Howdy, folks! Welcome to my first fanfic! I realize that many of you Zootopia fans may not have watched Patlabor (if you haven't, I highly recommend it), so I'll try and ease you into it. If I'm not doing so good a job of it, just let me know in a review!

For those of you who have seen Patlabor, this takes place in the TV series/New Files continuity.

You may occasionally see footnotes (you've probably noticed the "[1]" in that first paragraph below) to help explain the world of Patlabor to Zootopia fans or vice-versa, or even just for general trivia (SO MANY OBSCURE ANIMAL REFERENCES), plus the occasional [OST] footnote to denote the soundtrack for this fic!

Special thanks to mahq-dot-net for their extensive database on Labors!

So yeah! This is "Imposter Syndrome"! Enjoy!


"I tell ya!" crowed Isao Ohta, grinning so hard one would think one corner of his mouth would touch the other, "I tell ya it was prishless! That Bulldog pilot di'nt even know what hid'm!"[1]

"You've been saying that for the past while, Ohta!" grumbled Asuma Shinohara, wishing Ohta would pass out from all the drinks he'd had.

"Aren't you going to have something stronger?" said Takeo Kumagami, raising an eyebrow at the ice water Asuma was having.

"Listen, Kumagami." said Asuma, "I've learned that the only way to not get drunken under the table by Noa is to not drink at all."

"Hmm..." remarked Kumagami, "In that case, this next glass will be my last."

"Mmmmm..." said Noa Izumi, eyes staring off into space as she finished off her glass of sake.

It was Asuma's turn to raise an eyebrow. Noa seemed particularly untalkative this evening. He'd picked this bar for Division 2's night out specifically because it was near Noa's apartment, so it'd be easy for them to carry the hard-drinking barkeeper's daughter home if need be.

Asuma was about to ask what was wrong, but tall, gorilla-like Hiromi Yamasaki beat him to it. "Something wrong, Noa?"

"Oh, it's nothing..." Noa still seemed downcast. Asuma quickly realized why.

"Noa, it's alright!" he piped up, "We had no way of knowing how weak that abandoned subway tunnel was! It wasn't your fault it collapsed under Alphonse's weight!"

"Yes, it was!" Noa glared at Asuma, clearly showing the effects of slight inebriation, "I should have been more careful! I could have taken that guy down! Now Alphonse is all smashed up, and Ohta had to pick up the slack..."

Asuma frowned. Noa's affection for her Labor was usually an asset in the field, for it made her more careful and efficient, but when she thought she'd failed, that affection became a two-edged sword emotionally.

"Not that I'm complainin'!" crowed Ohta, raising his umpteenth glass, "That wacko didn't stand a chance against me! Consider yerself avenged, Izumi!"

"Asuma?" Noa said, staring at the bottom of her glass.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think I'm... losing my touch?"

"What? No!"

"It's just that I keep wondering if I've been lucky until now - that the real me isn't that good of a Labor pilot."

"Come on, Noa!" said Asuma, patting his co-worker on the back, "We all have off days! It's no big deal!"

"Yeah, I guess..." Noa eased herself off her seat and began to amble out of the bar. "You guys go on without me. Don't need me around dampening the mood..."

"You sure you don't need help?" said Hiromi.

"I'll be fine..." said Noa, "It's not that far..."

Asuma could only stare after his co-worker with a furtive look. Sometimes, he just did not understand her...


"So why did Chief Buffalo-Butt want to see you in his office?" asked Nick Wilde, eyes on the road ahead.

"Oh, that?" said Judy Hopps, suddenly snapped out of her thoughts, "He just wanted to know how Stoker and Jackson are settling in."

"Oh, yeah!" Nick grinned, recalling how much his fellow officers at the Zootopia Police Department were talking about Iona Stoker and Delia Jackson - the ZPD's first bat and first hare officers respectively.[2] "What did you tell him?"

"I gave him a few pointers about Jackson," said Judy, her lapine muzzle angling toward the window as she stared at all the mammals on the sidewalk, "Gave him some firsthand info about what it was like for me on my first days on the force. Stoker is... something else."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I never actually met any bats in Bunnyburrow, and I never really got to know them until Stoker joined. Big ears are just about the only thing we have in common, it seems." Judy seemed despondent at this lack of connection with a fellow officer. "He was a bit worried about how most mammals regard bats."

"Hmmm... I might give him a few pointers. Dealt with a few of them myself back in my 'glory days'." the russet-colored fox gave his trademark eyes-half-lidded smirk as he recalled his own less-than-ethical past. "Of course, I'll have to remind him that the bats weren't the most disreputable mammals involved in those transactions!"

"Shut it, you!" Judy chuckled, elbowing her partner in the ribs. "Statute of limitations, remember?"

"No elbowing the driver!" Nick chuckled in feigned fright.

"Anyway, Bogo seemed disappointed that I couldn't give him any ideas about Stoker." said Judy, "He said he wanted to find out how he could make the most out of all these new species - find out what assignments work best for 'em, that sort of thing. He said that since the ZPD's never had any bats before, he's got nothing to go on for Stoker."

Judy's black-tipped ears fell down to touch her back as the little grey rabbit stared out the window again. "Maybe that's why he put me on parking duty when I first joined up..."

Nick began to look concerned. "Alright, Carrots. What's eating you?"

Judy sighed. "I guess with the Mammal Inclusion Initiative bringing in all these new species, I keep worrying they'll just be token officers - token bats, token jackrabbits, token otters, that sort of thing. I mean, I was a token bunny at first. Sure, Bogo's gotten better, but I think he has a point - what happens if he can't find a way to play to these officers' strengths? I mean, I remember how I wanted to be a real asset to the force, make the world a better place and all that. I'll bet Jackson and Stoker and all the other Initiative officers want that too."

"As another Initiative officer, I can relate," said Nick, the ZPD's first fox officer, "but I think you're overthinking this. You're not a token bunny. You're proving that every day we go on the beat, and honestly, I don't see myself as a token fox."

"Yeah, but I keep remembering that the M.I.I. only passed by two votes in the City Council. Where would I be now if it didn't pass? And even with the Initiative, would I be a cop today if I weren't a bunny?"

Nick sighed. "Now, you're really overthinking it. Fact is, you're here, you've got that badge, you've taken down two double-dealing mayors, you saved the entire goddamn city from tearing itself apart! You've more than proven yourself!"

"Okay..."

"Tell you what, we can go chat up Stoker tomorrow - get the 411 on bats directly from her. If we get any ideas, we go to Bogo. Sound fair?"

Judy sighed. "Alright..."


Barkeeper's daughter or not, Noa Izumi was feeling just a little tipsy as she ambled toward her apartment. Still, she wasn't completely out of it.

She noticed some sort of small trailer a couple blocks out from the cart. It was a white trailer hooked up to a pickup truck. It resembled a horse trailer, only with a roll-up door cut into the side.. It was around then that she noticed her lace was untied, so she sat on a little ledge on the side of the trailer to tie it. However, when she put her back against the trailer, there was a loud click and the door opened, causing Noa to fall inside.

A muffled voice came from outside. "What was that?!"

Suddenly, the door fell shut, and a loud humming started, and Noa fell unconscious.


"STOP, THIEF!"

Judy and Nick turned their attention to the sidewalk.

An elderly ibex woman was yelling after an arctic fox who now had a purse in his clutches. The fox soon took off down a dark alley. This alley made a sharp left turn, so a quick turn by the cruiser would be impractical.

After reporting the purse-snatching to dispatch, Nick pulled the cruiser to a halt.

"You're a faster runner." he said, "You go after him. I'll cut him off on the other side!"

"Right!" Judy jumped out the passenger-side door.

She saw the fox round the sharp turn just as she was beginning to catch up. When Judy made the turn, however, the alley was deserted, save for a large pickup truck hitched to a large, white trailer with a large, horizontal door in the side. She banged her fist against the trailer door in frustration, and to her surprise, it rolled open. She peeked inside. It was a large, padded chamber; a large, empty padded chamber. No sign of the purse-snatcher in here!

As she pulled her head out of this chamber, Judy felt a terrific pain on the back of her head, and she slumped to the ground, unconscious.


[OST1]

Judy now dreamt she was running through the wheat fields back in Bunnyburrow. It felt like she was playing tag with her siblings again.

That's what she thought anyway.

"Alphonse! Heel!" came a girl's voice from Judy's right.

She glanced over and saw an odd, four-legged, wolf-like creature. It looked vaguely like what wolves had looked like pre-evolution, but its features were softer, and it looked a bit too small to be a wolf, and its fur was the wrong hue – more of a golden color. It walked up to a stunned Judy, gave her a slobbery lick, and then backed off a little.

Just then, another creature ran up, this time on two legs.

"Alphonse! Wait up!" came the girl's voice again.

It was an odd mammal with no hair on its face or arms. In fact, the only hair it had was the brown hair atop its head. It wore a sweater and jogging pants as it ambled up to the wolf-creature.

It walked up to the creature, panting from exertion, bent over to catch her breath, then stared at Judy in utter bewilderment.


Noa groaned as she woke from that bizarre dream. She remembered running with Alphonse I, then bumping into some anthropomorphic rabbit... thing.

She was surprised she'd collapsed like that. Surely she hadn't had that much to drink! She groggily raised her body up off the pavement and glanced upward. Still nighttime. She couldn't have been out that long then.

She needed to get home, sleep this off. Lord knows what the others would think if she came to work with a hangover. She could practically hear Asuma now; "How'd you get hammered like this?! I thought you practically grew up inhaling beer fumes!"

She wearily scratched an itch. Then she realized something. She nervously looked over herself – she could have sworn she'd been in her civvies! Now she was in her police uniform – no, not her police uniform! Not even a Japanese police uniform! It looked like the uniforms of American cops she'd seen on TV – sometimes she'd wondered about phoning up Kanuka and asking which uniform she'd preferred.

When she checked over her uniform, her heart sank as she realized that the uniform wasn't all that was wrong. Her hands were different. They were covered with grey fur – with white on the palm-side – and only had four fingers each.

She looked over and saw a puddle. Anxiously, Noa glanced at her reflection in the puddle. Immediately, she wished she hadn't.

Staring back at Noa – with a horrified look in its purple eyes – was some sort of grey-furred rabbit creature. It was all there; the giant, black-tipped ears erupting from its head, the little pink nose, and when she opened her mouth, there was a noticeable pair of buckteeth. No mistaking it. It was the rabbit-thing from her dream.

Noa did the only thing she could think of; she screamed.


When Judy came to, her first thought was that there were no stars in the night sky. No surprise there. In big cities like Zootopia, one seldom saw stars thanks to light pollution – not like out in Bunnyburrow.

Still, something seemed… off about this sky…

Judy's thoughts turned to other matters. She got up on her feet, using the wall next to her for support, and tried to reach for her radio.

It was then that she realized that she wasn't in uniform. She was in a black hoodie and jeans. Had her attacker… changed her clothes?!

Wait, that wasn't all. Something else was wrong. However, before she could investigate further, a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Wha? Izumi! You alright?"

Judy turned around and to her surprise, saw a male version of the odd mammal from her dream. Like the mammal from her dream, it had no hair on its face or hands; only the black hair atop its head. This mammal was dressed in a red jacket.

Judy had to admit she'd never seen a mammal like this before, but thousands of species – more than Judy could name – called Zootopia home. Sometimes it felt like she met a new one every couple weeks while on duty.

"Ugh, what time is it?" she groaned.

The hairless mammal checked his watch. "Just past 9:45. You've only been gone about an hour or so."

Judy soon realized that the densely packed, lower-slung houses did not match Downtown Zootopia. Some of the denser regions of Savanna Central, Sahara Square, or the Meadowlands, maybe, but not Downtown.

"Where am I?"

The hairless mammal sighed. "You're only three blocks east of the cart. Honestly Noa, I didn't think you could get hammered like this! I thought you were practically raised on alcohol fumes! I guess even bartender's daughters have their limits!"

"What?!" said Judy, not understanding one word the mammal had said. What did he mean by a 'bartender's daughter'? And who was Noah?!

"Come on!" said the mammal, grabbing her by the hand, "Let's get you home and hopefully Gotoh won't rake you over the coals too much in the morning!"

At first, Judy figured that the mammal had recognized her from all the publicity she'd received during the Night Howler Incident. But then, she noticed something about her hand. She quickly pulled it back.

"Noa!" the mammal protested.

Judy stared at her hand in disbelief. It now had five fingers instead of four, had nails instead of short claws, and was devoid of fur. She checked her other hand – it was the same.

She quickly put her hands to her face. No muzzle, not even any fur except on the top of her head.

She looked in her pocket and pulled out a phone. In the reflection of the powered-off screen, she saw the female mammal from her dream.

Her shock allowed the groggy feeling to return, and Judy was out like a light.


[1]: HL-97 Bulldog - a construction Labor manufactured by Hishii Heavy Industries. They are considered among the most common Labors in operation.

[2]: Delia Jackson's surname is a reference to the fact that she is a white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii). Iona Stoker is a spectral bat - or false vampire bat (Vampyrum spectrum). Her surname is a reference to Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula.

[OST1]: Kenji Kawai - ASAMOYA (soundtrack from Patlabor - the Mobile Police TV series)


NEXT TIME ON IMPOSTER SYNDROME:

""NO! NO! YOU'RE NOT- YOU CAN'T BE- I'M-"

"Two hands, five fingers each. Two feet, five toes each, and one sloshed head!"

"I'm not a fox or a squirrel or anything...!"

"Watch it! And who's Alphonse?!"

"Somebody help me!"


So that's the beginning! The new one, anyway, for originally, I abruptly plopped the reader right into things with little explanation. Hopefully this new beginning chapter rectifies that little issue.