Zoorangers

by Bionichute

When a group of mysterious creatures start wreaking havoc across Zootopia, Nick and Judy find themselves thrust into a legacy of heroes they never knew about, and must use new powers in order to save not only the city, but their whole universe. Features numbers of characters from across Super Sentai history. (Updates whenever I finish an episode)

20. Episode 19 - Feeding Frenzy

Episode 19 – Feeding Frenzy

"So, the carrot festival thing is this week, right?" Nick asked as he sat on the couch.

"Yep!" Judy responded from the kitchen. She was waiting for the coffee machine to go off. "It's on Wednesday."

"Great, so we're not going anywhere for a bit." Nick said, somewhat relieved.

"Actually, we're heading out today." She said, rather frankly. The coffee machine dinged, and she started to prepare two cups.

"Wait, why are we doing that?"

"Because we need to help set up our booth." She explained. "I forget, do you like sugar in your coffee or not?"

"Extra sugar."

She poured some sugar into the coffee, and then brought the cups over to the couch. Nick took his cup, and started drinking. "Why did we have to get up so early, anyway?" He asked between sips.

"Because the train leaves in a few hours." She explained, taking a sip from her own, sugar free, coffee. "We need to be completely ready for anything."

"I still don't understand why they have to set everything up two days early."

"Oh, they start setting things up weeks earlier." Judy stated. "Booths don't get set up until two days before. Everything else is set up throughout the last week."

"Everything else, huh?" He said with a bit of a chuckle. "What else do they have besides carrots?"

She looked at him with an unamused glare. "Nick, you were there once."

"Does time travel really count as being there?"

"I'm not a Horologist, so I wouldn't know."

"I don't think a Horologist would know either."

She laughed a bit. "There's rides, attractions, all kinds of stuff. It's really fun."

"I'm sure it is." He said, sounding genuine. "But I really hate getting up this early."

"But we get up this early every day?"

"Still hate it."

He was about to take a sip of his coffee, when there was a sudden, loud beeping noise. The shock of the noise made him through the cup into the air. He fumbled with it, trying to have none of it spill out, and placed it back on the table. "Great." He sighed. "I didn't even get to finish my coffee."

Judy got to her feet, coffee cup still in her paw. "We have more important things to deal with than coffee!" She said, confidently. She took a quick gulp, downing the rest of the coffee. She let out a quick cough. "Bad idea." Her voice was a bit hoarse, but she coughed again, clearing it.

Nick chuckled, getting up. "Ready to go, leader?" He nudged her in the side.

She rolled her eyes, and the two headed out.

---

The two Zoorangers looked over a small indent of a roof, into the street of the market. On the ground, they watched as Sambash and a monster talked.

The monster resembled a pill bug, with a hunched over back. The thing most noticeable, even from this distance, was the thing's face, which was horribly uncanny. It had massive purple lips, which curved into a smile. Its tongue seemed to be permanently hanging out, and somehow didn't get in the way of its horse-like teeth. Its face was mostly a fleshy pink, making it stand out from its mostly blue, purple, and black body. It was topped with pure white eyes, and eight leg-like protrusions.

The monster, like most of Sambash's monsters, seemed to be wearing a distressing amount of leather, covering it, specifically a jacket and leg-long boots. The jacket didn't entirely cover it, leaving its underbelly exposed. Its arms were segmented, and very thick, ending in five pudgy digits. Both its arms and legs had eight insect legs hanging off of them as well.

Its back was the most interesting part, as it looked more artificial than even the leather outfit. It was the shiny metallic blue of most of its body, but each segment of it was marked with what looked like bolts. If anything, they could tell it was heavily armored.

"Why are we just watching?" Red whispered.

"Because we need to measure its abilities." Blue stated, tapping her digits on the roof. "We can't just keep running into battles without any info on them, or else we'll keep getting our bodies swapped."

Red shuddered, remembering the events of last week. "Alright, but watching them talk isn't going to do much."

"Wanna bet?" her ears popped up, and she started to listen in on them.

"So, you got the plan?" Sambash said to the monster.

"Got it!" It responded.

"Good, because they should be here soon."

"I think they're waiting for us." She said, ears dropping back down.

"Why would they be waiting for us?"

"Probably some attempt to kill us or something." She guessed. She glanced around for a second. "Speaking of waiting, where's Silver?"

"Did someone say my name?"

They turned around, and saw Silver, walking up to them. "Get down!" Blue whisper yelled. Silver quickly ducked between them, and looked over the rooftop.

"Oh hey, it's that guy." He whispered, looking at the monster.

"You know that thing?" Blue asked, a bit confused.

"Not really, but there was one episode of Zoo Rangers: Lost Galaxy that had something like him in it." Silver explained.

Suddenly, Red had an idea.

"So, you've watched every episode of Zoo Rangers, right?" Silver nodded. "And most of these monsters are similar to what's in that show, right?" Silver nodded again. "So that means you should at least be able to guess their powers!"

"That's a great idea, Red!" Blue sounded. "Silver, what do you know about this guy?"

"Well, the more he eats, the stronger he gets."

"And?"

"Uh, his back is tough?"

"Wow, real heavy hitter here." Red said sarcastically, eyes rolling.

"As long as we keep on him, he should be easy to beat." The wolf explained. "But we should wait for Sambash to clear out first."

Blue nodded. "We can't take care of him on our own, especially not if he has help."

The two waited for a few minutes, as Sambash continued to talk to the monster. He swung his hand once, summoning the flying motorcycle, which flew down from the sky. He hopped on, giving a brief glance around, and motioned back to the monster before rocketing off.

The monster looked around for a moment, and started towards a nearby restaurant. The restaurant they were standing on top of.

"Alright, now!"

The three leaped down from the roof, startling the monster and causing it to fall over on its back. The three watched as it tried to get up, rocking back and forth.

"Wow, this is just… sad." Red sighed, a bit disappointed.

The monster eventually got up. "How embarrassing!" It yelled. "But at least you guys showed up, I thought I was going to have to eat all by my lonesome!"

"We really don't want to eat with someone like you, sorry." Blue said, drawing her daggers.

"Aw, guess I'll just have to make a meal out of you!" IT yelled, patting its stomach. "Nothing is a match for the great Dolmar's stomach!"

Blue shuddered a bit. This was probably the most disgusting monster they've fought so far. "Can we just get this over with?"

"Couldn't agree more, Blue." Red said, pulling out the Vickscannon.

He fired a few shots at the monster, causing it to fall back again. This time, it curled up into a ball, and began rolling forward, attempting to run them over. The rangers leaped out of the way, as it crashed into the wall of the building.

The bug unfurled, and turned back towards them, pulling out a comically oversized knife and fork. "Time to eat you up!"

"NO!" Blue yelled, pulling out her blasters. She aimed them directly at the monster, and started firing rapidly. It was rather shocking, as she relentlessly fired into Dolmar, causing him to drop the weapons.

"Whoa, whoa!" Red yelled, grabbing the rabbit by the shoulders. "Judy, calm down!"

She stopped firing, and the monster fell on its backside. "Sorry, I just really hate this thing!" She said.

"We can talk about that later," Silver said, pulling out his blade. "Let's just focus on efficiently beating this guy, alright?"

The other two nodded, and pulled out their weapons. The rushed at the monster as he got up, and struck him at the same time, directly in the stomach. The force of the blow knocked him directly through the wall, and into the darkened building.

"Ouch, can't you guys at least give me a chance?" The monster whined as they stepped in. "I haven't even gotten to eat anything yet!" It rushed over to a counter, and looked through the glass, a number of pastries showing themselves. Dolmar started to drool a bit, before wiping it off. "Mm, this looks decent!"

"Wait, no!"

He smashed his hand right through the glass, and started picking up the confectionaries, various cupcakes and donuts. The bug's mouth opened wide, and he tossed them directly into it, making a disgusting, sickening, wet smacking sound with each one.

Blue covered her eyes. The sight was really, truly disgusting. The other two rangers watched on, disgusted as well.

"Bleck!" The monster spat out after eating all of the food. "This is just awful! I need GOOD food to get my strength up!"

"Hey, thanks for telling us that!" Red yelled, before he and Silver rushed at Dolmar.

Their weapons hit the monster right in the face, and he flew directly through the wall again, leaving another big hole. "Hopefully this guy has insurance." Red sighed. He turned back to Blue, who was still covering her eyes. "He stopped eating, Carrots!"

She uncovered her face, and looked around. She then spotted the hole, and ran past the two, stepping directly in front of the pill bug monster. She pulled out her blasters, and twirled them around. "Alright, horribly gross, awful monster, it's time for you to go away!"

She tossed one of the guns into the air, and pulled out a ZooTag, plugging it into the gun in her paw. She grabbed the other gun as it fell, and plugged the gun onto the other one.

"CUTTING ON THROUGH!
SLICING THE SKY!
CHANBARA BAN!
RABBLASTERS!"

Energy built between the two guns, and fired off as a blade of energy, cutting directly through the monster's stomach. Green goo began to spill out, along with the foul stench of rotten food instantly wafting through the air.

Even in her suit, Blue wanted to puke.

"Augh!" The monster yelled, clutching his stomach. "How could you do this to me!?"

Judy untransformed, the smell causing her focus to fade. "Ugh, I need air!" She yelled.

The other two ran out, the smell instantly hitting them as well. Silver started screaming, and fell to the ground, clutching his nose.

"THIS IS THE WORST THING I'VE EVER SMELLED!" He cried, untransforming as well.

Nick also untransformed, and sniffed around. "It's bad, but I've smelt worse."

"SERIOUSLY!?"

The monster let out a loud groan, causing the three to turn to them.

"I don't feel good…" He moaned. Suddenly, be began to pulse and bubble, glowing green. The bubbles and pulsing got faster and faster.

Then, he popped.

Dolmar exploded into a horrible amount of goo, covering a large area. The goo was thick, slimy, and smelled like burning rubber.

Judy would know, she was covered in it.

She let out a whine, and tried to shake it off. "This is the worst!" She yelled, almost in tears.

Shortly after, the goo seemed to dissolve, disappearing into the ground… and into Judy. She felt around herself. The smell had cleared, and the goo had indeed completely vanished. "That was weird." She said, before stepping back to the other two.

"Well, that guy was a wimp." Nick said, putting his paws to his hips. "Didn't even get upgraded, so he can't turn into a giant."

"Well, I'm glad we got it all done with quick." Max said. "Now, I have to go to work."

"We have a train to catch!" Judy announced to him. "We're heading over to my parents!"

Max looked at Nick. "Thought one time would be enough for you."

"I want to make a better first impression."

Max gave a small laugh, before walking off. "Alright, see you guys later!"

"See ya, Max!" Judy waved goodbye, and they started off on their own.

As they walked, the three mammals were unaware of something happening beneath them. There was a slight quake, barely noticeably to all but those who would pay attention. There was growling, and then a faint laugh.

Everything was going according to plan.

---

Judy sat on the train, rapidly tapping her foot at thin air. Nick watched as he sat next to her. He could tell something was bothering her. "What's wrong, Carrots, trying to swat a fly?" He jokingly asked.

"No, it's just the…" She hesitated for a moment, and looked around, they were seated in a completely empty train car. "The way the monster died. I had to scrub a lot just to get the feeling of it to go away."

"So that's why you were so long in the shower."

"I'm just worried that I still stink."

"If you still smelled like that, then I wouldn't be sitting here with you, would I?" She laughed at that. "You smell perfectly fine. I'm more worried about how the slime just disappeared."

"I wouldn't worry about it." Judy said. "It's probably like the explosions, they just disappear after a bit. Besides, this is supposed to be a break, we dealt with the monster, so we shouldn't worry about it!"

"You're pretty gung ho today, aren't you?"

"I'm just happy to be visiting home again." She sighed. "I only get to about once or twice a year."

"I haven't seen my mom since…" He paused for a second, in thought. "Since graduation day, I think."

"Maybe we should go visit her some time" She suggested. "Wouldn't it be nice to see her?"

"It would, but…"

The train stopped, and the doors slid open. There was no one else on the train, so they went through the middle sized exit on their own, dragging luggage behind them. On the waiting platform were Judy's parents.

"Mom! Dad!"

She ran up and gave them a big hug, before looking around. "Where is everyone?" She asked.

"Oh, we came by ourselves." Stu said.

"You seemed pretty uncomfortable last week, so we decided you might need some space away from the family for a bit." Bonnie explained.

"Oh. Thanks?"

"Hey there, Mr. and Mrs. Hopps." Nick greeted, extending his paw.

Stu gripped it, and firmly shook it. "Nice to see you again, Nick. Been awhile."

Not really, Nick mentally said to himself.

"How's everything been with Judy?" Bonnie asked. "You two haven't been…"

"NO!" They both yelled, embarrassed.

"We're not there yet." Judy said, trying to diffuse the situation. "We won't be there for a while."

"Well, you two just… take your time." Stu said. "Rushing in can be pretty bad, y'know?"

"And you're sure it's still fine for you two to be here? You've handled the…" Bonnie's voice turned to a whisper. "The monsters?"

"Yes, mom, we took care of the monster." Judy said, with a bit of a laugh. "We dealt with it this morning."

Nick placed his paw on Judy's head, much to her annoyance. "And your little hero here managed to beat it all by herself."

She blushed a bit.

"Well, it wasn't really all by myself, but…" She shook her head, and batted Nick's paw away. "That's not the point! The point is, we're here to have some fun at the Carrot Day Festival!"

"She's right, this is like a vacation."

"It's great you two are so enthusiastic about this." Stu said. "Because we're gonna need your help."

"We're officers slash super heroes, it's our job to help." Nick said, proudly.

"Great, then let's go!"

"Isn't the truck a two seater?" Judy asked.

"Who said we took the truck?"

They led the two to the large dome in the middle of the field. The four stepped into it, as Stu punched in a code. "Using the rabbit hole for four mammals seems kind of overkill, doesn't it?" Judy said as she and Nick dropped their luggage to the ground. Her voice echoed through the dome, which was designed to carry several hundred rabbits instead of three, plus a fox.

"It's a busy day, Jude," Stu started, moving away from the console. "The rabbit holes help get us around faster than the truck could in situations like this."

The dome started to move underground, and then slid through a series of tunnels at a rather brisk speed. Bonnie looked at Nick, a definite city fox, and how nonchalant he seemed riding in the thing.

"You're pretty calm for someone taking the rabbit hole for the first time." She said.

"What can I say?" He started, with a chuckle. "I take this kind of stuff pretty well." It's not like he had to ride it two times in the past week or anything.

After a few minutes, the ride stopped, and started to move upwards. It opened towards the middle of a field, but they could see what definitely looked like a festival only a few meters away.

Obvious from this distance was a handful of rides. A large Ferris wheel, with pink and orange carts, and a large, lucky-looking rabbit face in the center of it. There was also a roller coaster, and a drop tower, both carrot themed in appearance.

"So that's what you meant by other stuff." Nick said as they stepped out of the dome.

Judy turned around, her mother was still in the dome. "Mom, aren't you coming with us?"

"Oh, no, we have a lot of stuff to do!" She exclaimed. "You're going to go help your father set up the booth, and I'm going to wake everyone up so they can start farming. Don't worry, I'll handle your luggage!" She quickly punched in a code, and the dome vanished into the ground.

As they walked into the festival grounds itself, they found there were even more attractions. There was an arcade at one end, and a barn, which they used for plays, on the other. There was also a large hay maze centered right in the middle of it.

"A hay maze, really?" Nick said as he stared at the entrance. There was a large entrance sign above it, simply labeled "HAY MAZE!". It was decorated with cartoonish drawings of rabbits and carrots on it.

"The hay maze is a time honored tradition!" Judy said, a bit defensively. "It's really fun, trust me."

He rolled his eyes, and they continued on.

They started down a dirt path, which was almost completely empty, aside from a handful of booths. "So, how do we set up the booth?" Nick asked. "I didn't see you bring it with you."

"Oh, we brought it earlier this morning." Stu said, as they approached an empty lot, the only thing there being a large crate.

"My parents are very enthusiastic about this stuff." Judy said to Nick, who nodded.

Stu kicked the side of the crate, and the front fell over, a pile of wooden boards falling onto the ground. "So, do we need tools?" Nick asked, picking up one of the boards.

"Nope, it's like a puzzle, just have to stick them together and it'll be all set up!"

"Well, that sounds easy."

It wasn't easy.

Imagine building a puzzle. Then imagine it's a 3D puzzle. Then imagine that it's about twice the size of your body. Like a puzzle, there weren't any instructions. There may have been at one point, but Stu insisted they didn't need them, he did it every year and had it memorized.

Either he was lying, or his memory was bad, because it took them many hours of work to get it set up. By the time they finished, the area had crowded up a bit, and the sun was already halfway down.

"Well, that was awful." Nick said, panting.

"It's usually like that." Judy said. She examined the booth, it was white, with several stands set up, presumably to put food there. There was a sign above it reading "Hopps Family Farm Produce". The overall set-up looked familiar to Judy, but she couldn't place where she would have seen it recently.

"Well, it's getting pretty late." Stu said, looking up at the sun. "Dinner should be almost ready, we should head back home."

Thee three headed back to the dome. "Let me try." Nick said, walking up to the keypad. He quickly jotted in the code. "Thirty seven eighty four…"

The dome began to move downwards, and then headed towards the Hopps' burrow.

"How did you know the code?" Stu asked, a bit confused.

"Lucky guess."

After a few minutes, they entered the house. It was flooding with rabbits, hundreds of them, each doing different things. Judy took it all in, it had been a while since she had been there. "Nice to be home again!" She said.

"You were here last week, dear."

"Oh yeah."

Nick wasn't shocked by all the activity, it's what it was like last time, but it still made him uncomfortable.

"So, guessing you two are staying for the night?" Stu presumed.

"I mean, we're here for the festival, so why wouldn't we be staying?" Judy said with a laugh.

"Of course, why else would you pack? Your luggage should be in your room."

"But Judy's room only has one bed." Stu turned to give Nick an inquisitive glance. "I mean, I'm guessing it only has one bed."

"Oh, don't worry about that." Stu said, somehow dismissing the odd comment. "We have an air mattress around here somewhere, we can set it up for you."

"Wait, we have to share the same room?" Judy asked, sounding a bit worried.

"We've run out of space, Jude, unless Nick wants to sleep with the kits."

"I would rather not sleep in a room full of babies, thank you very much."

"But… he snores!"

"I thought you two slept in different rooms?"

"We do!"

"You're just over exaggerating." Nick said, rolling his eyes. "The only reason you can hear it from your room is because you're a rabbit."

"But what about everyone else?" Judy asked.

"Judy you know full and well that the walls are quiet loud noises." Stu said. "How else would we get any sleep around here?"

Her ears drooped down. She was actually really worried about what might happen if they slept in the same room.

"Don't worry, Carrots." Nick said. "I won't touch any of your stuff, I didn't last time, won't this time."

"Oh, good."

"Well, I may have touched some stuff last time." He said, starting to walk off. Judy's ears jolted up. "But I can't now!"

"What 'stuff'!?" She yelled, walking after him.

"Y'know, stuff." He burst out laughing as she chased him upstairs.

"NICK, YOU'RE THE WORST!"

A while later, the two were seated at the table, alongside the rest of the warren. The table was back to being a smaller, but still very large, snaking table around the center of the room. It was busy, though slightly less busy than it was last week.

Judy and Nick, of course, sat next to each other. "God, I'm starving." Nick groaned as they waited for the food to come.

Judy nodded in agreement, they hadn't had anything to eat since the morning, and building the booth was a whole lot of work.

Bonnie, Stu, and a few other rabbits, went around the table, pushing food trolleys. At each stop, they handed out a different platter. It was a lot of work to take care of a family that large.

Eventually, Bonnie came up to the two. "Now, I have something very special for you two…" She started, taking a large platter, and setting it on the table.

"How come Judy gets something special and we don't?" Shouted a much younger rabbit sitting next to them. Next to him was an almost identical rabbit.

"Because you two are here every day, and Judy isn't." Bonnie said sternly. "Nick and her are guests, and we treat our guests well."

The two rabbits leaned back into their seats in a huff.

"Don't mind Terry and Jerry." Bonnie said. "They're just grumpy today."

"They were grumpy even when they were kits." Judy chuckled.

Her mother returned the laugh. "So, last week, we noticed that really enjoyed one part of the meal…"

Nick slapped both of his paws against his face.

As her mother lifted the cover, Judy really hoped it was roasted carrots. Or maybe some stew. Oh, or maybe even a carrot salad, or a carrot pate, or a… Why was she thinking so much about food? Was she really that hungry?

The smell wafted through the air, instantly catching both her and Nick's noses. It was a pastry of some kind. Maybe it was a veggie pie?

As she lifted the cover, it became obvious what it was, and Judy's expression fell from excitement to bemusement.

Blueberry pie.

"We saw how much you liked the blueberry pie last week, so we decided to make you a healthier version!"

"Thaaaanks." She said through her teeth, as Nick let out a small laugh.

"Well, enjoy your meal!" Bonnie said, continuing to push the trolley.

"Yeah, uh, sorry about that." Nick whispered. "It's hard to control myself around them."

"I don't even like blueberries."

"Well, maybe you can start liking them." He suggested. He picked up a knife, and cut two pieces, one for her, and one for him. He placed them both on their plates. "Never a bad time to try new things!"

She sighed. They made it for her, and she was a guest. It would be rude to not eat it.

She picked up a fork, and cut through the pie, biting down on it.

It was good. Really good!

She knew her parents were great cooks, but even when she was little, she had never liked the blueberries. Maybe her taste had developed more from then?

Much to Nick's surprise, she started scarfing it down. By the end of supper, they had to have seconds, and Judy had still out-eaten him.

"I didn't realize you could eat that much." Nick said jokingly as they walked into her room.

"I didn't realize either! I'm amazed my stomach isn't hurting right now."

The room was nearly identical to when Nick was there a week ago. The only difference was a large air mattress laying on the floor next to Judy's bed.

After the busy day, coupled with the food, they were exhausted, and got into the beds rather quickly. The air mattress definitely wasn't as comfortable as the bed, but he didn't exactly have a choice.

"Judy," He started, looking up at her bed. "Why did you act so weird about that monster?"

"It was gross and weird." She said frankly.

"But most of the things we fight are gross and weird." He said. "You reacted when he said he'd eat us."

She fell silent for a moment.

"Is that your phobia?"

"Of course not." She chuckled, nervously. "It's just an instinctual fear all prey have."

Nick let out a laugh. "Obviously you haven't been on the internet enough."

"Have you ever really thought about it, though?" She asked, rolling over to look at him. "It's like… there's no way to save yourself when that happens. You get reduced to nothing. There's no way to stop it, it's like a horrible death sentence."

"Well, I'm fairly certain you wouldn't have fit in that guy's mouth anyway."

"Probably not, but it's still just…" She shuddered, and pulled the covers up.

"Alright, I'll stop talking about it."

"Good night, Nick."

"Good night, Carrots."

In a few minutes, both of them were asleep. There was a loud groaning sound throughout the room, and the unconscious rabbit tossed and turned in her bed. She rolled to her back, as something crawled up her throat, something so quiet and soft than she couldn't feel it.

Six long, thin, insectoid legs pushed through her lips, and pried them open. It crawled out, and began crawling around on her face. It resembled a blue orb, with large purple lips, and bared teeth being the only features on it.

It crawled across the rabbit, and up to a window by her bed. It clung to the window, and started gnawing on it, chewing a hole through it in a few seconds. The thing slipped through the hole, and let out a laugh, crawling into the night.

---

Wolford sat in the Bullpen, next to Delgato. He was actually relieved that they had managed to get rid of the monster so early. All these multi-day escapades were starting to tire him out, and it wasn't like he had a job to do or anything.

Bogo entered the room, and started handing off assignments. It seemed to be a slow day, it was mostly patrolling. "You ready for an easy day?" Max asked his partner.

"God, you know it."

Eventually, the two were the only ones left in the room. Bogo gave off a snort. "And finally, Wolford and Delgato." He started.

At that moment, they knew this wasn't going to be an easy day.

"I have an ACTUAL case for you."

The two sat up straight, resisting their urge to groan loudly.

"Last night, there were a series of thefts around Savannah Central." He started. "Specifically at bakeries, convenience stores, and restaurants. Very violent, disgusting thefts."

Wolford walked up, and grabbed the case file from Bogo's hoof. He and Delgato walked out of the Bullpen, Max looking at the case file. There were multiple areas, all throughout the district. It didn't seem like something like the Tabu incident, it was all over the place.

"I suggest we check out one of the smaller places first." Delagto said as they entered the cruiser. "How about one of those convenience stores?"

"There's one nearby." Wolford said, shutting the file. "A Seven-Eleven just a few blocks away."

"Hey, maybe we can pick something up while we're there." Delgato joked as he started the car.

"If they have anything left, sure."

After a few minutes of driving, they pulled up to the Seven-Eleven, the only other car in the lot being the manager's. The manager was who they presumed was also the possum standing outside. They got out of the car, and introduced themselves.

"Hello, I'm Officer Wolford, this is Officer Delgato." The tiger gave a quick wave down to the possum. "We hear there was a theft here?"

"Well, theft is one way to describe it." He sighed. He motioned for them to follow him inside. The possum used a smaller door to enter, while the officers used a larger door.

As they stepped through, they realized this definitely wasn't a normal theft.

Not only was the place a complete mess, racks knocked to the ground, various empty bags of chips, drink bottles, and other food containers littering the ground. Most of them seemed to have large bits taken out of them.

Of course, that was small potatoes compared to the massive hole in the middle of the store.

"So, you think some moles did this?" Delgato asked, obviously not seriously.

"Probably not." Wolford responded, not catching the sarcasm. He took a sniff of the air, and started retching.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, the smell's just…" He cleared his throat. Wait, the smell was familiar…

He looked around, and spotted several large patches of green slime scattered around the building, on walls, the floor, even the ceiling.

"Sir, do you know anything about what happened here?" Wolford asked, dead serious.

"Sorry, but the only person here last night was the janitor." The possum said. "Don't know where he went."

"What about the surveillance system?"

"Eaten."

"Huh."

"So, do we collect a sample or something?" Delgato asked, leaning over one of the slime puddles. "Because I don't want to touch this stuff."

"We'll probably have to order a hazmat crew." Wolford said. "Don't go near that stuff." He turned to the possum. "You probably want to get out of here. We might have to quarantine the place." The possum nodded, and rushed off through the door.

"You sound like you know something, Max." Delgato said, standing up.

"Maybe I do."

---

"GET UP, IT'S A DISASTER!"

The two burst out of their beds, and turned to see Stu, out of breath and panicked, looking into the room. "What's going on!?" Judy asked, worried.

"The festival! It was attacked!"

"WHAT!?"

They followed Stu to the rabbit hole, and to the festival grounds. Approaching, they realized how serious this attack had been.

Every booth and stand had been attacked, ripped to pieces. While they weren't in the hay maze, it was fairly obvious that large chunks of it had disappeared, judging by a new path that was cleaved through the entrance.

The three main attractions seemed perfectly fine, however, which was somewhat of a relief. They headed towards the large barn, and saw a crowd gathered around. In the center of the crowd was a rather rotund rabbit in a suit.

"Oh gosh, even the mayor's here." Stu said with a sigh as they joined into the crowd.

"We are working as hard as we can to figure out who caused all this mess!" The mayor announced from his podium. "We just… need a way to."

Nick leaned over to Judy. "Do they not have any cops out here?" He whispered.

"There's a sheriff." She replied back.

The sheriff stepped up, a rather bulky looking sheep dressed in a brown uniform. He took the microphone. "We may require volunteers in order to help find this vandal." He stated. "So if anyone here would like to help…"

"We'll help!" Judy shouted, raising her paw. She quickly grabbed Nick's paw with her free one, and raised it to the air.

"Wait, hold on-"

"Looks like we have volunteers!" The sheriff said. He squinted at them. "Hey, aren't you…?"

"Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD!" She announced.

"Officer Nick Wilde, also ZPD." Nick followed up, a bit less enthusiastically.

"Oh, it'll be wonderful having actual cops helping." The sheep sighed to himself. "I'll leave it in your obviously capable paws."

The mayor stepped back to the podium. "With superstar cops helping, we'll find this scoundrel in no time, and give him the punishment he deserves!" He leaned back from the microphone. "And it'll help my approval ratings."

The crowd gave an earnest clap, and then began to separate around the festival grounds.

"Alright, since you wanted to help, what do you suggest doing?"

"We need to get info." She said, slamming her paw into the other. "We should split up and ask around."

The two nodded, and split up. Judy headed towards the barn, while Nick headed towards the booth area.

"Excuse me!" Judy shouted, catching the attention of a number of animals around the barn. "This is police duty, I need to question some of you. If any of you have any info that might help, strange incidents last night, it would help!"

"I might have something, dear."

Judy turned, and saw her father. He looked distraught. "Dad? What happened?"

"I went back to the burrow to check on the crops, and…" He let out a long sigh. "All of it was gone!"

"What!?" She yelled. "Every single crop!?"

He nodded, and shrugged.

"Hey, the same thing happened to me!"

"Me too!

"My crops were gone too!"

She turned around, nearly every farmer in the area had started talking about their crops being gone. She wrote it down on her notepad. "This might be bigger than we thought…"

"What if this is a punishment!?" Yelled a rather hysterical sheep. "What if God unleashed a plague to destroy our crops!?"

There was a collective gasp from a large amount of the crowd. Judy looked at him skeptically.

"WE NEED TO PERFORM A BLOOD SACRIFICE!" Someone yelled.

"There will be no blood sacrifices!" Judy yelled. "We're civilized mammals, we can't just resort to this over this isolated incident!"

The crowd calmed down a bit.

"Was anyone here last night?" She asked, tapping her pen against the paper.

"I was!" Someone yelled. She looked over to see another sheep, this one with black fur, walk up to her. "I'm a night guard." She said.

"Oh, wonderful!" Judy exclaimed. "Did you see anything out of the ordinary?"

She nodded. "I didn't see anything, but I heard something. It sounded like… something big, shuffling about."

"Shuffling isn't exactly that descriptive."

"Well, it sounded like a bug walking around. But it was a really big bug."

Her eyes widened. "A bug?" The sheep nodded.

"There were some footprints, too. They might've been covered in the commotion, but they looked like if someone jabbed a large spike into the ground."

"So, like a bug's legs?"

"Exactly."

She jotted it down on her notepad. "Thank you." She closed the notebook and walked off. This might be bigger than they thought…

Meanwhile, with Nick, he was exploring the other half of the grounds. It was reduced to nothing but dirt and rubble, every booth had been destroyed, including the one they painstakingly prepared the other day.

To be honest, Nick was more upset about that than the festival being attacked.

He knelt down to examine the rubble of the Hopps' booth. It had been reduced to a pile of planks, with markings cleaved through nearly every one, massive chunks missing. It was certainly odd for a vandal to be this ruthless. He looked around at the other stands. They were in similar condition, but seemed to have less pieces destroyed. Odd.

"Nick, s'that you?"

His ears perked up. He recognized that voice, with the slight accent. He stood up, and whipped around.

The voice had come from a hyena, wearing a black and pink t-shirt, and jeans. She was familiar to Nick. "Emily?"

"In the flesh."

She held out a paw, and the two bumped them. "I haven't seen you in years, I thought you were in jail!"

"Henry told me you thought he was in jail, too." She said. "I'm like him, I'm doing community service. I'm helping to set up the fair. Well, I was."

"And Clawbick doesn't know?"

"Clawbick has no idea."

"How did you guys get sent to prison, anyway?" Nick asked. "Clawbick was always really careful about that."

"We conned him." She explained. "Set up an event he couldn't refuse, then called the police. We learned from the best."

"I'm flattered."

She chuckled. "So, you became a cop?"

"Yeah. I'm actually on cop duty right now, thanks to my partner." He started. "We're trying to figure out who attacked last night."

"I don't think it was a 'who', Nick." Emily walked over, and picked up one of the boards. "Look at these markings." She outlined the marking with a claw. It was rounded, slight bumps going around. "These are bite marks."

"Bite marks? What mammal has teeth like that?"

"Horses." Emily said. "But going by the size, this horse would've been slightly smaller than usual, but be mostly mouth."

"So, a weird mutant horse did this?" Nick asked.

"Of course not!" She laughed. "For one, horses don't eat wood."

"Very good point."

"Second…" She stood up, and motioned for the fox to follow her.

They walked down the path, occasionally passing a destroyed booth. They eventually walked up to what looked like a puddle, only it was bright green, and seemed to be moving slightly. It also reeked like nothing he'd ever smelt before.

"What is that?" He asked, clutching his nose.

"I found it while looking around." Emily said. "I don't know what it is, but I know it has something to do with the attack."

Nick leaned down, and looked at the puddle. "Do you think it's acidic?" He asked.

"Hard to tell, but I'm not touching it to find out."

"Hand me that board." He held his paw out, and the hyena handed it to him. He poked the slime with the board, and lifted it up.

In a few seconds, the goo dropped back to the ground, a large chunk of the board now having been burned off.

"Definitely acidic." He said, tossing the board away. "I'm really hoping that what I think did this didn't."

"What do you think caused it?" Emily asked.

"That's private, personal information.

"I don't want to know." She let out a chuckle.

Nick got up. "It was nice seeing you again, Em."

"Yeah, great to see you too." The two shook paws. "I'll probably see you around, I've been doing a lot of work in the city too."

"I have to go meet up with my partner." He said. "Maybe next time we see each other I can introduce you?"

"That would be wonderful."

Nick ran off.

Shortly after, the two officers met up near the entrance. "Alright, so you find anything?" Judy asked.

"Yeah." Nick said. "I found some weird things."

"Me too!"

He gave a bow. "Please, you go first."

"Ooh, such manners." She chuckled sarcastically, before pulling out her notepad. "So, whatever it was that attacked seemed to destroy all the crops nearby before heading here… including mine."

"But, your farm is way too far away from here to be considered close." Nick stated, a bit confused. "If it was trying to attack here, then it would have gone out of its way to attack your crops."

Judy gave a shrug. "I don't know, it's weird." She continued with her discoveries. "Second, it's some kind of bug. There were bug noises, and footprints that looked like a bug's."

"Well, I found some stuff out too." Nick started. "There were bite marks in the boards of the booths, something ate them. And they weren't normal teeth, either."

She gave him a quick gulp.

"AND I found some weird, acidic slime in the middle of the grounds." He continued. "Burned through wood in a second."

"You don't think…?"

"Let's see…" Nick started pacing. "It likes food…" He mimicked someone eating an apple. "It's a bug…" He stuck two digits above his head, and wiggled them. "It has teeth…" He quickly bared his teeth. "And, it leaves slime behind." He feigned puking.

"So, that means…" Nick gave her a nod. "But, we killed him! We saw him explode!"

"Guess he didn't die." Nick shrugged. "What are we supposed to do?"

Judy took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Well, the only thing we can do right now is patrol."

"How do we even know if he'll show up tonight?" Nick asked. "There's plenty of places he could go."

"I don't know!" She yelled at him. "This is the only thing we can do right now, alright!? We have no leads of where it'll go, I doubt it's going to show during broad daylight…"

Nick sighed. "This is going to be a long night, isn't it?"

"Oh, definitely."

---

"Can't we just head home, Max?"

"Not until we find whoever's doing this."

The two had been after this thief all day, at this point the sun had gone down. Wolford looked at the case file, all of the original locations, as well as a few new ones added later, had been crossed out.

"Sorry to say, but I think we've run out of leads." Delgato continued, giving the file a quick glance before going back to the road.

Wolford shut the file. "Yeah, I know." He sighed. "But this is important, we need to find it soon!"

"Well, unless we get a call in the next five minutes, we're heading back to the station."

Suddenly, the radio began to beep. Max gave Delgato a smug grin, and pressed the button. "Oh, hey!" Greeted Clawhauser, sounding just as cheerful as ever. "Yeah, we got another report a few minutes ago. Happytown, Joy Road, something about weird sounds in an abandoned restaurant, weird slime patches, you know."

Max pumped his fist, as Delgato shook his head. "We'll be there soon, thanks Ben!" He let go of the button. "Alright, we're right by Happytown, if we can get there soon, we can catch him!"

Delgato sighed.

In a few minutes, they pulled up on Joy Road. Happytown was far from happy, it was basically the slum of the city. Mammals still lived there, but only because it was incredibly cheap, or because it was useful as a base for illegal criminal activity.

Needless to say, it was dangerous for cops to be there, but it would be even more dangerous if they let those things get away.

They stepped into the street, and looked around. Dirty roads, dirty, run down buildings, and an even dirtier, almost completely wrecked restaurant looked down at them.

"'John's Organic Tofu Burgers'?" Delgato read off the faded, vintage sign. "What idiot thought that was a good idea?"

"Probably from out of town."

Max went up to the window, glancing inside. He could see something moving around in there, a brief glinting of steel shining through the darkness. The two pulled out their phones, and stepped inside.

Instantly, they heard insects scuttling, from multiple different areas around the room. They shined the phones around the room, only seeing the ruined tables and counter. They stepped deeper into the darkness. Their hearts began to race.

"I think this might have been a bad idea." Delgato whispered. Wolford gave a nod.

His ears perked up at a sound. It was a small sound, like something sliding across the ground, something sniffing, something suckling. It was coming from above them.

He shined the light up at the ceiling.

It was a rounded… thing, resembling a plated, overly large slug. A large, thick tube, most likely its mouth, was sniffing around at the ceiling, as it slid forward at an incredibly slow speed. Wolford nearly fell back from shock at the sight of the thing.

"What is it?" Delgato whispered. Wolford pointed up, and the tiger shined the light on the thing, causing it to give out a squeak.

"Holy shit." Delgato said, in disbelief at what they had found. "Is this thing our culprit?"

Its tube mouth pointed down towards them, and let out a long, thick strand of slime. It let off the same odor as the slime from the convenience store, and every other location they had been to. The thing began to rock the slime back and forth, flinging it directly into Wolford's face. Just before it hit, he took a deep breath, but the smell was still awful.

The slime quickly whipped back into the thing's mouth, and it let out a hiss. It curled up into a ball, and fell towards the ground, bouncing and unfurling back out as it hit the second time. It hissed again, this time much louder. Noise began to come from the counter.

"I don't think we have A culprit, Rich." Max started, as they shined the light over to the counter.

What looked like a centipede made out of leather, and with a boot for a head, poked over the counter, before rearing up and launching over. It had black, leather boots at both ends, and many, many legs. It somehow hissed without having a mouth.

Two more, mostly identical, creatures crawled up the counter next. They were blue, and segmented. Their stump-like heads seemed to only have large, circular mouths, rimmed with teeth. Their backsides, however, seemed to extend a bit, and ended in pudgy hands. Both of them carried a different, overly large utensil, the left one a fork, and the right one a knife.

"I think we have a swarm of culprits."

"Well," Delgato started, stunned. "This is different."

The rounded bug-thing curled up into a ball, and rolled towards the other three insects, unfurling and turning to face the two officers. It let out another hiss, the other bugs following suit.

"Rich, you need to get out of here." Max said, moving his paw in front of his partner.

"What? Why?"

"Because I don't want you to be hurt, duh." Well, and because he needed to transform in order to deal with these guys, but he couldn't say that out loud.

"Sorry, Max, but we're a team." Delgato said, moving the arm out of the way. "We do this together."

The tiger whipped out his Taser, and fired it at the large, rounded insect. The wires bounced off its thick hide, and onto the floor.

"Well, I thought that might have gone better."

One of the armed insects, the one with the fork, leaped off the counter, lunging the utensil towards Max. The wolf leaped out of the way, narrowly avoiding the hit as the fork lodged itself into the ground. Max raised his foot, attempting to squash the stuck bug.

"Watch out!"

Max looked out, and ducked down as the centipede-boot monster flung through the air, barely going over his head. He looked over, watching as Delgato dodged out of the way as the armored bug's roll. The knife wielding insect leaped through the air, attempting to slice at the distracted tiger.

He rushed forward, stepping on the fork wielding one, and used it as leverage to launch himself through the air, knocking Delgato out of the way of the slice. They tumbled to the ground, and quickly got up.

They looked around, seeing they were now surrounded by the four insects. Wolford stepped forward, and punched his paw. "Looks like you guys haven't given me a choice." He said. He flung an arm forward, fist clenched. "Let's do this."

He ran up, and kicked the knife bug in the hand, quickly snatching the knife from it. He waved the knife around, much like how he handled a sword, and quickly knocked the boot insect backwards. He swung the blade towards the fork bug, only for it to get stuck in between the fork's prongs. There was a quick struggle, before he knocked it back as well.

He then swung the knife directly into the armored bug's back. As it struck, there was a loud clanging noise, and the wolf felt his entire body shake. He also swore he heard the bug laughing at him.

It quickly curled up into a ball, and rolled into the wolf, knocking him backwards and making him drop the knife.

Delgato helped him up a bit. "That was impressive." He complimented. "I didn't know you knew how to use a sword."

"I've been training."

They looked as the monster bugs again began to circle in on them, the knife bug picking up its knife.

"Well, looks like this is it." Delgato said as they backed into the wall. "I was really hoping to die in a much better way."

"Rich, before we die," Wolford started. "I just want you to know that I…"

Suddenly, the bugs stopped crawling towards them. They started looking at each other and making odd noises. The armored one curled up into a ball, and rolled right through the glass door. The boot one launched itself through a window, while the twin hand bugs crawled through the hole in the door.

"Alrighty then." Delgato said, both of them confused.

"Alright, Rich," Max started, stepping away from the tiger. "I really, REALLY need you to stay out of this now."

"How do you think you can beat those things on your own?" Delgato asked, skeptically. "We couldn't even fend them off!"

"I can't tell you." With that, Wolford dashed out of the diner, leaving the tiger behind, and confused.

He quickly followed a trail of slime that had been strewn across the road. After a few minutes of following it, he stopped.

"Alright, I'll never make it to wherever they're going before they get away." He said to himself. "Guess its time to do that thing!"

He pinched the back end of his Zoolizer, and transformed into ZooSilver. The silver ranger leaped into the air, landing on top of a building, and then leaped from one to the other, until he followed the trail to its end.

Which, unfortunately, happened to be the main railway station.

The trail continued inside, which happened to be a massive mess. He hadn't made it in time to prevent them from destroying the station, but the trail continued towards a single train, where it slimed up and onto the top.

"Last train to Bunnyburrow." An announcement sounded. "It will be leaving in five minutes."

"Bunnyburrow?" Silver said to himself. His ears perked up. "Oh no."

The train started to move, and the wolf rushed towards it, leaping to the top. He ducked down as the caboose left through the exit. As he got up, he felt the wind blowing into his body. It was probably a bad idea to be riding on top of a train in the middle of night, but he had a job to do.

He saw the insects, not having any trouble sticking to the roof of the train car, only a few cars down. He quickly leaped from car to car, and made it to the four.

"Alright, bugsters, you aren't getting away this time!" He threatened, pointing his blade forward. The insects turned to look at him, and then started skittering off. Silver lowered his blade in disappointment. "Guess they can't understand me."

The only one satnding in front of him was the heavily armored maggot. Silver swung his blade forward. "Time for a second take!" He leaped to the thing's side, and began rapidly slicing it, only for there to be no effect. "Oh come on, seriously!?" He shouted.

There was a hiss, and he ducked as the boot insect flew over him, before attaching to the side of the train. It reared back, and attempted to strike at the wolf rapidly with the foot not on the side of the train. Silver quickly ducked and weaved through each strike, but punched the boot during its final strike, knocking it back.

The wolf glanced over. There was a tunnel coming. He quickly leaped to the ground, hoping that it would knock the insects off.

It went dark for a moment, and then turned to light. The train was travelling through the Rainforest District, where it was currently raining.

He got up, nearly slipping on the now wet metal, and looked around. The insects were gone, maybe they had been knocked off like he hoped.

There was some more scuttling, and suddenly the twins climbed up form the side of the train, each brandishing their utensils.

"Well, thought I might've gotten lucky." Silver groaned as he got up, drawing his blade. The two leaped into the air themselves, and somehow began defying gravity, spinning around much like how normal arms would. Silver quickly blocked each blow for a few hits, before being struck in the stomach by the fork.

Instead of being knocked back, the wolf simply slipped on the water, falling to the ground as the two arms passed over him in another attempted strike. He quickly got up, trying not to slip again, and spun the guard of his blade.

"SHINE SHINE MOON"

He whipped the sword forward, causing a beam to unfurl from it and wrap around the two floating arms, who made an angry hissing noise. "Looks like you guys are tied up!" Silver joked. "Uh, wait… looks like you two could use a hand! That's better."

One of the two made a very angry hissing noise.

Silver turned around, another tunnel incoming.

He quickly ducked down until the darkness passed, the two bugs still wrapped up. He looked as light returned, and the two were now missing from the laser whip, which was still dangling in the wind.

"Seriously?" He said, standing up and drawing the whip back. The train was now in tundra Town, where it was, of course, snowing.

The snow made his vision a bit fuzzy, but his other senses were fine. He was a wolf after all, they were designed to survive in this kind of weather. His ears perked as he heard a sound, and quickly spun around to block another kick from the foot bug.

"Oh, so you didn't fall off." He sighed, before knocking the monster back. His ears perked again as he heard something from his side. He stepped out of the way as the knife carrying bug leaped from the side of the train, attempting to impale him.

The armed bug quickly threw its fork into the air, where the centipede boot began to juggle it on its foot. It was flicked into the air, where it spun, and the boot kicked it directly in the handle, sending it flying towards Silver, prongs first.

Silver knocked the fork into the roof of the train with his blade, where it bounced back up. He then struck it again with the blade, causing it to fly into the two bugs, knocking them down.

He could see another tunnel coming up, and he need to get these two out of the way. He looked around at the snow as they recovered. He spun the guard.

"HOT HOT SUN"

He thrust the blade forward, creating a burst of heat which melted the snow into steam instantly. The steam blast was powerful enough to knock the two forward, directly into the wall above the tunnel. Silver quickly ducked down, and waited for it to pass.

He got up again, he had gone from the blistering cold to the unbearable heat of Sahara Square. And standing in front of him now were the armored insect, and the knife wielding one standing on top of it.

"Great."

Suddenly, sand began to blow across the train. An artificial sandstorm, of course. It was blocking his vision even worse than the snow.

"PERFECT!"

The armored bug rolled up into a ball, with the armed bug still riding on top of it. It began to scuttle around, moving the ball around and towards Silver. It swung its knife towards Silver, who blocked it. It soon turned into a sparring match, the bugs rolling and hopping all around silver as he attempted to block every single hit.

Eventually, the bugs managed to land a lucky blow, knocking Silver back. "Ugh, I'm so done with this." He grunted as he recuperated. He spun the guard once more.

"HOT SHINE ECLIPSE"

Time seemed to slow down, and he weaved through the sandstorm, before launching a single strike from his sword into the area between the frozen bugs. Time resumed, and he flicked the blade up, launching the smaller bug, which flew into the car a few ones down.

"I'm not letting you leave this city!" Silver declared, pointing his sword towards the armored bug as it unfurled.

It let out a laugh, and Silver looked up as the train approached another tunnel. He ducked again.

He got up, and saw that he was now leaving the city and heading into the mountains. He let out a long sigh, before turning back to the insect. Now, all four of them were there, growling at him.

"Well, I always wanted to get out of the city for a bit." He said, drawing his sword.

---

"So, how long do we need to do this stake out?" Nick asked as he shined his phone around the festival grounds.

"All night, if we have to." Judy returned. "We can't just let a monster run around and destroy things. Besides, we've already had to postpone the festival anyway, so there's no harm in us staying up."

Nick chuckled as they walked along. "Missing the festival wasn't exactly what I was worried about, Carrots."

"Are you worried about the monster?" She asked, the fox nodding. "Seriously? We already beat him once, we can do it again!"

"Yeah, but how did he even come back to life." Nick asked. "He didn't get upgraded or anything." She shrugged in response. "What makes you think he'll even show up here again? He could just move on to another farm."

"I just have a hunch, alright?"

"Well, if we're out here all night and nothing happens, you can't blame me."

"Just keep your eyes open." She said, rolling her eyes. "And ears, and nose."

"I think you're the one who should be keeping their ears open, Fluff." Nick chuckled.

"Good idea." Her ears perked up, and started twisting around. "If a sheep could hear it without seeing it, then a rabbit should have no problem!"

The fox let out a long sigh, making his uncertainty to the situation apparent. Logically, if the monster was attacking, why would it stay in a single place? It just didn't really make any…

"I heard something!"

"Seriously?" Nick said. She turned to him, and gave a quick nod, before shushing him. The rabbit motioned for him to follow.

"It's in there." Judy whispered, pointing towards the entrance to the hay maze.

The fox sighed as they entered. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"We can just transform to fight him, you know." Judy said as they continued deeper into the maze. The hay stacks were taller than both of them combined, and he moon's casting light made them both feel uneasy. While Nick was quick to make this apparent, Judy was not.

"We can take him. We did it before."

"Technically, you did it before."

"That just means he'll be easier to beat if we work together!"

"Huh. Guess you're right." Nick suddenly felt a lot better.

It quickly waned as they approached a large hole in the side of the maze. It looked like the hay had been completely eaten through, by something much larger than them.

"Well, that's not good." Nick said as they walked through the hole.

They spotted more holes, creating a path through the maze, each hole was similar in size, but completely different in shape.

"Looks like he got lost." Nick joked, Judy rolling her eyes in response before following the path.

It took them a few minutes, but as they headed down a straightaway, seeing another hole cleaved through the wall, they finally heard something. Sick, disgusting biting noises. It was right nearby, much to their horror.

"Alright, so we run in, and attack." Judy suggested as they huddled by the edge of the hole.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, leader?" He asked, a bit mockingly. "Because you were the one who told me that staking out the enemy was the best way to defeat them."

"Well, we've already staked out Dolmar." She said. "We know he doesn't do much besides roll around and eat things."

"But-"

"I'm leader, this is final." She said sternly. "Now let's finish this."

Nick rolled his eyes. He definitely didn't feel better now, something seemed off.

They quietly rounded the corner. It was dark, but they could see something moving. It did not look like the monster they had fought before. It seemed to be suspended on six thin legs, which lowered a large bulky head down towards the hay, which it seemed to be snacking on.

They gulped as they continued the approach.

Suddenly, the monster swiveled around, directly into the phone's flash light. It had Dolmar's exact face, only at a much larger scale. It let out a hissing roar, stunning the two in absolute fear. It quickly clawed up the hay, and skittered off across the remaining hay, towards the main grounds.

The two stood there in silence for a moment.

"What the hell was that?" Nick asked, not even turning to his partner.

"I'm pretty sure that was Dolmar." She said.

"Should we go try and stop him?"

Judy nodded, and the two transformed, leaping out of the hay maze and into the main grounds. The thing was just standing around, seemingly looking for something. The two drew their weapons, and approached.

"Alright, bug ugly, time for you to go down!" Red yelled up to the monster, who seemed to ignore them.

Blue whipped out her blasters, and fired at the thing's back, causing it to turn around. "There we go."

It let out another hiss, and raised one of its long, spindly legs, before striking it directly in front of the two, leaving a large marking in the ground. The two jumped back in surprise as it struck.

The Dolmar head bug took a deep breath, and then exhaled, firing a wave of purple smoke towards them. The smell of it seemed to pierce through their suits, leaving them coughing on the ground. It hissed again, and then started to creep away.

The smoke cleared away, and the two gave chase to the outskirts of the fairground. They watched it as it seemed to be looking around for something.

Red pulled out the Vickscannon, alongside its ZooTag. "Alright, I want to get this over with before anything happens." He said, plugging it into the gun.

"BRING THE HEAT!
BURNING HEART!
BOOM BOOM!
VICKSCANNON!"

The cannon fired a massive blast towards the insect, which spun around and caught the blast in its mouth. Red lowered the cannon in surprise, and Blue stared in awe. "That's definitely new."

The bug quickly spat the fireball back out, the two leaping out of the way to dodge it. "Guess he can do a lot more than just eat and roll around, huh?" The fox panted.

The insect thing lowered itself above them, and let out a faint hiss. Suddenly, there was a louder hiss, from farther away. The monster rose, and turned around. The two followed its line of sight, seeing four much smaller things approach. The thing stomped over to them, and they began to converse.

"Uhhhh." Red let out, unsure of what was going on.

"I have just as much an idea of what's going on as you do." Blue responded.

"I THINK I HAVE AN IDEA!"

The two looked up, seeing Silver standing on top of the car of the nearby Ferris wheel. He leaped down, drawing his blade, and jabbed it into the top of the head insect's body. It stumbled in pain for a moment, before Silver jumped off, landing next to the two.

"Silver?" Blue said, the two getting up. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was chasing those bug guys around the city, until they suddenly decided to come here." He explained. "I had a feeling they were after something, and realized you two might need my help."

"Well, you couldn't be more right." Red said, stretching out. "So, what exactly are they after?"

"The head."

"The… head?" Blue questioned, eyeing at the head monster.

"I don't know how, but somehow Dolmar split up into different monsters." He said. "I think they've been trying to regroup."

The three watched as the spider-like head moved to the other four, lowering itself down a bit. The other insects clung to the head, and they began to glow.

"We can't let him reform!" Silver yelled. "We need to hit it with everything we've got!"

The two pulled out their blasters, and plugged the ZooTags into them, aiming towards the monsters. Silver quickly spun the guard on his blade.

"BRING THE HEAT!
BURNING HEART!
BOOM BOOM!
VICKSCANNON!"

"CUTTING ON THROUGH!
SLICING THE SKY!
CHANBARA BAN!
RABBLASTERS!"

"HOT HOT SUN"

All three of them fired at the same time, directly into the face of the monster. There was a massive explosion, nearly knocking them back, as well as flattening the grass around them. They covered their faces as dirt flew across.

They watched the smoke flicker through the air. "Did we do it?" Blue asked, stepping forward.

"Think again, schmucks!"

The smoke cleared, revealing Dolmar, as he had been before. He let out a hearty laugh, and drew his utensil weapons. "It's time for your last meals!"

He curled up into a ball, and rolled towards the three, knocking the surprised rangers into the air. They scattered through the air, before hitting the ground. Dolmar unrolled, and let out another laugh as he pointed his fork towards the sky. "Looks like someone else wants a bite!"

The three got up, and watched as a flying motorcycle parked onto the ground. "Yo." Sambash said as he hopped off. "Looks like everything worked even better than expected, huh?"

"Sure did, boss!" Dolmar sounded. The three rangers got up. Red looked around confused, before raising his paw.

"Scuse me, can someone tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Well, since the plan's run its course, I guess I can tell you." Sambash started, twirling his gun. "When you 'destroyed' Dolmar the other day, you just caused him to go into hibernation under the ground, and his separate parts pillaged food from the city."

"Can you believe there wasn't a single decent joint there!?" The pill bug yelled in frustration. "I went to every single one!"

"So, that means you didn't get to power up!" Blue announced. "You only power up when you eat good food!"

"That's where you came in rabbit!"

She turned to Sambash, who gave off a laugh. "What does that mean, helmet head?"

"When Dolmar's insides splattered all over you, it meant that he started, well…" He hesitated for a moment, with a brief laugh. "He incubated in you."

All three rangers were disgusted, but their varying levels of disgust were hidden by the masks. Judy, most obviously, was very disgusted. "Okay, now this is the grossest thing ever." Red sounded.

"And your parents' cooking is delicious!" Dolmar said, patting his stomach. "That was the best blueberry pie I've ever had! Strengthened me right up!"

"You used me!?" Blue yelled, stamping her foot. "THAT THING WAS INSIDE ME!?"

"Didn't just use you, baby." Sambash laughed. "We used your boyfriend, we used your parents, we even used the police! And now, Dolmar's at his strongest!" He quickly raised a hand, and showed a glowing, red object. "Now, lets see if we can go beyond that?"

He tossed the badge, where it plunged directly into Dolmar's stomach. He started convulsing, and rolled up into a ball. The ball pulsed, and expanded to massive proportions. It unfurled again, revealing Dolmar's new, massive form. It looked similar to his normal form, except his legs had been replaced with the back of a pill bug, both sides covered in legs, like a centipede. Its now massive, much longer arms, jutted out of the sides, while his face remained exactly the same, except it was larger, and as such more terrifying. On his stomach was the chaos symbol.

He reached behind him, and pulled out a massive fork and knife, which he seemed to use to balance himself. "CHAOS DOLMAR WILL DEVOUR YOU WHOLE!" It roared, shaking the ground.

The three stared up at the massive beast, and then turned back to watch Sambash fly off.

"SEE YOU NEVER, ASSHOLES!"

They looked back at the monster as it hovered over them.

"You know, I hate to be pessimistic, but I think we're gonna die." Red said.

"NOT IF WE RUN!" Blue yelled. "SCATTER!"

The three ran off, leaving the monster confused, thinking which one it should follow. It eyed the rabbit, running off into the field, and started to chase her.

Blue looked back as she heard loud stomps, seeing the thing crawling on its stomach at ridiculous speeds. "Why did it have to go after me first!?" She stuck her paw to the side of her helmet. "Guys, the monster's coming after me, I could use some help!"

"I thought you said 'scatter'," Red started, a bit sarcastically. "Now you want us to group together?"

"I'm about to be EATEN ALIVE, NICK!"

"Point."

"We'll be right there to help, Blue!" Silver said through the communicator. "Just hold on until we make it there."

She had been swerving through the field in a zigzagging pattern, attempting to confuse the monster, but it was still following directly behind her. She really, really did not want to be eaten alive.

The giant insect was gaining on her, she could practically feel its breath on her tail. Its hot, stinky breath. Suddenly, it parted.

Then, a giant fork shot down in front of her.

She fell back in surprise, looking up as the monster hovered over her. "Mmmm, I love rabbit meat." It said, leaning down and licking its lips. Blue looked up in horror as the monster's drool started to drip down around her. She was petrified.

The monster quickly snatched her in its hand, and turned to see the two other rangers racing towards them. "LET GO OF HER!" The fox yelled, enraged. He stoped, and pulled out the Vickscannon, firing it several times at the monster.

Dolmar quickly twisted around, turning its back to the blasts. The fireballs bounced harmlessly of the armored hide. It spun back around, and laughed. "If you want me to let go of her, I know just where to put her!"

"RED!" Blue yelled as the monster lifted her up. "DON'T GIVE MONSTERS PERFECT RETORTS!" She looked down seeing Dolmar open his toothy maw, wide open. "Also, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Dolmar let go, letting her fall into his mouth. He quickly clamped his teeth shut as she passed by them. "Mmm, almost as good as her parent's cooking!" The monster laughed.

"JUDY!"

Red fell to his knees. The words she had said from the other night started ringing through his head. Being eaten is like a death sentence. She was dead.

The giant insect pulled out his knife and fork and started towards the two stunned mammals. "Time for you to join her! Though, I doubt you'll taste as good."

"Red, get up!" Silver said, trying to knock the fox out of his funk. "We can still save her!"

"How?" He said weakly. "If you get eaten, It's…"

"Well, for one, he didn't chew her." He stated. "And digestion can take a while, she might still be fine!"

"Really?" He asked, turning to the wolf. He gave a nod.

"But if we want to save her, we need to get somewhere safe!" He yelled, helping the fox up. The monster was still closing in on them.

Red looked up, seeing the Ferris wheel towering above them. "I think I know where to go."

The two rushed off towards the wheel, and leaped up onto one of the cars. They kept jumping until they reached the car at the very top, looking down as the monster attempted, and failed, to climb up.

"Alright, we should be safe for a little bit." Red said, panting. "We need a plan to get rid of this guy and save Judy."

"Well, we can't just destroy him now," Silver started. "If Judy's still inside him, she'll probably be caught in the explosion."

"So, we need a way to get her out of there…" He placed a paw to his chin in thought. "What would Judy do in this…" His ears perked up, and he hit himself. "Duh, we can still ask her!"

"What? How…" It dawned on the wolf. "The communicators!"

Red nodded, and placed a paw to the side of his helmet. "Blue? Come in! Are you alright?"

"I could be doing better." She replied.

Oh thank god she was still alive.

"We're going to get you out of there." He said, trying to sound calm. "Do you think you could try to cut your way out?"

"Oh, I would if I wasn't clinging for dear life!"

The rabbit sighed, and looked around the cramped, entirely dark area. She could only see anything thanks to her night vision. She was definitely in a stomach, and was clinging to the side of one by a knife, jabbed into it.

Below her was nothing but a pool of thick, green acid. Stomach acid, probably, or at least whatever this thing's equivalent to stomach acid was.

"Guess this isn't how you wanted to spend your vacay, huh?" The fox joked.

"Not the time, Nick."

"So, do you have any ideas?" He asked. "Because we have nothing."

"Try hitting him with the Solar Flare Saber and Eclipse Mode!" She suggested. "You might be able to cut right through his stomach!"

"If we can get to it." Silver said, joining the conversation. "We can't go through his back either, I've tried."

"We'll be getting you out soon, Carrots." Red finished.

"Please please please do it quick."

The two felt a rumble as the car started to move. They looked over the edge, seeing that the massive pill bug was slowly spinning the wheel, trying to get them closer.

"Well, if he wants us to get closer," Red started, pulling out a golden ZooTag. "Then we better get as close as possible!" He plugged it into his Zoolizer.

"JAN JA NIN!
ROCK N ROLL
DROP N ROLL!
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

The massive blade appeared in his paws. "You weaken it with the Eclipse Mode, I'll cut it open." Red continued. Silver gave a nod, and the two leaped down to the car nearest the monster.

"So, looks like my next meal has decided to come to me!" The monster chuckled. "You're very eager to join your friend!"

"Eager, definitely." He motioned towards the stomach with his massive blade. "SILVER, NOW!"

Silver spun the guard of his blade as he slid under the monster.

"HOT SHINE ECLIPSE"

Time seemed to slow down for the wolf as he fell, facing the monster's massive, fleshy stomach. The weak spot was the massive emblem on it, so he rapidly struck the spot with his blade.

As time ran out, he hit the ground, and the monster whined in pain, clutching at its belly. "What was that!?" It yelled.

"Serious indigestion!" Red quipped, before smacking the monster's face with the blade. It flung back, arms moving away from the stomach. He ran off the top of the car, and swung the sword directly towards the stomach.

It seemed to retract as the sword swung by.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment, before the stomach suddenly distended, and slammed the fox backwards, into the control station of the Ferris wheel.

"RED!" The wolf yelled, turning towards the unconscious fox's location. The insect swung its abdomen directly into the wolf launching him into the wheel as well.

"Idiots, I knew you were going to try that! The monster roared. "Just because I'm big and hungry doesn't mean I don't realize I have a giant glowing weak spot!"

"Guys?" Blue was still hanging by a dagger, and the acid seemed to be getting closer. "Guys, can you hear me!?"

No response.

She sighed. This had been her fault. She had been overconfident and had gone back on her own advice. She was supposed to be the leader, she was supposed to be the one who helped get them out of situations like this, but she hadn't considered anything other than beating it, because it had been SO easy last time!

Now, they were all going to die.

She could feel something rising in her. Something she didn't like the feeling of.

"No, no, no!" She yelled, watching as her Zoolizer started to spark. "I don't need your help! Not again!"

"Face it," Said a voice in her head. "You totally need me."

"NO!"

She felt a sharp bolt of pain through her.

"SAVAGE ON"

There was a rippling energy throughout the monster's stomach, making him feel a bit uneasy. "Ough, maybe that rabbit wasn't good for my stomach…" He moaned.

Red rose, and watched as the monster contorted in pain. A thin line seemed to appear on its stomach, which then pulsed.

"Uh oh." It whimpered, before exploding.

From the explosion flew the Chaos Badge, as well as a pig, who crashed next to the wheel. Silver recovered just in time to hear horrible laughter coming from within the blaze.

"Man, I gave him the worst case of indigestion he's ever had!" Savage laughed, stepping out of the blaze. He quickly flashed his claws towards the two. "Who wants to go next?"

"We don't have time for this, Savage!" Red yelled, walking towards him. "If you don't let her go, we'll be dealing with bigger issues!"

Savage laughed. "Trust me, I'm the biggest issue you'll ever have! But, I get what you mean."

The fox stopped in his tracks, surprised. "You… do?"

"Yeah. If you two get crushed by a giant monster, I won't be able to kill anyone!" He said, a bit indignantly. "So, I'll be going now. But trust me, Wilde, I'll be seeing you very, very soon." He raised a claw, and rocked it back and forth. "And when I'm here, every second counts."

The rangers shuddered.

There was another burst of energy, as Blue returned to normal, dropping to her knees. "Ugh, what happened?" She asked as the two rushed over to her.

"Savage happened." Red explained.

"Yeah, I think he saved your life." Silver followed.

She quickly got up and stamped her foot. "SERIOUSLY!?" She yelled. "I hate that guy!"

"We can worry about that later, we have bigger bugs to squish." Red said. They turned and watched as the badge lifted into the air, and flew off into the distance, forming Chaos Dolmar once again.

"I'm back, and hungrier than ever!"

"Ugh, I hate looking at him." Blue groaned. "Let's do this, and fast."

The two mechs formed, and then combined into ZooRobo Oh Kami, landing in front of the massive insect. It shined both of its blades at the monster, and stomped forwards.

"You can't beat me!" Dolmar roared. "My back armor's too strong!"

"Yeah, we know." Silver said, rolling his eyes.

"But you haven't had to deal with ZooRobo yet!" Blue yelled, jolting the controls forward. The robot raised both of its blades, and the monster spun around, attempting to block them. The swords struck down, cutting directly through the monster's backside, it splitting into chunks and flying off.

It cried in pain, and crawled away. "How did you do that!?" It yelled.

"ZooRobo Oh Kami is stronger than your back armor, burgers for brains." Red said.

Energy started to glow from the monster's mouth, as it shot a burb of energy forward. The mech held up its blades, blocking the energy.

"We know all of your attacks now!" Blue sounded, pumping her fist. "You're completely beaten!"

"No, this isn't possible!"

The robot leaped forward, performing a cross cut, and sliced directly through the now completely weakened monster. It sparked and stumbled backwards. "I didn't even get a last meal!" It yelled before exploding.

The mech performed a pose, and then vanished, leaving the three rangers back on the fair ground.

"Well, that was exhausting." Nick said, untransforming.

"We managed to save the festival though!" Judy let out cheerfully, also untransforming.

"I take it you guys are going to be staying here for a bit longer?" Silver asked.

"Well, we were only going to stay here until Thursday," Judy started. "But the festival's been moved, and we can't be off work for an entire week, so…"

"How about we stay here a bit longer than Thursday?" Nick suggested. "Help clean things up, fix up the festival before next week?"

"That's a great idea!" The rabbit said, ecstatic. "But we'll only stay until Sunday."

The fox nodded, before turning to the wolf ranger. "And Max, when we get back, we have something we want to talk to you about."

"Is it something bad?" He sounded a bit worried. "Did I mess up?"

"No, not at all!" Judy continued. "We just feel its time you know what's going on."

"So, just go home, and don't worry about it." Nick finished. He turned to the unconscious pig laying on the ground. "And can you, uh...?"

Silver sighed. "Alright, I'll take that guy home too." He walked over to the pig, and braced himself, nearly falling over as he hoisted it up. "See you guys next week!" He said through his teeth, before leaping off.

"Do you think he can handle this alternate universe stuff?" Judy asked, a bit concerned.

"I don't think a lot of mammals can." Nick followed. "But I feel like he'll be fine."

---

"So, have you found out anything about it yet?"

The goat walked down the hallway, a leopard in a lab coat trailing in front of him. "Y-yes, Mr. Herder."

"CHIEF Herder, to you."

"We have found out something about it… Chief." He said, a bit nervous. They walked into a room, which was surrounded by computers. In the middle of it was a small pedestal, a glass box containing a small silver object, many wires connected to it.

"How did you even find this thing?' The leopard asked, as he started fiddling with the computers.

"None of your business."

"Does the mayor know you have this thing?" He asked again. "He might not want you with something like it."

"It is also none of the mayor's business." The goat snarled. He walked up to the pedestal. "And why would the mayor be bothered with this thing?"

"It's like a miniature nuclear reactor!" The leopard sounded. "The power it holds is through the roof!"

"So, it can be weaponized?" Herder asked, hopeful.

"In theory, yes." The leopard responded. "We could work out some way to harness it, weaponize it. But… why would you want to?"

"Haven't you heard, doctor?" The goat started. "We're under attack, we need everything to help the city."

"But, we already have…"

"What makes you think they can be trusted!?" He yelled at the startled leopard. "I'm your boss, if I wanted I could fire you on the spot! So do what I say."

"Yes, chief."

---

This chapter was a tough one to get out, which will be my excuse if anyone thinks the ending was a bit rushed.

I had to change Dolmar's powers a lot, mostly because he didn't really have much to work with, and I wanted to go with something resembling an old 90's creature feature. Not sure it worked out as well as I wanted.

Also, taking a bit of a break to recharge my writing juices. But don't worry, I'll be back soon, and with something special.

Next time, Gaiark strikes back.