Author's Note - This is a complete rewrite of another story by the same name that i made last year, i didn't like what i had done with it as i took it off on a completely unrelated tangent that ruined it as far as i was concerned, so here's the new one.
Hidden at the base of the mountain on the other side of the lake from cliff side asylum sat a large rusting warehouse that was being slowly reclaimed by nature, thick vines and some of the nearby trees had started to grow over it and help obscure the view of it from the suspended highway that passed by thirty feet above it. No-mammal had bothered with anything in this area for decades after the closing of the asylum, and the warehouse had only been a temporary storage location for the highways construction and once it had been finished it had been left to rot. So the arrival of a large truck and three cars would have stood out to anybody watching, but with it being the dead of night there wasn't anybody around to see the doors to the warehouse open and the vehicles drive in.
The inside of the warehouse looked completely different to the outside, it had been refurbished and reinforced with large metal plates, a small area had been built along one of the walls out of shipping containers and held an office where as the main body of the warehouse had been turned into a drug factory. The vehicles pulled up inside and the occupants got out as several mammals came out of the office. A bull in a plain white shirt and black trousers with a pistol in a belt holster pulled out a cigarette and lit it, a smile spread across his face as he spotted a grey wolf in black cargo trousers and shirt, with a metal mask covering his entire head except for his yellow eyes stood amongst the mammals from the office.
"Unload the cargo" yelled the bull to it's followers as it walked over to the wolf, it's voice boomed and echoed through the warehouse, the warehouse was a flurry of activity as the two headed into the office. The small army of mammals unlocked the trailer door and opened it to reveal large wooden crates, as they got to work unloading them a small trail of blood ran out of the door from the pile of bullet ridden bodies in the back.
The office was plush and had luxury seats, a large wooden desk, filling cabinets and a glass fronted fridge filled with beer. The bull pulled out a beer then went and sat behind the wooden desk, he pulled an ashtray towards him flicking some from the end of his cigarette into it.
"Make yourself comfortable, want a beer?" he offered happily as he cracked his open and took a sip,
"Thank you but no" the wolf sat down on a nearby chair next to a large carry case resembling a doctors bag.
The bull unhooked his holster and put it on the table, undid the button on his collar and rubbed at his neck,
"I have to say Sokolov, when you contacted me about the shipment I was sceptical to say the least. Your information was right on the money tho, I'm surprised the Citadel sent such a lightly guarded convoy with the amount of weapons it was carrying."
"Hiding in plane sight is the best security, who's going to look at a civilian truck and think it contains weapons?"
"Point taken, anyway this should give us the upper paw against the cops for a long time. Now what have you got for me?"
He gestured to the case and the wolf placed it on the desk in front of the bull,
"Half a million dollars, laundered and untraceable as agreed. Once I have the orb in my possession then I will give you the other one million we agreed upon"
"The deal was for one and a half up front, what are you playing at?"
"No offence Mr Stier, but I have a lot ridding on this operation of yours, the rest is stored nearby and as soon as I have the orb you will have your money"
"I don't like it when mammals take it upon themselves to change agreements, but you did provide extra firepower for us so I'll let it go this time"
He picked his beer back up and carried on drinking as he waited for his crew to finish.
Outside the warehouse one of the mammals, a tiger, was relieving himself against a tree. His teeth chattered and he muttered to himself.
"Jesus it's freezing, why do I have to be stuck with patrol"
The thought was quickly replaced with pain as his head slammed into the tree, he felt himself fall backwards with tremendous force to the ground and something press heavily against his throat, he opened his eyes wide as he saw a a brown wolf in a suit and a long black woollen overcoat stood over him with a foot on his throat and a pistol pointed at his head. The wolf's eyes were a solid yellow and he had an angry look on it's face, what scared him most though was that he could see a silver metal collar around his neck with a well know crested lock on the front, if he hadn't already relieved himself he would be now out of fear. The tiger stuttered as it tried to say something. But his fear coupled with the pressure on his throat prevented him from getting any of the words out, the wolf spoke quietly with a gravely voice as he gestured to the warehouse,
"How many?" the wolf released enough pressure for the tiger to talk, the tiger just stared wide eyed at him until the wolf clicked the hammer back on the gun.
"How many?"
"fifteen, there's fifteen inside"
"Is your boss there?"
"Yeah. There's another wolf there as well, with a mask"
"Dark metal?"
"Yeah that's right"
"Thank you"
The wolf lifted his foot up and the tiger breathed a momentary sigh of relief, it was short lived however as the wolf brought it down quickly, snapping the tigers neck, the tiger gurgled as it suffocated. The wolf walked quickly between the trees at the side of the warehouse as he looked for a way in other than the front door, as he passed around a forgotten burnt out car a door that was flush fitted to the wall opened only a few feet in front of him, a warthog with a shotgun slung over his back stepped out trying to light a cigarette. The wolf froze, the warthog had it's back to him and kicked the door closed with the back of his hoof, as soon as the door closed he snuck behind the hog kicking the back of his leg dropping him to one knee, he flicked out his razor sharp claws on his free paw and slashed the hogs throat, the hog grabbed at his throat trying to stem the blood flow and collapsed onto the grass. The wolf held him face down burying his face into the mud until he stopped moving, when he was sure he was dead the wolf took the shotgun from the body and made sure it was loaded. Putting his ear to the door he could hear a lot of movement, but nothing sounded too close, he opened the door just a crack, he could see a bunch of mammals opening up wooden crates and taking weapons cases from inside and stacking them up. Around 80ft away on the opposite side and through the office window he could see his target, Josef Sokolov, sat next to Mr Stier, a well known drugs manufacturer in the underworld who was rumoured to be planning a massive expansion of his operations, the police knew about his operations but due to large scale corruption he had mainly gone unchecked. A bear who was pulling items out of the crates picked up a smaller case the size of a first aid box and took it to the office.
There was a knock on the door and Stier called for the mammal to enter, even his normal voice was loud and echoed around the metal walls of the office. The door opened and a bear ducked under the door-frame and walked over to the desk, placing the small case he was carrying onto it. Stier looked at the top of it and turned it to face Sokolov,
"This what you are after?"
Sokolov walked over and flicked the case open, inside was a a red spherical jewel the size of a grapefruit with intricate golden inscriptions and symbols all over it, he picked it out and it glowed slightly in his paw.
"This is exactly what I want"
"I'd ask what's with the glowing shit but I don't want to know, you Thihir creep me out sometimes. Now where's the rest of the money?"
Sokolov laid the sphere back into it's case and sealed it.
"Against the side of this warehouse, along the grass, is a burned out car. The case with the rest of your money in is in the boot" He took a key out of his pocket and placed it on the desk in front of the bull "You'll need that to open the case"
Stier picked it up and turned it around in his hoofs a few times before calling over to the bear,
"You heard him, go get the case"
The brown wolf watched the crew through the door, he knew Stier's crew had a reputation for brutality and loyalty, but if he could take out the ones who had more authority then he might be able to make them stop or at the least demoralize them enough to leave, but he saw the large bear come out of the office and start walking towards him. He hoped the bear would go back to one of the crates but it quickly became apparent that he wasn't going to, with few options he decided it didn't matter if they died and he kicked the door inwards just as the bear went for the handle. The force of the door hitting the bear in the nose stunned it, reflexively it brought it's paws up to cover it and the wolf seized the opportunity, shooting it with the shotgun point blank in the stomach blowing a large chunk out of the bear. The wolf racked the slide as he stepped into the warehouse and fired at a nearby moose holding an assault rifle hitting it square in the chest, sending blood splattering across the room and the moose into a lion stood next to it knocking him to the ground. A shot rang out and hit the wolf in the shoulder but the round didn't break through his shirt, he turned and fired back at the coyote who was stood behind one of the cars, the round shattered the window and shredded the coyotes jaw.
The entire warehouse descended into chaos with Stier's crew firing madly at the wolf who didn't seem to notice, even when his white shirt was stained with his own blood he didn't show any sign of slowing down as he killed mammal after mammal, drawing his own gun when the shotgun ran out of shells.
Inside the office Stier pulled the front off one of his cabinets and fumbled with a set of keys, after he had seen who was attacking them, as he tried to unlock the gun-safe he had hidden in the cabinet.
"What the hell have you done Sokolov, you brought a Seeker down on us!"
Stier turned around with a shotgun and a box of shells, but fell back into his chair as two bullets pierced his chest, one grazing his heart. The bull struggled to breath as Sokolov clicked open the case, his smoking pistol in his paw.
"You attacked the convoy, what did you think the Citadel would do"
He took the Jewel out of the case and whispered something that Stier couldn't understand. The door to the office flung open and the wolf charged in with his gun raised ready to fire at Sokolov just as the jewel emitted a blinding flash of white light engulfing everything in the building.
Nick and Judy were in their unmarked police cruiser on their way back to Precinct One for the shift change after a long shift. Although being detectives usually gave them the opportunity to wear their civilian clothes for the day to day investigations they were now on the last day of the mandatory patrol rotation that all detectives had to follow at Precinct One every three years in order for them to not loose their street wits. It wasn't a bad thing that they had to wear uniform, except that the giant heat wall surrounding Savannah Central, where they had been patrolling, was malfunctioning and had increased the temperature significantly and their uniforms were just far too hot for their liking. They both had their ZPD jackets off and Nick was fanning himself with the first aid manual from the glove box,
"Carrots, what's say you and I head to Tundratown? I'll even buy us some ice cream"
Judy was keeping herself as close to the air-vent as possible, as she was designated driver she didn't have any paws free to fan herself.
"I'll snap up any offer when you're paying"
"How long can it take to fix that stupid wall"
"I don't know, but it cant be done quick enough"
They could make out the Precinct in the distance as they sat waiting for the traffic signal to change,
"Not long now slick"
Just then the radio burst into life with Clawhauser's voice filled with urgency,
"All units Officer down Palm and Dune, Ten David is under fire, all units respond"
Nick swore under his breath, dropped the manual on the floor and hit the lights and sirens as Judy spun the car round and sped through the rush hour traffic.
"That's Fangmeyer's car, how far away are we?"
"About 4 minutes"
Nick grabbed the radio,
"Ten David what's going on?"
"Multiple suspects along 12th avenue junction exit, combat gear and heavily armed. Delgato's been hit" The sounds of automatic fire crackled over the radio along with pinging noises, the slower sound of a pistol being fired mixed in with it "We really need help guys!"
"We're four minutes out hold on"
It didn't take long for them to hear the gunfire as well as the sirens of closer units who had already arrived. Sliding around the corner they were forced to a stop by traffic that hadn't been able to get away from the junction, the mammals having abandoned their vehicles and run for whatever cover was available, some didn't make it however and a number of bodies could be seen lying on the pavement and between cars riddled with bullets. Nick used his radio as they ran to a car closer to the gunfight,
"Dispatch, multiple inured and dead mammals, get TUSK down here now!"
He ducked down next to Judy as a spray of bullets from a polar bear wielding an assault rifle shredded the windscreen and hood of the car. From where they were crouched they could see Fangmeyer behind his cruiser with Delgato, Delgato was slumped against the car and Fangmeyer had one blood stained paw against the lions neck and the other on his gun, the tiger looked terrified, Judy yelled over the gunshots,
"Fangmeyer. Fangmeyer!" He turned his head to look at her "Stay down. TUSK's on it's way!"
"We'll cover you, keep him alive"
Nick and Judy fired from behind the car at a pig that was trying to get the drop on the tiger, the pig ducked behind a box delivery van parked outside a flower store as a polar bear fired on the car Nick and Judy were hiding behind, showering shards of glass down on them making them duck, Fangmeyer fired in it's direction, his panic causing him to completely miss, the slide on his gun locked back as he fired the last of his bullets. Nick and Judy watched unable to move from their cover as the pig came out from behind the van to finish what it had started. Just as it was about to fire a suit wearing wolf came running out of the alley behind it and barged it into the van making it drop it's rifle. The wolf grabbed the pig by the throat and slammed it's head into the van dazing it, he spun the pig round, grabbed it's neck under his arm and yanked it up snapping it cleanly. The wolf grabbed the rifle and dashed behind the cruiser, a Yak from Stier's crew fired from behind a mail box, the rounds missing the wolf by a few inches and snapping over Nick and Judy's head. The wolf shoved the rifle into Fangmeyer's paws as Nick and Judy dashed between cars to get to them, the wolf held Delgato's badly injured neck with one paw and pulled a spray can out of his coat pocket as more bullets pinged into the car,
"Keep that Yak's head down"
The wolf put the can against the wound and sprayed a thick green foam over it, the foam began to dry quickly and the wound stopped bleeding, they weren't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and Fangmeyer started firing over the hood of the cruiser, his shots were inaccurate but it did the job as the yak kept himself as low as possible. Judy grabbed the wolfs arm,
"Who are you?"
"Max, look we can talk after this is done, I'm going after the bear keep that yak off me"
Before they could protest he drew his pistol and ran at the bear firing as he ran, Nick quickly yelled over the radio to the other officers not to shoot at the wolf, he hopped he was making the right decision.
Max ran as fast as he could at the bear as he fired at it, he slid across the hood of the last car separating them as the last of his bullets caught the bear in the arm causing him to drop the rifle, Max swung at him with his claws but the bear's swing caught him first, hitting him square in the chest and sending him flying into the cars rear passenger door buckling it, the force knocked the wind out of him and it felt like one of his ribs was broken, he didn't have time to think about it as the bear dashed at him and swung for his head with his claws, Max pushed against the car and kicked the bears left knee making him fall head first into the car knocking out a few of it's teeth, Max climbed onto it's back and punched it in the kidneys again and again, the pain made it difficult for the bear to get up. Fangmeyer Nick and Judy kept firing at the yak until the rifle clicked,
"Shit I'm out"
"I'm on my last mag, Carrots?"
"I'm out too"
Nick fired three more shots and the slide of his gun locked back,
"Fuck I'm out"
Max grabbed the polar bear's head and slammed it into the ground, pulled his backup gun from under his coat and shot the bear in the head twice, he could hear Nick and Judy yelling his name and he turned to see the yak fire at him, he felt a sharp pain just below his neck and he fell to the ground, his vision blurred and went black.