GANG of HOPPERS
My brothers and I in the ZooKzin War
by Dori Hopps

Written by Dan Rush

(c) Zootopia 2016 Walt Disney Cooperation.

For fandom enjoyment only. No money to be earned nor desired. All rights of the creators respected.

Chapter 1

(Tribute page) 

In loving memory of Mamma and Poppa who watched our every step. We all made it home as promised.

In memory of Captain Oakley who passed not long after this book went to publishing. You made our company a force to be feared.

To all my buddies in “Rattle Tail” company. “Semper Bro-tus....Rah!”

Especially.....to my brothers Owen, Powen, Nori and Ori....family is strong but broods are tougher than steel.

(Foreword)

     There’s something mythical in Rabbit lure about a mother’s last brood of children. Mother rabbits can be amazing, having hundreds of children within a span of thirty years from the time they’re ready to have their first batch of kittens to their last one. They are masters of organization, supreme jugglers of child rearing and nurturing, extra soft and fuzzier than any bed. The last brood of a rabbit mother though is special to her for she knows that her work in the world is done...the last bottles of rich rabbit milk....the last changes of diapers....the last time to see a first hop, that first wobbly two legged walk...to hear that first “Mama!”....the first little scrape on the skin and tender kiss of a boo boo....the last time she can spoil and coddle little fluffy fuzzy tummies, wipe drooling little noses and feel gentle little “kissy nips” on her cheeks. All of her children are priceless but the last brood is a good pull on her heart strings.

     The last brood is said to have the very best of both mother and father, and sometimes maybe the father’s really bad habits that drive his wife crazy. Our father certainly threw what he had left at all of us and by the time we were out of diapers and past toddling? We were bothersome terrorists to the neighborhood to say the least. Rabbit families are very tight, they have to be when you’re in a huge house containing hundreds of us from the elders of our clan to the new babies. You’re not out of your first diaper before you’re carrying dishes all over the place, giving menus for family breakfast, lunch or dinner times or washing hundreds of dishes and utensils a day. Every rabbit in a Burrow family is expected to pull his or her fluffy butt for the good of the house. The  hard work ethic and responsibility is learned very early in life.

       Within the family, there’s the broods. Family is close nit but broods within a family are separated tight gangs of siblings all juggling to be the important one that’s noticed by Mom and Dad. Broods often fight other broods, oldest against the youngest, females against females, males against males...fights and scuffles for “turf” and “treats” are sometimes bruising. But it’s an accepted family function...competition breeds toughness and “Stickiness” which are requirements for when we leave the big house to go on our own in the world to build our own big warrens or find our nitch in the great “Spoke and Cog” of Zootopia.

      And then comes....war. No one in Zootopia wanted it. Everything that could have been done to stop it had been tried in vain. The Kzinti decided to attack us and when their rockets started landing in Bunny Burrow and the Tri-lands? There was no option but to fight. My brothers and I joined the Zootopia Fleet Marines prior to the first Kzinti rocket assault and we served in almost every campaign across the Great Eastern Sea to the final annihilating invasion of the Kzinti home island.

      My brothers Owen, Powen, Nori, Ori and I had promised our parents we would make it through and get home because we were the last brood, the toughest brood and we were Hopp’s bunnies. Stu and Bonnie Hopp’s kittens and a “Gang of Hoppers” don’t take casualties....we make casualties happen. We don’t run with our ears “pinned” and our tails tuck, we make the enemy run and he runs until he dies tired. We five made it home but over 2.5 million sons and daughters of “Prince Rabbit” did not....they offered every pelt, tooth and claw to their last breath to defend every Burrow, warren and bunny.

      Their stories and their sacrifices will never be forgotten, which is why I wrote this book. Our family is so much bigger than one house in the Burrow. Every bunny from every family.....is our kin. As Prince Rabbit says in the old testimonials...Let us have rancor till fox and wolf come and then....let them have our teeth.

Chapter One
From Swaddle to steel helmets
Birthday and brats

    We came into the world at 9:37am, May 13th 2021 in the family warren of the Hopp’s family farm in Bunny Burrow, the last five kittens of two hundred and eighty seven children of Bonnie and Stewart Hopps. The birth’ing room was packed with rabbits....except old Gramps Earl, he wouldn’t share a room with a dirty fox. Our elder sister Judy had married a fox she had met in the city as a police officer and he was there with their son Jackson when Mom decided to “pop”. Looking at the picture of all these bunnies with cell phones taking pictures of where Mom’s water broke makes me laugh my tail off still. Bunnies are notoriously curious about everything and unashamed to take pictures of places you might consider....worth some respectful privacy?

     “The first one! The first one! Smile Mamma!” My older sister Clara yelped as she hopped with joy at the first “crowning”....Mom however wasn’t in a jovial mood....she was too busy “straining” and she felt Owen was digging his “claws into the works” Our oldest brother’s always been a bit stubborn in things.

     The first to emerge into the light was Owen, Owen Earl Hopps, and naturally who ends up being the bossy one of the brood? The first born. All of us shared the same base fur color, a light umber brown, which we got from our mom’s side of the family from our grandfather Earl. Owen’s coat was unique in that it had splotches of various colors all over it from black to khaki to white to wood red, thus Dad nicknamed him “Splotchy” which the rest of us in the brood changed to “Plotchy” because as you’ll find out...Owen’s great at “plotting” or “scheming” things.

        The second of us to come out was Powen, Powen Elliot Hopps. He has a khaki blonde thick tuft of hair and a white cheek puff. He picked up his nickname “Ka, pow, pow” when he first handled a rifle at six years old and amazingly....Powen bulls eyed his first five shots before Dad could teach him anything! He just took the rifle in his paws and banged away...a solid natural! He’s the calmest one of us with this “knack” for guessing and estimating things. Sometimes he’s so calm you worry he’s just going to go nutzoid without warning, even when we were in the thick of things in the war, Powen was as calm as undisturbed water. Nori always claimed Powen was possessed with “mellow” spirits.

       Then came myself, Dori Michael “Door door”, and my brother Nori “Gorvilla, Bear Bear" Sherman Hopps. I was the smaller of us with a white head tuft and white cheeks while Nori came out with a deep black head tuft and khaki cheeks.  We came out at the same time. No kidding, we came out of Mom “Paw n Paw” in a hug snuggle. Bunny lore says that two siblings that come into the world like this are going to be super close and they make the brood’s bonds stronger because one will do anything to protect the other and thus protect the whole brood. And Nori and I indeed fit the description pretty well. Nori’s a brute, though he’s a little shorter than Owen he’s all muscle and a little head strong which I had to sometimes tamper down a little. Nori could be foolishly brave. I would consider myself a softer more compassionate sort of rabbit which is why I wanted to be a doctor since I was like four or five. Though I’m not the “the babe” of the brood, everybody else treated me like some tea cup that absolutely had to be kept from getting chipped, which means... I didn’t get to play in some of the crazy pranks and shenanigans the other ones did. I could not get into trouble to save my fluffy butt. I guess the others perhaps had an advanced “ink” of our future and they encouraged me to chase my dream of being a Doctor with vigor, which meant I had to remain spotless and blameless....a majority of the time.

       Last of us, the real “babe of our brood” is Ori Albert Hopps or “Spanky” the one who takes few things seriously and suffers from an obsession we think happened at birth. Dad told us that Ori wasn’t breathing when he came out so Judy’s husband Nick (The Fox) Wilde tried mouth to mouth and it wasn’t working so Daddy spanked Ori a few times on the butt and he cried....

     Then he stopped breathing.....

     Then Daddy spanked him again......

     Then Ori stopped breathing again.....

     Then Daddy wrapped him in a towel and laid him in a basonette and he cried......loud!.....till Dad spanked his butt again to make him stop crying.....then Ori giggled and laughed his tail off.

      “This one is going to be a little wise tail.” Dad said to Nick. He was right too...Ori was the one of us who always got into trouble and as a result....he got spanked.....alot. You.....see where I’m going with this right? That’s why we call him “Spanky”. Ori is very light-hearted and jovial, loves to crack jokes, play foul pranks and can always turn some messed up situation into a comedy play of some sorts. We always worried about giving him things like grenade and rocket launchers because he almost killed old Mister Gideon Gray in the insane hours after the first Kzinti rocket assault on Zootopia.

      As I said before....it’s not long after you get good at “toddling” over a floor that you pull your weight in the family environment. A house the size of a Bunny Burrow family warren is a never ceasing hive of activity 24 hours a day with half the family up at night and the other half up during the day tending to the farmland, the farm animals, the family store or working in the massive kitchen and dining room that supplies everything from coffee, carrot cakes, full course meals and the every day celebrations of birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and wakes and life celebrations.

      That’s where we learned the essentials of teamwork...Me and Nori washing the dishes, Ori and Powen drying them and Owen being the fuzzy dick head who rejected them for any little spot...which usually resulted in the four of us in all out rebellion against our “know it all slave master” which resulted in a huge watery mess all over the kitchen floor! And of course we all blamed Ori for starting it. After a while, Dad caught on and whipped all our buns blue. Oh the laughter of wet diaper flinging and fighting, saucer tosses and sink jumping challenges when five little baby bunnies get to drowning, kicking and smacking each other over some silly little scruff....like Ori stealing my Cookie Monster stuffed doll or Nori telling Owen he was “dork puss”.

       Perfect angelic spring bunnies we were not all the time but never call us disrespectful to Mom and Dad. Every birthday and anniversary was a contest between us to “out-gift” each other when it came to our parents and often it was the most simple and inexpensive thing that was the most prized and praised. Nori and I always went for the simplistic and in this...Nori showed he had a gift for “tinkering” with things, especially machines.

      Once for our father’s birthday....Nori and I worked to fix up Dad’s old worn out farm tractor....which hadn’t moved from the family barn in years. Dad had long bought a newer one years ago but because the older one was dear to him, as it had been our grandfathers before he owned it, he had refused to send it to the junkers’ yard. Nori and I stood fast in determined dedication to bring it back to life....and we weren’t even ten years old yet!

     Nori practically emptied Dad’s tool shed and found the old “Chitters" manual for the tractor on-line. While Ori, Owen and Powen kept Dad distracted during the day....Nori and I worked on the old tractor for two weeks up to Dad’s birthday.

     So when we didn’t show for his birthday cake presentation that day, Dad looked all over for us and there he found us both....covered in dirt ,oil grease and “guck” sleeping in each others paws on the straw in the barn and near by was the old tractor looking just as good the day grandpa gave it to him. Dad didn’t have the heart to try and start it until we both woke up from our nap and he cried as we snuggled him. It was best birthday any of his children could have given him. One of the nice “bright spots” when we weren’t all making mischief and getting into “fixes” which Dad wasn’t shy about “correcting with vigor”.

     I wanted to be a doctor since the first time I actually could understand what a doctor was. My brothers were terrified of getting shots, even Ori mastered the Olympic sprint getting chased by Mom as he ran “bottomless” out of the small family clinic in town screaming his fear of “The big needle” but I was fascinated by the whole thing, I would sit and watch the needle go in and the fluid inside drain in my veins and point out the particulars to Owen.....who being the brave brood leader he was....flopped over in a faint like a wimp.

      I started going to the clinic whenever I had time to myself out of chores and hijinks to watch and ask a ton of questions of the family doctor...what’s this do? How do you fix a broken arm? What’s that for? I even got to watch a birth or two...the descriptions I told my brothers caused them to scratch their heads in confusion...when we were younger, my mother told us that baby rabbits came in colorful baskets with colored eggs all around them. Funny we’d believe those old fairy tales when there were plenty of photos in the family albums to say other wise right? But of course we were too busy stealing pies and doing other things to even look at pictures. We often did things on the spur of the moment without ever thinking through the “cause and effect” portion of the plot....

      Like the time we thought, when we were all eight years old, that with a little team work we could drive Dad’s favorite pick up truck. Me sitting on Nori’s shoulders operating the steering wheel. Owen working the shifter, Ori the clutch and Powen the brake and gas pedal....piece of cake!

      Nope.....cake flopped over in the oven. We drove out of the farm while everyone was eating dinner, sped down the road and “ZOOM!” right into the Sasafrass River! The truck sank to the bottom...up popped Owen, then Ori, Then me, then Powen.....no Nori?!

     Owen pushed me and Ori towards the shore then dove down with Powen to bring Nori up.....waterlogged and unconscious! My first medical emergency, time to strut my medical wisdom! Ori’s already moving Nori’s arms up and down like you see in them cartoons....”That’s not how you do it!” I screeched!

    “Check for breathing, check for pulse, sweep the mouth with a paw finger....breath!”

     “What are you doing?!” Owen yelped at me.

     “He’s kissin him? What good is kissin your brother gonna do?” Powen snorted. “Ewww.....he’s doin incest.” And Powen’s supposed to be the real smart one of us right?

     “Ewwwwww.....Nori’s gonna whoop you.” Ori said as he cringed. “Are you giving him your tongue?” He asked.

      “Shut up and pound on his chest Ori!” I snapped. I started to cry thinking my brother was dead....till he slapped me in the snoot...

      “WHAT THE HELL YOU KISSIN ME FOR DORI?!” Nori screamed in my face as he shot up to a sit! 

      Owen sat shaking his head....”Daddy is gonna kill us! He’s gonna stuff apples in our mouths and cook us like spring turkey.”

     “Nah ah!” Ori yelped. “Follow my lead!”

     “Oh great....” I jested. “We’re as good as skinned alive now.”

     Ori led us back to the house where Dad and Mom were trying to find out where the truck was and went into this movie performance of a life time! “DADDY! WAAAAAAAH! MAAAMAAAA!! WAAAH!”

      Mom snatched Ori up...”What happened? Why are you all wet?”

      “This big bad bear tried to steal the truck!” Ori cried. “An.....an.....and we tried to stop him! And.....we.......we forced him off the road and he crashed the truck in the river! And we all went swimming! And he tried to drown Nori!”

       You think we all didn’t know how deep we just dug ourselves a ditch? But you know.....all for one and one for all.....”It’s true Daddy!” “Yeah Paw...it happened like that!” “It sounds true.” And woosh! We all jumped into the fire...that’s what brood brothers are supposed to do...

        Please don’t follow our poor example?

       To make matters a little more comical? We blamed Mister Baloo, the local pilot who does the crop dusting of all the Burrow farms...of course he just happened to be the only bear in all of Bunny Burrow right? Perhaps we should have taken into account.....I dunno? size comparison?

      The police brought Mister Baloo over to the farm after the truck was pulled out of the river and of course? Mister Baloo couldn’t possibly fit in the cab. But being the jovial bruin he’s always been known for, he comically explained to everybody how he pulled off his dastardly deed with his “wittle wonder claws”....

      “It’s kinda difficult trying to ballance on these bunny trucks but when you’ve stollen plenty of them as I have? You learn your claws are you best friends. See I always wanted a pair of power skates to get around town and bunny pick up trucks are sort of the in fashion these days among us cultured Grizzly bears.”

       You bet none of us five were smiling....save Ori that sick little cuss.

     Perhaps the poorest victim of our brood’s brattish behavior was old Gideon Gray, the big fox who was the Burrow’s best baker and cook by far. It’s Mister Gray’s fault he made such wonderful pies that we couldn’t resist going after them. This is where we became experts at covert warfare before we were old enough to enlist. Stealing pies from Mister Gray became an exercise in Planning, deception, coordination, logistics and “enterprises of action” as Captain Oakley would call some of our assignments in the theater.

      And of course with such intricate “enterprises of action”....you had to sacrifice some one. And guess who was always the sacrificed lamb? Ori of course, we engineered it so Ori always got caught because as he put it....”Mister Gray was never restrained to “whack for the fence”

    Told you Ori was.....strange.

     My role in many of our elaborate thefts was to be the innocent diverter, the bunny that did no wrong, that came to do chores or things for Mister Gray like mow the lawn or paint the rail fence. I was the cute angel bunny who lured Gideon in one direction while my brothers came in and “swooped” the latest “tongue drooler” right out of the oven or off the window sill. And there we’d all be in a wood lot or by the creek or in some old farm barn gorging ourselves until we were “plumped” and sleepy and we could hear in the distance Ori getting “caught and well served” by Mister Gray’s big fox paws....summers were always full of fun.

     Owen always made it a promise that we’d pay Mister Gray for his pies in some way such as sneaking out of the house at night to do some sort of work around his big farm or leaving him gifts around the winter celebration for foxes called “Foxafallia”. It’s always wrong to take something without some sort of restitution, you can’t have Ori’s behind always taking the abuse as payment....but try telling Ori that.

       The first pulls of love hit us all at the same time late in grade school with a foot thumping beauty of a female rabbit named Daisy Bella Mae. She was a shiny white/pink bunny with the sweetest, softest pelt and the brightest yet softest turquoise eyes. Her dove-like voice caused all our throats to crack just from “Wolf howling” to her out of ear shot...thus caused the “Great Brown Brood War” where to win her paw and fancy? We kicked the ever loving bunny tails out of each other, even the close bondship between Nori and I came to blood flying blows as each of us sought time and advantage to make Daisy Belle our “tender Skittles”, nothing was off the table....theft, cheating, trickery or a carefully placed sleeping pill. I even died my hair black and my cheeks khaki just so I could embarrass Nori out of the running by posing him to Daisy as....”A bunny of the female persuasion.”

       Of course Nori just had to be resistant to those sleeping pills. The only one who seemed to escape the fray of combat was “Pow Pow”, he among all of us seemed to be disinterested which got Owen worrying about his “Wool-ness”. While me and the others were engaged in male rabbit “one-up-ship”....Powen would completely disappear, which after a while got us all curiously interested in a single purpose again as a brood to put our wayward brother back on the proper track with the “female bunny population.”

      We would follow “Pow Pow” at a distance every day at the same time after school...3pm...and every day he did the same thing, he went into the public library and sat....reading books.

       “Sheesh.....” Owen said to the rest of us after repeated followings. “Powen’s gonna be a “dopey book nerd” his whole life.”

       We all agreed...but we didn’t feel right to interrupt with the course of nature so we paid Powen no further mind and left him to his fate.....till one day we all decided once and for all who among us four brothers was going to have the right to court Daisy. We chose to decide it in true bunny fashion....stripped to our shorts, we started beating each other senseless in a mud puddle. I thought I was holding my own and gaining good ground.....till “Pow Pow” tapped me on my shoulder....

      “What are you all doing?” He asked in his usual calm voice. We all looked at him and there with him paw in paw was......Daisy?

      Ori, Owen, Nori and I stood drop jawed...All that advice we got from Dad about “physical presentation and impressment” when it came to females? In this case? It was a big fat flop.

     Powen bent down and calmly said to us....”Would you all please get out of that mud? You’re kind of embarrassing me?”

     We showed that floppy eared, droopy eyed smart mouth what embarrassment was....but he still got Daisy. You never seen a more perfect match made by Frith.

     The idea of us going into the Fleet Marines together, as Mom would say, could be blamed on the “idiot box” which she always took painstaking precautions to limit our exposure time with. Well Mom? You could have not allowed us all to watch “Wombat!” monday thru Friday at 4pm on Channel Fifty Fox.

      We ran home after school with our bushy tails on fire through everyone’s yard and carrot patch to get in front of the television for the latest episode of “Wombat” with “Vic Burrow” and the rabbits of Company B fighting against those dang “NahZee wolves” in the Great Hundred Years War....

“Ohhhhhhh....we’re the scrappin bunnies of the fightin 54th!”

“In the best dang company “B" we go and sally forth!”

“We’ll be fightin every day!”

“To make them Nahzees pay!”

“With our claws and our guns...we’ll make those Nahzees run!”

“With a grrrrrrrrrr......grrrrrrrr......an angry bunny grrrrrrrr!”

“Grrrrrrrr ...grrrrrrrr.......an angry bunny grrrrrrrr!”

      At that time, we were all in our teens and we had no thought nor clear idea about the Kzinti across the Great Eastern Sea, you’re not really concerned about that when the coast of Zootopia is like a gazillion miles from your front door. We didn’t have any idea as to what things were like between Zootopia and Kzin, all we thought was the Fleet Marines looked sort of cool and you got to go different places...that was the big draw....none of us, no matter how much we adored our parents, wanted to be on a farm all our lives, going to the same places in town every day seeing the same tress, the same farm fields, the same rabbits. The images on the television of Marine uniform dressed rabbits walking the far beaches of the Outback Islands had our bushy tails wagging like crazy, we could not deny our spirits for adventure.

     So we started reading about the Fleet Marines, grabbing pamphlets at the local Zoo-penny and dime stores...Nori had me bought and sold...”Look Door! Door! You can go to medical school and they’ll pay for it!” And we started to eat it up...marching in a line, tallest to shortest rabbit, all over the place. Saluting everything living and non-living, even going out into the wood lots to shoot Powen’s 22 rifle till we all could hit well at seventy yards to qualify as sharp shooters to the Marine qualifications...

     Of course....by the time we were thinking of telling Mom and Dad we were going to enlist together.....things about Kzin had become too glaring to look over. We told our parents on December 4th 2039 that all of us were joining the Fleet Marines and.....well you know.....

    “You?…..all of you? Joined the Fleet Marines?" Mom said. Dad looked as if we’d hit him with a 2 by 4. Our nephew Jackson, who was already in the Navy, shrank in his chair to avoid the possible “in coming” cross fire certainly due inbound by this shocking news.

     "Well yeah Momma..." Nori replied as casual as he usually does to everything. "It's like….Owen signs and we're gonna sit on our butts?"

     Dad got up from his chair and pounded the table..."So you boys just up and do this without talking to your mother and I first? Don't you think we have the right to weigh in on this?"

    "Didn't think we'd need any permission Pa?" Ori replied. "I mean….we are of the age to decide ourselves aren’t we?"

    I said snickering at Ori...”Some of us are old enough any way.” I then gestured to our parents....”Mom? Dad? You know I want to be a doctor and the Marines will give me a free schooling for it! I could stay in for like eight years and make medical officer, come home and have my own practice.”

     Dad replied....”That’s perhaps a nice thing Dori but you all just went and did this without telling us? Don't you think your mother and I deserve that respect to voice our thoughts?"

     Owen replied to Dad..."Your thoughts Paw would have been…."Hell no! I forbid you!" Owen snorted. "We don't wear Pampers any more Daddy! We're old enough to decide what we want to do with our lives and we saw the Marines as the best way to make our own foot in the world. That's what you said yourself....boys? If you don't want to be farmers then be willing and ready to make your way in the world as you see fit. Your words Paw!"

      Mom was pretty upset.....obviously given what was going on at the time. "You're my babies!" Bonnie yelped. "My last brood, my youngest children..."

     Powen with his usual calm walked over and gave Mom a hug.... "We love you mother but like Owen said? We don't wear diapers any more. We're grown Bunnies now and us five don't want to spend our lives picking carrots."

     Sometimes Powen’s not skilled with diplomatic word crafting...our Dad took what he said as a slap in the puss....

    "Powen Hopps! You shut your trap!" Dad snarled. "There's nothing wrong or degrading or worthless about carrot farming."

     "I didn't say that Paw." Powen replied. "But you're trying to treat us the same as you treated Judy when she wanted to be a police officer. Well we're going to be Marines because if Judy could go through the police academy and put you both in your places? We're going to do the same thing!"

     That just made the announcement a complete disaster. Mom ran out of the dinning space crying. Worse yet? Mister Gray was present with our nephew Jackson and Gideon never holds back his tongue...

     "Dang it Owen...the rest of you boys too….This was a terrible time and place to tell your parents you enlisted." Gideon said.

     Owen snapped back at old Gid and called him a “Vulpine retard” which would have started quite a fist fight if Jackson hadn’t jumped in  front of Gideon and socked Owen in his mouth....

     "Owen? You want to kick my tail?!” Jackie snapped. “My father is a fox, Uncle “Oh Oh”...so you watch who you throw your “retard" insults at!"

       Jackson defused a potentially bloody situation. Being the oldest of the brood. Owen had to pick up the pieces of what we wanted to be a proud moment in our lives. Once again....we didn’t think about the “current world situation” with Kzin so....we might be a little forgiven for piss poor timing.

      Owen went up to Mom’s sewing room where she sat looking over patterns for another brood of expected grand children and presented his remaining butt for her to destroy. Dad took the other half when Owen tried to talk to him, which he got a nice black eye to show off before boot camp...

"Care to have the rest of this baked bunny with glazed fur?" Owen said to her.

Mom’s much bigger than us by far. A mother rabbit is always bigger because of course....she’s a walking factory right? She snatched Owen off his feet and pulled him over her lap....

"Guess you were right about getting big Owen?" Mom told him.

"You were hoping we'd stay longer. Mom? We've been less than perfect angels. You know well we never wanted to stay on the farm, we've been free spirits since we were kittens." Owen said to her as Mom had him sit in her lap....

"My my… You boys made my last brood so interesting.” Mom said as she petted Owen’s chest. “You've all been such independent little tuffs. Remind me so much of Judy. I knew you'd all leave the house when you were of age, I expected it….except the Marines? Quite the shock."

Owen gave her a kiss...."Who else can tame your wild sons? We'll all be serving in the light and medium artillery regiments. The Marines will just give us the structure and discipline we need to take over the world." Owen said smirking. "Then we can install our mother as empress with all the fine trimmings."

Mom bop’d Owen off his head...."You did act hastefuly Owen...but so typical of you boys. I'm….well of course I am apprehensive….a little scared…..not frightened out of my skin but… scared none the less. And you all had better be on good behavior because I'm sure if one of you end up being kicked out? It won't be long before the other four follow suit and I will never hear the end of it from the neighbors."

"We're not looking to fail Mom.” Owen said as he hugged Mom tight. “We want you to be proud of us just like you were proud of Judy, that matters everything to all of us. Dad will come along eventually...he's probably crying his cotton tail off right now."

“Or he’s steaming and the next one to walk in on him is going to catch hell.” Mom replied smirking. “Sure enough...who’s screaming up a storm but? Ori. Told you he didn’t come out of the womb right in the head.

    So on August 1st, 2040 came the day we were all going to boot camp in Savanna Central. Owen got me out of bed and pushed me to the bathroom to take a quick shower....actually it would have been quick if the others didn’t steal all the hot water and suds. We all came down to eat the breakfast Mom made for us and we wondered if Dad would come too see us all off. He had cool’d a little since we told Mom and him but he still wasn’t easy with the idea one bit.

      We were pretty much done when Dad finally showed up and hugged Owen tight....

      "My boys." Dad said as he stood with his paws on his hips. "No chance getting a sudden change of mind is there?"

"Nope." Owen replied.

"No way." I said.

"Ah ah." Nori said.

"Can't renig it." Powen said.

"Spank us and it might happen." Ori said smirking.

Dad grabbed Ori’s ear and shook his head...."Ori? You better not be the one to get kicked out of boot camp for acting silly you hear me?" Dad walked around the table and shooked each of us on our shoulders. "Now….take care of each other you hear me?" He said with a shaking finger. “I want no failures. You’re all Hopps bunnies, which means you win and you don’t stop trying...you understand me?”

We all nodded back seriously.

"We will Dad." Owen said. "We've done pretty well so far."

"You done pretty well getting into trouble." Dad replied to Owen. "I am expecting your youthful silliness not to repeat itself in the Marines. Those wolves are pretty tight and adamant about having to share their service with bunnies."

"Those tongue laggers are all mouth and slobber and no bite." Nori snorted. "We ain't never gotten into a fight with just one brother paw. I'm not scared of their so called "pack mentality". They want "pack mentality" wait till they see us angry flat teethers coming after them. Huh bros?"

Dad gave Nori a light head slap. "That attitude I don't want to see! Boys? Marine boot camp is not a joke, you all need to treat it with seriousness! Then wolves will want you to fail just like the police academy tried their damn best to make your older sister wash out. You boys need to be just like Judy...all smarts, focus and attention more than looking for the next elementary school fight."

"Heavens to Great Frith paw!" Ori snorted. "You're talking to us as if we're all still in pre-school?" Ori turned around in his chair and lightly patted his behind. "Does this mean you'll give me a good parting spank paw? Come on Maw, swing for the fence!"

Dad turned to Owen. "Especially watch Ori? Frith!...this one will get into trouble hoping the Marines practice spanking as a form of discipline!..."

"They don't?" Ori replied. "Oh snit...I've been jip'd!"

"He's just funnin you Dad." I said as I chewed on a muffin. "I'm going to Make it to Medical Corpsman’s school, I won’t let you down.”

Bonnie walked up and hugged and kissed me..."You've always been the most caring and the less trouble."

"You suck up!" Nori snorted. "He's less trouble Ma because he's a suck up!"

"This suck up patched you up a lot when you got stupid Nori." Owen 
snorted. "Like that time you twisted your testicles after that crazy bike crash?"

Everyone cringed…."Owen!" Dad snorted. "Damn boy! Not at the dining tables please?!"

"What Daddy? I was only telling the truth. Damn Nori twisted his nuts like a pair of Kerbangers hanging from a high tension line. Speaking of Kerbangers? You and Maw did do that to our toys! And we haven't forgiven you two yet!"

"I cried for a week." Owen snorted.

"I didn't miss em." I said.

"I was having the shakes without em." Nori huffed.

"I was waiting for a good spanking!" Ori yelped.

"Well…." Owen said with a raised paw. "We forgive you Maw and Paw. We realize now how dangerous they were in our young, disobedient and irresponsible paws. Right boys?"

"Speak for yourself there doof-ball." Nori snorted back. "Throwing em up on the lines without telling us was just all wrong."

I tapped Nori on the shoulder. "Now get right in Momma's face and say it? Come on there "ball twister"…." He snorted.

Nori got out of his chair, walked up to Mom, crossed his arms and started to say..."Mama?…." But the toughness soon feel to affection as Nori pulled her into a hug…."Sigh….damn it Momma….we're gonna miss you!"

Each of us  in turn got up and joined the hug fest, leaving Dad to stand thumping his foot…."Dang….Does you Paw get any affection?"

"You know where you stand with us father." Ori replied as he broke the hug circle and hugged Dad. "We'll miss the hell out of you too paw."

"Well…." Stewart replied. "It's not forever. You boys all remember to "buck up" yourselves and each other. What have I always told you?"

Owen replied. "We're stronger together than apart."

Powen wrapped an arm around Owen. "Damn right. Inseparable and invincible."

I slapped Nori's shoulders. "One of us has to take responsibility for these other lunatics."

Ori snickered evilly…."We never got spanked enough."

We all turned their heads and shook back in confusion. "Ma Ma?" Owen snorted. "Can we put Ori back inside? I don't think he came out quite done right."

Soon the sound of the bus horn blew outside the front of the big house and Mom and Dad went to the door to see us off and into the world beyond the farm with tinges of worry as we paused one by one for a kiss, a paw shake and a hug. Owen was the last as he always was when the boys went out to do something crazy…

"Keep them sane and safe Owen." Stewart asked. "Bring them all home in one piece?….please?"

Mom  couldn't say anything so Owen kissed her gently on the forehead and rubbed his forehead over hers…." I promise momma...we'll all come home. You can count on that."

Owen gave her one last kiss then walked out towards the red colored Fleet Marine bus and what lay ahead for us all. I’m not ashamed to say I started crying...who didn’t.....even usually tough Nori had to struggle to hold back a cry snort as he hugged me into his side...

“I can already say it...Good morning Doctor Hopps.” Nori said to me confidently. “My brother Dori Hopps...Doctor of Medicine. That sounds so cool.”

   I quickly lost my sniffles and sat nervously patting my lap as the ride around became absurdly eternal. We went all over the tri-Burroughs picking up new recruits before heading for the “DPC" The District Processing Center where all the paperwork and initial stuff gets done. Owen, of course, was the extension of Dad...”No screwing around, be serious.....Ori? Behave!”

    There’s times when Ori’s cold serious, he knows when not to cut a fool. We all read up on the process ahead of time and agreed that when it came time for our interview...we’d go in together to make that all important impression of family unity. The Marines like that kind of spirit.
  
      Now the Zootopia Fleet Marines are “Canid heavy” especially with wolves. Wolves are proud that they lead the corps in numbers, after all the Zootopia Fleet Marines come directly from ancient Lupinian Rome’s “Sea Legions” or the “Floatius Legoon Maxima” and it’s dear in the heart, blood and soul of all “wolf-dom” so you can give them some forgiveness for looking down on mammals they don’t consider “up snuff” material. It’s the wolves who...when “the snit hits the fan”...do the bulk of the fist work along with other major predators. Rabbits are more support or scout/recon elements like the artillery section. That’s what my four brothers were looking to get into, the artillery scout section while I wanted Medical Corpsman.

     So, you enter initial processing where you fill out pounds of papers, get those first “uncomfortable” exposures to medical examination. Get your initial medical shots and then get interviewed by a Marine. That interview “washes out” a lot of “grime”, the Fleet Marines don’t want “non-hackers” and “Wa-bees” or “Wanna Be’s” getting to basic training. The interview tell them a lot about what they’re getting...

     Our going in together as a brood started the impression well. The interviewing Marine was a Captain and he noticed we all sat “ram rod stiff” in our chairs, chins level with the floor, faces serious yet with a little placid calmness. Yes even Ori behaved himself...

     “So?” The Captain asked. “Why do you want to be Marines?”

      Owen replied...”To make our parents proud of us Sir.”

      Powen said....”We’re all good shooters. We’ve practiced hard Sir! We want to do our part for our country.”

      I said...”I want to be a doctor and the Marines would be a good start.”
  
     Nori said...”I want to improve my mechanical skills.”

     Ori said....”They all think I need more structure in my life and they’re all joining up so...the Marines is where it’s at.”

     Yeah....we all gave Ori a look but the interview went smoothly. We would all go to basic together in the same recruit company. Those years of being coddled by my brothers did pay off though....my aptitude score not only qualified me for medical corpsman but for the advanced school in basic combat field surgery. I’d get to do actual “in the guts” “BDR” (Battle Damage Repair) like a medical surgeon! I felt like I was weightless with all the joy I felt.

     Then came time for the oath, a hundred or so rabbits, foxes, Tanuki, Wolves, otters and other mammals packed into an auditorium to await the enlisting officer. We were given instructions in how to act and stand and all that then finally the Marine Major came into the room and stood before us....

    “Fellow Zootopians. Welcome. You have all chosen to enlist in the Zootopian Fleet Marine Corps. This is your final chance to say no and go home. Once you swear this oath and your paws, claws and hooves drop? The only recourse to get out will be by legal means. We want teeth not “lettuce lickers” in our fine Corps.” The Major looked around. “That was not an offense to you bunnies out there, we have plenty who prove their claws. How many “Sons of Aden” do we have here today?”

     Many bunnies threw their paws up. Bunnies from Aden especially view the Fleet Marines with reverence, it’s part of Aden bunny culture. These tall and stocky hares from the highlands of the Tri-Burroughs are bewrapped with the Corps, to come home a Marine, for them, is a badge of great pride and they are some tough rabbits indeed.

     The Major regarded them...”Do well. I’m sure I don’t have to enforce how important honor is to you rabbits. Recruits? This is your last warning. We’re not going to treat you all lightly...you will face tough training, tough discipline and a lot of physical and mental abuse. Many of you will be “washed out” some of you may be processed out for physical or other ailments. Don’t feel disgraced...making it to basic itself is an achievement so if you must go because of something not of your control...don’t be ashamed. I’m sure you’re all aware of the world situation at the moment. There is the possibility of war though we all hope it can be avoided. You’re not joining a summer camp here, we don’t exist to sip Mai Tai’s and tongue kangy’s on the shores of the Outbacks....we exist to break things and fill ditches...once again, this is your last chance to leave.

Everyone looked at everyone else...Owen grabbed Powen’s paw and in turn we all took each other’s paws....nothing needed to be said, we just gripped each other’s paws hard and gave each other nods. We were in this thing together.

The Major put his paw up....”All recruits! Raise your paws, hooves and claws and repeat after me! I.....state your name.... Respectfully swear or affirm By your diety or none....To obey and perform all duties and orders of the officers appointed over me. To uphold the trust of my country to the best of my ability...to serve in her defense...to treat my fellow Marines with respect, honor and courtesy....to be a credit to my chosen diety...my country.....my family.....and myself. To disdain dishonor and to strive to be an example that others may follow in and out of uniform. To be prepared if needs be.....to lay down my life for the freedom of Zootopia from all enemies foreign and domestic. I make this oath without pressure nor for wrongful purpose. With this oath I am now bound to obedience. My chosen diety or those I love help me to remain strong, honest and truthful in the service I have chosen to given.”

    My chest was smarting I had it poked out so much. We all looked at each other, we had all chosen to jump both feet into it and we didn’t say anything to each other, just shoulder jabbed one another before we were told to get back onto the bus for another long ride. Next stop would be “MCRD” Marine Corps Recruiting Depot Savanna Central where we’d be “new meat on the plate” for our drool dripping “D.I.”s.

End of Chapter 1