Chapter 1: Ancestral Accessories
David Anthony, Anteater archeologist, had just found the ultimate artifact for an animal obsessed with prehistoric species. Out in the deserts to the south west of Zootopia, he was combing the dig sites of everyone else in his field along this one strip of sand just off of the highway. As he walked through the heat, he contemplated just packing up and going home. As an Anteater, he may enjoy the heat of Sahara Square, but this was just ridiculous, extreme did not even begin to describe the heat lazily rolling off the sun at that moment. Just as he turned around, he saw a yellow light shining from one of the dunes.
When he approached, he expected another archeologist who had lost their way, not a speck glittering amber to poke out of the ground. Perplexed he started carefully digging through the soft sand. When he managed to get a little ways in, he saw the most peculiar creature trapped in the amber. It was furless except for its head, where it seemed to grow out like a brown lion's mane, the creature had lightly tan skin, but it was wearing a weird, black, second skin over the chest, similar to a wetsuit, but only for the upper body. It looked very lean, with a very small layer of fat on its body. Realizing what he found, David lept up in joy. Every night spent in a tent, every the hot day in the desert, every drop of sweat, every injury was all worth it for this moment. He very nearly collapsed from the excitement, or maybe it was dehydration, he couldn't tell.
He sprinted back to his truck and shifted it into gear. He drove at a breakneck speed so that the sands wouldn't shift and swallow the specimen entirely. David fully excavated the creature in little time. The creature was larger than he was, about the size of a tall wolf or a short bear, however, the amber it was encased in was round enough to be rolled onto his truck bed with the help of ramp, designed for this occasion. After he secured his artifact with tarp and ropes, he set out for Zootopia, daydreaming about prestige and massive amounts of wealth that would be in his near future. He never noticed the stone that flew up from the road, creating a faint crack in the amber.
Three days later...
It wasn't often that the Zootopia Museum of Natural History received a new piece, especially one as important as this. David Anthony was practically vibrating in anticipation. The museum had decided to celebrate this by throwing a party, but it was also celebrating the complete decryption of another piece of history, the ancient Black Tablets, a set of twenty carbon monoliths with strange symbols on them that have challenged historians for years. The function was twofold, the museum could reveal the rough translation of the Tablets, while also showing what the mysterious authors looked like when they were made, dating all the way back to the savage period. The museum choose to ask the ZPD if they would be willing to police the function. They also booked a local orchestra to provide entertainment for the guests. It was all very prim and proper, a tad bit too uptight for David's taste, but he didn't care. The Anteater was just happy to be there. After an hour of small talk for the guest to Zootopia's finest classical music, the time had come for the main events of the evening. As David stepped up to the podium he felt everyone's eyes on him.
"Good evening everybody, my name is David Anthony, and I have found an invaluable find to uncover the full history of our planet," he said, slowly getting more comfortable with speaking to such an audience of influential people. "During my travels, I have spent many years trying to learn who the creators of the Black Tablets were, learning about the species that was dominant during our savage period. It has all led up to today! While combing the sands of the Angel Desert, I stumbled upon something that I would like to show you all tonight," he walked over to the covered amber, ripping the cloth off to the sound of a gasping audience, "Behold! Those who came before, the creators of the Black Tablets, the Ancestrals!" He shouted while the audience raucously applauded. No one saw that the crack had only grown in the three day journey to the city. Mayor Lionheart took David's hand and posed for the cameras, with the newly dubbed "Ancestral" in the background.
Taking the podium, Mayor Lionheart calmed the crowd saying that they could examine it in further detail during the after party in the new exhibit where it would become a permanent fixture. It was taken off the stage by two polar bear stagehands carrying it through the back rooms to not be mobbed by the frenzy of prehistory enthusiasts.
"The next part of this evening is the decryption and translation of the Black Tablets," he began, silencing everyone, many of whom had forgotten the reason they had actually come here. "After years of work, we believe we have translated the strange symbols on the tablets to be understandable to us, and as it turns out, these Ancestrals really loved music, so much so that they built a monument in its name. The songs inscribed on these tablets will be performed by the Zootopia Chamber Orchestra, enjoy and good night!" They both walked off as the orchestra took over, preparing for their show.
As the two bears transported the fossilized Ancestral, a small rabbit girl followed them, she didn't give a damn about some old tablets, when this was much more interesting. She trailed behind them, sticking to corners, when she leaned around the turn she saw the Ancestral just sitting there, with no polar bears in sight,
'Probably outside smoking' she thought. She crept forward towards the fossilized creature until she stood in front of the looming amber. She couldn't help herself and reached a paw forward to touch the cold gem.
Before it fell to the side.
Onto a steel girder from an old industrial exhibit.
It was like watching the slowest car crash she had ever seen, the amber itself shattered with a massive crash, letting the creature within to flop onto the floor. She stood there, trying to keep her panic level from rising any further than it had already. She fumbled around in her pockets for her taser. With trembling paws she held it toward the immobile ancestral. The sound of applause echoing in the halls made her jump, and instinctually jab the active taser in its torso.
The first thing that Matthew Romano felt was a stinging pain shooting through his entire body. His arms shot out, one hand hit metal, but he felt the other smack into something small and furry with a yelp, and the pain halted. He cracked his eyes open and immediately shut them, blinded by the bright LEDs overhead. Once his vision adjusted, he tried again, jumping up to try and get his bearings. The world flooded with sounds: barks, growls, roars, and music, horrible, horrible music. He could barely recognize the song they were attempting to play, ACDC's "Back in Black." He staggered towards the sounds of civilization, back in the direction of the auditorium. He didn't turn to see the crying rabbit lying on the concrete in a daze.
Eventually Matthew found his way back to the main stage, miraculously without encountering a single animal. As he looked around the backstage area, he noticed an electric guitar, hooked up to what looked like a small cube amp, 'as long as it stops this awful train wreck,' he thought. Without a moment to lose, he stepped out, expecting an orchestra of middle schoolers practicing for the first time, not a bunch of literal animals playing for an audience full of other animals.
"Well… that's new…" he muttered as the whole room stared at him in sheer amazement. The band stopped playing as he set his newly acquired instrument and amp down and strolled over to the bear at the drum set, he grabbed the spare set of drumsticks and started to pound out the proper beat for the song. He made a motion to repeat it, the bear just nodded dumbly. The next item on his list was a microphone for the vocals, he grabbed the nearest choral mic and just dragged it over to his guitar and amp. After a test snap to check if the mic was warm.
"This is how you play "Back in Black," was all he said before pointing at the drummer who began to crank out the percussion, while he switched his guitar on and turned the volume up to, what he assumed to be, ten. The whole room was waiting to see what exactly he would do. As he got further and further in the song, everyone started to come out of their shock, and by the time he was at the last chorus, the hall was starting to panic and shout for ZPD, not that Matthew could understand any of it. He did pick up on the sounds of a bunch of unsettled (to say the least) animals. His gut was saying that it was time to run, and it was seldom wrong. To close out the song he smashed his guitar and sprinted back the way he had come from. 'Luck seems to be on my side today…' he thought as he spied a fire exit. Slamming both hands on the door, he sprinted out into the night, looking for a place to hide until the heat dies down.
Officers Nicolas "Slick Nick" P. Wilde and Judy Hopps were just about dying from boredom. They were assigned this job after Nick decided it would be a good idea to barge in on Chief Bogo.
Without knocking.
While he was watching a Gazelle video.
Needless to say they weren't exactly in his good graces at the moment. So until the Chief decides their transgression has been paid, they would always be assigned to duties like this. They were going to start another round of rock, paper, scissors, when they heard the screams and shouts from inside the auditorium. Jumping into action they burst in and saw a weird creature on stage smashing a guitar as it sprinted away into one of the wings.
"What the hell was that!?" Nick exclaimed.
"Whatever it is, it's caused all of these people to panic, so let's get after it," Judy replied over the roar of the crowd. They both pulled out their tranquilizer guns and got moving, while calling for back up. As they turned the corner to get back stage, they heard a door slam open down the corridor. When they reach the open fire exit, they catch a glimpse of it sprinting down a back alley.
"Oh shit!" the usually calm Nick muttered to his partner.
"What is it?"
"That's the path to Porcelain Bull territory, their boss has a major obsession with everything ancient, we need to get him darted fast, or we'll lose him for good."
The dynamic duo seemed to have similar luck to the creature they were chasing, as the creature took a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end.
"ZPD! Freeze!" they both yelled.
To Matthew, he just heard a yip and a squeak from behind him. He turned to see a rabbit and a fox, pointing what look like tiny guns at him.
"Now that's just adorable," he muttered, "tiny guns for tiny paws." He saw them tense, and he ducked out of the way of two darts that embedded themselves into the wall behind him. "Tiny, deadly, dart guns. Right." He jumped back up and grabbed one of the trashcan lids and a scrap wood plank from the junk left in the alley. The two officers were reloading their dart guns on the other side of the alley. 'If at all possible, i would rather not need to be hunted for assaulting a police officer today, so plan B, disorient them, make them fearful, just get them to back down,' he thought. So he choose to take a tactic from the vikings of yore. He smacked his shield and shouted at them, so loud that his own ears were starting to hurt.
To no effect.
Realizing his mistake, he put up his guard just in time to feel two darts smack into the junk shield.
'Plan A it is then, just bulrush until I'm in melee range, they can't hit that hard, right?' His shield charge was successful at getting in range, that's where everything went wrong. He didn't realize that this was his first mistake of taking on the only bunny cop in the ZPD, who has taken down an adult rhino with one kick, at close range. His next mistake was forgetting about the resourcefulness of Nick Wilde, and finally, underestimating them when they are together. When he got close, he saw the bunny jump to kick him, naturally he blocked it. He wasn't expecting the kick to throw the shield back down the alley, or the sudden numbness in his arm. Time slowed down for him, when he noticed the fox had a clear, point blank shot at his chest.
'Welp… I'm boned.' he thought as the tranquilizer dart hit him dead center. 'This is all your fault Helios, I will find you, and rip... you a new... one,' he thought as his world was painted black.