Chapter 1: Badges And Upgrades
Judy's POW:
It's the year 2231.
To be more precise it's a few days before New Years, just after Christmas. And it's a Monday…
Just like every day so far, I've been the first one to come in to the bullpen each morning. I've taken up the habit of drinking strong coffee in the wee hours of the morning to keep me awake through the day. So once again it was just me in the room with a steaming cup of coffee on the table in front of me.
One would think that with technology jumping leaps and bounds ahead of its time, the chief would have the sense to put in a chair that could help me see OVER the damn table without me having to stand on it. Of course if I were to bring that to his attention he would probably pester me to get those free upgrades that every officer is entitled to. It's pretty safe to say that he won't get on my ass too much, seeing how I'm still one of his top officers, even if I'm still just a biological.
It's strange how easily everyone lives with technology literally being a part of them. Me, I don't really like the idea of not being entirely me. I like giving it the best I've got without any artificial muscle.
Sure the other officer keep joking that I should get my head out of the past but it doesn't feel right to me. I mean sure the upgrades started decades before I was born, maybe even a whole century! But still. The magic though… That one's pretty recent. Still way before I came to be but people aren't completely used to being able to do almost anything they want yet. And the law had to adapt to that pretty fast. As far as I was told in basic, in a matter of months after the outbreak, there were mammals literally teleporting into banks and stealing money. That meant we had to develop some pretty heavy duty stuff that would secure banks and other buildings from teleportation and other magic. We call those safety measures The Ticks. They're utterly inhumane. If you teleport to where you're not supposed to be, or if you use threatening magic among other mammals, they'll tick you.
Quite literally. A nanoscale biotech tick would be shot into your skin with a robots' precision. No way it ever missed. You didn't feel getting ticked, but once you were, the Specters knew exactly where you are. And once the specs were after you, it meant you're dead. No one ever survived the specs. Any media coverage was explicitly forbidden and all signals were jammed in the immediate vicinity of a specter, which made each and every single one of them basically nonexistent.
They are like ghosts. Stories are the only evidence of their existence.
"Yo gun-bunny!" Fangmeyer's voice buzzed me out of my little haze. I must've dozed off pretty well seeing as to how half of the bullpen was filled by now. Fangmeyer is one of my closest friends on the force. He's quite a well-built tiger and sports biotic ears and an aug lower left arm, which the hospital outfitted him with once he lost his real arm in a bad traffic accident when chasing a fugitive in a high-speed car chase.
"I told you not to call me that fang-tooth." I scowled at him. The tiger really did like to poke and prod at me all the time. Who does he think he is, with his staggering build and smooth smile and those big strong… JUDY SNAP OUT OF IT!
"You know you love it Juds." He stuck his tongue out at me and walked away! Oh the nerve!
I just fumed silently on my chair until everyone else came in and with them chief Bogo. A cape buffalo with almost no augments visible on his outside. But on the inside he was more machine than mammal. It's sad actually. The chief protected an elderly couple with his body from a crazed gunman. Although he was riddled with holes the chief still managed to get them out alive and only with minor injuries. His life was saved by having the doctors replace almost all of his organs and tissues with synthetics and prosthetics.
"At ease officers!" His gruff voice calmed everyone down at once, at which point the chief proceeded with giving us our assignments for the day.
"Today one of you is getting promoted." Soft bustle filled the pen as everyone kept looking at each other in anticipation. "The specs are sending two men over who will pick one of you to join them in their ranks." He looked over the room and his gaze lingered on me a little bit longer than on everyone else.
"As you know this doesn't happen very often. And since they only take the elite into their folds I expect you to be at your best if you get chosen. No officer of mine will get kicked out of the Specters am I clear?!" He barked over all of us and a collective HOOAH echoed through the bullpen. Just then a soft knock was heard on the door and the chief went over to open it.
"Ah you must be the two that were sent over. I'm Chief Bogo. Pleased to meet you." He was courteous and polite as with any stranger whom he met. And through the door first stepped a grey wolf whose dark brown eyes were clearly augments, as for any other body prosthetics they were hidden under the black suit he wore.
"Delgato. Pleased as well." He took a few more steps inside and spoke again, still not looking at anyone. "This is my colleague, Wilde." And right then my heart froze. Through the door came slowly the most handsome fox I had ever had the privilege to undress with my eyes. And he looked biological. Like me! Which meant that I had a real shot at this!
Nicks POW:
"Ugh, why does it have to be on a fucking Monday?" I grumbled at the squad meeting.
"Because Nick, I like seeing you suffer." The gray wolf spoke directly at me, showing off his pearly white fangs. The rest of the squad was barely even present. Out of the five of us only me, Delgato and Finnick were present. Not even the squad captain was here to grace us with his overbearing presence. "Knock it off you two! Nick get in the damn car with Ed and go get yourself a new partner! Or I'll BITE YER FACE OFF!" I swear to god if he wasn't so scary that fennec would be adorable.
"Sheesh okay okay. Wake me up when we get there." I huffed as I made my way to the black half limo and sprawled across the back seats. At least I could take a little nap on the drive there. And not even Eds shitty driving would stop me from sleeping since the back of the limo was so well cushioned that you felt like you were floating.
After half an hour of drifting between sleep and somber waking life I decided to sit up just as we pulled in front of the ZPD. "You awake back there Nicky?" Delgato smirked towards me from the driver's seat.
"I swear I will shoot you when you aren't looking." I deadpanned back at him. All the damned wolf did was laugh and then got out of the car. I made my way out too and then followed my friend inside the Police Department and up some wonky looking stairs. After we got to a place labeled the 'bullpen' he knocked and went in ahead, sputtering some polite nonsense to a boorish looking buffalo. After he called my name I figured it was my turn to make my presence known so I made my way inside and off the bat I knew who my partner was going to be. Among everyone in the room I had to pick one. I didn't even have to look at everyone to know it was going to be her. She looked right. It felt right. And I knew to trust my instincts without question.
Now it was just a matter of making everyone else not hate her for being chosen.
Third Person POW:
As the two black clad mammals stood in the bullpen, surveying the potential candidates, chief Bogo closed the door and returned to his podium. "My officers already know why you're here." He said to the wolf.
"Oh how nice. That saves us plenty of time then. Nick did you make a choice yet?" Delgato said, grinning at his shorter fox friend.
The fox grunted and haphazardly pointed in the direction of an elephant.
"M-me sir?" Jason, the young elephant officer stammered out and got a few pats on the back from his coworkers. Bogo cleared his throat "Jason is a great officer Mr. Wilde. He will not disappoint you of that I am sure."
The fox in black shot him a dirty look as if to say that he wasn't finished yet and Bogo immediately shut up. "I'm not pointing at the elephant. I want the fluff that's been gawking at me since I stepped in here."
Delgato pinched the bridge of his muzzle "You're unbelievable you know that?". Nick merely grunted again and lowered his finger. "So fluff. You comin' or not?" He turned to Judy, motioned towards the door and began walking off.
"W-Wait!" The bunny stammered out, looking at Nick like he'd just punched her clear across the face. "Hmm?" The fox in question raised an eyebrow and turned back to her, standing in the doorframe of the bullpen. Judy took a deep breath, feeling the eyes of everyone drilling holes in the back of her head.
"Why me?" She looked around the room before speaking up again. "There are at least half a dozen officers here who outrank me by far in both experience and skill." She felt her coworkers relax a bit. Nick on the other hand pressed his lips in a thin line and made his way to the table behind which Judy stood. She looked in his eyes and felt afraid. Utter fear gripped at her heart due to the dead, lifeless eyes that were staring into her very core. Not a biological! Her brain screamed at her.
"Because fluff." The fox seethed at her, "We don't take the very best or the most qualified. What would happen to the local law enforcement if we took away their best officers and left behind common rabble?"
The air in the room was dripping with unease and tension. Most of the bigger police officers narrowed their eyes at the black clad fox for insulting their coworker.
"The reason why I picked you, fluff, is because you have potential. If nurtured right, I know that you could surpass me beyond what you could EVER hope to imagine." He took a few steps back and clasped his paws behind his back and he glared at the entirety of the ZPD that was before him. "The rest of you, while more skilled or experienced than fluff here, have no room for improvement whatsoever, unless you get aug'd." He narrowed his eyes dangerously at that.
"Whoah careful Wilde, I'm sure they have guns." Delgato snickered behind him. An officer stood up from somewhere in the middle – a tiger with synthetic ears and what appeared to be a boring lower left arm. "Yeah Wilde" He mocked. "Who the hell do you think you are to spit on us here?"
The rest of the officers barked something along the lines of YEAH or SCREW THE SPECS and Bogo could be seen smirking to himself behind the two Specters' backs.
The tiger made his way to the front of the room, clearly towering over the fox. "Let me show you what the ZPD elite are made of." He growled with a devilish smile and raised his fists.
At this Delgato started to panic. Turning to the silent chief, he pleaded "Put a leash on him right now Bogo!" The cape buffalo looked at him with a deadpan face. "My officers can handle themselves, Specter."
Before Delgato could try any further to convince the chief to put a stop to what was about to happen, the tiger took a swing right at the fox's head with his prosthetic arm.
And in the blink of an eye and a single clean motion, he tumbled to the ground screaming in pain. The other officers gawked in horror at their fallen comrade and at the fox who clutched the bionic arm in his right paw.
"AAARH! THE FUCKER RIPPED IT OFF!" the tiger clutched at his bleeding and torn off elbow, from which loose tendons and wires hung.
None dared approach to help for fear of the fox.
With a cold stare the fox made his way around the tiger and towards the exit of the room, stopping at the door. "Ed, deal with this. And you" he looked at Judy "come with me." With that he made his way out of the bullpen, and on the way dumped the torn prosthetic in a trash basket for the entire force to see.
Seeing that the bunny was hesitating, Delgato moved to her and quite literally picked her up from the chair and took her out of the room, placing her a few feet behind the fox. When he returned to the pen, he made sure to close the door behind him.
Silent tears began to flow down fuzzy grey cheeks as she stared at this THING before her.
"H-he was my friend…" She barely managed to say, her mind still feeling the shock of seeing yet at the same time NOT SEEING her friends' arm being torn off.
He looked her dead in the eye. "I know."
To be continued…