Chapter 2

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AN: Thanks so much for the reviews so far, glad you're enjoying this story. Given that I'm running it with my main fic, updates will be around every two weeks. Either way, enjoy chapter two!

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Pausing at the door, the ram held it open as a bespectacled marmot walked in, carrying the all important cups of tea and biscuits. A quick glance to ensure that no-one else was coming and he let the door go, pulling out his seat and placing down his files.

Picking up his mug in his hoof, giving his papers a quick study, he glanced over at the other mammals in attendance. Grace Rooter, the marmot and caseworker for one Fleur Lopear; Dr Amy Lupuleli, a Binturong therapist and nominated representative of one Specialist Care Nurse Lylla Pinerus, and Officer Buckhorn, ibex representative from the ZPD.

The ram swallowed his hot mouthful of drink and introduced himself, an eye on the officer. "Good morning. I am Dr Capra, head of the Zootopia Community Care standards and safeguarding taskforce. We are here with the caseworker and conservator for one of our patients…" He gestured at the marmot who introduced herself. "And the therapist and chosen representative for one of our nurses, who was involved in an incident."

The Binturong smiled, only to be cut off by the policemammal. "So not a lawyer huh?"

The ram gave a glance over him, frowning. "No, no she is not…"

"So, is there a criminal incident going on or not? Because when I hear there's been an incident between one of your staff and a patient…"

"-Which there was," Dr Capra cut in. "Not conventional, but by the end you will see why we called you." He glanced over at the marmot. "Miss Rooter, if you'd begin."

That she did. "I am here to represent Fleur Lopear. Age twenty-nine, she has been under our care since her birth, transferring early out of the foster system and into community care when it became apparent she had significant learning disabilities. She has the intelligence of a five- to seven-year-old kit, though no clear neurological causes could be found. This comes with vivid… -if disturbing, imaginary friends and related stories. In addition, for a long time we believed she had serious issues comprehending the concepts of past and future, though it appears to just be a mix of a present tense only verbal mannerism and some notable cases of poor impulse control."

"In what way?" the Officer Buckhorn asked. "Violence, aggression…"

The sound of grinding teeth filled the air for a second before Grace Rooter took a breath of air in and let it out. "It is good to see the ZPD have such enlightened views about those with mental disabilities. -Either way, Fleur was noted as being kind, considerate and generally non-violent. The odd thoughtless pinching of somebody else's thing, the occasional case of just eating a meal halfway through preparing it, but nothing out of place in a young kit. For her adult life she was living in the Clairmont sheltered home, even spending three days a week working at the associated job program."

"-Clairmont?" It was Dr Capra who was cut off this time, looking down at his files. "That's an open facility. Didn't this take plase at Packshore?"

"It did," Rooter agreed. "She'd just been transferred over there that day, after a few months of wandering incidents." She sighed, shaking her head. "It started at an organised outing to the Tundratown fishing dock. Let them look at the fishing boats, go to a meal we'd booked at a common restaurant chain, give those that are mobile a chance to go around the attached wacky-warehouse play area. Either way, she broke off from the group and almost jumped into the water in an attempt to swim over to one of the boats, leaving the harbour. Kept on saying, 'it is 'Teef', 'it is Teef'."

"-Did you say Teef?" Dr Lupuleli asked, her ears pulled up.

Rooter nodded.

"Were there any walruses on the boat?"

"Plenty," the marmot said, pausing as she pulled out a plastic file, pushing forward a set of crayon and pencil drawings. The four mammals at the table looked on. Three characters turned up over and over. A raccoon, seemingly normal bar the bits of metal on his chest and back. An otter, implanted with bits of metal, part of her fur permanently shaved off and tattooed with writing over a kidney and with her arms replaced by robotic ones. A walrus, metal around his eyes and a wheelchair under his rear, in some cases fused on. Some papers were shuffled around, revealing what appeared to be Fleur's self portrait, the ZPD officer laughing.

"I see she's a fan of superhero movies. That's the mask thing from the thing Dark Mammal movie, isn't it? And… Don't think I've seen spider arms anywhere before. And what's that?"

He pointed at a bipedal tailless figure, dressed in purple with a black muzzle-less face. A gun in paw, he'd shot the otter, cradled in the raccoons' paws. In the next panel, the otter falling and the raccoon crying or screaming, the strange figure was laughing. Until the third, the raccoon leaping up on his face and tearing it apart, massive scribbles of blood marked out all as the white rabbit-spider spoke out in crude letters. 'Rocket, Floor, Teef, Go now!' 'Rocket, Floor, Teef, Go now!'

The final one showed crude figures like the mysterious one turning up and firing their weapons.

"I don't know," was all the marmot said. "It's just apparent that he represented some kind of abusive father figure. According to her, Rocket…" She tapped at the raccoon. "Learnt that he was going to kill them, they weren't going to 'get out' and 'live in the big world' or 'see the sky'. So he escaped, he opened Lylla's cage… -The name of the otter."

"Isn't the…" The officer began.

"Yes," came the hushed, shocked words of Dr Lupuleli. Her eyes were as wide as dinner plates, and she stared at the drawings over and over.

"Either way, they embraced, only for him to shoot Lylla. Rocket screamed with grief, he mocked him, at which point Rocket… Well, in all honesty went savage. Tore into him. All as Fleur, or rather Floor as she calls herself…"

"-As in the Floor Floor?" the officer asked.

"Because 'she's on the floor'" Rooter agreed, shaking her head. "It was actually the name given on the box she was found in. We thought it was a misspelling, hence her given name… But she's insistent her name is Floor. We, obviously, do not call her that…"

"-And she isn't intelligent enough to work out that she can just say she's a boy called Floor and have our jobs if we don't," Dr Capra sighed. "Regardless, I assume then that others like that thing came and killed them all, correct?"

Dr Rooter nodded. "That about sums it up. Either way, Fleur became insistent that she saw the Walrus, Teefs… 'As his are most prominent' according to her. At first I thought it was a fun misunderstanding. Her first walrus in the fur… -Then she started sneaking away, leaving… No matter what we tried. Even introducing her to a few ones close up, she was insistent that they weren't him. In the end she was a danger to herself, we had to transfer her out. As it happens, she was moved to a small secure housing unit. And just so happened to run into an otter nurse, called Lylla."

"Of all the mammals," Officer Buckhorn snorted.

"She recognised her immediately as the mammal from her memories," the marmot finished off.

Seemingly pale faced beneath her black fur, Dr Lupuleli took over. "I am the therapist, and for this meeting nominated representative of Lylla Pinerus…"

"-Odd name for an otter," the ibex officer noted.

"Less so than Ayrshire," the binturong countered, filing through her notes. "-And that's speaking as someone who's had her species put down as side-striped jackal more than once. -Regardless, Lylla Pinerus is, by and large, a normal mammal, good record, never in trouble. The only thing to note, as done by her parents, are some… unique dreams as they were. Imaginary friends. The occasional reported panic attack or flashback." She brought out a set of pictures. "These were kept by her parents and are at least twenty years old."

She moved them out, a chill running across the room as they saw the same five or so figures as in the other set. "Rocket, Teef, High Evolution…" She tapped on the black and purple figure before reaching up, pinching the brow of her nose. "Her worst ever… -Seizure, as it was, was when she swimming, back while studying for her specialist care worker qualifications. Reportedly she flashed back to being held by Rocket, outside of her cage, the two embracing and spinning only for her to suddenly feel a terrible pain in her back and fall down, not knowing what it was."

She slowly moved over and tapped Fleur's picture of the otter being shot.

"Other things line up, being in a cage, suffering, pain, the medical experiments, all the drawings, diaries and records dated years and years back. Far before any chance meeting that could have resulted in this. The point still stands though, these mammals both had identical dreams. Or rather, nightmares."

The room was silent for a moment before a hoof went up. They all turned, eyes sagging and sighs cocked in and ready, to the police officer. He lowered it with an unamused look. "I'm not going to say this is nonsense if that's what you thought. I think it's… Interesting. -But you need a scientist here, not a cop. Why am I even here?"

"Because," Dr Capra spoke. "There's another key detail that links these two mammals. Fleur, or 'Floor' as it was meant to be, was found in a box with that name scribbled on it. Abandoned. An orphan. So was Lylla. On the same day."

Dr Lupuleli nodded. "Only she was adopted by an interspecies couple at an early age. Walter Pinerus and Bova Ayrshire. What happened to them before is hard, if unknowable, to say. But it seems evident that it may well have included horrific abuse and a horrific abuser. Currently at large."

"I… I'll inform cold cases," the Officer said,standing up and pointing at Rooter. "Which dock was it? If we can confirm with that walrus…"

She nodded, starting to write down an address as Dr Capra spoke. "Check the hospital and abandonment records too. Walrus and Racoon, found under the same circumstances. Teefs and Rocket."

"Understood," Buckhorn said. He finished up his notes, his drink, grabbed a biscuit and left.

The ram looked over the two mammals left in the room, one final question on his mind. "How are they?"

"Shaken," the binturong said. "Confused."

"If anything, happy that she found her friend again," Rooter countered. "Until we transferred Lylla next door, of course. Quite the mistake, poor girl went into a full panic attack. Just over and over 'Floor, Rocket, Teef, go now.' I've never seen such separation anxiety. In the end we were thinking about medicating her until Lylla volunteered to stay on site."

"I heard they brought a baby monitor," Dr Lupuleli nodded. "Lylla is sleeping in a spare office, lets them keep in contact."

Capra nodded. "Is what's going on being recorded?"

"No, but…"

"Get it on record. For all we know this is some unconscious cueing or something, I don't know. But the more evidence we have, the better. Whatever the truth may be."

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"Rocket?"

The question hung in the air, cut through by the rapid tapping of claws on the metal keyboard. They came up, swiping at the screen, pushing on. More searches, more queries, more Astric Distillate.

The blue figure gave it a look, followed by the three in the bin. "Half of one of those can get you a one-year sentence on Xandar."

"Yeah, this look like Xandar?"

He kept on going on, red eyes focussed on the blue and green screens flicking in front of him.

"Two people can search twice as fast."

He paused, looking at her and then shaking his head, hissing. "Okay, you want to be helpful? Open up the data logs we retrieved from High Evolution. We're searching for any worlds in different or accelerated timestreams. We're looking for any references to the codenumbers 89A95, 89L06 and 89Q12. We find them, then I get in. This is something I need to deal with, okay!"

The blue figure nodded, beginning to work over the data and documents. A silence filled the room for a minute or two before she broke it. "What were their names?"

"Huh?"

"Their names."

"What do you…" he snarled, only for her to stare back at him.

"-Or are you just 89P13?"

He glared at her before reaching for his drink, freezing as he saw the cup was empty before throwing it away. "-Wouldn't even dull me down, wrong thing, stupid…" He trailed off, carrying on typing.

"I figured there'd be other victims. I know why you'd be searching for them, I'll…"

"-What, help me?"

She nodded. "That would be the expected thing. That's why I'm doing it. Their given names would be helpful in the search."

"We weren't given names."

She kept her gaze fixed on him. "Take as long as you…"

"-I don't have as long as…" He snarled, slamming his fists down on the table. "Okay, you want the lowdown? We gave ourselves our names, Teef, Lylla, Floor, Rocket. As I planned to build one when his utopia was complete and we were free only surprise-surprise, as soon as I figured out all his problems we were surplus to requirement. I tried to get us out, I tried…" His breath hitched. "I fai… -I was the only survivor. There was nothing I could have done. They died." He slammed his paw down, scanning across. "They never got to see the sky. Teef never even got out of his cage."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, thanks," he sighed. "Only now, he's dropped the bombshell. He had the idea of populating his planet with the souls of the greatest minds in human history, but that means being able to do stuff with souls… Couldn't get his grubby mitts on the soulstone, but he… -He figured something out. And decided even in death they'd be his unwilling test subjects. He's reincarnated them on a test world of his, supposedly in an accelerated timestream… Safe from the snap and such, but they're there… He just won't tell me where they are as he wants me to lose them all over again."

He kept on typing.

"-He might have made it all up."

He glanced at her before looking back at his screen.

"How much acceleration did he say he'd put on the world."

"Thirty years to one, if he started it up a year ago we're the same age. If two she's an old lady, if three…"

"Peter found his grandfather."

He froze, feeling her metal hand on his paw. She looked down. "If you want to search, call it off after three years. But I'll do all I can. We'll move Knowhere back to the debris field, scan for technology compatible with time acceleration, use the ninety-ones to look through it."

She turned, racing off, only for a call to pause her.

"-I don't care if they're old… Or gone, or we miss them, I… -I just want to know they had good lives. Not even special ones…"

"Quiet normal lives," she said, turning and racing out.

Re-tuning his search terms, he pushed on. "I'm coming Lady," he said. "I'm coming."

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."-eef, floor, go now…"

With a start, Lylla jerked awake, standing upright before looking over to the baby monitor. The panicked cries of her friend kept ringing out. "ROCKET TEEF FLOOR GO NOW! ROCKET TEEF FLOOR GO NOW!"

The otter sighed, rubbing her eyes before looking at the time and groaning. Getting woken up at a time she could count on one paw was never fun. The number of times it had happened could be counted likewise, at least until this recent arrangement. Either way, the otter knew that she had to comfort the bunny, Floor was panicking and she could stop it right away.

With some help, of course.

Making her way down, the usual nightshift nurses, a nine banded armadillo and a European badger, were waiting there. If anything, they looked more annoyed that they'd been cut off from their usual TV-box set than anything else.

It was the badger who walked forward with Lylla, two nurses were always required for anything considered 'sensitive' and this whole affair had certainly been flagged up as that. "Any idea on how you're going to get out of this mess with the patient?" the black and white furred mustelid asked.

Lylla turned, ready to object… Only, to what? "I… I don't know," she confessed, as they entered the lobby to the bedroom area. Truth be told, she didn't want to, which was ludicrous. This was a serious emotional attachment issue, completely unwarranted. And yet, her heart ached knowing that somehow the bunny was her friend. She'd thought of it right away when she'd been woken up, right? Not a patient, not a pain in the tail. A friend. Floor, not Fleur.

Reaching her door, the faint cries of "Rocket, Teef, Floor, go now," fading somewhat, Lylla entered in. "Hey there…"

Through the dark, Floor's head shifted, the room going quiet. Even before the light was flicked on, the white rabbit had raced over, glomping into the otter's chest and the pair spinning around on the spot. A quick paw up to tell the badger nurse that it was okay and Lylla reached down, hugging the rabbit back.

Only for her to freeze, ears shooting up, and then leaning out behind her nurse as if looking for anything sneaking up on them and then shuffling off to the side, Lylla awkwardly sidestepping with her. "Hey, it's okay," Lylla said, as the rabbit relaxed.

"Floor see that now. But Floor worried. Floor remember you hug Rocket after Rocket free you, and then he shoot you in back. And then…" She bit her lip. "And then they shoot me and Teefs."

A part of Lylla deeply wished to ask her about them. Teef and herself, those who'd come in and hurt them… And Rocket, why did her heart ache when she heard that name. Why did she dream of him taking them away, forever… Why did she miss that figment of her imagination so much.

But she couldn't ask.

Those were the rules she'd agreed with to deal with this situation.

To find out the truth.

Nothing that could lead on Floor. No, it had to be Fleur even though she knew it wasn't. It couldn't be anything that could give her a hint or a cue or anything.

Nothing that could corrupt the evidence.

Even as she saw it all around her, drawn up on the walls. The cages, the terrible hospital from her worst nightmares, that creature who'd put them through all that. The things he'd done to them and what they were.

Herself.

Her implants, her shaved and tattoed fur, her thin metal limbs…

A gentle claw pricking on her hand-paw snapped her back to attention, Lylla watching as Floor held up one of her paws and stroked it, felt the ridges and the claws… Gently touched the thin webbing between her fingers and pressed in, pulling down and tickling out a set of giggles from the nurse.

"I like this stuff, much more nice than little robot arms."

"It's to allow me to swim," she said.

"I guess he not want you to swim. Not have place for it in new world…" She trailed off, her ears going down. "No, he not want any of us in new world. That why he plan to incinerate us."

She almost nodded, agreeing, only to hold herself as she remembered the contract. Instead, thinking it through, she said some words of comfort. "Well, nobody wants to incinerate us here. Let's all go to bed, and wake up nice and refreshed in the morning."

She began guiding the bunny back to her bed, only for her to break off, wandering over to the window. Like all in the unit, it could be opened but the opening was covered by a perforated metal grill. Floor looked at it before getting down, trying to look out. "Floor like the forever sky like this. Floor want to see it, floor want to see it this time with Lylla, Teef and Rocket."

"I," she said, holding herself off. She glanced back at the other nurse, as if hoping for some help. The black and white mustelid just shook her shoulders. "Tell you what," she smiled. "Go back to bed. If you can be quiet and safe in your bedroom for one week then we can take you out late in the evening. There's even a full moon coming. You can see it, and the stars, and everything else. Does that sound good?"

Floor looked at her for a second or two before nodding. "Floor know Lylla not lie to me and plan to incinerate Floor and Friends instead."

"Y-yeah," the otter said in a choked out laugh, slowly morphing into a smile. "Come on, back to bed… -Do you want a quick story."

"Yes please."

And so, tucking her in, Lylla read one of the donated children's books. Once again, the whole affair had caused some changes. Space books, what few they had given the type of donations going to a female only facility, had been taken away. So too had mentions of raccoons, otters, walruses. What was left was still a fair selection, though whether it actually appealed to Floor was an entirely different matter.

Lylla had the feeling that she wouldn't like the kiddies book version of Floatzen even if she could read it to her.

Thankfully, though, there were other options available. Lylla pulled out a small cardboard book about a bunch of mammals playing some instruments, and the sounds they made… It was actually far below Floors reading level, she could happily read sentence books by herself. But the sound effects and stuff made the bunny happy and she smiled. That was what mattered.

Most of the way through, the bunny drifted off. Lylla kept reading, if far softer and quieter. And, with the hushed breathing of the bunny filling the room, off the light went. She walked out with the badger nurse, gently closing the door behind them.

-Only to freeze as a slight noise came from one of the other rooms, the badger turning and glaring in the direction of Maisy's. "Don't you dare," she huffed, only for the sound of a toilet flushing from Tabi's to hit like a wave of relief.

The two walked back out and into the staff area, the badger nurse giving Lylla one last look. "You're holding up well."

She paused, not sure what to think about it, before smiling and nodding. "Thanks."

And with that, she went back up to her temporary bed and drifted off to sleep.

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"Rocket, Rocket! Good news my sleepy y'enot!"

He jostled up from his chair, wiping his eyes before looking down, trying to focus through his ever-clinging exhaustion. "Good news?"

The chocolate furred mammal gave an excited bark. "Wve discovered large set of Pym modulation devices designed to run off main reactor outlet, processing particles and supplying out to warious time accelerated fields he was using for expewimental accelerated worlds."

"W-wait, you discovered their energy source!"

"Wvell, no…"

"-You know what I mean," he said, shaking his head.

"In any case, it was Adam who found them, though he is not as technically talented as yourself or yours truly, and failed to ascertain true purpose. Just thought looked big and sciencey."

"Right, right," he said, hurrying down. "I'm guessing each of those used a fixed-link communication-portal system in order to directly supply the various orbiting projection systems… Probably in a stable trojan asteroid or something. Get me to them, I should be able to hack in and download the destination co-ordinates."

He began racing off before freezing, two sets of amber brown eyes staring into him, practically anchoring his feet at the threshold door. Arms crossed he glared back before sighing. "Fine. Good dog! Who's a good dog!"

He raced off, even as she spun around on the spot. "I know the answer to that one! It is quite simple! It is me! It is me!"

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The cage door squeaked as it was shut, Lylla looking down as Rocket lay back where he was, Floor walking up to him.

"Rocket do interesting thing on outside? Rocket do anything new?"

"I did new mathematics," he said, looking over at the white rabbit. One of her red eyes looked back, the robo-spider legged rabbit moving herself around to get a good look at him.

"Not that we have anything more interesting to do by ourselves," Teef said from behind her. "But I would say on the list of interesting things you might be able to explain to us, complex mathematic formula and their implications might be relatively low on the list."

The raccoon looked up at him and smirked. "You just don't know how to do it."

"I am not bad at math, just not interested. -I'm thinking of Floor."

Lylla smirked, especially on seeing Rocket trying to hide a giggle behind his paw… His flesh and fur paw… She glanced down at her own, long thin and metal. She could feel stuff at the end of them, know when she was touching or gripping. But compared to her natural feet, they couldn't feel temperature or texture or so much else…

"-Let me prove it to you," Teef cut in, glancing down at Lylla. "Give me a number."

"Uh… Thirty seven."

He looked at Rocket. "Give me a not completely unreasonable function."

"Square it!"

"Okay, now… Three-hundred, nine-hundred. Two hundred ten, that goes to four twenty which goes to one three twenty. One three twenty with the addition of… Forty-nine, makes one three six nine. One thousand, three hundred and sixty-nine."

"That's… Right," Rocket nodded.

"So I am good at mathematics, it just isn't that interesting compared to things like hearing about the sky."

"Or Rocket just isn't a good teacher," Lylla said, breaking into a giggle as an overly hurt look grew over her friend's face.

"Did Rocket see interesting thing?" Floor asked. "Did Rocket see…"

"I… -I heard music again!"

Lylla blinked. "What's… Music? Who is…"

"Not a person or thing," Rocket began, trying to think it through. "Sounds! Lots of sounds, that sound similar to each other, though sometimes different. And they work together, they make patterns you hear, and they're nice patterns."

"Patterns… You hear?" The otter sat down, rubbing her forehead. "Like… Speaking?"

"N-no… There are no words, except when there are. But people speak in a special way, they call it singing. They change the sound of their voice to fit in with the music."

Lylla just stared between them, not sure if that was even…

"Music is nice, Floor hear music, faint but Floor hear," she chirped.

Lylla walked over to them, looking out towards the corner where HE took Rocket. The otter knew that their cell could see far more around there, and now they could hear this impossible thing… They could… She felt her lip trembling, only for a sound to break her off.

"La… La! La-la-la! La! La-la-la!" She cut to see Rocket, his ears shrinking back. "I'm… I'm not good at making music."

"No," she said softly, "don't worry, I think I get it, I think…" She closed her eyes, trying to think of something. "One day, in the sky when we get out. One day, when we are free to fly. It is good to have friends, -oh yes. And music too!" She finished, shrinking back a little before pausing as she saw the wide growing smile on Rocket's face.

"That was… Your voice is almost as beautiful as… -Is as… That was good!"

"It…"

"Do it again!"

And so she did. "One day, in the sky when we get out…" She sung, only this time she made her voice louder yet softer, adding a purr to it, pulling it out.

"La! La-la-la!" Rocket began carrying on, Lylla at first thinking it was his turn again before Floor began using her robot legs to tap on the floor and the cage bars. Three beats on the floor then both floor and bar together. Then two on the floor and both together. And repeating, and repeating. -She got it! They all added up. And so she carried on singing.

"It is good to have friends, -oh yes…"

A whirring noise was coming out from behind them, Teef holding his wheels and pulling back on the motors, running them at different rates, creating out a set of low constant noises in the background.

All adding up.

"And mu-sic tooooo!" She sung out, giving her voice her all. It felt janky, shooting one way and the other, but she didn't care. Back around to the top, as the others played out. Rocket kept on with his La's while also tapping a foot, adding to Teef's whirrs. "One day, in the sky when we get out…"

He responded to Rocket's addition by changing back and forth his directions and sounds far faster, making his own rhythm of noises, playing with theirs. "One day, when we are free to fly…" He sung with her, his voice down low and smooth while hers was high. "It is good to have friends," Floor sung in, before Rocket joined, all four singing out. "And music too!"

They sung it loud, only pausing as they heard a familiar voice laughing off in the distance, over and over. Rocket turned over to look, expecting him to come, only for him not to. It didn't matter though. "I think he liked it!"

"Yeah," Lylla said. "I wanna make music too, when we get out."

"I think lots of other people make music," Rocket said. "We can listen to all the best music. Together." He smiled. "He says that music is different notes, all put together, to make something better and amazing…" He slowly looked down at his implants, then at his friends, then at theirs.

"La!" Lylla sung, slowly putting her small arms between the bars. Seeing them, Rocket held on. "La-la-la!" She continued, taking on his tune. "La! La-la-la…" They sung together, Floor and Teefs starting with their own music too.

Yet Lylla was focussed on something else. Hearing it all, singing, looking into Rocket and him looking back. She felt oddly… weak… But not in a bad way. In an exciting, comforting way… And as the music carried on, she found herself and him moving to it… -Dancing, that felt like the right name for it. Dancing… That was what it meant. This. This thing she was doing with him. And him with her. And when they got out they could do it for as long as they wanted.

Which felt like a long, long time.

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A sigh came out from the blue figure. "I'm sorry…"

"What do you mean?" he asked, walking over. Even though he could see the answer already. Scorch marks, buckled plates flaring out, burns and twists and all manner of hell. Even without that, the radiation output was probably gnarly enough to have fried any software.

"The damage compromised all data systems. It's just junk, it…"

"Okay, fine, I get it," he huffed, gritting his teeth as he looked over it. "Come on, come on, there's got to be a way, think, think…"

The blue figure slowly walked over, ready to comfort him. "They were right next to the engines. I'm surprised they're not flattened like a pancake."

"Right, yeah…" He snarked, holding himself back from saying something far crueler. He was better than that. He was trying to be.

"-But point is time accelerant supply cut off, nyet?" a voice spoke out. "Time acceleration issue no longer problem."

"They'd have had a buffer supply," the blue figure said softly. "And for the explosion to punch through fast enough to go through the link before it closed… There'd be nothing here."

"But there is," he said softly. "There…" He froze, walking up to a set of panels, climbing up the petal like shards and looking in.

"Rocket…"

"Look at this."

"I am…"

"No, I mean look at it," he said again. "What does this tell you?"

"That… It was by the engines, it was hit by the…"

"Wrong!" he announced, pausing as a set of excited barks began ringing out.

"I know! I know!"

"I bet you do clever girl," he snarked, smiling at the blue figure. "Okay, if it is next to the engines, which explode… Why then does all the damage bend out of this hunk of junk!"

She walked in, closer. "Something inside exploded… It's…" She froze, looking up. "A back-flow…"

"Cut off the power, the generators go negative, the backup systems are already wrecked," Rocket explained on. "So there's nothing from stopping all of the pressured up particles on the other side hammering back and…"

"Exploding," she said, looking at the damage across the device.

"Eh, half mark!" he said. "Full answer is obviously boom, but…" He looked back and forth across it.

"Krootah!" Came a bark. "Then any capacity on other side drained, no more fuel as it were… And accelerated timestream…"

"No longer accelerated," he whispered, stepping back before turning and leaping onto her. "WHO'S A GOOD DOG!"

.

.

"La…"

"Lylla."

"La-la-la."

"Lylla!" She woke with a start, looking up at the badger nurse.

"Y-yes!?"

"You okay?"

"I…"

"Another one of those dreams?"

The otter nodded, pulling out her diary and starting to record it down.

"If you cover Tabi and Fleur in the kitchen, me and Martha need to get Maisy changed."

"Bad one?"

The badger grimaced. "I'm just glad my job for the next five is just lifting her up onto the table. I think Martha's already decided that her undisturbed box set wasn't worth it."

"Yeah, yeah…" the otter groaned, shimmying out of bed. She froze though as a paw grabbed onto her shoulder.

"Once that's sorted and they're all breakfasted, you need to go back to the district office."

"W-why?"

"I got a call from old Capra. They save they've tracked them down."

"Who?" she asked, even though she knew the answer.

"Teef and Rocket."