Flow Like Lightning, Strike Like Thunder
Thirteen years Judy had been training for this moment. For thirteen years she had poured her blood, sweat, and tears into molding herself into the diminutive powerhouse she is today, so she can stand among her heroes as an equal.
Robin Hood is an Avatar of Order and an A-Class Super. Judy herself is an Avatar of Justice and is inside the same Power Class bracket. In her mind they should be fairly equally matched in terms of strength, so now it's all down to the type of powers both Super's have and the way they apply them.
Robin Hood draws his power from his zealous devotion to bringing and maintaining Order to the world. The stronger his fervor for Order the stronger his power.
Judy does the same thing, though she draws her power from her devotion to embodying Justice. Being an Avatar of virtue can be a boon, even the weakest of Avatars are B-Class at a minimum, but with that power Avatars equally rare in kind. Last she checked Judy saw out of the 1.5 billion denizens of the United States of Mammalia less than 10,000 were confirmed Avatars of various types and Power Classes.
Finding herself in a room with two other Avatars, let alone two of the strongest Avatars in the World, roiled Judy's blood, so when Robin Hood challenged her to a bout for her Combat Trial she didn't hesitate.
They were both Avatars, and Judy's an A-Class Super just like Robin, so they were equals right?
Wrong. She was oh so very wrong.
Before Robin Hood started their bout Puppet-Master broke up the Arena's bowl shape into a sea of randomly rising and falling pillars of gray stone, turning what originally had started as a duel into a battle of survival against not only her opponent but the landscape itself- And Judy found herself losing to both, decisively.
The second Elasti-Mare signaled the start of the fight the floor below Judy's feet erupted into a hexagonal pillar and the rabbit was unceremoniously launched into the air, her arms flailing and legs kicking helplessly for purchase. Her training kicked in a breath later and Judy twisted her body and squared her hips for a smooth landing on a waiting pillar rising up to meet her.
Immediately after her feet met the gray hexagon the pillar shot back down into the floor and Judy went down with it with an undignified yelp. She managed to stick the landing a second time and turned her attention to where she had last seen her opponent, but all she saw was a forest of shifting pillars, there was no sign of the green hooded fox.
Judy saw the section of floor right in front of her shudder and she took the opportunity to hop onto it just as it shot up towards the ceiling. From her new vantage point the bunny caught a glimpse of Robin, the vulpine hero stood astride a rising pillar, a charcoal paw outstretched towards the heavens.
Then she heard his voice, his words laced with power that made the air tremble.
"Order from Chaos! Come to me, Mandatum!"
A pillar of light erupted from Robin's palm. The Fox reached into the pillar and grasped onto the light. When he drew his paw out the light vanished and what was left in his grasp was an elegant recurve bow with a translucent golden-white sheen that was almost difficult to look at.
Then he aimed the ethereal bow straight at her.
With a twinge of panic Judy wreathed herself in a cowl of lightning and drew power from her core into a hasty shield just in time to absorb an arrow slamming into the cracking yellow barrier. The impact struck her like a truck, knocking the breath from her lungs and sending her spiraling off of her perch. Even winded Judy's decade's worth of training kicked into high gear and she managed to stick a marginally graceful landing, rolling a few times from her shoulder to lessen the impact.
Her lungs were still screaming for air and her head began to throb. Her breath seemed caught in her throat, an odd sensation much like drowning on nothing. Panic is the natural response, one that her body succumbed to despite Judy knowing full well the cause. Choking and sputtering to get her frozen diaphragm back under her control Judy weakly threw herself backwards off the pillar as Robin Hood launched himself into the air, his glowing bow trained on her.
Judy fell a couple stories down to the next pillar as it slid upwards to meet her, the bunny landed with a jolt, one that loosened her rebellious diaphragm. Judy gasped and gulped in greedily as a blessed life-giving air filled her lungs and her pounded head cleared.
As the pillar rose Judy took a calming breath and weaved her arms, calling on her resolve in Justice to heed her will.
When the pillar rose above the sea of moving stone Robin Hood expected to see a stunned and helpless bunny, instead he was met with a mighty maelstrom of crackling yellow lightening. Surprised, the vulpine Hero let loose three arrows in rapid succession, each striking their mark but doing practically nothing.
In the epicenter of the lightning storm Judy weaved and danced in a hypnotic display of disciplined control, her gray furred form turned golden from the lightening under her power. Smirking as the arrows fizzled against her wall of yellow electricity Judy lifted an arm above her head as if drawing back a javelin. The yellow lightening around her enthusiastically jumped into her paw and formed into a cracking spear the same striking yellow as the lightening surrounding her.
Taking an extra second to aim she let her weapon loose with a shout that was drowned out by an earsplitting crack of thunder. Instead of flying like an actual spear the weapon crossed the distance in an instant, arcing from Judy to Robin Hood as if the vulpine were a lightning rod and Judy were a storm.
Robin Hood didn't even have the time to cry out as the spear of lightening slammed into him with a second explosion of electricity that flung the cowled Hero across the arena like a leaf in the wind.
Seeing her attack connect Judy tried to calm the raging storm around her. The yellow lightening fought her, seemingly unwilling to be restrained once again. Judy was undaunted however, being used to her power's stubbornness and after a few seconds of struggle she drew the crackling yellow lightening back into her body, this time keeping a layer of her power coiled around her diminutive frame as armor. Judy was under no illusions that the fight was over, no matter how fantastic it felt sending the famous Robin Hood reeling.
Charging a sliver of her power into her legs Judy easily bounded across the shifting landscape to a pillar at the apex of its height. Looking down towards where she had launched Robin Hood Judy felt a trickle of dread slip down her spine. The was no sign of her hooded opponent, he had simply vanished.
The trickle of dread suddenly surged into a flood and Judy threw herself off the pillar as it exploded in a kaleidoscope of refracting colors. Though it looked pretty even as she fell Judy felt the shockwave from the explosion pass through her. Spinning around Judy caught sight of a translucent shimmering figure bounding towards her.
He can turn invisible?!
Judy balled herself up as she landed on the pillar below and performed a flawless back-hand spring super-charged with her lightening, effectively launching herself back into the air, giving her the height and angle to throw another lightening spear towards the near-invisible figure stalking towards her. The figure somehow managed to dodge her attack, but the arcing bolts that expanded from the impact surged over her foe, breaking his invisibility.
Unfortunately all that did was allow Judy to see Robin Hood aim another arrow at her right before he let loose. Judy was still in mid-air and had no way to evade the arrow, not that he ever missed what he was aiming at.
Judy braced herself desperately drawing on more lightening but the shining arrow overcame her defenses and exploded into a rainbow of prismatic colors right in front of her face.
When Judy woke up splayed out in the center of the bowl shaped arena she felt a hint of nostalgia harking back to her days training with her Master back home. Well, that and the layer upon layer of forming bruises that promised even more pain tomorrow morning.
Judy could have gotten up, but she wasn't really feeling it. She was vaguely aware of a cut above her left eyebrow that was bleeding profusely, though she found she didn't quite care, even as it dribbled over her scalp and pooled beneath her head. She felt she earned a short respite. Getting publicly thrashed by Robin Hood himself really took it out of a rabbit. Now all she wanted to do was just lay here on this nice, cool floor and stare up at the pretty gym lights.
As if out of spite the hooded visage of Robin Hood blocked her nice view of the gym rafters, his blue eyes cold but curious.
"Having a good time down there Hopps?" Robin asked, his charming voice monotone and tinged with sarcasm.
"Yes sir, I think I am." Judy replied a little blearily. "The floor feels a lot better when it's not moving…"
Robin looked away towards someone outside of her view. "I think she's suffering from a minor concussion-"
"An' that's why I didna want'cha ta fight her!" Elasti-Mare's country accent was back in full force, evidently bleeding through because of her worry and anger.
The hooded fox had the decency to at least appear sheepish as he dismissed his ethereal bow with a flick of his wrist.
"I'm fine." Judy called up from her spot on the floor. Summoning the strength the get up she got herself into a sitting position and instantly regretted it as a jolt of pain rushed between her drooping ears and down her back. "…Mostly."
Robin Hood offered her a coal colored paw and Judy took it, pulling herself to her feet. Elasti-Mare was just off to the side her clipboard pressed against her chest anxiously as she stared daggers at the guilty fox Hero. When she turned her attention back to the bunny in padded armor her gaze softened.
Giving a dainty cough Elasti-Mare revered back to her more refined tone of voice saying, "Regardless, see the medic up waiting for you at the foot of the stairs. You did just take an explosive arrow-" She glanced sharply at Robin Hood, causing the fox to flinch. "-to the face and fell a good four stories. A-Class Super or no that's still a lot to take."
"Yes'm." Judy nodded softly to avoid aggravating her throbbing head. Before she left though Elasti-Mare stopped her one more time, kneeling down to about her height and leaning to speak into her ear.
"You did very well by the way, Hun. Robin actually had to get serious just ta beat you." Elasti-Mare drawled softly in her country accent, angling her clipboard enough for Judy to catch her score of A-. "It looks like you live up to your hype Mrs. Hopps."
Judy's little cotton tail practically vibrated with joy. "T-Thank you ma'am!"
"Off with ya!" Elasti-Mare carefully pat the bunny on the shoulder and turned her attention back to the next candidate.
Judy gingerly made her way over to the stairs were a Wild Boar in white medic regalia trotted over to meet her. Judy automatically noted the two blue chevrons beneath the red cross on his sleeves marked the medic as a Super with at least a B-Class healing ability, one the boar demonstrated as soon as the wounded bunny came within arms' reach.
"Hold still ma'am." The boar grunted, tilting Judy's head up and bathing the cut above her brow in a gentle green light. The cut itched like mad for a few seconds until the wound closed and the boar brought out a pen-light to test her pupillary responses. "Are you in any pain?"
Judy answered the medic's questions as he shone the light in each eye and checked over her limbs and ribs for anything she might have missed. Seeing the tough bunny was in one piece the boar sent her on her way.
Cresting the stairs to the bleachers Judy made eye-contact with McHorn and seeing the awed look on his face drew a laugh from her tired lungs. The rhino wasn't the only one to look differently at the tiny walking arc-ladder strutting victoriously up the stairs. The same mammals that just minutes before were laughing at her expense were now looking at anything else in the gym except for her while not so subtly giving the predatory bunny a wide berth as if they feared she would bite them.
Now that she thought about it Judy was tempted to do just that, just to see what they would do. You know, for science.
"Well done Hopps." McHorn rumbled as the diminutive powerhouse sauntered over, her padded helmet under her arm. Judy was still breathing a little heavily but beamed up at the rhino, her buckteeth poking proudly past her smiling lips just like a teacher's pet grinning proudly into a camera in a middle school yearbook photo shoot.
McHorn offered his hoof to help her up to sit next to him, normally Judy's strong independent side would have baulked at needing help just to sit down, but her thrashed body said otherwise. With a tired and grateful look she clambered onto McHorn's chitin fingers to reach her seat but bony fingers wrapped her arm uncomfortably tight and lifted her up bodily onto the bleachers.
Judy looked up sharply at the mammal lifting her up and her pleasant post-battle buzz fizzled to a throbbing headache when she found herself face to face with the twitchy grinning face of the hyena.
"Wow You're really are strong!" the hyena sang in an off-key wheeze, his wiry paw still grasping her arm even though she was now on the bleachers.
"Um, yeah. Thanks?" Judy tried to tug her arm free but the hyena only tightened his grip. The bunny's lips curled into a frown. "Mind letting go?"
"You're hurt." He said, his eyes dilated as if mesmerized on the trickle of drying crimson staining her healed head wound.
"I'm fine." Judy hissed, tugging her arm free from the hyena's fingers at last and shooting him a glare.
"You bleed." He whispered in a dreamy husk to that sent shivers up Judy's spine.
"What-?" Her fur stood on end when the hyena dragged a paw across her brow, picking up the dying blood in his sand colored fur. His eerie wide eyes never left her face as he slowly and very deliberately licked her blood clean from his digit. Shocked and weirded out Judy watched as the Hyena sucked in a breath and closed his eyes savoring her flavor.
Alarm bells clanged and rattled madly in her head. Thankfully while her mind was out on momentary holiday the rest of her still had its wits about them. Moving more on instinct then conscious decision Judy flung herself from the bleachers when without warning the Hyena barreled over the bleachers at her with a strangled noise somewhere between a crazed cackle and a hungry snarl.
Gasps and barks of surprise erupted from the other candidates then Judy was too busy to pay them anymore mind. The bunny doe and the feral hyena tumbled from the bleachers and went down in a snarling, biting tangle. Despite her exhaustion her adrenaline and fear gave her the energy to dig down deep and discharge a violent surge of lightning through her limbs and right into her attacker's chest.
But to her horror and confusion the hyena didn't go down.
The Hyena's blue hoodie ripped and curled black in several places from her yellow lightning leaping between the two thrashing bodies, the yellow arcs throwing eerie flickering shadows across the hyena's gleeful, savage smile and razor sharp teeth.
"That tickles!" He giggled before red crackling bolts of lightning erupted from his own arms and he swung down right into her jaw. Judy was blindsided by the blow, the supercharged punch sounding like crack of a whip and stabbing pain ripped through her face and lanced down her neck.
The Hyena bared his teeth and lunged like a feral thing but instead of sinking into warm pulsing bunny neck he ate a supercharged rabbit foot to the nose instead, his head snapped back as if struck by a sledgehammer. Three more powered kicks followed in rapid succession and the crazed animal was thrown off of his victim.
Judy hadn't gotten out clean, several shallow claw marks marred her arms and shoulder but the tired bunny twisted numbly to her feet and rushed her attacker, a spear of lightning jumping to her paw. McHorn was already standing as well and his hoof shot to his belt but found the plate of steel missing.
Judy stabbed towards the off-balance creature but instead of flesh her spear spattered yellow electricity against cool metal. The Hyena crackled madly, his fur pooling a dull gray sheen and in his left paw he grasped a plate of steel.
He pointed a claw at McHorn with a childish giggle, "Bang."
A bolt a red and yellow lightning flashed between his claw and found its mark in the center of McHorn's chest. The air cracked and the rhino seized in silent agony, his mouth open in a silent scream for a split second before the one ton mammal was flung back like a ragdoll and crashed to the ground.
The Hyena turned his steel encased grin back to the bunny, his silvery fur bizarre and unnatural around mad golden eyes. Judy reformed her spear and thrust at his face, hoping to blind him. The ploy worked, the Hyena yipped in surprise and stumbled back, clawing at the spots blooming in his vision.
"I got him!" A wolf candidate shouted, his body let out an odd hiss and the wolf doubled in size, massive muscles straining against his skin.
"No! Wait!" Judy shouted, but the transformed lupine Super had already pounced on the much smaller hyena and bore him to the ground.
The hulking wolf held his prey down with a massive paw and grinned, saying "Stay down if ya know what's good for- AHH!" Instead of heeding the wolf's warning the hyena wiggled and thrashed around and sank his metallic fangs into the wolf's arm. The candidate's howl of pain turned into a screech when the hyena tore a bloody chunk from his arm and swallowed it down with a wet gulp.
The wolf scrambled away from the feral animal a paw over the gaping hole in his arm to stanch the bleeding. He was too distracted by his pain that he didn't hear a hiss from the smaller mammal beneath him until a huge set of steel claws racked across his face and chest. A startled gurgle of disbelief wheezed from the wolf when a now transformed steel encased hyena crashed into his sundered chest and bore him to the floor, vicious crimson splattering the gray stone floor.
The Hyena was very close to ripping the foolish wolf's throat out when A super-charged bunny shaped cannonball impacted into the side of his head, sending the crazed monster spinning off of his lupine victim.
The hulking mutant hit the ground awkwardly and thrashed madly, his own claws racking against his head and body as if covered in a horde of spiders.
"Stings! She stings! Delicious, delicious! Yum! Shiny, I'm SHINY! Hungry, yessss, hungry!" Odd yips and mad broken bits of speech slipped from the hyena as if he were losing his mind. Judy re-enforced her lightning spear and stood between the mad creature and the other candidates, a hardened frown on her face. She fought the urge to flinch when the huge hyena's steel jaws snapped shut with a metallic crunch and his head slowly turned, made glowing gold orbs zeroed in on her.
"FEED ME!" He (it?) screeched and threw itself at her.
Fear and vicious excitement flushed through Judy's system in an intoxicating and confusing cocktail of battle lust. She poised her crackling yellow spear and bunched her supercharged muscles to meet her foe.
The Hyena never made it halfway. A sudden invisible force crashed down onto the flying creature and the mutant smashed into the gray stone as if the floor was magnetized. Judy whipped her head around and her already tense muscles seized in fright when a massive horned shadow towered over her.
"What is the meaning of this?" Helios boomed, his voice shaking the ground and rattling Judy's ribs. Despite herself she quaked under the massive cape buffalo's hard gaze. She cleared her throat to answer but it felt like swallowing sandpaper.
The crushed Hyena let out a wheezing giggle his golden orbs snapped onto Helios' scowling gaze with shocking clarity and madness roiling from their eerie depths, "Message!" The Hyena hissed gleefully. "I am a message! Hehehe! Yesyes! Message for the fool! Message for the strong! Yesyesyes!"
"What message?" Helios boomed, stomping over to the helpless mutant struggling against his power. "And from who?"
Helios' questions only seemed to amuse the Hyena, "Hehehe! Stupid Bogo. Stupidstupidstupid! Blind, deaf, and dumb! Yesyes! Oh, what would Psion say if she saw you now?"
Rage darkened the bull's scarred face. With shocking speed that belayed his massive frame the buffalo yanked the hyena up by his neck and hauled him up to eye level where the world's strongest Superhero bellowed right into the hyena's face, "WHO SENT YOU?!"
Either the Hyena was too far gone or utterly devoid of fear because he only smiled sweetly back at the enraged bull and spat a goblet of blood in his face.
Stunned silence followed, one so thick that Judy would have heard a pin drop as crimson spittle trailed down Bogo's snout and dripped onto the stone floor.
Helios let out a snort a moment later and discarded the hyena to the floor as a team of mannequins rushed in to secure the downed mutant. The Hyena thrashed and fought fruitlessly against the automatons but like a battery running out of juice his red lightning fizzled out and the steel sheen bled from his fur. Only his hulking size remained but strength meant little against the combined might of half a dozen nigh-indestructible puppets.
Judy still stood there with her spear out and her muscles locked tight and ready for a fight as Helios turned away from the struggling animal behind him. Instead of passing by the Cape Buffalo stopped in front of her and Judy had to crank her head up to look at his face.
To her shock when she hesitantly met his gaze the gruff Cape Buffalo had a neutral expression that she could have sworn looked almost pleased. She was still reeling from the fight and staring up at her idol that she nearly missed what he said next, even if she did feel his voice shake her insides against her spine.
"Well Done Candidate Hopps."
Judy blinked dumbly up at him for a few seconds before her brain caught up with the rest of her and she stammered, "O-Oh! T-Thank you sir. It was nothing! I live to serve!"
"Hm." Helios gave her one last look before stomping away, his parting words ringing in her ears. "We shall see."
An otter medic touched her shoulder jolting Judy from her stunned revere and like someone hitting an off switch Judy felt her tense muscles give out all at once and she nearly collapsed into the poor medic's arms, her spear fizzling out in a puff of sparks.
It took several hours of making official statements and receiving medical treatment but Judy and the rest of the candidates were finally allowed to leave ZHA HQ. Despite the harrowing fight Judy's blood was singing hot in her veins and her heart soared with pride and excitement.
Helios noticed me! He knows my name!
Getting recognized by the world's strongest Superhero was the icing on the carrot cake on top of dueling Robin Hood himself and fighting an honest to serendipity super-villain her first day in Zootopia couldn't possibly get any better. It was like she was living in a dream!
Dressed in her favorite pink flannel blouse and worn pair of jeans with her duffel bag bouncing off her hip Judy was skipping down the street towards where her Master's son Emmet Otterton lived. The kindly florist had offered to house his father's pupil for the foreseeable future until she was able to get settled into the city.
She merged with the foot traffic on the medium sized mammal lane on the sidewalk and soaked in the sights as she strolled through Savannah Plaza towards the Rainforest District weather wall.
She was twenty minutes or so away from the station and was distracted by the way the sunset's orange and red rays played across the Zootopia's cityscape when a pained yelp and a meaty thud caught her attention.
A hundred yards or so down the sidewalk a couple of bears and a caribou were interrupting foot traffic and circled around what appeared to be a couple of small mammals backing up against a cooler. She watched as the grizzly leaned over the smaller mammals and let out a snarl that she could hear even from where she stood.
Indignation and righteous anger flared up in her breast at the injustice she bore witness to. Not one to stand by and watch others get bullied Judy rolled her sore muscles and limbered up for a fight as she jogged towards the tussling mammals.
While she was running she saw the caribou use a whip made of water to smash the taller of the two victims into the concrete and the blank bear pin him to the ground. Biting back a snarl she summoned a spear to her throwing paw and let loose just as the grizzly lifted a foot to curb stomp the helpless mammal into paste. The bolt took the grizzly right in the tail and the ursine let out a strangled cry and pitched forward. Not one to let go of her momentum Judy summoned another spear and leapt into the fray.
"You!" She cried. "Stop in the name of Justice!"