Prolouge:
The red and blue lights of the police car illuminated against the sniffling fox kit who sat on the step of old church that doubled as a meeting place for a pack of Junior Ranger Scouts who had long ago gone home.
The tiger officer had been called in along with his rhino partner when a frantic vixen had called in to file in a missing mammal report, her son had gone to his first ranger scout meeting but hadn't returned home and that was an hour ago. When she had come to the old church she hadn't found him.
The rhino hadn't been eager to go hunt down a fox kit that was probably deliberately hiding or his mother had simply replaced him. When they arrived it only took a few minutes to find the kit hiding in a bush not far from the church, and not too far from him the tiger found a muzzle.
In tears the child had explained through broken sobs what had happened which now led to his mother practically screaming at the rhino to find the parents of such awful children (because there was no way a group of eight year olds got a muzzle on their own, they had been ordered by older animals to commit such a heinous act).
The prey officer just listened to her screams with a bored expression, really they knew he was not going to do anything, the vixen knew this. She knew that everyone would take the word of those prey over a fox's, but that didn't stop her releasing her anger and grief over what her innocent child had had to go through.
The tiger walked over to the kit who flinched slightly when the larger animals' shadow fell over him.
"How are you doing, son?" the tiger asked the fox.
He was met with wide, green eyes that were blood-shot from shedding far too many tears for a child his size. "Is-is being a fox so awful?"
"No," the tiger replied, his heart breaking over how broken the kit now look.
"Then-then why did they do that?" the fox's voice cracked and the officer knew that one word had been swimming over and over in his head, driving him to near madness.
Why?
Why?
Why?
WHY?
"It's not like I-I chose to be a f-fox," he sniffled as fresh tears streaked down his fur. "They treated me like I was…like I was bad."
The tiger knelt before him, "I'm afraid that's just how some animals see foxes, no matter that they're wrong."
The kit whimpered and the officer knew he couldn't leave him like this, nearly broken with bleedings wounds on his soul that would eventually turn into nasty scars. He had to give him some sort of hope.
"Maybe you can change their minds."
The fox looked at him, "Really? H-how?"
"Do something, become something, that they would never expect a fox could be," the tiger offered.
"Like what?"
He thought for a moment then offered an encouraging smile, "You could be a cop."
The kit's brow furrowed, "But there's never been a fox cop before."
"You'd just have to be the first one then," the tiger replied before pulling out a sticker from his pocket. A gold badge with the words Junior ZPD Member printed on it. He placed the sticker on the heart of the ranger scout uniform the fox still wore. "We're in Zootopia, aren't we? This is where anyone can be anything."
The fox kit stared up at him with wide, now shining, green eyes and the officer had a feeling he had given the fox the hope he needed and maybe, just maybe, he could fulfill this new dream and show the world he was more than a fox.
.
23 Years Later
Nick had done it.
It had taken far too many years than necessary but all that time hardly mattered now because, standing on a stage in Savannah Park, hearing Mayor Lionheart proclaim how proud he was in introduce the first fox officer of the ZPD, having his brand new badge placing over his heart by the assistant mayor, he knew it had all been worth it.
Growing up Nick had held onto that tiger's words and it helped him keep going every day, that and the fact that just because he hadn't been able to become a Junior Ranger Scout didn't mean he couldn't become a cop.
His mother hadn't been overly pleased by his career choice but didn't ever tell him he couldn't do it, she wanted him to be happy; she just also didn't want him to get hurt. And while other animals, privileged prey for example, spent their days outside playing he stayed at the nearby library, learning anything and everything about the ZPD, wanting to know what he needed to become a cop.
When he was old enough he hadn't wasted time in signing up for the ZPD Academy, he had almost been amused by the shock the polar bear in charge (Major Friedkin) gave him when he signed up. Nick had only winked, somehow obtaining a charming personality, and promised her he was one of those cadets she was going to remember.
She had given him a disbelieving look and replied with, "I doubt it."
And for the first few months of training her predictions was spot on as Nick kept falling off icy walls and into freezing water, getting covered in hot sand and falling off vines to land in thick nasty mud (that took forever to wash out of his tail that actually got slammed in doors more times than he wanted to think about) and it didn't help he was quite easily the least popular trainee there.
And one morning during a jog Nick had thought about giving up, remembering the negatives things he had been told through his life and a fierce, almost feral, determination overfilled him and he had bared his teeth and kept running.
Nick Wilde may have been a fox but he refused to prove his fellow cadets, the major, those scouts, and most of Zootopia right. He may be a fox but he was going to be whatever he wanted. And he wanted to be a cop.
And just like that the Wilde Determination (as he decided to call it) had him excelling. Using his sharp claws he scaled the icy wall swiftly, being the lightest animal there, he crawled across the sand without getting blown away, he kept his grip on rough, slick vines and the cadets' opinion of him improved as well, especially Major Friedkin's who had come to him the day he had been named valedictorian of his class and admitted she had been wrong about him. And she didn't mind being so.
"Nick," Lionheart brought him back from his euphoric memories. "It is my great privileges to officially assign you to the heart of Zootopia: Precinct One, City Center."
Nick had to quickly slam his mouth closed after his jaw unhinged. Precinct One!
"Congratulations, Officer Wilde," Assistant Mayor Bellwether smiled up at him with kindness.
"Thanks," he returned her smile, "And I won't let you down, between you and me I kind of plan on changing the entire city's opinion on foxes."
"Well, I can promise you it isn't just foxes you've inspired," she replied before Lionheart's large paw pushed her aside.
"Bellwether make room will ya?" the lion said before throwing the same massive paw on Nick's thin shoulder, "Okay Officer Wilde, let's see those teeth."
Nick showed off his best smile to the cameras as the crowd cheered, and as the bulbs flashed he wished those Scouts from all those years ago (animals he had never seen again) were in that crowd to see the 'dumb' fox now.