Credit
* Zootopia characters that appeared in this chapter belong to Disney
* Ditz, 'Dun Ot', Yuri Grayfur, and Nala Goldmuzz characters belong to me, serving their purpose for this story
I blinked and snapped my attention to Ditz when she waved her right paw up and down, "Well, you gonna go and find her. It sounds like she need you."
Her words echoed in my head, I nodded in understanding. I attempted to jump off 'Dun Ot', but she restrained me from leaving her seat. The weight of her snout lifted from the top of my head, feeling the cool on where she rested. A second later, I felt her wet nose pressing on my left cheek. Wet peck. Once her nose left my cheek, her arms loosened and withdrew from my abdomen. That allowed me to hop off her with ease. I turned to her and she pawed me the basket that I had dropped early. I gave her a thank-you nod.
"Ah, and, please let your brother know that he is needed at the location of the crime scene in the Nocturnal Distract four months ago," I spoke, encouraging 'Dun Ot' to get the back-up ready.
She nodded as she pulled her cPhone out and turned it on. I backpedaled while still on the street as I turned my attention to the table. I waved at the vixens.
"Thanks for the chitchat, and see you later," I called out, exiting the cafe.
I turned to my left as I left the light range and put my ears forth. I was sure that my partner had gone this way as I worked my way toward the corner. I furrowed my eyebrows as I remembered the time Officer Grayfur had taken me, Officer Fluffy, and Officer Goldmuzz back to Precinct Five to wrap up more details on the evidence we had taken from the crime scene. Carrots once told me how she was able to detect the sound o the meter maid alarm by using her ears - I put that lesson in use at this minute. With the sound echoing all over the dark city and my mental map was set up that synchronized with my hearing, I immediately brought the flashback to mind. That was the time I was sitting in the back of the cop cruiser with Carrots. At that time, I was a fox and Carrots was a rabbit. Yuri drove the cruiser while Nala sat in the passenger seat. The cruiser slowed down then stopped when we arrived at the garage of Precinct Five. Yuri shut the engine off once we stopped. We all clicked our seat belts off and got out of the cruiser. After we walked into the building, I felt Carrots' eyes on me when I passed the evidence bag to Yuri. He took it and went to prepare the toolkit. I blinked as I turned to my partner and saw her being lifted by Nala. My nose followed Carrots' appearance and I watched the lioness nuzzling the rabbit lightly.
"Geez, thank you," the rabbit cop mused.
I felt the air surge through my chest to my throat, my cheeks puffed up, and I started a bark of laughter. I bent over and pressed my paw pads on my knees as I continued to laugh. I heard the rabbit's hind-paws thumping on the floor next to me as I wheezed. The sound of my laughter dried up a little bit.
"Hey, what are you doing here? Go help Grayfur with the forensic lab," the chief of Precinct Five called out from the hall.
I turned my attention to Carrots and she gestured at Nala while she responded, "Officer Goldmuzz, may you please lead us to the forensic lab and we can see what we do from that point on."
"Certainly, Officer Hopps. Follow me, you two," the lioness said, starting walking to the lab.
I nodded to Carrots with a knowing smile. We followed Nala to the forensic lab. We arrived at the lab and met Yuri who turned to us. The grey wolf questioned our presence.
I answered, "Your chief didn't want you to steal all the spotlights so he sent us to kitsit you."
"Ha, Chief Thakrar sure cares about good ole' me. And I am glad that he sent you all to me, otherwise I'd sit here, doing all the work myself," Yuri replied.
I shrugged at same time Carrots answered, "Yeah, the important part of doing the lab is teamwork. I hope that you two know the basics. If not, I will cover up the grungy works while Nick explains."
I smiled as I looked at the taller mammals, who shook their heads. I exhaled lightly and got started with the explanation. Carrots turned to the chair and got on it.
"Alright. Listen up, students," I began with my paws in the air. Carrots put on lab gloves and proceeded with the sample as I continued, "You take a little bit of the sample from the evidence and put it under the micro... whatever that item is."
"Uh... it's the microscope," Nala pointed out. I nodded with a smile and pointed at her with my open-palm paw, "Yes - that's it."
I inhaled then I continued, "Then you used the culprit references to find a match within the blood, or evidence, that was left behind. Alternatively, if you can't find the exact match, you can enter it to the machine and let it run a test to make a better match."
"Ah, I see..." the lioness nodded, scratching her chin as she left us, the males, behind.
I watched Nala joining Carrots at the microscope as the latter gave the former the details of how to use it. I turned my attention to Yuri as he crouched beside me.
"I didn't think that you two could pull it off, despite you being a predator and her being a prey," he admitted.
I nodded in agreement, "It was Officer Hopps that put her job above her life. She didn't give up even with me annoying her. She came back on the next day, smacking the fur out of me with the file of my... um, little problem that I failed to cover up. She becomes a successfully bunny cop with me being the first fox cop on the force."
"Hmm," Yuri nodded, stroking his chin with his left paw, "I noticed that Officer Hopps is doing more work while you here just lay back. I find that little... offensive to the team."
I closed my eyes and shook my head, "Hopps and I have our own ways, and we were okay with how it works. I simply use my head and phone to solve the problems where she uses her excellent physical strength to pull up heavy loads."
"I see. That would explain how far you both went, including that biggest case in the century. The legend was wrong, the small guy packs a big punch is true after all," the grey wolf nodded.
I opened my eyes slightly and smiled, "Yeah. And I heard that the quote you made is similar to the quote; 'a small leak will sink a great ship'."
Yuri nodded, continuing stroking his chin with two of his digits, "Well, I have a sister that looked out for the red fox..."
I felt my eyes stinging and I blinked, reverting my sight back to the dark. My eyes were getting dry for not blinking for a little bit. I must be at the parking lot, just a bit away from the alley that Carrots and I went through during that case. Right now, I was pacing around the parking lot. Once the widespread noise around me decreased, I knew I had entered the alley. I was able to focus on memory from before. At that point, I started shaking my head.
"Well," I answered Yuri's unspoken question, "I am unavailable at this minute. I am busy with my duty right now."
The Precinct Five cop nodded in understanding, disappointed in failing to accomplish his goal. We turned our heads to our female partners as they walked to us with their paws empty.
"We are leaving the difficult analysis to the team and we wait. So is everything alright?" Carrots said, asking me after she noticed our 'guy talk'.
I blinked, and the memory vanished from my mind, returning my consciousness to reality as I exited from the other side of the alley. The new area granted me a small space that allowed the larger prey to socialize. It was the same lamppost where Carrots found the clue. The light of that lamppost blinked on and off rapidly, giving me enough light to see the ground surrounding. And there she was - a grey vixen knelt in front of the lamppost. She wore a blue jumpsuit with chest armor and police belt, definitely confirming her as Judy Hopps as Chief Bogo had indirectly informed me. All I could see was the left side of her back as her body slightly rocked back and forth in her huffing and panting. The food basket dangled on my left forearm as I took few steps to the lamppost. She was looking at her paw pads... the metacarpal paws, to be exact. With the sound of her breathing, my chief was right about her not reporting to him for a while. In addition, I put much effort to manage my listening skill to block out the loudness, it proved the same with Carrots... for she put much effort to deal with her vixen skills she hadn't learned before. I jogged to her as her pointy ears folded down onto back of her head. I leaned my right paw onto her shoulder, which stopped her from 'let it go'. I felt and heard her inhale air strongly then I watched her head turn to me, revealing her amethyst eyes. I almost saw the stars twilight in her eyes.
