Chapter 1 – Forces solves, but only temporary

22nd of September 1998, 3 p.m.
Communityschool for all ages (CSFAA), Zootopia

"Aw man, detention sucks", said Tiberius as he and his brother Charles went for the picnic-table on the far end of the schoolyard. Tiberius was Charles' twin, even though no one could tell by looking. Opposed to his brother, his appearance was a fox through and through, and while Charles already had somewhat of a physique at this young age, Tiberius was quick at thinking and talking. This unfortunately always lead to mischief.

"Hrmpf", Charles scoffed back. "And who's fault was that, dingus?"

"Hey, don't blame me, you goof. It's not my fault that Mrs. Taurus overreacted. Besides, I didn't lie, she is a fat cow. And YOU, brother, had to squish the whoopie-cushion when she was sitting down. Hilarious by the way"

Both started to chuckle about this juvenile prank on Mrs. Maria Taurus, their main teacher.

As they reached the table, they took their usual spots. Charles was sitting on the backrest, feet on the seat, Tiberius on the other bench, one arm over the backrest, the other hand always playing idly with something. This time, he was twirling around his pocket knife.

"We will get in trouble this time, Tib. Not even two weeks of school and we got our third detention."

"You really are as dumb as you are tall. Dad told us we should wait for Lilly. She and some other brainies from her class have computer studies every Tuesday afternoon. No one will know about the detention if you keep your muzzle shut."

"Now we only have to kill…", he looked at the giant clock on the school building, "thirty more minutes until Lilly's class is over".

With the lack of other options, and the resulting boredom, Charles started to do biceps-curls with his backpack, while Tiberius carved a fat cow with farting clouds into the table.

Thirty minutes pass. Then five more, then ten. Still no sight of Lilith, the little sister of Charles and Tiberius who just enrolled in the school that same year. She always has been the wise guy of the family. Annoying at times, but at 6 years of age, she was unbeaten in trivial purrsuit, which was one of the games the family played at least on one evening during the weekend. Which evening it actually was depended on their parents' busy schedule on the ZPD.

Suddenly, a loud pleading echoed over the schoolyard: "NO, HARALD LEAVE US ALONE PLEASE".

This snapped both brothers out of their boredom-induced stupor and snapped their heads towards the school building simultaneously.

Faint laughter could be heard, followed by a squeal of utter fear and they could certainly identify it as Lilith's voice.
In a fraction of a second, both jumped from the table and ran to the source of the scream.
A trio of first graders, a slender sheep with glasses, a chubby tiny mole and Lilly were running towards the brothers and they were followed by a group of giggling predators.

Without thinking twice, Charles winded up the arm he was holding his backpack in, and flung it towards the approaching predators.
The heavy backpack hit one of the predators, a lynx, dead center in his muzzle, which sent him flying backwards.
The other two predators were a cougar and a bear cub, all of them fifth graders and well-known bullies. The bear named Harald was known as their leader. He was older than his friends by about one year because he had to repeat the fifth grade this year.
Before the other two predators knew what happened, Harald was tackled down by Charles, which took out the air of his lungs. The cougar stopped in his tracks after he saw his friend go down and started to cower and back away as he realized that Tiberius was launching at him with a snarl and holding the pocket knife in a clawed paw.
Of course, this was just an intimidation technique Tiberius used, but it seemed to work exquisitely.

Charles stood up and was letting this bear scramble to his feet. They both stood face to face for a moment that seemed to last an eternity. Neither of the two seemed to back away.
It was Charles who finally broke the silence. "Stay away from my sister and her friends. This is your only warning, Harald". The words were spoken calmly, only Charles trembling fists were an indication of his anger.

"Or what, bunny? You gonna beat me up? You just had a lucky hit".

"You heard what I said: Leave. Her. Alone!"

"Oh, the little freak eyed bunny is angry now." Harald of course referred to one of Charles' biggest insecurities. Him and his siblings all had an eye-condition called heterochromia, which colored one iris violet, like their mother's and one iris green like their father's eyes. "Listen, you better watch your tone, freak! Everyone knows who you three are. Nothing more than mixbreed mutant freaks. Every kit in this school knows it and they are treating you like a disease. And this serves you right, you son of a…"

Harald could not finish his last sentence. The body of Charles did not react by thought, but by raw fury. No one had the right to talk about his family like this. His right paw locket on the collar of Harald's shirt, while his left fist connected with the bully's muzzle several times. As soon as his thoughts took over his consciousness again, he pulled Harald's face close to his and repeated himself: "Leave her alone."
With this last bit of advice, Charles shoved Harald towards his friends. In this motion, Harald could only stumble and lost his footing, resulting in his muzzle landing in the dirt. This was accompanied by the laughter of Lilith and her friends.

Admitting defeat was never the strength of any of the kits in Harald's circle of friends. "You will be sorry for this, Wilde-Hopps!", Harald spouted over his shoulder as they hurried away. "We will get you for this!"
The only answer Harald got, was Charles and Tiberius simultaneously flipping the bird at them. The arm which did the flipping raised into the air, the other on the groin, exactly the way they saw it in that movie they watched late at night without their parents' permission.

"THANK YOU, BIG BRO!", shouted Lilith with glee, as she ran towards Charles and tackled him into a tight hug.

Charles answered with a hug of his own and a "No problem, Lil'-Lilly".

Now, Lilith's first friend approached them. Charles could remember his name, since Lilith was talking about him during yesterday's dinner and because he thought the pronunciation was hilarious. His name was Francis, but the a was emphasized and sounded like a bleating sheep.

"Yeah, it was awesome. You hit him like a hammer. You were all like hrmpf hrmpf.", he said while throwing punches into thin air to emphases his grunting.

This brought a grin to Charles' face. " 'Hammer'… I should remember this", he thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Tiberius watched the celebration with his arms crossed over his chest and could not help but to become grumpy: "I helped too, you know?".

"Of course, you did.", giggled Lilith and ran over to give him a hug as well.

The celebration was short-lived though, as a sniffle, followed by faint sobbing was heard.

It was the mole, apparently Lilith's second friend from her class. He was cowering on the ground, his face covered by his paws.

"What's wrong Mortimer?" asked Lilith as she released Tiberius from her hug.

"Th-hey will hunt and tease us again to-tomorrow. I'm su-sure they will do-double their efforts to make us feel miserable now."

His words were chopped up by the choking, caused by his effort to hold back his tears. Even though Lilith started to comfort her friend, it was in vain. The tears started to trickle down Mortimer's cheeks.

"And ne-next time, your brothers wo-won't be here to save us".

At this remark, a smile started to creep over Tiberius' muzzle. It was the grin he always had, when he had one of his 'famous' ideas.

Slowly, he approached the crying mole. "So, buddy: what would you say if I have a solution for your problem?"

"Hm?"

"Would you like that?"

"M-hm." Mortimer nodded faintly.

"So, I should tell you the solution".

Mortimer wiped some snot from his muzzle with the sleeve of his shirt and nodded again. This time a bit more intensely.

"Well then. My brother and I will spend the breaks with you and we will bring you from the school to the bus stop every day. How does that sound? Good?".

Mortimer now nodded frantically and Francis also answered with a joyful "Yes".

Tiberius knew he got them hooked. All he had to do was to reel the fish in.

"However, everything in life comes at a price."

The shoulders of Lilith's friends slumped down as their happiness faded quickly.

Tiberius reacted quickly. He always had a hand in reading mammals' expressions and counteract to them. Expressions of kits that is. His ability to sweettalk his way out of trouble ended when it came to adults, but this never hindered him at trying anyway, which almost always lead to more dire situations.

So, he raised his arms, open palms towards the two nerdy kits.

"I'm not trying to screw you over. Let's say, you have a safe place in the shadows over there,", he pointed at the picnic table where he and Charles always used to hang out during brakes and occasionally in their free time.

"And the protection, only for half of your lunch-money. I'm not a gangster after all."

Reluctantly, Francis and Mortimer agreed, and sealed that childish contract with a handshake.

Later that night, when Charles and Tiberius were readying themselves for bed, Charles voiced his feeling of guilt for screwing over Lilith's friends.

"We shouldn't have done that, Tib. I feel like one of those bullies now."

"Shut it, shits-for-brains. We did nothing wrong."

"We kind of blackmailed them, you ass. And I told you to not call me that."

"All we did is offer them protection. And as the saying goes: If you are good at something, never do it for free. You are not a bully, you are a bodyguard. A big dumb bodyguard."

"And where does that leave you? I do all the work after all."

"Me?", Tiberius put his paw to his heart, just the way he saw his dad doing it when he played the 'wrongfully accused victim'.

"I, of course, am your manager. You couldn't tie your shoelaces, let alone get such a deal on your own, idiot."

"One more remark like that and you will pay me your share so I'm not going to beat you up," Charles answered and punched his brother's shoulder. Playfully, that is. He loved his brother and couldn't seriously harm him, even if he was an asshole most of the time.

"Yep, I guess I deserved that," said Tiberius while rubbing his shoulder. Both chuckled and made their way to the bedroom.

19th of October 1998, 1:30 p.m.
CSFAA, Zootopia

It was a sunny early afternoon. The air was already cold, the leaves had nearly all fallen already. Fall was definitely coming to an end.

The five kits were making their way to their usual spot where they spent every lunchbreak, passed the time until the bus arrived and where they hung out occasionally on afternoons during the weekend.

Roughly a month has passed since that day Charles and Tiberius saved their sister and her friends from Harald and his little gang. The contract between them was canceled after two weeks. They switched from paying with money to bringing more food for lunch to school and the five were sharing their meals. This brought dismay from Tiberius, but Charles felt very delighted by this agreement. Firstly, because he grew quite fond of Lilith's friends and secondly, because he didn't have much of a concept for money at the time, but he had a rather good concept of food.

Of course, Charles still scared off the bullies by his presence and the rumors that spread around the group. The rumors all revolved around them being crossbreeds. Things like that they carried diseases, that they were mindless monsters and such sort. Those little schoolyard-whispers were quite hurtful, but the other kits left our friends in peace.

Only one other kit was unimpressed by all that gossiping. His name was Baron Weaselton. Mostly because he had quite a fair share of rumors surrounding him as well. One of them was that he and his father, Duke, sold stolen items as their only source of income for his family.

His appearance and behavior did not help his reputation in the least bit. Quite the opposite in fact. He was a truant through and through and had always better ideas then to sit in school and be bored. If he was in school however, he either slept in class, with his head on the table or put extra effort into making the teachers' life as hard as he could. This fact made Tiberius rather fond of him.

He looked shady and slim, even for a weasel. His whiskers were uncombed, the fur was unshowered, dirty and had bald spots, and bruises could be seen under his fur sometimes.

Today, he played hookie on the last class. He figured that the last class was not necessary: He didn't understand chemistry anyway. So, he went to the picnic table to wait for his buddies. As he recognized them, he started to wave for them. Recognizing was quite difficult for him today, given he had a swollen black eye today. His father had a way of educating his son, which Duke always described as hard but fair. Fair it was: Baron had smashed a box of expensive glasses and carafes which were meant to be sold. He ruined a whole day of income. At least that is what Baron thought to himself yesterday.

If it hadn't been for that black eye though, the events, that would unfold in a few minutes, could have been avoided.

First, everything was business as usual. They exchanged handshakes. They even invented a special handshake, which they found quite cool. They would mid-five their paws, pull them back, clench them to fists and fist-bump each other once.

Since the next bus would take another twenty minutes to arrive, they all gathered around the table, some ate the leftovers from lunch, some told jokes and talked about the hottest topic an eight-year-old could think of: Superheroes and villains.

"Of course the incredible Bulk could beat up Supermammal. All he needs is some Kryptonium in his indestructible pants and Supermammal would scream for his mommy," said Charles. He had to protect his favorite superhero at all costs.

"You know that this is cheating, doofus. In a fair fight, Supermammal would beat Bulk to the moon and back," retorted Tiberius.

"What do you know about fairness? And stop calling me doofus, you dingus".

This is when Mortimer chimed in: "But when Supermammal sleeps, Thoroar could put his hammer on Supermammal. Only gods can lift the hammer and Supermammal is just an alien".

"Why should Thoroar help the Bulk? Your argument is stupid. Think before you talk".

This bantering continued for a while, and moved to other hero-related topics. If Oceankit could be considered a hero, what Batwolf would be worth without his Batsuit and Wolfmobile and so forth.

Everyone was so involved in their stories, that no one saw the figures moving through the nearby bushes. Baron could have seen it from his position, if he hadn't got a black eye yesterday.

A stone whizzed close to Tiberius' head from those bushes.

All heard the whistling sound as the stone flew by, so they twisted their head towards the direction it came from.

They all saw the one who threw the projectile. It was Harald, and he had been busy the last two weeks. Not only were Gary the lynx and Butch the cougar with him, he had two other kits with him as well.

Charles did not recognize them, but this didn't matter now. He instinctively knew that a stone could do some serious damage and most of his friends and his sister could not fend themselves. This would render him totally outnumbered.

"RUN," he ordered all of them. "Run to the school. Get a teacher. GO!"

All of them hurried off. Charles, however, stayed. He had no idea where this sudden bravery came from. All he did know was that he had to give his friends a head start from the bullies.

Baron, Tiberius and Lilith were fast, they would reach a teacher soon enough, but he was worried about Francis and Mortimer. Francis could not run long distances with his asthma and Mortimer had stubby legs and was a chubby kit.

So, his train of thought told him that, if he delayed Harald and his troop of rowdies long enough, a teacher would come out. Then, Francis and Mortimer would be save too.

"Oh look: Even your friends leave you alone when it comes to pay up the debt," mocked Harald with a big smile on his muzzle. "Don't worry: we will get them after we are through with you."

"I told you last time: you will leave them alone". He had to be brave, but was scared. Of course he was, he was outnumbered and he faced a bunch of fifth graders. He only hoped the others would get a teacher in time.

"Well, you freak eyed bastard, here is how its going to go. First, you will pay. I promised you that. And afterwards, we get your little nerd friends, then that psychokit, and in the end, your mixbreed brother will have his share." Harald gave every insult a precise pronunciation.

Charles knew what he had to do. The more time Harald and his rascals wasted on him, the more time his friends had to get help. The thought of stopping five kits older than him terrified him, but he had to stand his ground.

"What kind of sick bastard are you that you want to beat up a girl, huh? You are the greatest coward-piece-of-shit I know, Harald."

The grin on Harald's face faded into an angry grimace.

"All right, that's it," he said. With a snap of his fingers, he commanded: "Grab this mutant!"

Harald's friends started to sprint towards Charles. "Here goes nothing," Charles thought and started to sprint towards them as well. He tackled one of his attackers and could manage to wrestle down a second one but didn't think about the consequences of being close to the ground.

Soon after, they overwhelmed Charles and each of the predators were holding one appendage of him.

If Charles' nose twitched before, he hadn't realized. Now, however, it was obvious for him and everyone around him.

This is when Harald moved closer. He wore his grin again. An ugly grin which was victorious and sadistic at the same time.

He proceeded to slam his butt on Charles' chest and mocks him furthermore for his own amusement.

"See, Freakeyes? I told you no one likes you. No one wants to help a mixbreed mutant like you."

With these words, Harald spit into Charles' face and the predators begin to laugh. Charles couldn't help himself. He was terrified, he felt trapped, hopeless and alone. Harald's words were somewhat true. Nearly every other kit in school avoided him like some kind of disease. This was too much and he started to tear up. Much to the delight of his oppressors.

The laughter just got louder and Harald said: "Aww, is the little bunny crying now. Wait, let me help you wipe those tears off, huh?", in a childish voice.

He dug his claws into the ground next to Charles' face, pulled out a chunk of dirt and proceeds to rub that chunk into Charles' muzzle and eyes.

Harald's cruel mockery continued: "There ya go. At least it's harder to see your freakeyes, Freakeye."

He lowered his muzzle close to Charles': "You should tell your whore of a mom to stop fucking outside of her species, to stop such abominations from happening."

This was a clear mistake on his side and all that was needed to push Charles over the edge. With the comment of his mother, his blood started to boil and the closeness of Harald's muzzle was all the opportunity he needed.

He gave that bastard a headbutt right on the snout. Harald flung backwards, off of Charles, partly because of the surprising counterattack and the other reason was the sudden sting of pain in his muzzle.

Not only Harald was stunned, but his friends as well, as they loosened the grip on Charles' appendages. This was the second opportunity Charles got and he managed to pull his arms free.

Meanwhile in the school building…

Tiberius ran through the halls and was shouting on the top of his lungs "HELP, I NEED A TEACHER. HEEEELP!"

Several doors opened with teachers poking their heads out. One of the heads was the one of Maria Taurus, who was correcting homework in the teacher's staff room.

As Tiberius reached her, she was already emerged fully out of the room.

"What is it, Tiberius?"

"MY BROTHER… wheeze… SCHOOLYARD …wheeze… FIGHTING."

"Calm down boy. Catch your breath."

Tiberius bent down, his hands on his knees and breathed heavily.

"My brother is in a fight… with Harald… on the schoolyard."

"Oh that rascal! Your brother is in serious trouble now."

Mrs. Taurus hurried down the hall towards the schoolyard already.

"No, it's not what you… think," Tiberius called after her, but she was already out of hearing range before he could finish his sentence.

His choice of words was not the wisest, since Mrs. Taurus was not so keen on both of them to begin with, so their teacher already concluded that Charles was the culprit behind the fight.

Back at the schoolyard…

Charles was in a fit of rage again. No one talked about his family in this manner. Especially not Harald.

After he escaped the grip of the fifth-graders, he nearly jumped to his feet and he… did he roar at them? He did not know that lagomorphs could produce such a guttural sound of anger. They normally can't but Charles was not a normal bunny after all, given his part predatory blood.

What was just a little surprise for Charles, became sheer confusion for Harald and his gang. The confusion morphed into utter terror in a blink of an eye.

The predators had now become prey. They already viewed Charles as some kind of monster and this roar was their final confirmation.

So, Harald's gang made a run for it. All of them? Not quite.

Garry, Butch and the other two kits could escape. Charles did not care too much for them anyway.

Harald, on the other hand, was not so lucky. He was able to turn around but that is all he could manage to do.

As he started his sprint, Charles had already grabbed him on the collar of his jacket.

Harald was pulled back forcefully and landed flat on his back.

His eyes dilated in shock as he realized that, he was in the same helpless situation, he forced Charles into just a minute ago.

Charles, however, took the opportunity and kneeled over Harald's chest. It had been the same rage he felt two weeks prior, only this time, this little tyrant had no possibility to escape.

Charles winded up his fist and slammed it down on Harald's muzzle as hard as he could. Harald tried to plead for mercy as another fist hit his muzzle. Then another, and another. He knew that his nostrils were bleeding. That started after the headbutt, but now he realized something even more concerning. He had the metallic taste of blood on his tongue. Charles had smashed one of his fangs out.

Charles' mind was blank. He only stopped his onslaught because a strong hoof grabbed the ankle of his arm, which was already in the air, ready for the next strike.

He looked up and saw the face of Mrs. Taurus, which glowered down on him.

"Get off of this poor kit!" she yelled and pulled Charles off of Harold.

"Come on, let's go to the principal's office. You will face the consequences for this!"

"But… But I didn't…"

"Explain yourself to the principle."

One hour later.

Nick arrived at the school in a police cruiser. He got a call from his son's school, telling him that his boy Charles was in trouble. After telling Judy, he went straight to Bogo's office. Not only did the old buffalo let him leave for the time it took, he could also take the cruiser. This kind gesture mixed thankfulness and surprise into the emotional cocktail of worry and fear for his son.

As he arrived, he made his way straight to the principal's office. Just outside of the office, he saw Mrs. Taurus, Charles, Tiberius, Lilith, a sheep, a mole and a bear-cub. Charles had dirt in his face, but the bear looked far more roughed up. He held a bag of ice on the side of his muzzle which was covered in dried blood. Additionally, Nick saw that one of his eyes started to swell up, the other had a laceration above it.

He thought to himself: "My son did this? No, this can't be true. He couldn't…"

His train of thought came to an abrupt halt as the principal announced his name and asked him inside. As Nick went in, the principal closed the door behind them.

The minutes dragged on as muffled voices came from the office. Try as he might, but Charles was not able to make out a full sentence of the conversation between his father and the principal.

He already knew that he wouldn't hear what the principal has to say to his dad because prior to the arrival of his father, each of the kits were called in separately to tell their version of the story and Charles could not understand what the others said either.

The minutes stretched as they were a piece of chewed gum.

Finally, Nick came out of the office.

"Come on, kits, time to go", he said while walking towards the exit with his paws in his pocket. He did not look at any of the kits, which made the worried thoughts in Charles' head go rampant.

Charles knew he was in trouble and this gesture was the confirmation that the trouble must be massive.

As the Wilde-Hopps kits slid from their chairs, Nick called out "Francis, Mortimer, you too. I will bring you home."

The first destination of the cruiser was the neighborhood of Francis and Mortimer. With a 'Thank you, Sir' to Nick and a muffled 'you too' to Charles, they both got out.

The rest of the way towards the Wilde-Hopps residence was as silent as the trip into the neighborhood in meadowlands.

An aching feeling was sprouting in Charles' heart during the ride. His father was silent through all of it. He could not point a finger at what it was, but it teared at him.

They arrived and Nick said his first words since they got in the cruiser.

"Tiberius, Lilith, get inside. Charles, I want to talk to you for a moment."

Everyone obeyed. His siblings got out and Charles kept sitting in the passenger seat.

"Y-Yes dad?" he asked with a trembling voice.

His question was met with uncomfortable silence. He still could not find a name for this feeling inside his chest but he finally realized what it was: It was not fear about punishment. He feared that he would see his father disappointed, maybe sad.

He just wanted his dad to say something, anything. He could live with house arrest, with 'no desert' for a month, maybe even television forbade but not this silence.

"Dad?"

It took Nick another second to find the words, which he thought were correct.

"Son, you saved your siblings and I'm proud of you for that BUT…"

He laid a paw on Charles' shoulder and looked him straight into the eye.

"You must promise me, to control your temper. You seriously hurt that kit. This must not ever happen again. Do you understand, Charly?"

The tears swelled up behind his eyes as his father spoke.

"Yes, daddy."

"Do you promise?"

The tear-ducts opened like floodgates.

"Yes, I promise."

Then his father embraced him with a hug and he was letting his son sob into his shoulder.

"Don't let them see that they get to you."

Charles felt a mix of relieve and disgust about himself. He realized that he enjoyed this fury. The sight of Harald's blood encouraged him to go further. This is why he understood his father's words instantly and gave his promise. But Harald called his mother a whore. And he called him Freakeyes. Freakeyes. Whore. Freakeyes, Freakeyes!

The words rang through his head like a chanting.

Charles lifted his head from his dad's shoulders.

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"Can I please have your aviators?"

"My shades? Why would you…"

"Please dad."

With a sight, Nick reached to the glove compartment, took his glasses and gave them to Charles.

"This is for defending your siblings and your friends. Take it as a medal… And never forget your promise."

"I won't, dad."

Nick gave him a kiss on the forehead and they went inside.

But reality is the way it is, and in this reality, promises are as easily made as they are broken.