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Nick Wilde is a somewhat normal predator in a singular regard. Every fibre of his being and soul hated his Shock collar. The moment of his tenth birthday, he had one placed on his neck. And the moment it touched his skin, it was overloaded and broke but not before making Nick collapse into a seizing pile.He’d only worn them for a year and a half and they still had managed to overload themselves eight times, and he had to have it repaired. Though everyone knew that was a lie. It was always supercharged. Amping up the voltage. But even then this newest collar of his was stuck on a warning yellow. And this cursed beacon of his uniqueness led him to being teased and a focus for the bully prey mammals.
Nick had been born into the wrong world. All predators upon their tenth birthday were blessed to wear a shock collar. And The Gifted who lived with an eternal beacon of hate burning against their back. He was both a fox, seen as one of the lesser predators; and Gifted being able to read surface thoughts and memories from his first waking moments. Luck seemed to hate him. But even as he kept quiet and to himself, the world seemed all too focused on making him and his mother suffer.
And oh how the world made them suffer.
He awoke one day to his mother weeping at his door, struggling to speak. Her very throat not wanting the words to burden her son. But he could hear her repeat them in her mind.
‘James is dead’ ‘James is dead’ ‘james is dead’ words silently uttered in denial.
His father dead? No. no. It can’t be.
“Mum what happened, you’re scaring me” Nick said his voice beginning to waver and rubbing his eyes.
She collapsed into him, the words still failing to leave her mouth outside a hoarse whisper.
“James is dead,” she speaks. Those words were so weak, but each a lead weight choked by tears.
He would never truly hear his father's voice again, never again be comforted by his fathers hugs. His calming laugh. His seemingly endless empathy and sympathy. A hole in his heart that will remain forever empty.
She weeps into the side of his bed, sputtering out “I promise I will always love you, I promise I will always be there for you.” The words muttered out into the thick blanket. Nick hugged his mother, crying with her.
How that promise will scar the young kit.
—
“Nicholas Wilde,” The substitute teacher yelled out. Nick looked up, his eyes half asleep. He didn’t want to be here, he was always the odd kit. The permanently yellow teetering on red collar, and not to mention his ability to read minds did not help him gain any normal friends.
“Yes?” Nick responded, trying to keep the dissonant choir out of his mind. His collar beeped a cold warning.
“I don’t know if it’s rude to ask, but why is your collar always on yellow?” She asked. She was new here. A capybara wearing a rose red blouse and a matching dress with a light cloud grey overcoat with the sleeves neatly held up.
“I don’t know” he did know. But he couldn’t simply proclaim himself to be gifted.
But in this instance of his mind weakening for a moment. A dam cracked.
Then broke.
And the sea of churning voices took his mind. Trying to push back the tide. His collar flicked from yellow to red.
Screaming out in pain as ten thousands volts are sent down his spine, Nick tumbles from his seat. His joints locking together. He wants to scream out, how he can survive, how he’d be fine in the end. But he only answers worried questions, with a foaming mouth.
“Get him to the Nurses office!” The tiger Timothy shouts.
Screaming behind his locked jaw ‘please… i’m fine’ became nothing but a strained grunt as the substitute teacher lifted him up. Keeping her paws as far away from the malfunctioning collar as possible.
Another surge, and Nick fell limp. He saw himself be pulled away from his body to this cold endless expanse. No. No. Not there , he didn’t want to go there. He was always so small.
The substitute mind was flooded with fear as she felt the kit fall limp in her arms, before he woke screaming as his nerves burned. Flailing his limbs before he tried reaching for his discharging collar. And as the tip of his claw touched the metallic band. It retaliated in a flash of white blue.
He again tried to beg as he was ran down the constricting halls.
‘No no i’m fine, i can live. I’m good.’
But again his pleas become nothing more than staggered grunts. His ears numb to the screaming coming from the capybara.
The two married antelope nurses are ready to grab him as he trashes and slips away again before the arrogance of his being pulls him back from death and back into this cursed moment.
He was dumped onto the cold plastic of the medical bed. Their minds were scattered in confusion and panic. Nick feels the flesh under the collar begin to fuze to the branding circlet. He tries to scream again, but the locking of his jaws denies his cries.
Upon the corkboard there was this little infographic about a new test the AGU demanded. A happy little cartoon kudu spoke in such gleeful terms about the necessity of the test. ‘A drop of blood to keep the gifted away’; How many times had he seen that sign and feared the world where he would be found out, where the world knows him to be gifted. But that world would now be his.
A simple test, a drop of blood and you’d have an answer.
Blue is very good
Yellow.
Specifically, Bright Neon Yellow was Bad.
VERY VERY BAD.
And in that torturous minute after the nurse pricked his finger. bright neon yellow.
Looking over the spasming kit, the mind of the antelope ignites.
‘Nick is Gifted, HOW IS HE GIFTED’
And Nick heard it all, that hollow pit of fear in his heart consuming his entire body, becoming cold and empty. He calls to this sudden inner strength and determination. He pushed himself off the plastic bed. Keeping as quiet as he could, though the ten thousand volts would scream again and again, in a numbing concord.
He ran.
That's all he could do. He ran past the nurse who was still frozen by the news that the little quiet kit was a gifted monster. Bracing his arms he charges through a glass pane blocking his attempt at freedom. He feels it break and cut against his flesh.
And he disappeared wishing against the Three above that his mother didn’t know.
—
Was this how his life was to be? On the run from a world that would only want him dead but his very being was too arrogant to let him die. Running down the street, other mammals tried to offer help. Each one of their open minds a proverbial land mine for the young psychic. As the collar waits to supercharge it’s torment when his mind brushes against another.
He runs into an alley collapsing against a red brick wall. Nick grabbed a loose brick from the ground, and hammered it against the collar. He tried so desperately to break it. Each strike caused his collar to retaliate.
Nick woke up again, the collar still screaming in his ear. He tries to stand and run away from his inanimate tormentor.
“STOP” he yells as he strikes it one last time, and the incessant screams of conformity ceases. And Nick drops to his knees, his whole body screaming in searing pain. He wants to weep in a corner. But he can't, he has to run. He has no choice. He has to get home.
—
“Mum, I'm scared… Mum?” he screams as he gets the door open, his nose on high alert smells the start of a blueberry pie, how his heart lights up at the smell. But how that light casts those pits of anger and fear in cold gnawing shadow.
Running to the kitchen Nick sees her head hanging low, her paws supporting her against the kitchen counter. Her mind is enraptured by a silent maelstrom, echos of impressions and emotions. Nick unable to find any coherent voice in the malestrom.
“You’re not my nick ” she whispers. Nick's heart sinks.
“no no no mum… What about your promise?” the young nick meekly whispers, struggling to find a singular voice in the torrent of his mothers mind.
“YOU’RE NOT MY NICK !” she screams, lashing out with a kitchen knife. Nick stumbled back, collapsing onto the ground.
“Mum…” Nick whimpers as he feels wet warmth spilling from his left eye. Confusion, loss, anger burn their way into every fold of skin and betrayal ruins his mind.
He tries to say another word as he reaches up to cover the spilling warm crimson. Before he gets up and runs. What had he done?
Her jaw drops. What had she done?
She wants to scream out how she didn’t mean it. How it was a mistake. But she spills out to her knees, her eyes and mind fixated upon the ruinous edge stained red. She didn’t notice the flashing lights, the wailing siren and the shouts from down the hall.
What had she done?
—
He lifts a sodden paw from his eye, drenched in a thick sticky crimson. Searing in white hot pain as air cuts against the open nerves. Hiding behind a corner, his ears pick up from some patrolling cop.
“APB - Red fox, age eleven name Nicholas Wilde, likely covering an eye injury. Warning: unpowered gifted. Last known sightings near Acacia plaza Happytown”
A grumble as the ram cops calls in, Nick moves a bit closer for his undeveloped powers to reach and read the cops mind. He knocks over a glass bottle. As the glass shattered he turned and ran again
Nick had to keep running, he couldn’t stop. He knew of one other place. A Safe Haven
Finding his way to the docks through the many forgotten side streets and pathways took the wounded Nick until the sun set behind the artificial mountain range to find his one hope.
Among the abandoned warehouses of the old docks, the terrified kit ran up to a steel door with light leaking under it. Slamming his free paw onto the cold metal door. Shouts from behind the door, a flurry of minds consumed by panic and fear. Fear for him. The door swings open revealing an incredibly large and robust grey black timber wolf dressed in a forest green t-shirt.
“Nick? NICK!” the Wolf said, taking a half step back in disbelief. Nick runs and hugs the timberwolf’s leg weeping, his tears mixed with dried blood.
“Luke call off the search! He’s here-” the Protector calls into the warehouse.
“What happened to you…” The wolf asks, seeing nicks injury for the first time
Nick does not answer. But he grips tighter. Placing his enormous paws Dracs gently moves Nick back Kneeling down, Dracs grabs either side of the broken collar and tears it asunder.
“Rein get some cloth, Nick’s been hurt”
Nick could recount the next few hours with stark clarity. Each surge of anger and how his muscles tense and how his claws dig into his own skin. How the cold concrete offers no comfort and only seems to bask in his pain. How the world was so cold, so very very cold and the only semblance of warmth he feels is his own blood.
But even if he could, he wanted this all to be some sick twisted dream. His first and only dream; of a world where his nightmare cut him up. He wanted so desperately to close his eyes and open them again to find he was still in his bed, that damnable collar still bound to his neck.
He tried so hard to banish this nightmare.
Opening his eyes again and again he was met with the same concrete floor and ramshackle constructions of safe haven. His new home.
He screams into himself, a scream so ruinous. So singularly visceral. He’s unsure if he didn’t shred his very soul. He weeps into his knees the burning tears like acid trickle down his face. Shaking as he pulls his knees closer to his chest. He didn’t want to exist.
He looked up to see his face plastered on the TV with a reward of one million dollars for his capture. That pit in his heart twists to the beginning embers of a deep seeded hatred. What did he do to deserve this? That pit begged to be noticed, begged and screamed in the hollow void of his heart. The embers of hate caught, igniting a blazing fire that consumed his mind.This spiral of hate was stopped when he heard his friends voice echo through the open space.
“Nick! NICK!” the striped rabbit yelled.
The rest of his words were a jumbled mess that Nick didn’t care to hear, his mind too broken to care.
He in a blur wrapped his arms around his friend, crying into his shoulder he whimpers.
“What did I do?”
No answer could be given.
“What did I do?”
—
Alone in a white padded room. A broken auburn fox.
How sweet ambivalent Karma ruined her day.
This was supposed to be a happy day, one of the few she ever has. A day off from work, she felt inspired to bake a blueberry pie: a favourite between the two. She’d timed it so that when Nick would come home, he’d open the door to a house filled with the sweet fragrance of blueberry pie. But the moment she closed the oven, the phone rang. Not itself unusual, so she, wearing a faint grin picked it up, feeling just that little bit happy. Not enough to set her collar off, but enough to make her good.
It was a different voice saying they were from Nick’s school. They said they were with the AGU. She cocked her head.
That Nick was gifted.
That smile faltered.
She pulled back a half step, pulling her free flour covered paw to her mouth. No, no that can’t be right.
But the panic and arguments in the background only gnawed away the roots of doubt.
The arguments fades as she withdraws. The world losing its focus. Her mind consumed in a silent hurricane.
He demands her attention again. The spiral paused for but a moment.
He explains how the nurses did the blood drop test, itself not enough.
But he ran.
One of the nurses screams about how his collar was broken, how it was discharging endlessly into him.
More questions as the Agent muffles the phone.
And one question for her.
How many times has his collar been repaired?
She answers as her reality begins to break again.
Seven, no eight.
The agent doesn’t answer for a moment. Before he says in hushed words. Ten thousand volts at least.
The phone clicked. She walked back into the kitchen supporting herself against the countertop. She reached for the knife covered in flour. She didn’t know why. She didn’t know anything at this moment.
Time passed in shock that left her hollow.
Then cries. Pleas out of her kit/false kit’s mouth.
YOU’RE NOT MY NICK!
She screams lost in her own body, striking out at the lie.
Reality collapsed into focus as she saw Nick stumbled back covering his eye with a paw. She saw the white dusted knife stained red.
What had she done?
Her only child now hated her. And the world had broken her again.
She wished she could scream to Karma that ill fated god - scream her throat bloody about how losing the love of her life was enough. And now twisted, scheming Karma was stealing Nick away from her too. The last reminder she had of James, their amber gem, the shining beacon of their love. Was Gifted.
Maybe that was why his collars seemed to hate him as much as he hated them. Maybe that was why he creeped out his teacher when he said he couldn’t dream. That was why when he was asked to keep a dream journal he only ever wrote the same thing.
‘The Garden’
But now that little kit is running, simmering in hate, anger and betrayal. Anger at the world, hatred at the broken promise and scared by betrayal.
Her downward spiral was paused as an otter walked into the padded room. Or at least that was their shape, she couldn’t bring herself to look up and accept this reality.
“Ms Wilde, your son is undeniably Gifted. Thanks to the samples you’ve provided.”
Is that how callously they call it. Is that how they so simply hide the truth that she attacked him. She spilt her kit’s red. And that was just a sample to them.
“I understand your hesitancy to speak Ms Wilde. Learning that someone close to you is Gifted is rather traumatic.”
Traumatic for who exactly. Just her? Or the kit who isn’t even twelve.
And ‘someone’. He was her child. The one she worked so diligently to keep happy. Worked long hours to return home after the sun had set to see the table prepared for dinner and find that he had already heated up the scraps of last night's meal…
and now he was gone.
She didn’t speak at all to them, she could only stare at her paws, before another wave of hot bubbling tears take her, before sleep envelopes her as well. Everything was so sore, everything was so heavy, everything was so damn tiring.
Why would Karma curse them both?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Nick Wilde well just Nick now as he had lost his surname, has been forgotten. His mother of all mammals is constantly haunted by her own mind pretending to be his ghost. Nick now for four years has had the temptation to spill the blood of the ones who ruined his life. He was a shell of his former self. He was cold to the bone, not caring for the blood he has seen spilt. He was gifted but had no access to his gift though it was his birthright. He was ever-incroaching the age of sixteen, the age when he could finally use his powers. Though he doesn't need them to terrify mammals, he need only say his name.He was to say it simply, a monster. His life was ripped out from under him and replaced with a life where he was the target for so many spotlights. He had to make a deal with the shadows, it is to keep his face blurred and while he loses all ties with the outside world.He had been gaining information about the one new lover his mother had acquired. His name was Bruce, a tubby silver fox with an attitude that made Nick sour. Nick has ravaged through his mind, how simple it was. ‘Have kits with the Vixen' that was at the forefront of every throught that ran free in his empty pit of a mind. He was only tempted by the idea that her first son was a gifted. Primal instincts. Go with the best genes. And that was all that was needed for him to attempt to get close to her. He was sadly successful, giving her an engagement ring only to get closer to that primal goal. His mother was blind to it, somehow. She was only reinvigorated with hope when he asked ‘could I date you'. Nick's mother was smart, really smart, and sadly she never got credit for it because of what she is. This fucking world.
Nick used to live in a small apartment in Happytown, with his mother. It was a quaint little place it had all he needed. A solid floor, a room all to himself and above all else he had someone he loved and was loved back. Now it was the same brick exterior, a little more graffiti. All saying she was the mother of a demon in vivid detail. He remembered every detail of its exterior, the cracking windows, and the door he had to bust through. He knew what he was going to do"Wh…" Nick was quick to cover Bruce's mouth with strength. There was a quick thud on the floor. He... He cut Bruce's collar off. For some reason. The glimpse of Nick's cold emerald gave all the information Bruce needed. He was there with a goal only in mind.
"Write, Your nightmare is back, and I haven't forgotten." Nick whispered into Bruce's ear, letting a bit of pressure of off his muzzle"No," Bruce responded almost instinctively to the threat."Write it, and I may let you live." It was a quick stern command with the added threat of a blade to his throat. It was a surprisingly cold knife that was pressed against Bruce's throat. It was sharing its Arctic embrace as the back was slid against his throat as a warning.
"I don't have a pen," Bruce responded cautiously as Nick tightened his grip on his throat.
"Write it with your claw or I will happily use your blood" all of Nicks words were cold. Oh so cold.
Bruce put his paw to the wood with one claw extended to etch into the wood. Bruce's mind was trying to get himself to scream for help yet it was quickly assured that he would be killed if he did. "Shout anything, and I will cut your throat," Nick said moving the blade closer to his windpipe.
Bruce took his time trying to delay this monster that was holding him hostage. "Faster or you die" Nick commanded, He finally convinced himself to shout. It was stupid, but he would die a hero. Nick rolled his eyes at the pure stupidity. He pushed the knife close to his neck. "E…" the rest turned into garbled as blood gushed from the gapping wound stretching across his throat. He tried covering it, but it was too late Nick already shoved the blade into the back of his neck to end things quickly. Nick helped to drop the body to the floor silently. The open wound let blood puddle around his neck his eyes were slowly losing the life that was in them just seconds ago. Nick could only care about the mess he made; he had lost all emotion for them. One thing that he was never going to do was kill his mother but torturing her mind was an entirely different story."That could have been avoided, but no... you try to be the hero to save your ‘love'," Nick complained at the fresh body like it was almost listing. Nick crouched down cleaning the knife on Bruce's body, then he dipped his finger in the pooling blood and rewrote the message. Once he finished, Nick opened the door, and it hit the body making it jolt a little. Nick was done here, but he still had other who needed to die. "damn generics" Nick muttered as he placed the key back and walked away from the sight.
"Bruce? Honey come to bed?" the vixen said drearily as she strolled down the stairs in her gown. She smelt something off. Blood, lots of blood. There was a high pitch screech that made her fall back and knocks a picture off the wooden table. It fell face down and break the glass sheet protecting it. It was the same picture that she held four years ago once she found out about the truth. Yet something was off with it; she could only focus on Nick and see a blank void in his eyes. She read the message scribbled in blood. "Your nightmare is back, and I haven't forgotten" she fell into tears, a downpour of tears. An eternity later. Well, that's what it felt like for her. A neighbour bashed on her door and shouted through "Emilia are you alright?" the racoon was only answered by tears. He shouted again. "Where's your spare key?" this time he got an answer, in the form of broken words. she was stuck, bones rattling with fear, joints locked into place from terror. Mind being ripped apart by grief and torment"under the mailbox." after she spouted that out she fell back to tears, the door opened to hit the body the racoon peered around the gap and immediately retreated to hurl. the scene was a bloody mess, one fox sprawled across the wooden for another in tears petrified. "I'll get the police!" he avoided his little patch of vomit and ran into his own home and used the phone to call the cops. Your nightmare is back, and I haven't forgotten. Her Nick killed him. No, he isn't Nick. He's a monster.
The ZPD were there within minutes, the vixen still petrified and curled up. The ZPD were quick to get her away from her dead partner. She was placed on the back of an ambulance with a blanket around her and someone trying to help her calm down.
"Mrs Wilde" a Buffalo called from the side wearing the navy blue ZPD uniform with three glimmering golden stars attached to his collar. her collar settings had been severely lowered yet it still was sitting on a painfully familiar yellow.
"yes" her shaken words left her mouth to reach the buffalo.
"do you need anything, Mrs Wilde?"
"please call me Emilia" she tried to fix her voice to make it stable. but it still was ravaged by the events beforehand.
"sorry, Emilia."
"Why won't the AGU do anything?" Emilia started to tear up again; she had lost another that was close to her. First her husband, then her one and only child and to top it all of the todd that reinvigorated her and her view of the world. They were dead or a monster that hid with the facade of a small innocent, loving son.
"we're all sorry, about everything that has happened to you." Bogo tried to say in his most reassuring voice; he tried though to anyone who isn't part of the ZPD would find it borderline rude. Emilia heard the attempt and was slightly calmed by it. Her mind was still in utter chaos as Nick had killed him, her very own son. No, he's only a monster now. Nothing can redeem him now.
--
He was encroaching in the house of those nurses. The ones who damned him to this life. Their house was currently under refurbishment. It had scaffolding surrounding some walls and windows that were going clearly to be replaced; it was a sweet little abode. Nick strayed away from the front door, tracing footsteps of the workers that were here to find a nice large open window. Once he entered Nick grasped one large ceramic pot and smashed it on the ground. "wake up." Nick said bashing two metal pipes together, once he heard hoof steps coming down the stair he haphazardly tossed them to the side... he was meet with the two antelopes with matching bracelets around their wrist. The closest thing to a ring they can get.
"Remember me?" he said as soon as both pairs of eyes were stuck on him. They were both stunned, both staring at him like he was a ghost. The gleam of the blade that was held firmly in his paw solidified to them what his purpose was. He was here to end them. His muzzle had a sick smirk on it, the white teeth catching the light that peppered in. The first move was made by one of the couple, trying to be clever she bolted for the light switch. Nick was silent as he almost glided across the wooden floor. He was aiming for the one still stuck in place. The lights flashed on blinding Nick for not even a second. He was pissed. his eyes refocused on the antelope that was still standing in front of him. He just appeared to the side to the antelope whom Nick was all too eager to slaughter. He rammed his blade into the back of the antelope's knee, bringing her to the floor in screaming pain. The blades black steel tainted with even more fresh blood. She was left there screaming in pain.Holly scrambled to grasp any form of weapon to use against him.
She managed to find a plank of wood. The Blade flew out of his hand with one swing of the wooden board. "damn" he commented as one of his eyes tracked the knife sliding across the floor. The nurse stumbled at the unusual sight giving time for Nick to knock her down and drive his teeth into her soft neck. There was something so primal about the taste of blood, so enthralling, so dark.His whole body screamed for more. Nick's eyes were no longer the vibrant emerald but a demonic shade of crimson. Nick let his most primal senses take over as they had been craving blood for a time well overdue, with a sharp jagged movement a very faint snap could be felt rippling through his teeth.
"HOLLY!" the downed antelope screamed and stuck out her hoof towards her dead lover. Nick opened his maw and let the antelope drop down to the floor. His eyes turned towards the other one. She was left stuck in terror. She was going to die.
"You could have tried to save her... it would have been more fun," Nick said taking strides towards the knife he brought to slaughter them. His eyes were lighting up but still were a thirsty crimson.
"You could have tried to run. You could have tried to call the ZPD. idiot." Nick said walking up and slamming the knife down on her throat. The blade went cleanly through her jugular, stopping just before severing her spine.
"Why" her words were bearly audible, but he heard her mind attempt to say it.
"Why?... It all was because you destroyed my life," he whispered up to her ear for they are going to be the last words she ever hears. Nick ripped the knife out of her throat letting a fountain of blood follow the blade.
'taste it; you are their death, taste you reward.' a dark voice called from within. 'The scarlet elixir in their veins, the elixir that you so graciously spilt'. Nick lapped up the blood that was left on his teeth. His tongue wrapped itself around every individual tooth. His tongue screamed for more crimson elixir. Nick dipped one of his fingers into the pool of blood. Nick's most primal senses screamed in a bloodthirsty joy. He lapped up the blood that was soaked into his fur.Nick for four years now has been training his body to work at its maximum, to a point where if he were in a group of mammals you could easily pick him out with his sheer unnatural grace. Gliding through hordes of mammals unnoticed, he was as silent as a shadow, but to a trained eye he stuck out like a blinding light. One little perk that came with being gifted that was unheard of was that he could control each and every muscle independently. It was stupid how fast and accurately he could move; one slight flaw was that he lacked the usual strength gifted had but still he was a blur. He was critiquing how sloppy he was when he was slaughtering those nurses. He let his knife fly from his hands, but he clearly had to find some enjoyment when fighting them, which he found in spades as their blood was being spilt. He was currently staring up the side of a brick apartment; he was contemplating whether just to scale it or actively take it slow and use the pre-existing structures that merely served to save the ones living in the apartment. He leapt up his body working at close to its extent, but it was still comfortable. He easily gripped the steel rung of the ladder. He was thinking about what everything would be like if his father were alive. his father would have been at work when he rushed back home, but he could only suspect that his father would have pleaded towards the higher powers, begging for this curse to be lifted. His parents would have likely tried for another kit or kits. How awkward would it of been to tell them that they have an older brother that's gifted. his body was currently on autopilot as it leapt and climbed the steel outer structures.
He couldn't care if mammals saw him his face, it was plastered across the news for a year after the world knew his supposed sin. He only feared the AGU as they were the ones who could actually do something against him. He knew if they captured any gifted they would always be tested upon, scientists trying to figure out the limitations of a gifted. He was aware that what gift he had in store; it was already set in stone. Hearing everyone doubt him without them even whispering a word. Physic. He had scaled the building and now was walking across the cold concrete rooftop, the roof was fairly well kept, small community garden, some lounge chairs and a washing line that stretched between two poles, littered with clothing.When he was at his old house, he stole a picture which he loved. It was as much his as his mothers, it was an old picture taken when he was a kit, and that putrid collar was void from his neck. He slipped it into his pocket as he entered. He took a seat on the brick edge. He took the picture out of his pocket, both his parents were alive then.They were at a large theme park. They were surrounded by rides filled with screaming mammals, not in fear but only of joy. He was within the embrace of his two parents, his mother wearing a pink cotton blouse, his father in an incredibly well-tailored suit. They were all happy. His father. His mother. Him. Now, where have they ended up? Six feet under. Filled with torment and grief. Hunted, disregarded, lost all rights. Time was simpler back then, living a life where he could be happy. He kept his eyes fixated on the picture and the pure happiness that came with its memories. Even on that day, he knew that he was gifted, but he didn't care. If they never knew, they would always love him.
They would always love him.
They would've always loved him.
He refocused on his father and his joy-filled smile that was strung between his eyes. Nick missed his dad, Nick's father died only six years ago when he was struggling to keep his life in check. He was killed in a riot that was quickly subdued by the ZPD and the hated Razorbacks. One of them took his father away. He was doing nothing wrong all he was doing was helping others affected by the chaos. Striped away in an instant. The news wrecked Nick mother with grief, something only paralleled by that damned day, the one that ended Nick, the red fox but created Nick the feared gifted.He let a tear fall from his eye; somehow he let it happen. The gleeful memories of that theme park when he had no collar, the sheer love his parents were giving him. He felt as if his life was perfect and going to stay perfect forever. But no, fate was a cruel mistress. He was stuck with the label gifted that pinned him to keep to the shadows and wait for eternity to shift and erase his face from memory. He would outlive them, his mother, his cousins and just about every mammal he'd ever meet. He was told that he would live until eternities end; Whenever that may be. He looked into his father's eyes like he was still there beside him, trying to forgive his son. His fathers emerald eyes were always filled with a renewing hope. Nick pulled down his jet black hood, letting the wind brush across his face, moving the tears that were forming. Nick pushed himself up looking out and upon the bustling street that was seemingly unaware of the fox. Cars rushing past, mammals walking underneath the shielding city lights. Letting the moon sit behind him creating a tiny, irrelevant shadow. He placed his arm out in front of him, photo in paw.
"Goodbye, dad, let the winds that ravage the garden stay void of you." with that he let go of the picture, letting it slowly glide in the wind. All of the eyes were staring at him. All of them, his past ghosts. He had finally cut the last string that held him back. He felt as if he just tore a part of himself away to leave the being that was hiding in the shell of a fox to bloom. His eyes followed it until it reached the asphalt. A lioness picked it up, seeming stunned by the photo. Her eyes looked up to where she could only assume the picture fell from. Her eyes met with Nicks. Nicks cold nearly dead eyes, she quickly turned away letting go of the photo. The damned collar that was stuck around her neck went from a somewhat pleasant green to a yellow, making her move faster away.
He could only wish for this to be a dream. A dream that feels like it lasts an eternity. Only to find that everything was fine. He was still in bed from the morning of THAT day, crying sick because he felt scared.He would hear the sweet soft voice that was his mothers telling him not to worry. Tucking him into bed, even more kissing him on his forehead.But no. He was stuck whimpering in a corner. One eye useless. Stuck with cold, unforgiving concrete underneath him. The constant chatter of other mammals like him talking about what to do, how to help him and how did this happen. He was the centre of attention in the group that he actively felt a part of, but he only felt isolation running throughout his mind, fear rattling his bones and torment ripping apart his heart. He was lost in a sea of malice all aimed at him. It was only chipping away at what fragile psyche was left. The timber wolf was currently standing in front of Nick creating a shadow that covered him. Nick curled up more, trying to push himself away from this world.
"Nick, what do you need?"
"For this to be a dream." Nick sharply returned, not moving his muzzle from its rest.
"I can only wish for that too." "Nick look at me. I'm here to help you, to keep you safe... Nick, I know what it feels like. Please don't isolate yourself. We are your family now.""We are his family." Dracs announced, in his most projectable voice. Shaking the Wearhouse, silencing all chatter. "We are Nick's family now. He has lost everything. Some of us know the pain, the fear that appears went the world knows. I have let all of you here because they" dracs shot his arm towards the wall that faced the city, all eyes were focused on him. "WILL NEVER ACCEPT US. No matter how hard we try, they will always try to hunt us. I ask you to just help, keep him safe. I only need you to accept his struggle and to make him feel like family." dracs finished and looked back down towards Nick."Nick stand" dracs somewhat ordered, placing his paw out for him to grab.
Nick turned his head up, his glassy emerald eye meeting Dracs' ebony eyes. Nick wiped the tears glassing over his eye. Nick pushed himself up seeing all the others looking at him not as if he is the outsider, but as the one who only needs help. Everyone felt sorrow for him, as he was still so young.
"You need food; you've been sitting there for the better part of a few days. What would you like Nick?"
"Something with salmon in it," Nick said turning his head up to dracs with a faint growing smile. "Please," Nick added shortly after.
"Another murder caused by the gifted named Nicholas..." the presenter trailed off into the pleasant past he had.
'Damn shame' a light grey rabbit thought who was still brimming with enthusiasm to make a difference in this world for all. Prey, Pred and even gifted.
"JUDY! You need to help on the farm."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Torture long forgotten, burnt beneath the skin, etched into the very nature of the soul. That perfectly describes the red fox who had lost everything including his beloved surname. Wilde.What he had done to others who created his 'life'. Vengeance doesn't describe it. The actions were drenched in a blood curdled rage and hatred towards all of them, the generics. He told himself that it was only vengeance and that they would be some of the few that died. He forgot that promise.He had lost himself in bloodlust once resulting in over 80 dead. All of them did nothing to him. He spilled their blood in boredom. A small hotel, emptied, for nothing but a bit of fun. The ZPD, the AGU and even the mysterious ZIA all want to find him and bring him to a swift, painful justice. Ones who tried were often found with their body mutilated, disfigured and rarely with a bit of flesh missing. Messages popped up a few days after their death within the vicinity of the crime scene. Most of them were mocking the victim or the agency that they worked for. He was a monster. -\/-\/- "Scream for me. I want to hear your last breath of life leave your body. " Nick spoke into the hare's ear he had currently in his grip. The hare was weak, bleeding and filled with broken bones. Blood stained his ocean blue singlet and grey tracksuits, and not like he cared crimson stains ran through his own russet fur."fuck you, you misfit......" his victim's voice trailed off, the hare's body struggling, then falling limp. Warm icy blue eyes falling cold, warmth from his body soon to fade as well."So you were, oh an agent for the ZIA. How funny, haven't killed many of you. Oh yeah… you're dead." Nick walked over to his victim's bag scrounging through it, finding his phone, several false ids, and a wallet. Nick took the money out of his victim's wallet and stuffed it into his own pocket. Nick grabbed the small silver phone, entering the pin code, and recording a message."To all who find this. You can never bring me to justice; you made the monster you hunt." Nick wasn't feeling very creative with his 'speech' so as soon as he finished that he walked back over to the mangled and mutilated corpse of the hare and put his phone in his pocket. He pulled the knife out of the hare's thigh. Blood following the blade as it was ripped out. Nick didn't feel anything but disappointment as he didn't scream in sheering pain but instead faded away silently, depriving all the joy of a fresh kill. -/\-/\- "Detective Hopps, you got a minute?" a Fox cop called out from behind. He was a shade of red, rust like almost. Eyes a soft blue. He was a kind soul. Another mammal brought into the wrong world. He was one of the few predator cops; he acted as a messenger, relaying information from around the precinct. The precinct was quiet as everyone had already gone out to help protect the city and make the world a better place."Yeah, what is it?" she responded quickly"The chief wants you to work on the wraith case." he caught up to her and caught his breath as he had been running around the whole precinct. He did speak with some dread emanating in his words."Death's case. Why?" she returned confused."I don't know. Just go check with him." He returned quickly with worry in his warm eyes."That’s typical of him." She scoffed lightly; the fox cop sharing a similar soft smile.“I can only wish you luck.” --- "Hopps did Anthony tell you." The chief asked as soon as he saw the door open."Yeah, he did. But I'm just asking why did you put me on the devil's case?" she asked as soon as she managed to get on top of the chair that was sized for mammal many times her size."You're not doing it to find the culprit as he makes himself quite evident, you're just trying to find the exact reasoning behind his murder sprees." He replied"So when do I start it?" Judy questioned with her arms crossed and her foot tapping the seat of the chair.“Now, go to see Benny, he'll give you the folio. It's big, so you have a lot of info... And also the AGU is on the case as well so you'll be getting a partner." The chief returned blankly."Oh great," she said reluctantly, rolling her eyes. She hated the AGU and all the similar companies and groups. She was gifted after all. She was happy with her job, being a detective in the ZPD. Putting all of her senses to good use helping the city, helping the people, all of them and hopefully mending the relationship between the gifted and common mammal. “Also chief when do I get my partner?”“It’s the AGU. It could be in an hour or in a month. All I know is that you're getting one.””So just the AGU being the AGU.” she replied sarcastically as the AGU were known for them doing something when they want to, and their utter unreliability with dates and information”Yep, but good luck detective.” The buffalo said while giving a salute to Judy, she almost immediately returned it.“Thank you, sir” -\/\/--\/\/- It was a quiet back alley that a particular ‘fox’ set up a meeting with a very helpful ‘mole’. He was waiting in the darkness of the alleyway watching the every-mammal do their usual routine. Seeing happy families play in the park that was on the other side of the broad road. Nick slid out a masterfully crafted hand cannon of a pistol and aimed it at a random mammal at the park. His eyes landed upon a wolf leaning on a tree studying a book. The canine was oblivious to the threat to its life.“Don’t nick. You’ll get in even more shit from Dracs and the council” a small voice called, Nick moved his hand cannon upwards now aiming at the sky. It was his ‘mole’. A wealthily little brown rat dressed in a beige vest with a fog grey undershirt.“You know there’s nothing stopping me from killing that wolf at the tree. I wouldn’t miss” Nick said bringing down the pistol and aiming it at the wolf again. Some gleams of light catching on the masterfully crafted slide, silver decals reflecting, some ebony accents riding along the frame. The short barrel was slightly blacked from use. It was weighted perfectly for nick due to him ordering it in an illegal arms ring.“But how much more shit are you willing to put up with?” the rat returned. Looked at the wolf who’s statue was relatively scrawny. Black coat of fur and hopeful amber eyes“Enough,” Nick responded shrugging his shoulders, quickly holstering his gun. He quickly turned towards the informant.“Now to what you asked for. Judy Hopps... she’s gifted, and she’s been put on your case.” Nick turned back towards him."So you're telling me that the bunny working for the ZPD for the last four years is gifted?" a smug smile grew on nicks face as he leaned on the brick wall behind him.“Yes”"Judy Hopps. Well, I'll be damned. I need to go pay you a visit." It almost was a chuckle, one of just how didn’t he see or senses that."What about my pay?" "I forgot about it, but so will you." Nick did remember about the pay but he just didn’t care. It's not like he can stop Nick"Oh no no no, you said no funny business,""I said I wasn't going to kill you, so yeah no funny business." "This is just my... business policy." Nick shrugged before snapping his fingers. -/\/\--/\/\- She spent all night reading through the mammoth folio. All under a lampshade, light humming away providing just enough light to keep her awake, she was grasped into it reading about all of the times he had killed. A warm coffee mug sitting next to the folio, its contents slowly disappearing over the course of the night.'I could of becoming this' that thought jumped into the spotlight once. She was a kit when he was found out. Two years later, his first set of murders. There was no mercy. As he killed one tod that his mother was dating, and another two. A married couple of antelopes. Holly. K. Harper and Jade. S. Harper. One found with bite marks dug into her neck. She was also found with a severed neck. Forensics analyzed he went 'savage' and killed her that way. Though she knew that was wrong, a gifted can't simply go savage. The other one of the couple was found with her neck cut open. He was fifteen then. Simply fifteen. No gift, just pure blooded hate.Three years later, when this case gained notoriety. The hotel massacre. Eighty mammals dead. Families ended. Gruesome bloodshed for no reason. The AGU had to cover their ass shortly after the slaughter. Whole protests surrounding AGU bases in every part of the city and in neighboring towns and cities. Mammals rumored in the early days of the case that the ZIA was working on it. It was confirmed when an agents body was found hanging off of the ZNN tower. Hanging for all to see.Then the case gained names. Death's case, the devil's case or merely the pact with death. He killed almost all mammals who worked on it from any agency. The ones who weren't were driven beyond insane. Stuck uttering things that brought terror into all that looked into their branded eyes.She understood the rage that drove all of those killings; it made total sense to her, it was her greatest fear that the AGU would know. She understood all that drives him to kill, but he sometimes fed on his victims, ripping flesh, doing the typical vampire-like thing and drinking some blood. It was labeled cannibalism. That was the one thing she could never understand about him. Why feed on the victims. You've made your statement. When she did fall asleep, it felt like mere seconds before her alarm woke her. And also, unfortunately, her neighbors. A duo of loud kudu's, she didn't really care about what went on behind the near paper thin walls, but sometimes it was a little too evident. She quickly pressed the button for her alarm to stop screaming. She could hear them shuffling around in sheets. "BUNNY AGAIN. STOP WAKING US UP AT FOUR IN THE MORNING.""PRONK SHUT UP." The walls shook with every word."NO, YOU SHUT UP.""Can both of you stop it? I'm going to go soon." She replied talking normally. Leaving her desk and looking at herself and judging her attire. Her clothes were still clean enough. Her navy blue ZPD uniform was still presentable, with few noticeable creases. Judy as soon as she got her keys snapped out the door and headed to work. -\/\/- The rain trickled down, covering the fox coated in blood. Red fur soaked with dark sticky crimson; black cold, steel knife in his grip by his side.A sick twisted smile strung between his ears, eyes cold, yet filled with the heat of hatred. They once were loved emerald gems, filled with love, now corrupted with deep, pure hatred.The rain was picking up, but he didn't care, he couldn't care. It was nothing. He would see it pour down a countless amount of times, and it would continue well long after his time passes.For a self-imposed eternity, they shed tears for him to fall asleep. Scarring him beyond the mind, voices of torment, voices of hate, nothing telling him to stop, only a dark desire to kill, a primal dark, deep-rooted desire. "MR fox do you need an umbrella?" a pure, innocent voice spoke to his side. A young brown rabbit kit with a set of round glasses that with the rain make it nearly imposable to see anything but outlines and smudges of color. A bright yellow raincoat covering her head to toes, at least a size too big. A box filled with umbrellas sized for at best a small teenage wolf. With a small label reading ' $1 for an umbrella.’ It looked as if she was part of a girl guides group. Ah, sick, hate-filled memories"Fuck off." he spat towards her not even shifting his view. Innocence standing next to the devil's kin. If only that were true to the word, everything would be so much easier."That's not nice Mr. Fox." her voice, it was so innocent, yet so fragile and malleable. A pure soul trying to speak with what's left, what's left of the once happy fox."Do I need to FUCKING GUT YOU!" he snapped back teeth bared and black knife still stained with blood, placed under the kits chin. He was becoming what they thought the gifted were. Monsters with no emotion. He pulled himself away. The young golden eyed kit, petrified. She was cold, not of a lack of something, but sheer fear. Sheer fear of this monster standing in front of her, and the reality that could be.Nick pulled the blade back and moved away. He had scarred her, all she was trying to do was help. But now she will always remember the pure hatred in his words and the face with hate reaped, dead emerald eyes."Run” he muttered for the kit to almost disappear into the rain. Nick brought both of his paws behind his head. 'What’s happening to me?' his mind questioned still fractured with the darkness trying to shatter the light of hope. Nick kept repeating these words in his mind ‘I have no family… I have no family by blood,’ he moved to the shadows to reflect on exactly what he did. --- "Nick what did you do?" Dracs questioned with fear as soon as Nick entered safe haven. His movements were emotionless."The news will tell,” Nick responded with no emotion in his voice. Cold, dead. His eyes lifeless, empty. Nothing, everything from his past gone. Now there was nothing but the shell and the gifted inside it, the one that relished in being called a monster. Dracs was instantly hit with dread. It was a cold dread. Not one of disgust, but rather one of shame, shame that the once young innocent kit that had been thrown aside by them was now a cold-blooded monster. A monster that feeds off the fear, the hate, the disgust coming from them. -/\/\- The grey rabbit was currently off duty, she was walking around Happy Town, of all the places for a bunny. She was dressed in a coat that went down past her knees and had a set of shades on. She was gaining looks from all the other residents, mainly predators. She always knew that there was a gap in wealth between the suburbs and happy town, but she would never have guessed it was this bad. More mammals stuck on the street with little to nothing, stuck in autumn weather. Trees bear bones; leaves brushed around some of the mammals laying down. Shop windows barricaded with signs plastered to them, spelling disaster for the owner. It seemed as if happiness was sapped from this place, as she didn’t see anyone walking with any glee or hope. Well what was she to expect, this was Happy Town after all. A place where there was always a homicide around the corner, a rapist in every block, but it only made sense, mammals would result to such dire options in such dire circumstances.The streets were scenic if they were empty and if the world ended as they already looked dilapidated. Cars with windows smashed in, parts stripped. Potholes seeming to be on every road, asphalt discolored and in disrepair. Judy moved quickly through the streets as she was getting more and more mammals staring at her. She was a well-dressed rabbit in a hell hole. An old, long since abandoned store sat on the corner Judy was on. The tattered name could still be read even though not much was left ‘Wilde and son’s tailor’. That name meant so much to one family that was brought into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The once lovely tailor shop was covered in so much graffiti. Vivid pictures depicting the known daemon, the mother who had her own life destroyed in many different ways. And the dead father who never saw the monster that was his son. She could only imagine what it looked like when it was brand new. Doors open for any mammal, a place of acceptance. But now it was a decaying husk of its once former beauty.Judy beyond enhanced sense of hearing snapped to a mammal who was shuffling haphazardly they sounded if they were behind her. She turned around; she caught glimpses of eyes with a color that was impossible to pin down as it was switching between so many different shades and tones. Judy had to follow the mammal. How could she not?She moved slowly at first while following the ever-fading silhouette. Then when she managed to slip into the shadows, she turned to full sprint through the filthy and trash-filled alleyways. she was getting closer on the hooded figure. she quickly pinned the much large mammal to the side of the alleyway. “NOT YET!” The mammal screamed. Judy getting a better view of what exactly it was. It looked as if he was a form of hybrid, though she couldn’t decipher exactly what. The mammal had a canine frame, wolf-like, almost. Colouring similar to that of a jaguar. Though his pattern was flowing. How? This is no ordinary hybrid, though hybrids them self-aren’t ordinary. This one is gifted. Maybe this is a stroke of luck. The canine hybrid shapely shoves her back, spiriting away. He was rather fast probably the boosted feline genetics kicking in. Judy fell back quite a way; it didn’t help that she tripped over some garbage. She kept following him before she was met with cold dead emerald eyes. She was frozen; he was there in front of her.He disappeared along with the hybrid, she’d found others like her. She'd finally done it “Dracs can you ACTUALLY look after Gregory, because I’m not his fucking babysitter!” nick snapped as the large metallic door flung open.“Nick” Dracs sighed. Looking down even more because he knew he couldn’t have a say in this anymore. The wolf moving his right paw behind his head. His near ebony eyes shifting away. He’d never win in an argument against Nick.“Just use that room over there, it’s never used… just to keep him here, as the world only knows him as a stray and you want it to stay that way.”“Nick, please” Dracs whispered in anguish, bringing his eyes back up to meet Nicks. The grey canine having a similar tone to that of Nicks mother when it happened. Nick quickly shifted his head away from Dracs and cursed under his breath.“He ran away from his parents, and I ran away from life yet it still managed to slash me across the back. He doesn’t know the pain.” Nick spat out in disgust. Other gifted walking closer to listen into the conversation even though it can quite easily be heard from any side of the sizable warehouse.“Gregory is a hybrid he knows the pain society binds him to. He doesn’t know your pain.” Dracs continued in his level tone and attitude.“They’re indistinguishable,” he returned facing Dracs. Eyes lighting up in fury.“I’ve saved stripes, I’ve saved Daniel, I’ve save Gerogery. I’m willing to let the world see me as THE monster, so you don’t have hate placed upon your shoulders. And to top it off, the day of my blooming. No one knows the pain I experienced.” Nick continued. The last part was correct, and he was the only one who would and could ever experience that pain.“now let Gregory use that room Dracs” Nick spoke in a snarky voice. ”please” the sarcastic toothy grin grew on Nick’s face as he moved away towards his own corner of the warehouse.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
A blood soaked phantom appears for one moment, then gone the next. But she cannot forget how HE was there and how he simply looked tired. Even through the tatted blood stained clothes, his emerald eyes that seethe with unyielding hate. He is simply tired. Months pass, and new bodies collect. She can never forget that moment. And now as she is reviewing more surveillance footage of him those cold tired hate filled eyes linger. Judy presses the button to rewind the footage. Watching again as the back wall of the room is painted crimson with the splattering viscera of a jackal. Once she would have needed to take a day off to recover from the sight of a mammal being torn apart by a shotgun, but now the sight of blood was far too familiar for Judy’s liking. She’d seen this footage a dozen times now, she could count the frames between each gunshot. She skipped ahead watching him stalk the halls of a once cartel den, the hallways covered in untold layers of graffiti now covered with still warm crimson. This was a weeks old recording. The cartel had tried to regain that territory after the ZPD raided it, breaking up a distribution centre for night howlers and other worse drugs. But nick cleared it out again either under someone's orders or for his own amusement. Her mind keeps flashing back, looking over him, cold steel in hand pointed at her, the blood stained and ruined Hawaiian jacket over top a grey singlet that was now more patchwork than original. The mattered and uneven fur.
‘Does he get enough rest?’
But she can’t forget the hybrid he protected. That pattern on his fur, a kaleidoscopic masterpiece. A missing mystery. Judy heard the heavy hooffalls coming from the hall. she‘d been stuck watching this for hours trying to understand all of this. How one kit turned into such a monster. She had to start somewhere, use empathy and hope to fix the world that seemed allergic to such ideas and actions. He must be exhausted by the burden of hatred. ‘Hopps you’re still here?’ The chief said with yawn. Judy check the nearest window, ‘Yes sir, just thinking that’s all. I guess i lost track of the time’ ‘What have your thoughts added to this?’ stops and looks over at the mess of paper covering judy’s desk 'I don’t really know, just more of the same i guess. The only thing i guess i could add is he looks tired' she comments halfheartedly ‘Tired? Are you really reading into that monster… that he’s tired?’ bogo said ‘That might just be me reading into him what i’m feeling,’ she said looking back at the paused footage ‘You were watching that footage for hours, shouldn’t you get some time off to recover?’ bogo asked ‘No i’m fine, i lost my aversion to blood. Comes with the job’ Judy commented ‘Also Hopps, the AGU finally found a member willing to work with you on this case. Must be some Rooky that ended up with the short stick. They should be here tomorrow or the day after’ ‘It’s been months, sir i wasn’t expecting anyone to come this late into it’ ‘Their bureaucracy is a whole different kind of mess’ bogo said shrugging as he continued to walk ‘Anyway Hopps go get some sleep’ he continued– \/ – \/ – Among the steel rafters of Safe Haven, with one leg hanging off a steel i-beam, the O’hated spectre of violence. Watching over the ramshackle home as a bloodstained guardian. Watching as kids run around playing simple games, those who would have to wear a shock collar have theirs removed by an illegal collar deactivator. Older Gifted laughing as they drink into the long hours of the night. Nick sat alone, in both self isolation and protecting vigil. ‘I think you’ve still got some viscera in your fur’ a voice called from behind, it was a black striped grey rabbit, he was wearing a simple sweat shirt and some coal colour shorts ‘Messy kill, anyway I’ll get it out later’ Nick said waving his friend over. Beside him was a glass bottle half emptied The striped rabbit wandered up and sat down behind him ‘How’s the family been Stripes?’ Nick said ‘Kind of you to ask, they’ve been going well, school’s been good for them. Heard them whispering about you and what would happen if you came’ Jack said with a half chuckle ‘Kinda difficult to tell them you’re his oldest and only friend.’ Nick says looking over to Jack, fond memories soothing the pain of the many scars. A smile began to grow upon Nick's face before he shut it off, maintaining his usual half snarl. ‘I wouldn’t say only, but yeah’ he wandered up to sit beside Nick and kicked his legs off, both looking over the place they know as home. Jack let himself marinate in the fond memories of playing with friends and siblings, playing hide and seek among the scattered crates and items, he knew Nick would see them linger in his mind, Jack wanted him to see them. ‘Stripes pass me a knife’ Nick said looking over to a pockmarked poster of the AGU Chairmammal. A lioness dressed in a wonderfully white suit, and a shock collar branded around her neck showing a oh so painful green. Jack grabbed the knife from a crate to the side, grabbing the knife from the striped rabbit paw. Nick tested the weight of the knife, it wasn’t some throwing knife. It was just a smaller kitchen knife. Flipping it in his paw Nick threw the knife with a flick of the wrist. The knife landed right in between her eyes. ‘I should kill her’ Nick commented, pointing to the poster ‘Of…’ jack started before being cut off ‘Yeah, council's orders. Make her a martyr and all that shit. Though I should kill someone important. Keep them on their toes, I should go murder the mayor while he’s making a speech, ' Nick said, looking over to his friend. The striped rabbit shrugged, he knew that it was going to be impossible to ask Nick to stop. He had already tried so many times. And had oh so many times been disappointed by what atrocities he’s committed. Begging him to stop, but only for him to return baptised in crimson. They simply sat in each other's presence silently for nearly a half hour. Nick would never say it, but this calmed him. Let him rest for just a moment. ‘You’ve been watching over your new friend?’ Jack said ‘Don’t call her a friend, she's just a problem,’ Nick said, gesturing for another knife. ‘Is it true that she’s gifted?’ Jack said idlely passing the knife into nick’s hand ‘Yep’ Nick said, readying another knife. Pressing his thumb against the blade’s edge, almost cutting the tips of his finger. In either repentance or tally. ‘Guess the AGU only cares about us when we’re a predator, anyway she’s a rabbit there’s a billion and one of those fuckers, kinda easy for one to slip through the cracks’ Nick said as he tossed another knife at the poster, but this time to that oh so perfect green shockcollar. Jack nodded. ‘You’re gonna need to get those later, nick. I can’t have all the utensils and tools stuck in those posters’ Dracs shouted from below, the grey black timber wolf looking up. ‘Like you’ll make me’ Nick said, meeting his eyes with Dracs, the timber wolf shrugged and returned to managing Safe Haven. ‘And anyway bigger problems to get rid of first Dracs.’ Nick said standing up and turning to head down the makeshift stairs behind them. ‘You’re heading out?’ Jack said, turning around. ‘Yep, Big is gonna call me later. Ask me to deal with a problem of his. I’ll chat later about our little problem, ' nick said, wandering off, grabbing a black duffle bag. ‘Also Jack, catch… For the restaurant' Nick said as he threw a duffle bag full of notes his way. And with a curt wave he was gone. – /\ -- /\ – Judy stood alone in her closet of an apartment, one wall covered with post it notes pins and string. A network of her discoveries and revelations. And at the centre. Was not Nick. It was instead everything she had ever found regarding other Gifted. Potential locations, online rumours. A mess of dissident information. That would either condemn her or place her high in the city halls of honour. Half her mind spoke for her to burn it, not that she was on this accursed case, she would find herself meeting others like her, well she did but there wasn’t much to make out of either of them. The poor hybrid who screamed about it being too early, and the hated demon of Zootopia. There really wasn’t much to start a conversation with. She had been gathering this sprawling map of information for years, for as long as she was here in the city. Zootopia was known for many things. screaming neon skyscrapers, a vast repugnant criminal underbelly and being the city with the largest underground network of gifted communities. The only reason the whole city wasn’t spending every dollar it could on unearthing the communities was Nick himself. As any attempt is met by slaughter. Judy sat onto her brick like mattress, her lavender eyes scanning again over her notes trying to pry any greater meaning from them. She knew there had to be some pattern behind it all, there couldn’t be nothing. Rumoured organisations such as the Council of One a enigmatic group seeming to be an almost governing body of gifted. She had gathered so many post from conspiracists talking about how intertwined The Council was with the ruling class and they were secretly pulling the strings. But it made no sense to her and frankly anyone who thought about it for more than ten seconds. She wasn’t entirely sure if Nick was a part of this group, as either a ruling member, subject or tool. There was simply too little reliable information to work with. Another whole section of the board dealt with connections between the criminal elements and the gifted communities, these all had to be made by her hand. Rumours from victims and confessions from interrogated criminals detailed a close relation between Gifted and Mob and Crime bosses. She laid back looking at her popcorn ceiling. Her mind abuzz with thoughts and theories. As her eyelid grew ever heavier she fell asleep. Dreaming of a better world, and dreaming to understand the Nightmare – \/ – \/ – Hidden within his fathers old ruined tailors shop, among the fallen rafters and leaking roof, Nick takes a metal cup of water from a bucket under a filter that had been collecting rainwater from the last storms. And quickly drink it. The water tasted of the sour plastics mixed with the flaking rust. The flip phone on the corner desk began to ring Walking to the phone, nick put down the metal cup and grabbed the phone and brought to his ear‘What do you need Big’ Nick said ‘Nicky, we have a problem you see…’ ‘You need me to remove this problem of yours’ ‘Yes and i need this to be a particularly violent message, they’re over in the old Rainforest district’ Mister big said, as if Nick handling this wouldn't be an excessively violent message. ‘Yeah i can sus out where they’d be, I’m coming for my pay after’ Nick said in a half threat. ‘Of course, of course. Clean bills’ big said hanging up Nick looked over his arsenal of weapons, his trusty pistols sat on a stool his father used to stand on to help him measure clients. He could remember watching his father work. The peace in his fathers mind, no worries , just simple love for his family. No, not the time for those memories. A still bloody shotgun stood resting against the wall and resting by the base was a bag of loose shells, a submachine gun fixed with a welded scrap metal bayonet. He quickly counted a few loose mags. He knew he shouldn’t of taken this job and instead got some sleep, because he'd only really slept properly over two months ago and that was because someone got lucky and managed to perforate his body with buckshot. But he didn’t want to sleep. He didn’t want to go there. If he could only dream then he would be happy to sleep. - - - Another starless night, with the moon hidden behind towering sprawl. The rain trickled down though a thick canopy, drenching the red fox who watched from the shadows. Looking out over the were house built into the cliff face. He saw a few mammals outside, some wolves all weaning thick shock collars. In particular A russet wolf, faced scared by a vicious claw mark. He’d be a fun kill. He watched as a truck entered as the chain link fence was opened by a few mammals who were trying their hardest to keep this covert. He walked forwards out from the shadows, pulling one of his pistols from under the tattered jacket. Waiting for the moment where the marmot driver notices the approaching spectre. And their mind was screaming. Before it was silenced by a crack of gun fire. The truck is sent into full reverse as the limp foot lands on the accelerator. The yard goes into panic. Everyone jumped as the Truck slammed into pallets of crates. He slowly walked through the dust cloud, having holstered his pistol and drawing the shotgun from his back, quickly checking the cylinder and chamber. Slipping from the dust cloud, a blast tore a sheep's upper torso apart. Ducking to the side, a burst narrowly misses him. Sending dust and debris scattering. Tossing his knife out of his roll. It found purchase in a wolf's throat, severing their collar. In a burst of speed Nick leaps onto the wolf. And in one motion tears the knife out in a fountain of crimson elixir. The wolf tumbles back and lands on top of a pallet of crates covered by a tarp. Nick Leaps from the wolf to a nearby stoat, who was reading their pistol. Before Nick landed and crushed their spine. ‘Come on then, be the one to strike me down’ Nick said holstering his guns and pulling out his knife. Cold blue steel, he had heard many a mind give it names. Fang, Bane, etc. but it had no name because it was simply his knife. His tool. The red wolf raised his rifle and shot a burst towards Nick, moving to the side the bullets sunk into the corpse. Nick raised his free paw and flicked to the side. And in an unuttered command the wolf throws his rifle away. Baffled by the sudden act, the wolf dashes for the gun still sliding across the wet ground. In a sudden shock they feel this demanding collar pull around their neck. Nick smiled as he pulled back with that same free paw. Nick cold emerald eyes, met the amber eyes of the wolf. Who’s mind and face were wrought in confusion and undying panic. ‘Now that’s no fun’ Nick said. Readying himself. The russet wolf charged him, grabbed a steel pipe. With all his force swung. Nick blocked it with his arms, feeling each and every bone shatter. Flung back, digging his claw into the ground, ignoring how the asphalt tried to tear his claws out. Nick shot up willing his body to ignore the pain and trauma. In a flash Nick stood up, unphased by the ruined arm and with his other arm gestured to the russet wolf to ‘bring it’. In a blood curdling roar ran up and swung down. Nick dodged to the side, driving his knife into the back of the wolf’s right knee. Collapsing to the ground, the wolf swiped at nick with their claws, ducking under the wild flailing. Dug the knife into the wolf stomach. Tearing the blade from the abdomen, the wolf struggled to keep his inside together, as blood matted his fur and spilled between his fingers. Licking the cold steel knife clean of the oh so sweet crimson. That primal darkness screamed to be let out, to make true it’s will and rip those asunder and feast. Nick let that monster feast for a moment. His now crimson touched eyes looked out to the remaining mammals. They were all trembling wells of fear. Their minds rambling in utter chaos and desperation, trying to plot and plan to find some path of escape. Thinking of their families. Some watch their wasted lives. Nick drinked in their emotions and thoughts. Smiling in grim satisfaction. They tried to fight back. But faltered and fled, leading to another four ruined corpses. Nick stalked into the warehouse. Screams filled the hollow corridors tearing through the remaining mammals, leaving limbs scattered. He finds a completely pitch black room, with three mammals behind a corner he could feel their minds through the walls, their panicked thoughts and wallowing fear. Rolling from the corner. Flashbang All he could see was white, and he felt the blood in his ears burst from its veins. Nick stumbled, being genuinely off guard. He caught himself against the wall. Resting a paw against the wall. Nick presented himself as trying to reorient himself and listen out to the world. With his eyes firmly shut. Their panic rested for a moment. A mink mouthed ‘I'll get help’ to its peers. Trying its hardest to be silent even against deaf ears. He could feel their presence, the concrete quake at their gentle step. Reaching out in heated fury, Nick reaches out and grabs the mink. Biting down.One becomes two. Standing out letting the torso sag out of his mouth, dashing to beyond the corner. He opened his ruined eyes, making out shifting blurs, he whipped out his pistol and took one shot, dropping one. As the bullet tore through the first and hit the second. He could feel their spine sever as the lead lodged itself there. Like a switch simply turned off the bobcat's legs. Permanently. They both fell to the ground. One silent, the other screaming. though nicks ears were still deaf to the noise. Nick holstered the pistol, and rubbed his eyes. The world slowly regained its dimension and colour, he could no longer feel the burst blood vessels in his ears Nick kneeled down right beside them, grabbing the back of their head and pull it back to let them look over the blood shed ’At request of Mister Big.’ Nick said, gesturing to the wanton bloodshed. Nick let go, dropping their face to the harsh concrete. Their mind was locked in fear, panic, hopelessness. They were awaiting death. ‘I won’t Kill you, I need you alive’ Nick's voice dominated the bobcat’s mind. Like a hurricane through a gentle meadow. The bob cat’s hollow eyes looked up, tears shedding. He needed them to contact their boss, so this message’s blade is pointed. Nick wandered over to the still warm corpse of their compatriot reaching for the phone they had in their pocket ‘Call them. Your arms still work don’t they?’ Nick said kicking over the flip phone, he could ravage the mind of this frozen bobcat and tear the number from some guarded memory and make them feel every pressing influence of his power, but that is boring. And too easy. Struggling to sit up, the bobcat listened, tears silently trailing down their face. They could only listen. And a creeping through wandered into their mind, i need help. I need to call the cops, better in prison than dead . Nick couldn’t care about them trying to save themselves; he'd be long gone by then. ‘Good little thing’ Nick said as he walked away, readjusting his broken arm. Feeling the bones move back into place. Striding out from the warehouse, the dark canopy began to be illuminated by the early morning light, bringing the fantastic colours of dawn to the jungle. For a moment he stood there, letting the rain clean off some of the blood. Watching the city that hated him so deeply wake up.– /\ – /\ –
Woken by the sound of a phone ringing in her ear. The young morning light lit her room in a soft orange ‘Hopps we’ve got another massacre.‘ Fangmeyer said. ‘Where?’ Judy said, immediately woken from her stupor ‘Old Rainforest district, sent a cruiser to get you from your apartment’ ‘Got it’ Judy replied, getting changed as quickly as possible before even her neighbors woke. ‘One survivor, he’s been paralysed from the waist down’ said Fangmeyeras soon as judy stepped out of the car. She was a tall well built tigress, wearing the blue uniform of a ZPD officer with a bulletproof vest overtop ‘How?’ Judy asked 'Bullet lodged in the spinal cord. Bullet didn’t have enough exit velocity to go all the way through, so it must have gone through another mammal. They have already been placed in medical care.’ Fangmeyer said, once again looking over the field of corpses.
‘This was all at the request of Mister Big’ Fangmeyer said ‘How do you know that, Fangmeyer?’ Judy asked looking up to the tigress ‘Survivor, we’re not gonna much else. They’re pretty fucked up’
Judy wandered the crime scene for only ten minutes before another cruiser arrived
‘Hopps the Agent from the Agu is waiting at the precinct for you.’ a russet fox said while running over to Judy. ‘I’m in the middle of an investigation of a crime scene, can't they wait?’ Judy said ‘He’s asking that you meet him now, and we can’t deny their request,’ Anthony said panting, trying to avoid looking at the gory mess around him. ‘Thank you Anthony,’ Judy said, placing her paw on his back, trying to comfort him. Judy showed him away with Fangmeyer following them. Returning, to the monolith of justice that was the Zootopia first precinct. In the parking lot Judy walked by a clean white sedan, with the clear lettering AGU in stark Black. Judy glimpsed inside, seeing a roll cage reinforcing the inside. And was that bullet proof glass she noticed. A computer running facial recognition, even while the car was off. And as Judy walked past there was this faint, near unnoticeable static that dug into her mind. It so faintly felt like a collar tightening around her neck, binding want for freedom, with wind brushing through her fur. Those vibrant memories of her sprinting through her family's fields dim in colour. Judy moved Talking with the joyous cheetah who was loved by the entire ZPD. Judy saw him, A middle aged brown rabbit wearing the perfectly clean uniform of an AGU agent. It was a mix between trench coat and an officer uniform, a radio placed up on the left shoulder. Badges and insignia blazed on either sleeve and about the chest pocket. In their left paw they carried a black briefcase. She could see the silhouette of a holster on the side of their body. As he turned towards her, she saw the black undershirt and a soft metal chain around his neck. ‘Miss hopps’ The rabbit said, reaching out his empty paw. Judy would rather be anywhere else but here. Standing beside an agent of the AGU who would revel at the chance to ruin her life and send her into the shadows. ‘Agent?’ Judy said, holding back in an attempt to remain formal. Reaching out a paw to for a pawshake ‘Just Marcus please’ Markus said, brushing away any real sense of formality.‘May we go to your office’ he quickly asked ‘I don’t really have one… I only have a cubical’ Judy replied. ‘That is no place for a woman of your station. Clawhauser. Notify Chief Bogo that I am asking for him to requisition an office for Miss Hopps, with authorisation under my executive authority.’ he said turning to Clawhauser. Judy could only stand there baffled for a moment, a simple gesture of authority. She could only mutter out ‘thank you’ ‘Clawhauser would you know if there is an empty conference room’ ‘I’ll check, hya Judy’ ‘he said waving to judy before looking onto the computer ‘Room 105 is open.’ Clawhauser said ‘Thank you, Hopps, will you lead the way?’ Marcus said, gesturing for Judy Judy took the lead and found headed to the massive conference room. with a table maybe twice her hight, with large chairs.‘That’s why he has had his own containment cell since the hotel massacre over two and a half decades ago’ Markus said. They had been in conversation for a few hours now. Not one moment didn’t go by without Judy being both incredibly nervous, disgusted and intrigued ‘A specialised prison cell?’ she asked ‘It’s not really a prison cell as it is a full body sarcophagus designed to keep gifted ‘dead’, by flooding their veins with neurotoxins and similar poisons.’ Marcus said, describing the horrid machine as if it were as ordinary as a printer. Judy could only keep a curious gaze as her mind grew in terror. Her mind flooded with terrified thoughts. This is what they’ll put me in if they find me out ‘All this for one gifted’ she asked almost whispering ‘Well yes, it’s not like you could just kill him with a bullet to the head. He would drop to the floor for a while; but he would get back up. Every single Gifted we’ve ever encountered has the same regenerative capabilities. So that’s why it’s a shoot on sight and don’t stop shooting, because otherwise they will get back up. This is what is needed against gifted like him’ Marcus said, gifted like him that’s feels specific. ‘Like him?’ Judy repeated, unsure entirely exactly Marcus meant by it ‘The ones who are frankly evil’ He said Judy nodded and began scanning over the documents, detailing his known limits taken from security footage, a while page with the bordered title of ‘Gift and Extent of Power’ showing a diagram of a fox, and besides the diagram was a checklist Enhanced regeneration - observed : REDACTEDEnhanced senses - observed : REDACTEDEnhanced reflexes - observed : REACTEDEnhanced durability - observed : REDACTED And then written in the massive blank space beneath, written in thick black ink‘Possibly able to manipulate the electrical current in the brain, leading to supposed mind reading and manipulation. But no EMFDs (Electro Magnetic Frequency Detectors) have detected anything. Gifts Still undergoing investigation’beside it'how do we investigate them exactly?' written in another smaller print And at the bottom of the page was a quote. Written in a rushed hand ‘This is already difficult enough with typical Gifted. But I am Assured by REDACTED that he is not capable of any physical manipulation outside the capability of his own body. Do you know what I say? We have no idea apart from hear say and victim reports about what he’s capable of. He could be the Strongest gifted in the world, or the weakest and we would have no idea. Because his favourite way of killing is traditional weapons. – REDACTED Another whole set of documents detailing the details of every killing at the hand of Nick. not through some detective lens but instead taking meticulous detail about how every way he has killed, in some preparatory manual. Detailing plans of attack, how to retrieve him, and an expectation of how long it would take for him to get back up. Another list of all the AGU, ZPD and ZIA agents and officers killed by him. It was simply labelled ‘in memoria’ And finally a document labelled ‘Council of one operation and organisation’. In the corner was a single stylised eye. Something she could finally use to help her, to understand how to find those truly like her. ‘Agents of the council of one typically wear steel face masks when tasked with an operation, as seen by the numerous assaults against Foundation strongholds. -Are these face masks a reaction and parody to the combat suits Brightspear members wear when on active duty?- Known Gifted tend to only where he face mask, while unrecognised gifted wear clothing that covers as much of their body as possible to hinder identification attempts’ a paragraph of description wrote Marcus spoke up ‘Technically some of this stuff you shouldn’t even see…’ as he said that Judy shot him a glance, Marcus continued ‘But given who we are dealing with, I asked the brass upstairs and they allowed most of it’ He watched Judy return to study, before he excused himself to get a coffee. ‘Why is this all classified?’ Judy said as he returned though the door, with two steaming coffees in paw ‘Informational security. Anyway, it's not my specialty, I'm an agent not a data analyst.’ Marcus returned, shrugging passing a coffee up so Judy could bend down to pick it up ‘May I make a photocopy of some of these?’ she said, once her got up ‘No, that was strictly not allowed’ Marcus said biting his teeth at the procedure ‘What files do i get’ Judy said looking up to meet Marcus gaze ‘I will discuss with my superiors what I'm allowed to officially give you… But Hopps just a tip; memorise everything you need. I’m not sure what I'm allowed to actually give you for distribution among the ZPD’ he said. Annoyed by his own agencies restrictions Instead of continuing to prod at questions Judy spent the rest of her day dictating as much as she could to remember everything the case needed and anything she needed for herself. – \/ – \/ – The towering polar bear would rather be anywhere else in the world rather than being here, and Nick knew that. So the wide sick teeth baring grin was for his amusement. The polar bear’s mind ran racing with thousands of scenarios here. All of them included Nick spontaneously trying to kill him like a true savage monstrosity. ‘Koslov we’ve known each other for how long, why would I kill you?’ nick said, looking over the black clad suited polar bear who was trying keeping as far as he could away from Nick ‘Shut up or I'll…’ Koslov said, snapping towards nick ‘Kill me? Greater mammals have tried and do you see where that’s gotten them?' Nick said, dancing his knife between his fingers. The chauffeur kept looking forward, never looking back, never risking having to make eye contact with the monster that sat in the back of his limo. – /\ – /\ – Flicking on the radio in her new office Judy stood from her chair and hopped up onto her Large mammal sized desk. She listened to the Mayor's interview. Looking over the haphazard notes taken from her AGU partner. She looked around what now was HER office. It still took her back how a simple agent of the AGU was allowed to command the Chief of the ZPD into giving her an office, and one that was so much larger than she’d ever need. The space was maybe three times the size of her apartment, the same apartment she spent long hours in her family's fields to even rent to begin with. Marcus had offered her to go talk at some small restaurant over near the happy town border, to learn about each other and to better understand who they’d be working with, but she declined.In the back of her mind lingered the thought that Marcus might be into her. This random unfounded idea plaguing her subconscious. why? She told herself, he only just met her. There was nothing to go on, just her own mind overreacting. But that only made her think of him, and how he spoke what words, what focus.‘Gifted like him’ those words stuck in her mind. That was way too specific. Maybe she had nothing to worry about with Marcus. — Soaking in a bath and listening to the same announcement, Nick was resting in frigid water. Bleeding from a few still open scrapes and injuries. He let his exhausted body rest for a moment, the individual muscle fibres loosening, those torn fusing back together. It was needed agony to feel and know how each part of you corrects itself, how the shattered bones cut and scrape as they are pushed back into place. This awareness was his own doing, he needed to know to push himself. To break those hard limits he once thought he had.He wasn’t the strongest being in the city, he was definitely stronger than any other fox, but any wolf could overpower him in raw physical strength, and that had been a problem for his younger self. Being slammed against a brick wall by a towering wolf feeling some of his vertebrae shatter and his spinal nerves tear. He managed to kill the wolf in the end, as Nick had managed to tear at arteries, so he was left there by himself in an alleyway in happy town for two days unable to move, staring at a corpse. The speech finished, and in truth Nick didn’t actually listen to it; he had spent the time resting. But he knew what the next big thing he’d do. But first he reluctantly let sleep’s embrace take him.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Long years ago, before she managed to Join the ZPD, young Judith Hopps was an ordinary bunny. Well, as ordinary she could be. She was gifted after all. She had always known, her nature wasn’t revealed to her through some typically impossible act. But instead it was how she saw the world, how far her senses reached. She could hear the conversations from across the labyrinthine house, and not only that there was this little voice in the back of her mind. Was it her or something else, Judy could not answer. But the voice always seemed to be excited when she was running. Softly whispering ‘faster’ into the back of her mind. And as she grew older the voice sung to change. — At the age of five, she was playing hide and seek with friends and siblings. And unfortunately for her siblings this round she was the seeker. She let her senses extend themselves, hearing the distant conversations between siblings, the faint smells of coming lunch, mixed with the scents of dinners past. Her ears could hear her sister's shallow breaths in the closet, in the next room over. The rapid soft beating of her heart, the gentle rustling of her clothes and fur. Her ears swiveled to locate her, and like an unseen predator she pounced. ‘Got you!’ Judy said as she flung open the closet door, the slats rattling together ‘No fair, how did you find me?’ her sister yelled, half blinded by the sudden influx of light ‘I heard you’ Judy said bouncing ‘No way i was silent’ Her sister barked back, wholly confident in her hiding spot She and her sister argued and later among her family and friends it later became a rule that Judy was never to be the seeker again. — The carrot day festival was a brilliant thing through her young eyes. She paid no attention to how the predators were segregated to their own corner of the theatre And as she tore off the costume to reveal an officer's uniform. The crowd half murmured, half laughed. She could see both her mother and father agasp ‘Judy do you ever wonder how your mom and me got so darn happy?’ Stu said ‘Nope!’ Judy said, skipping beside her parents ‘Well we gave up on our dreams and we settled right’ Stu said ‘Yes, that's right, Stu. We settled hard.’ Bonnie continued. ‘See that’s the beauty of complacency. If you don’t try anything new you’ll never fail’ her father continued Her parents spoke like she was listening. Judy did hear the words, but they bit against her existence. Stagnancy felt so cold to Judy’s mind, like some antithetical concept that she could not accept. Though these exact words were not yet known to her the feeling was, as imagining herself complacent in stagnation left her sick in the stomach. A veiled promise of safety and security inseparable from her anathema. In this moment of cold antithetical thought, Judy heard a scuffle behind the barn. Turning her head she glimpses red fur, wool coat and beige hide. Her mind changed her focus onto this. Slipping out of her parents' sight, turning a corner she saw her bully Gideon grey pushed to the ground by an older faun followed by a black sheep, with nubs of keratin growing upon their head. She was a vessel of justice. She move to stand out in the light‘Kindly leave him alone,’ her voice called out. That voice within her, spoke so softly ‘change’. Is that a promise, a want, a declaration? It didn’t matter because it felt good for her to stand in the way of injustice ‘What was that’ the faun calls, looking over to Judy ‘Leave him alone please’ Judy calls againAgain that little voice sings ‘Aww the bunny cop thinks she can do something’ the faun said ‘This mongrel has been looking at my sister’ the black lamb spits Judy dashed to stand between the assailing faun and Gideon She was going to demand them again, to leave him alone. He didn’t deserve this. But this act of defiance against the faun seemed to spike them with anger. Shoved to the ground, the hoof of the fawn pressing against her cheek, There was a seizing storm in her heart, she could feel the energy build up in her muscles charging up and screaming to break from the pin. But she let that energy dissipate, she had to let them win. ‘There will never be a rabbit cop. The preds will eat you up and The Misfits will tear you apart’ The faun said with words spiked in deep vitriol ‘Guss it ain't worth it, let’s just leave’ The black furred lamb said, pulling on the fauns shoulder A moment after the faun and their duo left Judy stood up and looked over to Gideon. She could see the dampened fur around his eyes, his shock collar hovering at a yellow. She reached out a paw.it was battered away‘What do you want Judy’ Gideon barks, pushing himself up ‘Nothing’ Judy chirps innocently. ‘Prey don’t help pred unless they can get something out of it’ he says, cleaning the dust off his suspenders ‘Gideon, I don't want anything from you. You were in trouble, I wanted to help you’ Judy said looking to him, that little voice of change sings of warmth She saw a faint smile upon his muzzle, and a want to say something. But ended up saying nothing and he simply walked away. — Later that same day, after the sun had set and cast the entire burrows in luminescent beauty. Her family was stuck around the TV watching the latest episode of some show. Judy didn’t really care for TV, she was here to talk with her siblings. Idle chatter about school teachers, she didn’t mention what she did earlier today she Her conversation was broken by this horrendous alarm coming from the TV
PSA - Gifted Sighting - Hareburrough
Age of Footage: 3 hrs 28 mins
The TV shows footage from a quite service station, two gas pumps Coalescing from a ball of arcing plasma, a small snow white arctic fox whose fashion sense was taken from some distant century. Stepping forward wild arcs of lighting struck out around her. Her family looked on in terror and her amethyst eyes were fixed in both that same terror and a mix of fascination and wonder. A single quite thought amongst the fear ‘ could I do something like that’ Screams could be heard from beyond the edge of the footage. The Snow fox looked over to where the screams came from. And with absolute apathy reached out a single arm, and it began to wreath itself in arcing electricity causing the CCtv Camera to glitch. The audio began to tear, and the screams distorted. Before the static consumed the screen, before the screen flickered between several grainy pictures of the arctic fox. ‘If there are any sighting of this individual please contact emergency services’ a soft automated voice calls out Gentle murmurs begin as Bonnie changes the channel in an attempt to ignore the horror. She hears some of her older siblings whisper about what happens when it gets here. The younger ones unsure or what that even was, or if it was even real. ‘Children it’s times for bed’ her father calls, standing up and ushering everyone out. The back of her mind focuses on that fox, seemingly obsessed in some abstract way. That little voice repeated ‘Change’ in the back of Judy's mind until the word lost meaning. In her room the voice kept her up that night staring at her ZPD poster A heavyset rhino standing at the front a roster, with a cape buffalo behind them and a menagerie of other mammals behind them. The banner text read ‘A Brighter Future For All’ To silence that incessant voice. Judy proclaimed to herself that she would be an agent of justice and change. She was going to be the first rabbit police officer and she was going to make the world a better place. That seemed to settle the voice.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Throughout her life Judy had always been alone, she knew no one else like herself. She had only seen other Gifted through the TV or heard over the radio. Even among her innumerable siblings that loneliness ate away at her. She would sometimes turn to the media. But with all the media around gifted, most of it was made to seed fear and panic. Whole movie series being devoted to creating a monster and how the valiant heroes of the AGU and Brightlance defeated them. The most recent series was focused around a murderous red fox, who still drenched himself in blood. But even in the nichest of media Judy found none of it dealt with the discovery of the Gift, not knowing what you will be capable of. So on her sixteenth birthday, Judy woke long before sunrise, quickly writing a note explaining her disappearance and filling a small pack. The whole of her being trembling in both giddy excitement and nervous energy. She ran, the wind flowing through her fur breaking to full sprint. This grey blur in the amber brilliance of the waking sun. She let the sensation drive her, the deep meditative state. Her mind and body whispered ‘faster’ but she did not know how. Her legs were already going as fast as they could have been. Her mind raised a soft question ‘what is the shortest distance between two points’ she knew no answer for the question made no sense, so she pushed it to the side. As she continued. The open fields, turning to claustrophobic forest. The chirping of insects echoed throughout the Judy found a recluse valley. A trailing stream covered by a thick canopy. A couple scattered boulders ranging from three to ten times her size. She found that voice calling to her again as she stood still, she had to keep that familial voice sheltered away, as it kept driving her to action when inaction would keep her safe. Thankfully nothing yet had shown her true vibrant colours.
‘Be change upon the world’
It spoke now more wholly, as if it were a mirror of her not some mellow whisper. A manifested echo of her determination and dreams. Judy mutters the same phrase. Feeling the static energy of the world. The tang of electricity on her tongue, the charge within her muscles. Judy had no idea how to place her will upon the world. How the energetic chisel was formed and how it demanded to be used to carve change upon the world. Reaching out and invoking that wanted change, a blue bolt of electric strikes a nearby stone. Creating a small lichtenberg fractal. The blasted rock sloths off some slag and steam. Looking to her paw, brimming with static. Memories flash of that gifted arctic fox who was wreathed in electricity. Closing her paw, arcs leap between her fingers and supercharge the air. “I am change, I am the Storm” she mutters. Embracing the concept of change, she felt every cell on her body energise and sing in a symphony of change. Carving the ground in roaring arcs of lighting, she became a tesla coil. Surging with this newfound energy she jogged up to the blasted stone. She almost got to it instantly, moving faster than she’d thought. Faster than she’d known. In a seeming instinct she began to pummel the scorched boulder. Her strikes a supercharged blur. And in one final cataclysmic punch. The bolder shatters in a mess of white hot plasma and slag. She stands back looking over herself. Seeing her paw crackling with arc lighting, flexing her fingers prompts bolts to jump between them. Her mind sung in a sweet harmony of change. She sprinted up the little valley finding some small body of water. She saw her reflection, her grey fur humming with a resonant blue static, her amethyst eyes charged with a microcosm of the storm within. Staring at herself, her memories recall all those years ago, that gifted arctic fox and her seeming abstract obsession. She understood why now. They shared a gift of change, while the out of fashion fox sought to bring change through destruction. Judy proclaimed she would change the world through hope and determination. — Running back to her home, the sun now setting bathing the entire valley she calls home in an amber mixed amethyst. As she found the road and fields of crops. She grew an understanding of her hyperawareness. The telephones cables emanated this faint aura, not quite a numbing radio static, but rather the faint hum of moving current. And when she got home the ever growing hum grew to a near tipping point, placing her on a knife's edge. Senses overwhelmed and as if anymore will break the dam. “Where were you” her mother shouts from the doorway“We were worried,” her father chaides. The voices merged into one as Judy’s mind adjusts to silence the incessant hum, driving her mind to nagging madness. “There was another gifted sighting” her father says, or was it her mother? Her gut drops. Was it her? Was it the shattered stone she left? The arc scorched ground found by some wayward wanderer and reported to the AGU, leading to search parties to find some piece of caught fur. And in the end leading to her being seen as a monster. “It was the demon fox Nick or something, he was seen a hundred miles from here” A parent of hers said, that fear subsides for the moment. “I hope your cousins are alright, stu” her fathermother said.“But where were you judy?” one homogenous voice calls. “Didn’t you see the note I left? I just wanted the day to myself” Judy responds, unsure of entirely who she was responding to. It didn’t matter. She needed space. The resonant humming drove the static charge within her to brim. She could feel the static discharges as she ground her teeth together like quartz rubbing together.“Why?” their parental voices call.“Because I did. I wanted space” Judy said, moving past her parents, entirely unsure if she’s accidentally shocked them as she passes. Nerves singeing as the rampant noise of her family, the calls of happy birthday from those who remember and the echoing conversions of those unaware or those who forgot. The very halls warped and grew ever tighter winding into obtuse angles. She felt her body charge like a battery, too aware of how close she was to the cusp of overflowing. Barging open her pink door and quickly slamming it behind her, leaving a small charged fractal. She walked right up to her bed and fell face first into the soft pillows, trying to drown out the noise. Covering her ears and eyes. She found herself in her mind, a bare planescape filled with the faint murmur of the outside world. As Judy focused in upon her mindscape, the bare white faded away revealing open fields with a perpetual storm in the sky, she could feel a shadow of herself. Turning she saw a hollow mirror of herself, the same grey singlet, black shorts. But it both in the same moment lacked eyes, yet mirrored back her own. ‘Change’ it muttered with the same vindication it always had. She would try and ask it questions, but it would only ever repeat the one phrase and that one undefinable question. Judy swiftly fell to sleep among this mindscape. Storm clouds began to gather. And they sang to her in her dreams. They were always something she like, she didn’t really understand her affinity up until the moment she called lightning left from her fingers. The fist crack of lighting woke her and the boom of thunder called.Waking with the flash of light, and sitting up in bed to the clap of thunder. Walking over in an almost trace, when she opened the window she was whipped with the sheet of icy rain.She crawled out of the window almost completed to sit on the roof and watch the storm. She could see the climbing fields of opposing currents, and count when they would clash lighting the sky in fractal arcs of current. Counting the strikes of lighting and the claps of thunder kept her up the entire night. Letting the cool rain calm the fried ends of her nerves. She looked to her open paw, surging with a measure of charge. She saw a faint blue arc snake its way through her fur. Tensing her fingers the arc leaps between them in an electrostatic net. Over the next few years between her study and chores Judy would sneak away and learn to control and hide her gift. She would also happen to brick a few of her phones. Accidentally. — The day she got her acceptance letter for the ZPD academy, Judy was ecstatic. Brimming with enough charge to almost ignite the paper in her paws, so instead of screaming in celebration inside the house. She feared that she might lose control and cause her home to burn down. Judy instead ran through the fields screaming in celebration. That voice sung in celebration with her. Leaving a faint after image as she sprints, that energy coalesce as she sees coiling arcs in the corners of her eyes. The charging arcs crawling through her fur like bolts of lighting claw through the clouds. She feels her strides stretch, each bound growing longer. A little bolt of lightning. Digging her feet into the dirt. Skidding to a stop further than she’d thought. A spray of topsoil shot out like a cone, dusting the towering corn and wheat. Bouncing in joy, screaming to the sky above. She jogged back home to celebrate among her family. When she got back and shared the news, she was surrounded by a tide of her siblings. But deep in the back she could hear her parents fear for her safety. The conversation would be lost to the noise of the tide of siblings, but being gifted she could hear every tense breath and muttered syllable. “What of the predators and what will they do to Judy “ “What about the gifted” “They’d kill her without so much as a thought” “That fox would tear out her throat and eat her flesh” “I don’t even know if that thing is a fox” And on and on her parents conversation when, discussing what she should do if ever she encounters any species of predator. crushing over-protectiveness. --- The day finally came when she needed to leave Bunny burrow and head to the ZPD academy. The sky covered by welcoming storm clouds, distant flashes of lighting. Judy could feel the energy on the wind and she would just smile. But she couldn’t smile right now, she was being debriefed by her parents about the many dangers of the big city. The predators, The gifted, the Crime… how the list went on. Her mother quickly shoved a duffle bag full of repellents of everymake forcing her to be in the immediate moment and not drifting off to be with the storm. A crash of thunder made her parents jump, hurrying into the cover of the train station. Judy stood out under the pouring rain, keeping close to her umbrella. Though she deeply wanted to put it away and simply wait under the rain. But she had to keep up appearances. As the train arrived, she let some tears escape in a teary farewell, she was going to dearly miss her family but in that same moment a weight was taken from her shoulder. Her first glimpses of Zootopia was not of the city itself, but what she understood to be it’s electromagnetic noise. Long before even the very tip of its tallest tower Judy could see the cascading fields overlap warping like heat. Blinking away her additional sense, she watches as the familiar fields dart by, becoming thick forests. Before revealing the grandeur of Zootopia. A City of Hope, A City of Change.
A city drowning in its own hate
— Her first day at the academy began filled with exhilaration, her mind enraptured by the idea and song of bringing change to the world. She had expected to be given a tour of the facilities. But no. She was standing out in the open field under a brewing rain storm. “What’s this pipsqueak doing here?” the leopard behind her said. The polar bear instructor marched down the parade ground. Each footfall shocked the ground “So you’re the rabbit on the list, honestly I thought your application was a joke.” the bear comments with a half hatred chuckle. She was a behemoth of a mammal, not only was she a polar bear but she was absolutely built like a brick wall. “This isn’t your family farm cottontail” A deer to the side calls “Shut it!” The bear shouts, bursting an eardrum. “What’s your name?” The instructor said, looking to Judy. “Judy Hopps. Judith Laverne Hopps, Sir” Judy said, snapping into a stiff salute. That second voice of Judy's was so quiet, chained up behind bars as it was repulsed by the singular unquestioned authority of this polar bear. “Well Hopps. Being the first rabbit who’s made it to the academy I have high expectations of you.” She said walking off, her head held high as she looked over the field of hopeful cadets. “The ZPD is not for any mammal to join, it is a demanding job, and if you fail my training here you will never be set to be an officer. Am I understood!” A unanimous choir answered “SIR YES SIR” “Now Drop and give me twenty” The polar bear said, pivoting on the spot to walk towards the imposing building. Dropping to the ground, Judy began her pushups, keeping a steady pace. “This is the gauntlet,” she shouts. “When you finish your pushups, you go to the track for a three mile jog” Major Freiken continues. “You may be asking why am I doing this on your first day. Zootopia is a meat grinder, more cops are killed in this city than anywhere else. And the best thing I can do is cut the chaff from the wheat.” The major shouts. Judy holds her pushup for a second. She felt a pain in her heart. How many of those around her would be killed in some situation gone bad. Or even at his blood soaked soot paws. Her thought drifted away from him, as he was this distant crimson stain upon her. If ever her truth became known, how many would compare her hope and change to his hate and apathy. “Is this because of that fox?” a hippo grunts four rows ahead of Judy. Judy tried to push past the invocation of him. But flashes of posters that were hung so liberally through bunny burrows come to mind. His crimson stained shadow ovehanging a huddled cluster of rabbits, hares and other small mammals, his cold emerald eyes looking at the cowering group. White text ‘He is Always Watching From the Shadows’ “I heard that. Another ten for you. But yes, the AGU and the mayor require me to train you harder. To make you in their words ‘more effective at managing dangerous individuals’. I’ve lost too many promising cops to that beast” the major said. How many times had she heard his name repeated on the news. How many families had he left missing a link. What made him who he is? In this trance Judy lost count of how many pushups she did. “Now shut it!” taken out of the trance, she begins counting again. “Hopps another twenty” the bear said stepping by Judy, noticing how she didn’t seem phased by the excersises She questioned it, but Judy didn’t say anything. Pushing through the exercises. When she made it to the track she expected the voice to beg her to go faster. But it was still so quiet She didn’t end up being the first. She still finished on the upper end of the pack. --- During the midpoint of her tenure during the beginning of the winter months, The AGU took charge for a course of ‘Gifted threat management’. It was all theory and observational practice, never once attempting to do any practical training. Instead Judy among the remaining cadets were in an auditorium, with their AGU instructor below a projector screen. A fairly lithe leopard, wearing the AGU signature laboratory white trench coat. “We are going to show you footage of different Gifted individuals” The presenter announced, tapping the screen with a plastic staff. The screen flickered to life presenting a tall timbre wolf, no he was a little too big for just a timbre wolf wearing some dark green shirt and holding in his hand a construct of debris. Some curved blade That same arctic fox walked into frame, wearing some extravagant dress that was singed at the edges. They seemed to be in some abandoned refinery, with thick concrete walls and a disparate mess of metal beams left in untidy piles. As the fox stepped in sight of the wolf, a few words between them were shared. the walls around the wolf warped like a soft plastic before shattering into a shield of hovering debris. The fox stretched its neck and Judy saw the flashes between her dirty grey fur. And the fledgling arcs of white purple plasma reach out around her. The first clap of lighting lit the theatre in a flash of white light, and the arctic fox was somewhere else, off screen. The wolf threw the construct and in mid air it reconstituted into a spear. “Not all gifted are on the same side, The timbre wolf is to our knowledge named Dracs and we believe he serves one faction, while the Arctic fox is Cristina Winters to our records she’s well over four hundred years old but there have been no sightings of her for the last few years. We know she sides with the Crimson claw” The leopard spoke up, as a bolt of lightning that formed into a fox struck at the ablative debris. “Crimson Claw?” a cadet calls from the right of Judy. A ram with a heavy scar to the side of his face. As the wolf shattered his shield like a claymore mine. And in another blinding flash the hail of rubble is turned to slag, as the fox tore an electrostatic shield into the air. “A faction of Gifted, unsure entirely of what they want outside of bloodshed” He comments, as if the very idea of Gifted who seek only blood shed didn’t strike terror into the heart of any mammal. “So that’s the group that red fox is with” Another cadet said, as if speaking the name ‘Nick’ would bring him here. “We don’t entirely know,” the leopard said. A pillar of concrete warps into a hail of spear tips, shattering against a pile of rusted steel beams. “Sir why are we even watching this, it’s just gifted fighting each other” the tapir cadet asked. As the fox’s form was consumed in a ball of purple white electricity. And in a clap of lighting the fox had her paw dug into a summoned wall of concrete. Judy watches in bound fascination, as the winter fox supercharges the wall to explode, raining hot slag that warps into speartips in midair. “We’re showing you this to show to you all gifted aren’t on the same side. Anyway would you prefer if we showed you footage of them slaughtering innocence?” The leopard said, watching the footage. Judy wasn’t sure if he wasn’t here just to enjoy the spectacle of the fight. The arctic fox danced in between the hail of concrete and steel, sending arc after arc of lighting in the most delicate of gestures. Judy was fascinated with seeming ease that the fox summoned as for Judy each summoned strike felt pushing out a current until a bolt manifested. Still seemingly natural, just not with the ease this snow fox showed. Dracs caught each blast of lighting with an ablative shield of debris, that then in one movement is sent as a javelin tearing off the foxes left arm. Judy heard gags and retches from the crowd. As the arm is flung in a spiral of red. The fox didn’t seem to care about it’s arm, and in a swift gesture sent a spear of energy into the wolf. The audio tore but within the screaming static was the cry of the wolf. He dropped to the ground in a smouldering pile. The arctic fox picked up its severed arm. Judy wholly expected it to try and reattach it. But that expectation was met with it being consumed in a flash of plasma. How much power does that fox have “What are we supposed to do in a case like this, we’d get torn apart” A tiger at the back of the room protested. “Notice how the wolf hasn’t moved, that’s because he has been in effect killed for the moment” The Agent said. As the fox walks over to the steaming body of the wolf. “For the moment?” that same tiger asked. The screen flashing with a blinding light, as the fox holds a continuous bolt into the wolf. At this point the lecturer pauses the recording. “Gifted don’t really die, they can be stopped for a moment like that wolf there. So in a best case scenario you manage to get a bullet off, you best pray that it hits them in the head” “But that fox is missing her arm and she doesn’t seem to care” The tapir said pointing to the screen “As said, the best i can tell you is aim for the head” “Rabbit, you seem interested in this, what’s your take?” the lecturer turned to Judy who was half enraptured watching the fight. Seemingly automatically Judy recites the phrase from the textbook ”All Gifted are threats and the best decision is to not engage. If you need to engage, call for reinforcement.” “But the intel from the video suggest that if forced into a confrontation, aim for centre mass and vital organs to disable the gifted individual” she continues “A plus response cadet. And operational authority goes to who in cases where the AGU come in” The leopard said gesturing for the whole auditorium to respond “Highest rank acting Agent of the AGU” the auditorium comments “Good” — During the short winter holiday break, Judy returned home Judy spent some time with old friends, and a past bully. When Judy was twelve, bordering on thirteen during a school day, found behind one of the barns, Sharla the black sheep and Gideon kissing. In panic they deny it, speaking of some rampant hormones. But it didn’t matter to Judy, she could see they were happy. She had to plead to them she didn’t care who they loved as long as they loved each other and that she would always defend them. She enjoyed a holiday meal with them, but they still hid their affection for each other in public. She spent the night with them drinking under the stars. Judy had tried to some alcohol before but found that unless it was the strongest drink possible, her fortitude would burn it away in mere moments. “I want to see them in person, one day” Sharla said reaching a hoof to the star studded sky “And ya will babe,” Gideon said, moving closer to his love. “Ey Judy what’s police training been like” Gideon asks. “It’s been tough but rewarding. I mean I've been consistently at the top of the cohort” Judy said, a half lie. If anything the only difficulty she found was the theory, the practical element was always too easy for her liking. But she could only blame that on her gifted nature. “That’s must be a lot of effort” Gideon said looking up into the open night sky “Yeah it is, but how’s your bakery doing Gideon” Judy said “It’s going okay, sometimes someone breaks a window and steals a few pastries; and the thing is it always seems to happens after that Gifted Nick gets his name in the news.” Gideon said “So hate crimes?” Judy remarks “I … he’s not even a real fox he’s Gifted.” Gideon protests, Sharla moves to comfort him. Judy had so many times wanted to tell them she was gifted. That she could wield electricity as a manifestation of change. But in an equal amount her own mind warned her against it. “We’ll figure something out,” The black sheep said, hugging her boyfriend close. “If you ever need help, I’m always here for you” Judy said placing a paw in Gideon's shoulder They spent the next few hours laughing and chatting about all the silly little things they did when they were kids. They eventually moved off the roof when a new dusting of snow blew in. Again clawing against the back of her throat was the question if she should tell them. But again that want died against caution. --- She returned to that placid valley where she first explored her powers, she had managed to ‘borrow’ a small piece of rebar. She wanted to experiment. Judy called to that voice inside, one that she had to keep quiet while at the academy She wanted to test something. She had done some high school physics. So in her limited understanding gathered that if she was a vessel of current, wouldn’t she also have some power over magnetism? “The movement of current creates magnetic fields.” she grabbed the piece of rebar in her paw. And tried to manifest a continuous circuit of change. Feeling the fabric of her being begin to saturate with current, the voice inside wailed in rapturous ecstasy. Judy began to feel a field emanate. She let go of the steel rod. The rebar was held magnetic within her paw. Hovering but an inch from her. Crackling arcs reached for the metal. “YES! “ she screams her mind is flooded with a million different uses of at will magnetism She glanced around for an arc scared stone wall. In a flash of inspiration she threw the bar. And with a sonic crack the bar was impaled into the stone cliff face, and in the same movement a flash of lightning struck the now lighting rod. And a white hot explosion. Judy could see through the blinding light, glimpsing how the stone was flash heated, a soft orange except and crawling fractal etching of electrolysed matter. How the rock crumbled like a plastic. The rebar was glowing orange white, and slowly sagging under its own weight. She tried to reach out and grab at the bar again with the same magnetic grip, but even as Judy felt the ever surging current run through her arm. the iron rod failed to move. “Sweet cheese and crackers, that was cool” she said. throwing out a few more lightning charged punches into the other cliff faces.The next few quiet hours were spent keeping herself in control. Finding some point of focus to keep the voice of change quiet but in that same moment satisfy both it and her. — The second half of her tenure at the academy went smoothly. She was the top performing student. She was simply trying her hardest without reaching into her enhanced ability. On raw statistics she was where a rabbit should be. So often she struggled with the want to push past and push herself to her fullest, seething with electrostatic tension as the other cadets dismissed her capability. But in seeming vindication to her ability, Judy was called out of class dealing with more basic reinforcement of theory. She was called to go to the major’s office. Entering into the colossal office. She finds not only the polar bear major, but a tiger clad in AGU attire resting against the desk. “Judy Hopps”, a towering black furred tiger?, said Judy quickly found the spots of a leopard. He was dressed in the standard white coat of an agent. He had a set of black shades covering his eyes. Resting under his paw was this uncanny white cylinder that Judy swore she could hear emit a faint static white noise, that as she focuses upon it it grows ever louder. Judy blinks, and pulls away. Focusing back upon the Agent. “Peak physical results, near perfect theory marks. You’d make a fine agent of the AGU” The leonid hybrid continued. “You’d be fast tracked through most of the physical regiment, given your amazing results. It would be another year and a half of training to make you a full agent, most of that will be theoretical and hypothetical work. But upsides you would have a substantive initial pay while you’re training. $150,000 per year while starting. But with your promise and ability I could see you rise through the ranks like a rocket” he said, pitching this idea as if it were some safeguard to your future. When the reality was AGU agents were killed more frequently than police officers. “Do I need to list the other perks of joining the AGU?” he continued. “No sir, I have no intention of joining” ‘I mean imagine a rabbit of your capability with our resources and authority.’ “Imagine how much you’d make the world a better place” that little voice screamed in agonising antipathy Biting her teeth and feeling the malignant static wake as they grind together, the very invocation of those words supplanted her a heated charge, burning away against her heart.
How easy would it be to kill that agent, send a bolt into him. And end the twisted use of those words
Judy clenched her fist, digging her paltry claws into the palm of her paw. She was certain she was drawing some of her supercharged blood. Breathing softly from her nose, Judy said. “My dream was always to become a cop. Not an agent of the AGU” the static on her tongue, the unreleased tension, and a new fanged voice whispering in the back of her mind. If she could describe it it was of crimson fury, a ball of boundless red lighting. “If you are sure Madam Hopps, this offer will not be made again.” “I’m sure sir.” Judy answered, holding back her inner storm. “Alright. You’re dismissed.” the lion said waving judy out of the room. “Get the next candidate” the agent said to the Major “Hopps, you’ll be a good cop” The major called as judy left the room.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Judy had expected so much fanfare for being the first rabbit police officer, but her name and achievements were instead drowned out by reports of another violent slaughter. Not at the paws of the blood sodden red fox, but instead a gifted bull who razed a small town. It was the only thing on the news.
She found her apartment at the grand pangolin arms. The peeling wallpaper, the popcorn ceiling, the obnoxiously loud neighbours. Judy loved it. She had made it. The next day would be her first day as Zootopia’s only rabbit cop. More specifically the first Gifted police office, but that she’d be better off keeping secret. — Entering into the Precinct one headquarters, she had the many sets of eyes look her down. Whispers in huddled conversation. ‘Is that the bunny cop’ ‘no way she lives for more than a month’ how she was going to be so proud to prove them wrong. How she was here to be a chisel to shape the world to change, to better it. So she walked unphased by the expectations of her soon to be coworkers. She couldn’t care. She was here. The beginnings of her dream was no longer fantasy but reality. Entering into the enormous briefing room, the many tables were at least twice her height. She saw a myriad of different mammals, all screwing around before the start of the day. She could smell a dozen different half drunken coffees, and another half dozen unfinished pieces of warm food. Bounding up to an open plastic seat. She notices the rhino beside her. “Ready to make the world a better place” Judy chirps to the rhino raising her fist to fist bumpThe rhino chuckles and rolls his eyes, but placates to Judy’s joyous energy. Sliding her along her seat, shaking her paw. Her eyes spotted entering through the door a towering water buffalo and upon his collar were 4 brass stars. Chief Bogo. He walked over to the podium at the front of the room. Behind him were maps of the city and its many districts. And on the left hand side was a collage of pictures with the word ‘Wanted’ above in thick black lettering. She could some mugshots and a subsection of some grainy CCtv pictures with ‘DO NOT ENGAGE - GIFTED’ two foxes, one red, the other arctic and a lone ram. “There's a new recruit amongst us who I should introduce” A jolt of excitement. She was their first rabbit officer, top of her class. Not only that she was gifted, and here to make the world a better place. “But I'm not, because I don't care” The same jolt grounded, the buzz of excitement squashed. “Assignments” The buffalo said, placing tin rimmed glasses upon the ridge of his muzzle, pulling out red case files. “Fangmeyre, Wolfard and Rhinowitz, you’re going to assist precinct two with a missing mammals case in Sahara square” Judy noticed the grey wolf, the Tigress and the rhino get up, before. “Please wait until i finish” The chief said, and a swift murmur bounced across the room. “Delgato, Stevens, Jackson your team is needed to patrol savanna central” he continued. “And for our first rabbit officer, Officer Hopps… Parking duty” The chief said, looking towards her After the assignments were given out, Chief Bogo pulled out a black folio from behind the podium with a line of white tape reading VV-A914X printed onto it. And in thick red marker ‘Death’s pact’. In the bottom left corner next to the spine was the small AGU logo. The crowd in that instant grew deafeningly silent. She did know yet how many lives that case file had taken. How the name of the case, Death’s pact, The Wraith Case. Would silence any discussion and cause everybody to nervously swallow. “I hate this part.” Bogo sighed, his shoulders falling. ”IT has fallen to us again. The AGU requires us to have someone take this case. I wish I didn't have to do this.” he continues, his indomitable facade lowered for a moment. “So Sir who has the honours of Hunting that beast then” the towering bear at the back of the room asked. Hesitation lingering in his voice. “Detective Grizzoli. I’m sorry” The chief whispers, before repeating himself. But the second time is only followed by more suffocating silence. Broken by the hum of the air conditioner. “I can’t wait until this monster is locked up forever” The white wolf said, saluting the entire crowd. His voice hollow and wavering, his eyes wide and dilated. Their mouth lingering half agape. “The rest of you on standby, Dismissed.” Bogo said, lifting his glasses with one hooved hand and rubbing the ridge of his nose with the other. Judy was infuriated. Parking duty! That was the last thing she wanted, but she held down her growing want to ask for a more fitting job. The seething well of energy begins to crackle. But she relented and continued out of the room before. “Bunny wait” one of her coworkers called She turned around listening to them. And she waited as everyone else lined up across the hall. Letting Grizzoli walk through, every one saluted him in a near perfect unison. She followed suit a moment after. And as Grizzoli walked past, she could see him holding back complete and utter fear. “Why?” Judy whispers. “Because that Misfit will kill him.” The tigress said, a spark of current crackled behind Judy's eye. Manifesting itself as a minor twitch in the corner of her eye “What?” Judy questioned again, there were many known gifted who would be happy to kill a cop. So the answer doesn’t narrow it down. “You’re new. That case is for the demon who hunts our streets, that fox thing. Nick” That name, how it was something so simple. Yet with the history it has. The uncounted corpses, the streets filled with blood. How could that name be anything other than hate? Judy swears she hasn’t heard about or seen anyone named Nick in years. Outside of The Nick. — It was not even three weeks later before they found Grizzoli’s corpse. His upper body draping from the ceiling and his lower half hanging from the ceiling fan in another room. And his entrails spelt out.
I AM YOUR HATE
His messy corpse was discovered in a motel room over in the outskirts of Happy town. He was on a stake out, having correlated many reports of Nick being in the area. Little did he know, it was a trap. And at the hour of midnight, his nightmare came true. The still warm body was found by room service. That poor ferret. — Judy was nowhere near this scene of horrific violence, instead she was a meter maid over in savanna central, wearing an embarrassing neon orange safety vest over top of her uniform and badge. Dealing with parking tickets. Not what she envisioned she’d be doing as a noble police mammal. Resting her head against the steering wheel, her ears flat against the back of her head. She was drained, not physically but instead there was no charge within her to call upon. That emptiness felt so entirely wrong, so metaphysically draining she swears that the colours of the world have dimmed leaving her in an equivalent grey muggy mess. Digging deep inside herself she calls to the voice of change. And is met with a schakling silence. What change had she brought to the world yet? Handing out tickets to parked cars over their time limit. That was not change. None of this was. She was here to make the world a better place. Not this. Walking the razor's edge between consciousness and sleep, she returns to the valley in her mind. It feels wrong with a clear sunless blue sky. She called again for the storms, but her only response was the crackle of static from the horizon. Distant smoke black clouds roiling with crimson lighting.
hey
She screams with all the power in her proverbial lungs “What do I do to bring change!” The roiling crimson static answers in a violent torrent of thunder. She feels an anger well up, one she didn’t notice she had. Anger at something undefined, something unmoving. Stagnancy. With all her force she pushes away from the anger. Again something from beyond her imagined world calls.
HEY
Voices from her side, no was it… She pulled away from the mindscape. To see a pig yell in her ear. “Hey! Hey, hey! You, bunny!” a frantic pig shouts, shaking the cart, to grab her attention. “Sir, if you have a grievance, you may contest your citation in traffic court.” She responded, this is what she was doing. A metre maid for how long, would she ever rise above this role, or would she be kept here forever because she’s just a frail bunny. “What are you talking about?! My shop! It was just robbed! Look, he's getting away!” he said, pointing to the sprinting weasel “Well, are you a cop or not?!” those words charged with anticipation, expectation. “Yes, YES. I’m on it” invigorated by the Pigs request. Vaulting through the metre maid wagon, and swiftly doffing the hazard vest, as she ran in pursuit of the weasel her second voice begged ‘ FASTER ’ She so desperately wanted to break out into her full sprint and tackle the weasel. But how would it look for a small bunny to be moving too fast, after images crackling with static. How she would ruin all her hard work; and where would she run to? She knew no other gifted. She was alone as she always had been. Sprinting after the weasel her well of energy began to charge again, and she couldn’t help but feel a little better. The colours return, bringing back a stark vibrancy. “Stop in the name of the Law!” Judy shouts, as she rounded a corner into the savanna central park. Weaving through the legs chasing her quarry. Screeching of brakes and the skidding of rubber. The yelp of a horn. The weasel slips under the behemoth vehicle. Judy jumps. sliding over the roof of the black SUV. She kicks off the bonnet, rolling into a sprint.
An insurmountable wall of wrought steel, little rodentia. Hurling the orange duffel bag over the wrought iron fence, he scurries through the entrance. And Judy Shouts “Out of the way” as in near perfect form she slides through the same entrance. She slowed, seeing all the scurrying mice at her feet. Treading as carefully as she could. She glanced for the weasel. finding nothing No there. An orange tassel from that duffle bag, judy climbs up on top of the miniature apartments. She catches sight of the weasel while standing on top of an apartment. The white singleted weasel was dashing down a long street. She couldn’t reach and catch him without leaping and embracing her gift. Judy needed something to throw. The fox-away, she took this morning. Slipping it from its housing, she readied to throw. She was aiming to knock him down. And in an orange blur, it strikes the back of the knee. He collapsed into a rolling heap beside a donut store, the duffle bag tumbling out of reach. Rolling over to see Judy land down the street. “Have a donut Copper” He spat out. Was that seriously a quip? Judy thought as the weasel kicked off the pink frosted donut off its stand, sending it bouncing down. The plastic donut bounced down the street. The fleeing rodents managing to avoid the microscale cataclysm. Diving under the plastic pastry, she scrambles upwards. Her eyes locked on the fleeing weasel. Her ears swivelled, snapping to a conversation between unsuspecting shrews, she snapped to look over The shrew begins to scream as the monolithic sweet bounded down the road. Pivoting, she sprints. In a heightened dash, she catches the donut. Surging with a renewed power. A spark rekindled. she was the storm, she was change. Catching the donut before it crushed the screaming shrew, her adamantine muscles locked the plastic confection in her grip. “Whew!” she said, relieved. Judy could feel the crawling of energy writhe within her. How her heart sung to it. “I love your hair” she said as she looked down to see the finely dressed shrew, her amethyst eyes shining with a rejuvenated purpose. “Aww thanks” the shrew said brushing some errand strands of her hair out of her face Sprinting up to the distracted weasel, Judy manages to slam down the donut and bind him with it. —
Dragging the bound weasel into the reception of the ZPD, she first heard then saw the flurry of movement“I popped the weasel” she proclaimed, before Johnson the lion officer ran past. “What happened?” she called. “Didn’t you hear, Grizzoli’s dead.” the lion said, pausing for a moment. His collar was hovering on a yellow “Hopps!” She heard a call from above. Her stomach dropped, that was the chief. — “You did not have authority to arrest that weasel, McHorn was already on the way!” he slams a fist onto the table. “All he stole was two dozen mouldy onions and a few hundred dollars“ he gestures over the open duffel bag. Judy didn’t see mouldy onions as the Chief did, she had spent far too long working fields to simply dismiss what were obviously buds. And if the smell wasn’t distinctive enough. It could only be one thing. “Excuse me sir, those are Midnicampum holicithius. Grew up in a farming family, botanicals were very important… Ah what did Gideon call them that one time. Oh! You might know them as Nighthowlers” She said. “Nighthowlers?” repeated Bogo, his scorn shifted, placing his hoofed paw to the brow of his nose.“I’ve not only lost an officer today, but you managed to discover a drug operation. If that weasel didn't steal a few hundred dollars, he could of gotten off with a warning” “Sir?” she asked. “Let me finish. I have lost someone who has worked for me for fifteen years, and I handed him that case. I do not want to be dealing with petty robbery. But, given you know these as Nighthowlers, it warrants further investigation. He will serve prison time. but I don't have the resources to deal with this.” he continued, holding himself together. “I don’t know if it’s my place to ask… Put me on the Nighthowlers case. I feel wasted handing out tickets.” she said, she knew she was pushing her luck. But handing out tickets drove the little voice inside her mad. She needed to bring some form of change to the world, and She wanted that to be a positive change. “You’re risking your job with this Hopps.” He said, his eyes staring Judy down, trying to get her to buckle under his authority. But she didn’t falter, she stood strong against his gaze. Her storm calling to her in cataclysmic symphony. “I’ll think about it, just let me deal with the paperwork. You’re dismissed” Bogo said, buckling under Judy’s determination, his indomitable facade cracking just a little. She saluted, leaving him alone in his office. And while wandering the precinct she swears she could hear him cry. — It was her first police funeral. The first of many. The gears ever hungry for fresh flesh. It was a closed casket, she had about the gory mess they found him in. Just the news alone almost caused her to throw up. It was a painfully bright day, not a single cloud hung up in the sky. The burning heat absorbed by the black suit she was wearing. She felt lethargic, from the hollow pit inside her and the scorching heat. She didn’t know him outside of work. He didn’t seem to like her all that much, but she did know him all of three weeks. So she stood among the crowd of her fellow officers, feeling a little empty. As those who knew him said goodbye one last time. Weeping from a tall silver grey wolf caught her attention. That must have been his wife. She was accompanied by two children. A shorter white grey wolf that was maybe ten and another who was maybe fourteen. She was struggling to stand. She was struggling to keep herself together in front of everyone. The sorrowful silence was broken by the beeping of collars, two counted discharges. She wouldn’t forget seeing Grizzoli’s widow try and comfort their two children, who couldn’t understand why the world had been so cruel as to take their father away. — Her request to be placed upon the Nighthowlers case was accepted, under a condition.She found the production plant within a month. Or she would lose her job. She gladly accepted the challenge. It was something to test her skills. Something to prove she wasn’t someone to waste on ticket duty. And it didn’t take her all that long to find the bread crumbs. A similar robbery near the entrance to the wetlands waters, a few to many witnesses seeing where the salt and pepper hare ran too. A few questions and some offers of community service later. Some names are coughed up, leading to IDs and known points of interest. And that is what she is scouting, though extensively she told dispatch she’d just watch the entrance for the drug runners, she found herself getting so very bored. And her little voice called for action, though some gnawing tension. Ducking into an abandoned subway station, after passing an arctic fox who her mind didn’t really notice how familiar she was. The air smelt of ozone, Lighting. Change. How intently she knows the smell, she should call for backup. But curiosity get the better of her. There was also the taste of something acrid and awful on the air. Something burnt, organic. Clenching her free paw, a surge of current echoed within her. She reached for her dart pistol with her other paw. What would she be able to do with it? the question came into her mind. She was always safer with her gift, that could actually stop a raging mammal. But she had never killed. She still felt bad about squishing the occasional bug. Not to mention that using her gift would destroy everything she’d done this far. And peeking around the corner. Judy saw a blasted corpse of a sheep, still warm from what ruined it. Darting behind the corner to lose sight of it, she almost loses her lunch. But she pulls closer. Charred fractals carved fine canyons across their chests, their eyes burnt out husks. And behind the next corner she glimpsed at mangled arm. She left the scorched corpses, and left the ruined train wagon. Out in the sun again, she reaches for the small radio she had on her side.“This is Officer Hopps, I found the site. I’ve got bodies here, definitely killed by a gifted” she calls in. “Hopps fall back” A voice returned. She felt a crack of lightning. But she knew there should be none. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was her. — She lost rights over the case as soon as it was known that a gifted was affiliated. It also didn’t help that the leads were murdered too. Cristina Winters or as the AGU told her VL-A0117Ek. A code to her name, to make her a faceless monster, but that wasn’t needed. She was already a monster. Judy could still remember that night where the PSA came on and showed her moments before she slaughtered a gas station. Cristina was always a monster, so apathetic to anyone who wasn’t her or gifted. Why did Judy feel as if one day they were to meet? Why did she feel faintly connected to this monster? And why did that connection excite her?