A muscular shirtless leopard was waiting for them on the bridge leading into the park. His arms were crossed, cutting an intimidating figure against the dim lighting of the lamp posts. As Nick and Judy approached the bridge, they could hear snarling and yapping on both sides of them, just out of sight. The two were shortly ushered to the leopard, who watched them with a fierce intensity. His voice was a smooth but commanding tone; that of one used to being listened to and obeyed.
"You're not welcome here. It would be advisable for you to turn back now."
"Or what? You gonna kill two police officers?"
"Wouldn't dream of it. Just telling you it would be in your best interest to leave."
"Go tell Caesar we want to talk to him. Unless he's too scared to talk to a bunny." The leopard's hackles rose, but fell into an odd palpitation that Judy realized was actually silent laughter. The leopard may have been laughing, but his smile was a mask. There was only the same cold fury in its eyes that had watched them enter the park during his sacred time.
"No one summons Caesar. If you want to talk to him, you'll have to find him." The big cat playfully scratched his chin. "Last I heard he was going to be hunting the woods today. You should check there. Or was it the caverns?" Now his laughter turned cruel. "I forget. But I'm sure you'll be just fine, what with being a fox and a cute little bunny and all." Judy felt her blood start to boil, but was able to keep her anger in check. He was trying to provoke her, make her see red. She would need to be mindful of her surroundings here, and with the realization came serenity. Judy brushed past the big leopard with Nick following closely behind. The leopard watched the two pass him before leaving the other side of the bridge and disappear into the trees.
"Judy…we need to be careful here. We don't know what these animals may be capable of. We shouldn't be provoking them unless we can help it." Nick's voice was a whisper, but in his effort to be discrete only tickled her ear with his breath. The two took one of the paths off of the main pathway and found themselves in a poorly lit copse of trees. The howling and yipping hadn't died down, Judy could hear animals breathing and growling just out of sight. The nexus of hostility was nearly palpable; involuntarily her body was becoming hypervigilant, ready to fly at a moment's notice. Nick was far from comfortable looking, his typically cool demeanor was long gone; in its place was that of a tense, nervous predator. Eyes focused, mouth tightened into a thin downturned line. It was so unlike him that Judy could hardly recognize her carefree fox. Up ahead, Judy thought she could make out a figure in the darkness. The lamp posts here had been broken so only the light from the main path and the city shone through the trees. She motioned to her partner and crept closer, trying to identify the shapeless mass. Nick grabbed her arm and put a finger to her mouth. She nodded, and he leaned closer to her and whispered:
"That's our missing cat…from the club. Looks like he's…preoccupied." As Nick described what he could see with his night vision, Judy crept forward, silent like the moon. Now she could hear it herself; obscene quiet moaning and rhythmic labored breathing. Even in the dark, Judy was afraid Nick would see her blushing, and redoubled her effort to focus on the cat. She held up a hand behind her back and gestured for Nick to move up to her position. When she felt him beside her, she snapped on her flashlight and illuminated the scene.
The cat looked as if he had just left the killing, still dressed in the black and red jacket of his fallen compatriots. His pants were hanging loosely from his hips, which were able to thrust into his partner four or five more times before he realized someone had a light on him. He cursed and pulled out of his partner before sprinting away from the duo, zipping up his pants as he went. Judy didn't bother looking to see if Nick would follow her, she just ran. The cat was fast, and knew the layout of the park better than Judy or Nick did. Fortunately for them, he mainly stuck to the path that wound deeper and deeper in the woods.
Nick quickly lost count of the twists and turns they had taken and before long they were definitely lost. If Judy was not just in front of him, he would've lost her. The thought motivated him to keep up with the athletic bunny, and had him thanking the gods for giving foxes night vision. As they chased after the cat, Nick became faintly aware of noise behind him. He quickly looked over his back and saw a number of dark flashes following the chase from the tree line, not ten meters from him. The creatures seemed content to simply follow them for the moment, but the feeling of being hunted settled into him. Then the two detectives found themselves running across the pavement of one of the primary pathways leading into the underground caverns. During their brief dash through the light, Nick glanced sideways and saw a line of animals squatting on the bridge leading into the city, and another group blocking the path into the center of the park. We're being herded. Then the detective followed his partner into the dim blue light of the ice caverns.
The caverns were simply tunnels carved into the bedrock of the city intended to look natural, while allowing the temperature to be kept moderately low as inexpensively as the city could afford. Each room in the caverns had a thin strip of walkway leading around the edge of the icy blue pools that occupied each individual room. The water was an underground continuation of the river that cut through the woods and the plains biomes. Nick saw his bunny disappear into the next room and sprinted after her. No matter how quickly he ran, Nick was only able to catch a glimpse of Judy's tail disappearing into the next room in the series of caverns until finally Nick came to a room where a maintenance door was propped open by his partner.
"C'mon Nick hurry up! He went through here!" With that, she was gone. It took Nick only a few seconds to follow after her, but he stopped short after crossing the threshold. The maintenance door wasn't actually a maintenance tunnel, but an entrance for actors to use to enter and exit the stage to the amphitheater without having to walk through the crowd. Except now, the crowd was a large group of half-naked animals on all fours perched on the seats and benches surrounding the amphitheater, hissing or growling at the newcomer. On the dais in the middle of the stadium was his partner. Circling around her was the mark they had been chasing, the black cat in the jacket. The door behind Nick slammed shut, and he didn't need to test it to know it was blocked shut. Nick joined his partner on the stage. The cat watched him cautiously, but otherwise remained silent. As the seconds ticked by, Nick wondered what was going on. Since when were police officers herded like lemmings into traps like this? Thankfully, Judy was not a patient girl.
"You were at the Lone Digger two nights ago during the attacks." The way she voiced the statement it was not even meant to be a question. The cat still did not speak, simply nodding like he was answering a child's simple question with as much dignity as he could muster.
"Witnesses say you started the attack. That makes you our only suspect." Not even a nonverbal answer this time, just a heartless, piercing stare. Nick silently wished his partner were less vindictive in situations like these, as this wouldn't be the first time she antagonized a criminal into doing something they all wound up regretting. This situation was different. He willed his partner to remember what they had discussed before going into this insanity.
"I-in that case, you are under arrest for murder." Nick slapped a hand to his face. The assembly surrounding them on all sides began to roar with laughter. Judy's ears shrunk behind her head. The cat grinned, but only held his hands out to signal for silence. When he eventually regained control of the crowd, he took another appraising glance at the rabbit.
"My, but you are a sweet thing. Lucky fox, right pal? Anyways, I want to ask you something rabbit. Who do you think your power comes from?" Judy glared at the cat.
"The police are granted their authority to enforce the law through a social contract with the citizens of society…they collectively grant police officers the right to deprive them individually of freedom for the safety of the group, based on rules set in place by a democratically elected government."
"What if an animal decides he doesn't want to participate in that social contract?"
"It doesn't matter what an individual wants, the majority rules in this case and there are avenues available for redress if a minority feel unfairly treated. Meaning even if you disagree with it, you are still under arrest."
"Ah, interesting. Wrong, but interesting. Your authority comes from us. Predators I mean. It's true; there are nine prey animals for every one predator in this city. Your authority exists because those with the power to destroy it have decided to allow it to exist because it benefits them. Think about it another way: predators in this society make up only 10% of the total population, but control 85% of the wealth in our economy. Money is simply another word for power and another way for those with power to control the rest of us. Take this situation for example." The cat gestured to the gathering on all sides of the dais. A cooperative growl rose from the throats of the animals circling them like sharks around a chum dump. Then the cat snapped his fingers and from the group several animals jumped to the stage and grabbed Nick and Judy, forcing them apart and holding Nick to his knees. The cat ambled over to where Judy was held.
"You have no power here because I do not allow you to." As he said this, he pushed her onto her knees, then onto her chest.
"I once read in a book that the power to cause pain is the only power that matters…the ability to kill, because if you can't kill and destroy then you are always subject to those who can. And nothing and no one will ever save you." As he said this, he lazily began undoing the fly on his pants. Sudden realization cut into Nick with a painful jolt. He was so stupid. They were being herded for a reason. These animals weren't afraid of the law, especially not when the responding officers were as weak looking as they. If he had been thinking they wouldn't even be close to this park. Nick's mind was racing, and quickly fixated on the only thing he could think of to save Judy. The cat pulled its member out of its fly as Nick blurted out his last best chance to save them.
"I challenge you!" He screamed, struggling against his captors. The mob roared with laughter again, but the cat didn't join in this time. He quizzically looked at the fox.
"What makes you think you have the right to challenge Caesar?"
"You're about to rape my mate. You trapped us what, twenty to two? Unless you're afraid of losing to a fox in front of your subjects, but that'd be pretty embarrassing for you if you lost." The desperation had gradually left his voice as Nick poked and prodded the cat. He had to hope the projection of power was enough to provoke the feline. To his great relief, the laughter in the crowd had turned into a slow chant of approval. If they were going to watch the spectacle then they wanted to see it all, blood and domination went well together. Caesar let his member rest on Judy's backside for a few moments more before standing back up and once again redoing his fly. He gestured to Nick's captors, who released him and joined the crowd once more. With his arms free, Nick weighed his grossly limited options. He could actually fight this cat, and he might be able to win. Except the cat was a killer, and had killed dogs larger than he with ease. He could grab Judy and make a break for it, although with the crowd there was little to no chance of actually escaping the amphitheater. Their radios had been mangled when they were captured. Nick put his paws up, preparing to fight. Caesar took his jacket off, tossing it on the side of the stage and hopping around, flexing his muscles and his retractable claws. Then he squared up against the fox. Judy looked up from her kneeling position, her normally composed self, gone. She was terrified. "Nick."
And that was all it took for him to decide. As the cat grinned and started walking towards the fox, Nick's hand slid behind his back and came forward with the revolver. Caesar's face lit up with surprise in the seconds before Nick leveled the pistol at Caesar's head and pulled the trigger. The bullet punched a hole through the sleek black cat's eye and exploded out the back of his head in a gout of blood and skull fragments. Caesar's body went stiff and collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. In the moments after the blast echoed throughout the park, silence followed. Nick turned his gun on the animals holding Judy down and they tossed their hands up as if to say they weren't involved. Nick pulled the trigger again.