Worlds Apart
A sleek figure walked confidently through the crowded sidewalks of Savannah Central, a place already abuzz with activity despite the morning's early hour. A navy blue jacket and mirrored sunglasses failed to hide the pointed ears, thin muzzle, and brushlike tail of the animal beneath, the exposed portions of his reddish-brown fur seeming to glow slightly under the amber hue of the rising sun. He stopped in front of a particular building, raising his left paw to drink from the coffee cup it was clutching while simultaneously pulling open one of the building's glass doors with his right. Gold foil lettering on the large, ornate door read "Zootopia Police Department - Precinct One".
Once out of the damp morning chill, the fox removed his jacket to reveal a well-pressed police uniform underneath, in the same navy color. An embroidered name patch sat opposite to a polished gold badge on his chest, the letters spelling out N. WILDE. As the fox strolled further into the building's lobby, he came into the view of a large cheetah seated comfortably at the reception desk, a half-eaten glazed donut in his paw. "Good morning Nick!" Clawhauser called, his eyes lighting up at the sight of his friend and his unoccupied paw giving a slight wave.
"Morning to you too, Clawhauser," Nick coolly replied, giving the portly feline a nod and salute across his sunglasses.
"Better hurry, briefing starts in three minutes! I know you don't want parking duty again..." Clawhauser chided.
Nick lowered the sunglasses down his snout, peering over them with a gleam in his emerald eyes. "All the time in the world, buddy!"
Nick took his seat in the briefing room, colloquially referred to as the Bullpen, moments before Chief Bogo huffed in. "Alright everyone, seats, we've got a lot on the roster today." Two junior officers in the rear had somehow failed to notice their chief's imposing presence; the panther and boar were still quietly arguing about a call made in the previous day's ball game. "IF YOU TWO ARE THROUGH," the chief roared, silencing the two rookies, "I think we've found today's meter maids! Officers Anima and Swenson, dismissed!" The young officers slunk out of the room, each grabbing orange safety vests from a rack by the door. Nick was relieved, though he hid his expression. He had been worried Bogo would assign him that tedious job again.
The buffalo continued down his roll sheet, assigning each mammal a patrol sector or specific case. Nick momentarily let his attention drift into a daydream about his upcoming vacation, knowing he was near the end of the list. "Wilde!" the chief's voice barked, snapping the fox's focus back with a sharp attenuation of his ears. "My office after the briefing." One of Nick's ears dropped quizzically as he wondered what 'special treat' Bogo might have in store for him this time, but he was given no hints as the chief immediately continued down the last few names on the sheet. "You've got your orders, all officers dismissed!" Bogo announced before thunderously marching out of the room, sending all the other officers scurrying to follow suit. Nick held back as the larger officers barreled out the door to their squad cars. A lesson he had learned early upon joining the ZPD was that he was not above being trampled.
The muscular figure of the ZPD's cape buffalo chief was already seated at his desk when Nick walked in, sunglasses removed and hooked onto his shirt. "Happy Monday chief, you're looking well today. Get your horns waxed?" Nick offered with a smirk. Bogo hadn't looked up from his monitor.
"No need for the sugar and spice Wilde, you're not in trouble for once. I've got a special assignment for you, this one came in over the weekend," the chief grunted. He pressed a button on his keyboard, and a nearby printer began spitting out pages.
"A special assignment, for little old me?" Nick sang, coyly holding his muzzle in his paws. "Oh chief, you shouldn't have!"
"Shut it, Wilde," the chief spat, "we got a call from a sheriff in one of the border counties, they're a little short on mammal-power and requesting one of our officers to back them up on an investigation. Nothing serious, petty theft and vandalism. A class Valedictorian like yourself should be able to knock it out in a day." The buffalo chief grabbed the prints and stapled them before putting them in a heavy folder and handing it to Nick, who quickly looked over the case summary.
"Bunnyburrow, chief? You don't think maybe Officer Shorn would be better suited out there?"
Bogo huffed. "I do, but the ram is out with fleas. Picked them up tackling that nasty oryx at the club fight that broke out last week. Maybe if you were paying attention during roll call you would have noticed he was missing." The chief sat forward in his chair, his face closer to level with the fox's. "So unless you don't think you can handle being the big bad fox around a few fluffy rabbits, you've got your assignment, Wilde." The chief sat back upright and turned back to the computer. Without looking back at Nick, he added "and you better be on your best behavior down there, you're representing the ZPD to another department. Got it?"
"I don't suppose I get a partner on this one?" Nick asked, closing the file. The question received another grunt from the buffalo. "Nobody we can spare, there was another mammal reported missing today and we still haven't found the first. That's two in as many weeks, and I've got the mayor all over me about it. Now get going Wilde, you've got a bit of a drive."
"Well," thought Nick, "beats being a meter maid anyway."
Nearly two hours later, Nick was driving past a worn sign that read "Welcome to Bunnyburrow!" which was counting up population at an alarming rate. His police cruiser looked especially modern against the backdrop of farm equipment and wooden construction. The address of the contact in the case file turned out to be for a bakery, 'Gideon's Real Good Baked Stuff'. Nick picked up his car's radio handset. "914 to Dispatch, Officer Wilde checking in at my destination, over."
The speaker crackled momentarily with static as he released the button, then buzzed to life again with Clawhauser's jovial voice. "10-4 914, we have you on location, over. Have fun in bunny town, Nick!"
A little bell over the doorway chimed as Nick walked into the bakery, setting eyes on a well-fed fox behind the counter. Really, another fox in a place called Bunnyburrow? Nick mused. "Good morning sir, Officer Nicholas Wilde with the Zootopia Police Department," he greeted the other vulpine in his most professional manner, extending a paw. "Are you the one who reported the incident of theft and vandalism?"
The portly fox stepped around the counter, clasping Nick's outstretched paw with both of his and shaking it. "Yessir, Gideon Gray is the name. ZPD? Wow, I didn't expect them to send one of you all the way out here to our little neck of the woods! And a fox no less, I never thought I'd see the day we'd have a fox police officer. Mayor Lionheart is really turning things around!"
Nick smiled back, calmly removing his paw from Gideon's ever-intensifying shakes. "Yeah, I'm the first! Now about this report..."
The baker's eyes widened as he remembered why Nick was there in the first place. "OH, right! Well, it was just yesterday I came in to open up the shop, I went into the back room to get more pies for the display case and I found this..." Gideon trailed off as he gestured for Nick to follow him into the storeroom. On the floor was an empty pie tin, surrounded with blue-stained crumbs. "You see," the larger fox said, "one of my fresh blueberry pies, totally gone!"
Retrieving a pad and pen from one of his belt pouches, Nick began taking notes on the crime scene. "Okay, that's the theft," he said as he finished writing. "Now what about the vandalism?"
Grey gestured around the floor. "Everywhere!" he exclaimed. "It wasn't enough to steal the pie, they drew lines all over the place!" Nick furrowed his brow as he looked towards the floor, his ears falling flat. Gideon was right, there were several blue lines leading in separate directions away from the pie.
The baker piped up behind Nick as he leaned closer to the floor. "We must be dealing with a master criminal, there are no signs of forced entry, no broken windows... I left everything alone so I didn't destroy any evidence."
As he leaned closer, Nick noticed that there were tiny paw prints on either side of the blue lines, which looked suspiciously like blueberry. Suddenly Nick shot straight up, gave the baker a smug look, and sarcastically declared "Have no fear sir, Officer Nicholas P. Wilde is on the case!" before running out the door. Before he had a chance to respond, Gideon was left standing dumbfounded as the door bell chimed in the distance.
The policefox ran outside to the back of the small bakery, where the blue lines could still be seen in the short grass. A brief distance into the neighboring field they converged, and disappeared at a tiny water pump just behind a mouse-sized farmhouse. The predator laid his head into one of his paws and quietly laughed to himself. An image of his graduation from the police academy flashed through his mind, Mayor Lionheart's words echoing; "On this day we welcome you, Nicholas Wilde, first graduate of my Mammal Inclusion Initiative, into the Zootopia Police Department's ranks! I'm sure our first-ever fox police officer will make us proud!"
"Oh Mayor Lionheart, if only you could see me now." Nick chuckled.
"So sorry again about wasting your time like that, Officer Wilde!" Gideon said, looking flustered.
Nick waved a paw through the air dismissively as he swallowed a bite of the blueberry pie the other fox had offered him. "Hey, no worries. This is almost like having a day off. By the way, Mr. Mouston said he'd come by soon to pay for the pie his kids ate, and make them clean up the mess." Gideon nodded as Nick finished off his slice of pie. "Say, Mr. Grey, where do you get your blueberries? That was delicious!"
The bakery owner's ears and tail perked up in unison as he responded, "Oh, that would be the Hopps farm, just up the road! Freshest fruits and veggies in all of Zootopia, they really know a thing or two about plant husbandry."
Nick smiled, shaking Gideon's paw once again. "I just might have to pay them a visit, thanks for the tip."
As Nick left, he spotted a group of several juvenile rabbits looking at his police cruiser from a fence railing across the road. The second the fox made eye contact, they all jumped down and ran back through the carrot field behind them. Nick sat in his car and went through the process of adding his notes to the case file, and called in to let Clawhauser know he would be heading back to the station soon.
A couple of the bunnies who were hanging from the fence were now running around the Hopps farm stand when Nick drove up, and they froze when the comparatively tall vulpine stepped out. The gray-furred female rabbit running the stand also seemed momentarily surprised, but quickly smiled earnestly back at the approaching fox, her lavender-eyed gaze reflected in Nick's sunglasses.
"Wow, they weren't kidding," the bunny girl thought as she stood from her chair and straightened her pink shirt. "Welcome to the Hopps Family Farm! You must be Officer Wilde. My siblings were just telling me about how you helped Gideon!"
Nick swept off his sunglasses as he entered the shade of the farm stand's roof. "Yes ma'am. And you are...?" Nick offered a paw to the rabbit, which she shook.
"Judy. Judy Hopps. What can we get for you today? Carrots are on special for a buck off, and blueberries were just picked this morning!" Nick reached back for his wallet.
"Two pounds of blueberries, please," he said, handing Judy the correct bills.
"I have to say, I'm really glad to meet you," said Judy, while weighing out the fruit. "See, I used to dream about moving to Zootopia and becoming a police officer like you. I have been reading about you since you actually did it." She tied the sack of blueberries closed and handed it to the fox, who was looking at her with more interest.
"What stopped you?" Nick asked, "I may have been the first fox to become a police officer, but there's no reason a bunny couldn't have been the first police academy graduate under the Mammal Inclusion Initiative."
Judy looked down for a moment before returning her eyes to meet Nick's. "Well, it's just there hasn't been a rabbit cop in the history of ever, and I don't think a farm-raised bunny from a family of 273 could make it in the big city."
Nick lowered his eyelids halfway and grinned at the rabbit. "Sweetheart, before I was a cop, I was a big-time hustler. I ran with all the wrong packs, got into real trouble, and nearly lost my tail over it. But I turned my life around; I never thought a street-raised fox from a family of 1 could be a cop either. Don't let the thing other animals see you as become what you are, or else we'll just stay sly foxes and dumb bunnies forever."
One of Judy's ears turned at the 'dumb bunnies' remark, but nevertheless the fox's words resonated with her. "How is the city," she asked, "I've always wanted to visit."
Nick stood back up to his full height, not realizing that he had crouched down to the rabbit's level. "It really is a beautiful place, it never seems to sleep. Not like here. There is always something happening, some new thing to see. It's definitely worth visiting. Look me up if you're ever in town, maybe I can take you on a ride-along or something. Show you what being a ZPD officer is all about."
Judy's ears perked, and she smiled warmly at Nick. "That would be a lot of fun. Thanks Officer Wilde, and enjoy the blueberries!" Nick picked up the bag of fruit, put his sunglasses back on top of his snout, and turned back towards his patrol car. "See you later Officer Carrots, stay safe!"
'Officer Carrots'? Where in the world did that come from... Nick thought to himself as he started the car and pulled back onto the road. Cute bunny though.
Well hello there everyone, I'm FoxStang! This story marks my first foray into fan fiction, though I have written some other material in the past. Hopefully you have enjoyed it!
The cover image is used with permission, and is copyright of user "sweetmarshmella" on DeviantArt.