From now on Nick, keep your freaking mouth shut!

The simulator had, and was in fact, far more than what Judy had described it to be. And the exact the opposite of what he'd thought he would have to deal with. He should've known that sly bunny was only giving him half the details of what was to be expected at the academy along with the harsh obstacle courses and damned instructors that existed as well.

Knew I should've taken her seriously, the reynard thought grunting as he pushed through another shift of piling sand that was actually scorching. In all his years on the streets he'd visited and conned every district ever known including the Nocturnal District and the Polar District which was a district completely unrelated to TundraTown. (if you read the Zootopia Guidebook it mentions some districts never mentioned or seen in the movie. The Polar District is one of them.) Sahara Square was no exception and was the place he most frequently visited and conned out of all the districts and not once in any of those days he was there had he come face to face with a sandstorm. A fucking sandstorm!

Eyes watering from the heat blowing in his direction he could make out the finish line of the simulator and picked up the pace only to get a mouthful of sand. He spat it out and continued on his way, crawling and dragging himself along the soft sifting taupe trying to keep from panting, the last thing he wanted or needed was more hot sand in his mouth which ironically enough felt like a desert at the moment. Nick was the only one on the course at the moment while everyone else was waiting on him quite impatiently some looking bored out of their minds. For the first time in forever Nick felt hopeless, like he wasn't going to actually be able to get through this; like all his efforts were going to be wasted on nothing, and what if he did make it out of the academy? Would he even be assigned to Precinct One or even get Judy as his partner? These questions threatened to fill his brain and break him but at the same time, however, he'd made a promise and intended to keep it.

It took a good whole half a minute before he had gotten to the end and by then the Javanese tiger was very close to just leaving him there to die but of course he'd have his ass served to him by the City Council if he did. Didn't mean he didn't think about doing it, he just couldn't...

"Took your ass long enough!", he snapped at the red figure dragging himself forwards his entire trainee suit ruined and battered with sand grains. His green eyes were pale from how tired he was and he could barely lift himself off the ground. Usually someone like him would have been kicked in the stomach,if he was still a Sergeant in the army that might have been the exact thing that happened but he'd retired and this was his life now...dealing with kits and kittens.

How did it ever come to this?...

"GET YOUR DAMN ASS UP CADET! Or would you like me to start calling you 'Sleeping Beauty'?" He leaned in close towards the fox deliberately breathing his tobacco breath into his face watching as he coughed lightly glaring at him with contempt.

"Maybe if you weren't so busy trying to give me the kissing breath of death, I might be able to get my ass up sir," he drawled breezily still glaring at the tiger with pure annoyance.

"Keep talking like that fox and I'll send ya down where no fox has gone before," he growled quietly close to one of his large ears before pulling himself back up to his full height and walking away hands behind his back, "Alright males let's move out! Next course tomorrow is Ice Wall!"

"Yes sir Sergeant Williams!," they all responded in unison with backs stiff and hands to their sides and straight faces and scowls to match.

The javan tiger nodded his head before saluting to them and then snapped," NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF MY SIGHT YA VERMINS AND REST UP!" The cadets looked thoroughly shocked at the sudden switch in voice volume but not as unprepared as they'd been before during breakfast; rather than responding the trainees walked away back to the cabins chatting idly with one another as they did. Nick was, for once, in the middle of the line surprisingly but no one stuck near him as if he had the plague or something. As he walked he could hear his name or rather his species being brought up in a conversation coming from in front and beside him to the left a little between a african golden cat and a marbled cat, both snickering.

"So you put how much down for him?," the marbled cat asked, female by the sound of it. She had bright golden orange eyes, eyes that were quite large but that was expected of their species. The golden cat snickered some more before smiling gleefully and responding, "Thirty bucks! Either he gets kicked out the academy before he can yip or he fails; either way it's gonna be a blast for me! The perfect entertainment for this boring academy!" She exclaimed.

"No kidding about that darling, hahaha!"

And there it was. The first key sign that no one in the academy could be trusted. The first true sign that he had his own back from now on and his only true ally was himself and the only mammal besides his mother who'd ever truly believed in him. From now on, he only would care for himself and no one but himself. But it was fine, he'd been living on the streets for a long time, this was nothing more than a cheap discount display than what he'd seen and been through.

With that in mind he continued on his way...alone.


A/N: That was a bit too emo I'll admit at the end but it was still pretty good! Anyways, favorite, follow, and review!