Hey guys, whats going on?
Hope you have a nice christmas ;)
Zootopia – Springtime Circumstances
Chapter 62 – Fennec on a mission
POV Rico
I got woken up at 6 in the morning because of a ringing phone. It wasn´t my phone though, and I wasn´t in a common environment either. It was Nick´s phone, and I almost was too late when I arrived at the paper bag I had left it in yesterday, but I made it just in time.
It showed the contact "Fin" on the display, and I had no idea who this could be. But I was glad about every little clue, so I accepted the call and went inside the bathroom quickly in order not to wake up any of the two otters I shared the room with.
"Hello?" I asked lowly.
"Who the hell is that now?" the deep and growly voice on the other end asked cautiously.
"The name is Rico" I told him, "Who am I speaking to?"
"Why do you have his phone?" the voice asked without answering my question.
"Nick got abducted last night…" I told him with a little sigh. Just when I said that, I realized what that actually meant. "Why did I tell him that?" Then it hit me even harder: "Why the hell didn´t I tell anybody last night already? I could have at least called the regular police with the room-telephone. What the hell was I thinking? What the hell was I doing last night?!"
Before I could wonder about my own careless stupidity even more, I got interrupted by the unknown caller once again.
"Abducted?" the voice asked, now a little louder than before.
"Yeah" I sighed, "I saved all his belongings and barely avoided getting abducted as well. Who is this?"
"Shit…" he cursed lowly, "I knew this was gonna happen sooner or later…"
"Could you please tell me who I´m talking to?" I asked again, "Where do you know him from?"
"Listen, pal, I know Nick longer than anyone else. Way before he became a police officer and way before he became a well-known celebrity…can you…can you tell me who abducted him?"
"I wasn´t there when it happened, sadly, Mister…I just got told about a few wolves or polar-bears with gas-masks."
"Alright…" he sighed, apparently thinking about something, "…can you…can you connect me to his bunny lady somehow?"
"Not right now, but I was on my way. What should I tell her? A stranger want´s to meet up with her?"
"Listen buddy" the voice sighed, "What was your name again? Rico?"
"Yes" I told him dryly, "Call me Rico…I´m the black and grey fox with the guitar if that makes it easier."
That caused a dead silence for another moment.
"Right…okay, Rico" he told me, now noticeable in a friendlier tone, "The name is Finnick. Officer Hopps knows who I am. She´ll affirm that I´m not a stranger. Please tell her to contact me as soon as possible. I know how we could get Nick out of this…maybe."
"Alright" I told him, "I´ll try my best."
"Good. Meet ya on the flip side. Take care."
"Bye" I replied, then he had ended connection already.
I looked at the mirror in the bathroom for a moment and rubbed my hurting eyes.
I still was tired as hell after last night and just two hours of sleep, but I was too alarmed and jittery to get back into bed right now. So I got into my clothing from yesterday which still was laying besides the bathroom-sink, got the paper bag with Nick´s stuff in it and went on my way downwards into the lobby.
"Oh good morning, Mr. Capaldi" the concierge greeted me in a friendly way when I went past the desk. It was somebody else than last night of course, but it seemed like he was aware I had checked in last night.
"Hi" I greeted back tiredly, "Not sure if you got notified, but somebody broke into room 621 yesterday. I´m very sorry about leaving you like that, but Nick got abducted and I have to get help…"
"Oh…" he said with a shocked expression, "I´m…I´m so sorry! Normally we have some really good security…I…I don't understand…"
I didn´t want to explain the whole story right now. That was such a weird situation in the first place.
"I Have no time to explain" I told him plainly, "I´m pretty sure somebody will come up for the damage…"
He just nodded understandingly, "I´m sorry for the inconvenience, Sir! Best of luck!"
"Thank you!" I yelled while leaving the lobby through the glass door.
At this time of day there wasn´t a whole lot going on outside and I couldn´t see anybody waiting for me either. Not even the regular people seemed to notice me right now. So I just went for it and straight away headed for the concert hall to get the car and my phone and then home as quickly as possible.
POV Ivonne
It was half to eight in the morning and I was sitting alone in the kitchen. I just couldn´t sleep anymore and decided to set up a can of coffee already. All the others still were deeply asleep after that long and very exhausting night we had, so it easily was quiet enough for me to hear the door being unlocked in the hallway. This could only be Nick and Rico. Anita didn´t have keys for our flat.
My pulse immediately began racing and tears formed in my eyes again. There were no voices though, and the steps were a little too quiet for coming from two foxes. Now that surely confused me a little.
From the open door of the kitchen I watched him sneaking through the living room, trying hard not to wake them up, and when he spotted me sitting in the kitchen, he made his way towards me carefully.
I wasn´t even trying to hide that I was crying.
"H-hey…" I greeted him lowly.
He noticed how scared I was, but he didn´t say a single word. He just went towards me, put the paper bag he had with him on the floor and looked me deep in the eyes for a second. Then he just hugged me tightly.
"I´m…I´m so sorry" I cried out, "…I should have…I should have told you this…"
He just patted my back gently to calm me down a little. I shouldn´t ever have doubted him. For a moment we simply stood there like this and nothing happened. He just had his arms wrapped around me, and I just needed this so badly.
"It´s okay" he whispered, "I won´t ever hate you because of it. Things happen, and I can´t say I wasn´t careful either…"
"T-thank you so much" I cried lowly, "I-I knew you were a good guy…"
In that moment, somebody else hugged the both of us as well. It was Judy, who seemed to have woken up as well by now without us noticing it. She just smiled at us happily and that gave me back even more energy. I was so happy and relieved right now. And it also smelled like delicious bakery all over sudden, I was pretty sure it had something to do with the paper bag Rico brought with him. He did it again, he just saved the day once more.
There we stood. Arms in arms. Just like a family.
I was completely sure now: I couldn´t live without my friends. They were the only thing that gave me hold and strength. We would be fine in the end.
"Where have you left Nick?" Judy wanted to know just a moment later, and that actually was a good question. Now Rico suddenly got really nervous.
"He…he" Rico stuttered with sad eyes, "…he got abducted last night…I couldn´t do anything to stop them…I-I mean…"
"What?!" Judy asked in shock, releasing us from her hug.
"I-I-I´m sorry, I couldn´t do anything to stop them…" Rico explained, "…after he told me about it…you know…about Ivonne, I was heading for the train station in blind rage and confusion, which was a very bad idea in the first place. W-when I came back into the hotel, the whole hallway smelled like chloroform and the door-lock of our room was broken…"
"Oh no!" Judy panted in total hectic and terror. I just now realized what that really meant.
"I´m sorry!" Rico told her, "When I entered the hotel again, they began searching for me as well. I was able to save myself into the room of some other hotel guests just in time. They didn´t find me, but I couldn´t leave the hotel either…" he explained hectically, "I didn't know what else to do!"
"You could have called us!" Judy got a little louder, being quite stressed as well, which really was a rare thing to see. But I couldn't blame her, I was terrified as well right now.
"I´m sorry!" Rico told her, almost fighting tears right now, "I didn´t have my phone, it was still in the backstage area. And I´m not good with numbers…but I…"
"Shit…" Judy cursed, trying to think of something, "I knew it was a bad idea to leave the concert hall on foot!"
Rico just looked at the ground in sadness and shame, nodding a little at what she said.
"How did you get here this morning?" I asked him just out of curiosity. Even at this time of day, using public transport would have taken him forever to get here.
He searched his pockets with his paws and showed us a car key. Then he gave it to Judy.
"You have a driver´s licence?" I asked in serious surprise. I never knew he had one.
He nodded.
"Have you filled it up on the way here?" Judy asked, "That thing is thirsty as hell, and it nearly was empty yesterday…"
"Yes" he affirmed, "It would never have gotten here if I hadn´t stopped for gas on the way. I also grabbed us something for breakfast. I know this is not the right time for it, but hungry we´ll be even less successful with whatever we do…"
He grabbed the paper bag he had brought and put its contents onto the kitchen table one by one. It was almost completely stuffed with snacks they must have left on the buffet in the backstage area yesterday, but when he got to the bottom of the bag, it contained some black clothing, a keychain, a phone and some other items. Judy immediately knew what it was.
"Nick was just in boxer-shorts when they captured him" Rico explained, "I saved all I could find from our room before I searched a new hideout…"
Judy took the etui from the pile of things, opened it and counted the amount of tranquilizer darts it contained. Some of them were missing as it seemed.
"It was chloroform you said?" she asked him then, now calmer and more controlled.
"A stinging and biting smell. It was in the entire hallway and even stronger in the room itself. I assumed it was chloroform because you´ve told me about that earlier…you know, when you got abducted for the first time…"
She nodded understandingly.
"Any ideas?" I curiously asked her after a little while.
"Not right now" she sighed, "I have to talk to someone from the ZPD first of all…"
"Oh, yeah!" Rico suddenly told her, "There was this one guy who called Nick´s phone this morning. His name was Finnick I believe, he said he needs to talk to you about something. He said he may has an idea that could help us…"
"Right…okay" she said, now with a tiny bit of hope in her voice, her ears even perked up a little bit, "He might really be helpful for this…"
She immediately grabbed Nicks phone from the table, unlocked it and searched his contact-list for the number.
"…"
"Hey Finnick, it´s Judy. I was told to call you back…?"
Normal POV (9:30AM)
"What is it, Hector?" the boss asked him, raising an eyebrow at the angry black and brown wolf with the cast around his nose. He must have come back from the hospital just now, the doctors probably told him to take a day off or two, but he was well known for his stubbornness.
Angry wasn´t really the right word to describe his mood either, he was truly infuriated.
"Can I see him?"
"See who?" he asked with a curious smirk.
"Wilde" he growled.
"No."
"Why?!" he yelled, getting more aggressive very quickly.
"Nobody is going to touch him. He escaped out of something like the before, and that exactly because of something as immature as that…"
"Where should he go?" the wolf asked greedily, "He is in a triple locked room tied on his paws and on his feet by thick metal handcuffs! I´m not playing any games with him, I just want to fuck him up a little."
"You´re not doing anything unless I say it."
"This is not fair!" the wolf complained loudly, "Look what he did to my nose! I was in hospital all night because of it!"
"You better show this man the respect he deserves. He´s not just some police officer. He´s a serious threat, he´s proven that already. You´re lucky you didn´t get hurt worse than that, some others are still in hospital because of him."
"He´s not a threat anymore! We have him under our control now. And he didn´t show me any respect either!"
"He fought six men who had gas masks and chloroform. And he was just in underwear. You consider that respectful? …I wouldn´t even have been surprised if he had injured you worse than that."
"Pah!" he retorted, "He´s just a little fox in the end…what´s the big deal? I´d fuck him up with ease in a real fight."
The polar bear just raised an eyebrow once again. He found it rather bemusing than annoying if he was honest.
"So why didn´t you?"
"I just came back into the hallway and then he was already flying at me. I couldn´t even react before he slammed his feet into my face! It was just a lucky hit he landed."
"Is that so?"
"Give me a chance and I´ll prove it to you! I can beat him fair and spare in a fight. I´ve had martial arts training for over five years!"
"What? When you were nine?" the polar bear asked the hot-headed crook, still quite amused about this. But the wolf seemed to be serious.
"Let me fight against him. Even if he should beat me, he´s still locked up and watched by our guards."
"Hector, this is not the right time for playing childish games. We have to make a public statement and tell them our demands…this is going to be complicated enough already…"
From the corner of his eyes he noticed one of his wing-men waving from the door after entering his room quietly. He immediately waved him to come closer, being interested in the news he had and hoping to get rid of the wolf that way as well.
He surely wouldn´t treat Hector that kindly anyway if he wasn´t one of his closest partner´s sons. Others he would have just told to get lost if they wasted his time with something like this.
"I don't want to play childish games. This is about respect and revenge" Hector assured hastily.
"Alright…" he sighed after considering it one more time, "…do you promise to shut up about it then?"
"Yes. Thank you, sir!" the wolf assured, truly being thankful as it seemed. Then his expression changed to a contented but also slightly aggressive grin once again.
"At least that fox maybe will have a little less energy then…" the notorious clan-leader explained his sudden change of mind. If the he was honest, he kind of wanted that fight to happen as well, but he wouldn´t show it of course. Instead, he now just pointed at the door and waited for the wolf to leave his room, finally.
"Boss" the other polar bear greeted the him with a respectful nod, "We´ve just had a call from someone -a former business-partner of us as far as I know- who´s willing to sell us information on Wilde…"
"Information?"
"Yes, sir. He says he know where his mother lives for example…and…what he did before he became a police officer…and…"
The polar bear interrupted him with a hand-sign at this point already. "Bring him to me" he ordered, "As soon as possible."
His first assistant nodded understandingly. "As you wish, sir."
POV Nick (Just about 10 minutes later)
I woke up and felt uncomfortable. I had a Deja-vu right from the start. When my eyes finally had focussed on what was around me, I remembered everything that happened last night. Everything until I´ve passed out because of the chloroform gas.
I was in a room that maybe was 20 by 20 feet and the walls were entirely made from glass, with the exception of a very thick steel-doorframe with an equally thick door in it. That transparent prison was in the middle of a giant storage hall or something like that, and around it were quite a few security guards with tranquilizers, a table with various electronics on it and a tripod with a camera that was focussed on me. Of course there was a freaking camera. And to make matters worse, they had cuffed me by my hands and my feet this time. And they didn't use any flimsy strings either, they used steel chains with even heavier steel handcuffs. Electronically operated steel-handcuffs, which the blinking LEDs indicated.
I was thirsty. My throat was dry and my stomach hurt too. Not having very much else to do, other than standing around, I turned my attention to one of the "guards" that kept watching me.
"Hey" I asked them, "What would I have to do to get a glass of water, please?"
Nobody answered me. They deliberately tried to ignore me as it seemed.
"Wow" I chuckled after a little while, "You guys really seem like authentic gangsters, I´m impressed! Not very hostile though…"
Somebody now shook his head with a little sigh and went on his way. The others didn´t move from where they were and just stared at me.
A couple of minutes later, he came back carrying a big glass of water with a straw in it. He opened the heavy iron door, which seemed to be quite a complicated procedure, walked up to me, and since I could neither move my arms nor my legs, helped me to get the straw into my mouth so I could drink.
I really was glad somebody had listened, because my body really had needed that water. I emptied the whole glass in one go and immediately felt a lot better.
"That´s better, thank you very much" I told him in all honesty.
He just nodded shortly, then he left the room and locked it up again.
That was it. There was not much else I could do right now. This seemed to become a really long and boring day.
We were just standing around like this for a couple of minutes, I inside my little prison, they outside of it, but then something happened unexpectedly. From the plateau above my glass cage a big polar bear stared down on me now. Then somebody else appeared, but he was on the same level as I and the guards that watched me. The brown wolf with the black spots and the cast around his nose walked right up to the iron-door of my glass prison and opened it. Although he had a cast around his nose, he seemed to be quite confident in what he was doing. He closed the door behind him and came right up to me.
"Remember me?" he asked.
"Should I?" I yawned, not being able to cover my mouth because I couldn´t move my arms.
"You broke my nose last night."
"You got a name? I´m Nick, in case you wondered…" I introduced myself.
"Hector."
"Okay, Hector" I told him with a little smirk, "I´m very sorry for breaking your nose. It was sort of in the way, sadly. Could you please tell me where I am? And if there is anybody I could talk to who actually has something to say?"
"What makes you think he couldn´t be standing right in front of you right now?"
"Your boss wouldn´t go out to abduct me for himself. I´m pretty sure he has his underpaid crooks for that. If I had a guess, I´d say it´s that big bloke up there…" I told him confidently.
"I´d recommend you to shut your mouth now, fox!" he growled.
Seemed like I hit it right on the spot.
"You´re not the boss of anything my friend, you´re just some poor…"
Before I could continue, he immediately went for a punch into my stomach. Although I flexed my muscles just in time, it hurt quite badly nevertheless. I still was just in boxer shorts I just got reminded again, and then I noticed the quite thick and hard leather gloves he wore.
"Oh…so you really must be the alpha of the pack" I assumed, swallowing the pain, "Punching a man who is completely immobilized…"
"Shut the hell up before I make you!" he yelled aggressively.
"Impressive" I told him with a challenging smirk, "I almost think you could really get dangerous for me even without your friends and an entire gas tank of chloroform…"
I wanted to use his aggressive behaviour. It might just end in more pain for me, but it also might could give me a chance to get out of these steel handcuffs I was held in place with.
"I´d totally destroy you in a real fight, little fox. And I will! Right now!" he told me then, getting out of his jacket already, "And when I have destroyed you, I´m allowed to do whatever I want with you!" he told me in a -supposed to sound threatening- way, "Maybe I´ll just fuck you up a little more, maybe I´ll also just fuck you, who knows?"
"Alright, buddy" I chuckled in amusement, "I like your enthusiasm…"
"Oh yeah?" he asked in a challenging manner, "Let´s see if you still think like that when I´m done with you…"
With that sentence, he threw away the jacket he had worn over his muscle shirt and nodded towards one of the other blokes outside the cage. Not being entirely sure about this, the other wolf then went towards the table, flicked a switch and unlocked all of my electronic handcuffs. Those people were so easy to play with it surprised me every time.
I quickly shook my arms to get some blood into them once again, stretched my feet and took another look at the wolf then. He had risen his fists and flexed his muscles already, so I figured he really was meaning it.
"Look, buddy" I chuckled, "You don't have to do this. I admire your will to do it with a broken nose, but…"
In that very moment he had enough of my talking and attacked me right away. I blocked his fist with my elbows and countered the recoil with my legs to make him stumble backwards a few steps.
"…didn´t your doctor…I don't know…tell you something like: take it easy? Or anything of that nature?"
"Shut up!" he yelled.
"Man you sound frustrated" I grinned at him, just to enrage him a little more.
"Okay" he growled, "I will definitively fuck your little ass when I´m done with you, just like the little bitch you are!"
"A deal´s a deal" I answered with a challenging grin, "Show me how much of an alpha you really are big guy!"
He lunged at me once again, but it quickly became clear that his mouth was way bigger than his talent of fighting. I dodged him with ease and he almost crashed against the glass wall behind me with his already damaged nose.
"AAAHHH" he yelled, infuriated with rage, "YOU LITTLE…AHH!"
Slowly but surely he came a few steps closer towards me once again and then he went for another punch. I dodged it again, went a step towards him quickly, did a little jump and hit his head with my fists with just about half the strength I could bring up. I just wanted to make him tumble and I achieved that as it turned out. Then I remembered his already broken nose he now nursed with his paws in great pain.
"I don't want to hurt you" I told him teasingly, "But I must at least defeat you when your butt is on the line…you know, I could use a tight hole right now…"
"Just forget it you little shit" he coughed, trying to lift himself off of the ground, "I´m gonna fuck you first and then I´ll go find that little bitch of a bunny to fuck her right afterwards!"
Now he had crossed a line I never really knew existed. I just considered this as having fun at first, but now that seriously changed my attitude.
"Alright, bigshot" I told him, now really a little angry myself, "…you´re over-doing it a little right now. You better take that back, or I´ll may give you another visit to the hospital."
"Aww…does that make you angry little foxy?" he asked, now in a teasing voice as well.
"Trust me" I replied, "You wouldn´t want to be in this room if I really was angry."
"Ha! Bullshit! You don´t scare me with that crap."
"Is your nose twitching?" I asked him, "Can´t really tell because of the cast, but I think your nose is twitching…I don't think I have any need to scare you, you´re scared already…"
"Oh you little fucking poser" he just growled and tried to punch me once again, "I can´t wait to find out how your girlfriend feels from the inside once I fucked you up!"
Now I really had enough of that stupid game. He was asking for trouble and he would get it.
I dodged his next attack by jumping backwards towards the glass-wall behind me quickly, repelled myself off of it into his direction and slammed both of my fists into his side with all that momentum and my entire body-weight. Judy had taught me that move, and now I got to use it for the first time, actually. Damn that was a good feeling. He just crashed right into the glass wall on the opposite side of the room and got quite a big crack into it because of the impact. I really was a little scared of my own strength in the meanwhile.
The guys outside the cage just stared in shock as he collapsed onto the floor and kept on laying there, winding himself in great pain. He obviously wasn´t in any condition to fight me at this point, he wasn´t even able to stand up anymore, although he still was conscious.
Then it was like a switch was flicked in my head. That crack in the glass was my way into freedom. Without thinking about it twice, without giving the security guys the change to react, I rushed towards the crack and slammed myself against it as hard as possible. The crack became noticeable bigger already, but I would probably need a few more tries to get through it.
Now a real panic broke out among the guards. I took a quick look upwards where I had spotted the big polar bear earlier, and he didn´t seem to be too happy about that development of things either.
Before I could try to ram the glass again, they suddenly pumped loads and loads of chloroform-gas into the room. These guys were a lot better prepared than the last ones who abducted us. I couldn't even take another breath before it was all around me. I had to breathe in at some point, and when I did I just fell back asleep again a moment later.
POV Finnick (11:30AM)
"What´s your deal, Mr. …?" the polar bear in the fancy black smoking asked me, after they brought me into his room.
"The name is Finnick" I told him, "Just Finnick."
He moved his hand in a circular motion, signalizing I should get to the point right away.
I decided to let him wait for a couple more seconds.
"…revenge."
Now he raised an eyebrow.
"…Wilde and I were partners before he got forced to help that bunny cop, I would have even called him a friend back then…"
"What happened?" he asked, being more interested than I first believed.
"…he fell in love" I told him the truth as plainly as it was. Then I changed it a little: "…at least for a while…but nevertheless, she made a cop out of him, and now we all suffer from it…"
"So he was…kind of your personal body guard back then?" he asked with an amused smirk, and I really had to hold myself together in order not to throw an insult at him. Stupid idiot.
"…the bunny cop made him that strong" I said while shaking my head, "The reason this asshole is fucking us so hard with everything he does is that he´s been part of our freaking business half his lifetime and knows it better than he knows his own ball-sack."
That was followed by another quite long pause.
"Why would he do that?"
"Because he´s a greedy bastard! He just wants to see the world on fire!" I got even louder to make it more believable, "He doesn´t care about money, he doesn´t care about anything. He just cares about himself and about messing with everybody. I bet you any money he´s starting to mess with the ZPD as well, once he´s bored with what he´s doing there. And when all the three clans are gone he has even less to worry about…you understand me?"
That seemed to be a little too much, probably.
"Let me ask you something, Finnick" the polar bear still remained rather calmly, "…how did you get here? Where do you know all that from? You just came here out of nowhere telling me all that stuff and I have no idea who you are and if I could trust you. You know…it took us a lot of money and effort to even get him here…"
"An old acquaintance of mine works here. A terrible nuisance, his name is hector. I called him this morning just by chance because I wanted to offer him a job, but then he told me he was in hospital with a broken nose…"
In that very moment the polar bear buried his face into one of his paws and shook his head a little. He obviously knew who I was talking about, and it seemed like I slowly but surely gained his trust a little.
"…he told me: ´have a guess who broke my nose´ and then he told me that you captured him, finally. That´s why I´m here. As I told you, I have my own ambitions to get a few people out of prison, I have my own ambitions of seeing him suffering and I certainly have some Information that could quicken the process quite dramatically."
He nodded understandingly.
"Alright…" he told me then, sounding quite curious all over sudden, "What do you have?"
POV Rico (11:30AM)
"I have a terrible headache, I had about 3 hours of sleep, I just woke up ten minutes ago and I haven´t had any morning-sex or even breakfast yet, Chief! And I wouldn´t even be here if this wasn´t for Nick" Max snarled at him, "I´m sorry I couldn´t come sooner, okay?"
The buffalo didn´t say anything to that anymore. Chief Bogo seemed to be quite tired himself, but on the other hand, none of us had a whole lot of sleep after that last night.
I was sitting in this ZPD briefing room right next to Judy and quite a few people I actually met in the backstage area last night, but I still didn´t really know what I could be useful for in all this.
"You think there will be another video-threatening or something like that?" the white vixen who introduced herself as "Skye" to me yesterday asked, "Like they did the first time?"
"I´m pretty sure they will" Judy sighed, "Anything with Nick in it will storm the media in just a couple of minutes. And they need this to be big. This is their last chance, basically…"
"Last chance?" I asked.
"There belonged three different clans to this alliance" Judy explained to me, "We already got the heads and important members of two of them imprisoned and if they mess this up somehow, we´ve got them all locked up and the strongest alliance in this city is completely taken down."
"So they´re trying to blackmail you into releasing them again?"
She nodded silently. Now all that made a lot more sense to me, finally.
"What´s the worst thing they could do to threaten us?" Bogo started from the beginning, "…their demand will be for us to release quite a few of the clan members, if not all of them…"
They all nodded in agreement.
"…but I doubt that they would threaten us to kill Wilde…"
Judy nodded, which wondered me a little once again.
"No, they wouldn´t do that. There is no way they would get what they want if they kill him. There would be no reason for us to follow any more of their demands then…"
"They could…" Jack suddenly threw in, looking up from his notebook "…they could use him as a weapon."
"A weapon?" Max wanted do know, "How?"
Jack hesitated for a second before he answered. "Night-howlers. That works really well, sadly. Trust me on this one."
"Shit" Judy agreed, "He´s right. And they don´t even know how dangerous that could be."
"Oh I think they know" Jack disagreed, "…but just imagine they lock him into a room with a bunch of innocent hostages…"
Now that thought really sent chills down my spine. We all here were very aware of what Nick was capable of. Judy´s entire body began shaking in fear and rage in the meanwhile.
"We need to do something!" she then proclaimed, "Nick could never forgive himself if he hurt anybody who didn´t deserve it."
"Do we have any idea where they could be hiding at?" Max wanted to know.
"Yes…vaguely" Judy cleared up for everybody, "…but that doesn´t make it much better. Finnick told me about it on the phone. They´re in Tajunga, a giant building that´s built around and inside an even bigger tree. They have about fifty armoured guards, snipers on the roof and in the tree-branches checking every direction, and the whole building itself is an absolute maze."
"Who´s is he?" Jack wanted to know.
"He´s a good old friend of Nick" Judy explained, "A quite shifty little fennec fox called Finnick. I don't know how, but he said he knows somebody who´s part of that clan. He said he´ll try to figure something out…"
"Do you trust him?" Chief Bogo asked suspiciously.
"He seems a little rough at first, but he´s alright. He helped me before when I needed him."
"Guess we have to wait for his info then?" Max asked, "Or a statement from those fuckers…"
Judy just nodded weakly.
"I think I´ve found it" Jack suddenly let us know, pointing at his notebook. It showed camera-footage of a very big tree which was surrounded by a very high stone-wall with thorn fence on top of it. From the up-top perspective of the camera at least ten armoured guards were securing the giant buildings that surrounded the tree, and when he tilted the angle higher, even more guards with big riffles where to be seen in the branches of the tree. There was a big, heavy iron gate that was closed and also being watched by to guards to the left and to the right of it.
"Any idea how to get into that fortress?" Charlie, the third agent of the trio, asked, "Have you seen that entrance and how many guards there are? And it´s not like that gate at the street is going to open up for us either..."
"All hell will break lose once they noticed us" Jack agreed.
"If we even get to that building" Skye sighed, "There is nowhere for you to hide from their gunfire."
"You could take them out with your sniper, couldn´t you?" Max asked her.
Skye just shook her head. "They´re gonna notice before I could take all of them out. And then we also have the problem of getting over that wall…"
"We need a distraction" I suggested then, just following a thought that spawned in my head, "When we arrive with a few hundred people, their guards won´t see you in the crowd…we just have to get their attention for a moment…"
"That…" Jack said, "…is not a bad idea actually…"
"But how do we get a few hundred people in front of their door?" Max wanted to know.
"Are you kidding me?" I asked with a little chuckle, "Give me a crappy guitar, I´ll disguise myself as a street-musician, and once the people find out it´s me, it´ll maybe take a couple of minutes and you have a crowd like that. And when that clan finds out it´s me, they´re for sure going to open that gate in order to abduct me as well."
"You sure about that?" Jack asked doubtfully.
"Heck, wherever I go I get surrounded by hundreds of people and even the freaking media. It annoys the hell out of me and everybody I know…and they tried to abduct me yesterday already..."
"They did" Skye asked in surprise.
"Yeah, but I managed to hide in another hotel-room. Had some pretty lucky timing as it seems."
"But why didn´t you tell anybody about this earlier?" she wanted to know, just like Judy earlier.
"I just couldn't, okay?" I enraged myself a little, although I really didn´t mean to, "I didn´t have my phone with me, I just got told I´m going to be a dad in a few months, one of my best friends got abducted and I also was pretty sure my girlfriend will leave me soon because of how fucking exhausting our lives are right now and all the other shit that is going on! I´m sorry, okay? I know it wasn´t the right thing to do."
Now they all stared me after that little outburst, but at least they seemed to understand my situation now. Judy came towards me and hugged me once again to calm me down a little.
"Wow" Skye said lowly, "I´m sorry…I didn´t know that…"
"How are you supposed to know?" I asked, still with tears in my eyes, "I´m sorry for yelling…this is just…all this is just too much for me right now…"
POV Finnick (11:45AM)
I may have misjudged this situation a little earlier. Now I was way too deep into this construct of lies to just walk away. I knew too much already. My only hope now was that Nick would understand what I was doing. He knew me pretty well, and we certainly have fooled a lot of people back in the day.
"Show me that you really got him first" I told him, when the big polar bear asked me about some more specific details I could give him.
Without another word, he went out of his office and waved me to follow him.
"Can´t tell you if he´s awake right now" he told me, "Hector thought it was a good idea to take revenge on him for breaking his nose last night. Tried to fight him and ended up in hospital for a second time."
Just when he said that, we arrived in a big storage hall and I spotted the big glass box they had locked him in. What I immediately noticed was the big crack in the glass on one of the walls.
"Ouch" I just commented dryly.
"We sent him back to sleep before he could destroy it any further" he sighed, walking down the stairs already. I followed him all the way until we arrived at the cage.
"Look who we have here" I greeted him while very shortly twitching one of my ears. He still knew that code.
"Oh really?" he asked in an annoyed way, "And now you little dick arrive here?"
Damn how much I missed this. I should never have doubted him.
"Mister ´oh I´m so in love with my bunny girl´" I continued ironically, "Still acting out that romance to your fans?"
"Pah" he said, as if we all knew about his ´fake relationship´. The polar bear just listened to our fake bickering with great interest.
"Can´t say I believed that for even a minute" I laughed, "People don´t change, Nicky."
"I´ve fucked everything that raised their tail for me, what did you think?" he replied in a dark and cold way. He surely hadn´t unlearned his acting.
"Nothing very different. Tell me: Did you know this was gonna happen someday? Like…come on…don't tell me you didn´t expect it at some point…"
"What do you want, little rat?" he spat at me now.
"Just here to see you suffering" I told him in a superior sounding voice, "…and…you know…make sure you don't get out of this anymore. …you caused a lot of trouble since you became a police officer, you know? …It´s about time we shut you down, finally…"
"Little bastard" he told me, "Should have locked you up half a year ago already…"
"Yeah" I grinned, "But you didn´t. And now tell me, Nicky: does your mom still life in the old cypress-lane? In the red pained house next to the elementary school?"
We both knew she never actually lived there. It was one of our old hideouts.
"She moved to the other side of the city just a month ago" he lied, "Don´t even try to…"
"Ah…" I grinned, "I´m pretty sure I have seen her in the Cypress-lane just a few days ago…"
"I dare you!" he growled.
"Since when did you get so protective all over sudden?", I asked teasingly, "I guess you do have changed a little overall…"
"She´s my mother you little…"
"Aww…" he grinned, "…kinda cute to see you like this, Nicky…"
"Can we…" The polar bear tried to interrupt us, but Nick wasn´t done with the performance yet.
"You´ve seen what happened to Hector when he messed with me! Touch her and you´ll be the next one causing a crack in one of these glass walls. And you´ll be going through it, be sure of that!"
"Cypress lane?" the polar bear asked me, a little louder this time, "Absolutely sure about that address?"
"I swear to god" Nick growled, "If you…"
"I make sure nobody is going to hurt her" the Polar Bear assured him, "Nobody is getting hurt if the ZPD does what we say. At least nobody you personally care about."
"I personally care about?" Nick asked in disbelief, "You sick bastards are getting innocents into this?"
"It´s nothing personal" the polar bear assured again, already being on his way back towards the stairs, "Just business."
"Fin!" Nick called me again as I was about to follow the boss once again in order not to look suspicious, "Why are you doing this? Do you really want to get dragged into this?"
"Oh Nicky…" I chuckled before turning around one last time, "Believe me, I´m in this way longer than you can imagine…I´ve changed my life too, you know?"
POV Judy (2PM)
We still sat in the ZPD when we got the long awaited statement from his abductors. We had switched through all the big TV programmes, watched the internet for any new happenings and also the security cameras Jack had access to on his notebook. I had shown Rico through the ZPD building a little as well, in order to calm him down a little, and we even found one of his Nick´s under-clothing police-armours for him to wear since he really wanted to help us. He wore it with great pride and was convinced to support us, whatever it would take. I could tell that he felt sorry for what happened last night. We all make mistakes sometimes, that´s just natural.
A few minutes after I came back from my quick visit at Cammy´s coffee shop, Jack waved us all towards him suddenly. There was a YouTube-Video spreading very quickly, and it was exactly what we´ve been waiting for.
It was labelled "The last day of his career", and the thumbnail already showed Nick being tied to his paws and to his feet.
"Listen here, citizens of the Zootopia and officers of the ZPD especially", it started off, showing Nick being cuffed in a room surrounded by thick glass walls. The handcuffs were massive, solid pieces of metal, attached to equally strong metal chains. They weren´t messing about this time. I immediately noticed the big crack in one of the glass walls though, so something must have been happening already. That could be pretty useful eventually.
"…not hard to find out, the man you see trapped here is none less than police detective Nicholas Wilde" the voice continued, "Truly a phenomenon of our time, a hero to most of you and undoubtedly a brilliant detective and scarily strong fighter. But especially those last points makes him a giant nuisance to us, sadly. That´s why we have to shut him down once and for all."
Now the video was cut to a shot of a big polar bear sitting behind a wooden desk speaking right into the camera. "It´s nothing personal, I pay him all the respect he deserves, but sadly he´s done a lot of damage to our business and some of our men, and we cannot allow that to happen any longer. What I´m going to use him for now might shock you…" he said, before the video cut back to the cage, this time a little closer, "But it´s the only way, sadly."
Now the polar bear was standing in the cage right beside him, holding an injector with a deep-purple liquid in his paws. My heart stopped beating for a second. They did exactly what Jack had guessed earlier already.
"What I´ve got here in this injector…" he explained, "…officer Wilde should be quite familiar with this already…"
Now Nick shook his head in pure horror when he realized it. I could feel his pain so much in that moment. I knew how afraid he was of that to happen again. He tried to free himself from the handcuffs with all his might, but it just was no use.
"…It´s a serum extracted from a little but very toxic flower called Midnicampum holicithias" the polar bear continued, "…also known as Night Howlers. Just tiny amounts are enough to turn a normal mammal into a savage beast that has the uncontrollable urge to mangle and destroy everything in its path. Injecting a lot of it into the body of somebody who´s easily strong enough to throw a fully grown wolf against an almost two-inch thick glass-wall and causing a crack in it, could be quite something to watch…"
"No!" Nick yelled in total horror, seriously trying to warn him, "You don't want to do this! You´ve no idea what…"
"Oh, I do have an idea" he interrupted him coldly, "And I have quite a lot of innocents and even children I could put into this cage" he added coldly. To show he wasn´t making it up, the camera got turned around and showed at least fifteen different cuffed animals sitting in another corner of the hall. They all had confused and scared expressions on their faces, but since even their mouths were sealed with some sort of bandages, they couldn't even make a sound.
"No! You sick bastard!" Nick yelled in total helplessness, shaking his head even more, "Just kill me, okay? Don't drag others into this! You just talked about being respectful!"
"Since I´m the one who is taking the hostages, I make the rules. It´s as simple as that. I´d recommend to not try to mess with me."
"Judy!" Nick then panted in panic, his eyes widely opened, "…whatever they want, don´t let this happen!"
"There is nothing you can do about it, except if you follow all of our demands. You leave me no choice this time", the polar bear in the black smoking continued coldly, "And to give all of you a chance to watch that bloodbath happening, we´re running a live-stream for this room, starting right now."
He walked out of the glass cage in the meanwhile, closed the heavy iron door behind him and then stared right at the camera once again.
"The only way you could stop this from happening?" he asked, "Not hard to guess: Pay us back for all the trouble Wilde and Hopps have caused since they appeared. Everything since they arrested Dawn Bellweather. Set them free, everybody who has a connection to the three clans you´ve taken down. It´s as simple as that. Otherwise, this red fox will be going down in history for something way different as what you´ve known him for. You have time until 6PM, don't try anything stupid. That´s all."
The camera moved around the glass prison until the focus was just on Nick once again, and then the video ended abruptly.
I couldn´t describe the feelings that went through me right now. It was a combination of rage and pure fear. We all knew what those night-howlers already did to him. He could never forgive himself if he killed or even hurt innocent people because of it. The first time we were lucky when that happened, but there was no guarantee we would be lucky again. This time he would have no tables to throw around, and he also has been getting even stronger ever since it happened for the first time. He still made big improvements with his workout. He still was getting faster and stronger with every session, he lifted weights twice his own body-weight, and nobody I asked in the gym had ever seen something like that before. Injecting him with night howlers now could just be fatal for everybody in that building.
But I didn´t even want to imagine that to happen right now. We just had to try it. There must be a way to save him.
"Rico!" I told him, just following my instincts at this point, "Get your band together! We need a distraction bigger than ever!"
He nodded after hesitating for a little moment, then he pulled out his phone.
"Chief! Jack!" I called them out, "I need at least one more sniper supporting Skye, I need gas masks for everybody coming with me into that building, I need chloroform if we need to get Nick unconscious, tranquilizers don´t work."
They both nodded understandingly.
"I need another car, because ours they´re going to notice from a mile away, and I need some explosives if we should have trouble getting into the building."
The Chief grabbed his phone as well now, Jack just had found the live-stream on his notebook.
Like it was announced, it was just this one camera-angle that filmed the room Nick was trapped in. They already had begun moving the other hostages into the cage as well and Nick couldn´t do much more than watching them very carefully.
"We need to do this as quickly as possible. We need it to be a surprise so big and unexpected that panic spreads out among them. Maybe that will lead them to a mistake…"
They weren´t exactly convinced about it yet, I wasn't either if I was totally honest, but I was convinced that we at least had to try it.
"I mean…" Jack said, "…it has worked before. And I didn´t believe in that either at first…"
"Yeah" Max agreed, "Me nether…but that's the right spirit I guess…"
"Rather die a hero than doing nothing" Daniel agreed as well.
"Well said, Fangmeyer" Chief Bogo said while nodding, "And doing nothing is not an option."
"Let´s do it" Skye agreed.
"Alright!" I spoke up once again, "Listen, one more thing: I need you all to stay absolutely quiet about this" I told them first of all, "We´re the only ones knowing where they are, and I want to keep it like that until the last very moment…that´s our biggest advantage at the moment."
They all nodded understandingly.
"We need to get everybody we have for this, everybody who could be helpful. Let´s do it for Nick!"
They all agreed with me loudly.
"We have a little over three hours. Let´s get going before it´s too late!"
Here you go: bad cliffhanger for Christmas. You´re welcome.
Have a good time though ;)
See you later
~furrwolf