(AN/ I'm Back! After a 2 week break I'm back with a new chapter, sorry about the delay but university work and family problems caused the break last week. Thank you to everyone who liked, faved, followed, reblogged and reviewed the last chapter. A Big thank you to helthehatter for letting me use her OCs in this chapter and my my heartfelt thanks to the development team who have continued to support me through this difficult time and Ta' to Alana for beta reading this and adding the spanish section. Quick note, all the art and comics for this series now has a dedicated tumblr; zootopia-take-a-stand-art so without further ado lets get cracking with this chapter...)
Chapter 8- First step and first stumble.
By the time Robyn woke up at 9am her parents had already left for work, the apartment had the lingering welcome smell of veggie stew as she ate some cereal at the dining table, as she munched on her favourite chocolate cereal Robyn was sorting her muddled thoughts on three very different subjects; the buzz of saying I love you to Hannah last night, Kodi suggestion of becoming a super hero and the fear of Luna's mysterious invitation to the Dawson Tech building. It was the strangest thing when Luna just asked out of the blue to come to Olivia's lab, when Robyn had asked why her big sister replied "We just want to make sure the medicine I gave you caused no side effects." I mean, what the hell? Robyn thought as she ate her breakfast She asks about the medicine the day I found out I have powers, it way too big of a coincidence.
She'd have to discuss it with Hannah and Kodi today, the wolf was picking up Kion, Hannah and herself in his newly acquired pick up truck and head to the Sherwood community centre for another day of volunteering. As Robyn finished her breakfast and put her bowl in the sink she asked herself mentally Should we tell Kion what's going on? Even though he was older than his three friends he was kind and wise beyond his years, he was sort of the cooler older brother of the gang, it felt wrong to keep him in the dark but on the other hand it seemed unfair to pile any more stress onto the already troubled lion. "Not yet." Robyn told herself as she went to get changed out of her PJs.
An hour later the four friends pulled into the community centre's parking lot and got out of the truck, "Ready for another day?" Kion asked, dressed in old jeans and a red flannel shirt covering a white vest.
"As long as I don't have to scrub toilets again." Kodi groaned, holding a small sports bag "I brought some of my magic tricks, I was thinking I could put on a show for the kids in the wave town."
"Aww that's nice." Hannah commented, unfolding her cane and looping the band around her wrist.
"Your Mom must be happy your helping out, since she's so big on charity." Robyn added, knowing that Gazelle was a patron of many charities and used her vast wealth to help the less fortunate.
"Yeah, she was practically bouncing up and down at the news." Kodi smiled, but his smile soon faded as he saw two police cruisers parked right by the entrance "What the?"
"What is it?" Hannah asked, able to sense the shape of the cars but not the details.
"It's two cop cars, something bad must've happened." Kion answered, hoping that he was wrong.
"Let's find out." Robyn said, praying that the Sherwood wave town had not become as lawless as the others.
The group walked in to find the usual crowd of mammals working missing, the only occupants in the room were four cops who were setting up crime scene tape, taking photos and evidence, with one of the cops; an anteater taking a witness statement from Alana Clearwater. The deer was sat in a chair speaking intently with the anteater copper, her left eye was closed and swollen and there a band aid covering a cut on her cheek, it was clear that she had been on the receiving end of a beating. Hannah could smell the blood coming off of the doe and mumbled "Oh no."
"Alana, you ok?" Robyn asked directly, marching over.
"Hey kid, clear off will ya'." The Anteater officer warned, giving a disapproving look to the four teens.
"Lay off, they're all volunteers here." Alana defended the group, her fiery personality still aflame despite a pummelling.
"What the hell happened?" Kodi asked, sounding more worried than angry.
"I was opening up the community centre for the day and this gang of punks jumps me and drags me inside, they put a gun to my head and made me open the safe." Alana explained, sounding pissed off.
"Safe? Why would this place have a safe?" Kion asked, looking around to see crates of food and building materials.
"It's where we store all our medicines, since the wave hit all that stuff is hard to come by, the stuff in the safe is meant for the mammals in wave town but now it's all gone. Antibiotics, insulin, inhalers you name it they took it, thousands of dollars worth of medicine taken by those bastards." Alana continued, her voice simmering with anger.
"So what happened with this?" Robyn questioned motioning towards Alana's swollen eye, her voice steely.
"I called the Razor who had the gun on me a cowardly asshole, so he pistol whipped me." Alana groused, folding her arms.
"Razor? You mean like a boar?" Hannah voiced her puzzlement.
"No, the Razors are a Sherwood gang, they are always dressed in silver of grey, bunch of little bitches if you ask me." Alana griped "Listen the cops have declared this a crime scene so no volunteering today, you guys should just head home."
"Right," Kodi sighed, feeling bad for the wave town residents "we'll see you another time."
"Take care and don't rile up any more gang members." Hannah half joked, heading for the exit.
"No promises." Alana ginned before going back to her conversation with the police officer.
When the four friends emerged from the community centre Kodi summed up the situation perfectly "Well that sucks."
"No kidding, why would they steal that much medicine in the first place?" Hannah wondered.
"To sell it," Kion answered "I heard my mom mention something about criminals selling prescription drugs since the wave, apparently their charging triple the normal rate and because mammals are desperate they are willing to pay for it."
"Dude that's just…." Kodi suppressed a growl, but his frustration was evident on his muzzle.
"It's horrible, I know, but all we can do now is let the cops do their jobs." Kion responded before adding "Listen I'm going to head to the city centre."
"I can give you a ride big guy." Kodi offered.
"No offence guys, but it's a personal matter." Kion deflected to the surprise of Hannah and Kodi, the lion was usually open about most things.
"Oh ok…" Hannah replied "We'll catch up tomorrow?"
"Sure." Kion gave a small smile before walking off towards the tram stop.
"Private matter?" Kodi asked out loud, once Kion was half way down the street "I wonder what it is."
"None of our business." Hannah shot down, tapping her cane on the floor to emphasise the point.
"Maybe he's got a date?" Kodi grinned "A nice girl…or guy. Say I can't remember Kion ever having a date with anyone."
"First of all; I repeat it's none of our business and secondly: Kion isn't into males." Hannah replied, sounding sure of herself.
"How would you know Stripes?" Kodi asked back.
"Easy; gaydar." Hannah smiled smugly.
"Is that so?" Kodi grinned "Well if your gaydar is that good how come you didn't realise Robyn was Bi?"
"…Damn it, you're right." Hannah responded, her smugness evaporating.
Kodi chuckled a bit before asking Robyn "What do you think Robyn? Has Kion got a date?"
But Robyn didn't answer, her navy eyes were focused, her face still displaying the frustration she was speaking with Alana with her mind electrified with thoughts.
"Um Robyn?" Hannah queried "You ok?"
"I'm thinking." Robyn responded bluntly.
"About?" Kodi pressed.
"How we're going to get that medicine back." Robyn answered in a quiet voice as not to alert anyone around them.
"Huh?" Hannah sounded.
Kodi realised what the red furred girl was on about and grinned "I'm in."
"Good, because tonight we're going to be heroes." Robyn said confidently…then immediately regretted saying it because it sounded cheesy as hell.
000
The bullpen of ZPD's precinct 1, the one place where every beat cop would see each other before attending to their various duties. Roll call was actually Judy's favourite part of her day since becoming chief, she felt a sense of pride every time she stood at that podium and handed out the assignments for the officers under her command, some of her cops had been in the force longer than her while others were just six months into the job, but she trusted each and everyone of them.
So as Judy approached the bullpen door, which was a little ajar so Lieutenant Clawhauser could see the short statured rabbit coming "Ten-hut!" Clawhauser announced in a booming voice triggering all the cops in the bullpen to rise to their feet and begin their usual whooping, roaring and howling as a sign of respect to their boss all the while banging their fists on the tables.
"All right that's enough," Judy warned as she hopped up to the elevated stool so she could be seen on the podium "sit down."
But as always her beloved brothers and sisters in blue kept on with their odd tradition of making as much noise as possible.
"CAN IT!" Judy barked loudly, playfully mean.
"Oh come on Carrots you know you love the attention." Nick teased, sat in the usual chair they used to share when they were partners.
"Is that so?" Judy smirked "Well I know someone who won't be getting any 'Attention' if he doesn't keep his mouth shut."
This caused an uproar of laughter in the bullpen with added jibes of "You're on the sofa tonight" and "A Bunny just savaged a Fox!" while Nick just took all the barbs on the chin.
"Alright, first item on the agenda," Judy read from her clipboard "three bodies were found in nearby derelict building; a female tapir, a male jackal and female hare. All of them had their wrists bound and were found with their heads in buckets of water, murdered by drowning. This matches the same situation with a double murder last week in the canal district, so we're classing this a serial killer case. We'll be working with the Major Crime Bureau on this but until they profile the killer we will be keeping this out of the media. So what do you answer if a reporter asks you a question?"
"No comment." Every cop in the room answered simultaneously.
"That's what I wanted to hear," Judy nodded "ok assignments; Delgato, Wolford I want you two on the beat in Sherwood, apparently the Razors are causing trouble again. Trunagabee, Grizzoli I want you to patrol the Wave town in Savannah central park. Ahmed, Samson and Li, you three will be on solo beat today. Clawhauser, Priderock..." But as Judy looked for Nala she was nowhere to be seen, she turned to Clawhauser and asked carefully "Where's Nala?"
"She called in sick." Clawhauser replied with a knowing look, they both knew that Nala wasn't really sick, she was taking Kiara's disappearance hard like any parent would.
Judy accepted that Nala needed time and didn't ask any further questions she just instructed her old friend "I need you to assist and guard at the murder scene with those three mammals, got it?"
"Got it, chief." Clawhauser smiled, it was an easy day guarding a crime scene, Judy was being charitable because he was without his partner.
Judy then looked to Nick and the six member of his SWAT team "SWAT are on standby for any calls, I suggest you go down to the firing range and practice. Oh and Wilde, commissioner Bogo is due here in ten minutes, he wants a talk with you, come up to my office ASAP."
"Old buffalo butt wants to see me? Why?" Nick asked, baffled.
"No idea." Judy admitted "Any questions before I send you on your way?"
Aleks, who was sat with the rest of the SWAT team, raised his paw and said "Ma'am."
"Yes Rojek?" Judy asked, unable to hide her smile at the fox she hoped would be her future son in law.
"I need to speak to both you and Captain Wilde." Aleks replied, sounding formal.
"Sure thing, head up to the office with your captain, we'll talk in a few minutes I just have to make a call. Ok everyone; dismissed." Judy ordered and everyone filed out of the bullpen, including Nick and Aleks who were walking side by side and had the same destination; Judy's office.
Nick glanced at Aleks and noticed a small smirk resting upon his grey muzzle, this caught Nick unawares, for the last 24 hours Aleks had been somewhat of a nervous wreck around him but now the young cop had a content smirk showing, this irked Nick and he asked in quiet but hostile manner "What are you smiling about?"
"Well if you must know Captain, it's because I learnt something last night." Aleks replied, unfazed by Nick's stinging tone. "When me and Luna arrived back at our place, she said she was proud of you for not acting like, and this is her words, a total dick. Don't worry I didn't tell her about your threat but then she told me something that made me smile."
"Enlighten me." Nick pressed with distain, the two foxes walking up the staircase towards Judy's office.
"Luna told me the story of when she first went to Bunnyburrow not long after her birth mother passed away, she told me how the chief's mother didn't like you and Judy being in love, but in the end she came round to the idea. Well that made me think of you captain." Aleks explained.
"The story is about me." Nick shot down.
"No, you're mistaken sir," Aleks gave a very vulpine grin "the way you've been acting is a lot like how your mother in law did."
Nick stopped in his tracks, that sentence actually hurt…because it was true. The sentence struck a nerve in the police captain but instead of admitting it was true he countered with "Me and carrots we're dealing with Bonnie's prejudice against inters, she was being stubborn, petty and unwilling to change."
"You mean the way you treated me yesterday?" Aleks threw back.
Nick tried to remain stoic but Aleks could clearly see the shame on his face "I…" Nick started but he had no reply.
"Listen Nick," Aleks began, making sure to use his superior's first name "I love your daughter and I know she loves me back, and whether you like it or not we're going to keep courting, so you can even support us and be part of her life or keep acting the way you are and lose Luna, it's your call."
Nick stood silent for a moment, his mind conflicted, part of him wanted to punch the snot out of the rookie but deep down Nick knew Aleks was speaking the truth "I'm sorry." He said, feeling humbled.
"It's ok," Aleks accepted before adding with a smiling whisper "and just so you know if you ever put an arrowhead against my throat again be rest assured I'll be pointing my gun at your crotch."
The two foxes stared at one another for a moment before bursting into laughter "Message received Rojek." Nick chuckled, he hated to admit it but his respect for Aleks just grew a little.
"What's this?" A puzzled voice asked, the two SWAT cops turned to see a baffled Judy looking up at them "Are you two actually getting along?"
"Let's call it a ceasefire fluff." Nick replied.
Judy seemed pleased with this news, she looked at Aleks and asked "So what did you need to talk with us about?"
"It's actually a social matter," Aleks revealed "my parents have been wanting to visit Zootopia for some time now but with the damage to the Airport in the earthquake they won't be able to get a flight from Poland for four or five weeks."
"Sorry to hear that." Judy sympathised.
"But me and Luna were talking and we thought it'd be nice if our two families met, would that be ok?" Aleks proposed.
"That sounds great!" Judy answered, a little two enthusiastically.
"I don't mean to rain on your parade but do your folks know that we're an inter couple?" Nick asked cautiously.
Alek's smile dropped as he spoke his realisation "I didn't even think of that but don't worry I've never known them to be prejudice."
"You best tell them before they come to America, it might be a bit of a shock otherwise ." Judy advised.
"I will, now I must head down to the armoury." Aleks ended the conversation politely before saluting his superiors before walking off.
"Ugh that kid needs to quit it with the saluting." Nick groaned, as he watched Aleks descend the stairs.
"Never mind that," Judy said with a curious smile "how come you're not trying to throttle Rojek anymore?"
"…He told me some home truths, I guess I have been an asshole with this whole situation." Nick admitted.
"Dumb fox." Judy said with warmth before grabbing Nick by his tie and pulling him down into a kiss.
"AHEM!" A loud clearing of the throat ruined the romantic moment, Nick and Judy ended their kiss and saw Commissioner Bogo staring down at them "Public displays of affection between officers is forbidden in the precinct building." He said in his default grumpy voice.
"Is that so?" Nick smiled smugly in response "I seem to remember quite a few incidents of you and Clawhauser kissing before you got promoted to city hall."
Bogo looked embarrassed at this response and quickly changed the subject "Chief Wilde can you join me and your infuriating husband for this meeting? You should know about this to."
"Um, sure. Is there something wrong?" Judy asked back, sounding a little nervous.
"It depends on what you think about what I have to say." Bogo answered, walking into his old office with Nick and Judy following. Bogo sat in one of the guest chairs whilst Judy took her usual seat behind her desk.
Nick shut the door and asked "So what's this about Mason?" Knowing it was fine to use first names when it wasn't in front of the other officers.
"I had a meeting with some city councilmen and the governor last night, to discuss holding a snap mayoral election in a few weeks. The governor along with myself were hoping that one of the councilmen would throw their hat in and declare themselves a nominee, no one did." Bogo elaborated.
"So Zootopia's still without a leader." Judy sighed.
"And the Governor can't run things in the city forever, California is a big state and he's responsible for more than Zootopia." Bogo underlined. "So we started discussing a nominee who had no experience in politics."
"Ha!" Nick laughed "What kind of idiot would want to be mayor at a time like this?"
"Actually Nick we were kind of hoping you would be that idiot." Bogo answered.
"Me!?" Nick scoffed with disbelief.
"Nick as mayor?" Judy half laughed, feeling the same sense of bewilderment as her mate.
"What Zootopia needs now is hope and heart, you represent both of those Nick." Bogo attempted to persuade "The 'Heart of Sherwood' video has made you a symbol of unity in these troubled times, plus you're a cop with seventeen years service under your belt and let's not forget you helped solve the Night Howler case even before you were a cop."
"Before I was a cop I was a hustler, the only reason I don't have a rap sheet is plain dumb luck," Nick replied sounding doubtful "no one is going to vote for an inter fox."
"But Nick you could be the first Fox mayor of this city, I mean you were the first fox officer." Judy stated, seeing Bogo's point.
"I don't know…why don't you go for it Mason?" Nick deflected.
"I'm not really overflowing with charm, I scare most mammals." Bogo answered honestly "You have the charm to make speeches, you have the leadership skills to steer this city in the right direction and you've got a knowledge of this city unlike any mammal I know…I think you can do this."
"But I can't run for mayor, I don't even have the money to campaign." Nick dodged.
"Not a problem, the governor has a surplus in his campaign account, he can front your expenses." Bogo offered a solution.
"Look I….I need some time to think about this." Nick said, feeling overwhelmed.
"Of course, sleep on it, but we need an answer and soon." Bogo replied, getting up and exiting in the office leaving Nick and Judy to think about this seemingly life changing decision.
000
Kion Priderock entered through the front door of his home and could hear the sound of TV from the living room, the door was slightly ajar and he could see his mother drinking a cup of coffee and watching some dumb reality show. Kion said a quick "Hey." Before heading to the kitchen.
"Hey," Nala replied, sounding drained "weren't you supposed to be volunteering until after six?"
"It got cancelled, the place was robbed and it's been declared a crime scene." Kion answered, walking into the kitchen and accidentally bumping into his Dad who was getting some ingredients out of a cupboard "Sorry."
"It's alright." Simba replied, setting the ingredients on the counter, the lion then spotted a leaflet on the floor by his son's feet "Hey you dropped something." He then crouched down to pick it up.
"Wait-" Kion panicked, trying in vain to stop his father reading the leaflet.
The leaflet had the stars and stripes covering it with the words 'Join the US army' in bold black letters "The army? Kion, please tell me you're not thinking about this."
"Dad, I graduate soon and this a great option." Kion manoeuvred.
Nala had overheard the words and stated harshly "You're not signing up."
"But Mom..." Kion began to reason.
"No buts, I forbid you from signing up." Nala shot down bitterly.
"I'm 18, I can sign up without your permission." Kion defied causing Nala's scowl to grow.
"What about college, you've applied for law school, what happened to becoming a district attorney?" Simba questioned, sounding more worried than angry.
"That's still my plan, I do two years in the army and I can have enough money to fund myself through college." Kion pitched.
"You're lying," Nala glowered, getting in Kion's face "I can always tell when my cubs are lying to me. What's the real reason?"
"…Kiara." Kion confessed, feeling under pressure from his mother's stare.
"Not this again," Simba sighed sadly "Kion the army is hiding nothing about Kiara."
"How can you not see it? The base was not affected by the tsunami, it is too far inland. Kiara left here three hours before the wave hit and yet she somehow disappears without a trace." Kion argued. "If I join up I might finally get some answers."
"Here's your answer; your sister is dead, let her rest." Nala said bluntly with tears in her eyes.
"I know it's hard to accept but she's gone Kion, like the millions of others." Simba supplemented with a mourning tone.
"Why are you two giving up on her so easily!?" Kion crowed, his frustration clear in his voice.
"You think this easy for us?" Simba cried "This has been the hardest thing we've been through!"
"Hard? All you've done since Kiara went missing is sit around the house moping, you didn't go out searching for her, I did. Who had the guts to call the barracks and ask them about Kiara? Me. Who has never stopped believing that's she is out there somewhere, me!" Kion yelled, squaring up to his old man.
"Don't you talk your father like that!" Nala scolded.
"And you're just as bad!" Kion fired back "Both of you were so quick to decide that she was dead…Kiara would be ashamed of you two."
With that last string of words made Nala snap, in a flash of anger she lashed out and threw a fist into Kion's nose sending the teen tumbling to the ground with both nostrils streaming blood. At first Kion thought he was dreaming, Nala had never hit either of her cubs ever, yet the thumping pain and warm blood trickling from his nose confirmed this was reality.
Nala looked mortified at what she had done, she was trembling. Simba's face displayed his utter shock at the act of violence. Nala began to panic and wept "Kion I d-didn't…" she reached out to touch him but Kion bolted up and barged past his parents with his nose still bleeding and his heart breaking.
"KION!" Simba called after his son as the teen lion charged out the front door.
"….what have I done?" Nala uttered still weeping, feeling a worse pain in her heart than any punch to the face.
Kion was running for a solid ten minutes, with the blood from his nose drying into the fur of his muzzle and his eyes itchy and stinging from crying, he ignored the weird looks he was receiving from mammals he ran by. After a while though, his muscles began to ache and he became short of breath due to his crying, he came to a standstill in front of convenience store and put his paws on his knees trying to catch his breath. "I hate them." Kion cried to himself, he then clenched his paws and repeated "I hate them." Before inhaling deeply and letting a powerful roar erupt from his mouth, it lasted for a moment then Kion fell silent with only his woe and tears to keep him company.
"Hey you." A voice barked, Kion's vision focused on the voice, in the doorway of the shop was a female spotted hyena in her late teens, she was dressed in a pair of jeans and the green polo shirt uniform of the convenience store. Her fur was grey with large black spots, her mane was jet black with purple streaks running though her luscious hair, she had big beautiful blue eyes and just radiated allure. The hyena didn't notice the blood at first, no the first thing this beauty saw was the tears in the Kion's brown eyes and she instantly asked "You ok buddy?"
"S-sorry." Kion stammered, looking away from the hyena, he felt like crap, he looked like crap and right now he didn't want to talk to any mammal, especially a very attractive girl.
"Do you want to come inside, clean yourself up?" The Hyena offered, walking over to Kion.
"I don't want to be a bother." Kion responded, avoiding eye contact.
The Hyena put a gentle paw on Kion's arm "Look dude, it's seems you're in the need of a cup of coffee and Kleenex for your nose, so come on in."
Kion finally met the gaze of the kind hearted girl, she had such a caring look in her eyes and he was in such need of comfort he just sniffed "Ok."
The Hyena guided Kion into the store while saying "My name's Jasiri, what's yours red?"
"Kion." He replied, wiping away some of his tears and wishing that he was meeting this hyena under much better circumstances.
000
The unlikely trio of wannabe heroes had converged at Kodi's home on the Savannah Central/Meadowlands border. Kodi had driven to both Hannah and Robyn's places for them to collect some stuff for their crazy plan of going against the razors. Kodi parked the truck in a garage that he rented a few blocks away from his house to avoid any awkward questions from his parents. Kodi's home was actually a mansion built in the early 1900s which Gazelle bought early in her music career it had fifteen bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a large dining room, a gym, a newly built music studio, a pool, a games room and beautifully maintained gardens.
Hannah who carrying a large holdall bag took in the smell of the garden as they walked up the driveway "The flowers smell beautiful." Hannah sighed happily, her heightened senses made her appreciate the smell more.
"Yeah Mama loves the garden, she writes most of her music while chilling out here." Kodi commented.
"So are we sure it's ok to hold our strategy meeting here? Won't your parents and sister get suspicious." Robyn asked, sounding unsure. Her regular rucksack was slung on her shoulder full of supplies.
"Don't worry about my family, my parents are going out of town tonight for some charity art show and Sasha is going to a sleepover at a friend's place. We'll just tell a white lie to them." Kodi assured.
"White lie?" Hannah sniggered, her cane hitting the steps up to the door. "We're planning to rob from a ruthless gang."
"Just wing it," Kodi brushed off "you've both got fox blood, so be sly."
"Hey that's a negative stereotype." Robyn huffed.
"Oh please you call a horny wolf all the time." Kodi parried, putting his paw on the scanner for the high tech security system, the front door unlocked with a female computerized voice saying 'Welcome Home Kodi'
Kodi opened the large front door to find his father Wade dressed in his usual attire of jeans and one of his many red hoodies, he was stood checking something on his phone with two suitcases by him. "Hey Dad." Kodi greeted warmly.
"Oh hey," Wade smiled looking up from his phone "I didn't realise Hannah and Robyn were coming over."
"Hi Mr. Jones." Hannah said brightly, setting her holdall down.
"Hey." Robyn added with a little wave.
"You guys staying the night?" Kodi asked, looking at the girls' bags.
"Yeah since I've got the place to myself tonight I thought why not have a video game marathon like when we were kids." Kodi lied way too easily.
"Video games? Ummm…" Wade wanted to say something but felt awkward.
Hannah twigged on what he must be thinking and put him out the black wolf out of his misery "I can't see the tv but it'll be nice just to hang out."
"Was I that obvious?" Wade sighed, feeling terrible "How are you both feeling? I haven't seen you girls since we came to visit you in the hospital."
"Fighting fit." Robyn smiled, holding up her right arm and flexing her muscles.
"Meh I'm blind but at least I get this cool cane to whack Kodi with." Hannah joked, lightly swatting Kodi with her cane.
"Hey watch it." Kodi whined.
"Oh don't be such a cry baby." A voice teased, Kodi and Robyn looked up to see Gazelle and Sasha coming down the stairs together, the graceful pop star was dressed in a casual white blouse and blue skirt while Sasha was dressed in a simple red summer dress with her SLR camera around her neck.
"Aren't you supposed to be on my side?" Kodi complained to his mother.
"You need toughening up Mijo." Gazelle replied with a wink.
"Kodi can be tough." Sasha spoke up for her brother.
"Thank you," Kodi smiled, going over and ruffling the fur atop his sister's head "at least someone loves me."
"So Kodi said you two are off to some art show?" Robyn asked the Joneses.
"It's in San Diego," Wade answered "there's going to be an auction of artwork to raise money for the disaster relief fund for Zootopia."
"And my favourite artist is going to be there, Chris Peters, I love his work so much." Gazelle gushed.
"Isn't he that fox guy from Europe?" Hannah queried.
"That's him, he's actually a really down to earth guy, came from a working class background so he's humble with his success." Wade revealed.
Hannah then could sense someone standing in front of her, from the height of the person she assumed it was Sasha "You ok Sasha?" Hannah asked.
"Uh yeah, I was just wondering if I could ask you something." Sasha mumbled, sounding nervous.
"Sure, ask away." Hannah allowed.
"Can I take a picture of your eyes?" Sasha requested with awkwardness coating her words.
"Sasha!" Gazelle and Wade yelled in unison, feeling the question was insensitive.
"I don't mind." Hannah eased the angry parents.
"Really?" Sasha smiled "Thank you Hannah, I'm doing a project about people whose lives were changed by the wave and well…you've had a big change."
"That's an understatement." Hannah giggled "Go ahead, snap away."
Sasha turned on her camera and took four shots of just Hannah's crystal blue but still eyes before taking a few whole body shots with Hannah holding her cane "Thanks, these will really help with my project."
Gazelle finally took note of Robyn and Hannah's bags and queried "You girls stopping the night?"
"Yeah we're going to have old fashioned video game fest." Robyn fibbed.
"Oh…" Gazelle sounded, appearing conflicted.
"What's the problem Mama?" Kodi asked, noticing the strange look on her face.
"Listen I'm a very liberal mammal but…" Gazelle opened.
"But?" Kodi, Robyn and Hannah asked back in unison.
"Girls I know you two are dating and when you're a teenager you want to try new things but can I ask you not to sleep in the same room as each other tonight, you are still minors and too young for that stuff yet." Gazelle said, trying to be a responsible parent.
"Stuff?" Robyn mumbled before realising what Gazelle meant "W-what!? No, we wouldn't do 'That'!"
"We've only be dating a short time." Hannah added, the skin under her fur was hot with embarrassment.
"Oh for the love of…" Wade groaned, putting his hood up, hardly believing his wife had said such an embarrassing thing.
"We're not at that point yet." Robyn babbled, hiding her embarrassed face with her long ears.
"Mamá, ¿qué diablos? ¿Por qué dijiste eso? ¡Por supuesto que no tendrán sexo bajo nuestro techo!" "Mama what the heck!?" Kodi blurted out in Spanish "Why did you say that? Of course they're not going to have sex under our roof?"
"Lo harías si tuvieras una loba alrededor." "You would if you had a she wolf around." Gazelle justified, in her mother tongue.
"No son como yo, se aman y se respetan" "They aren't like me, they love and respect each other." Kodi argued.
"So if mammals love each other they don't have sex? I'm confused." Sasha chimed in, also in Spanish.
"¡Eres demasiado joven para hablar de sexo!" "You are way too young to be talking about sex!" Kodi replied quickly.
"And for once I'm glad I can't speak Spanish." Wade grimaced.
"Amen." Hannah agreed, noticing that Robyn's heart rate was like a jackhammer with her super powered sense of hearing.
Fifteen minutes later after some awkward farewells the three friends were in the games room ready to discuss the plan, Kodi had put his laptop on the edge of the poker table so they could begin their plan. Robyn fished out a USB stick and passed it to Kodi "Plug this in, but make sure you disconnect from the internet before you open it in case it's traced." She instructed.
"What's on here?" Kodi asked, doing as he was told.
"It's my Dad's ZPD SWAT files." Robyn answered.
"What!?" Hannah barked "Are you nuts? You just stole police documents."
"Relax babe, my Dad leaves this laying around the apartment all the time, he won't notice that it's gone." Robin alleviated "Last week I heard my Dad say to my Mom about a cancelled raid on the Razors' compound because of a problem with a warrant, he was complaining that he made a perfect plan as well, I bet that infiltration strategy is on this drive."
Kodi typed at a few keys and smiled "There it is; Operation dull razor." Kodi opened up the file and there was a schematic of the Razor compound which was in fact an old scrap yard. There was a heavily guarded main gate but there was a hole in the fence by one of the storage sheds, which was marked with red letters 'Intelligence states drugs, stolen goods and firearms are stored here.' "That shed is our main target."
"It also says we've got two guards on the door." Robyn grumbled "We're going to have to take care of them quietly so the alarm isn't raised."
"Then we grab the medicine and hightail out of there." Kodi reminded. "We're only there for the meds."
"But in case things get loud, I brought an old friend along." Hannah smiled, going over to her bag, unzipping it and pulling out a shotgun.
"What the hell is that!?" Kodi squawked.
"It's my shotgun from my sport shooting days." Hannah answered, resting the gun on her shoulder.
"We can see that, the real question why in the hell do you have a gun? We're not going to kill them!" Robyn blasted.
"It's loaded with rock salt shells, it will stun them and hurt like a bitch, but it won't kill them." Hannah smiled "I've still got my aim and I got a satchel of thirty extra shells if I need them."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Kodi willed "so what are we going to do about our identities? If they go back to the community centre they'll spot us right away."
"That's why I got these," Robyn replied, rummaging through her rucksack and pulling out three black ski masks complete with extra holes for big ears "ta-da!"
"Dude you think those will work?" Kodi asked dubiously. "Our ears are going to stick through them."
"You got any better ideas?" Robyn sassed.
"…Nope." Kodi conceded, praying that luck would be on their side tonight.
000
Marian Wilde had been busy since she found out Phelps arms was reverse engineering Olivia's technology for their own twisted agenda, she had found one of their other labs hidden in plain sight in the rainforest district not far from a police station, the lab had been bought through dummy corporations but the paper trail led back to Phelps arms. Marian had hacked into the lab's security camera feed with ease and could see that they were indeed working on Olivia's elixir technology. But to Marian's surprise though she had spotted flight lieutenant Ray Kamino snooping around the lab grounds before going in and asking at the front desk about security guards jobs while planting his own surveillance equipment, it appeared that the white tiger and his fellow Camelot operatives were planning to raid the place pretty soon which meant Spitfire had to get there first and destroy whatever remained of the elixir tech so it couldn't fall into the wrong hands.
Olivia who was dressed in the jumpsuit she usually wore when piloting the Spitfire mech was sitting with Marian and Robin senior in the observation deck of the bunker keeping a close eye on the lab's cctv, she was sipping a cup of tea, with a load of sugar stirred in and relaxing before the mission "This should be a piece of cake."
"Don't jinx it." Robin sr warned.
"You always were superstitious." Marian bantered.
"Can you blame me? Half of a thief's success depends on luck." Robin sr. replied.
"Look as soon as we get this tech back we can focus on searching for Kiara, even if we just find her body her family deserves to know what happened to her." Olivia interjected, this whole op felt way too personal.
"Do you think she's dead?" Marian asked the hard question.
Olivia sighed before answering "I saw her get crushed by a building but when I went back there the next day I couldn't a trace of her, not even blood. For that reason alone I think she's alive."
"I hope your right, even if she did steal from you I always liked Kiara." Robin sr said solemnly.
Marian was about to agree with the old thief when she noticed something another monitor, it was the screen displaying Hannah and Robyn's steel blood data but she was more specifically looking at the GPS data that was on screen "What the?" before gliding over on the wheeled desk chair to take a closer look, the girls were in Sherwood more specifically the wrong part of Sherwood where the infamous Razors had set up shop. "You got to be kidding me." Marian snarled, pulling the keyboard towards her and hacking the street traffic cams to see three figures in ski masks getting out of a pick up truck, one of them was carrying a shotgun. "Olivia you need to get to Sherwood now!"
"Why what's wrong?" Olivia wondered, looking over at the screen.
"Robyn and her friends are about to do something that'll get them killed." Marian growled.
000
Hannah had left her cane in the truck, truth be told she didn't need it she only used it to keep up the appearance of a normal blind girl instead of a super powered blind girl. She gripped her shotgun and felt a warm sense of nostalgia, it felt good to hold a gun again, even if she was unlikely to fire it. "Here we are." Robyn whispered, her large lapin ears sticking out of the ski mask.
"Hannah can you sense the hole in the fence?" Kodi asked with low volume, his ski mask was a tad too small for his face.
"Yeah I can feel no static." Hannah confirmed.
"Ok I'll head in first, then it's you babe and Kodi you bring up the rear. Stay low and keep quiet." Robyn relayed instructions, both Hannah and Kodi nodded signalling Robyn to crawl through the hole. She kept crawling on her stomach for ten or so meters before coming up on the right side of the storage room. Luckily it was dark enough for the teens to go unnoticed but at the door under a bright light were two guards one a leopard and the other a porcupine dressed in the Razors' gang colours of grey both of them had submachine guns on show, however they were both distracted with a youtube video on the leopard's phone. A quick idea formed in Robyn's mind before she whispered to Hannah and Kodi "Stay down, I'm going to take care of these two."
And before the others could protest Robyn launched herself with her powerful legs with both paws outstretched, in a fraction of a second she took both henchmen's heads and slammed against the metal door of the shed knocking them out. "Come on." Robyn signalled to Hannah and Kodi, as she searched the two unconscious men for a key which she found in the leopard's back pocket.
"I'll keep an eye out for any Razors, you grab the meds." Kodi uttered, grabbing the guards' guns and throwing them away in case they awoke.
"Ok." Robyn concurred, unlocking the door, opening it and…"Ugh." Was the sound coming from Robyn's lips, she didn't feel that much pain but she could see an Armadillo garbed in Razors colours with a machete in one hand, her bulging navy eyes looked to where that machete was pointing, it had pierced her through the chest and gone through her back with blood oozing from her.
"Little bitch trying to steal from us!" The Armadillo bellowed.
Robyn just did a tutting sound, shoved the armadillo into the wall winding him before Robyn unsheathed the machete from it's bleeding scabbard and letting fall to the floor. The hole in her chest sealed up in the blink of an eye as Robyn smirked "Watch who you're calling a bitch."
"W-what the hell are you freak?" The Armadillo garbled, terrified at what he was seeing. Hannah rushed in and aimed her shotgun at the gang member's unarmoured face, putting further fear into the Razor.
"I'm a zombie." Robyn jested "And I'm going to eat your brain if you don't hand me all the meds you've stolen."
Hannah could smell rubbing alcohol and the chalky scent of pills coming from a chest in the corner of the room, she dropped her empty holdall on the floor "Open that trunk and put all the medicine in there." She ordered.
"Y-y-you can't rob this, we'll find you, we'll kill you." The armadillo reacted with fright.
"You can't kill what can't die." Robyn growled, baring her claws in a threatening manner. "Now open the trunk ass wipe!"
"Ok, ok." The Armadillo caved in, going over to the chest and opening it, he grabbed the holdall and started scooping boxes upon boxes of prescription drugs into the bag.
"Faster." Hannah threatened before turning to say to Kodi in the doorway "How's it looking out there?"
But as soon as Hannah turned to ask this question the armadillo pulled out a hidden handgun from the chest and was about to fire it at Hannah, she heard him flip the safety off and quickly dodged the bullet as he pulled the trigger, Hannah reacted by fire a round of rock salt into his abdomen, causing him to fall back and wail in pain "Shit!" Hannah cursed, picking up the hand gun putting the safety back on and tucking it in the back of her jeans.
"We have to get out of here, the others would've heard those shots!" Robyn panicked, picking up the holdall of meds.
"Uh guys?" Kodi gulped "We got company." Before running inside the shed to join his friends.
Robyn looked outside to see a dozen members of the Razors approaching them, armed to the teeth and had murder in mind "Oh this is just great." Robyn moaned, desperately trying to figure out a way to get her, Hannah and Kodi out of this alive.
(AN/ DUN DUN DUN! How are the gang going to get out of this one!? What did you guys think? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Review! Next time on Star Of Ceartais Robyn learns some surprising family secrets, Kion defies his parents and a another hero is brought into the fold. Please Review and C YA SOON!)
