Episode 6 – Ça va, Zoorangers?
March 23rd, 2019
The foreman watched as most of the workers left. Basically every construction team had been put into overtime after the monster attacks had started, the amount of wrecked buildings only seemed to increase every day. It was a real mess, and he hated it.
By the time the bear was ready to leave, it was dark. He left the office and noticed… something.
It was one of the workers, standing on front of the construction site. He was wearing standard equipment, a jumpsuit and a yellow hard hat, but something seemed off. He wasn't doing anything, just staring at a nearby excavator.
"Hey!" The foreman yelled, walking towards the worker. "The day's been over for hours, go home!"
The mammal let out a small laugh in return, and turned around. It was a cheetah, an unusual tan color. He was wearing a decidedly unstandard pair of safety goggles, while in color with a large marking on the right lens.
He had never seen this mammal before in his entire life.
"Who are you!? What are you doing on this site!?" The foreman yelled, walking towards the cheetah. He towered above the intruder, and glared at him.
"I could tell you," The cheetah responded in a silky smooth voice, staring up at the bear. "But you won't be around to tell anyone."
The foreman scoffed, "I've taken down guys three times your size." He crossed his arms, "What are you gonna do to me?"
In a quick flash, the cheetah kicked the foreman directly in the stomach. The force of the kick was incredible, launching the bear all the way back into the office's wall. The metal of it cracked beneath the force of the kick, and his own size.
The bear opened his eyes wearily, looking towards the cheetah as he walked forward. He blinked, and suddenly the intruder was wearing completely different clothes. A scarf, jeans, a shirt and a trench coat. He blinked again, and the cheetah was leaning directly in front of his face.
He lifted the bear up by the neck with a singular paw. The foreman began to feel the air escape his lungs as he began to choke.
"Au Revoir." The cheetah said as the bear passed out.
He dropped him to the ground with a thud. The ex-bear fell to the ground lifelessly.
The cheetah scoffed as he turned away from the corpse, "Organics, so weak."
He walked back towards the excavator, beginning to talk to himself. "An unwelcome intrusion," He said, jumping up into the excavator's cockpit, "But this could work. This could work well."
He pulled a card out, holding it between two of his digits. He jabbed the card into the keyhole, and turned it. The excavator started up, and he drove directly through one of the barriers surrounding the area, into the night.
One week later…
"It's another lovely day in Zooooootopia!" Shouted a rather excitable radio jockey. "The sun's shining, the sky's blue, and the ground we walk on could destroy us at any moment! Yes, the reported quakes throughout the week continue to get worse and worse, but remember what you learned in school! If the building you're in starts falling apart around you, DUCK AND COVER!" A duck quack began playing.
The radio then quickly turned off, as a fox was getting impatient with it.
"I get that guy's trying to be funny, but it's just kind of…" Nick said to himself, searching for the word.
"Insensitive? Fear mongering? Insulting our intelligence?" Judy responded back, taking a sip of her morning coffee.
"I was gonna say 'stupid', but those work well."
The DJ was right about the quakes, though. They had started early in the week, the first report on Sunday. As the week went by, they kept getting worse and worse. But they never went beyond slight annoyance, they were still basically only tremors at this point.
Overall, there was nothing much to worry about.
The two had a lot more things to worry about, mainly the current murder case they were on.
"Why did you even turn it to that station?" Judy questioned.
"They play good music." Nick answered. "Some of the time, at least."
"I wouldn't call 80s metal 'good music'."
"I have no idea how we live together." Nick stated, shaking his head.
She got up, and headed towards the bathroom. "On the way to the station, we're listening to MY music." She stated.
"Oh great." Nick moaned. "Pop music."
After a long, agonizing drive with nothing but pop music, the two had arrived at the station. Per the norm, the duo headed to the bullpen, ready for the day.
After roll call, Bogo began to dole out assignments.
"Rhinowitz, Marshall, you two will be assisting Officer Wolford on a series of assaults, if you can really call them that." He flicked on the projector, which displayed several shots of many different wolves, each with a large scar located somewhere on their backs.
A number of officers, including Judy, were taken aback by this. The chief was never good at easing into things.
"In just one night, we've somehow managed to get over three dozen different reports, all from wolves, claiming that they were stabbed by something." He turned to Wolford, who began rubbing his back. "One of these was our own Officer Wolford."
"Every report has been near exact," Bogo began to explain. "A wolf, somewhere dark and alone, is stabbed by some kind of knife. Not a stab that could kill someone, but hard enough to hurt a lot. The wolf turns around, and sees no one there. You three will get on that ASAP."
He continued giving assignments, until eventually finishing with the two smallest officers.
"Hopps, Wilde, you two are, once again, being assigned to the murder of Barry Grizzle." He looked up at the two, and let out a snort. "Good luck with that."
Good luck was right, the case was a complete enigma. Not only were there no witnesses, but there was no evidence either! No footprints, hair follicles, smells, nothing. There had to have been somebody there though, since Grizzle was definitely strangled by someone, but all evidence suggested that he was the only one there.
The two had been stuck with the case for the entire week. They weren't sure why, as they hadn't been able to move it forward at any point during the week.
The two walked out of the station and headed to the car. "Kinda wish we had gotten assigned to the assault case." Nick lamented. "Sounds a heckuva lot easier."
"This isn't a contest, Nick." Judy said, a bit more frustrated than normal. "We've officers, we help people."
"We'd be able to help people a lot more if we could actually get anything on this case." Nick said back. "Face it, Carrots, this case can't be cracked!"
"Neither could the Nighthowler case, and we solved that in two days!" She snapped back as the entered the car.
"Yes, but you actually had leads with that." He responded. "Here we just have a dead bear and a stolen excavator."
"I'm sure something will come up."
As if on cue, her phone began ringing. "Probably my parents." She said as she pulled it out. There wasn't a number on the display, just a single word.
"Bonjour"
The two stared at it in confusion. This wasn't a thing that could happen, was it?
She nervously answered the phone. "Hello?"
"BON, BON, BONJOUR!" The voice on the other side yelled. Judy dropped the phone, and clutched her ears. Somehow her phone had gone into speaker mode, and the resulting yell made her ears pound in pain.
"Bonjour, mademoiselle Hopps, monsieur Wilde." The voice calmed down into a smoother tone.
"Who are you?" Judy asked. "How do you know our names!?"
"Don't get your ears in a twist, Hopps." The voice said. "I know more about you two than even you do."
They looked at each other, confused.
"You'll find out… eventually." Its voice turned ominous, without actually changing the smooth tone. "I would love to tell you who I am, and what happened to Barry Grizzle…"
"You know what happened to Mr. Grizzle?" Judy interrupted.
The voice laughed, "Indeed I do, and I'll tell you all you need to know… but first, I have a question for you."
"What is it?" Nick asked.
"How would you two like to play a little game?"
"Oh, I've seen this movie." Nick joked, a bit nervously.
"Well, it's not like either of you has a real choice." The voice continued. "I have planted three bombs in Tundra Town, Sahara Square, and the Rainforest District."
The officers fell silent, and listened on in shock.
"In around… three hours, they will explode, the force of each bomb being enough to completely vaporize those areas."
They gasped in horror.
"Why would you do something like that!?" Judy yelled at the phone.
"Relax, Carottes." The voice responded back. "It's just a game."
"Screw you, buddy!" Nick yelled back, getting out of the car. "I'm telling the chief about this."
"Uh uh uh!" The phone responded back.
As Nick stepped towards the station, a series of small explosions burst in front of him. The fox was knocked back, slamming against the sidewalk.
"NICK!" Judy yelled in a panic, hopping out of the car to see if he was alright.
"I know everything you two are doing." The voice said as Judy helped the injured fox into the car. "If you tell anyone about the bombs, I will detonate them."
"How do we know you're not bluffing?" Nick coughed out.
"You don't. Do you really want to risk it, Nappe?"
"He's right, Nick." Judy reluctantly said. "It'd be too much of a risk."
Nick snarled in response.
"So, here are the rules." The voice began to explain. "If you can find all three bombs in three hours, I'll tell you some info about Grizzle's death."
"Alright." Judy agreed. "We'll play your little game."
"Excellent!" The voice said, "The game starts right now. Good luck, and au revoir."
The phone's screen turned blood red, a timer appearing on it in dark, black numbers. 2:59.
"Oh shit!" Nick yelled as he picked up the phone.
"Um, alright…" Judy said, her heart starting to beat faster. "I'll go to Tundra Town, you go to Sahara Square, and then we'll meet back up in the Rainforest District."
"Should we take the train, or the bikes?" Nick asked quickly, pulling out one of the ZooTags.
"Bikes are probably quicker." Judy stated, Nick nodding in approval. "Let's try to meet up at the Rainforest in an hour and a half, which will give us enough time to search there."
"Alright, let's go save the city. Again."
The car drove off behind a nearby building, as the sudden roaring of motorcycle engines filled the air. Soon enough, a red and blue figure were driving off in opposite directions.
Judy sped through the frozen town at the highest speeds she could manage without wiping out. She had been searching for thirty minutes for something, anything, that looked suspicious.
At this point the only suspicious thing was her. A superhero driving around aimlessly was certainly something odd.
"Maybe I should have asked our mystery bomber for some directions." She said to herself. She laughed in response, trying to get herself to cheer up.
Maybe she should go a bit more undercover for the rest of the search, the bike was clearly getting her nowhere.
She took a turn into a nearby frosted alleyway, and untransformed, peeking out to see if anyone saw her. There was nobody around, and she sighed in relief. She stepped out, and began to search a bit more carefully.
As she walked, she saw her first suspicious act.
A caribou, carrying a small box. He was looking around nervously. Definitely something shady going on there.
"Excuse me, sir!" She yelled across the street, making the caribou nearly drop his box.
"W-what do you want?" He asked as she ran up to him.
She held up her badge. "ZPD, I'm going to confiscate your mystery box for a moment."
"Uh, alright." He handed the box to her, which Judy placed on the ground.
She opened it up. It was some kind of machine, with a bowl and a crank. She didn't quite know what it was, but it definitely didn't appear to be a bomb.
"It's a snow-cone maker." The caribou said. "It's my wedding anniversary tomorrow, so I was going to surprise the wife with it."
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" She gasped, clasping her hands over her mouth.
"It's fine." The caribou said, picking up the box. "I guess I would've looked pretty shifty, my house is across the street, I was trying to make sure the wife didn't see it." He explained. "What are you looking for, anyway?"
She tried to think up an excuse quickly, she wasn't as good at this as Nick was. "We got reports of some... strange activity going on around here. Have you, uh, seen anything odd today?"
The caribou thought for a second. "There was this shady looking van over by the park. Don't know if that helps."
"Anything helps at this point." She admitted. "I'll check it out, thank you!"
With a nod, she dashed off towards the nearby park. It took a few minutes, but thanks to her rabbit agility, it took shorter than it would have for anyone else.
She caught her breath as she entered the park. It looked normal, a number of families relaxing, children playing in the snowy fields. In the middle was a fountain, with a statue of one of the founders of Zootopia decorated on top of it. A wolf named Herman Trufield. It stood proudly, as nearby mammals continued to admire it.
She walked through the park, trying to find the van the caribou had mentioned. She saw it on the other edge of the park. It was your typical shady van, painted white, and with rust marks covering it. Standing nearby was a polar bear, dressed in a messy uniform.
"How obvious can you get?" Judy said to herself as she headed toward it.
"Excuse me, sir?" She said, looking up at the massive bear.
The bear looked down in response.
"ZPD, would you mind if I check your van for something?"
"Oh, go ahead." The bear said back in a deep voice.
She bounded to the back of the van, and flung the doors open. Inside was a bunch of tools, plungers, screwdrivers. Plumbing equipment, basically. Nothing that looked like a bomb, however.
She sighed, and closed the doors. "I'm sorry for interrupting you, sir." She apologized.
"S'no biggie." Te bear responded, not looking at her. "This kinda thing happens all the time."
"Have you ever thought about getting your van... repaired?" Judy asked.
"Nah, I've had 'er for years, she's got lots of life left in her." He answered, still not looking at the rabbit. "The paint gives it a rustic charm, I feel."
"Why are you parked out here, anyway?" Judy continued to question.
"I was on my way home, when I saw this new statue they put up."
"New statue?" Judy said, a bit befuddled. "But this statue's always been in this park."
"Nah, that's the park a few blocks over."
"So, they just put up this fountain in one night?"
"Certainly looks that way." The bear said. "They got rid of the statue they originally had herem too."
There was something definitely strange about this. She certainly heard anything about new founder statues, and having two of the same so close to each other felt redundant.
"Something's wrong." She said out loud.
As she said that, the wrongness of the situation became even more apparent. Nearly everyone in the park, from the largest adult to the children, turned to their direction, their eyes suddenly turning red.
"What the?" The bear let out as the mammals tromped forward through the snow.
The mammals than began to glow green, being surrounded by what looked like ones and zeroes. In a flash, each of them had changed into an army of identical beings. Sleek purple bodies topped by dark grey shoulder armor, and clearly mechanical heads sporting a red visor. They each carried a double clawed weapon, and continued walking towards the two. The sudden appearance of these monsters scared off a number of actual people in the park.
Judy stepped forward, "You need to get out of here." She stated.
"Don't have to tell me twice!" The bear quickly hopped into his van, and sped off away from the park.
The rabbit stepped towards the gang of robots, "I should've guessed something weird was going on. You guys want a fight, I'll give you a fight."
She slammed the button on the Zoolizer, and transformed into her armored form. She drew her blasters, and shot down the first couple of robots, causing them to vaporize into ones and zeroes.
"This is gonna be a blast!" She yelled, as she pulled out a dagger, a blaster in the other hand. She leaped into the air, and landed on top of one's head, and began blasting a bunch as it struggled.
They dropped like flies, but they seemed to keep coming. She jabbed the knife into the robot footstool's head, and leaped off as it vanished.
She landed on the ground, leaving a mark in the snow. "I'm 'The bomb'!" She quipped. It was fun to do this when Nick wasn't around. He probably would have teased of her for having fun.
She dashed back into the crowd of monsters, and began slicing up the rest of them. In a few short moments, they were all gone.
"Hah, easy!" She laughed to herself. "Maybe a bit… too easy." She turned around, expecting something else to happen. Nothing did, and she sighed in relief.
"Alright, gotta find the bomb." She said to herself. Considering the monsters were surrounding the mysterious, suddenly-appeared-overnight statue, it would probably be the best place to start.
She hopped up the statue, and up onto the top of its head. She tapped it with one of her daggers, producing a metallic clang sound. It was hollow.
"The bomb's in the statue!" She yelled to herself, hopping down from it.
She pulled out her blasters and fired at the hollow figure, causing the entire top-half to be blown off.
"Miiight have been a bit too strong." She nervously said as she hopped back up to the statue.
Sure enough, lying at the bottom of the statue, was a large, oval-shaped, metallic object. She pulled it out and twirled it around in her paws, trying to find an off switch. She then noticed the large red button on top of it.
"Oh come on, seriously?"
She pressed the button, and a loud droning sound flooded the nearby area.
"BOMB DEACTIVATED" said a robotic voice from the device.
She sighed, one of three finished. Then, a pressing concern entered her mind.
"I have to warn Nick."
During the last fight, she was able to talk to him while they were falling through the sky. It seemed to come through the helmets, so maybe…
"Nick?" She asked, placing her hand next to her helmet. "Nick, can you read me?"
Surprisingly, she got an answer.
"Kinda busy right now, Carrots!" She could hear something else going on in the background.
"This is kind of important!" She said. "This isn't a normal bomb threat, this is a monster attack!"
"Yeah, you're about twenty minutes late to that revelation!" He yelled, a clear explosion sounding through the communicator.
"Wait, did you already find the bomb?" She asked, a bit worried and surprised.
"Yeah, deactivated that sucker a while ago, now I'm busy trying not to die!"
"The guys I fought were really easy, why are you having trouble?" She asked.
"Sounds like you got lucky. Listen, I'll meet you in the Rainforest District. If I'm not there, I'm dead. See ya!"
He hung up.
"Dumb fox." She muttered as she prepared to summon her motorcycle. But before she did, she looked across the park, and noticed something missing.
There were only one pair of footprints in the snow, hers.
Around fifty-five minutes earlier…
As soon as Nick had made it to Sahara Square, he had gone into casual mode. Like a true detective, he began asking around about odd things happening.
So far, his search was coming up empty. It had been a rather normal day in the Sahara, as it had turned out. Not even some of his… seedier informants seemed to be doing anything of note.
So, with nothing to go off of, he had decided to stop off at a diner to take a break.
In spite of the Sahara's manufactured heat, the district had a large number of really fantastic ice cream parlors. It helped with tourism, and the places all did surprisingly well, mostly by distancing themselves from other places.
During his conman days he'd often visit his favorite of the bunch; the Humpback Creamery. They specialized in double servings of different flavors, really great place.
He stepped in through the double doors, looking around. The place was like he remembered it, black and white tile floor, rows of red tables, around the bare minimum you needed for a food service. The counter was made of glass, with a number of display sundaes behind it.
He walked up to the counter, a camel tending it. "How's it going, Charlie?" He asked.
"Oh, if it isn't Nick Wilde!" He said cheerfully. "Haven't seen you here in ages, what brings you in?"
"I was on duty in Sahara Square and wanted to stop by my favorite ice creamery, for old time's sake."
The camel chuckled, "Guessing you'll have your usual?"
"Oh, you know it."
"One double-stacked chocolate vanilla sundae with extra chocolate and caramel syrup comin' up."
"Don't forget the candy cricket legs!" Nick joked.
"I never do!"
Nick waited at the counter for his sundae to be made. He was glad the place had air conditioning. It had felt like he was walking around the district for hours, even though it had only been about half an hour.
Suddenly, everything began to shake.
"QUAKE!" Someone in the store shouted. Everyone there ducked under their tables, the building felt like it was going to fall apart.
Suddenly, it stopped. No damage had been done inside the building, and the quake itself seemed to have only lasted around ten seconds.
"Damn it!" Charlie yelled, walking out from the kitchen, covered in ice cream. "Really sorry, Nick. That quake was one of the worst, ruined your ice cream." He apologized. "I'll have another one ready for you, but it'll take a bit."
"Its fine, I got time." His eyes widened. He had forgotten about the bomb. "Okay, I'll be back in a bit, I just remembered I have to do something REALLY important." He rushed towards the door. "Real sorry about this, Charlie!"
The camel sighed, wiping some ice cream off his face.
Nick burst through the doors, and headed into the middle of the sandy street. Suddenly, the ground began to shake again. It wasn't a quake.
He looked to his right, a massive stampede of animals, big and small, was running towards him. They were all screaming in terror at something, but Nick couldn't make it out over the sound of the animal parade.
He leaped out of the way of the stampede, it just missing him. He got up, trying to clear away the dust from his face. "What was that about?" He coughed, squinting through the dust cloud.
A figure emerged through the dust. Definitely not a normal mammal, or even a mammal at all.
He couldn't make it out well, but he could see it. "Hah, already running away in fear!" It laughed in a metallic voice. "I haven't even planted the bomb yet!"
Nick got up, and the dust cleared, letting him see the creature more easily. It was definitely a robot, yellow and grey in color, with a V-like visor. Of course, the most notable feature was its gigantic, shovel-like left arm.
It turned to look at the fox staring at him. "Oh look, if it isn't our furry little player!"
"Great, so you know who I am." Nick said, standing up. "I'm so flattered. Now, are we gonna do this or what?"
"I don't have time to fight you!" It yelled. "I don't have a lot of time to plant this…" He held out his shovel arm, the bucket of which carried a large, grey object. "BOMB!"
"Well, guess what? You're not gonna plant it at all!"
He rushed towards the monster, and hit the button on his Zoolizer, transforming. He leaped into the air, bringing his sword down onto the monster's still outstretched arm.
The monster yelled in pain as the bomb flew from his bucket, crashing to the ground with a thud.
"NO!" It yelled out as the fox quickly dashed towards the explosive.
Nick scooped up the bomb in his arms, quickly finding the big red button. "Dig this!" He yelled, slamming his paw against the button.
"BOMB DEACTIVATED"
The monster let out a mechanical growl, "You may have deactivated the bomb, but that doesn't mean I can't SCRAP YOU!" IT lifted its arm to its visor, and then jolted it away, a large, red laser firing from it.
Nick leaped out of the way, dropping the bomb. The laser hit the deactivated bomb, causing an explosion, and once again creating a dust cloud around them.
Even with the helmet on, Nick could barely see anything. Unfortunately, it looked like the robot could see through the dust, as it rushed towards him and smacked the fox backwards with his massive shovel.
He went flying into the side of a nearby building. The dust cleared as he saw the robot preparing another laser blast. The fox got up, and pulled out his cannon. He fired it at the robot, knocking it back.
"Lucky shot!" It yelled as it steadied itself. It scooped up a bunch of sand and dirt in its bucket claw, and flung it at the red ranger. The ground clung to the visor, effectively blinding him.
He struggled to see, and could only hear the clanking of the metal monster's inner workings coming near him. He heard the monster's arm raise up, causing the fox to instinctively pull out his sword and slash upwards. The resulting yell and scraping told him he had successfully hit.
"Guess you forgot about animal instincts, huh?" Nick quipped, wiping the dirt from his helmet.
"Guess the blinding trick won't work here." The robot lamented. "Guess I'll have to play a bit more offensively!"
He fired a barrage of lasers from his visor, Nick barely dodging as they hit the wall behind him. The wall was nearly vaporized as a result.
The shovel robot rushed towards the fox, swinging its arm rapidly at him. Nick managed to block the hits with his sword, but the attacks were starting to tire him. No wonder they worked better as a team.
As the robot prepared another strike, Nick jabbed the sword into its chest, knocking it backwards and to the ground. It gave the fox a bit of a breather.
The monster didn't get up. Instead, it flipped over, and began revving up its arm, which caused it to dig under the ground. Everything began to shake, it was causing a quake.
He couldn't tell where the monster was, but he could tell that the monster knew where he was. He did the first thing he could think of.
Run.
He rushed back towards the Humpback Creamery, leaping through one of the glass windows in the front of the building.
"Everyone, get out now!" He yelled, trying to put on a deeper voice.
"What's going on here!?" Charlie yelled at the fox.
The fox ignored the camel, rushing towards the back of the store. Suddenly, a large dent appeared from the floor. And then another one a few feet away. And then another one. This caused all of the current patrons, and Charlie himself to rush out of the building, something was clearly going down, and they didn't want to deal with it.
The robot monster burst through the store's floor, only his upper half poking out. It grunted, trying to get out.
"Looks like you can't dig through stuff that isn't dirt, huh?" Nick mocked, looking at the struggling monster. "Tiles too much for you?"
"Damn fox!" It yelled, slamming its shovel arm into the ground, boosting himself out of it.
The monster grabbed the base of a table with its normal arm. It ripped it from the metal bolts, and hurled it at the fox. He ducked under it as it smashed into the wall behind him. He rushed to the counter, and smashed the glass. Quickly grabbing two of the bowls of ice cream, he chucked them directly at the robot's face.
"Ice cream!? Seriously!?" It yelled as the ice cream and glass smashed against its face. It was covered in the stuff, and much like Nick was a few minutes ago, the monster appeared to be blinded.
"You ready for twenty flavors of pain?" He yelled, rushing towards the monster with his sword. He slashed it several times, and then knocked it backwards, shattering the glass doors.
He looked on as the monster struggled to get up. Suddenly, he heard something.
"Nick?"
The voice echoed through his helmet, it sounded like Judy. Was he going crazy?
"Nick, can you read me?"
Did the helmet have a communicator? He guessed it did, but before he could say anything, the monster rose. It was preparing another laser blast.
"Kinda busy right now, Carrots!" He yelled into the communicator, quickly dodging out of the way of another laser blast.
"This is kind of important!" The monster rushed towards him, as he blocked another shovel swing with his sword. "This isn't a normal bomb threat, this is a monster attack!" She continued through the communicator.
He knocked the monster back as it fired another laser, which just barely missed the fox and caused an explosion. "Yeah, you're about twenty minutes late to that revelation!" He yelled.
"Wait, did you already find the bomb?"
"Yeah, deactivated that sucker a while ago," He dodged out of the way of another laser. "Now I'm busy trying not to die!"
The robot rushed towards him as soon as the laser hit the wall behind the fox, and smacked him away with his shovel arm, directly through a wall.
"The guys I fought were really easy, why are you having trouble?" Judy asked, unaware of the danger the fox was in
He slid across the ground, slamming into the building next to the parlor. "Sounds like you got lucky." He moaned in pain.
The monster closed in through the hole in the wall, raising its arm for the final strike. "Listen, I'll meet you in the Rainforest District." The monster swung its arm down to the ground, the fox rolling out of the way just in time. "If I'm not there, I'm dead. See ya!" He tapped the side of his helmet, causing it to hang up.
He stood up, drawing his sword and backing up into the street again. He was getting tired, but the robot didn't seem to be feeling any fatigue.
Suddenly, the robot jerked backwards. "What!?" It yelled.
"Pah, you scared, buddy?" Nick said, trying to stay cool.
"Retreat!?" The robot said, ignoring the fox. "But I've got him on the ropes!"
The robot was talking to someone. This is probably what he looked like to the monster during his call.
The monster growled, looking at the tired ranger. He pointed towards him with his normal arm, "I'll be seeing you again soon, and when I do…"
He lifted up his shovel arm, and slammed it against the ground, creating a large crater in the middle of the street.
"Great, another pot hole for city hall to not fix."
The monster began spinning its arm at tremendous speeds, digging into the ground and disappearing.
He fell to the ground and untransformed, taking deep breaths.
"I should probably let Judy know that I'm not dead."
Judy paced back and forth by the ground entrance to the Rainforest District. The wait for Nick was causing her to become anxious. The last words he said before he hung up weren't exactly hopeful, but there was a chance he wasn't dead.
She heard the noise of a motorcycle coming out from the tunnel. A red motorcycle burst through and skidded to a halt. In a flash, Nick was standing there.
"Sorry about worrying you, Carrots." He said, sounding a bit out of breath.
"I wasn't worried." She denied.
"Then why are you doing that?" He asked, looking down at her furiously tapping foot.
"I'm, uh, worried about the bomb." She tried to excuse.
"You're an awful liar, Fluff." He said. "I should give you some lessons."
"I'd rather not." She muttered, the fox rolling his eyes in response. "SO, where do you think the bomb would be?" She said, trying to change subjects.
"Considering what I just saw, probably somewhere in the middle of a street."
"Really?" She said as they began to walk deeper into the forest. "Mine was in a statue."
"Huh, my bomb seemed like an afterthought."
"I say we check out a landmark." Judy suggested. "Lots of people would be around them, it would cause a lot more damage."
"Good point." Nick said. "But most of the Rainforest's landmarks are organic, something like those bombs would be pretty noticeable."
"No matter where it is, the only choice we have is to start looki-." Judy wasn't looking where she was going, and slammed her face into something.
They looked up, it was a large elephant, browner than the ones they usually saw around the city. Near it were a host of other animals, all recognizable, but with different colorings.
"Tourists." Nick whispered as the rabbit got up.
The sound of a novelty car horn caused everyone there to look down the road. A rather gaudy red and white bus drove up to them, the side having a large tree painted onto it. The door slid open, revealing an otter in an explorer's outfit, and carrying a microphone.
"Howdy, folks!" he said to the tourists. "Are you all ready to see the sights of Zootopia's wonderful Rainforest?"
"Huh, how convenient." Nick said, as the tourists got onto the bus.
Judy ran up to the otter. "Excuse me sir, how much for a ticket?" She asked.
"Only fifteen dollars, ma'am!"
"Great, we'd like two."
Soon, the two officers, still in uniform, were sitting on a bus full of tourists.
"This isn't awkward at all." Nick whispered to her.
She shushed him, "It's better than wandering around aimlessly."
Nick looked around, feeling a bit awkward and small against so many much larger animals. There were none around his size. He turned around and spotted a lone mammal sitting at the back of the bus.
It was a tan cheetah, wearing dark sunglasses, a dark coat, and a dark hat. He was looking out the window. This was a completely normal animal, but something felt off about him. Nick decided to keep this to himself, no use causing a stir over what was probably just a weird tourist.
After a few minutes, the otter driver began to speak.
"We are arriving at our first exciting destination! The world's oldest standing Tumble Tree!"
The bus stopped, and the passengers exited. The officers waited until everyone else exited before they left, but didn't notice the cheetah following after them.
They were led into a park, and absolutely massive tree sitting in the middle of a raised section.
"The Tumble Tree is a kind of tree known for being incredibly tall, but their thin stumps break after only a few decades of growing!" He stated. "This miraculous specimen, however, has been standing here since the Rainforest District was founded over a century ago!"
They looked up at the tree, it was incredibly tall, the top being barely visible.
Judy looked up in awe, while Nick tried to keep his eye on the cheetah.
"I've never seen this before." She said, craning her neck upwards. "It's really beautiful."
"I used to live here, y'know." Nick said, turning to her. "Had to come by here a lot. Trust me, the novelty of a large tree wares off quickly."
He turned back and looked around, the cheetah was nowhere in sight. "Hang on, I need to go check something."
"What?" Judy said, looking down as her partner dashed off towards the tree.
He rushed behind the tree, seeing the cheetah, crouching down and fiddling with something.
"Hold it right there!" He shouted, pulling out his badge. "You're under arrest!"
The cheetah stood up, it's paused raised in the air. One of them held a smart phone.
He glanced at the object he was fiddling with. It looked like a miniature version of the bombs they found before, and it was strapped directly to the tree.
"What's going on!?" Judy yelled, running up to her partner.
"I found our bomber." Nick growled.
The cheetah let out a laugh. "Congratulations. You win."
He tapped the phone's screen, the red button on the small bomb beginning to beep. Seeing what was happening, the two leaped backwards.
An explosion, not a massive one, but big enough to light the Tumble Tree on fire, and create a massive hole in its stump. It teetered over, crushing the bus, and a few other cars located behind it.
"And that folks, is our que to GET OUT OF HERE!" The otter yelled, causing the tourists to scatter.
"Bon travail, you two." The cheetah laughed.
"We didn't disarm the bomb, how did we win!?" Judy yelled.
He wagged one of his digits. "I never said you had to disarm all the bombs, now did I? You had to find them, and that you did."
"Alright," Nick said. "We played your twisted game, are you going to give us your part of the deal?"
"Ah yes, the info." He said to himself. "You did win, so I guess I should tell you."
He threw off his clothes, revealing another set beneath them. A tan jacket, a scarf, and a pair of strange goggles placed on his forehead.
"I killed Grizzle, but you two should have figured that out by now."
The two looked at each other awkwardly. They probably should have guessed, considering this guy was seriously messed up, and seemed to be the only person who knew anything. But over the course of the two hours, they hadn't really thought about it.
"Judging by your looks, I'm guessing you didn't figure it out." He placed his paw to his chin. "And I suppose you also didn't figure out there was only one bomb?"
Judy's eyes widened. "What?"
"There was only one real bomb, the one I just set off." The cheetah explained. "The other two were fakes."
Their jaws dropped.
"Oh, and this entire exercise was a test. Which you failed, by the way."
"What the hell does that mean?" Nick asked. "We did what you wanted, and you just said we won!"
"You won the game, but failed the test." He explained. "Shame, I gave you so many hints too. Let me give you a quick rundown."
He dashed towards them, the two quickly dodging out of the way as he kicked the ground. The kick was strong enough to leave a hole in the ground.
"So you managed to focus on trying to find who killed this insignificant bear, but, whoopsie, not on the quakes plaguing the city for a week."
He snapped his fingers, another quake happening directly after. The monster Nick had encountered before burst through the ground, landing next to the cheetah.
"You didn't find that at all suspicious?" He asked, a bit smug. The two could only look at each other in response.
In a flash, the cheetah dashed over to Judy, lifting her up by the arm and flinging her at Nick. The two toppled over, lying in pain.
"Whoopsie deux," He continued, the two officers trying to get up. "Was you falling for my bomb ruse when the real plan was going on under your own feet."
The two got up, still in pain. "What does that mean?" Judy asked.
He ignored them. "And whoopsie numero trois..." He dashed behind the two, and locked them both into a choke hold.
Neither of them could breath, they struggled and kicked against the attacker's body as he squeezed his arms around them.
He drew them closer to his mouth, his eyes dilating, and whispered.
"You didn't know you were playing with Enter."
He dropped them to the ground. They gasped for breath, and writhed in pain as Enter stood above them.
"Of course, killing you both now wouldn't be very much fun, would it?" He said. "In fact, I'll let you in on what you were missing out."
He knelt down to them. "My Metalroid over there has been digging a massive fissure under your city. If he completes it, everything you're fighting for will be destroyed."
Nick tried to let out a growl, but his throat was still in massive pain.
He stood up again. "How bout we make this a game, hmm?" He said, lifting the two to their feet. "If you can defeat Shovelroid before he finishes, you win. Deal?"
Nick let out a successful growl. "I'm guessing we don't have a choice."
Enter laughed, pushing them forward. He then pulled out a small, red object, and hurled it at the idle robot.
It jabbed into the monster's chest, where it vanished into it's metallic skin. It writhed in pain as a bright red light emanated from it. It's neck extended out, a large, bucket-like jaw forming where there was none before. Machinery enveloped its normal looking arm, turning it into a second shovel arm. It's legs became more digitigraded, and a large red marking appeared in the middle of it's chest.
"CHAOS SHOVELROID!" It yelled, before digging into the ground.
"The game starts now. You have an hour." Enter said. "Au Revoir, Zoorangers!"
They both turned around at the sound of those last words. Enter had completely vanished.
"This is pretty bad." Judy said.
The two sped through the streets of Zootopia on their bikes, weaving in and out of traffic as they tried to find the runamuck Shovelroid.
"Alright Blue, I have an idea." Red said through the communicator.
"Anything's better than driving around aimlessly, lay it on me."
"So, the robot had to have made an entrance, right?" He suggested. "When I fought him before, he definitely made some big holes."
"So, find the entrance, find the monster?"
He nodded. "We just need a place to start."
Blue paused. "I think I have an idea."
She quickly swerved into an upcoming street, surprising the fox. He skid to a halt, and turned around, starting to follow her direction.
He followed her to a very familiar looking construction site. This is where Grizzle was murdered.
"Ah, I get it." Red said, parking his bike next to hers. "Returning to the scene of the crime."
"Not exactly." Blue replied back, running over to the large hole in the side of the site. "If that Enter guy was the one who stole the excavator, then it couldn't have gone too far from the site."
Red walked to the hole, and looked around. "Maybe we should follow those obvious tracks." He pointed to the large tracks on the ground.
"We already investigated that, the track's just kind of ended." Blue pointed out.
Red walked out and followed the tracks. They were here every day of the week, every day they checked out the place for clues. The suddenly disappearing tracks was definitely odd, but it wasn't an improbable situation.
When he reached the end, they still stopped dead. They ended halfway through the alley next to the site, it was strange. He sniffed, "Guess you're intuition was a bit off, Blue."
She walked to his side as they stared into the empty alleyway. She sighed, where else could the entrance be besides here?
"Have we actually ever looked down there?" Red wondered.
"What's there to look for? It's just an alley."
Red squinted from behind his mask. He walked forward slowly towards the back wall of the open hallway. He blinked. There was now a gigantic hole in the middle of the ground.
"Holy…" He almost yelled, but stopped himself. He turned around to tell Blue what had just happened, but the only thing behind him was a wall of black and white static.
"…shit."
He walked through the wall of static, reappearing in the alleyway he was standing in a few moments before. Blue stared at him, her paws brought to her mouth in obvious shock.
"What the hell just happened, Red?" She asked, walking up to him.
"I found our entrance." He said smugly, turning back to see end of the alleyway, hole-less.
He stepped through again, seeing the hole appear in front of him again. Blue followed after, deciding to leap through instead of walk.
She rolled to her feet and looked around, seeing the hole. "What in the world is going on?" She asked, dumbfounded.
"Yeah, like this is weirder than anything that's happened in the last month." Red said, looking into the corner. A small device clung to the wall, shaped like a large V, and with a glowing light in the middle of it.
He pulled out the Foxfire Blade, and jabbed it into the device. The wall of static behind them disappeared as the glow from the light faded.
"A hologram?" Blue said, watching as the static faded, showing the outside of the alley.
"This Enter guy's a real trickster, huh?" Red said, pulling his blade from the wall and scraping off the device. "At least we found our entrance."
She nodded in response, "Here's the plan." She started. "We need to get him above ground, that way he can't cause any more damage."
"Sounds like a plan."
They both walked up to the edge of the hole. It was deep, pitch black. They stared down it for a minute.
"So, rabbits first?" He suggested.
Blue groaned in annoyance at the rabbit burrow joke, and punched the fox in the back, knocking him down into the hole.
"Dumb fox." She said, jumping into the tunnel herself.
The cavern was deep and winding, the two slid down and down into the depths, it getting even darker. Red yelled in fear the entire way down.
Eventually, the slide ended and the fox fell directly onto his snout. The rabbit landed directly on his back.
"Red?" She asked quietly. "Red are you there?"
"Yor stanghing on topf oth me." He muttered, his face buried into the ground.
"Oh my gosh!" She yelled, stepping off of him. He got up and shook the dirt off. She helped him up, "Are you alright?"
"I'll be coughing up dirt for a week, and I'll probably never go on a water slide again, but I'm fine."
"Can you see anything?" She asked, looking around in the inky blackness of the cavern.
"Not a damn thing." He responded, not sounding concerned. "But I think I can do something about that."
He pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired it off at the ground. The room lit up for a brief second as it exploded, before going black again. He fired it again, and then again, this time at the wall and a nearby stalactite respectively. The room lit up both times, but they still couldn't make anything out.
"Huh," He said, "Guess I don't have a solution."
Blue sighed to herself, and placed her paw onto the side of her helmet. Suddenly, everything turned green, and she could see everything in the cave.
"Oh, our helmets have night vision!" She excitedly stated.
"How many things do these helmets have?" He wondered, turning on the night vision.
The wondered through the cave, almost aimlessly. Considering this was meant to be under the whole of downtown, it had to have been incredibly large. They had nowhere to start looking for the monster.
"You hear anything, Blue?" The fox asked quietly.
"What?" She asked loudly.
"Have you heard any noises yet, that dirt digger is probably making a bunch of sounds your ears can pick up."
She hadn't even thought of that. She listened into the silent cave, trying to hear anything. She stopped breathing for a second when it wasn't silent enough. Then she heard it. The sound of machinery, coming from… whichever direction was to their right.
"Got him." She said, rushing forward, the fox trailing behind her.
After a bit of running, they found the monster. It was halfway into a rocky wall, only its back legs visible. It was making a noise, similar to someone eating really fast, but with rocks instead of food.
"Hey, mud muncher!" Red yelled, drawing his cannon.
The monster seemed to ignore him, continuing to dig.
"I don't think he heard you." Blue joked, the fox turning to give her a look.
"Guess we'll have to get his attention in a more direct way." He aimed the gun at the monster's rear, and fired.
The monster roared in pain as it hit, and a small tremor struck as it slammed its head on the top of the tunnel it was in. IT slowly crawled out, and turned to the two rangers behind it. IT began to pound its chest, letting out a roar that sounded like a mix between an engine grinding and a savage roar.
"I was expecting something a bit more legible." Red whimpered as the monster rushed towards them.
The two dodged out of the way as the monster leaped up and slammed its shovel hands into the ground, causing a massive shake. The two looked up as rocks began to fall from the ceiling.
"If he keeps this up…" Judy said, dodging a stalactite that nearly crushed her, "Then the whole city's gonna cave in!"
"Let's get him above ground quickly!" Red yelled, aiming the Vickscannon at the angry shovel robot.
The monster tromped towards him, using its arms as what appeared to be extra support. Red aimed the blaster at its face, and fired. The monster quickly knocked the blast away with one of its arms, launching the ball of fire off in a different direction.
The monster leaped directly in front of the fox, and swung its arm at him. "Wow, you're a lot…" Nick started as he ducked under the swing. "A lot more aggressive now, huh?" He leaped out of the way of another smash.
"Not that you weren't aggressive before, I mean." The robot fired a series of lasers from its eyes, causing the fox to get knocked back. "It's just that you're a little bit more, uh…" The monster leaped at him again, knocking the fox onto his back and pinning him down. "I dunno, savage?"
The monster unhinged it's shovel jaw, and let out a monstrous roar, blowing dirt chunks into the fox's terrified face.
"RABBLASTERS!" Blue yelled, firing her blaster at the shovel monster. It quickly turned to her, all of its anger now directed at the rabbit. It rushed towards her, to which the comparatively tiny rabbit responded by running away.
"I HOPE YOU HAVE AN IDEA, RED!" She yelled as she ran from the shovel beast.
He didn't, but Nick was always a master of improvisation.
He quickly pulled out his sword and rushed towards the chase. He ducked in behind the rabbit, causing the monster to skid towards him as the fox held his sword out. He swung it directly into the side of the monster as it neared, launching the monster into the side of the wall it had previously been digging in, face first.
It fell from the stone it had been lodged into, stone still. It fell onto its back, and remained there, unmoving, for a few moments. The two rangers simply stared on, unsure what to do. Suddenly, it leaped back to its feet, and roared at them.
"Damn, thought we got lucky for a second there." Red lamented.
It fired a burst of lasers from its glowing red eyes, which the two dodged. Blue rushed at it with her daggers, attempting to attack the robot, but it effortlessly knocked her back with a swipe from its arm.
She skidded across the ground on her back, ending up next to the still standing fox. "I think this guy might be too tough for us." She said, crossing her arms.
"You might be right about him being stringer," Red said, looking down at her. "But we've got him beat by miles in the brains department." He finished, tapping the top of his helmet.
She sighed. The rabbit wasn't entirely sure that brains could stop this beast, it was too powerful to even get near. She heard the monster step forward as she continued to look up at the ceiling. She noticed something. Light, shining through cracks directly above them.
Shining from above ground.
"I GOT IT!" She yelled, sitting up. This startled both the monster, and the fox.
"What?" He asked, looking at her.
"Directly above us, there's a weak point!" She yelled pointing upwards. "If we blast that, we can trick this guy into following us up!"
"Get him above ground, finish him off. Sounds like a great plan." He said, aiming the Vickscannon upwards.
He blasted the weak spot. What they didn't account for in this plan was the debris falling towards them both. They leapt out of the way, as light shone through the hole, filling the cavern.
The monster recoiled in pain, Blue making a quick note of it. They used all their strength to leap out of the pit, which was around a remarkable 50 feet by the looks of it.
They broke through the hole to the underground, and looked around. It was Sahara Square. In fact, it was around the same area Red had first fought the monster. They looked down the hole, seeing the monster's red eyes staring up at them.
"Hey, buddy!" Blue yelled, combining her Rabblasters together and aiming them at the monster in the hole. "Ready to face the light?" She pulled the trigger.
"CUTTING ON THROUGH!
SLICING THE SKY!
CHANBARA BAN!
RABBLASTERS!"
The blasters fired a blade-like laser directly at the monster, striking it between the eyes and briefly lighting up the cave. It let out a massive roar of pain, which shook the entire block.
With a smash, the monster itself leapt through the ground in front of them, creating another hole, and land landing nearly in front of the two rangers.
Blue looked at the monster. Despite its menacing stance, it was squinting, something it hadn't been doing in the cave earlier. She smirked.
"This is our chance, Red!" She said, the fox responding by looking at her in confusion.
"He's still a heavily armored beast, and I wouldn't say that he's weak enough to finish off, so unless you got a clever plan…"
She turned to him, and despite not being able to see her eyes, he could tell what she was thinking.
"He sighed, "Alright, what's the plan?"
"He's sensitive to light, see how he's squinting like that?" She said, pointing towards the robot.
"So it'll end up being clumsier when it's trying to fend us off, right?"
She nodded, "Exactly."
The two rushed towards the monster, weapons drawn. They just had to use their agility to take it down.
Blue got right in front of the monster, dodging side to side as it attempted to awkwardly squish her with one of its shovel hands. It moved slower than it did in the caves, as if making sure that it was actually aiming for the rabbit. Looks like her suspicions were one hundred percent confirmed.
She ducked under it, slicing its stomach with her daggers, the monster reacting in pain. It then attempted to step on her with its back legs, but due to the sun and a lack of periphery vision, Blue managed to jump of the way easily.
Red kept a bit of a distance, firing at the monster with his blaster. It winced with each blast, struggling as the rabbit continued to leap around him, slicing it up. It was time to resort to its backup plan.
The robot roared, and began thrashing around wildly, knocking Blue back. Even with the rabbit gone, it continued to flail and smack the ground.
"Is he having a temper tantrum?" Red asked, a bit confused.
Blue shook her head, just as confused as the fox was.
Red groaned, pulling out his weapons. "Let's just finish this jerk off. He owes me a sundae."
The rabbit looked at him for a second, surprised at how deadly serious that had sounded, and then pulled out her own weapons. They threw them up into the air, combing them into the Zookaiser.
It fell into their hands, and they aimed it at the unaware monster, who was still thrashing around.
"ANIMAL KINGDOM BLAST!" They both yelled, Red pulling the trigger.
A massive laser fired from the cannon, directly at the monster. It quickly turned to look at them, hearing the noise, seeing the laser heading towards it. With one last roar, which trailed into the distance, it erupted into a massive explosion, larger than the ones they had seen before, as a large, yellow object flew from it.
With a crash, it landed on top of a nearby ice cream parlor. It was an excavator, and it had nearly entirely destroyed the place.
"GOD DAMN IT!" A voice yelled from inside.
The fox cringed, "Looks like I'm not getting my sundae any time soon." He muttered.
They heard a noise emanating from behind them. Turning, they saw another one of those red badges, floating in the air. It flew off into the distance, and exploded on the horizon, the monster they had just destroyed reappearing. It let out a large roar, alerting everyone in a ten mile radius to its existence.
"You ready to do this, Blue?" Red asked, pulling out his ZooTag.
"You know it." She responded, pulling out her own.
They both plugged them into the Zoolizers.
"DEFENDERS OF NATURE
ARE YOU SURE?
LOOK UP AND COMBINE!
ZOOSAGI!
ZOOKITSUNE!"
The two mechanical animals appeared, and the two rangers leaped into their cockpits, rushing towards the monster on the outskirts of the city.
As soon as they reached the outskirts, the robots leaped into the air, folding out and combining into the giant robot now known as ZooRobo. The two behemoths locked sights, and began circling each other.
"Let's get this show started!" Red yelled, jolting the controls forward, causing ZooRobo to dash at the giant shovel beast.
The monster raised one of its massive arms, attempting to strike the mech, who raised its sword up to block the monster's blow. With a successful block, ZooRobo then swung its sword directly into the beast's chest, knocking it backwards.
The monster stumbled, and regained its composure, letting out a roar at the heroic robot. It dug into the ground with its claws, and began chucking huge chunks of dirt at ZooRobo. Its blade cut most of the chunks in half, until one slapped it right in the face, blinding the pilots.
ZooRobo wiped the dirt off, only to find the monster swinging its claw directly at them, causing the robot to fall over. The shovel creature than planted its limbs on the robots own, locking it in place.
The monster raised its fist, and punched ZooRobo in the face, causing the cockpit inside to spin around.
"WHO DESIGNED THIS THING!?" Blue yelled as they spun around at incredible speeds, before stopping.
With one of its arms freed for the moment, ZooRobo quickly struck the monster's stomach, causing it to break from its lock. The heroic mech got up, and backed away from the angry monster, who pounded its claws into the ground, causing tremors.
"We're too slow." Blue said to her partner. "If we were faster, we could easily beat this guy."
"Alright, how do you suggest we get any faster?" Red asked, a bit stressed.
"Let me take the controls!" She said, the cockpit spinning around, placing her in the front.
Instantly, ZooRobo put its sword onto its back. Putting up its fists, it hopped back and forth, ready to take the monster down.
"ZOOROBO, USAGI MODE!" A voice yelled, startling the two.
"What was that, and what did we do?" Red asked, a bit confused.
"I think we've figured out how to beat this thing!" Blue replied back.
The robot dashed towards the monster, letting out a flurry of punches directly into its face, the beast unable to do anything about it as the punches kept coming. The punches stopped as quickly as they began, the monster stepping back in pain.
The monster roared, and leaped at the mech, which quickly rushed forward towards the monster, and performed a sliding kick. The beast just barely missed them, falling face first into the grassy ground.
ZooRobo dashed over to the grounded, stunned monster, and kicked it over. The mech jumped onto the monster's own vulnerable body, and began rapidly punching it in the face once again, finishing with a kick to the face as well.
It leaped off, the monster getting up in a daze. "Let's finish this off!" Blue announced, her partner nodding in agreement.
ZooRobo back flipped into the city, and landed on top of two buildings, each holding on of its feet. It then jumped high up into the air, locking its sights onto the monster.
"LUNAR KICK!" She yelled, the mech performing a diving kick straight into the monster, it somehow going right through it.
Explosions racked the monsters body, as it finally fell over and exploded for good.
"You just got buried!" Red quipped, the robot performing a pose.
"We're not done yet, Red!" Blue announced, turning the mech to a nearby mountain.
"What?" He asked, and immediately retracted, seeing the mountain.
It was Mt. Animalia, the supposed base of operations for the monster they had been fighting.
"Ooooh, I getcha." He said. "Let me take care of this."
The cockpit spun around again, putting the fox in front. ZooRobo drew its sword, and approached the mountain.
It swung the sword down with all its strength, attempting to get rid of the monsters in an enhanced size. However, they were blocked, a dark red force field appearing around the mountain, the sword harmlessly bouncing off it.
"What the?" The two ranger let out, looking as the barrier suddenly vanished from sight.
Suddenly, a loud, booming voice shook the surrounding area.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" It laughed, causing the two rangers to clutch their ears in an unknown pain.
"YOU DARE ATTEMPT TO STRIKE THE MIGHTY OMNIPOTENCE WITH SUCH A FEEBLE ATTACK" It announced, the pain continuing to ring through the two. "HAVE A TASTE OF TRUE POWER"
The barrier reappeared, a massive glowing red spot showing up, facing directly towards the robot. A large bolt of red electricity fired from it, striking the mech and the pilots.
They writhed and yelled in pain, the mech's components detaching and disappearing, launching the two heroes back into the city. They tumbled and rolled across the ground, thick black smoke coming off of their bodies.
Blue got up, still in pain, and untransformed. "What…" She tried to say, taking a breath, "Was that?"
Red got up as well, in equal pain, and also untransformed. "I think we might have just found our big villain." He stated, taking breaths between each word.
The two decided to head back to their apartment, unaware of a figure watching them from a nearby building. A tan cheetah in a long jacket, looking down at them with a pair of goggles.
"Congratulations, Zoorangers." He said to himself, "You've passed the real test."
A few hours later, and after an awkward excuse call to Bogo, the two had returned to their apartment. Surprisingly, their wounds seemed to have nearly entirely healed by the time they got back, aside from very minor stinging.
Nick planted himself on the couch, and sighed. "So, what happened back there?" He asked, distraught.
"What do you mean, the part where we nearly got killed by a mystery villain, or the part where we nearly got killed by a different mystery villain?" Judy retorted back from the kitchen, thumping her foot on the floor loudly.
"Okay, let's take this one step at a time." He said, a bit more seriously. "Did you hear what that Enter guy was saying when he was, uh… kicking our asses?"
"You mean him telling us how bad we are at being heroes?" She said, sounding a bit angrier.
"I mean, what he was doing during that." Nick said, getting up and walking over to her. "It was our stuff."
She looked up at him as he sat in a chair next to her, confused.
"It was a bit more frou-frou, but he was doing it." He said. "He kept calling you Carrots, the dumb rabbit slash fox thing, and that 'whoopsie' thing from way back when we first met! Remember that?"
"Of course I do." She said, remembering back.
"What I want to know is how he knew any of that." He asked, slamming his fist on the table. "We keep that kind of stuff private, I think the only people who know our quirks are at the station." He continued. "How did a villain from another universe find out about this?"
"The guy seemed like a stalker, he could have been watching us without us knowing." She tried to rationalize. "The real question is what that… thing that attacked us was."
"I'm still betting on some kind of ancient, evil monster." Nick said. "Maybe it was locked away by a magic seal, or it could be some kind of evil, underground emperor that wants to take over the surface!"
Judy stared at him, slack jawed.
"What?"
She shook her head, and got up. "Whatever it was, I can tell you one thing…" She paused.
"Well, what is it?" Nick asked after a few moments of silence.
She took a deep breath, letting out a shudder. "That thing could've killed us." She said. "It could've turned us to dust… but it didn't."
The room fell silent, Nick turning to look at his paws as he twiddled them. Judy walked over to the window, opening it up and staring up at the sky.
"I know this is our responsibility now, but I feel we still need help with this whole Sentai thing…" She admitted, looking up.
As she did, she noticed a single star, shining brighter than the rest.
"WHO'S THE NITWIT THAT TOLD THOSE RANGERS ABOUT OUR SECRET BASE!?" Sambash yelled aiming his gun back and forth between Yogostein and Yabaiba. Long stood idly by, watching the two panic and run as Sambash began shooting at them both.
The biker looked back and forth at the two, Yogostein out of breath, resting against a wall, and Yabaiba cowering in fear.
"Yogostein seems too smart for that kind of slip up." Sambash said to himself, aiming his blaster towards the clown Org.
With a couple shots to the back, Yabaiba fell to the ground, Sambash towering over him.
"Alright, alright!" He yelled, shielding himself from the gun pointed towards his face. "I may have said the location of the base… ten feet away from the rangers…"
"You dumbass clown." He said, drawing his gun back. "I have a feeling the bossman would get angrier with me if a killed you, but it's tempting."
He walked away, the clown sitting up. "Thank you for your, uh, mercy?"
Enter soon walked into the room, shifting from his animal form back to his human form. "See your mission went as well as ours did, huh?" Sambash mocked, sitting down at the table.
"Au contraire." Enter replied back. "It went better than any of yours did.
"Your monster got destroyed, and you lost, sounds like it went as well as ours did!" Yogostein snapped back.
Enter ignored him "Have any of you seen monsieur Kyuemon?" He asked, looking around. "I hear he's been having trouble."
The three looked at each other, not having an answer. "He's been busy doing something." Yabaiba said, "We just don't know where he… is."
"He's at the top of the mountain, sulking." Long let out, not looking at any of them.
"Merci!" Enter thanked, disappearing into a burst of red data.
He reappeared at the top of the mountain, seeing the fox Yokai sitting down, staring off at the city. He approached.
"So, you're having problems with your next monster, hmm?"
Kyuemon barely reacted, he seemed to have sensed Enter before he even appeared. "How would you know that, machine?"
"It's called information gathering." He replied coldly. "It's our job."
Kyuemon scoffed.
"It's hard to not find out about the numerous attacks you've done within the last few hours." Enter stated.
"Why are you here, robot?"
"I want to help." He said plainly, circling around to the front of the Yokai. "We are a team, are we not?" He asked, crouching down to face his apparent partner eye to eye.
The two stared at each other for a moment. Kyuemon thought, he was certainly having… difficulties getting the transformation shuriken to work.
"Very well, Enter." Kyuemon said, standing up. "What do you suggest I do?"
Enter stood up on his own. "You're trying to make a wolf monster, correct?"
"Indeed, the famous American Yokai, Wolfman."
Enter placed his hand to his chin, thinking. "You aren't going about this the right way."
Kyuemon looked at him, quizzically. "What?"
Enter laughed, "Why would a wolf turn into a wolfman in this world?" He walked back behind Kyuemon. "You need to use this world's logic, what would be the perfect creature to turn into a creature such as the wolfman?"
Kyuemon looked down, thinking. What exactly was Enter talking about? "Explain." Kyuemon demanded, turning to him.
"You ever hear the phrase 'a wolf in sheep's clothing'?" He asked.
"Yes, but what does…" He paused, what Enter was saying had just hit him. "A sheep? Are you saying I need to use it on… a sheep?"
"Bing bong!" Enter yelled out. "And I think I know JUST the right candidate for this."
A burst of data surged from his hand, shaping itself into a piece of paper. Kyuemon grabbed it and looked. The picture on the file showed a small, female sheep, looking very angry at having to take a prison photo.
"Why this one?" Kyuemon asked, looking back at Enter.
"Let's just say…" Enter began, turning away from Kyuemon. "She has a bit of a vendetta."
He let out a laugh and disappeared, Kyuemon facing towards the city once again.
Oooooh! Other cliffhanger!
I don't have much to say this time, but boy Enter is a fun character to write. What an ass. There's mostly a lot of set up for later stuff going on here, but don't worry, it will all become clear later on!
Next time, can I hear you say "Guest Star"?