Zootopia- monsters and animals

Hey guys! So a quick note about this chapter. As I was writing I took a bit of interest in Max and really wanted to have a few chapters just to focus on him. He's interesting to me in the sense that while everyone else has pretty much adjusted and accepted things as they are he's still trying to figure things out for himself , I really just wanted to write a bit about him because of that.

That also being said I plan to write chapters focusing on Jacks other squad members as a way for you guys to get to know them better and to understand them more but I wanted to start off with Max.

So anyways here it is!

*Disclaimer: Zootopia belongs to Disney. I do not own Zootopia or any of it's characters.*

*ZPD locker room.*

"Fuck that was really rough today!" Cory complained as he used his towel to dry his fur, taking extra care as he dried his head. Jack's first kick still stung and his head was extremely tender to the touch.

"You got that right, my chest still hurts!" Fin complained as he rubbed his chest tenderly."

Max blew a raspberry. "Fin you got shards to the chest, I had my knee broken and had my whole body pierced by blood shards, you can tone down the complaints… peanut gallery." Max joked using the squad's nickname for whoever got the least amount of injuries from training and still complained about it.

As Max changed into his casual clothes, a pair of jeans and a grey T-shirt, he realized that he had nothing planned for the rest of the day.

"So what are you guys up to after this?" Max asked casually, hoping that maybe they could do something together. He really didn't want to sit around and do nothing at home with his free time.

"I'm meeting up with my landlord after this, some issue about the hot water and I really don't want to start another day with an ice cold shower so I'm going to help figure it out." Cory replied as he grabbed his bag.

"I've got some paperwork to catch up on and afterwards I've gotta run some errands." Fin replied in annoyance as he grabbed the rest of his things.

Max mentally groaned to himself. They were his only hope for a decent afternoon and evening. Kate and Anne would probably be with Jack and their mother and Sam looked like she needed some alone time after today's training session, understandably so.

After putting on his faux leather jacket Max took a mental note of what he had on him. 'Cellphone, keys, headphones, wallet, badge, electric glock, shock cuffs, emergency dispatch pin, a pair of shock knuckles, yep all set.' Max thought to himself.

"Alright, I'll see you guys tomorrow." Max said idly as he grabbed the rest of his things and took off. He waved goodbye to Clawhauser as he passed by the chubby cheetah and started walking home.

Max didn't live very far from the ZPD headquarters, it took him maybe ten minutes walking either to or from work. But as he walked he didn't really feel like staying home. He quickly greeted his landlord Mr. Portan before heading up the stairs to his floor. After Max unlocked the door he simply threw his bag to the couch and made sure he had everything on him, grabbed some spare cash from his room, locked the door and headed out of the apartment building.

Max was lost in thought as he wandered through Savanah central, he really didn't have a plan when he decided to go out today. All his time had been spent working and he rarely went out anymore. He stopped going to the mixers seeing no point in them. They could just tell he was different and a few of the woman were actually prejudice towards G.E.O.s even ones like him who'd been turned against their will!

Max recalled a particularly heated argument with a complete bitch of a wolf who claimed that 'instead of wasting our money on special officers and counter measures we should solve the whole problem with a mass wipeout!'

Needless to say Max was no longer welcome at that restaurant after the scene he had made.

The officers there had been on his side completely though which made him feel slightly better about it. Max actually chuckled as he recalled that memory, he had come into work the day after the incident and Jack was going over some files in his office, Max felt like he had done some wrong with his strong reaction and when he explained the whole thing to Jack he just laughed at Max's story! Jack didn't see any reason for Max to feel guilty about it and was right in how he felt at the time but agreed that he should keep a calmer state of mind if something similar happens again.

Max was brought out of the memory as his stomach growled. He hadn't eaten much and he was still healing, he would need food if he wanted his injuries to be completely healed. With that in mind he walked around until he found a pub which had the smell of something incredibly delicious coming from it. The sign read 'The roasted ocelot' which made Max smile since it was a pretty clever play on words.

As he sat down Max was able to identify the scent that had brought him here in the first place and his mouth watered. 'Irish roasted potatoes with seasoned wild rice and grilled herb chicken.' He thought to himself as his stomach growled even louder in agreement, so loud in fact that a few patrons actually turned to him surprised.

Max tried to hide his embarrassment and quickly ordered his meal, he couldn't even look up at the server since he was so embarrassed.

"Oh and a tall lager." Max added in quickly as he finished his order.

The food arrived quickly and Max savoured every bite. The lager was actually pretty good to, this place might become a regular dinner spot for him.

"So how's the food tasting hun?" A female voice asked Max as he took a drink from his lager.

"It's fantastic, could I actually get seconds?" Max asked as he savored his food.

The voice let out the sweetest laugh Max had ever heard and he actually looked up to see who it belonged to. His jaw dropped as a panthress in a black t shirt and tight skirt smiled at him with a small notebook in her paws. She was absolutely stunning

She giggled at his reaction. "That good huh?" The panthress teased.

Max quickly shook his head trying to compose himself. "Uhhh y-yeah! It really is!" He replied hoping he sounded casual and not like he had to bring himself out of lah lah land.

She giggled again. "Alrighty! Well I'll get that second helping for you in two seconds. I'm Stacy by the way and I'm your server for the evening." She said cheerfully as she walked back into the kitchen.

Max was dumbfounded. How the hell had he not noticed this gorgeous animal right as he walked in?... Oh right, food.

As quickly as the first time Stacy brought out Max's second order, which actually looked like it had some extra portions and another tall lager.

"Here ya go! Hope you enjoy it, just wave if you need anything." Stacy said, winking before she went to deal with more patrons.

Max blushed as she winked at him, he really hadn't really dated or anything since he got here. It was kind of grating on him to be honest. Max wanted companionship, he wanted to know what it felt like to be cared about, to be loved.

Max shook those thoughts out of his head, no need to go down that particular train of thought so he settled on finishing his food. After almost an hour a male server came up to him with his bill.

"What happened to Stacy?" Max asked curious as to why the panthress wasn't the one with his bill.

The other server, an antelope, shrugged idly. "Her shift ended." Was all he said.

Max accepted that and gave a large tip, explicitly saying it was for the kind server he started with, before he decided to leave. It was starting to get dark now, how long had he been in that pub for? As Max walked down the streets he heard something strange. It sounded like a commotion, maybe even a fight. He decided to investigate knowing he could handle the situation.

As he darted through alleys he came to what looked like a parking lot between the buildings. Max was able to make out two figures against a car. One was a female who's face he couldn't see but the other was a bobcat who was grinning maliciously. He pressed the emergency dispatch pin on his jacket, it would send a distress signal to the ZPD that would send a squad to back him up.

"P-please don't hurt me!" Max went ice cold as he recognized the voice. It was the server from earlier, Stacy.

"Ohhh I won't hurt ya." The bobcat said menacingly as a blood tail extended out of his lower back, the bobcat was a G.E.O.! "I just want some play time kitty!"

Stacy screamed as the bobcat made a move to grab her but he let out a cry of pain as two loud bangs sounded through the night air and electricity crackled off of him. She turned to where the noise came from and was surprised to see the tiger who she had served at the pub standing there with a gun in his paws. He looked seriously angry and it almost scared her.

"ZPD SPECIAL OFFICERS UNIT, PUT YOUR PAWS IN THE AIR AND DISSOLVE YOUR ARMAMENTS!" Max roared out as the bobcat started to get up off the ground.

The bobcat chuckled as it shook off the remaining electricity. "Ohhhh you fucking special officers, think your hot shit don't-" The bobcat stopped and sniffed the night air before he grinned at Max.

"Ohhh, special officers unit huh? When did they start hiring our kind?" The bobcat asked mockingly.

Max was stunned, he knew that some animals could tell G.E.O.s apart from smell alone but it was pretty rare.

"Well… I was getting kinda hungry, and you look awfully tasty." The bobcat cooed as he licked his lips.

'Ah crap.' Max thought to himself a split second before the Bobcat fired several blood shards in his direction.

Due to his training and Jacks instruction Max was able to dodge the shards and quickly brought out his shock knuckles. He wasn't expecting the bobcat to be right under him and felt something pierce his stomach. Looking down he saw the bobcat had stabbed him with the blood tail, Max resisted the urge to cry out as he was flung through the air and slammed against the car Stacy had been huddled against.

Stacy fell to the ground as the car no longer supported her, she looked up and saw the tiger had made a sizeable dent in the car, his stomach was bleeding badly. Before she could do anything to help she felt herself being pulled up off the ground by her wrists painfully.

"I'm not done with you just yet kitty, we'll continue this after I finish my me-GAH!" The bobcat was thrown against a brick wall before he could finish.

Stacy fell to the ground, she looked up and was terrified by what she saw. The tiger was standing there with a hole in his stomach and he didn't even look like he was in pain, a giant tail was waving slowly through the air out of his back. But those weren't the reasons behind her terror. She could tell that the look on his face was one of eerie calmness that hid the full depth of his rage underneath.

A rage that promised brutal death.

Max stood to his full height, his muscle tail was waving around slowly as he collected himself. His stomach had already started to heal and he was seriously pissed at the bobcat now. He raised one of his paws slightly and cracked his fingers in the same manner Jack did.

"Let."

*Crack*

"Her"

*Crack*

"Go"

*Crack.*

Max growled the words out menacingly as he cracked his fingers. The bobcat looked unnerved by the action.

"W-Who the hell do ya think you are!? Asylum!?" The bobcat roared before charging Max.

Max easily dodged the bobcat's swipe before grabbing his arm and sending him back into the wall. Before the bobcat could recover Max grabbed the bobcat by his head, pulled him out of the wall and slammed his head right into the wall.

Debris and dust exploded through the air as the force of Max's slam and the bobcats head crushed the brick wall.

"No, but I was trained by him" Max growled to the bobcat who stared at him horrified before passing out.

Max took a deep breath to compose himself, he pulled out his shock cuffs and bound the bobcats wrists before pulling out his cellphone and dialed the special officers line.

"Hey guy's its Max, you got my dispatch? Yeah things are taken care off, the guys out cold. Yeah I'll stick around." Max looked over to Stacy who looked terrified and his look softened. "Bring a normal car and an ambulance with you to, we have a victim who may need a ride home or a trip to the hospital." He added in before ending the call.

Max turned his attention towards Stacy and she flinched as he moved. He slowly raised his arms and cautiously stepped towards her.

"Look, I'm not going to hurt you." Max said calmly and soothingly. "I just called for more officers, they're going to take care of this guy." He said pointing his thumb towards the still unconscious bobcat.

Max moved closer and could tell she was terrified, and it was because of him no doubt. As he knelt down in front of her she looked on the verge of tears. "Look I'm not going to hurt you." He repeated as he pulled his badge out of his coat pocket and passed it to her. "I'm Special officer Max Ericson, are you ok?" Max asked calmly.

Stacy stared at the badge and up at Max. She was silent before finally speaking. "You're… you're one of them aren't you?" She asked quietly.

Stacy felt awful for saying that as she saw the tigers face. For the briefest of moments his face was one of absolute agony and self-loathing before going back to the calm face that was trying to comfort her.

"That's right, I am." Max answered simply before looking away. In that one moment Max hated that he was a G.E.O. more than anything else. His kind was the reason this poor girl was terrified and possibly hurt, that others like her were being victimized. It felt like wearing that special officer's badge was a sin and he had stained the most sacred of holy grounds.

Max was quickly broken from his thoughts as he felt a paw on his cheek. He looked up and saw Stacy crying. Before he knew it she had wrapped her arms around him and was sobbing violently. Max was dumbfounded but regardless wrapped his arms around the panthress trying to sooth her.

"It's ok, it's ok now. You're safe." Max whispered to her soothingly as she buried her face in his chest and continued to cry.

It only took the other officers about five minutes to arrive. They gave Stacy a moment to collect herself before they began asking her questions. Max stood in the parking lot and looked over to the wall where he had knocked the bobcat unconscious.

'Yikes.' Max thought to himself as he fully took in the amount of damage. There was a sizeable hole in the wall and it looked like the rest could crumble away within moments. He looked down at his paws, truly understanding just how strong he really was.

And it scared him.

"Hey, how you holding up big buy?" Max turned around and looked down as he saw a brown bunny wearing the armor reserved for special officers smiling up at him comfortingly.

"I'm alright Sherry, I'm just…" Max looked away as his voice trailed off.

Sherry put a comforting paw on his forearm, seeing as that was as far up as she could reach. "Want to talk about it?" She asked concerned.

Max let out a heavy sigh. "No, I'm good. How's she doing?" he asked hoping to bring the conversation away from him for the moment.

Sherry pointed over to an ambulance where a medic was moving a flashlight left and right while Stacy followed it with her eyes. She had a blanket around her shoulders and while she was still visibly shaken she looked fine otherwise.

"They're just giving her a quick check up to see if there's any other kind of injuries. From the looks of it she just has a few scraps so they won't need to take her to the hospital" Sherry explained.

She was ok, that made Max feel a little better about the whole situation but he still felt kind of rough. "Hey Sherry… Can I ask you something?" Max asked shyly.

Sherry gave him another comforting smile. "Anything, what's on your mind?"

Max struggled to find the words for his question but gave it a shot anyways. "You and Jack… I mean how do you do it? I mean he's a G.E.O. and your normal how do you make it work?" Max asked curiously. If this one question could be answered then maybe he could finally figure his life out in some way.

Sherry was surprised by Max's sudden personal question but as he looked over to the panthress again Sherry began to understand. He was like Jack in that they both just wanted normalcy in their lives and Max probably felt that having this answered might help him finally reach that normalcy.

"Well to be honest it wasn't easy." Sherry began. "I only knew the bare minimum about Jack when we first met, he had gone through a lot and I do mean a lot! So as a result he wasn't exactly big on sharing. But as we spent time together he began to understand that not everybody in the world was out to get him and that not everyone was going to hate him. He started to open up and trust others. While he knows there are still those who are prejudiced against G.E.O.s and there are some animals who openly express it, we also know that more animals are becoming more willing to open their minds up to include the victims."

Sherry paused to grab both of Max's paws comfortingly and smiled up at him. "There are those who understand and sympathize that you never wanted this and are just trying to make the best of it. So while there may be those who won't understand there are those who will and will come to accept you for who YOU are, not what you are. That's how Jack and I do it, because at the end of the day Jack isn't just a G.E.O. he's my husband and I love him more than life itself. So don't worry about it too much because you'll find so called 'normal' animals who will accept you for you."

Max looked down at the tiny bunny and was speechless. She had understood him and had laid bare everything he was worrying about while giving him an answer that worked. He was scared of not being accepted and was scared of how the world would treat him, but to hear that he wasn't the only one who had these worries and that there were those that could eventually accept him… it gave him hope.

Max smiled and shook his head. "Jack is really damn lucky to have you." He finally said.

Sherry scrunched her nose impishly as she smiled, it was pretty adorable. "Yep, and I remind him every day of that fact." She said teasingly.

Sherry told Max he didn't need to return to the station but he'd need to write a report when he got in tomorrow. She went back to her team as they continued to survey the damage and kept the bobcat detained in the carrier van.

Max looked over to Stacy and noticed that the medics had stopped examining her and had a special officer standing by in case she needed something. Max walked towards them and the special officer nodded to Max as he passed by.

"Hey… You ok now?" Max asked quietly as he stood in front of Stacy.

Stacy looked up at him blankly and nodded her head.

"Would… umm do you want some company?" Max asked shyly hoping he wasn't making her uncomfortable.

Stacy gave him a weak smile and nodded her head. Max sat beside her on the back of the ambulance. It took him back to his first mission but with a serious reversal, he'd been the injured one while Jack comforted him.

There was a long silence between the two until Stacy inhaled deeply and let out a slow, shuddering breath. "I wanted to… what I mean is… Thank you." Stacy barely managed to whisper as she clutched the blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She wasn't shaking or crying but Max could tell she was still seriously disturbed.

Not many animals could walk away from something like this and just be fine afterwards. Max knew that all to well.

They sat in silence again until Max decided to speak. "I understand." Stacy looked at him confused.

"I understand how you feel. The feeling of being alone and scared. Scared that you might not live through it or being scared that nobody would come and save you, I understand it all too well." Max gave her a sympathetic smile.

"You aren't alone with how you feel and if you ever want to talk you can come find me, I'll listen for as long as you want. Or if you don't ever want to be reminded of this I'll understand to. But if you ever need someone to come save you just know that I'll be there." Max knew that last part was cheesy but he didn't care, just knowing that someone would be there for you was almost like you had already saved them in some small way.

Max was completely caught off guard when she smiled at him and leaned against his shoulder, he cautiously wrapped his arm around her and rubbed her shoulder comfortingly

Stacy looked up at the tiger in wonder. He was much taller than her and was easily twice her size in muscle mass, she could feel the power in his muscles even as he was gently rubbing her shoulder. The way he had easily knocked out the bobcat was a testament to his strength, but the way he spoke and acted towards her made him seem far less intimidating than he actually was. He was shy, reserved, kind and completely sympathetic towards her and knew what to say to make her feel at ease.

She felt safe.

The special officers cleared the scene and a normal cruiser was there to see Stacy home. Max walked with her to the car but before she got in she wrapped her arms around him and just held him. She could hear his heartbeat picking up as she pressed her face against his chest. When she pulled away she smiled at him before getting into the cruiser.

Max watched as the cruiser drove away, he was tired and sore but he didn't care in the least. For once he felt like he had done something that had truly made a difference. Yeah he'd gone on several missions, had stopped several criminal G.E.O.s in his short time as an officer and he knew it made all the difference in the world, but to actually see the gratitude, to actually know who it was he had saved.

It felt like his job really had meaning to it.

Max pulled out his phone and earphones, after going through his music selection he settled on Hero by skillet, it just felt appropriate. He hummed along to the song as he began walking home, feeling somewhat fulfilled with himself for the first time in years.