Chapter Text
Standing out by his van, Finnick wore his signature scowl. It was amazing to see him without it, as he waited for the mammals to finish offloading it. His ear raised at the patter of small feet on concrete. He looked up, watching an otter with a clipboard approach him quickly. "Thanks again, Finnick." He said, moving the board under his arm and extending the other. "I didn't think you'd be up to it on such short notice."
"Eh, I owed you one anyway." He said, accepting the handshake. The otter retracted, fishing around his pocket to retrieve a check to which he presented the fennec.
"Since you had to buy everything, I thought I should pay you back." Without a second thought, Finnick accepted the check, got in his van and drove off. Looking in his side mirror to see the otter waving to him. He pursed his lips and rounded a bend, looking to head back to his apartment. Despite his nocturnal nature, he was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to plop down onto his bed and skip the night.
He reached over to the radio with a stick, pushing a few buttons to turn the radio on. Deciding he liked the current song, he returned his attention to the street and rounded another bend. Much to his chagrin, his attention was lifted off the road and to the sky. Where it was oddly bright, with what looked like a sun quickly streaking to the ground.
It took a moment to register, but he quickly changed course, doing his best to follow it but found his progress impeded by the city's layout. As he approached, the ground shook following a deafening boom that hurt his ears. But it was close by. Turning into the parking lot, Finnick parked his van, sliding out of the door and sprinting towards the crater. The lot was remarkably intact for something that just got hit by a meteorite. As he approached, he could hear mechanical whirring, emanating from the smoldering crater placed askew from its center. Something he found strange given the lack of hardware.
The fennec reached the edge, the smoke and dust had let up enough for light to pierce it. The crater wasn't very deep, at its center an oblong piece of blackened metal. Pulling his phone out, he snapped a photo and prepared to call emergency services when another much louder clang stopped him. Looking back, the slab had opened slightly, the side closest to him had come apart in three pieces. Then the three pieces slid out fully and down, a long arm with a ball on the end rose into the air and flickered on. Two beams of dim spotty emerald emitted from a foot off it's surface, turned one-eighty before disappearing.
"What the?" The beams returned much, MUCH brighter and began turning slowly. It emitted a low mechanical groan as it did so. It approached Finnick's position, the fox stunned by the noise and allowed it to pass over him. His body was covered in a green grid pattern, the noise changed slightly before the light stopped. The wire frame he was covered by lifted off him, along with that of a muscle car behind him.
The pod then opened its center, coming apart in nine pieces and a blinding white light blasted from the hole, along with what sounded like a welder being crossed with a printer. The wire frame slowly began disappearing as the glow moved down, Finnick shielding his eyes until it finally stopped. The arm retracted and the pod fully closed, leaving a very confused and spooked fox to stand at the edge of the crater. "What the fuck was that?" He asked no-one, the air was still with not even a cricket's chirp for miles.
Then the pod lurched, causing Finnick to dart behind an overturned car and peek over its bumper. The pod's top had lifted slightly, kept in place by seventeen latches that quickly un-did themselves in sequence. One after another, creating a fast metal clacking as they retracted. The lid finally swung open, and a russet claw wrapped itself over the lip.
The creature that had been inside the pod lifted itself into a sitting position, two vivid green cones of light projecting from its eye to scan the area. If he didn't know any better, he'd have said it was a red fox. But he knew this couldn't be, they weren't as big as lions, made of metal or fell from space. Yet, it held an uncanny resemblance that caused his hackles to raise and his tail to poof out.
The creature looked down, inspecting its own paws, seeming to mull them over as if they were foreign. It then stood up, checking over its back to see its tail, a mass of sharp orange plates that faded to a russet. Its ears were reflective, comprised of two plates and side mirrors. Black tires hang from its back, along with a green spine that glowed slightly. It even had what looked like a tie on its front, bright green and orange and unmistakable. Finnick raised his phone up, and snapped a picture. And the creature froze, Finnick mimicking the motion.
It turned to his location, just barely missing the fennec retreating behind the car and curling up. He clenched his eyes as he listened to its heavy foot falls, approaching his location scarily quickly. And then they stopped, Finnick slowly opened his eyes to see the massive green of the alien staring back at him. He screamed, dropping his phone and scrambling away. The alien. . . did the same? Finnick heard its panicked stomping as it ran in the opposite direction, the fennec ducked under a vehicle and turned around. He didn't know if not seeing it was scarier, yet he screwed his face up in confusion. Was it scared of him? Really?
Finnick slowly pulled himself from his hiding place, glancing over the parking lot for the alien. Finding it huddled behind a pick up, its tail just barely poking out the front. "Ya know I can see you!" He yelled, watching as the tail retracted.
A terse, "No you can't!" was his response. Finnick made his way over, hopping onto the pickup's hood and looked down over the alien.
"We'll, I definitely can now." He smirked, watching the alien turn to look at him, and scrunch back into himself. "You're scared of me? Really?"
"Wha- No!" It suddenly stood up to full height, trying way too hard to look scary. "RAH!" He snarled, its pulled back lips the most convincing part of the act.
"Not buying it." Finnick said, staring up at the fox robot with an unamused muzzle. "So what are you?"
"Hell if I know, I just came online." He said, retracting his expanded panels and turning away slightly.
"Well, you look like a giant robot fox to me." He said, following the fox by climbing over the truck to its roof. "Names Finnick." Finnick held his paw out. The robot glanced down to it, and then back around his surroundings. "Well, what's your name?"
"Uh. . . I don't. . . have one." He said slowly, idly twiddling his fingers.
"How 'bout Nick?"
"Wow, that's derivative." The robot said, dropping his arm and cocking his head to the side. Finnick raised his eyebrow inquisitively. "Can't be worse that what I would have come up with." Nick lowered his paw to Finnick, keeping his pointer digit extended for the fennec to grab.
"Well, Nick. Welcome to Zootopia." As he finished speaking, Nick's 'ear' perked up. The plates sliding back for the mirror to rock up, he stood there for a moment before turning to stare down the road. "What, ya hear somethin'?"
"You can't?" The mechanical fox turned to look back at Finnick.
"Probably EMS or something like that. . . We gotta hide you!" The fennec tensed up before scrambling off his perch.
"Why? You seem nice enough."
"Not every mammals' like me. If they see you, word'll get around and you you'll end up in a shippin' crate in pieces." The fennec pushed the back of Nick's heel, the part being composed of what looked like a grill bumper and headlights. "Why do you have half a muscle car on your foot?"
"I do?" He pulled his leg around, doing his best to balance on one leg to inspect himself further. "What's a muscle car?"
"You know what? Questions for later, move!" Nick was suddenly illuminated, startling the fox-bot and causing him to start shifting. His body split apart and compressed, emitting this awful grinding noise, leaving the fennec with a muscle car nearly identical to the one previous. Only it was sharper, had an orange base coat that faded to russet at its front and rear, and green highlights throughout. "Nick?"
"What? What happened?"
"You're a car!" Finnick glanced at the entrance. "Don't say anything, don't move, you are an inanimate object now."
"Wha- what? But I-" Finnick shushed him, turning to face the ambulance and police cruiser pulling into the lot. The doors opened, out coming a lion and a tiger. "Hey Officer???"
"Delgato." The lion spoke with a furench accent. "We're responding to a disturbance. What can you tell us?"
"Dunno, just got here." He leaned on Nick, doing best to seem completely innocent. "I mean, there's that." Pointing right to the pod, Finnick watched as the officers walked to the edge before sliding down. Meanwhile the paramedics checked him out, receiving a snappy "I'm fine!" from him. Before long, Officer Delgato and his partner returned to their squad car. Heading off with the ambulance with their lights and sirens off.
"You can come back out now." Walking a short ways away, he was not prepared for the conversion back to giant robot fox. The hood and front of the car split in half, extending out up before whipping around like a break dancer. The motion flung the fox up for the back to form arms, pushing off to land on his fully formed feet. The roof of the car fell behind him and diced up, joining parts of the rear bumper and trunk to become his tail whilst the wheels and axles folded up into his back with the engine block.
"Sorry, I didn't hurt you did I?"
"No. But next time, I'm standin' over there." Finnick pointed to the other side of the lot. "So, you can turn into a car?" Nick shrugged. "So what else can ya do?"