Eleazar cleaved through the practice dummies, his black long sword slicing them like a hot knife cutting butter. He had spent the last two days waiting for Savage's arrival, and his waking hours were spilt up between practicing on the dummies and occasionally eating. Today he had even garnered a small audience, the black bear from his extraction and some of his lackeys hung around the edges of his little practice area, watching him tear through the dummies that Arkous had sent with the sword that came with them. After two days of this, they were starting to run low, and the bear was getting nervous about what he might start using for practice should they run out of dummies before Savage arrived. His display of ferocity and apparent ruthless skill had his whole team on edge, as they soon realized just why the fox was Arkous's favourite toy. As the vulpine shredded another practice dummy, one of the bear's aides came up behind him, the lynx eyeing the fox cautiously as he whispered something to the larger predator.
"Sir, Arkous Savage is here." The lynx said, his voice slightly shaken. At the mention, the bear seemed to calm down, taking on a more confident demeanor for a second.
"Well, bring him in! We have quite a show-" his blustering was cut out as he heard the uneven footsteps and light thud of a walking stick. His voice was caught in his throat as he quickly turned around, catching Savage's malicious grin head on. Now behind him, the black vulpine stopped his slaughter of the dummies and sheathed his sword, the scrapping of the blade running down the unique metal scabbard ringing through the room. Arkous was the first to speak up, interrupting the deadly melody.
"Hallo, Boris. Long time no see?"
Nick found himself in the records department once again, Pawtorias standing over his shoulder, watching as his claws clacked away at the keys. Judy was nowhere to be seen so Nick guessed that she was still interrogating Lucia upstairs, getting a more formal statement from the vixen. This fact was unimportant to the fox though, as he quickly ran through background files. As he found the mammal he was looking for, he stopped and growled, his anger rising to a visible peak.
"Well, that answers several questions. I'll set up a meeting immediately." Pawtorias said as he pulled his phone out, heading back to the ground level for better reception. As he walked out, Judy ran in, and saw the look of utter frustration on his face.
"What's wrong? What did you find?" She worriedly queried. Nick gestured to the monitor, rubbing his eyes as he tried to fight the headache building in the back of his mind. She walked around the corner of the desk, and groaned at the display, the LCD monitor bringing a blast of the not-as-distant-as-they-would-like past.
"Are you serious? You really think she's responsible?" Judy exclaimed, desperately looking for a way out of what it meant. But the coincidences were too many to ignore.
"You heard what Lucia said. A sheep doctor, bluish serum, high aggressiveness; it all fits. Which means she's a lead. She might know what they were doing to Lucia and Eleazar, and we need to know what they were doing." The obvious connection was, well, obvious. Sighing, Judy gave up the fight, and followed Nick out of the room, not even bothering to shut off the computer behind them, leaving Dr. Dawn Bellwether's picture and personnel information on screen.
"There is a first time for everything, Eleazar. However, I never expected to be dealing with this." Savage sat in a large swivel chair, staring down both Eleazar and Boris. The venom in his voice was well hidden, diluted with a playful frustration and an false surprise. However, the two criminals meeting his ire were not mislead. The black vulpine simply took full impact of the abuse, numb already to the pain and lacking any sort of receptors for what should've been paralyzing terror.
"The ZPD has captured Lucia, and there seems to be another actor attempting to disrupt our activities, one that you have neither dispatched nor even identified or located. You have failed me in two regards in the span of a single week. Do you have anything to say for your sister and yourself?" He growled. The fox met his glare with silence, his eyes a complete void of emotions. Arkous knew he wouldn't be able to get much else from the broken mammal, but he was still irritated about it. One small setback. And it might yet play to our advantage… play our cards well, Suka, and we might just get out on top still… The wolf thought to himself, as he made the fox's next order clear.
"Well, this makes your next move all the easier to decide. You must first retrieve your sister from ZPD custody. The longer they have her the more likely they might discover my secrets. Once you have done that, you and she will be assigned to dealing with our side problem until it is either dealt with or I have finished my business in the city. Understood?" Savage demanded, his command clear and falsely charismatic. His fox servant simply nodded in response, before heading out the door. As the door closed behind him, Boris spoke up, taking the liberty of asking questions, questions he would never get the answer to.
"What's wrong with that guy? Seems a bit… off." He posited, with the grey wolf ignoring the question. The criminal mastermind reached into his jacket and pulled out an ornate glove. The deep blue silk garment was trimmed with gold, and in the palm there was a marquis cut gemstone, fastened into a silver holster. The gemstone was unlike anything Boris had ever seen; it was flawless, but as the light refracted through it, cracks seemed to appear and fade in flashes through the stone, with the blue of the stone seemingly brightened and darkening with the amount of cracks visible. Still in silence, Arkous slipped the glove on, working it onto his claws, and once on, tested it's fitness by making a fist. The material silk stretched, but no stitching came undone, and after several flexes, the canine was pleased with it. Curious, Boris asked yet another question.
"Well, I never would've thought you would be so interested in something so tacky. Where the hell did you manage to find something like that?" He chuckled at the view, his deep, throaty voice finally breaking Arkous's thoughts. In response the wolf looked up at him, his amber eyes filled with a contentment that gave the bear chills.
"You can find a lot of oddities in the tombs of the ancients, especially when you know which tombs to search. Drako Fauxfang's sepulcher was one such vault of trinkets and treasures like this, but has since been… emptied of its valuables." The wolf's answer caught Boris's attention, and the bear's expression soured.
"You know it's bad luck to pillage a dead mammal's tomb. You might be biting off more than you can chew." His warning fell on deaf ears though, the criminal mastermind disregarding his caution outright with a simple wave of his paw.
"Boris, I've had enough to deal with in these past decades to last the rest of my life time. No superstition or spirits of old will change my course now."
The three mammals sat in silence, the anticipation for their upcoming encounter thick. Sif couldn't exactly understand why his allies were so nervous. Dawn Bellwether had been incarcerated for a month and a half, and wasn't slated to be released for a long time. So it wasn't like they could make her more dangerous for her eventual release. As they pulled into the parking lot for the penitentiary he chalked it up to irrational reasonings, thoughts that he had to put down before they got out of the car.
"Don't move, either one of you. Now, I don't know why you two are so uptight about this, but you're going to have to shake off those nerves. If Bellwether is connected, then we need to get everything out of her, and I doubt she'll say anything if she thinks you two are afraid of her." He said, completely missing the mark. The two looked at each other in their shared seat, then back at Pawtorias, then laughed, getting a scowl from the wolf.
"Oh, that's a good one. We're not afraid of her. No, just irritated that we have to see her again." Nick said through the laughter, Judy nodding in agreement. Annoyed, Sif was about to say something, but stopped himself as the air cleared of the weight that he was trying to get rid of to begin with. Shrugging and sighing, he got out of the car, with Nick and Judy following suit. They quickly made their way through the front office of the prison and to the visitor area, flashing their badges at any staff or guards that tried to stop them. When they finally got to the private visitor room they had been heading towards, Pawtorias stopped them, not being able to enter with them.
"Unfortunately I can't go in with you. I have to speak with the warden about something. I take it you guys can handle this by yourself, yes?" The two smaller mammals shrugged, not really thinking his presence necessary. Looking across the two of them, he nodded silently, and walked away, trusting them without any word of warning. At that, Nick and Judy turned to the door, and for the first time in a long time, clicked back into their normal partnership relationship.
"So, Detective Toot-toot, how do you want to deal with her? How about…" Nick started his suggestion, but no verbal cues were given to indicate what he meant. Instead, he wiggled his eyebrows and then gave his muzzle two quick strokes. Judy let out a short laugh, rebuking the idea.
"Nah, I was thinking something more like…" her response stopped short as well, deciding to go the same route, as her partner, twitching her ears, booping her nose, then wiping something off her shoulder.
"Hmm, an interesting thought… sure, let's do it. You or me?" He agreed, getting a raised eyebrow from the little officer. But she accepted her victory quickly, and responded confidently.
"Moi aussi." Judy said, getting a chuckle from her larger partner.
"'Aussi' means 'also' in French carrots. Not the word you're looking for." He corrected getting a groan from the bunny and an eye roll.
"Give me a break, I only took it for the two years." She replied, and before he could give her a quick-witted remark, she opened the door, and they instantly dawned the indecipherable masks of control. Bellwether sat in a chair, handcuffed to a small table in front of her, the look of murder boiling deep in her eyes. It was apparent that if she wasn't restricted to the chair she was in, then she undoubtedly would've jumped out of the seat and attempted to strangle the fox and bunny that had walked in.
"Oh look who it is. And to what curse do I owe the displeasure of this little meeting? I hope you haven't come for tea or biscuits, they don't let me use heating appliances." She spat at them, her teeth clenched as she made no effort to conceal her vitriol for the couple. Then the scent hit her, and she gagged and tried to jump back in her seat, hoping to avoid the smell of their markings, only for her wrist restraints keeping her from getting too far. Nick and Judy walked up to their seats at the little table, and sat down, waiting for her overreaction to die down.
"Ugh, oh my god I knew you two were close but I had no idea you would do something so… perverse! How disgusting!" She tried to reprimand them, hoping the insults would get some sort of reaction from the two. However, Judy's deadpanned and off topic response cut through her disgust and wailings.
"So, Dr. Bellwether, tell me about the work you did for Arkous Savage a couple decades ago." The allusion silenced the lamb so fast her voice was still bouncing off the walls as she shut her mouth and went wided eyed for a second. Her stuttering denial was met with nothing but amused looks telegraphing her lack of persuasion.
"I-I-I have no idea what you're talking about. Arkous who? What research?"
"Oh, who said anything about research? Did you Nick? I didn't." Judy's sarcastic response showed Dawn her mistake, and clammed up even further, unable to figure out how to proceed. After a brief laugh, Judy spoke up again, catching the sheep in the middle of a deep swallow.
"Listen, Bellwether; we have information that proves you were a part of the Fauxfang kidnapping 20 years ago, and we have a very skilled, very upset vixen in custody that know we know a lot, and knows that we have you. And he boss won't be happy to hear both of these things. So when our latest batch of detainees get dropped off here, you very well might have a very, very angry fox looking to shank you in the showers. Now, if you spill the beans, I can assure you that won't happen." the picture Judy painted caused the biologist and former mayor's eyes to grow even wider in fear. After two seconds in silence, Judy sighed, and the two detectives got up. Before they could step away though, Dawn shouted, grabbing their attention.
"NO WAIT OKAY I'LL TALK! I wasn't a part of the kidnappings I swear I was a postgrad researcher and my professor and I were contacted because we had done some really interesting work on chemical neurobiology, specifically with narcotics. Before the kidnappings a mammal contacted us and offered a massive sum of money, a little over three million dollars when it was all said and done, for some top secret project. When we agreed, we were kidnapped and brought to a bunker, where we met him. That wolf, Arkous. He explained the situation, and warned us that if we said anything then he would have us killed, and so we agreed. I promise you I didn't help kidnap the blasted kits." She sped through a short explanation, but just enough to get their attention. Sitting back down, Judy pulled out her carrot pen and started recording.
"What kind of research did you agree to do on the Fauxfang children?" Her question was to be expected, and for a second Bellwether thought about not answering it, but she did anyway, knowing they had all the leverage here.
"Arkous Savage had myself and a small research team working with Nighthowlers. He wanted us to test the effects of a certain strain on mammals. First, buffalos, then other wolves, then rabbits. After around a year, he brought the Fauxfangs to us. At first, Professor Nitz and I thought the effect would be no different, but there were dramatic differences." She elaborated, and took a slight pause before continuing under Judy and Nick's almost oppressive stares.
"With the other subjects, the mammals went crazy and savage, as you could imagine. Their brain activity when recorded showed that more modern, civilized portions of the brain were basically shutting down and all of the energy and blood was diverted to more ancient, less civilized parts. However, the Fauxfang siblings didn't show this. Instead, they showed a rise in brain activity all around, with older portions reactivating and newer portions drawing even more blood and resources. After several trials, the older portions were starting to remain active beyond the normal scope of a modern fox despite the drug being used up in their system already. In was around two month in when we realized that it was having several other effects on them as well, not to mention what the increased calculating capacity of their reawoken native lobes gave them." She hinted, and Nick stopped her. The two detectives guessed that whatever Arkous had been after, it was in those effects, and their specifics.
"Tell us more about the effects. What were they?" Bellwether's response was tentative, and it was obvious that she had recollected the bits of her spine she had strewn around the room at the mention of Savage's name.
"There were many, and I don't think I remember them all. But I do know where you can find all of mine and Dr. Nitz's data, unaltered and unscathed." She dropped, the lure too much to be ignored. At the suggestion, Judy knew it was bargaining phase, and immediately sighed.
"Okay Bellwether, what do you want?" She queried, not dropping a hint of an emotion with the question. At her lack of expression, the sheep became nervous, glancing at the fox and then back to the rabbit, and then answered quickly.
"I want a high security room. And a cellmate, one that doesn't hate me. And I want a hot plate, so I can heat up my food and tea." Judy glanced at Nick, their eyes meeting to convey the wonder of whether or not they would be able to actually meet her demands. Before they could answer though, the door behind them opened, and Pawtorias answered for them.
"Done. Now where is the research?" The large grey wolf asked. At the sight, Bellwether jumped, and without even registering what he said, she gave them the information, no restraint in her voice.
"A small house at 1955 Cypress Grove Lane! There's a keypad security system, the code is 22-39-16-55-5!" Her skittishness went almost completely unnoticed by the two detectives, while her jumpy nature almost got Sif to laugh. As they had seemingly got everything they wanted, Judy stopped her recorder, and looked up at her fox and the large wolf with a smile, before turning back to the frightened sheep and thanked her.
"Well thank you, Dr. Bellwether, that will be very helpful. Now, we'll let you get back to your room, as you probably have some packing to do." She said with a condescending grin, the convict unable to coherently speak. Just as she and Nick had gotten out of the room, she shouted after them, wanting verbal assurances now.
"So you're not going to release the fox on me, right? They're not going to be coming here, are they?" The question filled the air with her obvious fear, and Judy turned, even more pleased with herself than before, her little act ready for reveal.
"Oh, don't worry, she isn't coming here. In fact, she's the reason we know you were connected in the first place, and now that we have your confession, she can go into witness protections while we have a judge throw another couple of years at you for harming a minor and assisted kidnapping, not to mention crimes against Mammalian kind." Her grin grew with every word, and Bellwether's face first went to surprise, then horror, then undaunting anger, as she heard the rabbit explain everything. Each expression change got a chuckle from the russet fox, and by the end of it, even Pawtorias was smirking. They closed the door as the defunct mayor as she started screaming expletives, and they quickly left the prison, heading to their next lead.
The smaller than average wolf stood, hidden in the shadows of the alleyway, glancing around nervously. Out of thicker shadows a long, black sword lunged at him, missing him narrowly. The large fox with his paw on the hilt seemed to materialize out of the darkness, pinning the wolf to the wall behind him as the point of the slightly curved crossguard poked his chest and the blade dug itself deeper into the brick wall his back was up against.
"H-hey El-Eleazar. What took you so long?" Charlie gulped, the fear in his eyes more than apparent. Eleazar responded with a quiet growl, and a lack of anger on his face, showing little real hostility, asides from the drawn blade. Charlie gulped, trying to get a hold of the fear, and started up again.
"Look, if you would just back off a little bit, I have all the info you want. Could you just put away the weapon?" He asked cautiously, and without hesitation the fox complied, pulling the sword free from the wall and sheathing it again. Breathing a sigh of relief, Charlie began to relay all of the info to his vulpine acquaintance.
"Well, it looks like my group was hired by a panda named Jack Black. I'm not exactly sure why he wanted you two so badly, but he has had a lot of dealings with Savage and Vartini before, so I'm not surprised he wanted to get at you. Was willing to pay an obscene amount of money, too." He explained, getting nothing but a nod from the fox. Clearing his throat, he tiptoed into his next comments.
"Also, the bear has a raid planned for a big target tomorrow." The sentence prompted Eleazar to ask for more details.
"What's the target?" His facade dropped for a moment when the wolf answered him, sending chills down his spine.
"ZPD HQ, Precinct 1. I'm guessing that's where your sister is being held, right?" Charlie guessed correctly, much to his own detriment. As he posited the information, the vulpine became scared for the first time in his life, the chills that he felt at first growing and spreading. In desperation, his mind went through all the ways he could slice the wolf in front of him to bits, ribbons, giblets, or other assorted gorey bits before he regained control of his faculties. The wolf in front of him stared at him in anticipation, wondering what was going through his head. When Eleazar finally spoke up, his nerves slowed and eased.
"You're coming with me. We need a car. Do you know how many of them there will be?" He asked, his preceding two sentences having the calming effect on the slightly larger canine.
"My guess is twenty guys, give or take a handful. I doubt they'll be anymore dangerous than my group was." He offered, getting nothing but a nod from the vulpine alpha. The fox turned around, walking back into the shadows as he clipped the longsword back onto his back, allowing Charlie catch up as they quickly left the scene.
Pawtorias sat in the back of the large car, glad to be at his table in his vehicle again. In the front sat Nick and Judy, Judy at the wheel with Nick in the passenger seat munching on a pawpsicle. The two of them still had no idea where he had gotten it from, but they didn't really care. Sif was busy thinking about the case and Judy was too focused on the pleasure of being behind the wheel again to really notice the oddity in the common sight.
"Seriously, Carrots, it was what? Two times? Three? You drove just a couple days ago, why are you so giddy about driving now?" The russet fox asked, with Judy simply shrugging and laughing in exhilaration in response, prompting an exasperated eye-roll from her curious lover. When the tires finally hit gravel, Sif's head darted up, looking out the window. The grassy hills and dirt rode signaled how far outside the city they were, and up ahead was a small, contemporary style house, the sleek look out of place in the countryside. They pulled up without a word, an odd feeling of suspense building up as they walked up to the door.
"Wait, we don't know what traps might be hidden here, so let me go first." He stepped up to the door, ignoring the slight protests from the two detectives. His claw tapped the numbers in order, and they listened carefully as a quiet slide and click told them the door was unlocked. Slowly, the agent opened the door, and scanning the room it opened up to for any dangers. It was dark, too dark for him to see anything, but Nick found it more than easy to see in the setting sunny, and brushed past him and into the house.
"Well Stiff, you sure got us all worried for no reason. There's nothing to be afraid of here." He said as he continued into the house, with the wolf and Judy following suit. They spent the next hour searching the building for anything that might have the data they were looking for, and towards the end of that hour, Pawtorias thought he found it.
"HEY! I found something!" He shouted to the rest of the house, and waited as the two detective came into the room. Together they stared at the large safe he had pulled out of the closet, having pulled the blankets and clothes off of it. After standing there studying the metal box, Nick spoke up.
"Well, open it?" He gestured to the safe, looking up at the wolf.
"I can't."
"What? You're a special agent! Do the cool lock picking thing and open it!" Nick argued, baffled at the idea that Pawtorias might not be able to actually open the safe.
"I don't know how to pick a lock. I've never had to. I'm always either bashing down the door or stealing the key. I guess we can load it up and - Judy?" Sif started to defend himself, and come up with another avenue for them, as Judy pulled out her lockpick set and got to work. With the final click of the latch releasing, she smiled and looked up at her canine companions, who just stared at her quizzically.
"Well, if I were to do anything immoral with a lock, which I haven't, then I would need to know how to pick it at least, wouldn't I?" She grinned as she opened the door. Inside lay a stack of CD's, a thick binder, and a bundle of letters wrapped together with yarn, the initials "N.N." written delicately on the center of each one (supposedly). Acting quickly, they grabbed the lot of it, and moved back to the car.
"And now the truth will out, as they say." Pawtorias said as they began to delve into the binder and CD's, searching for the answers to the Fauxfang mystery.
Wow, sorry for the long wait guys. I did not realize so many truths of the world, like how fun philosophy was or how addicting Fallout 4 can be... anywho, I'm giving up Fallout for a while, and while I adore my philosophy class, I don't have to do much for it, so it won't be taking up too much of my time going forwards.
Big thanks to Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps and ultamantman for your reviews, and a massive thanks to Libious for your behemoth of a review. I'll definitely using your critique and suggestions (along with others) in my upcoming overhaul of earlier chapters.
I don't know when I'll be uploading my next chapter, but it will be much sooner than this previous wait. So please, read and review, it'll only speed up the release of the next chapter by keeping me motivated.
Also, shout out to my other story, "Buried Secrets", and Morguerat's story "The Coming Storm". His is a great story with far too few followers or readers and deserves some attention, and "Buried Secrets" is a story developed by myself and Mr. Dox the Fox to go off the beaten path for Zootopian fanfics.