Disclaimer:
The following is a fan-based fiction. Zootopia and its characters are owned by Disney. The songs I reference here belong to their respective artists as well.
(The song Mirror Lake by Susumu Hirasawa begins to play.)
Chesterization proudly presents
A Zootopia fanfiction
Signum
(Song ends)
Chapter 2: The island's mechanic
"Huh? You want to leave the island?" The black cat put her index finger on her lip. Same mother, same daughter apparently. "Well, sure thing. I would help you, only if I know how." She then shrugged.
Judy frowned at the respond. "What do you mean?"
She looked up to her left, reminiscing. "Well, I have been living here all my life. The same goes for my family, my ancestors in general. None of us ever think about leaving the place."
Great, I'm trapped on an island with translating slugs. Judy thought to herself. She then went for the second obvious solution to her problem, her phone. She pulled out the device from her pocket. Only to remember, that she had survived a shipwreck. And not every day did Judy wrap her phone in the evidence bag. She sighed at the soaked piece of technology. She did not count too much on it anyway. What were the chances of a place like this had service?
She black cat proved her wrong. "Oh, you have a phone? Hum, maybe you can use that."
Judy kicked up her eyebrow. "Maybe?"
Mun nodded. "This island has service." She paused for a smirk. "I'm sure that you thought we wouldn't have that huh? Though, you have to pay Bach a visit."
"Bach?" Judy tried her best to imitate the strange pronunciation. It failed horribly. "Okay, how does that help my case?"
"He is the island's mechanic. The little white ball can fix anything.
Little white ball? Please don't tell me it is an actual white ball with slugs strap to it
"He's the cat that set up the service tower." Before Judy's train of thought ran too far, a jolt of reality pulled her back. "Wait, if that is the case, then can I borrow your phone?"
The black cat shook her head. "I'm sorry, but all of our phones are, broken."
Judy grasped her right ear. "That makes no sense, then why don't you let the 'white ball' fix it?"
Mun shrugged again. "There is no need. Mother Nature broke them for a reason. She convinced us that there is no need for the outside world anymore. Her love is enough for us." Mun smiled.
Okay, that sounds, cultish.
The black cat continued. "However, we shall not stop you. You have to accept Mother Nature's love on your own accord. Without that, your love means nothing to her. She despises vanity." Mun then whispered to Judy. "You want to get out, don't you? Run away from this strange and cultish place." The cat winked at Judy. "We are not stopping you. On the contrary, we are helping you."
Judy's purple eyes opened wide. "How did you?"
"What do you mean? You act as if you had seen a ghost." Mun gave her the strangest look before saying. "I'm not surprised, though."
That was Judy's cue the get the hell out. Fortunately, this time, nothing was stopping her. "Okay, er, where can I find the island's mechanic."
"Oh, well, I'll guide you there."
And guiding Judy, she did. The black cat helped Judy made a cut through the beach, a stench (and shirtless cats) filled fish market, and some quaint insignificant houses. Judy struggled to keep up. The black cat was still going at that unnatural pace. Or Judy was simply too close in comparison to everyone on this island. Now that she had noticed, things were going at high speed around her, especially in the first market.
Both finally stopped. The mechanic house was, thankfully not in some reclusive mountain, or dark woods. It just rested on the northeast side of the island. It was surrounded by houses of similar size and design, except for his neighbor.
The house next door was abandoned. At least, that was what it appeared to be. The front door was boarded up; the potted plants next to it were all withered. That place was in that stage for a long time, demonstrated by traces of age on the boards. However, the windows upstairs were not boarded up, just closed. The pink curtains behind the glass look surprisingly clean. As if someone had washed them yesterday.
Judy felt thankful that the mechanic did not live in that house. She could only imagine the amount of abnormality coming from such scenario. She crossed her fingers, praying for the mechanic to not be too strange and help her get out of this island as soon as possible. Once she found help, she could finally get back to search for Nick.
Mun then said, "Here you go, enjoy your time." She walked off before turning back, saying. "Here're few last words before meeting him. Don't call him 'white ball,' he hates it. Also, be careful, he bites."
Judy gulped down a chunk of her saliva as Mun disappeared into a nearby alley.
Judy rang the doorbell, which was an actual doorbell with a string attached to it. At the end of the string was a small metal weight shaped like a fish. The sound that tiny bell make was astronomically loud. But, Judy would not have to deal with that much longer. At least she hoped so.
While waiting, she had a look at the mechanic's dumpster. Like the title suggest, the metal bin was chockful of broken and twisted machine parts. Those on the top looked quite similar to each other. All had small bent satellite dishes attached to them, held together by copper wires. Judy's sensitive ears picked up some racket behind the door; sounded like someone had toppled over a stack of pots and pans.
Then, a grunt followed. "Argh, Du ma! Chu Nhat ma cung khong duoc yen than." [Argh, Mother fucker! Couldn't even get some peace on a Sunday. ] The voice was obviously male. Judy was surprised to hear him speak in his native language.
The door swung open. A white cat with glasses, a pair of jeans and a bulky overcoat appeared, "May moun cai gi?" [What do you want?]. His eyes were showing sign of sleep depravity; demonstrated by the missing patches of fur underneath. His pronunciation of "gi" had shown his fangs to Judy; all three and a half of them. He looked uncomfortable in that overcoat; a strange fashion choice considering the weather on this island. However, Judy had seen stranger things.
She traced her eyes down. In his hand was a wooden bat, whose tip was covered in copper wires. With the getup, he looked just like a thug to Judy. The only thing missing from the set was a chest covered in tattoos. But, the small clumps of dried blood (or some red liquid) on his right-hand fur were enough to make her more than concern.
The cat squinted his eyes. He soon realized that the 'customer' was different from what he expected. He tilted his head, giving Judy a quick scan with his eyes.
Not wanted to be on the passive ground, Judy spoke up. "Hello, I'm Judy Hopps." The cat's ears perked up the moment he heard she spoke. Judy continued. "Sorry to bother you but, as you can see I desperately need your help with-"
He showed her his palm. "Plane-crashed or Shipwrecked? Nah, definitely shipwrecked. Seeing your clothes is enough to tell me." His appearance and the condition of his fur suggested that he was a few years younger than Judy. But the condescending tone of his voice made her felt small compared to him. Also, being a bit shorter than he did not help.
She held her ground and strengthened her voice. "Yes that's very observant of you, but I really need to get off the island. I need to contact the rescue-"
He chuckled. "Hehehehehe, is that why you here? Who told you to come here?"
"A cat named Mun told me, she said you should be able to fix my phone." She then showed him the soaked, blacked out Carrot phone.
"Mou-n? Oh, you mean Mun. God damn it; you foreigners and your dialects." He then scratched his ears profusely. "But yeah, you came to the right place. Give me the phone, and I'll fix it."
Her ears stood up. She was surprised at his reaction. "Oh, I was-"
"Expecting a witty remark? Well, I ain't got time for that crap. Give me the phone and 1000000 Bac and we are good."
Judy protested and pulled back the phone. "Wait, what?"
He yawned. "What? It's normal for a mechanic to ask for money when he fixes things for you."
"I don't have that kind of money. I don't even know what kind of currency that is. I ship-wrecked for heaven's sake."
The cat put his index and middle finger behind his ear. "Oh, that, doesn't, sounds, like, my, problem." He made a quote unquote gesture. "Sorry lady, that's how the 'normal' world works."
"You can't be serious."
He grinned at her. "You are right, I'm not serious."
My god, not again, she thought, as that attitude seem to resemble that of Nick during their first encounter. However, she had none of the sympathies for him, just annoyance. She did not say anything afterward, just glared at him.
The cat smirked. "Okay, you want serious? Here is my serious advice to you." He cleared his throat. "You will never get off this island. This place, believe it or not, is cursed by something. And IT doesn't want any of us to leave. Why? How? No one knows, it just is. I can fix your phone, but what you will pick up afterward is this." He took out a smartphone from his pocket. Its screen was broken and battered, but the speaker still worked. And the sound coming from that speaker was the sound emitted by the slug creature. Or at least, that was what Judy could hear. "Hear that? I'm sure that you do. You have such good ears. And no, I don't know what the hell it is, but I don't wanna find out." He put the phone back in his pocket and looked straight at her. "So, stop struggling, and take a nap. Naps seem to solve everything on this hunk of rock. Don't fight against it, join it, and it will take care of you. Don't know where to start? I'll help." He paused. "Hum, judging from the accent, and the roughed hands, you are a farmer aren't you? No, no, farmers don't go on cruise ships. You must be a Zootopian. Heh, some rich inner city jack-hole must have picked you up and made him his wife."
"HEY!"
Bach tilted his head. "Aw, no need to get so upset, it just makes you cuter. And I hate cute things, like kittens. Don't trust any of them."
She stomped her feet down. "You are crossing the LINE there, buddy! I'm a police officer!"
In a mocking fashion, he said. "Oooh, scary, heh, Zootopia must have changed since last year. Well, that's great, then you don't have to work as a farmer on this island." His smile disappeared. "You are better off that way, the soil here is evil. It kills you death. Anyhow, you will be a nice, token rabbit officer. The police serve no purpose here anyway so you will fit right in."
Judy pointed down. "I will not stand here and take-"
"You don't want to take any of this? Well, then I shall respect your wishes." He slammed the door shut. His voiced came through the small mail slot. "Piss off Bun-bun, I ain't got time for mammals like you. Go take a nap."
Author note:
Thank you so much for reading. If you enjoyed what you have just read and wished to see more, please follow or leave a review. They would give me the motivation to write more for everyone. All feedbacks will be appreciated. If you find anything lacking or flawed in my story (grammar, word use, etc.), please tell me in the reviews as well. I shall do my best to update these chapters sooner and make them more polished. This is one of my first stories so please forgive possible mistakes in the future and help me fix them.
Thanks again and have a pleasant day.
