Chapter 12

Earlier, Nick and Ella's friends took the downtown bus to Downtown Zootopia where Uncle Chen's shop was. Nick was sitting near the side window of the bus as he watched the building pass by his vision. Stan sat beside Nick as the young golden retriever pup glanced at the adult fox once in a while, not making so much as a sound. Stan knew that Nick was still upset about Ella being kidnapped, but the young pup didn't know how to cheer the fox up. Nick noticed Stan glancing at him once in a while and turned to look at the pup curiously.

"What's on your mind Stan?" Nick asked.

"N-Nothing sir," Stan replied with a stutter before looking down at the ground.

Nick stared at Stan for a moment before smiling as he placed a paw on the pup's shoulder, this making Stan turn to look at him.

"Don't worry about me kid," Nick reassured Nick "I know we're going to find Ella no matter what it takes."

Stan looked at Nick for a moment before smiling back at the fox as he nodded his head in agreement. Nick Nodded back before turning his eyes back towards the window again. The Bus soon came to a stop at the group's destination. Nick and the kids quickly got off the bus before looking around as the bus drove off with its remaining passengers.

"So where exactly is your uncle's shop Susan?" Jason asked as he looked at the female snow leopard in question.

"It's just three stores down," Susan replied as she began to lead the group to their destination.

They soon came to a shop with a sign saying 'Chen's Antic Store' before the group walked through the door with a little bell ringing to signal their arrival. When the group entered the shop they saw all kinds of ancient antics and artifacts that looked to be thousands or millions of years old. On the front desk was a huge mountain of books that had titles of historical artifacts or ancient history of long extinct civilizations.

"Uncle Chen?" Susan called as she and the group walked further into the store.

"Whoa, get a load of this place!" Jason exclaimed as he looked around the place in amazement.

"Where exactly does your uncle find all these relics?" Isabella asked as she looked at her snow leopard friend curiously.

Susan was about to answer when an old voice suddenly spoke up from behind the mountain of books and yelled "Do not touch that artifact!"

The group was a little surprised by the sudden voice before they turned their attention on Chris, who was standing near an ancient looking vase and had his finger a few inches away from poking the vase. The group turned their attention to the mountain of books again before an elderly looking snow leopard appeared from behind them.

The elderly old cat had a bit of a beard hanging underneath his chin and half moon glasses sitting on the rim of his nose. The leopard was also wearing a black Chinese jacket with golden embroidery decorated in the pattern of a dragon and brown kung fu pants. The snow leopard's eyes were dark blue and they stared at the group that stood before him before his gaze landed on Susan.

"Oh Susan!" The elderly snow leopard exclaimed happily with a smile.

"Hello Uncle Chen." Susan said as she walked up to her uncle and gave him a hug.

"It is so good to see you again my child." Chen said as he hugged his niece lovingly before he noticed the others and said "And I see you have brought visitors to my shop."

"Yeah," Susan replied as she parted with her uncle with a smile "Uncle, I would like you to meet my friends from school, Jason, Chris, Isabella and Stan."

The kids waved hello to the snow leopard before Nick walked forward and took out his badge, showing the shop owner his badge. "And I'm Nick Wilde, ZPD police officer."

"Police Officer?" Chen asked in surprise.

"Yes, and I was hoping that you could help me with something." Nick said.

"I'm not sure how I can help you Officer Wilde, but I will do the best I can." Chen said with a hint of seriousness in his voice.

"I was wondering if you had any information about this pendant." Nick said as he pulled the string of the pendant over his head and showing it to the leopard.

Chen took one look at the pendant and gasped "That's one of the pendants of Bilal!"

"Bill who?" Nick and the kids asked in confusion.

"Not Bill, Bilal!" Chen exclaimed "Back in the old days, thousands of years before we animals evolved, Bilal ruled over the humans with an iron fist and a thirst for power. He was a ruthless and selfish man who wanted to rule the animal kingdom the same way he ruled the human kingdom and sought to become the 'Ultimate Animal', a being whom no man nor beast could ever defeat or compare to. He almost succeeded with his diabolical plans but his son Mowgli stopped him. Unlike his father, Mowgli adored all of nature and played with all kinds of animals, treating them more like his friends and family then just the beasts his father wanted to rule over. That fateful day, Mowgli had no choice but to kill his father and scattered all of his power all across the globe, hoping that nobody would ever use the horrible powers of the ultimate animal would never be used again. The scattered force of magical energy was said to have manifested themselves into pendants, like the one you have now Officer Wilde, but only do don't have animals engraved on them, to represent Bilal and Mowgli themselves."

"Whoa." Chris said in awe.

"My daughter found one of those pendants." Nick said "One that had a paw print on it, and shortly after that she got kidnapped by some crazy woman named Kayley Browne."

"I know of her all too well." Chen said with an angry growl "She is a human treasure hunter who is set on finding the rarest treasures in all the world and now she has her eyes set on Mowgli's Treasure, I should have known. As for your daughter's pendant, that particular one she has found is the one that has Mowgli's special aura inside and it will allow her to see the future, control the elements of fire, water, air and Earth and not only that but to transform into any animal she pleases.

"And what about Mr. Wilde's Pendant?" Stan asked

"Well, there are many powers each pendant possess, my theory is that the pendant will only work for the animal the pendant has engraved on it. Of course it's just a theory, who knows if it's true or not. I must do some more research.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Jason asked.

"Yes, help me find these five books on these pendants and the very treasure that crook Browne is after." Chen said as he motioned at the mountain of books the group had seen before.

"Great, how are we going to find anything in all that mess?" Chris asked, not liking the mountain of books one bit.

"One at a time, starting from A like in the alphabet," Chen said in a flat voice "And do not touch the antics whatever you do!"

"Ugh, grouchy old cat." Chris huffed.

Chen heard what Chris said and gave him a two fingered slap on his head before instructing the group on what to do.

Meanwhile Judy and Orlando were at the ZPD looking through the files to see if they could find any information on Kayley Browne or anything related to her before Judy finally found it.

"Got it! Now let's see who she is." Judy said.

Judy opened the file and she began to read it along with Orlando, who sat on top of her head, and they read through it while staring at the photo of Kayley Brown herself, but there was no criminal record on it or information on where her casino is. With a huff Judy closed the file and sat back in her chair.

"So much for finding any information on her on the ZPD." Judy said with a sigh.

"Isn't there any other places we can go or people we can visit that might have more information about her?" Orlando asked.

Judy frowned before an idea popped in her head and she said "I think I know just a person who can help us."

"Really? Who?" Orlando asked curiously.

"My old friend, Mr. Big." Judy replied with a smile.