Here's the next chapter of "Flight 1917". As I won't upload any other chapters this year, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year. See you all in 2018.
Clear skies and Smooth Landings,
Peter
After ushering an extremely out of breath Nick and Judy into his apartment, sitting them down on his couch and getting both of them a glass of water, Peter sat down in an arm chair across from them, and waited for them to catch their breath. After about five minutes of waiting, Peter decided that it was time to ask the question that he had on his mind since opening the door.
"Alright, what happened that got you, two highly trained police officers, to be so out of breath?
Peter waited for them to collect their thoughts enough to be able to answer, which Nick did, although he still sounded slightly out of breath, by saying "Well, Judy and I were discussing the conversation we had with Ivan, when my phone started to ring. I answered. It was our… ar at least my mother. She asked what I was doing, and I told her that I was with Judy, and that I was visiting you earlier. After that, we chatted for awhile, and just before she hung up, she said that she would call you. We started to run to try to get back to warn you."
"Well, it's a bit too late for that. She already called me."
After having said that, Peter couldn't help but notice the look of nervous worry on Nick's face.
"I don't think I messed up too badly. Although, she did say that her and your father want to come to Zeattle to watch the speech I'm going to give before the delivery flight. I tried to talk her out of it, but in the end all I ended up achieving was promising to get them tickets to Zeattle. For free."
Nick seemed to be in mild shock at Peter's statement. "You can do that?" he asked, sounding extremely confused.
Peter nodded. "Yes. I checked. It's one of the perks of being chief pilot of Pan Zootopian: the ability to get free tickets for friends and family. But right now, I'm much more worried about the fact that I'm going to be face to face with someone who has known this world's version of me for almost three decades. If someone's going to notice that I'm not the same person, it's going to be her. And if she does freak out, there are going to be a lot of cameras there to document it, which is going to cause problems. So, yeah. There's that."
Nick remained silent, but nodded and rubbed the underside of his muzzle as if he was deep in thought, silently agreeing with Peter, having come to the same conclusion as Peter did. If Peter had to guess, he would say that Nick was coming up with a plan to deal with this inconvenience.
Before anyone could say anything else, there was a series of loud knocks on the door. Peter was not entirely sure what he should do, as he still hadn't, and probably never will, get used to the fact that he is now an anthropomorphic wolf in the Zootopia universe.
"Alright, think. I'm not expecting anyone… or am I?" He quickly checked the calendar on his phone "No, I am not. But then… who could that be?"
That question, however, was quickly answered as a stern voice from the other side of the door called out "ZPD, open up!"
Peter's mind kicked into high gear at yet another unforeseen event.
"I'm starting to see a pattern here." Peter thought to himself "Something unexpected happens, I scramble to deal with it, and just as I get that sorted, another spanner gets thrown into the works. This will probably be the end of me. Oh well, let's deal with this."
He turned towards Judy "Judy, you get the door. You're one of the Zootopia Police Department's most famous officers, so hopefully seeing you will calm them down a bit." Peter said, in a tone which reminded Ivan of the times they had been scrambled due to a potential US first strike. He spoke with the same authoritative, no nonsense tone that he did when the "ICBMs incoming" alarm did.
Judy simply nodded before getting off the couch, which was almost comically too large for her, and walked over to the door. While she did that, Peter moved behind the couch, into a position in which he couldn't be seen until whoever was on the other side of the door had taken a few steps inside, and also in which he could quickly duck behind the couch if they tried to fire at him.
Judy then put her paw on the doorknob. Peter prepared to either duck behind the couch, or leap at whoever was on the other side of the door should that individual, or individuals try to attack Judy, as Peter wasn't entirely convinced that the mammal on the other side of the door was actually from the ZPD. However, he didn't voice this concern to Judy.
"I don't want to worry her by tellingher my suspicions, and hopefully the person on the other side of the door will realise that he is standing face to face with one of, if not the most famous officer of the ZPD, and not go through with whatever it is they are planning. I just hope that Judy doesn't realise that I'm using her as a weapon of intimidation, because if she does, she is going to kill me." he thought to himself, bracing as he saw Judy turn the doorknob.
She took a deep breath, then promptly swung the door open, which caught Nick, Peter and Ivan, who up to this point had been standing quietly in the kitchen, observing what was going on in the living room, off guard, as the door was sized for mammals that are between four and five times her size. A thought suddenly struck Peter: How did she reach the doorknob? Taking a quicklook at the door, he realised that it had two doorknobs, one about halfway up the door, and another halfway between that and the ground.
"Huh, I probably had that installed for when Nick came over." However, Peter decided that it was time to derail that train of thought, if the look of shock on Judy's face, and the fact that she was frozen in place like a deer in the headlights, or rather a bunny in the headlights, was anything to go by. However, the mammal on the other side of the door seemed to be just as surprised as she was, if the silence from that side of the door was an indication. At this point, Peter wasn't entirely sure what he should do.
"Should I step in and do something, or should I just wait for this to sort itself out?" he thought to himself. However, before he could make up his mind, the voice from before sounded from the other side of the door.
"Hopps?"
Judy seemed to take a few moments to gather her thoughts together before replying simply with "Chief?"
Peter did nothing for a few moments, waiting for them to continue. However, after waiting for slightly under a minute with neither Judy or the mammal on the other side of the door, who Peter assumed to be chief Bogo, saying anything, Peter decided to step in (quite literally, as he stepped into view of anyone on the other side of the door). Before he did anything else, Peter quickly confirmed that it was indeed Chief Bogo on the other side of the door, accompanied by a wolf and a tiger.
After neither Bogo or the other two officers acknowledged Peter's presence, Peter decided that, if anything was going to happen, it would be up to him to break the silence, which he did.
"I do apologise, but I have to interrupt this staring contest, otherwise we will be standing here all day."
This seemed to shake all four police officers out of their state of shock. Peter noticed that the Chief rolled his eyes, and had an irritated expression on his face. He looked as if he was about to retort, however he stopped when his eyes met Peter's. Bogo's eyes widened, and Peter noticed his right hoof going down towards the tranquiliser on his belt. Quickly glancing over at the other two officers, and noted that they were doing the same thing. Peter simply let out a sigh at this.
"Getting tranquilisers aimed at me twice in one day. I guess that today just isn't my day, is it?" he thought.
No sooner had he finished that thought than Bogo, the tiger and the wolf pulled out their tranquilisers and aimed them at him. Having had much more dangerous weapons aimed at him during his military career, Peter didn't even flinch, which seemed to catch everyone in the room off-guard. However, Judy and Nick quickly got over this shock, and immediately moved in front of people, in an attempt to protect Peter, and yelled "WAIT! Don't shoot!" which, Peter was very much aware was a futile effort, as most of his body was still an easy target for the officers armed with tranquilisers.
"Oh well." he thought to himself "I guess it's the gesture that counts."
However, their efforts did bear some fruit, as none of the officers actually fired on Peter. They did, however keep their tranqs aimed straight at Peter, not flinching except for a barely noticeable widening of eyes on Bogo's part, which, despite only existing for a few milliseconds, was noticed by Peter.
"Hopps, Wilde, step aside." Bogo ordered. However, neither Judy or Nick moved, which, Peter could tell was starting to agitate Bogo.
"Hopps, Wilde, step aside, NOW!" he yelled, leading to Nick responding in a similar tone.
"Not until you tell me why you have three tranquilisers aimed at my brother!"
Apparently, this statement caused surprised Bogo, as he lowered his tranquiliser, and stared at Nick as if he had just grown another head.
"Your brother?" he asked, incredulous. Nick simply nodded. Bogo, still confused, said "But he is a wolf." Bogo deadpanned.
Peter, starting to get annoyed at how slowly this conversation was going, snarkily and harshly responded with "Well, if you want to be specific, I'm a Sibearian grey wolf. And yes, I am Nicholas's brother. Last time I checked adoption is perfectly legal, and is relatively commonplace, in Zootopia. Now, I'm pretty sure the ZPD doesn't just go around knocking on unsuspecting mammals doors and pointing tranquilisers atthem. So answer me this: Why are you here?"
Bogo seemed to be surprised at what Peter said, and also at the tone he said it in.. The usually stern and unwavering buffalo hesitate with his response, due to the cold glare Peter was giving him. When he did, he sounded almost unsure of what he was saying. He tried to get his thoughts together before responding with "Well, we received a call from a mammal in Zootopia Central Park, who claimed that he saw a wolf, a fox and a coyote kidnapping a rabbit. We used the network of traffic cameras to confirm that there was a group of mammals as described leaving Central Park. When we found this group, we tracked them to this apartment. We were about to send a squad of officers to investigate the reported kidnapping However, before we could dispatch the squad, the officer I tasked with monitoring the traffic cameras…"
"Probably Clawhauser." Peter thought to himself, before shifting his focus back to what Bogo was saying.
"...reported that the fox and rabbit had left the apartment and were walking somewhere. We kept following them, trying to figure out where they were before we could, the fox appeared to talk with someone on a mobile phone, before both he and the rabbit turned around and ran back to this apartment. This confused everyone in Precinct 1. After all these things happened, I decided that it was necessary for myself and two of my best officers, Officer Wolford" he indicated to the wolf on his right "and Officer Fangmeyer" he indicated to the tiger on his left "to come and investigate whatever it is that is going on here." Bogo concluded.
Peter nodded at this and looked down, rubbing his chin. He met Nick's gaze, and could immediately tell that he was confused. Peter simply quirked his right eyebrow, not entirely understanding Nick's confusion. Peter simply looked back up at the chief, before stating "Well, as you can see, there are no kidnappers in this room. The supposedly kidnapped rabbit is one of the ZPD's most famous officers, who if anyone should, you should know just how capable she is of defending herself. So, as there is no issue here, I see no reason for you or the two officers accompanying you to stay." After having said that in a cold, neutral tone, Peter simply maintained eye contact with the Chief of Police, waiting for a response. Bogo simply nodded, clearly intimidated by the large wolf standing in front of him. However, the wolf officer had noticed something that, in all honesty, Peter was surprised no one else had noticed.
"Hang on, in the footage the group we observed consisted of a rabbit, wolf, fox and coyote. We have identified the rabbit as Officer Hopps, the fox as Officer Wilde, the wolf as you. But, we have yet to even see a coyote."
Peter gave a small smile and nod in response. "Quite observant, aren't you?" Wolford opened his muzzle to respond, Peter gestured for Ivan, who up to this point had been standing in the kitchen, observing what was going on in silence, to come out. Ivan nodded, and stepped into the view of the officers.
All three of the officers' eyes turned to the coyote stepping out of the kitchen. Peter looked between Ivan and the officers, before saying "This is my friend and copilot, Ivan. Ivan, these are Officers Wolford, Fangmeyer, and Chief Bogo." Ivan nodded and gave the officers a small wave. Wolford nodded at this, seemingly satisfied that every member of the group had been accounted for. Bogo also nodded. "Alright. If nobody has any more comments, I see no reason for us to stay." As no-one said anything, Bogo started to turn to leave, before stopping, and saying "Also, I would like to apologise for the disruption we have caused."
Peter simply waved dismissively "It's alright. I'd much rather have five minutes of my time being wasted because of a false kidnapping report than Police not responding to an actual kidnapping."
Bogo seemed surprised at Peter's response. "Most mammals would probably get angry if something like this happened to them" Peter thought. Bogo didn't say anything else, and just turned and left, along with the other two officers, Fangmeyer closing the door behind herself.
Peter let out a sigh, rubbing his forehead as he slumped down onto the couch, closing his eyes. He hoped that he could at least get a few minutes of peace to collect his thoughts. However, he wouldn't be given this reprieve from the insanity of the day, as Nick almost immediately aske, with great enthusiasm, "How did you do that?"
Letting out an aggravated huff, Peter opened one eye, which immediately homed in on Nick. "Do what?" he asked in a slightly aggravated tone. Nick, however, didn't seem to notice Peter's tone as he continued.
"Intimidate Chief Bogo. I mean, you could tell that he was nervous from the way he moved, and also the detail with which he recounted how he tracked us down. He usually gives much shorter descriptions. So, how did you do it?" Nick asked, again.
Peter let out a sigh, and stood up. Turning to Nick, he simply said "Well, maybe no other mammal he has ever met didn't flinch when they had three tranquilizers aimed at them." Peter then turned and started walking towards his bedroom. "I apologise, but I am dead tired from all… well, this." he said, gesturing all around him. "If you still have more questions, we can arrange another "meeting" tomorrow. But right now, I need sleep." After having said that, Peter walked into his bedroom, locked the door and flumped down onto his bed for the second time that day, this time actually falling asleep.
Out in the living room, Judy and Nick looked at each other in surprise at Peter's sudden departure. They then both turned to Ivan, as he seemed to know this version of Peter the best. Ivan simply gestured towards the door, saying "Let him sleep. If he is as tired as he seems to be, you wouldn't have gotten any useful information out of him." He then ushered Nick and Judy out the door. Stepping out after them, Ivan closed the door behind himself, a small click resounded, leaving Peter alone in his apartment.