Sorry for the long wait, hope it was worth it ;)

Zootopia – Springtime Circumstances

Chapter 63 – Castle of Glass

POV Nick

"Looks like you weren´t lying, Nicky" Finnick told me when he arrived back at my prison with that clan-boss on his side, "Your mom really doesn´t live there anymore…"

"Since quite a while already" I sighed with a tired little grin, "But since I knew you wouldn´t believe me…anyway, thanks for the effort…"

"Love you too, asshole" he growled.

Finnick was my only hope right now. I wasn´t quite sure how many games he was playing at this point, but he seemed to have them all in order right now. He has been friendly chit-chatting with the guy controlling the live-stream and all the other electronics already, and I´m pretty sure he had already figured out how he could free me once he would get the chance to. But as a little fennec fox he was no match for any of these guys. We needed some sort of distraction to get into action. Something they couldn´t ever be expecting.

"Guess I have underestimated you a little, officer Wilde" the polar-bear confessed, still rather calm and professionally, "…but I think a lot of people have done this already…"

I just stared at him with a dead expression, not saying a single word.

"Anyway…doesn´t matter" he continued, "Nobody has an idea where we are, ninety-thousand people are watching the live-stream already and the pressure is already building up on the ZPD…"

"Listen" I sighed, "Why are you boring me with this stuff? You´ll get what you want eventually…but the last thing you´re ever getting is my respect with this whole bitch-move. Stop acting the clever nice-guy, you´re neither clever, nor nice to anyone."

That line seemed to have hit him harder than he wanted to admit at first. And almost a hundred-thousand people heard it.

"…and about you" I told Finnick then, keeping up our faked rivalry, "…you´re nothing more than a shifty little low-life that seemed to have lost every last bit of self-esteem, loyalty and pride. I never was thinking the highest of you, but you still somehow managed to surprise me with how much of a back-stabbing little whore you really are…"

That seemed to sound authentic.

"Awww Nicky" he laughed, "You almost made me tear up with your nice words! I thought you knew me a little better to be honest…"

He really seemed to be enjoying this right now, and I couldn´t deny that I´ve been missing that for myself a little. Back in our day, there was nobody we couldn´t fool.

"Boss" somebody interrupted our conversation suddenly, "There is something happening at the main entrance!" he said, "You might want to take a look at this!"

POV Skye

Just yesterday evening I had seen him perform live in front of a whole stadium, now he was standing in front of that regular looking company-estate entrance-gate on this regular, quite busy street in Tajunga, only with a regular black hoodie and an acoustic guitar I his paws. He had his hoodie closed all the way over his ears, so he wouldn´t be noticed right away, and if I hadn´t known about it, I really wouldn't have guessed it was him.

My riffle was fully loaded and unlocked and I already knew all the positions of the snipers hiding in the big tree about 500 feet from where I had positioned myself. This distance was one I really was good at and my hideout behind the leaves of the big tree I was in almost made it impossible for them to see me. At least this worked in our favour, because since we couldn´t find another sniper in this short amount of time, our plan had to work even better than we hoped for.

The others waited in the big lorry that could be transformed into a mobile stage in just a few moments, prepared with every bit of armoury we could think of. Now this was all his moment.

"Okay, Rico" Judy told him over the inter-com, "We´re all set. Let do this!"

He nodded shortly, then he put the fedora-hat he had with him on the floor, just like a regular street-musician would, quickly checked the strings of his guitar for their tune, began tapping his feet on the floor and pulling the first few strings of the song he was about to play.

He stood right in front of the gate which the guards watched very closely, but none of them stopped him right now. They seemed rather fascinated even.

The people walking by on the busy sidewalk showed interest just as quickly as he told us they would. But that wasn´t to unrealistic really, considering what sort of sound he was able to produce just with that guitar. I´ve rarely seen anybody who could even get close to that. It even distracted me a little.

In just a couple of minutes, a little crowd had gathered in front of him, people began throwing dollar-bills into his fedora and clapping to the rhythm.

"It works" I let them know, "The snipers are focussed on him right now. Must have been the first interesting thing they´ve seen in a while… "

"Ready to take them out one by one?" Jack asked.

"Yes" I affirmed, "I´m ready. Waiting for your sign."

POV Finnick

Of course, I followed the stupid polar bear when one of his crooks told him about something happening at the main gate of the property. I needed to get every single bit of information I could get. They still were extremely suspicious about everything that happened. I really had to be careful with what I was doing. The timing of trying to free him had to be exactly right.

"Boss, look" he told him, when we arrived at one of the windows, "There is a street musician right in front of the gate, and he´s drawing quite a lot of attention.

"And?"

"I don´t know…I just thought this might could cause some irritation we don't need? They´re all blocking the main gate, and…"

"The guards should tell him to get lost then!" he ordered, "Can´t be too hard."

"Well…they asked me about that as well, but the thing is, and this might interest you: He´s a grey fox with a guitar…"

"And? …tell him to fuck off, what does that matter?"

"You know who´s notoriously good friends with a grey fox who´s a musician?" I asked rhetorically, because he didn't seem to get it right away, "A suddenly very famous musician…"

"Right…" he said, thinking about it shortly, then he asked into his radio: "That fox at the gate, is he good at what he does?"

"Never seen somebody playing a guitar that well, Boss" one of the front guard posts spoke into his radio. "The people on the street are really loving it…"

The sound of the guitar came through his radio every time he pushed the switch, and he sounded like he was rather enthusiastic than concerned about it.

"Get him you idiots!" the boss yelled then, "It´s freaking Rico Capaldi!"

"Wait, what?" one of them asked, "Really?"

"Yes goddammit!" he replied impatiently, "This is probably just some distra-"

Just in that moment, we witnessed a big black truck arriving right next to the gate.

"How the hell do they know where we are?" he asked in great anger all over sudden.

"Maybe they implanted some sort of GPS chip under his skin?" I made it up on the spot. I couldn´t think of anything better this quickly.

The truck now got opened on the side that faced towards the street and just in mere seconds it was transformed into a little stage with a PA system, lights from above and a whole band-setup with even more musicians ready to perform.

"Should we still get him?" one of the security-guards asked again, "There are quite a lot of people in front of the gate now…"

"For god´s sake" the polar bear sighed, "Can somebody please take him out already? Snipers, hello? What am I paying you for?"

"Can´t hit him like that, boss" one of them told him in slight confusion, "The gate´s too high, I don't have the right angle…" he explained, "…but the guys above me should be able to hit him…" he suggested, "…are you guys the-" Then the connection was cut off again.

Damn how much I loved this. That distraction was on a whole nother level of awesome. That was just what we needed. And now somebody started taking out the snipers already. I really just had to focus on staying in my role right now. The polar bear was slowly but surely losing his patience at this point.

"What was that?" The boss asked the sniper who just talked to us, but he didn´t get a response from anyone after that. Then he realized it, finally.

"This is an attack!" he yelled into his radio now, "Everybody get ready to defend the main building! Nobody is getting in and out of here!"

With that he went back towards the storage hall.

POV Anita

I was just going to check my emails, originally, but the news website that opened up first showed me something much more interesting. It said: "Cruel live stream shocks Zootopia! Officer Wilde taken hostage, threatened to get Night Howlers injected…"

I didn´t even read it any further before I clicked on the link to the live-stream. It was true: Nick was tied to his paws and to his feet in some sort of glass prison room and quite a lot of other hostages were sitting in that room as well, being tied up with ropes and bandages around their mouths. It was truly terrifying to look at, my pulse immediately began racing. Over 200.000 people were watching that stream already.

I watched it for a couple of moments, but since there wasn´t very much happening right now, I decided to open a second tab in my browser and search for more information. Pretty soon I found a YouTube video labelled: "The last day of his career", and watching it clarified everything.

Then something else came to my mind: "When they abducted Nick, why haven´t they abducted Rico as well?" They were in that hotel together last night. That´s where they must have abducted him.

Without further ado I went to google again and just typed in his Name. The newest thing that popped up was:

"Rico Capaldi surprise concert in Tajunga"

It was another live-stream, but this time a pretty blurry and shaky one. I guessed somebody was streaming it from their phone or something, but it clearly showed Rico and his band playing live on some sort of mobile stage.

"Just why would he do that right now? Shouldn't he help the ZPD to free Nick out of…"

Then I understood it: It was exactly what he was doing. He helped them by distracting the abductors.

I immediately changed back to the other tab which had the live-stream of the hostage taking running and just in time I noticed somebody coming towards the cage now.

"Listen closely" the big scary polar bear from the YouTube video growled into the camera under his breath, still holding that huge injector with the night-howler´s serum in his paws, "This is my last warning. Come any closer to this building and I´ll turn him into a monster."

I folded my paws in front of my mouth in shock, but I couldn´t take my eyes off the screen.

"And tell Mr. Capaldi to stage his performance somewhere else or we´ll put him right here into this cage just next to the other hostages!"

"You better run away and hide really well when all of this is over" Nick growled under his breath lowly. He still was completely immobilized because of the cuffs on his paws and on his feet, but he was so tense that every muscle in his body was flexed to its maximum as it looked like. He was truly infuriated.

"Boss!" another voice yelled from somewhere in the background suddenly, "Boss! A little group of officers is trying to get into the building! All the security outside is down!"

"Shut the security doors" he commanded right away, not thinking about it twice, still looking quite relaxed about it, "Nobody is getting into this room, no matter what it takes!"

"You ghastly piece of shit" Nick spat at him hatefully.

"Are there any last words you want to say while you still can?" the polar bear asked him in return while pointing directly at the camera of the life stream, "Now is the chance, half the city is listening…"

Nick considered it for a short moment.

"Yes…" he affirmed then, now a little calmer, "…there is something I want to say…"

He looked right at the camera as well now, at least as good as he was able to in his position, and then he made my world stop for a moment.

"Anita…" he began, and I immediately knew he could only be talking about me, "…there is no other vixen, or any other girl, he would rather spend the rest of his life with…"

I surely must not be the only one who wasn´t expecting exactly that right now, but not even his abductors seemed like they wanted to interrupt him.

"…I know times seem hard right now. Envy, greed and hate made it difficult for you, but no matter how many other women think or claim they would be better for him, all your friends know that isn´t and could never be true."

Now he left a little pause to let that think in.

"Rico loves you, you´re one of the very few things that really matter to him, and you know that. We all love you, and no matter what, we wouldn´t want to live without you!"

Then he just remained nodding contentedly. It seemed like that was everything he wanted to say right now.

It really made my heart jump a little right there. That gave me back such an unbelievable amount of positive energy that I almost thought this whole tragedy was at an end already. He just remained staring at the camera for a moment, then a tiny, hopeful little smirk wandered onto his face.

His abductor, still holding the big injector of night-howler´s serum in his paws, didn´t really know what to comment on that. He opened his mouth a couple of times, but then he closed it again.

"I just used that moment for the most important topic right now" Nick clarified while looking at him with a challenging, but also quite serious smirk, "…because Judy knows I love her, and I´ll tell her that face to face in a couple of minutes."

"I wouldn´t be too sure of that" the polar bear replied coldly, coming a little closer towards him with that injector-needle, "I´m not playing any stupid games here. The moment they try to get in here, you´ll become an out of control beast and those cuffs will snap open…This is the last warning for the ZPD" he then announced, "You get ten more minutes to fulfil our demands, or Nick Wilde will go down in history as one of the most-cruel murders who ever lived…"

I couldn´t watch that any longer while just sitting here and doing nothing to help them. Without thinking about it twice, I shut down my pc, grabbed my phone, my wallet and my keys and went on my way towards the nearest Subway-station.

While I waited for the train to arrive, I searched for the live-stream on my phone so I could follow what was happening. Just like the polar-bear mentioned a few minutes ago, I really wasn´t the only one watching it. I wasn´t even the only one waiting here watching it. Then I noticed that it even got featured on the big info-screens of the subway station.

POV Judy

Skye really was doing fantastic work with her sniper-rifle once again. As soon as the lorry started opening its side panel and revealing the stage, I, Jack, Charlie, Chief Bogo, Max and Daniel, who all looked seriously cool packed with all the guns they carried, opened fire on all the security guards behind the door who protected the building itself. Although they fired at us in return, our armour shrugged it all off with ease and we had a lot more bullets than them.

"That´s all of them" Skye informed us, as we reached the building finally. Climbing over the gate wasn´t easy as it turned out, but eventually even the Chief made it over and followed us.

"Stay in position" Jack told her confidently, "Don't let them get away if they try to run…"

While he said that, he threw some sticky explosives on each of the vehicles that stood in the driveway.

Max opened one of the heavy glass doors on the entrance and Charlie opened fire on the guards waiting inside for us. Then he immediately took cover again.

"There is a lot of them!" he informed us, "Like a lot a lot…"

"Judy!" Jack called me, showing me the flashbang he held in his paws, "You know how it works!"

I nodded confidently, then he threw it into the opened door already.

"Turn away!" I yelled loudly, and after it got very bright for a second, I followed Jack into the building.

He started shooting at the whole selection of armoured wolves and polar bears waiting in the lobby, and Charlie wasn't lying when he told us that there were a lot of them. Since he was shooting the ones of the right side, I started to our left and tried aiming at the weakest spots in their armoury. It almost was no use to use darts on them. Although it took them quite a while to recover from that flashbang, we hardly managed to get even five of the more than twenty guards unconscious.

"I´m out" Jack yelled, and now I noticed from the corner of my eye that some of our enemies had started shooting us by now. Just a second too late to warn him, Jack got hit by a couple of darts, and one of them seemed to have hit a spot in his armour that wasn't covering him.

I immediately rushed towards him before he collapsed, caught him in the middle of his fall and carried him out of the main entrance as quickly as possible.

"Jack´s been hit" I panted, as I laid him down besides the others where he was save for now.

Max closed the door behind me quickly and they all stared in shock at the unconscious buck laying on the floor.

"Get out there and take them down!" somebody yelled from inside, and I knew we had to do something fast.

"Jack will be fine!" I told them, "They´re coming for us, we need to do something…"

Daniel showed me the gas tank on his back, and that wasn´t such a bad idea really.

"Gas masks!" I told them, "Dan, get ready, Max will open the door for you!"

He nodded confidently, already having his mask over his face. Then he grabbed something behind his back and a second later had the nuzzle of the gas-tank in his paws.

POV Finnick

I didn´t expect so many guards to be here. The whole clan and everybody who works for them must be in this building right now, and it seemed like they had planned this hostage taking quite a while in advance already. They had heavy iron doors on every exit of the hall Nick was trapped in, and I had no clue how to open them. I believed I knew the right button to open Nick´s handcuffs in the meanwhile, because the fat nerdy wolf who took care of the live-stream and other technical stuff had marked it with red tape on his table, but I had no idea how to operate any of the doors or whatever else they had in here.

But nevertheless, the former quite superior looking Clan Boss was quite nervous all over sudden. He wasn´t leaving Nick´s Side anymore at all as it seemed. What I knew though: Nick really would owe me one if all of this was over.

"Any news from Tundratown?" the polar-bear asked the technics-guy.

"No, the ZPD hasn´t responded at all", the wolf informed him, "But there is quite a lot going on in the lobby…seems like our ´professional security´ is just made of cardboard…"

He nodded with a little sigh of disappointment.

"Doesn't matter" the polar bear stayed confident nevertheless, "They´ll regret this afterwards."

POV Skye

"Guys" I asked them over the radio headset, "What is going on in there?"

"I think we´ve found the room" Judy informed me, "But there are heavy iron doors on every entrance…"

"You can see those doors in the live-stream I believe…" I told her.

"What is going on in there?" she wanted to know.

"The big polar-bear from the YouTube video is right next to Nick in the glass prison. He could poison him every second. He asked for any responses of the ZPD so far, but there are none. He´s getting impatient slowly but surely…"

"Anything else that might be helpful?"

"There is a little fennec fox watching everything from outside of the glass prison…he seems a little odd among all the wolves and polar-bears…but nobody really minds…"
"That must be Finnick!" Judy guessed, "He´s a good guy, he's the one who told us about all this…I think it´s a good thing he´s in that room, he might know how to free Nick…"

"What are you doing right now?"

"Max is installing plastic explosives on one of the doors, we´ll blow it up when the time is right…"

"Sounds good to me" I agreed, "I think I´m gonna get off the roof now and join you in there. There is nothing going on outside except for Rico´s concert. It´s blocking the entire street with hundreds of people by the way…anyway, Jack is still laying outside unconsciously…"

"Alright" she agreed, "I have the live-stream on my phone as well, thanks for the info!"

"Stay sharp, see you in a minute!"

POV Finnick

It didn´t look like the polar bear´s patience wouldn´t last for very much longer. The door of the glass prison-room was still widely opened and the clan-leader himself stood right besides Nick with the big injector in his paws.

I was pretty sure I had to make my move pretty soon in order to be successful with what I had planned. On the screens the fat geeky wolf-guys surveyed very closely, we could see what the ZPD officers were doing outside the thick steel doors that locked us in right now, but the camera angle didn´t go far enough to see all of it, sadly. First it looked like they were just waiting, but then they suddenly took a little more distance to the one door they were waiting behind. It took me a second, but then I was pretty sure they were about to blow it up. This was my moment I decided right away.

"Hey Geek" I told him loud and harshly, so Nick would notice what I was doing as well, "Mustn´t that cable down there be plugged in if you want those handcuffs to open?" I asked him while pointing at something I made up under the table.

"What?" he asked in slight confusion, before rolling backwards with his chair a couple of feet so he could get his head under the desk.

That worked out just perfectly in every way. I had jumped onto the table already and waited until we had the polar-bear´s whole attention.

"Jesus Christ! Gary!" the Boss told the wolf in disbelief, "Check your freaking gear before we start operations like this!"

I was standing on the table in the meanwhile, right next to the button that would open Nicks Handcuffs and just waited for them to blow up the doors. I just needed that polar bear to be distracted for a moment so Nick could get some distance to that needle of the injector. The rest would be in his hands then anyway.

"Hey, Fennec!" somebody behind me suddenly yelled, "What are you doing there?"

It was one of the other wolves who was checking the doors, and now the computer-nerd got back up from under the table as well.

This was it. Now or never. Hoping that that would be distraction enough, I pressed the button for the handcuffs.

It was like a sudden burst of energy was set free when I pushed that button. Nick immediately shook the open cuffs off his ankles and stumbled a few feet backwards away from that needle.

"Who the hell!" the polar bear screamed in shock and panic. Then he looked at me again for a moment.

"Nick!" I yelled loudly, "Do something with it! The rest is your part now!"

Then I jumped off the table just in time and began running away from the security guard behind me.

"Get him!" the polar bear yelled furiously.

In the same moment, a loud bang interrupted everything and a big wave of pressure went through the room. The ZPD must have blown the door away, and since I knew that was about to happen at some point, it didn´t distract me as much as all the others around us. I was a little surprised that I was still conscious though, because they had already begun shooting me with their dart guns. Luckily, I was quite hard to hit as a little fennec.

But the polar bear with the injector still was coming closer and closer towards Nick with his injector. He really cornered him into the wall behind him.

"Gary! Close the door! I´m going to end this now!" he said.

Now we all stopped for a second and watched.

"I´m sorry…" the polar-bear told him loud but explicitly, "I didn´t want it to go down that way either, but since you left me no choice…"

The door had completely shut behind him and everybody around turned his attention just onto Nick now, who hadn´t really much space to work with anymore. He still was rather calm about it though.

"You already lost this" Nick told him, as the needle came closer and closer towards him, "Your whole backup outside is down already, the guys in here will be as well soon…"

"I know I lost this. I shouldn´t have trusted that little Fennec. You can´t trust any fox as it seems like…"

"Trust me when I say: you don't want this to happen" Nick told him plainly.

"I always respected you" he said, "Although you may have some different views of the world, but I always respected you for what you accomplished. But now you got to learn that everything you do does have consequences, and although I lost this quite badly, you´re not going home as a winner today either."

And with that he jabbed the needle into Nick´s torso. But before he could push the back end of the injector and the purple liquid into his blood, Nick made his move and smashed his fist into his arm so hard it pulled the needle right out of his skin. His opponent tried it again immediately, but Nick had already jumped upwards, did a backflip in mid-air, used the glass wall behind him to propel himself towards the polar bear with his feet and smashed them right into his face.

He landed on the floor with a big grunt of pain and Nick landed right next to him.

"Gotta say, you really have balls to lock yourself in the same room with me for that" Nick commented dryly.

From the corner of my eye I noticed that the ZPD officers had already begun shooting the wolves and polar bears from the security while they were distracted. I stopped running when I reached a safe distance, my chasers where distracted anyway.

But now the big white bear really was angry. He didn´t waste time talking anymore, he went straight into action. What he did now though, nobody could have possible expected. He took the injector he had in his paws and straight up jabbed the needle into his own skin.

"Oh shit! You idiot!" Nick yelled loudly as he noticed. The polar bear was already injecting every little bit of the liquid into his own body and there was no way of stopping him anymore.

"Fin! Release more of the chloroform! There are hostages in here!"
This was not an easy task either. My legs felt like rubber right now.

I watched in shock as the polar bear pulled the injector out of his arm and the first waves of rage hit him already.

Nick was already on it to free the first few hostages by biting through the strings that tied their paws and feet together, but he didn´t come very far until the polar bear was all focussed on him once again.

But then I finally was able to move again and immediately went back towards the table with the tech-stuff on it. We had to get that Polar bear unconscious before he could hurt anybody.

POV Anita

I nearly missed the stop at which I had to get out of the subway because I was so hooked. I was by far not the only one on the train watching that live-stream, and it really was nerve-wrecking to watch.

My heart did a little jump when Nick managed to remove the needle from his skin before the Polar bear could inject the serum into his blood, but then it turned out that the battle wasn´t even over yet. That big scary beast simply injected it into himself in that locked little room with all the hostages. I wasn´t quite sure if that wasn´t even worse. Now I really hoped that Nick could do something before that polar bear would turn into a savage monster. He managed to free two of the over ten hostages in the room, but then the polar-bear attacked him already. He dodged it last second and began running towards the other side of the room. Then he threw himself against the glass-wall that already had the crack in it at full speed. It seemed to be working, the crack in the glass was getting a little bigger, but it still wasn't enough to break through it. Then the polar bear suddenly grabbed one of the hostages Nick just had freed and threw her at him vigorously. It really was terrifying what an animal of this size could do to a much smaller one.

But Nick was ready for it. He caught the screaming and to death frightened badger-lady with his strong arms and put her down on the floor smoothly. Then he started running again. This time right at the totally drugged polar-bear. He jumped high into the air, turned right-way around his own axis and smashed his foot into his face after the second turn. The clan-boss crashed snout first against the other glass wall and nearly collapsed onto one of the other hostages. But it gave Nick a bit more time, which he really needed.

"Nick!" somebody from behind the camera yelled, probably the fennec fox that was to be seen earlier, "I found the gas but the tank is empty!"

Nick checked his surroundings quickly while already freeing the next hostage he could reach right now.

"Try to open the door! They have to get out of this room!"

He bit through the fabric of the strings that tied her paws together, then she let her feet for herself to save time and help the others.

The polar-bear had gotten back onto his feet in the meanwhile, and now he totally was out of control.

But just before he could attack the innocent hostages with a swing of his big arm and sharp claws, Nick jumped towards him and hit his face with the next punch of his fists. This time the bear didn´t miss him with his arms though, and Nick hit the ground as well quite painfully. He was just a little fox in the end, and to fight a night-howler´s-drugged polar-bear seemed like it brought even him to his limits. He got onto his feet again, eventually, but the clan-boss was not beaten down yet, sadly.

POV Nick

At first I thought I had it under control, but then I just got reminded of how dangerous those night-howlers really are. Finnick couldn´t help me right now either, because the wolf who controlled all the technical stuff still was at his table and supported his boss as if it was the only thing that mattered in his life.

I took a quick look around me again. I wanted to find out what the other guards where shooting at, and then I believed I had spotted Max and Judy, who were trying to fight their way in. I didn´t have a lot of time to stand and stare though.

Now the polar bear was totally out of control as it seemed, because his main focus wasn´t just on me anymore.

When he got up onto his feet again, he immediately went towards the hostages I couldn't free yet. I couldn´t lose any more time. Although my entire body really was aching in the meanwhile, I ran towards him once again, did a high jump and aimed my feet directly on the back of his head. I landed quite a substantial blow on his skull, but the recoil sent me a few feet back once again as well. At least he was distracted and weakened for another second.

"The crack in the wall" it then came into my mind, "I had to get the hostages out of this room, I couldn´t protect them forever…"

I ran towards the wall once again, ducking away under the swing of the polar bear, jumped upwards and used the opened handcuffs hanging from the ceiling as a swing to propel myself against the wall with the crack even harder this time.

It still wasn't enough, sadly. That damn wall wasn´t giving in.

I really was out of breath and out of ideas at this point, but then I noticed something that gave me back quite a lot of hope. Judy had managed to leave the guards behind her, using her incredible moving speed and quickly got around the room I was trapped in with the hostages.

The bear was back on my tail in the meanwhile.

"Nick!" Judy yelled, "how can I open the door?"

"Get to the table!" I panted while running up the wall and executing a backflip over the polar bears head, who now hit the glass with his paws quite badly and growled even louder than before.

She was on her way already, firing darts at the fat wolf who Finnick had trouble with, and knocked him out in just like that. Finnick immediately climbed onto the table and pressed the button to unlock the door.

The polar bear chased after another hostage in the meanwhile. Luckily, he was a lot clumsier than him. The sheep lady was trying to keep as much distance as possible the whole time, but now she was almost completely trapped in the corner she was hiding in.

I went for a full-blow attack once more, although I really was close to collapsing at this point, but I just couldn´t give in right now. I landed on his shoulders and kicked the back of his head hard with my feet once again. It did the trick and knocked him onto the floor once more, giving the sheep enough time to escape out of the corner. I took some distance to the polar-bear as well now, really praying for something to happen in the meanwhile.

Then Judy and Finnick finally pulled open the heavy iron door.

"Get out of here!" I yelled at everybody who had been trapped in this room with me. I tried to free more of the hostages as quickly as I could.

One after one I freed the other scared mammals that sat there, unable to move with their backs against the glass behind them. I encouraged them to help me with freeing the others, but most of them were too scared to do anything. Judy wanted to open fire on the polar bear with her tranquilizer gun in the meanwhile, but she couldn´t really aim at him because of all the fleeing hostages that tried to get through the iron door as quickly as possible. It was a real nightmare.

I had just two more to free at this point, but then the polar bear was back on his feet again already, and I noticed it just a second too late.

Judy had shot two darts at him, but that wasn´t enough to get him unconscious. And now it seemed like she ran out of ammunition. The next thing I noticed, before the swing of his giant paw hit my back, was that she threw her weapon against his head as hard as she could.

POV Finnick

It really was scary to watch. Nick landed on the floor pretty hard, coming to a halt on the cold floor, and his expression was just inflicted with pain. He had a three freshly bleeding scratches on his back, right next to the giant wound that already decorated it, and that out of control monster still was coming closer towards him, although the gun Judy threw at his face slowed him down quite a lot. His claws decorated with Nicks blood and an angry growl coming from his mouth that made me feel weak in the knees. I really was scared for my good old friend right now. This could have been the last hustle we did together.

At least he had managed to free all the hostages.

I was pretty sure the clan boss would go right up to Nick once again, but actually he began moving towards the door now with his blurred senses and chased after the hostages, still punching the air around him vigorously.

But just before he could get back out of the room, Judy just came out of nowhere once again, smashed her feet into his face, just like Nick had done it before countless times, and managed to throw him onto his back inside of the glass-prison once again.

"Fin!" she then yelled, "Close the door and lock it up! We can´t let him leave this room!"

Not even thinking about doubting or arguing with her, I did what she asked for and leaned myself against the heavy iron door with everything I got to give. As a little fennec fox I barely was able to move it on my own though, but luckily one of the hostages realized it quite soon and helped me.

Now Nick and Judy where locked in with that monster and nobody could help them.

Nick still was laying on the floor and tried to push himself back up again, but he still looked like he was in a lot of pain. I couldn´t believe he was still conscious after all that.

Judy on the other hand still looked like she was ready to fight.

"Hey!" a wolf in a police uniform panted when he joined me beside the door, "What´s going on in there?"

It seemed like the other ZPD officers had overpowered the security here by now. He was followed by a lion I believe I had seen before as well, a big buffalo and another red-fox carrying a big riffle.

I didn´t really have to explain what was going on, they all could watch it for themselves thanks to the glass walls of the room.

The former clan boss, who now pretty much was the last one of the clan who hasn´t been defeated, still growling loud and aggressively, seemed like he slowly but surely was getting weaker as well. He had a troubles just standing on his feet in the meanwhile. The tranquilizer darts seemed to show their effect by now. But they still weren´t out of danger in there, they were just a bunny and a fox in the end.

But Judy wasn´t scared of him. She now quickly ran a few steps towards him, it seemed like she wanted to attack him straight away, but then she suddenly turned around and charged for the door even quicker now. She jumped against it, repelled herself off of it, used the handcuffs hanging from the ceiling to cover the distance, flew towards him like an rocket and then really smashed her feet into the bears face. It made him stumble backwards even further, and since the recoil of that attack had sent her flying back quite a few feet as well, she had gained some time that really was important.

Nick had managed to get back up onto his feet in the meanwhile, and although he really looked beat and shaky at this point, it seemed like he wanted to join the fight once again.

Their opponent, now really dizzy and confused, came a few steps closer towards them once again and let his arms and sharp claws swing into every direction without any coordination. This seemed to be his last attempt to accomplish anything.

"Tornado?" Nick asked her low but directly, and she immediately nodded at that suggestion.

Then he grabbed her by her paws quickly, spun her around himself and catapulted her towards their opponent with all his might. She hit his head again pretty hardly, made him stumble backwards quite a few feet, used the momentum of the recoil to get towards the door once again, repelled herself off of it once more and when Nick caught her this time, he was running towards the bear as well and used both of their momentums to launch her towards his face once more. I´ve never seen anything like that. Not in any fight I have witnessed before, not even in a movie. This time, Judy was spinning around her own axis when she transferred all that energy into her opponent´s body and sent him flying right against the wall that already had the big crack in it. It shattered into thousands of little pieces and the unconscious polar-bear just remained in a big pile of glass motionlessly.

They really had done it. They had done it again.

Nick caught her from that last recoil that sent her flying back, and it seemed like he didn´t ever want to release her anymore.

The sound of glass hitting the floor became quieter quickly, Nick hugged her gently, hissed in pain when her paws touched the big bleeding scratches on his back, and then he just kissed her passionately. What a wholesome sight that was. Even I had to confess that I was a little touched by that.

POV Rico

"Yeah!" I yelled into the microphone loudly, and they all responded just in the same way.

Since we all were watching the live-stream in the meanwhile, me and my band on the stage, the audience on their own phones, a sudden wave of energy went through Tajunga and everything that was around it.

They had done it again. They fought that beast until the very end, and they won. Our distraction had worked, nobody got seriously hurt or worse, that whole clan was taken down and Nick had freed all the hostages wearing nothing but underwear. What a freaking legend.

Now I knew that my life would be alright in the end. We got through that, so I was pretty sure I would get through becoming a father as well.

POV Nick

I couldn´t ever be happier than I was right now. Although my back still was aching, I clearly was bleeding, I hadn´t eaten since last night and have been on the internet just in boxers once again, there was nothing better than holding Judy in my arms after all this.

There was nothing else I cared about right now. I didn´t think about interviews, neither about interrogations, the tons of paperwork all that has caused once again or anything else, the only thing that mattered right now was that we did it.

"I knew it was a bad idea to leave you alone yesterday" Judy chuckled lowly.

"Not doing that again" I agreed with a little smile, "Trust me."

"You´re lucky Rico made it out of that hotel without getting abducted as well" she explained, "He spent the night in the room of two other guests, because they were searching for him when he went back…"

"Are you serious? Really?"

"Yeah" she grinned, "And now he blocked the whole street outside with the ´little distraction´ we needed…"

"You guys are just amazing" I whispered, "This would have been the end of me…"

Just when this one tear of joy and relief ran down my face, I noticed that I was still kneeling in the middle of the glass prison I was locked in for this whole day.

"Come on, Nicky" she grinned, before she pointed at the now open iron door behind me, "Let´s get out of here."

I followed her gladly and met even more nice people outside the glass prison.

"Wilde!" the chief yelled, just as always, "You keep on causing me headaches!"

"Yeah" I chuckled, "But at least you were not the only one doing extra hours for me today…"

"Yeah, just letting you know, Nicky" Wolfheart grinned, "This cost us a whole free day! I´ll get that back from you!"

"Yeah, sure" I chuckled tiredly, "We´ll get that sorted out, don´t worry!"

"Yeah, Nick!" Daniel mentioned, "And you´ll do the paperwork for me I´ve just decided…"

"I´ll do it twice, just to get sure…" I agreed ironically.

"When we´re just on the subject…" Finnick joined the conversation, "I…"

"Thanks, Finn" I told him in all honesty, "I really owe you one as well…"

"Oh yes you do!" he grinned dryly, "…but it was fun though…I really missed all that a little…"

"Yeah, me too…" I agreed with a well-executed fist-bump, "…that was our best hustle yet…"

"I can´t even disagree with that" Judy grinned while shaking her head a little bit.

"Just let me know when you ever need anything…" I told my old friend with a rather serious smirk.

"You know…" the fennec just grinned, "…now you´re saying it…I haven´t had a good blowjob in quite a while…and there is a toilet over there…so…"

I should have guessed that something like that would be coming right now. But I couldn´t hide a big smile nevertheless.

"Damn I´ve missed you!" I told him, before I went on my way outside slowly but surely.

They all gladly followed me out of this dreadful place, there was no need to ask them twice.

On my way, I met most of the hostages I was locked in with, and they all got a high five as I went past them. I wasn´t really in the mood to talk to them right now, but at least I gave them a wink and a little smile. I was pretty sure there would be people here soon who would take care of the aftermath.

We went through the blown away door and I saw daylight for the first time today. In the big room we entered now, which looked like a lobby or an entrance hall to me, about twenty unconscious wolves and polar-bears lay on the floor, all of them heavily armoured and equipped with big dart-rifles.

"Damn" I chuckled, "They really were serious this time…"

"You don't say!" Daniel grinned, "Let´s capture the most-wanted cop in the country and hope they won´t bring anyone to free him!"

"Yeah, yeah smartass…" I chuckled, before I followed Judy out of the door and immediately noticed the huge crowd that had gathered on the street before the main gate.

"Wow" I chuckled, "That´s what I call a distraction!"

POV Rico

"The winner takes all

It´s the thrill of one more kill"

I sang, after telling my band what I wanted to do quickly, and the whole crowd immediately waved their arms to it. Then we all witnessed Nick and Judy walking out of the building side by side. Nick was still just in boxer shorts, but just like I knew him, he didn´t really care about that.

"The last one to fall

Will never sacrifice the will"

Now the bass kicked in as well.

"Don´t ever look back

On the wind closing in

The only attack

Where the wings on the wind

Oh the daydream begins"

Now that both of them were nearly here, the people quickly formed a path towards the stage for them. The atmosphere was just fantastic.

"And it´s sweet, sweet, sweet victory, yeah!

And it´s ours for the taking

It´s ours for the fight!"

Nick just smiled a little at the absolute riot of cheers that was going on around him.

"In the sweet, sweet, sweet victory, yeah

And the world is last to fall!"

The people went absolutely berserk around us now. Nick and Judy just smiled about it happily, but Nick noticeably wasn´t in the best form I`ve ever seen him right now. And still in underwear.

When we were done with the refrain for the first time, just when I thought this moment couldn´t get any better anymore, somebody else suddenly emerged from the crowd. The red vixen carefully pushed aside the people in the first row and I was so happy to see her I almost messed up the song we were playing. She immediately went towards Nick and Judy when she saw them and hugged them stormily.

While Nick still hugged her, he carefully lifted her up a little higher and carried her all the way to the edge of the mobile stage. When I realized what he was doing, I didn´t care about my part of the song anymore and left my band alone to it.

The whole city watched as Nick lifted the beautiful fire-red vixen onto the stage in a still very elegant and impressive fashion, and I just put the guitar onto my back so it wouldn´t be in my way.

She came towards me slowly but surely, I offered her to hold both of my paws in a smooth way, and she took them without any hesitation. Then she quickly pulled me towards her and kissed me on the mouth without further ado. That just topped everything. There is nothing I could ever have wanted more in my life. Sweet victory all the way.

What do you think? I´d be glad to know if you liked it ;)