A Son of his own Chapter 6: Chased
Rainforest District, Bridge at Vine and Tujunga, 3:00AM
The trio soon arrived at the bridge in the dark and rainy Rainforest District that led to Mr Manchas's home, Judy, Nathan and Nick got out and stretched their legs, they began making their way across the bridge, water from the sprinkler system poured onto everyone below from the canopy of the forest as the trio made their way across the suspension bridge. The air was warm and damp and the smell was filled with many exotic flowers and other plants. Nathan slowly looked over the edge and gulped when he saw how high they were, he held against his father's left leg and looked ahead. When they got there, Judy was the first to reach the door while the two foxes stayed back to shake the water out of their fur. Judy rang the doorbell covered in vines and called Manchas's name.
"Mr Manchas? Judy Hopps ZPD, we jsut wnat to know what happened to Emmitt Otterton" Judy said.
The door slowly opened with a chain that prevented it from going further and a black jaguar wearing black pants and a white tank top slowly peeked out.
"You should be asking, what happened to me!" Manchas said as he showed them his right eye which was closed and covered in claw marks.
"Whoa, a teensy Otter did that?" Nick said with surprise.
Nathan just stared at the claw marks, the type he would've gotten from his angry and ravenous dad.
"What happened?" Judy asked.
"He... was an animal!" Manchas explained from behind the door "Down on all fours... he was a savage!"
He explained how the limo was ripped up on the back with the seats covered in deep claw marks and how eventually he was attacked by Otterton and swerved the limo off the road before finally stopping it and howe jumped out as quickly as he could but receiving the bad scar.
The last he saw of the otter was the little creature snarling at him before jumping off the limo and disappearing into the night.
"There was no warning, he just kept yelling about the Nighthowlers, over and over the Nighthowlers!" Manchas said.
Nathan had heard that word before, but he couldn't remember what it was.
"Oh, so you know about the Nighthowlers too? Good good good because the Nighthowlers are what we are here to talk about" Nick said.
"So just open the door and tell us what you know, and we'll tell you what we know, okay?" Judy said.
"Please sir, the lives of many innocent mammals are at stake" Nathan said.
Manchas couldn't say no to a young child and said "Okay" before closing the door and removing the chain.
"Clever fox" Judy said.
Nick smiled and looked down at his son who was leaning against him.
"Hey, you okay?" Nick asked as he rubbed Nathan's head.
"Yeah, just a little fatigued is all" Nathan lied.
Just as the trio were about to walk in, they heard a glass breaking, a pound off the floor and a scream of pain.
"Mr Manchas?" Judy said as she slowly opened the door to see Manchas pounding the wooden floor.
Nathan felt his stomach churn, he remembered now, he was going savage.
"He's gone! He's going to chase us!" Nathan yelled trying to pull Nick away.
Manchas looked at the trio with a very angry look on his face, he had his eye back now.
He was paying his attention to Nathan, an easy target.
"Run, run!" Judy yelled as the trio ran away back to the bridge.
"What's wrong with him?!" Nick shouted.
"I don't know!" Judy shouted back.
They ran across the bridge as fast as their legs could take them as Manchas jumped onto the bridge, Nathan felt odd as he felt himself fly into the air for a moment before landing back down.
Nathan felt his heartbeat rising as he heard the black panther stomping across the bridge.
Manchas was catching up, they had to jump off.
"Jump!" Judy yelled as the trio jumped off.
Nathan felt the wind knocked out of him as he hit the big hard branch at the bottom, but he couldn't rest yet as Manchas jumped off after them, his eyes set on Nathan.
They then rushed into a log where Judy yelled "Heads down!" as Manchas started slamming his paws into the log to get the crawlers.
As Nathan crawled, one of the paws smashing through grabbed him.
"Ah! Dad!" Nathan shouted as he tried to pry Manchas's hard grip but it was useless.
"Nathan! Let my son go!" Nick yelled as he punched Manchas's fist to make him let go and it did.
Nathan couldn't see properly as he was impaled by one of Manchas's sharp claws when he had a grip on him, he started bleeding around the top of his head.
Nick noticed this and scooped Nathan into his arms and started applying pressure to the head wound.
"Nathan! Can you hear me?!" Nick shouted.
Nathan thought he was underwater as Nick's voice sounded muffled.
"Why are you twirling? And why do I sound funny?" Nathan said as he noticed his voice sounded deeper than usual.
He was hallucinating and his ears were ringing.
Judy had called for help from her walkie-talkie as she crawled through the log but lost it as she nearly slipped off a branch and dropped it.
They rushed through work bushes before coming across a sky tram platform.
"There! Head for the sky tram!" Judy yelled as the trio ran into the clearing.
Nick started slipping and Nathan fell from his grip, luckily Nathan slided to the rocks that were at the start of the platform, bad thing is that Manchas had his eyes set on him.
"Get away from him!" Nick yelled but Manchas roared and swiped his paws at Nick which made him back up.
Nick watched in horror as Manchas slowly approached Nathan.
Nathan looked up and saw a very scary face in front of him.
Green eyes staring straight into his soul, sharp fangs baring as saliva foamed from his mouth, Nathan shut his eyes and waited for the inevitable.
But Nick grabbed a wooden plank and smashed it across Manchas's head.
The wood broke into little bits, some splinters getting stuck on Manchas's head.
Manchas now looked at Nick, very angry and jumped at him.
But Judy cuffed Manchas's leg before he could strike Nick with a bite.
Nick looked at Manchas who was now lying on his belly with his right leg cuffed to a light pole.
Judy was standing by the pole, pointing Nick to get Nathan.
He did just that and as he did, Manchas got up and tried to swipe Nick.
Nick instinctively jumped and ran into Judy, knocking her off the platform and himself along with Nathan.
Judy grabbed onto a thick and started holding onto it with Nick holding onto her paw tightly as he did with Nathan.
"Whatever you do, don't let go!" Nick shouted as Judy swung to the other side of the canopy.
"I'm going to let go!" Judy shouted.
"What?!" Nick and Nathan shouted as Judy started counting down.
She then let go and trio screamed as they fell towards a net of vines.
They hit the vines and get tangled in them, they look up and saw that Manchas was furious that his prey escaped.
"Carrots, you saved me and Nathan's lives!" Nick thanked.
"Well, that's what we do at the ZPD ah!" Judy said before the vines snapped and the trio started falling.
They hit multiple big leaves and other vines before falling through the canopy and about to hit the road below.
But some vines managed to tangle them together, preventing them from hitting the road.
Nathan slowly untangled and fell to the road but landed on his bottom.
Nick slowly laughed as Police cars pulled up in front of them.
Chief Bogo got out and showed a look of anger as he stared down the trio.
"Well this should be good" Chief Bogo said as he folded his arms and grunted.