Chapter 2: A Whole New World

As the light of day pierced his eyelids, waking him from his slumber, the last thing Joseph remembered were the lights-the lights of the vehicle passing by him, blurred by the downpour and the blinding agony of the change. Then the pain and darkness had dragged him under. But things were different when he woke up. Usually when he woke up after a change, he was in a completely different location and felt sick and exhausted, and usually ended up vomiting up the blood and bones of whatever unfortunate animal had crossed his path the night before. But not this time. When he woke up, Joseph was lying in the exact same spot, in the exact same position. What was more, he didn't feel terrible like he usually did. He felt...rested.

Joseph raised his head and finally saw the terrain around him clearly. He was lying in a large grove of trees with a road running through it, a road which had definitely not been there the night before. Early morning sunlight filtered down through the few autumn leaves left hanging on the branches above. Peering through the tree line, Joseph saw that the road led to a large bridge crossing what seemed to be a lake, leading directly into the center of a huge city. Joseph forced himself to his feet and stepped out into the road, trying to get a good look at the city. It rose out of the water around it like some vast mountain on an island. The buildings were clearly man-made, but didn't resemble any architecture he'd ever seen. They looked much more naturalistic than the buildings he'd seen in places like Chicago and Las Vegas.

He didn't understand-he was certain that he'd been far beyond civilization last night. And yet, here he was, standing at the gates of a gleaming metropolis unlike anything he'd ever seen.

That was when Joseph began to notice something strange. He felt shorter and warmer than he usually did. He also felt...thinner. More wiry and sleek, not thick-chested and muscled as he had been last night. Glancing down at himself, and then over to the spot where he had passed out the previous evening, he noticed that his coat, pants, and shoes were lying in a pile among the underbrush. The only clothing he was wearing was his ratty, mud-encrusted t-shirt—except it now seemed to be almost twenty sizes too big for him, the hem covering his feet and dragging on the earth. Staring down at the tattered garment, Joseph suddenly caught sight of his nose in the middle of his field of vision...except it wasn't his nose. It was long and orange and ended in a black snout.

What in the... Joseph brought his hand up to touch the strange thing on his face, and he realized that something was very, very wrong. His hand was no longer a hand, but a paw. A fox's paw, covered in black fur, padded on the inside of the palm, with little claws on the four fingertips—and, somehow even more strange, an opposable thumb.

Beginning to panic, Joseph hurriedly inspected his arms and legs and found that they, too, were covered in orange fur. He brought his hands-no, his paws-up to his face, and found that the bone structure had completely shifted. His face was long and narrow, and he'd grown sharp teeth lining his jaw, and had large, triangular ears sticking up from the back of his skull. Truly horrified now, Joseph slowly looked over his shoulder and down his back, and saw, to his utter terror, a huge, bushy orange foxtail peeking out from the hem of his t-shirt. Hoping against hope that it wouldn't work, that he was just dreaming or hallucinating from hunger or dehydration, Joseph cautiously flexed his tailbone.

The tail twitched to the side.

Joseph was beginning to hyperventilate. Trying to fight off the panic, he looked around for something, anything to anchor him to reality. Off to his right, just next to the road, he saw a large puddle made by the rain the night before. He ran over to it, nearly tripping over his tail and the hem of his shirt, and looked at his reflection, wishing, hoping that the reflection staring back at him was his own. But it wasn't.

The only face he saw was that of a very frightened-looking fox.

The human-turned-fox was in full panic mode now. He was spinning around in circles trying to inspect himself, and he was beginning to cry hysterically. He knew that if he didn't calm down soon, the stress would more than likely bring out the Monster. He fell to his hands and knees in fear, trying to get a grip on himself. As his breathing began to slow, Joseph realized that he needed help. He needed someone, anyone, to tell him what was going on. He knew he had to go into the city. He had to get help, even if it meant temporarily exposing himself to the public.

But then the thought hit him, the horrible, terrifying thought: he was a fox. He couldn't just walk into a city and expect people to talk to him! Joseph started to curl into a fetal position, resigned to his fate, when a thought occurred to him: he had stood up. He wasn't just any run-of-the-mill wild fox; he could walk on two legs, just like a human. He was anthropomorphic.

He wondered if he could talk, too.

Afraid of what he would hear, Joseph cautiously opened his mouth and tried to speak.

"Hello?" came the scratchy but familiar sound of his own voice.

Joseph sighed in relief. He could walk upright. He could speak. That meant that, even if everyone ran from the strange, mud-caked fox walking on two legs, maybe he at least stood a chance of getting someone to listen to him. Steeling himself for what was to come, Joseph shakily got to his feet, took a deep breath, and began to trudge slowly towards the city.

Joseph Solomon had experienced some pretty strange things in his life. He'd been abducted by the people he'd trusted, the people he'd pledged his allegiance to, and been torn apart and put back together again and again and again. He'd seen the results of horrifying experiments that looked like something out of a nightmare. He'd changed into a horrific monster on numerous occasions and caused indescribable terror, just like something out of a Brothers Grimm fairytale. Hell, he'd watched on live TV as aliens poured out of a hole in the sky and got beaten up by a giant green rage monster and a blonde dude with a magic hammer. But this-this took the freakin' cake.

He hadn't exactly expected his arrival to go well, but he certainly didn't expect it to go like this. The first thing he noticed when he entered the city was that there were no people-only animals. Walking upright, wearing clothes, talking on phones, listening to music, acting just like normal humans in a normal city would. Trying to take it all in was just too much for Joseph; he seemed to have temporarily lost his mind. Logically, it should have calmed him-after all, weren't walking, talking animals more likely to listen to another walking, talking animal? But logic had fled far from Joseph at this point. Now he could only wonder just what in the hell had happened to him. Once, he'd thought that seeing a billionaire in a metal suit and a guy dressed up as a flag throwing a frisbee around and fighting aliens was the craziest thing he'd ever see. Then, he'd thought that the horrific experiments he'd been subjected to would top anything else he'd ever experience. And now—well, now there was this.

He had no plan at this point. He simply wandered, weakly crying "help" to anyone who passed by. All of the animals looked at him with distaste and caution, but not with the incredulity and fear with which he was staring at them. When a beaver wearing a plaid shirt and glasses came out of an electronics store and asked him if he was alright, Joseph lost it. The concept of engaging in a conversation with a beaver was so insane that Joseph simply broke. He started screaming and running around, begging someone, anyone, to tell him what was going on. He wanted nothing more than to awaken from this strange, horrifying dream.

When the cops showed up, Joseph was sure he was going to die. Not because he thought the officer was going to kill him—he just seriously thought his brain was going to overload and he'd have a stroke. Taking it all in at once was far, far too much. Joseph was sure that his mind was going to stretch to such a length that it was simply going to break his body.

The prospect wasn't as frightening as he would have thought.

Then he heard a voice. The cop's voice. The other fox. It was…soothing. Calming. It helped quiet his mind enough to become conscious of the things around him again. Just enough to get some measure of control over himself. It had been a long time since he'd heard a voice that felt like that, a voice filled with genuine compassion.

Whatever it was in that fox's voice, it helped him. Helped him find the will to keep going. So Joseph did what this fox told him, went with him to his car, hoping against all hope that he would soon get some answers.

At least he stopped crying, Judy thought, relieved. The loud, obnoxious sobbing of the decrepit young fox in the back seat of the cruiser was really beginning to grate on her nerves. Now he'd at last subsided into sniffling and the occasional shuddering breath.

Judy had wanted to have some sort of action today, but this wasn't quite what she had had in mind. Not driving a dirty, homeless, and apparently insane young fox to the police station. She'd just gotten the cruiser cleaned, for Pete's sake! Now the fox was shedding flakes of dried mud all over the back seat. No, Judy was not happy about this at all.

She glanced over at Nick in the driver's seat to see how he was handling the situation. He had his eyes fixed on the road in front of him and appeared to be in deep thought. He had a very concerned look on his face. Judy figured that he was probably more sympathetic to this homeless mammal than to the others they'd picked up, since he was a fox like Nick. She could understand that. All the cops in the ZPD had some sort of soft spot for their own species-everyone in Zootopia did, actually.

Once they had parked at the station, Nick immediately hopped out of the driver's seat, helped the fox named Joseph Solomon out of the car, and led him into the station. He was still shivering-with cold, fear, or sorrow, Nick couldn't tell. All he knew was that he wanted to keep him away from Judy in case he got violent. But he also wanted to help the young kit. Seeing Joseph crying on the ground had hit Nick a little bit too close to home. Reminded him just a little too much of a nine-year old fox in a Ranger Scout's uniform crying by a staircase in the dead of night.

Chief Bogo greeted the trio the moment they walked through the doors. "Good job, you two," he boomed in his commanding buffalo baritone. "I'll take him from here."

"Um, actually sir," Nick said cautiously, "If you don't mind, I'd like to get him a little cleaned up first before anyone starts grilling him. He looks like he's had a pretty rough time." Nick motioned to Joseph and glanced over at him, seeing that he had his head tilted back and was staring up at Bogo with a mixture of fear and awe. Bogo stared right back.

"Hmph," he grunted. "Fine. Just make it quick, Wilde."

"Thank you, sir," Nick said. With a respectful nod, Nick put his paw and Joseph's shoulder and led him toward the locker room, Judy not far behind.

The trio made their way down the stairs to the bottom level of the station. "Come on, buddy," Nick said gently, again in that fatherly tone. "We've got some showers and extra clothes in the locker room. We're gonna get you nice and cleaned up, and then we'll just ask you a few questions, okay?"

"Th-th-thanks," stuttered the fox. Keeping his muzzle pointed at the ground, he flitted his eyes briefly to Nick's. "Do—do you think I could…"

Nick stopped in the middle of the hallway. "What is it, bud? What do you need?"

The haggard vulpine looked up at Nick with a sheepish expression. "Do you think I could g-get something to eat?" he asked tentatively. "P-please. I've h-had n-nothing but t-tree bark for t-two weeks." As if on cue, an almost comically loud growl issued from Joseph's stomach.

"Oh, my God," Nick said, in awe that the mammal in front of him was even alive after not eating for so long. "Of course, of course. There's a vending machine right around the corner here. We'll take care of you, buddy, don't worry." He turned to the side and led the trio into the break room.

Once the fox who called himself Joseph had seated himself at one of the tables and devoured five bags of chips, six muffins, a couple of Pop-Tarts, and two cherry colas, he took a long, deep breath, the shaking in his shoulders finally subsiding. "Thank you," he muttered quietly. "I really needed that."

"Don't worry about it, bud," Nick said to him as he led him back out towards the locker room. "Let's go get you cleaned up." Nick stopped at the entrance to the locker room and turned around to look at Judy, who appeared to have every intention of following the two foxes in. "Whoa, where do you think you're going, Carrots?" he said, suddenly taking on a humorous tone. "This is the men's locker room. Wouldn't want to cause a scandal, now would we?"

"No, I guess not," Judy said, a little embarrassed. She reluctantly turned away from the locker room, not really wanting to leave Nick alone with a half-crazed homeless guy. As she looked back, Judy caught Nick's eye and saw him silently mouth the words "I'll be fine" to her. She threw him a wink and headed back upstairs to their shared broom-closet of an office.

After showing Joseph how to work the shower and giving him a towel, soap, and a ZPD t-shirt and sweat pants to wear, Nick went to sit in the locker room while Joseph washed up. Nick sat on the bench by the lockers, thinking. He wanted to help this poor guy, but at the same time he wanted the day to be over and done with. He was planning on surprising Judy with a special date tonight, and he didn't really want to have Joseph on his mind for the rest of the day. Hopefully, he'd be able to hand him off to Bogo and that would be the end of it.

Once Joseph was all cleaned up and dressed, Nick led him upstairs to Bogo's office. He looked much better. Now that he was free of mud and standing relatively straight, Nick finally got a good look at him. He was a few inches shorter than Nick, and his fur was a lighter shade of orange than Nick's was. The fur that started around his jaw and continued down his chest was as white as snow, and his wide eyes, nervously scanning his surroundings, were the color of amber, as though the irises were formed out of tree sap that had hardened centuries ago. If Nick had to guess, he'd say the fox was probably in his late teens.

When the two vulpines walked into Bogo's office, Joseph's eyes quickly scanned everything, as if looking for any possible threats. Not finding any readily apparent, he relaxed a bit, but crossed his arms over his chest in an apparent attempt to hide the trembling in his paws.

"Wilde," Bogo said from behind the desk, "go fetch Officer Hopps, will you? I've decided I'd like you both to be here for the interrogation, since you both brought him in." At the word "interrogation" Nick could clearly see Joseph's muscles tighten. "The two of you should get some experience with this kind of thing in if it's still your ambition to be detectives."

"Absolutely, Chief," Nick said, casting what he hoped was a comforting glance at Joseph before quickly exiting the room. The last thing he saw before closing the door was Joseph nervously hopping up onto to one of the over-large chairs in front of the Chief's desk.

When Nick returned with Judy in tow, Bogo and Joseph were in the exact same positions, their eyes locked on each other, except Joseph was now noticeably shaking. Nick and Judy climbed up onto the chair at Joseph's right. Nick reached across the space between them and placed his paw on Joseph's shoulder in attempt to ease his nervousness. Once again, Joseph flinched from the unexpected contact, but did not pull away.

"Hey," Nick said. "You're okay. You're safe here. We're just gonna ask you some questions, okay? Will that be alright?"

Joseph took a long, deep breath, and nodded nervously.

"All right," said Bogo. "To start off with, what is your full name?"

After a moment of tense silence, the young fox quietly said, "Joseph. Joseph Anthony Solomon."

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen years old, sir."

"Place and date of birth?"

"March 30th, 1998, in Rockford, Illinois."

"Rockford what?" Bogo said, confused. He'd never heard of such a place. "What is 'Illinois'?"

Joseph raised eyebrows in an expression of slight incredulity. "It's a state. In America."

Bogo simply looked at him again in confusion. "And that means...?"

Joseph took a deep breath. "This isn't gonna be easy, is it?" He rubbed his paws across his face in a gesture of exhaustion. "Look, I'm not from here, okay? I'm not from..." Judy thought Joseph looked like he was steeling himself to make some sort of confession. "I'm not from...this world."

Bogo was beginning to get irritated. "What do you mean, you're not from 'this world'? What other world is there?"

"I didn't think there were any others, but apparently I was wrong. Because this world..." he looked around at the room, at Bogo, at Judy, and down at his own paws,"...is very, very different from the world I know."

Chief Bogo had talked with enough homeless animals in his tenure as an officer to know when they were insane. They were always erratic, yelling, trying to convince everyone of their delusions. This one was different. He was calm (albeit nervous) and sincere. His words sounded insane, but the way in which he spoke them was not. At this point in the questioning, Bogo would normally just ask the basic questions and then have the animal carted off to the psychiatric hospital. He decided to hear this one out.

Bogo leaned forward, placing his massive forearms on the desk. "All right," he said, trying to be gentle. "Why don't you just...tell me the whole story, if you can."

Joseph considered for a moment, as if weighing options in his head. At last, he spoke. "Okay," he said. "But I'm warning you, it's not pretty, and you're all probably going to think I'm insane by the end, if you don't already."

Chief Bogo let out a sarcastic laugh. "Son, I've seen a lot in my years as an officer. I won't be surprised by anything you tell me."

A shadow of apprehension and fear crossed Joseph's face, and a joyless laugh escaped his lips. "I rather doubt that," he said ominously.

And with that, he began to tell his story.