Continued from Chapter 56
Author's Note: Yeah, I'm sorry for ending the last one on such a blatant cliffhanger, so I wrote the sequel immediately.

Nick groaned and slowly opened his bleary eyes. He was in an abandoned construction site, laying on the ground. It wasn't where he had expected to be. He hadn't even expected to be alive.

"Are you okay?" It was Judy's voice. She was leaning on some scaffolding, her arms folded.

"Buster Bunny?" Nick said weakly. "'Zat you?"

"Here, got you some bread," Judy held out a couple of slices of bread. "Didn't know what you ate, so bread's what you get."

"Thanks," Nick said, starting to chew on the bread.

"What, you can't eat at super-speed, 'Hustler'?" Judy smirked.

"I could, but that takes energy, which you very nearly depleted," Nick returned a tired smile. "So, are you going to tell me why you didn't give me up to the ZED?"

Judy looked like she would shrug, but she didn't. She just tightened up how much her arms were folded. She turned her head away. "I didn't want to be responsible for your death, is all."

"Well that's awfully decent of you to stick your neck out for some fox scum," Nick said in an unfriendly tone. "Especially because it means the ZED will be after you too now."

"Eh, I can take em," Judy looked over at him. "Or we, depending on how you want to play this."

"I'm not scared of anyone at the ZED," Nick huffed derisively. "The vixen is a kit, and the pig is terrified of his own powers."

"Yeah, they have some... issues," Judy shook her head. "But they're good people. Just like us."

"You're calling me good?" Nick chuckled. "I feel like you were just calling me a no-good liar."

"Someone with your level of power could have done major damage to this city already," Judy said. "You have to be at least not that bad."

"So how indeed do you want to 'play' this, Judy?" Nick asked.

"I think I'll follow you around and make sure you don't do anything too untoward with your powers," Judy smirked. "We can look out for each other."

"Fine by me," Nick popped the last piece of bread into his mouth. "You might have a hard time keeping up, but..."

"All right, superhero showdown!" Brittany said, pointing dramatically at Nick and Judy at the other end of the street. The streets started to clear of random mammals as they saw the vixen and the pig in ZED uniforms, but some remained to watch. The sixteen-year-old vixen smirked. "Good guys versus bad guys!"

"Which one should I take out?" Nick smirked at Judy. "The pig?"

"No one's 'taking out' anyone!" Judy shouted. "Brittany, can you and Gerardo just leave us alone?"

"It doesn't work that way, traitor!" Brittany said, full of some sort of righteous zeal. "It's time to punish you!"

Judy groaned. "Don't attack them, Nick. They're harmless."

"Getting that feeling," Nick smirked. "They certainly didn't last very long against me the first time."

"Harmless!?" Brittany's jaw dropped at the audacity. "Gerardo, teleport their clothes off!"

"What?" Gerardo blinked, hunched forward in an awkward battle pose. "That's... unorthodox. But I can't. If I tried, I could just as easily end up teleporting their skeletons out of their bodies...! And that wouldn't be pretty."

"It'd mean we'd pretty much win," Brittany smirked. "Well, how about teleporting that car over there above them?" Brittany gestured to a large mammal's car.

"Brittany...!" Gerardo looked shocked. "That could kill them! Plus, I don't know if auto insurance covers 'acts of hog'." Nick and Judy both stifled snickers at this.

"Rgh, do I have to do everything myself, Telepork?" Brittany grumbled, taking out her metal focus rod. She twisted it to expose some of the slow-burning material inside.

"Okay, for one, that's rather rude-," Gerardo noted.

"All right! Ignite!" Brittany said triumphantly, standing in a wide stance and holding the rod in both hands, blinking purposefully. The tip of the rod burst into flames.

"How long are we going to sit here and watch this?" Nick looked at Judy tiredly. Judy gave him a scolding glare.

"This'll teach you to take us seriously!" Brittany posed and swirled the rod in circles, creating a spiraling fireball. "Firesphere!" She created a large fireball and gestured with the rod, sending it at Judy. Judy crouched down and then kicked forward.

TCHAAK!

Judy's explosive pressure wave from her kick extinguished the fireball.

"Whaaat?" Brittany looked confused, and then tried the same motion again. "Firesphere!" She threw this one at Nick. Nick sighed, and started running in circles around the still-traveling fireball, creating a vacuum that also extinguished it. Brittany made a crestfallen gesture. "Are you kidding me? How come both of you can put out fires? Gerardo, come on, help me out here!"

Gerardo was looking around somewhat fussily. "I'm trying to find something to teleport at them that won't hurt them too much?"

"Oh for Karma's sake!" Brittany slapped her forehead.

"Can I go now?" Nick whined at Judy.

"Yeah, I think we're done here," Judy said, but caught sight of something on the ground. She saw a shadow in the shape of a bunny.

"Where's my sky?" An unfamiliar voice shouted. All four of the empowered mammals looked up to see a new figure, a floating white, black-striped bunny, many feet overhead.

"Uh, you appear to be in it, strange, floating bunny?" Nick quipped.

"You!" The bunny thrust his hand accusingly at Brittany and Gerardo. "You wear those clothes! You know where my sky is! Relinquish the sky!" He flew straight at them, causing both Brittany and Gerardo to leap out of the way.

"Whoa!" Brittany yelped. "Who the heck is this freak!?"

Even at some distance from them, Judy's bunny ears could hear Bogo's voice yelling over their ear buds.

"Abort mission! Abort! Don't let that bunny touch you!"

Gerardo and Brittany held hands to their ears and both nodded.

"We have to get away from this lunatic!" Gerardo wailed, starting to run.

"Don't let him touch you, you two!" Brittany offered, also running.

"Don't run from me!" The bunny said, flying towards them. "I need sky!"

TCHAAK!

Judy used an explosive kick and caught the bunny in the back, sending him tumbling forward through the air. He righted himself, slowly turning around to glare at Judy.

"You attack Jack Savage!?" He said, clasping his hands together. He suddenly started flying at Judy and tackled her, grabbing her cheeks. Nick flinched in surprise, waiting to stop him from doing this, but nothing seemed to be happening.

"Rgh, let go, you psycho!" Judy groaned, trying to kick at him, but he was too close.

Savage smirked. "Now I've got your power!" Judy let loose a right cross and caught Jack on the face. He stumbled back. Though she had no supernatural powers in her arms, she still threw a mean punch for a bunny.

Judy followed up with a kick.

TCHAAK!

"Nope, still got it," Judy sneered, but Jack launched himself away from the explosion with his flight powers.

Savage rose into the air, laughing maniacally. He stamped his feet several times, causing atmospheric explosions. "How deliciously destructive! A fine power to copy!"

"You copied...?" Judy's eyes flew open as she trailed off. She shot a desperate look to Nick, realizing the implications.

Nick nodded. "We should go." He grabbed Judy at super speed and ran far, far away from the mad bunny.

"Friction friction friction!" Judy wailed rapidly as soon as she realized what was going on, and Nick stopped. She shrieked, her clothes had caught fire. She kicked at the air and caused an explosion that extinguished her and sent Nick flying backwards.

"Ow..." Nick said, shuddering at a high rate of speed to accelerate his body's healing processes.

"Sorry, I was kind of on fire," Judy said, getting to her feet.

"We need to get you a cool, friction-resistant costume, like mine," Nick smirked at his black and green getup.

"Egh, I wouldn't say I like that, but I don't want to burst into flames if you have to super-spirit me away, either," Judy said.

"More importantly, what's up with that psychotic rabbit?" Nick blinked.

"I dunno, but Bogo knows," Judy grumbled.

"You can't go to him..." Nick held up a finger.

"I know, but that guy has my powers now, and he seems several carrots short of a bunch," Judy considered. "We have to find some way to stop him before he does too much damage with my powers..."

Nick reclined against the half-built building in the abandoned construction site and Judy leaned against a wall near him. They were both planning their next move.

"Not much of a secret hideout," Nick quipped.

"Eh, I think it symbolizes my powers well enough," Judy grumbled. "A building that looks half-destroyed. Plus, no one would think to look for us here." At that moment, Brittany, wearing her normal yellow and black clothes, arrived at the site. "Okay, I stand corrected."

"What are you doing here?" Nick said curtly.

"How'd you find us?" Judy added.

"Okay look, I came here alone, unarmed, and I have no technology on me anywhere," Brittany said, holding her hands up near her face. "It's a risk, yeah, but we need to talk. Bogo figured you wouldn't hurt me."

"Yeah, I won't hurt you," Judy said, gazing pointedly at Nick, "and if I see you twitch the wrong way I'll pound you into the ground."

"Jeez, what gives?" Nick shrugged his shoulders. "She's an enemy."

"She's a kit," Judy shook her head.

"I'm not a kit," Brittany sneered. "Anyway, I found you with this neat thing I just learned I can do. Everyone has a unique heat signature, so I just studied the two of yours during our last battle-"

"If you can call it that," Nick interrupted, rolling his eyes.

"Rude!" Brittany said, closing her eyes. "Anyway, yeah. When I close my eyes, I can see heat signatures if I focus on them. And only focusing on the two of you, I could walk right to you! It's kind of some weird form of heat sensing."

"Huh, that's kind of impressive," Judy looked mildly interested. "I didn't know you could do that."

"Neither did I!" Brittany giggled. "Mister Bogo taught me how."

"Bogo- what?" Judy blinked. "He's empowered?"

"Yeah, sorta," Brittany held her hand out flat and wiggled it. "He can sense what sort of powers other empowered mammals have, and can even mentally simulate the extent of their full potentials!"

Judy's jaw dropped. "This is the first I'm hearing of this."

"Told you the ZED was a bunch of secret-keepers," Nick said airily.

"I'm starting to agree," Judy looked at Brittany carefully. "Brittany, no matter what you think, you're still just a child. You should be going to high school, having friends, maybe getting some dates. You shouldn't be... I dunno, kind of a weapon-"

"Just shut up," Brittany snapped, suddenly coldly. She closed her eyes and looked away. "A pyrokinetic like me can't be a normal kit." She shuddered, and sighed. "At the age of thirteen, I accidentally used my powers. They would sometimes just happen if I got too excited or enthused. My whole apartment complex ended up on fire..." Nick and Judy's eyes widened. "Luckily everyone got out alive... but some suffered burns, smoke inhalation, and I displaced and damaged so many mammals... rgh." She looked at the two of them defiantly, tears in her eyes. "So, both I and my parents thought it would be best if I joined the fledgling ZED. Bogo was the first empowered member there, seeking other people to train. I need control of my abilities so this doesn't happen!" She made a flippant gesture, sweeping out both hands, and random bits of flammable material around the area caught on fire, making Judy and Nick flinch and stand up straight. "I'm a fire. ...But... thanks to Mister Bogo, I'm no longer a wildfire..." She closed her eyes and summoned all the fire in the area to her hand, dispelling it by closing her fist.

"That's awful..." Judy said. "But... but listen, he told me he's trying to convince you to set mammals on fire?"

"As a last resort!" Brittany said heatedly. "If I'm without my wand and being attacked, what else am I supposed to do?"

Judy was at a loss. Then, she slowly formed a half-smile. "I thought Skippel said it wasn't a wand."

Brittany slowly matched her smile. "No, it's totally a wand." The two chuckled a bit.

"Heh... anyway..." Nick said, somewhat impatiently. "Why are you here?"

"We need your help, Judy," Brittany said. "That bunny we saw, Jack Savage. He's an unstable empowered mammal that was the first mammal Bogo tried to help understand his powers. He let him copy his powers. Bogo admits that was a mistake."

"So he knows about other people's powers..." Nick narrowed his eyes. "He can tell if there's another empowered mammal to steal from just by looking at them?"

"And exactly how to use them once he copies them," Brittany nodded. "But there's a weird sort of problem with his powers. He supposedly has the ability to copy as much as he wants, but every time he does..." Brittany made frantic gestures near her head. "Oh, how did Miss Skippel say it? It kind of messes with his brain as it... uh... re-modulates? I think that was it. His brain changes each time he absorbs powers so that he can control them, and there's often, uh, collateral damage."

"The more powers he gets, the crazier he gets?" Judy winced.

"Yeah, basically," Brittany sighed.

"I can probably take him out, just need a surprise," Nick said.

"No, you can't!" Brittany said in a loud voice. "Bogo is the most afraid of him getting your powers. He says of all the people he's analyzed, your are the one who uses your powers closest to the limit of your capability. That's why he's so... I dunno, scared of you?"

"Sounds almost like a compliment. Nice to know I have a fan," Nick huffed in amusement.

"Yeah, I should help them out, Nick, this guy seems like a total nutcase," Judy grumbled. "He was flying around, going on about how he wanted the sky or something."

"Skye is a... a person," Brittany said slowly. "I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be telling you this part. She's an arctic fox in the ZED, but Jack became obsessed with her once he copied her power of flight. An accident he caused made her paralyzed from the waist down. Now she has to fly to get around... and she's willingly staying underground at the ZED so Jack can't get at her."

"Jack's dangerous," Nick sighed. "I hate to say it, but maybe I should bow out of fighting him. If he had both of our powers..."

"Yeah, and he already has mine, so he's got nothing to gain from fighting me," Judy nodded. She looked to Brittany. "Does the ZED have a plan?"

Brittany winced. "Kind of...?"

Gerardo walked down a street in Downtown the next evening, gazing at the sky with his special goggles, looking for any suspiciously bunny-shaped forms.

"Wow, I sure do like being out all alone with some supernatural abilities that someone might be able to steal, if they were so inclined," Gerardo said blatantly, then nervously scanned the sky again. "Where is that guy? You'd think someone who's done several million dollars worth of damage to the city already would be easier to find!" Gerardo sighed. "Glad most everyone has been evacuated from downtown. Wouldn't want anyone to get-"

"Hurt!?" Jack swooped down and leered at Gerardo.

"Oh my great hog in heaven!" Gerardo shrieked, starting to run for a corner.

"Now there's some delicious porcine powers. The ability to teleport anyone or anything? Don't mind if I do!" Jack started to fly at Gerardo, and the pig rounded a corner.

"Brittany, now!" Gerardo yelled out.

Jack swooped around the corner and briefly looked confused. There was a young vixen dancing around, twirling a large, thick ribbon of flame through the air with her metal wand. She spun around in place, and the fire swirled around closer to her.

"Incandescent... flare serpent!" Brittany proclaimed, thrusting her wand straight at the floating bunny. With a searing sizzle, the snake of fire flew through the air and swirled around Jack.

"Ugh!" Jack flinched and guarded himself from the bright fire and heat, but the swirling flames were closing in.

"Wow, that was cheesy," Judy smirked.

"Incantations, even just screaming, helps focus your power! It's science facts! Your turn, Judy!" Brittany shouted.

Judy leaped into the air with an explosion, flipped forward, and delivered an axe kick around the swirling fire.

"Hah!" Judy exulted.

TCHAAK!

After the explosion cleared, the fire was gone, and Judy blinked in surprise as she saw Jack holding her foot. He pushed her away from him, then pursued her through the air and performed a spinning kick through the air.

KRCHAAK!

Judy went flying several feet and skidded on the sidewalk.

"Whh! Ouch!" Judy got up, holding her stomach. "Wait... ouch? My explosions aren't supposed to hurt me. There's no way Jack could be stronger than me... so...?" Judy let out a terse gasp as she had a small epiphany.

"Idiots!" Jack said, drawing his fists close to himself as he hovered in place. "You will tell me where Skye is or my feet will explode you into pulp!"

Gerardo winced, but he gestured at a street lamp and then above Jack's body, teleporting it above him. "Hope the taxpayers don't mind...!"

CLUNK!

Jack was pinned to the ground. "Rgh!" He struggled for a bit, but then kicked his feet behind him, causing another explosion, and went flying from underneath it. He was flying straight at Brittany.

"Ugh!" Brittany exhaled as Jack pinned her to a wall.

"Pyrokineses!" Jack said hungrily. "Without giving me my Skye... this city will burn!"

"Gerardo!" Brittany screamed desperately as Jack made a strange show of slowly moving his hand closer to her face. She focused on him, trying to cause him to burst into flames, but her concentration was shot at her terror. "Teleport him! Now!"

"But...!" Gerardo said, but started to move his hand out. He hesitated for one second. It flashed through Judy's mind how there would be no way for her to use her powers to remove Jack from Brittany without seriously hurting Brittany. Jacks paw was millimeters from Brittany's face.

"I... I can't...!" Brittany shouted, terrified.

A green flash and a burst of wind, and suddenly Brittany was standing there by herself.

"Nick, no!" Judy said in horror. Jack used an explosion to break away from Nick's grasp, as Judy had done just days before, and then used his flight to zoom around the much faster Nick.

"Destruction!" Jack wailed, stomping down on the street and causing several violent cluster explosions. One of them grazed Nick and he flew away, tumbling over. He righted himself and shuddered to heal. "Super speed? Super speed healing? Super speed destruction!?" Jack was almost shrieking as he advanced on Nick. Nick was having trouble getting up. Why did Jack's explosions hurt so much more than Judy's? He shuddered again to try to heal, but Jack thrust his hand out towards him.

TCHAAK!

Judy ran up to Jack and did a back flip. The mere force of the kick, not the explosion, sent Jack spiraling into the air, where he used his flight power to right himself, hovering there.

"Worm!" Jack shouted, preparing to fly back down.

Judy leaped up with an explosion and tried to focus all of her possible energy into an unprecedentedly vicious kick, straight into Jack's gut. Jack focused on her with an intense, deranged leer. For a split second, nothing happened.

"HrrrraaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHH!" Judy screamed in primal fury. She felt her blood boiling within her. Her leg pushed forward in a sudden jolt.

KRRRKRRKKKCOOOOOOOOOMMMM!

An intense shockwave reverberated throughout the entire area, sounding like a thunderclap. Nick, Brittany, and Gerardo had to shield themselves. A fountain of light energy burst out in a diagonal conical explosion from the other side of Jack. It was almost happening in slow motion.

But then, in the next instant, both bunnies violently were torn in opposite directions from the intense forces.

"Oh jeez!" Nick sputtered, and had to use his super speed to keep up with Judy's. He gradually slowed down to catch her, and slowed down even more so the inertial forces didn't cause Judy any harm. "Are you okay, you maniac?"

"Yeah," Judy nodded. "Foot's a little sore, though."

"A 'little'?" Nick's eyebrow raised. He turned around and ran at a "slow" sixty miles per hour or so over towards Jack, who had just crashed into a building. Limply, he fell to the ground. Nick set Judy down and Judy walked slowly over to his body. A minute later, Gerardo and Brittany arrived on the scene.

Judy got up from kneeling down besides Jack. She gave a heavy sigh, her eyes determined. "He's... he's dead."

"Well if that didn't kill him, I don't think anything would have," Nick put his hands on his hips.

"I killed him," Judy said flatly. "I just... I kicked as hard as I could. I broke all of the limits I thought I had."

"That's... just sometimes what we gotta do, I guess," Gerardo said in shame, realizing he was almost a second too late to try to save Brittany. He could have perhaps ended the battle himself, if he wasn't scared of his own powers. He sighed.

"Bogo was prepared for this eventuality..." Brittany nodded.

"I suppose you guys want to take his body back to the ZED for analysis?" Nick folded his arms, sneering.

"Just the opposite, actually," Brittany grit her teeth. She took out her wand. "Bogo said no mammal should have the sort of abilities Jack had. They messed with his mental state and made him cause much more harm than good. We need to... t-to destroy his body." Brittany said, hesitating.

"Uh, I'll do it," Gerardo said meekly. "I can probably teleport him across an entire timezone, in pieces..."

"No no no..." Nick waved his hands. "Amateurs. I'll get rid of his body. I wouldn't want you newbies getting any nightmares."

The two looked mildly offended, but didn't protest.

"What are you going to do?" Judy asked.

"I'll use my super speed and he'll light on fire," Nick shrugged. "Then, I'll store enough energy to dash out to the middle of the ocean and drop him there. No one should be able to misuse his remains."

"Do it," Judy nodded. Another green flash and burst of air, and both Nick and Jack's body were gone. Judy sighed again, closing her eyes.

"Judy, maybe come back with us to the ZED? Hopefully we can just forget all of this..." Brittany put her wand away. "Bogo can help you understand your powers a bit more, and-"

Judy held up a hand dismissively. "No. Bogo didn't tell me about the extent of my power." Judy rubbed her leg. "He must have been afraid of it, too. I didn't know I could hurt even myself. Even kill... someone who was just like me. I am..." Judy looked at her hands, clenching them. "I am so powerful..."

Gerardo and Brittany shot each other a very worried look.

"Listen," Judy turned to them both. "You guys keep training or whatever you need to do. You need to become stronger to match Nick, and even stronger to match me..." Judy paused. "But maybe you can do it. Maybe you, or someone else at the ZED, can keep us in line. But until then... goodbye."

Judy slowly walked off. Brittany looked like she wanted to follow her.

"Just let her be, kit," Gerardo placed his hand on her shoulder. "She's right. You and I both have a lot of growing to do before either of us can make a critical decision like she did."

"I'm not a..." Brittany paused. She frowned. "I am still a kit..."

Gerardo gave a soft chuckle. "And I, still a twenty-eight year old piglet. But let's go home."

"Yeah..." Brittany nodded, and they walked in the opposite direction.

Judy walked down the silent, dark streets. Now safe again, but for how long? Judy wondered.

There was a green flash and a burst of air. It was, of course, Nick. "Job's done, and I had to look basically through all of the city to find you."

"Must have taken you a few seconds," Judy smirked dryly.

"Yeah, pretty much forever," Nick laughed.

"Grim work we just did," Judy sneered. "I've never thought about killing anyone. About making that final, destructive choice."

Nick paused. "Well, you're probably going to hate me for this, but I lied to you, the first time we met."

"Oh, I know that," Judy shook her head, rolling her eyes.

"No, about those other empowered villains I defeated," Nick said. "I lied that I brought them to the ZED."

"You killed them," Judy said, certain.

Nick nodded. "There's... really no recovering from a claw slash delivered at supersonic speeds."

"What gives us the right?" Judy sighed. She didn't seem all that judgemental of him.

"We just... we do what we have to, what we think is best," Nick shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets as well.

"We're all... we're deeply flawed," Judy said. "And... extremely powerful. Kind of a scary combination. You and I are probably the most powerful beings in all of Zootopia right now."

"Ain't it the truth," Nick chuckled, but Judy wasn't laughing. "We need to keep each other in check, Judy."

"Can we?" Judy smirked at him. "I think I'm stronger than you."

"Well, you heard what Bogo said," Nick shot back a smirk. "He said I only almost used the full potential of my abilities. So once I do... whew! Watch out!"

"Hmph," Judy kept her half smile. "So what, are we partners now, I guess?"

Nick shrugged his shoulders as they both walked off into the night.

"Something like that."