Gerald Riverson hunched against the worn brick wall as bullets whizzed by him on either side, through the open doorway on his left, and the now shattered window to his right. He cringed as the wall shuddered from a burst of automatic fire raking right across his position. The giraffe's long arms squeezed a little tighter against his side, clutching the trusty elephant tranquilizer dart gun that all ZPD officers carried as sidearms. He was woefully outgunned.
On the other side of the doorway, his partner, Derek Leatherback, grunted and slumped a little lower against the wall. The big rhino's breaths came in a pained wheeze as blood trickled from the four red pinpricks that seemed to have cut through his kevlar vest with no trouble at all. His mass seemed to have saved him from immediate death, but he was in no condition to fight.
Gerald's head snapped away from his partner as more shots rang around him from multiple directions. Over the commotion he could hear a voice yelling at unseen mammals to head around the side door. He took a deep breath, then carefully leaned away from the wall, slightly enlarging his view into the warehouse. He caught sight of two rams making a beeline for the far wall, and quickly pulled up his dart gun. He dropped one while the other dove behind a crate upon hearing the quiet whut-whut-whut of the darts hitting his friend or whizzing by him. The deafening cacophony of return fire he drew made him thankful that while the strange rounds these criminals had might cut through kevlar like butter, they had no such luck with the stout brick walls.
He looked up and said a silent prayer that backup would arrive soon. And be fit for the job. He knew the fearsome organized crime unit, Leopold's Lions (so christened after former Mayor Lionheart's anti-crime initiative) often patrolled this area…
"Carrots, for the love of God I'm begging you!" shouted Nick, his hand darting towards her phone, connected to the all important aux cord. "If I have to listen to another Tailfur Swift song I think I'm going to die!"
"Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners? No grabbing!" giggled the bunny in the driver's seat, the cruiser taking a dangerous trip into the opposing lane as she jerked away from Nick. "Just say the magic word and it's all yours."
Nick sighed as his ears bent back in annoyance. "May I pleeeeeease have your phone, Officer Fluff?" he said, emphasizing his displeasure before allowing the hint of a smile to creep across his face.
"Of course you may, Officer Wilde," Judy said with a smirk. Just as Nick gleefully took her phone in his palm, he was interrupted by the squawk of the radio.
"All units be advised. We have a 10-108 at Bush and Rawlson. All units respond."
"Pfff 10-108, what's that one Carrots, cat stuck in a tree?" Nick smirked, not noticing the color rapidly draining from Judy's face. "Carrots, what's wrong?"
"Nick!" Judy shouted, regaining her focus. "10-108 is an officer down or in danger, this is serious!"
"Looks like we've got some police work to do then," Nick said as he nonchalantly flipped the siren on, but she noticed his ears tilt back a little. Judy looked ahead, then gunned the cruiser forwards, nearly drifting through the intersection as she pulled a sharp left onto Bush Boulevard. "We might be the first ones on the scene, you know. Be ready."
Nick merely nodded in acknowledgement, but she saw his ears drooping even lower. While this would be the first time since the Missing Mammals case that either of them would be in serious danger, Nick was only six weeks out of the academy, whereas she now had months of police work under her belt.
As Judy sped through another intersection, her ears perked at what could be nothing other than the cracks and thuds of gunfire. She gulped a little, and immediately struggled to stop herself and keep a determined look on her face. She had to be strong for Nick.
What? What was that just now?
Uhh. I- uhh- mean… I have to support my partner!
Yeah. Sure.
What? No. We're just good friends and I-
"Carrots! CARROTS!"
Judy shook her head and refocused on the road. In front of her was a small crowd of mammals gathering near an open gateway in a brick wall. Besides the gate was an empty ZPD cruiser. The gunshots were much louder now.
She brought the cruiser to a quick stop, and hopped out, nodding to Nick. She approached the crowd, and shouted, "ZPD! Everyone stand back and take cover!" She looked totally in control, but Nick had picked up a whiff of fear before she jumped out of the car.
What a woman.
Huh? What? Look, now is not the time.
With that Nick cut off his reverie and fished a small key out of his utility belt. While ZPD officers carried tranquilizer darts as their standard sidearm, a big part of the effort to make the police seem less like predator thugs that had occurred two decades ago, every squad car was equipped with real guns in case of emergency. Although Nick and Judy were far too small for the rifles the other officers carried, they had been given two Hyena and Koch MP5 submachine guns, whose smaller frames and lessened recoil suited the pair. Withdrawing the two guns, making sure to keep the scratched up one in his left paw for Judy, he ran up to her outside the gate.
Despite his initial fears, Nick felt supremely calm now. His ears stood straight up, twitching in the direction of each new sound; his nose was working overtime, picking up the smells of horses, rams, deer, and a gazelle. His muzzle hung open, teeth bared and tongue panting, eyes narrowed under a furrowed brow. In an orange flash he popped up over the windowsill, trained his weapon on a cowering deer his keen eyes clearly picked out in the darkness and crack crack crack the deer crumpled against the crate he had hunched against. Three shots to center mass, Ursula would be proud.
'What a mammal,' Judy marveled as he popped back into cover, just below a hail of return fire. His raw, predatory instinct to kill was on full display, and it was awing both her and the giraffe who was on the other side of Nick. His muzzle curled into a vicious, toothy grin, and her ears picked up groans as a mammal slumped onto the ground somewhere in the warehouse. It was terrifying, but it also stirred something else within her...
Oh no, not again. Not now!
Nick sniffed the air again, and noticed another smell drifting from Judy. One he knew only from once several weeks ago when she had confided to him that she was in heat. He turned his muzzle towards her and winked. "Like what you see Hopps?"
Judy's ears burned bright pink and shot down behind her head. Thankfully, before she had to respond officers Delgato and Wolford sprinted into position on the other side of the door. She noticed a similarly fearsome look to Nick's on the two predators' muzzles, although less pronounced.
"Hopps! Wilde! The McHorns are two blocks away and TUSK is five minutes out! Just stay in cover!" roared Delgato.
Judy was about to learn that today was opposite day.
"Cover me!" Nick yelled to the stunned officers, spraying a burst across the warehouse as he ran towards the nearest crates for cover. "Come on, Hopps!" he called over his shoulder as the stunned cops opened up with semi-automatic rifle fire towards the rough locations of the criminals. To the dismay of the mammals in the warehouse, the crates offered poor cover from the large rifle rounds fired by the two predators. They and Nick both smelled fresh blood pooling across the room as Judy slid to a stop next to Nick, both afraid and electrified.
As they braced themselves for return fire, the McHorn brothers slammed through the side door, opening up against the exposed flanks of the mammals who found their situation increasingly dismal.
Nick leaned out, his head snapping towards a ram running for new cover as the McHorns ducked back into cover. He was raising his MP5 when Judy tackled him to the floor.
"Wha-" Nick began ratta-tat-tat-tat-tat twenty bullets filled the space Nick's upper body had occupied a moment ago. Judy and Nick both craned their heads up, scrambling for their weapons as an angry horse glared at them before moving back into cover.
Judy's ears twitched. "He's reloading," she whispered, and Nick told himself to thank her if they made it out alive. He motioned forwards and the two quietly rushed up to the other side of the stack of crates most of the remaining criminals seemed to be behind. They heard hooves attempting to surreptitiously move across the concrete floor, then car doors being yanked open. Judy keyed her radio, "all units, vehicles preparing to leave from the east end of the building!"
"When'd they get so close!" shouted one of the rams frantically.
"Hopps! Wilde! Now!" bellowed Wolford as he and Delgato sprinted up each edge of the warehouse, popping off a few rounds towards the east wall. The McHorns reappeared in the doorway only to immediately duck back from bullets whizzing by them.
Nick and Judy edged around the crates as the same horse finished firing at the McHorns and slipped into a car, which immediately burned rubber out the open back door. Nick took a knee and fired off a burst at the nearest car, bursting its rear-right tire. The large SUV careened into a wall in the alley behind the warehouse as the other two cars swerved onto the street and disappeared.
Nick and Judy leaned against a conveniently sized crate and surveyed the aftermath of the shootout. The rhino had been taken away by EMTs a few minutes ago, and his partner was being debriefed by a medic. Delgato and the TUSK officers were loading the mammals from the car Nick had stopped into a paddy wagon. Some detectives from the organized crime squad were examining the rifles left by the fleeing mammals, along with a score more and thousands of rounds of ammo in the SUV. Newly arrived officers were being drafted into cordoning the area off from the arriving media vans and photographers. They turned their heads towards the familiar sound of hooves making heavy contact with the ground.
"I want you two in conference room 17 in 45 minutes," Bogo intoned without even looking at them, his eyes locked on the SUV ahead of him. Nick and Judy looked at each other with confused expressions, before Judy snapped up to a salute.
"We'll be there, Chief!"
Nick couldn't help but notice how the bunny's tail bobbed as she hopped up to attention. He quickly shook his head to dispel these thoughts.
She's your partner, dumbass.
But remember how she looked at me during the shootout?
It was the heat of the moment, she was-
Do you remember how she smelled?
She could be in heat agai-
She didn't smell like that before.
Touché.
Nick's thoughts continued like this, and he and Judy drove back to the station in relative silence. When they arrived at the parking lot, he realized he was still cradling his submachine gun in his arms.
That explains all those stares on the way back…
He put the gun back into the armory and resealed it, jumping out of the cruiser to follow Judy into the precinct.
"What do you think Bogo has planned for us now, Nick?"
"If I had to guess, I'd say old Buffalo Butt finally decided to give us a real job and put us on whatever this crime case is." Nick's trademark smirk froze and his eyes went wide as his partner shot several feet into the air.
"YIPPPPPEEEEEE! We're finally gonna work a real case!" Judy cheered as she danced around Nick, who remained calm as he strolled into the ZPD lobby. She calmed down and fell back in beside him. "Aren't you excited at all?" she asked while giving Nick a familiar hip check.
"Just over the moon," Nick drawled in his best monotone. Then, feeling a little friskier than usual after the events at the warehouse, he checked her back, sending the bunny careening into Clawhauser's desk. Nick winced. He needed to remember how much smaller she was than him. "Guess I don't know my own strength, huh Carrots?" Nick said nervously as she got up. Just as she was about to lunge at him for revenge, Clawhauser leaned over the desktop.
"Ooooooo, looks like Officer Abusive Relationship finally got a taste of her own medicine," the big cheetah said, his enormous cheeks dripping over the two arms that propped them up.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Judy quizzed him, turning her scorn away from Nick.
"I mean, almost every time I see you two you're punching him in the arm or elbowing his ribs. It was only a matter of time before that big, scary predator let loose," Clawhauser said with a cheery grin. "Just kidding, Judy. But seriously, if I didn't know better I'd think you were a school kit who didn't know how to express a crush." The twinkle in his eye seemed to suggest that he knew exactly better.
Judy's ears folded along her back, blushing bright pink. "I don't uh know what uh you're talking about, you big oaf."
God, could I have fumbled that harder? I could have done better if I literally stuck my foot in my mouth in response.
At least Nick would see how flexible you are.
NOT. NOW.
Her ears attempted to fuse into her back with embarrassment.
"I uh mean uh-"
"How about we head over to the conference room, eh Fluff? Bogo seemed pretty insistent back at the warehouse," Nick added helpfully, steering the stuttering bunny away from the dispatcher's desk. He took a deep breath in and reveled in the scent of horny bunny, utterly satisfied with how the whole experiment had gone.
Author's note: Hey guys! This is my first time writing a fanfic, or really doing much of any creative writing, so constructive criticism and feedback is much appreciated. Also I guess there isn't really much I can do if you want to shit on it, but at least tell me why, okay? The goal of the story going forward is going to be balancing fun scenes, fluff, and smut with an action-packed crime thriller. Overly ambitious? Probably. But that won't stop me from trying. I can only write the story I want to write, and I so far haven't really seen anything quite like what I'm envisioning. Maybe that's a bad sign 'cuz it just means it's unpopular. Oh well.
P.S. Expect references to some of my favorite fan works, like TGWeaver's comics (which I believe are the origin of the idea of Nick smelling Judy's arousal, at least the first place I saw it), the phenomenal Instincts by EllipsisEndquote, and the mother of all Wildehopps stories, The Fox and the Rabbit by ShippingMammals.