Judy's ears were pressed against her head as her and Nick hid behind a box, the constant gunfire assaulting her sensitive hearing.
Honestly, if they weren't currently in a life or death situation at the moment, Nick would have probably found the way Judy looked to be pretty funny, as her ears wrapped under her chin made it look like she was wearing a babushka.
Unfortunately, as much as he wanted to comment on it, there was a much more pressing matter currently, so Nick decided to file that away for when they weren't in danger of getting shot.
Reaching down, Nick tapped Judy on the shoulder, catching her attention as he pointed towards the exit before pointing downwards, getting down on all fours as he began crawling.
Even though Nick was admittedly a little apprehensive as to how Judy would understand what he was trying to say (considering how well it went last time), he was still confident in his partner, and he was quickly proven right when he saw bunny ears out of the corner of his eye as Judy began crawling after him.
As the police and gang traded fire, Nick and Judy continued making their way towards the exit, the former thanking whoever was watching over them that their small stature helped them escape notice.
Eventually, they soon managed to reach the police side of the warehouse unharmed, and after a few seconds of sprinting from cover to cover, they found Chief Bogo rushing into the area, sliding feet first into the area before coming to a stop pressed up against a box that as luck would have it was stacked right next to Nick and Judy's.
"What in the bloody hell happened? I couldn't get a straight answer from SWAT once the mayhem started." said Bogo, shouting over the gunfire.
"I don't know, Chief!" said Judy, the bunny's voice barely carrying over the noise. "They must have some flashlights attached under their barrels, because I saw a bunch of them turn on when you guys busted through the door!"
"How did they do it so quickly, then?" asked Bogo. "It was barely a couple of seconds before they started firing!"
As the gunfire continued unabated (minus some small breaks for reloading), the three of them pondered the question for just a few seconds before a theory came from an unexpected source.
"Uh, it might be that they were expecting us after our escapades with getting the pictures."
Despite it being incredibly noisy, they both could hear Bogo sigh, rubbing at his forehead with a hoof as he debated whether to blame Nick and Judy or blame himself for not taking that factor into account.
He decided on ignoring it in favor of dealing with the problem in front of them, so after a few moments, he looked down towards his youngest officers.
"The van's right outside. You two get yourselves armed and back in here. We're going to need all of the firepower we can get if we're going to win this."
"Uh, sir?" said Nick. "I'm pretty sure we're not big enough to be able to handle weapons like that."
Nick was looking down at what Bogo had in his hooves, which was a 12-gauge shotgun specially modified to fire non-lethal pellets. It was also about as long as Nick was tall, which told him pretty easily that there was no way he was going to be able to use that.
"There should be some tranq pistols in there as well. They're not used all that often, so I believe that you're going to have to search for them."
Both Nick and Judy nodded before heading towards the exit, staying as low as they possibly could to avoid exposing any part of their body to the guns being fired at them.
Luckily, it wasn't all that far to the doorway, and once they'd actually made it there, they quickly dashed around the damaged doorframe to safety.
Now that the gunfire was slightly less earsplitting, Nick and Judy took a few moments to catch their breath.
"Whew…sure didn't think that would happen today, huh?" said Nick, looking down at his partner.
"You think?" asked Judy sarcastically before shaking her head. "Come on, let's go find the van."
Luckily, they didn't have to look too far before they found said van, and they even got another lucky break as the back doors weren't completely shut.
Pulling himself up on to the bumper, Nick threaded his fingers through the opening in the doorway before giving it a nice pull.
The door very easily flew open, but unlike when he went with the door back when he was doing laundry, this time Nick managed to let go of the door on time, grabbing on to the other door to prevent himself from falling off of the bumper and hitting the ground.
"Ladies first." said Nick, chuckling as he gestured towards the doorway from his awkward position hanging off of the door.
Judy rolled her eyes before hopping into the van, helping Nick in as well before the two of them got to searching.
Thankfully, it didn't take them too long to find the pistols, as there surprisingly weren't that many guns stored in the vehicle. If it was only because most of them were in use, neither of them would know for sure, but they decided just to take the lucky break and run with it.
Hopping down once more, Nick and Judy sprinted back to the warehouse door, pausing at the edge of the doorway as they traded looks.
"Ready to go?" asked Judy, a determined look on her face.
"Ready as I'll ever be."
Holding up a paw to tell Nick to stay there, Judy listened carefully to the sound of gunfire, waiting for the best time for them to rejoin the fray without getting taken down.
Luckily, by the time they've returned, the gunfire had slowed down dramatically as the amount of ammo both sides had dropped.
As Judy listened intently, she could hear a few seconds of fire closer to her before there was another burst of fire coming from farther away, and she quickly realized that the cops and gang members were trading fire.
Quickly formulating a plan, Judy waited for the louder portion of gunfire to be going on before signaling to Nick and rushing back inside, sliding into the side of a box just as the gang members started to fire again.
"What took you two so long?" asked Chief Bogo from a nearby box, leaning over and firing a few shots from his shotgun when he got a chance.
"Trying not to get shot, sir." said Nick, firing a few shots before ducking backwards as a bullet flew past him. "How are things going in here?"
"Not well." he said. "Delgato and one of the Rainforest officers took bullets. Thankfully, they're not life-threatening, but now we're down two officers!"
"What about the gang?"
"McHorn took down a few of them, but that's about it. They're using guns from boxes that they already have open, and I believe they might be running low."
"Chief, we can't let them get their paws on any of the other boxes, or we're going to be overpowered!"
"Exactly, which is why we need to keep up the pressure! So why are you not firing back at them?"
Nick jumped, realizing that his conversation with Bogo had indeed caused him to forget to keep up the pistol fire.
Leaning around once more, Nick fired off a few more shots before narrowly dodging yet another close shot.
As for Judy, she was only half-listening to Bogo's status report, mostly because she wanted to focus on the mess in front of her.
However, as she continued to fire, she noticed a gang member sprinting towards the side of the warehouse.
Judy didn't want to risk letting him run around where they couldn't see him, so she quickly lined up the sights, leading the shot before firing.
Even over the gunfire, Judy could hear the thunk of the dart contacting flesh, and the gang member tripped over his own feet and hit the ground unconscious.
What came next was a surprise to the rabbit, as a crowbar flew out of the gang member's paw, loudly clattering on to the floor before sliding between some boxes and out of view.
Judy could tell that a fair share of the gang members had heard the crowbar fall, but none of them risked going for it considering the SWAT team was still putting up a fight.
However, as Judy peered around her cover, she could see another gang member, a jaguar, repeatedly glance towards where the crowbar came to a stop, no doubt deciding whether to go for it.
Judy knew that she had to stop him before he got there, she was surprised to find that Nick had the same idea, sprinting out of his cover and diving to the ground once he reached the end of the firing line.
Judy was about to head off after him, but before she could do so, she was stopped by a mass of buffalo, as Chief Bogo took Nick's cover spot and held her back before she could run off.
"Stay here, Hopps! Wilde can handle himself, and I need all of the firepower I can get."
Judy desperately wanted to ignore Bogo's orders and rush off to help her friend, but committing insubordination when they were already on thin ice was just asking for trouble, so she had no choice but to put her complete trust in Nick and hope that he could stop the jaguar from getting the crowbar.
As the gun battle raged on, Nick sprinted as hard as he could manage, sliding around a corner and coming to a stop to find the jaguar just a few feet away, grabbing the crowbar just as Nick laid eyes on him.
"Police! Drop the crowbar!" Nick shouted, pointing his tranq pistol at the jaguar, who froze in his tracks before looking back at the fox and smirking.
"Yeah, I don't think I will." he said.
The jaguar just happened to be standing next to one of the boxes as he spoke, and he quickly flipped the instrument on to its pointy end, intending to jam it in to the box and get the lid off.
However, before he could do so, Nick quickly squeezed off a few shots, forcing the jaguar to move his arms out of the way to dodge the darts.
The jaguar then turned tail and ran, deciding that he was going to try and get some space between him and Nick before making another attempt at a box. This forced Nick to sprint just as hard as he was going before to keep up.
Luckily, Nick knew quite well that he was never going to catch up to the jaguar, as they were naturally much faster than foxes. He had something completely different in mind, though.
Lowering his aim, Nick squeezed off another shot, which hit its mark as it sunk right into the jaguar's thigh, causing the gang member to stumble temporarily before going off running once more.
Thankfully, the drugs seemed to be doing the trick, as Nick could see the jaguar start to slow down, the gang member starting to limp as the limb went numb.
Pouring on a burst of speed, Nick finally managed to catch up, slamming his shoulder into the jaguar's back as he tackled him to the ground, the crowbar once again clattering on to the floor.
This time, though, there just happened to be a box in their path, so the crowbar didn't slide too far away.
Unfortunately, it was close enough that the jaguar was still putting up a fight despite his bum leg, grabbing for the crowbar and forcing Nick to pull roughly on his arms to keep them away from the weapon.
With both of his paws occupied keeping the jaguar from getting to the crowbar, Nick couldn't just shoot him in the neck with the tranq gun and be done with it, so he had to be creative.
Thankfully, Nick practically oozed creativity, and with his paw-to-paw training in the forefront of his mind, he quickly wrapped his arms around the jaguar's neck.
The jaguar was in no way experienced in fighting techniques, so once Nick managed to lock in a sleeper hold and roll over to turn it into a rear naked choke, he had no chance.
Sure, the jaguar tried to fight back, but being in a blind panic meant that he couldn't even think straight, so the most he could do is flail.
Soon enough, though, Nick could hear the jaguar go quiet, and he knew that the gang member had passed out from the lack of air combined with the cocktail of drugs in his system.
After roughly pushing the jaguar off of him, Nick stood up, looking down at the jaguar and smiling as he made a mental note to tell Judy later about how badass he was taking him down.
Filing the thought in the back of his mind, Nick reached down and grabbed the crowbar, turning it over in his paws a few times before ducking as a stray bullet whizzed past him.
"I'd better get back." he said to himself. Sprinting off, Nick came to a stop just as he turned around the corner to where the SWAT officers were still firing away.
Nick briefly considered just heading back to where Judy was and bringing the crowbar with him, but after a few seconds of thought, he realized that it would be way too cumbersome to try and lug that thing around.
So, after ducking out of sight and looking around the nearby area, Nick decided to get rid of it, thinking that it would be better if he put it in a safe place, at least until they dealt with the gang.
Staying low, Nick crawled over to a nearby window. Pushing it open, Nick quickly dropped the crowbar through the opening, hearing the thunk of it hitting dirt before closing the window and rushing to join his partner.
"Nick! You're alright!" said Judy, resisting the urge to hug him as he joined her. "Where's the crowbar?"
"Outside." he said simply. "They'll have to go through us if they want to get it."
"That's pretty smart." said Judy, slightly surprised at how clever Nick was being.
"Well, at least we know we're on the same boat as them, right?" he asked.
"Kind of?"
"What do you mean?" asked Nick, slightly sick as he thought about the implications.
"Well, I knocked out two or three more, and Higgins and Fangmeyer took out a couple, too, but we're still outnumbered considering McHorn and the Chief are injured."
Worried, Nick looked over at the two injured officers in question, but despite some slowed movements due to some bullet wounds, both of them were toughing it out, not wanting to leave the ZPD at a disadvantage when they were so close.
"Come on, Carrots. We're never outnumbered when those guys are around. Let's take these guys down!"
Despite some slight surprise at Nick's sudden burst of confidence, Judy nodded, and the two of them kept up their fire, the battle raging on as the two sides fought for superiority.
So, I wasn't going to originally say anything after this, but when I went to check on my profile, I saw that The Worst Connection's broken 200 favorites! Certainly didn't expect that to happen, and heck, I think this has essentially made it my most popular fic by far.
Also, seeing that happen has also convinced me to change my mind about taking a break from Zootopia fics. I'm still not starting another right away (I've got other fics I want to focus on after this is finished), but you guys won't have to wait nearly as long for one to happen.
Anyway, enjoy!