The sound of a gunshot echoed through the city streets in front of the Sheriff's department of Wilson County. He felt a wet feeling around his abdomen as he turned around before his foot missed the step behind him and he fell, rolling down the stairs and hitting his head. Darkness overtook his vision as he saw the faces of Officers running down to him from the entrance.
Chapter 1: Any Day can Determine History
Loud music blared from an alarm clock as a red furred hand slapped the top of it to stop it from continuing. A yawn escaped the covers of the bed as a fox with green eyes arched his back and stretched before standing up. Getting himself together and set he looked at the clock that read five ten, Hmph, already running late. He thought getting up and slowly moving to get ready for work before he made his way out of the door at six twenty.
Twenty minutes later Nick Wilde entered the bull pen of the Zootopia Police station where he took his seat with officer Judy Hopps who was there waiting for him with her typical warm rabbit eyed toothy smile. Smiling slightly with a chuckle he looked around at the others in the room. It was loud with mammals of various species from Elephants to Tigers, Lions, and even Rhinos and Wolves.
Sitting next to his Partner, the only Rabbit in the room, he looked at her as she said, "Nick, glad you could finally make it,"
"Yeah sorry for running late again," he replied as he planted his elbow on the table and laid his head in his hand with a lazy smirk.
"And what's the excuse this time?" came a voice behind him. Turning around he looked up at a larger than normal Tiger who smirked down on him.
"Take your pick Bridgers, Traffic was bad, my car broke down, the line at my favorite coffee joint. You know, any of those valid excuses," he replied with another smile.
Bridgers smiled wider before grabbing Nick around the neck with his arm and proceeded to rustle his head with his fist as he laughed. "Always a smart ass huh Wilde?" Letting him go his face turned serious "But I'm glad you made it in before the chief could get here." Nick's ears drooped down a bit at those words.
"Why? Is something wrong?" he asked as he turned to Judy who's ears had gone droopy as well with worry. "What's wrong? Wait don't tell me. It's the elections isn't it?" he asked as the two nodded sullenly.
"Nick have you seen the polls recently?" Asked Judy as Bridgers slid a newspaper in front of him. The front page had the picture of a poll's results with three names on it. The top with the most votes by a good eight percent was the name Darius Savage with second being Jack Graiz and third being Glen Becker. Nick's eyebrows furrowed as he read the paper.
His concentration was broken as Judy's hand rested on his arm causing him to flinch as she spoke, "Nick? You okay?" she asked.
"Yeah," he replied as he looked down in her large lavender eyes. "Just not sure how I should feel about this right now. I mean the guy's a joke! He comes in saying after what happened with Bellwether the predator and prey population should separate from each other and now he's winning the elections with this pitch?"
Jake Bridgers looked down at his two friends and wrapped his arm around them, "Look I don't think this guy's gonna win the elections, but maybe, just as a precaution, the two of you should look into some legal protection." The two's ears stood up quick as they looked up at him confused.
"What are you talking about?" asked Nick as he was rewarded with a chuckle from Bridgers.
Just before Bridgers could continue the Hippo at the front of the room shouted, "A Ten Hut!" and everyone stood up, banging on the tables and howling as Chief Bogo strode into the room.
"Alright, Everyone sit down!" he demanded as he stood at the podium at the front of the room while everyone took their seats. "First off I wanted to acknowledge the issues we're facing here with the elections. I know the majority of us find this to be a rough subject, especially since it's one of our own parading around preaching about these 'solutions' to the scars the Bellwether conspiracy left on the city. I ask that everyone remain calm while these elections continue and maintain the professionalism we are known for." Chief Bogo spoke sternly as he looked around the room at each of his officers before settling on the three in the front before a hint of pity could be seen in his eyes, but before anyone could catch it he continued on.
"Now! On to business, we have multiple cases that need to be cracked and with the political shit storm at city hall I'm inclined to get this done as quickly as possible. First off we have a gang trying to distribute Night Howlers to the black market. I don't need to remind any of you what might happen if that shipment makes it to the intended buyers. Officers Wolford, Fangmeyer, and Delgato. Your teams will be handling the drug bust on these traffickers." As he finished a Lion, a Tiger, and two wolves stood up to collect the file, "Not you Gage. This is for your brother."
The black furred female Wolf that had stood up looked at the chief in surprise before sitting back down with an irritated look while the other three left the room going through the file together before Bogo continued. "Alright, next up," he continued on until the only ones left in the room were Jake, Nick, Judy, and Gage. "And finally. You four are coming with me down to Cliffside." At the word Cliffside Nick and Judy shot bolt upright.
"Uhm, sir?" started Judy as Bogo started for the door.
"Is something wrong officer Hopps?" he asked turning his head and reminding her of her first day on the force.
"No sir. Just a little uncertain. You haven't briefed us on why yet sir."
"And it will remain that way until we arrive at our destination," he replied cryptically.
The ride to the old hydro plant had been relatively quiet and uneventful in the police van as the five made their way through the old maintenance tunnel and over the cliffs to the lone building sitting over a waterfall. When the van pulled up two wolves greeted them before waving them through and across the bridge where they could see the entrance of the building with four figures waiting. As they got closer the group made out two wolves, one white while the other was gray with black and white markings. They stood next to a small Badger wearing a white lab coat and the old Mayor of Zootopia.
"Mayor Lionheart!?" asked Judy Incredulously.
"Lionheart may not have been brought back as the Mayor of Zootopia on his release from prison, but as acting mayor until the elections finish I placed him back in charge of overlooking Cliffside until I could have a look at it myself. Now I still trust the Lion to do right by Zootopia even if I expect him to make mistakes along the way. After all we all make them and I figured it would be wiser if I kept someone who knew the inner workings better," began Bogo, "Now he recently got in touch with me to come down, despite the hell city hall has become and when I did I found that it was the right call. This will change everything we knew about our history."
Nick looked up at the buffalo before speaking, "Chief I'm flattered you think so highly of me, but Hopps and I aren't really meant for muscle jobs and though I may be smart, I'm no scientist."
Bogo looked down at them after parking the van before speaking again, "That may be Wilde, but I didn't assign you to this detail for your muscle or your smarts. I need people of good character to help me make a decision that will have a dramatic impact on the world. Each of you has grown up in different lifestyles with different points of view that I wish to consider before I make this decision." After he spoke Bogo opened the Van and stepped out to greet Lionheart and Dr. Madge as the four looked between each other before getting out themselves.
As the four stepped out of the van Lionheart noticed Judy and called out for her, "Officer Hopps! It's so good to see you again. I know our last encounter wasn't exactly favorable, but those were stressful circumstances. I hope our encounters in the future will prove to be much more progressive." Lionheart finished speaking with a big smile.
Judy returned the smile warmly as she shook his paw while Nick and Gage looked from behind her uncertainly. "Gary? Nelson? Is that you?" asked Gage as she noticed the two wolves standing next to Lionheart. The two stood at attention as they heard her voice.
"Sarge!" They shouted in unison before Gage slapped Gary's fuzzy white face and dragged the other into a three wolf hug nearly choking Nelson's face blue through the fur.
When she finally let the two go she looked them up and down, "Well how the hell did you two manage this job?" she more demanded than asked. Nick took a moment to take in the three and realized that despite their gender differences Gage was actually the same size as the other two and a little more broad shouldered for a female Wolf.
Before anyone could ask or say anything Bogo cleared his throat noisily to get everyone's attention. "Well I'm glad you've made friends Officer Wolford, but we should really be moving on now. This is after all why we're here." Finishing he motioned everyone inside the building.
As the group walked inside Lionheart began speaking, "I do apologize for what happened in the past and want everyone here to know I'm starting fresh by coming out with a book soon dictating everything that was going on here. Recently we had an abnormality in one of the projects, Project Zero, that was supposed to remain... inactive for lack of better words. So I called Bogo and told him everything about the project."
"I only wish you'd trusted me with this sensitive location and information sooner Leodore," said Bogo as they turned a corner causing Lionheart's ears to droop a bit.
"I know Bogo. I should have gone to you from the start. I was just so overwhelmed with the politics and the responsibilities of being a mayor. Maybe none of this would have happened if I'd just gone to you from the start."
"What exactly is Project Zero sir?" asked Judy, bringing Lionheart back to reality as they made their way through a doorway that led into an odd room with a strange pod like container sitting in the center of the opposite wall with a large thick glass wall separating the two halves of the room from each other. The Container was difficult to see inside as it was frozen and the glass was covered in ice.
"What do you know about humans officers?" asked Dr. Madge as she pressed a few buttons on the console in the center of the room.
"Humans? Like the fairy tale used to scare kids into bed and to listen to their parents?" asked Jake as he stood by the window to get a better look.
"What would you say if we told you it wasn't a myth?" Chimed in Lionheart as the rest of the group stood next to Jake.
Dr. Madge pressed a few more buttons and the large pod moved forward to give the group a better look inside. What they saw was a shock and would change the Zootopian history books forever. Inside was a young man, a young Human, frozen in perfect condition. Judy and Nick gasped as they looked at the outline of the head more closely and Jake took a slight step back. Gage furrowed her brow and simply studied the specimen before her.
"Sir, you've been keeping a live human in here all this time?!" asked Judy incredulously.
"Well we had to for awhile. You see this specimen was injured. From what we pieced together from the data stored in the console next to it, this human suffered a fatal gunshot wound that had been healed years later, however the head trauma he endured had placed him in a coma, so he was cryogenically frozen again until they could find a fix. Apparently it was a common practice after the year 2108 a.d for humans that were in a coma as they, like we today, didn't know enough about the brain to fully understand how to wake someone from a Coma." Dr. Madge said as she continued punching buttons.
"But you've been keeping one down here without telling the public. How long has this been going on?" Asked Nick as Lionheart looked down at the floor before speaking.
"The truth is it's been hidden long before I even became Mayor of Zootopia. I wanted to come forward about it when I first heard, but my predecessor told me the world wasn't ready. After about two months in office, I believed him..." The group stood there, each one mulling over what Lionheart said and mentally made their own decisions about his situation.
"So why the change of heart?" Asked Gage critically.
"Well... that's where things get a bit... ethical. You see, every year we do a slight thaw on the brain to determine activity and functioning to determine whether he's still in the coma and about a month ago we noticed improvements in his brain scans." Started Lionheart.
"That's a guy?" Asked Nick out of the blue while pointing at the tube with his thumb.
"Yes officer Wilde, this specimen is male," replied Dr. Madge as Nick tried to get a closer look through the glass.
"You see, we can't say for certain whether he's officially awake from his coma until we thaw him out and try to wake him, but that requires authorization from the active mayor. Hence Bogo being brought here early to make the call."
"However, due to the lack of official information and facts we have on humans I wanted different outlooks from those I could trust to help me make this decision."
"Well, what do we know about them?" asked Judy.
"Well to start, much of our technology is actually based on existing samples of rare human technology found throughout the world. Our entire language is actually based off only one of the many languages they had." Said Dr. Madge.
"Oh, wow, that's pretty... uhm..." Began Jake
"Unoriginal," Finished Nick before getting a stern look from Jake, "What?"
"Nick..." Started Judy.
"No! Don't tell me to stop joking about this. Honestly, I don't even know why we're even considering this. It should be a no brainer," replied Nick as he went from being his self confident funny self to something much more serious, "We let him out. I mean. If he's a monster we deal with that after we know for sure. Until then we should treat him like we'd treat any mammal we do know about."
"I don't know Nick. Stories say that humans used to eat other mammals. Raised them like cattle before slaughtering them in the trillions to eat with a nice soda to wash it down," replied Jake.
"Jake I understand your worries, but what if the stories we've heard are just that and we do let him out and he turns out to be just another person like you, Nick, Gage, and I?" Asked Judy, "I think we should let him out."
Jake took a bit to respond but when he did he sighed with a sad smile, "You're right. Besides I don't think I'd sleep right if we left him frozen without knowing for sure." It was here the group looked to Gage who everyone expected to object.
"Chief. I understand your position. I understand why you're so worried about this and I understand what everyone else is saying, but I honestly don't know where to be on this. On one hand they're just stories. On the other... I'd hate to be part of something that might cause terror in Zootopia," She started as everyone watched her as she continued, "but I don't think I could stand it if we left it frozen in there without knowing for sure if this human is in fact a monster, or not..." When she turned, her face remained stoic, but the other three officers in the room stared at her with jaws dropped and incredulous faces. "Chief this is your call. I'll support the call you make either way sir."
Bogo looked from his group of officers to the tube with the frozen human, a look of serious consideration etched on his face.