Chapter 9 – Confrontations
Nick, Judy, and Dyan were sitting on his couch while they watched the ZNN Nightly News. At the moment, the news was reporting about Dylan's 'brave act' of rescuing Zoe. They showed an updated photo of Dylan with his beard as they gave the report. The next sentence that Fabienne spoke caught their attention.
"One of our reporters was able to interview Ms. Loper after her hospital visit."
The screen cut to show Zoe standing in front of the Zootopia General, the harsh lights shown on her causing her light grey fur to appear almost white. Dylan noted how the lights did bring out her eyes though.
"Ms. Loper, would you care to tell us, in your own words, what happened?"
Zoe explained how she had been leaving her boyfriend's apartment, heading to the bus stop nearby, when she had been pulled into the alley and threatened. That they were going to rape her and she felt helpless because no one seemed to be around. The reporter would interject the odd 'mmmhmmm' or 'and then what happened' into the interview.
Then she described how Dylan entered the alley and, using a large wooden pole, fought the gang causing two of them to be arrested and running the other three off.
It was the last question and answer that made Dylan feel warm inside.
"Ms. Loper, what would you say to those mammals that feel Mr. Ambrose may be a threat to our wonderful city?"
Zoe looked directly into the camera and answered "I think that if only one out of ten mammals in this city were half the mammal that Mr. Ambrose is, our city would be a lot safer and much better off. After all," Zoe then smiled before finishing "It's not every day that a girl gets rescued by her very own hero now is it?"
The screen then cut back showing both Fabienne and her co-anchor, Peter Moosebridge. Fabienne began as she looked over to Peter as if they were just having a conversation, "Dylan Ambrose, hero. It has a nice ring to it don't you think so Peter?"
Turning to face Fabienne, he replied "Indeed Fabienne. A very brave mammal indeed. Not jealous though are you?"
Fabienne looked surprised but Dylan could tell it wasn't her true surprised face, having seen the real look before.
"Jealous Peter? What do you mean?"
"There have been rumors flying around that you two have been dating. Is it true?"
Fabienne looked amused "Well Peter, there's rumors and then there's facts. And the fact is... Yes, we've been dating and I can confirm that Dylan is a gentle, kind, and all around good person."
"Well Fabienne" Moosebridge said as he turned around, faced the camera, and smirked "I doubt that the members of the Happy Slayers gang that ran into him would describe him as 'gentle' and 'kind'."
Dylan sat there, stunned. He hadn't expected Fabienne to out their relationship to the entire city like that.
Judy used the remote to turn off the TV as Nick smirked at his friend "Well buddy, it seems as if your popularity is about to take off."
Dylan shook himself out of his introspection and added "That's not neccesarily a good thing buddy. All those ladies that have been giving me marriage proposals will probably be writing hate mail now."
"Or, they'll be even more aggressive in marriage proposals." Nick smiled.
"That's what I'm even more afraid of. Imagine me tied up with a gag in my mouth, laying on the floor, as a preacher stands in front of me and a mammal in a wedding dress stands at my feet." Here Dylan took on a different voice trying to sound like another person 'Do you, Dylan, take this mammal to wife' and while I'm trying to scream out 'no' the woman interrupts and tells the preacher 'He says yes'."
Nick laughed and said "A gag? Kinky."
Dylan couldn't decipher the look that Judy shot her husband. It was something like 'I can't believe you said that'.
At that, both Nick and Judy got off the couch and made ready to leave.
"Now remember, whenever you leave, make sure you have something to defend yourself with!" Judy said as she looked at her husband with a 'got you that time' expression.
"Yes, mother..." Dylan snarked.
Judy smacked him on the leg then smiled and said "Jerk."
"Look," Dylan commented, wanting to put his friends at ease " My door is double bolted. I have my wakazashi in a sheath under my dining table, My katana in the bathroom, and my nunchaku's are under my pillow. I have my sai's hidden in one of my kitchen drawers and my Escrima sticks are in a sheath attached under the coffee table. If I have to go out, I have my two expandable batons. I also have you guys and the Zootopia Police Department on speed dial."
"What about your big stick?" Judy asked.
"Judy!" Dylan took on a fake innocent expression and then continued coyly "Not in front of Nick!"
Judy just gaped at him with wide eyes, a definite blush appearing on her cheeks before she facepalmed herself and groaned. Nick let out a bark of laughter.
Nick's chuckled before becoming serious again. "My bo staff is under my bed. It's not practical to use in an apartment this size. Look guys, I'll be okay!"
Judy smiled but Nick didn't look convinced.
Dylan's expression softened "You guys need to go home and go to bed, okay?"
Nicks expression morphed into a sly one and, with a low, seductive, tone of voice looked at Judy and said "Oh! I like the way you think my friend!"
"NICK!" Judy exclaimed, bringing her paws up to her cheeks. Dylan could have sworn he saw her cheeks turn red again before they were covered. Of course Nick just smirked.
Judy gave Dylan a hug goodbye while Nick gave him the male version of a hug, AKA 'the fistbump'.
Shutting and locking the door, Dylan heard Nick ask his wife "So, Judy, about the gag?"
"Nick!" Judy exclaimed, trying to be quiet while still getting on to her husband.
Hours later, Dylan was woken by the sound of a crash and falling cans. He had rigged a tripwire in front of the window in case someone was able to, somehow, get to the window on his second floor apartment and try to jimmy it. Which seems to have happened. The tripwire caused the intruder to fall onto the couch, but also caused the cans Dylan had fashioned into a pyramid on the side table to fall, causing a loud racket.
Standing up, clad only in his boxers, Dylan pulled off the sling and grabbed his phone. Hitting the button for the ZPD, he reached under his pillow and snatched both of his nunchaku. He may pull some stitches, but he would need both to defend himself.
"ZPD, what's your emergency?"
"My name is Dylan Abrose, I'm at 213 12th street. Someone has just broken into my apartment."
"Stay on the line, we're sending a unit to you now."
'as if' Dylan thought, they'll get here too late if it is that gang retaliating. Dropping his phone on the bed, he switched one of his nunchaku's to his, now empty, right hand. Slowly stepping forward, hoping that the carpet muffled his footsteps enough, he peeked through the door into the living room. Enough light came in through the now open window that he could make out shadows.
Dylan used the nunchaku in his left hand to suddenly flick the light on. Standing about ten feet away was a member of the same gang from before, as evidenced by the patch of a bloddy knife. The hyena was larger than normal with the usual large knife in it's right paw.
While both were blinded, Dylan was able to recover faster as he was expecting the sudden brilliance and had squinted his eyes. While the hyena was still blinking, Dylan said menacingly "I suggest you leave. I've already called the police and they're on their way. I don't want to hurt you."
The hyena gave off that cackling laughter they were famous for and, unimpressed with Dylan's statement, said "By the time they get here all they'll find are your guts on the floor Furless Wonder!" He then leaped forward, slashing with his blade.
Dylan twisted to the left and out of the way of that strike. He snapped his right handed nunchaku out, hoping to catch his foe on the wrist and make him drop the large knife. However, he missed, and hit him on the forearm instead. The hyena's speed was telling up close.
Both opponents swung around the other in a circle, now leaving Dylan with his back to the living room area. Not a good position to be in if there were others coming. So Dylan started shuffling backwards as he'd been taught. He was forced to jump backwards as the hyena leapt forwared, landing on his feet and thrusting forward.
Once again, Dylan was able to dodge the blade, but this time he was a bit more used to the others speed and was able to do a front snap kick catching the animals wrist, forcing it upward and numbing the paw. The hyena yelped and pulled his arm back as his knife was embedded into the ceiling, out of reach.
The hyena snarled "That's okay Furless, I'll just use my claws and teeth, it's more fun that way anyway. Get ready freak! I'm about to eat ya!" Then dove for Dylan. However, Dylan dropped flat on the floor causing the attack to miss. Then he rapidly rolled over and jumped up as if he had been pulled by marionette strings. Dylan stood with both Nunchaku twirling, ready for the next attack. All he had to do was defend himself until the police got here. But, if an opportunity came to neutralize his enemy, then so be it.
The hyena got to his feet, arms wide and an evil grin on his face before he groaned, his eyes rolled up in his head, and he fell face first onto the wood floor of Dylan's living room. Dylan was surprised, he hadn't even landed a blow that would cause something like that. It was then that he heard a noise over by the still open window. Dylan spun around, already swinging his weapons, on guard. He relaxed when he saw Nick climbing in through his window, his dart gun still in his paw.
Dylan gave a heavy, relieved sigh as he dropped his weapons on the floor. "Well, you guys got here faster than I thought you would."
Nick explained "I was raised running the streets. Something just didn't seem right tonight so Judy and I staked out your apartment. We didn't see the hyena, but we did see the light come on and the call over the radio. He apparently used a rope with a grappling hook on it to climb up to your window. Since it was there and it's the best way right now to get into your apartment, I climbed it as well. When I finally got to the window, I could see him about to rush you so I shot him."
"Well, I'm glad you did!"
"Judy should be knocking" the sound of someone pounding on his door with a muffled but very clear voice yelling "Dylan! Open up!" from the other side "right about now" Nick finished.
"Are you hurt?" Nick asked. Dylan shook his head and said "Nope, never laid a claw on me." Dylan dropped his Nunchaku's on the floor before walking over and opening the door to find Judy, her dart gun out and pointing into the apartment as her eyes swiveled around inside looking for any threats. Judy pushed through and noticed the unconcious Happy Slayer on the floor.
Judy turned back to Dylan and opened her mouth, paused, closed her mouth and turned away from Dylan, her cheeks flushing red. That seemed to be happening a lot recently.
"What?" Dylan asked.
"Uh, Dylan? You're still in your underwear buddy."
Dylan looked down and huffed. As he walked to the bedroom he said "People at the beach wear less than this." He pulled on a pair of his jeans and then walked out seeing Judy going through the pockets of the now handcuffed hyena while Nick was looking over Dylan's 'Early warning system'.
"Nice." Nick commented.
"It worked, that's what matters." Nick agreed.
Judy held up a cell phone. It was equivelent to a first generation 'I' phone. A bit old but still supported by the company. Most people had the 'I3' these days. "We'll take him and his phone back to HQ. Maybe we can get something from one or the other. Hopefully both."
"Did he say anything that might help?" Nick asked.
"No. He did say he was going to eat me. Does that count?"
Judy looked shocked. Nick asked "Were you able to record that? It's a Class A felony to threaten someone with that."
Dyaln shook his head, then answered "Nope, a little busy."
All three heard the sirens and screetching of tires just outside Dylan's apartment. Judy nodded and said "I'll go down and brief them. I'll get one of them to come up and grab our perp." Then she turned and left.
Nick turned to Dylan and said in an amused voice "You sure know how to stir things up don't you Dylan?"
"I'm not happy about it. All I want to do is finish college, run my business, and play my music. Being a target wasn't in the plan."
Dylan looked out and could see some of his neighbors poking their heads out of their front doors. Hoping to calm their nerves Dylan waved and let them know that everything was okay and they could go back to sleep. All but one did so. The odd one out was an elderly Bighorn Sheep named Mrs. Pickering.
Mrs. Pickering ambled up to Dylan slowly, her arthritis made walking difficult. Dylan met her part way.
"Are you okay young one?" She asked. Her voice had that quavering tone that all mammals seem to get after a certain age.
"I'm fine Mrs. Pickering. You can go ahead and go back to sleep. Let me know if you need help carrying your groceries up okay?"
"You're such a nice young mammal! Heard about you and Fabienne Growley. Hope you are both taking care of each other! Mr. Pickering always treated me like such a lady, I tell you what!" She then smiled at him and went back to her apartment.
Seconds after she had closed her door, Officer Wolfard turned the corner by the stairs. As he got close enough to speak without yelling he said with a smirk "You're keeping us busy Dylan!"
Dylan winced and said with exasperation "I'm not trying to. Besides, I already had this conversation with Nick." It was then that Dylan realized that it didn't hurt to move his arm around. Well, at least there's one silver lining to tonight.
It didn't take the officers too long to finish logging in all the evidence, including the long knife stuck in his ceiling. Wolford and another officer that Dylan hadn't met, a pig named Swinton, carried the unconcious hyena out.
Dylan thanked everyone as they left and then looked at the clock, which read 5:02. Looks like I can get a few more hours sleep before I have to catch the bus for school. He checked that the rope was gone outside his window and noticed a patrol car across the street from his apartment. Feeling a bit safer he crawled back into bed and was out as soon as his head hit the pillow.
oooOOOooo
"Hey Dylan!" Rick's voice was clear over the sussuration of the background conversations and such from the other students in the Student Commons area.
Dylan stopped walking and turned toward the voice before his friend ran around him, up the back of his trousers, shirt, then up to his shoulder. He had been careful not to sink his claws past the clothing.
Dylan shook his head prior to stating "Rick, I wish you wouldn't do that."
"I made sure not to claw you O Knight."
"O Knight? Seriously?"
"Hey, didn't you ride in to save the damsel in distress?" Rick said with a huge grin.
"Strolled in actually."
"Was she properly thankful?" Rick asked wiggling his eyebrows.
"Are you keeping your brain in your pants again? For your information, she kissed me on the cheek and that was more than I was expecting. What about you? Have you gathered your harem yet?"
Rick laughed "You know it! There's no she squirrel alive that can handle me by herself!"
"Back on topic. You don't hurt me when you do that, but you're wreaking havoc on my clothes."
Rick rolled his eyes in an exaggerated manner "Oookkaaaayyyyy, if you insist."
Turning serious, Rick asked his friend "Heard you were attacked in your apartment. I was worried about you but, seeing as you're here in classes, you must be okay."
"Yeah, I'm going down to the hospital this afternoon to have my stitches taken out. On another note, I've finished two simple phone games that Zootopia Telecom is interested in. We've a meeting tomorrow to talk to them. This could get Prism up and running as well as land me an apartment closer to school."
Rick's face lit up at the news. He had bought a few cheap phones and took them apart to see how they were made. He'd written down some ideas he'd had on how to improve them.
"That is awesome! Just let me know when okay?"
Rick noticed they'd left the Student Commons area. "Where are we going?"
Dylan smiled "The Conservatory. Wade was going to meet me there and discuss the band I want to put together."
"Alright then, I'll leave you to it. I need to do homework and then tear apart some more phones. I'm still waiting for you to let me look at your phone hint hint."
"Not today my friend. Let's get our business on it's feet first. We'll design some simple phones based on mine and have them put our program into them. You design the phone, I'll write the code. My code doesn't take up as much space as the one that is in common use right now so I can put more stuff on it."
Rick nodded his head and said "Works" before fist bumping Dylan and then jumping down to the ground and scampering off.
Dylan continued toward the Conservatory when his phone, the one he'd bought at a Horizon store since his wouldn't work due to the difference in code. He looked at it and saw that Zoe was calling him. I don't remember inputting her number. But he answered anyway.
"Zoe? Hi! Um, how'd I end up with your number? Did I ask you for it at some point?"
Zoe's voice came over the speaker sounding a little tinny and sounded like she was speaking through a tube. This was one of the things Dylan wanted to fix with his business. "No you didn't. But I corrected that oversight the other day when you went to the bathroom while I was there. Now, what's this I hear about you being attacked in your apartment? Are you okay?"
Dylan answered the last question first. "Yes, I'm okay. Yes, I was attacked in my apartment but they didn't even touch me. Nick showed up and darted him."
"Thank the gods! I was worried about you! So, what are you doing right now?"
"Headed over to talk to a friend about starting a band. You?"
"Waiting for a lecture to start, when it's over my boyfriend is supposed to pick me up for dinner.
"Good. I hope you have fun. Just be safe okay?"
"I'll do my best Dylan. I'll talk to you later, the professor just walked in! Bye!"
"Bye"
Dylan hung up and then stuffed the phone back into the pocket of his jeans. A few minutes later he was walking down between the rows of seats, listening to his friend playing music on his clarinet.
Wade looked up from the sheet music he was following and did a head bow to acknowledge Dylan and Dylan waved back. Dylan sat down in the front row to both watch his friend play and to listen to his music.
Wade, even though a seriously huge Gazelle fan, preferred Classical music. Zootopia had their equivelent composers such as Moosart and Beetoffin. The music was similar to where Dylan had come from but he still noticed differences.
After Wade finished Dylan clapped enthusiastically "That was beautiful Wade!"
Wade smiled back "Hey Dylan! So, a band huh?"
"Yeah" Dylan answered as he stood up and climbed the steps for medium mammals onto the stage. "I was hoping you could help me with that."
"How so buddy?" Wade asked as he laid his clarinet in his lap.
Dylan sat down in one of the folding chairs like Wade was in. "I want to build a variety band, playing mostly my style of country music. I've listened to what is out there right now and I think I can get more people interested if I play songs I know."
"Okay, show me what you mean."
"Could I get a violin?"
"Sure!" Wade exclaimed before jumping off his chair and, after he laid his clarinet in it's case, went back stage, returning a couple of minutes later with a violin case. He handed it to Dylan and sat back down.
Dylan pulled the violin out of the case and rosined up the bow, Wade watching the entire time. It seemed Dylan knew what he was doing. While he did that he explained. "I'd actually need other members on piano and guitar. I play both, but one person ya know?" Wade nodded.
Dylan performed Kenny Chesney's She thinks my tractor's sexy. Wade had closed his eyes and nodded along to the music, a slight smile on his face.
After Dylan had finished, Wade opend his eyes and said "That sounds a bit more progressive than what's currently on the hit list for that genre. It would probably be poplular with most, just not with the die hard, old fashioned, country music lovers."
"I've got that covered too. Let me use an acoustic guitar."
Wade seemed to move a little faster this time, maybe to see what Dylan would do now.
Dylan took the case and pulled out the well used guitar nestled inside. After checking to make sure the strings were in tune he began to play I walk the line by Johnny Cash, singing in his lower register.
When Dylan had finished that song, Wade nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like something that would work. What about any original songs? You have any?"
Dylan shook his head sadly "No. While I can read music and sing, writing songs just isn't in my wheelhouse. But, where I come from, a lot of artists didn't sing their own songs, they bought them from people who had a talent for writing them, but not the voice to sing them."
"Hmm." Wade hummed "What about royalties?"
Dylan smiled ruefully "I have no way of getting royalties to the songs owners. Where I'm from, that was usually handled by the venue anyway. You'd just show up, play, and get your money when you were done. Besides, they're such great songs that I'd want everyone to hear them. The problem I'm having is that there are several songs that reference places that don't exist here and/or concepts that have never surfaced here. Such as the extremely popular song The Devil went down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels Band."
"I see what you mean." Wade said "I have no idea what a 'devil' is or where this 'Georgia' is supposed to be. Would you sing it for me anyway?"
Dylan picked up the fiddle again and started playing the song. It wasn't easy as part of the song was supposed to be played by a bass guitar but he did the best he could. After he finished, he let Wade know that, for it to sound correctly, it needed band members.
Wade said he understood and, while he could get the flavor of the song, without having a background for the music it seemed to lose in translation.
"I tell you what" Wade said after thinking for several long moments "I know a some mammals that could be interested. Let me check with them and I'll give you a call when I find anything out okay?"
"Sounds good Wade, thank you!"
Dylan helped Wade put the intruments back and then, a fist bump later, headed out to Zootopia General to take care of his stitches.
oooOOOooo
Dylan was sitting in a room after having been examined and cleared to have his stitches removed. The doctor had just left leaving the door to his room open by several inches. Due to this, he was able to hear the conversation the doctor was having with one of the nurses, an armadillo.
"I don't want to do it!"
"You are a nurse in this hospital and it is your duty to aid those who need medical assisstance!"
"I'm not required to place myself in danger! I've heard what he did to those 5 mammals and I'm not going within reach of it."
"It is a male and has a name! Fine! You won't be required to do this but I will be mentioning this to the charge nurse!"
Pretty much all of Dylan's good mood left him. He didn't know why it hit him so hard. He'd been subjected to much worse in the first months that he'd been in Zootopia.
A few minutes later a different nurse, a very nice alpaca came in and removed the stitches for him talking all the while about nothing of consequence. At least tomorrow was another day.
A/N: Yes, there was a nod toward Spiderman and Robinhood: Prince of Thieves there. Hope y'all caught that :-D.