Chapter 14

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"Okay, that should be plenty of time. Thanks Ben!"

"You're welcome," he said, before the radio cut out. Interview with Dr Silverfox arranged for an hour from now, Judy kept on driving to their first destination for the day. Moving along the rainforest road, Nick kept an eye on the bunny at the wheel, and then he smirked as he glanced at Carmelita, the vixen's eyes wide as she looked out of the window, the water cascading down.

And then…

It stopped…

The pouring racket that had filled the entire air, drumming in over the sound of their wheels on the road and strumming engine, vanished.

Just the odd trickle of water still pattering down off of the odd leaves and branches sung out, a song cut off by the strong metal shell they were in. Instead, now without the sounds of the wipers, it was just the engine thrumming, ventilation gently blowing, and the slosh of tires cutting through the standing water.

The foreign vixen's head tilted to the side, before she settled back in, eyes moving to fix on Nick.

The todd smiled. "First time?"

Closing her eyes, she nodded. "Si," she smiled. "And the English think their Eden project has anything on this."

The joke landed as well as a sperm whale and a pot of petunias, Carmelita quickly shaking it off.

"You think it's good seeing it like this," Judy said, glancing up at her through the mirror. "My first time was riding the Zootopia express in. For the inbound trains, they take you on a loop around the city, so you can go up to the observation dome and just… And when eating in a place, looking out at it, and then walking across the bridges with an umbrella." She breathed in and out, right paw held up in a 'just right' gesture.

"Yeah," Nick agreed. "How long did it take for it to get annoying?"

"Four days, after getting a quarter to mixed up with a quarter past."

"Squelchy soggy bunny!"

Judy rolled her eyes and indicated off the main road, pulling up to a small parking space near the base of a set of large trees. Out the group got, only for Carmelita to pause, nose raised.

Nick and Judy stepped back as she wandered over and took a sniff at a nearby bin, her tail frizzing. "The Lieutenant has been here." Opening it up, she looked inside, before closing it again. "Whether she found what she wanted or not, I do not know."

"Only one way to find out," Judy surmised, walking through a shaky old gate in an old, falling apart, fence. A couple of stone steps down, and she was at the front door of a small abode, part built into the base and roots of the giant semi-artificial semi-natural treescraper. A few knocks, and she put on a smile, it only increasing as the door opened and a Honey Badger stepped out.

"Hi Honey," Judy introduced. "Just here to ask some questions. You know us two, and this is…"

"Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox," the ratel announced, pausing to slam her head against the doorframe. She blinked and looked again at the slightly retreated mammals, before throwing out her paws. "So it isn't a dream!"

"N-no," Judy clarified, the smile she put on straining. "You know, a pinch would normally…"

"Ah, you know it wouldn't for me," she waved off, walking over to shake the inspector's paw. "So, my name is Honey. Honey Badger, and I'm a honey badger. I know, right?"

"Well I have the surname Fox, so I guess," she smirked.

"Yeah, yeah, basically the same thing. Anyhow, those two big things that happened over Paris in oh-four and thirteen. So what was it?"

Nick and Judy glanced at each other nervously, while Carmelita stepped back. "Pardon?" she asked.

"You know, those wacky big coverups," the ratel carried on, shaking herself a bit. "There gotta be something secret going on there, right? C'mon, you can give. I know you were there, after all. I even got the vid of the first one!"

The police vixen took a breath in before shaking her head. "As was officially stated, those were military experiments and what went on is classified. I am unable to tell you…"

"Oh please…" Honey begged, complete with the biggest, saddest, pleading-est Honey Badger eyes known to mammal kind.

Carmelita let herself get sucked into them for just a second before her features hardened and she shook the spell off. "Miss Badger, the answer is no, and will always be no." As if for emphasis, she crossed her paws as if the mammal standing across from her was a giant overgrown kit.

"...You're no fun…"

"And this does sound a bit conspiracy theory-ish," Judy cut in, coming up and slowly taking Honey's paw, leading the badger away. "Don't want to get too into it or…"

The ratel jerked her paw back. "Okay, this ain't sheep stuff. I used to think it was sheep stuff. Transmitting rays bounced off the Mouflon Rouge, or whatever…" Carmelita gave an aside glance to Nick, not that the other two girls noticed. "But I'm passed that stuff. This ain't sheep or about them… it's. -It's like asking what happens at area 51! I'm not saying it's aliens, heck I ain't expecting it to be aliens. But something funky went on there, and c'mon, don't you want to know?"

"No," Carmelita cut in, her voice harsh and tail newly bristled. "You do not."

"Okay… but why not?"

Carmelita grumbled, facepawing herself and mumbling something or other that was profane in some kind of language. English, Spanish, Sumerian, Pawlawan, even Judy and her ears couldn't work it out.

However, the bunny's ears rose and her eyes widened, for an entirely different thing she had worked out. "Honey," she began, gesturing her down. After all, how long ago was twenty-thirteen.

"Yeah?" the ratel asked.

Judy breathed in and out. "Inspector Fox has suffered losses on the force in the past, ones that are connected to…"

"Oh!" Honey shot up, glancing nervously back to the vixen. "Sorry! Sorry about…" She gazed off, twiddling her fingers together. "Must be sensitive and uh… Sorry."

Breathing in and out, Carmelita nodded. "We received a tip off. Someone linked some of your old…"

"-Non-sheep related," Nick added.

"-research…?" the vixen carried on, her gaze turning to the male member of her species, before flicking back to the mammal in question. "To some potential mammals of interest. We'd be interested in having a look."

Honey nodded slowly, looking down at the floor and scuffing it with a paw. "Yeah… I had three mammals come not long ago looking, and I'm afraid the answer will kinda be the same."

The cops all looked at each other. "Which is?" the bunny asked.

Honey sighed, before waving them inside. "I guess it'll be easier showing you…"

In they went, the ratel running over to the sink. "Want any drinks? Or…"

"We're good," two of them answered. Nick however needed a coffee, so they waited as their host poured him some instant stuff. They were silent for a minute or so, before Honey spoke out of the blue. "There is one other thing though."

"Which is?" Carmelita asked, as Nick was supplied with his drink.

"One of them may have had a document they showed me," she turned to Judy. "A polar bear she says you know asked her if she could build it, and as I'm the one good with electric stuff she asked me about it and was curious to know what I thought."

Judy's ears flagged a bit. "Was the bear's name Kozlov?"

"I… Okay, yeah, I guess I can say it was," she said.

Carmelita leant in. "Were the three a red fox Lieutenant Vixen, a striped hare, and a swift fox called Skye?"

Honey paused for a second before smiling. "Oh so you are working together!" She then froze, glancing to the side. "But then why would you both ask for the same stuff…"

"It's complicated," Carmelita cut in. "Anyway, the bear wanted the swift fox to build something…"

"Yeah," she announced, running to her under sink cupboard and opening it up. Carmelita's head tilted as she did so, and began to roll over to the side as the large mustelid opened up a submarine hatch inside, a soft whirring coming from below, and then descended inside.

Carmelita's head remained tilted as she looked at the two Zootopia natives either side of her.

"We know," Judy said.

"We were confused as you were the first time," Nick added.

With that, Honey popped back out again and spread the sheet across the table. "Now, Skye couldn't make heads or tails off of this baby!"

"Neither can I," Judy said, scratching her head.

"I'm not even going to try," Nick agreed, turning to Carm. "So, unless…"

He backed off and let Carmelita study it. For a moment, as she turned it around and peered in, she seemed just as lost as the rest of them.

"So," Honey introduced. "You got main power lines here. Capacitor banks there. It's got elements of a railgun, but waaayyy less efficient. I'd almost say it was throwing more of the energy into what it was throwing, than trying to throw it. Anyway…"

Carmelita's ears shot up. "¡Dios Mio!"

"And there it is," Nick said, watching as Carmelita… Pulled her bag up onto the seat next to her and unzipped it.

"I knew I had deja-vu when seeing it, only I did not realise where…" Opening up the bag, she pulled out her crimson red and cutting yellow shock pistol, radiant and deadly even with the years of scuffing, denting and abuse. She placed it down on the table, and looked up at Honey. "Screwdriver?"

Clicking her finger, off Honey went.

"Light?" she asked, Judy stepping in with her phone and shining in the flashlight. Honey returned with a set of small screwdrivers, Carm picked one and quickly began undoing a small set of screws in the back..

"So let me guess," Nick said, stroking his chin. "Making their own shock pistol?"

"Not exactly," she said, as the last one was undone. The tiny ball-like ending to her weapon was pulled off, Carmelita turning it around and gesturing to Judy to bring her light over. Shining her light in, Carmelita pointed towards rows of tiny, grain of rice sized items. "Those," she began, before pointing towards the schematics. "Are those," She jabbed her claw at one on the plans.

Honey, scratching her chin, looked closer. "Yeah, but looking at the scale here, each one of those is the size of your whole gun! Also, they're in seven rows all in one line or so, not in a bowl kinda thing if they were trying to make one of those stun guns but MEGA BIG."

"Si, and trying to make one mega big wouldn't work anyway," Carmelita said, shaking her head as she put her weapon back together. "Or not work well. The efficiency drops off a lot as you get larger. I… Unless…"

"Unless what?" Judy asked.

Carmelita scratched her head. "I'm not the best to explain it. Our master at arms wasn't the best to explain it to me, either, and he and his metaphor is what I am going on. Anyway, with planes an interesting thing happens when you approach and pass the speed of sound. Drag per speed starts going up and up and up, peaking when you hit Mach one, and then… The drag per speed ratio falls down again, is fairly level between Mach two and about four before slowly going up once more." She tapped her claws on the table. "I do not understand it. But, it was explained that in the right configuration, an energy weapon like this could find its own… ultra-sized area of relative efficiency." She shook her head. "But not with this design," she said, putting her weapon away again. "It was tested a lot, but they couldn't get it. And that whole idea is only theoretical, and a dead end anyway. Any military could do far more with the missiles and guns they already have."

"You know," Honey said, moving the sheet around. "All these aren't in the format of a gun. But if you took these bolts out here, here, here and here… And attached it to a frame…"

"You'd still be missing much of the mechanism," Carmelita followed on, not sounding quite as sure herself.

"Still," Judy began, "it might be worth checking in with Kozlov. Just see what's going on. After all, the mice did follow him out to the Ewekraine and…"

Carmelita clicked her finger. "I will contact them and update them about the situation then," she said, wandering off. The three were left sitting there, Honey shrugging. "Well, anyway, as for the other thing with my old research. I don't have it anymore."

"Oh," Judy said, disappointed.

"I mean," she began, her voice stressing out a little. "Wasn't that kinda what you wanted, me to move on and…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Nick said, cutting in and comforting her. "You did good. Just, ol' law of irony here…"

"Y-yeah," she smiled, breathing out. "I actually only put it out last night, as today is bin day. The others looked but it was already gone."

"Carrot sticks,"Judy mumbled.

"Yeah," Nick groaned. "So, cleared out the bunker then, and…"

"Wellll…" Honey began, looking up. "I've kind of got into a new thing now…"

The bunny and fox pair glanced at each other.

"Oh, it's a good thing! A cool thing. The best thing. I can show you!"

"Okay," Judy said, smiling. "That would be nice."

And so Honey eagerly led them on, down into the black bunker, the strange whirring now a definite constant, always running, over and over and over. Judy's ears were shooting around as she picked up all sorts of signals. Nick's out-nighted night vision made out things moving.

And then Honey flicked the lights on, and their eyes widened.

"Wow…" Nick said.

Honey nudged up to him, smiling. "You like?"

Judy nodded. "That's... -A lot of trains!"

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Meanwhile, outside, Carmelita had her phone held up to her ear, Basil and Dave on the line. "So, you forgot to mention it?"

…

She groaned. "I suppose that is true. It also means that at the very least this bear is a mammal of interest."

…

"Well, because he's trying to build his own shock pistol… No, shock cannon!"

She nodded on to some reports, her eyes widening.

"So not extra powerful, just bigger and cumbersome."

She sniggered a bit.

"That is a fair point. I have the boffins on my side, and they don't." She paused, stroking her chin. "Is it still small enough that they can carry it around like a gun, or… Cumbersome, si."

Nodding as she listened on, she cut it off.

"Legal, yes. Able to get past rules and regulations that normal firearms wouldn't? Yes. But worth it?" She shook her head. "It would be far cheaper to build a crossbow, probably more dangerous too. A hundred crossbows for the price of one of those? No contest."

…

"Why exactly," she said. "I want to find out why. Can you look up his address on the records, or… Ah, excellent. Gracias."

Hanging her phone up, she turned to see Nick and Judy exiting Honey's house, the ratel waving at them as they left. Moving up to the car, she spoke out. "Rainforest now, Tundratown next. Seems I am getting the grand tour."

Her smile was met with a confused look from Judy, mid-way through stepping into the driver's seat. "Tundratown?" Her ears then jumped up. "Ah," she chuckled. "He might be Canidean, but he actually lives on the edge of the rainforest, so he and his son are close to his other family. We'll be there in no time." She jumped fully into the seat and began doing her belt up.

"No," Carmelita said, shaking her head. "Unless this Kozlov mammal has a misleading name and the ZPD records are wrong, we're going to Tundratown."

Judy blinked. "But I thought we agreed we were going to interview Dr Silverfox next?"

"Well there has been a change of plan," Carmelita said, opening up the back and moving into the back seat. "This new information makes the bear a higher priority."

"But he's got nothing to do with the case," the bunny cut in. "All we know is he asked a friend to make…" The bunny's nose twitched a few times, before her eyes narrowed. "Is this just jealousy or something that he's copying your shock pistol?"

Carmelita gave a level glare back. "Call it an educated concern."

"Okay," she said, shrugging. "What is the educated concern?"

"That he might be doing something odd with the technology."

"Like?"

"-I do not know," Carmelita said, voice hard. "That is why we need to go and see if we can find out."

"As far as I can see, this isn't even connected to the case," Judy said. "And we've already called Dr Silverfox and arranged an appointment…"

"Then we can reschedule it," Carmelita said.

Judy shook her head. "Listen, as far as I can see, this isn't something urgent we need to investigate. Now, maybe it is something on its own, and I'm not going to lie and say I'm not interested. But, we arranged to meet someone today who we do know is connected to the case and every way I see it, that takes higher priority. You want us to waltz on and talk to Kozlov after that? Absolutely fine by me. But let's talk to the nice fox who took time out of his day to be ready for us first."

"I still believe our best course of action would be to get to the bear as soon as we could," Carmelita stated, her tail giving an irritated swish. "But, from the looks of it, I'm not going to win this argument, so…"

In she stepped, both girls then turning to the lone guy. "You coming or what, Nick?"

He looked back, finger up. "Question. Honey threw all her old conspiracy notes out as it was bin day, right?"

"Right," Judy nodded.

"And Carmelita found Honey's bin empty, right?"

"Si."

"So then why are all of the other bins still full?"

Both girls stood out of their seats, looking around the small area of road. While some didn't show it, other bins were still clearly overstuffed and awaiting pickup.

Carmelita hissed. "In that case then, army fox and co have obviously found what they wanted and taken it." She sat back down again. "And so the day gets even worse for my pride, huh."

"Well," Judy said, paw up. "We at least know that there's one mammal in there who wants to help us out, right?"

Carmelita looked back at her as Nick got in, muzzle armed and loaded to make some kind of snarky remark back. In the end though, she shook it off. "Right," she said. "Let us make this quick then. The sooner we are done talking with your mammal, the sooner we can talk to mine."

"Is this cooperation in the air I see?" Nick asked.

Judy gave him a punch in the arm.

Carmelita approved.

And off they went..

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Meanwhile, off in Tundratown, a phone rang. "Da?"

…

"I see."

A white furred head nodded on and on, before finally saying. "Yes. Of course."

And with that, Kozlov put the phone down and walked to the window of his lounge, looking out through the reinforced glass. The snow fell weakly all around, tempered only slightly by the summer heat outside. Of course, cold air sank, and so Tundratown always needed less energy to cool than Sahara square needed to warm. Far less when you threw in The Rainforest, where unlike the rising and falling desert there was a constant, humid heat.

It was a common misconception, but most of the heat for the climate works was pulled from seawater pumped in from and out to deep offshore. The first prototype wall hadn't even bothered with cooling air, at the time and given the location most mammals didn't even think there was a need. It was hot dry air out one side, warm humid air the other. It was only after that was proven to work, and some extra funding made available, that an experimental satellite cold emitter was built on a large convenient hill. Thereafter christened 'New Phalanck Gerya'.

Kozlov snorted. More power to them he supposed.

And, it proved the concept for a much wider, much grander, far more elegant deployment. The great structure that mammals truly thought about when they heard the phrase 'Climate Wall'.

And even then, many would say that Sahara Square was benefiting off of the heat used to chill down Tundratown.

His home was the parasite, when in reality it was the other way around, Tundratown the happy user of a byproduct. He didn't care though, he let the slander of his new home slake off of him, like everything else.

Even with the warmth outside letting those districts run down the heaters, there was more than enough 'cold' to keep the Tundra chilly.

He felt it in his bones.

A sure sign of illness in any polar bear.

In temperatures that would kill others in minutes, his kind could be naked and need to cool off.

So when they did shiver?

It meant something was terribly, terribly wrong.

In all polar communities around the high north, in all species, the whisper and legend of deaths chill, creeping in, setting in your bones to try and kill you. Some would say that the Thunderbird flew over and spread it, so as to feast from the carrion left behind.

Kozlov snorted. Happy ignorant mammals.

He knew the truth.

Focussing down the lane, he saw The Big House. While this building was his home, that was where he had truly lived in a cold dutiful service to that shrew. A service that, though tainted, gave him pride he had not felt in years.

And then in one day he lost it all.

The chill had come in so quick and so fast, burning away everything and leaving him to fall into the pit.

Kozlov at least had his own property. By all accounts, he was made. Same for Fru Fru, and others in the inner circle.

So many more weren't though.

So many, hungry, fearful, the floor torn from beneath them and not enough jobs paying enough to keep them as they were.

He'd looked, given time almost all could find employment.

But with their skills so unique and now useless, it was nothing. Nothing, compared to where they were. And he knew how much that would burn at them. They would work hauling boxes or doing accounts for a wage a quarter of what they knew from the family. No longer feared or respected.

The chill would run riot through all of them.

No wonder then that the new invitation was spreading even faster.

A new organisation.

A new boss.

A new hope, to put things back to how they were. How they knew it.

And he was invited.

More than that, he was the honoured guest, the bridge between old and new.

Kozlov snorted. 'The union rep.'

But polar bears happened to have the best nose in the animal kingdom, any mammal that said otherwise was a liar that needed their head dunked in cold water. And Kozlov smelt a stink.

Breathing in, breathing out, he went to his newest safe.

He had twenty now.

A bat could sneak in and steal small things. While he'd been away from Zootopia, one had tried.

So, if they were to use this as a distraction, to try again.

He looked over to a can of spray on superglue of his. A parting gift, while he went to parlay.

Maybe it would work, maybe the glue would all dry by then.

But that didn't stop the fact that there were twenty safes to get through.

And none would have in them what needed to be kept safe.

There were only two or three mammals he could think of he would trust with it.

He only knew one of them, and they had been burdened enough for their life.

It was his burden.

His to carry.

And, as he prepared to charge into what his gut screamed was the valley of death. It would be on him. Tight and hidden, and sly and tricky too.

Because Kozlov was a smart beart.

He knew this might be the last time he ever set foot in this place, his new home.

He knew, in the grand scheme of life, he was amongst the greatest failures in the universe and always would be.

But against the storm, you had to hold strong and stay fighting.

And as he picked up a phone and dialed in, he smiled. A spare, rare one, through all the pains and burdens of life, some... warmth, managing to work its way in. Pushing past the knowledge that, once he hung up, he might be stepping out to his doom.

Because, at the end of the day, a smart bear like him knew he had a friend he could rely on when his back was once more up against the wall.

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Meanwhile, two vehicles were pulling up in an industrial sector near the port of Zootopia. Bringing up the rear was Skye in her vehicle, following along to see where her sister and boyfriend were going. Part of her wished that this was the stereotypical situation that this arrangement might arise from. As it was though, it was not, and she turned right as she followed the pair into… A drive-through Snarlbucks?

She pulled up into a parking space, tapping her fingers on her steering wheel as she waited, before the sonic boom of her text notification rang out. She went down and held it up. 'She says that we need it for our fourth member. And that if you're bored waiting, think of trains.'

Skye put it back and looked back up at the sky, shaking her head.

Given how her intel breakthrough was presently lost and off to the local incinerator, it was about the only high point of their so far fruitless mission.

Just…

Trains...

So many trains…

Before she knew it, a loud honking sounded out to break her from her reverie. She followed her sister's vehicle once more, deeper into the industrial estate, before turning towards an unassuming security checkpoint. A combat suited mammal at the post chatted with her sister for a second, before waving the two vehicles through.

With that, they both parked up, between a van and a half-empty skip. Getting out, Skye looked around. "Well, this looks like half of the warehouses I've ever seen in my life."

Lt Vixen smiled. "As is the intention. In reality, it's one of a number of security safehouses and operation centres, spread across allied nations in order to allow discrete field operations and use of assets." She pointed towards one of the shutter doors. "That door there for instance holds our helicopter."

"Because of course you'd have a helicopter."

"Of course I would," she smiled, glancing down as Jack got out. "We also have a set of secure holding facilities, medical ward, training centre and weapons depot. While surprisingly fit already, we'll be giving Jack plenty of practice under a personal trainer."

"Ah," Jack mused, walking forward with a snarlbucks latte in paw. "This beauty here then is to make sure I start out on the right side of whichever tough as nails, take no prisoners drill sergeant nasty I am to suffer under."

Lt Vixen smirked, tail coming up so she could toy with the tip. "Well, it is to help make a good first impression."

She waved them on, in through the front doors, past an empty reception and towards an electronic time clock. "This still looks like half the warehouses I've ever been to," Skye said, looking around the slightly shabby office space, all while her sister led them into the disabled bathroom and up to the sink units. Finding one her size, the red army fox pressed down on the centre of the mixer tap, flashed a tag under the tap itself, and stepped back as a loud click rang out.

And then, the sink unit, mirror and all swivelled back, revealing a passageway behind.

"Now we're talking!" Jack cheered, and even Skye had to admit that she was impressed. Though maybe not so much as the space behind turned out to be far less high tech, and more cheap and utilitarian. Two or three mammals walked past on occasion, though they all gave silent nods, nothing asked and nothing said.

Then, finally, she swivelled on the ball of her pad and led them into a firing range. "Thought I'd introduce you to a few of the perks to begin with. While not qualified for lethals, yet…" Jack looked on eagerly. "We are more than supplied with some of the most advanced and best quality non-lethals available." Typing on a few buttons, part of the wall slid back, Jack's eyes widening.

"This is heaven… This is heaven!"

"Can't say I don't agree with you," Skye mused, pausing as she saw something. "Is that…?"

"The recipe for a bad day? Or RFBD?" Lt Vixen said, looking at the small, high powered, grenade launcher like weapon. "More commonly known as a…"

"Rapid fire bad-guy disguster," Skye filled in, weighing it in her paws. "Designed to launch high velocity proximity fused skunk spray bombs…"

"Skunk spray you wish," her sister said. "Smell that sweet scent in the air?"

Skye nodded.

"That's from the yellow powder we use in the training rounds. The actual ones, filled with 'who, me?' formula mixed with a fur and cloth bonding epoxy, are kept in a secure box next to the gas masks. For use in the field and only the field, together."

Putting it back on the rack, her attention turned to Jack, currently looking at a crossbow like device. "Ah," she said, "one of our newer inventions. An automatic size adjusting bolas launcher. The button trigger on the back, have a go." Pressing another button, a target began literally running down the firing line, the mammalquin's arms and legs moving. Weapon in Jack's paws, she waved him over, the hare taking a wary aim before firing.

With a puff of smoke, two black balls, connected by string, leapt out of the end, flying through the air. They pulled apart before the line between them went taught, and then collided hard with the mammelquin's legs, wrapping them together in an instant. The artificial running stopped, the makeshift enemy freezing in place. Had he been a real live mammal, he'd have probably toppled himself by now.

"And then with the main trigger, you tranq him," Lt Vixen advised, Jack taking aim and launching a high velocity dart. It flew straight and true, pinning himself off to the centre right of the torso.

"Right into the armour, if he has any," Skye said, glancing back at her sister. "These things might try to make it easy for us, but if we run into any real soldiers… Ones who know to aim for the head and have lethals…"

"In that case, my next safeguarding measure comes into paw," Sweetie said, picking up the snarlbucks coffee and waving them on. "I for one am highly proficient, but a fourth mammal backing us up, one with a strong military track record and excellent experience in the field, was always going to be part of this equation."

"So we shake 'em, you two break them?" Jack asked.

Lt Vixen smirked. "More or less, though many of our tranq weapons also include a scentless vapour agent. One moment an enemy is smirking at the dart ineffectually pinned into his chestplate, the next?"

"Counting sheep," Jack said.

"Exactly, though you might want to refrain from using that phrase too much…"

The hare's curiosity was left unanswered as he and Skye followed her sister along. "So let me guess," the swift fox said. "Is this one of your Delta Fox mammals?"

"Yeah," Jack followed on. "You're actually running a Zooicide Squad and pulling one of them into this?"

Lt Vixen let out a snide little chuckle. "Oh please, whatever that Inspector wanted you to think, Delta Fox was nothing like that." She paused by an open terminal and, taking a pair of iris scans, opened the screen and began searching. "They were an elite mercenary group, initially trained under US supervision and with the mission of keeping a sly little eye out on the comings and goings of more regular mercenaries. Our little proxies in the market, if you will. Though, things went a little pear shaped when they were caught supplying weapons and guns to certain rebel groups. Realistically, it was a set of mix-ups and bad communication. They believed they were arming an allied militia, with satellite monitors to test whether some of the weapons were getting into the wrong paws. In reality, a series of clerical SNACU's led to them heading out with regular non-tracked weapons. And a bit of duplicity elsewhere, and… Well, you heard the story."

"They were unwittingly supplying the bad guys," Skye followed on. "Right until Interpol pounced on them."

"So effectively they thought they were under attack and fought like demons, like any trained soldier should. Up until the point where it was futile, and they surrendered… At which point, they realised they'd actually been squaring up against Le Police International. Who, with a bunch of injured operatives on their paw, were not happy." Opening up a file marked 'Delta Fox', Lt Vixen looked over her shoulder and smiled. "They prosecuted in their courts and got a conviction. And while many of our mammals chose to betray our team to save face, I organised a skilled appeal that cleared them. Recuperating some of our finest agents, and giving them a strong and willing loyalty to me and my division. Of course, some in Interpol are not happy about this, but in my humble opinion. Screw 'em."

"And so, these operatives," Jack began, as Lt Vixen brought up the pictures. Staring out, first and foremost, a muscle bound giant panda, the normally flabby skin taught, riven with muscles, the black of his eyes staring out amidst the black of his face marks. A claw scratch on one eye, a bandolier over a shoulder and a sleek, vicious bamboo crossbow on his back finished him off. He stared out at them, defiant, arms crossed in front of his yellow shirt and a straw of baboo leaf poking out of one corner of his mouth.

"Gohin Jujigun," the red fox vixen announced. "Marksmammal, brawler, and combat medic. Expert on the Yaku-za crime syndicates, and reported to have wiped out half of the once feared Shisigumi in one night."

A flick to another screen, and the fearsome stoicness of before was swept aside and replaced with a topless weasel caught mid war dance. His right eye covered with a patch, a knife forged out of a tooth of some kind was held high. "Buck Minkster," she carried on. "Paw to paw combat and infiltration specialist. Hobbies include recreational use of nitrous oxide and paleontology."

Jack and Skye looked at each other for a second, before being pulled back as the next mammal made an appearance. A disinterested looking water vole on top of a drone. "Alias Tattletail. Drone pilot, lethally annoying, will do anything for the right price as long as it's on 'the good guys side.'"

Another picture, and what appeared to be the cutest, whitest, happiest, most adorable bunny rabbit in the whole wide world appeared. Lt Vixen smiled, looking down at Jack. "Alias: Snowball. I've seen a video of him chewing through an elephant's tusk and using the tip to poke his eyes out."

Next, a female white mouse in a beret and a broader built male mouse with a bandolier of matches appeared up. "Charles de Girl and Boi. The latter is an expert in sabotage."

"So," Jack mused, "which one of these fine mammals will be…"

"Up next," Lt Vixen continued, "previous veterans of the Savage Company precursor division. Explosives expert and high speed pursuit mammal, Yuri Catsuki." Probably the happiest cheetah in existence was up and grinning on the screen, packs of plastic explosive, detonators and wires held in the pockets of her black combat suit. She'd even molded a little bit of putty into a small bunny model, currently held in her paw. Moving on swiftly, they were promptly introduced to a wolf, Markus Jawslor, and antelope, Oliver Hornski, both from the same program. Overwatch and surveillance along with coordination and sharpshooting respectively.

"I think you know the next one," Lt Vixen said, as a male swift fox appeared up on screen. "Danny 'The Dannaconda; Tipperin, US Marine sharpshooter champion, weapons expert, etcetera, etcetera."

"I know," Skye said. "You tried to set me up with him."

She smirked. "What can I say. Dad always wanted a third generation of swifties in the family. But even before that, he was well renown. You could say he first inspired this whole idea. Though… Following close behind and the actual commander of this whole operation." Another picture, this time showing a significantly older, and vastly more fed up, raccoon, one of his legs replaced with a sharp metal spike. "Simon VanDal, one of the most feared agents of yesteryear imaginable. You tell him what to do, he'll do it, even if he's quote 'too old for this stuff.' Marksmammal, brawler, a perfect soldier… if not quite the perfect commander."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"Well," she said, tapping her finger pads together lightly. "The legal issue that Delta Fox got into could have probably been avoided had a more suspicious, or openly questioning mind in command called the shots at any one time… They had Simon VanDal instead. Raccoon see, raccoon kill, raccoon do, raccoon not think things through.."

"So," Skye nodded, "that's Sweeties Eleven." She crossed her paw. "Do we pick one out to join our team or…"

She was cut off by her sister's chuckling. "Not quite," she said, typing in a new code. With a clink, a heavy door nearby was opened up and, picking up the latte, Sweetie walked through. "You see, for a long time I did think of pulling in Danny… Then I thought Simon would be more suited. But, ultimately, you'll be assisted by none of the Delta Fox crew."

The swift fox's eyes narrowed. "Then why did you give us the intro?"

Jack crossed his paws. "Oh, that's easy. Misleading us for comic effect, a classic. And I bet the reveal of who it's going to be will only make it even funnier. He or she will probably throw in a one liner too to take the cake."

"Well," Lt Vixen said, coming up to a security guard by a row of locked doors, giving him a nod. He stepped aside. "It's also due to you insinuating that Delta Fox was some kind of Zooicide Squad. Au contraire, they're loyal and excellently skilled mammals I'd have on my back any day of the week. Command wouldn't trust me to do a Zooicide Squad back then anyhow…" She gave them a look, her fingers steepling and running against each other as her grin pulled up. Skye glanced down at Jack and Jack back up at Skye as Lt Vixen opened up one of the doors. "But now that I proved myself with that, they trusted me enough to do a Zooicide Squad for real! With none other than an ace army sharpshooter, field medic instructor, and doctor of biochemistry to boot. May I please present to you, the fourth member of this team…"

The door swung open, and Lt Vixen held out the latte for the mammal inside, Jack and Skye's jaws hitting the floor.

"-Doug Ramses PHD"

The sheep drank it in one long gulp, then threw the cup down. "And Cold with no extra foam. Hffff… Never trust a fox."

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AN: Danny Tipperin is from Fire Triangle belongs to Merc Marten, Simon VanDal is from Born to be Wilde and belongs to Berserker88 and MindJack. Oliver Hornski, Yuri Catsuki and Markus Jawslow belong to Yitexity, creator of Savage Company, probably the greatest Zoot fan comic there is.

Lt Vixen's thought process kind of mirrors my own. After first thinking of having just the three mammal gang, I thought of having a fourth member. At first Danny, giving him a 'happy ending' so to speak… For chemistry's sake I then erred towards Simon. Being more a deadpan comical character, I felt I could have more fun with him via his interactions with others.

I don't know where I got the idea of the fella I ended up settling on, but once I had it, it could only ever be Doug Ramses (PHD). What I've written ahead pretty much proves it. We're gonna have a lot of fun with him.