Judy Hopps had been an official officer of the ZPD for just over 3 months now. She had made incredible strides during that time, and many of her fellow officers had finally begun to see more than just a country bunny with delusions of grandeur when they looked down at her. In fact, many had finally begun not to look down on her (in the metaphorical sense).
She had volunteered for night patrol in the slums because it was a historically nasty part of town. Many police had come back from this particular shift rotation needing psych evals or vacation time. A lot of officers went out of their way to avoid ever being stuck with it, if they could manage to.
And so, Judy had seen it as an opportunity to prove herself.
The night had been mostly quiet. Her shift was almost over when she heard someone laughing several blocks away. Another officer might have missed it, but her incredible hearing picked it up clearly through the night air.
She had immediately set out to investigate, eschewing her patrol vehicle to approach on foot instead. The night was too quiet for the SUV's tires and engine to go unnoticed, and Judy did not want to give whoever was making that terrifying sound a warning that a police officer was checking in on them.
As Judy got closer, she was able to hear the sounds of a fight taking place. A fight in the slums at 2:00AM. That could very easily turn into a murder, and Judy knew it.
She heard the insidious cackling once again.
She bounded towards the gate that encircled the back lot of the abandoned warehouse.
Sprinting through the already open gate, she quickly surveyed the scene.
A fox was holding a tigress under his arm. She was bound and gagged, and couldn't be more than 13. A young elk was clinging to his leg, clearly having been dragged through the dirt towards the van he was standing behind.
He was holding a saw-toothed knife in his paw.
Judy's ears then swiveled towards the van, as she could hear the muffled sobs of several other young girls inside.
She glared at the fox, anger and disgust welling inside her.
He never lost that smug grin. As though this was all perfectly normal, and she was intruding.
He had the gall to try and lie to her.
"Would you believe this isn't what it looks like?" He asked, his smile never leaving.
She gave him the only answer she felt appropriate, and tased him until he dropped.
Letting her taser fall to the ground, Judy set to freeing the tigress whilst trying to console the young Elk, both of whom were staring at her with wide eyes.
"Don't worry, I've got you. You're all safe now. I'll make sure you all get home just fine." Judy said.
My first real arrest, and it's a rescue too!, Judy thought, This is great!
...
"This is awful." Bogo said, rubbing the space between his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. He removed his reading glasses slowly. "Do you know who called me this morning? Mr. Big."
Judy's eyes widened.
"Not a secretary. Not a partner. Not a message left, or a note delivered. No. Mr. Big himself called, and asked to speak with me directly. He wanted a very clear understanding of this…incident."
Almost everyone in Zootopia knew who Mr. Big was. One of the most powerful mammals in the city, despite his small stature.
Once upon a time, everyone had quietly known that Mr. Big was a mob boss that ruled Tundra Town. He had had his paws in dozens if not hundreds of crimes committed throughout the city, but no one could ever connect anything to him. Then, one day, he seemingly vanished. No one heard from the shrew, his family, or anyone who associated with him in any significant way for seven years. Then he suddenly comes back a legitimate business man.
Every crime ever committed by his old organization was solved and the cases closed, every perpetrator willingly coming to the police and making a full confession. Nothing remained that could ever be tied to Mr. Big himself. No one implicated him, or tried to pin anything on him. None of the criminals even seemed perturbed that they were going to prison.
And now Mr. Big was a respected member of the city council. He still got whatever he wanted done, but now only through legally legitimate means.
And he cared enough about this fox to personally call Judy's boss.
Judy very much wanted the ground to open up and swallow her at that moment.
"Hopps!" The buffalo snapped.
Judy's head whipped up as she realized her attention had drifted.
"This debacle is already bad enough if the media gets wind of it. The mayor is working hard to crack down on specism, and I imagine he would hate to hear his prized bunny cop tased a fox that had just single-handedly rescued eight young girls, because he was a fox and that made him suspicious."
Judy swallowed. "But chief," she began.
"Nope, don't care." The chief said, waving his hoof and cutting her off.
Leaning over his desk slightly, he pointed directly at her. "You are going to march down to the hospital and formally apologize to Mr. Wilde. You had better do everything in your power to make him like you, because I can tell you right now that you need him to."
Judy looked up at her chief, the question clear in her eyes but her mouth not working.
Bogo sighed and sat back, Rubbing the space between his eyes once again.
"Big wants your badge." He stated.
Judy's jaw dropped, fear clutching her chest.
"I don't know what this fox is to a city council member, but Big made it very clear that if he wasn't willing to let this go, then neither would Big." The buffalo looked down at her, the barest wisp of softness coming into his hard voice. "You're a fine officer Hopps, but I can only protect you from so much. You need this fox to not hold a grudge."
He drew himself up, putting his glasses back on. His voice took on the tone of a teacher stating unimpugnable facts. "As it currently stands, you're on administrative leave pending the decision of whether this incident warrants further investigation or corrective action."
Judy opened her mouth to protest.
"Two weeks, Hopps. No arguments. Dismissed."
Judy's ears went limp. The rest of her followed suit as she climbed out of the chair and walked to the door.
As she opened it though, she drew herself back up, and snapped a crisp salute before walking calmly out of the buffalo's office.
When he was sure she wouldn't be able to hear, he quietly whispered, "Good luck, Hopps."