Energize the flow - Chapter 4

Nitrous.

They left the dead badger and returned to the pent house. The wolf offered them some red wine but the others declined. Shrugging he then poured himself a big glass and sat down in one of the big chairs. Judy was pacing the room, lost in thought. The wolf waited patiently but not the fox.

"This has been an interesting night, all things considered, but I do have a day job and since my target was already dead and robbed I'll just head back home."

"Don't you want to find out who got there first?" Judy asked but the fox just shrugged.

"I steal from mammals who abuse their position. Look lady, I'm an archer," he said and pointed at his bow, "I don't have the powers needed to fight a war with the gangs."

"It's not about the gangs," Judy countered and walked up to him. "Somewhere out there someone is helping the gangs, all of them." She sighed. "I can't beat them all by myself."

The fox just looked at her before he turned and jumped from the window, an arrow attaching itself to the window sill. Judy watched him slid down a wire to land on the building across the street. A second later his arrow detached itself and flew down after it's master.

Turning back to the wolf she looked at him pleadingly but it was for nought as he shook his head. "I don't need to worry about the underworld, I'm hard to kill." He gave her a sweet smile before stopping her protest. "I do however support what you're trying to do. Let's get the introductions out of the way."

He held out his paw to Judy. "My name is Hannibal Timber, a vampire." Judy, who was just about to shake his paw froze and just stared at his smile. "Like you I have powers, mine are fueled by blood and that technically makes me a vampire." Slowly she took his paw and gave it a shake.

"Energizer, my powers are electrical." Judy didn't know what more to say but felt as if keeping things secret for now was for the best. The wolf took a swing from his glass of wine and sat down.

"I'll tell you what, miss Energizer. Hundreds of years ago I dreamed of a place like this city. Zootopia represents all the things I like about our modern world. I did the whole warlord-rule-the-world thing many years ago and realized that we're all happier if things are just a little bit chaotic. Change is good for us and the gang war we're about to experience will break the status quo."

She couldn't believe what she heard. Did this wolf really believe that? She watched him take another sip of wine and by now she was beginning to doubt that it was wine at all.

When he noticed the way she looked at him he put the wine glass down and leaned back in the chair. "I have no need for anything in this city, If the worst comes to pass I'll just leave. I will support you from here though. I can offer gear and training environments."

"It's more than nothing though I would prefer some kind of actual backup just in case, you know." She was thinking of the fox but realized that unless she ran into him again there would be no way for her to find him.

The wolf nodded. "I'll see what I can do about finding someone to provide actual help, for now you should get some rest."

Saying her goodnight she left the wolf by jumping high into the night sky. He was right, she could do with some proper sleep.


Judy found herself slipping on the slick wood of the bridge, this was why she hated this part of Zootopia. Bunnies didn't have claws long enough nor sharp enough to dig into the wood. She'd been skidding on the damp surface all night as she checked all the locations for clues as to the gangs whereabouts.

So far there had been nothing of importance. The most exiting thing to happen all night was stopping a robbery of a grocery store. The owner had been grateful and even offered her a discount which she politely turned down.

The last location had been more rewarding as she'd seen what was clearly gang members gathering in the house. To her surprise they'd all been capybaras from the canal district. Why they would choose this house in this district was suspicious.

Things got worse for her when she snuck in and lost her grip on the slick beam in the rafters. Landing with an ungraceful fwomp was humiliating but when the gang started to pull assault rifles she decided to run away. There was one other reason why she hated this place and that was the nearly complete lack of power for the majority of the zone.

Judy could sustain her abilities using only her own internal energy but as she was so small that would only last a few minutes at most. Fighting the entire gang in an unpowered part of town meant that she'd have to beat all of them within the first minute or she'd collapse from exhaustion.

One bullet grazed her helmet and left a mark. Not only where they armed, they had practiced with their weapons as well. She risked sending an electrical shock behind her and felt the drain on her body. This never happened in the downtown area as power lines were everywhere. She could just siphon energy from them without notice and had this happened there they'd all be KO'd by now.

Tonight just wasn't her night.


Downtown Zootopia had some of the worlds largest mammal made buildings in the world. The largest of them all was collectively known as the Zootopia Tower. Actually it was the Tiger Mallone building but few mammals knew that.

The lower levels held city hall with the higher ones holding various offices. The top floor belonged to the Mayor's Office and this is where Mayor Swinton sat at her desk. There was a quiet knock on the door and she waited for her assistant to let the visitor in.

The bunny that entered worked for the ZIA and had come here at the Mayor's request. Like all agents he wore an immaculate suit of finely tailored cloth. The pig tapped the table irritably as she waited for him to saunter across the room and take a seat.

"We received your request for an audience Mayor Swinton, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company this night?"

She grit her teeth at his overly polite manner. "There's something I need you mammals to do."

The striped bunny raised an eyebrow. "Oh, do tell. I'm all ears."

She grit her teeth again. "Enough with the politeness." Pushing three folders over to him she added; "These mammals have exhibited tendencies to disturb the peace and interfered with official police work. They have also shown to posses unique powers. Find them, detain them and let me know when you're done. My team will handle them afterwards."

Nodding he took the three folders and left. Being the office of the mayor meant that the building never slept. The bunny was good at being unnoticed and simply passed through the various office workers as he read through the folders.

To him they looked more like poorly disguised bounties than official orders. None of the three mammals sparked any recognition from him and as he reached the front doors he simply ignored them as he passed through. He then got into the car that was waiting for him, not bothering to give the driver any instructions.

It was a short drive to the ZIA office as it was located in the same area. He again ignored the doors or just forgot about them on his way to the director's office. Entering without opening the doors drew the ire from the badger behind the desk.

"Savage, I told you to use the door like a normal mammal." Ignoring her comment he casually tossed the folders onto her desk.

"The suits at city hall wants us to capture the local vigilantes" He then chose to ignore the door all together and walked through the wall into his office next door. "USE THE DOOR" the badger yelled at him before picking up the folders.

The first one had a few pictures of a bunny shooting what looked like lightning at a pair of zebra robbers. It described the bunny as 'Electrically powered' and referenced things done, mostly capturing escaped felons or preventing crime. All the usual stuff one might expect from a vigilante.

Opening the next folder made the blood freeze in the badger's veins. Without hesitation she grabbed the phone on the desk and made a call.

"ZBI, how may I help you?"

"Extension 2254, Confirmation Honey." The badger nervously tapped her claws on the table as she waited for the operator to finish routing the call.

"Skye here, what do you need?" The nicety of the voice had never stopped grating on the badger's mind, even after ten years.

"This is Honey, listen we have a problem. City hall just put out a Capture And Detain on Nick." The gasp heard on the other side of the line would have made Honey's day if not for the severity of the situation.

"How much do they know?"

"Enough to put together a file and declare him an enemy," Honey answered as she looked down at the folder. There was a crystal clear picture of a fox on fire pummeling a Rhinoceros into the ground. The title of the folder said; Nicholas Wilde: Firefox.

There was silence on the other side for several seconds as the director of the ZBI gathered her thoughts. "Honey listen, we put him in extreme undercover ten years ago. I personally destroyed his files and actually melted the hard drive that had his digital pawprint. There are no physical nor any digital links between him and us."

"The problem is that an investigation into his past might show some discrepancies and clearing those up might lead to an in-depth investigation of us." That was a very real danger as Honey had used her position ten years ago to promote Skye into leading the ZBI. With Nick working deep undercover this meant that Honey had nearly total control of all Intelligence in Zootopia as well as the organized crime.

The arctic fox who was the head of the Zootopian Bureau of Investigation sighed in resignation. "Honey I know you, if all they had was a picture and a desire to stop him there'd be no reason to call. What is it you want me to do?"

"Find out how they managed to identify him and then erase all evidence." Skye actually shivered at how cold the badger's voice was. Erasing all evidence would mean terminating the witnesses too.

"I'll get to it but Honey, you need to warn him. If they asked you that means that their other options has failed." That would explain how they managed to get such a high quality image of Nick. Honey realized that someone had already made a move.

Ending the call with Skye allowed the badger to gather her thoughts. How many empowered mammals currently resided in the city? What were they doing now? Most, she knew, led lives that were boring or otherwise normal. In a city of millions there were less then ten known cases of such mammals.

On the other side of the wall Agent Savage was leaning against it, his long ears planted flat against the wall.

"Hmm," was all he said.


A/N

Fixed my spelling.