Dear reader,
Are you enjoying the weather today? Yes... I know... but I've always personally been a fan of the rain... The story? why yes, it's right down there. Go on now, don't be shy...
-Enjoy
"Come out, come out; where ever you are…" cooed the naked imperial-predator.
Judy shot Nick a deadly serious glance; nodding her intentions to her partner. Springing from their hiding spot, the dual detectives directed their tazers down the auditorium at the offending criminal trio.
"FREEZE, Z.P.D!" bellowed Judy.
Meanwhile, Nick attempted to adjust the offending "tent" in his uniform with his tazer free paw.
"Officer bunny…" chuckled the royal predator, recognizing Judy from their remote standoff weeks earlier. Prompted by Lo-Pan's chuckle; the striped cronies burst into twin fits of giggles.
"But what is this?" asked Lo-Pan, turning her attention to the preoccupied and embarrassed fox. "You dare bring this… traitor, this heretic… this vile creature into my chambers? So sick is the lion that dare lay with the lamb. What mer-"
*BANG*
Nick's tazer discharged; hurling positive and negative leads down range at the gloating predator. The ballistic barbs flew at sub-sonic speeds, half-way down the auditorium before pulling tight against their leads and falling harmlessly to the floor. Electricity danced between the twin-plugs for five seconds before leaving the room in jaded silence.
Judy shot Nick a fiery-death-glare at his shortcoming.
"Don't give me that look, carrots" Nick defended, embarrassment thick in the foxes composure. "It's very cold down here."
"I swear, Nicholas" Judy ground her paw into her forehead as she spoke "if you keep shooting off while mammals are talking; we're going to start having problems…"
Nick opened his mouth to comment on Judy's phrasing before the motion at center-stage recaptured his attention. "Hay, drop it!" barked Nick, noticing that the naked leopard had retrieved the final plug from around her feet.
"What?" asked the Leopard from the bottom of the auditorium. Lo-Pan's dual hyenas craned their necks in an attempt to better hear the lofted detectives.
"I-I said: put that down!" yelled Nick, gesturing at Lo-Pan's paw, which held her final plug.
"Can you understand what he's saying?" giggled the female hyena to her gaunt male companion. Shaking his head no, the tall hyena male agreed with his superior.
"We can't hear you," said the imperial leopard, shrugging slightly. "You gotta speak up or something."
Nick shook his head at the situation. "carrots, hold this" Nick passed his spent tazer to Judy before cupping both paws to his snout to better direct his voice. "I said: FREEZE!"
The leopard chuckled at the miniature detective duo; "Very poor choice of words…"
Snapping the final plug into place, the royal criminal collapsed as an electrical shock wave knocked Nick and Judy off their feet.
Sitting back up from his prone position, Nick turned his attention to Judy, and laughed. The electrical storm had charged the duo with static, and Judy's fur now stood on end. Judy's electrified face and paw fur stood in stark contrast to her sleek uniform, and gave her the appearance of a puffy gray cotton-ball stuffed into a too-small suit. Laughter stabbed Nick's damaged ribs, prompting him to clutch his side in humorous pain.
Lunging forward, Judy tackled the distracted fox out of the way of an incoming block of machinery. The massive electrical box sparked and impacted where Nick had just been sitting, leaving behind a trail of electrical bits and smashed concrete as it continued to topple end-over-end. Shifting their attention to the source of the imposing projectile, Nick and Judy's jaws dropped in a swirling mixture of confusion and amazement at what they saw.
The previously nondescript mountain of machinery which stood behind Lo-Pan at center-stage, now rose into the form of an impossibly large mechanical predator. Bellowing an earth-shattering roar, the colossal machine smashed into the ceiling and began to burrow its way towards the surface.
"Mecha-Panther…" gasped Nick, a stupid grin of child-like wonder making its way to his muzzle.
Judy turned an unreadable expression on Nick; "What, no!"
"Look" Nick gestured at the burrowing mechanical predator. "How is that no-"
"Because that's STUPID!" Judy interrupted. "There's just… it can't… there's no way this is actually happening!" Judy fought with what she was seeing, almost angry with her level of disbelief.
Nick began to laugh at Judy's fur again, as it clashed comically with her seething disbelief.
"Don't you dare laugh at me, Nicholas P. Wilde!" Judy yelled at the electrified fox, prompting Nick to hold his ribs in pain as he internalized his cackling. Judy continued to fight with herself as Nick tried and failed to collect himself.
"Judy…" said Nick, attempting and failing to regain his composure.
"What!" the rabbit turned a shattered expression on Nick, which threatened to break his reforming façade.
"We need to go," Nick gestured at the massive hole in the ceiling which marked the imposing machine's ascension to street-level.
Looking about the now deserted chamber, Judy noticed that not only had the machine left, but the two guards were gone as well. Lo-Pan's body was also missing; presumably carried away by the guards as they left.
"Are bunnies good climbers?" asked Nick as the electrified duo ran down the auditorium stairs towards where debris now formed a circular gateway to the world above.
"This bunny is," replied Judy, approaching the pool of sunlight and readying herself for the climb.
*POP*
Nick let out a yelp of pain as his fur settled back down from its electrified state. Looking from the re-bar handle which Nick had tried to grab, to the smoking digit he was bringing to his mouth, Judy realized they both had been super-charged with static electricity.
Fetching her metal baton from her utility belt, Judy winced at the massive electrical discharge as it jumped from her tool to a grounded piece of metal. Returning her attention to Nick, she giggled at the singed patch of fur on the underside of his right paw.
As the Duo climbed to street-level, Judy questioned Nick about their situation. "Shouldn't there be the Nocturnal district in-between us and street-level?"
"Not necessarily, Carrots" Nick winced at the pain in his side "If the room was built under a support, or a ventilation strut; we could theoretically *pant* tunnel all the way up to street level without interruption…"
Judy was a fair distance ahead of Nick on the climb. While the bunny's cardio was much better than Nick's, even Judy felt the deep burn of their dangerous climb. "How you holding up down there, Nicky?" Judy looked down as she spoke and quickly regretted her decision after seeing the deadly distance to the bottom.
"Just dandy, Carrots" Nick spat in between pants. "I was tempted to look down, but then I realized the view looking up is much better…"
Judy's ears folded flat at Nick's teasing as she continued to climb.
"You get it, Carrots?" Nick asked, smiling up at Judy's back-side. "Because from down here… I-I've got a great vie-"
"Detective Wilde," Judy fired a death-glare downwards at Nick as she finally reached the lip of street-level. "You'd bet-"
Judy's chiding was cut short as a massive paw caught her wrist as she blindly reached for street level. Hoisted up by her trapped limb; Judy was brought to eye-level with the tall gaunt hyena.
"Back down the rabbit-hole, eh?" laughed the striped honor-hound, before releasing Judy back into the pit.
"Carrots!" Nick yelled as the scene unfolded above him.
However, Judy was too quick. Despite her exhausted and aching muscles, Judy wrapped herself around the outstretched hyena's arm before delivering a powerful kick to his smiling muzzle. Head snapped back from the impact; the tall predator toppled backwards onto ground level.
Tumble-rolling across the prone hyena's chest and face; Judy sprung to her feet, ready to fight.
The hyena kicked his feet upwards, and in a spinning feat of agility landed in a crouched stance, facing the assailing rabbit. The hyena paused briefly to run his flat tongue along the inside of his mouth before spitting out a front-tooth which Judy had kicked in.
"You're much squishier than your friend," antagonized Judy, trying her best to slow her breathing and keep her muscles from shaking.
The infuriated predator lunged at Judy with shocking speed, catching the exhausted rabbit off-guard. Judy barely had time to slide under the assailing predator, in a desperate bid to escape. However, as Judy turned and bounded back up to her feet, she was caught full-force by the martial predator's spinning back-kick.
Flying sideways, Judy impacted hip-first with a pile of concrete debris which had been thrown away from the tunnel when the massive mechanical predator emerged. Having knocked the wind out of the offending bunny, the hyena dropped his guard to coolly walk over to where Judy now gasped for air.
"Silly rabbit," the hyena giggled as he now loomed over Judy, whom fought violently with her own battered and exhausted body to recover. "Lightning strikes, and Thunder rolls… but there is no escaping the Rain." The hyena threw his head back in barked laughter.
Judy watched in slow motion as the hyena drew back a heavy claw to strike the final blow. All of Judy's existence burned with exhaustion and screamed for oxygen. In between struggled gasps, Judy wondered if the embrace of death would be more forgiving than her current state. Dismissing the thought, Judy snapped a single paw up from her utility belt; leveling a tazer in a last-ditch effort.
The dual barbs buried them-selves deep in the flesh of the hyena's chest. To Judy's bitter disappointment, they had no effect on the looming predator.
Grabbing the lead wires and tearing them away, the hyena dislodged the barbs and disarmed Judy of her tazer in one fowl swoop. Judy watched in mangled defeated as the striped predator re-readied his heavy claw. Sealing her eyes tight, judy readied herself for the final blow.
A sickening thwack split the air… and the hyena collapsed sideways.
Reopening her eyes, Judy saw an exhausted Nick looming over the crumpled hyena, makeshift rebar club in tow.
"I'm really glad that worked…" gasped Nick, dropping his club to clutch his battered side "My ribs are murdering me right now, Carrots."
Feeling her breath finally returning to her, Judy sprung off the rubble to wrap Nick in an inescapably tight hug. "You saved me…"
Nick chuckled at Judy's passionate embrace. "Well that's what we do at the Z.P.D, Carrots… We save animals."
After taking a moment to catch his breath and return Judy's hug, Nick finally spoke up. "We've gotta call in the Mecha-Panther."
Judy pulled back to shoot Nick a death glare. "I am not calling it that," Judy retorted, prompting Nick to smile even wider. Reaching to her utility belt, Judy's shoulders dropped in disappointment.
"Oh-no…" Judy looked over to the pile of rubble which so nearly became her grave. As she had expected, smashed bits of what used to be her paw-held radio littered the ground. Judy deduced that the radio had been smashed when she had been kicked into the pile of debris.
Shifting her attention, Judy realized the city street they were on lay in ruins. The massive mechanical predator had left an unparalleled swath of destruction. Overturning cars and smashing store-front as it ran, the Mecha-Panther left a weaving tank-trail as it rampaged through the center of Sahara Square. More worryingly still, was the fact that the mechanical war-machine was nowhere to be seen.
"Nick, we've gotta go after it," Judy said, desperation thick in her voice as she turned to run down the street. "Call it in on your radio and let's go."
Dropping his shoulders in defeat, Nick quickly looked about for another solution. Something caught the fox's keen eye.
"Come on, Nick" Judy yelled, stopping briefly to look back for her partner. The rabbit's face crumpled up in confusion as she caught sight of Nick pulling something out of the rubble.
"Tell me, Carrots" Nick asked as he stood the vehicle back up on its wheels. "Are you familiar with the term 'riding bitch'?"
Oh hot-diggity!
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