Chapter 14: I See Spots!
I love Friday's because it's time for another chapter of our story and tonight in The Greatest Zootopian Hero, Benjamin Clawhauser returns in all his glory!
Ralph's lawyer and girlfriend Pam Davidson is played by veteran actress Connie Sellecca, but did you know that The Greatest American Hero wasn't her first superhero show? In 1979 she played Dr. Wendy Day in the made for television movie Captain America II: Death Too Soon. Thank goodness we all tried to forget about that movie and the first one too!
Now somewhere in my boxes from the 1980's I may have my old Mego super hero flying Captain America figure, who knew that the guy could fly? While I'm digging through the attic, enjoy tonight's action packed chapter.
"Yeah, let's make the world a better place," she whispered to him and he could not help but give her an affectionate little squeeze causing her to give a cute squeak.
"Sorry, I'm a little excited," he softly snickered as they sneaked down the stairwell to the lobby of the building. In front of them was an army of untrained and ill-disciplined animals milling around awaiting orders. Holding her tightly against him, he invisibly slipped out of the door and began to weave in and out of the group. He bit his tongue as hear snippets of their conversations, but they both remained silent as they crept towards the door.
"So I heard that the preds in Tundratown have gone savage and those polar bears are roaming the streets eating everyone…"
"I don't want to shoot anyone, one of my college friends is a wolf!
"Just dump 'em and shot 'em all mate! Those dingos had the best on the island and it's ours now…"
"I heard that they are being led by Robin Hood, he's come back from the dead…"
"We've got to get them all safely locked up until we figure this out!"
He could smell their fear, they were afraid and not thinking this through. What freedoms were they willing to give up in the name of security? The door to the police station opened and he and Judy quickly rushed to get inside before it closed. "The morgue is down this way," Judy whispered as she pulled him down a hallway.
"Slow down," he whispered back and yanked her towards the wall just as a muscular bull walked out of a door and stepped on his tail.
"What the heck?" the bull snorted as he looked at his hoof. "That was weird!" Nick moved his tail as the bull stomped down again and then shrugged before moving on down the hallway.
"It's in here!" she whispered, but he cut her off from opening the door and looking inside of the room.
"There's someone in there!" he softly hissed. "I can't look inside without losing our invisibility so let me peek first." Slowly he turned the knob and cracked the door open, then after sticking his head inside he quickly closed it again.
"What's the problem," she asked.
"There's…there's a cheetah in there!" he whispered. "A big fat and very naked cheetah."
"That must be Benny!" she groaned. "They must have gotten him, what is he doing?
Nick cracked to door open and peeked again. "Gross!" he replied in a whisper. "You don't want to see this."
She pushed under his arm and looked. "Sweet Cheese and Crackers!" she mumbled a little too loud when she saw that the big cat was tongue bathing himself…all of himself.
The cat's ears twitched and he stopped licking himself and lazily looked around before prowling on all four paws, with his belly swaying, towards the door with a primal but curious look.
Closing the door Nick sighed. "If we move really, really slow we might sneak by him."
"What about our scent?" she quietly asked.
"Finn pointed out that the suit's is suppressing my scent, you didn't notice?" he replied. "You just need to remain calm."
"I hear better then I smell," the rabbit replied.
"You smell good to me!" he snickered softly to himself, but she heard him and blushed.
"Come on Slick, we have a mission to finish!" she snapped.
He opened the door and the two of them stepped into the room, pressing against the wall as Ben ambled over to the door and sniffed. The cheetah didn't see anything and plopped down and began to scratch his cheek with his rear paw. Slowly they began to move toward the door on the other room while keeping a wary eye on the big fat naked cat. He pulled her closer to his side and his paw accidentally slipped down to brush her soft fluffy tail, he quickly moved his paw away but it was too late. She didn't say anything, but her scent tantalizingly changed and across the room the big cat smelled it. He waddled across the room straight towards them sniffing as he came and then pounced.
"Ahhh!" Judy yelled as she was knocked from Nick's embrace and fell onto the floor. Nick moved to stop the cat's attack, but was surprised as the cheetah began rubbing and purring against his partner.
"I think he likes you fluff," the fox chuckled. His voice drew the attention of the fat feline who prowled towards him with a growl.
"No Ben!" Judy called out and ran to begin stroking between the big cat's ears. "He's a friend." The cat sat down and looked in curiosity as the costumed fox appeared.
"This guy is…err, was a cop?" Nick asked. "How'd he pass the fitness exam?"
"Ben has a glandular problem," Judy replied in a defensive tone. "Don't you sweetie." She stroked the big cat's ears and the fat cheetah began to purr.
"Carrots, he looks more like he has a doughnut problem," the fox snickered pointing to the chocolate glazed doughnut which was caught in one of the big cat's fat rolls around his neck.
Just then the door to the lab opened as a fat hornless ram in a white lab coat, along with a sturdy looking uniformed hippo and a small ewe in a blue suit and white blouse entered the room. "What is going on in here?" the hippo snapped and then seeing the fox and the rabbit, he shoved the other two out of the room. "Call for back up! I'll try to stop them." He drew an old fashioned tranquilizer gun and instead of firing at either the rabbit or fox he shot the cheetah.
Judy pulled at the dart as the big cat's eyes rolled up and he collapsed. "He shot Ben!" she yelled.
Nick charged forward, but the hippo only put his hoofs up in surrender. "Look fox, I'm on your side," Higgins whispered. "I work with Bogo and Savage." Nick stopped his punch just inches from the officer's big mouth and was surprised as the large mammal shoved a piece of paper into his paw.
"You're on our side?" Judy asked. "I thought you were Bellwether's guy?"
"I'm a double agent," the hippo replied. "Now we have to make it sound like we are fighting, so beat me up a little."
Nick grabbed his arm and threw him against the wall with a thud and then put his fist through the wall as the officer tore his uniform some and also pounded on the wall. He sat down on the ground and acted dazed, just a Bellwether and two large rams in combat fatigues came back into the room. The rams were trained killers and entered firing their rifles at the fox, Judy noticed that Higgins crawled his way out of the room and into the hallway.
"Get him!" the ewe screamed as she fumbled around trying to load a large pistol with something from a case. "Stop him!"
The rams lowered their heads and charged horns first at the fox, who snarled back.
Unbeknownst to everyone else once he left the room, the uniformed hippo stumbled to his feet and ran down the hallway towards the surveillance room where the security camera monitors were kept. As he entered the room, he began to switch on the cameras until he found the one that showed the room where the fox was battling the rams. He smiled as he turned on the auto and then reaching over, he pulled the wiring and plugged them into a device that Agent Savage had used to stealthily watch everything going on in the building. The images and auto from the camera began to broadcast to the rebels, he knew that the agent's team would soon hack the city's extensive communication network and broadcast the entire battle to every television, cell phone, and even radio.
Back in the room, the costume fox had made short work of the two beefy rams and turned to face the small sheep who instead of cowering in fear was smirking at him as she held a large pistol.
"This is the endgame fox," she laughed. "You've messed up all my plans, but now the city's newest hero is going to become its greatest villain."
"You're crazy," Judy protested. "You made all those poor animals go savage for what? Power?" Money? Your ego?
"Power?" Bellwether laughed. "Of course power, riches, control, I have it all now! For years everyone looked down at me because of my size. Having to go through life being called cute all the time and patronized, being the last one to be picked for the team on the playground because of your size! Left behind by your so called friends because you slowed them down! Pushed around and bullied by a wolf…why am I telling you this bunny? You should know what it's like being the so called little guy! Its time one of us little guys showed them what we can do and I have!"
"But using fear to turn everyone against each other, why would you do that?" the fox asked. "Others have died because of your scheme!"
"Stupid fox, no matter what you've been told prey always fears predator," she said and then laughed. "Don't you know your little partner over there really fears you deep down inside? Besides, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet."
The fox gave a low growl and Bellwether only laughed in reply.