Another week has passed.
A week since Alex and Linda got their new job on the pet shop. A week that had passed rather peaceful and uneventful for the two.
During this meantime, Alex and Linda got quite used to the new accommodations that they had in Grand Pangolin Arms. The apartment was not much bigger than a broom closet, but they were both getting accustomed to live in there.
They were also getting used to the Oryx-Antlersons, who truly were rather loud, nearly every morning and night, when the two were at home, when Pronk came back from his work on a bar somewhere. There were also some sounds like when someone hit the wall hard, slammed a door, or even threw something inside of that apartment of theirs, which sometimes startled and worried the puma and gazelle.
Still, the two antelopes were quite friendly, when they were not being so loud, and they were actually nice to talk with, and quite helpful (Bucky more than Pronk), not to mention Judy, who was super friendly with them and talked with them nearly every morning. She and Linda were becoming close friends at record speed.
Soon, the two had formed a routine. Wake up, take breakfast, go to work, take care of some pets, lunch break, make inventory, go to deliver a pet that someone else left there, go back home, have dinner, watch a nice movie, crash on the bed, sleep, repeat all of that on the following morning.
It was a well-structured routine for the two of them, and they were really starting to get comfortable in living in this world. They were also grateful that they didn't got into any more trouble. Even because, if they did, they would certainly attract attention of the media. The craze for the discovery of the meta mammals had not yet died down, and a lot of mammals still wanted to know all that there was about them.
Alex would find some things about them online, and he found out that many mammals were riding along the meta mammal craze. Some were working on new types of conspiracy theories, some were exploring it in the form of entertainment (apparently the amount of popularity of any series, cartoon, or comic book that involved mammals with special powers had increased ever since that began), and some were even trying to find new ways of making money with all that was happening.
Alex was glad to see that there was no mass protests against them yet, or that they were, at least, sparse and small enough that they didn't gained any real space on the news. This filled him with hope that Zootopia would really not go like in their home world full of humans.
Maybe animals were nicer than humans?
Anyway, back to their routine.
Alex and Linda were just leaving the building, both going in direction to their job. They were thankful that it was so close to their new home.
Also, they were glad that they were still able to walk around the city without being recognized and swarmed. It seemed that most mammals didn't really knew what they looked like, as they were able to walk around the city like a normal couple (as normal as a couple of puma and gazelle could be).
They were both glad that they were adapting just fine to their new job that Jeff had found for them.
As for Jeff...
The mouse was making quite the amount of success on his new job.
He had only been there for a week, but they were already sure that he was going to be elect the employee of the month.
He had created a new and very efficient method of classification on his very first day. As if that was not enough, he also made an upgrade of their computer network, helped the accountability with their work by solving many pendent bills, and developed a new system for dealing with inventory that helped increase productiveness by a rate of around 70% in the span of a single week. All of that on his second day!
Not to mention the fact that Jeff himself was very sociable and he could very easily make friends with everyone in that building. He made a ton of new friends ever since he started working in there, and he didn't discriminated, so he made friends with everyone from the higher-ups to the cleaning staff.
It looked like Jeff would become completely stablished into that building in no time, and that he could have a very bright future in there. At least, that was what the others told him, and it seemed that the guys up there were already planning on offering him a long-term contract for him to work for them.
Of course, Jeff wasn't sure if he was going to take it...
Once in their work, Alex and Linda were now on their work, and they were together making inventory of the new food for pets that had just arrived. It included things like SugarRoaches and BirdieSeedies, and other fancy foods with funny names.
They were working on a team to do that, with Alex going through the items and saying the name aloud, while Linda checked on it and noted it down. That was what inventory was.
"...aaaand another can of Anchovy Paste." Alex said, pulling the new item from the box. "I'm still not sure if that is only for pets or if mammals also eat this stuff."
Linda noted it down, and she looked at her boyfriend. It looked like she wanted to ask him something.
"So, Alex?" Linda said finally, as the puma roamed through the box once more.
"Yeah?"
"I was thinking... maybe tonight we could do something special." Linda said, looking at her distracted boyfriend.
"Special?" Alex said, looking at the strange looking can that he just pulled off, with some writing in it that he could not read it. It looked like Japanese...
"Special as in, dinner in some expensive place followed by a walk in street under the moonlight?" Alex asked, as he looked at the can, as if he hoped to decipher the meaning of the ideograms written on it by miracle.
"Actually." Linda said, looking at Alex as he attempted to understand Japanese. "I was thinking more like candlelight in our apartment, with rose petals all over the bed and some romantic music on the background. Kind we did before we... ended up in Zootopia."
Alex knew what that meant, and he tensed up a bit.
"Well... it sounds like an idea." Alex said to his wife. "But... I'm not sure if we should."
Linda's ears dropped as she heard that, and she continued to look at Alex, who still seemed to be focusing on the box.
"I mean. Our bed is really small, and it would be very awkward. It is already hard for us to sleep in it cuddling, it would be even harder for us... you know..." he said, as he tried to keep his mind into the box and the cans in it, as if he was deciding which one to grab next, and he did.
"Oh, look!" Alex said, "Tuna and Grasshopper Paste! This one is new!" He said as he looked at it as if it was something deeply interesting. This time, however, Linda didn't wrote it down, not immediately, as she continued to look at him.
"I...I see." Linda said, as she started to write down the can that Alex said. "I just thought of suggesting it... Since, you know, we haven't really... you know... ever since before we ended up here... and we didn't actually did it while in... in the hospital..."
A very awkward silence settled in between them.
Yeah, they really haven't "done that" ever since they were still humans. They even attempted it at the hospital, but...
"You know how thin the walls in our apartment are." Alex said, as if he wanted to offer more justifications. "It would be hard to have privacy in there. I mean, that is a personal, like really personal, right? I don't really want our neighbors eavesdropping."
"Bucky and Pronk don't seem to mind that." Linda said, remembering just how loud these two were.
"Yeah, but they are crazy!" Alex said, as if he wanted to counter what she just said, and only then he realized that he had been a bit too blunt, and that Linda was now staring at him.
They looked at each other for a few moments, and then Alex said:
"I-I'm sorry. I was just... I mean... I-I need to refresh a little, let's make a break." He said, getting up and walking to the bathroom.
Linda looked at him as he went, and she couldn't help but look quite dejected.
In the bathroom, Alex was alone, and he walked to the sink and placed both paws in it to support himself.
He wanted to slam his head in the sink until he passed out.
Alex kept his head low, and he looked up, seeing himself into the mirror. The puma on the reflection looked back at him.
"What are you looking at?" Alex asked him, as he was deeply frustrated. He was frustrated with himself, and he wanted to smack the puma that he saw on the reflection. The smack him for acting like that with Linda, for making excuses, and for reacting like that when she insisted in this topic.
A lot had changed when they came into Zootopia. Starting with their external appearances.
Of course, they still had their personalities, Alex was still allergic to lilies, and they still had the same powers that they had since they were humans.
However, their physical shapes had changed very radically.
Linda now had horns. Jeff was around the same size as Alex's own thumb. Alex himself became a cat, getting all furry and getting a tail, and changing his entire anatomy in some very radical ways.
Alex looked down at his paws, each one with four fingers, including the thumb, and looking quite different from human hands. However, what bothered him the most was what happened when he flexed his fingers. Retractable claws came out from inside his fingers, and they looked to be quite sharp.
When Alex first saw them, he thought they were actually rather cool. They were a good thing to have in a fight in the case he was not able to count with his electricity. However, that was until he started to realize that these claws could accidentally scratch someone when Alex was touching them.
As if it was not enough, there was his own mouth.
Alex passed his tongue over his gums. He passed it by his teeth. Big, pointy and sharp teeth that riddled all the inside of his mouth. Teeth of a carnivore, made to pierce and tear flesh from a body. Alex felt like he could cut his own tongue if he passed it by his teeth the wrong way.
These claws and teeth were the ones of a carnivore. Yes, for Alex was now a puma. It was only natural for him to have claws and teeth that were made to hunt and to eat meat.
For Alex was now a carnivore. A predator.
And Linda was now a prey.
Alex groaned as he buried his face in his paws.
He remained like that for nearly two minutes, as he was able to put his thoughts in order enough to be able to go outside again.
Linda was still in there, and it seemed that she had taken upon herself to make inventory of the items. Alex soon joined her, and he was helping with it, but neither of them really talked very much as they carried on with the work that they have been assign.
That was, until Lambert came in with another assignment.
"Okay, I need you two to stop what you are doing and come with me now." The sheep said to the two, "Don't bother with the inventory, you guys can do that any other time, this is much more important."
The gazelle and puma shared a look among themselves, and soon, they were dropping what they were doing and going after the sheep.
He guided then into a separated room into the back of the establishment. It was the place where they bathed and groomed pets that required special attention. Such place was reserve to the exotic and fancy pets, owned by some rich and important clients.
For them to be taken in there, they knew that the job was important, for they certainly had to take care of a very special pet.
Said pet was already in there.
It was a bird, and it stood in the place, turning its head in their direction as they came in. The bird was not a small one, and it was quite am impressive sight. The most impressive being the pure white coloration, the red eyes that looked in their direction, and the long tail of feathers that it had.
"Is that a peacock?" Linda asked, as she looked at the bird.
"Yes." Lambert confirmed. "An albino peacock. You guys have no idea how hard is to get permission to have one of these as a pet. They are super rare."
"Is it legal to have them as pets?" Alex asked, as he wondered if there was any law for exotic pets like that one. Up until now, he had seen regular-looking pets, like geckos, canaries, parrots and chameleons. He also saw the occasional iguana and chicken here and there. However, this was the first time seeing a bird like that.
"It sure is." Lambert said, "But it is not as easy as having a canary. These birds need a lot of space to circulate, so if you gonna have one you better have a really big backyard just for them. Also, they tend to be territorial, so they can become aggressive if they see an intruder in the place, some even go as far as to use them as guard birds. These things can be quite vicious."
"Really?" Linda asked, looking at the peacock. She never heard of them being vicious. Of course, even in the human world she did not heard a lot about peacocks, as he never truly saw one, except in zoos. There was the possibility that the birds of this world were different from the ones in the human world. She heard that some people even had Komodo dragons as pets.
"Yeah, but most keep them around for being beautiful." The sheep said, looking at the white bird, which looked back at them, as if trying to figure out who were those creatures that had suddenly come into its new domain.
"Yeah, it is pretty beautiful." Linda said, and Lambert looked back at them.
"His name is Aki, and the client has requested for him to be very well groomed, cleaned properly, and to have his talons manicured." The sheep said to the two, "And when you are done, you are to take him back home and you will receive the money when the client have them back and are fully satisfied."
He pulled a piece of paper, and handed it to them.
"These are the instructions." He said, giving the paper to Linda, and the two mammals looked at it.
"Brush his beak. Pick him for any parasites. Rub his talons with silver dust?" Alex said, reading the items in there.
"Normally this is a fancy spa treatment that chinchillas do, but the Kuma family does it to their peacock." Lambert said, pointing that the creature behind himself. "That is one pampered bird."
"Q-mah?" Alex said, looking at him.
"Kuma." Lambert corrected him. "K-U-M-A. They are the owners of the peacock."
"Are they regulars in here?" Linda asked, thinking that the name sounded a bit familiar, as if she had heard it before somewhere...
"Well, they might become if we do it right. And they are very demanding with their pet." Lambert said to her. "So, you do all that says in this list and you deliver the peacock to the address as soon as you are done." He said, tapping in the piece of paper with all of the instructions written down. "Also, Aki there hates to have his tail feathers touched. Don't do that unless you want him to become aggressive. Think you guys can handle this?"
"Yeah, sure..." Linda said, looking at the instructions, it seemed to be quite a thing, but they were sure that they could take care of it. "We'll take very good care of Aki."
"I really hope so." Lambert said to them, "The last thing I'd want would be someone come here at night to set my shop on fire."
Saying this, he left the room, while the two mammals in there looked at him with raised eyebrows, before they shared a look.
Then, they looked at the peacock on the room, which looked at them in a way that made them both think of a prince looking at the peasants.
"Hmmm, Aki?" Linda said, and the bird looked at her with a coked head.
"Aki, we are going to be grooming you for your owners." Linda said, walking close to the bird. "Are you okay with that."
The peacock looked at her, and then it let out a cawing sound, before turning its head. Linda looked at it for a few moments.
"...I'll be taking it as yes." Linda said, and she nodded at Alex. Soon, they both were getting everything prepared so they could get the pet ready to deliver him back to their owners all cared for and ready.
"No, dad. I don't know if there are any plans for a new special task force to deal with meta mammals."
"You sure, honey?" Stu asked as he and Bonnie looked at their daughter through the phone. "In the series and comic books they usually do this kind of thing sooner or later. You know, because the regular police cannot deal with these mammals with super powers, and they need a special team to do this kind of thing. Some of your brothers have been saying..."
"No one truly mentioned anything like that lately." Judy said, purposely cutting her father before he could go forward with this. "Maybe someone could even been thinking on doing something like that, but no one mentioned a thing at the ZPD."
"Well, they better be planning to form a special team." Stu said to his daughter. "They can't just hope that you will go in direction to danger every time that a new of these weirdos come along! You already put yourself in a lot of danger with that rhino!"
"Dad." Judy said,
"It's true!" Stu said to her, "That horned guy could have sent you flying!"
"Stu, please, calm down." Bonnie said, placing a paw on her husband's shoulder, and this seemed to make the male bunny stand down a little.
"But, your father do have a point, Judy." Bonnie said, now looking at the screen and in her daughter's eyes. "Going after regular criminals is already dangerous enough, we don't want to have to worry about you facing mammals that can shot fireballs form their paws."
Judy looked at her mother, and she knew that there would hardly be a good answer to that.
There truly was a great difference from being against a regular criminal going after a meta mammal criminal. There was no real training do deal with this kind of thing. Judy had to improvise greatly in order to be able to help Alex to deal with Rhinehart, and even she recognized that what she did was so risky that it bordered on the downright deranged. She counted herself lucky that her plan actually worked, and she knew very well that it could have ended very different and not a tad bit happy for her.
Her parents really had the reason to be worried, but Judy was not just going to tell them that.
"Look, I understand that you two are worried on what could happen." Judy said to them. "But it is just like when I first moved to Zootopia. I did fine in the past two years, didn't I?"
"Yeah, but Judy!" Stu said, looking at his daughter. "This is way different! Before I was worried about all the big predators full of fangs! Now I'm worried about one of these weirdos melting your face off with laser from their eyes!"
"Dad, you should stop calling meta mammals 'weirdos'." Judy said to her father, in an admonition tune, "I'm pretty sure that most of them would not enjoy being called that."
"Maybe, but still…" Stu tried to say, but his wife stopped him.
"We are just worried about your safety, Judy." Bonnie said, "This is definitely not what any of us imagined you going through when you moved to Zootopia."
Once again, Judy had to admit to herself that her parents had a point.
Judy would never have guessed, even in her wildest dreams, that she would end up having to fight mammals who had the power to control wind or turn their bodies into some kind of metal. Why would she ever even think anything like that? Her life was not a cartoon nor a comic book, and it definitely wasn't some videogame to play on the computer.
"I know, but this does not change the fact that I compromised myself with protecting Zootopia." Judy said, and her father was quick to answer.
"From normal things! Not from mammals that could have come out from a comic book from the Marvole or the Z.C. Comics! Judy, this is too much for you!"
"Dad." Judy said, and she looked at both of her parents.
"I need to keep doing my job." She said to both of them, looking at her phone and at the two bunnies that were in there looking back at her. "Independent of what happens, I am still a cop, and it is my job to protect the mammals of Zootopia."
"But they-" Stu tried to say, but Judy was quick to cut him.
"Ever since I moved here." Judy said, "I went through more things than more bunnies would have thought of going through. I ran from savage predators. I investigated dangerous mammals. I stopped an entire conspiracy against the predators of Zootopia. I did all of that with the help of a dear friend that is still by my side to this day."
As she said that, she cast a glance to her side, to the fox in police uniform that was sitting right next to her. Nick saluted his partner as she looked at him. She then looked back at her parents.
"I did all of that, and I did it because I had a duty with the mammals of Zootopia. Now is no different." Judy said, looking at them. "Sure, it was not what I expected when I first came, but neither was my first case, and I managed it in the end. I think that was quite enough to prove that I can take care of myself. And I surely can now."
Judy hoped that she had made a point in there, and the expressions of her parents were telling her that she had.
"Just put a little faith in me, okay?" Judy asked, and the two bunnies traded a look, as they took in what their daughter had just said to them.
"We do have faith in you, Judy." Bonnie said, "Just, promise you will be careful, okay?"
Judy looked at her phone, and she nodded.
"I promise."
"And, if you see a perp you are chasing start to glow and fire beams of energy through his paw pads, you turn around and start running away." Stu said to her.
"Gotta go now, talk to you later." Judy said, and she was soon hanging up on her phone. She leaned against her seat and let out a sound that was something between a sigh and a groan.
A while of silence remained, as Nick looked at his partner, before saying:
"Parents, huh?"
Judy sighed, and she looked at her partner.
"Yeah, my parents worry more than they should sometimes." She said, and Nick looked back at her.
"Do you think they are worrying more than they should right now?" Nick asked her, "I mean, if they saw the news, especially those that showed you jumping inside a hurricane, I'd say they are actually worrying in the right amount."
Judy looked back at her partner, and she didn't even had the heart to contradict him.
She looked ahead, at the steering wheel of their cruiser, at the windshield, and at the street that was beyond it. Mammals and cars were all moving across the street, coming through and fro, just like they have always done before all of this began. It was hard to believe that so much had actually changed in the span of a few weeks.
"How did all of this happened?" Judy asked absently. "How did the world changed so much?"
"Well, if my memory doesn't fails, it all started when a puma fell on our cruiser." Nick said, and he looked at the ceiling of their vehicle. "By the way, they did a pretty good job fixing it."
This caused another silence to install in the place, before Judy ventured to ask a question:
"How many meta mammals do you think there are around?" She asked her partner. "How many of them could actually be criminals?"
"Hard to say." Nick said to her, "Hunter was pretty vague in that aspect. But, if we used comic books and television series as a basis, it is safe to assume that they are all around and in all levels of society."
Nick looked back at his partner.
"You know, what bothers me is that I never even heard about anything like that." He said to her. "I never actually met any of these meta mammals. I never saw anything like what Hunter and his peers can do. I never even heard any form of humor about that, not even urban legends."
Nick stopped for a moment to think on it.
"Actually, I heard a few things around, like about some sheep that exploded when someone touched them, and about some guy that could steal jewels from rooms that were completely locked." He admitted, "But, I never gave it any attention. I mean, why would I? But now that I think about it, maybe I should give these things a bit more of attention."
Judy looked at him, and she then looked back at the street.
"This does changes everything, right?"
"Well, maybe not everything." Nick said to her, "But, it does change somethings."
Another silence, as Judy and Nick both reflected into all that had been changing lately due to the recent events.
It was happening all around the city and outside of it as well. Mammals were now aware that there were mammals out there that were capable of things that should be impossible. That pumas could shot lightnings. That rhinos could fly. That polar bears could turn themselves into golden metal. Who knew what else was out there...
Sure, a good number of mammals seemed to be scared about this, but others seemed like they were somewhat thrilled. Of course, it seemed that very few actually were like Grooms, who thought that the meta mammals were dangerous and they should be locked up. Still, it seemed that all kinds of wackos out there were seeing in this a new thing to focus all of their attention.
Conspiracy theorists had been on full steam ever since, and Nick could mention a friend of his' as an example of this. Also, there was a number of mammals that looked like they were trying to take advantage of the situation in some way, starting with the scammers, who were seeing in this a new way of making more money. An example of this was their old acquaintance, Duke Weaselton, who they had caught just the day before selling "meta mammal detectors", which were guaranteed to "detect the presence of any meta mammal that came within a ten meter radius". The guy really wasted no time.
Not to mention the changes in the ZPD.
Of course, they didn't had yet a precise official protocol in regarding meta mammals. However, it seemed that now there was a new form of procedure between the cops: if they had the suspicion that the one they were going after was a meta mammal, they would keep their distance and call for backup, in last case, they should call the S.W.A.T. team.
"So, what do we do now?" Judy said as she looked at her partner and he looked back at her.
"What kind of question is that?" Nick said, looking his bunny partner in the eyes.
"We keep doing our job, of course." Nick said to her, and she looked back at him. "I mean, didn't you just said that, no matter what, we still have a duty with the city?"
Judy looked at him, and she knew that he was right. As he looked at her with his usual smirk, she was able to smile back at him.
This was just another reason why she loved that dumb fox.
For some reason, the thought made her blush and caused her nose to twitch. She hoped that Nick had not noticed.
"Okay then." Judy said, placing both paws into the steering wheel and getting ready to drive. "In this case, we better get back to our patrol and make sure that everything is going okay."
"Yeah, we should." Nick agreed, "But first, I need to know something." He said, causing Judy to stop and look at him.
"That party you said you got drunk into." Nick said, looking at his partner with all seriousness. "How exactly did that happened?"
Judy looked at him, with a "seriously" expression. Nick looked back at her.
"What? Do you blame me for being curious?" Nick asked her, "I mean, you who always went by the book and behaved all the time? Seriously, I would never have guessed that you got citations for disturbing order and for being indecent. That must have been a hell of a party."
Nick spoke about it very casually, and Judy could only look back at him, before she sighed.
"It was a graduation party for one of my sisters." Judy said to him, looking away, "I was eighteen at the time, and my sisters convinced me to stop studying for a night so I could go with them. There was a lot of bunnies in there, as well as a lot of booze. I tried some because everyone was insisting, and before I know it, I gulping down whole cups of it."
"Oh my." Nick said, looking at his bunny partner. "Now I have to hear details." He said, looking at her with a lot of interest. Judy could only sigh as she looked back at him.
"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot really tell you much." She said, looking at her partner. "I don't remember very much about that night. Everything is just a huge blank after my fourth cup."
"Oh well." Nick said, shrugging. "Guess that's what happens when you drink more than you should." He looked at her with a smirk. "Still, I'd love to hear what you do remember of the only party you ever went."
Judy rolled her eyes.
"Let's go back to work, shall we?" She said, as she started the cruiser and removed it from the parking spot where they were. She wanted to just focus on their work and forget it. However, by the expression that her fox partner had in her face and with what she knew about him, it was most likely that he was not going to let it go.
As the bunny and fox cops went on with their business, another pair of cops was going on with their own special assignment.
They had been doing it for the past week, as they stood parked into a regular car on the side of the street, at some distance from Groomed Feathers and Polished Scales, looking at the building on their stakeout routine. The one that Bogo himself had assigned for them, completely off-book for what it seemed, as they were told to keep an eye on the two meta mammals as they went on with their new work.
They did as it was assign to them, of course, once it was the work that their boss had given to them.
"They still work inside of the pet shop." Wolfard said as he looked at the place from a distance with binoculars, talking in a small recorder. "Just like they did yesterday. And the day before... and the day before that as well."
By his side, Fangmeyer looked at the wolf as she ate a little of her fishsticks once more. It was obvious that he was bored.
"Tired of our assignment already?" She asked him, and he sighed as he put down the binocular.
"Come on, you know that stake outs take time." She said, looking at him.
"Yeah, but these are not regular mammals." The wolf said to her. "Come on, the puma can shot lightning bolts from his paws, and the gazelle can move objects with her mind! They are friends with a mouse that could be the smartest guy in the planet! I heard that they are also friends with a raccoon that can teleport!"
He looked at the store that they were tasked with looking, for they knew that the two meta mammals were in there.
"I was expecting this to be more interesting than the regular stake out." He said; looking at it with crossed arms. The tigress looked at him.
"Oh, so being in a car all day with me is not interesting?" She asked, and the wolf immediately perked as he looked at her.
"W-what? No!" He quickly said, "I mean, yes! I mean... Is just... I just thought that maybe they would have more action than the other mammals!" Wolfard said, gesturing at the store.
"I mean, they didn't done anything ever since we started to follow them." The wolf said, "The most interesting thing that happened in the past week was a few hours ago when that limo stopped in here to deliver that big white bird. Other than that this has pretty much been dead." He looked at her.
"Not that I'm complaining, you know, I just wish that something more interesting would happen." He said, "I didn't expected this last week to be so dead."
"And what exactly did you expected?" Fangmeyer asked him, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't know?" He said, looking at the tigress. "But, in the comic books, they guys with super powers always have a lot of interesting things happening in their lives. They have cool vehicles. They have great places that they use to practice with their powers. They meet up with other mammals who have powers like them and do some cool things like rescuing others and fighting super villains..."
"Sounds like you are hoping that they would be just like the comic books you read as a pup." She said the wolf. "This is real life. It kind of seems like a story of sci-fi at the moment, but it is still real life."
"Yeah I know..." Wolfard said, "Is just that... All my life I dreamed what would be like if the world was like the comic books." He admitted, looking at her. "Do you know that I used to love super heroes? The X-Mammals used to be my favorites. Now all of sudden it is like there are X-Mammals in the real life! This is like, my puppyhood dream coming to life! Can you imagine?"
She looked at him, and she did found it endearing that he still was a bit of a puppy on the inside. She remained in silence as she looked back at him.
"I guess that I just... I don't know; I kind of expected their lives to be like the one of the mammals in the comic books." Wolfard admitted, "I mean; you were there when Hunter faced the rhino, and also you heard about how he faced the bandits in the mall and that polar bear made of brass, right?" He asked, and she nodded, indeed, she had heard a lot about Hunter's little adventures ever since they first heard of him a couple weeks ago.
"So, I just..." Wolfard said, looking away. "I don't know, I just thought that their lives would be a bit more thrilling than that. Kind of like in the stories..."
"Oh, you puppy." She said, petting his head, and this caused the wolf to blush a bit. His tail would be wagging if he were standing, though.
"You are very sweet." She said to him, she turned her head to the store, and it was right on time to see something.
"Wait, something is happening." She said, and Wolfard perked at this, as he too was now looking at the store, and he was using his binoculars to look at the store.
Without a doubt, it were Hunter and Thompson, and they were both taking with them a big bird in a leash. The bird looked regal as it walked elegantly by their side and it had a long tail behind itself, as the two meta mammals guided it outside.
"Yeah, it's them. And that is the bird that the limo brought." Wolfard said, as he looked at the store, "It is a white peacock. Not many of these around. It looks like they are taking it somewhere."
"Let's follow them." Fangmeyer said, as she started the car and started to follow the two mammals from a certain distance. She had done stakeouts before, and she knew how to follow a mammal without them truly realizing that they were being follow, something that came with experience.
Soon, the car was slowly moving a dozen meters or so away from the two walking mammals, as they were taking the albino peacock to somewhere. Probably back to the guys who left it in their care.
Suddenly, a thought came over the tigress, as she looked in direction of the mammals, and her expression suddenly changed.
"Oh my..." She said, and this caused the wolf to look at her.
"What? What happened?" He asked, and the tigress looked forward at the two mammals with what seemed to be worry.
"I just remembered one thing." She said, still looking forward.
"What? You had to call your brother?" He asked her, seemingly clueless, and she looked back at him for a moment.
"Do you remember of the mob bosses of the city?" She asked him, and Wolfard nodded.
Zootopia was a big city, and it was a place that was very welcoming to everyone in it and a very nice place to live. However, it also had a seedy underbelly, filled with crime of all kind and that stayed just outside of the public eye.
In this underbelly, Zootopia was divide in territories, each one controlled by a specific mob boss that controlled certain illegal activities. They were very respectable figures to the public eye, but all of them were mob bosses known for their violence and brutality. Mr. Big was one of them, but there were others.
"Yeah, what about that?" Wolfard asked.
"Don't you remember that Wilde said that one of them had a pet?" She told to the wolf as she looked at the road and at the mammals that they were tailing. "An albino peacock?"
The wolf looked at her for a moment, as he tried to remember. That was when he truly remembered. Wilde used to talk a bit of some mammals that he met, as well as some things that he heard around before becoming a cop. Of course, he never said anything that could actually compromise himself or count as an accusation or as snitching, even though nearly everyone knew of his previous life as a hustler.
He remembered that Wilde once mentioned that he had a friend who got a rare pet for someone. It was an albino peacock, and it became the pet of...
The wolf's eyes widened and he looked back at the albino bird that was walking on the leash that Thompson was holding.
Could it be?
"Yeah... I guess that these two do have an interesting life after all." The tigress said, "They are going to deliver the pet of Kuma Akira."
Zootopia was a big city, with all kinds of biomes in it, divided by the multiple districts and by the multiple blocks and the many places that were inside each district. Among these, were the Vole Gardens, a place known the great amount of noble houses and gated communities that it had in it.
It was a known place, where the wealthy decided to live, and the kind of place where you could find mammals who had both money and political influence. It was the example of a certain house that had the name "KUMA" printed on the front, and that looked to be the house of some wealthy businessmammal. It was big and elegant, and it had a nice-looking garden with small trees in it, as well as a fountain.
However, the focus was not on this garden with fountain, but on the inside of the house, where the mammals resided.
In a room of the house, three mammals were, and they were a family. The father, the mother, and their young son. They were spending some quality time together as a family, as father and ten-year old son both played a board game that looked to be something that most would find hard to understand. It looked like a game that you played with stones with symbols in them, and they looked at the board.
All the while, father and son smiled at each other and laughed as each one made a movement in answer to the move of the other, and they were even chatting as they continued to play the game. It seemed that the father was complimenting his son for playing well, and even giving him some hints on how to play, to which the son smiled back and said something in return, all the while the mother watched them play with a smile on her face.
Of course, it was mostly possible to come these conclusions by watching, once the three talked in a language other than English. Still, they all looked like a very happy family, enjoying the time that they had, all laughing and smiling.
However, this was interrupt when there was a knock on the door.
The father, a male giant panda, turned his head to the door, and said, in Japanese:
"Who is it?"
As an answer, someone came in, a snow leopard wearing a suit. He walked to the panda, and whispered something in his ear.
As he whispered, the expression of the panda changed, and it became serious, but only for a moment, before he looked back at his son.
"I'll have to go now." He said in Japanese to his son, and he looked back at his father. "We'll finish this game later on, okay?"
The son looked at him for a moment, and he looked a bit sad, but he only answered, also in Japanase:
"Okay."
The panda nodded at his son, and he got up, he walked to his wife, and said to her:
"My duty is calling."
This was all that needed to be said.
The wife looked at her husband, and she nodded, and the panda leaned over and kissed her forehead, before turning to leave.
The panda was quite imposing on his own right. He had a sturdy body, quite round, as most would expect from pandas, but it was muscled nonetheless. He stood on around 7 feet tall, not a small mammal by any means, and he had a scar over his right eye. He was wearing black pants and a white shirt and, as he walked out, he picked out his blazer, which he had removed and placed in a nearby chair, and wore it.
As he walked out of the room, with the snow leopard coming right by his side, the panda was buttoning the blazer over his body, and the gentle and kind look at he had while with his family had vanished from his blue eyes. It was replace with a coldness and assertiveness that would make many mammals feel a least a tad bit intimidated.
Kuma Akira had learned how to shift from a loving family father into a man who focused on his business in a matter of seconds. It was something developed out of need, as he needed it to keep both his business running and his family safe and happy. At some moments, like that, he needed to stop being a father of family very quickly to become the man who could solve an urgent matter.
He and the leopard walked across the hallways of the house, until they arrived into a double door that led to an office/meeting room.
The panda opened the doors, and saw four mammals inside of the room. Two of them were black bears were suits, just like the snow leopard, like the snow leopard these bears worked for the Kuma family, more precisely, to Kuma Akira. The other two mammals in there he didn't truly knew.
The first one was a cheetah. He was sitting in a chair and looking at the ceiling when Kuma Akira walked in. He should be around 6.3 feet when standing, and the fur of his body was of a golden yellow with spots all over, with white on his muzzle and down his neck. His eyes were of a shade of green close to jade, and they looked at the panda as he walked in. He was wearing red shirt, black jeans pants and a jacket of faux-leather, and he wore a golden chain around his neck and some rings on the fingers of his paws.
The other mammal in there was standing, and he was a bull. He was taller than Kuma by around a foot, and he had an impressive pair of horns on his head, both of ivory-white coloration. The fur of his body was of a dark-brown coloration and his eyes, which now looked at the newcomer, were of a caramel coloration, and they looked at the panda with a raised eyebrow. The bull dressed only a simple white shirt and jeans pants, and he had no jewelry like the cheetah.
The panda looked intently at the two of them, and he walked forward into the room, the bears immediately stood into attention.
"Kuma-sama." They both said as they bowed to him, and the panda walked and sat on the chair in there, looking at the two mammals who were in there, and these both looked back at him.
"So, Mr. Kuma." The cheetah said, "I have to say that is an honor to know such a distinctive and noble mammal." He said, doing a bow, but this one was not respectful like the one of the bears. Actually, the panda thought there was some mockery in it.
"Hold on." The bull said, now looking at the panda, "That is the 'Kuma' guy? The Yakuza boss?" He looked at the other mammal, and then he looked at the cheetah "The guy is a panda."
Kuma looked back at him, and he said, in a patient tune and in perfect English.
"Yes, I am." He looked at the bull as he spoke that, "Does that bothers you?"
"Well, is just..." The bull said, looking at the cheetah, "The way the guy spoke, I got to understand that you were a bear."
"Pandas are bears." Kuma said patiently to the bull, "Didn't they taught you that in school?"
The bull looked back at him, and he shrugged.
"Well, is just... I kind of expected some bit bear, with big claws and stuff. Kind of like them." He said, gesturing to the black bears, and he looked back at the panda, "I didn't expected... well, that." He said, gesturing to the panda, as if he was pointing at something in his face. The blue eyes of the panda still looked at him, before they turned to one of the black bears.
"Now, what is this about?" he asked in Japanese, and the bear came to his side, and he started to talk to him.
"We have confirmed that these two are the ones who have been invading the territory." The bear said back to him in Japanese, as they looked at the cheetah and the bull. "We caught them trying to sell guns to one of your clients, and it seems that the two have been trying to settle a deal with a supplier. When we caught them, they requested to speak to you."
The panda heard this, and he nodded, and then he turned his attention to the two mammals in there.
"So, you two wished to discuss something with me?" he asked, and the cheetah was the one to speak.
"Yeah, that's right." He said, looking at the panda, "As a matter of fact, it is something that you might find to be of your interest."
The panda looked at the feline before him, and he rested his chin on his paws as he looked at the cheetah. "I'm listening."
The cheetah looked satisfied for having his attention, and he then started to talk:
"Okay, you know, a little over a week ago, I was minding my own business, living at the shadow of my father and being okay with having to do all that he said." The cheetah said, looking at the panda, "My brother, who was the favorite, was also always giving me orders and giving me lowly jobs just because he could. The guy is a complete jerk, you know? And dad always preferred him. But, this is not important."
Kuma was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, and it seemed that he was wondering just where this was going. The cheetah seemed to be getting to the point.
"Anyway, I wished for something to change." He said, looking at the panda, "I wished that I could grow as a mammal, and maybe have my own thing, to prove to my father and my brother that I'm not the failure they always thought. I spent the days waiting for a chance, just one, to be able to achieve the greatness I knew I could have."
He looked back at them, and he gestured to the bull.
"That was when Stuart here came." He said, and Kuma looked at the bull, who still looked at him with a condescending look, as if he was not taking him seriously. Kuma didn't liked that one bit.
"You see, when we first met we were at odds." The cheetah admitted, "He was like 'don't mess with me', and I was like 'or what', it was not nice. Of course, that was until I realized that Stuart here is a mammal of skills."
He said, as he walked to the bull and patted his arm.
"Seriously, you wouldn't believe what this guy can do. That's when I realized, with a guy like Stuart by my side, I could finally start growing." He said, and turned to the panda. "But, I also realized, and it was Stuart himself who pointed it out to me, even with his help, I would never be able to grow is I continued to live in my father's shadow."
He spoke, the bull stood by his side without saying anything, and the cheetah smiled at the panda. "I realized that I needed to leave the nest. I needed to find some other place for me, someplace that I could call 'my turf'." He spoke, the smile never leaving his lips. "But I wondered: where could I go? That's when it hit me: Zootopia!"
He smiled brightly as he said that.
"Yeah, this big and beautiful city that is full of opportunities for all the mammals who come into it!" He said, making a wide gesture, as if to encompass the city as a whole. "It is a place where anyone can be anything! It surely sounded like the perfect place for me to grow and stablish myself."
The cheetah said that with a lot of pride, Kuma looked at him with an indifferent expression, and he said:
"I'm still waiting to hear the thing you said was of my interest."
The cheetah smiled at him, "Just getting there."
He then walked closer, and this caused the bears to stand on guard.
"You see, in order to grow, you need to make deals with others, especially if you are new to the place." The cheetah said, with a friendly face. "Making deals is always better than solving things with violence. This is something that my father taught me. So, this is why I am here."
He placed his paws on the desk, and looked at the panda. "I'd like to offer you a deal."
Kuma looked at him, with a questioning gaze.
"What kind of deal?" The panda asked, and the cheetah smiled back at him.
"The deal is, from now on, I control the gun market here in Zootopia." The cheetah said, "You will still do the business, of course, because you have a lot more experience and is older on the city, but I'll be the guy running the show. In return, we will be giving you thirty percent of all of the profit from now on. So, what do you think?"
There was silence on the room, and Kuma looked at the cheetah deep in the eyes, as if he was trying to see through him.
"Is this some kind of joke?" The panda asked, and this time it was Stuart, the bull, who answered.
"Not at all, panda." He said, looking at the black and white bear, "You can bet your soft plushy face that he is serious."
Kuma gave him a look, while the ones around gave him a glare, save for the cheetah, who smiled as he looked at the panda.
"I'm here making you a pretty good deal." He said, looking at the panda before him. "Instead of just coming and taking your turf from you, or getting you 'out of the way', so to speak..." He said, passing a claw over his neck, as if to emphasize his words, "I'm offering you a way to keep part of what you have. You gotta admit that it is rather reasonable."
Kuma looked at him, and he said:
"And, what happens if I refuse?" He said, going into the game of the cheetah, and the smile faltered a bit, but it turned into a smirk.
"Oh, that would be really sad." The feline said as he looked at the ursine.
"Well if we could not make a deal with you, then it meant we would have to go for the second option. This was another thing that my father taught me." The cheetah said, and Kuma looked at him.
"And, what would that 'second option' be?" The panda asked, and the cheetah looked at him, as he spoke:
"To take it by force."
One of the black bears reacted to this, as he was walking to the cheetah, speaking something in Japanese, ready to grab his shoulder, when the bull reacted. The bovine grabbed the bear's wrist and squeezed it painfully, causing the predator to cry out, and then he delivered an elbow right in the nose of the bear, sending him to the ground, cursing in Japanese and holding his nose.
"Yeah, I don't know much about bears." Stuart said, as the other bear and the snow leopard pulled guns and pointed at him, "But I do know that they have a lot of nerves in their noses, making it painful to be hit in there. Thanks for the tip, by the way." He said to the cheetah, and he nodded back at him.
"Is this how you make business?" The panda asked, getting up as he kept his eyes on the two mammals. "By invading someone's territory, condescending them, threatening them and hurting their employees?" He asked, and the cheetah looked back at him.
"Yeah, I'm not very good in making deals." The cheetah said, as he looked back at him. "But, I thought it was worth a shot." He said looking at the ursine, before he sighed. "Too bad it failed. It will be really a shame seeing this beautiful house going up in flames with everyone inside of it... your wife and that kid of yours are in here as well, right?"
A loud bang resounded. However, it was not the sound of a gunfire. Rather, it was the sound of Kuma's paw slamming in the table so hard that it made a dent in it.
The panda now looked with murder at the cheetah.
"I could even have considered forgiving all that you did upon this point." The panda said, every word dripping with anger. "But you have just signed your death sentence by threatening my family."
The cheetah looked back at him, and he had a smirk on his face.
"Oh, I didn't made any threats, and certainly not against your lovely, special family." He said, looking at the panda. "I'm just stating a fact. If you don't reconsider real quickly, or at least let us go so you can think it over, then right here, right now, your kingdom is going to go down on flames."
Kuma looked at the arrogant smirk in the eyes of that cheetah, and he kept looking at him as he said:
"Cataro!"
"Sir." The snow leopard said, and the panda gave his commands.
"Beat them up and skin them alive." The panda said, looking at the cheetah and at the bull, "Leave their pelts on the street, somewhere they will be find. Let them be an example."
"Sir!" Cataro said to his boss, and he then barked commands at the two other bears. One of them was pointing the gun at the two mammals, while the other one, who had been punch on the nose, had gotten up and walking to the bull. He seemed like he was ready to give back at the bovine, as his nose was now bleeding.
He was saying something in Japanese, sounding like a threat, as he placed a paw on the bull's shoulder, his knuckle ready to start punching.
That was when something that no one around expected happened:
The bull erupted in flames.
Everyone on the room, safe for the cheetah, jumped back in surprise. The bear in particular, as his paw had been burn by the flames, and it was now on fire itself. As the bear fanned his paw through the air, trying to put the fire out, a hoof involved in flames landed on his shoulder, causing his shirt and the fur under it to burn as well.
The bear let out a cry of pain, as he was force to turn around.
The bull was in flames as he looked back at the bear, a smirk on his face, as he placed another hoof on his face, causing the bear to let out a cry of agony.
The others looked in horror as the bear, whose body and head were now on flames, fell to the ground, squirming as he tried to put the flames out. The bull continued in there, looking down on him.
The bovine had flames burning around himself; however, neither his clothes nor his body seemed to be damage by the flames in any way.
The bull then looked over his shoulder, glaring at the three remaining mammals, and looking to them as a demon involved in orange and yellow flames.
As the bear finally perished to the flames, the cheetah pulled out a gun from inside his clothes, as he looked at the panda, and said:
"You should have accepted the deal."
Back after a while. Guess some ideas just refuse to die, or maybe I'm just a stubborn guy who refuses to let go of old ideas even though I have new ones all the time.
Kuma Akira is a character that was originally create as part of a series of headcanons by TheHook1 from DeviantArt