-Biotech Labs-

-Unknown Location-

"I'm surrounded by a bunch of incompetent fools! They don't understand the true revolutionary idea of my sweet creation."

A husky wearing a lab coat walked through a set of double doors into a lit up white room. He was carrying a vanilla folder in his right paw while carrying a glass vile filled with a glowing purple liquid in the other. "I'm just working with a bunch of money hungry psychopaths," the husky sighed. "I suppose it's the price I have to pay to earn the proper funding and for having those vicious, blood-thirsty psychopaths get me fresh young specimens." He said, throwing the folder onto a nicely shined operation table. He brought the glass vile up to his eye level and examined it intently; fixated by it's glowing contents. "I wonder..." He said, looking over to a collection of medical supplies, and instruments laying on a table just a few feet away from him. He fixed his eyes on an empty syringe laying motionless on a stainless steel tray, he moved his eyes downward, lifting up his right paw in the process, he opened up his right paw and stared at it with immense curiosity. After a few minutes of thought, he closed his paw forming a tight fist, he turned and walked over towards the syringe with the vile still at paw. "I'll show him who's place, I'll show them all..." But just as he was reaching for the syringe, he heard someone knock on the set of double doors he had recently barged through.

"Doctor, the new batch of test subjects you've requested have just arrived." A male voice said. The brown husky turned and faced the direction of the voice. A fellow scientist, who was a deer, had knocked on the door and peeked only his head through the doors.

"Excellent, have we had any progress on the capture of 986?" The husky said, glancing over at his colleague's location.

"No, sir." The deer replied, getting a upsetting sigh from the brown husky:

"I'll be right out. Give me a couple of minutes." The husky said, followed by the deer nodding his head, leaving brown husky alone to his own thoughts. "There's no other perfect candidate... But I'd rather not let them suffer being orphans, whose parents were murdered without hesitation or grief, with their voices silenced and their pleads tossed off with wind." The doctor said coldly, leaving the syringe alone. He walked over the last place he left his clipboard, but before he picked it up, he quickly straightened his lab coat and adjusted his spectacles before picking it up and walking towards the same set of double doors he entered through. "I've destroyed countless lives to just simply enhance the predator's gene; to simply EVOLVE it, yet I let my own creation, MY only prime example of THE perfect predator slip through my fingers." He sighed and straightened his posture before stepping outside the door.

"Until then, others will have to suffer the same fate as every other unworthy candidate..."

-Nick & Max-

"Here we are! 'Billy's Ice Cream Parlor'." Nick said, as Max gazed upon a beautiful pink bricked building with a huge ice cream sign just above the stores front entrance. It was around 3:45 in the afternoon, Nick had to unfortunately live up to his promise take Max out for ice cream even if he did go against direct orders. But after their close encounter with Spark and his silent goon, he thought it'd be a good opportunity to calm his nerves and maybe get to know Max a little. Although, Judy had lost her side of deal, she was in charge of making dinner but Nick, being the nice fox that he is, promised Judy he'd here give her tomorrow off, offerings to take care of Max for the whole day so she could go out to do whatever bunnies do in their free-time.

"I've never been inside before." Max said, remembering all the times he was shooed away by employees because he was homeless and probably because he smelt really bad, but now they had no reason to shoo him away, he has a responsible adult to cover for him, plus he doesn't have a putrid smell anymore. "What does ice cream even taste like?" Max asked, as Nick held open the entrance door for Max to pass through.

"Hmmm, I think its best if you'd figured it out for yourself." Nick chuckled. The parlor itself was built to service medium sized mammals or slightly smaller mammals, which suited both Nick and Max perfectly. "In fact, I'll buy you the 'Triple Threat'." Nick grinned slightly.

Nick and Max took to the back of line; waiting behind a decent sized line consisting of six other mammals. Max made sure to stay close to Nick, he watched as mammals licked away at their sweet icy treats each having different colored scoops like pink, dark brown, and a whitish colored scoop, but some other mammals had what looked like colored ice on small wooden sticks which were mainly red, blue, green, and purple. Max looked down the line and noticed the line had moved down three mammals.

"We're almost there." Nick said walking forward a bit as another mammal received their frozen treat of choice. Nick planned on buying himself a simple popsicle since he really just came to buy Max something.

It was finally Nick's turn to order, he walked up to the register and saw a beautiful blue-eyed female cheetah working the register. "Hi! Welcome to Billy's Ice Cream Parlor. What can get you?" The female cashier said. She looked down at Max, and gasped. "Who's this beautiful little pup?" She reached down and pinched Max's cheek. Max blushed and hid behind Nick. "You remind me of my son Tyler." She chuckled, looking up at Nick. "Oops, I'm sorry, sir. I got a little carried away." She said, clearing her throat. "What can I get you two?"

"Don't worry about it, and can I get one Triple Threat for little Max here," Nick said, patting Max on the head. "And a red popsicle for me." Nick replied, getting a wide eye response from the female cheetah.

"Woah, are you sure he can handle the Triple Threat?" She said raising an eyebrow.

"Little Max here can handle anything. Right?" Nick said turning his head to face Max, who nodded in response. The female cheetah laughed and placed the order into the register.

"That'll be $5.99." She said. Nick reached into his right pocket and pulled out a brown wallet, taking out the exact amount of money asked of him.

"You know, you're lucky to have a father who has time to spend with you," she said, taking the money from Nick. "My son rarely spends any time with his father, since his father is always working."

"Oh, he isn't my son." Nick quickly corrected.

The female cheetah gasped, and covered her mouth in surprise. "I'm so sorry, I thought you were his stepfather or something." She quickly apologized.

"Its alright." Nick shrugged the misunderstanding off. "Where does your husband work? If you don't mind me asking." Nick asked, hoping to pass a little time while the employees in the back prepared Max's Triple Threat ice cream.

"He works for the government," shortly after an employee handed her a ice cream cone with three different scoops one being vanilla, the other being chocolate, and the last was strawberry, garnished with a little bit of rainbow sprinkles, and a bright red cherry on top. "Here's your Triple Threat." She said, handing the large cone to Nick, who handed it down to Max. "And your popsicle."

"Thanks, Ms?" Nick said, waiting for the female cheetah to respond with a name.

"Just call me Allison." She giggled.

"Well thank you Allison." He said, leaving with Max, who had already been licking the tall ice cream cone, towards an open table. "What do you think?" Nick asked.

"It's really cold, but it tastes SO good!" Max replied, as he continued licking the ice cream.

"I'm glad you like it." Nick said, making a low sigh afterwards. "My mom used to bring me here all the time."

Max tilted his head in confusion when he noticed Nick was frowning and was instead staring at his wrapped popsicle instead of eating it. "Why are you sad." He asked.

Nick let out another sigh. "I haven't been here since I was a pup, I never thought I'd be back here again."

"How come?" Max replied, curious as to why Nick never returned to this place since he was a pup.

"Well, I don't really like to mention this to anyone but when I was 10, my mother had gotten really sick and I was really scared for her, so she promised to take me here to make me feel better, but...," Nick paused, and wiped a little tear that was beginning to form in one of his eyes. "She wasn't able to fulfill her promise."

Max lowered his head in silence, he understood exactly what he meant by his mother not fulfilling her promise, he never knew how it felt to lose a parent or someone really close to him, but despite not knowing these he still felt his sadness.

Nick noticed that his story had saddened Max, which slowly formed a smile on his muzzle. "Don't feel bad Max, it happened a long time ago and besides, I feel like I've fulfilled her promise by bringing you here." He said.

Max lifted his head. "Really?"

"Yeah, now eat your ice cream before it melts." Nick said, pointing at Max's Triple Threat.

Max began licking the ice cream which sent him into a trance. Nick chuckled and unwrapped his popsicle so he could begin licking his eating it. He watched as ice cream dripped from Max's ice cream cone, which dirtied his paws. He also managed to get ice cream all over his muzzle in the process.

"Slow down, you're getting ice cream all over yourself." Nick said, but Max ignored him and continued on with his licking spree. Nick sighed and stood up from his chair. "I'll go get us some napkins. Stay here." He said, walking off to collect some napkins. Like before, Max had completely ignored Nick since he was so mesmerized by the delicious frozen treat, but his fixation was suddenly broken when he noticed something interesting in the corner of his eye... Something he couldn't help but approach.

Nick had located a container that distributed white colored napkins at a nearby counter, he collected a good amount of napkins before turning to walk back towards his and Max's table, but he lowered his ears when he turned. The ice cream parlor had suddenly entered rush hour and what seemed like hundreds of customers blocked his path back to Max. "Oh no..." Nick groaned. He slowly walked forward into the crowd, he felt himself being pushed around once he entered the crowd.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" A male tiger snarled, as Nick was shoved into him.

"S-Sorry, sir!" Nick quickly apologized, before he was once again shoved into another mammal.

"What the hell man!" The mammal yelled at Nick.

"Sorry." Nick apologized once again but fortunately, after what seemed like an eternity of constant shoving and apologizing, he had finally made it out of the crowd. He was finally able to spot his table, but Nick's eyes widened when he did, he dropped both his popsicle and the napkins. "Max..." He said in a low tone, as the seat that held Max was now empty and he was nowhere in sight. "Max!" Nick yelled, running over to the table. He looked all over the table even checking underneath the chairs. "No, no, no, NO! Judy is going to kill me!" Nick said, placing both of his paws on his head as he panicked. But there a glimmer of hope, just a few inches away the table was a trail of melted ice cream droplets. Nick quickly followed the trail, which led back into the large crowd. He groaned in annoyance but he readied himself nevertheless, he wasn't gonna leave without Max.

Nick charged through the crowd following the trail as he was once again pushed and shoved around, he ignored all the angry insults made towards him and kept pushing through, before he tripped on someone's foot, which was followed by him landing face first into a large clearing. He let out a pain filled groan, as he slowly lifted himself up onto his two feet, dusting himself off afterwards, but what he saw next sent a stream of relief throughout his body. He watched as Max stood quietly staring up at a colorful vintage 1950's Wurlitzer Jukebox, which the parlor had probably kept for generations, while he held his ice cream cone with both of his paws, slowly licking it as he stared up at the old Jukebox.

Nick was baffled by Max's strange behavior. "Max?" He said trying to get his attention, but Max just ignored him. Nick slowly approached Max, placing a paw on one of his shoulders once he was close enough to him. "Max? Are you alright?" Nick asked.

Max turned his head to look up at Nick. "Can I have a nickel?" Max replied, which caught Nick completely by surprise, since the response was completely out of the blue.

"Uhhh, sure?" Nick said, reaching into his pocket for his wallet, he opened it and located a single nickel, which he extended towards Max. He took the nickel from Nick and handed him his melting ice cream cone in exchange, which Nick held with disgust, and watched as Max walked up the the jukebox and was barely able to reach the coin slot, which he inserted the nickel into.

Nick watched as Max did his thing, he was surprised Max knew how to operate a 1950's jukebox even he didn't know how to operate one. Max hovered a finger over each of the buttons. He stopped his once his finger came over a button with the name "The Shells - Oh Baby Oh" worded to it's right. Max pressed the button and he backed away from the jukebox and watched as it automatically selected the record and automatically moved it to a built in record player.

As the song began to play, Max stood silently listening. He didn't know what he just did, or how he did it, yet he knew; he knew how to operate this colorful device as if he was once told how to by someone or something. But as he slowly bobbed his head to the rhythm he slowly closed his eyes and imagined a shadowy couple dancing along a wooden floor constantly maintaining direct eye contact with each other; although strangely enough, it sort of almost felt like a dream or a memory.

Nick slowly walked up behind Max and lightly grasped onto his shoulder with his clean paw. Max flinched to the sudden feeling of contact. "Where did you learn that?" Nick smiled. Max shrugged in response. "Do you still want your ice cream?" Nick asked, as he held the frozen sugary treat in front of Max, who grabbed it and continued taking small licks from it. Nick chuckled and lead Max away from the jukebox and back to their table, but this time Nick decided to politely go through the large crowd, which turned out to be more effective than forcing himself through.

Nick let out an angry groan when he saw that his table had been taken by another family and that every other table was taken as well. He sighed and looked down at Max. "What do you say we head back home?"

Max frowned, "Awww, I was hoping we could stay a little longer."

"Don't worry, we'll come back soon. I promise." Nick assured.

Max's expression quickly lit up with Nick's assurance. "Thank you so much!" Max said, giving Nick a quick hug, which left Nick with a few stains on his clothing.

Nick smiled and patted Max on the head. "You're very welcome."

-Biotech Labs-

-Unkown Location-

The black suited male brown bear that had been recognized as the Director of the Biotech Corporation was quietly observing the brown husky that he had come to call "Doctor" and appointed lead scientist of Project Tanzanite and Biotech's labs. He watched the doctor through a glass window, as he the tied down sobbing child, a predator, and quietly sent them to their ultimate demise. Silence quickly approached, as the young predator's body unfortunately rejected NH-79 resulting in a quick painful death.

A male figure, with a silhouette of a wolf wearing a black BDU, quietly stepped next to the huge brown bear, and stood watching as another child was dragged into the room. The Director sensed the figure's presence, but continued watching through the glass window. The figure let out a low sigh. "Has the great and powerful Holt come to marvel at his spendings?" The figure said in an extremely deep Russian accent.

The bear chuckled. "My nose once again fails to disappoint me. How's the eye Felix?"

The wolf crossed his arms. "Unscathed, although that little brat can really pack a punch."

The newly named, "Director Holt" turned his head to face the wolf standing next to him, who turned out to be the exact same male arctic wolf Max came across during his short lunch-in at the sandwich hut. "Has the mighty Feliks Novikov, the leader of our fierce security forces finally found his match?" Holt mocked.

The snow-white wolf named Felix closed his one golden eye and chuckled deeply. He glanced over to Director Holt, revealing the a black eyepatch strapped around his head covering his right eye. "I never said a child could be beat me," Felix lifted his right paw up to his head and tapped his head with his index finger. "What I know and have up here is enough to drive any sane mammal insane, I should be considered the most dangerous mammal in existence, I could kill a savage tiger with my bare paws." He said, bringing his arm back down to recross it with his other arm. "That little shit's time will come soon enough, and I'll be there to greet him when it does."

"Save your energy, we need him alive. Besides, I've been wanting to discuss the recent efforts done by the government to shut us down. Fortunately, one of my teams was able to aquire some 'interesting' information about one of the agents assigned on taking us down," Holt made an evil chuckle before continuing. "I believe you'd be quite interested in this new assignment."

Felix grinned. "Just tell me what to do."

Holt grinned as well. "Excellent..."


It's finally summer! And I'm back with another chapter! I've been working on continuing my State of Decay/Zootopia crossover if anyone is interested in partaking in it please feel free to let me know.

Please feel free to drop a comment on your way out and stay safe during y'alls summer.

Peace!