EPISODE ONE: A GLOW IN THE FOREST
RAINFOREST DISTRICT, 10 YEARS AGO
The silence of the night was broken by an ear-splitting roar. A sound that hadn't been heard on Earth by hundreds of years.
An arctic vixen came out from the dense vegetation in a small clearing between the tall trees. Her once snow white fur was now covered with mud and some bleeding cuts.
She took a break from running to catch her breath. Her sky-blue eyes went wide as the thing chasing her roared again.
It was getting closer.
Panic was beginning to have the better on her: she was lost in the middle of that green maze, her legs and lungs aching from the running. Once again, she dove into the forest.
She could barely see the ground before her, as the thick foliage of the tall trees let a small amount of moonlight break through it. Another cry from the creature let her know that it was gaining ground.
When she had almost given up all hopes, she spotted it. A warm, glimmering light was shining just a few meters away. The vixen knew exactly what it was: her only chance to get away from there alive.
With nothing to loose, she sprinted toward it.
RAINFOREST DISTRICT, PRESENT DAY
Emmitt Otterton loved hiking. Especially in that place.
Although most of the Rainforest District was made up of building which only recreated the environment of said forests, the most inner part was an actual natural park, the 'Forest of Dean', with real, tall trees, which extended for kilometres.
Being a florist, the otter loved being surrounded by this amount of vegetation,away from the noisy city and the crowded streets of Zootopia.
«Dad, come over here!» a voice brought him abruptly back to reality. Standing fifty meters in front of him, was an otter kit, waving his paws to gain his father's attention.
«I'm coming, Ted!» replied Emmit.
Ted was the younger of his two sons. His other son, Olly, and his wife, Octavia, had stayed home, as Olly had come down with a flu the day before.
«Look what I found, Dad!» Ted exclaimed proudly, pointing at something on the ground before him.
When Emmitt was close enough, he finally spotted his son's discovery: it was a small, bright-green lizard. The otter had never seen anything like that before: from the sides of its body, two fin-like protuberances sprout out. Were they... wings?
The small critter chirped, apparently not scared of the pair of mammals.
«What the heck are you supposed to be?» Emmitt asked the lizard, which only replied with another light squeak.
«Can I touch it?» Ted asked to his father, a pleading expression painted on his face.
«Hmm...I don't know, I think is better if we leave it be.»
Ted's ears lowered in disappointment. «Can I at least take a picture of it?»
«Yes, that sound fine to me» Emmitt replied with a smile.
With renewed excitement, Ted produced a smartphone from a pocket of his shorts, and activated the camera of the device. The kit pressed the round button on the lower half of the screen, and the device produced a small flash of light, taking a picture of the small lizard.
After that, the lizard behaviour suddenly changed from calm to agitated, checking its surroundings with small jerks of its head for a few seconds, before taking flight and quickly disappearing from the view of the amazed otters.
«Whoa! That was awesome!» Ted said excited.
«Yeah, it was. I wonder what startled it...» Emmit replied with a point of concern in his voice.
«It probably was just the flash»Ted said, shrugging his shoulders.
Then, a low, menacing growl came from the bushes behind them.
They both turned around, and what they saw made clear it hadn't been the flash to scare the lizard, but rather the imposing, threatening creature that was standing in front of them.
Their faces wore a mask of pure terror, whit their mouth open in a silent scream; the fear had paralysed both mammals, who stared as the mouth of the creature gaped, revealing blood-stained, sharp teeth.
PRECINCT ONE, TWO DAY LATER, 7:00 AM
Judy once again was greeted by Clawhauser upon entering the ZPD headquarters.
"Hi Judy!" the overweight cheetah said cheerfully while munching a donuts.
"Hello Ben." She politely replied, although she was missing the positive attitude she had sported a few days earlier, when she had walked in the precinct for the first time.
In fact, she looked somewhat depressed, one could tell that by her droopy ears.
"Hey, is everything alright?" Benjamin asked, sincerely concerned.
"Yeah, sure. I'd love to chat with you, but I'm late for the briefing." The bunny replied, sounding not convincing at all.
In fact, everything had gone wrong during the past week.
Judy had finally fulfilled her dream, managing to become the first rabbit cop ever in Zootopia, only for her boss, Chief Bogo, to put her on parking duty every single day since her arrival.
Every. Single. Day.
Sure, her family was glad she was only a meter maid, but that was not what Judy had been working so hard to accomplish.
That, plus her noisy neighbors and her colleagues being quite cold with her, had began to slowly crack her determination and belief that 'everyone could be everything.'
Like every other morning, she entered the bullpen and sat in a chair way too big for her.
Chief Bogo arrived shortly after, hushing the noisy welcome given him by the officers.
The buffalo then proceeded to assign the daily task to the cops.
Judy, however, wasn't paying attention: she kept her head down, staring at the floor with resignation, ready to once again ride her 'joke-mobile' around the city.
That's why her ears perked up in surprise when Bogo assigned her to a missing mammal case.
But something was off: she knew that by the challenging smug spreading on Bogo's face, and by what he told her as he handed her the case file: "Since you like chasing impossible dreams, this should be in your wheelhouse."
Judy at first couldn't understand what he had meant with that.
She realized it when she read the words 'scary monster' on the report.
SAVANNA CENTRAL, 9:00
"I can't believe it. Bogo has given me this case only to make me feel even more useless! Because it is so hopeless that no one else would have accepted it! How can someone be so..." Judy's thoughts proceeded describing the Chief with some pretty colorful expressions, before she finally arrived to her destination, a small house a few blocks away from the precinct.
Judy rang the bell.
The plate under it read 'Otterton'.
"Officer Hopps, ZPD" She announced to the door.
After a few seconds, it opened.
Behind it, stood a female otter, a little shorter than Judy; her eyes were red from the prolonged crying.
"What can I do for you, Officer?" Asked Octavia Otterton.
"I'm hear for your husband. I'm on the case."
When Octavia heard those words, a big smile spread on her face and her eyes shone with joy.
"Oh, thank you!" The otter shout while hugging Judy, who couldn't help but forget for a moment everything that had happened the previous days and feeling that maybe, even if only for that otter, she was making the world a better place.
Mrs. Otterton lead her inside, and made her sit on the sofa in the living room.
In that room, were two more mammals: one was a kit, who Judy recognized from the photos on the case file to be Ted, Emmitt's son and the last person to have seen him.
The second one, however, she didn't know who she was: she was an otter as well, younger than Octavia, probably the same age as Judy's; she sported a white dyed lock of fur on top of her head.
"Officer Hopps, these are my son, Ted, and my sister, Abby." Mrs. Otterton introduced them.
"Nice to meet you both. I'm Judy" Judy replied smiling.
"Are you here to find my Dad?" Ted asked shyly.
"That's right. So, I know you were the last person to see him. Why don't you tell me what happened?"
The kit nodded :"Well, we were hiking in the Forest of Dean, me and my Dad love doing that. At one point we stopped to take picture of this weird-looking lizard, who then flew away! Then when we turned around, there was this big, scary monster, with a huge mouth filled with teeth, and then we ran away. Dad hid me under the roots of this huge tree, and then ran away with the monster chasing him. I remained hidden for a long time, waiting for Dad to come back. Except he never did. A couple of rangers found me and brought me home, but they wouldn't believe me about the monster."
When Ted finished his story, he looked on the verge of crying again.
"You believe me Judy, don't you?" He asked, his voice shaking.
Judy hesitated a moment, than replied with a: "Of course I do."
As had previously happened with Octavia, Ted too seemed to find some relief in Judy's kind words.
He sprinted from toward Judy and hugged her, and the bunny gently stroke the kit on the head.
Mrs. Otterton smiled softly at his son's happiness, but she had to talk with Judy without Ted hearing.
"Ted, why don't you go upstairs to check on your brother?"
"Yes Mom." He replied, parting from Judy and running towards the stairs.
Mrs. Otterton watched him leaving, then sighed softly: "You don't believe him, am I right?"
"Trust me, I'll do all what I can to bring your husband back."
"That's not what I asked you." Octavia said with more firm voice.
"Well, flying lizards, monsters... Probably your son just made up a fantastic story to repress a traumatic memory..." Judy tried to explain to the otter.
"I mean, there are no evidence to support your son's story."
"That's were you are wrong, Officer."
For the first time, Mrs. Otterton's sister, Abby, spoke up.
She unlocked a phone and showed a picture to Judy.
A confused expression appeared on Judy's face: on the screen there was the image portraying a weird, green lizard.
With wings.
"You see, I am a herpetologist. It's my job to study reptiles. And I've never seen anything like this before." Abby explained.
Judy didn't know what to think. So there was some truth in what Ted had told her.
There was only one way to find out what had really happened.
"I need to go to the Forest of Dean. I would like you to come with me, I could use your competence, Miss..." Judy stopped, realizing now she didn't know Abby's surname.
"Maitland. But you can call me Abby. And sure, I'll do anything to help find Emmitt." Abby replied confident.
"Good. One more thing..." Judy's voice trailed off with embarrassment "Do you happen to have a car, too?"
ZOOTOPIA METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY, 10:00 AM
The building dedicated to the Department of Evolutionary Zoology of the ZMU was crowded with both students and teachers.
In the midst of the crowd, two mammals, a red fox and a small fennec fox, were heading inside, towards the former's office, chatting along the way, when they heard a sudden shout coming from behind them.
"Professor Wilde! Professor Wilde!"
Upon hearing his name, the professor Nicholas Wilde, turned around, looking for the source of such commotion. His green eyes spotted a young red panda, wearing a pork pie hat, fingerless gloves and a button up vest over his shirt.
A silver ring could be seen hanging from a chain around his neck and he was carrying a cross body bag.
"That would be me. How can I help you?" Nick asked.
The fox wore a light green Pawaiian shirt and a striped dark blue necktie, a quite unusual outfit for a professor.
"Connor Temple. I am one of your students." The red panda introduced himself, still catching his breath after the run.
"And... why don't I recognize you?" Nick asked, puzzled.
"Well... you never showed up for any of your seminars, actually..." Connor explained.
The professor looked at his fennec friend rising one brow, and the shorter mammal simply shook his head, chuckling.
"Well then, why don't you join us?" Nick proposed with some embarrassment creeping in his voice.
The trio reached professor Wilde's office shortly after.
Inside, fossils and skeletons of prehistoric animals occupied almost every corner of the room, some of them being lined up on the walls, others on the desk, and some even hanging from the ceiling.
"Don't touch anything." Nick admonished Connor.
"Oh, I almost forgot: this is Finnick Hart, my lab assistant." He added, gesturing toward the fennec fox.
"Nice to meet you, kid." Finnick greeted Connor.
"Nice to meet you too." Connor replied, shaking his paw.
"So, Connor, why were you looking for me?" Nick asked, getting straight to the point.
"Because of this!"
The red panda produced a magazine from his bag.
The front page read in bold, capital letters: "MONSTER ATTACK IN RAINFOREST DISTRICT!" with the photo of what looked like some sort of big paw print below it.
"Are you serious, Red?" the professor asked Connor, incredulity mixing with annoyance on his face.
However, Connor seemingly failed to notice that, as he went on: "Yes! Many witnesses affirm to have heard weird noises and a kid even stated that he and his father were attacked by it! Look at the picture!"
"Wait a minute... was it you that sent me a dissertation about alien creating life on Earth a few days ago?!" Nick interrupted the student.
"Yeah! Did you like it?"
"Judge by yourself, kid!" Finnick replied grinning, while pointing at a nearby bin, who was filled with some suspiciously familiar sheets of paper.
Nick sighed :"Look Connor, what I do here is trying to solve what I like to call 'Evolutionary puzzles'. For example, look at that fossil - he pointed at a rock on which was clearly visible the shape of a big fish - It's a Sarcopterygian. That species disappeared from the planet for about 70 million years, before unexplainably being found again by some fishers in the Pawcific Ocean. That is a mystery worth investigating, Red. Not some... tabloid hoax." He concluded pointing at the journal.
"I'm sure that your wife would have thought this was worth investigating." Connor retorted, be he immediately regretted doing so, as soon as he saw the upset look on the professor's face.
"Helen was a serious scientist, and not some gullible fool who wasted her time chasing fictional monsters!" Nick replied angrily, clenching his fists.
"I...I apologise, professor. I'll let myself out." Connor replied ashamed after a few seconds of awkward silence.
He had already crossed the doorstep when he added: "I just thought it was worth checking out, since the Forest of Dean isn't too far away".
At those words, Nick's ears perked up.
'The Forest of Dean?! This isn't possible...' Nick thought, claerly shook by the revelation.
Connor didn't miss the sudden change in Nick's behaviour, and so did Finnick.
"If we leave now, we can be there in half an hour." The fennec fox stated, wearing his black jacket and already reaching a confused, yet excited Connor outside the office, with professor Wilde following them shortly after.
In less than ten minutes, the tree mammals were heading toward the Rainforest District aboard of Finnick's van.
FOREST OF DEAN, 11:00 AM
In the middle of the vegetation, two figures were walking slowly, carefully scanning their surrondings.
Judy and Abby had been searching the forest for any clue about Mr. Otterton whereabouts for almost an hour by now, without any luck.
"I'm sorry. This feels like I'm wasting your time." Abby sighed.
"Don't worry, this is waaay better than parking duty." The bunny replied, smiling softly to the otter.
However, she had to admit that her moral was really low: they had no idea from where to start looking, and the forest was utterly big.
The fact that was constantly raining since the pair got there wasn't helping either.
'Am I really doing this? A monster hunt?! And even if it's real, what am I going to do?' Judy thought to herself.
Sure, she had her tranq gun with her, but she wasn't sure how much aid it could have provided.
She tried to shrug off those thoughts and instead focusing on the only certain fact: a mammal was missing, and was her duty to do all she could to find him.
"Judy, I think you might wanna see this..." Abby called out, a scared note in her voice.
She was a few meters ahead of the bunny, staring at something on the trunk of a three, on the side opposite to the one Judy was facing.
Judy went around the three, and followed Abby's gaze upward, until her eyes met the source of the otter's concern: scratched on the cortex there were some huge clawmarks; so huge, in fact, that no predator she knew of could have produced them.
A sense of dread began to rise inside of her.
All her sense were on full alert, and she had to fight the instinct to run as far as she could from that place.
A sudden CRACK drew her attention: her fine ears located the source of the sound to be somewhere in the bushes on her right.
Judy quickly extracted her weapon and pointed toward the place where the sound had originated.
"Stay behind me. And get ready to run." She ordered to Abby.
The intense rain reduced Judy's field of vision, but her ears told her that something was closing by.
She could hear the paws stepping on the ground before her, as well as some rustling in the vegetation.
Her heart was racing.
"Officer Hopps, ZPD. Show yourself! I am armed and I won't hesitate to shoot!" She shouted above the poundings of the raindrops.
At first, for what felt like ages, no answer came.
Then a voice came from the bushes.
"wow, chill out Officer, will ya?"
Judy lowered her gun, and both her and Abby breathed a sigh of relief, as three mammals came into view: a fennec fox, the one who had spoken, a red fox and a red panda.
The red fox looked at the two with curiosity and a smug smile on his face.
"What an honor! Being held at gunpoint by the first bunny officer in person,Judy Hopps."
"How do you know me?" Judy asked warily.
"I watch the news. I'm professor Nicholas Wilde, and this are my assistant, Finnick Hart, and my student, Connor Temple." He said gesturing first the former and then the latter.
"Nice to meet you." He added, offering his paw to her.
'It's a trap, you can't trust a fox!' Was the first thought her brain came up with.
She immediately pushed those specist thought in the back of her mind, and shook his paw.
"So, Officer, what brings you here?" Nick asked.
"Me and my friend, Abby Maitland"- Judy nodded towards the otter - "are looking for her missing brother-in-law, Mr. Otterton, who was last seen here."
"The one attacked by the monster?" Connor intervened excited.
"Unfortunately, yes." Abby replied.
"And waht, instead, brings one of the maximum expert in evolutionary zoology of the ZMU in this forest?" She asked back.
"I work with reptiles, I've read some of your work." Abby quickly explained, as she saw the surprised look on the professor muzzle.
"We are...ah... doing some research."
"Is that so?" Judy asked, narrowing her eyes.
Then, an idea came to her mind.
"Abby, show him the photo! Maybe he can help us identyfing that lizard."
Abby quicly obeyed, unlocked her phone and selected the image from the gallery.
Then, he passed the device over to the professor.
Luckily, the rain had almost stopped, so it wasn't to hard for Nick to look at the picture.
Judy watched as Nick's eyes widened in surprise.
"This isn't possible!" Were the first words he mutter when he recovered from the shock.
"Where did you get this?"
"My nephew took it shortly before he and his father were attacked. Do you know what it is?" Abby asked.
"Of course I do. These unique bone structures - Nick explained while zooming on the wings of the lizard - have only been found in the genus Coelurosauravus!"
"And why shouldn't it be possible?" Judy asked intrigued.
The professor looked her in the eyes :"Because this species is extinct since 250 millions years ago!"
Judy couldn't believe to what the professor had just said: "Wait, what ?! How is that possible ?"
"I don't know." This time was Finnick who spoke.
"But I'm pretty sure that little thing hasn't done this." The fennec said while pointing at the clawmarks Judy and Abby had found before.
"Whatever did it, it had to be 4 meters long, at least ."
Judy was on a rollercoaster of emotion.
'So, there is a prehistoric monster roaing around this forest?! This is completely insane.'
"Okay, let's not jump to conclusion. There must be a logic explanation for this!" Nick tried to reassure everybody, but he was the first to have a lost look on his face.
In the meanwhile, Connor had produced a laptop from his bag.
"Okay, let's see...Coelurosauravus..." His mumbled to himself as he typed in.
"I knew that working on a complete archive of prehistoric wildlife would have been useful, one day!"He said pleased, as the other four mammals gathered around him.
"What a geek." Finnick mocked with a smirk.
The red panda decide to ignore the comment.
"Here says it lived during the Permian period... so, if we are looking for a big predator who lived at the same time, and based on the photos of the pawprint on the journal... this is our best candidate."
Once the page finished loading, it showed the image of a huge, four legged beast, with a compact and large body. Its head and snout were big too, and it sported two long, curved and sharp canine.
Above the image, a bold text identified it as a Gorgonopsid.
For a few moments, nobody said anything, everyone like mesmerized by the potrait of that ancient killing machine.
Then Judy spoke up: "We must call back up!"
She reached for her radio, but professor Wilde grabbed her arm and stopped her.
"What are you doing?!" Judy asked angrily, freeing herself.
"We can't call anyone else. Not untill we know more about this!" Nick replied.
"And why is that?" She retorted, still mad.
Nick sighed:"Carrots, let me tell you what is going to happen if you call reinforcement. You tell them over your radio 'Hey, we are chasing after a monster from the dawn of time." But, whoopsie: they all laugh at you and you become the joke of the precinct, if you aren't already. Of course, someone might still come, and then, double whoopsie: we have nothing concrete to show them except some scratches on the woods and the picture of a weird looking lizard. And whoopsie number three-sie: we all loose our credibility and our life will slowly crumble apart, while that thing keeps roaming out there undisturbed and hurting more people."
Judy looked away, unable to sustain his gaze, because she knew Nick was right.
Then, he placed a paw on her shoulder, and her amethyst eyes met his emerald's.
"Trust me, I know what it means to fight your way to reach your goal. It hasn't been easy for a fox like myself to become a professor. We can't afford to loose what we achieved throught such efforts and dedication. Is it right? No, it isn't. But on this, we are on our own."
Judy could see the sadness in his eyes as Nick spoke.
And could feel tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
Nick smiled and hugged her: "Oh, you bunnies. You're so emotional."
Judy managed to laugh at the joke, and composed herself.
"Okay then, professor, what do you suggest."
Nick turned to face Finnick:"Go back to the van and bring a proper weapon."
"The hunting season is open"
It had been a few minutes since Finnick had left the others in order to retrieve some... 'equipment' from his van.
Abby and the rest of the group had been stuck in an awkward silence since then, not really knowing what to do while waiting.
"So...uh... Professor Wilde, what kind of research where you conducting, exactly?!"
Nick was clearly caught off guard by the question, and tried to stutter something, but Connor was faster than him.
"Actually, we are here for your same reason: we were looking for the 'monster' from the beginning." The red panda explained.
"But I was the one who got the idea."He quickly added, winking to Abby.
She ignored him, and asked another question to the fox:"And since when a respected professor like yourself lets one of his students drag him in the middle of nowhere to go after an urban legend?"
The question picked up everyone interest, and suddenly three pairs of eyes were fixed onto the professor.
He sighed with resignation, before eventually answering:"Ten years ago, my wife went missing while investigating some weird sightings in this very place. Her body was never found. I just thought that I might finally be able to find what happened to her. To get some sort of closure."
While saying the last words, his voice was trembling.
Judy laid her paw on his forearm.
"I'm really sorry."
She hesitated, then spoke again:"What was her name?" She asked in a kind, sweet tone.
Nick sniffed:"Helen. But everyone called her 'Skye' because of her azure eyes"
"I'm sorry for the pathetic show, I usually don't let people see that they get to me this easily." He said, wiping his eyes.
"Looks like bunny aren't the only one to get emotional." Abby said, getting a laugh from the other three mammals and defusing the tension.
Nick composed himself and cleared his voice, a smug grin on his face, apparently ready to retort to Abby, when a chirping sound echoed around them.
Abby looked around like the others did, trying to locate what was making that noise.
The sound echoed again, but this time the otter was able to catch a glimpse of bright green moving between the treetops.
"THERE!" She pointed the small creature to the others.
When it came to a stop on a trunk, she was able to see it clearer, and identified it as the lizard from the picture.
"So it is real, after all!" Nick whispered from behind her, with in his voice the same sense of wonder that was surging in the rest of the group.
Abby was really looking at something that shouldn't exist, an animal that no mammal had never seen before!
However, they were abruptly brought back to reality when the Coelurosauravus took fly once again, starting to disappear in the distance.
Abby heard someone moving behind her, and Nick quickly came into her vision, running in the same direction of the lizard.
"Quick, come! We can't loose it!" He shouted, encouraging the others to follow him.
Abby and the others obeyed, and began the chase.
Finnick had almost reached his van when his phone began ringing in the pocket of his jacket.
He pulled it out, and he saw that on the screen was displayed the name 'Nick'.
He quickly accepted the call.
"Hey Nick, what is going on?" the fennec asked, with an hint of concern in his voice.
"Finnick, we found that Coelurosauravus! We are currently following it, so we are no longer where you left us" Nick explained, sounding like he was currently running, judging from how he was panting.
"Okay then, tell me in which direction you are going, so I can catch up with you later." Finnck replied, not exactly happy to have those four run around in the same forest where a dangerous creature was lurking.
"How am I supposed to do that, it's not like we have a compass! Aren't you supposed to be the best at following tracks and..." Nick trailed off, apparently having a conversation with someone else on the other side.
"Okay, never mind. Apparently, Red has a compass inside that bag of his. He says we are heading north-west. I'll call you if anything happens."
Those were Nick's last words before hanging up.
Finnick sighed, and resumed walking toward his van.
He reached it in a few more minute: it was parked at the entrance of the park, near a small cabin which served as restaurant for the tourist, even if it appeared to be empty right now.
The fennec fox was a few meters away from the van, when he suddenly heard a noise: it was a loud, deep growl, coming from behind the vehicle.
Finnck gulped nervously as he slowly began to back up from the van.
The growl was followed by some heavy thump on the ground: something really big was moving.
Finnick had seen reconstructions of it on Connor's PC, but this was another thing completely: the Gorgonopsid was imposing, and utterly terrifying.
Its big, long snout was filled with teeth so sharp that looked like knives; with every breath, the foul stench of rotten meat typical of a carnivorous animal filled the fox's nostrils.
And its small, yellow eyes shone with hunger, and they were fixed right on Finnick.
After the brief initial shock, Finnick came to his sense.
He quickly evaluated his possibilities, before darting for the cabin.
With a roar, the Gorgonopsid went after him.
Luckily, the door was open: Finnick dashed inside and locked the door with a swift motion.
Then he stepped back, as the creature began banging against it.
The wooden barrier that stood between them wouldn't resist much longer.
Inside the cabin there where three tables on the left,one for large mammal, one for mid-sized ones and one for small ones, a fridge and a gas stove on the far side, a pool table and a jukebox on the right.
Finnick looked around for an escape route, but there was only one entrance, and the windows couldn't be opened.
He was trapped.
He had to figure out a way to face the Gorgonopsid, and quickly.
He pushed the small and medium sized tables -the large one, designed with mammals such elephants in mind, was too heavy for him- against the door, to barricade it and buy some time.
Then, he moved toward the pool, which was thankfully of his own size, and grabbed a cue: he wrapped his jacket tightly on one end of it, and went for the fridge.
Inside it, he found what he was looking for: a bottle of liquor.
The fennec poured its content on the end of the cue with the jacket wrapped on.
In the meanwhile, the wooden door was had began to fall apart under the furious and continuous ramming of the creature.
Finnck turned on the gas stove, and carefully placed the alcohol-imbued cloth on the fire, and it immediately began to burn.
The fennec fox grinned satisfied as he held his weapon before him, and turned to face the imminent threat
In that very moment, the door exploded in a thousand splinters, and the Gorgonopsid made its way inside the cabin.
It was on the other side of the room from Finnick, ready to attack its prey.
When it was about to charge, however, Finnck shoved the fiery end of the cue toward its snout; with a roar, the creature took a few step back, but keeping its yellow eyes on the short mammal.
Finnick immediately took advantages of the creature hesitation, as he knew it could decide to try and attack him in every moment: he slowly began to move to the right of the cabin,the side of the pool table, using the torch to keep the distance between him and the prehistoric animal.
He was moving slowly, sweat beading across his forehead and paws, his gaze always fixed on the creature.
However, he was so focused in keeping the Gorgonopsid at bay, that he failed to notice one of the big splinters of wood on the floor, before it was too late: he stepped right on it, the spike sinking deeply inside his foot.
The sudden, sharp pain made him yell , and he lost his balance, falling backward and hitting the floor hard, more splinters cutting inside his body.
In the fall, his self-made torch went flying sideways: Finnick was at mercy of the Gorgonopsid.
He quickly sat up, helped by the adrenaline, and rapidly crawled backward, putting as much distance as he could between himself and the predator.
In a few moments, he was with his back against what he thought was the wall at first, but a quick glance behind him revealed it was actually the jukebox.
As the beast growled and charged, one last, desparate plan formed in his mind.
Seconds before the Gorgonopsid's jaws closing around him, he rolled sideways, dodging the creature's attack: as a result, it sank its teeth into the jukebox.
An howl of pain surged from the creature as electricity ran from the device into its body: the creature shook its head, trying to get rid of the painful sensation, hitting Finnick in the process, who was sent flying on the other side of the room, and bounced off the wall, out cold.
The creature, confused, hurt and dizzy, felt exposed, and run back outside, taking refuge inside the forest from which it had came out, leaving behind a wrecked cabin and a passed out, but still breathing, Finnck.
"I should start working out..." Connor thought.
He and the others had been chasing the flying lizard for about half an hour now, and the red panda felt like his lungs could explode in that very moment.
However, the other three mammals didn't seem to have his same difficulties: the cop, Hopps, gave the impression she had been practicing for this kind of things all her life (and probably she had, from what Connor had heard about ZPD training), the professor seemed to be powered by the sheer force of science and hope to find out the truth about his wife and Abby... well, Abby was simply amazing.
The otter had struck him from the first glance: those bright green eyes, and the way that lock of white-dyed fur fell on them...
The sporty hoodie and the yoga pants she wore gave away that she was a sportswoman, and also highlighted most of her curves...
Connor was brought back to reality she he almost tripped on the root of tree: he hoped nobody noticed, Abby above all.
He gave a quick glance to his compass, to check if they were still heading in the same direction, but what he saw puzzled him.
"Hey guys! The compass has gone haywire!" He shouted.
Everybody gave up momentarily from chasing the Coelurosauravus to take a look at the device: its needle had began to spin around, no longer pointing North.
"What does this mean?" Judy asked, confused.
"There must be something generating a magnetic field powerful enough to interfere with the compass." Nick hypothesized.
"What can create such a thing?" Abby asked.
"Maybe an alien spaceship?" Connor suggested.
The other three mammals all gave him an 'are you serious' kind of look.
"Come on, let's keep following that lizard. I have the feeling it will lead us to the answers we seek." Nick finally added, before reprising the chase, followed by Judy, Abby and Connor, who was mentally scolding himself for saying such a stupid thing in front of everyone.
Once again, the others quickly pulled ahead of Connor, who was fighting against the urge of just sitting down and catch his breath.
Suddenly, he saw the other come to an abrupt stop, all apparently awed by something before them.
It also appeared to be some kind of light source coming from that very spot.
The red panda caught up with the rest of the team, and then, his jaw dropped.
Before them, in a small clearing between the woods, there was something like anything he had ever seen before: it looked like a miniaturized sun, suspended in mid air.
Around it, what looked like small shards of glass floated in a circular motion, forming a sort of sphere around the central light, which was reflected by them in a wonderful light show.
It also made an eerie, whirring sound that made it even more unsettling, almost otherworldly.
They were brought back to reality when the Coelurosauravus chirped from one of the nearby tree, before taking flight once last time, heading right in the middle of the glowing phenomenon, which swallowed it with a flash of light, leaving no traces of the creature behind.
"What did just happen? What is that thing?" Judy asked, almost whispering, like if she was afraid that the thing could hear her.
"My best guess? A tear in the fabric of reality, some kind of wormhole maybe. An space-time anomaly."
"What does it means?" Abby inquired, as confused as Judy.
"It means, that that... anomaly, as the professor called it, may be a portal to travel through time and space." Connor explained.
"Are you sure of it?" Judy replied.
"Carrots, I laid my eyes on it a few moments ago, I'm only theorizing. It could be anything, really." Nick answered.
"well, only one way to find out..." Connor said, as he slowly approached the anomaly.
"Wait, don't..." Judy tried to stop him, but too late.
Connor stuck his head right in the middle of the anomaly: he didn't feel any particular sensation, and when his muzzle went fully on the other side, a wonderful view welcomed him.
It was desert environment, but with various trees sprouting here and there; in the distance, an active volcano could be seen emitting smoke.
Flocks of Coelurosauravus flew from tree to tree, and a heard of big, bulky animals, covered in what looked like studs was grazing.
Before he could see anything else, though, someone grabbed him and pulled him back.
"What the hell where you thinking?! It could've killed you!" JUdy shouted at him, while pinning his arms to his side and shaking him furiously.
"It doesn't matter now, he's already done it. So what did you see?" Nick asked him, pulling Connor away from the doe's grip.
"I...I've seen the past."
"I'm coming with you." Nick said, unmoving.
"It's too dangerous, I cannot bring along civilians in a rescue mission this risky." Judy replied while checking her tranq gun.
They had been going on like this for the past ten minutes, since when Judy decided to go through the anomaly to look for Emmitt.
"You don't know what awaits you on the other side. I am an expert in prehistoric wildlife, I could help you! Please, I need to do this..." The professor had a pleading look in his eyes.
Judy sighed. He was right, after all. She didn't knew anything about dinosaurs or whatever those creature were.
"Fine. But you follow my rule. And after we find Mr Otterton, we BOTH leave." She finally agreed.
"Sure Carrots. You're the boss."The fox replied, his usual smug expression back on his face.
She rolled her eyes, then turned to face Abby and Connor.
"You two, stay put here, and wait for Finnick to come back. At the first sign of danger, I want you two to run as fast as you can in the direction we came, doesn't matter if we are back or not. Have I been clear?"
The otter and the red panda nodded.
"Good."
She then turned back once again toward the anomaly, Nick by her side.
The doe stared at the glowing orb before her: it was something she had never been trained for.
She was scared, but there was a life at stake, and it was her duty to do all she could to save it.
Or at least find out what happened to him.
"Are you sure about this, professor?"
"A hundred percent sure, Carrots." He replied with a smirk.
Even if he was trying to hide it, he was clearly both excited and scared from what they could find on the other side.
"Okay. Let's do it." Judy said, straightening his back.
The bunny and the fox stepped forward and, with a flash of light, they vanished inside the anomaly.
As her eyes finally adjusted to the new, much brighter environment, Judy couldn't help but marvel at the astonishing view before her.
The sand extended for kilometers in every direction, an expanse of white sand which reached at the foot of a volcano in the distance.
Only occasional tree, bushes or rocks intterrupted the sandy plain.
The second thing she realized it had been how hot that place was: it would have made Sahara Square feel cool in comparison.
The third one was that she and Nick where not alone: a deep, trumpeting-like sound coming from her left warned her of the presence of a herd of big reptiles, with their body covered with thick, armored skin.
The doe immediately extracted her weapon and aimed it against the nearest creature.
"Whoa, Carrots, put that thing away!" Nick said, putting a paw on her shoulder.
"Those are Scutosauruses; they are herbivores, whose only defense is their shell-like skin."
"Judy slowly lowered her gun.
"So, they are basically like... giant tortoises?" She asked tentatively.
The fox laughed: "Well, they are more like their cousins."
The bunny gave one last glance to those weird creatures, then turned to face Nick.
"I'd love to do a sightseeing tour, professor, but we are for Emmitt. Any idea where we could start?"
"That way." Nick replied, pointing at his right, without hesitation.
"How are you so sure?" She asked confused.
"Because that's the way the blood trail is going." He answered, lowering his finger a little to guide her sight down on the ground, where some dried, red stains led in the direction Nick had indicated her before.
"The rain must have washed away the blood on the other side, that's why we haven't found any track back in the forest."
"Oh. Yes. Of course." She replied, clearly embarrassed, lowering her ears so he couldn't see their inside turning red.
She cleared her throat, before starting to follow the trail.
The droops of blood proceeded straight for a almost fifty meters, before turning left behind a rock and abruptly stopping.
"Well, this is weird. What do you think happened?" Nick asked, raising his brow.
"It's unlikely the creature got him here, there would be a lot more blood." She observed, stroking her chin, trying to put the piece together.
"Emmit hides his son, then lures the creature away from him. He gets injured at some point, and while running away he goes through the anomaly. So he finds himself in an unknown place, bleeding and chased by a predator. He does the most logical things: finds the closest place to hide and catch his breath, behind this rock. Then, he takes care of the next more urgent issue..."
"He stops the hemorrhage!" Nick completed her reasoning, his eyes widening at the realization.
"Exactly. Maybe he improvised a tourniquet with a piece of cloth or something. This means he could still be alive!" She said excited.
"Yeah, but we must find him quickly. He's lost a lot of blood for mammal of his size, and probably he hasn't drank or eaten anything since he got here!" Nick reminded her,
At the fox's words, Judy's face went back in focus mode. "Okay, where he could have gone next?" She wondered, looking at her surroundings.
"What about there?" Professor Wilde said after a few seconds of silence, pointing at a small patch of trees only a kilometers away.
"Looks like a good place to start looking." The doe agreed nodding her head.
They immediately headed in that very direction, walking cautiously, well aware that they still were in an hostile environment.
Then, half way from the small group of trees, the wind began to blow from the vegetation toward the two mammals, and brought to Nick's nose new scent.
"I can smell him! He is there!" He shouted excited.
Judy's and Nick's eyes met, and they knew exactly what to do. They picked up their pace, until they found themseves running toward the vegetation.
Both hope and dread filled the doe, who began to pray not to see her first corpse in that moment.
When they finally got there, the duo frantically began looking around for the otter, but he was nowhere to be seen.
They split up to cover more ground, and in a few minutes, she heard Nick shouting "Carrots!" to get her attention.
When she caught up to him, the doe saw he was kneeling down on the ground, next to some white rocks scattered around.
Only when she got closer, she realized with horror those where actually bones, some fabric of the clothes that mammal was wearing still wrapped around them.
When Nick saw her concern, he immediately reassured her: "This is not him. This bones have been here for at least some years, and they belonged to a large sized mammal."
"So...this isn't Skye either, right?" She asked, and then quickly added, seeing that he seemed surprised by the question: "Come on, I can do two plus two. I knew from the beginning that Mr Otterton wasn't the only reason you wanted to come along, risking your life."
"Sly bunny." He said, his usual smug grin returning on his muzzle.
"Dumb fox." She replied, returning the grin, before turning his attention back to the bones. "What else can you tell me about those?"
"Well, the remains are in very bad shapes, but I can tell you that almost surely that our friend was an ursine. Also, I'm not an expert, but this cloth looks a lot like kevlar."
Judy knelt down beside him to examine the fabric. "You are not wrong. This guy was wearing a bulletproof jacket."
"Does this means somebody knows about all of this? And what were they trying to accomplish walking through an anomaly?" The fox wondered, an hint of worry creeping in his voice.
"Those question will have to wait. We still haven't found Emmitt. Do you still smell him?"
Professor Wilde nodded.
"I don't understand. If he was here, we would have found him by now!" The doe said, clenching her fists in frustration.
Nick got up and leant against a tree. "I'm sorry Carrots, but that's what my nose is tell..." he trailed off, as he noticed something sticky was covering the trunk he had leant against.
At first, he thought it was resin, but he realized, when he looked at it a second time, that was actually a rivulet of blood, coming down from the treetop.
Both him and Judy looked up and saw its source: an unconscious otter was laying between some branches.
They had found Emmitt Otterton.
Thanks to her powerful legs, with a couple of jumps Judy climbed the tree and reached the injured mammal.
As she had predicted, he had applied a belt on the upper part of his right arm, where a broken bones had punctured through the skin.
She quickly checked his vitals: he was barely breathing, and his pulse was so weak she had to check twice to feel it, but he was still alive.
Judy breathed a sigh of relief; then, with some effort, she carefully began to lower the otter down the tree, where Nick was ready to gently take him, cradling in his arms.
The doe quickly hopped down beside the fox, right after she had completed the ordeal.
"Let's go. He needs medical attention right now!"
They where starting to head back, when a reflection hit Judy on the face.
She knelt down and unearthed the small, shiny object: a digital camera, with the letters H.S.W. printed on the side. "Professor, look!"
"Carrots, we have no time fo..." Nick trailed off, as he instantly recognized the device.
"I-It's hers. It's Skye's. I gave her that as a gift for her birthday." The fox stammered, a whirl of emotion assaulting him.
Judy tried to turn on the camera, but of course the battery had long ran out. "I'm sorry..."
"For what? That's only a camera, we don't know what happened here." Nick replied curtly.
She hesitated a moment, before putting up a kind smile. "Of course. And I promise you that we will find out Skye's fate. But first, let's bring Mr Otterton back home."
The fox nodded, and the two of them started heading back toward the anomaly.
Connor and Abby where sitting on the roots of a tree, right in front of the anomaly.
It had been half an hour since Nick and Judy had gone through the shining portal, and they had been waiting there for their return.
Connor had been entertaining himself watching every metal object he could find being pulled in by the magnetic field of the anomaly, until he absent-mindedly had lost the keys of his house in that way.
Then, he had been blathering about how he was going to win a Nobear Prize.
Abby chuckled. "You don't even know exactly what is it or how it works, and you already want a medal for it?"
"Come on!" Connor said, throwing his arms up. "It's a freaking tear in the fabric of time, which can let you travel through it! Also, it can do this!" He added, producing a metal pen from his bag, and pointing it toward the anomaly.
But his smile turned into a frown when nothing happened.
"Why it didn't got sucked in?" Abby asked confused.
"Probably the magnetic field isn't as strong as before. Which can only mean..." He trailed off, as the realization hit him.
"What does it means?" Abby asked, worried.
"It means the anomaly itself is getting weaker."
Judy finally saw the anomaly emerge from behind the rock where the blood trail stopped.
"Yes! We're almost there!" The doe said relieved, panting from the hot climate, and from the added weight of the otter she was carrying.
She had insisted, half way back, that Nick passed her Emmitt: the finding of the camera had left the fox deeply hurt,and had seemingly drained him of all his strength.
She dried the sweat from her forehead with the back of her paw, before reprising her march toward the 21st century.
However, the more she got closer, the more something felt off: the anomaly was less brighter then before, and had began flickering.
"Professor, the anomaly! It looks like it's about to close! We must hurry!" She yelled, and picked up her pace.
However, a few feet away from the portal, she noticed she couldn't her the fox's steps.
Turning back, he noticed Nick hadn't followed her, instead standing by the rock.
"What are you doing? Professor, we must go!" She plead him.
"I'm not coming. I'll stay here. I must find my wife." The fox replied flatly, his head low.
"Wha- No, you can't do it! You won't last a week out here alone!" She argued.
"It's a risk I'm willing to take."
"And what if this happens again? If another anomaly appears? You are the only one who knows this much about these creatures!" She insisted, while taking a peek behind her from time to time, checking on the anomaly, whose flickering had grown more frequent.
"You must go. That otter's life depends on you." Was the fox's only reply.
"Professor Wilde!" Judy called out again, but he kept his gaze away from her.
"NICK! LOOK AT ME!" Judy finally shouted.
Taken aback from the sudden outburst, and from the bunny using for the first time his first name, the fox finally looked up and met her eyes.
"I can't save people from things I don't even understand. I am afraid. The only thing preventing me to go crazy has been the fact of having someone by my side helping me. I need your help. I need you."
Nick was left speechless.
He could count on the fingers of one paw the people who ever trusted him.
And now, this cop, a bunny, was asking for his help.
"Fine. You won." He sighed, a weak smile returning on his muzzle, and started down toward the doe.
Judy smiled. "Thank you."
He simply nodded, and then they both walked through the anomaly, and back to their own time.
As soon as they saw Nick and Judy come through, Connor and Abby immediately got up to help the bunny with Emmitt.
Abby almost cried when she was told Mr. Otterton was still alive.
Behind them, the anomaly was getting weaker and weaker, but it was still open, at least for now.
"Have you heard from Finnick? We need the van to bring Mr Otterton to the nearest hospital." Nick said urgently.
"Now that you mention it, he never called back..." Connor said.
"Maybe he got lost or som..." The red panda was interrupted by a powerful roar coming from behind them.
They all turned their head in the direction the sound came, pure horror on their faces as they saw it: the Gorgonopsid was standing right there, imposing, its fiery eyes fixed on them.
Its snout was scarred by what appeared to be some kind of recent burns.
Judy was the first to come out from the terror-inducted paralysis.
"Get away from here, I'll take care of it" She ordered, before sprinting on the side.
"THIS WAY, UGLY! " she yelled to get the creature attention.
Then she pulled out her tranq gun, and fired a dart.
Judy hit the target, but it seemed to be unaffected.
She fired again.
The creature began to charge at her.
The doe fired a third time, but the Gorgonopsid continued to run toward her.
Now it was ready to close its deadly maw around her.
But seconds before what would have been her end, a blur of red fur grabbed her and tugged the bunny with it, diving sideways and dodging the creature, which missed her and kept charging forward for a few more meters before managing to stop itself.
When Judy finally looked up, she realized it was Nick that had just saved her.
"I don't understand! That much tranquillizer could put an elephant to sleep!" The bunny said shocked.
"Yeah? Well, apparently nobody told it to that thing." Nick replied, as the creature turned backward, ready to once again charge the two mammal laying on the ground.
This time, only a miracle can save us.' Nick thought desperate, as the Gorgonopsid began to get closer.
It was then that a very familiar van came running from the vegetation, crashing its nose into the side of the creature.
'This will do too.'
Driving the van was Finnick.
As soon as he had regained consciousness, he had quickly taped his injured foot and a few more cuts, and then he had driven at top speed to reach the others.
When he had seen Nick and the cop in danger, he had had no hesitation in hitting the creature with his van.
The impact made the Gorgonopsid fall on the side, but it still got up, even if limping noticeably.
It growled back, but this time it looked more like in a defensive stance.
"Finnck! Try to scare it off!" Abby shouted to him.
Finnick nodded in understanding: the creature was hurt, and probably the drugs where starting to confuse it, so this was their chance to send it back; if he scared it, the Gorgonopsid would have probably go back where it felt safe, which was on the other side of the anomaly.
Finnick turned on the main-beam, blinding the Gorgonopsid, and began to honk the horn.
Fear pain and panic overwhelmed the animal, who quickly turned back, roared once more to warn its opponent to stay away, and vanished inside the glowing portal, which flickered once last time before closing.
Everybody breathed a sigh of relief: it was over.
For now.
When they finally got to the nearest hospital, Emmitt Otterton was barely alive.
The doctors eventually managed to stabilize him, even thought they had to amputate his injured arm, which had got gangrene.
In his state of shock, he couldn't recall anything of what had happened the previous day, so Abby, Connor, Finnick, Nick and Judy all agreed to say that he and his son had simply got lost into the woods, and that he got injured falling, and to keep in touch in case other anomaly ever appeared, to handle it by themselves.
"For now, it's better this way" Nick had told Judy "Starting a panic about prehistoric creatures roaming around would do no good."
Judy wasn't to keen to lie, but they had managed to save Mr Otterton, and that was what mattered to her.
Chief Bogo had even congratulated with her, stating that "Maybe I have underestimated you, Hopps", and her colleagues had started to accept her as one of them.
Things were beginning to look better for the young bunny cop.
It was late.
Everybody had left the University hours ago.
Everybody except professor Nick Wilde.
He was in his office, staring at the screen of his computer.
He had managed to extract the miraculously still intact memory card from Skye's Camera.
It contained only one picture: an artic vixen,with striking blue eyes, wearing worn out khaki shirt and trouser, was posing and smiling to the photographer.
She had aged since the fox last saw her, but she was stil beautiful.
"Where are you, Skye?" He murmured, almost hoping the photo could answer him.
He yawned, tired, and went to the adjacent room to recover his jacket, ready to go home. When he got back, however, on the keyboard of his pc was waiting what looked like a spiral-shaped shell; Nick knew exactly what it was: an ammonite, an extinct mollusk who lived in the same period as dinosaurs. Their fossils where really common.
Only this time, it wasn't a fossil: some tentacles were sprouting from its open end. It was alive! Before he had the chance to examine it more closely, the fox noticed a shadow running away from his office with the corner of his eye.
"Hey!" He shouted, spring into action and following the fleeing intruder.
He heard one of the door leading outside closing, so he launched himself in the cold air of the night.
He looked around for a few seconds, before seeing her: under the light cone of a lamppost, fifty meters away from him, stood a vixen, with a white fur.
"Skye!" He called out, but when he reached the spot where she had been, the vixen had already turned around and vanished into the darkness.
NEXT TIME: When small mammals begin to vanish in Little Rodentia, leaving behind only mysterious holes, the team gathers to face a new threat lurking into the Underground.
However, they are not alone, as a Nick's old, dangerous acquaintance and his associates are looking for answers too.
NOTE: So, the first episode is over!
Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did while writing it!
Stay tuned for the next episode!
As always, thank you for the support and for sticking around up to this point!
reviews and advices are always welcomed!
TheNightManager