Please check the bottom of this chapter for an important announcement about the future of this fic.


Judy's hotel room had roughly the same dimensions as her room at the Grand Pangolin Arms, but felt less dingy. She supposed it was because here they actually paid someone to clean it.

Still, if she had to wait, she'd have preferred to do it in the Ready Room back at Sv2. She wasn't sure why – maybe she missed the company? Either way, the hotel would give her a wake-up call when it was time to go.

A groan escaped Judy's lips as she remembered she was supposed to sleep during the day and part of the evening before sundown. Coming from a crepuscular species, the idea felt odd to her. Staying up all day or all night didn't bother her, but sleeping in either the morning or early morning just felt alien. She made a note to talk to her more diurnal co-workers when she got the chance.

Suddenly, the sound of a motorcycle revving up split through the afternoon. Judy had to hold her ears to shield them from the earth-shattering din.

She quickly made her way to the window. There, she saw that the offending small-scaled motorcycle was on the road across the canal from the hotel. Judy couldn't see much of the rider underneath their black helmet and black Pawgahyde biker's jacket, but judging from the shape of their body, and their red-furred, white-tipped tail, it had to be a vixen.

Judy chanced to look down and saw Nick standing by the guardrails by the water's edge on the hotel's side of the canal. The tod was holding his ears like Judy was, only he seemed to be making a point of looking away from the biker vixen. Now that Judy thought of it, the vixen was looking toward Nick as well as she revved her engine louder and louder.

Eventually, Nick seemed to have had enough, and he turned toward the biker at last.

"Cut it out!" he yelled over the roar.

Finally the engine noise died down, and the vixen pointedly tilted her head and raised the visor of her helmet. Judy couldn't see Nick's expression from her vantage point, but his body language was enough to tell her he was aggravated as he ran across a nearby bridge toward the biker.

Now Judy could see Nick begin to have a conversation with the vixen. She couldn't quite hear what was being said, but Nick's furrowed expression told her that he was not happy to see the biker. Judy couldn't see the vixen's face under her helmet, so she couldn't tell if the vixen was petulant or arrogant when she crossed her arms. The talk carried on a short while before Nick turned back to cross the bridge. The vixen then started her bike back up and motored off.

Judy's nose twitched a little at what she'd just seen, then she smiled. It felt good knowing there were mammals out there who could annoy Nick the way he annoyed her.


As Unit 1's barge was moved into position with its tarp-covered cargo, the events with Nick and the biker vixen began playing in Judy's head.

Clawhauser was with the barge's captain in the bridge. Nick was staring into the water off the barge's side.

Judy figured now was a good time to press the fox, so she walked up to him. "You get enough sleep?"

"Think so," said Nick.

"I had a bit of trouble after that biker woke me up," said Judy, noticing Nick's ears drop a little as she spoke. "Thanks for dealing with that, by the way."

Nick's lip twitched a bit. "Well, you won't have to worry about her anymore."

"Good to know," said Judy. "She a friend of yours?"

"Hardly," said Nick, turning to walk for the bridge. "Better suit up – we're gonna be here a long time."

Judy noticed that the barge was now moored and in position. The rabbit's foot thumped for a bit before she put her helmet on and began climbing under the tarp into Robin's cockpit.

That fox was more of a puzzle by the day…


Judy had expected that the robbers would make their attempt on the first night of the stakeout. But that night there wasn't so much as a whiff of a Labor out of place. At daybreak, Division 2 sauntered back to the hotel to try and regain some semblance of their circadian rhythms.

About the only notable thing that happened that day was when Hylander took a walk to see the damage done to the antiques store, then made a fuss about it when Division 2 was dining in Clawhauser's room. Apparently the thieves hadn't just stolen a few particularly valuable items, but had also damaged some old and expensive items of furniture when smashing their way in.

"This wasn't robbery," growled the hyrax. "This was vandalism! Sheer unbridled vandalism!"

Beaverbrook had had to restrain him.

As for Nick, the fox had been even more distant than usual after that vixen had appeared.

That evening, as she tossed and turned in bed, Judy sighed. Had she gone too far? What business was Nick's love life to her anyway?

Still, not knowing bugged her. Why was that? Sheer curiosity? Lingering speciesism? Could Judy be put in danger if Nick wasn't open with her?

Judy groaned and sandwiched her head between two pillows. Would her mind just shut up and let her sleep?!


After making her way back to Unit 1's barge that night, even Judy had to resist yawning as she sat in Robin's cockpit. Too much was happening lately and she was beginning to worry it was taking a toll on her sleep schedule.

All of a sudden, her comms system squawked to life. "Blue niner-niner to all points. We have suspicious movement at Rio Pondelier, moving south. Looks like a Labor moving under the water with its lights on."

Judy glanced at the map she had with her. For some reason, all canals in the Canal District were called 'Rio' something-or-other. Rio Pondelier was a few aquablocks east of her position, in the opposite direction to the jewelry store.

"Is it turning toward Rio Mangrove?" came Captain Bogo's voice.

"Can't tell just yet," said the undercover officer. "It doesn't look like it's turning just yet- ah, fuzz."

"What is it?" said Bogo.

"It's turned off its lights. I can't see it."

"All units be ready for anything – you in particular, Unit 1," said Captain Bogo.

"Copy that," said Judy, tensing her hands around Robin's control levers.

After a few aching minutes, another voice came through the comms.

"Dispatch to all points; we have reports of a Labor attacking a jewelry store on Rio Ducale and Rio Conch. Confirmed to match description of suspect Labor."

"Rio Ducale?" said Nick.

Judy checked her map again. The intersection of those two canals was several aquablocks southeast of Unit 1's position.

"Damn, they changed their target," growled Bogo. "Wilde, I want Unit 1 over there yesterday! Unit 2, back them up."

"Got it," said Nick.

Judy could feel the barge set off underneath her, first in reverse as it turned around, then motoring forward.

"Remember, Carrots," said Nick. "Robin's been waterproofed, but I wouldn't put it to the test, so don't let the water get above his waist."

"Copy that," said Judy as she booted up Robin's OS. "You sure you're not suited for this?"

There was a palpable silence on the other end. "Eye on the ball, rabbit."


As soon as the barge reached its destination, the tarp was finally taken off Robin, and Judy could feel the barge's cargo platform tilt down, and the Ingrowl slide into the canal. The water was already up to the machine's thighs.

Sure enough, the Labor reaching its hands into the jewelry store was a Frogmammal. Judy flicked on Robin's front lights, revealing the aquatic Labor to have a copper-orange paintjob.

"This is the Police," said Judy through her loudspeakers. "Come out of the Frogmammal with your hands up!"

"What the fuzz?" a voice squaked through the Frogmammal's speakers as it turned toward Unit 1. "Where'd you come from?!"

"I repeat, stand down or we will have to use force," said Judy.

"Wait a sec…!" Panic entered the crook's voice. "Those are the new kinds… Holy fish-paste, it's the PsychoLabors!"

Judy's nose twitched. "What?"

"I give, I give!" The Frogmammal suddenly raised its arms. "Just don't hurt me! I only wanted the money. I'll testify-"

"WHAT'RE YA DOING?!" a voice bellowed from below. Judy angled Robin's head downward to see a small hippo an otter – the same ones she'd seen in the security camera footage.

"You don't understand, Darren!" The Frogmammal turned to the hippo. "I saw what these maniacs did on Okavango Road. They'll tear up half the block to get us!"

Judy groaned. "If she heard someone mention Okavango Road one more time…!

"YOU DIM-BULB!" roared the hippo. "DON'T USE MY NAME!"

"S-sorry, Darren– uh, sir," the Frogmammal pilot muttered.

"Okay, 'Darren'…" Behind Judy, Unit 1's barge shone a floodlight at the front of the store as Nick addressed the thieves via a megaphone. "How you managed to pull four heists with these idiots is a mystery to me, but your luck's obviously run out. You've been caught with your hands in the cookie jar and even your robo-muscle's chickened out. So why don't you just give up now, huh?"

"Come on, Darren; do as he says," pleaded the Frogmammal pilot.

"We can work with this, we can work with this…!" the hippo growled through clenched teeth before turning to the otter. "Get the others to bring out the straggler."

As the otter dashed back through the ruined storefront, the hippo turned back to the barge. "Didn't think of this, didya? Even we hadn't counted on someone takin' too long to lock up."

The otter soon came out, assisting another otter and a capybara in carrying out a sloth wearing glasses and formal attire.

"Help…!" the sloth yelled. "I'm…"

The hippo sneered. "Now one false move and the slowpoke gets it. Dean, pick 'im up."

"B-but you just used my name–"

"I said pick 'im up!"

"…being…"

The Frogmammal gingerly lowered its three-fingered hand toward the sloth, picked him up by the waist, and held him up.

"Now we'll be takin' him with us if you know what's good for 'im," said the hippo.

"…robbed!"

"L-let's nto get ahead of ourselves," said Nick. "You should probably put him down. Labors aren't really made to carry mammals. You could crush that sloth by accident. He's worth nothing to you dead."

"I-I could?!" the Frogmammal pilot stammered.

"Yeah." Nick turned his megaphone up at in the Frogmammal's direction. "So why don't you just put him down and-"

"No, you idiot!" yelled the hippo. "He's a fox and a cop. It's some kinda trick." He then turned back toward Nick's barge. "Now we're gonna be headed for the Bay. If we see one cop on the way there, the sloth practices his division."

"Darren- uh, Boss?" said the Frogmammal pilot. "I'm not sure about this."

"It's just 'til we get outta the District," said one of the otters.

The Frogmammal turned to Robin. "I just wanna say, for the record an' all, that this was not my idea. I didn't-"

The hippo covered his eyes. "Dean, open your hatch. You're switching out with Crispin."

"And now they know my name," muttered the other otter, rolling his eyes as the Frogmammal knelt down by the side of the canal, allowing the otter to clamber up to the hatch.

Just as the hatch opened up, Robin surged forward, reaching an arm for the cockpit. The otter, startled by the action, tumbled into the cockpit, landing in the lap of a rather panicked coypu.

The coypu pilot made his machine stand up, and as he and the equally disoriented otter tumbled around the cockpit, the Frogmammal tumbled toward the other side of the canal.

Robin bolted through the water, catching the errant Labor before it could smash into a canalside building. As Robin righted the Frogmammal, the two mammals in the latter's cockpit jostled for space, leading their machine to abruptly swing its arm upward, knocking Judy away. It was only by putting Robin's arm on the road at the other side of the canal that she avoided submerging the Ingrowl's torso.

It was plain to see that the two cramped mammals' pushing and shoving each other in the Frogmammal's cockpit were bumping the Labor's controls, making it flail uncontrollably.

Judy's heart sank as the arm holding the jeweler sloth began rotating at the elbow. The rabbit flung Robin at the arm, pushing the Frogmammal's torso into the canal embankment and planting Robin's foot on its chest. With all its might, Robin yanked on the Frogmammal's arm, trying to resist the pull of its rotation, until a loud clanking and popping greeted Judy's ears.

Robin had to adjust its footing so it didn't fall over backwards as the Frogmammal's arm detached at the elbow.

The rabbit set the arm on the other side of the canal next to the Ingrowl's barge and began prying the fingers off the sloth. She turned Robin's head toward Nick as she switched on her loudspeakers. "You'd better take care of-"

Suddenly the sloth got up and dashed by the side of the barge in a blur.

When she looked toward the barge, Judy could see that just like her, everyone on the boat – Nick and Clawhauser included – was staring after the running sloth with slack jaws.

"What other lies have I been living?" Nick muttered.

Judy shook off her shock and turned to the still-flailing Frogmammal. The rabbit noticed that the machine's head-mounted hatch. No doubt that had made the cockpit even more cramped, and the Labor even more uncontrollable if there were two mammals in there.

"WHAT'RE YOU DOING?!" screamed the hippo as the machine started doing a twisted goose-step away from the jewelry store. He was promptly interrupted by two larger hippo ZPD officers jumping him from behind and cuffing his arms while a jaguar officer and a water buffalo officer ran after his accomplices.

Robin grabbed the Frogmammal's remaining arm just seconds before it could make contact with a building, then used its free arm to put the enemy Labor into a modified chokehold.

"Where's Hylander?" Judy groaned as she tried to keep this demented Tango up.

"On his way," said Nick through his earpiece.

"I don't want to let go of him while he's like this," said Judy, switching on her loudspeakers. "Listen, you two in the Frogmammal, just open your cockpit. You're only endangering yourselves.

Judy breathed a sigh of relief as the Frogmammal's head-cockpit opened. The coypu half-tumbled out screaming before the otter reached out to grab him and pull him back in, the cockpit closing after them.

"You're not getting us that easily-y-y-y-y!"

The otter's voice was cut off as the Frogmammal's leg shot back, nearly causing the two Labors to fall over as the centre of gravity changed in their bizarre dance. Judy had to contort Robin's body to keep the out-of-control aquatic Labor's head above the water.

With its 'head' only a few inches above the water, the Frogmammal's cocpit opened up again, and the coypu jumped into the water. Through the refraction of the water in Robin's chest lights, Judy could just about make out the large rodent swimming away.

"Now let's try this!" hissed the otter, as he planted the Frogmammal's feet against the bottom of the canal and pushed back, sending Robin back-first into the opposite embankment.

Briefly disoriented, Judy tried to stand Robin back up again. "Just give up already," she seethed. "You've only got one arm. One way or another, I'm bringing you in."

"You'll have to catch me first," said the otter, as his Labor suddenly fell backward into the water.

The foam left by the giant splash made it hard for Judy's lights to pick up movement. All of a sudden, she felt Robin's weight shift underneath her. The world through her monitors began to spin, and next thing she knew, all she could see through them was dust and bubbles.

"Hopps, you alright?!" came Nick's voice.

"I-I'm fine," said Judy. "The waterproofing seems to be working. I'll get back up and-"

Judy was cut off as she felt the Ingrowl beign pushed down onto the canal bed, then grinded along its belly. Suddenly she felt the ground underneath her drop away. She tried to stand Robin up, but her monitors only caught a bit of the surface lapping at the head-mounted cameras.

"He's pushed you into a deeper canal," said Nick. "Get back up here. Ingrowls aren't built for swimming – Frogmammals are."

"I can't see anything," panted Judy. "I don't even know where I am!"


By now, Hylander and Unit 2 had made their way to the point where the shallower Rio Conch intersected with the deeper Rio Ducale and had rendezvoused with Unit 1's barge and the other officers.

"Confound it," grumbled Hylander as he took in the two sets of lights in the deeper, silt-choked water. "If I could tell which one was Hopps, I'd shoot that Frogmammal."

"You can't," snapped Lee. "As long as he's underwater, we'd risk drowning the pilot."

"At this rate, Hopps'll be the one drowning," said Hylander. "Her air tanks are smaller than his."

Just then, one set of lights pushed the other toward the other side of the canal, where there was no street-embankment between the water and the buildings.

"Oh no," Lee murmured before speaking into her radio. "Hopps, don't let him slam you into those canalside buildings. Most of them are old – they'd fall right on top of you."


Under the water, Judy could feel the back of her machine slam into something hard. Her teeth clenched as she realized what it was.

"My back's right against a wall, I think," she said. "Where's the Frogmammal?"


Lee peered out over the murky waters to see the lights. "Coming right at you – two o'clock!"


Judy grimaced as she considered her options.

Duck or dodge? The Frogmammal's momentum would smash into the building behind her.

Give the enemy Labor a kick as it approached? She'd have to brace Robin against the wall for support; Gnuton's Third Law meant that she could just as easily break the building's foundation herself.

Then an idea came to her. She flung out Robin's arms, grabbed the Frogmammal's remaining arm, and swung it down Rio Ducale. Confused by the redirected momentum, the Frogmammal could only continue a short while longer until it vanished from Judy's silt-obstructed view.

"Quick!" she panted. "There's a corner near me, isn't there?"

"Yeah," said Nick. "Four or five yards to your left – if your back's still against that wall."

"Okay," said Judy. "Tell Hylander to shoot down that canal when I give the signal."

"Shoot down the canal at what?!" Lee snapped.

"He'll know when he sees it," said Judy as she inched Robin closer toward the intersection.

"Hopps, I hope you know what you're doing," said Hylander.

Judy took a deep breath in, watching her monitors until she saw the lights of the Frogmammal coming at her.

This time Judy was ready. She planted Robin's feet into the ground, bent over, and shoved the Enemy Labor's chest upward until its torso breached the waterline.

"NOW!" she screamed.

A loud bang echoed through the Canal District.

Through drops of water on her camera's lenses and intermittent waves, Judy could see a satisfying flourish of sparks coming from the Frogmammal's back-mounted batteries. The now-disabled Labor's cockpit opened, and Judy could see the otter jump into the canal. She tried to grab for him, but the Frogmammal's remains pushed her down, and she had to return both hands to holding the other Labor up.

"Forget about him, Carrots," Nick sighed. "Just get that thing out of there before it starts leaking battery acid or you spring a leak."


"I'm still surprised it worked," said Judy as she put down her bottle of car shampoo and sat down beside Robin's foot. "I thought for sure Hylander was going to miss or something."

"Shows what happens when you stop and think," said Nick as he sat down beside her.

"You deserve credit for it too you know," said Judy with a smirk. "Most of the time I get just one idea, and all the ones I thought about before that one would have done more damage to the area. Your crazy sloth suits helped me think more."

Nick looked ready to say something, but then he closed his muzzle.

Judy studied the floor. "You really should give yourself more credit, you know. Your ideas are setting precedents for the unit." The rabbit looked up at Nick with a cocksure smile. "You've got a good future here if you keep at it. Don't let a loose cannon like me get in the way."

After a moment of silence, Nick sighed. "You'll forget me soon enough."

"Robin won't."

Nick glanced over at Judy, whose smirk became a more earnest smile. "His OS refines itself based on my movements – he's learning from me learning from you. Even IHI's newer models will have OSs based on my movements, so it's guaranteed that Zeeplabors in the future will be learning from what you've been teaching me."

Before Nick could counter, Hylander walked up to them.

As Judy and Nick turned toward him, the hyrax coughed, adjusted his glasses, and took a deep breath in. "Erm, Wilde?"

"Yeah?"

Hylander clenched his teeth. "On behalf of…" He turned away. "That's not right – it's not on anyone's behalf." He turned back to Nick. "I've been considering… No, that's not it either."

Judy's nose twitched. Nick's head tilted.

Hylander sighed and shook his head. "Oh, for the love of…" He stood up straight. "I'd like to apologize for what I said to you last week about your dedication. It was beneath me, and unbecoming an officer of the law. It's evident now that you're a valuable part of this Division, and we'd be lost without you. I should consider that in future."

The hyrax's gaze practically bored a hole into Robin's leg behind Nick and Judy as silence fell over their part of the hangar.

"Is that it?" Nick said at last.

"D-did you expect more?" Hylander stammered.

"No, no – it's fine." Nick raised his hand. "Apology accepted."

"Oh, um…" Judy could see the insides of Hylander's ears redden. "I-if it's alright with you, I'll be in the Ready Room if either of you need me."

The fox and the rabbit stared after Hylander as he walked off.

Nick spoke up next. "Did you put him up to this?"

"No."

"Pouchvenger?"

"Haven't seen him talking with Lee since we got back." Judy turned to Nick with a smirk. "Like I said, if you're trying to be a lousy cop, you're not doing a very good job."

Nick sighed.

Just then, Joanna Namakoro ran out in front of them, frantically looking all around her before turning to Nick and Judy.

"Why did I have to listen to you, Wilde?!" the hyena groaned.

"What did I do now?" Nick rolled his eyes.

"Camazotz decided the sloth suits weren't enough," Joanna panted. "She's designing another suit that plays games with your brain if you're too fast. I'm getting out of here before she starts looking for test subjects, and if you're smart, you'll-"

"Take cover! Every mammal for themselves!" A jackrabbit mechanic dashed up the ladder into Robin's open cockpit, closing the hatch behind him.

"Hey!" Judy shouted up at the jackrabbit.

"Hey, I was going to hide there!" pouted Joanna.

"Oh, Jo-an-na!" Camazotz's voice sang through the PA system.

"Aw, Carbide!" Joanna groaned as she ran out into the weeds outside the hangar.

Nick suddenly grabbed Judy by the arm and ran after her.

"Nick, what-"

"Come on, Carrots," Nick panted. "If we put our backs into it, we could swim to Marshlands."

"Nick, we can't-"

"Calling all potential test pilots!" Camazotz sang out again.

A shiver ran down Judy's spine. "On the other hand, I have a few swamp rabbits in the family…!"


No next-episode preview this time I'm afraid. As for why, well…

The reason I started writing serials in advance was partly so I could update regularly, and partly so I could buy time to write new stuff while posting. However, things haven't worked out as they should. That was how "The Belabored Bootlegger" was supposed to work, and it didn't work as planned if my nearly year-long absence was any indication. And I barely have a start on the first draft of the next serial, so things have already gone off the rails with that too.

Basically, my self-confidence, motivation, and productivity have taken a huge hit over the past year, and recent world events haven't helped. In fact, there are points where I've felt like a failure and a hack for not living up to my expectations. With this in mind, I have decided that I shouldn't keep your hopes up if what happened between this serial and the last one was any indication.

So as of this update, I'm sorry to say, I am placing Zeeplabor on indefinite hiatus.

For those of you who've enjoyed the story thus far, I'm sorry to leave you like this, especially in a time when everything seems to be shutting down due to COVID-19. I'm as disappointed in myself as you are. If you want more Zootopia fics, I recommend looking at the works of J_Shute and Ian the Mechanic (aka. ubernoner) here on FFN, Pandora and MamaSally on Archive Of Our Own, and the countless other writers who have been soldiering on with their writing in these troubling times.

Thank you for bearing with me thus far, and hopefully this is 'see you later' and not 'goodbye.'