Hey guys! Still with me? I hope so as I wouldn't want anyone to miss this new addition to the story! My apologies for taking so long, but I had to contend with a combination of busy schedule and writer's block. I can't guarantee regular updates, but at least the story should keep moving on from time to time. Heres hoping I haven't lost any readers along the way, but for those of you still here, enjoy the chapter and do leave reviews, they'd be very helpful.

The next morning

Chief Bogo walked down the long hallway in the section of the precinct containing the investigative department that shared space with other departments such as forensics, cybercrime, etc. It was crowded for all of them together, but that was one of the reasons there was a new wing being built. Once finished, the investigative department would be moved there to make space, joined by a department that formed part of some new initiative that the mayor hoped would improve the force. Bogo was in discussions with him about the idea. He liked the concept and had given his approval.

He passed by a few officers, employees and detectives who greeted him as he walked by. He barely returned their greetings with little more than a nod or a 'hmm', already in a bit of a sour mood from having had an argument with Wilde right after the morning briefing. Today Judy was assigned to help train the other rookies, leaving Kevin's training for today in Nick's paws. Of course, Nick didn't take kindly to having to 'babysit' him, as he put it, without Judy's help, but the chief was known to be very persuasive when angered, ending the argument with a disgruntled Nick leaving his office.

He opened the door to the detectives' briefing room, where the investigation team was busy in discussions before their attention was diverted to the buffalo's arrival, each one of them greeting him.

"Morning gentlemammals. Have we made any progress on the jewel theft? The press has been on my tail for answers and they're getting impatient. City Hall's not happy either as the incident has discouraged foreigners from visiting the city and staying at the hotel." He asked. The detectives looked at each other before one of them, a hyena, stepped forward.

"I'm afraid we don't have anything solid, sir. We checked the hotel's security footage and didn't find anything suspicious. Throughout many sweeps of the crime scene we couldn't find any signs of forced entry, leaving the balcony as the only possible entryway, but only a mammal with the climbing skills of a squirrel could scale all the way up there, and based on the lack of any large paw prints, that's our prime suspected species, though the lack of any fur at the scene doesn't really make sense either."

"Hmm. Well, good work so far anyways McCoy. I need you and your team to continue looking, maybe something might turn up eventually. And what about the Kellaway case? Anything on that end?" He asked. The hyena nodded.

"A little better luck with that than the jewel theft, but we're still working on it. We found paw prints leading a short distance away from the crime scene, but they disappear after that. Aside from that, we found a strand of fur that we've sent to the lab for analysis."

"A strand of fur? Can't you use that to determine the culprit's identity?"

"Yes, but it's not that simple. DNA analysis is going to take a long time. So far we've confirmed that the culprit is indeed a cheetah as the witness reported, but since we have nothing else to filter the results, we're going to have to compare it to the DNA of every single cheetah in Zootopia in order to find a match, and that could take months unfortunately." He explained. Bogo sighed.

"Well then it's best you get started immediately. The sooner you begin the sooner you'll find our perp."

"Oh! There's one more thing." The hyena began, turning back to pick up something small from the table and showing it to the chief. "We also found this laying near where the strand of fur was found. We're not sure of exactly what it is, and the only thing forensics figured out so far is that it's made of brass." McCoy said as he handed the object to Bogo, who donned his glasses and examined it carefully. It was a small cylindrical object, hollow on the inside and closed on one end, looking similar to a thimble, but made of brass apparently. He found some numbers and letters stamped to the exterior bottom of the object that didn't make sense to him.

"9x19mm parabellum?" He read out loud. McCoy nodded.

"Yeah we saw that. Not sure what the numbers mean, but we looked up the word. It's actually two separate words in Latin: para bellum."

"Meaning?..."

"Prepare for war." He said. Bogo frowned, disturbed, his eyes narrowing back on the ominous object.

Outside

Nick impatiently checked his watch and peered outside the car window to the precinct's front entrance. He was already frustrated with his argument with Bogo and now his current predicament wasn't making things any easier.

"Where the heck is that damn cat!" He mumbled to himself, resorting to checking his phone while he waited. "Hmph, probably coughing up a hair ball somewhere."

Moments later, the sound of someone panting while running was heard, getting louder until they reached the driver's side door and opened it. Kevin quickly seated himself, clumsily adjusted the seat, steering and pedals for his size and fumbled with the seatbelt socket a few times as he tried to latch it before he succeeded.

"Well well. Officer Leggett! Glad you finally remembered to join me. For a minute there I thought I'd have to go out on patrol all by myself." Nick said sarcastically.

"S-Sorry sir! I was held up at the armoury. Just a bit of t-trouble finding my equipment, sir." He panted.

"You know, normally it'd be me being late and Carrots yelling at me for being late. Now I know how she feels." Nick almost mumbled the last part. "Speaking of whom, officer Fluff won't be joining us today as she has a date with your fellow rookies, so it's just gonna be the two of us today."

"Just us?! But officer Hopps is the one intimately f-familiar with all the required procedures to handle each and every s-situation."

"What? Are you suggesting that I don't know how to do my job?" Nick glared at him.

"N-No, of course not, sir!" He replied, raising his paws defensively, "But I-I think it would be a good idea to bring along the operations manual, j-just in case."

"We already have the manual, up here." Nick said, tapping his temple. "And we're already running late, so let's just move along. I'm sure it's just gonna be one of those usual boring days. If anything does happen, we'll figure it out. Besides, I've seen Carrots in action loads of times, I know how she handles things."

"…I-If you say so, sir." Kevin relented, then proceeded to start the car, fumbling with the keys and nearly dropping it before he slid it into the ignition and turned it. The nervous lynx was a little too quick in stepping on the pedal and lurched the car forward, braking immediately with a jerk that sent Nick's snout slamming into the dashboard… once again.

"Ugh, not again! What the heck was that?!" Nick complained as he rubbed his nose.

"Gosh, I'm r-really sorry sir. I haven't driven an actual c-cruiser since the academy. A-And my score wasn't too high either." Kevin apologised.

"Great, just great. Just my luck to get stuck with the only officer on the force who can't drive. Oh god this is going to be like teaching my son to drive all over again!" Nick groaned, facepawing.

Meanwhile

"… and what's the news on our star pupil?" Khan asked the leopard accompanying him through the halls of the basement level. They were currently passing through Vanguard's operations center, the heart of Khan's organization. The place was buzzing with activity, yet everyone made the time to greet their employer as he passed by.

"I'd say he's as ready as can be. There isn't much more left for him to learn." Ivan replied.

"Excellent. Perhaps your misgivings about him were unfounded after all."

"I still don't see why you had to recruit a human for this kind of work. They're slow, clumsy and uncoordinated for the most part. And it took him a while to pick up feline and canine fighting forms that either appropriate species would catch on much sooner. We could have given you a fully trained feline or canine operative in half the time it took for Eli."

"Patience, Kovacs. Perhaps he's not much of a fighter, but I can see this is one slow growing tree that will bear bountiful fruits." He countered just as Eli rounded the corner of the hallway further ahead coming from the elevators accompanied by Anya.

"Ah, Eli! Right on time. Its good to see you. Come, lets see what you'll be working with, shall we? That will be all for now, Kovacs, we shall speak more later." Khan dismissed his subordinate while he led the way to the technical department, where a familiar fossa was waiting for them. Once greetings and pleasantries had been exchanged, the professor led them through the busy workshop to a section that had tables with a variety of different gadgets laying on them. The first item introduced was a set of clothes which consisted of seemingly a full sleeved t-shirt, a pair of tactical cargo pants, a very light looking tactical vest, a utility belt of sorts, gloves and a pair of shoes. The pants and vest came equipped with many pockets, giving plenty of space to store items. All were designed for the human form, and all were an unusually pitch dark shade of black that almost made them look like shadows being cast on the table.

"I hope you aren't afraid of the dark Eli, because this outfit here will make darkness your ally due to its special properties. The outfit has been tailored to your measurements and was designed using special non-reflective light absorbent materials. Wearing this, you'll be almost invisible within darkness and shadows. Even predators with night vision will have trouble distinguishing you from any ambient shadows." The professor explained.

"Of course, the abilities of the suit are only as good as that of the wearer. Remember, this, like the rest of these items, is merely a tool to assist you. Its up to you to keep out of sight. Put the skills that Kovacs and Desola have taught you to good use." Khan reminded Eli, who nodded that he understood. The professor then gestured to the vest and belt next to the outfit.

"You'll be carrying your equipment in these. As you can see, they're made of the same material, and are lightweight so as to avoid posing any restrictions on your movements. The shoes however, are unique in that the soles are made of sound absorbent, high traction rubber, significantly reducing the noise of your pawsteps. This should aid you in getting past certain mammals with sensitive hearing. You should even be able to jump or drop down without making much noise." He finished, moving on to the next object which, much to Eli's confusion, looked like an ordinary small spray canister.

"Ah! Here's a little trinket our chemists have whipped up. We call it the 'deodorizer'." He introduced, handing the small canister to Eli.

"A deodorant? Heh, no thanks guys, I have my own brand I like to use. Besides, what's the point in smelling nice when going out on a mission?" Eli said as he examined the canister, which was promptly swiped from his hands by Anya.

"Not 'deodoRANT'! 'DeodoRIZER'! There's a difference. This thing doesn't make you smell nice, it removes your smell altogether. More specifically, it camouflages your scent with that of regular dust and dirt, making you 'invisible' to any mammals with superior olfactory senses, such as canines. You'll be using this every time you head out into the field." Anya explained.

"I… I see. All of this… this seems a lot of effort just to stay hidden." Eli pondered.

"Unfortunately for you, a lot of mammals have heightened vision, hearing, smell, or a combination of these, so we need to come up with appropriate countermeasures. I have a feeling you're gonna have a hard time even with all this help." Anya said.

"Ahem. Coming back to the subject, I should mention that the deodorizer does have a flaw: its not waterproof, so if you happen to go for a 'swim', make sure to reapply a new coating afterwards. Exposure to rain will also wash off the coating, but you shouldn't need to use it in rain anyways since that itself removes any and all scents." The professor added as he headed towards the next item, a pair of very advanced looking electronic goggles, although this unusual pair had a third lens situated on the middle top of the normal two lenses.

"Aside from considering others' heightened senses, we also had to take into account the... er… 'degraded' ability of your species to see in low light conditions…" the fossa started, wincing in regret at the last bit as he looked back at the now frowning human.

"…s-so my team has been working day and night to come up with a solution, and might I add that we are very proud of the result. This is one of the crowning achievements of Khan Industries' technological department: the Multi-Vision Goggles, or MVGs. As the name suggests, they have three different vision modes. The first is night vision, which will electronically enhance your vision in the darkness to a level greater than that of the natural night vision of predators. Next is thermal vision, which allows you to more easily spot animals and other heat sources in low visibility, and even through objects if it is thin enough, or if the source is hot enough. Lastly, we have x-ray vision, allowing you to scout for hostiles through walls and other objects up to a considerable distance. Do note that the range is limited, dependant on how thick the object or wall is that you're looking through. Also, it can't see through lead, but then again, what are the odds you'll be encountering lead walls." The professor shrugged.

The final set of items he came upon were things that seemed familiar to Eli from a world long gone, but a new sight in his present home. It wasn't a pleasant sight for him however.

"W-Wait… are those… weapons? But… w-why? You never said I'd have to use weapons!" he asked, turning towards Khan.

"Vanguard prides itself on being able to achieve our objectives with the utmost of stealth and secrecy. Its how we've managed to stay off the authorities' radar for so long. However, I am a realistic mammal and I understand even the best laid plans can go awry. It has happened in the past and likely will happen in the future. Sometimes it leaves an operative with no choice other than confrontation for self defense." The tiger answered. Eli stared at the weapons for a moment, frowning.

"I'm… I'm sorry Mr. Khan, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to draw the line here. I have my limits. As much as I'd love to help save the city, I am not going to do a job that requires me to kill!" he growled as he turned to face the tiger. Khan seemed unfazed.

"My dear boy, who said anything about killing? I share the same sentiment as you. I do not wish to see any bloodshed and I do my best to avoid it. All the weapons you're being provided are of the non-lethal variety. Purely defensive in nature, or for removing any 'obstacles' in your path. Professor, if you would be so kind as to explain to our naive young friend here…" he looked towards the fossa, who nodded and turned his attention back to the items on the table.

"This is another product of Khan Industries' technical department: The MR Rifle, or 'Multi-Round Rifle'. Derived from the more lethal variety from your home world, the weapon is still a prototype, but has been tested extensively and approved for field use. Its lightweight and compact for easy handling. The rifle is capable of silently firing multiple different types of ammunition, all of them non-lethal, I assure you. First, we have 'slug' rounds, essentially high impact zero penetration metal projectiles that you can launch at targets. They are designed to be used on smaller mammals. The impact of the round should be enough to knock them out provided you aim for the head.

Next, we have taser rounds for larger mammals more resistant to a simple bop on the head. These rounds, if they hit a target, will deliver a high voltage shock to the victim. Its powerful enough to knock them out but not powerful enough to kill, so don't worry. Note that very large mammals like elephants might need two shots though.

Then we have gas rounds. Each round contains a canister full of a powerful sedative, courtesy of our chemical department, in vapour form. Upon impacting the ground, the round bursts and spreads the gas in a small radius. Any mammals caught in the gas will fall unconscious in a matter of seconds. Quite useful for dispatching a group of hostiles.

Aside from the rifle and its rounds, you'll also be carrying these smoke bombs and flashbangs. The smoke bombs can be thrown to create a thick cloud of smoke, while the flashbangs will emit a loud sound and extremely bright flash of light, stunning anyone caught in its blast radius. Mammals with sensitive hearing and night vision will be the ones most affected by it. These will be useful for covering your escape if you are discovered." The fossa explained as he showed the grenades. They were quite small, easy enough to be pocketed and concealed.

"Lastly, we come to the final tool in your arsenal: the Grappling Guns." He gestured towards two advanced looking pistol sized guns that had what Eli could best describe as small metallic 'claws' loaded in their muzzles.

"Another product of Khan Industries' ingenuity, one that I'm particularly proud of. With your keen interest in climbing, you would surely find these very handy for navigating a variety of obstacles. Pulling the trigger launches the grapple a considerable distance using compressed air, which keeps the shot silent. The grapple acts like an open clawed paw, closing and clutching tightly onto any object it touches after being fired. Connected to the grapple is a super strong cable that is fed from the reel cartridge attached to the gun. Once the grapple has latched on, simply push the button on the side of the trigger to reel yourself in, or reel the object towards you. The grapple can be reused by pressing the button on the opposite side to release its grip and reeling it in. If you pull the trigger a second time without releasing the grapple, the gun will fire a second grapple that can be used to anchor the first grapple's target, then automatically cut the cable and load a fresh grapple from the magazine and cable from the cartridge, ready to be fired again. Those are limited however, so if you run out you'll have to reload a new magazine and cartridge."

"Although it's a tool, a smart mammal could use it as a weapon too. Remember, the grapple attaches to anything." Anya added with a wink. Eli picked up one of the guns and examined it.

"Well… that's a lot to remember." Eli remarked before the entire group jolted as he accidentally fired the gun sideways. The launched grapple tore through the button and belt buckle of a wolf technician's pants, dropping them down to reveal his undies before the embarrassed canine pulled them back up as quickly as possible, then it snatched a coffee mug right out of the hooves of a horse, taking it along for the ride before smashing said mug against the wall right next to a busy llama, dousing him and his important paperwork in hot coffee. Damn, that thing was powerful!

"Oops…" Eli mewled meekly as all eyes in the place were on him now, some of them not very happy at all.

"Erm… maybe you should get some practice with this thing before heading out in the field." Anya said as she gingerly took the gun from his hands.