Sorry if this appears rushed. I just wanted to get it out before Halloween ended.
I don't know about you, but I've always hated trick-or-treating. Even when I was a cub.
I'm not sure if it was laziness or I hated going out in costume, or what, but I was always reluctant to go. I use those words because I always wound up going anyway. Never could figure out why.
Anyway, each year it was the same. I always went out with my sister, Carla, and always sin a moderately sized group – mainly her friends and their siblings. That didn't bug me. I figured I'd just hang back and get some candy along with the rest of the kids.
We always went to Perry and Polly Settson's house to kick off the night, because his house was located near the center of the neighborhood, and because Polly, as the eldest of our group, could chaperone us. Sometimes I got the feeling that Perry was a bit reluctant to trick-or-treat as well, but like me, he suffered in silence – plus we all knew that badger had a sweet tooth.
This little story begins there – as it always did. Our parents dropped us off at the Settson's place on the way to a Halloween party at Dad's precinct.
"Just be careful, okay?" said our Dad, nervous as he always was at this time of year. This made "Stay close to the rest of the group-"
"Stay on the sidewalks, don't go down alleyways," Carla interrupted.
"Don't confront TP'ers; report them." I chimed in.
"Check the best before date on the candy wrappers," said Carla.
"Brush our teeth once we get home," I finished.
"Okay…" Dad's tail twitched behind the driver's seat. "Is there anything I'm missing?"
"Dad, we'll be fine," Carla groaned.
"Honey, we're going to be late," Mom said.
"Okay, hon," Dad pulled himself back into the car. "Take care!"
And with that, they left
Polly and Perry were already there of course. Polly was already dressed as Moolan. with that ancient Pandarin warrior getup. I hope I don't sound specist, but badgers don't really wear that look that well.
Perry was more sensibly dressed as a skeleton, complete with a mask with patterning that looked like a badger skull.
Ivy Necker was there too. She and Carla were best friends. Ivy was dressed as an angel. Now, she wore her costume better – having her halo up extra high helped.
Not long after we arrived, Wayne Liu arrived. He was the outlier in our group. His family had only moved to Zootopia a few months ago. Still, he and Perry had gotten along almost instantly; they both liked their trading cards. He came dressed as Furkenstein's Monster.
I was dressed as a police officer. Given my dad and aunt's line of work, I figured "why not?" Carla went with a generic mummy costume.
The beginning of our route went by easily enough. It was about five houses in that we noticed Wayne seemed to be getting the biggest pieces of candy. I knew pandas were considered cute, but come on!
Anyway, like I was saying, we didn't see much in the way of anything unusual. Perry had drawn up a plan where we'd "spiral out" of the neighborhood, covering as many houses as we could.
Our neighborhood was located in northern Savanna Central. We didn't have any of those famous rich-boy homes that gave out mega-size candy. Perry didn't mind that. He figured that we'd make up for it by hitting as many houses as we could.
Perry's strategy was paying off. We were getting a major haul as we neared the outskirts of the neighborhood, near the old Dr. Fang's Candy factory. The place had been abandoned for a while now. A few years later, it'd be leveled and replaced with a shopping mall. But for now, we were getting close to the fence surrounding the factory.
Now, we were passing the entrance to an alleyway when I heard a noise. I looked down the alley and saw a white mass quiveringly make its way towards us.
"Gh-ghost!" said Wayne.
"Nah," I said. "It's some kid in a bedsheet. See?" The mass came forward. Sure enough, it was a mammal, hidden underneath a white bedsheet – complete with holes cut for the eyes. She had a metal bucket dangling under her sheet, and a pair of sharp-clawed paws was visible underneath. From the shape of the muzzle under the sheet, I figured she was a wolf or some other canid.
"S-sorry I scared you," said the 'ghost'. No doubt about it. It was a young girl's voice. "I-I'm just kinda lost here."
"Lost?" said Ivy. "How?"
"Well… I… I'm not used to this neighborhood. I only moved in a while ago. M-my Mom said not to go past the tobacconist's, but I think I passed it without knowing.
"Tobacconist's?" said Carla. "You must really be lost then. No tobacco shops 'round as far as I know…"
"What do you know 'bout where you live?" said Polly. "Any landmarks, anything like that?"
"Well, I live in this big, big tower…" said the girl. "Whole lot of towers there. I've never lived so high up before."
"Tower?" said Wayne.
"Must be a high-rise," I said.
"Which high-rise?" groaned Ivy. "There's like a dozen of 'em."
"Hang on…" said Carla, turning to the girl. "Did all these towers look alike?"
"Yeah…" the 'ghost' nodded.
"Might be Happytown then." said Carla.
"Happytown?" I said.
"Sure," said Carla. "Dad's driven us by there once or twice, remember?"
"D-don't think it was Happytown," said the girl. "I think it was… It was Badgerdale Road!"
"Great!" said Wayne. But the rest of us were confused.
"I don't know where that is," said Ivy.
"I don't either," said Polly.
"Not me," I said.
We stood there for a moment. Then Carla piped up.
"I know. Let's keep trick-or-treating. For each house we hit, we'll ask where Badgerdale Road is."
"Great!" said Perry. That badger loved his candy.
"Come on, uh… What's your name?" Carla grabbed the wolf's hand.
"M-Mina. Mina Damara," said the ghost.
"We'll find your home, Mina," assured Carla, "Just you wait!
We kept going on with Perry's original plan, but I think he was a little miffed that we lost valuable time asking for Badgerdale Road.
Still, our haul was already pretty impressive. But I think one of the highlights of that stretch of the journey was in Mina's attitude. As we hit up house after house, she seemed to get nervous when we hit up one house and a bison opened the door, but taking in all the parents fawning at how cute we all were seemed to pleasantly surprise her.
Polly, Wayne, and I had given her some of our candy to even things out, which I bet also helped. Nuthin' like Halloween candy to cheer a mammal up!
Anyway, we were crossing the street between blocks when Mina nervously walked up to me, pulling up her sheet so she could look at me. It turned out that she wasn't a wolf, but a lycaon – or painted dog.
"Why are they being so nice to us?" she said.
"Who? The houses?" I said.
"Yeah… and Ivy," Mina lowered her voice so the giraffe couldn't hear us.
"They just think we're cute," said Carla, having overheard the first part of our conversation.
"What about Ivy?" I said, lowering my voice.
"Well…" she said. "My parents always said that prey hated chompers like us."
"Chompers?" said Carla. "You mean predators?"
"Well…" Mina whispered again. "That's what they called us."
"My Mom says that's offensive," said Ivy. She must've heard us.
"Offensive?" It sounded like Mina didn't know the word.
Polly must've got that impression, too. "It means it hurts," she said.
"M-my parents sounded hurt," said Mina, sheets seeming to sag.
"It must've been during that whole mess about the Night Howlers," Polly whispered to me and Carla.
Us kids didn't really talk about the Night Howler Panic. For Carla and me, our Dad had gotten really paranoid and had sent us and our Mom out of town so we'd be safe. He was really relieved when it turned out to be our Mayor making predators go savage. I don't think I've ever seen him more happy than when he picked us up at the train station.
Because Dad and Aunt Freida were cops, we pretty much learned about it through osmosis. Polly and Perry had learned of it because their Mom was a lawyer. For the most part though, predator kids hardly ever heard from their parents about the whole mess – probably figured it was too much for us kids to take.
"I-I don't see that many pred cops…" said Mina. "Why are you dressed like one, Ian?"
"Oh, this?" I gestured to my policemammal costume. "I guess I picked it 'cause my dad and aunt are cops."
"They are?" said Mina. "I heard there were pred cops, but I never saw 'em in my neighborhood. It sounds like you've got your own heroes right in the family."
"Heroes?"
"Trick-or-treat!" yelled Wayne and Perry. We'd just hit the first house on the next block. Our discussion paused there. We hit the next house after that. This time, we hit the jackpot with the old mink that answered the door.
"Badgerdale Road?" she said, smiling at us. "Sure I know it. It's about three blocks thataway…" She pointed down the street. "…and about six blocks north."
"Thanks!" I said.
Over a few quiet objections from Perry, we skipped the rest of the houses on the block and made our way north. The houses seemed to become older before just dropping off. There in front of us, was a thickly wooded stretch of land. Through the darkness, we could see the ground was peppered with litter. Flock Avenue, the road we'd been following up until that point, continued past that point, but curved sharply.
"Think this is it?" said Wayne, a little nervous.
"I-I think so…" said Mina. "I-I kinda recognize that house with the flat roof," she gestured to a house that matched that description. "But I don't remember all this…"
"Looks like we'll just have to keep moving forward," said Polly, taking a deep breath in.
So we moved into the woods, staying on Flock Street as it curved to the left. The woods only seemed to get thicker as we moved in.
"Hopefully we're getting close." Perry was beginning to shiver.
"Hang on…" said Carla
We'd just hit a T-junction. We looked up at the accompanying stop sign. Atop it were "FLOCK AVE. N" and "BADGERDALE RD."
"This is it…" said Wayne.
"I don't see any towers," said Polly.
"M-maybe we need to go further," I said, and we began to make our way down Badgerdale Road. The woods only became thicker and thicker, and things only grew darker, save for the intermittent streetlights overhead – at least one of which didn't seem to be working properly.
"Let us know if you see anything, Ivy," said Carla.
"Got it," said Ivy, raising her neck to its full height.
"What did you mean by heroes?" said Carla.
"Well…" said Mina. "I mean, I read Dick Mousey strips, and I've read a lot of adventure novels. I-I guess I'm just in'erested in what makes a hero. Who are your favorite heros?"
"Favorite heroes?" I muttered. "Well… I guess I like some of those James Bun movies – the ones with Jack Savage?"
"Yeah, he's cool," said Wayne.
"Always keeps his head when things go crazy," I said.
"I go for Moolan myself," said Polly, "But you probably figured that out already. She's good at thinking on her hooves."
"I like my Outback Brooce myself," said Ivy.
"You into Outback Brooce?" said Polly.
"He's got guts," said Ivy. "He always finds the treasure, and always gets the bad guy. What more do I need to say?"
"I like Vernon Vulf," said Perry. "Gotta respect a guy who can make a helicopter out of school supplies."
"Never could figure out those teen genius-type shows," said Carla. "I'm gonna go with Cynthia Trotter. That vixen doesn't let things get in her way! Solves mysteries and looks stylish doin' it!"
"That's neat…" said Mina. "B-but what would you say they all have in common?"
"What do you mean?" said Polly.
"I mean, they, the cops, the firefighters…" Mina continued. "What makes them all heroes?"
"Oh?" said Polly. "You tell her, Ian. Your dad's the cop."
I was about to point out that Carla's dad was a cop too, but I didn't want to disappoint Mina. "I guess… Well… My dad always said he joined the force 'cause he liked going out and just helping mammals."
"What's it like?" said Mina. "For him, I mean?"
"Well, I'm not sure…" I said. "Dad doesn't really talk about it that much. He says he always leaves his job at the door."
"Oh…" said Mina.
"What about Judy?" said Carla.
"Oh, yeah," I said before turning back to Mina. "Once, I met Judy – she works with my Dad and Aunt at Precinct 1. She said that she pretty much went into it for the same reason Dad did – to 'make the world a better place'."
"That's it?" said Mina. "Nothing about fearlessness or anything like that?"
"Well, that's not just it," I said. "I asked her if she ever felt afraid when dealing with the Night Howler Case. She said that she did, but that it wasn't about not being afraid; it's about doing the right thing even when you are afraid."
I paused. Mina was rapt with attention.
I broke out laughing. "Yeah, that's kinda corny. Judy's like that when you meet her."
"I don't think it's corny," said Mina. "I kinda wish I could meet her now."
"Hey, guys?" said Ivy. "I see light over there."
We turned to see a faint light amongst the trees. It looked like it was moving.
"Maybe we can ask whoever's there where Mina's tower is," said Wayne.
We moved off the road and began to amble through the woods. For a while, it felt like the light was moving away from us, but eventually, we got close enough that with my better night vision, I could see two figures. One looked like a canid, the other an antelope.
"Excuse me!" Ivy called out.
The light stopped. The two figures turned in our direction, then began moving away.
"Hey!" I yelled, and Carla and I ran after them, with Mina close behind.
Us tigers are fast runners, which helped us get close to them. As we got closed in, we noticed that they were both carrying bulky-looking duffel bags.
"Could you tell us where the nearest high-rise is?" Carla panted.
The canid's jaw dropped. He was obviously a wolf, or maybe a coyote, with dark grey fur. "What?"
The antelope looked our way and growled. "Beat it!" he hissed.
"Look, our friend needs help," I said. "If you could just tell us where the nearest high-rise is, we'll be on our way."
The antelope didn't seem that sympathetic, but the wolf piped up.
"What kind of high-rise?"
"Burt!" the antelope yelled at his companion.
"What?" said Burt the wolf. "Why not just give him the directions and be on our way?"
As he said this, he slung his bag over his back, and something fell out.
"Here, I'll get…" I reached for the object, but stopped.
There, in the dirt, lay a gun – and not the tranquilizer kind my Dad uses. This was the kind I'd seen in old movies – the kind that my Dad said was illegal.
I looked up at the wolf – who seemed panicked.
Carla noticed the gun too. "Ian…!"
I promptly turned tail and ran, my police costume's cap falling off as we went. Mina was a little ahead of me. Carla had the biggest head start.
"Split up!" Carla yelled, and we scattered.
I didn't know how long I must've run before I stumbled on a tree root and fell over, my muzzle becoming caked with dirt. I got up and looked around me; no sign of the wolf or the antelope.
There was a crumbled brick wall in the distance. Eventually, I began to hear sobbing coming from the wall. I peeked over it and saw Mina, having discarded her sheet, leaning against the wall, crying her eyes out.
"Mina, you alright?" I said, climbing the wall and sitting beside her.
"I-I'm so sorry…" she said. "I never should've brought you out here."
"It's not your fault," I said, putting a paw on her shoulder. "There's no way we could've seen this coming."
"I-I want my mommy…" Mina began crying.
"Mina…" I hugged the lycaon close.
Just then, I heard a twig snap. I peeked over, and there was the wolf and antelope.
"I know one of 'em went this way," said the wolf. "I can smell 'im."
Carp! I thought. If he could track us this far, they'd probably catch us behind the wall.
Only one thing left to do.
"Mina," I whispered. "I'm gonna distract 'em. Once I lead them away, you make a break for it. Try and get back on the road and meet up with the others. If you can't, just go get help."
"B-but, Ian-" she sobbed.
"I'll be fine," I assured. "Besides, heroes do this kinda stuff, right?"
With that, I jumped out over the wall, stood there long enough for the wolf to notice me, then ran.
"Hey!" the wolf began to run after me.
I ran for a long while before looking back. Good. The antelope was after me too. Mina could make her getaway.
However, I soon heard the wolf's pawsteps getting closer, and I soon found myself muzzle-down in the ground. The wolf soon pressed my face into the dirt. I unsheathed my claws and tried to reach him, but he pinned down my arm, and I then felt the antelope's hoof force down my other arm.
The antelope panted. "What do we do now? Donnie ain't gonna like this."
"It's probably too late to get the other kids," panted the wolf. "But if worse comes to worse, we can use kitty here as a hostage."
"Hostage?!" said the antelope.
"Yeah, we'll tie him up and put him in the van, then get rid of him once we're out of city limits."
I tensed up. They wouldn't really kill me, would they?
The antelope sounded panicked as well. "I ain't ready to get a murder rap!"
"We're not gonna kill him," said the wolf. "We'll just drive him out of city limits, then drop him off somewhere on the road. By the time he can reach the cops, we'll be long gone."
"Okay…" said the antelope. "Let's just get out of here. This chill's killing me!"
It was getting chillier and chillier. I felt the wind picking up. Soon, I began to hear laughter; Mina's laughter.
It sounded sweet at first, but something about it felt eerie. The wolf tensed up, but relaxed his hold on my neck and arm. "Where's that coming from?" he murmured, voice thick with fear.
I took the opportunity and forced myself, up, reaching my arm around and scratching his face. As he fell over in pain, I pulled myself free and tried to make a break for it, but the antelope outpaced me and forced me up against a tree.
The wolf stood up, clutching at the scratches I'd inflicted. "Stupid pussy!" he growled as he walked towards me, fangs reflected in the moonlight.
I stared in fright. This was it. I just knew it.
But then…
"Rip Slasher!"
The wolf turned to where the new voice came from, and something bounced off his face and landed on the ground. It turned out to be a trashcan lid.
Before the antelope could react, something grey and black struck him just under the horns, and he fell over.
I looked up and I saw… James Bun?
I couldn't believe it, but sure enough, there was a grey bunny in a tuxedo with Jack Savage's trademark facial stripes, staring down the two criminals, having just flying-kicked the stuffing out of the antelope. I looked to my right, and from the same direction the trashcan lid had flown from, some sort of blue robot… thing was running up to tackle the wolf.
James Bun pulled out a tranq gun and pointed it at the antelope. "ZPD. You're under arrest!"
The sound of a familiar female voice coming from "James's" mouth made me look at "him" again, and sure enough, his physique was more in line with a bunny doe, and where Jack Savage's eyes were blue, this bunny's were purple.
"Judy?!" I sputtered in realization. No doubt about it. This was Judy Hopps.
"Hi, Ian," she said, not taking her eyes off the antelope.
"Alright," said the robot, having handcuffed the wolf behind the back. I got a closer look, and saw that this robot had a pair of long, ear-like antennae extending from the back of its head. A faceplate covered its mouth, and a pair of what looked like thrusters extended from its back. A golden v-fin emanated from its 'helmet'. It looked like a scaled down version of some of the giant robot cartoons Wayne liked.
The robot now looked into one of the duffel bags the wolf had dropped, taking off its helmet to reveal the head of a red fox. "That's attempted kidnapping of a minor, and possession of unregistered firearms," he chuckled. "Anything else to say?"
The wolf just snorted as Judy placed a pair of cuffs on the antelope's wrists.
"What are you doing here?" I said to Judy.
"We were on our way to the Precinct 1 Halloween Party when we caught sight of your friends out by the road," she explained. "Eventually your sister caught up to them and explained the whole thing about the guns."
"Is that Nick Wilde?" I said, gesturing to the fox in the robot costume.
"Got it in one!" chuckled the fox, as he pulled out a radio.
The one time I'd met Judy was when Nick Wilde was still in Police Academy. Dad and Aunt Frieda had mentioned Nick a couple times, but this was the first time I'd met him in the flesh.
Just then, I realized I'd forgotten something. "Mina," I yelled. "Mina, it's okay. You can come out now."
I didn't hear anything.
I called a few more times.
"She might've run somewhere else," said Judy.
"No, I heard her earlier," I said. "She was here a moment ago."
"Maybe I should tell the officers en route about her," said Nick. "Did she tell you her last name?"
"Uh, yeah," I said. "Damara. Mina Damara. She's a lycaon."
Nick paused for a second. "Okay, thanks for that. I'll tell 'em when they get here."
I didn't know why, but something seemed off about the way Nick said that.
Judy must've thought so too. "Nick, what-"
"It's okay, Carrots," he explained. "I'll tell you later."
Judy's head tilted.
Eventually, two bear officers from Precinct 19 came to pick up the wolf and antelope, and we all made our way back to Badgerdale Road, where the rest of our original group was waiting, alongside a tiny fennec dressed as a zombie. Parked in front of the bears' patrol car was a red van.
"You got 'em, then?" said the fennec, in a weirdly deep voice for someone his size.
"Yep," said Judy. "I'll call up the Fangmeyers and tell them Ian and Carla are both alright."
"Ian!" Carla ran up and hugged me. "I'm so glad you're okay!"
Wayne soon joined in the hug. Eventually Perry did too, and soon enough, everyone in our little trick-or-treating group was hugging it out.
Eventually though, Polly pulled back. "Where's Mina?"
Nick burst in before I could say anything. "We've got officers looking for her. I'm sure she's alright."
"Okay…" said Carla.
Judy soon walked up to us, putting away her phone. "Ian? Carla? I just talked to your dad. We're gonna take you to Precinct 19 to get a statement from you kids. Meanwhile, your Dad's gonna get in touch with the rest of your parents and take you all home once we're done. Sound fair?"
"…and Mina?" I asked.
Once again, Nick Wilde burst in. "Once we find her and get her statement, we'll take her home too. There's nothing to worry about."
I noticed Judy's nose twitch as Nick said that. Obviously she thought something was up, same as I did.
"Can't believe it." Wayne patted me on the back. "We were talking about heroes a while ago, now you get saved by a female James Bun and a Bundam!"
Nick Wilde's ears sagged at that. "It's a Hare-ckebein…" he muttered.
"Told ya no one'd get the reference," said the fennec.
"How'd you get those face stripes?" said Ivy, looking at Judy.
"Oh, I have a friend who put me in touch with a good fur dye," said Judy, scratching at her cheek. "Nice costumes, by the way!"
We talked a bit about our costumes, with the fennec letting us into his van. But I noticed Judy and Nick were stepping off the side of the road, and I quietly crept up on them, taking cover around the corner of the van while listening in on their conversation.
"Okay, Nick," said Judy. "What's going on? Why aren't we looking for this Mina girl?"
Nick sighed. "It's like this; back in the day, on this site, there were these big high-rise public housing complexes here, right? Like Happytown?"
What Mina had said about living in a high-rise hit me again.
Meanwhile, Judy tilted her head. "Yeah…"
"It was called Blissville," said Nick. "Like Happytown, it housed a lot of predators, and the city began to let it rot, and along with Happytown, this led to the housing riots about thirty years ago. Only in Blissville, the fallout from the riots was so bad that mammals moved out of here like crazy, and the city eventually decided to tear Blissville down – they considered it an embarrassment. The same thing nearly happened with Happytown."
"Okay…" said Judy. "But what's this got to do with-"
"I'm getting there," said Nick. "After the riots, there was a bit of a scandal about two lycaons found dead behind one of the buildings; a mother taking her pup out trick-or-treating. It turned out that a couple of prey supremacists had killed them in retaliation for the riots. While the culprits were found, the father never recovered – he hanged himself a year later. The scandal was one of the reasons the T.A.M.E. Act never passed."
Judy's eyes bulged. "Nick, are you saying that-"
Nick gave a grave look at Judy. "The pup's name was Mina Damara."
James Bun is obviously a reference to James Bond, as is Moolan to Mulan. A more obscure reference would be the Hare-ckebein, a reference to the Huckebein from the Super Robot Wars video game series.