Dear reader,
Happy Sunday! Once again, I would like to say thank you each and every one of you whom has taken the time to read my work, make awesome comments, or send me amazing personal messages. It is little bits of input that make my day, or let me know that my time is being well spent. When I first elected to write Big Trouble, I was very worried that people would not like the story or premise. However, the amount of messages from people whom are trying to actively puzzle out the case; has shown me that people are very excited about this story. For those of you wandering what mammal our striped maniac is, I think you'll probably feel pretty silly for not figuring it out sooner. In any case; I'll stop jabbering,
-Enjoy
A single neuron fizzled and sent a weak informational pulse. Another neuron captured and relayed the prior's message to several more. Slowly, the bio-electrical grid came to life, and the rabbit's brain relayed a single message; pain. Judy's brain was on fire with a renewed migraine, which mirrored the chemical-hangover from hours before. Without opening her eyes, Judy made to hold her head in her paws. However, the rabbit found that her wrist would not budge. Throwing her eyes open wide, Judy found that she had also been blind-folded. Judy's heart began to race as she struggled against her bindings. The rabbit's fears were confirmed as she realized that she was bound by wrists and ankles to a chair which was far too big for her.
"N-Nick?" the rabbit recoiled at the burning sensation in her throat when she tried to speak. Swallowing hard, Judy quelled the fire and tried again; "Nick?"
A groan from the induced-darkness told Judy that Nick was presumably across from her. Instinctively, Judy's ears twisted forward as they caught the sound of Nick shifting in his bindings.
"Nick, are you okay?" Judy asked, worry palpable in her voice.
"I…" Judy could hear Nick swallow hard and clear his throat before continuing. "I think we got our asses handed to us, Carrots."
Judy let out a chuckle of relief as she realized Nick was okay. "Where are we?" asked Judy.
"Well," Judy's ears caught the sound of Nick struggling as he spoke. "I'll be sure to tell you… as soon as I get this blind fold o-"
*BANG!*
The duo were deafeningly silent as Judy's heart pounded with dread and fear at the concussive assault.
"Nick…" Judy pleaded.
"I'm okay…" came Nick's voice from slightly lower than it was before. "I fell over; Gimme… one second…"
Judy could make out the sound of tearing fabric as Nick struggled against his respective bonds.
Nick went silent for an impassable moment before Judy's blindfold was torn away. Nick's smiling visage was all that Judy could see, as she blinked and tried to adjust her eyes to the light.
"I gotcha, Carrots" said Nick, before pecking Judy's forehead and undoing her bonds. "Ain't the first time I've had to escape a chair" mumbled Nick as he finished untying Judy's paws.
Leaping forward, Judy wrapped Nick in a death-grip hug and planted a kiss firmly on his shocked Muzzle. Pulling back, she realized that Nick had a scabbed over gash above his left eye-brow.
"Oh my god, Nick" said Judy, reaching up to examine Nick's gash. "You're hurt!"
Nick grabbed Judy's paw before she could touch his wound. "Easy there, don't go gabbing fingers into me. I think I hit my head on the wall when the Hyena knocked us out."
Judy's mind raced as she recalled the failed pursuit. Furrowing her brow in confusion, Judy repeated Nick's claim back at him; "Hyena?"
"Big striped guy?" Nick mimed a tall and wide frame with his paws as he spoke. "He was a Hyena."
"I've never…" Judy's voice trailed off as she attempted to recall ever even hearing about the species.
"Yeah, they're not exactly common place on a farm…" Nick smiled at Judy as he continued; "or in Zootopia for that matter. The only other one I've ever met was a female from the underground, whom I dated in my teens. But that relationship ended over… 'intimacy-problems'…" Nick's voice trailed off as his ears pinned back in an unreadable expression.
Judy tilted her head in confusion as she attempted to decipher Nick's body language.
Clearing his throat, Nick continued; "ANY WAY! Hyena's are supper rare outside of their capital city of Shang-Hi'ena." Nick shook his head as he tried to put together a mental puzzle. "As for a striped Hyena… leaving the city is entirely unheard of…"
"How come?" asked Judy as she looked about the inside of their tiny metal cell. The walls of said prison were composed of rusty metal, and a single bulb flickered as its feed of electricity all but failed it.
"The striped Hyenas are the traditional honor guards for the royal families. Shang-Hi'ena is almost one-hundred percent predator animals by population." Nick continued as he tapped the steel walls of the cell with a claw. "They have a very traditional warrior-culture. The only reason why an honor guard would be in Zootopia is if he was banished, or if he was guarding a-"
Both Nick and Judy spun on their heels as they caught the sound of movement outside their cell-door. The sound of a heavy deadbolt sliding prompted both the mammals to panic.
"Follow my lead," barked Nick as he stood his chair back on its legs across from Judy's. Jumping back into his seat, Nick draped his torn bindings back over his wrists and replaced his blindfold. Tilting his head back, Nick was sure to leave a small gap where he could peak out from under his blindfold. Following directions, the Rabbit copied Nick, and feigned still being bound to her chair.
No sooner did the duo falsely imprison themselves, did the cell door fly open. Stepping into the cell, the Striped Hyena turned to check on his captives.
Peeking out from under his blindfold, Nick saw that the hyena still had the large sack of captive rodents. Before Nick could give a signal, Judy sprang into action.
Launcher herself from her chair, Judy rocketed towards the surprised Hyena, readying a powerful kick which was aimed at the towering mammal's iron-jaw line. With lighting reflexes, the striped honor hound back-handed the flying bunny out of the air. Judy flew across the inside of the cell and impacted painfully with the wall of the cell.
"Judy!" yelled Nick, launching himself at the hyena's back. Hitting his mark, Nick clung to the hyena's mane as he spun in an attempt to dislodge the fox. From his lofted perch, Nick found that the hyena's arms were too short to reach over his own muscular shoulders to where the assaulting fox had anchored himself. Nick attempted to loop his arm under the Hyena's throat for a choke hold, but found that his own arms here not long enough to properly encircle the muscular mammal's powerful neck. Pulling back to dodge an incoming claw from the mounted hyena, Nick found himself in a spinning gridlock with the mammal.
In a last ditch effort, Nick shifted his attention. Grabbing hold of the striped criminal's tall ears, Nick yanked up and back, prompting the mounted hound to let out a painful yelp as his head snapped backwards. Spinning on his heels, the hyena lost his balance and fell backward.
As the criminal toppled in slow motion, Nick found himself trapped between the iron-mammal's sculpted back and a chair, and then the floor. Reeling from the full-force back slam, Nick gasped for air and released his grip as the wind was knocked out of him.
Rolling off of the fox pancake, the hyena turned his attention to Judy's crumpled form. Nick reached out a paw as he fought for breath from amongst the wreckage of the chair. The massive mammal loomed over Judy, ready to strike the final blow, and Nick was powerless to stop him.
The hyena raised a heavy claw to strike, and Judy's eyes snapped open. Rolling back onto her shoulders, Judy launched an earthshattering kick upwards, and into the assailing animal's groin. With a deafening howl, the Hyena folded in on himself and rolled away from the previously trapped rabbit.
Springing to her feet, Judy grabbed the sack of rodents and helped Nick out of the cell. Feeling his breath return, Nick helped Judy push the heavy steel door closed, and seal it with the near-immovable steel cross-bar.
After putting a couple hundred pounds of steel door between them and the Hyena, Nick took the moment to scold Judy. "I know that mammal was a bastard," Nick panted. "But you should never give a mammal a shot to the pills; it's just poor form."
Judy met Nick's smirk with a glare as she opened the bag of rodents. Counting heads, Judy made out fourteen bound and gagged mice.
"We still need to find the rest of them," Judy said, handing the bag to Nick.
"What do you mean the rest?" asked Nick with a note of exasperation. "We've got all of them right here!"
"Not these ones," replied Judy. "The missing forty-three. If we're in their base of operation, this may be the best chance we have of finding the abducted mammals."
"Great!" said Nick, lifting the bag for emphasis. "We'll drop these guys off at the station, and then we'll come back with reinforcements."
"No," said Judy prompting Nick to face-paw. "We have to do this now!"
"We did this your way, already, rabbit!" replied Nick with a hint of frustration. "And we got knocked out, abducted, and I just got pancaked by a line-backer of a mammal! And even if that wasn't the case, we have no way of contacting the Z.P.D! If we die down here, they won't even find our bodies!"
Judy's mind raced as she attempted to form a rebuttal. "But…" Judy trailed off under Nick's stern gaze.
"That monster in there almost killed you," Nick pointed to the sealed cell door. "And I was powerless to stop him…" Nick's shoulders sank, as Judy realized his vulnerability.
"Nick…" Judy whispered as she moved in close to the guilty fox.
Nick pulled away, not wanting Judy to see the crack in his façade. "Grab the equipment," Nick gestured to a pile of wallets, tazers and pocket lint, which had been taken from them while they were unconscious. Judy scooped up the pile of spent tazers and misc items which sat next to the cell door. Stopping to reload Nick's tazer with their last cartridge, Judy was struck by an epiphany.
"The tazer!" Judy yelled excitedly as Nick turned around. "That's it, we can use the tazer."
"Maybe you hit your head a little hard, carrots" Nick said, furrowing his brow in confusion. "But the tazer did nothing when we used it."
"Nothing but send out a signal!" Judy chimed, stopping Nick in his tracks. "Every time a cartridge deploys, it sends a signal to the ZPD main-frame. That way…"
"They can track down the officer in distress!" Nick finished Judy's sentence. "If they followed our last cartridges, then backup is probably already close by!"
Passing Nick his reloaded tazer, and pocketing her own, Judy smiled at Nick. "Would you do us the honor?"
Pointing the gun up into the air, Nick smirked. "And we're off to the races…" *BANG!*
The pair smiled as electricity crackled through the air. Ejecting the cartridge, Nick pocketed his now expended tazer and prepared to wait.
"When's the last time I told you about how clever you are?" said Nick with a smile.
"Mmm," Judy scrubbed her chin in thought "I think it's been abo-"
*BANG!*
Both Nick and Judy jumped at the deafening noise which came from the other side of the reinforced steel door. Another deafening impact rocked the door, and an outward dent formed on the door. More strikes impacted the steel barrier, causing the duo's jaws to drop in awe.
"You've gotta be kidding me…" mumbled Nick as he made to reach for his tazer.
A final impact threw the door from its hinges, sending scrap-metal and debris flying. The heavy deadbolt broke away from the door and careened towards the shocked duo. Judy, in a split second, ducked under the deadly projectile. However, Nick, whose paws were full, caught the thirty pound steel beam in the chest. Carrying the fox off his feet, Nick rag-dolled across the room and slammed flat backed into the concrete wall. Nick's skull connected with a sickening "thwack" and the fox slid down the wall into a slump.
"NICK!" cried Judy in terror as she saw Nick's lifeless body slide to the floor. Turning her attention to the culprit, Judy stared down the imposing honor-guard. Judy's blood boiled as the hyena climbed over the wreckage of the door.
Looming over the shaking and furious rabbit, the striped hyena let out a single barking laugh. Judy grit her flat teeth together in protective rage. Staring up, into the predator's beady-brown eyes, fear was the furthest thing from the rabbit's mind. Sliding sideways, Judy fixed herself between the towering carnivore and the crumpled remains of her fiancé. In this moment, Judy was ready to die protecting Nick.
Judy's mind went blank as the hyena spun on his heels and took off down a deserted hallway, laughing all the way. Judy had been so set on a fight to the death, that she almost didn't know how to react to the fleeing mammal. Snapping her back to reality, the primal voice in the back of her brain screamed at her; chase him!
Rocketing after the escaping bulldozer, Judy sprinted with the energy of a mammal-possessed. Attempted to shake the rabbit, the laughing culprit toppled everything in his path. Ancient filing cabinets and dusty book cases collapsed behind him as he attempted to separate himself from the pursuing rabbit. As Judy slid and dodged around and under the incoming blockades, the Hyena made very little separation between himself and the perusing police mammal.
In an odd reversal of roles, the predatory rabbit chased her prey with a vengeance she had never known. Turning a sharp corner into a machine room, Judy all but howled as the hyena's tracks went cold.
Inhaling sharply, Judy's higher brain functions came back online. The red drained away from her vision, and reason ruled in the rabbit's brain once more. Following her sensitive ears, Judy deftly maneuvered her way through the tangle of machines which filled the massive room. Recalling the flickering bulb in Nick and her's cell, Judy reasoned that these machines must have been what was stealing the power from the dying light. However, Judy could not recognize a single piece of equipment.
Tangles of wires choked the floor, making for an intricate root-system of electricity. Shifting her attention from appliance to appliance as she crept, the only thing Judy was sure of, was that these machines did not belong.
Freezing solid, Judy focused in as her ears twisted towards the sound of voices. Weaving through the digital jungle, Judy caught sight of a clearing, which housed two imposing mammals. Stopping at the edge of shadows, Judy saw the striped honor-guard; groveling at the feet of an ornately dressed snow-leopard male.
"It worked, your highness…" giggled the Hyena as he made to kiss the leopards feet.
Judy turned her attention from her target to the royally-clad predator. He was tall, and imposing. While physically powerful, Judy could tell that he was not nearly as athletic as his guard. As he turned to face away from the striped groveler, Judy briefly marveled at the leopard's gorgeous silken robe, which was adorned with images of dragons locked in combat. Catching her breath, Judy watched as the royal-predator sniffed the air.
"You've brought me another toy?" the Leopard's voice came as a hollow monotone, as though his lines were predetermined or were being fed via teleprompter. "Come out, bunny… You cannot hide from me."
Pausing only briefly, Judy stepped from the shadows to face the imperial predator.
"Adorable," commented the leopard, setting his gaze on Judy "an officer of the law… But what laws rule these lands, hmmm?"
Judy glared into the leopards eye's, as he spoke, and noticed they were near lifeless.
"Justice?" asked the leopard mockingly. "Equality? Honor? Or are these meager distractions from the law of the claw and fang?" The leopard snapped his jaws together in emphasis, sending an audible clap through the chamber. "You dilute yourself, officer. You believe that because you wear a badge, and stand for a cause, that it is your job to protect mammals. You think that it is your duty to save your rodents; my prey… Your only job, rabbit, is to turn grass… into meat!" The leopard snapped his jaws once more at Judy for emphasis, before moving to circle the rabbit. "You are too late to save them… their power has been… consumed. They now serve a higher purpose, they serve to further a new order… a true order… a glorious order, where the strong survive, and the prey… are eaten!"
The leopard turned to frown at Judy's unbreakable resolve. "Such a brave little rabbit… it does not recognize the lion's den…" the Leopard let out a disturbingly monotone chuckle, prompting a wave of nasally giggles from the hyena. "Most prey, as I draw near, begin to panic. I can hear their breathing, I can hear their little hearts beat!" The leopard clapped his paws as he spoke, quickening his clapping for emphasis. "Faster and faster, their little hearts race; until I can almost dance to it! But you…" the leopard stopped his pacing and turned to face Judy, reducing his clapping to a slow constant beat "I get nothing. Slow, controlled, it's like a metronome; I could use it to keep time on a piano… or pace a march… ba-dum… ba-dum… perfect timing." The predator smiled, displaying a perfect row of razor sharp teeth, and prompting Judy's paw to reach for her tazer.
"Time's up…" the leopard pounced at Judy, jaws open wide, ready to maul and consume the rabbit. Snapping up her tazer, Judy pulled the trigger, prompting a short-range electrical storm to jump across its terminals. The blue ball of electrical plasma found its mark in the back of the leopard's throat, as Judy thrusted her arms forward into the gaping maw of the incoming predator. The leopard froze solid, and Judy swore she could see the electricity roll across the predators eyes as his pupils dilated into tiny pin pricks. The pair stood for in impassable span of five seconds, all the while the atmosphere clicking with electricity.
A deafening silence filled the room, and Judy wondered if she were perhaps dead. Feeling a hot breath push past her buried paws, Judy recoiled and withdrew her weapon from the royal leopard's frozen throat. Flicking a layer of filmy mucus from her paw fir, Judy tilted her head in wonder at the statuesque mammal which had so nearly mauled her. Instead of collapsing in pain, or recoiling with anger, the leopard had frozen in place. Were it not for the sound of breathing, Judy might have mistaken the mammal for dead.
Spinning on her heels, Judy leveled her tazer at the hyena, whom did not budge either. Swallowing hard, Judy returned her attention to the snow leopard whom was still crouched; mid-lunge. Letting out a loud exhale, Judy fumbled with and checked her phone to ensure that time was in fact still flowing.
"FREEZE Z.P.D!" Judy's heart nearly exploded as a heavily armored rhino barreled into the room, followed closely by a wolf and tiger officer. Confusion danced across their faces as they tried to interpret the scene.
"McHormic, Delgado, Wolffrid" Judy said in relief, "Thank god you're here!"
The rhino and wolf moved in to secure the frozen predators as the tiger officer broke away to speak with Judy. "Officer Hopps," said the tigress "are you okay?"
"Yeah," said Judy, smiling nervously as she tried to keep her paws from shaking. "I shocked the leopard before he could get me."
"Then you need to get back to Nick," replied the tigress, prompting Judy to wilt.
In her vengeance fueled rage, and adrenaline riddled standoff, Judy had all but forgotten that Nick had been injured, perhaps fatally so. Sprinting out of the machine room, Judy looked briefly over her shoulder to see the leopard being compliantly folded into a pair of paw-cuffs.
Retracing her steps, Judy's mind raced a million miles a minute. A silent prayer was ushered, and the rabbit burst into the room where she had left her partner.
A group of paramedics now gathered around where Nick's shell had fallen. Barely able to walk, Judy stumbled towards the throng of medical workers, trying to catch sight of orange fur. "Nick!" Judy cried, prompting the medical staff to crane their necks toward her.
Reaching the throng, the crowd parted, and Judy brought a paw to her mouth in shock.
"They ruined my shirt…" said Nick.
A muffled cry of relief and distress escaped Judy as she fell to her knees at Nick's side.
Nick now lay securely strapped to a spine board. His trademark Hawaiian button-down and tie sat in a tattered pile next to him, where it had been thrown after being cut away by the medics. A hasty bandage wrap encircled his torso, and was punctuated by a deep crimson circle.
Grabbing Nick's immobilized paw, Judy locked eyes with Nick's normally emerald gaze, and recoiled in horror as she found them to be almost entirely dilated black.
"Oh my god…" Judy's words prompted Nick to wince as his ears pinned flat in an attempt to escape any noise.
A hoof settled on Judy's shoulder, as a kind explanation was given to her by a zebra medic. "Officer Wilde appears to have several broken ribs, a minor laceration to his torso, and a severe concussion…" The medical staff lifted Nick's gurney, prompting a yelp of pain from the fox and a death glare from Judy. "We're going to take him to sacred lion's hospital for further examination, but your partner should be okay." The medical team carried Nick out of the building, all the while Judy clung to his paw. As Nick was loaded into the back of an ambulance, Judy made to get in, but was stopped by a firm hoof on her shoulder.
"You can visit Officer Wilde later," came the firm voice of police chief Bogo, "but first; we need you at the station."
Judy's heart broke as she heard the ambulance doors close. She opened her mouth to protest, but realized she was too late as the siren sounded, and the medical unit peeled away into the artificial nighttime.
"I know you've been through a lot," assured Bogo as he led Judy to his police SUV. "But we need to get the rescued rodents back to their families."
In a tornado of flashing lights, and slamming car doors, Judy found herself back at the precinct. While the closure of such a massive case would normally warrant celebration, the atmosphere in the station was that of a funeral. It appeared that all the officers at the station were worried about Judy's other half.
After giving her report and recounting the ordeal several times, Judy found herself on the observing side of a one way mirror. Looking into the interrogation room, Judy watched the cuffed hyena laugh nonsensically. Shaking her head, she could not help but wonder whom was less helpful; the catatonic leopard, or the giggling honor-guard.
"I think he ate those mice…" whispered Judy to Bogo, whom stood next to her. "The leopard, sir, he said they were 'consumed'."
The imposing buffalo shook his head as he turned to look at Judy, whom stood on a table to look out of the observation room. "Shang Hi'ena's royal family may be evolved, but they are not civilized."
"He was going to eat me…" muttered Judy to herself, shuddering at the thought.
"I don't doubt it…" grumbled Bogo.
"Those poor mice… I…" Judy's heart broke as she realized the forty three missing mammal cases had become an equally large number of homicides. "I couldn't save them…"
"It's not your fault," interrupted Bogo. "As a police officer, it is your job to help everyone you can… but sometimes there's nothing you can do; besides your best. You're a fine officer Hopps."
Judy smiled at the imposing buffalo with tears in her eyes.
"But even the best among us fall short some times." Bogo linked his hooves behind his back as he continued. "If you're on the force long enough, you will fail eventually. And the twisted part is that it more than likely won't be your fault… All that you can do is dust yourself off, and move forward. Now go," Bogo returned his attention to the interrogation room. "Officer Wilde is in the hospital, and he probably needs someone to keep him company."
Oh hot-diggity!
Did you just read another whole... Wait... What's my line again? Anyone remember? Umm, well... I g-guess that you can leave comments, I think? O-Or you could s-subscribe? God my head hurts... Where am I?
-Enjoy the next chapter!