Zootopia: Worlds Apart

37. Sensory Overload

Luke's POV

I was glad that the both of us had plans today. Legoshi was going to Gohin to get a job and I was going to see Zack and Louis about that drug they shot me with.

I was a little nervous about what Legoshi had said about them wanting to test on me, but I was 100% certain that they wouldn't. I knew Zack. He wouldn't do that to me, despite hating me at this point.

I didn't know when to go, so I decided to wait around until around noon before going to the black market.

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After a while of lounging around and watching TV with Legoshi, I decided to go.

"Well, that's noon," I said, looking at a clock on the wall. "I better go to the Black Market."

"Why?" Legoshi asked.

"Because I'm going to see Louis and Zack, remember?" I replied.

Legoshi looked at me for a moment, as if he'd completely forgotten.

"Oh yeah," He said. "I better go and see Gohin then."

I turned the TV off and stood up before making my way to the door, unlocking it and opening it. Legoshi followed me out onto the street as we both waited for a bus.

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After a while, a bus arrived and we both hopped on it. We quickly found a seat and sat there.

We sat in silence throughout the journey. I was still a little nervous about this whole thing. I mean, I was going into the largest crime group in this city to talk about a drug of some form that I was injected with. Surely they wouldn't do tests on me, right?

"That's our stop!" Legoshi yelled suddenly, reaching up and pressing the stop button. After a moment, the bus driver stopped and we got off.

Legoshi went off on his own to Gohin's after making sure that I was safe and that I knew where I was going. I kept telling him "I know what I'm doing.", although he didn't really listen. It was starting to feel like he was an overprotective parent sending their kid off to school for the first time. Eventually, he stopped and I went off to find the Shishigumi.

I wandered around the black market for a while, looking at all the different types of things being sold. It all felt so... different from last time. All the smells... they were so vivid, so expressive, so colourful. It was almost intoxicating smelling all of these highly desirable goods, so intoxicating that I started to salivate.

Why am I salivating? I thought. I don't even like half of these things!

I pushed past all of the dizzying smells and sounds as I stumbled towards the booth with the lion at it.

"Hey there," He said. "What can I get you?"

My vision started going fuzzy as his voice started going more and more muffled.

"Hey, what's up with you?" He asked as I started to feel myself losing my grip on reality.

"I.. don't know..." Was the last thing I remember saying.

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The next thing I remember was something extremely cold, then shooting awake.

"There he is," A lion purred. "The fox is finally awake."

Well I thought. At least I'm where I wanted to go.

"Wha- what's going on?" I gasped, icy water dripping from my face and into my lap.

"You passed out," A slick and buttery voice said from across the room. I could tell it was Louis from his tone, and that theory was soon proved correct as he moved into the light. "Seems like your carnivorous brain went into overload."

"Louis." I muttered. Louis paused, then looked at me.

"How do you know my name..?" He asked, bemused.

"It's me," I said. "It's Luke."

"My god," He gasped. "It actually worked."

"Really? I didn't notice." I replied sarcastically.

"This is excellent," He thought aloud, pulling up a chair. "Your DNA has been completely restructured to resemble that of a fox, causing a complete transformation."

"How is that excellent?" I asked. "I could be stuck like this forever."

"Well," He replied, examining my face. "Humans aren't exactly the desired species when it comes to what we want to do."

"What do you want to do?" I asked.

"We want to be able to harness the sheer power of the aggression that all carnivores hold," Louis said, making a few hand gestures here and there. "The only problem is that no-one wants to partake in it, and I don't want my boys getting injured, so I decided to use someone like you; someone who's emotionally unstable, a ticking time bomb if you will."

"I'm not doing anything for you, freak!" I yelled, trying to lunge for him. It was at that moment that I realised I was tied up.

"Really?" He asked. "Not even when your boyfriend's life is on the line?"

He snapped his fingers and a TV powered on opposite me. It displayed a CTV feed of Legoshi. I knew for a fact it was a fake recording, because I knew that he was going to Gohin. In this feed, he was at a Café.

"Do your worst to him," I growled. "I won't do a thing for you."

Louis paused for a moment, then sighed.

"You heard 'im boys," He said. "Do your worst."