Chapter 11 – Lost Property

"So, why'd you want to meet up?" The small fennec asked as he turned around to face the back of the van.

The van was nearly exactly the same as Nick remembered it. A dusty, awful mattress on the ground, pin-up posters of vixens on the walls. Same Finnick as always.

"This might sound weird, but I…" He reached into his pocket, and pulled out the picture of him and Judy. He looked at it for a moment, making sure it was real. "I need to ask you about her." He turned the picture around, and pointed at Judy. "Do you recognize her?"

"Well, it looks like the bunny cop…"

Yes!

"But I thought he was a guy."

Fuck!

"You too, Finn?" He sighed.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Alright, do you remember the time we swindled Jumbeaux's last year?" He asked. Maybe asking this kind of question would get his memory to… correct itself, or something.

"Yeah, what the fuck does that have to do with that picture?" Finnick asked, growing frustrated.

"Who was the officer that came in?"

"The bunny cop, Judith or whatever." He answered.

Nick rubbed his temples. "Finnick, something weird is going on." Nick tried to explain. "Everyone's forgotten who my real partner is!"

"I thought your partner was the bunny cop?"

"It is!" He yelled. "But it's not Judas, it's JUDY!"

"Isn't Judy a girl's name?"

"THAT'S BECAUSE SHE'S A GIRL!"

"I thought bunny cop was a boy." Finnick said. "Cool she figured it al out though."

"You're… you're not getting it, Finnick!" He said, exasperatedly. "Just the other day, my partner was Judy Hopps, but when I woke up, this criminal named Judas had just… replaced her!"

The fennec looked at him. "I know this sounds completely crazy, but I…" He pulled the picture out again. "I have visual evidence!" The fox pointed towards Judy in the picture. "She was… is real, and I need your help to figure out what happened."

"Are you sure you're not just having a psychotic breakdown?" Finnick asked. "Do you need to go to the hospital, or…?"

"It's not just this, though!" He wasn't sure if explaining this would make Finnick think he was more or less crazy. "Weaselton was dead."

"What!?" Finnick yelled, confused. "When'd he bite it? Please tell me he got sent to the chair again."

"He WAS dead!" Nick emphasized. "I turned away for a minute, and suddenly, he was alive again!" The fennec stared at him again. "Seriously, I saw his guts, on the ground, and a few minutes later, he was back to selling bootlegs! There were officers there, and they were gone when I went back!"

"Let me guess, you don't have proof on this one, do you?" Finnick asked.

"This happened to four other mammals, Finn!" He cleared his throat. "I saw Flash get killed."

"Seriously?" Finnick said, a bit amused. "What killed him?"

"Well it was a, uh…" He paused, thinking of how to best describe the monster. "It was a one-eyed bat with laser vision!"

He slapped himself internally. Good job, Wilde.

Finnick glared at him. "Any other things you want to come up with?" He asked. The fennec was egging him on, but he asked, so…

"There was also this panther, he was there when Flash got brought back to life." He explained. "When me and Judas chased after him, it was suddenly night."

"Aw, I was hoping it'd be something a bit crazier than that." Finn lamented. "Anyway, I'm taking you to the hospital."

"This is serious, Finn!"

"Oh, I know how serious this is." He assured, starting up the van. The fox fell forward onto the grody mattress as the van pulled out of the alley it was parked in.

He crawled up. "I know it sounds crazy, but it's true!" He tried to assure, tears nearly forming in his eyes. Even his own best friend didn't believe him.

"I'm doing this for your own good, Nicky." Finnick said, a bit solemnly. "I knew something like this was going to happen…"

Nick rose to his feet, a bit unsteady as the van rocked back and forth. "Well, I have a rabbit to find!" He said, before kicking the back doors open.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"

"See ya, Finn!" He gave a wave, and jumped out, rolling across the ground. He skidded t a halt, watching as the van drove off. He'd probably be coming around to get him in a minute. Then there was a honk.

He looked to his other side, a large truck was heading for him. Maybe this wasn't the best idea.

He quickly scampered to his feet and leaped out of the way, the truck barely missing him. He leaped out of the way again as a smaller car headed towards him. Pretty soon, he was playing the traffic tango, dancing in between speeding vehicles of all shapes.

He eventually reached the sidewalk, and took a deep breath. It hit him he really had no idea where to start looking for Judy. If she had completely vanished, then obviously he couldn't get any info. That panther probably knew something, but who knows where he had gone.

He stood there for a few seconds, thinking, before he saw the van, tacky side painting and all, park next to him.

Finnick hopped out. "What the fuck are you doing, Nick?!" He yelled, purposely hopping on top of the fox's tail.

He let out a cry of pain as the fennec stomped on his tail, before pulling it back like a rug from under his feet. "I'm serious about all of this, Finnick!" He yelled.

"I can tell, and that's why I'm worried!" The fennec yelled back. "You yelling about this stuff really seriously probably means you believe it!"

"But it's all real, I swear!" He reiterated. "I'm not crazy! I'm not…" His eyes widened, as he watched something rather far away speeding towards them. It had a single light, and as it got closer, there was the sound of an engine.

It was a motorbike heading right towards them.

"JUMP!" Nick yelled.

"What-"

Nick grabbed Finnick, just before the bike hit them. They rolled across the ground, and looked up.

"Aw, I was hopin' to hit that one." The rider said, getting off the bike. The bike itself was a chopper, with several disturbing modifications, like what was probably a very real fox skull tacked on to the front, and several blood-stained spikes hanging off the sides.

The rider was a rabbit, but didn't look normal. It had a mask, looked to be made of rusted steel, bolted directly to his face, only its purple, bloodshot eyes peering through. He was also noticeably more muscular than you'd expect a rabbit to be, and wore what looked like football armor, if football armor was made of steel and spikes. It also had a torn-up suit underneath the armor.

"Yikes, you get hit by a punk convention or something?" Finnick joked as the two got up.

"Did you just try and run us over!?" Nick questioned.

"What the fuck's it seem like, fox boy?" The rabbit said. "Now, I need you to come with me…" He quickly reached for two objects hanging from its legs by holsters. "Or else things are gonna get real messy."

He was pointing guns at them.

"Here's the deal," The rabbit continued. "You become my hostage willingly, or I shoot you in the leg, and take you myself." He glanced over at Finnick. "And I get another trophy. What's it going to be?"

"You do realize you're threatening a police officer right now, right?" Nick asked. "And that all firearms aren't allowed within city limits?"

"Holy shit, you are a hell of a lot like him." The rabbit said in disbelief, not taking his aim off them. "Listen, Wilde, we don't follow your rules where I come from. So, what's it gonna be?"

Nick thought for a second. There wasn't a win here, it was either be kidnapped, or be shot, kidnapped, and have his best friend killed. He wiggled his digits, and glanced at the van. The door was still open. He let out a sigh. "I'll go with you, just let Finnick go."

"Aw, I was hoping you'd put up some resistance." The biker said, sounding genuinely sad. "But I gave you the choice, so get going, fennec."

"Nick-"

"Just go, Finn." Nick said, stepping up to the rabbit on the pavement.

Finnick sighed, and headed for the van, entering it from the opposite side. The other door was still hanging open.

"So, I used to know a rabbit." Nick started, to the rabbit's confusion. "Well, two actually. Maybe you're part of the same family?"

"My family died years ago, fox." The rabbit said. "And since it won't matter anyway, my name's Judge, as in 'your judgement day'."

"Very clever." He quickly glanced over at the van, Finnick had just started it up. "But I don't think you're clever enough."

"What?"

The van quickly passed by, and Nick turned around, leaping through the open door. "What the hell are you doing!?" Finnick yelled, as he had nearly startled the fennec to death.

"GOD DAMN IT!" Judge yelled. "ANOTHER FUCKING FOX TRICK!"

"See ya, sucker!" Nick yelled, quickly waving his paw out of the open window.

"You think you can trick me, huh?" Judge said to himself, hopping onto the bike. "Well, let's see how you deal with this."

"Do you know that guy or something?" Finnick asked, watching in the mirror as he started after them on his bike. "Guy you conned and forgot about maybe?"

"Kind of hard to forget a face like that." Nick said.

"He's right behind us, you know that, right?"

There was a sudden loud bang at the back door.

"I think he's closer than right behind, Finn."

Another loud bang, and the doors flew open. "Did he just shoot my van!?" Finnick yelled.

Nick looked out the open doors. The rabbit was aiming his gun into the van. Directly at Finnick. Without thinking, he jumped out of his seat, and ran to the back of the van. He quickly picked up a baseball bat laying on the ground, and leaped out, landing on the bike. He uneasily stood on the front section, using the fox skull as leverage.

"What the fuck?" The rabbit yelled, as Nick slashed the gun out of his hand with his claws. He swung the bat down, but Judge pulled out a large combat knife and blocked it.

He could feel the bike begin to swerve as the rabbit pulled out something with his other paw. Nick felt something steel plug into his gut. "You do know I have two of these, right?"

Nick gulped.

He swiftly lifted his knee, bringing the gun up a bit, and then slammed the baseball on the rabbit's paw. There was the sound of bones cracking as he yelled in pain and dropped the gun.

Judge pulled his paw back. "You broke my god damn paw, you fuckin' fox!" Judge lashed out with his knife, slashing Nick right in the face. He stumbled, nearly falling off the bike. The fox then swung at the rabbit with the baseball bat, cracking him right in the side of the face. There was a sickening crack, a sound Nick usually knew was a bad sign.

The rabbit shook a bit from the shock of the blow, before letting out a surprisingly threatening growl, lunging forward with the knife. Nick quickly leaped over, and grabbed onto the handle above the seat. Judge jabbed his knife directly into the fox skull, and struggled to pull it out.

Nick dropped the baseball bat with a thud, and swung through the gap under the handle, into the seat. He pushed the rabbit up by his feet, leaving him dangling by the knife from the front. "Alright, just need to figure out how to stop this thing!" Nick said to himself. He looked up, seeing Judge begin to slowly climb back up onto the bike.

How did he do this when he had a bike as a kid? There was a brake handle, right? Oh, there it was, guess it was a universal bike thing. He quickly pressed it inwards, and gripped tight as the bike skid to a halt.

The force of the stop was greater than he had expected, and Judge went flying off… directly into the back of Finnick's van. Great, he just managed to make this worse. How do you start a motorcycle, again? Isn't there a key, or…?

He looked back up, and the van had stopped a few meters away from the bike. He got off, and ran towards it. 'Please, please, please don't hurt Finn!' He repeated in his head as he ran over to the van.

As he reached the doors, they swung open. Judge held Finnick, knife directly to his throat. "Any sudden moves, and he gets it." Judge threatened.

Nick sighed. "Alright, I'll go with you, for real. Just… please don't hurt Finn." He pleaded, genuinely.

"That's more like it." Judge said. He pulled the knife away, and tossed Finnick to the ground.

"Nick," Finnick started, getting up. "Are you seriously willing to go with a psychopath just to protect me?"

"I'm a cop, Finn." He said. "Sometimes, sacrificing yourself is-"

Bang.

Nick fell to the ground screaming, clutching his leg. Judge had just shot him in the leg.

"Oh yeah, did I mention I had a third gun?" Judge mocked, waving the gun around. He hopped out of the van, and somehow managed to lift Nick up on his own, chucking him into the back.

"HEY!" Finnick yelled, watching as Judge climbed into the front seat. "YOU'RE GONNA GET BLOOD ALL OVER MY BED!"

Nick felt his leg. He had been shot, surprisingly precisely, right through the heel. He was completely incapable of moving it. He had only one defense left.

Talking.

"Where are you taking me?" Nick asked. "Are you one of Mr. Big's goons?"

"Nope."

"The wolf pack, maybe?" He guessed. "You have the bike thing down."

"Nadda."

"Did I scam you at some point before? Maybe sold you some bad face cream?"

Judge let out a chuckle. "If you think I'm weird, wait 'til you see who I work for!" He laughed. "And the company he keeps, a bunch of grade A loons! Wonder why a guy like that would want you and your partner, though."

"Partner…?" He said to himself. "Is it Judy?" For once, being shot in the foot and captured by a psychotic biker might have been a… somewhat good thing!

"How should I know, I wasn't the one sent on a rabbit chase." Judge replied. "I do feel bad for those rabbits though, the two he sent after them were terrifying!"

Well, that sounded bad. This guy was terrifying enough, what could possibly be worse than a psycho with guns? Then, Nick thought of something. "So, you need us… alive?" He asked.

"Unfortunately, yes." The rabbit said. "It's gonna be worth it, though. I just know it."

With a bit of quiet, Nick had time to fully think over some of the odd things the rabbit had said. "So, you said you come from a place that doesn't follow laws," He started. "Where's that? Brisbane?"

"Oh, I come from much, much farther than that." He laughed.

"And you mentioned that you lost your family?" He continued. "Is that a metaphorical losing your family, or is it literal?"

"Absolutely literal."

He cringed a bit. "And, uh, you mentioned that I reminded you of someone. Who was it?"

"Just an old friend." Judge answered, somewhat sarcastically. "All you're really missing is that you have both your eyes and arms!" He laughed at his own joke, and then let out a sneer. "If you want, I could take them for you."

"I'd prefer to have both of those still on my person, but thanks."

"You are a lot more talkative than him, though." Judge continued. He seemed to enjoy talking about… whoever this was. "Maybe you just haven't lost the optimism yet." He laughed. "You will shortly, though."

Nick took that as a sign to shut up. None of this was helping, and he was just kind of feeling worse about everything.

After that, there was silence for a good half hour, as they continued to drive. Nick was left with his thoughts. Was Judy alright? Was it even Judy, or was he just being too optimistic? He could at least mostly confirm that she wasn't dead if they needed him alive.

Wait, did he say there were two rabbits? Who else could they be? Thoughts were swirling through his head as he tried to stop his leg from bleeding out. Finnick was right to be worried, bloodstains were hard to get out of mattresses.

"Alright," Judge finally said, the van suddenly halting. "We're here."

He hopped into the back of the van, and lifted the fox over his shoulder, kicking open the back doors. Nick swivelled his neck around, trying to figure where they were. It was outside an abandoned warehouse, by the looks of it. One with a massive hole plugged through the wall.

They entered through the hole, and Judge tossed him to the ground. "Alright, Coyote, I got the mark." He said into the darkness of the warehouse.

Nick looked around. It was mostly empty, but he could see something a few meters off. It was another rabbit, wrapped in chains. "Judy!?" He cried.

The rabbit awkwardly shuffled around in the chains. It was Judas. "What the hell are you doing here?" He asked. Wordlessly, the rabbit nudged his head, motioning towards the corner.

Nick looked over, all he could see in the corner was darkness. Well, it was a much deeper darkness than the rest of the building, which was… off-putting.

"Where the hell is that mutt?" Judge said. Suddenly, there was the sound of a large rip. Nick looked over, watching as a green vortex ripped itself into reality. Out of it stepped a shaggy looking, well, coyote.

"Finally, took you long enough." He said, a bit smugly. "So, you ready to go do the ritual?"

"You never said anything about a ritual." Judge said, crossing his arms.

"Well, it's less a ritual, and more…" He shrugged. "Eh, you'll see soon enough."

"Who the hell are you?" Nick asked, looking up at the coyote.

"Name's Coyote to you single dimensional beings." He said. "Make fun of it, and you'll end up like your friend over there."

Nick looked back at Judas. He was absolutely miserable looking. "What did you do to him?" Nick asked. Coyote chuckled, and waved his paw. The rabbit seemed to move across the ground, like the ground itself was moving him, until he was right next to the fox.

Up close, Nick's question was answered. Judas simply did not have a mouth anymore. Where it was once was, was instead a patch of fur matching up with the rest of his face.

"Okay, I ask again, what did you do o him!?" Nick yelled.

"Yeesh, takes a long time for you lower lifeforms to catch on, huh?" Coyote then noticed the bleeding wound. He sighed, and looked over to the rabbit. "Seriously? He could've died."

"I needed to stop him from hitting me in the head with a goddamn baseball bat!"

"Hmm, can't have you like that." Coyote said. He kneeled, and rubbed his paw over the wound. It started off hurting like hell, but quickly turned into a sting, before, eventually, he couldn't feel anything.

Nick tried to move his leg. It was perfectly fine now. "How did you…?"

"Consider it payment for any past and future inconveniences." He said, before snapping his claws. Cloth suddenly appeared around Nick, wrapping him up into a near mummy, only his head visible.

He groaned as he tried to break free, but he could tell it was useless. "Ugh, should've seen that one coming."

"OH MAN!" Coyote let out joyously. "Time for the day I've been waiting for years to achieve!" He snapped his claws again, summoning another green portal. "Judge, Void, we got business to attend to!"

Who was "Void"?

Nick found out soon enough, as he watched the darkness from the corner spring to life, a massive swirling vortex of dark smoke. It lifted the mouthless Judas into the air, and crawled through the portal.

"What the hell was that?" Nick asked. He had just realized how much questioning he had done, but he really had nothing else to say.

"One frightening son of a bitch, is what it is." Judge said, lifting the wrapped-up Nick onto his shoulders. He strolled into the portal. There was a flash.