Report:

Case File – The Savage Dark

Reporting Agent: Code Name – Jack "Savage"

Affiliation: Unknown

Current Whereabouts: Unknown

Agent Status: Unknown (Active)

Recording Continues:

"I knew they were going to try. That goes without saying. While I did not fully trust Special Agent Skye, my mistrust for her was directly related to the idea that she herself had been sent to take Nick once before. It was reasonable to assume that if the ZIA intended to take me this time, she might have been the one sent to do it. A redemption, of sorts. Or payback for my taking her target from her the first time we encountered each other. Agents are sometimes testy like that, you see. Any agency. No one likes to lose, of course. But when you have been trained and continue to train for as long as we do, when you feel that you are fighting for something bigger and better than yourself? It can easily become personal. By that morning, after a long night of talking things over with Special Agent Skye, I had come to the conclusion that that was unlikely to be her intention.

"But there was still the ZIA's plan to remove me. In the colloquies of the inexperienced, the fact that the ZIA took it upon themselves to abduct an Agent on active duty could have been seen as a power play. It could easily be taken as such, for anyone looking in from the outside. I was an obstacle to their attempts to reach someone who was capable of exposing their attempts to cover up the savages that were unusually resistant to the conventional Night Howler remedy. In removing me, they would have shown that they were willing to do anything to achieve their goal, gone to any length to keep things working in their favor.

"To those outside of my world, such a thing would seem like a show of control. The problem being, abducting an active Agent is not something that ever ends well. The ZIA knew this when they did it. No. My abduction wasn't about maintaining control; it was a display of exactly how little control they had left.

"It was an act of desperation."

"Agent Savage," the muddy voice called again, followed by a light tap on the side of his muzzle that had him pulling away reflexively. "Agent Savage, I know you're close to waking up if you aren't already."

The tapping continued, persistent and quick, as his mind was slowly dragged out of whatever drug they had injected him with. The world around him hummed faintly as he struggled to open his eyes, eyes that refused to focus when they finally did open. Mercifully, the light level in the long room was already dim enough that his dilated pupils didn't burst into flames when he managed to pry his lids apart. Everything was a blur, and that damned tapping - which he now clearly felt as light slaps to his cheek from a medium sized paw - became annoying enough that he tried to roll his head away from it with a wince. As his vision cleared, the long muzzle of a middle-aged grey wolf moved in close to him, a toothy smile that could almost have passed for coolly friendly gracing his expression. The hand that had been slapping him to speed the process of the drug wearing off shoved his head back none-too-gently and two fingers pried one eye open. His instinctive attempt to bat the hand away was thwarted by the obviousness of the handcuffs that kept his wrists pinned to the chain at his back.

"Ah, there you are, Agent Savage," the wolf murmured, brown eyes peering into the open eye for a moment before his head was released abruptly. As the hand withdrew, Jack took a quick glance at the silver watch on his wrist. "I was starting to wonder if you would ever wake up."

"And you are?" he asked, mildly annoyed that his voice still wasn't one-hundred percent free of the drowsy drawl of the drugged. The time on the wolf's watch told him that it was just past noon, so he had only been unconscious for a few hours.

"I think it's best if you don't know my name," the wolf replied, his tone cheerful.

Jack's eyes followed him as he moved over to a nearby metal table, next to which hung his jacket. The top of the table was sloped towards the center of the room, weakly reflecting the light from the single light swaying overhead. They were in motion, he realized as he examined the instruments arranged and secured on the table. The instant realization of what they were quickened his mind as adrenaline surged, the annoyance more than anything causing the drug's hold on him to slip further. All this really managed to do was cause a trickle of annoyance. He looked away from the table once he noticed that it was bolted to the wall, blue eyes moving to the sway of the light and the rectangular box of a room he was in. Cold metal walls, much deeper than they were tall or wide, combined with the still present hum and the motion of the light…

"You're going to interrogate me in the trailer of a truck?" he asked blandly, returning cooling blue eyes to the wolf. From the fact that the larger mammal was wearing a ZIA standard suit and tie, and was currently sliding black gloves over his paws, at least he could assume there was no fear of future blood splatter on the agent's mind. "It makes sense, really. No physical address to associate with clandestine torture, quick clean up, fully disposable in case of emergency. A little theatrical with the swinging light, which could just as easily have been a stationary. Was that your choice?"

"Light is a focal point," the wolf explained as he flexed his freshly leather covered fingers together to tighten the gloves; and maybe in an attempt to look intimidating as he moved towards the bunny. "Stationary lights give those being interrogated something to focus on when close to unconsciousness, or close to breaking. This disorients to some degree, as you'll find out."

"Are you even going to tell me what you're trying to get from me before we begin?" the bunny asked, a smirk curled his muzzle as he reclined as best he could in the chair. The relaxed expression and lack of struggle seemed to annoy his captor, an annoyance that almost became obvious on the larger mammal's face when he continued, "I might be ready to talk."

"And where, Agent Savage," the wolf said with a slow grin forming on his muzzle as he stood in front of the chair, "would the fun in that be?"

"So first you're going to pay me back for all of the…"

The words were cut off by the blinding pain as the fist connected with the side of his muzzle, one that had enough strength behind it to be exceptionally painful but not so hard that the larger mammal broke his neck. A nice, solid bunny strength punch with a much larger paw. Rolling his lower jaw a bit to loosen the knot of pain that formed, his gaze returned to the wolf.

"…trouble I've caused the ZIA?" he finished easily, keeping his expression friendly as he raised his muzzle a bit to angle it towards the wolf when the other fist cut across his cheek.

"There is more to it than that, of course," was the cool reply, letting the bunny know that at least his captor wasn't getting off on the torture. A professional. "I will need to know where you're keeping Muste, what former Special Agent Skye told you, and where they plan to move Nicholas Wilde now that you're out of the game."

"Well, I'll give you a piece of advice," Jack said, tilting his muzzle again with the next blow and the blow that followed that one. Grunting slightly, his ears rose as he licked the coppery taste from the inside of his muzzle slowly before he gave a grin that he had no doubt was a crimson smirk. "If you expect to get anything from me in the fleeting time we have, you'll want to skip ahead to more advanced techniques."

Of course, as he expected, the wolf didn't take his advice.

Likely better for my shirt anyway, he thought as the muffled sounds of fists on his own flesh and pain became his focus.

"Do you have any idea how to contact Nightingale?"

"Why would we have any idea how to contact Nightingale?" Judy replied simply, glancing around to the fox on the other side of the room as he checked the tranq gun in his paw before he shoved it into the holster at his hip. Her questioning look was met with a shrug and shake of his head as he walked over to where she stood by the door. "Apparently, no one outside of Jack and the Agency knows how, and we've been told to stand down and wait for further instructions. Swift told us that they were planning to move us since it is obvious the ZIA knows where we are."

"Of course they know where you are," the vixen replied, managing to sound completely unconvinced even though there was a good deal of interference coming through the open speakerphone. "And I was told the same thing. Sit tight and wait to be extracted."

"And yet," Nick said, leaning against the wall beside the door while Judy finished tucking in her shirt and adjusting the live firearm under her jacket, "that background noise sounds remarkably like someone who's not doing what they're told."

"Jack may not have time for us to wait for the Agency to plan an extraction. You're telling me you're not both arming yourselves and planning to sneak off?"

When her muzzle raised to Nick as he leaned over her shoulder, those savage green eyes seemed to consider the phone for a moment in silence. It wasn't as though either of them had reason to trust the vixen; far from it, in fact. But their options were limited and neither one of them had any intention of being huddled away to another safe house after Jack had been taken who-knew-where. Especially not when Judy still considered how much she owed the other rabbit. Plus, if she was honest with herself, he was sort of growing on her. Just a little. The fact that Nick gave a slight roll of his eyes and another nod had her grinning slightly as she leaned over to kiss him on the cheek lightly.

"We have no intention of sneaking off. We were going to go visit my parents and on our way there," she said, rolling her paw with an amused glance to the door, "we were planning on taking the long way."

"Sounds like a perfectly homely outing," was the amused reply, followed quickly by the squeal of tires both through the phone and outside the front door. "I don't think the two guards would agree. Hello, fellas!"

"Special Agent Skye," Judy heard the male voice outside saying, causing her to close the call and move towards the door with her ears perked so she could hear everything. Nick joined her as the guard continued, "You were ordered to remain…"

Phsst! Phsst!

"I know, I know," came her voice, moving closer to the door now as the sound of two large bodies hitting the ground caused Judy to glance at Nick with a quirky grin. "I'm just really bad at following orders from people I don't actually work for. Actually, when you think about it, I'm not doing too well at following orders from the people I used to work for either, but…"

She was smiling when Judy opened the door, her paw raised to knock in the same tight black outfit she had worn the night she had tried to take Nick. Judy was pretty sure the vixen wasn't expecting the fist to slam into her muzzle, likely because she wasn't expecting it either. Nick was almost quick enough to stop her from landing the second punch. Though when it connected nice and centered into the muzzle of the baffled bitch, it was satisfying to feel the ache in her paw and watch the white-furred agent stumble back with her paw covering her nose and curses filling the air. Nick made little soothing growls, and even though the flash of anger had passed, she appreciated the effort and snuggled back into the arms that were currently holding her off the ground for Skye's safety.

"Sorry," she chirped cheerfully when furious blue eyes settled on her over the paw still holding her nose. "I suppose I wasn't as over the whole 'You tried to kidnap My Fox' thing as I thought I would be. I feel better now, though."

"Damn it," the vixen growled, looking down at her paw for a moment. They could all see that there was no blood, even though Judy figured it would serve her right. She gave a quick sniff and straighten up again, rubbing her thumb over the spot where the paw hand landed. "You hit like a bunny. And that's not the insult it would have been a few weeks ago."

"Thank you," Judy replied, grinning up at Nick when he placed a lick gently between her ears before setting her on her own two feet again. She turned serious eyes on the vixen again, folding her arms over her chest. "Judy Hopps. Nick Wilde. You're Skye, formerly Special Agent. Nice to meet you, again, nice to meet us. What are we going to do about Jack?"

"I know where they will take him," Skye replied, tossing her head behind her and waving for them to follow her as she stepped back out of the doorway. "Grab anything you think you need and come on. Given their head start, we likely only have an hour before they change direction and vanish."

"They've been gone for hours now," Nick said, following her as she moved to follow the vixen. Both of them paused at the door, looking between the two leonine guards who seemed to be comfortably sleeping their way to a future headache with darts sticking out of their necks. "What about Wolford… Oh."

They both stopped and blinked at the fire red, sharp-edged, high-powered machine that was waiting on the corner for them. Judy thought it reminded her of something she had seen burning up the track in a Formula One race, minus the various stickers and advertisement logos. It was low to the ground with more sharp edges than a saw, the windows tinted so dark that she couldn't even see the interior, and while she didn't know much about cars in general, she did know that triple exhaust was likely lead to an engine with more power than a ZPD cruiser. When she glanced at Nick, she was pretty sure he was seconds away from having drool run down the corner of his mouth, prompting her to give him a sharp nudge with one elbow.

"Okay, okay," he laughed as he pulled away, both of them watching as Skye went around to the front of the car and popped the hood. Which was actually the trunk she realized as the snow-white vixen waved them over and started to pull out light tactical gear.

"We need to move and this car isn't large mammal friendly. He's likely been swept up already for whatever countermeasure they're planning since he's not a target. None of the heavy stuff this time," she said to change the subject, tossing two lightweight tactical vests towards the two of them, one for each size. "No bells and whistles like the Agency had you in, I'm afraid. Bulletproof with an underlying stab vest, pouches for spare clips. Have some wireless earpieces, in case we need to split up. CZ Scorpion SMGs, a few thousand rounds…"

"Whoa whoa," Nick said after strapping the vest on, holding his paws up when one of the weapons was pushed towards him. "I'm not taking a live fire in my state of mind."

"Because of the savage thing?" the vixen snorted, taking the gun in both paws and shoving it into his chest until he was forced to either take it or drop it. His ears went back when she got up muzzle to muzzle with him. "We might just need a little savage on your part. Things are going to get dirty out there, Wilde. They've taken an Agent and everyone who knows that Agents exist know that it's a big 'Fuck, what are we doing?' move. They're going to try to make Jack disappear and they're not going to be using tranquilizers to stop us from getting him back. So, pretend for a second that you haven't drained all your testosterone into your wife, take the damned gun, and get in the car."

"Well, when you put it that way," he said lowly, looking down at the gun for a few seconds as if he had no idea what to do with it before he shrugged in Judy's direction and swung the strap over one shoulder.

Her heart racing a bit, realizing that this was no longer a case of play nice between the agencies, Judy did the same and double checked the gun at her hip before taking the earpiece she was offered. "You seem well prepared for this, considering that we're all going rogue now," she commented as she adjusted the earpiece, powered it up and tested the sound. "Test one, test two."

"I read you, Hopps," the vixen said as she slammed the trunk and moved towards the door as the other two tests passed. "If you're going to go rogue, I like to be prepared. Especially when the head of the ZIA has gone off the deep end. Technically, I've been rogue since I came here anyway."

"I suppose that makes sense," Judy said, blinking when the engine roared to life as the vixen climbed into the car. When she popped open the passenger side, which caused her to take a step back when it swung up rather than out, she frowned once she got a look inside. Aside from the perfectly clean, polished, and futuristic looks of everything right down to the seats, one thing was glaringly obvious. "There are only two seats."

"Ah, right," the vixen murmured, half turning to reach between the seats. What looked like just another fancy panel in an overly expensive car came away from the rear of the car and, to Judy's surprise, folded down until it locked into place about half a foot from the gear shift. It left a small, but cushioned, backless seat between the driver and passenger seat. With the size of it, it was obvious where she was going to be sitting when Skye waved her towards it. "All yours."

"Great, thanks," she muttered as she climbed in, having to take extra care to position her SMG so it wasn't digging into her shoulder. She wasn't even finishing getting comfortable in the seat that was tiny even for a bunny by the time Nick climbed in with no problem, earning a glare from her when he whistled about the inside of the car. "You don't even like cars, Nick."

"A fox can appreciate a thing of beauty when he sees one," he quipped in reply, turning his head to wink at her. "I married you, right?"

"So corny," she murmured, ignoring his chuckle when she turned her attention to Skye as they pulled away from the house. She was surprised by how quickly and smoothly they accelerated, yet the vixen seemed intent on maintaining a constant speed while still in Bunnyburrow. And by how intense the expression and set of the vixen's ears were, she was just as sure that she wanted to simply floor it. "You said you know where they've taken Jack?"

"I am pretty sure I know," she replied, her eyes never leaving the road as she weaved her way around cars. Judy realized she was taking a back exit, leading the long way onto the highway away from Zootopia. This surprised her. "There is only one place they would take a high-value target like Jack if they intended to make him vanish. Anywhere inside of the city would be too risky."

"So, what?" Nick cut in, frowning slightly as he looked between the two. "Even the ZIA has secret bases outside of the city?"

"Not exactly," Skye murmured, going silent for a beat as she took a turn at such speed that it made Judy's stomach lurch. "They have a convoy for situations like this. A rig to house the target, escorts, and aerial surveillance traveling the highway between checkpoints."

"And no one notices this?" Judy asked, frowning slightly as she leaned forward. "How does that work?"

"They're not all together in one place on the road. That's what the aerial surveillance is for," she explained, taking another turn that put them on a straight path towards the highway. "The escorts look like normal travelers, normal cars flanking the target at a distance. Two mammal teams, armed to the teeth and the aerial units who stay high and unnoticed, will tell them if someone looks suspicious. Then depending on the severity of the threat, upwards of two dozen vehicles will converge from all directions, the last to arrive within ten minutes at top speed. They can form roadblocks, bottlenecks if the road splits in their advantage, and more aerial units will arrive to assist if needed."

"That sounds like a ridiculous amount of mammal-power for one bunny," Nick commented, shrugging when Judy shot a glare at him. "What? I know Jack is a super-secret agent bunny, but that would take a lot of training and planning ahead to pull off. Wouldn't someone notice?"

"Maybe?" Skye shrugged, her eyes narrowing when she saw the truck on the side of the road leading onto the open highway. She recognized Swift, who raised his paw and stepped away from the shoulder in an attempt to make them stop. Judy and Nick both were shoved back against their seats when she easily avoided him and hit the accelerator, picking up speed at a rate that had the bunny's heart racing into her throat. Skye, however, continued the conversation as if it wasn't unusual to be going more than one-hundred fifty mph. "But it's not used often. I was trained to be a member of that team, and from what we were told it was only used once before. Very effectively, if anything the ZIA says is to be believed."

"So," Nick said, his ears flat and the tone of his voice telling Judy that he was anything but keeping his calm as his paws gripped his knees tightly. "What you're telling us is that we, two ZPD officers, and you, a former Special Agent for the ZIA, are about to go up against at least forty-eight armed agents with aerial support. Two foxes and a bunny, in a sports car?"

"Calling this a sports car is a crime, Carrot," the vixen said, slanting him a look. "And you have vests. Try not to get shot, though. I paid for those out of my own pocket and they were not cheap."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," he said, making Judy chuckle to herself when he frowned a bit. "And she's Carrots, not me."

"You're the color of a carrot," the vixen retorted, pausing again when she was forced to drop speed along a deeper curve in the road before she punched it again. Judy felt like she was on a very dangerous roller coaster but still managed to blush when the vixen finished, "I am pretty sure Hopps likes how you taste. You're the carrot."

The bunny watched him raise one paw and open his muzzle as if to protest, then savage eyes narrowed slightly when he looked back to her. "I am the color of a carrot."

"A very handsome - and tasty - carrot," Judy assured him, her muzzle splitting into a grin in reply to his adorable roguish smirk. "How long before we catch up?"

"If we're lucky, they've been in a holding pattern over the fifty-mile stretch before the mountains," she replied, her ears twitching in the only emotion that Judy could readily read. "If we're not lucky? We may already be too late."

Whether or not the agent's expression seemed emotionless, the bunny was very aware that those words came with a very noticeable increase in speed.

The toneless buzz in his ears was anything but his favorite tune, but at least it came and went rather than constantly battering his mind. He could thank the fact that it paused every time the wolf's fist connected with his muzzle. Now it was starting to feel like white-hot shards of glass being driven into his face with every blow, a sensation that was more familiar to him than he would have liked. The bonus was that the, thus far, unnamed predator did seem to have a good deal of control. The blows were designed to produce considerable pain over time without causing brain damage or unconsciousness, so no bones had been broken. But the rattle of his teeth in his head, an illusion causing by the constant barrage of strikes, was getting tiresome.

"Are you ready to move on to advanced techniques yet?" he asked after spitting blood on the male's shoes, slurring his voice a little more than was needed as still sharp blue eyes focused just in time for another blow to land. "This is getting tiresome. What are you waiting for exactly?"

"You don't ask the questions, Savage," was the reply, followed by another long string of blows that left his vision blurred for a moment as he tried to shake it away.

"I'm simply curious," he ground out slowly, shaking his head again when he felt another tilt in the world that he knew wasn't being caused by his beating. "This is the third time this truck has made this turn. I'm pretty sure that we've been going around in circles. I figure either someone doesn't know what to do with me or they don't know what to do at all."

"Not my concern either way," the wolf shrugged, dark eyes narrowing as the bunny grinned slowly through a split lip. "I'm only here to ask you some questions."

"Yes, so you've said," he began, then paused at the hum of a phone in the wolf's pocket which he didn't hesitate to answer.

"What?" he said, sounding unhappy, though Jack wasn't sure if that displeasure came from being interrupted or his lack of progress softening up a bunny when he turned to back towards the other end of the trailer. Jack's ears raised, and even through the ringing in his head, he could pick up the wolf's end of the conversation. "How fast? Uh huh. Is it a threat? All right, I'll secure Savage as a precaution. Keep me updated."

Jack watched the wolf sigh as he slipped his phone into his pocket again and turn back to him, giving an almost nonchalant shrug as he walked over to the metal table. Opening a pouch and withdrawing a syringe, he turned towards the bunny.

"I'm afraid we have a complication," he said coolly, uncapping the uncomfortably long needle as he gave a wolfish grin, "and that means you need to take a nap in case we need to move you. Enjoy it. It'll be the last time either of us gets any sleep for a long while."

"Pity," Jack murmured as he wrapped the rings of the cuffs around his now free paw like knuckles behind his back, his smile a mix of friendly and feral as he watched the wolf move closer. "I was hoping to have more alone time with you."

"Not how I pictured our honeymoon ending, Carrots," Nick yelped as the vixen whipped the red car around another oncoming vehicle. That they so blatantly tried to drive them off the road came as a shock to the fox, though no more than the way the little red demon they were in managed to keep its grip on the road during some insane maneuvers to avoid it. "Almost as exciting as the near-death experience of you letting go of the vine a thousand feet in the air!"

"Almost?" she replied with a strained half-laugh as she glanced at the multiple cars behind them as the wind whipped around her ears. Skye had 'dropped the hood' mid-maneuver a minute before, turning what was already a stomach-dropping ride into a windy stomach-dropping ride. The acceleration and speed of the machine they were in was well beyond anything following them or trying to run them off the road. It gave them at least a momentary advantage, as the cars of assorted sizes became dots behind them. "We only had one mammal trying to kill us back then, at least."

"Yeah, that we know of," he muttered as his gaze, which had been with hers on the cars falling behind, returned to watch for more oncoming traffic. "This is a good sign though, right? If they're trying to stop us, it means that the truck is still on the road."

"It also means that there will be more coming very soon," Skye replied, the strain in her voice more obvious now as she kept her eyes forward. "Shit! Down!"

Judy had half a second to see the whitetail buck standing out of the sunroof of the SUV heading towards them, and the automatic carbine in his hooves, before she dropped her head reflexively as the sharp retorts were heard. Not seeing the road seemed to make the sudden jerk of the car even more gut-wrenching, though no more than the sound of impacts on the hood of the car. Soon, the roar of the engine had all other sounds fading out until she lifted her head just as Nick did the same. She swallowed when she saw the paw sized bullet holes marring the red paint on the hood of the car and splash strikes on the front window.

"Luckily, they don't seem to realize that the engine is in the rear of this particular model," Skye chirped, seeming suddenly too cheerful for the situation. It was a tone that drew a glare from Nick.

"If you have armored windows," he said in a voice that she recognized as dangerously irritated, motioning to the unbroken glass with one paw, "why did you put the top down as soon as we came into range of mammals trying to shoot us!"

"Obviously because one of you is going to have to jump onto the truck once we reach it," she said, causing Nick to glance back at his mate with his ears pinned against his head. "Or both, depending. Speaking of which, there it is."

When she looked forward, the truck didn't seem to be anything special at their first look at it. Just a typical shipping vehicle, medium mammal class, white exterior, Zootopia plates. Though from the two vehicles that dropped back from beside the truck with suited mammals standing out of the sunroof, it was obvious that they had found their target.

"Down!" Skye shouted again, swerving sharply to the side as their speed dropped to match the convoy as the two escorts opened fire.

The sudden maneuver Skye used to avoid the hail of bullets had the bunny jerking to the side, grunting in pain when her shoulder struck the side of Nick's seat. The snarl that followed it had her eyes widening as she looked at her mate just in time to see the furious male rise out of his seat enough to brace himself over the windshield, the Scorpion braced on both paws. He didn't even hesitate to let loose a spray of fire, one that clipped the grey fox firing from the lead car in the shoulder. When the vehicle turned hard to avoid the next burst, one that had sparks flying up from the hood of the SUV, he was forced to retreat as they withdrew momentarily.

"Nick!" she cried when he didn't even drop back into his seat while leading a fresh magazine. She reached up and grabbed the back of his vest, dragging the growling fox into the seat as the next volley from the SUV that still blocked them from reaching the target forced Skye to fall back from the truck. "Dumb fox! If you get shot, I'll…"

Her words were cut off when the rear doors of the truck exploded outward, propelled by the body that was sent flying through them. The wolf - bloody, motionless, and limp aside from the fact that he was airborne for a moment - slammed into the windshield of the SUV, causing the driver to overcompensate and veer hard to the right. They and their new passenger ended up fishtailing until they hit the grassy side of the road, the impact and the fact that the escort was sent flying in a series of fast flips that wrecked the SUV and those within it, went unnoticed as the three mammals in the little red car stared at the bunny in the now open trailer of the truck.

Jack stood looking down at them with an expression that could only have been called calm irritation on his face, pawcuffs wrapped around one still-clenched fist, and his lose tie snapping in the wind like an angry serpent. The white striped fur on the side of his face was streaked with blood and swollen, though that certainly hadn't helped the wolf lying among the wreckage of the escort behind them.

Nick chambered a round in his freshly reloaded SMG, a growl rumbling in his chest that Judy could feel through the paw that still held the back of his vest as savage eyes focused on the Agent.

"Aren't we supposed to be the ones rescuing him?"