Starfall: Chapter 29: Measure of a Man: Part Three
Story by Slatepaws on SoFurry
Here we are, the grand finale. Sorry this took about two months, it ballooned to over 40 pages and i didn't want to cut it up.
There will be an epilogue, covering both worlds, but this is the last mainline chapter. Yes i have been hinting at the bogo thing for a bit, and holding a chekov's gun through the whole series.
This chapter is marked adult for the violence.
There are some notes at the end of the chapter too.
Starfall: Chapter 27: Measure of a Man: Part Three
Glaring intensely at Mark for a moment or two more, Nick snorts out of his nose in disgust of the human’s attitude. Turning, he hops out of the ambulance, making his way to where the EMT moved Judy, fully intent on seeing how his mate is. Only to stop in his tracks upon hearing the human also exiting the vehicle with him.
“So, in this plan of yours. Who’s going to drive the now rolling bomb to where you intend for it to go off?”
Approaching the unconscious rabbit doe, he gently places a hand-paw on her face and muzzle, lovingly caressing the fur on her cheek. ‘She deserves better. I couldn’t protect her family, no, my family…’
Walking up next to the vulpine, Mark observes the tender moment. “I’m leaving that up to whomever will volun…”
Bogo looks between Nick and Mark, speaking up loudly. Surprising most around them including the EMT from his silent approach. “I’ll do it.”
Whipping himself around to face the water buffalo, Nick points a claw tip at him. “Now wait a minute Chief…”
The former Precinct One police chief cuts Nick off with a slice through the air of his hoof-hand like he’s done before to silence the vulpine when he snarks at morning briefings.
“I said I’ll do it Officer Wilde. The ambulance’s megafauna sized and needs a large mammal like me to properly drive it. Smaller mammals can obviously with the right gear installed, but not as easily.” Noticing that the Fennec fox, Finnick’s opening his muzzle, Bogo silences him with a stern glare.
“Besides, it will be less suspicious to have a large mammal driver driving it than a small mammal.”
A glare that softens while his posture deflates a moment later looking to the rest of them defeated as a defeated mammal. A sight that stuns Nick, in all the time he’s known the water buffalo, as a hustler and as a cop, he’s never seen him like this.
“Besides. I don’t have much longer anyway…” Bogo Mutters, then looks over to Mr. Big before explaining himself.
Earlier that night.
Gently being placed on the over-sized desk by his most loyal polar bear, Mr. Big approaches his actual desk and chair. Placed on the larger one he has in his office for pure intimidation factor.
“Go ahead, let him in.” Motioning lightly with a small hand-paw.
Nodding once, the crime boss’s underling strides across the office, to the grandly carved front doors. Taking the handle the ursine opens one of the double doors in the same polite manner that a butler would for their rich employer or guest.
Dressed warmly for the chilly office, Bogo steps inside as the polar bear steps aside, paying no mind to the door closing behind him and locking them all in the room.
For any other mammal, the arctic shrew would hold out his tiny hand-paw for them to kiss his ring with his family crest on it.
Mr. Big though knows better than to expect the mammal in front of him to do so. “Chief Bogo, such a pleasure see you. I was under the impression you were enjoying your retirement with your significant other elsewhere in the country though. Somewhere nicer.”
Glancing over to the polar bear, and without a word the ursine moves a chair over for the water buffalo to sit on. Putting the large mammal closer to the tiny crime boss.
“I was. Except, something kept on happening even after removing all the stress from my life. I thought it would go away after I was forced out, a silver lining to look forward too.”
Mr. Big’s muzzle and features fall a bit. “Those headaches?” Recalling the multiple times he’s heard the water buffalo in front of him complain about headaches from stress for years during their meetings. Seeming to come and go without rhyme or reason.
Bogo only grunts once in acknowledgment to the question, causing the shrew to frown. “Chi… Bogo, if there’s anything I can do to help, I will. No strings attached. You just have to ask.”
He means it too, letting his body language show his sincerity. In the world he lives in friends of any sort are a rare commodity, and he’s built up what could be called a work related friendship with the former chief of police in front of him.
Finally working up the courage to look at the Arctic Shrew, Bogo places a hoof-hand on his head. “And I would accept, except, there’s nothing that can be done. I’ve burnt through a lot of my pension and retirement insurance to only find out it’s too big and too spread out to safely remove…. They, don’t know how long I have left, could be days, months, or even a year or two. What they do know is it will continue to grow to the point I have some sort medical emergency. A stroke or the like and that will be it for me.”
One of the deepest frowns the arctic shrew’s ever had forms on his muzzle while Bogo lowers his hoof hand. Not from annoyance or disappointment or any other matter pertaining to his empire. It’s at the gods and fate herself. To be so cruel to a mammal whose given so much to others and asking little in return.
“You’re here to say goodbye to friends, and tie up loose ends so your spouse and the rest of your family won’t have to deal with anything. I know it’s the former with me because you have no debts with me or my organization. Nor would I insist on you honoring them at this point.”
‘I may be more in debt to ‘you’ than you realize…’ Mr. Big muses to himself, realizing without the deal they struck years ago to keep the city streets safe. His empire would’ve died by a thousand cuts from the near mindless drug and violence fueled street gangs of that thankfully bygone era of Zootopian history.
“Yes” Bogo looks down at his hoof hands. “I was ousted too quick to pay back favors and set things in order. Now I have to do it soon, so they don’t come knocking on my significant other’s door and all her relatives for what they want after I’m gone. For as large as my wife is like the rest of my species, she’s as meek as a mouse… No offense intended.”
“None taken, so make this your last stop. I’ll take care of any favors or debts you have left in this city personally. It’s the least I can do, and you should be spending the remainder of your time with loved one’s giving them memories they can cherish.” Mr. big glances to the photo of grand-ma-ma hanging on a revered place on the wall, still wishing he had more time with her.
“Your loved ones deserve you being their in your last moments.”
Present
“A few minutes later those black clad hooligans showed up, let in by one of Mr. Big’s other polar bears. After escaping and informing him about Mark, well, you know the rest.” Looking around at everyone sadly, His eyes linger on his former subordinates Fangmeyer, Wolfard and the unconscious Judy.
Bogo passes by Mark and Nick. Placing his hoof-hand on the edge of the drivers side door, he’s stopped by Nick’s hand-paw before the water buffalo pulls himself into the ambulance driver’s seat.
Looking up at his former boss, his ears droop in sadness. “I’m sorry for all the stress I caused you. I didn’t know.”
“Not your fault Officer Wilde. My own stubbornness caused me to not get it looked at sooner.” Bogo sighs, getting himself situated and the controls adjusted to his larger body before looking at Mark.
“How do I set it to blow and how far away do you want it from the municipal building Mr. Mercer?”
Moving past Nick, who lets the Human approach. Mark gives a sympathetic smile to Bogo. “I’m not heartless, my recent behavior non-withstanding, still. If you’re willing to do this, then I won’t stop you. I wouldn’t feel comfortable having anyone who isn’t completely dedicated and willing to do this of their own accord to volunteer for it.”
It’s not lost on Mark that if he was able to be in some way shape or form in contact with his home dimension, He’d be able to at least try to get a hold of anti-cancer drugs that have made most cancer curable. If not just making it yet another maintenance medication condition due to the advances in genetics from the creation and existence of ‘bio-morphs’.
He makes a mental note to carefully dance around the subject mater if his home dimension’s more advanced medical technology ever comes up in any sort of discussion.
“I’ve wired the timer to what was the temperature nob on the middle console. Full cold is ten or so seconds. Full heat is, well from the quick hack-job and no multi-meter, could be anywhere from one to three minutes. The switches above it are from left to right. Prime the detonators, this will need to be flipped first. Followed by priming the timer, which is the switch next to it, it must be flipped to use the nob. And, well, just in case.”
Mark points to the third from the left switch above the temperature nob.
“If the timer system for some reason doesn’t work, which would be indicated on the dash if the a/c-on light doesn’t come on. That will just detonate the charges.” He leaves hanging this is why he wanted someone completely willing to do it. The person or mammal would have to be willing to die because the explosion is a critical part of the plan.
‘It’s to take out as many of Stallhoof’s mooks as possible, while distracting the rest. Leaving the absolute minimum for me to get through in the building.’
Bogo gives a single nod and reaches into his pocket. Pulling out an old leather billfold, flipping it open reveals his original police badge. “Mr. Mercer, Mr. Wilde. I don’t care, which of you take this, but if you do. Make sure this is given to the ten-seven bar.”
Mark glances to Nick, thinking he might not be able to after completing the objectives he set for himself. The vulpine sighs, less at having to do it and more at ‘why’ it needs to be done, taking it from his former boss’s hoof-hand.
“There’s a dedicated wall there for fallen police officers who died on duty, and those who’ve died saving someone.” Nick palms the badge before sticking it in a chest pocket.
“Bogo… I’ll make sure they put it at the top of the wall.”
‘If the place is still there, I know the employees and the regulars. None of them would’ve sided with Stallhoof, that doesn’t mean others wouldn’t burn it down in retaliation.’
Bogo smiles. “Thank you Officer Wilde… No, Nick.” Turning his attention to Mark. “Is there any sort of signal I should wait for or?”
Glancing around at everyone in the warehouse, the human then turns to look at Bogo. “No, You’re the signal for us to start. Speaking of which.”
Mark turns his attention to the polar bears, then Nick. “Grab all weapons and ammo you think you’ll need. We’re heading out in ten. We’ll use the limo to get close to the building, then walk the rest of the way.”
Nick and the two polar bears glance at each other expecting one of them to object. When none of them do so, they jog over to the confiscated weapons on the tables and still in the gaylords.
The ursine’s loading up on polaniskinovs and the ammo they use, while the vulpine chooses a couple smaller semi-auto pistols. Nick dumps his hand-paw cuffs, tranq dart pistol, darts, and stun-gun onto the table to make room for ammo. Only to pause when he touches the small reflective silver box of the antigen kit that they all need to carry in case of someone getting dosed with ‘that’.
He forgoes another clip of ammo to keep it on him, going so far as to put it into a more secure pocket on his uniform. ‘Just in case…’
Mark, on the other hand. Loads up on ammo that can be used in his acquired SMG. Then all the flash-bangs, smoke, and frag grenades he has room for or can attach to parts of his suit. Leaving the barely working grappling hook for last, placing it on the second magnetic holster on his back.
“Nick.” Mark calls out to the vulpine to grab his attention.
The moment Nick turns his head he has to scramble to catch a couple of smoke grenades tossed to him. The remaining two from the cache.
Looking down at them, then up at Mark his ears tilt just a bit. “What are these for?”
Mark clicks the mask part of his helmet back into place. “I don’t have any more room for them, but they’ll be useful. The filter on this may be expired, thus no longer effective against anything dangerous. It’s still good enough to keep most of the smoke from one of those out. It’ll give me an advantage.”
Sighing, Nick finds room for them on his police tool belt. ‘Many of the mammals that sided with Siambia were lupines and lions, so it will be the same with Stallhoof since she’s with him. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few skulk members there too. These stung my nose like no one’s business during training. He’s plans on leveling the playing field of their superior senses to his level and beating them at it.’
Glancing back up at the Human, the look on Mark’s face through the visor part of the mask tells the vulpine He did a poor job keeping his emotional mask in place. Pretty much getting it right on why the human wants as many of these as possible.
Regaining control of his emotions and nerves is more of a task than he would like to admit. Because Nick would be lying to himself and anyone else if he said he wasn’t just a ‘bit’ scared. He re-secures the straps on the police issued bullet resistant vest under his uniform. ‘This may just save my life tonight…’
“Alright! Everyone ready?” Mark yells out.
Both polar bears, Nick, and Bogo answer back with a yes. So he gives them a thumbs up.
Turning to the EMT, Finnick, Fangmeyer, the now sitting up Wolfard and the Big’s. Mark points to the floor. “Stay here. It goes without saying let no one in. Well, except for Manchas or possibly the Anamalia Military.” He glances at the EMT, and the still restrained driver of the ambulance. “Goes without saying, keep them, and Judy here until one of us returns or the military arrives, if no one does by dawn…”
Fangmeyer nods silently. A part of her is disappointed that she’s not going to with them to go take care of the bastard who did this. It’s overruled by desire to stay here and look after that goof-ball of a wolf and her friend Judy.
“Alright, time to go.” Looking over at the three who will go with him, Mark gestures for the two polar bears and Nick to follow. Only giving a slight nod of thanks in pasing to Fangmeyer, who holds the door open for them. Mainly so she can barricade it shut behind them.
Walking up to the still running luxury vehicle, Mark lightly taps a finger on the driver’s window of the limousine as the others approach the other doors.
Looking up from a book since his phone isn’t working. The Jaguar presses a button and lowers the window to look up at the full suited human.
“Hello Mr. Mercer, What can I do for you?”
Smiling back, though the feline can’t see it through the mask part of his helmet. Mark points to the door handle. “We need the limo Mr. Manchas. I’m also curious as to why you didn’t come in with the rest of us? Got to be more comfortable inside the building for a jungle mammal than the cold out here.”
Unknowingly returning the smile, Manchas unbuckles himself as Mark takes a step back to give the jaguar room to exit the limo.
“Because whatever you and my employer were discussing in the building with those other mammals is none of my business Mr. Mercer. I just drive him or whomever he tells me to, to wherever he tells me to and leave it at that.”
Switching places, Mark sits down in the driver’s seat as the polar bears take the back seats. Nick for his part takes the front passenger seat and looks over at the Jaguar who once chased him and Judy through the canopies of the rainforest district.
‘Why did I just remember that?’ He blinks a couple of times and a hand-paw reflexively pats down on the Antigen kit he kept. ‘Maybe because everything bad that could have happened, has happened tonight? Except that…’
Looking back to Manchas after adjusting the controls, Mark points to the door they exited from. Causing the Jaguar to look in that direction. “Knock on it, say who you are. They’ll let you in. Once inside, all I ask you to do is to help everyone keep the ambulance driver, the EMT, and Judy from leaving. Assuming Judy wakes up before all this is over that is.”
Twitching his tail and flicking an ear in confusion Manchas looks back at Mark. “What happened to Ms. Wilde?”
Buckling in, Mark turns his head slightly to glance to Nick whose ears droop down as he’s put on the spot to answer when he doesn’t want to. “She fainted after learning something happened to her family.”
Manchas winces. ‘Bonny and Stew are nice mammals, along with the rest of the Hopps, hope they’re alright.’
The garage door opens, cutting off their conversation as the modified ambulance with Bogo driving, exits the building. He turns on the flashing lights but not the siren while pulling onto the street itself.
Nodding, The jaguar smiles. ‘As much as I want to know what happened to Ms. Wilde. I’ve learned to keep my muzzle out of Mr. Big’s business.’ Glancing back at the two vehicles, Manchas makes his way to the door and does what he was instructed to do. Knocks on it and announces himself. ‘If Judy wakes up though I can ask her come to think of it. It’ll be her business then to tell me if she wants to.’
Mark closes the limo’s door, buckles in, and starts the vehicle. Following the ambulance out onto the streets but at a distance to not arouse suspicion.
Bogo
‘Despite them trying to make the ambulance not handle any differently. Those stacks of c-4 in the back changed the center of gravity greatly. It’s screwed up the handling in turns as it leans to the side.’ The Water Buffalo snorts as he takes a wide turn at an intersection to go around an abandoned giraffe oriented car.
‘I just hope having to go a little slower than I would like, doesn’t cause them to wait to long. I understand the timing of setting it off is key to what Mr. Mercer wants to do.’ Bogo eyes his phone, sitting on the dash while thinking of his wife longingly.
‘If the fucking cell system was up and running I could say goodbye to her while I drive… Well at least one more time.’ Returning his attention to the road, he fights the new center of gravity for the vehicle to maneuver around another group of abandoned cars. Only these are burning with no sign of the ZFD in sight.
Seeing even more obstructions in the road, and cursing to himself that he should’ve expected this. Bogo turns the ambulance off onto a side road, then rejoins the main thoroughfare leading to the same city block as the municipal building.
‘A block away from the building may be too close, two blocks away would put me closer to precinct one. I know many of my former subordinates are turncoats, I’d rather not kill them if I can help it, let alone anyone they’ve arrested for not following the orders of the new regime. That just leaves a block and a half, splitting the difference between the two buildings and hoping I only kill those who back that fucking deer.’
He frowns, then an eye twitches with a bit of pain follows just as he passes the back portion of his former place of employment. Nostalgically glancing out at the near empty holding lot for patrol cruisers, and the employee vehicle parking garage full of vehicles. Placing each vehicle to a mammal he knows, he tries to guess if they would side with Stallhoof or not.
‘Yea, all the stress tonight’s not doing me any favors tonight.’
Swerving around some more parked and abandoned cars just past the precinct, Bogo slams on the breaks upon nearly running into a checkpoint that he knows ‘wasn’t’ there hours ago. Set up in a way vehicles won’t see it due to those abandoned cars till it’s too late.
‘Just barely under two blocks away. Let’s just hope this is close enough because I doubt I can bluff my way though this.’
One of his ears twitches while watching two heavily armed Lupine officers he knows. Who in turn, will know him, exit the hastily made shack. Keeping his upper body still, he lowers one hoof-hand and flips the first two switches. To his dismay, causing his other hoof-hand to tighten its grip on the steering wheel. The ‘AC-ON’ light on the dash flickers rapidly and doesn’t stay solid on like it’s supposed to.
‘I guess that means the timer won’t work, so it’s either be shot as I run. Or die in the blast it seems, and I’d rather shoot myself than run like a coward. So manual detonation it is.’
Strangely calm after taking a second to think about it. He should be nervous after all, having a finger over something that will instantly kill him should do that to any mammal. Except he’s going to die anyway, so why not like this?
Bogo lightly places a hoof-finger onto the final switch as the two wolves approach the ambulance while conversing with each other.
“Hey, isn’t that former Chief Bogo? I thought he got fired?” The lupine on the left flicks an ear in Bogo’s direction, hefting up what the former police chief knows isn’t a standard issue firearm to aim at the water buffalo.
A rifle more like one would see in a paramilitary outfit, or the national guard.
“Don’t know, they all look the same to me.” The other wolf shrugs. “If he is Bogo, maybe he only got busted down all the way to driver? He ‘is’ a specisit, sexist, Mammal. Granted, that prey rabbit doe turned traitor to the herd in the end, but still.” The two wolves split up upon reaching the ambulance. One going to the passenger side. The other one, the one on the right hoists a similar rifle and walks up to the drivers side door while pointing it at the ambulance.
The driver’s side wolf knocks on the window heavily and motions for the window to be lowered. Indifferently looking over at the mammal,Bogo complies.
Only for the water buffalo to cut off the lupine as he opens his muzzle.
“My views may have been bigoted at the time despite how well-placed in my intentions were to protect Judy Wilde. But, I learned my lesson, and she forgave me over the whole incident. My crime though pales in comparison to those you and your partner have done tonight. Chief among them, siding with a despot in savior’s clothing rather than the mammals you swore an oath to protect.” He pauses a moment to savor the slack jaw look on the lupine’s muzzle.
“Yes, I can muzzle-read. Helps to see who’s whispering when they should be quiet during roll-call pup.”
The lupine claps his muzzle shut while thrusting the barrel of the rifle into the vehicle. Glass shatters from the passenger side window as his partner breaks the window, sticking in his rifle and aiming it at Bogo. “Ge…”
Again Bogo interrupts them. “The difference between us is sadly, you and your partner will not have the chance to redeem yourselves to those you’ve wronged. While I have.”
The confusion on both lupine’s muzzles is palpable, but neither of them have a chance to reply as Bogo presses the switch for manual detonation with his hoof finger.
Anyone looking in the general direction of the checkpoint get temporally blinded from the flash if they had direct line of sight. Those that didn’t reflexively take cover, are hit by the shock wave instantly after. Traveling a full three blocks in every direction before losing the power to shatter glass as well as shaking the ground like a small earthquake.
Yet, the sound of the blast travels for Miles, causing Marion and Johnathan stop what they’re doing in their tailor shop / safe house upon hearing it.
Stallhoof’s office at about the same time.
Eyeing a glass of scotch in his hoof-fingers before setting it down on his desk. ‘If I knew it would’ve happened this way earlier, I would’ve done all this sooner. The state’s under my control completely uncontested, outside a hoof-hand of hold outs like New Reynard. They will fall in line shortly, once the S.A.R. station’s wiped out. Not to mention other state governors have gone on national TV and stated they may side with me as well against that deer with a freak fur color. An outsider butting their muzzle in where it doesn’t belong, he should’ve stayed in the real estate business.’
Pausing for a moment. Stallhoof licks his lips. ‘I wonder if I can have some-mammal dig up a better bottle of spirits. This whiskey isn’t cutting it as celebration for my achievements for the betterment of mammal kind.’
Only for a tremor, similar to that of a train going by. If he wasn’t on the top floor of a skyscraper, shaking his office, rattling the glassware on his wet-bar as well as knocking over one of those fancy vertically floating pens on his desk.
The newly crowned dictator glances down at his glass of scotch he poured in celebration for gaining control of Camelfornia as the ice inside sloshes about, before a bit of the drink spills a bit onto his expensive, and totally paid for by the taxpayer, mahogany desk.
“What in the herd was that?” Stallhoof mumbles to himself as he moves to look at the monitor on his desk. Grabbing the mouse in his hoof-hand he flips through security feeds.
Vivian for her sake just gives a vulpine grin that would make her brother proud as she clamps her hand-paws over her muzzle. ‘If I had to guess, that’s Mark’s doing.’ The shaking providing at least a momentary distraction from how uncomfortably she’s stuffed in the animal-crate.
Back entrance on the first floor of the same building. A bit before the explosion.
Ditching the limo a city block back upon noticing Stallhoof-goons setting up checkpoints, Mark, Nick and the polar-bears used back-alleys to get to the parking garage behind the municipal building before splitting up. The two Polar Bears heading around the parking garage, to approach the building from the side or front. Mark and Nick though, cut through the garage to get direct access to the rear entrance.
‘Now we just have to wait for the explosion to go off and whatever those two Polar Bears have planned before making our move.’ Mark muses as he looks at Nick.
Looking back at Mark with a confident smirk, trying to hide the bundle of nerves within. “So.”
He glances around at the parking garage, the parked cars, left neatly in their spaces, and abandoned cars. Strewn about everywhere else before looking in the direction of their target, then back at Mark.
“I give you props on the whole ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy’ thing. Still, how are you going to get inside?” Nick flicks an ear in the direction of the building as his tail tip just so ever slightly twitches. Revealing his true feelings.
Mark holds up a finger for him to hold on for a moment. “I need to see what we’re dealing with first.”
Using a nearby medium mammal sized car parked in one of the spots facing the building for cover, Mark inches forward. Aiming to glance at the back entrance of the building through the gap between the concrete barricade making up the outer wall and the exposed ceiling with all the pipes and power conduits running exposed like any other of its design in the country if not the world over.
He sees Wolves, Lions, Deer and Horses. All working at setting up a makeshift military checkpoint about halfway between the parking garage and the small, worker entrance for the municipal building. Noticing the Horses and Deer are the ‘officers’ while the lions and wolves are the grunts. Since the latter are doing all the work as the former stand around, pointing and shouting orders.
Keeping himself just out of sight, he continues to watch as they set up barriers with large concrete earthen planters and benches, build pill-boxes with sandbags, and otherwise secure the area with barbed wire and chain-link fences.
Inching back to Nick, he kneels next to the vulpine. “Right now it’s all up to how close Bogo can get the explosives, and how many take the bait with it and the Polar Bears own assault. They’re too many present right now for us to take on in a reasonable amount of time.”
Thinking for a moment, then glancing around before his eyes fall on this world’s version of the obscenely obese ‘trucks’. Similar in everything but badge and name to the giant dodge pickups that were taller than many people from the ground to hood level.
“Failing that. We’ll use that.” He nods at the truck “To smash through their Barricade while using the bulk of it to shield ourselves. While it would expend more ammo and shield charges than I would like, we could then take them out while rushing for the entrance.”
‘Not exactly a plan I would like to use, but we’re kinda committed here.’ Mark muses to himself.
Flattening his ears, nick glares at Mark. “Then we better ho…”
Mark pounces Nick to the ground as the flash of the explosion reflects into the garage off of any and every surface, triggering his knee-jerk reaction to such flashes. Not that it does anything to protect them completely from the brunt of the shock wave hitting a split second later.
Nick covers his ears too late at the near deafening roar while they’re thrown back a few feet, but Mark ends up being a good shield against the glass from the shattered windows of the surrounding cars and the building itself from hitting him.
“By Karma’s tail! How much C-4 was that?” Nicholas yells, more due to the ringing in his ears than his intentional desire. He rubs his ears before pushing himself up from under Mark as the human stands.
“If I had to guess.” Mark dusts off some glass off his suit, then retrieves the SMG from the magnetic mount point on his back. Loading it, he rushes to the barricade marking the edge of the first floor of the garage.
Noting the first few floors of the municipal building now lack its glass facade and are exposed to the winter air. Paper and other office debris float or plummet down in the night onto the shocked mammals bellow.
Said mammals run around in a panic til a horse among them tries to get them originated, only him to halt in his hoofs. Something on his radio demanding his attention. Mark doesn’t need to ask why, as the echoing of gunfire from the front of the building meets his ears.
‘And there’s the polar bear’s move. Nice idea to be the fake assault.’
The Horse points to a handful of mammal’s and bellows for them to stay. Two wolves, Two lionesses. Then orders at the top of his lungs for the rest to follow him into the building via the now broken windows and doors to the front entrance in hopes of repealing the attack.
“If I had to guess, Two to three hundred pounds worth if not more. It took up most of that second gaylord after all. Now’s out chance though. Only four guards left. In the state of panic they’re still in we can take a couple out before we even reach them, then engage the rest in hand to paw.”
Pulling back the lever on the SMG, Mark hops over the concrete barrier. Nick who’s loaded his pistol, brings up his rear a bit less gracefully due to the barrier being slightly taller than him after all.
Once both are outside the garage, Mark dashes forward. Aiming for some large potted plants yet to be moved, planning on using them as cover to regroup and reassess.
Raising his SMG and aiming by the hip as he goes. A precise squeeze of the trigger and a three round burst knocks one of the wolves off the mortal coil. The pistol retort of Nick’s weapon follows instantly after, doing the same to one of the Lionesses.
After a split second of panic, the remaining two mammals dive under cover of the half set up sandbag barrier.
Stopping and kneeling behind the potted plant. Only momentarily to let Nick catch up. Mark resumes his mad dash to press the attack. Knowing while he could play it safer and pick the remaining two off from behind the giant potted plant. Time is of the essence, he doesn’t know how long the polar bears will last or if these two are now radioing for help.
So by the time Nick reaches where Mark was, Mark’s already closing in on the sandbag dyke the Lupine and the Lioness are using as cover.
Armed and ready the Lupine raises up first to take a shot, but since Mark already had his weapon trained at them. The remaining wolf’s met with another three burst shot into the head and neck. Leaving only the Lioness between them and the entrance to the building.
The fact that’s it now all down to Kalia stuns her into just enough inaction to allow Mark an unmolested hop over the sandbag barrier.
‘Why couldn’t it have happened in another half hour? We’d have had a machine gun nest up and ready to take care of mammals like this.’
Raising up her rifle to take a shot at the human, she’s shocked again at the speed and fierceness of this alien mammal. For the moment she raises it, he not only knocks the barrel away with a free hand, but yanks it out of her hand-paws by tilting it in a manner, which slides it out of her grip.
Regaining composure, Kalia pulls her combat knife and lunges at Mark. ‘I don’t want to be left behind by her! Maybe I can rise to her right-hand mammal if I take this mammal out.’ Musing that this is the only reason she let that horse bully her around after Siambia dumped her here. That Siambia now out ranks her.
In one fluid motion Mark puts the SMG back to its magnetic mount on the suit and pulls his own combat knife, before side-steps the lunge from the lioness. The instructor Mark paid to train him, if he was here, he’d complement Mark on the ‘by the book’ counter. Compared to the Lioness’s sloppy lunge, even if she shows signs of some good training.
Nick, seeing who the lioness is, has a momentary twinge of regret, knowing who’ll walk away from this encounter alive. ‘Sigh, Kalia, why? Delgato is going to be so disappointed, if you could’ve just ‘once’ said no to Siambia…’
Kalia, having hit nothing, tries to regain the offensive. Shifting her foot-paws on the concrete, she moves to slice at Mark where he has no trauma plates. The split second of him not moving gives her hope that she caught him off-guard to land a debilitating hit.
Only for that hope to die as mark effortlessly grabs a hold of her knife arm between her wrist and elbow with his free hand.
Instead of blocking it like a novice, and Kalia would’ve reflexively done, Mark moves along with it. Bringing up his own knife as Kalia’s arm reaches the end of its arc of movement, then made to over-extend past where she wanted it too. With one quick motion, he disarms Kalia.
The zero gravity forged mono-edged knife slices off Kalia’s arm from his handhold down. Going through skin, muscle and bone like butter between her elbow and wrist. Her roar of pain’s cut short as the pommel of Mark’s knife slams into her throat a second later. Crushing her windpipe like a soda-can.
Collapsing onto the cement sidewalk, Kalia stares up at Mark as she both bleeds out and suffocates from a smashed throat. He shakes his knife to dislodge blood and sheaths it before walking for the entrance. Unable to see Mark’s determined but saddened eyes through the visor as he goes, it looks like he shows no interest in her past what it took to deliver the fatal blows.
What Kalia does see as her end nears is the face of Nick as he kneels down to gently touch her head and provide some comfort. Her unfocused eyes meet his.
“I’m sorry.” Nick mutters and uses a hand-paw to cover Kalia’s eyes as she succumbs to her injuries. Nick closes his eyes and offers a small prayer to Karma, even if she’s not the lion’s patron deity.
“Quickly, grab what ammo you think you can use and let’s get going Nick.” Mark barks towards the vulpine as he recovers his spent smg ammo by looting rounds off the dead wolves. Fully in the ‘zone’ of combat his instructors talked about and honed him to use.
He also notes a lack of radio’s on any of the four they’ve killed, as if they weren’t trusted to have them. ‘Doesn’t change my plans, but would’ve been nice to be able to know what they’re talking about since I don’t have time to brute force access to their encrypted channel.’
Glaring back at Mark, Nick inwardly sneers at how callously this human killed someone he knew. At least in passing, having met Kalia after the press conference over his arrest.
Gathering what he can use off of Kalia’s corpse. Nick adds her police tags and badge to where he stored Bogo’s badge. ‘She might’ve chose wrong in the end. She still deserves some respect in death for what she did before it.’
Taking his SMG off the mag-mount, Mark glances around the grounds for a moment, then dashes for the inside of the building. A single glare back as he enters through a broken glass door prompts Nick to follow suit or be left behind.
‘You think I’m not sad about killing her?’ Letting his thoughts intrude for a moment, Mark mentally sighs and refocuses himself back into the ‘mission mode’ frame of mind. With Nick again at his side, he does a quick visual sweep of this first floor lobby just inside the building.
To say the first floor is a mess would be an understatement. All the windows have been blown out, littering the floor with laminated glass pellets.
Mammal’s who were near the windows when the explosion happened lay in pools of their own blood from fragments of safety glass shot into their body. Or by pieces of furniture tossed about by it too. Clearly the building took the brunt of it and what he and Nick experienced was just a fraction of the total force.
Thankfully the battle still raging at the front entrance of the building covers the sound of their foot-falls crunching glass.
A quick check using the tablet via his hud shows at least one camera is working and sees them. ‘Okay, time to set the bait for this part now they know we’re here.’
Spotting his intended destination, Mark grabs Nick’s attention and hand-signals towards the elevators. Following the human on reflex from his training the vulpine flattens his ears wondering what the human’s doing.
‘Why the elevators? We’d be sitting ducks in them?’
Mark glances at Nick as he presses the call button for every one of the elevators in the lobby. “They’ll probably expect we’d take the stairs because the elevator would seem like an easy way to be trapped. That’s if they even realize we’re in the building. Seems the blast took out some cctv camera’s, but at least one still works and saw us head over here.”
Looking at the multiple elevators of various sizes, he chooses one of the medium to large, but not megafauna sized ones. ‘Though by me simply calling all the elevators, they would still know someone’s in the building they don’t want. Or one of their mammals are running when they shouldn’t. Either way I have their attention.’
Nick blinks, now realizing what the human is planning. “You’re turning an obvious trap to avoid into a trap for them? Now you’ll know exactly where ‘they’ are Instead of having to guess.”
‘Now I know why he needs all these smoke grenades. I wouldn’t have thought to do something like this in such a lethal situation…’
Mark nods at Nick as he sets the elevators that he’s not planing on using to go to other floors. Upon seeing this, the vulpine joins on the task in til all that’s left is the one they’re taking up to the mid building landing.
‘The direct elevator would be too obvious after all. I have to take out at least some of his personal guard to prevent a pincer strategy.’
He lets the doors close once the two of them are inside and presses the button for the mid-building landing since none of the elevators here go directly to the upper floors.
“First, the security cameras saw us go to the elevators. Well the one, which managed to survive the blast. Yet, it didn’t have a clear view of which one we entered. So they’ll have to divide their forces between all the possible floors we’ll be going to or risk losing track of us.”
Adjusting the glove on one of his hands to make sure the padding and armor is still in place, Mark hops up, grabbing the ceiling tile of the elevator. Tearing it off on his way back down, revealing the emergency hatch. Interlocking his fingers, he motions for Nick to use it to climb up.
The vulpine does so without a word, getting the idea. With Mark boosting him up, Nick opens the hatch, climbing up to the top of the elevator. Minding the moving cables and pulleys, he quickly makes room and guesses correctly that Mark was going to jump and pull himself up after him.
“Second, just like back home, I’ve noticed only special forces get trained to look in all five directions. Don’t know why, intentional oversight maybe? Still, it’s an advantage for us since they’ll have police, and gang members doing all the running around. If they’re smart. Leaving the few guard troops up on the floor with Stallhoof.” He pulls two of the smoke grenades, one in each hand, off his suit. Putting his thumbs through the pin-loops of each of them.
He also idly glances at the directions on the canister’s for the fuse time, so he doesn’t get this wrong. They have to start spewing smoke as soon as they enter the cabin after all.
“Thought that was just a movie trope…” Nick pauses as he recalls breach and clear training. They didn’t teach him to check ‘up’ unless the building they’re entering has a mezzanine near the breach point. Shaking his head, he starts to do the same as the Human, but Mark shakes his head.
Not only to stop him as four total is too much, but to tell Nick it isn’t just a trope.
“Anyway, we’re going to separate after this, so we can hit two objectives at once, giving us the best possible odds. You’re going to use the Mayor’s office, or Bellwether's old office to send the SCRAM command to the climate wall reactors and an alert to friendly forces out of state.”
Flicking an ear and tail tip at how crazy this plan sounds, Nick stares at Mark. “I thought you said you couldn’t do it remotely, and how?”
Mark taps the back of his own suit where the tablet’s slotted in.
“No, just can’t do it from anywhere. From an authorized network that already has access as a third to fourth layer of security in case all other fail-safes for the reactors fail? Yes I can. I was curious how the whole climate wall actually worked one night. So I dug up the blue-prints and plans to read. I mean, after all, with all the crazy stuff we humans thought about using nuclear power for, using over a dozen reactors to power giant outdoor air conditioners and heaters wasn’t one of them.”
Both of them grab onto something when the elevator shudders and ascends up the shaft. It helps hide the shudder the vulpine has going through his body upon thinking what these Humans would think of as a ‘crazy’ use of nuclear power.
Nick looks up then down into the cab. “Why those two? Didn’t they also remove her computer for the trial? I remember the prosecution using it’s hard drive for evidence.”
Mark shakes his head. “It’s still there. Saw it in the security feed as I flipped through camera’s to get to the one in Stallhoof’s office earlier.”
Nick doesn’t have to say a word, because it doesn’t actually surprise him they left the stuff there. Everything else in that closet looked forgotten about too when he and Judy were in there on the ‘Night-Howler’ case as it became known.
“So, we both jump down after this smoke screen and take them out?”
Mark shakes his head again. “No. You stay up here. I’ll jump down after the smoke fills the cab, use the poor sod they sent in to check the blind corners of the cab as a shield for their fire. It’s too close of quarters for me to watch your back while protecting mine. From there, I’ll take out the rest. If we’re lucky, only a handful will be waiting for us. Then you can come down and head off to one of those offices to issue the scram command.”
Folding his ears back angrily Nick glares back at him. “I can take care of myself!”
“And I’m not taking any chances with the life of Vivian’s brother, she’ll kill me if I let you die. Besides, Judy will need you as her emotional rock once all is said and done. So you’ll stay here til I tell you move, got it?”
Mark returns the glare as the elevator slows.
Keeping up the staring contest for a moment longer, well as much as he can through the face-mask the human’s wearing. Nick weighs what his increasingly annoying companion said against the desire to show he’s not some helpless kit.
Then with a grunt of annoyance that reminds Mark of Bogo, Nick looks away. “Fine.”
Looking up, they see the top of the elevator shaft approaching. Unlike the movies, the elevator doesn’t go all the way up to the shaft. It stops four to five feet under the scaffolding holding the motor, cable spool, and pulleys. Giving ample room for maintenance to work on them if needed.
Griping the smoke grenades a bit tighter, Mark loosens his thumbs. Readying himself to pull the pins and drop them in a single motion into the cab. All so they’ll spew smoke part of the way down instead of up here or after they hit the floor.
Outside their hiding spot, five wolves wait as they see the floor counter above the elevator door stop with a ‘ding’ signaling the arrival of the elevator cab. An uncoordinated mix of former gang members and lupine police officers ready themselves, even as they wearily look at each other just as much as the elevator door.
The more experienced of the lupines position themselves on either side of the door, putting them out of sight and range of any hypothetical, to them, gun fire that’ll come from inside once the doors open.
The remaining three, raise their weapons gangster style. Taking aim and itching to fire when the elevator door opens. Thinking they’ll just pepper the cab with bullets and be done with it once the doors open.
Nick taps Mark’s arm, then silently points out that he can hear them. The vulpine then hand-paw signals their five mammals down there. Slightly nodding, Mark relaxes his muscles instead of tensing them and observes Nick doing the same.
‘He either learned it elsewhere or I have to give props to the police training here.’
Opening, the doors slide into the sides of the cab like any other elevator as all the lupines tense up in anticipation before the doors stop. Only to reveal an empty cab.
The two professional's look at each other, only glancing momentarily at the gang member’s they feel they have to cub-sit. Both are half expecting the Human, which they were told he’s in the building, to jump out from the unavoidable blind spots inside the cab.
They make no motion to stop the three former gang member wolves loudly deciding among themselves ‘who’ will be the one to go inside to check them. Nor do they stop the loser of a rock-paper-scissors game foolishly doing so. After all, it’s the gang members pelt, not theirs.
Cautiously, and like the wolves in the Wilde’s town-home. The looser holds his firearm up and at the ready with a finger unprofessionally on the trigger, slowly entering the cab.
Passing the threshold, the lupine swings left. Tensing with his finger nearly pulling the trigger. Only to find no mammal hiding there. Relaxing, and lowering the gun a bit seeing he isn’t going to instantly get shot from there.
Only to suddenly remember the ‘other’ hiding spot is right behind him. So he spins around quickly aiming the firearm to the right side blind spot, next to the buttons.
Again, he finds nothing there. ‘Maybe the alien and the pelt took another elevator?’
The moment the Wolf relaxes, Mark pulls the pins on the smoke grenades with his thumb, counts the needed seconds, and let’s go. Grabbing his last smoke grenade with one hand, and priming the kinetic shield with the other. He readies himself to leap down.
Smoke spews from the released canisters as the Lupine in the cab turns to look at his fellows. One of them would’ve been more than enough to fill the space inside the elevator cab quickly, two near instantly fills it with cough inducing, eye watering smoke. Obscuring the poor bastard from view of the rest of the wolves.
It flows out of the open cab and over the two other’s standing in front of the door, the other two professionals as they ready their weapons realizing this was the tactic all along even as they too succumb to the effects of the smoke.
Mark drops behind the sole lupine in the cab as the two outside and directly in front of the door open fire at the sound of Mark’s heavy landing. Not caring they’ll hit their ‘buddy’ in the process.
He uses the poor wolf as a living shield for the panicked firing from the other two gang wolves by grabbing the lupine’s neck with his free hand. Stuffing the third smoke grenade into the belt of the lupine’s clothing, Mark prepares to shove the body forward when they stop firing.
Half blinded coughing from the smoke pouring out of the elevator cab, the other two gang member wolves continue firing blindly into the cab. Only stopping when their magazines run dry.
The two pro’s open their muzzles to yell at their less experienced comrades to get out of the way, only to be stopped as the bullet riddled body lands on top of the two gang wolves outside the cab.
More smoke instantly spews forth from the corpse, inciting a panic in the group. While the two remaining gang members scramble to get away from their dead friend, the two pros scramble further back to avoid being more debilitated by the smoke, trying to set up a crossfire to take Mark out.
Two bursts from Mark’s SMG sends the former gang members to join their friend. Holding the weapon professionally at the ready, and using the advantage of his suit, Mark exits the elevator cab. Checking the open corner’s from his direction, he fires, but misses at one of the fleeing professional’s as they head for cover.
The other opens fire in a controlled single shot, aiming for where he’s making an educated guess Mark is through the smoke as he fights against his burning nose and tearing eyes.
Mark grunts as it impacts the one of the shoulder trauma plates. The kevlar laminated zero-g forged plate does its job. Turning what would’ve cost Mark the use of the arm, into a nasty bruise. Wheeling in on the direction it came from Mark activates the Kinetic shield just in time to block a semi auto burst from the same Wolf, having zeroed in on his location from the grunt from the sound of the hit.
The eerie glow the shield casts draws the lupine out of cover as he empties his clip unknowingly into it. A mistake he doesn’t have time to regret, for as soon as the glow stops, and he’s midway through switching magazines. Mark sends a three round burst into the lupine’s head before tossing the spent battery for the shield to the floor.
The quiet lul in shots that lasts too long in Nick’s opinion, draws the vulpine’s attention as he waits for Mark to give the all clear. A few moments later he lays his ears back and grips his pistol. Nick ignores the humans orders. Dropping into the cab as the smoke starts to clear from it, allowing him to see. ‘He better not be hurt…’
Breathing carefully through his mouth rather than nose to lessen, no matter how minor, the impact of the acrid scent to his senses. The vulpine professionally checks his corners and blind spots while exiting the cab. So upon finding three dead lupine’s in front of the door, Mark to the left of the door looking in his direction with another dead lupine behind him.
The vulpine blinks. ‘Where’s number five?’ Only to go wide-eyed, dropping to the floor to cover his head.
Seeing Nick exit the elevator cab, Mark’s about to berate him for not doing as he told him, to stay where he was til this was over.
Only for his eyes pick up movement just a subtle flash of lupine gray fur. Behind Nick and just around the corner, tips of ears and a gun barrel barely peeking around the corner. Taking aim at the vulpine, The lupine sees him as easier prey than the Human. Considering he has no clue how the mammal survived being shot like that.
Without a moment to spare, Mark thumbs full auto and unloads a full SMG clip at the lupine through the wall. As the rounds tear through drywall, the vulpine is peppered with drywall, wood and metal chips.
“I told you to wait till I was finished!” Mark ejects the spent magazine, slamming home a fresh one as he walks up to Nick. Then with one arm, yanks the vulpine to his foot-paws by the nape of his neck.
“The gunshots stopped and I didn’t hear anything from you! Don’t blame me for trying to check if you’re alive. Same goes for me you know. Copper-tail will kill me if I let her ‘boyfriend’ die. Even if I haven’t yet given my consent on you being able to date her!” He sneers back up at Mark. Not liking how he’s being treated as useless.
Sighing, Mark nods his head towards the cctv camera on a nearby wall while slotting in a fresh battery for the kinetic shield. ‘Three left.’
“Well, be useful and take that out for me.”
Glancing up, Nick folds his ears back, aims, and using a single shot from his pistol to take out the camera. Lowering the firearm, he turns his attention back to Mark.
“Good.” Pulling out the tablet from the suit, Mark loses all but the most basic functions of his heads up display. Time and radio communications, both useless to him right now.
Unrolling the tablet with a flick of his wrist, he brings up the electronic warfare suite, setting up the automated programs needed for the task ahead.
Observing curiously, Nick watches him do this. He’s about to comment on the time it’s taking but stops as Mark soon thrusts the now rolled up tablet into his hand-paws. Causing Nick to scramble to grab a hold of it least he drops it.
“There, all set up. You just need to go and plug it into either of the computers I mentioned earlier with this.” He points to flip out usb-c looking connector that Mark quickly fishes out an usb-a adapter for.
“And the electronic warfare suite will do the rest automatically. Then we won’t have to worry about Stallhoof turning a good portion of the state into Chernobyl.”
Nick stops himself from asking what a Chernobyl is, so he pockets the tablet and adapter. “So what’s your next move?”
If it wasn’t for the visor and mask, Nick would see Mark smirk vulpine like, despite him lacking a muzzle. “As I said, use their own expectations against them.”
Blinking once and watching Mark call each elevator and send them to the top floor before heading for the stairs causes Nick to smirk. ‘Oh that’s good.’
Nick stuffs the world’s most powerful computing device into a spare pocket as mark makes his way to the stairwell.
Quickly orienting himself, Nick recalls where bellwether's former ‘office’ is from the elevator landing. Deciding that it would be the best place. The exposed hvac ducts in that ‘broom closet’ would give him a way to escape if needed not to mention only the one door to deal with rather than multiple ways to get into the Mayor's office.
‘Using the elevator wasn’t only because they wouldn’t expect someone to be so ‘dumb’ to trap themselves like that. It was to get them to think we’d be using the elevator the whole way up. So now he knows where they’ll be on the top floor.’
His vulpine hearing comes in handy, alerting him of company. Sending Nick ducking into an office cubical yards away from the broom closet office. Lupine and Lion foot-falls echo about as those mammals sent to other possible floors have made it to this floor.
“Spread out!” One of the wolves yells. “They couldn’t have gotten far, we’re only a few minutes behind them!”
Base instincts unknowingly seep up into the vulpine’s conscious mind. Unconsciously guiding Nick on where to peek out from his hiding place to observe his ‘hunters’.
For that’s what this ancient part of him sees them as, as in the distant eras long since past, wolves hunted foxes.
A lioness counters. “But the elevators?”
“Can’t afford to guess it wasn’t a distraction. C&C lost view of them after that damn pelt shot the camera. One or both could still be on the floor.” The wolf replies.
“I can’t scent a damn thing with all the smoke in the air!” Another lupine joins in.
The first lupine agitated, replies. “Doesn’t matter! Find them or it’s OUR HIDES.”
The foot falls of them spreading out forces Nick to pull his head back behind cover. ‘Of course this wouldn’t be such a walk in the park.’ His ears swivel to track the locations of his hunters who aren’t trying to hide their movements.
His foot-paws itch.
Blinking, Nick looks down at the protective covers over his foot-paws. Standard issue for swat and riot gear. Similar in function to what the human calls ‘shoes’.
‘Or they can’t hide their movements because they’re wearing similar gear.’ The tip of Nick’s tail twitches at the thought only to force himself to stay completely still as a wolf walks by on the other side of the cubical wall.
The protective foot-paw equipment on the lupine making noise each time they step on the office carpet floor.
Not even sparing a thought as to why his feet itched earlier but not now, nor the thoughts of this being a ‘hunt’ to get him. Nick silently sheds the protective footwear. Pressing his muzzle to the floor, Nick peeks under the cubical dividers. Observing how the group’s haphazardly spreading out to find him.
Inexperienced rookies and untrained former gang members messing up what would’ve been a hard to avoid standard dragnet out of the police handbook if they actually acted professionally.
Taking a breath and slowing his heartbeat, Nick waits. ‘Just have too… There!’
A wolf and a lioness stumble over each other as they collide from not paying attention to where they’re going, too interested in peering into cubicles. Giving Nick the opening he needs to move.
With a four footed flash of speed, which would make his distant ancestors proud. Nick bolts for the door leading to the psychotic sheep’s former office. His bare hand-paws and foot-paws making the run as silent as one can carrying full police gear and then some.
Easily drowned out even to his hearing by the heavy sounds of the larger mammals wearing ‘shoes’ as they walk about.
‘Sigh, not everything can go my way, can it?’
Nick looks a bit up to the small mammal handle of the closed door before getting back up onto his feet and pushing himself against the door frame to hide his presence.
‘They didn’t see, hear, or scent me running over here. They ‘will’ hear the door opening and shutting though, if it isn’t locked of course.’
Silently gulping as he stays pressed against the door frame, Nick raises one arm and grasps the lever style door handle. Painstakingly moving as slow as he possibly can while pushing down the handle, sounding much louder in his own ears than it actually is over his own heartbeat.
He hesitates upon feeling the resistance in the mechanism. ‘It’s not locked at least, but it doesn’t feel well maintained. It’s going to make a lot of noise.’
Readying himself to push it down and open the door, he freezes. Ears swiveling, locking onto the sound of someone walking by the entrance of the hallway from the cubical farm. Flattening himself further against the door frame, he waits. Wishing he was even thinner to be flush with the wall.
A wolf walks into view. A rookie from precinct two, if Nick recalls her face and the markings on her muzzle from the graduation ceremony the previous year. She stares down the hallway Nick just came down causing him to further freeze in place.
‘She’s not in swat gear, yet the standard issue full protective gear makes a body shot with this pistol useless til I manage to hit the same general area multiple times. She’ll just have a nasty bruise otherwise.’
Slowly breathing out, Nick just watches her stand there, staring down the corridor tilting her head like she noticed something.
‘I’m not here, go away. You saw nothing!’ Desperately wishing he has that one power from paw-wars to influence weaker minds. Because the lupine he’s trying to hide from has in Nick’s eyes traded in her badge for a ‘storm trooper’ uniform.
“Fucking Hell! Everything smells like that damn smoke. It’s making me think I scented something that isn’t their, like a damn pelt.” Snorting once, the Lupine mutters under her breath and continues on not giving the hallway a second look.
Letting Nick release some tension in his muscles that he didn’t realize had built up during the standoff once the lupine’s out of view. ‘Still, I have to be careful.’
‘Ever’ so slowly, he moves the lever further down. Wincing at the noise of the internal mechanism makes until he feels, and kind of hears that tell-tale ‘click’ signaling its open. Opening the door though, proves to be a bit more of a challenge than he remembers. He can’t actually recall if the sheep opened the door for him and Judy or not when he was first here.
‘Or bellwether was stronger than she looked. Making that insane sheep scarier than she was in the museum. Bad enough she’s stark raving mad.’ Slipping inside once the space between the door frame and the door is wide enough to fit his frame plus gear. He grabs the inside handle to stop it from springing back up while trying to slowly close the door as to not make ‘too’ much noise. Thus alerting his hunters.
Only to find the floor in the broom closet / ‘assistant mayor’s office’ is linoleum, for ease of cleaning. Thus, his bare foot-pads provide little traction. A fact he forgot about in favor of everything that happened that day.
So his bare foot-paws just slide across the floor, dragged by the closing door. Followed by the echoing bang of it closing. The sound of which might as well have been a gunshot, considering Nick’s ears for how loud it sounded to him.
‘Shit!’
Scrambling, he slaps the locking mechanism with his hand-paw, engaging it. Just as he hears heavy foot-falls of everyone else on the floor approaching the closet. ‘This better work, looks like I won’t have a second chance to do it.’
Ignoring the poor traction, as much as he can, Nick tries to dash across the tiny room. Keeping a mental note of the h-vac ducts above for his only possible escape route while approaching the desktop computer.
Sitting on the small table, which was Bellwether’s desk is her computer. Only it’s on its side with the case door open. The small whine of the cooling fans audible over the banging on the door from those who want to kill him.
Pulling out Mark’s tablet, he unrolls it and uses a claw tip to extract the cable and adapter. Glancing at the same monitor from that day years ago, he sighs. ‘Okay… I hope this thing can get past the login screen, because I doubt the password Bellwether used is still active. They can’t be that dumb, right?’
Nick plugs the USB-A part of the adapter into the computer and it makes the typical device connected sound even though he hasn’t plugged the tablet in on the other end.
A much louder bang of a body slamming into the door nearly makes the vulpine jump out of his fur.
‘Right, them…’ Nick jams the other end of the adapter into the single open port on the tablet. The sound of more of his pursuers hitting the door echo in the small closet as the screen rapidly flashes garbage the moment the tablet’s plugged in.
The electronic warfare suit makes quick work of what it sees as an un-patched, ‘vintage’ system; cracking the log-in, making sure it’s on the network needed for the rest of the payload, then deploying said payload to the target. With that, it cleans up by first contacting all known SMS systems exposed to the web and sending Mark’s pre-programmed message.
To signal its completion, the EWS corrupts the running operating system on the machine.
A loud beep drowns out the sound of the door frame starting to give way from the assault. ‘Okay, I think that means it’s done, and the other sound means it’s time to go!’
Grabbing the tablet, rolling it up, and stuffing it back into his uniform. He starts yanking boxes or whatever he can get his hand-paws on off of shelves. All so he can pile them up and climb up to the vent on the H-vac ducting above him. Pulling out his standard issue utility knife, a glorified swine-army pocket knife, Nick curses as his slightly shaking makes him slip off the screw head on the first try.
His second try is more successful, as he now hears more of the door frame giving way.
Holding the screw in his mouth, Nick slides open the vent cover, pulling himself up into the ductwork. Kicking the impromptu ladder aside before pulling his legs into the ducting.
Turning around once inside the duct-work he pulls the vent cover back up and inserts the screw from the inside. Just enough to keep the grill in place and not suspicious looking.
Not to mention, just in time before his pursuers realize they can just shoot off the lock, rather than literally tearing the door from the wall.
Nick slides back a few inches. Hopefully enough to not be seen through the grill, yet close enough he can still see out. Just as the Lupine from earlier kicks the door open after shooting the handle off. She enters just how she was trained from the academy.
Meaning she doesn’t look up.
Looking at the still glitching out computer and the mess on the floor, The latter of which she assumes is from their misguided attempt at tearing the door off. Not that the vulpine she’s looking for used all of it as a ladder. She wasn’t that smart of a cadet after all.
She growls back at those behind her. “Help me tear this room apart, he has to still be in here somewhere!”
Nick smirks at this. ‘Once they give up, I’ll make my way out of here and up to the top floor.’ That smirk crumbles as his ears and tail droop. ‘Mark, you better not fail in what you’re planning on doing. I wasn’t kidding when I said Vivian would kill me if you die.’
--
Stairwell to the roof.
--
Stopping on the landing for the roof access, Mark takes a few deep breaths. Sitting down for a momentary rest as he drops his boots next to him and the face-plate onto his lap.
‘Alright, I’m at the roof, even if I had to dash up what felt like twenty or more flights of stairs barefoot. I hope that deer took the bait, and Nick was able to get the SCRAM code sent.’
Slipping the boots on and connecting them back to the suit he uses some breathing exercises to slow his heart rate back down.
‘If they took the bait, Stallhoof will have concentrated his forces near the elevator landing. Expecting me to use them to get up to him.’ Removing the grappling hook from the magnetic mount on his back he looks it over. Not that any damage to it will prevent him from how he plans on using it.
Nodding once to himself, he reattaches the facemask part of his suit before standing.
Holding the grappling hook in one hand, Mark grabs the handle for the medium to large mammal nested door leading to the roof with the other. Using it for leverage, he kicks open the one size smaller nested door off its hinges. ‘Really, they got to make these better, such a bad design flaw.’
Crawling through the opening he just created, Mark takes in the scenery of the roof and a large city without power beyond it.
‘So, if they did take the bait. They wouldn’t have expected me to climb all those stairs to get above them.’ Moving away from the light cast by the open door, he rapidly blinks while staring at the darkest area he can find. An old trick he was taught to slightly quicken the time it takes for his eyes to adapt to the low light.
‘If the layout from what I saw in the cctv camera’s is correct. The full body windows on one side of the elevator landing, put there to give an impressive view of the city when someone exits the elevator.’
Looking around at the various Hvac systems, vents, and electrical transformers, he ignores them. Straining to look through the gloom at the unlit skyscrapers around this building instead of what he can clearly see in front of him. Remembering the shape of the buildings that can be seen out of those windows.
‘There, that side of the building.’ Leaving the door swinging in the breeze, Mark yanks the front of the grappling hook off. Unwinding the cord into a loose loop in his other hand. Using his knife, he cuts it off, drooping the rest of the device onto the rooftop, no longer needed.
Ignoring the constant gust of cold wind, Mark peers over the side of the building. Judging the distance from the roof to those windows by the light coming from them.
‘This will either work, or I’ll have a one way ticket to the ground-floor.’ Pushing himself back from the edge, he turns and starts pushing or lightly kicking the nearby structures. Looking for a solid anchor point.
‘Pipe’s too weak, that vent’s not anchored enough to take my weight and the stress of what I have planned.’ Frowning at the state of steel angle bars holding up one end of a Hvac system. It wobbles a little from a light push of his hand.
‘The sudden stop will most likely yank this off its bolts. How would this be to code anyway?’ Looking at the length of cord and to his last option anywhere near the side of the building he’s on. An electrical transformer a good several yards from the edge.
‘Sigh. No other choice then.’ Tying an appropriate knot for the task on the shaft of the hook to form a loop. Mark tosses it over the top of the transformer, then pulls it down, bellow the radiator fins. Yanking it tight, he loops another bit of cord around it before tying the whole thing off with the same kind of knot.
Glancing back to the edge of the roof, he unfurls the remaining cord with one hand while he holds the loose coil of the rest in his other. Making sure there are no snags, a handful of loops remains in the coil by the time he reaches the edge of the roof.
‘Might have ‘just’ enough slack for this to work.’ Glancing back down the edge, and eyeing the distance. He cuts off what he doesn’t need before using the most secure kind of knot he knows, tying the other end to his suit.
‘This should hold me.’ Tugging on it.
Nodding and satisfied that the knot doesn’t budge. ‘Even though it’s only rated for pulling your mass around in zero-g cargo-holds, it ‘should’ work.’ He still triple checks it and moves closer to the edge. Making sure the SMG has a full magazine, he moves the two frag grenades where they’ll be easy to reach before taking a breath or two to center himself.
Holding the slack of the cord in one hand, and the SMG in the other, he whispers a silent prayer to the lord and steps off the edge of the building.
‘Well, here goes nothing.’
“What do you mean there was an explosion about a block away?” The Deer shouts into the land-line phone as he seethes in rage over something ‘else’ going wrong in his meticulously crafted plan.
Besides the stuff that forced his hoof-hand to take over the state prematurely due to his idiot partner alerting that damn rabbit and pelt.
“I had you set up the checkpoints to prevent a situation exactly like this from happening!”
Vivian holds her muzzle shut as the situation tempts her to laugh at stallhoof’s anger. ‘Not going to risk being shot with Night-Howler.’
Squirming to get a better look out of the cage, she sighs. ‘I would bet my tail it was Mark’s doing. I just hope he didn’t get hurt in the process.’
Deciding to see for himself while still on the phone, Stallhoof Bashes the keys on his keyboard. Cycling through cctv camera’s, looking for any camera, which has a view of what happened since that useless mammal on the other end can only stutter.
Finding one he can use, despite being slightly askew from the blast. It has a partially unobstructed view of the growing smoke cloud about a block from the municipal building.
Only to clench his muzzle in anger upon seeing movement on screen. His flat herbivore teeth creaking from the strain.
“I gave you one job, eliminate Mr. Big and his org, yet you failed! Grab every mammal you can spare and take up positions at the front entrance and finish your job!”
The camera has a view of the two Polar Bears approaching ‘his’ building from one of the nearby ones. Having used it to shield themselves from the blast wave.
Slamming the receiver down, the deer runs a hoof-hand over the fur on his muzzle.
‘Looks like I’ll have to get rid of a few more mammals than I intended. Maybe I was a bit lax in deciding who to keep and who would be better off dead for the betterment of the herd if they are this incompetent.’
Glancing to his temporally forgotten glass of liquor, Stallhoof grumbles at the waste as it’s too watered down now. He tosses the entire glass into the trash bin. With his desk clear, he pulls out the plasma-stunner, double checking it to see if it’s actually working as they said it ‘should’ with the stronger cells.
He even manually rotates the cylinder a couple of times before pocketing it in his suit, followed by one of the air-soft pistols in his possession filled with Night-Howler pellets. ‘The human may drink lethal amounts of alcohol, and can stand other poisons like they’re nothing. This will do him in, it affects ‘all’ mammals.’
Taking a glance at his monitor as the scene of his people trying, and mostly failing, to take care of just two polar bears brings a frown to his muzzle. “I know your family and the Big’s have some history, pelt.”
Grabbing the animal carrier, he hefts it up to his muzzle to glare at the naked vixen inside.
“Two measly polar bears is nothing they can’t handle. So don’t get your hopes up for a rescue from them, not to mention I see a distinct lack of ‘human’ here. So I guess you weren’t worth too much to him after all.”
Vivian yips as he tosses the carrier back under his desk without a care for the occupant inside.
“Oh, he’ll come.” Vivian quips.
Stallhoof kicks the carrier with a hoof-foot. “Didn’t say you can talk pelt! Do it again, and you’ll live the rest of your life like your ancestors did.”
His hoof-hand is stopped mid-way to the air-soft pistol to further drive the point home, but is stopped by the ringing of his desk-line. Without a word he picks it up and brings it to his muzzle.
“This better be news you’ve dealt with the two polar bears…” He glances to his monitor, but the fight has moved away from the cctv camera’s view.
The panicked mammal on other end of the line swallows a lump in his throat. “Um, no herd leader Stallhoof. Those two were a distraction. I just saw the human and the pelt Nicholas using an elevator from the first floor. It can only go as high as the mid-building landing. I also can’t raise any of the mammals left at the rear entrance. All I get are the ones at the front entrance. So I suspect that’s how they got in.”
One of Stallhoof’s ears twitches as does the ear on that side of his face. Mentally adding yet another mammal to the purge list. “Then what are you calling ‘ME’ for? Get them! Tell some of our mammals to stop attacking those polar bears if you have to and go after them! After all there’s only ONE place that elevator goes to!”
He slams the receiver down again all while Vivian smirks mirthfully. ‘And there’s Mark. I’m surprised my brother is with him though. He’s not much of the violent type, I would’ve expected him to try to talk his way to get me out of this if I’m being honest with myself.’
Snorting like his own feral ancestors, the cervidae takes deep breaths to calm himself while flexing his hoof-hands. “This, changes, nothing.”
He mutters, unknowingly just loud enough Vivian can hear it.
Using a hoof-hand to settle his fur back into place as his heart rate slows, Stallhoof pulls out his mobile phone. Dialing the direct number for the mammal he put in charge of the former national guard, now his personal guard. Hoping he’s more useful than that useless mammal at the security station.
The moment the line picks up he cuts off the mammal on the other end. “Don’t talk back, just listen. Grab those you exclusively trust and the heaviest hardware you can carry in your paws. Then, get the fuck up here using the express elevators. You’re going to set up a surprise welcome if that fool gets to this floor via the normal ones.”
His hoof-finger presses down on the screen of the phone hard enough to distort the colors as he ends the call.
Tossing the mobile device onto his desk he walks over to the entrance of his office and opens the door just large enough to stick his antlers and head out. “If any of you aren’t making barricades with the office furniture and anything else you can grab between here and the elevators as soon as I close this door. Then I’ll consider you a traitor to the herd and deal with you myself!”
Pulling his head back in the sound of furniture and panicked mammals echos into the office through the closed door behind the deer. It brings a smile to his muzzle that at least some of these predators know who their pack or pride leader is now.
Taking a few more breaths to calm himself, Stallhoof returns to his desk. Only to glance down at the grinning Vivian as she lays cramped in the carrier under his desk.
“For some mammal who’s about an inch away from not having a thought in her head other than eating and fucking. You seem rather smug about how I’m surrounded by useless mammals, and yes, you may speak this time pelt.” He’s genuinely curious as to why even as he pulls out the air-soft pistol with the Night-Howler pellets and points it at the vixen in the carrier cage to threaten her.
Vivian grins again. “I don’t know what Mark is planning, but…” Mimicking the human she’s fallen for, Vivian locks eyes with Stallhoof like how Mark would when he wants to put a point across to some-mammal.
It sends a shiver down the cervidae’s spine, almost as if he’s looking at a predator much larger than the small pelt in a cage he’s holding. An intelligent gleam, with a honed edge. Predatory, but unnaturally tempered.
“He’s told me what he’s done before, and while it did scare me at the time of what he’s capable of. Seeing you panic and only react to his actions, I’m not scared of him anymore. I can also say in confidence he’ll keep his promise. He’ll come for me and you can’t stop him, in fact, if I was betting on this. I’d say you’ve already lost.”
Stallhoof’s hoof-finger twitches over the trigger. The audacity of this pelt and the idea that he’s already lost when by any measure he’s won outside this setback tempts him badly to pull it and be done with the vixen.
His rational mind though, by a thin margin stops him, His hoof finger eases off the trigger while breaking eye contact with the vulpine.
‘No, she’s still useful as a bargaining chip. Besides, he’s only one mammal with only another pelt to back him up. I have much more than that arriving with heavy weaponry plus the hoof-hand full already up here. No simple mammal can handle those numbers.’
His ear twitches as he hears the express elevator arrive and the sounds of even more mammals setting up near the normal elevator landings. The sound of it calming his frayed nerves caused by others.
‘Now if only the other governors of the neighboring states would get off their tails and back me in rebelling against the ‘tyrant’ in the White House.’ He eyes his computer monitor, then to the animal carrier with the pelt inside before flicking an ear and heading for the office door. ‘Better go…’
The lights in the office flicker, only to return a bit dimmer than before as the building switches from external power to the emergency generators. His cellphone, still with a discolored spot on the screen rings just as he opens his muzzle to ask what just happened.
Swiping it up and seeing it’s from his agent in the climate wall nuclear power plants, he answers the call he puts it to his ear. “You better have a good reason….”
“I don’t know what the fuck happened sir! One moment the reactors are humming along ready to blow upon command, the next ‘every’ one of them goes into SCRAM mode!” Yelling in a panic he cuts off Stallhoof.
“What do you mean ‘scram’ mode? I thought you had them rigged to melt down on command like I ordered you too earlier?” Stallhoof’s ear twitches.
‘Without the ability to turn a good portion of the west cost into no-mammals land, I don’t have a bargaining chip to stop that orange deer from sending in the army before I have enough mammals to make it to bloody for him politically to do so.’
“I did sir, but this is built into the design of the reactors and I swear I disabled access to it here… SCRAM mode tells it to insert all the inhibiting rods into the reactor, retarding if not out right stopping the nuclear reaction that all reactors rely on. It’s normally a last ditch effort to stop a melt down, but somehow some-mammal got in the system and re-enabled it before activating it.”
Vivian holds her muzzle shut as the sound of cracking glass and plastic fills the room. Stallhoof nearly crushing his phone to uselessness from the bubbling rage building in him as he realizes he’s being played. Distracted by the events here as his insurance gets eliminated.
‘They didn’t stop at the mid building landing because they somehow didn’t know about the express elevator that can take a mammal from the ground floor to this one. There’s only two points in the city network outside the climate wall reactor complex able to do such a thing. The first is the Mayor’s office, and the other is my computer… Wait, that also means…’
“GET THEM BACK UP NOW!”
Even the activity outside the office pauses a moment after hearing the deep bellowing cervidae voice. It also draws enough attention away from some mammal noticing something interesting just outside the nearby window.
“I.. I can’t sir. Even if you didn’t order me to kill every mammal here. The process to just un-scram a single reactor is a several day process, and the climate wall has over a dozen reactors in tota…” Stallhoof gives into his rage, crushing the phone in his hoof-hand, cutting the call short.
Dropping the remains, he puts the air-soft pistol back into his suit and pulls out the modified plasma stunner before rushing for his office door.
‘It also means that damn human ‘wanted’ me to think he’s going to take an elevator to this floor, so I put everyone exactly where he wanted them!’
His hoof-hand barely even makes contact with the handle of his office door before the sound of gunfire and shattering windows fills his ears. Followed by the ear pressure from equalizing air pressure between the inside and outside the skyscraper at this altitude.
--
Letting out his breath, Mark repels backwards, away from the building. One hand on the SMG, the other on the slack cord. Letting it out of the loop as he falls.
A cord that quickly goes taught, arresting his movement give or take half a foot or so from where he wanted to be. Level with the window on the floor he wanted.
Wolves, Lions, and a few deer stand lined up on the top floor landing. Weapons aimed at the elevators while a couple of wolves assembles what to Mark’s eyes looks like Browning M2 machine gun just in front of the group. Office desks and chairs made into haphazard barricades surround the entire group in a vain attempt to protect against return fire.
Every one of them where he wanted them and thinking he’d use the elevator to get up here, not this window.
None of them are looking in his direction either. So they don’t see him aiming at the group of deer through the window. Firing his SMG mere moments before his boots slam into the hole riddled glass, shattering it as his shots take out the group of cervidae. Just in case Stallhoof is dumb enough to be with them.
‘Can’t miss the opportunity even though he doesn’t seem dumb enough to do so.’
Once inside the building he slams the release for the zero-g anchor point with the butt of the SMG before the cord can arrest forward his momentum. Allowing him to slide into the landing lobby and past many of the mammals assembled there.
They’re so stunned by this brazen action movie style entrance for those couple critical seconds it takes him to slide by, they neither fire at Mark.
Nor do they notice he drops two fragmentation grenades in their midsts as he passes by.
Ignoring the bruised tailbone and rear end from the hard landing, Mark scrambles for a nearby pillar the moment he stops sliding. Getting to safety not a moment before both grenades detonate. Whittling down over a dozen mammals to six who’re still alive, and can do anything other than tend to their fatal or near fatal wounds.
One remaining wolf desperately tries to finish setting up the Browning M2 machine gun in place of his now dead partner, while the others. Three lions and two wolves scramble for cover behind turned over desks and tables.
Peeking around the pillar, Mark takes out the wolf setting up the machine gun as payment for not paying attention to his surroundings. Ducking back behind the pillar to avoid the return fire from the standard issue rifles of his remaining comrades.
Dropping the partially spent magazine and replacing it with a full one, so he doesn’t run out prematurely. He checks if the battery for the kinetic shield’s still secure.
‘Can’t stay in this cover forever. With all the stuff they set up they could easily loop around and flank me without me seeing them. Plus, just as I thought, none of those deer were Stallhoof. So he’s still alive and somewhere on this floor to.’
Exiting cover and instantly activating the kinetic shield. It flashes bright yellow while emitting pops from the rifle rounds hitting it. Bellow him, the floor sizzles as molten copper and lead burns holes in office carpet down to the concrete. Ignoring those pools, as his boots give him protection, he rushes forward at them, and their cover while returning fire.
His speed, the fact their shots are doing nothing, and that he’s firing back wildly by holding the SMG just to the side of the shield. Causes the remaining lupine, and two lions to turn tail from their current cover.
Leaving two Lionesses still stubbornly firing at him as Mark counts down the seconds he has left on the shield.
Eight.
He watches those three go. Mentally noting where they flee too for the next assault.
Seven.
The two Lionesses continue firing at him while snarling. Desperately hoping ‘something’ gets through.
Six.
Mark chooses the Lioness on the left as his next target.
Five.
They ‘still’ continue firing at him despite him firing back as he’s right in front of their makeshift cover.
Four.
Leaping up, Mark plants his foot on the edge of a table. Aiming the shield at the left Lioness, while pumping the trigger on the SMG to riddle the one on the right with multiple three round bursts. Emptying his clip.
Three
The now remaining Lioness’s eyes go wide as Mark lets his momentum carry him forward onto her.
Two.
Said Lioness’s world becomes nothing but burning heat and mind breaking pain. The kinetic energy of him slamming into her with the shield’s redirected at her as flesh cooking heat.
One.
Mark whispers a silent prayer for her soul, he can’t look away nor close his eyes for fear of missing movement on his periphery. The horrific death he inflicted stays center in his vision as the shield deactivates from lack of power.
Ejecting the spent battery and replacing it ‘Last one…’. He vaults back over the barrier made of office furniture. Just in time to avoid fire from the three who fled seconds ago. Having found some courage due having some distance between them and the human.
Scurrying closer to the Browning M2 by staying close to the floor. Mark checks his pockets and ammo. ‘One full, one empty. Empty’s in the firearm.’
Taking a quick glance around himself, including peeking through a gap between two tables that make up the barrier he’s hiding behind. Mark clenches his teeth.
‘I can’t go searching for that damn deer till those three are dealt with.’
The lupine and the two lions stop firing, Mark can hear over the dead silence on the floor the hushed argument between them on whose going to go over and check to see if they ‘got’ Mark. The humans eye’s fall onto the Browning M2 a moment later.
‘Well, I need to grab one of their weapons since I’m running out of ammo, so why not?’
Waiting for a moment for the three to look away. A moment that Mark has to stifle a laugh as they resort to rock-paper-scissors to determine the poor sod to risk their lives, after they so bravely ran away a moment ago.
Mark carefully slides the tables and chairs aside. Standing, he makes quick work of finishing assembling the machine gun by loading the ammo belt into it. By the time the two lions convince the lone wolf he has to be the one to risk his life, all three of them turn at the sound of Mark yanking back the loading lever.
The lupine instantly throws his rifle to the ground and raises his hand-paws into the air. “I surrender! I don’t want to die!” Simply pointing the barrel at the two male lions behind him has the felines repeating the same action.
“Come over here and sit by…”
The sound of three rapid and large electrical discharges with the eerie purple glow of argon plasma cuts Mark off. The deer of the hour walks into view from a side corridor on the left of the now three burnt bodies on the floor.
It doesn’t take long for the scent of burnt fur and flesh to fill the floor from them for both Mark’s weaker nose and Nick’s superior one. The elder Wilde sibling having made it up to the floor by climbing through the rodent stairwell like one would a ladder.
He pauses upon seeing and hearing the Human and the Deer from the smaller mammal hallway.
‘Just need to get past them to his office. Sis has to be in there.’
Eyeing the modified plasma stunner in the hoof-hands of the deer dictator, he smirks despite himself not wanting to.
“Figured the one I gave the police would end up in your hands, um hoof-hands. Just not altered to be lethal.”
“No, you can call them hands if you want. I’m not one of the fragile useful idiots I employ. Still, wonderful piece of technology you gave us, isn’t it?” He casually fakes examining it for the first time. Seeming to admire the construction for a moment before aiming at Mark again.
“Speaking of technology, drop that archaic machine gun and hand me your other plasma stunner along with your tablet please. I’m a bit pressed for time, as you already know.” Stallhoof’s hoof-finger twitches over the trigger.
Mark’s smirk becomes a full on vicious grin behind the mask and visor. “Sorry, I’m not giving you the other plasma stunner. As for the tablet, it’s not on me right now. Did you ‘honestly’ take me for such a fool to bring it up here in the ‘minuscule’ chance I failed?”
He does put down the Browning M2 machine gun, mainly because he doesn’t need it anymore.
Stallhoof sneers at the human’s defiance.‘I hope this doesn’t damage it’
“Then, goodbye Mr. Mercer.” Putting his hoof-finger onto the trigger, he moves to depress it.
Only to find the trigger won’t move. Those three shots heated the mechanism up enough it jammed in its casing, preventing the trigger from depressing fully. Leaving the empty capacitor in place and locking out the ability to move a charged one into the firing position.
Dashing forward the moment Stallhoof aims the weapon at him, Mark’s smirk rivals his vulpine companion under his mask. He raises his fist as he closes in on the deer. “Knew that was going to happen the moment you showed it off to me like that.”
Nick winces at the sound of Mark’s fist colliding with Stallhoof’s muzzle, forcing the deer to drop the jammed plasma-stunner while taking a step back or fall backwards.
“Veteran resource runners remove the rotation mechanism you put back in for that exact reason! It heats up, it expands, and then jams in the middle of a fight.” Kicking the weapon away, he shifts his stance for a gut check to the cervidae to a higher one since the deer is taller than a human. Not counting the rack on top of Stallhoof’s head.
Except, Stallhoof matches the human’s footwork. One hoof-hand slightly diverts the direction of the gut-check, the other one deals a blow across Mark’s mask / visor combo. Causing the rents in the plastic Johnathan caused earlier when Mark was fighting Nick’s father, to crack from the blow. Rendering the piece of equipment now useless.
Tearing it off without a second though, Mark tosses it to the side.
“Surprisingly fragile for something from the future Mr. Mercer” Stallhoof quips, then spits out some blood from his mouth. Mark’s punch having split his lip a little.
Catching a glimpse of red fur in the periphery of his vision, Mark shrugs. “Plastic is plastic. If anything plastic’s sturdier here because its oil based vs the plant made stuff back home.” Slowly walking to the side, he draws the deer’s attention away from the vulpine’s movements. Giving Nick the chance to slip into Stallhoof’s office.
An opportunity Nick doesn’t pass up. Dashing for the door before opening the smaller mammal one nested inside the door and slipping inside.
“Still, didn’t take you for one to know how to fight hand to hand.” With the diversion finished and Nick in the office, Mark assumes an open defensive stance.
A more advanced guard posture, with no obvious area’s to attack or avoid for the opponent to see. It keeps one loose and able to instantly react to any attack from any direction at the cost of faster fatigue buildup as one mentally has to force their muscles not to tense like they would instinctively want to.
“I wasn’t always a politician.” In response, the cervidae takes a simpler stance. A stance Mark notes is more aligned with Stallhoof’s species. Those antlers being the primary form of defense, while his hoof-hands are primed to intercept blows at the obvious openings each of the antler points can’t defend with a promise of a quick stab.
‘Is he even guarding? Or is he not taking this seriously?’ Stallhoof narrows his eyes at the human. Only to clamp down on his anger as much as he can.
“I think you mean despot. Then again, aren’t all politicians wannabe despots?” Mark breathes deeply and considers his options while fighting the urge to tense parts of his body up. Mainly his abdominal muscles.
‘Not an amateur, but I wouldn’t call him advanced for using something like that. It’s not a text book guard stance, well for a human. He does seem to know what he’s doing though.’
“I don’t think you came all the way up here to just wax political commentary on me human. After all, you came here for your pelt girlfriend.” He slowly moves one hoof-foot after the other, circling the human. Hoping to be able to try and catch Mark off guard.
‘He’s smart enough to not attack first unless I provoke him to. I also know if I attack first he’ll do whatever he has up his sleeve on me with that odd guard stance. Still, I need to down him quickly and grab his tablet before that orange freak of a deer in the white-house realizes my trump-card’s gone. Then I can dose him with Night-Howler and be done with him.’
Mark matches the cervidae’s movements, always keeping the deer in front of himself. “Eh, can’t I talk to you before I beat you to a bloody pulp? What happened to manners and honor?” Mark smirks.
‘He still has a weapon on his person, I can see the bulge on his suit from the holster. I also have to keep him focused on me till Nick gets his sister out. Cause as good as I am in hand to hand, um hand to hoof-hand. I’m not superman. I wouldn’t be able to use the last remaining shield charge to protect them if he decided to whip out that pistol and fire at them. Sigh, meaning I’m going to have to play into his hoof-hands and attack first. He’s going to think something’s up otherwise.’
“You and I both know we’re beyond ‘talk’ at this point Mr. Mercer.” Stallhoof smiles as that weird flat face of the human’s hardens. ‘Here it comes.’
Faking a determined face, Mark drops his open guard before rushing forward and going for the obvious fake opening. ‘This is going to hurt, but the kevlar should stop his antlers.’
--
Closing the door, Nick glances around the office. His nose and eyes picking up the scent of the now dried blood stains on the carpet.
A momentary sense of panic flows through him as he instantly fears it’s from his sister, but vanishes as he realizes it doesn’t match Vivian’s scent etched into his brain, which also fills the room to his vulpine nose.
‘Sis is in here, I can scent her, but where is she?’
“Nick!?” Vivian yells out, having scented her brother over smell of the blood in the room.
Nick’s head snaps over to the large ‘desk’, before rushing over. Hefting himself up onto the top as he expects her up on the large mammal sized desk. “Viv? Where…?”
“Under the desk! Get me out of here!” She bangs a hand-paw against the side of the carrier.
Jumping down behind the desk, Nick just stares at the sight that greets him.
His sister, in just her fur, stuffed in a crate that wouldn’t look out of place carrying your pet iguana. Only larger, and a design he’s never seen before. Almost as if it was made to carry mammals like them. Sitting under the desk and to the side, out of the way from any mammal sitting in the nearby chair. Butted up against the drawers that make up that side of the desk with the front facing out the floor to ceiling window behind the governor’s desk.
“Just don’t stand their bro! Get me out of this. Pinch the two tabs on the front of the gate!” Vivian growls at her brother. More from the pain and cramps she’s feeling from being stuffed in here than any anger at Nick.
Shaking his head and letting his ears drop back down to their normal resting position, Nick grabs the grating front and pinches the two tabs. Springs squeak but the rods keeping the front of the carrier closed move, allowing him to free his sister.
Which he helps to her foot-paws once she crawls out of the carrier.
He idly looks around for something to cover her while keeping his gaze away from his naked sister idly wishing he didn’t get such an eyeful of what makes his sister, his sister. “Why?…”
Both vulpine’s freeze under the large mammal desk at the loud crashing sound echoing through the office. Followed by a loud cervidae bleat, then a humans grunting scream as something large impacts the door to the office.
“That bastard of a deer tore off my clothes…” Vivian answers the question she knows her brother was going to ask before being interrupted, before adding her own, which Nick expects she’ll ask.
So he pins his ears back upon remembering how callously Mark acted with everything up to this point concerning Judy. “That would be Mark fighting Stallhoof. After more or less single pawingly fighting his way up here to get to you.”
“With you?” Vivian tilts her head as her hand-paws move to cover her decency. Heart fluttering a bit at the thought of what Mark’s doing just for her. “I know you bro. You would never resort to violence if you can help it.”
Nick peers around the side of the desk and winces at the large bulging dent in the mulit-mammal sized doors.
“Compared to other options we had on the table, and it hurts me to say this because of who wanted to not do this. It was the most rational, and most likely to succeed plan of action to solve everything. Despite getting on my nerves, and as much as he heartlessly acted with what happen with Judy. I’m kinda loathe to admit though, he was right to do this.”
This grabs Vivian’s attention more than trying to peek around the other side of the desk to see what’s going on. “What happened with Judy now?”
Vivian openly stares at her brother. She may have been angry with the bunny for acting like everyone in her life, trying to tell her how to live it. She’s still is her sister-in-law by marriage and thus family, and foxes take care of family. No matter if they’re annoying know it all’s or not.
Nick sighs, surprising his sister as she watches his entire body slump like he’s been sucker punched in the gut.
“That bastard, that deer. Sent the camalfornia national guard to slaughter the Hopp’s clan in retaliation for her turning down helping them. Outside of Judy, a handful of kits, and a few individuals disowned for the shit they tried to pull on our wedding, She’s the sole heir. The rest are dead and the Hopps Family Farm is burning. Last I saw of carrots… The news knocked her unconscious.”
Vivian out right growls as her fur bristles, but stops as something large and heavy slams against the office doors yet again. Only this time they give way.
Swinging open, then falling off its hinges upon hitting the wall, both vulpine’s ignore the door in favor of watching Stallhoof landing on his back, painfully. In roughed up clothes, with a sleeve torn, and one of the tips of his antlers missing. The cervidae pushes himself up to a sitting position before shakily rising to his hoof-feet and assuming a guard stance at the open door.
Into the now open doorway with a slight limp, walks Mark. Helmet discarded and face blooded and matching the suit, he grins at the deer before readying himself while ignoring a piece of antler embed in his suit. Both vulpines pretty much guess his body’s covered in bruising with how stiff his movements are.
‘How is he still moving?’ Both Nick and Vivian wonder at the same time, though the latter feels her heart flutter more at the sight of Mark.
Spitting out blood, Mark sneers at Stallhoof. “You certainly got the gumption to be a decent fighter, I’ve known lesser men who’d have surrendered after the first time they’d get thrown into a wall, let alone stand back up after the second time.”
“What kind of monster ‘are’ you!?” Stallhoof yells back, his body and limbs aching. He holds one of his arms closer to his chest feigning injury to that limb, so he can use his insurance.
‘Just a little closer…’
Vivian frantically grabs her brother, ignoring her own nakedness and pulling him back under the desk. Hissing lowly at him so the deer can’t hear what she’s about to say. “Please tell me your armed with your lethal?!”
Surprised by this, Nick glares back at her with his ears flat, tail still. The weight of the pistol on him becomes obvious to his senses having forgotten its weight earlier. “Why?”
Vivian rapidly glances between her bother and where she knows Stallhoof is on the other side of the desk. “Because the fucking deer has a fully loaded Night-Howler air-soft pistol on him! So shoot him now or by Karma I’ll take it and do it myself!”
The words slip her muzzle before she realizes it, yet, the thought of Mark getting hit with the stuff makes her realize she’s actually willing to do so. After all, the vixen needs to protect her mate, right? Right now, Mark is in danger of losing his mind to that evil compound and legacy of the psychotic sheep.
Nicks eyes widen at this, before his hand-paws fumble around his uniform looking for where he stowed the pistol, and for the kit every officer’s now supposed to carry on their shifts as Vivian peeks around the desk.
“I’m Human! You took someone I love and I have to make you pay for it.” He walks forward, pushing aside the pain from bruised flesh, the possibly bruised if not hair line cracked bones from having a full size deer ram him. Not to mention the shallow gouges where the antlers managed to push through the kevlar of his suit and the one piece of antler stuck in him.
Adrenaline is one hell of a drug. ‘Never had to fight this hard before, even in training.’
It dulls his sense of caution and blinds his short term memory that the deer is ‘still’ armed. So solely focused on pummeling the cervidae in front of him across the muzzle, he misses Stallhoof moving his supposedly ‘injured’ arm. Pulling out the airs-soft pistol, aiming it squarely at Mark.
“You’re nothing!” The deer pulls the trigger, twice.
One purple splotch blossoming on the chest trauma plate of Mark’s suit. Staining the kevlar. The other splashing across his cheek causing him stop on the spot, reaching up to touch where it hit his face. His hand lowers with a bit of purple on his gloves fingers.
“NO!” Vivian screams, but Mark can barely hear it over his heart beat exploding. Nick attempts to pull his sister back under the desk as she fights him every step of the way.
“We can’t help him with that fucking deer in here.” The elder Wilde sibling manages to pull the younger one back under the desk to supposed safety.
Stallhoof smirks at Nick’s comment as he watches Mark stumble back. ‘Kinda curious as to what a feral human is, then I’ll take care of the two pelts,…?’ His train of thought’s derailed as the human in front of him doesn’t act like he expected him to.
Instead of turning more feral, and losing the glint of thought in his gaze. Mark locks eyes with the deer. Rooting Stallhoof to the carpet from the sheer look of hatred in those eyes. His body freezes, every ancient prey instincts screaming at him, to run or to stay absolutely still in hopes the predator can’t see him. All as those eyes seem to gain the look of every hunter ever to exist in the human’s ancestral line.
‘This, isn’t supposed to happen. He’s supposed to be a mindless beast by now!’ Stallhoof’s eyes widen in fright, and he can’t look away no matter how much he wants too. He watches as every muscle on the human’s body bulge, like he’s flexing them all at once.
All the while those eyes of his bare down on him, even as they become bloodshot. Then with a full chested roar like the ancient Berserkers from one half of his heritage would’ve done. With such ferocity that they would be proud of their decedent if they could hear him.
Vivian just stands there stunned as Nick nearly drops the emergency Night-Howler antigen kit from the sheer force of the roar. ‘That could rival a lion’s roar.’ Nick idly wonders as he finally manages to open the kit with his shaking hand-paws.
Only to fall to the floor as Vivian gets knocked into him when the desk gets shoved back. They both land on the now cracked window. Giving the elder Wilde sibling a good view of the darkened city bellow. One he doesn’t want to get a closer look at via the ‘fast’ way down. So he scrambles off the cracking glass and drags his sister with him.
All because Mark launched himself at Stallhoof, knocking the deer into the desk and the desk into the window.
“YOU NEARLY TOOK HER AWAY FROM ME! I WON’T LOSE VIVIAN BECAUSE OF YOU LIKE I LOST PIPPIN BECAUSE OF MY FATHER!”
The sound of fist hitting flesh causes both of them to look upwards, then to the window as the snapping of glass after each hit signals the necessity to get out from under the piece of furniture, NOW!
Nick stuffs the kit into his maw, grabs Vivian. Shoving her down flat against the floor with him before crawling forward. It only takes a few moments for her to get the hint, so she pulls her hand-paw out of his and follows him.
The sight that greets them, stuns the two vulpines.
Mark has Stallhoof pinned against the desk with one hand as he viciously pummels the deer with the other, who’s only barely able to raise an arm to try to shield his head. It doesn’t work especially well since the sheer force of the punches are pushing the desk into the window, further cracking it. Each blow doing as much damage to the cervidae’s muzzle, neck, and chest as it does to Mark’s hand.
‘Is this what a feral human is?’ Watching the beat-down, Nick slips the antigen kit from his mouth. ‘No… this isn’t blind fury like a feral, there’s thought put into where he’s hitting the deer. Those eyes have thought in them too.’
Weakly hitting the arm holding him in place as the glass further cracks, Stallhoof begs. “Stop! I give up!” The tone causing both Vivian and Nick to wince even as the latter opens up the kit and tries to calculate the dose since humans aren’t listed on the dosing chart.
‘Too little and this won’t stop, too much and his heart will stop…’
Yet his punching doesn't cease, even as the window starts give way to the desk getting pushed back after each punch onto the deer an eighth of an inch by eighth of an inch into the glass.
Vivian takes a step forward before her brother can stop her. She, too, realizes Mark is still in there and isn’t mindless like a Night-Howler shot would make her.
“Mark, that’s enough. I’m here, I’m safe.” Mark’s slowly drops his next punch upon hearing Vivian’s calm but shaky voice. The sound of him stiffly moving his neck to look down at her, causes the vixen’s tail to shiver.
‘Such an unnatural sound from something living. What did it do to him?’ She smiles up at him despite this. Knowing any hint of displeasure will not help.
His chest heaves like he’s been running a marathon as his muscles and eyes continue to bulge almost unnaturally in the vixen’s eyes.
Her hand-paw gently grabs his thigh the moment she’s in reach. “See, I’m alright. Naked but I’m okay. You’ve done what you needed to, to save me. You can stop and let my brother do what he needs to do. Please?” Her other hand-paw reaches back at her brother as she moves her fingers in a grabby motion.
Taking the hint, Nick just decides to take a chance, loading the lancet with a Lupine dose of the antigen, then stepping forward. Handing it to his sister with one-hand-paw. The other searching for cuff’s he soon realizes he left behind in favor for more ammo magazines.
‘Shit!’
Coughing up blood, Stallhoof laughs. “Don’t know what’s worse. Getting beat up by what’s supposed to be an extinct line of mammals, or said mammal know-towing to a pelt!”
Whatever hold Vivian had over Mark’s attention shatters. His head whips around to give the deer a death-glare. Then, before Vivian can even protest or stick Mark with the antigen. One of Mark’s hands grabs the deer by the antlers, the other grips at his chest through the deer’s ruined suit. The sheer force of his fingers cracking Stallhoof’s ribs.
The ‘poor’ deer bleats out in pain.
With a grunt that turns into a full chested roar, Mark lifts Stallhoof like a sack of potatoes instead of the skillful throws previously. Nick and Vivian stand there speechless as he tosses the deer into the badly cracked window. What little of the laminate keeping the window together fails the moment the deer’s body hits it, sending Stallhoof screaming out into the night air and onto the express ride to the ground floor bellow.
Taking a couple of steps away from the desk that’s teetering on the edge of the now open window, Mark looks at the two of them. “Now… I’m… Done…” Then promptly collapses to his hands and knees like someone’s cut his strings, hyperventilating.
Tightening the grip on the lancet, Vivian leaps up onto Mark’s back. She can feel the engorged muscles tensing through Mark’s suit as well as his heartbeat as soon as she lands. Moving her muzzle next to his ear she whispers. “I’m sorry for the pain.”
Jamming the lancet into an open spot on Mark’s neck while pressing the button to inject the antigen.
Gasping loudly, Mark’s abnormally high heartbeat quickly disperses the Night-Howler antigen through his body. The rage and the sheer power filling him flees. Replaced by numbness and fatigue like he’s never felt in his life.
Nick leaps forward and yanks Vivian off of him keeping his sister from being trapped under the collapsing human as Mark falls backwards.
‘He didn’t react like any other mammal to being dosed with Night-Howler. So I should do the standard check regardless.’ Letting go of his sister, Nick kneels over Mark’s head. Cautiously eyeing the purple splotch on the front of Mark’s suit.
So he pulls off his shirt and covers it carefully before holding out two fingers in front of Mark’s face.
Nick has to move to the side before he can ask the obvious question. Vivian moving to get a good look at her mate and savior, for now there’s no question in her mind that Mark is ‘hers’ as she smiles down at him.
Only giving his sister a side glance, he turns his attention back to Mark. “How many fingers am I holding up?”
Blinking a few times, Mark stares at them as his breathing slows down. The seconds it takes him to answer “Two” Felt like the longest seconds in Vivian’s life as she so desperately wants to touch his face or hand. Yet, both have Night-Howler on them.
Even Nick lets out a sigh of relief, but before he can say anything they all look towards the now open window. The sound of helicopters and other vtol aircraft fill the office, flying by at full tilt. Barely above the roof of the skyscraper they’re in.
“Those are air-force choppers, and, is that a search and rescue one too? All the way from New Reynard?” Nick tilts an ear as he stares out the window for a moment, then looks back down at Mark.
Coughing a bit, Mark tries to sit up as some feeling returns to his body. Of course, he wishes it didn’t from the pain flooding in after the numbness flees. With a gentle touch from Vivian on his forehead, being careful to avoid his cheek, he stops. “Stay down Mark. Please. You’re hurt and have done enough.”
Sighing, Mark complies and looks to Nick. “I guess they were monitoring the reactors. I also had the program you let loose on the network send a sms message to the president and others that it’s now safe to come and stop him.”
Nodding once as the elder Wilde sibling checks the human’s pulse. “Yes do as my sister wants you to. Don’t move, just stay laying there on the floor Mark. I think that’s still a fast heart rate for a human. Certainly is for a lupine, which you’re about the same size as.”
‘Okay, he’s conscious and cooperative, that’s good. Just have to wait till we can get a med tech here.’ Nick turns to look through the door-less doorway into the office. ‘As soon as we somehow let them know we’re here.’
Only to wince as rotor wash blasts in through the window, sending things flying. Nick scrambles to keep his uniform shirt over the splotch on Mark’s chest least it gets sprayed about. Vivian for her part, wraps her tail around her waist and covers her bust with an arm.
An Air Force helicopter moves as close to the side of the building as it’s rotors allow, only stopping when it’s level with the open window.
A moment later both vulpines scramble to cover their eyes as the copter shines a spotlight into the room. Sweeping through from one end to the other, only momentarily pausing on the three of them.
The light disappears as soon as it finishes the sweep, and the helicopter ascends for the roof while it radio’s for the nearest medical unit. Drawing the New Reynard S.A.R. helicopter back to the building.
Pinning her ears back Vivian looks up. “I think they’re landing on the roof bro.” Looking back down at Mark who has a slight coughing fit with some blood from burst capillaries in his lungs.
“Sounds like it sis, and look, that S.A.R. one is too.” Pointing to said rescue copter returning and heading for the roof.
Emptying what remains of his uniform of weapons and pulling out his badge, Nick stands before moving for the doorway.
Vivian’s ears shoot up as she stares at him. “You’re not going to greet them, are you? What if they shoot you thinking you’re one of Stallhoof’s goons?”
Stopping in his tracks, Nick sighs and looks back at his sister. “If they were going to kill us, they could’ve just shot us through the windows. Mark needs medical attention for the after effects of whatever the hell Night-Howler did to him and the Antigen. I’m going to make sure he gets it. Least I can do for his plan actually working and saving your tail Copper-Tail.”
Setting his ears forward and tail still, he steels his nerves. ‘It’s a distinct possibility they will though.’ Exiting the office and looking around at the carnage, he doesn’t have long to wait to greet their ‘rescuers’.
Thundering down the stairs, then kicking open the door. The four mammal army unit from the military helicopter enters the floor in the standard breach and clear maneuver. A Brown Bear, followed by two Painted Dogs and a Hyena execute the maneuvers in textbook perfection.
They even look up to the ceiling upon entering.
Sweeping their weapons along with their gazes across the room. Taking in the destruction from Mark’s entrance, then taking out Stalhoof’s forces. Not to mention all the damage caused by his flat out brawl with the deer.
Only to come to a stop, focusing on Nick as he comes into view. Holding his hand-paws up with one holding his badge.
With a hand-paw signal the Bear motions for the two Painted Dogs to further clear the floor, followed by the Hyena to approach this suspicious vulpine while he keeps his weapon trained on him.
As the Hyena approaches, Nick’s nose picks up the mammal is female. ‘Makes sense. Like lions the females are the more aggressive ones. Males tend to like to stay home and take care of the kids in Hyena society.’
The female Hyena approaches Nick, then while one hand-paw keeps the rifle muzzle less than an inch from his muzzle. The other goes over every nook and crevice on the vulpine for weapons. Even running her claws through his tail and poking her nose uncomfortably close to him.
‘Just endure for Mark’s sake.’ Nick mentally repeats to himself, fighting against the violation of his personal space in such a manner.
“He’s clean.” She then grabs the badge. “His badge says Nick Wilde, and he matches the physical and scent description commander.”
The Bear approaches, though he too doesn’t lower his weapon, just in case. “Where’s that waste of fur, flesh, and antlers?!” The gruff voice tells him that no snark will be tolerated, not that he’s in any mood to do so.
Slowly lowering his arms, and with everything that’s happened tonight, Nick has a hard time keeping his calm emotional mask on. “Took the one way trip to the ground floor sir.”
The Bear show’s no sign of reaction as he ticks an item off the list, only a bit glad he doesn’t have to tear the cervidae apart with his own claws. The Ursine moves to the next item on their objective list.
“Do you know the location of the Human?” Unsure from the visual sweep if that mammal on the floor ‘is’ the human or not.
The two Painted Dogs return before Nick can answer. “Floor’s clear. One burnt to a crisp Lioness, multiple mammals dead of gunshots or shrapnel. Signs of two explosives going off and three mammals looking like they got hit by a lightening bolt. Hard to believe one mammal could do all this.” One reports as the other hands the bear the Browning M2 machine gun.
“This was found among the debris.”
“Over there.” Nick nods in the direction of the office. “He needs medical attent…”
Upon pointing out the direction the Bear signals them to follow as he makes his way over, kicking or throwing out of the way any furniture that gets in their path. The two Painted Dogs and Hyena fall in behind him with Nick quickly moving to keep up with the large Ursine.
Only to overtake the group in a burst of speed to get in the room before them. “Vivan, back away.” Warning his sister, who does so while covering herself with her hand-paws as the unit enters.
It also draws the ire of the Bear who halts his unit upon entering the office and focuses his attention at Nick.
“You are ‘dismissed’ officer Wilde.” Not relaxing his grip on the rifle, his tone hinting that it’s his only warning. Any shenanigans will be met with lethal force.
Nick holds up a finger. “I wasn’t finished giving you the site-rep sir.” Politely and submissively continuing.
Relaxing his grip on the weapon the Bear sighs as realizes he was a bit too hasty in dismissing the vulpine. “Fine.” He hand-paw signals the two Painted Dogs to stand guard outside the room, then for the Hyena to go to Vivian and check her out.
Seeing this, Nick figuratively bites his tongue, knowing he’s pushing things now since the soldiers have full authority. So he won’t complain as the Hyena subjects Vivian to the same ‘complete’ inspection, and then some.
“As I was saying sir.” Keeping the snark out of his voice is a fight. “Mark needs medical attention. Stallhoof dosed him with Nigh-Howler. The front of his suit, hand and cheek have some residue on them, thus my missing shirt. I administered what I can only assume is an appropriate dose of antigen, but he seems to be suffering from the after effects. His reaction was… Unusual to say the least.”
Carefully the Bear moves over to Mark laying on the floor, he and the human make eye contact before the Ursine uses the tip of his rifle to lift a corner of the vulpine sized shirt before instantly letting it drop upon seeing the purple stain.
A color all mammals in any of the services have learned to fear.
Wiping the tip of the rifle on the carpet even though it has nothing on it, he lowers his firearm. Grabbing his radio in its sted. “Extraction target located, medical evac required, code purple. Main target already eliminated…”
“Hey!” Nick and the Bear look over at Vivian as the Hyena zip-ties the vixen in the same manner she was restrained when first brought into the office. Then she slaps a muzzle on the vixen’s face causing Nick to wince from old mental wounds.
Only for the Bear to forcefully place a hand-paw on Nick’s shoulder. “All units are also to apprehend ‘any’ members of the Skulk they come across. Your sister, Officer Wilde is on that list.”
Not a moment later a female Wildcat dressed in a pilot’s uniform, and a young Fox todd in New Reynard S.A.R. gear enter the room. They push in a Wolf sized gurney with the help of the two Painted Dogs. The female Wildcat yanks out from under the piece of medical equipment what looks like a hand-paw sized fire extinguisher colored reflective silver and purple.
“Remove the shirt.” She points to Mark’s chest in a commanding tone.
One of the painted dogs does so with the tip of his rifle. The moment the stained clothing is off. She pulls the tab and covers everything with the purple stain on it and anything that’s touched the shirt with blue foam.
Then shoots a glob onto Mark’s hand and face respectively.
“Wait, that’s the new neutralization agent, isn’t it?” Nick curiously watches as the foam bubbles then slowly turns white along with any purple residue of the Night-Howler serum on him.
“Yea, just got it too.” The Wildcat smiles proudly. Then directs the Painted Dogs to lift Mark up and secure him on the gurney. Once on it, they wheel him out of the room. This is soon followed by the Hyena lifting Vivian up by the scruff of her neck with only a Yip in protest from the vixen.
As they leave, the Bear looks down at Nick. “You Might as well ride with us Officer Wilde. If not just for your sister’s sake. My superior officer will want to have a talk with you over what happened tonight.”
The Ursine takes in the scene, a broken window, a blood stained floor and desk, not to mention said desk teetering on the edge of falling down the thirty plus floors to the ground below like the dictator deer.
“If at least to explain how a single mammal did the job of what we would need a platoon to do.”
‘Sigh, just like police work. A few moments of action, hours of paperwork.’ Nick nods. “Just give me a moment sir.” He walks over to his shirt, brushes off the now clear foam and pulls out the two badges. Bogo’s and Kalia’s. The now dead Lioness’s tags, then the rolled up tablet.
Said tablets stuck in his waist-band while the rest get pocketed in his trousers.
With his own badge in his hand-paws, Nick turns only to stop at the softer gaze the Bear gives him. “Fallen comrades Officer Wilde?” The Bear nods to the badges and tags before leading the vulpine out of the office and towards the stairs.
As he follows, Nick looks down at them. The faces of Bogo and Kalia fills his mind. “Yes. One who made the ultimate sacrifice, allowing Mark to do the miracle he did. The other who was a good officer, only she made one wrong choice and paid the price she shouldn’t have for it. Both are Mammals I knew, and both deserved better fates than they got.”
The Bear stops at the exit to the roof and the now unhinged door. “A lot of good mammals died tonight Officer Wilde. Ones killed by those bastards, and ones who made the wrong choice. Yet, while the night is ending…”
Leading the vulpine onto the roof, the first glow of dawn peeks over the skyline. He escorts Nick to the military helicopter as the New Reynard one takes off with Mark onboard. Heading for a meadowlands’ hospital.
“Our work isn’t finished. After we drop you and your sister off at the nearest F.O.B. My unit and I have to go back out and re-establish order while taking out the part of the police department still loyal to Stallhoof. You on the other paw, after explaining what happened tonight. Will have to start rebuilding Zootopia. Honestly, I don’t know, which will be harder to do. No one’s going to trust the police after this.”
The Bear climbs in, then holds out a hand-paw for Nick, who takes it and is helped into the back of the helicopter. Next to his restrained and muzzled sister.
“You don’t have to go to my parents and tell them their daughter’s been arrested as an enemy combatant.” Nick looks at his sister, who despite the restraints and the initial displeasure of yet again getting tied up. Seems rather calm if not resolute as she makes eye contact and gives him a small smile through the muzzle.
Closing the side of the helicopter then banging twice on the divider between the back and the cockpit, the Ursine chuckles. “Officer Wilde, If you would allow me one bit of honesty. They're days I would take such a burden in a heartbeat than see the mammals in my unit get in harms way and risk not going home at all.”
He takes a seat and straps himself in. “Strap in. It’s going to be a quick and rough flight. Some of our boys have reported anti-aircraft fire form roofs.”
Taking a glance out at the growing dawn. Nick’s thoughts wander to Judy as he straps himself in, then places a hand-paw on his sister’s leg and squeezes.
With that the helicopter quickly ascends, banks, then makes a bee-line at top speed to the forward operating base just outside the city. Next to a railroad track that not long ago a certain human used to enter the city touted as a place where any mammal can be anything.
--
End chapter notes.
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That’s it. Last mainline chapter of Starfall. Only the Epilogue left.
Besides that, for the longest while I was debating on how a human would react to being dosed with Night-Howler. Humans are by far more domesticated than the mammals shown in the movie. Seemingly only a step or two away from their feral look a likes. For humans, you have to look closer to Homo habilis to be in a similar position.
So the standard ‘act feral’ was right out.
I also couldn’t just say ‘they’re immune’ having already played that card on alcohol, chocolate, etc in an earlier chapter. Besides it leaving a bad taste in my mouth for how cheap it would be.
Then it hit me one day as my attention got drawn to the great animated tv series batman beyond that I watched when I was in high-school. Mainly the episode where they bring back bane, and his venom serum. There’s a scene where it’s talked about how it’s made, and the flower/plant put on screen looks remarkably similar to the Night-Howler plant in zootopia.
It gave me a good idea. In the zootopian world, it makes the mammal’s feral. To humans, it’s a combat drug. Hyper charging muscles and cardiovascular system for a giant short term boost in strength and aggression.
I also hope you noticed that one chekov’s gun that I have been waiting to use since all the way back from the first chapter with Mark.