The Fire Triangle -- Part II, Oxidizer

The Fire Triangle: Book II - Chapter 13

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 2—Finding Conor
(Continued...Part 4)

"Hey-batter, hey-batter, hey-batter, hey-batter...SWING!"

With encouragement like that, it was hard to resist—and so the young nutria swung. A sharp ping followed as the aluminum bat connected with the softball and then it was floating upwards in a lazy, egg-shaped arc...right towards the young red panda playing shortstop. Raising a gloved paw, Lisa Nizhang easily bagged the pop-fly. It was a cakewalk catch but you'd never have known it from the reaction of her teammates; whoops, cheers, howls, high fives, and girls hugging each other while jumping up and down. The game was over, the Dodgers had won, and they were on their way to the playoffs.

In the bleachers adjoining the backstop there was plenty of enthusiasm as well; particularly in the third row, center section, where Claudia Nizhang was on her feet, calling through cupped paws. "Way to go, girls, way to go!" Beside her Nick Wilde was standing and applauding vigorously, swept up in the fervor of the moment.

He'd at first been surprised that Claudia would want to meet him here—until he'd learned that her daughter was playing today; Zootopia City Councilmember Nizhang had a long-standing reputation as a dedicated parent.

The game they'd just watched had taken place at a baseball diamond inside of Mount Tapir Park. It was your typical Old Growth City playing field, almost completely organic in construction. The backstop was a basket-weave of interwoven, living bamboo, the outfield fence consisted of neatly-trimmed hedges, and the scoreboard was suspended between the intertwining branches of a pair of flying spider-fern trees. The only parts of the field not fashioned by nature were the scoreboard itself and the bleacher seats...and even they had been built from recycled materials, as Claudia had proudly informed Nick upon his arrival. It had made the red fox wonder if this ball field wasn't one of her projects. OGC was the district she represented, after all.

Now, he followed as she led the way back down to ground level, amazingly spry for a mammal that needed a cane to get around. Seeing her approach, Lisa hurried to meet her at the edge of the field.

"Hey, mom!"

"Hey, Bǎo!" Claudia replied, pulling off her daughter's ball cap and giving her head-fur a quick tousle, "Good game."

And the game had been a good one; not a claw-biter to be sure, final score, 5-1, but a win is still a win. And Lisa Nizhang had done more than her share to bring it home, twice hitting singles and later driving in a run on a sacrifice fly. She'd also been part of the game's only double-play. At the moment however she was looking curiously at the fox standing next to her mother.

Claudia smiled and laid a paw on his shoulder.

"Lisa, say hello to Nick Wilde, the ZPD's newest detective."