Hey guys, I guess you can already guess it, an early chapter! I really felt bad for finishing the last chapter right before the most intense part, and lucky me I had all the afternoon free to write this paragraph, as always enjoy the prudoct of the Imagination Machine.
"Okay, that was not scary at all." mentioned Nick with noticeable sarcasm.
"What?" I asked now returning to my normal voice "I just got excited, but going onto a more important topic, who are we leaving Todd with?"
"About that," started Nick "the doctors told me that his health is now beyond any real danger so that you could leave without being worried at all."
"Then let's go find those criminals." I replied taking the knife that I've always hold on to since my arrival and placed it in my new jacket's pocket.
We rushed out of the hospital, of course with me in a wheelchair, and headed to some farm car. "Wait, where did you take this from?" I asked as Nick tried to help me get into one of the seats.
"It's from my family's farm." she answered as she started the motor and Nick threw the wheelchair in the back.
As we drove off Nick said before eating a couple blueberries "I thought you guys only grew carrots."
I then joined in by grabbing the remaining blueberries and telling Judy "You know, it is such a coincidence that you are a farmer because I am too, or at least used to be."
"Really? What do you grow?" asked Judy still eyes dead on the road.
"Almost every mentionable vegetable on the planet, but back on the topic what is the plan?"
"Know this guy nick?" she asked holding out the picture of a weasel running away from something.
"I told you I know everybody carrots, this guy is no different, and he is actually very close to here if the time is right. Take a right and keep going for 5 blocks to get to his stand." After following instructions we were left at a corner right before the weasel's stand.
"How are we going to make him talk?" asked Judy to Nick.
"I think I know who could help us with that, aren't I right furless?" he said looking in my direction with a grin.
"Don't call me furless, Nicky."
"Oh geez, don't call me that it gives me the chills." he says shivering, probably from bad memories.
"Okay, I won't, but don't call me furless."
"What's your last name?" he asked
"Fredrickson...shit walked right into that one!"
"Right you are Fredrick, now go do your job." I stepped out of the car and hid behind some walls trying my best to surprise the weasel of my appearance and just as I was behind him the weasel said. ( Credit to where credit is due, thanks for the idea of this scene with Duke, AlbineFox. )
"It's Weaselton, Duke Weaselton. And I ain't talking, rabbit. And there ain't nothing you can do to make me."
"Maybe not us," started Nick "but our friend behind you might help." Duke turned around and slowly now noticing that there was someone behind him, but he quietly screeched as he saw me looking down at him.
I grabbed his shirt and got him close to my face making us meet eye to eye before telling him in the deep voice that I used at the hospital "Well, well Duke, are you gonna give them the info or do I have to make you talk."
"What are you." he fearfully whispered
"I am a human, and you are my dinner if you don't talk." I threatened him still with my dark voice.
"I'll talk, I'll talk, I stole the Night Howlers so I could sell them. They offered me what I couldn't refuse: Money."
"How much money exactly?" I asked in my dark voice
"Forrest, we do not need to know that." said Judy
"Oh believe me, we do, now tell me how much they offered you?" and yes, you guessed it, still in my dark voice
"$750,000 dollars." he answered
"Whoa, that's a shit load of money." I said
"And who offered you that?" asked Nick
"A ram named Doug. We got a drop spot underground. Just watch it. Doug is the opposite of friendly. He's unfriendly."
"When is a bad guy ever friendly?" I asked
"Sorry, I don't know, I told you everything, just don't eat me."
"I won't eat you," I told him going back to my normal voice "that was just to scare you dumbass." I finish before putting him down again.
"You should take my word for it, he is actually a very nice guy." complimented Nick as we all left.
Soon we arrived at an abandoned subway station entrance covered in wooden boards to keep anyone from entering. As we slid past the boards I asked Judy "Hey, might you know any sheep that are incredibly powerful?"
"Why would you want to know that?"
"Well," I started whispering noticing that we were getting close to our target. "if it is mammals that are doing this, then Todd's screaming of 'sheep' meant that a sheep might have done it, and it must be a powerful one considering the load of money that they were proposing him."
"Well, the only sheep capable of paying that money would be Mayor Bellwether, but she is so nice and calm." Defended Judy.
"Does she get bullied by predators or has a bad reaction to them?" I asked
"Well, the exmayor did kind of bully her, and she gave me a bit of a nasty look once she noticed me with Judy." Added Nick.
"Shh! Don't get us caught! Besides these guys are rams not sheep" she whispered before opening the door into a train compartment or wagon, I don't know what it's called.
"Fine but if she is the one, you owe me ten bucks."
We entered and walked slowly noticing that there was no one in sight so we kept getting deeper investigating the place as Nick mentioned "The weasel wasn't lying."
"Yeah, it looks like old Doug's cornered the market on Night Howlers." added Judy, just then we heard footsteps and while Nick and judy hid under a table I just stayed behind the door from where the ram had entered. I looked through a small translucent window on how the ram moved and hid my face whenever he turned in my direction, then a phone rang.
"You got Doug here. What's the mark?"
"..."
"Cheetah in Sahara Square. Got it." Doug looked at a board filled with pictures and many of them were the victims that had previously been shot, including Todd. He then opened a suitcase and placed in there three small projectile balls as well as a pistol.
"..."
"Serious? Yeah, I know they're fast, I can hit him. Listen, I hit a tiny little otter through the open window of a moving car."
"..."
"Yeah, I'll buzz you when it's done. Or you'll see it on the news. You know, whichever comes first."
I was filled with rage, he had to pay for what he had done and opportunity struck once we all heard a knock on the door and a voice calling "Hey, Doug, open up! We've got your latte."
"All right, Woolter and Jesse are back, so I'm leaving now. Out." said Doug finishing his phone call, he started moving to the door and I was creeping behind him until he opened the door and was about to speak to his two friends but I shouted.
"Surprise MOTHERFUCKER!" and I kick him in 'this is sparta' scene style, then I proceed to close the door and lock it, then I look back at Nick and Judy with a bit of a creepy smile "I've never felt so alive! Whoo!"
"Well that's good, but how are we going to get out now?" asked Nick
"I was actually going to do that," admitted Judy "But now we have to get the evidence to the ZPD."
"Okay, great. Here it is. Got it." quickly said Nick grabbing a suitcase containing the pistol and the loaded Night Howlers
"No, all of it." said Judy
"Wait, what?" both Nick and I say
"I really doubt that this thing will work." I mention to Judy as she tries to turn it on, and somehow successfully does "Apparently movies are more accurate than I originally thought."
"And although it might work, there is no way you can know how to drive it." just as Nick finished Judy started to control the train wagon, I'm just going to call it like that, froward. "Are you kidding me? When in police academy do they teach you how to do this?"
"They don't, I'm just pressing buttons and pulling lever thinking that is what they do." admitted Judy.
"Would it be premature of me if I do a victory 'toot toot'?" asked Nick pointing at the lever hanging from the ceiling.
"And me too?" I asked
"Okay one 'toot toot' each." said Judy, we both proceeded in taking a turn on blowing the horn and once we were both done nick said.
"Well, I can cross that off the bucket list." Then a thud was hear, we all lowered our heads to the point of our shoulders while I said.
"Or not." just then a piece of the roof fell as well as one of those rams who immediately started rushing towards us but luckily Nick closed shut the door and locked it before we got killed. And just because Nick wanted to be himself he peeped out the window as the ram tried to open the door only to be threatened with a hit from the ram to the window almost breaking it. "I may have to rescind that victory toot-toot."
"Yeah, no kidding." I answered, then powerful thuds hit the roof.
"Maybe that's just hail."
"Seriously…I mean seriously…what the fuck is wrong with you." I tell him with that face people do when someone says something so stupid and with the hand movement included. But right after I finished a ram popped in through a window of the train wagon with his body half in trying to get a hold of Judy while she kept her distance. "Hey!" I call at the ram before hitting him in the forehead and quickly retreating my hand afterwards "How did I forget they have such hard skulls. Ouch!"
With my pain in the arm I accidently bump into Nick causing him to bump into the door, seconds after that I am still concentrating on my hand when he suddenly shouts "Incoming!" I turned around and the ram hits me in the stomach causing me to go with him into bumping with his friend. Next thing I know the guy who was trying to get Judy and I are running from the train wagon. "Carrots, Frederick!"
"Don't stop, keep going!" ordered Judy while hanging from the horns of the guy that threw me out in the first place.
"No, stop, please stop!" pleads the ram running beside me
"Don't listen to him Nick!" I shout "I can handle running for a long time." Then I accidently trip but quickly regain my balance. "But do reconsider when I am about to get squished." Then the ram tried to stay in the side but when the train wagon passed I heard him scream. "Nope, I am not trying that."
Then I hear Judy scream and grunt so I turn around still running finding that she was thrown over the train wagon. "Judy! Are you okay?" I ask
"I'm fine, whoa!" I hear her say, then we encounter ourselves outside the tunnel we were in and I quickly spot a train going in my direction.
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!" Then I notice that there is another side where we can go through and I start to run to the lever. Apparently Judy and Nick seemed to get the idea because they start to accelerate, and they also threw out the other ram in the way, causing him to run as well. I notice I wouldn't have enough time to pull the lever and keep running so I grab the ram by the horns and throw him at it. Luckily he did grab the lever so that he wouldn't fall off the tracks and I start to run down the new tracks we were headed towards the other tracks.
Then I heard a metallic sound behind me and I noticed that the train wagon was about to fall to the side. "Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!" I scream as I run down the tracks. "Dang it, I broke the first and most important rule of logic, get the fuck out of the things way!" I was about to run to the side but was cut short when I almost hit myself with some walls, I notice that the train is about to hit a wall in front of me, so in a leap of faith at the last second I jump to the right attempting to jump over the wall. While in the air the train wagon crashes and explodes causing my jump to go farther and eventually crash against a wall and face plant to the floor.
"Forrest!" shouted Judy as I saw her run towards me with Nick behind her holding a suitcase.
I turn around to face upward with a cough while also saying "I'm fine, I am just giving a crap ton of fucks right now." Then suddenly the train wagon explodes "And there goes another one, fuck."
"Everything is gone." said Judy sadly "We've lost it all."
"Yeah, except for this." said Nick holding out a suitcase as he laughed in a victorious way.
"Yes!" exclaimed Judy before taking the suitcase from Nick and punching him in the arm.
"Is any of you gonna help me up?" I asked, my question was answered by the two of them lifting me off the ground.
"Geez, you're so heavy." remarked Nick.
"Hey! I'm on average weight you weakling." I defended
"Guys!" Called Judy causing us to both turn her way "Let's cut through the National History Museum to get to the ZPD."
As she started to run up the stairs me and Nick quickly followed with me getting a little behind after my amazing sprint. When we got inside of it I noticed that there was a gigantic model of a mammoth with a spear in his hand. "How the fuck?" I whispered to myself. "You know, I think I would like to come here some day and see the difference between your world and mine."
"Not now Forrest, we have to get to the ZPD." We were nearing the entrance still running towards it when we all heard a voice call Judy and we stopped to turn around, it was a sheep that seemed to be important since she had two cops by her side.
I lowered myself to Judy's ear, placed a hand on the right side of my mouth and whispered "You owe me ten bucks." but was swatted away like a fly.
"Judy!" called the mayor again.
"Hold it right there." I said interfering with Judy and Nick to get closer to her while giving Mayor Bellweather the stop sign "We know it's you who has been turning the predators savage."
"Forrest what are you doing?" whispered Judy.
"And you would be prey or predator?" she asked noticing my odd appearance.
"I actually don't know, I do in a way fit in both categories." I answered
"Well, do you eat fish?"
"Yes?" I answered
"Okay, then I can see now why you would be claiming such things against me." defended Bellwether.
"Oh yeah? Then how come we were just escaping rams and you find us here with no possible way to know and with other two rams as your bodyguards." By that time I noticed Judy and Nick began to walk away and when I turned around to actually confirm it I saw a muscular ram cracking the bones of it's neck. "Could you teach me that, I am really struggling to do it myself." I say sarcastically, before Nick and Judy both say.
"Run."
"Get them!" shouts Bellwether as we are pursued, we quickly go past some blueish curtains and enter an exhibit in construction, I am up ahead by a lot since I already got behind a column to hide. Then I hear Judy grunt and I turn around to see now trying to carry Judy.
"Over here!" I whisper.
Nick quickly gets behind the column and takes out a napkin to cover Judy's injury. "Come on out, Judy." calls Bellwether
"Take the case. Get it to Bogo." said Judy handing the case to Nick
"We're not gonna leave you behind, that's not happening." answered Nick
"I can't walk."
"I will distract them," I said "Nick, you take Judy surrounding the exhibit into the exit."
"What about you?" asked Judy worried
"I can handle them." I answered very confident.
"We're on the same team, Judy." started monologuing Bellwether. "Underestimated. Underappreciated. Aren't you sick of it? Predators. They may be strong and loud. But prey outnumber predators 10 to 1. Think about it. 90% of the population united against a common enemy."
"Wait a minute," I interrupted still hiding behind the pole "those numbers don't add up, if prey are 90% of the population then prey would outnumber predators nine to one not ten to one."
"Whatever," she replied "we will still extinguish them."
"Oh really?" I say remembering history class 101 "Well let me give you a history lesson from where I come from. There was this guy named Hitler that wanted to destroy a group named Jews, so he used fear to make the population of his country help him. He eventually caused the death of 6 million Jews, but also of 54 million others who were not part of the group. Those deaths outnumber the ones of the Jews nine to one, sounds familiar?"
Then to foil the plan, apparently Judy and Nick took down something causing the rams chase them, and me to try and save them. I was so close to them when suddenly they got pushed by one of the rams into a hole, I ran to the side of the hole to see if they were okay, but only got pushed in it. "Why do I always forget to not do those movie cliches." I groan as I try to sit up to the sound of Bellwether laughing.
"Well, you should have just stayed on the carrot farm, huh? It really is too bad, I did like you." she said
"Well fuck you too." I reply
"What are you gonna do? Kill me?" asks Judy
"Don't ever ask that." I say face palming myself.
"Oohhh. No, of course not." answers Bellwether
"Phew." I say relaxed
"He is." she finishes to just shoot me in the neck with the gun.
"Ow fuck! Why do I keep failing to see these obvious cliches!" I put pressure on my head with both my hands while my brain switches all my anger on.
"Forrest, no!" I hear Judy say before I feel paws on my back.
"Well, he is a predator after all, so this should work." says Bellwether "Yes, police! There's a savage in the Natural History Museum! Officer Hopps is down. Please hurry!"
"Come on Forrest, fight it." I hear Judy say.
"I'm...trying." I barely say before closing my eyes shut and turning facing upwards still applying tons of pressure to my head.
"Oh but he can't, he's a predator, he will just naturally do what he was meant to do."
Time pauses, have just noticed something uneven in the surface, it feels hard, and in a stick like shape "The knife" I thought, I began to rapidly formulate a plan until I got it and told Nick. "Nick...gah!"
"What is it buddy?" he asks worried.
"Take...care" I begin as I reach for my knife. "of...Todd." I say with a grunt before rapidly taking out my knife and stabbing myself in the chest with a "Gah!" and a sudden gasp for air. My hand barely holding onto the knife and the other one slowly rising with a fist towards Bellwether. I slowly lift my middle finger and say my probably final words "Fuck...you." Slowly my hand opens up and now I am not longer in control as I try to get a hold of Judy with an angered growl. Nick quickly takes Judy out of the way and drags her to a wall to get her away from me.
"Wow," says Bellwether in an impressed tone "he is tougher than I thought." I begin to lift myself into standing up and look at Judy and Nick with a devilish face. (For those of you that don't know why Forrest has not passed out yet, it is rather simple. The Night Howlers are similar to rabies, and with rabies, you can receive more critical hits and lose more blood before getting knocked out of the fight. Let's continue.) "Think of the headlines, 'New Predator Species Kills Fox and Hero Cop' now that would scare the people." I move a couple steps forward slowly until I am but a meter away and I finally collapse, yet I luckily passed out before I hit the ground.
(P.O.V. Nick)
"You know, I might have to get your fox friend too to finish the job." said Bellwether pointing the gun at me
"No you don't." said a voice that seemed like chief Bogo's. Both Judy and I looked up seeing that a lot of cops had arrived, they all quickly took the convicts and then Bogo asked "What is that thing?" asked Bogo looking at Forrest.
"Sir, believe it or not, he help us solve the case, and because of that he needs quick medical help."
"Fine, you two are lucky that we brought an ambulance in case you survived Hopps." We quickly pulled Forrest out of the hole with help of other officials and got him on his way to the hospital, of course we followed him all the way since we couldn't leave him alone.
"Poor Todd, he will be devastated once he finds out." I say to Judy while inside the ambulance.
"He's not going to die Nick, not in our watch." said Judy determined.
(P.O.V. Todd, Dream)
I was in a car, Forrest was beside me and we were both in the back seat, I did not have any cloths on. This could only mean that I was either dead, I was back home, or it was something related to that weird dream I had last night. We arrived at a place and the man that had tried to grab me in the previous dream, he helped Forrest get into a wheelchair, so it was the dream. I still remained in his lap looking all around the hallways of the building we were dragged to, it looked like some sort of hospital kind of landscape but something told me it wasn't. As we got deeper inside the establishment I noticed more and more people, most were either wearing some kind of lab coat or were armed and geared as if they were soldiers. We were taken to a large and cold room filled with lab coat wearing people and some tables with straps attached to them. I moved closer to Forrest's chest and I looked up at him as he looked down at me scratching my head and saying. "Don't be afraid Todd, they will just help us regain our ability to walk."
"Are you ready Mr. Fredrikson?" asked the man that had brought us here in the first place.
"As ready as we'll ever be." answered Forrest, we were both strolled with the wheelchair in between the two tables and as I was taken to one to face downward, Forrest was taken to another facing upward.
"Okay, Mr. Fredrikson, you and your fox will be put to sleep for the serum to function faster." said the man before I was injected in the butt with a vaccine and I fell asleep.
Then I woke up facing upward and groaning as I began to sit up "What the hell happened?" I asked.
"You do not remember anything?" asked the same man who ordered the vaccine.
"I don't remember anything sir" I answered, the men beside him started to whisper to each other and then faced me.
"Well, you are Todd Holmes, and I am Dr. Kleinman, you and your partner were taken down in your previous mission and we barely saved your lives, but apparently you two suffered from amnesia."
"So I'm a soldier?" I asked.
"No," he answered "you are the lead scientist in our force and you went with your partner to hack into the enemy's computer but the situation got compromised and as I said earlier we nearly lost you."
"Well, where is my partner?"
"He has been waiting outside the last couple of hours since we need you two together to complete your missions, shall you come with us?" I nodded and stood up from the bed then started walking on two feet with them, while being barefooted I walked out of the room. As soon as I was outside I immediately made eye to eye contact to a man in a white shirt and camouflage pants sitting in a chair in the other side of the hallway.
"Dr. Holmes, may I present to you one of our best soldiers, Forrest Frederikson."
"He is my partner? The one with an IQ of over 250? Can't be." said Forrest.
"I assure you Fredrick, this fox was a good friend of yours, and you two have gone along well in your missions as well as in personal life. Now if you will follow me, I will take you to your separate stations where we will re-sharpen your skills, Forrest, your combat training, and Todd, your intelligence." We both separated and never saw each other for two full months as I took in years of education in Science and Math in just two months and even up to the level of scientist. Then we saw each other eye to eye again once those two months finished and made our first mission together. In those two months Forrest managed to master the most know martial arts in the world, was able to be one of the best gun users, and was also trained to have very quick reflexes. "Okay, this is the mission, your target is Adam Keller," A picture of a man appeared in the screen "he has made many illegal acts against the rights of workers, as for what this organization stands for we cannot let him continue so he must die." We both nodded firmly at him. "Forrest, you will infiltrate his house and eliminate every guard you encounter, Todd will provide you with a view of the terrain and long range hacking to help you travel around the house. Understood?" We both nodded.
About two years passed and we have done countless missions killing countless foes, well, Forrest did all of the killing. But I also helped him become a better soldier, I even gave him some microrobots to help him heal and get him stronger for a limited amount of time. Yet then things changed after another mission Forrest came to me in a serious tone and dragged me to my office before locking the door. "Todd, we need to talk," he starts "I think these people aren't who they say they are." He showed me a paper, and claimed he took it from our targets house, it had irrefutable evidence of Dr. Kleinmann being an international criminal, he even told me that he didn't kill the target because he explained to him what was on the paper. "Does your new teleporter thingy work yet?" he asked
"Yes, but the problem is that, although able to take us somewhere, the teleporter may explode for the amount of energy it needs to use and contain."
"Well, we're taking that risk because I think some people have already gained suspicion."
"Fine," I said "let's do it." We headed out of my office and walked casually through the hallways into the examination room with nothing but congratulations for another successful mission. Once we made it inside the experimenting room Todd locked the door with his key card and started the machine. Lights were twitching on and off, the machine was using so much energy it required the whole building to do so.
We heard a pounding from the other side of the locked door as someone yelled "Dr. Holmes, I thought we told you not to test the machine until further notice!"
"Get into the containment tube!" I ordered Forrest after setting up the location for our escape destination.
Once inside there was a computer voice saying "Teleportation in T-minus five…" The door was slammed open with a bunch of people swarming in "four…" At first they tried to break the glass of the containment tube but it was no use "three…" then they tried breaking the control panel to break the machine and stop the teleportation, but it would only alter the location in which we would end up. "two…"
"Okay Forrest, just so you know, that fact that you have metal in your body-" I said before being interrupted by the computer voice.
"one…"
"may in a way harm you."
"What?!"
"Zero, initializing teleportation." A white spark filled my vision as I felt a lighting bolt pass through my body, although that was not what happened, it felt like that.
"So that's how we got here." I thought to myself
There you go, the explanation on how both Todd and Forrest got to Zootopia and how come Forrest seemed like some kind of super human, this is not the end of their relation with this newly rediscovered past, a couple chapters forward the past will appear once more so just sit and wait for there is more to come.