Hello again my good and loyal readers. Here we have yet another distraction of my muse. All predicated from a sudden addiction to the music of Vector Seven and the like. It's very Cyberpunk. There's hints of Ghost in the Shell, Bubblegum Crisis, Robocop, and other things.
My Beta states that there are a LOT of references in this thing, more than I think I consciously included. Tell me what you find. I managed to avoid pulling in some straight up Shadowrun and\or RIFTS Cybernetics, but it was a near thing, let me tell you. ;)
Anyway, nothing much else to say. Work continues apace on other stories like Uncomfortable Conversations, Paws&Claws, and of course, A Friendly Hustle, so look for updates for those other stories, hopefully soon. The next chapters have already been split off, I am just trying to find the time to get editing passes done.
I do not own Zootopia or its characters, that's Disney. I only own my own OC's. Though with hints and teases of Z2 at some point in 2024, one can only hope it will come up to the standard we hold Z1 to.
Anyway. On with the show, such as it is.
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Chapter 1
Nightmares, Shattered Dreams, and Loss
Judy looked at the back of Nick's vest as they moved through the laboratory and office building of GenoMamal Corporation, and tried to scream. She tried to move. Tried desperately to do anything to stop what she knew was coming. She knew it was coming as she followed him without the ability to affect what was about to happen and her heart shattered all over again because of it. It didn't matter that they were supposed to have HV-HE (High Velocity - High Explosive) rounds for their weapons. She already knew what was coming.
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The call had come in about a rogue experimental cyborg. Normally this meant creating a security cordon and letting the corporate security mammals do their thing. In a very unusual shift, the ZPD had been allowed access to the GenoMamal Corp cybernetic laboratories.
It was the GenoMamal security forces themselves who had called for backup. Mostly because they only had four mammals that could actually move around in the section of the lab where the problem was. Therefore, Nick, Judy, and a coyote named Gary from Precinct 6 were teamed up with the GenoMamal security team.
They were hunting the rogue, experimental, military grade cyborg built by GenoMamal Corp. Not unusual by itself. The problem being, the brain they decided to use to test the experimental, fully armed cyborg body, the GenoM executive had called a Boomer, was Doug Ramses.
Years before, laws had been passed that allowed corporations to offer up a reprieve of sorts to mammals serving life in prison. With the Department of Corrections and legal sign off, which meant review and a court order signed by a judge. They could submit themselves to cyber experimentation, and in exchange they would earn time off their sentence. It seemed like a good idea, in theory, and generally proved to be.
The life sentence was counted as 200 years from when they agreed to participate. The more severe the experiment, the more time credited. The mammals that agreed to get the very first brain recorder implants were paralyzed now, but they were otherwise free, though supervised.
The advances the program created had truly helped all of mammal kind. Judy herself had a lower leg and paw replaced at this point. She, Nick, Gary, and just about every ZPD officer now had multiple implants. Basic communications devices so they can talk without speaking, granting them a sort of cyber-telepathy. Nick had a targeting sight in his eyes now, which made the already top sniper of the ZPD, even more accurate.
They both had subdermal armor and the brain recorder implants. The ZPD health plan even covered the cost of a clone body and the upload of the recording. With the technology now available, and despite not actually needing it, Nick got an immune booster implant and was put fully on the ZPD insurance, without caveats.
The sort of experiments that mammals like Doug were offered were however far higher risk. They had set him up for a full conversion cyborg test. Only… with Doug, they put him in an experimental body that was armed to the point of making an entire platoon flush with envy. Doug, being Doug, even though those weapons were supposed to be disabled, hacked the system he was installed in, turned on those weapons, and commenced killing… everyone. He also managed to identify and turn off the remote disable and destruct functions.
The only reason he hadn't left the building was because he was surrounded by the GenoMamal security mammals, mostly rhinos and elephants, equipped with cannons. Cannons more than capable of destroying him. They were also three levels below the lab he was initially in, because he was slowly cutting his way down towards the sewers and freedom.
They'd been given the specs for the cyborg body Doug now had, so they could put him down, ideally with minimal damage to the body. Thankfully, they hadn't installed all of the armor yet, just most of it. Thus the HV-HE rounds they had been issued.
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Bogo over Comms. ~Hopps. Wilde. Status?~
Nick responded as Judy was sweeping the room they had just entered, a cube farm. ~We have not located the target yet, Commissioner. According to the GMS guys, he is on this level. Have they given an explanation why someone like Doug; who was supposed to be on the excluded list; was given an experimental, fully armed and armored, borg body?~
Bogo groaned over the comm link. ~Negative, Lieutenant. What's the status of your better half?~
Judy chuckled over the comm. ~Just finished clearing a room, sir. There isn't much left on this level. Though he seems to have hacked the security system on this level, so we can't pin him down exactly.~
Judy turned towards Nick and the door as Nick covered her retreat, to have the wall behind him explode towards them. Standing in the hole in the wall was the Doug-borg. "YES! I knew they'd send you two beasts after me if I stayed in this part of the lab. Idiots only using megafauna for security. Just dumb." Laughing the laugh of the completely insane. "I'll finally get to kill you off."
Nick was knocked toward the middle of the room and Judy. Rolling with the impact, he came up, weapon hot. "Hi Doug." He let fire full auto into Doug, only to have the rounds pancake on the armor plates. Dodging to the side as Doug lit up where he had been with the very rounds Nick thought his weapon was equipped with.
Judy Jumped up and let loose herself, only to have the same happen with her rounds. Quickly dodging away from where she landed as Doug again started to riddle the room with the very HV-HE rounds they were supposed to have.
Judy all but yelled over coms. ~Control, this is Hopps. I don't know what they hooked us up with, but they are not HV-HE rounds. At best, they're standard, despite the markings we reviewed.~
Nick picked up as they dodged through the room. ~Going to have to get up close and personal. Hope I can get to one of the unarmored areas. I'll remind you that I pointed out that the rounds felt light when we were given them.~
Bogo came over comms. ~Damn it! I'll find out what is going on. Retreat if you can.~
Judy responded as Nick was busy dodging. ~Negative on retreat. We're cornered in the cube farm and under direct fire from Doug. What's the status of Chet or the GMS team?~
Bogo growled after a moment. ~Disabled. You're on your own.`
Nick yelped off to one side of the room. "Son of a… Dagmuncher clipped my tail! Hey, Doug! I'll be expecting a written apology to my tail after this is over! Why don't you just power down now and surrender?"
Doug seemed to be focusing on Nick, cackling at Nick's shout. Taking advantage of Doug's focus, Judy began working her way towards Doug herself. The only way out was to take Doug out. Popping up and focusing on the head in hopes of disabling some of his optics or other sensors, Judy yelled. "Hey, Doug. Did they tell you about Dawn?"
Doug responded curiously as he continued to fire towards where he thought Nick was. "No. Haven't heard anything from her since we were arrested."
Judy pulled a holo from her belt and tossed it into a clear area, her voice coming from the Holo. "Yeah. She went through some counseling, and unlike you, genuinely felt bad about things. She was released and reconnected with an old flame from when she was just a lamb. Turns out she always had a secret thing for larger predators. She's married to a wolf."
Doug roared, focusing all his fire on holo. "LIES!"
Nick tossed a holo out of his own, his voice coming from that. "Nope. They make the cutest couple. That old kit's bracelet she never took off. It was a gift from her, Puppy, when they were like six. Before you and her dad got into her head." Then talking to Judy over comms. ~Made it to the wall behind him.~
Judy replied. ~Same. I assume you used the rest of your holos out there ready to trigger. Play some whack-a-mammal.~
Nick chuckled. ~You know I did.~
Over the next several minutes, holo's of Judy and Nick popped up throughout the room, driving Doug to distraction, to the point that he emptied the drum magazines for his weapons, as well as every micro-missile he had. The room was fully destroyed.
Judy and Nick popped up at that point next to him and commenced to unload into those areas that were missing the armor plates. What they did not know is that Doug had been gifted more than just the cannons and micro-missiles he had been using up to that point.
As Judy approached, Doug swung his head to that side and before she could react, a high energy laser lanced out severing her arm just below the shoulder, sliced her weapon in half, and ignited the ammunition in it. The blast shredded her other arm and legs. Only her tactical and subdermal armor and helmet kept her from being killed outright. That didn't stop her from screaming as her armor automatically applied tourniquets to the severed and destroyed limbs.
It took a moment for the automatic neural blocks to kick in and stop the pain. Then she was able to lift her head and see Doug approaching. "Oh good! You're still alive!" Doug chuckled as he approached, ignoring the rounds pinging harmlessly off his back. "I get to properly watch you die. Then I'll kill your fox, before hunting down this wolf that has poisoned Dawn."
Doug leaned down and picked Judy up by the front of her body armor. Bringing her close. She spoke over comms. ~I've got enough left in my arm to get my paw into a gap and blow it. That should disable him long enough for you to get in a kill shot, Nick.~
~Won't that cost you the power that 's keeping the nerves dead?~
~No choice. Be ready. Then find me a battery.~ Judy then laughed over the link darkly. Judy spoke, her voice rough. "Don't count on it, Doug. She's pretty happy. We've even had a few chats. I don't know if she'll ever be a friend, but she is definitely sorry for what she did and the pain she caused."
Pulling Judy closer to his face. "I don't believe you. But even if what you are saying is true, that wolf won't live long, and she'll be back in my arms quick enough."
Judy shifted her body, managing to get enough movement from her torn up arm to drop the cyber-paw through a gap in the armor. She then extended the metal claws before triggering an overload on the tazer function in that paw.
Doug had looked down just as she triggered the tazer. "What?" His cyborg body suddenly flooded with electricity of a sort it wasn't designed to counter for. This caused him to drop her, the paw ripping free and continuing to discharge until the onboard battery gave out. Random movements and firing of the onboard systems commenced as computers and other systems overloaded and fried.
Nick had been ready and leapt up, shoving his weapon down into the gap at the neck and unloading everything in a full magazine. Thirty rounds. Into where Doug's brain was supposed to be, shredding the life support and other systems in the process before he was bucked off by the movements triggered by Judy's paw. He landed near Judy and got to see the misfire from the laser finish taking out her other arm above the shoulder and slice through, though not completely, her lower torso.
She screamed again from that pain, and then again as her onboard systems registered lethal injuries and commenced a forced backup of her mind. She finally gasped in relief as the backup finished and went back to just standard recording up to the moment before actual death. Nick crawled over, one of his legs busted and his tail clearly severed though still attached. Looking down into her eyes. "Hey, Fluff. You okay."
Judy responded over comms, automatic neural blocks killing any nerve response and essentially paralyzing her. ~No. Forced back-up. This version of me is done.~ Nick gasped and started to cry. Judy's voice over comms was soft, loving even. Neither realized they were on an open channel, and no one dared interrupt. ~Hey. Stop that, Slick. As I have told you many times, especially after we got the implants. The separation is only short lived. Neither I, nor my soul, is going to leave this plane of existence without you. Look at it this way. I paid for some upgrades to my new body, some surprises for my fox.~ An alert showed up on her HUD that her heart was giving out. ~Only a few more moments, my love. In this life, and the next.~
Nick nodded. "And all that may come after. I love you. I miss you already."
~I know you do. But it'll only take a few weeks to grow the new body and upload me. So don't worry and don't give in. I'll be back with you in no time. Think of it like an undercover op.~
Nick nodded, the tears flowing freely. "You got it, Fluff. I will be here waiting for you. Wouldn't want to pull in your wrath if you showed up and I'd gone and left without you."
Doug finally got control of his body again and got his own alert that life support had failed and that system shutdown was imminent. Seeing Nick kneeling over what is left of Judy. "Ha! Got the rabbit. You're next, fox. You may have taken me out, but not before I got to take you both out too. Initiating Self Destruct. No delay…" He started laughing as his own HUD displayed the energy build up, which only took a few seconds.
Nick turned towards Doug in shock, then turned to Judy. Scooping her up, he tried to leap away, but his broken leg and severed tail caused him to only manage to push them to the side into one of the cubicles.
The last thing Judy remembered was Nick's voice over Comms. ~I'm sorry.~ Then a sound she can still remember with crystal clarity but could never properly describe, pain, and then blackness.
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Sitting up with a scream in her bed, Judy shook violently. The memories washed over her as she shook, the nightmare still holding sway over her. At first she thought, again, that she was waking in her cloned body. Only to see the very clearly cybernetic paws in front of her face. The memories flowed without consideration of her desire for them to stop.
She remembered the pain as they kept her alive, barely. GenoMamal, GenoM for short according to the new marketing, had offered, and been accepted by Bogo, to try and save her, since she was there at their state of the art cyber lab. It had not been pleasant, but she ended up with really only her head itself, one lung, and a few other parts of her still alive, the rest as cybernetic replacement.
Judy was discharged from the ZPD after a commission, dozens of awards, and a two level promotion as well as assignment of her, and Nick's, full pension plus survivor benefits. None of this helped the agony in her heart. Nick. like her, had the brain implant that should have backed him up, just as hers had done. Only… It turned out, when they tried to play him out into his clone, it was faulty. There was no data. No Nick. Despite no longer having her flesh heart, she felt it shatter all over again.
Further investigation turned up the fact that the company that did the install knowingly installed a known faulty unit because, fox. What did it matter? The implants were supposed to be able to survive things like that explosion, and worse. That was the whole point of having them. The blast caused by Doug was enough to break Nick's faulty implant and wipe any data that was there.
To add insult to injury. It turned out that Judy also lost the kit that she and Nick didn't even know they were going to have when the laser fired by Doug cut through her abdomen, essentially cooking the kit in the womb. Genetic testing confirmed that it was going to be viable. A viable hybrid of Rabbit and Red Fox.
Being discharged, Judy had no more reason to keep the things she and Nick had invested and kept stored in a trust and LLC in that state. She hired the meanest, most blood thirsty, lawyers she could get her paws on, and sued.
They sued, everyone. The company that did the install of Nick's implant was sold off for parts, and those mammals involved that didn't go straight to prison, would be paying her fifty percent of their income for the rest of their lives. The suit even required that they have implants and clones ready to continue paying her until the debt was actually paid in full.
The suit also went after GenoM itself, which settled out of court. They were the manufacturer of the faulty implant, which had not passed quality control, at all, but they sent it out anyway with a label. Her suit spun off a class action suit by mammals who had implants from QC failed lots that they sold anyway to get proper replacements.
GenoM took a hit to be sure, but they had their military contracts, and despite the destruction of Doug and his cyborg body, they got enough data to create an entire new generation of military grade cybernetics and borg conversion options. If anything, GenoM ended up with an overall positive outcome.
Out of the ZPD, Judy tapped some contacts of hers and Nicks, and built her own cybernetics corporation. She brought in Honey Badgerson, Fin, and others. After only a year, her offerings were not just top of the line, but far superior to GenoM offerings and she was quickly taking over larger and larger chunks of market share as they ramped up their manufacturing ability. Something GenoM could not tolerate. Especially not once Judy replaced the last of her cybernetics with those created by her own corp.
The hostile takeover was quick, and violent, from a corporate standpoint. It left Judy with nothing to show for her efforts but money, while GenoM walked away with her facilities and all her current designs.
Thankfully she had been given a heads up about a cyber-raid that was going after the secret research, so she offloaded that onto a drive stored on, or rather, in, her own person, wiping the original data and designs and replacing it all with a carefully constructed, and very flawed set of designs. Designs that hit the market under GenoM a few months after she was out of business. Designs that cost them dearly because of carefully engineered flaws that GenoM didn't bother to even look for. Judy at least got the schadenfreude of that, because they couldn't come after her without admitting to having stolen them, the hostile takeover, etc…
After replacing one of her arms, Honey discovered that most of Judy's cybernetics had either actual bugs, or at least spy-ware installed by GenoM. Something that explained how GenoM was so easily matching their new releases to hold market share. Due to this discovery, Honey brought it to Fin's attention, because Judy herself was an unknowing, walking Corporate espionage vector. They worked to quickly replace the needed components so they could bring Judy in. They then replaced the rest, and that was the trigger for GenoM to move in. They lost the ability to crib off of Judy's corp, simply stealing the ideas and even whole designs and then offering cheap knock-offs of her cheap, but still higher priced tech.
At that point Judy had money, but no business, no mate, no kit, no ability to have a kit with her mate because Nick's gene pattern was deleted by another mammal that went to prison for that, and not much else but anger and resentment. The clone wasn't fertile and couldn't be made so without a mind to drive it due to legal requirements. Worse, once it was discovered that there was no Nick, the body was destroyed along with his gene profile. This was against the law, the destruction and deletion. Thus the jail time. The action also prevented her having a direct genetic fusion kit created.
Being who she was, and refusing to chase Nick into the next life sooner than she absolutely had to. Judy channeled herself into a few new endeavors. She took her certifications from the ZPD that were all still active and got herself a PI and Hunters license. With Maria's help, she formed a band and had a minor singing career with a band named, Impotent Rage. (Think Nightwish mixed with Vector Seven for a sound).
As the memories started to slow down along with her shaking, a warm paw landed on her shoulder startling Judy with a sleepy voice. "Hey, Judy. You okay?"