=Author's Notes=
I know it's been almost a month since the last update, but this chapter is soooo worth it! Everything clashes down in it! Secrets revealed! Plus, now that my exams are over, I will hopefully be able to update every week again.
Arcapolo
When Nick woke up, he felt as if he was under a wave of depression. Rather, a tsunami of depression. Judy wasn't in the room. He sighed as he got out of the bed. He went to the bathroom and splashed some water over his face, his fur wet and bending downwards due to the pull of the water. He looked in the mirror. He looked tired.
Simply, because things with Judy were leading nowhere. They lived together for God's sake, yet they were no closer together than they were when they met. He brushed his teeth quickly and went back to his room to prepare for training.
"Nice work, Wilde!" Said the Coach, patting his back. He had outdone everyone in the race.
"Thanks." He mumbled back.
"Something wrong?" the Coach asked.
"Nothing." Nick said and begun walking forward to the changing room.
"She'll come around, eventually." The Coach said behind him. Nick turned around and raised an eyebrow. "Judy. She doesn't see at a possibility yet, but the moment she does, she'll realise she has feelings for you." The polar bear tried to smile encouragingly.
Nick just shrugged and turned around. He heard his Coach sigh behind him, but ignored her. His mood just wasn't a good one.
When he finally arrived at the police station, it was night. He walked to his and Judy's desk. He wasn't surprised to find Judy inside, who mumbled a greeting. His heart gave a painful pulse. He was both relieved and depressed to see Judy. Oh, Judy, oh Carrots… he thought sadly. He peeked at what Judy was looking.
A pale yellow map was spread out, with several red circles spread over it. "What's this?" He asked.
"It's Zootopia's original blue-print. There were a lot of things changed in the finalised edition. But I'm thinking, what if something that was supposedly changed was built after all? Would make the perfect hide-out, wouldn't it?" She asked.
"It's possible." He mumbled.
"Nick, did I tell you about my dream?" Judy asked.
"No. What was it about?"
"I went back in time. I saw Arcapolo… or rather, the movement that once was. It was under the sewers Nick!" She said.
Nick chuckled. "Judy, that was just a dream. And even if it wasn't, what makes you think that in all the years that have passed they haven't changed their hideout?"
Judy frowned. "Nothing. But it might give us some clues."
"Judy," Nick said, interrupting her before she could speak again. "Last time they were caught, remember? They went to their hideout and threw everyone in prison. There's nothing there."
"Damn it!" Judy said angrily. She caught the blue-print and tore it in half. "I've been wasting my time for nothing."
At that same moment, the door behind them snapped shut. They both turned around to see Alex, in his usual grey coat. "As much as I find your little outburst charming, Judy, we three need to talk."
Nick raised his eyebrow. "What about?"
"I found their hideout." He said.
"What?" Judy squealed, before Nick could reply.
Alex pulled a rainbow-coloured feather from his pocket. "These. They contain coordinates." Judy snatched the feather from his hand.
"How?" She asked.
Alex sighed. "We mammals, have five senses. Everything we do is based on those five-senses. It was pretty simple to find what these feathers could do. They are receivers."
"Receivers?" Judy asked.
Alec nodded. "They are capable of picking up a very unique frequency. After they receive that frequency, they emit a special signal. It's all in the spine of the feather." Alex snapped the feather in half, and Nick gasped as it dangled from wires.
"But what does the signal they emit do?" Judy asked.
"That, I don't know. There was another attack yesterday, no?" He said. Judy nodded. "I noticed because I had the feather under watch. With a form of X-Ray, I was able to see it come to life. Imagine the spine of the feather suddenly shining blue. I mean, it didn't really, but the Camera I used was able to record thermal activity." Alex took a deep breath. "I ran this feather through several scans. It didn't emit a particular sound, it didn't contain any sort of venom whatsoever, so it couldn't impact on touch. Obviously nothing happens if you lick it. However, using special sensors and thermos-cameras, I was able to detect this activity. Then, I reverse engineered it. I was able to construct a device that would not only detect the sound, but trace it back."
"You did all of that by yourself?" Judy asked, eyes wide.
Alex chuckled. "Of course not. I have a team of people ready to do as I say. The device picked up the signal once again this morning." Then Alex coughed. "Yeah somebody should tend to that. A mammal is wreaking havoc somewhere."
"What?" Judy said.
"Not the problem!" Alex said impatiently. He grabbed a map from Judy's pile and a red marker. He circled an area. It was in the rainforest district.
"What is that?" Nick asked.
"It's an old abandoned building."
"Well, we should alert the entire police force! Get helicopters and surround them!" Judy said quickly.
"We mustn't." Alex hissed. "They have spies in the police force."
"How do you know?" Nick asked. He found it impossible to believe that anyone in the entire police force would betray them.
"I know because I'm me." Alex said, impatience getting to him. "And before either of you stupids comes up with the idea of interrogating one of their spies, they're all very good liars. I already asked them some things discreetly. They wouldn't just send any random idiot to be a spy, they sent the best of the best. If this is to be done, it can only be the three of us. And it can only be now."
"What? Without people? Without a police force to back us up? We'd never make it!" Nick said, feeling dizzy. This was not the boring morning he'd been hoping for.
"We either do this, or Zootopia falls. The attacks have been cooling down. Whatever they're planning to do, they're almost ready." Alex said and his orange eyes intensified. Almost as if he were trying to force them into agreeing. Nick felt as if he was bound by Iron fists. He looked next to him at Judy who was standing just as still and awkwardly as he was. Alex took a deep breath and looked away. Nick instantly felt every muscle in his body relax. "Look. I don't have any particular love for Zootopia. I can save my best friend and everyone else can go to hell as far as I'm concerned."
But Nick – although for the world there was no trace of it – knew that it was a lie. He sighed. "Okay, let's go."
"WHAT?" Judy squealed. "You're agreeing with him?"
Nick sighed and grabbed her hand, holding it. Judy's breath caught in her lips. "Listen, Carrots," He said, looking into her purple eyes. "You came here to make the world a better place. If we don't do this, there will be no world left."
Judy's eyes widened in wonder, as if realising something neither Alex nor Nick did. Nick could've sworn he heard Alex release a huh sound. Then, Judy nodded. She licked her lips once before pulling her hand and looking at Alex. "How are we going to get there?"
Alex smirked. "Like any normal mammal. We'll take the train. Also, we'll need grappling hooks."
Nick stared at the building as rain fell on him. The train ride and the walk to the abandoned building had been in silence as the rain trickled. Yet as he stared at it, Nick felt desperate. The door was slammed shut. It was at the very top of a rock expanding outwards. Like a weirdly-formed spike. Walking there would be a hassle on its own, but if they fell while climbing…
"Enough delay. Let's go." Alex walked forward, Nick and Judy following slowly. When they reached the building, Alex pulled out his grappling hook. Nick and Judy did the same. "You see that loose edge on the fourth floor?" He asked. Nick and Judy nodded. "Aim for that." He got into position, aimed and shot. With a loud pang the grappling hook shot up and up, until it went to the edge and gripped there.
Judy got it on her first try too but Nick had to try several times to get his grappling hook in position. Once he did, he clicked the trigger and pulled up, feeling the cold breeze as he flew into the air, trying to suppress his fear.
They gripped the edge with their hands and walked while hanging off of it. "The window there, it's loose. Go to it." Alex hissed. Nick grudged as he begun moving. His fingers hurt – he wondered if they would ever properly function again. His arms were burning from lifting himself, yet at the same time, he was grateful. Grateful of the coach that had made his life a living hell for the past few days. He suddenly felt affection for the large mammal.
When they finally reached the window, Judy did a surprisingly efficient twirl while not leaving the edge and kicked herself inside. That, Nick thought, violates at least a hundred different laws of physics. He sighed and climbed inside. It was dark empty room, with only one door. Alex was in the window, ready to come in, when the door burst open.
Two deer in black suits ran inside and before anyone could react, they pulled a gun and shot Alex, who fell back out of the window without a sound. Nick felt dread spread all over him. "Move," one of the deer said, holding the gun, "and you're dead."
Neither Nick nor Judy moved as they approached them and cuffed their hands. Nick couldn't process. How could Alex have died? Alex, who nick thought was invincible and impenetrable. But of course he isn't, you idiot. His subconscious snapped at him.
They were lead into the elevator. Both Nick and Judy were surprisingly quiet. Nick glanced at Judy, who was still looking down, eyes wide. They stepped out of the elevator and lead into a large room, where they were left alone. The room was also very dark, the only things visible were the glass window on which the rain fell. Or rather, the large complex of windows. Then, a desk and sitting behind it a large dark shape.
The shape on the desk clicked something and white light fell down. Nick and Judy were still cuffed. A large bull in a black suit was sitting there, its dark eyes staring at them. The words Arcapolo were on his suit but also in Large metallic writing above the window. "Mr Wilde and Miss Hopps." The bull said in a lazy voice. "What an honour."
Nick snapped out of his trance when Judy spoke. "Who are you? What is this?"
The bull smiled, revealing a large set of unusually pointy teeth. "I believe you have researched Arcapolo, Miss Hopps?"
"Yeah," Judy spoke with a calmness that was extremely out of place. "Ninety years ago they extracted horrifying experiments on poor mammals. Thirty years ago the experiments were revisited but shut down extremely fast. Neither attempt was successful."
"Ah, but there's where you are wrong, Miss Hopps. No experiments were extracted thirty years ago, merely a group of observers." The bull said.
"Observers? Of what?" Judy asked, shocked.
"Of the results. Arcapolo was successful, very much so."
"No it wasn't!" Nick spoke for the first time, feeling anger pour into his body. "There were no results! All the women whose children were experimented on were perfectly normal."
The bull laughed. "But they were never meant to be anything but. Arcapolo based its theory on evolution. By implanting a predatorial gene into a prey foetus, the gene has a low chance of survival. Yet those genes that did survive, they evolved. Through time and generations, they worked. It was decades before results appeared, but they did. Each time they reproduce, the results are stronger. Indeed, a hyperspecies is in order."
"Each time who reproduced?" Judy asked.
The bull smiled at her and got up. "Each time we reproduced. We, the children of Arcapolo! I am a bull yet I eat meat! I survive on it." The bull smirked at the look of horror on Judy's face. "Did you really think there could be anything a group of the world's greatest scientists working together wouldn't be able to achieve, Miss Hops?"
"B-but… the feathers. Why? What do they do? How does it all work?" Nick had never heard Judy Hopps stutter.
"Ah, the feathers." The bull sat back down again. He pulled a small vial from a drawer, barely the length of a middle finger. It was grey inside, almost alive with movement. "They emit a special signal. See, one can is rigged. The drink inside is filed with nanites. Every attack is watched, so when the special drink is pulled out and started, we emit the sound that makes the feathers emit their signal. The nanites move towards thermal activity, so there are none left in the drink, in other words, no traces."
"But, how?" Judy asked. "And why go to all that trouble with the feathers?"
"Well, because, they're still a new technology. They need to be very close to the signal. Anyone who opened the feathers wouldn't be able to understand what purpose they serve. Nobody would be smart enough… other than Alex Rayke, of course. We knew he'd be trouble the moment he arrived, but his ingenious mind made one so simply mistake." The bull smiled malevolently. "Cameras."
"So how did you do it? How do nanites make animals go primal?" Judy asked. Nick could barely think, barely understand what the bull was saying.
"Well, think of it like this. If you want to hack an online game, all you have to do is open the codex and see what happens when you earn something. Find the codex that unlocks the reward, slam it repeatedly and the game is hacked. This is no different. Observe the chemical differences that occur in the brain when night howler is consumed, have the nanites do the same." After looking at Judy's raised eyebrow, the bull laughed. "A toxin is released, a hundred times as powerful as night howler. A single drop can change a thousand mammals. A single nanites has enough in it to do the job."
"But why?" Nick spoke. "To what end?"
"For two reasons. First is," He lifted the vial, "This. The cure to the toxin is within these nanites. With this, we can threaten any world leader, have them submit. Secondly, an animal in its primal form isn't very different from another. Predator or prey, hibernating DNA components that they both share are awoken. This helps us perfect the work of Arcapolo, make sure that our hyperspecies doesn't go wrong. Once we have world leaders everywhere submit to us and control of the world, we'll create a new society. One where we, The children of Arcapolo are at the top. With an army of primal mammals. They are so much easier to train."
"You're disgusting." Nick spat out.
The bull gazed at him furiously. "Perhaps, if people like you hadn't told us exactly that when we were young, this wouldn't be happening."
"Not because of that," Nick said, gazing hard back at the bull. "Because of what you're doing."
The bull stared blankly for a few seconds before chuckling. "So be it. If you're wondering why I'm telling you all of this, well," The bull said, pulling something else from the drawer. At that exact time, Nick could've sworn he heard a very faint pop sound. The bull pulled out a gun and aimed it at Nick and Judy. "It's really a shame that Alex Rayke is dead, he would've made a wonderful pawn." Then a sizzling sound was heard, Nick prepared to run and throw himself in front of Judy – only that the bullet never came.
The bull's hand trembled and the gun fell from it, blood gushing from its mouth. A large red stain was at the spot where his heart was, the ends of a grappling hook poking out of it. The bull faintly turned to look around as more blood came out. Alex, standing there, grappling hook in hand, stared back hard. His orange eyes were almost red with fury and Nick felt as if the world would break in half from them. Then relief came. He's alive. "I am nobody's pawn." Alex's spat out, and turned swiftly with the full might of his body, recalling the grappling hook so it pulled the bull and at the same time, threw it out the window where it smashed with a crashing sound and fell into the distance.
"How are you alive?" Was the first thing Judy asked.
Alex stared at them. "My coat is bulletproof." He said in a matter-of-fact voice.
"Your coat is bulletproof?" She asked, eyebrow raised, disbelief filling her voice.
"Why," Alex said, panting, walking towards the desk. "Would I be wearing a coat in the middle of fucking summer, fur and all, if it didn't serve a goddamn purpose." He grabbed the vial and put it in his pocket.
"They shot you." Nick said, staring in disbelief.
Alex turned to look at him for a second and blinked. "Yeah and it barely even touched my skin." Alex pointed at a hole in his coat. "I just have a good aim with a grappling hook, as you just saw. That bastard, hope he rots in hell." Alex looked out of the window for a second.
"How are we going to get out of here?" Judy begun, but before she managed to finish the question, a large series of repeated thuds echoed from outside. Suddenly a helicopter came into view. "You have a helicopter?" Judy asked.
"I have a lot of things. I'm disgustingly rich. Did I ever tell you two I'm also a very good doctor?" Nick looked at Alex as if he were an alien, who smiled at him. The helicopter approached and a ladder fell from it. "Go, we don't have much time." They all ran and jumped out the window, grabbing onto the ladder. Before they left, Alex pulled a small and shiny blue thing cylinder out of his pocket. He clicked the top and threw it through the window inside.
And the helicopter flew away, as the crushing bam echoed behind them.
"Police report that there was no trace of how the mammals were all cured. Soon after the detonation of the building in the Rainforest district, they all were simply cured. Chief of Police, Bogo, reports that the attacks have come to an end however, he refuses to disclose any information with the public. Meanwhile, very famous businessmen all over the world are found dead."
Nick stared at the reporter in the TV blankly, warm blanket around him, a mug full of hot chocolate in hand. Alex was in Nick's apartment. Judy had left urgently after their mission, telling him she needed to talk to her parents. Nick had simply hugged her goodbye, numbly.
The world is saved, Arcapolo is no more and Judy is gone. All in less than five hours. It was almost dawn now. Alex sat next to Nick, a mug in hand. It was the first time Nick had ever seen him without his coat, he was wearing an airy white shirt and short blue jeans. "The business men dying?" Nick asked.
"My doing," Alex said. "I have a network of assassins. They're all Arcapolo related. I'm tracing anyone and everyone who is related to them as we speak, and running very quick DNA tests. Anyone who proved positive didn't… make it."
"What about their children?" Nick asked.
"Nick, the bull was lying. The gene was dying out; this was the last wave. They were desperate to keep their 'evolution'. They're all a bunch of idiots if you ask me." Alex chuckled.
"Why?"
"The genes that transformed prey to predator, comes all from the same mammal. There are only two predators in the whole world who have prey characteristics, but they're a natural mutation. Nothing related to Arcapolo. The prey gene didn't survive into predator DNA at all." Alex sipped his mug. "As I were saying, they were stupid because in order to increase the effects of the gene, the last generation used a concoction which had night howler in it." Alex laughed. "Little did these idiots know, that the original predator the gene comes from was allergic to night-howler. It's what caused the gene to die out. They were practically killing themselves, anyway."
"You said only two predators in the whole world have prey characteristics. Who are they?" Nick asked, slowly coming to realisation.
"Why, they're both in Zootopia. One, I believe, is a panther you've met. The other one, is sitting next to me." Alex smiled at him. Nick stared blankly. Alex sighed, put his mug down and got up. He gave nick two long pieces of paper that he later noticed were concert tickets. "Those are for you and Judy. Backstage access included. My little way of apologising for giving you trouble in the beginning."
Nick stared at the tickets and then ran to hug Alex. "Idiot, I was scared you had died."
Alex laughed awkwardly, for the first time ever, stunned. "Touching, Wilde." Yet Nick noticed how his fur spiked up very slightly. Alex picked up his coat and walked to the door. "Good luck, Nick." He walked out the door, closing it behind him.
Nick stared at the tickets. This is my last chance. If this concert doesn't get things for me and Judy working, then I'm giving up.
=Author's Notes=
Well, everything's out in the open! (Almost.) This fanfiction has four chapters left, a total of fifteen. I hope you loved reading this chapter as much as I loved writing it, please let me know what you think about it with a review! (Fun fact: Reviews make updates come faster. In fact, if I manage to get over 20 reviews for this chapter - my high score is 11 - I'll update the exact next day, tomorrow! And no, several reviews from the same person don't count.)