Chapter 11: Back to Zootopia

"Before Paradise Lost, another of the great writers of contemporary English, a certain William Shakespeare, also dabbled in the art of fanfic. Romeo and Juliet, a work adapted from an Italian poem, The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, was just one of the Bard's borrowed works." - Emilie Medland-Marchen

I lose control of the story to Nick's best friend.

Part 1: A Visitor

Old Goat's Barn in Southern Alabama

"Wake up, sleepy head!" a firm voice called out from the other side of the room. Groggily, I looked up from where I had fallen asleep, my head had been resting on the table, and that gave me an uncomfortable crick in my neck. Sitting up, I blinked in confusion several times before I frantically grabbed my glasses from where they sat. When I saw the strange creature in the room, I couldn't help but gasp. Casually leaning against the corner of a nearby file cabinet was what appeared to be a lean raccoon, wearing a dark blue business suit, white dress shirt, and a royal-blue and crimson-red striped tie. The most striking feature of this raccoon, however, was its distinctive pale yellow eyes.

"Are you an angel or a devil?" I stuttered.

"Neither," the furry-masked intruder chuckled in reply.

"Wait, I know you! You're Jake Runnel, what are you doing here?"

"You fell asleep without logging out and so I just decided to come visit you."

"That's impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible. I got the idea about how to cross over after watching that video called Rockoons TV made by Tirrel (Cerberus) many several years ago and got the idea to reach through the screen and after a few movements of your mouse, I was free.

"Who or what is a Tirrel and isn't Cerberus a three-headed dog?"

"Come on, you've watched that music video on U-Tube."

"I don't watch furries videos," I protested, trying to act offended.

"So says the guy who calls himself Old Goat," the raccoon scoffed.

"That is what they call a pseudonym...my pen name."

"Sure, it is and yet you write about a movie full of furries."

"Zootopia is a film featuring anthropomorphic animals, but it does not necessarily have anything to do with the subculture of 'furries.'

"If you say so," Jake snickered.

"Look, why are you here?"

"There are several reasons. First, you haven't written any stories about me lately."

"I've written plenty of stories about you! There is Zootopia: A Raccoon's Redemption, Zootopia: A Raccoon's Romance, Zootopia: A Raccoon's…"

"Sure, sure, but that still isn't as many stories as you have written about that fennec fox."

"Stone Kole? Okay, but making up stories about a surfing fox is fun."

"Why? You don't surf."

"Hey, I tried a couple of times."

"Does that make you a hodad?"

"Shut up, coon."

"Yep, I thought so, now back to what I was saying. Second, isn't there a writer's strike going on?"

"I'm not a writer. I'm a farmer who dabbles in fanfic."

"Having read some of your stories, I have to agree that you are definitely not a writer."

"Shut up, coon."

"When are you going to wrap up this particular story?"

"I'm not sure, I think I'm having a bit of a writer's block."

"Didn't you just tell me you weren't a writer?"

"Then we will call it a dabbler's block," I smugly answered but then I realized what I had just said didn't sound quite right.

"That sounds painful, I'm sure you can get medication to alleviate that problem," Jake snickered.

"You know what I meant."

"Do you want me to take a crack at it?"

"You can write fan fiction?"

"Anyone can do that, some just do it better than others."

"Thank you!"

"I wasn't talking about you. Now move aside and let me get to the keys."

"Sure, why not?"

"Windows 7? You still have Windows 7 on your laptop!"

"Shut up, coon!"

Part 2: Homecoming

by Jake Runnel

Disney World Monorail in the Magic Kingdom

"So, Merlin, this is supposed to take us all the way back to Bunnyburrow?" Nick asked the elderly old man with a long white beard and dressed in a blue robe and a long pointed hat.

"Yes...yes...it will," the kindly-looking magician assured the fox. "At least I think it does?" he absentmindedly added.

"Why not have it take us directly to Zootopia?" Judy asked, the rabbit's ears perked up with concern.

"No...no...no, indeed for the last time I tried to do that it landed in the middle of one of Gazelle's concerts. "What a menagerie of a mammalian muddle that made."

"Why Bunnyburrow?" the rabbit replied.

"A much less chance of starting a stampede in the middle of a field of carrots," Merlin laughed as he shooed the rabbit and the fox toward the train. "Get aboard!"

Reluctantly the rabbit joined the fox inside the passenger car. "I'm not so sure about..." Judy began but the door swooshed closed, cutting off her protest.

"This must be your first time aboard Mad Merlin's Magical Monorail, " a familiar voice chuckled. A stout rhino was lounging on one of the backseats.

"McHorn, what are you doing here?" Judy cried out in surprise when she saw the police officer.

"Actually my real name is Rocky and I came to audition for Zootopia 2. You didn't know that I have been a regular actor in several Disney movies?"

"No, what movies have you been in besides Zootopia," Nick asked in a skeptical tone.

Let's see...I was originally supposed to be in The Jungle Book, but Walt cut my part from the story's final draft, so I ended up being one of the king's guards in Robin Hood, followed by a tiny role in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and then I was Mbeya in the television series The Lion Guard. After that, I did some cameos in the 2016 remake of The Jungle Book and also the 2019 remake of The Lion King. Of course, I was in Zootopia, but my favorite role was as a giant pink dancing rhinoceros on the Aladdin television show because I got to flatten an entire city."

So you've been making movies since 1967. Hey, just how old are you?

"What does age have to do with being a cartoon creation? We are as timeless as our stories. Haven't you ever wondered why Robin and Marion have never aged or why Todd still remains such a naive, bumbling teenager?

"That means that I am always going to be my young and sexy self!" Nick snickered. Judy looked up at the fox and rolled her eyes.

"That is until someone at the studio decides to do something else with you, like what they did to poor Peter Pan in'Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers,'" the rhino pointed out. "But then they de-aged him again in the live-action remake."

"Among other things," Judy added. There was a giant jolt when the monorail began to accelerate.

"Don't worry, that is normal," Rocky assured them.

There was a continued whooshing sound and finally, the train began to slow down. "Bunnyburrow!" the rabbit happily called out in glee.

"Oh, goody welcome to Carrottown!" Nick scoffed in reply.

"My mom and dad are here to greet us...the whole family is here, Nick!" Judy continued.

"Just how big is your family?" Rocky asked while he looked out the window and the variable army of rabbits.

"What can I say, she's a bunny and they are good at multiplying in more than one way!" Nick answered with a chuckle.

When the door whooshed open, Judy bolted through the open door and into the arms of her mother who was waiting impatiently for her arrival. Soon she was mobbed by the others.

"Well, it was good talking to you," Rocky said with a nod while he hefted his duffle bag.

Nick picked up his suitcase and Judy's before he looked over at the rhino. "Yeah, see you on the set," the fox replied with a grin.

That grin disappeared when the fox saw Stu standing on the platform with a dozen of Judy's older siblings behind him. "What is going on between you and my daughter?" the farmer demanded. Nick's ears flattened when he saw that each of them was clutching fox tasers.

Judy's ears perked up, and she tried to untangle herself from her siblings and cousins. "Daddy!" she protested.

Old Goat's Barn in Southern Alabama

The raccoon shoved himself away from the table and gave me a mischievous grin before announcing, "There you go!"

"What do you mean by ' there you go'?" I asked while I read what Jake had typed.

"That means I have finished the chapter."

"You can't be finished! You've left poor Nick standing there in front of an angry mob of armed rabbits."

"That is what they call a cliffhanger."

"That's what they call lazy writing."

"Call it what you want but I'm done with the chapter," he said as he walked toward the room's door. Putting a paw on the door knob. he grinned yet again when he asked, "So, what's for dinner."

"If you don't get back here, it's going to be a raccoon," I warned Jake.

"You don't eat raccoons."

My wife is a Cajun, and, trust me, they will eat almost anything in a gumbo.

The raccoon's paw quickly let go of the knob and his ears shot up as if he was listening to someone in the distance, "Speaking of your wife, I think she is calling you?"

I opened the office door and walked through the barn towards the house. It wasn't until I was halfway across the yard that I remembered my wife had left that morning to visit her parents in Louisiana for the weekend. By the time I got back to the room, the raccoon had fled back into cyberspace.

"Conned by a coon," I sighed as I looked back at the laptop.

"Brah, you were hustled!" a youthful voice commented from the screen. A skinny fennec fox wearing only a swimsuit and holding a surfboard was looking back at me. "He hustled you. He hustled you good!"

"Stone Kole, you sound just like your father, Finnick," I replied.

"Gnarly story so far, dude! Would you like me to continue it for you?"

"No!" I somewhat rudely snapped at the surfer.

"Chill, brah."

"Sorry, but I can handle it."

"The sun is shining, and the waves are cranking, so I'll see you on the flip side, duuuude," the small fox happily called out as he grabbed his board and ran towards the surf. 'Cowabunga!'"

I closed the laptop and rubbed my temples in a futile attempt to battle an approaching headache. "I've got to get a better antivirus program," I grumbled. "Now how do I get poor Nick out of this mess?"