"I love our job. Did I ever tell you that, Carrots?"

Nick rolled down the window of the police car and rested his arm on the door. He sighed contentedly and lay back in the driver's seat, looking out the window and watching the cars, big and small, go by. Judy gave him an amused look, a smile spread across her face.

"Only a thousand times, Officer Wilde," she said.

"Hey, come on," Nick replied in a playful tone. "Just cause we're on duty doesn't mean we have to call each other 'Officer.'"

"I think calling you 'Officer Wilde' makes you look hotter when I say it."

"Heh." Nick have an approving nod. "I'm glad you think so."

"I'm sorry," Judy said quickly. "Have you gone a darker red?"

Nick slowly turned his head and looked at her. His cop sunglasses and cocky, toothy smile did nothing to mask the undeniable truth that he had, in fact, gone a darker red.

"Oh, my gosh, I made you blush! That's so cute!"

"Carrots…" he said through his clenched-tooth smile, "You're not helping."

"Come ooon," Judy teased him, "admit it. You're blushing because I called you hot."

"Officer Hopps, I am currently exercising the unalienable right to remain silent." Nick was still all smiles.

"Please?" Judy laid her large ears back behind her head and clasped her paws together, completing her plan by twitching her wet bunny nose and looking at Nick with big, soulful eyes.. "Please just admit it. For me?" She uttered the last two words at a higher pitch so as to emphasize their meaning.

Nick gave a long, loud, weary sigh. "Fine. I was blushing."

Judy straightened up immediately. "There we go! That's the honesty I was looking for!"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Nick said, taking his arm off the car door. He was no longer smiling, and looked very agitated. "This was all just a way of showing me that you can get to me?"

"Wha - No!" Judy was quick to defend herself. "It was just playful banter!"

"I know." Nick's smile came back, accompanied by laughter. Judy, while relieved that he was joking, rewarded his acting with a sportive punch on the shoulder.

"Nicholas Wilde, I can't believe the nerve of you!" She laughed as she said it.

"Look, we're doing nothing but sitting here in a squad car, drinking coffee -" Nick picked up his paper cup for emphasis, "-and watching for anyone doing 80 in a 55. It's like we're getting paid to be lazy...and bored, now that I think about it. At any rate, guy's gotta keep himself entertained." He stared at the Starfish coffee logo, a smiling dolphin in a green background, on his cup with a contemplative look, then gave a small shrug with his shoulders and a "Hmph" of dismissiveness.

Judy smiled. "Well, when we're tearing down the street trying to bust that new street racer, I want you to remember this conversation. And if you're bored, I'm sure the chief can get you something even more tedious to do."

"Oh, please," Nick said. "There's only one animal in this car who ever got parking duty. I'm planning on having it stay that way." His paw moved towards a knob on the dashboard. He rested his index finger on it before turning to Judy. "Radio?" he said.

"Sure, why not?" she sighed, still smiling. "It's my turn to pick the station anyway."

Nick smiled. "Top 50 coming right up." He pushed the button.

With no warning, a wild animal screamed from the speakers, accompanied by a cacophony of evil. Judy leaped out of her seat and hit her head on the interior roof of the car. Then the music started to fade, and it did so quickly. She rubbed her head, ears still ringing, then looked over at Nick, who was twisting the dial as quickly as he could. His cop glasses were hanging off his muzzle, and his hair was on end. He turned his head, slowly, eyes wider than ever and teeth clenched, to look at Judy.

"Are you okay?" she asked uncertainly after seeing what had happened to him.

"Yeah, yeah," he replied weakly. "I think my eardrums ruptured. What happened just now?"

"Probably a prank. The veteran cops like pulling practical jokes on the new recruits." Judy felt a touch of irritation. "It's just a game to them. They did the same 'heavy metal' joke with me when I first started out. I'd expect more stuff like this to happen, if I were you."

"Owww," was the wheezing reply she received. Nick slowly put his glasses back on. "All right, moving away from the ear cancer station now." He relaxed his facial muscles and began to twist another dial on the dashboard, simultaneously turning the volume back up at a moderate pace. "And we have…" He lifted his paw from the scanner, continuing to turn the volume dial with his other paw to make the music audible. Judy heard the music fade in. She knew Nick liked it, because she had heard him listening to this same song multiple times, but it wasn't her type. Nick gave an appreciative and relieved laugh; Judy knew he was anticipating another incident.

"I've been dreaming up catchy Zootopia slogans lately, Carrots," he said, drowning out the music. "What about this one?" He spread his paws dramatically in front of him. "Zootopia: Where 'primal fear' is no more than the name of a band."

Judy chuckled; she had to admit, the fox was on to something. "Nice. You should run that by the mayor."

Nick's features darkened. "I did. Then she shot me in the throat and tried to make me kill you."

"Oh." Judy laid back in her seat, brought back to earth by his remark. "That mayor."

"Yep." Nick sighed again. "That one." He hovered his paw over the station dial. "Next station?" he asked, clearly attempting to brush the thought of Bellwether under the rug before he slipped into a worse mood.

Judy nodded with minimal effort; she was already having a flashback to their last encounter with Bellwether. The sinister cackle she gave before she shot Nick, the malice emanating from her eyes, her fake phone call that would have gotten Nick killed...She really thought the two investigators were going to die in that pit.

"Hey, cheer up, Carrots." Nick gave her a light punch on the shoulder; she snapped out of her thoughts and looked at him. She didn't have to see his eyes to know that his smile was kind, genuine. "That's behind us...and Bellwether's behind bars. Besides…" He put his right arm around her kissed the top of her head. "We've got each other."

Judy felt herself blushing. "Nick, stop it," she said with a smile, pushing him back a bit.

"Come on," he said, warm smile still spread over his face. "You can't tell me you're not even the slightest bit as attracted to me as I am to you. I mean, how many times have we escaped bad situations by the tips of our tails together? There's at least a bit of chemistry between us."

"If anyone ever found out there was something going on with us, word would travel quickly." Judy could barely stomach the thought of anyone finding out that they were in love. "A fox and a rabbit? There's nothing even close to opposites attracting in such a drastically different way. Well, maybe a lion and a zebra, but even then, it happens more often than you'd think."

"Look, I don't care what animals would say about us. And at any rate, consider it: two natural enemies, putting their differences aside and working in harmony? We could start to build that Zootopia you dreamed of as a kit." Nick shuddered. "Jeez, that's a thought. Did you ever notice the actual name for a baby rabbit is a kit and the name for a baby fox is a kit, too? Some kind of subconscious attempt at harmony or something. That's too much thinking." He grabbed his Starfish cup and gulped a few mouthfuls of coffee. Then, looking as if a thought had just occurred to him, he looked down at his chest. "Why do I still have my seatbelt on?"

"Did we just have a romantic conversation with heavy metal music in the background?" Judy observed.

Nick raised his eyebrows. "Huh. Indeed we did." His paw moved back to the tuning dial. "Shall we continue our search?"

"Lead the way, Officer," Judy replied. Truth be told, she didn't care about the music anymore; getting Nick to divulge his feelings for her was just too important for her to care about anything else. Even if she didn't want to admit it to anyone, the crafty fox mattered deeply to her, and there was nothing she wouldn't do to keep him safe from harm. She might have been cautious of him at first, but just as he seemed to have been enjoying working the missing otter case with her, she had mutual feelings for him. The repellent spray incident was the results of years of her parents and friends telling her not to trust foxes, but now she knew they couldn't have been more wrong. Nick was one of the good guys, and deep down, she had the feeling that he always had been. Something about him had constantly radiated a feeling of trust ever since they met, and even though she couldn't quite put her paw on it, she knew it was there. For that reason, whatever it may be, she felt a deep caring for him.

Nick moved to change stations, but had barely touched the dial before a streak of sparkling purple and neon green streaked past the driver's side of the squad car, accompanied by the roar of a souped-up engine. The fox once again jumped up in surprise. He wasted no time in turning the radio off and the engine over. Judy grabbed the radio from the police scanner located on the passenger's side of the car and hit the siren.

"This is Officer Hopps and Officer Wilde. We are currently in pursuit of the street racer. Requesting backup at Downtown District."

"Ten-four, Officer Hopps," came the gruff voice of Officer Wolford. "Officers Wolford and McHorn moving to intercept. Have fun with this one, Wilde. Don't get too torn up out there."

Nick laughed as he grabbed the steering wheel. "The ZPD is far from my only source of driving experience." He peeled out of their parking spot; Judy haphazardly threw her seatbelt across her lap.

"Oh, that's right. You're friends with the sloth."

"Hey, Flash was the last street racer we put away," Nick replied, zooming down the busy street. "Looks can be deceiving, can they not?"

"No kidding. You're a good cop. And here I thought foxes only worked for the wrong side of the law."

Judy looked at Nick, afraid of his reaction to the discriminant remark. He growled and bared his teeth. "You just touched a nerve, Wolford."

"Good. Now use that adrenaline to get this guy before he does any damage."

"My pleasure." Nick shifted gears, and they hurtled down the street. The back of the racer's car was getting closer and closer. Judy wanted to comfort Nick, but at the same time, she was worried about distracting him and losing the racer again. She muted the police scanner so the Wolford's car wouldn't be able to hear their conversation.

"Don't let them get to you, Nick," she said. "They're just trying to rile you up."

"I know." Nick's response was short and agitated; his teeth were still bared. "But I'll catch this guy. I'll show them."

She gently placed her paw on his arm, which she found difficult to do in a speeding police car. "Please, don't do anything irrational, Nick. There's no point in taking them seriously."

"Can we do this later, Carrots?" Nick's eyes never deviated from the license plate of the speeding car.

Judy sighed and took her paw off of him. She unmuted the radio, now focused on communicating with Wolford's car. "This is Officer Hopps. We're closing the gap between us and the racer. We'd finish this a lot faster if you guys would stop messing around and get over here."

"It's not like we can will ourselves to be there in two seconds. These things take time, you know." A screeching noise came over the radio, followed by the sound of Wolford slamming his paw on the brakes of his car. "Hey! What the - Officers Wolford and McHorn now in pursuit of secondary racer!"

"There's another one?!" Judy cried out.

"Either that or they just want to get themselves arrested. They're leading us into the Downtown District. We're going to need more backup if we want to catch these guys. Officer Clawhauser, this is Officer Wolford requesting GPS navigation."

"Ten-four," came the cheetah's excited voice. "Pulling up Giraffe Positioning System camera feed in Downtown District."

Nick grabbed the radio from the scanner. "Ben, we need you to track both my car and Wolford's and figure out where these racers are leading us. This seems too unlikely to not be a setup."

"Mmmph, y' phink there's sumfin' fishy going on?" Clawhauser asked through what Judy assumed was a doughnut.

"Two racers in the same day? They've never done that. It seems too coincidental to not be suspicious. And, Ben -" Judy said, "-swallow, then speak."

A loud gulping noise came from Clawhauser's end of the radio. "Sorry." A brief hiatus prevented communication, but only momentarily. "Here we go. It looks like they're both leading you to...the center of Downtown."

Judy took the opportunity to talk. "That's the most populated area in Zootopia at this time of day!"

"Exactly, Hopps," Wolford butted in. "What do you think street racing is to these animals? They don't care what they have to do, they just want to keep putting the pedal to the metal. That's why we need to stop them before they hurt any civilians. Wait a minute. Racer just turned left down an alley. Track us, Clawhauser."

"Danny, could you move a scooch to the right?" Clawhauser asked.

"Oh, yeah," came Danny's reply. "Here we go, how's that?"

"Perfect! Now keep your head as still as you can." Another pause in Clawhauser's directions. "They're leading you away from Wilde and Hopps. I'm not sure exactly where, but it'll probably be some sort of crowded area. Wow, Danny, you're the best GPS we have on the force! That camera is perfectly still! Not bouncy or wavy or anything!"

"Hauser, focus," came McHorn's voice. "We can admire Danny's cinematic prowess later."

"Oh, right," Clawhauser said somewhat apologetically. "He's heading into the main tunnel. Watch yourselves in there."

Judy couldn't see through the windshield; the car was too tall for her to do so. "Nick, how close are we to getting our racer?"

"I can see his license plate clearly. S-P-E-D-E-E-1," the fox spelled for her.

"'Speedy one?' Huh." Judy was surprised. "You'd think another animal would have taken that number by now."

"Well, it doesn't matter what his license plate says; all we have to do is outdrive him, and he'll be behind bars in no time."

"Wait." Wolford's amused voice came over the scanner. "You mean to tell me you're not using any of the LANS?"

"The whats?" Nick asked, completely bewildered.

"The Legal Animal Neutralization Systems," Judy explained; she felt a twinge of disbelief. "Didn't you pay attention in Evasive Maneuver Class?"

"Aww, where's the fun in using gadgets and weapons to take them down? Can't we ever just have a good old-fashioned race?"

"You actually want to give the criminals a chance at escaping? I guess I wasn't wrong about you, fox boy."

"Oh, you're on." Nick was now clearly fed up with Wolford's insults. "Twenty bucks says we catch our guy before you catch yours."

"Make it fifty and you've got a deal."

"Done." Nick muted the radio and shifted gears yet again, and they picked up speed; Judy felt herself being pushed into the back of her seat. "Uh, Nick?" she asked timidly. "What's your plan?"

"Get fifty dollars from Wolford, that's my plan." Nick looked at her. "Start pushing LANS buttons. I'm not letting them win."

"Wow, you two are really competitive in the field, aren't you?" came Clawhauser's voice.

"Uh, Ben…" Judy told the cheetah, "Maybe you shouldn't get them so riled up."

"Right," Clawhauser said hastily. "These feline lips are now zipped."

"Thanks, Ben," Judy said, now turning to the LANS buttons. One was labeled "Tailpipe." She couldn't remember its exact function, but she knew it was to be used in high-speed chases that took place in densely populated areas. She pressed it, eager to find out what it did. Out of the hood of the car came a gun-looking device; Nick clearly wasn't too happy with it.

"Carrots…" he addressed Judy uncertainly. "Why is there a gun on top of our car?"

Wolford's snide laugh came from the radio. "Well, you should have paid more attention in Evasive Maneuver Class. Sounds like that's the spider-web launcher."

"Oh, boy, oh, boy!" Clawhauser was on the radio again. "That's the new one! Let me know how it goes!"

The LANS lived up to its name; a rather large spiderweb flew out of the gun and stuck itself tightly to the racer's tailpipe, ensuring that the exhaust could no longer leave the vehicle. Smoke quickly started enveloping the cabin, and the car slowed down rapidly before turning 90 degrees and stopping abruptly.

Judy felt Nick slam on the brakes. He unbuckled his seatbelt and threw his door open. Judy did the same; she ran over to the racer's vehicle, standing beside Nick while he rapped the driver's side window of the car with two knuckles. The window rolled down, and the smoke cleared from the cabin. The driver, angry as could be, was…

"Finnick?" Nick said.

"No, I'm his mother, ace," Finnick replied, clearly miffed.

"Wait," Judy said. "This is the guy you conned Jumbeaux's with. What happened to your clunker?"

"It's called an overhaul, sweetheart," Finnick spat. "I notice you're still stuck with second-rate cars on the force." He looked at Nick with hatred in his eyes. "Traitor."

"Well, we caught you, didn't we?" Nick said. "Exit the vehicle and put your paws behind your back."

"Not yet, you haven't caught me." What happened next was a flash before Judy's eyes; Finnick launched the door open with respectable force for a fennec fox, sending it smashing into Nick's body. The latter doubled over with an "Oof!" of pain, leaving Finnick free to bolt for his freedom. Judy responded without thinking. The next thing she knew, she had used her innate jumping ability to get on top of Finnick's car, leap off, and bring herself down directly on top of the running fennec.

"Jeez, I thought rabbits were supposed to be nice."

"And I thought foxes were supposed to be smart," Judy retorted as she cuffed his paws behind his back. She looked back at Nick. "No offense, Nick."

"Nah, I'm fine," Nick replied between wheezes.

"You got hit with a car door," Judy replied as she picked up Finnick; he was small enough that she couldn't easily guide him to the car without kneeling over.

"Yeah," Nick panted. "Doors are evil."

"It just hates that ridiculous getup you're in, Wilde," Finnick snarled.

"At least I don't fit in the baby elephant costume," Nick retorted with a smile and aura of superiority.

"WHAT?!" Finnick started kicking and gnashing his teeth at Nick, giving Judy a tougher time trying to hang onto him.

Judy smiled and spoke into the radio on her shoulder. "This is Officers Hopps and Wilde. We have a racer in custody. I repeat, we have a racer in custody. Returning to the station for processing." As she put Finnick in the back of the car, she saw Nick lean towards his shoulder, as well.

"You owe me fifty, Wolford," he said with a cocky smile as Judy closed the door. "That is, unless you've gotten your suspect already." Something was wrong; Wolford didn't respond. Not even a snort of anger came from the radio. Nick's smile faded. "Wolford? McHorn? Are you guys okay?" His question was met with static.

Judy wasted no time in contacting the station. "Officer Clawhauser, this is Officer Hopps. Wolford and McHorn aren't responding. What happened to them?

Clawhauser's voice was now fraught with worry as he scrambled to maintain his composure. "Um...Uh... Pulling up GPS. Uh, Danny? Where's Wolford's vehicle?"

A long pause ensued. "I don't know! I can't find them anywhere!" came Danny's voice.

"What was their last known position?" Judy asked.

"I couldn't track them while they were in the tunnel! They could be anywhere in Zootopia!"

"CLAWHAUSER!" Chief Bogo made his presence easily noticeable. "What in the name of sanity is going on?!"

"Two street racers, Chief!" Clawhauser said excitedly. "Nick and Judy have one in custody, but Wolford and McHorn are unresponsive. Hopps and Wilde are on their way to help them!"

"WHAT?! Give me that radio!" A quick flurry of movement happened on Clawhauser's end of the radio. The chief's voice made Judy jump in surprise.

"Listen, you two," he grunted angrily, "I don't know what you think you're doing, but your number one priority is to get that racer back to the station! And NOW!" He shouted the last word with extreme emphasis.

Nick grabbed his radio violently, and Judy knew this was not going to end well. "Chief, we might have two dying officers on our paws. There's no way I'm leaving them there."

"You can and you will, Wilde. OR I'LL HAVE YOUR TAIL!"

"If that's what I have to sacrifice to save two fellow officers, I'll do it." Nick's voice dripped with defiance; Judy took out her recording pen and marked it. She would let Wolford and McHorn listen to it later.

"Are you disobeying your chief, Wilde?" came Finnick's voice. "Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"That's it," Nick said angrily. "You're getting muzzled." He reached for the muzzle on his belt, clearly hoping to instill fear in Finnick; instead, Finnick merely laughed.

"You're forgetting that's not even my size," the fennec taunted.

Judy saw Nick advance towards Finnick, and she put her arm out to keep him from hurting the suspect. "I've got it," she said. He heeded her and stopped, allowing her to bring forth a roll of duct tape. Now Finnick was worried.

"Hey, wait!" he protested as Judy walked to the side door. "You can't gag me with tape! That's against the law!"

Judy ripped an appropriate-sized piece of tape off of the roll. "Wrong. If a ZPD officer is unable to muzzle a suspect, he or she can use other methods of keeping their lips shut. Case in point -" She slapped the piece of tape over Finnick's mouth. "- duct tape. You have the right to remain silent." She closed the door again and turned around to see Nick climbing back into the driver's seat of the car; he was still in a heated discussion with the chief.

"-and I refuse to leave an animal behind! Life over orders, Chief. That's my policy."

A long, uncomfortable silence lingered; Judy was afraid of the chief's reaction.

"Fine." Chief Bogo's voice was deadly calm. "Assist Officers Wolford and McHorn. But believe you me, fox, we're going to have a lengthy, unpleasant discussion about your insubordination when you get back."

"Officers Wilde and Hopps moving to assist Wolford and McHorn." Nick started the car, activated the sirens again, and started the route to the tunnel where the other two cops were last seen.

"Attention all units, we have a massive pile-up in the tunnel, multiple wounded. Medics and first responders are on their way." A strong sense of fear grabbed hold of Judy and refused to let her go. She looked at Nick; he was clearly as uneasy as she was.

"That could be Wolford and McHorn," she said.

"No kidding." Nick swallowed nervously and kept his eyes on the road. Judy could hear cars pulling over on the sides of the road to give them room. Whistles and applause hit her hypersensitive bunny ears; the bystanders were cheering for them. She could see that Nick was feeding of their energy, and that he was more focused. Street after street flew past them, until suddenly, they found the entrance to the tunnel.

Judy spoke into her shoulder. "Officers Hopps and Wilde entering vicinity of Wolford's and McHorn's last known position."

"Be careful out there, guys," said Clawhauser. "Oh, I hope everyone's okay."

"You and me both, Ben," Nick responded. "You and me both." He started to put his foot on the brake. What Judy heard next made her imagine the worst: "Oh, no."

"What is it, Nick?" she asked apprehensively.

He gave no response, but instead stopped the squad car. He dashed out into the stopped traffic and his face fell when he saw what had happened. "Oh, no."

Judy climbed out of the car and was met with images of flaming, crumpled cars and smoke billowing from the scene. At least ten civilians had smashed into each other. Each driver was either unconscious or otherwise unable to get out of the car due to blockage or injury. Bystanders were everywhere, stunned, appalled, and disbelieving. Judy looked back at where Nick had been, but he was sprinting to the crash as fast as his fox legs could carry him.

"Officers Wilde and Hopps at the site of the pile-up. All drivers involved are incapacitated. No status on passengers as of yet. Request immediate medical attention."

"Ten-four, Officer Wilde. The ambulances are already on their way." Clawhauser was no longer his cheery self; Judy knew he had found out that something very bad had happened. She started helping the victims. Nick had already begun talking to one of them, a lion who was telling Nick that the only injury he sustained was a jolt to the chest, that he was a doctor, and that he wanted to help the rest of the wounded. Judy ran to the closest car and began talking to the family of leopards that were inside.

"Are you all okay?" she asked the mother.

"My arm is pinned down, but I think my husband and son are able to move," came the reply.

"All right," Judy said. "You two, come with me." She pointed to the husband and son. "We need to get you out of here so we can get her to the hospital faster."

The father leopard grabbed his toddler son by the paw and said, "Come on. We need to help the kind police officer."

"But...but what about Mommy?" the kid asked.

"She's going to be all right, but we have to get out of the car before she can get better." The kid agreed to get out of the car. "Okay, Daddy." The leopard picked up his son and held him out of the window, silently asking Judy to take him for a moment. She obliged, and held the kid while his father crawled out of the car through the window.

"Thank you so much, Officer," he said. He took his son back, then turned to his wife and reassured her. "It's going to be okay, hon. Everything will be okay."

"You're right." Judy added her own support into the mix. "The hospitals in Zootopia are excellent. We've got ambulances that will be here in less than five minutes to get you to safety. Is there anything I can do for you in the meantime?"

"No," came the reply. "You've got more animals to save."

Judy smiled. "Okay. Just wait. Everything will work out." She turned to the father and his son. "I have to ask you guys to give us some space so we can secure all of the wounded."

"No problem, Officer," the dad said, smiling kindly. "Let us know if you need anything."

Judy progressed to the next car. The cabin only contained a wolf, but he was clearly in pain.

"Officer Hopps," she introduced herself. "Sir, what's happened?"

"I don't know," he said in a British accent, still wincing. "It's my leg; I think it's broken."

"Okay, sir, the ambulances are on their way. In the meantime, stay here and try not to move your leg too much. Once the paramedics get you out of here, you're in good paws."

"Cheers." The wolf gave a deep exhale and gave her a thumbs up with his blood-stained paw. "Don't worry about me now. I'm sure someone else needs more help than I do. I'll just keep calm and focus on not dying."

"Judy!" Judy looked up to see Nick running towards her.

"What's going on, Nick?" she asked.

"I just finished a sweep of the other cars."

"Already?" Judy was surprised; Nick worked faster than she thought.

"I'm motivated. That's how I finished getting the able-bodied animals out of here. We have twelve injuries out of the thirty-seven animals involved in the crash."

"Make that fourteen out of forty-one; a wolf with a broken leg and a leopard who can't move her arm. It doesn't sound like the arm has been damaged, I'm pretty sure the only problem is that she can't move it. How long until the paramedics get here?"

"I think somewhere along the lines of two minutes." Nick took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. "The racer crashed into another vehicle, and I think that's what started the accident. And I can't find Wolford's car, much less Wolford or McHorn." He sighed. "There's something disastrously wrong going on here, but what is it?"

"It can't be Bellwether, can it?" Judy asked fearfully.

"Of course not, she's behind bars. Anyone with a grudge against Wolford, McHorn, or cops in general could have done this. We have the entire criminal population of Zootopia, plus all of the other enemies those two made throughout their entire lives, to comb through, and I don't know where to start." Nick looked at Judy as if a thought had occurred to him. "You don't think this is one of their pranks, do you?"

Judy thought about it. "Wolford and McHorn might have tampered with your radio and tried to make you deaf, but they would never endanger civilians just to have a little fun with you. They're strictly by-the-books when it comes to protocol. This isn't them."

"We can get witness statements, right?" Nick said pleadingly, as if he was willing it to be true.

"Officers?" Judy turned around to see a vixen walking towards them. "Yes?" she asked.

"My name is May," the vixen said.

"Is there...something you wanted to tell us, ma'am?" Nick asked.

"I believe I might be of some assistance in finding out who did this terrible thing."

Judy's ears perked up; a break in the case! That's just what they needed. "Okay. May, we're getting all of the injured animals to the hospital before we leave. Can you stay here until everyone's safe and then come down to the station with us?"

"Oh, absolutely," May replied. "I feel horrible about what's happened."

The sound of sirens now reached Judy's big ears; the medics were close. "Thank you, May. We need as much information as we can get." She shook the vixen's paw.

"It's my pleasure to help such good animals like yourselves, Officers." May walked to the side of the street and sat down, watching the chaos with saddened eyes.

"We need more animals like that in Zootopia, Carrots. More animals like May. More animals like you," Nick said, putting his paw on her shoulder. Judy's heart leaped. Nick removed his paw; he had felt her jump. "Sorry," he apologized. "I didn't mean to startle you."

Judy took a deep breath. "Oh, no. That's fine. I just didn't expect you to do that."

Screeches accompanying the sirens could be heard from another part of the tunnel. Judy was afraid that the ambulances had crashed, as well, but then the red and blue flashes echoed off the tunnel walls as they medics pulled into view. She watched as they stopped at the crash and opened the back doors of their vehicles. Animals poured out of them, all scrambling to one car or another and getting the wounded out of their respective cages. It was then she realized the magnitude of what had happened, and she couldn't stomach it anymore. She sat down and began to weep. It was too terrible for anyone to imagine. How could this have happened?

She felt Nick wrap his arm around her gently. "Hey, hey," he said in a soft, comforting voice. "It's all right. All of these animals are going to be fine. There's no reason that they shouldn't." He stopped himself for a moment. "You did well today."

Though Judy felt better, Nick's words did nothing to stem the flow of tears pouring from her eyes. "How?" she asked him through her sobs. "How could this happen?"

"I don't know, Carrots. I don't know." A car door slammed, and Judy felt Nick flinch.

"WILDE!" The chief's infuriated tone jerked her attention away from her sadness. She looked up and saw Chief Bogo marching toward Nick as if he were coming for the fox's head.

Nick immediately got up. "Chief, I have a suspect in the back of the -"

"Do I look like I care?" the chief interrupted him. "You went against a direct order from your superior officer!"

"To save the lives of two hard-working cops!" Nick said. "Judy and I were the first animals on-scene, and it could have been much worse if we hadn't shown up!"

Bogo changed the subject. "Speaking of two hard-working cops, where are Wolford and McHorn? I've got to chew them out for not getting the second racer."

Judy stood up and spoke for Nick; she might have been crying, but there was no way she would let the brave fox take the blame. "Chief, the second racer was wounded and is on his way to the hospital. As for Wolford and McHorn, there's no sign of them and we haven't found any clues as to where they went."

"Do you mean to tell me we have two officers missing, Hopps?" If the chief was angry before, he was plain livid now.

"Yes, Chief, we do," Nick butted in before Judy could respond. "But there was nothing we could have done, we had to help everyone involved before -"

The chief held up his hoof, and Judy felt a shiver of dread run down her spine. "You two...will come...with me," he said slowly, in a voice of quavering anger. "Now." He turned his back to the two and walked to their squad car, picked up Finnick with one hoof, and started towards his own car. Judy looked at Nick, fearing the worst. From Nick's facial cues, so was he.

"So…" he said uncertainly, "do we bring May or…?"