"Hello, Smellwether. Glad to see you're still as smug as ever."
Even though Judy was barely holding her composure, considering they were only feet away from escaping, she still managed to affix the mad sheep with the most hateful glare she could muster.
Unfortunately for her, Bellwether appeared to be unaffected by either insult, as she simply chuckled, folding her arms as she watched the group in front of her.
"Real original, Judy. Using Lionheart's old nickname for me sure hits me so hard." she said sarcastically, pointing towards her heart as she spoke.
"Oh, really? I'm surprised that you even have a heart to break."
Bellwether chose not to dignify that insult with an answer, instead changing the subject as she clapped her hooves together.
"Now, I'm sure you all know why I'm here."
Holding out her hoof, Bellwether's glare darkened as she spoke her next words with a menacing tone.
"Hand over the case, now."
"How about you go choke on a Night Howler, lady? I'm sure you'll get an idea of what the predators that you darted had to go through." said Finnick, affixing Bellwether with his own glare as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Instead of answering immediately, Bellwether walked forwards, stopping a few inches in front of Finnick as she stared down the fennec. Finnick barely had any time to question what she was doing before he was on the ground, the wind knocked out of him after a surprisingly vicious punch to the gut from the sheep mayor.
"Fin!" shouted Judy.
She quickly rushed over to the downed fox, slowly helping him back to his feet, Finnick coughing as he attempted to breathe again.
"There, that should show you that I'm not screwing around. Now, is there anyone else that would like to play hero?" asked Bellwether, a wicked smile on her face as she watched the scene in front of her.
Nobody gave her an answer, but Bellwether frankly wasn't expecting one considering what she did. Still, she really wanted to drive her point across as clearly as possible, so after taking their silence as their answer, she snapped her hooves together.
At first, the group was unsure of what the snapping noise entailed, but their questions were answered when the Razorbacks reached behind their backs, retrieving rifles for each of them as they pointed them at the heroes in front of them.
"Whoa, wait! What are you doing?" asked Judy, panicking as soon as she realized that the weapons they were holding were very real.
"Eliminating you all from the equation. You see, I could just send you back to prison, but I think it's easier just to kill you. Besides, the Devil's Backbone is full again, and I don't want to risk giving you the time."
Bellwether almost looked disappointed after that last sentence, but her look quickly changed into one of manic glee as she turned back towards her bodyguards.
However, before she could actually give them the signal to start firing, she was once again interrupted by Judy, who was making every attempt to delay the inevitable as she tried to think of a way to get out of this mess.
"Wait!"
"God, you're infuriating." said Bellwether with a heavy sigh. "What do you want?"
"How did you even get all of these weapons? I thought Zootopia banned them years ago."
Bellwether briefly considered just refusing to answer Judy's question, but after a few seconds of thought, she realized that the rabbit was going to be dead soon, so there was no real reason not to hide it, especially with the anything that could record her speech.
Unfortunately, she couldn't have predicted another method outside of her control, as when Nick glanced over towards Finnick to check to make sure if he was okay, he spotted the bright orange color of her infamous carrot pen clutched inside the paw that was against Finnick's back, finger on the record button.
"You sly bunny." thought Nick, impressed by Judy's quick thinking.
Luckily, Bellwether was none the wiser thanks to the fox being a professional at hiding his emotions, the mask still very much on his muzzle as he stared straight ahead at the mad sheep.
As for Bellwether herself, she hemmed and hawed for a few more moments debating whether she was even making the right decision in choosing to answer Judy's question. Thankfully, it didn't take much longer though before she turned to face everyone, eager to finally speak once more.
"Well, I like to think the answer's pretty obvious, right? You can do anything you want when you're the mayor…even get weapons shipped into the city thanks to a Russian drug cartel that just so happens to owe you a boatload of favors."
"Wait, you're involved with Russians?!" asked Judy, baffled by Bellwether's admission.
"Of course! When you're as desperate for power as I was, you'd resort to anything to get your way. Besides, all of the other organizations I worked with wanted too much money."
"Wow…you are revolting." commented Nick, giving Bellwether a disgusted look.
"Why thank you." said Bellwether. "Now, to business."
Turning off to the side, Bellwether started walking, moving out of the path of the four of them before coming to a stop after getting a safe distance away.
"Kill them."
The four Razorbacks quickly lifted their rifles, aiming them right at the faces of the four mammals in front of them.
Having no real way to escape, the four of them prepared themselves for their inevitable deaths, covering their faces as they didn't want to watch what would happen next.
However, before the warthogs could pull the trigger, they were forced to stop when a voice spoke out.
"Wait."
Confused, the warthogs lowered their weapons, wondering what Bellwether was stopping them for.
As for the sheep herself, she was busy staring hatefully at Nick, the fox lifting the briefcase in front of his muzzle for protection.
"One of you." she said, snapping her hooves as she gestured towards the Razorbacks. "Relieve Mr. Wilde of my briefcase before his stupidity damages the contents inside. Feel free to be as rough as you want."
The Razorback on the far right did as Bellwether asked, storing his rifle on his back before stepping forwards, making his way towards the fox as Nick thought quickly of a way to prevent the briefcase from being removed from his possession.
Thankfully an idea came once he realized that none of them were wearing helmets, and in a move that would have been boneheaded if they weren't so desperate, Nick swung the briefcase as hard as he could, aiming upwards as he tried to clock the Razorback in the head.
Luckily, the warthog wasn't prepared for this kind of attack, and he took the full force of a metal object in the face, swinging a full one hundred and eighty degrees before finally dropping to the ground.
Rushing forwards, Nick quickly grabbed the rifle off of the downed Razorback, pointing it towards Bellwether and the other three still conscious warthogs.
"Nobody move and no one gets hurt!"
Despite being in a severe amount of pain and also with the gun being meant for mammals double his size, Nick's frantic tone surprisingly helped him stay alive for a little bit longer, as the other Razorbacks held off on firing thanks to their downed brother being in the line of fire.
Unfortunately, this did not make Bellwether happy. Fuming, she watched as the Razorbacks continued to point their guns at the heroes while at the same time refusing to fire.
"What are you all doing? Shoot them!"
Even with her enraged tone, the warthogs still refused to fire and Nick, sensing an opportunity, hefted the still woozy Razorback on to his haunches, hiding behind the large mammal as a proverbial shield as he desperately tried to handle both the warthog's considerable heft and the too large gun in his paws.
Needless to say, this was something that Bellwether wasn't going to stand for.
So, in an attempt to get her plan moving, Bellwether stomped over to the Razorback nearest her, swiping a pistol from his holster before she quickly fired, catching the downed Razorback right between the eyes as it killed him instantly.
Thankfully, the bullet narrowly missed Nick's head, almost clipping one of his ears. Still, though, he did end up getting a face full of blood, which completely caught the normally quick witted fox off guard.
"There! Now that he's dealt with, would you mind shooting all of them already?!" said Bellwether, angrily pointing towards the still stunned heroes as her voice rose up to a shout thanks to how annoyed she was getting.
To her surprise, though, instead of following her directions and firing, the three remaining Razorbacks rounded on her, staring her down as the two on the far end formed a line facing the evil sheep.
There were a few moments of confusion as Judy and the others watched what the Razorbacks were going to do. Even Bellwether was stunned, wondering just what was going on to make them act this way.
Their questions were answered when all three of the warthogs dropped their guns on to the floor, unclipping everything from their backs and belts as they left everything in one giant pile in front of them.
"Wait, what are you doing?" asked Bellwether, stunned as she watched the display.
"Quitting." said the warthog in the middle, which Judy assumed must have been the leader judging by his large size.
"Quitting?"
Bellwether barely had any time to register the word before the remaining Razorbacks starting walking towards the front door, intending to leave her behind.
"Wait! You can't do this to me!" she yelled, rushing after them.
"We can and we have!" said the leader, whirling around to address the sheep mayor. "No one, and I mean no one kills our brother and gets away with it."
The warthog's menacing tone caught Bellwether off guard for a moment, her instincts peeking through a bit as she stepped back. However, she was quickly able to quash them down as she rose to her full height, trying her best to look intimidating despite being a quarter of their size.
"Then why don't you just kill me then, huh? I thought you just said no one gets away with something like what I just did."
The warthog simply scoffed, unimpressed by Bellwether's display of bravado.
"We're bodyguards, not assassins. Besides, we're more than happy to see you rot in prison once these guys arrest your fuzzy butt."
The leader quickly gestured towards the still very much puzzled heroes as the other two Razorbacks around him nodded in agreement with the leader's sentiment.
Ignoring Bellwether's continued pleas and threats, the three remaining Razorbacks left the room after picking up their fallen brother, two of them carrying the load between them, leaving a stunned sheep alone in the room with the four heroes.
Paralyzed after realizing just how screwed she was, Bellwether whipped her head back and forth between the heroes and the front door, taking the few moments she had to decide what her best course of action was.
Unfortunately for her, with how much her world was crumbling in front of her, she clearly wasn't thinking straight.
In a fit of madness, Bellwether rushed towards the pile of guns, intending to do the job she tasked the Razorbacks with herself.
However, with three out of the four of them downed for one reason or another, it was left to Eric to prevent Bellwether from making it to the pile, and prevent her he did.
Dodging around the mess of bodies in front of him, Eric went down on all fours, rushing forwards as fast as he could towards the pile of guns in an attempt to beat Bellwether to it.
It was definitely a close call, but Eric managed to make it with only a second to spare, cutting off Bellwether's route as he threw all of his weight in to her, sending the sheep flying into the nearby reception desk.
The room fell silent once more after the crash of sheep hitting wood, the silence even coming from the outside as well, giving the four of them a clue that the battle raging out there was now over.
As much as they wanted to see what happened outside (considering their worry for the safety of the other predators), what was happening inside was way more important to them.
So, after the three of them stepped forwards to rejoin Eric, with Judy helping Nick walk thanks to the massive amount of pain he was in, Bellwether's eyes opened once more, widening in surprise before they darkened into another glare.
"So what are you going to do to me, huh? Kill me? I'm sure you'd like to do that just so you can get me out of your fur for good, right?"
Judy had no intention of admitting it to anyone, but she had briefly considered following through with Bellwether's suggestion. With how badly the sheep managed to screw up her life, she could imagine there would be quite a few people who'd want to get at least an ounce of revenge.
Still, even though she technically wasn't an officer, her morals still won out easily, especially since she'd learn from others' experiences that you'd barely get any self-gratification from committing murder as an act of revenge.
So, instead of going over to grab a gun, Judy instead kneeled down so that the two were eye to eye.
"I'm not going to kill you, Dawn." she said, emphasizing her point by referring to the sheep by her first name. "I'm going to expose everything you've ever done to destroy this city.
"What…with that briefcase?" asked Bellwether, pointing towards the now dented case sitting nearby. "I'd be surprised if the contents inside weren't mush after that idiotic thing that fox did."
"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about that, soon-to-be ex-mayor Bellwether." said Judy in an almost sing-song manner.
"And why's that?"
"Because I've got a backup plan."
Without waiting for a query from the sheep about the nature of her plan, Judy whipped out the carrot pen, hitting the play button as Bellwether's confession about her involvement with the illegal arms trade broadcasted throughout the room, leaving the sheep herself stunned.
"W-wait, I thought that pen was destroyed!" she said frantically.
"Oh, it was. This is a new one. I found a pretty nice store that sells them at a good price."
Bellwether knew that she was done at this point, so despite every fiber of her being screaming at her to run and go into hiding, she didn't move, watching as Judy walked over to the receptionist's desk, hopping up on top before grabbing the receiver of the phone.
"Hi, Chief Bogo? It's Officer Hopps." said Judy after the dial tone stopped, immediately pulling the receiver away from her ear as the buffalo started yelling.
"Yes, I know. I'm sorry for disappearing like I did…and getting a lot of your officers hurt…but seriously, I've got Mayor Bellwether here, and I've got some pretty concrete evidence that she's been up to some shady business. Honestly, you really have to see this."
Judy once again fell silent, listening as Chief Bogo continued speaking on the other end of the line.
"Thank you, sir. We'll keep an eye on her."
After hanging up the phone, Judy hopped down from the desk before addressing the others.
"The ZPD'll be here in about fifteen minutes. Our riots kind of slowed them down a bit."
Judy was fully expecting the four of them to show that they understood, but dissension ended up coming from an unexpected source.
"The ZPD? Are you serious?"
"Yeah, why?" she asked Eric, who was the one who spoke up.
"I really need to go, now!"