The tiger officer fired the first shot, as the tranquilizer dart hit just above the heart of my chest plate.

Dead silence filled the lobby as the only sound one could make out was a soft metallic ping. I slowly looked down and saw the dart resting on the floor, with a bright green stabilizer and a completely broken tip.

The needle failed to implant itself which caused a great wave of bewilderment among the animal officers. The dart's structural integrity was no match against an intergalactic military-grade alloy from another time and another universe. Thus, I remained standing and they somehow thought that I'd be brought down with ease. They were wrong.

However, instead of reevaluating the situation, their next move was to simply try again.  Thus, they all rechecked their pistols - to ensure they were actually loaded - and pointed them at my chest. 

The two kneeling wolves upfront took their shots, sending two more darts flying in my direction. 

The first dart skidded off my right shoulder and the second one crashed into my lower abdomen and likewise fell to the floor. That was close but both darts failed miserably. The two wolves desperately checked to make sure their weapons actually fired and sure enough, they did fire.

"He's not dropping!"

"But...but how?"

"What's going on?"

"Chief?"

Never had I seen so many wide-eyed animals before. Even the chief's jaw hung slightly open and the cheetah behind the circular desk had one sprinkled paw over his mouth. None of them knew what to think... or what to do.

"Again!" the chief ordered. "Everyone on my mark!"

The ZPD officers tightened their stances and prepared for the ultimate squad attack. The chief raised his arm to give them the signal.

"One!" he started, pausing for a brief moment.

"Two!" we looked at each other in the eye.

"Three!"

His arm dropped and all the animal officers fired their tranquilizer dart pistols in unison. The hippo took a shot.

The elephant pressed the trigger. The jaguar aimed and fired.

The timberwolf launched a dart.

The two polar bears both hurled darts.

The black and grizzly bears sent off their shots. 

The tigers fired again.

And the sheep fired together.

But it all resulted in the same outcome. The darts simply bounced off the suit with zero effect. I sighed at their pathetic attempts.

Needle tips were crushed, darts grazed off to the side, and their pathetic supply of useless ammunition diminished. Now I had a collection of broken needles at my boots which summed up their tactical failure. It was as if a bunch of children was using rubber bands to launch sharp pencils at a solid concrete wall.

Now they were beyond the border of confusion. "It can't be!"

"But... but that's... that's not possible!" an officer gasped. "There's no way..."

These fools weren't getting the message. They reminded me of those natives from other worlds who used stone-aged weaponry against their interstellar invaders. Those poor souls often perished, thinking that they had life all figured out until they meet someone that's decades ahead of their time.

My pistols were still raised, I gave the ZPD in front of me a dead stare, and wondered what they'd do next. I didn't want to make a move unless I had to. After all, what more could they do now? They failed to bring me down. My hope was that they'd just disperse themselves and leave me alone but they continued to stand in my way.

Quietude prevailed for too long, the officers had no idea on how to interpret the situation, so I let out a sigh and asked, "Are we done here?"

The animal officers looked at each other and shrugged. None spoke but they pondered on how they ought to proceed. Close in on me or retreat from me? Hopefully, the latter. Thus, a couple of them looked to their chief for an answer.

But the commanding buffalo wouldn't have it. Shaking his head in anger, he reached for one of the bear officer's pistols and swiftly snatched it from their paws.

"Give me that!" he snarled.

With his arms fully flexed, he primed the pistol and aimed it right at me. With an aggressive gaze of pure determination, he squeezed the trigger and fired a shot.

This time, instead of a repeated ricochet like the last few shots, the dart he fired successfully implanted itself in the worst spot:

My head.

That certainly caused me to flinch and jolt back.

With one pistol still aimed at them, I used my other gauntlet hand to pull the dart out. It was tightly wedged between the visor and the forehead.

What a great shot.

I held the dart in the palm of my gauntlet, casually examined it, and then I tightly closed my grip around it. Within seconds, the dart shattered into multiple fragments, and I discarded them like mere bread crumbs.

Suddenly though, I dropped.

I collapsed onto all fours and wriggled in pain. The nano-pistols were absorbed back into the suit as my fingers were outstretched along with the rest of my body. My arms shakingly grabbed my head as I tried my best to fight off whatever was happening to me. The horned chief lowered the empty pistol and nodded in solemn satisfaction. He actually did it.

As I weakly knelt down and stared at the other animals in a downcasted manner, the other officers lifted their heads in victory. They were quite relieved.

"Aww, Chieeef! You did it!" the cheetah cheered. "Nice one, sir!"

"Yes!"

"We've got him now."

It would seem that the chief finally got me... except... he didn't. What they didn't know was that I faked it all along. The dart had no effect on me, yet, while the needle did get stuck in my helmet, it never reached the skin. I was actually okay.

Nonetheless, the opportunity to trick them was too good to pass up so I had to give them that false sense of victory. It was working. I continuously wailed on the floor, waiting for the right moment during their mid-celebration, and then I carefully stood myself up, rolled my shoulders back and forth few times, stretched, and tightly clenched both my fists.

Now they were in trouble.

Their triumphant smiles quickly converted into perturbed expressions as they saw me rise up as if nothing ever happened. Unharmed and unphased like a Terminator except with blue eyes instead of red. The poor buffalo chief would be just like his other officers: completely helpless and unable. He may be a chief but he was no Master Chief.  I squinted at his nametag and saw 'Bogo' but I could've sworn that it said 'Bozo'.

Nevertheless, I had to give him credit for that marksman shot. Too bad target practice was over. I inched my way forward and some of them backed up in wonder and disbelief.

"Wha?" one of them murmured. "Wait... did he just...?"

"Huh?"

Oh, how I loved their reactions... They had no idea.

As I panned my head around, I stared them all down as threateningly as I could, waited a few seconds, tempted myself to say something clever, but then I chose to remain silent. Sometimes, filling the air with meaningless words can ruin the moment so I took it upon myself to savor the moment. I kept quiet.

As they say, silence is golden.

The exit was only a couple of yards away and the animal officers were standing in staggered positions. It was now or never.

In a blink, I rapidly strode my way to the double doors, pushing my way past the smaller officers - such as the pig, sheep, and wolves - causing them to tumble over until a lion and a polar bear officer stood in the way. They were too big to push with ease and both raised their arms up to block me from advancing.

"Stop right there, sir!" the lion roared, whose nametag read as 'Delgato'. "Don't move!" the arctic bear raised a paw, keeping the other on his taser.

Right behind them, I saw the rhino and elephant officer stand guard by the doors, arms folded, and blocking my only escape path.

What fools to think they could stop me.

"Stand aside," I huffed, clenching both fists tightly. The temptation to draw out my weapon got progressively worse but I barely mustered enough energy to prevent the nanoparticles from assembling.

"Get down on the floor, right now!" they shouted. "Paws up!"

These animal officers were getting on my nerves. All they had to do was back away and no harm would come to them. However, at this point, I couldn't make guarantees anymore.

Glaring at the officers with my expressionless helmet face, I took one more daunting step towards them, "Careful," I warned, "I'm a force to be reckoned with."

"Which is why you're not leaving," the buffalo menacingly chimed in from the side. "We're taking you in! I pivoted 45 degrees to face him and shook my head. "That's not going to happen."

"If you won't let us resolve this with tranquility... then we'll do it by brute force," the buffalo said with seriousness in his tone. He waited for me to respond but I continued to stand in place, stare him down, and kept my fists closed. Realizing this, he continued, "If that's how you want it... then so be it."

"I'd like to see you try." I taunted.

The chief appeared to be increasingly belligerent but he impressively maintained his composure. "Sir, maybe you can't count..." he warned, "there are twenty of us... and only one of you."

Upon hearing this, I looked around at the surrounding officers, smiled under my helmet, and said, "Get some more mammals then it'll be an even fight."

My prideful remark caused a few animals to look at one another as if I were a complete lunatic. However, some seemed to be sincerely concerned and didn't like where this was going.

A grizzly bear officer rushed in from the side to pounce, I blocked his incoming paws and jabbed him in the throat. He fell hard on his hip and coughed uncontrollably.

The lion and polar bear both charged from the front, I flung the lion to the ground, pushed the bear back, and threw my punch downward. The lion rolled away, dodged it, causing my fist to strike the floor and crack it.

The lion then kicked me in the armored gut, breaking his toe, but caused me to fall back into the polar bear's grasp. Before he could gain full control, I elbowed him in the abdomen, he hunched over in pain, I spun around and thrust him in the jaw.

The lion limped over, with a baton in his paw, he performed a skillful twirl with it, and then he swung. I ducked, picked him up in a fireman's carry, and tossed him at the circular help desk. The box of donuts spilled everywhere and the cheetah's glass snowglobe shattered all over the lobby floor, spilling water and snowflakes all around. The lion growled in pain but was unable to stand.

What was I thinking? All this just to prove that I didn't steal a lousy necklace? To escape into the mountains? Far too late for that. Now, it was all about proving power over innocence. Humans really are obstinate, especially me.

The sheep attempted to flock towards me but they hesitated and backed away. Wise decision. But the ram had enough confidence to thrust himself at me and that's what he did. Out of all the animal officers I've seen so far, these rams were by far the ugliest. For that reason, I easily dodged his incoming attack, grabbed him by the horns with both gauntlets, spun myself around three times, I let go, and then he crashed upside down into one of the lobby windows. The entire panel cracked but it didn't break. Must've been safety glass. Either way, the ram was now incapacitated.

As I stood my ground, waiting for the next animal to attack, I watched as a series of emotions ran through their furry heads. Some were angry, some were fearful, some were hesitant, and others were concerned about the well being of the officers I took down. The smaller animals rushed over to check on them while the larger animals repositioned themselves around me. The exit was still blocked so I had to get creative without killing someone. Thank goodness I had this suit on me because I would not have made it this far.

Sometimes, humans came out on top and claimed victory whereas other times we lost miserably. Who knew how the current situation would play out but I felt a burning desire to stand up for myself.

Of course, being captured by humans wouldn't matter as much for they were my equals. But these Zootopian officers? These animal officers who came from a technologically lagged society? There's no way I'd allow a bunch of talking animals to take me to jail for it sounded far too ridiculous to believe.

Before I could fully position myself back into a proper fighting stance, there were two striped furry arms that unexpectedly came down in front of my face. They grabbed around my upper chest and pulled me into a tight hold that caused me to hunch over.

Nearly collapsing onto both my knees, I did my best to keep them sturdy but the weight of both tigers was taking a major toll on me.

With both my arms pinned from behind, I flung my head backward and smacked the tiger officer on the face. This caused him to stumble over while the other tiger officer rushed to restrain my head. I firmly grabbed his massive paw with one of my free hands and twisted it around, causing him to loudly growl in pain which also made him unsheathe his claws.

Pulling his arm down, he indirectly scratched the top of my helmet, breaking off the false disguise ears, and then I pummeled him in the gut. This made him fall to the floor, bellowing in stomach pain, and forcing the other animal officers to provide immediate backup.

The grey wolf dove straight for my legs to grab hold of them and he tried to bring me down. His swift speed and brisk agility caught me off guard; however, I managed to react in time by snatching him up by one of his pointed ears and then I stomped hard on his tail, which made him yelp loudly, causing the whole lobby to echo. I then hammered him in the cheekbone which made him skid a few yards across the floor and crash into a wooden bench. He had enough momentum that it fell apart and the seat bench fell on his face. Ouch.

Perhaps that was a bit too much. Usually, I'm not an avid believer in violent measures.

Just then, a jaguar officer leaped from the upper balcony as a surprise attack but I responded in time by swiping my first and knocking him out mid-air. He fell flat on his back and grasped his nose as drops of blood began to seep out.

My heart ached at their pain level responses, especially upon hearing the sound of the wolf's whimper, but my thoughts were soon shaken away as some of the larger animals attempted to pile on top of me.

To my surprise, the female pig officer with blonde hair decided to whip out her police baton and repeatedly strike me across the knees. She couldn't reach my head but another grey animal came in from behind and placed its weight on my back. This caused me to bend over greatly.

This gave the pig officer a great opportunity because the level of my head now matched hers. Without a second to spare, she cranked her arm back as far as she could and took a massive swing at my face with such blunt force.

Her wooden baton instantly snapped in half upon impact but it had no significant effect on me, aside from a minor migraine. Nonetheless, this made my facial helmet disguise degrade even further and now they all saw me for who I really was. A multi-blue-eyed monster.

Many of them gasped at me. Whether it was because of the seemingly painful impact to the face I took with a baton without flinching or just the fact that my helmet looked completely alien to them. I couldn't really tell.

One thing for sure though, the female pig officer tripped in place and crawled backward from me in utter fright. She couldn't stand the sight of me. Oh, please, I thought; there's no way my mask was more offputting than her blonde hair.

While I struggled to free myself from the grey animal's unyielding grip from behind, I could hear all the other officers murmuring among themselves.

Even the buffalo chief had a mildly stunned expression but he did his best to dismiss it. "Enough! Whatever he is, just restrain him!" The crushing weight of the grey animal continued to take effect on me and other animals rushed over to place restraints. I couldn't let them so I collapsed to the floor, rolled to the side, and kicked the rhino officer in the snout. Surely, this must've ticked him off a great deal but at least I freed myself from his hefty build.

The elephant desperately tried to stomp me with her arms but I somersaulted to the side and kicked her leg joint. She didn't fall over but she trumpeted in pain and took another swoop at me. She barely missed my head and I ran off to the side.

"STOP! Stop right now!" the animal exclaimed. "We cannot let him leave!"

The entrance behind me was now more exposed than ever so I made a run for it. A timber wolf officer suddenly grabbed my arm, he tightly dug his paws into me, but I grabbed his other arm and repeatedly punched him in the chest six times until he fell over.

The chief got in position to take me head-on so we both charged at each other. As I ran, my fears kicked in so I spotted an empty tranquilizer pistol on the floor, grabbed it, and threw it directly at the chief's face. The pistol smacked between his eyes, he fell over and knocked over the hippo officer standing next to him. Boy, that was lucky.

The two lions lunged after me once more but I dodge the first one, grabbed him by the edge of his mane, and kneed him right in the face.

My suit's defensive armor was now becoming a blunt offensive weapon, ideal for hand-to-hand combat. Or, in this case, hand-to-paw combat.

After the first lion painfully fell over, the second lion successfully tackled me to the ground, causing me to skid on the hard floor, and he held me down to place me in handcuffs.

"STAY DOWN, sir!"

Nonetheless, my prideful determination kicked in so I twisted myself under his lion grip and threw him off of me. He couldn't grab hold of me because my armor had a hard enough texture that wouldn't allow claws to dig in all the way. As he flew in the air, he fell onto one of the planter pots near the door, which shattered and spilled soil all over the floor.

Now I was making a big mess and the cheetah behind the desk gasped at all the events unfolding before him. Luckily, he wouldn't have to face as much head trauma as these other officers were currently experiencing.

Finally, the exit was clear. Well, almost. All the animal officers were either behind me or still on the floor, recovering from their temporal injuries. These animals messed with the wrong human for I could never be contained.

The hippo was on the ground and dizzyingly grabbed my boot to pull me down but I kicked him hard in the nose and knocked him out. The jaguar reattempted his attack, I swung my fist at him, he dodged it, punched me in the lower abdomen, but he sprained his paw wrist, and had no effect on me.

His eyes widened in surprise so I gripped him by the neck, jumped straight up, and used my other arm to strike him down on the top of his head with a single blow. He was finally knocked out and likewise incapacitated.

The timber wolf desperately charged again, he swung his baton at my face, it snapped in half upon impact, and I punched him right in the nose. The force was great enough that he fell back a couple of yards and remained motionless.

Now the coast was clear.

My adrenaline kicked in, I felt excited to leave this place, and I looked forward to NOT spending time in jail this evening. Next stop: The lonely mountains.

Nevertheless, I probably wouldn't arrive there until at least tomorrow. If I had to sleep on the street or in a cardboard box, I didn't care because any of those places sounded better than concrete confinement.

After a rapid sprint, I outstretched my gauntlet to reach for the double doors and they opened right up. Freedom at last.

...

...

...

Before I could take a single step outside, I felt my entire body fly across the inner lobby like a rag doll.

...

Something massive hit me.

...

My head smacked into a sandstone pillar, chunks fell out, then I crashed onto one of the glass cases containing award trophies. They all spilled across the floor, along with other broken glass fragments that rained upon me. What happened?

As I laid there prone - feeling incredibly weakened and deprived of energy - with shattered glass shards all around me, I painstakingly lifted up my head and saw nothing but a blur. Walking towards me, I saw the other animal officers approaching my vicinity and central among them was a stocky rhino wearing full body armor on his chest.

My, he was a colossal figure! He easily stood over thirteen feet tall and easily towered over most animals I've seen in Zootopia with the exception of the giraffe.

The rhino officer nodded in satisfaction as he approached me with handcuffs in his grip. So he's the one that did it. He's the one that hid behind one of the entrance pillars and waited for the right opportunity to take me down.

Every step he took made the broken glass particles vibrate as if a T-rex from Jurassic Park were approaching. Not good.

He got me big time and words couldn't describe how throbbing the pain felt throughout my entire body. My muscles twitched, I breathed heavily, I detected multiple contusions under my armor, and I felt like a skyscraper collapsed on top of me. Now that was a cruel move. There's no way that he didn't leave a dent in my armor.

Everyone gathered around while I laid there on the floor. Since sharp glass fragments were everywhere, everyone took caution to not step on a piece and get cut. 

The buffalo chief approached the rhino from the side and placed his arm on him to congratulate him. "Well done, Krumpanski,"

"Yes, great job!" another officer cheered. "You got him!"

The rhino humbly nodded and proceeded with making the arrest. Unable to move or flex well, all I could do was lay there in continual pain and admit defeat. After what I did to those other poor animal officers, I had it coming. What goes around, comes around, I suppose.

However, instead of the rhino making the arrest, he simply handed the large handcuffs to one of the polar bear officers. There were two of them and both towered over me to place the restraints over my gauntlets. One held me down with his thick heavy paws and the other one carefully grabbed my wrists to lock them in place.

This situation sucked. One minute, I'm almost out the door and the next minute I'm out on the floor.

As the animal police officers continually crowded around me - to get a better look at what kind of alien creature they were dealing with - I saw that same black panther and annoying red fox from earlier.

The black panther held a tissue up to his nose, soothing the spot where I struck him with my fist, and he appeared to be eternally grateful that I was finally brought down. For the fox, he still had that same confident smirk upon his face which really began to rub salt in my wound. He acted too casual about the whole situation and I couldn't understand why. He even seemed to enjoy watching me get arrested again and sipped a cup of coffee while doing so. Wait, was he wearing aviators too? Of course, he was.

Stop. Making. Those. Sipping. Sounds, I angrily thought to myself.

But it wasn't just him, it was everyone else. The weight of the polar bears and the wolf made my back sorer than it already was. The other officers in the background celebrated as if their most painful day on duty was far behind them. They cheered, they congratulated each other, and every sound in their group celebration was beyond irritating.

What a happy day for them...

Wolves howled in victory, the lions roared in pride, the elephant happily trumpeted, and the noise continued on and on. My already throbbing head began to throb even more and being the byproduct of their lucky victory insulted my armored corpse.

Feeling helpless, exhausted, and angry, I rested my head face down on the floor. Everything was so backward now. In my universe, I used to observe these animals in cages since we had complete control over them. None of them wore police uniforms, none of them smirked, none of them laughed, and none of them tried to arrest you.

Just blank stares were all we got at the lab and nothing more. No emotion, no feelings, no arguing, none of that. Just us humans and an experimental animal behind bars.

That's it, I'm done.

With absolutely no energy whatsoever, I tried to lift myself up but I fell down flat on the ground. My efforts were hopeless. These animals were in control now, not me.

I tried again but the result was the same. Nothing got better.

Something strange happened to me. My thoughts ran their course and the only thing that I pondered was how much freedom was worth fighting for. Freedom was never free, never has been, and never will be unless we fought for it.

I fought but couldn't flex a muscle. It was all over for today. I had to learn to give up. The impact from the rhino and the wall took it out of me.

Not today...

Miraculously, I exerted my last reserve of energy and forced myself to stand. I don't know how on Earth I accomplished it but I somehow did it without thinking. The two polar bear officers frettingly tried to hold me down but I pushed through them and took a bold, risky stand.

Out of natural impulse, the other officers rushed in to detain me, dropping their coffee mugs, including the Buffalo officer who took it upon himself to place me in a hold, for the safety of his fellow officers.

Natheless to say, within seconds, they all backed up in a sheer panic as I deployed my nano-pistols once more and fired two shots at the ceiling. There was a crack of thunder as the beam heated the air in its path, lighting up the entire room, which destroyed one of the light fixtures above. Fire sparks roamed about the air and there were two charred holes in the ceiling containing multiple flame bits.

Time to get ruthless.

All the surrounding animals immediately stood back, gasped, and defensively lifted their paws. Some ducked, others tripped, while a few froze in place.

"Whoa! Whoa!"

 "Hold up!"

"Easy! Easy now!" 

"Don't shoot!"

I aggressively pointed my weapons in random, alternating directions, and the officers were quick to obey my commands for once. Unlike before, I was far from calm. I was downright infuriated. They ticked off the wrong soldier.

"STAY BACK!" I shouted, "That's a warning!"

They all jumped away and the cheetah hid behind his desk. His tail was still exposed so he pulled it down.  Even a backup SWAT team - who had just arrived - stood near the ZPD entrance, cowering behind their shield covers

They say to never fire those kinds of shots but these animals had to be an exception. They underestimated me.  Loud demonstration was necessary. Otherwise, I might've used one of them as a target example. Never had they experienced anything like this on the job and they must've prayed that I wouldn't fire another follow-up shot.

As hostile as I felt, my body still hunched over from being thrown across the room and my left leg ached tremendously. I tried my best to fight back the pain but my posture continued to decline, my knees wanted to buckle, and I began to lose formality in my stance. Nevertheless, I continued to remain upright, more or less, and my weapons were ready for any of their sudden movements.

So it has come to this.

Brief silence took over the lobby, no one spoke, and no one dared to move. Only the small sound of a flickering flame on the ceiling and the gun's previous echo could be heard.

I thought this moment would be gratifying for me but it all felt so wrong to me. Why did I do this? This was not the way. Regardless, I already committed myself so I had to follow through. Shaking my doubtful thoughts and trying to rationalize my way through this, I kept my pistols pointed at the animals and meticulously limped toward the exit.

Every step I took felt like agony so I couldn't move fast nor could I move well. My body felt tense and as if it were about to fall apart. "Easy buddy, just let us help you. You can put your... gun thingys down."

I looked to the side and it was the same red fox from earlier. He stood there with his paws up, trusting that I wouldn't shoot him, and carefully took a step towards me.

"Wilde! Don't go near him!"

"Wilde!"

But the fox ignored the warnings of his fellow officers and continued advancing. Brave of him, for sure, but also quite foolish if he thought he could trick me again.

I aimed both pistols at his chest which made him feel uneasy at first but he quickly managed to calm himself by taking deep breaths. The sincerity and concern in his forest green eyes, even if it were only a mere trace, caused me to lower my pistols slightly. Aside from his smaller size, there was something about him that distinguished him from the other animal officers.

"Easy buddy." he calmly said, "It doesn't have to be this way."

Who does he think he is? A peacekeeper?

This had to be a trick. Never trust a fox. He brought me here into this whole mess and I was more than ready to vaporize him if that smug little grin ever came back to his face. I eagerly waited for him to do it, charged my pistols, and aimed them right at his head.

However, instead of grinning, he held his paws up, closed his eyes, looked away, and braced himself for whatever I'd do to him next. He didn't grin but he didn't run either. He was definitely nervous but he continued to stand directly in front of me, held his ground, and was seemingly ready to accept whatever fate I'd bestow upon him.

Seeing his innocence made my guilt settle in. I couldn't help but lower my weapons in admiration at his character. Even though I didn't like him one bit my feelings were starting to feel more mixed than hateful.

While my pistols were pointed at the ground, I caught the other animal officers moving towards Officer Wilde. They thought that he'd be needing backup so they came in from behind and tried to convince him to retreat back with them.

Of course, I could tell that the fox didn't like what they were doing because he wanted to go at this alone and he facepalmed in response to their unwanted interference. However, there were other animal officers in the distance - especially the bigger ones - circling about in a suspicious manner.

I didn't like where this was going so I raised my pistols back up again and aimed both of them directly at the group, causing everyone to jump back in panic. For all I knew, they could've been plotting another trick to bring me in. Not going to happen. Not now, not ever. Not this time.

With both my arms stretched outward, pointing the gun's reticles at the police officers behind the fox, I gazed down at him and admitted, "I'm sorry... but I've come too far."

My pistols made their priming sound and were now ready to fire.

...

...

...

Out of nowhere, I heard a slight swooshing sound pass through the air and noticed a bright green stabilizer attached to my finger. I tilted my wrist to get a better look and someone had shot another tranquilizer dart at me. Unlike the previous shots, I felt a stinging pain from the needle for it had successfully implanted itself. My armor was thinner at the gauntlets so I knew it meant trouble.

As I pulled the dart out, my entire left arm felt numb and impassively dangled off to the side. I couldn't feel anything nor could I move it.

...

...

...

"Cherry!" a familiar voice shouted from above. "STOP!"

I looked up to see a purple-eyed bunny officer standing on one of the upper balconies in the lobby. She had an empty tranquilizer pistol in one paw and quickly loaded a second dart into the chamber. She finally made it back and I imagine that the hyena stood no chance against her.

But what took her so long? Did her phone die or something?

She jumped down from the balcony, using the elephant officer as support, and slid down to the lobby floor. With haste, she took quick, small, soft steps towards our vicinity and aimed her pistol right at me.

"Judy?"

 "Carrots?" 

"Hopps?"

Apparently, we all knew her by different names. I called her Judy, other officers called her Hopps but did that red fox just call her 'Carrots'? That was quite a nickname I must say.  

Judy stood directly in front of me and primed her tranquilizer pistol to fire another shot. It was nice to see her again but I wasn't fond of the current conflictive state of things. She didn't seem too happy for she had a serious look on her face and her bunny ears were pointing downward.

I didn't know much about bunnies but I supposed that having ears downward in combat was ideal because you wouldn't want the enemy to shoot them off by making yourself a bigger target.

Then again, I've never had a bunny point a gun at me. She was an excellent shot for she disabled my arm with a tranquilizer dart from all the way across the room and successfully managed to hit a weak spot in my armor. Clever bunny.

"Cherry! Put the weapon away and stand down! Now!" she ordered.

Despite her small size, she was not weak and would do anything do protect her fellow officers from harm. She spoke with authority and meant business. After what we've been through, I felt like I let her down.

"Judy... long time no see," I said in a surprised, quiet voice.

The fox looked back and forth between us in confusion, "Wait, Carrots... you know this guy?"

"Yes I do," she replied while keeping a serious look focused on me. At this point, the guilt was really starting to settle in. "Hopps! BE careful!" the bear officer warned.

"He's armed!" 

"Watch out!"

But Judy ignored her fellow officers' warnings and was completely unphased. "He can't hurt me."

I could only imagine the thousands of questions circulating through their minds as they wondered what this was all about, who I exactly was, how Judy knew me, and how she approached me without any fear. Indeed, there was a lot of explaining and catching up to do.

Judy was clearly livid with me but she closed her eyes, exhaled, and calmed herself down. With the pistol still pointed, she approached me and calmly said, "Cherry... put the gun away... and we can talk about this later."

I realized that I had one dead arm and one arm still able to lift a pistol. She was probably right but this was my only chance to escape and we both knew where I would end up at the conclusion of this day. The pistol was still directed at the officers, I hesitated to lower it, and it pained me to know that the entrance was so close.

The only thing stopping me now was the little bunny whom I've placed so much trust in. I didn't want to admit defeat so I shook my head in frustration and sighed.

"Do as she says," the fox insisted.

The other officers were still processing all that was occurring and I realized that this conversation was only between the human, the fox, and the bunny now. Everyone else simply stood on the sidelines and marveled at how an alien such as myself didn't inflict harm on two small mammals.

They were both convincing and seemed to care everyone's safety but the same issue still came up: I'd be admitting defeat to a bunny and a fox. That was the very thing I tried to avoid and now look where my pride got me. There's no way I'd go through with this but I ended up doing the unexpected.

"Fine. I surrender."

I slowly got down on both knees and waited for them to do their procedure. I couldn't stand any longer since my body was in so much pain. Nothing happened for the next few seconds and the only thing they did was stare. The larger mammal officers were extremely surprised at my sudden change of inclination and dared not to lay paws on me after what I did to them.

While I gazed around at the police officers, I heard the same whoosh in the air again. Another tranquilizer dart implanted itself into my other hand, causing my entire right arm to fall down limp. Now I had two numbed arms and my nano-pistol weaponry disappeared into my suit. Not surprisingly, Judy was the one who fired the dart. Good shot.

Once again, she exploited my armor's weakness and knew where to aim.

But why? Was it because of my unpredictable nature? I guess I couldn't blame them.

Luckily, my cybernetic enhancements prevented the dart's liquid from taking a full toll on my body. A single dosage would normally drop down a creature without question but the dart's effects only managed to affect my arms. Thus, I felt quite special until my entire body suddenly went numb. Wait, what was happening?

Turns out, my enhancements could only slow down the effects but they could not eliminate them entirely nor partially. On top of that, having two lodged darts would nearly double the effectiveness. So much for that...

As my vision blurred, I let out a small, nearly inaudible chuckle due to my unprecedented defeat.

Completely immobilized throughout the body, I fell flat on the hard floor with a metallic thud. I then felt the pressure from numerous animals around me as some knelt on my back, held me down in place, and applied some thick stainless steel restraints.

Unable to move my head, all I could see was colored party confetti all over the lobby floor from earlier. What a crazy day for someone's birthday, I thought.

As I laid on the floor, gradually losing consciousness, and drooling on the inside of my helmet, I saw a white furry figure enter the building through the main double doors. It was another police officer and I had a gut feeling that he was Officer Grizzoli.

"Hey guys!" the white wolf greeted, waving from a distance. "Sorry I'm late! What'd I miss?"