Judy had a bad feeling about this place. It was a barren wasteland. Nothing was around her but rocks and sand. It felt vaguely like Sahara Square, but less hot and more… desolate.

She didn't have time to contemplate it for long though, for suddenly, a great black-and-white mass came crashing down in front of her.

When the dust cleared from Judy's vision, the rabbit saw that the crashing object was none other than Patlabor Unit 1 – "Alphonse."

However, the robot had clearly seen better days. An arm and a leg was missing from one side. The machine's armor was battered and dented. Sparks flew from where the missing limbs were supposed to attach. The green visor had shattered, revealing the camera behind it.

"I mean, it's not like a bunny can go savage, right?"

Judy experimentally climbed up to the machine's chest and opened the cockpit. There was Noa, in her piloting outfit, looking bruised and battered.

"Wha…?" the human was clearly dazed. She remained that way until Judy fished her out of the cockpit, and helped her onto the ground.

"Where… what…" Noa still seemed out of it. Then suddenly, her face paled and her expression turned to one of pure panic.

"We've got to get out of here!" the human sputtered.

"What?"

"It's coming! Hurry!" Noa then picked up the bunny doe like a stuffed toy and ran away from the crippled Labor.

"Noa! Noa! What is it?!" Judy.

Noa stopped, then looked skyward. "It's already here!"

Judy looked up.

"The question is; will the Ingram be able to take down that kind of opponent?"

There, hovering overhead like some vast predatory bird, was a giant robot. It was jet black in color, with a pair of long wings extending from its back.

Its head seemed to have long, thick horns extending out of the sides. Between these horns, a blood red visor covered the top half of its face.

It soon dove at the wrecked form of Alphonse. Noa took off and ran, still carrying Judy in her arms. An explosion occurred behind them, but Noa didn't seem fazed. She was breathing heavily and holding her eyes shut.

Suddenly, a great black shape flew overhead, and the ground shook as the black robot landed in front of them. Now it held Alphonse's severed head in its claw-like hand.

"My child, we may be Evolved, but deep down, we're still… animals…"

"NO!" Noa shrieked, and ran the other way. Suddenly they were now in the Rainforest District, just like the night Renato Manchas had gone savage and chased Judy and Nick. Noa and Judy were now running down a wooden bridge. The black robot stayed right on their tail, smashing the bridge up behind them.

"Noa, what's going on?!" Judy demanded, "What is that thing?!"

"The Black Labor…!" Noa panted, "The Black Labor…!"

"For Pete's sake, this isn't some mecha anime where the main character is some emotionally stunted teenager… Don't you get it?"

Noa was carrying Judy further and further down now. Now, Judy became cognizant of the blue flowers surrounding them on the Rainforest floor.

"Oh, no…" she gasped.

"What?" said Noa.

"Not here!" said Judy. "We have to get away from these flowers!"

"Judy, what is it?!"

"Night Howlers, Noa!" said Judy, "These flowers are Night Howlers!"

"Night… Howlers…?"

"Fear always works! And I'll dart every predator in Zootopia to keep it that way!"

Too late. Now the Black Labor was standing in front of them, the rain streaking down its glowing red visor.

"What's it doing?!" said Judy.

"I don't know…." said Noa, "I never know what it's doing! It's like it's just trying to mess with us…!"

Suddenly a blue object sailed out of the forest and splattered all over the Black Labor's head and neck.

"No…!" Judy gaped, "Noa, we have to run! NOW!"

"Judy, what-"

"No time! Just run! RUN!"

The Black Labor began to double over in convulsions.

"You think I might try to… eat you?!"

Pieces of armor soon fell off the Black Labor, as if it were shedding its skin.

The Black Labor's wings suddenly split open, replaced with black, feathered ones. The human-like hands of the machine were ripped apart as black, birdlike talons grew into their place. A lion-like tail erupted from its backside. The horrific transformation completed when the visor and mouthplate shattered as a great, hooked beak grew out of the machine. A pair of sickly green eyes with slit pupils now stared at them as the Black Labor – if it could even be called a Labor anymore – got down on all fours.

Now it looked like some grotesque, half-robot, half-organic creature; its piercing eyes showing only one thing; savagery.

"What the hell…?!" Noa gaped.

"NOA! RUN! NOW!" Judy screamed.

Noa finally got the message and ran.

"Don't worry, missy! I'll avenge you!"

Judy peered over Noa's shoulder to see the creature give a horrendous shriek and leap at them.

Judy woke up in a cold sweat, panting as though she had been the one running.

She looked over her body – yep, still stuck in Noa's human body.

{Noa?} she uttered into their link, {Are you up?}

{Y-yeah…} Noa stammered meekly into the link, {I think I must've screamed in my sleep. Your neighbors were asking if you were alright…}

{Are you alright?}

{I-I think so…} Noa murmured, {I just had a weird nightmare is all…}

{I think I had the same nightmare…} Judy glanced at Noa's alarm clock. It was ungodly early. {Seeing as it featured giant robots, I figured you had a hand in it…}

{Wait, so you're saying my nightmare and your nightmare got together and had a baby?!}

{Not how I'd put it, but… yeah…} Judy thought about the Black Labor – and the monster it turned into. {What was that thing?!}

{The Black Labor – or I guess it's real name is the Griffon from what I've heard. We just knew it as the Black Labor for a long time…}

{So it's… real?}

{It used to be… It's gone now, but I still think about it… I had to take it on twice, and those were the only times I'd ever really felt… scared when I was in Alphonse…}

{Scared?} Noa had been solid as a rock in that compilation. Judy hesitated to think of what kind of opponent could scare her.

{It was like something out of an anime!} Noa seemed panicked at the mere recollection of the demonic machine. {It moved way too fast, its reflexes were more like an actual human than I thought was possible! It didn't have any weapons – because it didn't need any! Damnit, it could fly! No Labor flies! Asuma says that sort of technology's gotta be five, ten years ahead of its time!}

{But you took it down, right?} Judy was eager to help Noa calm down.

{I did, but I'm not sure it helped matters… We never found out what made it so bleeding-edge. It self-destructed just as soon as the pilot got out.}

{Couldn't the pilot tell you anything?}

{That's where things got real crazy!} Panic returned to Noa's voice, {'Cause you know who was piloting that Labor?! A kid! A twelve-year-old kid!}

{What?!}

{A twelve-year-old kid who'd been treating the whole thing like it some kind of video game – with me as the final boss!}

{What was a kid doing in a giant robot?!}

{We don't know! The kid only seemed to know so much, and some government types took custody of him, so now us cops may never know what was going on! But what we do know just makes me terrified for what they'll throw at me next!}

{'They'? Who's 'they'?}

Judy could just imagine Noa's breathing becoming faster and more labored. {I wish I knew! But from what we got out of that kid, it sounded like 'they' had it out for me! Captain Gotoh seems to think so too! He thinks some shady Labor-maker is using us as guinea pigs for their prototypes!}

{Well… maybe they'll think twice now that you've taken down this 'Griffon'…?} Judy tried to calm Noa down again, though she wondered what jobs guinea pigs worked in this world.

{I wouldn't be so sure.} Noa moaned, {Before the Griffon, we had a couple encounters with another Labor – an unmanned one – it self-destructed, too. It had a friggin' particle beam! Captain Gotoh thinks that this beam-Labor and the Griffon were made by the same people. I sometimes wonder, if the Griffon was worse than the beam-Labor, and the guys behind them are still out there… is there something worse waiting around the corner? Worse than both the Griffon and the beam-Labor combined? Something I won't get so lucky with?}

Judy thought about what had happened when the Black Labor had been hit with a Night Howler pellet in their dream. The former rabbit's own subconscious had no doubt given Noa a glimpse of that very scenario.

{Well, don't worry.} Judy assured Noa, {Right now you're safe. Zootopia doesn't have any Labors – especially kinds with lasers or wings or whatever.}

{What about your nightmare?} Noa asked.

{What about it?} Judy was uncomfortable about talking about her contribution to Noa's nightmare.

{Should I worry about it…?}

{No. No, you shouldn't…} Judy clenched Noa's sheets as memories of the Night Howler Incident flowed through her head. {That part of my life is over and done with. What you saw then was a bad memory. Nothing more…}

Judy had always been an early riser. Still, she hadn't expected to be woken up before her alarm by a knock on the door.

Judy opened it to find Shige Shiba standing there, carrying a massive pile of PVC piping and boxes, as well as a folding chair. Judy almost didn't recognize him without his mechanic's uniform.

"Can I come in, please?!" the brunette groaned.

Judy quickly let Shige in, who was only too glad to set his load down on Noa's floor.

"Whew!" the human collapsed against a wall. "I gotta tell ya, this thing had better be worth it!"

"Okay…" Judy glanced at the pile, "What is it?"

"Oh, it's the simulator!"

"This stuff?" Judy raised an eyebrow at the pile.

"Well, not yet it isn't!" Shige pulled himself out of the chair, "I came early so we could put it all together and show you how it works!"

"Okay…"

Judy and Shige then spent the next 45 minutes assembling the PVC piping into a sort of cage-like structure surrounding the folding chair. Then they began attaching an assortment of wooden dowels and boards to this cage, with various electronic components connecting them, with a computer hard drive set behind the folding chair.

"There we go…!" Shige said at last, marveling at his work, "It ain't pretty, but it'll help with the basics…" Shige's expression fell, "That is to say, the very basics… The very very basic basics… So basic it's probably more basic than basic probably… In fact, its ph level would probably be somewhere around-"

"Okay, Shige. I get it. It's basic." Judy rolled her eyes as she sat down in the folding chair. Hopefully Noa would help her make up for how 'basic' the ramshackle simulator was. "So how does it work?"

"Ah, I'm getting there!" Shige took some wires over to Noa's little TV and plugged them into the AV ports on the back. "Basically, the cage uses some spare VR components from the Ingram's hand controls to send signals to the fake-OS, so if you push down on those boards…" Shige gestured to the two wooden boards set at Judy's feet, "It should be functionally like pushing the pedals on a real Ingram. Hang on, I'll fire it up!" The mechanic switched on the hard drive, inserted a disc into it, and then turned on the TV screen.

"Okay!" Shige then pulled out a video game controller. "Just use this to select what sorta simulation you want and boom! Off you go!"

"Thanks, Shige!"

"Oh, and once you finish your simulation experience…" Shige fished a folded-up-sheet of paper out of his pocket. "Please fill out this feedback form so that we can address any issues in bug patches or update packages in future."

"Um, what-"

"It's a work in progress, okay?!" Shige squawked in exasperation.

Judy raised her hands. "It's okay, Shige! Like I said, I'll make it work!"

"Alright, alright…" Shige adjusted his glasses, "But uh… take it easy, okay…?"

Noa knew that she would have difficulty teaching Judy from the rabbit's apartment (why on earth would it offer 'complimentary de-lousing'?!), so she was searching for a nice, quiet place in the city to conduct her first lesson from.

Judy was a frequent jogger, so the ex-rabbit was able to give Noa some insights. Still, Noa wound up taking a streetcar to Aquavitae Common, which was right in the middle of the city. Supposedly it was where the watering hole that Zootopia was founded on had been located.

The park itself was a large pond (though from Noa's lapine perspective, it was something like a small lake) surrounded by grass and dirt paths, hemmed in by tram tracks. To Noa's dismay, there wasn't that much tree cover.

Still, it gave Noa some idea of where everything was – including Judy's workplace. The headquarters of the Zootopia Police Department - Precinct 1 – was a large, imposing building with thick, square columns. Clearly, it was designed to leave an impression.

Other central buildings for Zootopia surrounded Aquavitae Common. Opposite Precinct 1 was City Hall, a tall, hoof-shaped building. As Noa sat down on a bench with her back to Precinct 1, she made a note of Zootopia Central Station to her left, which acted as the city's main railway hub, as well as the Natural History Museum to City Hall's right, and the Central Branch of the Zootopia Public Library, which lay behind Noa and to the right, across the street from Precinct 1.

Having selected a bench already, Noa just sat back, crossed her legs, and reestablished contact with Judy.

{Okay, Judy… Where are you at?}

{I've just started the OS up… I've got the Ingram Operator's Manual on my lap, and my hands are getting all sweaty already.}

Noa glanced around the park. Nobody was giving her a second glance. She might have given the giant pair of ears poking out from behind a pile of savanna-style rocks a more suspicious glance, but because Noa Izumi wasn't familiar with any large-eared creatures (other than Judy), the sight bore no significance to her.

Finnick grumbled as he looked at the bunny doe sitting cross-legged on the park bench. She hadn't seemed to have noticed him. So far so good, but this was not how the diminutive fennec fox had envisioned spending his day.

Since his partner in hustling, Nick Wilde, had gone straight and joined the police force, the little fox had been left at a crossroads. Hustling had been difficult with just him, so now he was contemplating going straight too, but that just led to the problem of what exactly he'd do with himself.

He'd mulled over food preparation (making Pawpsicles had taken a bit of know-how), auto repair (he'd get that van of his back to mint condition if it was the last thing he did!), and being a private detective (having a friend on the force would help there). However, Finnick's small size made it hard to get into the former two trades, and knowing his luck, his career as a private dick (wasn't that term just fitting?) would probably consist of spying on people for their paranoid spouses – not unlike what he was doing now…

Finnick wasn't an idiot. He could tell that Judy had flipped something in Nick's brain. He just wished Nick would quit keeping everyone in suspense and marry that stupid bunny already!

Still, Finnick felt weird about this situation – Nick had seemed to feel that way as well…

"Look, just tell me what's wrong with that bunny o' yours!" Finnick growled, becoming impatient as he took a swig from his water bottle.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be asking you this, Finn!" Nick grumbled through the phone.

"But why me? Why not ask one of your new cop friends?"

"Because she'll be off duty for the next few days and I won't be." said Nick. "Look, I just want to know if she's doing anything weird, seeing anyone sketchy… I just want to know what's got her so… funny…!"

'Funny'?

Finnick wasn't sure what his old partner had meant – after all, Finnick didn't know Judy as well as Nick did.

Still, what Judy was doing now caught his attention. The bunny was crossing her legs on the bench and closing her eyes.

Now that rang some alarm bells. Nick had had a good laugh with Finnick once about how uneasy Judy had felt when going into Mystic Springs Oasis. From what Finnick did know about the ZPD's first rabbit officer, she wasn't the New Age-y type. Now she looked to be deep in concentration.

What was going through that bunny's mind?!

{Advanced Vehicle Model 98 – aka. the Ingram Patrol Labor. Weight: 6.02 tons. Height: 8.02 meters. SCB powerplacnt.1 SCLM drive system.2 Armed with an electromagnetic baton, as well as 37-millimeter revolver cannon. Designed specifically for police use so as to make a psychological impact on the community – deterring crime while making the public feel safe-}

{Noa…!} Judy rolled her eyes, {You're literally just quoting the back of the operator's manual- Wait, did you memorize that?!}

Judy caught a mental sigh from Noa. {Just tell me what simulation Shige gave you.}

{I think Shige named these himself,} Judy looked through the level names on the simulator's menu screen, {'cause he told me to start with the level marked 'BASIC Basic Basic Movement.'}

{We'll go with that one then.}

Judy selected that level, and took a deep breath. Somehow, this felt like the next step in being a police officer…!

{Okay... here goes...!}

1) SCB: Superconductive Battery Cells

2) SCLM: Superconductive Linear Motor

Hello, folks! I'm baaaaaaaack!

But seriously though! I hope the wait for this chapter hasn't kept you in suspense too long!