Clunkbot - You won't feel a thing

“CLAWHAUSER!” Judy screeched into her radio. “SEND BACKUP,  PACK STREET AND 34TH! IN THE ALLEY!”

 

 

The Bunny hunkered behind a dumpster. To her right, her partner, Nick Wilde was crouched, his tranquilizer drawn.

 

 

There was a slight lull in the action, when quiet fell like a curtain and permeated the alleyway like an invisible fog. And then lightning struck the dark sky quietly. Thunder roamed overhead, and rain came down like tears of God. That’s when Judy popped up from cover and knocked a tranq’ down range. It sailed with orange brilliance towards a large Ram, peeking his head out from around a corner. The dart struck true, right between his eyes. Almost immediately the Ram’s body went limp, crashing into the mud with a dull flop.

 

Return fire came almost instantly, all of it missing Judy as she returned to cover.

 

“For fuck sake, where’s backup!?” Nick asked in a panicked voice. Above head, Nighthowler pellets sailed, thumping into the dumpster with a metallic *piff* “Try calling again!” He held his weapon close to his body.

 

 

“Help’s on the way, we just need to hang on here.” Judy said. Her eyes narrowed on Nick’s gun. “Get up there and see if you we can’t peg another one of them.”

 

 

Nick froze. His green eyes narrowed on Judy’s eyes. They were silent for a moment, before Nick opened his mouth. “Okay.”

 

 

His charisma gone, Nick seemed to have fallen back on some lost sense of duty, some smoldering intensity kept hidden from the world. The Fox popped up from cover, between lightning strokes, and took aim. Thunder crashed as his body went rigid and stiff, locked into aim.

 

 

The opposing side was quiet. Neither head nor tail could be seen peaking around either corner of the alleyway. Nick focused on deep breathing. His finger quietly stroked the trigger. “Come on...Come on….”

 

 

“NICK!” Judy howled. A car had appeared behind them, right in the mouth of the alley. One singular window from the passenger side door was open, the barrel of a Nighthowler applicator pushed out from the darkness of the car’s interior.

 

“JUDY!”

 

 

Like thunder underwater, he heard nothing, felt nothing but a dull thud in his chest. His body lay draped over Judy’s shivering and slick body.

 

 

“Nick? Nick are you hit?” Judy scrambled out from underneath Nick. The fox had fallen collapsed onto his knees. A second pellet caught him between the eyes, just as the car roared off. With his vest and head smeared blue, Nick crumbled into his stomach

 

 

“Nick!? No no no no no no!” Judy protested, quickly turning him over to face the rain. Maybe some would wash off? With her sodden paws she tried in vain to scrub off the rapidly vanishing Nighthowler serum.

 

Nick’s body was motionless for a brief moment as lightning flashed in the sky and Judy towered over him. And then the thunder came.

 

“JUDY!” Nick’s eyes split apart. Already his pupils had begun to narrow into slits. “JUDY!” He clutched wildly at his partner. His hands feverishly wrapped around her arms and pulled her close. His body was already shaking wildly, threatening to contort into familiar old-world savagery. “PUT ME DOWN!”

 

 

“W-What?!” Judy broke free from his grasp and stumbled backwards.

 

 

“PUT ME DOWN NOW BEFORE I CAN HURT YOU. PLEASE!” Nick demanded. He screamed once more.

 

 

Old instinct taking hold. Claws rising from his fingers. A growl dwelling deep in his fiery chest beginning to take shape. With all of his strength he fought these things.

 

 

Judy was already back on her radio. “CLAWHAUSER SEND A MEDIC, NICK’S BEEN-”

 

“JUDY, PUT ME DOWN, NOW!” Nick snarled in anguish. He began kicking wildly in the air.

 

 

Without thinking. Without hesitation, her hand went to her tranquilizer and leveled the weapon at her convulsing partner.

 

 

“Nick, there’s enough in here to kill you. These are for large mammals, not foxes!” Her voice shuddered with fear. “Just hang on until the containment teams can get here. Please, just- just hold on, okay? Please? I’m begging you.” Tears began to bud in the corners of her eyes.

 

 

“Judy, put me to sleep NOW before I hurt you! I can’t fight it much longer!”

 

 

Lightning flickered overhead. In a brief instant Nick had gone from laying on his back to upright, on all fours. His narrowed eyes turned Judy over like a piece of meat.

 

 

“DO IT!”

 

 

Thunder struck.

 

 

Tears mixed with rainwater.

 

 

Judy’s body shook.

 

 

Nick stepped forward, unsheathing his fangs from his mouth, an archaic growl rose from his throat.

 

 

Lightning split the sky.

 

 

“I just don’t want to know that pain is your last memory…”

 

 

Another drumroll of thunder.

 

 

“What’s it like…?”

 

 

Judy’s fingers tugged at the trigger.

 

 

“To be safely put to sleep?”

 

 

“Promise me?”

 

 

“Promise me it won’t hurt?”

 

 

“That this won't have to be your last memory.”

 

 

“I don’t want pain to be your last memory.”