Zootopia: Lurkers from the deep

This story is based off the Works of author H. . This story follows Judy and Nick as Private investigators in the year 1922 and are hired to find a missing predator, but as they get deeper into the case the more they start to lose their minds. I do not own any of the source material used in this story.

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown-H.P. Lovecraft

Chapter 1: First Encounter

Zootopia, 1922

It is a cold and cloudy day in the city, Judy is calmly walking to work. The streets were loud and lively with cars on the streets and plenty of mammals doing the same as her. It was a Monday so it was a very busy street. She was wearing a light blue suit, a fedora to match, and a white shirt and no tie, she wore these because she felt it more fitting to wear while investigating crime scenes and other places as it was easier to move around and a dress just wouldn't work out, especially if she needed to fight her way out. When she was younger she always wanted to be a police officer because she wanted to help other mammals, but women were not allowed to become such, so she decided on becoming a Private Investigator and help mammals out that way. After getting her license she was the first female P.I. in the city. This had made her very proud of herself, but most mammals ignored her because of her gender. But in 1919 she would start to gain recognition when she was hired by Chief Bogo of the ZPD to help in finding 14 missing predators, he had done this because there were not enough officers to look for them. On her first day she went in as optimistic and positive as she always was but came back frustrated and disappointed because she was unable to find any leads.

On the second day, she went to an informant who told her of a mammal who could help her with the case, this mammal was none other than Nicholas Piberius Wilde, her future partner, and best friend. Nick was a veteran of the Great War and a con artist when

Judy had first encountered him, he and his partner in crime Finnick were gathering ice and snow from Tundratown then melting it and putting it in bottles to sell in Sahara Square at premium price. They also would take rigged party games that nobody could win to the pier. At first, Judy and Nick did not get along at all which would lead to the pair bickering more than solving the case. However they started to grow closer together as friends and ended up finding all 14 of the missing predators, they were all being contained by a cult-like antipredator organization that believed that predators needed to be sacrificed so that the world could live peacefully. This group was lead by none other than Dawn Bellwether, the wealthiest mammal in Zootopia. This had surprised the entire city and soon afterwards Judy had asked Nick to become a P.I. like herself so that they could run their own business together. He didn't refuse and the two opened up Hopps & Wilde Private Investigators and were very successful in their work.

That was one of Judy's best memories and she loved thinking about it all the time, she loved to work with Nick and he loved to work with her. The two were an unlikely pair but that didn't bother them at all. In fact, they got along better than anyone would've expected as they would often play jokes on each other and Judy would always tell Nick some of her greatest secrets, except for one: she was in love with him. When she arrived at work she patiently waited for Nick because she always liked to open their investigative firm as a team, she finally saw Nick, he was wearing an emerald suit, vest and fedora with a white shirt and a navy blue tie, he also had a gun holster that held his Colt m1911 that he had used during the war(Judy preferred to use her fists or feet if things got out of hand). Judy loved that suit because it matched Nicks' eyes and she thought it looked good on his bright orange fur. "Morning, carrots" greeted Nick in his smug tone,

"Morning, slick" replied Judy in a cheerful yet smug manner that rivaled his,

"You know you don't have to wait for me to arrive to open up, Judy" replied Nick,

"I know but it makes the moment more magical when you're here," said Judy with wide eyes and a whimsical tone, Nick rolled his eyes and replied "I hate it when you do that"

"I know," said Judy in a sly tone. Judy finally unlocked the door to their building, inside were two large oak desks both filled with papers, these were Judy and Nick's desks in which they would analyze their cases, to the right of the desks were two large filing cabinets filled with the duos' solved cases, and in the back a fridge and a coffee maker were located just in case they needed extra hours of work. However lately there had been no business and the two friends were bored: "So, any new cases, fluff?", asked Nick as he was yawning,

"No" said Judy in an annoyed tone, then they heard the door open. A female arctic fox walked in, she was wearing a blue dress that matched her eyes, and carried a black handbag. "I heard you two were the best P.I.'s on this side of town, and that you could help me find my husband", she said with a light voice as she walked in,

"Well you heard correctly, I'm Judy Hopps and this is my partner Nick Wilde" Judy replied as she was preparing to shake the fox's hand: "My name is Juniper" the arctic fox replied.

"So, when was the last time you saw your husband before he went missing?", said Nick in a professional manner,

"He didn't just go missing he was kidnaped," Juniper said in a worried tone.

"How do you know he was kidnaped," asked Judy.

"I know because it saw the whole thing" replied Juniper.

"Can you tell us how it happened then?" asked Nick.

Juniper looked like she would burst into tears at any moment,"Well, we live in an apartment near the bay,*sniff* and he was outside fishing on one of the docks, i was watching him from our apartment on the second floor, when all of the sudden two monsters came up from the dock and grabbed him,they ran off before I could call the police" she then began sobbing uncontrollably.

"Excuse me did you say monsters?" asked Judy in a puzzled tone.

"*sniff* yes" replied Juniper.

"Could you describe them to me then?" replied Judy.

"I didn't get a good look at them, but from where I was they looked like they were some sort of fish creature" said Juniper, Judy proceed to write down all the given information, while Nick tried to keep himself from laughing at the whole situation: "Now what does your husband look like?" Judy asked.

"Well, he's a black fox with green eyes, and is about the size of your partner, also his name is Clayton"

"Thank you, ma'am" replied Judy. As soon as Juniper left Nick started to laugh like a hyena, Judy put a stop to it quickly by punching him in the arm: "Nick it's not funny, this poor vixen's husband was kidnapped!" Judy said angrily.

"Do you seriously believe that her husband was kidnaped by fish monsters? That sounds like a story written by H.P. Lovecat" Nick said.

"Who?" Judy replied.

"He writes horror stories in pulp magazines, some are actually pretty go-"

"Quiet Nick, this isn't some story, someone is actually missing, and whether or not fish monsters are involved we are going to find him," Judy said in a stern and decisive voice. Later that day Judy and Nick went to the area where Clayton had been kidnapped. When they got there they noticed that the police had not been there at all due to the fact that it was still open to the public, in fact, there was an otter and beaver fishing there just like Clayton was doing before he was taken. "Excuse me," said Nick in a professional tone, "do either of you have any knowledge of the fox who was kidnaped here?". The otter and beaver looked his way, "I don't think so, Sir" said the otter,

"What about you?" Judy asked the beaver.

"Nope. All I know is that he lived in that building with his wife" the beaver replied, "but if you go down the street to where all the pubs and restaurants are you might find someone who knows something".

"Thank you, sir," Judy said.

"No problem ma'am" the beaver politely replied. Judy and Nick then headed to some of the pubs and restaurants and were unsuccessful with their search for Clayton, they then entered the pub closest to the water to see if they could find some answers. "We've asked just about everything we can," Judy said to Nick.

"We can try telling people he was abducted by monsters," Nick said jokingly.

"Excuse me, sir, did you say abducted by monsters?" said a quiet yet interested voice. Judy and Nick looked in the direction of the voice and saw a very tall and skinny black cat. He was wearing a black suit and vest with a grey shirt and a red tie. "Why yes I did" Nick responded.

"Could you describe these monsters to me?" asked the cat.

"Well they're like fish but can walk on their hind legs like us; fish people you could say" Nick replied.

"Ah, I know exactly what you're talking about"- this greatly caught the attention of the two officers - "Follow me i know where they like to go at night" he then got out of his chair to show Nick and Judy where he had seen them.

"This cannot be for real" Nick said to Judy, doubting the cat's words.

"Quiet slick this is the only lead we've had all day so let's give him a shot" Judy replied.

"Alright" Nick replied "but if he's just some nutjob I'm blaming you"

"Blaming me for what?" Judy asked.

"If our bodies are found tomorrow by the cops," Nick said smugly.

"Shut up Nick we'll be fine",

"Are we ready to leave?" asked the cat,

"Lead the way," said Judy. They walked for about ten minutes until they reached two buildings located towards the end of the bay. "They like to go in the alley-way between those two buildings," said the cat.

"This looks like the perfect place to get murdered" Nick whispered to Judy.

"Quiet" she whispered back, Judy looked around and noticed that the cat was gone.

"I guess he doesn't like it here either," Nick said.

"We should get back to the office and wait till it gets darker, then come back with more supplies," Judy said.

"Sounds good to me, Carrots" replied Nick, and they headed back.

When they got back they gathered their crime scene investigation supplies as well as a flashlight because unlike Nick, Judy did not have night vision. It took them about an hour to walk back to the alleyway. It was 7:00 p.m when they finally got there. They noticed that the alley was empty, "We did all that walking for nothing?" Nick said.

"Shut up Nick there has to be something we can find" Judy replied.

"Like what?" Nick asked.

"I don't know maybe something that seems out of place," Judy said in an annoyed tone.

"you mean like this white brick?" said Nick.

"White brick? What white brick? This better not be a joke, Nick" said Judy in a stern tone.

"I'm not joking, Judy," Said Nick as he was pointing to the brick,"It looks like there's writing on it".

"What does it say?" Judy asked curiously.

"Can't see it, it's covered with moss," Nick said. He then proceeded to scratch off the moss with his claws, it read The Esoteric Order of Dagon, "What do you think that means?" Nick asked.

"Maybe it's some sort of cult" Judy replied.

"Well at least we know the monsters have a place to hang out," Nick said jokingly, he then leaned on the brick, and a loud clicking noise started to sound. This startled Nick and he jumped away from it. Then a large part of the alley opened up to a long set of stairs that looked like they led to a black empty abyss, "Ladies first" Nick said to Judy in a comical way as he hid behind her. She then began to walk down the stairs with him. They walked for about 5 minutes until they reached a large chamber, it was very cold and dark and had moss growing everywhere. They stepped off the stairs and realized that there was about a foot of freezing cold water. Judy took out her flashlight and saw a very strange looking altar with a huge stone slab in front of it, there were also large piles of what looked like rocks on either side of the stairs, but before they could look for any evidence of Clayton they heard footsteps coming from the stairs. Judy quickly turned off her flashlight and hid behind the piles of rock with Nick, "Uhh carrots" Nick whispered.

"What?" replied Judy.

"These aren't rocks, they're bones" Nick whispered with fear in his voice. Before Judy could respond the assailants had finally reached the bottom of the stairs, there was torchlight illuminating the stone room, Judy and Nick looked up and froze in fear of what they saw. It was a somewhat large group of mammals but they all looked like grotesque monsters. All of them had strange looking scars on their neck that almost looked like fish gills, others had patches of rubbery grey-green skin where fur should be, some didn't have ears or even snouts, but worst of all, a large number of them had large claws on their hands and feet that were webbed as well as large black eyeballs with no eyelids. Judy and Nick were speechless at the horrific sight, then an unidentifiable mammal who had a fish like head and body, the only thing it had left was a tail that was barely visible. It then spoke with a raspy and gurgly voice "My brothers and sisters as you know our order has been short on members and that we must kidnap mammals in order to breed and sacrifice them to the deep ones in order to have a successful fishing year, we will now bring out the sacrifice" two of the monsters brought out a black fox who was stripped naked, it was Clayton."Judy look it's him" Nick said as quietly as he could.

"What are we gonna do?" asked Judy, but before Nick could reply a much larger fish creature had emerged from behind the altar, the two others who had Clayton tied him to the large stone slab, the one that had emerged from the altar went to the slab and proceed to forcefully mate with Clayton. Judy and Nick were paralyzed with fear and were unable to move, when the creature was finished it took its long sharp claws and jabbed them into the poor foxes chest, it then proceeds to tear him apart. Clayton was dead. Nick and Judy were still unable to move until Judy sneezed, both Judy and Nick's stomachs dropped and they felt an overabundance of dread, they then looked out from under the bones and saw the creatures heading in their direction. They then began to run out as fast as they could. One of the beasts took a swipe at Judy with its claws but had just missed, Nick pulled out his gun and shot one of the beasts dead, as they finally reached the exit they noticed that it was pouring down rain, they then ran for a solid 10 minutes and had lost the monsters, they had to quickly find an inn or motel to stay in before they got hypothermia or pneumonia. Judy and Nick walked silently for another 10 minutes until they found a motel to stay the night at. Nick made sure that the room had a coal furnace for him and Judy to dry and warm up. When they got to their room they stripped to their undergarments and lit the furnace, they sat there silently for 15 minutes until they were completely dry and warm. Nick then looked over at Judy and noticed that her nose was twitching and that she was shaking, Nick got closer to her and said: "Are you ok?"

"I just saw an innocent fox get killed by the most horrid group of people I ever saw, of course, I'm not okay," she said on the verge of tears, Nick then wrapped his arms around her and started to rub her back, she then began sobbing uncontrollably. "I'm so afraid Nick" Judy sobbed, "We could've died"

"Its ok Judy, I'll protect you," said Nick in a gentle voice.

"I'm so afraid Nick" Judy cried.

"Its ok to be afraid Judy, that's all I ever was during the war. Fearing about my life, my comrades, my country. I stayed alone most of the time because I didn't wanna become friends with anybody because of the fear that I might lose them. In war, nothing is granted. Fear gets to the best of us, but it's a way to keep going"

"What if they find us, Nick?"

"They won't find us, I promise," Nick said reassuringly, "We should really try to get some sleep now," Nick said.

" I don't think I can sleep after all that just happened," Judy said, "I just don't feel safe"

"What if I laid next to in your bed and keep an eye on you? Will that help?" Nick asked

"I don't know" Judy cried.

"What if I held you, then would you feel safe" Nick asked.

"Yes" replied Judy, they then proceed to get in the bed, Nick wrapped his arms around Judy and comforted her until she finally fell asleep, Nick was also having some trouble with sleep, all he could think about was Judy and how much he loved her. A secret, and also a fear of his.