The ZPD in it's whole glory came to view, making me smile. This was my one shot at being a true hero. I was driving, as it was my car that we left Nick's house in. Nick's car was still in the ZPD parking lot from the night before, and Judy's was at Nick's place. Confusing, isn't it? Kyler's voice told me to ask Nick about his will to cure cancer, but I told him now wasn't the right time, it just wasn't.
"Shit, we didn't think this one through." I said, leaning back in my seat.
"We didn't even plan anything yet." Judy clarified from the passenger seat. Sure we haven't planned a raid, but we also didn't consider how we were going to get Ivan out of his cell and in uniform. His strength and intellect would give us a huge advantage if we ran into any challenges.
"Yes, but we need Ivan with us." My response made Judy nod in agreement. Nick also nodded from the rear mirror.
"Question, how strong exactly is he?" Nick asked, leaning forward to meet our sides as I parked the car.
"His strength is limited by things like adrenaline, technically speaking, his limitations wouldn't hold him from stopping a car of this size, at the expense of damaging his muscles, which would demand many days of resting in order to achieve his previous strength back. He can also manually control his strength with the crank on his chest, which is a pretty bad design flaw if you ask me, since in theory anyone could turn it, regardless that it's difficult to turn." My mouth explained quickly, making Judy smile. We all three got out of the car in unison, slamming our doors and walking towards the ZPD.
"How'd you know all that? Ivan had that procedure not too long ago." Judy asked, she was right, there was no way I could have known. No harm in telling her about the USB, but then yet again, Nick would ask questions about himself, and I didn't want to worry him.
"He told me last night." I lied. It was a small lie, since there was no reason he wouldn't tell me, and it made no difference to her.
"Is he okay?" Judy asked, making me raise an eyebrow. Why'd she care about him, was it because he saved my life?
"Yeah I guess, thought you hated him?" My mind told me there was more to it, I just had to find out. Nick stayed silent through all of this, to my surprise.
"I don't HATE him. He doesn't seem like a bad guy outside of his line of work, and does his best with the cards he was dealt." Judy sighed, shrugging her shoulders. She may have known who Elliot was perhaps, she doesn't seem to take into account that he tried to murder someone.
"Okay." I didn't want to keep dragging that on, so I responded as simply as possible. The three of us entered the ZPD, ready to make the world a better place. Chief Bogo was looking over his balcony at the three of us, the sunlight behind us blaring through the glass doors, casting our shadows across the lobby floor. Clawhauser smiled at our presence, I wouldn't be surprised if he was waiting since last night. There were at least a dozen other officers standing around the lobby with coffee and doughnuts. "We got a lead on Dr. Harris!" I yelled, making the other officers cheer, one of them dropping their doughnut, only to drop to their knees.
"I'll go see if I can speak with Ivan." Nick said quickly, about to run off.
"That won't be necessary, I'll do it." I objected, I knew him more than both Nick and Judy, so it made more sense for me to do it. Besides, it was my idea anyways, and you all love Ivan, right? I handed Judy my phone, as it had the possible location of Dr. Harris on it. "Passcode is 1580, open the tracker app, and the location is the storage garage on the edge of town." I patted her on the head, making he playfully smack my arm away.
"Okay, you better get him straightened out." She warned jokingly, "Or else." I chuckled as I spun around, heading towards the back of the ZPD.
"Good morning!" I greeted Clawhauser as I passed his desk. "Oh and in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight." I made my way to the hallway extending from the lobby. As far as I was concerned, there was no way Ivan would be placed in an actual prison, they didn't want to risk that. At the end of the hall, there was a guard, who was in charge of anything in the back left of the building. "I'm here to speak with Ivan." The guard nodded and stepped aside, letting me continue down the hall. There weren't many cells, since this was for temporarily holding criminals, and as expected, Ivan was sitting down on his cell bed.
"Can I help you?" Ivan gritted through his teeth, obviously not in the mood to see the bastard that stopped his attempt at murder.
"Yes, we need your help." I spoke softly, making sure to be nice to equal out with his anger.
"That's funny." He groaned, turning to face the back wall of the cell.
"Yeah, as much as you hate funny, you can start by stop acting like the world has sinned against you. Sit up straight and look at me." I instructed sternly. Fight fire with fire, right? Ivan stood up and cracked his neck, facing me once again.
"What's your deal?" He squinted, walking over to the cell bars.
"You think you've got it so rough, like God owes you an apology. You owe God an apology, and you can do that by helping us catch Dr. Harris, not trying to kill someone who is in cuffs on his knees, ready to do the same." I gritted my teeth, opening his cell with my set of keys. I dragged the door open, awaiting Ivan's next move, but he remained still.
"You trust me?" He asked in response to me opening his cell. I snorted and looked down for a moment.
"You and I both know that myself can dodge anything you attempt, including a bullet." I looked back up to face him, smiling. Tough guy act seemed to work, as I turned around and began walking back towards the lobby Ivan followed behind without a problem. As we passed the guard, the look on his face was quite amusing, but he only questioned it in his head. As we reentered the lobby, most the officers were gone, probably in the conference room for planning. Nick and Judy weren't present as well, but Clawhauser was.
"You brought him in here!" He ducked down in alarm. I rolled my eyes with a smile, Ivan didn't want to hurt us, he wanted to hurt Elliot.
"It's fine, where is everyone?" I changed the subject, luckily Clawhauser returned to his normal posture. He didn't look at Ivan and or I, however.
"Conference room." His quick response told me he was still nervous about Ivan being here, which isn't very surprising.
"Alright Ivan, ready to face the crowd?" I said, gently pushing him towards the conference room. He only exhaled through his nose in return. I pushed open the conference room doors with full force, ready to make every aware of Ivan's presence. The doors flew open, every single officer turning to face us. Ivan's shoulder dropped and he sighed as everyone had their eyes wide.
"I didn't think you'd actually bring him here!" Judy shouted from her seat.
"Relax, he doesn't want to hurt you guys." I reassured everyone. "Besides, he wants to catch Dr. Harris just as we do." It was only then that I made my way into the room, urging Ivan to follow with a paw. I apointed an empty seat for Ivan, which was right next to Nick, and was supposed to be my seat. I remained standing and began walking around the table.
"He's not even an officer!" One mammal accused, but I didn't pay any attention.
"Dr. Harris is most likely residing in an old storage unit near the edge of Zootopia, near the sea. One of his employees vehicle has been there multiple times in the last twenty four hours, which gives that suspicion. All of us will go there, armed and ready for anything that may be present. If he isn't there, we simply leave. If he or anyone affiliated with him is present, we take them in cuffs, or..." I paused, opening my eyes to face everyone. "We shoot them." I can already hear the internet shouting 'police brutality!', Even if they're returning fire. Everyone seemed in agreement with this, but the look of worry was also plastered among them as well.
"We're going guns against guns?" Evans asked. I remembered him and Peterson, they were ambushed before they could assist us at Ivan's house. I never got the details, and I'm pretty sure it was too late for that anyways.
"Yes." Was all I responded with, my confidence was taking over my brain, using it's newly aquired power to control my vocal cords.
"A shootout of this size, we could get killed!" Another officer objected, making me sigh.
"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." I quoted, "Nevermind that. But if you aren't willing to even risk your life for the dozens being ruined by that scumbag, then do you really deserve that badge?" The bold words making a few officers go into deep thought.
"I'll go regardless of who else attends." Ivan proclaims, standing next to me.
"Be ready in an hour." I instructed. No officer moved a muscle, staring across the table at me.
"You heard the wolf, get moving!" Evans shouted, and everyone jumped up from their seat. Ivan and I left the room first, as we were closest to the door. When the conferences were over, it was pretty crowded with over a dozen officers all trying to leave, and there is still dozens more still out around Zootopia.
"Someone would like to have a word with you." Clawhauser stopped me as I entered the lobby, ready to head upstairs to gather the proper equipment. He was holding a phone up, waiting for me to take it.
"This is Officer Howlard from the ZPD." I said, placing the phone against my ear.
"I'm aware, you've made quite a name recently. You can call me Anderson. I was informed very recently that you planned on taking over a dozen officers to a possible shootout, is this true?" The hoarse voice came about.
"Yes sir." I answered respectfully, still unaware of the callers authority.
"The state has authorized me to inform you that the S.W.A.T division will be taking the lead on this raid due to possible imposed danger on police officers." He ranted, making me roll my eyes. "The ZPD can, if willing, remain at a minimum distance of fifty yards from the location of said raid unless called in for backup." This information wasn't too surprising, it was very dangerous after all.
"Hold on a second, sir, with all do respect, that's a terrible idea. You see, myself and a fellow officer basically have super powers, which I think could be of use." I chuckled, Ivan's adrenaline to leave the ZPD dropping dead to the ground.
"You are indeed correct, Mr. Howlard, however I do not have the proper jurisdiction to let you on or near the premises." He sighed, genuinely agreeing with me.
"Then you better get down on your knees and beg for that jurisdiction." I warned sternly. "If you think a simple S.W.A.T execution will take down this operation, you are wrong." As I patiently waited for his response, Ivan tapped me on the shoulder.
"Alex, you know it's possible with the police and S.W.A.T involved in this that someone working with Dr. Harris could find out." Ouch. Ivan did have a point. "If that is true, then they could already be packing their bags." He whispered so no others around the lobby could hear.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Howlard, but it is the S.W.A.T's operation at this point, the ZPD will only be held as backup, and if we need you, we probably won't let you go inside the garage. If you or any other officer dares to set paw, hoof, or whatever the hell is on the bottom of those legs on the premises, you won't be wearing a badge the next day." Anderson threatened sternly, I'm sure Ivan was listening. I was silent for a moment, thinking about my options. Being a hero didn't have boundaries, after all.
"Then you're going to have to take my badge." I breathed into the phone, handing it to Clawhauser. A look of worry on his face as he hesitated to set the phone back in place on to the dialing machine, or whatever you call it.
"You listen closely, Alexander Howlard! If you think that you will " Clawhauser clicked the phone back in place, hanging up.
"Listen up everyone! The state has declared us as backup only to the S.W.A.T!" I declared, everyone Aww-ing in response. "Ivan, I'll get us equipment, you go find Nick." I ordered, making the jaguar nod, running up the stairs to the second floor. I followed, as the high end gear was up here as well. I walked into a large gritty carpeted room, where over a dozen other mammals were. Nick and Judy weren't present, however. They probably already collected what they needed. I grabbed two shotguns hung up on their racks. We always had one in the back of our police cars, but really never needed it. I slung both shotguns over my shoulder before grabbing a bullet proof vest.
Ivan didn't need one of these, did he? I laid the shotguns down gently on the floor and began strapping the vest on. "Certified Kevlar Officer." I breathed as I wriggled the vest on all the way. I ended up stepping out of the room with my back killing me. I had two shotguns slung over my back, and an M4A1 in each paw. I also had a helmet on, I probably looked like a S.W.A.T member, so I didn't see the big deal. Sure they were trained differently, but I can dodge a bullet before it even fires.
"You sure about this?" Ivan reapproached me, Nick and Judy behind him. Damn it, I don't want Judy to come.
"Yeah, Nick, you willing to do this?" I asked him carefully, wanting a truthful and thought out answer.
"If you guys are, then yes." He nodded his head. Judy remained silent, she wanted to go, I could tell.
"Judy, you and I both know what could happen." I said quietly, gently ushing Nick and Ivan aside.
"Yeah, but that's what being a hero is all about, right?" She gently jabbed a finger against my chest, making me smile. I swear I felt like someone was reading my mind somehow, by that I mean Judy, not you.
"Okay, just promise me one thing." I got down on one knee in front of her. Nick and Ivan just standing there waiting. "You won't let this change who you are." The same smile returned to my face.
"Okay." She nodded her head. I got back to my feet and handed Ivan a shotgun and an M4.
"Safety first." I handed Ivan a helmet, making him roll his eyes. The four of us made our way down the stairs to the lobby, where all our fellow officers were, included Chief Bogo.
"Where are you going? The S.W.A.T isn't even there yet!" Chief Bogo asked loudly from across the lobby as we neared the front door of the ZPD.
"We're just going to find the best place to wait as backup, that's all." I said smoothly opening the door. I turned my body just enough to see Chief Bogo shake his head slightly, looking down. He knew I was full of shit. The four of us got into a police SUV, it went along great with our death wish.
Author's Note
This is the final build up chapter, while short, it will hopefully be equaled out by next chapter, which will most likely be triple the length of this one.
As to when it will be released is the problem, unless I finish the whole entire thing in around five days it will be around two weeks until it's release. This is because I'm going on vacation soon, and most likely won't be writing will on it, but we will see.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I did have a bit of a struggle writing about the S.W.A.T conversation, and also looked up a few things as to how they operated, wanting to make it at least slightly realistic to real life. The next chapter will depict POV's from multiple characters, changing in order to give the audience a grasp on how everyone is effected by their mission, and the problems they could face.
ANYWAYS, all of the next chapter stuff I just talked about isn't 100% certain, as I'm still thinking about this.
If you like the story, please leave a review telling me what you think, and don't forget to follow and favorite!