Nick and Judy watched from their positions either side of the elevator as Clawdon and his team acted like a well oiled machine. The white tiger stood behind the central console, giving him an unobstructed view of the entire control room.

"Sarah, how do things look?"

He addressed a blonde mouse in a lab coat, who stood on an elevated station for rodent scale consoles.

"Power levels are good, Doctor," she replied. "Brian, how's things with you?"

A second mouse, this one also in a lab coat, with white fur and a kinked tail as well as pink paws and ears, looked up from his console, where he was rapidly typing.

"I have almost finished my final calculations and data input," he stated in a deadpan. "Please keep from interrupting me further, Miss Hackwrench.

"Thats Mrs Hackwrench to you, 'Brain'," she teased,
showing off her wedding ring.

"What you see in that mad inventor I'll never understand, Brian grumbled.

"What about the Pipeline structure?" continued Clawdon.

A screen lit up on his console to reveal a bharal in a pair of overalls and cap.

"Almost done our final checks Mr Clawdon, everything looks good though."

"Thanks Felix, signal when your team is clear."

Everything was proceeding smoothly as final checks and preparations were completed, the electricity in the air was almost palpable as their anticipation climbed towards what would surely be the laboratory greatest achievement, unaware of events that would soon follow.
_________________________________

Edward Screws slid through the vent, his suit ensuring minimal friction as he worked his way towards the building's central computer server. Peering through a ceiling grate, the hare watched a large bengal tiger pass underneath, oblivious to his presence. Once he was sure the predator was gone, Screws carefully undid the pins holding the cover in place and dropped down, expertly landing on his foot paws. Padding across to an unassuming door indented in the wall, he checked the building plan once again, confirming that behind it was the laboratorys server room.

Satisfied, the hare examined the lock, it looked like a standard tumbler device, however, he knew something so simple wouldn't be used for a room this important. The hare ran paws along the metallic surface, feeling for tiny imperfections that might hint at the true lock. The suit Calico had provided was state of the art, its material constructed so he didn't lose sensitivity in his paw tips, rewarding him as he felt the surface indent slightly near the false lock. Gently pushing it caused a panel to slide back,
revealing an electronic keypad.

Withdrawing a small tablet from his belt, Screws removed a panel from above the keypad, revealing a socket for maintenance work. Plugging in the tablet, he watched as lines of red code rapidly scrolled down the screen, turning briefly to check the tiger wasn't returning just yet. The tablet chimed a moment later, and the door swung open.

Rapidly packing it away, Edward quickly slipped inside, ensuring the keypad was once again hidden as he passed. shiver ran through his body as the door closed behind him, the hare's breath misting in the air as he realized the room must be temperature controlled.

Before him were immense stacks of computer servers, each as tall as a full grown horse, lights blinking across each as they processed trillions of calculations and commands. Checking the map once more, he navigated through the maze of servers to the rear of the room, quickly locating his objective, a server stack with an access port, keyboard and screen. Of course they were a full head and shoulders above him, but fortunately, the lab also kept a set of small mammal stairs nearby for a few of its technicians. Scaling them, he removed a USB stick from his belt and plugged it into the open socket. The screen, which had shown the Zootopia Biolabs logo, blinked and fizzed, before lines of sickly yellow code ran down it like a waterfall. Paws flying across the keyboard, Screws typed in the activation commands Calico had given him and was
rewarded a moment later with a line of text.

ABRAXAS VIRUS UPLOADED.

The hare smiled to himself as he unplugged the USB stick and slid down the stairs, quickly jogging back through the stacks and, after a quick check to ensure the guard was still absent returned to the vent.
That was step one completed, now he had wires to cut elsewhere.
_________________________________

Clawdons paws clicked across the keyboard before him as complex calculations scrolled past the tigers vision, his mind working overtime to triple check these last few pieces before the accelerator was ready.

"Felix reports his team is clear," stated a Gazelle from one of the other consoles.

"Excellent," replied Clawdon, the keyboard clacking away as he finished his work. "How's power generation?"

"Generator room reports ready," confirmed a kudu.

"All systems are green across the board.

"Fantastic," he eagerly stated. "In that case, I think we can start a little early, begin the power up sequence."
_________________________________

Pulling himself through the mess of wires and pipes,
Screws cursed. He was sure it had been wider on the
schematics, either that or Calico failed to account just how messy the guts of a particle accelerator would be, probably the latter.

The hare paused to check the lab's blueprint once again, before pulling a multitool from his belt and snipping through a bundle of wires. He had already repeated the process several times along his route, severing key, hardline connections to the accelerators emergency systems. In the event of an error, the laboratories systems would automatically engage a shutdown and cut power, but the virus he planted would ensure this would not happen, and
by the time he was finished, the hardline backups would be useless.

Moving to another section, the hare stopped as he felt a low vibration thrum through the accelerators structure. Fear quickly rising, Edward pressed a paw against the interior wall of the accelerator and felt the material shaking under his touch. He began to panic, the schedule said the accelerator shouldn't be operational for another half hour, he was supposed to be far away from here, not right in the middle
of his own manufactured disaster.

With the pipeline too crowded to move backwards, Edward had no choice but to haul himself forwards as fast as he could, grunting and swearing as he dragged his body through the guts of the accelerator. A hurried check of the map indicated a service panel ahead of him, spurring the hare on to the best speed he could muster.

Reaching the panel, the terrified hare used more of the cutting foam to slice through the steel panel, wincing as it clattered to the floor. Deciding not to wait and see if he had been heard, the saboteur scrambled from the opening and took off towards the lift, unaware that Maximus was approaching the open panel from the opposite direction.

_________________________________

Clawdon couldn't help but smile with pride as the
accelerator spun up, through the reinforced glass of the control room, the tiger could see energy beginning to arc and swirl as the pipeline directed its flow.

"How are we doing Brian?" he enquired.

"Energy levels are good, flow is stable..." replied the
mouse.

"All lights are green," added Sarah from her station.

"Fantastic," exclaimed the tiger.

Nick and Judy shared a smile from their posts by the
elevator, it was hard not to be caught up in the doctor's enthusiasm.

That enthusiasm was cut short when an alarm suddenly blared.

"Whats happening?" demanded Clawdon.

"Energy spike," stated Brian.

"Systems should compensate in a few seconds."

"Maximus to Hopps, come in," Judys radio crackled to life.

"Hopps here," she responded.

"I was doing a patrol of the sublevels and I heard a noise, I've discovered an open service panel to the pipeline.

She looked up to Clawdon, who opened a line to his
engineer.

"Felix, did any of your team leave a panel open in the
pipeline sublevel?"

"All here Mr Clawdon," replied Felix, his voice tinged with fear and confusion. "Can you tell me what's going on please?"

"I'm going down there," stated Judy, calling the elevator as Clawdon tried his best to reassure his engineer.

"I think it might be better if you stay here Carrots," replied Nick, concerned.

"Sorry Nick, but this is too suspicious."

The bunny turned to her fox as the elevator doors slid open.

"I'll have Maximus to back me up, don't worry." Judy said.
   ________________________________

Judy steadied herself on a wall as the entire complex
rumbled, shaking the lift car and causing it's lights to
flicker. Grabbing her radio, she opened a line.

"Maximus, it's Hopps, I'm on my way to you, but I'll need a little direction."

"Follow the lines painted on the floor," replied the stallion.

"The blue one will take you right to me."

"Affirmative," she confirmed, just as the doors slid open and she was sprinting down the corridor, quickly reaching the stallion.

"Any idea if this was an accident?" she enquired.

"Doubt it," he replied, indicating the panel on the floor.

Kneeling down, Judy examined the burns that scarred the metal. They ran in a rough square shape around its edge, it looked uneven and hurried. Taking a set of latex gloves from her belt, the rabbit carefully lifted the panel into her paws and turned it over, her nose picking up an acrid scent.

"This was cut recently from the inside," She observed.

"Any other damage?"

"Unsure, I'm afraid I can't see very far inside," admitted the draft horse.

"Let me take a look, I might be able to squeeze in."

"You sure that's a good idea with everything turned on?" Maximus asked.

"Not really," replied the rabbit, a thought sitting heavy in her gut. "But with how dangerous this thing is, I have to see."

Taking a torch off her belt, Judy pulled herself into the crawlspace, the pipeline thrumming all around her as she pulled herself deeper into the mess of wires and rapidly heating pipes, until she saw something that confirmed her worst fear.

A set of wires, neatly cut.
  ________________________________

A second alarm went off.

"Report!"

"Another spike, bigger this time," stated Sarah.

"Cut the power!" ordered Clawdon.

"Remote commands are not responding," replied the Kudu.

"The generators are actually increasing their output."

Clawdon rapidly began typing at his console, his paws flying across the keyboard as he tried to access the generators command, but all he got was clumps of strange yellow code.

"Dammit!" he roared, fists slamming onto the computer.

"Nothings working!"

"Uh, Clawdon, what happens if you can't control this
thing?" tentatively enquired Nick, although he already knew the answer.

"The accelerator will explode, violently," stated the tiger, his anger giving way to dread.

"Maximus to Nick Wilde, come in, " Nick's radio erupted in the stallion's urgent voice.

"Nick here," he replied.

"Hopps found sabotage in the pipeline, several wires have been cut clean through."

Clawdon's face paled under his white, striped fur, then it twisted into a snarl.

"Calico," he growled. "I knew that bastard couldn't let me off that easy."

"Nick," came Judy's voice.

"Whoever did this might not have gotten far, the panel was cut recently so I bet they didn't count on everything starting early. There's still a chance we can catch them."

"Carrots, I don't know if you've noticed, but this place is going to explode."

"No it's not," replied Clawdon. "There's a hardline in the generator room, if we can cut that before the reaction reaches critical mass we can still stop it."

"There's another possibility," interrupted Brian from his station. "Sarah and I can take remote control of the pipelines bulkhead doors and redirect the energy into the laboratories on the subterranean levels. That should prevent it from exploding, but there is a high risk of radiation exposure to every mammal present.

"You hear all that Judy," stated NIck.

"Affirmative," she replied. "Where are the generators?"

"Deep underneath the building," stated Clawdon.

"Of course they are," muttered Nick.

"We also have a room full of people upstairs," reminded Maximus, the stallion's voice crackling through the radio.

"Oh sweet Aslan," realised Clawdon, opening a line on his console. "Maximus, sound the evacuation! All non-essential personnel need to get out of here!"

"Meanwhile I'll go for the hardline," stated Nick.
"Hopps, you help evacuate the lab."

"Not a chance slick, I'll meet you by the generators." She said.

"We'll stay here and do what we can to stop it," replied Clawdon, as Nick called the elevator. "I'm not letting Calico ruin me like this."
__________________________________

"I'll head to the surface," ordered Maximus.
"Fastest way to the generators is to use the service lift at the end of the corridor, just hit the bottom number on the keypad."

"Got it." she confirmed, before both of them ran in opposite directions.

However, it was as she passed an open door that she just happened to catch sight of something. It was a mammal in a black bodysuit removing a wall
panel, their saboteur!

"Freeze ZPD!" she cried, kicking the door open as she pulled out her tranquilizer.

The mammal, a Hare she realized, startled and threw something to the ground. Judy's world went white as the flashbang detonated, her ears ringing as she was roughly shoved to one side. The hare darted for the door, only to run into Maximus, who had been attracted by the noise.

"Halt!" he ordered, lunging for the intruder.

However, the smaller mammal ducked and slid right
between the horses legs, jamming an epi pen into the meaty flesh of Maximus's thigh before sprinting down the corridor as the stallion collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

Judy, blinking and shaking her head, staggered over to the equines crumpled form, thankfully, a quick check of his pulse ensured he wasn't dead, just heavily tranquilized. She clicked her radio on.

"This is Hopps, I've found our Saboteur, he's a hare in a black bodysuit. Maximus is down, tranquilized. He needs immediate evacuation." She said.

"Copy that Hopps," replied Clawdon. "I'll send someone to get him."

"Carrots," interrupted Nick's voice. "Don't even think about going after that guy without backup."

"Sorry Nick, but you need to get to the generators. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Clicking off the radio, Judy gripped her tranquiliser,
expression set with determination as she sprinted after the fleeing saboteur.

We are one chapter that way until the big event happens, the one that Barry Allen warned of Zootopia of. Until next time!