Hey there, Last Edge back once again
I hope everyone is staying safe and being responsible during all this crazy lockdown stuff
Thought you might want something to read so here's a nice long chapter of Broken Clockwork
As always, let me know what you think, about the chapter, the characters, the story in general, I love hearing from you guys
Chapter 27
She was tiptoeing through clouds while carrots and tomatoes bigger than her flew through the sky with little green angel wings. She wanted to chase after them and started to jump. And jump she did, going higher and higher till eventually she just didn't come down again, soaring off into the air.
Then, all of a sudden, she was swimming over a beautiful barrier reef full of corals and tropical fish. The fact she could breathe was pushed to the back of her head. There was colour all around her as scales flashed and tendrils waved in the water.
After that she was playing football on a pitch that was far too big, with far too many players for anything to make sense. Sometimes she had the ball, sometimes she didn't, sometimes she could see several mammals all with a ball of their own and she didn't know which direction to run in, but her legs felt like she was running through treacle.
Scene after scene, all blurring together, changing without her even noticing. As soon as they were out of sight, they were out of mind and she struggled to remember what had been happening. There was just one connecting factor throughout all of this, the colours.
Red and Orange.
Judy woke with a start. She could vaguely remember the last few things that had happened in her dream, they weren't bad, it certainly hadn't been a nightmare. So why did she feel so uneasy?
Glancing to the side Judy saw that she'd managed to wake up before her alarm. Not by much given how early her alarm was normally set but still. Shaking her head, the bunny started to get up, there was no point going back to bed now.
Halfway through pulling her top on over her head, the alarm decided to go off, and Judy nearly said some very unladylike words as she struggled to untangle her arms and reach for the noisy device.
Normally Judy's morning was spent getting ready and driving to pick up Nick, now however she didn't have anywhere near as far to go to meet her partner. The grey doe grabbed an apple from the bowl of fruit on the kitchen table then flopped onto the sofa and turned on the TV. The volume was turned right down, she didn't want to annoy any of her neighbours and, given how quiet it was this early in the morning, Judy could easily hear whatever show she happened to land on.
She had settled in fairly well by now, rabbits tended to have pretty large homes despite their size, but that was because of how many of them there usually were in a family. So while Judy was ok with the size of the apartment she did find it to be rather… empty.
The other slight issue she faced nowadays was that waiting for Nick could feel like it was dragging on and on. Judy would explain that she found the early morning TV boring, but really, she wasn't enjoying all the quality time with just her and her head.
It was a welcome sound when she heard the shower start in Nick's apartment. The fox was pretty quick with his morning routine, he'd sped up a bit too since Judy had moved in next door. Given that she always gave him a lift to work he felt he shouldn't leave the bunny waiting around for too long.
Judy waited for the sound of the shower to stop, a minute or so later she heard footsteps and then a few minutes after that she grabbed her stuff and headed for the door herself. With practised ease she stepped out of the house at the same time as her partner and turned to lock the door behind her.
"Morning Carrots" Judy heard along with the jingling of Nick's keys.
"Good Morning Nick" beamed Judy as she headed for the stairs and the fox fell into step with her.
The apartment complex was normally very quiet this early in the morning and the two police-mammals did their best not to disturb anyone on their way out.
There was a reasonable amount of parking outside, some places clearly didn't have enough spaces for all their tenants, but not here so Judy could always find a spot. It helped that word had spread that there were cops living there, mammals seemed to be on their best behaviour in the general vicinity.
Judy hopped in the driver's seat and started the car up, she frowned slightly as she checked the fuel.
A little low but not terrible she thought to herself I'll need to fill up in a few days a small smile appeared on the rabbit's face maybe I can get some fuel money off of Nick
The fox in question had poured himself into the passenger seat and was just taking the opportunity to watch his partner. Nick had to admit that his mornings felt nicer now that he got to spend more of them with Judy. He knew he didn't actually spend much more time with her, but it felt like it and that was what mattered. He watched Judy check the fuel level and then smile and dragged his gaze away before the voice in his head could start up, so far this morning it had been blissfully quiet.
The drive to work was filled with idle chatter and quiet music on the radio; the two mammals didn't really talk about anything important, just enjoying the others company. Thankfully, traffic was nice and clear this early in the morning, as usual the main problem was catching traffic lights at the wrong times. Even then it only added a couple of minutes to the drive and the two chatting mammals barely noticed.
After parking up at the station Nick and Judy headed for the main entrance while greeting the few fellow officers who were arriving at the same time. With a large stretch Nick jogged ahead of Judy for the last few steps and pulled open the door for his partner. Judy gave Nick a smile that made the fox's heart thump loudly in his ears before she stepped into the precinct.
Nick stood there for a moment, half expecting the voice to start acting up, but like the rest of the morning it was staying happily mute today. So the fox just smiled a warm genuine smile that no one saw and followed after his partner.
It had taken Cherry and Fizz several days to recover from the visit to see their boss, Rennie Lamane. Fizz got through it by focussing on his job, working with numbers had always calmed him down. Cherry on the other hand was in a worse state than Fizz and it took her a while to perk up enough to get back to work.
Fizz was actually starting to get a little worried that Cherry's value would drop if she didn't get back on form soon, and Rennie Lamane would leap at such an opportunity, so the cougar fudged the accounts ever so slightly for a few days. Nobody would notice, Fizz knew what he could and could not get away with, but to anyone else Cherry had been back to transporting a few days earlier than she finally did.
But now Cherry was back on form, transporting "goods" all over the Rainforest and Canal Districts. Like Fizz had been telling her, Cherry found that focussing on her work helped her calm down, the familiar pathways and hidden routes around Zootopia soothing her mind.
Life had returned to some semblance of normality for the otter and the cougar, as much as a life like theirs could ever be normal. There was only one problem, but it was an issue that only Fizz knew about, Cherry remained blissfully in the dark.
The amount of Dusk being sold and transported was increasing exponentially. Fizz knew this because he dealt with all the money, and money keeps track of things. By now most of the packages that Cherry delivered were vials of that hateful drug, not that Fizz had any intention of telling her. Cherry was very professional, she never investigated her packages and treated each of them as if they were fragile glass. But peace never lasts…
It had been about 12 days since the visit to Blue Tide and their boss who dwelt below it. Today was just another day to Cherry, she had packages to deliver and quotas to fill. Recently she'd seen a homogenising of her packages, today in fact she'd delivered 6 already that were all identical to this last one she was about to drop off.
So here she was on the border of the Canal and Rainforest Districts, somewhere off the beaten track from Vine Street. The scenery was looking more like Rainforest than Canal by this point, but the area hadn't developed the verticality of the Rainforest District proper yet.
Kinda like a Rainforest Bungalow Cherry thought to herself as she looked around before pressing herself into a doorway and furtively knocking three times.
Almost as if the recipient had been waiting impatiently by the door, said door was opened the moment Cherry made the third knock, revealing a large tiger in a tatty tracksuit, a curved scar on his cheek and a glint in his eyes.
The big cat took the package from Cherry wordlessly and handed her a slip of paper with his name on, something Fizz insisted on. Everything was going completely normally, and Cherry turned to leave, time to go back and have a nice long shower now that all the day's deliveries were done.
But things were not quite normal today.
Before Cherry could leave or even fully turn her head to avoid looking, the tiger tore open the package revealing three vials full of a bloody orange liquid like the setting sun. Cherry froze at the sight of it, the colour sending a terrifying shiver running down her spine.
The tiger didn't notice anything odd about Cherry, his attention was fully on the drug held in his hands. There was a deranged look in his eyes as he slowly licked the vials, his tongue giving contrast to the Dusk.
Red and Orange.
And then the tiger turned, went back inside and shut the door.
Cherry took several deep breaths, almost too many, and she slapped herself around the face to stop hyperventilating. She looked down to see her paws shaking horribly and she quickly jammed them under her arms.
Despite how disturbed she was, Cherry was still a professional and made several detours in the area while checking for any followers before she began to meander her way back to the base in the Canal District.
Once she finally got back to the door and knocked, it felt like an eternity before Fizz opened the slot and checked who had arrived, then it felt like another eternity before the cougar actually opened the door.
The younger otter pushed past Fizz in her hurry to get inside and rushed into the main room. Fizz followed her after locking up the door once again, to find Cherry frantically fumbling a cigarette out of a packet and struggling to work a lighter. Seeing that something was clearly wrong with his colleague, Fizz carefully took the lighter from Cherry and lit her cigarette for her before pulling up a chair opposite her.
"What's wrong Cherry?" he asked with his hoarse voice "I've not seen you this bad since we visited the boss"
It took a few minutes and most of the cigarette before the otter had calmed down enough to reply.
"It's fucking Dusk!" she whispered "like, everything I've been delivering recently, it's all that fucking drug!"
"Shit" said Fizz as he rubbed his forehead "you saw it?"
"Last bloody customer tore the package open right in front of me the second he got it" spat Cherry before looking at Fizz suspiciously "wait… you knew?"
"Of course I knew, Cherry" said Fizz with a sigh "I know everything about every single one of the packages you deliver. But you as the transporter are not supposed to know… I really hoped you wouldn't find out"
There was silence in the room for a while as Cherry sat on the raggedy sofa and Fizz sat on the chair opposite her. The cigarette burnt its way down till it nearly singed Cherry's paw before she put it out in the ash tray on the arm of the sofa.
"Do you think we could get out of all this?" she asked Fizz quietly as she curled up on the sofa.
The cougar just carried on looking at her silently.
"Ha, yeah" the otter smiled sadly "wishful thinking huh?"
"You might manage it" said Fizz after a few moments "you'd need to leave Zootopia, go far far away, somewhere the Boss and that lot couldn't find you. You're quick and good at hiding, just think that you're delivering a package, but that package is you"
"What about you though?" asked Cherry "That fucking lion won't be happy if I just disappear"
"I'm too slow" smirked Fizz self-derisively "my body is in a hell of a state you know, I'd just slow you down. Plus I've got no talent for being sneaky or stealthy or all that stuff"
What the new Boss would do to Fizz if Cherry vanished hung unspoken in the air between the otter and the cougar.
"I guess that's it then" sighed Cherry "we're stuck"
"For now" said Fizz as he got up and went back to the desk that had all of the CCTV screens set up "but we've still got over half a month before we need to go see Lamane again, you can always disappear at the drop of a hat if it seems like he's going to try any funny business"
"Ah, shut up Fizz" snorted Cherry as she got up to go for a shower.
"You know, I used to know some guys who'd be great in this sort of situation" mused Fizz as he started to organise the receipts Cherry had brought back "pity they aren't available any more, they could do wonders for your confidence just by being involved"
The only answer Fizz got was the sound of running water starting from the floor above.
It was a bright and sunny afternoon but not too hot, normally ideal weather to be out patrolling. But the officers out and about were far too busy to be enjoying the lovely conditions. Petty crime was on the rise, even if the officers on patrol didn't see any themselves there were constant streams of citizens approaching them to report thefts, muggings and the like. Clawhauser and the other officers on phone duty were inundated with call after call and, while the ZPD was easily coping with all this, it was certainly draining on the individual members.
So it was that Nick, Judy and Lunette had manged to placate the members of the public that had been thronging around them and escape to some of the more out of the way streets and alleys to patrol. Judy's ears flopped lifelessly, one covering her face which she couldn't be bothered to move. Nick had his sunglasses on as usual since his eyes were more used to twilight, though now the shades covered how bored his eyes looked.
Knowing how to cheer up his partner, as always, Nick managed to lead them out of the centre of Savanah Central and towards the boundary with Sahara Square. He chose Riverside as their destination, the tree lined footpaths along the banks of the waterways provided a charming scenery that Judy simply couldn't ignore. Nick smiled slightly as he watched his partner perk up, head turning around and around, with that look of wonder on her face that Judy always had when she saw something for the first time.
There were fewer mammals around here since most were at school or work just after midday on a Wednesday, and those that were out enjoying themselves in the sun didn't seem to have been hit by the crime wave so the officers were left alone.
The three of them took advantage in the lull of work to relax a bit, recharge their batteries so to say, since they knew work would likely keep building up as the days passed. Nick even stopped by a little street vendor and bought the three of them an ice cream.
This was mainly because he saw that there were blueberry ice lollies on the menu, however he was disappointed to find that they'd sold out and he had to settle for raspberry.
The frozen treats went down well, Lunette had been starting to feel a little warm and was happily lapping away.
Judy nibbled away at her ice lolly, she'd never had issues with sensitive teeth like some of her siblings, but most of her attention was on Nick. The fox was grumbling quietly to himself about how it "wasn't as good as blueberry… or my pawpsicles for that matter". He was so slow at eating that sticky melted ice lolly ran down onto his paw causing him to groan, fiddle the popsicle stick to his other paw and start to lick the first one clean.
Judy giggled quietly at the sight of her partner getting the ice cream all over his fur.
Red and Orange.
There was a faint unease at the back of Judy's mind but it was almost instantly hidden by the lovely weather, good company and charming views all around the little grey doe.
"I'm not complaining" said Lunette between licks "but are you sure it's really ok for us to be doing our patrol here?"
"Right at this moment? No, it is probably a bit unprofessional" said Nick carefully watching Judy's ears in case they started to droop "However… given how many crimes have been committed recently, I'm sure something will pop up in the area for us to take care of"
Nick took his radio out and comically held it to his ear.
"Aaaaaaany minute now" he smirked as his partner snorted quietly and looked away "So I wouldn't worry about it Nix, we'll have a little rest out here by the river and then head back out into the real world"
Lunette seemed satisfied with that and the three went back to enjoying the sun as they wandered along the water's edge. Only partly jokingly, Nick kept his radio in his hand just in case something was reported. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, after about half an hour of wandering the surroundings ahead of them were becoming more urban again. To the left was Savanah Central and looming in the distance beyond that were the skyscrapers of Downtown, while to the right, across the river, was the Palm District.
This wasn't a full district like Tundra Town or the Rainforest District. It was just where Savanah Central met Sahara Square; it was warmer and wetter than Central, despite bordering the desert, because of the river that ran next to it and this more tropical climate made it a popular tourist location. This different sort of scenery and climate meant it didn't need to compete with the centre of Sahara Square itself, which of course contained the famous 5-star Oasis Hotel.
At this moment, just as Nick was actually putting his radio away on his belt again, said radio kicked into life.
10-90, I repeat 10-90 came Clawhauser's voice over the radio We have a Bank alarm going off at Vornoy Plaza, any officers in the area please respond.
"This is officer's Wilde, Hopps and Furle" said Nick crisply as he raised the radio back to his muzzle "we're a few minutes on foot from Vornoy Plaza" the fox glanced at Judy and Lunette who both nodded to him "moving to assist officers on the scene"
10-4 Nick said Clawhauser before continuing the call 10-90, I repeat 10-90…
"Speak of the devil, eh?" said Lunette as she finished up her popsicle before looking around for somewhere to throw the stick away.
"I'll deal with that Nix" said Nick taking both Lunette's and Judy's popsicle sticks and adding them to his own… and then he tossed all three into the river next to him as he set off at a brisk pace towards the nearest bridge.
"Nick!?" shouted Judy as she sped after him "You can't just throw litter away in the river like that?!"
"It's fully biodegradable Carrots" grinned Nick as Judy and Lunette caught pace with him "and don't worry there are little recycling plants set up all along the rivers, they make sure rubbish from the city doesn't end up floating along in to that big patch of water out there"
"That is not the point Nick" simmered Judy, but she did feel a little more tolerant about her partner's littering.
"I know Carrots" said Nick looking at Judy out of the corner of his eye, not that you could tell with his sunglasses on "but we are in a bit of a hurry, now if you ladies would like to follow me, we have some shortcuts to take"
And with that the fox darted off the footpath, across the grass, pushed through a small bush and disappeared into an alleyway. Judy shook her head and smiled at Lunette before the two of them took off after Nick.
Vornoy Plaza Bank was a branch of Furs National Bank or FNB. On the one hand life out on the edges of Savanah Central was fairly quiet, but on the other hand Vornoy Plaza got a fair amount of tourists and holiday goers who wanted sun and warmth but not as much as you'd find over the border in Sahara Square. So the bank was actually bigger than you might imagine given the rest of the neighbourhood.
At the moment there were two cop cars pulled up outside, with the four officers hiding behind them. The glancing marks and occasional bullet hole on the vehicles showing the reason why.
Such was the scene that Judy, Nick and Lunette saw when they arrived at Vornoy Plaza. Using the cover of some other parked vehicles, a phone booth, and some bins, the three kept low to the ground and made their way to join their fellow officers.
"What have we got Delgato?" Judy asked the lion who had been peeking through one of the car windows at the bank.
"Jackson, Wolfard, Richmond" Nick greeted the tiger and two wolves also hiding behind the vehicles.
The other officers nodded in return but before Delgato could reply to Judy, there was a BANG and the lion ducked down swearing as the car window he was trying to look through shattered.
"As you can see" Delgato growled "they've got their hands on some firearms"
"Only one as far as we can tell" Wolfard chipped in "We've seen two tigers and a grizzly; the bear is the one with the gun"
"How many hostages?" asked Lunette worriedly.
"We're not sure" said Jackson shaking his head, he always felt personally offended when the criminals were also tigers "The bank staff are definitely present, but we don't know how many other civilians"
"So what's the plan?" asked Judy.
"Any suggestions would be welcome" said Delgato ruefully "we only arrived a few minutes before you turned up and we've spent most of that pinned down here"
"Ok" said Nick "What have we got to work with? And have you updated headquarters?"
"We've all got our tranq pistols on us" said Richmond "The cars have the standard equipment for patrols in, so from what's relevant we have two smaller riot shields, not the full SWAT ones I'm afraid, two cans of Anti-Odorant, and enough hand cuffs for all the criminals in there"
The canine officers all shared a wince at the mention of Anti-Oderant, a nasty weapon similar to pepper spray, it was designed to incapacitate mammals with sensitive noses.
"Oh and a one-mammal battering ram" added Jackson "I requisitioned one for an earlier assignment and it's not reached the deadline to return it yet"
"We have told headquarters" said Wolfard "but we're about the seventh situation like this to call in apparently, I'm afraid there's no back up for us unless the earlier crimes get handled quickly, it doesn't seem like there's anyone else patrolling nearby"
Nick could tell from the twitching of her ears that Judy was already formulating some sort of plan in that little grey head of hers. So, in order to get her more information, the fox asked some more questions.
"Is there another entrance to the bank? What about windows?" Nick asked.
"There's an alley that runs next to the bank over there" Wolfard gestured to the right of the building "I think there might be a side window, but I am certain there's a back entrance"
"Alright" said Judy slowly as she loaded a dart into her tranquiliser pistol "first of all, I'm going to sneak round to that alleyway and get a look in through that side window, if it's there. We can't make any rash actions without knowing the situation in the bank. If it's really only those three criminals, then I'll tranq the bear with the handgun from the window" Judy gestured with the pistol "and then you guys can rush them from the front"
All the other officers glanced around at each other and, seeing that no one had any other suggestions, nodded.
Judy took a deep breath, one last look at Nick who smiled encouragingly, and then she dropped low to the ground even for a rabbit and shot out towards the nearest civilian car. There was a big open area between the cop cars and the next patch of cover; however, at the moment Judy set off, Nick pulled a small mirror out of his pocket, took a quick glance at where the sun was in the sky, held it up over the bonnet of the car and flashed a distracting light towards the bank.
The trio of bullets that flew towards car showed that Nick had done a fine job of holding the criminals attention and without that attention Judy had an incredibly easy time sneaking around to the right hand side of the bank where the alleyway was.
"Don't you ever get worried about your partner?" Delgato grinned as he asked Nick, who was lounging around fairly casually.
Lunette's ears perked up at this and she looked at the fox expectantly.
"Do I worry about her?" said Nick lifting his sunglasses up briefly to look at his colleagues "Of course I worry about her, all the goddamn time, have you not seen the sorts of stunts Judy pulls while on duty?" There was a round of chuckles as the other officers understood that all too well "I just trust her, that's all, it's a rare occasion that Judy attempts something that she can't pull off. So rather than try and stop her doing all the crazy stuff she does, I've found it works a lot better for both of us if I'm just there to back her up"
And with that Nick let his shades fall back down over his eyes and he settled down to wait for Judy to contact them over the radio.
Judy had of course known that it was risky crossing that big open area immediately after she left the cover of the police cars. But she trusted her partner; she didn't see what Nick had done but the gunshots and bullet sounds aimed at the other officers told her that once again her partner had covered for her.
It left a warm feeling in her chest that buoyed her along, less confidence and more a simple certainty that she and Nick could deal with anything the world could throw at them.
First Judy headed for the front of the building next to the bank, sticking flush against the shopfront would make it impossible for the criminals in the bank to see her unless they stepped out the front door.
She paused at the corner, just before the alleyway, closed her eyes and focussed on her fantastic hearing. She could hear muffled voices, raised and angry, coming from the bank itself. Even fainter than that was an occasional whimper which must be from the civilians. But that was it, no sounds from the alley, and Judy was proud of her hearing.
Even so, she rounded the corner cautiously, taking a small glimpse to check the alley really was empty.
It was.
Judy smiled as she walked into the alley properly and quickly scanned her surroundings. There wasn't a door as far as she could see but there was an intersection of alleys at the back of the bank, so the back entrance was probably round the corner. What she did see was a small window fairly high up on the wall.
The sight of the tiny window made Judy have some mixed feelings. She knew for a fact that it was there in order to skirt around some of Zootopia's building laws. Businesses were required to provide adequate natural lighting, and this was done by having a minimum number of windows that any building must have. Unfortunately, there weren't any specifications for said windows, so you ended up with buildings with tiny little windows tucked away in out of the way places just to fill a quota.
Normally this irked Judy, though there wasn't really anything she could do about it since it was technically legal. The internal conflict in Judy right now was because if not for this dodgy building design she'd be a bit stuck with how to proceed and that just didn't sit well with her.
With a sigh Judy judged the height of the window, bent her legs slightly, and then hopped up in the air just high enough to grab hold of the thin ledge at the base of the window. Lean muscles pulled Judy up just high enough to peek through the bottom of the window.
First the grey doe made a brief scan of the room inside, she could see the three criminals and several other mammals along the edges of the room. After a minute or so no new mammals had appeared and the bank robbers were all focussed on the cop cars on the street outside so, secondly, Judy got a better look at the window itself.
Her luck seemed to be good today as someone had left the window open slightly, it would only let in a light breeze but it was enough for Judy to wiggle a finger in to then get enough purchase to pull the window open further.
She winced slightly and very carefully pulled the window open hoping it wouldn't make too much noise. But luck still seemed to be with her, and she got the tiny window open enough that Judy could take a shot at the bear.
Before that though, Judy dropped back down to the floor and moved further away before she pulled her radio out to quietly inform her colleagues.
"Come in Nick"
What have we got Carrots? Replied her partner.
"Three criminals, a bear and two tigers, civilians around the edge of the room but they seem to have been left alone for now. I've got access through a window, so I'll take out the gun-mammal and then you rush the rest of them as fast as possible"
Alright, we'll wait for your signal… try not to draw attention to yourself Judy
"Relax Nick, I'm peeking through the bottom of a tiny window, if I miss I'll drop out of sight before they know what's happening" Judy smiled to herself "Right, I'll keep the radio connected so stay quiet on your end till I give the signal"
Judy moved back to stand under the window once more.
This is going to be a bit trickier than just taking a look she thought to herself tapping her chin lightly.
But a course of action rapidly presented itself to the grey doe and she grinned as she leapt up and hooked her fingertips onto the window frame. Lifting herself up she saw that the criminals didn't seem to have moved much, the bear was still at the window with one of the tigers while the other was lounging on a nearby desk and leering at a couple of alpacas that were kneeling against one of the walls.
Seeing that no one was looking her way, Judy hooked her left arm along the windowsill to support herself and reached for her radio with her right paw. She then transferred the radio to her left paw and reached again with her right, this time for the tranquiliser pistol.
See, that wasn't too difficult she cheered in her head as she readied her weapon.
Taking a deep breath and then holding it, a look of calm appeared in her purple eyes as Judy focussed everything on making this shot count. Other sounds seemed to die away till it was just Judy and her target, the bear was trying to line up his own shots at the officers outside so shouldn't be moving too much.
Judy narrowed her eyes slightly and squeezed the trigger.
The bear had also fired, and found that he was out of bullets, so he turned away from the window to reach for another magazine. Judy's dart flew straight past the bear and out the open window.
Cheese and Crackers!?
Judy ducked down as much as she could in her current position, she really wasn't sure how they were going to proceed if she didn't manage to take out the bear.
As the seconds nerve rackingly ticked by Judy realised that there was no commotion coming from within the building. Pulling herself back up into position she could see that none of the criminals seemed to have noticed anything.
Deciding not to mention this if any of her colleagues asked what happened Judy, with a quite a bit of struggling and nearly falling from the window once, managed to load another dart into her pistol. With her usual dogged determination, Judy took aim once more and, after taking a long look at what the bear was doing, fired.
This time the bear still had plenty of bullets left and the tranquiliser dart hit him squarely in the left shoulder.
"Confirmed hit on the gun-mammal" Judy said quietly into the radio the moment she saw her shot land "go, go, go"
The tranquiliser the ZPD used was highly effective and within seconds the bear slumped forwards, flopping onto the window he was shooting out of and dropping his weapon outside into the bank's shrubbery, before sliding down and ending up with his arms up and face plastered against the wall.
By the time the two tigers even noticed what was happening, Judy's backup was bursting in through the front door. One of the tigers, the one who'd been frightening the alpacas, tried to go for one of the civilians but was succinctly darted by Delgato. Seeing this the final criminal raised their hands and got on their knees waiting to be handcuffed.
"How's the weather up there?"
Judy looked down to see that Nick, without much to do, had wandered over to the window Judy was currently holding on to.
"A little draughty" she said grinning "I'm glad everything worked out"
"Yeah, me too" said Nick slowly as he looked around the bank.
"What is it Slick?" asked Judy, the grin fading from her face, Nick seemed serious.
"Why were they here?" the fox asked "I mean other than to rob a bank, there's a back entrance and we didn't have them surrounded, they could have made their escape but they stayed here shooting at us"
"Unless the rear entrance is locked?" said Judy as she surveyed the bank as well "Wait… Nick, there's no money or anything out here!"
Nick's eyes narrowed as he hurriedly scanned the room again, his partner was right, there was no loot or anything of the sort out here, just criminals, civilians and police officers. He turned back to say something to his partner only to find her ears pricked up in the air pointing off down the alleyway.
"I just heard a door from the back of the bank and now there's running footsteps" said Judy glancing back at her partner "I'm going after them!"
Before Nick could say anything, Judy disappeared from view as she dropped down from the window and took off after the possible criminal. The moment his partner left, Nick felt an all too familiar, and very unwelcome, shiver run down his spine.
"Aw crap" muttered Nick as he span around looking for the staff only part of the bank "I thought we'd gone over the fact that I can't back her up if I'm not there!"
Running over to the nearest staff door, Nick paused and shouted to his colleagues.
"Another criminal may well have escaped out the back exit, Judy is in pursuit and I'm going to back her up"
"Get going Nick" said Jackson "We'll finish up here and then send some support after you"
Lunette nodded as well before going back to getting some statements from the bank's members of staff.
Nick stepped through the door and headed as best he could for the back of the building. It wasn't the most complicated of building layouts and he soon reached the back door. A quick glance at the state of said door showed that it had recently been forced open and Nick saw a few individual dollar bills littering the floor, along with a half full backpack that had obviously been abandoned when the police burst in.
Pushing the back door open, Nick stepped out into the alleyways, which were distinctly empty of both rabbit and criminal. While Judy might have been able to hear the sounds of running footsteps and follow it, Nick's own hearing was not that sensitive. Instead he preferred to rely on his more canine talents and, after taking a few deep breaths, followed his nose to the left and set off after his partner… He would never mistake Judy's scent.
Vornoy Plaza on the border of Savanah Central and Sahara Square was a holiday spot, a tourist attraction. And, like most holiday destinations, if you left the lovely, sparkly front that the visitors saw you would find a darker, dingier world. Since this area was hotter than Central, but cooler than the Square, there weren't many places of work here. It was part way between habitats and most mammals preferred the defined climates of Savanah Central or Sahara Square. In fact, beyond the shops and attractions for tourists, there wasn't much to Vornoy Plaza at all.
All the buildings were housing mostly, or warehouses, a veritable warren of alleyways running from the river on one side to the start of the desert on the other. This was where Judy found herself racing down in pursuit of the last suspect.
She'd been running for several minutes now and had gathered a few important clues from the chase.
One, the perp is fast given that I haven't caught them yet.
Thankfully the alleyways were fairly quiet so Judy could keep a close track on her target by sound and she was catching up.
Two, they aren't a local, reacting to the sudden twists and turns is slowing me down so since I'm still gaining on them then they can't know their ways around here.
Judy rounded a corner and found a dumpster right in front of her face. Powerful legs tensed, Judy leapt sideways, rebounded off the wall and shot off down the alley once more.
"Point number two exactly" she grumbled to herself.
The dumpster may have slowed down the perp too because Judy suddenly found herself catching up rapidly. In fact, they sounded like they were just around the next corner and she readied her tranq pistol.
Down to her last dart, she was going to have to make this count.
Rounding the corner Judy finally caught sight of the mammal she had been chasing for so long and a few things ran through her mind.
A third tiger?! She thought rapidly How has a tiger been outrunning me for so long? I thought it was a cheetah or a gazelle or something!
The tiger was wearing a generic tracksuit and had a backpack on; hastily zipped up it would seem, and from which a few dollar bills could be seen poking out.
Well, they're definitely a criminal thought Judy as she lined up a shot.
There would be no shouting "FREEZE!" or the like and alerting the tiger to her presence, Judy had more sense than that. After a quick glance ahead to make sure there weren't any imminent corners the tiger could turn down, Judy fired.
Somehow, though, the tiger seemed to sense what was happening and leapt sideways, crashing into the wall of the alley but dodging the tranquiliser dart.
Somewhat surprised Judy slowed to a halt a few meters from the tiger, eyeing them cautiously.
"You're under arrest for the robbery of a branch of Furs National Bank located in Vornoy Plaza" said Judy as she stowed her now defunct tranq pistol "anything you say can, and will, be used against you in a court of law"
The tiger, who had a curved scar on his cheek and wore sunglasses despite the dimness of the alleys, looked beyond Judy. Upon seeing that she had no immediate back up the tiger just took off the backpack, growled and spread his paws, claws extended.
"Looks like we're doing this the hard way then" said Judy clenching her paws.
With a snarl the tiger charged forwards and thrust a claw filled palm at Judy's head. The grey doe had copious experience dealing with mammals larger than herself; Judy ducked down, using the tiger's own arm to hide from his line of sight.
Then, with a light hop and a spin, the rabbit planted a solid kick right into the tiger's gut.
Again, the criminal surprised her; rather than collapsing, or even just losing his balance, the tiger simply took a few steps backwards before he steadied himself.
Judy made sure she stayed fit and healthy, rabbits all had strong legs and Judy's were particularly well trained. She was damn sure that if she hit anything up to the size of a wolf like that then they would be struggling to breathe while curling up into a ball. She could stagger bigger mammals, hell, if she was precise enough with her attacks then she could even make Bob Trumpet, a bull elephant, fall to his knees while sparring.
First, I have difficulty chasing this perp down thought Judy as she gently bounced on the balls of her feet And now my kicks don't seem to faze him? There's something weird going on here.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much time to carry on that line of thought as the tiger growled and went on the offensive. The big cat seemed to learn quickly, he kept himself from staying in one position for too long so as not to block his view of Judy, and he started to weave more kicks and body blows into his attacks to make it harder for her to dodge.
Weaving about, dodging and ducking, Judy now found it much more difficult to sneak in any attacks of her own amidst the flurry of blows. Judy knew she couldn't keep this up forever and that she would probably tire before the tiger did. Part of her mind was busy looking for any opportunity to escape and get reinforcements, while another part was completely focussed on her opponent and finding that one opening that could let her turn the tables.
Unfortunately, that opening didn't appear… for her.
One of the tiger's claws caught on Judy's belt which snapped, no damage to the rabbit but it put her off balance for just a moment and the criminal took full advantage of that.
A leg that was almost as long as she was tall came sweeping low at Judy and she instinctively jumped over it. But with a speed she'd never seen in a mammal before, the tiger was already sending a large fist straight at Judy, who couldn't manoeuvre in the air.
Judy crossed her arms in front of herself but didn't even have time to swear before what felt like a tree trunk smashed into her and sent her flying. With a dull metallic crash Judy collided with a ventilation duct sticking out of one of the alleyways walls. Pain shot through her back and chest and Judy struggled to draw a breath for a moment as she fell to the floor.
Seeing the state Judy was in, the tiger snorted and turned to pick up the bag of money once more.
Thwack
Judy's empty tranquiliser pistol feebly bounced off the back of the tiger's head.
I've delayed him this long Judy thought as she grimaced if I can just keep his attention a bit longer then reinforcements will have time to arrive.
"Now you're just asking for it!" snarled the tiger with a gravelly voice and started to walk back towards Judy, claws at the ready.
Judy gritted her teeth as the tiger approached, this suddenly didn't feel like such a good idea anymore, when suddenly there were a series of vibrations from the ventilation duct she was leaning her head against.
A blue and orange blur appeared from overhead and collided feet first with the tiger, actually managing to knock the big cat over since he was caught by surprise. Nick didn't land particularly well and scrambled to his feet and towards Judy as fast as he could.
"Judy!?" he gasped as he got a good look at his partner "honestly, I leave you alone for five minutes and this happens"
"Ngh, behind you Nick" said Judy with a slight groan.
Nick turned his head to see the tiger already clambering to their feet again.
"Okay, time to go fluff" said Nick a little strained and moving to pick up Judy.
"Won't work" winced Judy "he nearly managed to outrun me, you won't make the end of the alley while carrying me"
Nick's brain whirred as he took in this information and he span round to put himself between the tiger and his partner.
"Hey there" started Nick as calmly as he could "let's just have a talk, one lover of sunglasses to another, you've got the money so how about you skedaddle before the rest of our colleagues catch up with us"
"Nuh ugh fox" spat the tiger cracking his neck "you and your little rabbit have been sorely testing my nerves"
"Well crap" said Nick taking a glance back at the mammal he was protecting before clenching his fists and facing the tiger.
"Nick, don't… get out of here!" said Judy through gritted teeth.
"Yeah, not happening Carrots" was the only reply she got as Judy watched Nick's back, a soft warm feeling mixing with anxious dread in her heart.
Nick usually liked to talk his way out of conflict and if that didn't work then his street knowledge of Zootopia normally let him run from danger fairly easily. It had been a long time since he had been in any actual fights, not including his training at the ZPD Academy.
Been a while since we got in a situation like this
Oh, now of all times you show up? Look, if you haven't got anything helpful to say right now then could you please shut up?
…
Ok, ideas, think, how do I deal with a tiger that could nearly outrun Judy?
The claw filled paw, nearly the size of his head, flying towards Nick's chest interrupted his train of thought. With a twist of his spine Nick bent his body around the tiger's arm before he almost overbalanced and stumbled to the side.
That felt familiar thought Nick as Judy looked at him in surprise.
An echo of the past raised its head in a shadowy corner of Nick's mind, memories of him and Noct that he'd buried a long time ago began to stir. Noct had taught him something, not how to fight like they had at the academy but something to help at least. Whatever it was it seemed to be coming back to Nick's body faster than his mind.
The tiger snarled, sweeping arms and legs at the fox to try and overwhelm him, but Nick was like oil, slipping and sliding around the blows. His ZPD training had not included fighting someone so primal, and the few punches Nick did manage to get in had no visible effect on the tiger which was rather disheartening.
Regardless of whether this guy hits me or not thought Nick as he bent backwards under another punch and his back creaked I'm going to find it hard to get out of bed tomorrow.
After swinging wildly a few more times the tiger nearly lost his balance, as if he wasn't used to his own bodies capabilities, and in that pause Nick opened a little space between them.
Come on, come on, you can't let this go on forever, you certainly don't have the stamina for it.
Nick's instincts were screaming at him, this is dangerous, get far away from here. And with the unrelenting attacks and the sheer unnerving-ness of the tiger, Nick was starting to listen to those instincts just a little.
There was a small groan from behind him, very quiet but it sent a shiver running up Nick's spine. His subconscious remembered who it was he was protecting, and a much stronger instinct reared its head.
How about if we?...
Alright, not like we have a better idea, and we have to keep Judy safe.
The criminal attacked with renewed vigor, a blur of raw speed and power that most mammals would find impossible to deal with. Somehow Nick was holding on, but his uniform had more than a few scratches and tears in it.
Nick was waiting, he'd like to say as 'patiently as a hunter' but that wasn't really the case given the situation. Not only did he have to look for a specific opening, but he had to react in time too and the tiger was bloody fast.
Twice Nick missed his opportunity before he got his chance.
And then everything happened very quickly, almost too quickly for Judy to follow.
The tiger went for a kick and Nick dived straight under the leg, rolled and came to his knees right behind the criminal facing off down the alley.
He pulled out his tranq pistol, which he had preloaded while tracking down Judy, and span on the spot to aim point blank at the big cat.
Nick's eyes widened even as his finger began to tighten on the trigger.
The tiger, with a speed Nick didn't think possible, had already turned round and a knee came rising up to strike Nick's paws holding the gun.
Nick's arms were flung skywards just as the dart was fired off, its trajectory was uncontrolled, and it flew at the tiger's face.
Again, with reactions that defied common sense, the tiger managed to move his head enough to almost dodge the dart.
Almost.
The dart struck the side of the tiger's sunglasses, the force of it snapping one of the glasses limbs off, causing the shades to fall from the tiger's face.
The clink of the sunglasses hitting the floor echoed in the now quiet alleyway.
Savage slit-like pupils stared back at Nick and Judy from above a curved scar as the tiger reached up to touch his temple where the shades had just been sat.
Fear coursed through Nick's veins, this wasn't like with his brother, or with Asra. No, this was like when he and Judy had been fleeing from the savage Mr. Manchas, when he'd been cornered on the gondola platform.
For a moment Nick froze.
And that was all it took.
The claw filled paw, nearly the size of his head, flying towards Nick's chest interrupted his train of thought.
Searing pain streaked across his torso as the fox was sent flying through the air from the force of the blow.
Crimson blood sprayed from the wounds, quickly drenching Nick's uniform and matting his fur as he fell to floor in front of Judy.
Red and Orange…
"NICK!?"