The Chocolate Rabbit

A real anthro bunny coated in chocolate and sold as a life-size chocolate rabbit.  Can't get much more cliché than that.  And yet...

The warehouse of a particular candy factory was locked up for the night.  All was silent except for the echoing footsteps of two guards patrolling the interior, and their flashlights, plus the moonlight from the windows high up above, provided the only light.

From her perch up in the rafters, Screech, the Liberator of the Confined, watched the guards patrol.  She'd come here in search of a hare who'd disappeared during a tour of the candy factory; the surveillance clip of him getting knocked out, dipped in chocolate, and placed in a box persisted in her mind.

Let's see... the life-sized chocolate bunnies are in Section K.  That's right over there.  The guard's almost gone... now!

Screech let go of the rafter, flipped over, and opened her wings to glide.  With the silent grace of a mute swan, she touched down in front of the person-sized decorative cardboard boxes, not alerting a single guard to her presence.

Okay, I'm here.  Now... which of these boxes contains my target?  I don't have time to open all of them.

Stepping up to the nearest box, Screech gave it a slap with her wing, jostling it.  Besides the thud-thud of the box settling again, she got no response.  Deciding this wasn't the one, she left the box the way she'd found it, then moved on to the next and repeated the maneuver.

About five boxes down, the bat's ears perked up as they picked up the sounds of footsteps coming her way.  Reacting quickly, Screech flew up and perched well out of the guards' line of sight, waiting for them to leave again.

Phew... close one.

Screech returned to the boxes of chocolate rabbits as soon as the coast was clear, and smacked the next one.  This time, an extremely faint 'mmf!  mmf!' sound came from inside.  To normal ears it wouldn't have been anywhere near audible, but to Screech's enhanced hearing it was clear.

Aha!

Flying up to the top of the box, Screech carefully cut it open with her clawed fingers, revealing a rabbit-shaped object covered in foil.  Satisfied, she latched her talons around the rabbit's ears before flapping her wings intensely to pull the thing up out of its box.

At first she made no progress, but then the foil-covered rabbit budged upwards, then glided smoothly out.  Screech smiled in self-satisfaction as she raised her cargo up to the rafters, where she set it gently on a wide beam.

Gotcha!  Now to unwrap my present.

Screech made short work of the foil, finding the ends and removing it easily to expose the chocolate rabbit within.  He was posed like a mummy in an Egyptian tomb, his arms crossed over his chest and his legs close together.

The bat experimentally ran her claws over the chocolate shell, but according to subsequent inspection, she hadn't made a scratch.

Of course they'd use the "special" chocolate to enclose this poor guy.  Once it hardens, it's completely unbreakable... or so they say.  Nobody ever tests for destructive resonance.  I just have to find its frequency.

Standing close to the rabbit and wrapping one wing around it as if protectively hugging it, Screech began singing a harmonic scale towards it in sonar frequency.  (Clearly, she was one of a select few people who'd ever have a sane reason to sing to a chocolate rabbit.)  At a particular note, it vibrated strongly in response, and she stopped.

There!  That's my frequenc-- "EEEYAAAAH!"

Screech's train of thought was interrupted by a sudden blast of light in her eyes, forcing her to scream and shield her face in her wings.  One of the guards' flashlight beams had found her.

"See, Bruce?" one of the guards (a gray wolf) told the other (a brown bear).  "I told you I heard something."

Right, Screech mused.  My sonar screeches are out of normal hearing range, but I guess a wolf could've heard them.

The bat was forced to take cover as a POP-POP-POP sound filled the air.  The bear was wielding a special marshmallow gun, filled with super-sticky giant 'mallows.  This weapon was an exclusive to the candy factory's security force; a hit with one of those could leave someone stuck in gooey, sticky marshmallow for days.

Screech flew from left to right, but couldn't shake the flashlight's beam, and with it the marshmallow gun was still firing strong.  She dove behind stacks of boxes, but the wolf and bear ran after her.

I've... got... to... get... rid... of... them!

After ducking right around a corner, Screech landed in a crouch.  Then, as soon as the two guards got close to her, she flapped her wings and whizzed between them.  The light from the wolf's flashlight got in the bear's eyes, and the bear let out a stray shot, covering the wolf in marshmallow from the waist down and effectively gluing him in place.

"Bruce, you klutz!  Look what you've done!  My children are going to be marshmallow-flavored for generations!"

"What?  Don't blame me!  You were the one who got the light in my eyes!"

As the guards argued, Screech flew back towards where she'd left the chocolate rabbit... only for another marshmallow shot to miss her by inches.  The bear had taken both the gun and the flashlight and was ready to finish the job, although having to hold both of them slowed down his aiming quite a bit.

Screech circled around, not caring that she knocked the rabbit off the beam in the process.  As she zigzagged left and right, getting closer and closer, the bear struggled to follow her movements, and missed every shot.

"EEEEEEEE!"

At that high-pitched screech, the bear was forced to drop everything and cover his ears, giving Screech the perfect opportunity to snatch up the marshmallow gun and turn it on its former user.

"Son of a--"

POP!  SPLAT!  The bear was immobilized, just like his wolf companion.

The guards out of commission, Screech returned to where the chocolate rabbit had landed.  Incredibly, despite its two-story drop onto a concrete floor, it seemed completely undamaged.

Impressive.  I bet if they sold that chocolate stuff to construction companies instead of using it to seal up innocent people, they'd make millions.  Oh well... where was I?

Recalling the resonance frequency she'd deduced earlier, Screech took a deep breath, then held a perfect note.  The rabbit vibrated, then began to crack apart, revealing telltale signs of fur beneath.

As soon as she ran out of breath, Screech inhaled again before letting out another screech like the last.  The chocolate shell broke into two pieces, then three, then four.  As each piece became small enough to remove, she yanked it off and tossed it aside.

Finally, the prize inside was revealed.  He was a sand-colored hare with brown eyes; his arms and legs were bound up, his mouth was covered with tape, and his only clothing was a pair of briefs.  No sooner had Screech cut and removed his bonds than the rabbit rose to his feet and stretched his arms and legs.

"Uuuugh... thank y'all plenty, bambina," he greeted the bat in an obvious cowboy accent.  "I thought I was destined to be stuck in there 'til the cows came home."

"Think nothing of it, sir.  It's what I do.  We need to get out of here, so follow me closely."

As Screech led the rabbit out of the warehouse, he opened his mouth again.

"What do y'all call yerself, bambina?"

"They call me Screech."

"Charmed.  Mah name's Alfred, but mah pals call me Apple.  How'd y'all find me?"

"I got a tip that you'd disappeared after touring the candy factory, and found you getting encased in chocolate on the surveillance videos.  I must say, that was the first time I'd ever seen a chocolate-covered Apple."

Alfred had never groaned so loudly in his life.