Heya! Sorry it took so long to put the pen to digital paper, but the first few weeks of college have been a bit tough... not to mention my cat was hit and killed by a car just last week... Rest in peace, Mika.
Anyway, since I finally had some free time, I managed to get this chapter written! Don't worry, the story's not dead!
It had been almost a week since the precinct explosion. So far, all the detectives were able to discover was that it was a mail bomb... addressed to me. Fortunately-but-unfortunately, the box had been dropped while being brought into the building, and accidentally setting it off early. Most of the officers were hospitalized, but had high chances for survival. Not all of them were lucky, however... Clawhauser was in critical condition, though he was rather stable last time we checked up on him.
Also, remember when I said that a lot of animals were calling me the Origami Angel? Well, it turns out some other animals had a few different nicknames for me. 'Freak', for example, or 'monster'. I usually ignored them, and Nick and Judy were quick to take down a guy who tried to stab me with a switchblade when I didn't respond to his insults. As far as they could tell, he'd been trying to get a rise out of me in order to show that I was apparently evil.
The two officers, along with Johnny and James, had all been willing to support me as we continued hunting for the one responsible for the mail bomb. The forensics team had been able to find a few pieces of metal shrapnel, but the box the bomb had come in had unfortunately been incinerated in the blast. They had, however, discovered the shrapnel pieces all had trace amounts of chemicals covering them, which meant they had all come from an old chemical-storage warehouse on the outskirts of Savanna central that had been shut down after an accident and never re-opened.
With any luck, we'd find some clues there.
All three of us Conduits entered the building through a skylight Johnny had opened for us by absorbing it. Nick, Judy, and several other officers were entering the building from the street level entrances; if someone was in here, they'd have a hell of a hard time getting out.
We swept the top floor, looking for anyone present, as the cops did the same thing one floor below. Unfortunately, nobody had found anyone... Though the cops were quick to seal off a room after they discovered two more partially-constructed mail bombs. These ones didn't seem to have been completed, but they decided to call in the bomb squad anyway just in case.
Once the squad had made sure the bombs wouldn't go off, the cops swept the room... and found one wall completely fill of pictures of me and several other animals. Several notes they'd also found indicated that every animal in the pictures was an activated Conduit, as well as the odds of recruiting them... for what, the notes didn't say. Several pictures and notes about a few conduits, however, read 'recruited' or 'pending'. The ZPD resolved to find out more about those being listed as 'recruited'; my 'file', however, was the only one labeling me as 'unrecruitable' and said that I should be killed on sight.
Upon finding this, the ZPD offered me something akin to witness protection, but I refused - I wanted to find the one responsible for this. I also pointed out that I'd also become something akin to bait - anyone who attacked me was likely involved in this somehow. They disliked the idea, but I was eventually able to convince them to go along with it, at least for a little while. As a compromise, however, they insisted that I be moved into a police safehouse, which would remain under guard 24-7.
Johnny and James both decided they like their new home; considering their own homes had been destroyed in the blast - at least, from what they told me - they were happy to just have a roof over their heads again.
The ram growled in displeasure as he thought about all the information he'd been forced to leave behind. His allies had all evacuated to their backup HQ, an old fish cannery in Tundra Town.
The raccoon conduit had been the one to warn them all of the ZPD's approach; her connections had made information gathering for his purposes easy. The polar bear also seemed to share his ideals the strongest; his conviction combined with his fighting prowess and powers made him a valuable ally. The arctic wolf was also a good enforcer, his powers easily able to defeat anyone who tried to stand up against him, despite his lack of technique. The same went for the snow leopard, though she was undoubtedly the most disobedient out of them all.
No matter, he thought as he shook his head, turning to a beat-up panther tied to a chair with a series of wires, I'll deal with her later. For now, he had more pressing matters to attend to... like getting this smoke-controlling little brat named Ash to talk.
Alright, this seems like a good update, don't you agree? The plot thickens...
Also, FireFox14 - Ash Blaken has arrived!