Hey Everyone!
Real quick here, I just wanted to make mention of the fact that I have another music suggestion to pair with this new chapter of ours! As always, you need not listen to it if you don't want to of course, as it is only a humble suggestion to fit the overall mood and atmosphere of the chapter, but you are more than welcome to do so. I personally recommend playin' the suggested music piece during the scene where Nick and Judy first enter the warehouse in Beaverdam.
That being said, here is the title of said suggestion: The Road Leading to the Secret (Mix)
Aside from that, I have no more announcements for the moment. Without any further ado, I at last present to you the 81st chapter of When Instinct Falls! :)
Enjoy...
"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." - Milton Berle
12:32 P.M
"Gosh, I can't believe that we're doing this right now." The rabbit grumbled to herself. "And to think that I didn't even get to finish my salad."
"Chin up, fluff-butt." Nick stated with a wily grin. "My outlook on the opportunity, is that if we manage to bag these guys, we may just end up gettin' on Chief Urzo's good side!"
Judy scoffed, though not without a slight smile across her face.
"Yeah, like that will ever happen. Ever since Bogo shipped us off to this place, that grizzly has been out for us."
"Never know, one day he might be kissing our feet!"
"Come on, Nick, let's just hurry up and catch up with those perps."
"Whatever you say, Whiskers."
Picking up her pace, Judy continued her approach on foot towards the warehouse in the distance, all the while her husband followed shortly behind. Being the undeniably quicker of the two tiny officers, the rabbit made sure that she didn't leave her foxy partner in the dust with each passing footstep. Rushing down the street with hurried intentions, Judy thought back to the very moment when she and her husband had first arrived in Beaverdam; Rolling white waters roaring right through the town, thick buildings of wood and concrete, and a sinister underbelly beyond her own vision of the surface. The bunny had a feeling that something was fishy with the area, and her previous suspicions had been confirmed with the earlier sighting of those marsupials entering the warehouse. To her, they looked rather shady, and certainly worthy of investigation. Just another job to do.
Nick, on the other hand, was expecting results about as near helpful as a chocolate teapot. With a township as large and as wild as Beaverdam itself, he figured that the chances of uncovering some truly useful information about their situation were just about as low as they could get, especially since he had a sinking feeling that they were being watched the entire time. However, it seemed that his aforementioned expectations were overturned with his spotting of a group of rather suspiscious-looking marsupials entering a large, mysterious warehouse without escort. Foretold with his own expectations or not, the fox reasoned that such an opportunity was not to be missed out on. With a probable cause at their side, both Nick and Judy could follow the marsupials and enter the warehouse without any restriction, though their superiors may not have initially approved of their act.
It was quite clear to them that sometimes, the most efficient of decisions could only come from themselves.
Following shortly behind Judy as the two of them approached the warehouse, Nick himself took note of the environment surrounding the ever approaching building: The large warehouse was centered at the far edge of a nearby hydroelectric complex, of which must've bordered the river, for the fox could hear the roar of the waters in the far distance, though he was admittedly unsure of the true source of the noise. In the moment, he was only focused on completing what he and Judy had originally set out to do, and that was to safely and effectively scrutinize the area where they had last seen that group of furtive marsupials. Nick could only hope that trouble wasn't destined to brew from this.
Alongside the sounds of the world around him, the fox eyed over the scene that his emerald-colored eyes made out: Piles of broken boards littered across the pavement beneath his feet, whirring machines shaped like cubes and prisms attached to the buildings to his left and right, and fluttering gusts of garbage and other papery residue blowing about in the mild breeze. The warehouse's windows were broken, its bricks were cracked around the edges and stained with discoloration, and a rather pungent smell filled the windy air.
To put it simply, the place was a dump, clearly having been out of use for a considerably long time, at that. Conveniently, it was the perfect place for a shady marsupial meet up.
Eventually, Nick and Judy at last reached the base of the warehouse, where they met up near the entrance. They nodded in unison before carefully opening the thick doors and quickly slipping inside, all the while careful not to make too much noise. Once inside, Nick rubbed his eyes in an effort to help himself readjust to the considerably darker interior of the building. Gazing over the open space before him, the fox took in the sight of bare and dilapidated metal walls, with the vast area between them filled with crates, boxes, and other shelves of junk, though there was still a decently sized walkway and courtyard farther down into the darker depths of the warehouse, some fifty yards ahead, or so.
"I don't see anyone..." Judy muttered quietly. "Do you?" She asked her partner.
"Nope. Not a soul in sight. Maybe they got bored and went home?" The fox joked, to which the bunny rolled her eyes.
"Come on, Nick, be serious. This could be dangerous."
"Looks pretty vacant to me. Let's look around." Nick suggested.
"Agreed."
Exhaling softly, Judy stepped forward and led her partner further into the building, choosing to take a route that flanked adjacent to the center path, leading up to a staircase that ascended into a network of catwalks high above their heads. Reasoning that the high ground would be the best place to observe and assess the situation at hand, the two officers followed the staircase until they were a good eighty feet into the air, allowing them both to take hold in an excellent visual vantage point over the ground down below.
Quietly creeping along the length of the catwalk, Judy eventually found herself questioning her husband over his former ties with Iluka's criminal syndicate.
"So, Nick..." She began. "Can you tell me about those connections with that kangaroo and Iluka that you mentioned the other day?"
The fox grimaced, his lips pursing together in seeming distaste as he registered his mate's previous inquiry.
"Former connections. " He corrected. "And I didn't know that that dumb kangaroo was working for Iluka, I swear! Not until after we finished our hustle, actually."
"It's okay, you don't need to apologize for it. Just tell me what happened, and if it might have any relations with this whole marsupial business here."
"Right, right." Nick acknowledged before exhaling and clearing his throat. "Well, would you believe me if I told you that this kangaroo guy and I once new eachother?"
"I guess I would."
"Anyways, as I was saying, this kangaroo guy and I may have worked together on a con job once in the past, but before that, he and I had actually met a few times. We were never really friends, but having good connections when you're a con artist, especially one on the lookout for tax collectors, I might add, can be a real game changer. Ramic, was his name, and he'd occasionally give me a place to stay in between cons in return for future favors. One day, he came to me asking for some help with smuggling out some dirty old vase from Savannah-Central over to his home turf, Outback-Island."
Nick took a brief moment to formulate his words before continuing;
"I offered up my own expertise, and once we were finished, he thanked me, and then I asked him who and what the whole job was for in the first place. He told me he worked for the crime lord of Outback-Island, a tasmanian-devil named Iluka Rombahe. I didn't know who the heck he was, at the time, but I quickly found out. I didn't really like doing cooperative work with mammals tied in to big crime bosses, you know, ever since the whole incident with Vladzotz and Mr. Big. That's probably why Ramic didn't bother telling me who he was workin' for and why beforehand. After that, he hopped off like the kangaroo he is, and although I tried to catch up to him, I lost him pretty quick in the crowds."
"And what happened after that?" The rabbit asked.
"Haven't seen him ever since." Nick claimed with a nonchalant shrug. "I went back home and continued my regular work with good ol' Finnick. The end."
"So, this Ramic guy... " Judy started. "You think he might be here, like, right now?"
Nick nodded his head in thought before explaining;
"Probably. If Iluka is, I can pretty much guarantee you that Ramic is too. Thanks to the ZPD's resources, I've dome some personal research in the past. Turns out that Ramic is Iluka's bodyguard and right hand mammal. Basically the second in command of the Outback-Island mob, to be precise. Who would have thought? I know that I certainly didn't."
"Bodyguard, huh?" The bunny questioned out loud.
"Oh yeah, bodyguard for sure. The dude is huge. Boomers like him can grow pretty big, but Ramic is uber fit. Did I mention that he knows some super advanced kickboxing?"
"Kickboxing?"
"Uh-huh. You've got a pretty strong kick, Carrots, but I have a feeling that this guy would give you a real run for your money." Nick said.
"Hmph, as if." Judy retorted in a somewhat teasing manner.
"I dunno, Whiskers, Ramic's street name is 'The Basher', and you don't get a name like that for doing nothing. Besides, aren't kangaroos just pretty much oversized bunnies?"
"Okay, I'm not gonna bother responding to that." The rabbit stated. "Let's just focus on what we're doing."
Nick grinned to himself. "You're the boss, officer hippity-hop. Lead the way." He acknowledged, gesturing politely towards the catwalk space in front of them.
With an exhale of baited breath, Judy then stepped forward and continued across the metal pane beneath her feet. Looking down beyond the rails and to the ground far below, the rabbit seized up as she spotted a flicker of movement roll across her line of vision. Swallowing hard, she quickly grabbed Nick by the shoulder before pulling him closer to the base of the catwalk, with the two of them practically laying down on the cold, metal surface so as to make themselves just about as small of a visual target as physically possible.
"Hey, what gives?" The fox mumbled as his mate huddled up next to him.
"Shh!" Judy hissed as quietly as she possibly could before silently pointing down to the scene below them.
Down on the ground level of the warehouse, a small crowd of mammals gathered in a pack, seemingly unaware of the officer's presence just above them. Nick, with his understandably superior eyesight to Judy, was the first of the two officers to notice that each and every single one of the mammals below them were marsupials, save for two beavers loitering on the very outskirts of the pack, with their backs to the crowd. He could only tell them to be beavers due to their thick, flat tails, of which spread out across the floor like fleshy pancakes. Nick momentarily thought to himself as to why some native beavers would be helping the marsupial thugs, but his thoughts quickly trailed off as he watched both of the beavers turn around and face his direction, allowing the fox to get a good look at them both, though one of them was vastly different from the other.
The beaver on the right turned around to reveal a set of large bucked teeth and tiny claws. Nothing special. The other one, however, nearly caused the rabbit to gasp aloud in surprise, for it wasn't even a beaver at all! As the creature reared its head into sight, no teeth were seen. Instead, a thick, rounded protrusion jutted out from the mammal's face, curving off in a very smooth looking texture: A bill, colored the very same shade of dark brown as the creature's flat, fat tail. Instead of spindly little claws, this one sported scaly, webbed fingers. The animal wore a simple leather jacket and a rather baggy pair of jeans around its lower body. It was a very, very strange creature to behold, indeed.
Although Judy had never seen one before in person, she knew just what exactly this peculiar creature was: A platypus, a rare type of aquatic marsupial.
Meanwhile, Nick himself took to eyeing over the crowd of marsupials before him. Among the numerous creatures, he spotted three small bandicoots, two wombats, two kangaroos, one beaver, and one platypus, totaling nine mammals in all. Despite the many perps to see, there was one face in particular, and a familiar one, at that, that had managed to catch the fox's undivided attention; One of the kangaroos, a large male standing roughly six feet tall, towering over the rest of the marsupials, Nick recognized as Ramic.
Analyzing his old con-partner's frame, Nick took note of the thick muscle's in Ramic's legs and arms, the former being the most exceptional of the two. The kangaroo's angular face still bore the scars of past fights, and his dark brown eyes matched in coloration with his akubra bush hat, the bowl of which was wrapped with thin and tiny bullet shells. Ramic wore no shirt, with the only piece of clothing covering his upper body being that of a sleeveless, slightly torn up cargo vest. His muscular legs were covered with a pair of briar pants, and the kangaroo's thick tail was wrapped with strands of tribal cloth and other colorful marsupial-culture rags and pelts. A very intimidating sight, without a doubt.
Nick swallowed hard, making a mental note to himself not to get on that kangaroo's bad side, if the situation so called for it.
Suddenly, an idea came to him, and he quickly turned towards Judy so as to explain his reasoning to her;
"Carrots, we need to film this, or record it, or something." He told her as quietly as he could. "This is too good to let get away so easily."
Nodding in understanding, the rabbit, without saying so much as a single word, reached into her utility belt to pull out her mobile phone, of which she hurriedly powered on before pointing towards the marsupials down below and filming the sight before her, though not before temporarily disabling her device's ability to intercept calls; The last thing she wanted was another repeat of what had happened back with Mayor Lionheart in Cliffside Asylum, all those years ago. The nostalgia briefly made her smile as old memories of her endeavor with Nick to unravel the mystery of the Night-Howlers came flooding back to her, though Judy soon found herself focusing all of her attention unto what was happening right then in the present. With her phone trained on and recording the scene unfolding below, the two officers were certain that they would be victorious with Urzo.
So confident were they in their actions, that they just barely noticed a new figure appear among the crowd of mammals down below. Stepping out from behind a small wall of oil drums, a previously hidden marsupial came into view: A tasmanian-devil, with jet-black fur and wild orange eyes. The tazzy wore a simple beige safari suit, and the fur on his head and neck was braided with strings of wooden beads. Hanging from his belt, a glossy painted boomerang was gripped beneath the clawed fingers resting on his waist.
Turning towards his wife and earning her attention, Nick gestured towards the the tasmanian devil down below, all the while silently mouthing the words Iluka Rombahe to her.
"Gentlemammals!" The crime-lord began proudly, causing the two officers hiding above to watch him cautiously. "Mighty fine seeing all o' these familiar faces 'round here."
"Just doin' our jobs, boss." One of the marsupials claimed, though neither Nick nor Judy could tell just which.
"Ace on that. While we oh-so patiently wait for our little employee to arrive, let's go over what was uncovered from Castle Lochlan, shall we?" Iluka asked the crowd around him.
"Aye! We got some real ripper collectibles from those clueless buggers!" A portly wombat stated excitedly, his rather thick Outbacker accent causing Judy to cringe in distaste.
"Bring 'em out, then, lads!" The tasmanian-devil shouted, raising his arms in triumph. "Let's have a gander at these goods of ours."
From the catwalk high above, Nick and Judy exchanged a brief glance to one another, and although no audible words were spoken between the two of them, their thoughts aligned with near perfect unison: They now knew that these marsupials were the ones behind the robbery at the Elktic museum from the other day. Nick's prediction was right all along, and with Judy recording the whole scene down below, they would have all the evidence they needed to extend their influence over the investigation at hand.
Concurrently, the marsupials down below began to break open a few of the boxes scattered around the ground level of the warehouse, pulling out handfuls of plastic bags and chunks of styrofoam pellets. Looking closer, Nick noticed that many of the plastic baggies were choked full of strangely shaped stones - Arrowheads - among other tiny trinkets, including pieces of twisted metal, dulled cloth, and small sticks in the shapes of varying symbols. Most of it looked like dusty old junk to the fox himself, but the marsupials that handled the items looked upon them as if they were priceless artifacts, which was true, but something that Nick admittedly couldn't quite grasp: He supposed that it took a certain fascination of ancient history and old relics to be able to do jobs like this. That was something that he didn't exactly have, but many of the thugs down below clearly did.
Among the collections of artifacts and other knick-knacks that were pulled out, one item in particular was seemingly being handled with extra care and precaution: A tiny metal box that had been hidden alongside the other materials within one of the wooden crates. The mysterious box was promptly handed to Iluka Rombahe himself, whom opened it, revealing what looked to be a thin and crinkly piece of parchment resting upon a small plush of fabric, cushioning the papery material within. Grinning wide, the tasmanian devil delicately removed the item from within the box before tossing the latter object off and to the side. He brought the paper to his face, licking his incisors as he spoke aloud;
"Here it is, boys... The Tuama Parchment! This ancient piece of Elktic script is the next step in finding that blasted tomb that we've been searching for so long!"
Nick and Judy, still hiding silently upon the catwalk high above the scene below, both donned puzzled expressions; Neither had heard of such an artifact before, though it was clear from their excited chatters and expressions that the marsupial thugs themselves were quite riled up over this particular relic of theirs. The fox himself made a mental note to research the aforementioned Tuama Parchment once they were safe and away from the warehouse, along with any other peculiar names and terms that caught his ears.
"Within its ancient words lies the secret to unraveling the path that will lead us to it at last!" Iluka continued, his voice projecting throughout the confines of the warehouse.
"Will you be able to translate it, boss?" The female kangaroo standing beside him questioned with a curious tone of voice. The tasmanian devil proudly exclaimed out loud;
"Of course! Don't forget, mate, you're working with the Outback's greatest cryptologist! Though, I suppose even that title wasn't enough to stop the archaeological foundation from kicking me out once they discovered I was the leader of a criminal organization... Ah, they can go bug off and chase a loan without me, greedy little tossers. Those drongos don't know what they're missin' out on! We'll show them, aye?"
The crowd of marsupials cheered heartily in agreement.
"Now, it might take me some time, but once I decipher this, we'll be one step closer to-!" Iluka continued, but promptly trailed off and stuttered to a halt.
The confident and excited smile across his rugged face slowly melted away as the tasmanian-devil's burnt-orange eyes quickly glanced over the length of the parchment, his expression morphing into that of disappointment, confusion, and even a hint of seeming sadness. He stammered, trying to formulate coherent words, before clearing his throat.
His ears dropped ever so slightly. "I... I can't read it." Iluka murmured softly.
"What?" The kangaroo henchmen beside him questioned.
"I can't read it!" He shouted again, this time in a much louder and harsher voice.
The tasmanian-devil's anger seemed to be growing by the millisecond: His somber expression twisted into a growling snarl of rage, and he began to swiftly and rather carelessly close and open the piece of parchment, as if the action would somehow make the inscription translatable. Sensing danger, the surrounding marsupials begun to pace back a bit.
"It isn't even Elktic!" He hissed aloud, his ears perking up and beginning to flush red with hot blood.
"Then what is it, sir?" The kangaroo asked once more, his voice somewhat timid, as if expecting an outburst from his boss.
"It's GIBBERISH!"
With that last word, Iluka tore the parchment in two; His whittled claws easily ripping through the wrinkled old paper. Growling lowly to himself, he irritably threw the torn up remains to the ground before stomping on them repeatedly with one of his clawed feet. After a few brief seconds, his temper tantrum subsided, though he still inhaled heaving breaths of anger, and his meaty fists were still clenched together in rigid balls. He appeared to be trying to calm himself down, but didn't seem to be very successful at it, either.
"Uh oh, he's going through another intermittent explosive episode!" One of the nearby marsupials muttered. "Quick, someone go get him his stress ball!"
"Don't forget the hot towel!" Another shouted out.
A fat wombat nodded a single time before speeding off and into the deeper parts of the warehouse, soon quickly returning within no more than half a minute, his paws grasping a small, yellow rubber ball, and a steaming white cloth. Cautiously approaching the tasmanian-devil, whom had since taken a seat atop a wooden crate, the wombat wrapped the towel around Iluka's neck before handing him the stress ball and backing away, giving him a rather considerable amount of personal space. The large room fell silent as the tasmanian-devil closed his eyes shut and sighed deeply, occasionally giving the little rubber ball clenched tightly in his right paw a squeeze. All eyes were now trained on Iluka.
While not breaking his line of sight with the group of mammals below, Nick muttered softly to Judy; "Gees, what a temper tantrum that was," Before she shushed him down.
Some few seconds later, the entire warehouse was still as silent as it had ever been. Finally, the main kangaroo henchman, Ramic, Nick deduced him to be, spoke out to Iluka;
"Are you alright, sir?"
There was a tense moment of silence, albeit somewhat brief, before the tasmanian-devil finally bothered to respond.
"I... I feel better now." Iluka claimed with a short sigh. "Forgive me, lads. I seem to have gotten into a bit of a rouse, back there."
Ramic chuckled. "That was a fiery piece o' work, boss. You had us on edge." He stated steadily.
"Nothin' you haven't seen before... Let's just get to it, then." The tasmanian devil grumbled before tossing his stress ball over to the same wombat who had given it to him.
From there, Iluka momentarily stood up from the crate, only to pick up the shredded remains of the parchment he had destroyed a few minutes earlier before plopping back down onto the wooden box behind him with a grunt of discomfort. He irritably kneaded the strips of paper between his thick claws before sighing and turning towards his men.
"You said you scavenged this from the robbery back at Castle Lochlan, aye?" Iluka asked.
"That is correct, sir." The single platypus clarified in that deep and watery voice of his. "Just one of many different tokens related to the blade that we managed to find."
Blade? What could they be talking about? Nick mentally asked to himself, though soon refocused his attention back towards the scene below him as he heard Ramic ask aloud;
"Why did you rip it up, boss?"
Iluka clenched his fists together, causing the paper shreds in his paws to crinkle under stress, and the marsupials around him to flinch in anticipation of another outburst. Before such an outburst took control of him, however, the tasmanian-devil managed to gather his bearings and recompose himself. He then irritably removed the towel from his neck before tossing it to the ground, the sopping piece of cloth plopping down onto the concrete floor with a wet crumpling sound, sliding a few short feet before coming to a slick halt.
"Because it's a fake!" Iluka finally stated, the pitch in his voice surprisingly loud despite his seemingly calm demeanor, causing some of his men to cringe in fear.
"A fake? How is that even possible? It was on display in a historical museum!" The platypus asked, his tone reeking with apparent disbelief. Iluka spoke back carefully;
"Some sort of forgery, without a single doubt... Those drongos at the museum clearly have a sub-par understanding of the Elktic dialect... They must have unknowingly bought the thing from some con-mammal, too distracted by its false worth to even bother making sure the thing was fair dinkum. The blasted script on it isn't even fully translatable!"
"Sounds a bit fishy to me, mate, but you've never been wrong before." The platypus muttered. "You're still the best linguist this side of the city. Can't put doubt on you."
Meanwhile, Ramic growled beneath his breath as he shot a withering glare towards the crowd around him. He stamped his large foot onto the ground before voicing his anger.
"Great! So our best lead on the tomb turns out to be a forgery!" He snarled. "It seems that our little altercation back at Castle Lochlan was a complete and utter waste, then."
Iluka raised his head. "Not quite. The items we acquired may be of no use to us, but we still got at least somethin' from the robbery: The ZPD's distraction." He stated with pride.
"Right... I suppose it gave a lil' bit of wiggle room for that bat sheila you employed. Hopefully she manages without too much trouble." Ramic muttered thoughtfully.
"Ace on that." The tasmanian-devil agreed. "With those blue heelers at the ZPD stretched thin, our goals become that much closer to a reality!"
"So what of that bat you employed, boss? Any news from 'er?" The nearby platypus questioned of his superior.
"Not yet, but she should be arriving sooner or later with the-" Iluka begun, but was cut off when a bothersome noise pierced the air and interrupted him. "Speak of the devil."
Judy herself felt her heart skip a beat, momentarily thinking that it was her own personal cellular device that had gone off, but was quite relieved to determine that the obnoxious ring-tone was indeed coming from the tasmanian-devil down below. The bunny curiously watched as he growled to himself, stood up from the crate, and started to fondle around the many pockets on his attire before eventually pulling out a small mobile phone and bringing it up to one of his ears. With bared teeth, he spoke first into it.
"You had better have good news for me, bat!" Iluka roared into his phone, gripping it so tightly that the device began to slightly creak and bend within his thick fingers.
With her sensitive ears, Judy just barely made out the sound of an irritated, feminine voice emanating from the other side of the phone. She couldn't quite make out just exactly what the mammal on the other side of the line was saying, but judging by the speaker's tone, they sounded somewhat frustrated. The bunny watched as Iluka Rombahe furrowed his brow in contemplation, all the while listening in on the phone. After a few more brief seconds of talk, the voice on the other side went silent, and Iluka stated aloud;
"It's all gone, then... Good. That dirty little rat's legacy can't touch us now, and we have you to thank for it. But, to business... So you secured the package?"
Another few seconds of static chatter from the receiving end of the phone line.
"Yes, yes, of course... I never doubted you, but your particular antics, eh, have left me a wee bit toey." The tasmanian-devil claimed.
The chatter spoke out again, this time in a seemingly confused tone of voice.
"What? Toey?" He growled lowly. "Anxious! It means anxious! Just hurry up and get the package here!"
At that, Iluka promptly ended the call before sighing deeply and slipping his mobile device back into one of his pockets.
"Bloody little bugger." He grumbled to himself.
"What's the gist, then, boss?" Ramic asked.
"She's on her way with the package as we speak. Should be here any minute, though I wouldn't be surprised if the lil' monster takes a detour to feed, or somethin' like that."
The female kangaroo, whom was still unnamed, snorted through her thick nostrils. "Never been a fan of vampire bats either. Got myself nicked by one back in primary school."
Nick furrowed his brow in thought upon detecting the marsupial's most recent conversation from down below. He himself wasn't very fond of vampire bats either, though a part of him had to wonder just how much of that was only because of his tense relationship with his old enemy, Vladzotz Fangpyre, or as Nick personally liked to call him, flappy-bat.
For ages, he'd had a slight fear and disdain of the overall species, what with their peculiar lifestyles and frightening appearance, though most grew no bigger than himself, for that matter. To hear that one was coming this way now made his skin crawl beneath his fur, momentarily thinking over the possibility of it being Vladzotz himself, though he quickly deduced that prospect to be impossible, for Iluka and the other marsupials had explicitly referred to this particular vampire bat as a female. Nick didn't know any females.
Lost in his own thoughts, the fox didn't notice the conversations that continued down below for some few more minutes, that was, until a loud crashing sound startled him out of his train of thought, and jarred him back into reality. He briefly took note of Judy, whom was still crouching low directly beside him, and he sighed in relief, thankful that she was alright. Once he had made sure that his partner was safe, the fox then swiftly glanced around, searching for the source of the previous noise before eventually pinpointing a decently sized window on the far side of the complex, of which had been smashed clean open from the outside, something having flown right threw it and into the warehouse.
Following the path of the creature that had broken through the window, the two officers came to sight with that of a female vampire bat, roughly the size of Judy, flapping down towards the clearing of marsupials at the ground level of the warehouse. Clutched between the bat's talons was a long, thin object, though nothing that the two of them could properly make out from where they currently were. Their vantage point may have been good as it was, but it could only go so far, it seemed. Gliding over to the center of the warehouse, the bat begun to lower to the ground. Once the bat touched down in the center of the crowd, Nick and Judy finally had the opportunity to get a good look at her.
Just like Iluka and the other marsupials had said earlier, the vampire bat was clearly a female, with a lithe, curved body and feminine features hidden beneath a skin-tight, oil black bodysuit, save for her leathery wings, of which were freed from the confines of the material, clearly allowing for maximum mobility and flexibility. The bat sported a pair of large ears that protruded from the very top of her head, and also donned a pair of sharpened fangs that just barely peeked out from behind her lips. The mammal's eyes were green in coloration, much like Nick's very own, and her fur was a dark shade of gray. The vampire bat smiled at the sight of the crowd, revealing rows of sharp and pointed teeth.
"Who's that?" Judy asked quietly, to which Nick gave no response, as he did not know. The two officers continued to watch over the scene down below.
"You're late, and your tardiness has put us all at risk." Iluka grumbled to the bat. "I hope that you understand the trouble I've gone through to arrange this little shindig here."
Upon the tasmanian-devil's concluding words, the female vampire bat furrowed her brow and retorted in a sultry, posh tone of voice;
"Hey now, you weren't the one who had to set a building on fire, and then fly all the way out to Beaverdam with this piece of junk in tow..."
The female vampire bat then condescendingly dropped the item that she had been carrying onto the floor at Iluka's clawed feet. She continued huffily;
"Don't be blaming me for it. Beggars can't be choosers, tazzy, and last I checked, you were practically groveling on your knees trying to get me to do your dirty work for you."
Iluka snarled beneath his breath, his eyes narrowing in distrust. He opened his maw as if he were about to say something back in rebuttal, but instead chose to silence himself as he knelt down and picked up the thin, pole-like object that the female vampire bat had dropped upon the hard ground at his feet. Watching cautiously from above, Nick and Judy observed the tasmanian-devil pull upon the item, causing a surprisingly sharp sound of unsheathing metal to echo throughout the deep and open space of the warehouse.
The dim lights hanging from the building's ceiling gave just enough luminescence to cause the object in Iluka's hands to shine with luster, flickering in the watery, artificial gleam. Squinting his eyes so as to focus down on the item, Nick suddenly realized that it was a sword, though not just any sword: It was Grygorri Ratsputin's sword, stolen right from the ZPD archive at Precinct One. The fox found himself clenching his fists together in frustration, having come to the realization that this was all a part of some villainous plan, all happening right beneath the noses of every officer in the city. Not only that, but Nick personally had spent hours upon hours going over and organizing everything that the ZPD had recovered from Ratsputin's house, and now it was clear to him that this female bat had gone and ruined it all, apparently burning the archive just mere hours earlier.
There was very little that Nick hated more than wasted time and effort, but it was clear that there were even bigger problems at hand, now.
Lightly elbowing Judy so as to get her attention, he very quietly whispered to her;
"That's Ratsputin's sword!"
"I know." She said back as soft as she could. "This looks bad... Real bad."
"This looks good... Real good!" Iluka exclaimed gleefully from down below, to which Nick slightly snickered.
"So, now that you have your precious sword, I suspect you'll honor our agreement, right?" The vampire bat started.
"Right. This service of yours will not go without reward... If you ever need a favor in return, just ring me up proper. You have my word, Miss... Uh, Miss-" He faltered.
"Lucy." The female bat interrupted. "Just call me Lucy."
"Miss Lucy." Iluka finalized with a wide and grin before extending an arm in a gesture of gratitude.
Reaching out with her own, Lucy grasped the tasmanian-devil's considerably larger palm within both of her wings, and then shook, sealing their final agreement for good.
"So then, what say we-" Iluka continued, but promptly halted his words before glancing around suspiciously. "Do you hear that?" He asked aloud.
Judy felt her stomach drop. Focusing her gaze onto the mobile device clenched between her paws, the rabbit resisted the urge to gasp at the sight of Clawhauser's flabby face, his caller ID, filling up the screen of her phone. She recalled having powered off her phone's ability to ring from the call of another mammal, but had completely forgotten about the device's corresponding vibration. Judy had been so focused on the scene unraveling below that she hadn't even noticed her phone vibrating in her grip before it was too late.
In such a stressful moment, she only mustered five words;
"Oh, sweet cheese and crackers."
The rabbit hurriedly pressed the Decline Call button, effectively causing the screen to return to normal and for the phone to stop shaking and buzzing, but the damage had been done. Down below, the bunny and the fox beside her watched with wide eyes as the group of marsupials looked around in search of the source of the sound, which must have been somewhat amplified due to the sheer size of the building's interior. Judy's pupils focused in on the tasmanian-devil crime lord, watching as he fondled around his pockets.
"Is that me?" Iluka muttered.
Judy caught her breath, momentarily thinking the danger to be subsided, that was, until, Lucy, undoubtedly due to her superior hearing, swiveled her head towards the catwalk.
"Up there!" She shouted aloud, causing the gang of thugs to all look directly at the two officers perching motionless above their heads.
Someone coughed, momentarily breaking the awkward silence.
"It's the fuzz!" One of the marsupials yelled out, their voice cracking with each word. "Scram!"
"Run!" Nick shouted to Judy, hastily pulling her to her feet and pushing her in the direction of the exit.
Utter chaos broke out, with many of the marsupials abandoning the stolen goods from the museum and running off into the depths of the warehouse, save for a few that pulled out real guns and began firing off in the direction of Nick and Judy as they ran away down the catwalk, their final destination being just about anywhere but where they were then. The rabbit herself heard a sharp pinging noise bounce off just below her foot; She didn't need to look to know that a small bullet had almost struck her. Meanwhile, Nick spared a brief glance to the behind of him. In that short moment, despite all of the chaos, he locked eyes directly with Ramic, whom was staring up at him with an expression of bewilderment and seeming disbelief. The kangaroo then parted his gaze from the fox before turning around and hopping away, off in the same direction that Iluka was going.
From down below, Nick and Judy both heard a chaotic conglomeration of sounds and noises filling the warehouse, ranging from shouting marsupials to ringing gunshots.
The bunny detected the tasmanian-devil crime lord shriek out in anger;
"Gah! This can't be happening!"
"Just get out of here, tazzy." Lucy's voice ordered to Iluka. "You need to survive if I'm ever going to get my favor from you. I'll take care of the coppers!"
That couldn't be good.
Continuing to sprint down the catwalk as fast as they could, Nick and Judy turned corner after corner, eventually getting out of sight from the marsupials and their firearms. They continued following the very same path that had led them to where they were, and after descending from the catwalk back down to the ground level of the building, were just about to make the turn that would provide a straight shot to the warehouse's exit, when a flash of darkness shot across the path, knocking over a small tower of crates and other objects, effectively blocking off the quickest path to the exit. Deducing that that vampire bat had been the culprit of the blockade, Nick grabbed Judy's paw and pulled her in the opposite direction.
"Where are we going? The exit's that way!" The rabbit exclaimed, gesturing towards the set of doors in the distance.
"Nuh-uh, that way will get us both killed! It'll put us back in the sight of those guns, and besides, it's blocked off! We need to find another way out, pronto!" Nick retorted.
Nodding in understanding and agreement, Judy followed Nick down a corridor that branched out from a corner of the building, all the while trying not to pay attention to the shadow that seemed to follow them around every corner that they reared. Soon enough, the hallway opened up into a large and spacious storage room, not nearly as big as the main building, but still piled high with oil drums, wooden crates, and other dusty materials. The room was darker and more run-down than their previous environment, though neither the rabbit nor the fox took the time to think it over for very long. Steeling their resolves, they rushed into the confinement in search of another exit to escape from.
Searching frantically for a few short minutes that felt like hours, they eventually concluded that their current location was a dead end. Cornered, Nick and Judy both turned around and stared down their pursuer, whom now calmly approached them on foot, waltzing one step closer at a time, all the while snickering softly from between her fangs.
"Well well, what have we here? Didn't expect to find you two all the way out here in the Deciduous-District, of all places!" She called out tauntingly.
The vampire bat snickered slightly before continuing aloud;
"Personally, I would've thought city-wide heroes like yourselves had better things to do than meter management."
"Familiar with us, then?" Judy grumbled, to which Lucy smiled deviously.
"Yeah, I know all about you two, especially the fox. Vladdy's told me plenty." The bat claimed.
Nick's ears perked up upon detecting his opponent's last few words. Was it a long shot to believe that this female vampire bat was working alongside Nick's old enemy, Vladzotz? Just how many mammals were named Vlad, anyways? It could have been some sort of coincidence, but the fox couldn't stop himself from piecing together his coming few words.
"So you're in line with old flappy-bat, huh?" He interjected with a slight grin parting his lips. "Small world."
"Yep. We make a good team, him and I, though unfortunately, he couldn't be here..." Lucy mused. "Had business to take care of back down in the Nocturnal-District, you see."
"Good for him." Nick muttered.
Lucy sneered. "He'd probably want me to take you alive, fox, so that he could torture you himself, but accidents happen!" She growled before taking an offensive stance.
With bared fangs and outstretched wings, the vampire bat lunged forward towards Nick, her razor talons pointed at his chest. As fast as he could manage under such stress, the fox reached for the blue-colored tranquilizer gun pinned to his utility belt, swiftly detaching it before pointing it directly towards Lucy. Nick's emerald-colored eyes widened at the sight of his opponent now just mere inches away from him, one of her clawed hands already swinging towards him. The fox only had enough time to pull the trigger on his tranquilizer gun, however, the bat's palm had collided with the side of the weapon, knocking it to the side and causing the dart to shoot off and away into the unseen distance.
"Oh, come on!" Nick managed just as Lucy tore the gun from his paws, throwing it to the side before elbowing him in the jaw, causing him to gag aloud with discomfort.
Backing away and putting some distance between himself and the irate vampire bat, Nick detected Judy's voice yelling into her personal radio, finally calling for backup;
"Dispatch, this is officer Hopps! I've got a 11-99, currently under attack by armed and hostile mammals, requesting assistance immediately!"
The radio whirred back in a female voice clouted by fuzzy static sounds, of which Nick deduced to belong to the she-wolf that manned the receptions desk at Precinct Seven;
"Understood. I've got a patrol two and a half klicks away from your current location, heading your way now."
Just seconds after registering the rabbit's call of distress, Nick felt another sudden and sharp spike of pain emanate from his cheek, no doubt another jab from his vampiric opponent. Growling with clenched teeth, Nick stared down Lucy, watching as she backed away and hissed at him from a safe distance. Although Nick considered himself to be the street-smart brains of the ZPD duo consisting of himself and his wife, he had to admit that the fighting department was more so Judy's style than his own. Without his tranquilizer gun, he would be forced to fight hand to hand, and although he had some sufficient training of such back in his days at the academy, he wasn't liking those fangs.
Nick could only watch and hope not to get himself bitten as Lucy reared back and charged at him once again, sidestepping just a few mere feet away from a head on collision. Following her path with his gaze, the fox felt another hit land on the blind side of his torso, and by sheer chance, he managed to accidentally block another jab with his elbow.
"Aha!" He shouted out in pride and excitement, only to to be greeted by another sharp punch right to the jaw.
Thankfully, being decently smaller than him, Lucy's hits didn't hurt too bad, but they were very quick and disorienting, especially since it was quite clear that she was rather skilled in hand to hand combat, to an even greater extent than Nick himself. After getting slapped for another few seconds, the fox tripped on his own tail, falling to the ground.
Once his vision had cleared, he stared up at the vampire bat standing before him.
"Oh, yummy..." She mused, licking her lips hungrily, as if imagining the fox's neck pinned beneath her fangs. "I've never sampled fox blood before. You'll make a nice appetizer!"
Realizing that there wasn't enough time to pull out her tranquilizer gun and dart the vampire bat before she sank her teeth into her husband's neck, Judy ran forward as fast as she could, rapidly closing the distance between herself and Lucy until she collided with her body, throwing her off of Nick. Locked together, the two of them crashed into a massive nearby shelf piled high with wooden crates and other objects, causing the towering structure to wobble around unstably before leaning forward and beginning to fall. Gasping aloud in unison, Judy and Lucy both jumped away in an effort to save themselves from the falling shelf, and in that moment, the rabbit only had just enough time to hear her foxy partner shout out in surprise as the tower of crates came crashing down directly on top of him. Judy's stomach then dropped for the second time that afternoon.
"Nick!" She called out, and after a few seconds of unnerving silence, she heard him call out in a groggy voice from beneath the mound of wooden planks and other debris;
"I-I'm okay!"
The bunny sighed in relief, and was just about to try and help dig her husband out of the wreckage when something whacked her over the head, nearly causing her to lose her balance. Judy looked up and saw Lucy flying high above her, clearly having just kicked her in the back of the head. Reasoning that she would have to help Nick out later, Judy turned her full attention towards the vampire bat flying around in the air some twenty feet above her head. The rabbit whipped out her tranquilizer gun, aiming it at the fast moving blur of shadow and leather as it zipped across her line of sight, eventually darting behind a shelf piled high with boxes and other dusty objects, gone from her line of sight.
"I gotta say, you sure know how to keep a girl entertained, rabbit!" Judy heard Lucy's voice call out. "You're givin' me quite a workout here! I admit it, I'm having fun!"
"Come out and give up!" The bunny demanded, her voice echoing throughout the confines of the dark and musty old room.
"Gotta catch me first!" Lucy retorted.
Furrowing her brow in irritation, Judy slowly turned in a circle, eyeing the wreckage and other obstacles around her. She didn't see her opponent, but had no intentions on letting that bat toy with her. Clearing her throat, the rabbit officer paced forward and walked around the ruins of the shelves that Lucy had destroyed earlier. With her sensitive hearing, Judy heard a slew of clicking noises echoing around her, but she couldn't pinpoint their source. She raised her tranquilizer gun into the air, her arms at a ninety degree angle.
"How did you get into the ZPD's archive?" The rabbit asked, her large ears twitching in detection upon hearing the vampire bat laugh aloud in gleeful amusement.
"Magicians never reveal their secrets!" She taunted, her insufferably posh tone of voice echoing throughout the space of the room.
Due to the size and shape of the environment around her, Judy had some trouble pinpointing just exactly where Lucy's words were originating, even with her superior sense of hearing. At that, the bunny could have sworn that she heard a snickering noise behind her, and promptly whirled around, carelessly firing a single blue tranquilizer dart in the direction she heard the sound emanate from, though she was disappointed to see the dart plant itself into a wooden crate some few yards way, clearly having missed its target.
"Careful now, we wouldn't want you to waste too much ammo now, would we?" Lucy mused from somewhere out of sight, causing Judy to growl.
"You mentioned something about a fire..." The bunny started calmly, her words stern and commanding. "What happened at Precinct One?"
"Oh, you haven't heard? There was a little accident there! Must've been why that dunderhead earlier tried to call you in the first place."
Judy bit her lip, thinking back to the moment when her mobile device had surged to life with Clawhauser's caller ID, alerting the marsupial thugs and plunging her and Nick into this whole mess. At the time, she didn't think much of it, believing that perhaps her old friend had been calling her simply to chat over something trivial. Had he actually been trying to warn her of something more sinister than Gazelle's latest scandal? Maybe he really was trying to notify her that something bad had happened. She'd have to find out later.
"What did you do?" The bunny continued her interrogation.
"My job." Lucy responded flatly, causing the rabbit to clench her teeth together in frustration.
"You started a fire there, didn't you?" Judy yelled. "You broke into the ZPD archives and started a fire!"
"There you go, that's my little detective, putting the puzzle together one soot-stained piece at a time!"
Losing her temper, the bunny officer fired another tranquilizer dart in the direction of where she reasoned the vampire bat to be, but instead, watched as yet another perfectly good dart flew off and out of reach, sailing right between two tall stacks of wooden boxes. From the complete other side of the room, Judy heard Lucy giggle and state out loud;
"You're one trigger happy rabbit!"
"Shut up!" Judy shouted back.
Twisting around towards the behind of her, Judy slowly backed away a few paces, putting some distance between her and the mountain of crates. Somewhere behind the pile of wooden boards and broken boxes, the rabbit detected the faint coughing sound of her husband, though she was still unable to see him. So as to get a better line of sight on her stealthy enemy, and additionally to try and catch a look at Nick, whom was still incapacitated some few yards away, Judy sidestepped carefully, pressing her back against a shelf.
With an exhale of baited breath, she then lept forward and away from her position of cover, directly into a sizable clearing. Glancing around, the rabbit didn't see Nick nor Lucy, but soon heard a rustling sound similar to that of broken glass being crushed directly to her left, and she then turned towards it and pointed her tranquilizer gun in its direction.
In that brief moment, she saw a flash of blackness zip across her line of sight, causing speckles of what looked like broken glass to be scattered across the floor. After that, cold silence filled the room, save for the sound of Judy's own heart racing in her ears, and the occasional pained groan of her husband somewhere in the dark, unseen background.
Suddenly, Judy heard a sharp clicking sound from behind her, and she whirled around just in time to see her vampiric opponent slam into her with outstretched wings and raised claws, the two mammals momentarily flailing about in the air before falling to the ground with a hard grunt of discomfort. The bunny tried jamming the tranquilizer gun in her grasp towards the bat atop her, at last firing her third and final dart, though once again missing by a long shot, her amethyst-colored eyes watching with terror as the feathery dart whizzed past Lucy's shoulder, just barely grazing by before shooting off and into the distance, gone from sight and mind. Judy felt her heart skip a beat, in that very second.
Realizing that her empty tranquilizer gun still had a use to it, Judy arced her hand back and slapped the vampire bat across the face with the barrel of the mechanism. Lucy coughed in surprise, but quickly recovered, hissing in anger as she got a hold on the rabbit's gun and tried to pull it from her grasp. Despite being just a few inches shorter than Judy herself, Lucy was surprisingly strong, and nearly managed to rip the item from her grip, that was, before the rabbit quickly decided to psych out the vampire bat: She then released her hold on the tranquilizer gun, which Lucy clearly wasn't suspecting, since she reared back from the force of her own tug, nearly tossing herself off of her opponent.
And that was all that Judy needed.
Rearing back, the rabbit grunted as she pushed up with her powerful legs as hard as she could, effectively causing the vampire bat atop her to be sent flying through the air from the strength of her kick. Swiftly hauling herself to her feet, Judy took a defensive stance as she eyed Lucy flap down to her current ground level, snarling beneath her breath and tenderly rubbing her cheek with discomfort. She hissed, baring her fangs at the sight of the rabbit's fortified body position, all the while eyeing her up and down with hate.
"Got another one in ya?" Lucy growled lowly, pulling her palm away from her cheek and clenching her fists in anger.
Judy huffed audibly. "Depends. Start talking, you. Don't make me use force. Why were you working with those marsupials?" She questioned.
"That's none of your business, sweetie..." The vampire bat mumbled darkly. "Although... You could beat it out of me."
Grumbling to herself in frustration, the bunny took a few steps forward, closing the distance between herself and Lucy. With a well aimed kick, she then struck out with her foot, however, her opponent was quick; Lucy twisted her body to the side, causing Judy's strike to slip right past her, before grabbing the bunny's exposed ankle with both her arms.
Pushing hard against the rabbit's legs, the female bat shoved an already off-balanced Judy over and back onto the ground. Realizing that she was at the disadvantage while on the low ground, the bunny tried standing up as fast as she could, but felt a blunt strike hit her in the stomach; A knee from Lucy, causing Judy to gag in pain and roll over onto her side. Before she could be kicked again, the rabbit officer swiftly lept to her feet, just in time to see her opponent come soaring towards her with outstretched, leathery wings.
Lucy's pointed black talons raked against Judy's camo-colored chestplate, doing relatively little damage, but startling the rabbit nonetheless. Hissing loudly, the bat then lunged straight forward and grabbed Judy's shoulders with her paws, while Judy in turn grabbed Lucy's exposed shoulders with her own paws. The two fighting mammals twisted around, each one locked in combat with the other. They both bore snarling expressions of anger and rage, spit flying as they hissed and growled in one another's faces. Their legs twisted around, tripping over and resuppoting their respective bodies in a dizzying cycle of momentary disequilibrium and sudden balance, that was, until they finally fell over once more, this time with Judy being the one on top. She pushed Lucy's upper body against the hard ground beneath her, and was just about to land a strike on her face.
Before she could manage, the slippery vampire bat squeezed out from her grasp, pushing her away and raising herself to her feet. Judy followed suit, and stared down her foe.
"Bring it on, skank!" The rabbit shouted, ready to do battle with the bat once more.
Growling with rage, the vampire bat seemed just moments away from another lunge, but promptly halted when a police siren pierced the air, silencing her snarls and causing her enraged expression to swiftly fade away, soon replaced by a devious smile that parted her lips and revealed her razor sharp fangs. Snickering to herself, she then spoke out;
"Sorry darling, I'd love to stay, but it looks like this little party of ours is about to get busted by some real cops!" Lucy spat, aiming her last few words at Judy. "Ta-Ta for now!"
Cackling with glee, the vampire bat then lept up into the air and began flapping away towards a nearby open air-duct. Judy made a sudden break for Nick's tranquilizer gun, which was still lying on the ground a few dozen feet away, but by the time she had gotten to it and pointed the thing towards where she had last seen her opponent, the vampire bat had vanished. Judy just barely caught sight of Lucy's clawed feet as they disappeared within the open shaft of the out of reach air-duct. Farther down the metal shaft, Judy saw the corners of the compartment vibrating as the bat squeezed her way deeper into the depths of the warehouse's framework, eventually silencing for good, and leaving the area.
With her opponent out of the equation, Judy immediately turned her attention towards Nick, whom was still lying motionless to her right. Rushing up to him, she knelt by his side and smiled wide as he turned his head, coughing slightly as his emerald eyes met with Judy's very own. Grinning, the fox sat up, all the while voicing his thoughts aloud;
"Don't worry about me, Carrots. I just got the wind knocked out of me for a moment there, that's all. I'm okay, I promise."
"Oh, thank you, Nick..." Judy sighed heavily in relief, helping her mate up and onto his feet as she continued speaking fervently. "I was so worried back there!"
"Well, you know me, fluff-butt. I'm a tough cookie."
The rabbit nodded, smiling warmly.
"I'm glad to see that you're okay, but we need to meet up with the other officers right now. Besides, what that bat mentioned about the fire at Precinct One..."
Judy momentarily trailed off, clearly not wanting to imagine something so horrible. She then recomposed her sense of focus and stated out loud in a firm voice;
"We need to help, and we need to find out more about this! Let's get going!"
Nodding in agreement, the two tiny officers then bolted off towards the warehouse's exit, their heartbeats as fast and as high as their collective sense of hope.
Hey Everyone!
Phew, now I had an absolute blast writing up this new chapter of ours, that's for sure! It's always fun putting our favorite duo in new and exciting situations that require their teamwork and coordination to succeed. I may have had fun writing this up, but I most certainly hope that all of you had fun reading it too! Definitely a good bit longer than the last chapter, eh? Regardless, I'd say it's a very welcome addition to the ever growing chapter count of this story of ours.
That being said, as always, I thank you for taking the time to read over, and implore you to favorite and/or follow the story if you haven't already, as each and every single one is greatly appreciated, and only helps further my cause to continue this story of ours! Do feel free to leave a nice review detailing your thoughts as well! I always appreciate some positive feedback, and would adore knowing what you all think of this latest chapter of ours! What do you think about the knew information we've learned, the fight scene at the end, and the overall chapter as a whole? I'd love to know, and appreciate it all regardless.
Yes, I would most especially love to know your thoughts on the fight scene with Lucy, at the end! I had a lot of fun writing it up, that's for sure.
Anyhow, that's pretty much all that I have to say for now, really. Thanks for reading this latest update of ours, and do stay tuned for the next one, of course!
'Till next time...
Peace!