Chapter Notes:

Welcome back~

Chapter 4:

"Why would Pitch break someone out of jail? That doesn't seem like something he would do?" Tooth was the first of the confused Guardians to question what the officers were telling them. And she was right, breaking people out of jail wasn't something he did on Earth, but that doesn't mean it isn't him either.

Bunny scoffed at them, "He's nothin' but a crook. What do you expect him to do?" Out of everyone else he perhaps had the most reason to hate him.

"Yes, Bunny. Pitch is bad spirit, but Tooth is right. Is not like Pitch to do such thing." North was deep in thought trying to process all of this, he was thinking over everything they knew about the Boogie man and what little they had come to learn about this new world. "Officer, what about this Dawn, who is she?"

From there Judy went on to explain what happened a few years ago, about the assistant mayor leading the city into terror and chaos. While mammals here didn't have special powers or anything they could still do a lot of bad one way or another.

"That must be why. Pitch will use her for plan, he does not know this world; and neither do we. But… she does and she will help him. So we need your help to stop them first." The large polar bear announced with confidence.

In the industrial side of the city there were many abandoned buildings each one perfect for Pitch to use as his hide away. "What are we doing in this broken down building?" Dawn glanced around the dark and musty basement, only small rays of light made their way down through the holes in the ceiling.

"Let's just say the sun does to me what fire would do to you." Pitch said in the corner he emerged from. "Besides I would much rather stay somewhere succeeded."

"Fine. What is your plan now? Seeing as you can't go outside." Grumbled the prison escapee, "I can't live down here like you, I have needs you know."

Pitch rolled his eyes listening to her complain, it was so much simpler working on his own. "We will take care or your needs when it's night. Unless you want to go fend for yourself. And as for my plan I need time to build my strength first, then I will need you to help me find some very bothersome people."

After Pitch disappeared into the shadows Dawn grumbled to herself about the useless predator. Ever since then she had been exploring around the building they were currently in and managed to find a way up to the roof. Looking around she could tell they were at the far north end of the abandoned work area, the whole city so crowded and yet next to nothing out here. As time went on the sun got lower and she headed back to find him waiting on the first floor staring up at the moon. "What are you going to howl at it?" she scoffed at the black wolf.

He remained silent for a moment longer as he ignored her spitefulness. "Where I am from there is a man on the moon. Always watching over the children, always watching for me. But here on your such planet there is no such man, and because of that there is no way to stop me." While his words were true in themselves Pitch's tone was not; it was almost as if deep down part of him wanted more of a fight. "You said you had needs, shall we get started?"

They snuck into the inner area of the city making sure to keep the infamous Bellwether hidden from sight as they made their way to find a store suitable for what she needed. Stepping out of the shadows they found themselves in the clothing store, even though it was closed already there were still some workers tending to the store and its cleaning. "What are you doing? If they see us we will get caught!" hissed the small sheep.

"I'll take care of them. Find what you need." Just as he dismissed her he was gone, but it wasn't long before he appeared behind one of the workers. Quietly he snuck up behind her and when he was close enough he used his powers to slowly trickle fear into her.

The little otter was folding shirts and putting them back on the display when her fur started tingling. It was like a chill running down her spine; it felt like being hunted. She dismissed it until she couldn't take it anymore and looked over her shoulders only to find nothing there. When she went back to her work she heard chuckling to her side, but once more nothing was there. "Alright guys very funny, stop hiding." She laughed out loud; this wasn't the first time her coworkers had done something like this and she wasn't going to fall for it again.

But nothing came to her call. With a few cautious checks of the cloth racks around her the little otter thought her imagination was getting to her and finally decided to get back to work. When she heard steps behind her she growled in irritation, only this time she got a response; a much more threatening growl. She spun on her feet quickly to find herself being attacked by a black wolf with piercing yellow eyes; a blood curdling scream was the only sound she could make.

When the poor little otter screamed Pitch used his shadows to wrap around her before he reached her and left her out somewhere in a dark alley nearby. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself at the power he felt coursing through him from her terror; it was to him what a sugar high was to a small child. Left on the display her radio was left, different voices calling through asking if she was okay, and this gave him an even better idea.

Throughout the store the other works began hearing cries for help along with static and different noises that just seemed to send chills down their spines; and when they looked they were never able to find their friend. It wasn't long before police were called and officers arrived.

Pitch and Bellwether tumbled out of the shadows somewhere in a damp forest area. "Are you just some stupid wolf? Now the police know we were there!" the sheep yelled at the wolf, "Didn't you say you want to stay hidden?" her shrill voice hissing in anger.

"Yes and that is exactly what I want." Pitch said smirking down at her, "Once the news finds out they will spread the word to everyone, and their fear will only grow; and thus, my powers." He said looking around, "Where is this forest at? We shouldn't be this far from that store."

"This is the rainforest district. Zootopia is made of different climate districts, unlike whatever place you come from we have a variety of citizens to take care of, there are several different climate areas here in the city." She explained the basic layout of the city and the main species that live in each district. "And one more thing you might be interested in, Zootopians are not as spineless like they are where you are-"

Before she could even finish her thought she was cut off. A very menacing wolf was towering over her and her eyes went wide. "I don't think I would say you Zootopians are as brave as you think. And if you think otherwise, I can put you back in that cell where I found you."

The very next day Nick and Judy had taken copies of the security videos from the clothing store to the precinct to go over them with the chief. And it was safe to say, just like seeing Jack freeze the water bottles, seeing mammals appear and reappear was astonishing. In the back of the store the could see in the corner of one of the cameras Pitch and Bellwether stepping out of a shadow on the wall.

They had a clear demonstration of his powers as he tormented the poor teen, appearing in her shadow and taking her to be found in some alley blocks away when she called police for help; the innocent girl was almost too afraid to move. But just because they could see what he was doing, didn't mean they knew how he was able to do it. "We need to know how he can do this. If it really is magic hocus-pocus I want to know how to stop it." Chief Bogo commanded. He wasn't mad at the team but if this issue gets out of hand then they would be in a crisis worse than the night howler case.

"On it chief." Judy nodded to the blue furred mammal. With Nick by her side they went and showed the Guardians the footage taken from the clothing outlet. "North, you said you need our help to understand Zootopia, and we will help you. But right now, we need your help to understand Pitch Black. We don't even know where to start looking for answers."

North nodded his head in agreement, "Yes that is correct, we are team; and as team we must help each other." the large mammal got approving notes from the rest of his fellow Guardians.

"Do you know how he gets from place to place like that? How he keeps on disappearing?" Judy was taking the lead in this while Nick was listening in carefully.

Sandy was jumping up and down excitedly to answer. Giving his all to show them a good demonstration by flipping a lampshade over and pointing it at the wall. Using his hands he made various shapes with his shadow. "Charades really?" Nick questioned out loud causing the golden ocelot to shake his head quickly and he kept up the gestures even more.

"Oh! Shadow puppets!" Judy exclaimed as the realization hit her, she got an equally excited nod from the demonstrator. "You mean he controls the shadows?" her excitement gave way to confusion.

"Yes that is right. Good work Sandy." the Christmas spirit was surprised at his friend's communication with the shadow puppets. "He gets power from fear and uses that power to make more fear."

"So how much power does he have?" asked the red fox in the police uniform.

Both Sandy and North were stumped by this, there really was no definite way to quantify how much power any of them have, but they could tell. "More than we do. And here, I don't think we can gain belief like he can." Toothiana was the one to speak up this time, it was a worry they all had and it was a very real threat.

"Wait, what if we could make people believe?" Jack asked with a wide grin at his idea. "Where is there a lot of kids?"

It was late at night and the Guardians were all piled into the back of Judy and Nick's squad car. There was one thing that Pitch was right about, and that was he needed to gather strength; and so did they. Jack had the great idea for the best way to gain belief is for Sandy to give them dreams like he had during the nightmare war on Earth.

Nick and Judy were sitting up in the front with the glass window closed separating them from the Guardians, "Are you sure about this idea, Carrots?" the fox asked her honestly. While he did believe their stories more and more with the evidence they were getting, he still was not entirely sure about what was really going on.

"What other choice do we have, Nick?" her answer didn't really say if she was totally in belief or if she was just going with the best possible option. "But I think that if they wanted to do something bad they would have done so already." The driver pointed out to her partner, and as usually she was right.

After that it was a pretty quiet drive, they could hear the mammals in the back talking about how they could get home, but from the sounds of it nothing was promising. However, once they had gotten there everyone got out waiting for Sandy. "Alright you got this, Sandy?" Jack was more than encouraging of the feline Guardian.

With a nod the ocelot worked his magic as best as he could, and soon enough a small tendril of dream sand formed and began heading to the nearest window of the orphanage and towards the closest kid. Sandy fed him dreams about meeting the Guardians as they were now, and then the tendril of golden sand moved onto the next child in the room; followed by the next and the next. While the belief would not be all at once right away, but during this Sandy was able to form another line of sand to help speed up the process.

Everyone was tired by the time the assortment of mammals had made it to the third shelter, but what was undeniable was the feeling of belief they were getting now by the end of the night. "So how do you know if it's working?" Judy asked curious to see what the mammals were going to say.

"You feel younger, like you can jump to moon." North said jumping into the conversation first.

"I don't know about younger." Jack chuckled, being physically stuck in their ages they didn't really age or de-age and if they did the winter spirit certainly didn't want to get any younger than he was now.

Just as the group were about to get back into the car Judy's phone rang, she looked at the screen only to see it was a random number she hadn't seen before. "Hello. Officer Hopps speaking?" her voice confused as she gave a shrug to her partner.

"Judy, it's been so long." The voice coming through the speaker was undeniable, and it made her eyes widen. "How have you been? What have you been up to?" An innocent chuckle came through; but the officer knew that laugh meant nothing but trouble.

Author's Notes:

Wow, that chapter went by quick. What do you guys think? Good or bad let me know~

Can't wait to hear how this chapter went, I'll be seeing you all again soon!~