Zootopia belongs to Disney. Spider-Man belongs to Sony. I own nothing.
I think I'm getting the hang of this now. I'm changing far less than I used to, I'm learning to plan more. And I can say that this is more fun than it's ever been, to the glory and praise of my God.
Thirty minutes ago...
"Serpiento!" came a deep shout from down the hall. The door to the lab slid open, revealing Nigel. The polar bear looked around the room, surveying everything around him. Danny's breath grew erratic as he approached him, examining the arms that restrained him closely. He relaxed after a moment.
"Mr. Whitfur! What is this about?" demanded Dr. Andrews.
"Intruder alert, basically. Sa-"
"That's impossible!" said the hyena, obviously flustered. "We're an underground organization, literally!"
"I'm trying to tell you it's-" The world was suddenly saturated with an ear-splitting noise. The noise of an alarm.
Danny yelped and immediately covered his ears. At the same time, something slammed hard into his nose. He felt strange for a moment, his current sensations not matching his perceived position. He was still in that thing. Right? He felt awkward, with his knees perched higher than his head. Opening his eyes, he saw that his face was pressed against the floor. Slowly, he let go of his ears, getting used to the noise, and planted his palms against the floor to push himself upward. He looked up to see all eyes were set on him. Every animal, lab coat or otherwise, stood still, with shocked looks on their faces. He turned to look at the restraints. They had opened up at the same time as the alarm. He was free.
The mammals staring at Danny looked toward the door, which now stood wide open, then back to him, then back to the door. Nigel jumped over to the door and pressed a button. Nothing happened. He tried again, but the door still didn't move. "Close, you STUPID DOOR!" he shouted in desperation. Turning toward the kitten, who had let his knees fall to the floor, sat completely still, unblinking. Nigel pulled out a gun and aimed it at the kitten. "Don't move!" he commanded.
"Agh!" Nigel suddenly screamed as his body was slammed into the wall. The lion pressed his face to the wall and grasped the arm which held the gun. He smashed it against the wall, causing Nigel to drop it and scream from the force of the impact. He tried to force him off with his uninjured hand, but the lion didn't budge. John grabbed the bear by the wrist before grasping his shirt above the stomach. He then hurled the bear across the room. He crashed into a cabinet, shattering the wood and sending it spilling onto the floor. Some of the techs screamed over the alarm at the spectacle. Even John stood still, amazement alighting in his eyes. Danny stared at him, equally amazed.
John's mouth moved, but he was speaking too quietly to be heard over the blaring alarm. Danny didn't move.
"UBIRAYSYA OTSYUDA!" he bellowed. (GET OUT OF HERE!)
At that, Danny sprinted from the room, leaving John and the lab behind.
He didn't remember most of the way to the top. It was such a blur that he could say that he was there, now he was suddenly here - on a sidewalk. But he was still running. He knew because he could see it. As if he were watching himself run. His face was nearly emotionless, strained in focus. Dark circles lined the bottoms of his wide, bloodshot eyes. Despite this, he could feel something heavy weighing him down. Yet his speed was not hampered. The weight settled in his chest. It was searing hot and oppressive, compressed his windpipe and made it hard to breathe.
How long had he run? Was he going to stop? Or just keep running around the world forever?
In the midst of the cacophony of fragmented thoughts that plagued his mind, one thought came through that was so vivid, so clear, so resolute that it might as well have been whispered directly into his ears.
I'm being followed.
The next feeling was of his body slamming into the hard concrete. He was back in his mind, grunting from his tumbling deceleration that culminated in him just skidding along the concrete. Once he skidded to a stop (on his face), he looked up and to the side, following the strange feeling he was having. It was almost like he could see them - feel their eyes on him. But it was a familiar feeling even if he couldn't place a name.
He found his suspicions to be true when his eyes landed on two familiar bunnies staring at him from within a large police car, just under a dozen meters ahead of him. Slowly, he stood up, glancing at pedestrians and drivers on the street who were staring at him. Some were pulling out their phones and holding them up toward him with a look of shock or a smile of amusement. He could feel them closing on him, ready to bring him back - to that place. Breathing shakily, he locked eyes with one of the bunnies for a moment - Judy. That familiar feeling resurfaced. He remembered how she'd tried to comfort him not long ago. How gentle she'd been. But that memory was shunted by something else, something that drove him to turn and run somewhere - anywhere!
His ears flattened against his head as he turned. Leaping as high as he could, he latched onto the side of the skyscraper closest to him, impacting the glass with a hollow thud. Mammals inside jumped at the sound and turned toward the source. And they backed away in alarm at the sight of the boy suspended by his fingertips on the other side of the glass.
Danny began climbing with all the speed he could muster. He threw himself upward in leaps, grasping the wall and then leaping again.
He ignored the confused chattering from below that faded further into oblivion the higher he went. He just kept his eyes straight up toward the sky as he ascended, not caring who saw him or otherwise. Despite his altitude, he still felt them right behind him, ready to drag him wherever they wanted. The thought of that dark, dusty room, the thought of that evil monster closing in on him pushed him to climb even faster. He moved to the side to pass a kind of scaffolding. He threw himself over the top and launched a web onto the roof to pull himself down as quickly as possible and to scramble to the edge, with his back against the concrete guard wall of the roof. He didn't move a muscle from that point. He sat still. He didn't breathe. He didn't think. The only movement was his now torn and tattered backwards shirt stirring lightly in the breeze. Looking down at it, he saw that a large hole had been torn in the front of it. And the thin fabric was almost black with moist dirt.
It was much quieter up here. Despite the faint sounds from down below, he was totally alone on this roof. No animals to bother him. No monsters to get him. No... anyone to hurt him... he closed his eyes and forced back tears with a few deep breaths... like that bunny told him. He tried to calm down, but that seemed to be an impossible endeavor. His nerves were still vibrating. And he was aware of every gritty detail of his current situation and location.
He shivered from the cold. His muscles felt weak from having not had anything to eat since yesterday afternoon. The concrete under his butt was frigid and uncomfortable, covered with pebbles and rocks. But he still didn't move. Finally, the weight in his chest grew even more intense, more crushing, more suffocating, causing him to collapse under its unforgiving weight.
He wanted to go home. He wanted to go home so much. But he couldn't. Not now. He wanted Sarah. Yet he hated her at the same time. He was terrified. He was angry. He was sad. He was confused. He was... nauseous. He threw himself forward onto his hands and knees to heave noisily, but nothing spilled from his mouth. He spit out the small amount of bile that surfaced and heaved again, coughing loudly as his stomach muscles contracted unpleasantly and fruitlessly.
Once the heaving stopped an eternity later, he stayed where he was, leaning on his hands as if he were wondering what to do next. Then, he spontaneously slammed his fists on the pavement of the roof with a grunt. A loud crack echoed around the roof. He was still for who knew how long. He finally came to his senses and discovered that he had broken the surface concrete under his fists. He slowly lifted his shaking hands and looked at them. Sheer terror filled him, as if he were staring at a painting in a museum, depicting something unnatural. Alien.
Freakish.
The feeling was too familiar for words, like a door he knew held a great secret, one that he had no key to open. This was the moment when Sarah would wrap him in her arms and tell him that... it was ok to be like this. But now she was gone. And he didn't even know if anything she said to him was true.
After several moments of staring at the craters, he opened his mouth in a roar, bursting with fiery rage: "WHAT AM I?!"
A few minutes later, he slumped back onto the ground, his head bowed toward his lap.
In the two seconds she had before she had to choose, she opted for the stairs. There was no promise that she, or the ZPD for that matter, would be able to bring him in today, so she had to go with what she had. She ascended the stair three at a time, hopping from side to side as fast as she could. She found herself getting winded around the thirty-fifth floor, but she kept going. It felt endless, though, and it gradually got harder and harder. Finally, she reached the top floor. Breathing heavily, she resisted the urge to vomit from such extended physical strain. She hadn't had a workout like that since her academy days.
She spared herself a few seconds to recover. Kicking open the door to the roof, she looked around for the kitten. It didn't take very long, for sitting there at the edge was the boy, the very same gown from last night covering him. Though now it looked like it needed to be replaced to say the least. She stood for a moment to see what he would do, but he didn't seem to have noticed her as of yet - his face was down toward his lap in a deflated position. Her ears dropped at the sight.
The only sound was that of a light breeze passing over, a chilly but fresh draft that tickled the inside of her ears. No sound came from him. He just sat there still, the gown barely stirring in the wind. She wondered if he had fallen asleep. She walked toward him slowly with light steps.
Don't alert him. This may be your only chance to... to do what?
The boy looked up and saw the bunny approaching. His face suddenly morphed from blank to full-on alert, ready to run at any moment. She lifted her hands in a conciliatory gesture. "It's ok," she said quietly. The breeze picked up and tussled Judy's ears slightly. She placed her hand against her chest. "Remember me? Officer Judy?" she asked with a smile.
He didn't answer.
"Are you hurt?" She came a little closer. He didn't say anything but only stared at her with those tired but fearful eyes. "Listen, can I ask you to let me help you? Get you something to eat and see if we can't sort out whatever's going on?... Hm?" She came within a few feet of him, slowly coming closer. He retreated slightly. "It's ok, Honey," she cooed, holding her hand out invitingly. "It's ok." Her foot stepped on something sharp. She ignored the pain in her foot but took a short glance down at the two small craters just in front of the boy. She stepped over them and reached out toward him, inviting him to take her hand.
The kitten's eyes lingered on her hand for a moment and then looked back into the bunny's kind, purple eyes. He relaxed a little. She knelt down in front of him and was about to take his hand.
BAM!
There was the sound of the door she'd come through slamming open. Judy's head began to turn but she wasn't able to see who it was. She saw out of the corner of her eye a sudden movement from the kitten. Suddenly, something crashed hard into her armored vest. A sharp wave of pain spread throughout her chest as she found herself flying through the air, flipping uncontrollably. She flailed her arms and screamed in terror as she registered that she was about to fly over the edge and plummet sixty stories. She saw in brief moments that Ellie and Wolfard had burst through the door. As she flew over the edge of the elevated guard wall she barely managed to strafe the surface and catch herself onto the top of the guard wall, but she was unable to keep from sliding over the edge and off the side.
"JUDYYYY!" she heard Ellie's voice shriek. Judy gasped as she saw the top of the building plaining away. Her only thought through the numb haze was, I'm sorry, Nick...
He had to find Danny, but it was hard just to think over this stupid alarm! The kitten had run so fast that he couldn't keep up. He ran as fast as he could, trying to convince himself to not listen to the temptation to worry about Claire; he'd get to her later. Boss wouldn't know about this for a while. But he had to get out of here. Making sure no one had seen him, he opened the door to his office. He staved off the bout of sadness that threatened to distract him. The thought that he wouldn't be coming back here...
He shook his head. This business was a lie to begin with; it was time to put it all behind him. He knew he should never have joined this organization in the first place.
And it only took you a decade and a half to realize that, a voice in his head chirped sarcastically. His ears flicked in frustration. Didn't matter. After gathering his gun, keys, ID, and black suit into his suitcase, he closed it up and left for the exit.
He came to the longest hallway in the building, branching off into the barracks for the factory personnel. At the end of the hallway was a door that had been broken inward, a familiar sight. He stopped as he realized he could see inside the room perfectly from over fifty feet away. He snorted with a slight smile. There was a sudden urge to test his new limits, see what he could do. But then he noticed a familiar figure was lying on the floor. And it looked a lot like...
"...Sarah!"
He sprinted toward the room. As he got closer, he could see that she was lying on her side, her eyes closed. And a caracal lay beside her. He recognized him as Cary, one of his former workers who had transferred to IT in Angle. The moment he entered the room, the alarm shut off. He looked around for a moment as he adjusted to the silence, and then looked down to scan over her. A simple glance at Cary was enough to tell him that his injury had long-since been fatal - his neck was burnt to a crisp. There wasn't any blood he could see on either of them. Their clothes weren't stained. Sarah didn't seem to have any burn marks.
"Sarah!" he shook her. "Wake up!" She didn't stir at all. The longer he waited, the more anxiety gripped him. He exhaled as denial weaved its way through his neurons. "Sarah, wake up!" he commanded. "We have to go find Danny!" Still, she didn't move a muscle. His eyes moved over her form erratically, trying to wonder what to do. His rear fell onto his back foot as his hope began to strain to hold on. He stared at her with his mouth hanging open. The moment he asked himself what she had been doing here, it hit him. He'd had no idea until this very moment, when he looked up to see the control room's computer screen was fragmented, with the word "Error" in bold, red block letters across it.
She'd done this. She'd set him free. John closed his eyes and covered his mouth. He was speechless. But any gratitude he was feeling faded just as quickly as it came. She was right: she had been the one to raise him. She had done what he couldn't. She was willing to give everything for him. She really did love him, with all her heart. The thought filled him with necrotizing shame.
Even worse was the thought that Danny had lost the only one who had ever really been there.
With a shaking hand, he reached out toward her neck. He couldn't breathe. Don't... he mouthed. Don't be. He pressed his index and ring finger into her carotid...
...there was a heartbeat.
He exhaled sharply, his eyes beginning to water. She was alive! Unconscious... but alive! Slowly, he began to slide one hand under her upper back and the other under her knees, using the edge of his mane to help support her head as he stood up. She felt so light now. Like... nothing. He craned his head to look at her face. He'd never really thought about how young she was. So many years after he had convinced Boss to bail her out of prison... she was still just a kid.
"Serpiento!" John didn't turn at the voice, but his features hardened. "You're coming with me."
Turning carefully to make sure he didn't bump his partner into anything, he faced the polar bear. "No. I have to get Sarah to a hospital. And then I'm going to find Danny."
"Andrews has other tests for you. Now get moving!" He waved his gun, putting a spiteful smile on his face. "Or should I call Boss and tell him I have a date with your baby girl?"
John thought of the gun in his waistband, hidden from sight. He considered reaching for it but knew that would be suicide. He had to play it cool for the moment. His features hardened further as he said through clenched teeth, "You're not touching her."
"I mean, if you do what I tell you to, I don't have to do anything to her, capisce, Serppy?"
"Well then... mind if I set her down and we can get going?"
"Slowly." He gestured the gun toward him.
John lowered himself down, gently placing the ocelot's body on the floor. He lay his hand on her shoulder for a moment. After taking a deep breath, he stepped forward past the threshold of the door to the control room. He found himself careening onto his stomach, a flaring pain in his jaw. He landed hard, sliding a foot or two. The floor shook as an enormous cloven hoof slammed down beside his body. The other landed on top of John's back, forcing the air from him. It was the feet of Hornitode, Nigel's rhinoceros subordinate.
"Hey there, Johnny," the rhino's deep base sang out. "Remember me?"
John didn't answer, but he glared at the polar bear, who walked around the side of the rhino and knelt down in John's face.
"Cuff 'im," he said without looking up from the lion. The rhino grabbed John's arms and forced them behind his back. John struggled but couldn't overpower the rhino. What was going on? Moments ago, he had just thrown Nigel across the room! What was happening?
The rhino restrained his wrists with metal cuffs, the same used by the police. It was an all too familiar feeling. "Ha! Check this out, man. The rhino lifted John's shirt and pulled the gun from his waistband. "Turns out he was gonna try to cheat at our little game."
"John," said Nigel almost in a pitying voice, "you and I have a job to do. Your job is to be the test subject. Our job is to find the kid. If we do our respective jobs, no one else has to get hurt."
Are you serious? thought John.
"So let's get cracking! Back to the lab!" There was a moment of silence. "And Rob, he said 'hospital.' I don't think you did her. Go on, get that taken care of and we'll get moving."
John struggled against the cuffs. But they held firm. The rhino lumbered toward the ocelot lying on the floor.
The polar bear chuckled at the lion's futile efforts. "You may be a bit stronger than usual. But you ain't Danny-boy."
John stopped fighting when an idea came to mind. He didn't have to be. Remembering the claw that had been missed by the butcher, he extended it, patiently working it into the keyhole. His eyes stayed on the rhino, who was lifting his arm to break the cat's body beyond repair. It would only take one hit.
Hornitode brought his fist down with a roar - Sarah's life was about to be destroyed forever. His fist stopped midair, grasped firmly in the lion's hands. He heard Nigel shout behind the rhino to put him down. Whether he meant to finish him or finish him, he didn't dare wait to find out. The rhino faltered slightly at the lion's boldness, and his strength - much greater than he'd thought it would be. John lifted his foot and smashed it into the rhino's belly with all his might. The blow made the rhino stumble with a groan. But he stepped forward and threw a punch, which the lion evaded and used to his advantage. He grasped him by the wrist, planted his other hand under his armpit, and threw him over his shoulder onto his stomach with a roar. John groaned after pulling the finishing move, the effort causing him great strain.
John heard the sound of a gunshot and was shoved backward by the force of the bullet tearing into his shoulder. He roared in searing pain, gripping his shoulder and looking toward the polar bear, who was pulling the hammer back once again. A look of urgency was on his face. Nigel had forgotten he was supposed to bring him back alive! He fired again, but John barely evaded. He leapt toward the polar bear, knocking him to the floor with his own body. He then leaned down and picked up the bear with his good arm, suspending him by his shirt and jacket. The polar bear lost the gun for the second time. It was deja-vu for both of them.
John brought the wide-eyed Nigel close to his face. "Try it again, you're dead!" he growled under his breath before reeling back and throwing the bear down the hall several dozen feet.
He sighed in relief and then rolled his shoulder, checking it. Just a flesh wound, less than an inch above the subclavian. Had the bullet nicked that artery, he'd already be dead.
Picking Sarah up once more, he ran for the surface, not seeing another soul until he reached it.
Mom... Dad... hold on, I'm coming, she thought at the sound of her phone's ringtone. She hadn't called them all week, she'd been so preoccupied with work and life. When was her alarm going to go off? She didn't miss work, did she? For some reason her bed felt very uncomfortable. And her head pounded something awful.
Her ears rang. And something was trying to make it past the annoying sound.
"...Hopps! Hopps, can you hear me? Judy!"
The bunny's eyes peeled open and closed again, blinded by the sunlight. She reached for her alarm clock but all she felt was... it felt like a metal grate.
"Oh, good! You're ok; I thought you were gone for sure."
Ellie's voice stung Judy's pulsing head. She could feel blood pooling into an enormous bruise on the back of her cranium. Lifting her head up, she felt the sore patch of skin and winced at the touch. She was glad it wasn't worse, though. If she had to choose, she'd take a bruise outside the skull any day over a bruise inside the skull.
"Wh-what happened?" she asked, still struggling to open her eyes. From what she could discern, she was on an elevator of some kind on the outside, going down. She blocked her eyes from the sun and turned her head to the side to see. And she almost regretted it. She yelped at how high she currently was and wondered how exactly she had ended up here. Taking a break, she hitched at the sharp pain in her chest. She took shallow breaths.
Ellie snorted at her. Judy looked around the small elevator, which was much longer than it was wide. A beaver stood at the corner, operating it for them and leaning on the lower rail casually. It was a construction scaffold. She shook her head. Of all the places that she could have fallen from, she fell directly above this. It made her think that maybe someone really was watching out for her up there.
She rubbed her temple as she struggled to remember - she'd been trying to get a child to come with her, and she somehow fell off the side. Danny! That little kitten! Did he do that? For a brief moment, she felt urgent anger toward the kitten, but then remembered... he had been startled. She couldn't blame him for that. The boy's face became clear in her mind, the look of terror and loneliness. She felt a swell of desire in her chest to find him and help him. "Where are we?" she asked Ellie. "Where's the panther?"
"Gone," said Ellie. "Left right after you fell. Went fast, too; I didn't even see him go."
Sighing, she grasped the railing of the scaffold elevator and lifted herself up.
"You all right?" asked Ellie.
"I think so. I think I hit my head pretty hard, though. And I might have a broken rib."
"You wanna go to the hospital?"
"No," she said quickly. "I just want to finish with this search area."
"You don't... wanna go after the kid?" she asked.
Judy let her mind wander for a moment, thinking of an answer. She had gone far enough; she'd almost died. The thought of what that would do to Nick... "We have a lead, and we should take it; Danny Rigel isn't a primary part of that lead as of yet."
She shrugged. "Ok. But just so you know, I already called it in with a 10-38, so we're good. And Wolfard's waiting on the ground to keep a lookout."
Judy nodded. "Thank you." They were silent for a few moments, but then Judy's phone rang again. Taking it out to look at it, she was unsurprised to see that it was her parents. Of course, they would call her at such a bad time.
Ellie chuckled when Judy silenced it and put it in her back pocket. "Don't wanna talk to them right now?"
"Not the best time, you know?..." She was quiet as they approached the ground, about twenty feet away at this point. "Ellie, I'm sorry about earlier. I shouldn't..."
"I get it, Hopps," she said. "I came from a rough city where bunnies had to be rough to make it. Yeah, drugs were rampant, and I was familiar with it, but I didn't want that life for myself so I came here. That's all I'm gonna say about it." She smiled as she finished. Judy smiled back, glad that Ellie understood she hadn't meant any harm.
I can't wait to explore more of Sarah's relationship with Danny and why she loves him so much. Believe me - there is a specific reason.
Other questions I want to explore are, Where did Danny come from? Who did Danny come from? What is the more malicious predator population of Zootopia willing to do to get to Arya? Who shot Sarah and her friends?
