DISCLAIMER: I had my bid all ready for mailing to Disney when the Beast stormed in and declared that I can't celebrate Christmas around him and tore up the bid and tossed the pieces in the fireplace. What does Christmas have to do with my bid? Maybe Mary Poppins will be able to piece it back together.

Thanks to TheoreticallyEva and GusTheBear for their help editing this chapter!


"More bad news for Furston Pharmaceuticals today, as sources within the company reveal that a data breach six months ago may have been a stepping stone for the terrorist action that resulted in the quarantine and closure of the Rainforest and Canal Districts and the injury and deaths of tens of thousands of mammals.

"This comes on the heels of city officials threatening to confiscate the Night Howler antidote formula from the company three days ago, and an announcement from North Rhino-Westphalian pharmaceutical company Brayer that a viable antidote may be able to be produced within a month. Further rumours suggest that at least two other multinational companies are also working on their own variants. Furston stock dropped a further five points overnight, ending at just $11.62 per share, a sharp contrast to the $105.41 with which it started the month. Boycotts of Furston products are ongoing after the company repeatedly refused to surrender the antidote formula to city officials.

"Economic experts have harshly criticized the company's handling of the current Night Howler crisis, and the public has condemned the protection of their company secrets instead of volunteering the formula to other companies or contracting out manufacturing time from other pharmaceutical companies. Protests outside the company's headquarters have grown since they started two weeks ago, with many present threatening further legal action due to the gross mishandling of the crisis by the company.

"In other news, city council has announced further reparations for mammals currently out of work or out of home due to the attacks. City hall spokesmammals further elaborated that these reparations are a temporary measure until a long-term plan can be finalized.

"Concern with the soil and waterway contamination has grown further, and a large group of Rainforest residents has expressed the opinion that the city should, in fact, buy their land back from them at fair pre-attack market value, claiming that the land is essentially worth nothing to them now. City hall spokesmammals had no further comment on this.

"Ongoing repairs to city infrastructure were declared complete last night as the final in a series of water pump stations that had been offline since the attack was restarted, bringing the city water system back up to full capacity for the first time in four weeks."

"Ugh. I am SO glad your mom got out of Furston, Slick. It seems like they can't get anything right these days." The doe sat with her fox in the ZPD break room as the endless bad news droned on. A month had passed since the Rainforest attack, and focus had gone from the immediate aftermath to a slow reopening of the city. The duo had been helping out around the precinct all they could—mostly with reports, filing, evidence sorting, and interviewing witnesses and the terrorists.

The last group had nearly caused the doe to go berserk, the deer they'd been interviewing, Dade Walker, having only recited a single line, much like what Longtooth had mentioned earlier: "What we did, we did for the good of all mammals." She'd spent the next half of the day ranting at Nick.

"I'm glad, too. From the looks of things, Furston's in a death spiral, and their leadership is dropping the ball big time. Good thing I didn't have any stocks in them." The fox frowned. "I don't know how anyone could have fudged this up so badly." The serious tone in his voice was unusual, but Judy couldn't fault him for his attitude towards the company.

A knock at the door drew their attention to Nolwazi Longtooth, arm still bandaged but at least out of the sling. "Hey, you two, Rivers wanted me to come get you. Zootopia Customs finally sent over the container trackin' information for all the shipments our terrorist group received in the last six months. The suspect ones, anyways."

Nick grumbled. "Well, ten minutes and thirty-two seconds. That's a new break time record for us, Carrots. Maybe tomorrow we can make ten minutes and thirty-three seconds." He paused. "I'm sure there's a law somewhere that would let me bill the purity group for the lost break time."

The lioness chuckled. "If there was, you can bet your ass that Bogo would be floodin' the mail system with bills."

The three walked through the precinct and up to the conference room that Rivers had taken over. Papers were scattered everywhere on the table. Nick and Judy took a seat while Longtooth sat across from them. "They know why I brought them, Shawn."

"OK, good," Shawn said. "So, Zootopia Customs found thirty-six suspect shipments tied to clearances issued by agent Dade Walker. All of them occurred within the last eight months, and all originated from the country of Paw Li on the southeast coast of Asia."

Nick nodded. Paw Li was a small country known for its manufacturing base, but not for its ethics and mammal rights. While it had a system of government, said government was largely ineffectual, and warlords ruled the land.

"The ships with the containers stopped at a few other East Coast Asia ports before crossing the ocean and arriving at our port here in Zootopia. The containers were then unloaded and sent to Zootopia Coast Distribution, where Dade Walker checked them through customs and the warehouse had them delivered to their final destinations, which were never the same."

Judy looked at the papers in front of her. Something jumped out at her immediately. "They fudged all of the customs declarations." At a glance, agricultural or farming equipment seemed to be the most common, but there was also medical equipment, toys, appliances, even aerospace parts.

"Let me guess, Walker got himself on the inspection teams, probably a bribe or a shift change, personally cleared these shipments, and no one was the wiser? I would have thought they pair mammals up over there." The fox frowned.

Rivers shook his head. "They don't. They have a team that goes and inspects the containers, the ship, and the crew. But if your inspector is corrupt, well, that presents a problem."

"Do we know what each shipment actually was? You know, other than…" Nick paused and shuffled his papers. "…Lima beans and aerospace parts?"

"Unfortunately not. Customs has no idea, and cybercrime is still trying to put together their digital life. I'm hoping we can talk to some of Walker's associates to see how they handled everything."

The fox shook his head. "Man, he played everyone. Used his seniority, his access, and his weight. I'm thinking that the reason he got suspended was because he pulled those cards one too many times."

Judy, Rivers, and Longtooth both turned to look at the small canid. Rivers in particular looked quite interested, asking, "I think I know what you mean, Nick, but just in case, could you elaborate?"

"Well, it's something I learned in my former… line of work. If you pull the same stunt too many times, even if you put a different spin on it, mammals start to notice. Depending on what you're doing, that can be a good or bad thing."

"Like if you always come home every day at a certain time, and the neighbors learn this, but then one day, you don't, and they think somethin's wrong," Longtooth mused.

Nick nodded. "Exactly. It works both ways. If you suddenly start making a lot of shift changes and requests to be assigned to something and that wasn't your modus operandi before, mammals notice. Or if you start doing the same thing more often than the average mammal," he explained. "Patterns being broken cause mammals to notice. So does establishing patterns in the first place." Nick paused. "Even having no pattern is a pattern by itself."

The elk detective in the room nodded, grinning. "You're right, Nick. Everything's a pattern. And it's our job to sniff out those patterns and the changes in them. That makes me wonder if there were any more shipments that customs missed, either because they didn't look back far enough or because it didn't match the new pattern."

Nick nodded, a matching grin on his muzzle. "Me, too."

Internally, Judy's heart sang for her fox, and she squeezed his arm in support. This was a huge difference from his experience with the Ranger Scouts. Instead of being muzzled and tossed out, just for being a fox, he was instead being listened to and his opinion valued. She turned back to the two detectives. "You think we'll be able to get our paws on all of Dade Walker's customs work, not just the flagged shipments? Might be more work for us, but it might shine some light on any missing links."

Longtooth was tapping away on her phone. "Way ahead of you, Hopps. I'm guessin' that Customs will want to bury us in paperwork for this. Those guys can be pretty vindictive when we want details of their internal work. Last time we had to bust a smugglin' ring, they sent us over way more than we asked for. They took a whole truck to do it. Precinct Nine's conference room was stuffed to the gills for days while me and another detective sorted through it all. In the end, we only needed—and asked for—about a quarter of what they gave us."

Rivers rolled his eyes. "I've had companies do that, too. All the time. Bury you in details and frivolous junk to make it harder for you to nail a fault in their business or operation. It's not illegal, but it's annoying as hell."

Nick sat back and looked around, trying to imagine the room filled from floor to ceiling with paper—and having to go through all of it by paw. The thought made him lightheaded, and a glance at Judy, eyes wide and ears down, told him she was thinking the same thing. "I'm actually shocked there isn't a law against that."

The detectives both shrugged. "Not much we could do to enforce that. What would we do? Charge them for supplying too much evidence? It's annoying, but better than when they don't give you enough, or only half of what you ask for, or they dawdle in getting it to you," Rivers commented. It was quite clear he was referring to Furston and the dragging of their paws recently. Requests for employment records, files, computer access, and auditing for the charged employees of the company had gotten slow responses.

"What's our plan with Furston anyway?"

"We filed for a warrant yesterday but the court's still churning on that. My guess is they are overwhelmed with work thanks to every one of those terrorists getting a lawyer, and all the lawsuits being thrown around willy nilly." The elk snorted, a wry smile on his face. "Given Furston's track record lately, though, I wouldn't be surprised to find that their IT department is doing their best to scrub any record of the terrorist activities from their system."

Nick grimaced. "Oof. I hope they don't go that far."

With a nod, Judy spoke up. "Do we have any other avenues to pursue? Or are we otherwise all set?"

"No other avenues right now. Just need to look through this customs stuff and see what else we need to pry out of that department."

Nick and Judy nodded and started digging through the files.


Down in the cybercrime office, Cam stared at the report in front of him. Of the seventy-eight phones collected or confiscated, sixty-eight of them had been cracked into and the contents downloaded. The other ten had been damaged beyond their ability to function in the explosion of the warehouse that Sergeant Higgins' group had been invading. They'd been sent to an electronics recovery center for repair and analysis.

What they already had, though, amounted to tens of thousands of emails, text messages, photos, videos, and calls. They all had to be analyzed by both his team and the department's cipher and encoding specialists to look for hidden messages, instructions, and information, something that could take months, if not years.

What's more, the chief had given him a heads up that a warrant was in the works to invade Furston's IT department and confiscate any and all data and backups for the four known employees involved—Hornby, Hogsmeed, McStripeson, and Wilde—and that his team should be ready to move out with the detectives in charge at a moment's notice.

A knock on the door drew the cougar's attention away from the somewhat racy email he'd been reading in Thomas Hogsmeed's inbox. He looked up to see one of his mammals, a coyote, in the door. "Hey, boss, you need to come see this!"

The cougar quirked his eyebrow, then stood and locked his computer before following the other mammal to his workstation. The coyote sat down and gestured to his screen. On it were several rows and columns in a spreadsheet.

"I was able to piece this together from Dade Walker's phone. Best I can tell, it's a list of sites they hit or were planning to hit with the toxin. We have the Grand Palm checked off, up here. There's also the Rainforest District, just in general—it's also checked off, so I assume that means the treatment plant they hit. They were both supposed to be tests." He pointed to the annotation next to the two entries. "But look at this. Phase One, they were going to introduce legislations to restrict the movement of anyone classified as a 'predator'."

The cougar head of cybercrime frowned. "Yeah, that's what the Tundratown councillor was talking about."

"It goes deeper, though, sir. More attacks—smaller, it looks like. The opera house, the ZHL arena, the baseball stadium, Gazelle's concert, then a bill to curfew predators. Phase Two is a lot of the same—just after each attack, more and more liberties stripped away, until predators are forced to live in a small section of the city, not allowed employment or even basic access to services. And then…"

The coyote pulled up an email.

McStripeson:

Per our meeting today, our final party will be held in 18 months, and will include a special gift to our lessers. We'll make sure they don't leave early too, so we can be sure they'll receive it. We expect they will all be gone within a few minutes of that gift, if it is delivered by air to their homes. The delivery system instated in phase two will help with that. Once they've all checked out, we can clean up and prepare the area for the next mammals.

Awaiting your reply.

"I couldn't make heads or tails of it until I found an email that described the Grand Palm attack as the first "party" and the Rainforest istrict attack as an 'overly successful party'."

Cam closed his eyes and thought for a moment, sensing several of his team members coming over to see what all the fuss was about. "Send it to questionable documents, but from the looks of it, they were planning some sort of airborne agent that would wipe predators out, once they were all rounded up in the other phases." The cougar swore. The idea that any group of mammals could be this evil didn't surprise him, but it was usually on a different, more detached level.

As a cybercriminalist, he had to deal with some incredibly difficult crimes. Everything from analyzing cub porn to see where it came from to chasing down international cyberscammers and phishers, hacking rings, and social media predators. The common theme in all the cases is that the mammals perpetrating them had zero regard for the mammal at the receiving end of their crimes. Why should they? It was easy in cybercrime for the criminals to remain distanced from their victims. They never had to worry about looking their victims in the eye. They were just ones and zeroes, or a disembodied voice.

This was different. Yes, Zootopia was big, and the chance of randomly running into someone you knew on any given day was slim, but the possibility was still there. They could be seen on the news, at work, at a concert, at church, everywhere. The latest estimates had shown that almost 15% of the population had been directly affected in some way—forced out of house and home, rendered savage, injured or killed. That wasn't including the mammals out of work due to the lockdown.

Everyone was affected by this, and everyone knew someone whose life had been changed by it. So, the fact that these mammals did this to people they knew set them apart, and not in a good way. Arguably, it made them even worse.

"Send that to the detectives and the chief as well. They'll want to see it." The cougar turned to leave, rubbing his temples and wondering what else they'd find in the cesspool of madness.


It was several hours later before Judy and Nick were able to head home. The day had been long and tiring, even though there wasn't any physical work involved in it. The customs documents and import sheets made for some pretty dry reading, and it didn't help that they'd discovered that some had been partially redacted while others were incomplete. A call to Customs had gone about as well as anyone could expect, with subtle accusations of supposed superiority from the mammal on the other end. In the end, Rivers and Longtooth had threatened to get the chief involved and tear into everything the Customs agency had done in the last couple of years. The agent begrudgingly conceded to their demands, and an hour later, the complete, unredacted documents had been emailed over, for more dry reading on another day.

"I feel like we got absolutely nowhere today." Judy frowned and kicked a pebble as the two headed across the deserted plaza towards Savannah Central Station and their subway ride home.

The fox beside her nodded his agreement. "I think the instruction manual for Mom's breadmaker was more stimulating reading than those customs documents." He paused. "I wonder if they are all like that, or if it's just our friendly customs agent terrorist being as dull as he possibly can?"

The doe frowned. "That's a good question, but we probably won't find out, unless someone comes up with some imports by the group that Walker didn't handle."

"Who are you, and what did you do with Judy Hopps? Usually, she's such an optimist!" The fox feigned shock. "If you see her, tell her that her fox is looking for her. She looks a bit like you."

Judy rolled her eyes and elbowed Nick as the two made their way through the doors of the station. Normally bustling, the station was almost empty—just a few mammals hurrying about, going from platform to platform, rushing to make the next train so they wouldn't have to wait fifteen minutes.

Subway service had been severely reduced over the last four weeks. Normally, trains ran every minute or two, but now, it was every fifteen minutes, half an hour, or even only once an hour on some routes. The duo didn't want long for the Zootopia Loop train to arrive, though as Nick had joked at one point, it was more like a "Zootopia Backwards C" train now, with the Rainforest and Canals District section closed. The train pulled in a few minutes later, almost as empty as the platform.

Finding a seat was easy, even during mid-afternoon. The two sat in a comfortable silence for a while, each privately mulling over the day, when a voice startled the two out of their reverie. "Umm, excuse me? Hello?"

Judy and Nick looked up to see a younger-looking rabbit standing in front of them, what looked like a female vampire bat behind him and to his right. Judy was the first to speak. "Yes, sir? Can we help you?"

"Um, you're Officers Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, right?"

Nick smirked. "Well, I don't know if there are any other fox officers as dashing as me, so I'd say, yeah, I'm Nick Wilde. And this is indeed my justice-obsessed partner, Judy Hopps."

Judy rolled her eyes. "How can we help you?" She eyed the two mammals in front of her curiously.

The bunny shuffled nervously. "We… That is, Cindy and I… We just want to say thank you."

The doe and fox looked at each other, their faces both showing some surprise and confusion, before turning back to the other two mammals. Nick cleared his throat. "Would you elaborate on that? I'm afraid you have us both at a loss."

The vampire bat took a breath. "Me and Chuck, we're a couple. We have been for about two months now. For the longest time, neither of us told our parents… I've… Well, I've never been attracted to my own species… Not even to predators, really… And Chuck here was the same for rabbits. We met each other at school, and it's grown from there."

The bunny—Chuck apparently—nodded. "We decided to come out to our parents a few weeks, maybe a month ago. Cindy's parents took it fine, but mine…Well, let's just say that Cindy's parents have been wonderful in letting me stay, and if I ever went home, my mom and dad would probably throw crucifixes and holy water at me. Or torches and pitchforks."

Judy's ears fell down her back at the news. Her parents had never thrown a single soul out of the family, banned them, or anything of the sort. With over three hundred children, there are going to be differences of opinion, orientation, religious views, and sadly, even sides of the law. The doe knew of at least four of her siblings who had served or were serving time behind bars. Personally, she was glad she didn't have to be involved in any of that.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Judy shook her head. "I can't imagine kicking out one of my own siblings or my own parents kicking me out just for being with Nick here. How old are you two?"

Cindy was the one who responded. "Don't worry, we're both of age. We're nineteen. Just graduated high school."

Nick nodded. "It's hard being out of home at your age. I'm glad you have a place to stay, though, Chuck. Or should I call you Charles?"

The male bunny shook his head. "Chuck's fine. We're both looking to study at the U, she wants to get a degree in mechanical engineering. I want to do interior design. But we're curious… Has it been hard for you?"

It was such an open-ended question that Nick and Judy both looked at each other, their expressions confirming that neither of them understood it. Judy cocked her head at the two younger mammals. "I'm sorry, has what been hard?"

Cindy gestured with her wings at the two officers. "You two. Has being together and being different species caused problems?"

Again, the rabbit and fox looked at each other, silently communicating. Nick took up the conversation when they turned back to the expectant teenagers. "Yes and no. Foxes and bunnies have some different traditions when it comes to, well…dating, so we've had to kind of feel our way around that and remember not to get upset if we ever run into a situation where the other doesn't know something about us."

Judy nodded. "Our friends and colleagues have been supportive. We have run into our fair share of…less supportive mammals, though. Either because Nick's a fox, or because they don't support inter-species relationships."

"Have you ever had the term 'inters' thrown at you? Or 'predophile', or 'preyophile'?"

Judy thought about that. "Besides the criminals we put away, or the mammals that are sore about not being able to set up a date with one of us? Nah, not really."

Nick smirked. "Then again, it may just be because they know we could probably find dirt to arrest them for if they did. Especially since Carrots here has proven that big things come in small packages."

All four of the mammals chuckled lightly at that, before Cindy grew serious again. "We do. All the time. Old friends, classmates when we were in school, even Chuck's family. It's not something you want to hear in civilized conversation."

The four mammals chatted for a while as the train continued its journey. The intercom chimed for Riverside station. The two officers stood, with Judy scribbling something on a business card. "This is our stop. And hey, if you ever need anything, give me a call or an email, OK?"

The two younger mammals nodded. "We have to switch trains in Sahara Square for the Nocturnal line, so we have a ways to go. And thanks again. You two have made it a lot easier for mammals like us…to be who we are. Even if it's just because you ended up being outed in the news. It…" Chuck nervously glanced at his girlfriend. "Well, it gives us hope for a better future where we can be with whoever we want. And…take care of our city… There are more speciesist people out there than those terrorists."

"Always. Carrots doesn't sleep until we've made the world a better place." Nick winked at the doe, who playfully slugged him in the arm.

The train pulled to a stop as Nick and Judy made their way to the doors, exiting and waving goodbye to their new friends from the station platform. When the train was out of sight, the two walked up the stairs to street level in shared silence, the few mammals that got off with them hurrying to whatever destination they needed to reach.

After a while, during which they decided to take a detour through a park that was on the way back to their apartment, Judy spoke. "What do you think, Nick?"

The fox cocked his head. "About those two on the train?"

"Yeah. I mean, I support them, obviously, if they are good for each other. But why don't mammals feel free to date whoever they want without someone showing up in the news?"

Nick thought about that. "Well, there's the fear factor, for one thing, along with the idea of being ostracized. On top of the idea of being rejected when you ask someone out in the first place, you have the possibility that maybe the mammal you have feelings for doesn't swing your way, if you know what I mean. And I know of some mammals who identified as homosexual, but still married the opposite sex because they felt they had to keep the world from knowing. There's less of that now, thankfully, but it is still there for many."

Judy thought about that for a moment. "I think that's why it took until that night after Wolford died to admit what I felt for you. I was scared you didn't feel the same way, or that I'd screw up our friendship, or any one of a number of things."

"For me, it was that and the fact that I felt like you had to make the first move. It's from our old instincts, remember. I probably would have talked to you about it, eventually, but those are two pretty big hurdles to overcome."

"It's interesting how some of our old instincts have dulled while others have stayed sharp, don't you think?"

Nick nodded. "In the old days, foxes would turn tail and run at the sight of a wolf or a cougar or a lion. Or a skunk. Heck, from what I read, ancestral foxes would sooner brave a porcupine's quills than try to deal with that skunk spray."

Judy laughed. "I believe you. One of my older brothers got in a tussle with a skunk who hadn't had their scent glands removed. Mom had him sleep in the barn and left his meals outside for him to pick up. He wasn't allowed anywhere near the actual burrow until the smell went away. And let me tell you, tomato juice did NOT work. All it did was make him smell like ketchup, but the skunk smell still came back."

Nick joined the doe in her laughter. "I bet he hasn't lived that down."

The doe shook her head. "No, we remind him of it pretty regularly. Some of the others even call him Stinky."

Nick grinned. "I bet."

"Anyway, my point is that we're around all these mammals that our ancestors would only approach if they had a death wish, yet in some way we still feel like we have to follow the old ways. You know, beyond culture and traditions. Bunnies, we don't have to have hundreds of kits anymore, but some of us still do. And foxes still let the vixen lead a relationship."

Nick nodded.

"I wonder why that is…"

The fox thought about it. "Well, if we all hooked up with mammals outside our species, everyone would die off and there would be no more mammals. Maybe iguanas would evolve and take over the world. Mini-dinosaurs. Or maybe some mythical creature like dragons or apes." The doe laughed at that. "I think, though, it's about the fact that as evolved and progressive as society is right now, being in a relationship with a mammal not your own species is like one of the last taboos. Heck, it wasn't that long ago that you'd be tied to a stake and burned or something if you were gay."

Another giggle from the doe. "That's true. Or offered as a blood sacrifice in some sort of weird cult ritual."

Nick pulled open the door to their building, and the two headed inside, greeting a few of their neighbors as they went. As they unlocked their own apartment door, Judy had another thought. "Maybe mammals just need someone to show them it's possible. That we aren't all so different."

"I'd say that's a good way to make the world a better place, Carrots." Nick grinned as they locked the door behind them. "I'll order something with DoorHop, if you want to pick the movie tonight."

Judy grinned. "Deal!"


A/N

I have been WAITING AND WAITING to bring Chuck and Cindy back into the story, ever since Chuck was first introduced, and the two made a cameo appearance in a later chapter.

Things have gone from bad to worse where I live; the lockdowns have become so tight, Christmas with my family is in doubt. I may be able to use the so called "bubble" rule to visit though. Also, thanks to Tigerius Altaica on my Discord server for the idea of North-Rhino Westphalia!

No one found the reference I hid in the last chapter! Can you find any in this one?

Coming up on December 25 (Yes, I AM releasing a chapter on Christmas Day!): Zootopia Bound!

Questions? Critiques? Did the Mandalorian show up on your doorstep and leave Baby Yoda with you to babysit and then run off with Agent May and Boba Fett? Leave a comment!