Chapter Nine – Shady Place Predicaments

"But sir…"

"Are you disobeying a direct order from a four-star police chief?" Bogo bellowed, silencing the vixen.

"No sir." Skye meekly replied.

"Do we have any more problems?" asked Bogo.

"No, Sir!" Nick and Skye responded in unison.

Now that the argument was set aside, the whole team cleaned up the mess and all evidence were placed in small Ziploc bags that serves as an evidence bag, as all other bags were left at the ZPD precinct one during the outbreak.

After hours of scraping every evidence they can find, from pieces of shattered glass, all the way to a small green liquid that was still inside on of the vials that were still intact, the best course of action was to notify Dr. Phillips in their underground lab. Which is, based on outdated archives at the ISA, existed in Shady Place, and that is a place that is not well mapped due to the fact that it's a, well a shady place.

"Alright I want a full report on ammunition and gas supplies." Nick ordered, trying his best to stretch his resources to finish all of the mission objectives as one.

"Sir, we have enough fuel to reach Shady Place but we need to resupply to return to base." Officer Jeff Smiler reported back, only to meet a long silence from Nick.

"I want everyone to load up in the APC's I want the resupply truck to go back to the fortress and get the fuel from the pipeline there, no escorts, the way is cleared. I want to know how much these bastards can see." Nick announced, earning murmurs from the group. "Do we have a problem?" Nick asked to clear any confusions.

"No Sir!" All officers replied in unison, immediately loading up in the vehicles with a detachment of five heavily armed officers riding in the supply truck with Officer Smiler in command to give it at least a small chance to survive when it comes under attack by the enemy.

"Alright, we rendezvous at the following coordinates; 11.2543° N, 124.9617° E. be there at 1600 hours, keep a low profile." These were the last orders of Nick as the truck left the harbor and left for the resupply.

"What do we do now Wilde?" Chief Bogo asked.

"We go to Shady place. Mount Up!" Nick ordered, and the convoy left for the supposed secret laboratory of the ISA.

"Where is this Hidden Lab by the ISA Nick? There was no mention of it in our files" Skye asked the Tod which was focused at the GPS and their current location.

"It is right about in the center of Shady Place." Nick said unsurprised, the ride has been going well and was making good progress in terms of distance to the laboratory. The distance from Mole Harbor to Shady Place was quite a distance at about 76 miles from point to point. The convoy was expecting zero to no resistance as the route they chose was far from any known enemy held regions, or at least that is what they thought.

Just when they approached the outskirts of Shady Place, a loud metal clanking sound was heard from one of the APC's and the armored column immediately grinded to a halt at 7th avenue and with it was the shutdown of the GPS that contained the coordinates to the laboratory.

"What the hell is going on?" Bogo bellowed, ranting about the convoy that failed halfway to Shady Place. "I want a damage report in five minutes! Or I will skin each one of you alive!" Bogo continued his rage. "The sooner I get off of this damned place, the better! I don't want to be a sitting duck in the middle of nowhere!" After this rant Bogo went to his vehicle and sat down.

After a myriad of delays in finding out the problem, Officer George McDonough reported to the steaming police chief, citing a certain metal that penetrated the casing and pierced deep in the engine inside the hull. To make up for lost time, Nick and Judy volunteered to get an old map containing the location of the supposed lab. Although Judy had some doubts, she pushed them aside and trusted Nick, knowing that he knows better than the rest of them and that he is their only hope of winning the city back.

"So fluff. How do you know if we are right in top of the coordinates?" Nick asked Judy, only for her to shove Nick to the left.

"Do you even know where we are?" Judy asked, only to receive a dreaded response.

"Is that building this? Or this?" Nick said pointing to his map. "Hey, don't blame me! This map is 8 years old!"

"Nick you better not be saying that we are lost." Judy stared at Nick, dead serious with her state.

"Uh... fluff, I think we are lost." Nick reluctantly admitted.

"WHAT! Can't you use your sniffing skills or something?" Judy tried to give Nick an idea of what to do, only to be met by a confused look from Nick's face.

"I am a Fox Carrots, not a wolf." Nick said, while moving around trying to get a decent marker for their location.

"Come on Nick, we still need to find that lab!" Judy said as she led the way.


Meanwhile, at the supply truck...

Officer Jeff Smiler is in charge of the resupply run from Mole Harbor to 1 Cypress Grove Lane, the mission of his team is to get the barrels of diesel fuel stacked at the flammable storage area of Nick's house in order for the ill-fated convoy at Shady Place to be able to return to base.

During the trip Officer Smiler receives a transmission from Skye that read: 'BRADLEY ENGINE BROKE DOWN. NEED A NEW ENGINE. BRING C4 IF YOU CAN'T' by the time the message was sent, Officer Smiler told the driver to gun the pedal in order to assist the stranded convoy.

"Alright team. Listen Up! Convoy broke down and needs a spare engine, we need to haul ass and get that engine there. Aside from that, they also need fuel. So we need to decide. Either to bring the engine with barely any fuel, or bring C4 and blow up an APC. I don't want a court martial so I need everyone's agreement." Jeff informed the group getting a few murmurs from the officers.

"So do we get that engine? Or blow that APC, I need an answer." After a few minutes, the officers replied.

"We bring the fuel and the engine, there is an armored trailer that we can hitch to the back of this truck, that is where we will put the engine, for the fuel, we need a metal casing to put it in and we put the fuel in the truck." All other officers agreed.

"Okay, so we go back to the convoy in a truck and a trailer. Perfect." Jeff approved as the fortress came in sight of the truck.

Once they arrived, they headed straight to the shelter and found it to be locked, knowing that an attempt to force it open will cost them their lives, they sent a transmission to Skye to obtain the codes from Nick.

'SHELTER IS LOCKED. NEED CODE' was what they transmitted, a few minutes later they got a reply that read; 'WILDE AND HOPPS ARE MIA. FORCE OPEN THE SHELTER.' When receiving this, Smiler was afraid of what to do next, either to force it open or to wait for Nick to be found, obviously the latter was not an option and the whole team opts to pry it open instead. Smiler opened the security box and found two wires to cut, either the blue or the red.

"Which one?" Smiler asked another officer beside him.

"Go for the red boss." Officer Francis Gleicowitz suggested.

"Okay, here goes nothing." He said as he snapped the wire, his sweat sparkling in the midday heat.

A few seconds later the door opened by itself, revealing more than 2 tons of diesel fuel, to maximize the time, they spilt into groups with one group assigned to load the fuel and the other group was to go inside the machinery storage area where a Bradley Engine was seen lying on the floor.

After 3 hours of grunts, hauling and a broken paw (due to an officer putting his best paw forward when he set down a barrel of fuel) they finally managed to hook up an armored trailer with the engine inside and started to move towards Shady Place.


"How can it get much worse than this?" Nick asked Judy out of the blue.

"It's much worse if we can't even get to our convoy Nick, we don't have a tracker and you only got to hack one satellite and you need at least three to get a position." Judy told him and continued searching the place.

As they continued searching, a small sized figure appeared and pulled a gun on the duo.

"Who is it!?" He yelled in a low gruff voice.

"Put the gun down!" He yelled as he approached the mammal and the figure becoming a familiar silhouette of a person that he knows.

"Is that you Finnick?" Nick asked.

"Nick? The hell are you doing here? I thought you turned into one of those fuckers!" He said.

"Whoa Fin, take it easy. Want to go with us?" Nick offered.

"Sure. The hell you goin' anyway?" Finnick asked.

"We need to go back to our convoy that is somewhere at 10th avenue." Judy said to Finnick with the best convincing look she pulled, which also resulted in Nick getting his phone and taking another for blackmail. "Nick! Give me that phone!" She demurred, not wanting to be blackmailed by Nick the second time around.

"Come on Carrots, I'm setting it as a wallpaper!" Nick chuckled as he lifted his phone out of the reach of Judy.

"Fine, but if you even think of using that against me Nicholas Wilde, I will personally guarantee a kick to your crotch!" Judy threatened Nick, which seemed to work as the Tod simply changed his wallpaper and let Judy see his phone.

"Okay Finnick, lead the way!" Nick announced, visibly shaken by the rabbit's threat.

"Oh hell no, I don't walk, I ride." he said as he climbed to his Lobo van. "Hop in."

"Thanks Fin, you know how I get lost at Shady Place." Nick said sympathetically.

"You always get lost at Shady Place Nick." Finnick rebutted Nick.


"Hey Smiler. What do you call a three humped camel?" Gleicowitz asked Smiler.

"I don't know, what is it?" Smiler asked, oblivious to the answer.

"Pregnant!" Gleicowitz replied, resulting in a large laughter inside the truck.

"Hey Francis, what do you call a person hiding on a building with a mirror on his head?" Jeff asked.

"I don't know. What?"

"Get down!" Jeff yelled at the top of his lungs as a truck blocked their rear and small arms fire started to envelop around the partially unarmored truck.

"Drive to that alley over there!" Francis directed Jeff to restrict the shooters angle and vision of the truck and to increase their chances of survival.

"Gleicowitz, cover our rear! Allen Skips, check if the cargo is still intact. Everyone else, find cover and stay there!" Jeff Smiler ordered as he went to the front of the truck.

"This is Officer Jeff Smiler from the supply run, we are being ambushed, we need immediate air support!" Jeff barked into the radio

"This is Savage, we read you Officer Smiler, we have an AC-130J inbound to your position call sign 'Spooky' ETA 8 minutes." Jack replied over the radio.

"Copy that HQ." Jeff said as he put the radio back to its holder. "Hold on boys! 8 minutes before we get support!" Jeff yelled as his voice could barely be heard over the fierce gunfire that erupted between the two sides. 'Zootopia is worth dying for.' He thought as he ceaselessly led his team out of the trap and managed to draw the gunfire away from the truck by diving into a nearby ditch.

"Skips! Are the cargoes okay?" Smiler asked to which Skips replied.

"Affirmative Sir!" He replied.

"Get the GPS and map a way out of here!" Smiler ordered while during his standard issue USP .45 at the enemy taking cover in a ditch at the opposite side of the no man's land.

"Advance! Put the pressure on the enemy!" Smiler barked as the officers started to gain ground, inch by inch as the enemy morale seems to affect the accuracy of their shots.

Just as they approached the halfway line, a Russian surplus APC appeared and started hammering the ZPD officer's position and grinding their advance to a halt. After stopping the started to lose ground inch by inch as the pressure was on them. Outnumbered, outflanked and outgunned, they were losing the battle, moments later, the radio in the truck crackles to life.

"Supply this is Pilot Roland Skies on Spooky, we are available for service for 15 mikes." Skies radioed them.

"Spooky, target AAAAAHHHHHHH! WHAT THE FUCKING HELL!" Smiler said as he threw the radio away when the radio emitted an ear bleeding audio frequency they severed their comms. "How the hell are they gonna help us now?" Smiler raged while feeling helpless, helpless in front of the enemy when suddenly, an idea popped to his head.

"Everyone! Activate the IR beacons on your vests so Spooky can distinguish us from the tangos!" And as soon everyone started activating them, Spooky fired a work round that destroyed the APC and obliterated the enemy with devastating effect.

"Everyone mount up! Use the barrage for cover!" Smiler ordered as they ran toward the truck and as soon as they were in, he gave the order. "Gun it Gleicowitz!" And as soon as they were cleared, they continued their way to the stranded convoy. "Spooky this is supply, maintain aerial surveillance until we arrived at the convoy, I'm not gonna let them get to us again."

Once they were in sight of the convoy, Spooky returned to base while Smiler's team repaired the engine of the disabled Bradley and refueled the rest of the convoy. And about the same time, Finnick's Lobo van reached the convoy, Nick and Judy immediately recharged their equipment, and Skye approached them.

"Are you okay you guys?" She asked, full of worry fear.

"We're okay Winter, has the GPS restarted?" Nick coldly replied.

"Yes. But the coordinates were lost." Skye answered.

"Use this map, get us to this place before another ambush happens and catches us red handed. Move!" Nick ordered as he handed out a piece of paper.

"Nick?" Judy started.

"Yes Judy?" Nick replied instead of being cold, he replied with care for the alpine.

"We need to talk about the way you talk to your ex, and we need to settle it. Now or else things will just get worse." Judy chastised him for his behavior toward the vixen.

'Could things be much worse' Nick thought as he put on his earpiece, IR beacon and his locator.

When he activated his earpiece, it released an ear piercing audio which deafened him for a good five minutes.

"Savage this is Wilde; do you copy?" He switched frequencies and radioed Savage.

"Savage here. Good to hear you Wilde." Savage replied.

"Get to the airwaves and decrypt the signal with the high frequency, locate where it is being transmitted." Nick ordered.

"Yes sir. HQ out." Savage said as he cut the line.

"Alright let's mount up!" The convoy started to move again and made for the hidden laboratory at the center of Shady Place.

After a few minutes, the map indicated that an alley contains the well-hidden entrance to the lab, as soon as they arrived, they scanned every irregularity in the wall, from graffiti's to missing bricks. After hours of searching, Officer Johannes Dossier accidentally dislodged a brick, causing a portion of the wall to open, and they were met with the cocking of guns.

"I am Agent Piberius of the ISA, authentication Whiskey November India Charlie Kilo let us in."

"Agent Piberius? I thought you retired!" An ISA agent greeted him.

"I did agent, I'm with the ZPD now, let us in. How is Dr. Nicholas Phillips doing?" Nick added.

"Oh yeah sure come on in! Dr. Phillips is in one of the offices, he has been waiting for you guys. The savage mammals are on the holding cell; they don't bite each other anyway." The agent replied.

As they went to the office of Dr. Phillips, Nick gathered up himself and went through the door.

"Dr. Phillips, we have a development."


Post A/N: My update frequency is now once a week because of classes, I hope you guys won't stop reading just because of this! And also, the story skyrocketed to 880 views and 300 visitors! I want to thank you all for reading and since I made a planner, I have plans for chapters all the way up to Chapter 19 so please rest assured that the story will go smoothly with the weekly updates, and if there happens to be break of half day classes, I will use that time for this story only.

Also, I asked a friend of mine - former classmate - to draw a proper cover art for this story, his name is Gil Itsuki, he posts some of his art on Facebook so stay tuned!

Until next time!

- Nicholas Phillips