Chapter 21 – A Red Dawn:
Author's Note:
Wow, I don't think I've ever gotten so many reviews in one day before! Eleven the day after I posted the chapter… granted, not all of them were for chapter twenty, but that's not the point. Oh boy… and it looks like USA Patriot left two sizable reviews! And I'm going to attempt to unpack them both… starting with your first one…
Starting with the conversion kit… I was imaging Wolfy using custom rounds so he wouldn't have to change barrels, and I figured the sniper barrel was collapsible or foldable in some way that would create that… holding place for all the shells for the shotgun (I can't think of the name, sorry). Yeah, I think I did a decent job faking everyone out on who the lemon was gonna be between. Though… Nick and Judy will get their chance… don't you worry. It's understandable that you never saw Blank as attractive, she doesn't exactly flaunt her sexuality. Hopefully this means your perception of her has changed, and should make what happens next in the story more interesting. I'm glad you thought Wolfgang's decision of asking for sex instead of money was genius, I kinda thought so too. But as for why Wolfy has experience, I guess Tinder is a reasonable assumption. I would've gone with him sending requests to the Big Boss to send him "companions." But whatever floats your boat. You also make an excellent argument against the psuedopenis, I never considered that because most of the other mammals in Zootopia aren't anatomically correct, Blank doesn't have to be either. I knew that I was going to lose points on the lemon because of the blood, but I really wanted that lemon to be different from the first, and I kinda wanted Blank to have a kink. To be fair, though… when I first wrote it, there was a lot more biting and scratching, and a lot more blood.
Deep breath… and for your second review, I'm glad you found the comedy. I knew the sex scene would be the center of attention, but at least a few people caught and commented on the comedy. The password is supposed to hint at Wolfgang's secret life as a meme lord. While I have seen the particular scene in Phineas and Ferb, the elevator scene is not based on that. Also, I noticed that grammar mistake as well after I posted the chapter. Unfortunately, lots of minor grammar and spelling mistakes slip through my detection… and I only catch them after I post the chapter. As for school, I've been meaning to bring this up, thanks for reminding me. My semester starts on the twenty-eighth, and I will certainly be busy. I'll try and keep posting for one story every week, but I can't guarantee that this will keep to the 'every other week schedule.' Meaning… you could get a chapter on back to back weeks, or you could not see this story updated for a month. I don't know yet…
Lastly, I'll be real quick with you Meincraft, but the injuries of the officers are as follows: Nick, unharmed; Charlotte, broken arm; Wolfard, concussion; Fangmeyer, concussion and still unconscious, possible coma; Delgato, broken ribs and punctured lung; and Judy, sore back from falling off the Black Site wall. Hope that helps.
Alright, with that out of the way, I do have some good news! Because of storyboard difficulties with my other story, I have to take probably a week off in order to fix it… but while I'm fixing it, that doesn't mean I can't work on this story. Which means you'll get another chapter next week instead of having to wait two. Please, enjoy!
XXX
The clouds eventually broke, revealing the sun rising above the horizon, casting fire through the sky. To all those that looked upon the dawn, saw only it's beauty, casting its light upon the city. But not her. She knew the truth. A red sun rises… blood has been spill last night, she sighed internally.
And blood had indeed been spilled. Buckets and buckets, gallons, maybe more, covered the earth she walked on. Her footfalls caused sickening squelches wherever she treaded. She was on government ground, but it didn't feel like it. She felt like she was in a cemetery. A freshly-dug graveyard.
But her footsteps were not the only sound to be heard in this field of corpses. No, there was another. Loud wheezing drew her attention… one of the bodies was not yet dead. She made her way over to the body, taking her time. It wasn't moving any time soon.
She knelt down next to the fallen soldier, a male, she realized. One of his legs had been nearly blown off, and there were several holes in his chest. They must've punctured his lung, she supposed. The soldier glared at her, gasping for air, struggling to say something. Though it didn't seem as if he could speak.
She stared at him for a few moments, her face not contorting into an expression of pity, rather, she remained emotionless as she considered what to do. It only took her a few seconds before she reached into an inner pocket of her suit jacket and pulled out a knife. The injured mammal's eyes widened as he spotted the knife, but he only kept glaring at her as she slowly and deliberately slipped the knife into his neck.
She twisted the blade as she watched the life die from his eyes, his wheezing eventually halting, before wrenching it free, splattering her white fur in red. Grumbling to herself, she pulled out a cloth from another pocket and began cleaning the blade, standing up as she did. Once the blade was clean, she inspected the steel. Nodding in satisfaction, she put the knife back in its sheath inside of her suit jacket, before folding the cloth and placing that inside of her pocket once more.
"Wait… this sunrise… I've seen it. Is this the past? Or is it happening now?" a voice, distinctly male's, sounded behind her, causing her to turn her head. "I remember… I remember. I've seen this dawn. That morning, the sky looked just like this. Every time I die, this is the vision that greets my eyes. And every time I think, 'How lovely that sunlight… which I forsook so many centuries ago.'"
She turned around completely to see a smirking buck trot towards her, paws behind his back. "Is that Shakespeare?" she asked.
"Not exactly," he grinned as he came to a stop just a few feet away from her. "You look lovely in red, by the way."
"Whatever," she rolled her eyes, deciding not to press on what he was quoting. "Are the Cleaners here?"
"No, not yet. But the Boss knows SKY is on standby," he replied.
"Great," she grumbled. "The sooner they get here, the sooner we can leave."
"Aw, can't handle all the dead bodies?" the gray and black buck smirked.
"I don't happen to enjoy the smell," she replied. "My nose is better than yours."
"That's what you get for being a fox," he chuckled.
"You make it sound like I have a choice," she growled, crossing her arms.
"Fine, no sense of humor today, I see," he rolled his eyes and padded past her, kneeling next to the corpse she had just created.
"Do I ever have a sense of humor?" she growled, turning to face him, even though his back was to her.
"No, not really. I just thought maybe you felt like mixing today up a bit," he said, looking over the dead body. "Huh… she's sloppy, isn't she?"
"If by sloppy, you mean 'doesn't clean up her messes,' then yes," the vixen sighed, deciding to ignore his attempt at playful banter.
"No, that's messy. I mean she's sloppy… she didn't finish this one off," he said, glancing back at her. "Maybe this won't be so hard after all."
"I have a feeling she was interrupted before she could finish this one off," the vixen snorted. "And no, it doesn't make this mission any easier."
"Eh, I remain unconvinced," the buck smirked, standing up and walking away.
"We are surrounded by hundreds of dead enemy combatants, and you think because she missed one, it makes our job easier?" the vixen growled.
"No, I think that because this isn't a search and destroy mission, just a search mission, it makes our job easier," he said, bending down, and picking something off the blood-stained ground. "You're correct that we're surrounded by dead enemy combatants… we're still on the same side. And judging from the mess she made here, it won't be long until we find her."
"I wouldn't be too sure about her being on our side. The Boss said she's a bit of a loose cannon. We should prepare for the worst," the vixen replied, taking a few steps closer to the buck to see what he was holding. A shuriken, she realized.
"I'm choosing to remain positive," he chuckled. "Have you taken a look at the security tapes? I'm interested to see how this battle went down."
"I'm afraid we can't view the tapes," she sighed. "The asset fried his computer… shutting the cameras down before the battle even happened."
"What?" the buck growled, dropping the bloody shuriken, and whirling around. "Where is the asset?"
"He's AWOL," the vixen shrugged. "I tried to track him, but I couldn't pick up a signal on his tracker."
"He's… tampered with his tracker?"
"It appears so."
"Great. Great! Wonderful…" the gray and black buck growled, shoving his paws in his suit jacket pockets.
"J! J!" a new voice sounded, causing both the buck and the vixen to turn their heads to see a wolf rushing towards them.
"What, what is it?" the buck asked, removing his paws from his pockets.
"I found this in the asset's room," the wolf said, holding out his paw. The buck plucked a golden badge from the wolf's palm.
"A ZPD badge?" the vixen asked, before spotting her other teammate walking towards the trio. A lioness came to a stop and looked down at the buck.
"The Cleaners are here, sir," she said, to which the buck only waved her away. He didn't care about the cleaners right now.
"How did a ZPD badge get into the asset's room?" the vixen asked, trying to get the buck to say something. "Unless his cousin left it… but that badge…"
"Is much too small for a wolf to have left," the buck finished, holding the golden badge up so it reflected the sunlight onto the ground. "This is a rabbit officer's badge. And the ZPD only has one rabbit officer."
"Shall we go return the badge, then?" the vixen asked.
"Yes," the buck smirked. "Judy Hopps needs this returned to her right away…"
XXX
Nick was the first to wake, before even the alarm on his phone went off. The fox let out a soft yawn, baring all his fangs. Blinking slowly, he looked down to see a bunny pressed against his chest. His memory slowly came back, along with a wide grin that spread across his face. She was back in his arms again. He had almost been afraid when he finally fell asleep, that her coming back was all a dream. But waking up next to her banished that nightmare to the back of his mind.
After three days of no sleep, he was surprised that he was awake so early, but he carefully untangled himself from Judy, without waking her. It was especially tricky, considering that she was holding his tail particularly tightly, but he eventually managed to roll out of bed. Sucking in a deep breath, he stretched until he felt his back pop.
He shut off the alarm on both his phone, and her phone, deciding to let her sleep in a bit. Even if she would be upset, she needed the rest. After all, she had just gone through a kidnapping, and they already had their case for the day. And they had a lead. The chief could give Judy an hour to sleep in.
He quietly grabbed a clean uniform and a towel and headed towards the shower. He showered, taking his time to wash himself. He didn't want Judy to complain about him not showering for a fourth day in a row.
He exited the shower with a soft smile, still seeing Judy asleep on his bed. He checked his phone to see that it was now eight. They were late, but he didn't care. He had breakfast to make. He searched his fridge and his cabinets, cursing the fact that he was running dry on food. But he managed to find a bit of pancake batter, just enough for two flapjacks. Perfect, he grinned to himself and began making Judy pancakes. He would steal one or two of Clawhauser's donuts once he got to the precinct.
The scent of breakfast plus the lack of a warm body next to her was enough to wake Judy. She sat up, only to wince as her bruised and stiff back protested the movement. Better bring painkillers with me, she sighed internally as she began her own morning ritual. She took a swift shower before slipping into a fresh uniform. Though there was something missing. Her badge.
Normally, her badge was present on her vest, the only part of her uniform other than her belt that she didn't wash. But when she went to polish it with the back of her paw, she discovered it was missing. She scoured her room, looking under the bed, inside drawers, and even underneath the mattress before she spread out and began searching the apartment.
"Is something wrong?" Nick asked as he slid the two pancakes he had made onto a plate. He set the plate onto the counter along with orange juice, butter, syrup, and utensils.
"Yeah, actually," Judy said as she hopped up onto a stool. "My badge is missing."
"Oh… sorry, I haven't seen it," he shrugged. "But I do have breakfast for you! Fresh off the skillet."
"Thanks, Nick," Judy grinned as she began buttering her pancakes. "Did you not make yourself anything?"
"I only had enough batter for you," he said as he made his way over to the living room. He found the remote and flicked on the television, before hunting for the news. He wanted to see if there was anything on Judy being found.
"Ah," Judy mumbled between bites of her breakfast. She wolfed down the fluffy cakes as quickly as she could, stuffing her cheeks before swallowing every few minutes. Like always, Nick's cooking was delicious. She climbed up onto the countertop and carried her dirty dishes over to the sink.
Nick watched out of the corner of his eye with an amused smile. She wasn't quite tall enough to reach the sink from the floor. The fact that she had to climb all over the counter was just… adorable. She paused as she was depositing her dishes before turning around with a glare. "Are you thinking that I'm cute again, Wilde?" she growled.
"You make it very difficult not to think that, Carrots," the fox smirked before turning back to the TV, finding the news as he did. Judy grumbled something unintelligible before hopping off the counter and padding over to the couch. She sat down next to him with a sigh, only for him to glance at her again. "What, no lecture, Fluff?" he asked after a moment of silence.
"I'd rather not waste my breath," she smirked. "You never listen anyways."
"Hey, I resent that," he grinned. "I listen occasionally."
She rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone to check how much time they had before they needed to be at the precinct. Her eyes widened the moment they landed on the time and her mouth dropped open. But no sound came out.
Nick wasn't paying attention to her mental breakdown next to him, as he was watching the news. A cheetah wearing a revealing dress stood in front of the city legislature building, holding a microphone. "In other breaking news, Mayor Lionheart just announced the new 'police protection act,'" the cheetah said.
Nick cocked his head as the picture of the cheetah changed to a field of death. Hundreds of hyenas lay slaughtered in a large courtyard. "After it was discovered that hundreds of murdered mammals were killed just yesterday, Mayor Lionheart introduced the police protection act, which removed previous restrictions on gun handling on the ZPD. If this new law passes, ZPD mammals under eight feet tall can now carry firearms," the voice of the cheetah came over the footage of the dead hyenas.
"J-Judy?" Nick asked, looking down at the rabbit, who was still staring at her phone. She didn't respond. "Judy!" he said a bit louder, hoping to break her out of her trance.
"Nick, did you let me sleep in?!" Judy exclaimed, looking up at the fox to glare at him. "Did you make me late for work again?!"
He blinked for a moment before shaking his head. "Calm down, Carrots, it's not a big deal. You just got back from a kidnapping, you needed a bit more sleep. Besides, we already have our assignment, and a lead. We have plenty of time to crack the case today," he said calmly, hoping she wouldn't flip out on him.
Judy ground her teeth together before letting out a sigh. "Fine, whatever. But we need to get moving, now," she said.
"Hold on a moment, Fluff… look at the TV," Nick said, gesturing towards the screen hanging on the wall. "Do you happen to know why there are hundreds of dead hyenas on the news?"
"I… might…"
"I want an explanation, Judy."
"We don't have time for an explanation! If you had woken me up on time, I would have time to tell you, but…"
"But if I had woken you up on time then we would've missed the news segment. I would still be blissfully unaware."
"Nick."
"Fine, Judy… but you're telling me while we head back to the Den of Fangs."
XXX
Wolfgang's eyes opened slowly as he let out a soft yawn. Ah, I dozed off, he chuckled internally as he sat up slowly, ignoring the still bleeding wounds all over his body. They had gone all night, only taking breaks when they had to wait for his knot to deflate. It was definitely one of the best nights he had ever had.
But hours upon hours of sex eventually took their toll on the both of them. She had decided to call it quits and take a shower around six in the morning, while he drifted off to sleep. He checked the clock to see he had only slept for two hours, but it was enough rest to get him through the rest of the day. He cracked his neck before looking around, trying to find Blank.
And find her he did. She was sitting on the floor, surrounded by gun parts and bullets. She was still completely naked, pushing strange-looking bullets into a magazine, completely focused on her work. "You see, this is a sight I could get used to waking up to," he grinned.
She looked over at him with a small smirk. "Too bad that this was a one-time deal. I'll admit that you were fucking amazing, but I only agreed to one round. We went at least… six," she said. "So you owe me a few favors."
"Ah, but you loved it," Wolfgang said, rolling out of bed.
"Yes, I did," she nodded, not in the least bit reluctantly. "But I have a list of errands for you to run."
"Oh, yeah, no problem," he said, sitting down across from her, equally as naked as she was. There was a small barrier of gun parts between them. "What do you need?"
"Do you notice anything about the gun parts laying around?" Blank asked as she shoved another one of the strange bullets into the mag.
"Yeah… two pistols by the looks of it," he replied, glancing around, and reconstructing the weapons in his head.
"That plus your rifle slash shotgun is all the firepower we have right now," she said, picking up another bullet and rolling it between her thumb and forefinger. "Which isn't a lot."
"So… I'm guessing you need me to gather more weapons," he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes. Like I said, I have a list ready for you. Guns, ammo, the lot," she nodded, shoving the bullet into the mag and setting it down before picking up regular nine-millimeter round and began loading another magazine.
"What about those rounds?" Wolfgang asked, gesturing towards the magazine she had just set down. "Armor piercing rounds?"
"Not exactly," she said, smirking slightly as she continued loading the regular rounds. She finished quickly and began working on assembling the pistols.
"Not telling?" he asked.
"Nah. They're not on the list, 'cause you aren't gonna find these here in Zootopia," she smirked. "But let's just say they'll come in handy for my mission today."
"And what would your mission for today be?"
"I'm going back to the black site. I'm going to try and recover my M60. That thing's vintage, ya know," she chuckled.
"Oh. And… the reason you need firearms to do that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The Big Boss is using my slaughter to advance his agenda," she growled, gesturing towards the TV behind Wolfgang. The white wolf turned around to see the television showing the news, the volume muted, but subtitles allowed the two mammals in the room to understand what was going on.
"I see…" he sighed. "Is it really a bad thing, though?"
"Depends," she shrugged. "It's not my call to make, though. What I can tell you is that he's not covering this incident up. He has another team on-site to make sure the camera crews are protected, and he's cleaning up the bodies the long way. This is insurance."
He watched as she held up a completed pistol, before screwing a silencer onto it. "Pretty good insurance, then," he chuckled.
"Yeah," she smirked. We are still on the same side… after all, she sighed internally. "Anyways, I figure I can recover my laptop as well. You'll need something to work on while we use this as a temporary base."
"Oh, well if you want that laptop back, you'd be going in the wrong direction," Wolfgang chuckled. "Judy took the laptop. Man, you really were too distracted to notice."
"Oh… Judy has my laptop?" Blank growled, finishing the second firearm, and screwing a silencer onto that.
"Well… I think she left it with Bogo. Along with the prisoners she arrested," Wolfgang said.
"Prisoners?" Blank asked, ear flicking in annoyance. "What prisoners?"
"Oh right, I forgot to mention that Judy arrested two hyenas. I figured we'd need someone to interrogate…" he trailed off as he watched the hyena fume across from him.
"No… no… no! There were supposed to be no prisoners!" she snarled, standing up in a single fluid motion.
"Why not?" he asked, cocking her head as she marched over to her combat gear and began dressing.
"Because," she growled, slipping her pants on. "My mission is not to arrest them."
"Mission? I thought you said you didn't have new orders," he asked, raising an eyebrow as she slipped her combat vest on. She grabbed her pistols and holstered them before pulling on her trench coat.
"I don't," she growled. He could only watch as she turned on her heel and padded towards the door, slamming it behind her before he could get another word in.
XXX
Whew! Lots of fun things in this chapter! So… hopefully this chapter isn't too confusing. If any of you have questions, please ask them in a review so I can do my best to clear up any misconceptions or confusions. Anyways, with that covered, we're introduced to a few new characters in the beginning of the chapter. I wonder if you all can guess who the fox and rabbit are supposed to be…
I'm not entirely sure if I promised we'd get to the Rodentia case this chapter, but it didn't quite make the cut. But don't worry, it'll be showing up next chapter for sure! Well, at least Nick and Judy going back to the Den of Fangs. Whether or not that case will be cracked next chapter is still up in the air! We also learn that Blank is extremely unhappy that Judy took prisoners. I wonder what she plans to do? All that and more, next time!