Welcome to the sequel to Futures Past! Thanks to everybody who reviewed the previous story, your remarks made it worth it, and it made me want to take the next step in this world.

Special thanks goes to J Shute who made some great suggestions for this chapter.

And with that out of the way, let's get on with the show.


CHILDREN OF JANUS

A New Future (Part 2)

The future

"Security alert! Intruder in the facility!"

Klaxons blared as security ran around the Biologics Wing of Neo Zootopia Sciences, trying to find the intruder.

The facility, located in a tower in Central Neo Zootopia, was split up into four distinct Wings: the Biologics Wing dealt with biological research. In particular, they specialised in cloning for the sake of limb and organ replacement. The Technologic Wing was where new technologies were designed, sometimes crossing over into the other Wings. The Chemistry Wing dealt with chemical concoctions for use in pharmaceuticals. The fourth Wing was for Temporal Research.

"Darn it! He's given us the slip!" a ram growled. "What species is he anyway?"

"If you're done making excuses," a lion retorted, "then let's get this rat!"

"We don't even know if it is!" the ram replied.

"Shut it and keep searching!"

The two mammals parted ways. The lion headed towards the offices of the head scientists, intending to conduct his search there. One by one, he cleared them all.

Reaching the last office on the floor, the office that belonged to Doctor Blackpaw, he was about to swipe himself in when he noticed the door was already ajar. Unholstering his stun weapon, the lion carefully opened the door.

He was unprepared for the sight that met him.

Doctor Blackpaw was an older black-footed ferret. The emphasis on 'was' – since he was also emphatically dead, blood covering his clothes from a stab wound to the chest, the blade's handle sticking out.

"I need security to sweep the floor immediately, and a medical team to Doctor Blackpaw's office now!" the lion shouted into his communicator.

"Security breach into the Temporal Research Wing!" came out over the tannoy. "Lockdown is in effect."

"Sir," came the voice of the ram security guard, "we've got the perpetrator on holo-footage. We're looking for a mustelid. Looks like it might be a young weasel, or ferret."

"He's just broken into the Temporal Research Wing," the lion spoke into the communicator. "Get the junior cops in on it."


Temporal Research Wing

"Well, this is us, then," a rabbit remarked.

"Can't say I'm unhappy that they've had us sitting around for ages," a fox yawned.

"Nick, you've got to be the laziest fox I know," the rabbit sighed.

"That's 'Mister Laziest Fox', Carrots," Nick replied.

"Nick, I'd appreciate it if you called me 'Judy' sometimes," the rabbit huffed. "'Carrots' is just a little insulting."

"I thought you liked my nicknames for you," Nick tilted his head.

"I… okay, maybe I don't mind them, but others might think you're insulting me," Judy argued.

"Meh, let them think what they want, Carrots," Nick replied. "Any idea who we're looking for?"

"They said mustelid over the radio, so probably a weasel or ferret," Judy said. "Let's get to it."

"Don't you mean 'let's hop to it'?" Nick replied, earning a dig to the ribs in response.

"Warning, Temporal Chamber has been accessed," the Wing's tannoy called out.

"He… doesn't know how to operate that thing, right?" Nick asked.

"I'm not waiting to find out," Judy answered, speeding off towards the stairs that would take her a floor up to the Temporal Chamber. Nick shook his head.

"Same old, same old…" he muttered as he followed Judy up the stairs. He drew his weapon – a non-lethal stun gun. Upon reaching the floor housing the Temporal Chamber, the pair made sure the way was clear before they proceeded towards the doors, which were ajar. A shimmering light penetrated the opening.

Nick and Judy nodded to each other, raised their weapons and entered the chamber.

There were scientists inside. They were all dead. But that wasn't what drew Nick and Judy's attention.

Hovering above a platform in the centre of the laboratory was a shimmering light with what appeared to be shards of glass floating lazily around it.

"What… is that?" Judy wondered.

"This, Carrots, is a Time Portal," Nick replied in awe. "Been a long time since I saw one."

The portal suddenly contracted, and with a sound like slashing glass, the portal disappeared.

"Well, that's the end of that, then," Nick remarked.

"Can't be… I'm not letting this one get away!"

Judy shuffled round to a nearby panel.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Nick raised an eyebrow.

"Can't be that hard," Judy replied, her eyes scanning the panel's screen. She spotted a blinking icon and pushed it.

'WARNING: THIS WILL REACTIVATE THE PORTAL BUT MAY NOT OPEN IT IN THE EXACT TIME-SPACE. PROCEED?' the screen read.

"Yes, please," Judy pressed the screen to confirm. She looked up and watched as a beam shot from the machine on the edge of the platform. A light formed, and glass-like shards expanded out from it.

"Well…" Judy stepped forward.

"Carrots, you're not going in there, are you?" Nick said, a slight panic in his voice. "We don't even know where this thing goes! Does that screen tell you?"

"Nope, but we still have a perp to catch," Judy replied. "But it's saying that if we hurry we can get close, and I'm not letting a criminal get away just because he decided to time-hop."

"Last time you acted this recklessly, you almost ran two trains into each other!" Nick protested.

"It's this, or letting a criminal loose in whatever time this portal leads to," Judy retorted. "You know better than anyone what kind of damage can be done by someone in the past with a bad motive! You wanna risk this portal leading to the future? The past can be damaged, the future can be changed. I don't want to find out, so I'm going through. I'd like to have my partner with me when I do it."

Nick sighed in defeat.

"Fine…" Nick relented. "Once more unto the breach, dear Hopps. Once more unto the breach."


A month before the present day

Jack Savage was on his way to investigate an energy spike that had appeared not long ago in Tundratown. He had been investigating such energy spikes at the behest of his superiors. He had borrowed a car from the motor pool and taken it to Tundratown.

'Wonder if Judy Hopps had to put up with this,' Jack thought as he pulled the car up to the spot the energy surge had been detected from. This was busywork, intended to make it look like the ZIA were giving him something to do, but in reality Jack was a token bunny to his bosses. He was sure he would never be given real work. He wasn't even allowed a weapon.

There was really only one mammal who had been genuinely nice to Jack, and that was the leucistic red fox in the ZIA motor pool. Skye Anabel was her name, and Jack couldn't, for the life of him, figure out why she was the only mammal being nice to him.

"What a waste of time," Jack sighed as he pulled the car over into a space near where the energy spike had been detected. He got out and fished a torch from his belt. He entered the alley, torch raised. Unarmed apart from the torch, which was definitely not weighty enough to cause any damage should he try to defend himself with it, Jack had to step cautiously. On top of that, the ground in the alley had patches of ice over it, which would make quick movement unwise.

He spotted light coming from behind a polar bear-sized dumpster. Crouching and proceeding quietly, Jack steeled himself.

He rounded around the corner of the dumpster and almost dropped his torch when he saw what was causing the light.

Or it might have been more accurate to state that the light was the cause. There were shards of what looked like glass floating around it.

"What the…?" Jack whispered. He reached for his phone, but instead of calling his superiors or for backup, he activated the phone's camera and began recording.

"They'll never believe me if I just call them," Jack mumbled to himself. He knew that if he told them, they would just write it off. Maybe they'd say it was a street light.

"Can I get closer to it?" Jack wondered out loud.

Jack stepped forward towards the strange light, but as he did so, the light collapsed.

"Damn it!" Jack cursed. He stepped forward to where the strange light had been, but there was no trace of where it had been.

"What the heck am I supposed to do with this?" Jack sighed. He shook his head and turned around to return to his car. He got half-way there when he caught the sound of skittering metal behind him. Spinning around quickly, Jack raised the torch again.

"Who's there?" Jack shouted. There was an eerie silence. Jack stepped forward again, on guard for an ambush of some kind.

"I know you're there, so you'd better come out with your paws where I can see them!" Jack ordered.

His torch shined on a solitary figure hiding behind a large box, its lengthy, thin tail poking around the corner.

"Come out," Jack ordered. The figure didn't move. Jack cautiously moved closer.

He rounded the corner, and the figure pounced, an arm raised, with a sharp implement in its paw. Jack dodged and caught his assailant's arm, twisting with enough force to make them drop their weapon. Jack's assailant managed to wriggle free of his grip and he ran.

"Hey!" Jack ran after his assailant. He noted that the mammal appeared to be a mustelid – a ferret or weasel. It leaped up a fire escape and Jack followed, climbing up the fire escape ladder. As he got to the top rungs, his fingers slipped against the icy surface and he dropped to the ground, sliding back towards the wall.

"Ow…" Jack remarked as he slowly picked himself back up, so as not to slip again. He fished his phone out from his pocket and dialled through – he had no choice.

"Savage, this had better be good," came the voice of Jack's grumpy superior, a puma by the name of Special Agent Joseph Catamount.

"Sir, I was ambushed in the alley," Jack reported.

"I take it that means that this is a dead end," Catamount responded, his voice betraying the certainty he had that it was indeed the case, as expected.

"There was a light, and then nothing, and then I was attacked," Jack continued.

"What good are you, Savage, if you can't defend yourself?" Catamount snorted. "Get back to HQ. You're going to be doing desk work for a while. Is that understood?"

"But, sir…" Jack began.

"I said: is that understood?" Catamount repeated.

"Yes… sir," Jack gritted his teeth in anger. The line went dead and Jack stared at his phone in silence. The irritation that he felt was palpable. He headed back to the car.

"Hell with this, this isn't over," Jack grumbled.


Jack got back to the ZIA garage. He got out of the car and chucked the keys back at Skye, who caught them deftly.

"What's eating your carrot?" Skye frowned. Jack turned to her, chewing on his tongue.

"Nothing, Anabel," Jack replied, heading for the elevator. When it opened, he stepped in and the doors began to close. A cream paw appeared between the doors and the opened back up. Skye slipped into the elevator, pressed the button for the lobby and stood beside Jack. After the doors shut, Skye pressed the 'stop' button and the elevator juddered to a halt.

"Surnames, Savage?" Skye lowered her voice. "Somebody's really got you pissed off, huh?"

Jack sighed.

"Catamount pulled me from the field," Jack said. "Didn't even listen to what I told him about… what I found. Just focused right on the facts that I got jumped by a weasel. Or ferret. Whatever it was…"

"What did you find?" Skye asked. Jack glanced at her briefly before pulling his phone out and starting the video showing the strange light before it disappeared.

"Seems strange, now I think about it, that I got jumped right after finding this… thing," Jack said.

"Well, I'm not the super-secret agent, I'm just the mechanic," Skye said, "but I'd call that some sort of strange. No idea what it is?"

"No," Jack replied. "I'll probably never find out anyway, since I'm going to be stuck behind a desk until they decide to fire me for spelling a word wrong on a report or something."

"Well, were you told you couldn't investigate on your own time?" Skye raised an eyebrow.

"No, but how exactly am I going to do that?" Jack asked.

"Well, is there anything… unusual that happens when these things happen?" Skye asked.

"Maybe? I don't know…" Jack shrugged.

"You're so cute when you do that," Skye smirked.

"You know, you're not supposed to call a rabbit cute," Jack grumbled.

"Good thing jackrabbits are hares, then," Skye grinned. "Tell you what… why don't I…"

Skye took Jack's phone.

"Hey!" Jack raised his voice.

"And there we go!" Skye gave him his phone back. Jack looked at the screen. Skye had added her number to his phone contacts. She reached over and hit the 'stop' button again and the elevator flared to life.

"It's nice of you to give me your number and all, but… why?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"If you think of something, give me a call," Skye replied. "Or… if you just want to talk."

The elevator bell dinged and Skye got out.

"Later, Stripes," Skye waved. Jack's gaze followed her out as the elevator doors closed.

'How dense could you get?' Skye chuckled to herself as she left for home.


Jack opened the file on his desk. He scanned the contents of the strange energy readings, hoping to find something that might help with regards to investigating without the resources of the ZBI at his disposal. He took a paper out and read it.

"Right… 'Energy surges are recorded… anomalous readings across several different mediums… spike in radiation in the area…' that's not going to help, it's not like I can sneak a Geiger counter out the building… what's this?"

Jack stopped, double-checking what he was reading, just to be sure he read right.

"'Whenever these energy surges occur, interference occurs on the radio band frequency 87.6 FM'," Jack repeated. "Radio distortion? I can use that." Jack jotted down the radio frequency onto a piece of paper and slipped it into his pocket. He checked the clock and saw that the time was 17:10. Wordlessly, he rose from his chair, locked his desk and left.

Jack lived in an apartment located just on the borders of Savanna Central and Tundratown. The Climate Wall kept Tundratown's cold air from reaching the building, but it didn't stop the sometimes-magical views.

Sat in his apartment, all alone and in the dark, Jack listened to the radio. He had it set to 87.6FM, which would normally equate to Zootopia Rock Radio. Jack wasn't a huge rock listener, though he did have some old CDs from when he was a teenager. Mostly The Whoof, Buns N Roses, and some Alice Cougar.

"That was Elvis Preysley's Suspicious Minds, the last song on this Classic Rock Hour here on Zootopia Rock Radio. I'm your host, Tony Blackbear, and this…"

The radio started to cut out. Jack sat up, wondering if this was the interference he was waiting for, but deciding to wait to see what would come of it. The radio's speaker gave off a sustained static sound, and Jack was sure this was it.

He got up, ready to go out and find the mysterious light again, but a thought stopped him from walking straight out the door.

'Even if I find it again, what's going to happen?' Jack thought. 'ZIA wouldn't listen last time, and if I go alone… go alone?'

Jack fumbled for his phone, opened the Contacts menu and found the number he was looking for.

"'Sweetie Skye'?" Jack raised an eyebrow in confusion. He shook it off and hit Dial. The phone rang for a few seconds.

"Well, Mr. Savage, I wasn't expecting you to call so quickly," Skye's voice answered.

"Skye, I need a favour," Jack said.

There was a brief silence.

"Of course you do," Skye replied, less enthusiastically. "What can I do you for, Jack?"

"Do you have a radio?" Jack asked.

"Yeah?" Skye answered. "You didn't call me up to ask to borrow a radio, did you?"

"Switch yours onto 87.6FM," Jack said. There was silence for a moment.

"Huh, usually that's the Zootopia Rock Radio, but all I'm hearing is static," Skye said.

"That's what I'm getting too," Jack said. "I think another one of these things has appeared, and I'm going to go look for it."

"You called me for a second opinion?" Skye said quietly. "Of all the…"

"Actually, that was only part of the favour…" Jack admitted. "Can I come pick you up? I'd… like a second pair of eyes, and…"

"Yeah, I get it," Skye replied. "But… I have a condition."

Jack sighed. 'Of course, there's a caveat.'

"Go on," Jack said.

"I'll come out with you, buuuut… you've gotta come out for coffee with me at the weekend," Skye bartered. Jack raised a curious eyebrow.

"I don't drink coffee," Jack said.

"Then tea, or hot chocolate," Skye replied, "whatever you want. That's my terms, Mr. Savage."

Jack thought for a moment.

"Okay," Jack agreed. "So, where do I pick you up from?"


Jack had picked Skye up from her apartment in his car. As it turned out, Skye lived a few blocks away from Jack.

Skye had settled into the car seat, and Jack pulled out from the parking slot.

"So, where are we going?" Skye asked.

"Best place to start is the last place," Jack replied.

"So, Tundratown?" Skye remarked.

"Yep," Jack nodded. "Sorry, it's going to be cold, and slippery."

"No worries," Skye grinned. "We foxes can take the cold, and I'm probably steadier on my feet than you."

"Ha, ha," Jack deadpanned.

The journey from Skye's apartment to the alley in Tundratown didn't take long. They pulled up just outside the alley's entrance. Jack tuned his in-car radio to 87.6FM. The static noise was still coming through, yet somehow it seemed… louder to Jack, and not simply because he had sensitive hearing and the sound was coming through the car's speakers.

"Gotta be here," Jack said. He turned towards the alley.

"So, we're looking for some kind of light," Skye remarked.

"Yup," Jack nodded.

"Well, there's no light in that alley," Skye stated. "Odd… maybe they're relying on the natural light to reflect off the snow that falls."

"I don't know, but I…" Jack began. He was cut off when the radio's static became a blaring noise. Deep into the alley, a light flared to life behind a container.

"That's us, I take it," Skye said. They both got out of the car and headed down the alley. Skye took out a large torch and flicked the on switch.

"Bet that this will hurt a bit if I hit 'em," Skye remarked.

"We're not here to beat up mammals, Skye," Jack rolled his eyes.

"You got jumped before," Skye reminded him. "I'm not going to take the chance again. A good mechanic comes prepared."

"You know, with a mindset like that, you'd be good upstairs," Jack replied. Skye didn't respond immediately, waiting to see if Jack understood just what he had just said. She knew he probably meant that she would be good as an Agent, but Jack had a habit of saying things sometimes without thinking through what alternative meaning could be taken from them.

"You know what that sounds like, Mr. Savage?" Skye teased after allowing the pause to go on a little longer.

"Um…" Jack flustered, "I meant you'd make a good Agent!"

"Sure," Skye grinned. "Actually, I like it downstairs," Skye allowed another pause for effect, before adding: "Being a mechanic suits me just fine."

A metallic skittering sound came from the direction of the light, from behind the container the light was emanating from. Jack and Skye were on alert, stepping more slowly.

"So, we came back to the past?" a female voice reached their ears.

"Looks like it, Fluff," a male voice replied. "Sure ain't the future."

"Why come here?" the female voice asked. "This is just… the old world."

"I'm sure we'll find out, but let's find our mustelid friend first, and bring him back so he can face justice," the male voice said.

Jack and Skye rounded the large container, torches held high.

"ZIA, stay right where you are!" Jack ordered. Further words were cut off when he caught sight of the two figures.

They looked practically identical to Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, the heroes of Zootopia. But why would they be here? Last he heard, they were taking some time off after solving the terrorist incident involving the bombing of Precinct One.

"Oh, sweet cheese and crackers," the Judy Hopps lookalike remarked.

The Nick lookalike meanwhile breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. No dinosaurs. This might not be as bad as I thought."


And that concludes this first chapter! A few notes:

-The name 'Children of Janus' is inspired by 1995's Judge Dredd. However, I'm pretty sure that the writers of the film just chose the name because it sounded 'cool'. Janus is an Ancient Roman God, associated with many things, including beginnings, time, and gateways.
-The chapter's title is deliberate, since the 'post-chapter' of Futures Past is called 'A New Future?'
-The use of the portals interfering with the 87.6FM broadcast frequency is inspired by defunct British TV series Primeval, which also inspired the appearance of the Portals in both this story and Futures Past. However, no radio stations broadcast in that frequency in the UK (contrary to what S2E1 of Primeval says). I chose a rock station for the frequency in this story.
-The Whoof, Alice Cougar and Buns N Roses are allusions to The Who, Alice Cooper and Guns N Roses. Tony Blackbear is a reference to Tony Blackburn, a British radio presenter.
-I could not resist the urge to put 'dense Jack' in here somewhere. He's not as dense as the Dense Jack of theblueberrycarrots' comics, but it was fun to include an element of that. I can somewhat relate – I would have no idea if anybody is flirting with me '^^