Hello there! I know, it's been a while since last time, but, you know, life happened.
however, I have a peace offer for you all...

EPISODE TWO: INTO DARKNESS

LITTLE RODENTIA, 3.00 AM

Larry yawned as he walked inside his house. The brown furred mouse had just finished the night shift at the supermarket, and just wanted to lay in his bed for the next hours. A week would have been better, but he knew that it would have been a miracle if he managed to get six hours of sleep.

He mindlessly dropped his backpack on the floor near the entrance of his apartment, and began to walk past the living room towards his bedroom, but suddenly stopped as he felt a weird tremor beneath him.

Living on the first floor of an apartment built right over the subway, he was used to its shaking, but this somehow felt... nearer, and wasn't matched by the usual metallic noise of the train scraping over the railway.

He knelt down, and leant his right ear against the floor. The mouse heard something... it was the noise of something... digging?

As the sound became nearer and nearer, fear began to surge inside him. He quickly got back on his feet, grabbed his phone and dialed the emergency number.

"Zootopia emergency service, please state the kind of danger you're in." A voice immediately said on the other side.

"There...uh...there is something trying to get inside my apartment." Larry replied.

"Could you be more specific? Where are you?"

"I'm in Little Rodentia,103 Ratwell Road. Something is...digging his way insi..." He trailed off as the the floor a few meters from him finally sank, leaving behind a hole almost as large as the whole room.

The mouse slowly leaned his head over the edge of the pit, trying to get a glimpse of what had made it.

"Sir, are you still there?" The operator asked, but Larry ignored her, almost mesmerized by the chasm.

At first, his eyes could not see anything; but after they had adjusted to the darkness of the abyss, he began to see something moving inside it: it looked like a black, seething liquid, only it was moving on its own accord.

Suddenly, it began to rise, leaking out from the edge of the hole and spreading inside the room.

The last thing the mammal on the other side of the phone heard, was Larry screaming as the black tide dragged him along down the tunnel from where it came out.

SAVANNA CENTRAL, 6.00 AM

Abby woke up early, as she always did on week days, to go jogging. She quickly put on her sportswear and left the house.

The crisp and fresh air of the morning filled her lungs; the otter loved the city at this time of the day: no traffic, no busy person running all over the place, just quiet, the sound of her footstep the only thing accompanying her on her workout.

She kept jogging for an hour before finally coming back to her house. However, she skidded to a halt when she noticed someone standing in front of her door: a quite familiar red panda.

"Connor, what are you doing here?" the otter asked, startling him a little.

"Oh, hi Abby. What's up?"He quickly replied, trying to nonchalantly shrug off the scare she gave him
"I'm here because I needed to ask you a favour. You see... my landlord kicked me out of my place, and I really need a place where to stay, so I thought..."

"Are you asking to move in with me ?!" Abby asked in disbelief.

"It's just temporary, only until I find a new house. Pretty please?" Connor almost begged.

From the look on her face, it looked like Abby was deciding if punch the red panda in the face or just cursing at him until he left.
Luckily for Connor, both their phone rang at the same time: Judy had sent them a message, telling them to meet at the gates of Little Rodentia.

"We will finish our conversation later. I'll go change clothes, wait me here." She said, somewhat less angered than before,but still definetly annoyed at him, as she unlocked the door of her house.

LITTLE RODENTIA'S GATE, 8.00 AM

Judy had been waiting for the others to show up from almost twenty minutes, and she was growing impatient, as the nervous thumping of her foot on the ground gave away.

Finally, she saw Abby and Connor coming out from behind the corner of a building, heading her way, even though there seemed to be something off: Connor was avoiding looking at the otter, while Abby kept giving him dirty looks.
Almost at the same time, Finnick's van parked right in front of her. "Hello, officer Fluff!" Nick greeted her, as he got out of the vehicle.

"Maybe you are not so clever after all, if you can't even learn my name, professor Wilde." She replied with a smirk.
"Ouch, touché!" The fox said, pretending to flinch as she had hit him.
"How sweet! I could get diabetes just by watching you two too long!" Came Finnick's snarky remark.
"Finnick. Charming as always." Judy said flatly as the fennec fox approached.

"Hi guys!" Abby interrupted the confrontation, as she and Connor reached the them.
The others greeted them, then everybody turned toward Judy, wanting to know what was going on.

"So, I called you all because I think we might have another... incursion. Last night, nine mammals, all small rodents, went missing from the district of Little Rodentia: the only thing left behind them where holes dig up in the ground which lead to the underground. One of them managed to call the emergency number before being abducted, and stated that something was trying to get inside his home from under the floor." Judy quickly explained.

"Nine ?! That's an awful lot for just one night!" Abby said shocked.

"Probably we are dealing with more than one creature." Nick stated.

Finnick nodded in agreement."There have been attacks during daylight?"

Judy shook her head."No, the last one was estimated to have took place around half an hour before sunrise. Is it relevant?"

"It might mean that we are dealing with a pack of nocturnal creatures." Nick said

"That would also explain why they use the underground galleries to move." Connor added.

"Nice thinking, Red." The fox said to the red panda with a satisfied smirk, before turning back to Judy. "Will the ZPD mess around with this?"

"The ZPD doesn't mess around with anything." The doe replied irritated. "But no, there won't be any other officers investigating on this case. I've being assigned to it because I've already solved a missing person case and because I'm the only mammal in the force small enough to move through Little Rodentia without destroying it, if necessary."

"Good. Less cops there are, less problems!" Finnick stated with a snicker.
Judy frowned at that, but decided to ignore him, although she couldn't help herself but to think that the fennec fox would have made a perfect criminal, roaming the streets and hustling people, before cursing at herself for even thinking such a specist thing.

Probably noticing the her inner struggle, Nick came to the rescue of the doe. "Lets grab some equipment from the van and then we go checking out the underground, before anyone says anything we all would regret."
Judy gave him a quick 'thank you' smile, before nodding and moving toward the van.
She also noticed how he made sure to ear flick Finnick on their way.

ZOOTOPIA SUBWAY MAINTENANCE GALLERIES, 10.30 AM

"Well, this is disappointing."Connor said out loud.

They had been walking inside the dank tunnel for hours, and found nothing.
After Judy had convinced the subway's operators to let them check the maintenance galleries, the five mammals had been following the path that had led them beneath every hole in which the rodents had been disappearing, and yet, they had found nothing.

After the ninth and last hole, they began wandering almost aimlessly, even if Judy kept saying something about reaching the equidistant point from all the crime scene or something like that, but the red panda didn't pay too much attention.

"What disappoints you, exactly? The fact that nothing as already came out from the dark and attacked us as we are basically undefended?" Finnck asked with the same grumpy attitude he had been sporting since when the operators had forbidden them to bring any kind of weapon with them but Judy's tranq gun, leaving the others unarmed, unless one counted their flashlights and a few flare torches Nick had managed to sneak under his shirt as possible improvised weapon.

Connor opened his mouth to reply, but decided against it.
They kept walking for some more time, the monotony of the tunnel's gray walls only interrupted by some few doors, which Connor guessed led to the railways.
However, when he illuminated the nth door, he noticed the a hole big half of it had been made through the metal, and since the door had been designed with animals twice his height in mind, it meant he could easily walk through it.

"Guys, I think this might be a lead!" Connor said, pointing the pierced door to the others.
The five mammals crossed the opening, and found themselves inside an ampler place, various railroads crossing it in parallel.
Judging by the old bricks that made up the gallery, and by the rust on the rails, it appeared to be an older track of the subway, no longer operative.
Not far away from the entrance, a single coach stood abandoned onto the one of the rails, and they decided to go investigate it.
Connor and Abby stood behind Judy, who was pointing his gun toward the entrance of the wagon, as Nick and Finnick went one on each side of it, ready to open it.
Judy nodded, and the two foxes pulled open the doors.

Nothing happened.
Then, a foul smell came from inside it: the death's odor.
Carefully, Judy inched forward, and entered the coach, followed by the others.
Connor looked over her shoulder, and what saw inside left him puzzled: inside, the wagon had some tables lined up on its sides, covered with vials, beckers and more scientific equipment.

"What is this? A secret lab?" He asked.

"Don't think so. In here there is all what you need to cook drugs. It's a perfect hiding spot." Judy replied.

"And here we have our cooks." Nick said flatly from the opposite end of the coach.

When he reached the professor, Connor had to appeal to his will with all his might to keep his breakfast inside his stomach: the lifeless bodies of two rams laid on the floor, many bits of their flesh tore apart and both had a huge hole piercing their chests.

"And that, kids, is why you don't do drugs!" Finnick said shaking his head in mock disappointment.

"Could you please show some respect?" Abby scolded him.

Finnick was about to reply, but Connor spoke up first:"Professor Wilde, why does it looks like they were killed by the monster from the Mammalien movies?"

Nick knelt down to inspect the bodies.
"Well, in a sense, is because basically that's what happened to them. Probably some kind of parasitic animal laid its eggs inside their body, and when they babies were born, they dug their way out of their hosts, killing them in the process, and then they proceeded to eat them. Some wasps still do it nowadays."

"That's disgusting." Abby commented.

"So you are telling me we are dealing with a bug?" Judy asked incredulous.

"No. Not one bug. By now, there must be a swarm of them lurking inside these tunnels." Nick replied worried.

They quickly gave another look inside the coach, finding nothing helpful, before going back into the galllery.
To Connor, though, the tunnel now felt somehow more menacing, knowing what could be hidng into the darkness and what it could do to them.
"Okay, what now?" The red panda asked.

Nick pointed his flashlight toward both the direction the gallery went, but the small space it could illuminate didn't gave away any clues on which direction they should take.
"We split up."

"What ?! Professor, have you ever seen an horror movie?" Connor asked in disbelief.

"We are not in a movie, Connor. Lives are at stake here. I'll go with professor Wilde, you and Abby will go with Finnick." Judy said quickly, in a tone that didn't leave any room for objection.

Groaning, Connor did as he was told and, after Nick had given Finnck two flares, the two group began to walk away in opposite direction.

Nick was walking behind Judy, as she had insisted to lead the way.
She kept both tranq gun and flashlight pointed straight in front of her: anyone could have guessed she was really tensed, but Nick wasn't entirely sure why she was so nervous.

He was about to point out the fact that her tranq gun would have been useless against insects, but decided against it.
Instead, he put a paw on her shoulder: she jumped a little, startled, then turned around to face the fox.
Even then, Nick could clearly she her shaking, but not from the scare he unintentionally gave to Judy.

"Hey Carrots, wanna tell me what's wrong?" He asked, his voice echoing various time in the dark gallery.

"It's... those bodies..." She tried to explain, on the brink of tears.

"That was the first time you saw dead people?" He asked surprised, but still kindly.

"Yes... I mean, no, I've attended to funerals before... those were the first corpses of killed people I had ever saw after joining the force..."She replied, lowering her gaze to the ground.

"Hey, it's not your fault, Fluff. Don't ever think that." Nick said, putting a finger under her chin and gently lifting her head so he could watch her in the eyes.

"Yeah, but what if..." She began, but Nick moved his finger from under her chin to over her lift, cutting her off.

"No point in doing asking 'what if'. We can't change what has happened, but we could still be in time for saving other lives. Focus on that, Officer Hopps."

Judy suddenly closed the little space left between them, and hugged him.
Nick stiffened up, not sure on what to do.
He cleared his throat, and Judy quickly let him go.

"Huh...I'm sorry..."
"You don't have to..."
"It was inappropriate..."
"No, it was me that..."
"It won't happen again..."
"I started the thing with the speech..."

A loud metallic noise interrupted the embarrassing conversation, and a part of Nick was glad something did.
The other, instead, was scared to death of what could have possibly made it.
Judy raised her gun toward the source of the noise, while Nick pointed his flashlight to reveal the cause of it.
What he saw, left the fox slack-jawed.
When he finally managed to speak up, he was able to pronounce only two words with a shocked tone.

"KEVIN?! RAYMOND?!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the tunnel, Abby proceeded along with Finnick and Connor.
The image of the two rams kept showing up before her every time she closed her eyes, so he tried to keep her mind busy with some talking.

"So, Finnick, what do you suggest we do if we found these bugs?" The otter asked.

"Actually, I hoped you could tell me." The fennec fox replied.

"What? Aren't you supposed to be an hunter or something?"

"Ehm... Guys..." Connor tried to step in, but Finnick talked over him.

"Aren't you supposed to work with animals?"The fox replied mimicking her voice.

"Guys, really..." Connor tried again, and again to no avail.

"That's really mature, I bet you think you are exhilarating."

"Yep, and that's only one of my many qualities. Come over to my place tonight, I'll show you some more." Finnick said snickering.

"Well, that's just..."

"GUYS, SHUT UP!" Connor shouted, finally gaining their attention. "Do you hear that?"

Abby turned to face the direction Connor was pointing, right where they were headed.
At first, the otter could hear anything. Then, her ears picked it up.
The noise was like if many pebbles had been raining on the railroad; it grew louder and louder, which meant whatever it was, it was getting nearer.
Finally, it came close enough their flashlights could illuminate it: a black, shapeless mass was advancing toward them.
What at first appeared to be some sort of dark liquid, on a second glance revealed itself to be even worse: hundreds of beetles, some as big as her leg, where marching toward them.
The noise they had been hearing was the clatter of the sharp claws on the ends of their legs hitting the metal.

When a few meters from the trio, the swarm suddenly stopped, a red light now reflecting upon their carapaces.
Abby turned to see that Finnick had ignited one of the flares, and was using it to keep the insects at bay.

"They live underground, so I figured they probably don't like light too much." He quickly replied, without moving his eyes from the swarm.
"Now, you two should really start running, I'll buy you some time"

"We are not leaving you!" Abby replied.

"Don't worry, I have no intention to die here, but this thing won't last forever, and we totally need back up on this one! Red, take her away!" Finnick said with urgency, as he noticed that the insect where growing bolder, slowly closing the distance between them and the three mammals.

Connor nodded, grabbed Abby's paw and began to run back where they came from, tugging her along with him.
She began to run herself, but she kept looking back at Finnck, who was slowly being forced to moving backwards as the swarm came forth.
Abby saw him throw the dying flare in front of him, and fidgeting to light the second one, but before he could do that, the beetles surrounded and assaulted him.
In a few second, the black mass had swallowed him, and she loose track of the fennec, as she and Connor kept fleeing, leaving the swarm back in the darkness.

Judy kept her gun in front of her, aimed for the two polar bears who had just appeared.
"Professor, you know them?" Judy asked surprised.

"Unfortunately, yes." Nick replied.

From the darkness, four more bear emerged, one being particularly tall, towering above all the other ursines, with his paws folded together in front of him.
Nick appeared to recognize him too.

"Koslov? You're here too? But... this means..."He trailed off, his voice slightly shaking.

"Nicky, what a surprise to find you here!" Came a voice, although Judy could have swore that none of the bears had opened his mouth.

"I'm as surprised as you." The fox replied, but now his voice had lost his usual ironic tone, instead shifting toward a more respectful one.

"Nick who are these people?" Judy asked nervous as she noticed that every bear sported an automatic rifle.

"Officer Hopps, let me introduce you to the most feared criminal and mob boss of the whole city of Zootopia: Mr. Big." Nick said, as the bear he had called Koslov parted his paws, revealing a small chair, on which sat an old artic shrew.

"A cop, huh? I'd never thought to see you paired with one of them, and a rabbit, no less." The shrew replied, somewhat amused.
"Nicky, tell her to lower her weapon, if that toy can be considered that."

"I won't let some criminal tell me what to do." She replied resolute, instead aiming her gun right at the shrew.
As she did so, all of the rifles of the bears clicked in unison, all ready to fire at the doe at the slightest movement she would do.

"Carrots, please, put that gun away." Nick told her, slowly lowering her arms with his own.
Judy looked at him in disbelief, but eventually did as he asked.

"I see you are still that clever boy I used to know." Mr. Big said satisfied, then snapped his fingers, and the bears relaxed, lowering their own weapon.

"I'm sorry, but I have no time for chatting, Big. I'm helping Carrots here"-he jabbed his thumb towards Judy-"finding some missing mammals So..."

"What a coincidence! I'm here for the same reason. My daughter Fru Fru is one of the abducted rodents." The shrew replied, worry creeping in his voice.

"Then let me do my job. I'll bring her back home safe and sound."Judy jumped into the conversation. "Professor Wilde and I are following a lead and..."

"Good. Then we are following you. I won't accept a no as an answer." Mr. Big said menacingly, his bodyguards growling and showing their teeth.
But Judy didn't move.
She just stood there, glaring at the shrew for what felt like an eternity.

"Fine." She finally gave up, and walked past the polar bears, heading again into the dark tunnel, passing next to the door they had knocked down to get inside the tunnel.
She heard Nick quickly catching up with her, walking by her side.
With the corner of her eye, she could see the fox opening his mouth a couple of times, but never actually speaking, like if he was never able to find a way to properly express his thoughts.

"Wilde, if you have to say something, do it." She barked, yet with a whisper, not wanting Big and his goons to hear them.

"Are... you... angry?" Nick asked whispering in a similar way Judy had.

"No, I'm glad you are intimate with a mob boss!" She replied, sarcasm dripping from every word.

"We are not intimate!"

"He called you Nicky!"

"I can explain."

"Then do it!"

Nick sighed, before he went on:"My father was a tailor, and I used to help him. Mr. Big and his... associates used to be his best clients, so I know him since I was a kit. After my dad's death, I was offered to continue working for them, but I refused. I wanted to study and become a professor, also to show the world I wasn't simply a sketchy fox,as everyone had always thought, but something more. Since then,I've never seen Big again before today."

Judy stared at Nick: even in the dim light of their flashlights, he could see in his eyes that he was telling the truth.
"Fine, but I don't like this situation a bit. What do we do if they see an anomaly or a creature?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure we will figure something out." Nick replied, giving her a clearly forced reassuring smile.

They kept walking, with the polar bears and the shrew following them closely. At one point, Mr. Big apparently ran out of patience.
"Where are we going?" He demanded irritated.

Nick turned around and tried to reason with him: "I told you, we have a lead, you just need to trust us and..."

"We have been wandering around in this tunnel without a clear destination for almost twenty minutes. Nicky, you better tell me where my daughter is, right now!" He warned.
Judy found incredible how such a small mammal was actually able to instill dread in her.

"Well... we... it's..." the fox stammered, as the bears began to close to Judy and him, their weapon pointed at the two of them.
Judy readied herself to the fight, even if she knew exactly what would happen if things escalated into a fight, and it was nothing good.

Then, from the direction they came from, sudden noises of running and panting rapidly began to rise.
Someone was coming their way.
The bears shifted their attention from Nick and Judy to the new sounds, ready to shoot at the new threat.

"Professor... pant...Judy!" Connor's voice called from the darkness.

Judy's eyes went wide
She hurried to put herself in the line of fire, shouting:"Don't shoot! They are our friends!"

The bears looked back at their boss, who nodded, and once again lowered their weapon.

After a few seconds, the red panda and Abby came into vision, running holding paws, both winded.

"They... are coming..."the otter managed to says while catching her breath.

"Where is Finnick?" Nick asked worried.

"They took him." Abby replied after a minute, sadness permeating her voice."He saved our lives."

"Who is coming?"Mr Big asked, and Abby and Connor seemed to notice just then that Judy and Nick weren't alone.

"There is no time..." Judy began, but the shrew interrupted her.

"I DEMAND an answer! Nobody moves until you tell me what is going on" He shouted menacingly

"We'll explain on the way. We cannot waste any time, if we want to save Finnick and Fru Fru!" Judy replied, staring right back at the shrew, daring him to stop her.

Then she began running in the same direction Abby and Connor were running from, with Nick by her side.
After a few more seconds of pause, Abby and Connor followed them, and eventually also Mr Big and the bears did so.

Finnick woke up.
He immediately wished he had just died instead.
Every inch of his body ached, but the worst thing was breathing: it was extremely hard and painful.
It was like if someone had forced stones inside his lungs and rubbed sandpaper on the inside of his throat.
He tried to move, but it turned out he was stuck: something sticky kept him on still on the cold floor.
His vision was hazy, but he could make out a few shapes and a bright, flickering light coming from his left.
"The anomaly" He realized.
Then, he heard footsteps approaching him from right: he tried to speak, but all he came out of his mouth were a few wheezing sounds.
The mammal nonetheless appeared to hear him, and soon enough he knelt at his side.

"Calm down. Don't strive yourself."
Not an he. The voice belonged to a female. And it was also somewhat familiar, but right now it was hard to think.
As she caressed him on his forehead, he could see the bright white of her fur.

"I'm sure they'll find you soon. Now I must go."
She said, as she run her paw on his arm, reaching for his hand and putting something in it.

"No. Please stay. Help me."
Finnick wanted to scream those words, but once again his voice didn't support his will.
As he once again drifted unconscious, the last thing he saw was the white-furred mammal walk toward the anomaly and vanish.

"You are not serious." Mr Big only managed to say.

"I wish we were joking, but unfortunately we aren't."Judy replied, as she kept running.
She and the others had been heading where Connor and Abby had last seen Finnick.
She had expected to see an horde of insects coming out from the darkness every moments, but it hadn't happened yet.
They had only briefly stopped at the abandoned coach, to catch their breath and to show Mr Big the bodies of the rams, to prove him the story they had told him was true.
They finally reached the spot where Abby and Connor had last seen Finnick.

"Where did they go? We couldn't have possibly missed a swarm that big!"Nick said, clearly panicked and worried about his friend.

"They can dig!" Connor managed to say between panting hard. "Look for holes in the walls, floor, ceiling, everything!"

The beam of everyone flashlights began to dance into the darkness, running on every inch of the gallery's surface.
Finally, Abby found it: a gap big enough to fit a small fox had been dug on the ground a few meters from where they had began searching.

"Okay, here's the plan. I, Wilde, Connor and Abby will go down there and rescue the abducted animals. Big, stay here and prepare your mammals to carry the possible wounded to safety." Judy quickly said, ready to jump inside the hole.

But Big had a plan of his own, apparently.
"Kevin, get the out of shape idiot." He ordered.

"Wait, is he talking about..."Connor was cut off as the huge polar bear grabbed him with one large paw.

"Big, what are you doing?!" Judy asked, alarmed.

"You are not going anywhere without me. Nicky, come here please."

Nick reluctantly walked toward the shrew and, by extension, Koslov.
The huge bear knelt down and moved his paw forward, and stopped a breath away from Nick's chest.
Then, Big jumped from Koslov's paw inside the pocket on the fox's shirt.

"My bears will keep your friend safe, and nothing will happen to him as long as I come back." Mr. Big explained.
Then turned back to Koslov:" Check if there is any other way to get down there, and reach us."

Judy wanted to reply, but the clock was ticking, and she had no time to discuss with him now.
She simply sighed, before jumping inside the hole.

Nick wasn't too fond of small spaces.
And that tunnel certain qualified as one.
He could barely move, and he also had to be careful not to crush the mob boss he was carrying in his shirt.
But he had to carry on.
He couldn't loose Finnick.
They kept quietly crawling in complete darkness, dirt soiling their fur and clothes.
The image of the tunnel collapsing on them kept popping up in Nick's head every time his head brushed against the ceiling of the gallery, causing some pebbles and earth to fall on him.
Finally, the tunnel began to widen up, and some dim light allowed him to make out the shape of Judy crawling in front of him.
That proved to be a good distraction for a few moments, until Nick realized that and turned his gaze away, glad that no one could see him blushing, even if he could swear he heard Mr. Big quietly sniggering.

Shortly after, they exited the tunnel, and found themselves in what Nick guessed was an old electrics area, probably used to power the old subway.
The light they had seen before came from the anomaly: the glowing poratl was located on the far side of the large room, but hat wasn't what caught their attention; before it, laying on the ground, there were the nine missing rodents, plus Finnick.

Nick run straight toward the fennec fox, and knelt beside him.
With the tail of his eye he registered Judy and Abby doing the same for the others mammals.
They all appeared to be covered in some kind of organic and viscous secretion, which prevented them from moving.

Nick felt some sudden movement on his chest and startled, believing it was one of those bugs crawling on him, but he sighed in relief when he realized it was just Mr. Big crawling out from his pocket to reach his daughter, who was among the other rodents.
The fox returned his attention to Finnck and, checking for the vitals, he realized his friend was barely breathing: he quickly opened the fennec's mouth to give him the mouth-to-mouth, but he saw that something was stuck in the back his throat.
The fox carefully placed two fingers inside Finnick's mouth, grabbed the slimy thing and began to slowly pull it out, doing his best to not hurt his friend.
What came out looked like a rotten grape: a long tendon-like, thic tendril on which many small, opaque sphere where hanging.
Nick realized that those where eggs: the insects wanted used Finnick as an incubator, like they had done with those rams they had found before.
Nick threw the thing away, disgusted, before turning back to Finnick, who had once again began to breath normally, even if he was unconscious.

Using his claws,Nick began to free his friend from the sticky restrains, but stopped once he reached his paw: in it, he was clutching a small piece of paper.
The fox grabbed it and unfolded it:
I'm waiting for you on the other side.
Skye

Nick froze.
Skye is alive. I'm not crazy! But... if she's not stuck on the other side, why doesn't she come back?
He was brought back to reality as he heard someone calling for him.
He quickly hid the paper in his pocket, then turned back to the voice.
"I'm sorry, you were saying?"

"Is Finnick okay? I saw you there, motionless, and I didn't know what to think." Judy said concerned.

"No, he's fine. We got here in time. He had those eggs in his throat, but he'll be fine." Nick replied, giving the bunny a reassuring smile.

Judy looked at the eggs, grossed out.
"The others don't have those. Why are they here then?"

"My guess? Food." Nick replied "Now, let's get out of here, before those things come back."
Judy nodded, and they quickly freed all the mammals.
"How the hell are we bringing them out of here? We can't drag them in the tunnel."Judy said.

Abby went to check the only door in the room, but it was locked from the outside.
"Looks like we don't have much of a choice." she sighed.

They gathered all the unconscious mammals together and readied themselves for the task of dragging them along inside the burrow, when from it a noise began to rose, like the sound of thousand of marbles flowing inside it.

Nick saw Abby froze in fear at the sound.
"It's the swarm! It's coming! We're trapped here!"

They all moved to the far side of the room, tugging along them the abducted mammals, and readied to fight the swarm.
In a few seconds, the room was flooded with huge, black beetles surrounding them.

"Professor, the flare!" Abby shouted.
Nick nodded, and lighted up the torch he had kept for himself when they had split up.
This time, though, the flame, for some reason, burned brighter and higher than when Finnick used it.
That kept the beetles at bay, but Nick knew it was a temporary solution.

"This thing won't last forever. Any bright ideas, Carrots?"Nick asked with urgency.

Judy thought for a few seconds, when a smile spread wide on her face as a plan formed in her mind.
She took something from one of the pocket of her belt.
"Use this!" the doe said as she passed a small, pink can to Nick.
He gave a quick glance a the warnings on the back of it to see what he had to do: the universal symbol for flammable substance was among them.

Nick shook it, then put it between himself and the flare, before pressing the top of the can: when the spray came in touch with the fire, it created a small, yet powerful stream of flames.
now equipped with a improvised flamethrower, Nick began to advance, burning the beetle on his way: their screech were terrible and the smell even worse, but at least now the team had the upper hand.
They tried to get close, and they almost overcome the fox a couple of time, but he always managed to fend them off.
The beetles kept coming, and Nick kept burning them, until the last one perished in flames.
Nick slowly lowered the spray, and the flare died as he did so: they had been lucky.

"Whoa! What kind of flare you got there? Is way more powerful than the one Finnick used!" Abby said.

Nick dried some sweat from his forehead with his forearm and turned to face the others, before answering.
"It's not the torch. It's the air. This things must be from the Carboniferous, a period when the content of oxygen in the air was about 30 percent higher. This is why back then insects used to be so big. Air must be flowing from the other side of the anomaly, and this made the flame burn that way." He explained, his usual smug grin returning on his face for the first time since hours.

"urgh... I hope no one else ever wakes up at you lecturing..." Finnick groaned, as he blinked a few time.

"Hey, Fin. I thought this time I'd lost you." Nick replied, smiling.

"Ah! You wish!" Finnick said as he slowly sat.

"Nicky! Why my daughter isn't waking up?!" suddenly stepped in.

"Look at them." Nick replied calmly, pointing at the still unconscious rodents " They are covered in bites, like Finnick. My guess is that the beetles injected some sort of sedative through their bites. Finnick is bigger than the other who have been abducted, so the effect wore off faster."

"We better take them to the hospital nonetheless. No point in risking."Judy said.

Nick sighed:"I agree, even if this time it won't be easy to justify what has happened."
He then noticed that everyone was looking at him with pure terror on their faces.
"Hey, don't worry, I'll come up with something!"

"NICK, BEHIND YOU!" Judy shouted.

Nick turned around, and saw what really had scared them: from the anomaly was emerging another beetle.
But this one was different: it was as tall as Nick and even longer.
"A queen. Of course there had to be a queen. The rodents were its food" He thought as he once again rose both the flare and the spray, only then remembering the first was no longer burning.
The queen made a screeching sound as she dragged her heavy, bulbous body toward the fox.
There was nothing he could do as the queen loomed toward him, its multiple eyes reflecting his terrified face.
Then, Abby stepped in between them, and kicked the bug really hard on those very eyes.
Temporary blinded, the queen backed off, and so did the otter and the fox.

"What was that?"Finnick asked.

"I like kickboxing." She simply replied.

"I hope you are ready for round two, then." Nick said as the queen reprised its attack.

Judy drew her tranq gun and fired, but the dart simply bounced off the chitin exoskeleton which covered the queen's body.
With their last resource gone, they braced for the attack.

Just then, something began banging on the other side of the door, before knocking it down.
The queen turned towards it, just as a rain of bullets fell on her, leaving behind them a trail of sparks due to the excessive oxygen in the air.
In a matter of seconds, the giant beetles laid on the floor, lifeless.

"Boss, you okay?" Koslov asked as he entered the room, followed by Kevin, Raymond, Connor and the other bears.

"Yes, thanks to you. How did you find us so quickly?" Mr. Big asked.

"Thanks to this!" Connor said proudly, rolling up his left sleeve, revealing on his wrist what at the first glance could have been mistaken for a watch.
It was, in reality, a small compass mounted on a strap.
"Since last time in the woods, I always wear it, so I can pick up the magnetic field of the anomalies. It's not super accurate, but it's a start."

"Well done, Red." Nick complimented to Connor.

"Yes. He's been very helpful." Koslov said with a smile.

"Then, I owe you an apology." Mr Big said to Connor.
"Now, Kevin and Raymond, Keep your weapons aimed at that thing, and kill whatever comes out of it." Mr. Big ordered, pointing at the anomaly. "Koslov and the others, take this rodents to the nearest hospital. Let's get out of here."

OUTSIDE 'KANGAROO'S CROSS' STATION, SAVANNA CENTRAL, 2:00 PM

Nick watched as the first limousine left, heading for the Zootopia General.
It was already past lunch time: down those tunnels, the fox had lost track of the time.
As the car turned the corner, he turned his attention back to the shrew in front of him.

"Thank you. All of you. You saved the lives of many today, my daughter's and mine included." Mr. Big said from the inside of a second limousine.

"It's just our duty, sir." Judy replied with a smile.

"Speak for yourself." Finnick grumbled, getting a laugh from all the team.

"Still, I owe you. I'll take care of making up a cover story for what happened down there. I have a certain influence on some news station which will come in handy."Mr. Big said, ignoring the disapproving look Judy gave him.
"Also, it would be bad for business if monster began to roam the city, so I'll help you with any means at my disposal. My men will help you out any time one of those anomaly shows up."

"Well, thank you, but..." Judy began, but the shrew cut her off.

"This is non-negotiable. You are decent enough for a cop. Don't make me change my mind." He said, before the door of the limo shut and the car left.

The doe sighed.
"Great. Now I work with the mob. Not exactly what I planned when coming to Zootopia."

"Well, they saved us today, so maybe it isn't such a bad thing after all." Abby said.
The otter then turned to Connor:" And so did you, so, I'll let you stay at my place, but just for one week. Have I been clear?"
Connor nodded as she handed him the key of her house.

"Wait, aren't you coming?" He asked confused.

"No, if Finnick still wants to take me out. After all, he saved my life too." Abby said as she turned toward the fennec fox, who simply smiled and offered offered her his arm.
She took it and the two of them walked away, chatting and laughing.

Connor watched the whole scene unfold before him, disappointment plainly visible on his face.
Nick chuckled and put a paw on his shoulder.
"Don't worry Red, I'm sure it won't work. Don't give up your hopes yet."
Connor managed a weak smile and nodded, before turning to leave.

Judy reached Nick's side as they watched the young red panda leave.
"Do you think Abby's right? That working with Big is a good thing?"

Nick's expression darkened a bit.
"I don't know, Carrots. I guess only time will tell." He replied, before a grin returned on his muzzle.
"Would you mind explaining this?" He said teasingly, showing Judy the small can she gave him before.
" 'Fox Away'? Really?" He asked, looking at the cartoonish fox drawn on the canister.

Judy's ears shot up and Nick could clearly see her blushing beneath the fur.
"I-I'm so sorry... my parents gave it to me... I didn't mean to..." she stuttered, embarassed.

Nick laughed.
"Don't worry, Fluff. Today it saved us, so I'll let you keep it." He said as he trew the can to her.

She catched it, then looked at it for a few moments, before dumping it in a nearby trash can.
"Nah, I don't need it anymore. You show me that one can trust a fox. Or that I can trust you, at least." She said, smiling at him.
"Now, I reeeally need a shower. Bye!"She added while hopping away, waving at him.

Nick waved back, while the small piece of paper in his pocket suddenly felt more heavier than before.

NEXT TIME: Mr. Big require the team's help as mammals are attacked by mysterious creatures swimming in the cold waters beneth tundratown, as Nick finally faces the ghosts of his past.

...a complete episode!
I'm also going to regroup all the previous chapters in a single one, because I realized I prefer to post full episode rather than really small chapters, even if it means longer time gap between them.

As always, let me know what you think of this chapter, reviews and advices are always welcome!

Till next time!

TheNightManager