Chapter Text
The night was silent and dark, aside from two cars speeding down the road. Behind the wheel of the first car was Interpol Detective David Wolf, an Alasken timber wolf. The second a car belonging to the local police force, lights and siren running while they struggled to follow the detective’s frantic speeding as they rushed to their mutual destination.
David had been surprised when he saw the familiar number of his rival Conner Cooper calling him in the middle of the night. His surprise turned to terror when instead of the familiar voice of Conner he expected, he was met with Conner’s wife, struck with panic screaming about five intruders breaking into their house with the intent to kill before the call dropped.
That call was 5 minutes ago. David had immediately thrown on his jacket and thrown on a pair of pants and grabbed his gun, he alerted the local police of what he heard as he began his frantic drive to the Cooper Estate. He was still two minutes away.
David took a moment to think about what he was doing. Conner was his biggest failure, he had hounded that raccoon for years and nearly caught him a handful of times. But Conner always managed to slip out of his grasp, normally due to the interference of the Cooper Gang. Yet here he was, speeding down the road to that raccoon's home, not to arrest him, but to protect his family from whoever is attacking them.
“Conner you’ve really gotten into it this time,” David spoke, it was the first sound he made sense he called into the station, “you better still be fighting when I get there”
David drove on.
The last two minutes of his drive felt like the longest moments of David’s life. He finally arrived at the Cooper Estate, a large property, purchased with the ill gotten gains of the Cooper Clan’s long history. Conner retired to it six years ago, getting out of the thief game before David could get anything resembling a solid case on him David didn’t know why Conner retired, he never asked and Conner never told him during the handful of times they met after Conner’s retirement. He made a mental note to ask him tonight.
As the two cars pulled up to the gate a pit formed in the detective’s stomach when he saw that the gate had been blasted away from its normal position, laying down the drive. David and the Police pull up in front of the house. As they exit their vehicles Wolf notes the two officers, the driver was a cheetah brandishing her service pistol, the passenger was a bull with the car’s shotgun at the ready, David did not know either of them.
David took a look over the home, it was big, not quite a mansion but it would still be a pain to clear. Most of the lights are on and David could hear fighting inside.
“You” David pointed at the bull, “stay out here watch the door don’t let anyone without a badge in or out’ the bull nodded, David turned to the cheetah, “you’re with me”
“Right behind you” she replied
The door was also gone, 'at least we don’t need a ram', David thought. The entrance room was probably the most grand part of the house, two curved stairways led up to the second floor and doors leading to hallways were on both sides of the room. The fighting was coming from the second floor, the two ascended the stairs. As they followed the sounds of fighting they passed by an open safe, something was clearly taken from it. The sounds of fighting led them to the master bedroom. They approached and David stepped into the doorway and saw the monster trying to kill Conner.
David didn’t speak, he didn’t move, he did nothing for a split second as he took in the creature before him, a massive mechanical owl. The creature brought a claw up to strike at a pinned Conner and David snapped back into action, he opened fire on the bird while stepping into the room to clear the door for the officer, she entered and began firing as well. The bird was clearly not expecting anyone to arrive in time, David’s first shot tore into the creature's head before it could react. The bird immediately brought its metal wing up and retreated towards the windows.
Conner took his chance and rolled towards the two. When he reached them he crawled past the officer into the hallway. David fired until his gun clicked, he reached for another magazine and, to his annoyance and horror, realized he forgot his extras at home.
The officer reloaded her weapon and shot a look over at David, she began firing again before speaking,” Get the raccoon out, I've got the bird!”
David didn’t respond, he left the room and saw Conner limping along the wall. David caught up to him easily. “ What’s broken?”
“Just a sprained ankle Timber” Conner smiled but his voice was shaking. David gave an annoyed sigh as he started to help Conner move down the hall, they reached the steps and David risked a glance back. There he saw the cheetah officer backed up into the hall still shooting, her gun clicked, she reached down for a fresh magazine only to realize she was now out as well. She turned to run down the hall, the the creature dived out of the room and pinned her to the floor. It raised its talons and brought them down on her. The creature turned towards the pair and began advancing on them.
The two rushed down the steps as fast as they could, the bird reached the steps as they reached the bottom. The door was a straight shot from the stairs. David grabbed Conner and picked him up despite his brief protest, before running for the door. The bird jumped from the second floor into the entry room, and chased them. Just before David reached the door a line of police entered the door frame, all brandishing automatic rifles.
David dropped to the floor Conner shielded underneath him as the police opened fire on the bird. The bird once again raised its wing rendering the bullets ineffective, Conner and David crawled to the door frame. The police stopped shooting, keeping their weapons up.
“So you escape me Cooper,” the bird spoke, its voice mechanical yet still dripping with venom, “how unfortunate your wife and son were not as lucky.” With that the bird sprung into the air and broke through the roof before the police could fire again.
David stared at the hole the bird left, the creature speaking left him in shock. David saw Conner move next to him, he helped Conner to his feet and Conner took off towards the stairs, now ignoring the pain of his ankle. David ordered the rest of the police to sweep the first floor then followed him.
Conner ran past the fallen officer and opened a door past the master bedroom before releasing a wail of anguish and falling to his knees in the doorway. David had slowed to check on the fallen officer, she was bleeding but insisted she could handle it after hearing Conner scream. He caught up to Conner and looked into the room and had to stifle his own scream. Mrs. Cooper was laying on the floor dead, clothing soaked in blood. One of the bird’s metal feathers was embedded into the closet door, a puddle of blood extending from it.
David looked at Conner, he was on the verge of completely breaking down. Conner was talking to himself, David couldn’t hear him, he stepped past Conner and knelt by the body.
“Mrs. Co-” David started before stopping himself “Martha I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier”
Further words failed him, David looked back at Conner, the raccoon was staring past him at the closet, he looked like he wanted to say something but every time he tried to speak his voice failed him. David stood up and walked to the closet, blood slick under his shoes, the metal feather was more than halfway through the door. David grasped the handle bracing himself for the worst. He opened the door the brown eyes of Conner’s son stared at him full of tears. Wolf saw where the feather had hit the back of the closet, the feather had only cut the boy’s shoulder.
“Conner!” David shouted, “he’s alive!”
Conner snapped from his stupor, he limped his way to the closet, David didn’t move until he was sure Conner would hide Martha’s body from the boy. Conner hugged the boy and before cupping his face in his hands and ensuring the cut had stopped bleeding, Conner was talking with his son but David wasn’t listening, he was looking around the room. It was an office, a large desk sat in front of a window, there was a holder for a landline phone on the desk, Martha still had a death grip on the phone. Bookshelves lined most of the walls, many of the books thrown around. A small table sat across from the desk, its accompanying chair smashed next to it, an open cover sat on it, all its pages torn out. David walked to the table and closed the book.
“The Thievius Raccoonus” David whispered the title appalled at the state of it. David glanced over at Conner and his son, neither of them were looking at him, he slipped the cover into his jacket before turning back to them. “Can he move?”
“We can move Detective,” he picked up his son, the boy buried his face in Conner’s shirt. Conner reached back into the closet and retrieved his infamous cane, leaning on it, “let’s go.”
Conner walked out first, David followed after he passed Martha’s body, the boy looked over Conner’s shoulder clearly trying to get a look at his mother, David offered a smile as he sood walked in the way. The boy was not satisfied.
Stepping into the hall David saw that the injured officer had been moved, hopefully stabilized. As they passed the master bedroom David looked through the door, talon marks grazed most surfaces.
David broke the silence of the hall “What’s his name?”
“Sly” and the silence returned