Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Disney, least of all Zootopia (yet)

"Two minutes forty seconds guys!" Yelled Sophie over the intercom.
Rita smirked upon hearing this and prodded the ram before her to work faster while Aiden stood guard at the entrence to the room.

The smell of blood and stomach acid combined with the now red wool of the bankdirector before her told a very clear story.
Four more guards had been posted inside the underground floor of the bank. Their duty had clearly been to guard the vault.

But without any actual firearms they had been unable to put up anything resembling a fight.
Instead they had been slaughered where they stood. It was at this point that the bankdirector collapsed into a whimpering ball of fear.
The fact that the blood from his former coworkers pooled up around him only made things worse as it soaked into his clothes and wool.
Ultimately the shivering ram threw up all over one of his dead coworkers and Rita decided that enough was enough.

She had pulled him onto his hoves with some help from Aiden and proceeded to beat some sense into the old fool.
This still did not stop him from shivering like mad, but at least he was working on the vault door now.

Another twenty seconds passed and Rita wondered if the shivering mess before her was even worth her time.

And yes, the fact that the director opened the vault would make their plan seem more random and therefore enforce their cover story.
But at this point acually hacking the door would have been far faster. Thanks to the set of ciphers which Sophie had secured from the company which had build this specific vault. They would have only needed to get her access to the closed system.

But this would make them seem far too prepared and there were some really bright mammals in the ZPD.
If they were able to see through this operation then many mammals would have to die.
And if possible then she would like to avoid killing any of her comrades, or worse getting killed herself, while everyone was covering their tracks.

There was a swishing noise as the massive locks disengaged and the vault door slowly began to swing open.

Revealing Alpha Team in their full glory.

Four foxes in orange prison jumpsuits and fullface gasmasks, armed with police issued tranq guns were lazily assembled inside the vault.
Each fox had a backpack on their back, a duffle bag over their shoulder and each of them was further flanked by two more dufflebags on the floor.

One of them, an artic fox named Beoff walked right up to her and handed her one of his duffle bags before shooting the bank director's arm with his tranq gun.

"Took you long enough!" Commented Beoff as the bank director hit the floor.

Rite smiled and she was thankful that her mask hid this. Beoff loved hitting on her, the last thing she needed him to see was her smile after he made a comment like that.
And while she was actually smiling at the fact that the vault had been far more filled with cash than even Sophie had expected, he wouldn't know that.

She grabbed the bag offered to her and countered with a heartfelt. "Not my problem!"
Before turning around.

On her way out she couldn't help but notice the chuckle coming from inside the vault.
Aiden grabbed two more bags himself and they made their way back towards the lobby.

"Only sixty seconds left." Sounded Sophies voice inside her earpiece. She sounded a little more frantic than usual, which was to be expected.
A bankrobbery was not their usual kind of job, but apart from the fact that the cops were about to swarm the building, things were seeming pretty peachy.

Yeah, they could pull this off, she was sure of it.

Minutes had passed since the brutal execution in the middle of the lobby had destroyed any sort of resistance which one could have found being plotted just moments before.

Judy told herself that it was okay since the ZPD was about to surround the building and when they did then...then...then they would...she had actually no idea.

She had gotten used to seeing corpses from murders and even firefights and the inevitable casualties that went along with them.

But witnessing a brutal execution like this?
The execution of a mammal she had just talked to moments ago?
It was entirely different and she could feel that something inside of her had broken.

She had no idea how extensive the damage would be. But all she wanted to do was cuddle into Nick's side until everything was over.

The though of something similar happening to either one of them crossed her mind and it scared her even more.
They had a brush with death before, when the wolf had questioned them.
Naturally she couldn't help but wonder if the wolf would have killed one of them instead of Ms Hornard if things had gone differently.

If the poor goat had not been brave enough to inform the ZPD...then...she did not want to think about it and burried herself deeper into Nick's side.
Who in return started to slowly stroke her back in well practiced circles.

His gestures, his warmth and ultimately his scent helped her knotted mind enormously.

Suddenly her ears picked up on many heavy steps hurriedly drawing closer.

If they hadn't been coming from inside the bank she would have wondered if the ZPD had finally arrived.

The activity in the room picked up significantly and Judy raised her head in an attempt to get a better look at what was happening.

It was out of instinct, grained into her from years on the beat.
It wasn't something she could control.

To Judy's suprise, the amount of criminals in the room had increased.
Four foxes sporting gaskmasks and prison jumpers were decked out with as many duffle bags as they could carry.

Two of the wolves rushed over and grabbed some of the bags freeing up their partners at least a little bit.

The fox who had been with the main group as they had entered the bank gave some signals with his paws and started moving straight towards the middle of the room.
And subsequently Nick and Judy.

Following him were all of the bankrobbers who had just shown up, as well as the others who had been guarding the hostages in the back area of the lobby.

Two of the wolves were moving backwards in an obvious attempt to keep an eye on the hostages behind them.

Just as the fox reached the middle of the lobby he stopped and all of the criminals brought one paw to their respective earpieces.

It was obvious that they were recieving informations or orders, maybe even both.

They all stood still for just a few seconds and then they started moving, fast.

Each one of them grabbed a mammal from the floor which was always a bit smaller than the robbers themselves and started using them as shields, dragging them towards the entrance of the building.

Everything seemed to go well for the robbers, until a wolf with a clowns mask grabbed a middle aged deer in a suit.

Judy saw it from the corner of her eyes how the wolf switched his rifle for a pistol before grabbing he buck by his antlers and pulling him upwards.

And then it happened, the wolf pulled the trigger two times, shooting the deer in the face as he did.

Judy would never really be sure if she had seen the deer resist or not.

But the wolf just went on to the next best mammal, an older female cougar and grabbed her instead.

It happened so fast and she had no real time to worry as another threat made itself known.

The fox with the birdskull mask and the compact shotgun was standing right before her and Nick.
Looking at them intently, at least if the duration of the time his head was being turned directly at them was any indicator to go by.

His paws were shivering and a low growl could be heard seeping through the room from where he stood.

She could not see his eyes because of the mask, but she was sure that he was looking at Nick rather than her, and it scared her.

This, just like the fear she had felt after witnessing the execution, were not entirely new feelings to her.
But the intensity of the pure existential dread she felt was new to her.
And she had certainly never felt this particular kind of fear before.

The looming dread from the mere stare of the fox, was spreading through her mind like wildfire and she knew that other mammals around her felt it too.

Normally shivering would be a sign of weakness and not fear inducing in the slightest.

But this kind of shiver?
From a mammal which was in possession of a firearm?

It was scary because it showed weakness, a weakness that may result in a loss of control.

The fox suddenly took a step forward and it was clear that he was moving towards Nick.

Judy started to shiver as her mind ran wild, he would take Nick!

He would kill him!

And then...then...

Tears started running down her cheeks, just as the cheetah who had been with the fox put his paw on the fox's shoulder.

"We need to move! Come on!" The distorted voice yelled and the fox flinched visibly.

He turned his head looking at his comrade who pulled him towards the exit.

The fox followed haphazardly and Judy felt an incredible weight fall from her chest as she looked over towards Nick who looked like he had just seen a ghost.

It was obvious that there was some kind of connection between the two foxes. And Judy would have asked if the sound of sirens coming closer had not been paired with the sound of gunshots beeing fired in rapid succession from outside the bank.

The first officers to arrive on the scene had been on patrol in the surrounding areas when the alarm had gone off.
Being patrol officers they were only equipped with non lethal weaponry used to take down perps as well as suppress small mobs.

So when they were faced a full team of criminals equipped to the teeth with lethal weaponry, they were screwed.

Everyone knew that ZPD SWAT was on the way as fast as they could, but the officers also knew that it would take them another two to three minutes until they ultimately arrived.

Two to three minutes too much considering that the bank robbers were leaving the crimescene right now.

So one of the officers made a critical decision.

Wolford smirked and turned to his partner,"come on Delgato! We can't let these guys get away like this!"

After having said this he grabbed his tranq gun and, despite protocol strictly forbidding it, fired at the robbers turned hostage takers in the distance.

He hit the masked tiger which was looming over most of the other criminals with ease, but the tranq dart simply embedded itself into the tactical vest his opponent was wearing, just as Delgato fired his first shot as well.

Wolford was already reloading when Delgato managed to hit one of the hostages instead of the perp he had been aiming at.

The civilian in question, a female cougar slowly dropped onto the sidewalk while the criminals kept moving.

Two other police cruisers had arrived during this had happened and the officers inside got into position themselves, before they started firering as well, now aiming specifically for the hostages as this tactic had proven successful just moments ago.

Wolford had finished reloading and lined up his next shot just as the criminals changed their tactic.

Two wolves had already lost their mammal shields and brought up their rifles in an unmistakable attempt to retaliate with lethal force.

Wolford tried to duck after blindly firing at one of the wolves in question.

Too late, bullets rained down onto two of the three polic cruisers with trained precision.

The glass which made up the windows of the cruisers was made to withstand immense abuse, but even they had to yield as the continued onslaught of bullets rained down upon them.

The startled officer used the armored door of the vehicle in question to take cover as best as he could. The sound of metal hitting metal was deafening and he wondered how well his larger partner was fairing on the other side of the cruiser.

He took a glance through the open interior of the vehicle and immediately regretted his decision.

It was obvious that his partner was neither standing nor cowering behind cover.
The only thing he could see was blood which covered the passenger side of the cruiser, most likely from when a bullet had hit Delgato.

The hail of bullets stopped and Wolford took his chance to leap inside the armored vehicle.

In his mind he contemplated whether or not crawling over to check on his partner was possible or not, when another hail of bullets hit the car.

It was a different weapon this time, larger, a roaring like continuous thunder blazed through the street.

This time the attack lasted for only a few seconds, but Wolford knew that their partol car was now totaled.

In the surrounding streets more and more officers arrived and were greeted by more and more gunfire as the bankrobbers exchanged their hostages for their rifles.

They were moving at a brisk pace and it was obvious that their goal was an underground parking garage at the other end of the block.

Once the criminals had made their way inside, the brave officers of the ZPD finally found time for a breather.

There was only one way out of the garage and the arriving officers used their cars to create an improvised cover/roadblock until the SWAT Team would arrive.

It was at this point that Wolford realized that he had not made it out of this ordeal unscathed, he was lying on the middle console of the police cruiser and wasn't able to get up again.

First he though that he had to be in shock, but then he felt the warm trickle of blood soaking into his shirt and the fur below.

And soon other responding officers arrived to drag him out of the car, he realized, he had been shot.

Before consciousness slipped away from him, the old wolf's last thoughs strayed to his wife.

Authors Note:

And thats a wrap!

Another chapter done, action almost over and the cleanup is about to begin, let's hope I don't mess this up.