Hitmammals: Chapter 3: A Swing in the Ring

Written by eng050599

The path that they took wasn't a straightforward one. Although the doe initially had cut through the casino, she had quickly made her way through an unremarkable side passage and headed deeper into the building. Both Skye and Jack were wary of an ambush or cameras, but they noticed none aside from those on the floor of the casino itself, and there were no indications that this passage was for staff only.

Gingerly, they followed Judy down one corridor, and then another. The pair had to stay considerably far back, to avoid Hopps' sensitive ears betraying their presence, but still the various corridors, although utterly unadorned, were fairly straight, and as such keeping track of their prey war easier than anticipated.

It was only when they went down an unmarked stairwell, descending at least 3 stories underground as best Skye could figure, that they lost sight of their quarry. The bright lights that normally adorned the casino halls had given way to stark cinderblocks and intermittent fluorescent lighting along the ceiling, but looking both directions down the hallway, neither mammal could spot site of Ms. Hopps.

Not willing to give up the chase just yet, Skye closed her eyes and lifted her muzzle to try and catch the scent of her prey in the air. It worked, and she quickly had a mental image of the doe turning left at the base of the stairwell and heading down the hall in that direction.

Motioning with her paw, she and Jack crept forward, quickly coming to an L intersection, the hallway once again turning ninety degrees to the left. Sparing a glance down the hall, Skye cursed quietly. Although there was no sign of Hopps, there was a large metal door at the end of the hallway, along with two VERY large polar bears guarding it.

Ducking back around the corner, Skye shrugged. "Well now what?" she asked her mate.

Jack was already scanning the doors along the highway, when he suddenly clicked his tongue, and motioned for Skye to follow him. He quickly padded over to a door marked 'Maintenance: Return Air Plenum' and waved Skye forward.

"Do you have your lockpicks on you?" he asked, and smiled when she reached for her pocket without hesitation.

"Are you kidding me?" she asked sarcastically, while retrieving a small pouch and quickly selecting a tension wrench and W rake. "I have to take off my wedding ring more often than I'm without these babies. Can you give me some light?"

Jack nodded and pulled out a small penlight from his pocket and directed the beam towards the door handle.

Fortunately, it was a simple lock to pick. This room obviously not high on the list of security threats. Within thirty seconds, the lock popped open, and the pair quietly made their way inside.

The room was utterly spartan inside, with little more than a desk crammed against the wall, and the rest of the room filled with ventilation ducting, branching off in multiple directions, feeding the return air for the HVAC system.

Jack immediately made his way to the desk, and began looking at the various diagrams arranged in an orderly fashion on its surface. Looking back over his shoulder to his mate, he beckoned her forward. "Skye, you're better at this mechanical stuff than I am," he said, motioning to one of the schematics. "Do any of these vents move past that door we saw?"

The vixen's eyes lit up at her mate's intuition, and she gazed down at what she now recognized as the layout of the local ventilation system. They were in the main return plenum, which probably meant that it was the central hub for this floor, or even multiple floors.

For once she was happy that the mammal behind these plans had been a rather anal retentive individual, and they had handily labeled both the room that they were in as well as the numerical code used for each branch of the duct system. Looking between the plans and the vents, she quickly had a route that would take the pair past the door, and lead them to either a rather gloomy office, given its subterranean local, or merely another maintenance room.

She frowned slightly at one disruption in their plans. Although Jack would be able to make it through the vent on the other side of the door, Skye would need to travel another 100 meters down the vent before she could exit into what appeared to be a washroom...although wich gender wasn't listed, which could make things dicey if another mammal walked in.

"We'll have to split up, and try to meet back together ASAP," she thought to herself, as she memorized the twists and turns she would need to make.

After a moment, she nodded her head and looked up to her mate. "Got it!" she said confidently, and moved to one of the ducts, once again removing her multitool and starting to loosen an access panel on the side.

"I have to take a more roundabout way to get out of these vents, but I can get you out almost as soon as you make it past the door." She said after poking her head into the duct and seeing that the way was clear. Turning to face Jack, she cupped he paws in front of her to give the smaller rabbit a boost to the access panel.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Skye?" Jack asked hesitantly as he placed one foot into the makeshift platform and was lightly heaved up into the air, the rabbit easily pulling himself into the duct, and reaching back to lend his mate a paw. "Getting separated in a place like this is right out of a bad gangster flick."

Skye sighed as she took Jack's paw and crawled into the duct. "I know, and no, it's not a good idea, but it's all we have to go on." She motioned forward with her paw down the shaft. "Come on, but be quiet. We don't want to attract any more attention than we already have."

As the two started to make their way down the shaft, another fox standing in a room many floors away was smiling at the monitor in front of him. "Carrots, the mice are in the walls. It looks like I owe you a foot massage tonight." The tod glanced at the clock in the room. "Estimate five minutes until Briar Rabbit stumbles in and crashes your party. I'll move to intercept Snow White, but estimate seven minutes before she's in the room as well."

Judy's voice came through the coms along with a hefty amount of background noise. Some kind of pounding heavy metal was being played, and it nearly drowned out her words. "More than enough time for me to finish playing with my toys." The doe said, and then there was the clear sound of snapping bones over the fox's earpiece followed by the bleating of another mammal. The cries were cut off by a meaty thump while Judy exhaled sharply in time with the blow. "Just give me the signal when you're ready."

"You know it, Love." Nick said, before turning off the monitor and heading towards the elevator; his paw motioning for two arctic wolf security guards to follow after him.

"The mice have taken the bait," he thought to himself as the elevator doors closed. "Now it's time to spring the trap."

As Jack and Skye made their way along the ventilation duct, that same pounding music began to filter into their ears as well. Jack glanced back at his mate, who shrugged as to the implications. Was it to drown out the screams of the hitmammal's victims, or was this merely a recreational event for the rabbit. Either way they would soon find out.

Reaching the first vent, Skye pushed Jack aside, as she peered into the room. Her eyes were better able to pierce the darkness, but she saw nothing untowards, and after taking a few moments to listen attentively for any signs of life inside the small room, she shifted onto her back, and kicked one side of the vent lose. The noise was deafening in comparison to the low thumping of the music, but there was no sign that the intrusion had been detected...yet.

The fox, reached out and finished detaching the grate from the duct, and then placed it back in the duct before motioning for Jack to clamber down. The buck only just managing to fit through the opening. "Remember, keep out of sight if you can, Jack. We don't know what we're dealing with here, and we have no cell phone or radio signal down here."

Jack nodded, and quietly moved to the door. Before opening it, he looked back to his mate, and blew her a kiss. "Don't worry about me, Love. I'll be like a shadow," he said, and with that he opened the door and slipped into the hallway.

Skye shook her head at her husband, but then sighed and began the long crawl to where she could exit out of the vents.

Aside from the music, there were no signs of life in the stark hallway. Jack couldn't see any signs of life. His nose, although nowhere near as sensitive as Skye's twitched as he tried to tease out the scent of the various mammals that had made use of this corridor in the recent past.

The scent of his quarry was definitely present, and no more than a quarter hour old, but there were also a lot of other scents from earlier intermingled with it. He couldn't tell them all apart, but there were over a dozen different species...at least he thought that was the case.

Things didn't become any clearer as he approached the door at the end of the hall. Like the one they had seen being guarded previously, this was a heavy metal door, but painted red. There were no guards, and merely a simple control panel on the side with a single button on it.

Glancing around, Jack shrugged and pressed the button. The action was followed by several loud clunks as the locking mechanism disengaged, and the door began to swing open. Jack's senses were immediately inundated with sensory overload, and the pounding music swelled in his ears, combined with a dazzling display of light...and the unmistakable roar of a crowd on the edge of their seats.

When the buck's eyes adjusted to the lights, he saw that he was standing at the entrance to...what could only be described as something right out of a modern gladiatorial flick. Seats surrounded a large octagonal cage in which Jack could clearly see Judy Hopps engaged with a rather hulking moose.

One would think that there couldn't be a more one sided fight...but you would be wrong. By this point, the moose was already on the ground, one gangly leg twisted in a grotesque mockery of its proper shape. It had been dislocated at the knee...and possibly at the hip. Jack could barely tell, but even still the moose was trying to get back to his feet.

On the other side of the arena, Nick stood in the shadows of a private box, watching as Jack entered into the arena. Bringing one paw to his earpiece, he sent the signal to his mate. "Briar Rabbit has arrived. Time to stop playing around, Carrots."

In response, Judy suddenly jumped back from the struggling moose, leaping high and twisting in mid air to come feet-first against the side of the caged arena, from there she sprang off with all the strength she could muster, twisting to deliver a tornado kick just below the moose's ear. The effect was instantaneous, and the ungulates eyes rolled back in his skull as he slumped to the mat.

Hopps ignored the roars of the crowd, and after grasping the much larger mammal by one of its antlers, twisted the moose's head so that his throat was fully exposed. She reached up with her right paw, its digits ramrod straight, and pointing directly at the exposed flesh of the unconscious mammal's larynx.

Jack recognized the maneuver instantly, and his mind flashed through his options. "She's gong to kill him! I've got no choice."

His mind made up, he reached into his coat to retrieve his badge, and took advantage of a sudden silence that came over the crowd when Hopps was posed to strike.

"ZPD, NOBODY MOVE!" He cried out as loudly as he could, and was pleasantly surprised when it seemed as though all the eyes in the arena turned to face him. Even Hopps, glanced in his direction before releasing the moose's antler, and shaking her head moved to lean against the side of the cage.

Jack made his way down the stairs, hanging the badge around his neck as he did so, and was quickly face to face with the doe; only the chain link fence separating the two of them. "Judith Hopps, you are under arrest for attempted mammalcide," he stated confidently, and was only moderately surprised when Judy laughed in his face.

"Oh, Jackie Boy, I knew you still had the hots for me, but interrupting a cage match? Wow, Officer Skye must really be neglecting her wifely duties if you're this pent up," she stated loudly enough for at least half of the arena to hear, and the catcalls began instantly. Most of them seemed to be similar insults to the ones that Hopps had made, but there was also more than one offer of 'assistance' for him in this regard from both male and female voices in the crowd.

Jack's countenance darkened at the insult, and he sneered at the hitmammal. "You've got one hell of a mouth, Hopps, but I know what I saw there, and you were about to kill that mammal."

Judy once again laughed in the buck's face. "I may have a mouth, Savage, but at least I know how to use it effectively," she once again looked the other rabbit up and down, not even trying to keep the smirk out of her voice. "Maybe I should show you how to use it properly, or at least give Skye some pointers...provided of course Nick isn't already handling that particular lesson with her."

"You Bitch!" Jack spat at her. "You're going down this time. Everyone here saw you…"

"Take up her trademarked victory pose," a smooth but unfamiliar voice chimed in from behind the pair.

Jack spun around to see a middle aged cheetah in a tuxedo flanked on either side by obvious polar bear muscle. The big cat looked down at Jack, and the rabbit could practically feel the disdain radiating off of him in waves.

"Officer Savage, I don't know what you think you saw here, but all you've done is interrupt…" The cheetah, paused for effect, and then turned around to face the crowd "MFC 39!" The announcer cried out to the adulation of the crowd who gave up their silence to loudly cheer the proclamation. The cheetah raised his paws, playing to the audience, for a bit before continuing. "Now gentle mammals, we'll have this misunderstanding taken care of shortly, but for now, let's hear it for our winner, the still undefeated Judy, the Hurricane, Hopps! For those of you tuning in at home...all 55 million of you, we now have a word from our sponsors."

Once again, the crowd went wild, and Judy took that to engage in an acrobatic display in the ring, ending the display with a triple flip that landed on the chest of her fallen foe, bringing about a quiet grunt from the slowly recovering mammal.

Jack looked around and only now noticed the camera aligned along the ceiling of the auditorium, many of which were focused now on him.

"The chief is going to skin me alive," was the only thought running through his head, until Hopps' voice called out to him.

"Looks like you lose again, Jackie Boy," the doe sauntered her way back to the fence separating the two of them. "Unless of course you want to climb in here and give it a go?" The other rabbit looked him over and laughed. "Who am I kidding, you couldn't take me on your best day, let alone now that you're a washed up beat cop who, unless my sources are wrong, is about a fur's breadth from getting shitcanned as it stands."

Something inside of Jack snapped, and he let loose a growl that was utterly incongruous with his lapine form. "I might not be able to arrest you tonight, but I will teach you a carrot-plucking lesson."

Jack started towards the entrance to the arena, only to be stopped by the announcer. "Hold on there. You can't just jump in there, we have a scheduled fight coming up."

"Let him in, Albert. I've been looking forward to this for a long time," Judy said from the opposite side of the ring.

The cheetah nodded differentially to Judy, and snapped his digits at one of his bodyguards, who produced a ream of paper. "Officer Savage, I need you to sign these waivers before you can compete in an Mammalian Fight Club match." He handed over a pen to the rabbit and pointed out several locations where the ZPD officer either had to sign or initial.

Jack barely paid attention to the paperwork, his mind was fully focused on the female rabbit in the cage, and he was already picturing how sweet it would be to leave her bloodied on the arena floor. She was right, he couldn't arrest her, but he could use his training to make sure that her career as a hitmammal was at an end. MFC matches had very few rules. No eye gouging, and the fight stopped when one opponent submitted or was rendered unconscious.

"There's a lot that I can do with those rules," he thought to himself, having seen some of Hopps' previous performance, he was already formulating a strategy. "She relies on rapid movement, and quick strikes. Jam her up, and get her onto the ground, and she'll break."

He finished the final bits of paperwork, and one of the polar bear guards, opened the gate for him. The larger mammal muttered something under his breath, and for most mammals, it would have been inaudible. To Jack however, it was as clear as day.

"Dead mammal walking."

Skye was still struggling to make her way out of the air duct, the internal structure had contained several considerable narrowings along her route that had required some real effort to squeeze through. At any other time, a joke about her figure might have crossed her mind, but first, she was fighting against her skeleton more than anything else, and she just knew that Jack would find some way to get into trouble without her.

She finally reached the proper air duct, and after a cursory glance around the room, she once again kicked the corner of the vent to loosen it, before fully removing it and lowered herself to the ground. The room was, as indicated, a restroom, and Skye sighed in relief that it was unoccupied at that moment, and also was for females.

"The less questions I have to deal with the better," she mused, moving to let herself out of the room.

The door opened smoothly, and Skye quietly slipped out into what appeared to be a private office. "No," she thought to herself, "It's like a private box in...an arena."

Her eyes whipped to the padded seats in front of her, just in time for the rooms sole occupant to pivot his chair around to face his new visitor.

"Officer Winters, what a pleasant surprise," Nick Wilde said smoothly, as the vixen's blood turned to ice in her veins.

"It was another trap," her mind screamed, as Wilde motioned her towards the adjacent seat.

"Of course you'd want to see how your mate does in the ring, so I prepped this room just for the two of us." He smiled, reaching over to retrieve a bottle of Champagne as he spoke. "Think of us as being in the Mates and Friends club, watching our partners on the field of battle."

"What are you talking about, Wilde?" Skye asked, moving over to look out the window, but maintaining her distance from the assassin.

Nick leaned back and steepled his digits in thought. "Well, your partner decided to interrupt a MFC match...that Judy won with ease I might add, and then he decided to take his chance with her in the octagon." The todd shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure at which point exactly he lost his mind, but the show's just about to begin."

"Get him out of there!" Skye yelled at Nick as she saw her husband warming up in the ring. Hopps was just leaning against the far wall, a bored expression on her face.

When Skye looked back towards Nick, she saw him shake his head. "He went in there of his own volition Officer Winters, and he even signed the waivers and contracts to that effect." The red fox shrugged before continuing. "I don't know why he decided to go in there, but if I had to guess, I'd say that he's grown frustrated at being unable to find anything on my mate and I." Nick's expression grew cold as he stared Skye in the eye. "Perhaps you should consider that there is nothing to find about us Miss Winters. You've been at this for months, and have nothing to show for it."

Nick stood, and moved over to the glass, leaning against it and looking down at the arena. "I don't mind saying that Judy and I are also quite frustrated at your continued harassment of us Officer Winters. The ZPD has been tailing our every move for years, and we've held our noses out of respect; yes respect, for you, officer."

He pushed off from the wall and faced Skye once again. "But that respect ended when you destroyed those toys. You and the ZPD's hatred has now hurt those most vulnerable, and we're not going to take it lying down any more." The todd motioned back to the arena. "Consider this an example of what we're willing to do when you've backed us into a corner."

Skye was rendered mute at Nick's words, and with a growing sense of dread, she fixed her gaze on the ring.

"Tonight we have a special exhibition match for you gentle mammals," the announcer began, the house lights dimming, rendering only the arena floor illuminated in stark white light. "Our champion, Judy, the Hurricane, Hopps has agreed to answer a challenge from the floor. I give you, Jack, ZPD, Savage!"

There was a smattering of applause from the crowd, but Judy shook her head. "No way, Savage. I'm not dumb enough to hit a cop. Lose the badge, or this fight's over before it begins."

"Like I need a shield to deal with you," the buck snarled, removing his badge and tossing it into the corner. The act was caught by several of the cameras, and broadcast live across Zootopia.

The announcer's voice came over the PA system, as the door to the cage slammed shut, and was locked with a heavy chain. "You both know the rules." At which point there was another round of laughter from the crowd. "Let the best mammal win!"

Jack took up an aggressive fighting stance. He had been drilled in Adaptive Mammalian Close Quarters Combat from the moment he entered into the academy, and had taken all the lessons to heart. He was somewhat surprised to see Hopps smile and take up a mirrored stance...no it wasn't a mirrored stance at all, it was a counter to his own. Her weight was more on her rear leg, and her paws were ready to deflect his attacks.

"She knows AMCQC?" The thought rocketed through his mind, and Hopps saw the look of recognition in his eyes and gave a laugh.

"What? Didn't they tell you?" the doe laughed. "You may have been the first rabbit to join the ZPD, but you weren't the first to try, Jackie Boy." She had an utterly malicious smile on her muzzle when she continued. "When you see her again, tell Carol that I miss our one-on-one sessions."

The doe didn't even twitch before she exploded forward. Jack was caught off guard, Judy's earlier comments shattering his focus, and his stance was unprepared to play defensive. He was quickly brought back to the present when Judy's palm smashed into his nose.

He jumped backwards, trying to create distance between him and the assassin, while at the same time shaking his head to clear the tears that were welling as a result of the blow. He knew from experience that his nose was broken, but the damage was minimal, and it was more a distraction than anything else.

He was right in that regards, when his breath left his body in a rush as a foot solidly connected with his midsection. The blow lifted him from his feet, and slammed him into the cage wall, before he slumped to the ground. Fortunately, he was able to compartmentalize the pain, and focus on his opponent who was, as he expected, hell-bent on continuing the assault.

As Judy slid forward on her hindpaw, Jack quickly rolled under the oncoming roundhouse kick, and wrapped his own legs around the one she was using for support. Before he could rotate the grapple into a proper take down, she redirected the roundhouse into and axe kick, trying to drive her heel directly into his skull.

The buck brought up both paws in an X block to block the blow, taking the not insubstantial hit on his braced wrists. He quickly moved to grasp onto the momentarily stopped limb, but Hopps used his block as a springboard to hurtle herself upwards, freeing both her legs in the process before completing a full 360 flip rotation and landing precisely in the midpoint of the arena.

The doe bent her knees as she landed, and the smirk never left her muzzle as she once again sprang forward.

"Ouch!" Wilde said in response to Judy's acrobatic escape. "That was very sloppy of him...and probably the best chance he was going to get you know," he said, looking over at his 'companion' for the evening.

"You don't know what you're talking about Wilde." Skye said dismissively. She had been as surprised as her mate appeared to have been at Hopps' choice of combat styles, but she still had confidence in her mate's abilities.

"I don't know Winters. I certainly don't have any problem pinning Judy whenever I want to." His eyes became slits as he looked over at the vixen. "Perhaps you'd like a few lessons yourself."

Skye gave a barke of laughter. "Ha! That won't work on me Wilde. We've both bonded to our mates. It wouldn't matter if you were a cover-model for MQ, you wouldn't have a chance, and you wouldn't want to regardless."

Nick laughed and tipped an imaginary hat at Skye in reply. "Touche, Officer Winters, but my previous comment does stand. Officer Savage is out of his league in this one. He's hotheaded, and he's bitten off more than he can chew on this one."

Nick pushed away from the window, and made his way to the main door. "This won't be much longer, and he'll probably need your help getting out of here," he said, motioning with his paw to the concerned vixen. "It might not mean much, but Judy really won't injure him too badly. She's more frustrated about your continual harassment, and will use this as a chance to blow off some steam."

Skye said nothing, and when Nick reached out to place a paw on her shoulder, she glared at him until his paw dropped by his side.

"You can't fool me Wilde," she said callously, not breaking eye contact with the tod. "You may have set this up, but I can smell the blood on you. You're a killer for hire, and we will bring you down."

Nick shook his head sadly, and started walking down the hallway, the two wolf guards, taking up position precisely five paces behind the two foxes.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Officer Winters," Nick said, shrugging his shoulders in resignation. "It probably means very little, but both Judy and I do have some respect for you and Officer Savage. The two of you pushed against the barriers that kept our species from entering into professions like the ZPD when we tried years ago." He looked over his shoulder at the vixen. "It really would be a shame if you two chose Judy and I to be your hill to die on, career wise, at least."

Skye snorted in derision. "It means less than nothing, Wilde. You work for a crime boss, so don't try to take any moral high ground, or move for sympathy," she didn't even look towards Nick as she walked, never once moving her gaze from the hallway in front of her. It was as if the tod were truly beneath her notice. "You're a just another thug, with an over-inflated sense of self worth, and I will relish the day when Jack and I bring you down."

Nick's nose twitched, and he couldn't help but smile. Her words were full of bluster, but her scent told another tale.

She was scared.

Jack was once again forced against the wall of the cage. He threw his paws out low, expecting for Hopps to strike with her dominant leg against his increasingly bruised ribs. He caught a flurry of movement above his head just in time to see Judy leap up and twist herself into a horizontal position before completing a full body rotation and striking down at the buck's exposed head with her right leg.

He managed to roll with the blow, taking the majority of the force on the side of his head, the doe's foot sliding roughly down his cheek before painfully connecting with his collarbone. Fortunately, the blow lacked to force to break the bone, but there was little that the buck could do as Judy landed lightly on her left foot, and roughly grabbed his ears before driving her knee into his face.

Once again, he managed to turn away from the blow, but he felt something give in his cheek, and he saw stars just before Hopps shifted her grip to the front of his shirt before rolling backwards, planting both feet into his midsection, and heaving the buck backwards towards the center of the ring.

The wind once again rushed out of his lungs as he hit the ground. He had no time to react, and was only dimly aware of his surroundings as Judy coiled her body and thrust both feet into the air, springing back to her feet. She wasted no time and lept into a backwards flip before driving both her feet into the prone buck's stomach.

The weight was crushing, but Jack was only dimly aware of it. His vision was swimming, but it cleared just in time to see Judy right paw raised in a knife hand suddenly swing down between his eyes before blackness claimed him.

Skye arrived on the main floor, just as Judy was completing her acrobatic assault on her mate. She just barely had time to cry out her mates name, before the female rabbit rendered him unconscious.

"Please be okay. Please be okay." Her professional demeanor crumbled as she ran towards the cage door, which was already being opened by the security mammals. Regardless of their tough demeanor, one look at the expression on the vixen's face had every one of the stepping back as she entered into the arena.

She was somewhat surprised to see Hopps, carefully checking her mate's vitals as she approached, and was moving him into a recovery position. The doe's ears twitched as she approached, and she backed away from the injured rabbit without prompting.

Sky saw the blood covering her husband's face, and she moved to cradle his head in her lap. She was dimly aware of a white coat wearing mammal kneeling beside her, and beginning to assess Jack's injuries. She could see that he was breathing steadily, and that was enough for now.

They had once again underestimated the two hitmammals, but this time they had gone too far. They had hurt the one mammal she care the most for in this world, and she would see the two of them burn for it.

She couldn't keep the rage out of her gaze as Wilde entered into the ring, and the smirk on his muzzle only made her anger burn more fiercely. The red fox tossed a piece of paper onto her mate's chest, and she looked down at it cocking her head to the side in curiosity. It was a check for $25,000 made out to Jack Savage.

"That's the standard purse for the loser of a championship bout, Winters. As your husband is now under contract with B.I.G. entertainment, he's entitled to the full amount." The tod retrieved a stack of folded papers from his front pocket and offered them to the vixen. "Jack signed a standard twelve month contract, and our representatives will be in contact regarding any future fights."

With that, Nick retrieved his smartphone from his pocket and snapped a picture of the arctic fox with her battered mate, making sure that the check and the contract were plainly visible.

Only then did Judy cross over and wrap one arm around her mate. She wasn't even breathing hard, when she looked down at Skye with pure malice in her eyes. "Whatever will Bogo say about that. Having an officer under contract with a known mobster?"

"The scandal!" Nick said with mock sincerity before turning on his heel and walking out of the ring with his mate.

The announcer came over the PA system, once again riling up the crowd for the next bout, but Skye heard none of it. They had been well and truly played, but this was far from the end. She held her husband's form all the more tightly, as she lifted him from the ground, against the protestations of the fight doctor.

She didn't care. She would take her husband home, she would nurse him back to health, and then the two of them would put an end to the two hitmammals...one way or another.

Notes:

I don't have much to add to this chapter aside from a few comments about the fight. Some of you might be wondering how on Earth a rabbit could destroy a moose in combat, and it is a bit of a stretch, but still possible. It all comes down to where and how you strike a target.

For any of you who have trained in hand to hand combat, you know that technique is utterly key in regards to how effective your strikes and blocks are going to be. Bad form will rob your blows of power and render your defenses inadequate. In Judy's case, I was careful to have her always striking where the body is its weakest, namely locations like the joints and the throat. In the case of the knee, it's quite resilient to pressure from the front, but is quite weak to lateral force, and even a light blow can cause severe damage to the tendons and ligaments present there. Although she would need to but her full body weight behind such a blow, it is entirely feasible for her to be able to deliver such an attack.

It all comes down to training, practice...and being more than a little crazy.

As for who is this Carol?

Sgt. Carol Latrans (Ret) is an OC from Lost Causes and Broken Dreams. She's the mate of the main protagonist, and a close combat instructor for the Zootopia Armed Forces as well as a civilian liaison to the ZPD and other government agencies. As part of the world building that I did for the story, I considered the challenge of designing an adaptable fighting style that could be modified to accommodate different body sizes and anatomy. AMCQC was the result.

As is the case with modern military close combat, it's a melding of multiple styles, focusing on what works in a given situation, and doing away with a lot of the "art" portion of the martial arts. For small mammals, like Judy and Jack, speed and mobility are the focus. They need to move in and out of range quickly, not giving larger opponents a chance to strike or grapple. As mentioned above, targeting the joints, pressure points, and soft targets (eyes, throat, and groin) is the priority.

For more of Carol's story, be sure to take a look at Lost Causes and Broken Dreams on either FinFiction or AO3. They're listed under my username, eng050599. The usual caveat applies in that it's not a happy story. There are brief moments of joy, punctuated by profound anguish. The interspecies couples who come to the Honeywell Centre in the hopes of bringing life into this world are all too often left with little more than the ashes of loss.

It's not all doom and gloom, and I also try to dig a bit deeper than most authors into the underlying science that goes on in a research, or clinical setting.

I'll wrap things up here as we move into the end game. What will Skye and Jack do to try and take the hitmammals down? All will become clear soon.

Thanks once again to Cimar for letting me take part in this, as well as for editing this and the other chapters.

If anyone has questions relating to this work, or any other science-related questions, don't hesitate to send me a message.

eng050599