ZPFD - Zootopia Fire Department

Rookies

A/N: Look, It was pretty stupid of me to dive head first into this fic without proper planning (I wrote the first parts on Notepad back then! What's wrong with me?)

(Hopefully) Needless to say I've improved the writing, the further into the story you go the better it gets, just like a *thinks of some analogy* tomato! Yeah a tomato! You have to pierce the outer layer first! Wait... that's not how it goes.

Crap.

"Listen up recruits!" The big elephant boomed loudly through the halls of the ZPFD. The force was enough to make the building creak and groan.

"You may have passed the entrance tests, but your training is far from over!"

Carl had never liked line-ups, yet here he stood, stiff as an icicle dangling from a roof in Tundratown. His grey and black-spotted fur was poofing out of the collar of his shirt. Visibly shaking as the big elephant inspected each and everyone of the new recruits, A Brown bear, two wolves, a horse, a maned wolf and a lynx.

While he wasn't the biggest and fiercest mammal to grace the earth he wasn't small either, he was average, painfully average. Something he'd need to work on if he wished to survive through 'phase two'.

"The district Chief has tasked me with turning you sorry excuses for mammals into the prime firefighters that Zootopia counts on!"

Carl regarded the big elephant pacing back and forth in front of them,

He concluded that he had no chill, he wore the standard ZPFD uniform,

a pair of deep blue slacks with a minimalistic belt, his deep blue shirt tucked into the pants with a golden insignia on his chest that read 'Lieutenant Bosede'.

*Ding* Everyone's ears slightly twitched at the sound that seemed to shock everyone out of their stand-stiff-trance.

Bosede's pocket seemed to be the source of the sound that had broke the silence. The elephant quickly brought out his phone to check the text message he had received, as the Lieutenant read it, his emotion not changing, it was steadily locked into a stare that screamed 'shut up'.

"This is going to be interesting," He huffed, raising his eyebrows and looking down at the recruits,

"You still remember numbers dontcha?" The mammals in question nodded furiously, "I'm going to give you to three to get on this bus…" Bosede gave them a threatening look, the best way to get newbies to listen was to be harsh, that was his motto.

Needless to say, the boarding was done with no extra questions asked.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Those mammals that lived next to the huge radiator in sahara square were lucky, this bus was like that elevated by nine!

Carl had just recently moved away from his parents house in Tundratown at the age of 21, he and his parents had managed to save up for a small apartment in the downtown area, the only place with rent cheap enough for him to be able to buy food as well. He wasn't used to the heat in the downtown area let alone savanna central.

'I really should get a furcut,' He glanced at his uniform, 'did they make these heat-absorbing or something?' He tugged lightly at the collar of his shirt, it didn't help a lot.

'Then I best live till' tomorrow' He chuckled to himself, when all of a sudden a voice had interrupted his planning on wich short-fur look that's trending nowadays.

"H-hey there buddy, heh, uuuh, you excited for training?" the horse that sat next to him said nervously.

Carl didn't even realize that another mammal was sitting next to him, how did he NOT notice the horse that sat next to him?

"Um, I don't know, it's not what I expected, you?" He half-heartedly chuckled.

"I'm terrified! It's no help either that all the other people are being such jerks"

"Why?" Carl asked.

"I don't know, I think it's because i'm the only prey mammal in the group, also i'm kinda scared of preds, y'know, mom raised me that way, I know i shouldn't be afraid but old habits die hard"

"Well, why aren't you afraid of me then?" Carl asked inquisitively.

A small smile started to grow on the horse's muzzle. "Out of all the preds here, you're the least scariest.

Carl could only smile back at this as it wasn't often someone would give him a compliment.

"Is that so?" He chuckled, happily returning to watch out the window when he got a sudden tap on his shoulder.

"Here, you'll probably die if you don't get some water into your system" The horse had offered him a small bottle of water, which he graciously accepted and started to chug.

"I never got your name by the way" The horse asked.

Emptying the last drops of the bottle followed with a large gasp for air Carl turned to his soon-to-be friend.

"My name's Carl White, and you?"

"Oh, my name is Houston Archimedes" Houston fired back at Carl.

"Archimedes? Like that ancient horse-god person thing?" Carl tried to remember as much as he could of his homework in religion.

"Yup, pretty flashy right?" Houston said proudly mockingly holding his head high pretending to be some sort of royalty.

"Damn straight, I can tell this is not going to be as bad as I thought" Carl admitted, his dread of the coming training fading away ever so slightly.

"Where are we going anyway?" Carl turned to look outside, he did not recognize the streets they were passing by, his best guess was that they were somewhere outside the city.

"Were pretty far out…" Houston agreed, "Oh wait, looks like were here!"

"Where?"

"Here!" Houston happily exclaimed, his reward being the sound of his soon-to-be-friend slapping his face with his paw.

Ornate cast-iron gates slid open as the bus approached, driving up towards the center of the field, just outside a looming brick building.

During a live fire exercise the ZPFD's simulation hall had ironically burned down, taking with it the lot of their academy as well. This led to desperate measures, using the ZPD's training equipment, the ZPD understood what had happened and let the ZPFD use their training equipment, but not before mocking them for it in good humour.

As the bus came to a halt, all the fire department's recruits spilled out of the buss and onto the green grass field in front of the main brick building. The sun was out and it was a lovely 28 degrees celsius. (ca 82 degrees fahrenheit)

Lovely weather for the most of them, except for Carl.

He had never had a furcut in his entire life, he didn't need one up until now since he had lived his entire life in Tundratown, only making quick visits to the rainforest district and downtown with his mom. He had never even entered sahara square, for good reason.

As he stood around with the other recruits waiting for Bosede to finish up a report he had started to feel a bit woozy. A faint ringing in his ears and a slight blur in his vision.

Great when do the hallucinations start? He thought to himself sarcastically.

He could make it he reassured himself, he just had to pull through.

He stood there and waited for the Fire Department's Lieutenant Bosede to finally decide it was time to begin.

"LISTEN UP" Bosede boomed as had been the norm. "TODAY I'M GOING TO ENJOY CRUSHING EVERY BIT OF HOPE YOU HAD THAT THE

ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS WOULD BE ENOUGH FOR YOU TO PASS" The ground shook with every vokal he shouted.

"YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES TO CHANGE INTO YOUR TRAINING GEAR" Bosede Quickly eyed all of the recruits that had quickly started to sprint toward the locker room.

Bosede noticed one mammal in particular that caught his eye. Quickly thumping over to the wobbling lynx that was slowly lumbering towards the entrance of the locker room.

Bosede proceeded to tap him lightly on the shoulder with his trunk, raising a brow as the Lynx did not seem to immediately respond.

Carl turned around seemingly looking through Bosede before slowly focusing back at the elephant with a stern look on his face.

"You ok?" Bosede asked harshly.

Carl's mouth was basically what sahara square was, sand.

"Yes sir... Just... a bit warm you know?" Gesturing at his thick pelt.

"I noticed..." Bosede said eyeing the hunched over lynx up and down.

"I'll do just fine" Struggling to give the elephant a small, forced smile

Bosede smirked at Carl's vague attempt to play it off, kneeling down to his level he looked him in the eye. "Prove it."

'Oh shit.' Was all Carl's mind could formulate.

"OUR FIRST DISTRICT TO TACKLE IS SAHARA SQUARE, ON THE DOUBLE"

Carl's eyes widened as he heard the name of that district, Sahara square. From what he heard it was almost too hot for "all-round" mammals there, only those acclimated to the searing heat stood a chance of staying outside more than half an hour at a time, he'd probably melt away the second the training began.

He quickly Zoogled how hot Sahara Square was, average of 37 degrees celsius, almost double what the weather was now, he was done for!

'Here lies Carl White, he died by melting into a puddle on the spot in two seconds flat.' Was all he could think while continuing his unsteady journey towards the locker room.