Guess what?...
I'm BAAAAAAACCCKKKK!
So... run for the hills, say goodbye to your parrot, and hike up your skinny jeans.
I would apologize for my absence, but it was for good reason due to a massive list of woodworking commissions and many hours at my primary job. Now that the crazy Christmas rush is over... for now, I can realign my quirky powers of convoluted literary creation to entertain or annoy all of you. I would hope for the latter... but you know... accidents happen.
Thus continues a most amiable story I have come to love creating.
So, I ask of you to read, fav, follow, review, and enjoy. Grab that strange snack. Mine today is making S'mores in a sandwich press with peanut butter.
"So… Squirt."
"Kale."
"Same thing."
"No it's not."
"Can we agree to disagree?" the older voice asked.
"Why would anyone do that?" The younger voice squeaked.
Putting a paw on his chin and huffing slightly, the red fox smiled, saying through a light chuckle, "No idea. Always wondered that myself."
Having come back from their outing to the woods and Nick's mother's grave, the two arrived in time to see the aftermath of a messy warren when most of the family had just left to work the fields.
With the number of Judy's siblings that likely were capable of helping with the farms large fields, an equal amount of preparations were needed for the lot before they would set out. Those that stayed behind, whether too young or just not of the type to work well with heavy labor, were cleaning up leftover leavings of their morning preparations.
Nick had asked his bunny what it was all about, with all due confusion.
Apparently, totes and containers were put out in the morning with various things needed for working the fields. Work gloves, clean overalls of varying sizes, and sometimes foot wraps for those having to walk more punishing routes through the land. Paw friendly food was left out on a multitude of tables as well… for those that didn't wake as early as the rest to grab a hot meal before the day started.
The tod was under the impression that the whole lot would have been early risers, much like he had to be or how Judy was often, but it wasn't too unexpected to see that a family of this size had ones that rushed at the last minute to hop to their duties.
With that in mind, the two decided to take a short walk around, as understated as that might have seemed considering the enormous size of the warren.
Suffice it to say, the walk lasted mere seconds before the mostly unsupervised young were swarming to get a fresh look at the fox. Getting a 'look' was an understatement though. They crawled all over him and did as much as they had the time before.
Judy was able to chase off the lot, following to make sure they made it back to wherever they were supposed to be. That left Nick alone…
Or so he thought.
The one rabbit who didn't get chased off and stayed behind was the young one from before.
Kale.
Nice name… if it weren't for the fact it was because of a bland vegetable, the tod thought with a slow smirk.
"...do you have a question?" the larger mammal asked with a shrug. When the little one was quiet for several seconds, the fox reached out, eliciting a small flinch from the young buck. The Nick only paused for the briefest of moments, before giving him a kind smile and resting his paw pads on Kale's head, giving his fur a slow tussle. "How about you tell me what you do for fun around here?"
He was patient as the small bunny seemed to think over something in his head, to which the fox assumed was figuring out what to tell him that adults wouldn't call stupid.
His light blue eyes lit up, apparently coming up with an answer as he said, "I like to build stuff."
"Oh? Me too," voiced the red fox. "What do you like making?"
"Spaceships and stuff," came his reply. "I use those toy building blocks. What about you?"
"I like to tinker with gadgets and make odd inventions when I have the time."
"Like the stuff from spy movies!" Kale squeaked excitedly. The tod gave him an ambiguous nod.
"You could say that. Most of them aren't that… interesting… but they have their uses."
A breath of silence.
"How about you show me what you make?" Nick resumed, attempting to not let an uncomfortable silence ensue.
The little buck fiddled his paws and looked at the floor, muttering, "Okay."
The red fox lifted the small brown bunny, making him yelp slightly at the surprising action, letting him rest on a shoulder. Kale frightfully grasped at his head, gripping an ear with a free paw. Nick withheld a hiss of pain and put on a smile, asking for Kale to point the way.
0000000
Judy laughed as she scooted the last of the crowd of young siblings down the hall and away from her fox. It shouldn't have mattered, but she wanted a little more alone time with him.
Great… I'm wishing for alone time with my boyfriend, she started in her head, while at my family's home with hundreds of siblings who don't exactly get personal space. That logic fits perfectly. The doe let out a languished sigh at her own mild delusion.
Turning on heel to double back towards where she last left her fox, the grey rabbit was stopped by two of her brothers. They appeared to be blocking her path intentionally and she knew only one or two reasons why they would, rolling her eyes in annoyed realization. A few others seemed to be nearby, but waiting for something.
Before they could even open their mouths, Judy interrupted and spoke, "If this is about my boyfriend being a fox and gonna go on about things that you disagree with… then save it. I've heard it, ignored it and will continue to do so."
"We're just looking out for you, Sis," the darker one mumbled. "You can't expect us to just back down when we think we can help you."
The doe wanted to lash out in righteous anger at her siblings, insinuating she needed some form of help for her choices. The flare of emotional turmoil settled as quickly as it rose. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Judy let out a slow breath and attempted to think clearly through the fog in her mind.
"While I love you guys for your intentions to hopefully protect me," she started, seeing another couple siblings close in to listen to the conversation, as well as likely donate to it, "I don't like being told I need help like this. It's not like I'm doing drugs or succumbing to alcoholism."
The other sibling, a lighter brown, twisted his hat in his paws, working up the courage to speak.
He finally sputtered, leveling out his speech and forming a cohesive sentence to say, "A-are you sure you're not being used?" She expected that and was about to respond, before he continued, "Are you sure you're not… using him?"
The grey rabbit let her jaw hang slightly, caught completely off guard by the question. Appalled was the closest thing to what she thought she was feeling, but there was a touch of anxiety in there too.
"How… dare… you…" Judy seethed in a hiss with a breath in between each word. "I…"
"Before you react, just think about it," the light brown sibling resumed hurriedly. "You have this fan obsession with that Flux character. Most of us here know about it and while that's all well and good, we wonder if you are dating a fox… because of that."
"Harold is right," another sibling, Judy's sister Louise, mentioned as she closed in. "Regardless of your fox boyfriend's intentions with you… it's not fair to either of you if you're only using him."
"I'm not using him!" the doe exclaimed, becoming more defensive than she probably felt she should have been. "I have a real connection with him. And he cares about me…"
"I'm not gonna argue that point one way or another," Louise said, sighing slightly, "but we don't want either of you getting hurt because you wanted to chase some fox from a misplaced hero worship."
"Besides," the darker furred buck piped up, "your so-called 'hero' isn't so great anyways. Now he's some sort of criminal 'cause he ripped off the government."
The grey bunny was still a bit flabbergasted by the accusation that she was using Nick for some 'misplaced' interest in foxes like Flux. It was becoming difficult to collect her thoughts well enough to make any logical replies. Tears threatened to prick at the corners of her eyes, stinging them as she willed them away with everything she had.
It wouldn't hurt so much if her mind weren't warring over the prospect of it now.
Was she dating Nick because she was enraptured by him as a hero? Was it because he saved her life? Would she inevitably hurt him?
All these questions now fogged her mind and, while she logically knew that these questions were fairly preposterous, this aching pit of doubt sprouted within her heart, causing her a growing pain that made her feel that the foundation of all they had thus far… was only based upon delusional thinking and reasoning. The doe couldn't disperse the feeling, clutching at her chest in an attempt to stem the sharp pain that now tore through her chest.
"Leave that alone, Gerry," Harold demanded. "We're not here to discuss that."
"Just… stop," Judy barely whispered, drawing the attention of all listening. "I'm done entertaining this absurdity." Turning abruptly, she walked at a brisk pace down the hall and as far away from her siblings as she could get before their stunned sputters could coalesce into actual phrases.
A tear had formed in her psyche, the accusations and insinuations bleeding in and poisoning her thoughts. It was one thing for her parents to be nervous about her dating Nick and still terrible but somewhat expected for her siblings to emulate the same worry, but it felt like another thing for them to call her feelings for Nick a mistake or a delusion because of his alter persona as Flux.
She knew the rhetoric was wrong but she couldn't pry the vice grip it had on her heart.
"I've had enough," she whispered to herself, powering off to find her fox.
0000000
With practiced paws from years of making his own machinations, Nick happily and patiently pieced together the toy building blocks, his eyes flicking over occasionally towards Kale. He was in his own little world, creating a strangely shaped spaceship that looked more like a submarine than something capable of interstellar travel.
A smile curled the edges of his muzzle gently.
"Unconventional design you got there, Squirt," the tod voiced.
"Kale," the buck corrected him without much pause. His ears then perked as he turned to face the red tod. "What does… unconvent… inal mean?"
"Means something that's not normal…" he stopped short in his explanation, worried the little one might be insulted, then continued with an adjusted wording, "but still works like it's supposed to."
"Oh…" Kale breathed. "Well normal is boring."
"Ain't that the truth. By the way, how old are you?"
"Nine and a half," the small buck answered bluntly. There was a brief silence before Kale looked up at Nick with curious blue eyes, asking him out of nowhere, "Do you love my sister?"
If the fox had been drinking anything, he might have done a spit take. Despite knowing his answer quite truly from recent events, it was still fairly unexpected for a kit of his age to bring that up so easily. Then again, most young mammals lack a sense of filter and usually get right to the point when they want to know something.
"I most certainly do," Nick replied with a toothy grin, dialing it back when he realized his fangs were bared. He didn't want to scare the bunny just when he seemed to be connecting with him.
"Why?" Came the follow up reply, to which the red mammal somewhat expected this time, but felt woefully unprepared to answer.
"That's… hard to answer, bud," Nick started, rolling his tongue as he tried to come up with a respectful and thoughtful reply. "I could list all the cliche reasons… but… ever have that feeling you can't explain properly but you act on it anyways?"
He did a double take mentally, berating himself internally for assuming Kale might be old enough to even understand that.
Regardless of his fears, the buck nodded rapidly, smiling carelessly.
"I feel like that when I build stuff with these blocks. I know I love it because I enjoy it… but I don't know how to explain it when others ask."
The fox smiled again and reached up to give the little rabbit's head fur a tussle. He giggled and tried to swat his much larger paws away.
It was almost tearfully refreshing, being accepted and talked to by a bunny as if neither of their species mattered. The fact he was a kit made it even more affable. Most younglings were kept away from him by fearful parents, not that he cared much to get close before, but the gesture itself was still somewhat insulting.
"I like you," Kale said. "You don't treat me like a stupid kit."
"You aren't?" The red fox retorted, arching a brow, a small degree of sass peeking out from its repressed state. He then felt a small fist strike his arm, with Kale letting out a cacophony of giggles as he did so. The fox was relieved the kit could take a joke.
"I can't be if I wanna be an engineer!" the buck exclaimed proudly.
Nick paused, considering the serious nature of the little rabbit.
"What do you want to build, Squirt?"
"Kale."
"That's what I said."
"...I want to build these," Kale told him, holding up the spaceship he made, apparently pretending the fox wasn't trying to be annoying. His eyes became downcast, however, upon thinking it over. "Well, I'd like to… but I'm probably gonna make boats. I want to make things that help people explore."
"Oh? That's quite the path you have in mind," the tod began. "Why not try to make spaceships then?"
"No one really wants to explore space right now… with all those drones and threat of aliens or whatever…"
The smile on Nick's muzzle dropped a bit, turning in a slight grimace. He felt a bit responsible for that, somehow.
"You shouldn't give up on that possibility," the fox mentioned in an attempt to revitalize the young buck. His long ears did perk up a bit.
"Why not?" Kale asked with hopeful eyes. "You think Flux will beat the Drones and aliens?"
"Flux? Isn't he branded a wanted criminal now?" Nick asked by obligation, knowing the answer, but wondering why Kale would inquire to that.
"He's the only one who fought well against them, isn't he?" was his innocent reply. "Criminal or not, he's been fighting for us."
Fighting for us, the red fox repeated inside his head. He hadn't stopped to think often enough about why he fought. He had few, but they were more than enough to keep him going. If he could remove the threat of the Drones and other Shards, maybe Kale could eventually pursue his dream.
I suppose that gives me another reason to reaffirm my resolve in this… Nick thought with a sigh. Hopefully, I can give this one rabbit a chance to follow his dream.
Interrupting his thoughts, a sharp pain pierced his heart, making him double over to clutch at his chest.
"Did I say something wrong?" the small rabbit voiced in concern.
Gathering himself, the red tod stood unsteadily, moving his paw lower to his abdomen as he replied, "Y-yeah… just some stomach trouble, kit. I'll be back." At that, he turned to leave the room, knowing this pain was not his own.
For a brief moment, he stopped, giving the worried buck a last look.
"I can't promise much on another's behalf… but I'm sure Flux will fight for everyone. I don't think those like him would give up just because others turn on him."
He didn't wait for Kale's reply, choosing to round the exit of the room and break into a sprint.
He needed to find his Limiter.
0000000
Running aimlessly, the grey doe followed no real path except to avoid colliding with anything. She could barely do that much, however. Her vision fogged with tears making their marks on her fur.
At furst, she planned on finding Nick, but found herself giving no care to the direction she ran once the tears started falling. She didn't want him to see her like this. The doe knew he wouldn't care in the slightest, though she didn't like worrying him over her personal issues, especially since he wouldn't likely be able to do much for her except comfort. She felt like that would just burden him further, along with all the issues as Flux he has to deal with already.
Wiping her eyes and blinking a bit to clear her sight, Judy noticed she had left the warren and made her way into the open fields outside.
Looking back, she noticed Nick passing by a window, nose upturned and trying to catch her scent. Her paws gripped her lazily hanging ears, giving them a nervous squeeze.
I don't want him to see me like this, she frantically thought. My eyes are probably all red and there's no way I can hide...
"Judy!" came the voice she both dreaded and longed to hear. A chilling jolt made its way through her body. With it came a momentary lapse in all thought.
In that moment, she ran, giving in to her need to not let her fox see her like this. The tall stalks of the grain fields closest to her gave her ample cover as she weaved through them, riding on an adrenaline rush.
The red tod scowled a bit and dug his claws in the earth beneath his paws, breaking into a full sprint.
The pain in his chest seemed to heighten when the doe caught sight of him, giving him all too many ideas on what was going on in her head. From the murmurs in the halls and such on his way to find her, he could only surmise some of her siblings made for a rather dramatic confrontation.
Before he could make any more summations, he noticed a static arc of a purple hue flaring out from Judy's shoulder. It connected with a nearby cluster of wheat stalks and dispersed without any real effect.
Eyes now wide with fear, the surge of adrenaline that now fueled him gave him a burst of speed that allowed him to close the distance somewhat. Another arc sparked from the rabbit, grounding itself before any harm to the surroundings might be brought about.
"Judy!" he called desperately. "Please stop!"
"No!" she exclaimed in response, her voice slightly broken.
There was another pang of dull pain that resonated within him, telling him she was scared. Whether it was of him or for him, he couldn't clearly determine. The energy coming from her might be dangerous though, making it where he couldn't afford to give her any space if what he thought could happen… would.
For a brief second, there was a coursing electric charge that seemed to cover her form, dispersing in a flash but not giving the fox any comfort that it would pass.
Gathering his own energy, he did something similar to what he did to save Judy that day, energizing his body for a short burst of speed. It was far more limited this time, allowing him to overtake the grey doe within a few seconds, but still leave him unharmed as opposed to before.
The two tumbled together, rolling downhill into a clearing.
She fought and flailed, trying to push him off. Nick instead tried to keep her gripped close to him, hoping to get through to her before it was too late.
"Fluff… stop," he pleaded. "I'm trying to help. You're in trouble."
The bunny stopped fighting, breathing hard and nearly hyperventilating, but not giving up on pushing slightly at him to keep her distance as much as she could.
"What do you mean?" came her ragged reply.
"I… it's… I think you're having an 'episode' of sorts," Nick tried to explain. "Like my reversions I told you about when I healed before you."
"What?" Judy squeaked, her anxiety rising once more, causing an arc of purple energy to spring forth and strike her fox in the abdomen. She saw it and nearly screamed, clapping her own paw over her mouth as she realized it might draw the wrong kind of attention from her family, if they heard.
The tod doubled over, but kept his firm hold on his bunny, pulling her head to his chest.
"Leo kinda warned me of this possibility… but I never thought it would happen," he spoke to no one in particular. "I think your emotional state is triggering this. Try to calm down."
"I can't…" the grey rabbit whimpered into his chest, paws grabbing at the fabric of his shirt and gripping it tight.
"What has you upset then?" he asked, a grunt of pain following the question as another burst of energy left her, making her feel worse.
"I…"
"Please tell me," the red fox cooed in her ear, soothing her slightly. "Don't hide from me. I can feel your pain. That's why I looked for you."
Oh yeah… Judy sighed internally. That link or whatever. He saw my nightmares. It would make some sense if he felt when I was extreme distress.
"My siblings… said some things," she breathed. "I didn't listen at first, but something in my mind spread doubt. I was worried they were right…"
"About what?"
"They said I was dating you because of my admiration for Flux."
That should've felt like a metaphorical gut punch…
Should have…
But Nick somehow felt pretty calm about it. He awaited her to finish the thought, trying to keep her covered beneath him.
"I was worried I would hurt you if they were right… fearful that my feelings were delusion. I don't… I don't want to do that to you."
He couldn't see them, but he knew from the stuttered syllables and small hiccups that Judy was in tears.
"Focus on me," the tod gently demanded. "Breathe. Listen to my heartbeat. Alright?"
She nodded slightly and attempted to suck in a slow breath, with it becoming a bit broken. The exhale was smoother, with the fox's large paw softly petting the doe's head. She could hear his heartbeat, somewhat rapid and nervous, but slowing as he too calmed down.
Taking in a breath through her nose this time, to keep it slow and steady, she was taken off guard by the musk of his scent from being so close. Both thankfully and unfortunately, her muzzle was buried in his chest, furthering her embarrassment, though it was good she couldn't be seen with her cheeks burning from a blush she knew was there.
"Since you are so worried over hurting me to throw yourself into this emotionally desparable pit," Nick began in a kind tone, "I know, even if you doubt it, that you care deeply about me. I don't think you are one to lie when you say you love someone, so I trust you meant it."
Not knowing how to respond, Judy simply nodded again, hearing the slower, steady beat of his heart, giving way to calm her own.
Now that she could think clearly, her body felt heavy, and not because she had a mammal about three times her size on top of her.
"I'm sorry," she finally said. "And you're right. I knew… but I couldn't keep that fear I might hurt you away. I still technically hurt you though."
"Oh, stop you're whining, Fluff. I'll be fine. I've taken worse hits in fights with Drones."
There was a few seconds of silence before the red tod sighed.
"Are you alright now?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Should I get off you, then?" Nick asked in a whisper, making a move to pull himself off of her. Judy gripped his shirt tighter and kept him in place.
"On second thought, I'm not really sure I feel better. Best to stay like this for a little bit longer... Just in case."
The fox let out a chuckle, pulling her close and petting her head once more as he told her, "Sly bunny."
"Scruffy fox."
"Huh?... Who's scruffy?"
0000000
After their tumble in the field, the two were able to clean themselves off and make their way back to the house, paw in paw. Aside from the questions of why they were out there, leading to embarrassing misinterpretations, the majority of Judy's family stayed civil around the two of them.
Over the next couple of days, the siblings who collaborated to confront her about her boyfriend came one by one to make some semblance of amends. Not all of them apologized, but they did say they could have handled their end of the conversation better, being that all of them basically swarmed her with accusations.
Judy thought she might have felt it was unresolved, but she found she actually cared less than she assumed she would, making it easier to move on. Trying to garner approval from each individual sibling or family member would only prove a long and arduous process mentally. As long as her parents were on board, the rest would hopefully fall in line or keep their opinions to themselves from then on.
The grey doe was pretty happy that Kale and Nick had formed a rather endearing connection, the little buck trailing her fox around by the tail, literally, at any chance he could. Such displays, as well as Nick's caring and earnest interactions with the young rabbit, began to sway those in the warren with reservations towards giving the tod a chance.
Much too soon, the two had to leave. Leo was calling them back, saying he was getting strange energy readings from the city, but unable to properly locate the source. He used a fueled power cell to send Nick's old suit, refurbished from the previous damage it sustained back when the two met. For now, the two had found a far field at the fringe edges of the Hopps property, with a treeline to hide them while they were extracted.
"Why that suit?" the red fox asked with a tinge of annoyance over the phone.
"This was the only suit with radar masking modifications that have been proven to work, so it won't show up on any scopes," explained the voice of the android. "I didn't want to fly an untested suit out to you and chance the government could follow the trail."
"And you're saying no one would notice a flying mechanical suit over the countryside?" Nick remarked sarcastically.
"How many mammals would be expecting to look up and see a flying mechanical suit roughly 200 miles from it's most frequented location?" was Leo's answer.
"I guess that makes… some sense, but couldn't we just take the train?"
"No time. I need you two take the suit and hurry back. I'll need your help to pinpoint the disturbance, as well as respond to any threats."
"I thought the Gate couldn't open up for a month," Judy chimed in.
Leo took a few seconds to consider her comment and come up with a proper reply before the phone spoke again, "It can't. That's a fact my equipment has confirmed. I believe we might be dealing with some Drones that have escaped our reach and might be functioning in a low power status. It should be easy to deal with, but I do not want to wait until the populace is exposed to any threats."
"Understood," the fox and rabbit chirped together, looking up just in time to see the Flux armament dropping and slowing its descent from straight above. The mechanical being had already hung up, knowing the two would be in the suit soon enough so they could converse through internal comms.
"Ready?" he asked his rabbit, reaching out to grasp paw in his own. She took it and nodded, allowing her form to flow into his as the bonded together in a Shift.
It was barely seconds before it was done and Nick stepped into the armor, it's plating and form fitting structure wrapping around him and locking in place. He looked behind him, seeing a new addition to the back of the unit.
"What's this?" the tod asked Leo.
"I took it upon myself to adjust and attach dear Judy's suit, in case the circumstances call for it," the android divulged evenly.
"With luck, we hopefully won't need it," the red fox stated.
"While I don't believe in it as a construct," the being started, "it is my understanding that 'luck' favors the prepared."
"True enough," the grey doe voiced inside Nick's head. He nodded in turn and grunted his approval.
Using the thrusters on low power, to avoid a noisy launch, Flux took to the sky, planning on using the moderate amount of clouds to mask their approach vector and keep sky watching civilians from noticing too much. It could hide from radar, but it didn't hide the suit from plain eyesight.
0000000
As opposed to the train, it only took Nick and Judy in the Flux armament about twenty minutes to return to the city and start making sweeps of the area. They couldn't see anything obvious and Leo was still having issues with pinpointing the disturbances.
"Any info at all might be useful," the android commented for the fifth time since they came within sight of Zootopia. The fox groaned at his repetitive mentions and the ethereal bunny giggled slightly at his irritation.
"I understand that, but this suit doesn't exactly have good sensors compared to other suits," Nick fired back. "How about I land and switch suits at the house? Staccato would be much more suited to this… no pun intended."
"Alright, I'll prep…"
The mechanical voice stopped short.
"Nevermind that," it resumed. "Picking up an energy spike. It's not a Drone core… or a Shard signature."
"What is it?" both fox and bunny inquired.
"Nuclear."
"That doesn't sound like…" the tod started before a spark of light shone in the distance.
"NICK! Look out!" Judy called out, her form coalescing to his right side and extending a barrier as quickly as she could in the blink of an eye.
It wasn't enough and the shield gave from a piercing shot that blasted through the barrier…
...as well as Flux's armor.
Nick felt his shoulder and left arm being ripped apart, a howl of pain escaping him. He could hear the doe's concerned voice calling out to him as his body repaired itself with a purple glow.
it wouldn't stop the descent the two were already in now. The suit was damaged too much for a continued flight and the two began falling from their path high above the city.
Still groggy and mentally recovering, Nick noticed that, as soon as his body appeared fully healed, Judy's presence was fading. A frantic look around him that her body was reconstructing nearby, falling alongside him and out cold. He had no time to wonder why and assumed she was knocked out by the shock of her barrier being broken and healing him so rapidly.
His comms were down, meaning Leo wouldn't be able to hear him make any emergency protocol activations.
The first and foremost thing he had to do was save Judy from hitting the ground at terminal velocity. He and the android were sure she was capable of healing to a certain extent, but Nick prefered not to test it in these circumstances.
Desperately searching, he noticed the compact mechanical morphsuit still attached to the back of his armor, seemingly undamaged.
Grasping at it and disengaging it from its locked position, the red fox tod hurled it the falling rabbit, seeing it quickly scan and expand to wrap around her.
As soon as it completed its task, emergency thrusters fired and slowed her descent, angling her fall to the roof of a fast approaching skyscraper.
As Nick fell past the roof, clearing Judy from his sight, he had to believe she would be alright. Once he activated the suit, Leo should have taken over functions to land her safely and he would make sure she gets back to the house unharmed.
His predicament was a bit more precarious. He was falling alongside another tall building, without the means to activated his thrusters to slow his fall. Growling at himself, he hoped there was still some residual healing effects and used the one good armament arm to drag along the side of the building, attempting to grasp anything to slow his descent.
The ground looked to be fast approaching, though the fox knew he slowed somewhat, he just had to try a little harder. The suit arm dug into the wall as he slid down, the vibrations and jarring shock feeling like that alone would tear his arm apart.
At the last few stories, he pumped his legs into the structure and kicked away with all his might; Nick hoped to turn his vertical movement into a more horizontal one.
It worked to a certain degree, but the resulting roll as he hit the pavement of the road was still quite painful. The suit began to shut down entirely, with the mass of metal becoming a heavy burden on his body.
Seeing a slew of large vehicles approaching that appeared to be government affiliated, what with all the black and unmarked siding, as well as the heavily tinted windows, the fox summoned up one last ditch effort to make things more difficult for them. Using the energy within him, he fried the suits circuitry and such from within, turning it into a scrap heap of metal alloys.
A shot rang out and the tod looked down to see a tranquilizer dart embedded in his exposed shoulder.
Looking up as the world faded away, he noticed a large, well dressed wildebeest calmly walking up to him, entourage in tow to apprehend him.
All he could wonder in that moment is whether Judy was safe or not.
I feel a little rusty but I do hope I have continued the story well so far.
This begins a mini arc I have been sooo excited to do for a while that I am dubbing "Rally Call".
I might have been able to squeeze out this chapter sooner, but I wanted to make sure I had the assured free time to make sure this wouldn't hang open ended for too long, so expect a hopefully prompt update within a reasonable time frame as opposed to a two ish month hiatus.
Also, a little late, but credit be given to my editor Starfang's Secrets. She helped me give this chapter a once over for errors as well as advice on making sure I kept the plot flowing from the last chapters.
REVIEWS: I shall address these in time. It is rather late for me, and I will be sleeping soon, but I thank all those with positive words, respect those with constructive criticism, and hope that those who commented upon my lack of activity feel better that I am back.
I'll do my best to update the rest of my stories, with Shards and 'Silence and Valiance' being my foremost priorities. the continuance of Dusted will be on hold until I can effectively get back into the groove of time management with my updates. I thank you all in advance for understanding.
Now then... I'm off to pour strawberry syrup on people's windows so they think it's some form of blood splatter.
Until next time, It's been a hustle, Sweethearts.