TRICKS AND TREATS: CHAPTER 9
HALLOWEEN EVE
Finally, it was the Halloween Eve's night upon the city of Zootopia. The entire neighborhood around of Barbara's house was full of little children, walking with their parents or in the small groups through the streets and walking from the door to door begging for candy, disguised into a different costumes, such like superheroes, pirates, clowns, cowboys, indians, knights, dinosaurs, snowmen and the different types of horror movie monsters like vampires, savage wolves, mummies, frankenstein's monsters, ghosts, zombies, aliens, devils, blobs, pumpkin-headed scarecrows and some mythical creatures like witches, centaurs, nymphs, fairies, unicorns, hobgoblins, dragons, goblins, wizards and so on.
Nick was standing in the garden of Barbara's house, waiting for the children so that he can watch after them tasked by Barbara.
However, his happiness for the Halloween Eve had faded because he had spend the whole day searching for the new clues to find a new evidence aganist the charges against poor Judy. Unfortunately, Nick had not found anything new and he did not dare to take the old ones as an clues and evidences because that Detective-Horse-Butt would think most definitely that he had taken them out of garbage can.
He was defeated by Oates and Nermal… he had nothing to prove Judy's innocence in time and it bothered him deeply than anything else.
However, he wiped that out from his mind as Barbara's house's door opened and her children came out all dressed in the different costumes.
Two twelve-years-old bunny twin girls had disguised as one as the mythical centaur. One of them acted as the front end and one of them as rear end of the horse body. One of the girls, Tina as her name, had dyed her whole upper body with hazel-brown paint and she had a long brown wig as centaur hair, and she weared brown bikinis. Her twin sister Nina, did not really like the idea that she had to be the rear end of centaur, and she continuously complained about it inside of the rest of the costume.
And after the twin sisters and their centaur-costume, out of the door stepped then 13-14 years old bunny girl named Trudy, who had dressed herself to look like one of the blue-skinned mammaloid alien Bun'ny from her favorite movie, Tiger Striperon's Bunnytar movie from year 2009. She had the yellow lenses in her eyes, her faces were dyed with the blue face paint and with a makeup the dark-blue stripes and light spots, she had the blue long fake tail hanging on her backside, she had long and black wig as Bun'ny's black hair and she held on her paw the long toy bow.
And after Trudy, nine-year old bunny boy named Tom stepped out from the door. Tom had disguised himself as Spider-Bunny, because he had fond to the superhero movies and comic books, especially those ones who related to the Spider-Mammal.
Tom was then followed by ten-years old white-furred bunny boy named Danny, who had disguised himself as Count Dracula. His pale-gray fur granted to him the vampires pale skin and he had the fake vampire fangs in his mouth and with the large black cape which resembled the vampire bat's wings when Danny spreaded the cape in the air.
Danny was then followed by seven years old bunny boy named James, who was a bit older than Skippy. James was very fond to the pirates films, which had motivated him to disguise himself as a pirate captain Hook with the red pirate hat, red pirate coat and the fake hook in his left paw.
James had also asked two of his brothers, eight-years- old Jake and six-years-old Charlie, to dress as the Tick-Tock crocodile, but both had told to James that they had different plans with their own costumes, much to James dissapointment.
And when they came out from the door after James, Charlie had disguised himself as snowman, and Jake had disguised himself as an Zorro. Their costumes earned a bit disapproval from James, who peeked over his shoulder at them with still disappointed look on his faces.
Then there was two ten-years-old twin brothers named Glenn and Benn, who stepped out from the door disguised themselves as the Green Dragon with the fake tail and fake wings. Glenn, like his sister Tina, got their costume's front part while Benn got the rear end of their dragon costume, just like his sister Nina.
And, next one who came out of the door was the seven-eight years old brown-furred bunny girl names Sasha, who had dressed herself as an indian girl and that she had the indian face paint on her faces. And yet, Sasha was also wearing upon of her head the large indian headdress, in which was the long line of white and red-tipped feathers. And, as an part of the costume, Sasha also held in her paw the indian toy ax.
Then there was eight-years-old and a bit chubby Frank named bunny boy. His favorite food were the carrots, which worked as his motivation to dress for every Halloween into the giant carrot costume when he went out to beg some candies.
And then the last one but not least ones…
Sis came out from the door carrying her sister Tagalong in her arms. Sis has dressed herself as the witch with the long hair and the long-skirted (and patched) black dress and she was also wearing the large witch's hat upon her head.
Sis had partially dressed herself as a pirate, just like James. But Tagalong had only the red pirate bandana, black pirate hat with the skull in middle of the crossed bones and the eye-patch over her right eye. Tagalong also had the mini-fake-parrot resting on her right shoulder and finally, she also had the pirate belt around of her waist.
And after the sisters and brothers, Skippy arrived at last. He had disguised himself as the police officer, which reminded Nick from the days when Judy showed her old pictures from the days when she was nine-years-old little bunny, wearing the police officer's costume and dreaming one day being a real police officer.
Skippy had also nearly lost his happiness for this night along with Nick, because not only being grounded for two months but being nearly forcefully taken to the hospital by her mother in the morning to check hiss left shoulder in case of his arm being broken or dislocated, despite Skippy protested during the whole trip to the hospital that it was just the scratch, nothing else bad... but Barbara, unconvinced and still disappointed to her son for the events of the last night, dismissed him and drove him to the hospital anyway.
Barbara was then fully convinced by the doctor in the hospital that Skippy had not suffered the serious injuries bust just couple of a surface scratches, and after having the wound cleaned and disinfected, the doctor tied the pandage over of Skippy's shoulder, with the warnings that his left shoulder might be a bit sore for two days.
However, both Nick and Skippy then agreed to keep the smiles on their faces in order to not to ruin the other childrens mood.
And after seeing Barbara's children in their costumes, Nick could not help but take out his phone and take the group picture from everyone with their costumes before leaving with them to beg for candy.
Nick a four couple group pictures with all the children together... and two of them of himself with Barbara's children in their home's garden.
Barbara herself was watching from the door as Nick was taking the group pictures of him and her children.
But while watching this, along with recalling the memories of the last nights harsh discussion between of him and Nick about that night's events, during of which Nick admitted his burning need of the partner but claimed that he was with the 100 % against the idea of bringing Skippy with him into the investigation of the case, knowing too well the risks and the dangers into which he may place Skippy during the investigation. And along with that, Nick had stubbornly denied Oates claims of him deliberately breaking her gift from his late mate... yet determinedly claimed that her that what happened to camera wasn't his fault in the first place, by claiming that he despises the intentional breach of other objects and that he would never break anybody else's property intentionally. Nick had also claimed that inside of that camera was the most important thing what he could have use as an evidence to clean Judy's name from the theft which she didn't commit nor wasn't in any way part of it. And because of that, he would have protected the camera as if it were the future of all mammalkind...
...and knowing that Nick was currently one of those foxes, who speaks the true words of honesty, despite all of that prejudice and racism targeted against the foxes, Barbara had started to slowly put his bitterness towards Nick for, as Oates claimed, intentionally breaking the camera given to her by her late mate, and and started to warm to him a bit through the day.
But right now, she was watching with the smile as Nick and her children prepared to leave for the candy trip.
"Alright, kids. Have fun... and remember, do not be out too long. Uncle Nick will make sure of that" Barbara said from the door.
And, after hearing that Uncle Nick was going along of them to watch them during of their trip, nearly all children moaned out of disappointment, as they saw many other children walking on the streets in their own groups without their parents, and they had to go with the fox - who happenes to be the officer - watching after all of them during the trip.
"C'mon, mom. We can beg the candy by ourselves." Trudy complained.
"Yeah! We do not need the guardian to watch after us. We can take care of ourself." Jake added.
Barbara then lifted her head up from her complaining children to look at Nick, asking for some support from him.
Nick nodded at her with the nod, before looking down at the kids with the smile on his faces.
"Don't worry kids. If you like to walk and beg for candy in your own personal group space, I can walk a some distance away from you, if it this sounds good to you." Nick said.
"but with the condition that you stay all together and under my sight. I guess that you all know the old saying from the times of the Stone Age...
...All the World will be your enemy...
...and the same saying goes even to today. You can never know what are the strangers intentions when you walk past of one of them. That's why you need someone to make sure that everything goes fine and keeps you all in safe… even if the one who watches you, happens to be your natural enemy. Am I clear?" Nick asked from the kids.
"Yes, uncle Nick!" The children said in unision as their cheering rushed to the streets… Nick walking right behind of them.
"Nick?" Nick heard Barbara calling his name as he was about to exit from the garden and walk after the kids.
Nick quickly turned to Barbara to see and hear that what she had to say to him before he leaves with her kids.
"I want you to stay in this neighborhood area, and I forbid you to go to the Downtown." Barbara said both sternly and determinedly.
"And I'll grant for you and my children to beg for candy... only for one or couple hours. And after that, I want you all to be home at eleven o'clock. Understood?"
Nick nodded as an agreement to barbara, before he turned around and rushed after the children to catch them before they manage to wander further away from him and disappear from his sight.
Barbara walked to the entrance of her yard to watch after Nick as he rushed after her kids... but he only managed to see the glance of Nick's tail disappearing behind of the corner of the bush fence... before it was completely out of the sight.
"Be careful." She whispered, before turning around and walking back towards the door of her house.
Hour or couple later.
As the children walked from the door to door begging for candies or making the tricks, Nick stood in the watch agains tthe nearby lamppost.
Nick's instincts told him that this may be a good time for Nermal to strike and try to ambush and hypnotize even more children to take their candies from them or brainwash them and make them to beg more candies for him… and not to mention about of kidnapping them when the eye avoid.
That's why Nick kept watching the areas every corner, hoping to catch the familiar-looking bad guy among the shadows while the kids were begging for candies.
And then, one by one, the children returned back to the meeting spot.
"An insane catch, I gotta say!" Danny shouted, holding the bag full of candies.
"I got my own bag full of sweets as well." Trudy shouted eagerly, as she showed to his brother her catch.
"Same here!" Charlie said, as he returned to the meeting spot with Frank, James and from their centaur-costume separated Tina and Nina.
All of them had their bags full of candies, but Tina and Nina happened to be the bigger bag than anyone else, due to being filled with so much of candies. And the bag's weight was in the level that they both had to carry their common bag together,
"Arrh! Yo ho ho and the buttle of rum! now we shall feast with this loot, shall we?!" James cheered, trying to sound like as like the real pirates, as he waved the toy pirate sword in his paw free paw.
"And so we shall, brother! If the others have got as much candies as we did, the sweets will last for the following month! Just like in the last Halloween Eve." Charlie said with the proud smile.
"Yeah! And... oh... well, maybe all expect for Frank. Do you remember what happened to him the last Halloween?" Tina and Nina asked from the others, turning to their brother Frank.
"Oh, yeah! That's very difficult one to forget. Frankie ate all his sweets at once the next day and then he get sick." Charlie said, before he then opened his mouth and pulled his finger into him mouth to playfully make the gagging noises - and acted like he was about to gag something out of his mouth - with sticking his tongue out of his mouth.
This got almost everyone in the presence to burst out of laughter, all except Frank.
"Hey!" Frank shouted, a bit emotionally offended of his own sibling making fun of him just because he started to feel ill after eating all of his candies in one night after the last Halloween.
Trudy, James and Danny were then the ones who managed to hold back their laugh.
"Alright guys, knock if off. Let's try to keep the mood between of us in the sunny side, shall we?" Trudy said.
It did not take long before the rest of the group, Tom, Jake, Glenn and Benn, Sasha, Sis, Tagalong and Skippy arrived back from their own trip to the meeting spot.
However, only Skippy and Sis had their own candy bags fully filled with the sweets, while Tom, Jake, Sasha, Glenn and Benn had their own candy bags half-filled
However, despite that and once they were all together, they all started to show to each others that what did they got.
"Wow, I got marmalade balls! Both carrot-shaped and orange ones and slad ball-shaped green ones. These are my favorites. They always makes me to imagine me eating sugar-tasting carrots and salad." Skippy exclaimed in pleasure.
"I got the fruit gummy candies that are shaped into the form of cockroaches!" Tom exclaimed.
"Well, look what did I got... the white eye-balls shaped marmelade-balls." Jake said, and took couple of the, out of his bag, before tossing them into his mouth in front of the others.
"Ewww! Gross!" The groups girls said with the disgusted tone.
"I got from my own trip the pumpkin-shaped chocolate balls, carrot-shaped fruit gummy candies, toffee cubes and ghost-shaped marshmallows. Not the bad catch, I have to say." Sasha said.
When Glenn and Benn arrived to the meeting spot, they instantly separated from their dragon costume to show their own catch.
"Wow, along with the candies, I got the cookies with the Chocolate Chip Cookies with the skull frosting. Along with the bag of the skull-shaped chocolate-covered raisins." Glenn said.
"And I got the brain-shaped and vampire's tooth-shaped candies. Check this out!" Benn said, as he placed one of the vampire's tooth-shaped candy into his mouth and under of his upper lip, keeping his mouth open to show his "vampire teeth" to the others.
"Benn... do you have to do that every Halloween?" Sasha asked from his brother, a bit disgusted of her brothers doings.
Sis also checked into her own bag, to find out that over than half of the contents of her bag was the Boogeybear Chocolate Bars.
"Is anyone willing to trade anything with the chocolate bars I got? I do not want to get fatten myself because the chocolate." Sis said to her siblings.
When all the siblings were together, it was time for Nick to step into the group to say something, what he had agreed with Barbara to say after hour or couple, despite that if her children's bags were either half or nearly completely filled of candies.
"Alright children. It's time to go home." Nick said.
They all turned to him the shocked expressions on their faces after what they heard.
"No way, Uncle Nick! Not yet! There's still many houses left and all the bags are not yet completely filled with candies." All over dozen bunnies shouted in unison.
"Soh, soh, little ones! Remember that the greed and lust for candies is the treacherous sickness, which is not good for your teeth and it can sometimes be a really bad consequences. Remember what I told you about the bad guy of who me and Skippy were hunting down the last night because of his unfortunate past when he fell under the lust and greed for candies." Nick said.
However, before anyone of the children could answer, the shocked and even frightened expressions appeared out of nowhere on each of the bunny child's faces as they watched behind of Nick.
Nick took a confused look on his face as he looked at the children.
"What is it? What's wrong? You look like you did saw the ghost." Nick said.
"Uhh... Uncle Nick…" Tagalong said with the frightened tone in Sis' arms.
"Yes, sweetheart?" Nick asked as he turned to Tagalong.
"Turn around, but veeeeeery slowly." Sis whispered.
Nick kept the confused expressions, but when he heard some snarling and growling behind of his back, he slowly turned around to see what - or who - was standing right behind of him.
There was a group of ten children, which ages ranged between five and fifteen ages!
The group was formed by six predators; such like three wolves, cougar and bear, and another five was the prey mammals like two antelopes, one teen hippo and two zebras. They all were looking at them with the dark look in their eyes targeted at Nick and the children.
The zebras among the group looked like those certain ones Nick believed that he had seen them before.
"What?! To-Tony and Bud?! The lost children of the zebra couple?!"
"What's wrong with them?" Sis asked with the frightened tone.
Nick took the careful look at the kids staring at them with the menacing looks...
...which was then when Nick noticed that their eyes were lifelessly greyed eyes just like Judy's own.
"Nermal and that watch!" Nick whispered, as he realized the truth behind the missing mammal children.
"I knew it! Nermal is behind of the kidnappings." Nick murmured.
As the group began to approach towards them threatingly, Nick quickly gathered the children behind of his back to protect them from these brainwashed hooligans.
"As police officer, I demand you to not come any closer! Do not make me to use hard extracts!" Nick warned the zombie-like kids.
However, the children didn't care of Nick's warnings...
...but instead, they attacked!
One of them hit Nick with the baseball bat's end to his head, knocking him down and aside... leaving then the bunny children defenseless.
The members of the group pushed with raw force each bunny over to the ground. Even brainwashed teenager hippo dared to punch Charlie with the fist in the face.
The wolves went for Frank, surrounding him from every three corner and created to their faces the hungry-looking expressions, with the wide and creepy grins on their lips and hanging their drooling tongues out... like they were intenting to eat Frank... causing from their lifeless eyes and hungry grins afraid Frank to retreat too hastily backwards that he fell on his back to the ground... and kept retreating by crawling backwards to get far away from the creepy brainwashed wolves.
The zebra kids turned their attention to Sis and Tagalong like the cowardly big boys bullying the weaker ones. Skippy attempted to defend his sisters by leapimg towards one of the zebras and delivered the double-kick with his legs to one of the zebras faces, knocking him over to the ground.
"Stay away from my sisters!" Skippy boldly said to the zebra, as she slowly rose back on his feet from the ground.
However, before Skippy managed to turn to remaining zebra, the zebra came to him first, and delivered with the raw force kick with his right leg's knee to Skippy's stomach and sent Skippy to fly against his sisters, knocking them all over to the ground.
And once the each bunny was knocked over to the ground, the each member of this gang picked the candy bags the bunnies had dropped to the ground - and some of the hooligans even tore the candy bags from the bunnies paws by force, before pushing them over to the ground.
And when they had all fifteen bags, the hooligans fled the scene... the candy bags in their paws.
"Our candies! They stole our candies!" Trudy shouted as she helped from the teenager hippo's hard punch tearful Charlie up from the ground with James.
"ARRH! COME BACK OR ELSE I'LL KEELHAUL ALL OF YOU!" James shouted after the hooligans, shaking his toy sword at them.
"YEAH! COME BACK OR MY WITCH SISTER TURNS YOU ALL INTO TOADS!" Glenn and Benn shouted after the hooligans.
"James, Glenn and Benn, this is serious! Playing pirate and all those Hocus Pocus stuff is not useful!" Sasha said, berating her brothers.
"Uncle Nick! Do something!" Tina yelled as Nick slowly rose up from the ground, rubbing the sore spot in his head.
But once back on feet, Nick quickly realized what just happened and turned to the children.
"Listen to me, all of you! You run quickly back home, lock the door behind you once you get there and STAY THERE! I got this. Okay?" Nick said.
"Okay. You do not need to tell us twice." Sis said, earning the smile from Nick.
"Good! AND WATCH AFTER JUDY!" Nick added, as he quickly turned around and rushed after the escaping hooligans.
It was then, when Sis took command over the group and turned from Nick to her siblings.
"Okay, all of you! Follow me. Stay together and…" Sis started, until she saw Skippy sneaking out from the group and rushing after Nick.
"Skippy, come back! Skippy! Skippy!" Sis yelled after her little brother, but Skippy, ignoring his big sister, did not stop but kept running in Nick's tail and he quickly disappeared out of Sis' sight.
"We need to call the cops!"
Meanwhile...
Using his sense of smell, Nick tried to follow the hooligans tracks through of the streets.
But however, because of the dozens and dozens of together mixed animal scents, after fifteen minutes of chasing them, Nick eventually lost the hooligans tracks and he stopped from running, panting and snorting in annoyance that the hooligans got away...
...as did his chance to finally find the mastermind of all of this.
However, Nick soon noticed that there was few similiar groups of hooligans stealing from many other children or child groups their own candy pags by surprising them from behind the corners, threatening the children to hand over their bags or they took the bags roughly from them by force on their way.
Nick even spotted the couple of teen foxes snatching the candy bags from two into fairy and witch dressed little sheeps when they ran pass of them, leaving the little sheeps to cry for their lost candies.
And elsewhere, Nick even spotted the large group of brainwashed little rabbits to attack by force of numbers the rhinoceros parents like the flock of nasty and hungry piranhas, while the rest of them stole the candy bag from the rhino child's hands.
There was also the trio of goats, that rammed down with their heads the group of children, including one deer, one stoat one amur leopard and one spotted hyena, after which they took their dropped candy bags with them and rushed away.
And in the elsewhere, the trio of weasels stole from the another group of bunnies their lollipops, leaving the little rabbits behind to cry of their loss.
Nick then heard that someone was coming towards him from behind and turned away around to see that what was it.
However, Nick managed to see only the glance of towards him on the skateboards towards him incoming trio of mammals, one moose, one elephant and one bear, before the elephant skater swung his red candy bag, which was probably stolen, towards him, hitting straight to his faces, knocking him over to the ground.
"Whoopsie Foxie!" The elephant mockingly apologized, even in the brainwashed state, as he skated away with his buddies, mockingly laughing at Nik.
The strike from the mass of the bag was quite hard enough to send Nick's head to go dizzy, as he slowly rolled over on his stomach to the ground.
Nick them shook his head from the side to another to get his head more clear, as he rose up from the ground.
"Did I just recognized that voice? Jerry Gray?" Nick said to himself in his mind, starting to wonder that what that elephant jerk was doing out here, skating all around of the streets and stealing the candy bags from the other children, instead of lying on his bed in the home and locked int othe same motionless state just like Judy.
This also caused Nick to wonder with the concern that was even Judy somewhere in this neighborhood, having somehow escaped from Barbara's and started as well to steal the candy bags from the children to take them to Nermal wherever he was at the moment... and if so, then how did Nermal managed to command both Judy and Jerry Gray from the another end of the long distance between of them to steal the candies from the other children.
However, Nick put this though quickly, as he spotted the group of five wildebeest and the trio of spotted hyena children taking the candy bags from the lion cubs in the another side of the streets.
And filled with the sense of officer duty, Nick started to ran towards the group.
"Hey you! You young punks! Give them back what you have stole from them!" Nick shouted to the brainwashed wildebeests and hyenas.
Nick shouting caught the lion cubs and the brainwashed wildebeests and hyenas attention to turn their business to him.
However, seeing Nick coming straight towards them, the brainwashed wildebeests and hyenas ran off the scene, the lion cubs candy bags in their paws.
And while running to the another end of the street, Nick running right on their tail, the brainwashed group then spotted in front of them standing taxi car.
And without thinking and with the one goal in their mind, to loss Nick from their tail, the group rushed to the taxi car and stole it from the panda taxi driver, who was unsuspecting sitting in the driver's seat, reading a newspaper while waiting for the passengers.
The hooligans caught the panda driver off guard and out of surprise, as they opened the driver's seat's door and tore the panda driver out of the taxi, tossing him to the street and leaving him to both shout and shake his paw angrily after the hooligans when they loaded themselves in taxi and drove off.
Nick, knowing that he can't catch the hooligans by running after the taxi car, started quickly to look around of him. searching with his eyes for the car and its owners from nearby streets.
Until he found the red one and its owners. One grizzly bear mother with his young son disguised as cave-mammal.
"Um, Excuse me, Mistress." Nick said as he calmly approached the bears.
The mother bear turned to him and quickly too the sucpious expression on her face after seeing the fox approaching towards them.
"I hate to distub your peaceful night like this but, can I borrow your car for the moment. I…" Nick said, not willing to waste his time by explaining his reasons nor showing his officer badge, which would help nothing but only buy more time for the hooligans to get away from his reach.
"No way, fox! We have use for this car for tonight, and we have no time to argue with anyone about borrowing my car… especially with the ones like you, fox!." The mother bear said unkindly.
My typical luck, to cross paths with the mammal who still has the very bad taste about the foxes even after the Night Howler Incident. Nick though.
"Come on, I definitely need the ride and I need it right now! If you live somewhere nearby in here, you and your kid can walk to there. To have a little exercise is never a bad idea." Nick said, trying to keep himself cool.
"Yes, we live this nearby… and no. Why to walk back to home when we have the car with which we can drive home instead of walking." Mother bear said.
"And now, go out of my sight, fox!" Mother bear rudely said.
"Yeah, go out of my sight, fox!" The bear cub said, imitating his mother and shaking his toy cave-mammals club at Nick.
"Come on! I really need the car now!" Nick shouted out in frustration.
"And why, fox? What is this? Is this robbery or do you not have a car of your own and you want to take the car from someone else by force?! Or are you too poor to buy one for yourself, fox?" Mother bear growled.
"Who in here has talked about the robbering?! Nick asked with the loud tone of voice and out of the frustration.
"And yes, I have a car of my own, which unfortunately is not nearby right now, and that's why I have to get this car in borrow!" Nick shouted back.
Mother bear snorted in frustration.
"Ugh! You're wasting our time. Get lost, you filthy fox!" Mother bear roared and was about to open the car's door for his little one.
"Hey!" Nick shouted with serious officer tone, nearly lossing his cool because of this bear's prejudiced attitude towards him like she has never even heard about him.
"Don't you even know who I am? Aren't you even heard about me?"
"Of course I am, you're just one shifty and untrustworthy fox among the many others like you, who wants to trick the cars from the honest citizens with the false reasons and make money with them by selling them to others. Don't you even think about I have no experience about that, fox, and it's not gonna work this time. You will not touch with your finger at my car, nor harm its paint. Now, be gone before I call cops to take you away!"
Now, nearly losing his patience, Nick groaned out of frustration, realizing that maybe his police work's reputation has not spread to everyone's ears yet unlike Judy's own reputation... and that there was still those ones who still believed him as shifty and untrustworthy fox all around of the city.
Nick decided to use the more peaceful persuasion, even though this had already wasted alot of his time.
"Mistress… I know exactly what you think about my species because I've already faced the animals with the very same attitudes just like yours. But not all foxes are cunning and insidious like the other animals believe from us, calling all us foxes the most shifty and untrustworthy animals of Zootopia as if we deserve it. But even some of us are even the honest and friendly ones who just wants to be treated with the same value and justice as others. I'm not interested about shiftly stealing the cars from the others and making with them money by selling them to the other animals... and I ain't gonna steal this one from you. I just want to borrow it because I have really big hurry with some thing to which I need the car. Please, I can even pay for the time you will grant me to borrow it. I'll bring it back to you… with the fox's word of honor." Nick said out of purety of his heart and as calmly and honestly as he could.
The mother bear of course listened all of this from the beginning to the end, but she was still sucpious about Nick's honesty.
"Listen, fox. Even though I want to believe such of honest words... even though they come from the fox. I just can't you hear me?! I can't! I already fell into the such of lies coming from the honest-pretenting fox once. I did so once... and it cost me my car. And because of that, I'm not gonna do my mistake ever again." Mother Bear said stubbornly yet determinedly.
This mother bear was quite stubborn, indeed. But, in the sake of Judy's innocence and the chance to find Nermal and his hideaway, Nick wasn't about to give up.
"If you say and believe so, then why you then don't ask from me that "For what reason I have to borrow this car so bad?"" Nick said.
The mother bear snorted and growled in annoyance and turned to Nick for one last time to ask this question from Nick, albeit she did not even want to, still believing that Nick would in any minute trick her in some way.
"Alright then, but after then you leave us alone and not trouble us more by this, no matter whatever is your answer and that do I accept it or not!" Mother bear sternly demanded.
"With the fox's word of honor, I will not disturb you anymore after this." Nick promised with the honest-sounding tone.
The mother bear snorted suspiciously again.
"Okay, "For what reason you have to borrow my car so bad?"
Nick then lowered his gaze from the mother bear to the bear cub, who was standing behind of his mothers legs, holding his candy bag in the firm grib.
"Behind of you is the reason… and what he is carrying in his paw is the main reason... why?" Nick simply said.
The mother bear looked down at her little one and the bag what he was holding in his arm.
However, the mother bear's reaction was not what Nick did expect.
"YOU WANT MY CAR BECAUSE OF MY LITTLE ONE OR HIS CANDIES! WHAT IS THIS, FOX?! IS THIS SOMEKIND OF KIDNAP..." The mother bear roared angrily at Nick that it forced Nick to step several steps backwards...
...even though he raised his paws up and motioned with them the mother bear to calm down, so that he could explain that she understood wrong of what Nick meant in the first place about the bear cub and his candy bag.
However, before the mother bear could finish what she was about to say and before Nick was able to get the situation to calm down, the same group of animals, the same three wolves, cougar and bear, two antelopes, one teen hippo and two zebras Tony and Bud who robbed from Barbara's children their own candy bags and whose Nick was chasing and lost their tracks about half an hour ago, appeared out of nowhere and roughly pushed Nick, the bear mother and the bear cub to the ground... and one of them even stole the bear cub's bag of candies before running away with the others.
"My candies!" The bear cub cried.
The mother bear noticed this and angrily waved her into the massive fists squeezed paws after the hooligans.
"Come back with my little baby's candies you hooligans!" She bellowed, before she picked the her crying cub from the ground into her arm.
"Where are the cops when they're mostly needed?" The mother bear growled.
Then, the mother bear remembered the fox and quickly turned around to see that had the fox used this what just happened as an advantage to sneak to the car's driver's seat and drove off, but soon she realized that the fox had not moved anywhere from his place during of this cowardly attack from behind.
But this time, the fox was holding up the ZPD police officer badge with his paw.
"You wished the cops around, didn't you? Well, here's at least one. Officer Nicholas Piberius Wilde, ZPD, partner of Officer Judy Hopps and the Hero of the Night Howler Incident at your service, madam. Those little candy-thieving punks are my current case right now, so I need to borrow this car to follow them, find out where is their headquater and put an end to this robbery… that's my answer to your question." Nick said.
Mother bear was quite shocked after hearing this.
"Officer Wilde?" She whispered in shock.
"Yeah, that's me... in the flesh."
The feel of shock and guilt filled the mother bears face as she recognized to whom he had talked so rudely and with the prejudiced attitude, just because his last experience with his kind's dark side.
"Please, accept my apologizes, officer Wilde. I've heard about the Night Howler Incident that claimed my husband... and I've of course heard a lot about you and your partner, but I just happen to have a bad memory for faces of the people I don't know nor having met face to face before, which is why I didn't recognize you at first. It's the genealogy bug or something. But by the way, my son happens to be a big fan of you two." The mother bear said, now more kindly and apologetic tone.
"Ah, that's nice to hear." Nick said, waving his paw at the bear cup who, through of his tears, waved back.
Nick then took a couple of boogeybear chocolate bars out of his pocket and handed them to bear cub.
"Here. take them, little one. As an replacement for the ones you lost because of those brainwashed hooligans. It's not much, but they probably make you feel even a bit better." Nick said kindly.
The bear cub a biot hesitated of taking the bars from Nick, but he eventually took them gently from his paws.
"Thank you." The cub thanked, as he opened one of the bars and took the bite from it.
Giving the one last smile at the bear cub, Nick turned to his mother.
"And it's okay, madam. I don't take your prejudiced attitude towards me as an offense because I've already faced prejudiced treatment many times over before this." Nick said.
The mother bear nodded with the gentle smile, until he remebered those hooligans, who were right now in the other side of the road, rudely stealing from the lonely and on the bike moving cheetah girl her own candy bag before they fled to the alley, leaving behind the crying cheetah girl knocked over the ground.
"Because you said that you were on the case, which relates to right that cowardly act, can I ask from you another question?" Mother bear asked, to which Nick nodded as agreement.
"If you're after those thieving hooligans, then why are you standing here by talking to the old dumb bear with the super poor memory of faces as the young criminals ran free?! Go ahead! You can freely borrow my car!" Mother bear said handing over her cars keys.
"And go get them!" Little bear cub said encouragingly.
"With the pleasure!" Nick said and after taking the keys from the mother bear, he quickly jumped to the driver's seat.
But before he managed to start the car and drive away, the mother bear knocked the passenger's seat's door's window to get Nick's attention as he had yet something to say to Nick.
Hoping that it will not last long, Nick opened the passenger's seat's door's window to hear the mother bear out.
"Here. Take my phone number so you can notify me when you return my car and my car's keys to me... and take also my home home address so that you can find the way to my home, after you have finished your need with my car... just try not to damage it, okay?" Mother bear said and gave to Nick the piece of paper, where was written along with the mother bear's phone number...
"Honey tree's road 18. in the Wilderness Districk. Thanks."
Nick then started the car's engine and drove away from the scene... leaving the bears behind.
It did not take long from Nick to find the same group, recognizing them from the wolf trio, antelope duo, hippo teenager and zebra twins. They were all at the very moment loading the candy bags to the stolen car, after which they loaded themselves into the car and drove away.
Thanking his luck that the brainwashed hooligans haven't saw him coming, Nick took out the lights so that he can follow them undetectedly in the darkness and quickly drove after them.
During the chase, Nick took out his phone and made the call to Oates, although he had developed the deep hatred towards this Detective-Horse-Butt from the last night's events.
And it did not took long from Oates to answer to his call.
"Oates? Hello? It's officer Nick Wilde. Sorry if I call you this time of night but I got a new information. There's a groups of hypnotized children, teenagers and less than ten years old ones, all around of this neighborhood stealing the candies from the other children and…"
Nick was quickly interrupted by Oates, much to his annoyance.
"Actually, officer Wilde, I already know." Oates responded in the another side of the line.
Nick was caught by surprise after hearing this.
"What?! You do?!" Nick exclaimed.
"Yes, they also stole the candy bag from my own daughter right in the front of my home's door." Oates said.
Nick got the proof of this because he heard through of the phone call the five- or four-years-old child crying loudly in the other side of the line.
"And I have to say that… you were right all of time." Oates added.
"I tried to seize one of these punks when I saw them trying to get away with my daughter's candy bag, but once I touched one of them, he felt cold like he was dead. His skin was quite pale and he moaned like the midnless aimless animal! And not mention about the eyes when I saw their lifelessly greyed eyes with one glance! All of that made them to look and act like they were undead istead of living ones." Oates said.
Nick was even more surprised to hear that from Oates mouth.
So, does that big old sourpuss detective-horse-butt believes me now when he witnessed his own daughter being robbed by the brainwashed kids with the lifelessy greyed eyes like they're zombies. Well, it was about time for him to believe me, but its too late for him to make things from the last night undone. Nick thought.
This one motivated Nick to play joke to Oates as an payback for his earlier claim of Judy having drunk herself into drunk out of feel of guilty.
"Undead? What undead? There's no undead walking in the streets, my dear detective Oates... except the children dressed into ghosts, vampires, mummies and zombies, that's all. You've probably watched too much zombie films and got traumas from them, that you've starting to imagine the undead everywhere, do you? But if you want me to believe you, then shoot one of those undeads of yours into the head and bring the corpse for me to be seen." Nick said, giggling a bit to his little joke.
Nick heard well Oates snorting out of annoyance in the other side of the line.
"Enough of playing jokes, officer Wilde! You knew about this, then why didn't you tell me anything of this." Oates asked with the annoyed tone.
"Oooooh, but I did... twice... but there was once upon the time one big stubborn old sourpuss horse-butt, that dismissed and labelled my reports and all the sensible answers to the questions as an nonsense and deliberately destroyed all of my clues and evidences - including Barbara's camera, which was the gift for her from her late mate, with the major evidence - of the mastermind of this crime wave and who even managed to make chief Bogo to see me as an "Black Sheep" in ZPD forces and made him to give to me the parking duty for two months. If you really want to know that who is the mastermind of this nonsense, call the this old sourpuss horse-butt called with the name Detective Oates from ZPD and give him as an punishment for his actions the fierce horse-kick to his big butt!" Nick humorously said, bursting into the laughter after this.
Nick also heard through the phone call that Oates snorted even louder out of annoyance.
"ENOUGH OF MAKING FUN OF ME, WILDE!" Oates shouted through the phone.
"A small payback for the last night's events." Nick said, justifying his words.
"But you're right. ENOUGH of this and back to the case! I'm at the moment driving with the honestly borrowed car in the West Road and heading towards the city's Western Exit, chasing the group of ten brainwashed children who just stole the candies from several children and the car... and they just drove out of the city to the meadowlands in the south. They're seemingly heading to the the countryside, where there is little houses. I'll call you back when I know the exact location and street address." Nick reported.
"Roger that, Wilde, I'm on my way." Oates responded.
"But... in exchange for information of the mastermind's hideaway... I want you to apologize for your actions from the last night. Oh, yeah! I definitely want you to apologize in front of me, Skippy and Barbara for your actions in the last night and for breaking that camers like you're begging for mercy or bowing to us... begging for mercy on your knees in front of us... or on your stomach in the ground in our feet like the miserable begging beggar... bowing to us subserviently on your knees like bowing to the kings... even kissing our feets... and I also want you to buy a new camera... Zootopia's most expensive camera... to Barbara as an replacement for one you destroyed the last night. Deal?" Nick listed...
...using Oates well-known ambitiousness as his advantage to bargain with him, having heard from the fellow officers that Oates' ambitiousness is the reason why Oates involves himself into every case... in order to get fame and glory for his detective work, whuch is what Judy and he unwillingly got for making to Zootopia its history's greatest service by solving the Night Howler Plague with the risk of their lives.
"Officer Wilde! You're not in the position ot bargain with me! Besides, I already told you, no more making fun of me behind of my back... or in the another side of the line, far away from my reach, and inform to me immediately that where those hooligans are heading!" Oates demanded with the annoyed tone.
"Sure... just say the word "deal" and I'll give the information of the mastermind's location to you once I find it, otherwise no deal with that information-of-the-location-part. And I know that I'm not in the position to bargain with you, but I happen to have soon in my possession the information of the mastermind's location and then a full right, probably with the massive evidences once I get to the destination, to arrest the offender and bring him in front of the justice... and I bet that you know what that does mean to your own efforts to solve this case." Nick said slyly, knowing that Oates couldn't refuse from the opportunity to get what he wants, fame and glory... to which he gets soon the chance to kiss goodbye.
Nick heard through the phone call Oates mumbling out of clear frustration... telling to Nick that Oates was extremely reluctand to give up to the fox demands and suffer the complete humiliation because of it, but his own ambitiousness seemed to get slowly best of his own pride.
And so...
"UGH! Fine, officer Wilde... we have a deal but just this once!" Oates said outraged as he finally gave up to Nick's demands in sake of the fame and glory.
"With the paw/hoof-shaking once we both reach to the mastermind's hideway, okay?" Nick asked with the demanding and sly tone, much to Oates annoyance.
"Whatever... just find that blasted mastermind's location and let me know about it once you've found it." Oates said, before he angrily quint the phone call with Wilde.
And once the phone call had ended, Nick put his phone back to his pocked and shook his head.
"He won't do those things, that's sure. Not even after the paw/hoof-shake as the sign of agreement." Nick said to himself, knowing that Oates was only doing this for the fame and glory rather than to surround himself to the demands coming from the fox.
"Well, let's be more honest than that big detective-horse-butt and let's fulfill my own part of the bargain." Nick added and continued driving after the hooligans.
TO BE CONTINUED...
