"The evening sings in a voice of amber, and the dawn is surely coming." - Al Stewart
7:00
The first few steps may not always be the hardest, but they will always be the most pivotal.
For Nick and Judy's case, it was just another day on the job, as usual. There was nothing difficult whatsoever about making a quick run to the ZPD, of course.
Yet this new day held hidden pivotal repercussions to the likes of their entire undercover mission: The evidence that they (Judy) had gathered over the course of the previous twenty-four hours was far from unimportant. Now, they believed that they both at last had enough evidence to prove to chief Bogo that Jack was guilty of his accusations.
Neither had any intentions on going in to their fake undercover-work jobs that day: They were so confident in their efforts, that they believed they wouldn't have to return to Jack's tower again. Or at least, they certainly hoped such. Nick was more pessimistic, and he took the whole situation with a grain of salt: Knowing how fickle and unproductive the ZPD committee could be even when it came to making the simplest of decisions, he had a feeling that Bogo would send them back into Jack's company so as to put the finalizing touches on their mission before the ZPD kicked down the doors and dragged Jack to prison.
As he gathered his remaining under-cover issued clothes; Finishing with his tie, which he promptly wrapped around his graphite-colored neck. All the dye in his fur was still as good as ever, for the case. Meanwhile, Judy was taking the time to call a cab that was actually sized for them, since the previous night's taxi experience had been less than pleasant. The fox was just about to go and join his mate outside in the hotel hallway - Walking out the door with a smug smile on his face - When he realized that he had, in fact, completely forgotten about the only real piece of physical evidence that they had gathered. Turning back around and reentering their assigned hotel room, Nick searched frantically for the pangolin scale that Judy had brought with her from Jack's office the previous night. After a few frantic seconds of haphazard searching, he located the item still placed in the exact spot as it was when he had set it down: Lying atop the tiny table in the corner of the room, still tucked away inside the plastic zip-lock bag's interior.
When he left the hotel room and stepped into the hall-way, making sure to lock the door behind him as he did, he immediately spotted Judy, whom was positioned near the staircase at the far corner of the hall-way. Together, the two of them exited the building and met with their taxi at the rendezvous point that had been arranged during Judy's previous phone-call.
During the ride to the ZPD head-quarters, which in of itself took nearly a half-hour of driving through morning-traffic clogged streets, Nick spent his time idly chatting with both Judy and the taxi-driver, who happened to be a much friendlier mammal than what drove the last taxi that they had taken. While that one had been a gruff old bear, this driver was a female armadillo, so the size comparisons between all three mammals didn't result in any too uncomfortable scenarios... Or conversations.
Soon enough, the jokes grew stale and the banter subsided, as the ZPD was at last in sight for all to see: After paying their respective fees and bidding their driver farewell, they began their journey across the vast parking lot and to the entrance of the ZPD head-quarters.
As Judy skipped by thoughtlessly and excitedly, Nick eyed her and kept to his own thoughts, casually putting one foot in front of the other with his arms placed formally and peacefully against his lower back, just above the root of his bushy tail.
The sun was shining quite bright that morning, which wasn't very surprising, as it was the season of summer. Since Savanna-Central and the Down-Town area were situated above what used to be a grassy and sweltering Savanna, the sun still bore down mercilessly over that particular region. During this time of year, Tundra-Town was an able place to visit, as the frigid snow and chilling winds balanced out quite well with the heated beams of the sun, blending together and creating a nice temperate zone.
Nick considered the idea of perhaps taking Judy on a date to some of the more unique locations in Tundra-Town, that is, once this whole fiasco with Jack Savage was over and done with, of course. The fox took the time to recall some old locations in the titular Tundra-Town that he had and had not visited before during his many years abode on the Zootopian streets: He remembered one place up in the northernmost part of the district called the Morzh Ice-block, which was essentially just a giant iceberg floating in the middle of the Polar Strait; The largest body of water that bordered Tundra-Town. Nick also remembered how many years ago, city-hall had wanted to have the iceberg destroyed, because it blocked off a large portion of the strait, and was admittedly inconvenient and even hazardous for shipping vessels to try and maneuver around, as not only was it massive in size, but adorned with thick, sharpened pillars of solid ice that jutted out and had the potential to tear and poke at passing ships.
That story was concluded with a happy ending for the ice-block, as the fox remembered that the residence of Tundra-Town had waged protests against the decision, mostly because they viewed it as a cultural and natural landmark. Alongside that, it would have taken quite a lot of dynamite to blow that berg to bits; Dynamite that could have been used for more useful things, like clearing out mines in the Nocturnal-District for mineral resource gathering. Besides, it was often viewed as more convenient for goods to be traded around the districts by truck, anyways, so the project to crush the cube had been scrapped.
Alongside the prospect of seeing new places, Nick figured that maybe he and Judy could get a kick out of meeting a few old friends: He new a girl who owned a bar... He hadn't came into contact with either in ages, so being able to reunite with Madge Honey once again might've been a fairly interesting add-on to an innocent enough date.
Nick wondered if Judy would like being taken there for a special date, or something. the two of them could go sightseeing in the Arctic Fields, visit the Glacial Wastes, take a nice stop at the Morzh Ice-block, and top it all off with a quick visit to Honey's pub. The fox was so wrapped up in his own thoughts and mind, that he accidentally walked muzzle-first into the sliding glass-doors of the ZPD head-quarters. Rubbing tenderly at his aching nose, he turned around and glared at Judy, who was still laughing as she approached him.
"Here, lemme show you how it's done!" She said as she skipped over and pushed on the door, opening it for Nick. "After you, dumb fox!" She offered with a snicker.
"Mind you, I was busy doing some very important thinking!" Nick retorted with a smirk and half-lidded eyes as he stepped through the door and entered the building's lobby.
"I'm sure you were, Nick..." The bunny teased, blissfully unaware that Nick's aforementioned important thinking was actually about her: That idea put a smile on Nick's muzzle.
Both mammals continued their leisurely stroll directly to Bogo's office on the second floor. Judy had shot the chief a quick text saying that they needed to talk, and although he didn't respond, she figured that he would be plenty willing to spare a few minutes for their cause. While they trudged up the stair-case, a thought suddenly found it's place in Judy's conscious.
"Hey Nick, I have an idea." She claimed formally. "Take the scale to the forensics lab downstairs... Give it to them, so that they can figure out if it belongs to Shahaz or not."
The fox pulled the packaged scale out from his pocket and eyed it precariously as he spoke to Judy.
"What's the matter, officer fluff? You were so sure that it belonged to him last night..." He locked eyes with her. "Why the sudden change in thought?"
"I'm not so sure. Better safe than sorry?" She asked halfheartedly before shaking her head and crossing her arms. "Just give the scale to forensics and meet me at Bogo's room."
Nick donned his favored smirk and gave the bunny a flimsy salute before responding.
"You got it, captain! And, uh, I've never been to forensics... Where is it again?" The fox asked, to which the bunny rolled her eyes.
"Over there!" She claimed while aiming one of her fingers at a small hall-way tucked back in one of the corners of the first floor lobby. Nick bid her farewell with a quick peck atop the forehead before turning around and descending back down the stair-case. Before he reached the bottom of the stair-well, he turned around, looking back at the direction that Judy had walked off in: He watched her turn around the corner that led to Bogo's office.
Sighing, he finished walking down the stairs, jumping off of the last one and causing his feet to make a light, padding echo of a sound. Nick chuckled to himself: Truthfully, he actually did know where the forensics room was situated, as he'd remembered it's respective location ever since the tour that he had received on his first day.
So why did he lie about it? Simple answer: He just liked messing with Judy.
Noticing the copious amounts of morning sunlight streaming through the large glass-panels that adorned the front of the building and the transparent domes that sprouted from the roof, the fox smirked and took the chance to equip himself with his favorite pair of shades. He may not have been in uniform, as they were still technically undercover, but he had a good feeling that his appearance was satisfactory with the glasses topping his look.
He momentarily locked eyes with Clawhauser, whom waved as the fox shot him with a finger-gun before turning his attention back to the space in front of him. He was careful not to run into anyone (or get stepped on), as the lobby was filled with a surprising amount of morning activity, ranging from intelligence-archivists piling in new research, to officers dragging in their ruffian catches from their nightly patrols.
Nick ignored most of them, and as he walked, decided to further examine this scale of his: Despite being introduced to him via Judy, he had yet to truly get a good glimpse at the titular item. After opening the bag, he used the tiny pair of tweezers that were also stashed inside the bag to delicately pluck the scale from it's hiding place. Despite knowing that pangolins had immensely strong scales that even lion teeth couldn't puncture, Nick was careful as could be when handling the scale. He treated it like a bomb that might go off, and for good reason too: If forensics had any intentions on effectively extracting information out of this thing, then they wouldn't appreciate it if Nick gooed it up with his padded fingers, or accidentally scratched it with his claws.
He lightly twisted his wrist, effectively twisting the tweezers and the scale along with it so as to get an in-depth look at the scale. It's duller outer coating was colored the hue of wet-sand, with a sort of muddy-yellow tint against the tiny fibrous lines that made up the scale. Lining the unnaturally sharpened edges, Nick took to note the strange markings and tiny symbols that were engraved around the edges, some of the etches being painted over with varying colors.
The fox ran a finger down it's perimeter, and accidentally poked himself with the sharpened end. Shaking his finger before putting it into his mouth, he wondered why the scale was so sharp: Nick knew that pangolins had not only tough, but sharp scales to begin with, but it was quite clear that this scale had been modified; Sharpened no doubt... Perhaps to make the crime-lord in question look more intimidating. Flipping the item over, he noticed the almost flesh-like pattern of the scale's backside, with whitened flakes of skin and molecular threads of severed tissue that once must've held the scale to the back of it's previous owner.
But now, it belonged to the ZPD: And Nick was gonna do everything he could to try and figure out who this belonged to... Although he had a pretty good feeling on just who...
Waltzing up to the entrance of the forensics lab, Nick rapped his knuckles on the steel-plated door several times before eyeing it as it opened, presenting him with the face of a towering female leopard. Her entire body was covered in a lab-coat, and her face was adorned with a pair of glasses.
"Need something, officer Wilde?' She asked cheerily, opening the door even wider and beckoning the fox to enter: Seeing as he had no other choice, really, he obliged.
"You see through the disguise, huh?" Nick intervened with his own question.
"Yeah, pretty much. News spreads around quickly here at the ZPD." She put a single finger to her lips. "But don't worry, we're not telling anyone."
The fox cleared his throat and showed her his zip-lock bag.
"Anyways, I got this thing for you: It's a pangolin scale, and Judy recovered it from Jack Savage's office. She wants you lot to figure out information about it, or something."
Nick mentally face-palmed: He had worded that sentence horribly! Thankfully, the leopard seemed to understand what he wanted, and in turn, handed the scale to what looked like a coyote, but he quickly took the scale and ran off deeper into the lab before Nick could get a good look at him.
"No worries! Doctor Howlerton and I will give you a full genotype rerun scan on the scale once we've finished analyzing it. Then, we'll run the data through our criminal database, and we'll see if any names pop up! It shouldn't take more than ten minutes, at most. You can stick around here, and we'll give you your results here shortly."
"Alright, sounds good to me... I'll just be outside." Nick said before excusing himself from the laboratory.
He wasn't sure what had gotten him so shaken up back there: Perhaps it was just the delicate environment, of which Nick practically knew nothing about.
Whatever it was, the fox didn't relish on it for very long, as he soon diverted his attention to the environment around him; Watching other mammals walk by, Clawhauser attending citizens and officers alike at his receptions desk, and everyone just going about their regular day. Nick leaned his back against a nearby wall and fiddled with his phone, relaying texts back and fourth between friends and associates. Eventually, he noticed one single contact in particular: One that he hadn't opened up and spoken through in years.
For no specific reason, Nick almost found himself pressing the call button on Honey's contact, but was stopped mid-way when the nearby steel-plated door opened, and the leopard stepped out, presenting him with the scale.
"Come in here, you might want to see some of this!" She said whilst beckoning him forward once again. He obliged once again, and stepped inside the laboratory.
Nick paced over to the counter where the scale was placed; Delicately placed atop a toweled sheet of metal, which itself was placed beneath some sort of lamp-looking device. Meanwhile, the leopard analyst sat down in a wheel-chair and rolled over to Nick's left. She typed away at a nearby key-board, eventually bringing up a screen-full of data and other information.
"You're right, Mr. Wilde..." She said as she leaned back in her chair, eyeing the screen. "It is a pangolin scale. Us here at the forensics labs get given all sorts of neat evidence to toy around with. This isn't the first time we've gotten a pangolin scale, and believe it or not, isn't the first time we've gotten a scale from the same suspect."
As she said that, the leopard reached over to another compartment and started digging through, standing up in her chair and pushing it out of the way. Soon enough, she pulled out another scale, colored identically to the one that Nick had brought it. She placed it next to the old one, and Nick could clearly see the comparison: They were both identical in color, both sharpened at the point, and both adorned with tiny markings and symbols around the edges. The only visible difference was the fact that one was slightly smaller than the other.
"I take it that you can see the similarities, officer... These two scales both come from the same mammal: Shahaz Pholmok, or more commonly known as Shahaz the Stinger."
While she spoke, she pulled up a page on the ZPD's criminal database on her computer. Filling the monitor, a slew of pictures found their way into Nick's line of sight. He found himself staring down with a backside shot of a bulky-looking mammal, his face and chest facing away from the camera. The only thing you could see were the many sharp and rigid scales that ran down his back, each one finely sharpened and engraved with minute symbols. His tail swung almost horizontal to the picture, and was thick and flat; Beaver-like, with many sharpened and long scales flicking out from the tip.
"As you can see, the scales that we have here," She said pointing to the two on the table. "Are identical to the ones that sprout from this mammal's back."
"So that's the big guy himself?" Nick found himself asking as he stared at the creature's rippling and scaly back.
"That's right... He's pretty elusive, being that he's among the ZPD's most wanted criminals, so it's rare that we manage to capture shots of him doing his dirty work in the public eye. This photograph was taken by a detective who stumbled across one of his meetings in the Sahara Square... It's one of the only photos we have of him, and it's the clearest of them all."
She pointed her claw-tipped finger to his back, where she pressed against the screen and traced outlines against it.
"Look here. You see all these symbols engraved on his scales? Well, believe it or not, but they actually mean something! Most punk armadillos, or whatever you want to call them, only get scale engravings to look cool, as I'm sure you know by now. Shahaz's symbols are different than that: They tell a story! Look here at the one you brought to us today, and look at these tiny marks here!"
Nick took a closer examination, squinting and looking at the lines etched into the hard surface of the scale. Now that he thought about it, one of those spiraling circles with squiggly lines coming out of it sorta did look like the sun...
"Hey, you're right! T-This one here, it looks like the sun!" Nick claimed excitedly as he pointed to the tiny markings.
"Indeed. And this one here," The leopard said pointing to the smaller scale. "This symbol looks almost like an eye!"
"So, this is really neat and all, but what does this have to do with anything, really?" Nick found himself asking.
"Oh, I just thought you should know, really. You asked for information on the scale, so I'm giving you exactly that, officer. Take another look at this picture... The markings tell a story, but no one is so sure as to what they really mean. We only know that they mean something because they match up with the old hieroglyphic writings in those old caves in the Sahara-Square! They're the same form of writing, so it raises some interesting questions..."
"Okay, well I'm so glad that you could tell me that, but is there anything that I should really know before I leave and go to Bogo? He really needs to know about all this."
The leopard shook her head.
"Not exactly. Just tell him what you found, really." She responded.
"Which is?" Nick asked in clarification.
"That both of the scales belongs to Shahaz the Stinger, and that the symbols on them aren't completely meaningless, of course. Oh, and do keep in mind, darling: Those scales were sharpened by the paws of a mammal, so they're not completely natural."
"Why did Shahaz have them sharpened?"
"I'm not so sure. Probably for intimidation factors, mostly, but I have a feeling that they may come in handy for other, and more conventional things, whatever those may be."
"Well, I had a ball, but I'm gonna bid you adieu now, doctor! Ciao for now!" The fox stated quickly, and promptly left the room, leaving the doctors to their forensic work.
"Hrmmph." Nick snorted. "Geeks." He joked with a smirk as he adjusted his tie. Now to find Bogo and meet up with Judy again! His mind told him.
He looked to the second floor and eyed the hall-way that led to Bogo's office, hoping that Judy had managed to accomplish something alongside the chief...
"DAMMIT HOPPS, I THOUGHT THAT YOU KILLED THIS CREEP JUST A FEW MONTHS AGO!"
The chief shouted as he slammed his right hoof onto the hard wooden surface of his desk, almost hitting Judy's phone as he did.
"Great, just great!" The buffalo ranted on. "Not only is this slimeball still crawling around out there, but now he's working with Jack Savage too, apparently!"
"Um, chief Bogo?" Judy asked timidly while she reached over and recollected her mobile-device: She earned the buffalo's attention with a rock-hard glare.
"We have reason to believe that Vladzotz had actually been working with Jack even before he abducted Nick that one time. He's still a criminal businessman after all, and he had to make his money somehow. What better way to do so than by scheming with another criminal businessman? That would explain both his work alongside Jack, and Shahaz!"
The water-buffalo had seemed to calm down immensely while he listened to Judy speak. That was certainly a good thing for Judy, who'd rather not accidentally get trampled as she tried to do her job, here.
"You're right, Hopps... That does make some sense, but it still doesn't explain exactly why Jack was working with him in the first place! Both individuals mentioned the words debt and repayment multiple times throughout this recording of yours, so I have reason to believe that there's a lot more to this situation than what meets the eye. The rabbit's running a Ponzi-Scheme, I believe... Partnering himself with Vladzotz to pay off some sort of debt using the money that he's been leeching from Bugga-Burger."
The water-buffalo nodded his head in a gesture of seeming approval, as if the whole situation impressed even him.
"You've done good work here, officer, and I think that it's finally enough to accuse Jack of his financial schemes, and of his alleged partnerships with the criminal underworld. We'll be able to bring him to court, but not before assigning him an arrest warrant, which as you know, might take a few more days to cook up. Until then, I wa-"
Chief Bogo's long monologue was interrupted with the sudden sound of knocking against the door, of which Chief Bogo promptly opened. He looked down and locked eyes with Nick, who was casually standing outside as he twirled a tooth-pick between his fingers. Chief Bogo grunted in acknowledgement and beckoned the gray-colored fox inside.
"Glad that you could join us, Wilde." The chief smirked. "I can't say that having you walk in on us was the highest thing on my list of priorities-"
"Oh, now you're just being rude, Buffalo-Butt!" Nick retorted quickly seconds before Judy cleared her throat audibly, earning both mammal's attentions.
"Chief Bogo, if you would continue, that would be lovely."
She said with a smile, but flashed a sneer at Nick after the chief had looked away, but only caused the fox's smile to widen even further as she did. The chief himself cleared his own throat and kneaded at his sinuses before concluding his previous statement.
"As I was saying, you both have certainly gathered enough evidence this time around. While we print out and register some arrest warrants for Mr. Savage, you two will be going back in, undercover, to make sure that when we get there, Jack isn't in the middle of some new meeting, or something. You get the idea. We should have the warrant within two days, at least, so be prepared for just a few more days of work. Soon, we'll have that bastard Savage behind bars, and this whole scheme of his will unravel."
The buffalo had been slowly turning around towards the window in the back of his office as he spoke, but when he finished with that last statement, he looked over his shoulder and eyed fox and bunny alike with a look akin to pride.
"But until then, you two could prove yourselves even more useful, you know." He began
"What do you mean, sir?" The bunny questioned, her interests clearly piqued.
"What I mean, is that I might have an additional, yet completely optional assignment for you two while we here at HQ put the final touches on that warrant of yours."
The buffalo turned towards Nick.
"You remember that 'phantom-profit', and the 'shell corporation' that you uncovered?" He said with finger gestures. "The Sahara-Square Sundries?"
Nick simply nodded in response, not bothering to give a vocal reply. Chief Bogo took it as a yes, and his smile grew larger as he went on. The buffalo turned around and stepped up to his bulletin board, which still had a large map of Zootopia, but was adorned with many tiny thumb-tacks, pictures, and overlapping strings: A classic criminal activity chart.
"We found their warehouse, which is tucked away in some back-water neighborhood on the far corner of the district." Bogo stated, tapping the map of Sahara-Square.
"We've sent people to investigate around the area, and they've obviously seen shipment trucks leaving back and fourth, but they have reason to suspect that it might be more than just seeds that they're transporting. I believe that Shahaz the Stinger,"
The chief tapped a blurry photograph of what must've been a pangolin, before tracing his hoof along the length of the yellow string until it reached a sticky-note with a question mark drawn on it.
"Working in direct conjunction with Vladzotz Fangpyre," He hesitated slightly.
Judy remembered what Nick had told her once, about how the ZPD hadn't managed to get a single photograph of Vladzotz, since he was just so elusive and secretive involving his work; Never leaving the Nocturnal-District, and always working in the darkness of the underground.
Meanwhile, Nick seized the opportunity to be helpful, and quickly grabbed a nearby sticky-note and pen before he scribbled away at the tiny sheet of paper.
Leaning over his shoulder, Judy took a glimpse at what he was drawing and burst out with a laugh. "Is that thing supposed to be a bat?" The bunny teased the fox.
"Yes!" Nick cried out, trying to cover his drawing from Judy's prying eyes. Seconds later, he finished, and handed it to Bogo, who pinned the fox's masterpiece on the board.
Nick boxed in the picture with his fingers and closed one eye, as if imagining it in an art gallery. "Perfect! Looks just like him, don't ya think so, Carrots?"Nick joked.
To Judy, it looked like it had been drawn by a kit, and was quite sloppy: The words Flappy Bat had been written across the paper, cutting through the actual drawing.
Bogo sighed deeply before shooing Nick away and continuing his lecture.
"So as I was saying, Shahaz and Vladzotz are using this warehouse as a secret beach-head in the Sahara-Square for them to transport weapons, drugs, and other illegal commodities across district borders."
Chief Bogo then traced his finger along the length of a white string, ending at a photograph of Jack Savage's smiling face.
"Alongside this, Jack Savage also plays a part, as he allows his banks to host their finances!" Bogo finished strongly, pointing to the blurry photograph of Shahaz, and the messy drawing that Nick had made of Vladzotz.
"So that's the entire connection between these three mammals." Bogo added before frowning; Crossing his arms and furrowing his brow. He continued angrily;
"The only thing that we don't have anything on is Jack's specific relationship with Vladzotz, and what is has to do with this whole debt thing of theirs. I doubt that it matters very much in the short term, which is why we aren't going to focus on it as of now. Once we get all three of these mammals behind bars, we can question them about their incentives with one another, and how they even banded together in the first place."
"So, where would we feature, chief?" Nick asked curiously.
"Easy: I want you two, my best officers, to help Precinct One on its raid against the warehouse. Forget the undercover mission, forget Jack, and focus on this for one day."
"Are you sure you just want us to abandon our positions at the office so soon?" Judy inquired.
"Oh please, Hopps... Jack has hundreds of employees under his belt, and I doubt that having two of them 'take a day off' for one night would be that big of deal. Besides, I figured you two could use a break from all the paperwork, and could perhaps get your hands a little dirty, eh?"
Judy's ears shot up, her nose twitched, and her foot thumped rapidly against the ground in excitement.
"Yes! This is it! This is what weeks of boring desk work has led up to!" She turned to the fox. "We have to do this, Nick!"
"Don't worry, Whiskers: I'm up for it if you are." He replied casually and with ease, causing Judy to jump in her seat and pump her fists into the air.
Chief Bogo then grumbled;
"Calm down, Hopps. This is no laughing matter: It could be very dangerous... Operations this big aren't typically run by the grunts, exclusively. Shahaz himself, or one of his top-ranking lieutenants will be controlling the entire thing, so be on a look out for any of them. Especially Shahaz. We've been tracking him for years now, and this is the farthest we've ever gotten into putting that scaly criminal behind bars!"
"Don't worry, chief. We won't disappoint!" Judy claimed vigorously. "So when do we need to meet up?
Eventually, chief Bogo assigned them to meet at the ZPD armory at 9:45 for a quick gear-up and briefing before they head out and raided the warehouse. As the door closed behind them while they exited chief Bogo's office, Judy couldn't help but fail to contain her excitement. She bounded around the lobby and skipped alongside Nick as they made their way to the front doors, considering the notion of breakfast.
"Don't get too excited now, fluff... This is dangerous stuff." Nick warned, but his face still bore a smile. Judy looked up at him and returned it before responding.
"I know, Nick, I know... I'm just excited right now, that's all! Nothing wrong with being excited, right?" She asked innocently, to which Nick responded.
"Nothing at all..." He snorted. "Unless it gets you killed in a bloody fire-fight."
"Nick!" Judy hissed, although even she was grinning at the fox's inappropriate humor. Just as they passed the receptionist desk, they heard Clawhauser call out from behind;
"Oh, Nick! Judy! C'mere real quick, I got something I was meaning to tell you!" The cheetah stated through a mouthful of donuts.
The fox and bunny casually waltzed over to his desk, where they looked up at him as he finished chewing his latest bite. He offered the two of them donuts as he did, which they both gladly accepted, as neither had yet to eat any real breakfast.
"Alright Benji, whaddya wanna tell us, huh?" Nick grilled. "It doesn't have something to do with Gazelle, does it?"
"Oh, I wish!" Clawhauser swooned before his smile melted and he shook his head from side to side. "I'm afraid not. Something much more serious, actually."
"What is it?" Judy squeaked out.
"Since you both were gone for so long doing your undercover mission, you probably didn't get around to hearing the details about Bellwether's death, did you?" He questioned.
"No, not really. We both saw it on the news, but nothing much more than that, honestly." Nick responded, causing the cheetah to chuckle
"It's always the news. Anywho, I thought I should be the one to tell you: Bellwether was bribed out. Can you believe it? Someone bribed her out, only to have her killed! "
"Actually, I can believe it, since half the predators in Zootopia wouldn't mind seeing her thrown into a meat grinder and turned into Bugga-Burger." Nick replied sardonically.
"Nick!" Judy nearly shouted. "Not the right place for that kinda stuff!"
"Oh, come on, Carrots, you know it's true!" Nick edged, lightly pushing Judy's shoulder with one of his paws. "So yeah, easy to imagine why. But who?"
"That's the spooky part!" Clawhauser claimed. "Nobody knows, really! The guards claimed it was a reindeer that came to the front desk with the money to bail her out, but they also admitted to being bribed into not saying anything when the press came calling. Whoever did this had a lot of money lying around!"
"Yeah, no kidding... Thanks for the update though, Clawhauser! See ya around!" Nick called out as he and Judy began walking outside.
They were both excused from the ZPD and Jack's business for the day, so the question arose on what they should do to occupy themselves until 10:00, when they were to report back to the ZPD armory to prepare for the raid on the Sahara-Square Sundries warehouse.
10:00
Fox and bunny alike had at last peeled away their under-cover issued suits, and re-donned their original police uniforms. Although Nick could safely admit that he'd miss that lovely suit jacket of his, he was more than pleased to be back in blue. Judy, meanwhile, was stretching her long legs as she tested out her old bodysuit, which still wrapped snug around her body and tight across her fur. The bunny's chest armor was clamped across her upper body, protecting her vital organs from hazardous blows and minor damage.
The two of them were currently in their cruiser, and had just pulled in to their rendezvous point, where they were scheduled to meet with the other officers. Their discussion at the armory had been quick and simple, with Bogo quickly going over what their plan was, and how they intended on infiltrating the warehouse. Nick and Judy were assigned to enter through the main entrance, along with Bogo himself, Grizzoli, Rhinowitz, and Fangmeyer.
The warehouse itself was in a pretty bad part of town: The perfect cesspool for criminal activity of this scale. It was positioned in one of the farthest corners of the district, nearly right up against one of the massive air-conditioned walls that separated the city's districts. Towering sand dunes and palm trees surrounded the perimeter, making it seem like a very elusive place... Also perfect for criminal activity on this scale. There were a few large, commercial-sized trucks dotting the nearby parking lot, but other than that, it looked nearly deserted. A desert sandstorm had started brewing; filling the air with hot, stinging particles of dust and everyone had arrived, they wasted no time whatsoever.
Everyone positioned themselves in their respective spots, and the raid began on Bogo's call.
He practically kicked down the front door, opening it and allowing all the following officers, including Nick and Judy, to enter the receptions lobby. Nobody was manning the front desk, but they all could hear the sound of commotion farther in the warehouse. They all traveled deeper inside until they found a large pair of double-doors, integrated with steel plates. They didn't have handles or knobs on them whatsoever, so the mammals just simply pushed on the doors and entered the next room.
The new room that they had set foot in was massive, and undoubtedly made up the majority of the warehouse and its space. There was lots of empty space in the room, but tall and towering shelves were stocked high with seeds, dried plants, and other consumables ranging from food to cinder-blocks. There were many workers running about, loading boxes and filing sheets of paper in the office desks that were crammed off to the sides of the room. There was no immediate hostile reaction, with the exception being one camel that had pulled out a pistol and aimed it at officer McHorn. He was quickly downed with a tranquilizer dart to his long and easy-to-target neck.
After a few short minutes of dealing with the workers on this side of the warehouse, a sudden hail of gunfire erupted from the other side, and Judy could hear the sounds of mammals falling to the ground both in an effort to protect themselves from the firing bullets, and because of the bullets, which had found their marks on their targets.
"THE REST OF YOU, GET DOWN, NOW!" The words from the lion officer Delgado were loud and demanding, causing every pair of ears in the warehouse to perk up and listen.
Quickly sprinting over to analyze the commotion, Judy and Nick both spotted the bodies of several armadillos lying motionless on the ground, and a number of other mobsters who were lying on the ground with their paws above their heads, gritting their teeth and snarling at the police officers.
There may have been action, but Nick was surprised at just how few workers were present at the time. Better for them, he supposed, since it meant less work for them in bringing this place to the ground and dragging it into the light.
"UP THERE!" The voice of Bogo suddenly shouted out, causing all the mammals to look in the direction that his raised arm was pointing.
Standing atop a catwalk that was linked together high above the ground, a fox-sized animal had it's claws hooked over the edges and was eyeing the commotion going on below. Judy couldn't make out much from her location, but she knew without thinking that it had to be Shahaz the Stinger: That mammal was no doubt a pangolin, as Judy could see the large scales jutting out from his back, tail, head, and virtually everywhere except the underside of his body.
The figure didn't say anything, but as soon as the officers all targeted their darts and pistols towards him, he immediately bolted for a large metal door at the end of the catwalk, which he opened and entered, leading himself even deeper into the depths of the warehouse. The room he had entered had several, large, black-tinted windows on it, and appeared to be an office of some sort.
A few officers had tried shooting at him, but to no avail, as he was a surprisingly fast target, and actually, quite small: Shahaz didn't look any bigger than Nick, for that matter.
"Hopps, Wilde! You two are the only ones here who can fit through that door!" Bogo shouted out. "Go! Don't let him get away! We'll take care of these guys, now go!"
The water-buffalo's shouts shook the bunny from her thought process, and she instantaneously spotted a ladder that led up to the catwalk. She motioned Nick forward and followed behind him as he clambered up to the catwalk. The two of them ran as fast as they could to the metal door, with Nick practically slamming into it shoulder-first, only for him to fall back and land flat on his tail, clutching at his shoulder and hissing in pain.
"Gah! Stupid door!" He muttered as he hauled himself to his feet and tried on the handle, but it didn't budge.
"Can't you pick the lock, or something?" Judy found herself asking.
"I could try, but I was never very good at it in the first place, ya know! Besides, I'd need a pair of tweezers and a paper-clip, neither of which I have right now!"
The bunny threw her head back and cursed, and while doing so, caught a glimpse of the black-tinted windows: They didn't look very thick...
"Nick! The window!" She gasped as she continued down the length of the catwalk until she reached the glass-panels. Using the butt of her tranquilizer, she slammed it against the glass, causing it to shatter and create a hole plenty big enough for even a wolf to fit through. Fox and bunny alike carefully picked their way past the glass and stepped inside the new room.
The first thing that both of them noticed was the lighting: It was dark, but the room was lit with dozens of candles, all of which were positioned and placed in random spots around the room. They all ranged in color, size, and intensity, but it was their dull lighting that gave Judy the pleasure she needed to be able to see past the shadows. Judy spotted Nick, who was reloading his tranquilizer, and she also noticed that aside from the many candles, dozens of tiny pillows were dotted across the floor of the room.
Judy aimed her tranquilizer in front of her and scanned her environment; She spotted a shape moving in the darkness, and almost fired on instinct alone, but soon found herself telling the figure to halt and put his arms in the air.
"STOP, YOU! Put your paws where I can see them, and get on the ground, now!"
After yelling, the bunny looked over the the fox, who gave her a reassuring nod before training his own dart gun on the thing in the dark, which gave a raspy and gleeful chuckle upon hearing Judy's words.
"They sent you alone? Without guns? That's hilarious!" The voice hissed. Shahaz had a very flaky sounding voice, as if he spent his free-time gargling sand granules for fun.
"You better stop talking, or I will dart you, Shahaz!" Judy snarled. The notion of the his true name briefly seemed to falter the pangolin, but he soon continued speaking.
"Oh no, go ahead. Shoot. Don't worry, I completely trust you!" The shadow hissed once again, and made a strange slurping sound that caused Judy's head to tilt to the side.
"Nick, turn on the lights: I wanna see this creep." Judy commanded the fox, who quickly turned around and flicked on a nearby switch, illuminating the room fully.
In the corner, a bipedal creature was hunched over, with it's scaly paws rubbing together as if it were cold. It didn't appear to have a fully-functioning jaw, as it's mouth seemed to mostly comprise of a large hole just below it's nose. Its mouth was small, and the creature could still talk fine, but Judy was shocked when the pangolin stuck out his tongue and licked at his own face, making a weird slurping noise as the tongue retracted back into his long and narrow muzzle. Shahaz had an armadillo-like face, and didn't look that much bigger than Nick, really.
He wore no shirt, and his bare upper-body was exposed. Judy noticed that his chest and abdomen were also covered in scales, but just in far less quantity and size. Thankfully, he did wear pants though: Thick-padded and billowing beige-colored cargo shorts, with each pocket stuffed full and almost to the point of bursting with things like pebbles and chunks of rock. Draping in tatters around his shoulders and back were literal rags wrapped around his biceps, lumbar, and even his thick tail.
The majority of his body was lined with rigid rows of sharpened scales, each one colored the hue of wet-sand. Most of them had strange etchings carved into their surfaces, and Judy watched with strange fascination as the pointed plates shifted around in response to his movement. Tracing her eyes down to his long and flat tail, Judy saw that it too was covered in bony plates, with the extra long ones on the tip of his tail sharpened nearly to the point of making acute angles.
Overall, with his hunched over appearance, disgusting face, and thick, spiny tail, Judy thought that Shahaz the Stinger almost looked like a scorpion himself!
"Wait, you're Shahaz the Stinger?" Judy found herself mumbling.
Shahaz did a full body shiver, which caused a cloud of dust and sand to rise off of his body and thicken the air around him.
"What, were you expecting the crime-lord of the Sahara-Square to be more... Formal, I suppose?" The pangolin crooned.
"Well, yeah! You're one of the richest mobsters in all of Zootopia! W-why are you dressed like... That?"
The bunny knew that she was kind of going against protocol; Having a direct conversation with the mammal she came here to arrest in the first place, but that didn't stop her from doing so: She had honestly expected this pangolin to be decked out with a shiny monocle, a vest, and slacks, not too different from how Vladzotz himself had been.
"Trust me, rabbit... Trust me when I say that I am a humble creature. If you were looking for someone with big fancy suits, I'm afraid you'll have to talk to my associates, Vladzotz Fangpyre, and Al Catpone! That's more their style! Besides, with my scales being the way they are, I can't wear most clothing items without tearing them to shreds."
"Are you two seriously having a conversation about how criminals should dress right now?!" Nick interrupted. "Just shoot him already, fluff!"
"Oh no, go ahead, seriously. Shoot me, you filthy rabbit!" Shahaz snarled, positioning himself in a defensive stance.
Judy, seeing that they had nothing to lose, pulled her trigger, aiming directly for Shahaz's neck. Instead of opening her eyes to a pangolin lying passed out across the floor, the bunny's jaw dropped as she saw Shahaz still standing, with the tranquilizer dart lying harmlessly on the floor, right next to one of his stumpy and gnarled toes. Chuckling to himself, the pangolin bent down and picked up the dart, the actual needle part of which was bent in multiple angles.
"Unfortunate." The pangolin smiled darkly. "You didn't come prepared for this fight, did you?" He knocked on his armored chest. "I'm no armadillo! My scales are a part of me!"
Shahaz tossed the broken dart aside before cracking his neck and taking a step forward.
"And unfortunately for you, my scales can't be pierced by your pathetic little blow-darts, so why don't you put them aside, hmm?"
He took another step closer, but was stopped in his tracks when Nick jammed his tranquilizer forward and unloaded his entire clip into Shahaz, who quickly turned around, causing all the darts to ricochet off of his spiny back. The pangolin shoved his way past Nick; pushing the fox out of the way and sending him crashing into a nearby table, his shirt catching aflame from all the candles.
Meanwhile, Judy acted before thinking: She jumped onto Shahaz's back, like she did with most criminals when she tried to take them down using brute-force. Instead, as soon as her paws gripped down on his back, Shahaz simply shook her around, causing her to slice her right paw as she too was thrown to the side and slammed against a wall.
Chuckling to himself, the pangolin stroked the sharpened scales on one of his wrists as he spoke aloud;
"It's a shame, really... So young, yet subject to such a painful death." Shahaz said as he lumbered over and picked up Judy in his claws.
He slammed her into the ground and pressed one of his sharpened claw tips against her throat, and Judy could feel her heartbeat increase in pressure against the tip of his claw.
"Feel that, bunny? That's your jugular right there... It pumps around three liters of blood a minute. How long would it take for you to bleed to death?"
Judy choked and sputtered against his grip, but tried her best to remain as still as possible: Since Shahaz was hovering over her, with most of his sharpened scales positioned directly above her internal organs, if she writhed around to much, she'd end up cutting the rest of her body even worse than her paw.
"You've been quite the thorn in my side for a while now, what with you exposing my secret account... Curse Jack Savage for being so careless! I'll be sure to make him pay for his misdeeds at a later date. That stupid rabbit... No matter, though, for I've been itching to show you that I have some thorns of my own!"
There was a knocking noise nearby which caused the pangolin to raise his head and direct his attention towards the door, which then burst open, with another small-mammal officer - a coyote, likely from Precinct Three's unit - throwing themselves into the room with a roll. He then jabbed a tranquilizer gun in Shahaz's direction.
"Crap!" Was all the pangolin said before he curled himself into a ball and rolled towards one of the windows, which he tried climbing out of. After momentarily stumbling, he flopped onto the catwalk; His body dotted with many tranquilizer darts, yet he still showed no sign of slowing down. He scrambled to his feet and faced the group of officers.
"Your darts got nothin' on me!" He shouted before curling into a ball and rolling past the coyote officer, who tried to grab him, but to no avail.
"Grizzoli, Fangmeyer, see if officers Hopps and Wilde are alright!" Chief Bogo's booming voice shouted from somewhere down below.
The water-buffalo then pointed towards Shahaz, who was still rolling down the far side of the metal catwalk.
"Everyone else; get him!"
A black-bear and wolf officer immediately lept into action; Charging through the now opened door and attending to the fallen officers. Nick had already pulled himself to his feet, and was insisting that he was fine. The fox picked his way across the wreckage of the room and reunited with Judy, who was still lying on the ground, clutching at her paw. Nick grabbed her arm and pulled it forward, forcing her fingers open to examine the cut: It was a little deep, but it thankfully didn't take any fingers with it.
"Judy, talk to us, are you hurt anywhere else?" Nick asked, nearly shouting as he did.
"No no, I-I'm fine, Nick..." She grimaced. "Mostly..."
Nick helped her to her feet, and took her outside with him, carefully lowering her down using the strength of the wolf and polar bear officer to get her to the ground level. When they finally exited the warehouse, they noticed that all the other officers that weren't guarding the other criminals back inside the warehouse had surrounded a central point, and had their guns trained on whatever was in it's center.
Taking a closer look, Nick noticed that the officers had somehow managed to surround Shahaz, but the titular pangolin had curled up in a defensive ball, and was sitting there unmoving as the officers tried to figure out what they wanted to do with him: They dared not try to touch him in fear of getting sliced. Eventually, one of the officers, a jackal sporting a thick pair of oven mitts, walked up to Shahaz. The jackal fearlessly picked up the pangolin and carried him back to his cruiser before throwing the spiky ball in the back-seat and slamming the door shut. Everyone was cheering, even Judy, with her wounded paw. Thankfully, an ambulance has already been called, and they had immediately taken to Judy's wound while the other officers rounded up the captured mobsters and other workers.
Now, as they watched the others pick up the carnage, Nick and Judy sat together in the back of the ambulance, with the fox's arm wrapped around the bunny's shoulder in a reassuring gesture of trust and acceptance. Judy snuggled up closer against Nick, trying to ignore the stinging pain that radiated from her sliced paw, which was now lined with stitches and bandaged tight with thick wraps of white cloth, with blended well with her snow-colored fur.
"Thank you for helping me out, Nick..." She started with a sniff. "I can't believe that I-I was so close to being killed!"
"Oh, don't talk like that, Whiskers. You weren't. That's what matters. Even if you did get away with a little scratch." The fox replied easily.
"I wouldn't call this little, Nick. You see how big this cut is?" She said while lifting her paw in the air. Nick lifted his, but only to push hers back down.
"Yeah, I saw it... Don't worry, fluff. You'll be fine." The fox leaned his muzzle down and planted a drawn-out kiss across her lips, of which caused the bunny to completely forget about the pain in her paw for the rest of the night. She gladly returned the kiss, adding more pressure to her end of the spectrum.
The two mammals spent the rest of their time sitting by one another's side, nuzzling and talking idly while the other officers rounded up the remaining suspects and piled them into their cruisers before driving off and into the night, no doubt headed back to the police station.
Eventually, they too had to leave the site of the scene, and promptly hopped into their cruiser, this time with Nick manning the while, while Judy relaxed in the passengers seat.
As they drove off, following the line of cars and cruisers back to the police station, both mammals were blissfully unaware that from the roof-tops of the nearby buildings, a single and bitter entity was watching with one burning red eye, his gaze keeping track of the mammals ever since they first left the warehouse and settled in the ambulance.
His suspicions were true: The fox and rabbit had also survived the fire... But their fur was colored differently...
Aahhh... Undercover, I see... The bat's mind developed. A smile spread across his face, parting his charred lips and exposing his gleaming incisors.
"You live for now Nicholas Wilde... I have more important business to attend to than chasing old dreams." He said to himself despite the pain it caused to grow in his chest.
"But mark my words, as soon as I finish with that upstart Jack Savage... You will be the first to feel my wrath!"
Hey Everyone!
Not much to say here, you know the usual stuff, of course: Just be sure to tell me whatcha think of Shahaz, now that he has finally been revealed!
More chapters are coming soon, and with them; More answers to your many questions. You'll even learn how Vlad survived the fire, soon! Stay tuned!
Regardless, chapter 40 will be coming out soon!
'Till next time...
Peace!