Arc 3- A Big Ol' Storm of Chaos: Part 6- Lightning
The city had become an absolute nightmare.
Nick, Bogo, Gazelle, Clawhauser, and Mrs. Otterton raced through the streets, desperately trying to keep up with the massive, manticore-shaped shadow that was Lionheart, his enormous bat wings beating against the swirling, chaotic sky.
Zootopia as they knew it was gone.
Entire buildings floated weightlessly in the air, twisting and turning like lazy hot air balloons. A herd of cars had sprouted chicken legs and were strutting around the roads, honking at one another as if offended by their own existence. Streetlights swayed and danced, giggling to themselves as they bent into unnatural shapes. A nearby mailbox sneezed loudly, sending a flurry of letters flying into the air before they folded themselves into paper airplanes and zoomed away.
Not even the ground was normal. The sidewalks had turned into an ever-changing roulette of materials. Clawhauser stepped onto one that was bubble wrap, only to immediately stumble onto a patch of marshmallow, which caused him to sink a little. The much smaller Mrs. Otterton sank down into it like it was quicksand, but Clawhauser quickly grabbed her and perched her on his shoulder.
"Marshmallows are great in cereal, but this is ridiculous!" the cheetah shouted nervously as he prodded forward.
Bogo barely dodged a segment of Jell-O, his hooves slipping dangerously before he caught himself with an angry snort. "Just stay angry," he growled to himself, "Don't give yourself a chance to process. . . this."
Gazelle and Nick both jumped onto a segment of bouncy rubber. Gazelle expertly flipped off and landed in peanut butter, while Nick cried out as he went flying off and landed face flat in a square of blueberry pie filling. Nick got back up and licked his snout. "Well, well . . . Maybe Discord's not all bad," the fox said with a grin.
A herd of lemmings then ran down the street as a herd of pawpsicles pursued them, swinging up and down to smack them flat.
"I take it back. I resent that!" Nick shouted irately, and he shook his fist at the sky and exclaimed, "Claws off my pawpsicles, Discord!"
"Someone! HELP! GET ME DOWN!"
Everyone looked up to see Judy still struggling against Lionheart's clawed grip as he soared higher.
"Carrots!" Nick shouted, his heart pounding in his chest. The blueberries, the pawpsicles, it all vanished from his mind. Seeing Judy in such a predicament nearly put him into a panic attack. At any moment, the manticore could either eat Judy or drop her to her death. They had to stop him. They had to—
Then he felt it.
A heat. A pulse.
He gasped as his paw instinctively shot into his pocket, gripping something burning against his fur. He yanked it out.
The red lightning bolt-shaped gem he had picked up a while back was glowing furiously, crackling with energy. He had kept hanging onto it all this time. Something had compelled him to do so.
Nick had no idea why, but he knew what to do.
Before he could even second-guess himself, he held out the gem towards the manticore. The gem launched a bolt of crimson lightning straight at Lionheart.
CRACK!
The energy struck the manticore mid-air, sending a visible shockwave through his body. Lionheart let out a guttural snarl as his wings faltered for just a moment, his altitude dropping slightly.
"Officer Wilde! What was that?!" Gazelle cried, skidding to a stop beside him.
"I— I don't know!" Nick said, staring at the glowing gem in his paw.
The others stared at Nick's gem, and immediately remembered the ones they had found.
Bogo pulled his out slowly, eyes narrowing in suspicion as his orange apple-shaped gem pulsed with light.
Clawhauser's blue balloon-shaped gem flickered with a brillaint golden glow.
Gazelle's purple diamond-shaped gem shimmered with a delicate, mesmerizing radiance.
Mrs. Otterton, trembling slightly, held out her own pink butterfly-shaped gem, watching as it sparkled in her tiny paws.
They all stared at one another.
Bogo was the first to speak. "Oh, no. No, no, NO. Problems aren't solved with insipid songs and magic spells. I don't do magic, I don't believe in magic, and I sure as heck don't—"
A tap-dancing fire hydrant shuffled past him, twirling a tiny hat on its spout.
Bogo's left eye twitched, then he let out a deep sigh through his nose.
"...Fine," he growled, "I give up. If it's real then it's real. Let's use our magical fairy tail gems to zap the giant demon cat so we can live happily ever after."
They all lifted their gems, and five beams of colored light exploded from their gemstones, striking Lionheart mid-flight. The manticore howled, his body writhing in the air. His wings twisted, his claws flexed—
And then, with one final burst of energy, he plummeted.
THUD!
The enormous beast hit the ground hard, sending up a cloud of dust.
For a moment, no one dared to move. Then, after the dust settled, where there was once a monstrous manticore, there was now just Mayor Lionheart—back in his normal form, unconscious but breathing. Judy on top of him, coughing as she sat up. Her ears flicked, eyes wide with disbelief as she took in the unconscious lion under her.
Nick was already sprinting toward her. "Carrots! You alright?"
Judy coughed again, rubbing at her wrists where Lionheart's claws had gripped her. "I—I think so. I guess he broke my fall…" She looked around, taking in the strange glow from the five mammals standing around her, "What just happened?"
Nick offered her a paw, pulling her to her feet. "I think we just zapped the mayor out of his superpowered evil form using magic rocks."
Judy gave him an incredulous look. "...What."
Clawhauser gasped and clapped his paw excitedly, "That's exactly what happened! Oh my gosh, does this mean we're, like, superheroes now?!"
Mrs. Otterton still looked dazed, staring down at her gem. "I—I don't know if I can be a hero…" she murmured, voice small. "I'm just a florist."
Clawhauser placed a reassuring paw on her shoulder. "You can do this, Mrs. Otterton. Think about Emmit. He's still out there, suffering because of what Bellwether did." His expression turned serious. "Wouldn't you want to fight for him?"
Mrs. Otterton hesitated—but then, gripping her gem tighter, she nodded firmly.
Bogo, still looking as though he'd rather face a charging rhino stampede than acknowledge magic was real, let out another long sigh. "Alright. So we have these… glowing rocks. And they apparently work against whatever this Discord can do. My gut says we take the fight to that freak directly."
Judy straightened, glancing toward the concert venue, where the epicenter of Discord's chaos loomed like a dark, swirling storm over the city. "It seems to be our only option," she said.
Gazelle lifted her glowing gem, her expression determined. "Then let's not waste time. The longer we wait, the more this city falls apart."
Just then, a trio of ballet-dancing buffalo in pink tutus shuffled past them, pirouetting elegantly as if nothing were wrong.
Nick eyed them warily. "Yeah, I second that. Let's hurry."
With that, the six of them turned their eyes toward the venue—where Discord, still laughing from his throne of chaos, awaited.