Hops & Wilde: ZPD
Duke Weaselton was not having a good day. Which wasn't that unusual for him, but today was a new low. Dumpster diving behind the BugaBurger in Savannah Central.
Not that he really had much choice. His bootleg DVDs had been confiscated, and he was one of the city's most recognizable criminals. Supplying the former mayor with the plants used to produce a city-wild pandemic had put his face on every cop's radar within the city limits.
And that wasn't even the worst part. Mr. Big, Tundratown's most notorious gangster and one of the most dangerous mammals in the city, was really fond of Zootopia's new lagomorph law enforcement officer. There was talk that he was going legit, and dismantling his criminal operations. But not before putting the squeeze on the competition.
And as Mr. Big was very aware of Duke's role in supplying the Night Howlers to Doug the ram, he was very much a target of the mobster's hired goons, Kevin and Raymond.
Since Mr. Big employed polar bears, Duke had taken to hiding out in Savannah Central and Sahara Square, where the intense climate controlled heating systems made it impractical for polar bears to linger too long. Which let him avoid Mr. Big's enforcers, but not so easily the cops. Hence the dumpster diving.
"A half-eaten locust-burger with cheese and jalapeños," he commented out loud. "Or a cricket salad with…Are those croutons? God I hope those are croutons."
He slunk out of the dumpster with his 'prizes' and slid to the ground. "I feel like a common possum, dumpster diving for his lunch."
"Hmph!" came the indignant snort of a mother opossum who had been jogging by, her three children poking their heads out of her fanny pack and looking intently at the weasel.
"NO INTENSE OFFENDED!" Duke shouted as the opossum continued jogging away.
"Ugh" he groaned, picking at the half eaten locust burger, but not actually eating it. He vaguely wondered what kind of mammal had thrown it out in the first place. Then he wondered if he actually wanted to know the answer.
"Oh how the mighty have fallen." A distorted voice said. Duke scrambled to his feet, to face his visitor.
It was a goat. A tall, black furred goat, stood and faced Duke. It stared blankly at Duke with those horizontal rectangular pupils. Those pupils had always freaked Duke out. Even when he'd been delivering Night Howler bulbs to Doug, he'd never been able to look the ram in the eyes.
The goat wore a fancy pinstriped suit and fedora, with a red handkerchief in his breast pocket. He held an iPaw in his hooves, holding the screen towards Duke.
"This is what you have become? A common dumpster diver? A sad pathetic ending to the sad pathetic life of Duke Wesselton." the distorted voice from the phone asked.
"It's WEASELTON!" Duke snapped at the common mispronunciation of his name, "And I wasn't exactly the king of the weasels to begin with. Petty thief and bootleg DVD salesmammal. That was me."
"And yet with your skills, you could be so much more," the distorted voice said. "Mr. Big is weak. His organization is on the edge of collapse. I intend to pick up the pieces when it does collapse. And I could use a weasel with your skills. Are you interested?"
Duke hesitated. It was never a good idea to cross mobsters like Mr. Big, but at the same time, he didn't have a lot of options, with both the cops and the mob gunning for him.
"I'll even have Mr. Gompers here buy you something to eat," the distorted voice said, distainfully.
"Sold!" Duke snapped. "I'm in…Whoever you are?"
"Oh, you can just call me…The Big Mammal."
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"Nick did you steal the blueberries that my mother sent me?" Officer Judy Hopps was peeved. She tapped her foot impatiently as they stood by the water cooler of the bullpen of Precinct One in Downtown Zootopia.
"Would I do a thing like that?" Her partner smirked as he casually popped a blueberry into his mouth.
It was no secret that Nick had become rather addicted to the Hopps family farms blueberries, but stealing them from Judy was a new low.
"And what are you eating right now?"
"These are my blueberries," Nick said. "That your mother sent to me. Honestly Carrots, after all that we've been through together, how can you accuse me of just TAKING your blueberries when your mom is already sending me my own?"
"I'm sorry," Judy apologized. "It's just that this is the third time that someone has taken my lunch from the precinct fridge, and it is really starting to get to me."
"Wait," Nick smirked, "Was your lunch the Flipperware container marked 'Hopps'?"
"Yes," Judy said hesitantly…
"Oh then yes, I totally took your blueberries." Nick said putting on his best fox grin and popping the last berry into his muzzle.
"NICK!"
"And look at that." Nick said as Chief Bogo lumbered in. "Time for roll call."
The fox pulled his shades out of his uniform pocket and slipped them on, narrowly avoiding the grasp of his partner's paws as she reached out to strangle him.
He casually hopped up onto a chair at the front of the bullpen, and leaned back, his signature smirk still on his face.
Judy hopped up onto the same chair (a chair designed for megafauna such as buffalo and hippos easily held both a fox and a rabbit) and gave him a death glare that he knew that she didn't actually mean.
"Relax Carrots," He said, calling her by his familiar playful nickname. "This great new kudu place opened up in Savannah Square. I'll take you there fore lunch. My treat."
"All right, all right," Chief Bogo snorted. "Everyone quiet."
The room full of gigantic hippos, tigers, lions, wolves, bears, elephants, all fell silent as the imposing Cape Buffalo spoke.
"We have two items on the docket this morning," Bogo said. "First and foremost, we've had a rash of jewelry thefts all throughout Zootopia. At this point, the thieves have hit almost every district on the map. They don't leave and prints or fur behind, and they never strike the same district twice. This is priority one. I want these thieves found."
"McHorn, Snarlton," Bogo said. "I want you hitting the pawn shops. Seeing if anyone is hawking the stolen goods. Tusker, Howlington, I want you on undercover work. Get in touch with some of our CIs. Find out if they know anything…."
Nick glanced at Judy, both of them had noticed what Chief Bogo hadn't said. He hadn't mentioned the second item on the docket. It was unusual for him to just start handing out assignments before covering all the items on his list. He whittled away the list of present officers, until the rabbit and fox duo were the only ones remaining.
"Hopps, Wilde," he said. "My office."
The two of them looked at each other in surprise. This was very unusual behavior from their chief.
They followed the Cape Buffalo into his office, and closed the door.
"There's a new drug on the streets," He said quietly. "They're calling it 'Primal'. And the effects are…"
He handed Judy a casefile. She began flipping through it as Nick looked over her shoulder.
"'Causes mammals to temporarily become violent and savage…" She read out loud. Nick's usually laid back and joking demeanor was gone, there was a look of absolute horror on his face.
"Night Howlers?" Judy asked frowning. "But we…I mean, all of Bellwether's Rams were captured."
"We don't know anything about Primal," Chief Bogo said. "That's the problem. We know it's out there. We know that a lot of mammals, mostly teenagers, are using it, to get high…And that the physical effects are…Terrifyingly similar to the Night Howler concentrate that the Ex-Mayor's goons were using…But we have yet to acquire a sample of the drug for testing, and we have yet to catch a single dealer."
"Is it Night Howler extract?" Nick asked, removing his shades, frowning. "The effects of that drug were long lasting. We had to develop a vaccine and cure in order to reverse the effects. But this says that the users that we've brought in have regained their senses after a few hours."
"We think Primal may be derived from the same plant," Bogo said. "Concentrated, or diluted somehow. But the fact is, since we haven't actually been able to procure a sample of the drug, we can't know for sure. It's pure conjecture at this point."
"So this is our assignment then?" Judy asked. "Track down this drug, the dealers, the source?"
"I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have on this one, Hopps," Bogo said.
Nick and Judy gave each other the familiar 'I know what you're thinking glance.'
"You can count on us chief," Nick said. The pair darted out of Bogo's office.