the stony Tiger Bunny’s life?”

“Ugh, let me at least get lunch started,” Embron held off, waving his hand. “Then I’ll tell you, ‘kay? And help is welcome; either of you two good at cooking?”

“Oh, don’t let Carrots near a stove; she’ll burn water.”

“Hey!”

“Don’t deny it Fluff. Your cooking expertise extends to microwave meals only. Who does all the cooking at the apartment when we don’t have takeout?”

At her petulant glare, Nick let off a triumphant huff and a grin and sauntered over next to Embron to help where he could.

“Grab the cilantro and celery out of the fridge, chop them up,” Embron directed. “We’ll just make a quick noodle soup here; veggie heavy for Judy, chicken for the rest of us unless you want to choose vegetarian too.”

“Nah, I’ll take the general pot,” Nick decided, pulling out the greens as asked and splaying them out across the cutting board.

A few minutes later everything was prepped and Embron was simply stirring the simmering broth and noodles, while Nick and Judy sat at the table expectantly looking at him and Scarlet tapped away at something on her phone. The coyote caught the duo’s stares and closed his eyes in an almost resigned smile, before giving a short nod.

“Alright, I’ll get on with the story of how Scarlet and I came to know Savage and Wellinger,” he relented. Setting the spoon in his hand aside, he leaned against the island, arms crossed as he thought back. “As I said earlier, both Scarlet and I found out about what we can do about 25 years or so ago. I’m 37, she’s 30, so that was when we were about 12 and 5 years old, respectively. It’s not uncommon for Gifteds to develop or be given their abilities at such a young age, but without someone else around with experience to show us the ropes it could, as we very soon found out, more than easily become a dangerous thing for us.

“Though it may not look like it now to take in the two of us, back then Scarlet was in fact the smarter, more cautious one about using her abilities, despite her being so much younger,” Embron chuckled. “Me, I dealt with bullies in school singling me out all the time because I was the nerdy, weird one who only fit into his own little world.”

“Not much has changed in that respect,” Scarlet half-whispered to the officers, earning a glare from Embron as the two fought back giggles.

“Anyway,” Embron growled, “that was at least how it started. Suddenly though, I could do things none of them could ever dream of, move and hit faster and harder than any of them, so I quickly grabbed the chance I thought I had and whipped their tails with ease whenever anyone bothered me. It was a confidence boost that I needed at the time, but also an ego boost that I definitely didn’t. And of course, it didn’t stop there; while Scarlet stayed home and quietly learned what she could do in safety and secrecy, I began taking to the streets whenever I heard about criminal activities going on or just when I needed a stress reliever and someone being stupid to act as the outlet.

“Needless to say, as you two ought to know well, such vigilante actions are often looked down upon by actual law enforcement officials, so my actions began attracting them even as I took dangerous people off the streets and, uh, ‘educated’ others about a lot of smaller offenses that I thought everyone should be aware of. Rumors started spreading because I wasn’t afraid of using the flashier side of my gifts when needed, so they were intent on nailing the ‘firefox’ who’d been showing them up from the shadows and getting answers about me. A couple times they actually almost caught me, but when you can do the things I can it’s easy to just slip by unnoticed in tight spots, so I always kept at least one step ahead of them.”

The coyote paused to stir the soup, and looked off into space in reminiscence. “A long story short,” he started again, “when I was fifteen the local police finally got fed up after chasing ghosts for two and a half years, so they called in higher and more experienced authorities to help them pin me down. Enter one Jack Savage, AOMISDOPS agent with just enough years under his belt to start heading out solo on assignments with his teacher and partner Skylar Wellinger directing from behind the scenes. It was his time to prove that he could deal with a delicate situation on his own, so he had a lot riding on his ability to find and apprehend me.”

“Wow, so you guys started off against each other and now you’re best friends, eh?” Nick mused. “Sounds almost like the start for Carrots and I.”

“Heh, yes, I guess there are more than a few similarities there,” Embron chuckled, continuing to stir the soup before turning down the heat and returning his gaze to the officers. “Of course, unlike you they had no clue who I was, so they had no start to try and trap me. For two months I led Jack and Skye around in circles, continuing to do what I did and even flaunting that I was better than them since they couldn’t catch a hair of who I was, high and mighty moral and empowered teen I saw myself as. It was reckless, borderline on actually being wrong, and it started not only driving up frustrations for Jack and hostilities between him and the local police, but attracting the attention of others as well.

“This was still long before I even knew anything about Primalists, mind you, but a less than savory character of another kind had sent out a small mob to catch me and try to sway me to help them achieve their own dark, self-centered goals. They set up a fake crime spree to lure me in, Jack caught wind of it, and all three parties ended up in an abandoned old shop in a less frequented part of town ready for a fight. I stood in the shadows where nobody else could see me, and the mob and Jack faced off in a five against one shootout.”

Embron went silent, wistful expression taking form as he grabbed out bowls and began dishing out the soup. Nick came over to help carry the bowls to the table, and the coyote glanced at him with a sad smile as he joined them at the table.

“Things didn’t turn out particularly well that night,” he said softly, “as you can imagine. Sure, Jack had body armor on and I could have tried to just let him fight it out, but these guys were experienced, carried heavy ammunition, and all it would have taken was one head shot and it would have been over, no more Savage and all of them after me again. Needless to say I intervened, knocking most of them out and exposing myself to Jack, but one of the mobsters, an old jaguarundi who’d taken on a lot of martial art form training, almost got the better of both me and the still somewhat inexperienced rabbit. The guy liberated Jack of his weapon, managed to feint around my attacks, and pinned me to the wall after knocking Jack senseless and leaving him vulnerable.”

Embron fell silent again, and this time it wasn’t the reminiscent kind. His eyes darkened, staring out the windows for several moments without a word as a scarring memory surfaced.

“What happened?” Judy asked softly after nearly a minute had gone by without anything said. “Did Jack help you get away somehow, or…?”

“Nothing so simple,” Embron sighed. “Like I said, at that moment Jack wasn’t exactly in fighting condition, and even if he were his gun was too far away for either of us to use, and the jaguarundi was more than willing to injure me to bring me in and kill Jack to ensure there wouldn’t be any other witnesses. No other options were available: Jack was going to be unbalanced long enough for the hired hand to finish his job with trussing me up to ship off and go back to finish the rabbit afterward.” He leaned back in his chair, and let out a long, slow breath.

“It was the first time I’d ever killed someone, at fifteen years old and under the eyes of an international agent,” the coyote finally let out. “I took just long enough to grab Jack and place an anonymous police call to take care of the other mobsters before I took off, running back to one of my old hideouts and dropping us both off there before I broke down.” He turned to look at the two officers again. “I hope your hands are free of the experience of taking a life, and stay that way, because even if you’re thrown into that situation a hundred times it doesn’t get any easier for a good heart.”

“And you were only a teenager; I can’t imagine that,” Judy whispered. “I don’t blame you at all for losing it afterward; what did Jack do then?”

Embron smirked. “Oh, he watched me bawl my eyes out and then sat in conflict for nearly an hour before he actually came back to his own mind fully to process what happened. He wasn’t sure anymore if he wanted to follow through with bringing me in, especially since he’d seen what a truly hard situation did to me. He knew I’d technically broken the law by taking it into my own hands, and that I could be a very, very dangerous individual if I decided to turn the coin.

“But, I’d stepped in when I could have just let the mob take care of him and gotten off clean myself, and it was obvious how much killing even a hardened criminal in self-defense had screwed me up, so he decided that I must have had a good heart despite my lawfully gray actions. He also saw a potential in me that even I had completely overlooked, so in the end he called up his partner, arranged for me to meet with him and Skye quietly and alone, and after they chewed me out for being a vigilante and an ass about it for so long we ended up striking a deal. They’d keep tabs on me, I’d have to stop running around my home city busting bad guys without license to do so like I had, and I –and Scarlet once they found out about her a short while later, and when she got old enough- would have to take up proper defense and legal training under their agency.

“In return, they offered support in my other endeavors, the results of which you’ve already seen all over this house. I also had the opportunity still to make a difference as I’d wanted by helping them with cases, and my earlier actions and who and what I was would remain under wraps so the public wouldn’t find out.”

Finally taking a moment to actually partake in his soup, Embron allowed a short bout of silence for all of them to mull over the story. He watched as Nick and Judy processed what he’d said, and he could see their slow decisions to agree with what Jack had done for him.

“It certainly seems like things have become a bit more than that professional relationship now, doesn’t it?” Judy mused, looking between the two Canistons.

Scarlet was the one that chuckled and nodded this time, waving her paw in an elaborative gesture. “Well, we were recruited to help the two of them dozens of times in the years since, and with the number of times Embron and I saved their tails made for a good way to form bonds. Agents might not openly admit it to most, but you hang around anyone for more than a couple months and it’s hard not to be friends with them, unless they’re truly horrible. Not to mention a little bit of friendly competition came in when halfway through their training of us we started doing better than they could in combat or, in Embron’s case, research skills and such that helped it along. We also have our similarities: Skye and I both like building things, Jack and Embron are…well, I’ll let them elaborate if Jack wants to since, though I’d love to annoy him by giving up his secrets, I know how he’d react and he’s stressed enough as it is. But yeah, it was a friendship forged off rocky beginnings and interesting times since.”

“And now you’ve piqued my interest all over again,” Nick grinned. “I’ve got to find out what Jackie Boy does for fun. He gives nothing away, and I can’t possibly believe anyone has no relaxed side.”

“Oh don’t worry, give it time and he’ll start opening up,” Embron reassured. “He just needs something to push him away from the work attitude, and unfortunately it takes even more than hanging around us oddballs for that to happen when he’s in mission mode.”

“I’ll take that as a challenge then,” Nick toned, glancing at Judy. “I know you’re itching to know more about him too, don’t deny it.”

“Yeah, but I can be patient,” Judy quipped back. “You, nosy fox, like to stick your snuffling muzzle in places it doesn’t belong sometimes.”

“Hey, it’s how I find the most interesting tidbits. No risk, no gain.”

“Sounds like the hustler mindset coming back in. Just be warned, I might help him beat you silly if you risk too much.”

“Traitor.”

“Nah, you just need training.”

“Ugh, now I am insulted.”

Both of them missed the knowing smiles the two Canistons shared, glancing between each other as the duo bantered.

They’re so obvious, Embron chuckled to himself. Just how long will it be before they realize it themselves though?

“You misunderstand me; yes I appreciate that they’ll finally be arriving tonight, but I would like to know why it took so long to get them situated here.”

Skye glanced over at her partner as they drove, silently hoping he wouldn’t push the bill too hard. Talking with Director Trevahe herself was always a bit of a touch-and-go affair as she was strict about guidelines and the reasons she tolerated being questioned by subordinates, even if she did like the two of them in particular, and in this case her reasons for delaying a new tech team were sound even if the state of their own case was starting to demand a greater priority.

Jack was a strong spirit who did not take anything lying down either though, so on the occasions where he and the director didn’t see eye to eye things could get heated, and Jack was known to debate at an expert level.

“With all due respect Director Trevahe, you saw our most recent update on this assignment, yes?”

Silence as the director replied; Skye couldn’t make out what was said, and she was annoyed that her partner had failed to put the phone on speaker.

“So then you are aware of the new developments: Saber is at large, we have brought the Canistons into the loop, and the officers are”-

…

“Need I remind you what happens when Embron gives an ultimatum on his involvement? He’s not the naïve pup he once”-

…

“Well, I openly invite you to take it up with him then, Alecia. This might be a case you want to see in person at some point anyway. It’s coming to a head again; you recall the last time we were this close to pinning these kinds of radicals down, and I doubt I have to bring up how we could have succeeded if”-

…

“Yes. Glad you could understand. Should there be another development of concern, you will be alerted through the proper channels immediately.”

He lowered the phone and ended the call, before pocketing it and slamming his fist down on the armrest of his seat. Skye piqued an eyebrow, though her eyes themselves didn’t leave the road this time.

“I don’t see what the armrest did to deserve such treatment.”

“Not in the mood for levity,” Jack growled, ears ramrod straight as he stared out at the road ahead of them. “She has a hundred things to oversee, I understand that, but what in all hells is so hard to understand about the severity of this situation?”

“Well, we haven’t managed much progress yet in locating where the individuals of interest are holed up, and while she’s argued with Embron before she’s never actually experienced firsthand what actually goes on around him, so she is a bit disconnected from this still.”

“Understatement.”

“Come on Jack, we’ll get this sorted out eventually without anyone dying I hope. You do need to lighten up and loosen up though; giving yourself an ulcer or setting up a stroke at your age would bode far worse for all this than taking a moment away from the assignment.”

“A critical part of this city is under threat and we’re dealing with supernatural forces,” the rabbit returned curtly, crossing his arms in brooding frustration. “In such a case this would be the worst of times to take my mind off of our goal.”

Skye sighed, before flicking on her blinker and pulling over to the side of the road. Jack’s reaction was immediate.

“What are we doing?” he snapped, twisting toward her with cold blue eyes. “We’re limited on time and we have to”-

“We have to nothing,” Skye said just as sharply, whirling so that her snarling snout was inches from his as she turned off the car and pulled out the key. Rarely did she actually snap at him, so it was enough to silence Jack so she could continue.

“Experienced agent that you are, you forget occasionally that I am still your senior in this force and have more experience than you in this field, and you are forgetting right now one of our most important rules: an agent with an unstable or otherwise compromised mind is a liability, not an asset. You’ve done exceptionally, but for goodness sake even Judy has picked up on the fact that you’re starting to unravel. Embron was right: though we’re staying on the case, we need our rest, and even the best agents need times to step back and relax so they stay mentally balanced. The time limit you claim here is entirely self-imposed; we have far more flexibility than you want to admit. So, to remedy this stressful outburst you’re having, we’re going to stop here and have lunch at a nice little diner over there that I heard Wilde mention yesterday, and you will enjoy it. Is that understood?”

It was painfully obvious that Jack wanted nothing more than to deny this decision. But, Skye was right, he knew it, and not only was she pulling the rank seniority card which she so rarely did between them but she was one of the few mammals that he could never win an argument against.

After a minute, the rabbit finally relented, letting out a sigh as his ears fell back and uncrossing his arms. “I’m too driven for my own good, aren’t I?” he said softly.

“Seems to be a theme around the rabbits we end up working with,” Skye nodded. “Must be why they end up working with foxes; you bunnies need someone who knows how to step away from work every now and then to keep you from running yourselves over. Come on.”

She climbed out of the car, waiting for Jack to follow before locking the vehicle and paying the meter. Then, the two of them (in far more civilian outfits than Jack was used to wearing out and about, but Embron had insisted) headed down the sidewalk in the direction of a little corner of the street diner by the name of Howlton’s.

It was a quaint little place with the classic red booths and bar-counter style seating, and a kind young ermine quickly sat them down at one of the former. A quick drink order and perusing of the menus (with Skye settling on a roach Reuben sandwich and Jack a house salad), and the two agents were left once more sitting alone to contemplate their thoughts.

“So, now that we’re in a bit more of a comfortable setting, let’s try to keep things in a more decently conversational tone, shall we?” Skye said with a smile. “We’ve got a systematic check on the city with cooperation from the police to scan the area, and soon we’ll have the tech support to remain focused on analyzing the case back at the house, so we have our bases covered there. But I’m curious, what should we do about Hopps and Wilde?”

“What do you mean?” Jack wondered, looking at her with a hint of confusion.

The white vixen shrugged. “They’re both driven and it’s obvious they have some issues with us. Judy hides it well at the moment but she’s not fond of me for whatever reason, and Nick’s made it clear that he’s no fan of yours. That will make it difficult to work with them if it gets any worse, or if a dangerous situation comes up because they may have to fully trust us or vice versa. We need to fix that problem as soon as possible.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be that simple,” Jack sighed.

“And why do you say that?”

“You can’t tell me you’ve noticed Judy’s animosity toward you but not her glances at Nick, or Nick at her, especially when Embron outright mentioned it that first night. Their strife is from fondness of the heart, but they’re oblivious to it themselves at the moment.”

“Ah.” Skye nodded, her mouth making a silent “oh” as it clicked. “I see. And it’s not great if we’re the ones to try and point it out either I’m assuming then. Mmmm…Embron and Scarlet are both decent about broaching emotional affairs; perhaps they can help us out here?”

“Perhaps. But I wouldn’t necessarily rely on that chance either. We interfere in the wrong way, or sometimes at all, and we could ruin their relationship too. And for Zootopia’s celebrity officer duo, that would be disastrous. It would also risk separating them, and they would be far easier targets then. This may be something we can nudge, but it has to take its own course.”

“So even if they separated they’ll remain Catalysts?”

“From what I understand; once that bond’s made, even if the two don’t like each other they’re still connected by it. So, it would be wise to avoid looking like you’re flirting with Wilde from here on out as well; no good worsening Judy’s perception of you.”

“So, don’t be myself then.”

Jack smiled, and then tried to hide it, but Skye had already caught the flash. “Ha!” she exclaimed triumphantly. “So you can still smile. I win.”

“There was no contest,” Jack deadpanned, but her antics were tugging at the corners of his mouth again. Skye only shook her head again and moved to argue, but to Jack’s relief their food arrived right at that moment.

“To be continued,” Skye grinned, lifting up her sandwich and taking a bite.

Jack only gave a huff of masked amusement as he dug into his salad as well. She was incorrigible, but he wouldn’t have his partner be any other way.

Chapter Text

I can’t define what I have felt when looking in your eyes

But I know the sting when others do the same

I cannot say what we long to hear most

But still I need to hear you speak my name

Oh, what a foolish pair we are

That we dance around a blazing truth

And let others seemingly steal our prize

Despite only needing to show our simple proof

Anger burns and we fall to charring pieces

And we miss the reality of our now shared life

They never sought us, we imagined it in them

And we torture ourselves with our own made strife

He hadn’t even the foggiest clue how he’d ended up here, but Nick would have recognized Allontray Park any day, at any time of day. It was a favorite of couples and mammals out for quiet scenic jogs, being located on the edge of Savannah near the bay. With paths lined by subtropical trees and hills topped by overlooks to the water and small mountains beyond, it was typically a peaceful and serene location.

It certainly wasn’t peaceful for him at the moment though. Something felt wrong; Nick imagined himself being grabbed by unseen hands, pulled down along the sidewalk ahead of him toward an unknown destination. The park was oddly empty, and the fox was perturbed by the lack of activity as if the place had been forcefully cleared out by some antagonistic entity. At the very least, there was one mammal he somehow knew should have been there, was certain should have been walking by his side, because she was never far from him.

“Judy!” he called out, padding slowly along and unable to stop and gain his bearings. His ears perked high, straining for some reassurance that he wasn’t totally alone here, but no answer came. A sense of urgency took over the pull he’d been feeling and drove him forward, and he picked up his pace, nearly jogging down the path. The sidewalk curved, rounding a particularly thick stand of trees before it opened up to one of the overlooks facing the south end of the bay. From here, one could see the Tri-Burrow train rail in the distance cutting off into the foothills toward the hills beyond.

The view, however, wasn’t what made Nick stop dead in his tracks. No, ahead of him was something else he could not possibly overlook.

She stood there, backlit by the moon hanging in the sky above and wearing a reflective silvery white, slim shoulder-strap dress as she faced away from him. Though he approached, none too silently either for he didn’t have any reason he could think not to mask his presence, she did not react at all to his presence, only staring ever forward.

“Judy?” Nick called again, but the rabbit didn’t answer, didn’t even twitch an ear to signal she’d heard him. The tod reached forward to place a hand on her shoulder, to try and wake her from whatever odd trance Judy stood in, only to reel back when he passed straight through her like she wasn’t even there.

Or like I’m not really here, Nick’s mind whispered in terror.

“Judy!” he yelled again, scrambling around her so that he could at least see her face. That was when he realized that it wasn’t in fact only the two of them on that overlook. Judy was staring, not at him, but at the other rabbit that knelt before her, holding her hand and looking at her with an adoring yet disturbingly hungry gaze. He was light gray, with a trio of black stripes on each cheek that joined along the back of his head and a double band of black stripes on each of his ears.

Nick felt as if someone had punched him in the gut, and he gasped for air as he stumbled back at the sight.

“Jack?!” he cried, feeling betrayal and fury rising up like bile in his throat. Jack ignored him though just as Judy had earlier, standing up and joining the female in a long, passionate kiss, one that spread their hands apart as they leaned close and displayed the intricate golden band that flashed prominently from Judy’s finger, practically blinding Nick in its message.

The fox could only stand there, wanting to throw up but unable to move a muscle as the two separated again and shared adoring smiles with each other. Then, Judy vanished, along with the park and everything around them, and Nick was left staring at Jack across a blank black and brown void. The reynard snarled and clenched his fists, the first time he felt like he was doing what he wanted of his own accord, but Jack moved first and faster, landing a kick into Nick’s stomach hard enough to make him see stars and lay him out on his back, gagging.

“You think she would actually ever love you?” Jack sneered, advancing on him and kicking him again before he had even the notion of trying to recover. “A fox? The mammal who turned his back on her when she needed you? A former con mammal, a criminal? Pathetic. Of course she fell for me.”

“No! Judy! I”-

Nick sat bolt upright, panting hard as his palms dripped with sweat, and in a panic he whipped his head around to get his bearings. When he recognized the reflected-sunlit guest room he and Judy had been borrowing in the Caniston house instead of that distant park or some undefinable space, he began to relax, letting out a weary breath and falling back against his pillow. A chuckling, half-choked sob escaped his throat, and he closed his eyes and dragged one paw down his muzzle.

“Just a dream,” he said shakily, smiling faintly to himself. “Okay, a nightmare, but still just a bad dream. We’re good.”

Shaking his head, he propped himself partway up again and glanced over at the mattress that Judy had been using, suddenly coming to the realization that said rabbit had not also bolted out of bed to see what was wrong when he’d screamed her name a moment ago. Both of them were more than happy that they could catch sleep again in their own separate beds, unknowingly for the same reason, but it was more than close enough that either one would know if something was troubling the other.

It was empty.

Nick blinked, feeling his heart start racing again as he stared at the perfectly made bed with a distinct lack of sleeping lapine. For another few seconds his mind flashed to his dream again and all the worst-case scenarios that he could possibly conjure up, before he clamped down on his mental stream and forced himself to be calm. Driving himself into a panic never helped, he knew that from experience. Of course the bed was going to be empty; the first couple of days had been exceptions to Judy’s early-riser policy, and there was no requirement for her to wake him up with her now, so why not let him sleep while she kept herself busy?

What is she keeping herself busy doing without me though? Nick wondered, before snarling at himself. Quit being a kit, Nick! What does it matter? It’s not like she’s some adolescent who needs you to hold her paw, and she’s not committed to you, or ever will be; she’s an adult and can do as she pleases, right?

Not like that line of thinking actually made him feel any better though. Rather, it caused the reynard to feel queasy all over again and somewhat forgotten by his partner, and the sensation was refusing to leave now. It didn’t help that he knew this was the last thing he should have been thinking about in the current situation too; make sure that they were all safe, then fret about feelings, that was the order that his priorities should have been in.

Nevertheless, Nick soon found his way out of bed and marched over to the closet, picking out one of the sets of clothes Jack and Skye had brought over from his and Judy’s apartment and getting dressed before heading out of the room to find where everyone was. There were two options at nine in the morning, but they were on opposing levels of the house. Scowling, Nick decided to try heading up to the kitchen first. If they weren’t there, then at least he could grab something to eat before heading down to the training room. If he could eat, with how his stomach felt.

“Your ears are going to be a main target if they know anything about how rabbits work; guard them, make sure you know exactly where they are relative to your stance and theirs at all times.”

Judy nodded, dropping into a defensive crouch with her ears folded back as she watched Jack. In her hand was yet another weapon she’d never used before, but apparently as one of the other lapin’s favorites: a karambit. With her tendency to end up in close combat with opponents they had mutually decided that practice with hand-held, small weapons would be best suited to her style, and since all the other possible trainers were larger and built very differently from her, Jack was increasingly ending up as her sparring partner in these close-range practices. He knew how she would think and instinctively act best out of everyone, and gave the most useful advice therein.

Case in point, as she readied for practice moves Jack immediately began correcting her stance to better her natural strengths and guard her weaknesses.

“Lift your arms up higher,” he instructed, gesturing with his hands. “You want your face, neck, and abdomen guarded; if you are fighting against someone else proficient with blades you will not come out of the fight unscathed; the winner will be injured, the loser dead. It’s far better to gain those injuries on your arms or legs than near vital organs.”

He stepped forward, and gently grabbed Judy’s left arm, dropping and curving it to cross her trunk before lifting her right up to hold the knife in that hand in front of her face, the blade arcing outward and in a position to catch or deflect attacks and deliver her own. The male stepped back then and nodded, looking her over, and Judy tried not to wince at the expression; if it weren’t training, and it wasn’t the ever dead serious Jack Savage being the one scrutinizing her, she would have likely chewed out or punched the poor buck that gazed at her like that.

Nevertheless, she did flinch slightly when he stepped forward again, pushing on her left shoulder and hip.

“Step back slightly, on your toes and ready to push off at a moment’s notice,” he instructed, ignoring the reaction. “Never be flat-footed and keep in a reactive stance.” He pursed his lips, and out of the corner of her eye Judy noticed the door to the sparring room open. They weren’t alone anymore, but she couldn’t make out who it was at the angle she stood. Not that she could focus on that though; Jack continued speaking a moment later as he tilted her chin up slightly.

“Careful not to stay too tense,” he said coolly. “It’ll slow your reaction time. Don’t be too loose however either, but do not let yourself lock up. That’s a certain way to lose your fight.”

“Am I interrupting something private here?” came the sing-song tone of Nick’s voice, causing Judy to jerk out of her stance as she stood bolt upright and turned to locate him leaning against the wall. Unconsciously, she shuffled ever so slightly away from Jack too, something neither male missed. Nick’s expression was teasing, but even Judy could read that there was a tinge of discomfort in his eyes as he looked between her and Jack; from what she could not say, not that it mattered too much at the moment she decided. The words that had preceded his speaking up weren’t the best to hear out of context.

“Nick! You’re awake!” she exclaimed, to which the fox snorted.

“How observant; since when do you not wake me up when you decide it’s time to start the day?”

Though it was nonchalantly expressed, Judy caught an almost accusative undertone to the words that she wasn’t expecting, and it set her on edge.

“Wow, Slick, wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?” she quipped. “I know you like to sleep in, and Embron made it rather clear that we don’t have a strict schedule while we’re here, so I thought I’d be nice and let you sleep since this training’s been harder on you. But excuse me for being altruistic; was I wrong to do so?”

Nick’s expression suddenly turned uncomfortable and embarrassed, and though he tried to hide it both rabbits saw his tail twitching anxiously. He hadn’t realized he was letting his irritation leak out into his words, and in talking to his partner of all mammals.

“N-no, sorry, I didn’t mean it that way I swear,” he said, holding up his paws. “It’s just…well, first time I’ve woken up in over a year without either some sort of Carrots-required alarm or you being the alarm. Threw me off a bit, and with all that’s happened I had a moment.”

“Oh,” Judy realized, shoulders slumping. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”

“But you are interrupting Ms. Hopps’ training,” Jack interjected. “We have work to do still; I’m sure Embron and Skye are waiting for you to make your presence known so you can start as well, so it would be wise to find them.”

The tension in Nick’s stance returned in double, and it seeped into the air between them. “Oh, did I burst your bubble there Stripes?” he trilled. “Sorry, didn’t realize it was a crime to check up on where my partner disappeared to before starting my sessions. No schedules, no harm.”

“And I might take that up with Embron; no structure at all is not the best way to go about this. And prolonging your learning will keep you here longer and leave you at a higher level of risk should you have to leave for any reason before we determine you are ready.”

“Look, Tiger Bunny, we’re learning a lot. I’m sure we’d be able to hold our own at this point at least long enough to call in backup or find an escape. Is it so hard to slow down a little every now and then?”

“If you think you’re proficient enough, Wilde, then show me you can hold up,” Jack ordered stoically, turning fully to face the fox with a stone gaze and stepping away from Judy with his paws clasped behind his back. Nick quirked an eyebrow, and his scowl broke for only a moment as he registered the words.

“Pardon?”

“If you think that what you have learned thus hence is enough to slow down now, then show me,” Jack repeated. “Grab any weapon you like, or just your bare paws, and try to keep me from being able to take you down or injuring you.”

Inside, all of Nick’s confidence in his claim, which had been riding on his bad mood from the morning, evaporated at the look those icy blue eyes were giving him, but his ego and stubborn will pooled into the memory of his dream from earlier and developed other plans.

Squaring his shoulders (so much as he could with how they sloped), the tod set his jaw and put up his fists in a defensive stance. He’d been in paw to paw combat with Embron more than anything else and thought he’d been doing well, so that’s what he went with. Jack looked him over with the same outwardly emotionless stare that he’d been wearing since Nick had walked into the room, before nodding once.

“Very well,” the lapin said, taking two steps forward but not changing his stance otherwise. “This is what you choose?”

“Yes,” came Nick’s flat reply, followed by a groan from Judy, who had been watching this boil up from the sidelines.

“Oh come on guys,” she admonished, “is this really necessary?”

“Yes,” was their simultaneous reply, and she could only face-palm. Nick spared her a quick glance, and had just enough time to question himself again whether this was over the top or not before Jack moved.

The lapin darted forward, arms swinging up as he pivoted on one foot. Nick moved to block a strike and punch past his arms to land a blow, but Jack moved faster than he could track, grabbing onto his arms and using them as leverage to swing himself forward, delivering a heavy kick to the fox’s gut before dropping back and spinning to sweep Nick’s legs out from under him.

Nick yelped in a strangled gasp (he had no air, and had been desperately trying to suck back in what had been forcefully expelled from his lungs at the same time) and pitched forward, where Jack was waiting. The rabbit grabbed his shoulders and flipped him as he fell so that he landed hard on his back, winding him even further than the tod already had been. Then Jack planted a single foot directly on Nick’s chest, his arm still at the ready just in case Nick had had it in him to keep trying at that moment.

“Less than two seconds,” he said coldly. “I can still bring you to the ground in under two seconds; this is exactly why I said you are not ready yet, and why training to your absolute limits is a must. Any Primalist will not go any easier on you, and mammals like Saber will give you even less leeway where they can.”

Nick didn’t have any words at that moment (not that he could have said anything while still sounding like a beached whale from his winding), so he only offered the rabbit looming over him a silent, bare-toothed snarl.

At this, Judy could not take standing aside any more and huffed furiously, stalking forward with heavy intent to shove Jack off if he didn’t move and reprimanding Nick in the same sweep as well.

“Alright, both of you, that’s enough!” she yelled, earning a visible flinch from both the males under her gaze at the glare she leveled. “What are you two, kits? Move, Jack.”

The buck acquiesced, stepping away and letting Judy help Nick to his feet. Then, she cuffed the fox on the ear.

“Ow! Hey!”

“You’re both being ridiculous,” she reprimanded. “So Nick interrupted, not the end of the world. Five minutes is not that much of a setback, but this is! And Nick, what on earth?! Grow up and let Jack do his job, okay?”

The fox’s ears fell even further back than they had been sagging already, and though he didn’t show it Jack was fighting to prevent his from doing the same. The fuming female was right, they were both being irrational.

“My apologies Ms. Hopps,” he said quietly. “Perhaps it would be wisest for all of us to take a break for a short while. I uh, I’ll go find Embron for now, I have something I need to discuss with him anyway.” He gave a short nod, and walked briskly out of the room, ushering away a confused Skye that just so happened to have the poor luck to show up right then and leaving behind two mammals perplexed at his sudden change in demeanor.

Judy sighed, deciding it was for the better, and looked tiredly at Nick. “We talked about this not even a week ago,” she breathed wearily. “Nick, this isn’t like you at all; unhappy about sleeping in, getting snappy over little nothings, I mean cheese and crackers you’ve gone from sarcastic to downright abrasive! What is it that’s getting under your fur so badly, huh?”

For a moment Nick felt an overwhelming urge to just blurt it all out; his dream, his concerns about her, his emotional state whenever she was within 50 feet of him. But he checked himself just in time. He’d already decided that he couldn’t possibly tell Judy, not without risking having her around at all. He wouldn’t lose her friendship, not over something like that.

“It…it’s nothing Carrots, really,” he waved off, leaning against the wall again and looking away. “This training, getting used to basically a whole new reality, Savage is a stick in the mud…it’s all just a lot I guess.”

“Yeah, it’s a lot, but I’ve seen you shrug off a whole lot more before,” Judy pressed. “There’s something else going on. You know you can talk to me.”

Not about this, Nick thought morosely. He shook his head. “There’s nothing to talk about really, save for the fact that I think you two are getting a little too touchy but I assume that’s just how rabbits are, fine with close contact all the time.”

“Excuse me?” Judy exclaimed, cutting him off from saying more. “Uh, no, that’s not it at all; yeah, rabbits are naturally close mammals but I still like my personal space. But even some of the training at the Academy kind of felt violating so I think it just needs to be shrugged off and dealt with; you can’t learn sometimes without really close corrections. It’s not like he’s going to kiss me the next session; I know you notice his apparent lack of emotional expressions, not sure if he could even feel such a thing if I’m honest.”

The image of Jack kissing her in his dream crawled up Nick’s spine in a cold shiver, but he forced himself to shrug it off and latch onto Judy’s attempt at lightening the mood.

“Yeah, look,” he said, “I just think I’ve finally found someone who really rubs me the wrong way. Should use him as a scrubby; he’s nothing but rough edges after all.”

Despite her wanting not to, Judy couldn’t help but let out a snort of laughter. “That’s not nice Nick.”

“Fine,” the fox grinned, “a substitute for sandpaper then.”

Now she fell full on into giggles, and gave Nick a soft punch to the shoulder. “Shame on you,” she admonished, “but that’s certainly more like the Slick Nick I know. Come on, you do need practice and I want to keep training, so since you scared Jack off and he took Skye with him you can be my sparring partner until they get back.”

Nick groaned, though inside the thought did make him feel a little better. He hadn’t actually sparred with his partner in over a month now, and the past few days they had barely trained together at all.

“You’ve got an unfair advantage over there Fluff,” he jokingly complained, putting his fists up again despite it. “You’ve got a shiny little weapon still in reach and your cuteness disarms all opponents.”

“Hey, no more of the C word here, or I’ll use that shiny little weapon,” Judy huffed. “You’ve got a silver tongue and one of these days it’s gonna be forcefully cashed in. Now put ‘em up or I’ll just pummel you on principle.”

“You did what?”

Neither Embron nor Skye were happy when they heard Jack’s explanation for why he wasn’t down training Judy at the present moment. They’d both been more than curious, Skye from the moment she’d been ushered away from the sparring room and Embron from when he saw her confused expression as they’d walked into the boid room to find him, and it only took a little pressing for Jack to spill his mistake.

“I pushed it, and I will admit that I was wrong in doing so, even if I am somewhat irritated that we could have continued the session without the interruption,” he said, shrugging. “Wilde is not in the greatest of moods today, and his jealousy, or envy, maybe both, was coming out more than usual and I reacted before I had thought out thoroughly what that would do. But, you both know that if Wilde is not dealt with concerning this then it could become a serious problem soon.”

“So why not just tell Nick, when you catch him on his own, that you have no interest in Judy?” Skye wondered. “Address the problem then, and if he hasn’t said anything to her it won’t be awkward revealing it to her then via third party if you’re alone, and you alieve his obvious worry.”

“Nuh uh, no good,” Embron disagreed, putting the snake he was holding back into its tank before turning fully to them. “If he doesn’t realize it himself yet, and that is still a possibility, then trying to tell him he can stop worrying about you stealing Judy’s heart will just make him close off and become even more bitter, less likely to admit what he’s feeling, and a whole lot more defensive about anything related to it. If he does know, he’s also not going to believe the object of his jealousy until he has solid proof. So long as you don’t display some sort of other romantic interest in someone else or stop working with Judy –not an option, we all know- he’s going to be abrasive around you.”

“So can you broach the subject with him somehow then?” Skye asked. “You or Scarlet? You guys are good about reading people and their emotions; you talk to him.”

The coyote stared at her for several moments, before letting out a sigh and dragging a paw down his snout. “Alright, fine,” he relented. “If I get the opportunity to speak with Nick in private, I’ll find out where he stands on the matter and then if I can get an admission I’ll see where I can go from there. But I cannot promise anything until the two of them figure each other out; anything is guesswork until then and matters of the heart are the absolute worst to dabble in.”

He turned around again and moved over to a new cage, popping the lid and pulling out a young spotted python before setting it around his neck and starting the process of cleaning out the cage. The scent of the mess reached Skye’s nose and she flinched, wrinkling her snout as she leaned away.

“How do you stand that?” she complained. “You have a better nose than I do!”

“I’ve learned not to breathe in while cleaning,” Embron said, “and after thirty-plus years some things just don’t bother you anymore. On a different subject though, have you two gotten any leads yet? Best defense is a good offense, and if we can drive them out or better yet arrest them, we can ensure Hopps and Wilde’s safety for at least a little while longer.”

“They keep off most main communications networks and channels,” Jack groused, “so we can’t track any conversations. That one net leak that told us they were in Zootopia was a lucky break, but we’ve had nothing since. The city Precincts have also reported nothing out of the ordinary; no eagle sightings, no Moschus, and since we don’t know who else is all involved we cannot send out other search alerts for anyone.”

“So we’re stuck waiting for them to make a move then,” Embron growled, throwing the old bedding away and filling the tank with new substrate. Once satisfied with the layout, he gently picked the python up off his neck and set it back down in its home. “The concern is whether or not, then, they’ll attempt to wait us out, or set up a lure to draw the two officers out. Have you figured out if they could pull any leverage on either of them?”

“Only perhaps if they manage to get ahold of one of their friends for a ransom trade,” Skye mused. “Of course, that would break their code for not drawing huge amounts of attention to them, since a kidnapping, especially of anyone connected to those two, would hit the police force and media like a bag of bricks through a window. More likely is they have eyes about that can report in to the main group somehow. If we can just pin down already how they communicate and get around, that would be immensely helpful.”

“Bogo provide any ideas in your last talk?”

“He still hates me too much to readily offer help to us,” Jack sighed. He crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. “One bad run years ago, he still holds a grudge.”

“Well, to be fair to him you did almost get one of his officers killed in that sting while you were there,” Embron admonished. “We know you’ve learned, and changed, but fact is you haven’t been around Zootopia much and Bogo doesn’t know the same, so he can only run on his experience. The fact that you never drop that professional, ‘holier than thou’ persona does not help an inch either.”

“Forgive me for staying focused on my assignments.”

“Too focused; Skye told me how it was like pulling bad teeth to get you to actually enjoy that lunch break out in the city two days ago. You do need to loosen up, and doing so may help with your issues with Wilde too.” The coyote looked pointedly at him, and Jack in return ignored the stare, instead just glaring at an equally unapologetic Skye.

Embron knew that trying to get this through to Jack would probably take a life-threatening event though, so he didn’t try pressing the issue further right then. Instead, he looked at Skye, and frowned. “After what we just talked about you might look at me as though I’m daft, but I think you ought to head down and start training Wilde now; getting him used to the folding bows and handguns might be a good idea for today.”

“You’re right, I do think you’re daft,” Skye agreed, giving him a stink-eye. “Don’t you think waiting a few more minutes for that mess to cool down and leave their heads might be better? I thought we didn’t want to risk aggravating their ‘hidden emotions’ issues more.”

“It’s going to happen, we just want to avoid as much as is feasible. So for once, and I cannot believe I’m actually saying this, act like Jack if you’re that worried. But some pressure might be healthy. It’ll urge them to talk about it at some point because I know that neither of them can ignore forever that something’s going on. Besides, Wilde needs someone to teach him as fox-to-fox at some point, and while I pride myself on that side of me I’m still only 18% vulpine.”

Jack snorted. “You have to be specific, don’t you?”

“I’m a scientist with a thing for details, what do you expect?” Embron grinned back.

Skye sighed and turned for the door with a wave of her hand. “I guess you’re right,” she admitted, opening it and looking over her shoulder as she stepped through. “But I still blame you if anything blows up today.”

“Hey, we’re not going to touch on explosives yet, but you know I don’t make any promises.”

“Ha ha. You know what I mean, smartass.”

They were right; things did not stop simmering.

Nick found himself an hour later on the shooting range, practicing with flipping out the Caniston’s custom folding crossbow and getting it to actually fold out set and ready in one fluid motion so that he could fire without any bugs in the move. Thus far, his technique there had been decent but his aim had not been stellar, and Skye pushed off the wall and walked over to  him after the fifteenth time he’d successfully managed to whip out the bow into ready position, only to completely miss the target 25 yards down the range.

“Firing quick is all well and good, but only if you can also aim just as accurately and rapidly,” the vixen said, sliding her paw over Nick’s to nudge him into a better stance. She almost missed the flinch of his skin under the contact, subtle as it was as Nick tried to hide it, and how he leaned away slightly, and she bit back the urge to say some sort of sassy, flirty remark. Instead, she subtly rolled her eyes and tightened her grip, holding his paws in place as she pushed his left shoulder back with hers and her foot shoved his leg back to match.

“Line yourself up with your dominant hand; making sure your shot is in line is more important than being speedy. Doesn’t do any good to have a quick-pull trigger if you miss and the other guy comes in to kill you or knock you out while you’re reloading.”

“Two questions really quick,” Nick interjected, giving her a look. “One, why not just use a gun? Seems like that would be a lot easier option here.”

“You notice how much the bow weighs?” Skye asked.

Nick nodded. “Not much.”

“Exactly. Caniston signature, even this is lighter with the bolts it fires than your average pistol so folded up it’s easier to carry, and it’s a lot quieter than a gun so it’s a better option for getting the drop on someone when you’re trying to keep out of sight.”

“Fair enough. Okay, Question Two: ever heard of personal space?”

This time she couldn’t resist; sidling up even closer to the reynard, Skye batted her eyelashes and drawled, “What, do I make you uncomfortable Nick?”

“Nah,” Nick lied, swallowing tightly, “but people usually like boundaries and you’re breaking them here. Plus I think Carrots over there is getting envious of someone else being cuddly with my irresistible self.”

Skye bit back a grimace as she caught sight of Judy standing with Embron and Jack on the other side of the range, staring at her with a dangerous shadow of a scowl starting to deepen on her lips. That was exactly what she was wanting to avoid, and she swallowed before rolling her shoulders and attempting to step back a touch while looking nonchalant about it. “Relax, Red; I don’t have that kind of interest in you that way,” she tossed off. “I forget I can be a little strong sometimes when joking around, but that’s just me. So, you two are really close then?”

“Uh, best friends, but don’t read more into that,” Nick huffed, trying to focus on his aim again and not the female fox putting him off his game (or the fact that his ears were heating up at her insinuation).

“Of course, of course, all there is,” Skye drawled, shooting him a knowing grin. “Bunnies might be cuddly, but foxes aren’t most of the time. And, I don’t think you’re that kind of male normally in particular.”

“You learn to take things as they come with Judy,” Nick brushed off. “Is my stance okay here now? I thought it wouldn’t be that different from when I’m using a gun, but you seem to think otherwise.”

“My my, topic change,” Skye chuckled, but she leaned back and took in Nick’s positioning with a critical eye, letting the subject slide. “Better. Now, I heard that with bullets you’re one of the best shots on the force, so let’s get you to the same level with bows. Fire.”

Down the range, Judy was trying her hardest to focus on Jack’s lecturing about her own weapons stance (apparently how she tended to hold guns was part of the reason Nick just managed to surpass her in skill in this area; she had a suspicion that some amount of prior experience for him added in too though), but her gaze kept drifting toward where the snowy vixen kept stepping in a touch too close to her partner. It was burning her ears something fierce, and she wasn’t entirely sure why, but it kept her from clearing her mind and staying on track. For now, she chalked it up to some sort of odd protectiveness she’d developed for the tod; she’d seen how Nick reacted when he got hurt emotionally, caused it personally even, and didn’t want someone they had to work with to risk doing the same to him, even unintentionally.

Not that it was really her place to say anything though, right? But still, that nagging voice in her head told her to step in and stop this before it went anywhere, especially when Skye leaned against his chest and jokingly fluttered her eyelashes at him.

“Having your head somewhere other than the task at hand is a good way to end up dead or trussed up,” Jack’s voice cut into her distraction, and she jerked her gaze back to find him looking at her with a mildly condescending expression. “One has to learn how to trust their partners in all situations, no matter what the distraction at hand may be for them.”

“Does she have to be so touchy-feely though while she’s training Nick?” Judy asked before she could stop herself, gesturing to the two vulpines. Realizing it was the same argument Nick had had a problem with between her and Jack earlier that morning, but too late to take it back, she grit her teeth and shouldered on. “I thought a more professional interaction would be more applicable during training sessions; you’ve got no problem keeping yourself there overall.”

“Skye cannot fundamentally change who she is, Hopps,” Jack responded curtly. “Much as I might wish she would remain completely focused in these situations as well, she’s not unlike Wilde and will banter instinctively at times, ironically something that might actually help train your partner. She gets the job done as necessary, in a proficient manner, and cannot be faulted for her personality bleeding through on occasion.”

“Makes me wonder then if Nick’s right about you having no personality,” Judy mumbled under her breath, believing that he couldn’t pick it up but missing Embron’s subtle smirk at having caught the remark. The coyote softly nudged Jack with his paw, and the rabbit only sighed at both of them, focusing instead on the fact that Judy was again training her gun down the range, setting her stance with her right foot forward and her gaze lined up along the barrel of the weapon she clasped between both paws.

Jack bit back a sharper reprimand at seeing again that she was set too rigid and straight up, so he stepped forward and slid his paw over her right arm to try and get her to loosen up again. “Keeping steady is important, but as I said earlier if you are too rigid you’ll risk hurting yourself, especially with higher calibers,” he instructed, putting a slight bend into her elbows and them placing his other paw on her back to lean her forward. “Let your body weight compensate for the recoil. Your wrists will do most of it but this will keep you from falling back from rapid fire and get you to fall into the same position again so you can keep your accuracy in line.”

He was suddenly aware of Nick’s gaze on his interaction with Judy, but forced himself to stay focused. Clearly, there really was no avoiding irking the pair in some form or other. He stepped back finally though, nodded to Judy, and she opened fire, letting off five successive rounds before lowering her arms and clicking the safety on. Jack signaled to Skye to have her hold Nick off from firing, and pressed the button on the wall to draw the target back up to the head of the range. Judy’s grouping was decent for the distance, all five within the red central circle, but still spaced apart enough that Jack pursed his lips with some concern.

“Keep practicing,” he instructed. “You’re within center, but grouping could be better. Practice quick-drawing your weapon as well. Embron will keep an eye on you for a moment. Excuse me.”

Judy cocked an eyebrow, wondering where he was going, but shrugged and holstered the gun at her side before whipping it out again and racking the slide in practice. As Jack walked over toward Skye and Nick, he heard behind him a click, a frustrated huff, and Embron’s offhanded, “Don’t forget to reload,” and allowed himself a mild smirk at the mistake.

Before the lapin could say anything to Skye however, Nick acknowledged his presence and turned to him, face straight but a scowl hidden in his eyes. “You have a girlfriend, Jack?” he asked suddenly.

Jack paused, looked at him oddly, but managed to keep his face level otherwise. “My position makes maintaining a relationship difficult at best, dangerous to impossible at worst.”

“You’re good at skirting questions, I’ll give you that Stripes. Wanna give me a yes or no?”

“It’s not really your bus”- Skye began to interrupt, but she stopped at a sharp shake of Jack’s head.

“No, I do not,” he answered instead, “and I am not looking to gain one either.”

Nick nodded, though the spark in his eyes didn’t dim. “I see,” he muttered. “Well, in that case you’re getting awfully close with Carrots over there. That necessary?”

“I assure you, Wilde, I have no interest in your partner outside of professional training,” Jack replied flatly. “But words and mirroring sometimes get you only so far. I am sure you have noticed Skye, Scarlet, and Embron all doing the same with both you and Hopps as well so I do not understand why it must be brought up with me so often.”

“And I’ve made my opinion of how close is too close clear to Snowflake over here,” Nick quipped back, looking down the bow in his hands toward the target again. “Just making sure. But I will say this.” He cocked the bow and fired, sending a bolt straight through the dead center of his distant target, a feat he’d only barely managed to get close to before and drawing a surprised and impressed look from Skye. Then he turned back to Jack, and his scowl manifested fully, green eyes turning dark as a midnight forest even as they seemed to simultaneously glow.

“If you do anything to hurt Judy, for any reason, I do not care what rank or skill level you have,” the tod growled. “I’ll make sure however I can that you regret it for as long as you live. As much as she’s done for me, I’ll do everything in return to keep her safe.”

The intensity and severity with which the words were spoken actually made Jack take a single step back, uncertain if the look of nonplussed surprise actually crossed his face or not before he caught hold of himself again. Standing up straight and coolly narrowing his gaze to his usual strong outward demeanor, the rabbit only nodded once.

“Understood clearly, Wilde. I’m sure that means you will be fully committed to your training, and I doubt we will have any such issues.”

“Peachy,” Nick replied, turning away and staring at his target again without another word. He lowered his bow, folding it up and shouldering it, before as practiced earlier whipping it back out and up to functioning state and letting off another, perfectly aimed arrow.

Jack did not move, but his gaze did slide toward Skye who was staring at him as well. They shared a silent agreement, conveyed by looks rather than words.

It motivated him well, they affirmed, but to garner that harsh a reaction just from close training…they were entering dangerous waters with this dancing around that was going on. The cop duo needed to start figuring things out between them. Wilde knew, he definitely knew how he felt toward Judy, of that they had no question anymore, but he still believed it a mystery to everyone around him, and the stress of that was starting to break through in force.

Chapter Text

I can’t force you to admit the truth

Only ask you that you will

But hide what has been easy to see

And you’re only scaling a made-up hill

I’ve watched you fight a losing battle

I’ve seen you bury a freeing dream

And all that I can stand and wonder

Is how long before in that pain you scream

So I will hold to you my hand

I can give you an opportunity

But that struggle can’t end with my words

You’ll only relax when you can tell me

He stared at the phone, debating internally whether or not to postpone the call again or to simply suck it up and get the task over with. There were certainly plenty of excuses that he could use not to make it of course; blame and passing the buck were always easier than owning up or simply doing the job one had.

Despite all the precautions they had taken to keep the electronics they used fully off the main grid or untraceable, he knew from experience that the agencies after them had tech wizards that found ways to get into just about everything given enough time. Changing tactics, and tech, on a regular basis was what kept him ahead of them, and sometimes only barely. He also had absolutely no good news, when one looked at the grand scheme, to convey if he called. The rabbit agent had proven formidable enough to face even Saber on his own, let alone if he brought his partner out into the field alongside him, and their targets themselves weren’t laughable in their capabilities or drive either, despite only being beat cops. To top all of that off, all of them had quite suddenly seemingly vanished from the grid themselves, leaving him guessing at their whereabouts in the city likely as much as they his (or, more accurately, his compatriots; they didn’t know he existed yet). Time grew short, and that would mean the other parties working with him were going to start getting antsy. Unfortunately for him, not only did none of them actually have anyone with the qualifications to take the job on instead, but he also wouldn’t trust any of them on their own either if they did.

But, Ravelis and his finances were the ones paying to ensure this whole mission was taken care of, so for that reason alone he did have a right to know what was going on. Lotera knew the lizard technically called the shots at the moment since it was also his contacts providing the technological advantages and spy intel, but at least there wasn’t any threat of said support leaving either, no matter how long it took. Ravelis knew better than to think he could win a physical fight with the Thylacine under any circumstance, and Lotera had enough contacts of his own that he could ruin the Komodo politically, financially, and socially should the reptile pull out and Lotera so felt like something worse than death or dismemberment was an applicable punishment for leaving him high and dry.

With a sigh, and completely aware that the decision had already been made even before he’d really even sat down (all that thought was little more than stalling the inevitable), Lotera picked up the phone and dialed the number he’d now committed to memory. The line rang several times before someone picked up on the other end, and a familiar deep and gravelly voice answered with a growl.

“Do you have any idea what time it is here?”

“Somewhere approaching six in the morning I assume,” Lotera answered dryly. “But it’s also about four in the afternoon here; more likely that heavy digital traffic in the area will obscure the chance of the local AOMISDOPS agents picking up one rogue call on the off chance that it happens to cross their sphere of access as it bounces satellites, and it’s probably been a long day so they’ll be getting tired and a little addled to boot. If they do see it, fine, we’ll take care of the trace quickly, but if not then it’s far better for us.”

Another growl of reluctant assent answered before Ravelis spoke up again. “Fine, point taken. Do you have any decent news for me today?”

“More like a courtesy call to keep you updated I’m afraid,” Lotera admitted. “This capture is proving more difficult than I’d originally hoped.”

“How so?”

“The last pair we had before AOMISDOPS even had a bead on our activity. This time they sent out that pesky rabbit Jack Savage to help the Catalyst Pair. I had hoped that his reputation was built more off of political skill or mere undercover smarts, but he’s as trained in combat as Saber is. He earned that reputation that we dug up, and he’s not alone, with at least a partner and maybe a new team now that he knows Avery and Saber are in the area.”

“So you mean to tell me that the Moschus messed up again and gave himself away?”

“No; if you’re going to try and blame him, Ravelis, I strongly advise you to attempt field work yourself and ask if it is so easy as you seem to think it is. Avery would be just as guilty then, and she and Saber gave their best shot under the circumstances.”

A frustrated sigh rattled through the speaker. “If so, why do we not have the Catalysts in our possession yet?”

Lotera only avoided rolling his eyes because he knew the lizard wouldn’t see it. Instead, he gripped his armrest tightly and rolled his shoulders to substitute. “We underestimated the two themselves,” he deadpanned, slowly swiveling his chair around so that he gaze out the open door of the little room to the window in the hall beyond. “We knew that the rabbit was driven, both of them were top in their training, but apparently even the beat cops around here are above the average scale. The Catalyst foundation is also clearly well-established. They feed off of each other, and if you attack one you immediately deal with the ire of the other.”

“You weren’t expecting this? That’s what Catalysts do! You told me you would be the most prepared to deal with this, that it wouldn’t be a problem!”

“Even the best laid plans can fall to chance,” Lotera growled, “and I am the best. For how long they’ve known each other the bond is shockingly strong; no one could have predicted they’d be this close already, what with it only having been a year, but as soon as we locate them I will be handling this personally now.”

“Personally.” The wary skepticism could almost be tasted over the line. “You wouldn’t draw attention doing so I hope. And dare you tell me, what do you mean ‘locate them?’ You lost track of a celebrity pair of fox and rabbit?”

“They went off the grid like we are,” Lotera said flatly. “I honestly expected it to happen sooner than it did. But if we draw them out –those two can’t resist being in the thick of things even when their lives depend on it- or someone spots them eventually because at least half the city recognizes them and the local papers are finally noticing their absence now, it will be no effort at all to get them away from crowds and finish the job. I know our time is uncertain, but unfortunately not rushing things is also key now.”

“I do hope you’re correct,” Ravelis said. “If the rift closes who knows how long it would be before we located another in a suitable location, never mind we’d have to keep them alive until then, and AOMISDOPS is starting to wise up to our activities far more than I am comfortable with. If nothing else, I expect you to at least keep them off of our tails, understood?”

“That won’t be a problem. Scrap the burners and they’ll never be able to trace our connections further. I will let you know if we have another bout of progress on this front.”

“I sincerely expect that to be sooner rather than later. However, if worse comes to worse, are we at least secure on the secondary agenda?”

Lotera managed a small smile at that. “Indeed. Our new connection has been far more useful to us in gathering purified serum; perhaps we should have looked into options outside the company proper sooner. There will be more than enough.”

“Good. Now don’t let it be all we can rely on.”

The call clicked off, and Lotera finally let himself release a snarl as he dropped the phone on the desk. He stood up and turned to walk toward the door, but paused as he spotted the photos of the two agents he knew were now involved that he had pinned to the cork board on the wall.  A far more feral growl escaped his throat as he flashed his claws in the direction of the photos, and a series of burnt lines seared their way across them and the board.

Outburst over, the Thylacine composed himself and exited the room, turning left down the hallway toward a dual bedroom housing the other two main members of his covert task force. Avery and Saber were both still passed out from the flipped schedules they’d taken on most days, the bird with her head tucked under her wing and perched on a modified stool while the ungulate was splayed out across a more proper bed.

Lotera regarded the two of them with a tinge of disappointment, before pursing his mouth and letting out a loud, high-pitched whistle.

The two sleeping animals spasmed in sudden shock as they were rudely awakened, Avery gaping her mouth and flaring her wings wide defensively (and then wincing as the move strained her injured limb) and Saber rolling to his feet and pulling out a pistol, leveling it at Lotera. After a moment their minds caught up with the present reality, and they both relaxed but with sharp scowls etched on their faces.

“Lotera, ya rank gumwad!” Avery snapped, ruffling her feathers and rubbing her injured wing with the back of one foot. “The hell gives?”

“I called Ravelis,” Lotera answered, garnering rapt attention from both his acquaintances. “Needless to say, he’s not happy with our current progress.”

“Yeah, well, ol’ Grumpy Scales can go hack off,” the eagle grumbled. “Me wing’s still on the mend, Saber’s not exactly in fightin’ condition until his wounds patch up, and we can’t do squat until we actually figure out where the damn furballs disappeared to. We sure they’re even in the city still?”

“Certain enough,” Saber answered, having settled with a wince on the edge of the bed again and close enough to the side table nearby to flip open a laptop. “I ain’t as good as Chrysella, but I did manage to at least catch a tidbit from their Precinct: the Chief told his officers that Hopps and Wilde were taking a local leave of absence for ‘the case’ and training, so they’re in the area. No having to track them to another city just yet.” He looked over at the Thylacine, scrutinizing him. “The lizard say anything else of importance?”

“Not particularly, only concern over our next course of action.”

“And that would be?”

“One way or another, we need to draw out the agents and/or our targets, so Avery, Saber, at least one of you two needs to cause a sighting of yourselves near a location of convenience for us. I will be taking care of either capture or the elimination of the threat as applies myself this time.”

Both the bird’s and musk deer’s heads snapped to him, gazes pensive at the notion.

“Guessin’ that was why he was concerned,” Avery mused. “You mess up and it might end up all over the news, or at least conspiracy tabloids.”

“I’m already in a handful of those; no one of influence reads them anyway. And, so I don’t intend to mess up,” Lotera answered. “I know the rules; no witnesses, no tracing, preferably in and out. I wrote the rules after all.”

“Then I guess it’s time to get cracking,” Saber sighed, standing up again and starting to change out of his comfort clothes and into something halfway between civilian and outlaw. “You have any ideas where to set up this ambush?”

“Actually,” Lotera grinned, “I do. And better yet, it’s not much of a trek.”

Judy wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting when she walked through the door of the sparring room the next morning, but it certainly wasn’t a red-tinged gold and black blur hurtling at her from immediately on the other side of the frame. The training she had both from the police force and the last few days simultaneously kicked in though and she dropped to a defensive stance, ears folding down along her back and her paws coming up to block or grab as needed.

The blur reached her, fists out to knock the rabbit out, and Judy ducked down and forward to roll her opponent over her as she darted behind them. Scarlet rolled as she hit the ground in turn, spinning and coming up with her tail whipping out behind her for balance, and she grinned madly at Judy.

“Nice!” she complimented. “Good dodge. Now, survive.”

Judy didn’t even get the chance to suck in a proper breath before the ocelot was after her again, this time with claws out and slashing. The rabbit knew she couldn’t afford a hit, as Scarlet out of necessity kept her claws razor sharp, so she focused on dodging the attacks and getting herself closer to the center of the room so that she wasn’t cornered.

Scarlet represented, though not a fatal threat of course, the worst of the antagonists the lapine risked encountering, being fast, unpredictable, and wickedly knowledgeable in weaponry. If Judy could get a leg up on her at Scarlet’s best, then she’d be golden. She’d gotten at least a cursory idea of the ocelot’s repertoire today already (knives along her legs, her belt filled with pouches of Shuriken and darts, though  Judy had no clue if they were real or practice this time), and a plan was starting to form, but it was risky and going to require a perfect execution with split second timing, something the cat was better at. It was also going to need a touch of the sort of sleight of hand that Nick was so much more skilled at than her.

They circled each other, calculating and observing, and Judy carefully kept her gaze fixed on Scarlet’s face now, not wanting to give anything away. Scarlet shifted on her feet, and the rabbit tensed and rolled just as she came bounding across the room, Scarlet landing in a deadly pirouette right where Judy had just been a second before and lashing out with her foot. Judy brought up one arm to slam into the outstretched limb, wincing at the impact but destabilizing Scarlet from being able to continue her spin, and the cat compensated by dropping her foot and cartwheeling toward her.

Judy yelped and dropped flat, rolling again as Scarlet’s fist came down, but Scarlet still managed to catch her left ear and draw a second yelp, this one of pain.

“Don’t forget your ears!” Scarlet reprimanded, standing upright again and speaking as she moved. “Remember what Jack taught you!”

Don’t worry, I haven’t, Judy thought, bunching up the muscles in her legs and shooting straight up when Scarlet pulled a dart from her belt and let loose. Then the lapine dropped back to the mat and dashed to the side as the cat charged again.

Ten minutes went by in this manner before Judy finally felt ready to enact her plan, and got her opening as well. Scarlet leapt at her, claws outstretched, and Judy fell flat on her back, letting the cat soar past her as she reached up toward Scarlet’s leg. Scarlet felt Judy’s fingers brush against her and kicked reactively, nailing not Judy’s arm but her head and sending the rabbit tumbling with a groan while she herself tucked and rolled to her feet.

Judy suddenly found her vision blurred and dotted with stars, and she shook her head to try and clear it as she stumbled to all fours. But, she felt her prize in her grip, and palmed it as carefully as she could to prevent Scarlet from noticing what she’d pilfered.

“Thanks, my head’s going to be throbbing all day now,” she groused, to which Scarlet only scoffed.

“We can fix that later; Saber ain’t gonna care to let you have a breather after braindusting you.” The cat dropped down, and Judy braced herself, forcing past the pain and preparing what she could feel was, to her, quite relievingly a practice weapon in her hand.

Scarlet shot forward like bullet, twisting and using her momentum to launch a fearsome kick in the rabbit’s direction, followed up by a punch in the same spin if the kick didn’t connect. Judy swerved to avoid the kick, but as the fist came flying in behind it she reached forward and grabbed the arm following to springboard herself up and toward Scarlet’s head, the surprise in her other paw coming out into play.

Scarlet ducked her head in order to try and avoid getting caught by a rabbit foot full on in the face or neck, but she only got a glimpse of Judy’s secret before she felt the cold plastic tip of a fake dagger slide across her jugular. She stumbled in surprise, and slowed to a halt as she turned to look at the rabbit rolling across the mat to her own feet, the little weapon out and ready in her hand as she breathed hard.

“I think that would be a win for me this time, right?” Judy grinned, tossing the knife up in the air and catching it again.

Scarlet swallowed back the moment of startlement before letting out a disbelieving chuckle and sitting cross-legged on the mat. “You sure you don’t have a gift yourself?” she laughed. “Unarmed and against a trained feline and you managed to snag my dagger and slash me on the neck. I might just have to start using my gifts to keep ahead of you; haven’t seen this since I first worked with Savage.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment then,” Judy replied airily, before eyeing Scarlet on the mat with skepticism. “Is this some new tactic I don’t know about or are you telling me we’re actually done here?”

“Oh, neither,” Scarlet said, gesturing for her to sit on the mat in front of her. “For now, we’re breaking from training, but I do have a couple questions for you. If you would take a seat please?”

Judy did, slowly, crossing her legs and looking up at the feline with curiosity. “Alright, fire away I guess. Oh, before you do though, where’s Nick by the way? I haven’t seen him since we got up this morning and that was a good hour ago.”

“Oh, Embron’s got him busy upstairs learning about poisons,” Scarlet answered. “Always good to cover bases, and that’s actually why we’re talking now because I need to ask you alone about this.”

“That doesn’t sound reassuring.”

“Oh no, no, it’s not…okay, so I won’t lie, parts could be uncomfortable, but it needs to get done. My first question off, why are you so prickly around Skye? Something happen we don’t know about?”

Judy paused, wincing internally at the fact that someone had noticed. Granted, she wasn’t like Nick whom could usually hide everything he was feeling behind a cocky grin and a bad joke, but she had hoped she was covering those reactions a little better. After all…

“I honestly don’t have a clue,” Judy blurted, spreading her hands and sighing sadly. “She’s not too unlike Nick, so I would have thought that she’d be the kind of mammal I would get along with, but something about her just puts me off.”

“Maybe you expected her to act more professionally, like Jack?” Scarlet offered. “Sure, she can be, but we are trying to be a little more informal here because in our experience it helps, and in that case uptight just isn’t who she is.”

“Yeah, no, I get that,” Judy dismissed. “It’s just…” She bit her lip as she tried to find the right words, gesturing randomly as if that would help. Eventually she gave up and sighed. “Maybe it’s the type of unprofessionalism she gives off. I mean, it looks like she’s flirting with Nick half the time and, uh, while I’m kind of used to that behavior from him it’s weird seeing it coming from someone else, especially when it’s thrown toward Nick.”

“So you don’t like people flirting with your partner,” Scarlet said pointedly, leaning forward as her tail flicked.

Judy opened her mouth immediately to refute the idea of that being the core issue, before she realized the accuracy of the statement, and the certainty with which the cat had said it. “I…yeah, I guess so,” she admitted softly.

Scarlet nodded, and propped her chin up on one paw. “Do you know why you don’t feel comfortable with that notion?” she asked.

Judy could only shrug again. “N- I mean, he’s told me about his past, or at least parts of it, and how he’s gotten hurt by others time and again. I know that starting to like someone can leave you open to getting really hurt and…well, I don’t want to see Nick in a state like that again. If…I don’t know, if Skye led Nick on somehow and them told him off I’d probably flip my lid, because I want to protect him from experiencing that again.”

Scarlet silently regarded her for a moment, unreadable, before she closed her eyes and let out a long, low sigh. “Judy, you know that old saying ‘love is blind’?” she asked softly. When the rabbit nodded slightly, she continued. “Well, it goes beyond the fact that we can love someone regardless of how they look. It also means that those in love are often blind to the fact altogether, even when all the signs are there screaming in their face. You want to protect Nick, and there is no questioning that fact, especially knowing how you say you treat those you see as family or friends. But, it’s not just because you don’t want him getting hurt that’s making you hostile to Skye being herself right now, otherwise you would have probably said something to her. You’re worried that if something happens between them, anything at all, that it’ll hurt you.”

Judy cocked and eyebrow and stared at the cat for a minute, eyes lost. “I don’t follow.”

“Answer these questions for me, and do it honestly: could you imagine a life without Nick in it now?”

“Uh, no, I don’t think I could keep going as I am right now without him somewhere. He’s been a support I needed.”

“Okay, would it hurt if he said he was moving on to something new, like a position where he works away from you or a new job or location entirely?”

“It...y-yes, it would.”

“Would it hurt, Judy, if someone else suddenly became the most important mammal in his life?”

“I…” Judy paused, suddenly very uncomfortable answering. But it couldn’t be said she’d shy away from finishing what she promised she’d do, so she steeled herself and answered. “Well, probably, but I mean he could make decisions like that if he met the right someone,” she said, fidgeting in her spot. Though it was true, saying that out loud was biting at her more than she thought it should have been.

Scarlet didn’t miss this, and pointed at her. “There, Judy, is what I’m trying to get at,” she said. “You say he’s fine to make that decision, but you know, even if mostly unconsciously, that it would feel like a heartbreak, or a betrayal if it happened. There’s something that’s developed here, something that makes you feel like he’s the only mammal you can’t live okay without, and that’s why you get so hot in the ears whenever Skye is training him or even just talking with him.” She leaned forward again and fixed Judy with an imploring gaze. “You’re afraid you might lose him to her if he likes her, even if physically he’s still around. Do you know what that sort of reaction usually entails?”

A faint voice nagged at her in the back of her mind, but Judy fervently fought against hearing it, suddenly deciding that she didn’t want to continue this conversation. “Look, I’m not sure what you’re trying to get at Scarlet,” she quipped, standing up and shaking her head as she walked toward the door, “but I don’t see the point right now and I think we should put this line of questioning away before we”-

The door slammed shut in front of her, and she looked back open-mouthed at Scarlet holding her palm up to the door.

“That’s the problem, Judy,” Scarlet said softly. “If you just up and walk out without resolving this, it will only get worse and the animosity that’s building up between everyone could turn lethal if it blows up at the wrong time. Please, trust me when I say I’m not trying to hurt you; I’m trying to help you realize something that will come out eventually, and it could be painful if it happens later under the wrong circumstances or taken out of context.”

Judy glared at her before letting out her breath in a snort and leaning against the door. “Fine,” she spat. “What’s your little conspiracy theory on this then, so we can get this over with?”

“It’s not a theory if all the evidence is pointing to a straight fact,” Scarlet retorted, “and this isn’t the first time I’ve seen situations like this.” Waving her hand and then clasping both paws together, she fixed Judy with a meaningful stare. “You would do anything for Nick,” she said. “He means the world to you, even though you’ve only known him a year or so; you find comfort when he’s close by, especially if you’re in physical contact with him; you get sudden emotional charges if he says something or looks at you in a certain way; you find anger rising up whenever another female gets close in any way to him, especially, say, a fox. This is followed usually by the fear that he might look their way with a longing gaze, which makes your anger worse. You’re starting to find that certain images, settings, or scents remind you of him and immediately reassure you when you find them, and maybe, just maybe, when you think he’s not looking you suddenly find yourself having internal monologues about how handsome he looks to you. Correct me if I am wrong, Hopps, but does all of this happen to ring a bell?”

She wanted nothing more right then to deny it; she really did. The argument was there on her tongue, how Scarlet was picking out read-ins that weren’t there and couldn’t be, but her own mind and heart were waging war on her mouth and Judy found no words escaping as Scarlet stared at her with a gaze that was all too uncomfortably knowing. The whisper that had been hidden in the depths of her mind suddenly turned into a scream at the forefront, yelling at her about how she’d been so blind this whole time to a truth her heart had clearly known for months now, but her head had refused to accept.

Nick had always been important to her, almost from the day she’d met him, and she’d only been drawn ever closer since. The clues were there, in the end: the discomfort she’d felt while he had been away at the Academy, her suggestion rather than his about getting a shared apartment (betrayer that her subconscious mind was; it had never actually been about convenience, had it?), the glances she’d suddenly found herself giving him, that need that one night to be close to him in order to actually fall asleep and then the position they’d found themselves in the next morning…

Judy felt like someone had thrown a pallet of bricks at her, and she fought to drag in several deep breaths as she tried to process the revelation, her legs turning weak and making her rely on the door for support.

Scarlet seemed unphased by the reaction, only nodding as her expression softened and she held out a paw. “Looks like you finally answered that question,” she said gently. “Want to take a seat? Sudden emotional bombshells can be a bit of a tax on your legs.”

“Y-yeah,” Judy stammered, shakily taking the offered paw and sitting, almost collapsing really, next to the ocelot and looking up at her. “How can you be so sure though? I…what if this is just a phase, like a crush or something?”

Scarlet chuckled and shook her head. “Most mammals confuse actual love with lust,” she said. “Middle school crushes, superficial attractions and such; those aren’t love per se but everyone calls them such because real love is so much rarer. No, what you’re feeling has been developing for a while, and it runs a lot deeper. You don’t feel the urge for self-sacrifice for someone or a hole in your core should they leave if you view them as just another friend, even if a good one.”

The rabbit nodded, though unsure if she was following. But something else still nagged at her. “Why couldn’t I see it if it’s so obvious to you then?”

“Protection mechanism,” Scarlet said, patting her back with a paw. “You’re scared of this new thing, especially since I’m guessing you haven’t done much in the crushes and dating department before, right?” At the rabbit’s nod, she let out a soft chuckle. “Yeah, thought so, and believe me when I say it’s actually better that way. You’re not used to this, you don’t know if the mammal you like shares the same feelings, and if he doesn’t you’re scared of hearing that answer, not to mention some of the opinions others would have on a relationship like that. So, you unconsciously decided that it would be easier to deny it, just keep going on as friends. But,” she paused, and looked down, “I’ll let you in on a little secret: bottle it up and eventually you’ll just self-destruct, like any other strong emotion.”

“Yeah, I saw that with Nick and his hiding of things early on,” Judy admitted. “But…what if he doesn’t? Feel something more than friends for me, I mean. What do I do then? I can’t lose Nick in my life, one way or another, and if I tell him that I…I can’t even say it…that I like him beyond friends and he can’t see anything more than that, it’ll be too awkward to stand!”

“Oh, believe me, you won’t have to worry about that,” Scarlet chuckled, leaning back slightly.

Judy turned and looked at her with a skeptic’s eye. “Oh? And why not?”

“Why do you think he’s so hostile around Jack, especially with you nearby?” Scarlet asked, grinning as that realization started to sink in. “You’re feeling jealousy toward Skye; it’s the same on the other side of the coin.”

“He’s jealous? Really? That’s what’s setting him off like this?”

“Uh huh, though not sure yet if he knows it either. You two are both rather klutzy when it comes to emotions it seems, so no wonder you attract each other. But, uh, if and when you decide to tell him, I’ll give you a word of advice: don’t tell him that anyone else told you he loves you. That’ll be a touch demeaning for him, and this has to be worked out between you two alone now that you’ve finally admitted you’re feeling something more than base friendship for him, okay?”

Judy glanced at her with a troubled expression. “I don’t know if I can tell him,” she admitted. “I mean, so you think it’s mutual, but what if you’re wrong still despite everything you think you’re seeing? And even if it is, if we get closer won’t it just be even more dangerous for us with all that’s going on, and what if in the end we’re really not that compatible that way? I mean…”

The ocelot’s deadpan glare quieted her, and Judy knew she was just trying to dig up excuses to avoid the reality of the situation. She liked Nick, that was clearly becoming obvious to everyone, and with how much time they spent together if they really weren’t compatible with each other that would have also become painfully clear a lot sooner. They lived in the same apartment already for cracker’s sake! And, they were already being hunted; the situation wasn’t going to get any more dire than that if they took to something deeper between them.

It was also really, really unlikely that this was a fleeting desire; theirs was a relationship, a bond forged of stressful situations, forgiven wrongs, and sarcastic senses of humor (the most important component, of course), and the emotions that formed on top of that foundation were not just going to fade out one day.

“You’re right,” Judy finally sighed, looking up at Scarlet again. “Do…do you have any suggestions on how I’m supposed to, uh…sort this out then?”

“Every mammal is different, Judy,” Scarlet replied gently. “You’ll have to talk to him about it at some point, but it’s best if you wait for the right moment and I can’t tell you when that is. Right now though, you’re in an unfamiliar environment, way too much stress on the both of you whether you’re aware of it all or not, and that makes you more liable to try and find easy outs which is not a good option. Believe me, it’s gonna be tempting, since now that you know about this being around him might feel a fair amount more awkward, but it’s better that you let your heart tell you when it’s the right time. You’ll know too; if you’re uncertain about broaching it, don’t risk stumbling over this right then.”

“Okay; how about how to deal with being around him until I should say something then?” She gestured around, not quite sure how to put it. “Nick’s good at hiding stuff, but I’m not, and I trip over myself when bottling things up. Plus if there’s a task, you know me now well enough to know that I can’t stand putting it off for later.”

“You’re going to want to this time,” Scarlet admonished. “You don’t want to rush something like a matter of the heart, rabbit.” She shook her head and smiled wanly. “Just be yourself, focus on the banter you guys usually keep up and the case you have on hand. And don’t think too hard on it. Like I said, when the right chance comes along your heart will be very clear on the matter, a lot clearer than your mind will be.”

The ocelot stood up, and held out a paw to help Judy to her feet too. “Now come on,” she prodded, “I know this has probably left you feeling really off, so let’s get in some more training to burn that off. Got any decent experience yet with stars?”

“It really makes me wonder what you expect to happen when you show us stuff like this,” Nick said quizzically as he held up a vial of some sort of extract. “Also makes me wonder what all you’ve been through to have this kind of stuff around and know what it all does. What’s this again?”

“Skeletal neurotoxin,” Embron replied, holding out his paw to take the vial. “Shuts down signaling to your voluntary muscle groups, causes paralysis of the limbs and mouth and such but not fatality like a full body neural inhibitor. That particular form has a lasting time at the right dosage for whatever mammal is in question of about three hours too.”

“So this would be a literal showstopper then.”

“Only if you shot a performer with it.”

Nick couldn’t help but laugh at the image that came to him, even if Judy would throttle him for imagining one of her favorite singers suddenly flopping onstage in the middle of one of her concerts. “So,” he mused, “if I wanted some peace and quiet down at the Precinct I should just hit Clawhauser with some of that and it’ll keep him from raving about Gazelle for three hours? I’m totally sold.”

“Ha ha; try again.” The coyote shook his head and shot the fox a pointed glare. “Tempting as it might be, I’m not letting any poisons be used for anything outside of defense. And I’ll know if you swipe something too, so forget it.”

“That’s a genuine shock, honestly,” Nick remarked as he looked around the room at the almost haphazardly arranged racks with hundreds upon hundreds of vials in them. “It’d take me months just to figure the layout of this mess out, let alone notice one of these gone missing.”

“And I’ve got a worldly organizational tendency,” Embron explained, gesturing around the room as he walked through it to put the vial in his paw back in its place. “Looks like chaos, but I can find anything in a heartbeat, plus I have been building this collection for nearly as long as I have the specimens in the greenhouses. Ergo, I’ll notice any sudden open spots too.”

“Point taken. I swear I won’t steal anything from this room, Em.”

“Don’t call me that, please,” Embron shuddered, grimacing at the nickname. “If you’re gonna label me, what with your affinity for ‘Nick-names’ as it were, at least pick something decent or I won’t bother responding.”

“Well, Firefox doesn’t really fit once I’ve gotten to know you, so I guess I’ll just have to keep thinking it over.” Nick shrugged, and put on a faux innocent smile. “But I’ll find something worthwhile eventually I’m sure.”

“Somehow I still don’t like the sound of that promise.”

“Aw, you know it wouldn’t be the same without being annoying though.”

“Just like you all around!”

“Exactly. Ooh, got anything in here that makes you feel nothing at all?”

“Sure, anything that kills you.”

Nick frowned, turning his head to stare flatly at the coyote who’d just stolen his grin. “Okay, so I left myself open for that one,” he admitted, “but you know what I mean.”

Embron shrugged, and tapped his fingers over one of the racks. “Hey, you asked, I answered. But what you’re really asking kind of could fall into several categories; there are dendrotoxins, some of which knock out and paralyze you so you don’t feel anything, and there are true anesthetics, but you have to be very careful about dosages because if you use too much they will go from deadening nerve sensations to shutting down neural transmission altogether which can kill really quick. Working with toxins is one of the trickiest weapon skills to perfect, but it’s really effective in getting exactly what you need done when you know what you’re doing.”

He set down the rack in his hands and turned to Nick, expression changing slightly. “By the way, while we’re here and I’ve got you alone –don’t take that wrong, I can see your mind running already- I have another test that I need to give you.”

“A test?” the fox asked uncertainly. “Uh, don’t think it’s a great idea training in here, and I haven’t studied or anything.”

“Not a physical test,” Embron waved off. “A cognitive test, see how quickly you can answer questions while I give you a simultaneous physical task so that your mind is active on multiple different things at once.” He moved over to a counter, bare save for alphabetically labeled sections taped down on it, and pointed at a lineup of racks, each with the name of some sort of chemical on it. “I want you to order these by name in the appropriate alphabetical order, and while you do, I will be fielding questions of varying subject that you need to answer honestly and as quickly as you can.”

Nick looked at him skeptically “And why is this necessary?” he queried.

Embron huffed. “To understand your mental reaction time under duress, determine if cognitive training might be wise in case you’re ever in a situation that requires extreme levels of double focus, and see how well you multitask.”

“Right. Okay then, should be a breeze. Shoot.”

The coyote snorted, but nodded for Nick to begin setting up the arrangements before starting off his questions.

“What is the capital of Mammalia?”

“Wolvington, D. K.”

“What’s your mother’s name?”

“Vivian Wilde.”

“What is the largest mammal to live on this planet?”

Nick slowed on this one, and glanced at Embron for a second. “Uh…can I get a hint?”

Embron shook his head. “First answer that comes to you, and keep focused on the task too; this is a speed exercise after all as well.”

“Right. Uh, blue whale.”

“Correct, actually! What is thirty-nine divided by three?”

“Thirteen.”

“What is the complementary color to blue?”

“Orange.”

“What is the largest ocean?”

“Pacific.”

“Do you know how to do a handstand?”

“Sort of, but not very well.”

“How fast does light travel?”

“186,000 miles per second, give or take.”

“You’re driving down a city road at approximately 43 miles an hour. You need to make a turn coming up. What is the legal minimum distance at which you should activate your turn signal?”

“About 200 feet.”

“Correct. Do you love Judy Hopps?”

“Ye-wait, what?!”

A fair number of racks had been already sorted perfectly, but with that last question Nick’s eyes snapped wide open and he stumbled, nearly dropping the vials in his paw and only just barely managing to catch himself before they would have gone crashing to the floor. Setting them carefully down on the counter, he whirled toward Embron, who now wore a knowing smile that definitely hadn’t been present before.

“What kind of a question is that?” Nick snapped, suddenly feeling like the rug had been swept out from under his feet and thereby defensive as he realized he had undoubtedly just blurted out his newfound secret to someone who wouldn’t miss it.

“A personal inquiry of sorts, and a tool,” Embron stated simply, leaning against the counter he stood by. “Cognitive test is over, don’t think you have any issues with focus or multi-tasking overall, but you should work on avoiding being thrown by unexpected shockers. Thank you for being honest on that last one by the way.”

Nick grit his teeth and folded his ears back in irritation. “Look,” he said, holding up a paw, “I don’t know what exactly you think you heard or what you’re reading out of it, but”-

“But you love Judy,” Embron interjected, in a tone that spoke volumes of the certainty he had in his words. “Do you have any idea how obvious it gets when someone is lovesick but trying to hide it? I know you would have never admitted it if I just teased at the subject itself, so I had to prime you to talk without too much forethought on the answers just to get it out.”

“So you hustled me?”

“If you want to put it that way. It’s good you’re not trying to deny it at least, but I have to ask now Nick, since I’ll admit this is actually why I was trying to get you on your own: why are you so afraid of admitting the truth?”

He wanted to bite out that it wasn’t the truth, but he knew that would be the lie and the look in Embron’s eyes told him that he was being read better than even Judy could profile him at the moment. “Why should I tell a mammal who just duped me into giving my secrets away?” he snapped instead.

“Because I’m fairly certain that I know the answers already but I want to hear you say it, because you need to hear yourself say it,” the coyote said flatly. “Underhanded as it is, I am trying to help you here. It’s a dangerous game, bottling strong emotions up, and I’m sure you know that better than anyone here.”

Embron’s gaze had shifted again, away from the smug surety of a conman who’d won his hustle to that of sincerity and concern. Despite it all, Nick found himself realizing that his irritation wasn’t stemming from enmity toward the other canine. It was almost entirely pointed at himself, for several reasons. He closed his eyes in resignation, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Hhh, I don’t know how you manage to do this, look at me and read me better than even my partner can, but it’s getting almost disturbing,” he said. “Fine, you’re right, I love Judy. There, it’s out; I realized it only a few days ago in fact, the morning we arrived here. But, I can’t say anything to her; I can’t take that risk.”

“And why not?”

“Because that night we shared the same bed since Judy was feeling really bad from what we’d been through and neither of us could fall asleep alone, and come morning she’d ended up clinging to me and I’d embraced her in turn. She woke up as I was trying to extricate myself from the situation, and freaked out about it, so I kind of doubt this particular feeling is mutual.” He snorted and stared at the wall with a sneer. “The last thing that I am going to do is bring up a subject that would be sure to drive away the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, okay? It would be better if I was the only one who knew and the only one who suffered for it without pity from others. At least I can stick around her then.” He glanced down and away, having finished his rant and waiting for a response.

Embron regarded the reynard silently for several moments, before shifting closer and laying a paw on Nick’s shoulder as he put on a faint smile. “I pity you more that you don’t see the full picture than that you’re afraid of approaching something so life-changing as a true love interest,” he said, “and I say it’s true because this isn’t some superficial bodily attraction, that much is hard to miss. You two are both a lot closer to each other than you think, and…well, I wouldn’t be so sure that it’s as one-sided as you claim.”

“Really. And what brings you to that conclusion? Miss the part where I said she freaked out when we woke up embraced?”

“The fact that she gives you the exact same glances when she thinks no one’s looking that you give her, and that she acts as jealous about Skye sidling up to you as you do with Jack being anywhere near her are two good starts,” Embron pointed out, and Nick’s ears fell. “Only difference is that she’s managed to keep from being snappish about it for the most part, which I personally just attribute to her being female. You let it be seen, which for what I’ve heard and seen myself is kind of surprising for you two personality types. But I guess males are often more vocal about this kind of thing one way or another, so there’s that.”

He’d entertained the notion of that being the issue he had with Jack a time or two since he’d realized his emotional state around his partner, but having it stated so plainly to Nick stung him just a touch, especially since he could in no way refute the fact that it was indeed the mystery driving factor behind his animosity toward the buck.

“Can you blame us then?” he asked softly, swirling a claw absently on the counter as his demeanor changed again. “They’re a perfectly opposite pair to the two of us, and Jack…ugh, yeah, I guess it is jealousy since nothing else makes sense, because he’s exactly the kind of rabbit Judy would look up to, idolize even with his position in the justice system. Meanwhile, I’m…I’m just the fox that she pulled out of the gutters.”

“Okay, look,” Embron snapped, his tone growing dark at Nick’s self-deprecation, “let’s get a couple of things straight. First off, yes, Jack is the kind of rabbit Judy might admire at first glance, being he’s always been more or less on this path, but for one he’s almost double her age, news flash, and for two there is something so much more admirable about the mammal with a good enough heart to redeem himself when given the chance than the one that never had to have a change in his life. You are everything to her in case you haven’t noticed, and if you really haven’t seen that yet then while we go and get you a pair of glasses I’ll tell you about how maybe it’s a good thing you didn’t admit what you felt before someone had the chance to talk some sense into you.

“Secondly, both of the agents have no romantic interests in either of you whatsoever,” the coyote said flatly, ears folding down in deadpan. “Skye may be a flirt just because that’s who she is at times, but both of them are here to focus on training and protecting you two until we deal with the Primalists that are here. They don’t have any interest in relationships whatsoever actually –and believe me, I’ve tried to convince them that the job is not excuse enough and they haven’t listened yet- and if they did, let me also reassure you that Jack’s eyes would not be on the other rabbit in the house here. The animosity you’re not hiding at all has no founding and needs to be removed from this situation because it’s hurting everyone. Your life or theirs may at some soon point depend on full mutual trust, and that won’t exist if you’re constantly mentally undermining each other.”

The two canids stared at each other for a minute, Embron with an imploring gaze and Nick just trying to figure out what to say. On the off chance everything the coyote had said was true, then maybe, just maybe, there was a chance for him to get that weight off his chest at some point. Just a possibility that what he’d started dreaming of would be real, that little voice in his head said. But Nick had gone most of his life as a pessimist, and still saw himself as more a realist than anything, so he was going to recognize every possibility there was before settling on the most desirable, and play things as safe as he could.

“Say you have gotten the wrong read on the both of us though, just offhand,” he began, before holding up a paw as Embron moved to interject. “Yeah, so you seem to have figured me out at a glance, and I’m gonna be honest that with how long I’ve worked on trying to keep up a mask that kind of move both disturbs me and makes me a little disappointed in myself, but that’s beside the point. If you’re wrong about Judy feeling mutually as I do, and I come out and tell her that I love her, that could strain if not break the relationship we already have well beyond any safe limit, and I can’t lose her.”

“I think you’re underestimating her resilience again then, my friend,” Embron sighed. “Even if she didn’t love you in return that way, I think you’ll find that the care Judy has for you would drive her to try and hold onto you even if it were awkward or bordering on painful. Considering the part you played in the biggest struggle of her life, there’s no way she’d be able to stand losing you either. You’re family to her now, one way or another.”

“Yeah, okay, fine, but there’s still no way I’m just going to waltz down to the training room to find her just to blurt out that I’ve recently realized I’ve gone head over heels for her and couldn’t live without her,” the fox stated adamantly. “You want me to tell her so badly then I’ll think about it, but it will be on my own terms. This is kind of personal, after all.”

“No, I would insist on that,” Embron agreed. “My point here was to get you to let it out in the open to someone, because it was affecting everyone here that you were bottling it up and had you continued, such a mentally taxing secret would have made you break down eventually. Believe me, I know; I’ve seen it happen before. If we can cut down on the abrasive attitude that’s been building up here, that’s what I’m concerned with most; as for your admission to Judy and vice versa, that has to be on your terms. Gather the courage you need, find the right time –and listen to your heart on that, not your head which will muddle things- and don’t rush into it, and you’ll probably find exactly what you were hoping to uncover.”

Nick stood there, still looking ever more uncomfortable, before he sighed and glanced back at Embron again with a hint of his usual grin starting to reappear. “You know, I hated it enough when Judy would rip things out of me when I didn’t want them out. You’re a scientist, international agents’ ally, and secretly a superhero. You got a certificate for psychiatry hidden somewhere too?”

Embron laughed and ushered him out of the room. “Oh no, not my thing,” he dismissed. “Scarlet and I may be good about worming our way into people’s secret thoughts, but our services are for friends only. Come on, let’s go see if we can’t get some more practice in; I doubt you’ll remember anything more than I’ve already said about the chemicals in here today.”

“I probably won’t remember half of what you said so far anyway. Give me any more and I might spontaneously combust.”

“Har har. That’s my trick, don’t steal it.”

They turned the corner, and nearly ran straight into Jack who had been hurrying down the hall with his phone in hand and a more serious look on his face than usual. As the two smaller mammals stumbled back from the surprise close encounter, Embron kept from jumping out of his skin and only brushed down his shirt before cocking his head.

“Something wrong, Jack?” he asked.

“May be, or may be good news,” the striped lapin replied, a touch of adrenaline underlain by exhaustion in his voice. “Could I speak with you for a moment? Alone?”

Embron quirked an eyebrow and glanced at Nick, but the fox only shrugged it off and kept wandering down the hall.

“Take all the time you need,” he chirped back to them. “I’ll just help myself to something in the kitchen real quick and then head down to the training room. Sound good?” Not actually waiting for a response, he shot them a cocky grin and vanished around a corner down the hall in the direction of the stairs.

Jack watched him go, an eyebrow slowly rising on his forehead at the perkier attitude than the fox usually had around him, before shaking his head and focusing up at Embron. “Well, better perhaps than constant strife between us,” he mused. “I take it you talked finally?”

“We did,” Embron affirmed, “but that can wait and there’s not much I really need to tell you about it. What’s the news you’ve got that’s so important for my ears only? And if you’re concerned, yes he’s out of earshot.”

The rabbit snorted. “Weird that I rely on you more for acoustic surveillance than my own ears when you’re around. But, my team fielded a call from Precinct Six,” he said, holding up a blurry photo, “and forwarded this on from their cameras. This was time-stamped only three hours ago near the boundary of the Meadowlands and Alpine District, a small ungulate who’s definitely not from around here who’s also quite clearly in a hurry. We have a lead.”

Chapter Text

You think that you are ready

You think you can play the game

You say your mindset’s steady

That your strengths will keep your struggles tame

But know that there are always things

For which you cannot prepare

And where you stand when that brass bell rings

May leave you defenseless in the devil’s lair

Listen to the wisdom of those who’ve fought

Those who know their keep

For while you think you can survive the drop

Better to look before you leap

They both knew something had happened, but Nick and Judy could only stand to the side and watch with confusion as the Caniston siblings and the two agents rushed around the room, loading up their newly donned suits with a dozen different weapons each and checking radios and tracking systems for function. None of them had offered so much as a word to explain why they were in such a hurry now, and it was the fact that the two cops were clearly and very pointedly being left unawares that was now driving Judy crazy.

She had a pretty decent guess as to what had happened, too, but the rabbit feared that voicing her thoughts would end up leaving her with absolutely no chance to help with the situation at all, a notion she held equally strong issue with. Nick had no such qualms apparently, and decided halfway through the bustle to try and extract info in his own peculiar way: by bombarding the agents with annoying, probing questions.

“I thought superheroes always wore spandex outfits. What’s with all the satin and pleather?”

“Hilarious, Nick,” Scarlet huffed, sparing him only the shortest of glances before checking that her knives and stars were all secure and out of easy sight. “Try metal nanofiber and Kevlar; you want to go fight or keep from being noticed by every mammal on the street while wearing stretchy pants, have fun coming home as a shish kebab afterward.”

“So you are expecting a fight. Who you after?”

“Just checking a lead, Wilde,” Jack dismissed. “That’s not a guarantee that we’ll find anything, or anyone. We’re just ensuring proper preparation for the worst outcome.”

“Okay, so what was the lead then?” Nick pressed. “Come on, don’t keep all the goodies to yourself. At least Carrots and I could brainstorm on it while you’re gone.”

“Look, Wilde, we know what you’re trying to really get at here,” Embron snapped, tucking a radio headset into a pocket inside his duster and glaring at the fox in turn. “You two are cops, and you want to be out there investigating, I get it, especially since you started this case off. But if it was in fact Saber that the cameras caught a few hours ago –and that’s all I’m giving you- then you’re still not quite ready to be out and about around where he is and be considered experienced enough to be safe. Next time, perhaps, if this doesn’t pan out with any results which unfortunately is a really high possibility, but right now our greatest priority is making sure you two don’t disappear off the face of the earth thanks to them.”

“Ugh, would it be so bad if we stuck right by one of your sides the whole time at least?” Judy urged, giving up her hope for a silent opportunity now that Nick had blown that open. “I’m small, can dress covertly to keep attention off me, and I’m attentive and know what to look for in suspicious persons. Nick’s even better at it; knows how to work the city, great at taking on personas so he can act like someone else entirely, and”-

“Look, I don’t want to keep you guys from doing your job, or what you want, and I know all about what you’re capable of,” Embron sighed, holding out a paw to quiet Judy. “But, technically even by the rules governing the police procedures you two should be intimately familiar with, both of you ought to be kept as far away from this case as possible now. You are the sole targets of interest by this group, so that automatically ties in a conflict of interest and should have meant you were placed under special protection from the moment Avery took her first pot shot at you two.”

He paused, and leaned down so that he could speak to the two officers more at their eye level so it didn’t feel like he was just talking down to them. “That tidbit was overlooked most likely because at the time you two were also the ones pulling up the only leads related to this issue,” he explained. “That is no longer the case, and because you were also then targeted by Saber and due to the international status of this, we can place you under AOMISDOPS Protocol 2287 if it’s necessary.”

“And that would be?” Judy snipped hotly.

“The Protection Act for Threatened Mammals,” Skye answered. The vixen clipped on an almost fashionable but misleadingly innocent looking black utility belt around the hip of her equally dark blue outfit, before crossing her arms and regarding the other fox and rabbit duo. “It means that because you have been targeted by animals that are not citizens of this country and have operated outside it, and that they are prepared to use lethal force to reach you, our jurisdiction overshadows even Mammalian law and we have the right to detain you for your own safety in any manner we deem necessary, short of drugging you and locking you in the basement. We all would rather that you willingly cooperated with us, but we will take all precautionary steps as we deem fit to keep you secure.”

“So basically you’re putting us under house arrest,” Nick groused, expression and ears falling flat as he leaned against the counter next to the tracking devices the agents had only just recently debriefed them on. “Now, normally I’d be all well and good with just laying back and letting someone else pick up the slack here, deal with the mess that we’ve landed in. But I’ve got to say, I side with Fluff on this one. We might be their objective, but they don’t have home turf advantage and we’re not as concerned with bringing public attention to ourselves as they are, which could be a huge plus for us. These are also clearly the kinds of animals who know how to keep out of sight unless what they want is in reach, so without some sort of incentive for them to reveal themselves you’re gonna have a hell of a hard time tracking down their tails.”

“When we think that you’re ready to fight on their level, then we might discuss it,” Jack shot down. “But right now this is only reconnaissance, unless we catch a lucky break. Embron and Scarlet are both capable of surveillance tactics that no technology is even close to achieving, so they alone are our best bet anyway on finding those whom we’re looking for, and we don’t have a need thereby to risk placing you two in danger while following this. So for now, we will not take the chance.”

One last time, the buck checked the sidearm he wore on his belt before holstering it and moving with the other three toward the door. “We’ve already asked Hannah to keep an eye on you two and we should return before morning tomorrow,” he said, a touch of warning in his words. “You are encouraged to continue your weapons and sparring practice while we’re gone, or so brainstorm if need be, but I strongly implore you not to try leaving today.”

Judy wanted to argue again, but the quartet had already started to leave her and Nick behind, so they hurried to catch up with them. The whole group headed upstairs and toward the hall that led to the garage, Judy itching to find a way to get in another word but unable to pinpoint anywhere she could argue with a reliable counter. Savage and Wellinger had national and international law, even her own precious police code, on their side. All she had was a strong desire to not be left behind while others did the dirty work.

Her mood was soured further as Hannah joined them halfway along the walk, the sleek reptile sliding up and watching her and Nick with a careful eye and a silent warning not to try anything. Nick seemed silently resigned to their fate though, a displeased expression etched on his muzzle much like his partner but otherwise calm, nothing to suggest he was even trying to think of another way around this. Judy felt like this particular detail was bordering on irking her even more than just being left out of the mission too. He’d said he supported her, but here he stood, having given in just fine rather than try and debate which with his rather open dislike of Savage was even more shocking. Judy would have thought that Jack having had the final word earlier would have spurred the fox to spit out at least some sort of snarky remark afterward, but the tod remained silent.

At the door to the garage, Nick did reach forward however to grab Jack’s shoulder, halting the rabbit and shortly after the others as Jack turned to him with a flat, questioning look on his face.

“Since you’re barring us from leaving, can I make at least one small, teensy tiny request from you?” the tod asked sweetly, putting on his best puppy dog look and locking it onto Jack.

“What is it Wilde?” the buck asked skeptically, eyes narrowing.

Nick only upped his innocent smile a notch and folded his paws together as if preparing to beg. “On your way back,” he began, “is there any chance you could pick up one of those fresh wild berry pies they have at Village Den? I’ve been craving one like all week while we’ve been cooped up here.”

Jack couldn’t help but stare at Nick like the fox had lost another marble or three, while Judy face-palmed in exasperation at her partner’s antics. Scarlet was the one to break the mounting awkward tension though by smirking and reaching over to ruffle the top of Jack’s head, much to the lapin’s displeasure. “Come on, you know how I am with food and you’re put off by him asking for something like that?” she teased. “Tell ya what Nick, if they don’t remember to do so I’ll be the one to drive back so that I make sure we swing by a Village Den somewhere, and you and I can split a whole pie ourselves. Sound good?”

“Oh Scarlet, how well you understand me,” Nick sighed dramatically, bringing his folded paws to his chest in a dramatically gushy flair, complete with fluttering eyelids. “Gotta save a piece for Carrots but we’ll share the rest, just you and me.”

“Sounds good!” Scarlet chirped, before she waved a finger at him. “But lay off the flirty stuff; you’re more apt to get a fist to the muzzle than a laugh for that around me.” Then she moved to usher the other three out the door with her. “Alright, chop chop everyone; sooner we get out there the better. And you two behave yourselves; we’ll be back eventually.”

“Yes Mom,” Nick drawled, earning eye rolls all around before the door shut and the duo was left alone with Hannah. The cobra turned to regard the two of them, and as the sound of a car leaving the premises grew slowly more distant, she tapped the wall of the house with her tail.

“Just so you two are aware, perimeter alarms are on, so if you try to leave I’ll know,” she warned. “I’m not gonna hover over you like some ridiculous helicopter mother, but I will be keeping tabs on you just to make sure you’re not trying anything from time to time.”

“Nah, we’re just gonna head up to the kitchen for a bit; it’s about dinner time anyway,” Nick replied, grinning innocently. “Probably gonna go spar after that, since I know Carrots here has a bit of emotion to burn off right now. Come on Fluff, let’s go keep from rattling her scales, shall we?” He took Judy by the paw and led her away casually, the two of them watched for a little while by the skeptical snake before Hannah shook her head and slithered off to continue her caretaking duties.

Judy couldn’t help but regard the fox next to her with confusion and a touch of disappointment as they walked. “You know, I would have thought you’d be a little more put out by all this,” she grumbled. “I know you; you hate being stuck somewhere against your will as much as I do.”

Nick looked down at her, pushed away the spike of emotion he felt in his heart at her pouting expression, and shrugged. “Why? All things considered, I’d say this mess is working out just as well as it could be under the circumstances.”

“Oh, so y”- Judy cut herself off as she met Nick’s gaze, recognizing the sparkle that he usually had in his eyes shortly before he cracked some terrible joke or pulled off a massive prank at the Precinct. It was a hustler’s spark, the expression that told Judy he was hiding something that he was incredibly pleased with and that would usually get him in trouble somewhere down the road.

“Alright, so what is it?” she pressed, only to be met with a shaking head.

“In the kitchen, Fluff,” the tod said. “Less likely we’ll get eavesdroppers too early on there.”

She hated the idea of waiting, but acquiesced. If it was something he didn’t want Hannah overhearing, good chance it was somehow related to getting them back into the game. That was worth every second of suspense in her mind.

They reached the expansive kitchen on the top floor in short order, and Nick being Nick beelined straight for the fridge, not wanting to bother with any actual cooking and instead pulling out a leftover container of spaghetti, before marching over to pop it into the microwave to heat it up. Judy allowed herself a moment of great amusement watching as he struggled to stretch over the slightly too-tall counter to reach rather than use the stool nearby (lazy fox, she chuckled internally) before the two fell into a temporary silence, each running several thoughts through their heads at the same time as the machine droned its background white noise.

Alone, in a safe kitchen, and at that moment without anything major to actually demand their attention just yet, Nick found himself wondering if now would be a proper time to try and approach Judy with his recent revelation. The thought terrified him still however, as closed up about his feelings as he was used to being alongside the fact that it was this emotion he was dealing with. His eyes slid in a furtive glance toward her briefly, noticing that she too was now glancing away from having been staring at him, and for just a second a spark ran through him and he almost spoke up.

The second passed though when the timer on the microwave went off, and Nick let out a sigh of relief and filed away the plan to tell Judy for another day, some time when he wasn’t also preparing a mission of stealth and deception concurrently. Unbeknownst to him, the lapine at the table was processing near-identical thoughts, both mammals running away from the topic readily with the distraction that had been provided.

Nick pulled the spaghetti out of the microwave and hastily dished it out onto two plates, carrying them over to the table in the manner of a high-end restaurant waiter (which with his casual outfit just made him look ridiculous) and setting one plate down in front of his partner with a dramatic twist before sitting down with his own.

“Dinner is served!” he announced with a jokingly French accent, earning at least a short chuckle from Judy before she pointed her fork at him.

“Alright Slick, if you’re done with your theatrics, what’s the big secret you’ve got hiding?” she probed, spinning the utensil around before scooping up a bite.

“Madam, you should have learned by now that the arts are never finished around me,” Nick said poshly, before taking a bite of his own and grinning as he reached into his pocket. “And if you must know, do you honestly think I would ask Jack of all mammals about fetching me a pie if I didn’t have some other important ulterior motive to stop him?”

“Honestly, I would not be a bit surprised if you stopped him to ask for such ridiculous things just to annoy him.”

“Point taken, though how dare you call a good pie ridiculous. Anyway, no, I stopped him so I could figure out where they were going.” He held out a small folding screen showing a close-up map of the northern Rainforest District, bordering on the Meadowlands. On the map was a little moving red dot that flashed its way ever further northward.

As Judy figured out what she was looking at, a giddy grin developed to match Nick’s sly smirk. “You planted one of those pin trackers they have on him, didn’t you?” she guessed. “We can figure out where they’re searching and maybe catch up with…wait, what good does this do us if we can’t leave the house?”

“Ah, well, there’s the part we still need to hash out a bit,” Nick admitted. “After we change up a little so that we’re a bit less recognizable when we head out, the question is how to fool a snake into not realizing that we’ve left the house? I think I know where we can skirt the alarm system, but I don’t know how to throw off Hannah’s inherent tracking powers.”

“Run through the entire house a couple of times so there’s no discernable scent trail to follow?”

“That…could work, but I don’t know how good her sense of smell is. Can she tell the difference between trails that are minutes apart in age? Or, do cobras have heat vision?”

“No, that’s just vipers, I think Embron said. And not even wolves can tell apart minutes on scent trails, so I doubt she could, but if you don’t have another plan it’s worth a shot. And she did say she’s not going to mother hen us, so if we wait until just after she’s come by to check on us we might be able to slip out right then, and it should give us a few minutes to get away.” Judy cocked her head as she looked at Nick. “How do you suggest getting past the alarms though?”

Nick shrugged as he spun his fork in the pasta. “I know how to disable the lock and pressure sensors for about thirty seconds, give or take,” he said. “Found the control panels for at least the one on one of the back greenhouses we’ve got here. Motion sensors outside you can trip up using a bedsheet if you know what you’re doing, believe it or not.”

Judy wasn’t sure if she did believe that answer, but that Nick knew how to break through the house security systems did give her hope. “Okay,” she said, “we finish eating, go find the fur toner they’ve got downstairs and touch up and change out these clothes for something a little more drab, and then we wait for Hannah to make a round and skip out through the greenhouse. That cover everything?”

“Don’t forget a quick house run,” Nick said, “in case that actually helps. That’ll be easy enough to pass off as personal stealth training too, avoiding each other and all.”

“Right. Okay, let’s do this.”

It wasn’t long down the road before Jack noticed Scarlet staring out the window almost expectantly, her gaze off in the direction of her house as if waiting for something to appear.

“Something on your mind?” he queried, garnering her attention as his ears swiveled to the window.

Scarlet glanced back at him and gave a short huff of laughter. “Oh, just wondering how long it’ll be before we get a call from Hannah,” she explained.

Jack stared at her for a moment, wondering why the ocelot would be expecting such a thing, before he pieced it together and his ears fell alongside his expression. “You expect the two of them to try something, don’t you?”

“Duh,” Scarlet deadpanned. “Yeah, sure, we threw a bunch of rules and warnings at them but I think that we all underestimate what they’re capable of and we put too much faith in them not repeating their pasts.”

“Scarlet’s right,” Embron agreed, not taking his eyes off the road as he drove (his Hyendae Elandra was a relatively new purchase, and he had a well-founded reputation to keep, so getting into an accident was not on the list of events he intended to let happen). “We backed you on trying to tell them to stay put, but that’s only to provide us perhaps some short amount time to search fully unimpeded. Telling those two not to get involved is at best delaying the inevitable; yeah, it’s going to be a bit of a terror if they get out and run into one of the Primalists when we’re not right there to help them, but those two have already proven they’re not going to be stopped just because someone said ‘it’s the law,’ ironic as that may be considering their profession and Judy’s usual set of morals.” He flipped on his blinker and made a turn before continuing. “They’re driven, good at what they do, Nick certainly has an advantage if he knows the city half as well as he claims, and not to mention they have gotten a lot better in their training.”

“Maybe so, but if I can still best them in less than a minute that’s too much of a risk to have them out and about yet,” Jack worried. “That won’t be enough to deter someone hunting them.”

“We know their styles and patterns better though,” Skye interjected, sitting up straighter and glancing between her partner and the Canistons. “The sparring room’s also a very controlled environment. In the open, especially where they have anything at hand to work with, I’d say all bets might be off.”

“You too Skye? You’re siding with them?”

“Hey, I have to agree with facts where they’re sound; doesn’t mean I like the idea of Wilde and Hopps getting onto the streets yet any more than you do,” Skye mollified. “If they do, best we hope that we can find them and work with what we’ve got, strengths and weaknesses of everyone there.”

“And those two do have a lot of strengths,” Embron agreed.

“Only problem is that they’re each other’s biggest weak points,” the lapin groused, crossing his arms and tapping his fingers. “You’re right though, I can’t control them and they do have many talents, I’ll admit. I just hope they’ll be wise enough to stay put for at least a decent while so we can canvas the region of concern with some precision beforehand.”

“Speaking of which, we’re here,” Embron noted, pulling out a parking pass and hanging it up on the rear-view mirror as he pulled over along the side of the road. They were in an area of the city even more sparsely populated than the Cloud Forest, though for reasons no one could quite figure out. At the point where the Meadowlands began to bleed into the Alpine District, the land rolled in a series of ascending hills covered in a patchwork of grass field and deciduous trees and weather was rather unpredictable depending on which way the wind blew, the only thing that was truly disagreeable about the area. In the morning, moderate air across the Meadowlands could blow in, followed by rising humid drafts from the Rainforest occasionally punched back by downdrafts off the mountains nearby.

It was certainly a place for someone with decent funding and who didn’t like neighbors though. Though the location the four had immediately parked at was the edge of a small strip of stores and houses, beyond this in nearly all directions the artificial structures became sparser in number and often with large parcels of land to each home’s title. In some ways it made sense for their targets to hide out here somewhere; it was quiet and unassuming, most suspicious eyes being naturally drawn toward seedier regions like the back roads of the Nocturnal District, Happytown, or the edges of the Canal District. The broad sweeps of forest here ensured some privacy from prying eyes as well. That is, privacy from eyes that didn’t know how to navigate them.

The agents and the Canistons were not among those put off by the spotty structure of the area. Instead, at the very least the latter were perfectly at home in the snooping they were preparing to do.

“Alright, Scarlet and I will take care of checking buildings. Jack and Skye, you keep surveillance running on the cameras and search the woods. Sound good?” Embron asked.

Jack nodded, before putting on his radio earpiece and turning it to Channel 2. “Justin, you there?” he checked.

“Yes. Sir. Jack,” came the slow reply.

“Wonderful. You and Vela pull up and monitor the traffic and security feeds for the Meadowlands area and notify us of any suspicious activity. We’ll keep the channels open.”

“Understood. Will. Be. Standing. By.”

“Alright people, let’s move!” Skye chirped, pulling her door open and slipping out, followed by the rest. She and Jack beelined for the strip’s edge, slipping into the woods beyond, while Embron and Scarlet split off separately, targeting houses and storefronts standing on their own and taking up positions near side windows with their hands up as if holding some large invisible object in them.

“I just know I’m going to get someone calling the cops on me again,” Embron grumbled, but smiled under it as he twisted his left paw. Above it, a prism-reflected image of the house interior stretched wide, shifting through the rooms within to scan the space.

“Shouldn’t be a problem if you’ve got your badge,” Jack commented offhandedly through his radio. “Just don’t take it to Peeping Tom again.”

“Uh, yeah, made that mistake once and only once. Not happening again.”

They waited for the bullwhip-patterned tail to disappear around the corner before glancing at each other and nodding. A quick dash to the closest bathroom, a dusting of temporary dyes on their fur (turning Nick from all reddish hues to orange patterned by gray and Judy a smoky, almost slate blue gray), and then the two of them split up to trail through the house one last time before meeting again near the locked control box that held the panels directing the house’s security system. Nick was holding a bedsheet rolled up under his arm.

“Never thought I’d be pulling this sort of trick out of the attic trunk again,” the reynard grumbled, slipping a bent paperclip out of his pocket and sliding it into the panel’s keyhole, starting to fiddle with it as he leaned one ear up to the side so he could listen for the pins. “Thank goodness this is a standard lock and not one of those freaky bio-supernatural locks Embron’s got on some of the stuff around here.”

“What was your plan if it was?” Judy asked, looking up at him worriedly.

“Uh, probably attempt to see if we can outrun an angry king cobra,” Nick admitted. “Not that that would probably work too well. Probably has to be kept on a regular lock so others can do maintenance on it and such so no worries. Ah, there we go!”

A series of clicks sounded and the cover popped open, revealing a keypad and several buttons, each ambiguously marked if at all. Judy stared at it with barely veiled skepticism, uncertain about this plan altogether once more.

“You sure which button actually controls which system?” she asked. “I uh, don’t think we want to set off alarms across the house instead of turn a couple off.”

“You worry too much Fluff,” Nick admonished, reaching up and typing away a code on the pad. “Have a little faith in your handsome partner, will you?”

“I don’t know; demeaning you might actually keep your head small enough to prevent you floating away,” Judy teased back.

The fox snorted, and smirked with triumph as the screen above the pad flashed approval and listed several options in code form, each to be selected by the buttons. Nick frowned for a moment as he tried to remember which of the codes selected both the pressure and lock sensors and called for the thirty second reset; the glance he’d gotten had been over Embron’s shoulder at a distance after all. Finally he bit his lip and pressed his best assumptions, and let out a short bark of joy when the words they were hoping for appeared on screen: “Exterior sensor reset-thirty seconds.”

“Alright, let’s skedaddle,” Nick said, taking Judy’s paw and the two of them dashing for the nearest greenhouse. Peering inside to make sure their luck didn’t run out in the form of Hannah being in this particular greenhouse, they were relieved to find it empty and ran to the external door, flipping the latch and slipping outside. The door closed, and a second later an electronic whir sounded as the sensors reactivated.

“Okay, so that’s step one complete,” Nick breathed, starting to unfold the bedsheet and holding it up behind both of them. “Now just to get to the tree line without setting the motion sensors off.”

“Okay; so, mind telling me how exactly this is supposed to trick a motion sensor?” Judy asked, looking up at the sheet like she expected it to not only fail, but betray them and personally call up Hannah as well.

“Well you see, dear cottontail, most motion sensors rely on subsonic frequency echoes to paint pictures of the area,” Nick explained as they started slowly shuffling toward the edge of the yard proper. “Anything moving across that image disrupts the signal, so sets off the alarm. But, the sheet absorbs the sound waves and so prevents the sensor from building a full picture, so that moving sheet isn’t registered and prevents the alarm from being triggered.”

“Interesting,” the rabbit mused. “But, uh, what if Embron’s system isn’t a sound-based design?”

“Then we’re probably going to hear sirens inside the house and we’d better start running.”

That wasn’t very reassuring, and Judy kept close to Nick as they shuffled along to avoid as much of a chance of her being seen around the sheet, praying that it was a sound system. Unfortunately, the side effect was both of them adopting reddened, awkward expressions and looking away from each other, ears falling as they both tried to avoid bringing up the subject that suddenly burst into their heads. They both knew the situation would not be great for it, but it was getting obvious that it was going to need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

Luckily for both of them, they reached the trees without apparent incident, and ducked behind the closest moss-filled hardwood before Nick dropped the sheet and folded it up as best he could to tuck it away. It was going to leave an awkward bulge in his shirt, but that would have to be overlooked.

“Well, that was exciting,” he drawled. “Now to find a bus heading in the direction we need.”

“You know where they stopped yet?” Judy’s eyes drifted toward the pocket where the tracking screen was hidden as they began trotting through the forest, trying to ignore the occasional drip of water that fell between the branches and thick undergrowth to soak their heads and praying that their fur dye was not too easily washed away.

Nick gave a hum of thought as he pulled out the little screen he’d nabbed, turning it on. “Yep, edge of the Meadowlands,” he said, showing it to her. “That’s a little disconcerting actually though; they didn’t go all that far really. Hope that doesn’t mean knife-happy or the bird figured out where we’re at already.”

Judy grimaced and hopped over a log, wincing at the squish that sounded when she hit the wet ground on the other side. “Ugh, yeah. That wouldn’t be good.”

A few minutes later they finally made it out to the nearest road, dotted with a few cars but still less active than almost any other street in the city Judy had been on. Nick nodded further up the hill a ways, and another two minute jog brought them to a bus stop, exactly what they were hoping for.

“Okay, so if we timed it just right, the next one should be by in a couple of minutes,” Nick mused. “If I remember correctly, northbound from here hits Meadowlands in about twenty minutes, and we should be where we need to be, or close enough, in about thirty. Act like you don’t know me when we get on, by the way.”

The statement made Judy stumble for a moment, a twinge hitting her heart. “What? Why?” she exclaimed.

Nick looked at her, quirked an eyebrow, and gestured between her and himself. “Disguises, Fluff,” he deadpanned. “Not a lot of rabbit-fox pairs running around Zootopia, and the two of us acting like we’re glued together kind of defeats the fur dye.”

“Oh, gotcha,” Judy nodded, a spike of embarrassment running through her at missing such an obvious detail. “We’ll, uh, take opposite ends of the bus; just make sure to signal me when we need to get off.”

“Aw, so I can’t just ghost and go searching on my own, take all the glory?”

“You’re not funny Slick.”

“You’re right; funny would be hiding behind a seat somewhere and watching you freak out.”

The rabbit turned and glared at him, before punching him in the arm. “Jerk. Remind me to spike your next coffee with those peppers Embron grows.”

“Cool, always wanted to breathe fire,” the fox grinned, not missing a beat.

“Ugh, you have a response for everything, don’t you?” Judy groaned.

Nick moved to reply, before the sound of an approaching large engine mercifully cut him off. Both mammals turned to watch the next bus round the corner, rolling up the street and slowing to a halt in front of them. Sharing a short nod, the two stepped aboard as the doors swung open, but Judy slightly ahead of Nick and taking a seat of appropriate size near the front of the bus while Nick sauntered off to the back, on the opposite end of the bus but at such an angle that the two could still see each other through the small crowd of mammals on the vehicle. A short lurch and the bus started up again, slowly meandering up the hill toward a slightly more populated plateau on the mountain before the road veered toward lower elevations. A couple of minutes after their boarding, Judy noticed in passing that a scheduled rain had begun falling outside, and smirked.

Good thing we didn’t wait any longer to get out, she thought. I wonder if this fur dye would get taken out if it were a heavy soaking…that wouldn’t be good in the rain at all.

It didn’t last long though, tapering off as they left the direct influence of the Rainforest infrastructure and entered the foothills of the Alpine-Meadowlands intersect. Judy had a flashback momentarily of their travel to Cliffside a year ago, riding the bus across the Meadowlands to find answers for the Night Howler debacle. Their ride this time was in itself as uneventful as the former, nobody recognizing them (or caring to confirm they knew them), and it wasn’t long before the bus slowed at another stop and Judy looked over to see Nick pointing his tail and one thumb to the door, even as he kept his gaze down on the little tracker screen he held like a phone and slowly pushed away from the wall of the bus to stand and exit.

A familiar thrill of anticipation shot down Judy’s spine even despite the personal risk she knew they were running (or perhaps, enhanced by that risk); she was doing what she did best, investigating leads and chasing down criminals with Nick at her side. Climbing off the bus, she paused for a moment to get her bearings on their location and wait for Nick to join her (if at a slight distance still to maintain a semblance of being strangers). The area looked almost like a small town set within the city, a strip of shops and small houses or apartments surrounded by wide swaths of meadow and forest closing the space off from the bustle of areas like downtown or the District activity hotspots. The forest itself was dotted by larger houses and other small apartment complexes, though mostly the former. Judy had been up here once or twice on her rounds, though mostly only in passing since nothing ever really happened here, but she knew the layout well enough for a plan of attack to start forming.

“Savage is about six blocks that way,” Nick said behind her, startling her out of her focus. “If we want to avoid him and the others while still searching likely areas, probably best we start to just to the west near the park. And you should work on being so jumpy Fluff.”

“Har har,” Judy quipped, pointedly looking away from him and ignoring his smug grin; yeah, he hadn’t missed any of the reaction he’d caused sneaking up on her. “You think they might be hiding out there, or one of the maintenance buildings nearby?” she queried.

Nick tilted his head to the side and looked off toward the trees in question. “It’s a possibility,” he agreed. “I was thinking the houses on the other side of the park, isolated as they are and practically set up for secreting away a bunch of psychos bent on hunting police officers.” He picked up one foot and tilted it to the side, turning and sauntering off down a side street toward the park like he hadn’t a care in the world. “We don’t want to be spotted, so keep to the bushes and use your phone to message me even if I’m nearby. Use those satellite dishes of yours, ‘kay?”

“Very funny Slick,” Judy huffed, following along. “How about that hoover on the end of your face? Put that to use.”

“I will, don’t worry. Ain’t nothing I won’t pick up with this schnozz. Okay, stick together or should I take this side of the meadow and you that one?”

Judy looked around, before shaking her head. “Better we stick together on this one,” she decided. “Anything goes wrong by chance I don’t want one of us to just disappear without the other there to help.” Leaning forward, she took point entering the park.

The Meadowlands was sparsely populated overall, and its parks comparatively similar, especially in contrast to those elsewhere in the city. Crisscrossed with sidewalks and the occasional street, they were otherwise unbroken, near-silent tracts of meadow and woodland much like had been present before Zootopia had been built. They were the kind of park that mammals would go visit in order to get away from the city when they didn’t have the time or couldn’t afford to leave Zootopian boundaries for true unfiltered nature. With the afternoon growing long and stretching into evening, the park was now almost devoid of any other life too, the perfect time for an unlikely duo to go snooping about in the trees without attracting suspicion or curious eyes.

Nick kept low to the ground, snuffling along (much to his partner’s poorly hidden amusement) to try and pick up anything of interest scent-wise, while Judy crept nearby with her ears held high and rotating. Neither of them expected to find anything just randomly in the trees, but as they approached an off-path equipment storage building tucked away just out of easy sight of any of the pathways their hopes rose at the prospect. Times like this were one of the few moments Nick wished he had a nose more like wolves or bears (there were plenty of reasons he was happy not to though; even he could detect unwashed fur or ruddy scents buried under Musk Mask at a decent distance, never mind what his canid cousins would suffer smelling), but he focused as best he could to pick up what was around.

Several mammals had passed through the area in the past day, though most of them were of little interest to the duo; a kinkajou, hyrax, a wolf, and a young wildebeest who had quite clearly not been out here for just a leisurely stroll if the pungent odor following that trail was anything to go by. Nick grimaced at the last one and shook his head, nose twitching, and tried to focus instead on one scent that did hold a touch more interest.

It was an ungulate, but the scent was faint enough that beyond that much the species was a mystery he couldn’t place. Nick pulled out his phone (they had only been allowed to keep them because Jack had gotten his team to modify their signals to bounce off his agency’s satellites rather than standard, easily traced networks) and typed out a quick text to Judy, and then looked over to where she stood about ten feet away, watching to make sure she received it before nodding his head in the direction of the scent trail, and not so coincidentally also directly toward the storage building. Judy nodded affirmation and followed him again at a slight distance, the two of them riveted forward on their destination.

Nick reached the building first and slid up flat against the wall, glancing to either side to make sure no one had seen him before he was joined by Judy, and the two of them tiptoed toward the nearest window. Nick leaned up and peered within, his sharper eyes adjusting to accommodate the dim conditions within so he could pick up what he could from outside. He was disappointed slightly in what he found though. Pruning shears, aerators, bags of fertilizer, other various instruments and amenities one would expect to find in a park storage shed, but no movement greeted his eyes, so Nick signaled Judy to make her way toward the main door.

Judy nodded and took point this time, before freezing halfway to the door as her ears swiveled back toward the forest. Nick halted along with her, his heart rate picking up pace as he half-anticipated one of their previous attackers to come bursting out of the tree line, but as the seconds passed and neither sound nor scent reached either of them further, Judy relaxed and turned back toward the door, Nick following suit.

“Distant civilian I think,” Judy mumbled, her ears fixing on the door again as she reached it. To her dismay, a thick padlock linked the chains across the front.

“No worries Carrots,” Nick whispered with a grin, pulling his bent paper clip back out of his pocket and kneeling down in front of the lock. A few seconds later that satisfying click sounded as it popped loose, followed by the rather less satisfying clamor of the chains clanging against the wood door as they fell loose. Both mammals halted and stood stone still again, hearts racing a second time as they waited for some sort of reaction from within. A minute passed again though, then two, before the two of them started to unfreeze.

“Don’t think anyone’s home,” Judy whispered, though she drew out a tranq pistol from her belt anyway. “But better safe than sorry.”

“Agreed,” Nick replied, pulling out a taser from his belt and then reaching up to the handle of the door. Slowly, he eased the panel open and the two of them fixed their weapons inside, greeted by silence and shadows. Judy pointed at Nick and then to the right side of the main room, and he nodded and started in while she took the left.

The mystery scent was present, but even older than it was outside, and as the duo traversed the haphazard mess of equipment and scattered trash, nothing else presented itself as intriguing. Side closets and even a rarely used restroom proved equally empty, and soon they met up near the main doors again with matching disappointed scowls.

“Well, if that was Saber I was tracking, then he hasn’t been here in a while,” Nick huffed. “Not smelling anyone else either, so my guess is it’s probably just another groundskeeper. They might be hiding out in separate locations to keep us guessing too, and I’d bet at best that this place was just a stopover, but only if they were ever here.”

“Your hunch about the houses is probably more correct, or likely to be then,” Judy sighed. “Problem is, getting into those is going to require a warrant or decent probable cause which we don’t currently have. How do we figure out if any of them need to be searched if we don’t actually spot or pick up traces outside of either of the Primalists?”

Nick frowned and nudged a fertilizer bag with his foot. “Scent and sounds are probably still our best bet, though I’d wager on being lucky enough to overhear something more than pick up a trail,” he said. “I get the feeling they know how to cover tracks like that, so I’m gonna put my trust in you Fluff. If we do get something, then we can call in the agents or the Canistons afterward and they can take it from there. I’ll bet Agent Stripes has something to get around the warrant system.”

“Or Embron knows how to look through walls without even having to enter the house,” Judy mused, lifting a paw. “I mean, that must be how they’re managing to do any meaningful searching right now over near the strip, otherwise they’ve got just as much guesswork as we do and that doesn’t bode well.”

The fox shrugged, before turning toward the door. “Well, can’t do anything at all just standing here,” he said, looking back at her. “Come on, let’s hop to it shall we?”

“Was that a bunny joke?”

“Maybe.”

Judy only shook her head and headed for the door as well. “That was low even for you, insufferable tod,” she muttered, pushing past him and peeking out, her ears up and swiveling to scan for any imminent danger. When she didn’t hear anything she motioned Nick to follow, the two of them falling into their silent pattern again as they slipped out and headed for the interspersed living structures at the park’s edge.

Half way there, Nick paused as a trace of a familiar scent reached his nose, and he signaled Judy to stop for a moment as he tried to identify it. The smell was very faint, not old but as if it had been wafting for a distance so he couldn’t pin the ID. But, it was nagging at him that whoever it was, was important. Mammalian, at least, and he didn’t think it was an ungulate, so that most likely ruled out the Primalists; perhaps one of his old contacts was in the area, which could be a boon or a stroke of bad luck depending on who it was.

It’ll come to me eventually, he decided, reaching into his pocket to check up on the status of Jack’s location.

A chill of concern ran down his spine when the screen zoomed in, and the little red tracker dot was blinking away at him from almost right on top of them.

“Carrots!” he hissed, watching her ears spring in his direction, followed by her eyes. “Tiger Bunny’s close by; we need to move east, pronto.”

“It’s a touch late for that, Wilde,” the voice of Jack’s partner called through the trees, causing both of them to jump in shock. Twenty feet away, Skye stepped gracefully out into view, arms crossed and tail lashing as she frowned at them. Just a moment later, Jack followed her into the open, his visage as stony as ever but a touch more angry than usual.

“What happened to using the phones, Nick?” Judy huffed, before looking up. “Jack!” she exclaimed, her ears falling back as she fidgeted like a child caught sneaking candy. “We were, uh…”

“We know what you two were doing,” Skye interjected, tapping her claws against her arm. “Embron and Scarlet seemed to know you’d try getting out eventually, and we can reverse-trace trackers. Do you two have any idea what kind of a risk you took coming out here?”

“No, we thought it was going to be a casual evening stroll through the woods,” Nick deadpanned. “Yes, we know what’s at stake here, so we did take precautions; we’re not stupid!”

“A fox and a rabbit, even with atypical casual clothes and a dye job, running around together snooping through the bushes aren’t that hard to draw conclusions about,” Jack admonished, pointing a finger at them. “Yes, I can see that you also have weapons on, but we were able to get within thirty feet of you before you figured out that we were even here and that’s only because you have a tracking screen that told you, and I didn’t bother removing the pin! It would have been nothing to pull out a tranquilizer gun and take you both out before anyone was the wiser.”

“And you two wouldn’t have known we were here without the ‘reverse tracking’ you were doing on us or whatever,” Judy shot back. “Go ahead, correct me if I’m wrong; you didn’t sneak up on us because you could hear us or were following a trail.” She looked between the two agents, neither of which ventured a contradiction (though it was clear they wanted to).

“I thought so,” she huffed, crossing her arms and thumping her foot in irritation. “We could have found evidence without ever being rooted out; no one picked up on us on the way here, we’ve kept out of sight since we arrived in the area, and without you two calling us out we could have remained incognito until we found something and called you in to deal with it. But instead, you’re here to chew us out for trying to do our jobs after trying to place us under house arrest in the city we swore to protect when you know we’ve improved drastically over the past couple weeks and can handle ourselves!”

“But all it takes is one slip-up, and everything is over,” Jack reminded harshly. “Were it not for the fact that you two are the sole targets of the Primalists we would not have implemented any of this. You have done well, we are not denying that, and your skills investigatively are exemplary, but all it takes is one mistake and them managing to capture even one of you and we could lose all possible ground. And now, unfortunately you’re already out here despite Hannah’s efforts, and trying to send you back without dragging all of us back with you would be a terrible hassle, so we are going to take you to Embron and you can assist him until we exhaust our possible leads here. You will not leave his sight, you will do exactly as he orders, is that understood?”

Both Nick and Judy would have rather continue on their own, but they knew that was no longer an option. Now that the agents had rooted them out it wouldn’t take much for the coyote to pin them down anyway. Reluctantly, the pair of them gave short, curt nods, and Jack huffed.

“Good,” he said equally sharply. “Now let’s move; light is fading and Embron is a mile away so we are losing precious seconds.” He and Skye moved to lead the two officers out of the park, but they didn’t get far.

A condescending tutting sound bounced off the nearby trees and froze all four of them in place. It wasn’t any of them making the noise, and the tone was venomously mocking as it turned to words. “Don’t tell me you were going to leave before the festivities started,” the voice spoke up, almost laughing. “This is my first chance to meet all of you in person, and I’d hate to waste it watching you walk away.”

A shadow stepped between a pair of proximal oak trees, leaning against one as its sinuous tail waved behind it. “Nicholas Wilde, Judy Hopps,” it said silkily, “it has been quite the game of cat and mouse trying to find the two of you these past few weeks. Or, a game of fox and rabbit as it were.”

None of them needed to say it, but Nick voiced the agreed command anyway. “Run,” he half-whispered, he and Judy backing up and turning tail as Jack raised his gun to fire.

The shadowy figure sighed and stepped out further into the open, shaking his tawny head and raising a hand. Glistening fangs flashed as he spoke. “No, no, that won’t do. I implore you to stay.”

Jack fired, only for the bullet to curve uselessly around his target without gaining even a flinch, and the mammal flicked his paw, sending sparks into the grass at their feet. Light flashed, and Judy screamed and fell back alongside Nick as fire raced past them, leaping high and hemming them in as it forced them back with Jack and Skye. Hearts pounding, they turned back to face the new figure, pupils shrinking as the flames wrapped around his paws like a coil of burning rope.

“We should have stayed in the house,” Nick stammered, too little and a few hours too late.

Chapter Text

You are only new here

You’ve seen a surface scratch

But he has known for decades

Broke the bunker’s hatch

A terror like you’ve never known

Wells beneath your skin

When you look up to see his face

And the malice in his grin

The end is here, you feel it now

You have no hidden hands

The fight was tilted all along

To the one who above you stands

But can you still yet have a hope?

Is there any way out of this?

A miracle is what it would take

To win over hopelessness

“Stay behind us at all costs, understood?” Jack hissed, his eyes not wavering from their new company an inch but the words still leaving no question as to whom he was talking to.

Not like Nick or Judy had much interest in defying that order though. They were too busy trying to define the mammal that stood amongst the trees, his golden brown eyes flickering not only with the light of the flames that danced and crackled in an eerie false silence behind them but also with something deeper, something disturbingly knowing. He stood taller than all of them, taller even than Embron would, appearing almost canid but neither of the cops had ever encountered a mammal before that quite matched his physical build. The almost catlike striped tail certainly wasn’t that of any wolf’s, and the elongate jaws were built to be just reminiscent of the Tasmanian Devils Judy had remembered seeing on Outback Island, but this was no Devil.

“You two have something that I need,” Lotera quipped, his eyes drilling into the tod and doe before they flicked to Jack and Skye. “And you two have been a pain in the ass for us too long already, and time is growing short, so I’m done playing games with you all. Let this be a message for the rest of the agency.”

He took one step forward and Jack reflexively fired again, a dangerous mistake. Unlike the previous bullet now lost among the trees, this one Lotera didn’t curve away. Rather, he snatched it out of the air, pinching the slug between his finger pads and stretching it, rendering the metal into a long, blade-like shard. “Here,” he leered, “you can have your gift back.”

“Jack, duck!” Skye screamed, dropping her gun and shoving the rabbit out of the way as she dove and rolled with her momentum, both of them barely missed by the sharp shiv that drove deep into the dirt where Jack had been standing. Jack winced but rolled to his feet again, stumbling before reaching up and hissing into his headset, “Backup needed at Copper Park immediately! We have an empowered Thylacine here and he’s got us cornered!”

Lotera paid the two agents little heed though, watching them out of the corner of his eye as he pulled out a gun of his own, just in case they approached again. His real focus was still on the two quaking cops with their backs to the flames. As they gawked at him, a coil of wire unraveled in the predator’s other paw and he rushed the two of them, whipping the coil out with the intent to bind them where they stood.

Nick yelled and ducked, avoiding the wire, but Judy spotted an opportunity instead and grabbed the thin metal, biting back a scream as it cut through the fur and skin of her palms when she clamped down. Lotera hadn’t been expecting such a bold move, so when Judy yanked the wire down and to the side it pulled him off balance and close enough for Nick, who had gathered his wits again, to spin from his prone position and sweep a leg under the Thylacine’s feet. A second later, Lotera hit the ground hard and snapped out a growl of pain. His gun bounced across the dirt, out of easy reach.

Judy immediately let go of the wire and lashed out with one foot as well, just catching Lotera in the side of his head and dazing him long enough for her to turn and kick up a cloud of grass and dirt onto the line of flames behind them, dousing a small space just enough for her to grab Nick’s wrist as he stood and run through to the other side. Trees greeted them as an enticing source of protection, and they ducked behind the first line and out of immediate sight.

Lotera looked up just in time to see them disappear, as well as Skye approaching him with an extendable sword in her grip. He snarled as he shook off the throbbing in his skull and rolled to his feet, drawing the remaining fire around him onto the wire he held and wielding it like a whip, the flames taking on a deeper red color as they sizzled along their new foundation in whirling loops and circles.

Skye’s sword met the wire with a crack, fire exploding from the impact and the wire bending but not breaking, giving the vixen only the smallest of spaces to try and advance. She’d take any opportunity in this fight though, parrying the burning weapon as she growled and spun, sweeping her blade in with one paw while throwing a punch with the other toward Lotera’s side. Lotera turned away from the hit and coiled the wire around the sword’s blade in the same motion however, dragging it to the side and leaving Skye open to his own punch. She was forced to pivot her weight wildly to avoid falling over from the wrenching motion of her sword and avoid his paw, but she didn’t move fast enough to avoid the kick that followed behind. It connected squarely with her side and sent spikes of agony through her, sending her flying past the burnt ring of grass on the ground before hitting dirt and rolling hard.

Jack was ready to approach immediately behind his partner however, having foregone his painfully useless gun in favor of a pair of karambits instead. He knew it was risky, entering such close combat with a mammal capable of bending standard physics, but his blades were his own comfort zone and he knew he was fast. That burning wire was still going to be a challenge to avoid entirely though.

“I have to give you credit,” Lotera spat out, dropping back as he calculated his new opponent’s approach and snapping the wire forward as Jack tried to dart in low, forcing the rabbit to roll out of the way as it lashed the ground and left searing furrows. “We were expecting your reputation to be from political clout, or espionage, not actual battle. You sent Saber on a run for his money, so you have fair respect for that. Too bad I have to get rid of you still because I don’t have time to play around.”

The wire leapt back into his paw, fire extinguishing and the metal thread coiling neatly before vanishing as Lotera’s other paw swept forward, looking for all the world like he was trying to backhand Jack despite the distance between them. With the flames gone though, Jack knew any trick was liable to show, and sure enough a second later he felt himself suddenly pulled off the ground, flying backward at an alarmingly high speed and heading straight for the staggering Skye. It was only a frantic twisting of his body that prevented them from colliding head-first, an encounter that would have at the least knocked both of them out if not proven fatal at the rate he was moving.

He could not, however, avoid the collision altogether, and both of them swallowed screams as they smacked together and tumbled against the ground, rolling several feet. Ribs cracked and Skye’s wrist and shoulder audibly popped out of joint before they came to a halt. They lay there, tangled on top of each other and without the strength or frame of mind to be able to pull themselves up as the Thylacine curled his lip at them and strode past, making his way quickly toward the thicket of trees where his true targets had vanished.

Nick kept himself behind Judy, watching their backs despite in bursts being faster than his partner; if the mammal Jack had called a Thylacine got past the two agents, Nick was determined to take the hit first so that Judy could have a better chance at fending him off. He was the better shot, but they had both already seen what good bullets did against this guy, so their only hope if they got pinned down again was to fight paw-to-paw however they could, and Judy was still leagues better than he was.

“We need to get to the road!” the tod panted frantically, glancing over his shoulder to see if they were being followed yet. He didn’t see anything, but with how anything seemed possible right now that didn’t necessarily mean a whole lot.

“Road won’t do us any good if he catches up before we get there, and it’s a ways off,” Judy huffed back. “They were right; we weren’t ready. They never even got around to trying to teach us how to fight against someone who can bend fire and shape metal with his paws! Can we even do that? How do we beat someone like this?”

“Uh, hide from him until Embron and Scarlet save our tails?” Nick snarked, though he was more serious than he’d have liked to admit. He also had no clue what their next move could be other than run.

Judy moved to reply with something equally sarcastic, before her ears perked up and she sucked in a heavy breath. “Over here!” she hissed, grabbing Nick’s wrist again and dragging him to the side into a thicket. Holding up her finger, she motioned for him to crouch down and be quiet, the two of them flattening themselves to the earth under the covering of leaves and branches. Nick reached down and pulled out his taser, feeling like he’d been hit with one himself with how all his nerves were buzzing at the moment but hoping that, on the off chance he got in a surprise shot, it would be enough to slow the Thylacine down long enough for them to get out. They watched, unmoving after that, out from underneath the bushes for signs of movement. They didn’t have to wait long.

Rapid footsteps slowed as they neared the thicket, and grayish tan paws appeared in the duo’s field of vision stepping lightly over the grass and fallen leaves. The sound of metal sliding over metal reached their ears, causing Nick’s fur to stand on end (at least, the fur that wasn’t puffed fully out from terror already). He racked his brain to try and answer how the Thylacine had managed to hone right in on the area they were hiding, before a lead weight dropped into his stomach as the realization hit.

Lotera pointed out the obvious as well a moment later. “It doesn’t do much to hide when you failed to cover your scent,” he drawled, and fox and rabbit tensed as they readied to fight or run when he stepped a foot closer. “You reek of fear and I can practically feel your pounding hearts. With how you fared against Saber I really expected better.”

The bushes above them exploded, branches and leaves flying apart to expose the cops, and they both looked up to see the Thylacine staring down at them with cold satisfaction.

Judy didn’t waste a second. With their opponent’s paws still outstretched and busy telekinetically ripping apart the vegetation, she took the risk of assuming that, like Embron and Scarlet, he could only manage one task at a time and launched herself at him.

Lotera’s eyes snapped wide and he raised his arms to block the attack, deflecting Judy and dropping her to the side. A second later a jolting pain ran through his legs, and he bit back a yelp and focused his attention on redirecting the electricity of the taser Nick had managed to fire into him. Nick knew that it wouldn’t last long and spun to take out Lotera’s legs again, forcing the Thylacine to jump back long enough for the fox the leap up and slash at him with a knife he had drawn in his other paw.

The tip of the blade just caught Lotera’s arm, drawing blood, but the Thylacine had already had worse occur just that evening so he didn’t even bother flinching as he reached forward and punched Nick across the face.

“Maybe I don’t have to be disappointed after all,” Lotera growled as the fox stumbled back, unveiling his wire again and approaching both his opponents. “You set an impromptu trap; impressive. I hope that means you’ll be the candidates we expect for the extraction.” The wire whipped forward as if alive. Judy avoided it with relative ease as she rolled but Nick, still reeling from the blow to his head, yelped as the end of the metal snapped against his back, slashing his shirt and opening up a cut in the fur and skin below. Lotera didn’t wait for them to recover before whirling the wire again, deciding Nick would be the better first target in his vulnerable state and advancing on the fox.

Judy saw his intent and charged him again, hoping to knock him over with a good hit. Mid-leap, she drew her tranquilizer gun and shot the Thylacine point-blank as well.

Lotera let the wire drop and whirled on the rabbit, hind paw shooting out and tripping her as he smacked the dart to the ground, sending her rolling right under his feet where he flipped her onto her stomach and stomped down on her back, pinning her to the ground. Judy gasped and struggled to take in a breath against the pressure, and Lotera pulled the tranquilizer gun from her paws and aimed it back down at her as his gaze shifted over to Nick, whose ears were lying flat against his head and his eyes flashed somewhere between panic and fury.

“Rescue your precious rabbit, fox,” the Thylacine snickered, changing his mind and raising the gun to point it at Nick instead. “After all, I’ll have to catch both of you eventually.”

Nick almost did take a step forward anyway despite the odds, his lips raising to bare his teeth as his hackles bristled. Then his gaze flickered and he halted, expression changing in a flash to a smug look of condescending certainty. “The day I have to actually rescue her from being stepped on is the day I dress up like Gazelle and waltz across the steps of City Hall singing ‘Try Everything’ at the top of my lungs,” he quipped, half a second before a searing pain erupted from the side of Lotera’s foot.

Judy, despite the growing lack of oxygen available to her, had still kept her head clear enough while Lotera was distracted by Nick to reach the dart the Thylacine had batted to the ground and pick it up. She’d twisted her arm just enough so that she could drive the needle into the paw flattening her, and then broke the needle off, leaving it in his footpad.

Lotera roared in pain and stumbled off of her, reaching down to pull the offending object out, and Judy took her chance, rolling and leaping to her feet as she gasped for breath before she delivered a powerful kick to Lotera’s shin, knocking him back. Lotera forced himself to focus past the pain however and spun with the drop, pulling the needle out telekinetically before kicking the rabbit in return and sending her rolling straight into Nick.

“Oof!”

They both fell, but managed to scramble back to their feet as Lotera did the same. Lotera’s ears swiveled and he spun as another sound reached him however, spotting Jack and Skye finally on their feet again and racing toward them. “You don’t quit, do you?” he snapped as he swept his hands up, lifting first Skye and then Jack off their feet and slamming them into the nearby trees. “Can’t you be like other mammals and cry on the ground over your broken bones?”

Judy nearly gagged at the cracks that sounded on impact, unaware that the noise was luckily mostly from the small trees themselves, and felt her anger at someone injuring her friends flare and start to override her terror.

“Ugh, I hate having to multi-task,” Lotera sighed, glancing between the groaning agents and the cops. “I could have killed you two by now or taken them already if it were one or the other. I’ll appreciate the workout later though I’m sure.”

“You’d better, ‘cause we won’t stop fighting until either we’re all dead or you are,” Judy snapped, eyeing her gun in his hand. The broken dart in her own shook, and she wasn’t sure why she still had a hold on it or what good it would do, but she was feeling slightly bolstered by the slight sensation of Nick’s tail wrapping around behind her and gave her best defiant glare.

The Thylacine merely snorted and snapped his hand toward himself, the dart ripping away from Judy’s grasp and flying into his. “Well, I can’t kill you yet, but your friends are a different story,” he toned, and spun.

Nick’s hands flew up, holding both his taser and knife out in expectation of a fight or incoming flying object, but instead he and Judy found themselves sliding across the ground and into the side of a broad oak tree, knocking their breath out of them and leaving them pinned by telekinetic force. Stuck there, they watched helplessly as Lotera broke the glass on the front of the dart and threw the jagged object hard with deadly accuracy toward the two fallen agents. Neither of whom were in any condition to move out of the way either.

A flash of red-orange erupted, and Judy closed her eyes, believing Lotera had added insult to injury by inflaming the projectile, before she realized a moment later that no screams of pain were following the attack. The force holding her and Nick against the tree hadn’t lessened either, so Lotera was still using his power on them and not the agents. Cracking her eyes open, she spotted the agents lying where they had been, but without any apparent further harm. A rippling glow was filling the air in a shell around them, just starting to fade as the broken dart fell harmlessly to the dirt. As it disappeared, another glow illuminated the darkening forest nearby and drew the eyes of all present. The sight that greeted them made Lotera scowl in irritation, but the two cops both developed relieved grins.

Well, I guess that explains why they nicknamed him Firefox, Judy mused to herself.

Embron stood at the edge of the tree line, rivulets of blue-tinted flames coursing along his arms, tail and coat, and he had fixed on Lotera a glare that bordered on murderous. His eyes were a practically glowing golden-green color now, a color change of a sort neither of the cops had ever seen before, and as his paws flexed, the fire coalesced around them in flickering spheres.

“Looks like I got here just in time,” he growled, brightening the flames around his fists. “And here I was hoping that the rumor had been true about your death, Lotera, but I should have known better.”

The statement caught the Thylacine off guard, and his shoulders dropped slightly in surprise. “You know who I am; that’s a first,” he said dryly. “And I had hoped we’d taken care of the last of the Gifted.”

“Stories enough I know about you; you faced some old friends of mine,” Embron replied, stepping forward. “Not that it matters. What does, is that you’re going to let those four go or you won’t be walking away from here in one piece.”

The force holding Nick and Judy dropped away, and they both moved to run for their injured companions, but the attempt lasted all of a half second as spikes of rock erupted out of the ground around them, circling them in a mineral cage and stopping them cold.

Without a need to focus on them anymore, Lotera’s strength turned toward Embron and he made a similar move against the coyote. As the granite spears shot up from the bedrock beneath the soil, so did Embron, leaping out of the way with ease as he threw a fireball at the Thylacine, and Lotera was forced on the defensive by the attack and had to roll out of the way. The flames exploded in cerulean fury against the ground and Embron landed on the grass nearer to Jack and Skye to guard them from his opponent.

Lotera spun to his feet and snarled, his wire reappearing as he discarded Judy’s tranq gun and snapping out with an electric sizzle. “You’re only playing your own death knell by interfering, I hope you know that,” he hissed, whipping the wire forward. Sparks exploded off of it as it met the flames whirling around Embron.

Judy, meanwhile, shoved with all of her strength against the spires of her and Nick’s rock cage, trying to push her way out but finding no yield in the trap.

“We’ve got to get out of here!” she exclaimed, feet sliding across the dirt as she kept trying anyway, and her eyes flashed between the fight nearby and the injured agents. “Jack and Skye can’t defend themselves; we need to get them to safety before Lotera gets another shot at them.”

“You got something on you that can break granite, Carrots?” Nick snapped, looking around for any angle of use but seeing no escapes. “Because I don’t, and I don’t think either of us can jump high enough to clear this little pen here.”

Judy grit her teeth and glared at him. “So you want to place all your hopes on Embron winning this and busting us out?” she bit out.

Nick shook his head, still glancing around. “No, but for once I’m not coming up with any brilliant”-

A resounding crack cut him off, and both of them spun to stare at the spire closest to the battle with wide eyes. Beyond it, Embron caught their eyes for just a second before he was forced to block the swing of a baton Lotera had pulled out of thin air.

Fox and rabbit glanced at each other for a moment, and then peered closer at the rock. Cut straight across the base at about Judy’s waist height was a hairline fracture, dust and chips falling from it.

“He cracked it,” Judy said, looking up at Nick. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

Nick nodded, and they both leaned forward to brace their paws against the spear. “On the count of three,” he said. “One, two, three!”

They threw their full weight against the rock and shoved, straining to make it move. The rock groaned and shifted slightly, but stayed put otherwise.

“Again,” Nick panted. “One, two, three, push!”

Another shove, and this time the rock groaned and cracked further, tilting off the base before settling back to where it was. Judy glared with determination at the line in the offending mineral and dug her feet in, readjusting her stance. “It’s almost there,” she said. “One more time, come on! One, two, three, push!”

They shoved hard, teeth gritting and feet shaking with the exertion, and this time the spire groaned and leaned outward further, further, until finally its center of balance tilted beyond the supporting base and with a mighty scraping sound it gave way, falling out and slamming to the earth with a bone-jarring thud.

“Go, go, go!” Nick shouted, pushing Judy ahead of him as they scrambled over the sharp stump and out of the trap. Judy scooped up her stolen tranquilizer gun on the go and beelined for Jack and Skye with Nick right behind her. She couldn’t help but keep glancing back toward the fight though to keep tabs on her opponent.

It was impossible to have missed their escape, and Lotera was infuriated. With a savage growl he pressed forward against Embron, his baton whirling and flashing with the same flames he’d charged the wire with. Embron was giving no ground though, dancing light on his feet as he parried with his sword and spikes of electricity.

Jack was trying to push himself up to lean against the nearest tree when the two cops reached him, and Skye yelped as she put a paw to her side and found more broken ribs and an agonizing sprain in her arm in addition to the dislocations of the other.

“I feel like I’ve been run over by a bus,” she grimaced, looking up as Nick knelt to try and help her to her feet. “Hopps, Wilde; the road is only a quarter mile away. Our backup should be here in minutes, cops just after them. We –ow- we need to get there.”

“Can you two even walk right now?” Judy asked worriedly, eyeing Jack’s left leg as she helped him stand. “You’ve both got broken ribs and pulled limbs and whatnot, and I can see that Jack has at least a leg sprain if not a fracture.”

“So I’ll hobble,” Jack snapped, leaning against her as she helped him up anyway. “But while I trust Embron and his skills with my life, if the Thylacine gets any advantage in that battle,” he glanced over at the furious arms race only a handful of feet away, “we’ll end up dead and you’ll end up gone. Pain for the next five minutes is highly preferable, so move.”

They turned to start limping as quickly as they could through the trees, drawing Lotera’s attention without fail.

“No!” he snapped, pulling back with his baton and collapsing it. Embron pressed his attack and swung with his sword in one paw as the other built up an electric charge, forcing Lotera to back up a couple of steps and block the crackling lightning with a field of energy. But Lotera’s eyes were fixated on the sword, and as his wire reappeared in his paw he threw out a loop with it, ducking to the side as Embron stabbed in at him and catching the pommel in the coil.

Embron felt the wire tightening around his fingers and instinctively let go to avoid them getting sheared off from the impending snap-back, substituting the loss of his blade immediately with a dagger and a whip of his own which he cracked out at his opponent.

Lotera didn’t care though. As soon as Embron had dropped the sword the Thylacine yanked it back to himself, grabbing the handle and releasing it from the wire as he spun with the momentum. The end of the whip cracked like a gunshot above his head, making his ears ring, but fully extended it would take time for the coyote to draw it back and snap it again, and Lotera knew it. He slid forward as he brought the sword around and thrust the dagger in Embron’s paw to the side with a nod of his head, leaving the canid wide open for that crucial half a second.

Embron’s eyes flared as he saw the opening, and he twisted to try and bring his duster into the line of attack instead, but the Thylacine was faster. The sword stabbed forward, skimmed right over the edge of the coat, and plunged straight through the side of Embron’s lower abdomen.

The coyote gasped in both shock and the overwhelming pain that exploded from his side, and as Lotera pulled the blade back out the sensation made him drop his weapons as he stumbled back, instinctively clamping both paws over the wound. Slowly he glanced down, not quite processing the crimson cloak spreading across his hip, and he staggered as Lotera scowled and threw the sword to the side like it was garbage.

“I’ve heard the stories and seen the results myself; you can’t heal your own injuries,” he growled. “Feel the gash sap all your energy as your life drains out of it, and leaves you defenseless while I finish this.”

Embron tried to say something, but he could already feel himself losing strength fast. All he managed was to sink to his knees and watch as Lotera abandoned him to die in favor of marching toward the two rabbits and foxes just disappearing again into the trees.

Judy noticed what had occurred first, and stopped dead as her ears fell back. “Embron!” she screamed, drawing the notice of the other three to the fallen coyote and the fast-approaching Thylacine. “Oh my God, Embron!”

“Run, both of you!” Skye suddenly yelled, pushing Nick away even as she nearly toppled from the resultant pain and grimacing as she pulled out her gun and a knife. “Run!”

“There’s nowhere to run!” Nick snapped back, wanting nothing more than to bolt but knowing that the end result would be the same as only minutes before. After all, there was no one else to see Lotera pulling out the stops here. “He’ll just throw us against a tree again and then kill both of you!”

“How observant,” Lotera called out to them. “So you should make it easy for all of us and drop the weapons so I can complete my missive and get on with the plan.” His wire sizzled wickedly in his hands and snapped out in a series of roiling loops, and the Thylacine whipped it toward them in a deadly snare. Nick ducked and wrapped himself around Judy, wincing as he anticipated the sting of whizzing metal.

It never came. A feline yowl and the whir of small projectiles sailed over their heads, followed by Lotera’s startled yelp of pain.

Nick opened his eyes, still protectively wrapped around Judy, to see the blur of black and gold that was Scarlet land between them and the Thylacine, a half dozen Shuriken whirling like debris in a tornado around her as she continued forward without halting. Two swords were in her hands to boot, and she lashed with everything she had at Lotera.

“You stabbed my brother!” she screamed, a fury of blades that the Thylacine could only stumble away from, so caught off guard as he was, and his wire was rendered useless, cut to pieces as the throwing stars sheared through it in several places.

“That’s right; there are two of them,” Nick said in dumb realization, before he felt Judy grab his wrist and yank him away as Jack and Skye limped alongside them supporting each other, all with eyes on the new fight.

“We need to get the cops here so that there’s too much attention for Lotera to continue this,” Judy said. “And a medic for Embron. He said bad injuries take two other gifted mammals so Scarlet’s not going to be enough to fix him on her own.”

“And that’s if Scarlet doesn’t end up the same way,” Nick said soberly, rushing alongside her through the trees. “Who is this guy? I thought Embron was skilled; tell me the agency has some record of him somewhere.”

“If they do I haven’t seen it myself,” Skye panted. “Empowered Primalists, they…they know how to keep under the radar though, when they come around. It’s like with when we –urgh- first met Embron; they can make themselves nearly untraceable, wiping evidence and traveling off grid. Their weak links are only the mammals they work with who pop up, and those usually have connections that keep us at arm’s length.”

“Look out!” Jack yelled, prompting all four of them to duck to the side as Scarlet sailed through the air over their heads. A crimson flash erupted as she hit and broke through the trunk of a small tree before she plowed across the ground, claws out to slow her down so she could spring back up and launch herself right back toward Lotera without hesitation.

“Go ahead, try it again!” the ocelot screamed, her swords flying back into her hands before they flashed with searing silver flames.

“Wow, she scares me,” Nick toned.

“That’s what happens when you hurt one of them around the other,” Jack coughed, before nodding his head forward. “I hear sirens; keep moving!”

Scarlet was well preoccupied, her eyes flashing between her opponent and the prone form of her brother nearby, fueling her ire. Blind rage could be a mammal’s downfall and she knew it, so she was channeling her fury, each glance fueling the fires that she cut the air with and causing explosions of light and heat every time they met the baton or solidified flames Lotera tossed at her.

“It’s almost laughably ironic,” the Thylacine toned, half-scowling and half-smirking in an uneasy combination at her. “The most inseparable Catalyst I’ve ever heard tell of before and they found not one but a pair of gifted mammals to fight for them within weeks of our rooting them out. I have to wonder if that’s their influence, or just cosmic humor.”

Scarlet offered no answer, only baring her teeth in a deepening snarl. She’d heard their friends talk about Lotera before, how skilled he was and driven when he wanted something, and the trail of sorrow he left behind was long past due its recompense. Her brother, lying bleeding and in pain nearby, was only the blood-boiling topper on that towering bitter cake. She kept pressing in, letting the flames dissipate as she took advantage of the deepening evening and her nocturnal vision. Her swords swept upward and she spun, bringing them to bear at chest level on the taller marsupial where they met the baton, and she twisted one hand to flip one blade against the other side of Lotera’s weapon, trapping it between her swords. Then she wrenched them down hard and to the side, nearly pulling the baton out of her opponent’s hands and leaving him open to a harsh upward kick.

The Thylacine dropped his baton with one hand and brought it up to block the blow, and Scarlet used his now free arm as leverage to spin against, sweeping the blade in her right hand around and forcing Lotera to drop low to the ground, rolling underneath her. As he did so though he too kicked upward, electricity building in a charging hum along his leg. It met a similar bolt as Scarlet reacted mid-somersault, two repellant arcs colliding in an explosive fashion.

A flash of light like the epicenter of a small bomb illuminated the trees for half a mile, accompanied by a thunderous reverberation to match, and the two mammals were thrown apart by the shockwave. Scarlet, having been the one in the air, suffered worse and went rolling almost to where her brother lay. Lotera slammed face-first into the grass, but recovered quickly from having already been mostly against the earth to start with, spitting out the mess that mashed its way into his mouth and nose and grabbing a fallen Shuriken nearby as he rounded to face the ocelot. Scarlet was still wobbling to her feet, and Lotera had no care for a fair fight at the moment; his goal was to grab the two cops and leave, and that was it. He reared back his arm, intent on planting the little weapon right into her forehead.

A gunshot rang out, and the Thylacine felt the slug sear a gash across the top of his left shoulder. Instinctively he dropped the throwing star and clutched the wound with his paw as he ducked to the side and spun around, looking for the source.

Approaching quickly through the woods were two new mammals, a jaguar and a maned wolf, both fitted with full tactical gear and with handguns raised in his direction. Behind them, the two officers and injured agents were watching, and through the trees Lotera could hear police sirens and see the glint of flashlights heralding the approach of a public force. He couldn’t afford that.

The jaguar fired again, this time the bullet deflected by the Thylacine before it reached him, and the cat shouted, “Put your paws in the air where we can see them and stand down!”

“Not a chance, Harrison!” Lotera snarled back, stopping the jaguar with the unexpected use of his name long enough for the marsupial to duck out of the way again as fire and swords slashed through the space he had just been standing. He whirled and glared at Scarlet as she pressed her attack again.

“I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again very soon,” he snickered wryly as he backed away. “Have fun watching your brother bleed out.”

Scarlet screamed and launched herself at him, but the Thylacine flicked his hand and the air around him exploded with a thick black cloud of burning smoke. The ocelot hit nothing but air and stumbled, coughing, away from the pervasive substance and roaring with vibrating fury as the air began to clear. Once it did, she let out her anger at the near miss in a violent shockwave that shook the trees in front of her before dropping to her knees by her brother.

Lotera had vanished, and with him their lead on the enemy and any chance for his deserved recompense for the chaos he’d left behind.

Chapter Text

Better to admit that you messed up

That you made a wrong turn

Than try and play it off

And watch your bridges burn

After all the fight’s not done

This is only the first round

And if you can’t keep your allies close

Then your world will come down

Get your bandages ready

Wrap the cuts and scars

For if you don’t get back on your feet

You’ll fall beside the stars

She’d fallen to her knees, but Scarlet’s gaze still swept the area, watching for any sign among the still vibrating trees that Lotera had not actually left. Nothing greeted her however, and her expression broke from fury to one of pain and panic as she crawled over to Embron. The weapons scattered among the grass and trees nearby gathered to her and disappeared into her pockets as she reached over to desperately place pressure on his wound and her breathing picked up pace, driving her dangerously close to hyperventilation.

“Oh my god, Embron,” she breathed, either not noticing or not caring as the jaguar and both Nick and Judy came running up beside her; the maned wolf stood back, eyes trained on their surroundings still and standing guard. “Embron, please tell me you’re still awake. Say something!”

The coyote groaned ever so slightly and tilted his head to look blearily up at her. “Still…here,” he said weakly, and Scarlet let out a sob of relief before looking around to take stock of her companions.

“Okay, okay,” she said slowly, trying to drive down her panic and think properly. “Harrison, how close are the paramedics?”

“They’re bringing a stretcher out now, couple of minutes away at most,” the jaguar answered, holstering his gun but not lowering his gaze much from the area. “Can you heal him?”

“Not on my own, and the cops are showing up,” Scarlet said impatiently. “I can help stabilize him for now, but I need the medics to help me keep him here until I can find someone to assist me. Judy, do you have any medical training? You’ve got smaller paws, you can help me here without being in the way.”

“Uh, a little,” Judy said uncertainly. “What do you need?”

“I need you to put pressure right here while I get a wrap ready. Not the surrounding area, just where blood flow is coming to the wound,” Scarlet explained, pointing to where her other paw was still pressed down against Embron’s side.

Judy nodded, leaning down and replacing Scarlet’s paw with both of her own, surrounding the puncture. “Nick, help me,” she said, glancing back to see Nick trying not to be sick. “Nick, come on! Don’t think about it, don’t focus on it, just do it!”

“Too late,” the fox said shakily, holding back an ‘urp!’ that threatened to make him retch, but he leaned down too and helped Judy position both their paws as Scarlet held her hands out and generated a length of gauze cloth, swallowing back bile as he did. “Embron, you’d better come around after this.”

“Trying…my best,” Embron wheezed back, before his eyes flicked to Scarlet again. “Call…Ellie,” he said quietly.

“I will, don’t worry,” Scarlet said tensely, “soon as I make sure you’re not going to bleed out on us. Now stop talking before you make it worse. Harrison, grab the other end of this.”

Harrison took the cloth and held it taught as Scarlet bundled part of her end and held it over where Nick and Judy were pressing on Embron’s side.

“Okay, you two,” she directed, “on the count of three move out of the way so I can put this on. One, two, three!”

Rabbit and fox stepped back, trying to ignore the blood on their paws as Scarlet applied the cloth. Embron winced and let out an involuntary whine at the pain, but Scarlet forced herself to ignore it as she guided the cloth under his side and around his back to tie it off with Harrison’s end.

“It’ll hold for now,” she said, putting her paws onto Embron and focusing as the police and paramedics finally made it through the trees. One of the officers, a young red deer buck, recognized Nick and Judy immediately despite the fur dyes that were starting to rub off from the scuffle.

“Hopps? Wilde?” he asked, glancing between them. “What happened here? And where have you two been?”

“Not the time!” Nick snapped. “Set up a perimeter; we’ve got a highly trained foreign criminal in the area and we need to get our friend out of here and to a hospital as quickly as possible. Explanations later.” Ignoring the look of surprise at his uncharacteristically curt response, Nick turned his attention to the nearest medic. “The other fox and rabbit that were injured, have they been taken care of?”

“They’re already being taken to the ambulance,” the springbok replied. “Move back please; we’re going to lift the patient onto the stretcher.” He and the other three medics gestured for everyone to step away, Scarlet complying only reluctantly and only long enough for them to actually get Embron onto the stretcher and off the ground before she was back with her hands on his side again. The springbok opened his mouth to shoo her away, but a clearing of the throat and a shake of the head from Harrison halted him.

“She’s helping keep him around; don’t ask how, don’t tell her to leave.”

The medics shared quick glances between each other, but rapidly decided there was no use arguing and instead began carefully carrying the stretcher back out between the trees toward the road.

Nick and Judy had nothing they could assist with, so instead they hurried ahead of the group, flanked by Harrison and the maned wolf whom they had not yet caught the name of. In short order they stepped out of the woods next to the street, blinded by the flashing lights for a moment. Several police cars lit up the spot and the surrounding woods and shops with their whirling red and blue lights, and an ambulance sat nearby a single fire engine with its doors open. On the back bumper, two figures sat patiently as they were temporarily bound up by a pair of medics so that they wouldn’t strain their injuries further before they could be transported somewhere to fix the problem. Jack in particular was starting to resemble a small Egyptian mummy, with gauze and Ace bands across his ears, the side of his face, his arms, torso, and legs.

As the officers approached, he and Skye looked up, expressions grim, and they waved the medics away. The two martens, luckily, did not question it and moved to prepare at the other end of the ambulance.

“Embron; how bad is he?” Skye asked softly, glancing between Nick and Judy and the other two agents. When neither of the cops could answer, Harrison spoke up instead.

“Scarlet’s keeping him stable at the moment, but he’ll either need another Gifted or serious and immediate surgery to pull out of this one,” he said. “Whatever the Thylacine stabbed him with”-

“It was his own sword,” Judy interjected, biting back a heave at the thought of the irony there.

“-Right,” Harrison noted, glancing at her. “Anyway, the sword went through all the way, probably sliced intestine and a kidney with where it hit alongside a couple major veins from what I glimpsed. I heard him mention calling someone named ‘Ellie;’ do you know who that is? We can save time by calling them now if so, rather than wait for Scarlet to have a free hand after they’re already in the ambulance.”

“I believe so,” Jack replied, “though we only met once before. Here they come; Skye, your paws are in better shape than mine.”

They gingerly slid off the ambulance as the medics arrived carrying Embron, and Skye pulled out her phone (miraculously unscathed, though Nick and Judy both hazarded a guess that was more due to an uncommon tech upgrade than luck) and dialed in a number, wincing as she tried to keep off one leg as she did so.

“What about you guys?” Judy asked. “You got hit pretty bad, and those bandages are speaking for it.”

“Multiple rib fractures, sprained hands and upper arms, cuts and scrapes on all fronts; Skye might have a hairline fracture in her femur, I’ve got a sprained leg and perhaps a mild concussion,” Jack listed off, before glancing at the medics nearby and lowering his voice. “Nothing a Gifted can’t fix, but Embron is priority and we have bigger issues to discuss in the meantime.”

His tone wasn’t accusing, but the wording drove a spike of guilt through the tod and lapine he addressed.

“We slipped up,” Nick admitted, "and should have stayed hidden. That one’s obvious. But”-

“What’s done is done Wilde,” Jack cut him off, “and while that may have prevented some of this, the reality is we were somewhat expecting it would come to a head eventually and we could never have predicted an Empowered to be in the group we are facing, not after we thought most were gone. We need to step back and reassess our next moves carefully, because it is no longer safe for any of us here. Public or not, Zootopia is no longer sanctuary for us. But we can discuss it after we reach the hospital and Embron is dealt with.”

Jack turned and began limping toward the ambulance again. When the medics moved to keep the relatively uninjured officers from entering alongside the compromised agents, Jack leveled a no-arguments glare at them, eyes mimicking cold blue steel.

“They will be accompanying us to the hospital and wherever we need to go; that is final,” he snapped. “Keep the coyote alive until we get there and worry about nothing else, or you will see federal indictment for hindering our assignment. Is that understood?”

The medics were very clearly not pleased with it, but the two officers were small and would be easy to keep out of the way at least. Reluctantly, the ambulance personnel admitted Nick and Judy to climb in with a nod.

Without waiting for any kind of further verbal response, Jack turned back to look at the other two agents. “Harrison, Vela, meet us at Meadowlands Central Hospital and notify Chief Bogo that we must speak with him, immediately.”

The jaguar and maned wolf nodded and moved off, and the ambulance doors closed behind the striped lagomorph. Moments later sirens sounded and they were off, and a short time after that Skye ended the call she had made and looked at the others with a tinge of reassurance.

“She’ll meet us there,” she said, making sure Scarlet was aware who she was speaking of. “I’ll hang back to make sure she gets in; the rest of you should stay with Embron and Scarlet.”

“The hell that will happen, “Jack snapped. “I can at least walk somewhat alright at the moment; you need attention more than I can do and moving will aggravate a fracture. The last thing we need is an actual break in your leg.”

Skye moved to argue, but was cut off by Judy. “I, uh, have to side with Jack here,” she said softly. “Until you can be, uh, ‘fixed up’ as it were, you could risk real injury walking around. If it doesn’t turn into a break, one wrong step and you fall and any of the injuries in your arms or side could get worse.”

The imploring look that both rabbits sent her, one stern and the other with undeniable concern, made Skye’s ears wilt, and she let out a long, slow sigh. “You’re right,” she admitted almost inaudibly, but said nothing more.

Most of the thankfully short drive remained in relative silence, all eyes fixed on the support holding the stretcher and the mammals shuffling around it. The medics were doing what they could while on the move, and for the first time since Nick and Judy had met her Scarlet was entirely without sound, her deeply troubled expression broadcasting not even a chance of scathing sarcasm let alone her usual time-passing antics.

Nick’s gaze slowly drifted from Embron’s stretcher to the slightly less depressing sight of the two agents, and was shocked to see Jack’s gaze unfocused for the first time since they’d run into each other (almost literally). His eyes were still turned toward Embron, but the stare was glazed, unseeing, uncertain. Breaking his streak, the striped rabbit’s mask was cracking, revealing the weary, terrified soul that was actually hiding within, and suddenly Nick saw something that he never thought he would glimpse in Jack Savage: a reflection of himself. The only real difference between them was that the fox wore a cloak of cool sarcasm over his insecurities, while the lapin beheld one of cold determination. Both were draped over the same core though: two mammals struggling to see the better side of the world, but too far cut by reality to ever wear the rose tints again.

The realization left Nick with a touch of guilt, knowing he’d helped remind Jack that even the better mammals had harsh sides and unfounded stereotypes or biases within them, the very same lesson he’d fought through with Judy a year before. He could only hope that this time there was a chance to fix what he could again, and perhaps unlike before maybe he would take the initiative. The thought scared him, but the tod knew all too well from his long charade that mammals with masks on rarely removed them on their own.

As soon as they reached the hospital the medics swung open the ambulance doors and hurried Embron inside on a gurney toward the emergency rooms. Nurses and doctors attempted to shoo Scarlet away much as the medics had, only to be met with her stony snarl and Jack’s warning in turn, and even more reluctantly permitted her and the non-uniformed officers to travel with their patient. One nurse also immediately began to usher both Skye and Jack away in order to deal with their injuries, but while Skye relented and followed the golden cat down another hall, Jack adamantly planted himself in the reception lobby immediately in front of the doors to wait for whoever it was that Skye had called. Unmoving and with an air about him that suggested no force would be capable of swaying his decision even in his condition, the nurse didn’t argue for too long and instead focused on the one cooperative patient, vowing to come back for Jack later.

Judy kept pace immediately behind Embron’s gurney, Nick only a couple of steps behind her, as they wheeled into the closest available room. Here they acquiesced to standing against the wall near a handful of waiting chairs, knowing they would only be in the way if they stepped any closer as the medical staff positioned the gurney and began setting up sensors on the coyote, checking his heart rate and blood pressure as saline drips and other equipment began to be set up around him.

“He’s lost a lot of blood, and may be at risk of infection from punctured organs,” the head doctor, a lioness, muttered as she looked at Scarlet. She failed to keep the displeasure at an “untrained civilian” being right at the table, but it had already been proven enough they weren’t going to get her to move. At least she was staying away from the area of concern, and was ignoring the looks anyway. “Ma’am, what is his name? We need to get his blood type so we can get a proper transfusion going.”

“Embron Caniston,” Scarlet said curtly. “Blood transfusion won’t work unless you have a fully universal canid donor, so just keep his fluids up until the support on our end arrives here.”

“Beg pardon? Why won’t it work?”

“He’ll register CoEA three negative but he’s not pure coyote.”

The lioness blinked for a moment, clearly not expecting such an anomalous patient, before nodding acquiescence and snapping her fingers. “Alright, get a plasma transfusion hooked up. Connor, grab the sutures, we’ll try and patch up this hole and clean leaks as much as we can for now. Antiseptic stat, we need to make sure infection doesn’t take hold. What caused the wound?”

“A sword,” Nick spoke up nearby. Another blink of surprise from the lioness, but she didn’t make further comment.

The room was shortly filled by the sounds of the heart monitor and the staff shuffling about trying to get Embron hooked up and his injury cleaned. Nick had to look away when they pulled off the gauze and began shaving the fur around the injury; it had been dark in the field and night vision didn’t catch everything, but here, all the details of the gash were clearly visible. The coyote had long since passed out, a small blessing Nick thought as he wouldn’t have to feel the burn of the antiseptic in the deep cut or freak out about his coat, vest, and shirt being removed and taken to who-knew-where. Undoubtedly he would at least demand the coat back once he woke up again, however stained it was, but that was a small problem for future worries rather than a present concern. As the doctors pressed in around Embron, the view of the wound disappeared and Nick and Judy loosely held each other as they watched, hoping he’d be okay at least long enough for help to arrive.

Five minutes later, the door to the room burst open again, presenting Jack marching in (as much as he could march with a limp) with a determined expression returned. Behind him, a somewhat familiar panda followed, though she was dressed in plainclothes attire this time rather than a uniform.

“O-Officer Minde?” Judy stuttered incredulously, as the panda walked by.

Minde gave her and Nick a short nod of greeting. “Hopps, Wilde,” she acknowledged, before turning to the medics. “I know this is going to break like every rule you have and I apologize for that, but I am going to have to insist that you all leave the room while we take care of this.”

“I beg your pardon?!” the lioness exclaimed, flipping up the magnification glasses she wore to stare at the panda. “This is a patient who will die without immediate attention and requires critical surgery and you expect”-

“AOMISDOPS security override, Protocol 1063,” Jack interjected, wincing as he pulled out a badge from his pocket and flashing it. “The coyote will be fine, I assure you, but his treatment for international security purposes must be transferred fully to us at this point. If you have questions, what we can answer will be explained by the agents currently in the reception lobby down the hall, but we cannot permit you in here while we operate.”

The varying looks of irritation to fury among the medics, particularly harsh from the lioness, could be felt in the air, but after a few seconds she sighed and motioned for the others to follow her out. As soon as the room was empty of the staff, Jack pushed the door closed with the help of Nick and pulled the blinds over the windows to the hall before looking up at the panda.

“Area is as secure as we can make it; Justin’s taken care of any possible cameras as well.”

Minde nodded and walked briskly over to the side of Embron’s bed, shutting off the plasma transfusion and pulling the needle out, before she took a moment to actually look over the injured canid. “Oh Embron, what did you get into this time?” she sighed, placing her paws on his side and looking to Scarlet. “Alright, on my mark: one, two, three!”

Judy and Nick were no longer strangers to both of the Caniston siblings healing smaller wounds, and had become somewhat accustomed to the almost electric tingle and faint glow that usually resulted, but the reaction that welled up from the pair of gifted mammals focusing on the same issue simultaneously was something else entirely. The air in the room began to vibrate as energy radiated outward, and the officers swore their fur shot straight out on end from it (one glance at Nick would have confirmed it too, puffball that the energy wave turned him into), and the space between Scarlet and Elisheva lit up with a vibrant, sine-wave light, the color somewhere in the realm of blue but beyond description. Beneath the glow, Nick (tall enough to see on the gurney) could make out the washed out jagged edges of the sword wound starting to stretch and move, regrowing and the edges knitting slowly together as the damage was sealed. Sparks of red flashed within as well, but he couldn’t tell what that meant.

“What happens if he gets an infection after the wound is gone though?” Judy wondered aloud, unable to tear her eyes away from what she could make out. “How do you stop that?”

“The process expels any infectious pathogens as the tissue mends,” Jack said, watching impassively; he’d seen this before, several times. “We don’t know how it works, but like many of the things that Gifteds can do it’s likely not a question with an easy answer. As long as we got to it in time Embron shouldn’t have to worry about this much after tonight.”

That must be what the sparks are, Nick mused privately.

“I can feel his heart rate starting to stabilize,” Elisheva said, sending relief through the others in the room as the glow slowly began to fade and Nick’s fur fell back into place. As they watched, the last of the gash sealed up and the coyote’s fur resprouted over it, covering the narrow scar left behind as if it had never been there.

“I haven’t seen something like this in years,” Elisheva continued, stepping back and breathing hard. “Scarlet, what on earth happened? You and Embron are two of the best fighters I know.”

“Primalists set their sights on those two, Ellie,” Scarlet answered, gesturing to the officers, “though I assume you probably already heard about the eagle incident the way word travels amongst officers and their friends. They sent an empowered Thylacine here too though, and he got the better of Embron earlier tonight before I could get there. It was in the park about ten minutes away, so they’re dead serious about getting their paws on a Catalyst now.”

“And how much, exactly, do they know about what’s going on here?” Ellie asked, nodding to the tod and lapine.

Scarlet sighed. “Most of it, if not all. We’ve had them at the house for a couple of weeks now, training.”

“Fantastic. A jump into our world feet-first without any easing into it; sorry you two.”

“Quite the talent you guys have got, though not something you could put on a resume, huh?” Nick muttered in half-response, drawing their attention and breaking the conversation. “We would have never known.”

“Yeah, not exactly something I can divulge, even to trusted officers like the two of you,” Ellie admitted. “Surprise surprise by the way. Does come in handy for some parts of the job though, things other mammals aren’t going to see.”

The door to the room swinging open caused everyone to jump, hands on weapons or up to defend themselves, but they relaxed when they saw only the jaguar agent holding the door open for the white vixen with a splinted leg and arms hobbling in on a crutch.

“They insisted that I at least use this to get over here,” Skye groused, before her eyes flicked toward the gurney. “Is he okay yet?”

“Out cold at the moment but he’s patched up now, more or less,” Ellie replied. “Can fix physical stuff but not the harebrained mind that helps get him into these scrapes. Looks like you and I’m guessing Jack as well also need some resetting, on that topic. It’s been a while, Skye.”

“That’s probably a good thing, much as I hate saying that,” Skye sighed as Ellie approached her; Scarlet moved over to Jack simultaneously. Despite their obvious exhaustion, the Gifted mammals both knew it was needed and decided they had a bit of energy to spare yet. “Case in point, any time friends of the Canistons meet us it’s usually not under the most pleasant of circumstances, and this round’s a doozy.”

A clearing of the throat from Harrison’s direction drew their attention momentarily to the jaguar. “Chief Bogo will be here likely within five minutes’ time, so whatever you have to do Gifted-wise, do so quickly,” he warned, before shutting the door again and leaving them in peace.

“At least this won’t take long, so long as neither of you have anything ruptured internally,” Scarlet grumbled. “Ellie and I are both going to have to sleep long and hard after this though.”

“Loathe as I am to say it, we all need to rest and regroup,” Jack admitted quietly, again watching without any surprise or apparent curiosity as the soft glow ran out from Scarlet’s paws and over him. He winced at the resetting of a couple of bones in his chest though, before continuing. “With an empowered Primalist who will target any of the six of us directly now, since we are the closest to the case and/or his targets, it’s not safe for any of us to even be in the city. Police or even AOMISDOPS itself could put us all into a locked bunker for a safe house and he could probably find a way into it. We require another angle of attack and a place they will not risk entering to plan it, otherwise once the other two Primalists and whoever else they have with them recover we will end up worse off on our next encounter than we are now, support of Harrison and Vela or not.”

Nick sighed as he slumped against the wall he was leaning against. “I knew becoming an officer would be dangerous, or even just hanging around Carrots here, but this is in a whole other dimension,” he muttered. “I mean, these guys are getting around the city undetected as easily as some of my old contacts could. Unless we turn to Zootopia’s underbelly for help too, I’m not certain we’ll ever pin them down.”

“If Lotera knows we’re coming, and at this point of course he does, we’ll never even see him before he’s gone, let alone pin him anywhere,” Skye sighed, leaning against the gurney as she started to unwrap the bandages and splints the medics had put on only minutes before to stabilize the fractures and sprains. “If a Gifted can make themselves hide in plain sight, no doubt an Empowered can do the same, and there are boundaries that we won’t cross that he’ll have no problem breaking too.”

A knock at the door silenced them, and all eyes turned to watch as it opened, revealing Harrison again permitting the entry of one Chief Adrian Bogo and two of his officers. Judy and Nick both relaxed at seeing Fangmeyer and Wolfard, knowing that the both of them could be trusted with whatever the agents were comfortable with sharing. Jack wasn’t so reassured, clearly, as he eyed the extra personnel with suspicion.

“I requested that we speak with you, and you alone, Bogo,” the lapin said curtly. “I have not vetted any of your other officers yet for”-

“Who is able to hear what among my officers in my precinct is my decision solely, Savage, not yours,” Bogo cut off, pointing a hoof at him. “I trust them more than I do you, and this incident, whatever happened, only strengthens that opinion, mind you.”

“I am well aware of your opinion of me, as you’ve made it clear numerous times,” Jack scowled, an impressively hard tone for a rabbit escaping him as his ears flattened in anger, “but this case is no longer your jurisdiction. These are international criminals and the threat level that they pose and the means by which they pose that threat is classified and cannot”-

“Jack,” Nick cut in, garnering the rabbit’s attention and gesturing to the wolf and tiger, “if I could only vouch for two officers in the whole precinct that could be trusted with this, then it would be these two. Funny as it might be to watch you pop like an overheated kettle, you should calm down before you do actually rupture a blood vessel or something.”

Jack stared at him for a moment, as if disbelieving he was being talked down by the fox, before sharing a look with Skye.

“You know how he reads people,” she said, shrugging.

The buck sighed, before nodding reluctant acquiescence and starting to remove his own bandages. “Alright, they can be permitted to stay, but only as new arrangements have to be made and we will need the eyes of the officers in the city on this anyway,” he said.

Bogo snorted. “And what sort of arrangements are you proposing to make, Savage?” he growled. “It’s been nearly two weeks since I last saw two of my best cops thanks to this mess, then I suddenly receive a call from the Eighth Precinct chief shortly before another from your agents that they’ve been involved in some sort of altercation that supposedly left two agents and a civilian severely if not critically injured, which I must assume is somehow directly related to the case you all have been pursuing. And then, I arrive here only to find all agents that I meet seemingly in perfect health and the assumed civilian laying on a hospital gurney with bloodstained sheets all around him but not a scratch to be seen. And to top it all off, I have heard not a word about any progress you have made on the case either, or whether or not I should be concerned now for the safety of the general public let alone the officers you claim are their only targets which I’ve been given no decent explanation of the reason for either. Forgive my skepticism, but I strongly question the wisdom of letting you make any further decisions on this.”

“Uh, Chief, I don’t mean to interject, but there are good reasons for all of it,” Judy said placatingly, holding her paws out with her palms down. Bogo’s sudden transferal of his glare from Jack to her nearly froze her, but she pressed on anyway. “A-as I was saying,” she stammered, “there were injuries, but, uh, th-the reasons you can’t see them now is a really, really long explanation and kind of classified. We can’t explain it to you.”

“Some sort of secret agent technology?” Wolfard queried, half-jokingly. At Judy’s discomfited look, his eyebrow raised in worried curiosity.

“Uh, yeah, let’s go with that for now, shall we?” Nick answered instead. “Rest assured Chief, most of the public won’t have to worry about this, just lucky us. These guys want to stay hidden and don’t like attention; that’s probably our best advantage over them too right now. Shine a spotlight near them and they scurry off like cockroaches.”

“That doesn’t help us catch them however,” Bogo sighed. “And if they’re truly targeting you and Hopps, which is quite obvious at this point, then I am also forced to be down two of my better investigators as you need to remain off the streets and in protective custody.”

“The ZPD should not attempt to catch them,” Skye spoke up. “Skye Wellinger, by the way, since we’ve yet to officially meet in person, Bogo. This group is not to be tangled with by anyone who doesn’t have rigorous and extensive defensive training of every form. Hopps and Wilde both have been receiving such for self-defense since you last saw them, part of why they’ve been kept out of the public eye as well. We need the eyes of the officers across the city to keep watch for at least those perpetrators that we know about, but only AOMISDOPS agents or our associates like the so-called ‘civilians’ here should engage them. I know that this isn’t what you want to hear, Bogo, being the ‘get it done yourself’ type of mammal you are, and I don’t want this to have to be the case, but avoidance of engagement is, unfortunately, our warning to try and keep your staff alive.”

Bogo very clearly did not like the idea or its implications, but he would do anything to keep his officers safe. Letting out a tired sigh, he leaned against the wall. “Would it even be worth it to ask if TUSK personnel could be brought in on this?”

“They wouldn’t even have the training to deal with this group.”

His scowl deepened, but not in anger toward the agents for once. “If you have photos that I can disseminate on them, or at least decent descriptions so that we can get a sketch artist to make reproductions, I can at least get a proper watch out,” he decided. “I see you have the Alpine District’s artist and public mediator here already.” He gave Elisheva a skeptical glance, quite obviously wondering why she was really there since she had to have received notice long before he had in order to have gotten here first.

“I have a long history with these two,” Ellie replied to his unspoken question, gesturing to Scarlet and the still-unconscious Embron. “Like everything else right now, it’s a long story.”

Bogo nodded uncertainly, only just satisfied with the half-answer, before looking toward Jack and Skye again, waiting for their answer.

“We can provide you photos of Avery and Tristan aka ‘Saber,’ the eagle and musk deer respectively,” Jack began, “but the most dangerous of the three I don’t believe we possess even a record of in our archives. I didn’t even know he existed until today, and regretfully I am drawing blanks on his name now as well. Are you familiar with the Thylacine species?”

“I don’t think I have ever heard of such a creature,” Bogo said.

“I have,” Fangmeyer put in. “Traveled to Australia years ago, struck up a friendship with one named Amelia; we keep in touch still. Often called the Tasmanian Tiger, looks like a stripe-backed wolf but with a tiger’s tail and an odd head. They’re marsupials.”

“Correct,” Jack nodded. “They don’t often leave Tasmania, even less often venture past the mainland Australian region altogether, and retain very traditional lifestyles and viewpoints, but this is the first I’ve heard of any taking on such an extreme side of things. He”-

“Lotera Manard,” a raspy voice from the gurney wheezed out. Everyone’s heads whipped around to see Embron’s head turn to the side, his eyes wearily blinking open to take in who was in the room.

“Embron! You’re awake!” Judy exclaimed, running over to the side of the gurney excitedly.

Embron huffed, attempting to sit up. “More or less. I’ll –urgh…” He winced as he sat upright, his paw flying to his side.

“Whoa, you okay?” Judy asked cautiously, stretching a paw out in worry. “I thought you were…you know.”

“I am, I am,” Embron affirmed, lifting his paw to reveal only fur and then waving away the concern. “But you get something like that patched up, you still feel it for a day or five. It’s like a phantom pain, and saps energy a bit.” He looked up. “Evening, Chief Bogo and company. Sorry for the interruption. Uh, Jack, what are they privy to?”

“Standard protocol, not full disclosure,” the buck replied.

“Right. Anyway, the Thylacine in question though, that’s his name: Lotera Manard. The chances that you actually run across him yourselves are gonna be slim to none, but if you or any of your officers do, Bogo, I implore you not to engage him in any way. He will win that fight, paws down. Like the other two, he doesn’t want any public attention on him, but he’ll take even more precautions to stay off the radar himself and when he’s alone, that is when he has the greatest advantage.”

“So you expect us to try and locate them but not to engage them at any costs,” Bogo sighed. “It’s almost a catch-22; what you’re asking is contradictory and nearly impossible. Also, how is it exactly that you two know so much?” he asked, pointing to the two Canistons. “Undercover agents working for this rabbit?”

“Hah, no,” Scarlet snorted. “We work with them though; in part, we’re some of the ones who train their agents. Look, I know that having to basically stand by while others hold all the info and outfitting for the job is not what you want, but right now it’s the wisest thing. But AOMISDOPS needs eyes where the city’s cameras can’t watch, and eyes to watch the cameras, especially since we can’t be part of the search right now, at least for a while, so we need your help in part alongside the other agents.”

“What? You won’t be helping search at all?”

“Hopps and Wilde are the targets of this group as we’ve already stated too many times, and do need to be protected at all costs,” Jack replied, looking up at the buffalo. “The other four of us here, patched as we may be now, still need a few days to recover from tonight and likely longer to actually figure out what our next move should be. Yes, Bogo, I am admitting I don’t know what we’ll do next in front of you, please don’t take that to gloat over. Your two officers here are the only ones among us who are not at risk of being killed as well, and this group will take whatever chances they can get, public unawareness permitting, to eliminate the rest of us so that they can get to Hopps and Wilde. We cannot stay in the city while we’re recovering therefore, and so cannot be directly part of the search or reconnaissance.”

The chief was getting less and less happy as the seconds ticked by. Crossing his arms, he glared down at the buck and arctic vixen. “That three international criminals are targeting a pair of the best cops at the ZPD still does not make any sense to me, and thus far you’ve yet to give me a decent explanation as to why,” he snapped. “Half of catching a criminal, or even trying to track them as you now ask the rest of us to do, is knowing how they think, so if you do intend for us to assist in any way I need more from you than this going in blind, Savage. I’ll not make the same mistake as last time dealing with you, letting you direct my officers’ well-being without foreknowledge.”

When the buffalo put his hoof down on the matter, his presence in a space was difficult to deny, much less his requests. Even Nick almost felt compelled to speak up about the secrets they had to keep right then, and the only reason why he and Judy didn’t let anything slip was that Bogo’s attention was, for once, not directed at them at all.

Savage didn’t even flinch under the bombarding stare however, Skye even less affected if that were possible. Rather, as if they’d rehearsed it, the two of them stood up even straighter and gazed straight back at the chief with equal intensity. “Your concerns are well-founded, Adrian,” Jack said, “but again, for everyone’s safety and due to matters of security, we cannot give you full disclosure. Believe me, I would like nothing more than to tell you, but I am not permitted to at this moment and you would not believe half the things I could say anyway.”

“I don’t care. You had best give me something to work with; you might be surprised what I’ll believe too.”

The rabbit sighed, letting his arms drop as he glanced at the other lagomorph and her fox partner. “What I can say is that Hopps and Wilde represent an ideal that the perpetrators despise,” he explained, “and have the influence to sway the opinions of entire nations from where they stand. It’s not just because they’re celebrities or upholders of justice and the law either, but simply who they are. There are other important aspects to it, but that is the central majority. They are a potential threat to the Primalist mindset of the group we are after, in fact in their eyes one of the worst threats, and short of exposing themselves blatantly to the public there is very little that they will not do to capture the two of them.”

“And the reason why this threat is a point of capture rather than them trying to eliminate it?”

“Like I said, classified. The purpose of their capture is something I cannot, under any circumstances, divulge to anyone not already stuck in this mess. The last thing you want to hear from me, but if I were to break that it would be me demoted to janitor and you under months of classification vetting in the best of circumstances.”

With this, Bogo’s gaze relaxed slightly. “Then as much as I loathe the notion of doing so, I am putting full responsibility on your shoulders, Agent Savage, to keep them safe until this is dealt with,” he said, before turning to look at his two smallest officers themselves. “I am also sorry to say, to you both, that until further notice this need for protective custody means that you will have to be officially taken off the roster of active duty and placed on paid suspension. I’m sure, knowing you in particular Hopps, that you won’t be stopped from playing some hand in investigating the case wherever you’re at, but you are under orders not to actively seek out these animals in any way. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir,” the two of them answered without hesitation, leaving Bogo taken aback somewhat. He had expected at least a little bit of an attempt for a compromise from Judy, no matter how dangerous it got. He looked back at Jack.

“Just what was it that happened tonight?”

“Part of that disclosure issue,” Jack replied, “and why we insist none of your officers attempt engaging these individuals, especially Lotera. The danger they pose we cannot stress enough.”

“Right. Fangmeyer, Wolfard, you’ll be taking over this case in place of Hopps and Wilde and working with Antlermore’s team should they find anything that the agents miss, and you will watch each other’s backs at all times. Officer Minde: since you seem to be more familiar with this case or at least some background on the situation than most, I will be putting in a notice to section chief Urston to have you assist in this as well. Anyone in the general public who may have information you can address, and what descriptions these two mammals,” he gestured to Embron and Scarlet, “can give you on Lotera can be used for the sketch to put out for notice to the city officers. I expect everyone ready to take up their jobs on this immediately upon roll call tomorrow at 8:00 sharp. Understood?”

“Yes sir!” the unanimous reply followed.

Bogo nodded his head sharply, glanced one last time with a veiled look of warning at Jack, and then left the room with Wolfard and Fangmeyer trailing him.

As soon as the door was closed again, several sighs echoed around and the remaining occupants shared glances among each other. “Might as well get the details for that sketch now before you guys vanish into thin air again,” Elisheva commented, pulling out a notepad. “Didn’t bring a sketch pad with me, since I didn’t know I’d need it, but I know how to draw a Thylacine.”

“Unfortunately most of his key traits aren’t really physical,” Embron quipped, “but arrogant gold eyes and somewhat prominent teardrop marks are. Too bad he doesn’t have any facial scars or similar to note, but I doubt there are very many Tasmanian Tigers wandering around Zootopia, even Outback Island.”

“Yeah, just the general appearance should be enough,” the panda agreed. Closing the notepad, she looked with severity at the two Canistons. “You guys take care of yourselves, and keep your friends in line, okay? Otherwise I’ll get Turtle to bug you until you explode from frustration, capisce?”

Embron’s eyes widened in faux horror. “Please, spare me the agony,” he groaned dramatically, putting the back of his wrist against his forehead.

Elisheva snorted and adjusted her coat, before heading to the door. “Just behave,” she chided, before slipping out of the room. “Ciao!”

“You guys drag odd characters out of every aspect of society, don’t you?” Nick mused, watching the door shut before his ears flicked toward the gurney. “What’s next, secret agent gymnast from Las Vegrass.?”

“Oh yeah, Rebecca,” Embron mused, nodding his head while holding a perfectly straight expression. “Wasn’t aware anyone had told you about her though.”

Nick stared at the coyote for a moment, face stuck halfway between incredulous and deadpan “you’re kidding.” Embron though, did nothing more than glance at his sister and share a smirk with her before turning to the two agents in the room.

“If they have computer access, and it’s unquestionable that they do, they’ll figure out within hours that I live somewhere in the Cloud Forest area,” he thought aloud. “They certainly won’t try to attack right now, and my address specifically isn’t just out there to find, so that should give us at least through tomorrow to get ready and leave for somewhere, but there’s no doubt that we absolutely need to get out of the city entirely for now.”

“Problem is, where to go,” Skye sighed. “We can’t head too far away, as we’ll still need to keep contact with our team here, and if anyone recognizes Nick and Judy a ways away the media would flip over the celebrity cops running off on an impromptu vacation and pry about why they went there. But on the other paw, if we stick around within the nearest few hundred miles all the safe houses I can think of are on town outskirts or literally in the middle of the countryside, the last place we want to be.”

“The one in Neighbelton might work,” Jack offered, “but it’s still too on the border for my liking. It’s the best option I can think of though.”

“I might have a suggestion,” Judy said softly, drawing their attention. “We have guest cottages on the Hopps farm in Bunnyburrow, and my parents are usually pretty open to drop-ins.”

“Hopps, we don’t want to risk your family,” Jack demurred. “I’m sure that we can make”-

“No, no, it’s actually perfect,” Nick cut in, waving his paws dismissively as he analyzed the pros and cons of Judy’s offer. “Think about it: Carrots goes home every now and then, she’s long past being news around town. Same with me since I’ve been dragged along for visits several times now; rabbits and foxes aren’t gonna stick out, especially around the Hopps homestead. No one’s gonna question that. The Hoppses are also one of the more influential and guest-welcoming families in the area so a couple of extra mammals, even oddballs like the Canistons, are only going to catch a little attention even if we all took a stroll through the middle of town together. Add to that the relatively large and rather uniform population out there, it’s open but still really public, and mammals like the Primalists will stick out like sore thumbs ‘cause we’re certainly not going to vouch for them and rabbits still overall have fears of things like raptors and foreign predatory mammals.”

Nick grinned, and spread his paws to finish his claim. “We’ll have an early alarm system town-wide,” he explained, “plenty of spaces to run and hide in if it ever comes to that, and all of Bunnyburrow would probably freely join up in arms behind their beloved Officer Fluff if she even hinted about asking for help.” He held his arms out in a waiting, expectant gesture, looking between Jack, Skye, and the two Canistons for an answer.

Embron pursed his lips in thought, before nodding. “They do make a pretty good case here, Jack, but it’s still your call,” he said, glancing at the buck.

Jack shared his own glance with Skye, before letting his arms and shoulders drop in acquiescence. “Alright,” he sighed. “I’ll tell Harrison the plan, and then we’ll head back to Embron and Scarlet’s house to grab supplies and weapons just in case. While we’re up there, Hopps, call your parents to ask permission if we can in fact stay there, and then we’ll take the train if they approve. Hopefully the very public mode of transportation will deter any attempts by the Primalists, or even better since the train doesn’t have many cameras keep them from tracking us at all. Medics should have been cleared away from us by now, so let’s move.”

“And someone find where they took my coat before we leave please,” Embron quipped. “I’m not leaving it here.”

Chapter Text

They say that home is where the heart is

But then, where does your heart lie?

Must it be only a single place?

Home may be where you grew up

Or it may be where you end up

Perhaps it’s nowhere solid

But only among those you love

Or, it may really be all these things

Ever changing, ever present

Your heart lies with family, with friends

It moves with the tides of touched souls

It lies with those who hold you up

Those who you can fall upon in tears

Home is where you may be safe

But more so, it’s where you then belong

Exhausted as the party was after returning to the Caniston abode, it was unanimously agreed that some decent rest was the wisest option before trying to head anywhere else. So, with Harrison posted as a sentry along the property’s perimeter just in case, hidden amongst the vegetation and monitoring the area with a couple of drones, and Hannah patrolling the house grounds themselves (she had been livid when they’d returned, not having taken long to find out the two cops had slipped out despite everything, but Embron had managed to placate her enough to keep her from outright biting Nick when the inevitable sarcastic comment escaped the reynard’s mouth), even Jack had immediately headed for his borrowed room almost the moment they’d entered the door and promptly passed out. A deep sleep, punctuated for some by disturbing dreams just on the verge of waking them, took over all six mammals in the household, silence blanketing each room like a smothering quilt.

Bright and early the next morning though, as was normal Judy was among the first to rise from her slumber, and she sat out in the little commons outside the guest rooms on the lower floor with her phone in hand. She anxiously waited for the little device to connect with her parents (or, at least her mother, who typically controlled the phone that Bonnie and Stu usually shared), her foot on the verge of thumping straight through the carpet. Though Judy hadn’t lied about their open attitudes toward drop-in visits or guests, she had exaggerated slightly on their acceptance of said guests, particularly that of unknown predators (particularly larger predators, and in their case at least Embron qualified) among them. No matter who it was, it always took some time for them to get comfortable around a new fang-bearing face; the one time Bonnie and Stu had thus far come to visit Judy in Zootopia, they’d met Christine Fangmeyer at a dinner that Judy had invited them to, and Stu had nearly fainted even despite the tigress being a fellow officer. They had gotten better about it, but Judy doubted they’d ever be rid of their first reactions toward predatory individuals.

After a couple of rings, Judy’s screen finally flashed up an image of both Bonnie and Stu beaming up at her through the Muzzletime app. Despite the early hour, the two older rabbits were perky and bright, no doubt having already been up for a couple hours even before then thanks to their farm lifestyle.

“Hi honey!”

“Hey there, Jude the Dude! What’s up? Everything okay?”

Against her better judgement, Judy suddenly felt a pressing urge in that instant to blurt out exactly how she felt to her parents. They really weren’t okay, but the reasons why were not exactly admissible to the public and would do little more than upset both Bonnie and Stu and put the latter at risk of passing out if they did find out. So with a moment of great effort, Judy instead clamped down on the urge, putting on what she hoped was a bright enough smile as she responded.

“Oh yeah, everything’s great over here,” she said. “Been really busy with a couple exciting new cases, so sorry I haven’t been able to call recently.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Bonnie dismissed. “We know those first couple of months we were calling you way too much anyway. We know it’s a lot of work, what you do, and you are making a big difference. We were just a bit surprised that you were calling so early; usually you’re already at work by now.”

“Yeah, our schedules have, uh, been a bit odd recently,” Judy skirted. “There’s been some, uh, interesting developments on our most recent case, and it’s, uh…well, Nick and I have been put on a sort of paid leave for security purposes and we”-

“Cripes, Judy, you didn’t do something wrong, did you?” Stu broke in, eyes widening as he leaned toward the phone. “Or was it Nick? He always seemed like a nice enough fox, but…”

“Oh, no, no no, you’ve got the wrong idea,” Judy exclaimed, holding up the paw not holding the phone and trying not to get angry over the Nick comment as she shook her head. “It’s for our security, to make sure that…uh, that no one messes up our case. But for part of the leave, the two of us –Nick and I, that is- and a few new friends of ours need to head out of the city for a few days, and we were hoping that we could come out to Bunnyburrow. The guest cottages wouldn’t happen to be available, would they?”

Placated enough by the vague explanation, the prospect of their daughter coming to visit clearly excited the two older rabbits even further, their smiles returning wider than before. “Oh, absolutely Judy, honey!” Bonnie exulted. “Nobody else staying out here yet; temporary help for the harvest won’t need them for a few months yet and we’re not expecting anyone else. How many rooms do you need?”

“Uh, probably four. Two for smaller mammals, and two for more medium-sized or larger mammals. Unless the guest rooms in the house are being used, and then we’ll need a place for Nick too.”

“Oh, that won’t be a problem; his usual space is open, don’t worry Jude. I know which cottage should work then too. When should we be expecting you hon?”

Judy paused to think over the rough plan that they’d patched together for departure at the hospital the night before. They’d be leaving in an unmarked car provided by the local precinct as soon as everyone had a few things packed, and though they’d be taking the Tri-Burrow railway to stay in a public space they would be using a compartment joined near the end of the train so they could slip in outside the main station to try and avoid being captured on any cameras in the station. It was almost certain the Primalists had someone who could hack security feeds with how well they were getting around all the cameras in the city. All that would take a bit, and then the train ride itself would be a fair chunk of time too.

“Well, train takes a couple of hours, so probably sometime in the mid-afternoon,” she finally said. “Can you send someone with one of the trucks, the ones with the larger cabins, to pick us up?”

“Sure thing!” Stu replied. “We’ll try to come ourselves, but if we can’t I’ll get Gage to drive y’all over. Sound good?”

“Perfect. I still have to pack a couple of things, and wake Nick up, but I’ll see you guys soon. Love you!”

“We love you too hon,” Bonnie replied sweetly. “Talk to you soon!”

The video clicked off, and the screen darkened. No longer without an audience to placate, Judy’s smile started to slip and she slumped against the sofa cushions with a long sigh. Then she realized she’d forgotten to mention what kinds of animals the larger mammals were, and tensed up all over again.

“So things are settled then?” the voice of the other rabbit in the house sounded nearby.

Judy, in her tense state, jerked up off the couch before whipping around to glance at the buck, calming slightly when she saw who it was. “You always show up unannounced?” she griped, settling back on the couch with a pout.

“Sorry to startle you,” Jack said with a slight smirk, rounding the corner of the sofa to sit down as well.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Judy dismissed, deciding not to press it. “And they’ll be getting a cottage ready. I can’t help but have some concerns though.”

“You forgot to mention what kind of mammals the Canistons are,” Jack surmised.

Judy nodded, a bit sheepishly. “And Skye’s a bit in the same boat, though she’s probably less of a concern. They’ve gotten better over the past couple of years, especially what with Nick being my partner and a regular visitor alongside me, and them partnered in business with another fox, but they, uh, can still have their moments.”

“I’m sure they’ll figure out quickly enough that having Scarlet and Embron around is good security, if awkward at times,” Jack mused. “And speaking of awkward, we do have a train to catch in two hours and a long ride out to the Burrows to follow. Best we gather everyone and get moving.” He stood up and brushed down his shirt. “I trust that Wilde is up, or will be shortly?”

“I hope so. He sleeps like a rock sometimes.” Unless you drown said rock, or blast an air horn in his ear.

Jack smirked slightly as if understanding her predicament, but it was gone as fast as it had appeared, leaving Judy to wonder if she’d actually seen the expression at all. Then he turned toward the other guest room door. “Well, if he’s to respond to anyone,” he drawled, opening it, “it would be you.” Then he was inside and out of sight, leaving Judy with a growing blush and sudden reluctance to return to the room where Nick still lay.

He knows too, she couldn’t help but think. Is it really that obvious to everyone but me?

A half hour later found the six mammals in the house piled inside yet another car none of them had ever seen before, snaking their way with hidden escorts along the path to the station holding the fewest traffic cameras (not in any small part thanks to Nick’s already extensive knowledge of the city’s layout). It was a silent ride, and slipping from the vehicle straight onto the final car of the Tri-Burrow rail no less awkward. Once the train was on the move though, the group started to relax (or, more accurately, everyone but Jack started to relax. The buck continued to type away on his phone as he coordinated with his agency).

Skye quickly dozed off again, though her ears twitched at every unfamiliar noise that floated up, and Embron alternated between passively watching the scenery roll by and poking his sister, to her annoyance. Judy suspected the cat was more annoyed she couldn’t just hit him with an electric bolt in the middle of the train car in response though. Nick and Judy both sank into themselves, rolling over the events recently past and trying to hash out on their own what was going to happen where they were going. Both knew that they were going to have to talk, and the subjects to be covered were going to be the epitome of uncomfortable and unsettling. It wouldn’t be anything like apologizing for a wrong committed or telling the other about some odd secret either; trying to explain to your best friend that you felt something far deeper for them when you weren’t certain of their mutual emotion was a truly terrifying prospect, for optimistic rabbit just as much as skeptical fox.

The duo couldn’t avoid each other entirely on the ride however. Completely ignoring the other or choosing to sit on opposite ends of the compartment would have been too obvious to the other than something was seriously off, and they both knew it. And, in a stressful situation such as the one they were stuck in, Nick was currently still Judy’s greatest and most accessible source of comfort, and vice versa. Nick couldn’t help but glance at the rabbit sitting in the seat next to him every few seconds, though doing so furtively and hoping that she wouldn’t happen to do the same simultaneously.

Judy was deeper in her own head though, her hanging ears twitching at the occasional unfamiliar noise but otherwise oblivious to the world around her. Nick couldn’t help but feel an urge to try and get her to relax somehow, but he fought against just reaching over and putting a comforting arm around her shoulders as he occasionally would, for fear of causing a reaction he didn’t want right then. Instead, he settled for casually leaning against the border between their seats and letting his tail flop along her side, glad for the moment that Judy as yet didn’t seem to know how intimate a gesture it was for a fox to use their tail as a comfort for another. It was a small comfort; he could express how he felt, without being found out yet.

“Stay that wound up and you’re liable to pop like a bad spring in a mattress there, Fluff,” he said softly, donning an easygoing grin as he watched her tense and snap back to the present, registering his touch and his words at the same time.

“Oh! Uh, sorry,” she said, wrapping her arms a little tighter around herself. “It’s hard for me not to be though, heading out where we are. New faces in town always cause a bit of a stir, though thankfully nothing like the media vultures in the city.”

“Somehow I doubt that’s the carrot you’re actually chewing on.”

Judy glared at him for the little jab, but couldn’t help the corners of her mouth twitching upward a touch. “Alright wise guy; so, my parents still concern me a bit,” she admitted. “Having you come visit with me the past few times I’ve been out has helped them a lot with their reactions toward predators, and them having Gideon for a partner like they do, but they’re not really over it yet, especially when it comes to mammals they’re not really expecting.”

“So you forgot to tell them our other guests are predators when you asked about staying out there, and you’re worried about the reaction they’ll have to the Canistons, and maybe Skye.”

At her slow nod, Nick snorted. “I don’t think you have much to worry about,” he said, gesturing over to where Embron was fiddling with Scarlet’s hair while she swatted at him. “Once you get past the occasionally intimidating appearance they’re just another pair of goofballs like the rest of us and our friends. And if your parents don’t warm to them right away, I’m sure the Kerfluffle will try to adopt them instead.”

At the image that brought up, Judy couldn’t help but snort out a laugh. Not many of her siblings were young enough anymore to make up part of the horde of youngsters that patrolled the grounds of the Hopps house, but many of them had kids of their own, and the little furballs of doom had a tendency to swarm both beloved family and newcomers alike, bringing the former in with full body hugs and baptizing the latter as honorary relatives in the same manner. Judy wasn’t sure at this point anymore where Nick fit in, but the kits had taken a particular liking to him, so she assumed they had simply adopted him as family.

“I wonder how Embron and Jack will do around kids,” she mused.

“Heh, never mind a couple hundred of them,” Nick chuckled. “I can see Skye and Scarlet taking them on no problem, but the two guys might get more than they bargained for this round. Either way though, I stand by what I said: no need to worry. We might just have to wade through a fur tsunami to get into the house is all.”

Judy burst out laughing at the surprisingly apt description, drawing the attention of the other four in the compartment (even a groggy Skye) whom she waved off. Then she let out a far more relaxed breath. “Thanks for the reassurances Nick,” she said softly. “You can’t blame me for being worried though, what with all the other stuff that’s happened, but it’s not doing me any good.”

Nick gave her an equally soft smile and placed a paw on her shoulder, which she unconsciously leaned into. “Hey, that’s what I’m here for,” he said. “Making you feel better while cracking stupid jokes in the interim.”

“Especially the latter. Dumb fox.”

“Emotional bunny.”

A more comfortable silence fell on the compartment, and Nick joined Embron in watching the scenery go by. For most of his life, he had been a city fox through and through, short trips beyond the edges of Zootopia with his mom the most he’d seen besides city parks. Becoming best friends with Judy, and subsequently being dragged out to her old home or on random trips on their days off (not that he was actually complaining) had greatly broadened his horizons with the wider world, and he had found himself not only catching some of Judy’s fascination with the world but ending up surprisingly taken with the open countryside. As he watched the forested mountains circling Zootopia give way to rolling, grassy hills and plains as they approached Bunnyburrow, the clean air and knowledge of the relative silence beyond the train windows seeped into Nick, and he felt himself start to let go of most of the tension of the past several weeks. Visiting the Hoppses was surprisingly more refreshing for him than it was for Judy herself, and already this trip seemed little exception even with all that hung over them.

The fox hoped, however, that the unspoken issues between himself and Judy would be resolved, and between that and having some new friends around, Judy could relax and recover as well. If this case was ever to be closed, they were going to need to be at the top of their game, more so than they had ever been.

The shifting of another lagomorph on the other end of the compartment drew Nick’s attention to Jack, who was staring stoically out the window, in the rough direction of their destination. His expression was flat, almost unreadable, but Nick could tell that under the surface he was out of his element and troubled. There were a thousand items from the recent events that could have been causing it, but the tod sensed that the trouble here was a little close to home whatever was putting him off, perhaps literally.

“You ever been to Bunnyburrow, Stripes?”

Jack blinked, and turned to regard Nick with a skeptical gaze. It didn’t last long though, and Jack dropped back into his seat with a shuddering breath. “I was born there, supposedly,” he replied quietly.

His answer threw Nick for a bit of a loop. “Supposedly?”

“It’s what we could trace, and I don’t think back through my childhood often, Wilde,” Jack said tiredly. It wasn’t the kind of exhaustion that arose from irritation though; this was something stemming from a far deeper issue, one Nick knew in himself. His mind flashed to that night years ago when he was supposed to have joined a Ranger Scout pack, and suddenly for the second time he felt himself feeling empathetic for the buck.

“It wasn’t a good experience for you, was it?” he said, mostly to himself. “I’m sorry if I pried.”

“Not likely in the way you’re thinking, Wilde,” Jack responded. “I will probably explain it at some point, but if you don’t mind, I would rather that story not be told while traveling today.”

“Don’t feel pressured about it Jack,” Judy said. “We all deal at different paces, and if you want to –only if you want to- we’ll probably have plenty of time the next few days to clear the air. We need to worry about resting first anyway.”

Jack’s grateful smile was slight, but it was there nonetheless, and for the first time that he could recall Nick was starting to feel a little warmer toward the rabbit. Maybe he’s got a relatable side after all, he thought. So long as he doesn’t start taking interest in Judy maybe we can get along in the long run. He realized a moment later how selfish a thought that was, but he couldn’t help it. Subconsciously, he leaned closer to his partner as his gaze returned to the rolling countryside.

Some unaccounted length of time later, the automated intercom on the train announced their arrival at the Bunnyburrow station. As the train began to slow down, Jack reached over and shook Skye awake (resulting in a comical flailing jerk from the vixen accompanied by an exclamation of “I’m up! I’m up!”), and the crew of six got to their feet to retrieve their luggage. The locomotive halted and pneumatic doors hissed open, and they all disembarked, blinking in the bright, unfiltered sunlight that the incredibly clear day provided.

Nick sucked in a deep breath of the country air as Judy closed her eyes to let the slowly dawning feeling of returning home sink in, soothing her. Then the former glanced over at the Canistons, both of them with straight faces but visibly glancing around as they took in the sights. To him, it couldn’t be more obvious that the place was a new experience for them, but still sprinkled with something nostalgic.

“I take it the place you grew up in was a smaller town?” he asked.

Embron looked at him and smirked. “More or less. Not that we actually lived in the little city itself, but close enough. So, Hopps, where we headed?”

Judy’s eyes flicked open and turned to him. “At the moment, the parking lot. Don’t know who’s actually picking us up though; it’s never a guarantee my parents can make it out. Come on.” She hefted her bag and led the way past the ticket booths and convenience store doors in the station arch, descending a set of stairs before slowing down and scanning the lot for vehicles she recognized. There were a fair few cars and small trucks present, not unusual, but her search didn’t last long.

“Judy!”

The lapine’s eyes swung to the right, and a smile worked its way onto her face as she caught sight of the brownish gray rabbit waving at her from next to a decent sized old pickup a few rows down.

“Gage!” she called back, quickening her pace and beelining for him, the others trailing behind. Gage stood an inch or so shorter than Judy, with stumpier ears that gave him the impression of being even smaller still when both sets were perked high beside each other. He was a lot stockier though, thick muscles clear beneath his near-uniform gray-brown fur and blue T-shirt.

As she neared her brother Judy dropped her suitcase and ran to him, grabbing him in a hug that nearly pulled him off of his feet. “It’s great to see you!” she gushed. “Mom and Dad get caught up at the farm?”

“Yeah, but they’ll meet you at the house,” Gage replied, stepping back as he and Judy let each other go and looking behind her. “They told me to bring one of the bigger trucks since you had guests coming. ‘Tsup Nick?” He nodded to the tod, who grinned and shrugged.

“The number of shocking revelations, for one,” Nick mused.

Gage smirked in return, before taking in a gander of the others. “Gonna introduce us, Judy?” he asked, looking at her. His expression changed as they locked eyes, silently inquiring a ‘have you told our parents?’

Judy knew exactly what he was prodding at, and winced, answering the question and earning a pitying shake of his head. “Uhhh, right; guys, this is my brother, Gage. He helps my parents run the farm as a sort of second in command. And Gage, this here is Embron and Scarlet Caniston, and special agents Jack Savage and Skye Wellinger.”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Scarlet said, the first to extend a paw. Gage took it without hesitation, following with the others.

“Likewise,” he replied, focusing on the other rabbit. “And Agent Savage, huh? Your name’s a bit of a legend around these parts. Somehow I’m not surprised; first time Judy shows up toting a rabbit along, he’s as off the norm as she is. Can’t help but find it amusing you’re here with another fox partner too.”

“World’s full of odd coincidences,” Jack replied neutrally. “I hope we won’t be intruding too much being here. And I hope no one gains any wrong ideas about why we’re here; rumors can be dangerous.”

“Oh, to be sure a few will, but it’s rarely a problem straightening stories out; big as our families are, rumor patrol is essential.” Gage shook his head in amusement and jerked his thumb toward the truck. “Anyway, Nick, Judes, if you can ride in the back, we should be able to fit everyone else in the cab I think. Ride’s only a short ways at least so it won’t be cramped for long. Oh and Nick: you’re in luck. Gid’s scheduled t’ stop by later today.”

A giddy grin split the tod’s face, and he made a beeline for the truck. “Well, what are we waiting for?” he exclaimed. “Come on folks, chop chop! Get your luggage up!”

“Gee, Wilde, something special about this ‘Gid’ person to you?” Skye snarked, following with the others and only just missing Judy’s exasperated head shakes.

Nick threw his luggage in the back and climbed up, before turning and staring at them expectantly, uttering but a single word as if that were all the explanation they could possibly need.

“Pie!”

Chapter Text

You don’t need a special occasion

To visit the ones you love

You don’t need a situation

To reach for their warming touch

Sure, they’ve got their issues

But don’t we all have our little quirks?

They’ll still hold the box of tissues

When you hit a bump learning how life works

Family is there when times do get hard though

When things are dark and you must lose pace

So no shame in leaning into that hollow

In their shoulders when you take embrace

They’re looking out to keep you safe

Though sometimes it comes out wrong

But even then when misplaced words chafe

It’s only meant to keep you strong

The ride was quiet, relatively peaceful, the truck rattling only slightly as it turned and started to bounce its way down the length of a long dirt drive flanked on either side by vegetable fields and orchards running toward what looked like a wide, slightly domed two-story house. However, the thoughts of the occupants within were not all so serene. Skye took almost no time at all to notice the looks that both Nick and Judy were giving her through the open back window. The present surroundings were quaint, the sort of idyllic only found in rural areas, but all that did was somehow worsen the vixen’s feeling about the impish smirks forming on the two officers’ muzzles.

“Did I miss something?” she asked slowly, her tail curling in on herself protectively.

“The Canistons share a trait with the kids here,” Nick said cryptically, answering nothing at all outright. He had a suspicion that Jack had managed to catch on, as a ghost of a smile appeared on the buck’s face (before a different realization in the same line made it quickly turn into a pale grimace), but he didn’t say anything.

Instead, Skye was left looking lost and a touch on edge. “That could mean a whole lot of things, not all of them pleasant,” she toned guardedly, earning a grin from the coyote sitting in front of her.

“Oh, I’m nothing but an overflowing bag of wonderful and you know it,” Embron joked, to which nearly everyone in the truck snorted.

“Oh yeah, just a complete saint,” Scarlet mocked, flicking one of his ears and making Embron flatten them and lean away.

Gage smirked in amusement, but didn’t say anything as he pulled the truck into line next to several other vehicles of varying size, age, purpose, and gaudy paint palette near the front of the house. “Final stop, Hopps property,” he announced. “All passengers, please disembark, and watch your appendages exiting the vehicle. Thank you for joining us today on Hopps Farm Shuttles.”

“Oh yeah, we’ll fit right in here,” Scarlet laughed, holding up a paw for the rabbit to high five. Shortly thereafter the truck was vacated and everyone grabbed their luggage, before Nick and Judy led the way to the front door.

The house up close gave off the same sort of unassuming soft country atmosphere that it had at a distance, colored a somewhat muted set of earth hues (unlike the station or what little of the town they’d glimpsed on the drive over, though it did have a rather vibrant peach color for a trim) and bearing a simply but elegantly carved door and window frames across the face. The door was, luckily, tall enough to accommodate even Embron without forcing him to duck, so as Judy pushed her way through the entrance everyone followed suit with plenty of room to spare. They glanced around the open foyer within as Judy announced their presence.

“Mom! Dad! We’re here!” she yelled, loud enough to make Nick wince and her voice echo off the deeper halls. Though her parents did not immediately answer, something else certainly did. Jack and Skye both adopted widening eyes, staring with rising concern at Nick as he slowly set down his bags and got into a stance as if he were about to take off on a marathon when an eerie rumbling sound began to vibrate up from the depths of the house, growing closer and louder with rapidity.

“Beg pardon, but what on earth is that noise?” Jack asked softly, glancing at Judy in hopes of a reassuring answer.

The doe only smirked. “Oh, nothing much,” she said airily. “Just the welcoming party.”

“The what?!”

Judy didn’t have the want or opportunity to reply. From the halls directly ahead of them, a great teeming horde of gray and brown appeared, a flash flood dotted by spots of brightly colored clothing and bouncing ears that quickly overwhelmed the hapless group by the door.

“AUNT JUDY! UNCLE NICK!”

Nick grinned and took off like an orange missile down the hall, trailing a heavy stream from the tidal wave crashing behind him, but the others were not so lucky to escape. Soon, they were fully engulfed and covered in the swarm of excited little furballs.

“Judy! We didn’t know you were coming!”

“They brought friends!”

“Are they nice?”

“She brought a bunny this time!”

“I like his stripes!”

“Hey mister, are you Judy’s boyfriend or something?”

“He can’t be; she spends too much time with Nick to have a boyfriend!”

“A white fox! Do you live in snow?”

“She’s even fluffier than Nick!”

“Are you a fox too? You’re colored like one.”

“He can’t be, dummy! He’s too tall.”

“You’re a dummy!”

“Do you have sharp teeth?”

‘Yeah, Nick’s aren’t very sharp.”

“I think we scared the cat.”

“Do you think her spots will fall off now?”

“Okay, okay, break it up!” Judy called, caught between dying of giggles, hugging her younger siblings, nieces, and nephews, and trying to shoo them away from their friends. “Heh heh. Come on you all; haven’t we told you about this? Let the visitors breathe, then you can ask questions later, okay? James, Kelly, Lydia, drop the fox’s tail, you know they don’t like that! Samantha, don’t pull Jack’s ears, he doesn’t like it any more than you do. Cody, leave Embron’s coat alone.” She managed to shoo off the ones that were clambering on Skye, who stood closest to her, and the given free space left the vixen looking like she was on the verge of a heart attack from the sudden invasion of personal space, fur sticking out in all directions. The others weren’t too much better, but they were at least a touch less disturbed by the full-body hugs.

“I have suddenly gained clarity on what you meant,” she said, looking absently at Judy before slowly moving her paws to brush her fur down.

Judy snorted. “Told you, a few shared traits. Alright everyone, I mean it: clear up!”

“You heard her,” Gage jumped in, starting to help herd the horde away. “Get a move on. There’ll be time to get to know them later and…ah, there you guys are!”

Several dozen heads snapped up to see who Gage was talking to, and most of them immediately recognized the two new faces that had joined them in the foyer. The reaction was immediate too, a wave of little rabbits falling off of the visitors and starting to scatter away.

“Kits! Out!” Bonnie Hopps called out sternly, pointing to the halls, Stu standing next to her and divided between giving his grandkits an equally stern look and stealing curious, perhaps anxious glances at their guests. A collective groan emanated from the many young rabbits, but those that hadn’t already dropped off now obeyed lest they incurred the wrath of their grandmother for misbehaving. Soon, only adults were left in the room once more, though peeking eyes, giggles, and the occasional scurrying pair of paws could be heard or seen around the corners.

Only then did Bonnie sweep her gaze over her guests, eyes landing on her daughter and softening into a welcoming smile. “Hey bun-bun!” she greeted, opening her arms as Judy ran to her and Stu. “I’m so glad you could come and visit! Where’s, uh, where’s Nick?”

“The tide of Kerfluff overtook me,” came the amused answer.

Everyone looked down the left side hall to see a tottering totem of young rabbits bearing a vulpine snout waddling up to them. “They know the house a touch better than me still, I’m afraid,” Nick chuckled, shaking his head and jostling several kits in the process. Scarlet couldn’t help but start snorting as she tried to contain her laughter at the sight, and Bonnie sighed as she let go of Judy and turned to face her daughter’s partner.

“Alright kits, you had your fun,” she announced. “Let Mr. Wilde breathe and give the adults some space please.”

“Aww, but he’s so fluffy!” one of the girls complained, but slowly the pile tumbled off under Bonnie’s look, revealing a far more disheveled but grinning Nick. He brushed down his clothes with ease and sauntered over as the last of the miniature bunnies dropped off of his tail, and tipped his head toward the elder pair of rabbits.

“Afternoon, Bonnie; salutations Stu. Sorry for the short notice drop-in.”

“Aw, cripes Nick, no need t’ apologize,” Stu brushed off, reaching out to shake the fox’s hand. “You know we’ll never mind havin’ ya over, short notice or not. For all our Jude’s done fer ya, and vice versa, you might as well be part of the family now.”

It was hard for the fox to not show how much those words actually meant to him. “Well, I appreciate the gesture sir,” he chirped brightly. “The kits seem to have taken the same idea; apparently I’m ‘Uncle Nick’ now.”

Stu nodded and giggled a touch, grin widening as his faze fell on the newcomer closest to his own size. “Alright, and now I’ve got t’ hear what kind of story ends up with my Judy actually bringing a fellow rabbit to the house,” he declared, moving past Nick and holding his paw out to Jack. “Stuart Hopps, but please, call me Stu.”

“A pleasure,” Jack replied amiably, taking his paw in a firm shake. “Agent Jack Savage. I’m afraid the details of that story can’t be shared yet, but we met your daughter via our current assignment.”

“Oh my heavens, you mean our Judy’s helping in a federal case?” Bonnie gasped in surprise, her eyes flitting between Jack and her daughter. “You didn’t tell us you had any promotions honey.”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing like that,” Judy said quickly, waving off the idea. “But we are important to the case; it kind of overlaps, that sort of thing. Anyway, so you just met Jack, and the others here are Agent Skye Wellinger and then Embron and Scarlet Caniston, a couple of friends of Wellinger and Savage that we’ve been staying with recently for the case.”

“Oh come on, you’re our friends now too,” Scarlet said, smiling cordially as she extended her paw to the elder Hopps pair. “Pleased to meet both of you, Mr. and Mrs. Hopps.”

And there it was, Judy noted: the moment of hesitation before her father took Scarlet’s paw, and an even longer pause with Embron. Her mother hid it far better, but it was there too, and Embron didn’t miss it.

“Sorry if our being here is any discomfort,” he said, dropping his ears and making himself look as non-threatening as possible. “Your daughter said that it would be alright, and we needed to get out of the city for a while, but we can find a place elsewhere to stay if it’s necessary, and we’ll be out of your fur.”

“Oh, n-no, no, that’s not necessary,” Stu stammered a little. “I, uh…a-any friend of Judy’s should be a friend of ours Mr. Caniston, and you’re welcome to stay in the guest house here like we arranged with her. It’s just…y’know, old habits die hard. I’m sorry ‘bout that; we’re really trying.”

“And telling you that you can’t stick around wouldn’t help,” Bonnie added, almost shyly. “We need open minds, and the kits warmed up to you fast enough. Call it therapy maybe.”

Embron’s expression softened into a warm smile. “I understand completely, believe me,” he said. “And please, call me Embron; Mr. Caniston was my father, and even he rarely went by that. I also apologize in advance for any antics that my sister might get into; she’s a child at heart still and can’t help but act like it on some-oof!”

“Like you’re actually any better than I am,” Scarlet quipped, elbowing him in the ribs.

Embron grinned at her even as he rubbed his side. “Hey, I resemble that remark.”

Bonnie had been watching the exchange with an unreadable expression, but it didn’t take long to morph into a knowing smirk of her own. “Oh yeah, they’ll probably fit in fine here,” she mused, looking to her daughter. “You sure know how to pick them.”

“Blame Nick; he’s the one who’s related to them after all,” Judy grinned back, jerking her thumb at the fox in question.

Both older rabbits and even Gage looked at him in surprise. “Really?”

“Somewhat distantly,” Embron supplied, “but I am part fox. Scarlet’s adopted, but we might as well be related by blood so what’s that matter?”

“I didn’t know that was possible,” Bonnie admitted, before snapping out of her shock and looking over to her son. “But I’m sure that’s a story that can be saved for later. Gage, be a dear and show our guests to the cottage please? The one with the larger rooms, of course.”

“What, they won’t fit on rabbit-sized beds?” Nick joked, looking up at Embron in faux shock. “Better lose a few more pounds there Godzilla.”

“If I do I’ll look like a grass blade’s shadow,” Embron jabbed back with a smirk, squeezing his coat around himself to emphasize his slim form. “But we can see if I can while we spar, how’s that?” At Nick’s sudden worried swallow he laughed and fell in behind Gage with Scarlet as the rabbit turned back out the front door, the three of them quickly followed by Skye and Jack.

When Nick was the only non-rabbit left in the room, he and Judy moved to also meander out the door, but a word from Bonnie halted the latter. “Judy, would you mind staying behind for a moment?”

“Ooh, chat with the parental units,” Nick cooed in false sympathy, glancing back at his partner as he continued out the door. “Good luck Carrots; see you on the other side I hope.” He door shut behind him, and Judy was left alone with her parents in a suddenly very awkward atmosphere. She couldn’t help but let her ears fall in uncertainty, waiting for them to bring up whatever uncomfortable subject she knew had to be coming.

Stu was the one to break the silence first. “Pretty snazzy looking buck ya brought with ya there,” he noted, glancing at the door. “And a celebrity too I reckon; think I’ve heard that name before ‘round here somewhere.”

Judy groaned and slapped a paw to her face, ears burning. “Oh, sweet cheese and crackers; Dad, not this again, please!”

“What? It’s true,” he defended, spreading his paws. “And just your type, in law enforcement and everything! Even if he is in a more dangerous job, which isn’t the most ideal…”

“Please stop talking,” Judy snapped quickly, holding both paws up in a stop motion as her face heated up. “It was bad enough you guys went through that phase where when I came home last year you tried to hook me up with every buck you could manage to convince to try and date me, but we are not going to subject Jack to that kind of embarrassment.”

“Well, your father isn’t wrong Judy,” Bonnie attempted to mediate, moving her paw like she was patting someone on the shoulder. “And you could certainly do a lot worse than a gentlemammal like that. It wouldn’t be a terrible thing to go on one date at least, surely?”

“You’re not going to convince me of anything either,” Judy said flatly. “Agent Savage is here with his partner on assignment and as a protective detail. Embron can vouch too that he’s basically got a mind for nothing else in this state and, even if he were out here just for a day off to socialize and such, which I honestly don’t know if he even knows how to do, I somehow doubt I’m his type. He’s certainly not mine, friends as I would like to think we are, either; I”-

She cut herself off, realizing what she was about to say, but it was a touch too late. Bonnie locked onto the opening like a shark scenting blood. “So you know you have a type?” she prodded. “Judy, honey, I know you have your priorities and they’re different than ours were, or even most of your siblings’ are, but I hope you know that we don’t push you about this for our own wants.” She clasped her paws together and looked at her daughter askingly. “We want you to be well; rabbits never do that good alone. But if you already know what kind of buck you’re looking for…”

“I really just don’t want to talk about this right now, okay?” Judy finally snapped. “We didn’t come here for me to be pressured about my romantic life or for any of my friends to be bothered about theirs. The past couple of weeks have been unbelievably stressful and all six of us need some time to just reset and calm down, okay? So if I could get a little slack from my parents of all mammals and a promise that you will say nothing to any of them, especially Jack, about dating or anything similar, it would be reeaallly appreciated.”

At her parents’ owlish stares, she wondered if she had been perhaps a touch too harsh in her tone, but Judy knew she couldn’t take back anything she’d said either. She’d meant every word, and her ears folded back defiantly as she tried to slow her breathing down.

Bonnie broke her trance first, expression softening and turning a touch motherly as she stepped forward and placed a paw on Judy’s shoulder. The younger flinched, but at least didn’t draw away. “This wasn’t just a case precaution, was it?” Bonnie asked softly.

Judy opened her mouth to respond automatically, before the memories of everything behind the situation at hand slammed back into place and she choked on her own words. There was no way this was something she could explain to them, not now and not without expecting to give them both heart attacks. But they wouldn’t take nothing at all from her either, and she knew that just as certainly.

“The world just got a lot bigger for Nick and I recently,” she replied in a whisper. “But I can’t explain how to you, mostly for your own safety. Please, we need your support and a place to recuperate right now, and arriving here to a misinterpretation and arguing won’t help with that.”

Silence answered her for a time before Stu pulled up at his suspender straps and stepped forward, holding out his arms. “Look Judy, we don’t mean any harm or anything, I promise, ‘kay?” he said, gesturing for a hug. “We worry, but every parent does that you know. I’m sorry for crossing any lines here. Can’t say I understand what’s goin’ on with ya and your friends, but you just relax here, okay? We won’t say another word on it, until you’re ready o’ course. At least I won’t.”

Judy was able to put on at least a small smile at this rather big compromise for her father, and she accepted the hug that her mother joined in on. “Thanks you guys,” she said softly. “We really, really need it. I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

“I think we can understand bun-bun,” Bonnie reassured. “It sound like it’s been rough. Besides, no worse than some of the spats we’ve had with your sisters.”

They separated with chuckles, and Judy looked to the door. “I know my old room is still as is, and the guest room for Nick nearby, so we’ll get to that later. I’m going to go see how the others are getting settled though.”

As she tuned to head out the door, her mother held her back once more. “Also, just to warn you hon if you’re so worried about the relationships thing, Lorelei is still here,” she said. “If Mr. Savage is seen by her she may be tough to dissuade, so if you don’t want that going on…”

Judy felt the skin under her fur go pale as the blood drained from her face. “Oh, sweet cheese and crackers no.”

Embron looked around at the combined living room/dining area of the little cottage they’d been loaned for use for the duration of their stay. The kitchen was visible as an offshoot of the dining portion of the room, not quite as versatile as he would have liked but far more equipped than he’d expected from a small country guest house. Undoubtedly a few extra supplies from a run into the town would see him and Jack cooking with ease (or, if he could play it right with his phantom sore side, Embron hoped he could rope at least Skye and maybe Scarlet into manning the stove on occasion too. Scarlet would be hard as a rock to convince though), and good food was a prime means of recovering.

From the living room, a short hall ending in a restroom branched off to either side in two pairs of bedrooms, and a set of stairs let down a basement where Embron hoped they would find a washer and dryer, all the implements they really needed. Plus, the space below their feet would provide a good private location for discussions pertaining to dealing with the Primalists and perhaps building a few off-the-cuff weapons just in case. They’d brought along several of course, but Embron and Scarlet at least subscribed quite strongly to the notion of the “better over-prepared than under.”

“I know it’s not much, but hopefully this will do for now,” Gage said, watching his family’s guests as Nick stood aside looking around impassively.

Skye snorted in response to Gage’s words, before noticing his growing look of indignation. “Sorry, didn’t mean it that way,” she apologized. “If you knew some of the places we’ve had to sleep in while abroad, this would look like a gift from Bill Goates by comparison. Way better than we would have pegged for your average country guest house too; your family should be proud they can give accommodations like this.”

“Well, my parents would be quick to wave it off, but I’ll take the flattery,” Gage toned. “I’m the one mostly maintaining them.”

“Oh, so that’s why there’re all those dirty paw prints on the drapes,” Nick tittered.

Gage’s gaze whipped toward the window, ears rising in alarm and irritation. “What?! But I just had those…”

The curtains were spotless, fluttering slightly from the warm breeze flowing through the slightly open panes and looking for all the world like they hadn’t been touched, by stained paws or not, in years. Gage’s ears fell and he glanced at Nick.

“You’re hilarious.”

“The unquestionable truth, announced to the world yet again.”

“More like you’re incorrigible and a pain in the tail,” Judy’s voice sounded behind him.

The fox jerked in surprise and turned to face her, but not fast enough to escape the punch to his side “Ow! Uh, you heard that, didn’t you?”

“Every word,” Judy replied smugly, pointing to her ears. “Gage, feel free to smack him if he steps out of line again, ‘kay?”

“Huh! Carrots, are you encouraging violence toward an officer of the law?”

“No, I’m ensuring that the orange magnet for frustrations gets what he deserves. You know Bogo would label it proper reprimanding if you actually complained too.”

The tod’s ears fell. “Using the Buffalo Butt trump card,” he huffed. “Low blow, Fluff.”

“Par for the course Slick,” Judy chirped back cheerfully.

“Good grief, they’re almost as bad as we are,” Scarlet commented, glancing at her brother as they both snickered. “Sure it’s safe to leave the two of them in the main house together?”

“If they blow something up they’ll face the wrath of one Mother Bonnie,” Gage smirked, waving off the mimicked worry. “After 275 kids she knows how to handle the rowdy ones.”

“Two hundred sev- are you serious?!” Jack exclaimed, turning to stare at the two Hoppses present as if hoping this was just another joke.

Judy snorted and nodded, not placating his worry at all. “Yep; we’re one of those classic old rabbit families that raised a bunch of kits for farm life. Gage and I are from a couple of the middle litters; he’s slightly older than me, there are some even older litters already off in the world too and a few younger still around. Most of the kits in the house are nieces and nephews of ours though.”

“No wonder there was a horde,” Scarlet huffed, amused gaze sliding in the direction of the main house. “Even just a small percentage of your siblings has kids and that could be a couple hundred. How the heck do you manage to house a family like that?”

“Oh, most of the house is underground, lots of rooms and floors,” Gage explained. “You only saw the front guest area; things extend quite a ways beneath your feet from there. Nick can vouch, he’s gotten lost down there a couple of times.”

“Like getting stuck in the depths of some top-secret government building,” Nick affirmed. “Be a great setup for a horror film.”

Gage nodded, before continuing. “Anyway, but that’s why we have the guest cottages: even with a handful of rooms in the house for some mammals to stay over, for the most part we have to house family there and anyone else elsewhere. Nick’s a special case though, larger mammal that he is compared to most rabbits but for some reason my parents like him, so they set up a bigger bed for the spoiled fox there. And reunions are a nightmare.”

“I can imagine,” Skye said. “Invite all the relatives over and it’d be the town doubled over. I’ll stick with my smaller group of kin I think.”

An awkward silence fell, no one with anything much to further the conversation with mixed company, before Gage cleared his throat and headed for the door. “Well, I’d better get back to work,” he excused. “Harvest never ends around here, and neither do repairs. Oh, and Judes: don’t know if Mom told you, but  keep an eye on Savage. Lorel”-

“Yep, she told me,” Judy sighed, “and if she so much as lays a finger on anyone here I’ll drop her in the grain silo.”

Gage snorted and sent her a thumbs-up, before sending a farewell salute to everyone and slipping out the door.

Jack stared at the exit for a moment, before quirking a concerned eyebrow and looking to Judy for an explanation and eliciting another drawn-out sigh from her.

“My sister Lorelei,” she began. “Couple years younger than me, tan with dark hazelnut ears. She’s…well, we haven’t yet found a buck that she doesn’t like and she gets touchy-feely if not outright lewd around males of any kind. And, uh, she’s no small fan of yours, what with the reputation and all.”

“Fantastic, fangirl with an overactive libido,” Jack muttered, ears falling flat. “And there goes my hope of me getting any peace and quiet while here.”

“Oh don’t worry about it too much, Stripes,” Nick reassured in a not-so-reassuring tone. “Either play hide-and-seek for a week or kiss her once and she’ll probably pass out for the rest of our stay.”

“I’d rather not be kissing anyone, least of all any of Officer Hopps’ sisters, thank you.”

“Alright, alright, less worry, more recup,” Skye quipped, picking up her bag and heading for the hall. “I’m gonna grab a room for myself. The rest of you should do the same, and maybe get back some of the sleep we’ve all lost over the past few weeks. That means you, Jack. Leave the team-contacting for later –don’t deny it either, I know you’re thinking about pulling that phone back out right now- and Embron, Scarlet, don’t push yourselves.” With that, the snowy vixen vanished into one of the far rooms, leaving the rest staring after her and her sudden very no-nonsense attitude.

“Wow, she gets bossy sometimes, doesn’t she?’ Nick remarked, one ear tilting in bewilderment.

“You have no idea,” Jack said quietly. His shoulders slumped as whatever fight he’d built up to argue with left him, and grabbed his bag as well. “She is right however, loathe as I am currently to admit it. Hopps, Wilde, I will speak with you tomorrow, no sooner. I’d better retire for now.”

“Yeah, best we got set up shop too,” Judy agreed. “Come on Nick, we’ll leave them be for now. Embron, Scarlet, if you guys need us for anything, send someone; we weren’t kidding, the house is a labyrinth if you don’t know the layout, and best if you don’t run into my grandfather while wandering around. He’s got a few bolts loose and still goes after Nick every now and again.”

“No worries Hopps,” Embron waved off. “We’ll talk to you later. Go take the fox to his den already.” He turned away, smirking at the obvious blush rising up on both of the smaller mammals, and sauntered into the hallway to claim a bedroom himself.

Chapter Text

Has it started to come clear yet

That your pathways need to change?

Have you noticed those around you

Are all walking the other way?

You’ve been striving for so long

To keep in the comfort zone

But all that’s done is make it hard

For you to sing in peaceful tones

They’ve told you time and time again

It’s now you should take your stand

But still you keep on holding back

From taking that needed hand

“I wonder how they’re doing.”

“They’ve only been out of the city for a few hours Elliot.”

“Oh come on, don’t tell me you’re not concerned about them. This mess they ended up in the middle of is a big one, and it’s kind of obvious that they’re not telling us something really, really important about it all.”

Christine lifted a finger to rebut the wolf sitting in the seat beside her, but couldn’t find a point she could actually deny him on. Instead, as their patrol car rolled down the streets of the Meadowlands, she lowered her paw back onto the steering wheel and focused forward, one ear flickering as she half-attempted to scan the area.

They were heading toward Copper Park in an attempt to find out if there were any clues about the case that they’d been at least temporarily assigned to that might help them succeed where, thus far, Hopps and Wilde had not. It was a long shot (rarely did any officer manage to dig up something that either the rabbit or fox ever missed), but there was little point in just leaving the situation to stagnate while the two best suited for the job were MIA. While Antlermore’s team pored over traffic camera footage in the hopes that perhaps the perpetrators had a car and were caught passing through an intersection somewhere, one Wolfard and Fangmeyer pair moved about as the eyes in the field until the detective team had something to chase.

“You are concerned,” Elliot said smugly, noting the dropped finger. “Doesn’t help all the conflicting vibes that I kept getting from the mammals they’re with either. That white fox doesn’t seem too bad, Agent Savage is…enigmatic but I know he’s got a good reputation, but I have no idea what to make of that coyote and ocelot that were there. The latter one weirds me out a lot.”

Christine snorted. “We don’t really know most of them well enough yet to be making judgements though. But I wouldn’t worry too much; Wilde’s a natural at discerning the kinds of mammals he’s around, and he looked pretty comfortable around them.” She paused in thought. “Well, except for Savage, but I don’t think that’s much to go off of what with Judy in the mix.”

“What does she have to do with it?”

The tiger gave her partner the stink-eye. “Oh come on Elliot, don’t you tell me you’ve never noticed how Wilde hovers around his partner sometimes. If he isn’t falling for her or at least being an incredible flirt –which I don’t put past him either- I’ll eat my badge.”

She wasn’t sure if her partner was snickering at the image of the fox pining after the rabbit or her gagging down the bronze pin on her uniform, but Wolfard nodded either way. “Guess you’re right,” he admitted. “Anyway, here we are. Hopefully there’s something out here for us to find.”

Christine pulled the cruiser over to the side of the road, alongside the usually unassuming sight of a calm, wooded park. In the daylight, and this far from the actual site of conflict, Copper Park was almost welcoming looking still. Or, it would have been, were it not for the length of yellow crime scene tape fluttering in the slight breeze from where it crossed between the first line of trees. The two predators climbed out of their car and ducked under the tape before heading through the woods, senses on alert.

“I hope this isn’t a waste of time, considering the preliminary search didn’t turn up anything useful,” Elliot muttered. “Other than odd marks and blood from a coyote that didn’t look like he had a scratch on him at all when we met him and the others.” He paused in his step, looking at Christine frankly. “And there’s something that’s really unnerving me the most about this: if a paramedic reports that someone is bleeding out and on the brink of death, I don’t expect them to be sitting up and having a deep conversation without the slightest sign of conflict on them only minutes later.”

“Wilde did allude to something like secret tech involved,” Christine pointed out. “Who knows what international agents have at their disposal. But you’re right; makes me wonder how odd the ‘marks’ everyone else found on the ground and such out here are, and whether or not they mean anything for the case. I didn’t catch any specifics.”

Her question didn’t take long to be answered when they reached the site of the final fight of the night before. Elliot’s eyes bugged out as he jogged up to the spires of granite that appeared to have quite literally exploded out of the ground.

“This wasn’t a feature of the park before, I know that without doubt,” he said, reaching forward gingerly and touching the rock that jutted out nearest him. “The ground around here is cracked and tossed away, like these…like they literally just popped up out of the ground!”

“Could the perp have brought these in from somewhere, or have them rigged beforehand under the ground somehow as a trap?” Christine asked, looking over some of the others nearby. They were shorter than the ones Elliot was looking at, but thinner, like spears rather than the near-triangular taller ones and all the more sinister for it.

Elliot shook his head. “Not a chance,” he replied. “These ones here are taller than me, which means they weigh at least twice what you and I combined do. Know any mammal our size who can lug around a weight like that, especially a quarter mile through the trees, let alone a dozen of them? And, the officers from the local Precinct also dug down along the side of one of them, see?” He pointed to a narrow hole a few feet deep, traveling right down the side of one of the rocks. As far as it was dug, granite continued even further. “They go down looks like probably at least as far as they do up, and to plant something like that the perps would have had to drive an elephant-size truck in here and dig up this whole area to put something like this in, not to mention bury a mechanism to push them up for whatever reason, which would take burying something under half the park to move stones this big. That would have been really obvious, and we’d have seen notes about it before coming here.”

The wolf sat back and shook his head. “Heck, if this really does have to do with the animals chasing Hopps and Wilde, there wasn’t any guarantee those two were going to come here, not with the info we got in the report or from the agents, never mind the chance that they would run though this specific point.”

Christine pursed her lips in contemplation; nothing about what her partner was saying boded well. “So, if nobody could have dragged these in and there’s no way you could set something like this up on a spring trap, how’d they get here?”

“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” Elliot admitted.

“Well, I knew that, but I’m talking about the rocks here.”

“Hilarious. You’ve been hanging around Wilde too much. But really, the only inkling I’ve got is that this somehow came up from the bedrock below. They match the granite layer that sits between topside and the limestone of the Nox below, but I haven’t the slightest notion how they ended up shooting through the ground like this. It’s really unsettling.”

Something bitter twisted in the tiger’s gut. Wolfard was one of those oddballs that knew just enough about a whole lot of subjects that he could piece together theories, however unusual they were, for almost any situation, and more often than not they turned out pretty close if not spot on. Wilde was the only officer she knew that could top her partner at that game. It’s what made him a great cop, and a phenomenal aide to her sharp eyes. That he couldn’t think up anything at all for this meant that whatever was working behind this case was truly in the realm of the unknown for them.

That, or the theories that the canine probably did have were so outlandish that, like the fantastical silliness running through her mind before she dismissed it, he wasn’t even bothering to entertain them. There were movies and storybooks, fantasy and adventure, and then there was reality.

Christine wandered away from the rocks, her eyes flickering over the slashes that littered the branches and trunks of several trees and assuming they were the marks of either claws or the myriad weapons she’d glimpsed on both the agents and the Canistons (she’d never guessed that anyone actually still used swords and throwing stars in real, modern combat, but all assumptions were going out the window with this situation). Then her gaze landed on a spot in a more cleared area further on, where the grass and smaller plants had been bent outward from a central, blackened spot in the dirt.

“Hey Elliot, over here,” she called, stepping carefully over to the mark and trying not to disturb any of it. As she got closer, too, her ears bent in bewilderment; the black circle in the center was not the only mark, not by a long shot. Rather, snaking out from it among the bent plants were twisting, jagged lines of burnt ground and vegetation that spread out in every direction for a radius of ten feet. Christine wrinkled her nose at the odor that drifted ever so slightly through the air above the burns; it was a scent she typically associated with violent thunderstorms or power plug issues.

Elliot soon joined her. “What’d you fi- oh. What the hell?”

“Yeah. Looks like a lightning bolt exploded right here or something. You smell that?”

Though a couple of feet further away, with his stronger nose it still only took the wolf one quick sniff before he grimaced. “Yeah, smells like ozone for sure. That it’s still lingering this long after last night though…your lightning notion ain’t too far off I’ll bet. But, uh, there weren’t any storms last night, and we’ve got deep paw prints here, both a small cat –gonna guess that’s probably the ocelot- and a set that almost looks like mine which I’m guessing is the Thylacine. Both sets look about as old as the burns.”

“And so the plot thickens,” Christine muttered, glancing around. Almost immediately, she noticed that this wasn’t the only jagged burn mark in the area, though it was certainly the biggest. “Local witness reports say there was some sort of big flash over here, and a crack like thunder, around the time of the fight. Think this was some sort of electrical weapon they used here?”

“If it was, it’s not one that I want to ever tangle with. If it can leave marks like that and make the air smell like a lightning strike hours after the fact, it’d have no problem barbequing one of us. Which begs the question again, why the heck nobody was wandering around with even so much as a singed patch of fur last night. I’m suspicious of Nick’s half-claim about some awesome medical tech fixing that too. I mean…come on, we only got the call like 20 minutes before we got there.”

The whole case stank something fierce, and Christine’s flickering ear told her partner she agreed wholeheartedly. The tiger stood up straight again and turned to regard the area once more, her paws on her hips. “There are other signs of last night further that way,” she said, gesturing further into the park, “but I doubt we’ll find anything more odd than this mess here. We’d better get moving anyway; we’re scheduled to meet up with Jameson and company in an hour or so to update them. Not much to add besides the agents’ warning being affirmed, unfortunately, but maybe they found something on the cameras.”

“Well, I can bet they’re hiding out somewhere in the Meadowlands,” Elliot mused as they turned back in the direction of the road. “Even with that huge eagle in the mix, they’re not flying anywhere, and I doubt they’ve got a car honestly, never mind using public transportation. That would be too much to track them with. They will be limited in travel for the most part thereby, so they’re probably not trying to set up traps too far from their holdout.”

“It’s probably not too close to here either though,” Christine pandered, gesturing her paw vaguely beyond the trees. “That would put them at too much of a risk of being rooted out, since the first sweeps would probably cover the buildings nearby.” She started counting off options on her fingers. “So maybe the outskirts, border areas with the other districts where it’s also less crowded perhaps; an unassuming looking house, not likely the classic abandoned warehouse or apartment obviously. Might help narrow down the preliminary searches.”

They reached their patrol car, and Elliot sighed as he popped his door open. “I hope so,” he said as he climbed in. “Even with every precinct in the city on the lookout it would be a really, really long combing process otherwise. That’s the one thing I really hate about being a cop in Zootopia: this city is huge, and you can’t get everywhere in a timely manner.”

In some ways, it was a lot like her old apartment in the city: small, minimal personal utilities, and there were always neighbors in the rooms nearby, often being rambunctious at any odd hour.

However, that was where the similarities ended, and Judy was very happy that her room had not been changed since she’d moved out. Bathrooms were only just down the hall rather than a trek through a complex (though, admittedly, they were no more private than those of Grand Pangolin Arms; less, even, in some ways), the laundry could be just chucked down the chute, all her old stuffed toys, awards, and youthful crafts were still scattered around, and instead of obnoxious, noisy and nosy neighbors whose only similarities to her were sharing the same apartment building, the occupants of the adjoining rooms here were all relatives, most of them her beloved siblings.

Although, now that she thought about it, some of them were just as obnoxious and nosy as Bucky and Pronk had been (and knew her a lot better, and so knew exactly how to get under her skin), so maybe there were still more similarities than she’d previously acknowledged. But at least here, if Judy needed peace and quiet and her room wasn’t living up to that function, there were a dozen alcoves about the house that were held by nearly all family members as places of personal resetting, places she could always run off to at a moment’s notice if she needed. Nick’s designated guest room was also only three doors down the hall from her room too, just around the corner. Even better, the house generally upheld a strict “knock first” rule when it came to guests and their rooms, so more privacy could be had there.

The thought of privacy in Nick’s room brought about a new and rather unsettling twist in Judy’s stomach though. Sleeping alone in her room suddenly felt like a punishment knowing that her partner was so nearby, made worse by the fact that she had no idea how he would take to the notion of her bunking with him, or even the notion of her mentioning it. Heck, even just thinking about it herself brought a warm flush to her ears that Judy did not know how to get rid of, pushing the idea of even asking further from the list of viable topics in conversation. This unknown between them needed to be addressed between them while they were here, that was absolutely unquestionable now, but of all things that the lapine was absolutely terrified of, it was the mysteries when it came to her own heart, and that of Nick’s, that scared her the most. The last thing she ever wanted to do was run him off, or hurt him with her words and wants.

Her eyes flicked to the copy of the photo stashed on her little desk, the one that she’d had her parents take at Nick’s graduation ceremony. Judy felt another stab run through her looking at it. There they were, standing side by side, proud and tall as they could be in both of their full dress uniforms. It was perhaps one of the most genuine smiles Judy had ever seen on the tod, and only now did Judy notice how she was leaning slightly into his hand on her shoulder in the image. Her smile was broad too, but if one looked at it long enough, it was obvious that the expression wasn’t from pride in her partner alone. There was something more subtle, flickering in her eyes, something only seen in the eyes of those with far more powerful emotions running through them concerning the mammals they were with.

“It’s been there a long time, hasn’t it?” she whispered quietly to herself, walking over and picking up the little frame. “All that time while he was gone, you never questioned why you felt you needed to call him every night, why it took that much longer to fall asleep.” She snorted, and shook her head as she set the photo back down, smiling wistfully as she turned to pull out a set of clothes to lay back in her old chest of drawers for the next day. “God above Judy, you are blind, you know that?”

“Gee, with all those orange roots you eat you’d think your eyesight would be pretty decent,” Nick’s voice sounded through her open door.

“Aaahhh!” Judy yelled, shooting straight up in the air and spinning around, clutching a blue blouse for dear life and just missing scraping the ceiling with her ears. “Nick!”

“Wow, might have to get your hearing checked too,” the reynard drawled, walking in and plopping down on the end of her bed. “I wasn’t being very sneaky walking over here. My my, all of an hour back home and you’re already losing your city senses. Is it typical for country bunnies to talk to themselves too?”

“Oh, like you never carry conversation with yourself,” Judy snapped back, shoving his shoulder in exasperation as she walked over to the drawers.

“Not that I recall.”

“Oh, so you admit to having imaginary friends at 33 years old? I always knew you were a child, but…”

“I admit to nothing of the sort.”

“That’s as good as saying ‘yes’.”

“But, I never said it. No words to use against me this time, Fluff.”

The rabbit grinned as she turned back to him, hands on her hips. “That’s okay. I can prove you guilty of being an obnoxious fox, and that’s enough to get people to side with me just to spite you. Not to mention it won’t be too hard to catch a recording of those convos I hear you having under your breath every now and then. So, what are their names?”

Nick leveled a narrow smirk at her and crossed his arms. “No can do, Carrots,” he said. “Again, gotta have imaginary friends in order to name them.”

“Gotta have an imagination to have imaginary friends too, I guess.”

“Ouch, hitting right in the hustler’s pride. I’ve been wounded!”

Judy sighed as she joined the tod on the edge of the bed, though keeping a touch of distance from him; despite the lack of other mammals in proximity to drop in on them, she couldn’t find it in her to make now the time to talk about…that.

“Sometimes I wonder if you should have sought out a career in acting instead,” she mused. “You’ve got the drama queen part down already.”

“And I’d probably do pretty well to boot,” Nick agreed, ignoring the jab. “But, it wouldn’t make the point that being a vulpine officer does, and I doubt it’d be quite as exciting. Plus I wouldn’t have nearly as many opportunities to irritate you, now would I?”

Judy couldn’t help but let the sarcastic smile return. “Yeah, you just thrive on that, don’t you?”

“You know you love it.”

“Do I know that? I’ll have to get back to you on that one.”

Quiet fell for a minute or two, the pair of them both just enjoying the silence together (at least until the muffled noise of kits somewhere in the halls broke it) as well as trying to find words. Finally Nick sighed and flopped backward across Judy’s bed, his height making his ears smack across her pillow even as his legs remained hanging off the end.

“This feels so odd,” he muttered, vaguely taking note of the slightly too-old paint peeling off the ceiling above them. “And I don’t mean lying on a bed too small for me. After all we’ve been hit with, suddenly we’re here, being required to basically lounge around at a quiet country home. Well, quiet being a bit of a relative term sometimes,” he amended as his ears flicked toward the sound of something thudding to another room’s floor with some decent reverberation. “I mean, we all totally need to rest, but…uh, I don’t know. Kind of feels like any second now life’s gonna give us a wake-up call and we’ll be back to watching reality fall apart.” His head tilted up a bit to look at Judy’s back. “Makes it hard to believe I’ll actually get any rest while I’m here, alone in that room with nothing to distract me from the world, so what good will it do I then ponder.”

Judy nodded, pointedly ignoring possible implications to that statement that she was sure she was just reading into as she looked around her room, before falling back against the bed as well. “Yeah,” she agreed. “It’s making this place feel…well, it still feels like home to me, but usually my room was always my own space to escape everyone else and be myself, relax and unwind and all. Now, trying to imagine sleeping in here after everything…” She shrugged, not quite knowing how to say it. “Well, just doesn’t feel quite right,” she finally decided. “Makes me think about how all the…well, all the guest rooms in the house have at least two beds; I think I’ve gotten used to you or someone else being closer around.” She cringed. “And that’s making me sound really clingy now.”

“Hey, can’t fault you for it this time,” Nick said, swallowing thickly. “But, uh, m-my door’s always open if you can make arrangements…how’s that sound?”

His offer sounded way too tentative and not casual enough at all for his liking, and, suddenly feeling very awkward with the conversation, he tried to wave off the sensation with a grin. “Not that I could really stop you from going somewhere in your own house,” he added, “but, uh…”

“Hey, even as a guest you’re entitled to your privacy,” Judy quickly added, before smiling softly. “Probably more so than the rest of my family. But really, thanks. I…I don’t want to impose on you, but aside from the Canistons or the agents, you’re really the only one here who’s actually going to understand what it’s like and, well, I’d much less rather share a room with one of them right now.”

“Not even ol’ Tiger Bunny?”

“God, no! Are you nuts?” Judy exclaimed, turning and punching Nick in the arm, unaware of the relief her outburst had given him. “The last thing I could see Jack being is an emotional cuddler or even decent support, whether or not he wears a mask like you do too. It’d be like trying to be roommates with a pet rock.”

Nick burst out laughing at the image of Jack as a striped stone sitting on a bed, before he sat back up and began stretching. “I’ll have to remember that one,” he grinned. “Anyway, not much to do down here, so I’m gonna head up top, see if I can’t catch the pie-mammal first when he gets here. Care to join me?”

“You are incorrigible, you bottomless pit,” Judy remarked as she hopped of the bed to follow him.

“Guilty as charged,” the fox tossed back. “But I know you can’t stay away from his goods either; carrot muffins ring a bell?”

Judy winced, knowing full well that Nick had hit a weak spot, but luckily for her the sound of someone knocking at the front door on the floor above them distracted both mammals from the word war. Nick’s grin got wider, and he accelerated his pace in the direction of the stairs.

“Must be Greyscale,” he concluded. “Last one up is a rotten blueberry!” In seconds he was around the corner and gone.

Judy rolled her eyes and followed up at a slightly slower pace, hoping that her partner wouldn’t be so childish as to end up actually running anyone over in his pastry-induced enthusiasm; she tried to stay close just in case anyway though. She reached the front living space just as the first kits of the house did, and Nick was pulling open the door. The larger, somewhat more rotund fox on the other side of it blinked in surprise as his reception started with reynard, not rabbits, but his expression soon morphed into an amused smile as Nick’s arms spread wide in clear half-expectation that the larger fox would simply hand the stack of pie boxes in his arms over.

“Greyscale! If it isn’t my favorite source for delicious goodies!”

“We-ell, whaddya know, the city fox is in town,” Gideon chuckled, shaking his head and somewhat pointedly side-stepping Nick with a grin. “Ya might get a piece, but these ain’t all fer you, greedyguts. I take it then that Judy’s also –ah, there ya are! What’s the occasion?”

“Case requirement for work actually,” Judy replied, waving off the excited kits around her feet as she walked up alongside and elbowed Nick, “along with a few friends. Ignore the glutton here, he’s probably more dangerous than the kits are to those pies.”

“Now now, I’m just a very appreciative connoisseur of well-baked delectables,” Nick defended.

“You’re a face-stuffer who eats too many sweets for his own good.”

“Nice t’ hear nothin’s changed between the two o’ ya,” Gideon drawled as he headed for the hall leading to the kitchen. “Keep the door clear, would ya? Got me some help comin’ through.”

Judy’s ears perked. “Business booming for you, huh? Might want to look into expanding soon I’ll bet. Who’s helping?”

“Me.”

Two sets of ears and eyes turned back to the doorway, and Judy’s smile brightened further. Balancing a stack of pies as tall as the one Gideon had been carrying, despite her shorter stature, was a young black-woolled sheep, sheared moderately short and wearing a stylish orange blouse and tan capris.

“Oh my gosh, Sharla!” Judy exclaimed, bouncing up and down before dashing over to the ewe. “I haven’t seen you in so long!”

Sharla laughed as she stepped inside. “It’s been a few years, hasn’t it Judy?” she replied. “I’d better go put the pies down before you hug me though; wouldn’t want rhubarb or blackberry all over the floor.”

“I’d be happy to help,” Nick said lightly, only for both females to shoot him suspicious looks. “What?”

“You’d be happy to help eat them,” Judy snarked, following behind Sharla and half-guarding her as Nick trailed along into the hall.

Sharla glanced back at Nick and smirked as they walked. “I guess that confirms it,” she drawled, “you must be the Officer Nick Wilde that I heard about on the news, and that Gid keeps telling me tries to mooch off all his pastries.”

“Honor him with my praise, you mean,” Nick pandered back.

“Sounds like that’s a ‘yes’,” the ewe chuckled. “Nice to finally meet you in person.”

They entered the kitchen (or, part of it; as many mouths as the Hopps house had to feed, space for cooking took up two rooms and a half), and Sharla set down the pies next to Gideon’s stack on the island in the middle before turning and accepting Judy’s enthusiastic embrace.

“So, I’m sure you already know what I’m still up to,” Judy said wryly as they let each other go, looking her old friend up and down, “but what about you? Color me surprised, what led you to working with Gideon?”

Sharla waved a hoof. “Oh, ran into him on a visit from a couple years ago, and he had to go on apologizin’ for all that stuff that happened when we were all little and dumb”-

“Hey, I-I really felt bad fer what I did,” Gideon cut in, pointing a finger. “Don’t you go sayin’ it was nothin’.”

“Done and over is my point, ya big softie,” Sharla chided teasingly, smirking as she gestured around the kitchen they were in. “no need to worry about it. I mean, you’re workin’ with the Hoppses, which says a lot about the years since, don’t it? Anyway, like he does now he offered me a slice of pie and I was hooked, so I started stopping in at his store a lot. Liked it better there than at my other summer job, so when he offered me a spot to help him instead since he was gettin’ so busy, I took it. Been working there summers and on breaks between school since.”

“So you’re in college then?” Judy asked. “What program? I know your interests didn’t change too much through high school.”

“Oh yeah, not at all,” Sharla agreed, before shaking her head. “Tryin’ to be an astronaut specifically is hard though, so I decided to be a little more flexible. Got an engineering degree, and then I managed to actually get into an aerospace engineering program at Hoggleston University. It’s a good next step I think; anything’s possible, right?”

“Well Sharla, that’s great!” Judy exclaimed. “You’ve got to keep me posted on your progress. Hey Nick, you think Savage or Wellinger might know someone who could- Nick!”

Said fox froze, his hand halfway inside the top pie box closest to him and a guilty look on his face that said everything about what his intentions had been. Gideon caught wind too, and adopted a hands-on-hips stance that looked for all the world like he should have been brandishing a wooden spoon to point at the other tod.

“Now come on Nick, ya know the rules,” he admonished. “Ya buy a pie yourself, or ya ask the Hoppses first. No matter if ya know they’ll say yes, you gotta ask.”

Nick sighed, arms dropping to his sides. “And yet another tragic delay in my sampling of heavenly sweets,” he groaned dramatically. “Fine. I guess we’d better go and find Bonnie or Stu right away then, hmm?”

Gideon huffed and shook his head in bemusement. “I should find a towel to smack you with just because at this point,” he said. “Ya got a one track mind. So happens I do need t’ speak to Mr. Hopps though, so if you’re so famished as ya pretend to be, maybe we can go root him out together.”

“But what if Judy eats all the pies while I’m gone?” Nick asked in mocking suspicion. “We can’t just leave them all alone here with these two!”

Judy scoffed. “Right, I’m going to scarf down a dozen and a half fox-sized pies on my own. I’m not a glutton like you; go on, maybe you two can have some fox-to-fox time while Sharla and I catch up.”

Nick glanced at Gideon, who shrugged, before replying. “Fine. But if I find that blueberry pie gone when I get back I’ll be cranky, I warn you. Come on then, Greyscale; sooner we find Stu, sooner I feast!”

The two foxes left the kitchen, leaving the girls alone as they headed for the front door of the house. As they walked, Nick noticed out of the corner of his eye the other vulpine’s demeanor change a touch. Gideon quieted quickly, and began glancing around the hall and foyer as they passed into it again. Or, more importantly, he was glancing in every direction except for Nick’s, and his paws were fidgeting like he was sitting in a chair outside a principal’s office. There was only one cause that Nick could think for the change, and he slowed in his steps and turned to regard the larger fox directly, folding his arms with a frown.

“We’re not really going to do this again, are we Country Boy?” he intoned, fingers tapping on his arm.

Gideon froze, bearing nearly an identical expression on his face to the one that Nick had been wearing when he was attempting to pilfer the pie. “I-I don’t know what you mean,” he tried deflecting, about as effectively as blocking a rainstorm with a tissue square as he still couldn’t even meet Nick’s eyes.

The older fox sighed and rolled his eyes, before marching over and clapping a paw on Gideon’s shoulder. “You know I know better than that Gid,” he said imploringly, “and you know I said everything’s okay already. Don’t keep beating yourself up; it’s been what, fifteen, sixteen years?”

Gideon sighed and spread his arms. “I know, I know,” he said, “but…the thought keeps comin’ back, ya know? I was prolly the reason you guys had trouble getting along at first, an’ it was a terrible thing I did.”

“And you were a kit, and kits are kind of pugnacious at times by nature. If it wasn’t for the fact that we were civilized adults and she was already an actual officer of the law it might have been the same kind of thing I’d have done after that disaster of a conference a year ago, but Judy’s got a big enough heart to see past the two of us being stupid, so probably best we should too.”

Nick swung around to look Gideon straight on. “Now I’ll tell you for a third time,” he continued, “no need to worry. I don’t hold what you did some sixteen years ago against you, especially when you took the initiative where I didn’t to change. It took a crazy rabbit practically tying my paws behind my back with her enthusiasm to do the same thing for me. Plus, I gotta forgive a guy who makes blueberry tarts as addicting as you do.” He grinned, shoving Gideon softly in the shoulder, and was finally rewarded with a reproving smirk from the other fox for it.

“Ya can’t keep serious fer even a whole short conversation can ya, you beanpole?” Gideon remarked.

Nick snorted. “You kidding? Better to laugh at the world than cry about it. Now, drama’s over, let’s go find us a farm bunny.”

They exited the house and started down the road around the homestead toward the guest cottages and equipment barns, expecting that Stu was probably in one of the latter. As they passed the now-occupied cottage, Nick noticed one of the new temporary residents sitting on the porch swing installed out front, lounging in the sun.

“Hold up Greyscale, got someone you should meet,” he said with a smile, steering the two of them toward the cottage. “Thought all you guys were supposed to be resting inside, eh Embron?” he called out, grabbing the attention of the porch-lounger as evidenced by the perked ears that resulted. “What-cha doing out here?”

The coyote lazily turned his head and opened one eye to regard the approaching company. “Resting, yes, but nobody said inside,” he drawled. “Sunlight’s one of the best things for recuperating, especially for mammals like me.”

“You can’t just go along with it, can you?” Nick sighed. “You solar charged or something then?”

This managed to draw a smirk from Embron at least, who lifted his head up a little further. “Been around me for how many weeks now?” he retorted. “You should know by now: if I’m not being sarcastic myself, my entertainment is making others’ attempts fall flat. And in a manner of speaking, I can be.”

“Ugh, killjoy.”

“At your service!”

Gideon huffed, watching the exchange with curious eyes. “Wow. If I didn’t know any better I’d say you two were related or something.”

“Funny thing, that,” Nick chuckled, gesturing to the lounging canid on the porch. “Gideon, I’d like you to meet Judy’s and my new friend, who also actually does happen to be a distant cousin of mine, Embron Caniston. His sister’s probably inside with a pair of international agents who are tagging along; maybe I’ll introduce you later. Embron, our local baker extraordinaire, Gideon Grey.”

Gideon looked between Nick and Embron a couple of times, skeptical confusion his expression. “Wait, you ain’t pullin’ my leg, are ya? You’re actually cousins? Agents? And quit flatterin’ me, I ain’t that good.”

“I am in fact part fox, and that part just so happens to be a branch off his family line,” Embron explained with a grin, pointing at Nick before sitting up and extending his paw. “Nice to meet you Mr. Grey; I’m sure with all I’ve heard about your cooking that you do well enough. I’m a baker as an occasional hobby so I like meeting others. Ever thought about advertising in the city?”

“I may have to, soon enough,” Gideon replied as the initial surprise wore off and was replaced by resigned acceptance of the oddities, accepting the coyote’s paw and shaking it. “Shop’s gettin’ mighty busy ‘round these parts and I have to look into expanding soon, perhaps.”

Embron nodded. “Well, I or even Jack, who’s inside, might know a mammal or two who could help with that. Though that might have to be a conversation for our next visit; he’s out cold right now and I’m still not sure I’m mentally all here either. It’s been an interesting past day.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Nick quipped.

Gideon chuckled, shifting his stance a bit. “Well if y’all are anything like Judy ‘n the rest of her friends, I ain’t surprised by that. Anywho, we’ve gotta go find Mr. Hopps, so we-we’ll be out of your fur.”

“No bother,” Embron waved off. “No reason to be a stranger; we’ll be here at least a few more days probably. I’ll tell Travis I finally got to meet you too.”

Gideon, who had just started to turn and saunter off the porch, froze and turned back to stare at the coyote. “Wait…y’know Travis too?” he said in surprise.

“Geez Embron, any circles that you haven’t been a part of?” Nick remarked, also looking at him in surprise.

Embron shrugged and smiled lazily. “He’s a biochemist at Zoo U; we hire him occasionally to help at the house or for AOMISDOPS work. Mentions his old country friend Gideon from time to time, and I’ve got to add in, he’s a bit more socially tolerable than his cousin whom you might know Wilde.”

“Oh joy, let me guess: orange-furred creepy noodle in the bowels of the Precinct 1 Morgue?”

“Yep. He’s alright if you get to know him, but Nate’s a bit off-putting at first glance.”

“Or second, or third,” Nick drawled, to which the coyote snorted in amusement. “You’re making me develop a serious urge to start singing ‘It’s A Small World’ right about now.”

“Smaller than you might think, Nick. Anyway, won’t hold you guys up any longer, though Gideon: if you’ve got the time later, I’ll pay premium for a large strawberry pie, and I’ll tell Travis to get in touch with you again soon.”

Gideon smiled at that. “Not a problem, Mr. Caniston. I’ll swing back by in a couple of days. Nice meetin’ you, and do tell Travis I said hi when ya see him next. It’s been a couple years since he last came into town here.”

The two vulpines waved goodbye and headed off toward the barns beyond, Gideon still glancing back every now and then though at the odd canid on the porch behind them. “So Nick, that Jack guy he mentioned,” he queried, glancing at his fellow fox, “just t’ top off the odd coincidence pile ya stacked up for me today, he wouldn’t happen t’ be that ‘Agent Jack Savage’ fellow all the bunnies ‘round here like to talk about in the shops and such, would he?”

“Oh yeah, one and the same Greyscale, one and the same,” Nick confirmed.

“Figures. Nothing with you guys is normal.”

Nick snorted and patted Gideon on the shoulder. “You’re telling me; I blame Judy,” he grinned, “as I was a perfectly normal fox before she showed up. Weird follows her like flies follow garbage trucks –and that was a terrible analogy. But, I’d say normal isn’t all that it’s hyped up to be either, so I won’t complain too much. Oh, there he is; Stu!”

The Hopps patriarch was pushing open the door to the second barn down the path, probably to haul out one of the various farm machines hidden within, but he paused when he spotted the two foxes heading this way. Luckily, it was not a pause of apprehension, but of recognition.

“Oh, Gideon, Nick!” he called back, waving at them. “Just the mammals I needed to see. Hey, you two mind lending me a paw for a moment? I’ve gotta pull this tractor out and check the engine.”

“No problem Mr. Hopps,” Gideon replied, walking in behind the rabbit with Nick in tow. As Stu climbed into the driver’s seat and unlocked the brakes, the foxes got behind the vehicle and started pushing, ever so slowly getting the tractor to inch its way out of the barn and into the sunlight.

“Thanks for that boys,” Stu said as he crawled back down the side, looping his thumbs around his suspender straps as he jumped down. “Now, I’m bettin’ you’re here about the next scheduled fruit delivery, right Gid? And Nick, since you sauntered out here with him, I’m gonna guess you’ve got a question or two about the stack of pies on the kitchen counter inside, am I right?” The buck grinned knowingly, and Nick’s half-guilty smile in return said it all.

The two girls watched the foxes head out of the kitchen, both of them with their respective gazes fixed on a different vulpine. “Half-tempted to hide that blueberry pie just to spite him,” Judy commented nonchalantly, though her tone told the sheep she wasn’t quite there anymore with the thought.

Sharla turned toward her friend at the words, and noticed the flicker of uncertain longing in the rabbit’s eyes. She couldn’t help but give a small smirk before hiding it; she knew that look, having worn it herself before. But, better to not start that conversation right off the bat, she decided; leading into it with something else entirely would be more likely to produce the answers the sheep wanted.

“You haven’t missed much in town here the past couple months, I’m afraid,” Sharla said, grabbing Judy’s attention again. “That you have Nick and friends over will probably be the biggest news we’ve got around here.”

“Great; that’s what we were trying to avoid by coming here,” Judy groaned, ears falling as she leaned against the counter.

“Aw, you know how it is in ‘small’ towns,” Sharla drawled, waving a hoof. “Anything becomes news here. So, I guessed you had friends with you since you mentioned a couple of names and I spotted somebody lounging in front of that one guest house nearby who definitely wasn’t a bunny, but who is with you anyway? Other officers, or did you actually make some other connections outside your job, Miss Workaholic?”

“Hey, I’m not that bad,” Judy protested, landing a mock punch against the sheep’s side.

Sharla snorted and crossed her arms. “Right. Never even had a boyfriend in high school ‘cause all you could focus on was bein’ an officer. But that’s beside the point of my question.”

Judy gave a hum of resignation, before glancing at the kitchen window. “Well, both and neither, in a way. We met them because our current case overlapped with theirs…quit giving me that look.”

“You did just kind of drop yourself there.”

“Fine, yes, more friends thanks to work, happy? Anyway, their case ran into ours, because two of them are actually international agents, and the other two are allies of theirs. Don’t tell anyone about them though, ‘kay?”

Sharla’s eyes widened in excitement. “Really? Real agents? Like the whole action-film-spy kind of thing?”

Judy chuckled, imagining that both Jack and Skye would probably fit well into a movie premise somewhere. “Well, might as well be with what they can do. You remember when we were younger, and a bunch of us kits would go celebrity nuts over that one rabbit agent, Jack Savage?”

“Yeah-wait. You’re not implying…?”

“Yep. Him and his partner Skye.”

Sharla stared at her for a moment as if expecting Judy to backtrack on her claim, but when the rabbit didn’t she took in an inhalation of mixed excitement and worry. “Oh wow!” she exclaimed. “So that’s why you mentioned a ‘Savage’ earlier. Yeah I won’t let that info get out too quick though, or the town just might go nuts. Bunnyburrow’s unofficially claimed hero rabbit, actually here in person; some girls would still fangirl over him I’d bet. Oooh, gosh, Lorelei’s here you know.”

Judy let out a long-suffering sigh. “Yeah, Gage told me,” she groused. “The longer I can avoid her altogether, and keep Jack away, the better. But, on the other hand…well, if she lives up to her namesake around Jack she’ll probably deserve whatever she gets. Never mind how he’ll react either, Skye’s pretty protective of her partner too.” She smiled at the image. “Maybe they’ll get Embron and Scarlet involved for a lesson teaching. That’d be a show I’d watch.”

Sharla cocked an eyebrow in interest, moving to sit down on a chair at the nearest table. “Those the other two then?” she asked as Judy joined her.

Judy nodded. “Uh huh, and those two are probably the more interesting pair actually. They’re both self-defense experts, Embron’s a biologist who knows a ton about exotic plants”-

“Oh you two must get along great then,” Sharla interrupted with a giggle.

Judy shot her a glare before continuing. “Anyway, he’s also a snake keeper, so there’s that too. Scarlet’s an actress and engineer, but they both actually train agents like Savage. And get this: Embron’s a coyote, but he’s a distant cousin to Nick, believe it or not.”

It took a minute for Sharla to figure out what that meant. “So…the guy’s part fox?” she asked. “I didn’t think that was possible.”

“Before we met them there was a lot that I thought was impossible,” Judy remarked distantly, before snapping herself back to the present. “You should have seen Nick’s face though when the guy laid out their whole family history to prove it too. I even learned a few things about my own partner in that exchange.”

Sharla nodded, before tapping her hoof on the table. “Well, you’ll have to introduce me before you guys head back,” she stated emphatically. “Maybe Gideon and I can help you guys stay off town radar a little more too. Speaking of town gossip, if it ever gets out, there could be other news running around if we’re not careful about it.”

Judy’s ears perked, looking at her with curiosity. “Oh? News about us, or you, or…?”

Sharla smiled cryptically. “Well…it’s a bit more than I’m just working for Gideon during the summer, if that helps give you a hint.”

That got Judy’s full attention. “Wait…are you implying what I think you are?”

“We’re expecting to go on our second official date in a couple of weeks, once we get a time and place set.”

The rabbit’s eyes bulged in excitement and shock, and she bounced up out of her chair. “Really? Wow, I’d have never called that! Whole lot has changed since childhood, huh?”

“Yup,” Sharla agreed, emphasizing the last letter. “When I first came back after my first college semester I didn’t expect to even run into our old grade school bully, let alone see him owning his own bakery. Became a curiosity, and I had to stop in and see what was up. Lo and behold, I found our current version of Gid inside, all awkward an’ apologies like I mentioned before. It was kind of sweet, irony and all with his shop bein’ a bakery, and…well, I guess things just started running from there.” She paused, looking at Judy who was wearing a sugar-sweet smile of her own at listening to the story, and the sheep’s own smile turned a touch more devious. “Ya know what would be a great idea too? Once you finally get around t’ telling Nick how ya feel, we could go on a double date.”

Judy immediately leaned away in surprise and embarrassment, ears falling flat again as she donned an expression like she’d eaten something terribly distasteful. It didn’t last long though, the rabbit shortly deflating with a resigned sigh. “You too, huh?” she said softly.

Sharla gave an unapologetic chuckle. “It’s kinda obvious the way you were lookin’ after him when he left the kitchen,” she said. “That longing stare that only someone with a crush wears who hasn’t acted on it. Ya plannin’ on doing anything about it, or is it you’re scared what other mammals are gonna say or something?”

That wasn’t the heart of it; Judy had never been one to care too much about what others would say. If she had, she’d have never even gotten into college for her criminal justice degree, let alone actually become a police officer or convinced a once-conmammal fox to join her. But, she couldn’t say that it didn’t play a part here. Sure, Sharla and Gideon would make for an almost equally controversial couple –more, even, in some ways- but they weren’t in the constant public spotlight like she and Nick would be.

“It might be a little,” she admitted quietly, “but I didn’t actually know, really, that I liked him that way until recently…e-even if I think I was falling for him back during the Night Howler panic. I don’t know if he feels the same way though, even if others keep saying they think he does.”

Sharla nodded solemnly, her mouth forming a silent ‘oh’. “So you’re afraid of getting hurt if it ain’t mutual.”

The rabbit barely nodded, staring at the floor. “It isn’t just me being hurt though,” she said quietly. She flinched as she felt Sharla’s hoof on her shoulder, and looked over to see her old friend smiling reassuringly at her.

“I think I know a little of what that feels like,” the sheep explained. “After all, I was the one who said somethin’ to Gideon just out of the blue to get things going between us. I was worried the moment I’d said it that it would be taken the wrong way and all that, but as I was telling him I realized it at least took somethin’ big off my chest to just get it out. Things happened to work out from there; turns out he’d held a bit of a crush even from when we were all little. Now, you were always the more confident of the two of us, so if I can manage it, so can you. And if a lot of mammals are sayin’ they think it’s mutual, I’ll bet he’s been givin’ off signs that you’ve just been missing, or ignoring, for a while too.”

Judy sighed and waved her paw halfheartedly. “Probably,” she admitted. “I missed the clue about the Night Howler thing that I needed for months, so why not something else that would change my life?” She paused, and glanced out the window uncertainly. “But…I’ve seen other mammals collectively make observations and assumptions that were flat-out wrong before, so what if that’s the case here? I…I can’t lose Nick from my life, and if we’re not both into each other here then that…I’m afraid that would push him away.”

Sharla could see the fear in her friend’s eyes, and tightened the grip she had on the bunny’s shoulder like a reassuring hug. “I get the feeling these ‘lots of mammals’ are probably ones you would trust, right?”

A nod.

“Then ya probably don’t have much to worry about. And with how much Nick clearly cares for ya one way or another, following you into officer business and all, even if he doesn’t feel the same I really find it hard t’ believe he’d just up and leave ya. It takes dedication to become a cop even if you pushed for it first. And tell you what.” The ewe scooted her chair over so she could basically side-hug the rabbit, squeezing her affectionately. “You get it over with while you’re in town, and if things really don’t go well, you come over to see me and I’ll be a shoulder for ya to cry on for a while, sound good?”

Judy sent her a grateful smile, leaning into the embrace. “We have to talk it over while we’re out here somehow anyway,” she said softly. “It might be part of the tension we’ve been having with the agents recently, and with our current case…it’s really bad when your personal conflicts start making your work dangerous. It’s just…this is the first thing that I’m truly terrified to face, so I don’t know what foot to start off with.”

“Whichever you feel most inclined to jump on, of course,” Sharla joked, earning a half-serious glare from Judy, before patting her on the shoulder and looking at her with that same reassuring smile, but with an imploring drive behind it. “Just be honest,” she said, “and don’t think too much before you say it. It comes out better, and a lot easier that way; your head will just muddle it up. Believe me, it’ll work out somehow, and again, if it really doesn’t, I’ll be right here for ya.”

Judy couldn’t help but let a tear fall as she turned and hugged her friend fully. “Thanks Sharla,” she sniffed. “It means more than you know.”

Chapter Text

I was afraid of even toeing the line

Terrorized by the thought of loss

I never wanted to risk all we had

Like betting lives on a mere coin toss

But it has become truly obvious now

We can’t keep fighting this mess

It’s time to face the current’s flow

Put the impossible to the test

I hope that I’ll find you on the same line

Let us come together in a purest dance

Open that door we should’ve never held closed

It’s long past time we took our chance

Evening passed.

Morning came and went. A new day rose, and then toiled on, and before long yet another evening had swept by and night too ran its course once more.

As the sun breached the horizon for the second time since they’d come to the farm, Judy blearily cracked open one eye and cursed the fact that her room was one of the ones along the edge of the house, bearing a small cellar-style window that let those morning rays wash in, destroying any further chances of sleep. Not that there had been much sleep to begin with though.

That night, and the night before, Judy had found herself sprawled across her bed in her sleepwear, tossing to and fro with an inability to get comfortable. Her body longed for another comfort, having someone nearby at least if not sharing a bed with, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to actually confront her parents to ask about taking the other bed in the guest room even despite Nick’s hesitant invitation two days ago. Nor had she been able to come up with any good explanation that she could give him, or any at all really, for why she’d been so hesitant in return. It was just another on the pile of reasons she was shaky about running into him again, and had done all she could not to.

So, instead of end her suffering and face the problem once and for all, Judy remained spread-eagled on her own bed, failing to sleep or, when sleep did come in rare spurts, plagued by dreams split between being rejected by her partner in the worst of ways and being chased through darkness by shadows that could bend earth and fire. It was an odd and disturbing pairing, and she couldn’t say which made her feel more helpless, each waking her up with the feeling of being more tired than when she’d fallen asleep.

There was no escaping the day though. The doe knew that if she didn’t get up soon, the rest of the house would worry and be on alert anyway. Like her parents (though maybe not to as much of an extreme as they) she had always been a naturally early riser, and even back to rest on visits she had never stayed cooped up in her room for long in the mornings. Rather, she was always up to face the world with a smile on her face, and that’s what everyone would expect. The last thing she needed right now was her whole family inquiring about why she was looking so harried and worn down, and why it was so clearly not just whatever case she was on that was bothering her.

Not that some of them don’t already seem to know, she thought sourly, thinking back to the unwanted confrontation she’d had with her sister Jennifer they day before. Jennifer was particularly close to Judy, being from the same litter, but when it came to personal lives she was nosy as all get-out and always managed to latch onto those having troubles with other mammals of interest to them. Luckily, Judy had managed to slip away shortly after, and Jennifer at least didn’t blab about such personal secrets, but it was still uncomfortable knowing there was someone around the house who knew, and who was liable to run into Nick without as many inhibitions as she had about talking.

With what felt like a Herculean effort, Judy finally rolled herself over and slowly sat up, blinking away what grogginess she could. It was going to be a long day, she could already tell that much without doubt. She swung her feet over the side of the bed and stood up glacially, twinges from the minor injuries and exertions she’d gained a couple of nights before still making themselves known but almost faded (they would have already been gone entirely, she was sure, if she could actually manage a full night’s rest at some point). A good stretch pulled most of the knots out, before Judy pulled off her night clothes and slipped into a loose set of pine-colored pants and a maroon-purple shirt. Around the farm, she didn’t feel like wearing anything that would stain too noticeably, especially as she’d taken up the endeavor of working out in one of the fields for the past day so she’d be less likely to get stuck somewhere where she’d have to confront Nick.

The thought of the fox made her heart twinge, and out of sheer impulse Judy padded over to her door and stuck her head out, looking in both directions as she half-hoped and half-dreaded that she would see a russet tail wandering by somewhere. Save for one of her less-familiar nephews meandering a ways down the hall with his phone in his paws however, the corridors were empty.

With a sigh of awkward relief, Judy slipped out of her room, closing her door carefully and speed-walking toward the stairs. Nick was probably still asleep, she reasoned, so there was a fair chance she could manage to grab a quick breakfast and escape to the back acres of the farm before the tod even deigned to think of rising.

A handful of rabbits were present in the dining area, but no foxes this time. Judy grabbed out a bowl and a box of cereal from one of the many cabinets along the wall, pouring herself a serving and settling in a chair in the far corner of the offshoot closest to the kitchen proper. Eyes all turned her way in the room, immediately taking in her bedraggled appearance and sudden asocial tendencies with curiosity and a touch of concern. None of them tried coming over to sit with her though, for which Judy was very uncharacteristically happy for. Some time to herself, to sort her thoughts (never mind that she’d failed at this prospect already for several days now) so she could tackle the problem when she was comfortable, was what she wanted.

Right.

“Who am I kidding?” she muttered to herself, resting a cheek on her left paw as she absently stirred her cereal with the other. “I’ll never feel comfortable with this subject.” The slow approach of a set of lapine feet drew Judy’s attention back to her surroundings briefly, and she looked up, only for her expression to drop further.

Jennifer. The doe with an uncanny resemblance to her sister –if it weren’t for being about three inches shorter and the whole of her ears flushing deep grey instead of only tipped black- spotted the look she was given and paused, but continued approaching anyway, swinging a chair out and sliding into it next to Judy with a practiced flourish.

“Aw, come on now, my company can’t be that bad, can it?” Jennifer prodded. “For being here ta rest up and escape the city pressure, you’re obviously not gettin’ a whole lot of rest.”

“Yeah, tell me something I don’t know,” Judy grumbled back, looking away and forcing herself to take a bite of cereal if only just for the distraction.

Jennifer huffed and scooted closer, undeterred. “Well it’s no wonder you’re not getting better,” she admonished. “You spent all day practically by yourself because you basically avoided your whole family. Heck, we heard more from the two predators holed up with the agents in the guest cottage than we did you, and they only came outside once all day yesterday.”

“Well, Embron doesn’t shock me there; he’s an introvert. Scarlet will probably wander around more.”

Jennifer’s ears fell flat, and she reached over to spin Judy’s chair around to face her. “Missing the point Jude,” she toned. “You’re not gonna recover any if ya keep stressin’ over whatever it is that is so clearly eatin’ away at you. And don’t tell me ‘it’s the case’ or anything. I know that ain’t the whole problem.”

Judy growled and turned her glare on her sister. “Jen, I thought I made it clear yesterday”-

“Whoa, whoa, hold on, not here to argue, ‘specially about that,” Jennifer backpedaled, holding up her paws. “Look, ya need something to distract your mind properly if you’re not gonna face the issue at least, and you need to hang out with your family for a bit, or at least some of us certainly want you to. It’s been two months since we last saw you after all. So hear me out.” She scooted closer again, putting one paw on Judy’s shoulder in an invite. “Me and a couple of the other girls here have been getting a project going out in one of the barns, and we were hoping you’d join us and lend a hand, at least for an hour or two. It’d keep your paws busy, your mind occupied, and I promise none of us are going to say anything about your love life while you’re out there, okay? Whaddya say?”

Judy pursed her lips, once again resorting to absently stirring her now fully mushy cereal mess. Jennifer was right of course, much as Judy didn’t want to admit it, and the notion was tempting. If they kept to that promise too, it was likely to be therapeutically distracting, so there wasn’t much of a downside other than letting go of her own stubborn nature.

Actually, that wasn’t even a downside either, when she thought about it.

With a sigh, Judy nodded and pushed away her cereal bowl. “Alright Jen, you win,” she relented. “I’m not that hungry anyway, so I’ll tag along now if you want.”

Jennifer responded with a beaming smile as she bounced up out of her chair and held out a hand. “Great!” she exclaimed. “Come on then!” She half-pulled Judy up when the other doe took her paw, and led the way to a side door leading from the kitchen to the outside. As they passed by the guest houses, Judy spotted another littermate of hers, Jeremy, on the porch of the occupied one chatting with Scarlet. Mustering up a smile, she sent a short wave to them and managed a touch more of a bounce in her step when they both enthusiastically waved back.

When Judy had turned away again though, Jennifer waved as well, before grinning and giving the pair on the porch an A-OK signal. Scarlet signaled back, her beaming smile morphing into a cunning smirk as she and Jeremy immediately hurried to the main house.

The two rabbits headed for a small barn that abutted the nearest of the blueberry fields. Well, this barn was closer in size to a shack than a proper barn, used more often as a hangout location too rather than storage or mechanic workshops like the other, larger ones that dotted the farm. Thus it wasn’t too surprising to Judy that this particular barn was their destination. If somebody was running a project that was either too messy or big for a room in the house, it would probably be in the blueberry barn.

“So,” Judy began in a casual tone, “what is the project you guys started up? Mechanics? Makeup experiment maybe? You know I’m not too huge about the latter.”

“Yeah, yeah, ‘cause you were always a tomboy through and through,” Jennifer teased, pushing the door open and letting Judy walk through first. “Naw, I wanna keep it a surprise. The others should be coming by in a few minutes anyway, and then we’ll set everything up.”

“Well, don’t keep me in the dark too long,” Judy huffed, plopping down on a stool inside.

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Jennifer reassured, looking off toward the house expectantly before stepping inside the barn and closing the door.

Nick could not say that his morning was going particularly well.

The past two nights had not been kind to the fox sleep-wise (he’d found himself far more often than was comfortable longing for a certain soft, grey-furred mammal to embrace, something that obviously was very absent from his room at night), and what little he had managed to grasp had been fitful and short-lived. Needless to say, when a rapid-fire series of knocks on the door jolted him out of a hard-won nap in mid-morning, he wasn’t too chipper about the wake-up call.

With a groan, he tilted his head up and around to stare at the door like it had just insulted his mother, pondering whether or not he should reply to the awakening with cordiality or a manner pertaining to how he really felt right at the moment. The notion that it could be one of the elder Hoppses present spurred him to decide on the former (if only just), though he did resolve that if it wasn’t and was instead someone else that he had a decent standing with, he could always get grumpy then if called for.

“Who’s there?” he called tiredly, ears tilting up halfway in awaiting a response.

“Nick? It’s Jeremy,” a voice answered through the door. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

Nick took a moment to sort through the fair handful of rabbits he’d actually learned the names of, before settling on the image that matched that moniker: one of Judy’s littermates so the same age, a fair bit taller than her (and only just shy of being as tall as him if you didn’t count the ears), and more brown overall with black-tipped ears. Jeremy had a decent sense of humor and got along with him well enough, so Nick decided that this time he would cut the visitor some slack. Plus, the guy rarely bothered anyone without good reason, so there was probably some sort of good push for him to be knocking on Nick’s door in the first place.

“Eh, was gonna have to get up at some point anyway,” the fox replied dryly. “No biggie. Something you need me for?”

“Yeah, was talking with Scarlet, and we need your take on something I’ve got out in the barn by the blueberries. You okay with tagging along for a minute?”

Blueberries; there wasn’t a better magic word that could have been used. “Yeah, hold on. Let me find a decent set of clothes first.”

Nick slid out of bed and ambled over to his suitcase, pulling out a properly eye-burning tropical blue shirt and his classic khakis, foregoing his tie for the day as he got dressed. Then, he walked over and popped open the door, greeted by the sight of Scarlet leaning against the opposite wall in her classic “devil may care” style and Jeremy standing cross-armed nearby.

As the fox appeared, the rabbit brightened up in a smile, before grimacing slightly. “Eesh, having trouble sleeping?” he asked.

Nick scoffed. “Nah, just unveiling my new ‘walking dead’ look. Just need to eat a bowl of raspberries to finish the presentation.”

“Right; just admit you’re ugly right out of bed and concede defeat,” Scarlet teased. “Goes better with that atrocity you call a shirt.”

“Me? Ugly? Never. You just don’t want to admit I’ve got great fashion sense.”

“My brother has more fashion sense than you, and it’s still only passable because he hides his terrible outfit pairings under his coat most of the time.”

Nick laughed. “Oh, is that why he’s always got that thing on? I thought he just liked looking dramatic.”

Scarlet grinned. “That too,” she admitted. “But what can we say? We’re both actors in a fashion, we like being dramatic. Anyway, come on; sooner we get this done, the sooner you can go take a nap again. Sound good?”

Nick nodded, liking that plan, and fell into step behind her and beside Jeremy as they headed for the stairs. “Sleep will always sound good, especially after getting caught in a battle with the Kerfluffle,” he joked, smirking a he spied one of the aforementioned young rabbits peering around a corner ahead, the kit giggling as he ducked back out of sight. Then he turned toward Jeremy. “So, what’s this something you need my expertise for? Is it blueberry-related? You mentioned it was by the field there.”

Jeremy sent a veiled smile back. “Not quite,” he admitted, “but it’s definitely something else I know you like. We’ll show you when we get there.”

Outside, Nick was refreshed a little from his tired state by the warm sun popping out between scattered clouds, spurring on a warm breeze in the fresh air. He took a deep breath, catching the hints of ripening fruits and orchard flowers in the current wafting around him. “Yeah, getting outside helps,” he sighed, turning again and following the other two around the side of the house, back toward the fields beyond. “No wonder country folk are able to get up so early around here.”

“Yeah, we’re not poisoned by the cramped city air and noise like you guys are,” Jeremy ribbed. “We don’t spend any energy battling that mess, so we’ve got plenty to spare. Plus, mammals in the city have all sorts of odd rhythms, so it’s a wonder anyone can sleep, period.”

“We make an art out of it,” Scarlet said lightly. “Or, like my brother and I, find the parts of the city no one else wants to live in and get plenty of peace and quiet there.”

They reached the barn, and Scarlet paused outside, turning to Nick. “After you,” she gestured, sweeping her paws toward the door. Nick grinned and adopted a suave, aristocratic look as he sauntered in.

“Why, thank you, madam,” he said haughtily. “What a chivalrous gesture. Now, what order of attraction doth thou needeth my opin…”

He trailed off, his eyes locking with those of the rabbit that sat on the stool across the room. They stood (or sat) there, staring at each other with lost expressions, for nearly a full ten seconds before the realization clicked through even their sleep-deprived brains. But by then, it was already too late.

“Jennifer!” Judy yelled, her eyes snapping over to her sister as she rocketed up off the stool, but Jennifer had already slipped past Nick in his stupor and out the door. Nick, too, turned to raise his voice toward Jeremy and Scarlet at that point, but before he even managed one step in their direction the door closed behind Jennifer and the sound of the beam across the doorway falling into place thudded through the air.

Nick slammed both paws against the door, but only got a rattling frame in response. Glancing around, other than the narrow windows along the walls, there were no other ways out, and with Scarlet standing right outside, he had a sinking feeling that none of the exits were going to be viable in the slightest anyway.

“Oh, you have got to be joking,” he growled, ears falling flat as his hackles instinctively raised. “There’s not project here or anything, is there? This was just a trap!”

“Got it in one,” Scarlet’s voice answered, “though I wouldn’t really call it a trap, per se. More like a necessary encouragement.”

“Nick, Judy, we’re really sorry,” Jennifer’s muffled voice came through the door as well, “but this can’t keep going on. You’re both hurting yourselves and everyone can see it.”

“Look, Embron and I had said that we wouldn’t meddle with this either,” Scarlet added in again, “but it’s dragging out so much longer than it should, and you guys have already had plenty of opportunities to clear things out but you’ve resorted to ignoring and, yes I’ve watched so don’t deny it, actively avoiding each other.” She sighed, before continuing more softly, “We’ll come back in an hour, no sooner. Talk, figure things out, and you probably know this but forget getting out; I won’t permit it until you two have actually done something about this mess you’ve gotten yourselves into.”

Three sets of footsteps started heading away, the last thing the two mammals trapped in the barn hearing being Jeremy asking, “So how are you so sure they won’t just squeeze out the windows or something?”

“Too much effort, and a special secret of mine,” Scarlet replied cryptically.

Nick stayed standing next to the door, his face twisted in an infuriated scowl as he slammed a fist into the wood and his tail puffed out in frustration. Then he deflated, slumping forward with his forehead resting against the crossbeams on the interior. Without another way out, the hustler in him saw only one ending in this, one he didn’t want to go for but had no choice in.

“They’re right,” he rasped. “God dammit, they’re right.”

“W-we could just wait them out,” Judy offered shakily, despite knowing how futile that was. “They’d get tired of keeping us in here eventually, or someone will ask about us. Uh…”

Nick let out another sigh, tilting his head slightly toward her. Judy’s breath hitched slightly, seeing the resignation and slight undertone of fear that reflected in the corner of his emerald gaze.

“What’s the point, Judy?” he asked. “If we did try to wait them out, you know Scarlet can be patient as a mountain when she wants to; we’d be stuck in here all day, maybe through the night. And even after an hour of sitting in here with nothing else to do we’ll end up talking about things whether we want to or not; it’s how we are. Might as well rip the bandage off now.” He then gave a snort of amusement at hearing himself. “Ironic; usually you’re the go-getter insisting that we forge ahead rain or shine.”

Judy bit her lip, and wrung her hands together. “Yeah, maybe so. But I’m…I’m scared of where this ends up though,” she admitted slowly. “More scared than I was when we were facing Lotera, more scared than I felt on that runaway train or being chased by savage mammals, which is why I haven’t come to you already. I…don’t know how to deal with this.”

“Then I’ll admit openly, I’m scared too Fluff,” Nick replied in equally tentative tones, finally forcing himself to stand up straight and turn around. He walked over and grabbed another stool, staring at it uncertainly for a second before steeling himself and bringing it to sit about three feet away from Judy. It took several more moments of him staring at the ground beneath them though before he had the courage to speak again.

“I don’t know if you know how much our friendship means to me,” he said quietly. “More than anything else I’ve ever had in my life, this is the one thing I’m…I’m absolutely terrified of losing. So sitting here, imagining that I might say the one thing that you couldn’t stand to hear and sending you running, and for once not having a clue which words are the right ones…just the thought hurts me more than that night I was muzzled by Pack 914. But…somehow it’s hurting just as much that we both know we’re avoiding each other on something that I’ve been having eat at me for weeks now, personally, and I know that if we don’t do something about this silence here then we’re both going to crash at a bad time. And I’ve crashed before; it won’t be pretty.”

Awkward silence fell, the both of them looking in any direction but each other as their ears fell as flat as they could. Judy studied a particular knot in the wood on the wall for a very long time, before swallowing hard and bracing herself to look at Nick.

“Ripping the bandage off, right?” she said in forced lightheartedness. “Whatever we need to say, get it out there, one of us just needs to say it. Then we can deal with whatever reaction comes afterward, right?”

Nick nodded, looking up, and they locked eyes, straining both to read what the other might have been thinking, feeling, and trying to force themselves to finally let out what both had been needing to say for weeks now. Tongues tied, lips locked, and resolve wavered in that instant however, keeping them from saying anything.

Then both dams broke at once.

“I think that I’m in love with you. Wait, what?”

“I’m pretty sure that I love you. Wait, what?”

Fox and rabbit stopped cold again, staring at each other in confused surprise. Neither had heard even a lick of what the other had said, both spilling out at the same time and so focused on their own words that they hadn’t heard anything else. Then, Nick’s face scrunched up and he burst out laughing, falling off his stool in fits. Judy wasn’t far behind, and soon they were both doubled over in hysterics, cackling about the ridiculous blunder.

“Oh my god we’re so –ha ha ha!- so messed up!” Nick gasped. “We ah ha ha ha! We can’t get a break! I finally say it out loud and you have no clue what I just said! Or me you!”

Judy nodded, sucking in a breath to try and calm down, and failing the first time around. Trying again, she managed to compose herself long enough to speak. “Y-yeah, perfect tandem,” she agreed. “We really are just two messed up peas in a pod, aren’t we?”

Nick nodded, smirking at the thought of cracking a “bunnies and veggies” joke before deciding against it, and they both let out simultaneous sighs. The silence and tension returned, though somehow it wasn’t quite so thick as it was before.

“Okay, I’ll go first so we avoid tripping over each other again,” Nick suddenly decided. “Sound good?” He looked in askance at Judy, and she gave a slow, uncertain nod. He swallowed, and drew in another deep breath before closing his eyes. Maybe if I can’t see her reaction right away it’ll be better somehow, he decided, even though he knew that was a hollow notion.

“I…Judy, I think it’s been something that’s been building for a long time,” he began, “maybe even all the way back to the Night Howler case if I’m being completely honest with myself, but it’s only become obvious to me since we first went to Embron’s house. I thought that, perhaps, I was just being a typical guy somehow…except a typical guy wouldn’t feel like pulling Jack’s teeth out every time he even looked at you I don’t think, and it should have faded if so. But it hasn’t, so…Judy, I…I think that I like…”

He stopped, reconsidered his words, and shook his head. “No,” he started again, “who am I kidding? Judy, I know I’m in love with you. And for all that I am worth I can’t stand the notion that I might never get any other chances to say that to you, either by staying silent on it or by saying it once and driving you away. If you don…if you don’t feel the same way, I know that knowing this now is going to be really, really awkward at best, especially since…well, since we’re not even in the same family let alone species and were paired up in work, but I have to say it. I don’t know if I could manage now not at least having you as a partner, but if this is too much…well, I can’t say I don’t understand, either.”

Nick fell silent then, and waited. Seconds ticked by, and no answer, no response reached his ears, and with his eyes still closed he began to tense in fear of the worst. Finally unable to stand sitting like that he risked cracking an eye open and glancing at Judy. His breath hitched.

She was staring at him, shocked and mouth open, and her eyes were starting to water up with tears.

This is it, Nick thought. This is the end. She’s crying because she doesn’t want to hurt me but she’s going to say it won’t work. I knew it. Oh god I was wrong, this is worse than hiding it. She’s even grimacing now and…no, wait, that’s a pity smile.

Fighting back tears of his own, Nick swallowed dryly and stood up. “I get it,” he said softly. “Friends was okay, but I’m pushing way too much onto you now. I’ll just, uh…I need some space.” He turned to walk over to the far side of the barn, not much of a distance but the best he could do right now to get away.

“Nick!”

Judy’s tone froze him in his tracks. The emotion behind it he couldn’t place, but he could hear elements of disappointment, exasperation, even amusement and…wait, was that relief?

Cautiously, uncertainly, Nick turned around again, meeting her gaze. Judy looked like she was on the verge of laughing again, but not from the hysterics of a freak incident. Tears were falling still, but she was beaming from ear to ear as she stood up and approached him.

“It’s official,” she began, starting to chuckle, “we have both been the biggest pair of blockheads this world has ever seen, but you’re definitely the bigger one. You said your piece, now shut up and listen before you start jumping to conclusions okay? You might hurt yourself on the landing.”

Nick paused, mouth half open on instinct to respond to the snarky comment with something of his own, but a sudden sliver of hope made him merely shut it and nod.

Judy approached closer, before running forward and throwing her arms around Nick’s middle in a light (for her) embrace. “God, Nick…I was avoiding you,” she admitted, “but because I was terrified you would be the one to reject what I had to say. We’ve been dancing around each other and…” she looked up at him, and Nick suddenly felt his heart leap. Her next words were all it took to knock whatever strength he’d had left out of him too.

“Nick, I love you too, and probably have for just as long,” she said finally. “I’ve just been too much of a dumb bunny to see it until Scarlet pointed it out. Whoa!”

Nick had dropped to his knees, half on purpose and half just because he couldn’t stand up any more, putting himself more on her level as he hugged her back almost as tightly as he could before he put her at arm’s length. Their eyes locked, both full of relief and ecstatic joy that, in the end, they’d really been on the exact same page the whole time. All the dodging and weaving just to hide from a conflict they’d never have encountered, and that tension was now gone, evaporated like mist under the desert sun. Then, just as suddenly, the two of them felt a rising urge drawing them together, almost magnetic but so much stronger than that. Neither cared to resist this time.

Two different muzzle shapes met in an awkward moment at first, but it didn’t take long for either to find the right angle, and their lips locked for the first time. Nick suddenly understood why he’d heard mammals all too often describe their first real kiss like exploding fireworks, as he was sure he not only saw but tasted burning colors around him, tinged with the earthen tones Judy always seemed to carry about her in a melody of perfection. Judy, likewise, felt her mind go blank as all her senses started zeroing in on and picking up Nick, and nothing else: his scent, his taste, his pounding heart, his paws still gently but firmly wrapping around her shoulders as she embraced him again, as if fearing that if he let go the moment would turn to a dream. They’d danced right past each other for so long, it felt now like they’d suddenly been plugged into a set of power lines and had no intention of turning off that charge.

The kiss only lasted a few seconds in reality, but were they ever asked both vulpine and lapine would swear the moments within now burned into their memories had stretched on for hours. As they pulled apart, both of them fell into soft chuckles at the absurdity of events leading up to this revelation, and they looked endearingly at each other.

“We’re gonna hear nothing but ‘I-told-you-so’s when we get out of here, aren’t we?” Judy asked breathlessly, her face flushing bright crimson but for once not entirely out of embarrassment.

Nick smirked and nodded, before leaning in for a second kiss. “Couple of blind fools like us probably deserve it though,” he said as they broke apart again a few seconds later. “Everyone but us seems to have seen it coming a long time ago. I’ll bet there’s even a wager going on at the Precinct even; Clawhauser’s gonna break a few windows without question once he ends up getting wind of this.”

Judy’s ears wilted suddenly at the thought of work, and all the rules and keepers of therein. “Oh no, Nick! There are regulations against stuff like this!” she exclaimed in a sudden panic. “Fraternization; we’ll never be allowed to work together! You know everyone’s gonna figure it out eventually and”-

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Fluff hold on there!” Nick exclaimed in return, holding up a paw and guiding her over to the chairs nearby again. “First off, I know all about the regulations around relationships, but I also know a mammal or two and I know that if you look hard enough there’s always a loophole somewhere. Exceptions can always be written in with good cause, and I think we’ve given even Buffalo Butt enough of one with our track records. Failing that though, pretty sure we could get an exemption written in for us by someone else; I don’t know yet how we can play the whole ‘Catalyst’ card we’ve got going now, but we’re stuck together and I’ll bet we can get Tiger Bunny and his organization behind us.”

He looked down at her meaningfully, his eyes full of promises. “And I’ll bet,” he continued, “if worse really comes to worse, if that doesn’t work then we can always ask Stripes to get us hired. Agents still make a world a better place too, at a larger scale even, don’t they?”

Judy couldn’t help but laugh at all Nick’s reasonings and buried her face in his chest. “You’ve always got an answer for almost everything don’t you?” her muffled voice answered. “Yeah, agents travel more too. Ugh, but…well, clearly half my family already knows since some of them helped stick us in here, but I’ve got no clue how my parents are gonna take this.”

“A little more traditional, I know,” Nick said lightly, though his tone did fall a touch at the thought of breaking it to the parental units, but he ruffled the top of her head and made her swat at him for it anyway. “But hey, they both love me now, so I’m sure they’ll come around if they’re not fine with it now. They probably won’t be that shocked though, their weirdest daughter dating a fox.”

“Hey, I’m not…wait, no, I can’t refute that,” Judy sighed, stepping back and sitting down on her stool. “Takes a weirdo to get along with the Canistons after all.”

“Without question,” Nick agreed, before his eyes narrowed and he glanced at the door. “Speaking of odd eccentric mammals,” he continued, getting back up and heading over to bang on the door, “Hey, Scarlet! You out there? Come on, someone open up!”

No answer, and after another two minutes of banging on the door, Nick gave up and slumped down to the floor with a sigh. “Well, she wasn’t kidding about an hour and no less apparently,” he grumbled.

Judy shrugged and climbed off her stool too, sauntering over to sit down next to him. “Hmm, I don’t know,” she mused, leaning over to plant a kiss on the fox’s cheek, “maybe it’s for the better. After all, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather be stuck in a barn with, and we do have at least three solid weeks or so of catching up to do, don’t we?”

Nick’s ears perked up at that, and he glanced sidelong at her with a mischievous smirk. “Well, that we do,” he agreed, snaking an arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer. “If I weren’t a gentlefox myself and didn’t know you better though, I’d have said that almost sounded lewd.”

“Niiiick!”

“Well, I can’t say I approve of the method –and no, before you ask they did not inform me they were doing this- but you guys finally figured things out, didn’t you?”

Nick and Judy nodded as they watched Embron shuffle around the kitchen, preparing some as-yet unknown dish for dinner. Scarlet had come to let them out on the hour as promised, and after several minutes of exactly what the pair had expected (“I told you so” and half-baked attempts to argue with her and Judy’s two siblings who had been in on the plan, most of which had failed miserably) the cat had gone off to who-knows-where on the farm to explore with Jennifer while the rabbit and fox pair had spent a couple hours trying to figure out exactly who they should talk to first. In the end, parents were avoided and they ended up in the guest house with Embron as the agents slept in the back rooms.

“Yeah, but it’s a bit frustrating that it’s a touch hard calling revenge on a cat who could whip us both with her eyes closed, even without…you know,” Nick drawled, to which the coyote could only chuckle.

“Yes, though you’re not entirely alone here,” Embron replied. “I’ll thump her upside the head for you two when I get the chance; she should have at least broached it with me so we could have done something a little less brash; I find it odd though, she’s usually the more sensitive one about these things. Anyway, but it is good that the air has finally been cleared between the two of you. I hope we won’t be seeing any more of both of you hiding at opposite ends of the farm anymore, so we can actually start getting to discussing things without fighting to get both of you in the same room.” He shot them a pointed smirk, to which both smaller mammals gave sheepish smiles.

“But I digress,” Embron continued, turning away and back to the stove to stir whatever was in the pot sitting on one of the burners. “You told your parents yet, Hopps?” Silence and a blushing rabbit answered him, and he shook his head in disappointment. “Right; don’t wait too long there either,” he warned. “Whether or not they jump on the support wagon right away or decide to grab pitchforks as their first reaction, either way believe me, it’s better to tell them now than wait and either let them hear through the family grapevine or you let slip in some other conversation that you’ve been together for a while. That will ensure pitchforks. You guys need support, from family as well as friends, especially with everything that I know is coming up. Never mind the fight that I’m sure will happen with the Primalists; I doubt I have to explain that even the public is still iffy about inter-species pair-ups, let alone pred-prey couples.”

“No kidding,” Judy huffed, her mind rolling back to a rally she recalled reading about in the news only a few months before. Nothing major had come of it, but it proved divided opinions were out there. “And we’ll have to deal with the police regulations surrounding things like this too.”

“Ah, yeah.” Embron set down the spoon in his hand and turned to face them, nodding solemnly before giving them a reassuring smile. “But I wouldn’t worry about hang-ups there too much. Push comes to shove and I’ll get the AOMISDOPS director to write up an exemption if your boss or the City Council have trouble with laws in the way or permitting exemptions therein. She knows enough about Catalysts to know you don’t try to split them apart.”

“Told ya, Carrots,” Nick grinned, elbowing Judy lightly in the side.

The rabbit huffed, punching him back, before her eyes widened in a realization. “Oh, and don’t forget you have to tell your mother too, Nick,” she reminded. “Do you think she…?”

“Oh yeah, no problem,” Nick shrugged off. “She loves you already, even made a jab or two about it before I realized what she was seeing. Though she will rib me about ‘not giving her any grandkits’.” His voice rose in a feminine mimicry, and Judy made a face.

“Ah, little early to even be thinking about that isn’t it?”

“Absolutely, but that won’t stop her. She’s right though, I doubt…wait, uh, Embron, is it impossible? Not that I’m keen on trying to find out anytime soon.”

“Right now?” the coyote asked, trying to hide his snickering at their flustered expressions before leaning against the counter in thought. “Probably. I told you before that there are some interesting couples out there already, but they are still few and very far between, and they still have issues on occasion with their kids. Bridging the gap between predatory and prey lineages is probably still several decades if not a century or two away.”

“What do you mean by ‘issues’?” Judy asked, ears perking in cautious curiosity.

“Genetics,” Embron replied. “Where genes aren’t compatible from either parent, somehow either the majority of maternal or paternal genes are turned off in each offspring, so that only those genes compatible with whatever main phenotype ends up getting expressed stay active. But, that means that if the parent that the offspring takes after more passes on a particular gene that’s faulty, like a recessive disease such as Tay-Sachs or sickle-cell anemia, and it’s in a spot that no other genes are going to compensate for, then that child will invariably express the disorder. The closer two species are related, the more likely that the genetic shifts that are occurring have managed to cover those problematic regions –so long as you don’t hit the same sort of recessive gene in both of the parents like in any possible pairing, that is- but, combine the rarity of the right lines of mammals pairing up and having inter-species children and the gradual genetic correlation process occurring, species that are a long ways from each other are still slim at best in chances of having kids.”

Nick and Judy were both left blinking in bewilderment, not expecting such a thorough answer, though they realized they should have been with the scientist they were talking to, and stared at the coyote somewhat blankly. Embron noticed of course, and smirked.

“Let me guess,” he drawled, “I lost you in my nerd talk somewhere.”

“Uh, maybe,” Nick replied slowly. “Just to see if I have it straight: chances of a pair like Judy and I ever resulting in kits is really, really unlikely still, and if we did have kits they’d be really prone to having some sort of genetic disease because of the gene turn-off thing.”

“If either of you carry any, yes,” Embron affirmed. “One can guess what problems might arise by looking at your family history, but it’s still a roll of the dice since you could also pass on the good genes that make you as healthy as you are now.”

“Uh huh. Anyway, moving on,” Judy said a bit tensely, shifting in her chair. “Didn’t I say a bit ago that it was a touch soon to even be thinking about this sort of thing?”

“Hey, you guys asked,” Embron pointed out, turning back toward the pot he had on the stove and wrinkling his nose at seeing he’d left it alone just a touch too long. “But past that: now that you two are done fumbling around each other,” he lowered his voice and glanced toward the hallway, “maybe you can help me convince another awkward pair that they ought to give up their excuses.”

“Oh, why am I suddenly not at all surprised?” Nick snarked. “Point it out now and it’s obvious; Fluff and I must just be really bad at the love thing. So, why are they not a thing yet?”

“They use their jobs as a fence, saying it’s too dangerous to get involved, despite them always being together anyway. They both know something’s between them, but never advance it, and it’s been like that for years.”

Grabbing a jar of spices, Embron dusted the skillet sitting next to the pot with its contents before setting it down and leaning against the fridge, sighing. “But it might be more work for that now than ever,” he toned sadly. “Jack’s…well, something’s eating at him right now, obviously, and it’s a worse funk than I’ve seen in a long time.”

“What’s wrong?” Judy asked.

Embron shrugged. “Not sure,” he admitted, “and usually if he opens up to anyone it’ll be Skye, or Scarlet and I, but nada so far. He’s barely left his room for our whole stay so far, even for meals. I’m…I’m worried he’s having flashbacks or something from being in this area. He’s getting rest I know, because he doesn’t look as exhausted or physically drained as he has been, but he’s also looking…bleak.”

“Dark past, huh?” Nick inquired, hoping that they’d finally get more of a tidbit on the mystery rabbit’s history than just where it tied in with Embron’s.

Embron nodded. “Darker than yours, Nick, though he needs to talk to you about it, not me, as I’ve said before. You two might be more kindred souls than you realize, but I think he needs more coaxing than you did to let it go still. You guys have family, both of you, and now finally truly have each other. My hope is that you might live up to the title you have now too, and be catalysts in helping Savage realize that he has family too, and that he has for some time. I don’t think that’s soaked in yet.” He looked at them both pointedly. “With everything I expect to come, we will need him full in his own head and able to open up to us again, or despite everything we’ve done our team will have a weak point that we can never patch up.”

Chapter Text

One conflict has been stilled

Two hearts that dodged now dance

But round them still another hurts

A soul in shadowed trance

Minds are locked in grisly past

And though you’ve gotten out

You now must be their saving grace

What they never knew they were without

Time for you to take your charge

The crux of change you’re made

Lift the veil for a shattered mind

Renewal for the past your trade

Dally not in this endeavor

Nor make light what once had been

For all was as meant for present cast

Time shadows part and give new scene

Something this morning was very, very different from many of those past, but for once, Nick was neither alarmed nor had any intention whatsoever of freaking out over or changing the circumstances. Rather, he wanted it this way forevermore, and wanted to make it last as long as possible.

His return to consciousness was filled with the warm, reassuring sensation of another, slightly smaller silken form wrapped in his embrace and hugging him back as his tail twined around both of them. Her earthen scent pinned a contented smile on his face in both sleep and wakefulness. It may have been stupid, but they had yet to tell the elder Hoppses about their sudden change in relationship status (or sleeping arrangements); Judy wasn’t quite sure how to breach the subject yet, and the whole evening prior they had also managed to completely miss running into either Bonnie or Stu in order to do so.

That might, admittedly, have been because they’d also decided to eat dinner with the Canistons and company in order to see for themselves how Jack was looking (the buck had barely come out for the meal, and only stayed silently at the table for a few minutes), but either way, Judy had still been adamant about immediately taking Nick up on his offer of sharing the guest room despite the lack of notifying anyone of the change. It hadn’t taken very long before the “sharing a room” part became sharing a bed though, and unlike the first time at Embron and Scarlet’s house, both fox and rabbit had ended up cuddling together long before either had fallen asleep. To that end, they had now awakened in the same position, barely shifting through the night.

Judy stirred slightly, prompting Nick to crack one eye open and glance down at the white-and-gray form nestled against his chest. A warm, genuine smile swept across his muzzle, and he leaned down slightly to bury his nose in the soft, earth-and-floral toned fur on the top of her head. He felt Judy shiver slightly at the touch, chirring happily, before she hummed and shifted to glance sleepily up at him as well.

“Good morning,” she mumbled softly, gripping his chest fur with her paws as she smiled.

“Morning Fluff,” Nick replied in equal warmth. “Sleep well?”

“Mm. Better than I have in a few days, at least. I could get used to this.”

“Snuggling with a musky fox?”

“You don’t smell bad to me.”

They both chuckled at their familiar banter, before Judy’s head fell against Nick’s chest again and Nick rested his chin on top of it.

“Yeah, I think I could too,” he sighed. “I’m not a touchy-feely guy as you well know, but I think this is one exception I’m more than open to embracing.” He smiled, and in an instinctive urge of the moment, rubbed his chin down along the top of Judy’s head before squeezing her tighter. Then, as the pungent, tangy scent that always hung on him faintly suddenly spiked through the air, he realized what he’d just done. Clearly, Judy did too, as she pulled away from him slightly and gave him a pointed stink-eye.

“Nick…did you just scent-mark me?”

“Uhhh…no?”

“Nick.”

He grimaced. “Okay, okay, yes, but I didn’t do it on purpose!” he defended, before wincing at his own words and looking at her cautiously.

Judy continued to stare at him unabatedly, unreadably, for several more seconds, before her expression broke into a grin and she sat up a bit, reaching forward and grabbing both of Nick’s cheeks. “Well then,” she said lowly, “make sure to note that this isn’t an accident,” and pulled his head toward her to drag her own chin down the middle of his forehead. “Dumb fox.”

Nick’s sense of smell exploded with Judy’s scent, and he melted onto the bed, smiling madly as his tail thumped under the sheet still draped over both of them. “Mmmm-heh heh heh. Sly bunny.”

Judy hummed in amusement at the vulpine puddle around her, before she punched him lightly in the chest and jumped up. “Well, might as well face the day now,” she said. “We probably slept way late, so I know at least Jennifer and Jeremy are gonna start wondering where we are. And might as well get telling my parents about us over with; with how we smell now everyone’s gonna know, and it would be a whole lot worse if one of my siblings spills it to them instead.”

As she climbed fully out of the bed, heading for the door (as she had only just remembered that all of her extra changes of clothes were still in her room, and she certainly wasn’t ready to start swapping her pajamas out for day clothes in front of Nick; way too early for that), Nick pulled out of his stupor and sat up, taking her in and deciding it was time for another joke. “Well…I could think of one thing that could make it worse,” he mused with a grin.

Judy stopped and turned to look at him suspiciously. “Oh? How so?”

“We’re still both wearing out nightclothes,” the fox pointed out. “I know there are a lot of mammals out there who wouldn’t even have that much after a night in a bed with a casual acquaintance, let alone someone they unquestionably love.”

A very red rabbit appeared in short order, blushing both from the fox’s admission of affection and the thought of what he’d just implied. “Nick!” she scolded. “Are all males the same, even just in jokes you can’t keep your mind out from between your legs?”

Nick shrugged. “Biological inevitability Fluff,” he said without shame. “It is how we’re programmed. But I was just making a point. Attractive as you’re looking right now even in those carrot pajamas,” his smirk deepened at her indignant huff, “methinks we both agreed that we want to take it a lot slower than your average hormonal or lovestruck mammal, eh?”

Judy still couldn’t hide her blush, choosing instead to walk over and grab a pillow off the other bed. “Just get dressed and meet me in the dining hall, will you?” she quipped, lobbing the fluffy object at Nick. Her aim was perfect, and it smacked him square in the snout. Nick yelped, before brushing off the attack and chuckling as he climbed out of the bed as well, waving Judy off so they could both get dressed in peace and privacy.

The dining spaces were nearly empty, late as it was for the farm day, but as far as Nick and Judy were concerned that was all for the better as they entered at nearly the same time. Jennifer was still present though, being among those that morning designated to clean up afterward, and as the two entered she waved at them from the kitchen. A couple of minutes later as the pair sat down with cereal and fruit in bowls before them, the doe jogged over to join them for a bit.

“Hey guys!” Jennifer said brightly, scrutinizing them for a moment before nodding in satisfaction. “Got a bit better sleep last night, I take it?”

“Admittedly, yes,” Judy aid as she speared a piece of cantaloupe with her fork. “Though I still feel a bit like trying to kick you over the house for that setup yesterday.”

“Hmmph,” Jennifer huffed, paw on her hips. “Well then, it would only be fair you did the same thing to Jeremy and Scarlet since they helped too, and I think I overheard something about there not being a chance of you taking that feline in a fight. Makes me want to see her in action though if that’s true; I know what you can do and anyone that can kick your tail has to be good.”

“I think we can let it slide rather than risk that,” Nick interjected, grinning around a mouthful of cereal as he nudged Judy. “It worked out for the better in the end after all. Though, ugh, there are a few loose ends we kinda need to tie up still. Hey Jen, happen to know where we can find the parental units this fine morning?”

“Wait, you mean you still haven’t told them yet?” Jennifer asked, glancing between the two of them with a veiled concern that did not help an ounce in making either of them feel better about the prospect of broaching the subject with the elder rabbits.

“W-well, dinner yesterday probably wouldn’t have been the greatest time, since we don’t want to cause any sort of scene in front of the whole family,” Judy tentatively explained. “Plus we were kind of with our friends too instead of in here. We haven’t really even seen them, or much of anyone since yesterday.”

Jennifer nodded, before grinning. “Well, maybe that is in part the best thing, having missed everyone else at least. It was obvious yesterday that you two smelled more like each other than usual, and then this morning…” She trailed off, her eyes wide in a sudden realization. “Wait…you guys weren’t in separate rooms last night, were you?”

Their guilty expressions confirmed at least part of the doe’s suspicions, and the surprised expression suddenly took a turn for the lewd. Before Jennifer could utter another word though, Nick leapt out of his chair and clamped a paw over her mouth.

“Not. A. Word,” he warned lowly. “Yes, Judy and I shared my guest room last night, something that we’d like to make a more permanent arrangement, and we marked each other this morning –partly accidentally, mind you- but I’ll swear on my beloved blueberry supply that that’s as far as it goes. We’re just finding it a lot easier to fall asleep with each other’s company now than without. We’re not…uh…you know…”

Jennifer’s grin remained as she pried Nick’s fingers away, though it was more teasing than twisted now. “Yeah, the usually snarky, silver-tongued fox turned serious and is tripping over his words now,” she prodded. “I’ll believe you just for that alone, for now. But it’s kind of a sister’s job to embarrass her siblings, so don’t think you two will get away scot-free.” She stepped back and crossed her arms then, grin falling a bit. “But you probably should get to clearing the air with Mom and Dad before rumors start flying around the house and into their ears instead. Mom’s probably in the laundry room right now, Dad…I’ll guess that he’s out by the kale and spinach fields right now, what with bolting season coming up real soon. Tell ya what: because I’m a nice sister and want to have a chance to tease you both more before you experience death by parent, I’ll text Jeremy and Kylie to go fetch them, so you guys don’t have to go running around the farm spreading rumor seeds with that scent trail of yours.”

“How altruistic of you,” Judy snarked, before her expression turned a little more genuine. “But, your self-appraising aside, thank you for the help. However, Nick and I should probably actually finish breakfast before we face Mom and Dad…”

“Yeah, and I should get back to the dishes,” Jennifer sighed, sticking her tongue out in distaste for the chore. She pulled out her phone and tapped out a message on it before sending it off and turning back toward the kitchen again. “Let me know how it goes. Oh, and if they actually have some civilian clothes on them somewhere rather than just those dramatic jackets and suits, you should invite the agents and company out to lunch with us today, get them out of that little house.”

“We’re going out for lunch?” Nick asked with patent interest.

Jennifer looked over her shoulder and grinned. “Call it a celebration for you two, on me,” she replied casually, before slipping past the doorway.

Nick looked at Judy, who only shrugged. “I don’t see why not,” she said, “though she’ll regret that with the bill I expect you and Scarlet to rack up for her. Might be good for Jack though, get out on the town a bit.”

“So long as he doesn’t have does hitting on him left and right,” the tod cautioned, taking another bite of his cereal.

Judy nodded, but then waved off the notion with the grape at the end of her fork. “I think Jen will take care of that,” she reassured. “I’ve got a rep in the city, but she’s got a rep around here, what with her going into the public relations part of the family business. Someone tries to mess with Jack, they’ll have all three of us, and Skye, to deal with.”

Nick chuckled. “Yeah, that should probably be enough. If not, we’ll call Scarlet out to scare them senseless.”

The two mammals soon finished their breakfast, taking their dishes into the kitchen to be washed, and then moved out to sit back down in the dining area, at a table that was better suited to spot Stu and Bonnie entering the room before they would see Nick and Judy. Waiting was always the worst part; Jennifer’s word was usually unquestionable, so the elder rabbits would probably be showing up there in only a few minutes, but those minutes felt like hours as the pair sat wondering how Judy’s parents would take the news.

Both Bonnie and Stu were well known to be rather conservative rabbits, traditional in their views and habits (even if some had started to change; Gideon was a family friend after all), and a rabbit falling for a fox and vice versa was probably as far from traditional as they could possibly get. If the news wasn’t taken well…the rest of their stay would probably be difficult, to say the least.

Nick felt particularly anxious, as he was the one from outside the family, and for once he couldn’t think of even a word to say to help Judy feel any more prepared for the coming confrontation either. Instead, they both sat in stifling silence, only able to stare at the walls as they could barely look at each other for fear of accidentally making the other have an anxiety attack.

Just as Nick was starting to reach over to put his arm around Judy in attempted reassurance however, Bonnie stepped through the doorway leading to the inner household. The two seated mammals jerked in startlement, arms gluing down to their sides as they sat board-straight, eyes wide and ears high. A moment later Stu stepped in from outside as well, Jeremy poking his head in behind him and giving Nick and Judy a discreet “good luck” thumbs-up before slipping away.

Stu and Bonnie both stopped as they walked in, glancing at each other in silent question before taking full note of the awkward expressions on the tod and doe sitting at the far table. “Uh, mornin’ Nick, Jude the Dude,” Stu greeted with a half-wave. “Ya wanted t’ see…well, both of us it looks like?”

“Is something wrong?” Bonnie added, worryingly rubbing her paws together as they both started walking toward the table.

“N-no, nothing wrong at all,” Judy started, grimacing at her stutter and wringing her own paws together under the table top. “Actually, things are going really well; great, even. It’s just…well, there’s been a lot of change going on recently, and we –Nick and I, that is- need to, uh, talk to you guys about one of the changes that’s happened.”

“You’re not leavin’ already, are ya?” Stu asked. “You only just got here it seems.”

Nick shook his head. “No, we’re still sticking around; or, that’s the plan anyway. You see…”

Ten feet from the table, both of the older lagomorphs stopped dead in their tracks at nearly the same time, making Nick cut himself off as their eyes began to widen, their noses starting to twitch at an increasingly alarming rate. It took all of a second and a half for the younger couple to both figure out exactly what the elders had stumbled into, and both of the younger mammals winced, waiting for the explosion they both expected.

Stu broke the silence first. “Did…did you two mark each other?!” he exclaimed, looking with shock and a touch of anger between both of them.

“Well, yes,” Judy started quickly, holding up her paws in a placating gesture, “but it was kind of a half-accidental, spur-of-the-moment thing this morning, and it’s why we wanted to talk with you soon before doing anything else. We didn’t want rumors to start running around and getting to you before we could explain because I know my siblings would read more into it than what’s there, and”-

Bonnie held up a paw, silencing Judy, and regarded them both with a neutral, unreadable expression for several moments. In that time, whatever tantrum they expected Stu to have suddenly seemed like the more preferable option than this quiet, ominous analysis.

“So am I correct in assuming, then,” the matriarch said slowly, eyes swinging from her daughter to the tod beside her, “that this is to mean that you two are together now?” When neither answered right away, Bonnie leaned forward and raised an eyebrow imploringly.

“Uh, y-yes ma’am,” Nick said softly, before reaching over and discretely taking Judy’s hand under the table for his own reassurance.

“And when did this begin?”

“Well, w-we only admitted it to each other yesterday morning,” Judy said sheepishly. “Though we, uh, might have had feelings for a lot longer, and never told each other.”

Bonnie nodded slowly, seemingly ignoring the fact that her husband appeared on the verge of hyperventilating right next to her as she regarded the youngers stoically. The two held their breath, waiting for the words of concern of disapproval they were both sure would be approaching in some form.

“Well, it’s about time.”

Nick and Judy’s mouths both fell open, now their turn to develop owlish eyes as they stared at Bonnie. “Wait, what?” Judy blurted.

Bonnie’s muzzle curved into a knowing smile, and she gestured with one paw to the pair. “The way you two dote on each other all the time is a terribly obvious giveaway,” she said, “teasing and everything. I was just starting to wonder if you’d ever come out and admit it.”

“Wait, then what was with the prodding me about Jack two days ago?” Judy quipped, feeling a touch more open about the subject than she had been a couple minutes ago now that it was clear Bonnie had even known, or at least guessed.

Bonnie shrugged, a touch of shameful appearing. “Well, I wasn’t entirely certain and didn’t want to press if I was wrong, honey,” she explained. “Plus, I guess I’ve still been holding out a little hope for someone who might give me a few more grandkits.” Her smile grew an inch mischievous at the sudden reddening of Judy’s ears and Nick’s falling expression, in the way only a mother who was embarrassing her child could manage. Then she glanced to her left, and her smile fell at seeing Stu’s still panicked expression.

“Stu, honey, are you okay?”

Stu gave what looked like a struggling half-nod, his mouth working away but no noise coming out. When Bonnie reached over and placed a paw on his shoulder, he suddenly blinked and stuttered his way out of his stupor. Looking in lost shock at Judy, he gestured simultaneously at Nick.

“B-but he’s a fox!” he blurted, before suddenly wishing he could take back his phrasing when he watched Nick deflate behind his held composure and Judy’s expression turn dark. “I mean,” he tried to correct, “how…how does a rabbit fall for a fox? I-I didn’t think that happened; that’s not how things are supposed to work is it? Bunnies are supposed to love other bunnies!”

“I dated a marmot when I was in high school Stu,” Bonnie admonished. “It doesn’t happen often but it does happen.”

“You still ended up with me though! With a big, proper family in the same species!” Stu pointed out. “Will it last? Surely a relationship like that’s gonna have problems; it’s not normal, a-and there might be folks out there that’ll get mad about stuff like this. It’s not safe!”

You have no idea, Judy thought, rolling her eyes.

“Stu!”

“What?”

“We’ve got several friends in the guest house right now that could probably list a whole host of reasons why it’s actually perfectly normal, and certainly doesn’t have that many more problems than your typical couple,” Nick said flatly, before he softened his expression, knowing it would do nothing for him, being a fox especially, to get in an argument with Stu. The guy liked him now, more or less, and he didn’t want to ruin that fact. “Look, Stu, both of us know Judy’s never exactly been your average bunny, and the rest of the world probably won’t be that shocked that she went and jumped out of the box again. I mean, yeah, there are gonna be mammals that don’t like it –heck, we’ve had haters pick at us just for being partners on the force, or being police at all- but why worry about what they think? Our hearts have made it pretty darn clear that we’ve been steering toward each other for a long time, and heck, we’ll have the support of a lot of friends already, probably the whole Precinct and I know my family as well.”

“Wait, how do you know the Precinct will support us?” Judy asked, looking at him questioningly.

“You remember the whole talk we had yesterday about the chances of there being a betting pool list going behind Clawhauser’s desk somewhere? And the looks we were always getting stand out like a sore thumb now that I know what they were for.”

“Oh, right.”

Nick nodded, then looked back at Stu, his expression turning serious again as he waited for the buck’s next words.

Stu sighed, scratching the back of his neck and nodding. “Well…I guess you’re right there Nick,” he admitted. “Our Judy’s never been one t’ just plant roots out in the field like most of us. I just…I mean, this is a real first for me, an’ I can’t help but worry. I’m her dad after all, it’s my job t’ worry and be protective, right?”

“I guess that would be the one real concern I have,” Bonnie added in. “This is foreign territory you’ve put us in, and we don’t want to see you getting hurt in any way Judy; either of you, if I’m honest now. I know from experience, sometimes even those closest to us hurt the most.”

“Yeah, no, I understand that completely,” Nick agreed, tilting his thumb between himself and Judy. “I think we’ve already had a little bit of that ourselves actually, but after all was said and done it just became something else holding us together. Believe me though, you two have every right to be concerned for your daughter’s safety and personal well-being, especially with the hard-headed stubborn daredevil stuff she does”-

“Hey!”

“-but hear me out,” Nick kept on, ignoring Judy’s protest, “I will swear on my life that I will do everything in my power to keep your daughter safe, and I will try my hardest to never do anything myself to hurt her. She saved my life, in more ways than one, made an honest fox out of me, so the least I can do in return is be the best mammal either of you could hope for her to have.”

“Come on Nick, we’ve saved each other,” Judy said softly, taking and squeezing his paw. “We’re on even ground there.”

Nick could help but give her an appreciative glance, placing his other paw on both of theirs. “Thanks Fluff,” he said gently.

Bonnie glanced between the two of them, a warm smile developing. “Well, all things considered, I don’t think we could find a better mammal Nick,” she said. “I will freely admit that when Judy first started bringing you here, Stu and I were keeping a close eye on you because, well, I can’t deny we’re a bit old-fashioned old rabbits who are still working on our stereotypes.” She shrugged apologetically, and elbowed Stu, who jolted upright.

“Oh! Uh, yeah, we did,” he agreed. “But…well, you’ve been a stellar guy, always lendin’ a paw and even gettin’ along with the some of my siblings when they’ve been over, which for a predator is no small feat. A-and the kits love ya, obviously. So…it’s, uh, well it’s gonna take some getting’ used to, but, Nick, I…I apologize fer that reaction earlier, and, uh, I hope you two do well with each other. Just…keep her safe.”

“I swear I will do right by her, Stu,” Nick replied, before a thought hit him and he grinned. “Heh; hey, maybe that nickname the kits gave me will be a little more accurate now.”

“Oh I’m sure they’d all be thrilled to have you officially part of the family,” Bonnie said lightly. “I know we’re going to probably have some rough patches, because this is…well, very different from what we’re used to is putting it mildly, but I think we can all stand on equal ground with it eventually. I can’t promise to understand right now, truly, but I’ll try. Now, if we’re all coming clean on this situation, you two should go do what you need to today, and Stu and I had better get back to today’s tasks; work’s never done on the farm here after all.”

“Actually, there is, uh, one more related thing,” Judy cut in, before looking at them sheepishly. “You see, over the past couple of weeks, uh, Nick and I have kind of gotten used to, uh…sharing a room. Two beds, mind you, but, uh, we’ve both kind of found it harder to get to sleep alone. So we were wondering if, maybe, it would be okay with you guys if we, uh…just shared Nick’s gust room while we’re here, since it has a pair of beds?” She looked between them with a tentative hopefulness.

Stu’s eyes darkened in warning, instinctively knowing that they wouldn’t be staying in separate beds especially with the emphasis Judy was trying to put on it. “If I get one whiff of any funny business going on,” he started to warn, waving a serious finger at both of them.

Nick immediately went bug-eyed. “No, no, Stu I will be the first to assure you that’s not going to happen,” he appeased, waving both his paws. “That would be a…a loooonnngg way down the road for us, if ever, thank you very much.”

Stu looked at him suspiciously, lips pursed in silent contemplation, and shared another look with Bonnie that neither of the other two could quite interpret. “How can I be sure of that?” he queried.

“We just started getting used to actually being in a relationship,” Judy replied, Nick nodding along. “Really, ask any of the mammals who already know; we’re not ready to cross that line, not by a long shot Dad. Even the thought is…” she shuddered, ears turning bright red.

Stu regarded this reaction neutrally, giving nothing away on his opinion. Then he gave one short, curt nod. “Alright then, we’ll say okay,” he relented. When the smiles started spreading on the tod and doe’s faces though, he continued with a brandished finger again. “But, I’m leavin’ that warning in place there. You two fool around, cops or not, I’ll put you under house arrest, at opposite ends of the house, until your boss forces you to leave fer work again.”

“Yes sir,” Nick replied promptly, just barely crushing down the urge to salute the buck just for the heck of it.

“Thanks you guys,” Judy added as she let out a relieved breath, walking up and hugging both of them quickly. “Okay, so we’ll let you go now; we’ve got a friend we promised to help out today anyway.”

As the elder rabbits nodded and headed back to their daily duties, Judy took the lead toward the door that was most in the direction of the guest houses. “Well, at least that’s over; ugh I hate awkward family conversations. So, any ideas Nick?” she asked, looking up at the fox. “I know you usually use your powers of perception to find buttons to push on other mammals, but I’m sure you can tweak that a little to help get Jack out of this funk that he’s in instead.”

“Yeah, though that’s a lot less fun,” Nick drawled, before grinning at Judy’s glare. “But I’m sure I can change things up a little just this once. He mentioned he thinks he’s from Bunnyburrow, or something like that, and Embron said part of the problem is that he never breaks out of whatever shell he’s built, like ever, so first thing’s first we need to find a way to learn some background on him. You can’t get a mammal to feel better if you don’t do something they enjoy after all, or meet them on level ground with the problem. I mean, we still don’t even know…”

He trailed off as they stepped outside, his and Judy’s eyes and ears turning toward a familiar pair of voices nearby. One was from the mammal they were intending to see, but the other, one they’d hoped to have avoided altogether on their trip.

Jack was standing with his back pressed against the outside wall of the house, his hands clenched into fists and his ears high and quivering in what was to them a clear sign of restrained but growing fury. These signs were very obviously either missed or being ignored by the light cappuccino colored doe with bark-tipped ears that was all but climbing up the buck’s front. It was clear Jack had been pinned by Lorelei’s advances for a little while now, the conversation having advanced too far already, and it was only going to get worse.

“You’ve been all tense and glum, cooped up in that little cottage,” she was saying silkily, one paw reaching up to try and stroke his face. “It’s not healthy. I can give you a cure for that though handsome; there’s this nice, quiet hollow in the woods just down from the”-

The second her fingers brushed against his cheek, Jack’s paw finally snapped upward, grabbing her wrist faster than she could pull it away to hold her firmly just out of reach of him as he bored into her with a glare so cold Judy was half expecting his blue eyes to actually ice over.

“Do not attempt to touch me again,” he growled, his tone so sharp it sounded like knives on steel as he pushed the doe away from him. “I warned you once already; I will not do so again. I am not here for pleasures, much less your uninvited advances, and I will not be accosted every time I step outside by some hormonally driven female who cannot listen!”

Lorelei had stumbled back a bit when he’d thrown her off with something akin to a worried expression, but it soon melted back into her coy, seductive smile as she adopted a beckoning hands-on-hips stance. “My, fanciful words even as you play hard to get,” she tittered, running her tongue across her teeth. “I like the debonair thing you’ve got goin’ here, and I like the feisty ones. You see Jackie, everybody’s got that desire hidden somewhere; it just takes some of them a little more digging to get to it. And I’m really good at digging.” Completely ignoring Jack’s obvious second warning, she then moved to lean back up against him, paw wandering to places it never should.

Judy saw the ripple that ran through Jack, and knew immediately that things were about to turn really south. She bolted toward the two, Nick hot on her heels. “Lorelei!” she practically roared, bearing down on her younger sister with every intent of grabbing her and dragging her away by the ears.

Lorelei jerked away from Jack in startlement, turning to meet her sister’s glare with wide eyes, before the seductive grin slammed back in place as if it had never left. “Well hey sis,” she called, ignoring the burning looks she was now getting from three parties. “What a specimen you brought home with you this time; a renowned agent, even. And look! You even brought your fox out for a little fun today!” Her eyes roved down along Nick’s body in such a way that he could practically feel her mentally undressing him, driving an urge to make him cover himself with his paws and tail and causing the fur on the back of his neck to instinctively stand on end.

The comment of course only served to further incense Judy as well, who marched up and grabbed Lorelei by both of her wrists, yanking her forward so that they both stood nose to nose. Only then did Lorelei pick up on Nick’s scent mark across Judy’s fur, and the first flicker of realization set in as she glanced between the fox and the other doe.

“Let me start by making this perfectly clear,” Judy snarled. “You probably noticed the mark already, but just to make sure: Nick and I are together, officially now, so you’d better start clearing out any more thoughts that you might have about putting your grabby little paws on him, like in the same category that you might for Lance or Gage. Second, leave. Jack. ALONE. He’s just as off-limits, and if you so much as lay a finger on him again I will personally have you in cuffs for sexually harassing a government official so fast your ears will fly off. Am I understood?”

Lorelei stood there, holding her gaze with a wavering if pouty lip, clearly calculating whether or not she could find a loophole through Judy’s threat. She knew her sister would follow through too, likely the only thing that was preventing her from wrenching her arms away and turning to defiantly kiss Jack or something equally offensive.

Nick saw the turning gears in her head and leaned over Judy’s shoulder, making sure to bare a couple of teeth in his smile. “Well, if that rant really isn’t enough for you, Sticky Lips,” he started, “we’ll make sure to inform Jack’s partner, who’s just in the cottage over there, that you’re trying to not only interfere with our recuperation while we’re here but also thereby risking their assignment. She takes such things very seriously, and she’s got a real strong affinity for stun guns and real bullets.”

Seeing something finally starting to get through in Lorelei’s eyes, the fox pressed on, reaching forward and condescendingly patting the doe between the ears. “Now, of course there’s really no need for such drastic measures,” he said in a saccharine tone. “All you need to do is develop a few new moral boundaries and keep a respectable distance from us and our friends. Jack’s on business, I’m with Judy –and foxes are really territorial about our relationships, FYI- and you’re a nuisance. See, unwanted advances are very much a punishable offense and no mammals are open to them, so don’t make them and we’ll all be good. Capisce?”

When Judy let Lorelei’s wrists go finally, but the coffee colored doe didn’t immediately nod and leave, Nick’s smile turned down and his ears folded back threateningly, joining Judy’s glare again. Lorelei shrunk from the predatory look, before finally deciding that her health and safety would be better maintained irritating someone else and slipping past them toward the fields. Judy and Nick both watched her until she had disappeared around the corner of the house, before the former let out an exasperated sigh and they both looked back to the buck staring at the ground as he continued leaning against the wall.

“I’m really sorry about her Jack,” Judy said, stepping toward him with her arms open slightly in apology. “Every family has one, and we’ve tried just about everything”-

She was cut off when Jack pushed violently away from the wall, his ears falling along his back as he marched back toward the guest house. Judy could hear him muttering under his breath, and further worry colored her emotions.

“Jack,” she called. “Jack, wait!”

He didn’t respond, and she glanced at Nick, who nodded in the buck’s direction. They took off after him, catching up just off the front steps of the little house.

“Jack,” Judy tried again, “please don’t let her get to you. Come on, talk to us? We want to help, but we can’t”-

“If you want to help me then stop!” Jack suddenly spat, whirling on the pair with fury in his eyes. “I don’t need your pity or words of sympathy so”-

“Then quit pitying yourself!” Nick snapped back, cutting the buck off short. Jack shut his mouth, if only merely from the shock of being so emphatically interrupted, and it permitted the fox to continue, marching up to Jack and waving a finger in his face. “Yeah, we get it Jack, you’re under a lot of pressure right now, but we all are, don’t forget that detail,” he growled. “Being in Bunnyburrow might be bringing up something not so pleasant for you too, I don’t know. If so, I know it’s so tempting to just bury it –believe me, because that’s what I did for twenty years with my old problems- but all that’s gonna do is make you vulnerable, weak, won’t help at all, and brushing mammals who want to help off like they’re just a nuisance is only gonna make it worse. Take it from the fox who learned the same damn lesson not too long ago, whatever it is you have got to let someone in. I tease all the time, but I’m not gonna rag on you for your past, and you know Judy never would. We’ve got our mess cleared up, so for once bite the bullet and let a mammal lend you a little support to deal with yours. Hm?”

They stood there at the bottom of the steps, waiting in silence as Jack warred with himself. Nick knew the look on his face well, having worn it himself before: anger, indignation and a want to just blow them off to spite him now, but that struggling to remain in place so as to keep the world from hurting him more. Underneath was a current of melancholy, loneliness and uncertainty, the scowl of someone desperately trying to keep an image afloat that the world made him think he needed to have and forced him to fight to keep. And, he was drowning in that fight.

“Jack,” the fox said in a far softer tone, “I had a bad experience as a kit, made me hate the world and put on an act I never wanted. I shunned being who I really was for two decades because of it, and I still wear scars from it. I don’t know what it was that you might have gone through, but I can see something similar just standing here watching you. So please, let a couple of friends lend a paw, okay? Let someone who might really understand, at least a little, give you a shoulder.” He laid his own paw on the rabbit’s shoulder at that, reassured by the fact that Jack at least didn’t immediately shrug it off, and Judy followed suit on top of Nick’s.

Jack closed his eyes, grimacing, before a long, slow sigh ran from his lungs and the battle he waged with himself was lost. One short, slow nod tilted toward the pair, before he turned toward the cottage with a weak beckoning of his paw at his side. Judy glanced up at Nick, but only got a weak shrug in return, so they silently followed.

Scarlet, Embron, and Skye were all inside around the dining table, and as Jack entered Skye moved to call his name, but a paw from Scarlet on her shoulder stopped her. Skye blinked and looked up at her, before back at her partner and the two following him, before the realization set in and she relented. Instead, they watched the buck and his two trailing shadows in silence as they walked past and into Jack’s room, concerned but somehow knowing it was not a time to interfere. Judy cast a questioning look as they walked by, but only got a nod from Embron to keep following Jack.

The buck stopped at the foot of his borrowed bed, standing motionless with fallen ears for long enough to start making the other two fidget uncomfortably behind him. Then, with a long, labored breath, he began to unbutton the simple white shirt he was wearing.

“Uh, Jack, what are you doing?” Judy asked uncomfortably, suddenly feeling like they were in the wrong place.

“Giving the two of you an explanation that I promised days ago,” Jack answered without turning around. He opened his shirt, paused a moment, and then let it drop off his shoulders and pile on the floor. Judy gasped and covered her mouth, and Nick’s eyes bugged out at what they saw.

At first, they merely noticed the black stripes that marked Jack’s face coalescing on his neck and then running down his spine, radiating out in slashes of coal across his sides; a curious pattern, one neither had certainly seen on any rabbit before. Then, however, they saw how the edges of the marks were uneven, jagged, like they’d been split and shifted apart, and in places the black and white fur gave way to pink and gray, his skin underneath his fur showing through. Jack’s entire back, shoulders, and even his upper arms were crisscrossed with dozens of scars, of every size possible. Some looked like the echoes of whip lashes, others punctures and gashes like he’d been pelted with sharp objects. Among them, the undeniable marks of claws raked across his skin, wrecking his pattern with lines that would never fade and in places that brought to mind vile actions. The vast majority too were old, decades at least, not scars from the dangers of his job.

“Oh. Oh god, Jack!” Judy exclaimed in a half-whisper. “W-what happened to you?”

“The events that replaced what should have been my kithood,” Jack replied softly. He stood there for a moment longer before turning slowly around and sitting down on the edge of the bed, facing them. His blue eyes were no longer icy, but drained and distant. “Count yourself fortunate, Nick, that the scars of a single muzzle around your mouth are all you have to bear, because the world grows far darker than that.” He gestured for them to sit down, and they hesitantly obliged on either side of him, waiting for the lapin to elaborate. Jack looked at each of them, before dropping his head to stare at the carpeted floors as he revisited memories he’d tried to leave behind a thousand times.

I remember living somewhere comprised mostly of other rabbits until I was about three years old. There aren’t many places around the world like that, and knowing at least that I came from Mammalia we believe my home town had to be Bunnyburrow. It’s why this town disturbs me as it does, as I have not been back since before I lost my young life to the world.

My family was small, only me, my parents, and two brothers only a little older than I was. We had taken a vacation to Purru, staying at a hotel by the ocean and being tourists in the rainforest there, nothing special. I can’t recall much of that trip, young as I was, but the day we ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time never fades.

We were visiting a historic site, a temple of some sort, and a fanatic rebellion erupted nearby. Political group, they were trying to make a statement, take power using the place as a hostage. They never succeeded, but they took visiting families while they were there nevertheless. Mine were rounded up and taken into the forest at gunpoint, to an encampment hidden in a ravine. When my parents tried to get them to at least let me and my brothers go, the rebels killed both of my brothers, shot them in front of me like it meant nothing to them; it probably did.

Days later, they separated me from my parents and sold me as a labor slave to a gang of jaguarundi who ran a cartel network among the Andes, and I spent almost fifteen years working for them. I watched violent fights break out every week, sometimes every day, was punished for ever stepping out of line in every way they could think of to draw blood or leave bruises. They…violated me for amusement, used me for target practice, lacking in morals of any kind. I could do nothing as they poisoned perceived enemies and their families, brought in and took away other slaves of a hundred species and did as they pleased with each, was left to watch as they committed vulgar acts of every kind, and then they laughed or dragged me in if I made a face. And if they forgot that their slaves needed food and water, then we starved and parched, sometimes for days at a time.

The first few years, I held hopes that someone would find me, and I stole books and paper to teach myself how to read and write, what I could find that was in English, but when nothing changed I lost those hopes. Every time I turned around, I saw fire, misery, a life of compounded regrets that never seemed to end. I don’t know what kept me alive after that, maybe spite for my overseers, robotically going about each day doing the same things and numb to everything around me and losing my capacity to even care about the other slaves around me. I only sought to do the jobs they gave me and go unnoticed so they would not seek me as their release for frustrations or desires.

I was eighteen and a half years old when things changed. I’d been sent out to pick coca leaves in the fields the cartel owned high in the mountains, when explosions and gunfire erupted at their hideout. I didn’t care much at first, expecting it was a rival gang trying to take over and that either I’d finally die or my living hell would just continue on under another group of lowlifes. It wasn’t until I was slammed to the ground by a fox in tactical gear that the gangs certainly never had access to that I started realizing something was different. I wasn’t just killed outright, or tied up, especially since I made no move to defend myself against the attack, and when I looked up at her, for the first time in a decade and a half I saw eyes that, though skeptical and alert, held morality and good intentions.

It still took her another twenty minutes for her to get through the stupor I’d been in for so many years and both explain what was going on and find out who I was, but even then that encounter was still enough for me to decide almost right then what I wanted afterward. She was part of a team hunting down drug lords who were smuggling not only their products but animals in shackles into Mammalia and other countries for slave work and twisted amusements, and my overseers were high on the chain of command in the network they’d uncovered. They’d tracked them down into the mountains, set out to release the other slaves they found and burn the encampments to the ground. I was among several of those released that day, shortly before they managed to bring the entire network down.

“It was Skye, wasn’t it?” Judy asked when Jack paused in his tale. “The fox, I mean. She’s the one who found you in the field.”

Jack gave a slight, wistful smile at the deduction. “It was,” he affirmed, “and she was the one who escorted me personally out of the camp, all the way back to Mammalia. She initiated a search for my parents as well, but…well, they’d met a similar fate as my brothers only a few weeks later when they attempted to contact someone outside the prison of a facility they’d been thrown into by the fanatics.”

“So you…you don’t have a family?”

“None by blood. Skye pulled strings to get me educated, get me trained for the agency, and then for the next several years I sought to wipe out every trace of mammals like those who had enslaved me, developing the reputation I’m known for now: no-nonsense, hard on criminals, record successes because I could do things, get into places that no one else could and I’d lived among the disreputable for so long that I had a unique perspective on how they worked.”

Jack’s face fell again then. “But…though I got my reputation for doing good, defeating those in the wrong, unlike you two I was driven because I hated the world and wanted to remove everything that I despised about it, rather than try and promote what was good. It made me efficient, but…” He sighed, and gave a dejected shrug. “It’s also resulted in a disconnect, I won’t try to deny that now as I’m sure you’ve seen it. I don’t socialize well with others unless it’s a full act, and I find it hard to get close to anyone at all.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Nick quipped, before rapidly having his foot stomped by Judy. “Ow! Alright, so that didn’t come out quite how I wanted, but”-

“No, actually, you’re right Wilde,” Jack admitted. “I am not the easiest mammal to get along with, and I can be blamed entirely by not having dealt with my own skeletons properly. Even Embron only got along with me at first because he was as cynical as I am, but he just deals with it using sarcasm and humor like you do. The only reason probably that I didn’t get him just turned into the authorities when I first encountered him was that the mob he took down reminded me of the cartel that had me enslaved. And while I’m being honest: because I never had another good reason to return to Bunnyburrow, I’ve actively avoided ever coming here. I think…I think I’ve been afraid I would find myself reacting like…” he paused, then gestured to himself, “…well, like this, but now I wonder if that was just holding off my coming to terms with everything. Nick, Judy…for 26 years I haven’t ever actually faced my past beyond the criminals I’ve hunted down, and you two showing up and dragging us out here has forced me to do so. It’s been hurting, and it’s something I never got experience with how to deal. Forgive me my harsh words earlier, it was my own failings and not your fault.”

Judy glanced at Nick, before she shuffled a touch closer to the buck drooping on the bed between them. She was tempted to put a paw on his shoulder, but refrained for now when Jack gave her a funny look for coming closer. “I think you probably do have some reconciling still to do,” she said softly, looking at him. “I can’t imagine that a decade and a half of experiences like that could ever really be patched over, since it certainly made you who you are now in a lot of ways, but I’m betting that being here will help somehow, after it hurts for a bit. You already managed to come clean about it to us, which is a good step in the right direction. And besides, you might not have any blood relatives around, but I do think you can count yourself as having another family just as if not even closer.”

“Oh?” Jack asked halfheartedly. “How so?”

“Well, for starters whether you admit it or not,” Nick said, leaning against Jack just a bit in a casual-yet-slightly-irritating manner that could only befit him (in an attempt to bring up the mood a touch), “you and Skye are really close, especially what with her having been the one to pull your tail out of that mess. We might talk about that later too, by the way.” He grinned at Jack’s rising look of indignant protest, and held up a paw. “Ah ah, I said later. Don’t give me the look I’ve been wearing for the past two months whenever someone jabbed me about Judy either.”

Now the buck’s expression looked like that of a kit with his paw caught in the candy jar, making Nick’s grin grow even more smug, before the tod continued. “But beyond that, if my experience in the force is anything to go by, no matter how dangerous your job is you can probably consider some of your comrades as family by proxy, ‘specially if there’s been any saving of each other’s lives between you. And it’s rather obvious that at least you and Skye have been adopted into Embron and Scarlet’s family; Embron at least acts like he’s your older brother half the time despite the real age difference, and with his comments the past couple of days he’s definitely made it obvious that he cares about you.”

Jack managed a smirk at the mention of the coyote. “At times he sounds more like a parent the way he berates both of us despite our being six and eight years older than him, respectively,” he mused. “When they’re not being dorks they’re both wise well beyond their years.”

“I’d bet being what they are can do that pretty easy,” Judy noted, to which Jack shrugged.

“Part of it, perhaps,” he replied, “but with how they read the world I think it also just comes naturally. I would assume Embron talked to you two sometime in the past couple of days about helping me get out of my head too, yes?” At the nodding of the fox and other rabbit, he gave an unsurprised snort.

An uncertain silence fell over the three, Judy fiddling with her paws and Nick rigidly sitting on the bed’s edge, before Jack glanced over at the fox, a touch of determination entering his eyes.

“Cooking.”

Nick blinked, and looked down at the buck in confusion. “Beg pardon?”

Jack chuckled. “Back when we first came across each other you asked me what I like to spend my free time on,” he explained, smiling slightly, “and I think I owe you an honest answer on that too at this point. Cooking, particularly exotic dishes, as well as occasionally fishing and fawning over sporty cars.”

Nick held a wide-eyed but neutral stare for a moment, before a broad smile split his muzzle and he scooted closer to lay an arm around Jack’s shoulders. “Well, now we’re finally getting somewhere!” he exclaimed. “Can’t say I’m thrilled about cooking even if I’m good at it –and I have to be, what with the average result of Carrots’ cooking skills”-

“Hey! At least I don’t burn water like Elliot does!” Judy protested, crossing her arms defiantly and making Jack smirk even more at the outburst.

“Anyway,” Nick continued, holding his grin, “I’ve never been fishing, so maybe we’ll have to arrange a trip so Judy and I can learn, hm? But we might have some common ground on the cars. We should talk shop sometime.”

“Is that a fox thing, perchance?” Jack inquired half-seriously. “It’s part of what drove Skye and I to get to know about each other beyond just work. Skye adores the Mawserati Ghibli I have at home, though she likes to tinker with them; I just like the look.”

“Wait, you’ve got a Mawserati? What year?”

“Aaannd classic boy talk starts up,” Judy chuckled, rolling her eyes. “If my dad ever hears that Skye is a mechanic she might never be rid of him. Anyway, we might not be hyped up on the cooking thing, but our friend Gideon is of course. He’s more the baking side of things, obviously, but I’d bet you two could talk for days about food. Hey, we are planning on heading into town to stop by his shop sometime in the next couple of days; what say you tag along? Being in the town proper might be therapeutic too, get a little bit of your actual kithood back, you know? And my sister Jennifer –she’s a lot nicer than Lorelei by the way, believe me- invited us all out for lunch on her dollar today as well. You should come.”

“And we’ll swear on a stack of blueberry tarts that we will do our best to keep any grabby Lorelei doppelgangers at bay,” Nick added with an impish grin. “Wouldn’t want to have to call in Snow White to come rescue you from some creepy bunny’s basement after all.”

Jack managed to actually release a full-on laugh at that, startling both of his present companions with the relatively new reaction to their antics, before he nodded. “Yes, that probably would be a good idea,” he agreed. “And I’m sure the ‘Caniston psychiatrists’ will approve too.”

A trio of snickers erupted before Jack stood up and grabbed his shirt, slipping it back on and starting to button it up. “And speaking of which,” he continued, “we’d better go and let them know that the air has been cleared, at least a bit. Lord knows if he’s still worried, Embron will probably string me up outside somewhere to force fresh air onto me.”

“You know, much as I’m starting to like you more now, I’d rather enjoy seeing that,” Nick mused, before dodging a punch from Judy. “Hey, kidding! Mostly anyway. Embron would probably hang me off a flagpole for laughing just to spite me.”

“Now that,” Jack laughed, sending a conspiratorial wink to Judy that Nick did not miss, “would be the real sight to see.”

“Hey, no fair! No rabbit ganging up!”

“Too late Nick; see you on the flagpole!”

Chapter Text

We all know how the saying goes

When making headway falls short

Two steps forward and you gain your ground

But two back when the rug is held by foes

The moment you think you’ve made it good

That second that you caught the tail

The viper turns and nabs your hand

Burning veins and a once bright mood

Even caution added in

Can only go so far

For two are playing in the same-said ring

But their goals in divergent bins

The cycle will one day break we know

But till then the circle’s tied

Like I said only moments before

We know how the saying goes

“Officer Wolfard!”

The aforementioned officer looked up in surprise at his name being called, ears perking high as he leaned back to look out of his and Fangmeyer’s shared double-cubicle. Most officers were out on patrol or investigations already, and theirs had been a slow one, so he hadn’t been expecting any interruptions. But as the wolf’s eyes locked on the young red deer stag walking down the corridor toward him, he perked up even more on hopes that it might, in fact, be good news heading his way.

“Bailard!” he called back, a smile appearing. “You guys find something?”

“We might have,” Bailard replied, holding up a file folder. “And it looks like our original theory on where they are may be correct. Precinct Eight was testing out a new drone near Wheatgrass Avenue yesterday evening, and they happened to catch this on the infrared sensor installed on it.” He dropped the folder in front of the wolf, who quickly flipped it open and pulled out the shades-of-green photograph of the back of an unassuming one-story ranch-style house.

Just slipping into the door under the patio overhang was a mammalian figure, a long tapering tail visible with the faintest stripes showing through even on the distant infrared image along with the shadowed profile of an odd, Tasmanian Devil style head with a larger snout. The mammal was looking backward over his shoulder at just enough of an angle that Elliot was sure that, somehow, the figure was looking right at the drone. Even more damning though, just visible through the open door was a second figure, this one shorter but undeniably avian.

“What’s the address?” Elliot asked quietly.

Bailard shrugged. “Not quite certain yet; the others were working on pinpointing the exact address when I was sent to bring this over to you. Pretty certain it’s on a side street just off Wheatgrass though, really open space around it.”

Elliot stood up and turned off his computer, glancing down at the photo again. “As soon as you guys have the address then, text it to me, ‘kay?” he said, looking up at the stag. “I think the Thylacine knew there was a drone nearby, so we can’t risk any more time passing should they choose to ship out on”-

“What’s up?”

Stag and wolf both glanced over to see Christine popping around the corner, two mugs of coffee in her paws and a curious expression on her muzzle. “You guys find something Preston?” she asked, echoing her partner’s earlier words.

“Just in time Christine,” Elliot answered instead, walking over her way. “Coffee’s gonna have to wait, ‘cause we might finally have a lead. Bailard’s gonna send us the address of a house our quarry may have been sighted at once they have it, so we need to alert the agents and get our tactical gear just in case.”

Christine’s expression brightened a touch at this, though she glanced down at the coffee she held again with uncertainty. “You sure you don’t want this? Not gonna be any good hours later when we get back.”

Elliot raised a finger to decline again, mouth half-open, before deciding otherwise and taking the mug held out by the tiger sporting a knowing grin. “Yeah yeah, wipe that smirk off; first time I’ve been the serious one,” he quipped before taking a swig. A second later, to the further amusement of his partner and Preston, his muzzle scrunched up in pain and he stuck his now scalded tongue out. “Yeouch! Hot!”

“No duh,” Bailard snorted, before he turned to head back the way he came. “I’d better get going if you want that address pronto, and you two had better move as well; Bogo’s gonna want to be clued in along the way.”

The two predators nodded and turned as well, heading out of the offices and down toward the Precinct armory. Elliot pulled out his phone as he went, dialing in a number and holding it up to his ear. “I really hope this pans out so we can close this case soon,” he muttered. “Having Hopps and Wilde away, this place feels way too silent now.”

“No kidding,” Christine agreed, glancing around the halls. There were other mammals about of course, and always had been even before the two smallest had shown up of course, but none managed to exude the kind of life into the atmosphere of the building that the rabbit-fox duo did. “Plus the sooner this is over, hopefully the sooner we can put all the ‘doesn’t add up’ stuff it’s bringing out behind us too. Still no answers from the forensic department on the burn marks in the park, other than some electrical discharge which we already figured out. The claw-like marks are still unknown too.”

Elliot nodded, before his ears perked up and his attention turned to his phone. “Hello?” he said. “Yeah, this is Officer Wolfard from the…yeah, yeah, is this Agent Voltom? Great; we got word from Detective Antlermore’s team, they scrounged up a drone clip that looks like it caught our culprits. They should have the address of the house we think they’re at probably in the next ten minutes or so. Yes, Fangmeyer and I can meet you at the Savannah Junction station; we’re grabbing tactical gear and then we’ll be heading…”

Whatever Voltom said next apparently wasn’t what the wolf wanted to hear, as his expression darkened a bit. “No, just in case,” he growled. “No, we’re not just going to stand by; the way you guys made it sound, if anything goes wrong you really might want some backup. Yes. Thank you for understanding. We’ll be out in twenty.”

He ended the call, and let out an irritated growl as his ears fell flat. Christine looked down with some concern at him as she pushed open the armory doors. “Pulling legal nonsense on you or something?” she asked.

Elliot sighed and nodded. “More or less. Not like you and I are gonna try and take over an international case or anything, but we swore an oath and I don’t intend to break it any time soon, agents or not.”

“Amen to that. So let’s get geared up and do what we can; sound good?”

The wolf smirked as he waved hello to the moose on guard duty. “Yeah,” he replied, “at least as good as we’re gonna get right now.”

Harrison couldn’t help but hold a bemused scowl as he surveyed the supposed location of the hideout. It was just about the perfect spot for their targets to be tucked away in, if he was honest, being that it broke all the standard “rules” for such a location. It was on a street just off a relatively major thoroughfare through the Meadowlands District (though it still managed to sit just out of range of all the local traffic cameras of course), with a well-maintained landscape and exterior appearance, surrounded by broad, welcoming bands of grass and scattered strips of trees. There were no places to readily set up a means of entering or exiting unseen (unless of course you had special abilities to cloak yourself from prying eyes, or the capacity to jump from the doors to the trees), never mind escape without being spotted, and it certainly was not the type of location where more than a handful of animals could hide out without being detected.

Heck, Harrison was certain that he and the other agents had driven right past here several times already, fully unaware that they were probably the ones being monitored at those moments instead.

“Gee, when it comes to criminal pits, this is probably one of the quaintest I’ve ever seen,” one of the jaguar’s fellow agents commented in the seat nearby, looking out the window of the van that they were preparing in.

Harrison nodded. “You spoke my thoughts out loud there, Arveni,” he said. “Though it fits Lotera and company pretty well. Of course we’ve yet to confirm it was them that the drone caught here.”

Arveni grunted. “Yeah, but that won’t take long. Doubt it was anybody else though, ‘less there’s another Thylacine palling around the city with an oversized pigeon. Camera caught those outlines damn well for the distance it was filming from.”

Harrison smirked; he could be the kind of character that took some getting used to, but he was good at catching what should be obvious, yet often missed by others. Arveni Pristovena was a relatively straightforward representative of the pygmy hog species, brash and blunt in his standard personality and rarely accepting “no” as a proper answer (unless he was the one giving it). He enjoyed calling others out on their mistakes or misconceptions, the only saving grace being that he wasn’t scathing when doing so. But, there were few mammals one could rely on more for the truth of things, and in a fight he was indispensable, spotting openings others missed and able to take hit after hit without so much as gaining a decent bruise.

Arveni was also an expert at the art of breaking and entering without setting off the hundred different kinds of alarms they were used to encountering, or alerting the occupants within, something they desperately needed right now if they were to actually have any chance at getting to Lotera and the other Primalists without being fried in the process.

It was this part of their jobs that Harrison liked the least: knowing that one was outclassed in a conflict, but having to enter the fight headfirst anyway, with full awareness that your only chances of success relied entirely on perfect plans not running wrong or serious streaks of luck (actually, scratch that: that’s what remaining alive required; success was even more miraculous). He’d never admit it out loud, but he was very glad to have the two incredibly willing police officers there with them, or at least in another unmarked vehicle nearby, to provide backup. The four agents present in the van (himself, Vela, Arveni, and a ringtail by name of Kelia Ringston) were hardly enough to be dealing with a mercenary, an assassin, and an empowered Primalist, especially without mammals like the Canistons on hand to help. Their friend Elisheva was also currently unavailable, having been sent to investigate another, likely false lead at the far end of Alpine District.

“So just to make sure we’re all clear here,” Vela spoke up, turning on the radio channel as she did so that Fangmeyer and Wolfard could hear, “plan is Pristovena and Ringston go in first, skirt the base of the house to sniff out alarms or traps and find a way in that won’t be so easily guarded, and set up surveillance equipment to locate the occupants if nearby. Once entry is made, Voltom and I will follow, and will attempt apprehension preferably via tranquilizer, but if necessary lethal force is on the table, particularly for Manard. Fangmeyer, Wolfard, once we’re in, maintain outside surveillance from your vehicle and keep weapons at the ready; you’ll be in contact with Matista on your radios, and in emergency, the pagers we gave you will be your notification. One beep will mean your backup is requested, two means you get the hell out of here, no questions asked. Is that understood?”

“Yes ma’am,” Fangmeyer answered immediately. “But if that’s the case, then we’ll literally be leaving all of you to”-

“We know,” Vela cut her off, though not harshly. “But this is a case where that is a noted risk, and better we take the fall and you get away to alert the other officers and our organization. You have an oath, we know, but it is essential that someone knows what’s at play and that we take as few lives with us as possible if we go down.”

Silence fell, and the agents knew that neither of the cops liked the situation, but no arguments came forth, at least.

Finally, Harrison cleared his throat and motioned to Kelia and Arveni. “Alright, time to move,” he said. “We’ve given them way too much time already, and it was obvious Manard knew the drone was there, so they’re already likely waiting for us to make a move. Ringston, Pristovena, let’s move out.”

The hog and ringtail both nodded and pushed open a door on the side of the van facing away from the house. There was very little cover between the road and the building, but they’d positioned their vehicle where the two would have the best chance of not being seen on approach. A line of bushes dotted the edge of the property, beyond which a broad yard possessed only two trees between them and the wall of the house. The two smaller mammals ducked behind the bushes and then into the shade of the trees, halting each time and listening before moving further in. Finally, both of them were soon pressed against the base of the bricks, scanning for cameras as they made their way along.

Harrison kept his eyes on Ringston’s ears, knowing the ringtail would be the first to detect any movement inside, and waited while Pristovena began pulling out half a dozen little gadgets and tools to start checking the basement window they had sidled up next to.

“No alarm system detected,” the hog eventually relayed over the closed circuit the agents were sharing, “unless the marsupial bastard just put a hex down or something. Ringston says she’s not picking up any movement inside either, so they’re either waiting for us, asleep, or all the way on the other side of the house. Proceed with entry?”

“Proceed,” Harrison affirmed.

Pristovena set to work, dropping silently into the window well and checking the seams on the frames. Piece of cake, he thought, pulling out a seam stripper and flexible wire grip tool. The stripper made short work of a small section of the rubber between the sliding panes, just enough to maneuver the wire through. Pristovena angled the little tool around the frame, using the micro-camera mounted on the tip to position it exactly where he needed it and search for any alarm sensors or other cameras that might have been mounted inside the window frame that he would have missed from the outside. Seeing none, he moved the tool to grip the lock, pulling the latch up and releasing the window.

The window slid open with ease, and popping the screen only took seconds afterward. The hog carefully dropped into the dark basement, Ringston slipping in behind him and using her stronger nocturnal vision to look around. The basement was unremarkable, empty and unfurnished, with walls of insulation and floors of cold concrete. A single secondary room was visible through a nearby door, but this proved equally desolate when the ringtail poked her head in. Pulling out infrared and subsonic sensors to make sure they weren’t simply walking by a cloaked Primalist, the two agents shared a nod when the sensors picked up nothing. The space was as clear as it looked, so they radio signaled their teammates in the van.

Harrison nodded to Vela when the signal came through, and they both slipped out of the van to follow the path of the smaller mammals. Both of them kept a close watch on the two windows of the upper floor for movement, but nothing caught their notice. Once inside the basement, the maned wolf and jaguar took point, slinking up the stairwell with weapons drawn and all senses on alert. Vela swung around the top of the corridor first, aiming into the living room beyond and peering into the adjoining kitchen. The back door, through which the drone had caught Lotera and Avery on its footage, was immediately visible to her left, and a hallway ahead revealed the closed doors of several other rooms. She held position and Harrison took point next as he headed for the hall, Ringston flanking him. Harrison directed the ringtail to the first door as he took the second, paws resting on the doorknobs as they waited for Vela and Arveni to come up behind them, pairing up one larger and one smaller mammal on each door. Then in unison, they pushed through.

Harrison and Arveni found a study with a window overlooking the front lawn and street beyond, bare and unmarked save for a small desk. As far as could be seen, there was no evidence here that anyone had ever even lived there either, a disconcerting sign. The jaguar turned to direct Arveni out and toward the next room down the hall, most likely to be the bedrooms beyond, but both of them were halted in their tracks by Vela calling out from the room nearest to the kitchen and living room.

“Uh, guys? Might want to come and see this.”

Harrison hurried out of the study with the pygmy hog right on his heels, concern rising. “Vela, signals!” he admonished as quietly as he could while still being heard. “What if they’re down the hall and they overhear”-

“Relax Harrison,” Vela replied as they popped in, she and Kelia looking around the room they’d entered first. It was another study, looking out across the back yard with its own window. “We’re not going to find them here. At least, not anymore.” She gestured around the room, and it wasn’t difficult to find why she had drawn that conclusion.

On one wall was a map of Zootopia, and pinned right above where their apartment was in Savannah Central were photographs of Hopps and Wilde, both of them with shards of what Harrison could only guess was obsidian speared straight through the middle. On the opposite wall was a tack board, across which hung photos of each and every one of the agents on their current team: Savage, Wellinger, Voltom, Tubolinez, Pristovena, Ringston, and even Matista. Additionally the photos of both of the Canistons were tacked beside those of the agents. Each, in turn, had been raked by claws alit with flames, leaving them ragged and blackened. That the damage had been left out so blatantly was a calling card; the Primalists had moved on, and left a message.

“We’re being tracked as well,” Ringston said, stating the obvious aloud but yet still only worsening their concerns. “We’re not nearly as off the grid as they are, and if they’re not following us over the wires then someone else with them is.”

Harrison cursed, and turned on the radio frequency for the cops outside. “Gig’s up guys, they’re not here anymore,” he said. “Better get in here; we’ll call in evidence and forensics but I doubt they’ll find much of use. We have a couple of severe problems we need to discuss though.”

“Copy,” Fangmeyer’s voice answered.

Pristovena looked up at Voltom with skepticism over that call. “Ya really think a couple of beat cops should be seeing this mess?” he asked, looking at the walls. “Or have anything to offer?”

“They’re the only ones present whose faces aren’t slashed out on the wall,” the jaguar pointed out. “Plus, they already saw the Copper Park scene. So long as no one lets slip about Gifteds or Empowered individuals here, I doubt they’ll come to any conclusions that they haven’t already.”

Ears swiveled toward the sound of the front door opening, and the wolf and tiger partners appeared in the study doorway moments later. “So what did you…oh,” Fangmeyer breathed, halting and making Wolfard run into her back as she stared at the walls around her. Her eyes fixed in particular on the tack board full of burned photos, as pieces started falling into place.

“Those burns,” she said, “they look like the marks on the trees in the park. And the nip dealer Bagheerson that started this. What causes them?”

“Classified,” Vela answered, earning a pair of displeased glares. “Not the response you want to hear, I know, but believe me when I say it’s best that you don’t know.”

“Well, we at least need something for our reports,” Wolfard quipped back, “and ‘something the agents call classified’ won’t cut it.”

“A dangerous weapon then,” Harrison supplied before an argument broke out. “We can’t divulge details, but Lotera wields it and it’s part of the reason that we insist we deal with them and not the police. You wouldn’t be able to even start learning how to deal with it right now. Moving on though, we have some important matters that we need to discuss, starting with this.” He swept his paw toward the tack board, then pointed at each photo individually. “You might notice, besides your Precinct’s detective team, everyone seriously involved with this case is posted here, except for you. It means they are aware of and probably tracking everyone’s involvement, but either you two have slipped under their radar so far or they deem you inconsequential, and we need to try and keep it that way.”

The jaguar stepped closer to the officers, paws clasped together. “The rest of us are going to have to take on more radio silence as that is probably what they’ve been tracking most: technological contacts. That will cut us off of support more than we already are, but if you two act as go-betweens and keep trigger words concerning this case out of the conversation as best you can, you have a better shot of continuing investigations in the open like we need with the police, without drawing target marks on your backs, hopefully. Additionally it might help keep us further off their radar if calls being made aren’t coming from our equipment before we get Matista to sift through them again.”

“But it’s gonna be another lead-less chase, isn’t it?” Fangmeyer said, crossing her arms in disappointment. “They’ve up and run again, and we don’t have a clue where.”

“Well, we do have this house,” Ringston interjected, gesturing around them. “Fair chance that wherever they run to will be like this again, because if they have the resources to set up in a quaint, unassuming home they’ll probably do so again, since it won’t raise local suspicions. And, we trace back whoever owns or owned this, we may dig up clues to give us a proper trail, if not leading to them then perhaps whoever might be backing their travel here financially. A group like this rarely works standing entirely alone.”

“Uh, guys, we may have an even bigger immediate problem,” Wolfard said. He was looking up at the ceiling another six feet above Fangmeyer’s head, his ears falling flat. “We need to give the guys in Bunnyburrow a call. And somebody wanna explain this? No Thylacine is that tall, and I see claw marks.”

Everyone else’s eyes followed his upward, rapidly finding the source of the wolf’s concern. Scrawled across the ceiling in the same burned scratches as had cleaved the photos in twain was a message, one that couldn’t have been left more than an hour before as smoke still curled from the ends.

Tell Savage and his friends we’ll be seeing them soon. ~L

The sight was almost disturbing, with how rare it seemed to be, but somehow it still managed to warm everyone present, especially those who’d fretted over his condition for weeks.

Jack was smiling, and it was genuine. Not forced, not a smirk or borne of amusement, but true, in-the-moment enjoyment of his present activity and those with him.

Nick and Judy, if they hadn’t known any better, would have sworn he was a different rabbit entirely, and the fox hadn’t passed up a single opportunity to rib him about having a doppelganger. Judy, for her part, was still wondering how the buck was retaining the good mood under the barrage too. But then, Jack had long since gotten used to Skye who could be as snarky as Nick at times, so perhaps it wasn’t so surprising.

Gideon’s bakery/home had never been so crowded in back either. He, Sharla, Jack, and Embron were all actively warming up the kitchen, rolling out doughs and butter sheets and measuring spices, with plans to whip up a full three-course Italian-style dinner for everyone after they were done with the pastry and bread baking. Meanwhile at Gideon’s dining room table just beyond the back door of the kitchen, sat the two cops, Skye, and Scarlet, chatting as they watched the four cooks busy themselves nearby. The air was full of flour and the scents of cinnamon and berries, and the atmosphere was more amiable than most of the mammals present had experienced in weeks, if not months.

“I guess you guys really were just what he needed,” Skye commented, watching Jack as she absently grasped at her glass of lemonade. “Try and surround him on our off days with mammals of like interest and nada. I haven’t seen him this happy in a long time.”

“I’ll bet that part of it is that he has no choice but to hang around us right now,” Judy said with a smile. “You get stuck with someone and you either end up absolutely hating them, or you start being friends and enjoying your time with them. Or, you know, sometimes both like with Nick here.”

Nick snorted and sent her a cheeky grin, swirling a finger on the table surface. “You know you love me.”

“Yeah, we finally established that two days ago.”

They shared a pair of equally smarmy smirks, before leaning over to each other for a kiss.

“PDA!” Scarlet immediately yelled, before cackling as the two of them broke apart blushing red in embarrassment under their fur. “God, you two are so adorkable; you’re too easy!”

“Yeah yeah, yak it up ya laugh riot,” Nick snarked, picking up a small strawberry. Seeing that it was turning bruised and not quite fit for eating anymore, he flicked it at the ocelot and snickered when it caught her off guard, bouncing off of her nose. “Wow, what incredible reflexes!”

Scarlet wiped her nose off and sent him a flat stare. “I can show you reflexes,” she toned warningly.

“Oi! Y’all mess up my kitchen, you clean it up!” Gideon warned from the kitchen, brandishing a rolling pin at them. “Nick, ya keep throwin’ berries around the table an’ I’ll restrict yer access t’ the blueberry tarts. Ya hear?”

Nick gasped and leaned back in his chair like he’d been shot, clutching at his chest with both paws in mock pain. “Oh, say it isn’t so Greyscale! What a dastardly threat to level on your fellow fox!”

“More like what you get for acting like the toddler you are at heart,” Judy quipped, poking him in the side. “You’d better start watching your sugar intake anyway; I doubt you’ll be a bottomless pit forever.”

“Well, I can certainly try. You never know.”

“Yeah, my brother’s almost 40 and he’s still a beanpole,” Scarlet snickered as she pointed at the coyote in the kitchen, to which Embron immediately volleyed back, “Hey, don’t be calling me old yet!”

“And don’t give Nick any more encouragement,” Judy added, waving a paw in a shooing gesture at Scarlet. “He’s bad enough without it.”

The fox’s smug smirk deepened, but he decided against adding more to the conversation for once, instead choosing to sit back and swirl the ice around his own lemonade glass. It had been a while since he could really relax, and he wanted to enjoy it while it lasted. Exasperating banter into a real spat would ruin that.

As Gideon began sliding trays full of berry tarts and Kouign Amann (a flower-shaped pastry none of them had ever heard of until Embron brought up a recipe that morning) into the oven and Embron and Sharla began cleaning up to make space for dinner preparations, Jack left the kitchen to sit down with the rest of his companions. He was dressed in a set of throwaway gray shorts and a white tank-top, and with having been on Gideon’s counter most of the time to help with the pastry making, he was dusted with enough flour to make his black stripes turn cloudy.

“Heh,” Nick snickered, looking the buck over, “hey Stripes, one more round in the kitchen there and we’ll have ourselves a ghost bunny. Who’s on the haunting list?”

“I vote Nick!” Scarlet exclaimed. “Never let him sleep soundly again! And let’s make Embron second in line.”

“How about you?” the coyote shouted back through the kitchen door. “Jack wouldn’t be crazy enough to interrupt my sleep for a prank.”

“One shouldn’t disturb either of you if they know what’s good for them,” Jack quipped. “Sadistic as you both are when it comes to getting revenge.”

“Aw, you know us so well!’ the ocelot cooed teasingly, her eyes flashing with mischief. “Though maybe we’d cut you a little slack; no ‘glued to the ceiling’ recompense and the like.”

“Naw, you’d probably just stew a Reaper pepper in our coffee one morning,” Skye tittered back, earning a ‘sorry-not-sorry’ look from Scarlet. “Yeah, thought so, and I probably shouldn’t be giving you ideas either. Won’t touch them yourself, but hey, freely impart their scorching evil on all your friends? Why not?”

“Hmm, I can think of a couple of mammals who should try one of those,” Nick mused thoughtfully, drumming his fingers on his chin. Then he laughed and avoided a punch from Judy as she caught onto his thoughts.

“Don’t you even think about it,” she scolded. “The last thing we need is Bogo with actual steam coming out of his ears.”

“You know,” the fox returned, grin growing wider, “he wasn’t actually included on my list, but now that you mention it…”

“Ugh, FOX!”

“Ugh, RABBIT!”

“Alright, enough o’ ya bickering like you’ve already been married a couple decades,” Sharla yelled, sticking her head into the dining space. The sheep was nearly as cloudy white as Jack’s stripes were, but somehow the look seemed fitting on her. She sent a wink to Scarlet and the agents, confirming that her quip was in fact meant to cause the blush now rising again in Judy’s ears, before she looked at Nick. “Hey Wilde, since I heard through the grapevine that you’re not half-bad a cook either, how ‘bout ya lend a paw in makin’ dinner too? Give Jack or Embron a chance t’ rest a bit and maybe stifle a bit of the snark competition in here.”

“Oh, better give Embron the rest then,” Skye commented, leaning her head back to smile at the sheep. “Those two in there together would probably paint the walls permanently in snark.”

“Ooh, scared to know what color that is.”

“One that couldn’t possibly be put into words, for the beauty transcends speech,” Embron trilled back from the kitchen sink.

Skye snickered and opened her mouth to continue the banter, before the buzzing of her phone in her pocket drew her attention downward. A sinking feeling filled her stomach (no one was supposed to be calling them outside of emergency), but she pulled the device out of her pocket anyway and looked at the screen. Her ears immediately fell flat.

“Let me guess,” Nick began, his own ears starting to fall, “real life just called, didn’t it?”

Skye nodded, looking over her shoulder at the kitchen. Gideon noticed, and shooed Embron into the dining space before reaching over to close the door between the two rooms. “Sharla an’ I will keep up in here fer a bit,” he said. “Y’all do what ya need.”

As soon as the door shut, Skye answered the call and set the phone on the table in the middle of everyone, so that they could all see and participate if needed. “You’re on video and speaker Harrison, everyone can hear you,” she said.

“Oh good, message won’t have to be relayed then,” the jaguar said, his face appearing on the screen as well and looking among them. “It is strongly advised that you increase your security measures in any way you can while you’re out there; preferably return to the case as soon as possible.”

“Why?” Judy asked, leaning over the table with her ears high and forward. “Did something happen? You find anything finally?”

“We found where the Primalists were hiding out, Hopps,” Harrison affirmed. “We got lucky and found them on footage from a local drone test. Unfortunately Lotera saw the drone and they left before we managed to locate where they were, a house in the Meadowlands. He left a message as well, claiming they’ll be meeting you all soon. We don’t know if that’s an active threat, whether they know where you are or will risk coming after you out there, or if it’s simply a taunt, but it’s better that we don’t take the risk. Matista’s got this call covered as best as he can, but they’re tracing many of us somehow and likely electronically.”

“Duly noted,” Jack said, his expression having lost its humor of before and returned to his more familiar stony professionalism. “Do you have any further leads on them now that you found their original hideout? Hits on whoever’s backing them?”

“Not a thing yet unfortunately; if they’re still in the city, they have the resources to hide out anywhere they want. The house they were in is not displeasing in appearance and they’re not shy about hiding themselves right in the open. Whoever is funding them is smart too, or working with someone who is with finances, so we can’t pick up any paper trail to them yet. Matista is still sifting records, but there hasn’t even been a purchase record for the house found yet even though we did find the real estate registry for it having been sold within the last two months.”

There was a sigh, before Harrison added, “Until you’re certain that you’re ready to come back, we’re making Officers Fangmeyer and Wolfard of Precinct One our go-tos, though for now we’re still refraining from briefing them on all details of course.”

“Good,” Skye said. “We probably won’t be too much longer out here; we’ll call you when we’re planning to head in so pick-up arrangements can be prepared. If you find anything before then, notify us immediately.”

“Of course,” the jaguar replied. “Oh, and Jack: Trevahe left a message, said she wants to speak with you and Skye about the involvement of Gifteds in this, especially now that you’ve contacted three. Minde also gives her regards by the way, saying she’s been following leads but no comments from public sector have shown up about our targets yet.”

There was a collective groan, before Embron leaned over the phone. “Trevahe is more than welcome to come and speak with Scarlet and I in person,” he said lowly, “as she hasn’t yet since that brief encounter seven years ago.”

“She may well if things don’t get any better soon,” Harrison sighed. “I’ll leave you with that however; I need to go see if Matista has made any progress. Keep watch.”

The video ended, and everyone slumped back in their seats as Skye pocketed her phone. “I’d almost suggest asking Gideon if we could stay here if it weren’t for the possible risk to him,” Embron huffed, glancing at the kitchen door. “It would be harder for the Primalists to track our being here as opposed to the Hopps house, but I still doubt they’d risk trying anything even there, not for a long while yet at least.”

“Should we just head back now then?” Judy asked. “I mean, everyone’s looking pretty okay now and we’re not getting a whole lot figured out about the case while we’re out here. It’s good for the mind, hanging with friends and having fun, but not very productive.”

“Not everything has to be productive,” Nick muttered, earning a glare from her and Jack.

“Another day, maybe two,” Skye said, seeing the looks and interjecting to avoid argument. “I won’t call us a hundred percent yet and we now need at least some time to determine whether or not the Primalists actually have located us here. Our team has things covered as well as can be in the city, and us returning only gives us the option of basically putting you two back in the public ring as bait again, not ideal.” She looked between the two cops, before leaning back in her chair again. “If nothing develops by mid-morning two days from now, then we’ll probably call it and head back in to start again.”

“Well, then that at least gives us the chance to finish having dinner and sweets with friends tonight, right?” Nick asked brightly in attempt to lighten the mood, smiling triumphantly at the new chorus of groans his comment produced, before Jack nodded agreement.

“It would be rude to ship out at such short notice,” the buck said, smiling slightly and giving Nick a wink, “in addition to raising suspicions that might gain the wrong attention; after all, the town gossips already picked up on Hopps being back around. Let’s at least take the rest of this evening to continue resetting ourselves, and start worrying tomorrow. We’ve done enough of that already, after all, and with Harrison and the others not pulling up anything new, we don’t have anything worth fretting over that we haven’t already scoured clean.”

“We could have just taken them out, problem solved.”

“And another dozen problems created. Isolated as that house was, even a single gunshot would alert neighbors, and the agents would never be stupid enough to have everyone go in all at once either. Someone would have been left out to escape and alert the rest of the agency and local authorities, never mind if we took care of the sloth behind the scenes or not, and even all three of us together would not have been able to ensure the deaths of all of them at once, not in that space.”

“You can summon lightning and fire, or curve bullets and knives with your mind, can’t you?”

Lotera turned and glared at Saber, making the Moschus wish he hadn’t said a thing. “Like all other weapons it’s a matter of practice and skill, not purely a ‘think and it’s done’ endeavor,” the Thylacine growled. “And if I miss, that’s energy lost that I don’t get back easily never mind, again, if anyone else hears it and reports it to other authorities or, forbid, the media. Anonymity is necessary so that we can disappear when this is done, especially me.”

“Sure, call yourself the special one,” Avery huffed, ruffling her wings and popping some unknown once-living object, possibly an unfortunate small bird or even some homeless rodent, into her mouth and swallowing it. “Ya might have the wildest secret, but we all have reasons t’ stay out a the line of fire, when we can. But if we keep runnin’ every time the ground shifts then we’ll miss that deadline and the ballyhoos will be useless to us until another rift opens where we can find it. We’ll have to take some risks eventually.”

“And on the subject of our running, couldn’t we have found a little bit better place to set up again than this dump?” Saber quipped, looking around at their new habitation (a run-down shack of a place on the opposite side of the harbor arm from the Canal District; technically beyond city limits proper but close enough for easy access). “If we had the money to get that last house we should have been able to find another.”

Avery shook her head, siding with Lotera’s decision on this topic. “Uh uh; I think I know why the marsupial grabbed this place. Even if Ravelis was gonna let us run about freely with his kiwis, takin’ another house without a purchase record to trace also gives the agents a leash t’ tie us with, and personally I don’t wanna get caught ‘cause we decided we needed fancier living. Although,” she turned and eyed Lotera with distaste, “we wouldn’t have had t’ leave the other place if the wanker here hadn’t slipped up.”

The Thylacine turned toward the eagle, his claws beginning to spark. “Tell me then,” he snarled, “how would you have predicted that the local Precinct was just going to happen to decide to move their drone test up a day and fly it over our hideout? I can do many things, but acting as a seer is not one of them. Mistakes and freak accidents happen, even to the best!”

Avery didn’t respond, choosing instead to wince and look at the wall aimlessly. Lotera snorted, and turned his head to Saber. “We know they took the Catalysts out of the city, and that the agents wouldn’t just play into our hands by heading out somewhere in the middle of nowhere, so they’re probably holed up in one of the outlying boroughs. We need a means then of drawing them back and into isolation here so we can finish this; you two are recovered from your injuries as will I be shortly, so we all need to be on the field this time. I can handle the Gifted two, you handle the agents.”

“And how might you propose we draw them out?” Saber asked, fiddling with one of his tusks in feigned casualness. “We set up another crime scene and they’ll merely send other officers to deal with the problem, or the rest of Savage’s team, and we can’t very well just send off some happy invitation; we don’t even know exactly where they are.”

Avery snickered and mimed writing out a letter. “Yeah, I see it now: ‘Dear disgusting abominations, please join us for a jolly evening out in the woods. A free trip to exotic places included! Just you, no lousy government sneaks or fiery dogs and cats permitted. See you soon!” She let off a snort, before reaching over and tapping the newest tablet they’d acquired. “I can tell ya both that they’re in Bunnyburrow, ‘cause little Miss Hopps is a celebrity there and whenever she shows up back home the town media gets happy about it, but that ain’t helping much. Place is crawlin’ with almost nothing but the little snacks, so we’d all stand out like a cactus on a sand dune if we tried going there.”

Lotera rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to rake his claws through the nearest piece of furniture. “A ransom would be effective for either of them,” he ground out. “Someone they care deeply for, in exchange for themselves. A weakness of the heroic types: they’ll readily sell themselves out for others.”

“Well it’d be a touch risky trying to nab one of the rabbit’s family members,” Saber drawled, waving a hoof. “Besides our sticking out if we went to Bunnyburrow as Avery already noted; they keep tabs all the time on each other and have a ton of connections. We’d never get anything set up before the whole town was after us.”

“No, but Hopps isn’t the only one with beloved family around,” Lotera explained. “I was thinking more the other of the two. After all, Wilde’s only family is quite nearby, and a whole lot less likely to be missed by the public; nobody likes foxes still, after all.” He held up a photo, an old one but unmistakably a young Nick with an older vixen standing lovingly over him.

The other two nodded, catching onto Lotera’s intent without problem, before Avery furrowed her brows again. “And we have a place to confront them without being surrounded by local cops?” she asked. “I mean, all well and good to have something to set terms with, but beats the point again if we’re caught and tied before the Catalysts show up. That’d kind of bugger all.”

Lotera nodded. “Of course, I’m not stupid. If they value her life they won’t try bringing in more help, but yes I have a place. There’s a mountain ridge just beyond the first hills here supporting a flat field; we can see anyone approaching and hold all advantages. All we really need now is to make a quick house call.”

Chapter Text

Family is a cursed blessing

Both a vice and grandest virtue

Support and care, your memories

Yet they are also the key to hurt you

One values little more than those they love

Your life readily traded for theirs

They are a leash around your neck

A mark of belonging, but easily grasped by dark affairs

Hold them close and hold them dear

Few things can hold greater value

But protect them too from the shadowed world

Lest the world uses them to trap you

“So you haven’t heard anything at all recently?”

“No, not a word in a couple of months actually,” Vivian sighed, adjusting the phone against her cheek so that it would balance better as she mixed the batter in the bowl she held. “Of course, that’s not entirely unusual, considering my son, but certainly more odd recently. But I won’t worry too much. They could be on an important case, and I’m sure they’re both fine.”

Brielle, the wolverine on the other end of the line and one of Vivian’s longest-held friends, gave an exasperated huff that the vixen could only smile at. Perhaps it was a trait of the species’ famed temper, but nevertheless amusing from someone otherwise so well-mannered. “It would drive me insane not knowing what my Xavier was up to, especially if he were in that kind of job,” she said. “How do you manage not trying to nose in and check up on him?”

“I’d say probably conditioning from seventeen years of not even knowing where he was the vast majority of the time, or if he was alive save for the checks he’d send,” Vivian admitted. She set the bowl down and opened a cabinet door to pull out a non-stick muffin tin, before sighing and leaning against the counter. “Call it one small bit of good that came out of that experience; I had to learn how to step away so as not to self-destruct, so I’m no longer at risk of being a helicopter parent. Though I can’t say I’m immune to smothering him now when he does show up. A mom’s gotta make up for it somehow.”

“I’d say you were well within your rights to squeeze the details out of him this time,” Brielle drawled. “They can’t hide everything about their escapades from their own parents, I’m sure.”

“Oh, depends on the case.”

“Always ‘the case’. Alright, well, what about that partner of his? Your opinion? You’ve yet to actually tell me what you think of ‘the city’s hero.’”

Vivian snickered, adjusting the phone again as she picked the bowl back up and started pouring the batter. “As a mammal? Great soul, if a little on the naïve side a times. She’s exactly what Nicky needed though, and I can’t thank her enough for pulling him out of that mess he’d gotten himself entrenched in.”

“But…?” Brielle prodded. “Sounds like there’s something more, too.”

“Mmhmm, observant as ever. Nothing I can hold against her here though, mind you. You should see how they tease each other all the time, and the looks! If I didn’t know better, I’d have said they’d already been married a decade.”

The wolverine on the other end of the line sucked in a breath that was more than audible over the connection. “Wait…are you saying little Nicky is dating a bunny? His partner at work? Will that even work?”

The vixen let out another long breath as she tipped out the last of the batter, and then turned to slip the tray into the oven. Almost immediately her nose began to pick up the smells of the baking bread, and it let her relax a bit. “I don’t think he is,” she admitted, “at least not yet. Mostly because I don’t think they even know about their interest in each other themselves. I’ve been dropping hints every time they come by to try and find out for sure since I met Miss Hopps, but I don’t think either of them are picking up on them.” She crossed her arms, lips pursing. “I wouldn’t disapprove though, even if it’s a bit unconventional; she’s the best thing that’s happened to him in 25 years and I’ve seen stranger couples work out.”

“You’d have to say goodbye to having grandkits though.”

“Oh, I don’t know if Nick was ever the fatherly type anyway, but I can still tease them mercilessly about it. Mother’s job after all. Plus they could adopt, though their occupations might make that tricky.”

Brielle gave a thoughtful hum. “Well, you’re not wrong. Heaven knows there are plenty of lost kits out there already. Well, got some errands to run, so I’ll let you get back to your day. Keep me updated if you hear anything, and make sure to bring me one of those muffins I know you’re baking over there next time you drop by, hear?”

Vivian had to laugh at that; her friend never changed. “Oh, you’ll be the first to hear. And I swear, you can smell baked goods through the phone can’t you?”

“My little secret m’dear. Take care now.”

“You too.”

The line clicked off, and Vivian leaned against the counter, releasing her breath in a slow, content huff before turning off and pocketing her phone. Her eyes were drawn thanks to the prior conversation to the series of pictures she had framed on the far wall of the dining room, the only remaining ever-present reminders of the legacy she now had. After all, even what was Nick’s room was now cleared out by the tod himself.

Life as a fox had never been easy, especially a family in a home on the edge of Happytown (and despite everything, Vivian had refused to move out even with all the money her son had sent over the years; the majority that she hadn’t spent on simply renovating the little house had been locked in savings for a special occasion, or to return to her son one day), but she had tried to do her best even as Nick made things harder. His sudden vanishing in his teens certainly hadn’t helped, but it had, as the vixen told her friend, strengthened her capacity to watch what was left of her family from a distance.

Contrary to what she often said for emphasis, Vivian hadn’t ever lost track of her son, not for long anyway. Rather, with her own network of friends she’d made sure to keep tabs on him, but never took it on herself to approach him, much as she wanted to at times. Vivian was a wise vixen; she knew if she’d gone after Nick it would have only pushed him away more, made it harder for him to ever want to return to her at all and perhaps truly make her lose him to the world. So, even as the young tod had hooked up to hustle with Finnick and took over his own apartment only a half hour away in the Rainforest District, Vivian had stayed put, waiting and watching as she kept company with the few photos she had of Nick’s childhood up on the wall. Her photo of him in his Ranger Scout uniform was bittersweet yet once her favorite, everything that little kit had wanted to be but scarred by what the world had given him instead.

Then, a little less than a year ago, Vivian was rewarded by the exact thing she’d always been praying for. A knock on her door had revealed a now fully grown-up Nick standing on her porch, looking as guilty as could be and barely able to get out the word hello. Behind him, the rabbit that Vivian would soon learn had changed everything gently pushed him forward. A tearful hug and words of forgiveness were followed by introductions and Nick’s presentation of his ZPA letter of acceptance, a photo of which now hung just above the kit in the ranger uniform.

Six months later, a trio of photos joined those two up high on the wall: Nick in his dress blues at his graduation, him and Judy together in both their uniforms, and then one taken by Judy of Vivian and Nick side by side. It had been a long road getting there, but Vivian knew Nick had finally ended up where he belonged. And if Judy stayed in the picture permanently she could never complain. Rather, she hoped Judy and her son would make things official soon, because she was certain only the best mammal for Nick’s life could have accomplished such a turnaround.

Besides, watching a rabbit blush was somehow a whole lot funnier than getting Nick to do so, and Vivian was Nick’s mother after all; he had to get his sense of humor from somewhere and it hadn’t all been from his late father.

As if mocking the memory of that first return of her son, a knock on the door brought the vixen out of her reverie, her ears perking up as she turned to look toward the front of the house.

Odd, she mused, I wasn’t expecting any visitors today.

In her part of town, door-to-door salesmammals or religious advocates were a rare occurrence too, one of the few blessings of Happytown. Other facets of the populace however left Vivian with a high level of caution as she approached the door. A peek out the peephole revealed no one she was familiar with, so with her standard polite but reserved manner she unlocked the door and cracked it open only so far as the security chain would permit.

“Hello?” she said. “Can I help you?”

The visitor was a well-dressed but odd looking ungulate she’d never seen before, stout and solidly built with a pair of fang-like tusks protruding from the corners of his muzzle. As she’d opened the door he’d been fiddling with the satin blue vest he was wearing over a maroon button-up shirt and gray slacks, but at the question he perked up and gave her a somewhat nervous smile.

“Oh! Uh, hi, name’s Tristan. I’m, uh, a friend of your son’s, and I’ve been trying to get a hold of him for a couple of days now but none of the avenues I’ve tried have worked, so I was hoping you might be of more help.”

“I see,” Vivian said, still cautious. “Are you an old friend of Nick’s, or newer? I don’t know many of them myself.”

Tristan chuckled awkwardly. “Oh, um, new. We sort of met through work. The Precinct he’s at didn’t tell me much how to reach him though. I thought perhaps you might have another number I could use or something.”

Vivian nodded understanding and held up a finger, closing the door to unlock the chain so she could speak more amiably. After all, she was more certain that Nick’s newer crowd of associates were less likely to pick pockets or barge in without invitation.  “Well, I guess that depends on which number you have,” she said, pulling out her phone and opening the door more fully so she could address the mammal properly. “I have to be honest though, I haven’t heard from him in a little while either, so I don’t know how much use I’ll be.”

“Well, don’t worry too much. You’ve been plenty of help already.”

The sudden change of tone made Vivian look back up, and she only barely caught sight of the barrel of a tranquilizer gun before Tristan pulled the trigger. The dart hit home, driving into the vein on her neck and causing her to drop her phone as she yelped and clawed at the metallic shaft.

“I-what are you…?” she asked in growing panic, finally managing to yank the shaft out and looking down at it in shock. Then she looked back up at Tristan.

The other mammal’s eyes were no longer warm and lost-looking, but icy, calculating, a predatory gaze that the vixen would have better imagined on the face of her own kind. “It’s nothing personal to you, other than supporting your son’s current partnership,” Tristan said flatly. “We’ve been trying to get to Mr. Wilde for some time now, as he’s a rather important asset to us, and as other options have run dry we’re having to take some more drastic measures. I’m sure you will understand.”

Vivian’s heart was racing as the panic set in fully, and she bent down to grab her phone and run to call 911. The serum in the dart was already acting however, so she stumbled and overshot her phone, collapsing on the porch of her house as Tristan bent over to pick up the little device instead.

“Don’ worry too much,” he said, his face starting to fade with Vivian’s failing senses. “We don’t really want to hurt you, so if he comes compliantly, you’ll be back here and free to go about your business soon afterward. Might as well let you live your lonely life before everything returns to how it should be.”

The vixen tried to get out one last word, but she barely had the strength to whisper. The tranquilizer finally took full effect and she fell asleep, the last thing she saw being the Musk Deer reaching down for her, his expression as passive as if here were merely picking up a box on the porch.

Tristan hauled the limp vixen to his shoulder and turned to leave, before the scent of something baking in the kitchen reached his nose. Lotera had told him not to leave any more evidence than necessary, and that included an active oven that might burn the house down while they were busy with dear Mrs. Wilde. With a scowl, he trudged into the house, locating the kitchen and turning the appliance off, before nodding with scant satisfaction and slipping back out the door, disappearing among the dilapidated buildings down the street.

Everything they had wasn’t promising in the slightest, and that repetitive realization was beginning to grow old, really fast.

Embron scowled as he looked over the map they’d laid across the table in the guest house basement, knowing full well the thoughts running through the other heads around him as well as the likelihoods of success each of those ideas had. Judy wanted to get back to the fight somehow, hoping to end this and bring the perpetrators to justice however they could and wanting to remove the risks their being in Bunnyburrow brought to her family and friends, however great or small those risks really were. Nick wanted to get back out and end this too, though driven more to protect Judy than anything else. Though he was finally starting to break away from his past, Jack would seek to place the two officers in safety somewhere and go after the Primalists without them, in part driven by his long-cultivated sense of retribution, and Skye…well, her drives were already more or less covered by the others too, a similar strong moral compass as Judy and a want to protect her own partner as he dove headlong into danger.

All of their notions on what the next step ought to be of course had their merits, but flaws as well, and Embron and his sister likely knew best just how risky each of those flaws were bound to be. It was a game of balance; they would never get anywhere without giving something in turn.

“Winning at this point isn’t gonna get any easier from here,” Scarlet said lowly, one ear flicking in annoyance. She swept a paw over the map, pointing at the Meadowlands. “They abandoned their first base here, and from there, knowing their preferences, they could have traveled to any location throughout here.” She drew a finger across the Alpine District down through the Rainforest and Canal Districts, before jumping across to tap on the Canyonlands section of Sahara Square and even gesturing to Outback Island. “It’s a lot of ground to cover, and of course not even including the possibility that they also decided to leave the city like we did. I think there’s less chance that they’re on Outback or in the Canyonlands, since that would require crossing either the city center or open water where they’d be at greater risk of being spotted, but”-

“Actually, it’s pretty easy to get from the Meadowlands to Sahara without being seen,” Nick interjected, reaching over and tracing a finger through Zootopia’s center. “The maintenance and old construction tunnels used to reach and build the Nox run through the bedrock under the city surface, and not a lot of mammals know about or use them all. It’d be touch and go to avoid any maintenance workers that might come through there at random times, but considering what that Thylacine can do, I doubt it’d be difficult at all for them to slip by unseen if they decided to use the tunnels.”

“And how do you know about these tunnels, Nick?” Judy asked, a prying grin forming as she arched an eyebrow at him.

Nick huffed and looked away. “I plead the fifth.”

“So that just means the likely options are still nearly as broad as they were to start,” Jack sighed, his ears wilting slightly before he shook his head and focused back on the map, pointedly ignoring the bantering of the couple in their midst. “Voltom and Tubolinez will already be busy combing the western portion of the city, and Matista should have the mini drones he promised up and running shortly to help with that. Probably means that we can try searching out Canyonlands; Outback is less likely, I agree with Scarlet’s conjecture, so only if our other options are exhausted do we head there. Hopps and Wilde should remain inside of Precinct One while we’re”-

“No,” came the simultaneous chorus of four different voices, cutting Jack off and causing him to develop a bewildered scowl. The officers, who had been two of the dissenting voices, turned and looked in surprise at the Canistons.

“Look,” Scarlet said, crossing her arms, “admittedly, having them stay there during the day and then heading to a safe location with the rest of us at night would be one of the safer options for them, at least in short-term, but it won’t last. Desperation can drive mammals to do drastic things and if they can’t reach Hopps and Wilde by their stealthier methods, I can guarantee you that the Primalists will start losing their inhibitions about public attention eventually. Lotera would have little problem bringing down a building from the shadows in order to flush his targets out and into the open, and now that we’ve pissed them off and spread their pictures around both Avery and Saber are great about sowing the kind of chaos that could leave us all vulnerable.”

She held up a hand, a ring of light forming and rotating slowly above her palm. “Embron and I, other Gifteds as well if need be, can do a lot and if we have to we will step into the public eye to keep you two safe,” she said, looking at Nick and Judy in turn, “but as much as I hate to say it a slight compromise to your safety is now most likely to be the best way to end this. It’s over the edge of sane to have you sticking right alongside us as we try and sniff out the Primalists, but if we keep you with someone else trustworthy –your two officer friends that are getting roped into this already, perhaps- and in the same general region that we’re searching, it would probably be enough of a draw to get Lotera or one of the others to try something and thereby show their hands. At the same time, you driving around with Fangmeyer and company should keep you public enough to ward off greater risks for now. And, it doesn’t give them a ‘safe house’ target to bring down which would endanger a whole lot more than just the lot of us. Put you in the Precinct, all the officers there become collateral damage to Lotera if he decides to take things up a notch.”

“Sounds reasonable enough,” Judy nodded, “though still annoys me that none of you are gonna let us search too.”

“By the contrary,” Skye countered, shaking her head. “You’d have to be on patrol in the area, so you are still searching. And while it won’t be as rigorous as what we’ll be doing, that gives opportunity for you guys to try and come up with other angles. Nick, you know the city’s layout better than any of us, clearly, and you and Jack have the greatest experience when it comes to how criminal elements may operate. You might be able to think up a better trap or plan as we narrow our search ranges.” She turned her head, looking from him back to Judy. “Judy, you’re thorough; Nick misses anything and you can probably pick it up. Scarlet and Embron are right, we’d rather be able to stick you two somewhere that we know you’d be safe, but they’re also right in that nowhere will stay that way forever so we’d just end up bouncing you from place to place again, and there are advantages instead to at least having you out halfway with us. Sound good?”

Tod and doe nodded, and Skye clapped her paws together, standing up straight. “Great!” she exclaimed. “Not really much else we can get going from here I’d venture. We’ll be heading back out tomorrow morning, so in the meantime everyone should enjoy our last evening out here if you can. That includes you, Jack.”

The buck snorted and waved a paw. “Yeah yeah, quit the finger-pointing. I promised Jennifer I’d help her and Bonnie in the kitchen tonight. You don’t have to worry about me right now.”

“Wow,” Nick marveled, “you sounded a little like me at the start there. What an improvement!”

“Don’t insult me Wilde.”

Snorts and giggles followed as Embron rolled the map back up and everyone started heading upstairs, Nick and Judy bidding good evening to the others as they headed outside, but the two of them didn’t make for the house. Rather, taking advantage of the mild summer evening and the promise of a few hours of sunlight left, the pair joined hands and took a detour to the west past the guest houses and a narrow strip of crops, up to a short, tree-crowned hill.

The little berm was a favored hangout for many members of the Hopps homestead and their friends, with the trees bearing enough branches to entice the more adventurous among them to climb amongst the leaves (bringing nostalgic memories back to Judy) and even a couple of limbs sturdy enough for tire swings to hang from. The artistic sorts nestled into the trunks to write stories or daydream, or sketch the landscape, sunsets, or whatever else caught their attention, and sometimes the introverts of the family would head up to find a nook amongst the tree roots for peace and a moment of rest (of course, until the younger members of the family decided that alone time was over and swarmed them).

Then, there were the romantics. Neither Nick or Judy had ever thought they would end up among the ranks of love-struck couples looking for the right atmosphere, but yet somehow there they were, hand in hand as they walked past the trees and what few kits that hadn’t yet been corralled back into the house by elder rabbits still out giggling in the grass. They headed for the other side of the copse, to where the sun was still warming the ground. There, the two sat down on a soft patch of grass, looking out across the rolling hills and fields the countryside was so known for as Nick’s tail wound itself around behind Judy, and Judy in turn leaned into him.

“This’ll probably be the last chance we really get for moments like this, for some time, huh?” the doe half mumbled, her eyes tracking a lonely cabbage white fluttering by.

Nick hummed, before nodding slightly. “Yeah, sorry to say I agree,” he sighed. “Something tells me this isn’t gonna wrap up in any less time than it’s already stretched out for, or any cleaner. So, I for one intend to do exactly as Snow White suggested while I can.” He turned and snuffled his nose through the fur on top of Judy’s head while the rabbit snickered at his comments.

“You know if she catches you calling her that she’ll wring your neck like a wet towel.”

“Yep, which is why I only say it when she’s not around.”

“You are incorrigible. You know that just gives me something to blackmail you with.” She pushed on his chest playfully, and the fox scoffed.

“Blackmail? You, the perfect little star officer? Never.”

They both giggled in tandem before returning to watching the breeze roll across the grass. The atmosphere was peaceful, beautiful, and somehow encompassing a sense of lasting serenity that had been missing for too long despite the knowledge of what they’d all be diving headfirst into soon.

Nick’s gaze didn’t remain on the horizon forever though. A sight that he found leagues more enticing sat at far closer range. It started as an occasional, quick glance, before he soon found himself lingering on the soft gray tones of Judy’s fur, enraptured by the brilliance of the golden sun reflecting off her amethyst eyes. Judy wasn’t long in noticing the attention either and soon joined in the trading of looks. Trades gave way to both of them simply watching each other, violet falling into emerald and vice versa. Something magnetic, almost electric, ran between them, and they didn’t fight the slow urge to lean toward each other, eyelids falling as they prepared their lips to meet.

A phone started ringing.

Fox and rabbit both jerked back into the present, disappointment and irritation coloring their moods at the interruption, and Nick turned to glare down at his pocket where the offending buzz was coming from.

“Great icebreaker there Slick,” Judy snarked. “Way to ruin the moment.”

Nick curled one lip as he reached down and pulled his phone out. “Look, I could have sworn I had the damn thing turned off, what with Stripes’ warnings about getting traced and all,” he quipped, looking down at the screen. “Not to mention that it…hey, wait, it’s my mom!”

“Wait, Vivian’s calling?” Judy queried, ears perking up a bit as she scooted over again to see the screen. The interruption was still not exactly welcome, but she could at least give Nick’s mother a break. Plus, in all her time around Nick it was the first she’d seen the vixen calling her son instead of vice versa.

Nick nodded, though his expression was turning bewildered as he continued staring at the device. “Yeah, but she almost never calls me,” he said. “Usually it’s just the other way around. Must, uh, must be important I guess; better her interrupting than some random sales call though, right?” He grinned, earning an exasperated smirk from the doe beside him as he pressed the answer button on speaker. “Hey Mom. What’s up?”

“Hello, Nicholas.”

The voice that replied was not Vivian’s. Nick’s mouth suddenly turned dry as the Atacama, and he slowly pivoted to Judy, terrified eyes meeting petrified.

“I’m so glad I could finally reach you again,” Lotera continued, his voice dripping in faux cordiality. “You see, there are a few very important outstanding situations that we need to discuss one on one, immediately.”

Chapter Text

He stands in the jaded shadows

With your heart held in his hands

What should be whole he has torn in two

Each palm with half your life beheld

A choice now stands before you

One that you cannot avoid

Which half will you depart from

Which can you never live without?

But even then the choice is false

For you have no power here

The holder is the decisive vote

His wants what you’ll receive

So plead with him now all you wish

Try to turn his heart to your own

But don’t expect your wishes granted

For fate’s decision no one controls

“What have you done with Vivian?!” Judy screamed at the phone, her look no longer purely one of fear but also fury. She and the vixen, even in the few times they’d met in person, had become good friends, and an attack on Nick’s family she also saw as a strike against her own especially after the changes of the past few days.

Lotera returned with a cool, sardonic chuckle. “Why Miss Hopps, what a pleasure to also have you on the line; keeps me from having to find a way to relay the message twice. Worry not, Mrs. Wilde is fine, for now. But, I’m sure you’re smart enough to figure out what the terms of negotiation are going to be.”

Images of what they might have done to get to her, or what might yet happen, forced Nick to physically bite his tongue to keep from merely worsening the situation by cursing the Thylacine out. Lotera obviously expected an answer though.

“Come on now,” he taunted, “I may be a patient mammal, but I have my limits. What do you think we want out of this?”

Nick glanced at Judy again, and amidst a shared gaze of agony they both let out strangled sighs, gathering the strength to say what the other half of the conversation expected.

“You want a trade,” Nick bit out, tasting bitterness on each word, “us for her.”

“Ooh, that’s close,” Lotera drawled, “but there’s a little more to it.”

“You don’t want anyone else coming with, so you can leave without hassle,” Judy added harshly. “You know they’d never let that happen.”

The Thylacine chuckled again. “Well, still not quite. Whether you got away from them or told them to come or not, I assume that at least some of your annoying friends would follow you to us. Go ahead and bring Savage, Wellinger, even the Caniston pair; should they try anything however, or if you bring anyone else of course, you know whose life is on the line. We’ll need them to make the trade too. I doubt you’d just take my word that we’d let dear Vivian go if you came alone.

“Now,” Lotera continued in saccharine tones, “approximately ten miles to the west of Zootopia’s Canal District there lies a wide field at the top of the ridge there, ringed by aspen trees amongst the pines and about a mile from the closest dirt road. If you were smart and traced this call that should help you find it, but if not, I’m sure Zoogle Maps will be useful enough. I’ll give you four hours to arrive before I start giving your mother dearest some…‘incentive treatments.’ We’ll expect to see you soon.”

The call clicked off, leaving the two mammals sitting there overwhelmed in fury and panic. Nick raised his arm as if about to give his phone a long-distance flight, before thinking better of that notion and moving to pocket it with a defeated slump. Then he stood up abruptly and turned, marching back through the trees toward the guest house. Judy wasn’t long in racing after him either, her concern over whatever rash ideas he might have just come up with taking precedence over her personal terror.

“Nick,” she said, jogging ahead to see his face. The fox wore a scowl darker than the one she’d seen even at the Missing Mammals press conference, his eyes laying bare to Judy that he’d already made a decision. “Nick, I know this is bad, and I know that we need to do something right now to get your mom out of this safely, but if everyone’s going to get out of this okay then we need to figure out how to go about it rationally and”-

“They kidnapped my mother and have her who-knows-where right now with intent to harm her if we don’t play along!” Nick snapped, stopping only long enough to send her a ‘don’t argue with me’ glare before he was on the move again. “If there’s one thing I can’t do it’s let her be hurt for the life I’m stuck in, and you heard the bastard: we’re already on the clock for that. If it takes them getting to me for now, so be it.”

Nick’s words caused Judy to stumble for a moment, and after catching her balance she stared after him open-mouthed. After all they’d gone through to fight for staying out of this together, he was ready to just hand them in like that now?

Then she realized: he hadn’t actually included her in his ultimatum trade.

“Hey, whoa, hold on!” she yelled, racing back up to him. “Nick, if you think that for even one minute I am just gonna let you drop yourself in their hands without any sort of help or say from me, heck if you think I'm going to let them have you at all, then”-

“I’m getting my mom out of this one way or another Judy,” Nick cut her off, “and I sure as hell can’t let them have you either, so if it comes down to it and nothing but a trade works then they can take me! They need both of us anyway so at least they can’t kill me which gives you time to find and stop them still, but bottom line, right here and now, I’m getting my mom out of this!”

She wanted to argue, she really did, but despite knowing Nick was being driven by his emotion-clouded mind right then she didn’t really have a means of refuting any of his points either. But, she still wasn’t ready to just let him do something so reckless on his own either (that was usually her job anyway), so she set her features and squared her shoulders as she stood in front of him again. “It’s our problem together Nick,” she said lowly, pointedly. “Both being a couple now, and as the Catalysts they want so badly. You might still be more used to doing things on your own, but it’s time you let a little outside input help too. Your family might as well be mine right now too, close as we are, and I know how rash I would probably be if something like this happened to my mom. So, you’re gonna hold on a moment, listen to what Jack and company might have to say about the situation because I’ll bet a couple of unbiased minds will have better ideas on how to deal with this than we do, and then we’ll come up with a plan to get Vivian out, okay?”

She could see the panic making Nick want to just up and refuse her, but once the initial period of shock wore off it could never be said that the fox didn’t at least try to work things through in an intelligent manner. He swallowed thickly and stood motionless for a moment, then gave her a curt nod though he didn’t quite manage to meet her eyes. Judy returned it with as reassuring a smile as she could in the present circumstances and took his paw, squeezing it in comfort; to her relief, he managed to squeeze back. Together then they turned back in the direction of the guest house and picked up their pace.

Jack, unsurprisingly with his ears, seemed to know that they were coming, but when the tod and doe slammed the door to the cottage open everyone else left the ground at the jarring noise. Defensive positions were taken too, hidden blades appearing in paw, before they all saw who it was.

“Wilde?” Skye exclaimed, wide blue eyes turning to stare at them in bewilderment as she put the dagger away. “Hopps? I thought you were taking the evening alone. What”-

“My phone, which I had sworn was shut off, just got a call from my mother’s number,” Nick interjected with severity. “That bastard Lotera was on the other end of the line instead however. They kidnapped my mother!”

The atmosphere had dropped down from relatively relaxed to tense when they’d first barged in, but with that statement it turned downright deathly. Embron, who had been working to start preparations for a meal, immediately dropped the spoon he was holding and flicked the stove burners off. “Well, dinner’s canceled,” he said flatly, dusting off his sleeves and starting to head for his room. “Jack, get Harrison on the phone; Judy you should let your family know that we’re having to leave now. Nick, tell us exactly what Lotera said, where they were if you know, and we might be able to catch them off guard if”-

“Hold on,” Jack said, holding up a paw to the coyote. “Nick, he made demands with the call, didn’t he? What were they? Did he specify us staying away?”

“Uh, surprisingly no,” Nick growled. “He probably expects you’d wait in the wings somewhere anyway whether or not we thought we came alone, so you were told to come. But he said only those of us who are in this house, right now; anyone else and they hurt my mom, and I can’t risk that. Harrison, Vela, the others, they can’t show up, or any other cops. Lotera also said they’re waiting in a big field just outside of Zootopia, on a nearby mountain ridge. That probably means they’ll be able to see anyone else approaching especially if that eagle is up in the air. We have to go alone, just the six of us.”

“Not necessarily,” Scarlet spoke up. At seeing Nick about to make a protest, she held up a paw. “Yes, Nick, I know exactly how you feel right now. If anything were to happen to either of my parents I’d go ballistic and would probably be apt to do anything to keep them safe. I can bet before you barged in Judy most likely talked you out of just handing yourself over, right?”

At the fox’s wilted expression, the ocelot nodded. “Thought so. We have no intention of putting your mother at risk any more than she already is, okay? But there’s still another option open to us right now: Ellie.”

“Lotera doesn’t know about her yet, does he?” Judy said hopefully, eyes brightening in realization “You…you think she could sneak in and pull Vivian out? Wouldn’t she be vulnerable while she’s doing so though?”

Scarlet shrugged. “A little, but as soon as Vivian is away from the three Primalists we can step in and fight them all-out, since they won’t have a bargaining chip to hold us off anymore. But it would probably be best if we set up a fallback or assistance for Ellie once she’s got Vivian. Problem is, it would take too long to call in other agents and the Primalists would pick them out if they got anywhere near. And I’ll bet we only have a couple of hours to get there, right?”

The tod and doe nodded, and the room fell silent as each mammal started rolling over what options they could think of. Then, Nick’s ears pricked up. “Call Fangmeyer and Wolfard,” he said. “We only need an hour to get them there if that, they’re already kind of involved in this, and they can wait somewhere behind the tree line where Avery can’t pick them out. Once Ellie has my mom they can provide cover fire and maybe a getaway vehicle big enough to act as protection too.”

“On it,” Skye said, pulling out her phone. “Jack, get Harrison and the others to wait a few miles away, far enough that they’re not going to be picked out either but close enough they can rendezvous with Ellie and company. Make sure they know they cannot interfere until Wolfard and Fangmeyer get out to them with Vivian, and have them ready to split up to keep her safe back to the city and come out to us for backup. Nick, Judy, grab your things, tell the Hoppses we have to leave, and if you can see if there’s a car we can borrow that would be great, because I don’t feel like having to explain to the local authorities why we had to steal one from around here. We’re leaving in ten, tops.”

There weren’t many things in the world that had the ability to terrify Vivian, but the three animals that had removed her forcibly from her house were close to being among them.

Though he’d actually committed the kidnapping, the fanged deer that held the rope binding her wrists to her waist actually bothered her the least. Rather, the massive eagle circling the ridge above their heads was the one making her skin crawl presently. It stood nearly as tall as she did, and every time Avery looked down at her Vivian saw the kind of calculating gaze she had only glimpsed on history shows about ancient, primal predators. To the bird, the vixen was a tool at best, prey at the worst.

The strange, dog-like mammal beside the musk deer also unnerved her more than “Tristan” (who had now started being referred to by the others as Saber) himself, but in an entirely different manner altogether. He rarely bothered to even look at her, choosing instead to gaze out across the field in a cold, stoic patience. Vivian could have sworn too that every now and then little droplets of fire appeared along the collar of his coat, or on his paws, but she couldn’t fathom how the mammal could hide a mechanism for emitting such things so she had relegated it to being her own imagination borne of stress.

They had been waiting in the field for nearly two hours now, and Saber and Avery were starting to grow restless. They knew it would take time for their quarry and unwanted but inevitable entourage to show up, but every passing minute made them antsier. Vivian was hoping their growing distraction might provide an opening for her to slip away (and indeed, the whole time she’d been observing them to try and get a sense of how each would react to her running), but they had wisely taken stance more than a hundred yards from the edge of the nearest trees and she was no longer as fast as she had been in her youth.

Instead, the vixen found herself having to rely more on the hope that her son and his friends had come up with something better than actually trading Nick and his partner for her. If there was one thing she would not be able to suffer, it would be knowing her boy’s life was in the hands of the unsavory creatures around her in exchange for hers, a life she had already mostly lived out.

Saber seemed to in some amount sense the thoughts running through Vivian’s head, as he tapped the rope to get her attention. “Forget trying to run,” he said icily. “You’d hit the dirt not ten feet away and never take another breath again.”

“So I figured,” Vivian muttered back, being careful not to let her voice tremble. “Far be it from an aging vixen to outrun a trio of cocky assassins.”

“Running would have nothing to do with it,” Lotera drawled offhandedly in return, and this time, Vivian wasn’t able to relegate the rivulet of reddish light that ran up his nearest arm to her imagination. She stiffened on instinct, wondering not for the first time that day just what Judy and Nick had managed to get themselves involved in.

“Talking’s over,” the voice of the eagle above suddenly crackled through the minute earpieces that Saber and Lotera were both wearing. “We’ve finally got our company droppin’ in.”

“Just the intended, or did they try and bring along anyone else?” the Thylacine inquired, his ears flickering toward the far end of the field before his eyes followed. Vivian’s gaze also turned down the same line, and caught a yell of warning in her throat when she spotted the distinct forms of her son, Judy, and a handful of mammals she definitely didn’t know materializing between the shadows of the aspens and pines at the edge of the field.

“Only seen the Catalysts and their little bandwagon so far,” Avery reported. “Couple o’ cars passed by on the nearest roads an hour or so ago, but nobody’s come traipsing through the trees from them. I’ll bet they have someone waiting a little further off though; better trade for the goodies and get out quick.”

Lotera nodded, gaze firmly locked on the approaching group. When they had come to within a hundred feet or so, he held up a paw. “That’s quite far enough,” he ordered. “Glad to see you’re keeping to the demands so far; now, let’s have this done and over with quickly and quietly so this headache can be at an end and we can all go about our business. After all, I have no real interest in harming this poor vixen here, and the rest of you are certainly exhausted after all this running around like headless chickens, yes? Why not get it over with?”

Judy clearly winced at the predatory analogy, but the others remained unfazed.

“Even if this goes down the way you have intended somehow, the fight won’t end, Lotera,” Skye called back. “We’ll find a way to follow you.”

“Matters little,” Lotera chuckled. “Once I have both of them I only need a day and it’s over. It would take you several more than that just to figure out where we went, never mind get there.” He shifted and took on a more serious stance, hind paws splayed and back arched forward. “Now, I want assurance of no foul play. You’ll send the Catalysts over before we give Mrs. Wilde to you, and I want to see you put whatever hidden weapons you have on the ground, now. I know you have at least a few.” He gave a ‘go on’ gesture with his paw, but when none of the others moved he nodded to Saber.

The ungulate grinned wickedly and whipped out a slender, sharp blade, spinning it around before yanking back on Vivian’s bonds and laying it over her neck when she stumbled back toward him.

Predictably, Nick cracked immediately. “Wait!” he yelled, stumbling forward and holding up his paws before turning to look at the others. “Please, put them down!” he pleaded.

Jack and Skye sent him guarded looks, but slowly they complied, pulling out the pistols and knives from their hidden holsters and laying them on the grass at their feet. Scarlet and Embron did the same, swords and sharp projectiles dropped in a pile in front of them, before they looked up with expectant irritation at Lotera.

“Fantastic,” the Thylacine purred, motioning slightly for Saber to put the knife away. “Now if all of you would step back a ways, except for the Catalysts of course, so I don’t see you just bend down and pick them back up when I send dear Vivian over.” As the agents and Canistons started to back up, he brought up a finger to point at the ocelot and coyote, adding, “Oh, and an extra for you two: one materialized dagger appears or a single static bolt charges up anywhere around this field, and I’ll personally burn a brand in this fox’s hide. Am I clear?”

The coyote in the trench coat clearly rolled his eyes and held up a paw. “Okay, but what about ice?” he asked snarkily. “Is ice allowed?” A bluish glow rippled through the air around his paw and Vivian’s eyes bugged out as a flurry of snowflakes filled the space and drifted to the ground.

Saber was very clearly not amused nor as shocked as the vixen, as he put on a snarl and stepped past Vivian to brandish a finger at the group, then at her. “If you want to play games instead,” he spat, “it’ll be her blood on the ground for it, let me make sure that’s”-

The next two seconds rolled by so rapidly Vivian was sure time had physically slowed to a crawl in order for the events to pass. She could almost feel the air ripple as something suddenly appeared behind her, the rope around her waist and paws going slack and then unraveling into a thousand threads as a heavy force slammed into Saber, shoving him forward past her. At the same time Lotera had noticed and begun turning to confront this sudden intrusion as well, only for a searing flash of light to erupt between him and whatever had appeared behind them. He staggered, temporarily blinded, and fell back several steps, leaving Vivian unbound and with an opening to run, or so she started to think.

Two large black paws roughly grabbed the vixen about her middle and legs, scooping her up like an infant and taking off across the grass before Vivian could even think to try and bolt on her own. Behind her and her apparent rescuer, she heard a roar of fury and what sounded like the crack of thunder, another bright light bursting out across the grass toward them, but whatever it was never reached them. Instead, as she craned her neck back to see what had just happened, too shocked by the sudden turn of events to do much else, she spotted the Thylacine no longer focused on her but the two other larger predators in the field bearing down on him.

However, Avery was still in the sky and had no issues coming after Vivian herself, the great raptor folding her wings and approaching in a rapid dive even as Vivian and her rescuer reached the edge of the tree line.

“What just…?” the vixen finally had the presence of mind to start stuttering in question, only to be cut off as the panda in the violet and gold outfit jumped to the side, avoiding the talons of the Haast’s eagle as Avery screamed by.

“Explanations later, just get ready to run,” the bear said breathlessly.

Vivian decided it best not to argue in the present circumstances, instead looking ahead to where they were going. The pines and wild rose underbrush made it hard to tell what they were aiming for (and in equal concern, harder still to pinpoint where Avery was above the canopy), but as the panda powered through the brush and around trees soon enough the familiar blue of a pair of police uniforms appeared, worn by a tigress and wolf both crouching under a large Gambel’s oak with their guns drawn as they scanned the forest. As soon as they spotted the fox and panda they raised their weapons, only to nod recognition and train the guns on the surroundings again.

“Minde, what was that noise?” the tigress asked. “And the heck are you wearing?”

“Eyes on the skies, the eagle’s here!” Minde quipped back, answering nothing as she reached them and set Vivian back down on the ground. “Get to the car with her, and then you need to rendezvous with the rest of Savage’s team at the 108 and 312 intersect. I need to”-

There was a dull thump nearby, and everyone’s eyes turned to watch a tiny metallic sphere hit the dirt and bounce their way. The scream of the raptor above their heads drove a chill through their bones.

“Oh shit!” Minde cursed, crossing her paws in front of her. “Heads down!”

The others barely had time to comply before the deafening crack of a small explosion rattled by. To their surprise though, they felt neither the force of a shockwave or any shrapnel, nor even a lick of the expected heat of the blast. They peeked up, jaws dropping at the sight of the shimmering, rippling shell of orange radiating out from the panda’s paws and around them, and the fire that flowed along the outside from the grenade now fading away.

Minde saw their expressions and rolled her eyes as she dropped the field. “Explanations later,” she quipped. “New plan: I’m gonna help cover you guys while you get to the agents, and we pray the others can hold off the other two bastards until we can get backup to them. Get to the car now!”

Fangmeyer recovered first, nodding and ushering Mrs. Wilde to her feet toward the car hidden off the dirt road another several yards away. Wolfard continued staring at Minde for a couple of seconds before finally snapping out of it and moving when the panda yelled at him again, his brain switching back to tactical mode as he and Minde scanned the skies. He’d compartmentalize the shock of today to be dealt with later; right now there were lives at stake.

A flash of movement had the wolf raising his gun a second later, but Avery was out of sight again long before he could even think of drawing a bead and pulling the trigger. “Bastard always gets away, doesn’t she?” he muttered, scowling at the vanished ball of feathers once more beyond his sights.

Fangmeyer had already managed to reach the car, opening the back door of the undercover brown sedan and helping Vivian in, and she’d planted herself by the driver’s door with her gun drawn and aiming at the scattered openings between the leaves above her head. She didn’t break her vigil until the other two cops reached the vehicle as well, and in unison they opened their doors and slipped inside, Minde next to Vivian. Not a moment too soon either as Avery dove down between the trees again, her talons tearing the metal of the car right where Fangmeyer’s head had been a few seconds before.

“Drive!” Minde shouted. “Focus on the road, I’ll watch for the eagle!”

Fangmeyer nodded and punched the gas, tires spinning up dirt as she took off, swerving between a couple of trees before racing down what was more of a dirt trail than an actual road. Minde stared out the back window, spreading her paws as a hologram of the trees above them appeared as if she held a screen for a camera mounted on the car’s roof. Nothing was showing at the moment, and she knew that now that they were in a vehicle and taking off it was more likely that Avery would quickly turn around and focus on trying to nab Hopps and Wilde instead, but she wasn’t going to let her guard down until Vivian was under AOMISDOPS protection and well away from the Primalists; this endeavor would be pointless otherwise. She did, however, catch Wolfard staring at her again out of the corner of her eye, and smirked.

“Envious of my skills there Elliot?”

The canine blinked, before taking in a deep breath and letting it out in a weighted sigh. “I think I’d label it more as wanting answers for this insanity,” he said. “Savage alluded to some sort of secret technology you guys had, but that…” he pointed at Minde’s floating hologram, and shook his head. “You’re not using any device. It’s just you.”

Minde sighed, before nodding. “Like I said, explanations later,” she reiterated. “First, we get you three back to the Precinct and out of danger again, and then we can hash this out. They should be okay though, I hope; it’s all skill, and you saw some of what I can do but that’s nothing compared to the Canistons that Hopps and Wilde have with them.”

The moment Vivian had been pulled away from Saber, Scarlet and Embron were on the move. A flick of their wrists and the couple dozen weapons on the ground were back in their and the agents’ holsters, and the two larger predators darted across the grass.

Lotera had whirled around and reached out after the fleeing blur that was Minde and Vivian, a crackling streamer of electricity erupting off his fingers to stop them, but Embron’s own hand was out and pulling the charge toward himself long before it ever had a chance to reach them. Thunder roared off of the curving bolt as the coyote grabbed it, focusing on the stream and draining it of its energy, and Lotera cut the charge before Embron could effectively turn it against him.

“You’re just full of nasty little surprises aren’t you?” the Thylacine spat, his hands whirling as a pair of greenish, crystalline curved blades grew in his grip. “I’m told your kind is practically extinct, and suddenly you start popping up like groundhogs at a shadow convention!”

“It’s a specialty of ours,” Scarlet volleyed back in a sickly sweet trill, two blades of her own spinning into her paws and alighting with crimson flames before she leapt forward, intent on skewering Saber as her brother threw a barrage of flechettes toward Lotera. “If it makes you feel better, we thought all you bastards were gone too!”

Saber somersaulted well out of the way of Scarlet’s attack, her swords cutting instead deep into the dirt at their feet. She rolled with her overbalanced momentum and turned to press after the ungulate, but a gunshot from Saber quickly followed by a vicious lunge from Lotera’s scythes forced her to put up a defensive field and forget pursuing the Moschus in favor of tag-teaming with Embron to take down Lotera. With the space the marsupial now had to move too, even with the both of them that was going to be easier said than done.

Unfortunately this left Saber unattended, and his attention turned back unerringly toward the Arctic fox and patterned rabbit guarding the Catalysts as they ran for the trees again. Skye spotted him coming first and whirled on her toes, bringing her gun up at the ready and yelling, “Get down!” to the others. They dropped to avoid any attacks from the Moschus now only a few yards away, and Skye pulled her trigger.

The musk deer dropped to the dirt as well as she fired and brought up his jacket to cover his face. Both agents scowled at seeing him steal a page out of the Caniston book of tricks; the outfit was an armored flak coat, strong enough for the bullet to bounce off harmlessly as it hit. In his momentum Saber had slid close enough too that as he dropped the edge of his jacket he spun and kicked one foot out, nearly sweeping Skye off her own hind paws.

The fox was agile as well though, flipping over the attack and holstering her gun at the same time in favor of a baton stored on her back. She landed and whipped the rod out as she flanked Jack, who still had his own gun drawn in one paw but one of his karambits ready in the other.

Saber never stopped moving, guns going away as they were less viable in close range and whirling out two long daggers in turn as he rolled back up to his feet. There was a moment of eerie stillness punctuated only by the sounds of crackling fire and lightning in the background, and the two sides stared each other down. Then Saber lunged, diving past Skye and parrying her baton as Jack’s bullet strafed by the tail end of his jacket, effectively putting further attempts at shooting him in short term to a halt as he put the vixen between himself and the rabbit.

“You know, all you two would have to do is walk away, and you wouldn’t need to worry about fighting, about us,” the Moschus taunted, driving Skye backward with the fierce slap of a blade. “We could care less about you overall, you know, but yet you keep getting in the way!”

“Just part of the job description!” Skye shot back. She ducked under the next swipe and permitted Jack to leap over her with the curved claw blade outstretched toward Saber’s face. As she did, she glanced toward Nick and Judy. No words were necessary: their orders were to run.

Tod and doe obeyed and turned tail for the trees again as Saber caught Jack’s karambit with a dagger and wrenched him off to the side into the ground. The buck rolled with the impact and dropped his gun, but came up with his other karambit in paw instead to compensate. He crossed them together to block the next dagger swipe and mimicked Saber’s earlier move to force him downward, enough to make him drop and roll as Skye’s baton slammed down where he’d just been.

Judy was slightly ahead of Nick and nearly into the aspen line, a straight shot into the forest open in front of them as the Primalists were kept busy behind them. A sound like that of a dull, explosive roar brought her skidding to a halt as it echoed around the ridge a moment later however, and a wall of roiling flames charged by. They boiled the air and singed her fur, sending her stumbling back into Nick. A second later the fifteen-foot tongues solidified into what looked almost like a colored glass sculpture, a towering fence topped with spires and fluid spikes that neither of them had any hopes of jumping over; they were trapped unless Embron or Scarlet could take the time to shatter the wall, and from the looks of their fight neither was going to have a free hand for some time. Nick and Judy glanced toward Lotera, seeing him shoot them a particularly smug grin before it was forced back into a focused scowl by a tandem swipe from Caniston blades.

“Well, should have seen that one coming,” Nick said despondently, reaching down and pulling out the one weapon he’d managed to hide on himself just in case, an electrified sharp-edged rod. “So now we’re trapped with two of the psychos in here until we can immobilize one of them. I just hope Tweety stays busy chasing Ellie or something and doesn’t decide to”-

“Too late for that!” Judy yelled, her eyes fixed upward as she pulled out a knife. “Looks like we’re definitely still more important. Here she comes!”

Avery rocketed over the crystalline barrier that now encircled a fair portion of the ridge and took in the situation for a second. It wasn’t long though before she settled her penetrating glare on the Catalysts, and tucked her wings in for a dive.

A shard of primal fear ran through both of the small mammals as the massive talons opened above their heads, but luckily the freeze reaction didn’t last long and both of them tumbled out of the way. Avery swept over the grass a few feet before flaring her wings and landing, twisting around so she could face both of her targets, her own scowl growing deeper.

“You really must be a featherhead if you thought we’d just sit there like a couple of couch potatoes,” Nick taunted, twirling his rod in warning.

Avery curled her lip above her beak. “You know, no one said you needed your tongue intact for the extraction,” she hissed. “Come a little closer and I can remove it, free of charge.”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Nick returned. “I’m kind of fond of it, good for a lot of things, you know? Eating, kissing, battering you with annoying com- waaahhh!”

Avery lunged without warning, one wing snapping out and batting Nick’s rod to the side as her right foot came up to grab at his throat. Nick dropped flat on his back to avoid the lethal claws and opened a path for Judy to leap up instead, the rabbit spinning in an attempt to land a kick to the side of the eagle’s head. Avery twisted in tandem however, her other foot swinging up and talons closing to firmly lock around Judy’s thigh. She rolled with Judy’s momentum and used her as a battering ram, relishing the doe’s yelp as she slammed hard into Nick and knocked both of them senseless for a moment. Moving quickly, Avery’s beak darted down and yanked Judy’s knife away before she grabbed an even firmer hold on both mammals’ arms.

“Finally,” she breathed, spreading her wings to take off, “we can actually get this blasted mission go”-

BZZZZTTT!!

“Yoowww!”

A sharp prong dug into the raptor’s leg, the tod in her grip present enough to remember the stun rod in his paw and use it on her. The electric current caused Avery to seize up painfully before her muscles unlocked and she dropped both mammals in favor of stumbling away in jerking spasms. That she’d been holding onto the two officers meant they’d received part of the shock as well and were left with their own muscles twitching, but they were not hit nearly as hard as Avery and the shock was enough to provide them an opportunity to stumble to their feet and face off with the oversized bird again.

Avery shook her head and willed the spasms in her legs to quell, and her golden brown eyes bored into the offending weapon. “Fine,” she spat, reaching up to the vest she wore with her right foot, “new plan: you two will be a lot easier to handle if you’re not awake to fight back!” She took to the air and whipped out the all-too-familiar shape of a tranquilizer pistol, rising above the heads of the two cops and drawing a bead first on Nick.

“Run!” Judy yelled. The two of them took off in the direction they hoped would keep them furthest from both Lotera and Saber, even as busy as those two were with their opponents. Though the other fights would provide some cover, it would also provide the other Primalists more chances at knocking out the fox and rabbit themselves, which would make Avery’s job of picking them up just as easy as if she shot them herself.

Avery stayed on their heels with ease though, and Nick was forced to tuck and roll, nearly taking Judy out in the process, as a dart buried itself in the dirt mere inches from his tail. Neither of them had long to catch their breath or bearings either as a crackling sound filled the air around them. They dashed toward the “crystal fire” wall to avoid a cascade of flying ice shards and the tumbling form of an ocelot.

Scarlet groaned as she rolled to her feet, glancing at Nick and Judy and then Avery above them. She snarled and whipped her hand upward, a similar stream of ice following the action. Avery screeched in alarm and flapped higher to avoid the barrage, giving Scarlet just enough time to scream, “Run!” to the two smaller mammals before she was whirling around and catching a sizzling wire with her scimitars that Lotera had whipped their way.

The order was somewhat redundant, Nick and Judy both already back on the move, but without a moment to break the wall somehow they both knew that they’d merely be going in circles, running straight back toward where Jack and Skye were attempting to bring down Saber. Judy chanced a glance their way, and her worry spiked upon seeing Skye go flying from a vicious kick, even if the vixen managed to land on her feet. Someone would start tiring soon, especially under the blows being traded between sides, and whoever fell first would tip the scales just enough to ensure the other side would probably win the fight. Even the Gifted two, for as much as they could try drawing energy off of Lotera or even from the environment around them, were still mammals and had their limits.

“Nick, something’s going to give here, and it needs to be on their side or we’re never going to get out of this,” Judy panted, looking his way for a brief second.

“No duh,” Nick retorted as he glanced up to try and spot where Avery had ended up. She wasn’t far, but with the whirling wires, flames, and static charges that were erratically flying through the air below her it would take a second for her to move around and get back on target. “But if you haven’t noticed, we’ve got nothing to really work with other than my little zap stick here and”-

A blast of heat from the clashing blows of Embron and Lotera cut him off and made them both turn to shield their faces, before he tried to continue.

“Anyway, that thing isn’t gonna be much use against anyone but flappy bird up there, and she already knows I have it. And speaking of, here she comes!”

Another dart sunk into the spot Judy had been standing a half second before, Avery using the sudden air current caused by the heat wave from the fight below like a booster pack and rocketing their way. She swept by and back upward, wings flaring so she could wheel around and line up another shot, drawing both Nick and Judy’s eyes unerringly with her. Judy fixated on the tranq gun the bird carried again, and a spark of inspiration hit her. Her eyes flickered toward the flash of Jack’s karambits as he tried catching Saber’s wrists with them, only to be tossed over the ungulate’s back by a blindingly fast twist of his arms.

“Jack’s gun,” she said softly, before turning frantically to Nick. “Nick, Jack’s gun! He dropped it in the grass earlier; it’s on the other side of them and Saber! If we can get it we can bring Avery down and maybe help Jack and Skye!” She looked back up at Avery and started backing away as if preparing to run again. “I’ll try and keep her focused on me; you’re the better shot. Get to the gun and shoot her!”

Nick felt an urge to make a comment about just how un-Judy like it was for her to so willingly suggest shooting even someone who was after them with anything other than a sleep dart. However, Judy was already off and running across the field in more or less the direction of the fight with Saber, close enough still to be in proximity to Nick when he went for the gun but far enough that Avery was going to be forced to choose a target.

Staying too far apart was a good way for them both to be picked off, so Nick picked up his feet and took off as well in the direction he hoped the gun was; he trusted Judy’s memory, but the grass was still high enough where it hadn’t already been torn up or burned away that he couldn’t see the weapon himself.

A screech from above told them that Avery had picked a target, and Nick’s ears flattened as he glanced back. The part of him that wanted Judy safe waged war with the side that instinctively hoped Avery hadn’t chosen him, and he wasn’t sure how he felt when he saw the bird focused on his partner for now.

At east her plan’s working, I guess, he thought, turning back forward. His intent was halted and he was forced to skid to a halt when Skye suddenly stumbled his way after being shoved back by another vicious slash from Saber, but she wasn’t out of the fight and in his way for long. As she jumped back in to take her revenge on the Moschus for tossing her out yet again though she did shoot him a glare that screamed, ‘The hell are you doing over here?!’

I’m half wondering that myself, Nick almost griped aloud, darting past and hoping he hadn’t caught Saber’s attention too much. Even in a fight with two very practiced agents, if he found an opening there was no question that he would try and loose a tranq shot or toxin-slicked dart at the fox.

The sun was only barely above the horizon now, late as it was getting, but it was still just enough to glint off of the metal barrel sticking out of the grass ten feet further ahead. Nick’s heart leapt at the sight and he dove for it, grabbing the weapon and checking the magazine in the handle. Seven bullets left, more than enough if he got a decent opening. Bolstered by the presence of the weapon, he took a quick stock of everyone’s positions around him before swinging the gun up, cocking the hammer and preparing to draw a bead on Avery. One good shot was all it would take, and Judy had managed to draw the bird out into an open line of fire as Avery tucked her wings for another dive.

An unlucky turn in his fight with the agents brought Saber to face Nick’s direction, and it took no time at all for the assassin to put together what the fox had planned. He curled his lip and returned his gaze back down to Skye, who stood in front of him just to his left with her baton put away and a pair of daggers at the ready. Jack was about to come up behind and to his right, he calculated, likely with a low slash of one karambit to sever his Achilles tendon before sweeping up toward his abdomen with the other.

Feinting a swing out to get Skye to back up into a defensive posture and raise her blades, Saber took one step to the side and spun, bringing his own baton (he wasn’t sure at what point he and Skye had basically switched weapon tactics, but it amused him a little) down to throw Jack’s first strike off balance and then catch the hook of the other to yank it upward.

Jack wasn’t expecting the sudden redirect and fell forward, curling his arm back to protect himself from the hit he was sure was going to come for his throat. Saber did not move to kill him however, instead throwing the rabbit even further off balance by grabbing Jack by the collar of his shirt and continuing the momentum of his spin to hurl the buck past Skye and directly at Nick. Continued momentum brought his baton down and around, knocking the vixen’s blades back and the sharp end of his rod slicing a gash across her cheek as she stumbled.

Jack barely had a split second to turn himself enough so that his back would collide with Nick’s but the cascading events that dominoed afterward he could not stop. The two mammals impacted hard and Nick yelped in pain as he careened forward. The gun in his hand went off at the same time before flying out of his grip, but the shot fired wide, missing Avery by more than twenty feet.

The gunshot halted Avery’s dive after Judy, but it brought her attention down toward the fallen mammals and the injured Skye attempting to drive Saber back again on her own. The raptor scowled and pulled another of her mini grenades off of her belt, armed it, and tossed it into the open space between Skye, Jack and Nick, and the battle still raging between the Canistons and Lotera.

Judy was the only one that saw the silvery little ball hit the ground save for Saber, and as she spotted Jack and Nick groaning and starting to sit up she dropped her now useless attempt at diverting Avery’s attention and instead bolted toward the two of them, screaming, “Nick, stay down!”

The grenade went off.

Saber had positioned himself so that Skye was between him and the blast, so as Skye took the shockwave to the back and face-planted forward he stood in her shadow and merely turned to weather a wave of hot air rushing by his coat. Nick and Jack had heard Judy’s warning to get down and wisely did so, suffering little more than a storm of air and heat to their tails, but Judy was still up and running when the shockwave rolled past, and was knocked fully off her feet.

Embron and Scarlet had also heard Judy’s scream and erected barriers to protect them from the blast behind them, but while busy holding the shields up they were left open to being pushed away like giant hamster balls by a swipe of Lotera’s paw and the band of solid energy that followed it. The Thylacine had seen an opportunity unfolding, and as the grenade blew up he took it.

Judy was already off her feet, so it was very little effort to flick a finger and turn the energy he’d just used to bat the Caniston barrier field balls away toward the doe, catching her in her momentum and throwing her high into the air. This time, it wasn’t a fox who was going to catch her either.

Avery was ready, whirling to intercept Judy as she started to fall and grabbing her about both arms. Judy flailed in panic and tried to wriggle free, but the raptor had her firm, and Judy had no leverage anywhere by which she could wrench herself free.

“About bloody time!” the raptor snapped, reaching down to her vest and pulling out a hollow dart with her beak. Her tranquilizer gun wasn’t much use without her feet free or at this range, but she had no problem twisting her head down to jab Judy in the neck with the little shaft.

Judy yelped at the sudden prick and fought harder, but it didn’t take long for the tranquilizer serum to take its effect. Only seconds later the rabbit’s strength gave out, and she dangled limp and unaware from the raptor’s talons.

Down below Jack was the first to notice, and he pushed through the aches he was feeling throughout his body to get up on his hands and knees, crawling toward his gun lying in the grass several feet away. Grabbing it, he cocked the hammer and pushed himself up to aim at Avery, but the raptor was already hightailing it up and away from the ridge with her prize. It was too late, the eagle already out of range for his pistol to be accurate and a far more immediate threat was still present from Saber and Lotera. Nick was still pulling himself to his knees nearby, still a target for either of the two present Primalists, and Skye was still on the ground with Saber approaching quickly. Forced to choose, Jack whirled and fired at the Moschus, forcing him to duck behind his coat again and giving Skye the time to climb shakily to her own feet.

Scarlet and Embron had also seen Judy’s kidnapping, and at the grin Lotera was developing as he looked at them an icy sensation wound around their hearts.

“Hold him off, I’ll get her!” Embron snapped, turning to run after Avery. A crackling wire whipped across his path and brought him skidding to a halt however, turning him to face off with the Thylacine anyway.

“Can’t have you stealing back what we’ve fought so hard to win,” Lotera hissed, whirling the wire back and snapping it at Scarlet to block her blades. “Not quite what I was hoping for”- he was forced to pause speaking and put up a barrier to block the rain of projectiles from both of the other larger mammals, then blew the energy wall outward to drive them back, “-but it’s a start. We’ll collect the fox another day; after all, we’ve got an incentive for him to come to us now, don’t we?” A harsh bark of derisive laughter escaped the marsupial’s muzzle, and he whipped his paws up, crossing them with two fingers each pointing outward.

A searing yellow light erupted between the outstretched digits and cut across the open field, everyone in it bringing up their arms to shield their eyes and prepare to defend themselves against whatever attack it might turn out to be. When no fire, lightning, or any other painful attacks came with it though Scarlet and Embron both closed their eyes and whipped out their swords, using their other senses to pick out Lotera and attack while they could. They charged forward, focusing on the intense electromagnetic field surrounding Lotera and preparing to skewer him.

Then, one second they could “see” him only a few feet away, and the next he was gone, along with the light. Coyote and ocelot stumbled through the space and rolled across the ground back to their feet, looking around in confusion. They weren’t the only ones either.

“What…?” Skye blurted, blinking away the spots in her eyes. She turned her head, expecting Saber to either be pressing the attack or using the sudden flare to head for the trees, but he was nowhere within the field and the wall of frozen flames was still intact. Nearly all heads then turned back toward where Lotera had been standing too, only to find him missing as well, and then eyes rotated to the sky.

The fleeing figure of Avery had also vanished, along with the rabbit she’d been carrying. Barely three seconds had passed, and all three Primalists had gone without a trace. And, they’d taken half their prize with them.

Then Nick spoke up.

“Judy,” he rasped, standing unsteadily on his feet again and looking around, eyes widening as panic set in. “Where’s Judy? Judy?!” His ears fell as he turned one way, then the other, finding no one but the two agents and the Canistons standing around looking lost. Their expressions were even worse, paintings of defeat and anxiety on each and every one, and they sank a rock into the pit of the tod’s stomach.

“No,” he whispered. “No. Where is she?! Tell me she’s here somewhere! Judy!” He whirled again toward the failing rays of the setting sun behind the mountains, desperately seeking a sign of his rabbit. “JUDY!!”

“They took her.”

Scarlet spoke the words softly, but they still cut to Nick’s ears like glowing blades. “They took her,” she repeated in a croak. “She’s gone…we couldn’t stop it.”

“No!” Nick snapped, hackles raising as his lips curled in a snarl. “You’re lying! Tell me they don’t have her! Tell me you didn’t let that happen!” He lunged with full intent of grabbing the ocelot by her shoulders and shaking a different answer out of her, and was only just held back by Jack. “Let go of me! You let them take her!”

“We know!” Jack yelled into his ears. “Nick, we know. We didn’t let it happen, but it still happened despite our efforts. We can’t change it now. All we can do is get up and fight to get her back. Get a grip; tearing us a new one won’t help!”

Nick thrashed one last time, then collapsed in Jack’s grip, anger giving way to what truly wanted out: tears. He turned and stared at the horizon, the sky darkening to violet as if to mock him, and howled.

Chapter Text

“A win we have,” the Devil said

“A soul within our grasp

But battles still have just begun

For without her other she’s good as dead”

“You merely hold her,” his foil replied

“And I hardly call that victory

For you can lose her if they persevere

And they’ll bring the world to have you tried”

“The world? Dear fool, they never will

For like me they have secrets to keep

There’s only so far they’ll dare to go

For the world would judge too if they spill”

“Then they’ll prevail,” the foil smiled

“For the world they fear far less than thee

And they need not start with the globe entire

When their loyal friends make yours look mild”

Harrison and Vela met their co-agents only half a mile from the field on the ridge, they and the Canistons guarding and leading an unresponsive, nearly comatose Nick away from the scene of battle. Harrison looked at Jack, a silent conversation passing between them telling the jaguar all he needed to know: the Primalists had succeeded in abducting Judy, and Savage at least had no idea where they’d gone off to, or how long it would be before they came back after Nick to finish their job.

It was a silent march back to their vehicle, where everyone piled in and Vela took the wheel as they raced back toward the illuminated city just beyond the hills. As they did so, Harrison took on the task of updating the others of events while they were busy on the ridge. No one wanted to talk, but everyone needed to know all the present circumstances.

“Pristovena and Ringston escorted the officers and Mrs. Wilde back to Precinct One,” he said tiredly, turning slightly back in his seat so that he could see the others in the two rows behind him. “They’ll be waiting for us there. We’re…at this point we have no choice but to debrief at least officers Fangmeyer and Wolfard, as Minde told us she was forced to expose herself in front of them lest they get taken out by a grenade.”

“I’m afraid we’ll have to do more than that now,” Skye replied with a tone that belied an even greater level of exhaustion. “We’re probably going to have to vet them as part of this endeavor now, as we will need more paws on deck, and I can bet we won’t be able to do that without bringing their Chief into the fold too. Contact will have to be made directly with headquarters as well, because this is about to go international again; the Primalists won’t keep Hopps anywhere in Mammalia, let alone anywhere near Zootopia now that they have her.”

Harrison gave a grave nod. “I’ll call Matista and get him to start tracking aerial transits  heading in and out of the country,” he said, turning forward and pulling out his phone.

“They may not need a plane,” Jack spoke up, halting the jaguar. The buck turned to look at the Canistons behind him and Skye. “Lotera did something back there, instantaneous travel of some sort. I’ve never seen it before. Do either of you know what it was?”

The atmosphere in the car dropped from solemn to suffocating when both predators could only shrug. “Uh, personally, I don’t think either of us have seen that before either,” Embron admitted softly, sharing a look with his sister. “Moving fast is one thing, but literal teleportation, the bending of physical space, that…that’s a whole new thing.” The coyote gave another grimace, before holding out a paw and offering a weak, shaky smile that at least attempted to be reassuring (though he knew it probably wasn’t). “I can speculate though, that Lotera’s probably not gonna use that trick to travel overseas. It has to be really taxing, otherwise he’d have done it while fighting us and would have probably won doing so. For the same reason he probably can’t travel really long distances, so I’d bet that, for now, they’re likely still nearby somewhere, but at least one or two of them is going to leave really shortly with Judy and they’ll probably use aircraft.”

“And I bet it will be Lotera who leaves with Judy,” Scarlet added grimly, leaning forward slightly so that she was more in the circle of conversation. “He just made four animals vanish into thin air. Knowing how I’d feel after something like that he can probably guard her, but he won’t be fighting outright for a day or two at least if something like that is as draining as it should be. So…well, might help us, since it’ll be just Avery and/or Saber that stay behind, and even good agents can at least hold their own against those two.”

Jaguar and maned wolf shared a look before Harrison nodded again, pursing his lips. “Well, that’s…at least a little more reassuring,” he said, starting to enter Matista’s contact again. “That leaves an attempt to track aerial traffic, planes or other vehicles, among our best bets still.” Turning away again, he held the phone up to his ear and began discussing the matter with the tech on the other end of the line when the mammal answered, leaving the rest of the car in awkward silence. It didn’t last long though.

“Where will they take her?”

The soft question somehow echoed like a gunshot in the vehicle, and everyone’s eyes gravitated to Nick, who had apparently started to process the situation. He was dealing with it the only way he knew how to as well: building up a persona. His face was hardening into a stoic mask as he looked up, a cold cover not unlike the face Jack was so familiar with washing over him. When no one answered immediately, Nick asked again, this time with a bite tinting his words.

“Where will they take Judy?”

“We don’t know, unfortunately,” Skye answered him, her ears flattening apologetically. “You know that Nick, if we knew where they had found the rift we would have gone there and dealt with them when we first figured out what they were stealing the Night Howler extract for.” She softened her features and reached over to the tod, trying to give him a bit of comfort despite the words. “But they won’t do anything to her until they have you too, I don’t think.”

“You don’t think,” Nick growled. He scooted pointedly away from the outstretched paw on his shoulder, and internally Skye winced. “But you don’t know. What happens if you’re wrong then? What happens when we don’t reach her in time, and they-!”

“Nick!” Scarlet snapped, fire whirling around her eyes in warning and cutting the tod off. “They won’t touch her,” she reiterated. “They know there’s a fair chance that if they do it might compromise whatever hoodoo they’re planning, and there’s no way they’re going to risk that with the one Catalyst they’ve found. They need both of you, and they won’t do anything until they have both of you. And you need to get a grip!” She leaned forward and tapped the tod on the nose, making him flinch. “We lose our heads now and that’s exactly what they’ll capitalize on, and we’ll never get to Judy without losing you in the process too.”

When it looked like the words had gotten through, Nick’s mask cracking slightly under them, Scarlet sat back again and clasped both of her paws in her lap, her features softening as she sent Nick an expression of solemnity. “They’ve upped the stakes and taken the fight to a new level,” she admitted, “but we’re not done playing our cards either. We’ll get to the Precinct, iron out the mess that we’ve got on paw right now, and then we’re gonna call in the cavalry. This fight is far from over.”

As had been promised, the rest of the unfortunate souls who’d played some part on or near the ridge were waiting anxiously, fidgeting as they stood around inside the Precinct Atrium. Ringston was doing her best to try and avert Clawhauser’s curiosity as best she could, the nosy cat at the reception desk picking up trouble without a problem and recognizing Nick’s mother in the mix. Pristovena meanwhile stood with the rest in a loose group around the chair Vivian had taken up residence in, all of them staring anxiously at the door.

It was also no surprise that as soon as Jack walked in through those same doors leading Nick and the others in, Chief Bogo materialized nearby and joined the waiting group, thunder in his eyes and all of it crashing onto the rabbit walking his way.

“Emergency meeting in the most secure room you have,” Jack quipped to the buffalo even as he barely glanced up, instead checking over the presence of the others to ensure all remaining heads were still accounted for (that Hopps was not among them pained the agent to no end despite what Nick might have thought at that moment, and he didn’t want to hear of any other unexpected casualties while they were on the way in). “The dynamic of this mission is changing drastically and”-

“Where is Hopps?” Bog interrupted, every word punctuated with a disappointment and distrust that was bleeding into the air and all of it pointed toward the buck he glared down at.

Jack’s ears fell flat, and he turned to address Bogo directly, his professional mask turning on fully; the buffalo saw nothing but cold calculation now, and a danger he only dismissed because, well, it was Jack, and he hated Jack.

“Part of the purpose for the emergency meeting,” the rabbit said icily. “I would personally have preferred to brief you separately from your officers here, seeing as you have not yet been directly involved and you’ve given me little direct incentive, but as five mammals currently under your command are now in the thick of this I’m giving you the courtesy of being included as well in the full debrief as I know I’ll have to fight you every step of the way otherwise. Do not make me regret that any more than I already do, Adrian.”

Bogo was not impressed with the display, crossing his arms and looming heavily over Jack. “I will authorize no private meeting at all until you provide me with at least that one answer. You have shown up in my Precinct missing one of my best officers for the second time now, Savage. What. Happened. To. Hopps?”

“Chief,” Minde spoke up, breaking the building firestorm of iron wills clashing and turning both their gazes to her. “With all due respect, this is not the place. Not a conversation for the public, even for that answer, and not even for other officers. Sorry Clawhauser.” She sent an apologetic glance at the cheetah growing distraught behind the reception desk, before looking back to the chief. “Savage is not at fault either, no matter how much you want him to be. I know the grudge you have with him, but for the good of everyone involved right now, Hopps especially, it needs to be put aside.”

Under the panda’s imploring gaze, Bogo let out a long-suffering half-snort and nodded. “Very well, Officer Minde. I’ll trust your word on the matter. All of you follow me; the sooner this is done, the sooner I find out what has happened to one of my best officers and the sooner this mess is sorted out.”

The buffalo turned and stomped down one of the hallways leading into the building, and after a moment of hesitation everyone slowly began to follow. Nick chose to walk alongside his mother, and as they passed the reception desk Clawhauser attempted to catch his attention, leaning over and looking earnestly at the tod. Nick returned the stare for only a second though, trying to send the soft-hearted cat a no-worries smirk, but when Clawhauser’s expression fell into an even more anxious grimace he knew that whatever face he’d put on had not been as easygoing as he’d meant it to be.

Well, news of her being kidnapped is going to get out somehow eventually, he thought morosely. Might as well be through Benji when it does.

The dozen or so mammals took a stairway in the center of the Precinct and descended two floors down, beneath the holding cells to the level of the archives and the furnace room. Bogo unlocked a nondescript looking door and shoved it open, the weight of the object suggesting steel reinforcement. Then he flicked on the light inside, revealing a bare white room bereft of cameras, maps, anything save for one long table and a handful of metal chairs sitting along the far wall. The only other way in would have been through a grated vent that not even the smallest of mice could fit through, so the space was indeed about as secure as one was going to get outside of a prison solitary confinement space.

“I trust this is well enough removed from the rest of the building, for whatever it is that you intend to spring on us,” Bogo drawled almost condescendingly as they all filed in, looking down at Jack.

The buck merely nodded, before snapping a finger at Minde. “Minde, if you could kindly secure the door; no one goes in or out until we’re done here.”

“Understood,” the panda replied, moving to close the door and stand solidly in front of it.

At this though, Bogo balked. “Now hold on,” he protested again, “if I have to be contacted by another officer or my higher-ups for other emergencies I cannot simply be off the grid. I need to at least”-

“Sorry, but no,” Embron cut in, shaking his head emphatically and earning a dark glare from the Chief. The coyote was unfazed, staring right back with a look of stone. “Look, I don’t mean to be rude,” he said, “but we are only going to explain this once, and it cannot be overheard by anyone else, period, plus I can guarantee what’s at stake is bigger than any other emergency you’re going to be called on for. The Precinct will run on its own for the next half hour, and in the unlikely event that the City Council calls you then AOMISDOPS will explain your absence, or I’ll have a personal chat with our mutual friends. As a matter of global security, it eclipses the happenings of Zootopia alone.” His expression softened into something more apologetic, and he uncrossed his arms to gesture with a paw to Bogo. “We would rather your full compliance here, but if not you’ll probably find that your key won’t work in the lock at the moment anyway. We’re taking no chances.”

The room held a statuesque air for several moments; a test of wills waged for once not between the buffalo and a rabbit but instead Bogo and Embron battling amidst anxiously twitching tails of the others present. It finally ended when Bogo closed his eyes and breathed out a long-suffering, slow sigh. “Fine,” he relented, his tone as if he were walking into an appointment to pull teeth without anesthesia. “So long as it is in fact a full explanation, Mr…Caniston, was it?”

At the coyote’s nod, Bogo’s crossed arms tightened. “Then by all means,” he said with faux sweetness, “please begin.”

Embron provided a curt nod and turned to look at Jack and Skye. “So,” he proffered, “where should we start?”

“How about explaining exactly what happened to Officer Hopps?” Bogo interjected again.

“Yeah, and what kind of mystical mumbo-jumbo you guys are really hiding,” Wolfard tacked on, jerking his thumb accusationally at Minde. “What she did, secret technology my tail.”

Skye saw the ears on all three Gifteds flatten in warning, and stepped in before any of them got snappy on the subject. “Hopps was abducted by the group we’ve been after for the past several weeks while we were in the middle of a fight to both save Mrs. Wilde, whom they kidnapped for leverage, and attempt to keep both Officers Hopps and Wilde safe,” she said. “And, you all might wish to take seats for the rest of the explanation, since a fair amount is kind of hard to swallow.”

Wolfard, Fangmeyer, and Vivian obliged, followed by Nick (as worn out by the evening as he was now, he was barely standing anyway), but Bogo remained resolutely where he was. Skye also entered a stare-off with him for a moment in a half-hearted attempt to convince him otherwise, but after a couple of seconds she decided it wasn’t worth the effort. If he collapsed, he collapsed. Instead, she recomposed herself and cleared her throat to continue.

“Avery Hinarei, Tristan Balingeri aka Saber, and Lotera Manard are all subscribers to the ideology that we refer to as the Primalist Movement or mentality, animals that for one reason or another don’t approve of the harmonious society we’ve all strived to build and would rather the world returned to a more ancient state, with each species looking out for its own only, survival of the fittest, and some even wanting the old predator-prey divide returned to its roots as hunter and hunted. They sow chaos where they can to try and engender a reversion to this, and as an example of their capabilities some group of Primalists somewhere were likely the financers behind Bellwether’s Night Howler conspiracy, which came down when it did mostly because she got impatient. Divide the city that stands as the epitome of species cooperation, the rest might follow.”

“So, uh, what do Wilde and Hopps have to do with it?” Fangmeyer queried, looking at the fox in question. “You guys a threat or something?”

“Yes,” Nick growled in reply. “We’ve become almost literally the figurehead mammals in Zootopia for coexistence in a way because we happen to be ‘mortal enemies’ that work together and…” he trailed off, looking down as he blushed slightly under his fur, “…something…more. So, we’re everything that they hate most.”

The unspoken admittance painted looks of surprise (or in Vivian’s case, satisfaction from a hunch confirmed), before the tiger slowly ventured, “Okay, so great for you two by the way…but then why kidnap you? Why haven’t they just tried to split you up or kill you outright?”

“Beyond the fact that just publicly killing them would turn them into martyrs for the cause,” Jack replied, “the rest is unfortunately part of the ‘hard-to-swallow’ explanation.” He gave a sigh and ran a paw back over his ears. “Hopps and Wilde represent a threat to their worldview, but the Primalists also believe they’re a key to a faster means for returning the world to the condition that they desire.” Pursing his lips, the buck looked to Embron. “Honestly however, the Canistons can explain it all better than I.”

The coyote nodded understanding and took the floor again to continue. “Hopps and Wilde are what we refer to as a Catalyst Pair,” he said, “two mammals that in ancient times were once considered perfect foes, the natural pairing of predator and prey, but have now bonded together to some deep extent, whether as close friends, or something more as Nick alluded earlier. It’s not at all uncommon for them to even seek out becoming married and mated, and they rarely separate from each other for long, by their own will or otherwise.” He shook his head and smiled apologetically, in no small part due to the blush returning to Nick’s face. “Anyway, a touch off topic. What really matters is that Catalysts are just as the title suggests, the causes of often powerful change in the world. Sometimes it’s by their own intent, like two unlikely cops solving the Night Howler Conspiracy last year in a manner rife with perfect chance and knitting a failing city back together, or unintentionally the way reflective or projective empaths can change how others around them feel just by being present.”

“Wait, wait wait wait,” Wolfard interrupted, waving both of his paws and then pointing at Nick. “Are you saying that him and Hopps have some sort of magical ability to turn the whole world into some sort of primal chaos again?”

“Magic is just a word people use when they don’t understand something,” Scarlet countered sharply from where she leaned pensively against the wall. “Or a term for witchcraft, sorcery, and other imitations of true supernatural or metaphysical abilities. And generally, no. Unless they mutually decide to start wreaking havoc, which in the case of Wilde and his partner is a chance of slim to none, Catalysts are primed for bolstering unity and cooperation. By design, mutual enemies being best friends and all that, it’d be kind of odd for them to tear down the same principle everywhere else.”

“Fascinating as all this is, it still doesn’t tell us what these terrorists want with my cops then,” Bogo snorted. “Hopps is the epitome of the ‘we’re all friends’ mindset and Wilde, as much of a pain in my ass as he can be, has a gold heart.” He saw the shocked look on the tod’s face out of the corner of his eye, and immediately pointed a warning finger at him. “And if you tell anyone else that I said that, Wilde, I’ll hang you off the flagpole outside myself.”

Nick wilted and nodded at the threat, but couldn’t help the small smile that remained. “Understood, sir.”

Bogo huffed again before turning his attention back to the menagerie before him. “So, since these ‘Primalists’ are unlikely to drag my officers to their side of the cause,” he continued, “what’s the point of wanting them alive?”

“Well if you would all stop interrupting we might be able to get to that explanation,” Minde muttered off to the side. Everyone’s eyes swung to her, and her own opened wide as her lips pursed. “Oops, I said that out loud, didn’t I?”

“I was wondering how long that side of you would take to show,” Embron snickered, before he composed himself and clasped both paws together. “Anyway, back on track: this group of Primalists we believe knows the location of a dimensional anomaly we call rifts. Rifts have been showing up since at least the time that all currently sapient species gained our higher levels of intelligence, some think they may be connected to the cause for sapience here, and they’re nearly impossible to detect. They don’t show up visibly most of the time, and the energy signatures that they give off cycle constantly through so many different forms, from light to magnetic or electric waves to even heat or sound, that no matter what instrument you’re using, they only appear like a momentary glitch. When they do stabilize however, mammals and other sentient species in the vicinity occasionally report having visions, or writing appears on nearby surfaces, and holes open up to what we think are viewpoints to other earths, maybe other dimensions. They’re the source of a large number of myths, legends, and the present religious and belief systems we have today.

“Primalists who know about rifts, like Lotera and company, believe that by getting ahold of a Catalyst pair, they can disrupt these rifts or even shut them down somehow.” The coyote paused and smiled regretfully, looking across each of his current audience. “Of course, none of us know the exact details how, since no ‘sane Primalist,’ and I use the term loosely, would want to tell us the exact plan and we’ve also never seen it attempted of course, but at least from what I can extrapolate they seem to think that there’s something they can extract or harvest from the two Catalysts because of the unique effects they have on the world around them, corrupt it, and throw it into the rift to cause whatever system they originate through to shut down.”

“And if that actually succeeds,” Scarlet added in, “which we’re skeptical of but don’t want to take the chance on, then the results could be anything from a loss of the sources of writings and visions that have in past driven sapient animals to cooperate to, in worst case scenario, shutting down whatever triggered our very rise to sapience. We think it’s a small possibility, but they may believe that closing the rifts permanently can revert everyone eventually or instantaneously to our ancestral wild states.”

A heavy silence settled as they paused to let everyone take this in. Nick had heard the explanation before, more or less, but somehow asking the how of what they thought the Primalists intended to with him and Judy had been somewhat glossed over a bit, and the impact was hitting him almost as hard as the others around the room. Extraction…what would they be extracting? What if they’re already doing that to Judy?

“So, if what I am hearing is to be believed,” Vivian spoke up softly, her head tilting up to look between Embron and Scarlet, “these animals want my son still because they hope to bring an end to all of civilization.” She turned to look at Nick, a new fear in her eyes. “That…that can’t be possible, can it?”

“There is a small risk that it is,” Jack affirmed with a reluctant nod, “as insane and apocalyptic as it sounds. And for that reason alone we cannot permit it to happen. Additionally, whether they succeed or not there’s no possibility that they’d leave Hopps and Wilde alive afterward, because as we said earlier they represent a threat to their ideology just being who they are. And now that they already have Hopps, we’ll be pulling in as much help as we can to get her back and protect Wilde at the same time. Never mind just that they’re cops and perhaps friends now, they represent individuals who can engineer the world, a resource we cannot lose.”

“Then why were we all kept so in that dark up to this point?” Fangmeyer asked hotly. It had been a thought that had been building for some time, and now she couldn’t help but bring it up. She pointed at Jack and his team, and then Embron with accusation. “You insisted, despite this incredible apparent danger to everyone on the planet never mind just us, that we be kept out of it as much as possible, even when we practically had a location for the Primalists’ hideout nailed down flat, and yet there are a couple of civilians involved more than even half the agents in this room have been, one of whom even ended up in a hospital! Then we showed up and he didn’t even have a scratch on him!” She turned fully to Embron and Scarlet, a suspicious scowl forming out of her exasperation. “What exactly is it about you two that’s so special? Minde too, for that matter; the hell was that thing she did out in the forest?!”

“We’re the only ones that can go paw to paw with Lotera and actually stand a chance at surviving the encounter for more than a few minutes,” Minde answered in part, before she too gestured back toward Embron. “I’m not as much of a fighter as they are –I mean, they train agents as one of their jobs, for crying out loud- but we’re what some refer to as Gifteds.”

“And Lotera is an Empowered,” Embron added on, before he waved a paw at Wolfard. “Honestly the titles kind of irritate me, but it is what it is, I didn’t pick them. You mentioned magic earlier; that’s more or less what the Thylacine has at his disposal. Whether it’s witchcraft, sorcery, or literally a deal with the Devil himself it doesn’t matter, that mammal can do things most other mammals would pass off as purely fiction, no way it could be real. But, you and Fangmeyer I know saw the mess at Copper Park: the uplifted bedrock, scorch marks, slashes in the trees deeper than any sword could make. Half of that was him. The other half was Scarlet and I fighting back. We’re the counter, mammals picked by God –and I don’t want to have an argument about the religious side of this right now, so save it- to wield abilities in order to protect others from threats they could not fight against themselves.”

The coyote made to continue speaking, but he was cut short when Fangmeyer and Wolfard both simultaneously burst out into uncontrolled giggles. Embron scowled, but the two of them couldn’t stop and he knew he wasn’t going to get in another word until they’d laughed themselves out. Looking at his sister’s expression though, perhaps words wouldn’t be their next response.

“Wait, wait, no, I was being sarcastic earlier!” Wolfard finally eked out between snorts, shaking his head in tandem with his dismissive paw. “Come on, really? Magic? What, you can wave your paw and throw lightning bolts like those gods in the myths or something?” He started giggling again alongside his partner, before he and Fangmeyer began to trail off, noticing that not one of the agents or the Canistons were even cracking smiles.

Then Fangmeyer looked at Nick. The tod was staring up at both of them with a heated glare, not a trace of his usual humor present (and it should have been coming out in spades if he thought the siblings were joking).

“Wait,” the tiger began uncertainly, her ears pinning back, “Y-you can’t be serious about this. We’d hear about stuff like that on the news if it were…”

She trailed off again, ears and eyes flicking toward an ominous humming sound building in the air. It seemed to be emanating from Scarlet, who had pushed away from the wall and moved to stand next to her brother. The ocelot still had her arms crossed, but her fingers were splayed out toward the sides in an odd fashion, and her fur was rising on end.

“W-what is that?” Fangmeyer asked with trepidation. Her ears fell flat against her head again, and a pit grew in her stomach.

Scarlet merely smirked. “I suggest you cover her ears,” was the only warning she gave.

The agents, Minde, and Nick had already done so, knowing what was coming, but the other officers, Vivian, and Bogo barely had half a second to bring their paws up before the room exploded with arcs of blue-white light, jagged lines of static charge whipping in uneven whirls around the ocelot and ripping the air with cracks to rival cannon fire. A few seconds later they shrank away, coalescing above the palm of one paw and morphing into a sphere of flickering, reddish flame, but the scent of ozone in the air they’d left behind was unmistakable. Each flash of light drew the eyes of nearly everyone in the room, those unaccustomed to the spectacle staring at Scarlet with mouths slack and open as their hands dropped to their sides. Nick couldn’t help but look up at the now teetering Bogo to appreciate the sight; much as he wasn’t in a joking mood, the fox rarely saw the Chief in such a shellshocked state.

“Many myths and legends ancient civilizations had of gods and powerful mammals able to bend the elements stem from individuals that actually existed,” Embron said, using the stunned silence that had developed to his advantage to continue before more interruptions could take place. His own paw came up, a holograph-like image blossoming out in the air above it to depict scenes of long-past, powerful battles. “For as long as animal kind has possessed sapience, there has always been war over its existence and the products of our intelligence. One side fought to forge the unity of species and the other sought to return to primal ways or establish one species or group as dominant over the rest. These battles were fierce, scarred the lands and the communities they raged around, and many of both the Gifteds and Empowered individuals either wiped each other out or caused enough fear within those they fought over or for that society as a whole hunted them down.

“It’s why our existence now is a secret to most, and our history hidden in old stories; we helped close the door on our presence so everyone might feel a bit safer, sleep a bit easier while we take care of things behind the scenes. It’s also the prime reason why we’ve been able to keep this case from causing abject chaos in the city, because as much as we don’t want the public freaking out, neither does Lotera want to be discovered, at least not directly.”

Embron dropped his paw and the holograph disappeared, folding his hands together. “A mammal like one of us would cause one of two reactions in most today,” he said softly. “Fear, because most consider what we can do terrifying or wrong, or it brings up morbid fascination, such that media would follow us everywhere and give us no peace, scientists would try to study us, or the crazier types attempt things better left to the imagination. Neither side wants anything to do with that, so when we encounter each other and clash we try to do so in places we won’t be seen, and when someone not acquainted with us is involved we use our abilities only as a last resort, like Ellie did to keep Wolfard, Fangmeyer, and Mrs. Wilde alive on the ridge.”

When Embron fell silent again, it wasn’t surprising that there were no immediate words offered by the newly debriefed. Nick could hardly forget the first time the coyote had levitated him across a room, and there isn’t much one can say to express their thoughts properly on the matter when it’s experienced. Wolfard and Fangmeyer had seen Ellie’s actions, but the depth behind them pretty well turned their notions of how the world worked upside down. Bogo wasn’t faring much better than his officers either. He had thought he’d seen just about everything while on the force, but this…well, again, what could one say?

Vivian seemed to be taking the matter pretty well though, but then she’d been held for several hours by one of the very mammals Embron and Scarlet had just been explaining about, so she had somewhat already been exposed to one side of the conflict. For anyone though, more of the full story was never easy to reckon with, and the two Canistons had long since learned that the best way to deal with it was to lay things out, and then permit newcomers time to just digest the info for a while.

This processing period was signaled as coming to an end when Bogo shifted in the seat he’d finally taken to avoid falling on the floor from his weakened legs earlier, rubbing his brow with one hoof as he looked between Embron, Scarlet, and the agents. He looked like he’d just been hit with the migraine of the century, which wasn’t too unlikely all things considered.

“I am now fondly recalling a time when I believed that life could not get any stranger than watching an overly optimistic token bunny dragging a fox around behind her in order to try and solve the biggest conspiracy this city had ever faced,” he muttered. “At least then it was something I could openly rant about.” The buffalo turned to look down at Nick, his face caught somewhere between exasperation and abject resignation. “I do not know how you two managed to get mixed up in something so outrageous that it makes that case look like a dropped chip on the floor for all the frustration it caused.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, Chief, it kind of broadsided us too,” Nick mumbled in reply. “Not like we went looking for this one.”

Bogo nodded absently, shifting in the chair so he could face Jack. “And speaking of Night Howlers,” he continued, “this mess seemed to start with a nip dealer and a connection to missing Midnicampum serum, which we appear to have all but forgotten since the first attack on Hopps and Wilde. I happened to get a notice from the pharmaceutical company today of all times that another four gallons of pure concentrated serum has vanished, no trace of how it was taken either. Do I dare ask if it has a purpose in this scheme of theirs, or are they planning an attack instead if things don’t go their way?”

“Lotera can charge Midnicampum concentrate as a sort of catalyst  as well,” Jack explained. “It really starts diving into the realm of witchcraft and divination, but due to the  unique composition of the plant’s toxin and its ability to mess up specifically the higher functions of the brain, it acts as a backup capable of silencing the rifts for a period of up to several years, preventing the visions and such that occur around them. It’s not the result they want, because it doesn’t shut down whatever causes the rifts altogether, but enough that they can focus in on disrupting society and locating new Catalyst pairs in the interim.”

The buck glanced over at his own partner, and frowned. “However, I have no doubt that if all goes south for them they will not hesitate to use the serum as a weapon, one that Lotera can enhance to deadly effect I’m sure, which is another reason we’ll be calling in assistance and stockpiling the anti-toxin for when we figure out where the Primalists are heading with Hopps. Everyone except for Wilde will be an expendable target to them and once we enter their territory no one can be guaranteed to come back.”

“Danger or not, I for one am not willing to sit back while they make off with Hopps,” Wolfard interjected suddenly, having finally overcome his shock and replacing it with determination. He’d always been a fancier of strange ideas, so the fact that one of the most outlandish was real was apparently something he could still roll with, after a bit of processing. “When you head out, I want to be there to help, and keep the fellow officer we still have with us safe.” He clapped a paw on Nick’s shoulder, glancing at him with a supportive nod. Nick gave a small smile in return; his head was still on Judy, but the somewhat unexpected full support of his new coworker was still much appreciated (if still a new sensation; he wasn’t used to having such camaraderie yet).

“Same here,” Fangmeyer added in, before a new thought occurred to her and she looked cautiously in her chief’s direction. “I…that is, I hope that isn’t an issue, sir.”

Bogo sighed and crossed his arms, glancing between his officers and the rest of the mammals in the room. “I would prefer agents well experienced in this field,” he began, shooting Jack a look, “though that does not negate the distrust I have of you, Savage. Your co-agents have given me no reason to doubt them however. But, if you cannot gather enough resources among your own ranks then I place my full trust in my officers to uphold their oaths and do their best to rescue Hopps, whether they remain within the city borders to do so or not.”

“That is the one unfortunate condition we have right now.” This time it was Vela that spoke up, the maned wolf giving a disappointed shrug. “AOMISDOPS is relatively stretched out right now, and somehow I don’t doubt that’s half the reason these Primalists are here and moving about as freely as they are. We’ll manage to pull a handful more agents in, but we’re going to have to rely on outside networks for everyone else. We normally would not ask for locally trained cops to help support any international mission, but with the mounting importance of this case and the fact that these two,” she waved a paw in the direction of the wolf and tiger respectively, “have already gotten stuck in this mess means that we will gladly take them on, and train them where we can for this.”

“And they’ll have some of the best teachers when training,” Skye added, glancing at the Canistons. “Plus, though it’s not a likely case, there is the risk that any of the Primalists may attempt to use Mrs. Wilde as leverage again, so we need at least one hand to take guard for her, and Officer Minde would be our prime candidate.”

“Well, unless the oddjob with the patterned rear and lightning fingers is the one that turns up, they’ll have a lot harder time getting the drop on me now,” Vivian commented dryly. “I’ve got a score to settle with ‘Tristan’ anyway.”

“I have to ask, did he actually give you the name Tristan?” Jack asked in curiosity. At Vivian’s nod, he let out a surprised snort. “Color me shocked; he absolutely hates his given name. But in any case, while we believe it unlikely that Lotera is the one staying back to try and nab Wilde, he is our greatest concern, which is why at least until we’re sure this group is out of Zootopia I’d like to authorize Minde to stay with you in a safe house.”

“I’ll pull the paperwork together for one,” Bogo said, “and as added precaution only the mammals in this room will be notified where it is. Minde, your official assignment on record will be protection of a witness; Wolfard, Fangmeyer, you will be marked as on a national collaborative; Wilde’s already listed under federal protection so his status won’t change. Now, just to help preserve my own sanity, or whatever is left of it after tonight for where this is all going, can I ask who or perhaps what kinds of mammals you’ll also be bringing in on this with you?”

All eyes turned one by one to the Canistons again, and the pair of them put on matching grins. “Uh, just out of curiosity, do the aliases ‘Arctic Fire’, ‘Sparrow’, or ‘Archangels’ ring a bell to you?” Embron asked.

Skye’s flash of irritation at the mention of the former was expected, even Bogo’s expression of displeasure at the second (and even Nick perked up at the mention of Arctic Fire), but it was Vivian’s response that flabbergasted them all.

“Well, I’ve been wondering what Dax and Rocky had been getting up to,” she said coyly, laying clasped paws in her lap and bearing the air of someone who knew exactly what kind of reaction mention of those names would draw. “Make sure you tell them to give me a call when you see them, will you? It’s been ages since we caught up.”

Chapter Text

They say ask not the sparrow

For he cannot match the eagle’s realm

But the sparrow has his own wise words to pass

He does not soar as king of the skies

Nor does he rule the air

But the sparrow sees what eagles miss on high

He knows the intricacies of the woods

The cracks in bark and brush

Hidden secrets are his to guard and give

The sparrow flies between the twigs

Swift and smart and spry

And his song fills the forest in the morn

So ask not the sparrow how the eagle soars

For it is not his kingdom to keep

But for the forest ask him all that he may know

“I’m not sure what unnerves me more,” Fangmeyer thought aloud as they exited the station, glancing over her shoulder as she watched parts of their now rather large group start splitting off to begin their respective tasks. “What’s worse, do you think: that there’s basically an entire underground network of weirdoes and vigilantes, half of which we only thought were urban legends, fighting battles that should belong in comic books, or that Nick’s mother of all mammals is also friends with half of them?”

“The part where she knew exactly who Embron was talking about when he mentioned just their aliases,” Nick muttered ahead of her as he climbed into yet another unmarked van behind Jack and Skye. “I thought I knew everyone, but clearly I had to get it from somewhere. Probably how she managed to keep tabs on me even when I thought I had ghosted her watch completely, now that I know about it. Also, gonna have to ask Rocky if he was really just spying on me for my mom when we see him or if he actually did have a job of his own.”

“And there’s another question for you,” Wolfard added in as he sat down and buckled in, trying not to look as uncomfortable as he felt in the slightly too-small seat (he felt bad for his partner, and sent the cramped cat a sympathetic look). “How exactly do you know this Arctic Fire guy? We all saw the look on Bogo’s face; half these characters are on wanted lists for something even if they’re supposedly good guys overall.”

Nick let out a bittersweet chuckle, staring out the window in anxious worry and reminiscence (the latter as he recalled better times amongst the dismal majority of his previous life, the former because there was no way the knowledge that Judy was out there was leaving his mind, and that he couldn’t do a thing yet to just grab her back). “Blast from the past Elliot, blast from the past; and don’t tell me you know nothing about my once upon a time endeavors. Way back when, I was somewhat acquainted with the Bigs, and Rocky was one of the guys who occasionally stepped in to help with a handful of things for the shrew. Fellow fox, we got along when we crossed paths on rare occasions, so there was a sort of casual friendship going on.”

“He mentioned you when the news about your graduation was released,” Embron spoke up from the front passenger seat. “Was really happy about another fox getting into a more visible, respectable position in society, as few as there generally are.”

A huff from further back had heads turned to where the two agents still in this part of the group were sitting, and the vixen looked none too pleased at the talk of this other vulpine. “Not that he could bother giving me, his cousin, a call to talk about it,” she grumbled, earning a slight eye roll from Jack and a sympathetic glance from Embron. “Just you.”

“Like I said before, I tried,” the coyote replied apologetically. “He had his reasons I’m sure, much as they’re going to be made moot soon. Plus, I never really had a good moment or excuse to go down and try to find him in person to ask why face to face.” Rolling his shoulders, Embron looked forward again as his sister started up the van. “However, he’s not the first we’re gonna go and root out. Yes, I admit partly it’s because I still think you need more cooling off, Skye, because we need him in one piece. After we drop by my house, we have a Sparrow to pick up.”

Fangmeyer snorted and crossed her arms. “Yeah, I’m sure he’ll be thrilled about a van full of agents and cops driving up to knock on his door. You know that he’s wanted for I can’t count how many hacks, viruses, and other tech mayhem that he’s been linked to, right? Also, what’s with all these nicknames that your friends have?”

Embron sighed and rolled his head backward to look at her upside down. “Yes, I’m well aware of almost everything he’s done,” he drawled, making sure it was also clear he didn’t care too much, “and despite it, I’ll still protect him from incarceration if Scarlet and I can’t get a pardon for him approved after all this is done. Why? Because like what we do, it’s his form of justice, vigilantism much like what a lot of us Gifteds get involved in out of necessity. Not once has he ever dropped a bombshell secret to the public eye that wasn’t meant to expose some form of wrong –many of which I can cite your department has acted on too, in the end, so don’t act like it hasn’t benefited you- and as I’m sure we all know the present legal system moves too slowly to take care of some of the most critical corruptions and injustices out there, particularly where governments are concerned. He’s one of the few that gets them nailed down.”

He twisted around, apparently having had enough of putting kinks in his neck, and looked at everyone directly, giving an impish grin. “As for your other question, wasn’t really our choice to start running by nicknames, but combine jokes, friendly teasing, and the propensity of various media to name anything and everything they can and you end up with titles for every mysterious event and individual that causes them. Since most of them are decently fitting, a lot of us decide to pick one and let it run; keeps us enigmatic and more under the label of myths and legends to most of the public. Mine, ‘Firefox,’ started when I first got to be a pain in Jack’s ass, and Scarlet’s often been tagged as ‘Phoenix’.”

Wolfard’s ears perked, and he looked curiously at Embron and then the ocelot driving the car. “Firefox? You’re a coyote though, aren’t you?”

“He’s part fox, and also my cousin as if things needed to get weirder here,” Nick snarked, earning a perplexed stare from the wolf and an even wider grin from Embron.

“Plus, ‘Fire coyote’ doesn’t really roll off the tongue as easily, does it?” Embron added.

“Uh huh,” Wolfard mused, before focusing back on Scarlet. “Right when I thought this mess had managed to reach maximum weirdness. So, uh, I can guess why Embron caught that title, but what about the ‘Phoenix’ label?”

This time it was Scarlet who wore a subtle and mischievous smirk on her lips, and she glanced back at Wolfard for a moment before focusing on the road again. “A specialty move of Embron’s and mine, but I look way cooler doing it,” she said nonchalantly. “Next time we get in a scuffle you might see it.”

“Aw,” the wolf whined. “Come on, don’t hold out on us now!”

“Might as well get used to waiting,” Jack tutted, a rare smirk also appearing on his muzzle tinted by the annoyance of many past experiences. “If Scarlet makes up her mind on something, there is no more stubborn a mammal on this planet.”

“You sure?” Fangmeyer snorted, twisting her head around to look at the buck. “’Cause I was pretty sure that Hopps is in the running for that one; she’s headstrong enough that she might just make it back to us on her own out of sheer will.”

“Maybe so, and a welcome miracle that would be, but Scarlet undoubtedly still scores higher points in the headstrong rating.”

The tiger frowned, before shrugging; she still thought her missing coworker would win that contest, but it wasn’t something to argue over. Conversation did start to dwindle then though, an awkward silence filling the van as the nighttime streets of the city flashed by outside. The quiet was not welcome, particularly for Nick who had at least managed to use the conversation as a distraction from his internal panicking. Now though, as he gazed out over the Rainforest District between the trees as they began climbing up into the Cloud Forest, his mind turned to and stuck firmly on Judy. She was out who knew where, somewhere away from him and out of reach, and his inability to actually do anything about it was making him feel smaller, more insignificant than he had even outside the Ranger Scout meeting all those years ago. Run of the mill criminals he could chase down and arrest, delusional bigots he could ignore or laugh at, even debate them into a corner and walk away triumphant if he so chose, and once upon a time mammals that could draw fire from thin air were relegated to movies and fantasy books, not waging battle around him and stealing the one thing he held most dear now away from him: his rabbit.

His rabbit. That was another new aspect to worry over in and of itself, one that up until a couple of hours ago was a thrilling development but now made his heart feel like it was on the verge of imploding. Even the fear of losing his mother earlier now somehow managed to pale in comparison to the sensation that was gripping him. Nick couldn’t help but work up imaginations of what Lotera and Saber might be doing to Judy (never mind they needed her alive and whole, he knew torture didn’t have to be physical. His current state of mind was proof), but every new image just worsened the rising nausea in his stomach.

It should have been me distracting Avery, he thought miserably. Then it might have been me carted off; Judy would have had the easier time helping organize things to find me instead.

“I know what you’re thinking, Wilde,” Jack spoke up softly behind him, startling the fox out of his thoughts. Nick turned to look back at the rabbit, one brow quirked. Jack, however, shot him a stern glare in response. “It would not have been any better if it were you who’d been taken,” the buck admonished. “I have little doubt Hopps would have been just as much of a mess as you are feeling, not to mention she would not be able to mask it away like you can. And, it would still leave us scrambling to get one of you back.” He softened his gaze then, trying to give reassurance. “They will not do anything to her I’m sure, so take a breath and trust that we will get this solved. We’re nothing if not together on this.”

Nick snorted, tucking his snout downward. “Since when did you become a mind reader?” he muttered.

Jack only shrugged. “About the same time that you turned into an open book, I reckon.”

It was a bit of a backhanded remark, but nevertheless there was humor behind it and the bantering jab managed to at least pull the corners of Nick’s mouth up a touch. He wasn’t okay, wouldn’t be until he was sure Judy was safe again, but the tod could reason he was stuck with the best mammals he could be with under the circumstances.

The arrival at the Caniston property a few minutes later had nearly the same effect on Fangmeyer and Wolfard as it had on Wilde and Hopps the first time they’d gone there: brief panic when they thought Scarlet was going to drive them straight off the side of the road rather than onto the hidden driveway, and then impressed caution when the van pulled up next to the house and its cultivated grounds. Nick caught their expressions and smirked, elbowing Wolfard in the side.

“If you think the arrival was a surprise, wait until you see what’s inside,” the fox tutted.

Wolfard looked down at him and pursed his lips. “Well, I’m betting it’s not going to be some dusty old folks’ home, so how shocking can it be?” he replied, though even the feigned confidence he said it with died a little when both of the Canistons, Skye, and even Jack developed smirks to match the tod’s.

All expectations fell flat when Embron did finally push open the front door, and Hannah immediately popped up to greet them.

“I take it you’re probably not back to stay a while,” the cobra said flatly, staring pointedly at the coyote. Her eyes then shifted to the stunned expressions on the wolf and tiger behind him, and she grinned. “And adding new friends to the party; that confirms it then.”

“Yeah, just grabbing a few things and then we need to move,” Embron admitted. “Hannah, meet Christine Fangmeyer and Elliot Wolfard, couple of Nick’s trusted coworkers in the ZPD. Wolfard, Fangmeyer, this is Hannah, personal friend and household assistant; she takes care of everything here when Scarlet and I are out and about, and occasionally tags along to help too.”

“Uh, h-hi,” Wolfard stammered, waving an awkward paw. Then his eyes drifted back to Embron. “I stand corrected. You have a cobra for a housemate?!”

“And a western diamondback rattlesnake as a friend in law enforcement back in our old hometown, and an Amazonian coral snake as one of our explosive expert contacts, yada yada yada,” Scarlet rambled on as she walked down the hall, Jack moving to follow behind her. “Welcome to our life. Come on, no time to waste. I’ll go get the stuff from downstairs; Embron, you should get to calling Mack and grabbing all your little death vials and stuff.”

Embron nodded agreement (though mixed in with a bit of a snappish huff at her carefree mentioning of his favorite weapons) and whirled down the side hall, his coat flaring in the breeze he created in his wake. “Whatever you’re most curious about, follow along,” he called back, glancing at the two newly acquainted cops who’d yet to see much of anything in the house. The officers glanced between each other, before Wolfard thumbed after Scarlet and Jack while Fangmeyer chose to tail Embron alongside Nick and Skye. The coyote speed-walked down the hallway at a pace that made the tiger wonder if he was actually touching the floor, before he reached out and grabbed the frame of a doorway and whipped himself inside the room, disappearing from sight.

“Oh yeah, this room,” Nick drawled, ears perking forward as he sauntered around the same door frame. “Loading up on all the death juice for fights ahead then.”

“Something like that,” Embron tittered back as he sifted through cabinets and racks, plucking out vials and capped darts and storing them away in an uncountable number of unseen pockets inside his coat. He glanced up at them as Fangmeyer peeked in and saw her eyes widen, and his grin returned. “Welcome to the toxin room, Officer Fangmeyer.”

The tiger took a moment to look around the space, processing the presence of hundreds upon hundreds of labels and warnings that lined each of the cabinets and counters, the dozens of racks sitting on the latter full of little vials and bottles. The sheer volume made her wilt, and she couldn’t help but ask, “What all do you have in here?”

“A little of everything probably,” Embron replied airily, before rattling off a list. “Venom and antivenins for nearly every venomous reptile or poisonous amphibian on the planet, I lost count how many different plant toxins, several dozen synthetics and other natural poisons, the works.” He pulled open the doors of what looked like another cabinet until the hermetic seal within hissed and released the cold of a freezer. “I’ve got something that can cause basically every reaction you could imagine, at every intensity. I can make someone itch or spasm for a minute or two, or kill them in half the time.”

Fangmeyer’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head, and she looked back at the open doorway behind her. “And you leave this room wide open?! What if someone breaks in?”

The coyote gave her a nonchalant shrug in response as he closed the freezer door and started back toward her and the others. “Well, even in the rare event that Scarlet, Hannah, and I are all out of the house,” he drawled, shooing them out of the room before stopping the group just outside the door, “if someone managed to actually get past the outdoor security systems and inside the house, every room of high concern is biomechanically locked. Hannah, Scarlet, and I, again, are the only ones with the signatures to get into them. Go ahead, try and walk in.” He gestured to the door, and Fangmeyer glanced between him and the seemingly unchanged frame. Embron gave another ‘go ahead’ motion with his paw, and gingerly she obliged. Reaching one paw forward, she stuck it out toward the open space.

A building humming noise not unlike what she’d heard when Scarlet had unleashed the electric lightshow back at the station was Fangmeyer’s only warning before the air within the doorway shimmered and a ripple of light raced from the frame inward toward her paw. She jerked back, but not quite fast enough to avoid the jolt that snapped across the appendage.

“Yeouch!” she yelped, shaking her paw frantically and glaring at the giggling coyote (before also shooting Nick a similar look; his snickers suggested he’d known what was coming too). “The hell was that?”

“Electrostatic field,” Embron replied through his laughter. “Generally, it modulates itself to be strong enough to blow whatever size intruder is present back out, but not kill them, though I decreased it so you just got a shock. You should ask Skye about the time she tried sneaking in without me in the room here.”

The tiger quirked a brow and looked at the Arctic vixen, who crossed her arms and let off a dramatic eye roll. “Yeah, so you found it hilarious that I ended up looking like an oversized cotton ball for the next five hours,” she growled. “And it distracted you enough that I managed to sucker punch you straight in the nose.”

“And very nearly broke it,” Embron agreed, though his grin didn’t decrease intensity in the slightest. “But, still worth it. Anyway, now that I’m stocked from here and Scarlet should be coming back with her entourage in a few minutes yet, I need to make a call. Come on.” Once again without further warning, he twisted and disappeared down the hall again, again looking like he was floating across the floor rather than walking on it despite his feet moving at average pace.

Fangmeyer glanced at Nick and Skye again, then toward the larger retreating canid. “He always like this?” she asked curiously.

Both foxes shrugged. “Unless you catch him on a lazy day,” Skye supplied. “Embron’s always living in the fast lane otherwise.” She turned to follow the coyote, and the other two followed suit. “And while Scarlet’s worse about it, they’re both about as eccentric and unpredictable as you can get, twisted and sadistic senses of humor included be warned.”

“Yeah, several weeks with them and I still can barely get my bearings on either one,” Nick added in, looking up at his coworker. “I mean, they’ve got really good hearts and they are kind of endearing, but, uh, it’s a bit of an acquired taste.”

Fangmeyer nodded, her lips pursing in contemplation. “I see. Well, I hope Elliot and I can acquire it soon. We’re stuck with them for the time being I assume.”

They found Embron standing in the “living room” of the main floor (aka, the one space on the floor with couches and a TV in it rather than just books, lab spaces, cages, etc.) with his phone out and one hand held with its palm up and out in front of him. Both of his ears were folded flat against his head as he stared at the little device with burning concentration.

“Uh, what are…?” Nick started to ask, but a raised finger from Embron stopped him short. Then the coyote moved his hand back into the position it had been in. A second later the sound of a ringing phone line filled the room, and as the other end was picked up a flash of light above Embron’s palm expanded into something resembling a holographic image. It was hard to see from their angle, but Nick, Fangmeyer, and Skye could see the muzzle of a vaguely canid form in the “screen.”

“Embron?” a somewhat sleep-slurred voice growled. “Do you have any fucking idea what time it is?”

“Language,” Embron reprimanded half-seriously. The other canine simply snorted in response.

“Screw off. I’ve heard you say worse I can’t count how many times.”

“And it’s always important and with meaning when I say it.”

“Yeah? You dragging me out of my much-needed sleep is more than enough for me to say it with meaning. So I will ask again: the fuck are you waking me up at this time of night for?”

The emphasis of the word this time around was clearly meant as a jab at the coyote, but Embron ignored it this time in favor of cutting to the chase. “You’re familiar with the officers Judith Hopps and Nicholas Wilde I assume.”

“No duh. Couple of underdogs in the justice system that for once I can’t question my support of.”

It was a surprise Nick was not expecting to hear, and Embron knew it. He shot the tod a grin, before focusing back on the floating image. “They turned out to be Catalysts, and a group of Primalists including a skilled Empowered individual came after them and tonight managed to kidnap Hopps. We fear now that one or more of them will leave the country with her shortly if they haven’t already, before going after Wilde. Any method we can use to try and locate them or keep ahead of them from here we need, so I’m calling you in for assistance.”

A potent silence reigned for several moments, and Nick could not for the life of him tell what the figure on the other end was going to say. Then, a truly monumental sigh hissed through the image, and the figure growled out, “You know that I am not really a group player, and me and the authorities rarely see eye to eye. I’d like to help, but I’m not jumping into line of sight for the cops, or your agent friends either. Much as is at stake I can’t do anything behind bars.”

This time Embron snorted, and he shook his head firmly. “I’m leaning to being a loner too, but hey, I still have friends and people I associate with on a regular basis. Also, whether you want to or not, I’ve already traced your location and we will be coming by to pick you up shortly.”

Another standoffish silence, and for a moment the others expected whoever was on the other end was just going to skip out of their side of the call. Then Nick realized there was a fair possibility that Embron could hold the call, and therefore the trace, whether or not the other end wanted it connected.

The other half of the call seemed to know this fact too, and snapped out, “If I drop my phone here you won’t find me.”

“You do know that I am not tracing the phone, right?”

“…You’re tracing me? How…dammit, never mind.”

“Mack, please understand I was not hoping to have to explain that one again, or use it, but desperate times and all. Look, you will have immunity while you help us with this, so authorities will not track you –and you know I can enforce it- and then after all of this is over I’m going to be doing my best to convince them to officialize  and pardon you. You can stop having to hide, and you can have your efforts openly appreciated rather than just on the underground. We can discuss it more when we come get you.”

Embron was the one to end the call this time, avoiding further arguments and letting out a sigh. His ears folded back in exhaustion, and he looked over at the others. “Well,” he said softly, “could have gone better, but I’ll admit he took it better than I actually expected anyway.” He pocketed the phone and twirled his hand. “Alright, let’s go. He’s another half hour drive down into the Nox, so we don’t have time to waste. Especially if he decides he’s going to try and run me on a goose chase despite everything.”

“Will Savage and Scarlet be staying here?” Fangmeyer inquired as they stepped out into the hall again and headed for the front door. “Or are we all going? Wouldn’t it be faster to split up, some of us go find the Sparrow and the others your Arctic Fire friend?”

Embron shook his head as he ushered them down the hall. “Faster, yes, but considering what the stakes have a chance of being we are taking no chances with Nick and we already split a fair portion of our group up as it is. They get ahold of him, game’s over short of a true miracle so we are keeping full guard around him to prevent that.”

The tiger nodded in half-understanding, looking down at the tod in question walking beside her.

“Gee, I feel so special,” he muttered sarcastically, managing to draw a smirk from her.

“Well, don’t let it get to your head,” she said, poking him lightly in the shoulder. “It’s big enough as it is already.”

When the fox barely rolled his eyes in response though, that was the point Fangmeyer realized just how much of an act he was really putting on; Judy missing was turning out to be a far bigger impact on him than the tiger might have originally guessed.

Scarlet and the others were standing by the door to the garage already, and the wide-eyed look of amazement that Wolfard was wearing managed to at least draw a genuine, if small, smile from Nick. “Cool room downstairs, isn’t it?” the tod asked lightly.

Wolfard nodded vigorously, turning to his partner. “Chris, they’ve got a freaking arsenal down there! Stuff I didn’t even know existed!”

“Yep, and this is the stuff that we’re gonna lend you,” Scarlet added in, holding a bag out toward the tiger. Fangmeyer took it cautiously and peered in side, her expression quickly morphing to match that of the wolf upon seeing the collection within. Handguns, what she had to guess were miniature, folded crossbows, silvery spheres that looked uncomfortably similar to the grenades Avery had used earlier that evening, and a dozen other implements she couldn’t identify from a glance, all piled within.

“Is this all legal?” she asked, looking up at the two Canistons with an odd combination of fascination and concern adorning her muzzle.

“Yes, so long as one has permits, or if no one actually knows the technology exists,” Scarlet answered as she also handed bags over to Skye and Nick (and Fangmeyer noticed that the ocelot, Jack, and even Wolfard were already brimming with weapons in holsters and slings). “As associates of an international law enforcement system, and trainers of some of their agents, we’ve got access to all sorts of toys.”

“Plus some of our abilities means we can build things no one else can,” Embron added, taking his own bag and rapidly emptying it. Half of what came out of the canvas seemed to just vanish rather than get stashed somewhere in his coat, but the two newest members of the group didn’t bother asking why, regulating it to yet another mystery among the Gifted individual’s tricks.

“I’ll keep a phone handy,” Hannah’s voice suddenly piped up from near their feet, sending both Wolfard and Fangmeyer skyward. The snake looked up at them as they landed again and smirked, no doubt used to the reaction but clearly finding it funny, and then looked back to Embron. “Since you’re taking Wilde with you I doubt anyone will bother the house, but as usual just in case.”

“Thanks Hannah,” Embron replied sincerely, adjusting his coat. “Alright everyone, time we actually head out to collect a Sparrow and hopefully get a bead on where the Primalists might be. Or, where they’re heading next.”

The first impression they had upon reaching the location Embron drove them to was that they’d been duped by his supposed trace. The house looked long-abandoned and empty, complete with boarded up shattered windows and a rampant littering problem filling the yard with old bottles, paper bags, and anything else you’d expect to see in a gang hangout. For a moment even Embron looked uncertain, his head twisting to look up and down the street a couple of times. Then he closed his eyes and his ears twitched rapidly side to side for a moment before he looked up again and nodded: this was the place.

Everyone piled out of the van again (Fangmeyer the most relieved at escaping the small space once more), noses wrinkling at the musty odor that hung in the air and further enhanced the run-down appearance, though both Wolfard and Nick could detect another scent hiding underneath: another canid, recent and a frequent visitor to the area. Embron wasted no time, walking straight up to the front door and rapping out an odd pattern on the creaking wood. The resounding echo of his knock however was not one that matched the appearance of the doorway. Something far more solid sat behind the rotting wood, carrying metallic undertones in its resonant response. A few seconds later, a similarly metallic series of locks released their hold, and the door swung outward to reveal a concrete stairway leading down a far sturdier corridor than the rest of the house suggested being present. It was entirely concrete and steel, with a couple of nubs in the upper corners of the space suggesting mounted cameras watching their every move as they entered. As soon as Jack, the last member in the party, stepped inside, the door slammed shut and sent most of the group off their feet in shock, staring behind them.

“Yeah, that’s not creepy at all,” Skye quipped. “Alright Embron, is this guy a friendly personality or the kind of character you know just because he’s useful to you?”

Embron paused on the lowest step, rolling his eyes as he looked back up at the vixen. “How many of my friends do you know that don’t have a creep side to them, or have no ‘useful talents’ to quote?” he asked almost rhetorically, to which Skye couldn’t help but cross her arms at.

“Right, I forgot,” she drawled. “You’re a nerd who finds a purpose in everyone you know, and only keeps contact with the ones you like.”

“Which of course doesn’t really answer her question, or tell us what to expect,” Jack muttered, “considering you have friends like Hydell and Badger.”

The coyote pursed his lips and nodded assent. “Very true. Don’t worry, he’s most likely to try and punch me for waking him up at such an hour and dragging him into this, but that’s about it.” He looked backward to Nick, and grinned. “Think of him as a bit like the old Wilde, but with less snark; runs the gray area of the law but has a gold heart.”

Another door stat at the end of the stairway (and about 15 feet underground, Nick guesstimated), equally as sturdy looking as the interior of the first but with no wooden outer façade to cover it. When Embron reached it he moved forward to knock, but before his fist made contact his ears twitched and he seemed to decide otherwise, instead quickly folding his paws and stepping back.

Not a moment too soon it turned out, as the door swung open violently and slammed into the wall with a bang. A slim canine with a surprising resemblance to the coyote stuck his head around the corner to scowl at him. “Damn,” he growled, “I was hoping I’d at least catch you with the door.”

“Yeah, nice to see you too,” Embron volleyed back, a small but triumphant smile on his lips. “Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to Mackenzie Mallupe, Mack for short. Or as the law enforcement and darknet web rings know him, the Sparrow.”

He was a red wolf standing about six inches taller than Embron and a little shorter than Wolfard, cloaked in shades of auburn, sienna, and grayish cobalt with piercing turquoise-green eyes behind a pair of narrow black wire-rimmed glasses. Mack’s clothes weren’t much to look at, the blown out jeans and dark shirt topped by a ragged old pleather jacket and deep olive-black fedora giving him an air like that of a wannabe gangster or other street hoodlum (complete with a short gold chain off one pocket). However, Nick, Fangmeyer, and the rest could only assume that the appearance was a façade just like the exterior of his apparent home, especially if all the claims that had filtered through to the authorities about him were true in the slightest.

When Mack turned his gaze toward the agents and officers, the look didn’t warm up in the slightest either. Instead, they all found a reserved, calculating, and yet somehow cocky expression in his eyes.

“You know, if this doesn’t work out as you hope Embron, I’ll have to up and move immediately after all of this,” he muttered, glaring back at the coyote again before stepping back to make his way back inside.

Embron nodded and patted the wolf on the shoulder as he followed before waving for the others to come along as well. “I know, and in the off chance that happens I’ll help. Now, since you’ll be dealing with them too, these fine mammals are Officers Elliot Wolfard, Christine Fangmeyer, and of course Nick Wilde himself and Agents Jack Savage and Skye Wellinger.”

“I know,” Mack drawled, looking at each of them anyway as Embron laid out the names. “I keep tabs on a lot of the officials in the city, and your friends. Makes it easier to both direct the right guys around when I uncover something as well as stay out of their way. Welcome to my home, I guess, however long we’ll be here.” He made a half-hearted wave around, collapsing into a nearby chair.

With the Canistons being the only mammals present who’d ever actually had contact with the Sparrow, the rest were not sure what to expect of his home. The rather suburban-looking layout underground didn’t look very shocking though (if a bit chaotic, the one trait that matched both Mack’s appearance and somewhat the neighborhood outside), composed of a kitchen and living room with doors leading to what had to be bedrooms, the bathroom, and other more private spaces. The only thing that gave away who it was that lived there, other than the whole locked up secret entrance thing, was a single table off to the side of the living room bearing a small stack of computers, tablets, and various phones.

Wolfard could only assume that if they ever passed Mack on the street (and a fair chance they had, as it was turning out), they would have passed him off as either a really asocial techy geek or aloof mischief maker, nothing that the cop would have immediately pegged as any more suspect than a nerd in a computer store or harmless smoker on a street corner. “No wonder you’ve stayed off the radar for so long,” he commented. “Friends with spooky abilities aside, no one in their right mind would have walked past this place and had ‘tech wizard’ run through their heads.”

“Survival through deception and redirection, and I hope to keep it that way, you all notwithstanding now of course,” Mack replied coolly. “No offense, but even if I had an official license I’m still more of a freelance artist in my field.”

That comment brought a snort of amusement from Skye. “Gee, no wonder you and Embron get along,” she drawled. “Most of the time anyway. Alright, look, if you really can help us now, then I would be willing to side with the Canistons and fight on your behalf afterward, because we need every helping hand we can get right now and, while I’m not huge on the methods you used, you have helped bring down some very dangerous people in high places before. If you’re half as good as all the stories claim, then I wouldn’t doubt we could have a permanent open offer under a paid AOMISDOPS position for your skills either, however you work best with them.”

Mack laughed and rolled to his feet again, heading for the table piled with all the tech gadgets. Picking up a tablet, he turned it on and turned back to them with a sidelong smirk. “I’m pretty well paid by some of the people I help out as it is, along with all the random supporters who happen to like me out there on the net,” he dismissed as he started to tap away on the screen. “So I can’t say all that is a huge draw at the moment. But, not having to constantly avoid the ‘long arm of the law’ as it were would be nice. Plus,” he turned and shot a look at Embron specifically, “I know he’d strangle me if I just said no to helping.”

“No, I’d light your tail on fire,” Embron amended, then jerked his thumb at Scarlet. “She might strangle you though.”

Mack rolled his eyes. “Case in point,” he quipped, tapping again on the tablet. “Look, I’m going to guess –and hope- that I’m not the only poor soul you all intend to collect at this ungodly hour, and I can do this on the go, so if we need to leave then tell me where you guys last saw Hopps and what else we might need to search for while we move.”

“Wise idea,” Jack said, his ears perking up as he gestured for the door. “The car is already warmed up so we ought to get out on the road; time is not to be wasted.” As everyone moved to start filing back out however he added, “Unfortunately, Hopps’ last location won’t be of much help; the Empowered literally teleported his whole group out of the clearing on the southwest ridge. They were there, flash of light, and then they were gone.”

Wolfard was the last one through the door this time, and just as when they’d entered he jumped with an undignified yelp as the door slammed shut on its own, locking behind them. He shot a glare toward the red wolf, but Mack merely rolled an unapologetic look his way as he continued to type on the flat computer. As they all climbed into the van though (and Fangmeyer groaned internally at the ever-decreasing amount of space inside), a curious thought hit the larger canid.

“Hold on a minute,” he said, holding a paw up in a halting gesture toward Mack, “how can you track them on the go if we do find a location? Don’t you need to be able to tap into, like, Wi-Fi systems or something?”

“Most computer systems have some sort of satellite component, and can be accessed as one would the internet with data on a cell phone,” Mack explained as he buckled into his seat behind Nick. “I can access any satellite system I need to, or if required, artificially amplify Wi-Fi signals from a distance and even externally hack closed systems –trade secret that one, can’t tell you how. I will tell you this though: the rumors don’t lie all the time. Give me a computer, cell phone, anything, and it’s just another door for me.” He flashed a confident smile before glancing down at his tablet again. “Now, what you told me about Hopps’ abduction isn’t totally useless; the Primalists vanished with a bright flash you said? Chances are wherever they showed up happened the same way, energy balances and all that, so we can search cameras for any instances of odd illumination occurrences that might have popped up around the same time. When did it occur? Also, I need names.”

“Approximately 8:30 is my best guess,” Jack answered as he strapped in, and Embron started the van up. “Unfortunately we didn’t exactly check the time while out fighting, so I can only say it was just after sunset. The Primalists at large that we know of currently are one Lotera Manard, most importantly, Tristan aka Saber Balingeri, and Avery Hinarei.”

“Oh, Avery and Saber,” Mack muttered. “Word of them’s popped up in the darknet a few times, though they don’t operate there themselves enough to have any trail I can follow. And I assume Lotera is the Empowered, as he’s the one name I haven’t heard yet?”

“Yeah, Thylacine with a messed up sense of humor and even more messed up sense of morals,” Nick muttered. “How long before you think you can find something?”

“Long shot from an instant thing, sorry,” Mack said sympathetically; he could at least guess why Nick would be so in a hurry for results. Anyone who watched web patterns long enough would be able to tell something was different about the dynamic of those two just from the media notes they got. “First I have to set up a proxy server base to run the algorithms and parameters as well as hack the firewalls so I can sift everything, then it’s a patience game. With luck, couple hours before we get a hit somewhere, but it might also be a day or two.”

A day or two. That was the last thing Nick wanted to hear, especially since by that point Judy could certainly be halfway around the planet and practically all they’d be able to do until everything fell apart was wait around and train.

“Is there any way you can speed it up?” He was trying, but probably failing to keep the tempered panic out of his voice, and it was soon obvious had in fact lost that battle. Mack gave him a flat look, reaching up to adjust his hat lower over his eyes.

“I’m best at working alone, but perhaps teaming with someone like Matista can expand the server range we can utilize and of course have another pair of eyes checking the results.”

“You know about Matista too?’ Skye asked with some surprise.

Make snorted. “Like I said, I keep tabs on you guys. Plus, the sloth’s tried his hand at rooting me out on occasion; he’s not bad in the cyber realm, I’ll give him credit, but he’s still got a few tricks to learn before he’s going to find me online. Either way though, it’s still gonna take a couple hours, that’s an inevitability.”

“Then we’ll detour to drop you off so that you can convene with Matista at the current Agent safe house,” Embron announced, flicking on the car’s turn signal and rolling around a corner, before he looked back momentarily toward his passengers. “Get that set up, and I’m gonna add another parameter: any objects entering or leaving the country, particularly flying craft and especially undocumented or cloaked flights of any kind. Someone’s financing this group pretty well and I wouldn’t put it past them to have access to a fairly advanced jet to get around on. They won’t keep Hopps around here for us to find for long, but we might be able to follow them directly to the rift instead.”

“Noted,” Mack said. “And, perchance will you in fact be bothering someone else at this obscenely late hour in the meantime? I would hate to be the only one to bear that honor.”

“Oh don’t worry, you’re not the only one,” Scarlet answered airily. “We’ve gotta go root out another fox to take with us, and that entails rousing a certain rather well-known crime lord at this lovely hour too unfortunately. I’m sure he’s gonna be just thrilled about it, so the rest of us will have a few fireworks to handle while you’re nose deep in cyber secrets.”

“This crime lord wouldn’t happen to be about three inches tall, say?”

“Maybe.”

“Ah. Well, uh, keep mention of me out of the convo if you please. I’ve been the one keeping some of his dealings online in check, and I doubt he’d be happy knowing I’m in the mix here too.”

Chapter Text

Though he’s entrenched among the grayscale

He keeps purity himself

A mediator, a balance to maintain peace

But be careful not to cross him

As his position’s not for show

Because when a wrong arouses him

Fury can be cold as snow

Though the last time he’d been here had been under decently amiable circumstances, sitting in a car halted outside the gate of the Big family estate still managed to put Nick in an uneasy state. Not that he hadn’t been uneasy for the past day already, but still.

That it was also sometime approaching three in the morning now and the head of the estate still hadn’t the faintest clue that they were about to make a house call, let alone send an invite to them himself as was the norm, was almost enough to put the tod into a mild panic. Forget Primalists, the good old fashioned mob boss was gonna end up being the cause of his death after all.

The main house sat dark and ominous just beyond the gate and the iced-over path behind it, already glowering at them for their unwelcome disturbance, and the weighted march of the polar bear guard approaching spoke of barely veiled threats to the individuals in the car on the drive. They were treading dangerous territory, it said.

Not like we didn’t already get that message, Nick mumbled to himself. I hope someone in this car has a really good hand to play for this, otherwise we’re gonna end up as popsicles.

Then he paused again, thinking it over. No wait, that’s their real plan isn’t it? If I’m frozen in Big’s drop space, kind of hard for the Primalists to make use of me.

Embron rolled down the window as the bear stooped over to look in at him, gritting his teeth for a moment at the unwelcome blast of freezing air that came with it before shooting the ursid a plaintive smile. “Morning!” he said brightly. “Apologies for the late house call, uh…” he paused, frowning, “…sorry, forgotten your name, but we have an urgent matter to discuss with Mr. Big.”

The bear was not impressed, dropping his paw heavily on the roof of the vehicle to lean in closer and shaking the van in the process. “What is matter to be discussed?” he growled lowly, blasting the coyote in the face with a hot, fishy breath.

Embron bit back a gag and scowled, his eyes flashing over a warning yellow shade in response and making the bear jerk back in surprise. “It concerns international security, and a recent kidnapping of his granddaughter’s godmother, Judith L. Hopps,” he hissed in return. “Problems with Primalists, make sure you mention that when you tell him too.”

Nick couldn’t pinpoint which part of the message did it, but the bear’s demeanor shifted in an instant. No longer wearing a predatory scowl but bearing a cooler, semi-stoic expression to hide his own unease, he slipped away from the van and gave a short nod. “Wait here,” he muttered, turning and trudging up the path toward the main house with a visible urgency.

As he walked off, Nick let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding like a vice and tilted his head between Embron and Scarlet quizzically. “So, uh, first time I’ve seen anything other than another bear make them unstable,” he noted. “How exactly are you planning on arranging this so that we don’t end up taking an Arctic swim while we’re here? Big and I might be on somewhat better terms now than we were a couple years ago, but, uh, we do have a van full of law enforcement personnel sitting in front of his house and I know from personal experience that he’s not exactly all warm and fuzzy when he’s disturbed.”

“Oh, we know,” Scarlet replied darkly. “Back when Embron and I first moved to Zootopia and started getting acquainted with other local misfits like Rocky and Honey, Big and his old schemes were some of the first troubles we faced. We helped Savage and some of the local Precincts shut down smuggling rings he was running, for starters, and goes without saying that he wasn’t exactly happy with us.” She smirked. “But when we started sending all the hitmen he tried loosing on us back in shades of black and blue and tied up with pretty bows, he decided striking a deal with the mammals blocking his operations was a wiser bet. Rocky ended up having a bigger hand in the deal than we did, so Big started to develop a softer spot, if you can call it that, for the tod, but the short of it was that though we couldn’t really change his interests entirely, the Big family did start conducting their business as legally as possible and helped to control the networks of criminal activity that recognized law enforcement can’t. In turn, we promised to stop sticking our noses into every single endeavor he made.”

Apparently that thought still didn’t sit well with the cat, as she wrinkled her muzzle in distaste as she talked, glancing at the house again before continuing. “It’s not exactly a perfect result, but considering one powerful criminal keeps other crooks in check it’s at least a tolerable tradeoff. Plus ever since Big ended up taking Judy on as ‘family’, quote-unquote, he’s been pushing harder and harder to turn everything he does to legal businesses only, save for his hard-handed enforcement methods. You guys turned out to be a seriously positive influence on him.”

Nick huffed and shook his head in sardonic amusement at that notion. “Yeah, well, if so then it’s entirely Judy and Fru Fru who’re responsible for that,” he muttered. “Big’s still just tolerating me for Carrots’ sake.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Embron countered, turning to look at him and wave a finger in the fox’s face (and noting in aside the conflicted expressions on the faces of the wolf and tiger also in the car; Wolfard and Fangmeyer were, after all, good cops through and through sitting in the driveway of a crime lord, and not with intent to arrest him). “See, if that were true, Mack wouldn’t have told me about the word that Alphonse put out through the underground lines. You’re under his protection, as much as Hopps is.”

“Wait, really?” Nick queried, no shortage of skepticism coloring his words. His blunder with the shrew had been a big one, and benevolent words he’d never heard from him since. Needless to say, he saw little reason why Big would put a protective notice over his head.

Embron grinned and nodded though, confirming that he wasn’t joking. “Seems he appreciates your attempt to turn your own life around too,” he said. “His priority isn’t being king of the underground after all; it’s maintaining his family, and until recently being a crime boss was just the most profitable way he saw.”

Big, happy that he was a cop? The tod was going to have to hear those words from the mammal himself to actually believe it.

Further attempts at conversation fizzled when the polar bear reappeared again, his stoic expression still in place even as he undid the chain across the drive and gestured them in. As soon as the van was beyond the entryway the chain was back up, and the massive mammal stood patiently by the vehicle as everyone within gingerly climbed out. The biting air of late-night Tundratown cut through their fur, and the earth itself was no more welcoming. Nick tried to hide his grimace as his paw pads hit the cold ground below, but he was at least reassured that he wasn’t the only one. Embron in particular didn’t look happy and he didn’t bother hiding it, though he at least had a fix; the ground under his feet started steaming wherever he stepped. Silently, they all filed in behind the polar bear as he led them toward the nearest entrance to the house.

As far as Nick could tell, the interior hadn’t changed a whit since he’d last been here, but that was no surprise. The Bigs were never big (pun intended) on change, having a strong preference for tradition and the retention of family heritage. The muted reds and browns of the hallways they tramped down, the austere paintings and elaborately carved mahogany doors all shouted the wealth and immovability of the household, and the frost and icicles that hung down from shelves and frames (some real, some made for show) enhanced the formidable, intimidating atmosphere. Much as it had seemed like the Canistons were orchestrating this meeting outside, indoors it felt like none of them were in control in the least.

“Someone’s going to get hurt by those one of these days,” Embron muttered with distaste, his eyes roving over the stalactites of frozen water. “And it won’t be someone he means to harm. I wonder if he’s familiar with the threat of icicles in the home.”

“Somehow I doubt he cares,” Jack muttered back. “But these are probably the only spaces that have them anyway, for…guests.”

Nick made to add in a confirmation of this (what with his once having been closely associated with the family, even if only working surface scams for them and being an object of Grandmamma’s benevolence, he knew what the rest of the estate looked like), but his words were brought short again as they approached a large, all-too-familiar black walnut door. The polar bear turned the handle and opened it slowly inward, standing aside and nodding tersely for them to enter.

Big’s office was the same as always too: huge, elaborate, and intimidating even with the softer notes of the shrine for his Grandmamma lit with candles on the mantle. Along the walls, several other bears that Nick was more familiar with (Raymond and Kevin included among them) were already standing guard, and Wolfard and Fangmeyer followed his example as they entered, avoiding both the ursids as much as was feasible as well as the broad oriental rug in the middle of the floor. Jack and Skye had fewer reservations, taking up a stance closer to the grand desk at the head of the room, but Nick didn’t miss noting that they, too, avoided standing on the rug.

Embron and Scarlet however, they both shot the reynard cocky smirks as they pointedly took up positions directly over the hidden trap door, crossing their arms and standing in unimpressed slouches as they waited. Nick shook his head in disbelief at their brazenness.

Gee, if I didn’t know what they were capable of I’d have said they both have death wishes.

Silence reigned as they all stood around awkwardly, waiting for the last expected party to arrive. It wasn’t uncommon for Big himself to force his guests into being patient, though Nick had to assume there was a dual reason this time for the wait. Big usually used the tactic as a show of control, something he unquestionably wanted in this case wherever he could get it considering his audience (though the silent tension it caused seemed to only be getting to Nick and maybe his fellow officers). Second, however, was likely simply due to the fact that it was late; chances were, they’d forced Big’s bears to wake the shrew up, and he was still attempting to get decently dressed before facing them.

And simultaneously figuring out how best to torture us for the inconvenience.

One of the side doors slammed open, startling Nick out of his internal musings and revealing the hulking form of Big’s right-hand mammal, Koslov. Everyone in the room (even the Canistons this time, though it was slight) stiffened and stood further upright if they could and followed the towering bear with their eyes as he walked with measured deliberation toward the desk. In his paws was cradled a tiny swiveling chair, upon which the shrew that most of Zootopia’s seedy underbelly deferred to sat. As Nick suspected, he looked a touch disheveled from a rushed dressing, but only to the eye that was looking for it. As Koslov carefully set the chair upon the desk’s polished surface Big let out a soft groan of exhaustion as he leaned forward, extending a ring-bearing paw palm-down toward Embron and Scarlet.

Nick almost choked on his next breath when Embron said flatly in response, “Alphonse Biggliano, you know as well as I do why that’s never going to happen.”

“Ghh-are you nuts?!” Nick blurted, eyes bugging out and his ears attempting to fuse with his skull as he stared at the coyote. “You two can joke around all you want, but the rest of us are still-!!”

His panicked rant ground to a halt when Big lifted the same paw to him in a shushing manner, before he returned to stretching it out toward Embron, though this time with the palm up in an invitation to shake. “Calm yourself Nicky,” he admonished as the coyote obliged this invite, reaching forward to delicately grasp the shrew’s tiny paw and shake it. “His reasons are ones I would not seek to break, and after our prior encounters I would not dare try and force such a small issue.” The little mammal shot Embron a sardonic look though, one that the coyote didn’t miss in the slightest. “But I still have hopes every now and again.”

“Might as well let it go; hard to hold against a mammal whose beliefs are as immovable as the Andes,” Embron drawled back. Unfortunately, this failed to explain the situation much to Nick, who continued looking between them in utter loss. Poor him though, that an answer was not forthcoming.

Big nodded and gave a hum of resigned disappointment before settling back into his chair and looking over the group in contemplation. With his thick brows hiding his eyes as always, it was hard to get a read on what he was thinking, but it wasn’t likely they’d wait long to find out his thoughts. “I assume the concern you approach me with must be grave, if you were willing to be so bold as to rouse me at such an untimely hour,” he said, tone confirming the displeasure expected at being woken up. “And to show up on my doorstep with not only police but international agents in tow behind you. Maurice informed me our dear Judith has been abducted?”

As Embron’s nod the shrew deflated a touch. “And what trouble has she been pulled into this time?”

“She and Wilde turned out to be a Catalyst Pair, and a small group of Primalists managed to kidnap her in a fight just this past evening,” Jack spoke up to answer, stepping forward slightly to gain Big’s focus. “Embron managed to gain the help of some skilled technological specialists to try and help track them down, but once we do we will be requiring all the helping hands we can get, mammals capable of infiltrating and fighting with the best of them, on the level of these two.”

Big nodded, turning to look aside at the bears around the room. “So you are seeking help that is available to you,” he concluded. “I assume authorities are limited on their resources in this case then if you came to me.” He leaned back in the chair and rubbed his chin with one hand, thinking. “Hmm…considering my wish to keep her safe as well, I am sure I can send with you some of my bears to assist or put out inquiries, but”-

“Actually, we’re here for one individual specifically,” Skye cut in sharply, clearly not willing to dance around the point any longer. “My cousin, Rockwell.”

The tension that had started to bleed out of the room slammed back full force into place, the bears shifting their paws to their belts and the unseen weapons on them. Mr. Big, too, gripped the armrests of his chair and leaned forward, brows curling as he scrutinized both the Arctic vixen as well as the expressions of the two Canistons, which had turned serious as stone. A scowl formed on his lips; it was obvious he wanted to deny the claim, likely suggest that Rocky was dead as the others had heard, but he could almost certainly tell that this group knew a bit more than the average underground posse did. Unsurprising though; Gifteds kept contact even if no one else could figure out how.

The shrew sat back for a moment, before he leaned forward again, this time his face scowling in a probing manner. He wanted to make sure he wasn’t just giving up the secret and lose one of his favorite allies in a power bluff. “Most mammals who know MacIntyre even exists think that he’s dead, many of them that I had him…taken care of, for some slight against me. What is it that you think informs you differently, hm?”

“For one, Rockwell’s like Scarlet and I, as you well know,” Embron replied instead, “so unless you managed to get the drop on him, which with his military training would be akin to you turning yourself in to the cops for no other reason than you felt like it i.e. not happening, there’s not a chance that any of your hitmammals could manage to even get a shot off at him let alone kill him. Plus, as a contingency in case of an emergency such as the present situation, he made sure to call me up directly and let me know he was alive and well the moment that story leaked out; I can provide a record of that call if you so need such hard evidence I’m not pulling your tail. He never said where exactly he was of course, only that you were keeping the rumor of his death circulating until the heat of his last mission died off completely and that thereby you were the one to go to if we needed him. Ergo, we’re here to ask you where he is; on the property somewhere I assume.”

Nobody could say the canid couldn’t be long-winded at times. “I see,” the shrew hummed again once he was sure Embron had finished monologuing, leaning back in his chair and returning to rubbing his chin. “At least you can back up your claims; not every inquirer does.” Waving his hand, he continued, “It’s true, even if I wanted to getting rid of that fox would be nigh impossible. But we’ve had members of the cult snooping around looking for him as recently as last week, not that those who did can continue doing so any longer.” A smirk crossed the little mammal’s long snout, before the serious scowl returned. “So I must insist on asking if it is absolutely necessary for him to come out of hiding. It is not yet entirely safe for him, or anyone associated with him.”

“Should someone be dumb enough to interfere with Rocky while he’s with us they probably will not live to regret it either,” Scarlet responded darkly, a flicker of fire the same hue as her name snaking across her folded arms. “To answer your question though: the Primalists know the location of a rift, and an Empowered is among the group that was here, probably the one that will take Hopps out of country. Other hands would have been fine if we were just dealing with professional fighters, but they have someone on our playing field this time.”

Unsurprisingly, silence ensued as Big digested this. Taking advantage of the quiet, Fangmeyer leaned down toward Nick and whispered, “Exactly how much does this guy know about all this?”

“More than I’d have wagered,” the tod whispered back. “Otherwise they wouldn’t be so freely mentioning half of this, or letting sparks fly like Scarlet just did.”

“Sure we should take that as a good thing?”

He honestly wasn’t sure. A character like the shrew being in the private circle concerning the subject probably shouldn’t have come as a big shock, as those with a paw in the criminal and underground circles usually found out the biggest secrets first and Big always seemed to take part in a large number of said quiet revelations, but that still didn’t tell him whether Big’s knowledge was a relief or disconcerting.

Nick didn’t get long to ponder the notion though when Big snapped his fingers and pointed to one of the bears by the wall. “Ozzy, take them to the den,” he ordered. “The rest of you, head out immediately and spread word among our allies: if any activity of that displeasurable cult is seen, they dig it out by the roots, and tell them to have paws on hand should this mission here call for more assistance.”

The bear nodded, and Big looked to Nick and his allies. “I know this is no laughing matter, and I owe Hopps far more than I would like to admit. Do not hesitate to call if you need more hands; I have a long reach.”

“Luckily, so do we, but we will make sure to keep it in mind,” Embron agreed. “Hopefully one more Gifted will be enough to tip the scales though.” He and Scarlet turned to follow “Ozzy” (Nick assumed it was a nickname for Asimov or similar; he’d never heard anyone called that when he was with Big before).

As the others fell in with the Canistons though, Big called out, “Nicky, a moment if you will?”

A chill ran down the fox’s spine, but he knew from experience that it would be better to hear the shrew out first than try and weasel up an excuse to leave. The rest of his group, and most of the polar bears, vacated the room, leaving him alone with Big and Koslov, and Nick slowly turned back to face them. “Yes Mr. Big, sir?” he asked timidly.

Big beckoned him closer to the desk, and Nick cautiously obliged, entirely clueless what to expect (though still just in frame of mind enough to side-step the rug). Surely at this point the mob boss wasn’t going to try and hurt him, not with what had just transgressed, but that didn’t mean whatever was coming was necessarily pleasant.

“I never found the opportunity to congratulate you in person, for becoming an officer,” Big said sincerely, stealing away entirely any wind Nick might have had left in his sails. “It suits you far better than that old life you were attempting to persevere in; Hopps did well with you.” He took a minute to scrutinize the fox, before a knowing smile spread on his face. “And it appears that my granddaughter’s godmother is more than just partner on the force to you now, yes?”

“Uhhh…yeah,” Nick replied haltingly, feeling his face heat up.

Big chuckled and leaned forward again, pointing a finger at the tod. “Young love,” he mused, “powerful, though naïve at times perhaps. Get her back safely, but you keep an eye on yourself too, Nicky. Do you understand?” he asked. “You’re smart, Nicky, but I know you: sometimes you jump into things before you think them through, like you did with that abomination of a rug you sold me, and that gets you in trouble. This world needs more mammals like you and Judy to stick around if it is ever going to survive. I’ve led one life, because I was willing to do things other mammals won’t to get where I thought I needed to be, and it has benefited my aims greatly. But, it would be better if there were no need for me to hold my fist over Zootopia’s…messier side; I don’t like the violence, but I know this world as it is will never be rid of it, so I try to control it here. Someone like you could change that, even if only a little.”

The shrew shifted and laid back on the chair again, suddenly fixing a hard scowl at Nick. “The ones that have her though,” he said darkly, “make sure you give them my personal regards too, when you find them.”

Nick returned a slow, cautious nod at first, still processing the sudden supportive side of Mr. Big that he hadn’t seen in years, before he firmed the gesture in sincerity. “I certainly will,” he said in a hard tone, meaning every inch of it.

Big returned the nod in satisfaction, before gesturing a hand in a shooing motion. “Good. Now, it would be best if you joined the rest of your friends now. Something tells me Rocky will want to see you.”

Bitter cold as expected was what greeted Nick first when he caught up with the others just stepping outside of the house, and he folded his arms in close to himself to ward off the unpleasant conditions as best he could without a coat. He shot Embron an envious glare when he noticed steam rising up around the coyote again, but Embron either ignored or didn’t notice as they started trudging through the light layer of snow down the road.

The Big estate, unlike its namesake, actually held up to the moniker. The main house alone covered more than 13,000 square feet, and another dozen buildings sat along the snaking cobbled stone path that ran between the scattered pines. Some served as guest houses or convention venues, others Nick knew were often where Big stored items of high value or of…”questionable” origin from out of view of others, but there were at least a couple of structures that he had never been in or given word about, bordering the far boundaries of the estate near where Big’s property abutted a portion of the district maintained as a wilderness area (though often patrolled by authorities to help curb the temptation of those seeking solitude for unscrupulous dealings). It was one of these that Ozzy led them to, a small placard across the top of the front door reading “The Den.”

The outer appearance of the little building was somewhat unassuming and unimpressive (not unlike Mack’s apparent main home, Nick noted aside), coming off as small, shed-like and unimportant. When Ozzy unlocked and swung the front door open too, the interior was relatively bare and open, save for a door to an inset stairwell off to one side. This door Ozzy did not open, but instead pounded heavily on the frame, his knocks echoing around the upper floor and audibly down below. It was answered somewhere underneath them by a very muffled thump and irritated grumbling, and almost immediately Nick recognized the voice.

A few moments later the door swung inward to reveal a groggy, displeased Arctic fox tod a touch shorter than Skye, but a whole lot stockier and with hints of summer fur showing in his white coat. He was dressed in only a pair of sooty gray sweats, obviously having just stumbled out of bed. “This had better be an emergency,” he growled, just starting to look up as he rubbed one eye. “Do you have any idea what time…?” He trailed off, shock wiping away what was left of the sleep in his system as his paw dropped and he took in the full audience present.

“E-Embron?” he finally spluttered, blinking his coffee brown eyes a couple of times to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating as he looked the coyote up and down. Then his gaze drifted to the others. “S-Skye? Nick?! The heck are you guys doing here?!”

Skye moved first, taking advantage of her cousin’s temporarily discombobulated state and stalking forward to full-on sucker punch the pale reynard in the snout.

“Owww!” Rocky exclaimed, stumbling back and barely avoiding losing his footing as he clutched his nose. For a moment Nick spotted what looked like static bursts run across his fur too, before Rocky apparently thought better and just fixed his cousin with an incredulous glare. “Skye, what the hell?”

“That was for leaving me to think you were dead!” Skye snapped, Jack quickly jumping forward to grab her arm as she appeared to be winding up for another swing. Luckily she didn’t resist the contact, a good sign that that was all she had actually been planning to do, but he held on anyway as she continued her rant. “Me! Your closest cousin, around the world through thick and thin that you know you can trust with anything! And I thought I had lost you!”

Rocky worked his jaw and checked to make sure he wasn’t bleeding, looking askance at Embron and Scarlet likely in the hopes that they’d help him get rid of the pain the quick way. He should have known better of course, the Canistons displaying their customary amused ‘you did deserve it’ smirks at his expense, and he scowled.

“Yeah, well, you got your payback,” he spat. “Certainly haven’t lost your swing at least, which in any other situation I’d say was a good thing. But it was either let you think I was dead too, at least for a little while, or let the stragglers from the cult decide that you were a decent target for revenge. Pardon me for not wanting to take the risk; good as you and Jack are I don’t want to lose you either, capisce?” Smoothing out his fur, Rocky attempted a more casual lean against the doorframe and stole another once-over of his audience. “So, with the physical greetings over I hope, want to answer my question? What on earth are you all dragging me out of bed at four in the morning for? Seriously, the heck did you let go so wrong that Big let you through at this time of night?”

Then, as an apparent side thought struck him, Rocky nodded to the other present tod and added, “Oh, and congrats Nick; glad to see another fox finally in a decent public defender’s position. Been a while.”

“Yeah, it has,” Nick replied in a semi-sarcastic bite. “Viv says hi too, by the way; she apparently didn’t get the memo you were supposed to be dead.”

“Wilde so happens to be half of the center of what’s so wrong,” Jack started explaining as he cautiously released his partner’s arm (and when he caught her eye and received a terse nod he allowed himself to relax too). “He and his partner on the force, Judith Hopps, turned out to be a Catalyst Pair and”-

“Called it,” Rocky interjected, shooting the red fox a grin. “You two were made for each other. Plus, things just don’t fall into place like that for anyone else.”

“Goodie, someone else who saw it before we did,” Nick snarked. “But that’s beside the point. We’re here because Judy got kidnapped by a group of animals who think they can ruin the world by somehow using us to mess up some inter-dimensional portal thing.”

The change in Rocky’s demeanor shifted faster than a flicked light switch, and hard, serious eyes locked on the Caniston pair. “Primalists found a rift?” he growled, fists clenching as he stood up straight again.

“We’re pretty sure, and they have half the Catalyst with them already with obvious intent to nab the other one here at some point,” Scarlet affirmed. “And, we’re bothering you because among them, Lotera’s back.”

Rocky groaned and slumped against the frame again, throwing his hands up. “Oh for the love of…the one Empowered we knew existed still in modern days; I thought Adimar said he was dead!”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone thought, but obviously he crawled through somehow,” Embron huffed as he waved a paw. “And he stayed under the radar until a couple of weeks ago when he popped up in Copper Park and ruined the aesthetic there trying to nab these two. I got the Sparrow to help us surveil this part of the country in order to try and locate them before they ship out with Hopps, but chances are that we’re going to have to follow them to wherever they stumbled on the rift to get her back.”

The Arctic tod let out another grumble, dragging a paw down the side of his muzzle, before looking Nick over again. “Not like I’ll be permitted much of a say anyway at this point, but I’m in,” he sighed, and then pointed at the other tod. “But we are keeping him in the city though, right?”

“Like hell you are!” Nick snapped, his hackles raising as he clenched his fists. “I don’t care if we’re heading to the other side of the world to find Judy, I’m going to be there to get her back, period.”

“Nick, think for a moment,” Rocky tried to placate. “Much as I understand your wanting to help get your partner back to safety, you are in the same danger if not more since you’re the missing piece for them.” He raised both paws in an easing gesture, but Nick was having none of it. The red fox turned away and shook his head sharply.

“No. I know all about the danger, hell I’ve seen the Thylacine face-to-face twice now thank you very much! Still not a damn chance that I’m staying stuck back here while he runs around with Judy.”

“Stubborn as ever I see; you tag along and you’re just going to-!”

“Catalyst, Rocky,” Embron reminded with a sigh. “Believe me, we wouldn’t mind finding a nice safe spot around here for him too, but you know how things work around them. We’re never going to convince him to stay here, and even if we locked him up and the rest of the Primalists didn’t manage to sniff him out eventually he’d either find a way out himself or convince someone to let him go, and he’d find his own way to Hopps. Better that we keep him with us where we can at least watch him, and have an extra fighting hand.”

The Arctic fox growled and glared at Nick (who somehow was managing to pull off looking smug and stony at the same time). “You’re not even swinging across the gray line of the law anymore and you’re still managing to be a royal pain in the ass,” he muttered, shaking an accusing finger in his direction. “Congratulations.”

“It’s a gift; I bring out the most irritating in every situation.”

“I can vouch for that,” Jack muttered in the background.

“Oookay,” Skye interjected, stepping between the other two vulpines even as she attempted not to laugh at her partner’s comment, “Rocky, we’re gonna need you, so thanks for being forthcoming with coming along, and I promise we’ll take care of any cultists that against all odds manage to locate us while this is going down if you’re that worried about them showing up. Plus if you two can get over this little spat, maybe you’ll get the chance to catch up with an apparent old friend of yours.” She turned her head toward the door leading outside, and jerked her thumb toward it. “But, we need to get back to the agents’ temp residence ASAP and find out what Matista and company might have found while we were busy picking you up here, most of us have been up for nearly 20 hours straight and need some sleep, and then we’re probably gonna have to catch a flight somewhere to tail the Primalists.”

Rocky rolled his eyes and nodded, rubbing his paws together. “Gee, change of personality much?” he snarked, looking at her now attempting to placate him rather than punch him. She ignored the jab though, and he sighed. “Well, then let’s go. I’m not gonna hold us up with such a day ahead already. If you will just let me grab a couple of things, like a decent set of clothes instead of these grungy sweats and my weapons, I will meet everyone at whatever car you brought along to get here, sound good?”

“I’ll wait here,” Skye countered, watching with satisfaction as her cousin’s ears fell. “Make sure you come out on time and all that.”

“Right; you know Skye, just because I was lazy when we were teens does not translate to the present day.”

“I’ll hang back too, to keep an eye on her,” Jack offered, jerking a thumb at the vixen, “and make sure a cousin’s quarrel doesn’t erupt between you two.” Looking up to Fangmeyer and Embron, he added, “We’ll see you at the van.”

“So, how exactly do you know Nick?”

Rocky looked up from his seat in the back, one ear perking in slight caution as he met Wolfard’s curious gaze from the seat ahead of him. He wasn’t sure yet how much he felt comfortable sharing with the two officers, even as much of a supporter (typically) of proper law enforcement and justice officials as he was. After all, a lot of his recent history had been spent more or less in the company of a character most saw as a very bad influence.

A glance at Nick though provided reassurance; even as distracted as the other tod currently was, if he showed no concern about what Rocky might bring up around his coworkers (Rocky knew Nick was never forthcoming right away about his past either, so not caring what they heard probably meant he’d mentioned at least a bit to them already), then the Arctic tod decided he could probably manage to trust them too.

“I ran about the city and its outlying districts as a sort of enforcer for Alphonse,” he began slowly, “helping clear out criminal rings that he thought were competition or otherwise a threat to his business, or scaring others into compliance either with Big or the law. It kept the guy with the longest reach in Zootopia’s underbelly happy and in charge, and let me deal with lawbreakers when the regular justice systems couldn’t…or wouldn’t, in some cases.

“Nick was a bit of a…eh, we’ll call him a lost soul when he first showed up, and the Bigs sort of adopted him after he managed to wriggle his way into a lucrative jewelry exchange Alphonse had set up. We found each other in passing and just kind of became friendly faces, kindred foxes in tenuous situations if you will.”

“Until I scammed Big with a fake rug as you guys already know and fell out of favor with him,” Nick muttered, staring absently at the floor.

“Yeah, and he first tried to send me to find you so you could be dealt with as he wanted back then,” Rocky quipped with a touch of bitterness. “So thanks for sticking me in that situation by the way. Because I knew what kind of mindset you had I refused, and warned him against trying to send anyone else out with anything more than a warning because I liked you and thought you might still have some decency somewhere if somebody could wrench it into the open; everyone makes a dumb mistake or two somewhere after all.” He smirked and let out a short chuckle. “You’re still lucky that Hopps has the kind of impact she does on mammals though, otherwise whatever stunt you might have pulled next, if it had even remotely involved Big I might not have been able to stop him from going after you.”

Nick nodded absently. “Yeah, I know,” he admitted slowly. “I owe her a lot, story of my life right now. Starting with getting her back safely; if only one of us deserves to get out of this in one piece it’s her.”

“Aw, come on Nick,” Fangmeyer admonished, leaning over from her chair to cuff him lightly on the shoulder (though from her it was still enough to nearly knock him into the side of the van), “don’t sell yourself short. I know if Hopps heard you say that she’d knock you into next week. You might have had a rough start but you’re more than worth keeping around. Just your ability to get under Bogo’s skin every day and survive the act is a praise-worthy skill.”

The tiger grinned in triumph when she saw she’d managed to at least tug a small smile out of the tod, and Nick looked up at her, nodding assent. “If you say so,” he chuckled. “Still getting used to so many mammals having my back.” He paused, looking up and off to the side again in faux thought. “Gee, maybe that’s why I feel so off-kilter; never had a leg to stand on and suddenly I’ve got a concrete platform under my feet that I’m stumbling on.”

“Just don’t raise your head up too high,” Skye warned lightly. “Otherwise we might have to pull it out from under you.”

“Well, that I’m already used to. I’m sure I could survive, and then I could stick you with attempted injury of an officer by pulling such a dangerous stunt.”

Rocky snorted, watching the banter between them all, and Nick shot him a grin in response. The red fox knew what they said was true, even if his heart was reluctant to follow in agreement: he had support, real friends, and so long as he didn’t do something stupid like throw his newfound job out the window, they would stay there with him.

A few more minutes of driving through the relatively empty early morning streets (even in the heart of the city, there were significantly fewer mammals about at 4 in the morning than midday, resulting in a much faster commute) brought them to an unassuming little one-story house in the suburbs of Savannah Central. Embron parked the van in the garage, and everyone piled out, Fangmeyer and Wolfard happily stretching cramped limbs as they did so, before filing inside. The door led into the “living room,” though as modified as the space was for the mammals currently utilizing it right then “operations room” might have suited it better. Off to the left was a small kitchen and dining area, quite obviously little used by the occupants as they’d been off around the city most of the time, and a hallway leading off toward the bedrooms snaked past a basement stairwell that divided the kitchen from the living room.

Across the interior wall of the “operations room” (now that the name had entered Nick’s mind he couldn’t call it anything else) was a table set up with a half dozen monitors and server systems strewn across it, though in a far more orderly fashion than the piled stack of tablets at Mack’s house. Sitting on a cushioned chair and watching the servers while sporting a specialized communications headset was a three-toed sloth with brown metal-rimmed glasses and a shock of longer dirty blond fur combed across the top of his head. Beside him, with a phone in hand as seemingly always, was Mack. As everyone walked in the latter looked up with half a dozen different emotions sported momentarily on his muzzle. The primary one however, and one that managed to make Nick feel just a touch better, was hope.

“Perfect timing!” Mack exclaimed, jumping out of the chair and walking toward them as the sloth began turning around behind him. “Ten aerial vehicles heading out of the immediate area, two of them helicopters staying local and five national flights all with fully documented passengers and cargo, but there are three that might be of interest.” He waved the paw not holding his phone toward one of the computer monitors, on which were three satellite images of a set of small planes heading across the screen.

“Two of them look to be government craft,” the red wolf continued, “but the third I couldn’t tap into the controls or even find a manifest for, which means whatever firewall they have on the thing isn’t electronic. You can probably guess my conclusion to that.”

“Then we have a lead, good,” Jack replied, peering closely at the screen. “How are you tracking it then?”

“Mostly infrared satellite imaging since it’s throwing off radar and visual interference too; impressive cloaking tech on top of who I am guessing is blocking the computer system,” Mack explained, also turning back toward the screen. “We’ll be able to see where it lands and who gets off so long as weather cooperates where it’s headed. They’re staying fairly low, using shallow atmospheric disturbances to their advantage.”

“Good,” Embron nodded. “Real quick then: everyone who doesn’t know, over there by the monitors is Justin Matista, who’s been behind the scenes for the team this whole time, and most of you already know the other agents slouching on the wall there.” At Vela’s indignant look he smirked. “And Rocky, meet Mack Mallupe, aka The Sparrow. Mack, Rockwell MacIntyre aka Arctic Fire.”

The red wolf and Arctic fox stopped and took a moment to regard each other with surprise, giving Matista enough time in between to wave a slow motion hello. “Hello, everyone, nice, to, finally, meet, you,” he said brightly, and at a pace that had even Fangmeyer quirking a brow.

“Wow,” she said softly, whispering aside to her partner, “he speaks almost at a normal pace!”

“Hyperactive, metabolism,” Matista called out with a smirk, catching the cat off guard and making her wilt in embarrassment. “And, yes, I have, very, good, hearing. Mack, has, been, very, helpful, tonight, the planes, were, not, the, only, thing, we, dug, up.”

“Oh?” Jack perked up, ears standing erect. “What else did you…” he paused, looking at the two canids staring at each other. “Hold that thought a sec. Are you two done dueling with your eyes yet?”

Rocky and Mack both jerked back into the present, ears flattening slightly in embarrassment. “Sorry,” they both said simultaneously, before sharing a grimace and Rocky continued, “he’s not exactly what I expected.”

“Same,” Mack toned. “I thought the stories I whittled out suggested a white wolf, or albino wolverine or something. Y’know…bigger, meaner.”

“Oh, ha ha,” Rocky quipped. “And I thought the Sparrow would be some snazzy looking tech genius, not a ratty outcast bum.”

“Okay, okay, so looks can often be deceiving, kind of the point of us all staying behind those stupid nicknames in the underworld so nobody can actually pin them to the real us,” Scarlet cut in. Her tail flicked back and forth in annoyance, and she berated both canids with disapproving glares. “Geez, thought you two would get along better. Tone it down, we’ve got bigger issues.”

“Who knows, some of the best friendships start off rough,” Skye drawled airily, looking between her, Embron, Jack, and then Nick with pointed meaning. Then she turned and held out an open paw in Matista’s direction. “Back to point and before they start up again: what Jack was going to ask, what’d you find?”

“Satellite, capture, of, the, culprits, who, were, stealing, the, Night, Howler, serum, after, Bagheerson, died,” the sloth enunciated, turning back toward the monitors. His claws flitted over the keyboard in front of him at a blinding speed, pulling up an image of what most of those present could recognize as the roof of the Pfurzer complex. He punched another button and the image switched to video.

For a moment, nothing happened, just lifeless viewing of an inactive rooftop. Then a figure flapped into view; a Spectral bat wearing a harness over his flight suit, clearly designed to carry something, or someone, nearly as big as the bat himself. The question of who and what was answered moments later when a small circle appeared in the gravel roof, a cut-out section moving away to reveal a perfect hole drilled into the hidden scaffolding system of the building’s walls. A narrow, scaly head popped out, followed by a long, slender body and four limbs, the front two holding a case likely filled with several of the serum vials inside.

“Young blue tree monitor,” Embron muttered. “Of course; probably got into the lab by sneaking right through the piping conduits and wiring in the walls, securing her entry holes from inside so no one can find them from the lab side. No wonder Pfurzer couldn’t pinpoint them, no cameras built inside the walls and she probably has a means to drill just as easily through the safes.” He waved a finger at Mack. “We should send a notice, get a local officer to investigate there again.”

The wolf nodded and began typing on his phone, before a deep breath from Jack made him pause and look up in question. “May not be of worth now,” the buck sighed, tapping his fingers on his crossed arms. “You heard Bogo; they already managed to make off with four gallons of serum.”

“Wh-four gallons?!” Mack exclaimed, his ears falling back and dragging his hat with them. “That’s enough to poison thousands, at least!”

“Duh,” Skye retorted. “If they don’t end up using it for the rift at least. Another reason we have to find the location of said rift, and whatever facility they’ve built to monitor it: whoever’s taking Hopps right now probably has the serum with them too, and if we can’t get it back to the pharmaceutical company then we need to destroy it.” She turned, regarding the officers and the Canistons, though her eyes ended up settling solidly on Nick.

Yeah, great, single me out again.

“Most of us have been up for almost a straight day now though,” she said, “and any longer and most of us will be fairly useless in the field. Everyone get some sleep; I know it might be difficult, Nick, but you need to at least try, okay?”

Nick responded with an exaggerated eye roll and an irritated huff, crossing his arms. “Understatement. Nothing I can do to just help out?”

“Not unless you know how to surf web code and hack the darknet,” Mack replied sidelong. “Methinks you’ve already been through enough today too, Wilde. Get some rest at least, if not sleep. You’ll think better with a clear mind too.”

The tod knew he wasn’t going to be allowed to argue, with all of them, so he gave a weary shrug and headed for the hallway. Agent Ringston, who had been standing near the corner through the conversation (she didn’t see any reason to pipe up at present, same with the other agents who’d come back straight from the Precinct earlier) took point ahead of him and led him to one of the bedrooms there, the most interior one available in the house and the closest as well to the main rooms. It was for his own safety he knew, but as he closed the door and moved to sit on the end of the bed, Nick silently lamented that it would mean he could also hear almost every word the others were saying through the wall.

“Can’t imagine how he’s feeling,” Rocky was muttering. “Had a couple of girlfriends leave for no good reason, but this has gotta be a lot worse.”

“As he said, understatement –and also a terrible comparison by the way- and best not to talk about it behind his back, Rocky,” Skye admonished. “Now, I wasn’t kidding what I said earlier: we all need sleep. Ringston and Matista can keep tabs for a few hours, Mack and Rocky too if you’re up for it. You two got more sleep, or opportunity for it, than we did before we came and bothered you, after all.”

“Yeah, if nothing else I’ve got a couple of things to catch up on, so I’ll stay up,” Mack drawled. Apparently that comment earned him a look or two, as he hurriedly followed up with, “Hey, fully legal things, even without the international excuse. I’ve got Justin here to watch over my shoulder too if you’re that paranoid. You all go get some sleep so I’m not talking with a bunch of cranky agents later today.”

Nick couldn’t help but find the crack a little amusing, and he allowed himself a real, if small, smile as he scooted back and laid across the bed. The reynard fully expected to just lie awake tossing and turning, what with being probably a couple hundred miles separated from Judy now unwillingly, but when his head hit the pillow it was naught more than five minutes before the weariness of the prior day overtook him, and he dropped into a fitful, but thankfully dreamless, sleep.

Chapter Text

There are few things that have been forever

Or forever will continue to stay

In our time all things shift and change

Endings and beginnings we see

Truths and laws may remain untouched

But the rest will shift like sand

Light and dark wage in give and take

And battles will rise and fall

So too we see that the worst began

Though we may not see its end

Every evil bears a birthplace

And chaos a starting line

Waking up from an unwilling tranquilizer-induced slumber was beginning to get really old, really fast. Twice now it had happened thanks to the Primalists; if it happened a third time surely some crucial piece of sanity would snap.

Everything was sore and unwilling to move. She woke into a pounding headache from the combination of chemical concoction and prior exertion, and neither her eyes nor her hands and feet would obey the feeble commands she was able to give them no matter how hard she tried. Same story, same rotten results in the aftermath. If there was a prize for the most despicable way to return to consciousness second to a smashed hangover, this would have to win.

It took Judy several minutes more however to firmly grasp the realization that yes, in fact, her limbs would not move, and not just because of the tranquilizer. Something was binding them in place, chafing pressure on her wrists and ankles locking them in uncomfortable positions and leaving her flopped back helplessly against whatever it was she’d been left to lie against. The thing she was in contact with too, she realized as her senses slowly returned, was moving. Vibrations rumbled through her head (worsening the ache), back, and legs in a constant, droning standard, the power of grand machinery at work somewhere. Judy’s auditory senses started to check back in before her eyes managed to open as well, and she could hear the vibrations matching her sense of touch, the dull roar of engines beyond the space she was contained in filtered through a metallic front.

She was in a plane. A jet, perhaps, and they were moving fast.

Alarm injected Judy’s system with the shot of adrenaline she needed to finally force her eyes open, wincing at the brightness that stabbed into her migraine for a moment before they decided to adjust and permit her to take a frantic look around. It was definitely a jet, a small private-looking vehicle in which she was dumped against the wall of the spartan lounge located behind the cockpit. Several unmarked metal cases and cylinders lay locked up on the other side of the lounge, and the rabbit developed a sinking suspicion that they were full of vials of the Night Howler serum that had gone missing, perhaps weapons as well. This was a cargo transfer, and she undoubtedly was one of the precious items being moved.

Another jolt of fear ran down Judy’s spine as she realized this and she glanced the other direction, along the walls closer to the cockpit, praying fervently that Nick wasn’t also trussed up and lying somewhere nearby with her. She needed to know he was still with the others, or at least still away from here, and that they had a chance of rescuing her thereby (if she couldn’t manage to slip out of this mess herself somehow, though she hadn’t a clue how she’d be able to pull that off). To her relief, no fox was present, conscious or otherwise, but in one of the seats fastened to the wall near the cockpit door was another mammal that she definitely could have also done without seeing.

Lotera was slumped into the cushioned support as if he’d collapsed there, head back and lolled at an awkward angle with his eyes closed. His chest was also rising and falling at a steady pace, telling Judy he was well and truly asleep which was a small relief. Not that it did her any good though. She was stuck on a jet flying to who-knows-where, at who knew how many thousands of feet up in the sky with a mammal who held no good intentions toward her.

Thinking about the negatives wasn’t going to help though, not if she wanted to get out of here. Judy forced the thought of Lotera nearby from her mind and started looking around again, analyzing her surroundings for anything of use. If she could find something sharp, cut through her bonds, maybe she could get through the hatch in the back leading to what was probably a small necessary cargo hold in the belly of the plane. Then there had to be parachutes somewhere…

“Even if you made it off this jet somehow, it wouldn’t take me much to drag you back and put your lights out again, remember that,” a groggy, toxic warning rumbled from the nearby Thylacine.

Judy inadvertently jolted upright and her head whipped around, surprise and trepidation coloring her expression. She regretted this immediately, the headache returning with a vengeance and the motion throwing off the awkward balance she’d had leaning against the side, threatening to make her topple over completely. A strain of will only barely kept her upright and without showing too much of the pain of her throbbing head, so she could face her captor with a guarded, skeptic look.

“How did you…?”

“I’m not telepathic, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Lotera drawled as he pulled himself slightly more upright, blinking blearily at her. “It would come in handy, but I don’t think it’s quite possible…but it’s not hard to deduce what the intentions of the tied up bunny are at the moment. Hence why you’re tied up: I knew you wouldn’t just sit nicely and behave while we travel, and I don’t have the energy right now to want to bother with wrangling you in the whole time.”

Judy rolled her eyes. “So sorry to be such a burden to you.”

Lotera managed to laugh sardonically at that quip, and slumped his head back again. “Oh, in more ways than you realize. Not that you’d actually understand the problem you present.”

The doe wasn’t certain whether or not that comment was meant to be insulting, baiting, or simply the Thylacine’s true feelings on a matter that sounded at least mildly important. But, there was only one thing that she could do at the moment, as little though as she wanted to interact with him, and only one possible way to find out more about him while she was at it: talk.

“Try me,” she shot back. “We aren’t all naïve little farm hicks like everyone thinks we are.”

Lotera didn’t respond for a moment. Then his head slowly rotated back up and around to scowl down at her, obviously wanting little more than to fall asleep right then and ignore her. But he could also tell she wasn’t going to stop prodding him now that she was awake, so he sighed. “Obviously,” he scoffed, “since you decided to jump so far outside your little box of a home life and become a damn cop. But you probably should have stayed back at the farm; stereotypes exist for a reason, among them basic truths: there are positions we belong in, species to species, and it’s animals like you and your friends who want to break those boundaries that cause all the trouble we have to clean up after.”

She could hardly keep from snorting. “Wait, I’m sorry; we’re causing trouble? Last I checked you’re the one who’s kidnapping mammals and freely willing to kill others to do so, with disrupting civilized society as a whole as your grand long-term goal. We are just trying to keep the peace!”

“A peace that was never meant to be!” Lotera snapped back, sitting up and leaning forward as one lip curled in a moment of lost control. Then it was gone, and he was a composed debater once more. “The present civilization is a perversion of natural orders, the way the world was built to run and had done so for millions of years before we ever came along. You’re not just a headache because you’ve made it a pain to catch you and your precious fox –we’ll have him in hand soon enough I’m sure too just so you’re aware, now that we have you- but because you also insist on standing for an ideal that will fail eventually in one spectacular fashion or another.”

The urge to roll her eyes welled up again, but Judy fought it down this time in favor of keeping eye contact. “If it’s so destined to fail, how come there are so many nations that have come to the same conclusion of unity, many of them independently of each other?” she prodded. “Why are they also more successful than the countries that still maintain more monocultural societies?”

“Because that’s what everyone strives so hard to see, and what they push others to see,” Lotera huffed. He stood up, moving over to squat down right in front of the rabbit, face to face with her. Judy tried not to flinch at the change of distance, but she knew she did anyway. If Lotera noticed though, he didn’t react.

“The United States of Mammalia, Australia, the United Domains, Avaris,” the marsupial began to list off, counting them on his fingers. “These are all some of the acclaimed ‘shining examples’ of multi-cultural unity, all put together and shiny on the surface with hundreds of species milling about together. But they all hide their own nasty secrets, and the unity they possess is and has always been a finite aspect balanced precariously on the tip of a crumbling pyramid. Let’s look at your beloved city as an example even, shall we?” He grinned, and waved a hand in a dismissive little gesture. “Some four hundred different kinds of mammals call it home, but aside from a few friends of those mammals who are specially invited in, do you notice who’s absent?”

He gave a pause, hoping Judy would fill in apparently. When she simply maintained her flat stare, Lotera sighed and continued. “Birds,” he snipped. “Reptiles. The other sentient classes that arose alongside us, but kept aside from mammalian society in most places because so many of them fundamentally must live differently than any of us do. Mammals have never been good at accommodating the purely and specialized carnivorous diets still held by some of the high reptiles, or the cultural expectations of many avians, so in those societies that became mammal-dominant early on the others are overlooked, even run out. But never mind them even, because even mammals can’t get along with other mammals perfectly, so why even worry about the grand divisions with the other classes?”

Judy moved to protest, her mouth opening before Lotera held up a paw. “That fool Bellwether used the extract of a flower most of the nation should have been able to recognize,” he continued, pointing at her with a hard jab. “But your precious Zootopia locked onto a handful of words from one misguided, naïve little rabbit and let loose all of the uncertainties and suspicions that everyone in the end is unable to really ever get rid of. A half-assed plan for power from a small-minded, greedy prey supremacist nearly tore your supposed utopia apart. But even without that, look around! Many species may go to work together, hang out with supposed friends for special occasions, but for the vast majority of the time like sticks with like. Rabbits and hares still stick with their boroughs, the antelope, camels, and deer travel in herds to every event, wolves in their packs, big cats to their own, and the little predators that everyone likes to pick on stick to the shadows with others of their ilk. Singular interactions with other species are on a needs-only basis, and close friendships or other relationships across the lines are exceedingly uncommon. Pairs like you are one in a million, at best.”

Judy saw the shade of revulsion ripple across his face at the emphasized “other,” and an indignant heat spiked in her. Leaning forward as best she could without knocking herself onto her side, she scoffed in his face. “Maybe they appear to, but I see different species interacting all the time outside of what they need,” she retorted. “Every night, go to any bar in the city and everyone’s there having a good time together. And we’re all still coexisting in the same city without any grand problems.”

“Mostly because single-type locations have been frowned upon or banned, so they don’t have other options,” Lotera threw off the rebuttal with flippant ease. He yawned (and quite pointedly didn’t try to hide his immensely wide jaws or all the teeth within; Judy was happy being in close proximity to Nick, Fangmeyer, and other predators had pretty well desensitized her to such displays right then or she might have given the Thylacine the satisfaction of seeing her shiver), before cracking his neck and continuing as he shifted into a sitting position. “And that coexistence is still because it’s a forced attempt. Your economy reflects it, stratified to support different size classes in such a way as to only barely keep a balance between the cost of living between such creatures as water buffalo and voles so that one end or the other isn’t left at a hilarious disadvantage, and for the unscrupulous it’s left laughably exploitable. Why do you think Wilde managed to run such a profitable life on the streets for so long before you came in and ran it over, when nobody likes foxes? It only takes a tiny little scam a week on the larger mammal classes, turned into profits from the smaller mammals, to keep someone in the middle ground living very comfortably.”

Lotera paused for a moment, and then put on a vicious grin as he leaned toward Judy. “But of course, he wasn’t able to live comfortably anyway, was he?” he jeered. “Because society just couldn’t find it in them to accept that a fox could have a decent income and live in a good house without ruining it, so they stuck him in a ratty apartment until a more respectable prey mammal came along and put him in a good light. He’s never been as good as the rest, they all think. Unity has been, and always will be, a joke, a million mammals forced to live together and tolerate each other even when most don’t have any interest in actually doing so because pests like you insist it can and should work, and you jump through mind-boggling hoops to make it so.” He looked away, and flippantly tossed a hand in a gesture to the void. “It falls apart if someone so much as points a finger at it,” he huffed, “because it strains against natural order, and never was how life was meant to work.”

The Thylacine leaned back until he was lying against the far side of the fuselage, the rant seeming to have taken a fair bit of breath out of him. The silence that fell allowed Judy a moment to actually process what he’d said, and as she thought about his words, it made her a bit sick to her stomach. The problem was, he wasn’t wrong. Not entirely, at least, which hurt her to hear as he went on. However, the rabbit still saw holes in his argument, and she was far from being able to actually agree with him merely on principle.

“No one ever said the right thing was going to be the easiest option,” she muttered back, making Lotera glance up across the lounge at her again. “Good things take work.”

Lotera nodded. “You’re right,” he agreed quietly, before scowling and jabbing his finger at her again. “It’s been an obscene amount of work trying to get ahold of you and your fox.”

“That’s not what I mean!” Judy snapped. “Cooperation benefits everyone, even if they don’t associate with other species all the time; not like I’d expect anyone to either. And if that cooperation, if coexistence of various species, large and small, predator and prey, is such an abominable, horrid thing, then why do Catalyst pairs exist in the first place? Why do Gifted individuals exist?” She paused, then looked squarely at him with hard eyes. “Why are hybrids that were once impossible suddenly showing up alive and well if it’s not meant to be?”

“The misguided attempts of another entity who’s just as confused as the creatures it tries to direct.”

It was so blunt a statement that, for a few minutes, Judy felt like she’d become a derailed train falling off a cliff. She wasn’t even sure what he’d just claimed, let alone how to process or respond to such a comment. Rather, all she could manage was to sit there in her bindings and stare incredulously back at the marsupial as if his head had just popped off on a spring.

“I…you…sorry, not sure I heard that right. Did you just call God confused?”

Lotera smirked. “God,” he scoffed, looking upward as if directly referencing the figure with as much scorn as he could. “That word is a deceptive variable. Mammals like me or your irritating gaggle of new friends were once called gods because of what we can do, the same with many of the beings that live in dimensions beyond our own. None of them deserve the title.”

“So despite the fight that you’re in and what I’ve been told it takes to get the abilities you have, somehow you still can’t bring yourself to believe in God? Or the Devil even, I assume?”

It was an awkward moment as Lotera sat there, looking away from Judy still and not responding to the question. Judy had to wonder if she’d hit on a subject that he finally didn’t want to broach, perhaps for fear of having no means of justifying his views well enough or simply because he thought her too dumb to understand his stance. She was shocked he hadn’t used the aforementioned powers he had just to shut her up so he could sleep at this point either; that told her he must have been draining them on something else. Probably a cloak or something for the jet.

Instead of outright ignoring her on the subject though, the Thylacine slowly stood up and moved to slump back into the chair he’d previously occupied again, glancing through the door of the cockpit to the windows and the sky beyond as if collecting his thoughts.

“I always questioned the existence of such deified characters,” he finally spoke again, and Judy noticed the change of his tone. It was no longer argumentative, or even truly explanatory, but run through with nostalgia and reminisce. “Even those I’ve seen evidence of all point to being finite in their own right, so why give them any greater mantles?” He snorted and shook his head, lips curling downward in a bitter frown. “The struggle this world imposes on itself also never was sensible either. I lost the capacity to believe any entity could be perfectly benevolent, or that evil even needed to exist anywhere beyond the ignorance of animals themselves, when the foolishness of your idealism managed to take away what was left of my family.”

It came off almost cliché, that Lotera could have started on this warpath of his because of some personal tragedy, and Judy suddenly felt a Nick-style sarcastic remark trying to crawl out of her. She wisely held it back however, for want of an explanation.

Lotera’s eyes flickered away from the windows of the jet and found hers again for a second, reading the questions in them. His own hardened. “Abrysinthe was a cousin, but as close to me as a sister,” he growled in answer. “My parents died young, from natural incurable causes and peacefully when it happened, so we lived together and supported each other. Our home functioned perfectly otherwise as it had for hundreds of years, no poisoning outside influences to rile up and fracture our culture or living structure, and we could have existed as we were indefinitely. But she thought she saw problems where there weren’t any, improvements where none were needed, and so she left our town and came back with friends from well outside our tribe and species to ‘help’, animals that at best barely recognized our steady way of life as anything to be appreciated and threw it into chaos every time they visited or tried to implement something from the societies beyond ours. Yes, change can occasionally be good, but not if all it does is leave everyone on unsteady paws and sick of everything they have.

“But Abby didn’t see it that way of course, ignored my warnings about the dangers piling up from the instability she’d dragged in, and then to top it all off she went and fell in love with a quoll from the mainland, of all mammals.”

It wasn’t a sinking feeling in Judy’s stomach anymore; it was a stone. Doctrine could be argued, even a schism amongst family members could be mended with a little time and persuasion, but Lotera was operating under the push of something more personal, and a lot closer to this particular mission than she’d realized. Quite suddenly, Judy recognized that the concern they’d all had for the safety of her and Nick, and other mammals like them if the Primalists got their way, paled in comparison to what they should have been feeling. Even if the Primalists failed, if Lotera got out of it alive afterward…it wouldn’t be a plan he’d pursue. It would be them.

“Did she leave?” Judy asked carefully, and barely loud enough for him to hear.

Lotera only shook his head amidst a condescending snort. “No,” he said. “It killed her. Physicians all said it was impossible, and so there shouldn’t have been a worry they claimed, but nevertheless she ended up pregnant. I told her things would go wrong and she argued otherwise, not willing to give up that abomination to save herself, and a few weeks in there were complications just as I knew there would be. Something her body wasn’t equipped to handle, because we are not built to produce chimaeras. She was taken to a hospital…and I never saw her again. The bastard that did that to her also ran off at the same time, probably too scared to face me and the rest of the village like he should have. Probably wisest on his part though; he wouldn’t have survived.”

He folded his arms and the distant look that had been building in his eyes washed over in dark shards. “My community was devastated by her loss of course,” he said, “but it reaffirmed what we’d always believed: each species should stay loyal to its own, live as the functions of nature have always intended, and nothing more. We were hunters, and we have remained hunters.” His eyes suddenly turned, and bore into her. “But you see, Judith, loss of one’s closest family can do one of two things: it can destroy you, or it can make you. Abrysinthe’s loss told me something about how broken this world is in its hopes and endeavors, and gave me a resolution to fix it. I had to make a sacrifice of my resolutions and leave as well to do so, but it didn’t take long to find other animals with similar wants, and the methods we needed to gain the power to carry out our mission. If all the nations return to a primal rule, there will be no needless fighting for a place in society, as each species will bear its own and natural order will provide a place. If we all return to how our ancestors once were instead, with no muddling sentience to cloud morals and judgements, well…”

The Thylacine paused for a moment, and then shot Judy a tempered, but dangerous and sharp-edged smile as he shrugged. “Well, then all things will thrive on instinct,” he explained, “and there will be no risks of war and oppression, disappointments with our lives, heartbreaks, and so on. Peace, by elimination of the complications of emotions and a need to see choices where none are necessary. And yet, you and your friends try to call that psychopathy, or insanity, when the ideals you strive for are what place the tensions that cause all conflicts onto every aspect of life.”

She wanted to argue. With every fiber of her being Judy wanted to scream in his face how wrong he was, tell the Thylacine sitting so sure of himself nearby how foolish his notions were and how awful the society he thought best would turn out to be. But Lotera made sense in a skewed sort of manner, and the rabbit held no illusions either about her own debating skills and the likelihood that she could change his mind, especially considering how often she outright won arguments with mammals like Nick. Even he probably wouldn’t have been able to convince the marsupial of anything on their side of the debate; certainly she couldn’t with the experiences Lotera had had that drove him now. A mammal like him would not hear any of her points, and had just enough evidence on his side to refute her if she tried to turn his claims over. Plus straight from experience she knew there would be no winning an argument with someone who was operating on behalf of some aspect of a belief rather than pure fact. Lotera had lost family, his only family he claimed, to the struggle they were at odds over, and nothing short of actual divine intervention would change the mind of a mammal colored at the soul by such an event. Judy could only look over at him in disappointed pity.

It wasn’t like Lotera saw the look either. He’d turned away again, eyes closed as he lapsed back into sleep, so even if she’d spouted off her arguments he would not see nor hear her anyway. Unfortunately with him nodded off again, Judy’s source of information and activity were now unavailable once more, so her mind instead began to turn back toward the notion of escape even if only to stop mulling over the unsettling points Lotera had made.

Unfortunately, new opportunities had not magically popped up since her conversation with the marsupial had started, so she was left with squat. She was still thoroughly tied up, with all her weapons missing and access to sharp objects limited (and she was sure that Lotera hadn’t been so dumb as to bind her with anything that cut or ripped with any ease). All that not to mention that if by some miracle she did manage to get loose and find a parachute in the plane somewhere, Lotera would probably be able to just reel her back into the craft (opening the cargo hold had to set off an alarm somewhere that would wake him up again, or alert whoever the pilot was and they’d wake him).

No; Judy was stuck, and stuck good at least until they landed and she could get her bearings on where they were. Jumping out of a plane into the middle of an ocean wouldn’t do her any good either. When the others managed to track them down it would also help if she knew something about what other characters they’d have to deal with too. For now, all the doe could do was sit tight, and wait out the ride.

As it turned out, waiting out the travel was worse than she could have ever predicted. It was another several hours of flight past before she felt the jet begin to dip in its descent, and tied up as she was she barely had the ability to adjust the position in which she sat/lay against the fuselage. Thus, she was a lagomorph full of cramps as well as chafing wrists and ankles when they finally touched down and Lotera roused again, him seemingly a great deal more refreshed and looking at her once more like she was somewhere between a bug on his windshield and a meal on his plate. Neither was a pleasant option.

“Welcome to your new home,” he taunted lazily, reaching down and grabbing her about her middle.

“Hey!” Judy protested, trying to squirm out of the Thylacine’s grip, but despite her size being not too insignificant to his Lotera had a firm grasp and no issue hefting her off the floor even amongst her struggles. Opening the hatch in back and dropping into the cargo hold, he pressed the button on the side of the craft to open the bay door and let in the bright light and air from outside.

A wall of wet and humid mixed with an incredible heat slammed Judy in the face, and for just a moment she had the thought, ridiculous as it was, that they had landed somewhere in the Rainforest District. But, there were at least three big issues with that idea: no matter where they’d started, anywhere in Zootopia would not have been a greater than five hour flight to anywhere else in all of Mammalia, let alone what had to have been the at least ten or more that they’d just undertaken. Second, Lotera would not have simply flown right back into the city with her, and thirdly as decent an imitation of the tropics as Rainforest was at first glance, it was still located in a more overall Mediterranean climate and its humid heat and rotting vegetation aroma had absolutely nothing on a real tropic land.

This was not a good omen. Judy had about as much knowledge of the tropical regions of the world as she did the snakes Embron kept back at his home, so as they stepped out of the jet and onto the rough dirt runway flanked in dripping forest, all she could deduce was that it was hot, wet, and they were somewhere moderately mountainous as the tips of peaks could be seen over the trees. The chattering of a million non-sentient birds and insects filled the air alongside the scent of decaying wood and leaves, fruit, and flowers, and an iron earth tone Judy had never experienced before rose up from the very ground beneath them.

Lotera did not really pause to give the rabbit any time to take it all in though. Instead, he gave a signal to whoever was in the plane and then immediately turned toward a small four-wheel vehicle idling expectantly nearby, driven by none other than a young Tasmanian Devil. Judy was thus left developing whiplash as she tried to both look around and take in details about the driver and car they were marching toward.

The smaller marsupial gave Lotera a curt nod in greeting to which the Thylacine tipped his head in return, before Lotera swung around the back, dumping Judy into the rear seat with as much ceremony as one would a sack of potatoes before he slipped into the passenger seat. There was a momentary pause as the sound of the cases that had been in the jet being piled up in the very back of the vehicle echoed near Judy’s head, and then Lotera looked over at the driver again.

“Step on it,” he ordered, and the Tazzy didn’t hesitate a second to obey. Tires squealed and kicked up mud, and they raced down the runway before turning off onto a barely marked road that cut into the heart of the jungle.

Another hour of being tossed around the seat of the jeep left Judy gritting her teeth and trying her hardest to stay upright and in the mildly cushioned middle. A few times she had made attempts to look around, catch some clue of where they might be, but the jungle canopy loomed across the road the entire length of the drive and blocked out any chances of seeing landmarks or the sun above. Sense of direction was lost entirely, and it was nigh impossible for the doe to even gauge how far they’d driven, or exactly how long.

Thus it was with a broken sense of relief that she eventually gazed upon a ramshackle building ahead, built just within a small clearing in the forest in front of them. The jeep finally slowed down to a bumpy cruise that allowed Judy to manage steadying herself once more as it pulled up alongside the structure. It wasn’t at all glorious to look at, the building, appearing as if it had been thrown together from pieces of plywood pallets and shipping containers, maybe with a bit of plaster here and there to seal up cracks. But, Judy had to conclude, if what Embron said about rifts was true and that’s what this place had been built around (the only conclusion she could come up with for why it was here of all places, other than just having a base well off the beaten path), then it had to have been hammered together quickly by necessity, and similarly was something the makers were going to want to destroy just as quickly after the rift vanished.

Looking at the building as they came to a halt, a strange sensation began to creep over Judy’s skin. It wasn’t the terror that she had expected from being somewhere dominated by antagonists to her life (though she was already feeling plenty of that anyway, so it wouldn’t have been a change), nor was it the true curiosity she so commonly found of the unknown. The only thing that Judy could even try to compare it to, oddly enough, was how she felt around Nick: a draw, a magnetic pull like she was simply supposed to be right there. In the present situation, it was fully alien and disconcerting, not a comfort like where the fox was concerned.

As soon as the jeep had been parked and Lotera and the Tazzy had climbed out, a door that had been cut into the side of the “building” swung open. “I hope it’s good news that’s brought you all the way back here,” the figure that appeared in the opening snipped as he stepped out into the sun.

“Good in part,” Lotera replied, reaching back and, despite her protests again, pulled Judy up by the front of her shirt. “We managed to collect half of the Pair at least, and the other should be along shortly if their bond is as strong as it seems to be. Plus we’ve got the short-term backup in the jeep here too.” He held her out like she was the prime catch of the day, letting the newcomer get a good look at her. In return, Judy got more than an eyeful of the figure as well.

He was a massive monitor lizard, standing at least seven feet tall and thereby towering over Lotera. Polished but still rough gray-brown scales edged in yellow framed a scowl born of lots of practice and burning lemon eyes to match that bore into Judy as if she were a thorn he’d just pulled from his foot. To finish the look, the lizard was dressed in an impeccable and expensive looking shades-of-gray suit that looked very out of place in the rainforest, and it was topped with…

Oh my God.

Judy had to force herself not to show the automatic response of fear and revulsion that swept through her when she figured out what the long business coat the reptile wore was made of: satin and real leather. Bovine leather too, if she had to guess; it was mostly one piece and there were few mammals that big.

“I can’t believe the Catalyst involves a rabbit this time, of all species,” the lizard scoffed, turning away from Judy after only a few seconds as if she wasn’t worth his attention in the slightest. In part, he probably didn’t think she was either, she reasoned. “Of all the lowly species… worse even than if my help turned out to be one.”

“She did put up more of a fight than you’d expect, Ravelis,” Lotera replied, lowering his arm (but taking care to keep Judy’s feet off the ground so that she had no chance at gaining any leverage). “It’s the one concession I’ll make for both of them, they bring a decent punch along with them; hopefully that translates to a powerful extract and rapid shutdown once we get the other one.”

“We can hope,” Ravelis muttered. “I’ve been stuck out here in this forest way longer than I wanted; at least I still have my help around though, I don’t have to run every little thing myself here.” He turned and started the march back toward the building, tail swaying lazily. “However, now that you’re here, perhaps you can lend a bit of advice. With one of them here now we will need to be certain that our security measures are perfect, starting with the hired hands.”

“Are the locals being troublesome?” the Thylacine queried curiously, tilting his head forward a touch as he followed the monitor into the building.

Ravelis shrugged. “Somewhat. I don’t speak their language and they had their own ridiculous notions about the significance of that blasted hole in the air, so providing incentive has been…less than satisfactory at times.”

“Noted. I’ll round up a translator then and see what I can manage. Just keep that sickly pup out of my way, will you? Much as he’s useful for now he’s also too much underfoot.”

The interior of the building was a maze of halls and doors leading into rooms built as temporary living quarters, food or weapons storage, or the occasional communications center, but Judy quickly noticed that it all seemed to have been concentrated in a handful of rings around the outer edge of the structure. Most of these rooms Ravelis and Lotera ignored entirely and passed by without a second glance, instead beelining straight for another sturdy doorway that opened into a corridor cutting straight through the exterior rings and into the heart of the building, ending in another, even more heavily reinforced frame. As they neared it, that sensation that had been crawling around underneath Judy’s senses strengthened, to such a point that she couldn’t pull her eyes off the door.

Ravelis reached it first and tapped in a code to the security panel installed on the wall nearby. An electronic beep preceded a heavy thunk within the frame, and the komodo (the only species Judy could think of that got as big as he was) pushed it open, permitting Lotera to step through past him and into the open space beyond.

Once, it had been a natural rock flat in the forest, a basaltic protrusion creating a shallow bowl in which a small pool of water had collected from rain. Now, the space surrounding it had been cleared further to make way for the broad room that encompassed the outcrop and the building that formed its sides. However, other than the odd little rock flat which might have been hard to build on, Judy could not see anything at first glance that explained why the Primalists had left such a gigantic void in the middle of their little base. Despite that though, she still couldn’t help but continue to stare at the rock bowl. Or, more precisely, the air above the bowl. Something had to be there; she could feel it, but exactly what she was supposed to see she didn’t know. Everything Embron had explained suddenly flew out of her mind in the heat of the present moment.

Lotera had turned toward the adjacent wall of the room and a series of sturdy cages that lined it, but he paused when he noticed the rabbit’s fixation. “You know it’s there, don’t you?” he asked rhetorically. When Judy looked up at him in confusion, he rolled his eyes in exasperation. “You could explain every little detail in perfect clarity, but a mammal still has to see to understand, don’t they?” he muttered. Taking a firmer stance, he turned and swept his empty paw toward the bowl. “Behold, the heart of all the world’s troubles. And hopefully soon, the answer to solving them.”

Like heat waves rippling above summer pavement, the air seemed to shimmer and flow, then bend inward on itself in a refraction of the objects behind it to form an almost solid looking, semi-spherical globe. Then it lit up, the outer “surface” glittering with a thousand sources of light that obscured the region within and sent rays out around the room like someone had put a diamond underwater and then pointed a laser into it; each beam was a distinct ray of light, but only just as they twirled and flowed as if alive. It was beautiful, a sight that Judy couldn’t quite manage to put into any fitting words, but despite it her heart still managed to sink into her feet at Lotera’s next words.

“Take a good long look, pest,” he growled. “With any luck, it’ll be the last time you ever see one open. Oh, and I promise you: the process to close them I’ll make sure is as painful as an abomination like you and Wilde deserve. Better brace yourself.”

Chapter Text

Friends can come in many forms

Every size, shape, and color

They appear from the unlikeliest places

Their origins truly bizarre

So take care not to judge on appearances alone

Or the first impressions you receive

For sometimes the traits of your trusted few

Are buried beneath at first disturbing scenes

Appreciate those quirks they have as well

For know you have them too

After all, the weirder they are

The truer the friend they’ll be to you

He knew the answer already and some of the reasons why, but due to some unexplained urge Harrison still found within himself the need to ask. “So, are you actually going to respond to her as our protocols demand? Or just ignore the message and wait for the fireworks to start shooting off?”

Jack looked up from the papers he was reading robotically over and sent the jaguar the flattest look Harrison thought he had ever seen. “I honestly haven’t decided yet,” the lapine replied neutrally, his left ear twitching ever so slightly as he spoke. “But, at this point I’m tending to lean toward the latter, despite the consequences. She’s glossed over our reports and warnings so far as is obvious enough, so it’s highly likely that she’d simply relegate the importance of any further information we try to give below critical again, and we’d just end up getting dragged along by the Gifteds despite it.” Sharing a knowing glance with Rocky, he continued. “Trevahe is probably going to end up shuttling herself out here shortly anyway, as much trouble as she’s making us give her over this, so we might as well just expedite the process while we’re at it.” Jerking his thumb then in the direction of the driver’s seat, he added as a final note, “The sooner the Canistons finally give her the what-for, as it were, the better.”

Harrison returned the explanation with a resigned shrug of acceptance and looked forward again. It was true, whether or not their agency authorized the international jump they were about to make everyone in the gang they’d amassed so far was going to head out anyway. At this point, the Director would have to deploy a literal army to keep them in place (and even then, with a wolf among the vans who could shut down their entire network with a swipe of his finger and four mammals at hand or on call that could bend the laws of physics, containment was an iffy notion). Of all the events about to take place, Trevahe winning the argument was certainly the most unlikely to occur.

The jaguar had to hope however that the situation might be able to be smoothed out before they all got on a plane. After all, their current group (split more comfortably now into three separate vehicles, with him, Jack, and Nick together with all three Gifteds in the lead van) was already an hour out past the Zootopia city limits proper and moving fast, heading for a hidden little airbase up in the coastal mountains that supposedly harbored the contingent of mammals they needed contact with in order to be able to follow the Primalists without being tracked. Unsurprisingly, both Rocky and Mack had seemed to already know exactly where the Canistons were taking them all, but most of the agents were still in the dark on the details. Since there was little else to hold conversation at the moment too, Harrison decided he’d take a shot at rooting out a little more info before they got there.

“So, this place obviously isn’t entirely off the map,” the big cat said casually in the general direction of the coyote and ocelot sitting up front, shifting to cross his legs the other direction. “Mallupe seemed able to pull up quite a few threads related to it before we left, but as far as I could gather I and the majority of our team, even Skye and Jack, haven’t even heard of Overwatch. Any chance you’ll be kind this time and let us know what we’re walking into beforehand?”

His shoulders sagged when Embron and Scarlet both shared a look. He could practically taste the cruel humor those two wielded on a regular basis building in the car now, and was almost certain they’d stay mum just to screw with him. It did mean that there was nothing outright dangerous ahead, at least, but where a Caniston was concerned, ‘not dangerous’ usually entailed the possibility of a whole suite of otherwise unpleasant surprises. Didn’t matter if it was a mammal with a disturbing side to their personality or just an elaborate practical joke, it was amusement to those two at everyone else’s expenses.

Luckily for the jaguar though (and the others in the van who were also currently clueless), Embron and Scarlet were not the only ones in the know about their destination.

“According to the public, they’re a local tourism operation,” Rocky spoke up from the back, drawing a pair of disappointed scowls from the siblings up front (and he shot them a smirk of his own in turn, a small recompense for his early awakening the night before). “Chartered flights over the countryside and mountains, the city, yada yada yada. Lets them rake in more than enough cash flow to keep all sorts of planes around, and keep up a believably benign front to cover their actual purpose: helping mammals like us out.”

“Aw, come on Rocky, we wanted it to be more of a surprise,” Scarlet whined, balling up a piece of paper and throwing it at him.

Rocky caught the projectile with ease of course and tossed it back, equally unsurprised when it simply vaporized before it hit the cat in turn. “I know,” he grinned. “It’s fun to spoil your fun every now and then though. Especially when you drag me out of bed at three in the morning. Besides, it’s not like it’s a huge secret that I’m spilling at this point.” He looked back over to Harrison, and shrugged. “I mean, you should have been able to deduce that much on your own. But, real long story short, the guys that got nicknamed the Archangels are a couple of the employees up here, and when you want to get somewhere quick and under the radar, they’re the go-to.”

“They have jets here then?” Jack asked curiously, turning back toward the Arctic fox.

Rocky nodded. “Uh huh. Skye’s gonna skewer us too, for not introducing you two to them sooner,” he added, shifting in his seat with an expectant chuckle. “Engineer that she is, she’s gonna have a field day with Dax and all his toys.” He turned his head then to look out the window, and gave a short whistle. “And we’re getting close. Always a nice view around here.”

The mountains to the northeast of Zootopia were not monstrous, nor were they jungle-cloaked like tropic ranges, but the high Sierras were wild enough to feel decently secluded as they drove up into their interior. Pines and birch trees covered the slopes, the summer dry weather tinting a few of them in yellow or brown but overall leaving them standing in a loose carpet of dull silvery green. From the coast one could sometimes see the snow-capped peaks of the tallest in the range, but once within the mountains themselves line of sight was restricted only to the particular canyon or valley one was presently driving through.

Nick’s eyes were out the window like the others now, but his were wandering, absently mapping the route they drove down as he focused more on quelling the anxiety that apparently would now be a constant for him. Gaze flickering from tree to tree to tree, he sat and wondered subconsciously what it looked like where Judy was (and violently fighting back thoughts of underground steel cages and featureless walls, with muzzles hanging off every available adornment in the room).

When he’d awoken that afternoon, in some shock that he’d managed to actually sleep at all, he’d found out shortly before they’d all piled into the cars and taken off that Mack had managed to track the mystery jet to a remote airstrip in the heart of Pawpua New Guinea, where the (partially) unexplained cloak over the jet’s controls had dropped away minutes later and he’d been able to tap into some of them, ground the craft until further notice. However, the red wolf had said that as far as the satellite imagery could see, no one had disembarked past that point. Rocky had been quick to conclude that if it was in fact Lotera holding the electronic cloak while the jet had been in motion, he’d probably dropped it to keep something more visually interfering around himself and Judy when they’d almost certainly gotten off. The Thylacine then would have had no problem heading off in any direction from that strip without leaving them any trace to follow, especially after the next rainstorm swept by the region.

If it weren’t for the fact that it was his rabbit that had been made off with, Nick might have been able to laugh at the perfectly cliché scenario the Primalists had set up. Pawpua was one of the few places on the planet that was truly still wild, a mountainous tangle of jungle playing host to some of the few sentient animal groups that still lived tribally (the singing dogs, black cockatoos, and Pawpuan taipans to name a handful) and a myriad of non-sapient creatures that turned the region into a treacherous enigma, as if the landscape and its vegetation wasn’t enough on its own. With only the air strip itself as a starting point and no directions to work off of, there would be thousands of square miles of inhospitable wilderness to comb through to even have a chance at finding Judy and shutting the Primalist faction down, unless another breakthrough occurred.

Nick would be particularly vulnerable in such a place too; as they searched the rainforest, the Primalists and whoever they’d conscripted to help them (not a chance in hell they were working just on their own) would be hunting for him, and it would be all too easy to get the group he was with separated in such terrain and single him out. There, they’d have the home field advantage as well. Even Embron, the coyote who claimed to thrive in the jungle and had been foremost in discouraging the fruitless notion of attempting to convince Nick to stay behind where he’d be more easily protected, had that very afternoon tried once more to ask the fox if there was any way he would reconsider going along.

Naturally, Nick’s answer: “Sure, no problem. IF, you show me undeniable proof that they left Judy behind in this country somewhere, otherwise no deal.”

“And there it is! Finally!” Scarlet suddenly announced, jolting Nick out of his musings. His ears perked up and he looked forward, rapidly locating first the sign proclaiming “Overwatch Air! Charters and Tours.” Then, the broad development in the mountain valley ahead, just off to the right of the road, came into focus, and for the first time in 24 hours he felt a touch of actual positivity at the sight.

More than a dozen flat airstrips crossed the valley floor, bordered by almost as many massive hangars and a myriad of houses, office buildings, and what Nick could only guess were something akin to aeronautic tech and repair labs spread across several acres of well-tended wild meadow. How it was a place none of the agents were familiar with he’d never know, particularly when it came to Jack and Skye considering how privy those two seemed to be in particular to so many of the Canistons’ secrets and connections.

The place was clearly running too, with cars lined up in the lot in front of what looked to be the main office just off the from the road, and a small two-seater plane was taking off from the third runway out.

Embron didn’t head for the main office, which somehow came off as no shock at all to everyone else. Instead he turned the van down the nearest offset past it that was marked with ‘Employees Only’ signs, at the end of which several living quarters could be seen arranged along a connecting drive. A chain-link fence with an automatic gate sat in the way, and Nick was sure they were going to have to stop and wait for someone to let them in (if they were going to be permitted in; authorities as they were, they still weren’t employees and they didn’t have a warrant or forward notice.)

That was the point at which the tod remembered who his company was though. Embron soon demonstrated a strong interest in not waiting at all; as they drove up to the gate his right ear flicked pointedly off to one side and the signal light over the gate lock flashed from red to green, the gate rapidly sliding open in response and allowing them to drive straight in without stopping.

Unsurprisingly as well, the sudden intrusion of foreign vehicles almost immediately caught the attention of the local employ. A harried-looking middle aged white-tailed deer in a violet blouse and blue slacks came speed-walking out of one of the nearest houses and straight toward them, her face a paragon of frustration. Frantic waving of arms prompted Embron to oblige with the request this time and slow to a halt, rolling down his window and sticking his head out.

“What are you doing?!” the doe was yelling, her words now clear through the open window as she stomped up to them. “This is a private estate; tourists and authorities must stop by the visitation lobby! How did you even get the code to be let in here?!”

Other questions were clearly ready to fire on her lips, but she ground to a screeching halt about ten feet from the first van, her mouth working as her eyes dilated in budding recognition. Embron, similarly, had a grin growing across his muzzle. Nick knew the coyote was expecting an imminent win to this confrontation in short order.

Sure enough, the doe spluttered out a frazzled, “Embron?”

“Hey Lois,” Embron greeted back, leaning his arm out in a lazy wave. “Long time no see.”

“Y-yes, it’s been at least a year and a half!” Lois sputtered. “Everyone’s been waiting for at least a call or something!”

“Yeah, sorry about that. You know I’m not great about reaching out when I’m supposed to.”

The banter was apparently enough for Lois to get over her surprise, and her frustration took in another breath as she crossed her arms in a disapproving glare. “Well, I understand a bit how introverts work at least,” she huffed, hoofed fingers tapping against her arm. “But we’ve still got rules about sudden drop-ins and such. Call beforehand to organize something so we’re ready for you, or go to the main lobby, especially if you’ve got…” she paused, leaning over to look through the window and spot Harrison and Jack first in the back seats, “…authorities and unknowns tagging along.”

“Normally I would Lois,” the coyote said apologetically, “but this is kind of an emergency call, and we’re trying to keep off the tech lines as much as we can.”

Crossed hooves didn’t budge an inch. “Really. What kind of emergency?”

“The ‘we found a Catalyst Pair and they’re being hunted, and one of them has already been kidnapped’ kind. So, we need to talk to Sam and Dax pronto.”

The moment he dropped the word “Catalyst” Lois’ demeanor flipped like a coin; Nick was starting to catch on to the fact that the label alone was also an engine for changed opinions and prerogatives. The deer’s eyes flew open and her arms dropped, and despite herself she took another peek into the van behind Embron’s head (Nick ducked his head back to avoid being spotted directly though). “Oh! Uh, I will radio them immediately then,” she fumbled. “Is...is the other one here with you now?”

“Yeah,” Embron confirmed, “the Zootopian cops Hopps and Wilde. Wilde’s still here with us.”

Lois nodded absently, still staring through the window, before she caught Embron’s increasingly impatient stare and realized she was starting to tread a line that was more a threat to her well-being. Jerking back into the present, she gave him a sheepish smile and pulled a small handheld radio off her belt under the blouse. “Sorry,” she mumbled again, before keying the mike. “Dax, Sam, we need you over at the living quarters right away. Embron’s stopped by with an entourage.”

Static replaced the words for a moment before an excited female voice crackled in, “Be right over!”

Lois nodded at the quick answer and stowed the radio away, letting out a long-suffering sigh and then pointing a hoof down the line of houses. “Guest building is at the end; if you need to set up or anything you can head down there and I’ll send them your way when they show up.”

Embron answered her with a mock salute and started to roll the window up as Lois moved out of the way back toward the house she’d exited earlier. Then the coyote turned the wheel to maneuver his van down the road with the other two cars in tow behind them.

“So, old girlfriend then?” Harrison spoke up, glancing between Embron and the retreating figure of Lois.

Scarlet burst out laughing, as did Rocky, as Embron’s ears shot straight up before falling flat in irritation. “Uh, no,” he said emphatically, turning to glare at the jaguar who was wearing a faux-innocent look. Then he shot an equally penetrating scowl at the ocelot and the Arctic fox. “And you two can hush. Lois is…no, she’s the slightly naggy mother figure here who oversees everything, not to mention she’s almost two decades my senior.”

“So what you’re saying is she’s out of your league then,” Harrison continued in the same false innocence as he’d started with, though now unable to hide his grin. Embron in turn swiveled fully around this time to shake a clawed finger at him.

“Hush! You’re as bad as my sister.”

“I will take that as a compliment then.”

“Tsk, point for me!” Scarlet snickered, poking her brother with a claw. Embron, to his credit, finally decided that it wasn’t an argument worth attempting to win, so he let out a breath between gritted teeth and looked forward to focus on the short drive.

The guest house wasn’t anything grand, and if they were going to be staying in it alone Nick could tell it was also going to be cramped. When the vans pulled to a stop in its driveway and along the front sidewalk and he and everyone else piled out, it was painfully clear that there was no way all of them were getting individual rooms, or possibly even beds. If there were even enough rooms for each van to have its own a miracle might be claimed. Some of the others apparently had similar thoughts.

“Are we all staying in this one little house?” Mack queried with veiled concern, looking the place up and down as he readjusted his fedora. “If so, I’ll just sleep in the van here.”

“What, never participated in a sleepover?” Fangmeyer teased, though by her tone the prospect didn’t actually thrill her much more than it did the red wolf.

Mack rolled his head back to stare flatly at her. “I have one sister and we lived way out in the middle of nowhere. Friends coming over wasn’t exactly a common thing.”

“Gee. No wonder you turned into a hermit then.”

Embron tried and failed to stifle another snort at the tech nerd’s expense, and Mack fixed a glare on him in turn.

Any further comebacks were halted though as a little red roadster with tinted windows came speeding around the corner toward the gated entrance to the living quarters. This one had to stop and wait a moment for the gate to be unlocked and opened, and then it too halted momentarily by where Lois had popped out again. The doe pointed whoever was inside toward Nick and company, and then disappeared inside once more as the little car squealed down their way. It screeched to a halt in a perfect maneuver behind the last van, parking not a foot away and barely slowing before it swung into a perfect parallel to the curb and halted. Naturally after such a display that energetic, all eyes were set warily on the little vehicle waiting to see who it was that popped out. And when the doors opened simultaneously, a stream of verbal sparring poured out.

“…told you it was gonna have to do with the agency!”

“Bullshit! I’m the one who said that; you thought it was going to be another under-wraps witness protection mission! And don’t say they’re the same thing, AOMISDOPS wasn’t involved in the slightest last time.”

“Not directly, but they picked up the tail end afterward. Besides, they’ve got that fox here with them. High profile law enforcement figure, gotta be some sort of protection deal! I’ll bet he saw something he wasn’t supposed to and now they’ve gotta clear it up before he can go back to work.”

It was such an odd pair that it took Nick a moment to figure out what exactly he was even looking at. The driver was obviously some kind of mustelid, but the species he couldn’t hope to pin down as the young male looked like he was halfway between some sort of otter and perhaps a ferret or mink. He was also decked out in such a brilliant set of orange and yellow shades in his fur that he look like he ought to have belonged in a cartoon somewhere (and somehow, it didn’t look dyed either), and balancing on his forehead was a pair of classic style old aviator goggles. Beside the slender mammal, a female Scarlet Macaw with deep brown eyes and a fitted T-shirt bearing fang decals and the words “Bite Me!” kept pace. Both of them came to a halt in perfect synchronization in front of the others, gazes flickering over everyone before landing firmly on Embron and Scarlet.

“Alright, settle it,” the macaw said bluntly. “It this a witness protection operation, or a ‘hunt down the criminals’ type of adventure?”

“Call it a bit of both, and neither,” Scarlet replied, watching with a satisfied grin as both of the newcomers deflated.

“Dammit Scarlet, you’re supposed to say I’m right!” the mustelid huffed, putting his hands on his hips.

“So sorry to disappoint you, Dax,” the ocelot oozed back sarcastically. Then she swept her paw toward the two shorter animals, her eyes turning to the others who’d come in with her. “Everyone, Daxalaemon Highwater and Samantha Psitticoney, aka the Archangels. Also known colloquially as the Dual Migraines.”

“Oh, yak it up,” Samantha quipped, snapping her wing out to smack the cat. She missed as Scarlet sidestepped, but her point was apparently made well enough for her. So was Scarlet’s.

“So, then what exactly are you all here for?” Dax piped up again, all but ignoring the introductions. He fixated on Nick too, unnerving the fox with the intensity of his stare.

Luckily, Rocky took point answering so that the other tod didn’t have to. “Zootopian cops Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde turned out to be Catalysts,” the Arctic mammal explained, gesturing to Nick. “Primalists found out before we did and went hunting for them, and they managed to capture Hopps last night, so we’re trying to keep Wilde here safe while we go find Hopps and hopefully get rid of this faction that’s popped up.”

Dax nodded and wandered over to Nick, looking him up and down. “Guess you must be a handful too, otherwise they’d have you holed up somewhere under lock and key instead of here in the thick of it,” he said. “How’s Viv feel about this?”

“She was abducted as a ploy to get to us, and basically ended up traded for Judy, so not thrilled,” Nick muttered back. “And that reminds me: how exactly did she come to know you, yet I’ve never heard of this place before?”

The mustelid hummed and looked off to the side, tapping his chin as if trying to recall some lost old memory (it probably was too). “Well, pretty sure we first met when I was just a kid,” he mused, head tilting back toward Nick. “She and your father were a fair bit adventurous when they were younger, less so after they had you. My parents helped run this place in its early stages, the Wildes senior helped out a mammal or two in tight places every now and again, so…oh, and apparently she remembers ‘troublemakers’ so she calls them and keeps tabs, which I guess includes me. If she wasn’t such a sweet soul I’d hate how cunning she can be.”

“Sweet. Not always the term I’d use for her.”

“Figures, you’re her son.” Dax then scowled and leaned over to glare at Scarlet. “Viv can be almost as bad as you, even.”

“Well,” Scarlet grinned, “then remind me to become good friends with Mrs. Wilde when this is all over. I must hear stories; anyone that can keep both you and Nick under watch has to be worth knowing.”

“Aaanyway,” Rocky cut back in, seeing the conversation starting to derail and trying to draw attention back to the present situation, “back to focus: we need to get to Pawpua New Guinea as rapidly as possible, and we need as many capable paws available as possible too. Are you two up for such a trip?”

“Duh,” the two smaller animals replied in tandem. “Of course we’re gonna take an out-of-country bid,” Samantha continued. “And, haven’t gotten to work directly with a Catalyst before; I wanna see what makes ‘em so different.”

Nick groaned and folded his arms. “Great,” he muttered, “I’ve been relegated to a curiosity. Guess I don’t get much say then; you two at least good fighters or something?”

“Yeah, or something,” Dax replied sidelong, his eyes now more on a pad he had whipped out from somewhere and was now writing on. “Sam, you good to get the jet ready? I’ll clock us out of rotation and snag supplies.”

“’Course,” the macaw affirmed, opening her wings and taking off. “Everything should be ready by morning!” she shouted as she vanished over the houses. “All you terrestrial folk better be ready by then too!”

Once fully out of sight, all attention focused on Dax, and more than one mammal found themselves a touch underwhelmed by the meeting with the “Archangels.”

“We didn’t even explain who all we were up against,” Fangmeyer said in bewilderment. “And you guys just jump on in anyway?” Looking at Embron and then Jack, she added, “You sure you want characters like that?”

Dax sighed and snapped his little pad shut, tilting his head up to meet her uncertain gaze high above him. “Group of Primalists with at least a few members present tricky enough to go mano-a-mano with the Firefox and Phoenix,” he drawled, smirking slightly at the eye rolls he got from the Canistons at the use of the aliases. “And they called in the obviously not-dead Arctic Fire to boot, so gotta be major. Not our first round in the ring ma’am, just another challenge in the works.” He waved a hand as he turned away slightly, walking a short ways down the sidewalk. “Yeah, sure we come on rough, but you’ll just have to get used to it; we don’t change for anyone. But if ya haven’t learned already that sometimes we’ve all got a couple of doors closed to the public, then I don’t know what’s gonna convince you to keep that mind of yours open.”

“The Primalists include a guy who can bend physics like the siblings and that Arctic fox over there though.”

“Ooohh!” Dax’s eyes lit up and he turned around, curious for more info. “Extra excitement! Really, you’re just selling us on the mission more miss.”

The tiger continued to stare incredulously at him for a moment. Then she turned back toward the three Gifteds, jerking a thumb down at the slender mammal in question.

“Yeah, he’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie,” Embron admitted, though his smirk didn’t lose any steam. “But it means no worries about him and Sam skipping out on a fight either.”

“Okay, different question then,” Wolfard ventured, stepping up next to Fangmeyer and looking at Dax with a different expression of curiosity. “What…exactly are you? It’s gonna bother me until I know.”

The look that crossed Dax’s muzzle made it obvious he was planning on making them work for the answer that almost everyone was also wondering about. A moment later though a giggling snort from Scarlet’s direction ruined his plans.

“He’s a weaster!” the ocelot snickered out, managing to pass the contagious laughter onto her two fellow Gifteds (and just a second after, Nick as well as he figured out what she meant).

Wolfard remained confused though, especially as Dax’s expression flipped from mischievous to exasperated. “Wait, what?” he blurted.

“Dammit Scarlet!” Dax snapped, waving a finger at her. “I’m an ottsel! Quit using that other stupid word!”

Scarlet clearly wasn’t convinced. “Gee, I don’t know Dax,” she said, still giggling, “they both sound kind of ridiculous!”

“Yeah, have to agree with her,” Nick mused.

Dax pouted. “Yeah, but at least ottsel sounds a little more dignified.”

At this point some of the others had caught on. “So you’re a hybrid then,” Jack deduced, his own brows raising in curiosity.

“Uh huh,” Dax affirmed dryly. “Mom was an Asian river otter, Dad’s a pine marten, and lucky me they both had some hidden freaky color genes in them. Naturally, had to find a best friend who was brighter than me just so that folks don’t stare my way the whole time.”

“Well, then, perhaps you can count it a blessing you’re still not the strangest one among us this time.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Mack drawled, looking up momentarily from the tablet he’d been holding. “The Canistons probably match him, personality-wise at least, but he and Sam fight worse than the most pretentious siblings. Everything else might be up for debate. However,” he continued, turning the tablet off and holding it at his side as he looked between the others, “I’m failing a bit at seeing the benefit of all this banter in getting us across the Pawcific or figuring out who stayed behind to try and nab Wilde.”

Skye nodded, pushing herself up and away from where she’d been leaning against one of the vans. “He’s right,” she agreed, “we’re not staying in this house here for long, so just set up the bare minimum of what you need. And before I hear anyone ask again, yes we’re sharing rooms, and I will assign you.” On that, she paused, and pointed at Nick. “Just to make sure we’re clear, you will be staying with Rocky and Embron, no arguments. Everything else in the cars will go to the jet straight off, wherever it is.”

“And Vela, Pristovena, you two set up a watch with Dax,” Jack added, turning back toward the mustelid. “I assume you have some sort of decent surveillance system already set up, so”-

A buzzing in the lapine’s pocket cut him off, and he pulled out his phone. One glance at the screen had his ears falling like they’d had rocks tied to them too.

“It’s the Director, isn’t it?” Harrison ventured.

Jack gave a sigh and nodded tiredly, turning to walk away. “I’ll try and handle this again,” he muttered. “You all, get to work.”

Rocky had been right. As soon as she’d finished helping delegate tasks Skye had headed straight for the hangar Dax had directed them all toward and spent the rest of the afternoon fangirling over the jet housed within. It was a custom-built machine, replete with tech the agent in her found worthy of appraisal and enough mechanical systems to keep her and Sam busy checking things out all afternoon. Most everyone else though was stuck helping Dax shuttle supplies into the craft; the only two exempt were Justin and Mack as they continued monitoring electronic sources from inside the guest house for anything they could scrounge up on the Primalists. Primarily, they were searching for any info about who was left in or around Zootopia, but they also continued sweeping over the region that Judy had been ferried off to, hoping to catch a stray signal somewhere. Unfortunately for all, internet and cell signal silence seemed to be the standard.

Preparation downtime thereby was leaving Nick to his own thoughts again, and the anxiety that had been quelled somewhat during the hustle and bustle earlier was surfacing thanks to it. There wasn’t much that could be done about his situation either, but when his distraction nearly knocked over a rolling wall of tools Jack (who had after an hour of arguing over the phone simply ended the call with the director, having gotten fed up with her ideas about their situation) took him off to the side in an attempt to calm him down.

“Would it be better if you went and sat down with Matista and Mallupe?” the rabbit asked carefully, not being one used to dealing with unbalanced friends. He looked the fox over, hoping to pick up a cue on what to say exactly, but he didn’t have enough practice in giving helpful advice to make situations like this better. However, he could see that much as Nick was trying to keep up with his standard mask, he was turning haggard. Plus it’s difficult at best to pull off suave when you’ve nearly just run yourself into a wall.

Nick did actually take a moment to think the option over though, telling Jack he at least didn’t ask the wrong question entirely. Nick wasn’t going to be much good here in the hangar, the fox knew, if he was going to get lost in his worries and make a mess of things, though as of yet it was hard for him to gauge if the sloth and red wolf tech nerds would be engaging enough to keep him from having a panic attack while sitting there and doing nothing else either. At the least though, he finally reasoned, perhaps it would be an opportunity to actually have a hand in either pinpointing where Judy was, or where the animals responsible for her disappearance were. With that thought, the decision was made.

“I think I would rather try helping them out,” the tod said with quiet finality, looking over at Jack.

Jack nodded, looking up and past Nick to signal someone. “Rocky!” he shouted. “Would you mind taking Nick back over to our temporary quarters and helping Matista and Mallupe with their tasks?”

The Arctic tod looked up from his hauling of a box of food toward the jet, and frowned. “You want to send me to deal with them?”

“Come on Rocky,” Skye called from somewhere under the aircraft, “You know you just love high tech stuff!”

“You hush.” He looked around, trying to locate his cousin, and then after spotting her and the grin she bore his shoulders dropped. “You know what? Fine,” he relented, setting the box down and heading over to the other two males. “If it gets me away from her nagging it’s perfect. Come on Nick.”

As they walked out, they left Jack watching after them for a moment before he turned toward where his partner was wandering around under the jet. “Sam say how fast this thing is?” he asked offhand.

“Top speed it can hit Mach Three, supposedly,” Skye said back, reaching a hand up and laying it on the belly. “I’m suspicious of that myself, but Mach One should be certainly doable.”

“Good. If it takes much longer to get overseas I fear Wilde may suffer an aneurysm.”

Skye paused at the comment and looked out the hangar door, in the direction where the other two foxes had just disappeared. “Well, I can’t blame him,” she reasoned, shrugging her shoulders. “But, it’s not going to solve this issue just worrying about it ourselves either. Besides, I got the feeling earlier that we have another approaching headache to deal with anyway. What’d Trevahe bring up this round?”

The buck groaned, ears falling flat as he leaned his forehead against one of the jet’s wheel legs and waved an exasperated paw around in the air beside him. “Another cease and desist until she can ascertain a proper assessment of the situation. Obvious at this point the big cat’s completely forgotten some of those essential details concerning Primalists, their Empowered individuals, and the Gifteds.”

“And let me guess,” the vixen drawled, leaning against the leg next to him and looking down at the top of his head. “She’s on her way right now, correct?”

“Unfortunately, but expected. She’ll probably show up by sundown tonight; we never fully disabled the agency’s capacity to track us, so she knows right where we are.” He lifted his head up and turned around, slumping against the metal and looking across the hangar. “Embron and Scarlet already know of course, so hopefully the situation will be dealt with quickly this evening. The last thing we need is a full-blown enforcement attempt right before we take off; Trevahe could use those agents elsewhere, or better yet we could use them in on this too.”

Skye nodded her agreement, but didn’t say anything more. The whole situation was chaos, and she just hoped it could be dealt with without any bloodshed between supposed team members. There’d be enough blood later after all, she was sure of it.

Jack was entirely correct. At exactly ten minutes past the setting of the sun behind the mountains, another caravan of unmarked vehicles appeared on the road, riding in past the office building and heading straight for the cordoned off hangar. They did not have either the code or a willing Gifted to open the gates in the fence though, so to the slight satisfaction of Jack, Skye, and the other agents who knew who was in the vans they all had to stop outside the fence and wait for someone to permit them through.

Dax decided he’d be the one to do the greeting. He’d overheard enough of the griping from Jack to get the gist on feelings for their new arrivals, and had no problem being a substitute pain in the tail for a minute or two. Sauntering up to the gate and opening it just enough to slip through, he regarded the grumpy looking ibex at the wheel of the first van with something akin to entitled arrogance.

“Sorry, grounds are closed after 7 pm unless by special appointment. Last I checked the list, we didn’t have any others for tonight. Tootles.”

“We’re not here for plane rides sir,” the ibex said flatly, quite clearly already disliking this employee as he pulled out an ID badge and flashed it at Dax. “Is Agent Savage here?”

Dax barely glanced at the badge before looking over his shoulder leisurely. “Yeah, but he’s got an appointment of sorts, very critical endeavor. Look, Maddie might still be in the main office if you want to try and schedule”-

“You look, you little weasel, we”-

“Ottsel.”

“…What?”

Dax rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion and leaned up against the gate like he was bored and had better things to do. “I’m an ottsel,” he enunciated, “only half weasel. Geez, get it right.”

The ibex blinked at him, at a loss for a moment of what to say, before his glare recomposed in perfect fashion. “Fine, ottsel, it would be easier to simply gain direct permission that we may come in and speak with the other agents currently on these grounds, but if necessary I can provide you an order, in print, requiring access be granted otherwise federal action will be taken.”

If he was expecting immediate compliance after this threat, then the ungulate would soon be sorely disappointed. Dax tilted his head back and let out a prolonged yawn, smacking his lips to finish off. “Yeah, but no you can’t,” he drawled again, shooting the ungulate a smug grin that would have put Nick on a run for his money. “Got a friend who clued us into this thing called Protocol 3058, and we applied, like, fifteen years ago. Grounds are on independent function.”

This time the ibex did not have any good response. Instead, after gawking at Dax like a stranded perch, he disappeared momentarily inside the van, likely questioning the validity of this claim with someone more in the know. Dax knew there was an override for the protocol he’d mentioned of course, but it would take time to dredge that little detail up too, and he doubted the individuals present wanted to deal with that mess when simply asking would be a lot faster. After all, the ibex in the driver’s seat had yet to even use the magic word.

Thirty seconds later the ungulate reappeared, his expression suddenly a great deal more contrite (surprise, surprise). “We…don’t want to quarrel here,” he began, “but I must insist that it is an urgent matter that we speak to Agent Savage and his team immediately. Would you please permit us to enter, so that the issue can be resolved quickly?”

There it was. “Well, well,” Dax mused, slowly shaking a finger at the ibex as he continued to smirk. “When the little guy suddenly has some leverage, then he gets a respectful response.” With a dramatic sight he rolled on his heels and thumbed the entry code into the keypad on the side of the gate. “Alright, I’ll permit you through this time. They are expecting you all anyway, and I wanna be able to laugh when Embron and Scarlet hand your butts to you when this is done.”

The indignant expression reappeared on the ibex’s long muzzle again, his rectangular eyes flaring, but Dax didn’t stick around to hear whatever his response might have been. Instead, he opened the gate, set it on automatic to close when all the vans were through, and then skittered off toward the hangar.

Jack and Skye joined him at the door, soon followed by Embron, Scarlet, Harrison, and Vela. They watched the vans approach with veiled irritation, Jack and Embron both tapping their fingers on their crossed arms in a (unintentionally) synchronized, measured rhythm. The vans pulled to a halt in front of the hangar doors and several mammals of various kinds spilled out, some of them fanning out to create a perimeter while others simply stood by with weapons holstered just under their paws (or hooves). There wasn’t any question why: someone was preparing in case there was a fight.

Jack could only suppress a snort at that though. Embron alone could lay them all out flat before any of them could get a single shot off, so it was only more proof that Trevahe had, in fact, somehow completely blanked on the details concerning the mammals in play here.

The near passenger door of the first van swung open then, drawing those assembled in the hangar away from further wandering thoughts and fixing all eyes on the figure that stepped out.

“Director Trevahe,” Skye said in a flat drawl. “Normally, a pleasure.”

“Agent Wellinger,” Trevahe returned equally curtly. “And Savage.”

She was a lioness undoubtedly in her early sixties, gray as her fur was starting to turn, but every hair was in perfect place under her platinum-blue blouse and blazer as she carried herself with the air of power that came only with being a position of high authority for a great deal of time. Her height likely helped the image too though; she towered over the others around her at nearly seven feet tall.

“I’m somewhat surprised it took this long for you to make an appearance, adamant as you’ve been on being obstructive to this,” Jack quipped. “I hope you aren’t expecting much change now that you’re”-

“With as many insubordinate actions as you and your team have committed in the past week I could take the capacity I have to strip you all of rank and badge here and now, Savage,” Trevahe interrupted, pointing fiercely at him in warning. “And your hanging up on me a few hours ago makes that prospect extremely tempting. That you have such a rigorous track record otherwise is the only thing that is currently preventing me from doing so. Protocol and procedures are in place, you of all mammals should know this, for a reason, and that you’ve gone and enlisted now not only one but four Gifted individuals as well as engaged the help of multiple unauthorized civilians,” she paused and looked past them, to where Wolfard and Fangmeyer were staying out of the way and continuing to load supplies, “on an intended international mission without prior authorization is enough to jail you for decades. Much as I sympathize with the situation, if procedures aren’t kept we could ignite wars that no one can afford and it’s among my prime responsibilities to prevent such actions.”

“War has already begun, Alecia,” Scarlet interjected. She stepped forward, making sure the lioness’ full attention was on her as she jabbed her own finger accusingly up at the larger feline. “You seemed to have somehow completely missed what this mission surrounds: it’s not the economic or socio-political elements of a nation or two at risk here, it’s the possible wiring of all civilization as a whole being stripped. Protocols and procedures are all well and good, but how long has it been since you last worked anything in the field?”

Trevahe scowled. “A few years, but I never broke protocol during,” she growled back. “Neither was there ever any great loss on our missions for it.”

“And how many of those assignments dealt with Primalists, Gifteds, Empowered individuals, or the network we have in place to handle them? How many missions have you been on to quell the discovery of a rift, or the protection of a Catalyst?”

This time Trevahe balked; it was a known fact in the agency, at least among the higher ranks who actually knew about the Gifteds and such, that missions involving them were naturally few and far between. Consequently, even fewer dealt with special cases like Catalysts and rifts.

With Trevahe’s pause Embron took his chance to run off Scarlet’s point, somehow managing to make the lioness look smaller than him as he glared her down. “There is no room to wait for paperwork in the field, not with us,” he stated firmly, “especially with situations as on the edge as this one. It’s nice to have all the t’s crossed and i’s dotted, and I understand why you’ve tried to implement the authorization protocols that you have, to avoid all the red tape and such. But the other side doesn’t wait and work papers, and if we do we’re dead or worse. And yes, I know what I just said, and I mean it: there are worse options than death here.” He shifted and crossed his arms again. “We need extra paws here and to get moving, and where your agency doesn’t run fast enough you should have learned long ago that we have a dozen other routes to take, and we will take them, with or without your permission. Additionally, did you really come out here thinking you were going to prevent us from taking off?”

Trevahe started to speak again, but halted when Embron’s paw came up, an ethereal swirl of bluish energy forming above his fingertips. In the almost completely lost light of the fading sun, it was all the more stark a point made.

 “This isn’t busting a drug cartel or rooting out a political terrorist,” the coyote iterated, tilting his paw forward and throwing the energy band out around not only the lioness but the agents that had come with her. They all flinched away from the light glowing inches away from their faces, their ears pinning back or pointing directly at him. “This is a war where one wrong move doesn’t leave you dodging bullets or media shitpainting, but pulling an assassin’s knife out of your neck or skewered by the crystal spear an Empowered just yanked out of thin air and threw at you. Or maybe you’re barbequed by a sudden firestorm or lightning bolt despite it raining or being a clear day, respectively. You”-

The lights all around them flickered in unison, cutting Embron off, and then they gave out entirely. A half second later, a sound like a cannon shot echoed across the airfield, emanating from the distant transformers for the airfield where a cloud of smoke was rising up from a ring of flames.

“Great; never mind telling you,” Scarlet muttered, sparks starting to jump between her own claws as she crouched into a defensive position. “Pretty sure you’re about to get a front row seat to an exposition.”

Chapter Text

Forces rise and forces grow

And time draws near to end

Caution to the wind they’ve thrown

And force your rules to bend

Now is time for wings to spread

For feathers to guard in flame

Your sword must soon to blood be wed

And for your friends you must win this game

A synchronized duet of groans emanating from the two tech nerds at the table full of portable electronics arose when the power (and, consequently, the easily accessed internet signals and all their info) went out. Just as rapidly however said groans died a quick death when the walls of the house vibrated from the explosion shockwave only a second later.

Nick’s fur immediately stood on end, and he turned to find that he was not the only one who was suddenly developing a gut feeling that something had just gone horribly wrong. Rocky had been lounging on the couch nearby, half dozing to avoid conversation as Nick took up talking with Justin and Mack. Now however, the Arctic fox was on his feet and in a defensive stance, eyes and ears pointed westward and his tail stuck straight out behind him.

“Mack, tell me you can get connected to an aerial infrared satellite somewhere in the area,” he said quietly, “or hack a drone on the base.”

“Already looking,” the red wolf replied equally softly, scrambling through codes on his currently held tablet; his fur was as on-end as Nick’s, and he looked like he’d doubled in size from it. “Nothing’s close enough in the sky though and these Overwatch guys here have fairly decent firewalls on their systems. Or the ones that didn’t just go dead with the power, at least.”

“Why? Rocky, what was that?” Nick asked in a half whisper, though his words were more panicked than either of the other canids’ had been. His own eyes flickered between Rocky and the direction the other reynard was staring, but he hadn’t a clue what the noise had come from beyond something that had just gone boom.

“Small explosive charge,” Rocky replied tersely as he moved to stand by the nearest entrance. He didn’t bother looking at Nick as he busied himself instead closing the blinds of the windows around them with a flick of his tail and fixing his hearing on the door. “Someone took out the base’s powerlines or their transformers. They know we’re here.”

Now the white fox turned his head just barely enough to meet Nick’s gaze before he quickly returned to facing the door. “Get by that wall Wilde, stay low, and stay quiet until I give the clear,” he said, pointing.

Nick obeyed, crouching against the interior wall of the living room and watching the others for cues. His left paw hovered just above the holster of his handgun, his right the handle of a taser. On principle, he suddenly found himself hoping Avery would be the one to find them, if anyone did, as he’d developed a real itch to plug that bird a good one.

A second later he reconsidered, remembering just how outclassed he was in combat compared to the animals they were dealing with. Being left undiscovered was a nicer sounding alternative.

Silence fell and tension stretched in the air like a rubber band waiting to snap back on someone’s paw. No clues for what was going on came from outside, other than the distant sound of someone attempting to kick-start backup generators for the airfield. A second later though that sound abruptly cut short as well, and a sickening feeling sank into Nick’s stomach. He glanced over at Justin and Mack, both of them typing furiously at the computers that hadn’t been reliant on the power from the ground lines and attempting to hack into the systems that would give them eyes outside. Their screens had been darkened so that they were just barely bright enough to see in the room, and the process was clearly slow-going despite the speed of their fingers.

For just a second Nick managed to ponder with amusement Justin’s attempt; it was a little-known fact that the hand reflexes of sloths could be leagues above that of the rest of their body, and Justin was faster overall than most sloths, so the rate of his rolling through codes was blinding even to Nick. Flash would have been envious.

But, Justin’s typing still had nothing compared to Mack’s skill. His fingers moved like lightning over the screen of his tablet and a nearby computer and only a minute or so later the slim wolf’s ears perked up in satisfaction.

“Finally,” he muttered softly, turning slightly so that the dimmed screen he held was just visible to Nick. “Got a drone up, setting it to infrared sensors now…”

The screen switched from plain dark to a green-tined panorama of the airfield, and a cluster of mammals was visible huddling by the entrance to the private hangar a ways off.

Then Mack directed the drone the other direction. A sudden broad flash of bright green erupted in front of the camera’s lens, and the view spiraled before going dark, and a slight beep on the tablet exclaimed loss of signal.

“Shit!” Mack exclaimed (though still quietly). “Shit, shit shit shit shit shit!”

“Say it again, maybe it’ll help,” Rocky snarked, turning his head just enough to see the wolf and what he was doing. “What happened?”

“It’s that damned eagle; she took the drone!”

This time Rocky cursed (ignoring Mack’s snap about it in turn), and he pulled a radio out of his back pocket. “Jack, do you copy?” he hissed into it.

The radio stuttered a second before Jack’s voice crackled through. “Copy. Is Wilde secure?”

“For the moment. Look, the folks here might have noticed an unauthorized drone take off; that was Mack. But Avery’s in the air and she just took it out. They’re here, and they’re on the warpath, so we need lights and eyes in the sky somehow pronto. I know Trevahe showed up, can she order a satellite redirected overhead?”

The tone of Jack’s voice told them he didn’t want to ask, but begrudgingly he would. “If she can, and we convince her, that’s still gonna take time,” he said. “Dax and Sam are apparently suiting up for a fight so we might have one of them in the air shortly, but I don’t know how well a parrot can stand up to an eag”-

Something crashed in the background of Jack’s side of the conversation, and now it was his turn to spit out a profanity. “One of them’s found us,” he said urgently. “I’ve got to go. Keep Nick secure, and try not to give away your position!”

“No duh,” Rocky quipped, before he slipped the radio away again. “If Avery’s about, no way in hell she’s alone. Just the question of who else is with her.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know about you but I really would rather not find out,” Nick muttered weakly, flattening himself against the wall.

Silence dropped on the room again, save the tapping of paw pads and claws on keyboards and screens as before. Then a warning beep sounded from a tablet near Justin, and everyone’s head whipped in his direction.

Mack’s head swiveled with particular urgency, ears freezing in forward setting. “Tell me that wasn’t what I think it was,” he said, dashing over and looking over the sloth’s shoulder.

Justin looked back up at him with a helpless shrug. “The, outage, took, out, the, scrambler, and, I, haven’t, been, able, to, get, it, back up, again,” he apologized. “Something, just, scanned, the, houses, but, I, don’t, know, what.”

The wolf grimaced and swept his fingers across the tablet in a mad flurry of typing. His ears pressed back and dragged his hat with them as he peered at the figures on the screen, before he switched back to the tablet he’d already been carrying and started tapping away in a similarly frantic manner. In a second his eyes flashed open.

“Shit!” he cursed again, his free paw flashing toward his belt. “Rocky, can you put up a”-

A piercing siren-like sound burst through the house and forced them all to clap their hands over their ears. Simultaneously all the computer screens that had still been on blitzed out and went dark, smoke rising from one of them. The sound lasted barely a full second, but the damage was done and moments later a gunshot also rang through the house.

Rocky hissed in pain as the bullet grazed his shoulder and whirled in the direction of the shot, energy pooling around his paws as he spotted the entry hole in the wall nearby. He swept one paw forward and a humming sheet of plasma rose up to block the entire side of the house.

“You’re telling me a pair of tech geniuses couldn’t predict the use of an EMP at some point?!” he snapped as he focused the field like a refractor so that they could all see an image of the outside of the building. Nothing useful showed itself in the picture though, and he returned it fully to a barrier state.

Mack shot the Arctic fox a seething glare as he pushed a couple of buttons on his tablet, the screen booting back up a second later. “There’s little you can do for something that’s already on,” he growled, “but no, I’m not that stupid! As long as they don’t have another to deploy this at least should be fine; I installed a shutoff mechanism for interference like that.”

A clattering sound on the wall beyond the barrier had the wolf whipping his head back up and around, this time his free paw following with a small pistol in its grip. “Please tell me the mythos about your fighting skills isn’t exaggerated either,” he quipped. “Embron forced me to learn a little but I am not a field mammal.”

“Just help cover Wilde and we’ll”-

A perfectly circular section of the ceiling dropped into the living room with a dusty crash, cutting them both off and nearly flattening Nick where he’d been crouched. He yelped and grabbed his tail to himself before rolling frantically out of the way as something dropped through the hole and snapped toward him, glinting in the low light.

Rocky whirled around, the energy of the barrier whipping past him in a concentrated spiral to intercept what looked almost like a mechanized grappling hook, trying to stop it from reaching the other fox. His attempt was halted in turn though when a second wiry contraption dropped through the hole and shot toward him. The spiral dissipated and Rocky barely had time to bring a small barrier back up in front of him and around his arms before the new hook slammed into him, metal claws splaying out and throwing him across the room into the far wall with a bang.

Nick was no luckier, his roll only delaying the deployment of the claw at his end of the tether. It followed right behind him in the same manner a heat-seeking missile hones in on a target and snapped open, closing painfully around his torso and then withdrawing, yanking the tod backward and then up toward the hole in the ceiling. Nick yelped and flailed, but his claws only put gouges into the soft drywall as he flew past.

At the hole, he only just managed to catch a grip on the edge and hang on long enough for Mack to drop his gun and leap for him, grabbing onto his arm and pulling down. Nick howled at the pain both from the wolf’s grip and that the metal around his middle was causing as the contraption hauled him upward with unyielding strength, still inching bit by bit back from where it had come.

The roof groaned, and the section that Nick was gripping with manic power gave way, allowing both him and Mack to be yanked forcefully up through the now larger hole and across the shingles above. They would have continued to be dragged across the roof had the cable next to them, the one that had gone after Rocky, not lit up in a blaze of electrical streamers the moment they both popped through the hole. Whatever mechanism was reeling them in ground to a dead halt and gave them both a chance to breathe as someone screamed nearby. Mack let go of Nick’s arm and scrambled up to pry the claws off from around him, releasing them both so they could get to their feet and look toward whoever had managed to yank the two of them up to the housetop.

The apparent winch (now half-melted from the static surge moments beforehand) was mounted on the edge of the house nearby, and standing over the machine and shaking a singed hand was a familiar looking slender lizard, about six feet long but mostly tail and colored in a mottled pattern of black and electric blue. Around the suit she wore were a dozen canisters or folded mechanized instruments, the winch and hooks clearly having been inside two of them. As Rocky came vaulting up out of the hole to stand next to the other two canids, she looked up and scowled fiercely.

“They told me the freaks with sparky hands were all at the hangar!” she complained, kicking the now useless winch and claw setup off of the roof in one deft jab before pulling a new device none of them recognized off of her suit in its stead. “Figures you’d dredge up another from somewhere. Oh well.”

The monitor lizard pushed a button on the little box she was holding, and the end pointed at them exploded into a hundred pins propelled forward on unfolding polymer arms, each one with its tip glistening from some form of fluid that promised nothing pleasant. Mack and Nick both instinctively dropped to the roof, but it was clear that on their own even that would not have managed to avoid them all.

Rocky provided them with a stalling point, sweeping up a paw and freezing the darts midair. He had the intention of yanking the contraption out of the lizard’s grip to turn and use on her instead, and started to twist the little projectiles around to do just that with a coiling of his fingers. He didn’t get the chance to though; ears flicked backward and he whirled to land a violent punch to the face of the bobcat that had climbed up the side of the house instead, dropping control of the darts in the process and letting them clatter to the roof.

The impact sounded with a sickening crunch and the cat yowled, stumbling away and clutching his now bleeding and heavily misshapen nose, and Rocky took the chance to survey exactly what forces they were actually facing beyond the monitor. It shouldn’t have been a shock that, as they gained more paws on hand to protect Nick and retrieve Judy, the Primalists would also acquire allies or hired hands of their own, but nevertheless the sight greeting the Arctic fox was not a pleasant one. Besides the lizard and the bobcat, five other figures were hauling themselves up onto the roof, and of course Avery, the mystery bat, and whoever else they might have conscripted were somewhere up in the air or among the houses around them.

Rocky sighed. Just like old times, he mused internally, and flexed his paws for a workout they hadn’t had in quite some time.

The monitor took advantage of the growing distractions and darted forward, running past the fallen darts and detaching one as she went before arrowing straight toward Mack. “G’night Sparrow!” she sneered, jabbing the dart down at his nose.

Mack would have rolled away to avoid it, but he faltered at the lizard recognizing him under his alias and froze for just a second too long. Luckily, Nick was not so addled. He reached over and grabbed the lizard’s tail, yanking hard as he rolled and dragging her away. She yelped and immediately whirled on him, now aiming the dart for his arm as she leveraged her whole body backward on her own tail toward him. Nick had never dealt with arboreal reptiles before, and was about to learn a valuable lesson: there is nowhere safe to grab them, as they can spin and climb back on themselves like they’re made of bungee cords stretched taut.

Now it was Nick’s turn to yelp, dropping his hold on her and desperately backpedaling just far enough to avoid the strike. He wasn’t quite fast enough to dodge the follow-up tail whip however, as she continued to spin and strike him square across the cheek with the tip. Pain lanced across his face as the contact opened up a gash, and he hit the roof, grabbing at the offending spot.

“No one touches the tail,” the lizard spat viciously, advancing on him and holding the dart like it was a dagger. Nick was at the wrong angle to grab a dart of his own from the roof too, and if he tried to grab his gun (still in its holster through it all) the reptile was going to nail him in the arm either with her own dart or her tail again. Of course, the monitor also wasn’t planning on waiting for him to decide what action to try and take either, already tensing up for a move.

Paw to paw combat it is then.

He feinted like he was going to make a grab for a dart, and sure enough his opponent sidestepped and darted in with her weapon out front. Nick reacted, continuing the spin he’d started and grabbing her wrist instead as soon as she was close enough, twisting it to make her drop the little metal sliver and then pulling her forward.

The move pulled the monitor well off balance and she flailed, leaving her open to a side hook that sent her rolling across the shingles. She coughed and pulled herself back up once she’d stopped spinning, and as she did so Nick chanced a glance behind him; Rocky was a blur of fists and kicks wreathed in flames around each hit, and he was more than outpacing each of his opponents on their own, but there were more than enough of them surrounding him that he wasn’t going to be a direct help elsewhere anytime soon. It was going to be up to Nick and Mack (who’d managed to get over his shock and to his feet again) to deal with the slippery lizard, and the tod had had enough of playing around. He drew his gun now that he had enough room to do so, and leveled it at her with his finger on the trigger.

“Please, give me another excuse to use this,” he growled, eyes flickering to the side only for a split second as Mack came and stood next to him. “She knows you Mack; you know her?” he whispered.

“Not a clue, unfortunately,” Mack whispered back in tight-toothed bewilderment. “But there are only a couple of network handles that I’ve encountered that I couldn’t crack through; she’s probably one of them with our luck.”

“How observant,” the monitor drawled, having still managed to overhear them despite their low tone and the battle raging nearby. She hoisted herself upright and coiled her tail around her feet as she watched the fight raging back behind the canids for a second, before fixing her gaze on them again. “I’ll give you a tidbit, since it’s not like it’ll put me at any disadvantage and it’ll get annoying if you just start calling me ‘lizard.’ Name’s Desireigh, and you’re out of time.”

“You’re the one at the end of a f”- Mack started to spit out. Then something dropped from the night sky and shoved him out of the way, and away from Nick. At the same time it swerved and grabbed the fox before Nick could even process what he was seeing let alone react, dragging him forcefully off the roof.

Nick screamed and flailed at the sudden loss of purchase, his gun going off but hitting nothing as he failed to aim it before he dropped it entirely in an attempt to claw at whatever was gripping the back of his shirt. Whatever (or whoever) it was, he could hear the sound of flapping leathering wings over the now receding noise of Mack screaming his name, and it was only just big enough to keep him off the ground as they sailed toward an open runway on the airfield.

“Avery, get your feathered ass over here!” the mystery figure yelled, the strain in their voice telling Nick they were definitely struggling to keep him airborne. He took a guess in his frazzled state that it was probably the Spectral Bat that had been carrying Desireigh (a much smaller animal overall than he) to and from the Pfurzer complex, but that knowledge didn’t make him feel any better. Spectrals were, after all, lethal nighttime hunters, and this one was rather obviously not on his side.

Nothing left but to make myself an even bigger pain to handle then!

Nick began flailing and thrashing his limbs and tail as hard as he could, slowing them both further and throwing them off balance as the bat tried to compensate for the turbulence. “Aaaahhh! Stop that!” he snapped, gripping harder on Nick’s shirt. Nick ignored him of course, spotting Rocky in the distance leaping off the roof of the house they’d been on and dashing after them. He was slowed by the gunfire of his pursuers as they leapt off too, and his need to block it so they didn’t mow him down as he tried to catch up with Nick and his captor, but the Arctic fox was still gaining, little by little.

Then the sound of massive feathered wings rose up nearby, and Nick’s heart dropped like a stone. The bat let him go, and for a terrifying second he felt himself in uncontrolled freefall. However that moment still felt better than when a heavy weight slammed into him and huge talons squeezed down tight around his middle, the tips digging painfully into the spaces between his ribs.

“Got him!” Avery relayed over the com system she and her allies were apparently using. “Arden, they’ve got a pair of pests in the air, keep them distracted while I –shit!” She banked hard and made Nick scream from the increased pressure of her claws; one of them almost certainly broke through skin somewhere as they banked and the eagle just avoided a hail of gunfire emanating from something small, aerial, and moving fast. Willing the pain to the side, Nick craned his head off to his right to try and catch a glimpse of what was after them, and his jaw dropped.

Dax had his goggles strapped on fully and he was speeding through the air under the power of a contraption that looked for all the world like a mechanical version of Samantha’s wings, red feathers and all. He was screaming toward them far faster than Avery would ever be able to fly in a straight line too, catching up fast and with a pair of rapid-fire pistols in either paw.

The bat that Nick surmised was Arden also balked for a moment at the sight, particularly when the metal wings folded like they were alive and let Dax turn on a dime to follow after Avery, but his hesitation didn’t last long. Letting out a piercing shriek, he dove on a collision course with the ottsel and forced him to bank away to avoid being knocked out of the sky.

“Out of my way you flying rat!” Dax snapped, flipping upside down and pointing one of the guns he held with deadly precision. Arden countered in a similar move to stay at his back, but only just. However, he’d done his job: Avery was gaining distance between her and Nick and the rest of the airfield below quite rapidly. Within only a minute or so, they’d be far enough away that even the Canistons with all their tricks would have a devil of a time locating them amongst the forests of the mountains, and then it would be both Catalysts in dire need of rescue rather than just Judy.

Dax knew this and cursed as he watched them vanishing into the night, banking away from the bat again just long enough to yell into the headset he wore, “Embron! Scarlet! Eagle nabbed Nick and is heading out north northwest! I can’t intercept!”

“Coming!” Scarlet’s voice crackled back. “Skye, Jack, need an opening NOW!”

Something exploded.

Avery didn’t slow, but Nick managed to twist his head far enough around to see over his shoulder between her legs to try and spot what had just blown apart. A fireball was rising up in the vicinity of the hangar and a figure was riding up the top of it, framed by the blinding light; for a second the tod despaired, thinking one of his friends had just gotten the brunt of a bomb to the face. A moment later though another flare of brilliance took over the explosion’s glare as the cloud dimmed, and it rocketed toward them. As it neared and he could make out better detail, the sight both relieved and terrified the fox.

Oh. So that’s how she got her alias.

Scarlet was racing through the air and held aloft in a manner similar to Dax, only her wings were feathered not in metal, but fire. They poured off of her shoulders and spread across the darkened sky in a brilliant shroud, dwarfing Nick’s current captor and apparently not only giving enough lift to keep the ocelot up, but allow her also to bear a sword in one hand and Jack in the other.

And they were closing distance, fast.

Avery finally felt the need to look behind her as well, and gave a shrill cry of panic. She gripped her also now screaming prize ever tighter and dropped into a dive in order to try and gain some more distance from the pursuing parties. Perhaps, she also hoped, she could lose the ocelot and rabbit somewhere amongst the trees they were getting close to sailing over. She couldn’t grasp any of her weapons and throw them after all, carrying Nick as she was, which was turning out to be a rather significant drawback for whoever managed to nab him, and in her haste to vacate the area she’d also forgotten to tranquilize him as she had Judy. Nick took advantage of this oversight and so was freely making things as hard for the raptor as he could in his compromised position (which wasn’t much difference, but enough to throw her off balance) once he’d stopped staring at Scarlet.

Much to Nick’s relief, the eagle had no such luck reaching the trees. Thirty feet above the ground and about 200 yards from the unbroken forest line, Scarlet overtook Avery and lashed out with her sword first, forcing the great bird to drop even further to avoid losing her tail feathers. Then, she swung her other arm and launched Jack forward, the buck spreading his arms and landing square on Avery’s back, a karambit already in paw.

The hoped-for reaction followed: Avery squawked in sheer panic and let go of Nick, rolling violently to try and dislodge what was now a far more pressing issue concerning her survival. As long as Jack was holding onto her, he was a direct threat to her life, so the other half of the Catalyst was no longer a concern.

Nick flailed in the sudden freefall, the second time that evening and no less heart-attack inducing; though they were lower than they had been, a 30 foot drop could still be fatal, especially over land. Scarlet was ready though, dropping down the second Avery let go of Nick and sweeping forward, her sword vanishing into a sheath on her back as she reached forward to grab the fox’s right arm, jolting him to a halt (and pulling a muscle or two, though that was the least of Nick’s worries).

“We’ve got him back!” she announced into the headset she was wearing, hoisting him up to gain a better (and less painful) grip as she slowly sank down toward the ground. As she did so, both of them looked back up to see what had resulted between Jack and Avery.

Much to their chagrin, Avery had been wearing a sturdy vest that had resisted Jack’s first attempt or two to use the karambit efficiently, and now she’d managed to throw him off. The rabbit at least was more experienced with freefalling than Nick though and landed in a roll, absorbing the impact and staggering to his feet to reach for a gun, all of them huddling together to face the eagle.

Her quarry taken back and now guarded by two, soon to be three very experienced figures though (Rocky had still not stopped his pursuit), Avery knew this strike had failed and that she’d die if she attempted to push it further. Instead, as Jack let off a shot that just barely missed her left wing despite the distance, she wheeled and took to the sky, calling through her radio, “Mission abort! Retreat and regroup at rendezvous!”

“Well…at least…they’re leaving,” Nick panted as he caught the eagle’s call, leaning against Scarlet as he tried to catch his breath.

The ocelot only pursed her lips and decided not to comment on the pose, fire still roiling off into protective wings around them as she stared into the sky until she was certain that Avery truly was gone. Then the fire went out and she placed a hand onto Nick’s shoulder, turning him so she could look him over better. “Let’s get back to the hangar,” she said, glancing over at Jack. “Hopefully this fiasco was enough to quiet Trevahe once and for all; if it’s not I’m going to strangle her myself.”

“I’d be more for outright kidnapping her and dragging her along to see Lotera in action at this point,” Jack quipped pointedly as he holstered his gun, though he kept his eyes and ears roaming. “You alright, Wilde?”

“I’m sure I’ve got a puncture mark or two somewhere,” Nick grumbled, patting down his sides as they started across the grass. “Maybe a broken rib –ow!- yep, cracked one. But that’s what happens when a bird with knives for toes picks you up.” Lifting his head back up, he spotted Rocky running up to them finally now that the gunmen on his tail had let up and run off, and gave a wave. “Glad to see you weren’t gunned down, at least!”

“Not in the mood, Nick,” Rocky bit out, brushing off his shoulders as he reached them. “We should have known they’d bring in reinforcements, but I didn’t think they’d have the resources to pull out that many; there were another six firing from among the houses. Whoever’s funding them has damn deep pockets.” He paused, and looked squarely over at Jack. “How many did you count?”

“Saber brought in at least a half dozen mammals behind him at the hangar as well,” Jack replied lowly. “There were casualties on both sides.” He folded his arms and looked coldly off to the side, clearly displeased with that night’s performance on the agents’ part.

Those words gave Nick a disastrously sinking feeling, and he looked askance at the buck, wanting to but not quite willing to voice the question. Jack noticed after a moment, but only returned an apathetic shrug.

“No one you’ve met yet Wilde.”

“Gee, because that makes it so much better.”

He wouldn’t actually admit it out loud of course, but the info did give Nick a small sliver of relief. Judy was bad enough, but if they’d permanently lost anyone he knew (particularly at the moment, the other mammals in blue he now called friends), it’d be a punch to the gut that no one would ever be able to convince him was not his fault.

The hangar was unsurprisingly in a state to resemble the epicenter of a war zone when they reached it. The jet itself that they were planning on taking was relatively undamaged, but the hangar walls were peppered in bullet holes and the tarmac in front scoured by the scorch marks of more than one explosive or streak of flame. Embron was kneeling next to a young kudu that was in the entourage that had come out with Trevahe, treating a gash on the mammal’s arm, and Trevahe herself was standing cross-armed nearby, her suit ripped in several places and her expression nothing but troubled and subdued.

Samantha and Dax both flew in from outside and landed just as Nick and company walked in, and Skye came trotting out from behind the jet where another agent needed bandaging. “Is everyone else okay?” the vixen asked, eyes flitting toward her cousin.

Rocky nodded. “Mack radioed me just before I caught up to the others. The mercenaries all followed me away from the house, save the lizard who was breaking into Pfurzer. Mack managed to scare her off as I was attempting to catch up to Avery and Nick though, somewhat shockingly, and they all but ignored Justin.” He turned slightly and looked over at Trevahe.

The lioness herself was looking over at the body of an unfortunate wildebeest that had apparently not been a match for Saber, cut up and still of breath as he was now. A discomfited expression sat upon her muzzle, and as Rocky moved to speak again she cut him off first. “There’s no need to try and further prove your point,” she said sharply, though quietly as her eyes swung upward to meet those of the two tods. Then they turned to clash with the gazes of Embron and Jack. “I have been out of the field too long, it seems, and it’s my turn to issue apology.” She let out a sigh, and gave a curt nod. “You will have the support of the rest of the task force with me if you so choose, until further notice. Bring this group down before they cause any further damage; if this was led by the lesser criminals in the group, it cannot be allowed to escalate.”

“Well, glad to see you’ve finally come round,” Embron replied in equal curtness, before he also gave an acknowledging nod. “But thank you. Avery and Saber are dangerous enough; we’ll need your agents when we enter the jungle. Lotera won’t pull punches there.”

Chapter Text

No battle wages in its own

No war with the outside untouched

All threads are tangled deep

And your burden not just yours alone

See the others behind the veil

The souls that stand amidst

They join you marked within your scars

Even when they don’t fight tooth and nail

The wise will see not a single goal

Not just their own to win

But also that which others need

How as another’s savior they must play a role

Fight for yourself, your cause, your dreams

But don’t remain with your eyes on only you

For now the stakes have risen high

And your choices touch lives in a thousand seams

“They brought in…how many others and still couldn’t make it out with one stupid FOX?!”

Headline of the day: Ravelis was pissed.

Again.

But then, what else was new? The sun was more likely to rise in the west than a day was to go by without some part of it occupied by the big lizard’s foul mood.

Lotera waited patiently against the wall of the makeshift office, arms crossed as he watched Ravelis pace back and forth. It wasn’t ever great to jump in with comments right after the reptile snapped like that, otherwise something might end up broken (and that didn’t always stay limited to inanimate –if sometimes important- objects, though Lotera himself wasn’t in much direct danger), so he bided his time and waited for the monitor to calm down at least a touch before he spoke up with his input on the situation.

“These two seem to be able to pull help out from the woodwork no matter where they go,” he noted carefully. “Not surprising really, considering they’re the strongest Catalyst I’ve ever heard of. We have Desireigh to stay on top of things electronically, but that only goes so far when they dig up a wolf who’s on par with her cyber-wise. And another Gifted showed up, this one with special-ops military training.”

Ravelis obviously heard the pointed note in the Thylacine’s words, and turned to him with a reserved scowl. “Right, you’re the one with the short end of the stick in that case. Sorry.” He let out a long sigh, ignoring Lotera’s mocking look of surprise at an actual apology escaping from him, and slumped into a chair behind the desk that was set up nearby. “How long then, before the pests all arrive here with the other half of the Pair then, do you estimate?”

Lotera’s left ear flicked as he looked off to the side, studying the plaster of one wall. “Saber sent a message that their jet took off at around 7:00 am Pawcific time, which was about two hours ago. So, by our time they’ll probably be here by tomorrow morning. Undoubtedly they’ll land at the same runway that we did when I brought the rabbit in, so we will have little issue tracking them from there.”

“Tracking?” Ravelis asked, shooting him an expression littered with disappointment. “They’ll arrive all packed together in a metal can; why not ready a strike on them right there? Wait until they bring the fox off, then bomb the rest away?”

“If it were that easy, I’d have done something like that the moment they all walked into that park in Zootopia,” the Thylacine quipped in irritation, his ears splaying back. He turned back toward Ravelis fully, waving his hand in a “see here” gesture. “I know you’ve only known me for a couple of years now, but get this notion into your head: fighting on the field that I and the ‘Gifted’ mammals do is not the same as a war of technologies and soldiers. The ones with power will tail that fox as if they were attached to him, and with three of them present that means they can manage at least three different attacks or defenses in unison. Drop a bomb, and one of them might erect a barrier to keep their team from getting blown up while another throws the flames back in your face, and the third might just block your own escape from the retaliation with monoliths pulled from the bedrock right under your feet.”

He smirked and shook his head, drawing his paws apart and conjuring up a complex pattern of light between them. “This fight is four-dimensional,” he continued to explain, “complex, constantly changing. Barging in with brute force alone will almost never work. Yes, I’m planning on giving a little greeting when they get here but I don’t expect to remove all of the fox’s protective detail in one go.”

Ravelis stared at the marsupial like he wanted nothing more than to reach out and smack Lotera across the snout. Both of them knew it’d never happen of course, not without Ravelis possibly losing the claws he smacked with, but the temptation was obvious. “Then what, do tell, is your suggestion?” he asked almost snidely.

Lotera turned and gestured out the one small window in the room, one of the few the building had; it looked out toward the jungle, lush and steaming with humidity. “The rainforest,” he said simply. “This is our home advantage; we know the layout and where they’ll start off, and we know who to target. They don’t know our full strength or where the rift is located, though I imagine that once they get close enough, or if, preferably, the Gifteds and the fox will sense it. We can pick off the agents one by one as they try and fight the environment, whittle them down so more strength can be focused on separating the fox and getting rid of the Gifteds. It’ll take them a couple of days at best to reach as far as we are from the airstrip, plenty of time to set up and be ready to drive whatever last push they make off as well, especially once the rest of the group that Saber and Avery dug up gets here to help.”

“And you’re certain they’ll have as much trouble as you propose?”

Lotera snickered. “Everyone but the ocelot and coyote most likely,” he mused. “Those two appear to thrive in this kind of environment, but they’ll be hindered by having to help everyone else.” The Thylacine grinned and crossed his arms. “You can’t march stealthily through the jungle in a big group, so they’ll either have to drop all pretense of surprise, or be forced to spread out, even split up if they want to try covering enough ground to locate us. That’s when they’ll be the most vulnerable.”

Ravelis huffed, still skeptical, and turned toward the door. He grabbed the handle and twisted it to open it, deciding whatever argument he might have had left wasn’t worth the effort. “Then get the outer defenses ready,” he said, stepping out and leaving the door open for Lotera. “I need to check in and make sure the corporation is still running smoothly in my absence and then make sure our employees here are alert and ready. And…” he trailed off, looking up and down the hallway outside with a frown. “Where the hell did that little pest go?”

“What, your personal slave?” Lotera drawled as he slipped past, starting to walk down the hall to the right in an almost nonchalant gait. As he did so he pointed lazily to the left, toward the center of the building. “He was wandering around chipper as he always seems to be, so I sent him to clean the cages to keep him out of the way.” For just a moment he stopped, and looked back at the Komodo with an expression of confusion. “He does realize it’s unrewarded work, not entertainment, right?”

“Nature knows,” Ravelis muttered tiredly, turning the other way. “Whatever; as long as he’s not under paw and doing something I’d have him do eventually anyway I don’t care. If I need something else done I’ll go grab the mutt later.”

She’d experienced plenty of humiliation and various injustices in her life –scarred by a bully in fourth grade, suffered putdowns of her dreams for a decade and a half, schooled by a lowlife fox on the first day of her “dream” career- but at this point Judy was beginning to realize that despite all that, her life paled in comparison to the horrors others could experience, and her prior rock-bottom moments were barely worth considering in the face of her current situation.

It was a literal cage, the kind one might put non-sentient animals in for a cheap sideshow, and composed of solid steel bars locked with a mechanism Judy was sure even Nick wouldn’t be able to figure out how to pick if he’d been given a month to do so. There was a pile of dead grass for a bed on one side, a crude bowl that the other mammals around occasionally dumped barely edible food in now and then, and worst of all, nothing even close to resembling bathroom fixtures.

Judy could not say she was a stranger to “roughing it” out on camping trips when she was younger, but having to do her business out in the open where everyone could see her (and there were cameras always trained on her cage too, she knew with certainty), especially when surrounded by animals that hated her on principle, was an entirely new low. Steeped in humiliation, she pointedly avoided looking at anyone that walked by at any given time.

With one exception.

She’d seen the big Komodo dragon Ravelis walk through the containment room several times over the past day and a half or so that she’d been here, and more often than not he’d pause just long enough to send her a disapproving sneer before sauntering off to continue about his business. It wasn’t him that Judy would give her attention to. No; rather, nearly every time he’d passed by, he’d been trailed by a very, very young canine pup who seemed to be around for the sole purpose of completing tasks the lizard couldn’t be bothered to do himself. It had taken Judy hours after first spotting the youngster to figure out what he was too, odd as he looked: small, very thin, and entirely white with blue eyes, just like Skye, though he had a whiter/pinker color to his ears and nose.

A leucistic Indian Wolf pup, she’d finally assumed, no older than nine or ten years of age at best. A child slave no doubt, and the thought made Judy sick to her stomach. Oddly though, despite the obvious situation he was in, the wolf pup had yet to ever appear down in spirit. Every time she’d seen him, he always at least had a dopey smile on his face if not outright bouncing in his steps. Ravelis had snapped at him twice for it too where she’d been able to see, but that didn’t seem to put much of a damper on his optimistic attitude.

Judy desperately wanted to ask him how he’d gotten into such a situation as his, how he managed to stay so upbeat despite the animals he was stuck around, but he’d never been nearby and alone for her to try inquiring. She certainly didn’t want to ask while Lotera or Ravelis were around; they’d never let an answer through, so she needed the pup on his own, and it hadn’t happened.

Until now, that is. The Primalists, though they wanted her only for the purposes of a tool, knew enough that they needed to keep her alive and healthy for their purposes, so they had made a note of keeping her cage clean while she was stuck in it. So far it had typically been one of the conscripted locals doing the work (the Komodo and Thylacine had apparently coerced a tribe of singing dogs into assisting them), but this time, it was the wolf pup.

Judy awoke (and took a moment to be shocked that she’d ever even fallen asleep while there) to the sound of the tray beneath her being pulled out, and she jerked upright, heart beating fast and ears erect before she recognized the young canine and managed to relax somewhat. He was barely acknowledging her himself, but still grinning and humming something as he swept up the mess in the tray to be dumped in a bucket.

Gathering up her wits, Judy carefully stepped over to the side of the cage nearest him and softly called out, “Hey.”

The pup jerked, blinking as he stopped humming, and he looked over at her in confusion. She gave a short wave, and he sucked in a breath as he glanced rapidly to either side of them. “H-hi,” he stammered, staring off to the side at the ground while his paws started fidgeting around the brush he held. “I’m not really s-supposed to talk to you.”

Judy frowned at this, her ears falling a little at the rejection. It wasn’t surprising; of course they’d have told him not to interact. However she wasn’t going to give up, so she tried putting on as disarming a smile as she could and sitting down next to the bars of the cage. “Well, I won’t tell anyone if you don’t,” she assured in a whispered tone. “I’m just looking to find a friend. I don’t have any here.”

The pup continued to fidget a little more, before sending another glance around the area and cautiously setting the brush down. “I don’t really either,” he admitted shakily.

“Well, perhaps we can be friends then,” Judy offered, sticking one paw out through the bars in a handshake invite. “My name’s Judy. What’s yours?”

“Bhoot,” the little wolf replied, hesitantly taking her paw with his own. When she gave him a light, but firm shake with it, his smile slowly started to reappear. “You’re n-not as bad as they said you are.”

Judy couldn’t help but let out a laugh as her paw retracted into her lap. “Heh, yeah, I’m not a lot of things they probably say I am. I’m a police officer, so my job is to help and protect people. I’m not doing a great job of it right now though, stuck in this box here, but when my friends get here I can start making the world better again.”

Bhoot frowned a little and his eyes shifted up toward the railing that ran around the second level of the “rift room” as Judy had started to think of it. “My owner and Lotera keep saying you and your friends mess up the world,” he muttered quietly. “If you help people, why do they say that?”

“Well, they think it’s bad for very different species to work together, even interact at all,” Judy said. “Probably part of why they don’t want you talking to me. They think we can’t be friends, because I’m a rabbit, a herbivore, and you’re supposed to be a carnivore. But,” she leaned in closer, a conspiratorial look on her face, “I come from a city where all sorts of those animals live side by side every day. My police partner, my best friend and mammal I love, is a fox. A canid, kind of like you. We have no problem getting along perfectly, but the big lizard and his partner don’t understand that, or don’t want to.”

Bhoot gave a short nod, and then his smile grew again and he scooted closer too. “I think I’d rather be friends with you,” he said excitedly, if quietly. “They’re no fun to be around. I don’t  think they like me at all even.”

“Well, I definitely like you,” Judy assured with a grin. “How did you even end up with Ravelis anyway? You’re way too happy to be around someone as grumpy as him.”

For the first time since she’d seen him, Bhoot’s face truly fell, even his ears hanging against his head as he turned to stare at the ground. “My mom and dad…didn’t really like me either,” he said softly, picking at the dirt on the ground. “Said I cost a lot to have around. They gave me away to these animals that took me to the jungle, a-and Ravelis found me. He said he bought me to work for him, where I’d ‘have some use instead of wasting oxygen.’” He sighed and shrugged, before looking up at Judy again. “It’s kind of the same around him as it was with my parents; I do what he tells me and then they all ignore me, so I can kind of do what I want once I get it done. It’s not so bad.”

“I am amazed still that you can be so happy despite all that,” Judy said aside as she looked at him with an earnest gaze. “I mean, I’m optimistic, but I don’t think I could wear a smile as often as I see you do.”

This got the white pup to shrug and sit back, his smile returning despite the dismal topic. “It’s better than being sad all the time, right?” he asked, rolling his shoulders. “If I’m sad it’s not gonna make him be nicer, and maybe one day things will be better.”

Judy smirked, and let out a short chuckle. “You’re a bit too wise for your age,” she mused. “Keep looking at life that way, and you probably will stay feeling better than most.”

They lapsed into silence for a time, Bhoot returning to sweeping out the cage tray and Judy looking off into the middle distance (at one point she couldn’t help but notice her staring tended to always unconsciously drift toward the rift, which had occasionally flickered into view for a second or two while she’d been there). Then a notion struck her, one that should have occurred quite some time before then.

“So,” she began slowly, catching Bhoot’s attention again, “if you had the chance to get away, or start over again, a new life, would you try taking it?”

The young wolf paused and looked fully at her again, one ear drooping down in confusion. “Huh?” he asked.

Judy shrugged. “I mean, me and my friends could probably help you if you helped us,” she said. “Give you a chance to start over, live a life that you choose instead of under someone else. Maybe…maybe even a proper family experience, you know?”

She hadn’t noticed it was absent until it sparked in his eyes right then: not a will to be cheerful for sanity’s sake, but an actual light of hope. But then Bhoot’s gaze washed over with apprehension in almost the same motion, and his rising ears fell again. “I…I don’t know,” he said softly. “My owner…he doesn’t really punish me often, but if I do something he really doesn’t like he might. If I help you, he…he definitely wouldn’t like it.” He shook his head and sighed. “I don’t want him to whip me again.”

The pup looked way, avoiding her eyes, and Judy felt her heart crack. It wasn’t that Bhoot didn’t want it, that was obvious, but he was too afraid of Ravelis to go after it. The lizard had hurt him just for being a kid, and that made her blood boil. “Hey, it’s okay,” she tried to soothe, reaching a paw out between the bars toward him again. “I’m not gonna ask you to do anything, alright? I don’t want to get you hurt either. But…when we take care of the rest of this, we’ll be there to try and help you, okay?” She stayed still, not pushing any further, and waited.

After several moments of nothing, Bhoot started to lift his head again, meeting her eyes, and a small smile started to reform as he began to nod.

“BHOOT!!”

The pup screamed in shock, jerking backward and stumbling over his own feet as his and Judy’s heads both whipped upward to see Ravelis leaning over the rails on the second floor walkway. He was glaring down at the little wolf, but his eyes also flitted over to Judy several times, burning with displeasure each time.

“I said don’t talk to her, you little pest!” he snapped, before pointing a demanding claw off to the side. “Put the tray back and get out! Go clean up the stock rooms!”

“Y-yes sir!” Bhoot quietly replied, sweeping out the last of the tray as rapidly as he could before sliding it clumsily and almost violently back under the cage in his haste, jarring Judy. Then he scurried out of the room with his tail tucked tightly between his legs.

As soon as he’d disappeared, the monitor’s burning gaze locked on Judy instead. The rabbit could tell some sort of scathing comment or order was coming, so she fought through the cold, primal fear that seeped into her under such a stare in order to bite out first, “You disgust me!”

The blunt comment managed to actually make Ravelis shut his mouth, and inside Judy cheered a little at the successful volley. The Komodo dragon stared at her in blank surprise that she’d make such a bold quip from her position for several moments too.

However, it didn’t last, and his lips curled into an amused smile like that of a sophisticated adult looking on after an untrained toddler. “Really,” he mused in faux sweetness, his tail sweeping side to side lazily. “I disgust you?”

“Yes,” Judy snapped, trying to ignore the predatory air that Ravelis never seemed to lack. “Beyond the whole ‘you’re working to ruin all of society’ aspect too; you’re using children as slaves. That’s as low as I could possibly imagine anyone able to get, and yet you somehow still live with yourself.”

Ravelis snorted, moving over toward a stairway that led down to her level. “I’m a businessmale,” he said, climbing leisurely down the steps, “and I concern myself with maximizing profits so that I can turn those earnings toward necessary projects like this one.” Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he clasped his hands behind his back and leaned forward condescendingly as he walked toward her. “Labor is labor, no matter who provides it, and I don’t see why there needs to be an age cutoff. If they’re fed, they can work, and little paws are better for some tasks anyway as well, not to mention nearly always cheaper. Easy to replace too, should something happen to them. Reliable adults seem less so.”

He paused, letting that bit sink in for a moment (and clearly knowing the exact reaction he’d get, as his grin grew alongside Judy’s eyes). Judy’s stomach lurched as the Komodo leaned down to sneer into the front of her cage. He’d all but explicitly claimed expendability of kids, youngsters who’d barely even known life yet, and thinking now of Bhoot specifically (as, luckily, he’d been the only underage individual she’d seen in the building so far), it made her even more ill.

“Why should you care though?” Ravelis continued to trill, gripping the cage bars with one huge, clawed hand. “It doesn’t impact you, and besides, given a couple of days Lotera will probably get his paws on your partner,” this word he said with such disgust Judy could practically hear the bile rising in his throat, “and you’ll be put to use and disposed of, no need to worry about anything more. Might as well just focus on yourself in the time you still have.”

“I find more worth in helping others,” Judy snapped, her ears bolt upright and vibrating in anger now. “No one gets anywhere without support behind them, and no good comes from self-serving all the time!”

The big lizard let out another snort of hot breath right into her face as he backed up and stood tall again, clasping his hands back behind him. “Optimists and altruists; you types are infuriating,” he muttered under his breath, seemingly unaware that Judy could hear every word. Then his head lifted up with the scowl that seemed to be almost permanently present on his lips. “Suit yourself, sit there with fruitless hopes. The fight will be here soon enough, and maybe that’ll let me have an excuse to replace the happy mutt just to spite you too.” A vicious smirk appeared, and he leered at her. “I’ll leave him here to help Lotera,” he continued, “while I return to overseeing my corporation; remember that, I’m a millionaire and you’re not, so tell me again how serving myself is a failure. I’ve been here too long already, and maybe the little bastard will catch a stray bullet in the crossfire.” Without waiting for a response, he turned abruptly and started to walk away, calling over his shoulder, “Have fun with the harvest.”

It wasn’t often that she developed the urge to just punch someone on principle (the friendly ‘taps’ that she gave Nick a different category and notwithstanding –even if Nick wouldn’t call them taps), but Judy definitely felt a need to introduce a fist or two to that monitor’s face. Ravelis was right now the epitome of a narcissistic selfish monster in her eyes, just about everything that she couldn’t stand or even conceive of tolerating, and she had nothing that she could do about him where she was now either. As the big lizard disappeared from the rift room Judy let out a frustrated yell and slammed one fist against the cage bars, before slumping her forehead against them as well, a shuddering sigh escaping her.

The rift flickered a moment later, catching her eye as faint streamers of reddish orange light swam in a spherical pattern above the rock bowl. But, she didn’t think much of it, too exasperated and overwhelmed to care. The rift had been active and flickering regularly for at least as long as she’d been there, so she didn’t see anything that was a change and the lights were little more than a momentary distraction from her grim reality. Only a moment later she was back to brooding over the conversation just past.

Being stuck in a cage made everything a problem, but maybe, just maybe she decided, when the others found her there could be an opportunity. Ravelis was leaving, meaning they’d have to track him down when all was said and done in order to arrest him and have him tried for all he’d done, but in the meantime he was leaving Bhoot behind. The pup would then be at risk of being caught somewhere in the crossfire just as the Komodo had suggested, but if Judy could alert the others about his presence, perhaps they could get him out and safe before everything blew up.

Or, she hoped her words would otherwise keep striking a chord in the young wolf and maybe without Ravelis bearing down over his shoulder he might work up the bravery to do something to help.

It would all be a lot easier though if Judy could get out and help somehow, but once again, as it had the several dozen times she’d glanced about before, the lack of accessible tools for cage breaking made itself known. Her eyes roved around the cage itself, then the room, trying to find something somewhere that could be used to either pick the locks or pull the welding on the bars apart at some spot, but as those dozens of times before nothing useful presented itself to her. However with nothing else to distract her the lapine continued scanning, looking over the same pattern of spaces in the small hope that eventually an idea would form or a new feature would stand out to her.

Judy’s thoughts were derailed again only a few minutes later though as Lotera burst through a door on the adjacent wall and made a beeline for the opposite side of the room, a half-dozen conscripted locals and several of what she assumed were original hired hands trailing behind him. “Gee, what’s your hurry?” the rabbit muttered sarcastically, not really meaning for the Thylacine to hear her.

He did though, and slowed for a minute to face her with a chillingly confident grin. “That posse of pests that follows you around like a cloud of flies will be showing up at our runway in a few hours,” he replied nonchalantly. “Most importantly, the fox that I need is among them. Naturally, an appropriately organized greeting party needs to be prepared, so you can have a cage-mate for a couple of hours before you’re put to use.”

With no more words to spare, he and his entourage picked up the pace again and disappeared toward the “front” of the building, leaving Judy behind alone to develop a violently queasy sensation in her stomach. A “greeting party” she knew it would not be.

Chapter Text

It is a world of perfect contrasts

A realm where beauty dances with death

The clouds meet the mountains

Water pools in the trees

And the ground writhes with creatures untold

Take care not to get lost here

For two steps can turn you round

The jungle cloaks not just its secrets

But equally its visitors too

In splendor of life there is no equal

To the rainforest in its spread

But in same measure so too none compare

To the tropic’s thousand mortal snares

Pawpua New Guinea loomed into view below and ahead of them the moment that they dropped below the thick cloud layer hanging peacefully in the sky over the equator. Incredibly lush and dramatic in structure, it was a landscape like no other and home to some of the most incredible creatures on the planet.

At least, that’s what Nick thought he had heard Embron rambling on about earlier in that obsessively nerdy way he did whenever talking about the natural world.  At any other time, he probably would have had a Judy-like fascination in visiting such an exotic place (and for free, nonetheless), but right then he simply couldn’t find it in himself to share the coyote’s enthusiasm for the island. All he knew and cared about was that Judy was down below somewhere, and the bastards responsible were hiding in that verdant jungle. Automatically, that made the jungle a disgrace in his eyes.

Perhaps not so oddly enough, that dampened the natural beauty of the place significantly, especially as the fox stared out the nearest window and examined the topography with a tainted view. Picturesque steep-sided mountains appeared to him more like sharpened, deadly obstacles, the wall to wall trees blanketing and deceptive veils. After a couple of minutes of this gazing out the window, Nick felt that antsiness of helpless inaction starting to build up to an intolerable level again too, and so to avoid reacting badly he knew he needed a distraction.

So, turning away, the reynard reached over and flipped Mack’s fedora off his head.

“God-DAMMIT Wilde!!” the red wolf screamed, dropping his phone immediately and flailing madly to try and catch the cranial adornment before it hit the floor. He failed miserably in this prospect, and awkwardly scooped the hat up to jam it back down over the cowlick that crowned his fur. Then, he turned and burned a hole through Nick with his gaze.

“I hate you.”

Nick put on his best “talking to toddlers” face and placed one hand over his chest. “Aww, did I disturb your security cap?” he cooed.

Mack snarled, and twisted to point accusingly at Scarlet, who was innocently sitting near the head of the cabin and pretending to smile at the view outside the window nearest her. “And I hate you too, for telling him!”

The ocelot leaned back to look upside down at him with a perfect deadpan. “Not our fault you’re too attached to your hat,” she drawled. “Honestly, it’s kind of cute though, how defensive you get.”

“Screw you. Why not pick on Embron for his obsession with his coat?”

Nick turned his head, knowing the coyote would almost certainly have something to say about that remark. Sure enough without fail Embron twisted his own chair around too with a half-triumphant smirk.

“She does,” he snarked, jerking a thumb at his sister, “but others don’t for two reasons: one, this is a very expensive piece of technology with many purposes beyond being my favorite coat, so it is a bad thing if I lose it somewhere. Two, well…”

“Let me guess,” Fangmeyer called up from the back of the cabin, “nobody else makes fun of you because you could pull sparky paws out on them.”

“Interesting phrase…but yeah, more or less we’ll go with that. The poor birdie over here doesn’t have that glorious option.”

“I’m somewhat peeved I don’t have anything to throw at you,” Mack muttered, leaning back in his chair (though not before taking a look around to make sure he didn’t have anything within reach). “But lucky me, you’d avoid it or shoot it right back. One of these days I will find a way to gain revenge.”

Suddenly the wolf perked up, and turned to hit Nick with a dangerous grin. “I could, however, bury you in embarrassment in a heartbeat,” he mused saccharinely.

Nick scoffed. “Really. Many have tried, none have succeeded.”

“Until a certain bunny blackmailed you with your back taxes. But to the others: how many of those individuals, dare I ask, can pull up your entire life history and its secrets with a push of a button?”

The fox rapidly clamped his mouth shut, ears falling back as his expression toward Mack turned wary. Mack, in turn, merely hummed, tapping a couple of times on his phone screen, and then his eyes lit up.

“Oh! How about the…’Hardy Girls’ incident, is it?”

“NO!” Nick yelled, fur standing on end. Finnick, I swear I will strangle you for putting that out there! “There’s nothing to talk about!”

“Oh, I don’t know, I think it’s plenty to talk about,” Mack tittered, pursing his lips and cocking his head conspiratorially. “I mean, you do look pretty good in”-

“Alright, enough of the chitchat!” Dax’s voice suddenly cut in through the cabin’s intercom. All heads swiveled up either to a speaker, or toward the cockpit where he and Sam were busy actually flying the craft, and Nick gave a sigh of relief. On cue, the plane began to dip notably lower, and Dax continued, “Embron, we could use an extra pair of eyes to watch for surprises as we come in to land; everyone else, buckle up and get ready to disembark shortly!”

Embron sighed and stretched, before standing up out of his seat. “Well, let the fun begin,” he muttered, sauntering up toward the cockpit. “You heard the ottsel, everyone get what gear you can now and then strap in. If we have to do anything fancy in a sec, you don’t want to go rolling around the cabin.”

“No duh,” Wolfard quipped as the coyote disappeared, checking the straps and belts he had on before buckling himself snugly into his seat. “I feel like we’ve got enough crap on each of us that if someone goes flying we might just blow up.”

“Nah, our explosives are more secure than that,” Skye replied airily as she strapped in as well. “It’s more we don’t want to make Rocky or Scarlet waste energy having to hold you all in place. If there’s a greeting party down below, we’d rather expend it all on them.”

Nick couldn’t help but let out a dark laugh at that. “Yeah, that’s really reassuring,” he muttered as he tightened his belts down. “Just warning you now, if this jet rolls I will not be held responsible for tossing cookies across the cabin.” He glanced to the side and saw Fangmeyer about to make a comment in response. The tiger was cut off from doing so however as the jet abruptly dipped into a curve, and then leveled out on a hard descent.

Must have found the runway, Nick thought, ears swiveling toward the cockpit while his eyes slid in the direction of the nearest window. The mountains outside rose up past them, shrouded in low clouds and mist and standing sentinel. They were uncaring of the conflict below them, and Nick was almost envious. Mountains did not have to worry about the wars fought among animal-kind, ancient as they were; all they had to do was sit where they were and weather the rigors of time itself. Not so for the organisms that they loomed high over or supported of course.

Nick scowled, a knot re-forming in his stomach as silence commenced a new reign on their approach to the ground. His mind started to roll, playing out scene after scene of what could be coming up for them: missiles launched from the forest (undoubtedly the Primalists knew that the Gifteds would keep him alive, and could try wiping out the rest of the team), traps of a thousand forms in the area ready to spring as soon as they stepped off, or maybe a thousand conscripted mammals to battle through, who knew.

Sure, he could think up one or two scenarios where he, Embron, Fangmeyer, and company all got through, found Judy, and got out scot free, but Nick was still not quite free of his pessimistic and cynical old self so those positive notions were easily overshadowed by all the scenarios he knew were far more likely. Something would go wrong; it always did, and if they all got out of this it would at best be by the skin of their teeth. The thought of losing any of the friends around him was almost as nauseating as the current separation from his partner.

The first shadowy thought did not come to pass, luckily, and the plane touched down on the rather bumpy dirt runway without any explosive projectiles coming to greet them on the way down. For a moment Nick feared that it wouldn’t be the rolling of the jet that would make him vomit, but the sheer uneven turbulence caused by the runway itself. Luckily for him (and everyone else close to him) though they slowed and came to a halt long before he could even turn properly green under his red fur, and activity immediately skyrocketed in the jet.

Scarlet and Rocky were immediately out of their seats and situated themselves right against the main doors, paws up and scanning holograms forming in front of them as they took in the forest flanking the runway. Hundreds of moving red and orange blips could be seen flitting about amongst the darker trees in the images, and Nick figured they had to be representing either heat signatures or bioscans; the two predators were looking for Primalists or the conscripted mammals that might be working for the Primalists. After a couple of minutes of this scanning however, as everyone else gathered their gear up, both Scarlet and Rocky dropped the holograms and turned.

“Not seeing anything currently,” Rocky said, slinging a couple of straps over his shoulders and tightening them. “So, time to disembark. But, I’m not calling us out of the woods yet as it’s possible Lotera is setting down cloaks. Everyone keep a gun up, and be ready to duck if we call it.” He focused directly on Nick, eyes hard. “Stick in the middle of the group, Fangmeyer and Wolfard with you. Grab the supplies so we can distribute what we can carry outside, and then get everything locked up. Let’s move!”

Doors opened, and Rocky and Scarlet took point. They kept their paws up and at the ready, Rocky with a gun in the grip of one and Scarlet with bladed explosives in both. The heat and humidity rolled into the plane past them, and as they started climbing down to the runway Nick held back the temptation to start panting. This weather was way worse than the Rainforest District, and he almost felt like he should have been swimming through the air instead of walking, thick as the humidity was. Twisting a little, he could see out the corner of his eye that Wolfard was feeling the same way, but the guy was a dedicated mammal and hid his discomfort well. Nick couldn’t see her as she’d exited out the other side of the jet, but he had to guess that Skye was suffering the worst of all of them, Arctic mammal as she was and without the option of regulating herself as the Gifteds like Rocky were able to (Embron heating the ground up at Big’s house popped into Nick’s mind).

The sounds of millions of birds and insects sounded from the vegetation around them, and Nick found it hard to try and focus on any one noise to identify it; each resonant call blended into the rest, weaving in and out of the spot for loudest. The tod looked around too as everyone started gathering outside the plane, watching flickers among the trees and bushes and his ears following any rustles and calls that he could tell (or thought he could tell) were closer than the rest. A chill slithered its way down his spine though only a moment later; he felt like he was being watched, and not by anyone that had come with him.

“Embron,” Nick whispered, turning slightly so that he could see the coyote but his eyes continually flicking back to the forest, “someone’s out there; I can feel their eyes on the back of my head.”

Embron scowled and nodded, his own pupils scanning the trees with a frightening intensity. “We need to identify them then,” he muttered. “if it’s just a local tribe we probably don’t need to worry much, especially if anyone here can translate, but if it’s the Primalists…”

The coyote trailed off, then turned and snapped his fingers at Samantha and Dax. “You two are our best eyes in the sky; see if you can do a perimeter sweep. Mack, they may not be as useful on the ground but if you can get satellite coverage then we”-

Something small and rounded came flying out of the trees to the north, bouncing a couple of times across the dirt and cutting Embron off before it came to rest among them. Everyone turned to stare at the object for a second, adrenaline spiking as they tried to identify it.

Rocky reacted first. “Hit the deck!” he shouted, holstering the gun in his paws and bolting for the sphere as everyone else heeded his order. They dropped to the ground and covered their heads, and the Arctic tod leapt up with intent to plant himself over what he knew had to be a weapon.

Before he landed the sphere beeped, and a blinding flash erupted around it accompanied by the raucous buzzing of electrical currents. The wall of energy met the fox midair and shoved him backward a touch, but he managed to focus on retention of the blast just in time and prevented it from expanding any further as he landed again. However with his hands now full, he was vulnerable.

The sound of a hundred other projectiles flying though the air proved this and sent everyone into another frenzy; the electric bomb was more distraction than anything else, and now everyone was flat on the ground and left vulnerable to the arrows and darts flying in at high speed. Scarlet leapt to her feet and planted herself in front of Nick, raising her hands to hold a barrier, and Embron did the same near Jack, Harrison, and some of the other agents, but the rest were left scrambling to their feet and diving for what little cover the small piles of supplies they had already brought out offered.

A couple arrows found their marks before everyone could get behind a blockade however, and yells of pain sounded. Nick spun to see in particular a boar from Trevahe’s loaned contingent go down with a shaft sticking out through the side of his neck, a perfect shot. The fox’s stomach twisted, and he looked away and back toward where Rocky had planted himself behind the electric bubble still buzzing up from the bomb. At least the other tod could use the enemy’s weapon as his own protection for the time being.

“Dammit Rocky, use that thing already!” Scarlet snapped, dropping one paw to grab the gun on her belt and fire a couple of shots into the trees.

“I’m working on it!” the fox snapped back, brows furrowing deep as he focused hard. He twisted on his feet, threw his hands up and out, and the roiling half-sphere of light that had been burning a circle into the ground followed the motion. An arcing stream of power soared upward and then splashed down in amongst the trees ahead of him.

Several screams echoed in response, however overall the return of their own weapon against them seemed to do little in the way of slowing the overall intensity of the horizontal rain of projectiles still flying out of the forest. There was, however, just enough of a lull for everyone to hole up behind cover and pull out their guns to return fire. That, at least, seemed to do something in regard to the attack.

Then Rocky yelped as a bullet tore through his right arm from behind him, and he spun to let loose several slugs of his own across toward the jungle flanking the opposite side of the jet. “We’re surrounded!” he yelled, clamping his currently free paw over the wound as he fired. “Cover your backs!”

Another bullet whizzed past his ears, and he snarled, twisting the gun and firing straight down the line it had targeted him from. To his grim satisfaction, something howled in pain.

Nick had his gun in hand as well and was firing where he could, but compared to those around him he was feeling rather useless. Even Fangmeyer was managing to maintain a constant barrage from behind the trunk full of rations she’d taken cover by. As just a target to be protected, basically Nick was doing little past being the source of the conflict itself. It irked him, being stuck here but fundamentally useless, and he kept scanning around him looking for something, anything that could be done differently.

For a moment the tod swore he could hear amidst the gunfire Judy’s voice sneak through and into his head. “Stop just sitting there Nick! If you’re the target, use that as a tool!”

He blinked, and looked up out at the forest. None of the arrows or bullets that were flying out of the dappled gloom were directed at him, he realized. Occasionally a dart would fly past, someone likely trying to tranquilize him or some similar method to bring him down for collection (not much good it’d do them though, he thought with a smirk, what with all the agents and his friends being close enough to just yank him back to safety), but all the fire was directed at everyone else. And of course it would be; the other side couldn’t risk killing him after all.

Raising his head up further, but keeping it still shielded enough by a supply canister to ward off further darts, Nick peered around to find patterns in the fire. Most of it was coming from two major regions within the flanking forest: one on either side of the jet, and more from the flank to their north than from their south. Glancing away from them, he looked down and tapped at the protective pads in the suit Scarlet had given him. Supposedly, they were the same material as Scarlet’s entire outfit, and Embron’s beloved coat, and that gave him an idea.

“Scarlet!”

The ocelot paused from the surprise of the call, glancing at the reynard between shots. “What? Trying to get your head taken off?”

“No! Look, how tough is this suit I’m in? Will it stop a tranq dart?”

“It’ll stop most low-caliber bullets and projectiles in their tracks, but it doesn’t cover all of you!”

“Yeah, I know! But they need me to be alive and well, so they’re not going to risk any direct shots at me! I can act as a buffer myself if you can keep the darts away from my head. Can you use that for anything?”

Clearly this was a novel notion, using the target as the shield, and it was enough to give Scarlet real pause. She knelt down slightly, one paw up still to hold up a barrier as she pondered over Nick’s claim. Nick, for his part, kept up firing as he watched her, switching magazines in his pistol halfway through, and then he saw her ears perk.

“You do have something, don’t you?”

Scarlet nodded. “If we can figure out where most of them are,” she began.

“Grouped in greatest numbers there and there if weapons fire is indicative, and it probably is since bullets and arrows move in a straight line,” Nick interjected, jerking his thumb to either side of the jet.

Scarlet blinked at him, and then grinned. “Impressive. And perfect. Embron! I need the Shuri-mines, you got a few more?”

“Yeah, why?” the coyote called over, digging inside his coat and tossing a handful of little gray cylinders their way.

Scarlet caught them and held them carefully between her fingers. “Just get everyone down when I say!” she replied tersely. Turning to Nick, she jerked her head back toward the jet. “Cover me back to the stairs,” she instructed, crouching as low as she could while maintaining enough balance to run.

Nick nodded and stood up, placing himself between her and the forest they were closest to. Almost immediately a dart zinged toward his neck, but true to her words Scarlet flicked an ear and it stopped short, dropping to Nick’s feet. Confidence bolstered, they both scuttled back to the stairs leading up to the jet and Nick stopped at the base, for a moment wondering why Scarlet was needing him for this and not just holding a barrier over herself. Then he noticed her fiddling with the cylinders; whatever it was, she apparently needed most of her focus on it rather than a full-body shield. Two seconds later she looked up at him deadly serious.

“Get down and stay flat, cover your head with your arms,” she ordered.

Nick didn’t hesitate, dropping flat to the earth. At the same time, Scarlet dashed up the stairs and from there leapt up on top of the jet, planted herself in a racing crouch, and yelled out, “Everyone drop! Rocky, Embron, get ready!”

The cops and agents dropped again, and Embron and Rocky both took kneeling positions with their arms up in defensive postures similar to Scarlet’s, facing opposite sides of the plane.

The Primalists obviously figured out Scarlet was about to do something displeasurable for them, as arrows and gunfire both began to pepper the jet and force her to keep moving to avoid getting hit (she was still focusing on the cylinders rather than barrier fields), but she didn’t wait very long to shorten their chances for target practice. Buttons were pushed somewhere and the cylinders lit up with flashing lights, blades whipping out of the sides. The ocelot somersaulted and whirled, her hands swinging outward, and the little weapons went spinning out in either direction in two big clustered groups. They disappeared into the trees, a couple of screams indicating a few of the blades on each had hit more than wood or vines, and half a second later nearly a dozen explosions lit up the jungle.

Nick felt the shockwaves through both the ground and the air, and as they blasted past he looked up to see the three Gifteds stand up into the pressure waves, arms up and paws flat out to either side in front of them before they each swept their limbs outward in a wide sweep. All around them, the flames mimicked the act. They froze midair and locked in burning walls before sweeping back and outward through the trees, clearing out the forest for more than a hundred yards from the runway.

As the roar of the flames died back too, the air went silent, not even birds or insects singing anywhere in the proximity anymore. Nick could hear everyone around him breathing hard, himself included, but they were no longer assailed by bullets and arrows. His head perked up slightly, looking around, and nearby he spotted Embron with his paws still out, but this time with another hologram spread in between them.

“Whatever cloak they had on them is down now,” he announced. “I can count…about a dozen and a half larger heat signatures, most heading away rapidly now. I think the rest are casualties.”

“I can run a quick surveillance check to confirm if it’ll help,” Samantha offered, ruffling her feathers out as she stood up too. Embron nodded, and she took off into the trees, but the coyote was clearly keeping track of her on his scan just in case someone was left behind waiting for such a move.

“While she’s scouting, we should start to prepare our own plan for searching,” Jack spoke up as he dusted his clothes off. “And get the supplies distributed as we need to.” He kept his gun up and pointed to the forest, but turned to look between his fellow agents and others present instead of staying pinned on the trees. “It’s clear they’re not waiting now, so we can’t either. Whatever method we choose will have drawbacks; we need to decide which option is the lesser evil.”

“Because we can’t cover a lot of ground if we stay as a group,” Wolfard concluded as he stood up with Fangmeyer, nodding slightly in agreement with the rabbit, “and we’d lose a lot of stealth capacity. But we’ll be more vulnerable if we split up.”

“Yeah, and some of us are sort of not at all built for field work, mind you,” Mack added in, still dusting himself (and his hat) off and looking nervously at the trees. He’d stayed mostly behind a supply case the whole time, just barely managing to keep his own gun pointed out. “I still don’t know where I’m fitting in with actually coming along to here; I’ll slow down any group you set me in.”

Scarlet slid down off the jet and landed lightly before walking over to Mack, digging through one of her pockets and pulling out a pair of what looked like small floppy disks. She handed them to the wolf with a dead serious expression. “So we won’t have you go anywhere,” she said. “There’s the risk they’ll come back and blow the plane up after we leave to limit us to the supplies we can carry, so it’s not safe to just stay in or immediately around it, but link into these and you should have both digital signal and physical cloaks to help keep you from being found.” The ocelot looked down the length of the runway, and pursed her lips. “Find a place to hunker down and no one will find you, but you can still track and help direct us, and hopefully fudge the Primalists’ airwaves while you’re at it.”

Mack looked uncertainly down at the disks, then back up at Scarlet, and scowled. “Great. Just what I wanted, to sit alone in the middle of a rainforest.”

“So you would rather tag along with us and possibly be shot at again?”

The red wolf’s ears flattened and he glared at her, before looking down again at the disks and pulling out a tablet, tapping away on it and shuffling away as he muttered under his breath. Everyone caught the “I’m commandeering the drones with the rest of this then, period” however.

“Well, doesn’t he look chipper,” Samantha commented from above, having just exited from the forest and coming in to land as she watched Mack shuffle down the runway. Then her head cocked up to look over at Jack, Embron, and then Harrison. “Nobody alive stuck around, but there were a few bodies; one still moving, but he tried to shoot me so he isn’t anymore.” Her expression turned grimmer than it already was. “A few felids and a larger monitor lizard of some sort among them, but half of them at least were local singing dogs, looked like; the Primalists conscripted a tribe.”

Nearby, Vela groaned as she checked over her gun. “Fantastic,” she spat. “We’ve got innocents being used as pawns; holiday at home, feels like.” She snarled and looked up. “If anyone knows the local language that might help us sway some of them our way and get them to move to safety, but this sucks.” She smashed the magazine back into the gun’s handle and slammed it back into its holster. “So how are we going about the search?”

Dax raised his hand. “Sam and I can fly surveillance,” he said. “If that lizard shows up and blocks Mack’s use of satellites or our drones by chance then you still have our eyes in the sky.”

“Yes, but if you’re too far ahead or otherwise afield of any of us then you’ll immediately become easy targets for the Primalists, and we’re not great at protecting you from several miles off,” Jack countered.

“We’re all gonna be targets one way or another,” Sam also countered back, waving a wing in emphasis. “Point is, we need to cover ground, and we need to have at least a little protection to our backs, so maybe we’ll split into just two or three groups, one head in a westerly direction and another east and so on, and Dax and I can maintain a scout ahead a short ways and report back on regular.” She nodded toward the end of the runway, and twisted her wing to point a feather to one side. “Chances are there are a couple of roads or paths leading off the runway here, and they’ll have used whichever one leads to their base of operations to get supplies of their own out there, so we just pick a couple and more or less follow them.”

Nick raised a paw, and everyone turned toward him.

“Yes, Wilde?” Jack asked, regarding him with an apprehensive stare.

“Yeah, sorry to be worst case scenario but what will you do if they do somehow manage to get to me while we’re searching?” the fox asked. “There a way to get a tracker on me so you could just follow the signal right there, get Judy and I both out?”

“Not a chance,” Jack shot down, shaking his head. “And this among the reasons we implored you to stay behind. Never mind we don’t want you grabbed, period, but if you have any electronic devices on you Lotera knows we have Mack on our side and he’ll short them out, rendering that method dead in the water.”

“Well, not entirely,” Rocky interjected. Now all heads swiveled his way, as he continued checking over the weapons on his person.

“You have a tracking method that Lotera doesn’t know about?” Harrison queried curiously, his ears swiveling forward in time with his words.

Rocky shrugged nonchalantly, and glanced up. “Probably. Most folks are never taught about special but normally useless traits that other species have, so I doubt he knows about fox sense.”

“Wait, what?” Fangmeyer asked, the tiger’s head turning and staring at Rocky like she expected a punch line. “You wanna run that one by us again? Fox sense?”

“Case in point,” Rocky said dryly, smirking up at her and sweeping a paw her way. “Foxes can almost literally see the earth’s, and by extension other animals’, magnetic field lines. Way back when it was one of our hunting tools. Of course it’s normal for us so we don’t typically make a fuss about it, gets some vulpines steady jobs as guides and such, but in this case I already went ahead and modified Wilde’s field so I can keep an eye out in the magnetosphere for his signature. Embron should have noticed it too by now, Skye might also be able to see it.”

Embron groaned and slid a paw down over his muzzle. “Oh sure, now I feel like a blockhead,” he quipped. “I’m the one who’s supposed to remember the little biological quirks like that; thanks Rocky.”

“My pleasure. Not often I get one over you there, so I’ve got to enjoy it when I can.” The Arctic fox smirked, before looking back to Nick. “So, there should be at least one of each of us in however many groups we make, so no more than three. That way no matter where you go, if God forbid we do lose hold on you, there should be someone in that direction who can track you.”

“Then we need to separate out now and get searching,” Harrison spoke up again, looking at Jack. “Who’s going with who? We have parameters to work with now so let’s get in order.”

Jack crossed his arms, looking critically through each member in their group. After a couple of minutes he finally gave a short nod, and started pointing. “Alright, we’ll make three groups,” he announced. “Nick, you will be with Embron and Scarlet, Psitticoney, Wolfard and Fangmeyer, Ringston, and I. Rocky, you head out with Voltom, Pristovena, Lubella, Treba, and Morel, and the rest of you will be as one group: Wellinger, Tubolinez, Highwater, Forsythe, and Fangel. Our group will head northwest, Rocky’s to the east/northeast, and Skye’s to the south, along whatever paths you can find leading out from here. Make sure,” he enunciated sharply, “that you do not walk the paths themselves. That will make you easier targets. Skirt the sides, keep your coms on but at low volume, and as soon as anyone finds anything notify the others so we can reconvene and strike as one. We’ll keep Mallupe on the line at all times as well if we need cyber interference or to call in more backup now that we finally have Trevahe’s support.”

Jack paused and held his severe stare for several seconds, but after that brief moment he gave a sigh and deflated a little. “And though I know this is not a situation we want to consider,” he added more softly, “the fact stands that we do not know how long the Primalists have been here or how much influence they’ve had on the locals. Treat anyone you might encounter as a possible threat, avoid detection where you can, and be ready to use lethal force if necessary. We pull no punches: find the site, get Hopps out, and then level the place to the ground.”

Chapter Text

They squabble and quarrel and fight among themselves

Nasty little pests that they are

Sadly still they are more than mere annoyance

A lethal threat when they focus

The jungle is not their true home

But then, neither is it yours

So on uneven ground you both stand today

Though fewer cautions have they

Girdle yourself and keep wary of the shadows

Stand always defended to your back

These spiteful few seek to stab it after all

Foul as they are in their fight

The plane was cramped. Small, streamlined, and filled with nearly a dozen animals, it was stuffed to the brim.

Saber hated it, and Desireigh was taking great amusement in poking fun at him for it.

“You’d think somebody stuck the poor sabertooth in a sardine can,” the blue tree monitor teased. “And here I thought that ridiculous raccoon Chrysella was bad about claustrophobia. So ironic for her kind and all too…”

“It ain’t claustrophobia you irritating reptile!” the Moschus snapped, baring his tusks. “We’ve been stuck in here for hours, and I don’t like being around a bunch of other people on a good day let alone now. I don’t have a choice though, see, so I’m trying to ride it out until we land, but it’s really hard to do so when there’s a lizard sticking her tongue in my ear incessantly and it’s starting to grow painfully tempting to throw said lizard out the door!” His lips set in a hard line, and he burned a hole in the reptile to further his point.

Desireigh put on a pitying pout and reached over, patting Saber’s shoulder (knowing it was the sore one where one of the agents had gotten in a decent hit in the last fight, and relishing the tension increasing in him with every pat). “Aw, but you know I’d survive if you did that, and then I’d have a thirst for revenge to deal with myself. You’re online too sweetie.”

A thin knife appeared under her chin before the monitor could even think about flinching, and Saber bored into her with cold eyes that simply did not seem to belong on any ungulate’s face. “If you don’t have a throat as you leave the plane I doubt you’ll survive the trip to the ground then,” he growled, and his gaze flashed with a tinge of satisfaction when Desireigh finally showed a bit of uncertainty, leaning away from the blade.

A large talon came up and pulled the knife away from the lizard’s neck, letting her swallow and breathe easily again, and Saber turned warningly toward the eagle said talon belonged too.

“Come off it Saber,” Avery snapped before he could speak. “We’re almost there, and she’s necessary now especially to help tango with that damn cyber geek wolf they dug up. You can’t just lop her head off ‘cause it feels good.” She turned and saw the smirk forming on Desireigh’s lips in turn, and scowled with equal measure at the tree monitor. “And you, ya ruttin’ pest, I know you’re used to being able to drop in on anyone you want and irritate them online, and no repercussions, but welcome to the real world where we bite back and you don’t have a firewall to protect you. We all prefer working alone, so we’re all a little wearing a few ruffled feathers and we want to get this done so that we can either go about the lives we want to have or not have to worry about details of civility anymore.”

The eagle leaned down so her beak was an inch away from Desireigh’s snout, and her scowl deepened. “This little to-do has to work together at the moment ‘cause the agents are all hoping we’ll fight like brats, so grow up and put on a proper pair of big-girl trousers, learn when it’s funny and when it’s not, and shut your damn gab when it’s the latter. Capisce?”

The urge to make a comment about how ridiculous Avery looked when her feathers flared up around her head clearly struck Desireigh’s train of thought, but at the same time the monitor could feel the display scraping at some base instinct that made her want to hide. Ridiculous or not, it was a threat display, and it unnerved her enough to convince her to stay quiet.

Avery nodded satisfaction at Desireigh’s visible deflation, and shared a look with Saber; when this was all over, if it wasn’t just an immediate drop back to instinct for everyone, then they’d take care of Desireigh themselves. After all, if everything worked there would be no more red wolf to pit the monitor against, so she’d have little grand use to them anymore (there were always other expert burglars out there, after all). Of course, that notion wasn’t ever going to be something they’d voice out loud, but it did make them both feel a little better.

Avery looked away and back over across the rest of their crew then; it was only a half dozen or so other mammals and a Northern Gray Owl, what with the limited capacity they had for new recruitment on the fly and how many of their new contingent had been taken out by the agents or the Gifted Arctic fox at the airfield. However despite that, the eagle was feeling pretty good about their chances coming up in the next few days. After all, the agents and company had dual challenges of protecting the red fox and finding the rift facility to rescue the rabbit; all the eagle and her associates had to do was find the agents, and kill them. Then, either they would take the fox to the rift, or one of Ravelis’ conscripted tribal mammals or Lotera would. Avery scraped her talons anxiously across the metal (ignoring the winces of the others around her as the sound squealed painfully) at the thought; this was the hunt she was made for. The forest was her domain (even if her native jungle was temperate and not tropical), the trees her perfect place, and now she had more targets that she could just freely bring down instead of having to bother figuring out details of keeping them alive and carrying them back.

“Landing strip spotted, lowering the wheels and preparing to set down!” Arden called from up front.

All heads snapped toward the cockpit at the announcement, and Saber stood up, shouldering a rifle strap. “You all know what that means,” he said flatly. “It’ll be guards up the moment we land. Desireigh, make yourself useful for once and get us rigged into the base network, and scan for the fox and all the pests he brought with him.” He looked again at Avery, and nodded once. “We’ll check their plane.”

As everyone geared up, the little jet they were in touched down on the bumpy path and jostled them to a halt not twenty yards from the craft belonging to Samantha and Dax. Saber took a moment to wonder where the craft Lotera had used had gone as it was nowhere to be seen, before recalling Desireigh telling them she’d thrown off the Sparrow’s hack and taken it out of the way (possibly for Ravelis to use to leave the area; the big lizard was a pushover in his opinion, all talk but no fight), while Avery simply scowled at the plane their enemy had brought and regretted that they didn’t think about blowing up the planes at Overwatch while they’d been there. At least it would have kept the agents all further away for longer.

That thought didn’t last long however, quickly turning instead to a twisted sort of satisfaction. It was a lot easier to just kill the bastards when they were way out here, after all, especially since she knew backup wouldn’t be in grand supply; their agency was too busy with too many things all at once, their mistake. Plus, it wasn’t a bad looking craft the agents had brought in either. They could always hijack and use it themselves if everyone was still sapient after Lotera offed the rift connections, and it was certainly more spacious than their current jet.

Saber was the first one out the door once their jet had come to a complete halt. He didn’t want to stay stuck inside it a second longer, certainly not in proximity to Desireigh, and welcomed the blast of hot rotting-vegetation soaked air that slammed into him as he practically jumped out the door. Not that he was stupid in his exit though; arms were up with folding shields held out the moment he dropped from the stairs, but when no bullets or other projectiles greeted him after a few moments he decided it was safe enough to focus back on the other plane.

“Looks like they’ve moved off already,” he called back, not looking as Avery flapped down next to him.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Avery quipped, scooting forward and flapping over to the door of the other jet. “If I were them I’d start searching right away too, and get as much distance from open deathtraps like this runway as possible. A contingent behind maybe, but that would be practically sacrificing them. Probably won’t find anyone in their plane for same reasons; too bloody easy to just bomb it to pieces if they were still inside.”

“Well, one can still have a little hope they left someone behind to watch it, if for nothing else than to get the fun started.”

The big raptor smirked at the notion, but didn’t respond again. Instead, as soon as Saber was ready with a gun drawn she reached up and yanked the door open, ignoring again the sound of squealing metal as locks gave way and ripped in her grip but flattening herself back against the wall of the craft in case any surprise attacks were ready to come flying out the opening. When none did, she carefully stuck her head around and took a sniff through the space; predatory bird as she was, she had a better sense of smell than most other avians. Nothing terribly recent odor-wise greeted her either though, so she shared a glance with the Moschus and carefully climbed up the steps, Saber immediately behind her.

A very short search through the cabin and storage hold confirmed the agents had left the plane entirely empty, save for a few supplies they theoretically could come back for (Saber just saw them as bait, and grabbed one of the packs in the hold). It was somewhat disappointing for both of them but not quite unexpected. A shared shrug, and they both exited again to be greeted by a slew of what had to be curses in a language neither of them happened to know. They were emanating from Desireigh, who had also exited their jet with the rest and was currently spitting vulgarities a mile a minute at the foldout screen she held, her claws a blur of swiping and tapping upon it.

“Problem?” Saber cooed, enjoying the lizard’s frustrations. He knew whatever it was probably didn’t bode good news for him either, but he’d take the satisfaction where he could.

Desireigh’s head whipped up to bury visual daggers into his nose, and her lips curled back to show her rows of serrated teeth. “Sparrow’s got a nest here already, and he’s been busy,” she spat. “Signals are bouncing everywhere; he’s covered the whole area in an interference net off just about every damn satellite and cell tower on the island! I can’t pinpoint where he is, where any of his team is; hell, I can’t even get into our own damn system right now!” Her tail lashed out, catching an unfortunate golden cat in the shin and making him yowl, and Desireigh marched up to the mercenary assassin she was addressing to spin her tablet around, showing them a motley mess of codes and bars Saber couldn’t possibly begin to read, though alongside one small map he and Avery could.

“Everything in the valley here is out,” the monitor reiterated, pulling the device back to her and typing away again. “It’ll take me an hour at best just to clear the interference enough to get a firm lock with the base, without the Sparrow managing to follow the signal himself. That, or I need to get there directly and plug in so I can monitor everything and get us all connected. Don’t say it Saber; I see the joke in your eyes.”

Saber, for his part, decided for once maybe he could let the joke about a monitor being a monitor slide, much as this development was turning into a possible serious issue for them. “Won’t he have a way to track anyone who heads directly there too though?” he did ask however, skepticism raising a brow above his left eye. “An hour’s a lot, but it’s better than just showing them the way.”

“No duh,” Desireigh quipped, rolling her eyes in a manner suggesting she felt like she was talking to a toddler. Folding one paw under the other arm, she waved the screen around with the free one. “I can throw out my own interference web to entangle us in his within a short space, so even satellite images would be scrambled and just see forest, and we can travel undetected whoever takes me. But decision needs to happen now so I know what codes to start plugging in.”

“Fine, then let’s go,” Avery said, ruffling her feathers. “Saber, you know the dig, so split ‘em up and get hunting. I’ll rally back from the other way after I drop Slinky here off. ‘Kay?”

“Sounds fine with me,” Saber returned, spinning the gun still in his hand and holstering it. In its place he pulled out what looked like a pair of clawed gloves, stepping them on over his hooves and turning to point them at the others that had come with them. “Alright, everyone keep their coms on for when we’re linked in,” he announced (though it came out more like a warning), “and at low volume, the lowest you can still hear them at so we don’t give ourselves away. They’ll still work with close-range groups right now though even with interference so use them with your party. Arden, you take these four, look for anyone who headed south, and Owlene with those four to the west. I’m heading north, and Avery will swing back from the west when she’s done with the drop-off to help work my area. And don’t forget the damn signal for the locals, otherwise you’re targets to them to. Clear?”

As he gave out the orders, Avery leaned down and gave a sharp jerk of her head to Desireigh. “Get on,” she ordered, “and one word about your getting a ride and I’ll drop you from 80 feet when we get there. Savvy?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Desireigh quipped back as she scrambled up onto the eagle’s back. “I’ll be busy anyway. Gotta get the codes running while we fly, and figure out what all that stupid wolf has thrown out here. Where he is too if I can manage; skewer him for me if you find him, will you?”

“Oh I’ll pick him clean, but it won’t be for you.”

He didn’t dare move a muscle until they’d all disappeared from sight, and even then Mack chose to fly out a couple of the mini drones that he’d “commandeered” first to check that the coast was in fact clear, and that the jets were truly vacated. He was glad none of the Primalists had spotted him, which told him the cloaks Scarlet had given him did in fact work like a charm as he wasn’t that far off the runway, and neither had the antagonists spotted any of the drones hidden away up amongst the branches of the treetops nearby.

Unseen, unheard, Mack had had all the channels open on them though, which meant he’d managed to get recordings and a direct view of everything the Primalists had said and done after stepping off their own jet. A grin of victory found its way onto his face when Desireigh had lost her temper too; he was already set up and ready to play, while she now had to figure out how to catch up. With an ever-changing software screen blanketing the area in interference it would be hard ball for her to win one over on him now too. If there was one thing Mack was good at, it was learning on the fly every tech weakness he could come across and how to exploit it. Plus, with no other job to play beyond running relay for the other teams (a simple matter) and managing the line he had with Matista back in Zootopia (where the sloth was helping Trevahe work out the red tape she should have been dealing with this whole time for their mission, also a relatively simple matter), this was Mack’s moment to have fun, and have fun he would.

But first, a confirmation that all the Primalists had in fact left was necessary, a thorough check, and then he needed to alert the others of who was heading where. Dragging a finger across the tablet screen he held, the wolf maneuvered one of the drones out of the forest and toward the little jet the Primalists had brought along. He’d had a notion to send one out to follow Avery too, but there was too much risk of losing the craft either to the eagle herself or the close range and the advantage that afforded Desireigh in taking it over, and the last thing he wanted was to hand her an opportunity especially now.

They’d shut and locked the doors of course, but that wasn’t much of a problem; the little hovering craft just outside had a couple of nifty built-in tools for breaking in. A quick scan of the lock system determined it was entirely manual, not electronic, so with another flick of a finger (and a quick check to make sure Desireigh wasn’t somehow monitoring the jet door itself for intruders; she had something on the plane of course, which was among reasons why he hadn’t been able to just send it out of the sky on the way there, but the lizard wasn’t looking hard at the jet now), Mack had the drone drop out a thin, wiry arm that squeezed in through the side of the door and flipped open the lock, allowing it to be pulled open with ease. The drone dipped inside and scanned around it, flying up to the cockpit and then back down to the base of the cabin, and found nothing. Just like his group had, it appeared all the Primalists had headed out as well.

Mack’s grin grew further. For once, things actually were working out to their advantage now; the Primalists almost certainly wouldn’t return to the jet now that they were out and on the hunt, and they’d left Dax and Samantha’s plane alone too (other than stealing a couple of the supplies within, he’d noticed). That left Mack with an opportunity, and he was taking it; after all, to his annoyance Lotera’s jet had been taken from under his nose somehow by Desireigh so he needed payback. A quick scan once more with another drone around the forest perimeter to make sure no one was watching still, and he got up and made a mad dash for the jet.

This was where he learned why Scarlet hadn’t had all the agents and others with them wear one of the visual cloaks to help them disappear in the forest; while it was still running and he was on the move, it constantly tried to reset itself with the area around him, producing an ever-shifting worldview and a fair bit of disorientation both from his end as well as for anyone who might have seen him (and he was glad no one was around, both for avoiding being immediately spotted by an enemy as well as avoiding his group seeing him trip over himself multiple times). But, he made it to the door of the Primalists’ jet and pulled it open, climbing in and making his way to the cockpit. As soon as he sat down the cloak settled and reestablished its settings properly, the world no longer shifting around him, and Mack pulled his tablet back out again. First thing first, he activated his link to the headsets everyone else was wearing.

“It’s Mack with an update,” He said quietly, glancing out the windows. “The other Primalists just landed and headed out, all of them. Avery took Desireigh to their base, and while I wouldn’t trust the direction she followed exactly, they headed west-northwest. Two other groups are out, each with an airborne member: one with that Spectral bat we know about and the other a gray owl. The bat’s heading south, probably will encounter your group Skye if they catch up with you, and the owl is heading east toward Rocky’s group. Saber headed north, so he’s coming your way Embron. They left both jets untouched though so I’m gonna commandeer them both.”

“Take care if you do,” Skye’s voice replied first, barely above a whisper. “That monitor probably set a booby trap in their plane’s systems, and they could return. If they checked our jet they probably noticed the extra supplies.”

“Well aware; I’ll take it step by step. And I’m gonna keep surveillance out, got enough drones to cover this area and maybe send a couple out toward you guys. Desireigh’s not in the other systems around here yet, so it won’t be as hard to redirect her attentions away from here. Good luck out there.”

Mack clicked the connection “off” and swung his attention back to the drones. It would do no good to be inside without eyes outside so he directed two of the others amongst the trees to land on top of the two jets, cameras on them facing out in every direction and motion sensors armed. Now with a 360 degree view and alerts for anything that moved at the ready, the red wolf turned his attention back to the drone still hovering inside the aircraft with him. Access to the computer system wouldn’t be difficult, and so long as he treaded carefully, he knew it was possible to get in under whatever snare the lizard might have already set up, and plant what would either be a nasty surprise for their foes if they came back, or an advantage for his team.

Skye glanced up at Dax, who’d landed on a nearby branch to join the discussion he knew was coming after Mack’s update. “It won’t take long before Desireigh at least gets most of their systems together,” she said dourly, “and as much as I want to believe Mack’s good enough and got a big enough head start to keep her busy, our luck never holds like that and I’m sure she’ll get in a lucky break somewhere and snag some hints on where we’re all at. And once she’s able to coordinate everyone on the Primalists’ side, Mack said basically every group after us has an aerial contingent with them.”

“Good; I could use someone to beat up on my turf,” Dax drawled, cracking his knuckles and rolling a knot out of his shoulders.

“There is some great irony in an otter claiming the sky as his domain,” Forsythe commented, the leopardess Trevahe loaned crossing her arms and quirking an eyebrow up at the mustelid on the branch.

“Ottsel,” Dax corrected a little overly fervently as he pushed a button and let his artificial wings flare back out. “And we all break the rules a little somewhere here, not like I stand out that much in this group.” Turning slightly, he looked back down at Skye. “I’ll head back up and keep scouting; which way do we want to steer? Still down near the same path we’ve been trailing?”

Skye shook her head and wiped her brow (much as she didn’t want to admit it, the tropical heat definitely was a bit much for her, Arctic species that she was. How did Embron love it so much?). “Mack said the eagle took off more westward,” she reminded, and turned to point more or less southwest. “More likely than not she didn’t leave the runway in a straight beeline for their base, of course, but if she happens to be swinging southward then she won’t have wasted energy to go in entirely the opposite direction of where it’s located to try and throw us off, just enough to not give a direct transect.” She paused, and regarded the forest ahead with a displeased scowl. “We’ll cut through and find the next track from the runway that heads southwest.”

The ottsel nodded confirmation, and the soft hum of the engines on his wings started up. Engineer that she was, Skye knew that once they got out of this she’d have to ask him how he got them to be so powerful, yet run so relatively silently. “I’ll try and pinpoint a good option then and direct you guys,” he said. “Chat in a bit!” Then he was off, disappearing up and away through the canopy.

Skye couldn’t help but snort slightly at the practically carefree attitude the little mammal was carrying despite the circumstances, before refocusing and turning back to the rest in her team, keeping her ears up and swiveling to listen for any signals they might get of danger approaching. “Alright, Fangel, you’ve probably got the best nose in our group,” she pointed at the gray wolf among them, one of the other agents along with Forsythe who’d been loaned directly from Trevahe. “Tell us immediately if you pick up any mammalian or monitor lizard scent traces that we don’t. We want a heads-up both for any Primalist groups who find us, as well as natives.”

“I really hope we don’t run into the latter though,” Vela interjected, adjusting the grip she had on her pistol as she said it. “Anyone here who can speak the local languages at all?”

When no one answered, Skye shook her head and also readjusted the pack and vest she was wearing. “Not surprised,” she grumbled, affirming the same feelings the Maned Wolf had. “Well, prepare for the worst, hope for the best, but nobody start getting blinded by optimism. Let’s move out!”

Chapter Text

Scatter through the game board

Find your most sheltered glen

Play as if you can’t be found

Or you’ll lose everything then

They’re already on the trail

Move faster, as the hourglass drains

Play deception with close hands

Take every chance to make gains

Because in this one game it’s true

The world is on the line

If they win the searcher’s score

Blood will be the ending sign

Rocky’s skin was crawling, and it wasn’t because of the ants that kept falling onto him and the others from the dripping wet vegetation around them.

Rather, it was a sensation coming back from his old military days, the feeling of being crown deep in enemy territory and somehow knowing you were being watched. The worst part was, he felt he already knew who he was being watched by, and the knowledge didn’t make the sensation any more tolerable. No footsteps or out of place scents were reaching his ears or nose, and movement beyond leaves in the occasional weak draft was nonexistent around them. That level of stealth in this kind of environment could only be pulled off by someone who had lived there all their lives.

It had to be a native, or several, the Arctic fox had long since concluded, and if they decided to engage that meant he and those with him would be stuck either fighting and likely killing mammals or reptiles that were probably relatively innocent in this mess, or praying that one of the agents present knew the language the natives spoke and could convince them to step away from the fighting or rebel against the Primalists. Rocky knew one of the New Guinea tongues, and he could bet among the agents there might be one or two other shaky language bases for the area to work with, but it was an unstable hope. Each tribe, after all, possibly had their own unique dialect, and there were at least dozens of groups that still lived more primitively on the island.

The road they had been skirting had traveled more or less east off the runway, before angling north between a pair of low mountain ridges. Rocky hoped they were going at least adjacent in the right direction, or that the mountains opened back up soon for a more straight shot to where they needed to go if not (and with the direction the Sparrow had said Avery was going, that seemed the more likely option). But, he knew the construction of the earth was not set up with the whim of every individual animal on it in mind. Getting the whole group over a ridge and away if anything went haywire would be exhausting too, and leave himself vulnerable afterward. Not the best thing if a fight was to be nearby.

A fight seemed soon to occur too; one look at Harrison told the tod that it wasn’t just his currently hyperactive senses that were picking up an imbalance. The jaguar was definitely more on edge than just the search alone would have called for, and he met Rocky’s gaze with a confirmation: he thought they were being stalked as well.

Words were unwise at best right then, leaving them planning contingencies and countermoves silently and trying to figure out how to deal with their followers. A confrontation was far from a goal; if the natives were an uninvolved tribe just tracking them to observe then there was no harm, and if they were hunting them in order to locate the agents for the Primalists to deal with, then trying to force a conflict would see them vanish without a trace into the forest, and any actual fight would eat up precious time. Losing their trail would be just as if not harder to manage though. Rocky had plenty of tricks and the agents all had at least some if not an extensive amount of seasoned field experience in vanishing into the wild, but they all knew nothing, but nothing, surpassed the ability of an indigenous tribe to follow anyone and anything on their own land.

For now, an attempt to at least maintain distance and perhaps a sense of hidden strength among them was the silent agreement. Half their contingent was relatively small –Pristovena the pygmy hog, Morel the spotted quoll, and Lubela the springbok- so they were kept to the interior of the party while the others ringed them, and postures were kept stiffly confident even if they didn’t all feel it.

The sensation never left the fox’s neck fur though, and Rocky fought the itch to drain a bit of energy into mapping the living things around them with an infrared or bio-filter hologram. Better to store if for a fight, or direct a bit as he already was to just enhancing his already keen senses.

Ever along the road they traveled, not actually on the path itself of course but making their way through smaller trails and clearings about thirty yards adjacent. The few times Harrison had cut away to check the track itself though hadn’t been very enlightening, or promising. Overgrown, not much in the way of discernible recent wheel tracks, and no one had picked up any helpful scents either, but then the rainforest could have taken care of that aspect days ago. Once or twice Morel had scurried up a tree to try and get a vantage of their location too, and similarly nothing yet had appeared.

Mack had noted though that in his aerial surveillance through the satellite imaging he was most prominently using (when he could through his own interference web) there were a few structures built along this path, and a few other larger clearings here and there that could be equally promising if whatever the Primalists had constructed near the rift was subterranean. But, the same still set also for the other two teams dispatched in other directions. Old buildings everywhere, some older and more primitive than others, and mystery open spots in the jungle that could be made by any sort of disturbance.

At least none of the known Primalists had shown up yet, a small blessing Rocky decided, but nobody dared voice that for fear of that small sliver of luck running out.

And so, the travel stayed stagnant. Minutes stretched like hours, and eventually hours like days, ever with that same feeling crawling on their backs of being watched but no threat yet making itself known. Both Rocky and Harrison were beginning to reach that point of being so put off by it that they were hoping something would change, just so they’ve have something they could do about it.

Arrival at the first rather obviously artificial clearing along the track finally broke the monotony, and with relief that they had a space to investigate the posse of agents spread out, ears high and guns drawn as they assessed the border first for hidden surprises. Nothing revealed itself there, and Rocky stationed himself, Harrison, and the wildebeest Treba equidistant around the edges, Lubella and Morel a short ways within to watch the skies and their backs, while Pristovena began to systematically check the clearing for traps or hidden entrances to caves or bunkers (pockmarked as some of the mountains in this place were with such holes in the ground, the lower slopes could be as well).

It was somewhat odd watching the little hog scurry through the grass, poking at things and rooting around. Rocky had his eyes and ears swiveling in all directions, but couldn’t help anyway tracking the smaller mammal in his progress at the same time. Pristovena was their veritable expert on the topic after all, and the wild environment seemed to be no less different to him than testing sensors and alarms on a mid-city facility. A long pole felt through the tufts of grass and vine tangles in front of him, seeking triggers to mines, snares, or other possibly lethal traps, while a sensor array he carried scanned the ground for non-native structures and electrical systems.

A third of the way across the field the pole Pristovena was carrying hit a small branch, and the branch snapped upward, carrying with it an interlocking series of spiked bars made of bamboo and thorns. Everyone around the clearing jerked in shock, freezing for several moments as the disturbing snare clanked and shuddered from its sudden release. Had anyone gotten caught in that thing, armor and vests or not they would have been skewered in a dozen places; even Pristovena, the one who’d purposefully set it off, stared at it for several seconds with disturbed eyes and rapidly beating heart.

Nothing showed up to investigate the trap however, no new sounds or smells that anyone could detect, so without any warnings coming up from his compatriots the hog did not wait long to resume his search (though he gave the disturbing snare a wide berth). After another ten minutes, the clearing was covered thoroughly, and he signaled to the others an all clear. The rest moved to meet him in the center (Harrison and Morel, the closest ones to the one trap that had been triggered, also gave the thing plenty of space), and Rocky knelt down for a moment as the rest kept watch around him and spread out a rough topographical map of the area that they’d been able to print out and store away before their arrival.

“We’re roughly here,” he said softly, pointing to the head of a valley that split in two following the forks of a stream between the mountains. “The peaks rise up ahead and to the right of us, but still a ridge as well between us and the bigger valley to the west here. Mack said most of the structures he saw were along the stream and path forking this way,” his finger followed the northwest arm of the valley, “which with Avery’s original trajectory is probably our best bet anyway. Trouble is the forest will grow denser too, especially as we hit the uplands and cloud forest areas, and visibility will drop from the clouds that will eventually move in there.”

“Then we’ll stay closer together to remain within visual range of each other, and move slower,” Morel offered. He gestured up at the sky, which was blanketed already in puffy clouds and beginning to display the characteristic hues of evening. “Most of us might have more advantage come nightfall too; Treba and Lubella have their goggles but the rest of us have natural nocturnal vision. We don’t have to stop moving when the sun goes down.”

“He’s got a fair point, “Harrison agreed, kneeling down and tracing the map (though not without checking over his shoulder again as the sensation on the back of his neck briefly grew stronger. Nothing showed though). “Only problem is as it gets darker the locals will also gain more advantage with their knowledge of the land. However, and feel free to disagree if you think I’m wrong, but I’m not certain anymore that we have much to worry about from the natives directly.”

“Actually I was getting the same notion,” Rocky agreed, nodding slightly as his head came up to look around again. “I’m almost sure at this point someone is following us, but if Lotera and whoever else he’s working with here had managed to convince them to join them fully that we ought to be eliminated, I think we’d have been treating arrow wounds and poison darts within an hour of leaving the runway. The ones that were with the Primalists during the attack when we landed may have gotten spooked by our last hurrah in that conflict, so they might just lead the actual problem mammals to us rather than join in again in being part of the problem.”

“Don’t forget the only ones Psitticoney saw were Singing Dogs too,” Treba added. “We might find other tribes in the area who have no knowledge of the fight here. Or, we might cross a boundary and disrupt someone’s territory which won’t be any better than fighting the ones the Primalists are using.”

Unfortunate, but true. Rocky let out a quiet sigh and resisted the urge to drag a paw down his muzzle, rolling up the map and standing back up as he tucked it away. “It’s a risk we’re gonna have to take,” he said, head turning toward the tree line on the north side of the clearing. “Tonight we’ll keep tracking the path along the valley, and if nothing shows up we cut though and over the ridge to get a better vantage point. Keep your goggles or glasses on if you have them, collars up no matter how hot it gets, and tails tucked.”

Turning, the fox carefully picked his steps out of the clearing again, the others spreading out on either side of him once more as they entered the trees. There was a particularly large one cloaked in vines just ahead of him, and for a moment Rocky had the notion of seeing if this one was any taller than the rest and possibly provide a good off-ground view of the area. However they were currently too low in the valley for it to likely show much beyond the faint line between the trees nearby where the old road cut, so he shrugged off the idea of climbing the tree and instead stepped around it with his ears high.

He halted barely half a second later, eyes wide in shock and growing concern, when he found himself nose-to-face with a snake coiled around a low branch, faintly striped body blending with the moss and bark, and its small, blue-black eyes fixed on him only an inch from his snout.

“Shit.”

Nocturnal as she naturally was (at least during summer weather), there were a dozen reasons Skye could list right off the top of her head why field stints in the dark were among her least favorite parts of a mission. The tropical environment they were in now only added to the insult, beads of sweat running through and soaking her fur under her suit and forcing her to find as many safe pools of water as she could along her search to stay hydrated and at least a touch cooler. The moisture she was pouring off was also mixing in with the dirt and paints she’d had to use to color her blindingly white natural tone so as not to stick out so prominently in the forest, creating a muddy film that made her fur mat and clump. So uncomfortable.

The darkness that had begun to settle in at least brought a slight amount of relief from the heat, but the Arctic vixen was already soaked to the bone and humidity did not permit drying out. She knew the other canid in her party, Fangel, wasn’t doing too much better either. But, the mission was at hand and far more important than their own personal comfort.

The last rays of the sun were only just now vanishing fully, and even with a half-moon on its way up soon the thick canopy of the jungle meant there was next to no light at all on the forest floor where most of them were. Only Dax had the advantage of being able to cruise above the canopy where light was more plentiful, but he still had to duck below to scan with any efficiency with the infrared goggle attachments  he had on him, and that left him at risk there too.

And speaking of the odd little mustelid, Skye was beginning to grow concerned. He hadn’t reported back from his last scouting mission in nearly 40 minutes, stretching the time he was usually gone nearly twice over. There was a chance he’d found something, but then she would have expected at least a radio signal relay of some sort. Nothing had come from Mack either, who probably should have been able to focus through his own tech barrier over the area to see if there was anything in their immediate vicinity worth nothing. Skye could only hope Dax had simply found a second path and was following it a ways before returning, or something similar.

The situation was just feeling off though. She hadn’t gotten any readings on the sensors she was wearing, but the fox knew in a habitat this dense it didn’t mean much. She glanced to her right, where she was just within visual range of the leopardess Forsythe. The big cat was only just visible to her at the distance they were split by, but Forsythe nevertheless caught her movement and looked over as well, silently conveying her assessment: nothing seen or heard yet beyond the nighttime songs of the rainforest animals, but she wasn’t liking the situation much better than Skye was. Skye could see Forsythe’s tail twitching by her legs, one anxious tick few cats ever seemed to be able to control at all times, and that told her no scents were coming through to clear up the picture either. She reached up carefully and keyed on her headset.

“Vela, Fangel, you picking up anything?”

“Nothing but a bad feeling,” Vela replied in a whisper, Fangel mirroring her sentiment only a moment later.

Skye pursed her lips and peered over her shoulder into the gloom, gripping the pistol in her paw tighter. Crickets and beetles chirped and clicked behind practically every dripping leaf hanging off the tangled trunks and shrubs, dampening any other sounds that might have filtered through the understory and giving the fox the feeling of having put on sound machine headphones. A worrying thought (just the latest of many) ran through her mind and she looked up, half expecting to find the glimmer of eye shine somewhere in the branches high above their heads, or a dark shape flitting through those same said branches that wouldn’t fit Dax’s profile. Still nothing, but the sense wasn’t abating.

“Shift west another thirty yards,” the vixen ordered quietly through the headset. “Ease away from the road, come together a touch more. Start looking for more defensible positions as well, cover for our sides and from above.”

With a silent obedience immediately from the one agent she could see directly (Forsythe), Skye began to pick her way also slowly in the direction of her compatriots. She ignored as best she could the brush of leaves and spider webs across her limbs and face, trying to forget the more disturbing and macabre aspects of Embron’s nature monologues about the tropics (that coyote was truly fascinated with the most dangerous and unknown features of the wild, and loved making others uncomfortable talking about the things he liked, but at the moment that habit was backfiring with them now in one of those dangerous places). Every insect’s call or distant cry of a non-sentient bird stuttered her steps in overarching caution, a serious problem on a mission so time-sensitive.

Something cracked.

Skye froze, pistol swinging up in the direction of the sound and all of her senses reeling into overdrive. Her eyes strained to pick up details in the ink-black shadows that even her fully dilated nocturnal pupils couldn’t see through, ears twitched to face every rustle, but not another part of her dared even flinch. Nearby, Forsythe had also followed her lead and gone motionless, the reaction following down the short line and all of them stood as if part of the earth itself, waiting for something to reveal itself.

Just as every time before though, nothing did. Nonetheless several minutes passed before Skye finally lowered the gun, ignoring the slight ache that had developed from holding that position for so long. Muscle fatigue would fade shortly anyway, and there were bigger concerns at present.

“Everyone gather,” she said as softly as she could while still being heard. “Dax hasn’t checked in for a while; Dax, can you hear us still?”

No answer, and a chill struck Skye’s spine. She spotted Fangel, and then finally Vela materialize between the trees, each sharing her discomfited expression. Unless Mack’s cover had failed, some response should have been given.

“Dax? Copy, please,” Skye tried again.

This time, there was a click, but only a second or two of static followed before it cut out. Now a hard knot twisted her insides as Skye tried a different tactic, switching to their second line.

“Mack, tell me it’s your net in the way here please.”

“Not m…Skye,” the red wolf’s voice immediately returned, though choppy from a failing signal and full of disgust. “Desir…plugged into…system, starting to get…way. Working on…should get ready…attack.”

The Arctic vixen bit back a curse and shifted her pistol to one paw, drawing out a dart with the other as she resumed full focus on the forest around her. Desireigh had gotten into her system and started playing her side of the game was what she had gathered, and the interference, especially if it was just local, meant she might have gotten a temporary glimpse at where Skye and her group were located and was fighting to keep them from communicating. One of the true Primalist teams was probably closing in then.

Then the earpiece came alive again. “Skye! Getting through yet?”

“Dax, finally!” Skye exclaimed in half-whisper. “How far are”-

“Coming in, but we’ve got a tail!” Dax cut her off. “Damn bat’s popped up here once so far, may or may not have located me with his sonar chatter, so whoever he’s with is probably on the way too. Taking roundabout to hopefully throw him off if he did spot me!”

“Find cover if you can,” Skye ordered. “Mack said Desireigh may have already pinged us, and we can handle a ground group.”

“Not running from a fight, Wellinger. We’ll take every paw we’ve got in play, no ifs, buts, or maybes.”

Internally Skye groaned, but she hadn’t really expected a different response. These were friends of Rocky and the Canistons after all, and she’d yet to meet one that wasn’t stubborn as an ox (no offense to oxen). Instead, she focused on the others. “Ring up and weapons out.”

They had already begun to even before she gave the order, but the group did shuffle toward the base of a larger tree as well, protected at least on one side so they could keep a better eye out and above.

Full stillness within the forest returned save the local insects, with all the agents listening both for any approaching paws and the peculiar sound of Dax’s soft engines. The lack of light felt constricting, suffocating, and the bugs and dripping sweat began causing itches and uncomfortable spots on them all, but not a one moved to relieve the discomfort lest the motion give them away.

They didn’t have to wait long this time however. Between the trees a gunshot echoed, soon followed by the blurry image of Dax swerving between branches as he headed for, and then inexplicably cut around behind them. Skye hoped it was a move intended to misdirect whoever had been holding that discharged weapon.

Another gunshot echoed from an even larger barrel, none of their own, and the sound of a shattering sapling very near to Forsythe’s left flank replied to the report. They’d been found, and now the stage was set for an all-out brawl again.

Mack had sent one drone out to try and catch up with Rocky’s group to give them the aerial surveillance the other two teams had on paw already, even if keeping it low to the trees to minimize the risk of detection meant it would be another couple hours before it reached them, but now he was seriously contemplating sending a couple more out after a system weapons check was done to try and assist the other teams further too.

Hunkered still in the cockpit of the Primalist jet, he’d tracked the progress of them all while trying simultaneously to pinpoint where the Primalist parties also were, but with all the radio and satellite disruption components he was running and with a lack of any good infrared systems on local satellites or towers to use to his advantage (what he wouldn’t have given for a good LIDAR scan in the area right now), as soon as Desireigh had apparently gotten herself hooked up and ready to battle even the radio channel sweeps he’d been able to make had gone dark as a lead. Now, he was in a constant code war with the lizard, pushing and pulling in the cybersphere to try and keep her well away from the channels they were using and attempt to get back into the ones the Primalists had picked out.

Unfortunately, Desireigh had gotten in at least one lucky shot already. She’d booted Mack out of one satellite for about 45 seconds, long enough for her to get a singular radio pin on Skye’s group and cut into their communications, scrambling them. Mack had no question that she’d also immediately relayed the info to the nearest hunting party, so he’d poured on the pressure (leaving the one drone out to autopilot itself for now) to get the satellite back and knock the monitor away from peeking in on Skye’s group again.

The damage was done though, so all he could do further for them was give a relay to Skye when the fox had called him to complain about Desireigh’s trick. Hopefully she’d gotten in enough of his words over the static still present to understand.

Mack knew the fight for any one group could swing either way if the Primalists were equally matched (and he prayed fervently that the menagerie Avery and Saber had hired on were not as specially trained as they themselves), so as soon as he was certain he had another decent hold against his reptilian opponent he was not going to wait on sending out the other drones he had to spare. If they were brought down in the process it wouldn’t surprise him, but hopefully it would provide an edge somewhere in the process. What they could really use, though, were heavier forces to sweep the jungle and overwhelm Lotera and his associates.

Thinking about numbers brought up two other thoughts: Mack realized he still needed to find out who was providing the finances the Primalists had been using, as whoever it was certainly wasn’t the Thylacine, not with how off-map he stayed. Even trying to trace the codes for the jet he was sitting in (after a very satisfying clean system hack; Desireigh would go ballistic if it happened that she ever got back around to checking on the plane) had turned up naught so far for purchases and origin.

The other thought was to patch back in to Matista again, across the channel he’d made sure first and foremost was hack-free and clear through the interference.

“Yes, Mack?”

“Afternoon Justin. Or mid-morning as it probably is over there. Any merciful words of good fortune from Trevahe yet?”

He could almost feel the silent sigh from the sloth on the other end. “She, just, began, negotiations with, New, Guinea, Prime, Minister, James, Maegpye, to, permit, forces, into, the, country, on a, large, scale. But, it, will, be, a, few, hours, before, they, finish. Trevahe, did, tell, me, though, that, she, has, already, directed, two, more, teams, of, ten, to, land, at, other, strips, to, prepare. They, should, be, there, in, about, a, day, or, so.”

A day. The red wolf resisted the urge to claw something; even that was possibly too long, and even once they landed those teams would take at least half a day or more from any other runways or ports to make it to them. But time was as it was, and he had to hope they could all hold up and hold out until then.

“Keep me in the loop,” he said, and cut out, turning focus back on his main screen. Desireigh was making another push, trying to breach the cyber net and hack the radio lines to find Skye and her group again, so the wolf quickly tapped in a few more code streams to reinforce the blockade against her over the com system. Then he changed focus and looked northwest, checking in on the team with Nick.

All of the teams out there were important, of course, and held either friends of Mack’s or all good people he could get behind willingly, but he couldn’t deny that he kind of thought of this particular gaggle as the most pivotal. Half a Catalyst pair in the form of Nick was there of course, as well as Mack’s own friends Embron and Scarlet and the agents those two had vouched for more times than Mack could care to count, and two cops the wolf had also followed over the web and knew he could support fully. All their records were online too, after all; every single detail.

That team was making incredible progress too (little surprise though with a pair of Gifteds and an Archangel among the searchers), though that meant they were also getting a lot further away from either his support with a drone or the other teams. Trade-offs; trade-offs everywhere. None of the preliminary scans Mack had managed to make on the area earlier had been able to pinpoint any real interesting structures near them, or any of the other groups for that matter, that looked any more promising than an old tribal hut or abandoned military shack either.

A bright red alert signal flashed across the computer showing the region’s map, and Mack’s codes for the interference web, and the wolf felt his fur stand on end. Sitting up ramrod straight (and ignoring the wavering world as the cloak around him shifted to compensate), his fingers flew over the keys to access info on the problem.

It wasn’t a minor issue either; half the signal redirects and jamming frequencies, as well as a large chunk of the direct access codes he’d set up for local stations and passing satellites, had gone dark. It was as if they’d never existed, never been written in, and the jungle was for even just a few seconds that much more open to any eyes that wanted to peer across it. Whatever it was hadn’t been from Desireigh either; a rapid sweep of frequencies now unchecked by interference allowed him to pin the locations of two of the Primalist groups that had gone out to search for his teams (the one that, as he had feared, was now practically on top of Skye’s party, and another that was tracking but still a fair ways from Rocky and company).

Somehow though Mack knew that bode worse overall for them. Desireigh would not willingly give up even a touch of the protective cover she’d had without a good reason, and at least one that he could think of was a chance for her to find one or more of the agents’ teams when she knew she couldn’t hack into their locations easily on her own. Mack knew immediately too which ones she was really looking for, and for whom.

It wasn’t more than another three seconds before the wolf had built up and slammed a cyber firewall between his frequencies and the Primalists’ to ensure no one was slipping in to listen, and then he opened the channel to Jack’s team. “Embron, Jack?” he hissed into his microphone, “You copy?”

“Something wrong Mack?” Jack’s voice replied first.

Mack nodded, before realizing the rabbit couldn’t see him. “Yeah, big time. Something just squeaky-cleaned half the jamming frequencies both me and that stupid lizard had set up; means I got a glimpse of a couple of their teams, but Desireigh probably also got a look at yours and Rocky’s. She already had a glance earlier at Skye’s general location despite my best attempts to keep her completely locked out. And I don’t think it was a third computer genius that did that wipe either; it was too fast, too clean.”

“So Lotera’s still out on the hunt, no surprise, and I’m gonna assume you expect Desireigh is going to send him our way,” Embron summarized.

“Knowing how mammals like him work, he’s the only one I can think of who might not need a radio at all to stay in touch with his side, and thus be a team that doesn’t show up on my scans,” Mack agreed. “With how they split up, and where the ones with signals were when I swept through a minute ago, methinks he’ll have already grouped up with Saber and Avery again somewhere right in your area too, along with whoever was shooting those guns at us when we all got here. So get ready; I’m trying to secure things enough so I can send out some of the drones here to help where they can, but I can’t make too many promises. You’re far enough out already that they’ll take at least a few hours to reach you too.”

“Copy. Do what you can, we’ll get geared up. How are the other teams looking?”

“Rocky’s in the clear unless locals are on him and his group already, but Skye’s posse is probably already entering a fight.”

An unintended curse came through (from Jack, unsurprisingly), followed by, “Get whatever info you can then, and see if Trevahe can’t hurry some help up. Going dark now for a bit to try and keep well out of Lotera’s senses, will report in a couple hours or so if nothing happens.”

The line clicked out on their end, and Mack swallowed hard. Too many things to take care of at once, not enough time or brainpower (or paws) to match. He cursed and dove back into the interference codes again to start though; if he could reconfigure his system and find a trick to kick the lizard out, permanently, or distract her without it looking blatantly suspicious, then he’d get the drones out pronto. But first, Desireigh had to be trumped, and for as long as she stayed as unknown a variable as she was to him, that would be no easy task.

Especially with how open their playing field suddenly was thanks to the Thylacine.

Chapter Text

Titanic forces are on the move

Unstoppable, unbreakable, undone

Two sides opposed with power to fear

Two worlds that can never be one

They meet and the earth cracks

Thunder will shatter the air

All creation watches on with fear and intrigue

Wondering who shall be the victor? How will both fare?

He certainly wasn’t familiar with every species that called New Guinea home, but there were only a handful that both military and special agency officials required their members to know, and Embron had drilled them all on the five venomous tribal species that inhabited the jungles. Rocky therefore at least knew that it was a small-eyed snake hanging in front of his nose, that it was a species more than capable of delivering a fatal bite (and he wasn’t quite sure how effectively he could neutralize the venom; Embron had all the antivenom on him at the moment too), and that as yet he had no clue if the language that he spoke would also happen to be the one the snake might understand either.

Worse, he knew a snake’s strike was faster than anything he could react with, not without knowing exactly when it was coming, and he wasn’t psychic.

Treba moved out of the corner of his eyes, raising her weapon to take care of the problem, but Rocky raised his tail and flared it in her direction, halting her as best he could without saying anything. Chances were the snake would strike, no questions, if a gun went off, and he would be bit before the bullet would reach its target, whether Treba got in a good shot at the narrow profile or not.

“Husat yu (Who are you?)” the snake suddenly spat. “Yu brukim bilong mipela planim graun; klirim, no dai pinis! (You disturbed our burial grounds; explain, or die!)”

The threat was not idle, but a small spark of relief ran through the Arctic tod. It was Tok-Pisin, the language he was at least still passingly familiar with, though understanding and speaking of course were two very different subjects. The snake had called him out on stepping inside a cemetery of sorts apparently (must have been what the clearing they’d searched was supposed to be, he realized), and demanded an answer, so now he only hoped he could provide one, and one that was adequate.

“Mipela…mipela bin no save (We…we did not know),” he began, “mipela mekim no…stap antap long ya ailan. Mipela sore (we do not…live on this island. We apologize.)”

“Tasol watpo yu hia (But why are you here?)” the snake pressed, inching even closer and baring a fang in pointed warning. Rocky feared he might pass out from staying cross-eyed for so long.

“Long sambai…por…poro (To rescue…friend,)” the fox quickly replied, stuttering over the last word and hoping it had come out right. “Poro  bin tekewe, bi nogut manmeri, kisim hia long plan long (Friend was taken, by bad people, brought here for plan to)…dammit, how do I explain this…is…es…as pait, hetim. Ol gat Molkokols hia, helpim ol (cause wars, hate. They have tribe here, helping them.)”

“Rocky, what is he…” Harrison had started to ask, but Rocky cut him off with a sharp jerk of his hand. The fox hadn’t really gotten anywhere yet with the small-eyed snake, and the elapid was no less tensed up than before. Deciding he needed to take a chance, he stepped back slightly (thankful he was allowed to without being tagged on the nose) and raised his paws to where the snake would see them clearly. “Bad animals are at a place that shows lights, visions. They want to destroy place; they have mammal who can do strange things, like this.” He focused, and a stream of energy jumped between his paws. It was slight, but enough to show his point.

The reaction of the snake was immediate, eyes widening as he jerked back slightly away from Rocky. “Thylacine,” he spat, coiling dangerously.

That word needed absolutely no translation at all, and took all the agents by some surprise coming from the reptile. However, the contempt that went with it was not the only component of the reptile’s reaction; seeing Rocky’s paws start to create a lightshow, he was now looking at the fox with an expression somewhere between the same contempt and a real fear. Immediately Rocky cut off the energy flow and backed up slightly more, lowering himself down and trying to appear non-threatening. A local who didn’t like Lotera, after all, was a potential ally.

“I am not same as him,” the fox pressed, lowering his ears. “He is a problem, we want to fix it. He will hurt when he wants to; we only hurt if defending ourselves. No danger to you, if you are no danger to us.”

“Dammit Rocky, would you fill us in on something?” Harrison hissed.

Seeing the small-eyed snake paused and thinking over his words, Rocky curled his lip slightly and turned to snap out, “We walked through a cemetery back there, he’s not happy about it, and also might have thought we were the same as the Primalists. Working on explaining that right now, thanks!” Then he turned back toward the local, who was still looking very uncertain about them.

Before the tod could speak again though, the snake beat him to it. “You are here to get rid of Thylacine and others he is here with?” he asked shakily.

Rocky saw the hope, and nodded to affirm it. “If we can, and save our friend,” he reiterated. “I know Lotera made another tribe help him; maybe you could help us keep them from…pay…par…from fighting us, and then it is easier for us to remove the Thylacine and his friends, and save ours and protect what they are destroying.”

“The vision-maker,” the snake said, nodding. For the first time more or less since Rocky had almost literally run into him, the reptile also glanced at the other agents, and his expression seemed to soften (though of course, with a snake it was hard to be sure of some changes in emotion, especially when slight). “I saw him speak to the Singers; he called it a bad thing, evil, but stories our tribes have told never speaks of the vision-makers causing hurt. They show us knowledge when they appear, sometimes things that tell us how to live together better with other tribes.” He looked down to the side, expression darkening. “Not all the Singers listened to him, so he threatened them, and I knew he must have been lying when he made threats.” Beady eyes swung back up to the fox, and began scrutinizing him in a different way. “But, you can do something like he does; how can I know you will not become a danger to us too?”

It was a fair question, especially for a native who likely had little knowledge of how the broader world was functioning and what role in it Rocky and his team played. Rocky nodded, holding out his paw in a friendly, open gesture. “I will not make threats,” he said softly, “and if you do not want anything more to do with us, we will simply walk away, disturb you no more.”

The forest seemed to silence again as the snake considered him and his words, and Rocky did not move a muscle. Assistance from those who lived in the place would be beyond valuable, but he would hold to his promise if the elapid simply decided to be left out of the issue.

He did not have to wait long for an answer. The small-eyed snake readjusted himself on the branch he was holding to, and stretched out the tip of his tail to hook it in Rocky’s palm; his version of a handshake, it seemed. “The vision-makers have helped us before, and I know they might again. And we here wish peace, not to have the Thylacine and others ordering us to hunt others or destroy a place of knowledge. So, I will try to help.” Letting go, the snake gestured with his tail to himself. “I am Aeto. What is your name?”

“Rockwell,” Rocky replied, shoulders slumping as relief hit him and a smile finally daring to cross his muzzle again. Rocky for short.” Turning, he told the others, “He’s agreed to help us! So let’s help him however we can as well.” He looked back to the snake, who was moving to drop out of the tree and onto the ground before turning to lead them westward into the forest. “What will you do? And what can we help you do?”

“We call help,” the snake replied simply, barely glancing back to answer. “I do not know where the vision-maker appeared this time, but our tribes are spread on the land. Someone will know.”

How do you describe something that is by nature indescribable?

No, it definitely wasn’t the grand blanket of unease that Nick was feeling from the situation as a whole, nor the rising bite of real anxiety brought on by Mack’s most recent warning. Those were expected, could be assigned a name alongside his longing for Judy, fervent drive to find her, and his fear of actually running into Lotera again (which was nigh inevitable).

This though, the sensation that was beginning to pick at him beneath it all, he couldn’t define. Magnetic, almost, but not really, feeling kind of like his sense of direction (which he was suddenly thinking about a lot more too after Rocky’s mention of how they’d try tacking him if all went awry), but so far not providing him with a point of reference like the poles did either. It also felt like anticipation, but not even that quite covered it.

Glances over at Embron and Scarlet just visible in the gloom as those two skirted through the trees (or more like flowed; the way the Canistons seemed to attune to this environment made even Jack’s experience at stealth look practically clumsy. Never mind Nick’s or his fellow cops’ progress, though Fangmeyer was adapting admirably) told the fox neither of them seemed to be picking up on anything however, so apparently it wasn’t a sensation that was likely actually caused by anything present. At this Nick tried to write it off for now as nerves, the stress of it all messing with his mind and body, and tried to keep a focus on keeping his senses fully alerted to the goings-on of the world around them.

The sensation was pervasive though, so he couldn’t quite push it entirely out of mind.

It had been around an hour past already since Mack had called them, and night was well and truly settled in. The moon was out, but under the blanket of leaves that was the tops of trees up to several stories above their heads it didn’t make much difference lighting-wise from a completely dark night. And of course turning on any actual lights to help see (something Nick found somewhat ironic in the situation; all of them but Jack and Samantha were nocturnal as it was, and those two had their infrared goggles on already) was a concept out of the question. All that would really do for them would be to draw a target on them all that Avery, Saber, Lotera, and whoever else those nutjobs happened to have with them would immediately draw a bead on.

The only positive note that Nick could really pull up was that so far, none of his group, not even Samantha as she scouted the surrounding areas from above, had picked up anything larger than local non-sentient life, and possibly a snake or two that might have been part of the native elapid tribes. They gave even those a wide berth though, uncertain of how even non-conscripted locals would react to them.

A ghostly sound wafted down across the treetops, filtering through the leaves to them, and all six mammals present stopped dead in their tracks. Eyes and ears swiveled northeast, as the noise continued in notes of uneven warbling and alternating flat, drawn-out pitches. Only a few seconds later it came to a sliding end, fading out just as quickly as it had started up, and all the mammals glanced between each other with worry.

“Any of you got a clue what that was supposed to be?” Wolfard spoke first, though maintaining whispered tones only just loud enough for the others to hear. Neither the wolf, nor his partner or Nick though were reassured when both Embron and his sister flatly shook their heads.

“Wasn’t a bird call, or mammalian,” Scarlet whispered back. “Not any I’d be familiar with at least.”

“Something mildly instrumental,” Embron agreed, though that comment garnered an incredulous quirking of brows from Nick.

“Instrumental,” the tod queried quietly. He glanced back in the direction the sound had seemed to come from (though with how thick the forest was who knew how noises might echo about, especially from a long ways away), as if that would help him see the source. Tree trunks and blackness were of course all that greeted his eyes, so he turned back to the coyote. “That sounded more like something undead, or from another dimension than any music I’ve ever heard.”

He paused again, a hopeful thought occurring to him. “Wait…what if it was the rift? Or something related to it being around?”

Embron shook his head again. “Not likely. If a rift does make a noise it’s a very brief note, buzz, or something like that.” He turned to Jack, and then fixated on him with a quizzical expression. Unsurprisingly, all other gazes followed suit. The lapin had his ears ramrod straight, and twitching, but he wasn’t looking at the group or toward the noise. “Uh…Jack? Wanna clue us in?”

“I’ve heard something similar before,” Jack replied softly, eyes finally snapping upward. “Several islands away though, in Sumottera. Higher, sharper notes too, but it was a tribal alert out of a horn-like wood instrument. If it’s the same here…”

“Then either we’re about to be surrounded or we’re obscenely lucky that another tribe could be fighting the ones Lotera dragged in,” Fangmeyer finished. Her paws tightened around the gun and mini crossbow she was borrowing, and she looked down at Nick. “How do we figure out which?”

Everyone shut up as the faint sound of flapping wings approached, before relaxing again when Sam dropped down onto a nearby branch.

“Already on one option,” Scarlet answered, focusing back on the topic and her tail snapping side to side as she fit something onto the half-gloves she’d turned to wearing when night fell (to what purpose, Nick hadn’t quite figured out). “Embron will maintain a barrier, I’ve got a bioscan holograph overlain on my vision right now so the little colorful blips don’t show up to anyone else looking for us. If things get complicated, we should be able to see it. Sam, I am guessing you heard the noise; Jack thinks it’s a local call, but we’re not sure for what yet. Any input?”

“’Fraid not,” the macaw sighed, “beyond it came from the ridge well to the east of us. Just hopped in otherwise to report the sky’s clear above and can’t see anything promising ahead yet. But I’ll head back up and stay close with a more local scan. If I stay right under the canopy my infrareds here,” she pointed to her goggles with one wing,” should pick up anyone approaching and we”-

“Hold up, everyone quiet!” Scarlet hissed urgently, interrupting Sam as her paws flew up into a defensive pose. “Something just showed on the holograph.”

Everyone’s heads snapped in the direction she was glaring at, fur rising on end, and in the same instant Nick developed the distinct feeling that he was also being stared back at.

Then, there was the faintest of tremors he could feel in the ground under his feet.

“Look out!” Embron yelled, diving forward to knock Wolfard and Fangmeyer away from where they stood. Nick fell along with them, at the same time as Jack and Scarlet leapt up and away from where they’d been planted as the leaf litter exploded upward on the edges of basalt spikes. A harrowing screech near where Samantha had been perched and a flash of massive wings in the shadows told them she was under assault as well, and as Embron and Wolfard landed, Nick and Fangmeyer both rolled a little further off from them.

A dark shape whirled around the trunk of a nearby tree, having been waiting for them to come its way. Nick barely had the time to look up and register the glint off the metal barrel of a pistol aimed at his coworker and the odd claw-adorned hoof stretching out his way before their attacker was upon them.

Fangmeyer was a little faster than Nick. Gripping the buttress of the same tree their assailant had appeared from behind, she yanked herself to the side and upward just as the gun went off, and the bullet tore into the rock spikes behind them, missing her by at best an inch. In the same motion she pushed off from the ground and spun around to reach out, grabbing the wrist holding the gun and swinging it out of the way before whirling around further and slamming her other elbow into the attacker’s chest.

There was a squealing gasp, and as Nick’s mind caught up with the action he watched as the figure he could now label as Saber went flying backward from the blow and slam into another tree a couple yards away, thoroughly knocking out whatever air he’d had in his lungs and leaving him wheezing at the base.

A moment of stunned silence seemed to follow as Nick gaped slack-jawed at the sight, and then slowly turned to look up at the tigress responsible. “Who…what…?”

“I’m a black belt, side hobby in my free time,” Fangmeyer explained simply as she picked up the weapons she’d dropped. Other figures were starting to register moving through the trees, and she certainly wasn’t waiting for them to get another drop. “We can talk about it later though; right now get your ass off the ground and let’s make sure these guys get what they’ve earned already!”

They walked for hours. Night fell, the agents were put on edge when Mack relayed his warning and concerns to all the groups, and then somewhere out there Rocky knew his cousin and her team had found a fight. He could only hope she was still as good as he remembered, and that the others with her were similarly skilled and capable of holding their own.

Even as a lengthy period passed following Mack’s first mention of the conflict came though, the Arctic fox had to avoid the temptation to ring up Skye directly as well. Any distraction, as it was likely there was still danger present if she hadn’t personally called him or checked in again, could prove fatal if he interrupted her.

Despite that new anxiety hanging around though, Rocky, Harrison, and the rest of their team were beginning to feel a little better. Their guide, Aeto, had led them up the side of the ridge that had been flanking them to the west on their earlier trekking, and along the way had occasionally stopped to slither his way up a tree, finding hollows in the high branches and thumping his tail against them in odd patterns to create echoing resonant notes that carried across the nearby trees. In response to each, some new creature had joined their party. Some were more small-eyed snakes like Aeto himself; others were members of monitor lizard tribes, or a number of marsupial species, and even a few birds, many of which (though notably not all) speaking the same dialect as Aeto did. Among the latter was one individual that gave Rocky a real shock of hope should they encounter the pack Lotera always now seemed to gather to him (ie. Saber, Avery, and any other elites that might have stayed in New Guinea when the others had come over to Zootopia to find the Catalysts).

Aulani wasa New Guinea Harpy Eagle, and a proud leader in the alliance the local species tribes seemed to have forged, and while not as big as Avery was (but then, no bird was as big as Avery was), he was another giant forest specialist, and more importantly a specialist of the very forest they were trampling through now. Rocky couldn’t help but shiver slightly when the eagle’s gaze passed over him every now and then, but Aulani had already spoken directly to him once that he only had interest in helping remove the pests that had cropped up in their jungle. It was certainly a comfort, though that ancient unease still hung around a bit.

Even with the new dozen and a half animals around them though, Aeto was apparently still looking for more allies, and as yet still someone who had traveled recently in the region near where the Primalists’ little base was. Reaching the top of the ridge at some time well past midnight, Aeto signaled the agents to halt, which they did with welcoming arms for the offered moment to actually sit and rest against the scattered rocks. The snake, meanwhile, once more slithered up a new tree and vanished into its upper branches, unperturbed by the height despite the darkness (though as the vegetation was sparser on the ridge, the moon helped more here than it had lower down).

This time, however, the sound that emanated from above everyone’s heads was not a loud, hollow tapping, but a long, low, and eerie horn-like noise that vibrated straight through each of them and echoed far out across the valleys sweeping back beyond either side of the ridge. As Aeto climbed back down, Rocky couldn’t help but ask him, “What was that?”

“A call to allies,” Aeto replied simply, coiling up at the base of the tree and seeming content to sit and wait there. “We built great resonators on the mountains, to call far and wide. The birds will come first; they can spread our message faster and they will know better where these enemies are at.”

Rocky nodded, and turned to the others. “Apparently we’ll be getting everybody together tonight,” he relayed. “I’ll ask if it’s okay first, but this might also be an opportunity for everyone to get some…hold on…”

His ears perked, and he swung his head southward. Something mechanical was buzzing their way, and he couldn’t quite make out from the sound what it was.

“Check that; weapons up!”

All mammals were on their feet again in an instant (if they’d gotten so far as to actually sit down), and as the noise came close enough for everyone to pick it up in their hearing, all barrels pointed south and up toward the nearest clearing between the tops of the sparser ridgetop trees. The sound of whirling blades buzzed louder, closer, until finally…

“Hey, popsicle, you there?”

Rocky jerked, barely avoiding firing a shot on reflex, and hissed into his com, “Dammit Mack, the hell do you need right now?!”

“Eesh, cranky; something happen that I need to relay? Just needed to confirm if the first drone I sent out toward you guys made it or not to make sure the locating system is working under the cloak. It’s pinging right where the map says you are currently.”

The tod bit back a growl (and maybe a foul word or two) and forced his hackles down, lowering his weapons. “False alarm everyone,” he called to the others, “it’s a drone from the nitwit on the plane.”

“Hey, this nitwit’s keeping that stupid lizard from telling Lotera and co. exactly where everyone is so he doesn’t come run you into the ground!”

While a sigh of relief ran through the rest of his team and they re-holstered their guns and other deadly apparatuses, Rocky ignored the quip in his ear and spoke specifically into his microphone again. “You couldn’t warn us before it got here? We were about to shoot the damn thing down as it buzzed in, numbskull! Or did you forget that I’m keeping my senses on edge and I can hear things like that from a mile off?”

“Oh, pardon my being busy!” Mack snipped back. “Stupid Desireigh is still digging, I’ve been trying to search round for any local systems that might be convertible to a half-decent LIDAR-type system, guiding half a dozen flying robots out to help all you guys where they can, and trying to keep tabs with your cousin since they haven’t actually reported in since what I assume is the fight started.” There was a tired, exasperated huff over the line, and he continued waspishly, “I can at least say their markers are still moving, so no one’s been gunned down, but I’ll make sure to consider your specific needs first next round.”

Rocky wilted slightly. Temper, he knew he had a temper (one of the things he and Embron had somehow bonded over, helping each other out on that issue they both possessed), but now was not the time to let it blow up. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry for snapping,” he muttered. “If it helps, I have a little good news from up here; we seem to have dredged up a decent handful of friends in the forest hereabouts and were just starting to think we could get a little rest while they got in word from the other tribes in the area. Then that thing showed up.” He looked up at the drone now lowering itself down to hover under the canopy nearby. “Put us all a bit back on edge is what it was.”

“So you managed to contact some other locals then?”

“More like ran into them. If they can get the singing dogs Lotera might still have with him to bow out, we might have a real good hand to play. Look, just keep doing whatever you need to do to keep that other hacker out of the way, and patch us in when you head back from Skye, and we’ll relay whatever we can find out if and when the other locals come in with info. Good?”

“Yeah, peachy. I’ll put your drone on a patrol route about, and we’ll talk later.” The line cut out, and the drone moved off through the trees as promised to start keeping an eye on things (which at least meant one more insurance policy against approaching issues).

Rocky could feel Harrison’s eyes on the back of his head, and sighed, holding up a paw.

“Don’t.”

“Wasn’t gonna say anything, MacIntyre.”

“Right. I know you’re thinking it.”

The jaguar smirked, and moved to check that all his weapons were secure. “Well then,” he replied casually, “sounds like I don’t need to say it either. Now, Mack’s got a drone scanning for us, we’ve got a good two dozen other eyes right here as well with more on the way to help watch our backs, so I think some of us could use some rest. You included; if you want I’ll take a watch first.”

He knew it was more tactical than any real feeling behind it (or at least that was what he decided to tell himself), but Rocky sighed and nodded. Turning and relaying the info to Aeto and making sure it was alright with him and the other locals (and apparently they were of similar mind to Harrison, more than willing to keep watch so the agents could be better rested to fight later), he then found a crook amongst the roots of a nearby tree to settle in and rest by while the others in his team did the same. A quick prayer was sent up that it wouldn’t suddenly start pouring rain (Rocky had in no way forgotten they were in a rain forest), and then surprisingly, sleep came quickly at least for the fox.

It wasn’t even a half hour after he’d drifted off that Rocky found himself being shaken awake again. Immediately going on defense out of instinct, he jolted upright and lashed out with a vicious grip taking hold of the arm doing the shaking.

Luckily, Harrison was wearing some pretty durable material and was expecting such a reaction, and so barely flinched despite the pressure behind the grab.

“Sorry,” the fox apologized once awareness had returned, letting go and sitting up properly. ‘What’s developed?”

“Two separate flocks of local parrots showed up, and we need a translator for both, or at least for what Aeto is told by both,” Harrison replied, flexing his wrist to make doubly sure there was no nerve damage from the vice it had just been released from. “And don’t mention it; you’re worked up just like the rest of us are, understandable.”

Rocky snorted and stood up. “Yeah, but you worked up might mean a broken nose,” he muttered. “Me, it might mean a missing arm. I don’t wanna overdo it just for an unexpected wake-up call.” Then he looked over toward where Aero was waiting near the base of another tree. Above him on the branches were numerous birds visible in the spotty moonlight, of two distinct varieties. One species Rocky recognized as Pesquet’s Parrots (though just barely able to make out the outlines of black and red in the low light), and the other species he would later find were called Meek’s Pygmy Parrots. They were all staring very expectantly in his direction, the pygmy parrots in particular staring at the fox with some urgency.

“Aeto, what do they say?” Rocky asked, kneeling in front of the birds and the small-eyed snake.

Aeto in turn gestured with his tail to the pygmy parrots, and said, “They saw others with weapons at the bottom of the mountain. They want to know if those are also friends, or with the Thylacine.”

Rocky felt his lip curling as he glanced down the slope, but reined in the action so as not to risk a scene and returned his gaze to the snake. “No, they are not friends. If they find us, they will try to kill us.”

Aeto nodded and looked up at the pygmies. He spoke back to them in a slightly different dialect, but Rocky did manage to find a couple of similar words in it, among them “find,” “quolls,” and “remove them.”

“Wait, wait,” he spoke up, waving his hands and catching both the snake’s and parrots’ attention. “You do not need to put selves in danger. We can fight them, just show us where.”

Aeto only smiled at him. “This is our home,” he replied simply, “and if you have said truth, they are threat to it. So it is our fight if we choose too, and they will not see the parrots coming.” Then, as the pygmies flew off straight down the slope, the reptile’s attention turned to the other tribe in the tree and he continued, “They say they know where the place of the enemy is, and the vision-maker.”

Rocky’s heart stopped for a second, disbelieving that it could suddenly be that easy. Then it restarted in a racing speed. “Where?!” he asked, leaning in closer and looking up to the parrots, looking between them with wide eyes. This was somewhat dizzying, as there were nearly a dozen of the birds, but he was suddenly too full of anticipation to care.

These parrots apparently knew the same dialect as Aeto had used upon first meeting Rocky and company, as one of them pointed her wing almost straight west and said, “That way, a fair flight, near the lone mountain and two-river fork. A very large house they made on the stone pool, and many mammals and reptiles with strange weapons come and go. Especially Thylacine.”

And there it was, what they’d needed all along given so plainly. “Would you lead us?” Rocky asked softly, almost worried of a negative answer despite everything, but the birds all nodded yes in unison.

Immediately the fox whirled around to face Harrison. “Wake the others,” he said, “if they’re not already up. We’ve got a heading.” Then he reached up and keyed the mic on his headset. “Mack, can you read me still?”

“Yeah, what’s up? Drone hasn’t picked up much yet.”

“Get all the lines open together, because I’ve got”-

“Mack, Rocky, Skye, everyone!” Jack’s voice suddenly cut in over Rocky. “Other news can wait, we’ve got a situation!”

“Wait, hold up Jack!” Rocky growled, a little ticked at being interrupted so when he had such important news but trying not to be snappier. “Whatever it is we might already have a solution. Us up here, we found some guides, and we know the location of the rift.”

“Yeah?” Jack snapped back, and that’s when Rocky caught the underlying panic in his tone. “In probably less than five minutes, so will we.”

He might have been branded with the nickname Arctic Fire, but it still wasn’t a good thing when Rocky’s blood ran cold on those words.

SSHHCCCKKKKK!!

The fight was not quite going as Skye had planned.

Not a surprise, really; any pre-formulated notion of how events would play out when involving an enemy contingent was nearly bound to blow up somewhere, and she often berated herself about even trying to stick to one pre-thought mode of action every time. But now wasn’t the time to brood over that thought either; grumping over one’s ignorant moves could wait until after one survived making them in the first place.

The Primalists had split up and come after them from all directions, attempting a sort of strafing tactic with bullets or blade swipes before vanishing into the trees again, and in response Skye and her team had ended up spreading out so as not to give one nicely gathered target for them to hit, and to try and corral their opponents in return somehow. They stayed close enough still to hear each other and react if someone else was getting teamed up on, but they were also far enough away that most real attempts at trying to regroup (the one time they’d actually tried, at least), had been met with bullets carving the forest floor around them. Only one hit on their side had occurred, luckily, Fangel getting his hip grazed by a slug, but in return when he’d fired back right down the path that bullet had taken a much higher-pitched scream had also answered. It hadn’t taken any of the Primalists out, but one of them at least was sporting a wound that would almost certainly slow them down.

Now, the two sides were situated in two rough lines across a slightly clearer swath of the forest floor, hunkered down at the bases of the massive grove of trees the swath was flanked by and either side so far yet to gain an extra foot against the other without being sent scurrying back to hiding from enemy fire. Skye had identified two felines and two canines in the opposing party on the ground, plus that Spectral Bat Arden, wherever Dax had drawn him off to. Those two were in a league and environment all their own though and pitted against each other without real though for the rest on the ground, and Skye was at least thankful that the ottsel was keeping the bat busy so that the rest of their team didn’t have to worry about aerial dive-bombs in addition.

But, even as the occasional sound of gunfire higher in the trees echoed from somewhere further off, that still left everything else in more or less a stalemate. The agents could hold the Primalists to the shadows of their trees, but the same was so far true in reverse. Skye knew it wouldn’t last much longer though; she didn’t know how well the two canines or the bobcat she’d identified were at climbing either, but she also noted the remaining terrestrial member was a golden cat, and that species could definitely go arboreal at any moment. Better, then, if she could beat them at that game first, but to do that she needed a cover to hide her actions.

The vixen hunkered down in the little root alcove she’d dropped into, ensuring that even if one of the Primalists came over in a mad dash to take one of them out they wouldn’t see her quickly enough, and pulled out a special pair of gloves lined with tiny hooks to help boost her grip. She strapped them on in a hurry, and a matching pair of heel covers went on next. Then she dared to peek out and look around again.

Vela was the closest agent to her now, about seven yards away behind her own tree, but more interesting to Skye was that it was a tree with enough good branches spread along its trunk for her to clamber into the canopy with moderate ease; it was rare that tropical giants had low limbs. She reached upward and keyed her microphone, whispering, “Tubolinez, I’m coming to you. Last shots came from about your five, cover me.”

No more warning was given, and the fox bolted on all fours. Vela shot her an incredulous stare but followed through, raining bullets into the shadows from where they’d last glimpsed the Primalists, but the return fire wasn’t kept out completely. Skye rolled under a larger bush as one slug passed through the fur on her tail and kicked the plant, sending the leaves swaying about to give her a touch more cover on the last few feet before skidding to a halt and backing up into the tree right next to Vela.

“The hell are you planning?!” the maned wolf hissed, firing one more bullet before glaring down at Skye. “Last one we can lose here is you!”

“Yeah, thanks for the support,” Skye snapped, (though the sentiment did kind of feel good). “Sooner or later either Dax is gonna lose Arden’s trail and the bat will swing back for a bit to help try and mow anyone he sees on the ground here down from on high, or one of those bastards over there will try climbing instead for a vantage. I need to be up top before they are.”

“So what, you can frame yourself up there for an easy shot?” Vela retorted. “You might be the smallest of us besides Dax,  but you’re still big enough that if they’ve more or less pinned our locations right now…” at this she paused a moment, twisted around the side of the tree, and fired a single shot at the dhole that was attempting to get a closer hideout to them. He yelped and backpedaled to his former position, and tried to take a shot back. It only scraped a bit of bark off the tree, of course.

“…As I was saying, you’re big enough they’ll pin your movements right through the trees too and bring you down like a turkey hunter a treed fowl.”

Skye rolled her eyes and sized up the trunk, as well as just how far it was up to the lowest branch above her. “Sitting here waiting to hear which of the fliers got the upper hand won’t do us any good either, so someone’s gotta take a risk,” she replied. “Besides, I’ve picked up a thing or two from some of my feline friends, like Scarlet, and if I get high enough I might be able to actually use one of these other gadgets effectively.” She patted her belt, where a number of the toys they’d stocked up on at the Caniston household were still hanging untouched. Then, she looked up, and remarked, “Plus, this might be the one tree I’ve been able to get behind that could actually provide enough cover for me to reach the canopy. Once behind the leaves it’ll be a lot harder for them to pin my location.”

Skye could tell the other canid was not convinced, and sighed, choosing to check her gloves again rather than meet Vela’s gaze. “Look, I’m going up, so either just hold tight and help keep the other two from getting killed, or give me some sort of distraction to use.”

The vixen didn’t wait for any further argument. Ensuring the gloves and heel covers were strapped on tightly, she took one last look around to make sure there were no new antagonists coming in at them from a different angle before turning and leaping up to latch on to the rough bark and moss covering the tree. Skye certainly wasn’t the most thrilled about the notion of climbing either (not that she’d tell Vela that, not now), and it’d been a while since she’d last used these grips, but one good thing about rainforest trees was that they were always cloaked in epiphytes and accumulating detritus; so as long as it wasn’t a trunk that was perfectly smooth-sided for a hundred feet up they were fairly easy to scale.

One just had to forget about all the insects also climbing said tree alongside one’s self.

Gunfire sounded below and Skye froze again, only about ten feet off the ground, but she only stayed put for a moment. Vela had decided to try and draw attention away from her, and as other shots rang out nearby it became apparent that Forsythe and Fangel had developed the same notion. The Primalists were lobbing shots back in retaliation too, which just provided more noise to cover any scrambling of a not-so-arboreal fox, and letting Skye scrabble her way up the trunk even faster. Very shortly she was well over 80 feet off the ground and sitting in the crook of a branch looking out through the “understory canopy,” the secondary layer of branches and leaves below the primary forest cover that was still several stories above her head (that it was the norm for trees to be this tall around here was dizzying, and she tried not to think about the height).

Below, Skye’s ears began to let her start tracing the locations of the sources of gunfire from the opposing side, and her current branch stretched out far enough and had enough broad leaves cloaking either side of it to cover most of her travel toward the approximate spot where the Primalists had halted for the moment. Cautiously, wary always of where she placed each of her paws, the vixen crept along the branch over the myriad plants draped across it, spying carefully as she could between the gaps around her as she went. The distance below her made her want to just clamp onto the branch and not move any further, but she swallowed that instinct down and kept going, needing to drive this fight to an end.

The dhole who’d tried creeping closer a couple of minutes earlier was hunkered in the buttresses of the next tree Skye crossed over to, and just nearby was the bush dog that had been flanking him in most of their attacks earlier in the evening. The latter was using a small handgun with only one paw, cradling the other; he must have been the one that Fangel had hit earlier.

Skye glanced around her, then reached back for her pistol…only to freeze when the motion caused the branch she now sat on to sway to one side unexpectedly, her weight unbalancing it and forcing her to take a firmer grip on her perch. She didn’t move again until the branch had settled back in its former position, and then moved only to scoot a little further forward to try and balance better. She decided now that reaching back for her holster again was decidedly too risky, should her change of position still pull the branch off to the side again (and she had no interest in testing that), but there was something else closer to her arms that she could probably still reach, something that would also probably give the needed advantage if she aimed right. Carefully reaching up, making sure to keep her weight as close to balanced as it had been with all four paws down, she unclipped a little gray cylinder from a strap crossing her breast as quietly as she could.

There was a series of switches along the side of the device, and one by one Skye flipped them in the sequence she needed to set up the proper delay. It would do little good after all for it to bounce and settle when it went down, for as soon as anything dropped or rattled near the Primalists below they would hit ground or scatter. They were too jumpy to risk any lengthier-timed weapon attack and too quick to regroup after. So, this Skye set to go off as soon as it impacted the earth. Then, keying her mic, she whispered to her team, “Get ready to move,” flipped the last switch, and dropped the cylinder.

It took about two seconds for the weapon to hit ground, and the moment it did a loud popping noise echoed out accompanied by surprised yells, and the forest below Skye lit up with a painfully bright, strobing flash. Skye had looked up and away into the canopy before it went off to avoid being blinded herself, and with the first flash she was glad she had for another reason.

The Primalists had, in fact, though of the same thing she had, and not fifty feet away on a slightly thinner branch stood the golden cat staring straight at her. He’d obviously been watching her for a little time already, sneaking up and not having shot her yet because his own branch too was slightly too thin for good balance with a free paw, but as soon as the flash grenade had gone off and Skye spotted him he’d dashed toward the trunk of the tree where the branches would be sturdier.

Skye did the same, scrambling along her branch and using her broad tail for balance, caring not about those below as she heard her team surging forward for closer combat (which would keep the Primalists still on terra firma busy). She could tell though that the cat would reach a sturdy enough spot to line up a decent bullet or two before she could though, and would have the advantage in a paw-to-paw fight in the treetops otherwise, so instead of continuing forward to try and get to more stable footing, she chose a different option. Her branch still swayed significantly where she stood, so she swerved to the side to force it to bend in the same direction and then swung herself down, gripping the branch with both front paws and slinging her legs and tail down and back to draw the limb down and out even further. As soon as it had bent as far as it was going to go on that swing, she whipped her body forward and upward, snapping the branch the other way and slingshotting herself toward the cat. It was quite a distance, but his branch was lower than hers.

The feline saw the fox’s change of tactic and immediately skittered to a halt to try and draw his gun to fire, but he barely had it out and pointed in her general direction before Skye was already colliding with him. She grabbed his arm and torso and knocked the gun out of his grip, twisting his paw painfully in the process. As the same time, she’d succeeded in knocking both of them off the branch entirely, and into freefall.

Not that the fall was very long. Numerous limbs stretched through the secondary canopy, and Skye let go of her opponent in order to catch herself on and swing around and up onto the lower, sturdier one they had fallen toward. The move strained at her arms, making her grit her teeth to keep from crying out, but her opponent fared worse, his breath being knocked out upon impact and most likely a bone or three cracking. So as he gasped and scrabbled to try and stay on top of the branch in order to haul himself upright, Skye had just enough time to shake the burn from her paws and grab the dart that she’d been holding onto earlier that night from its pouch again. As the golden cat stood up she lunged, aiming for the arm he brought up to parry whatever attack was coming and sinking the needle tip in deep. Momentum completed the rest of the delivery.

It did its job exquisitely too. The golden cat immediately dropped back, grabbing at his punctured wrist and screaming loud enough to drown out the next gunshot that echoed from somewhere below.

“Extracted bullet ant venom, present from Embron,” Skye drawled, flipping the dart into its pouch again (after all, it probably had enough in it for another punch somewhere) and working the rest of the strain out of her arms. “Hurts like an absolute bitch, doesn’t it?”

The cat snarled through his pain and reached for the next nearest weapon with his good hand (the one she’d just tagged was clenched painfully and vibrating, useless for gripping anything now). But, the searing agony now racing up his arm slowed him, just a touch too much. As soon as he’d moved again Skye’s hands were on her baton, extending it as she swung it around and upward. It caught the cat right in his temple with a painful crack. The blow broke through skin and sent the mammal tumbling off the branch, and if it hadn’t already put him straight into unconsciousness, one way or another he wasn’t seeing anything more when he hit ground another unobstructed sixty feet down.

Skye took a moment to extract a couple of deep breaths, wiping the end of her baton across the moss nearby, before holstering it on her back again and wasting no time thinking about her defeated adversary. Instead she beelined straight for the nearest tree trunk so she could return to earth too (in a safer, living fashion). Someone, and she thought it was Vela, had just howled in pain, so she slid down the much smoother trunk as fast as she could manage without further risking injury and then bolted through the undergrowth toward the nearest fight she could hear.

It was Vela after all, and she was losing ground against the Dhole thanks to a lucky slice the other canid had managed at a weak point in her suit under her upper arm. Skye could smell blood, too much for comfort, but the maned wolf wasn’t going to go down easily of course. No one was on her and Jack’s permanent team if they weren’t among the best, but the dhole was also clearly a cut above the norm as well and now matching the maned wolf swipe for swipe. Her dagger clashed violently against the machete he was wielding like a maniac.

Skye’s appearance in the periphery of his vision though brought the dhole to falter, allowing Vela to smack the machete to the side and drive him to back up to avoid an attempted clawing. At the same time the Arctic vixen reached the pair. The dhole turned to bring his machete up instead toward Skye, now that she was closer, but she had already moved in anticipation of the attack and brought a dagger of her own up from a sheath on her belt. It caught the bigger blade and wrenched it down and forward, Skye spinning to meet the dhole’s overshot momentum and grab his wrist. She twisted it painfully just as she had the golden cat’s and used it as a lever point to flip the canine over her shoulder and hard into the ground. He wheezed and dropped the machete, but reached up with his other hand in an attempt to grab Skye around the arm.

He never would have reached her anyway, the vixen already backing up with intent to whip out her baton again and brain him with it, but Vela was still present too. She saw an opening and surged forward, a tranquilizer gun in her hand and the subsequent dart it fired rapidly finding its target in the dhole’s exposed neck. He was out before he could even think to make another move.

The two agents barely shared a glance, knowing the dhole would be no issue for at least a good hour or two yet, and while Skye wanted to tell Vela to sit tight and take care of her injury (which the fox could see was starting to notably hamper the maned wolf), she knew the other canid was as stubborn as the rest of the team and would insist on ending the fight first. So, she simply turned with the other to head in the direction where Forsythe and Fangel could still be heard trading blows somewhere through the trees with their own opponents.

Five steps in their direction though, and a synchronized pair of squeals peeled out, one canine and one feline, followed by silence. Skye and Vela both froze and tensed up, paws curling on the weapons they had out even tighter and fearing the worst. Then their coms turned on in their ears.

“Wellinger, Tubolinez, are you still with us?” Fangel’s voice asked.

Skye felt her shoulders drop several inches in deflating relief, and reached up to reply, “Yeah, we are. I take it you two won out too?”

“Yeah, and I’ve got a POW here to deal with.”

A moment later the wolf and leopard both appeared around the trees, Fangel with a thoroughly trussed up bobcat being dragged behind him and Forsythe…well, the stains on her outfit spoke enough.

“That makes two to take care of then,” Vela mused, glancing back at the dhole she and Skye had taken down. “First though: Dax, what’s your six?”

There was no answer through the coms, but a flapping of wings nearby seemed to reply. The Spectral Bat shot down between the branches, a series of flechettes gripped in his hind paws. He swept by too fast for the agents to do anything but duck and leap out of the way to avoid the barrage of little projectiles, and then Arden swerved around another tree trunk and up…

…to where Dax reappeared, having followed the other flying mammal in a broad loop out and then taken a calculated guess on where the bat would choose to try and return to the canopy at. Arden squeaked in surprise and backpedaled, diving back downward, but he’d cut too close already. Dax twisted, snapping his metal artificial wings out and the tip of the right one catching the bat in his own right wing. There was a sickening snap accompanied by a slight ripping noise, and Arden plummeted toward earth where he landed in a clump of ferns.

Skye was already back on her feet and on the move his way by the time he fell, leaping forward and grabbing him firmly behind the neck as she wrenched both wings (not caring about the break and minor tear in the injured one that caused him to scream) behind his back to be secured to his feet.

“Three POW’s then,” she sneered, hefting Arden up with one paw (barely; she’d underestimated slightly how big the bat actually was, and now was less surprised he’d been able to drag Wilde off the roof at the airbase) as she looked up at Dax. “The Canistons led me to believe you and Sam were a little better in the air. What took you so long?”

“You try keeping up with a rainforest bat in a rainforest,” Dax shot back, dropping down to land and his wings folding away. “They’re a lot more maneuverable than even birds are, at least when they’re not trying to carry attempted prisoners.” He shot Arden a look, which the bat returned with vengeful hate. “I take it though, we won our battle in the end at least?”

Skye glanced around their group to make sure the head count was still the same, and nodded gingerly. “It would seem that way, unless the locals show up now. We may have to backtrack to the jets to secure these bastards though, maybe let Mack hack into their frequencies on the headsets to try and pin the signal source, but first we should probably call in to report. They haven’t heard from us in a couple of hours now, and I haven’t heard from them.” She reached up to turn her com on to the main line, but was cut off as a call from the other groups came in first; the first voice was Jack.

“Other news can wait, we’ve got a situation!” he was saying over the relay Mack had apparently already been working to patch out to the entire team.

“Wait, hold up Jack,” Rocky’s voice then cut in. “Whatever it is we might already have a solution. Us up here, we found some guides, and we know the location of the rift.”

“Yeah?” Jack snapped back. “In probably less than five minutes, so will we.”

His words had the same effect on Skye and her team as it had Rocky. Skye knew that tone, and it never meant anything less than the worst.

All three of their biggest problems –Lotera, Saber, and Avery- were undoubtedly in the area, along with a handful of other animals seemingly just as armed to the teeth as the agents and cops were. Already several times they had swept in with synchronized attacks in attempts to break up the group so that Nick could be isolated. Jack was counting lucky breaks, as the blow that Fangmeyer had landed against Saber right at the start of this had put a streak of caution into their opponents (the one time he himself had gotten a glimpse at the Moschus so far, he suspected it was also a little more than just the wind that had gotten knocked out of Saber too, covering his side as the ungulate had been), but that was still overshadowed by a severe concern: beyond the initial spike attack from below ground, neither Lotera nor any of his tricks had so far shown again. A hidden opponent was always the most dangerous, as you could not directly counter for them, and they couldn’t pour their full focus into removing the Primalists at hand while the worst of them was unaccounted for.

Sam was overwhelmingly busy herself and little assistance to the rest of the group too; her fighting skills were supreme but she was still just maintaining pace with the raw power (and similarly larger arsenal that could be carried) of Avery. The eagle was matching her blow for blow as they dodged and tumbled through the trees several dozen yards now from the others. Fangmeyer and Wolfard were flanking Nick move for move, the three of them keeping the other animals they’d spotted so far (including a tayra, a Gould’s Monitor, and a couple of smaller canids they hadn’t tried keying out) at bay with bullets and crossbow bolts and whatever other dangerous projectiles they could remember were still on their persons. Scarlet had taken to the trees, a tan and red blur in the near pitch-black of the forest as she also kept perimeter against the hired paws and Saber while at the same time scanning for Lotera, and Embron and Jack himself were tracking the shadows in whatever way they could to try and locate the Thylacine while pushing forward on an offensive toward the Primalists that strayed in closer than they liked. Bullet holes and burn marks now riddled the trees, a few cut down from the damage and thus creating an artificial clearing around them, but despite the flurry of activity that had swept in and gone several times neither side had yet landed any serious hits it seemed. And, the lack of the main problem individual was putting tension onto both fronts.

Heads snapped around at the sound of something slamming into a tree, nocturnal eyes and infrared goggles finding Avery pinning Sam against a branch but straining to do anything further as she fought to keep the contorting parrot from slicing her legs with the knives gripped in both feet. The stalemate didn’t last long as Scarlet swung back in and lashed out with a coiling arc of fire rolling off her paws, sending Avery backpedaling and letting Sam bounce back up. The macaw didn’t hesitate a second before shooting headlong toward the eagle again, the two of them disappearing in a flurry of feathers through the trees.

Scarlet, meanwhile, dropped back into the group with the others on her side for a moment, the same arc of flames leaping out in a circle around them to try and give a moment of protection so she could speak.

“They’ve tried the same pincer tactic multiple times already,” she said, “and I still can’t spot Lotera. I can’t tell if that’s because he’s worn out and saving up for a dash in if he thinks he sees an opening, or if this is just a decoy move. Either way you know they’re gonna switch up soon.”

“Yes, so let’s hear ideas,” Jack quipped, loading a new magazine into his pistol. “We can’t split up further; Lotera will just show up then and target whoever’s with Nick while his lackeys and Saber keep the others busy. Can’t you two draw some sort of trick from the forest here to help, or did the holograms earlier show anything about cover we can use as a backing? The nearest ridge is way too far off for a dash after all.”

A hail of bullets cut them off, signaling what looked like another coordinated attack coming in. Embron’s paw was already up and deflecting the slugs as Jack bounded forward, his eyes locking on Saber as the ungulate darted out of the gloom and meeting him in a sparking clash of karambit against curved dagger. Behind them, Scarlet planted herself in front of the three cops and sent Shuriken whirling through the vegetation, trying to flush out the other Primalists who’d been responsible for the gunfire.

A twist of Saber’s arm wrenched the blade in Jack’s right paw downward, but the rabbit compensated and rolled with the momentum, half-somersaulting and half-cartwheeling to kick out at the left side of Saber’s abdomen. It was only a glancing blow, and through Saber’s protective vest, but as Jack finished his roll and whirled back to his feet a grunt of suppressed pain told him exactly what he’d wanted to hear. Fangmeyer’s shoving of the Moschus into a tree had definitely damaged something, likely a bruising or cracking of a rib. Jack almost allowed himself a grim smirk, but knew as soon as he was starting to feel hopeful something else would go awry.

Saber dashed back behind a nearby tree though as the bullets Embron had decided to start collecting instead of just deflecting into the dark suddenly came flying his way, peppering the bark and leaves around the area. The move did send Saber back closer to Jack though; that wasn’t a mistake, the rabbit knew, as Saber would use Embron’s unwillingness to risk hitting Jack as a cover. He locked eyes with the rabbit again, crossing his blades, and jumped up to kick off the trunk and straight toward Jack’s face. Metal sang again when they collided.

Nearby Nick busied himself with trying to scan beyond the fight as the others around him held off the Primalists (though pulling pot-shots where he could as well; someone had yelped from at least one bullet he’d sent into the dark). He’d noticed the lack of Lotera too, naturally, and while he doubted he’d have any better luck spotting the Thylacine than Scarlet had, the fox still had to try looking.

But more than that, as he also fought to ignore the faint, still-present attractive sensation he was feeling, Nick was putting his former hustler’s mind to work to try and figure out a new angle. They were on the defensive right now, but maybe to win they needed an offensive. A trap perhaps, of some sort. But, how to implement such a thing? His eyes wandered back for a brief moment to Scarlet and Embron, and an idea formed. They were the biggest problem for Lotera, but if it looked even for a second like they might be a touch too preoccupied, maybe they could bait Lotera, or his associates at least, to come in a touch too close, or get cocky otherwise.

An unseen, unheard signal suddenly caused the gunfire to cease from the opposing side again, the Primalists (Saber included) backing away from their fights and hiding amongst the trees further out as they had several times before. If the same sort of attack was to occur again, then if the pattern held Nick had mere minutes to get his idea across to the others. He didn’t dare risk trying to pull everyone in the vicinity together in a huddle, for the threat of someone getting stabbed in the back, so instead he cautiously reached up to turn on his com.

“Scarlet, Embron,” he whispered, “next time they sweep in, pretend one of you gets injured; if you’re compromised it might draw Lotera to finally react, and we might at least locate if not be able to get a real shot at him. Fangs and Elliot can keep up fire over here and I’ll inch your way to make it seem like there’s an opening.”

“You might actually give them one Wilde,” Jack hissed through his mic, and Nick glanced over to see him switching out his karambit for what looked like another pistol. He too glanced up to meet the fox’s stare with his own however, but Nick only set his features.

“We’re not getting anywhere as is; this jungle’s too thick for us to see anything at distance, and if we push forward they can just keep pace. Somebody’s gotta break the stalemate.”

“It might be worth a shot,” Scarlet whispered in agreement, “but Jack’s right too, it’s also not without risk. You have a tranq dart or any of Embron’s little death needles on you?”

Nick paused, reaching into an inner pocket on the vest he was wearing. He didn’t dare look down, eyes remaining locked on the shadows around them, but he felt his pads brush over a pair of capped syringes. “Yeah, still got a couple here. Embron, what’d you give me again?”

“Tubocurarine and carfentanil; latter’s probably the better option for this, works faster, and it’s got the larger cap of the two. Have it ready if Lotera shows up, but whatever you do, don’t prick yourself. You will end up dead.”

Nick nodded on automatic response (even if Embron wasn’t looking his way to see it), finding the syringe with the larger cap and gripping it in his paw. His gun was still in his dominant left hand, but he was still dexterous enough with the right to jab a needle with it. A flick of a claw and the cap would pop off, and he could immediately sink it into whoever might try and grab him.

Then he glanced up at his fellow officers, who nodded an unspoken agreement: they’d keep firing at anything that moved in front of them, but the second any trouble was heard near Nick they would turn around and gang up on the unfortunate soul. The bulletproof vests and head covers they were wearing would be relied upon for those few seconds needed to protect them from behind.

The relatively still air (in the scuffles that had already occurred every living thing within a half mile had gone silent) was broken as the sound of crashing tree limbs and curses from Sam and Avery’s struggles neared again, and it seemed like the Primalists took that as their cue to sweep back in. Jack dropped to the ground and rolled as the Gould’s Monitor poked out from behind a thick trunk and opened fire on him, before trying to fire back. Saber came at the two Gifteds with a pair of similarly gun-wielding canines to support him and give all three a chance against the deflected slugs and whirling blades Scarlet and Embron threw back at them.

More bullets also forced Wolfard and Fangmeyer to duck behind a pair of already mostly shredded trees for cover while they fired back, and Nick began to slowly inch away from them and more toward the middle of their slightly spread out group, using a medium-height bush that had so far survived the onslaught as his own cover. Something squealed in pain somewhere in the dark, and the fox smirked; at least one of their bullets had found another Primalist to puncture, this time sounding like a slightly more solid shot than his own had been, though he couldn’t pinpoint who had gotten in the shot.

Avery and Sam came wheeling by again briefly, and Nick spotted the latter pulling at the former’s vest in an attempt to reach a vulnerable spot just underneath or near the eagle’s neck. Avery was having none of it, rolling violently to try and dislodge her new attachment, though unfortunately her spinning also made it impossible for Nick or the others to take a shot without risking hitting the parrot. In a flash, they were gone again, and attention of all swung back fully to the battle on the ground.

Scarlet suddenly yelped, and if he hadn’t known the plan or come up with it himself as it were) Nick would have believed she’d actually been hit by something, a bullet or maybe one of Saber’s blades. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her grab at her neck, an almost imperceptible flicker sparkling between her fingers before a holograph or possibly materialized flow of fake blood started running between them, and she let herself collapse.

“Scarlet!” Embron yelled, reacting immediately by leaping to her side and reaching down to “stem the flow” as he threw up a barrier to keep them from being shot at further or Saber getting through. “Jack, Scarlet’s hit! I need another paw!”

“A little tied up at the moment!” Jack quipped back, playing along and staying just a touch out of reach, closer to the lizard he was still trading ammo with.

“I’m coming!” Nick yelled instead, spinning and dashing into the short open space between Wolfard and Fangmeyer and the two Canistons. In his palm, he made sure the syringe was ready with the cap just barely still on.

A flicker of motion was the only warning any of them got before Lotera was there, rushing in at a blinding speed and smacking the gun from Nick’s hand before grabbing him by the neck. Something sharp pierced the fox’s skin too, but Nick knew the Thylacine would probably have something to try and tranq him with, that was an expected; he also knew it was now or never. As soon as Lotera had his paw around his neck, Nick popped the cap off and lashed upward as Lotera started to turn to run off with him. Lotera saw the jab coming and twisted his grip slightly so that the syringe only glanced by, just barely nicking his thumb before he managed to wrench it from the fox’s hand. But, the action was enough to slow him a touch, and give the rest of Nick’s companions time to react where Lotera’s entrance and exit would have otherwise been a smooth break.

Embron was up first, leaping forward with a gun once more in his grip and aimed, as Scarlet rolled to her feet as well, the “blood” vanishing and in its place icy streamers of energy flaring up around her. From the other side wolf and tiger cops whirled, weapons cocked and ready; only Jack was still more or less stuck where he was as the monitor lizard he faced twisted from one side of their now shared tree to the other to keep up the pot-shots at him and hold him flattened at the wrong angle against the roots.

Lotera kept moving though, holding Nick up with what was clearly no small amount of effort (the fox was a fair bit larger than Judy, after all, and the Thylacine’s power was diverted to tricks other than strength) in order to use him as a shield against the two Gifteds, stalling them long enough for him to whip a hand out the other way toward Wolfard and Fangmeyer and send them sliding back under a wave of pressure into the trees they’d been using for cover. As compromised as said trees had already been made from numerous bullet impacts, they both shattered, sending the two cops falling backward and rolling but otherwise relatively unharmed. They’d be back on their feet as soon as they ducked out of the way of falling branches, and with his hands full Lotera only had so much leeway this time to fight.

That was why he hadn’t come alone though. One of the other Primalists began firing heavily at Embron, forcing him to cover himself and stall momentarily in trying to find an opening past Nick to get to the Thylacine. When Scarlet leapt forward to take his place and launch an attack, Saber reappeared and slung himself around a tree with one of his clawed gloves to tackle her almost head on. Against the whirling energy around her he wouldn’t last long, but the two seconds it took for said energy to burn him enough to make him break away and for Scarlet to pull out a blade and stab it into the Moschus’ side, before slinging him hard into the tree he’d just used as a vaulting platform, were all that Lotera needed to start building up speed again. The Thylacine pinned Nick’s hands down with the free paw he still had in order to keep hold (as Nick of course was still thrashing as hard as he could to try and throw Lotera off balance). The tranquilizer he’d used on Nick was only just barely beginning to take effect, so all his physical strength went to holding him still while Lotera’s power was shunted to running, kicking up soil and putting as much distance between himself and Nick’s friends as possible.

Fangmeyer was already back on her feet and with her gun drawn before Lotera had cleared her line of sight, and Nick was not in the way between her and him, so she didn’t hesitate to fire at the fleeing figure. One bullet seared across the marsupial’s shoulder, but it wasn’t quite enough to slow him down. A split second later, he was out of sight, Nick with him, leaving the agents and the cops behind to deal with the rest of the Primalists as he stole the prize.

A cold dread seeped into the tigress’ gut, and as she locked eyes with Embron the turn of the situation suddenly sank in hard. Problem was, they couldn’t stop and process the issue properly as bullets and blades still flew through the air.

The end of a call from Rocky came in over their headsets just then, and Jack cut in over it as he unloaded one more round, finally catching the lizard in the side and sending him falling from the tree he’d been hanging from. “Other news can wait,” the rabbit said tersely, reloading his gun, “we’ve got a situation.”

“Wait, hold up Jack,” Rocky argued back for all to hear. “Whatever it is we might already have a solution. Us up here, we found some guides, and we know the location of the rift.”

“Yeah?” Jack spat about as harshly as he could, reverting to anger to cover the panic starting to seep in. “In probably less than five minutes, so will we.” He glanced over to where Saber lay still wheezing in the grass near Embron’s feet. As gunfire began to die off from the Primalists still assailing Wolfard and Fangmeyer (mostly due to Scarlet running out to take care of them now that she didn’t need to also keep up watch for Lotera, moot point that was), the lapin walked over and looked down at the injured musk deer.

Saber glanced up at him with nothing but hatred, and a knowing of where he stood. He tried for one last swipe with a knife anyway, and Jack almost verbally thanked him for the excuse as he pulled the trigger on his pistol one more time.

“We just got Saber,” he said flatly as the ungulate flopped back, breathing no more, “but Lotera got to Wilde.”

Chapter Text

It’s the second before the end

The moment all things fall

Time cracks and balances shift

And the world holds its breath

It’s time you faced the truth of all

That sometimes, mortals fail

For each of them is merely a single speck

A thread in tapestry grand

These threads are made of good and vile

Though they chose the colors they wear

And both can rise and both can stumble

In the role they only can perform

When one is pulled out of its place

The rest may or may not remain

Imperfect though the piece may be

Until the maker weaves renewed

Lotera didn’t dare slow for well over a minute (and therefore several miles zigzagging out into the forest), but as Nick finally succumbed fully to his tranquilizer the Thylacine was also forced to face the fact that he’d been compromised himself. Enough of whatever had been in the syringe the damn fox was holding had gotten under his skin to start causing problems, and the shot the tiger cop had gotten off was making his shoulder throb agonizingly from the searing gash the bullet had left behind in its passing.

Ducking into a shadowy alcove among the roots at the base of a notably large tree, Lotera threw up a small self-sustaining cloak (just enough to cover himself and his prize, he couldn’t afford to use more energy than that) for a second and then dropped the sleeping vulpine in favor of focusing on his now nearly non-functioning arm. Whatever the compound was, it acted fast, as he was beginning to feel the building of a tidal wave of nauseated drowsiness rising as the compound made its way into the rest of his body. Lotera knelt down and with his good paw he dug into the fox’s pockets in hopes of finding another syringe to tell him what he was dealing with (and get rid of Nick’s weapons in the process, just to be safe).

Unfortunately, the tubocurarine he found definitely wasn’t what he was suffering from. This was too fast-acting and less suffocating.

“Dammit,” Lotera hissed, sitting back and focusing hard on the prick in his thumb. “Wide sweep it is, what would they use to try and bring me down? Carfentanil maybe? Has to be.” A chemical neutralizer formed in droplets along the hairs surrounding the tiny wound, and he directed it to seep into the hole. Just like the Gifteds, Lotera couldn’t really directly heal himself or purge poisons (a drawback he hated), but in his time practicing his arts he had learned that just like any other object chemicals could be produced with enough focus too, so making antidotes for toxins and flooding his system with them worked just like a hospital administration would in cases like these. He only hoped that he’d guessed right, otherwise the antidote would become just a second poison momentarily.

Thirty seconds later the Thylacine breathed out with relief. His theory was correct, as the sensation of movement and touch slowly returned into his arm, and after a sudden burst of extreme nausea that made him nearly vomit right there the drowsiness lifted back away as well, and Lotera returned his gaze to Nick, sneering in disgust. “Damn pain in the ass,” he muttered. “You’d better be a worthy Catalyst for all this.”

Then, he reached into a pocket on the breast of his shirt and pulled out a com unit, putting a battery in and turning it on.

Desireigh obviously noticed immediately. “Lotera? I thought you said you didn’t”-

“Got the fox, heading in,” Lotera cut her off, silencing the lizard. “Keeping this short so your foil doesn’t find the signal. Get everyone else heading back to base if they don’t run into the agents first; if they do, kill the agents, but otherwise fortify the rift area. Once I’m there I’ll need time, and cannot be disturbed until the process is finished. Understood?”

“Got it. Clicking out and relaying now.”

The line on her end went dead, and Lotera immediately pulled the headset off and took out the battery again so it had no risk of being traced. Then he reached down to pick up the fox, but the wound on his shoulder made itself known again with a scream of protest.

“Dammit!” Lotera snarled, placing the opposite paw over the gash. “Stupid bitch! Now I have to…urgh!” It was going to hurt, but he couldn’t afford to have the gash bleeding away or getting infected, or distracting him just from the pain while he worked later, so he picked up a small chunk of wood nearby and bit down on it, before placing two fingers over the wound and heating them to a searing temperature. The pain lanced up his arm and through his neck, making him want to scream, but shortly after the job was done: the gash cauterized and no longer bleeding, and once it cooled the pain died to a more manageable burning throb. It would still limit him if he had to fight, but hopefully once he got back to the base that wouldn’t be a worry anymore.

Now with everything squared away again, he bent down once more to pick the fox up, hoisting him over his uninjured shoulder and deactivating the cloak (it wouldn’t be much use to him once he started on the move once more), and took off. Thunder crashed somewhere above his head, signaling a storm was moving in, but he couldn’t worry about being slowed by a bit of rain now. Everything was too close to being in place for that.

Samantha was fuming. She hadn’t had a good fight like that in years, and sure, she was sporting a few scratches (and maybe the tip of her right wing was burning a little from where it had been clipped by a beak much larger than hers), but she just knew she had been that close to finally catching Avery in a spin around a small tree and spearing her with one of her special feather blades (a weapon the macaw only had a few of, and so only pulled them out when absolutely necessary, like when finishing off an adversary was the goal).

And then without warning, the eagle had flared and altered course, and Sam barely had the chance to catch the crackle of a headset that definitely wasn’t her own before Avery was rocketing off through the shadowed branches. The macaw threw out a couple of insults to try and lure the raptor back, but it was for naught.

Instead, Sam had resorted to shooting up above the trees, zigzagging back and forth to throw off any Primalists waiting for a shot from down below as she scanned the forest in hopes of catching sight of either the eagle or Lotera himself (she’d already heard the dispiriting call from the others shortly earlier), but after a couple of minutes of nothing, she resigned to falling back toward the semi-clearing where the others in her team were gathering.

Everyone was forming up in a loose circle, Wolfard and Fangmeyer still keeping watch in case there were more Primalists waiting in the wings to sweep in (without Lotera to keep a protective cover or scan up for, Embron and Scarlet had been quite free to make short work of the remaining eight or so that had still been shooting at them all after Saber had gone down, but another wave could have been hiding further out), but the rest looking between each other for answers. A bit of movement nearby made them tense up again momentarily, before they relaxed when they saw Kelia Ringston drop down from the trees; small as the ringtail was, they’d all but forgotten she’d been out taking shots at some of the Primalists from within the trees in the battle earlier too.

Samantha noted with a derisive and dismissive sneer the body of the ungulate assassin lying nearby all but ignored by the others as well, disappointed only that she hadn’t been the one to take him out in the end (especially with the Haast’s Eagle out on the loose and away from her wrath; now she itched for some recompense), before landing on the closest branch to Embron’s head. Unsurprisingly everyone’s weapons came up a second time to aim at her arrival, but she didn’t flinch a whit.

“So I more or less caught the gist of the relay,” the parrot said as the guns and blades lowered, “but I was kinda with my wings full and missed the details in it for moving forward. Nick was nabbed after all, Rocky found some friends, and the Sparrow doubled down on covering our positions while the others are working on catching up to us. What’s the plan now exactly?”

“Our last resort, unfortunately,” Embron quipped. He turned and began to haul himself up one of the few big trees nearby that hadn’t been shredded by bullets or knives. Knowing the odd looks he was likely getting, he explained, “Rocky’s trick with Nick’s magnetic signature is going to become useful now, so long as Lotera is focused on running and not cloaking the two of them fully from view, but MacIntyre kind of forgot one detail: those of us who can see it, we need to be in actual line of sight of the general magnetosphere above the trees to get an exact location otherwise it’s just a very general direction. Right now all I can ‘see’ is they went somewhere that way.” He waved his paw across the general northwest direction, and then vanished past the leaves into the canopy.

Sam turned her attention then to Scarlet, and then Jack when the ocelot’s eyes roamed to the rabbit. “Rocky and his team stumbled into a native,” Jack elaborated, “and turns out not only were the singing dogs the only tribe that the Primalists managed to conscript to help them navigate the jungle, but apparently the rest of the locals stayed none too fond of them all, especially of Lotera.” He looked up at Samantha, eyes hard. “They were wary of doing anything themselves because of what that Thylacine can do, but another mammal with sparking paws seems to have swayed them to act, or at least help us out. Rocky’s team is already being led toward the rift, and it would seem more or less toward us in the process, so as soon as Embron pinpoints Nick we’ll all be heading likely to the same place. Skye’s team finally replied as well; Vela’s injured and they have prisoners for her and Mack to interrogate at the airstrip, but then the rest will be moving to catch up with us. We’ll have to relay plans with them though once we and Rocky’s team are together.”

“Okay, but important question still,” Sam prodded, ruffling her feathers in an anxiety that she almost never felt. “The damn marsupial got Nick, and he’s gonna get back to the rift and get whatever place they’ve built up fortified long before any of us can get there, especially ‘cause he’s got a really good head start. What happens if he’s able to do whatever he plans to do before we can even get moving?”

“Pray that’s not the case,” Scarlet said softly. Unsurprisingly, the words weren’t reassuring. Sam looked at her worriedly, very unused to hearing the cat sound so unconfident, but when Scarlet looked up again there was fire in her eyes. “Embron and I are already fairly certain that at best whatever Lotera wants to do will be a fight for him to pull off, if he even can, so we pray we’re right and get moving as fast as possible, try and disrupt his plan before it’s complete. Maybe even turn off this one rift somehow; it’s obvious he needs one actually present in order to implicate whatever he’s got going or they wouldn’t have bothered trekking all the way out here, so with it no longer in place or active his glorious endeavor goes out the window.”

“Got him!” Embron suddenly called somewhere above their heads, before just as suddenly dropping straight to the ground among them. He pointed straight northwest toward where they knew a couple of ridges and rivers converged from their map, and almost perfectly in line with the road they’d been trailing adjacent to in their search before. “Bend in the field is back up; Lotera must have stopped earlier and cloaked himself and Wilde for whatever reason, possibly dealing with Wilde’s little gift to slow him down if we’re lucky, but Wilde’s signature is back in view and heading rapidly that way. No doubt whatever Primalists are still out in the forest here will be called back to protect their base too, or slow us down, so weapons out, and let’s move.”

Silence was the standard.

She’d seen Desireigh get dropped off and briefly pass through the room only to disappear elsewhere (not that she knew per se who Desireigh was at this time, of course, having been caged for days and away from the action), and Bhoot had come by a few times again picking up or rearranging things in the space. But neither had cared to or dared to, respectively, speak to her.

Thus, Judy was starting to go insane from the monotony of it all. With still nothing around to help an escape (she’d even toyed with trying to pull something off of her outfit to see if it could help but quickly found that what she’d been left to wear would either never come off no matter how much she bloodied her fingers pulling on it, or would never be useful as a lock pick or cutting edge), she’d studied the area she was kept in. Over. And over. And over. And occasionally put quick naps in where she thought she could, but every sound woke her back up anyway.

The one set of stairs on the northern side of the room, four doors on the bottom level where she was and pretty much bare walls otherwise up to the rickety metal railing around the second landing, and she’d been able to locate at least six other fairly decently blended-in doors up there as well along with the crisscrossing structural support bars lacing the ceiling a decent distance even above the second floor. Judy thought that with a good running start she might be able to reach the latter, but then question was what good would that do beyond maybe getting a vantage point and then getting shot at in a fight. At the least, she needed weapons especially if going toe to toe with Lotera, or whichever other highly skilled allies might eventually show up at the base (she didn’t know the blue tree monitor’s capabilities, Ravelis’ either for that matter but at least the latter had supposedly left the base some time ago), but a broom handle and maybe a syringe she’d spotted on the one short counter nearby earlier (though it seemed to have disappeared since the last time Bhoot had come by; the little wolf pup had probably been sent to clean things up in the space and make sure sharp objects were well away) were about all that were actually lying about.

And she still needed a way out first and foremost before any of her other notions could be even remotely useful.

The southern door on the ground level slammed open, causing the rabbit to whirl around with her ears pinned on high alert. When she saw who walked in, her heart dropped.

It stopped beating entirely when she recognized what (or more specifically, whom) he was carrying too.

Lotera was dripping wet, as apparently a storm had started up outside (Judy could faintly hear thunder somewhere beyond the surprisingly thick walls of the “rift room”), and slung over his shoulder was an obviously unconscious and also rather waterlogged looking Nick. The Thylacine began plodding toward Judy, his stony expression fitting with his soggy and exhausted appearance, and Judy was caught suddenly between the conflicting urges to scramble away from the deadly presence of the mammal and to run to the bars and reach out for the fox she hadn’t seen in far too long. The result was a frozen wide-eyed stance, broken only when Lotera reached the cages, unlatched and opened the one next to hers, and dumped Nick unceremoniously inside.

As he slammed the door shut again and locked it, Judy broke from her paralysis and ran to the bars of the two cages and reached through, just barely able to flick the tod’s listless tail. “Nick? Nick?!” she exclaimed, trying to wake him up and get his attention. “Oh my God, what did he do to you? Nick, can you hear me?”

“Save your breath, rabbit,” Lotera finally spoke in a leaden tone, violently shaking the rain off of himself that he could manage to remove in such a way and turning toward the makeshift counter nearby. Judy barely noticed him stumble in one step, focused as she was on Nick. “I tranqed him; he won’t come around either for a few hours or until I administer a…” He trailed off, staring with a growing confusion that soon turned toward exasperation at the nearly empty counter.

“Kijka goona!” he spat. “No one told him to clean…mmmmhhhh!!!” Whirling, he stalked toward the western doorway, exhaustion apparently temporarily overridden in his irritation as he muttered under his breath.

As soon as he’d disappeared, Judy went back to trying to shake Nick awake, even though with what Lotera had said she knew it was to no avail. That was the point of a tranquilizer after all, to ensure nothing would wake him up, but it did nothing to reassure her. All she saw was her fox, drenched and battered-looking, lying on the bare floor of the second cage next to hers with only the slightest of gentle breaths visible in the rising and falling of his chest to claim he was even alive. For all her panicked mind could think right then he could have been lying there in a coma.

Two minutes after he’d gone out, Lotera returned with a syringe in his hand and headed for Nick’s cage. Again, the urges to fight and flee warred in Judy, but this time she grabbed hold of the push to confront the Thylacine when he opened Nick’s cage.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing-!”

Lotera snarled and flicked his hand at her, and Judy felt just enough of a something hit her to send her stumbling backward into the middle of her own container. “One would think that you also would have an interest in having the fox here awake,” he quipped, grabbing Nick by the front of the suit he was wearing and hoisting him up. “So shut up.” He jabbed the syringe into Nick’s neck and pushed the plunger, then dropped him again and closed the door.

“Damn pup put all our supplies away,” Lotera continued to mutter, before turning to sneer at Judy. “So you might as well enjoy what few minutes you have when he wakes up again. I’ll be back soon enough to get the extraction started.” With that he plodded off again, shoulders slumping as weariness returned to him, and out of spite Judy glared after him for a moment. The Thylacine stopped just outside the exit he was heading for, and Judy watched him reach up and massage his temples like he had a migraine. One could hope, she thought bitterly. Then Lotera straightened up again and disappeared for the second time since he’d gotten back.

There was a slight groan in the next cage, and just as quickly Judy’s mind (and shortly thereafter her body) flew back toward Nick. The tod was stirring where he lay, tail twitching and the digits of his paws doing the same.

“Nick!” Judy called cautiously, though her heart was screaming at her to just yell his name to the heavens to get him to wake up faster. What rationality she was holding onto told her that was probably a bad idea, so she just repeated, “Nick? Can you hear me?”

Another thirty seconds went by before Nick’s head finally shifted, angling toward Judy, and the fox’s eyes flickered. “J…Juuuddd…?” he slurred, ears twitching every which way before finally locking on her direction.

Then his eyes opened, glazed and unfocused, but slowly centering on the rabbit as well.

“Juuddyy?”

Judy’s heart leapt and she pressed against the bars even more fervently. “Nick!” Yes, it’s me, Judy! Are you okay?”

Nick groaned again, rolling slowly and trying to push himself up. He failed the first time, and turned to stare groggily back at the lapine. Ignored by both of them, in time with Nick’s slumping to the floor the rift rippled blue.

Three seconds later, it looked as if someone had suddenly plugged Nick into a wall socket.

“Judy!” the fox exclaimed, eyes flying open and his body rocking violently up toward a semi-sitting position. He wavered then, tranquilizer still not quite fully neutralized, and Judy was afraid for a moment that he would fall over again. In a way he did, but it was straight toward her, arms catching the bars and his head slumping forward at just the right angle for his snout to slip between the bars and his lips to crash into hers.

For that singular moment, both of their minds went blank, and everything felt right. They were both there, together, unharmed (relatively), and sharing a moment of passion they’d been starved of since that night on the ridge outside of Zootopia.

Then Nick’s mind woke up fully, the tranq antidote finishing its work and everything about their situation slamming back into place in his memories. Much as he didn’t want to, he broke contact and leaned back slightly, ears pinning back as he looked at Judy with a painfully serious expression. “Judy? Where are we?” he asked flatly.

Then the fox’s left ear twitched and he looked toward the center of the room. “And…what is that…feeling? It’s like something is pulling at me, and it’s been happening since we basically landed here.”

“Nick…this is where the rift is,” Judy answered slowly, bringing her paws together and wringing them in nervousness. “The Primalists built this place around it; it’s right where you’re looking, flashes odd lights occasionally and sometimes buzzes.”

As if to prove her point, a spherical shimmer of reddish lines glowed into existence for a moment above the rock bowl, and then just as quickly vanished again.

Nick’s shoulders slumped, and his hands dropped to his sides. “So,” he said quietly, “they managed to get both of us after all then.”

“Hey, no, I just got you back, don’t you give up on me now!” Judy admonished, ears lying flat too but in exasperation as she brandished a finger at the fox (no, her fox). “Look, the two of us always do our best thinking when we’re together anyway, and maybe you know something about these locks that I don’t, so let’s get thinking of a way to get out of here before the stupid marsupial comes waltzing back in, ‘kay?”

Nick blinked at her, taken aback a bit by the sudden chewing-out, before his eyes set hard and his ears popped back up. “You’re right,” he muttered. “Game’s not over until it’s really over. I’ve done enough of finding the easy way out anyway. Hell, I thought up the would-be trap that let Lotera get to me –would have worked too had Saber not jumped in Scarlet’s way I’d bet, but beyond the point.” He leaned over and began looking over the locking mechanism on his cage. It was obvious of course that from the outside it required a key of sorts to unlock, but inside, he could see a couple of flaws that they might be able to put to use.

“Hmmm…spring-loaded and held in place by multiple pins,” the tod mused, tapping on his chin before poking at the little opening that he could see the gears through on the back of the lock. “If I had a good lock-picking kit I could probably manage it, but gonna need a few sturdy, thin objects first here anyway that will have to make do.” He turned again and began shuffling around his cage, peering at the floor and all the conjoined parts of the bars. “Were you awake when you were brought here?”

“Yeah,” Judy said, turning to look about her cage too (though she knew she probably wouldn’t find much this round either, just like any of the other attempts). “Place is a big box; two floors, lined around the outside of this room by smaller spaces, and they’ve got supplies, weapons storage somewhere, probably a couple of communication rooms since they’ve got to be talking with everyone they sent into the field somehow.”

“Yeah, blue tree monitor named Desireigh who’s being a pain in the ass for the Sparrow,” Nick muttered. When he noticed Judy stop looking around and stare his way, he continued, “Right, you don’t know about everyone else yet. The Canistons dug up a bunch of friends to help out, including an old buddy of mine named Rocky who’s another Gifted as it turns out and Mack Mallupe, who’s the tech genius behind the Sparrow alias. Also a couple oddball pilots who’re apparently also good fighters. But Mack’s back with our plane right now keeping the teams covered and Desireigh from pinpointing them or messing up the jets.  Really asocial guy, fun to tease.”

“You would,” Judy sighed, to which Nick only shrugged. Then they both started searching about again. “Anyway,” the rabbit continued, “Each door out of here leads to a hall running to the perimeter corridor, and at least one exit on each face I think.” She paused, reaching down and picking up a short stick that was lying in the tray below her cage. “Hey, would this work?”

Nick looked up, and frowned. “Depends on how sturdy these pens were built to be,” he said, glancing at the lock again. “Considering how bad the loonies want us staying put though I’d wager we’ll need something more, but we can try if nothing else shows. What I’d really like though is…aha!”

Turning back toward where he’d been looking before, he spotted something promising: a loose nail, hanging slightly out of the wall behind the cages. Problem was, even for him it was just out of reach.

“New plan for the stick,” Nick said, looking back at his partner. “Toss it here.”

Judy handed it over (not wanting to risk actually tossing it; if they lost the little branch that could be it for them), and Nick took it and reached out between the bars to hook the end under the bent head of the nail. The metal spike was still fairly tight in the wall even if it stuck out more than it should have been tough, and in the awkward position he was reaching through Nick strained to wiggle it out bit by bit. The little stick creaked and crackled in the process too, and both mammals prayed that it wouldn’t snap.

Thin as it was, it eventually did…but right as the tip of the nail slid out of the wall. The nail fell to the floor, luckily rolling toward the cage instead of away from it, and Nick snatched it up with glee.

“Okay! Now we’re getting somewhere…see any others, Carrots?”

They both looked back along the wall sections behind each of their respective containers, spotting a couple more that were more firmly in the wall a little higher up. Nick climbed precariously up the side of his cage to get one (now with a stronger object to lever with, he didn’t have to worry so much about it breaking either), and then handed Judy one of the nails so she could reach one hammered into the boards behind the far side of her container. Then they both leapt back over toward where the lock on Nick’s cage was.

“Okay,” the tod started to instruct, “see the spring here?” He pointed inside the little opening, where Judy could just spot a little coiled metal wire. “If we break it nothing’s gonna work so we need to avoid that at all costs, but we’ve gotta squeeze the nail tips past it here and push each of those little pins back. Once they’re out of the way we can turn the latch and open the door no problem. Ready?”

Judy nodded, following Nick’s guidance as they carefully picked at the mechanism. It took several tries, and several minutes, as the nails would slip out of place or they’d have to reorient themselves to keep pushing at the pins without breaking the spring. Finally though, they got all three pins to move out of the way of the deadbolt. With Judy carefully holding two of the nails, Nick held the third and then took his free hand and reached carefully, gently out and around to turn the latch.

The door popped open, and their hearts soared.

Another door on the second floor then slammed open, and it took all the willpower the fox and rabbit had not to scream aloud. Nick didn’t waste time, scrambling out of his cage and running to Judy’s lock, but Judy did look up for a moment to see Lotera walking in, stomping toward the stairs with a furious expression plastered on his snout.

“Other syringe seems to have disappeared,” he called out in an almost sing-song voice as he started walking down the steps, but the spite in the words couldn’t be missed. “Had to fill another from the rest of the supply, but still, it’ll work all the same. I’ll kill the pup for making me search around like this la…”

The Thylacine trailed off as he reached the bottom, looking up to see Nick out of his cage and working fervently to try and open Judy’s. “How the hell did you get out?!” he spat, marching their way at a now much more rapid pace.

Nick, now knowing there was no way he was going to get the lock undone before Lotera got to him, took one of the nails and passed it hurriedly to Judy, before hiding the other two in his own paws. He kept the same hunched position though, and acted like he was still trying to fiddle with the lock.

“These were supposed to be non-tampering locks,” Lotera hissed, reaching down to grab Nick around the neck. “And I took everything off of you two! How-AAARRRRGGGHHH!!”

Nick had ducked just as Lotera was about to clamp his paw around the fox’s throat, spinning and lashing upward with the nail. Lotera had pulled away in reaction, but not quite fast enough to avoid the metal spike scraping a bloody line along his forearm and part of his palm. Not a deep wound, but burning enough to make Lotera scream and clench his arm to his chest, barely avoiding nicking himself with the syringe he held. But he didn’t back off for long.

Nick knew he couldn’t just run and so lunged forward again in hopes of getting another good scrape or two in with his makeshift weapons at least, but the Thylacine had lost whatever patience he’d had before in that instant. The fox left the ground of his own accord, but then stayed there and reversed direction at a flick of Lotera’s ear.

“You two are almost more trouble than you’re worth!” Lotera roared, slamming Nick against the open door of his cage and holding him flat there. “I need all the energy I can spare for the last bit here, but clearly you’re going to force me to use some up anyway just to get you prepared, aren’t you?” He lifted up the syringe, stalking toward Nick again, and the eyes of the fox and rabbit both glued to the needle. Their hearts dropped.

The beautiful and yet sickeningly deep blue-violet hue of Night Howler concentrate was impossible to mistake for anything else, and the syringe was loaded with it.

“No! Nick!” Judy screamed, slamming her fists against her cage, but Nick was out of reach, and thereby Lotera and the savagery-inducing serum would also remain so until he was done with the fox. Lotera briefly shot Judy a look as he walked up right in front of Nick, nothing but a promise of pain in his eyes, and then he drove the needle into Nick’s shoulder.

The fox screamed in pain as the rabbit yelled in both anguish and fury, and then Lotera flicked his finger and tossed Nick back into his cage, slamming the door shut again. A second later the lock on Judy’s cage clicked and her door flung open, only for her to also get pinned against the bars as Lotera rounded on her, bringing the syringe up and then into her shoulder as well. Then her door shut and locked again too and the force on her dropped, leaving her kneeling on the floor clutching her shoulder.

“Step one,” the Thylacine sneered, though breathlessly, “override your bond with a little chemical insanity.”

Judy stared at him, gripping her shoulder and feeling her muscles spasming around the injection site. A wave of disorientation and adrenaline spiked through her veins. Nearby she could hear Nick groaning and breathing in rapid huffs that were starting to increase in rate, thrashing about under the same influence, and she put every ounce of focus into fighting against the toxin.

As seconds began to morph into the first minute though, Judy felt her control slipping. Her vision blurred and sharpened haphazardly and she dropped to all fours, conscious mind beginning to battle and then slip under an advancing wall of adrenaline and a furious haze, and then thoughts ended and she was swept into a violent nothingness.

It was mostly with an impassive lack of care that Lotera watched the two cops switch form (though he couldn’t deny there was some enjoyment in it considering how much pain these two had caused him, including the burning gash now across his arm), morphing from panicked individuals to hissing, growling wild things. Timing was everything, and he dared not move a muscle as fox and rabbit both shook off the starting daze and took note of each other, both seeing not their partners but some combination of threat, meal, or other foe to be taken down. Their hackles rose, claws extended (on the fox at least) and scratched the bars making up the floor of the cages, and then they tensed up to leap at each other with full intent on clawing the other to shreds.

That was when he reacted, swinging his injured paw out first to pull the fox away and pin him against the inside of the door, where he could not reach the rabbit or vice versa. Then with his good paw he set the Night Howler syringe aside and pulled out another, empty one from his pocket. With a flip of his claw the cap on the needle flew off, and he carefully (far more carefully than with the other syringe) inserted it into the back of Nick’s neck.

The harvest was a delicate process, all the more reason why Lotera had fully pinned the fox; first he needed a drop of spinal fluid, then the blood of the mammal now tainted with Midnicampum. Nick unsurprisingly squealed at the pain of both pricks, but could neither escape nor twist as his deluded mind actually wanted in order to bite the offender until Lotera was done and let him drop. The Thylacine repeated the process with Judy next, using a second syringe to make sure he got what was needed, and then turned to leave both savage mammals where they were while he finished.

Then, Lotera paused, and turned back just so he could shove the cages far enough apart that the two couldn’t kill each other while he was busy. After all, this last and most critical step, one that he’d learned years ago but was never able to quite finish after looking through an old tome he’d managed to find about the rifts (and one written by another long-dead Empowered roe deer, likely the only book of its kind that escaped the ancient purges), was a precision matter and took time, and if he got it wrong it would be necessary to have the two alive to extract from again.

He only hoped he had time enough after the delays before the blasted agents showed up to finish the Catalyst serum so that he wouldn’t have to disappear and finish the process elsewhere. This rift was the first he’d found in years, and it would be no small feat having to track down another.

The door to the Primalists’ jet opened as Skye and her group walked up to the runway, and a flicker of movement showed before Mack apparently decided to turn the cloak off and converse visibly with them all. “So the others are probably going to reach that base real soon,” he said as they walked up, dragging their prisoners behind them (most of whom were awake again if they’d been tranqed before, and loudly protesting). ‘You guys are gonna be hard-pressed to catch up if you’re gonna help. I’ve got the drones with them ready in battle mode, but they probably won’t last long.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve got a plan,” Skye said, kicking the dhole she was dragging to make him shut up for a moment. “Vela’s been hit pretty bad, so we’re going to get her patched up properly here, then adequately restrain these bastards so you and her can interrogate them. Vela can’t fight until she heals anyway but she should be able to still handle flying a plane, so we’re gonna drop in from overhead. You crack into the new craft here?”

“Can a trout swim up a river?” Mack retorted as if insulted. “Of course I hacked it. Stupid reptile doesn’t have a clue yet either, though if you plan on borrowing their plane I’ll wager Desireigh will notice the moment you leave the ground, even with the current cloak. Some things just don’t quite hide. Not that she could do much once you’re in the air though.” He looked northward, and frowned. “And methinks you may have some issues flying right about now, considering a storm’s sweeping across the mountain range this way, right where the base is.”

“That’s why I’m flying us in, and Vela will take over when we reach the drop point,” Dax replied, marching up to the steps. “Storms ain’t a problem for an Archangel. We know you’re not a fighter, so you can either choose to hang with our jet or help Vela fly, but we’re commandeering this one and putting the POW’s wherever you are. You can see if they’ve got any juicy bits to wring out about the financer behind all this or whatever else. But, no time to waste; scoot!”

The ottsel skittered up the steps and past the wolf, who paused a moment at the door’s edge before jumping down to the tarmac, checking in on his tablet the status of the drones before looking up again.

“You’re right,” he said, heading for the other plane, “I ain’t a fighter. Doesn’t mean I can’t throw a mean punch now and again, mind you. But I can help direct the plane from here, and track the storm. God knows Embron’s probably already using the weather to his advantage, electro-maniac he is, but the rest of us won’t exactly get much off it.”

Skye directed Vela to head into the commandeered craft to help Dax ready the plane, and then followed Mack with the others and their captives. They climbed into their own jet just a short ways away and thoroughly secured the Primalists to the walls of the seating area (making sure in the process that none of them had or were in reach of any useful tools). Then the vixen looked toward the cockpit, where the Sparrow was fiddling with the tablet once more.

“They shouldn’t be going anywhere any time soon,” she said, walking up to him. Then, lowering her voice, she asked, “You think you can actually get anything out of them? I can give you a few interrogation tips.”

Mack snorted, and held up the tablet for her to see. “Not a need Ms. Wellinger. This is a world run on tech, and if they’ve got even a fuzzy image online anywhere I can find them, and all the info I could personally want linked to them with just a quick selfie of each of them.” He grinned, and looked back toward the prisoners. “You’d best get moving; we don’t want to give Lotera any more time to play than he’s already had to finish his harebrained scheme –and no offense to hares there. I’ll have these nuts cracked by the time you drop in, so long as dear Desi doesn’t come up with some new gift for me to play with first.”

Skye nodded and turned around, leaving the red wolf to his devices (literally) and following Fangel and Forsythe out of the plane, shutting the door behind them.

The other jet was already starting to power up as they boarded, and the agents all quickly pilfered the parachutes stored away in the cargo hold (why use theirs when they could just make use of the opposing side’s, after all) and strapped in as Dax maneuvered the jet to a takeoff position on the runway.

“We have enough fuel to make it?” Skye called up to the mustelid, and Dax just laughed.

“Oh, plenty if the gauge ain’t broke,” he shouted back over the growing roar of the engines. “And should be more than enough to cruise it about for a while after even. Nice craft actually, though kind of a disappointingly easy system compared to mine and Sam’s. Anyway, hang tight, I ain’t pulling any punches here!’

He wasn’t lying. The jet began rolling, and quickly ramped up to rocketing down the runway, before tilting upward into the sky in a stomach-dropping motion and almost immediately banking into a sharp curve northwest, sharp enough to collect several G’s in the process.

Skye gripped the straps she was buckled into with whiter knuckles than usual, and as the jet screamed through the air toward the dim haze of the storm ahead she realized she was finally getting a better taste of why Dax and his friend had been called the Archangels.

Dammit Embron, if I survive this flight in one piece I’m gonna strangle you and Scarlet for dragging so many clinically insane friends into our lives!

Rocky had warned them about possible surprises coming up in reference to his friends. There were other Gifteds among their team after all, which meant just about anything was possible.

But, as they approached the river bisect that was just south of the Primalist base even he, never mind all the natives surrounding him, nearly had a heart attack when the storm drenching them suddenly threw a half dozen lightning bolts down to the same spot not a quarter mile away, each barely half a second behind the last and the thunder compounding in a violent echo across the landscape. It was only after he managed to flatten his water-spiked and raised hackles down that he was able to turn to Aeto and the other locals and reassure them that nothing yet had gone wrong.

“It’s only friend of mine!” he said. “Preparing for the fight!”

Though I wish you could have at least given me a fucking warning first, Embron!

Unsurprisingly, the more recently arrived locals looked uncertain. Rocky couldn’t blame them either, but then he wasn’t going to ask them to fight, just lead them to the base. Now that they were close enough though, he could also pick up Nick’s magnetic signature, as well as that odd feeling he’d only rarely encountered when he or other Gifteds approached a rift, that would lead them straight toward where the parrots had said the base was.

Just as he was about to explain to the natives that they didn’t need to go any further themselves though, an arrow whizzed past Treba’s ear. It would have hit her dead on, had one of the snakes that had joined them from Aeto’s tribe not yanked on her foot and made her stumble aside too. She yelped and turned to snap about the trip, before she noticed the shaft of the arrow quivering in the tree another two feet back.

A shout went up amongst the natives even as Rocky, Harrison, and the other agents brought up weapons toward the unseen assailants. The fox would have taken a shot when he fixed his eyes on a shadow flitting between the trees, had Aeto not shouted his name sharply in that same instant. He snapped his head down to regard the reptile questioningly.

“We take care of the Singers,” the elapid said tersely, slithering past him and many of the other natives following suit (Rocky did notice Aulani and a few of the birds, and several larger marsupials staying back with him and the agents though). “You follow the way to the vision-maker, take care of the bad ones there. Go!” Then he was gone within the brush, and though a few more arrows sang through the air a moment later (these ones Rocky was expecting at least, burning them to ash as they neared the group), yelps and shouts in several dialects soon began to echo through the rain and trees.

“Guess we hadn’t scared the other tribe off as much as we thought,” the Arctic fox muttered, before turning in the direction they’d been traveling again and ordering, “Alright, back on heading! “Aeto’s got this one, we get the rest.”

It was a relief to hear the volleyed shouts and cries of pain fade behind them as they moved away, and fifteen minutes further found them crossing a narrow bridge over the river. Just on the other side, they found Jack’s team. As expected, Rocky could practically feel the static coursing through Embron even from thirty feet away, and as the storm continued to move southeast and the first rays of morning began to tint the shrouded sky, the two groups paused to take stock of each other and plan.

“Avery’s still patrolling the area no doubt,” Jack said, turning on his com to make sure Skye’s group was included in the exchange and hear any suggestions from them or Mack and then looking up at the birds among them. “Psitticoney, you and the native aerial individuals fan out and find her, and you know the rest. For those of us on the ground, Embron said Wilde’s signature is still emanating from approximately five hundred yards that way, and no doubt they’ll be armed and waiting for us.”

He pointed at the coyote among them. “Embron, you just scared us all half to death with that damn lightning rod stunt you just pulled so I hope to God you have enough juice now to knock out whatever electrical systems they might have, or can give Mallupe a jumpstart into their systems so he can take them down from within and maybe find something helpful in the process. Scarlet, Rocky, remove any exterior weaponry that you see installed and dig a hole into whatever building they have set up, and the rest of us including Skye’s team when they arrive, we fight whoever comes pouring out at us until the base is penetrated and we locate the Catalysts and the rift. This is end-all here, do not show mercy or we will lose ground we can’t afford to lose. Ask questions now.”

There was a pause as Rocky translated what he could to the natives, and then silence.

“Alright then,” Jack said, checking the magazine in his pistol to make sure it was fully loaded, and then locking it back in place. “Positions, now!”

Sam, Aulani, and the handful other local birds took to the skies as the rest of the group pushed forward as one unit through the brush. Subtlety was almost useless now, though they stayed as quiet as they could, weapons trained in all directions.

A hundred yards from their targeted clearing the first counter attacks came in, a dozen animals sweeping in and laying down fire at them from both sides. The remaining natives, Ringston, Treba, and Lubella split off to engage them, letting the rest push on, and barely a minute later they reached the edge of the clearing.

Ahead of them, dripping from the rain that was only just starting to let up, was the boxy makeshift base they’d been seeking, and it was ringed with guards of a couple dozen species and individuals; mammal, reptile, and even a few more avians. All of said guards immediately drew weapons when the agents appeared, and did not hesitate to fire or run forward with blades extended.

“Want to start us off?” Rocky asked, looking over at Embron.

The coyote nodded, folding his ears back as he took up a fighting stance, both hands pointed palms-up toward the base. The air around him began to snap and crackle as electric streamers started rolling up his body and whirling around his arms, and though the bullets weren’t getting far thanks to Scarlet, every Primalist present had started firing directly at him in reaction.

“Kind of wish the storm had come by a few hours earlier, so Nick could watch this,” Embron mused, “but still, this I do with pleasure.” He grinned, and let loose.

A reverberating crack of thunder shaking the walls of the building violently was Lotera’s first clue that time was about to run very short.

His second was an echoing scream of fury from outside in another room as Desireigh found the components of her tech system either fried or going haywire and getting torn open by a secondary focused attack meant to let the Sparrow right in the front door.

All of it was a distraction that the Thylacine could have really done without right then, but he forced himself to do his best to quell his twitching ears and maintain focus on the swirling, bubbling solution being manipulated and energized in the little container under his fingers. The process was nearing completion, but every ounce of concentration was needed for every step from start to end; he could not slack off now.

Gunfire filtered through the walls into the space around the rift, and yells from injured animals and the exertion of paw-to-paw combat were starting to rile up the two savage cops that had only recently started entering a sort of tonic silence, but still Lotera kept his head down over the bench, focusing hard. A few more minutes, he just needed a few more minutes.

The distracting though of and a decent nap worked its way into his head, making his eyelids droop for a moment and his vision waver, but Lotera snarled and shook his head fiercely, throwing the drowsiness he could not afford to acknowledge off again.

Two minutes later, the sound of squealing, ripping metal signaled a breach, and the noises of gunfire and clashing blades got that much louder. A moment later, something that sounded like the engines of a plane passing just a touch too close by for comfort also joined the din temporarily.

“No, no, no no!” Lotera hissed, redoubling his efforts. Two more modifications, an energy signature and a molecular recombination within the solution, that was all that was left, but the Gifteds and agents would be likely reaching the room within 30 seconds, tops. The energy for the reaction rushing off his fingertips intensified, trying to speed the binding process while not compromising the needed integrity of what had already been put in place, even as the Thylacine could feel his body screaming protest. He was at the last length of his rope now, he knew. Everything, or abject failure.

The last alignment of the molecules between the Midnicampum serum and Catalyst spinal extract fell into place.

A door slammed open in a corridor somewhere, and another sounded like it was removed violently from its hinges.

Lotera was vaguely aware that he’d bitten his tongue somewhere in his laser focus.

Then, finally, the last little quantum-level energy signature rippled through the solution and set in place, and two doors slammed open into the rift room.

Lotera grabbed the serum and stumbled to his feet, lurching his overtaxed self toward the rock bowl in the middle of the room. Embron was among the first to have entered, and swept his paws up in the Thylacine’s direction. A wave of force smacked viciously into Lotera, sending him rolling until he came to a stop flat on his back in the middle of the bowl. The treatment made his shoulder and scratched arm burn in protest, and several other bruises made themselves known at the same time pulling a groan out of his throat, but still Lotera focused on finishing what he was so close to getting done. He reached up while ignoring the screaming pain it caused in his shoulders, thrusting the little vial in to the air above him and popping the cap off, and then sent one last spark of energy into it to spray it up into the rift itself.

The air cracked audibly, and the world washed over white.

Chapter Text

All things end

But not all things truly end

What is lost may only be beginning

Life is a circle

Time, a construct of mortality

A haggard gasp to understand something more

Actions are nothing

A spark in great eternity

And the world runs beyond our doings

Indeed we try

We strive to make a difference

But without the orchestrator it is lost

We motley few

We look at tragedy and cry

And miss the wonders that will henceforth spring

Be ready soon

Even when all has fallen

For that is when the triumph will be the greatest

For now renewed

Reborn the defeated shall be

And the earth won for the noble souls

He felt like he was everywhere, but at once also nowhere. Floating, but there was no air or water to hold him up and float in, nor did he feel suffocated, or wet, or hot or cold or any real sensation to define that he was even alive.

None, that is, but wonder.

She was there too, not exactly alongside but yet somehow also right there with him, as reality opened wide and shattered hundredfold. A thousand viewpoints, a thousand lives, ten thousand different worlds and realms and dimensions flashed by in an instant eternity, and they watched, understanding and yet comprehending none.

Some were earths like their own, sometimes with creatures they recognized and others they didn’t, sometimes in the present day and sometimes in the past, or rolling from their beginning to their end. In a few forever glimpses they saw worlds where no living thing knew any more than the order to survive, others where a single race dominated or directed the rest of nature, or a few did together, or dozens, hundreds, thousands working as one. Dimensions beyond understanding tangled them together as fractured but a whole, singular unit, and entities that seemed almost familiar and yet defied description, in sides that screamed death or sang life, threaded among them.

Wars raged and peace reigned, laughter and hatred and art and science and creation and destruction hung forever and disappeared before and around them. The breadth of life was a portrait, a landscape too broad and complex to comprehend, chaotic to a length that it seemed nothing could keep it all together, and yet it all beat to an order of perfection within imperfection, complete in together parts. Behind it all…something that kept it bound all together as that imperfect yet flawless whole, a chaos of order.

It…or they? HE, perhaps, as it seemed right, smiled at them, and with a great sweep that was no movement at all, made no sound and yet shook all creation with the direction that they now needed to return to where they still were. Their time, and their roles, were incomplete, and now they needed to fulfill them and finish what had begun.

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed, but eventually the flare receded and the world returned to the visible state it ought to have been. But, Embron was well aware that the rift was still very, very active, like he’d never experienced or even heard of before.

He was also aware that he was now somehow lying on his back, uninjured (though he could have sworn someone had managed to bruise his leg rather badly with a lucky slingshot before they’d gotten inside) and staring up at the ceiling, where the rafters were slowly being carved over by…something.

The coyote blinked, and craned his neck up to look around, noting that everyone else who’d come in alongside him or through the other door they’d busted in was also on their backs and scattered around the edges of the room. A humming, pulsing sound was emanating from the rock bowl too.

Embron had only ever personally seen one active rift before, knew that they were supposed to only flash or buzz briefly or fix like a rippling sphere if something triggered them. This one wasn’t doing so any longer though; rather, the space it occupied was spinning, vibrating and flashing, and pulses were rolling out like visible shockwaves through the air from it, each one carving a new line of symbols into the floor and walls about them as it passed.

No, more than symbols; Embron could recognize from the ones closest to him letters of English, Hebric, Hareamaic, and about three dozen other languages amongst the writings all intermixed with each other. And the rift didn’t seem to be running out of energy any time soon either.

What. The. Hell…

“The hell just happened?!” Wolfard echoed his thoughts nearby, also sitting up and looking around in bewildered awe. “The hell is happening right now?!”

“I’m seeing Scripts being carved around us,” Embron answered softly, just loud enough for the wolf to hear. “I…whatever he tried, I don’t…think it worked.”

His gaze turned, and locked on the Thylacine who’d thrown his little project into the rift certainly only a few moments before (it couldn’t have been longer; gunshots were still echoing outside somewhere). Lotera had now rolled (or been rolled, more likely it seemed) toward the opposite wall, and had yet to start moving himself, although he was clearly still alive. If how Embron felt was anything to go by though, it looked like for a relieving first time Lotera had fared far worse in the “blast” or whatever had just occurred moments ago than any of them had. Cuts and bruises could quite clearly be seen littering his body in the pulsing light.

“Well, that’s just fine with me then,” Harrison growled, pushing himself to his feet. Everyone else quickly followed suit. “So long as the rift doesn’t just blow up or something before we finish bringing this place down and getting out of here, I’m good with whatever it’s doing.”

“Then let’s start with Lotera while he’s still down,” Fangmeyer growled as she pulled out her crossbow again, checking that the darts she had left hadn’t vanished in the interim. “Pay him back for the busted arm Ringston is nursing out…” She trailed off, movement catching her eyes and making her turn her head to the left, and they widened dramatically. Embron followed her gaze, and his heart leapt, moments before it stuttered in shock at what he was seeing.

On the other side of the room, Lotera coughed and slowly rolled to his front, gingerly pushing himself up onto his hands and knees (and snarling viciously at the pain that shot through his injured arm at the move, as well as all the other bruises that had appeared). He looked up, seeing the rift very much still there despite his efforts and more active than he’d ever seen or heard of before either. Past it, he spotted the coyote, the ocelot, and the Arctic fox that were all on his level, as well as several of the agents already in the room too.

He tensed up, suddenly acutely aware of the new power balance in the room, especially as drained as he was now (barely able to summon a decent sprinkle of antibacterial balm for his wounds let alone fight with anything grander). He was certain he’d gotten the serum arrangement right, certain the application had been as the tome had described as he’d pored over those instructions at least a hundred times to make sure he got it right…

…And it had failed, somehow.

Unless Lotera could get out somehow with the Catalysts to try again one day and figure out what might have gone wrong, this was looking to be the end of the line for this mission, and as few animals on his side as he saw in the room, escape of his own alone was a slim chance.

Fighting it is then.

No one seemed to be paying much attention to the Thylacine now either, but they may not have seen him rise. All the better he decided; he could get his first attack ready and maybe even take one of them down completely. Spread out as they were, most damage with the strength he had left would probably be had with an electrified sweep, so he sat up and brought his paws together to start forming a charge.

“If I were you, I’d not,” a disturbingly nearby voice snapped, and Lotera jolted, whirling to look down on Arveni Pristovena, the pygmy hog with the skills of a cat burglar.

“Not necessarily because of us either,” Arveni continued nonchalantly, somehow unbothered by his proximity to the Empowered Primalist and the snarling look of hatred he was receiving from Lotera. He simply turned a touch and nodded behind the Thylacine. “I get the feeling we aren’t your biggest worry anymore.”

Normally Lotera would have struck the hog down then and there for concern of a ruse, but this once something told him Pristovena wasn’t fibbing. Quickly, he made for a short glance over his shoulder, making sure to keep Pristovena in his sights…and then he couldn’t look away.

The cages where he’d tossed the savage Catalysts hardly resembled cages anymore; all of the bars on the sides facing the rift and each other had either warped or seemingly just melted apart, the remains pooling on the floor in metallic puddles. In the remains, the fox and the rabbit stood side by side, paws entwined, glaring daggers at the Thylacine. And they were quite clearly no longer under the influence of the Night Howler serum.

Lotera’s mind struggled to process this; there had been no antidote in the room, none of the Gifteds or agents had been anywhere near the cages to enact any sort of treatment or breakout either, so there should have been no way for those two to have come around on their own, and certainly not in the span of just a couple of minutes. The only thing left was starting to come clear with deadly certainty.

Somehow, Lotera’s attempt to shut down the rift had backfired on him spectacularly, and in the process it had instead reacted with the Catalysts themselves. Rifts weren’t meant to affect objects around them like this, but it had to be the source; every time the thing pulsed, after all, the air around the two mammals was responding with an ominous, echoing halo, one that made the edges of the destroyed cage bars hum red.

Nick hadn’t the foggiest clue what had just happened. At least not at first.

One minute he’d been losing his mind behind a drug-induced haze, swamped in fury directed at everything and nothing at the same time. The next…well, whatever they had seen (as he knew Judy had too) definitely hadn’t originated from their lives, and it had been too real, too incomprehensible to merely be a drug-induced hallucination. Not to mention whatever they’d encountered (or whoever, and he had a fair guess) had obviously changed something in the present moment too. The cages he and Judy had been locked back into could hardly be called scrap metal anymore, the rift was fully active and pulsing and burning or carving words into everything around them with each flash, and he himself felt…different.

Not the “no longer savage” kind of different, though that was an obvious (and relieving) change too. Rather, Nick looked over in the direction of where Lotera was facing Arveni, and was struck with inklings or full comprehension of things he couldn’t possibly have known before. There was also no longer any fear that he associated with Lotera either, as there had been before. The Thylacine suddenly looked more like a nuisance than an actual problem, and Nick felt like he had all the answers for how to fix that nuisance now. Looking to his right, where Judy stood, he saw the lapine turn to him in the same moment and they shared a glance. No words needed, just a look, and they joined hands and waited until Lotera was bound to notice the melted state of their former enclosures.

It wasn’t a long wait. The Thylacine soon glanced over his shoulder at Arveni’s motioning and almost fell over in his stumbling spin-around to stare straight at them. The expression of shock was another refreshing change for the pair, his hand dropping to his sides and the electric glow that had built up slightly around them faded out.

“Y’know, that was quite an interesting experience you just sent us into,” Nick announced nonchalantly, he and Judy stepping in a casual manner down onto the floor. “Hard to describe what we just saw, not sure if words could actually explain most of it, but, uh, I think we got the message loud and clear that this ain’t the only earth those glowy things there connect to.” He nodded to the rift, and continued, “If I had to guess, saw some places that weren’t even our own dimension either. But, can’t say the trip was worth what you put us through to get us there, and I don’t think me or Carrots have any interest in repeating it.”

Then Nick dropped the airy act, and his expression darkened several shades, matching the glare Judy had taken on. “Unfortunately,” the fox toned, his free hand clenching into a fist, “if we leave you to run free I get the feeling we’ll never get another good night’s sleep again, so please, take a shot so we can say goodbye.” He dropped into a fighting stance, letting go of Judy’s paw as she mirrored him, and gave a “come hither” gesture to Lotera.

There was a moment of nonplussed silence as everyone, the Thylacine included, stared at the pair like they’d gone mad. After all, the two cops had no weapons on them (courtesy of Lotera removing them all prior to getting to the compound), and no abilities like Lotera or Rocky etc. did. However, neither were exactly showing much concern over that detail, which forced Lotera to give pause.

He didn’t do so for long though, finally deciding it better to take the two of them out while he could and throwing a bolt of the electric current he’d built up straight at Judy. Then he turned to take advantage of the distraction he expected to occur with the attack and bring the nearest agent (ie. Pristovena) down.

Embron reacted first, reaching out to pull the bolt toward himself instead, but a split second too slow to keep it from hitting Judy and far too behind to help Pristovena in Lotera’s next move.

He needn’t have worried. Neither Nick or Judy even flinched at the arc coming at their faces; rather, the rift pulsed again in concert with the act, Judy reached out and grabbed the buzzing stream like it was a jump rope tossed to her by a playmate, whipped the other end to Nick for him to grab onto, and they both snapped with painful clarity, “LOTERA!!”

The Thylacine faltered at the shout, his strike at Pristovena going wide and letting the hog more than easily leap up out of the way and deliver a kick harsh enough to snap him back around toward the police mammal pair. When the stars in his vision cleared, Lotera’s breath in to clear his head choked off at seeing the rabbit and fox holding the plasma live wire between them like it was a braided cord.

“B…but th…that’s impossible!” he wheezed, eyes bugging out.

“Apparently not,” Nick quipped back, rearing back in preparation to toss the bolt right back at its former owner.

A canister of ration food beat him to it though, hurtling down from the second floor and bowling Lotera over with a wince-inducing thud. The sound made Nick and Judy both jump in shock before their heads snapped upward to the source, Nick’s expression one of confusion while Judy bore a growing smile. “Bhoot!” she exclaimed excitedly.

“That was for all the times you called me stupid and useless!” the white wolf pup yelled down from where he’d heaved the canister over the railing, before his manically harsh expression lightened as he glanced down at Judy. “Does that help?”

Judy forced down the laugh that wanted to escape at the fittingly innocent question and moved to answer, but another slamming door from the upper floor interrupted her, followed by a slew of several bullets. Apparently not all of the Primalists had been taken down in the initial invasion of the base, and Bhoot yelped as one of them turned to fire at him, sending him scrambling to hide behind what little cover the railings and a couple other ration cans gave.

Judy reacted by whipping the bolt she and Nick still grasped up toward the new threat, throwing it up in a loop to snap out at the mammals and send them also scrambling for cover from the explosion of sparks that resulted when it electrified the railings.

“New plan!” the rabbit yelled out, pointing up toward Bhoot. “Jack, get Bhoot out of here safely! Harrison, Fangmeyer, find that lizard that Nick mentioned and deal with her, and you two deal with them!” She gestured at Fangel and Forsythe and then up at the cowering Primalists above them. Then her head snapped back toward the temporarily flattened marsupial nearby. “Embron, Scarlet, with us!”

“Rocky too!” Nick added in, eyes locking with the other fox. No matter how worn down Lotera appeared now, Nick for one was not going to take any chances anymore.

Jack nodded and signaled Pristovena, the two of them backing off from Lotera and heading for the stairs, while the Jaguar and the other two officers slipped back out a side door. As the other Primalists on the second level returned to their feet Fangel and Forsythe scrambled up the half-wood walls to deal with them, leaving the three Gifteds, Nick, and Judy to advance on the Thylacine who was only just struggling again to get back on his feet.

“The hell…did you do?” Lotera rasped, shooting the fox and rabbit pair a seething glare.

“Us?” Nick queried in faux-innocence, putting a paw to his chest as they stalked forward. “Don’t think we did anything ourselves, actually. But you…,” here he paused, and sent Lotera a smug, abrasive grin. “Obviously, you made the mistake of thinking you could throw two special tools of a being far outside our comprehension against each other and make them do everything they were meant to never do. News flash: Catalysts and rifts aren’t mortal-made creations, I got that much from the supernatural acid-trip Judy and I just rode, and they’re not gonna disappear just because you throw a little black magic at them. Pity for you.”

Lotera snarled and lunged at him, stumbling in the pain he was feeling but still wanting nothing more than to rip the smirk of the fox’s face now; bad enough that he’d obviously failed, worse to have the other side rub it in his face. The other white-hued tod in the room stepped in the way though, grabbing the Thylacine by the tail as he sailed past. With a yell of effort, Rocky heaved Lotera up and over his shoulder, and threw him like a rag doll across the room to slam into a wall. As the marsupial slumped to the ground with a groan, Rocky rolled his shoulders and looked at the others, a smile of his own forming. “Damn, that felt good!” he exclaimed.

Something had struck Jack soul-deep when he got his first good look at the little white pup who’d popped into the room (and it had nothing, at all he was sure, to do with how similar he looked to a skinny Skye). But it wasn’t until he and Pristovena took the wolf’s paws and started to lead him out of the corridors beyond the rift room that the real reason Bhoot seemed to connect to him came out.

“So, your name’s Bhoot then?” Pristovena asked as he glanced around the first corner, looking for more straggling Primalists.

“Uh huh,” Bhoot answered, following him and Jack when the coast proved clear.

“How’d a pup like you end up in a hellhole like this?”

“W-well, my family didn’t really like me, so they sold me away, and the Komodo who h-helped build this place bought me. I-I was brought to help clean things, mostly.”

Jack stumbled and halted a moment, his ears falling flat down his back as he stared over at the pup. “You…they…you’re a slave?” he almost wheezed. He saw Pristovena give them both sympathetic glances, the other agent catching the connection too, but ignored him.

Bhoot bit his lip and half-shrugged, before giving a slight nod. “I…I guess so. But”-

“What’s his name?”

“…What?”

“What. Is. His. Name. The guy who owned you before now, his name?”

Bhoot blinked for a moment, taken aback by the sudden fire in Jack’s blue eyes. Then the lapin’s words fully registered with him; owned, past tense. His spine suddenly seemed to straighten, as if a tension that had been within it had snapped away.

“R-Ravelis. Ravelis Suharta. He’s a big Komodo Dragon.”

Jack nodded tersely and reached up to trigger his com. “Mallupe, what can you tell me about a Komodo Dragon named Ravelis”-

“Suharta?” the red wolf’s voice cut in, causing Jack to falter. “Besides turns out he’s the financial head behind this entire shitshow?”

“…How’d you figure out his name?”

“Skye left me with some unfortunate souls to dig up info on,” Mack drawled. “They’ve all got pockets that’ve been lined somewhere by the big lizard. Guessing you found something else to piss you off about him if I’m telling that tone right too, so rest assured I’m prepping a lovely parting gift for him as we speak. I’ll shoot you the details soon as you all wrap up over there, savvy?”

The Sparrow was readying a retaliation against Ravelis already; somehow that notion actually cooled the fire building inside Jack a little. He assumed it was because he knew what the red wolf was capable of; if the Komodo was on the internet radar anywhere, Mack could probably make his life hell.

Not that that prevented Jack from wanting to hurl Ravelis into a jail cell himself though when (not if) they found him. And he’d make sure personally that they did find him.

“Good,” the lapin said tersely, gripping his gun tighter as they shuffled down the hall. “We’re bringing out a pup he had as a slave, so everything you can throw at him, do so. I get the feeling this one isn’t the only soul Suharta’s bought either. What’s the latest on Desireigh?”

“Well, the system she had set up is fried now, thank Embron for showing me through the front door there too, by the way,” Mack said through the earpiece as Jack reached a set of stairs leading from the second floor they were on down to the hallways of the first. A pair of Asian otters were standing ready to gun them down at the bottom, but looking the wrong way. “I’ve got full satellite coverage of that base now, drone flying surveillance too, and I haven’t seen her bolt out yet so I assume she must still be holed up inside with you all. Cornered cyber-wise, so she’s gonna have to fight you paw to paw instead.”

Two bullets went out, and the otters were down before Jack replied. “Patch that to Harrison and the two bigger cops; they’re searching her out.”

“Savvy. But I must know: the main duo this revolves around, they okay?”

This actually made Jack pause for a moment; even he wasn’t quite sure how to verbalize what had occurred in that room.

Pristovena stepped in instead to fill the silence. “Whatever Lotera was trying to do backfired spectacularly on him,” the hog explained as he and Jack moved again, guiding Bhoot down the stairs and along the hall to the closest exit door. “Best I can try to say it is he super-charged those two with the rift rather than shut it down with them like he wanted to do. Hell, thing looked like it exploded, was writing things on the walls, and somehow vaporized half the cages he’d stuck Wilde and Hopps inside of.”

“And then they walked out and grabbed the static charge Lotera tried throwing at them,” Jack added. “If I didn’t know better, I’d have said they were just turned into another Gifted pair, but that doesn’t seem to fit quite right either.”

“…Damn the Primalists for not having any cameras in there that I could have watched through,” Mack muttered. “Alright, calling Harrison and company right now, will get back to you tout suite.” The com clicked off.

Jack shared a glance with Arveni as they finally stepped outside, before glancing around to make sure the coast was clear. Almost nobody on the Primalist side was either awake or alive outdoors, but the rest of Jack’s team and the other borrowed agents from Trevahe’s posse were set up on guard and Dax was circling the grounds as another eye in the sky. Skye was the closest, and as she turned she locked eyes with Jack. A thousand questions he read in her eyes, but both of them took a moment first to enjoy the relief that the other was okay.

Then Skye noticed Bhoot. “Who’s this?”

“The financial mogul behind this catastrophe kept child slaves,” Jack said, not missing a whit of the recognition in his partner’s eyes. “This is Bhoot, and we need to get him somewhere safe.”

Skye nodded, holstering one weapon to hold a paw out to the wolf pup. “Hi Bhoot,” she greeted. “My name’s Skye. We’ve cleared out here pretty well, so we’ll take you to the trees to wait with some friends until we’ve got everything settled. Sound good?”

Bhoot nodded shakily, taking Skye’s offered paw, and his smile began to return.

Jack fixed the vixen with a questioning gaze though before they walked off. “Any sign of Avery?”

“No,” Skye grimaced, adjusting her grip on the pistol in her other paw. “Been relaying with Sam and nothing; they were on her tail heading westward for a while but then she vanished. At this point the eagle probably knows that things haven’t gone well for their side is my guess. Whatever happened in there, and you can fill me in later, you could probably see that flash for a hundred miles. And as many other birds are chasing her, ones who know this forest, wouldn’t surprise me if she cuts her losses and bolts.”

“Damn, Jack hissed, turning on his com again. “Another task if you’re up for it Mallupe; watch for Avery fleeing the scene.”

“A challenge! Perfect. Nada yet, but I’ll redirect some of the satellite cameras.”

Jack would have rolled his eyes, but as he turned to head back inside to aid either Harrison in the search for Desireigh or Nick and Judy and the others in finishing their current task, glass shattered from one of the few second-floor window panes in the side of the building. A now-familiar blue and black reptile sailed out of it and rapidly down a tethered rope, which she severed and left dangling the moment she hit the ground in order to sprint for the trees.

Harrison was out the window an instant later, using Desireigh’s own rope to slow his fall, while Wolfard and Fangmeyer opened fire from the window. Jack took off immediately, pistol out and pointed up at the fleeing monitor whose feet were keeping her only inches from the dirt being thrown up by the bullets of the cops. But, he could tell even then that Desireigh would reach the tree line before he or Harrison would catch up to her. The tigress and wolf had to halt their firing as well as the two agents tried closing in, lest they hit their comrades, and though Harrison attempted a desperate flying leap forward to snatch at Desireigh’s tail, he fell a foot short and the lizard bolted into the underbrush beyond.

“Dammit!” the jaguar spat (partly to remove the mud now in his mouth), rolling back to his feet and wiping mud and leaves off himself. “If we can get the natives after her maybe, but we’ll never find one lizard in a rainforest.”

‘She have anything still on her, tech-wise?” Jack asked, still keeping his pistol up high.

“A small pack, might have enough gadgets for her to get back to civilization somewhere,” Harrison growled, “but pretty sure no electronics we could get hacked or anything. Small as she is she can’t carry too much, and the Sparrow already knocked out all her computer gear from what I glimpsed up there.”

Jack sighed and slowly lowered his gun, turning back to the building. “We’ll see if we can get the locals after her then once Rocky and company come out to translate,” he said. “Otherwise we need to notify the backup teams to lock down the ports. Avery will probably flee as well, live for another job somewhere as she usually does.”

Harrison looked down and opened his mouth to reply, before the sound of something cracking like a cannonball in a fortress wall sounded within the base. “Sounds like it may not be long before we’re all out of here,” the jaguar said instead. “Call me harsh, but I hope they’re not taking the Thylacine as a prisoner.”

“No,” Jack toned softly, but sharply. “No, I agree.”

They’d sort whatever the hell had happened to him and Judy out later. Right now though, with the rest of the Primalists being held off or taken down by the agents, Nick was of same mind as the other three predators on their side in the room: Lotera’s run ended today. No ifs, ands, or buts.

After so long starting to question if the marsupial might really have been playing on a level even above Rocky, Embron, and Scarlet, Nick was feeling a twisted sort of relief too to finally see Lotera struggling to even drag himself back to his feet, marked head to toe with burns, gashes, bruises, and probably a broken bone or twelve. He could feel Judy next to him too, in a moment seemingly so out of character for her, also taking a sort of enjoyment from the scene.

Though, the tod reasoned that probably stemmed partially from her having been forced to watch him turn savage first before she’d fallen; something like that was sure to shift a mammal’s footing on a few touchy topics.

“Normally, I’d be the type to ask if you’d be willing to surrender at this point,” Embron mused to Nick’s right, the coyote’s paw balling up and coursing with something akin to fire. His expression gave away what his next words would entail too. “But, you nearly disemboweled me, kidnapped a pair of upstanding citizens of Zootopia, tried to use them to more or less end the world, and you’re not the type to change your standing even on your deathbed, are you?”

Lotera spat blood onto the stone floor, his eyes wavering toward the rift again (which was still pouring out waves that kept carving letters across the surfaces around them) before drifting with cold emptiness across the five he faced. “One…lost battle, does…not…my claims wrong make,” he heaved with effort.

Embron nodded. “No, but the thousand across history ought to say something,” he muttered, and brought his paw up. Not toward Lotera though, but toward Nick, who caught the stream that poured off of it and balled the energy between his own paws.

For a moment again the tod’s mind jumped to wondering why all this seemed to just be second nature to him now when he and Judy certainly hadn’t had this capacity ever before in their lives. But, Lotera’s dead eyes turning back on him snapped him quickly back to the present.

“You tried killing us, me and the rabbit I’ve chosen to love,” Nick snarled, pulling his paws apart as the stream lengthened into a glowing blade-style shape, “and worse, wanted that ruin for everyone else out there who just wants to live, and love, in peace. I already fought once to get out of the sort of hell you seem to desire where everyone lives by stereotypes, and damned if I let any of us go back there; I hope I’m forgiven if what I do now is wrong, to protect all of them. Also payback for stealing Judy from me.”

Russet paws grasped a handle he shouldn’t have been able to even touch, and with a roar more befitting a bear Nick hurled the weapon he’d made straight at Lotera. The Thylacine brought a paw up instinctively and something flickered across his fingers, and though whatever force he’d managed to conjure was enough to deflect the fiery blade from hitting his chest dead-center, he had long since burned out all the energy he’d have needed to keep it from sinking straight through his left shoulder, driving him backward and pinning him with a splintering-wood screech against the wall as Nick’s paw stayed raised and kept the blade solid. Lotera let out a howl of pain and pawed at the weapon to try and remove it, only searing the pads on his paws as he did so, and Rocky and Scarlet advanced on him together.

“Consider this your sentence and punishment for your countless crimes and lives taken, Lotera Manard, you vile sonovabitch!” Rocky snapped. A twitch of his head to Scarlet and she nodded, and they both leapt forward in a synchronized kick, hind paws swinging ahead to slam together into Lotera’s chest.

The impact sounded with the noise of cracking ribs and shattering wood as the marsupial rocketed backward off the now-dissolving blade in his shoulder and into the more solid support columns of concrete and steel behind the wooden walls. Then the ocelot and Arctic fox raised their paws and closed them into fists. The support columns responded with cracks that resounded like the firing of a dozen cannons, making both Nick and Judy wince and cover their ears, and as Lotera shakily looked up to the source of the noise the columns fell apart and crashed down on top of him, bringing a large portion of the second floor they were supporting down with them to finish the tomb in a billowing cloud of dust.

The quiet settled like a scene from a cemetery, and a sense of disbelief slowly draped itself across the room as all present stared at the several-ton pile of rubble left behind when the cloud cleared. After everything, after not a half hour before appearing to be about to lose on all fronts, the fight was over.

And all of them were well aware, it had ended on no small part due to something that hadn’t been them playing a hand. Had Lotera’s plan worked like he intended, they would not have been able to stop it in time.

Judy blinked, stretching her ears for any sign of life emanating from beneath the crumbled concrete and plywood, but her ears couldn’t pick up a sound beyond settling dirt. Even the gunshots beyond the room had ended, signaling the fighting outside had come to a halt as well; this battle, the short war she and Nick had been dragged into so unwillingly, was done.

The rift pulsed again with a lighter wave of yellowish light, snapping everyone out of the daze they’d fallen into and carving one last layer of symbols across the floor and what was left of the walls before just as quickly settling back into invisibility, still there (even Nick and Judy could still feel that odd sensation, no longer pulling but very much an awareness, seeping through their bones) but no longer reacting to Lotera’s failed sabotage attempt.

“Well, that’s that then,” Embron commented, his ears cocking awkwardly to the sides. Then his head snapped up. “Time we get out of here and bury this place like it should be. Though first,” he paused and lifted up his paws, palms out. A sweeping light not visibly dissimilar to the pulses the rift had been sending out rippled from them, spreading across the surfaces of the room until a glow seemed to lay over very visible object, then it snapped back to the coyote in a blink. “Got it.”

“Uh, okay, what was that?” Judy queried as Embron turned back to them, ushering them toward the nearest still intact door.

“We’re standing in the middle of a linguistic and historical treasure trove,” Rocky answered as Embron busied with pulling something that looked a lot like a phone out of yet another of his many hidden pockets. “Yeah, we can’t really leave the base here standing, as it was never supposed to be out here to start, but all the stuff the rift just wrote across the walls and such is kinda too valuable to just lose too.”

“So I’m sending a full-scan 3D snapshot basically to Mack so he can convert it,” Embron affirmed, pushing a claw into a hole in the device he held as they all sped down the corridor and into the outer halls. “We won’t lose any of the data –except maybe what the Thylacine took out when he went through the wall- and now if we wipe out the building there’s still a full digital replica to study.”

“So related question then,” Nick jumped in, he reaching an outer door first and opening it to let Judy and the others slip outside, “we knock down the building, what happens to the rift? Is it buried?”

“Uh, probably not,” Embron replied. He finished fiddling with the device and pocketed it again, then looked over at the fox. “They tend to shift to the next available open surface if something like that happens, so I’ve read at least, so it should just pop out above the debris pile when we’re done.” He glanced around, spotting Lubella the springbok agent tending to an injured Kelia Ringston by the trees, and turned on his com as he spun and headed for them. “Mack, you get the download I just sent?”

“Yeah,” the red wolf’s voice echoed in everyone’s coms as he linked everyone up (Judy could manage to hear it in Rocky’s earpiece; Nick was forced to lean in to hear the relay). “Finally getting some downtime now that dear Desi’s not playin’ games no more. Got a place ya want me to send the data to I’m guessing?”

“Yeah, linguistics department in Liondon University, you know Charlie. He’ll get the data ready for the agency.”

“Good as done then. Oh, by the by, sorry Dax; got one drone, rest got shot out by the nasties. We’ll keep that one flying by you ‘til you get back here though. Also, considerin’ the tones I’m hearing, everything’s finally settled over there?”

“Affirmed, thank God,” Skye’s voice replied, echoing nearby as she, Jack, and Bhoot rounded the corner with the other scattered agents and headed for Nick and Judy and company.

“I second that,’ Mack managed to grin over the com. “One more thing: everyone look up.”

They did, just in time to find the Primalist jet passing by, and Vela parachuting out of it. As she sailed to the ground, she gave a wave with her good arm to the rescued cops.

“Wait, I thought we agreed Tubolinez was going to retain control of the jet,” Jack wondered, brows creasing in suspicion. “What’s going on, Mallupe?”

“Oh, nothing much,” the wolf sing-songed. “Just found out that our dear friend Ravelis happens perchance to run a somewhat under-the-bar mill a few dozen or so miles from here. Soon as Desireigh got kicked out –thanks again Embron for helping me speed that debugging process up, by the way- I reconfigured the satellites and tagged it, set off the alarms there so all the workers get out. Seems to be a major processing location for the guy, for legal and otherwise material, so, uh…I’m gonna play a little kamikaze takeout.”

Jack pinched his brow, and bit back a sigh. “Normally, I’d tell you about all the laws that will break…but this once, I think it can be considered a necessary evil; such a blow will bring the lizard out of hiding easier as he tries to clean up that mess and reroute his finances. But can we at least direct someone out to help clean up the mess afterward, and help whoever’s working without recompense there?”

Mack laughed. “Already on it, Savage. Trevahe finally managed to get teams on the island, gonna call ‘em up and redirect them. One group’s actually getting pretty close to you guys though, so I’ll bet they can help tie up whoever’s left still alive on the other side. Then we can rendezvous and get the hell out of here again.”

“Agreed. We’ll hail you as soon as we’re heading out again then.”

Jack cut the conversation and glanced up at the building still standing nearby. Then he looked over at the Gifted trio. “Alright, let’s finish the job,” he said, focusing on Scarlet and Rocky as Embron still busied with helping cover injuries. “We need to throw in some explosives, or you two got a faster technique?”

The cat and canid shared a glance (one that sent a shudder down Nick’s spine), and grinned. “Oh, I think we’ve got something,” Rocky said ominously, the two of them marching back up toward the building. “Everyone step back though, don’t want anybody getting hit by falling concrete or plywood.”

The others did as requested, Judy and Nick shuffling back next to Jack, Skye, and Bhoot. Wolfard and Fangmeyer came to stand behind them, putting warm paws on their comrades’ shoulders and giving them smiles. “Glad to have you back, Hopps,” Fangmeyer commented.

“Likewise Fangs,” Judy grinned.

Nick, meanwhile, glanced over at the rescued wolf pup and smiled. “Don’t think we were properly introduced yet,” he said, holding out his paw. “Bhoot, was it?” When the pup nodded and took the offered paw, his smile widened. “Well, I’m Nick, Nick Wilde. Saw you trying to help us out in there earlier.”

“Y-yeah, Judy mentioned you,” Bhoot said, the smile Judy had grown used to and hoped to see again beginning to return full force. “I think I’d rather be like you guys than the animals I was with before.”

“Well I’ll bet we can help with that,” Nick replied, looking over at the other rabbit-fox pair standing with them. He caught a glimpse of them staring at Bhoot with the same expressions, their eyes also flicking to each other with unspoken words. Well, well…hey Embron, got an in for your plan I think. “After all, we’ve got four cops and a bunch of high-ranking international agents right here to smooth things out, and I know the two standing right here with us have a little experience with situations like yours. You should definitely stick with them.”

“Alright, cover your ears!” Rocky shouted, cutting off conversation. Everyone obeyed as he and Scarlet balled up their fists and reared back, silvery glows coating their knuckles. Then they slammed their arms forward and drove said fists into the wall of the building, and the glow sparked and spread out in a cascading shockwave, silvery lines cutting across the surface and shattering the structure wherever they went with gunshot cracks. Seconds later, the pieces left behind began to fall apart, the entire building falling like a massive stack of dominoes tumbling in on each other.

Not all the cracks heard were from the building though. One last serval had slipped into the trees earlier and waited for the agents and company to let their guard down; she knew who had been the targets before, the rabbit and the red fox, and knew that the last fallback if everything else went to hell (as it had quite obviously done) was to at least try to take those two out.

So, as everyone cupped their ears and focused on the falling building, the feline stepped out of the trees to line up a shot, placing Nick in her sights.

Wolfard spotted her first. “Look out!” he shouted, drawing his gun up and firing at the same time the serval did, hitting her square in the chest and watching her drop like a sack of flour.

The falling building muffled his warning though, so Nick had barely begun turning his head before he felt the slug pass through his neck. There was a frozen moment of disbelief, and he head Judy scream his name as the pain registered, and then he passed out, everything falling black.

Chapter Text

Battle’s over friend

Your task is now complete

But though the world settles

Some tasks still lay at your feet

Wrap up the strings lying loose

Tie the ends secure

Find your family and draw them near

Cherish them once more

And face the most daunting challenge of all

That which you know must come

Open the door to your future

Finish making two halves one

“…get back, we need to arrange foster services for him, and I’d like you two to seriously consider the notion of putting your own names down for it.”

“You know we can’t do that Embron! Any of the cops here even would have more stable lives to manage the overseeing of that and I wouldn’t even think of suggesting that they”-

“Stable my ass, not why I’m pushing this. The house that Scarlet and I live in is more than big enough to be where he can stay most of the time if so necessary, and he’s obviously started to get attached to most of us so he’ll get along well, and he’ll adjust to the new life better so long as he’s with someone he trusts. But you two have the closest experiences to situations like his, you know what he needs better than anyone else here. And I know you can’t actually argue when I say becoming his guardians would be a good experience for the two of you as well. Maybe finally knock that damn wall you’ve built up between each other down finally.”

“Oh, don’t you start with that again Embron!”

“Come on Skye, he ain’t wrong! You’re around him more than even your own cous’ –not entirely by my choice, I’m saying now!- and even I can see it!”

“Shut it Rocky!”

He was hearing arguments from voices he knew, about a subject he was fairly certain he was thinking about immediately before things had all gone sideways again. And the world seemed to be humming and vibrating around him.

Guess that crosses being dead off the list…but where…?

A jolt of pain coursing through Nick’s neck made him gasp and reach up, only to find no bullet hole where he knew there should have been one. After all, he’d been shot, should have been fatally, right in the spot that now hurt (or did; it was fading now). There was a slight raised spot, a tiny bump of a scar perhaps, but that was it.

A moment of short-circuited thoughts ran past as the tod’s eyes opened, Nick failing to compute these things that weren’t adding up, before his vision focused and he spotted Embron, Scarlet, and Rocky all sitting with Wolfard and Fangmeyer in the bay seats of Sam and Dax’s jet nearby. Across from them, they faced Jack, Skye, and several of the other agents on their team, all of them still with the expressions of having been interrupted in the middle of a debate but now with their attention focused on him. Upon seeing them, things started to click.

Oh, right. Gifteds. They probably patched me up the moment I passed out. Why does that not seem strange anymore?

“Oh look, he’s awake!” Scarlet exclaimed, before her relieved expression immediately shifted to mischievous. “Three, two, one…”

“NICK!!”

The reason for the ocelot’s counting bolted upright from a reclined seat near the platform Nick had been laid on, planting her paws on the side of his makeshift bed and leaning over him with desperate intent. “Oh thank goodness,” she breathed. “Do you have any idea how much you scared me?!”

“Well, happy to see you too, Carrots,” Nick rasped, licking his lips (and noticing then how dehydrated he was). “Not like I asked to get shot.”

He could see Judy trying to glare at him, but it was breaking down under an exasperated smile. “Dammit, you dumb fox,” she quipped, reaching over and punching his shoulder. He yelped, but couldn’t help chuckling himself at the familiar action. “But I’m glad you seem okay.”

Then she leaned forward, planting a kiss on his muzzle, and despite it not being a new sensation anymore the act still made Nick’s mind blank out in excitement.

An ironic wolf whistle from the red wolf sitting off toward the front of the plane near the cockpit and a pair or trussed-up Primalists prisoners (a reason for the adjacency seen a moment later when the Dhole among them growled, and Mack turned to kick him, hard) made the two smooching mammals blush and pull away slightly. But, they still couldn’t stop smiling at each other, and Nick’s tail continued wagging a full speed.

“So, do we need to give you two some alone time when the jet lands?” Rocky teased, leaning forward and wiggling his eyebrows.

Judy immediately turned pink, ears falling to hide the blush as she shot the Arctic fox a glare.

Nick didn’t miss a beat though. “Is half a day enough?”

“Nick!”

The red fox couldn’t help but laugh. “Kidding, Carrots, kidding!” His head twisted to look over at the others in the plane again then, expression turning serious. “But much as it pains me to say something so unlike myself, enough joking for a moment. Anybody got a water bottle? And what happened after I passed out?”

Harrison turned and grabbed a plastic bottle near his seat, tossing it to Nick who quickly opened it and started downing the contents. Embron, meanwhile, grimaced and leaned forward to point an almost accusational finger at the tod. “You, Mr. Wilde, are a ridiculously lucky fox,” he toned. “You got hit in the neck with no small bullet, and barely a millimeter from your ascending aorta; slightly further to the left or right and we’d have been fighting to keep you from immediately bleeding out or trying to patch your spine, which would have shut all three of us out of power for a couple of days, if you survived the shock. As it was, took us a few hours afterward to even get moving again; one of the other teams Trevahe sent in managed to show up in that time and had to help transport.”

“And it scares me, just how close I came to almost losing you again so soon,” Judy almost whispered, curling her fingers into the shirt on Nick’s chest.

Nick’s ears fell back, and he scooted up to a better sitting position so to reach over and pull her into his side. She looked up at him, that fear evident in her eyes, and it was all he could do to keep from turning and kissing her again to make it go away. He needed to hear the rest of what happened first though, and so resisted the urge.

“Otherwise, it’s bee uneventful since,” Jack dropped in, gesturing around the plane. “Teams are out cleaning up traces of Primalist presence with the help of the locals; Rocky’s new friend Aeto being particularly helpful apparently to pointing out what doesn’t belong, and that includes the missing Night Howler serum that we finally found when it started leaking out of the building after it crumbled. A few teams are also scouting the forest for Avery and Desireigh, but unfortunately to little avail so far.” Then, the lapin smiled, and rested his chin on his fist. “But now, you needn’t worry about the strings still hanging; we’re not but a few hours out from landing back in Zootopia again, or more accurately Overwatch and we’ll drive back from there. Skye and I will be heading back out shortly after to locate Ravelis and finish this chaos from the other root, and Mack’s helping us corner him now cybernetically.”

At mention of Mack, Nick glanced at Judy, and the rabbit noticed. Snorting, she twisted slightly and nudged at him with a fist. “Yeah, don’t worry Slick,” she drawled. “You’ve been out for hours, almost a full day now actually; we’ve all had time to talk. I’m not gonna try and take the guy down, especially not after all he did for us in this fiasco.”

“I’d hope not; I helped save your life,” the wolf quipped, before grinning and readjusting his glasses and fedora. “Plus, all those swollen bank accounts won’t be doing the big lizard much good once he’s in prison, and since a lot of the capital was gained illicitly, I’ve decided and gotten the green light officially to…redistribute them. Help out the poor souls who were taken advantage of, and maybe bolster some of our own endeavors for smoothing all this out.”

“Gee, you guys have been busy then,” Nick mused, sitting up straighter and cracking his back. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Bhoot sleeping like a stone on another small mat not far away, and smiled.

Then the sight of the pup triggered memory of the events just before Bhoot had shown up in the rift room. Nick’s ears lowered again, and he glanced at Judy before turning to fix his gaze on the Caniston siblings. “Okay, so before the conversation steers off again, there’s a question that I need answered,” he said, gathering the full attention of everyone again. Gesturing between himself and Judy, he continued, “Back in the fight, Carrots and I. One minute both of us were drugged under chemical insanity, next we were flying through a cosmic interdimensional brain-bust, and then suddenly we were both standing in a melted puddle of a steel cage and catching lightning bolts and plasma fire in our bare paws. Even past the number of ridiculous surprises the past few weeks that have turned our lives upside down, that happened a little on the fast side. What. The. Heck?”

The rest of the plane fell silent and glances were exchanged, no one quite sure where to start. Scarlet and Embron shared a look for several uncertain moments, before Embron let out a sigh. His head pivoted back toward Nick, and he grinned slightly as he stood up. “So, first gonna answer another question that I know is coming,” he said. “Heads up!”

The coyote’s paw snapped up toward the fox, a tiny ball of fire coalescing under it and then slingshotting forward. Nick flinched and instinctively raised a paw, grabbing the little sphere, and then a moment later sat ramrod straight up as he turned to stare down at the fireball sitting firmly in his fist and not so much as smoking a single hair. He stayed motionless with a dumbfounded expression for a second, and then tilted his head up again to look with the same confused, questioning gaze at Embron.

“They already tested it with me earlier,” Judy said next to him, reaching over and laying her own paw on the flames. Squeezing her grip down on his, she made it flare out like a miniature firework, and evaporate away. “Seems whatever it is, it decided to stick around.”

“But as to everything else, we literally don’t have a freaking clue,” Scarlet confessed. This she emphasized with a guilty, apologetic shrug when Nick’s stare switched to her. “Honestly, I wish we knew, but between the three Gifteds here and everything that Mack’s been able to scour up in the dark recesses of old web archives in the past few hours, there’s nothing.” She looked down at her left paw, tilting it back and forth, and then looked up again. “You’re not Gifted, at least not in the sense we are; Judy already played test subject as she said and she didn’t seem to be able to call up any forms of energy herself or deflect purely physical objects, but…well, we don’t have any records of it ever happening before. Though Rocky and I have a theory that maybe when Catalysts actually encounter rifts you end up…” she gestured vaguely, trying to find a fitting word.

“Supercharged,” Rocky supplied, crossing his arms but gesturing also with his right paw. “Not really the right word I think, but hell, it fits a little at least. You two ain’t just manipulating society, something a little more got added on. Though Embron doesn’t agree with us.” He shot the coyote a look.

Embron stuck his tongue out in return, then looked at Nick and shrugged. “Considering there’s no record of this, ever, I personally think it was a special one-time thing with you guys, but maybe only time will tell,” he said. “In all honesty though, maybe it’s a good thing; Lotera’s gone, but anyone else shows up trying to pick a fight and we might not always be ready at a call to help you out, so now you’ve got an extra boost on your side.”

“Gee, like Carrots here needed anything to be more of a badass than she already is,” Nick quipped, laughing outright and dodging when Judy turned to punch him again. “Hey, kidding, kidding! Enough with the punches, come on! But uh, methinks this uh…might want to be something kept on the down-low if we ever actually get to go back to regular police work after all this.”

“Oh, no worries about that,” Wolfard piped up, pointing over at Harrison. “He was on call earlier with our ever-dedicated Chief, assuring him that his four best cops were all on the plane here and heading home.”

“And if there are any legal snares concerning your return, or…relationship issues,” Harrison added, grinning when he saw the two mammals blushing again, “we’ll smooth them over. And, we figured out an at least temporary solution for Mack’s own ‘legal issue’ as well: pardoned for previous transgressions in the city, so long as he keeps open lines to you four for assistance if needed.”

“But don’t overuse that!” Mack snipped, leaning up slightly and brandishing a finger of his own at the cops before sitting back and readjusting his fedora again. “I’ve still got a reputation to uphold and a living to make after all so I don’t want cop calls all hours of the day every day. Capisce?”

“Aw, don’t worry Mack, it’s just a part of making new friends!” Judy toned innocently, smiling sweetly at the wolf. When Mack sent her a stink-eye back, she continued, “I promise to call only every other day, I swear.”

“We’ll fill the other days,” Fangmeyer tagged on with a grin.

Mack groaned and slumped in his seat. “And this is why I don’t make friends,” he muttered. Nick couldn’t help but try and hide a snicker, and it got harder when the red wolf twisted just enough to glare at Embron and say, “I blame you. Fully.”

“Guilty as charged birdie,” Embron tittered back.

The last word made Nick’s ears perk up. “Oh! Speaking of birds, I assume Sam and Dax are piloting again?” he asked, pointing to the cockpit door. At everyone’s nods, he groaned with the slight effort of sliding to the edge of the mat he was on and slowly pushing to his feet. “Ah, good. I feel like bothering those two for a bit.”

As he stood up, stretched, and began moseying toward the cockpit, sharing a hand-clasp and fist bumps with Fangmeyer and Wolfard as he passed them, a rustling noise behind them made him pause and look back. It appeared as if Bhoot had gotten in all the napping he needed, as he shifted and blinked before sitting up as well to look around at everybody. His contagious smile beamed bright at Judy, and then got even brighter somehow when he locked on Nick.

“M-Mr. Wilde! You’re okay again!”

Nick couldn’t help but chuckle. “Seems I am, Snowflake,” he grinned back. “You feeling okay too?”

The pup nodded vigorously, sitting up on his knees. “Yeah! What’s everyone talking about?”

The tod suddenly developed a wicked urge, and with a glance over at Embron’s forming smirk he knew he had to say it now. “Well,” he toned conspiratorially, “I heard tell something earlier about how Jack and Skye here,” he reached over and patted both of their shoulders as he continued to shuffle toward the cockpit, and relished the sudden tensing of both, “agreed to help look after you from here on out, with Embron and Scarlet’s support.”

The beaming expression from Bhoot was worth it, but all the more so the smoldering glares the singled-out agents sent him alongside the somewhat betrayed looks the Canistons also swung his way. Shooting a wink at the latter two, Nick pointed finger guns at the former pair and backpedaled even further, reaching the door. “Come on you two,” he sang toward the other fox-rabbit duo, “can’t nag on Judy and I and then ignore all the red flags going up around yourselves! I expect to hear about living plans by the time I come back out with my own other proposition momentarily; Mack, could use a chat with you for that by the way.”

Reaching back, he turned the knob and opened it, then looked up to see the dawning confused-slash-questioning expression on Judy’s face, and added in, “We’ve literally been through life-or-death to the extreme now, Carrots, you know I have to. Ain’t nobody else I could possibly spend my life with now.” One last wink, and he disappeared inside the cockpit with a laugh, leaving mixed expressions all around the bay behind him.

Nick spent most of the rest of the flight back somehow keeping up conversation with the Archangels, and at one point pulling Mack into the cockpit to talk with him too (for reasons Judy was desperately trying to figure out now). Thus, he quite effectively avoided most of the aftermath of the “Bhoot Hustle” he’d just pulled. Having said such formal claims right in front of the pup, Jack and Skye now had their paws tied if they wanted to avoid ruining the young wolf’s day, and the Caniston siblings also had their own paws forced in really helping out too.

Judy wanted to be mad at him, but between the hinted bombshell he’d dropped at her feet and the entertainment of the two head agents on the plane and the Canistons trying to tactfully figure out the situations Nick had dropped them into with Bhoot awake to hear every word, she was far too distracted to remain angry.

When they finally did land back at Overwatch, the unmarked vans they’d taken up to the place so many days ago were still waiting there already to shuttle them back to the city (courtesy of Lois the groundskeeper, the vehicles had been safely stored away while everyone was gone). And, in the hustle and bustle of loading up Nick managed to somehow continue to stay out of the same vehicle as Judy, the Canistons, and Savage and Wellinger, and thus avoid conversation all the way back to the Precinct. At this point, they were just impressed he was managing to be that slippery.

The moment they arrived at the police headquarters though, Wolfard and Fangmeyer volunteered to go help lock up the prisoners and Nick was left with no more places to run. Chief Bogo was waiting practically at the door for them all, with Ellie Minde and Vivian Wilde standing right beside him. Vivian burst into a run the moment Nick walked through the door, sprinting forward to grab her son in a hug and only moments later managing to drag Judy into the embrace as well.

“Thank God you two are okay!” she said tearfully, nuzzling both of them. “I hope that getting all the way back here wasn’t too much of a task; are you two hurt at all?” She backed up slightly, looking them over in the concerned but intrusive manner only a mother can pull off.

Younger fox and rabbit doe leaned away slightly and exchanged a look between themselves, before they both reached up gently to take Vivian’s paws. “W-well, perhaps we should leave it as we came back in one piece and are okay now, in the end,” Judy said, glancing over her shoulder at the Canistons and Rocky. “Especially thanks to them.”

Vivian pursed her lips, parental protective instincts working a troubled look onto her muzzle as she stared askance over at the Gifteds as well, but apparently decided better that the past was past. Her son and his partner were back, after all, and that was what mattered most. “Then my thanks to all of you,” she said aloud, looking across the Gifteds and the agents together, before her gaze settled on the Arctic fox tod among them and morphed into a smirk. “And I’m glad to see you alive and well still Rocky; call and old vixen now and again, don’t be a stranger, dear?”

Rocky’s ears pinned back in the most sheepish expression the seasoned fighter could managed, and he nodded meekly. “Was…a bit of a finicky situation Mrs. Wilde,” he tried to explain, and gestured to Skye. “I didn’t even call my own cousin for a bit because of it.”

“From here on out then. We’re all a little mixed up in each other’s lives now, an old friend of Nick’s and new of Judy’s has no excuse anymore.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“And call me Vivian, please.”

The looming shadow of Chief Bogo officially joining the group curbed conversation momentarily as he glared down at all the newly arrived. “Pleased to see that all of my officers returned safe and sound this time around,” he said monotone, casting a critical eye toward Jack…before it softened slightly and he gave a short nod that the rabbit returned. “Should we expect any more troubles in the foreseeable future?”

“Well, sorry to say that your star employees here are likely to remain trouble magnets for the rest of their lives,” Jack replied, gesturing to Nick and Judy and shrugging off the underhanded comment. “But I think if we can arrange regular visits with the Canistons for training, they’ll be far more ready now to take care of themselves. Even I might dare say they’ve become a force of their own to be reckoned with.”

Bogo huffed, tightening his crossed arms and looking down at the aforementioned pair (and no one could miss that he still enjoyed the wince both of them gave him). “As if they weren’t already,” he toned, the barest hint of a smile turning the corners of his mouth.

“Uh, perhaps more than you realize, sir,” Judy said with a forming grin. “This trip was rather…eye-opening.”

The buffalo paused, eyebrow migrating upward slightly. “I see; perhaps in a moment we’ll discuss implications somewhere more private. But first, what of the primary animals of concern: Lotera, Avery, Saber?”

“Saber and Lotera are dead,” Skye answered for them. “Avery, and a tech whiz lizard named Desireigh are still out there unfortunately, but not likely to be an issue any time soon; neither are the type to cause big trouble without some real backing. We’re also recruiting this guy to try and track them and their financial boss down, and then he’s promised to be around to lend a paw for some of your officers.” As she spoke she grinned and waved backward toward Mack, drawing attention that the red wolf clearly had been trying to avoid at all costs.

Mack looked up from his tablet as Harrison and Vela stepped back to leave him in full view, momentarily caught with a “deer in the headlights” expression (speciest as that phrase is, it still rang true all too often). It didn’t last long though, as he reached up to adjust his glasses and fedora and flashed a devil-may-care smile at Bogo.

“Evening Chief.”

Bogo peered at him critically, eyeing the tablet and putting two and two together. His frown deepened again and his ears pinned back. “The infamous Sparrow, I assume then. So nice to finally have a face to put to the alias.” A shift in his posture then sent him into a slight slouch. “I should mention just how irritating it is that I’ve been informed I can’t simply arrest you here and now.”

The wolf’s grin got wider, and Bogo suddenly got the feeling of staring at another, if more anti-social Nick. “Yeah, official pardons and all that I hear,” he mused, giving a mock salute (and affirming that the canine had already spent too much time around a certain vulpine for the Chief’s tastes). “But humor me with the knowing that it was never out of malice. I just want the real bad guys behind bars a little faster and more permanently than the rigid law typically permits in its current state. And hey, at least now it’s gonna be more above the bar when I hand you someone.”

The buffalo’s gaze didn’t waver, but his ears did tilt down slightly further as he let out a half-sigh, half-growl that made him sound more predatory than the wolf in front of him. “Just what I needed, more government oversight and loopholes.”

“Actually, it’ll be less,” Jack said to counter, drawing Bogo’s attention back down to him for better or worse. He looked up at the buffalo, and for the first time in more years than he cared to count, gave the larger mammal a genuine smile. “Thanks both to some shenanigans your officers pulled off on the way back, as well as leveraging to follow with the AOMISDOPS director concerning our involvement with…” he trailed off, before making a faint gesture toward Ellie, Rocky, and the Canistons. “Well, you know; anyway, it would appear that my team may be getting permanently stationed out of the city here rather than capital headquarters. We’ll help manage the behind-the-scenes, as opposed to having to rope City Hall or the federal system into this mess with us. Agent Wellinger and I will have some new responsibilities as well that we’ll need a more set location for, preferably within reach of Wilde and Hopps.”

The buck paused there to glance over his shoulder at the wolf pup gawking at the space around him from behind Harrison, and Bogo’s gaze followed his questioningly.

“He and Skye are gonna adopt the rescue pup there,” Nick not-so-subtly half-whispered to his boss behind his paw, and it took all of Bogo’s willpower not to actually laugh out loud in front of everyone. The smirk that appeared on his face could not be hidden though. Agent Savage, stoic and cold federal official and royal pain in the ass, a parent? Now that he had to be present to see the result of.

Jack, in turn, leveled a glare at Nick that told the fox the lapin was already calculating ways to make sure Nick joined in the shouldering of the burden in some amount though.

The immediate starting of a conversation as everyone had entered the doors had kept many of the mammals present unaware of the fact that the front desk had been conspicuously absent of its usual dispatcher. A loud squeal erupting behind them all though announced the return of Clawhauser from his break to resume his dispatch duties at the desk, though that return was now clearly further delayed as he’d spotted his two favorite smaller mammals in the gaggle by the doors.

“Nick! Judy! You guys are back!” the cheetah cried, bolting over despite the pair’s audible protests (and that of Bogo’s disapproving grunt) and grabbing them in a jolly embrace.

“Yeah-urk!-nice to s-see you too, Spots!” Nick wheezed out, awkwardly patting the cat with the one hand he could move. Lucky for him and Judy Clawhauser dropped them shortly after (thus allowing them to expand their ribcages again), bringing his paws up to his cheeks in another squeal before preparing to volley off a dozen questions all at once.

Even luckier for them both, questions too were halted when the Precinct doors opened once more, and in walked Finnick, of all mammals.

“Oh, so he’s who you were talking to on the phone you wanted me to hook up,” Mack mused to Nick, before glancing at his tablet. “Hadn’t gotten around to actually tracking the call yet. Evening, Fin.”

Finnick cast a somewhat surprised look toward the wolf (he knew the Sparrow’s reputation; few who’d been in the underground hadn’t, though he was one of the lucky few who knew at least Mack’s species), before grousing out, “Yeah, the brushtail called me and told me he’ll owe me one after this. Color me surprised you’s here of all places; the fuzz finally catch ya with yer hand layin’ traps in the cookie jar?”

“More like my own friends went underhand and dragged me into helping officials directly.”

Finnick barked out a laugh at that, before his expression hardened again. He sauntered over past the group and straight up to Nick with a stony look on his muzzle. Reaching up, he placed a small box in the taller fox’s paw, and then fixed him with a glare. “Ya get that payment to me pronto, and all you’ll owe me afterward,” suddenly his expression turned into a wicked grin as he nodded toward Judy’s increasingly confused expression, “is getting’ a proper reaction from ya girl there. ‘Bout time, you’s two been dancin’ around each other for hell knows too long!”

Judy wasn’t sure if her or anyone else’s expressions could grow more perplexed at the sudden intrusion of the fennec (aside from Embron and Scarlet, who both seemed to have already figured out the secret at hand; what a shock), and she finally looked up to Nick, the one in the center of it all, with a stare that said she required an answer. “Wait, what?” she blurted. “Nick, what on earth is he rambling about?”

Nick could only grin, as he turned to face her fully. “Do me a favor and save asking how I know your size for later,” he said instead, before dropping to one knee. “I told you earlier I wanted the right moment, and honestly, why not let that be right here, right now, in the workplace that changed both our lives and among the mammals who have done so even more? I’m ready to move forward as our lives settle to whatever new normal we’ve got now, and I want this to be a part of it.”

Bringing up the box Finnick had brought in, he opened it to reveal a silvery ring crowned with a faceted amethyst surrounded by flawless pink rubies. “Judy,” he said, suddenly losing the confidence in his voice that he’d managed to hold up to this point and hearing himself start to tremble, “will y-you do me…the, uh, the honor of marrying a sarcastic old fox?”

Judy froze. But, only for a moment, before she surged forward and pushed the box off to the side to land a hard kiss on the fox’s stunned muzzle. “How could I say anything but yes?” she half-whispered into his ear, before reaching up to cover said ears (as he mirrored her a second later) and diving into a kiss once more.

Not two seconds later, the reason for the odd act made itself known as Clawhauser let out a hysteric squeal loud enough to set Mack, the just-returning Wolfard, and half the other wolves throughout the Precinct off howling. Thanks to the cheetah, news would spread like wildfire.

Chapter Text

Two months later…

Why did she have to vanish with all the rest? The one other Primalist he really had thought he could like, what with the reports he’d gotten (as he hadn’t been able to meet her in person yet); the only one he knew who could fight the “Sparrow” on his own turf too.

And she’d melted into thin air somewhere, not even a report of her death if that’s what occurred.

The moment Ravelis had gotten word that his Pawpuan hub had been leveled (by a jet of his own, no less), he knew things had gone wrong, and had set about sending out orders to scrub all public connections that he had. A day later, his calls stopped reaching their destinations, intercepted by a force he’d never encountered online before but that was proving viciously efficient. His public accounts were drained of every cent shortly afterward, and two days past that even his secret holdings were yanked from his grasp. After each loss, his anger (and secretly, concern) was spiked by the sarcastic greetings left behind in text, and he had no means to fight back or trace the source in order to retaliate. All he had was that signature alias.

The Komodo was soon enough left with only a handful of loyal associates he could contact in-person, pooling the resources they’d managed to pull out early in order to run, heading north toward Civetnam and China and splitting up at each stop along the way to avoid being targeted as a recognizable group. Heading south to his homeland wasn’t an option; AOMISDOPS would almost certainly ring the island of Flores first.

Unfortunately, as they split up, some individuals began to be intercepted, recognized by captured images on satellites, nearby security cameras, or even passing phones and other devices turned on remotely, and Ravelis’ associate ring dwindled. The noose was tightening, and new places devoid of civilians and therefore tracking abilities for the Sparrow were still a fair distance from their current position.

Now, the monitor lizard stood peering out the window of a derelict motel the likes of which he’d have never dreamed of staying in before everything went to hell; not with his wealth, never. One of his remaining colleagues (another Komodo) was attempting a short nap on the messy bed within before they got the signal that the coast was clear, and their next transport was ready to go. His claws clenched together as he wrung his paws behind his back; evening was approaching and he had expected the alert before the sun went down. A delay to be safe wasn’t necessarily terrible, but did nothing for his nerves and time was running thin.

“No call yet?” a groggy, quiet voice said from behind him, and Ravelis turned to see the other monitor sitting up, blinking sleep out of his eyes.

“Not a word, Jhoni,” Ravelis replied. “And night falls very shortly. The rickshaw arrangement was supposed to occur before evening even began.” He turned to stare back out the window again, scanning across the motel courtyard and watching mammals and a few varanids of various species bustling down the street. “If nothing comes within the next few minutes however we may have to consider traveling up on our own. We can’t afford to wait around much lo”-

The phone in his pocket buzzed, cutting him off.

“Well, maybe not having to wait any longer,” Jhoni mused as Ravelis pulled the burner out and looked at the little screen. The number was right, so the Komodo flipped it open and held it up to his ear.

“Status.”

“Compromised, Suharta.”

The voice was not one of his associates, and a chill ran down Ravelis’ spine at the casual tone. “Who is this?” he hissed, only to receive a snicker in return.

“Oh, just a messenger, a songbird if you will,” the voice sing-songed, “and the guy who drained your accounts; I really hope my hellos didn’t go to waste, did they?” Another chuckle. “Glad to finally say hi in person! Been a jolly chase, Ravelis, but we’re all going to be much, much happier methinks now that it’s over. Have fun in your cell!”

The call cut out with an abrupt finality, leaving the lizard to stare absently for a moment at the phone. The devices had been locally purchased with paper money, should have been untraceable, but through that call there’d been none of the background noise of the local area; the line had been broken into somehow. And that meant someone very technically sophisticated, someone who likely knew not only how to hack all of Ravelis’ hidden accounts but pinpoint them all even with the fuzziest of nearby video images and could direct a team right down on top of them, especially with the signal they’d just pinged from the phone. Sparrow that voice wasn’t, not as shrewd and accurate as he’d proven to be; he was a viper.

Jhoni shifted on the bed, standing up and drawing Ravelis’ attention while sending him a questioning gaze.

“We’ve been found out,” Ravelis said gravely, dropping the phone to the floor and stomping on it before flicking his hand in a “follow me” gesture. In the same moment he headed for the door opening to the rear of the motel. “No time left, we have to disappear n”-

As he pulled the door open, a black and white blur swung down from the eaves and a pair of long feet slammed hard into his gut.

Ravelis wheezed and doubled over as he stumbled backward, the blur following through in a backward somersault to land in front of him and sweeping around in the same motion to snap a vicious kick into the side of his head. Now the Komodo saw stars, and he slumped to the ground, hearing but not quite seeing the blur straighten up and pull a pair of cuffs out of his pocket.

“The first blow was for Bhoot,” Jack snarled, an impressive feature on the lapin. “The second, for everyone else we pulled out of those mills of yours.” His ears flicked toward the sound of Jhoni recovering from his own shock and lunging at him to defend his boss, but the rabbit barely even leaned backward, just enough to let Skye fly through the door and intercept. The second lizard quickly found himself being knocked off his feet and yanked around by his shoulders to be slammed face-first into the closest wall. If that hit hadn’t been enough to stun him outright, the pressure point applied a second later certainly was.

“I hope that hurt more than it sounded like it did,” Skye muttered, to echo Jack’s earlier sentiments. Jhoni only groaned in response as his tail was stamped down and his hands were pulled back to be cuffed behind him.

As the two Komodos were secured and hefted back to their feet, another shadow appeared in the door, one hand on her hip and the other gripping a lowered gun. “Sure, take all the fun for yourselves,” Vela drawled sarcastically, crossing her long legs and leaning against the frame. “Feeling better now, Jack?”

Jack looked up at the maned wolf, scowl still in place…and then he smirked as he shoved Ravelis at her, snickering as the reptile yelped when he stumbled over his own feet. “Maybe a little,” he admitted in equal drawl, as Vela caught and took hold of the monitor. “Just to make sure he doesn’t try anything, keep hold of him until we get back to the embassy. We all know he’ll probably try something stupid with a rabbit for a guard that might make me have to kill him.” The look he shot at Ravelis was one of amusement, but told the latter that Savage was more than willing to live up to his name if given the opportunity. “But, I still call the honor of tossing him into the cell itself. Skye can have his buddy.”

Skye snorted as she escorted Jhoni out the back door behind Vela, and looked over her shoulder. “Sure, take the easy route now that the fun is over,” she teased. Then her expression softened. “But do let them know everything’s finally been settled. And remind Rocky he’s got a promise to keep when we all get back to the city.”

Jack couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that the message is received loud and clear. I’ll catch up with you shortly.”

He watched them leave, heading down the alley to the waiting cars to join the rest of the strike team wrapping up the other remnants of Ravelis’ loyal circle. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out the new phone he’d recently acquired to replace the last one he’d ruined who-knew-when. Flipping it open, he found the number he’d already saved into his contacts and dialed, waiting for the other end to pick up.

Nick almost didn’t want to even use the energy necessary to scoot over the two feet of space to grab the cell phone sitting on the side table by the couch. He was comfortable, and perfectly relaxed for the first time in he didn’t know how long.

But, he knew who he’d set that painfully cheerful ringtone for (and couldn’t wait for that contact to find out), and he knew that a call from that number would only be coming through right now for one of two reasons, both of equal importance.

So, the fox groaned and heaved himself up just enough so that he could flop across the arm of the couch and picked up the phone, sliding it on and holding it to his ear as he sank upside down across the cushions.

“Greetings! Thank you for calling the Wilde Honeymoon Suite, what message are we passing on to the happy couple today?”

A half-growl answered. “You’re lucky I’m in a good mood right now, Nick,” Jack’s mildly exasperated voice came through. “I’ll keep it brief so that you can get back to lazing about as I’m sure you are.”

“Guilty as charged. Alright, what’s the news?”

“We’ve caught them. Mack’s told us it was the last trail he could detect, and no other assets or contacts are out there worthy enough to follow up on. Ravelis is in custody, soon to be in prison.”

A feeling of relief cut the small amount of tension Nick had been feeling build up. By far, the better of the two answers he was expecting. “Fantastic! I take it then just legal technicalities left and you and Wellinger will be back for our return?”

“Looks to be so; we’re keeping lines open for Avery and Desireigh still, but they’re not likely to show their heads anytime soon, or for anything so grand. And speaking of our return, Skye would like me to pass on a reminder to Rocky. Is he handy?”

Nick smirked and turned his topsy gaze out the nearest window (of which there were many). “Nah, you know he’s not keen on staying too close on account of us. He’s out patrolling at the moment. What’s the message though? I’ll alert him.”

“He’s got a promise to uphold when he returns, and Skye hasn’t heard a word about it yet.”

“Ooohhh, yeah, the Lindsey Steerling meet-n’-greet arrangement for her and my mom; Skye pulled no punches on that agreement did she? Hard payback.” The tod’s smirk widened, before he flipped himself around onto his stomach. “Honestly, I think that’s already been a wrap, heard him mention it a day or two ago when he was talking with Judy, but I’ll let him know you two expect a call.”

“Good. And…well, take your time and relax now, you and Judy. God knows you’ve earned it at this point. See you in another couple of weeks.”

The call ended, and Nick’s smirk grew into a proper smile as he set down the phone and got up, glancing around. When he’d mentioned the “Honeymoon Suite,” he hadn’t been entirely joking, and the feeling of saying that in truth was amazing.

The ceremony had been quickly and quietly arranged, nothing flashy (the two hadn’t needed the whole city crashing it after all) and a relatively small crowd (well, small in terms of rabbit families). Afterward, Scarlet had surprised them with a special wedding present in the form of an exclusive resort stay for three weeks in Costa Rica, right on the ocean, courtesy of the ocelot’s acting contacts (and maybe just a touch of pulling strings higher up too).

The resort suite could have fit a couple families with room to spare, complete with full-view floor to ceiling windows facing both waterfront and rainforest (one that was a little more welcoming than the last that they’d been in had been), and a spacious grounds that, as Nick had mentioned, Rocky had tagged along to patrol just in case. The Arctic fox hadn’t been too keen on any risks of losing his old friend, or Nick’s new mate, again, even when all the threads were just about tied off. Nick would go find him in a couple of minutes to pass on Skye’s reminder, but first, he needed to find the other actual suite occupant and tell her the good news.

It was one of the few times in the week and a half they’d been there already that Nick and Judy had been split from each other’s sides for more than a couple of minutes. Judy had been acting off for a few days, seeming to have possibly come down with a bug in the mornings but then acting fine an hour later. Now, she’d been holed up in the bathroom for twenty minutes, and the door was still locked when Nick approached and knocked.

“Hey, Carrots, you okay in there?”

“Yeah!” the slightly too cheery reply came back. The tod frowned, but continued on anyway.

“Okay. “Anyways, Jack just called, he and his team finally nabbed Ravelis and company. Everything’s finally settled. Wanna catch a ‘special dinner’ to celebrate?”

Inside the bathroom, Judy was admittedly not actually hearing most of what Nick was saying through the door, too distracted by another matter entirely. She’d had suspicions for a day or two, and had sent off one of the hotel staff the evening before on a discreet errand to find out for sure.

Now, her heart was racing in part from excitement, part disbelief, and part wonder (maybe a slight sprinkle of fear too), as she sat on the edge of the closed toilet lid and stared down at the little white device in her paws.

Two tiny pink lines were staring back.