A/N: Hello, readers! I have decided that I will make it my goal to post a new chapter every Saturday or Sunday. I may post early or late once in a while depending on how quickly or slowly I'm able to write new chapters. I want to always have the next week's chapter written before posting so I don't fall behind. Also, I am in need of cover art so if you are interested, send me a PM! And now, with that out of the way, proceed to Chapter 2! Leave a follow/favorite/review if you enjoy!

Sadly, I do not own Zootopia. I merely use Disney's movie for my own writing entertainment.

-Eragon


CHAPTER 2: TUSK

CALYPSO STREET, HAPPY TOWN, 9:25 AM, FRIDAY, APRIL 18th

"Mr. Tusk, our runner is late. Should I just leave without him?"

An antelope said this into his phone, clearly frustrated with the delay and ready to leave without the sorry mammal who was possibly causing him to be late. The antelope was middle-aged and had skulls of various species of animals tattooed all over his horns. He also had a large nose ring, similar to that which large bulls would wear. The mammal he was talking to, Gary Tusk, grumbled a few curses under his breath, but ordered his main drug dealer to wait five more minutes before heading out.

Stinger, the antelope, sighed as he leaned against the driver's door his old maroon jeep that he had been driving since he was just a teen. He was preparing a sarcastic remark when he heard a pipe clang from somewhere above him. "Sir, I'll have to call you back. I may have some unexpected company."

Stinger quickly hung up and pulled a shotgun out from its resting place on the passenger seat and loaded five shells into it. As he finished and pumped the shotgun, a reptilian figure silently landed in the center of the alleyway. The figure was wearing a dark grey, sleeveless military vest along with matching pants and black boots and gloves. Three pairs of revolvers could be seen strapped to the outfit; the only difference in each set being the size of the guns. One pair was the size used by the average animal, which were set at his hips. Another pair was visibly smaller and set at about chest height, while the third pair was quite larger with one gun strapped to each thigh. The most noticeable part about this animal, however, was the mask. It was obviously some sort of metal custom-fitted to match the shape of the reptile's head; it was colored mainly silver, but had blood-red coloring along the bridge of the figure's snout leading up to a giant irregular splotch of the color over where the wearer's left eye would be. Only the right side of the mask had an eye slit, and Stinger could see a glowing yellow eyeball staring back at him and sending shivers down his spine.

The antelope may have been intimidated by the intruder, but he was either too dumb or too confident to be afraid, "Alright, ya bootskin, get outta here before I have ta blow yer brains out!"

He pointed his shotgun threateningly at the reptile, ready to fire at any wrong move. The figure merely laughed at his prey. Stinger, growing furious, continued his ranting, "You think I'm jokin'! Ya must not be from around here! In this district, my boss makes the rules and owns everyone and everything. And if you don't turn yer ugly tail around right now and scram, then I'm gonna- "

"That's quite enough, my friend", Coran interrupted, "You should feel honored. My employer is allowing me to use my trademark on you; something I haven't done in years, and won't do again for many more. Now…hold still."

Before Stinger could even start to pull the trigger of his shotgun, Coran had drawn his normal-sized revolvers and fired four shots into the antelope's midsection. The shotgun clattered to the ground as Coran holstered those two guns and drew the two larger revolvers; made for taking down animals as large as elephants or rhinos. He spun them once on his claws and fired two shots into his prey, leaving a hole all the way through Stinger's body on each side of his chest. Coran then holstered those revolvers and casually walked past the dead antelope, dropping a slip of paper by the jeep as he disappeared down the other end of the alley and the blood rapidly pooled around the remains of Stinger.


DOWNTOWN ZOOTOPIA, 9:00 AM, FRIDAY, APRIL 18th

Patrolling Downtown Zootopia was usually a sure-fire way to be kept busy in the ZPD. Except today, it seemed. Judy and Caroline had been patrolling for forty-five minutes and had only seen two other cars during that time, one of the two being the ZPD's Joke-Mobile! Doing what she normally did when it was a slow and boring day, Judy attempted to start up conversation multiple times with her temporary partner to no avail. Howler would either ignore Judy or respond with a short "yes" or "no" when asked simple questions. Eventually the rabbit gave up and put her entire focus on the road, silently hoping for something, anything, to happen.

They had just reached the border between Happy Town and the Downtown District when the vehicle's radio started blaring with the same frantic yells that Nick and Zander were hearing. The pair heard Zander's reply as Judy realized Calypso Street was only just inside Happy Town and a mere two streets away; they could help too! Jumping at the chance to do something other than drive in circles, Judy grabbed the radio and responded to Clawhauser while simultaneously turning on the police lights and siren and flooring the gas pedal, "Dispatch, this is patrol car Alpha one-zero-eight; Officers Hopps and Howler; and we are en route to the place of emergency. Over."

"Ten-four, Hopps. Good luck and be safe. Over."

While Judy grinned like a madmammal thinking about catching a criminal, Caroline's frown seemed to darken, if that was even possible. She opened up the glove compartment and grabbed both of their tranquilizer pistols, quickly checking both to make sure they were loaded and in working order. Being as close to the scene as they were, they arrived in under half a minute from the ending of the call. Judy skidded the car to a stop, grabbed her tranq-pistol, and both she and Caroline bolted out of the car into the alleyway. They smelled the blood first; a lot of it. As their eyes adjusted to the dimly lit alley, they took in the surroundings that they couldn't smell. They saw an old maroon jeep, as well as an antelope lying dead on the ground with multiple bullet holes in his body and a shotgun by his side. The most surprising thing they saw, however, was the cheetah rummaging hastily through the dead antelope's belongings.

Judy, frozen in shock, could not say a word and Howler was forced to react first, "ZPD! Paws on your head!"

This did nothing other than cause the cheetah to immediately run off deeper into the alleyway, narrowly evading a dart from Howler's gun. This snapped Judy out of her trance and the pair took off after him, barely keeping up with his natural speed. Ducking and weaving through the alleys, Howler reloading her gun with a fresh dart as they did so, the officers finally realized they could no longer see the spotted tail they had been following around corners in order to stay in the chase. Luckily, Judy's hearing was powerful enough to notice a slight clanging sound above them. Looking along the right side of the alley, she saw the cheetah just under halfway up a ladder leading to the rooftops. While she ran to the ladder and began climbing, jumping up two or three rungs at a time, Howler attempted another shot at the cheetah and hit the bricks just inches from the cheetah's arm. Realizing that she could kill the cheetah if she hit him and he fell, she reloaded her pistol and worked her way towards the sidewalk so she could follow the chase along the ground.


The cheetah had slowed down when he had gotten a third of the way up the ladder due to his misguided thoughts that he had already escaped. These thoughts were shaken when he was a paw-length away from being tranqued halfway up the ladder and completely gone when, as he neared the top of the ladder, he saw the rabbit cop only four rungs below him and rapidly gaining. She reached to grab his ankle, but he managed to yank himself over the roof's edge at the last moment and take a deep breath before running again, this time across the roof of an apartment complex which was situated above a strip mall. Judy was not far behind and was in much better shape than the cheetah; she was not even breathing heavily as she chased after him. Judy attempted a shot with her tranq-gun, but the dart bounced off a vent as the cheetah zig-zagged back and forth along the roof.

The suspect had speed on his side, but no stamina to continue running for much longer. As he jumped to the roof of a slightly smaller group of stores, he nearly tripped and met the roof with his muzzle. Barely keeping his footing, he chanced a glance behind himself to see the rabbit easily clear the jump and keep running full tilt towards him, all while she was loading another dart into her gun. He saw her slow down for a moment to aim and he swerved just a foot to the left to avoid the dart. He cleared the jump to a third building and saw his escape route. He leaped off the far corner of the building and grabbed on to his homemade zipline he invented by using wire and his old bicycle handlebars. He refused to look back until he was halfway across the street and saw, to his satisfaction, that the officer was staring at the contraption in shock and no longer chasing him. His zipline ended at the far side of an alley to avoid possibly being hit by a car from it hanging too low and to be as close to his safehouse as possible.


While Judy was running along the rooftops, Howler had been patiently following along the sidewalk. She saw the cheetah leap onto his zipline and saw where he was heading, so she ran across the street to intercept him before this chase went any further. Luckily, there was still no traffic, so she had no need to stop cars and had nothing slowing her down as she crossed the road and entered yet another alleyway. She had heard sirens in the distance while following the rooftop chase and figured that it must be Oaks and Wilde securing the crime scene. Good, less for us to worry about.

This alley was even more shaded and dimly lit than the last group they had chased the cheetah through. She heard loud knocking on a door and frantic, intelligible yells from the far end of the alley. She readied her gun and had her sights on the cheetah when the door burst open, shining bright light into the previously dim area and giving away her position. Two wolves stepped out, one white and one grey, both having a pistol in hand. These were not tranq-pistols, though; these were real-life, live ammunition, deadly pistols. She quickly took cover behind a dumpster as the grey wolf took aim at her and pulled the trigger.


Judy was in disbelief. No criminals had ever beaten her in a chase, and yet this cheetah had outsmarted her and was probably making his getaway as she climbed down the ladder back to the sidewalk. She finally realized the chase was not yet over when she remembered that Howler had been following on the ground. She hastily jumped the final few rungs to the sidewalk and started to jog across the street towards the cheetah's escape alley when she heard something she had hoped to never hear in her time as a police officer; the firing of live ammunition. She quickly picked up her pace and reached for her radio, but realized she had left it in the car due to her haste of catching a criminal. Drawing her tranq-pistol, she peeked around the corner of the alley to see a grey wolf and white wolf, both aiming live pistols at a dumpster where Howler was taking cover. Thinking she could sneak up on the wolves, she slunk around the corner towards a group of large trash cans she believed would be adequate cover. To her surprise, the white wolf immediately took notice of her and moved his aim to her side of the alley and fired twice.

Judy lunged into her cover as the bullets missed her by no more than a few fur lengths. She used the gaps between the garbage cans to her advantage and fired back with a tranq dart at the white wolf. The tranquilizer darts used by the ZPD did not travel at the same speeds as bullets, however, so the wolf easily dodged the dart and took his own cover behind an old black car while the grey wolf used the doorway as cover and hid behind the wall of the building. The wolves had a large advantage by using live pistols since they had six shots before they had to reload, unlike the officers who had to reload after every dart they fired. Judy saw Howler attempt a shot at the grey wolf only for him to duck behind the doorframe and pop back out firing the five remaining bullets in his clip at her. It was easy to tell that the grey wolf was neither an experienced nor a very capable fighter, as he missed every shot and had wasted his ammo by firing after Howler had already taken cover.

Seeing Howler had her radio and knowing that Howler would have already called for backup, she returned her attention to the white wolf, who was still behind the car. As she peeked out to get a better angle at him, he swiftly reached his arm around the side of the car and fired a shot at her. It clanged off the garbage can, shaking her cover and throwing off her own shot, which struck the right-paw mirror of the car. Judy shrunk back and reloaded before firing at yet another different angle. The white wolf seemed truly surprised by this shot and only just managed to jerk his arm out of the way of the dart; then he fired three shots at Judy. One at her current cover, provoking her to move to another garbage can; the next at the garbage can she was heading towards, provoking a second movement; the third directly at her. Judy screamed as the bullet punctured her right ear and felt blood begin to pour out of the wound.

She put her back to the largest of the garbage cans and pulled her ear down to inspect it. The bullet had gone through the upper portion of the cartilage and was causing quite the mess. Yanking a pawkerchief out of her belt pouch, she tied it tightly below the hole in order to prevent as much blood loss as possible. But she had already lost a good amount of blood and her vision was becoming a bit foggy. She barely heard Howler calling out to her, "Hopps! Hopps! Are you alright?"

"I'll be okay as long as help is on the way."

"Already done! Hang in there! We won't be able to get any help if we're dead when the backup arrives!"

Judy nodded absently as she tried to reload her pistol, but the dart kept falling out of her paw. Her vision was getting blurrier and starting to get black along the edges. Eventually, she passed out from the pain and blood loss, leaving Howler to fight two dangerously armed wolves on her own.


Nick and Zander arrived at the crime scene not long after the other cop duo began chasing the cheetah. Nick brought the car to a much smoother and controlled stop and grabbed his tranq-pistol and radio as he got out of the car and analyzed the alleyway. Neither the blood nor the sight of a dead mammal fazed the fox and springhare as both had seen far worse before. Zander motioned for Nick to check out the maroon jeep while he put on a pair of latex gloves and knelt down next to the deceased antelope. Nick, also donning the plastic gloves, checked the glove compartment first, hoping to find some way to identify the victim. Finding an insurance card stating the jeep under the ownership of Brock Sting, a male antelope, he figured he had found the identity of their dead mammal. He also found an empty box without any labels on it. Placing the box back where he found it and the insurance card in an evidence envelope, which he also left in the glove compartment for the forensics team to analyze, he continued around to the back of the vehicle to check out the trunk.

To his shock and satisfaction, he found some extremely incriminating pieces of evidence in the trunk. There was about ten pounds of Catnip, a hallucinogen, along with more boxes matching the one in the glove compartment. Only these boxes were full of live shotgun shells, which were very illegal. Nick put the Catnip in one evidence bag and the boxes of shells in another and left both in the trunk for forensics. He turned back to Zander and was about to make a sly comment when he saw a look of utter terror on the smaller mammal's face. Nick walked over and placed a paw on his temporary partner's shoulder, "Hey, Oaks, everything alright?"

Zander said nothing for a few moments, then he spoke barely above a whisper, "You used to live here, right? And you've lived in Zootopia your whole life?"

Nick wasn't sure where he was going with this, but answered anyways, "Well yeah, why?"

"Notice anything about our victim here?"

Nick looked down at the antelope. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary. The victim had been shot more than often and with some high caliber bullets, but that wasn't anything extraordinary for Happy Town. Wait, those bullet holes were not just randomly placed. There was something more to them. Where have I seen this before? Then it dawned on him, "You don't think..."

Zander looked up at him with fiery certainty in his eyes, "Either it's him or a copycat and either way we have a major problem on our paws!"

Bang!

Both predator and prey looked at each other in genuine concern as they heard the faraway gunshot. Nick started sprinting off in the direction that he believed the sound came from, calling back to Zander as he did so, "Come on! Carrots and Howler could be in trouble!"

The yell had the desired effect as Zander quickly caught up to him and both ran towards the sounds of more gunshots. Nick was talking as calmly as he could into his radio, demanding for a forensics team at the crime scene and for backup. When he got the response that Howler had already contacted Clawhauser for backup, he could do nothing other than worry for Judy's safety. She was always the one to call things in first, always. If she was hurt, or worse, he didn't know what he would do. She kept him going and helped him to become more than just what everyone else thinks he should be. If it wasn't for her, he wouldn't even be a police officer or in a position even remotely like this one. But he had to be strong through this, or he would not be any help when he arrived at the fight. Nick gripped his tranq-pistol furiously in his paw. He was going to help Judy or die trying.


Howler couldn't keep this fight up for much longer. The white wolf had figured out that Hopps was out of the fight when he never got return fire after he had struck her with one of his shots. Now she was receiving enemy fire from two angles, both having more shots per reload and more dangerous weaponry than herself. She was a solid gunfighter, but she accepted that she was outnumbered and outmatched in this battle. Her only hope was that backup arrived before one of the wolves managed to get a lucky shot and wound or kill her. Taking a quick glance beforepaw, she rapidly stuck her paw out and tried to dart the more experienced white wolf, but he again took cover behind the car before being hit.

The grey wolf took a shot at Howler while she was vulnerable, grazing her arm. She gasped and looked at the damage, but it was no serious injury and she could easily fight through it. Seeing that he had hit his adversary, the grey wolf quickly shuffled up to the opposite side of the dumpster that Howler was taking cover behind. Howler noticed this and realized that she was cornered. Ready to give up and stay hidden in a type of last stand, she checked her ammo one last time. Four darts were all she had left. The white wolf made a move to gain a better angle of Howler by moving to where the rabbit had once been hiding. Since Howler was checking her ammo, she didn't see him until it was too late. But before the white wolf fired, his concentration was broken by an animal yelling down the alleyway.

"Hey, jagbags! Stop pick'n on the ladies, will ya?!"

It was Wilde. That stupid, ignorant, reckless red fox was insulting and scolding two dangerously armed criminals. But she couldn't complain too much. It had prevented her from dying so far and had gotten the wolves' attentions. She realized the grey wolf was coming out from behind the dumpster, gun raised at Wilde, and tried to fire a dart at him; but she hadn't yet reloaded her gun. The fox needed no help, though, as he effortlessly crouched down and revealed Zander holding his tranq-pistol. The wolf had no time to react as the springhare's dart struck him in the chest, knocking him out cold in less than a few seconds. Then, while Wilde was seemingly distracted, the white wolf attempted a shot at the fox. This was expected however as the red-furred canine shifted his feet slightly, taking both himself and Zander out of the path of the bullet. And during this shift he raised his own pistol and shot an unexpected dart at the white wolf, striking him in the neck and knocking him out as well.

Howler could only look in complete awe at the fact that her partner and this mangy red fox had so effortlessly taken down the wolves. She shouldn't have been surprised, though. She knew Zander was a deadeye shot, and she had read somewhere about how the fox supposedly held the record at the academy shooting range for most bull's-eyes in a row. While she was still sitting by the dumpster, Nick was running over to his passed out partner.


Fearing the worst, Nick turned Judy face-up. Scanning her for any major wounds other than her ear, he found none and quickly retied the pawkerchief since her ear was still bleeding. He reached for radio and asked Clawhauser how far out the ambulance was. When he got the reply of "only a couple" minutes and heard the sirens seconds later, he was immensely relieved. Picking up Judy in his arms, he carried her out to the emergency responders. They put her on a stretcher and got her into the ambulance, Nick following behind. Nobody questioned his actions, for if anyone was to be allowed by her side, it would be this fox. As the emergency vehicle made its way towards Zootopia General Hospital, they worked on Judy's ear and got her stabilized while stopping as much of the bleeding as possible. Nick got constant reassurance that she would be okay, but he wanted to see that before he completely believed it.

While Nick got to go on his joyride, Oaks and Howler were stuck behind to deal with the Precinct Nine and One officers who needed their reports of the whole incident. Luckily, Chief Bogo arrived after they had resaid the events that had occurred for the third time and got them away from the remaining officers and the media reporters who had begun to arrive at the scene. Bogo decided the best option would be to take the coyote and springhare back to their patrol cars, but he did have questions of his own to ask before doing this, "Both of you worked in Precinct Nine for many years, any idea who the wolves were or why they shot at you?"

Oaks and Howler looked at each other, unsure how to respond to such a weighty question. Then, taking initiative, Oaks gave the best answer he could, "Well, Chief, I don't know why they shot at Howler and Hopps other than they were trying to help a suspect escape. But, I do know that there are only two groups in Happy Town who have a supply of live guns. One is Precinct Nine, and I know they weren't shooting at us. The other...is a much more likely option. I'm sure you are familiar with the name 'Tusk'?"

"I believe he is a crime lord in this district, correct?"

"Yes, and a very dangerous one. He usually keeps to his space, but his animals were way out of his normal area today. This means one of two things. Either he's testing to see how the ZPD reacts or...", Zander trailed off.

Bogo glanced at him in frustration, "Or what, Oaks?!"

Zander couldn't look anywhere but straight out the windshield at the road in front of them, "...Or someone pissed him and his people off. And he's going to get vengeance, no matter what the cost may be for him."


HAPPY TOWN, UNKNOWN TIME, FRIDAY, APRIL 18th

The cheetah entered a shabby office, decorated by only a single rickety desk and two beat-up chairs. One was situated behind the desk with a huge boar seated in it, sharpening a dagger. The other was on the direct opposite side of the desk and the cheetah sat down, shaking slightly in his nervousness. The boar continued in sharpening the blade for a minute longer before speaking in a dark and foreboding voice, not even looking up at the feline seated in front of him, "Willy, would you like to explain to me why Stinger is dead?"

"Boss, I swear I didn't do nothin' to-"

The boar slammed the dagger down into the table before screaming at his runner, "Did I say you did!? No! Now tell me what the hell happened out there!"

Willy shrunk back at the yells and decided to just tell him, "I was runnin' late 'cause I ran out of gas in my car and I got into a little tussle wid dis pig, so I had to run de last few blocks to de meetin' place. By de time I got der, Stinger was dead with bullet holes all over him. I searched de whole area to find out who mighta done it and only found one ding."

The cheetah reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card and handed it to the boar, "Dis musta been dropped by de killer as he was leavin'. I also took all of Stinger's important papers so dey can't connect him to us."

Willy's boss was seething as he looked at the card, "They'll connect him to us anyways purely out of superstition, kit. We get blamed for everything bad that ever happens in this rat-hole district. Killing Stinger, however, is a direct threat against us and I will not stand for it! That bear has insulted my dignity for the last time! The Tusk Gang is going to finally get some vengeance for all the wrongs done against us! Follow me, it's time to get the boys gathered! We've got to get the Wolf Brothers back if we're to pull this off!"

And with that, Tusk grabbed his dagger and stormed out of the office, Willy close behind, and left the business card sitting on his desk. All that could be read was: HAFTOHN INCORPORATED, FINANCIAL HELP AGENCY.