It was six-thirty in the evening on a hot summer's day when Judy Hopps, a small rabbit and one of the ZPD's finest, returned home. She still couldn't stop thinking about her adventure with Nick and how he helped her put an end to the Assistant Mayor Bellwether's ghastly plot to create a world where only prey could flourish and predators were doomed to savegry their entire lives. It had been a year since that ordeal now and Judy couldn't figure out where the months had gone. 'Nick, sweetie, I'm home!' She called, expecting to see her partner, Nick, roll into the entrance hall in his wheelchair but there was no response whatsoever. Nick was wheelchair-bound and forced to stay at home while his leg healed from an accident, in which Judy reversed her patrol car into him, seriously injuring his right leg. She called again. 'Nick, sweetheart, come on! You promised me you'd stop playing these games! Bellwether's escaped from prison and still hasn't been found so I can't be doing with you scaring me like this!' She called loudly but calmly. There was still no answer and she started to become more panicked as she checked the living room and found nothing. She took a deep breath and thought to herself. 'The poor thing's been in pain all day. He's probably just sleeping it off.' The police force was being kept extremely busy and was spread thin as they were trying to get to the bottom of the spate of attacks by an ever-increasing number of savage animals. With everything that had happened a year ago, it was clear who the prime suspect was, although the savage attacks did begin occurring shortly before Bellwether was broken out of prison. In spite of all this, Judy was still allowed to finish work at the usual time so that she could go home to be with Nick while he recovered.

Judy then headed into the kitchen to make a start on dinner when she beheld a sickening sight and her heart turned to ice in her chest. 'Nick...no...oh, god please no!' To Judy's horror, Nick's wheelchair was overturned in the kitchen and there was no fox to be found in it. Upon closer inspection, she discovered a photo sellotaped to the chair. She pulled it off and looked closely at it through tear-filled eyes. In the photo, Nick was being held up by his hair, barely conscious, by an unknown assailant who seemed to be glaring straight through the photo at Judy with blood-thirsty and psychotic eyes. He was tall, about six feet in height and had long blonde hair that reached all the way down to his rear. He wore blue jeans that were torn in places, a black t-shirt that looked like the sleeves had been ripped of in a violent fight, a black leather collar around his neck, lined with metal spikes, bracers that matched it on his arms and black boots on his feet that were fitted with steel plates on the heels and toecaps, and long claw-like blades that looked like they would pose a real threat if he was provoked. But this mysterious kidnapper's most distinguishing characteristics were his large ears, the left of which was pierced with two sleeper earrings and the membraned wings that sprouted from his arms. He was undoubtedly a bat, a creature that Judy wasn't too familiar with but, judging by his size, he was of the giant vampire variety, native to South America.

Feeling something on the other side of the photo, Judy flipped it over and found a folded up piece of paper sellotaped to the back of it. Peeling it away from the photo, she unfolded it to find a message written on it.

'Lieutenant Hopps,

I understand you have a very strained history with my current employer, but I'll cut to the chase. If you want this rather lovely fox of yours to live, you'll destroy this note and the photo I left you as soon as you have finished reading. If you don't, I'll know and your beloved Nick won't thank you for such a mistake.

Now listen, at exactly eight-thirty, meet me in the Rainforest District by the chairlifts, where I believe you had a close call with a savage jaguar a year ago. I don't think I have to tell you to come alone but if you bring any backup, I'll be gone before you can even see me...and so will the use of your boyfriend's other leg. This is all you need to know for now. Do not be a single second late as I won't wait around for you.

P.S. Hope Chief Bogo is doing well.

Regards,

your new playmate.'

The content of the note gave Judy a sick feeling in her stomach and she took a moment to process it all, shedding a few tears. She had thought about reporting the incident straight to the chief but there was little the police could do without this shady and seemingly-all-knowing character being aware and she was scared to death at the thought of doing anything to endanger Nick further. When she was able to compose herself again, she tore up the note and the photo into very small pieces before feeding them into the waste disposal.

Judy looked at the clock. It was now twenty-to-seven so it was no use leaving just yet but Judy could think of nothing but Nick and how scared he must have been. He was injured, in excruciating pain, probably with no one but this insane psychopath for company. She sat down for a while, watching reports on the TV of the savage animals running rampant and had a quick bite to eat, all the while thinking of her poor partner. As the time to leave approached, she wiped away her tears and took a deep breath. 'They've taken my man. These monsters have messed with the wrong fox...and the wrong bunny!' Her fear and sorrow now replaced with a burning rage, she headed out, jumped back into her patrol car and began to make her way to the Rainforest District, mindful of Zootopia's current state, savage animals swarming the streets. She knew that she could be attacked at any moment but she was more than prepared to deal with such trivial matters while her partner was in evil's clutches.

After only a couple of minutes of driving, Judy nearly crashed the patrol car as she swerved to avoid a savage wombat that bounded towards her vehicle. Slightly startled, she looked in the rearview mirror to see the creature slowly disappear into the distance behind her as she outran it. She sighed in relief that she was able to escape it without running over the poor thing. She thought about what these poor creatures were going through and how she was currently powerless to help any of them as they prowled through the city streets. 'The poor thing...As soon as Nick is back where he belongs, I'll do everything I can to help these poor creatures.' Judy said to herself as she continued towards the meeting point.

The drive was short and, apart from the encounter with the savage wombat, uneventful and, as she entered the rainforest district, Judy parked her car as close to the meeting point as possible and took the stairs up to the sky trams. After quickly scanning the area with her eyes to see no sign of anyone around, Judy glanced at her watch to find she had six minutes to spare. 'Nick...please be okay.' She said under her breath as she waited for this mysterious kidnapper to arrive. She also started to wonder what this was all about. Nick wasn't being ransomed for anything, not even a sum of money. Although her name hadn't been dropped in the note, Judy was sure that this shady character was working for Bellwether, given the way the note started. If this was the case, it was possible she simply wanted revenge on Judy for foiling her master plan and sending her to prison. With this in mind, Judy was prepared for the worst. She didn't even expect to be given an ultimatum that might save Nick's life, especially since he also had a hand in Bellwether's arrest.

Five minutes later, Judy's right ear twitched as she heard a movement somewhere behind her. She turned around quickly to see nothing. She then heard the noise behind her again and did another quick turn but still saw nothing. She was sure that this was Nick's kidnapper, trying to strike fear into her heart which, for a second, almost worked. 'Don't be a coward!' Judy called out. 'Come down and face me!'

'With pleasure, love!' A deep and sinister voice called back and, seconds later, a figure landed in front of her.

The figure was a six-foot-tall vampire bat with long blonde hair, wearing mostly black clothing. It was the guy from the photo! He smiled evilly through razor-sharp fangs.

'Good evening, Lieutenant. Did you have a pleasant drive in?' Given his species, Judy was quite surprised to hear that he spoke with an English accent. In no mood to mess around with formalities, she snapped at him. 'What have you done with Nick, you scum?!' He smiled and chuckled in response. 'Now now, lass. If you value your boyfriend's health, you'll lose that attitude.' Judy clenched her fists hard before taking a deep breath and managing to regain her composure. She looked at him with tears in her eyes. 'Please, whoever you are, what do you want? Where's Nick?'

'Much better.' the chiropteran psychopath said with a smile. 'What I want is simply to do my job and complete the task my employer has set for me. As for the fox, not to worry, he's being taken care of by your former friend, Bellwether.' Judy scowled as he said that name. 'She's behind the animals going savage, isn't she? They started turning before she was broken out of jail, but I'm guessing she had you start them somehow.'

'Ah, so you ARE as smart as you look.' Butch said, with a surprised smile appearing across his maw. 'Your taste in males isn't half bad either. That fox of yours...' He said, licking his lips.

'You creep! If you've done ANYTHING to him...' The bat interrupted. 'Now what did I say about that attitude? And, please, call me Butch.'

'Fine...Butch. I'm only going to give you one chance. Give Nick back to me and come peacefully, and I'll see that your sentence is minimal.' Her proposal was met only with loud, evil laughter from Butch's end. 'Sorry, love. Do you think you're the one calling the shots here? I'm afraid you came here to die, little lady! You're never gonna see your precious Nick again! And when you're gone, Bellwether will dispose of him however she pleases.'he said, baring his fangs and Judy sighed. 'So this was the plan you two came up with? She's been banged up in that place for a year and the best she could come up with was having some long-haired, blood-sucking freak who couldn't even be bothered to try to make an honest living kidnap my boyfriend and lure me into an obvious trap? Believe me, Butch. I knew this was going to happen and I promise you, you won't have your way! I'm taking you down and you're gonna spend the rest of your life behind bars for this!' Butch clenched his fists and bared his fangs, annoyed by something that Judy had said. 'You...don't know ANYTHING about me, you salad-munching fool!' He hissed at her and Judy smiled, having gotten the reaction she wanted and riled up the bat. 'No, I don't, but don't worry, I'll know plenty about you once you've been processed.' she said, maintaining her cocky smile and preparing herself for the fight. 'Now, I know what your answer is going to be but I have to say this anyway before I take you in. You're under arrest! Now put your hands where I can see them and keep them there!' Butch responded only with that ever-present psychotic smile. 'Sure thing, officer. In fact, I'm about to give you a real good look at them!'

Wasting no more time, Butch lunged at Judy and approached her with alarming speed, being much quicker on his feet than she expected but her own agility meant that she wasn't at a disadvantage and her reflexes were on point. As Butch closed in on her, he stopped and stood on one foot as he raised his right leg and span around in one swift motion, aiming his foot towards her face in an attempt to slash her face with those wicked blades on the end of his boot. Judy was able to duck just in the nick of time, losing only a few hairs on her long ears as the blades shaved them, just barely missing her. Thinking quickly, she threw a kick at mid-height which, because of the height difference between the two, struck Butch straight between his legs, forcing him to drop to his knees briefly while Judy followed it up with a backflip kick which smacked Butch's chin, making him stumble back, just barely able to stay on his feet.

Butch wiped a spot of blood away from his mouth and snarled at Judy before leaping into the air and seeming to disappear into the surrounding trees. Judy remained as vigilant as ever as she knew the fight wasn't over. There's no way somebody this serious would go to all this trouble and then flee from his prey after being kicked a couple of times. She stood still and breathed deep, watching and listening carefully to her surroundings. Butch waited patiently, hoping Judy would lose her focus and, moments later, her left ear twitched as she picked up a sound behind her and Butch came swooping, almost silently, down on her as he emerged from the trees. Almost certain he'd catch her and pin her to the floor, he didn't prepare himself for an emergency landing and, as Judy leapt into the air, backflipping over him, he hurtled into the floor and rolled for several metres before landing in a heap, moaning from the impact.

Judy smiled as she shook her head at the so-called assassin's performance. 'Pathetic.' She taunted. 'If this is how you go about eliminating targets, you might as well give up now so I don't have to hurt you anymore.'

The psychotic winged mammal struggled to his knees, smirking at her. 'Oh, you're more than welcome to hurt me some more, my dear. Either way, I WILL have you and Belwether will make me very rich indeed.' Judy scoffed in response. 'What makes you think she even has the wealth to do that? And don't you know a single thing about her?' She continued. 'She'll probably just kill you as soon as she doesn't need you anymore.'

Butch Scowled. 'Don't insult me! Police trickery won't work on me, love!' Judy sighed in response and Butch leapt to his feet and hurled himself at her again and the two began tussling with one another, swinging fists and feet at each other, both fighters occasionally taking a hit in the side, stomach and face and, at a certain instant, Judy remembered she'd brought her taizer with her and pulled it out in an attempt to stun him but Butch was too quick to react and kicked it out of her hand, knocking it over the railings and into the tree-adorned chasm below. Their brawl went on for several minutes before Judy leapt at Butch and landed both feet firmly against his chest, launching herself into a backflip, landing on her feet and knocking the wind out of Butch who stood panting as he held one hand on his chest. 'What's the matter, big guy?' Judy smirked, 'Out of breath already? Is this little bunny too much for you?' Aggravated by her taunt, Butch stood as tall as he could, extending his arms, flaring his wings and hissed at her loudly with the most vicious and devil-like expression on his face that Judy had ever seen. His fangs reminded her of a vampire and his eyes were like that of a demon. Surprised and shocked, Judy stood almost paralyzed with fear and Butch took this opportunity to lunge at her once more and slugged her in the gut with a low kick. Judy lurched forward, winded and unable to fight back.

She groaned in pain and, as she looked up at Butch, she wasn't fast enough to avoid the back of Butch's hand which struck her hard across the face, knocking her down in a heap on the floor. 'Get down there, where you belong!' Butch hissed with a psychopathic grin and raised his right foot over her, maintaining that terrifying expression as she looked up at him in terror and, after a second or two of enjoying the sight of the helpless officer, he brought his boot down on her with only about fifty percent of his power, wanting to hear Judy's tortured cries before he finished her off. He watched and listened contentedly as judy screamed out from the pain of the crushing impact and ground his foot against her chest, making her groan as she struggled to break free, grabbing onto his leg with both hands, digging her claws into his calf muscle but he continued to smile wickedly at his prey underfoot, barely seeming to feel anything at all. 'Get off me you filthy animal!' Judy cried. Now she could almost feel her bones crushing underneath the weight of the larger mammal and, in desperation, she reached for a rock which was just barely within reach of her grasp. As her hand managed to grip the rock, she slammed it against Butch's foot, forgetting that his boots were fitted with steel toecaps. Unphased by her attempt, Butch laughed. 'You've done your fair share of mocking me but face it, love. I'm just as prepared as you!' Judy now struggled to breath beneath the predator's foot and she attempted to draw in one last breath before she was crushed, her vision fading in to a blur and, in a sudden and surprising instant, the crushing force bearing down on her chest disappeared and she took in a deep lungful of air with a loud gasp as Butch was knocked off of her and sent rolling along the ground.

Judy shot up into a sitting position and looked over at Butch who was now standing face to face with another male. He was considerably taller than Judy but not quite as tall as Butch. His body was lined with fiery orange fur which transitioned into a dark maroon at his crown and behind him was a long bushy tail which ended in a tip of snow-white, the same colour that could be seen on his chest and muzzle. '...Nick? But how?' As her vision came back into focus, she realized she wasn't looking at Nick. This was a fox she'd never seen before. He wore very dark green trousers, the ends of which were tucked into his long boots which were fitted with steel toecaps, not unlike Butch's, and around the shins were fastened leather shin pads, each baring three spikes in a vertical row. The sleeves of his dark brown coat were rolled up just above his elbows and his fists and forearms were wrapped in bandages, hinting that he was perhaps a bare knuckle boxer. The last thing she picked out about his appearance was the gold crucifix pendant that hung just above three claw-like scars the right side of his chest which were only partially concealed by his coat.

'Butch, that's enough! We've talked about this! You promised you'd get help.' the fox said, emitting a similar accent to Butch's. 'Oh put a lid on it, Lexington! A man of your profession should know not to bother a man at work.'

'This is what you call work? Open your eyes, will ya, Butch! You were about to take this poor officer's life. She no doubt has friends and family whose grief would be indescribable if you killed her!' Butch opened his mouth several times to respond but couldn't seem to find the words he wanted. 'Butch,' the fox continued, his voice much calmer and softer in an almost sympathetic tone. 'Do you really want to be the cause of the same suffering that you're going through?' Butch remained silent for a further few seconds and Lexington's eyes narrowed as he noticed the bat's eyes shiftily dart over to Judy who was still on the floor, watching this surprising confrontation and back to the fox. Butch was obviously displeased with all this exposition coming out within earshot of Judy. 'If you touch her, it'll be after you go through me, and I'm not afraid to knock you unconscious, Butch.' Butch growled, clenching his fists tight and then gave a cat-like hiss to Lexington. 'I'm not a fool, Lexington. I won't fight you now but if you show your face again, I'll be more than ready for you.' Butch Glared at Judy. He was obviously smart enough to know that fighting this Lexington here and now in his already worn down state would be a big mistake. 'I'll be back for you, love.' He said before outstretching his arms and taking flight, setting off into the distance.

The aggressive look on the fox's face quickly disintegrated as he turned to look at Judy and he walked over to her with a polite smile and offered her his right hand. 'You okay there, miss?' She took his hand and allowed him to help her to her feet. 'Thanks to you sir. I appreciate the help. Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD.' she said, shaking his hand as she introduced herself. 'Daniel Lexington, ZFD. But just call me Lex.'

'Oh, you're from the fire department?' Lex nodded. 'Have been eight long years.'

Not wanting to waste any time with small talk, Judy quickly explained what had happened to Nick and what she knew about the city's savage infestation. 'I see. This is just awful. I'm so sorry Butch has done this to you and your partner. We'll get him back safe and sound. Don't you worry, officer. I know you won't like the idea of a none-officer coming along but the ZPD is spread thin and your partner is being held hostage. You really need help.' Judy hesitated but nodded her agreement. 'Thank you, Lex. I appreciate this. But call me Judy.' She said with a smile, the first real one she'd worn all evening. 'And welcome to the team.' she added, placing a police sticker on his coat, just like the one she gave to Finnick when she first met him. 'Thank you kindly officer.' He said, looking out at the horizon in the direction that Butch had fled. Judy breathed a sigh of slight relief. Things had never seemed so dark for her but now she had an ally. A friend who wasn't too busy to help her and things were looking better. She now knew that she had a chance of getting Nick back and putting this incident behind them.