Zootopia is pretty incredible when you sat down and thought about it. Finnick found himself sitting down and thinking more often ever since the years went on.

"I think you're just turning into one of those old foxes that sit down on the corner complaining about the youth and how things ain't what they used to be" Nick had joked to him when they were able to hang out.

Finnick smoothly responded "Well this fox isn't too old to bite your face off slick" before drinking his tea, something that he would never admit to Nick he'd started drinking to cut down on his caffeine addiction.

But getting back to the point at hand, people always thought Zootopia was incredible because you had so many different mammals living together and not killing each other. There was so much diversity between members of the same species that to have completely different species being able to mix together was a work in of itself.

Nick and he disagreed on many things, some things were stupid like who would win the national championships. He was better good money on the Cubs while Nick always chose the Lions.

But the biggest disagreement they had was that Finnick at his heart felt like things were good. That the level of cooperation mammals had with each other was incredible and that Zootopia was fundamentally a success and proof that mammals could live together.

While Nick felt like the city was effectively a failure and it was forced living and it would take a single spark to burn the city down.

See what he meant about members of the same species being different?

They both grew up roughly the same, they were both shifting conniving no good foxes. Finnick was generally a gangster since birth while Nick had started good, had a lull as a criminal then pulled himself out.

Finnick chalked it up to their views on the world. Finnick had been Nicks mentor when he was first starting out and knew the guy since he was basically a kit and would fondly remember back to those days.

"Hey Finn" said a gruff voice, stopping his reading of the news he looked up to see a large polar bear whose name he could barely remember.

"Hey what's up" the diminutive fox questioned.

"You remember when Boss said you were gonna get a new partner?" Finn nodded in response and he spied a small red figure step out from behind the polar bear.

"Well here is your new partner, names Nate or some shit I don't remember. Anyway you're gonna show him the ropes so enjoy" and with that the Bear lumbered out.

The Fox was a little taller than him which wasn't a surprise since Fennec foxes weren't known for their size. But what surprised him was how old this fox looked, he was just a kit to the criminal.

"Oh umm hey" Nate meekly said.

"Is your name actually Nate or did the dumb bear forget?" Finn questioned which the red fox responded with "It's actually Nick, Nick Wilde sir".

It took a while for Finn to accept that their boss would actually give him someone who he later found out hadn't even finished High School yet as his partner but found that the boy picked up on things frighteningly quick and when you got past his outer shell was just a sweet kid.

Learning his story made Finn sad but not really surprised, to grow up without a father and to be bullied for just being a fox wasn't some sort new occurrence as he himself dealt with the same shit in his life. He wasn't sure when it happened or why it even happened but Finn took it upon himself to mentor the boy in ways that weren't just about lock picking or stealing.

He never had any kits and never really planned to but guess some sort of protective instinct kicked in when he met Nick that he just acted like his surrogate father. Which meant that he would give him life lessons and even took him out to games and even went to a theme park once.

But it also meant that he curated the jobs they would receive harder. Finn wasn't at all squeamish when it came to gore and hell he had done things that would haunt him for the rest of his life but he'd be damned if he'd let shit like that corrupt Nick. When one day the old boss had been killed off by a rival gang he took it as a chance for the two to escape and then they started their own little business. It was actually Nicks idea to do pawpsicles actually and Finn initially wasn't sure but liked the idea after the money started rolling in. It was harmless too, the two just tapped into a market no one else thought of.

Ultimately Finn had dealt with this shit before, he saw the worst part of mammals and when you see the absolute worst they had to offer to see Zootopia as it was now amazed him. But he mused that since Nick never really had to deal with that he felt like what they had now wasn't good enough. A glass half empty vs half full debate he supposed.

But to Finn Zootopia wasn't just amazing because of this but when one day he walked from Sahara Square to Tundra town and nearly slipped and cracked his head did he realize just how abruptly the climate changed in the two regions.

The technical and technological skill it must have took to develop such distinct environments just blew his mind and he couldn't wrap his head around how it must have been done. Nick was always the smarter of the two, he could have asked him but I guess he didn't because it wouldn't have been as magical if there was a logical answer.

Speaking of the red fox Finn was currently going to their personal spot near the bridge they hung out but this time was all business.

"Learn something?" asked the Fennec Fox as he sat down next to the sitting other, his ears swiveling around to make sure no other mammals were around.

"Yes" as the fox nodded "Remember Bellweather?"

He thought for a moment "Wasn't she the lamb that started the whole savage mammal stuff and you said she escaped?"

"Yup, turns out I had a small chat with her yesterday last night"

Finn was the only other person that knew about Nicks double life, he warned him about how dangerous it was for Nick to do this shit. Both because of the physical dangers the underworld presented but because if someone found out it would serve to discredit everything that Nick worked towards.

But that stupid Fox was always too stubborn for his own good.

"So…. what? Did you just drink tea and discuss politics?" he sarcastically replied.

Nick rolled his eyes "No of course not Finn, turns out that there is some sort of super soldier serum she had made when she was a young researcher called ADONIS and she thinks that it may have been involved with Judys death and all the recent Ape activity."

Finn was intrigued at the name dropping of the bunny, he liked the rabbit day one when she was able to out hustle Nick and he mourned when she died.

"Super Soldier? What is this a comic book? How do you know she's not just trying to get one over you man?"

Nick pulled a file from god knows where and handed it to the fox, pausing to look at him he opens the folder and finds a file labeled ADONIS accompanied by what looked like medical mumbo jumbo to him.

"I looked into her background, she did do research into chemical compounds. She mainly developed stimulants and some refined steroids" he said while pulling out a paper "Here is a timeline of her work. Notice how it's consistent output and then all of a sudden there is a 5 year black hole with no information on what she did, what she was working on or where she was even located."

Finn did look over the document and it did look suspicious to have such an obvious void in her work history but still.

"Nick this sounds crazy, first of all why would some stupid steroid be such a big deal and secondly if this ADONIS stuff was true then why would the Great Apes be involved in something like this?"

"I'm not saying that I completely believe her Finn but the more I looked into the Ape case there is obviously something going on. Just recently there was a missing shipment of an important base chemical for ADONIS according to Bellweather and you know I think it may have something to do with what happened to me."

Nick was always intentionally vague with what exactly it was that happened with him, all he knew is that after the confrontation in the warehouse that ended up killing his mate Nick had gained incredible speed and strength with unusual temper flares. He was careful now with it but Finn could still remember having to explain to his car buddy that the crushed inside of his van was due to hitting a pole and not an enraged Nick smashing it in.

At this point he knew Nick wasn't going to bother telling him what happened and he respected that.

"Alright well looks like you've been a busy bee" Finn said as he bumped his best friend with his shoulder.

"Yup but I still have a lot to go through and look into now, what about you got anything for me?"

Finn nodded "Yes you have a leak."

Nick sombered at this news, he knew that someone at the ZPD was acting as an informant but this confirmed his fears. Just one too many bags of misplaced evidence allowing suspects to get off the hook, one too many failed raids where they'd barge into a meeting room planned for months with no suspects present. Someone was either planned as a plant and feeding information to their boss or there was leverage in place of an existing agent.

"Do you know who it is?" Nick asked but already knowing the answer before the Fennec fox solemnly shook his head "No, whoever it is has their tracks covered good. The only reason I found out about it is because a buddy of mine owed me one but he seemed scared shitless to admit even that much to me."

Nick nodded, more mammals were disappearing every day so even though it angered him to not know who it was he couldn't blame the mammal for not telling Finnick who it was. You'd not only anger your criminal bosses but you had crooked law enforcement who would be more than willing to conclude your 'suicide' investigation. Nick wasn't naive, there was no way it was just one single agent at the ZPD able to do all this. There must be crooked lawyers, federal investigators and other agents all in on this so getting a single name would do nothing more than scapegoat at this point but let the big fish off.

Sighing softly, the fact that he hadn't slept at all in the last 24 hours and just how much he had to do resting hard on his old bones.

Finn caught the cue "But that all can wait, what do you say about a pawpsicle? 50% off for a good friend."

Nick scoffed "How can you charge a good friend for a pawpsicle Finn?"

He shrugged "Hey a mammals gotta make profit somehow."