This Brave New World: Prolouge

It was a calm and beautiful night. A gentle breeze passed by, shaking the leaves of the tall maple trees that lived near the lake. A small shack was set up on the sandy bank, and fishing nets were scattered around the nearby land. 

The door opened, and a bulky otter strolled out, humming to himself merrily. He was holding a fishing pole, and a cigarette sat at the corner of his mouth. He looked around for a moment, seemingly searching for danger, before following a well worn path to a dock overlooking the lake.

He sat on the edge of the dock and got to work fishing, still humming a little tune to himself. However, he seemed to sense something, and looked up with a frown. "Ah, shoot," he muttered through his cig as an alarm starting to go off from far away. "They're at it again."

~

On the other side of the lake, the peace was broken. 

Bright searchlights glare down from towers up high, desperately looking for the intruder that had triggered the alarm. They belonged to a menacingly large fortress that castes its shadow over the land and part of the lake. It was surrounded by a high barbed fence, made specifically to keep one person out. If they got past the gate, they would be greeted by thick iron doors and rows of machine guns. And if somehow the intruder got inside, the owner of the fortress would deal with them one on one. It was perfect… until it wasn't.

A blur dodged every spotlight, moving as fast as lighting. It slammed into one of the towers and made it bend slightly with a ground-shaking groan, before repeating to ram it over and over. It finally made the steel towel fall over with a metallic shriek, the building slamming into another searchlight and making it fall over as well. A domino effect started up as the bolt ran by, and it started to slow down and catch its breath.

It was a small, innocent-looking, furry  bear creature on all fours. Purple stripes decorated its puffy yellow coat like a zebra, the same color as its eyes. It galloped over to the huge metal doors that sealed up the towering fortress. It looked around for a moment, looking for a certain ally, then took a couple steps back. 

A large helicopter flew over all the defense and hovered above the furry creature. A door opened and something was lowered down, before the helicopter flew away in a hurry. A monkey shaped toy stuttered to life and started to march towards the doors, clapping little cymbals to an unknown beat. The furry creature from before backed away as the cymbals sped up, plopping to a stop in front of the door. It suddenly exploded like a barrel of TNT, making a large hole in the iron. 

"Womba!"

The furry creature looked up at the helicopter at its name being called by a young boy. The helicopter was back, albeit much closer than before The creature flying it poked his head out, releasing itself to be a sky blue monkey.  "What is it Spring?" Womba asked him, the voice shockingly feminine. 

"There's cameras all over the place! I'll try to deactivate most of them, but get ready to run, alright?" the monkey called down, before soaring up again. More toys dropped out with little parachutes, activating and starting to clip little scissors as they touched the ground. They marched in single file into the weakened fortress, Womba following behind them cautiously. 

The line split up as they passed multiple hallways, each one spotting a wire and starting to cut away. The first one managed to get through a large one, and the lights in that hall flickered for a moment before blacking out. The hallways started to shut down one by one, until one of the toys found the main wire and cut it. Suddenly the whole fortress was dark, and Womba was free to run down the halls as she pleased.

She peeked into every open door to look for a clue of some sort. If she was being honest with herself, she had no idea why she was in this godforsaken building again. Something about one of her friends being captive? There was a huge chance this was all a trap; she couldn't drop her guard. The last time she had… well, she had faced the consequences.

Womba soon heard a familiar voice and started to follow her ears, determined to get to her nemesis as fast as possible. Maybe he could explain what his evil plan was while she kicked his ass.

~

A parrot was perched on a balcony high up on the ceiling. It was listening intently to the conversation below, seemingly putting it to memory. It blended into the shadows near perfectly, despite its colorful feathers. A pirate's hat was placed next to it, and a protective clawed foot was holding it down. Perhaps it had been covering the parrot's ears too much. 

It watched as a hare paced around in a tight circle, muttering to himself. He seemed very ticked off about something, hence the sporadic  thumping of his leg. "How close is she?" he asked to seemingly nobody.

"Approximately 2 minutes until infiltration," a female speaker on the wall announced. "Prepare for a battle. Suggestion: equip laser cannon arm."

"Suggestion denied. She'll just fly over it and kick my ass," he grumbled. "Try again."

"Suggestion: use final project."

He stopped pacing for a moment. "…Suggestion approved. Begin preparation."

"Master Hunter, the risk rate of failure is 62%. Please reconsider-"

"I said, suggestion approved. Do you damn job," Hunter snarled, listening for the speaker to turn off before hopping over to a line of cages. He smirked down at a particularly large cage, watching it shake with badly held back power. 

"Keep fighting, Tusk, but you aren't breaking out this time. Just trust your friend; she'll come be your hero again." The boat being held captive shook the cage more and yelled swears at Hunter, who only laughed in his face.

"Preparation complete," the speaker called, lowering a remote control with a button with a claw from the ceiling. Hunter took it and watched the claw slide back in before the next announcement came.

"Approximately 15 second until-" The speaker suddenly sparked out, and the door was smashed down. There stood Womba, posing proudly to intimidate the him. Hunter, however, seemed unfazed at most. 

"I see you've gotten faster," he mused, as if complimenting her. She only frowned and tensed up, before starting to walk forward. "Ah ah ah, no need for that look. You're here for Tusk, and I have him right here. But we agreed on a trade, did we not?"

Womba stopped walking and seemed confused. "What? That's news to me," she mumbled, looking over her shoulder as the monkey from before ran in. He bent over and panted for breath, before feeling the stares on him.

"W-Womba, I forgot to tell you… Y-You need to trade a Ring… t-to get Tusk…" he painted, obviously not used to having to run. He searched the bag he had on his back and pulled one of the small rainbow colored gems. He tried to smile at Womba, but only got a scowl in return.

"Ah, there it is. Alright, give it here," Hunter ordered, admiring the shimmering jewel from afar. Springer hesitantly walked forward and handed the gem over, Womba standing behind to make sure nothing went wrong. Both of the heroes jumped at the sound of an iron grate swinging open, and Hunter simply stepped out of the way as a boar barreled past him with tusks raised.

Spring shot his tail out with unseen flexibility and caught the raging boar with it, pulling him over with a bit of effort. "Tusk, calm down!" the boy yelled, to which Tusk glared at him.

"I don't care! I'm gonna rip that stupid bunny a new one!" he roared. Hunter stiffened at being called a bunny, but forcibly took a breath to calm down. 

"You all can get going. I have what I want," he chuckled. He turned his back on them and started to stroll over to a machine sitting in the corner of the room. Womba looked at the group before stalking behind him, ready to strike.

Hunter flicked his long ears and easily heard her claws clicking in the metal floor. He had to work fast. He spun the golden item around his finger for a moment before pressing it into the machine. "There we are."

The whole room shuttered into mechanical whirls, and sirens started to blare in warning.  Hunter spun on his heel to face the group with a proud smirk. "Impressed? I've been collecting Rings for a long time, and that last Ring finally gave it enough power. Meet my final project- Terminator!"

The machine whirled at its name, but was interrupted by the speaker from before coming to life. "Risk rate at 82%. Please turn off Terminator," it pleaded, only getting an annoyed 'Shut up!' in response. The room started to heat up as red lights spun in the corners and the sirens got more excited. 

"Risk rate at 99%. Prepare for emergency shut-" The speaker was suddenly ejected from the wall from an unknown pressure. Womba and Hunter seemed startled, too startled to argue. Womba flew into a sprint for the door, but at that point it was practically molten and unable to be touched.

The parrot watching from above spotted it first. A small bubble of light grew from the floor and started to inflate, swallowing everyone in a blinding light. It took over the room, then the fortress, then it traveled over the lake at the fishing otter. 

He glanced up for a moment, before sighing in what seemed like exasperation.

"Now they've done it."

And everything went white.