Zootopia: The Visitor

This Means War

[Luke]

  The overhead lights were almost blinding as I sat back in the chair at the center of the room. My heart was padding rapidly inside my chest, anticipating the prick of the needle after having watched the honey badger named Doctor Madge prepare it for drawing my blood. That was a mistake. It was a large- very large syringe mounted on a mechanical arm that slowly inched its way toward my forearm, trying to find a vein to extract my blood from. I suppose that's a little bit harder to do with a coat of fur in the way. I looked away when it came within a few centimeters and felt a small pinching sensation as the needle was inserted.

  While I sat still, having my blood siphoned, I noticed Madge opening a cabinet at the other end of the room filled with test tubes, each full of liquid, and all different colors. After looking for a moment, she finally pulled one out. I stared as she cradled it in her paws, walking carefully back to the machine that was so invasively penetrating my forearm. The vial was almost glowing with a bright-violet colored fluid inside.

  "Is that it?" I finally spoke up.

  She nodded, still holding it carefully in her paws. "This is the fruit of all our efforts. Everything has led to this. I was just too blind to see what devastation it would bring."

  I continued watching as she placed the vial in the machine, which connected a small tube to the opening at the top, slowly depositing filtered elements from my blood into it. She then returned to her monitor to track the rising energy level of the solution caused by the addition of my apparently-valuable bodily fluid.

  I was getting a little bit restless, knowing that Nick was in the dirty paws of those eggheads while I was stuck in a chair, watching my blood drain out of me. To top it off, I had a major headache. Judy hadn't been very specific, but she didn't have to say anything for me to know that Ivan had shot me with a dose of that savage juice, or whatever she called it. We had been set up, and I intended to get some payback.

  Judy, who had also been intently watching the procedure from the far end of the room, joined Doctor Madge's side. "How are we doing?"

  I couldn't tell if the question was for me or for Madge, but Madge probably could have answered it for the both of us, so I stayed silent.

  "His body functions appear stable, no complications to be seen," Madge reported. "The solution, however, though approaching a sufficient level of energy, still needs a bit more in order for this to work."

  "Luke?" Judy looked at me.

  I gave a thumbs up. "Never better."

  Meanwhile, Doctor Madge continued poking away at her monitor, watching as more and more of my blood was transferred to the machine and filtered into the vile. "Astounding," she remarked.

  "What? What's happening?" Judy asked.

  Madge looked at her with a smile. "That's just it. Nothing. I've just drawn three pints of blood from Luke's body which, for his size, should have killed him by now, yet his life signs are maintaining their normal status."

  "Oh. Comforting," I said, feeling a little uneasy after hearing that.

  "The solution seems to be approaching saturation," she announced. "At this energy level, it should be sufficient to power the machine and open a gate back to your world," she stood up and approached me just as the robotic arm retracted the needle, exiting my forearm and discarding the syringe into a nearby sharps container. She pressed a cotton ball against the small, bleeding hole in my arm, barely even visible underneath the fur, wrapping a bandage around it to keep it in place.

  Once she was done, I slowly stood up, rubbing my arm a little bit after the sting of the needle.

  "How do you feel?" asked Judy from beside me.