Authors notes: This is a colab I've been working on with Eatcheeseeveryday. While he usually publishes it, he's been having issues with his account so he requested I host it instead.
As this is a very closely knit colab (we often roleplay the various characters) and are schedules often clash terribly, there is no set update schedule for this. In addition, I can't take this on myself as it is, if anything, more Eat cheese's work than mine.
Regardless, enjoy.
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Sal took a deep breath, this was it. The last eight and a half years of planning had all boiled down to this. The doors of the train opened, his heartbeat was ringing in his feline ears and he moved, returning home after so long away. In an instant, he was swept up in the flow of mammals, all making their way to the exit. He didn't care for them much, never really had, so his head was low throughout. Even so, he had to lift it then and now to scan the horizon, the interruption to his routine getting more frequent as he rose up on the escalators and stepped out into the concourse proper. A quick glance here, a quick glance there, and only then did he see it. Amber eyes and dusty tan and black fur.
"Nero," he called, smiling as he saw the old cheetah look up and recognise him. They walked towards each other, paws outstretched, before he gripped the elder cheetah's one tight. They shook, no words needed as eight long years of pain seemed to fade away. Eight long years for Sal at least, given that Nero had only been going up in the years since that day. The last years for him had been anything but painful, in fact he almost looked a bit younger. It was only then that Sal spotted the card hanging from his friends other paw. He squinted, looking down at it and, as if on cue, the cheetah raised it so that he could read.
'Solver of problems'
"I believe that described you very well. Or..."
"Or what?" Sal butted in, his mood suddenly slightly rougher as he began to sense where this was going. As it turned out, his instincts were on point.
"At least it did until you left my service, and fell in with them."
Sal shrugged "Well you know how it is, gotta do what you gotta do."
Nero only shook his head sadly. "But still, we had such a good arrangement back in the old day. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. You help me shimmy up and cover up, I keep your head out of the water…"
Sal nodded "Well, until I can get a family to take me on, I'll gladly take any work you give me. In the meantime, you manage to get me old apartment back? The bastards didn't mess it up did they?"
Nero paused for a second to think, before tutting slightly before speaking. His voice had a faint trace of disappointment in it. "Sal, I would have thought you could have put those years of confinement to use. You know? Broadening your mind, trying to understand the way things work. Heck, even if I could somehow evict the family of Badgers living there now, and let us not think of the bureaucracy involved in that affair, do you really think that moving into that old place is the wisest move, given your plans for uh… how did you put it?"
Sal opened his mouth to protest, but realised that Nero was talking sense; the minute Lobo realised he was back, a sad eventuality that was unavoidable, his old apartment would be the first place he'd look. "I… you're right. I can't go back there just yet, don't want this thing to end before it even starts."
Nero nodded and silently came forward to put his arms around Sal's shoulder. He looked around a few times, before leading him off in a new direction, following a crowd of mammals into a subway entrance that Sal didn't remember being there last time. Sal just went along with it, slowly gritting his teeth as that name echoed around his head.
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He'd wanted to avoid saying the name of that bastard, but things weren't going to plan.
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Wasn't the first time when Lobo was involved. Sal flinched slightly, his ear flicking as the roar of motorbikes and fast wind whipping past came back.
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The harsh squeal of a train moving over its third rail became the echo of failing brakes, followed by the pounding of his own flesh as it tumbled across the road.
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"You Okay?"
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"Fine, thank you," Sal muttered in response, just as he leant down to rub his right knee. This time he shuddered nose to tail, balking as he remembered the agony of it.
Smashed out, like a broken egg…
The first year of jail had been spent in the hospital wing, as they pieced it back together. Titanium and stitches and god knows what else. But Sal still remembered that it was flesh and blood. It could bleed. It could break. But it didn't have to have been the end. All it would have taken was for Lobo…
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"LOBO!"...
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Sal's screams roared through the alleyway, battling with the ever rising scream of police sirens. Shuffling away from them on his back, a trail of blood followed him as it flowed out of his destroyed knee, clutched between his two paws as he tried to keep what was left of it in place. His ears rose as he heard the familiar rumble of a three-hundred plus HP Kawayaki motor. There was a squeal, and there he was, racing towards him. Weaving past the mangled remains of Sal's own bike, bent up around the ruins of some damn armadillo's car.
"Pull me onto the back! We can get out of this."
Even as he sped up, Sal didn't realising what was going on. It was only as the dark brown wolf passed at speed, his paw outstretched and hooked around the cat's own share of the loot, that he realised that he was being left there. The last he saw of his former boss was the sneer on his face and his mock salute, before he gunned his engine and pulled a wheelie, leaving the stray big cat left in a trail of dust….
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"Sal…"
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"Sal?"
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"Uh, what?" he finally responded, as the train in front of his slowed to halt and its doors opened.
"Eight years in the joint, I don't suppose you want to wait five minutes for the next train, do you?"
Sal rolled his eyes "Very funny." he said as he pulled his bag up from the ground and they boarded it, pushing past the other mammals as they did so.
"In any case," Nero said quietly, after a brief pause. "My previous offer still stands. I just want you to know, before you commit yourself… no, both of us to this. I kept clean before, but if it were to finally unravel it would be hard to explain how the relationship between a detective like me, and a street thug like you, can be anything other than corrupt."
"Well, I'll certainly think about it and get back to you." Sal replied as he adjusted himself in his seat, every now and then looking through his bag to make sure everything was in its proper place. "But first, I need to find Lobo. I want answers, and once I get 'em, I'm gonna make him feel every last shred of misery I felt in the can… and then some," he growled with his ears back, and even the iron-nerved ex-detective in front of him had to lean back a little bit subconsciously. A big cat himself, he knew the tic's his old friend was showing. The worst thing he could do now was poke the beast, so instead he chose a different path for conversation.
"I think I have the addresses of some of your old friends," Nero said quietly, "maybe they could be helpful? Maybe not. I've seen members of a team split off in a hell of a lot less time than eight years. I mean you…" Nero paused for a few seconds, before thinking. "How much did the nighthowler case affect you guys? I mean, I was at the coal face, but I've never considered what it was like for the closest things we had to savages before then…. No offence."
Sal chuckled a little "At first I thought that story was bullshit, I assumed it was just a bunch of those pagan cults and gangs that live outside the cities, you know? Those crazies that like to act like our ancestors and live in caves and shit. Then I saw one of 'em up close in the prison cafeteria after he'd swallowed a mouth full of… questionable food. It wasn't pretty what he did to the poor sap sitting next to him."
"Ughh," Nero groaned, before his hairs began to rise up and his teeth grind together. "I don't like to think about it. One day doing my duty," he said quietly, before his rage began bubbling over, his arms out and voice loud. "Next thing I know lifelong colleagues are staring daggers at me and all sorts! Heck, my useless nephew really got screwed over, all because of a dumb Bunny who decided to channel her spare mating energy into spreading rumours and speciesist shit!"
There was a pause, as Nero rolled his eyes, before speaking in the same tone that Sal had used early when talking about Lobo. A thick, bitter, bubbling hatred. "And to see her, come on every day after and be lauded as the Hero of Zootopia, when I would have cracked the damn case if I hadn't of been taken off it!" Nero paused, his bitter scowl unwinding as he softly chuckled. "It was if karma was real when I heard the news of the incident. And seeing her try to recover, only to break down and cry in the arms of her Fox lover-boy! Damn, if you get a taste of that bringing it to Lobo, I can see why you're doin' this."
Sal's eyes widened with recognition and a little smile "Oh! You're talking about the bunny from the TV, what was her name? Julie? Jenny? Something like that. She ain't bad-looking for a bunny, isn't that an oxymoron?"
"Judy," Nero replied. "Still bump into her a few times, when she's doing the papers at the precinct. I even put up a few nice big pictures of the tundra-town rally, just to taunt her little. Doesn't seem to be getting the message though. I bet the only reason she's still there is 'caus Bogo doesn't want to deal with the PR nightmare for firing her."
"Well… I doubt she'll be a problem for us should we ever meet, she's just a bunny. How bad can a bunny cop be?" Sal sniggered as he leaned back into his seat, confident.
Nero shook his head slightly. "Again, Sal… You don't think of the big picture. Bunny vs Jaguar like you in hand to hand combat… Well, I've heard she KO'd a Rhino in sparring, but I'll believe it when I see it. Now, Bunny with gun vs Jaguar with gun. Who's the biggest target?" Nero's voice got darker, as he carried on. "The big guys like you get all the headlines, but the crap I wade through… It's every kind of mammal under the sun, and the clever ones know how to pick their fights."
There was a soft pause, as Nero broke into a smile and spoke again. "But here's the advice. You can outrun a rabbit on foot, and given her condition, that's where she's staying." He trailed off, but not before muttering under his breath, "what a pathetic excuse for an officer. Then again, her partner reportedly has an exemption from some standard procedures. I tell you, the ZPD is going soft…."
Sal scoffed at this notion, he hadn't been scared of the cops ever since he was 14, where he attacked his first officer with an aluminum bat. You'd be surprised what kind of problems you can solve in this world with a big and heavy metal object. "Well, this cop won't ever be a problem for me, no cop can match me, no matter how big or small. You should know that, since that's how we met." he said with a smug, shit-eating grin.
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Nero couldn't help but smile. "Finding that you'd inserted a frying pan into that damn tapir, always sticking his nose into my business… Well, it was the start of a beautiful friendship. You scratch my back…"
"You scratch mine," Sal replied.
The two spent the next 30 minutes chatting, it felt good for Sal to have a lengthy conversation with a friendly face without metal bars in the way and an overweight prison officer breathing down his neck. Life was looking up for him, now all he needed was his old team back and the sky would be the limit for him… but first he had to go to bed, getting out of prison was a surprisingly exhausting experience.
The two feline Sicilians made their way through the corridor of the new apartment building Nero had hooked Sal up with, Sal had to admit, it wasn't too bad considering how reasonable the average rent was. And Nero had taken special care to ensure all his belongings were in one-piece and none of them had gone missing. The two 'partners' ended their reunion with a brief kiss on each others before Sal was left alone. Pausing, he looked around before settling in the bed and closing his eyes. He had a lot of work tomorrow, and being well rested would be a major help.
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Judy Hopps had always been a trier.
For good or ill, she'd never let anyone hold her back. In fact, if someone were to say that she couldn't do something, she almost attempt to do it anyway (and oft succeed) just to prove them wrong.
Aged eight, she'd stood up to a schoolyard bully more than twice her weight. She'd picked up scars then, scars that she still carried to this day, though they were finally healed and hidden deep in her fur. Scars that had only pushed her on.
Aged twenty-four, she was the first Bunny to ever apply, enter and graduate from Zootopia's police academy. She'd been bruised, beaten, worn out and almost drowned. She'd been baked and frozen and heckled. But every attempt to pull her back had just pushed her on, further and faster. It was less than halfway through the course that she'd risen to the top of her class, her teachers first beginning to realise what it was she could achieved. She'd followed through, and graduated valedictorian of her class.
Soon after, on her first day on the job, she'd realised that in the eyes of some her achievements would always count for nothing. They'd just see a weak Bunny than needed to be kept out of the danger that her own naivety, and the political plays of others, would force her into. Out on the streets, things hadn't been any better, particularly when a certain Fox had taken her identity and chipped it away piece by piece. Only later, she would learn that he'd done it out of some perverse kindness. He had his own scars which had never healed. He just didn't want her to get hurt.
But then she'd turned around and proven them all wrong. She'd saved the city. She'd saved the Fox. Those who'd pidgeon holed her away had come back apologising. She'd picked up scars from that case too. Both mental and physical and, while both had healed well, she could still feel a rough patch on her leg when she ran her paw along it in the shower. She always felt a slight pang of guilt too, whenever she met or saw a Predator who'd been assaulted by some Prey, almost always claiming that it was in self defence and that she would understand.
Nevertheless, Judy's second motto in life (shortly behind Try everything) was to take the hit, get up again and carry on. Scars didn't worry her. They were all part of the job and would always heal…
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Or so she thought.
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"You feelin' good Carrots?"
Judy let out a nervous chuckle in response as she looked back at Nick, her loyal partner for two years. Turning back to face forward, her eyes resting on the precincts infamous 'three-wheeled-jokemobile', she gave her honest reply. "Nope."
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"Want me to hold your paw?"
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There was a brief pause…
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"I'd rather we spend a day at the mystic Springs," she deadpanned back. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath in and slowly let it out, trying to stay her nerves. Opening them, she stepped forward, feeling more like someone walking towards their death than a hero ZPD officer at that time. A small part of her, the same part buried deep inside of her that had once urged her to pull Fox-away on her best friend, was screaming at her to walk away and give up. It replayed images of squealing tires, of the dreaded feeling of having no control at all. Trapped. Racing towards your death. Another, larger part, calmly ordered her to carry on though. To march forward, to get in the jokesmobile that she knew could go hardly faster than her running pace, and to just drive it around the damn parking lot like literally any mammal above the age of five could do. Glancing behind her, she saw her dumb Fox nodding away, and she stepped in.
As her first foot touching the floor, her weight pushed down the suspension on one side, and she couldn't help but feel the jitters of that night replaying in her mind. Being tossed around like a stuffed toy in a tumble drier.
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"Paw…?"
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"I'm cool," Judy muttered back, as she grabbed the frame of the vehicle and pulled herself in, staying herself as she felt it wobble back and forth, wanting it to be perfectly still before she committed herself to sitting down.
"Paw offer is still open," Nick said, a slight grin growing on his muzzle. "I'm offering a very good Bogof offer you know? Two Fox paws for the price of one, and let's face it… Fox paws beat Bunny paws nine times out of ten…"
Judy couldn't help but chuckle internally at her partner's antics, though she wouldn't humour him by showing him that. Instead she close her eyes, gripped the ignition, and turned. Beneath her, she felt the tiny engine begin to shake and scream, before erupting into life in a cloud of two-stroke smoke. Feeling its vibrations rippling through her body, shaking and roaring like an earthquake, she pushed her foot down onto the brake hard, even if she knew the handbrake was on. All the more help, keeping the dangerous beast at bay. Her hand-paws, meanwhile, shot forward and gripped the steering wheel hard, her diminutive claws digging in to make sure than the wheel below would stay fixed on the right course. She was NOT going to let it go off on a mind of its own ever again. Despite this though, she couldn't help but feel the angry beast below her. Burning through the remains of long extinct giants, pounding like a heartbeat twice a second, and just waiting for its energy to be released. Her other foot lightly touched the accelerator, before flinching back. She balked at the prospect. Of releasing the beast, of putting her life in the hands of such a device again, yet she knew that if she was to ever get her dream back, she had to.
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"...And I mean, let's face it. Paw, Pads, are, AWESOME!" Nick said, carrying on. A brief pause had been placed between each of the four last words, emphasising the point, and Judy dared to look away from the road in front for just a second to steal a glance at him. There he was, with his famous smug smile glowing on his face. As Judy's head snapped back to looking forwards, he continued. "Let us not forget they are 50% bigger than Bunny paws. So with my two for one, you're actually getting a three for one! With added pads… All the better for holding your paw, as well as performing an emergency Lagomorph extraction maneuver… ™ Nicholas Piberius Wilde ltd…"
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Judy couldn't help but groan. She also couldn't help but hold her paw out, and she felt her body relax just a little as a larger one wrapped around it. Gentle, though not as tight as she would have wanted, it was now or never. Releasing the handbrake, she ever so carefully lowered her foot onto the accelerator and tense as she felt the vehicle strain forwards.
"You're doing it again," she heard Nick say. "Putting the accelerator down before the brake, it's only making it worse than yourself. Granted, it's not the handbrake, but still... "
"Shut up Nick," Judy interrupted, almost growling as she slowly lifted her foot off the brake. Some part of her knew that he was right, that it would be easier to release the brake first and then lead in with the engine. But that ancient part of her brain told her otherwise. Told her to keep control of her vehicle as much as possible, to never ever give it the chance to bolt. The more rational part of her said something different, saying that this was flat ground and it wasn't going anywhere.
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The rational part lost.
Her one paw rising while the other lowered, her body tensed with the whole cart. Straining with energy, ready to bolt just like it was.
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Then there came a squeek.
It was just a tiny one, the sound of the drive wheel fighting against the brake pad, but it was enough. For an instance, Judy was back there. The two times on that one night, driving home after capturing a crook in Tundratown.
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The squeal of locked wheels, fighting for control on the Icy surface.
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Rationality took a back seat, and in an instant the accelerator was released, the footbrake pressed down hard and the handbrake pulled right up. After a second, the engine was off and Judy was out, into Nick's silent arms as she tried to stop herself crying. It had been sixth months since the accident. She'd picked up no physical scars, though she possessed some vicious bruises for a while, had no serious injury and could easily walk it off. In fact she did, with Nick, as she joked about how she'd be on parking duty for the next year or so for totalling a new cruiser. He'd just tutted back, saying something about Bunny's being bad drivers. They'd hailed another cruiser that had been travelling back, from the same chase no less, and settled in.
It should have been so simple.
Judy couldn't help but shed a few tears as she remembered how on edge she'd suddenly found herself. And then the skid…
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No crash, no accident, just a quick skid that lasted for a second or so. But it was as if it had reinforced and iron plated all her nerves in an instant. She'd suddenly felt more terrified than she'd ever done before, and ordered the driver to stop. Despite being in the middle of Tundratown and it being night, she'd jumped out, resolving to walk to the nearest subway station and hope her new-found phobia didn't extend to trains. Nick had been there too, at first pleading with her to come back in, and the wrapping himself around her to keep her warm.
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That had been six months ago, and ever since then Judy's career had crashed and burned, just like the kind of accident you'd expect would give someone like Judy Hopps a terrible fear of driving and cars…
It was this that finally drove her over the edge for the day. She exploded into blubbering, unable to step herself from cursing her stupidity. Her cowardice. Her failure.
Nick, meanwhile, just stood there and hugged her. He had an idea of the kind of fear she'd learnt, his empathy for his Bunny partner showing through his sympathetic eyes.
He'd dealt with this kind of terror for a long, long time. And he was going to help her to put it behind her... just like she'd helped him.