ZOOTOPIA: THE CALL FOR FREEDOM

Chapter 9 A MATTER OF TIME AND DEATH PART 1

After his talk with The Watcher and finally being left alone do his own thing again for the rest of the night, Kane at last managed to fall asleep, knowing that he and Nick would need the energy for the next night. But tonight, Kane was going to be sleeping differently than he had other nights in the past!

In the dream world, Kane found himself in a dream, which was odd for him as he usually didn't have anything to be dreaming about in the first place. Then, from out of nowhere in the dream, Kane saw a blurry, female figure 30 feet in front of him that he couldn't make out their details.

"Who are you!?" Kane inquired. "Whatever this is, you bitch, tell me what I want to..."

Kane stopped as the unknown female person before him answered his question without her even saying anything. It was weird, but Kane just seemed to know what she had said.

"Wait! Your name's Leslie?" Kane asked.

Again, Kane somehow knew that the mysterious, female figure had spoken to him. "Okay," Kane accepted the blurry, female figure, now identified as a girl known as Leslie.

This Leslie girl seemed to say something yet again. "Only one? what the heck is that supposed to mean!?" Kane Karter demanded, but suddenly, the blurry form of the girl known as Leslie faded away and Kane was covered in bright light.

-

Kane woke up to find Nick Wilde standing over him, shaking him. "Wake up, Kane! Wake up!" Nick Wilde shouted at Kane.

Nick stopped when he saw Kane stir and slowly open his eyes before getting up on his feet. Kane wasn't happy about the wake-up Nick had given him.

"Well, sorry to disturb your beauty sleep, Mr. Kane, but it's past 10:00AM in the morning!" Nick revealed as he pointed to a clock that was hanging on a wall and sure enough, it was past 10:00AM. It was 10:24AM to be more exact.

Kane didn't like to hear this as he had intended to be up at least by 7:45AM at the latest. Kane then got some more of the food supplies he had stolen from that gas station yesterday and made himself and Nick some breakfast.

After that, he informed Nick that they were going to be up late again. "What for?" Nick asked.

As you may expect, when Kane told Nick the reason for this, without mentioning The Watcher, he was shocked! "Nuh-uh! No way!" Nick refused. "We already are in enough trouble with the ZPD as it is! We don't need to add robbing a museum to our list of charges! And there's no way I'm helping you!"

Kane had expected this response from Nick, but because of The Watcher's orders not to harm Nick, he couldn't just threaten him with pain or death to make him comply. Instead, Kane would have to take a different approach to this.

But what could he do that would convince Nick to agree to help him with his job at the museum? That was when Kane remembered what he had heard about how Nick had gotten framed and wrongfully arrested for a crime that he was innocent of.

"Oh, Nicky! Let's make a deal then!" Kane offered, which got Nick's slight attention.

"I'm listening," Nick said. "But if it's about money, then I still want no part of this!"

"I know you don't want money," Kane bargained. "But what if I told you I could help you track down and get your revenge on that wolf you mentioned that ruined things for you and your Wilde Times business? How about that?"

Nick paused when he heard this. Nick didn't know if Kane was being serious and actually intended to keep his word or not, but he then remembered that as much as he didn't like hanging out with Kane, he hated that wolf that had gotten him into this mess in the first place a lot more!

Nick clenched his paws in anger as he thought about that wolf! That wolf made him so mad, and he wanted to make him pay for what he had done to him!

Nick sighed. "Alright. I'm in. Tell me what we're going to do," Nick reluctantly agreed. "But if I help you with this, you better keep your promise of helping me find and get even with that wolf that ruined me as well!"

Kane and Nick shook their hands and paws.

-

At 11:36AM, Kane, alone, in a new, male deer disguise, courtesy of the DisguiseNow Band invention that he was still wearing, that he had gained from getting ahold of some male deer fur was now inside the museum that The Watcher had told him about. Speaking of The Watcher, The Watcher was telling Kane where what had been stolen from him was at.

What Kane was looking for turned out to be right in the middle of the museum in a case surrounded by glass. Inside the case, there on a white pedestal lay a small, white and gold cuckoo clock that was quite a sight to see. "And over here, everyone is a cuckoo clock. But not just any cuckoo clock, but a clock that was made for a king in a country that no longer exists anymore many years ago!" A female, llama museum curator employee told everyone. "We've had it here in our glorious museum for the past 12 years now and it is the only clock of its kind that exists, which makes it extremely valuable!"

'So, I take it this clock is what I'm going to be stealing tonight?' Kane mentally questioned The Watcher.

'Correct, but it won't be stealing since I'm its true owner!" The Watcher told Kane in his mind. "What that curator's story said about the clock was true, but the cuckoo clock you see on that pedestal is the clock that I created, which so happens to look just like the real one! As for the real one, it was destroyed and lost long ago and that cuckoo clock I made got taken from me just because some dumb dinguses mistook it for the real thing!

'So, how should I go about this tonight?' Kane thought.

'I don't care how you do it, Kane!' The Watcher mentally spoke to Kane. 'Just get that clock tonight and then I'll tell you what to do next!'

Kane then went around the museum, not because he interested in any of the exhibits it had, but because he wanted to study and get familiar with its layout. He knew that doing such would be crucial to pulling off his and Nick's heist on the museum tonight.

After spending two hours seeing and going over every part of the museum, Kane was satisfied and decided that he had everything he needed for him and Nick to do the job later. Kane then left the museum and headed back to his and Nick's hideout, where he and Nick would be spending the rest of the day planning and getting prepared for tonight's job.