Chapter Text
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Wilde Cardz - Savage Territory
Chapter 1
Approximately 1.5 months, give or take a week, PSA (Post Savage Apocalypse)
Standing on the top of a building on the outer secure section of the Haven settlement, Nick Wilde looked over the city of Zootopia, or at least what once was Zootopia. His home from birth, for better or worse, and where he met the love of his life, and hustled her out of twenty Zs for a Jumbo Pop. Where she then hustled him in return, and an excellent hustle it was, even if he did say so himself. Ending with a death defying adventure that led them both to heartbreak and then a reunion that built to a relationship he never thought could be his. Especially not with a mammal like her. The literal best person he knew. Who made him better. Made him want to be better. To do… better.
That however, was then. Now though… That Zootopia no longer existed. Not in the way it did when all that happened. The city still physically existed, mostly, but it, and all mammalian civilization, had fallen. Tundra Town had thawed, the heaters no longer warmed Sahara Square, and the Rain Forest only got rain when it actually rained.
There were still some mammals in the remains of the once great and shining city that hosted maybe as many as fifty million or more mammals at its height. They were few and far between now. Clustered in small enclaves and settlements such as where he now found himself the head of security. A settlement called Haven, by its residents. It was originally named Haymarket and Vole, so called for the intersection that had been where the initial settlement was established and from which it had grown, and remained its beating, living heart, and main hub of the community. Renamed officially to Haven as they grew well beyond that initial intersection.
Nick knew he should be dead already. He was a red fox after all. He felt the pull every moment of the day, and doubly when he went to sleep. You didn't lose your mate as a fox and stick around to enjoy the apocalypse that stole them from you. Only, as painful as it was, Nick had to know. Before he gave in and let the agony that howled inside him consume him and pull him into that void. He had to know. Somewhere out there was Judy, lost in the after effects of a very literal, the movies got it very right, and yet so very, very wrong, apocalypse. Maybe she was just a skeleton, but he had to find her. And if she was alive, because if there was a mammal that could survive this thing, it was Judy, then he would find her.
It was surprising really, but at the same time, not, how fast communities came together, under the various banners of survival. Those that survived the initial turning. Where most mammals just… Went savage. They dropped to all fours, and began behaving like they had never had a conscious thought in their lives. Like the people the were had simply been deleted, leaving only the animal and its instincts.
Those that survived those first few hours quickly gravitated towards each other. Collecting in places that provided at least some protection from the now thongs of savage mammals. Herds of various sorts, packs of wolves acting and hunting, like they had tens of thousands of years prior. There were lion prides, and others. Solitary hunters roaming around. All looking for food and acting like, well… Savages.
Given that, the first few days were true chaos because not everyone that was going to go savage did so at the same time. It took a few days before all those that were going to go savage, did. At least a few days after that before mammals realized that those initial stages of the world ending were over. That led them to realize that there were now rather obviously bigger issues than the old prejudices and hatreds so many had fostered for so long. The calculations of pure, simple survival alter your decision making. Having a strong predator at your back as a prey mammal when that savage bear charges you both became a lot more important than some ancient hate that meant nothing in the scheme of things. At least if you wanted to both survive and not be a meal for some savage.
Nick knew in the early days there were a few that tried to still hold onto those hatreds, even act on them. He had seen and experienced it. They didn’t tend to live long. There was even a prey only community in the first weeks, it didn’t last. Turned out the leaders were literally sacrificing mammals to the savages. They were Lanolin death culters. A large number of those that survived the implosion of that community were now part of Haven. Haven being built on cooperation and letting every mammal shine and contribute according to their skills and ability, no matter their species. A predators strength and hunting instincts were rather useful in the apocalypse when trying to protect each other from savages. A prey mammal's sense of danger was equally useful for the same. Prey warns, predators fight. At least in those earliest few days.
Most of those that didn't succumb to the Wild Card plague were not much more than they were before everything went to shit. Fortunately for some, unfortunately for others, the rest of mammal kind were no longer what they were before, either. A simple waitress could now shine as they led a survivor enclave. A stock broker could find their calling tilling the soil and growing food. Others, they gave in to their baser, worst instincts and inclinations. Like those Lanolin fanatics, or some of the gangs that once ran petty crimes and sought to make kingdoms for themselves.
Yet others, like a group Haven had recently integrated. They were formed by a gang wanted for violent robberies and other things. Now. Now they were truly upstanding members of the community and strong advocates for maintaining a strong sense of law amongst those in the community. Nick, in his role as chief of security, actually relied on them heavily. Their leader was now one of his best and most reliable lieutenants.
“Damn prey supremacists,” Nick growled to himself.
They were sycophants of Dawn Bellwether, and they released a plague. That prey only group was started by some of their survivors. The plague they had engineered for them was only supposed to affect predators. He’d found a few of the mammals that were part of that group and were not affected by it. Questioned them. He had learned a lot before he killed them. The world did not need their kind anymore. He just hoped that Judy, wherever she was, would forgive him.
There were three ways the plague affected a mammal. The first and most obvious was those that were turned into mindless beasts. Sadly, much like NightHowler toxin before it, their plague affected every mammal, not just predators. The morons were warned and were too stupid or too blinded by their hate to understand or care. Likely both.
The second group were just left alone by it. It was like they got a cold and then got over it. No harm, no savageness, just who they were before, only dealing with the effects the plague had on everyone else.
He and Judy had spoken with the doctors and scientists who were trying to find a cure, or at least a vaccine for those not yet affected. Sadly, a lab accident ended that hope, as most of those working on it were killed. He had his suspicions about the accident, and what caused it, but it was far too late to look into what happened, or do anything about.
They did learn however, that because it hadn't targeted just one species, but predators as a whole, the lack of species specificity meant that it in fact could, would, and did affect every mammal, predator and prey alike. It even crossed and hit the reptiles. Not as bad, but plenty of them were just as savage as the raccoon Nick could see a block away into the unsecured area, moving about on all fours, sniffing about in search of some scraps of food. Its movements clearly not that of a mammal who was still sentient.
Not that the morons that came up with the idea seemed to care about the risk. They ignored the advice of the geneticist that created the plague for them. He told them not to infect themselves. They did not listen and so were the first to fall to it.
Nick had found the information in the first week when he had been trying to find Judy. A herculean task as the city burned and buildings fell. The idiots that did this had ignored the geneticist and infected themselves. They thought they would just be carriers. Safe from the plague because they were not predators. Shortsightedness and rank, willful ignorance, seemed to always be a common if not a required trait for those who fell in with such hate based groups.
At least that is what they were supposed to be, carriers, and Nick supposed that, in the end, that is what they were. That hubris, wonton ignorance, and blind hate, cost them and the entirety of mammalian civilization its life. And it was truly worse than just killing millions with a bomb or something. No, they robbed children of their parents as they went savage, saved only by the fact that this version of savage seemed to preserve things like parental instinct. A mothers scent mark saved countless young in the first few days. Unfortunately, far too many were in school, day-care, or cars driven by those parents and they ceased to be the mammals they were. Teachers massacred entire classes, or were mauled and eaten by their students. So many that might have otherwise survived, died or were killed in those first few days when their friend, their family member, loved one, mate, co-worker, went savage.
The monsters, cause that’s all he can think of them as for what they caused, infected themselves against the geneticists' express warnings. They did not realize, or care, that while they were carriers, they would be among the first victims of the virus. Affected by it just as much as anyone else. Maybe even because of it, since they were multiple prey species, giving the virus a viable set of prey hosts to mutate within. Or so said one of the doctors just before the accident that ended any chance of finding a cure or vaccine.
The idiots… They were the first to succumb to the virus. They were isolated, and work began, but they had made sure that their disease was airborne. By the time it was realized that it wasn't a new version of Night Howler toxin, but an airborne virus, it was already too late. The doctors, nurses, their families, their neighbors, everyone at that restaurant they visited on date night with their mate, was infected. And those mammals spread it, getting on planes and trains. By the time it was realized what they were dealing with, it was also confirmed that it had spread globally. There might be some uncontacted tribe in the Lambazon, or the Savannahs of Africat. But the savages would get there soon enough, and infect them too.
Even Nick and Judy were infected. The whole thing was actually part of a follow-up investigation from their first big case as detectives, spun out from the anti-interspecies and Kit Services task force they had spearheaded. It might have seemed an odd combination, but it was actually two task forces working side by side, because a lot of the anti-interspecies groups were abusing kit services to recruit young mammals into their ranks.
The geneticist that created the virus, upon realizing what had happened, and was going to happen, contacted Judy anonymously. This led them to the lab that the virus was created in and a treasure trove of data. They found all the documentation on how the virus was created. It helped, it really did. It gave the teams working on the cure and vaccines real, concrete leads. The doctors tried giving them and a few other officers that volunteered a few different things, but nothing changed. They were all still infected and spreading the virus. The only real question became, how long was the incubation period until a mammal was affected by it. It seemed to differ, which just made it worse, because that incubation seemed to be by the specific mammal, not even species specific.
That final answer turned out to be approximately two months from infection, and because of how it spread in an escalating, exponential manner, it all came to a head at once. Give or take a few days, as it had only taken a few weeks to spread across the entire globe, as there were no symptoms or even a test until it was far too late and it went off, like a biological bomb of sorts. He and Judy had been chasing different leads when it all went to hell in a handbasket, all at once. They were trying to help the doctors that survived the accident figure out that incubation period. He had been with Grizzoli, she was with Antlerton.
Nick sighed as he thought back. That was only a month ago. He and Grizzoli were driving to where the geneticist that helped create the virus lived seeking more information. Judy and Antlerton were headed towards a raid on another related cell of the terrorists. Though since they succeeded in bringing about an apocalypse, Nick wondered if there wasn't a better word. He’d just started calling them monsters themselves, because even terrorists had legitimate, to a point. These monsters just hated for hates sake. Terrorists had political ideologies, had goals, not these mammals. Not in a way that could be translated to a logical end goal, no matter how messed up.
Grizz said he had a headache all of a sudden, and it got bad, fast. He tried to pull over, but it hit so hard and fast they wrecked, as did just about every other mammal on the road. Nick had been trapped for what seemed like hours but was really only a few minutes, dazed by the impact, when Grizzoli tore apart the car to get at him.
Nick just knew that was it. He was done. Grizz had gone savage and was going to kill him. Only... That isn't what happened. When Grizz bit down on Nick's leg, he broke his teeth. Nick chuckled to himself at the memory. He barely felt the bite, and there certainly was no pain.
When he kicked Grizz away with his other foot, the poor bear went flying, as in three blocks before he came to rest. Nick never went to see how badly injured Grizz was. He liked the bear. The next time he walked past there, Grizz was gone. Nick had no way of knowing if Grizz left under his own power, or was the victim of some other savage, and he really didn’t care to know.
He had tried calling Judy, but she didn't answer. He kept trying, but after a few days the cell service died. The power that kept Tundra Town cold and Sahara hot, shut down after a week. Though with the way it shut down, Nick assumed either a surviving mammal managed to trip the shutdown sequence, or some automatic system did.
With that, he was left to his own devices. At first he wondered why he wasn't affected by the virus, but then it dawned on him. He had been affected. He, Nick Wilde, was part of that third group. What the called the empowered. They were rare, all considered, but were also the most likely to survive long enough to get together with others.
He had kicked Grizz, the 900 lb work out fanatic grizzly bear, hard enough to send him flying for several city blocks, after being uninjured by a bite from the same bear. A bite that, in normal circumstances should have severed the leg easily. Though, these were no longer normal circumstances. It was when he was attacked by a savage bull elephant that the point really got driven home.
The beast was knocking aside cars as if they were nothing. Yet, when it hit Nick, who had stood there in shock as much as anything as the elephant charged, there was a loud crack. The poor beast broke its leg on Nick. Nick then, without thinking about it, shoved the six ton animal away from himself. That shove knocked it not just into, but through a building.
That had been on day five. After that, Nick went to the local precinct. He had been working his way across the city, dodging other mammals out of fear. The elephant incident made him realize that he perhaps didn’t need to be quite so cautious. He loaded up on radios, batteries, fuel, and weapons. Procuring a new cruiser, he made his way across the city to where Judy and Antlerton were headed, checking the routes they would be expected to take. He found their cruiser, and what was left of Antlerton, but no Judy. He tried her on the radio, broadband emergency transmission. A unique feature that let him transmit on both civilian and city frequencies at the same time.
Nick got responses. Other mammals that had survived the initial few days and were not savage. Much to his growing fear and agony, none of them were Judy.
Not that all of them were exactly nice mammals. Many were more than happy to try and build their own little kingdoms. Lots of posturing, and lots of the best, and the worst, of mammal kind. Why, he also wondered to himself, often, was it some of the worst kinds of mammals that were the ones that survived to try and subjugate others, or just let out their worst, most base impulses. He hated it, but he had killed a lot of mammals since it all started, and not all of them were savage. Though, some insane mammal sitting on a throne of skulls… could be argued to just be a different kind of savage that needed to be put down.
As that first set of weeks wore on and he searched for Judy, Nick found that he had a collection of abilities beyond being functionally invulnerable and comically strong. He'd been shot and it hadn't hurt, stabbed and the blade broke. Someone even shot him with an RPG. He wasn't even sure where they got it, but this is where he learned that he was also fast. Fast enough to make a cheetah seem like a sloth on elephant tranquilizers.
He wasn't sure how many mammals were affected like him. Of those that were not turned into savages, they mostly seemed to just not be affected at all, and that was how those that were making themselves kings, ruled. Fear and power, usually in the form of access to weapons, wielded over and against mammals who were no different than they were before things went to shit. Nick would not let that stand. Could not let that stand. Because it was something Judy would have never allowed, and if there was one thing Nick was incapable of, even with her not with him, it was disappointing her.
In the weeks since, he had almost given up dozens of times and let the void howling in his heart claim him. Only, every time he got close, he would hear Judy's voice whispering to him. Telling him to not give up. That he needed to live for her, and make the world, such as it now existed, a better place.
So that is what he began doing. One wanna be king had set themselves up in a nice barricaded and well defended area. It was all very post-apocalyptic B movie. Probably got the idea from one of the Zombie films that Judy loved and he couldn't stand. They had gardens growing vegetables and a chicken coop. Them and their hench mammals were mammals Nick knew, and he knew they were no good from before. The apocalypse just set them free. Well, Nick was free too, and they weren't empowered like he was, they just had a lot of guns. They had been a small but effective criminal organization before, really just a gang with ambition, and after everything, they set themselves up as would be kings.
Nick went in with swat body armor, etc... No point in giving away the fact he had what really just boiled down to super powers. He cleaned house. They resisted, not daring what vengeance those they had abused might inflict, so most died in the fight.
There were other officers who stepped up then, and they formed a quick government based on a council of leaders, each one having a different base function. Nick was voted in as the head of security. He had a knack for it. Those mammals that were part of that community welcomed them and the chance to reclaim a modicum of the freedom they lost when the world fell into ruin. Somehow word spread, and more mammals started to seek refuge there. The community that he helped found after clearing out the would-be kings, quickly found their population and sphere of influence expanding.
Nick had not been intending to create a little mini-city, but he did. The need for security from the roving bands of mammals seeking to take advantage of others. The savage mammals that wanted to eat you. The need was there, and he had the ability to help make it something better than the gang-bangers tried to create.
There had been nearly fifty million or more mammals in Zootopia according to the last census. Probably a million or two reptiles as well, though they were still moving in and the virus impacted them differently. They were also not immune, and just as likely to get taken out by a savage as anyone else in those early days.
The population count was hard to keep track of, and depended if you counted Little Rodentia, as well as the outlying territories like Bunnyburrow, Podunk, Deerbrooke, Foxenburg, and other such locations. Now, the little city within the once great city that he had liberated, currently held almost one hundred thousand as it had grown over the month since he had liberated it. They were expanding as quickly as they could and absorbed several other groups. The drive for better protection, more fairness, and stability. To seek some semblance of what was lost was strong.
One of the groups was a full ten blocks from their main border and a series of bridges across the buildings had been built and were constantly monitored until the border between the two could be secured. Their efforts to secure the streets, put up barricades, and take control of the section of city between the two areas was their current primary focus.
As they expanded, they learned that, while a minority, there were many survivors that turned out to have abilities. Nick had at least a dozen empowered mammals working for him in security, and dozens more that worked for their little refugee city in various areas.
The powers that the others possessed were things like the bunny, sadly not Judy, but a very nice chocolate brown and tan buck named Eric. Eric had the ability to make just about anything grow. He was why they were able to feed most of their residents. The predators were surviving, and they had scavenger teams locating any canned meats and such they could find. They had found an old FoodLion that had not been touched and cleaned it out. The fresh stuff was long bad, but the canned and otherwise preserved items were still good.
Another mammal, a sloth, and Flash of all mammals, had speed. He was as fast as Nick was before The Change, which is what they had started calling it. Interestingly, all sloths seemed to have been gifted with speed, making them as fast as everyone else. With Flash being even faster. Fast enough that he could move as fast as he used to drive. Made him the perfect messenger.
Flash was also able to mold metal. So, whenever they expanded, a few cars would be dragged to that intersection, and he would then mold and reform that metal into a secure wall that was braced against the buildings. Then he would take the old wall down and use that to make other things, or new walls. All this to keep the savage mammals out, and Nick included the roving bands of weaponed-up would be raiders in that list. It also helped that flash also had been doing night classes for structural engineering.
Another mammal was able to shoot nails from their paws and at lethal speeds. No one was sure where the nails came from, not even them, but they could. Useful when patrolling or on searches for supplies. None of them had the myriad of abilities that Nick did, one or two abilities at most, with the exception of the other officers that had received some of the treatments with him and Judy.
Nick could only guess that it was because of the treatments they tested out on Judy and him. He had Speed. Strength that seemed to have no limit. Invulnerability. Fire didn't bother him or even singe his fur, bullets didn't penetrate or hurt, it was like a hard tap at most, and his senses were amplified. Those were just the things he knew about so far. While he couldn't fly, he was okay with that, though he was kinda disappointed that he couldn’t shoot lasers from his eyes or breath fire, he had tried both, but otherwise, he was a regular super-mammal.
As far as he knew, no one knew that Nick was empowered, and he preferred it that way. Giving a wry smile, Nick stuck his nose back into the wind, taking a deep breath through his nose. He concentrated. Judy was out there somewhere. He knew it in his heart that she was, and that she was still alive, and not a savage. She had to be. Anything else and he would lose himself to that void inside, and there wasn’t a power in the universe that could save him then.
The worst though. The nightmare that truly haunted him is that he would find her, and that she was savage and didn’t recognize him. That would destroy him more than anything, and he woke in absolute terror of that multiple times a week. He slept very little now, relying on meditation. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than no rest at all when the nightmares got bad.
All things considered. Nick was shocked by the way his little take down of some bad mammals had exploded. He had only wanted to put the mammals of that area in charge of themselves again. Make the world a better place, just like Judy would want. They now had an elected council that was in charge. Former ZPD were re-deputized, which included him, as well as being head of security. It proved that, given a chance, most mammals were tolerant and wanted to work together. Though he was sure the whole, surviving the apocalypse thing played into that at least a little.
Nick wasn't however happy with the most recent council decision. He understood it, but did not agree with it. They decided that savage mammals could be hunted for food. He knew what the new source of meat was, because he is part of the council, and voted against it the first few times it was proposed. He understood it. He just refused to eat it and refused to support the proposal until certain changes to how it was going to be handled were part of the proposed solution. Strangely enough, even the prey on the council, which was half of it, voted for the measure, once his changes were in effect.
As part of his wandering, Nick had secured all the data, the computers, and other stuff that the doctors and scientists had come up with while working on a cure. Copies of which kept finding its way into the hands of any doctors and scientists that joined their little slice of reclaimed civilization in the middle of otherwise Savage Territory.
They were making headway, just not fast enough, in other ways to feed the predators of their community. Thus the hunting proposal. They needed a breakthrough, and that was one of the reasons Nick was heading out into the city. Bug farms took time to get going to a sustainable level, as did raising chickens. A small chuckle escaped him.
Just like the reptiles, the birds were not immune, and while even rarer than the reptiles, there were still a few out there. It was interesting, but the chickens were some of the few birds that did not gain sentience. Hawks, eagles, crows… They were as smart as any mammal, if not the same motivations. They did not think quite the same, but survival was a powerful thing. There were three hawks, and more than a dozen crows that were part of their community. They provided, with their ability to fly, invaluable advanced warning. Especially against airborne threats. There were lots of now savage birds of prey out there.
Part of the plan was to go to the geneticist's house, just as he and Grizz were originally going to, then they would follow the lead that Judy had been on, the location of the raid. He really hoped that they would find something to at least help those that had gone savage.
He and the team that was going with him were also tasked with making contact with other communities. From their bird scouts, they knew there were dozens of other communities out there, though they seemed to be the only one that accepted all. Given they had reptiles, birds, and mammals of all types. They were also one of the larger communities. So the little expedition he was leading was granted the authority to create treaties or other agreements to work together. Nick was also using it as an excuse to search for Judy. They had been apart for over a month now and he would give up his empowerment, if it gave him back Judy.
He took another deep breath. There it was again, the hint of his bunny, but too faint to follow. So faint he couldn't actually be sure he was smelling it. "Judy..."
Lizz Fangmeyer put a paw on Nick's shoulder. "Hey, boss. I'm sure she is out there somewhere trying to find her way to you. While we are out and about, we will look for her. I know that’s one of the reasons you are going on this mission. So don’t even pretend. I swear. We will find her."
Nick looked up at the Tigress with a weak smile. "Thanks, Lizz.” Nick looked back out across the city, silently swearing that they would find her. “Let’s go. We have a lot of city to cover, and most of it is way beyond the territory that we control." Looking down to where Mike stood next to a heavily modified cruiser. “Glad we have Flash, because that thing is a tank, thanks to him.” The vehicle that had started its life as a ZPD cruiser now had reinforced side panels, a roof turret, and other things one might expect on a military vehicle, not a modified ZPD cruiser. It looked like it drove right off the screen of the last Mad Maxim movie.
They loaded into the vehicle, Mike driving. He looked blind now, like he had never even had eyes to begin with. Where his eyes used to be was now covered with seamless skin and fur, but he was in fact not blind at all, if anything he saw more than anyone. He was also as strong as a rhino and about as easy to hurt. One of the few things that was able to hurt him was Lizz.
Lizz herself was similar, she was stronger, seemed to be able to track just about anything, and her claws were so sharp, they could rend through steel like hot knives through butter. Nick planned on testing just how sharp those claws were by having her try and cut him. Even if it did mean revealing that he was empowered. He trusted the wolf and tiger before The Change. They had given him no reason not to continue trusting them, if not more reasons since The Change.
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After several hours of slowly working their way through the streets of what was once the great city of Zootopia, they stopped for a short break. Down the street that they needed to go down, about ten blocks, they could see a blockage that was clearly not what now qualified as the natural state of the city, that being abandoned and wrecked vehicles, or collapsed buildings. Lizz, Mike, and Nick, were more than capable, as was their modified cruiser, of pushing most things out of the way. This was different. Instead of just a blocked up intersection where a mass accident happened when things went sideways for the world. This was vehicles that had been lined up and stacked to create an actual wall right up against the buildings on the near side of an intersection.
Sadly, this was also one of the many bottlenecks created as buildings had burned and collapsed in one direction, as well as a full on toppled skyscraper, and the remains of the climate wall to the other side. After launching a drone, their crow performing a wider watch, they also found that the other two streets towards the climate wall were suitably blocked with collapsed buildings and rubble. The only way through to the part of the city that lay beyond the collapsed skyscraper was either to go all the way around, or through the barricade.
Nick turned to Mike. “Okay Mike, what do you see? Any sentries? Lizz, anything visible via the drone? Jakav won’t be back for hours if not longer, unless he finds something.”
Lizz shook her head. “Nothing I can see from the air.” She finished landing it and retrieved it from the roof to put back on the charger. “There is some weird scraping on the street on the other side of the barricade. Not sure what it was made by, but these days, it could be anything.”
Nick nodded. “Fair enough. Mike?”
Mike shook his head. “None that are obvious. In fact I’m not seeing or sensing anything living but us for several blocks. There are a few bodies in those wrecks, and they have clearly been there for a while. It is honestly a bit worrying. I don’t even sense those bands of rats that we deal with all the time. Smart of you to recruit the ones in our area. Now it’s just the unaffiliated ones when we’re away from Haven. When was the last time someone has been down this way?”
Nick shook his head. “Me, and that was right after. Maybe two or three days. Right about when the tower fell. So it might be abandoned, a trap, or built by a community seeking to protect itself. There were a lot of roving bands of raiders on this side, before the offensive we held last week.” Looking back at Lizz. “Lizz, let me see one of your claws.”
Without thinking, Lizz put her paw over the back of the seat so Nick could access her paw, then flexed her claws out for him. One of the modifications to the cruiser was that the cage had been removed. They needed the seating now more than they needed a cage for some perp. There were a few unmodified cruisers, but they never made it out of the controlled area of Haven.
Lizz freaked out when he grabbed her index claw and drove his palm up into the tip, and not gently. She saw blood and… that isn’t what happened, that was what she expected, she saw it happen in her mind's eye, his paw impaled on her claw, but that wasn’t what her eyes were showing. Instead, she saw his paw pad press down, but her claw failed to penetrate. “What the fuck‽” She froze, daring not to move lets she accidentally shred his paw.
Nick looked at his paw and Lizz’s claw with interest. “Well, that answers that question. Thanks Lizz. I’ve been wanting to test that for a while.” Glancing back at her with a smirk. “Let's eat, and then we can approach that blockade... carefully.”
Lizz looked at Nick in shock. “You’re empowered‽ Since when?”
Nick chuckled. “From the very beginning. I don’t broadcast it, but I trusted you two from before all this shit, and since. So I would appreciate you keeping it to yourself.”
Mike chuckled. “I’ve suspected ever since you appeared in Haven and freed us. You never flinch when an empowered mammal does something near you. Non-empowered, no matter how strong, or how experienced, always twitch. Even most empowered twitch or flinch, it’s instinctive. You. Not even once. Toren missed his target and blasted the wall right next to you. Missed you by less than six inches. All you did was turn slowly to see what kind of damage he had done, then turned back to him and raised an eyebrow. Your heartbeat never changed.”
Nick frowned. “That figures. Well, on that depressing note. I’m hungry, let's eat.”
Mike chuckled. “Just learn to flinch.”
After a quick lunch of pre-prepared sandwiches, they slowly approached the barricade of cars.
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Approaching the blockade, Lizz drove so Mike could focus on his sight. “I’m not seeing or detecting anything but the bodies. No one is hiding in a truck, or on the roof tops in the area. That said, there are what might be explosives or other traps. What’s the call, boss?”
Nick thought for a moment, then smiled. “Where are the would-be traps? I’ll investigate.”
Lizz frowned. “Why you?”
“Because I’ve taken an RPG to the chest and only had to find new clothes.” Lizz’s eyes went wide, while Mike’s eye-less brows went up. “Yeah. I’m that hard to hurt. Move on.”
Mike pointed to three cars near the base of the stack. “If those are charges, they are meant to topple the stack on the mammal messing with it, because they’re on the far side and would push up on the far side of the stack. There’s nothing of note higher up except that the glass is all intact, and if it shatters with the explosion and impact, that would probably shred friends of the poor sap that sets that thing off.”
Nick nodded. “Okay, then you two stay in here and back up a bit. If there are watchers there’s no need for them to know all three of us are empowered, or how many of us there are for that matter.”
Lizz nodded with a frown. “Still think it should be me.”
“Yeah, not happening this time. Maybe at the next blockade.”
Nick then got out and approached the stacked and lined up cars, carefully stepping over several trip wires and one poorly hidden mine. Clearly some of the stuff had been taken from an organized crime weapons stash, or someone managed to break into a Mammal Guard Auxiliary armory. With empowered that was possible in either direction. That’s how their people had done it. Between Lizz, Mike, and a few others, they cut right through the wall.
Keying the mic on his shoulder, Nick reported to Lizz and Mike what he was seeing. They had managed to reclaim the police band radios, which was really useful in situations like this. “Couple of trip wires. At least one, not very well hidden mine. This seems more like it is meant for savages and not thinking mammals. Still, could kill someone if they weren’t paying attention. If you can, Mike, see if you can see and then follow the trip wires to what they are hooked up to.”
Mike replied back. “Already ahead of you. Saw you stepping over them and did just that. They link back to the explosives you are going to investigate.”
Nick looked back at the wires, then up at the stack of cars. “Yeah, that seems right. They’d probably topple the whole stack down on whomever triggered it.”
Mike replied back. “Yeah. That’s not nice.”