Quick note before we get started. I apologize in advance if anything seems to be a little too like any of the other stories done with the original shock collar storyline. After reading through what's been done so far of Zistopia, I really wanted to do my own version of this alternate take on Zootopia's story. I'll try my best to make it as original as possible, but there are no guarantees.
It was a beautiful day inside the city of Zootopia. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and everyone was on their way to spend another day doing whatever they normally do.
However, things aren't exactly as perfect as you would think.
The only people inside of the city who were actually out on the streets were prey animals. The predators were nowhere to be seen, outside of a few scattered throughout the city limits, and even then they were all doing their best not to stand out.
All of the other predators that made up the minority of Zootopia's population were shunted off into an area of the city referred to as Happytown, but most of the predators that one spoke to would refer to it as the exact opposite.
"Happytown" was formerly the lower class part of the city, where crime ran rampant and amenities were barely serviceable to the animals that lived there. Ever since Mayor Bellwether asserted her power over the city, the prey occupants were allowed to move into the better looking parts of the city, while the predators were forced to move back to where they originally were.
Now, inside the boundaries of the least happiest place on Earth stood a fox, absentmindedly scratching at his neck every so often, where a collar sat.
"God, these things are really starting to bother me," he said to himself as he tried his best to reach his clawed finger under the strap.
The fox, whose name was Nicholas Piberius Wilde, could have easily just pulled the strap out a bit so he could easily reach under and get at that itch, but with how touchy things have been lately with it, he didn't want to risk it.
You see, the collar he had on was actually what was referred to as a tame collar, designed to give an electric shock proportional to the intensity of the wearer's emotions. According to Bellwether, it was intended to prevent predators from being able to bring out their primal instincts, but Nick knew that it was a bunch of bull.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could do, especially after they came so close to bringing her down. If it wasn't for his friend, a rabbit named Judy Hopps, getting knocked out and accidentally breaking her recording carrot pen, things would have been a lot better than they were now. Heck, they were both lucky to still be alive.
Sighing, Nick began walking, his paws in his pants pockets as he tried his best to keep his emotions in check. Being a confox for as long as he had been helped him really control his emotions (you need to if you want to be successful), but he'd seen way too many of his fellow preds get shocked to want to experience it himself.
"Where is he?" said Nick to himself, checking off into the street every so often as he walked.
He didn't have to wait too long, though, as a large van pulled up, coming to a stop as Nick clearly recognized the garish looking design on the side.
"Fin, where've you been? I've been waiting here for the past fifteen minutes!" said Nick as the window rolled down to reveal a fennec fox in the driver's seat, sunglasses covering his eyes as he regarded Nick with an air of disdain. The fox, named Finnick, also had a collar around his neck.
"I got stuck in traffic, alright? Just get in; we've got work to do."
Nick was more than happy to get off of the street, as he was beginning to get some strange looks from other predators due to all of the loitering he was doing.
After closing the door behind him, Finnick pulled the van out of its parking spot, heading down the road towards one of the boundaries between Happytown and the rest of Savannah Central.
"So…I'm guessing from the way you were talking just now means that you've got an idea for another con?" asked Nick, attempting to strike up a conversation.
This only earned the fox a slow eye roll from his partner, as the fennec sighed heavily.
"Christ, Nick, it's only been…what…two months? Have you forgotten how we do things already after working with that bunny cop?" he said, a smile tugging at his lips.
"Well, can you blame me? Carrots finally managed to convince me to do something with my life and join the force. If predators weren't banned from getting jobs with the police, I probably wouldn't even have been here," he said, slightly annoyed.
"Too bad that it did end up happening, though. Hey, at least we're back together."
"Oh sure, and you seem so happy to see me again," said Nick sarcastically, earning himself a glare from the fennec.
Thankfully, before Finnick could get himself riled up, Nick suddenly realized that they reached their destination, and he quickly signaled for this partner to stop the car.
"Seriously? Here?" asked Finnick, staring at Nick like he was crazy. "We're barely over the border!"
"Exactly. If we need to make a hasty escape, we won't have far to go before we get back to our side of town and get some backup from some of our friends."
"Who? Honey?" asked Finnick, sighing heavily once the shock wore off. "You do realize that ever since she got fired from her job at the Cliffside Asylum, she's been nuttier than a squirrel in a pile of acorns?"
Nick paused for a second, a little confused with Finnick's strange analogy, but he decided to move on before his head started to hurt.
"Hey, even if we do manage to get arrested, I'm sure we'll have our good friend Fluff to help us get out."
Finnick made a dismissive noise, knowing just how unlikely that was to be the case, but he couldn't help but wonder something now that the subject's been broached.
"Say, where is that rabbit anyway? You'd think that she would've come to visit every once in a while."
Nick paused, admittedly a little curious himself.
"You know, I really do not know. We never really traded phone numbers, so I guess things just kind of…fell apart?" he said, shrugging.
Nick honestly really didn't want it to be that way, but with the way things were going since they were thrown into this predicament, he at least had some reason to think so.
Sighing, Nick decided it was best not to think about it, so after readjusting his collar a bit (being careful not to trigger it accidentally), he threw himself into preparing for his new hustle.
Back in the main area of the city across from City Hall stood Precinct One, the main branch of the Zootopia Police Department that covers almost the entirety of Savannah Central.
Inside said building sat Judy Hopps, although she wasn't her usual overly enthusiastic self.
Ever since all of the predator officers were removed from their jobs and replaced with prey, she couldn't help but feel that things were way more oppressive than they used to be.
I mean, sure, the new officers were definitely nice enough, and Judy managed to get along with a fair share of them, but it just wasn't the same, and it was also a constant reminder of what could have been if one of Bellwether's rams hadn't knocked her out and destroyed the only object she had that could have brought the mad sheep down.
The only remaining cop besides her from the previous incarnation of Precinct One just happened to be Chief Bogo (as well as McHorn and Higgins), and while the cape buffalo was an intimidating specimen in his own right, he was also technically considered as prey, which saved his job. Still, with how surly the chief has been lately, he might as well have not been there for all it did for Judy's optimism.
Sighing, the rabbit hopped off of the chair she was standing on, having just finished lunch, and went back outside the precinct as she prepared for another round of patrolling the streets.
Unfortunately, patrolling the streets also gave Judy quite an eye full of the state that Zootopia was in now that Bellwether was here to stay.
As she drove her cruiser along the streets, looking for any suspicious activity, she couldn't help but notice the prey animals freely asserting their superiority over the predators now that they were for all intents and purposes safe from being eaten thanks to the collars.
The actions got progressively worse and worse as she moved on, before she nearly drove past a couple of prey children trying their best to rile up a predator kid so that his collar would go off.
Bringing the car to a stop, she could clearly hear all of the taunting that was going on, and she knew that she needed to put a stop to this.
"Hey! Break it up!" she yelled once she hopped out of the cruiser and began making her way over to the group.
The prey animals were immediately sent running, although her ears managed to catch them saying stuff that she knew would get them in trouble with their parents if they heard them saying it.
Putting that thought into the back of her mind, she quickly turned towards the pred child who was being taunted, only to be surprised when she noticed the look of terror on the little kid's face.
Quickly thinking of a plan to ease the young bear's concerns, Judy kneeled down so that the two of them were both eye-to –eye (which was admittedly not too far considering Judy was only about a foot taller than him), and she smiled.
"Hey, it's okay, little guy. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm an officer. My job is to help guys like you," she said, adopting a calm demeanor in the hope of making him feel better.
The kid still didn't say anything, but what got Judy a little worried was that his expression didn't change despite Judy's assurances of his safety.
"So, where are you parents? Did you lose track of them?"
The bear slowly nodded and Judy, smiling now that she got something out of the kid, stood up and held out a paw.
"Here, I'll help you find them."
The kid looked incredibly reluctant, no doubt remembering what his parents taught about not going along with strangers (which was even worse if they were prey), but the earnest look that Judy on her face combined with the cruiser that he could see across the street made him believe her, and he grabbed her hand with a surprisingly strong grip for someone of his age.
Judy was a little caught off guard by the hard grip on her paw, but she really didn't want to do anything to frighten the kid any further, so she led him back towards the cruiser and helped him into the passenger seat.
Once Judy had returned to her own seat and buckled in, she glanced over and felt her heart break as she saw the kid picking at his tame collar with one of his clawed fingers, a frown on his face.
As much as she wanted to say something to help alleviate what he was going through, she unfortunately couldn't think of anything to say, so she simply gave the kid's shoulder a light squeeze.
Thankfully, this seemed to do the trick, as the action managed to distract the kid from his collar as he looked up at Judy and smiled. It wasn't a full on smile, though, but Judy decided that it was probably best to take it as it was.
"So…what's your name?"
The kid looked noticeably surprised to hear the question, as he stared at Judy with confusion on his face.
"I need to know what your name is so I can find your parents."
The kid still looked a little reluctant, but after some silent prodding from Judy, he finally spoke some of the first words that she's heard from him.
"Jackson Grylls." he said, his voice almost coming out in a whisper.
Judy's eyebrows shot up a few inches as she heard the name come out.
"Wow, that's a pretty cool name," she said, her motherly voice still in full effect.
"Thanks," said the kid, his voice even quieter as he appeared to be a little embarrassed.
Judy gave the kid another smile before holding up a finger in the universal sign to give her a minute. Thankfully, the kid understood, and he remained silent as she reached over and pulled the speaker off of her radio, untangling the cord a bit before hitting the button.
"Dispatch, this is Officer Hopps requesting assistance."
"This is dispatch, Officer Hopps, what do you need?" said a male voice from the other end of the line.
Judy clearly recognized the voice coming from the other end, but she paused as she realized that she didn't remember the guy's name, only that he happened to be a gemsbok (not in any way related to one of her neighbors). She had only heard it in passing once, and she didn't really speak to him all that often considering he was the complete opposite end of the spectrum compared to Clawhauser, at least in terms of personality.
Releasing the button, she sighed heavily before deciding just to wing it and not refer to him by name.
"Dispatch, can you pull up contact information on a Mr. or Mrs. Grylls? I've got their son Jackson with me, and I'd like to get into contact with them so that I can reunite them."
"One moment, officer." said the gemsbok.
As Judy waited for a reply, she nearly swore when his name suddenly hit her. Thankfully, she managed to hold herself back from doing so considering she was in the presence of a child.
"Of course! It was Johnathan! God, I am such an idiot," she said quietly.
Unfortunately, the kid heard, but he was old enough to get the idea of what she was going for, so decided not to question it.
Before things could get any more awkward between the two of them, the radio crackled to life, and Johnathan's voice once again came through.
"Officer Hopps, is the child still with you?"
"Yes, he is." said Judy, a little confused as she wondered what he was going on about.
"I've received multiple hits from that last name. Can you tell me what their first names are supposed to be?"
"One moment."
Judy looked over at Jackson, but before she could even ask, the kid had already begun answering.
"My dad's name is Gerald and my mom's name is Cynthia." he said, his voice coming out stronger now that he's getting more comfortable.
Luckily, Judy still had her finger on the button, so Johnathan had heard the entire thing. After a few seconds pause, he spoke up once more.
"Gerald and Cynthia Grylls. 1500 West Third Street, Happytown. Do you need the phone number?"
Judy briefly considered saying yes, but she soon realized that there was a good chance that the parents were probably still home if they weren't aware of what had happened to their son as of yet.
"No thanks. The address is good enough. Thanks for the help."
"10-4."
Judy quickly returned the speaker to the clip on the radio, putting her cruiser into drive as she pulled out of her parking spot.
"Come on. Let's go see your parents."
