-Notes from the author-
Apologies but this is going to be the last chapter for a while, since this is chapter '8' in a fic I just started, and I promised to work on the others. I want to write at least 1 new chapter for each fic before moving on to the next. So for now, enjoy this VERY LONG chapter… hope it tides you over until I write a chapter for the other 3 fics I'm writing for, Arceus book, Pack of Destiny and Life, and Second XCOM Viper!
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'Everybody's got their problems, everybody says the same thing to you'
'It's just a matter of how you solve them, and knowing how to change the things you've been through'
'I feel I've come to realize; how fast life can be compromised'
'Step back to see what's going on, I can't believe it's happened to you'
Chapter 8) MUTT
(Judy and Nick's PoV)
"Alright settle down now, settle down, I've got four items on the docket!" Chief Bogo said as he walked into the role call room and called every mammal to order. "Now, let's get the first thing out of the way, as usual. It's time we addressed the elephant in the room. Francine…"
Everyone turned to said elephant who looked nervous, as she did last year, at being addressed directly.
"Happy birthday Francine!"
Both Nick and Judy laughed with the others as every predator in the room started fist bumping her and congratulating her on a happy birthday, and even Bogo surprised them by pulling out a surprise present and tossing it to said elephant.
"You'd think she'd have figured it out after the first time it happened." Nick said to Judy with a chuckle.
"Yea well she hardly celebrates her birthday so, its always a surprise for her!" The rabbit said with a smile.
"SECOND!" He yelled calling everyone to order. "As you all know from yesterday's meeting, that 'human' structure beneath Zootopia needs watching, and since its within our district we get the lovely job of assigning officers to sit outside the subway entrance to keep an eye on it. Now who wants to volunteer for 'round the clock duty'?"
Silence before a trio of arctic wolves raised their paws to volunteer.
"Thank you, Ed, Edd, and Eddy, at least 'somemammals' are willing to volunteer." He said proudly, though he muttered the last bit. "Third, concerning said 'human', the mayor at City Hall wants us to run surveillance and keep an eye on this 'mammal'. Considering his current location, which is pop idol Gazelle's residence, it's important that we keep an eye on him to ensure nothing happens to her or any mammal. Which is why I'm also asking for volunteers…"
Instantly Judy raised her paw and, after a knee jolt under the table, Nick sighed as he raised 'his' paw as well.
"Anymammal 'besides' the two currently volunteering…" Bogo said, and when none of the other predators offered, he flipped some papers and continued. "Well it's a good thing I'm not asking for volunteers, Newton and Rosela, you're on 'Gazelle Watch'. Now, on to our next and last item!"
He stepped out of the way of the big map of Zootopia featuring all of the various biomes, from Savannah Central, to Tundra Town.
"There have been over seventeen cases of break ins, ranging from small homes to massive factories all across downtown. Now while none of these are unusual, and despite the fact that nothing has been reported stolen, the fact is that these break ins are happening 'without any trace' of the perpetrator breaking in!" He growled. "Normally this wouldn't be a major issue, but considering 'one' of those locations, was our own ZPD, it's a big issue for us! We are becoming the laughing stock of Zootopia, and other district police departments are offering to help 'us' with our break in problems!"
He pulled out a few folders and handed them out.
"As such, this is priority number one, finding 'any' leads on the suspect." He said, and both Judy and Nick looked at the folder with the information they were given. "So far we've only gotten 'one' image on the possible suspect, taken by a surveillance camera near Downtown's post office center."
The image showed a back alley with a small light source coming from the street, but overall it was very dark. Yet they could just faintly see what looked like a wolf species of mammal creeping around on all fours. Yet what was most weird to them was the pair of glowing red lights coming from what might have been the mammal's sunglasses. Neither he nor Judy could figure out what kind of red light they were reflecting to give that menacing appearance, but this mammal certainly didn't look like any species they recognized.
Nick sure didn't recognize them, and he knew all the mammals.
While they were busy reading over the details though, Bogo had been assigning duties.
"Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps… parking duty." Bogo said with a straight face.
Nick smirked while Judy frowned. "Really chief?" Nick asked.
"Sorry, couldn't resist." Bogo said with a grin before he became serious again. "You two are going to cover Rainforest District, I want you two to interview the latest call-in victim of these break ins a Mr. Sabre Tileteeth, panther, runs a clothes store Downtown. His home garage was broken in just like the others, but forensics haven't been able to identify so much as a pawprint or even find a 'hair' of the perpetrator. See if you can find a lead, report back if you do. Dismissed!"
"Oh good, reminds me of the Night Howler case; no leads, no eyewitnesses, just a picture with a vague image of the mammal in question…" Judy said, reminiscing on her first case as they left for the parking lot.
"Only this time, we don't even have the surprise lead of 'me' to get you on the right track." Nick said as they climbed into the car. "But at least you don't have to stake your career on this one, which is good for us."
"Very funny smart fox." She commented.
"You know you love me!" He said with a sly grin.
"Do I though? Yes…" She asked him before smiling back. "Yes, I do…" she also said with a soft, loving undertone.
Without another hint needed he leaned over and lovingly kissed her, pulling her closer to him in his seat, loving the warm fluffy fur of his bunny fiancé and how happy she made him. Then he felt her ears stick straight up and one of her legs start twitching excitedly. That was his que to stop and let her go.
"Not now Carrots, we aren't even married yet and we're still in the parking lot." He said, pushing her back into the driver's seat. "Besides, how will we explain to your parents where the kits came from before the wedding?"
"You know…" Judy said as she turned the key and began driving. "Mom 'did' have 'six' of my brothers and sisters before she got married, their parents didn't mind at all."
"Yea well, your parents are rabbits, for bunnies its like a law to at least have 'four' babies before their wedding day!" Nick said with a shudder. "When my mom found out I was getting married, she spent six hours telling me to wait. Can't believe I got the 'birds and the bees' talk from her again… at my age!"
"Oh, but I love your mother, she's so sweet!" She said as they drove towards Rainforest District. "And the baby pictures she showed me of you as a kit, oh you just looked so adorable!"
"Remind me to ask Mrs. Hopps for 'your' baby pictures, next time I visit." He said.
They drove off to Rainforest District, heading toward the address of the panther who called in the break in. When they arrived nearly three hours later they found a note on his home's front door addressed to them.
"You know, what are the odds its him answering all of our questions with detailed descriptions and even pictures, and 'not' a note saying he's somewhere else and asking us to go there if we arrived?" Nick asked curtly. "I'd rather not spend three hours going back just to talk to him.
"How about a dare, if it is I'll buy dinner, and if its not you buy dinner!" Judy said.
"Deal." Nick answered.
Judy took the envelope and read the note. "Dear ZPD Officers, if you are reading this then I am currently not at home and am at my store downtown. I apologize for the inconvenience, but can you please come to the address in regard to my break in?"
"I hate tailors…" Nick muttered as they turned around and headed 'back' to the car.
"Can't wait to see what you buy us 'dear'."
Back to downtown they drove, Judy driving the car while nick looked over the photo Bogo had given them, trying to see if he could recognize the wolf. So far nothing was coming to him, and while he tried to ignore it, something about the mammal gave him a 'nervous' feeling. Like whoever they are didn't belong, or his instincts were telling him to run away and stay away from them.
"You alright?"
"Yea, just can't seem to figure this out… I should know every mammal on the street yet… this one stumps me."
"Well we'll figure it out soon."
Three hours later they drove into downtown and headed to the clothing store, 'Sabre's Linens, Business and Casual'. Parking they both got out and saw the store sign said 'closed', but that somemammal was inside. "Oh, please let him be here and that's not his assistant or something." Nick muttered. "I don't think I can take another three-hour drive 'back' to his house."
She smirked at him before opening the door and looking around with him.
"Uh excuse me is there a Sabre Tileteeth here?" She called out.
"Officers, hello there!" A panther called out and walked to them. "I'm sorry I wasn't at home, but I had to come out to help out a good friend of mine!"
Behind him they could see two mammals, one who was trying on clothes with a huge pile of them laying on the ground, while the other stood by and was watching.
"No trouble at all Mr. Sabre, we just came by to ask you a few questions." Judy said before she recognized one of the mammals behind him as none other than Gazelle herself. "Oh… uh… miss Gazelle, how good to see you here!"
"Hello there." The pop idol said with a smile, even laughing a little as Judy's inner fangirl began squeeing and wanting to demand an autograph.
Fortunately, Nick was there to put her right. "Carrots…"
"Oh uh… mhmmm, right… sorry." She said. "So, as I was saying, can you tell us exactly what happened two nights ago?"
While they talked Gazelle left to talk to the other mammal.
"Well, I was just waking up in the middle of the night, you know how it is, your sound asleep and then you have the urge for a midnight snack." Sabre said. "When I just got finished eating, I'd heard the sound of my garage door closing shut, and mind you I only 'barely' heard it closing. Panicking, thinking someone was breaking in, I grabbed a little bat to protect myself while I investigated."
The panther looked thoughtful as he recollected the events in his head.
"When I went to check, I looked around to see if I could spot the intruder… but there was no mammal in sight. Then I noticed the door to the garage open only by the 'tiniest' of cracks and opened it to see if I could find the mammal running away, but no there was nomammal in sight. I looked to the door and found my brand-new security system for my home 'offline'. No wires cut, no power outage, not even a scratch on the system, it just had turned off!"
"I called the company right then and there, and within three hours somemammal from the company came out and looked at it. They told me that a company administrator accessed it directly and shut the system off!"
"Wait, a 'company administrator?" Nick asked. "Doesn't that mean the 'company' accessed it, and shut it off themselves?"
"Yes, which is why I called it into the police… some mammal hacked my security, turned it off, opened the garage door, snuck in, and then snuck out without making nary a peep, 'while' I was home." He said. "But they didn't take anything, not a thing…"
"Hmm, anything else unusual, like something misplaced?" Judy asked.
"Other than my car no longer having that little squeak every time I use the breaks, nothing else unusual." He said.
"Thank you, Mr. Sabre, we'll inform you if anything comes of this, you've been a great help." Judy said.
"Of course, I just hope whoever broke into my garage doesn't do it again." The panther said. "It's not something I want to think about; my home being so easily broken into…"
"Oh, what happened Sabre, you didn't tell me your home got broken into?" Gazelle suddenly asked, returning to them with the other individual in the store.
Nick was the first to notice that it was the human. "Ah, 'Jeremy Wilheart'… if I remember all those briefings 'buffalo bullhead' sat us through." Nick said warmly. "So how ya taking to Zootopia Mr. Human?"
"Nick!" Judy glared.
"I'm just asking Carrots, no harm done!" He replied with a chuckle.
"Uh, I'm fine… Miss Gazelle has helped me greatly getting adjusted… as well as sheltering me in her home." Jeremy responded nervously.
Nick noted that, but he brushed it off as just the human being nervous around mammals because he was alone. "Yea, the Mayor has given us all the details, everyone at ZPD knows all about you and your underground home." Judy said offering a handshake. "Judy Hopps, ZPD, pleasure to meet you 'properly' this time. Last time I saw you was at the hospital and we didn't get to introduce ourselves with all the chaos happening. And this is my partner on the force, Nick Wilde."
'Oh, now she has to pay for that, I can't let her get away with that.' He thought devilishly. "Really Carrots, that's 'all' I am to you, your 'partner' on the force? Casually forgets that I'm her fiancé now, what is a fox to do."
"Nick, oh no that's not what I mean I just… I mean…" Judy began saying, blushing both in embarrassment and fear at upsetting Nick.
"Relax Carrots, I know, your parents are just getting used to it as well. Love her parents by the way, good folks, raise wonderfully delicious blueberries by the way! Anyway, I know it's not your concern but do you two think you would be willing to just help us out really quickly."
So, they explained the situation to the two residents, Gazelle interested and Jeremy being curious. Nick noticed as soon as he showed the picture, the stark difference between the two. While his girl was busy fangirling at Gazelle, he was actually, ironically, doing his job and watching their reactions. Gazelle had no reaction, just curiosity as she looked at the mammal in the photo.
Jeremy however, Nick noticed the human's eyes go wide for just a second before they returned to normal. Nick also 'smelled' the sudden fear that erupted from his body, as if he couldn't believe whatever he was seeing.
When asked if he knew anything from Gazelle, he reacted the same way, rapidly trying to say 'no'.
Everymammal bought it but him, Gazelle believing him, Sabre nodding in agreement, even Judy acknowledging him, but he didn't buy it at all. That was 'twice' he noticed something off about the human, now he had a lead, which he explained to Judy in the car as they left, and what he explained to Chief Bogo when they returned.
"You're saying the human 'Jeremy' knows something?" Bogo asked skeptically.
"Chief, I'm 'telling' you, he knows something." The fox said sternly. "You don't make a living on the streets learning to lie with a straight and honest face, and not learn to pick up on the lies 'other' mammals give away. None of the other mammals reacted to the picture the way 'he' did, no mammal even gave it a second glance, he however 'stared' at it like he'd seen a spirit!"
Chief Bogo looked seriously at Nick before looking at Judy, who shrugged and agreed with her boyfriend.
"I'm going with Nick on this one chief, if Jeremy is lying then he's our only lead." She said. "But… I don't think dragging him in to talk is going to get us anywhere. I'd say let us tail him starting tonight and see if he does anything."
"You, but I already have Rosela and Newton on that." He said.
"Chief, this is our lead, let 'us' handle it please!" Nick said. "I know it's a long shot, but please, let us tail him. I can read him better then those two, let me watch him for at least one night!"
Bogo snarled to himself before nodding and pulling up the phone. "Officer Clawhouser!" He yelled.
"Yes chief!" The obese cheetah at the front desk asked.
"Inform Rosela and Newton that they're off the 'Gazelle Watch', I'll reassign them tomorrow!"
"Got it chief!"
"Alright Wilde, you and Hopps have one night, make the most of it!" He said.
"Thanks chief."
With that they turned and left to go to grab one of the 'undercover' cars. "Nick, why are you insistent on tonight? What makes tonight so important?" Judy asked him.
"Frightened mammals act all the same pretty much, as soon as something scares em they try to deal with it as quickly as possible." Nick said. "If he's afraid of that mammal in the photo, then he knows who they are, and he'll try to get in contact or deal with them himself. And the soonest he can deal with them without being noticed is 'tonight'. Just trust me on this one Judy…"
As they drove off to the Gazelle residence, she had a smirk on her when they stopped to grab some 4-hour energy drinks. "You know… you're handsome when you take command like this." She whispered slyly.
"Just wait until our wedding night Carrots, you'll see this side of me again." He said slyly back at her.
(Jeremy's PoV)
"Well Jeremy, I'm really sorry that all we got to do today was get you new clothes." Gazelle said as they neared her home. "I had a full schedule planned for us today too, after that shopping trip we'd go to Central Zootopia Park to watch them turn on the big fountain, then we'd head over to this cute little hat store to pick out a hat for you that 'actually' fits!"
"It's alright Gazelle, today was still nice." He said calmly, still going over his plan in his head. "At least now I'm not wearing the same thing day after day."
"That is true!" She said with a smile.
"Hey, about Central Zootopia Park… do mammals go there at night?" He asked.
"No, not really, not at night anyway." She said thoughtfully. "During the day its busy but not many mammals if any go at night there. It's really big, and they turn the lights off, you can get lost there at night, especially if you're a small mammal."
He nodded to himself while Aelita continued to pretend nothing was wrong, alternating hopping on one foot then the other.
"So, Jeremy, any plans in mind tomorrow or when we get home?" She asked warmly. "I have tomorrow off as well, George has no plans for me so we can do something tonight if you want."
"Well, if you want…" He began saying before tapping Aelita's glass sphere.
*Briiiiiiiing*
They heard Gazelle's phone go off and she looked glumly at it before answering. "Yes George?"
[Gazelle, sorry to call but I need you to come in early tomorrow!] George called over the phone in a loud, monotone voice. [Really important, get to sleep early girl, real important job at the studio tomorrow.]
"Tomorrow, but George, what happened to my day off?" She asked sourly. "Don't tell me they lost footage for the music video? We just finished filming most of it!"
[Sorry to say so girl, see you tomorrow!] George said before ending the call, just as Aelita turned to look at her.
The antelope sighed gloomily before putting her phone away. "Sorry Jeremy, guess I have to cancel our plans tonight and tomorrow." She said. "George called, needed me to come in urgently tomorrow."
"It's alright Gazelle, work is important." He said with a smile. "Besides there's always next time!"
She nodded before smiling in agreement. "Your right, there's always next time!" She said warmly as the car stopped outside her home. "Next time we'll go to a movie or something, I want to show you around Zootopia more!"
Both he and Aelita nodded as they soon left the car. Moe drove the limo into her garage and left to head home as well while they went inside. Once inside he headed to his 'new' room, which just so happened to be right next to Gazelle's. The day before she'd offered him his own room in her home, saying that he deserved a bit of privacy for when he changed clothes or had to go to the shower.
He honestly thought she just wanted her room back, but she chuckled and said she didn't mind sharing with him if he really wanted to stay. She offered it to him because it was taking her a bit longer to 'change' since she had to leave to go change to the bathroom now instead of changing in her room. Now however, he was glad she did give him his own room, because now he could enact his plan in peace.
"Hey, would you like to spend tonight with Aelita?" He offered Gazelle, holding out Aelita's sphere to her.
"Oh, she's not going to be lonely without you?" She said with a smirk.
Aelita simply rolled her eyes before shaking her head. Gazelle chuckled and took the AI before walking into her room, while he went into his own.
His room was barren, barren because there was nothing inside it besides a simple bed, an empty drawer, an empty closet, and empty space. In other words, it was just like being in the base again, but it was much more comfortable and roomier, and colorful by comparison. The walls were painted yellow and pink with hints of orange and green splattered everywhere. It reminded him of the prairies and plains where her species probably originated from in 'his' time, before all the wars happened.
Thinking of the wars reminded him of what he had to do, so he changed out of his clothes, putting them in a dirty bin to clean tomorrow, while putting away one outfit and taking out the other, keeping the coat for himself to use.
His plan was this, and both he and Aelita had come up with it while in the bathroom at Sabre's store. They were going to leave Gazelle's place as soon as night hit and she was asleep and go to wherever was closest and had as few to no mammals present to attract the DOG drone. The key was keeping Gazelle out of the way, and he gave Aelita his plan for that.
She had called Gazelle's phone and took on George's voice, using voice clips and masking them with George's voice and tone to give the appearance of needing her in the morning. Then he offered Gazelle Aelita who would make her sleepy with music, and once she stopped, signaling that she was asleep, he would slip in and sneak out with Aelita to go to the location of where they would attract the DOG drone. If all went according to plan, they would disable DOG and get it back to the base to shut down and buy them time to go back to the base themselves.
That was plan A, everything working perfectly.
Plan B was… less than ideal, 'fighting' DOG with whatever he could find and stall it long enough for Aelita to 'eventually' hack into it and shut it down herself.
DOG drones were programmed to resist hacking attempts, even Aelita's advanced AI system would struggle to break past its defenses quickly enough. Everything relied on him either convincing it to obey him or stalling it if it considered him a threat.
But regardless, he would not endanger any mammal, nor would he allow any mammals to get injured because of his mistake. Least of all Gazelle… if 'anything' happened to her because of him…
He shook his head, refusing to think such thoughts.
"I'll keep her safe even if I'm the price…" He said.
(Here we are… safe at last… we can breathe a sigh, it seems the storm has passed…) He heard a gentle soft singing Aelita playing in the room next door.
"Good, she's starting…" He said as he looked outside the room at the night sky growing darker. "It really looks beautiful at night too… the holorooms we used didn't replicate 'that' kind of beautiful glow the moon gave off… or how colorful the stars looked."
Time passed, soon it was close to midnight, with Jeremy struggling to stay alert while Aelita played music to keep Gazelle in slumberland, which was starting to affect him because of how good a job she was doing.
When it became twelve thirty, she finally stopped playing, giving him the signal that it was safe to sneak in. He got up and quietly slipped out of the room, heading next door to her room and unlocking it as quietly as he could. He looked around and saw Aelita waving at him from Gazelle's night stand.
He tiptoed as quickly as possible to pick her up, as he did, he glanced at the sleeping Antelope and saw just how peaceful she was sleeping.
He could hear the gentle softness of her breathing, sleeping blissfully as she dreamed whatever sweet dream she was having, her lips in a warm smile to match, and her hands holding each other under her pillow. She looked so beautiful and wonderful to him, that he momentarily forgot what it was he was supposed to do.
Which Aelita quickly remedied by blinding him temporarily to snap him out of his gaze. He looked down to see her head tilted in a 'hurry up' expression.
"One second Aelita…" He muttered, before looking back at Gazelle.
He gulped and took a gamble, reaching down to gently stroke her cheek with one finger, feeling the gentle softness of her fur and its warmth upon his skin. As he did, her smile seemed to deepen as she leaned ever so slightly into his touch.
"Thank you, Gazelle… for everything…" He whispered sweetly, before sighing and walking out as quietly as he could with Aelita in tow.
What he didn't notice, as he closed the door, was that Gazelle's expression turned into a frown as if missing the touch, she'd just felt.
Nor did he feel just how 'sad' her dream quickly became because he had just walked out on her.
(Nick and Judy's PoV)
Both of them stared tiredly at the Gazelle residence, Judy asking herself if her husband-to-be was just overthinking the whole thing, and Nick looking for any sign that the human Jeremy was going to try something or not.
"Nothing yet?" Judy asked with a yawn.
"Not yet Carrots…" He replied.
She nodded and pulled out a pair of 4-Hour energy drinks for the two of them. It was going to be a very long night for them if Nick's instincts turned out wrong, not to mention they might be told to pull a double shift as well.
"We should have bought something to go, I'm starving…" Judy muttered.
"Got you covered Tail-fluff." Nick said, reaching down and pulling out a pair of bags from the store while still staring through his binoculars.
"So, what's on the menu?" She asked. "Oh joy, what a fabulous dinner of bagged carrot strips and dried grapefruit slices."
"Enjoy!" Nick chuckled.
They'd been sitting there in the car watching since Gazelle came home and went inside with Jeremy. Judy had to repress the urge to honk and see if she could get an autograph, mostly because of her job. Then, after they went inside began the wait to see if Jeremy did 'something', anything to confirm Nick's suspicions. She honestly thought Nick was being paranoid, Jeremy, despite being the lone member of his species on the entire planet, had done nothing wrong to warrant this treatment. Sure, he acted suspicious regarding the photo, but it was nothing out of the ordinary to warrant twenty-four-hour surveillance, right?
"Wonder what our moms are doing at this time…" Judy asked quietly.
"Mine is probably trying to think of new ways to embarrass me in front of you." He said.
She chuckled at that before deciding to lean back and relax.
"We got movement Carrots, look alive!" He said as he spotted movement.
She looked up and saw a mammal walk out of the home wearing a large coat, a mammal with 'antlers' wearing a hat. "What is Gazelle doing at half past midnight?" Judy asked.
"That aint her, it's Jeremy." Nick said, seeing past the disguise because of the binoculars. "He's wearing fake antlers to hide himself at a distance… and he's got something in his hands that's glowing. Probably that glowing girl."
They watched as Jeremy walked past them, being very careful to keep his distance from every car and home while running.
"Come on, let's get going!" Judy said about to start the car.
"No, let's follow on foot!" Nick said.
"Ugh, hope Chief Bogo doesn't chew us out for leaving the car here…" Judy said as they left to give chase.
They followed behind the human, easily keeping pace and not needing to sprint or run very hard to keep up with the human. Despite how fast he was running it was obvious he was not built for long runs. After around thirty minutes he had to slow down in order to keep going, as his panting form was evidence that he lacked a lot of stamina. Where he was going though was confusing them, as he seemed to be sticking to dark places and running weirdly.
"Something tells me humans aren't natural runners over long distances." Judy said as they paused to watch the human panting against a wall.
"Ya think?" Nick said, amazed that this human was so horribly winded.
When he resumed and entered the outskirts of Downtown was when his directions really became sporadic, first he would run down a street, then he'd suddenly stop and double back before side stepping into an alley or even waiting for several minutes before resuming his course.
They just watched him carefully, trying to figure out what the deal was. "I do not understand what it is he is doing…" Nick said, thoroughly confused as to his sporadic behavior.
Judy however, looked more closely and saw that he was looking upward, more specifically at a traffic camera that was pointing down at the street at an angle. After a while he looked down at the glow in his hands, before running off to the left and curving around the camera, avoiding its sightline.
"He's avoiding the cameras, he doesn't want to be seen by traffic cams." She concluded.
"He's been doing this the entire time?" Nick said in amazement. "Wow, give this species credit, when they are up to something, they go all out…"
"Yea but what is he doing out here?" Judy asked as they ran. "If he's just trying to meet up with some mammal, who is he meeting, why go through all of this when he's only ever spoken to a few mammals his entire time while in Zootopia?"
They continued chasing Jeremy at a distance, eventually another two hours passed with them now growing tired just from exhaustion at following him. But after all of this time they reached a destination that the human was trying to get to, Central Zootopia Park. He slowly walked into the nature park, being very careful to avoid any cameras watching it, almost zealously as he slow-crawled past one to avoid it.
"Alright, let's get closer and see what he's up to…" Nick whispered as Jeremy slowed down near the lake.
(Jeremy's PoV)
"I… am… So… Out… Of… Shape…" He gasped, his heart and lungs on 'fire'.
Aelita was nodding in agreement, but she at least had a look of concern on her face.
"Alright… let me… catch… my breath… before we begin…" He panted while falling to the ground.
He had no idea how much distance he would have to cover to reach this park, the drive from downtown made it look so much closer in Gazelle's limo. But it didn't matter, he had reached the park without any mammal following him, and thanks to Aelita hacking into and monitoring the camera systems installed throughout Zootopia, they were able to avoid being spotted and avoid any mammal in route.
He slowly caught his breath, very tired from how late it was and how out of breath and shape he was, but eventually he looked down at Aelita and nodded.
"Okay… start the signal." He whispered.
Aelita nodded and pointed upward with a finger, twirling it in a circle to indicate she was broadcasting the signal.
"Okay… signal going, if that DOG drone is active it will detect it and zero in on the signal, avoiding contact and any threats 'until' it reaches the signal." He said, going over the plan one more time. "Once it arrives, my job is to talk to it and get it to obey me. All drones after the war were ordered to obey and not harm 'any' sentient creature under any condition, unless certain conditions are met. If we can just get it to obey me, then I can force it to return to base and deactivate the 'Retrieval and Elimination' program."
He paced around, thinking out loud about every possible scenario.
"If the drone 'doesn't' respond to me, and instead perceives me as a threat…" He gulped. "Then all I can do is run away and pray you can hack its AI and shut it down… or make it self-destruct while I keep it distracted."
He laughed to himself at that. "Oh yea, sure… an unarmed human outrunning and outmaneuvering a robotic drone capable of speeds reaching forty miles per hour, armed with an arsenal capable of turning all of Zootopia into rubble, and able to rip me apart in less than 'three' seconds with a mouth that has a bite pressure exceeding fifty-seven thousand pounds per square inch, WHILE I am barely recovering from a three hour run in a city I have no knowledge of!" He laughed hysterically. "Oh yea, I totally can take that thing one on one!"
"And just 'who' are you planning to take on Mr. Human?" A sly voice asked.
Both he and Aelita snapped around to see Nick and Judy, the two mammal cops looking at him with suspicious looks on their faces.
"Crap…" He muttered. "You two… what are you doing here? Have you been following me?"
"Since you left Gazelle's residence, Nick got us the job of watching you… now… about this 'mammal' you were planning to fight?" Judy asked.
"No, no you don't understand, you need to get out of here, 'now'!" He said, Aelita nodding in agreement while still twirling her finger.
"Not until you give us some answers." Nick said, pulling out a pair of cuffs. "Now, it is way too early in the morning and we are running on energy drinks and no warm meals, we are tired, we are hungry, and I am really ticked at you for lying to us at the clothes store after the warm reception we gave you and everything else you've been given since waking up Human. Either you start answering our questions, or I'm taking you in for questioning…"
"Probable cause, police officer's go to for bringing in people or investigating them… we got it, so start talking Jeremy." Judy said with a nod.
"Alright, alright, but please… you have to leave when I explain!" He said, looking to Aelita who was shaking her head, indicating that 'no' the drone hadn't arrived yet.
They were safe for now, if she detected 'it's' signal close by she would warn him.
"Listen… it's not what you think… it's not a mammal." He said. "The photo you showed me, it's not a living creature, it's a robot… it's a drone, a DOG drone."
At that they lost their looks of suspicions and instead looked confused. "You lost us…"
Thinking quickly, he looked at Aelita who nodded in understanding, and used her other hand to cast a holographic image on a nearby tree, an image of the picture they showed him. "You saw this mammal on camera right, you think it's a mammal because of its profile?" He asked to which they nodded. "Well that's not what it is, I recognized it because I know what it really is, the eyes gave it away, but the glint off the body from the light confirmed it for me enough to warrant fear. Aelita…"
She nodded and enhanced the image, revealing the metal body of the DOG drone, in all its fearsome glory. The sight of the drone even in picture form had the effect it was 'designed' to have, both fox and bunny officer stared in shock and slight fear at its image. Even Nick took a tentative step in front of Judy, as if trying to protect his wife from the threat of the 'image' of the drone.
"What is… that?" Judy asked timidly.
"A drone… a mechanical autonomous robot known as a DOG, an acronym for 'Dual Offensive Gear'… the DOG series of drones were designed to fight on their own or be 'worn' by humans during wartime in the field." He explained slowly.
"Then what's it doing roaming Zootopia?" Judy asked, her voice breaking as she did.
"Because I made a mistake when I went to wake up Aelita!" He answered back. "I… I forgot to tell the base that it was 'safe'… that I had woken up… the base's AI, Sentinel, it thinks humans are still asleep. Because of that, because it sensed Aelita leaving and no longer controlling it's functions… it resumed it's overall control of the base and… detected a missing piece of technology."
Aelita changed the image to the stasis pod in the hospital, Jeremy's 'egg' as it was dubbed by the mammals.
"Because of this, it assumes that someone came in and stole the technology… and left with it, so it is sending a drone to retrieve it and… eliminate any threats to the base and the humans it thinks are still asleep." He explained. "Sentinel is programmed to protect and ensure the humans still in stasis remain safe until they awaken, and it is relieved of control by us. To do this, it sent a DOG drone to scout, locate the pod, return it… and eliminate any potential threats to the base and the people the 'drone' deems a threat."
As he explained he glanced at Aelita again, checking if the drone was nearby, but she shook her head, still signaling that they were safe.
"Wait… this thing will 'hurt' mammals?" Judy asked.
Jeremy shook his head. "It will 'kill'… anyone it deems a threat." He said sternly. "It will 'eliminate' any threat it deems worth the effort… by any means necessary."
"Alright if that's the case, where is it and how do we deal with it?" Nick stated.
He looked at Aelita who, again, shook her head.
"It's on its way here… that's what me and Aelita are doing here." He said. "My pod has no power and thus is inactive, that's why the drone can't locate it by its signal. Without the signal its wandering Zootopia trying to locate it, it's got little power to run all the time so it's only working at night and hiding in the day. Aelita is broadcasting a signal that only 'it' can detect, she's pretending to be my pod to lure it here where it won't be a threat to anyone. When it arrives, I'm going to try and command it to shut down and return to the base and shut off Sentinel's 'Retrieval and Elimination' protocol."
"Sorry to say this but you don't look like the violent type…" Nick commented.
"I KNOW, BUT I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS A CHANCE TO STOP IT!" He yelled, causing them to back up in surprise. "None of you can stop it, it's too dangerous… that's why you have to leave now before it shows up."
"Alright if it's too dangerous we'll call for backup from ZPD." Judy said, taking her radio out.
"NO, don't you get it, YOU CAN'T FIGHT IT!" He all but screamed loudly. "This thing was 'designed' to kill, it will tear you apart, its armor is solid Durasteel-Titanium, it can resist pressure up to one hundred thousand pounds. It's armed to the teeth with who knows 'what' it was given before being shut down, it can see in the dark as if it were broad daylight and track biosignatures from up to fifty 'miles' away."
He panted heavily as Judy and Nick saw him almost 'desperate' to try and convince them and were listening to his every word because of how serious he was.
"And that's only what I 'know' about it from an image… not every DOG drone was made the same… who knows what else it can do…" He panted. "The only way a DOG drone will leave any target alive, is if the target plays dead… it only detects biosignatures, not heart rates…"
There was silence before Aelita stopped her image and shined a light on him to get his attention. She was waving and pointing behind Judy and Nick frantically, still twirling her other hand as she continued to broadcast.
The Drone had arrived, and the way Aelita was frantically pointing, it was right on top of them.
"Oh no… it's here…" He said, before grabbing Aelita and running. "STAY AWAY FROM ME, PLEASE, JUST STAY AWAY!"
(Jeremy's, Nick and Judy's PoV)
Nick and Judy were just about to follow the human who had run away as if his life were in danger, before they heard something clanking behind them and stomping toward them.
-Clank, Clank, Clank, Clank, Clank-
Judy looked back and saw a bright red beam of light waving around and moving toward them at a rapid pace.
-Clank, Clank, Clank, Clank, Clank-
Something in her, some primal part of her… just screamed to run. It was as if some ancient part of her species, seeing the red beams of light, the menacing glow, and how fast it was running toward them took complete control of her body and forced 'instincts' and 'logic' to take a side view.
She and Nick took off, running away from the light, trying to avoid being spotted but it was useless, it had spotted them and was in pursuit.
Nick and his wife ran as fast as they could move their legs, but no matter how far they went it was still right behind them. Then Judy tripped as they pushed past a bush near a hill and she fell, he rapidly turned around and tried to grab her up, but the lights were now on top of them. He pushed her over and they hid behind a tree, as if that bit of nature was the only bit of shield in the world from this unknown threat.
-Clank, Clank, Clank, -THUMP-
They saw it land directly in front of them, jumping over the hill and landing no less than two inches in front of them. It only stood one foot seven inches and was only six feet long from tip to tail, but its size was not what frightened them into a desperate panic. It was the eyes… the menacing red eyes that stared around it, those angular red eyes that glinted in the night, piercing the darkness with their bright, sharp glow.
Its body was stout, perfectly framed, almost resembling a very fit arctic wolf. The snout was long and tipped with a rubber nose, and its tail was curved and angled in a 'J' shape, while the paws were each perfectly angled to compress and suppress the ground beneath it, making it run silently. Its metallic body gleamed in the moonlight with a silvery sheen only fancy cars could match after a full day's worth of cleaning and waxing. The only reason it made noise was because the joints of its legs were giving it away with each step it took, as the joints gave off a strange hissing noise.
It was 'not' mammal, it wasn't anything close to mammal… and it 'scared' them out of their wits.
Both of them were breathing heavily with fear, Judy holding Nick's paw with her own, scared for her life but trying to assure him that she was there. They didn't dare budge out of fear of being noticed, but that quickly ended when it turned and stared 'at' them.
[Scanning Life Forms…]
The red eyes, those menacing red eyes… changed colors to yellow, and the beams of light solidified into thin lines, which moved up and down them.
The beam went up, down, left then right, down then up again…
They waited, knowing that at any second it was going to lunge and kill them, slaughter them, rip them to pieces just like Jeremy said it would. Judy was having flashes of her life go by in her mind, wishing she didn't die without having her first batch of babies, Nick asking himself why oh why didn't he send a picture of himself graduating the police academy to his mother before he died. They waited for the end, at least having one comfort that they would die together… but it didn't come for them, the drone simply stared at them.
[Species… identified… Oryctolagus cuniculus…]
[Species… identified… Vulpes vulpes…]
With that the eyes changed colors again, turning from yellow to green.
[No threats detected… resuming search…]
With that it turned away and clanked off, it's eyes glowing red once more as it searched for Jeremy.
Both Nick and Judy's hearts slowly began to return to normal as they saw it leave them alone.
They slumped to the ground, thinking a thousand thoughts together every second. They were still alive, they were 'still' alive.
They briefly looked at each other, and without warning they just shoved their lips against one another's, basking in the warmth that they were still there. It didn't matter that this 'DOG' drone or whatever it was is still running around, all that mattered was that they were both alive.
"Oh Nick, I was so scared…" She whispered tearfully, hugging him for all she was worth.
"Me too… me too Judy…" He whispered back, patting her as lovingly as he could.
In the distance they could the clanking growing faint, and they both knew that Jeremy was still in danger. He was right, it was too dangerous, but they weren't treated as a threat. The thing didn't even seem to acknowledge them existing any longer.
"We have to help him, I don't care what he says, 'we have' to help him, he doesn't stand a chance if that thing attacks him." She said.
"What are 'we' ganna do against that thing, you saw how it terrified us… and it didn't even 'bother' with us." He stuttered.
"Nick, we're officers, we have to protect and serve!" She said sternly, but still looking afraid. "Jeremy is a human, but he's still 'technically' a resident of Zootopia, we have to save him."
"Oh… I chose the wrong case to be right on…" He muttered as they went off after the drone.
Meanwhile with Jeremy, he heard the drone after him pause and prayed that Nick and Judy had heeded his advice and left. He didn't know if it was going to turn violent or not, but he knew that the drone's overriding programs required only 'human' interference, anything else nearby would deem his actions as hostile and an attempt to control it.
His only hope is that the drone's outdated species recognition programming would make it think that the mammal cops, despite sharing the same species similarities with their great ancestors, would treat them as 'animals' and ignore them. If it treated them as sentient species on par with humans, before he could reprogram it to not threaten them, it would assume they are a threat to humans… and eliminate them.
Still he was thankful for the distraction as it gave him a chance to put distance and buy more time.
"Aelita, start working on plan B!" He said, already assuming the worst-case scenario as he put her sphere on the ground.
She shook her head and pointed at her hand, still broadcasting.
"Forget it, it knows you're here now, it will start searching for us here until it finds us, might as well start hacking it's AI." He said.
She nodded in understanding and began using both hands to mimic typing on a keyboard, displaying her hacking into the drone's AI. She looked at him and shifted her eyes along with her head, signaling that she had no idea how long it will take to 'access' the drone's AI and gain control.
"Figured… now to just hope plan A still works…" He muttered.
-Clank, Clank, Clank, Clank… THUMP-
He turned around as he saw the drone landing in front of him, staring at him with it's menacing red eyes which instantly locked onto him and Aelita's sphere.
"So much for distance buying us time." He muttered to himself before trying to calm down.
[Scanning life form…]
Not wasting a second, he cleared his throat and declared 'loudly', "DOG unit, I am Jeremy Wilheart of Eden Facility Seventeen, I order you to stand down and deactivate, Confirm the Command!"
The DOG drone ignored him as it scanned his body, performing a 'second' scan…
Then its eyes changed from yellow to red.
[Life Form, unidentified… too many conflicting DNA patterns detected, unable to confirm…]
"What… what do you mean I'm…" Then he realized, he was still disguised, still wearing the hat and fake antlers, and of course wearing Zootopia clothes, clothes made up of different kinds of fake fur which masked his human DNA. Without a 'visual' identification of his human form, it tried to read his human DNA based on the revealing skin, but there wasn't enough for it to read.
[Relinquish the Technology or be regarded as a threat…] It stated. [You have five seconds to comply…]
"Oh… shit…" He whispered, before grabbing Aelita and running off.
[Cease running at once]
He ignored it and ran, trying to get as much distance as he could to buy Aelita more time while she hacked away in her sphere. He could hear it clanking after him, rapidly gaining pace and felt it tackle him to the ground.
He managed a quick roll to the side as he landed, but the weight of the drone's heavy body, added to his own made him roll head first into a tree…
The hit to his head was so sudden and so violent that he saw stars… before everything began to go dark. His last vision was seeing the DOG drone in front of him, red eyes glowing as it looked at him, before they changed to 'blue'…
'It's… not… a DOG…' He thought tiredly.
The drone looked to the clothes, and slowly dug out the piece of technology that it had detected. Soon it exposed Aelita's holosphere, even as she continued to type away, hacking into it's AI. It detected the disturbance but regarded it as non-threatening. After locating the technology, it opened its back and extended a claw which reached down, picked up the sphere, and safely deposited it in a 'safe' to keep it protected.
Technology secured, it moved to the eliminate any 'threats' to the base and the humans it was supposed to protect.
[Warning… sensors detecting human life signs…]
It turned to the human, the hat now gone and exposing enough to identify the human and scanned him.
[Species identified… Homo Sapiens… detecting faint life signs… all previous directives are now secondary… commencing emergency assistance aid request to nearest care facility…]
It extended a radio rod from its head and began broadcasting an emergency frequency but received no response call.
[Error… error… no response detected… commencing…]
"Judy Hopps, ZPD! Step away from the human!" A voice yelled out loud.
Nick and Judy had arrived just as the drone was about to finish off Jeremy and had weapons drawn. They didn't know how dangerous it was, but they were still officers and they had to protect Jeremy. Not only was he an endangered species but he was a native of Zootopia, if only in name instead of practicality.
"Whatever you are, just back away from him nice and slow and keep your paws to yourself…" Nick yelled as well.
The drone turned to them, its eyes changing from blue to yellow and scanned them. At first it proceeded as normal but stopped and focused on their firearms, rapidly scanning them for what they were.
[Warning… Level twelve grade weapon detected… lethality probability: high…]
Its eyes changed to red as it turned toward them.
[Attention, you are carrying a dangerous weapon! Drop your weapon and step away!]
"Not on our watch buster, now 'step away' from the human!" Judy yelled back.
"We aren't going to warn you again, step away or else!" Nick also responded, readying his firearm.
[Attention, you are carrying a dangerous weapon! Drop your weapon and step away, you have ten seconds to comply!]
It began stepping toward them, when it was about seven feet from them, Judy had all the cause she needed and pulled the trigger with Nick, who fired in response.
Both guns rang out in the night as they fired, the shots pinging as they connected with the drone's metal body which repelled the shots with ease, neither shot leaving so much as a scratch or even a dent. They stared at the drone as it halted…
Then it slowly opened its mouth…
[Threat… Detected…] It stated menacingly, as razor sharp teeth extended. [Moving to neutralize and eliminate threat. Bark Bark!]
"I think we made it mad…" Nick stuttered as they backed away. "Any ideas Carrots?"
"Yea… RUN!" She screamed as she fired again, before turning and running as fast as they could.
[Bark Bark, Bark Bark!]
It chased after them, its red eyes locked onto them and not losing sight of them as they ran through the park with it on their tails. It continued to bark at them, chasing after them with it's clanking feet and menacing eyes putting fear into them with each step they took. Nick turned around as they ran and fired a shot, but all he managed to do was make another 'ping' sound against its defensive armor.
"Nothing's working on it… I think we should have listened to Jeremy!" He said.
[Bark Bark!]
"Just run!" She yelled before grabbing her radio. "This is Officer Hopps, shots fired and requesting backup in Zootopia Central Park, repeat requesting backup, suspect armed and extremely dangerous!"
(10-4 Officer Hopps, sending three squad cars to your location sit tight!)
"That's not enough time… we need it NOW!" She screamed as they jumped over a fence.
[Bark Bark!]
Nick turned around just in time to see it jump over the fence and close in on Judy, who it realized was the main target. "Carrots!" He screamed, before shoving her aside and being tackled by the drone instead, being forced into a bunch of bushes and out of sight.
(Judy's PoV)
She tumbled into a tree and scrambled to get up and turned to see the struggle taking place in the bushes. All she heard was Nick grunting and yelling as he struggled with the drone, and all she could see were brief flashes of lights of him.
[Bark… bark!]
"Grr…gha…. Get…. Off me!" Nick screamed.
She heard more shots sound as Nick tried to fight back, shooting at the drone at point blank range.
[Drop your weapon… drop your weapon!]
"Gahhh… haaaah!"
"NICK!" She yelled, as the lights went skyward and she saw the drone lift Nick up by his neck, holding him in its jaws.
Then he went limp and the drone dropped him, lunging down with its mighty jaws…
-Crunch-
Silence… then…
[Threat… Eliminated… locating additional threats…]
She dropped to her knees, unable to believe it… a part of her didn't want to, refused to… but when the drone walked past the bushes and stared at her with green eyes… she realized what had happened.
It had killed Nick.
This 'human' made weapon of death… and destruction… killed…
No… it 'murdered' her husband, the love of her life… took him from her world in the blink of an eye…
And it didn't shed a tear or show the tiniest bit of remorse.
"You… you…" She moaned, before her tears gave way to rage. "YOU BASTARD!" She raised her gun and pointed it at the human monstrosity. "I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!"
The drone locked onto her and its eyes turned red again. [Threat detected… proceeding to eliminate… Bark Bark!] It stated. [Drop your weapon… and step away!]
She didn't listen, she open fired, emptying her clip into it, determined to avenge Nick however she could. But each shot fired just bounced off it's armor harmlessly, and even as she quickly refilled and resumed firing it just stared at her taking the shots.
After the second clip ran dry, she fled and ran away, heading to the city with the drone hot on her feet. She grabbed her radio and screamed into it, broadcasting on the emergency channel that by default would reach every cop in Zootopia. "OFFICER IN DISTRESS, OFFICER IN DISTRESS, ZOOTOPIA CENTRAL PARK!" She yelled tearfully. "SUSPECT ARMED AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, ALL OFFICERS RESPOND, ALL OFFICERS RESPOND! REPEAT OFFICER IN DISTRESS, HEADING TO CENTRAL PARK NORTH ENTRANCE!"
With that done she focused on running for all her life's worth, she knew help would arrive, but she had to be alive to get there.
As she ran all she could think about was Nick… how she could possibly live without him now. He had been so proud of himself, his mother so happy for him… how was she going to explain to her that he'd died… died protecting a 'human' of all things, died to something made by 'humans'.
"Damn humans… damn them… they can go extinct for all I care…" She moaned as she neared the entrance and saw sirens and lights screeching towards it.
As she ran through the main gate, she saw officers screeching and jumping out of their squad cars, even a swat team zoom onto the scene with a police helicopter hovering overhead. Moments later the drone also raced through and stopped as it looked at what seemed to be all of ZPD arrayed against it.
[THIS IS ZPD, DROP YOUR WEAPON AND SURRENDER!] Chief Bogo yelled through a megaphone, telling the mammal to surrender.
"Chief… it's not a mammal, just shoot it!" She yelled at him as she reached the safety of the police line.
"Officer Hopps, what's going on?" He said as other officers kept screaming with guns raised for the mammal to surrender and drop to the ground.
"It's not a mammal Bogo… it's a human machine, it's not mammal…" She gasped tearfully. "It killed Nick… it 'killed' Nick… it doesn't care about us… just shoot it!"
That was when a beam of yellow lights began sweeping over all of the officers, causing them to pause in confusion and Judy and Bogo to turn and watch it. It finished its sweep and looked from left to right, as if analyzing what they were.
[Multiple threats detected… current weapon loadout insufficient… reevaluating situation parameters…]
"Chief just listen to me… that 'thing' is a monster… it's not alive… just SHOOT IT!" Judy screamed at him.
[Situation analysis complete, increasing threat level… increasing weapon use to level 2… activating medium ranged rifle…]
From its side a slit appeared and expanded, and from that hole in its side a series of tubes and rods shifted and rotated out into place, interlocking and taking on the shape of a sniper rifle. Another tube connected to the rifle and locked into place as it rotated the gun to aim at the mammal officers.
[Attention, you are in possession of multiple firearms… drop your weapons and step away… You have 15 seconds to comply!]
"That's it, open fire!" Bogo ordered, and soon every ZPD officer began firing at the drone.
Handguns and shotgun shots rang out in the night as every weapon was turned on the drone which sat there absorbing all the damage. Clips ran dry as even assault rifles were emptied by the swat teams, shells bounced off the armor and pings could be heard. Then as they all stopped to reload, they simply stared at the machine, which stood tall… just observing them all.
Then one of its eyes cracked, and only a shard broke off to fall to the ground.
[Analysis in progress… analyzing damage… External damage: Minimal… Internal damage: None. Commencing self-repair…] The drone declared as it popped the lens off its eye and replaced the lens with another one from some part of its body.
[Multiple threats still detected… proceeding with neutralizing and elimination…] It rotated the gun on it's back and aimed directly at the swat team's assault rifles. [Giving threat priority levels, targeting primary threats… opening fire!]
The drone opened fire and several blobs of some black and brown substance flew at the swat team's assault rifles, sticking to them and rapidly expanding. The swat teams began dropping their weapons out of shock as their firearms were becoming encased in something 'spherical' and rubbery.
"Return fire!" Bogo said as everyone began firing again at the drone fired back at them, unconcerned as it was shot with thousands of bullets while calmly firing back.
For several minutes it was open warfare on this one drone as the ZPD tried to destroy or contain the drone, and the drone took every shot. As Bogo signaled them to pause while two officers snuck behind with shotguns and tasers, the drone reacted almost instantly, turning its attention on them and neutralizing the shotguns with its weapon while chomping down on the taser. It didn't even seem fazed by the electrical jolt. The two officers managed to get away while it was busy, but not before it had locked onto them and warned them to drop 'their' weapons…
That was when Judy had had enough of this man-made machine. As the officers started running low on guns, she hopped into the nearest squad car, turned it on, and drove straight at it, determined to ram the thing and crush it for killing Nick.
"TAKE THIIIIIS!" She screamed as the drone turned to lock onto her.
Then she smashed into it and began driving it toward the nearest tree to smash the car into it.
-CRAAAAASH-
The drone looked at the tree speeding toward it and gave off one 'bark', before being smashed headfirst into it. The car's airbags popped but she didn't care, she put it in reverse and felt the drone's body crunching as it stuck to her hood and shoved forward.
-TSHNNNNNG-
The windshield broke and broken glass sprayed everywhere, but still she backed up and surged forward.
-CRUUUUUUNCH-
Again, and again, she smashed into the tree, determined to smash the thing into pieces…
Each time more pieces of her car broke off, but so too did pieces of the drone. She saw a leg fly past, then another leg, it was only after the 'head' bounced off her windshield and rolled to the ground did she 'finally' relent…
She slowly climbed out and stared at the damage done to the car, needless to say it was totaled, that was definitely going to come out of her paycheck. The body was currently jammed between the smashed hood and the broken tree, each of the legs had been thrown around, and the head was currently face first in a patch of dirt.
"Survive 'that'…" She growled.
"Officer Hopps… that was excessive… but at least it's finished." Bogo said as he walked over. "Now where's officer Wilde, wasn't he with you?"
She turned to him and tearfully nodded.
"He's dead… he's dead chief…" She moaned. "Nick was killed… trying to save me from that thing… it… it murdered him."
At that Bogo lost his serious look and became speechless, soon other officers had arrived to listen in and, hearing what happened, a few tried to console her and comfort her for her loss.
Bogo on the otherpaw, walked over to the drone's head, pulled out his pistol… and fired a bullet into it.
"That's for killing one of the finest officers I'd ever seen!" He growled at the head. "Alright radio in, I want…"
-Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep-
Every mammal looked around for the sound of the beep, before looking down at the head, which had an antenna extended. Every time it beeped a small light glowed, and soon the other parts of its body extended antenna and began beeping as well. They began backing away, unsure of what it was doing, but quickly rearming their weapons in fear.
[Activating Reformat Subroutines…] It said, before a hole appeared at the neck and a mechanical arm extended, with a silvery disk jutting out.
In response all of the other parts of the body also did the same, opening holes and extending that same metal disk. After a few seconds the arms began to look and search, and soon pointed at each other, the limbs and head pointing at the main body. Then in unison… they all began to drag toward it…
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me…" Bogo said in shock.
"What do we do chief, nothing we have works on it!" Francine asked fearfully.
Judy could only watch in terror as the drone, slowly, inch by inch pulled itself together. Each of the disks slowly reaching to each other until they finally touched and snapped together, locking each limb into place. As each limb snapped to where it belonged, the body of the drone slowly put itself back together, the paws and legs resuming their normal stance as the head was last to snap on.
When the head reconnected, it turned a full three sixty rotation, before its eyes glowed red again, staring directly at her.
[Drop… your… weapon!]
At last… she dropped it, out of fear, out of terror, dropping it out of some tiny ray of hope that if she obeyed it would not harm her or the others behind her.
[Step… away…]
She nodded in understanding and slowly stepped away from the fallen side arm, arms in the air in the universal symbol of no longer being a threat.
When she had taken a few steps, it moved forward and opened its jaws, extended those terrifying teeth, lunged forward and ripped the gun from the ground. Then it crunched down and destroyed the gun in its mouth.
As the pieces fell harmlessly, the drone's eye color changed from red to green.
[Threat Eliminated… locating additional threats…]
Instantly the drone turned and looked at all of the officer's guns that were still being pointed at it, and its eyes changed color to red again, indicating it was becoming threatening once more.
[Drop your weapons… and step away!]
"Just do what it says…" Bogo said, letting his gun drop and backing away like Judy.
One by one they all began to drop their firearms, backing away with their arms up.
"Alright, what do you want, what are your demands?" Bogo asked nervously as the drone walked forward, its red eyes focused on the gun he dropped.
It ignored him as it continued toward the gun, lunged its head down and chomped onto the gun, crunched it into pieces, and then proceeded to move on to the next gun.
"Well, what do you want?" He yelled.
Again, it just ignored him and the others as one by one, it chomped and destroyed their weapons, acting as if they did not exist or did not acknowledge they were even there. Even as one rhino cop stood defiantly in front of it, it simply walked 'between' his legs to the assault rifle behind him, bit down and destroyed the weapon.
"I don't think it wants anything besides our guns?" Francine said.
"Uh… hello?" A lion said, waving his paw in front of it as it walked past.
It walked by, went to the next gun, chomped down, and moved on.
Judy was deeply stunned and afraid, they were at its mercy, absolutely at its mercy and it didn't even 'care' they were there? Was it just interested in their guns… did it just want to disarm them so they wouldn't be a threat anymore? Did Nick die because she fired a gun when she didn't have to, was everything she just went through tonight a waste of time?
This human made machine put to shame 'everything' the ZPD had, none of their weapons worked, even ramming it with a squad car over and over didn't so much as scratch it… and now it was disarming them with all of them watching helplessly. This one, little robot, forced the surrender of the entire ZPD in less than ten minutes.
If humans could make something like this, what else did they have in that base that could have made them masters of their world?
-Pshhhhhhhh MUTT!-
Everyone turned to the destroyed squad care, including the drone, and saw a large coat wearing individual, holding a megaphone in one gloved hand and something else in the other. They couldn't see their face, but she recognized the coat belonging to the human, the pockets had been slightly torn, but she knew it was Jeremy beneath that.
[Scanning life form…]
Its eyes changed to yellow and scanned the individual.
[Scans inconclusive, scans match previous identity, using previous memory block… identity confirmed, species homo-sapiens…]
In response Jeremy clicked the megaphone on again…
-Pssssssh MUTT, INITIATE HUMAN OVERRIDE PROTOCOL, CONFIRM COMMAND!-
The drone's eyes changed colors from yellow to green, to orange then finally landing on blue.
[Command confirmed, human override protocol in place. All other commands secondary, Bark Bark!]
Jeremy clicked the megaphone on once more.
-Psssssh MUTT, COMMENCE SHUT DOWN PROCEDURE AND ENTER STANDBY MODE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE BY VOCAL COMMAND, CONFIRM COMMAND!-
The drone's head turned and nodded.
[Command Confirmed… shutting down…]
Seconds later its head began to droop, its limbs started to become limp and then the whole body fell over onto its side, its eyes blinking a white light every few seconds.
Everyone just stared at Jeremy as the drone keeled over and did not get back up. "What did you do?" Judy asked tentatively.
In response Jeremy dropped the megaphone to the ground, shook the coat off and revealed himself…
"I had to talk to Jeremy and learn a LOT about that thing in a very small amount of time Carrots…" Nick said as he shook off the coat.
"NICK!" Judy screamed as she ran to him and pulled him into a very tight hug.
"Too tight… too tight!" He whimpered.
"Nick… oh Nick…" She whimpered fearfully, holding him as tight as her bunny arms were worth. "I thought you were dead…"
She hugged him tightly, not letting go for fear that if she did, he might vanish again.
"Alright… it's alright Judy…" Nick relented, hugging her back lovingly. "Oh, you bunnies, what did I say… always so emotional."
She nuzzled into his chest, smelling his scent and feeling comforted that he was there, even his sad sense of humor over how she thought he'd died easing her fears.
"How did… how did you sound like Jeremy?" She asked.
Nick smirked as he held up the carrot recorder.
"Never forget the 'Lucky Carrot' Judy." He said. "I had to talk to Jeremy about how to stop that thing."
"But… I saw you in its mouth… it had you… then… how did you survive?" She begged him.
"I remembered something Jeremy said about the drone… about how it doesn't scan for heart rates…"
(Nick's PoV, ten minutes earlier)
Nick frantically pushed Judy aside and felt the drone jump at him instead. Then he was pushed into a bunch of bushes, feeling the heavy weight of the DOG drone on top of him.
He tried to punch and shove it, anything to get it off of him but it locked onto him, tussled and clawed at his uniform, tearing small gashes in it.
"Grr…gha…. Get…. Off me!" He screamed loudly, trying to use one arm to keep it's thrashing mouth filled with sharp teeth away from his face.
It was futile but he had no other hope, it's flashing red eyes were inches from his face, that mouth full of teeth snapping and barking at him the entire time.
He panicked and managed to angle his gun at the underbelly of the drone and pulled the trigger rapidly.
-Bang, Bang, Bang!-
None of the shots worked, none of them even scratched it, and it seemed only to grow angrier as it was shot at 'again'.
[Drop your weapon… Drop your weapon!] It roared into his face.
It had had enough of him and moved its mouth, so it was positioned around his neck, both sets of teeth locking him in place.
"Gahhh… haaaah!" He screamed in fear as it lifted him above the ground.
He frantically tried to claw at it, kick it, anything to make it let him go. Yet his efforts were as futile as the gun shots to its body. If a point-blank shot to the stomach wouldn't so much as 'flinch' the thing, then his feeble attempts to punch or claw at it weren't going to work either.
As he was lifted high, forced to stare into those menacing red eyes, he remembered 'one' thing that the human said about the drone. One thing that did not talk about how dangerous or how 'useless' their efforts to fight it would be.
"The only way a DOG drone will leave any target alive, is if the target plays dead, it detects biosignatures not heart rates…"
He had only one hope, however small it was, he went limp and closed his eyes, holding his breath and trying to stay as calm as possible.
To make it seem like he'd died he dropped his gun to the floor.
Instantly the drone dropped him to the ground, but instead of moving he pretended to stay dead, and opened his eye to see it lunge down with those jaws…
And snatch his gun in its mouth.
Then it snapped shut on the firearm, breaking it into pieces with a resounding 'CRUNCH'.
[Threat… Eliminated… Locating additional threats…]
The eyes on the drone changed from red to green and turned around and headed directly toward Judy.
Fearing that his movement would trigger it to return and finish him off, he just sat there still as he could and 'prayed' that his wife took the chance and ran away.
"YOU BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!"
'No Carrots no, don't be so emotional now of all times!' He thought as the drone declared her a threat and chased after she shot it a few times.
He wearily got up and reached for his radio to call her but found that it had been crushed. "Great… that thing's crushed my radio… 'and' my phone." He growled as he felt his phone bend in his back pocket.
He slowly stood up and thought about chasing after it and Judy, but knew it would be useless, their weapons weren't working, and it was just as unstoppable as the human had told them it was.
"Wait, Jeremy… if anymammal can stop it, then Jeremy can!" He muttered as he slow ran to where the human had last been.
Sure enough, a few minutes later he found Jeremy lying in a crumpled heap beneath a tree and bleeding slightly from his head. Fearing the worst, he ran over to him and checked for other injuries, but thankfully found nothing but a wound on his head.
"Must've collided with the tree harder than you intended." He muttered. "Hey, wake up… come on human wake up!"
He began shaking him, slapping him rapidly to try and get the human to wake up. He heard the sounds of a helicopter overhead and saw a ZPD Heli flying toward the north entrance to the park.
Time was running out.
"Come on wake up!" He screamed before 'punching' him in the stomach.
"Guuuh…" The human panted as he gasped for air.
"Sorry but… I need your help Jeremy!" He muttered as he pulled him into a sitting position. "The DOG drone, how do I stop it… it's as dangerous as you said it was, tell me how to…"
"It's… not a… DOG…" He gasped.
"Wait… it's not?" He said. "Then what is it?"
"A 'MUTT'… modified 'DOG'… stands for… 'Medical Utility and Technical Toolkit'…" He replied wearily. "Completely harmless… I reprogrammed 'not'… to hurt anything or anyone… will only destroy or neutralize 'weapons' and 'vehicles'… not living things."
"Wait but… it had me in its mouth!" He said, holding his own neck to emphasize it. "It 'HAD' me in its neck, it had very sharp teeth and was about to kill me! If I didn't play 'dead' like you said it would… have…"
Then he remembered that it only let him go 'after' he dropped the gun, the second he did it let him go and went for the gun.
"It saw the gun as a threat… not 'me'?" He asked, which Jeremy confirmed by nodding his head wearily.
"It will not kill… even if shot at… even if at risk of being destroyed… it will 'not' kill." He muttered tiredly. "I was stupid… if only I'd left it alone… none of this…"
Jeremy wearily slumped forward growing weaker.
"Hey, hey stay with me human, stay with me!" He said, lifting him back up. "Okay so it won't kill, but by now my wife has called in the artillery and all of ZPD is now probably shooting at it, it will probably tear all their equipment apart because of that. How do I stop it, tell me how!"
Jeremy looked at him and his eyes were deeply bloodshot from tiredness and the injury he'd sustained.
"Voice… control… all drones… programmed to obey humans… if I can 'talk'… it will obey me… can shut it down…" He muttered and tried to get up, but his body lacked the strength, and he just fell back to lying next to the tree.
"Woah you're in no position to be going anywhere… if I record your voice will 'that' work?" He asked, pulling out the carrot recorder he kept for good luck.
Jeremy nodded. "I'll speak… what you need to play… make it louder somehow… and keep your body covered… if it detects your DNA it will ignore… the commands."
"Well how do I do that?" He asked.
Jeremy nodded at his coat and gloves. "Take them… it scanned me earlier… by now it realizes I am human… so if it detects the coat and gloves, it will assume that I am still wearing it and that I'm human." He muttered. "Just find a way to… make it louder… and make sure no other mammal are near you… when you begin."
Nick nodded and recorded the lines, then he took the coat and gloves off the human, leaving him alone in the slightly cool morning as the sun was just beginning to make itself known.
With that he ran away, leaving Jeremy behind.
What he didn't know, was that as he did Jeremy's hands began to shiver.
(Nick's PoV present time)
"So, I ran here, saw it laying waste to your guns and while everymammal was distracted, grabbed the megaphone from the wreck, covered myself up from head to tail, and played the recordings so the drone would shut down." He finished. "Jeremy said he reprogrammed it to 'not' hurt any living creature, gave me the recordings, the coat and gloves, and steps how to get its attention and how to shut it down."
"Speaking of Jeremy… where did you leave him?" Bogo asked seriously.
Nick thought for a moment before his eyes went wide in shock. "Oh no… I left him alone by the lake without his coat or gloves…" He replied. "His Cryogenetic Sclerosis… without these…"
He turned and took off with Judy right behind…
Fifteen minutes later an ambulance raced into the park…
(Gazelle's PoV)
She yawned slightly as she walked into the studio with her four tiger dancers, all of them wearing their dance outfits after changing into them backstage. She had wished she could have made breakfast for Jeremy like the day before, but George said it was urgent she get here really early. She also wondered if Jeremy snuck in and took Aelita back, because she didn't see the AI on her nightstand where she'd left her.
She would also give him a 'bit' of a talking to, she didn't like having her room snuck into even 'if' he'd stayed in there for a short time.
"Where is everymammal?" She asked as they entered the green screen room.
"Probably running late." Franky said as he stretched.
As they waited one of the music crew walked in with a cup of coffee in paw. "Gazelle, good morning, what are you doing here?" He asked cheerfully.
"George called, said you needed us urgently tonight?" She said.
"No we didn't, we told you we got all the footage we needed, anything else would probably be just simple gestures or retakes…" The sheep said. "You 'sure' George told you guys to come in?"
At that she got confused and pulled out her phone and dialed her manager. After a second call he finally picked up. "Hnnng what's up Gazelle?" He asked tiredly.
"George, did you call me yesterday to come in early today?" She asked suspiciously.
"Gazelle… today's 'my' day off as well… I didn't have you scheduled for anything today, I didn't call you yesterday either." He said with a yawn.
"Oh… I see… sorry George." She said before hanging up. "If George didn't call me yesterday then who…"
Then she remembered, Aelita could mimic voices she's heard… and she also could hide her identity by mirroring phone numbers.
"Aelita… what did you…"
Then her phone rang, and she saw it was her own number.
"Aelita is that you?"
(Step one you say you need to talk, he walks you say sit down it's just a talk… he smiles politely back at you, you stare politely right on through…)
She looked confused as she heard Aelita singing a strange yet sad song to her through the phone.
(Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend… somewhere along in the bitterness and I, would have stayed up with you all night… had I known… 'how to save a life'!)
She heard the call end and thought in horror about how Aelita emphasized those last words…
"Jeremy!" She said with a hint of fear.
As quick as they could they all changed out of their dancing outfits and back into normal clothes and raced home. Gazelle almost wishing they would break the speed limit as she feared the absolute worst happening.
When they reached the house, she didn't even tell them to park, she just jumped out and ran inside and straight to Jeremy's room.
"Jeremy!?" She screamed and looked around.
Nothing, the bed hadn't even been slept in last night, it was still made, but the coat was missing as was the hat/antler disguise she gave him to wear. Aelita wasn't there either, no sign of the AI or anything else of Jeremy's was there.
Then her phone rang, and she looked to see it was Mercy Hospital calling her.
Her heart pounded in fear, realizing that something 'bad' happened to Jeremy… then she answered it.
"Yes… this is Gazelle." She whispered, praying that they were just going to say he needed a pickup because he needed a checkup.
(Hello Miss Gazelle, this is Judy Hopps at the hospital… Jeremy is here and he's in critical condition…) The rabbit officer said. (His heart suffered an attack from his Cryogentic Sclerosis… and stopped for about one minute before paramedics could warm it back up…)
Her heart sank in despair… as she dropped the phone.
(Hello… Miss Gazelle?)