#toothdee

[alexboehm55144]

Alex Final Wars 2: Dark Alex, Chapter 37 - Priority Objective

"Our intelligence from ZIA assets indicates the coastal fortress is heavily guarded," Jack said. He pointed to a projected picture of massive concrete Chinese fortifications on a steep cliffside. There was also a map of the Yellow Sea and Bohai sea between China and Korea. "It's located on the Shandong Peninsula in eastern China, near Korea. You can see here, there's a lot of guns and barriers in place. Now moving on to the next slide... Haida, next slide, please."

"Zzz.... huh? Oh, sorry!" The hyena said, sitting up in his chair at a table in the briefing room. He pressed a key on the laptop in front of him. The slide on the projector advanced towards a picture of Chinese troopers clad in unique faded light green / gray camouflage uniforms, along with face paint.

"As you can see, the fortress is partly guarded by an elite detachment of Chinese oriental swords. Special forces soldiers, highly trained and well equipped. There's also rumors of an elite Chinese operative on sight."

"Well, we've fought well-equipped forces before and came out on top!" Laval said, sparking a few chuckles from the assembled heroes. "Elite soldiers, they're no match for us!"

"Don't get cocky, Laval. You got a blood lust or something." Toothdee said before Jack continued.

"We will be assaulting the fortress with US navy elements. The priority objective is to break through the outer defenses, get inside the fortress, and disable its gun emplacements. This will not only neuter the fortress but also protect our ships in the bay. Those guns are our priority objectives. Alex, I understand you managed to secure some reinforcements for us that could help?"

"That's correct." The captain said, standing up. "The US's ally of Canada has generously donated 2 squadrons of CF-18 Hornet fighters to the operation. Along with a team of JTF-2 commandos."

"Alright, that should be of great help. After our strike, we will fall back to a helicopter extraction outside the fortress, leaving the structure broken. This is a large attack to knock out a key Chinese facility before falling back. However, also have a secondary objective."

Alex sat back down while Jack once again woke up Haida to advance to the next slide.

"As you can see here..." the ZIA agent said, highlighting a picture of what appeared to be files, charts, diagrams, and maps labeled as top secret. "There are vital Chinese war plans on-site that would be of great use to the ZIA and the US military. However, we must move quickly. No doubt Chinese personnel will try to destroy the plans."

Captain Boehm once again took over speaking.

"Kion, Nick, and Judy, you are with me. Jasiri, Toothdee, Laval, Eris, JayJay, you'll be providing support to US forces. Haida, Retsuko, Jack, and Skye will be providing overwatch and comms support. Fabienne, I presume you will be filming from a relatively safe distance?"

"That's correct." The snow leopard responded. "Also, would some of you guys mind doing an interview with me about the war effort at some point?"

"Alright, if anyone here is interested, set up a time to meet with Fabienne. Then, back to the mission, please refer to the printed packets if you have any questions."

There were a few shuffling noises as some of the heroes in the room looked through the paper packets they had received in the briefing room. Each bundle of papers contained pictures of the fortress, along with related intelligence and tactics.

"In the event, resistance is too strong, the marines have assured me they have elite units on standby that we can call in if such a situation arises. Including flame troopers and close combat units. They will assist if we can't punch through defenses. This is a vital strike on Chinese soil, the coast of China itself. Let's make sure we don't disappoint."

000

"You think the typhoon will be safe?" Judy asked.

"I mean, it's not exactly at the center of the battle," Kion said. "It's in the back providing support."

"Yeah, there's plenty of US forces between it and the Chinese," Alex said.

"But there is nothing between the US and the Chinese right now," Nick said, as the amphibious APC they were in shook when an artillery shell landed in the water nearby.

"This is a cut above normal ZPD operations."

"Yep, this is more action than most officers normally see." Judy chimed in.

"Well, sometimes protecting Zootopia means going beyond the city."

"Let me just say it's an honor to be your ZPD liaison."

"You've taught Toothdee and I a lot about working in urban environments, handling prisoners, investigation. The honor is all ours."

The APC shook again as it rolled up on a beach near the Chinese fortress.

"Alright, let's do this!" Kion said as Captain Boehm opened the back door to the APC and the warriors inside exited.

The sky was peppered by a few clouds, and more amphibious vehicles rolled onto the beach, along with hovercraft that deployed tanks. Offshore, US warships battled it out with Chinese warships and land-based gun positions. The sounds of gunfire and artillery were a constant ambiance. Chinese forces were dug behind defensive barricades on the beach, with US APCs deploying troops and providing cover.

The team of mammals took cover behind one of the APCs and engaged the dug-in enemy soldiers.

"Alex, Canadian special forces are in support!" Retsuko said, monitoring friendly enemy positions.

Another APC opened up, and troopers with gray/light blue uniforms & a Canadian flag patch on their uniforms piled out and engaged Chinese forces.

However, the enemy troops were still engaging with mounted machine guns.

"Eris could use a bit of support here!" The captain requested.

"On it!" The eagle responded, strafing the Chinese positions with machine-gun fire from her jet, allowing Heroes and their allies to advance.

Kion cut down some PLA troops with his sword, while the lion's friends used their firearms or bow.

Heroes and their Canadian allies entered a bunker on the beach, leading into the fortress. They were met with another squad of Chinese troops moving to defend their position. However, this squad was immediately gunned down with a hail of bullets from the attacking forces.

"Those cannons should be around here somewhere...." Nick said as the team advanced further into the fortress.

"Away team, those guns are hitting our ships hard," Skye said through the radio. "Judging from your insertion point and the emplacement locations, you should head northeast."

"Affirmative." The captain responded.

Heroes and the special forces checked corridors and kept their weapons leveled as they proceeded through the Chinese structure. Sometimes the Canadians tossed an MTN-55 motion sensor, which would detect any PLA forces in the area.

"No hostiles." One of the Canadians said before the team advanced.

Eventually, just as Nick predicted, they came upon the room where the batteries were located, embedded in the side of the fortress. The floors, ceiling, and three walls of the elongated room were made of metal and concrete. The fourth wall was nonexistent. Instead, the fortress exterior was open to the outside. This allowed the artillery guns in the room a pristine view of the sea and warships outside. Only support pillars and safety railings blocked the line of sight for the canons attached to the floor a few feet away from the open wall.

The gun crews were unprepared for enemies forces to appear, allowing the US and CA troops to quickly take down most of the enemy forces.

Kion instantly sliced through a bear that was carrying an ammo crate to one of the cannons.

Nick fired an arrow that was tipped with flammable material, burning a pair of red panda soldiers. Judy, Alex, and the Canadians opened fire with a hail of lead, putting down the gunners and support personnel before they could react.

"Clear!" One of the Canadians yelled, and the team moved upon the guns. Nick fired an arrow tipped with explosives at one of the canons, rendering it inoperable. Alex detonated an ammunition cache near one of the guns. At the same time, the Canadians placed a thermite grenade in the breach of the third canon. By the time they were done, all 3 artillery pieces were down.

Heroes stacked up on the door to the next room and the next group of artillery guns.  

"They might have heard us. Throw a flash grenade." Judy noted, prompting one of the Canadians to toss a flashbang into the next room.

Friendly forces breached the room. Just as expected, the Chinese troops were prepared. Defensive positions taken, weapons aimed at the door, even wild unevolved attack dogs at the ready. But the Flashbang had disoriented everyone, allowing Heroes to sweep in and take out almost the entire Chinese force.

Kion deflected some incoming fire with his sword before charging forward and cutting down a pair of PLA soldiers. Captain Boehm used expert marksmanship to dispatch 2 enemy troopers and 1 attack dog with well-placed headshots. Meanwhile, Judy and the Canadians took down more enemy forces with a hail of gunfire.

Another force of Chinese troopers burst into the room. But their uniforms were faded green in color, rather than the standard dark grey of Chinese uniforms. Some soldiers also had facepaint and headbands on, while everyone carried a weapon that boasted more attachments than average.

"Oriental swords!" Captain Boehm yelled, engaging the incoming special forces troopers, who tossed grenades at the US troops.

Friendly soldiers were instantly fired upon when coming out of cover, making it hard to engage the enemy troopers.

"Ok, these guys are on another level," Nick said.

"They're elite special forces, Nick. What did you think?" The captain said, returning fire.

Kion, filled with confidence and possibly arrogance, charged at one of the enemy troopers with his blade. But the human soldier managed to parry the attack and get into a weapon lock with the young hero.

Kion didn't expect this much resistance, but with a head butt, he stunned the Solider and then ran his blade through her.

Meanwhile, the other heroes and their allies were striking back at the oriental swords. Then, Captain Boehm tossed a grenade that forced the enemies out of cover behind some supply crates, allowing friendly troops to gun them down.

"Clear!"

However, before Heroes could move to disable the guns, a group of Chinese rushers troopers armed with shotguns burst into the room, weapons ready. The US and CA troops prepared themselves, but suddenly a stray shell entered the room via the opening on one wall. It impacted near the incoming shotgunners, reducing them to nothing before they could attack.

"Well, that takes care of that," Nick said, looking at what was left of the rushers. "Yuck."

"Hey uh guys, I just got a report about a ship requesting backup from some enemy boats and other ships around it," Haida said via the radio.

"We're on it." Captain Boehm said. "Kion, you load, Nick, you fire, I'll aim. Judy, you keep watch with some of the commandos. The rest of you, man, those other guns!"

"Sir, yes sir!" The Canadian commandos said before some took up positions guarding the room entrances. At the same time, the remaining troopers operated some of the artillery guns.

The captain jumped on one of the canons and looked through the sights out onto the sea. CN and US forces battled it out in the rough seas in front of the fortress.

Warships engaged each other with massive cannons. Small escort vessels darted and weaved around the larger ships like small creatures. Airplanes engaged other aircraft and boats alike as they blazed through the sky.

"Uh... I'm not exactly sure how I'm supposed to work this thing..." Nick said, looking over the metal machine.

"Just pull that cord there when I tell you too," Alex said, pointing to the object in question.

"This one?"

"Yeah, pull it when I say 'fire.'"

Kion picked up a shell from a nearby ammo crate and loaded it into the breach before closing it. Meanwhile, the captain sighted a US destroyer set upon by a few smaller escort craft and targeted one of the smaller vessels.

"FIRE!"

Nick pulled the cord, but nothing happened.

"You have to pull it harder!" Kion noted.

The fox obliged, and the gun fired with a deafening blast, knocking Nick off his feet.

"WHOA! Ok, that was something!" Nick said, getting back up.

Captain Boehm watched the shot fly through the air and impact the escort vessel. The small boat exploded in a fireball and shower of debris.

"Direct hit! Get back in position, Nick! We've got a battle to win here!" The captain ordered.

"Well, you don't have to be so rude about it...." Nick teased, taking the firing cord in his paws again as Kion loaded another shell.

The captain targeted another Chinese escort vessel, and it was reduced to rubble by the subsequent shot.

The captain then turned his attention to a small enemy warship and bombarded it with multiple shells. The naval vessel shrugged off the first shot, but it started to show more damage with subsequent strikes. Cracks and indents showed on the vessel's surface, and fire belched from damaged areas. Finally, crewmammals jumped overboard into the sea with life jackets.

"PLAN vessel eliminated. Haida, the destroyer is safe." The captain said into his radio, getting off the artillery piece.

"You know, this reminds me." Kion said, "I've never seen a mouse-sized artillery gun. It must just be a standard-sized gun, right?"

"I've never seen one either. Be ready on the guns in case another ship needs support. Jack, do you read me?"

"Affirmative, go ahead."

"Chinese gun crews are down. Are there any US ships in the bay that require support?"

"That aircraft carrier is taking a bit more of a pounding than it should, but I'm directing friendly forces to assist it. You're clear to go ahead with your secondary objective."

"Roger that. Heroes, Commandos, destroy those guns, and let's move out!"

000

"Come on! Come on! Push up!" Toothdee yelled.

The US troops she was with followed her command and charged towards CN defensive positions on a grassy outcropping near the fortress.

Just like the beach on the other side of the fortress, PLA troops were dug in with machine guns, guarding a vital supply stash on this side of the citadel.

"Toothdee, I'm here!" JayJay yelled, and the Heroes commander turned to see JayJay approaching her. She was wearing a muted gray and green dress, along with her fur being dyed a very muted shade of blue to reduce its visual impact.

"We need to get you some better gear," Toothdee said, looking over the wolf's not precisely regulation-compliant outfit.

"What? It's camouflaged... I have a bulletproof vest..." JayJay said, tugging on her vest to show it was there "...and Alex always says he likes fashion as well as function."

"Well, he doesn't exactly know what he's talking about in that regard."

"What, you guys wear gold armor half the time. Although now I see that you've put gray camouflage paint over it."

Toothdee looked down at her own chest and shoulder armor. Usually, it was gold in color, but now that color was extremely muted and covered with a gray camouflage pattern painted on.

"That gold color is by design," Toothdee said. "The gold is more recognizable, meaning enemies will fire upon the gold area, as opposed to other less vibrant parts of the body. But that gold section is where the armor is strongest. It's like saying 'shoot me here where my armor is thickest' "

"Oooohhhh..... well, like I said, fashion and function."

"Enough chit-chat. We have to assault this side of the fortress and destroy enemy supplies!"

The pair of mammals moved ahead to where enemy soldiers were engaging US forces. A wolf soldier was struck down by shots from PLA troopers in cover.

"JayJay! Keep them bottled up!" Toothdee yelled, prompting her companion to open fire on the enemy positions, giving Toothdee time to pull the wounded trooper to cover.

A medic checked out the injured wolf while the pair of Heroes advanced on enemy positions. They gunned down any hostile trooper that attempted to return fire.

US troops advanced with them, but the pair of Heroes were leading the charge. As a result, all the PLA soldiers were killed, and the attacking mammals went further through enemy lines. Nevertheless, enemy machine gunners and snipers continued to engage, putting out a hail of bullets.

"Skye, we need some artillery support. Can you get a warship to assist? Sending enemy coordinates."

"I'm on it! One second."

There was a slight delay. The American troops continuing to take cover and return fire at the enemy.

"Get down, strike incoming."

JayJay and Toothdee took cover as shells rained down from above, obliterating the hostile Chinese troops. Dirt and debris flew into the air as PLA troops screamed before being torn to shreds.

The barrage ceased, and Heroes advanced with their US marines, gunning down a few Chinese soldiers who had survived the bombardment and were left disoriented.

"Secure the area! Plant charges on those supplies!" Toothdee yelled, the force moving up to a flattened dirt area that contained a large stockpile of crates and drums underneath camouflage netting.

However, People's Liberation Army reinforcements arrived, attacking prepared positions behind the fortress, located far from the main defensive line.

The large group of enemy troops charged towards the US forces with bayonets. Screaming battle cries, striking with extreme fanaticism and ferocity.

Many American troops were impaled by the furious blades, even as they opened fire on the attacking mammals, gunning down dozens of the attackers.

A Chinese trooper charged towards Toothdee with a bayonet, but she managed to parry and strike the soldier with the butt of her own rifle.

JayJay simply used her expert agility to doge two incoming mammals and land hard melee strikes that knocked them out.

The PLA troops lay dead, their desperate last assault blunted.

"See!" JayJay said, "my outfit didn't hinder me at all, Toothdee!"

"Ugh.." Toothdee said, rolling her eyes. "Troopers! Ready your demolition charges!"

000

"Is the planning room this way?" Kion asked, slicing through a PLA trooper with his sword.

"According to Jack's ZIA asset, yes," Alex said, plunging his blade into another trooper.

The pair charged forward with their sword, cutting down Chinese troopers in close quarters and deflecting incoming bullets as they cleared the way for their team and advanced through the fortress.

"Shotgunners!" Kion yelled.

The pair of swordsmen ducked, allowing the Canadian soldiers and ZPD members to fire over their heads and down the hostile troopers. Shotguns were nigh impossible to deflect against.

"Away team, based on footage from your body cams, you're nearing the HQ room," Jack said through the radio. "Next door on the left."

"Affirmative Jack," captain Boehm said, "Heroes, JTF-2, stack up on that door."

The allied forces took up ready positions on the door before Kion kicked it open, and they charged into the war room.

Chinese commanding officers and personnel were busy going over maps on a central table and computer screens displaying tactical information. The officers in the room drew pistols and attempted to fire back at the incoming Heroes but were quickly downed.

Kion parried and cut down an oriental sword on guard near the door before turning his attention to another advancing trooper with an assault rifle.

Nick fired a precise trio of arrow shots, taking down 3 of the officers in the room who were trying to abscond with the items on the war table.

Captain Boehm sliced through an oriental sword on guard before advancing on a Chinese commanding officer. He knocked away her pistol and slammed her face into a computer monitor on a desk.

But then the captain noticed something on another computer monitor on a desk. A human with a sword, cutting through what appeared to be US soldiers holding a position outside the fortress. It only took a few seconds to realize that it was his counterpart.

Anger built inside the captain, seeing the last villain they had to defeat, the being that shared his name and face and was wreaking so much destruction. Nothing would stop him from putting an end to his counterpart's rampage.

While Alex was distracted, an enemy soldier charged at him, but Judy performed a dropkick, knocking the attacker out.

"Clear! Secure those plans!" One of the commandos said before another commando moved over to the war table and started to grab all the maps and documents on it, stuffing them into a secure, watertight, and armored case.

"Alex? What is it?" Judy asked.

The captain gestured to the computer screen and slid a chair over to Judy. The rabbit hopped up on the chair and took a look at the screen.

"Oh... I see now." The bunny said, her ears drooping.

"We have to go after my counterpart. He's the last dark version of us that's still out there."

"Yes!" Kion said, agreeing with his friend. "Let's go get him and finish those dark heroes off once and for all!"

The lion banged his knuckles together.

"What? Kion, Alex, we're here for the war maps and papers. Not to chase down your counterpart."

"Come on, Judy, Alex's counterpart is the last villain we need to defeat! So we have to go get him! He's a vital target!"

"I'm with carrots," Nick said, "knowledge is power. Let's complete our assignment and then go find tall, dark, and evil another day."

"Then let's split up." Alex said, "Kion and I will give chase. You two secure the plans."

"I wouldn't recommend that, sir." One of the Canadians said, "This is a dangerous Chinese facility swarming with hostiles. Splitting up could be disastrous, and there's no guarantee you would be able to extract."

"Look, Alex...." Judy said. "You are our leader, Nick, and I will gladly follow you, but our mission was to get those documents. We have them. Let's make sure we get them somewhere safe."

"As a leader, I can't ignore the sensibilities of those I lead. I'm not gonna force you to follow me."

"Well, then it looks like we're tied," Nick said.

The captain turned to the commandos.

"You guys are the tie-breaking votes."

There was a few moments of discussion between the commandos.

"Our mission is to secure the war plans, sir. We side with the rabbit." The Canadian leader said.

"Alright, we're outvoted, Kion. Reload and prepare to move to the extraction point."

Nick and Judy took up point this time, starting to lead the group back outside the fortress. Alex and Kion serving as rear guards.

The lion turned off his body camera and radio microphone and gestured for captain Boehm to do the same, which he did.

"If you ask me, I say we should be going after your counterpart right now. I mean, who's more of a threat than that!"

"I'm with you." The captain said, "Out of respect for Nick and Judy, we'll get the intelligence out of here. But if I had my way, we would be pursuing my counterpart right now."

[alexboehm55144]

Alex Final Wars 2: Dark Alex, Chapter 34 - Black Ship

Living quarters on the Typhoon were of good quality, and there were cabins for mammals of all sizes. Each cabin had a bathroom and a comfy bed that was built into one of the walls. They also had a closet and plenty of room for furniture if the occupant wanted it. The walls were metal, and the entire cabin had a modern look. There was also a window to the outside world for the enjoyment of the occupant. During battle, armored panels would slide over the window.

Captain Boehm awoke in his quarters on the Typhoon, stretching and trying to stay awake. The room was dark, only illuminated by a bit of light from the outside peaking past the blinds.

He wanted to just stay in bed. Maybe watch some videos or something on his tablet. But, there was work to be done. He grabbed his phone and tapped the texting app, finding the message between him and Toothdee.

"I'm awake. What's our status?" He texted.

Toothdee decided to call back instead of texting back, the phone's screen showing a picture of her, while the device rang loudly.

The captain cursed under his breath, getting out of bed and walking into the bathroom in his room.

"What is it?" He said, answering the phone.

"Well, first of all, good morning." Toothdee said, "secondly, we lost the energy signature of your counterpart's plane last night. We can only track it for so long, and it's difficult considering his plane has a stealth coating of paint on it."

"So, we've lost him entirely?"

"Not quite. We can still search the general area where we last detected the plane. Also, we have a report from a scouting element. Our counterpart's version of the Typhoon was spotted in the same area. I think we might be getting close."

"Brilliant! Let's keep on them. We might be able to find our counterpart's HQ. What about you, Toothdee? You should probably get some rest."

"I'm fine. I took over from Kion a few hours ago. Besides, I have iced tea."

"Oh, did the flying training pay off?"

"Well, it's a lot easier to fly through the open sky than battle around rocks and structures, using them as cover."

"True. Ok, I'll come up and meet you shortly."

The call ended, and the captain sighed, exiting the bathroom and walking back to his bed.

"Sorry about that." He said to the blue-furred wolf laying on the bed, rubbing her eyes.

"Well... I should probably get up anyways..." JayJay said.

"Another day, another battle. But it's nice to relax every once in a while." The captain said, sitting on the bed and pulling on some socks.

"Yeah... especially with someone else," JayJay said, nibbling on her companion's ear.

"Ow!?" Alex said, pulling away from her.

"Oh, sorry! That's a wolf thing."

"Well... Just be gentle."

The wolf went back to work, following her instincts while the captain scrolled through his tablet, preparing for the day ahead. Eventually, much to JayJays disappointment, Alex got up and gathered his things, getting ready to leave.

"Who's.... still left out there?" The wolf said, getting on all fours and stretching her arms out, yawning at the same time.

"Well, there's your counterpart, Toothdee's counterpart, and my counterpart."

"Oh, listen, be careful when going after your counterpart, ok." The wolf stood up and walked over to the human, taking his hands in her paws. "Eris told me that you crashed while battling your counterpart."

"Yeah, it was tough. I mean, just a human, treading water against a jet."

The wolf's ears were pinned back on her head, indicating she was upset.

"But I'm fine. Shame about my jet, though."

"You are more important than some fancy plane Alex."

"I know, I know."

"Be more careful, so you can live to fight another day."

There was a pause, the captain thinking about what to say next.

"For me?" The wolf said.

"*sigh* alright, for you."

The pair shared a short kiss and embrace before going their separate ways for the day. There was still a war to be won.

000

The captain entered the bridge, gazing out at the light blue sea and tall volcanic mountains visible outside the Typhoon. The mountains were covered in rich green forests, and clouds dotted the sky. Toothdee was piloting the ship from the captain's chair. Meanwhile, Jack was also present, standing in the corner and listening to something on his phone. However, he was aware enough to nod at Alex as he entered.

"Morning!"

"Morning Alex," Toothdee said, sitting up in the captain's chair. "We should be nearing the area where our counterpart's ship was spotted."

"Well, we should probably put everyone on high alert."

"I know. I'm just letting everyone get up, get ready, and get going. But everyone's assignments and positions have already been set up and are ready to be sent out if or when the time comes."

"You are always prepared."

"Hang on, picking up something."

Toothdee looked at the radar screen to spot an unknown contact somewhere behind a mountain up ahead. She guided the ship towards the signature, rounding the mountain the heroes on the bridge saw it.

"The black typhoon..." Toothdee said, watching the massive vessel hover in the air in front of them. The ship was slightly larger than Heroes' blue Typhoon, and its hull way black in color, while its counterpart was gray with some blue highlights. Large wings used to help the airship in flight jutted out from the hull, and the vessel's surface was blistered with weapon emplacements.

"Toothdee, battle stations!" The captain ordered.

"Already on it." She said, pressing a button, automatically sending everyone's assignments to them. Everyone on the ship instantly and knew where they had to go and what they had to do.

Jack and Alex raced to gunner seats, sitting down and bringing the weapons online.

A few moments later, Laval and Eris entered the bridge, getting to their gunner positions.

"Well, this is quite a way to start the day," Laval said, sitting down.

"Enemy ship is hailing us," Toothdee said before a video from the Black Typhoon appeared on the bridge's main screen, which normally showed the outside world.

Toothdees counterpart appeared on screen, also sitting in the pilot's seat of her vessel.

"I did not expect that today I would get to destroy my adversaries and their warship." Toothdee's counterpart said. "Today is off to a good start."

"It's you who will be going down today," Toothdee said.

"Your ship is inferior by the looks of it."

"It's more than capable of killing you!"

"We shall see..."

The video disconnected, and the battle began.

Both typhoons fired, opening salvos of missiles and rockets. Members of Heroes operating the bridges of the blue Typhoon, while Chinese troops managed the weapons of the Black Typhoon. Shots from both vessels hit the other, dealing damage to both ships.

"Hull is holding," Eris reported.

The ships moved closer to each other and began to circle and square off. The pair of ships avoiding enemy shots while hitting their own. Two airships battling in the sky, surrounded by volcanic mountains and forests sprouting from the rich soil.

Toothdee used the blue Typhoon's smaller size and better maneuverability to evade incoming fire from the hostile vessel. However, this also meant that when the Blue Typhoon was hit, it did more damage than when the Heroes vessel struck the Chinese ship.

The blue Typhoon pulled in close, allowing its gunners to engage at close range, dealing heavy damage to the hostile airship. But due to the closer range, the black Typhoon got off some good shots on the Typhoon. As the blue Typhoon pulled away, the enemy airship launched a barrage of missiles that struck the American airship.

The Heroes vessel shook as shells and missiles hit it, and suddenly, lights, computer screens, and control systems went down.

Red emergency lights came on while the massive video screen used to view the outside world flickered for a moment. Laval spoke on the loss of camera feed to the weapon he was controlling.

"Uh? Where'd my canon go?"

"Mine's gone as well." Captain Boehm said. "The electrical systems must have been damaged."

"Find out where!" Toothdee said, trying to maintain control of the vessel despite the power issues. She turned her vehicle away from the hostile airship. The Typhoon used the volcanic mountains nearby as cover, breaking the line of sight with the enemy. However, the dark ship maintained pursuit, firing whenever it had a chance.

Meanwhile, Eris had switched control away from a weapon's emplacement, choosing instead to activate one of the Typhoon's defensive systems. Smoke generators all over the ship turned on and created a large cloud around the vessel, obscuring it from the view of the Black Typhoon.

Alex looked through a display of the ship's systems and saw that a critical junction box had sustained damage.

"Junction box 2-C, port side!"

"Get Skye on it!" Jack said, "she's an engineer after all."

The captain quickly contacted the fox on his radio.

"Skye! We need you!"

"What is it? What's wrong with the lights?"

"A junction box has been damaged. We need you to fix it. And quick! Look for junction box 2-C. It's marked as such. 2nd deck, port side."

"Massive airships aren't really my thing...." Skye said. "But I'll see what I can do. I'm gonna need my tools. They're in my room."

"I'll tell Kion to get them," Alex said.

"Ok, I'll get it done."

Skye started racing through the ship, getting on all fours to go faster. After being contacted by captain Boehm, Kion headed to Jack and Skye's room. The lion entered, quickly spotting a small red toolbox near the door, before grabbing it and sprinting towards the compartment he had been directed towards.

Meanwhile, toothdee turned and moved the Typhoon as fast as she could, narrowly avoiding hostile shells. The black Typhoon fired another barrage of missiles.

"Deploying flares!" Eris said, pressing a button and causing flares to release from canisters on the Typhoon. The heat-seeking missiles hit the flares, while the Typhoon continued onwards unscathed by the missile barrage.

Skye reached compartment 2C and opened it up, finding wires and electronics smoking and sparking. Kion showed up with a toolbox, crouching down to her height and putting the box between them.

The fox blew on the burnt electronics and went to work, rewiring electrical circuits and occasionally telling Kion to get her a tool.

"Wire cutters."

The lion reached into the tool bag and found the tool, quickly placing it into the agent's waiting paw.

"Voltmeter."

The lion obliged as the lights in the area went out for a brief moment while Skye messed with the wiring.

"Rag."

The lion handed Skye a rag, and the fox wiped the sweat off her forehead with it.

She fiddled with the electrical systems a bit more, and then, the weapons returned to full fictionality. On the airship bridge, the main lights returned, and computer screens came back on.

"Oh yeah, we're back," Jack said, the camera view of his weapon returning.

Toothdee spun the Typhoon around, ultimately catching the pursuing enemy ship off guard. With the element of surprise, the Heroes vessel fired everything it had. Missiles, cannons, machine guns, ordnance of all types hit the Black Typhoon.

The Chinese airship sustained massive damage, hull sections cracking and burning scars appearing all over the vessel. The black Typhoon attempted to flee, turning around a mountain and into a large valley. However, the blue Typhoon maintained chase. Toothdee pressed her firing controls, and cannon shells cut through the air, hitting the rear engines on the Chinese vessel.

Smoke poured from the black Typhoon, the dark ship looking like its very superstructure was evaporating into whips of jet black smoke. The Chinese vessel couldn't maintain altitude, crashed into the forest below, and created a massive sound of scraping metal on rock.

Trees, rocks, and dirt were thrown up in the air as the black Typhoon skid across the ground. Wild birds took to the sky in fear as the airship came to a stop on a mountainside. The beast was slain. Smoke and fire poured from the black Typhoon, and most of its weapons had been destroyed. All that was left was the crew, scrambling around inside, Dark Toothdee yelling orders to try and formulate a course of action. Chinese troops rushed to and fro, repairing damage and attempting to get systems back online.

All the while, the Blue Typhoon hovered in the sky above its fallen adversary, almost lording over its kill. The smaller and allegedly inferior ship had bested its enemy, leaving the latter nothing but broken metal.

"We did it," Toothdee said, finally relaxing slightly, no longer in imminent danger from their counterpart's ship.

"Take it from another pilot, Toothdee, that was some great flying," Eris said.

"Some of their weapons are still online. They could still return fire," Jack noted.

"Hail them," captain Boehm said, "let's see what they have to say now."

A communications link to the hostile ship came up on the screen yet again. This time the video showed that Toothdee's counterpart looked worse for wear. Smoke and sparks came from areas off-screen, and the counterpart's face was covered in cuts and bruises.

"Well, well... Who's inferior now." The captain said. "It would be wise for you to surrender."

"Never!" Toothdee's counterpart said. "I'll tear your ship from the sky! You will have to kill me!"

"You got it. Open fire! All batteries!"

"With pleasure, sir," Laval said, pressing down on the fire buttons on his controls.

Missiles and shells blasted for the Typhoon's weapon systems, the ship engaging with extreme prejudice. Smoke from the weapons filled the air as explosions wracked the black Typhoon.

Toothdee pressed down on her fire controls, but only half-heartedly. Even as she pressed the button to launch a devastating barrage of missiles, her will to do so wavered. Was this the best course of action? Why couldn't they make a ground assault and capture her counterpart? They would be able to gain valuable intelligence. These thoughts ran through her mind, even as the barrage of missiles streaked towards the Black Typhoon's bridge.

On the enemy bridge, alarms blared, and red lights flashed as the ship sustained catastrophic structural failure. Indicators displaying critical damage blinked wildly as Dark Toothdee closed her eyes. She did not want to see her own failure, even as the black Typhoon broke apart around her.

The vessel detonated. Fire ripping through its dark black hull, propelling debris into the air, with the wreckage raining down in the surrounding area. All that was left of a once-powerful and devastating airship was a burnt and ravaged hunk of steel, awash with flame.

"Well, that's that then," Eris said

"Another one down," Laval said.

"I'll send a team to the wreckage," Jack said, calling up some ZIA agents who were in the vicinity.

"Eris was right, Toothdee." Alex said, "you are one hell of a pilot."

"Thanks." She responded. But she still couldn't shake the feeling that they could have done more. She was partly glad that her evil counterpart was dead, but she felt they could have captured her dark double instead. Either way, another counterpart had been killed. Only 2 remained.

000

"What have you found?" Toothdee asked. She and Alex watching Jack, Haida, & Retsuko sort through reports.

"Well, the ZIA agents sent to the wreckage found some Chinese military documents," Retsuko said, eyes darting between 2 pieces of paper as she cross-referenced information.

"I the ZIA's best translation teams are working on it," Jack said. "They've already translated a bunch of helpful information."

The rabbit pulled up a report that was marked as highly classified. "But there's also a report that seems to be from the counterparts. it mentions something called 'operation match strike.'"

“Matchstrike?” Alex said.

"Yeah, it mentions operations at a set of islands in the South China Sea and talks about running communications misinformation and then launching a small strike force. That's about it. It doesn't tell the full story."

"Island in the South China Sea?" Toothdee said, "isn't that where this war started?"

"Yes, it is. There does seem to be information here about the start of this conflict. Maybe if we can get intelligence from the islands themselves, we could learn more."

"Back to where it all began...."

"Want me to start drawing up plans for an infiltration or assault operation," Alex asked.

"Do that, but first, we need to finish repairs and rearmament."

"Skye is helping to work on that," Jack said. "I'm glad we were able to make it back to a US island."

"Yep, we sustained some heavy damage, but at least we're still in one piece."

"And soon..." captain Boehm said. "The full might of this warship, Heroes, and the US, will be bearing down on China and our counterparts."

[alexboehm55144]

Alex Final Wars 2: Dark Alex, Chapter 33 - Midway

The Typhoon had been zipping all over the pacific throughout the US-Chinese war. This was possible because the ship had cloaking technology and could fly. But a large portion of the US navy was still relegated to the eastern half of the ocean, unable to move west due to Chinese forces.

However, with recent US gains, the offensive had started. Naval forces were now planning a significant strike back against the Chinese Navy and Air Force at the island of Midway.

A US armada, including the Typhoon, aircraft carriers, and numerous smaller escort vessels, was already making haste to meet with an equally sized Chinese fleet.

"I expected more airships," Laval said from the bridge of the Typhoon while JayJay sat nearby and filed her claws. "But we're the only one here."

"Airships are still an experimental technology, Laval," Toothdee noted, sitting in the captain's chair and piloting the ship. "Aquatic vessels are still the mainstay for the world's nations."

"Oh great, your telling me our home and HQ is an experimental vessel?"

"Don't worry, Laval, it's perfectly safe."

"Say, have you guys seen Fabienne?" JayJay asked.

"Oh, the reporter. She's probably filming something." Laval said, "I just hope she stays safe when the fighting breaks out."

"She's worked as a war correspondent before," Toothdee said. "She told me she was getting some shots of the ships from one of the outside decks. Speaking of which...."

The Heroes commander turned the radio on again.

"Fabienne, do you read? Are you alright?"

The snow leopard had set up some recording equipment on one of the outside platforms on the Typhoon's exterior. The ocean breeze blew through her fur, and the beautiful blue sea and sky were visible all around her.

"Do you read?"

The reporter's ears perked up, and she grabbed the radio she had been given since her first day on the Heroes ship.

"Yeah, I'm here. I'm ok. Just about to film a quick shot of the fleet."

"Ok, finish up quickly and get back inside."

"Will do."

The snow leopard turned off the radio and took one last look to make sure her tripod-mounted camera was lined up properly before clicking the record button. Afterward, she quickly tested the audio and the microphone on her collar and stood in position. She was a meter from the camera, off to the side. Enough so that the device could see the fleet of US warships in the background, along with the reporter. She was careful not to step too close to the edge of the platform. Because while there was a railing, she did not want to risk falling overboard.

"Hello, this is Fabienne Growley, coming to you from aboard the Typhoon in the pacific. US naval forces are moving to secure the region around Midway island. They are being led by Heroes, and their airship, the Typhoon. A Chinese fleet is in the area, hoping to defend their territory from the encroaching US forces. At this time, it is impossible to say what will occur during this battle, but this could be a turning point for the war in the Pacific."

The snow leopard moved over to the camera and stopped the recording before packing up all her equipment. As she entered back into the vessel, Fabienne contacted Toothdee on her radio.

"I'm heading back inside Toothdee. I'll get to my battle station."

"Ok, you'll be safe there."

"I guess she got her shot," Laval said as Toothdee disconnected the call.

"Let's check in with everyone else while we're at it. Our forces are spread out all around the area, so we should be able to cover the entire field of battle." She said, switching the channel on her radio. "Heroes, this is the Typhoon. What's your status?"

"This is captain Boehm. Eris and I are flying the deadly skies."

The 2 young pilots zipped through the air above the fleet in their jets. Eris was flying her blue and white eagle interceptor, one that she had modified to her specifications.

Alex flew a custom F-35, one of the standard jets of the US Air Force.

"Nice flying," Eris said, the pair of jets turning and circling the US fleet.

"Thanks, your pretty good yourself. But your reputation precedes you." Alex said, looking at the tally marks on the jet's hull.

"I like your plane's color scheme," Eris said, drawing attention to the aircraft's metallic exterior, which was dark gray in color. A few shiny red, white and blue lines ran along the wings and near the cockpit as a patriotic gesture.

"Thanks! Lately, I've been wondering if I should paint it with some other pattern or color scheme. But that's not the only thing that's different about this plane. It's been modified with upgrades including stronger weapons and armor."

"Alright, you two, don't you keep your heads in the clouds for too long," Toothdee said, be forcing changing the channel on her radio. "Kion, Jasiri, what's your status."

"Kion here. I'm just taking a look at the cannon on this destroyer. This thing looks like it will pack a serious punch."

The lion touched and inspected the barrel of a forward-mounted turret on a US destroyer. Jasiri was nearby, leaning against a railing and enjoying the sea breeze.

"I'm here as well, Toothdee, just enjoying the calm before the storm."

"Alright, keep your heads on the swivel. Your job is to provide support to other US forces. That's why your stationed where you are. Toothdee out. Nick, Judy, you two better not be making out or something."

"Hey!" Judy said, jumping up from where she was lying on the beach.

"Unfortunately, no." Nick said, "we're just sitting here, relaxing- I mean, guarding, this wonderful- I mean, important beach on the midway island."

"Well, you two better stay on guard, lest the Chinese land on Midway, and it's an atoll, Nick."

"Don't worry, no matter what it is, we'll keep it safe."

Judy was still blushing a bit from embarrassment as Toothdee switched the radio channel over to someone else.

"Well, carrots, that was a rude interruption to our make-out session."

"Haida, Retsuko, are you there?" Toothdee said.

"Oh hey, Toothdee," Retsuko said. She was standing in the cargo bay on the Typhoon, stocked with equipment and whose walls were made of hardened metal. "Haida's in the bathroom, but we're right here on the ship, ready to help however we can."

"Glad to hear it. I know your job isn't the flashiest, your not racing into combat, but your job is no less important. It's because of you two that we get our supplies, and all the paperwork gets sorted."

Retsuko blushed and smiled to herself. Her last job didn't appreciate her at all, so it was nice to hear that she mattered.

"Thank you, you don't know how much that means to me. Oh, and that reminds me...."

The red panda clambered on top of a large crate. It was a crate designed for lion-sized mammals, so it was difficult to scale, but Retsuko managed. She compared the label on the container to the writing on a notepad in her hand.

"....we should be fully stocked. We've got plenty of ammo. I checked twice."

The red panda jumped down from the crate and brushed some dust from the blue pants of her uniform. It wasn't required by regulation, but it made her feel a lot more formal when working, which helped her focus.

"Again, thank you." Toothdee said, "always know that you're a part of the team."

The Heroes leader switched the radio channel for the last time and spoke again.

"Jack and Skye, do you read?"

"We hear you, Toothdee."

The fox and bunny couple were in a small rubber-hulled military boat, speeding through the waves. Skye maneuvered the rubber craft around warships and larger vessels. At the same time, Jack stood ready at the boat's mounted minigun, which was a bit large for a rabbit, but he was up to the task of operating it.

"We're ready and waiting," Jack said, holding on tight as the boat hit a wave.

"Lovely day for a battle," Skye said.

"Keep your heads on the swivel. I'm glad we have the support of 2 ZIA agents during this engagement."

Toothdee turned off the radio and returned her focus to the Typhoon's controls.

"Why do you think the Chinese are even here anyway? We keep stopping their assaults."

"I can only speculate, but they probably just can't stop fighting. China has to demonstrate its strength and that it is the world's foremost superpower. Basically, the Chinese need to prove that they, and their way of thinking, are right. Not to mention victory would put them in a very favorable position on the world stage."

The radio came to life again as the voice of a US sailor came through.

"Enemy vessels spotted!"

On the horizon, black shapes appeared and started to grow closer and closer. Chinese warships of the People's Liberation Army Navy. Accompanying them were planes of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force.

"LAVAL! JAYJAY! BATTLE STATIONS!" Toothdee said, prompting the lion and wolf to hop into their weapon positions as armored panels slid up to cover the Typhoon's bridge window.

There was a brief respite of calm, yet the tension was palpable as the two fleets drew closer and closer before entering weapon range.

Missiles and cannons opened fire, projectiles cutting through the sky and either splashing into the sea or impacting enemy warships.

JayJay, Laval, and Toothdee operated the Typhoon and its weapons systems, sending a flurry of shots towards enemy ships and planes. A dark black PLAAF fighter jet that looked heavily modified was leading the charge. Still, it weaved and launched flares to avoid incoming fire.

"that lead aircraft is giving off a unique signature on our sensor equipment," Toothdee noted.

The pair of gunners targeted a formation of hostile bombers with missiles and machine gunfire. Shots were tearing through the wings and into the fuselage while missiles filled the planes with shrapnel. The large airplanes either crashed into the ocean or exploded violently in a massive fireball.

"You know, this is cool and all, but somehow I'd rather be on the ground fighting," JayJay said.

"I get that," Laval said. "We all have our preferred style of combat."

"Agreed." Toothdee said, "It's just sometimes someone has to be around to operate the ship and its weapons. Thankfully you guys are trained for that."

The Typhoon then moved to engage a Chinese destroyer, battering the side of the vessel with cannon shots.

Explosions ripped through the metal of the ship, with the hull starting to fracture and break. After a few moments of sustained bombardment, the boat sank beneath the waves with a loud gurgling noise.

The Typhoon then focused its weapons on a group of smaller watercraft, with PLAN soldiers on the sides of the vessel, firing machine guns missile launchers.

"Damnit, they keep moving too fast!" Laval said, the small vessels zipping at high speed around the typhoon and opening fire.

However, despite this, the Typhoon eventually was able to appropriately target the smaller craft and shred them with weapons fire.

One escort vessel was torn apart with machine guns. While another was utterly obliterated by large cannon shells.

"We're really mopping the floor with them Heroes, but that's going to be a problem," Toothdee said, looking straight ahead towards a hostile aircraft carrier that was launching fighters. "We're going to need some support for that."

The Heroes leader looked out the port side of the ship and saw a US destroyer nearby and quickly radioed for backup.

"Destroyer, USS Gridley, this is the Typhoon. We're heading towards that Chinese carrier and would appreciate the support."

"Affirmative Typhoon, moving to support."

Along with a few other escort vessels and aircraft, the pair of warships made haste towards the PLAN aircraft carrier, accompanied by escort craft.

The vessels closed in on each other, and once the Typhoon was close enough, it opened fire on the carrier with its weapons. The Gridley followed suit, both ships pummeling the carrier with weapons as the escort vessels of both sides battled it out.

The Gridley and Typhoon pulled close, able to wreak massive damage at this close range. Shells ripped through the vessel's hull, and missiles pummeled the bridge.

Kion was operating a mounted machine gun on the outside deck of the Gridley and was spraying the aircraft carrier deck with machine gunfire. Shots tore through equipment, aircraft, and personnel.

"RELOAD!" the lion yelled.

Jasiri was ready to support him, quickly removing the empty magazine and inserting a fresh one, allowing Kion to resume firing. Chinese troops on the carrier deck fired back but were swiftly eliminated.

"Hell yeah!" Kion said, triumphantly raising his fist in the air.

The pair of ships pulled away from the carrier, which was billowing smoke and listing heavily. While the Typhoon moved off to find another target, the Gridley made haste towards an enemy destroyer moving away from the battle zone, having sustained heavy damage.

This hostile ship had been marked as a high-value target, a destroyer that was equipped with a wide range of advanced electronic sensors and weapons. These were used for area denial and electronic warfare operations, along with communications support. Its advanced capabilities were making it a thorn in the side of the American fleet.

"I'm guessing that's our next target," Jasiri said, pointing towards the damaged ship.

Kion laughed, "ha, easy prey."

But the Chinese destroyer was not alone. It was covered by a squadron of planes that moved in to engage the approaching US destroyer. The unit included the jet black PLAAF aircraft that had led the charge earlier. This elite plane was faster and more maneuverable than the others, and its weapons were likely more powerful as well.

The warship's guns opened fire on the incoming aircraft, and even Kion tried engaging them with his mounted machine gun. But the lion and Jasiri needed to duck as explosions went off nearby, missiles hitting and crippling the ship's gun systems.

One fighter was destroyed, and it crashed into the sea nearby with a massive splash. As the jets came around and prepared to make another attack on the destroyer, friendly aircraft arrived and chased the Chinese jets off.

But the Gridley had been left worse for wear, smoke billowing from damaged areas, and alarms blaring all over the ship.

"We better go see what the situation is," Kion said before he and Jasiri entered the warship and moved to the bridge.

The captain of the vessel, a mountain lion, was looking over a computer screen and talking with two other sailors.

"Hey, what's going on?" Kion asked, and the Mountain lion looked up.

"Our weapon systems have been hit. We can't return fire with our main guns. But that enemy vessel we were going after is still active. Its own guns and engines have been knocked out. However, it still has its electronic warfare capabilities."

"So it's been disabled..." Jasiri said, "...but not destroyed."

"Correct. Its systems are wreaking havoc with our own sensors." He pointed to the computer screen, which was partly frozen and full of error messages. "It still poses a serious threat."

"Hmm, then we still need to destroy it. Pull up alongside the vessel, and ready the marines and sailors."

"What? What are you going to do?"

"Something they definitely won't be expecting."

Kion, followed by Jasiri, headed down to the ship's main deck, where friendly troops were preparing themselves. A fox marine opened a weapon container and handed out rifles to other troopers before tossing one to a sailor some distance away.

The two Heroes stood in front of an assembled group of troops ready to receive orders.

The US Navy vessel pulled alongside the Chinese ship as enemy troops swarmed the deck of the hostile craft.

"Follow me!" Kion yelled, raising his sword and roaring, prompting US marines and sailors to raise their weapons and let our battle cries.

Blade in hand, Kion charged towards the PLAN vessel, leaping off the deck of the American ship and landing on the enemy destroyer, cutting down a Chinese sailor as he landed.

The marines and sailors were shocked at what had just transpired. This was a pirate tactic from the age of sail. But with no better options available, the marines followed the lion, jumping onto the deck of the enemy vessel and gunning down hostile sailors.

"Forward!" The young warrior said, sprinting down the length of the ship, cutting down more enemies and deflecting their bullets with his sword.

Jasiri and US troopers were close behind, providing support with gunfire. Some marines even broke out zipline launchers and grappling hooks, using them to board the hostile vessel.

The US troops continued down the deck of the Chinese warship, engaging hostiles and putting them down as they moved. Kion sliced down an enemy trooper that had taken up positions next to a series of different-sized doors. At the same time, Jasiri unloaded her pistols on another enemy standing a few meters away.

The team moved to the series of different-sized doors and prepared to enter. Still, before they could, the doors opened, and enemy personnel of many distinct species came out with their paws or hands raised.

US troops kept their weapons leveled and ordered the PLAN troops down to the ground. But the Chinese wouldn't respond, and they all remained clustered in one big group.

Suddenly one of the enemy sailors, a female panda, yelled out in English.

"imperialist warmongers!"

Two of the surrendered troopers pulled the pins on grenades they had concealed and tossed them at the US sailors.

Jasiri and Kion reacted quickly. Kion swung his sword and hit one of the flying grenades, knocking it into the sea. The other grenade bounced to the deck, and Jasiri bravely kicked it into the water, where both explosives went off with small splashes.

The American troops and Heroes opened fire, gunning down the Chinese sailors, lest they make another attempt at fighting back with more concealed weapons. Kion even cut down one of the sailors who was starting to pull a knife.

"Damnit, what a shame," Jasiri said as the enemy troops dropped to the deck.

"They did it to themselves," Kion said.

"Yeah, your right."

Before the US sailors and marines could move inside the vessel, a small rubber boat passed close by the ship, and the Chinese gunner on board opened fire with the mounted weapon. Two marines and a sailor were taken out as the boat pulled away from the massive warship.

Kion cursed and took cover before Jack came through on the radio.

"We've got you, Kion."

Jack and Skye raced by in their boat, the fox keeping hot on the heels of the PLAN boat. Jack aimed the minigun and fired, bullets ripping through the enemy sailors. The enemy boat stopped, its operators dead, with Jack and Skye racing by, rounding a friendly warship and heading towards Midway Atoll.

"More Chinese!" Jack said, and Skye maneuvered towards a pair of hostile sailors on jet skis, armed with pistols. The sailors opened fire with their weapons, forcing the fox to duck in cover. Jack was able to engage the jet skis, taking them down.

Another jet ski with two troopers on it appeared. The second soldier on board opened fire with an assault rifle. However, he was also quickly eliminated.

"Look! Over there!" Skye said, pointing to a group of watercraft, including landing vehicles, heading towards Midway Atoll.

"Get us over there," Jack said, readying himself. At the same time, Skye maneuvered the boat into a formation of US watercraft and helicopters. Even two troopers were piloting small personal hovercraft.

The US boats and aircraft closed the distance to the hostile vessels, and once it was within firing range, Jack opened upon them with the minigun. A hail of lead took down another jet-ski and another rubber boat.

Suddenly the jet black Chinese fighter dived down towards the US watercraft, launching missiles. The missiles took down a US helicopter, sending it crashing into the sea. Another barrage of rockets destroyed a US patrol boat.

"Whoa! Ok, watch out for that!" Jack said.

Skye pulled alongside a slightly larger enemy escort craft. Jack opened fire as the gunners on board the boat returned fire. The ZIA agent took down one of the gunners, then focused fire on the vessel's hull and bridge.

The vessel soon started to smoke before it stopped moving, dead in the water.

"Landing craft!" Jack said, noticing a group of marine lizard vehicles getting closer and closer to Midway island. These were identical to the vehicles that had deployed troops during the first assault on Zootopia.

Skye pulled alongside one of the vehicles. Jack fired into the troop compartment, killing many of the Chinese soldiers being transported inside the vessel. Jack then focused his fire on the control area of the boat, hoping to kill the driver or destroy the control system.

After filling part of the vehicle with bullets, the landing craft lost control and crashed into another landing craft. Both vessels flipped over, leaving Chinese soldiers treading in the water around the wreckage.

But more landing craft had reached Midway island, and the hostile troopers onboard disembarked and charged towards the American soldiers who were set up in defensive positions in trenches. Nick and Judy were also in place, behind a rocky outcropping. The pair of ZPD officers felt a bit out of their element in the island environment. It was not urban at all, unlike the city of Zootopia, their usual stomping grounds. But they were still determined to give the battle they're all.

"South blade incoming!" An American soldier yelled before being gunned down by the fast and dark black PLAAF fighter jet that was strafing the beach to support advancing troops.

"South blade?" Judy asked as defending troops returned fire.

Nick radioed his human friend, firing arrows at the incoming enemies. "Hey Alex, would you-"

"Give me one sec, Nick."

The human-focused on a Chinese aircraft he was flying towards, flak in the air all around him. He took the shot, a missile streaking through the sky and impacting the ship's bridge, obliterating the glass windows and the mammals on the bridge, before the captain pulled his jet back up into the sky.

"I'm sorry, go ahead."

"Would you happen to know about enemy soldiers called 'South Blade'?"

"South Blade? Those are special forces soldiers capable of air, land, and sea operations. Akin to US navy seals. Eris and I will move to provide you with air support."

"Ok, better switch to something a little more powerful," Nick said, drawing a death arrow from his quiver. He fired a hail of arrows, downing three PLA troopers in quick succession.

Judy used a standard-issue ZPD pistol, supported by a tranquilizer pistol that could down even the largest mammals.

A human commander joined the two ZPD officers behind their rocky outcropping and surveyed the situation on the beach. Two more marine lizard landing craft were incoming, bringing more troops to the battle.

"Demolitions team! Get up here now!" The commander yelled.

A pair of armadillos, who were fantastic with explosives due to their natural armor, ran towards the human commander with rocket launchers. Then the team each got down on one knee and aimed their weapons.

"Fire!"

The rocket launchers fired, their projectiles streaking towards the two incoming Chinese landing craft and hitting them. The vehicles exploded in a bright orange flash and a shower of metal.

"Nice shot," Nick said. "I wish I could do that."

"You should get some arrows with explosives on them," Judy said.

Before Nick could respond, a barrage of gunfire struck nearby.

A PLA bear soldier, armed with heavy armor and an LMG, moved towards Nick and Judy, opening fire with his weapon. Simultaneously, an otter diving team with SMGs moved out of the waves and onto the shore, joining their bear ally in engaging US forces.

"Yeah... I really wish I had some explosive arrows right now!" Nick said as everyone behind the rocky outcropping took cover.

"We've got you!" Eris said over the radio as the roar of jet engines filled the sky.

Eris's eagle interceptor came in low over the beach, opening fire with its front-mounted chi blasters. Bolts of energy peppered the hostile forces on the beach, neutralizing many of the enemy soldiers.

Alex's jet followed behind, strafing the beach with machine gunfire. The planes turned around for another pass on the beach.

The bear heavy weapons soldier angrily turned his LMG towards the sky. Still, he was obliterated by missiles from the American jets.

Explosions tore through Chinese soldiers on the ground, reducing their landing craft to burning husks.

Nick, Judy, and US troops cheered and watched the jets fly above.

"Thanks for the save, guys," Judy said as the jets headed back out to sea.

"Eris, prepare to target remaining Chinese naval vessels," Alex said, pulling alongside his eagle companion.

"Way ahead of you, literally!" Eris said, engaging her afterburners and pulling forward. Captain Boehm laughed and throttled up to chase after her. The aircraft returned to the battle zone, where the United States and China continued to engage. But the scales had been tipped, with the US looking more likely to come out on top.

"Let's target that escort vessel." The captain said, prompting both jets to nosedive towards a PLAN ship. The aircraft fired hails of machine-gun bullets and chi blasts, ripping through the Chinese vessel.

Smoke and fire erupted from the ship as the aircraft pulled around for another attack run.

"Missiles away!" Eris said, the pair of jets firing missiles, streaking low above the water before impacting the hostile escort ship with a massive explosion.

The vessel started to list and soon sank beneath the waves, leaving behind only debris and stranded crew.

"We've got incoming!" Eris said, noticing a group of PLAFF bomber planes moving towards a US aircraft carrier, escorted by some fighter jets.

"This is Hero leader." Captain Boehm said into his radio. "Requesting immediate fighter reinforcements. Hostile bomber squadron moving towards the friendly carrier."

The voice of an airmammal came through the radio.

"Affirmative Hero leader, fighter squadron moving to assist. ETA 2 minutes out."

"It's going to take some time for them to get here, Eris."

"Well then, let's give them something to shoot at!"

The pair of pilots gunned their engines and made haste towards the enemy bomber formation. Pouncing on the enemy aircraft, Eris scored a critical hit on one of the bombers, causing it to lose control and crash into a Chinese fighter nearby.

Alex fired a salvo of missiles that took down one enemy aircraft and heavily damaged another. The escort craft reacted and began to engage the American planes. Bullets whizzed by Eris, the eagle having to fly erratically to avoid them.

An enemy jet fired a missile at Alex, who deployed flares to interfere with the weapon's heat-seeking capability.

The engaging aircraft danced across the sky, turning and maneuvering with immense speed and agility, pushing the machines and their pilots to the limit. Whenever a hostile plane was in their sights, the pilots opened fire with machine guns or missiles.

Eris and Alex gained the upper hand, not sustaining much damage while dishing out plenty of damage to PLAAF planes. But the bombers continued to near the American aircraft carrier.

"Eris, you keep the fighters distracted. I'll go after the bombers!"

"You got it, Alex!" The young warrior said, looping around in her aircraft, getting behind a Chinese jet, and reducing it to scrap metal.

Captain Boehm pulled behind one of the enemy bombers, unloading into it with machine guns and rockets. Flames and smoke came from the plane, which began to rapidly lose altitude.

"Fighter support arrived!" Said a voice through the radio as more US aircraft entered the battlefield, engaging the remaining bombers and fighters.  

The Heroes captain cheered and pulled around to rejoin Eris. The eagle had taken down two Chinese aircraft, but a third plane had gotten behind her and opened fire with its machine guns. Eris flew erratically and tried to shake off her pursuer, but to no avail.

"He's on me!" Eris said.

"I'm on him!" Alex responded, pulling behind the attacking jet.

The captain pressed a button on the control stick, firing the jet's machine guns. Bullets tore through the enemy aircraft, and it dove towards the sea, the pilot ejecting.

"Whew, I owe you one, Alex."

"No problem, don't mention it."

Suddenly, a high-speed jet zoomed by, the object only looking like a black blur as it passed by.

"Ok, that's something new," Eris said.

"It's not showing up on my radar as friendly." Alex said, "Assume it's hostile."

The pair pursued the aircraft into a cloud, with the other American fighters capable of finishing off the remaining Chinese planes.

Alex and Eris passed through the cloud, obscuring their view. In that brief moment of blindness, the enemy struck.

Gunfire suddenly struck both American aircraft, forcing the two pilots to move erratically to throw off the enemy. As the planes swerved, they exited the cloud, and pursuing them were 3 Chinese fighters. There were 2 standard fighters, but also a dark black and extremely customized aircraft leading the charge.

The 2 fighters went after Eris, while the head plane went straight for Alex, a voice coming through the radio.

"Hello, hero leader."

Captain Boehm recognized the voice as his own. It was his dark counterpart.

"You! Guess that explains the unique jet."

"I could say the same of you."

"Eris, where are you?"

"I've got some jets on me! Might be able to handle them, though." Eris said, dodging the incoming fire.

Alex also had to dodge and roll to avoid his counterpart's machine gunfire. The captain pulled around and opened up with machine-gun fire of his own, forcing his adversary to go on the defensive.

The aircraft flew circles around each other, both pilots trying to get the other jet in their sights. When the enemy plane was in the gun-sights, the attacker opened up with machine guns or missiles, forcing the pilot to roll or deploy flares.

As he turned his plane, Captain Boehm's vision went hazy as he felt himself about to blackout due to the immense G-forces, prompting him to slow down.

"Not a bad plane." Dark Alex said. "Engines and weapons on par with my own."

"Well, let's see who's jet is better!" The heroes captain said, firing a barrage of missiles. But the dark counterpart rolled his plane and avoided the projectiles, returning fire with machine guns.

"All US fighter craft in the vicinity!" Came a voice through the radio. "We have another enemy bomber squadron incoming!"

"Shit! Someone get on those bombers!" Alex said into the radio, knowing that those aircraft were headed for a US carrier, a ship with thousands of crew. But in this brief moment where he was focusing on the communications, Dark Alex made his move, hitting the Heroes Captain with a barrage of bullets.

"Your care. Your drive to put others before yourself... it is a weakness." The counterpart said. "It holds you back from what you need to do to achieve true strength. You'll always feel yourself chained to others. I learned that lesson long ago and heeded it."

"So that's it, you just think I'm weak?"

"Yes. You are nothing. Both you and your nation are weak and hopelessly lost. It is time for a new power to rise, which is why both you and the United States must die. So new warriors may take your place."

"Oh, so I'm just a target for you to take down and prove yourself? So you can prove your strength and establish your place in the world?"

"This is nothing more than natural selection in the wild. The strong creature devouring the weak one."

"Last time I checked, Heroes took down more of you and your band than you have done to us."

"And you shall pay dearly for it!"

Dark Alex fired a salvo of missiles. With Captain Boehm's craft already damaged, the missiles struck. The Heroes leader felt his plane shake violently as the deafening sound of an explosion and rupturing metal rang through his ears.

The captain hit the eject button, the canopy breaking away, and the seat blasting out of the damaged aircraft.

As the parachute unfolded, the captain looked around for his counterpart's aircraft. He didn't see anything, so Alex turned his attention to where he was going to land.

Below him was a PLAN aircraft carrier and an American destroyer, both heavily damaged and sitting dead in the water over a dozen meters apart. But in the water between the 2 warships was an assortment of debris. Crates of supplies had fallen off the ships, floating in the water. A variety of random scrap and wreckage littered the area. Made of all sorts of materials and even smaller vehicles that had been wrecked. A Chinese fighter floated in the water nearby, having slid off the deck of the carrier. A damaged US patrol boat sat partially sunk in the water, listing hard to the side.

The captain braced himself as he touched down in the sea, unclipping himself from his ejector seat. The Hero leader started to look around, looking up towards the US destroyer and noticing something on it. A Chinese helicopter had crashed into the vessel. Now it was sitting precariously on the deck of the ship, hanging over the water.

As the captain continued to try and get his bearings, he heard a roaring engine growing closer and closer. Looking up, the captain saw his counterpart's jet incoming, prompting Boehm to quickly swim into a large cargo container partially floating in the sea.

Dark Alex's jet engaged hover mode and started to inspect the area, searching for any sign of captain Boehm.

The captain, however, was cursing under his breath and watching the hostile plane. His plane had been destroyed, and he only had a pistol and knife to defend himself with. But this could be a valuable chance to take out his dark counterpart.

First, the captain used his knife to cut up some cargo inside the container that had been covered in a dark blue cloth. The human draped the dark cloth over his head, which would help camouflage him. Spotting the damaged patrol boat nearby, the captain waited till the hostile jet had turned away before diving into the waves and swimming as fast as possible towards the patrol boat.

Reaching the boat, Alex scrambled inside and examined the weapon controls. The main gun was still operational, and the captain immediately targeted his counterpart's jet.

The weapon fired at the unsuspecting jet, shots slamming into the plane's armor and dealing significant damage. As Alex dove back into the water, the enemy jet turned around and took aim.

Dark Alex's jet fired a missile at the wrecked patrol boat, obliterating it. Shards of debris rained down into the water near captain Boehm as he swam his way through the area.

Although damaged, the jet continued to search the area, forcing Boehm to dive underwater when he couldn't get out of the jet's view fast enough. If he came to the surface at the wrong time, the plane would shred him with its weapons. But stay underwater too long, and the captain would drown. All the while, Dark Alex scanned the water and debris for his counterpart. He could not lose. He had a customized jet, while his enemy was simply flailing around in the water. Nothing more perfectly represented the discontinuity between the pair of warriors. One was weak, and the other was strong.

Coming up to the surface out of view of the enemy plane, captain Boehm spotted another cargo container nearby floating in the water. This container was marked with symbols identifying the contents as explosives.

The young warrior made his way over to the container, hiding behind debris and diving beneath the waves when he had to keep out of sight of his counterpart's view.

Once he reached the container, he opened it up, finding explosive material and detonation equipment. Boehm quickly armed some of the explosives, setting up a timer. Once everything was ready, it was time to get his counterpart's attention.

"HEY, OVER HERE!" Alex said, waving his hands and trying to get noticed. The deception worked, and once the jet turned towards him, the captain dove back beneath the waves as the jet fired its machine guns. The bullets missed the young warrior and hit the damaged aircraft carrier as Alex swam as fast as he could underwater.

Once at a safe distance, the human came to the surface and gasped for air, the constant diving taking a toll. Meanwhile, the hostile jet advanced towards the location where Alex had been, searching for the captain. But then the container of explosives detonated, a massive fireball engulfing Dark Alex's jet. The aircraft nearly lost control, spinning and turning before its pilot could regain control.

As the jet turned towards him again, captain Boehm retreated into the US destroyer. Swimming through a hole that had been blown in the side of the ship by weapons fire. However, the enemy jet must have seen something because it moved closer to investigate.

Swimming around inside the ship, the captain realized he was in some sort of control room. There was equipment for controlling electrical systems, engines, and the ship's ballast tanks. Alex suddenly realized something and immediately swam over to the machinery that controlled the ship's ballast tanks, taking care to avoid any exposed electrical equipment. He listened closely and looked towards the hole in the side of the destroyer. His counterpart was still there. With that, Alex activated the pumps, filling the ballast tanks along one side of the ship with water while removing water from the tanks on the other side of the vessel.

The ship slowly listed more to the side. Eventually, the Chinese helicopter hanging from the destroyer fell off the side of the vessel, hitting Dark Alex's jet as it splashed into the water. The hostile plane was heavily damaged, smoke emitting from its engines. Its villainous pilot was filled with rage. How could his top-of-the-line aircraft be bested by his inferior counterpart, and what could be found amongst wreckage. He angrily fired at the damaged US destroyer but could only get a few shots off before the weapon system stopped working due to the damage. Dark Alex turned his aircraft back towards the sky. With no other offensive measures, he started to limp back towards a still active Chinese aircraft carrier.

Hearing the sounds of aircraft engines fade, captain Boehm emerged from the destroyer, catching a glimpse of his counterpart's black jet flying into the distance. He couldn't help but feel proud of himself. With nothing more than wreckage, the Heroes leader defeated his dark double, who had been piloting an elite aircraft. But his pride suddenly turned to concern as he heard another aircraft approaching. He spun around, wondering how he was going to defeat this second enemy plane. But he breathed a sigh of relief once he saw that it was Eris's dark blue eagle interceptor. The eagle pilot put the aircraft in hover mode and opened the cockpit, flapping her wings and flying over to the human in the water.

"So, how'd your big fancy jet work out?" Eris laughed, hovering just above her friend.

"Just get me out of here," Alex said, reaching his arms up towards the eagle.

Eris flew around behind the human and grabbed him under the arms, rapidly flapping her wings to lift him out of the sea.

"Your all wet!" Eris said, "water is heavy!"

Despite the weight of the water, Eris was able to pick up the human and deposit him into the passenger's seat behind the pilot's chair in the cockpit of her interceptor.

"Try not to get water all over me or my controls." The eagle said, sitting back down, closing the canopy, and flying off back up into the sky.

"Get me back to the Typhoon. I need to get back out there." the captain said.

"Get back out there? Look around you."

The captain looked out the cockpit window at the area around Midway. Wreckage was strewn everywhere as ships sank beneath the waves. But there was a lot more wreckage from PLAN vessels than US naval vessels. The Chinese had suffered a massive defeat, stopped dead in their tracks by the US navy, marines, and air force.

"What about that second squadron of bombers?"

"Don't worry, Alex, I dealt with them. They're nothing but wreckage now."

Eris flew low and slow over Midway island, and the pair could see the smoldering wreckage of PLAAF bombers and fighter planes. They also spotted Nick and Judy capturing some Chinese soldiers, with backup from American troops. Jack and Skye had parked their boat nearby and were helping to oversee the operation.

Eris then turned towards the Chinese vessel Kion and Jasiri had helped capture. The interceptor did a victory lap around the ship as US forces on the deck raised their fists and cheered, including the two Heroes aboard the vessel.

The eagle pilot then moved towards the US fleet, steaming past the wreckage of burning enemy vessels and collecting stranded sailors. At the head of the armada was the Typhoon, the crown jewel of the US fleet. The captain could barely believe it.

"Wow….Looks like we won." He said.

"Heh, you can say that again."

Some Chinese naval vessels and jets had managed to flee. But most of their fleet had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. US ships cut through the waves while American aircraft streaked through the sky. No PLAN forces were left to hold the line. Midway belonged to the United States.

[alexboehm55144]

Alex Final Wars 2: Dark Alex, Chapter 26 - Respite

Haida and Retsuko were on shore leave, holding paws and taking a stroll down one of the many coastal paths in Zootopia. The reminders of the war were still on their minds, the thoughts of a spy network in the city, and the fact that the wreckage of Chinese and American ships sat just off the coast.

But these thoughts were secondary, the pair were just having fun together, enjoying some ice cream they had bought from a shop.

Retsuko had gotten ice cream with liquor in it, saying she needed it to relieve some stress and unwind.

Haida had gotten coffee-flavored ice cream, and his red panda girlfriend chuckled when the hyena ordered it, citing that his favorite drink was canned coffee.

“What would you like to do?” Retsuko asked, “when this is all over?”

“Well, I think I’ll keep my current job. I assume we are still needed.”

“I agree. It’s the best job I’ve ever had. Of course in my last job, I met you.”

Haida blushes a bit & scratched the back of his head, which was something he did when embarrassed.

The pair found a bench to sit on and stared out at the harbor. Sea birds flew overhead and hunted fish in the water. Engineering crews worked on the wreckage of ships and aircraft in the bay, planning to tow them out to sea to become artificial reefs.

“What else?” Retsuko asked, “I know it might be hard to think about your whole life.”

The hyena was quiet for a moment, prompting Retsuko to speak.

“Don’t feel like you have to answer.”

The hyena’s mind raced. He didn’t know much about what he wanted to do in the far future of his life.

“Well... I don't know everything I'm going to do in my life....”

The hyena struggled with his words, but seeing the beautiful red panda in front of him, he was able to find what he wanted to say.

“....but I do know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

A slight gasp escaped Retsuko's lips, as Haida took Retsuko's paw in his own. It felt cold and slightly wet, as she had been holding the ice cream in that hand. But the hyena didn't care, he enjoyed the red panda's touch.

Retsuko looked at Haida's hand and thought to herself. She loved him, and every time the pair was together she was enjoying herself. If the hyena wanted to spend their lives together, then that meant every day of her life would be enjoyable and happy.

“I’d also like to spend the rest of my life with you.”

The red panda stood up on the bench to get closer to the hyena and gently put a kiss on his lips.

Haida blushed and was stunned for a moment. However, he had gotten more comfortable around Retsuko, & was able to regain his composure quickly.

“Come on, let’s go find a karaoke bar around here.”

The red panda smiled, her hyena knew what she liked.

000

ZIA HQ had been targeted by the Chinese during the first invasion, but since then it had been repaired. Bullet holes in concrete had been filled, and shattered glass panes had been replaced. Some ZIA personnel had gotten killed during both assaults on the city, but the agency had since been supplemented with recruits.

Jack and Skye were currently in their shared office, a rabbit & foxed size room with a window that faced out onto a stone pathway outside the building. 2 desks with computers were set up, along with some file cabinets and a few other random bits of furniture. On the wall sat a large conspiracy board with pictures, maps, and sticky notes. It did include the Dark Heroes, and information on the Chinese.

Skye was just returning from a lion run fast food restaurant named burger pride, while Jack had stayed in the office and worked on some things

“How was your training session earlier?” Skye asked, setting a brown paper bag & a drink down on her mate’s desk.

“It was good, although it would have been more fun if you were there.” Jack flirted.

“Ha! Although your accuracy would suffer since you’d just be staring at me all the time. I know you do that.”

“Is it that obvious?!”

Skye laughed, and opened the bag on her desk, taking out a burger covered in aluminum foil, and unwrapping it to reveal the delicious meal. Jack did the same, quickly biting into the burger.

“Is this plant-based?” The rabbit asked, seeing that the wrapping foil had a small green sticker with a plant on it.

Skye nodded.

“The menu said it was a plant-based substitute, perfect for prey creatures.” The fox paused to take another bite of her burger and chew. “Mine is real meat.”

She pointed to a small red sticker that showed an icon of a steak. The burger was made from unevolved cows and provided all the proteins that a carnivore needed in their diet.

Jack took a sip of the Pawpsi cola in his cup, & pondered what the real meat burger tasted like. He stood up from his desk and went over to Skye.

“Let me take a bite of yours.”

“What?”

“I want to see what yours tastes like.”

“Go away,” Skye said playfully, holding her burger up & out of reach.

But Jack just hopped up and swiped the food out of her paw before taking a large bite.

“Mmm... can’t taste the difference. The plant substitute is a very close approximation.”

“Well if you get to taste mine, then I get to taste yours.”

She plucked Jack’s burger from his paw and bit into it.

“Yeah your right, I can’t even tell it’s plant-based.”

“I still want it back.”

The pair playfully tried to reclaim their food from each other, eventually succeeding and laughing at their immaturity.

“I love you,” Skye said with a full mouth.

Her bunny responded, his mouth also full.

“I love you too.”

000

“We’re getting some weird looks,” Eris said, her and Laval walking down a street, through the meadowlands area of Zootopia.

“Toothdee told me this area was mostly inhabited by prey animals. I guess that could explain the weird looks.”

“Or they’ve just never seen an evolved eagle before,” Eris said.

“I don’t know, I’m getting some stares too.”

The pair had wanted to get out and explore more of Zootopia, and toothdee had recommended the meadowlands to them as somewhere to visit. Their current location was comprised of small stone buildings that were overgrown with plants. Not a result of neglect, but instead just attempts to incorporate civilization with nature. Prey animals such as goats walked the streets. While most were too busy to care about Laval and Eris, others found it appropriate to give them weird glances. Fortunately, the 2 would not have to be the subject of awkward looks for much longer, as they left the street and turned onto a trail through a grove of trees. The ground turned from pavement to dirt, and the leaves stretched overhead.

“You notice how lions here have a different style of mane than those in Chima?” Eris said.

“I have, I wonder if it’s a cultural thing or something. Just a different style of mane wearing.”

“Don’t forget Kion wears his in a mohawk.”

“Oh yeah, true. The lions here remind me of my dad. Maybe because his mane is kinda similar to theirs, in that it has more hair.”

Laval paused and then spoke again.

“I wonder what my dad is doing in Chima right now. I miss him.”

Seeing that Laval was feeling a bit sad, Eris reached down and gripped Laval’s hand with her own, making the lion brush a bit and causing a slight smile to cross his face.

“He’s proud of you.” The eagle said. “Think of all you’ve done for Chima and the world.”

There was another pause as Laval thought for a moment, and the smile stayed on his face.

“Thank you.”

The pair reached a large hill, next to a stone cliff, with a view looking out on rolling fields of grass and rivers that stretched as far as the eye could see. The sky was darkened by clouds from an approaching storm, and the wind blew through the grass, causing patterns that looked like waves.

Laval took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the fresh and damp air. Eris stretched her wings, took a running start, and took into the sky. She soared high above the grass and rivers, gazing at the magnificence of nature. The eagle dove down and flew low above the river, looking at her reflection on the water. She reached her hand into the river and created a trail of water as she continued to fly along.

“I wish I had wings,” Laval said to himself, watching Eris dance across the sky.

The eagle soon returned after a few moments, landing next to her lion.

“Do you have to show off, wing girl?” Laval asked playfully.

The pair sat together, looking out at the rolling grass hills, the wavy rivers, and the turbulent sky. It wasn’t sunny or particularly colorful but was pretty in its own way.

“Ok, what’s a prettier view?” Eris asked “this or the view from Spiral mountain.”

“Hmmm... Spiral mountain,” Laval answered. “Of course, nothing is as pretty as you.”

The eagle blushed and covered her face with a wing.

“Do you miss home?” The lion asked, still thinking about his father.

“Yes, I do. But we’ve left our home behind before, to do some good somewhere else.”

“True, plus we have some of the best of friends with us, and plenty of battles to test our skills.”

“See, things aren’t so bad.”

There was a loud clap of thunder, causing both Laval and Eris to look up to the dark skies above.

Raindrops began to pelt down, making the pair groan as the raindrops started to hit. Eris brought her wings up as shields to cover the pair, protecting them from being drenched.

“Let’s get out of here,” Eris said, and the two retreated to the safety of a dry area.

000

“Sure, I got 4 tickets to the Gazelle concert tonight,” Nick said. “What’s it to you?”

He and JayJay were currently alone in a hallway on the typhoon, & Nick had 4 tickets sticking out of his back pocket.

“I want 2 of them,” JayJay said

“Why?” “I want to have a good time with Alex. That’s all you need to know.”

“I don’t know if a concert is his thing, he’s a real introvert.”

The wolf groaned and shook her head.

“Just, name your price for 2 tickets.”

“Well, do you have anything you think I could use?”

A smirk crossed JayJay’s face. She excused herself and told Nick to wait, before leaving him in the hallway. A few minutes later she returned with 2 quivers, one in each hand, each filled with arrows. The wolf proudly held them up, a smile on her muzzle.

“I already have one of those,” Nick said

JayJay rolled her eyes and tilted the quivers so Nick could see the projectiles inside. He took an arrow out of one of them & examined it. At the head, the arrow didn’t widen before tapering to a point. The diameter of the shaft tapered to a point that looked like the head of a bullet.

“Bullet point arrows,” Nick said. “Impressive.”

JayJay nodded towards the other quiver, and the fox put the bullet point arrow back in its quiver & turned to the second one. Removing an arrow from this quiver, he saw that it had a very wide head that was jagged, and designed to inflict as much damage as possible. The arrow itself was also finely crafted, and extremely sharp.

“Death arrows,” Nick said, examining the object. “Expensive, but very finely made.”

“You can have one quiver.” JayJay said, “in return for 2 of those gazelle tickets.”

The fox rubbed his chin & thought for a moment.

“Death arrows”

Nick reached into his back pocket and produced 2 of the tickets. He passed them to JayJay, took the quiver of death arrows, and slung it over his shoulder.

“Front row, Judy and I will be there as well.”

The wolf looked at the tickets to make sure they were genuine, before thanking her ally & walking away. She was giddy with joy and practically jumped in the air as she went down the hallway.

“A pleasure doing business with you.” The fox said, looking at the quiver of death arrows.

JayJay immediately searched for her mate and discovered him in Toothdee’s cabin, the two were playing some game on their computers.

The wolf knocked on the wall, alerting the 2 to her presence.

“Alex, could I see you for a moment.”

The Heroes captain joined the wolf outside in the hall, noting that JayJay had a large smile on her face & was radiating excitement.

“What is it?”

“I have 2 tickets for the gazelle concert tonight, and I was wondering if you’d like to go with me.”

“I don’t know, large crowds aren’t my thing.”

“Please, I’d like to do something special with you, and I’ve told you how much I love dancing.” The Heroes leader thought for a moment, looking at JayJay’s face. She was smiling widely and her eyes were bright. The captain sighed and gave in, he couldn’t resist that adorable look of excitement.

“Ok, fine. If it would make you happy.”

“Yes!” JayJay said, pumping her fist in the air, before giving the human the ticket. “Ok, it’s in a couple of hours, come get me an hour before the show.”

“Will do,” Alex said, looking over the ticket, and returning to Toothdee.

000

A few hours later, it was not Alex who went and got JayJay, but rather JayJay who went and got Alex. She was very excited, and couldn’t wait any longer.

The pair caught a train to the stadium where Gazelle was singing and made small talk as they navigated through the crowd of mammals headed into the building. Out of either affection or not wanting to get separated, the Heroes captain took his mate’s paw in his hand. The female wolf smiled and leaned against the human’s shoulder. As the pair made their way into the stadium, they heard a familiar sound from behind them.

“Well, look who it is.”

Alex and JayJay turned to see Nick and Judy, walking up in the line behind them. The 2 had arms around each other, and both were dressed in casual, light fitting clothes. Even Nick, who usually only wore Hawaiian shirts.

“Alex? Didn’t think you’d be here,” Judy said.

“Well, someone wanted to do something special and fun with me.”

JayJay smiled happily at the comment.

“Aww, is it ok if we join you?”

“By all means.”

The 2 pairs merged into 1 group, but both couples still held onto each other as they continued to walk.

“Thank you for doing this.” Captain Boehm said, turning to the wolf on his shoulder.

“It’s my pleasure,” JayJay responded.

“Say, where did you get the tickets?”

JayJay pointed to Nick, who smiled slyly and played it cool.

“Ah, there we go. That explains everything.”

The arena was circular, with a circular platform at the center that the performer stood on. The platform was surrounded by water, both as a decorative measure, and a security measure. On the walls of the arena were dozens of small open windows, either so people inside could see out, or just part of an interesting design.

The group of four mammals found their spaces, which were in a pit, slightly below the platform where the performer stood. There were many other mammals all around them, but the spots were premium seating, or rather, standing.

After a few minutes, the arena darkened, and everyone grew silent. Water fountains activated, and lights turned on, as the figure of a female Gazelle in a glittering red dress came on stage, lifted onto the central platform by a small elevator in the stage.

“Hello, Zootopia!”

The crowd erupted into cheers, as the pop star began her first song.

Soon the melody picked up, and the 4 young heroes started to happily dance along. Dancing was much like combat, a beautiful display of movement and actions, perfectly in sync.

Just like when they were walking into the building, Judy and Nick danced together, while JayJay and Alex did the same.

The blue wolf was totally in her element, spinning and moving rapidly. The color and speed impressing her 3 companions.

Judy also pushed Nick along, silently prompting him to dance. The fox obliged and smiled slyly whenever he was encouraged to dance.

The 2 boys were not really as into the dancing at the girls, but they were still having fun, which was the most important thing.

All of a sudden, the lovely sound of the music was overpowered by a much louder noise, one that was like gas and sound moving extremely fast. Even Gazelle stopped singing and looked up to the top of the stadium, to see a large ball of fire engulfing part of the arena.

000000000

Sorry it took a while to get this chapter out. Blame my college work. Though I hope everyone still enjoys reading this!

[alexboehm55144]

Alex Final Wars 2: Dark Alex, Chapter 28 - Trackdown

“Yikes, what the hell happened to him?” Jack said, looking at a red panda slumped against a wall, the Chinese spy having sustained fatal damage from a powerful force.

“Looks like a much larger mammal got their hands on him,” Skye said.

The 2 walked to the security room of the stadium, where a lynx ZIA technician had the camera footage from last night's concert pulled up on a monitor.

“God, look at that, it’s horrible,” Skye said, watching footage of Chinese spies gunning down civilians.

“*sigh*, fucking bastards,” Jack said.

The technician rewound the footage to show the Chinese spies disembarking trucks outside the building.

“We see them disembarking, and we have footage of vehicles moving through the streets towards the concert.” the technician said “but before that, the vehicles appear from nowhere. We don’t see them on any other traffic cameras before that, and we can’t trace them.”

Jack thought for a moment. “Nick once told me about utility and service tunnels that run all over the city. There are no cameras in those places, so maybe they used one of those. Get us a map of the city superstructure, and send it to me, along with that camera footage.”

The technician nodded and set about his tasks, as Jack and Skye exited the building. The pair wound their way through the parking lot, which was filled with ZIA and ZPD vehicles, and a bunch of agents and officers from both organizations. The fox and bunny made it to their car, a sleek but unassuming DB7 Aston Martin painted in black. Although the color scheme was variable, allowing the car to change its color on the fly to throw off anyone who was taking notice of the vehicle.

The fox got in the driver's seat and started up the vehicle, while her companion activated the heads up display on the windshield, finding the video files had just been received by the car’s computer. Jack backtracked through the footage, tracing the route the Chinese vehicles took and directing Skye.

“Ok, straight ahead.”

The fox stepped on the gas and the car got up to speed, moving through the city.

“Do you think we have counterparts?” Skye said.

“What do you mean? Keep going straight.”

“Do you think an evil Jack and Skye are running around out there?”

Jack paused and thought for a moment.

“I think we would have seen them by now. But, you do have a point.”

“We should be ready. They might come crawling out of the woodwork one day.”

“Your right, but if the previous doppelgängers were any indication, we probably have them beat, as long as we stop them before they do damage. Go left up here.”

“Our friends in heroes will probably help us, so we can count on them for backup.”

The car continued through the streets, arriving at the location where the last bit of footage that showed the Chinese vehicles was taken.

“Look, over there,” Jack said, pointing towards a chain-link gate that was strung across a tunnel. A sign on the gate said “authorized personnel only” and had the city seal on it.

“Locked,” Skye said, pointing towards a chain and padlock that was wrapped around the gate.

“I got this,” Jack said, hopping out of the Aston Martin and running towards the gate.

The agent pulled a set of lock picks from his coat, and set to work, carefully inserting metal implements into the padlock. Skye watched, happy to see her companion enthusiastically at work like this.

Jack listened closely, and soon enough, the padlock came undone. He then took off the chain and opened the gate. Skye pulled forward and Jack hopped in, before driving off down the service tunnel.

It was dark and dingy in the tunnel, with a few drops of water dripping from above, and steam from pipes and equipment occasionally floated through the air. But then the ZIA agents came upon light at the end of the tunnel, and another gate. Beyond this barrier was another section of Zootopia, filled with buildings that served as homes or businesses to many mammals. This second gate was unlocked, allowing Jack to quickly hop out and open it.

“Let me see if I can get footage from the jam cams in this area,” Jack said, getting back in the car.

“Wait, I don’t think this part of the city has traffic cameras.”

“Hmmm.... then maybe the Chinese based their spy ring here, as there’s no surveillance from those cams.”

“If they are, then we should look around.”

Skye drove the car into a side street, next to a complex that was surrounded by a tall barrier and contained two large buildings.

However, there was a garage door that leads from the complex onto the street. Skye parked the car and the pair looked into the garage, seeing a few vehicles covered in protective tarps. Then a small ground of mammals appeared, heading towards the garage door from deeper inside the complex.

One mammal motioned to another mammal, telling him to close the garage door. The door slowly came down, but just before it closed, someone impatiently removed a tarp from one of the covered vehicles, revealing a truck that looked exactly like the ones the Chinese had used to get to the concert.

“Did you see that?” Skye asked.

“I saw it.”

“This may be their HQ. This might be where the spies came from!”

“We need confirmation, there aren’t any traffic cameras, but maybe there are privately owned security cameras.”

Skye pulled the car back out onto Main Street, and both mammals looked through shop windows in an attempt to spot any establishment that had security cameras. Although it was considerably difficult to try seeing inside the establishments of tiny mammals.

But then Jack spotted a camera inside a cafe that was friendly to mammals of all sizes. Skye stopped the car, and the pair went inside and walked up to the cashier.

“ZIA,” Jack said, holding up his badge. “We need to take a look at some footage from your security cameras.”

000

“Right there,” Toothdee said, using a laser pointer to highlight a portion of the security footage.

The Heroes in the briefing room leaned in and focused their eyesight. The camera was inside the cafe, pointed towards the entrance of the establishment. There was a large glass window at the front of the building, allowing the camera to get a view of the street, and the buildings across the street.

In the footage, a group of figures moved out of the building on the other side of the road and jumped into a waiting truck.

“This footage is from the night of the concert attack. As you can see, the mammals coming out of this building match the spies that attacked the concert. A quick look at records reveals that the 2 buildings in this compound are owned by....”

Toothdee stole a quick glance at a piece of paper.

“....Mousowitz Ltd, a cleaning service company. And Herdings IT services. However there are no other records of these companies, so we’re pretty sure they are fronts.”

Fabienne Growly stood in the corner of the room, typing down notes.

“We’re going to be raiding this compound in 2 teams, and we have determined there are personnel in the buildings.”

The display screen changed to a blueprint of the compound, showing the two buildings. Next to each building was a list of names.

“Alex, JayJay, Kion, Jasiri, you’ll take the building belonging to the cleaning front company. Me, Judy, Nick, Jack, and Skye will take the building belonging to the IT company. We are to capture as many hostiles as we can, & collect any data we come across. I suspect as we go higher up in the buildings, their defenses will only get tougher.”

“Sounds like it’s going to be a tough fight,” Jack said.

“No doubt. But if we clear out those spies, then we take a big step towards securing Zootopia.”

000

Nick and Judy managed to procure two armored ZPD vehicles for transport, and after gearing up, the teams hopped into their respective vehicles.

As Kion headed into his transport, he spotted a familiar face sitting inside.

“Fabienne? What are you doing here?”

The snow leopard was dressed in semi-casual clothing, but she also had on a bulletproof vest, protective pads, and a helmet. There were large white pieces of tape on the helmet and vest, both of which had ‘press’ written on it in permanent marker.

“You know this is going to be a dangerous mission,” Kion said, his friends climbing into the vehicle.

“I’ve been in war zones before.” The snow leopard said, examining a TV camera in her lap and making sure it was functional.

“We’ll try to look good for you.” Alex joked, a small chuckle sweeping through the transport, as the ZPD Officer in control of the vehicle started driving towards the hostile compound.

After a short drive, the pair of transports pulled up to the entrance of the compound, which had two guards posted on duty. A panda guarded the entrance for large mammals, and a sheep guarded the entrance for smaller mammals.

“What’s that over there?” The sheep asked his coworker, spotting the two armored vehicles pull up.

The Heroes got out, and Fabienne crouched behind one of the transports, switching on her camera and turning it towards the guards.

“Detain them,” Toothdee said, pointing to the pair of guards as the team approached.

Kion and Jasiri took the initiative, heading forward and putting the two guards in zip ties.

“What?! Hey, don’t you need a warrant or something?” The panda guard asked as his pistol was taken away from him.

“What, no. We’re a military unit.” Kion said.

Jack spotted a pair of security cameras above each entrance and quickly destroyed them with his pistol.

“Let’s go,” Toothdee said, both teams heading through a small lobby area, before emerging into a courtyard.

The teams moved through the courtyard, passing by a tall metal decorative obelisk with a polished finish that shimmered as it sat in the center of the complex.

“My team left.” Capitan Boehm said.

“My team right,” Toothdee said.

The group split, as Alex’s team, headed into one of the buildings, coming across a wardrobe room filled with coveralls for many different species. Fabienne followed behind them, camera at the ready.

“Look here,” Jasiri said, pointing out a bunch of patches on a table in the room. The patches were logos from many different corporations, alongside many different name tags. “Switchable name tags and logos for their uniforms. They could get access to any building they want.”

Kion moved some of the uniforms to the side and noticed a handle in the wall behind the coveralls. It was small, and the same color as the wall, making it difficult to notice. He pulled it, opening a compartment in the wall and revealing Chinese military uniforms.

“The same type of uniforms from the concert,” Alex said.

Fabienne panned over the patches and uniforms with her camera, before the team continued forward.

“Two guards up ahead.” JayJay signaled, pointing forward at a pair of otters with guns on their belt,

“PAWS UP!” Jasiri yelled.

The two guards jumped and spun towards the team, drawing and aiming their weapons. This forced Alex to open fire on one of the otters with his sidearm. Kion charged forward and swung his sword, slicing clean through the smaller mammal.

“Stairwell, over there.” The Heroes captain said, and the team ascended to a floor that contained offices.

Three more mammals stood on guard, but the instant the team entered the room, the mammals drew their weapons and opened fire.

Fabienne hung back and filmed, while the young heroes moved forward and engaged, downing the guards.

“More hostiles incoming!” Jasiri said, a few more mammals entered the area, one armed with an SMG. But the warriors were ready

A goat ran at JayJay, horns ready to slake into her and break bones. The wolf dodged, and the goat slammed into a window. The glass broke, and the mammal plummeted down to the ground.

Kion and a bear engaged in melee combat, the bear wielding a baton and Kion with his sword. The bear was unyielding in her assault, managing to get the lion in a headlock. Seeing only one way out, Kion stabbed the bear in the stomach, pulled away, and cut him down.

Jasiri took cover and engaged the guard armed with an SMG. Bits of paper flew up into the air as bullets struck desks in the room. Jasiri took careful aim and put a few shots into the guard.

Alex grappled with a mountain lion that charged at him, trying to knock him out. The two fought hand to paw, exchanging rapid and forceful blows. The mountain was able to kick the human back, and the captain pulled out his pistol and was about to order the mountain lion to surrender, but the lion had already ended himself with his own sidearm, no doubt seeing that the fight had turned against him and refusing capture.

“They refused to be taken alive,” Kion said, looking at a fox who had taken the easy way out with his sidearm.

“This will make it harder to gather information.” Alex said, “Let’s hope we can find someone with more sense, or a paper trail or computer.”

Fabienne moved into the room and looked around with her camera. But then, her keen eyes spotted something outside the building.

000

Toothdee and her team moved up a stairwell, keeping their weapons ready. They moved out of the stairwell and into a room, which had some guards in it, who had their guns drawn.

Toothdee pointed forward and the team advanced. Skye and Nick aimed their weapons and fired, hitting the weapons of the guards. The enemies jumped in surprise, but before they could react, Jack and Judy had already delivered powerful kicks that knocked them out. Toothdee on the other hand ran forward and bashed a wolf guard with her rifle before he could shoot back at her.

With all the guards knocked out, the warriors put handcuffs or zip ties on them.

“Hey uh Toothdee,” Jasiri said through the radio. “I think you guys have a problem over there.”

“What kind of problem?”

The question was answered a few seconds later when Toothdee opened the door to the next room and was greeted by an office that was filled with bright orange flames and furniture swallowed by burning fire.

“Like a fire problem.”

“Keep low.” Toothdee instructed her team, and they all crouched as they progressed forward.

“There’s gotta be a fire control box around here,” Skye said. “Keep your eyes peeled.”

The sounds of shouting reached the team’s ears, and they saw a pair of guards moving through the smoke-filled room.

Nick and Toothdee moved ahead of their friends, keeping in cover behind furniture, before emerging behind the 2 guards and subduing them with either a punch or cutting off their oxygen so they passed out.

After cuffing the 2 guards, the group pulled them to an area of the building that had not been consumed by fire. This area appeared to be some sort of hub, with hallways leading in all directions.

“Split up, but be careful. There might still be enemies, but find and activate that firebox.” Toothdee said, before directing her allies in different directions.

Judy moved down a hallway that doubled back towards the area of the building that was on fire. However the hallway she was in appeared to have already been burned, and the fire in it had since gone out or progressed on to another part of the building. The walls weren’t enveloped in flames, they only glowed brightly with embers, and were covered in ash.

“Ouch!” The bunny said, the hot floor burning her exposed feet. She tried to move forward by only touching the cooler parts of the floor.

But then, she spotted a figure, standing in a room adjacent to the hallway. The entire room glowed with embers, but one side of the room had been completely destroyed by fire, with the wall and part of the ceiling having collapsed. Where the wall had been, was now just open-air that led out to a perilous drop down into the courtyard below.

Judy recognized the figure, it was her dark counterpart. She stood with a pistol in her hand, gazing out of the building and almost waiting for her enemies to come to her. She turned around, knowing who greeted her, based on the voice she heard down the hallway.

“It’s a shame my troops didn’t kill you at the concert” Dark Judy said.

“That was you?! Why would you do such a thing?!”

“Why? Because you thwarted our invasion, and in the process, you killed someone I love.”

Judy thought for a moment and then remembered.

“What?! .....You mean Nick’s counterpart? On the boat?”

“Exactly, that’s why I had to punish this city, to make it suffer.”

“I don’t understand how any version of me could do such horrible things.”

The counterpart raced forward, aiming her gun and firing. But Judy dodged grabbed her enemy’s arm, trying to open fire with her own pistol. But the counterpart was ready for this, kicking Judy’s arm away just as she pulled the trigger.

The two fought, close quarters, with punches and kicks. Whenever one warrior lined up a pistol shot, the other bunny would either dodge out of the way or push the shooter’s arm so the weapon fired harmlessly in a different direction. Eventually, both guns ran dry of ammo, prompting the pair to toss them away so they wouldn’t hinder their melee combat.

Dark Judy kicked her enemy with her powerful legs, sending her enemy staggering back into one of the walls. The counterpart then charged forward and pinned Judy against the wall.

“This is for everything you’ve done to us.” The counterpart said, reeling back for a powerful punch.

Judy grabbed part of the burned wall and ripped it out. Then she stabbed her counterpart with the burning end.

Dark Judy screened and stumbled back, distracted, and allowing Judy to charge into her. The counterpart was pushed further back, before Judy performed a drop Kick, and sent her adversary falling off the building, and plummeting to the ground below.

The rabbit dropped, down into the courtyard, along with burning debris from the flaming building. As she fell, she reached upwards at her good-hearted counterpart and screamed, still desiring to inflict harm upon her. Her mind was consumed by fury and rage.

But then she hit the obelisk in the courtyard, the sharp metal point at the top going right through her body. Her screams and rage lingered for a moment longer, before ceasing, the dark warrior now laying transfixed, halfway up the obelisk.

She was gone, and a deep red liquid slowly dripped down the decorative structure.

Back at the top of the building, Judy sighed in relief. The rabbit’s counterpart was defeated, and with her, the ring of spies in Zootopia.

000

It was done, the entire compound had now been secured by the ZPD and ZIA, and Heroes was now heading home, their mission complete.

As the team members chatted and joked with each other, Toothdee pulled Alex off to the side, while JayJay looked on from nearby, curious as to the conversation.

“You went too far,” Toothdee said. “We were supposed to capture as many of them as we could! Your team captured no one, besides the two guys at the front gate! And we were with you then!”

“Hey we tried to take some of them alive, but they either forced our hand or refused to be taken alive.”

Toothdee groaned in disapproval and walked off.

The captain sighed, while JayJay gave him a look of sympathy.

Toothdee was his best ally, he didn’t like disagreeing with her. But, sometimes things just didn’t work out. He hoped she didn’t give him the cold shoulder for too long.

[alexboehm55144]

A brave few have sworn to protect us....

...and save what remains

They unite us

Remind us that we are one people

They are our shield, and our light

I would like to thank @jafethortiz for this great artwork inspired by Tom Clancy’s the Division 2!

[alexboehm55144]

Alex Final Wars 2: Dark Alex, Chapter 19 - The Second Battle of Zootopia

After a long hiatus, Alex Final Wars is back! Why was it gone for so long? I was waiting for some awesome chapter artwork from Starwishermidnight! (https://www.deviantart.com/starwishermidnight)

Pretty cool huh?! I hope everyone enjoys that picture, and enjoys this action packed chapter! Lets jump into the fray with Heroes!

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The city of Zootopia occupied a key location on the US west coast, and it would certainly be a prime target for any force seeking to deal damage against the country. It was no wonder then that the Chinese had devoted a large number of mammalpower and resources to the city's capture. Although the city had the ZIA and ZPD for defense, it still relied on the US military.

Enroute back to Zootopia, the team had prepared to forcibly evict the Chinese out of the city. This was an all-paws-on-deck mission. Everyone had been given a combat role and an operational area that they would work in. Even Haida and Retsuko has been tasked with providing combat support over the radio. While they were glad to finally be doing more, the state of Zootopia still had the pair worried. Fabienne was also joining a Heroes team heading towards ZNN, where she would help some of her colleagues evacuate. She had been surprisingly calm, probably because she was an experienced reporter and had been in her fair share of war zones. The Typhoon was alive with activity as warriors frantically raced around the ship, preparing for battle.

There were sightings of Kion's Dark counterpart, but his location was unknown. US marines were already on site, defending the city. Multiple Heroes teams would join the US forces in a counteroffensive to push the enemy back.

Chinese ships occupied the bay, while fires burned all over the city, creating massive plumes of smoke. Chinese jets streaked across the skies, strafing machine-gun fire on any target they saw.

The Typhoon set down in a US controlled area, as everyone prepared to enter the fray.

"We've failed." Jack said, gathering up his gear. His ears were droopy and he was not preparing himself with the same determined spirit that he'd had in other missions. "Our job as ZIA agents was to keep Zootopia safe, and now the Chinese are attacking the city. We've failed at our foremost objective."

Skye nodded, and her face gave away the fact that she was also feeling the same burden of guilt that Jack felt.

"Don't say that." Toothdee said. "It's not your fault. You did all you could."

"There's no way you could have known this was gonna happen. Blame the people attacking the city, don't blame yourself." Nick said, putting his paw on his friend's shoulder.

"But now that we're here, we can make a difference." Judy said, maintaining the steadfast determination that she had since childhood.

A determined look came across Skye's face as she realized her allies were correct. The best way for her to serve Zootopia now, was stopping the Chinese invasion. "Your right, let's do this." The arctic fox clicked the safety off on her rifle.

After gathering up gear, weapons, and ammo, the heroes assembled in the hangar bay where vehicles had been prepared and fueled. Capitan Boehm cleared his throat and tried to rouse everyone's spirits, even though he was nervous. Dialogue was not his forte, but his friends could use a rousing speech, so he would at least try.

"Zootopia needs our help!"

There were whoops and yells from the warriors in the room. Each of them was eager to get out in the fray and give the Chinese a firm kick in the pants.

"We are incredible warriors, we can do this! We can beat them back!"

There was another round of cheers and the excitement in the room was palpable.

"Are you ready to get out there in the fray?!"

Everyone let out a battle cry and raised a fist or a weapon.

"Heroes, form up!"

Each individual team hopped in a truck or Jeep, and Alex opened the doors to the Typhoon's garage, letting the teams race out, going past US soldiers and heading to their predetermined areas.

Nick and Judy headed to ZPD HQ, while Skye and Jack made haste to the ZIA HQ.

Alex, Kion, and Jasiri were in a Humvee; driving to meet hostile forces head on. As Alex maneuvered the vehicle through abandoned cars and rubble, they passed by some civilians trying to get to safety. The captain went as fast as he could, swerving through the streets, narrowly avoiding obstacles.

"Whoa! Careful dude!" Kion said, holding onto his seat and watching a downed lamppost narrowly miss the vehicle. "Your gonna kill us before we can even get to the Chinese!"

"What? Do you want to drive?"

"Ugh, just don't send us careening off a cliff." Kion begrudgingly said.

"You know, between you and me, that speech went a lot better than I expected."

"You did great, I've never seen a group of people so eager to enter into combat."

"I am not good with words; it took me a moment to work up my courage."

"Ha! Bullets aren't a problem, but words are?" Kion laughed.

"You keep that to yourself." Alex jested.

The team reached a US tank on a main road, along with a group of US Marines that were taking cover behind concrete debris. A squad of Chinese soldiers was engaging the Marines and pinning them down, while the tank tried its best to beat the enemy back.

Hopping out of the Humvee, the team engaged the Chinese, downing a few before being noticed.

"Heroes?!" A US Marine yelled, clearly surprised.

Kion cut down 2 Chinese soldiers, while Jasiri gunned down 2 more with her pistols. The last few soldiers fell back, and disappeared from view behind a large pile of rubble that was blocking the road.

"We weren't expecting elite forces." One of the Marines said.

"What's the situation?" Captain Boehm said, wanting to get a grip on things and chase the Chinese out of the city.

"We're getting ready to push back, but the Chinese are still hitting us hard."

Suddenly a rocket streaked down from one of the nearby buildings and hit the US tank that was nearby. The vehicle exploded in a ball of fire, killing the crew inside.

"Take cover!" Kion said, prompting Heroes and the Marines to hide in a small shop off to the side of the road.

"Alright, you stay here and push forward with the other US forces once they arrive." Alex said to the Marines as he checked his ammo. "We'll act as the tip of the spear and make things easier for the main force."

"Roger that, good luck sir." A Marine said.

This was the job of Heroes. As elite forces, it was their duty to help their allies however best they could. The team headed into the back of the shop, and found a door with a staircase behind it. They began to make their way up, heading towards the location where the Chinese rocket had come from.

It was difficult to find a route through the tight and dark corridors of the building, but eventually the team reached another door, and they heard a foreign language on the other side.

The captain smiled and chuckled a bit. He loved it when a situation presented itself that allowed him or his allies get the drop on an enemy. Alex counted down. "3... 2... 1... Go!"

The trio burst through the door and immediately engaged the group of Chinese soldiers in the room. The rocket trooper that destroyed the tank was quickly gunned down in a hail of bullets, along with all the other hostiles. One soldier had been thrown back onto the floor when the opening door hit him, making him easy for Kion to dispatch with his blade.

"Hell yeah! That was awesome!" Alex said "Keep it up!"

Taking a look at their surroundings, the team picked another hallway and began to move down through it. In the close confines, Alex and Kion were cutting down many enemy soldiers with swords, while Jasiri kept laying down supporting fire with her pistols.

"We should get back to the street; those US soldiers need us." The hyena said, killing a bunch of hostile soldiers by performing a flourishing attack, in which she twirled and fired shots all around her, hitting anyone in the area.

"Agreed," Captain Boehm said, slicing a PLA trooper with his sword, and quickly followed up with 2 chi blasts to the heads of enemy troops.

"There's a stairwell over here!" Kion said, charging at a heavy weapons soldier and ramming his sword through his adversary.

Not wanting to leave the US soldiers on the street without friendly support, the group moved down the stairwell. They heard a commotion from the bottom of the building and looked down the center of the stairwell shaft. They saw a large group of enemy soldiers sprinting up the stairs from the bottom.

Kion took out a grenade and looked to his friends with a questioning expression. They instantly knew what he was thinking.

"We're gonna have to time this right." Jasiri said, as her and Alex took out grenades. The trio pulled the grenade pins and cooked them in their hands for a few seconds, before dropping them down the center of the stairwell.

Right as the grenades fell by the soldiers, they exploded, killing the Chinese troopers. The team were able to proceed down the stairs uninterrupted. They passed one trooper who, despite being critically wounded by the grenades, was still alive. The captain took pity and put him out of his misery, as he would have otherwise slowly died from his wounds. Even though the soldier was his enemy, Alex was still kind enough to show him mercy.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, the team was finally able to get to the street. The sky was hazy with smoke, and the setting sun caused an orange tint across the entire city. Rubble was strewn about the entire area, and the sounds of combat filled the air.

"There!" Kion said, pointing towards a group of PLA soldiers. The team engaged the hostile forces, while some civilians nearby fled for their lives.

Alex noticed a young cheetah, probably only 5 or 6 years old, standing in the middle of the ruined street, looking around. She clutched a stuffed cheetah in her paws, and while she looked scared, she wasn't crying or screaming.

Overcome with fear and determination, Alex charged forward towards the lost cheetah, cutting in half a PLA soldier with his sword as he ran. Kion and Jasiri provided cover fire, presumably also having seen the young cheetah and feared for the girl's life.

Reaching the young girl, Alex quickly pulled her to safety as his allies kept them covered.

"I'm gonna get you out of here, sweetie." Alex said, trying to sound soft and caring. "Do you think you can run?"

"Y-yes." The young girl said as she quickly nodded, her eyes wide. Jasiri reloaded and gave Alex a nod of confirmation that they were ready to provide suppressing fire.

"Ok, you be brave for me." The captain and the cheetah sprinted out of cover, and managed to get into an alleyway where they bumped into a group of ZPD SWAT.

"This young girl lost her parents, she needs to be escorted out of here." Alex said to the team leader.

"On it, sir!" The officer responded before speaking into his radio.

"You were very brave today." Boehm said, crouching down to the girl's height, as well as taking out a ration bar, and giving it to her. "These fine mammals are gonna get you back to your parents. What's your name?"

"F-F-Fuli" the young girl said, trembling. "F-Fuli D-Duma."

The captain stood up and gestured to himself. "Alex Boehm." He said, before running off to assist his friends.

As more US Marines, ZPD officers, and ZIA agents entered the area, the trio of heroes continued battling the PLA soldiers. Alex and Jasiri gunned down any enemy soldier they laid eyes on, while Kion deflected incoming bullets with his sword. Though they were outnumbered by enemy soldiers, they showed no fear, as they knew the Chinese were clearly outmatched.

The last soldier fell to Jasiri's shots, and the hyena blew the gun smoke off the ends of her pistols, before triumphantly stating "They weren't expecting elite forces!"

A truck of enemy soldiers pulled up, but was obliterated by machine gun fire from an approaching US armored vehicle. A ZIA agent ran up to give a report to the Heroes team.

"The Chinese forward base is just ahead!" The agent reported. "Thats where the Chinese fleet is deploying forces and coordinating the assault."

"Then that's our target. Let's go kick them out of Zootopia!" Jasiri yelled, rallying friendly forces, before they moved forwards towards the Chinese base. The large group of infantry was accompanied by light and heavy armored vehicles, and a few aircraft in support.

Three PLA soldiers, using grenade launcher turrets, engaged the US force, causing the marines to run for cover.

"I'll get the right turret." Captain Boehm said.

"Jasiri, you get the middle one, I'll get the left one!" Kion said, charging forward with his head down.

Bullets whizzed over his head and struck the rubble he was taking cover behind. He had to roll and move as fast as he could to avoid being hit. The lion managed to reach the turret and stab the operator with his sword, before turning it on another hostile.

Jasiri and Alex also had similar luck with their targets, enabling their allies to continue pressing forward. This assault was going smoothly, and Heroes were easily pushing back the attacking force. They were driven by the singular desire to stop the assault on their glorious city.

A Chinese helicopter moved in and opened fire, forcing Jasiri and Alex to engage it with their firearms. Kion used one of the commandeered turrets to engage the aircraft. Bullets struck the canopy and engines, cracking the glass and soon caused smoke to pour from the engines. After sustaining enough damage, the aircraft fell back, having trouble controlling its movement.

The US force had now reached the Chinese base. Vehicles, soldiers, communications tech, and other equipment were set up throughout the area. Chinese landing hovercraft were assembled on the beach, and 2 amphibious assault ships floated in the bay nearby.

The Chinese soldiers began to take cover and open fire on the incoming enemies, with the PLA vehicles doing the same. Even the turrets on the hovercraft joined the engagement.

As Alex and the team pushed forward towards a communications center nearby, friendly rocket troopers fired at the enemy vehicles with explosives. A US tank also destroyed some of the turrets on the hovercraft.

The communications center was filled with large servers and small military laptops set up on tables. Wires ran along the floor, and cooling fans in the servers created a slight buzzing sound in the area.

"Pull any hard drives and data you can get; knowledge is power." Alex said, cutting down a Chinese soldier, "Any intel is useful. Once you get it, blast everything else into scrap."

Jasiri and Kion went to work, ripping out servers and transferring files from computers, while Alex kept them covered, shooting any enemy that tried to interfere with their operation.

After Heroes had all the data they needed, Jasiri blasted the communications equipment with her pistols. Kion moved to slice through a computer server with his sword, but Jasiri stopped him and recommended unplugging the device to avoid the fate of Dark Laval. After a few seconds the communications center had been reduced to smoldering equipment that could never be fixed.

Chinese vehicles were still active, and the team settled on those as their next targets, as they were the most dangerous. Kion knew he couldn't do much damage to vehicle armor with his sword, so he looked around in a Chinese weapon stash. A smug expression crossed the lion's face as he found a rocket launcher. He quickly turned it on a Chinese tank and turned the enemy vehicle into a flaming heap. Alex jumped onto an armored personnel carrier and managed to pry the top hatch open, before dropping in a grenade.

The Chinese attack helicopter returned and launched a volley of rockets, making Jasiri run for her life as explosions rocked the ground behind her.

"Jasiri!" Kion yelled, turning the rocket launcher on the aircraft, before firing and ripping through its armor. The vehicle spun out of control and crashed onto one of the hovercraft, destroying the still active turret.

"YEAH!" Kion gave a middle finger to the smoldering wreckage. He was very protective of his hyena.

Jasiri spotted a Chinese surface-to-air missile site and quickly alerted her teammates to its existence. After gunning and cutting down a few Chinese soldiers guarding the site, the team of heroes was able to get close, and place primed grenades onto the missile launcher. As the trio quickly got clear, the grenades exploded, destroying the launcher.

Two Chinese attack boats pulled up to the shore, but they continued moving forward onto the beach. As the vessels emerged from the water, it was revealed that they had 4 tracks on the underside, that allowed the vehicles to leave the water and move on land.

"Uh... what the hell are those things?" Kion said as Chinese troops disembarked the craft.

"Whatever it is, shoot it." Alex said, following his own words, as a turret on one of the amphibious vehicles opened fire. The captain would have loved to figure out more about the vehicles, as he loved new technology. But unfortunately the vehicles were shooting back at him.

An enemy heavy-arms trooper, carrying a grenade launcher, opened fire, blowing up a US vehicle and killing many US soldiers. Alex changed his target to the heavy trooper, attacking him with his sword. The captain managed to get a few good hits on the trooper before he could react. Once the trooper did react though, he blocked Alex's sword with his grenade launcher. The 2 combatants got into a weapon lock, before Alex used the blaster on his sword to kill the soldier by shooting him in the face.

Picking up the grenade launcher, the captain noticed one of the amphibious vehicles moving backwards into the water. There was probably a driver inside, or maybe it was autonomous. Directing the grenade launcher towards the vehicle, a couple shots managed to disable it.

"Man I would have loved to get a closer look at that thing!"

Jasiri and Kion had destroyed the turret on the second vehicle, and managed to do enough damage to disable the craft.

A United States B-1B Lancer bomber and its escort jets flew over the Chinese ships, the bomber dropping its payload and obliterating the vessels.

The Heroes team cheered and raised their weapons triumphantly as they watched the vessels burn. But this moment of victory was cut short when Judy's voice came through the radio, filled with worry.

"Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

"Oh hey, Officer Hopps." Kion said, feeling pleased with his work "We just took out a Chinese base."

"ZPD reports that the tide is turning in our favor, Kion, but we've also got a confirmed sighting of your counterpart. We're heading to investigate now."

"Do not engage! This guy is dangerous. I repeat, do not engage!" Alex said, hoping the rabbit listened to him. "We'll come there and assist you."

The trio turned away from the burning ships and headed back into the city. Their cheerful mood had changed to a drive to stop Kion's counterpart, as they did not want him to cause anymore chaos. Zootopia was not free just yet.

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Well, I hope everyone enjoyed this new chapter! Next week, Heroes goes after Kion's counterpart. Until next time!

[alexboehm55144]

Alex Final Wars 2: Dark Alex, Chapter 21 - Rebuilding

I’m back with another exciting update for you guys! Before we get started I would like to thank JKnight97 for beta reading this chapter. Seriously dude, you are better than any automated program or grammar check software! Now, let us return to our heroes…..

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The Chinese forces had been routed from Zootopia, but they had done immense damage to the city. Hundreds of structures had been blasted or destroyed, and rubble littered many streets. Wrecked Chinese ships sat in the bay; the fallen bodies of soldiers from both sides of the battle lay on the ground before being recovered; inoperable military vehicles were either crushed or broken down for scrap metal.

Instead of making another decisive strike on the Chinese, Heroes decided to stay and help out the rebuilding efforts in Zootopia. Once again, everyone took on a role, but instead of a combat mission, this time it was to help the wounded city. This was a place they knew and loved; they could not, in good conscience, leave the city behind laying in ruin.

Toothdee was helping a crew dismantle a few totaled armored vehicles. The munitions and explosives had been taken care of, but the carcasses of metal amidst the debris strewn around them still remained.

The young warrior was attaching cables to the vehicle wreckage so it could be lifted up by a crane, before she was interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Toothdee?”

She turned around to see Fabienne Growley behind her with a microphone and a cameraman. The camera was connected to a ZNN van, and an operator sat in the back, manning the screens and communications devices.

“Yes, Fabienne?”

“Would you be willing to give us a few moments of your time?”

“You want to talk to me?” Toothdee said, surprised she was being interviewed by a ZNN anchor.

“If you can, but if not that’s fine.”

“No, I can spare a few minutes of my time.”

The trio stepped away from the ruined armored transport. Fabienne gave a signal to the operator and he pressed some buttons inside the van.

“This is a live interview.” The news anchor said. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Oh, fine by me.” Toothdee said, fixing her fur up a bit to look good on camera, and taking a deep breath to calm her nerves.

The operator gave Fabienne a thumbs up.

“Hello, this is Fabienne Growley reporting live from the ravaged streets of Zootopia. I am  joined by Toothdee, the Heroes warrior and combat expert” the feline said into the camera. “Could you tell us a bit more about the attack on Zootopia?”

“It was an all-out assault by the Chinese. Clearly, they wanted to take the city or inflict monumental damage. Luckily, we had multiple ships in the harbor, along with dozens of aircraft to help us in the fight.”

“What was the fighting like?”

“Intense,” said the warrior, as she maintained a serious tone that was appropriate for the current situation.  “Armored vehicles were heavily used, and the fact that we were in a city forced the enemy into close quarters combat. Thankfully, the US Marine Corps quickly responded and helped Heroes beat back the threat.”

“And we are all thankful for their speedy response. How much damage did the Chinese do to the city, and how are clean up efforts going?”

“Well as you can see...” Toothdee gestured to the demolished conveyances behind her. “A lot of damage has been inflicted on the city. Many buildings have been hit by munitions, and there are numerous demolished military equipment everywhere, some still containing live munitions. In the meantime we urge everyone to stay away from any area that has not been cleared of explosives or firearms. Heroes are assisting in clean-up operations, and soon, the city will be back to normal. It will take time, but we can repair all the infrastructure that was damaged during the battle for the city.”

“I know many citizens will be glad to have things back to the way they were. Is there anything else you would like to say?”

Toothdee looked straight at the camera and spoke clearly.

“I know many mammals out there are frightened now that the war has come home. But we can endure. This city has weathered threats before, and I know the people here possess a strong will. We can rise from the damage the Chinese inflicted on us, and we can survive anything else they throw at us.”

“Thank you for those kind words.”

Toothdee moved out of the way of the camera and breathed a sigh of relief. She hoped her words had inspired the residents of Zootopia, as hearts and minds are what win wars, and Toothdee really wanted to win this war. The Chinese had started this conflict, but the US would finish it, with Heroes being more than happy to help the country. As the young hero walked away to return to her work, she overheard Fabienne continuing to talk to the camera.

“Like she said, we can we can rally together from this devastating event, and show the Chinese they haven’t broken our spirit. Don’t forget that there is plenty you can do around the city to help with the war effort, or clean-up operations. However as mentioned, if you want to volunteer to clean up debris, please make sure the site has been cleared of dangerous material by military personnel .”

Toothdee continued working with the crew removing the armored vehicles, but within a few minutes, civilians started showing up and asking how they could help. Some mammals didn’t even wait for an invitation, and they started picking up debris and rubble and tossing it into a dumpster nearby. The area had been deemed safe, as it had already been cleared by specially trained personnel that had removed or destroyed any firearms ordinance they came across.

Toothdee was glad to see individuals so enthusiastically helping in clean up efforts, it gave her a sense of hope, and that all was not lost. She just hoped the Chinese wouldn’t make another assault on the city.

000

The ZPD had been working overtime since the Chinese attacked the city. Although the military had stepped in to help with security, they had other, more pressing needs pertaining to the war effort. Many officers had given their lives in defense of Zootopia, and the department had to continue to function with them gone. They needed to deter mammals trying to take advantage of the situation, and help civilian life function with parts of the city heavily damaged.

Nick and Judy had been stationed in an area of the rainforest district where some shops had been looted earlier, and they were keeping a vigilant watch. Heroes did pay them well, and it was a great way to make the world a better place, but the ZPD was where they belonged. Chief Bogo was alright with the two working with Heroes, possibly because they were still helping to enforce law and order in a broken world. Or it may be because the fox and bunny still functioned as police officers, except now they were donating their skills to Heroes, almost like an operator exchange program. Having two ZPD officers on the team really helped out with missions in Zootopia or other dense urban areas. No one was more familiar with the workings of cities than Nick and Judy. Both were also proficient in firearms usage as part of their ZPD training, so they knew how to handle tough situations.

However, they were bored today; sitting in their cruiser while keeping an eye out for illegal activity. Nothing had transpired in the hours they had been stationed in the rainforest district. The pair had been playing cards to pass the time, and right now they were in the middle of another game.

“Got any threes?” Nick asked.

“Go fish.”

The fox picked up another card from the deck and muttered about how boring this assignment was.

“Hey it’s all part of making the world a better place.” Judy said.

“Call Toothdee. Maybe she’ll have work for us?”

“She’s busy helping to clean up the city.”

“Oh, well, why don’t you tell me what’s been bothering you? I can tell you’re upset about something, Carrots.”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about everyone’s dark counterparts, and what that means for us. If Dark Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde could be so evil, what’s stopping the same from happening to us?”

“Hmmm... I’m unsure how to respond to that....”

“Maybe we should take some precautions? Maybe there’s some way we can make sure that we don’t become like our counterparts.”

“Well, I think right now we should worry about stopping our counterparts. Then, we can worry about ourselves.”

“True, we can put this topic on the back burner for now. By the way, got any fives?”

“Go fish.”

The rabbit sighed and looked out the window towards a shop that had been damaged by gunfire from a Chinese aircraft.

“I don’t like what happened here.” Judy said, her ears drooping. “I wanted to help the world, help Zootopia, but now the city has been attacked.”

“I know, it’s depressing.” Nick said, putting down his cards. “I wish we could have done something different and prevented this.”

The duo sat in guilty silence for a moment, thinking about the destruction that had been unleashed upon Zootopia, and how it was somehow their fault. Looking into each other’s eyes, the pair instinctively reached out and hugged; Nick wrapping Judy in his tail while Judy nuzzled into his chest. They both wanted to stop their dark counterparts and the Chinese, while continuing to make the world a better place. It was a driving goal for both of them, and why they would stop at nothing until order had been restored.

“We’ll make it right, Carrots, I promise.”

000

Retsuko and Haida wanted nothing more than to go out and find a karaoke place to while away the night, but they had unfinished business aboard the Typhoon. Having previously worked in an office accounting department, their minds were finetuned machines capable of processing and managing vast amounts of numbers and information. Today, that meant dealing with reports and data of all types coming in from around Zootopia. Damage dealt to structures, disruption of normal operations for various organizations, info about the Chinese attack, among other topics. They had to sift through this mountain of information, so Heroes and Zootopia could better use it. Comprehensively analyzing the damage inflicted on the city would help destroyed areas return back to operating strength. Knowledge was power, and they were part of the process that allowed that fact to ring true.

While their job wasn’t as exciting as getting out in the field and fighting the enemy, it was an integral part of operations. Finished paper reports were organized in a neat pile by the entrance of the room they worked in, and electronic copies were sent to the people that needed them, and out into the Heroes database.

Haida had just finished sending a list of US casualties to a military officer, and he could feel the stress starting to set in.

Retsuko was busy working on a file relating to the cost of damages to a skyscraper, but the hyena figured she could use something to drink and eat.

“Tea and sushi?” Haida said, getting up and heading for the door. “A fresh shipment of supplies just arrived.”

“Yes, please.” The red panda responded, her eyes not moving from the computer screen.

Haida made his way to the Typhoon’s kitchen, which was better equipped than most military kitchens. Heroes had fully recognized that good food helped a warrior both physically and mentally, and as such the ship  was fully stocked with food for all species.

Placing a teapot on the stove and prepping the ingredients for the sushi, Haida reflected once again on how his current job was so much better than his last one. The bosses he had now didn’t yell at him, and were sure to thank him for his work. He could see that this was the same  for Retsuko, and Haida was happy to see his red panda girlfriend loving her job again.

Once the meal was ready, Haida set two cups of tea and a couple of plates of sushi on a wooden tray and returned to Retsuko, who had just finished the file she had been working on, and was pulling up a new one.

The smell of food broke Retsuko away from her work, and she spun around to enjoy the meal with her hyena.

“I made your favorite.” Haida said, giving his red panda her meal.

“Thank you, Haida.” Retsuko said, giving her boyfriend a kiss on the nose as thanks. The hyena blushed madly and nervously rubbed the back of his head. He tried in vain to create small talk.

“So... what have you been... uh.... working on?”

“Just some files about damaged structures. What about you?”

“Well, I finished a list of casualties. Unfortunately, there were a lot. You know, I like this job, but all this destruction does is make me stop and pause.”

“Me, too.” Retsuko said between sips of tea. “It’s not exactly cheerful, but it’s just something we must deal with.”

The hyena nodded before Retsuko smiled slightly. “Don’t tell me your thinking of leaving this job.”

“Of course not! I love this job! You know how much of an improvement it is over working in the accounting department.”

Retsuko giggled. “You know I was really thrown for a loop when we started working here, to the point where I actually made Toothdee a cup of tea, like I used to for the higher ups back at the office.”

“You did not!” The hyena laughed, nearly choking on his sushi.

“She had such a strange look on her face. She told me ‘you don’t need to do this.’ But she did appreciate the kind gesture.”

Haida laughed again and tried to imagine the look on Toothdee’s face.

“Although that doesn’t mean you can stop getting me tea, Haida.” Retsuko said, grateful for the fact that he had been thinking of her.

“Noted. Remember how I said all the destruction made me pause and think? I do take some solace in knowing that what we’re doing helps fix it.”

“All our work is not wasted. Without us, I don’t know exactly how much would get done.”

“I hope to see some improvements in Zootopia after I get through all these files. Someone better use them to repair the city!”

The pair finished their meal and Haida moved to clean up the dishes before Retsuko stopped him.

“I got this.” She said, putting the dishes on the tray. “You can get back to helping people by working on those files.”

“Ok, thank you, Retsuko.”

“No, thank you for the lovely meal, Haida.” The little red panda paused to stand on tip toe and planted a smooch on her surprised boyfriend’s mouth. She giggled as she exited the room, leaving a dazed and happy hyena in her wake.

000

The sun was setting on Zootopia, but many people continued to work to repair the broken city. Captain Boehm and some workers had just finished cleaning up concrete debris on a highway, allowing for faster travel for all mammals. The Captain had been working all day, and while there was still a lot to do, he was ready to go to bed. He sat down on a bench and almost fell asleep as he waited for JayJay to come pick him up with one of the vehicles from the Typhoon in order to take him back to the ship.

The wolf soon arrived, but she wasn’t driving a vehicle, instead she was walking down the street.

“JayJay? Where’s the car?”

“Actually, my place isn’t far from here. I figured we could walk there instead of having to go all the way back to the Typhoon. It would be a nice change of pace.”

“Eh... I’m not sure.”

Alex thought about how he wouldn’t have any of his personal effects. He didn’t like to be without his things.

“I think I have a spare toothbrush you can use, and a phone charger.”

“....uh... Alright, fair enough.”

“It’s a cozy little place, you’ll enjoy it.”

The pair began to walk towards the wolf’s apartment, while discussing what they had been doing that day. Both of them were exhausted from trying to help the city, as being a paragon for peace and order was not all about heroic missions into enemy territory.

“What projects did you work on today?” Alex asked as he watched his companion rub her shoulder.

“Helped a grocery store get back on its feet and some people to clean up their apartment block among other things. What about you?”

“Cleared some concrete debris off a highway and unloaded some emergency food supplies from a Red Cross truck.”

“I’m definitely gonna feel sore tomorrow.”

“By the way, is there a place for me to sleep at your apartment?”

“Sure, you can take the bed, I’ll have the couch.”

“What, I don’t want to kick you out of your bed. I’ll take the couch, I’m the guest after all.”

“That’s exactly why I want to give you the bed, so you can have a nice sleep while visiting my abode.”

“I can sleep fine on a couch, or even a floor with pillows.”

“You know, if you're comfortable with it, we could try sharing the bed,” JayJay hesitantly suggested. “I think it’s big enough for the both of us.”

“Erm… Okay, that seems fair. I just don’t want you to give up your bed for me.”

The pair arrived at the apartment complex and found their way to JayJay’s dwelling. The wolf opened the door to her apartment with a key and theatrically swept a paw to show off her place. The wolf’s apartment was very nice, and included amenities such as a bathroom and kitchen. Lots of items in the apartment were a bright color, which reflected the wolf’s upbeat personality, as evidenced by the clothes she wore.

Alex sat down on the couch, relieved that he was able to sit, while JayJay flipped on the lights.

“Do you want something to eat?” She asked, going into the kitchen and disappearing out of sight, “I have this nice little snack container I think you’d like.”

Alex turned on the TV and tried to find something for them to watch, eventually settling on a movie that was playing. The wolf came back with two cups of juice and a plastic container that was divided up into 6 sections, each of which had a different kind of snack. It had grapes, carrots, jerky, cheese, nuts, and crackers. JayJay sat down right next to Alex and the pair feasted on the delicious snack while drinking their juice and watching the TV. Both were overjoyed that they could spend time with each other, without needing to worry.

“I like this jerky.” Alex said, taking another piece from the container.

“So do I, wolves actually need protein to survive.”

“So do humans; we also need protein in our diet. Also, what makes living a little sweeter is having a nice wolf friend.”

“Aww, well life is certainly better when you're a wolf with a kind human friend.” JayJay concurred, her tail wagging in agreement.

As the pair watched TV and relaxed from their long day, JayJay eventually felt comfortable enough to rest her head on Alex’s shoulder. The Captain felt a soft form pressing against him. Enjoying the contact and wanting to do something in return, Alex reached over the sofa and put his arm around her, causing the wolf to sigh contentedly and wrap her tail around the two of them.

“Is this okay?” JayJay asked, not wanting Alex to feel nervous or uncomfortable. “Do you mind?”

“No, I don’t. Your fur’s all soft and warm. I mean.. uh..”

The Captain chuckled to himself and realized he was probably being a little too straightforward with his friend. He didn’t want to weird her out. But the wolf just snuggled closer, so he could feel more of her fur.

“This is nice.” JayJay said, closing her eyes and trying to fall asleep. But, without warning, the wolf picked up her head and planted a sweet kiss on the Captain's face. Both mammals blushed madly, being extremely nervous about what just happened. Eventually Alex managed to ask about what prompted this act of affection.

“Was that for luck?”

“No, that was for me.”

“Well, let me know if you need to do that again. I’d be more than happy to oblige.”

The pair continued watching movies till their eyelids grew heavy, eventually falling asleep on the couch., The two heroes, tired from working all day, instinctively curled into one another, with Alex forming the big spoon as he held his friend close to his chest in his sleep. The TV eventually shut off due to inactivity, and the room became silent as the two warriors rested and recharged together.

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And that’s a wrap! Another slower paced chapter to balance out all the action and conflict! The next chapter is also slower paced like this one, so stay tuned!