Chapter 1 Target Acquired

Edited by amx

"Candy makers?"

"Too sweet."

"How about...oh! Long lost couple reuni-"

"Too cliche."

"Farmers?"

"You must really like carrots for you to want to do that one again."

Nick groaned and leaned back into the chair. They had come back to Fitwick's to try out another scenario, the past few being quite entertaining for the fox and rabbit. It was an enjoyable way for them to spend time together and relax after the craziness of their jobs. They had decided to make this a weekly date night of sorts. The PIXAR machine was cheap, the discount offered to emergency workers helped quite a bit, and they could even hit up the arcade after a session.

The fox grumbled as he realized he still needed to pay Judy back for her creaming him in Super Bash Mammals. Maybe she won't be as good at Wreck-It Rhino...

"Nick!"

Nick blinked, then looked towards his wife who was staring at him impatiently. "I asked you a question."

"Pinecone?" Nick offered, spouting off the first word he thought of.

"You want to do the forest ranger one?" the rabbit asked, raising an eyebrow. Her paw went to the mouse next to the computer screen to select it when the fox shook his head.

"Not feeling the outdoors tonight."

The bunny shrugged, somewhat annoyed and continued to go through the options as Nick contemplated the forest ranger one.

I bet Judy would look good in a ranger outfit. Those cute little green shorts and beige button down...

"A city one then?"

His wandering thoughts were broken by Judy's question, and Nick could tell by the tone of her voice that she was starting to get annoyed. Her nose was twitching, (not in the adorable, cute way which he loved), her foot had begun thumping against the chair and he could almost see an eye twitch developing. Scanning the screen in front of him, Nick decided drastic measures were to be taken in order to forego a bunny bomb from going off in the arcade.

He ran his thumb down the screen and flicked it. The scenario's whirled by for several seconds before Nick placed his digit back on the screen, halting the choices. Picking up his thumb, he grinned at the title.

"Carrots...want to be an assassin?"

"What?!" Her eyes went wide and she sputtered several incomprehensible words. "Are...are you joking?"

Nick shook his head. "No, they have a choice here to be one, want to try it?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"All right, we're doing it."

"Nick!"

Her objection was too late as the fox pressed the icon, then hit okay on his monitor. "And...it's done!" He looked at Judy with a smirk, who returned a frown. "It isn't like we're actually assassins in this Judy. Remember what Fitwick said? The machine chooses a scenario and you're placed into. You aren't using your memories, just living that scenario. I don't think this machine could corrupt you anyways."

"Fine..." she agreed angrily, jabbing a finger at the fox. "But next time I'm choosing."

Both put their helmets on, Judy grumbling the entire time about how this was absolutely against what they had sworn to uphold before both became enveloped within the PIXAR machine and slipped off into a new adventure.

The streets were quiet as the lone figure, a tall, lanky fox, wandered down a wintry Tundratown boulevard. The flickering lamp lights shining down upon him afforded him less comfort than the hidden entryways and darkened alleys. So he did just that, taking to the side streets where the lights were broken, or gone altogether. Better for his long term health to be out of the light he'd always say.

The broken glass matched the dirty street, and the fox made sure to avoid it as well as the denizens of the alley.

Harold is still asleep...he thought, rolling his eyes, as he approached a drunken bobcat leaning against the wall. Bob is right where I saw him last. The fox skulked by a haggard looking deer holding his hooves. Nodding as he passed, he made a quick left, followed by a lazy right, ducking through a cut wire fence before arriving at a nondescript building. Despite butting against the climate wall, the snowfall in this section of the district had been limited. The massive air conditioners did a great job of keeping the district cool, yet had the added effect of blowing all the snowfall far away from that section of the town, creating a cold, frigid climate that resembled a frozen city stuck in time than a wintery wonderland. Some of it managed to sneak through, such as in the small field surrounding the building.

Popping his neck and squaring his shoulders, the fox jumped forward, avoiding the snow entirely as he leapt up at several low hanging power lines. He easily grabbed the wire, flipping himself up between them with remarkable agility. Using his weight, he tested the slack. With a satisfied smirk he slinked forward, remaining vigilant to not alert any mammals of his presence as he headed toward the building.

An open window at the side of the building greeted him at the end of his easily accomplished tightrope walk. Silently popping inside, the fox rolled his eyes looking back at his entryway to the building. If anyone with half a mind looked at this they'd wonder why the lines break off there...or even end at a window of all places.

Leaving the thoughts alone for now, the fox straightened his clothes and marched toward a flight of stairs. With feather like footsteps, he ascended three flights of stairs until he reached the top floor of the building. A frosty draft was much more pronounced at this height, yet it was the physical cold that chilled him.

A single door lay before him, halfway across the dusty building. He strode forward confidently as he always had, making sure to keep his eyes forward and paws in the light that coursed through the sunroofs. He didn't need to make his boss angry, and knew what even the slightest provocation could do to upset the mammal he had never seen behind the door he'd never opened.

Nor did he care to ever open it.

He was happy with his job. It was a good one, as far as jobs for foxes went. He wasn't working sanitation like his cousin James, hadn't been forced to make bugga burga in a factory like Randolph, and he was definitely happy he wasn't pushing up daisies like many in his family were now doing, having fallen victim to the stereotypes all foxes faced.

At least with this job he had managed to pay back their brutalizers with a taste of their own medicine.

Sure being an assassin had its downsides as well he figured. Short lease, random assignments, fear of being caught, of being killed. The murder aspect of it was near the top of the worst parts of the job yet far and above them all was the horrible thing called a conscience that he constantly had to stifle when a mammal, whose life he had been called upon to end, was begging to be spared on their knees before him.

It wasn't glorious work, but it was better than being dead, and he had grown quite fond of living.

He came to a stop five feet away from the door. Not an inch more or less, as the dust and slight snowfall that had built up upon the floor could attest to his many visits to this room. Only a single line of pawprints walking in, and he made sure to backtrack in them precisely when heading out.

In the darkness, he waited. In the darkness, he fretted. In the darkness, his mind trailed to last month's assignment. Some ram named Doug whose location was listed in an abandoned subway tram near Baobob avenue. It had been an easy job once he'd found the large sheep. The poor slob had already set up a way to destroy the lab by himself so all he'd needed to do was sneak in, snap the ram's spine, close the windows, turn on the propane tank and let the open flame on the Bunsen burner finish the job for him.

He'd been far enough away to feel the ground rumble, and that was that.

So he stood and waited for the assignment to arrive, pondering amusing scenarios while he waited. The first thoughts were of where he'd go if a police raid showed up...

Rooftop exit, slide down the drainpipe to the third floor then jump into the neighboring building's window.

Next came if the door actually opened...

Stand still and pray that they aren't mad.

As his mind began to wander, other thoughts became more amusing. What if his mission was to turn himself in? Or travel out to some far fetched district like Podunk. He'd always wondered what it would be like out in the open fields. Fresh air and smogless skies allowing him to see forever. The stars twinkling in the heavens as he lay in a field, waiting to see a shooting star. He'd never seen one before, and it was something on his bucket list that he wanted to do before he died. Though in this line of work, he should probably fulfill that wish sooner rather than later.

The fox almost checked his watch as the minutes passed, his only movement being to bend his knees every so often so they wouldn't lock in the cold. The minutes ticked on and just when he was starting to become curious for the delay, which was about the deadliest decision one could make in his line of work, a chime came from the pager on his belt.

Nick reached up as a envelope shot out of the mail slot of the door. It still being a foot above Nick's head, he had to stretch himself to reach it before it would pass his paws and land on the floor. He'd heard stories about what happened if your assignment touched the ground...and they made Mr Big's icing chamber look like a merry swim in comparison.

Reminding himself to check in with Fru Fru the next day, he crept back slowly, backtracking over his steps. He did so cautiously and expeditiously, making sure that nobody could tell what had happened to the mammal who had wandered in, but never left. Reaching the stairs, he let out a breathe of relief, while sliding a single claw along the edge of the envelope. He didn't even look at the picture or accompanying note as they landed in his paw, going quickly into a secret pocket of his jacket.

He made his way out the same he came in; hurried yet careful, exact yet cocky. The tightrope walk was easier on the way out as he could amble all the way across it this time to the opposite building where he took the stairs out to the limitless back alleyways of the frozen district. Taking a left, then a right, he arrived back at the alley where he had passed the two mammals near the fire barrel. Both watched him approach, their paws hidden within their coats and eyes narrowed in concentration.

Nodding politely, Nick opened his coat slowly, keeping a wary eye on both homeless looking mammals and withdrew the items from his inside pocket. It was only then he actually took to looking at them.

Opening the note, he saw a series of numbers, random letters and a few dots and lines added in. To anyone else, it would have seen like complete gibberish, something only a kit or a teenager would doodle, but to the fox, the scribblings were a puzzle that he easily deciphered.

That's a terrible part of Savanna Central...he thought, noting the address and apartment number of his next hit. Thin walls and creaky floorboards...definitely won't do the hit there.

Eyeing the rest of the information, he processed it and then dropped the paper unceremoniously into the fire barrel, the flames consuming the paper in milliseconds.

Now for the hard part...the tod thought, looking at the back of the paper in his paw. He never liked looking at the pictures and it was by far the worst part of the job. The pictures had names, families, loved ones, maybe even children. Pictures had history to them. Stories of a mammal's life and what their hopes and dreams might be. Pictures contained the past, and a glimpse of the future.

He hated them.

It's why he only had one picture in his possession. One of his mother and him hidden within a secret pocket of his wallet.

The click of a gun brought him back to the here and now. Nick looked up to see both mammals pointing silenced Berettas at him. Glancing down at his paw, he saw the picture had crumbled, his thoughts turning to anger in the moment. Relaxing and taking several deep breaths, he gave the two mammals a smile, though they didn't relax or lower their weapons.

Slowly, inexorably, he turned the picture over. He knew he was wasting time but to him, there was a certain preparation one needed to take before knowing the identity of who would be meeting their untimely demise at your own paws. So the tod took his time, and after several moments, the picture was revealed.

"Hmm..."

She's cute...he thought first, eyeing the amethyst eyed bunny in the picture. She had one of those perfect smiles that just seemed to light up the area around her. Even though it was only a face shot, the fox knew she was in some sort of military or police force, judging by the raised blue collar just barely visible at the bottom of the picture and the salute she was giving to a mammal out of the picture.

She's obviously proud of something here...perhaps she just graduated? He scanned the rest of the picture, committing it to memory before looking at the few, blocky words at the bottom of the picture. Letting out an amused huff, he flicked the picture into the fire, then walked between the two gun toting mammals who relaxed as the fox passed them by.

Well Nicky boy, you have a lot of work cut out for you on this one. I wonder how she managed to tick off the boss enough to get a target on her head like this...

Reaching the edge of the alley, Nick saw the beginnings of a snowstorm heading for the empty quarter of Tundratown, almost as if an omen of things to come. Pulling his coat a little tighter around him, he began the long walk home, plans already being constructed about how to eliminate his latest target.

Walking to the nearest train station, he boarded and rode it to Savanna Central. When given a new mission, he liked to make sure that the mammal actually existed and still lived at the address. It would do him no good to make plans for catching them, only to find out they had moved or had already fled. He'd managed to track them down, but, that just involved more work.

Besides...he thought to himself with a chuckle. Did the ZPD really hire a bunny to be a cop? This I have to see for myself.

Leaving the train thirty minutes later, he skirting around the known traffic camera locations, carefully avoiding lit areas while sticking to the shadows. He'd been born in Happytown and had grown up learning how to avoid detection. Even more so as a fox. Nick easily made it to his destination, assured in his clandestine operation. Standing across from the Grand Pangolin Arms, he gave the apartments a quick once over.

Grand my tail...he huffed. Staying hidden in the shadows between two apartment buildings across from his target, he leaned against the wall and waited. He wasn't even sure if she'd be arriving soon, even if the message he had read showed her scheduled shift as ending fifteen minutes earlier, but it was worth a shot. Besides...to know one's enemy, is to know how to destroy them.

The mantra was one that he'd been taught as part of the organization and had committed to memory. It's why he was so successful after all these years. Though if he was honest with himself, he was only doing this for a completely different reason. A certain green eyed vixen strayed into his thoughts. The warmth of her smile and the quiet laughter he always loved, a foregone memory from a happier time, echoed in his heart and mind. He found himself closing his eyes, letting out a sigh at the memories.

A car horn honking startled him awake, his paw already in his jacket pocket and holding the concealed beretta within. Thankfully, the vehicle in question was honking much further down the road, yet Nick cursed himself mentally for having his focus stray, especially when he saw a bunny slowly trudging up the steps of the Grand Pangolin Arms.

Speak of the rabbit...he thought. The poor creature looked miserable; her ears drooped low and her gait more fitting for a sloth than a cute little bunny. Her slumped shoulders portrayed a deep sadness, or the weight of her work crushing down on her.

A tiny twinge of empathy coursed through him at the sight of her and for a fleeting moment he felt pity for the rabbit. He crushed it down deep within him, burying the thoughts of how he momentarily found himself wanting to ask the doe out. To cheer her up and see that smile he had seen in her picture than put a bullet between her enchanting, purple eyes.

Make a mental note to not look at her when you kill her, Wilde.

When he had glanced back up again, the doe was gone, the door to the apartment complex closing behind her as the bustle of the city swallowed the sound. Sounds just like how this city's going to eat you alive...Nick thought darkly, shaking his head at the thought. He hadn't minded his mission when he'd been tasked with taking out a pimp ruling half of Happytown, nor the job to take out a factory owner who was employing slave labor in the Nocturnal District. But this one...

He let out a heavy sigh as he slunk deeper into the alleyway. A job's a job, Nicky boy...he reminded himself. And right now...it's you or the rabbit.

Nick had already decided he liked living, and wished the rabbit good fortune and sweet dreams, as they'd most likely be the last she'd ever have.

AN: A bit of a different take on these two. Just a clarification on how the PIXAR machine works before folks start writing about OoC'ness. While in the machine, they may be Nick and Judy, but they don't have the memories they do, as the experience builds up a history for them. So in this, the scenario's history is decided upon by the PIXAR machine.

Now, this doesn't mean that their personalities don't bleed through. They just have to overcome the history the machine made for them. Its why even in "First Bonds" where the machine made them mortal enemies, they still managed to become friends by the end of it. Their personalities beat the machine. So these characters are still "Nick and Judy", just placed under different circumstances that changed bits of their behavior. It would be like if you suddenly had a different past. You'd still be you, but would be different due to the changes now present.

Hopefully that makes sense, if you have any questions, please let me know and hopefully you'll enjoy this story. :)