Chapter Ten
The trio rode on Ella's scooter as they made their way to City Hall with Nick standing behind and clinging on to Ella's right leg, while Judy rode inside Ella's backpack with her head sticking out of it. There wasn't a chance they would wait for a taxi so Judy thought it would be quicker if they used Ella's scooter, of course Judy was getting cramped in Ella's backpack and Nick almost got motion sickness twice during those turns, but still they were still able to reach City Hall without any problems. Once they arrived Ella turned off her scooter and Nick and Ella got off it. Ella then lowered her backpack to the ground and unzipped it, allowing Judy to hop out of the backpack. The rabbit officer let out a sigh as she stretched her legs.
"Boy, it was cramped in there." Judy said
"You're lucky you weren't riding with the kid like i was," Nick said as he held his head "I've got a throbbing headache and i'm still recovering from motion sickness."
Ella gave them both a small smile of apology before she slung her backpack back onto her shoulders before she folded her scooter and put away her helmet and pads in her backpack before they entered City Hall and arrived just in time to see Bellwether run into large wooden doors that had been closed at her face and drop blue folders, files and other importent documents all over the ground. Judy and Ella quickly ran over to help her as Judy told Bellwether that they needed her help.
Bellwether took them to her office, which was a cramped boiler room with many boxs filled with importent documents. They were all gathered around the computer at the sheep's desk and the sheep typed access codes to get to the security cameras. Nick's attention soon turned to the sheep's wool on her head and he began to touch her wool with a large smile on his face.
"So fluffy," he whispered.
"Hey!" Judy hissed when she realized what Nick was doing while Ella looked on.
"Sheep never let me get this close." Nick whispered as he continued to play around with the sheep's wool.
"You can't just touch a sheep's wool!" Judy whispered at him angrily.
"It's like cotton candy." Nick replied, causing Ella to giggle at the coment.
"Stop it!" Judy hissed, swatting the fox's paw away, only to accidently hit the wool with her own paw and she tried to fix it before Bellwether looked up at her saying "Where to?"
"Uh, Rainforest District." Judy said, quickly getting her act together "Vine and Tujunga."
Judy shot a glare at Nick, who just simply smiled at her. However he was taken by surprise when Ella started to pet his head before he shooed her away and wagged a finger at the young human.
"Don't start petting a fox's head unless you get permission from him." he whispered in a scolding voice.
"But you were able to touch Bellwether's wool without getting permission from her." Ella whispered as she gave him a playful pout.
Nick blinked at the comment before rolling his eyes in amusement "I'm really rubbing off you, huh?"
Ella smiled before she returned her attention to Bellwether, who showed them her screen saying "There, Traffic cams through out the whole city! Well, this is exciting actually, i mean well, you know I never get to do anything this important."
"But your the assistant mayor of Zootopia." Judy said
"Oh, i'm more of a glorified secretary." Bellwether said with a shrug "I think Mayor Lionheart just wanted the sheep vote. But he did give me this nice mug."
The mug in question was a mug that was supposed to say 'World's greatest dad' but the word 'Dad' had been crossed off and scribbled on it was Assistant Mayor. Ella thought that the sheep deserved something far more then just a mere mug for all her hard work. Before she could talk to the sheep herself Mayor Lionheart's voice rang out from the sheep's phone about her to canceling his afternoon meeting. Bellwether quickly ran out and closed the door behind her. Once she was gone Nick asked a question.
"Do you think when she goes to sleep, she counts herself?" Nick asked
Judy simply shushed him while Ella giggled before they got down to serious buisness and Judy sat in the sheep's chair before she found the footage she was looking for. She played the footage of Manchas chasing the trio until the end where he was still chained to the lamppost where they had left them before a truck came into view. They watched as the timber wolfs captured the savage manchas in a net, tranquilized him and began to drag him towards the truck.
"Bet you a nickle that one of them is going to howl." muttered Nick
As predicted, one of the wolves let out a howl in the camera "And there it is," Nick said "I mean what is with the howling?"
"Night Howlers!" Judy exclaimed as she put the peices of the puzzle together "That's what Manchas was afraid of, wolves! The wolves are the night howlers! If they took Manchas..."
"I bet they took Otterton too!" Nick finished
Ella wasn't so sure that theory was correct. Sure Wolves do howl at night when they feel the need to, but something about the wolves being the Night Howlers just didn't add up to the mystery. She tried to think harder about where she had heard the name Night Howlers before.
'It's on the tip of my tongue' Ella thought before once again they were interupted when Nick managed to locate the truck the wolves were driving in down a hidden road to avoid being caught by the law. Once she saw the road, Ella reconized it.
"I know that road," Ella said, much to Judy and Nick's surprise "I've read about it on the internet back at the orphanage when i was brousing about everything in Zootopia before coming here. That leads to Cliffside Asylem!"
"I've heard about Cliffside." Nick said "Never really went there myself, but i heard that it's a place where they used to put those crazy animals in before they closed it down. Probably because it was belt over the edge of a waterfall and those who tried to escape always end up falling to their death, or so i've been told."
"Then that's where we have to go." Judy said before she hopped off the chair and ran towards the elevator while Ella and Nick fallowed her. Suddenly Ella happened to stop in her tracks when she thought she saw someone strikingly familiar but lost sight of it. Nick noticed and ran over to her.
"Are you okay?" Nick asked
"Yes, i just thought i saw..." Ella started before she said "Oh never mind, i must be seeing things. Come on, we have a missing otter to find."
Ella ran back to the elevator to catch up to Judy before Nick turned his head and spotted a human adult with red hair and glasses talking to Bellwether. Nick frowned for a second before he realized the doors were closing and quickly jumped through it before the doors closed behind him.