***Congratulations to Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps for being the first one to get all of the character references on their first try! U ween! Second place is certainlynotfred15 and third is HawkTooth. In order, it went Scar from The Lion King (The construction hat was a disguise and had nothing to do with his character), Swiper from Dora the Explorer, King Julien from Madagascar, Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, Pooh Bear from Winnie the Pooh, and Dumbo from…well…Dumbo. I'll do more of these in the future, but with only one in random places. They'll be a little trickier, some of them.***
So before I get right into the chapter, I wanna say a couple things:
Don't think I've forgotten about those characters you guys PM'd me about a few chapters ago. I'm using them later. Gotta make the story flow, yo. Get it? No? Okay…
I've read over the past couple chapters and found them to be so-so. I'm gonna try to fix that now. Make this story great again. Overused joke 2016.
Have you ever questioned why people put disclaimers before their chapters saying that they don't own the fandom they're writing about? Like, of course you don't. If you did, you'd be writing it for said show/movie/book/game and so on, making millions. You wouldn't put it up here for a select few to see. And don't even come at me with that "they do it so FanFiction doesn't hit them with the ban brick." In all the stories I've written, I might've said that twice. I'm still here. So…HEY FANFICTION! GUESS WHAT! I DO OWN ZOOTOPIA! WHAT'RE YA GONNA DO, HUH?
…
…
…
See? Nothing ha—[404 Error: The author with this username either can not be found at this time or no longer exists. If you keep experiencing this problem, please follow Ron Swanson's example and toss your computer in the garbage. But we know you won't do that. You love our site too much to get rid of your precious device. You belong to us now. We are FanFiction, and we own you. Ha. Ha. Ha.]
(NOTE: If you're seeing this being reuploaded, that's because something must've glitched with FF. Some of the formatting I had got messed up in the upload process. You might not be able to notice it, but I do. Fixed it, so...yeah. Guess they didn't like me talking smack about 'em.)
*Ten minutes later*
"I am so sad to see you go, my friends!" The lemur exclaimed as he escorted the two back to the entrance, handing Judy a copy of the Night Howler order sheet. "Are you sure you do not want to buy the shiny gems that we have here? Maybe some enhanced technology to better yourselves?"
The bunny cop turned to the salesman as she continued to move towards the door. "Enhanced technology?"
"For predators only, I'm sad to say. Yes. The manufacturer wishes it. Very early stage of testing. Only a twenty percent chance of death! Very low! Fox?" The criminal cheered.
"I'm alright. Besides, I only have Mr. Big's money on me, and he wouldn't want me using his cash on myself when this was supposed to be a business trip," The ex-con calmly lied, reaching the door and leaning against it. "Don't worry, we'll be back. Promise."
"It fills me with great joy to hear that! I will see you soon, my friends!" The small crook said before running back down the stairs and into the hectic crowd of scum.
The same fox who had let them in nodded at the two undercover cops before opening the door and waving them out. Judy and Nick didn't look back as they exited the hidden black market made their way out of the old park. Getting in the black car that Mr. Big had provided them, since their police cruiser was both obvious and totaled, the two officers drove off and headed back to the precinct.
About two minutes after the park had disappeared from their sight, Judy exhaled loudly, drawing attention from her partner in the passengers seat.
"That was quite possibly the most stressed I've ever been," She groaned, rolling her head from side to side in order to get the kinks out of her neck. "Could you imagine if we had been found out? We would've been ripped apart! Nobody would've found us!"
"I'm just happy that no one I had previously worked with was there. That would've been pretty bad," Nick added, clicking his tongue and smirking.
The rabbit looked at him as if he belonged on the funny farm. "How're you still so calm? That was horrifying!"
"I wasn't a successful con artist for many years by being a bad actor, Carrots. It's all about bottling what you're actually feeling and showing others what they want to see," The fox replied, adjusting the shades on his face. "Ya know, I think I look good in this outfit. I'm keeping it. What about you, Slugger?"
"Slugger?"
"You're still wearing your baseball cap."
Briefly taking her eyes off the road, the bunny glanced up at the brim of her hat. Reaching to his left, Nick grasped said brim and twisted it so the hat was on backwards. Amused with himself, Officer Wilde chuckled to himself, whipped out his phone and snapped a picture.
"Can you say new wallpaper? I sure can," He stated with mischief dancing in his eyes. "Looks like the thug life chose you, Fluff."
"Oh, for sure, Slick," Came the reply.
The two had a nice, playful banter about the outfits they were wearing all the way back to the station. Pulling into a parking spot, the two cops got out and walked inside. While Judy went to give the information she found to Bogo, Nick opted to hand out by the front desk and chat with Clawhauser. He was already prepared to hear earfuls about Gazelle and her upcoming concert.
As the two officers walked into the main ZPD building, they were bum rushed by a lot of their coworkers, friends, any of the like. Questions like "Are you alright?" and "What happened?" flew at them, while others made comments like "I'm just glad you guys are alive." After reassuring the other cops that they were fine, Judy left for Bogo's office while some went to retrieve the experimental flamethrower from the trunk of the car the two had arrived in. That would be shipped to the forensics department as soon as possible. Amidst all the hustle and bustle, Nick found himself right where he planned to be: Clawhauser's desk.
"I. Was so. Worried," The cheetah huffed dramatically. "Do you know how much stress you've caused me? I swear I've got some gray fur now because of you two."
"Not the first time I've heard that, Ben," Nick chuckled, lowering his sunglasses. "Nothing to be worried about. We're fine. Just a couple bumps here and there. Can't wait to give that after-action report to the Chief. That's gonna be a joyous time."
"Well then, if you're sure you're alright…" Clawhauser stated, popping a glazed doughnut into his mouth. "Do you have tickets to the Gazelle concert yet? I'm not exaggerating when I say, like, eighty-five percent of the force is gonna be there. It's supposed to be her biggest show yet. She's gonna have opening acts by Jimmy 'B' Rabbit, Justin Beaver, Paul McCatney—"
"Ben…"
"It's indoors, so there's gonna be sparklers and flashing lights and—"
"Ben…" Nick called, a little louder this time.
"There's even a rumor that there's gonna be a limitless supply of food and sweets there! Maybe—"
"Ben!" The fox exclaimed, smacking the counter and stopping the secretary from going full fanboy. "No, I haven't gotten my tickets yet. I do wanna go, though. Sounds like a nice time. Yeah…"
"You gonna take Judy?"
"Hm? Why?"
"You're friends. You went a year ago…" The cheetah explained before, under his breath, adding. "And I kinda ship you two."
"Um, what was that last part, Spots?" The officer asked, leaning forward and pushing his shades back up on his face.
"Hm? Oh, I just sneezed," Clawhauser lied.
"I didn't hear you sneeze."
"It was quiet."
"Sneezes aren't usually quiet, Spots," The former crook pressed, knitting his eyebrows together.
"I have a condition."
Nick eyeballed his friend for a couple seconds before giving up on the whole ordeal. Whatever possibly snarky comment the cheetah had made wasn't worth the effort to try to uncover. "To answer your question, I was planning to, actually. I'm probably gonna go back to my apartment tonight and see if I can order them. Hopefully I won't get stuck with seats in the nosebleed section. That'd suck."
The plump secretary nodded, his eyes looking towards the door of Chief Bogo, which had been shut ever since Judy had entered. "The Chief is going, too. Speaking of which, what'd you guys find out there?"
*With Judy, ten minutes earlier, inside Bogo's office*
The giant cape buffalo quickly escorted the rabbit officer inside his office and gently shut the cheap wooden door. Waiting for Hopps to take her seat, Bogo maneuvered his way around the chair and plopped down across from her. Taking a deep breath in and clasping his hooves together, he studied the rabbit before speaking.
"I see Mr. Big took good care of you and Officer Wilde, as I suspected. You are the godmother of his daughter's child," The Chief of the ZPD stated. "Tomorrow I want both you and Wilde to submit your after action reports on what happened while you were out today. This includes your ambush."
"Of course, Chief," Judy responded. "We were actually able to recover the weapon one of the criminals was using. We have reason to believe that it was the same arsonist who blew up your car that was wielding it."
"It wasn't blown up, Hopps," Bogo growled. "It just became a bit…crispy. That's a crucial lead in finding out who's behind all this. I don't need some one-man army going around burning, hacking and shooting my officers. If he didn't wear gloves, then we could pull some DNA from the device and run that through our scanners."
"Actually, Chief, there were two that attacked us," The bunny corrected, receiving a raised eyebrow from her boss. "I'm going to guess you didn't know that."
The cape buffalo leaned forward and narrowed his eyes at his best officer. "Enlighten me."
"From what Nick told me, there were two assailants: the one with the flamethrower and one with a sniper rifle filled with Night Howler pellets. While who we assume to be the arsonist closed in on us, the other guy kept Nick from moving out from behind the car due to his extreme accuracy. Apparently, he was able to shoot Nick's tranq gun out of his hand without hitting him? I was unconscious, so the details are a little hard for me to picture. You'll have to ask him."
Bogo's expression didn't soften whatsoever. "I plan to."
Judy sweat dropped and patted her legs in nervousness. "Right. But, um, if that is true, then he must have been able to do that against the harsh wind and limited vision. I'd be willing to bet that whoever that was is responsible for the attack on Nick in the parking lot yesterday."
The Chief massaged his temples and groaned. "So we have at least two involved in this. Perfect. My birthday came early this year, I guess."
Bogo leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, taking in a few deep breaths. An odd silence hung in the air as Judy waited for her boss to probably throw her out of his office.
"Two moves against my two best officers in two days. Only four days ago, everything was normal. Now we've got Night Howlers, arsonists, marksmen, hackers…The lot of 'em," He huffed.
"Four days?"
The cape buffalo eyed the cop. "When's the last time you checked a clock, Hopps? I received a call from Mr. Big at two in the morning saying that you two had been attacked and that he was tending to you. You got back here at eight this morning. You haven't been in your apartment yet, have you?"
In reply, Judy shook her head. At the mere mention of how long it had been, she felt her adrenaline and energy die down, and in its place, hunger and tiredness rose. A nice hot bowl of carrot soup and her bed did sound like nirvana right now. What she would give to curl up under the sheets right now.
"Well, I'm giving both you and Officer Wilde the day off today. You're still detailed to this case, but you can't perform your best when your running low on steam. I may be harsh, but I'm not cruel, despite what Officer Wilde may think of me," Bogo stated with a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I will be assigning extra detail to the both of you wherever you go from now on, though. Now, go home. Tell your partner that, too. Return tomorrow morning, ready to get back to it. That's an order."
The bunny gratefully smiled at her boss. "Thanks, Chief, but one more thing before I go…"
Reaching into one of her pants pockets, she removed the order sheet for the Night Howlers. It had been slightly wrinkled around the edges from the car ride back to the precinct, but that didn't make it unreadable. She forked over the paper to her boss and let him open it up.
"It's the order form for the massive amounts of Night Howlers being brought into the city. After we left Mr. Big's, we found the black market area that had been funneling illegal and stolen goods throughout the city. The entrance is a maintainance door to the arcade inside the abandoned Wilde Times theme park. I'd recommend waiting a couple days until we arrest everyone there, or else they may suspect it was Nick and I that blew the whistle, and would go after Mr. Big for heloing," Judy stated with a hint of pride. "But back to the list, check where the shipments are being sent to, and who bought them."
The buffalo scanned the document before resting his eyes on a particular spot. "Puma Power Chemicals."
"Run by the CEO, as well as one of the mayor's business friends, Matthew Pumanak."
(AN: Sorry to but it right in the middle here, but I went back and noticed that I accidentally said "Michael Pumanak" in the chapter "Mayor May Not." I don't have the file for that chapter anymore, but just to clarify, the two associates of the mayor are Michael Pantherson and Matthew Pumanak, and they're both businessmen. Just for reference. Sorry for my mistake. Am skrub.)
The Chief looked up from the paper at his best cop with a hardened expression. "While this is concrete evidence of corruption in his company, Hopps, we don't have proof that Pumanak himself is behind this. He's a straight arrow, from what I've seen. Someone inside his company could've authorized this. It's one of the largest chemical companies…possibly ever. I don't know. When you return, I want you to meet with him. Don't reveal anything. See if he seems to know about what's going on in the company. And until we have proof that he's either innocent or guilty, we don't tell the mayor. No use in causing a ruckus without proper evidence."
Judy held her smile and nodded once more, jumping down from the chair and walking to the door. Opening it up, she was about to walk out when the gruff voice from her boss stopped her.
"And Hopps," Bogo called out, causing her to turn and look at him. "Good work today."
Slightly taken back, the bunny cop's ears perked up. "Thanks for the compliment, Chief."
"Don't get used to it. Now get out of my office."
*With the leader*
"You get all that?" The technical criminal asked, turning around in his chair and disconnecting himself from Bogo's computer.
Inside the dark room, two of his comrades were reclined in their own chairs on opposite sides of each other, while one paced back and forth.
"Yes, I'm sure all of us 'got all that.'" The leader of the four crooks fumed, clenching his fists as he continued to walk back and forth across the center of the room. "Do you know how long it took me to assemble that flamethrower? The amount of money and resources I poured into that? And what happened to it?"
"I had to leave it behind. I would've been captured otherwise!" The arsonist protested, receiving a groan from Belynxsky.
"If you had just listened to me when I said stop advancing, you imbecile, that wouldn't have happened!" The sniper scolded, cracking his knuckles. "If it were up to me, I would've left you in that snow storm to deal with Big's goons."
The head criminal abruptly stopped in his tracks, snapping his head in the direction of where the arsonist was sitting. This caused the fire-obsessed criminal to swallow in fear.
"They talked about pulling DNA from the weapon, but that wouldn't be possible if you were wearing gloves. You were wearing gloves, weren't you?" The leader asked, although the question seemed to be more along the lines of a demand.
"My fur kept me warm, so…no," The arsonist muttered, looking down.
"I'm sorry. Old age must be creeping up on me much faster than I thought…" The fiend seethed, striding towards the crook and grabbing him by the shirt. "I thought I heard you say 'no.'"
The boss of the three villains swiftly yanked the wolf forward, pulling him from his chair and sending him crashing to the ground. Placing his foot on top of the canine, the leader looked down upon the disgraced criminal with fury—his feline eyes boring holes in his back. The hacker tensed up at this sudden display of brute strength while the sniper, Belynxsky, remained in the same position he had been in for the past twenty minutes.
"So when they pull your DNA from that device, they'll know who you are. One Damien Wolfang will be revealed as the arsonist. Your picture, you history…everything you are will be revealed to everyone in Zootopia. You won't be able to go out and show your face without being hunted down by those cops," The head criminal growled. "If you make one more mistake like this again, or get caught, I'm withdrawing the money I deposited in your account.
"WHAT?" Damien exclaimed, trying to quickly get up, but was easily pinned back down on the floor by his boss. "You can't! I promised her!"
"Don't make promises you can't keep," The mastermind threatened, removing his foot from Wolfang's back and walking towards the door. "If you all will excuse me, I have to clean up this dumpster fire before it spreads."
*With Nick, two hours later, back at his apartment*
Nick barely made it through the door. After receiving word from his partner that the Chief was giving them the entire day off to rest and recuperate, the fox booked it out of there and headed straight for home. He was just as tired and hungry as Judy, if not more so. So, as it were, as soon as the ex-con shut and locked his apartment door, off came the clothes as he made his way to the shower.
Once the shower was turned on, Nick physically became the water. He could practically feel his bones become liquid as the stress and ordeals that he had been carrying with him for an entire day washed off of him. Lather, rinse, briefly fall asleep, and repeat. That was the process he went through for around thirty minutes.
Stumbling out of the bathroom with legs made of jelly, Nick Wilde decided he could eat something later. He could barely stand on his own two feet as it was. This should've surprised him, considering that he felt fine and full of energy a little while ago when talking to Clawhauser, but as soon as he was given the go-ahead to leave, all that energy just drained right out of him.
The fox made his way over to his bed and crawled in, resting his head on his nice and fluffy pillow. Looking over at his phone, which he had set on his nightstand before he went to shower, the cop decided to see how his partner was doing. However, when he checked his phone…
Carrots: I don't think I've ever seen such a euphoric expression on your face until I said we could leave early today.
Nick smirked before typing his reply.
Me: Well, I did do a lot of the work today. Protecting cute, little, helpless bunnies is hard work.
…
…
Carrots: What'd I say about being called cute?
…
Me: Hey, if I wanna break the stereotype of foxes being liars, I gotta start somewhere. You wouldn't want me becoming that stereotype, would ya, Carrots? ;)
…
…
…
Carrots: I hate you. :(
…
Me: We both know that's false.
…
Carrots: And we both know that you'd be lost without me :)
…
Me: I'll be the first to admit that, I guess. Later, Fluff.
…
…
Carrots: Later, Sly.
*Read 11:43 am*
The smirk that Nick bore when he first started texting his little fuzzy bunny had now been replaced with a full blown smile. Setting his phone aside, the fox rolled over and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep while visions of carrots danced in his head.
ALRIGHT!
So that was a little bit of everything in there. I thought I did a pretty good job this time. Satisfied, I might say. Some mystery, some action, some humor and some romance…Yup. Not bad if I do say so myself.
"HE REVEALED THE NAME OF ONE OF THE CRIMINALS! THAT'S SO ANTICLIMACTIC!" Well, it's not the boss, and compared to the other three, he's the one that doesn't play as big of a role. And besides, I gave a name. We...well, I should say you guys...don't know his past or his motives for why he wants Judy gone. Hang in there, champs ;)
So! Not much to say here. As of right now, I'm finishing this chapter at 1:08 am, and writing all that stuff about sleep, beds, and soft things has made me sleepy.
Don't expect another chapter from me until after the 16th of December! That's when I'm officially on winter break, and until then I'll be studying for finals so I don't flunk out of college.
So Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Ramadan, Happy Kwanzaa, and happy whatever else there is that I missed. I'm sorry. I should've gone to bed three hours ago. I'm tired and my memory is foggy.
So please leave a review, a favorite or a follow for a very tired guy. Please? Oh, and if you're day isn't going well, just remember that Shrek 5 is in the process of being made. You think I'm joking? Google it.
More to come…