Hi, everyone, MarcellusMiro66 here! This is a Zootopia fanfiction, blending elements of adventure, crime drama, and superhero movies. This story is inspired in some parts by Zootopia: The Raid (by 14sleepyhead09), Vigilante (by Spleriia Emperor Splerii), and Ghost (MetalFoxSolid), the last one being my personal favorite.
In the wake of the Night Howler Conspiracy, an middle-aged fox comes out of retirement and hunts down the men who attacked him and his wife. All the while, Judy and Nick discover that this self-proclaimed vigilante isn't who he seems to be.
The story takes place during and after the film's climax, set in the same universe as my Sing fanfiction I Am Wrath.
The story's plot and style are inspired by The French Connection, The Godfather, Death Wish, Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder, The Crow, Cop Land, Man on Fire (the 2004 version), Batman Begins, Death Sentence, The Equalizer (the 2014 version), and John Wick.
Enjoy! If you can...
He sat in the waiting room, his nervousness awaiting news that concerned the condition of his wife. He sat in the waiting room, his head buried in his blood-soaked hands. He sat in the waiting room, his mind modified to deduce this was his doing.
He hated hospitals. He hated the cushioned seats, the tiled and colored floors, and the overall optimistic atmosphere of it all that gave you the impression that every little thing was gonna be all right. He hated this one in particular.
He, to himself, felt it as a mockery, a travesty, or a sure slap in the face. It could've been all three rolled into one. He saw through the façade of false optimism and hope that the hospitals were trying to convey, and he wasn't buying it. Not one bit. It was a No Sell to nobody but himself, though he figured that there were some animals who probably thought the same thing as he did. There were some animals in the world who saw pessimism as the sole substitute for optimism, and he himself was absolutely no exception.
The room was bright, but he never felt more in the dark.
"Mister...Evans?"
Mr. Evans's ears perked up at the sound of his names being called and stood up, walking to the gazelle nurse,
"Is it my wife? Is she alright?"
To his great relief, the nurse slowly smiled and nodded, "She'll live. But..." Oh, the dreaded 'But', "...she's in a coma. We don't know when she'll wake."
Mr. Evans nodded in understanding. She was in a coma, but she was alive. That's all what matters.
The gazelle saw the difficult position he was in and hugged him out of instinct, a hug which he reluctantly returned.
Mr. Evans entered the room and his eyes fell upon his bedridden wife, her own eyes closed as per the instructions in a coma. He sat down on a chair near the bedside and gazed at her before talking:
"Oh, Monica... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. For everything that's led to this. The truth is... I've been a bad man. I've done some bad things in my life, Monica... Things I'm not proud of. Because of that, I promised the people I love very much that I would never go back to being that person... But for them, I'll make an exception. I'll have to make that exception. The men I killed, the bad men... I gave them a chance, they made their decision... Now I'm giving others the opportunity to make theirs. I don't have a lot of time...which means they don't have any."
"Brian..." Brian kissed his wife on the forehead and stood up to leave, a small smile growing as was the seed of hope. He then left her to rest.
He liked hospitals...if not loved them.
Dawn Bellwether, appalled at the fact that Judy Hopps, the city's dumb bunny, and Nick Wilde, the city's sly fox, had officially outwitted, growled furiously as she closed the tranquilizer gun, "I framed Lionheart, I can frame you too!" She adjusted her glasses with undeterred confidence, "It's my word against yours."
"Ooh! Actually..." Judy whipped out her carrot pen and played back Bellwether's crazed speech:
"And I'll dart every predator in Zootopia to keep it that way."
"It's your word against yours."
Her jaw dropping to the floor, a shocked and dumbfounded Bellwether could only manage a "Huh?" as Judy and Nick smile triumphantly.
"It's called a hustle, sweetheart. Boom."
The doors of the museum suddenly burst open and sirens blared all over the building. Bellwether, foiled and caught red-hoofed, began to back away and attempt to make a run for it, but was swiftly surrounded by Chief Bogo and the ZPD, who heard everything. Police cars and vans surrounded the entrance. By the looks of it, Bellwether looked absolutely sheepish.
"How? How did I get foiled by a pair of brainless savages?" Bellwether questioned herself as she and her cronies were cuffed and prepared to be taken away.
"You're one to talk, Bellwether." Officer McHorn retorted as he secured all of the available weapons, "Capturing a total of 14 missing mammals for your little science experiment, using a 15th non-missing mammal for attempted murder."
"Oh, that wasn't attempted murder." One of the rams nonchalantly shook his head before suddenly breaking out of his cuffs and drawing a compensated Beretta 92FS, all before the officers even had a chance to act. They could only react as he pointed the Beretta at Nick and Judy, the former shielding the latter the second he caught notice of the gun.
"This is attempted murder."
WHOOSH!
The ram suddenly shouted in pain and dropped the gun near Nick, who went for it and held it on its former owner, who continued screaming at his bloody hoof. Nick saw now what was causing his pain; an arrow was embedded in the palm.
The officers, Judy and Bogo included, looked on in surefire shock as the ram dropped down to the floor and writhed around in pain. Even Bellwether herself seemed surely surprised by the quick escalation. Well, that escalated quickly. She wasn't surprised by the bantam beads of blood that were expected from a mission like this. No, what surprised her was the fact that the animal who attempted to kill Nick and Judy was actually willing to kill them in the first place. She wasn't willing to go that far, but murder was necessary when it came to tying loose ends. Thankfully enough, there weren't any, but still...
The hooded figure leapt from his hiding spot and landed on his feet a few from the briskly breathing ram. He caught everyone's curiosity and then their attention as he approached him, taking away the Beretta from Nick, who stepped down and joined Judy. He shouldered his quiver and cocked the hammer, lowering the now fully functional firearm towards his head,
"Norman Killick, you've failed this city. The crimes are as followed: conspiracy planning, drug distribution, and attempted murder...on my son and his friend."
Nick and Judy's respective pairs of eyes widened at the last sentence, Nick in particular mirroring Bellwether's hanging jaw, 'Dad?'
"The sentence: Death. How do you plead?"
The ram, wanting the last laugh, smirked confidently and chuckled out, "Guilty."
He didn't get it, however.
"Defense noted."
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The gun jammed on the sixth shot as the figure pulled the trigger two more times. He scoffed and threw down the handgun onto the owner's now frowning corpse, walking away as the police looked on with their jaws hanging out like Bellwether's and Judy's. He stopped in his tracks and turned back to them, a small smile on his face growing despite the murder he had just committed.
"So uncivilized, right?"
The figure then walked away completely; he left the cops, the criminals, and the in-between (Nick and Judy) to their own devices. Nick looked on as the door closed, obscuring the figure's figure.
"Dad?"
A/N: Sorry if this prologue is short; I may add extra material. Chapter 2 will center on Nick and Judy recovering from the incident and Chief Bogo leading a self-proclaimed manhunt on "The Hood", who retreats and seeks assistance from some old friends. As mentioned above, this is the first installment in a shared universe with Sing and other cartoons (more of them later) that will eventually lead to a Magnificent Seven-style team-up story. The figure, known as "Brian" or "Mr. Evans" for now, is practically a Robert McCall / The Equalizer character and one of the most dangerous vigilantes in this universe (Buster Moon from Sing is no exception).