First Kills

Author's Note; So, you ever promise yourself you're going to work on something as soon as you check your mail, then realize it's been several hours? That happened to me a few times, and when I finally was able to make myself try to write, on a chapter I've been looking forward to for weeks no less, total writer's block. Really sorry for late update, everyone, but I hope the chapter makes up for it.

Review Responses

Canadians Rock-Sorry things are getting confusing

Hamers-Glad you're enjoying it. Nick's shown Judy a side to predators she hadn't known about before, that's for sure. Though she might give him some insights into prey as well.

Guest-I can see your point.

Renars738-Thank you for the kind praise, I try to show the good and bad of both sides, so its good to hear that it came through. Feel free to vent, and don't worry, Judy and Nick will be dealing with the bad predators and prey before all is said and done.

Dinofelis-Scar is kinda replacing Lionheart, yes, though as you suspected, his motives are darker. Nick and Judy will have a little more time to talk before the cavalry rolls in.

colegfree-I'll try to include info on the different factions, and Tavi and the others will be playing a big part in this chapter.

Agent007.1-No worries on spelling, I actually like it when people point out little errors like that so I can correct them. Your idea for bringing in embassies is interesting, and I decided to work it into what I had planned.

Skitzotech-Glad you're enjoying the story. I actually went back a removed a few 'youngs'. Ironically, I was trying not to keep saying the characters' names, so I tried not to repeat myself and ended up repeating myself. I actually missed the age difference between Nick and Judy until I read some stories that mentioned it. In this story, I've been playing it as they're both in their mid-ish 20s. As for all the con-canon creatures, there's two reasons. One is that since I made Zootopia the capitol of a country populated by mammals, it seemed logical that other countries would be populated by other kinds of creatures. The other is that I wanted to mostly stick to Disney rather than original characters, which means a lot of domesticated animals. Hope you enjoy this next chapter.

#*#*#

Ajay Tavi was tired, traveling for miles and going quite a while without sleep had that effect on a mammal. Even one with training sense puphood, as Tavi did. Nevertheless, the mongoose pushed himself onward, determined not to fail again and do his ancestors proud.

At the sound of an engine approaching, Tavi cautiously braced himself against the wheel a nearby large mammal sized car and peaked around it. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found it was a red Leopard 2, several familiar mammals riding on the turret. The mongoose took a deep breath, raised his paws over his head to appear none threatening, and moved into the open with a shout of "Militia friendly, coming in!"

As expected, his teammates briefly pointed their various weapons at Tavi, but quickly lowered said firearms then they recognized their friend. The tank briefly pulled to a stop to allow the mongoose to climb up onto the armored war machine. Finnick held out his paw to help the private up onto the turret itself. "Tavi, where the hell have you been?"

"The Regulators arrested me, Sergeant," Tavi reported, pulling the pilfered phone from his pocket with the map and directions displayed, "They were taking me here. I was going to investigate, but I saw the signal and came to help."

"How'd you get away?" Tod asked, looking the mongoose over for wounds.

"I...crashed their van."

"Damn, dude," Finnick said, "I wanna hear that story later, and someone's gotta know about this." He held up the phone. "But for now, we need to get Nick outta there."

"I actually have some thoughts on that." Toulouse, half way out of his hatch spoke up. "We need to confirm Ni-Lieutenant Wilde's location in the building, and pick off any lookouts they've got. Finnick, if you and your mammals can handle that, I'll bring this monster in guns blazing."

"Roger that," Finnick nodded, "Copper, you handle the lookouts. Brocktree, Russell, you come with me, we're going to find the lieutenant."

"Sergeant, please let me come too," Tavi implored.

He really wants to earn that knife and beads back Finnick thought, "Alright, you're in too. Ma'ii give him your sidearm."

#*#*#

Nick shuffled around in his restraints to get a better look at the 'nice militant' tied up beside him. The red fox lieutenant contemplated his experiences with the small rebel; she'd blown up the building he'd been assigned to protect, maced him, escaped multiple times, and saved his life...twice, assuming Toulouse was punctual.

Toulouse, Berlioz.

Nick's heart sank remembering how the promise he'd made to the brothers. He'd been so sure the disappearances and the revitalized rebel activity were related. Now it felt like he'd been chasing his own tail. Though he already suspected the answer, the fox turned to Judy and asked, "You and your buddies weren't involved with the missing officers, were you?"

"No," a somewhat recovered Judy answered, "Personally, I thought you guys were going after each other. But now I'm thinking these guys might know about it."

"Makes sense, I guess," Nick shrugged, though he was referring the APL being involved in the disappearances. Looking back to his fellow prisoner, the militiamammal cleared his throat awkwardly. "Look, Carrots...thanks, for getting the locator and saving my tail in the subway."

Judy, still smelling of cooked meat, gave Nick a half smile, "You're welcome...fascist fox."

Nick chuckled at the lighthearted gibe. "Bunny bomber."

#*#*#

Atop the old office building used as the APL's headquarters, a warthog and a ram stood watch. The ram glanced over to the sentry spot across the street, then turned to his friend. "Hey, where's Duke and Pen?"

The boar moved beside the other militant. The extremist swine raised a pair of binoculars to scan the area where his comrades should have been keeping watch. Grumbling about the likelihood of the sentries being off drinking, the boar scanned the surrounding area, just to be sure. Humming in concern, the warthog glanced over his binocs at something in another building.

Then his head exploded.

"Aahh! Fuck me, shit!" the startled ram cried. He sprinted toward the roof access door, loudly muttering "Serpentine! Serpentine!"

Tracking the terrorist ram across the rooftop, Copper gently squeezed the trigger of his silenced rifle, and the APL member dropped with a puff of pink mist. The hound dog scanned for any further guard posts. Finding none that would notice the small approaching Militia force, he tapped the talk button on his radio. "Sentries eliminated...you're, ah, clear to move up."

"You okay, Copper?" Tod's voice asked over the open line.

"Yeah, it's just..." Copper swallowed, "I never killed anybody before."

"None of us have," Finnick cut in, more gently then the usual for the harsh desert fox, "Let's do this."

#*#*#

Judy gnawed at her zipties while Nick kept an eye and ear trained on the door, should Napoleon and his four henchmammals return. Just as the lieutenant began to hear hoof steps approaching, Judy's left ear sprang up, "Someone's coming"

"Yeah, I hear it too" was Nick's nervous response, eyeing the door.

"No, from down there." Judy corrected, glancing at the air vent. She was just able to make out movement behind the partly see through metal when the door opened. The cow and warthog stationed themselves by the door, while two more warthogs stayed close to their leader.

The large grey boar casually walked over to the covered desk and finally slipped the sheet off of it, revealing an assortment of knives, blunt instruments and power tools. Napoleon turned toward the pair, specifically looking at Judy and casually asked, "Where's the chomper's li'l doohickey?"

"Doohickey? I was looking for my ipaw," Judy said, playing up the dumb bunny stereotype and hoping they didn't notice her chewed ziptie.

Napoleon smirked. Then, quicker than one would expect from an aging, one-eyed warthog, the former Razorback sprang forward and slashed Judy's side with a linoleum knife. The rabbit let out a pained scream as her blood splashed both Nick and her tormentor.

"You son of a bitch!" Nick shouted

Napoleon casually gestured between his two prisoners and stated, "Ya'two got ten seconds to tell me where that damn thang is or this bunny slut's ears come off."

"Surprise, Mother fucker!"

Napoleon and Nick glanced over to see Finnick, Tavi, Russell, and Brocktree just as the four militiamammals let off a fusillade on the APL members. The terrorist leader dropped his knife and dove for cover as the two of his warthog grunts were ripped apart by submachine gun fire. At the same time, the cow raised an elephant gun at the predators while the surviving warthog henchmammal frantically threw open the door and screamed for help.

His borrowed pistol running empty, Tavi dropped the fire arm, sprinted forward and grabbed Napoleon's discarded knife. Making use of the speed and agility his species was famous for, the mongoose darted at the cow, slashing the bovine terrorist's hamstring with the oversized knife. When the cow fell into a push up position, Tavi dashed toward his enemy's front legs, again cutting into the steer's tendons. With the APL member now lying on his side, Tavi finished him by pressing the linoleum knife against the frightened cow's neck and pulling it down across the terrorist's throat.

Napoleon dashed toward the door, trailed by bullets from Finnick, Russell, and Brocktree's freshly reloaded weapons. The aging boar managed to rush out of the room unharmed, though the younger warthog holding the door for him was riddled with hot lead.

"Get Wilde off'a there, we gotta hall ass," Finnick quickly ordered.

"We're gonna need somewhere to hold up until those cats get in here," Brocktree said as he cut through his lieutenant's restraints. "Can't stay here, or spend too much time in the vents either."

"There's...a store room..." Judy groaned out, "...lots'a weapons and stuff..."

"Cut her loose," Nick ordered.

The small (number and size wise) rescue party and their charge made their way back into the air vent, Tavi and Russell helping Judy. Finnick, leading the team forward based on Judy's instructions, leaned toward his shoulder and spoke into his radio, "O'Malley, the lieutenant's secure, let 'em have it!"

#*#*#

Thank God he's alive. "Roger that," Toulouse replied to Finnick, then quickly turned to his driver, "Oliver, move us up. Cheshire, Figaro, set up and HE round."

The Leopard 2 moved quickly down the street, the remaining members of Nick's team having climbed inside with the crew.

#*#*#

"It's through that one." Judy said, wincing when Russell accidentally brushed against her wounded side. Her purple eyes suddenly widened as Tavi and Brocktree moved through the opened vent cover, "Wait!"

"What the fuck!?"

Inside the ad hoc armory, the militiamammals looked at the APL's grizzly memorial to their own brutality in horror.

"Oh my god," Nick breathed seeing the pictures, remembering Napoleon's promise, and involuntarily imagining Lily among the unfortunate brutalized predators displayed on the wall.

"I'll check out the store room," a voice from just outside the door spoke. Seconds later, a sheared sheep entered, only to stop short with eyes bulged at the side of five vindictive militiamammals and an unsympathetic, bleeding bunny. The sheep raised his hooves. "Okay, I know what you're thinking..."

The sheep stumbled back as he was blasted with automatic fire.

"They're in the store room!" a voice yelled from down the hall.

The team quickly moved to fortify the room as best they could. After they all climbed up onto the work table, Russell and Finnick trained their weapons on the hallway while Brocktree stood ready to fire once they'd run out of ammo. After setting Judy in a corner, Tavi went about scrounging for any weapons or ammunition he could find while Nick prepared to communicate their position to Toulouse.

The fox hesitated for just a moment when he noticed Tavi's kukri and warrior beads. Scooping them up, he turned to the mongoose and held out the dutiful militiamammal's ancestral treasures. "These are yours, Ajay. You've earned them back."

Knowing time was of the essence, Tavi took the offered items with a grateful nod and quickly secured them around his wrist and on his belt. Nick meanwhile, fixed the radio Brocktree had loaned him and spoke. "Toulouse, we're in a room on the ground floor, west side of the building."

#*#*#

"Roger that, Wilde," Toulouse said, looking through his binoculars at the abandoned office building, and noticing several silhouettes moving on the second floor. The cat tank commander dropped back into the turret and turned to his oddly colored gunner, a self-described mad mammal. "Cheshire, movement on the second floor, hit them with HE."

"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves," the oddly colored cat cut off his song, and glanced over at his commander, "I'll bounce it deep in there, sergeant. Heheheh."

"I don't know about bou-"

"Away!" Cheshire yelled as he fired the tank's main gun, then returned to his song. "Did gyre and gimble in the wabe."

The shell flew through the air, smashing through a window and colliding with the second story ceiling. The shell ricocheted back downward and flew down the hallway. The HE round finally slammed into floor and went off in the middle of fifteen surprised prey extremists.

Toulouse slowly lowered his binoculars in wide eyed shock. "There is no way that should have worked."

"All mimsy were the borogoves."

#*#*#

"Reloading," Brocktree nervously announced as he reloaded and glanced down the hallway, now riddled with bullet holes and two new bodies. Several APL members had converged on their erstwhile weapons storage. The rebels had superior numbers, but the militiamammals had no shortage of ammunition.

"Yer gonna fucken die in here!" a voice that sounded like Napoleon shouted.

"Why don't we just duck back in air vent?" Russell asked before firing a burst at his attackers.

"By now they got every opening in the building covered," Nick explained. The red fox fired off a few shots of his own, before ducking back into the room. He briefly checked on Judy, then spoke through his walkie. "O'Malley, we're pinned down, anything you can do?"

Outside, the feline tank commander cut down an RPG wielding APL goat with one of the tank's MG3s and considered Nick's question. In the minutes since Cheshire's impossible feat, the APL had become much more cautious, limiting what Copper and the tank could do. Ma'ii had called in the situation, but reinforcements wouldn't arrive for some time. Suddenly, Toulouse was struck with a reckless idea. "Is there a basement in there?"

"...I don't think so." Nick responded, confused.

"Ramming speed!"

#*#*#

The red muzzle of a Leopard 2 suddenly burst through the decrepit building's outer wall, followed moments later by the rest of the armored vehicle. The shocked rebels turned toward the thunderous noise as the tank plowed its way through walls and furniture down the hall, more than one APL member disappearing into bloody mush beneath the armored vehicles treads. The tank rolled to a stop just in front of the team's makeshift stronghold the turret traversing to the left and firing off another shell into the building.

Once the dust had cleared, the turret's hatches opened, Toulouse and Cheshire climbing out and the orange commander politely asking, "You gentlemammals need a ride?"