The nights of Zootopia's Sahara Square were incredibly cold for those who were not prepared for it, and had no idea how the weather in deserts worked. This was especially confusing to those not in the know when the weather around the city was in that weirdly temperamental mid-December to early January period, where it can be freezing one day and pleasantly sunny the next. Many mammals would be surprised to learn that the reason for this was actually the ground. By day the lack of humidity and water meant the sands of the desert absorbed twice as much heat and radiation from the sun as most other 'normal' surfaces. Conversely, at night this also meant that they lost twice as much heat for the exact same reasons. On this particular night as well, the wind was adding an extra chill to the air. The mammals who had driven to the space between two dunes and were now toiling away with shovels were ignorant to these facts, but didn't complain about the cold. Complaints lead to being disciplined, and they'd had enough of that in their careers (if you could call it that) to ask for more. Hidden by the night and the shadows of the two dunes, they took silently to their task. If anyone had been out there with them, they would have seen little else but silhouettes. Seven in total until they dispersed, where as one seemed to sit against the side of one of the dunes.

"Do you think what Master made us do was wise, Dragon?" a haughty, British accented voice said.

"If you'd asked me that two years ago, I would have unquestionably said yes, Tai," the one called Dragon responded, shovelling more sand aside. "Now? I suppose I just must trust that the Master knows what he's doing."

"You don't think he does though, do you?" Tai said, as he continued to dig next to his large compatriot.

"It is not my place to judge."

"You may feel that way, but when I was his number two, I knew that sometimes the Master requires… guidance. Perhaps you are too afraid?" Tai answered, but before he could say anything else he was cut off by a growl from the second largest mammal of the group.

"We've heard all this before Tai," a feminine, yet deep and threatening voice said. Her manner indicated that she had very little time for the one known as Tai.

"You would defend him Jo Li?" Tai said back, a growl of his own.

"Now now everyone," another, smaller feminine voice answered. It sounded like it was coming from around knee height of all the others. "I'm sure we don't want to see Tai get the shit beaten out of him again."

"Say that again Liu!" the shadow called Tai started, his growl lengthening.

"For the love of God will all of you SHUT UP!" a deep booming voice echoed between the dunes. Despite the images the voice brought of a large, dominating mammal, it seemed to be coming from even lower down than Liu's voice. "Tran, please tell me these guys haven't attracted anyone's attention?"

"Nope!" A high spirited and in fact high flying voice game from above the dunes. "We're good Rogen."

"Glad to hear," Dragon said as he finished digging. He held out a paw to Jo Li, who hoisted him up effortlessly, followed by the petulant Tai. A few minutes later some grunts could be heard followed by the soft sound of something heavy landing in sand. A few minutes later the sound of shovelling sand resumed, while the chatter did not.

"Alright, let's get back to Master, it'll soon be light," Dragon said placing the shovel over his shoulder

"Are you sure it's deep enough?" Tai said, following the voice of Dragon. Suddenly the sound of something flat and metallic hitting flesh and fur could be heard.

"Question me again and you'll find out exactly how deep that hole is. Understand?" Dragon didn't wait for an answer as Tai wheezed. Eventually, the six shadows left the scene and clambered into a nearby van, which left a trail in the san which was soon covered by the wind.

The seventh was nowhere to be seen, and wouldn't be for another two weeks.

"Join the ZPD! Earn the admiration and respect of your fellow mammal! Make the world a better place! Oh, and root around in dumpsters on a cold afternoon," Judy groaned as she jumped on top of the closed lid of the large dumpster.

"Eh it's not so bad," Nick said as he climbed up the side, Judy holding out her paw to pull him up. "When I lived on the streets for eight months I had to eat out of these sometimes. That's when I would hate it. I tell ya Fluff, you've never been hungry if you've never had to eat fuzzy pizza." He stopped, head cocking to the side as he took the trip down memory lane. "Gave it an interesting aftertaste though," he added, before looking down at his fiancée. Judy now had her concerned face on. Nick had told her all this before of course, but she always got upset when he talked about the tough life he'd lived before he met her. A small touch of the paw from Judy was comfort for him, but he suspected she did it for herself as well, as if to say to him without words 'everything's better now.' He didn't need anyone telling him that, he knew it every time he looked at Judy, and especially when he woke up in the morning with her by his side.

Hard to believe I'll be married to her in just a few months, he thought, and felt like the luckiest fox in the world. Though that thought left him a few seconds later when his and Judy's superior in the Zootopia Major Crimes Unit, the bovine Detective Sergeant Carrot Ironpaw, opened the second lid of the dumpster and the smell hit him.

"Sorry about this you two," the sergeant said sincerely. "I'd do it if I could but I've got as much chance of destroying the evidence as finding it."

"Yeah, probably doesn't hurt that we're the lowest mammals on the totem pole," Nick said, winking at Carrot. In all honesty, he knew the sergeant would do this if he could, he was that kind of mammal.

"Hopefully not for much longer," Judy said, smiling. That was true. For four months, she and Nick had been grafting away as trainee detectives, before then being assigned as the seconds to the detectives who were fully fledged members of the Major Crimes Unit six weeks ago. It was part of the deal that Mayor Lionheart and Bogo had hashed out when the mayor agreed to set up the unit, that Nick and she would be part of it slightly faster than other detectives. It still seemed a little unfair to her, as most over detectives needed to have at least a year under their belt before being considered, but she'd take the pay raise all said and done. Their review was up in a few days and she was convinced they'd be accepted as full members of the MCU, with all the benefits and authority that entailed.

Carrot handed Judy a bag containing a set of hard rubber foot coverings sized for her and Nick, along with a set of rubber gloves. They put them on and Judy prepared to jump into the open dumpster, when Nick stopped her.

"Carrots have you already forgotten what happened at the last dumpster? You know, the one you jumped in without looking?" he said, tutting theatrically. Judy winced of the memory of jumping into the last dumpster and almost stepped right on a syringe,which would have easily pierced her foot coverings. She'd spent a good twenty minutes after that checking her feet for anything that resembled a cut. "Me first this time," Nick continued and lowered himself gently and deftly into the trash. He held up his arms for his bunny.

"Such a gentle-mammal," Judy teased, allowing Nick to grab her by the hips to lower her the rest of the way, and she only tensed a little when her feet touched the, for lack of a better word, ground.

"OK, so our dealer was seen running down this alley and when his weapon and the drugs were not found on him. How's the victim anyway Sarge?" Nick asked.

"She's in the hospital, the knife got her kidney and part of her intestine. They're not sure if she'll pull through."

"Goddammit," Nick huffed. The perp they had in custody was part of a larger drug ring that Carrot and Cheery were trying to investigate, with Nick and Judy, as usual, acting as their seconds. They'd spent the last week chasing leads into a new drug gang, who were unusually good at keeping out of visible trouble and not leaving damning evidence behind. Then after all that, it turned out the break they got was one of their dealers stabbing a pygmy goat prostitute who had attacked him while trying to get her fix while in front of almost a dozen witnesses. The girl was now in serious condition at Zootopia General undergoing emergency surgery. Nick always gave a little extra care to prostitutes due to his mom having to work as one when he was a kit, so he was taking this case a little personally now.

All that being said, Judy was also angry, not only at the possible death of another mammal regardless of their profession, but that after all their hard work, the break in the they caught was the idiot dealer running right into a patrol that consisted of Bob Trumpet and Harold Grizzoli. Being the largest predator and prey officers on the force, the wombat had practically fainted at the sight of them. Unfortunately, he had disposed of the evidence before that. Fortunately it was within minutes of the crime, so the area they had to search was narrowed down to a small pawful of alleys in a single block radius. This was the third alley they'd tried and about the tenth dumpster, and Judy was getting increasingly more agitated by the minute, especially since her run in with the syringe. It wasn't as bad as the sewer they had to crawl around in six months ago to rescue a tiger cub, but it was damned close.

"OK, you start in that corner, I'll start there, and we'll meet in the middle like the rest," Judy said pointing to a corner near Nick. Her fiancé nodded and moved to the corner and started picking through the trash slowly. She turned and did the same, carefully move bags aside and trying not to breathe through her nose.

Ten minutes later, she was beginning to fear they'd be heading for dumpster number four soon, when Nick barked out "EUREKA!" She turned and found that he was holding a bag of powder triumphantly…or as triumphantly as could be considering it looked like he had found it next to a used diaper. "And I do mean eu-reek-a," he said holding his nose as he held the bag as far away from him as possible.

"Nice find Nick!" Carrot said as Nick passed the bag up to him. "Any sign of the knife?"

"Not yet," Judy said and shifted her foot. As the garbage moved, she felt something hard brush up against her foot. She moved carefully and reached down, brushing the detritus away, and… there it was. A small knife with an even smaller amount of drying blood on the blade.

"Got it," Judy said, picking it up carefully in her paw. Carrot passed down an evidence bag and she deposited the weapon in, before passing it back up.

"Excellent work detectives," their superior said, and offered a hoof, Judy took it and was lifted out by the massive bovine, shortly followed by Nick. "One dangerous mammal off the street and hopefully we can use him to start breaking up the rest of his gang. Good work on getting the information on his location too Wilde."

"You can thank my anonymous informant for that," Nick said. He wasn't about to reveal it was his old friend Finnick who had passed on the info. While the old fox was attempting to go straight, he still had plenty of contacts of the less than legal nature, and passed on what he could to Nick. In return, Nick made sure that this never got back to Finnick. Oh the guy could take care of himself, but being known as snitch to some of these mammals was a death sentence. The only other person who knew what was going on was Judy and Nick trusted her with his life and those of his closest friends and family.

"Well they're not here so you'll have to do," Carrot said, understanding the need for some people to remain anonymous. Before he could continue, his phone rang. "Excuse me," he said as he placed the bags in the care of one other officers. "Ironpaw here. Sir? Yes, they're with me. Ok, I'll let them know, they might need a quick shower though. Yeah dumpster diving. Yes sir." He ended the call and turned back to Nick and Judy. "Captain wants you back at Precinct One ASAP."

"OK, we'll meet you…" Judy began but was interrupted.

"Not us, Hopps. You and Wilde. Cheery and I can handle the rest from here. Besides it's only a couple of hours until your shift ends anyway. You two head to see him and we'll take care of the paperwork. Oh, and take a shower. Have a nice weekend you two."

"Uhm, Ok. Thanks sir," Judy responded. As their superior returned to the case, she turned to Nick who had a concerned look on his face. "Any ideas?"

"Not a clue Fluff."

"You didn't put anything in his coffee, did you?"

"I did that one time and I swear I'll never pull a prank on Vines again. I almost lost my hearing from the shouting" Nick replied, adding emphasis to a swirling a finger around his ear. "As it is, I swear I've got tinnitus from that."

"Guess we'll find out when we get there," Judy said and made her way to their car. She hopped in the driver's seat and started the engine as Nick jumped in and after buckling up, picked up the radio.

"Sierra-Oscar-Five to dispatch. Returning to Precinct One as requested. Be there in roughly twenty minutes," he advised.

"Dispatch to Sierra-Oscar-Five, thanks for the update Nick. Captain Vines and Chief Bogo told me to let you know they're expecting you in Vine office at the MCU in forty-five minutes so you have time to take a shower. What have you guys been doing?"

"Rooting around in trash for drugs and murder weapons. So yeah, the shower will be appreciated. Thanks Ben, Sierra-Oscar-Five out," Nick said and replaced the receiver.

"Did he say Vines and Bogo?" Judy asked as she started the engine and exited their parking spot.

"Yep," Nick said casually.

"That's… interesting," she opined.

"Try 'worrying' Fluff," Nick countered. He racked his brain to think of why they'd been summoned, but couldn't think of anything. He hadn't pulled any pranks on his superiors in a good few months, as he wanted to leave a good impression and be fully accepted into the Major Crimes Unit, for the salary, but also for Judy.

"Still not going to confess to any pranks?" Judy said, but jokingly this time. She knew he hadn't pulled any, but Nick's habits of making jokes when nervous had rubbed off on her.

"You know me, if I had pulled any I'd be bragging about it by now."

"True enough," Judy said. "Bit I can't help being concerned. It's unusual to say the least."

The next few minutes of the drive were in semi-comfortable silence, as Nick mammal watched and Judy paid attention to the traffic. "Oh, Kate emailed me the other day," Judy said to fill the void and stop worrying about their impending meeting.

"Cool. How's she finding college life?"

"Stressful, so she was glad for the winter break" Judy chuckled, thinking back on the expletive laden message she'd gotten from her young friend. After helping with their first case as detectives over six months ago, Judy had repaid the favour by writing a letter of recommendation to the Mammal Inclusion Initiative, which got Kate a scholarship to Zootopian University's Criminology programme, a big step to becoming the next rabbit police officer. Since then Judy had helped where she could in between cases, or sometimes just hung out with Kate as friends. Some might comment that it was weird that she had a close friend almost a decade her junior, but considering her fiancé was 8 years her senior, it all balance out somehow. If your math was a bit wonky and you squinted.

"Well at her last job all she had to do was take her clothes off for money. Some would argue any type of work would be harder than that," Nick joked, remembering the strip joint that Kate worked at which was run by some of his old friends.

"There's a bit more to it than that dear," Judy admonished. "Or did you forget the sweat I worked up showing you the moves she taught me?"

"Oh, you know I would have been sweating if I had the glands babe," Nick said, and mock panted.

"I remember nearly slipping on the drool," Judy replied as she kept her eyes on the road and tried not to think too much about that night. "But I consider that a compliment," she added she made the final few turns towards Precinct One. "She just wants to get together this weekend for some drinks before she goes back to school next week. and ask some questions about being detectives. I'm sure she'd love your perspective too."

"Drinks with two hot bunny girls? Yeah I'm game!" Nick joked. Judy glared at the joke. "Jealousy? Seriously Fluff? You know you're the only mammal for me. I was kidding, meet up with your bunny, I'll just make plans with Finnick."

"I thought you said he had a bar job at the weekends?"

"Yeah had. He got fired a couple of weeks ago. Got caught short changing customers, the idiot," Nick said and sighed. His friend had been attempting to go straight like he had, but was finding it rough. Despite his looks, Finnick was almost a decade years older than Nick, and a lot more set in his ways. He'd gotten so used to hustling it came naturally to him. Mammals would give him a chance and he'd squander it, then bitch about not being given a fair shake. "Sorry Carrots, thought I told you."

"Poor guy," Judy responded.

"I wouldn't give him too much sympathy Fluff, he keeps doing this to himself after all. Not everyone has their own guardian bunny to keep them on the straight and narrow," he said, smiling at his future wife. "But… yeah actually a night out with a couple of friends might be a good idea from him. He's been down in the dumps lately."

And so are you Judy thought. Though he was good at keeping it hidden, Judy knew her mate was also becoming more despondent lately. Her cancer had had a resurgence after brief hope of remission and while Carmelita was currently doing ok, a recent hospital stay had made it all too clear that the vixen was having a tough battle. The doctors were still optimistic that she'd go fully into remission, but Nick was less convinced. He'd already lost his father to colon cancer, and he was worried another form of the disease would take his mother. Meanwhile, Carmelita had confided in Judy that she was worried about not being around for Nick and Judy's wedding. As it was only about six months away and the doctors had assured her that she had at least a couple of years left, that was becoming less and less of a worry. However, Judy had considered bringing the date forward. Nick had put his foot down for that though. Judy had a much bigger immediate family, and he wanted them all to be there for her, but trying to get 275 siblings ranging from children to adults, various cousins and aunts and uncles, and various other offshoots together was not an easy task. They'd gotten about an 80% RSVP rate for the date they selected, which was much higher than most rabbit weddings. Perhaps some were just interested in the novelty of her and Nick being together, but Nick wanted her family there. Admittedly she did as well, but Nick had to come first.

"Well if he plays his cards right, maybe he and Kate will hit it off and he'll get his own guardian bunny." Judy said, realising she'd been silent for a little too long and scrambling for something to say.

"Judy. Not only is Finnick not into rabbits, but he's also twice her age."

"Ew yeah, got a bit carried away there didn't I?"

"Just a little," Nick replied as Judy turned in to the parking lot of the Precinct One. The pair parked and made their way up to the foyer. The precinct was as busy as ever, multiple mammals being booked for breaking the law. As they walked towards the desk they saw Clawhauser dealing with a particular irate zebra who had his hooves cuffed behind him as well as held by officer Delgato.

"Sir, please calm…" Clawhauser tried to say before being cut off by the striped perp.

"I HAVE MY RIGHTS YOU KNOW. YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME."

"Sir you were caught assaulting your neighbour. I don't care if his hedge was over the property line you just can't…"

"I'M A VETERAN! I FOUGHT FOR THIS COUNTRY AND THIS IS THE THANKS I GET!?"

"Sir, being a veteran does not mean you can try and shave your neighbours' antlers off with hedge trimmers. Now Officer Delgato will take you to the holding cell where…"

"GET OFF ME!" the zebra shouted and stomped down on Delgato's foot hard, causing the lion to roar in pain and let go of his charge, who bolted for the door.

"WE GOT A RUNNER!" Clawhauser bellowed and every officer in the precinct turned to the Zebra, Judy started for him with Nick close behind, when suddenly a snarling ball of brown fur and spots hit the old guy in the midsection, bringing him to the floor.

"AND YOU CAN ADD ASSAULTING AN OFFICER TO THE CHARGES NOW ASSHOLE!" the brown she-wolf shouted, pushing the veteran's head to the floor.

"Damn right Bhrast!" the wolf's cheetah partner yipped, holding his legs. Within seconds the rest of the mammals in the precinct caught up and made sure the zebra stayed down until Francie ambled over and simply hoisted him in the air with her trunk.

"Good work guys," Delgato said, as he limped over to his fellow officers." Must be getting slow in my old age."

"Nah we're just that good," Bhrast Akela said dusting herself. The wolf and her cheetah partner, Kelsey Sabor, had joined Precinct One a few months ago. Despite being demoted to beat officer from Internal Affairs, she seemed to have taken to the role with gusto. Her experience was having a positive effect on her rookie partner too. She'd had a rocky start with Nick and Judy, having accused the former of killing one of his friends in what was actually a clear case of suicide. However, leaving IA and working through her issues had calmed her down significantly.

"Enjoying yourself there, Bhrast?" Judy said after the commotion had died down.

"Oh, hi Nick, Judy," Bhrast replied smiling. "Always fun taking down these assholes."

"Damn right!" Kelsey cheered.

"Get a new catchphrase Kels," Nick said, shaking his head. In the time he had known the rookie, she'd seemed to taken to using the phrase at every possible opportunity.

"Tell you what, get a better sense of fashion and I'll change up the phrases, deal?" Kelsey shot back, pointing at Nick's Hawaiian shirt under his trench coat. Suddenly her nose twitched and she held it. "Or maybe I need a worse sense of smell. The hell you guys been doing?"

"Dumpster diving," Nick answered. "Looking for weapons and drugs next to used diapers. The glamorous life of a detective awaits you both," Nick said in faux theatrics.

"Pfft, not for us," Kelsey said. "We love being out on the streets every day, ain't that right Bhrast?"

"What? Oh yeah sure," Bhrast responded, a faraway look in her eye.

"Anyway, I got paperwork to file before quitting time," Kelsey said. She threw a mock salute to Nick and Judy and started off. "Coming partner?" she said turning to Bhrast.

"Yeah I'll catch up in a sec ok Kels?" Bhrast said. Kelsey shrugged and sprinted off to the cubicles to finish her paperwork.

"Guess you still haven't told her?" Nick said, a slight frown on his features.

"No, I haven't," Bhrast replied sighing. "I love the kid but I really want to go in for the detective's exam. But she loves being on the streets too much to even consider it."

"Well you better tell her soon, you've only got a couple of weeks to sign up for the exam before having to wait for next years," Judy advised Bhrast. The wolf liked being on the streets but she went into Internal Affairs because she had a nose for sniffing out corruption. She didn't want to return there after being demoted, but that gift could be trained to make her a great detective. It was why Nick had suggested the idea to Bhrast when it seemed more and more likely they'd be leaving the regular detectives squad at Precinct One and hopefully moving on to the Major Crimes Unit soon. They'd need some new detectives to fill in the roles and he thought Bhrast would be a good candidate.

"I know, but God, she just loves being partners with me. I swear if I didn't know she was straight I'd think she was actually into me," Bhrast replied. Nick and Judy grimaced at that. They had been the ones who had told Bhrast to tell Kelsey her feelings, and it turned out that the cheetah didn't feel the same way. It had worked out though, as Kelsey had actually introduced Bhrast to her current girlfriend, Minhele, an African wolf, all those months ago.

"How is your girlfriend anyway?" Nick asked, seeming to steer the conversation away from the topic for now.

"Minhele's great thanks for asking."

"And what does she think you should do?" he replied, slamming it right back where it had come from.

"Well she thinks I should go for it, obviously."

"So, you and your girlfriend think you should go for it. Dunno about you but I'd say that's the only opinions that really matter.," Nick advised.

"Yeah, I know, but I also dunno if I'll be cut out for it either."

Judy looked to Nick, and motion him down to her level. She quickly whispered an idea in to his ear, to which Nick agreed. "Nick and I are meeting some friends this weekend, one of which is studying to be a cop at ZU. She wanted to ask some questions about the detective role as well. Why don't you come along with Minhele and ask as well?"

"Hmm, you sure?" Bhrast asked. Despite getting much friendlier with the detectives in recent months, she was still reluctant to be overly friendly with the couple. Judy assumed it was due to still being ashamed of her first interactions with Nick, accusing him of being a dirty cop and trying to arrest him for murder. That's also why Judy checked if Nick would be ok with it as well before making the offer.

"Tell you what, first rounds on me. 8 pm at the Alpaca Comedy club tomorrow? They have an open mike night which is usually good fun and they have decent food," Nick offered.

After a few seconds, Bhrast nodded. "Ok, I'll see if Min's up for it but sounds like fun."

"Great!" Judy said, and swapped phone numbers with Bhrast, something they'd neglected to do before. As the beat officer made her way back to her partner, Judy noted the time. Thanks to the excitement of the attempted escapee, and their conversation with Bhrast there was only about fifteen minutes before they were supposed to meet Bogo and Vines. Nowhere near enough time to grab the shower they needed.

"Eh, I wouldn't be surprised if Fred, Angua and Vines would have still smell the garbage on us afterwards. I think we should just head up now and we can shower when we get home," Nick said.

"Yeah makes sense," Judy agreed though she hoped the smell wouldn't offend the canid and porcine detectives. They hadn't made any plans for tonight, what with getting together with friends tomorrow, so they could just spend a nice Friday evening at home.

That and they could share the shower without people commenting.

The pair made their way past their usual spot in the detective's office, greeting colleagues going about their business and explaining they'd been dumpster diving to everyone who asked about the smell. They turned towards the Major Crimes Unit offices, which had been installed especially after the new department had been announced some months ago. It had once been storage space for the archives which had been moved down to the basement, but had been modernised. This had made some of the detectives a little jealous, as the MCU had been given the newest office equipment, while the remaining regular detectives at Precinct One had to use what was already there. Oh, it did its job, but the MCU had all the comfortable chairs with all their wheels still.

Nick and Judy had spent about a third of the last six months between the two offices, handling their own cases at first, then acting as seconds for the detectives of the MCU. It would be worth it if they made it there though. As far as they knew they had roughly two weeks left before their 'not actually probation' probation period was up and hopefully they'd know if they'd been accepted or not, and get their last two months' salary back pay as well.

So, if we had this much time left on their probation, why are we being asked up now? Was the thought they both shared.

"Why are the blinds dawn and the lights off?" Nick asked as they approached the MCU offices. Usually the offices were fully visible behind glass walls, but not today.

"Should we knock?" Judy asked, wondering if the MCU had finished for the day. She checked the time, and saw that they should be there for another hour at least.

"Never have before," Nick answered, before reaching for the door. He pushed it open… and a smile appeared on his face. Judy's night vision not being the same as his, it took someone turning on the lights to reveal what he had seen.

"CONGRATULATIONS!" the cry came, causing Judy to jump. When her eyes adjusted to the scene, the entire MCU and Chief Bogo shouted, before the applause started. Just above the group was a banner that read "Welcome to Major Crimes WildeHopps!"

"Sorry Detectives," Captain Samuel Vines said though his smile seemed to show the sentiment was less than sincere. The old wolf approached them alongside Chief Bogo, who simply smiled down at them. "Think we gave our favourite rabbit a little fright Bogo."

"Probably the only time you'll see her scared even the slightest," the Chief chimed in. Judy looked around as they bantered seeing her friends from the Major Crimes Unit all smiling. Fred Porklon, and his partner Dobby Dobbs, Angua von Ubervolf and Sally von Fledermaus. She'd missed working with them regularly in the last few months. Suddenly the sounds of hoove-steps behind them caused Nick and Judy to turn to see the red haired bovine Carrot Ironpaw (who had been raised in a rabbit burrow) and his anoa partner Cheery Littlehorn jogging.

"Aww you got here before we did," the smaller bovine said, while carrot joined his girlfriend Angua. "Congratulations guys!"

"Thanks Cheery, but," Nick said turning to his superiors. "Chief, Captain, I thought we had still had a couple of weeks left on our 'not probation?'"

"You did, but considering the sterling work you've done on your own cases and as seconds to your colleagues here," he said gesturing to the we decided you had earned it," Bogo said. "Plus, we'll be looking to recruit some new detectives in a few months, so better get you settled in so you can be available to help when we get the next influx." He reached into his pocket and brought out two small shields. "Your new badges Detectives. Welcome to the MCU."

Judy and Nick both took their new badges gratefully. They were exactly the same as their current detective's shields, save for two things. One, they were slightly larger, and two, the reason for this is at the top instead of just stating Detective, it read MCU Detective, denoting the special status of its bearer. Those three simple letters meant that their jurisdiction now went to the entire city for the cases that required it. The MCU took the cases that needed special attention, extra care, or were downright weird. That also meant they were some of the toughest. Fred Pork's and Dobby's first case was tracking down a cub porn ring that had sprang up in the city. Nick remembered them asking for his and Judy's help cataloguing the evidence, and could see why the two had been seen going to the bar almost every night for the weeks as they worked it. They'd gotten the bastards though, and saved a couple of cubs from the ring, at least in the physical sense. Time would only tell if the brother and sister ocelots would speak again. Nick doubted it, as the things he had seen in the evidence had kept him and Judy awake for days, sometimes doing nothing but just holding each other. Judy had especially taken some of those cases hard… especially that young rabbit boy who they hadn't found in time. She had reminded her of her favourite nephew. Of course, when he was working on the streets he had heard some horror stories, but that was different to actually seeing them.

"Thank you sir!" Judy said, brining Nick out of the funk and away from those dark thoughts.

"I wouldn't thank me just yet Hopps," Bogo said. "You know the type of cases you'll be dealing with on a regular basis," Bogo said. He too had some sleepless nights from some of the files he had to read.

"They can handle it," Vines said. Judy silently thanked him for that. The most experienced and now senior detective in the city vouching for them would help. "Besides, the type of detective who gets used to dealing with the crap we have to sift through isn't someone I'd like working for me."

"But enough of that for now," Bogo said, not wanting the conversation to turn dark. "Starting Monday, you'll be full members of the MCU. So you better go grab your stuff from the detectives area before you go home… after you take a shower. Can't have you stinking up the office while you're here."

"Sir yes sir!" Judy and Nick said happily, rushing out together to grab a shower in the locker rooms. Their weekend get together was now a celebration.

Roxana Marlborough was not one of the mammals who would have been surprised by the cold nights of the desert. As a college student who was studying to become an engineer at the city's climate wall, she wanted to make sure that the barren beauty was maintained. A lot of desert dwelling mammals did the same, and Roxana was something of a traditionalist. Her father was an engineer also, and so had been her grandmother. Not for her the role of doing something unexpected, she found solace in the familiar. Not to say she bemoaned those mammals who tried to do something different than expected, in fact her brother was currently training to be a figure skater of all things, but for Roxana, she knew the desert was her calling. She loved its unspoilt beauty and calm nature, and while she had visited the place of her ancestor's birth and marvelled at the natural wonder of it, she wanted the artificial desert adjacent to the urban jungle (and literal jungle in the case of the Rainforest district) of Zootopia to be as pristine as possible.

It also helped that climate wall engineers were some of the best paid in the world, but that was benefit, not a reason. Another benefit was that a lot of her work would be spent in the field, checking the various parts of the desert on her own, with no one around for miles While not-anti-social, she always felt comfortable on in solitude, and she often went to the centre of the desert on simple camping trips, during her winter term time break especially as she'd be back to school next week. She found spending the nights in solitude was the perfect way for her to relax before returning to her stressful academic schedule. So she had spent the weekend sleeping under the stars, no tent, huddles dunes, blocking the artificial light from the rest of the city. And now she was up just before dawn, well rested and walking her way back to her home so she had plenty of time to get a decent breakfast before heading in to the city for her lessons. Walking a well-trodden, by her at least, route that she could traverse blindfolded between two large dunes

It came as a big surprise to her when her hoof caught something in the sand that she hadn't noticed, too busy gazing at her surroundings, which cause her to land face first in a nearby dune. She pulled herself up and made sure there was no damage to her ankle. She spent a few seconds dusting off her fluorescent exercise gear and then turned to see what had caused her to tumble, just as the morning sun crested.

Her scream echoed off the dunes when she recognised the dry, brittle, and slightly rotted flesh and fur of a large white paw sticking out from the sand.

Notes:

So here we go. Sequel to Zootopian Vice and and featuring organised crime. Let's see how this goes shall me.

Thank you to CombatEngineer and DrummerMax64 for the proofing and editing.