The Fire Triangle -- Part II, Oxidizer

The Fire Triangle: Book II - Chapter 33

Assault On Savanna Central Plaza, the cyberattack, the riot, and Erin's odyssey.

Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.

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The Fire Triangle

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Part Two:

Oxidizer

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Chapter 6—The Children's Crusade
(Continued...Part 4)

"It is as though the land of Canaan into which we were led was too divine, and until we have done it every violence, until we have despoiled and murdered and dirtied every blessing, until we have erased every reminder of our original rape, until we have washed our hands of the bloods of every other, we shall be unappeased."
Glendon Swarthout - Bless the Beasts and Children

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Monday—02:17 Hours, ZPD Precinct-1, Savanna Central Plaza. Savanna Central, Zootopia

Outside the precinct, the battle lines had been drawn up in layers.

In the center of the ring were the officers of Precinct-1, at last reinforced by more mammals from inside the building; they had been given permission to stand down and let their relief take over—and to a mammal, they had refused the offer. They had even given the rioters a taste of their own medicine, regaling them with a lusty take on the Tom Catty tune, 'I Won't Back Down.'

Facing them—and also facing outwards—was the army of young discontents. Drawn up in a ragtag semicircle, they looked disorganized but at the same time formidable...which they were. Perhaps fifty yards in front of them was the main police line—made up of reinforcements from the other precincts together with the Precinct-1 officers on the graveyard shift. All of them were armed, armored, and highly motivated; in no mood to play games. Twice already they had ordered the rioters to disperse. The first time they had gotten no response; the second time they were answered by yet another impromptu performance of, "I Fought the Law."

Last but not least was the outermost rim, the kids who had arrived in the wake of the police reinforcements, and who were even now continuing to trickle into Savanna Central. The ZPD had wisely set up roadblocks on all the major arteries leading into the district—but they couldn't cover everything and the rioters knew it. Unlike their comrades out on the Plaza, these kids had not formed into battle lines. Rather instead, they were staying hidden in the streets and alleyways out beyond the second police line—waiting for their moment. Nobody could see them, but everyone knew they were there.

For many long, tense moments, nobody on either side moved. It was the classic Mexican standoff. While the ZPD had the rioters outgunned, the rioters had them outnumbered—and nobody on either side knew by exactly how much.