#zoomorphia

A penumbral lunar eclipse cast a light upon a snow covered front yard of a luxurious house in the icy Easternmost district.

“Judy… We should use my body to transform...” Nick suggested while he together with Judy as Hybrid Police form was at a disadvantage fighting against Bolt the silver wolf.

After she reminisced about the night she and her partner first transformed into the armored hybrid mammal, “No! It’s too risky.” she objected to the idea.

Although Hybrid’s form which required Nick’s body was undoubtedly powerful, capable of putting an end to four Savages even when they were inexperienced, it was likely that the duo would lose control and go berserk.

They cannot let anyone fall to the same fate as Professor Woolworth the ram, who was still in a coma after risking his life to detransform them at that night.

However, she was fully aware that they cannot gave in to Bolt either. If they did, the wolf would continued taking justice into his own paws. No one would stop him from going on a killing spree.

Not pressuring Judy to come up with a solution, Nick knew well that Judy was beating her brains out figuring out how to overcome their opponent. Nick himself was thinking hard too.

Both thought back to past fights in order to analyze them. They lost to Bolt even though Hybrid possessed greater strength than him due to the fact that they were unable to catch up with his extraordinary speed.

Judy looked back further, eventually recalling the first time they met the silver wolf. At that time, he came to rescue them from mid-sized macropodine Savages on the downtown elementary school’s courtyard after Hybrid Archer form’s monitor detected something…

The monitor detected… She reflected.

“I’ve got one idea but it’s a long shot.” She said.

Nick somehow could hear her thought loud and clear, thereby being able to guess what idea she had in mind. “Worth trying” He responded.

While the armored mammal in Police form, dropping the pistol in the left paw, was struggling to rise and hold the handle tightly, “Ain’t you giving up yet?” Bolt asked the united duo.

“Sorry… but I dunno when to quit” Judy twisted the handle forth twice. “FORM SHIFT-ARCHER”

MidniDriver and gaps of the suit of armor simultaneously emitted purple fog spreading over Hybrid and the nearby area on the front yard with snow. The thick mist, hiding the armored mammal, obscured Bolt’s view.

Suddenly, an arrow pierced the fog.

“Accel!” Bolt, accelerating his system, dodged the high-speed arrow, fired from lower angle, in the nick of time.

Immediately following that, “ACTIVATE” Bolt heard the robotic voice before the bio-armored mammal in green leather tunic, hood with red feather, and charcoal mark on face that resembles eye mask, Hybrid Archer form, dashed close to the wolf’s side with a bow in the left paw and a gladius sword in the right paw.

“Double accel!” Increasing his acceleration, the silver wolf moved away from the swung blade.

Bolt flashed around, which made the purple thick mist fade away, allowing Mr. Big the old shrew and his polar bear henchmen see the situation clearly again.

They found out that the silver wolf was briskly circling the armored mammal with doe figure and fox characteristics in the hooded tunic.

Afterwards, Hybrid stabbed the sword into the ground, then moved the right paw to grip the maroon handle of MidniDriver before twisting it. “CRITICAL BREAK”

Next, Hybrid, right palm glowing, drew the sword up. When the armored mammal got the paw on the sword’s grip, a glow was transferred to the blade.

The silver wolf later tried seizing the smaller flamingo red animal from behind. Hybrid whose monitor tracked motion of the mechanical mammal spun to swing the glowing sword at him.

He therefore went backwards like lightning to avoid the attack, then ran in curve to backside of the armored mammal.

After that, the monitor of Archer form started to calculate the wolf’s movement while Hybrid was drawing the bow.

Nick turned the armored mammal back before he discharged the glowing sword an arrow at the silver wolf.

It flew like the wind towards Bolt. “Oh scrap! Triple-” Unable to activate the greater acceleration in time, he got penetrated by the sharp blade in one of his thighs. As a result, he, losing his balance, fell on the ground.

Although this Archer form’s finishing move was not the strongest among all of forms’ finishers, it was indeed the fastest the duo had and fortunately, it was fast enough to win this fight.

“Looks like the tables have turned.” Nick said to Bolt as Hybrid’s weapons vanished into thin air, the sword stuck in his leg disappearing.

The armored mammal proceeded towards the lying down silver wolf who had few electric sparks coming out from a damage on his thigh.

“Bolt, if that’s really your name, you’re under arrest for multiple murders.” Judy stated in stern tone.

“Bolt!” Mittens bawled to him on their private wireless communication. “Your leg received too much damage! Retreat! Right now!”

“Are you sure that laws apply to machine?” He asked Judy in a humorous manner and then disappeared. The mammals in the area were surprised at first. Eventually, the united duo noticed a trail of footprints on the snow.

“He escaped huh?” Nick assumed that Bolt used his extraordinary speed to run away.

“That’d the case.” Judy replied.

The bow gradually disappearing, Hybrid shifted the left paw to pull the syringe in order to detransform. After the armor, discharging purple steam, was gone and Judy changed back to normal, Mr. Big’s henchmen rejoiced at the duo’s victory.

Subsequently, the doe rabbit fell over in the snow, so the polar bears stopped cheering. Some of them rushed to help her.

“Please let me take a little break.” She said tiredly before falling asleep.

Mr. Big the old shrew on the paw of his most trusted henchman sighed relievedly, then turned to the red fox who had just woken up in the bear’s arm. “Incidentally, Nicky, have you put on weight?” He became aware of the fox’s bloated tummy not long ago.

“Your house’s so icy I’d love to hibernate.” He joked wearily, pushing the syringe to inject the blood.

- .-. -.-- / - .. .-.. .-.. / .-- .. -.

The next day, Judy believed headstrongly that she should go to work. However, Clawhauser insisted that both she and Nick had better take another day off. He had got them covered. Besides, Mr. Big’s family was more than glad to have the doe and the tod as guests.

Luckily, there was no Savage terrorizing Zootopia city on that day. Judy accordingly had some proper rest while Nick could have free time to lose excess weight.

The day after,

“Y’know. I wouldn’t mind you being portly.” The doe was ambling across a parking lot.

“Admit it~ I’m irresistible~” The red fox in a neat navy blue police uniform, Senior officer Wilde, was prancing next to the grey European bunny, Senior officer Hopps, on their way to ZPD headquarters. He showed his slender waist off.

“Well, good thing we don’t have to get you a larger-sized uniform.” She responded.

When other officers perceived that both of them made an entrance into the station, they came to tease them. It seemed that Clawhauser reported that Senior officer Hopps was still sick, so Senior officer Wilde took another day off to look after his partner.

Later that day, Jasmine Fangmeyer the bengal tigress SCU agent, dressed in a green V-neck T-shirt with SCU logo, visited her old workplace, the station. She used the opportunity to catch up with some of her old co-workers, Judy, Nick and Jackson Rajah the bengal tiger officer, in a break room.

“By the way, thank you again, Jacky, for your help the other day.” Sitting at the head of the table with a smile on her face, Jasmine thanked Rajah, who took a seat at one side of a rectangle table near the corner.

“N-No problem.” He stammered, getting a little bit embarrassed. “A-And please don’t call me like that again. You haven’t called me ‘Jacky’ since-”

“Since middle school graduation! Time sure flies.” She nudged the turning-pink tiger officer.

“You look quite lively today, Fangmeyer. Did something good happen?” Nick, leaning against a backrest, sat on the same side with Judy opposite to Rajah.

“Nothing gets past you huh?” Jasmine rubbed her flushing neck while the male tiger was observing her body language.

She then started telling a story. “Do you remember the time I went undercover for the investigation and the total stranger saved me from some thugs?”

Nick and judy nodded their heads as a response.

Jasmine therefore continued. “Back then all I knew was that guy name is Al cuz those thugs called him like that but the point is… a few days ago, I chanced on him again and discovered that he’s a hustler.”

“I followed him to find that he gave stolen loaves of bread to poor kits and pups in a slum. That’s why I just gave him a warning and a pass.” She said further.

“Does he happen to be an arabian leopard?” Nick recollected the hustler whose nickname is Al.

“Yes! He is!” Jasmine confirmed.

“You know him?” Judy asked her partner.

“I know everyone~ His name is Allan Bubba.” Nick said the leopard hustler’s name to boastfully prove that he really knew him.

Subsequently, the bunny officer paid attention to the blushing tigress agent bowing her head as if... “Hang on! Do you have a crush on him!?” She unintentionally blurted a question out.

“Don’t judge me!!” Jasmine shouted out of embarrassment. “You even have feelings for an ex-con-artist fox!” She accidentally let what many of their co-workers believed slip.

“What are you talking about?” Judy seriously had no clue what Jasmine meant.

The tigress speedily covered her mouth with both paws, just remembering that the doe had not realized it yet, as the tod brought his right paw to his face.

“Let me guess. You wanna know this ‘Al’ guy better, right?” Nick peeped at Jasmine through gaps between his fingers of the paw covering his face.

“You saw through me, didn’t ya?” She smiled sheepishly.

“Based on you information, I suppose the leopard you’re referring to must be Bubba but I need to at least see a picture of him to be sure.” He moved both paws to over his head.

Rajah, who sat at the table with Jasmine and the duo from the beginning, smiled with sorrow-filled eyes. “I’ve just recalled that I have to do some checking on the missing mammal cases. Later mates.” He made an excuse to leave the room.

“Wait for me!” Judy hopped off the chair and followed Rajah out of the break room.

Once her doe rabbit friend was not there, the tigress used the opportunity to change the subject. “Wilde, be honest with me. Are you really okay with this?”

“What do you mean?” Although Nick vaguely knew what Jasmine was talking about, he would rather beat around the bush.

“I mean this whole Jude not aware of feelings for you thing...” She clarified.

“You two get along so well! And think about how kindly she treats you! Truth be told, despite appearing generous, most of us, including me, were skeptical of you at first. Your partner was the one who convinced us that you are trustworthy.”

“even though I’m a fox.”

Jasmine was taken aback by Nick’s words because he really hit the nail on the head.

“But hey, we live in the world where a bunny can be such an amazing cop. Anything’s possible at this point~” He cracked a joke to light up the mood.

“Yeah…” She laughed awkwardly before she composed herself. “The issue here is… don’t you like like Jude?”

“I... do”

“Are there any downsides of being with her or are you not into interspecies relationship?”

“No”

“Or actually, you’re not into females?”

“That’s not the case.”

“So what’s holding you back from going out with her!? What if somebody decides to ask her out before you do??”

“I think that’ll be all for the best.”

The tigress got shocked by the tod’s reply. After a few moments pause, he explained. “Assuming that we’re in a relationship, I will eventually bring her down… No doubt.”

Nick put on a smile, an empty smile, while Jasmine fell silent, not knowing what to say.

-.-. --- -. ..-. .-.. .. -.-. - .. -. --. / ..-. . . .-.. .. -. --. …

Following that the bengal tiger and the grey rabbit left the break room, she led him to a rooftop of the station to have a private conversation with him.

“I’m gonna be frank with you. You’re in love with Jasmine, aren’t you?” Judy initiated a heart-to-heart talk.

“How did you know?” The surprised tiger responded to a question with another question.

“It’s obvious. Anyway, why don’t you make any moves?”

“Well, Fangmeyer is my friend and I’m indebted to her… I don’t wanna ruin our friendship.”

Despite her curiosity, Judy did not want to go in-depth into the story behind Rajah being in Jasmine’s debt. Consequently, she chose to stick to the main subject.

“You should at the very least tell her how you feel. No need to be flashy, just tell her.”

“But she’s already have a crush-”

“Even so, do you intend to hide your true feelings forever? You know how Jasmine is as a mammal. If it turns out she doesn’t feel the same way after you confess your love to her, she wouldn’t cut you off, right? Keeping bottling up your feelings may lead you to regret it later.”

“Thank you, Hopps. I’ll keep that in mind.” Rajah genuinely appreciated Judy’s benevolent advice; hence, he would like to return the favor. “Anyhow, when are you going to get together with Wilde? Or are you waiting for him to take action first?”

“What!?” Judy exclaimed. “Nick and I are just friends! What makes you jump to that conclusion!?”

“To be honest, it’s quite obvious. You spend an awful lot of time with each other both on and off shift. There’s serious chemistry between you two.” He replied.

“Because Nick and I are such good friends and partners, plus the chemistry thing is just we get along well, that’s all.” She explained earnestly.

“You even do things together at his place.”

“That...” Judy tried to think up an argument.

“Second evidence, you both are beyond close. Third evidence, you clearly care for each other so much. Fourth evidence, you can comfortably be next to one another in silence. Fifth evidence-”

“OK! OK! You proved your point...” She stopped him listing proofs.

Nevertheless, what Rajah the bengal tiger said got her thinking. Come to think of it, I really don’t spend much free time with other male mammals except Nick. We crash with each other every now and then. What’s more, I don’t mind getting physically close to him…

I enjoy Nick’s company… I wanna be with him… Wait… Why do all of these sound like a relationship? That was the moment Judy realized her feelings for her partner, her friend. “Oh my tod, am I in relationship with Nick without knowing it?”

The realization hit her hard.

“You said ‘my tod’ as an exclamation or a claim for ownership?” Rajah wondered.

“Both” She accidentally answered without thinking before realizing what she had just said. “I mean the latter. I mean as a claim! I mean! As the exclaimation!” She had a rough time regaining her composure, wishing for something or someone to take her out of this awkward situation.

Shortly afterwards, her wish came true. Rajah got a call from Jasmine that there was a report on Savages’ attack in the north-west of Downtown. She accordingly phoned him to let him know that she had to leave the station.

Judy considered contacting Nick in order to go together to deal with the Savages as Hybrid but the only problem was that just thinking about him made her heart skip a beat.

.-.. --- ...- . / ..- -. -.. . .-. / .- - - .- -.-. -.-

After Jasmine left to do her job, Nick pondered whether he should tell Judy about Savages’ attack or not. When he thought back to the previous encounter with the bull Savage, he believed that I would be better to keep her out of this. His phone then rang once, interrupting his , so he brought it out to check the notifications.

“I should see this coming.” He saw a text from Judy. She told him that they would head down to the scene as soon as possible.

When they met up the lobby, “Take me with you guys” Clawhauser showed up.

Judy got concerned. “But this is-”

“Dangerous, I know. In case anything happened, I’ll be there to protect Nick’s unconscious body.” He convinced the duo.

They consequently let the chubby cheetah officer accompany them to the north-western part of Savanna Central.

Meanwhile, SCU agents were handling problems associated with three Savages, a purple caprid, a purple maned lion and a purple wolverine. They would not dare shoot guns in a crowded public place. The risk of civilians getting shot by accident was too high. Accordingly, their priority at that time was to evacuate civilians in the area in the shortest possible time.

“Report the status of an evacuation!” Maximus the white stallion, the SCU team leader, yelled.

However, the horse was confused by the fact that these monsters only either did minor physical harms to mammals or snarled at them. He wondered why they did not charge at the mammals.

Once Nick, Judy and Clawhauser finally reached the scene, the Savages made a move, going towards a commercial area. Hence, the mammals in the area moved away scaredly to let the monsters get through.

A panther, one of the agents, made an attempt to shoot the purple beasts. Unfortunately, they dodged the shots, so the bullets hit a tall lamp post, which greatly startled several civilians.

“Stop freaking firing!” Maximus ordered angrily.

The duo and Clawhauser hurriedly went by an indirect route to catch up with the running monsters.

Judy put MidniDriver, the black morpher, on her waist while rushing through a deserted alleyway. Close behind her, Nick looked at his morpher in his paw hesitantly before wearing it and “DRAW BLOOD” transferring a dose of his blood to the other device.

After “INJECT” She injected his blood into herself, the panting cheetah caught the fainting fox, preventing him from falling to the ground.

Next, she twisted the handle once “IGNITE” to transform. Following the purple mist explosion, the flamingo red armored mammal mixed between a rabbit and a fox, Hybrid Hustler form, charged out of the boiling hot fog.

When the united duo turned around the corner, “It looks like our target took the bait.” they heard a male fruity voice coming from the silver chrome wolf with a black bar over his eyes, solar panels on both chest and shoulders, and two thunderbolt stripes on abdomen.

He was standing relaxedly, surrounded by three Savages in a wide blind alley.

“Good as new” Bolt the silver wolf showed his repaired thigh to the united duo.

Despite the past conflicts between the wolf and them, the duo especially Judy could not sit by and let him be attacked by the monsters. The united duo therefore launched Hybrid with a purpose of saving him.

Without warning, Bolt leapt forward, then threw a left hook at Hybrid. The united duo did not expect the punch, so they almost did not block Bolt’s left glowing fist with the right arm in time.

Consequently, Hybrid flew quickly to the side and landed on the ground with the shaking right arm. It seemed the wolf added some electricity to his attack, messing nerves in the right arm.

“What’s going on here!? What’s with those Savages!?” Judy got dazed.

“I don’t wanna brag but...” Bolt bopped his left palm repeatedly. “Are you impressed in my friend’s works. Mam, she hacked into their control systems and now, they follow every single order- Ow! Keep your voice down pretty please...” He covered his ears although it did not help since Mittens shouted through wireless communication system that is directly connected to him. She told him to focus on the task.

The duo did not notice at the first glance because most mammals could barely recognize the purple creatures but this purple maned lion reminded them of the time they helped Bolt to stop the purple lion before he did something to it.

Control? Nick and Judy doubted.

“Let’s cut to the chase. Give me your drivers or else...” He threatened them.

Both thought that if they did beat him once, they could pull it off again; thus, they moved the left paw to hold the handle, intending to change into Archer form.

Suddenly, the purple caprid crashed into Hybrid, making the armored mammal fall.

“Go get ‘em, boys.” Bolt said.

Right after his simple order, the lion Savage and the wolverine Savage charged at the armored mammal.

The united duo got up hastily. Thanks to rapid healing, Hybrid was able to use both arms to deal with the Savages.

Meanwhile, Bolt merely stood there, observing the fight, as Clawhauser, holding the unconscious fox body in his arms, peeked around the corner.

When the monsters encircled Hybrid, the armored mammal pushed the silver syringe “ACTIVATE” to activate the instantaneous movement ability. The purple beasts collided with each other as Hybrid teleported to a spot that was a few steps far from them.

At that moment, “Accel!!” Bolt, aware of Hybrid’s weakness about becoming vulnerable after teleportation, rushed to kick the armored mammal in the stomach.

The kick sent the united duo flying backward before they in one body hit the ground hard. Once the accelerated mechanical wolf approached the armored mammal lying on the ground in a mere second, he pulled the syringe of MidniDriver on Hybrid, forcing the partners as one to detransform.

The attack took its toll on the doe rabbit. Soon following that Judy turned back to normal, she was knocked out by pain.

“One down, one to go.” Bolt knew that Nick along with Clawhauser was not far away because Mittens told him when she saw them on a hacked CCTV camera. He was about to go after the other morpher.

As a result, “This is bad! This is bad! This is bad!” Clawhauser hastily fled with Nick, who was regaining his consciousness, in his arms.

Nick wanted to tell Clawhauser to leave him and run away. Unfortunately, he was suffering fatigue too much to communicate at that time, so he pushed the syringe to inject the dose of blood into himself in order to cure his extreme tiredness.

Bolt pursued the officers to crooked alleyways, thinking that it would be a piece of cake; thus, he had already deactivated his acceleration. However, by the time he found the panting cheetah officer staying put, the fox officer, Bolt’s another main target, was nowhere to be found. Even Mittens lost him.

“Where is Officer Wilde?” Bolt asked Clawhauser in a friendly tone.

Clawhauser shrugged his shoulders in a response, pretending to be fearless in front of the silver chrome wolf.

“Alright, for the heads up, I don’t have anything against you.” Bolt jumped over Clawhauser and tapped the back of the cheetah’s neck, sending electricity to knock him off.

“Okay~ Officer Wilde, I know you can hear me~” Bolt spoked louder.

As a matter of fact, Nick certainly heard him. He was hiding not far from Bolt but in a spot that cannot be seen by CCTVs. Owing to his past experiences as a con-artist, he knew the blind spots around Zootopia.

So he can observe through CCTVs… or he has an accomplice assisting him… Nick analysed.

“I’m taking your cheetah pal and Ms. Hopps as hostages. If you want me to free them, bring your driver to me at a warehouse row in Rainforest District and don’t be tricky~” The silver wolf picked the senseless chubby cheetah up easily to some extent.

“You have 48 hours- No, that’s too much. How about 24? Rhino, what do you think?” He quieted down for some seconds like he waited for someone to reply. “8 It is. You have 8 hours, Officer Wilde~ See ya~”

Bolt went back to pick Judy up too, then disappeared from the blind alley with his controlled Savages, leaving Nick leaning against the wall alone while pondering.

He took her away… The fox clenched a fist as his emotions rose, so did his… returning abnormal hunger.

    Nearly at midnight, a smartphone with the carrot logo, put in a cup holder between a driver seat and a passenger seat, rang continuously while the grey doe rabbit officer was driving the police cruiser on patrol. It looked like she did not bother to answer an incoming telephone call.

“Carrots, aren’t you gonna pick it up?” The red fox police officer, sitting next to her, pointed at her phone which eventually stopped ringing.

“It’s Senior Officer Hopps to you, Officer Wilde.” Judy the doe rabbit said humorously to her partner, Nick the tod.

    It had been roughly two years since their first assignment they worked together as police partners. At the time, Judy got a promotion not long ago.

“Correction~ I’m not just an officer. But I’m a senior-officer-to-be~” Nick smirked. He used to joke with Judy that if he had got serious, he would have been promoted in no time. It was just that he did not want to become the senior officer before she did.

“You’d better work hard cuz if you don’t get promoted anytime soon-” She sounded threatening.

“You wouldn’t approve, would you?” He somewhat finished her sentence, “Aye aye, partner~ So, what’s with that phone call?” trying to get back to the point.

“Augh, there’s one buck who keeps hitting on me. And now, I regret giving him my number.”

“Why? You’re still single, right? Or he’s too annoying to you?”

“I’m pretty confident that I could handle anybody since I can stand you.”

“Oh ha ha” Nick laughed sarcastically.

“But in all seriousness, he isn’t bad. It’s just I am too occupied with my work, so I don’t have time for a relationship.”

“Still, you have enough time to hang out at my place~”

    Judy blushed at Nick’s teasing because she was unable to deny that she genuinely enjoyed spending time at his apartment. Hence, she moved on to another topic.

“You’re also single, aren’t you? Are you seeing anyone now?”

“Nah, I’m very busy looking after fluffy bun bun~” Nick made Judy roll her eyes in amusement.

    Then, without warning, “Judy! Nick!” a familiar energetic voice that the duo heard almost everyday at ZPD reception desk came out of police radio attached to their car.

    Accordingly, Nick quickly grabbed a radio mic to answer. “What’s up, Clawhauser?”

“There’s an emergency at Cliffside! Please go there immediately!” Clawhauser shouted on the radio mic on his end.

“We’ll be there ASAP.” Judy made a quick U-turn before the car sped down the street after Nick had already turned on sirens.

    When they arrived in front of Cliffside Asylum, a barrier gate of which was left open, there were quite a number of vehicles that clearly belonged to government departments, a police department and a fire department, parking on the bridge connecting the main land and the small island where the building was located in the middle of a waterfall.

    Some floors were ablaze with fire; therefore, some of firefighters were hosing those floors while some others and police officers were helping civilians to evacuate the building. Those officers were summoned like Nick and Judy because they were in near nearby area.

    Most of mammals that escaped the building were wearing lab coats. However, before the duo could fully understand the situation, a slender orange tiger with white muzzle and black stripes approached them to ask for their help.

“Thank scott you’re here! Some parts inside the asylum collapsed, blocking our ways in, but it may be possible for small mammals like you two to get in there and escort remaining civilians out.”

“We’ll get right on it! Let’s roll, Nick!” Judy led his partner into the burning building hurriedly.

    The tiger threw wet towels to them. Nick then caught the towels behind his back before entering the building with the doe.

    Both covered their noses and mouths with the wet towels while passing through smoky rooms. After some time, they came across a huge pile of broken concrete pieces and a large hole in the ceiling. It appeared that the floor of an upper story collapsed.

    Next, Judy walked up the pile cautiously, so Nick was going to follow her.

“Ouch! Hot! Hot!” He exclaimed when he touched some broken concrete pieces with his right paw unawares, drawing his paw back fast.

“Be careful” She warned him in a caring tone. Soon afterwards, her ears perked up as she heard footsteps from the upper floor. “Is anyone there? We are here to rescue you!” She sped up to the top of the pile.

“Wait for me!” Quickening his pace, he tried to catch up with her.

    Judy leapt off the peak of broken concrete pile, followed by Nick. He landed on the edge of the collapsed floor, almost losing his balance. Fortunately, Judy grabbed his tie in time and pulled him forward.

    There was a sound of footsteps again. This time, Nick also heard it. The duo consequently ran down the hallway.

She took off the towel covering her face, which would allow her to speak clearer. “Hello!” She shouted to call any remaining civilians’ attention.

When they saw a moorit ram in a lab coat darting across the end of the hallway which was connected to another path like 3-way intersection, “Sir, wait!” Judy together with Nick dashed to follow the ram, turning left at the end. “Don’t be afraid. We ZPD officers came to your rescue.” Nick attempted to reassure the civilian.

However, the ram, mumbling to himself, rushed into one room, completely ignoring the duo. They still continued following him. Once they reached in front of the room, Judy noticed a mammal curling up in the corner of the opposite room.

Therefore, she chose to help this mammal first. “It’s okay. You’re safe now.” She approached the trembling mammal steadily while Nick was following her close behind.

    He had unpleasant feelings towards this curling jaguar. It was not wearing any clothes. Even if it was a nudist, Nick doubted why nudist animals would be in a place like this. What’s more, its fur color was purple. It did not look like color dyed fur. Apparently, every single fur on its body and its skin were naturally purple.

    Instantly, the feline turned to face the duo, its pupils glowing the same color as its fur. It let out a primal hiss while standing on four legs in contrast to present-day mammals that walk on two feet.

    Both bunny and fox got startled by the hiss, falling backwards, so their bottoms hit the floor. They shifted away from the threatening purple jaguar. It gave a hostile vibe that reminded the duo of the first time they encountered the savage black jaguar, Mr. Manchas.

    Without hesitation, bunny fox duo stood up and then “Run!!” escaped the room at full speed. The purple savage mammal chased after them straight away.

    As they were running away from it, Nick brought out his police pistol. He turned a gun safety to off before he fired it at the purple mammal.

“Nick!! What are you doing!?” Judy believed that they should not injure the feline purple mammal even though it appeared monster-like and they were basically bolting down the hallway for their lives.

“I’d rather not become somebody’s dinner!” He kept shooting bullets until the door a few steps ahead of Judy burst open, then “Quit shooting!” the moorit ram poked his head out, “This way!” inducing the duo into the room.

    They felt as if it was good fortune in misfortune. Thanks to fire in the building, they were able to see inside the room to some degree.

    When they passed the door, they spotted that there were connecting doors inside the room which seemingly was a scientist office having file cabinets and various lab equipment on the desks; thus, they came to a conclusion that the rooms were connected and that explained how the ram in a lab coat could showed up in the room far from the one he went in earlier.

“Typical bullets are totally useless against them.” The ram said, leading them to emergency fire exit stairway through another door at the back of the room.

“Them?” Judy wondered.

“What’s worse, gun sound just gonna attract others-” As the ram was accompanying the police duo down the spiral stairs, he glimpsed a drop of thick saliva falling from higher level down to a void in the middle of the square spiral staircase. “Speak of the devil” The ram leaned over a rail of the stairs to look up.

Following that, he bounded down the stairs. Confused, Nick and Judy looked out the same direction as the ram previously did, then they caught sight of four drooling ferocious looking purple animals. On upper stairway opposite to the side they were standing on were a hartebeest with extra middle horn, a bulging-eyed hairless beaver, a frog-like hind legged aardvark and a saber-toothed marten.

“C’mon, hurry!!” The ram shouted.

    Regaining awareness, the duo hastily went after the ram when the monstrous creatures started to hunt them on all fours wildly.

    Both Nick and Judy were led by the ram out of the emergency fire exit stairway to a gradually burning laboratory with many expensive scientific instruments and computers.

“Umm, sir-” Judy addressed the ram.

He cringed in the response, “Please don’t address me like that. I’m not used to being called ‘sir’. I prefer ‘professor’.” while he was searching for something in the lab.

After both exchanged looks, Nick asked. “Shouldn’t we head for the exit?”

“There’s no way we’ll outrun them.” The scientist ram picked some kind of devices up.

One in his left hoof was a black machine with purple 1.25 inch diameter flat circle at the center, maroon motorcycle handle on the right half and silver syringe having a 45 degree tilt. Its length from the end of the handle to the syringe was as long as Nick’s forearm. Another in his right hoof was identical to the previous one but slightly bigger.

However, he found that the bigger one was broken, thus “Tsk” making sound of disapproval.

A moment later, primal roars became louder and clearer, indicating that the creatures were coming closer. As a result, the ram threw the broken device away. Nick dodged the thrown machine, thereby bumping against Judy lightly. He then glanced at Judy before looking through stuff scattered on the floor.

“Found it!!” He lifted the other device over his head. The length of this one was as long as Judy’s forearm. Immediately after that, he strode towards the duo “Put these MidniDrivers on” and presented the devices to them.

“Midnight what?” Puzzled, both questioned simultaneously.

    When the scientist ram perceived that the feral purple creatures were coming their way, “Please! Wear these, officers.” he begged the duo desperately.

    The fox and the bunny turned their faces to look each other in the eye for a brief moment. Despite the lack of understanding of the situation, she gambled on trusting the ram, reaching out to take the smaller black device from him. The fox soon followed his partner's lead in spite of hesitation.

“How do we use these things?” The fox examined the portable machine called MidniDriver in his paws.

“Just place them over middle front of your waists!” The ram yelled tensely.

    Turning to face the coming mutated-mammal-looking creatures, Nick and Judy followed the professor’s instruction amid blazing story on fire. They were surprised by the devices automatically extending belts and wrapping the belts around their waists. The strange black devices attached themselves to both officers with belts that were fit.

“Predator officer! Pull the syringe!”

    The tod fox felt off after the fact that he is a predator was emphasized by the ram, still he did what he was ordered.

“DRAW BLOOD” The device on him spoke robotically.

“Yeow!!” The fox got hurt, a part of his waist under the device stinging. The syringe was filled with blood immediately afterwards before all the drawn blood disappeared and the pulled syringe retracted on its own.

The doe rabbit worried about her friend. “What’s wro-”

“Push your syringe! Prey officer!” The ram intervened.

    Despite being interrupted and called weirdly, she was aware that she had no time to be irritated. Hence, she pushed the syringe on the left side of the device on her. The syringe which used to be empty had a dose of dark red liquid like blood inside it at the time that she was pushing it.

“INJECT” The device on her spoke robotically as well. The syringe then sprang back.

    Next, the bunny’s body twitched, feeling slight pain of getting an injection.

    Right after Nick’s blood was injected into Judy, “Carrots, I-...” he passed out while standing up.

“Nick! What did you do to him!?” Shocked to witness that her partner fell unconscious, she shouted at the ram.

“Forget that! You got an upcoming fight!”

“Wait? Fight??” Judy wondered what the ram meant by ‘fight’.

“Now! Twist the handle back to transform!” He told her.

“Transform?” She became more confused when she heard the word ‘transform’. Even so, she had already twisted backward the maroon handle sticking out from the right side of the device.

“IGNITE” The device on her spoke before its handle was twisted back to its original position by the spring mechanism. Following that, the device promptly emitted purple steam, which gave a sign to the scientist ram to distance himself along with the unconscious fox from the rabbit by dragging him.

    Shortly afterwards, the black machine caused the blistering purple mist explosion that made the creatures halt and look fixedly at the doe swallowed by the mist.

    The device’s core and two amethyst headlamps on Judy’s eye level shone up in thick fog. When the mist finally faded away, an armored hybrid mammal was revealed.

    The mammal had a full suit of armor covering from head to toe, flamingo red color body except for the stylish amethyst headlamp eyes and the device, and a doe rabbit figure but also had a noticeable fluffy fox tail made of spikes instead of fur and pattern of fangs with a pair of buck rabbit teeth on muzzle part of the helmet.

“What the...” Looking down through the headlamp eyes, Judy slowly raised her arms or at least that was what she aimed for. However, it turned out that the flamingo red armored arms were lifted instead.

“What’s happening!? Where am I!?”

    Judy heard Nick’s voice so close to her. Before she could react, the body started to move without her control, turning around swiftly.

“Am I mistaken or that’s really me over there?”

She could hear him again. The eyes she was looking through were fixed on Nick lying unconsciously next to the ram in the lab coat.

“Nick!” Judy called to her fox friend.

“Carrots! Judy!” He, turning left and right, tried to look for the bunny.

“I’m here! Or I think I am...” She made an effort to regain control of the body; as a consequence, the body stopped moving panically.

“What’s going on…?” Baffled to hear Judy’s voice so close as if it came out through his throat, Nick moved left arm to touch the side of the helmet and the long rabbits ears which were as hard as metal, yet able to move around freely just like normal soft bunny ears. The other paw touched the rear.

“Hey! Don’t touch that part!” Judy drew the paw away from the behind speedily.

    Although the duo were unable to fully comprehend the situation, they understood that both of them were sharing the body.

“What are you waiting for!? Fight them!!” The ram reminded Nick and Judy of the monstrous purple beasts. Nevertheless, they did not even know how they could possibly defend themselves against the creatures.

    When the armored mammal turn to face them, the saber-toothed marten leapt to attack the united duo. Consequently, they raised the left arm to guard the face.

However, they did not feel an expected pain on the lifted arm. Once they got a hold of themselves, they found that the marten, standing on hind legs, was trying biting into the flamingo red arm but its fangs were unable to penetrate biomechanical armor.

Subsequently, Nick shook the purple marten off and Judy then threw a straight right punch at it.

“On second thought, maybe we can fight...” Judy said after she together with Nick saw that the saber-toothed marten fell backwards due to the punch.

    Commanded by their instincts, other purple creatures charged at the armored mammal.

“Push the syringe and think about dodging!”

“What?” Nick and Judy, sharing the body, were distracted by the ram.

“Just do it!”

They pushed the silver syringe like he told them when the creatures got so close to the armored mammal.

“ACTIVATE”

    Not taking notice of what the device vocalized, both who were in charge of the body jumped up to avoid the lunging beasts.

    The next thing they registered was that the head tapped the ceiling. They did not think that the body would jump that high.

“Push it again twice! This time, think of speed and strength!” The ram yelled rapidly.

    The armored mammal flipped over in mid-air before pressing the syringe two times.

“ACT-ACTIVATE” The device spoke.

    The flamingo red rabbit with fox features kicked the feet against the ceiling, launching the body down towards those three monstrous mammal-like creatures, and then struck the hartebeest heavily with a fist. Its left horn was broken as a result, while the middle and the right ones remained intact.

    The armored mammal dived to the floor, then did a forward roll to minimize the impact of a height drop. Immediately after that, the hybrid mammal grabbed the beaver’s tail and cast the beaver to crash against the aardvark.

    When the scientist ram noticed that the saber-toothed marten got back up before sneaking up behind the flamingo red mammal, “Twist your handle back and finish off that weasel behind you!” he shouted to the united duo.

Nick and Judy in the same body turned back to find that the marten pounced on them as one, thus twisting the maroon handle and swinging one of the legs to kick the beast to the side in a reflex action.

“CRITICAL BREAK” The device spoke.

Surprisingly, the purple martes was sent flying through the wall by merely one strike. Even the duo did not predict this mind-blowing outcome. Fire smoke started to flow into the lab through a recently-made big hole in the wall.

“Alright! Show me what you’ve got!” Nick, feeling confident, struck a fighting pose.

    The rest of the purple creatures surrounded the armored hybrid, the hartebeest standing in front of the united duo. It then dashed forwards.

    While the armored mammal was rushing to collide with the foe, one of the flamingo red arms was pulled back by the aardvark's extended tongue that wrapped around the hybrid mammal’s arm.

Because of being distracted, the united duo were directly butted by the hartebeest. The armored mammal consequently fell back and rolled on the ground.

When the flamingo red mammal struggled to rise to the feet, the purple beaver tripped the armored mammal with its tail.

Lying on the back defenselessly, the hybrid mammal was about to be attacked by a small group of the monstrous creatures, so Judy skedaddled instinctively. In response to the urge to flee, Nick hit the silver syringe. “ACTIVATE”

The armored mammal ran away from the charging creatures at an incredible speed, coming to an abrupt stop in front of the ram accompanied by the unconscious fox body.

At the same time, the severely injured marten crawled through the large hole into the laboratory, its broken bones and fresh wounds healing remarkably fast. It was clear that the duo as they were at that moment did not have an ability to defeat even one of the purple beasts.

“I had a feeling this would happen… Without a doubt, the synchronization is still too weak.” The ram said worriedly, nearing the armored mammal.

    After that, he pulled the silver syringe of the black machine device on the flamingo red hybrid between a leporid and a canine.

Next, a dose of blood was drawn into the syringe and disappeared. Following that, the suit of armor released purple steam, then vanished, changing Judy back to previous unharmed state with her uniform undamaged.

“Eh?” She was surprised to see that she had returned to normal, looking at her gray fur and lighter-shaded-furred paws before touching her own face to make sure that there was no helmet covering her head.

“Nick!! Are you okay!?” She then suddenly thought of her fox friend.

“C-Carrots… I...” Nick, still lying on the ground, woke up in his original body, experiencing extreme tiredness to the point that talking was hard for him.

    The ram came back to the fatigued fox, pushing the syringe of the device which he was wearing. He remembered that the blood inside the syringe was supposed to be gone, yet he felt that there was a dose of some sort of liquid injected into him.

    All of the sudden, Nick regained his strength as the fatigue went away.

    The bewildered fox officer was helped up by the ram glancing at the purple creatures which were targeting him as well as two officers. He therefore advised. “There’s one survival option left-”

“What is it?” Judy asked.

“-but it’s seriously dangerous...” He commended.

    Nick directed his gaze to his bunny partner, his dear friend, then “We’ve come too far to back off. Lay it on me.” turned his face to talk to the ram.

“Pull your syringe and then push it right away.”

Subsequently, the tod followed instruction from the scientist ram. After he pulled the silver syringe of the device on him, he pushed it promptly before the device could draw his blood into the syringe.

“RELOAD” The black device he was wearing spoke robotically.

    This time, Judy was the one who lost consciousness.

“Twist your handle!”

    Nick twisted the device’s maroon handle back according to the ram’s order.

“I’m sorry.” The ram said. After the device uttered with a robotic voice "IGNITE", both Nick and Judy blacked out.

    They were unable to remember anything with clarity, having just faint memories of heat like everything was burning, tearing flesh sensation, sound of breaking bones and blood...

    Suddenly, Judy awakened, discovering that she was lying on side. Aside that, she also learned that all four of the monstrous mammal-like creatures lay dead on the floor with long and deep cut wounds all over their bodies that were disintegrating into vapour.

    Afterwards, she looked for Nick. She eventually found him and the scientist ram but something was not right.

    Nick, panting tiredly, was standing in combat pose with open arms, protracted claws and shocked expression while the ram was down on his knees before the fox, his bloody hoof in contact with the syringe of Nick’s device. The ram was obviously bleeding excessively.

“I’m really sorry.” The ram apologized again, pushing the syringe weakly. In consequence, Nick’s exhaustion left him, still the shock remained.

    The tod and doe officers had no clue what happened but it seemed that they successfully finished off the purple beasts and the ram risked his life to turn them back to normal.

    The ram then leaned against the fox weakly, so he and the bunny hurriedly gave the ram assistance to stand on feet.

“We don’t have time to waste...” The ram said exhaustedly. “Let’s leave before more of them show up.” He suggested, guiding others to a hatchback sports car on an underground floor.

    Back then, the car had only black color, no white doors and no pair of sirens.

    The duo helped the ram to enter the car. He told them that the car was linked to the devices. Therefore, they got into the car and transformed to the flamingo red armored mammal right before they departed from the asylum as fast as possible.

    The scientist ram was admitted to the closest hospital. That was when the duo learned the name of him, Professor Woolworth. Despite having a ton of questions, they could not ask him since he fell into a coma after that night.

    Beside that, more of the purple creatures made appearance around Zootopia from time to time throughout a year. These creatures were named ‘Savage’.

    With the devices called MidniDriver, Nick and Judy possessed a power to save the city from these monsters. Fight after fight, the armored mammal had the appearance changing and developed more forms, from the only red suit of armor to red full body armor with vertical blue stripe in the front middle of light green torso and grayish-tan lower body excluding the feet, which was later be called ‘Hustler form’, as they gained more battle experience.

In addition, they also had Police form, the form with police hat that could summon a sports car, and Archer form, the form with a hood and a monitor detecting movement.

    The bunny fox cop partners eventually became a hero whom animals knew as Hybrid.

    Inside a motorhome, Bolt the alaskan tundra wolf, wearing a white T-shirt tucked into black jeans with a black belt, was lounging on the couch. “I thought after they got beat back then, they wouldn’t dare to fight me again. What a spirit~” He admired Nick and Judy, rolling his right shoulder.

    Suddenly, the white eyebrowed-and-muzzled black wildcat slapped Bolt with a giant paper fan.

“Dapuq, Mittens?” He wondered why she was mad at him.

“Were you out of your mind!? Seriously, what were you thinking when you used that level of accel despite those damages?” Mittens the wildcat scowled at the wolf.

“But you ordered me to retreat-” He tried to excuse himself but the fan hit him again.

“Don’t argue with me!” She then sighed, “Forget it, at least this gave me an opportunity to make some modifications.” placing her paper fan upon her shoulder.

“Now what?” The tan lemming scrambled up the couch to sit with Bolt.

“No worries. I have a plan~” He winked at his friends.

... --- -- . - .... .. -. --. / -- --- .-. .

    Clawhauser was having a bowl of cereal at ZPD’s reception desk, reflecting on an event that occured a couple of days earlier, his friends as Hybrid losing to the mysterious silver chrome wolf once more.

    Back then, while I was carrying Nick’s unconscious body and waiting outside the warehouse in Rainforest District, I got startled by Nick waking up without warning. He was agitated because his consciousness returned to his body, not resulted by decision to detransform but being forced to detransform by Bolt. We hurried to rescue Judy lying on the pile of broken planks in the warehouse.

    The big spotted cat pulled himself from sinking into memory before taking another bite of cereal. “How are you doing now, Judy?” He inquired after the doe rabbit who was behind the desk with him. The tod fox, accompanying her, was none other than her partner, Nick Wilde.

“Good, thanks” Judy actively hopped over a backrest and sat on an oversized chair that was clearly for a larger mammal, whereas Nick idly climbed to sit next to her.

“So, about that silver wolf hero… He did help y-... helped Hybrid fight Savage s, right?” Clawhauser avoided using the pronoun ‘you’ while talking about Hybrid stuff.

“But he also murdered several mammals-” Judy frowned.

“Carrots, as far as we know, his targets are only criminals.” Nick added collectedly.

“If I didn’t misheard you, Clawhauser, you did called that guy ‘hero’.” The fox made the cheetah realize that he subconsciously perceived Bolt as a hero. “He seriously looks like one.”

    Once they mused on Bolt’s silver chrome appearance and fights with the monsters, he can easily be considered as a superhero.

“Criminals or not, mammals are mammals. It’s not right to end anybody’s life as one pleases.” She made an argument, believing that punishing criminals should be done by process of judgment, not some vigilantes.

“And to call that kind of mammals a hero… is...” She clenched her fists.

    Clawhauser looked at Judy with worried eyes. As for Nick, he decided to change the subject. “More concerningly, that guy undoubtedly knows how to detransform Hybrid. It’s like he recognized MidniDriver.” His words reminded Judy when Bolt bent down and pulled the 45 degree tilted syringe on the left side of MidniDriver.

“He’s even well informed about Hybrid’s identity. This can’t be good.” Judy grew apprehensive.

“Take it easy. Want some?” Clawhauser scooped cereal from a bowl with a spoon, then offered her a bite.

    Reluctant to eat a bite of milk-soaked sugary toasted oat pieces, she eventually gave in to cheetah’s cheery smile, about to go for a bite. However, Nick snatched it, eating it up before she could.

“So sweet~” The tod chewed it while he was gazing at a pouting doe.

“Don’t be mad. Here” The cheetah offered the bunny another spoon of cereal. She opened her mouth, leaning towards the spoon, but he drew the spoon back and ate the cereal.

“Benjamin! Not you too!” She did not expect that Clawhauser would tease her as well.

“Sorry, I can’t help.” He giggled.

“Aww~ Don’t pout~” Nick wagged his tail slowly, brushing Judy’s cheek.

    She caught his tail irritatedly, then placed it down gently on her lap, simpering after a few moments. Next, it got her thinking. Unexpected, huh? She petted the fluffy fox tail.

“Let’s get back to work.” Grabbing Nick’s tie, she jumped down the chair and then led him to the exit.

“Bye, Clawhauser.” He waved his paw at the cheetah behind the desk as he left the station with his partner.

    Clawhauser, putting down his bowl, felt his sugar-coated grain pale in comparison to how sweet those two were.

.-. . -.. ..- -.-. . / .... . ... .. - .- - .. --- -.

“Thank you for inviting me here.” The polo-shirted female yellow-bellied marmot turned to look out the window.Seeing that a plainly-and-simply decorated room she was in was on a branch of one of tall and large trees like skyscrapers in Rainforest District, she got a little bit scared of current height above the ground level.

“You like the view from up here?” An alaskan tundra wolf in a groovy vintage black leather jacket, paws in pockets, was standing leaning against the door.

    The marmot gave a nervous laugh in response, “Honestly, you are as handsome as your voice.” complimenting him whom she met directly for the first time.

“Thanks~” The wolf chuckled. “By the way..., where is it?” When he raised a subject, she, clearing her throat, regained composure before answering.

“Your order is being kept in the warehouse not far from here. Please rest assured.” She made the palm rub gesture. “If you wanna test its quality, we can head out-”

“You guys heard her~” He blurted out all of a sudden, confusing the marmot. She was curious about what the wolf meant by ‘you guys’.

The wolf still acted friendly and casual but the marmot sensed something fishy.

“Seriously, it’s been a few days, yet you are wearing the same clothes.” He drew his paws out the jeans’ pockets and came nearer to her.

    The marmot got addled. Formerly, the wolf and she had only contacted through phone until this time that they finally met each other personally; therefore, she wondered how he knew about her dressed in the same clothes she had worn for a few days.

    The wolf rolled his jacket right sleeve up and then brushed fur on under forearm, which revealed a zipper. After unzipping, it could be seen that underneath his skin was some sort of mechanism.

“Switch on” He uttered calmly, pulling a lever inside his arm to ‘on’.

    Electrical sparks ran around him. Following one quick flash of his white fur, the alaskan tundra wolf transformed his silver chrome form right in front of the marmot, a black bar over his eyes, solar panels on chest and shoulders, two thunder‘bolt’ stripes on abdomen to top it all.

    The alarmed marmot took steps away from Bolt the sliver chrome wolf. Her instinct screamed at her to run away as the imposing shiny canine was advancing towards her. She was accordingly looking for the escape routes, craning her neck to look at the door behind him.

    It may be impossible to outrun the wolf. The marmot thought, throwing the choice of exiting through the front door out the window. Window? She glanced at one of the room windows.

“Escape through window if you want. Oh wait, we are at 140 feet above the ground.” Bolt sounded amused.

    When she was cornered, feeling desperate, there was a noise of something hitting the room’s wall from outside, followed by a long sound of metal scraping.

“Bolt! Look out!” Mittens warned him through wireless communication. But before he could react in time, Hybrid Archer form burst into the room through the room through a window.

    It appeared that the duo used Archer form’s monitor to track down the tracking device on the marmot’s shirt. Hybrid travelled from another tree to the room by shooting an arrow connected with a wire and sliding down the wire.

    Hybrid made a dramatic entrance before “Bolt! You’re under arrest.” Judy in the armored doe rabbit with fox features stated.

“What I’m charged with? Being a vigilante?” Bolt turned his attention to the green-tuniced armored mammal.

“Murder” She answered straightforwardly, “The cold blooded murderer like you who killed mammals is not a hero.” clenching the fists.

    Bolt subsequently laughed. “How ironic~”

    Knowing the wolf infuriated the doe, “Surrender and let us arrest you. We gotta have a long talk.” the tod took control of the body.

“What makes you think I will?” Bolt placed his paws on his waist. “Cuz last time I checked, I beat you twice.” He raised left paw, making a v-sign.

    Meanwhile, the marmot was so petrified that she rendered motionless.

“I didn’t smell it.”

    Bolt tilted his head, slightly confused by Judy’s words.

“When the tail spikes pierced through you, I smelled no blood…”

    At that time, with the enhanced senses, the united duo detected only the scent of metal and oil from the silver wolf.

“You are just a machine, aren’t you?” Judy inquired.

“... If so, what you gonna do?” Bolt came back with a question.

    Even though Hybrid’s real eyes behind amethyst headlights were not visible, he sensed the determined stare from the armored mammal.

“I won’t hesitate anymore.” She twisted forth the maroon motorcycle handle sticking out on the right side of Midnidriver. “FORM SHIFT-POLICE”

    The purple fog, released from the belt-like morpher and armor’s gaps, spread all over. Bolt was unable to find the doe rabbit figure under the thick fog.

    Following that MidniDriver’s core shone through the purple mist, the red flamingo armored mammal in Judy’s police field uniform, Hybrid Police form, leapt off the ground to the silver wolf quickly. “ACTIVATE” After summoning long-chained handcuffs, Hybrid wrapped the chain around Bolt’s upper arms up to his neck while turning a somersault in the air over the taller mammal, then stepped on his back, binding and strangling him.

“Run for your life!” Judy ordered the marmot. She therefore skedaddled out the room through the front door, leaving the door open, running down a giant tree branch as Bolt was trying to shake Hybrid off, turning around swiftly.

    The duo expected that they could capture the marmot later since the tracking device is still attached to her.

“Despite knowing I’m a machine, why do you bother putting me to sleep by choking as if I’m a normal mammal?” He, talking normally like he was not suffering from suffocation or pain at all, faced the open door, “Electro blast” uttering calmly.

Electric sparks came out of the solar panels on his chest and gathering into a concentrated light sphere.

    The energy ball was discharged as straight as an arrow, penetrating through the chain across Bolt’s chest, flying out the room through the door and hitting the fleeing yellow bellied marmot.

    Hybrid, loosening the grip, the handcuffs gradually fading away, watched the electrocuted marmot dying instantaneously before she fell off the tree.

“There goes my today quota.” Bolt reached back and grabbed Hybrid’s arm before throwing Hybrid out the left open door. The united duo was dashed against the branch, clinging to the tree bark.

    He then rushed out the room, “So long, fellas~” nearing to kick Hybrid off the branch.

    When Hybrid tumbled down, “ACTIVATE” the duo summoned new handcuffs and tied a chain to one of Bolt’s legs, dragging him down with them.

    During the time that the red flamingo armored mammal together with the silver chrome wolf was plummeting through leaves, he “Volt strike!”, a knifepaw glowing, made an effort to cut the chain but it was not effective.

    Bolt was about to try his Electro Blast attack. However, he recollected that he had already used his maximum one per day attack. Consequently, he could not break the chain.

    Hybrid “ACTIVATE” called upon a black AutoMag decorated with a purple cylinder-like extra part and an auburn grip. After spinning the cylinder, the fire sparks flying out, a bright tiny bomb was fired from a muzzle of a gun.

    Bolt dodged the bomb shot at him in mid air but it exploded behind him, sending electromagnetic pulses to his body. An explosion force accordingly blew them to drop faster.

    Following that, Hybrid yanked the chain, tossing the silver wolf to a roofless wide skybridge between trees. A weight of the larger mammal pulled the armored mammal along. Bolt fell face down on the bridge, whereas Hybrid landed heroically.

    The duo got the idea of using electromagnetic pulse weapon against the silver chrome wolf owing to him being a machine that obviously operated with electricity. They hoped that his power grid would be shut down.

    The handcuffs vanishing as they wished, the duo as Hybrid went toward the lying prone wolf, bending over to check on him.

    Out of the blue, Bolt’s backfist struck Hybrid on a side of the face. A blow sent the armored doe rabbit with a fox tail spinning around in the air and falling back on the bridge away from the getting up wolf.

“Bolt! Do you copy?” Mittens contacted Bolt by wireless communication system.

“Feeling somewhat dizzy.” He held onto the rail for support.

“You’d better thank me for installing electromagnetic shielding cages inside you.” She claimed.

    Actually, the reason the silver chrome wolf was still able to function was that when Mittens repaired Bolt after he got pierced by Hybrid’s tail spikes, she added the electromagnetic shielding cages, which can reduce the coupling of radio waves, electromagnetic fields and electrostatic fields, into him in order to protect the mechanical canine from EMP attack.

    Subsequently, Nick in Judy’s body sat up and shot many bullets in a mere few seconds at Bolt with the thought of protecting her.

“Double accel” Bolt uttered calmly. His processing system ran faster, which made him visually perceive the bullets coming toward him slower. He bounded, swayed and ducked a couple of times, avoiding every bullet.

    From Bolt’s perspective, he was just moving a little bit hastily. Whereas, the united duo saw him dodge like greased lightning. Next thing they knew was that he had already come close to them unawares.

“I can’t let you arrest me.” Drawing his right fist back, “Sorry not sorry~” Bolt threw a punch at Hybrid.

    Twisting the handle forth once “FORM SHIFT-HUSTLER”, Hybrid rolled backwards, evading from the punch, while the mist was being released from the belt-like device as well as armor’s gaps.

    After changing into Hybrid Hustler form, “Why did you target those mammals? What are you up to?” Judy asked Bolt.

“Sorry again~ Can’t tell that classified information.”

“What’s up with those weird Savages? You know something, don’t you?” Nick asked him too, remembering the monsters with unusual behavior they had fought lately. He believed the wolf knew something they did not.

“Yes, I do but I’m not gonna tell you.” His tone grew serious to some extent.

“If that’s so, we’ll make you spit it out by force.” Judy hit the syringe “ACTIVATE” before Hybrid disappeared into thin air right in front of Bolt.

“I don’t have to accelerate to see...” The wolf said idly.

    When Hybrid popped up a step behind him, “...where you would appear.” he turned back swiftly to face the armored mammal, leaning down and launching a right punch.

    Nick pressed the syringe “ACTIVATE”, activating Hybrid’s instantaneous movement to avoid his punch at the last second.

    However, “Accel” Bolt with accelerated processing system noticed that Hybrid teleported to the right side next to him, so he leaned more to the point he was about to fall, paws on the surface of the bridge, then twisted his body and launched the left leg while spinning.

    He reverse roundhouse kicked the armored mammal rapidly. His kicking heel struck Hybrid’s shoulder.

    The red flamingo armored doe rabbit body moved through air before falling hard.

    Right after activating the instant transmission ability, Hybrid’s physical power drops briefly, causing Hybrid Hustler form to be significantly more vulnerable than usual. As a result, the united duo respond slower and receive more damage.

“Looks like he can keep up with us.” Nick supposed.

    Hybrid tried to get up. At the same time, Bolt, getting into a fighting stance, stayed on guard, looking for a chance to leave without being chased.

“In that case, we gotta push the limits.” Judy pressed the syringe “ACTIVATE”.

    Hybrid teleported to front of Bolt up-close at eye level. Bolt then speedily elbow struck but Hybrid, pushing the syringe “ACTIVATE”, disappeared first.

“It’s useless!” Bolt, still accelerated, turned behind, where Hybrid appeared. He rapidly back kicked Hybrid pressing the syringe again “ACTIVATE”. However, he missed since Hybrid disappeared again.

    Immediately afterwards, Bolt sensed the back of his head got hit, for Hybrid teleported to dropkick him by surprise.

    As Hybrid “ACTIVATE” teleported again, Bolt was butterfy-kicked in the side of his face, “ACTIVATE”, scratched on his right thigh by Hybrid’s left claw, “ACTIVATE”, and uppercut on his chin.

“ACTIVATE” “ACTIVATE” “ACTIVATE”, Hybrid teleported over and over again to attack Bolt in every direction possible, not give him a second to respond. Speaking of a response, neither did the duo. They did not react to the surroundings at all, just keeping on activating instantaneous movement ability and attacking.

    Shortly, after “ACTIVATE” another teleportation, Hybrid struck Bolt’s middle with a straight punch but it turned out that the punch was too weak. The effect of persistently using the ability began to take a toll. Judy’s body was becoming drained.

    Bolt, using this opportunity, threw a counter-punch.

    Fortunately, there came a blessing in disguise. The worn out armored mammal collapsed, knees on the bridge’s surface, thereby avoiding the blow from the silver wolf.

    When Bolt was about to attack once more, Nick, seeing the situation dangerous, “ACTIVATE” teleported away as an escape.

    Since Hybrid had already left, Bolt “Switch off” uttered thankfully. Following one quick flash of his silver body, he turned back to his alaskan tundra wolf disguise in the black leather jacket.

“How’s everything?” Mittens contacted him.

    Bolt rolled his shoulders leisurely, switching right and left repeatedly, to examine his physical condition. “I’m okay. In fact, it’s nice to blow off some steam~” He replied. “Have you picked up it in the warehouse yet?”

“If you’re talking about the Savage for sale, yes, Rhino already has. By the way, what about the dealer?” She referred to the female yellow-bellied marmot.

“I killed her...” He looked back to the moment when he fired the electrical energy ball at her.

“You did what!? We haven’t interrogated her yet!” The wildcat shouted.

“It was the best solution back then. I mean, our work would be troublesome if she got caught by the police. Am I right?”

“Mhm” She agreed with him because he brought up a good point.

“It’ll be fine~ There are more than one dealer anyway~” Bolt the wolf strolled down the bridge.

.. ... / .... . / .--- ..- ... - / -- .- -.-. .... .. -. .

    On the ground of Rainforest District, Hybrid staggered to an alleyway, where Nick’s body was hiding. The unconscious red fox cop was sitting on the floor with his head low, legs stretched out and back against the wall of the building.

    Hybrid subsequently flopped next to Nick, sprawling in almost the same manner as him.

    Judy pulled the syringe to detransform. Next, blood was drawn and then teleported to Nick’s syringe. Hybrid’s suit of armor emitted purple steam before it vanished. Accordingly, Her body along with police uniform clothes were back to normal. If truth be told, Judy was still suffering from extreme tiredness.

As Nick’s consciousness returned to him, he woke up fatigued like always after detransformation.

“Are you alright?” Speaking with a shaky voice, Nick reached his quivering paw to his partner next to him.

    She leaned towards him. Her head tapped his chest.

    While he was feeling confused of her action, all at once his weariness was gone. When he looked down, he saw that she pressed his syringe to inject blood into him.

Judy tilted her head back and gave Nick a smile, a tired one.

“We need to head back before anyone suspects where we have been. No way I’ll let you whine that you’re tired or whatever.” She struggled to stand up, “Hurry up, you slacker” making a joke of him.

    Nick followed Judy as she tottered slowly to their police cruiser parking nearby. She was then going to fall back but luckily, he caught her in times.

“It seems I’m tired more than I thought.” She laughed tiredly.

“Judy...” Nick gave her a support, leading her to a passenger’s seat of the car.

Shortly after he lifted her into the car, she fell asleep on the seat.

While Nick was walking around to the driver seat, he clutched his rumbling stomach with his right paw, left paw covering his watery mouth. Without knowing the reason why, hunger was driving him insane. He had never been this hungry in his life as images of his precious doe rabbit friend were projected in his mind...

In the morning at the Zootopia Police Department,

“So, Hopps takes sick leave today?” Chief Bogo the Cape Buffalo was talking in front of the briefing room, laying eyes on his fox officer, who was wearing light green Hawaiian shirt, dark indigo necktie with red-and-blue stripes and khaki pants instead of his police uniform.

“That’s correct~ In fact, she must be sleeping like a log on her bed as we’re speaking.” Nick Wilde the red fox replied his superior in a joking tone.

Clawhauser the cheetah and several other officers were standing around. He could not help but notice a slightly swollen stomach of his normally slender fox friend.

“What’s with the...?” He pointed at Nick’s belly, trying not to offend him since the chubby cheetah like himself might have no right to criticize someone else’s weight.

“This?” Nick pulled the front of his Hawaiian shirt forward a bit. “Honestly, I’m feeling a little under weather today, so I’d like to also take sick leave~” He relinquished his grip.

Clawhauser supposed that Nick misunderstood him referring to his casual shirt.

“More like taking leave to look after Hopps~” Officer Higgins the hippopotamus poked fun at Nick while others laughed. The smirking fox then gave him a shrug.

“Noted, but just so you know, we’re handling lots of work right now. Make sure you come back soon, okay?” Bogo accepted their requests.

“Yes, sir! Thank you, sir~” Nick gave a mock salute.

“The rest of you get in there already. Roll call gonna start soon.” Bogo pointed his thumb to the briefing room’s door.

Other officers entered the room as they were told, except for Clawhauser. He stared at Nick leaving the station, having an inkling of his action.

As soon as the fox stepped out the door, his smirk turning to a frown, he clutched his growling stomach and covered his drooling mouth.

Ever since the most recent battle with Bolt the silver wolf, Nick had been feeling starving.

His hunger was driving him insane although he had eaten everything in sight. He even cleared out the fridge in his apartment by himself on previous night, which should make him full, but still starvation was haunting him.

His stomach was rumbling as his mouth was watering.

The more he thought of his dear bunny friend, Judy, the hungrier he got. That scared him a lot.

Nick then decided to head out to downtown.

.--. .-. .. -. -.-. .. .--. .- .-.. / .- .--. .--. . - .. - . …

“Open up wide” Mittens, sitting on a table inside a motorhome, asked Bolt.

“Aaa” The shirtless alaskan tundra wolf, seated on an oversized couch, opened his mouth wide.

“Pink tongue, salmon pink gums, you look pretty healthy, Not!” The thin black wildcat slapped him with a giant paper fan.

On the surface, inside his mouth looked pretty normal. However, what appearing to be his tongue, his teeth and his gums were in fact engineered devices to imitate real organs.

“Stop fooling around!” She poked Bolt’s chin with the fan to shut his mouth. “Open up! For real this time” She subsequently drew it back.

Bolt, pleased to tease Mittens, brushed the white fur on his chest, revealing a zipper in center of chest, and unfastened the zipper.

As he was pulling open the fake skin across his chest cavity, she checked his insides which were mechanisms and an running engine.

“Cooling fans seem working fine.” She said while looking at two spinning small fans in left and right side chest. She then focused at the engine in the middle by paying attention to its noise, multiple small cylinders running like a heart beating fast. “Engine runs properly. Nothing to worry about~”

When Bolt zipped up his chest, “On second thought, I’d better check the switch lever in your right arm.” Mittens jumped to the right of him.

“That’s enough.” Bored of body check-up, he hopped off the couch, leaving the wildcat sighing.

“I’ve been wondering. Whose guitar is that?” He headed for a guitar leaning against a built in chest of drawers.

“It belongs to professor.” Rhino the tan lemming in a T-shirt tucked into jeans said. He was lying lazily in a pillow on the other couch opposite to the one Mittens was standing on. This pillow clearly was way bigger than him.

“Has he ever played it?” Bolt questioned.

“No idea. It has always been placed there. It’s more like a furniture by now.” Rhino rolled over to lie on his belly.

“Where is he anyway?” Bolt picked the guitar up. Its size was slightly small for a 6-feet wolf but he could go with it.

“Going out to run errands as al-...” While Rhino was answering, he along with Mittens was astonished by Bolt, who had never laid his paws on any instruments before ever since both the lemming and the wildcat first met the wolf, tuning guitar strings skillfully.

“...-ways...” Rhino eventually finished his sentence before Bolt started play guitar.

Played melodies called lyrics to his friends’ minds.

When you wish upon a star

Makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires will come to you

“Guys, did you install music software or something into me?”

“No” Mittens and Rhino answered Bolt in unison.

Even Bolt seemed surprised by his skill. He recalled no playing-an-instrument stuff within his one-year memory, unable to remember anything prior. However, all the musical knowledge came into his head.

.. ... / .... . / .--- ..- ... - / -- .- -.-. .... .. -. .

Clawhauser, not having an afternoon shift on that day, strolled around downtown in a jungle green polo shirt and a pair of cello trousers. He intended to visit Judy after he found a right gift for her.

Afterwards, he stopped in front of an all-you-can-eat restaurant where he used to eat. Just thinking about seafood, fried chickens, roasted crickets and pizzas which they served made his mouth water.

“No! Benjamin Clawhauser! Focus on looking for a gift for Judy.” Suppressing his own increased appetite, Clawhauser walked away from the restaurant.

While passing the mouth of the close by alley, he heard a noise of someone throwing up inside the alley. He turned to see the red fox with the dark auburn tip of the tail wearing the familiar light green Hawaiian shirt.

“Nick!?” Clawhauser rushed to his friend who apparently threw up into a trash can.

Nick wiped his mouth with the back of the right paw before turning to meet Clawhauser’s eye. “Oh hi bud, sorry for unpleasant sight” He did not look so good.

“What happens? Food poisoning?” The cheetah fidgeted.

“Just overeating” The quite bloated fox stepped back from the trash can staggeringly.

Clawhauser moved hastily to hold Nick’s shoulder, scared of him tripping over. “Let me take you to your apartment.” The cheetah gave the fox assistance to stand steadily.

“My place is too far away.” Nick was suffering from nausea. His stomach was really uncomfortable.

“I gonna call Judy.” Clawhauser brought out his phone, intending to call her for help since she was Nick’s partner and they two were really close.

“Don’t!... Not her… Please” Nick clung to Clawhauser’s shirt.

The cheetah felt at a loss. “What should we do?”

“I got an idea.” Pulling his phone out, Nick made a phone call.

A little longer than a few minutes later,

After hearing knocks on the door, “Coming! Man, you should give me a heads up earlier than that. It’s not like I would prepare my room-” The small fennec fox with bold voice went to open his apartment door.

“-but I need to prepare my mind to handle a guest-... Who’s this guy?” He was surprised to see a plump spotted big cat helping the familiar red fox stay upright at his front door, “And have you gained some weight?” even more surprised to see his former partner-in-crime looking rounder than usual.

“Sorry to bother you, pal.” Nick came into the room while Clawhauser had to bow his head to avoid his head hitting the room’s ceiling.

The apartment where Finnick the fennec fox, Nick Wilde’s former partner-in-crime, lived was supposed to be for medium-to-large mammal customers.

However, the particular room which the large-eared sandy fennec fox stayed is in an attic and it has a low ceiling, too low for apartment’s regular customers.

“Benjamin Clawhauser, nice to meet you.” The cheetah bent down and offered his right paw to the way smaller mammal.

“Call me Finnick. Bet you are Wilde’s co-worker, huh?” He shook paws with Clawhauser, who then made an shocked expression, which “Why the… face?” confused the fennec fox.

“O-oh sorry. My bad.” Clawhauser apologized, “I didn’t expect you’d have such a… distinctive voice.” drawing his paw back.

“You're not the first person to tell me that.”

“Your place is...” Clawhauser could not help but think that the room was too cramped.

“Small?” Finnick placed his paw on the top of his head and then raised his paw up, implying that the room had plenty of space for a small guy such as him.

“I didn’t mean to offend you! I just thought this apartment is for large mammals since I found some wandering around on the first floor.”

“You’re not wrong. This place is actually for big guys but this room ceiling is too low, so I haggled my way to cheap rent.” Finnick said proudly.

Clawhauser only nodded with a puzzled face in response.

“But still, cuz the doorknob was a little too high, I moved it down.”

The cheetah recalled when he along with Nick arrived at the door, he noted that the doorknob was strangely low.

“At least you don’t have to worry about upstairs neighbors.” Clawhauser mentioned a positive aspect in a hesitating voice.

“Heck yeah~ Make yourself at home. That fox already did.” Finnick pointed at Nick heading to a fridge.

“Have something to eat?” Nick asked, opening the fridge.

“Chilled pizza. Want me to... heat it up?” Finnick goggled at the red fox’s sticking out belly.

“I don’t think he can eat anymore. He’s just-” Clawhauser was going to tell Finnick about what happened with Nick but he was then interrupted by the sound of ripping cardboard.

Evidently, Nick got his paws on the chilled silkworm pupa pizza, claws tearing the packaging box apart. “Don’t bother” He began to guzzle the cold yeasted flatbread with dry tasteless tomato sauce and cheese. In addition to that, its crust looked so tough it must to chew, yet Nick munched it vigorously.

The way he acted indeed scared his friends.

Despite feeling stuffed, Nick was… “I’m little hungry.”... suffering from a ravenous appetite.

Soon after he finished the pizza, he, wobbling drowsily, was slipping into a food coma.

Both Clawhauser and Finnick hurried to help Nick, checking on him.

“Go ahead and take him to my sofa.” Finnick said.

Since the roomer gave the permission, the cheetah took the bellied-out red fox to a sectional sofa, laying him on the long seating part. During the time, the fennec fox distanced himself from others before sending a text message.

Nick spent quite some time lying on the sofa with his arm across his forehead. No matter how uncomfortable he felt or how taut his stomach was, his hunger did not lessen in the slightest. On the contrary, it rose whenever he thought of Judy, her face, her voice, her soft fur, her warm personality, et cetera, including her scent.

He missed her fragrant lavender scent. The more he thought about it, the stronger it became as if it was really there.

He could smell her scent growing clearer.

His ears perked up when there were loud and continuous knocks on the room door. Finnick went to open the door quickly.

“Nick!!”

Nick heard a sharp bawl from a doe rabbit; hence, he raised his head, propping himself up on one elbow, to look past his bloated stomach. He saw his friend and partner, Judy Hopps the gray doe in her casual outfit holding a paper bag, at the doorway.

“Judy?” Stunned, he could not believe his eyes. She was really in his sight. Clawhauser was also surprised what brought her here. In truth, Finnick reached out to her secretly.

“Oh Nick, are you hurt?” Judy, looking so worried, approached Nick hastily.

Nick had not recovered from the abnormal hungriness. He did not know what he should do. He felt scared as she was just a few inches away.

Don’t come near me Judy. Please! Nick was screaming internally. If you get any closer, I’m gonna…

Suddenly, Nick stretched his arms out and caught Judy. Seeing that, Clawhauser, remembering that Nick told him not to call her, interpreted that Nick might lose control of himself and harm her; therefore, he was about to help Judy.

However, Finnick stopped him, wondering why the fennec fox was holding him back but that allowed the cheetah to look what was actually happening.

Nick pulled Judy close, hugging her firmly and fondly on the sofa. Next, he shoved his snout into the fur on her head between her ears.

“Are you feeling okay now?” Nick asked tenderly.

“M-mhm” Despite being puzzled, Judy accepted his hug, dropping the bag in her paw to the floor, and hugged him in return.

“What a relief” He breathed in the bunny’s lavender scent. After many hours of fear and anxiety, he finally calmed down, feeling peace of mind.

Judy stayed in Nick’s embrace for a while before breaking apart from the hug. “My parents sent me a pie made with blueberries from our farm.” She bent downwards from the sofa to pick a pie box in the paper bag up.

“It may be messed up a little bit. That’s the postal service for you~” She laughed off, shifting her eyes around.

“Want some?” Opening the box, she presented a blueberry pie to the fox in front of her. Its top crust had cracks here and there but overall, the pie still looked delicious.

“I’d love to, Carrots, but one more bite, I’ll probably burst.” Nick poked his own distended belly.

“I’ll make sure I will save you slices. Benjamin! Finnick! Have some!” Judy called others two.

Everybody gathered at the sofa. The bunny, the cheetah and the fennec fox were sharing some slices of the pie. When the fox saw that the blueberry pie stained on the cheek of his rabbit friend, he “On second thought, one bite won’t hurt.” spoke to her.

She giggled, “Glutton fox, I knew you can’t pass on blueberry.” about to feed him a small dessert bite with a fork.

All of a sudden, Judy was licked on her cheek by Nick. His wet tongue touched her stained cheek fur. The startled doe could feel tingling sensation from her face running through all over her body.

Startled as well, the tod budged away “I’m sorry! I have no idea what came over me.” and apologized.

Meanwhile, Clawhauser did not appear less astounded than the duo. On the other hand, Finnick just seemed amused.

“It’s...” The blushing bunny raised one paw to her face, “It’s not a problem.” not wiping her cheek, just touching the spot Nick licked.

Both stared each other as if they were frozen to the spot. As for Clawhauser, he merely sat still, gazing Nick and Judy back and forth.

Out of the blue, a phone dinging sound broke the silence, frightening the police officers in civilian clothing.

Finnick brought his smartphone out of the trouser side pocket to check a recent notification. “Savages are in the nearby area.”

Due to existence of Savages the monsters, an application was launched by a government agency to install for free. The app served a purpose of warning about the appearance of Savages in neighboring areas.

“Got it.” Judy jumped down the sofa and charged to the door.

“I don’t think I can go. My tummy’s heavy.” Nick said, staying on the sofa as before.

“Good luck, Judy!” Clawhauser wished her well.

She waved her paw goodbye while leaving the room.

.-.. ..- ... - / .- -. -.. / .... ..- -. --. . .-.

“Those are normal Savages, aren’t they?” Rhino quizzed.

In the motorhome, he and Mittens were viewing live CCTV camera footage which she hacked, while Bolt was observing the Savages from a rooftop of one building in Zootopia’s downtown.

A large long purplish-pink horned sturdy purple bovine monster, covering in exoskeleton with the same color as the horns, and a pair of winged small purple mice were running wild on the street as the fully geared SCU agents tried to taking control of the situation, escorting mammals in the area to a safe place.

These monsters were clearly far from looking normal but what Rhino meant by ‘normal’ was they likely were not among those peculiar monsters following commands or being for sale.

Bolt turned to look down on the ground. “There she comes~” He spotted Judy Hopps from the distance.

“Bolt, stand by.” Mittens communicated with him through their private wireless communication system.

After that, the wolf rolled up his right jacket sleeve and brush fur on underside of his forearm, going to transform in order to be ready to assist Hybrid. A few seconds later, he still remained in his alaskan tundra wolf disguise.

“What’s wrong?” Mittens asked, questioning why he had not transformed yet.

“My zipper got stuck.” Bolt struggled to pull his zipper as it was stuck like he said. Since the zipper would not open, he was unable to pull the lever switch to on. In the other word, he could not transform at that time.

“I don’t wanna say i told you so but i told you so.” Mittens caused Bolt to remember when he refused her to check his arm.

“Let Hybrid go it alone today.” Bolt decided to take a back seat, being only an observer.

At the same time, some of the SCU agents on the ground were dealing with the bull Savage. A burst of bullets peppered it but many bullets deflected off its exoskeleton.

“The cover of this one is too tough!” Wolford the timber wolf agent, ex-police officer, yelled while firing an automatic rifle at the monster.

Meanwhile, several agents, sticking together, swung their long-barrelled firearms like baseball bats to ward off the two swooping winged mice. They would not dare shoot bullets up, afraid of accidentally injuring mammals on the buildings.

“Keep them busy!” Maximus the white stallion gave a command to his subordinates as he and some other agents were occupied with a task of guarding citizens.

At that point in time, hiding behind a corner of a building, “Ready?” Judy talked to her phone, wearing her transformation belt, MidniDriver.

“Hang on” Nick on the other end of the phone line put his transformation device on. Its belt automatically wrapped around his expanded waistline so tight that he “Oof” felt a sharp pain in his stomach faintly. He then proceeded to the next step, pulling the silver syringe on the left of his device. “DRAW BLOOD”

When blood of the fox was teleported to Judy’s syringe, she pushed it “INJECT” before announcing “Transform”. Not hesitantly, she twisted back the handle sticking out on the right of her device. “IGNITE”

With Nick’s mind transferred into Judy’s body, the duo united as one armored rabbit with fox’s features, Hybrid Hustler form.

“Oh my tod! Feeling so much better!” Nick rejoiced when he no longer felt uncomfortable in his stomach.

“Let’s roll.” Judy, together with Nick as the flamingo red hero, rushed to the scene.

The left paw pressing the syringe “ACTIVATE”, Hybrid sprinted with a great speed towards agents who were having a rodent problem. The armored mammal jumped up and clawed the flying Savages in the air.

One dodged Hybrid’s sharp claw in time, whereas the other one’s tail was cut off. Purple steam gushed out from its wound before the wound was closed by its rapid healing.

Right afterwards, the armored mammal landed on the ground amid the astonished agents.

Bull Savage’s instinct alerted it of Hybrid the armored mammal, then screamed at it to attack the recently arrived threat. The Bull Savage, ignoring SCU agents who were shooting at it, sped towards the doe rabbit with fluffy fox tail.

“Hybrid!?” Maximus seemed surprised although he was supposed to expect the armored mammal to show up in the fight.

The mammals, standing around Hybrid, saw the intimidating bovine monster coming their way, thereby scattering.

Hybrid side rolled to avoid being butted. When the bull Savage almost ran past the small bunny figure, the armored mammal “ACTIVATE” activated an enhanced strength, twisted the body while jumping to create spinning motion and then kicked the monster in its flank.

The kick sent the bovine monster reeling sideways. However, its exoskeleton remained intact.

“That bull’s sure tougher than I thought.” Nick commented when he caught sight of neither crack nor scratch on external skeleton of the Savage.

“We gotta try again.” Judy dashed to get the bull monster from its behind.

“Carrots, it’s not a good idea to-” Nick was about to stop her along with Hybrid ’s body from advancing towards the sturdy Savage’s rear but it was too late.

Hybrid under Judy’s control had already leapt to it. At once, the bovine monster bucked aggressively. Its back hoof hit Hybrid in midair, sending the united duo flying backward.

“-approach a bull from behind...” Nick said as Hybrid fell on the ground.

Like always, it did not hurt, still it was a bummer that a simple fight strategy backfired in public.

“Noted” Judy responded unimpressedly.

Shortly afterwards, the flying mouse Savage s dived towards Hybrid. Promptly, a few agents hastily opened fire on the rodent monsters. The purple mouse which still had its tail was shot down on the spot, while the tailless one merely got grazed by the bullets.

The surviving winged mouse, flapping its wings furiously, attacked the armored mammal lying on the back. Accordingly, Hybrid blocked its biting and scratching with both arms.

And suddenly, the bull Savage bellowed, its purple skin turning purplish pink, its exoskeleton bursting apart because of the expanded muscles. It subsequently leapt, plunged and spun around madly.

“This is bad! Bolt! Do something!” Rhino, watching the hacked cctv, shouted into a mic.

“Quick! Switch to another form!” Mittens ordered loudly.

“I can’t! I told you my zipper is stuck!” He tried hard to unzip his right arm, yet failed to do so.

The going berserk purplish-pink Savage abruptly hurtled to a nanny goat and her kid whom a wild boar SCU agent was escorting to somewhere safe.

Seeing that, the united duo concentrated, looking for an opportunity to finish the mouse right in Hybrid’s face, and then seized the winged rodent monster, crushing it in the paws.

Throwing aside the vaporizing lifeless body of the purple mouse with a pair of wings, Hybrid stood up hurriedly. Nick and Judy, sharing the vision, got a glimpse of the boar hugging the goat mom and her kid in order to use himself as a meat-shield protecting them from the raging bull.

Consequently, Hybrid hit the syringe “ACTIVATE”, rashly teleporting to block the way of the Savage that was lowering its head, preparing to ram any mammals in its way. The armored mammal emerged out of thin air to confront the bovine monster face to face.

..-. . .- ... - / --- -. / ..-. . .- .-.

At Finnick’s apartment, he and Clawhauser were getting to know each other more.

The cheetah was amazed by the fennec fox’s real age and the fact that he had known the truth about Hybrid for quite a period of time longer than the cheetah had. For the small canine, he found that the big cat was such good company, especially when it comes to gossiping about the bunny fox duo.

Out of the blue, Nick’s unconscious body, supposed to stay still on the sofa, started to writhe. Clawhauser and Finnick dropped their conversation and hurried to check their friend.

“Wh-What’s happening here!?” Clawhauser panicked.

“Never seen him acting like this before.” Finnick only remembered that whenever the two unite as Hybrid, Nick’s mindless body would appear in a deep sleep.

“Is Nick gonna be alright!?”

“Dude! I’m as clueless as you are!”

..-. . .- .-. / ... - .-. .. -.- .

The boar agent shut his eyes tight, preparing himself to get severely hurt, opened his eyes when the expected pain did not arrive. He saw the raging bull monster was stopped by Hybrid who turned back on him together with the nanny goat and her kid.

Directly after activating the instant transmission ability, physical power of Hybrid Hustler form considerably drops momentarily. To put it simply, in a brief moment, Hybrid becomes much more vulnerable than usual.

At that moment, Hybrid was gored by the bull Savage, the tip of one horn stabbing the armored mammal’s stomach.

The bovine monster, head being forced to be low to the ground, could neither pull its horns back nor move forth because Hybrid was grabbing the stabbing horn and a head of the monster firmly, Hybrid’s foot claws digging deep in the ground.

SCU agents in the area including Maximus became completely speechless.

Hybrid then slowly raised one leg. The leg was stretched up straight, tip of the foot pointing at the sky. The duo as one twisted the handle back “CRITICAL BREAK” before Hybrid brought the leg downward forcefully.

The flamingo red heel struck the purplish pink head of the bull monster. Tip of its horn got pulled out of the armored mammal stomach in the process.

The earth shook when the axe kicking foot hit the Savage so hard that its head sank into the ground.

Shocked, the SCU agents gazed at Hybrid whose paw was covering a fresh stomach wound that was releasing purple steam. They did not know what to do in that situation. Some of them even thought that this was a great chance to catch the armored combination of rabbit and fox. On the other hand, it would be too cruel to do such a thing.

“Come on, guys! Hurry!” Maximus took a step, heading towards Hybrid.

“Is it right to arrest them now…?” Wolford questioned, believing his boss must be thinking about capturing the armored hero.

“Do I look like a idiot to you!? First and foremost, we have to save wounded mammals no matter who they are.” He continued getting closer to Hybrid, “Call an ambulance.” commanding his subordinates.

“Hybrid, please come with us. You need serious medical treatment.” He spoke to the armored mammal.

“Sorry” The voice that came out was female, not a playful male voice SCU agents normally heard, which confused Maximus greatly.

“Gotta dash” Nick quickly took charge of the body, then “ACTIVATE” escaped the scene by instant transmission.

The united duo popped up behind the corner of one building, peeking at Maximus ordering the agents to confirm the civilians’ safety in the area and search for Hybrid. The armored walk a few step unsteadily prior to falling to knees, covering the hole in stomach with both paws.

Judy was fully aware that if she and Nick stayed together as Hybrid any longer in this stage, Nick’s real body would be affected as well and receive a vital injury. She therefore moved Hybrid’s left paw to the silver syringe with intention to detransform.

“Stop thinking it, Judy.” Nick swiftly moved Hybrid’s right paw to hold the left paw back.

“If we detransform now, you will definitely suffer too much damage to endure!” He said, worried about his dear bunny partner.

“You’re right, Nick...”

The left arm which Judy was controlling became less tense.

“Let’s figure a solution together, partner.” She sounded genuine.

Nick, glad that she understood him, loosened the hold on the left arm.

Seizing the moment, Judy pulled the silver syringe.

The very next thing Nick perceived was that he, waking up, returned to his body.

“Nick!” Both Clawhauser and Finnick grew relieved after watching their fox friend writhing for a short period of time.

However, their relief switched back to worry again when they saw that Nick’s expression was full of fear and anxiety.

“Judy! Judy!” The unnerving fox got up in a hurry. The one and only thought in his mind was to save his friend, his partner, his bunny.

But he forgot the important thing...

After detransformation, Nick normally experienced fatigue and this time was no exception. He collapsed on Finnick’s apartment floor, “Judy… Judy...” roughly crawling on the floor as he was calling to her.

Meanwhile, Judy the doe rabbit, kneeling on the ground, successfully detransformed. She clutched her stomach, her face expressing extreme exhaustion mixed with agony.

“It’s called a hustle, sweetheart.” Judy said weakly before she flopped down while drifting out of consciousness.

In the morning, Judy woke up slowly with her eyes closed. She breathed in a scent of spring forest aroma, projecting an image of light green leaves dancing in the gentle first light surrounded by the fragrance of blooming lilies, which reminded her of Nick’s shampoo preference.

Despite the overwhelming strong aroma, there was distinctive soft musky scent, giving off sweet fresh earthy smell, that wrapped tenderly around her.

The gray doe rabbit steadily activated her other senses apart from the sense of smell.

A pair of opening rabbit’s eyes was adjusting to see clearer. Right in front of her was cream chest fur. Her body caught warm fuzziness. Something wet was nuzzling against the top of her head.

When she looked up, she eventually discovered that she was lying on the sofa with the asleep red tod fox giving her an embrace.

The doe should be embarrassed… She should feel nervous in a man hug... It is true that they are the best of friends but their relationship had not reached the point of two mammals to casually snuggle up. However, for some reasons, she found this situation soothing and… heart-warming.

Room ceiling lights were on, which led Judy to guess they might fall asleep together the previous night. It was not her first sleepover at Nick’s apartment though. She wished she could get up but she would not dare to unintentionally wake him up since his sleeping expression seemed so peaceful as she was gazing at his face.

The rabbit saw her fox buddy so playful yet genuinely caring. They were considerably close as if they were siblings. For her, the fox was like a kind brother by some means. This particular moment evoked her childhood memories of staying overnight with older brothers. Even so, they both were not kits anymore… Would brothers still hold their younger sisters like this when they all are grown up?

Speaking of brother, Judy suddenly recollected the case of Tadashi Hamada. Hiro, the little takuni, was very likely worried sick about his missing older brother.

Afterwards, Nick changed his position to lie on his back, finally letting go of Judy, so she was able to get up. First thing she did after such a pleasant slumber was going to turn off the lights in order to save the energy. The switch on the wall was slightly too high for bunnies. Therefore, she tiptoed to click the switch.

Sometimes later, Nick awoke from his sleep. He stretched on the sofa, then moved his paws around in searching for something. His eyes wide opened when he realized that beside him was empty. Instantly, he sat up with a start.

“Mornin’ sweetheart~” Judy greeted him cheerily while wiping her face with a towel.

It appeared like she had recently washed her face as her facial fur was still damp.

Nick did not reply anything. He just stayed silent and stared his bunny friend, which started to make her concerned.

“Nick?” Judy stopped wiping and called him worriedly.

He eventually regained his sense. “Sorry! I-I-” He began to stammer, pondering. At that moment, his stomach let out a loud growl. “-was thinking about breakfast.” The chuckling fox patted his tummy.

The doe laughed along with the tod, who subsequently “What do you want to eat? For a heads-up, there aren’t many greens left in my fridge right now.” implied he would cook food for her in spite of the lack of vegetable.

“Actually, I have a place in mind.” She said, throwing the towel over her shoulder.

“Okay, you’re the boss.” He agreed to eat out wherever his partner wanted.

That growl was perfect timing but it’s still weird… Nick stole a glance at Judy before getting ready to go out.

-- --- .-. . / - .... .- -. / ..-. .-. .. . -. -.. …

Cass Hamada, mid-thirties female tanuki putting on a simple short sleeved v-neck, apron and her silver-turquoise necklace, was busy working at her cafe enthusiastically. Smile is a heart of service. She has to endure and keeps going no matter what.

Immediately after she heard a bell which rings every time the cafe’s door is opened, “Welcome~ Come on in~” she greeted customers automatically but when she turned to the door, “Officers!?” she was surprised to see Senior Officer Hopps and Senior Officer Wilde visiting her place. Both were dressed in civilian clothing.

“Hello Mrs. Hamada.” Judy waved her right paw to Cass.

“Is it about the case!? What can I do for you!?” She hurried towards the duo.

“It’s our day-off, so we come to have a meal here.” Nick tried to calm a cafe owner down.

“Oh, I see. That explained why your clothes are so casual today.” Cass’s face grew a bit depressed for a second. “Please take your seats.” Back in good spirit, she led the new customers to a table. Next, “What would you like to order?” she gave them the menu.

After both of them placed their orders, the tanuki went into kitchen, cook the food and serve the dishes to them without delay. The dish which the rabbit ordered was Tofu omelette with asparagus accompanied by a glass of fruit juice while the fox ordered Eggs Benedict with chicken ham and a cup of blueberry flavored coffee.

“Ahh, I know at this moment isn’t your working hours.” Cass’s voice conveyed uncertainty. The duo turned their attention to her. Nick stopped scooping food from his plate. Meanwhile, Judy held a tip of a fork between her lips.

“In case you two don’t mind, can we talk…?” Tanuki asked the officers.

Placing down the fork, the doe chewed food in her mouth hastily then swallowed and answered. “Sure.”

Cass was about to speak. However, she notice a customer raising one’s arm to get her attention.

“I’ll be there soon.” She spoke up to the customer across the cafe.

“Excuse me.” She told the duo, expression showing an apology for having to leave them.

Before she went to serve other customers, she walked up to the foot of the stairs at the corner of the cafe, then “Hiro! Come down a bit!” shouted to the 2nd floor.

“What’s the matter, Aunt Cass.” Hiro Hamada, a tanuki teen in blue hoodie, descended the stairs leisurely.

“Officers!?” Once he saw Nick and Judy, he dashed to their table.

Cass let her nephew have conversations with officers while she was back to work.

“Hi Hamada… kun?” Nick addressed Hiro. He learned that calling acquaintances by first name in culture Hamada family is from can be considered as rude. Thus, he called him Hamada kun, still it sounded rather odd for the fox.

“‘Hiro’ is okay by me.” Teenage takuni apprised calmly.

“How you doing, Hiro?” Judy inquired after him caringly.

Hiro dragged a nearby empty chair to sit on it. “So so, could be better.” He responded.

Seeing that Hiro looked faintly dejected, “Never told you this when we first met.” Judy came up with new subject. “You truly are remarkable! No kidding, being so intelligent that you’ve already graduated high school at a young age is genuinely impressive!”

She did not exaggeratedly praise him. In fact, she understated the boy’s capacity. According to what she had read about Hiro Hamada, apart from early graduation, he is highly innovative, capable of creating inventions some of which became famous online, thereby building his own reputation among scientific professions. He is undoubtedly a genius.

“If I recall correctly, you received an offer from Zootopia Institute of Technology, right?” Judy, still facing Hiro, slapped Nick’s paw when he attempted to snatch a bite of his buddy’s meal.

“Yeah. Tadashi referred me to the institute.” Hiro made both cops fall silent.

Nick and Judy turned to look at each other. They started to communicate with hand signals.

He’s even sadder than before!? Judy delivered a message.

Way to go, Carrots. Aren’t we supposed to be here to check them whether aunt and nephew are alright or not? Nick made a response.

I didn’t mean to upset him, Okay!? She countered.

“It’s fine. I’m aware you didn’t intend to bring my brother up… but I’ll take that as police haven’t found him yet.” Hiro sighed, gazing away.

“We will definitely find him! Don’t give up!” The doe encouraged the boy sincerely.

Tod did not say any words. He continued eating to suppress not only his hunger but also some sort of feelings bugging him as he was watching his overconfident bunny friend.

All of a sudden, a mammal cried for help outside the cafe. Apparently, there was a robbery going on.

“Sweet cracker!” Judy swiftly put money on the table “Keep the change” and subsequently charged out the front door.

Nick hurriedly paid his meal, “I’ll be back for the change.” then quickly followed the doe.

..-. .- .-.. ... . / .... --- .--. .

The duo pursued a buck antelope who thieved a purse. The robber ran in a headlong rush down the sidewalk, disobeying their order to stop escaping arrest, almost completely ignoring his surroundings.

Consequently, he crashed with a wolf pedestrian. Nevertheless, that barely made him want to slow down. He kept on fleeing… or at least he tried.

“What’s the big idea, bub?” The white tundra wolf grabbed antelope’s horn.

“If you bump into someone, first of all, apologize, you dipbiscuit!” He grasped the thief’s wrist instead and went straight judo throw him to the ground. The dazed buck groaned in pain while lying on the walkway.

“Fudge nuggets, was I too harsh on you? But you are a thief, so it doesn’t matter anyway.” The wolf snickered at the recumbent antelope.

The duo finally caught up with the seized robber. Nick suffered a stomach ache after a run. Whereas, Judy experienced no pain from running after eating not much thanks to lack of appetite.

“Thank you for assisting with capturing, sir!” She showed her appreciation to the wolf whom she saw as a good citizen helping cops.

“With my pleasure, Officer Hopps~” The wolf addressed the bunny by her name, which shocked her to some extent before she realized she holds the title of the very first rabbit officer, being semi-celebrity; thus, it is normal for strangers knowing her name.

“Well, I gotta go. I bet you can take care of the rest~ Ciao~” The dog wolf released his hold on the antelope, and then departed.

Judy felt happy because the wolf prompted her to preserve faith in mammals. It was rather sorrowful when there were criminals in the time city was being threatened by monsters. Nonetheless, good mammals still exist too.

“I’m a thief, so it doesn’t matter?” The antelope mumbled.

“It’s not like I have any other choices...” He enunciated so clear the the rabbit and the fox pricked up their ears.

“Because of misfortune, Savage attacked my house. I lost everything, shelter, money. My entire works got shredded. I lost my job! Tell me what else should I do!?” He vented his despair, just lying on the ground, submitted to the cruel fate.

Sympathy toward the antelope made bunny cop reluctant. If what he said was all true, it would mean he was merely a victim of Savage attack.

At the moment of hesitation, there was a fox paw touching the top of her head, paw with familiar sense of none other than her partner. The weight put on her head caused her to remember her obligations and job duties.

The bunny cop hardened her heart, “Above all, return the purse. You have the right to remain silent-...” providing a Miranda warning.

-- .. ... ..-. --- .-. - ..- -. .

The purse-snatcher was brought to ZPD station by rabbit and fox police officers in civilian clothes. Since it was their day off, no one did really expect to see them at the station. Still, it was not totally unexpected because the doe is usually exceedingly diligent, performing duties even on days of rest. And for the tod, he generally tags along with his partner.

After others took over a robbery case, the duo were going back to enjoying the day off. Nevertheless, they did not certainly anticipate coming upon one of the most popular singers in Zootopia.

“Don’t you surely have any update about my missing dear friend?” A female gazelle queried desperately.

“B-But your manservant went missing a-after Savages broke in your mansion. Besides, th-that was roughly a year ago-” A chubby male cheetah faltered.

“I know he’s out there… somewhere.” She spoke little quieter, clenching her left fist.

Penny Gazelle, a famous Zootopian pop star, wearing shades and a cap which hid her golden hair and allowed her horns to poke out in order to disguise herself, so no fan would recognize her easily, talked with Clawhauser at a reception desk... again.

“Please-- Officer Clawhauser… Let me see Chief Bogo-”

“Ca-Calm down, Gazelle.”

“I beg of you, please...”

Following Savages intruding into Gazelle’s house, one of the servants disappeared.

Gazelle came in the police department quite often to inquire about the progress of finding her manservant.

Many, such as other employers, fellow staffs, friends and family members, discouragedly accepted a presumption that he may be gone since the monsters’ intrusion, whereas Gazelle had been believing her friend was still alive somewhere.

“Poor her...” Judy could not help feeling bad for the pop star.

“Indeed. I also feel sorry for Clawhauser.” Nick imagined it must be distressing for the fans like Clawhauser and Chief Bogo to see their favorite singer keep denying cruel reality and convincing herself to have faith.

Nick’s sympathy jogged his memory. “Incidentally, Carrots, mind if we visit a place?”

“I actually have a place I wanna visit now too.” She sort of got the impression her buddy was thinking of the same place.

.-.. --- ... ... / .- -. -.. / -.-- . .- .-. -. .. -. --.

Just a few blocks away, there was a juvenile detention center where Nick and Judy were visiting the boys whom police captured when DIB specifically asked the pair for assistance with illegal night howler transport investigation in Sahara square warehouse district.

“Glad you’re doing well, kiddos~” Smirking fox folded his arms over the chest. He as well as the bunny sat around a circular table with five teenage mammals in visiting area

“Stop calling us kiddos, gramp.” James the fox lad, the oldest one among the group of teenagers, offended Nick to a certain extent that his left eye twitched slightly.

Nick started to get irritated whenever somebody criticized his age since he realized he was only half a decade away from becoming 40.

Notwithstanding, the ex-con artist was still able to conceal his true feelings expertly. “Drop that grumpy tone~ I’d rather be at Mystic Spring Oasis but Ms. Fluff dragged me here- Oww!” He exclaimed as Judy pinched his upper arm. “It hurts! It hurts! I’m joking!” bawled he. Judy released her grip from Nick immediately afterwards.

“We mean it that we’re glad to see you all are doing great.” She beamed at the teenagers.

“I wouldn’t say getting tranquilized then thrown into jail is great.” James looked askance at Judy.

“First, here isn’t a prison. Just to be clear; this is a youth detention center. Second...” The doe halted abruptly when she considered it might be better not to tell these kids that due to the fact they had some connection with John Silver, dangerous crime lord, making them stay where they can be guarded round the clock was possibly the smartest decision for their safety.

“Second what?” Thomas, a young buck rabbit, wondered.

The doe chose to change the subject. “Anyway, have your parents contacted you five lately?” She guessed the parents were definitely worrying about their children’s welfare.

The teenage mammals exchanged looks briefly before James spoke for others. “You may not know this but… some of us lost father, mother or both.”

“Huh!?” The duo were shocked by words they heard.

“Some disappeared, some were put in a coma, some even… passed away after Savages… y’know” He tried to carry on despite discomfort from talking about it.

“It’s okay. We get what you’re saying.” Nick told the younger fox.

These boys basically are on their own, huh? Judy pondered.

“Umm, any news about Jim?” Roll the raccoon ultimately uttered after keeping silent since the buddy cops came to pay him and his friends a visit.

Although Roll’s real name is actually James, he preferred being called by a nickname because there was the fox lad named ‘James’ too in their group, which might be confusing, provided someone called to James among them.

Judy got no idea how many relatives these boys had left. It seemed as if they only had each other. It’s just 6 of them. If one of them is missing, the rest must be anxious, especially the twin brother.

Both Nick and Judy gazed into one another’s eyes. They were well aware that their investigation had not made much progress. They had no clue where John Silver was and whether Jim Tuck, Roll’s twin captured by the crime lord, was still with him or not.

She blinked, then looked back at Roll, “Everything gonna be just fine. I can assure you.” encouraging him tenderly.

Unfortunately, the teenage boar raccoon did not seem more relieved or less distressed. The doe became awkward, meditating on what or how she should do or say to him, but subsequently noticed the adult tod rubbing his arm which she pinched previously. The way he acted undeniably drew her attention.

“Oh, suck it up, big guy.” Judy jested with Nick.

“It really hurted.” He made a whining fox noise.

“Poor dumb fox. I gonna kiss that spot later, so quit whining already.” She sarcastically joked around, pointing at the area she pinched before.

“If you say so, then you’d better pinch my cheek earlier.” He caused his best friend to blush.

Eventually, Judy understood Nick’s intention to light up the mood, still he made her embarrassed; hence, she punched his arm lightly while she was giggling.

Following that, she noted the young bear staring her and Nick intensely.

“What’s the matter, Edward?” She asked the bear.

“Nothing! It’s just… I know that you two officers are partners but… are you datin-Ouch!” Edward or Ed for short was interrupted by the skunk, the youngest mammal of the group, yanking bear’s waist fur.

It appeared the boar skunk rebuked he-bear for invading officers’ personal territory, but then, regardless of the doe’s chest tightening with warm fuzzy feeling, she did, of course, not take offense.

“We ain’t dating, still single.” Judy clarified.

“Officer Hopps is single!?” The buck was stunned by the older rabbit’s statement.

“Precisely~ But I’m 28 now. Am I not too old for you?” She joshed him comically.

However, it turned out the teenage rabbit’s face seriously reddened.

“J-Just teasing...” Judy promptly corrected his understanding, making others laugh… except Roll who went back to be quiet. When she took notice of him, she grew concerned.

-.. .- -- .- --. . ... / .- -. -.. / .- -.-. .... .

The (almost) whole day led the pair to reflect on many lives ruined by Savages. It was indubitably unignorable issue. As long as she possesses the power to help others, she will not hesitate to help them… No matter how…

During the time that both strolled down the street in Savanna Central, “Nick, let’s meet up with Fru Fru, so we can warn her about missing mammals and night howler trafficking.” Judy suggested sincerely.

“Is it a good idea?” Nick tested her.

“When it comes to underground world, Mr. Big has authority to manage situations more comprehensively than law enforcers.” She stated her viewpoint strongly.

“In this case, we will risk our jobs on the line, won’t we?” He kept testing her.

Nick highly believed that his partner was fully mindful of her position as police officer. Delivering police’s insight information to mafia can affect her status very much.

“Our jobs are to serve, to protect the city. We must take action no matter what. No time to be distraught over such subject matter.” She asserted.

“That’s my fearless bun bun~” He wore a sneaky yet proudful grin with half-lidded eyes.

Nick cast a glance on Judy. Even so, something else attracted his interest. In an alley between two buildings, there were a couple of mammals, an opossum and a pallas’s cat, acting suspicious, swapping each other’s gym bags.

“Carrots, 3 o’clock.”

Judy turned her head to the right, catching sight of suspects probably trading illegal stuffs in a narrow lane.

She together with Nick darted across the street, moving toward the alley. Luckily, there were not many mammals wanting to drive or ride their vehicles outdoors as of lately. Accordingly, the pair did not have to be worried about getting run over by cars on street.

At the time the potential criminals descried two figures coming their way, they ran deeper into the alleyway straight away, which convinced the duo more than enough that these mammals were guilty.

“Stop in the name of the-” While the bunny was ordering the criminals, her long ears picked up a distinct sound, a feral grunt.

She slowed down her pace, whereas the fox sped up to catch up with the pallas’s cat and the opossum.

“Watch out!” Bunny grasped fox’s shirttail just before a weasel leapt downward from above in front of the duo.

The weasel had the wild gesture, down on all fours, drooling, and also had purple fur. It obviously is a Savage.

Judging from the priorities, they needed to get rid of the Savage first. After finishing it off, they would chase the criminals later.

When the duo were confident that those mammals had probably escaped far enough not to see or hear the duo and the monster, they proceeded with transformation, putting on the morphers, MidniDriver, belts of which wrapped around their waists automatically.

Next, Nick pulled the tilted silver syringe on driver’s left side. “DRAW BLOOD” His blood filled up the syringe before being teleported into Judy’s syringe.

Judy pressed the syringe to “INJECT” inject herself with canine blood, resulting in Nick losing unconscious, leaning against the building’s wall then gradually falling on the ground.

“Transform!” She twisted the maroon handle sticking out on the right half. “IGNITE” Soon afterwards, the morpher device caused the blistering steam blast, changing the doe to a flamingo red bio-armored cross between two breeds, Hybrid, shiny metallic full body suit of armor on the doe figure, soft metal bunny ears, spiked fluffy fox tail, amethyst headlights for eyes, and last but not least, fangs with a pair of buck teeth pattern on muzzle part of helmet.

Hybrid hit the syringe two times “ACT-ACTIVATE” to activate the enhanced senses in order to find the criminal feline and marsupial; the united duo were able to locate them readily.

“Let’s get this over with. We have suspects to hunt down.” Judy said, keeping the guard up.

“You bet~ I don’t plan to waste my precious day-off.” Nick’s voice came out from the armored blend of a fox and a rabbit.

Nick launched Hybrid at the weasel, extending the claws, aiming to lacerate the monster’s flesh.

As it was, the Savage dodged the attack by inches. Hybrid landed staggeringly before whirling to maintain balance and strike again, still it evaded every attack by swaying from side to side.

“I’ve run out of patience.” The tod retracted the claws to throw a punch. The weasel ducked down, which went according to plan. Hybrid then kicked straight upward.

Savage flipped backward, yet both fox and rabbit did not feel Hybrid’s foot hit anything. This signified that it managed to avoid the kick.

“Is it just me, or-” Nick was about to complain.

“Is this Savage quite peculiar?” Judy took over Hybrid’s vocal organs to express her doubt.

“Gotta prove something real quick” She charged at the monster, lowering the torso, spinning around while leg sweeping on the floor.

Yet again, Hybrid failed to hit Savage . It jumped on Hybrid’s shoulders and then leapt off.

Standing upright, the mixed breed faced onto the weasel monster crouching near the senseless fox’s body lying close to the wall.

Nick and Judy were amazed by this Savage’s action.

In the past, they had certainly come across Savages keeping distance from Hybrid during fights. The duo knew well that these monsters are not mindless living organisms. They are capable of thinking and responding to their environment.

For all that, this one could come up with strategies, keeping its distance to a minimum, dodging the attacks. Furthermore, it did not try to fight back.

When Hybrid was full of openings, a great opportunity to assault, it just jumped over the cross-breed although it could have pounced on the armored mammal.

And importantly, the Savage did not even go after a motionless prey such as Nick’s unconscious body.

Overall, it appeared as if all this monster did was to… buy time...

Thereafter, Hybrid’s enhanced hearing perceived van engine sound clearly, two vans to be exact. They were going to depart subsequent to each picking up two different passengers, which could suggest that the duo would lose those criminals unless they made a move.

“Oh, no you don’t.” Nick gripped driver’s handle, intending to twist it forth twice in order to become Hybrid Archer form.

Archer form would allow them to fire tracking arrows curvedly from Hybrid’s position to the vans.

No sooner had the fox changed the form than the weasel sprang at Hybrid.

Hybrid let go of the handle and struggle to get the Savage off the face. However, the monster clung onto the mixed-breed real tightly.

All of a sudden, the weasel Savage puffed up, pupils glowing hot purple, before it burst apart. A gushing boiling mist erupted. The explosive force blew Hybrid away to the wall.

The armored mammal fell down, sitting next to tod’s body, feeling dizzy, ringing in the ears, dim vision, owing to explosion. As a result, the duo were unable to detect the criminals’ whereabouts any longer.

Even though they were almost out of commission in that period, they were responsive enough to discern surroundings like pedestrians passing the mouth of the alley.

With the Savage being gone, they should detransform before any mammals saw Hybrid and passed out Nick together. Judy was going to pull the syringe.

“Not yet, Judy. You’ll receive damage if we detransform now. Wait a moment.” Nick, taking control of the body, stopped Hybrid’s left arm.

Judy agreed with him, thereby waiting. 1.. 2.. 3.. 4- While counting on to ten in her mind, she as well as Nick heard sirens of SCU vehicles.

Both conjectured the event might turn out worse if SCU managed to capture them. Therefore, 5-6-7-8-9-10! Judy quickened counting numbers and pulled the syringe once she reached 10.

Soon afterwards, Wolford, a member of SCU patrol team, chanced upon the familiar doe and tod in casual wear leaning against the wall in the alleyway as his team van was running past the lane between buildings.

He asked his crewmates to stop the van so that he could get off the van.

“Wilde! Hopps! Are you okay!? What happened?” Wolford rushed to see his police friends.

“We’re good.” The fox gave the rabbit support to stand.

“We happened on likely illicit trade.” She answered, informing only partial truth, keeping the Savage and Hybrid part a secret.

It was lucky for them that they had done detransformation and also put MidniDrivers away earlier than the dark brown timber wolf’s arrival.

“Where are SCU folks heading off in such a hurry?” The fox changed the topic to avoid any further questions about their situation from the wolf.

“SCU got several reports that Savages are going on a rampage in Rainforest District, plus battling with Hybrid!” Wolford claimed.

Nick and Judy traded a perplexed glance.

Savages are battling with Hybrid in Rainforest District…? They questioned how it was possible since they two, who could morph into Hybrid, were here in Savanna Central.

A few days later, Judy, dressed in her uniform, was reading papers in the police office cubicle, which was what she was supposed to do, but actually, she was busy thinking another thing.

Mammals reported to SCU that Savages with fighting with Hybrid while Nick and I were somewhere else… Impossible! How did it happen? Giving false evidence? But SCU team won’t flocked to the scene, unless they confirm the statement. Therefore, falsehood is out of the question.

Was it misunderstanding? Then again, who would mistake an armored mammal ,capable of defeating Savages alone, for somebody else?

“Overthinking about that whole the other day stuff?” Judy’s fox partner with rolled-up uniform sleeves and loosened tie was sitting on an office chair next to her.

“Sorry, I know I should focus on the case, still it keeps bugging me.” She apologized, ears drooping.

For the past few days, most of the works were checking cctv footage and finding the clips that had missing parts. Fortunately, they did not require much thought.

On the other hand, when it comes to searching for the relation among these clips, it is a task which undeniably demands analyzing.

Rabbit officer had trouble reading the papers that she together with the fox collected information for since she constantly got distracted to think about Hybrid matter and also... the one odd Savage.

“About that monster we fought with… Its movements, its actions, they all were clearly abnormal.” She stroked her chin, frowning.

“Tell me about it. Although dumb dumb Savages aren’t brainless creatures, that one acted beyond primal instincts.” He put his paws behind his head, leaning against a backrest.

“Who can we ask about this?” She fell face down on table, arms pushing papers aside lightly. “Mr. Know-everybody, are you familiar with someone that knows about Savages?” She was dispirited.

“Umm… Let’s see, someone that probably knows Savages pretty well huh?” Nick’s index finger digital pad tapped the tip of his mouth before he snapped his fingers. “Oh! How about Professor!?”

Judy instantly lifted her head and quickly turned her face to Nick, “He’s already woken from coma!?” getting all worked up.

“Not sure. I have no clue~” He replied, shrugging.

“Then why did you mention him!?” She was still worked up but in upset way this time.

“Well, you asked me “am I familiar with some Savage experts?”.” Nick did an air quotes gesture, giving an obnoxious smug.

Judy rolled her eyes in response, sighing deeply. She went back to face lying down on the table.

“Are you ok? You look tired.” In spite of his usual frivolous tone, Nick’s facial expression grew solemn.

“Mentally tired. Thanks to you...” Judy was not even bothered looking at him.

A knock at the cubicle wall startled the doe. Consequently, she leapt to her partner’s lap. Momentum from a leap made tod’s chair rotate towards a mammal who just knocked on panel.

“Uhh, Hopps... Wilde...” That mammal was none other than their superior, Chief Bogo. He was bewildered by his officers’ action.

“Ch-Ch-Cha-Chift!” Judy hastily got off Nick’s lap to stand upright.

“Come to my office now.” Ignoring what had just happened, Bogo led the duo to his office.

Along the way, the red fox talked with the European rabbit quietly enough that the Cape buffalo was less likely to hear them.

“Carrots, what was that?”

“I really dunno. It seems… I’m used to feeling that if something happens, I must protect your body first.”

“Good grief… I had no idea since when I became the damsel-in-distress.”

It may turn out that the bunny developed a habit of protecting fox’s body owing to experiences of looking after his senseless body while being Hybrid.

The buffalo came to a halt even though they had not reached his office yet. The duo stopped as well, then poked their heads from behind the buffalo to see what brought their chief to a standstill.

“What’s your secret to looking so young, sir?”

“Oh please, Clawhauser~ You’re flattering me~ It probably has to do with my small size.”

“I still can’t believe Director Mickey is in mid-50’s. I initially misthought you’re younger than Chief Bogo.”

“Is that so, Fangmeyer? Ha ha. Oh hi pal~”

While Mickey Mouse (Director of DIB), Benjamin Clawhauser (a receptionist and a radio dispatcher of ZPD) and Jasmine Fangmeyer (SCU agent) were chit chatting at a reception desk, the director turned to say hi to the duo. Moreover, he stood on the desk, so he could talk to larger mammals easier.

“Mouse..., why you aren’t waiting in the office??” Bogo sounded somewhat surprised to see Mickey outside his office.

“Waiting alone is rather boring. That’s why I came out here~ Thank you two for keeping me company.”

“My pleasure, sir! Still, you seriously look so young! It’s unbelievable that you actually are older than chief.”

Clawhauser’s comment impelled Bogo to touch his own face in order to check wrinkles.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Director Mickael Mouse.” Judy raised her right paw to salute, so did Nick.

“Come on~ It’s just Mickey~” Mickey chuckled mildly.

The duo, as well as their chief, approached the desk.

“How can we help you?” Nick conjectured why Bogo called him and Judy to his office. In addition, he reckoned that Director Mouse was possibly wanting something from them.

“Let’s cut to the chase then~ I’d like to ask you a favor to participate in a school assembly.”

“What kind of assemblies, sir?” Judy quizzed.

“Well, you see~ We at DIB, ZPD and SCU must have a responsibility to educate children about dangers in society.”

“But why specify us?” Nick also inquired.

“You two are packed with fame, perfectly fit for representing police public image~” Mickey gave a thumbs up. “Besides, you look tired, Hopps. Taking a break from the cases and doing this work instead doesn’t sound bad, don’t ya think?” He gave the other thumbs up.

Judy felt like Mickey said the last part about looking tired just to convince her to join in the assembly.

“We’d love to participate but-”

Once she uttered the word ‘but’, Bogo interrupted.

“The world has always been broken; therefore, we need good cops, like you, to guide future generation.” He patted Judy on the shoulder, gazing upon the duo.

Why does it sound extremely familiar? She doubted.

He’s simply trying to not upset Director Mouse, isn’t he? Nick wondered.

Seeing that the bunny balked at helping out, “It’ll be fun to work together, don’t cha think?” Jasmine stepped in to convince them as well.

“I’ll go along too.” Clawhauser said.

“Yeah. You’re great with kits, Ben.” Tigress complimented the cheetah.

As for the doe, she sensed pressure from everyone on her and Nick.

“It’s not like I don’t wanna go. It just so happens Nick and I haven’t completed analysing cctv footage related to missing mammal-”

At that moment, a pair of cops, wearing police overcoats, entered through the doorway.

The bengal tiger officer with winter turban on his head was shivering while “Tundratown is bloody cold.” complaining in Indian English accent, which actually is his natural accent and fits his tongue the most. He still had not recovered from a chill to the bone.

“Aren’t you used to patrolling that district yet? It’s been many months.” A bear, walking beside the tiger, said.

“I stand by my point, Mr. Polar bear.” He switched to an American accent.

“For the last time, despite my white fur, I’m a grizzly bear just like my parents.” The polar bear argued sincerely.

The tiger averted his eyes, not bothered to correct his partner’s belief, then noted mammals gathering around the reception desk. He subsequently met tigress’ eyes coincidentally.

“Jackson!” Jasmine the bengal tigress loped to greet Jackson Rajah the bengal tiger with a friendly hug. “Why didn’t ya tell me you come here today!?”

“Ahh Umm aarr...” The zoned out tiger’s heart beat fast. Freezing in place, he barely prepared himself for a very warm welcome from a certain mammal he did not expect running into.

“I’m gonna go ahead. Later, amigo~” The snickering bear walked away.

“Wait! Where are you going!?” Regaining his senses, the tiger shouted.

“Hi Grizzoli!”

“Hi Fangmeyer~” The white bear greeted the tigress (his former teammate) back as he ignored his current feline partner, leaving him behind.

“So… What’s up with you guys gathering here?” The more awkward Rajah felt, the stiffer he became.

“Here the thing.” Jasmine led him to others, paw in paw. “We’re inviting Jude and Wilde to a school assembly. However, she said they’ve not finished analysis yet.” She summarized the situation.

“If it’s about the missing mammal cases...” Once he perceived that he was still holding Jasmine’s paw, he pulled his paw out promptly, “L-let me help you...” hurriedly budging away from her.

“But Jackson, you just patrolled all night.” Clawhauser mentioned. As a secretary, he pretty much memorized most of other officers’ shifts.

“Eh? You must be worn out. Shouldn’t you head home for now?”

“Getting some rest in a nap room and I’ll be ready to get back at work.” Rajah answered Jasmine, smiling to relieve her concern.

“Thanks bud! You are our hero!” She gave the tiger another hug which made him tense up again and slightly blush.

On the plus side, we apparently don’t have to worry about the cases. Judy considered optimistically. “Okay, I’ll join.” She agreed to help out.

“Count me in~” Nick planned to tag along after her, no matter what decision she chose. If she decided to take part in the assembly, he would participate too.

“It’s settled then. Sorry to bother you.” Bogo sighed with relief, casting his gaze on two small officers.

On the cheetah side, he glanced at the chief, ears bending limply, mouth turning down with a slight pull to the corners. His expression was subtle enough that no one noticed.

“Thanks for your sacrifice, you...” The mouse director intended to say the bengal tiger’s name. Unfortunately, he did not know the officer’s name.

“Rajah, Jackson Rajah.” Tiger introduced himself.

“You have such high spirits, Rajah~” Mickey beamed at Rajah. Jackson Rajah… His name sorta rings a bell…

.-- .... .- - / .-- . / . -..- .--. .-. . ... …

At one local elementary school in Downtown, two SCU agents (Fangmeyer the bengal tigress and Keaton the Andalusian horse), Three ZPD officers (Clawhauser the cheetah, Hopps the European rabbit and Wilde the red fox) and a teal-colored platypus DIB agent called an assembly in a gymnasium, standing respectively in front of children sitting on the stands. Between the large spotted cat and the bunny was a Savage slide show projected on a protector screen

Nick was dressed appropriately under the circumstances, neat and tidy, unrolled sleeves and tightened necktie.

They were in middle of educating students about the monsters, Savages.

“Alright. Now, everybody understands what Savages are and how dangerous they can be. But you see, some of them may look similar to us, mammals. Who could give me an answer about the difference between Savages and mammals?” After adults provided a basic explanation of the monsters, Jasmine asked the children.

She picked the kids who raised their paws to answer one at a time.

“Those monsters are all purple!”

“Our eyes only glow in the dark, while theirs also glow in daylight.”

“Their saliva drip everywhere.”

“Yours too”

A child teased another child, resulting in titters from the rest. Hence, a teacher got them to pipe down.

“They all act savage!”

“No, duh. Captain Obvious.” One student replied, causing the young mammals on stands to burst out laughing.

ZPD officers, including the former one, giggled at how children behaved, which reminded them of their childhood.

“Well done!” Feline SCU agent complimented young mammals.

After that, Clawhauser, the other feline, added. “On top of that, we all can walk on two feet and talk but Savages, of course, cannot.” He displayed a friendly manner.

“At any rate, supposing you kits, cubs, pups spot injured Savages, you should stay away from them because they have a high pain tolerance-” Jasmine paused a bit to check whether the elementary school students understood the vocabulary or not. “-and can heal rapidly. It’s not safe to get close to them even though they’re severely injured.” She warned.

Shortly afterward, Judy stated further details. “It might be hard to distinguish those monsters being wounded in the first place, since they don’t bleed, more likely that they are unable to..., unlike when we get hurt. For instance, if we trip and fall, we will bleed and it will take some time for wounds to be completely healed after cleaning them and putting on bandage.”

Maximus the SCU team leader attempted to educate kids as well. “The other major difference is that when we die, our hearts stop, no more breathing, we’ll fall into an eternal slumber, not be able to move any longer…, except if tendons or muscles jerk, which results in corpses twitching.”

Slowly turning their heads, other adults glared at the stallion. Jasmine had already predicted this, knowing her boss did not have bad intentions but sometimes, he could come across as a not quite kid-friendly guy.

“I’m not sure whether he was serious or he just horsed around~” Nick gossiped about Maximus in jest with platypus agent who only made the growling noise in response.

Still not talk huh? Nick thought.

“However, when Savages die, they will come to rest and then vaporize into nothing.”

Subsequent to Maximus done speaking, there was a calf lifting a hoof to ask a question. “Where do we go after death?”

The question stunned the adults so much that they were at a loss for words, afraid of accidentally making a wrong move that leads to speaking of things which potentially go against some beliefs.

Suddenly, the fox cop decided to take action. “Kits, it’s kinda like taking indefinite leave for a sleep.”

“Lying in bed all day must be nice.”

“But only sleeping sounds boring.”

Children chatted with each other.

“Trust me kiddos, once you reach a certain age, you would desire to sleep all the time.”

Hearing Nick’s relatable assertion, teachers had a hard time keeping a straight face.

“Okay, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.” Jasmine stated. “Yes?” She pointed to a cub.

“Have you ever met that one superhero in person?” The cub quizzed.

“Well, everyone is a hero in their own ways.” Maximus responded, flattered as he imagined that kids may look up to him who constantly protects the city.

“No no! I mean a real superhero like Hybrid on TV!”

The agents together with the officers were mildly shocked when the name of the armored cross-breed mammal was mentioned.

“Can he fly?”

“How do you know it’s he?”

“I think this hero is a girl.”

Most of the youngsters began to speak (partly arguing) loudly. Meanwhile, Judy was trying her best to prevent herself from smiling, almost not paying attention to stuffs around her anymore. She had never seen Hybrid as ‘a hero’, even after she heard Clawhauser called her and Nick’s combined alter ego ‘that’. However, she felt rather praised when these children regarded this alter ego as not merely a hero but a superhero.

The fox officer caught a glimpse of his partner’s reserved smile, thus “Aw, you look so hoppy, Hopps~” joshing her softly, which made the bunny redden.

After the fuss had settled down, “Let’s go over the important matter again. Whenever you find Savage, what should you do?” the tigress tested the students.

“Stay safe and contact SCU immediately.” They answered simultaneously.

“Excellent!” She praised them, clapping her paws a few times.

All of a sudden, there was a door slammed open. A large brown mole janitor, wearing round glasses, rushed in the gymnasium. “Holy crud! Big problem!! Savages are outside!”

-.. ..- - -.-- / - --- / . -.. ..- -.-. .- - .

Following a quick nap, Rajah kept his word. He was reading the papers which Nick and Judy wrote while sipping coffee at his cube. The overcoat was hung on a back of office chair. As for his turban, he laid it on a desk.

The tiger compared the papers related to the missing mammal cases with CCTV footage in ZPD’s database. He also looked at the cases that he took responsibility for investigation.

“It can’t be...” Mumbling, he grew more sullen, disturbed by the supposition formed in his mind. “I hope I’m wrong...”

.-- .. ... .... / - --- / -... . / .-- .-. --- -. --.

During a commotion, Nick and Judy seized an opportunity, telling others that they would go out to check on civilians outdoors. But, in fact, they pinpointed the target, three of mid-sized macropodine Savages wandering the school’s courtyard, sticking together.

The duo made a detour to hide behind walls, an out of sight spot. They were about to transform.

“Ready partner?” Judy brought out her MidniDriver, then put it on. Its belt wrapped around her waist automatically.

“Born ready~” Nick, wearing his morpher, flopped down sideways towards the rabbit. As a result, she reached paws forward to catch him before he could fall down on the ground.

“What’s wrong, Nick!? Are you ok??” Having her heart in her mouth, she carried his upper body carefully.

“I’ll eventually fall on the ground anyway. Skipping some steps wouldn’t hurt~” He pulled his syringe. “DRAW BLOOD”

She rolled her eyes in annoyance, then pressed her device’s syringe “INJECT”, supporting Nick’s falling unconscious body with one arm.

Next, she laid him down and moved her right paw to twist the handle back “IGNITE”.

Driver emitted purple steam, followed by mist explosion covering the bunny entirely. Accordingly, she transformed into the flamingo red full-armored rabbit with fox features (especially the tail), Hybrid Hustler form.

In order not to waste any time, they pushed the syringe “ACTIVATE” to activate instantaneous movement, which allows Hybrid to travel from one point to another instantly.

The duo chose to use this ability instead of running into battle so that nobody saw Hybrid come out from where they were hiding Nick’s body and would start to suspect them.

Hybrid appeared out of thin air above the courtyard. Feet landed on the field. They made a majestic entrance, or that was what they went for, but it turned out that during the landing, Hybrid slipped and fell over.

It did not hurt, but both got shocked what happened nonetheless. The fox and the bunny, sharing the same body, had a feeling of something wet and slippery on the ground.

“Hybrid?” Maximus was guarding gymnasium’s doorway when he unintentionally blurted out.

Two other agents and a feline officer were also surprised to see the armored mammal emerge from nowhere.

“Hybrid!? Where? Where!?” The thrilled children, overhearing the name, wanted to get a good look at a real life superhero, so the adults obstructed them from leaving the building.

The sensitive rabbit ears picked up young mammals’ voice calling Hybrid. Judy was embarrassed to picture that they caught sight of Hybrid slipping down, hence taking control of the body real quick to get up.

Hybrid was confronting Savages with avian feathers. One had a hooked bill in place of a snout. One’s hind legs developed into bird legs. Another one did not have arms but had a pair of wings instead.

“Fangmeyer, call reinforcements. Officer Clawhauser, Mr. DIB agent, protect citizens.” Maximus the horse drew out a pistol, planning to shoot down the monsters. Too bad, the distance between him and the target was too far. Furthermore, he did not have much special ammo for dealing with Savage at the moment; therefore, he stepped on the field to close the distance.

However, he slipped and tumbled after a few steps, neighing shrilly.

There was black watery substance patchily all over the courtyard. Those macropodine Savages coughed slimy liquids everywhere.

Judy began to surmise what this black fluid was, “Saliva!? Ewwwww!!!” disgusted by it. She carefully avoided not to step on wet areas again but-

“All aboard!” Nick, in charge of the body, dashed forth, sliding on the slippery ground with extended leg. Hybrid kicked the macropods in their legs, tripping them over.

“What’s the-!?” Judy wished to reproach Nick for taking her body through a disgusting mess. But before she could finish her sentence, Nick lifted Hybrid’s left index finger to touch the center of the helmet’s muzzle part as a signal for her not to raise her voice.

If other mammals hear Judy’s voice from Hybrid, not Nick’s voice as usual, they will suspect.

Judy could only stay silent, swallowing frustration.

Soon after falling down, hooked billed one raised its head and then ejected slippery dark liquid through its mouth.

The duo were going to dodge the monster’s vomit. Unfortunately, because of slimy floor, Hybrid was unable to spring over far enough to evade the black watery matter and consequently blocked some liquids with left arm.

“Ew! Ew! It’s all wet and oily!” The doe grumbled.

Since it was difficult to run or jump around on the slippery floor like this, she aimed to activate the instant movement ability in order to get close to the monsters and attack them.

However, the left side of morpher got coated by black slime that must be from the hooked billed Savage’s previous attack. The paws slipped when Hybrid tried to push the syringe.

“What’s this thing?” Judy sniffed at stuffs covering the body.

Nick could smell- “Oil?”

In this state, long range attack was more suitable, yet Police form’s gun might spark a fire with oil around them, which was too dangerous, especially nearby school buildings full of civilians. That being the case, Hybrid twisted the handle forth twice “FORM SHIFT-ARCHER” to switch to the most fitting form for this situation.

Armor gaps released purple steam which removed the oil on the body. The doe’s figure enveloped in the fog from the device, core of which brightened along with amethyst headlight eyes.

Hybrid pivoted around to clear the brume, revealing the flamingo red bio-armored mixed breed in green leather tunic, hood with red feather, charcoal mark on face that resembles eye mask.

At the time they were done changing form and “ACTIVATE” summoning a bow, Maximus finally straightened up after several failed attempts. He switched off the pistol safety catch.

Hearing sound of toggling a lever, Judy rapidly turned to SCU’s leader. “Don’t shoot! These black liquids might be an oil!” Nick shouted. Both feared that his firearm could ignite the huge flame with oil on the ground.

“Shut up, Hybrid!” The horse yelled back. “I’ll arrest you later-”

Seeing him not listening, Hybrid generated an arrow from right wrist, then shot it at him. An arrowhead broke off, allowing a boxing glove inside it to pop up.

The boxing glove arrow hit Maximus right in his face, knocking him down, successfully preventing him from firing a gun.

“Please look after that guy. Thank you.” Nick requested Jasmine. Despite confusion, she agreed to do what she was asked, pulling her boss back into gymnasium.

When Hybrid turned back, Savages had already got up, two of them coming towards Hybrid, the other one with avian legs bounding in the direction of a narrow way between buildings where the duo hid Nick’s body.

While they were experiencing difficulties in moving on the oily surface, these monsters easily moved around as they pleased.

Judy hastily created a new lethal arrow to shoot the bird legged macropod. Abruptly, the hooked billed one threw up on Hybrid once more. The right paw was splashed with the black oil. The arrow slipped through greasy fingers, flying to strike the bird legged monster’s calf. It missed the viral spots that Judy aimed for.

“Tsk” The doe disapproved of the outcome, the bird legged Savage still, a bit slower, advanced. She tried to shoot it again but the other two interfered her by assaulting Hybrid.

She “ACTIVATE” summoned a sword to deal with the billed one and the winged one. However, due to the greasy right paw, Hybrid dropped the sword. The only option left at the moment was to avoid the continuous attacks.

As Hybrid was dodging the attacks, she grew anxious more and more, worried about tod’s body.

“Calm down, Carrots.” He comforted her. It was not like he did not worry, even so he was more concerned about his buddy, feeling the bunny’s body tremble from a surge of anxiety.

What should I do? Should I chase that Savage? But if I leave here, our friends and civilians will be put into danger…. But Nick! What should I do? The doe concentrated.

In a critical second, a monitor of Archer form detected an incoming object.

A flash passed in front of Hybrid. The very next image Nick and Judy saw was that two Savages were blown away, which greatly puzzled them.

“Stop spacing out~”

Both swiftly turned Hybrid’s head to the source of male fruity voice. The owner of the voice was a silver chrome full suited (from head to toes) wolf with a reflective black bar over the eyes, two black thunderbolt stripes mirroring each other on abdomen, and solar panels on chest as well as shoulders.

“I’ll take care of the rest. Hurry up and go to your body already~” The mysterious wolf said sotto voce, pointing at an area where Nick’s body were, when the Savages that was just collided started to target him.

Wait! That guy knows about my unconscious body? Nick was undeniably aghast, whereas Judy “FORM SHIFT-HUSTLER” only thought about saving Nick, changing back to Hustler form by twisting the handle forth with left paw.

She moved Hybrid’s leg to sprint through the oiled courtyard. The gusting steam from changing the form blew away the liquid on spots of the ground Hybrid stepped on. Once they reached the edge of the courtyard field where there was no slippery oil, “ACTIVATE” she ran at the astonishing speed to follow the bird legged Savage to the narrow path between buildings.

When Hybrid turned around the corner, they found it poking Nick’s senseless body. Judy, without second thought, twisted the handle back. “CRITICAL BREAK” Hybrid sped up to the point of becoming a red blur with amethyst light lines alongside and then leaped, rolling front flip in mid-air, to kill the monster with a double kick blow.

Hybrid landed backflip before hastening to check on Nick’s body.

“Nick! Are you alright?” Judy’s voice shivered.

“I think so. Still looking handsome and all-” He looked at his own unconscious body, commending in fun.

“Return to your body to make sure!” She did not care about the joke, pulling the syringe, sending his mind back to his body.

The armor let out purple mist, then disappeared. Her body and clothes were back to the previous state.

Nick woke up afterwards. “Yeah I-” After pressing his syringe to inject the blood, “I’m fine.” he continued.

“What a relief…” Judy sighed. “Now! Let’s transform and beat the rest!”

“You detransformed just for this!?” Nick precipitately sat up.

“Quick!” She rushed him.

But then, both heard a footstep… The shadow, representing the familiar feline figure, was cast on the floor. They looked back to the way they two as Hybrid just ran on… Standing at the corner was Benjamin Clawhauser, the cheetah ZPD officer.

     A fleeing sports car came to a screeching halt. Officer Judy Hopps and Officer Nick Wilde exited their patrol cruiser then approached a street racer. “Sir, you were going 115 miles per hour. I hope you have a good explanation.” Judy informed.

    However, when the driver’s window moved down, the lawbreaker was revealed to be… “Flash? Flash? Hundred yard dash!?” Nick took off his shades to get a good look at the driver. It was Flash the sloth.

“. . . N i c k” Flash called out the brand new cop’s name at a seriously slow pace.

    That was the first assignment of Nick and Judy as partners. It felt like yesterday although it had already been three year since back then. In the morning at the Zootopia Police Department headquarters, there were some minor changes here and there, new faces, transferred employees, some… had gone...

“All right. Everybody! Sit! Today, I have an important announcement.” A mammal standing at the podium was no one other than Chief Bogo, a male Cape buffalo and the chief of the Zootopia Police Department or ZPD for short.

“Sir, aren’t you tired from being a chief for many years? Consider settling down?” The fox senior police officer teased his supervisor.

“It’s too early to get rid of me, Wilde.” Chief quipped as a response to the first and still the only one fox cop in the department, Nick Wilde, which got a laugh out of others in the bullpen. This playful behaviour had become a routine at work. It lightened up the mood and helped reinforcing a positive impression towards the fox.

    Bogo put on glasses to read the report in his hoof. “Ahem. Y’all might have already known. Just to remind you, the missing mammal cases that occurred these recent years in the Canals, the Meadowlands, the Nocturnal District, Outback Island, Sherwood and Bunnyburrow-” He paused to glance at one officer after he mentioned her hometown. Senior Officer Judy Hopps, who shared a front roll seat with her partner Nick, was listening attentively. Moreover, she seemed tense. It was understandable for Bogo. He breathed in and resumed. “Just now, there is progress in those cases. Police from other precincts found clues that lead to Zootopia. A few of you are needed to work on them. Treat ’em as your priority. Assignments!” The buffalo was about to give assignments but he felt the urge to emphasize current situation. “Oh by the way, if anybody encounters Savage , escort citizens in the area, contact SCU and stay away from Savage. Understand?”

“Yes’sir” Every police in the bullpen burst out in reply, not exactly every single one.

    Bogo inspected Judy being quiet. She averted her eyes when they met with Bogo’s. He knew immediately what was on her mind. “Officer Hopps. Parking duty.”

    The bunny cop went all alert. “What!? Chief-” She wanted to argue. However, Bogo interrupted. “Now… do you understand?” He repeated intimidatingly.

.--. .- .-. - -. . .-. ...

“This is ridiculous! Can’t believe after all these years, I got assigned a parking duty again!” Judy grunted. At Downtown street, she and her partner, Nick Wilde, were standing next to a patrol car that Chief let them drive instead of meter maid cart because of current city situation… It would be dangerous, not fast enough to escape...

“Chill, Fluff. Besides, if either of us is supposed to complain. I should be the one since I tag along with you.” Wearing sunglasses, Nick swirled a cup of coffee in his paw.

“You don’t have to say that. I’ve felt bad already.” Judy sighed, feeling blameworthy that she was a reason the fox was punished as well… He would not let her go through hard time alone. That sort of made her happy, yet also built up a guilt.

“Hey, we are duo through thick ’n thin no matter what, Carrots. And where is your positivity? Couple of years ago, you still found a way to challenge ourselves doing this kind of tasks. Aren’t ya gonna write hundreds of tickets or something?” This was not the first time they were assigned a parking duty together but as Nick stated, Judy used to bring out a spirit to any assignments.

“I will if it’s possible! Look! There are scarcely few cars on street!” The bunny pointed out their surroundings. Road was clear, not many cars running or parking, which was probably what they expected when Bogo intended to keep them far from the battleground. Therefore, he gave them this disciplinary penalty for acting stubborn.

“Consider this taking things slow then.” The tod sip his coffee. “Snarlbucks blueberry coffee is delish.”

    Judy put on a half-smile. She loved her partner’s blueberry obsession but the smile turned to frown. “How can I slow down? The city is-”

“Go ahead, patrol, Judy, my dear.” Old lady voice attracted the doe’s attention, causing rabbit ears to flick. Judy turned around to greet. “Officer Mabel!” An elderly female goat meter maid, walking with a cane, waved the hand to greet back. “Don’t be worried. I can cover for you two. It has been a light work since nobody dares to roam the streets anyway.” said Mabel.

    Judy grinned and ran to open the driver door of police car. “Thank you, Officer Mabel! Call us if anything happens! Nick! Get in a car!” The bunny ordered, yet Nick tarried. “Hang on~ I wanna appreciate some peaceful moments more-” He was going to take another sip.  A door of passenger seat was opened from the inside, a bunny paw reached out and grabbed his tie. “Hurry!” Judy crawled from driver seat to passenger seat and opened the door to get her partner who struck a pose outside the cruiser. She dragged him in. The fox staggered into a car. “Mah coffee!” almost dropped his cup. They closed the doors in unison then the doe started the engine.

“Good luck” Mabel wished two officers luck as they departed.

- .... .. -.-. -.- / .- -. -.. / - .... .. -.

    After hours of patrolling around Downtown and Rainforest district, both arrived at Cliffside Asylum. There were a group of mammals yelling at a guard. Bunny cop turned off the engine to take a look.

“You folks ain’t allowed to come in here!” A wolf guard stopped teenage camera crew at the gate. The crew was consisted of bear, fox, rabbit, raccoon and skunk.

“C’mon! We’re not messing around!” A bear, holding a camera, shouted. A skunk flipped a script and assisted protesting. “We’re here to film a documentary.” Juveniles clamored. A rabbit buck brought out a phone to record a video. “This building is wicked! It was involved in former-mayor Lionheart mammal abduction and Savage-”

“No video!” The guard swatted buck’s phone away, standing ground to say no to the youngsters.

    Judy monitored the fuss, speaking nonspecifically. “Ever since then, this place has been forbidden. Suspicious-”

“Hold your horses! Forget about investigation. Even the high ranked police strenuously get a warrant.” Removing his shades, Nick interjected. The mentioned fact distressed the doe. She moaned while staring out the window. Shortly afterwards, Judy jerked, making Nick flinched. He shifted his focus to the same direction as his partner, spotting other raccoon going through the gate when wolf guard was busy dealing with camera crew.

“The thing is, you don’t need a warrant if you have probable cause-” Judy stated then Nick added promptly. “And you saw a potential criminal sneaking in.”

“Bingo~” The doe exclaimed. “Sly bunny~” Tod commented.

“Let’s go. And don’t forget your driver!” She said.

“How can you carry it with you all the time?” He questioned. “I have my own method.” Bunny responded. Nick and Judy got off the car and used this chance while the guard being distracted to sneak into the complex.

    Inside the asylum, which had dramatically changed, wrecked and abandoned, demolished walls, ceilings and floors, equipments and stuff scattering all over the place, blood stain…, the raccoon intruder held a flashlight in his mouth as he rummaged through a crumbled laboratory. “Where is it? Geez...” Raccoon expressed annoyance. He kept searching though his jaw felt sore from holding the flashlight. But he turned down the light and ducked under a table when he heard some noise, peeping who or what was coming. Two police officers, fox and rabbit, more than enough to identify who they are, scouted about. Nick pointed at one direction and moved his paw in and out, suggesting he should go that way. Judy shook her head to reject Nick’s suggestion. She pointed at Nick, drew her paw in and tapped her chest with index finger, advising him not to separate but stick together.

Shoot! Cops!! At least, it’s mammal. I can grab it quickly and get out of here before- Speaking of the devil, the most terrifying thing Raccoon wished he did not encounter emerged.

    The partner’s ears captured a scream. They rushed to the source of sound, surprisingly bumping against the intruder. Apparently, he was fleeing from something and there was no need to guess because it followed the raccoon not far behind. Its pupils were glowing in the dark. The duo instantly perceived what it was.

“RunRunRunRunRun!!” Judy commanded incessantly. They raced down the hallway, avoiding tripping concrete wreckage.

“Still some left in here? Good grief~” Nick grumbled.

“Savage ...” Judy called a monster that was after them, the mammal-like purple creatures which had threatened Zootopia since one year ago, their behavior resembled the fierce feral animals. Therefore, they were named Savage. This one looked similar to a jaguar. However, it had the exoskeleton covering its body and a strip of long fur lined down its spine. Its saliva dripped everywhere while it was chasing police and civilian on all four.

“Bunny! Aren’t you a cop? Shoot it!” Raccoon bawled.

“I have only tranq gun and it doesn’t work on them!” Judy’s lethal weapon was confiscated when she received an assignment that those types of weapons are not necessary.

“Use mine.” Nick gave Judy a pistol. “H-How?” Puzzled, the doe inquired. Subsequently, tod riposted. “I’m not the one getting punished. remember?” Both beamed at each other. Judy grasped Nick’s pistol. It is a bit too big for her paws but she could work on it. Nick offered his firearm since Judy is a better shooter than him. She started firing on Savage which was pursuing them.

“For the last time, no means no! You can’t go in-” The wolf guard addressed the final warning to the teenagers before ears perked up to catch the roar from the asylum. Wolf rotated to get a glimpse, three mammals running away from Jaguar Savage . “Okay, you kids do whatever you please. I gonna call SCU.” Guard and camera crew split.

“You! That way!” Judy told the raccoon, pointing different direction. They made it out of building, still Savage kept hunting them.

“Don’t leave me, Coppah!” He whined. Nick swiftly corrected raccoon’s thought. “We will decoy that monster. Now, go!” Fox stressed. The raccoon hesitated. He eventually escaped to hide around the corner of the asylum.

“Finally, we’re left alone.” The doe heaved a sigh of relief. “Ready, partner?” She stopped abruptly, so did the tod. They about-faced the monster and brought out the devices. “Here we go again” Nick was mentally prepared. Both put them over the front middle of waist.

    The devices are identical, arm-sized black machine with purple 1.25 inch diameter flat circle at the center, maroon motorcycle handlebar on the right half and silver syringe having a 45 degree tilt. The devices extended the belt to wrap around the wearer's waist.

    Nick pulled the syringe which has spring mechanism. It was drawn back automatically after he let it go. “ DRAW BLOOD ” Nick’s device spoke robotically. Blood filled in Nick’s syringe then it teleported into the syringe of Judy’s device. Judy pressed the syringe which sprang out on its own. “ INJECT ” Judy’s device spoke robotically as well. Fox’s blood was injected into rabbit. He fell asleep standing up, lying unconsciously on the ground.

    Savage was charging at the duo. Rabbit uttered. “Transform!” Then she twisted the device’s handle anticlockwise with her right paw. “ IGNITE ” Judy’s device spoke. The handle was twisted back by the spring mechanism. It released purple steam, followed by the hot purple mist explosion. Savage halted, viewing the mist swallowing the bunny whole. In the thick fog, device core illuminated, two amethyst headlamps shone up where Judy eyes are. The mist was fading, revealing a flamingo red full suit head-to-toe bio armoured Hybrid between a fox and a rabbit, obvious Judy’s body type, soft metal long rabbit ears, red long fluffy fox tail made of spikes instead of fur, light green torso with blue stripe on front dividing left and right, grayish-tan lower body except flamingo red feet, stylish headlights for eyes and fangs with a pair of buck teeth pattern on muzzle.

    Savage ’s instinct commanded it to assault the new threat. The monster stormed towards the armoured figure. Hybrid sprinted off, dodging to the right side, landing a right hook on Jaguar Savage ’s shoulder, knee bashing its throat. Savage angled its head upward. Hybrid palm struck monster’s chin.

“You punch like a bunny.” Judy jestingly criticized Nick who chuckled at a pun. How can he help it? He was literally in the bunny body…

    The monster bounced back, trying to attack the fox-mixed rabbit once again. Judy protracted the right paw claw, pivoting 360 degree, lacerating Savage’s face. It bellowed in agony. “And you are ferocious.” Tod remarked. “Like a fox~” Doe added. “Oy! That’s all you. Tenderness runs in my blood.” He protested.

    Savage veered off, hurtling toward a defenseless sleeping fox. Nick gasped “It’s going after my body!” He panicked. Judy pushed the syringe. “ ACTIVATE ” The belt voiced. Hybrid zoomed at an incredible pace, breaking through the wind, each step sent the dust flying everywhere, catching up with the monster in a trice. Hybrid hopped, trampling on Savage ’s back. It paused due to a severe blow, giving an opportunity for Hybrid to retrieve Nick’s body. Judy was carrying the fox to the side of building. She laid him down where it must be safe from harm. “Dang! I look good even when I’m napping.~” Nick complimented his presence. He rubbed his chin but Judy intervened. “Cut it out already! We’re far from done with that Savage.”

    When Hybrid returned, the monster had disappeared. “See! We’ve lost it!” The doe blamed the tod. “Relax, Carrots.” Nick pushed the syringe. “ ACTIVATE ” Hybrid’s ears perked up, harking the sounds of environment, tracing its location. “That way!” Duo shouted.

- .-. .- -. ... ..-. --- .-. --

    Jaguar Savage escaped from Cliffside Asylum and reached South Canyon. However, a trope of armed mammals were blocking a road. They were wearing tactical gears, bulletproof uniforms and face shield helmets, SCU logos are embroidered on back and right chest.

“Ready!” A white stallion signaled. SCU agents rifles properly. He continued. “Aim!” They target Savage . “Fire!” Horse bawled. The agents opened fire on the monster. It stood sideways to avoid the probable damages. Its shell deflected the bullets yet it began to fracture after the several hits. SCU team is specialized in exterminating Savage. They hastened to track down and eliminate the target as soon as they were contacted by a wolf. The jaguar was about to withdraw. “Quick! If it climbs up that hill, we won’t be able to follow it!” Stallion warned.

“Mine Mine Mine Mine~” The repeated yelling earned agents’ attention. It was as loud as or even louder than the gunshot noise. They stopped shooting to take a gaze. A weird rabbit knight was heading towards their way. Actually, it was the running bio armoured bunny fox hybrid. “Don’t ya steal my kill!” said Nick. Judy twisted the device’s handle anticlockwise again. “ CRITICAL BREAK ” Hybrid accelerated to the point of becoming a red blur with amethyst light lines alongside from the eyes. Hybrid leaped when getting close enough to Savage and roll front flip in mid-air. The partners double kicked the monster’s flank. The impact shattered its exoskeleton. The protracted bunny feet claws were inserted through the shell cracks, digging in Savage ’s flesh. Hybrid shoved the monster away, landing backflip on a ground. Every part of Savage was evaporating as it was dying.

    SCU gaped at an armoured mammal. “Applause~ Applause~ No need to thank me~ Just doing my job.” Nick babbled. “Freeze, Hybrid !” They did not get a round of applause. Instead, the agents were pointing the rifles at Hybrid . “I would love to stay but… Gotta dash!” Nick waved a paw. Judy, giggling at a fox’s frisky nature, took control of the body, skedaddling. Horse directed. “Fire tranq dart! Fire!” They shot nonstop at Hybrid, who pressed the syringe, “ACTIVATE” vanishing into thin air. “We lost them again!” White horse neighed after Hybrid evaded the special force once again without any traces.

“Let’s meet at the car.” Judy advised, holing up over the hill despite being on the road below merely second ago. “Roger~ See ya, Carrots~” Nick agreed. She pulled the syringe. Blood was drawn and teleported to other syringe as Judy detransformed. The suit let out purple steam then disappeared. Her body and clothes were back to the state before Nick and she fought the monster together.

.- --. .- .. -.

“Hello, this is Jim Tuck.” Just invading the prohibited area, saved by police and hiding behind the side of asylum from the monster, the raccoon made a phone call. “No, I haven’t got a thing yet-” He jerked away from his phone because his interlocutor brawled aggressively. “What was I supposed to do!? Savage almost killed me! Look! Just give me more time, okay?” He stayed silent for seconds, hearing the answer. “Good! Deal! Bye!” He hung up and sighed.

“Tough luck huh?” The voice startled Jim. He turned to find the fox officer. Jim tried to bolt but the tod could seize raccoon’s wrist first. “Chill out~ I’m not here to arrest you. In fact, I think I can lend you a paw...” Nick apprised.

Sunset’s rays shone through windows of one warehouse where Judy and Clawhauser were held captive against their will with their paws tied behind their backs. Because of their ankles tied with rope, they could not move freely, which implied that escaping was out of the question.

By the time Judy woke up, she had already in this unpleasant situation with her feline friend, surrounded by a hog Savage and a hippopotamus Savage in addition to three purple beasts she as Hybrid fought against earlier to being knocked out.

Besides, the two officers were being watched by the tundra wolf in a groovy black leather jacket, Bolt, who was sitting on one of the stacks of wooden crates.

“What on earth do you want!?” Clawhauser wriggled on the floor, yet the rope was not loosened one bit.

Due to not being present at Mr. Big’s front yard when Bolt attacked, he had no clue what the wolf was after.

Bolt did not answer since he was not paying much attention to him as he, looking at Judy’s transformation belt that was still on her since he could not remove it from her without wearer’s consent as a result of the device’s system, was thinking back…

After Mittens the black and white wildcat fixed Bolt’s part which was damaged by Hybrid’s sword, a professor who is a black sloth boar bear held an urgent meeting in their motorhome.

“We must take MidniDrivers away from those two no matter what.” Professor stated clearly at a table where he, Bolt, Mittens and Rhino the tan lemming gathered.

“The sooner the better” The wildcat added.

A light bulb went off in Bolt’s head. “I can accelerate and steal them-”

“Do you know where bunny fox cops keep their morphers?” She interjected the question, shooting down his idea.

“But if there are any Savages terrorizing the city, those two will show up with their drivers for sure!” Rhino said, sitting on the table, so he could see others.

“Still, we have zero clue when the next Savages’ attack will be. There’s too much uncertainty.” Professor puzzled over the problem “except… we arrange the next attack.” before he came up with the idea.

As a result, Bolt and his gang produced a plan for luring Nick and Judy out with controllable Savages in order that they can steal MidniDrivers from them before the drivers start-

All of a sudden, Bolt jerked, shaking the stack of crates under him. Judy and Clawhauser were accordingly startled by him.

“Oh Shiitake… I forgot to tell him which warehouse...” He had just realized he only told Nick to bring his morpher to him at this warehouse district but he did not specify which warehouse. This realization interrupted him looking back.

Fortunately, he did not have to be worried about that problem because Nick Wilde the red fox appeared at the warehouse’s gate in his favorite light green Hawaiian shirt and dark indigo necktie.

“I thought for a moment that we may have to check every single warehouse to find the right one.” Finnick the fennec fox complained from the driver’s seat in his van.

“Thanks for the ride” Nick, seeming solemn, thanked Finnick for dropping him off in front of the warehouse.

“Are you sure about this?” The squat sandy-furred fennec fox asked.

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” Nick replied with determined eyes.

Finnick put on his shades, “Ciao” then drove off.

“Nick!” Judy shouted her partner’s name.

“Wow, it took you 5 hours and 2 minutes~” Bolt pretended to look at his watch on his left wrist although he did not have any real watches on him at the time. “I hope you are clever enough to make a right decision~”

“Lately, I’ve wondered...” Nick started a speech.

“Why should I care? It’s not like this city is worth risking my life for anyway.” He walked slowly into the warehouse.

“I used to be discriminated, mistreated, called names, et cetera to the point of giving up trying to be something else aside from a shifty fox. But then, the naive little bun bun stepped into my life... She was so naive that she fell for my scam easily, so naive that she believes rabbits can be a cop… believes… an untrustworthy fox can be a cop too…” He lowered his voice at the end, yet his words echoed, so others did hear him.

Nick continued. “Despite being looked down, she kept trying and achieved the impossible in the end… The first rabbit police officer, the amazing cop… I’ve been thinking… She may not be naive after all… She’s confident and hopeful. Because she is a trier… true fighter, she will try… always persist in trying to make the world a better place.”

He then smiled tiredly. “If I give up again here, she won’t likely to forgive me.”

Following that, Nick brought out the arm-sized black device, MidniDriver. Bolt therefore hopped off the stack to get on his feet in order to receive Nick’s transformation gear. However, it turned out that Nick put his morpher on his waist.

“So, that’s your decision huh?” Bolt sighed, rolling up his jacket right sleeve before brushing fur on under forearm to avoid getting a zipper on his arm stuck on fur.

After unzipping his arm, “Switch on” Bolt, uttering calmly, pulled a lever which is a part of a mechanical arm underneath fake skin.

The very next thing happened was that electric sparks ran around the tundra wolf before one quick flash of his white fur. Shortly afterwards, Bolt successfully switched into his silver chrome form.

“Carrots!” Nick shouted to Judy while she was gazing at him in worry for him.

“Thank you, for everything!” He expressed his gratitude to her. “I’ll save you… whatever it costs.” He made a promise.

Subsequently, “I love you, Judy.” Nick pulled the syringe of his morpher, then pushed it promptly.

“RELOAD” His MidniDriver spoke.

“Nick! Wait! D-..on..t...” Judy passed out.

“Judy!” Clawhauser moved with difficulty towards the unconscious bunny.

Nick held the handle sticking out the right side of his black device before “Transform” he said and twisted the handle. “IGNITE”

Next, Nick’s MidniDriver released purple steam which unsettled all of the five purple monsters and then caused boiling mist explosion swallowing the red fox whole.

After the thick mist faded away, two emerald headlamps at Nick’s eye level and purple device core shining up, the armored mammal was revealed.

Nonetheless, this armored mammal did not appear the same as usual. Normally, Hybrid was a doe rabbit figure with fox features regardless of what forms the duo used.

Despite having the same black device on the waist, the mammal has a tod fox physique with characteristics of a rabbit such as a short snout and a short tail.

Furthermore, this hybrid between a fox and a rabbit is covered with a steel blue full suit head-to-toe bio armor.

The steel blue Hybrid also had a pair of emerald headlamps for eyes, no pattern on muzzle area unlike Hybrid’s other forms, crimson claw marks on the left cheek, a red neckerchief around the neck, a pair of claw gauntlets and, last but not least, digitigrade legs (standing and walking on toes).

“Dang! Intimidating~ A bit too edgy, but still impressive~” Bolt complimented Hybrid’s new form. “Bring it on!” He struck a fighting pose while Mittens was controlling the Savages to be on standby from the motorhome.

Suddenly, Hybrid screamed at the top of the lungs before storming off.

Stunned by the unexpected harsh manner, Bolt froze in place, while Mittens ordered the Savages to stop the blue armored mammal in order that the wolf had some time to get a hold of himself.

Right afterwards, Hybrid charged headlong at the purple wolverine, then grabbed of its neck with the right paw before hurling it upward. After that, the steel blue armored mammal jumped up and thrust the left claw into the wolverine Savage. It consequently met its end in the blink of an eye.

Clawhauser, Bolt and his team, only Mittens and Rhino except the professor, who were watching the incident live from their base were stupefied by the fact that this blue form of Hybrid could finish off one Savage in next to no time.

The feral armored mammal briskly hunted down other purple beasts, leaping over large Savage s like the lion and the hippo. Hybrid then dived towards the caprid and swiftly crashed it against the ground so hard that it died instantaneously.

The next target whom Hybrid mindlessly chose was Clawhauser. When Bolt saw that the armored mammal was running on all four in the direction of the defenseless tied up cheetah officer. He, “Accel!” yelling, grasped the hog monster near at paw violently before throwing it at Hybrid in order to prevent the steel blue animal from injuring normal mammal.

However, the armored mammal dodged the thrown hog Savage and caught it in mid-air, then pinned it down.

Hybrid , screeching at the hog, pushed the silver syringe roughly “ACTIVATE”. Immediately following that, the elbows grew blades. The steel blue armored mammal struck the pinned Savage with the elbows.

Thanks to its fat layer, it took quite some time for Hybrid to defeat this monster. Hence, “Come here!!” Bolt was able to carry the unconscious bunny body and the cheetah to the further spot, away from the wild Hybrid.

The hog monster’s motionless body started to vaporize, indicating its departure from life, still the armored mammal kept cutting its flesh with the elbow blades.

At that moment, Mittens ordered the remaining two Savage s to attack Hybrid. She thought that if the monsters could slow the going out of control mixed-breed down, Bolt would be able to accelerate and make the armored mammal detransform.

When the purple lion came so close to Hybrid, the armored mammal sprang to cling to the lion’s back.

The lion Savage tried to shake Hybrid off but it was useless because in an instant, the right claw of the armored fox with rabbit features stabbed through the lion’s neck.

After effortlessly killing another monster, Hybrid got off it. Since Savages cannot bleed, there was no blood staining on the steel blue suit of armor. However, it did not make this form of Hybrid less disturbing.

“This is what happens when predator’s body is used for becoming Hybrid huh?” Bolt chuckled nervously.

“Bolt! We have one more shot. I gonna send the last Savage to charge at Hybrid. Find an opportunity to change the fox back to normal.” Mittens spoke to him through their private wireless communication system.

The purple hippo then rushed towards the armored mammal but Hybrid bent the body to avoid being hit at exactly proper time.

Soon afterwards, Hybrid pushed the syringe “ACTIVATE” to activate spiked knee pads and hopped up, twisting the body in mid-air, before kneeing the hippo in the top of its head.

Bolt, who intended to go near Hybrid at first, was watching the monster being clawed brutally by the so-called hero…

Bolt then decided “Triple accel!” to launched himself at great speed so that he could catch the armored mammal.

Even so, Hybrid could dodge him with such a remarkable agility. As a result of too high force and speed, Bolt flew farther than he expected, crashing into the stacks of crates.

When he fell on the ground, “Shoot! Hybrid is going after the officers!” Rhino’s voice could be heard from the wireless communication system.

Bolt, already cancelling the acceleration to avoid his system overheating, hurriedly got up before seeing Hybrid standing so close to Clawhauser. The armored mammal was drawing the right claw up.

“Stop it!” Bolt yelled while the speechless cheetah shut his eyes in fear.

--. --- / --- ..- - / --- ..-. / -.-. --- -. - .-. --- .-..

After Nick pulled and pushed his syringe, “Nick! Wait! D-..on..t...” Judy blacked out.

She or just her consciousness was then thrown into an unfamiliar place where she saw an adult fox presenting his business plan for a bank loan. The fox was accompanied by a young red fox.

Judy looked fixedly at the young fox because he appeared familiar to her. She then shifted her focus to the older fox walking away from the loan officer’s desk. Apparently, his proposal got rejected.

Subsequently, she perceived that the young fox held up the stamper along with two small rodent bank employees, preventing them from stamping ‘rejected’ mark on the proposal.

The rodents shrieked, so the rhino security guard came to catch hold of the fox kit. Although he had already let go of the stamper, the guard was still carrying him towards the exit.

“Dad! Dad!” While the kit was calling to his father for help, the adult fox “Sir, I’m truly sorry but please let my son go.” begged the rhinoceros.

“You’re going too far!” Judy went to stop the guard but it turned out that he walked past her as if she was not there because in reality..., she was not there.

After that, the adult fox leapt on the rhino to save his son. As a result, the security guard released the fox kit and arrested his father instead.

Before he went out with the security guard, he spoke to his son. “It’s okay, Nicky. Dad will go home soon. Until then, be a good boy and prove that a fox is trustworthy.”

Next, Judy’s mind jumped to another place. She saw a vixen raising her kit on her own. The vixen even scraped up enough money to buy her son a junior ranger scout’s uniform. The scene reminded Judy of the story Nick told her about his past. That was when Judy realized that she was going through Nick’s memory.

Judy wanted to turn away from the scene of young Nick weeping alone after he was bullied by prey animals in scout uniforms. It was the day Nick gave in to the horrible stereotypes or that was what he said to her.

She found that despite feeling conflicted, Nick occasionally tried to prove that he could be more than a sly fox. Nonetheless, the world was constantly against him. Although he studied hard to earn good grades, some mammals would claim that he cheated.

It was hard for him to apply any honest jobs just because he is a fox.

It was difficult for him to get any loan approvals just because he is a fox.

Therefore, he eventually gave up and became a con artist, a sly fox that the world saw.

Lying, hustling… If those were what mammals expected for foxes, so be it.

Subsequently, Judy reached the memory of the first time Nick met her and tricked her to pay the jumbo pop for him and Finnick. She even perceived his thought.

Back then, Nick saw Judy as a hypocrite since she carried a fox repellent, yet she acted nobly. That upset him to certain extent.

He disliked her more when she pressured him to help her solve the missing otter case. However, after seeing her working hard in the investigation and genuinely caring for the otter, he thought that he might be wrong about her.

“I think you’d actually make a pretty good cop.”

At the time Judy told him that, he just thought she must be joking because nobody would truly believed that a sly fox like him can possibly be a cop.

That was why the moment Judy handed him a police application form meant a lot to him. This mammal really believed in him. She wanted him to be her partner. Even though he did not want to serve society anymore unlike his past self who wanted to join the scouts, he was happy to be wanted and trusted.

And that was why it hurted so much when she betrayed his feelings by showing her bigotry against foxes.

Nick wanted to hate her. Then again, he came to realization that everyone made mistakes, so he decided if she changed, maybe… he could give her a second chance, which he did not regret that decision at all. She grew up, learned her mistake, came back to him and fixed the crisis with him.

He finally found a mammal who trusted him, had faith in him and believed in him while he did not believe that he could be more than that awful stereotype.

Besides, he thought She was so freaking reckless and too naive. How can l leave her alone? , which irritated Judy.

For these reasons, Nick made up his mind to be by her side as her friend and her partner.

The more they spent time together, the stronger Nick’s feelings grew. Hence, He fell in love with her.

Nevertheless, he had to persistently remind himself to forget the idea of being in a relationship with her because he is a fox, an ex-con artist. He believed that he would bring her down… His past could come back to haunt not only him but also Judy as long as they were together romantically.

I’m a fox. The world just sees me as a shifty hustler. This thought echoed in Nick’s head.

After going through his memories and thoughts, Judy, her chest feeling tight, came across a black large free space which was burning with flames here and there.

In the middle was a savage fox on fire.

“Nick!” Judy approached the burning fox.

The flaming wild fox growled at her but she still advanced towards him.

“Nick!” She called to him again.

When she was so close to him, he leapt on her, pinning her to the hot floor and snarling at her face.

Even so, she was not scared. She reached out and pulled him into an embrace.

“I believe in you, Nick.” She patted the back of his neck, “You won’t hurt me like that. I’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. We’ll be fine… together.” tightening the hug despite the fire on him.

“I’m sorry for all this time I didn’t know what you have gone through, how heavy your burdens are, and… how many emotions you bottle up.” She then moved her paws to his face. “But please take off your mask… let me know your true feelings.”

The fires subsequently died out, revealing Nick Wilde with a depressed expression.

“I’m sorry” Nick apologized. “Even though I’m a cop now, even though I got promoted, it seems I can’t ever be good enough...”

“If you’re afraid that you won’t be as good as I hope, don’t worry. I don’t have high expectation in the first place.”

“Ha ha” Nick laughed sarcastically.

“Nick, you’re not just good. You’re fantastic! You’re better than what world thinks of you! Have more faith in yourself, O.K.?” She stroked his cheeks.

“I’ll try.” Nick rose slowly while gentally helping Judy stand up.

“And I’ll be there for you… be by your side, so you’ll be by my side too~” She beamed at him.

“Sly bunny~” He put on a genuine smile before the mental black free space faded away as both he and Judy united.

--. --- / --- ..- - / - --- --. . - .... . .-.

Clawhauser, lying on the floor defenselessly, shut his eyes in fear when steel blue Hybrid drew the right claw up.

“Easy peasy~”

He heard Nick’s voice and felt that the rope around his wrists and ankles became loosened, so he opened his eyes to see the armored mammal, who went totally berserk earlier, standing in a relaxed way.

“Are you hurt?” Judy’s voice came out of the armored fox with rabbit features.

Noticing that the rope had already been cut by the steel blue mixed-breed, Clawhauser got up hurriedly.

“Judy! Nick! You two okay now?” He asked.

“Pretty much~ I just let an autopilot run a bit and it looks like it did a fine job.” Nick jested as he turned Hybrid’s head to look around. There were vaporizing lifeless Savages’ bodies on the floor.

“Sorry for the loss of your pets~” He jokingly apologized to Bolt.

“You can hand over your drivers as an apology.” Bolt joked as a response, stepping off the pile of broken wood pieces.

“I’m afraid we can’t do that.” Judy said, putting Hybrid’s guard up.

“I figured.” Bolt uttered.

“Clawhauser, would you look after my body?” She asked him.

The cheetah picked the unconscious doe’s body up and kept their distance from the silver wolf and the armored mammal.

Once Clawhauser together with Judy’s body were out of a danger zone, “Accel!” Bolt moved near Hybrid like lightning, then “Volt Strike!” swung his glowing knifepaws at his opponent in order to paralyze the united duo.

The steel blue armored fox with rabbit characteristics briskly ducked to avoid the blow easily.

Seeing that his attack failed, Bolt lowered while sweeping one of his legs.

Hybrid could avoid the attack with ease again by springing up. However, that was what Bolt aimed for.

He assumed that it would be difficult to dodge in mid-air, so “Double accel” he straightened up and was about to attack the armored mammal in double-quick time.

Hybrid stuck the right claw at Bolt but he, still accelerating, sidestepped, dodging the sharp claw.

The accelerated silver wolf then thrust his glowing left palm with an intention to strike the armored mammal’s flank.

Unexpectedly, Hybrid agilely bent the body, which caused Bolt to miss his target in a split second.

Directly afterwards, the united duo seized Bolt’s extended arm, then drew Hybrid closer to Bolt and used the momentum to swing the kick which hit him right in the side of the face.

Next, the armored mammal released the hold on the silver wolf while he was falling sideways. He took a step to the side to regain his balance as the steel blue mammal landed on the feet effortlessly.

“Mittens… I’m gonna get serious a bit.” Saying quietly, Bolt stopped accelerating. He did not pay attention to his team’s response and went straight to “Electro blast!” discharge an energy ball from his chest.

As the energy ball was flying towards Hybrid , the united duo twisted MidniDriver’s handle back “CRITICAL BREAK” before crouching, avoiding the attack in the process.

At a later second, the steel blue armored mammal jumped up, flipping towards the silver wolf.

“Acce-” Bolt was about to charge at his opponent.

“Don’t move!” The duo yelled, making the wolf halt without being aware.

Hybrid then rushed down to land a right side kick… on the floor. Bolt stared at his opponent being down on one knee while one foot stayed in contact with the ground at the same spot that the kick landed.

When Hybrid stood up and lifted the right leg, it could be seen that the spot which the armored mammal’s foot hit a moment ago was holed. Bolt also noticed that there were spikes under the toes of Hybrid before those spikes were drawn back.

“You know that if you moved just a little bit faster, you could get kicked right?” Judy put a rhetorical question to Bolt.

After he was silent for a few seconds, “Triple accel” he uttered calmly, then disappeared into thin air.

Clawhauser was going to shout in celebration of the victory but suddenly, Hybrid turned back and stuck the sharp claw out at the silver wolf. It appeared that Bolt accelerated his system to attack his opponent by surprise.

“Wanna continue?” Nick asked.

“Just wanna give it another shot.” Bolt tittered before he vanished.

“Where is he now?” Clawhauser wondered.

“He’s gone now.” Judy answered.

Subsequently, the armored mammal went to Clawhauser, asking him to kneel down, so the rope tying the unconscious body of the doe could be cut. Following that Hybrid removed the rope from Judy, the united duo pulled the syringe, drawing the blood into it, to detransform.

The suit of armor released purple steam before it disappeared. Nick consequently turned back to normal while Judy woke up in Clawhauser’s arms.

“Wakey Wakey princess~” Nick pushed the syringe to inject his blood back to himself in order to cure his tiredness.

Without hesitation, Judy got off Clawhauser’s arms, then approached Nick hurriedly.

“We did it, Carrots~ We won-” No sooner did Nick finish his sentences than Judy punched him right in his gut. Nick collapsed to his knees as a result.

Jaw dropping, the portly cheetah covered his mouth in shock.

Next, she pulled Nick’s tie to draw his attention to her before she ranted.

“Dumb fox! What the heck did you think you were doing, risking yourself like that!? What if everything didn’t turn out fine? What if that transformation made you’ve gone completely berserk and will never recover!? You think that I’m naive, dumb and too reckless to be left alone, don’t you? Then why did you decide to sacrifice anything to defeat that wolf… especially after you confessed to me…?”

Her eyes then started getting watery. “If something horrible happened to you, I...” She shed her tears.

“Sorry… for making you worry...” Nick averted his eyes, feeling guilty.

“You gave me too credit… I almost gave up several times and I did give up once before.” Judy clenched her badge on her chest, remembering the time her badge was nearly taken away during the missing otter investigation.

She remembered the mammal who saved her from losing her dream was none other than Nick.

She remembered that she returned to Zootopia and successfully crack the Night howlers case after giving up because of none other than Nick.

“All this time…, the reason why I can keep trying, fighting and protecting our city, our home, is… I have you, Nick.” She touched his cheek gently, turning his face, so he would look at her.

“I love you.” She stared into his emerald eyes.

“I love you too.” He stared back into her amethyst eyes.

“Aww” Clawhauser exclaimed, moved his paws to his chest.

And then, both Nick and Judy closed the gap between them, hugged each other and shared a kiss. Their lips were pressed against the lips of one another. They felt a warm sweet sensation radiating throughout their bodies as they got lost in time.

.- ..-. ..-. . -.-. - .. --- -. .- - . / -.-. --- -. ..-. . ... ... .. --- -.

At a later time after Bolt lost to the steel blue Hybrid and came back to his team’s base, the motorhome,

“What actually happened? Shouldn’t predators go out of control if they use MidniDriver to transform with their bodies?” Mittens the wildcat wondered, swivelling round in a seat.

Meanwhile, Rhino was busy waving a hand fan for a large mammal like a bear to cool down the tundra wolf, Bolt, who was lying on one of the couch.

“It’s probably because the fox has received quite amount of the rabbit’s blood mixed with his blood.” Professor the sloth bear theorized. “Plus, their synchronization’s possibly increased.”

“If it was the case of what I’m thinking right now…, oh, dear, I’d be seriously worried about the bunny officer.” Professor’s face grew concerned.

- .... . / . -. -.. / --- ..-. / .--. .... .- ... . / --- -. .