Chapter 44
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They'd left with the early morning light, rattling along and narrowly dodging a car parked askew on the side of the road. Skye had glanced and glared at the silver thing, a turbocharged third generation Zoobaru Impala (pre-face lift), making out two feline occupants before they raced past.
Presently though, she was finding more pet-peeves as they went along. And, while patient to begin with, there was only so much she could take.
Which, to be fair, was far more than the mammal she had contention with could.
"Hey! Don't you diss her," Finnick shot out, glaring at her before turning his eyes back to the road. They were racing down the motorway now, the traffic thinning out and the fennec able to give all his van had got. They rumbled along loudly in the outside lane, keeping in convoy with a large coach in front of them.
"I wasn't 'dissing'," Skye defended, matter of factly. "I'm just saying that the engine needs a re-tuning."
"That engine," he grumbled, "is running like a fine old lady."
He was cut off by the crack of a backfire, wincing down. Skye opened her mouth to speak, only for him to get there faster.
"-With her own special quirks!"
She glanced around. "When was the last time you changed the spark plugs?"
He waved her off.
"Or changed the engine oil?"
"Do I look like I'm made of money?" he asked, giving her a hard side glance.
"I'm just saying, rebuilding an engine…"
"-Is the engine light on?" he asked, pointing at the dash.
Her eyes narrowed as she crossed her paws. "Did they come on when you put the keys in?"
"Oh, I have to look out for that now?"
She blinked a few times, before turning away. "Fine then."
The fennec smiled. "Good to hear."
"Unlike that rattling. Sounds like a cracked front spring."
"Hey! You wanna take my ol' gal apart and put her back together, you do that! Be my guest. Just give her back in one piece!"
She glared at him. "Well, I might have offered that before, but with that attitude I think it's gonna cost you."
"Well then, I won't pay, you won't mess around, we're all happy! Now Shaddap and lemme drive."
She rolled her eyes and slumped to the side, head against the window, feeling it rattle and shake. -Probably needed the seals replacing.
She glanced up and down.
-Definitely needed the seals replacing.
Her eyes rested on the mirror, spotting another silver Zoobaru Impala behind them, before the van was shaken by another backfire.
-And the plugs.
Still, if Finnick was fine driving this van like it was, then that was fine by her. He wasn't a friend, she hardly knew him, and if he wanted to reap what he was sowing then that was fine by her.
Even if her mechanics urge was screaming at her to do this van up. -Not its fault it had a bad owner.
Regardless, she told herself, it was his decision, and it wasn't her place to try and convince him otherwise. After all, she was not gonna be a meddler now, was she?
Thinking on, she thought back to what she'd heard just now, of how Honey had chosen to leave. At first she'd been a bit bemused, she didn't have to listen to other mammals! It was her decision whether to stay or not. But, as the ratel, who she did admire for her technical prowess (while completely acknowledging she'd done bad things in the past) had been adamant.
It was her own choice.
She'd helped Kris how she could before, she was doing so now.
The vixen felt good about that.
After all, if she started arguing that Honey should come back then she'd become just another meddler.
She glanced back down at the others. Jack had been sad, seeing her gone, but guessed that it made sense. Finnick had gone on a long rant about how that hippo had no ground to stand on, was just projecting (he seemed to like that word a lot) and so on. That had boiled down into a cold awkward silence, filled with the sounds of long neglected mechanical components, which had brought them all the way around to here.
And now, the awkward silence prevailed once more, filled in by the rattling and shaking of the van as it pushed on, slowly chasing down the miles.
-Beep Beep
All ears rose, eyes turning to the phone next to Finnick. Much to her shock, the fennec grabbed it, looking at it while still driving. Hmmmm, he mumbled, before opening it up and starting to type out.
Now that was way too far even for her, so she snatched it from his paws.
"Hey! What the heck!"
"Eyes on the road," she scolded, opening it up and reading the text.
Hey DF? That pic is a fix, right?
She paused, her muzzle tweaking a bit before a second text followed.
"What does it say?" the fennec grumbled.
"I'm gonna be so bummed if I came out to support an actual nutter... 'You follow what I'm bringing out?'"
"Tell him we know it's a fix, and my Vix is working on proving it."
Skye texted that, putting the phone back only for it to buzz again. She picked it up, her eyes widening a little as she spoke. "Wait, you have the pic? Send it over. I've got a plan."
Finnick paused for a second before yelling out. "Well don't just sit there! Call Fenneko, tell her to send a copy to Eljay."
"Eljay?" she asked, her head tilting.
"Oh trust me," Finnick said, looking forward and narrowing his eyes. "She'll know who."
Skye did just that, the fennec vixen saying she'd be on top of it before hanging up. Sitting back in her seat, an errant thought entered the swift fox's mind. How were her friends Retsuko and Haida taking it?
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"Uhhhhh, Retsy?"
"Yes…" she answered nervously. The two of them were sat on their sofa, paired together and just watching the end of the news.
"Are we the bad guys now?"
"What…. -No, no, no…" she began, fumbling with her paws. "I'm sure everyone will ignore it. What's the worst that could happen?"
They were broken off by the ping on her phone, the red panda opening up her Instagrowl app and pausing as she saw a share from Tsunoda. 'Hey, this mammal mentions a red panda and hyena in her tags. I think it might be you, XD. Haven't watched yet, can't wait to see what it is.'
.Retsuko's face blanked as she followed on to the shared video that the dik-dik hadn't vetted before sharing.
"Heya, this is Fabbie Ferret, reporting live from my room!" The pair looked on as they saw a snow white ermine videoing herself in selfie mode. "Now we've all seen the big news about how the protest movement from yesterday is, like, full of horrid ovinophobes, And let's be honest, they want to shut down any mammal that points that out by slurring them as speciesist. After all, they hacked my account and put in place a deep fake video showing me making fun of a racoon. That's not speciesist, LOL. What's even the word for hating raccoons? But anyway, yeah, it's not just Wilde and Hopps. I talked around with my fellow instagrowlers, and I found out that they hang out with two, like, real nasty basically speciesist mammals."
Restuko forced a smile. "It might not be us! It…"
"-I may love your optimism in the face of doom, but at this point it's just tiring," Haida interrupted, sighing as he looked on. The video cut to a blurry recording and his eyebrows raised a little. "Huh, look at that, our karaoke."
Indeed it was, showing the six of them singing during the triple date… Albeit, Jack and Skye were completely off the screen while Nick and Judy, though sometimes spotted, were largely hidden by a bear. That just left Haida and Retsuko or, as they were introduced by the narrator. "These are the speciesist figureheads who have sought to radicalise the former heroes of Zootopia."
"W-w-w-what…?" she mumbled, blinking.
"Oh god, this is gonna suck." he said, as the sound of them singing out 'Don't worry, about a thing…'
"Here they are before this all went down. As you can see, all of them are taking part in a major case of cultural appropriation…"
"IT'S CALLED KARAOKE!" she screamed, Haida managing to smile a little at the sight.
"That's better…"
"-Of both Jamican culture and Japanese."
"I'M THREE-QUARTERS JAPANESE!"
"Afterwards, when travelling back, her hyena companion went on a horrific misogynistic rant…" A clip was shown of them heading back and Haida discovering the look-a-like hyena plush and learning of its origins. That was fairly innaduadiable. Him punching the wall wasn't, nor was his rant afterwards.
"What is it with those stinking girls! Thinking that I just have to go with the flow, huh? That I just have to accept being used as they walk all over me! I told you that us boys were oppressed… Maybe we should have a go being on top, huh? How would you like that, big sis…"
This was then followed by Fabbie's narration. "Yeah, hear that, classic misogyny, huh? What is it with those boys, telling us what to do and walking all over us. We all know how oppressed we are, and that won't change until we're on top!"
Haida was left slack jawed, his brow furrowing. "It's about HYENAS! We're the other way around! CONTEXT MATTERS!"
"And, even worse, is the context that he's a hyena. Do you know how much girl 'yenas are oppressed? How much more they're arrested and go to prison than females of other species.. They're also born with totally messed up lady bits and all have their babies by c-section. They're, like, the most disadvantaged females in any species."
"HAVE YOU EVEN SEEN THE HYENA GENDER PAY GAP!?"
"He's also been recorded assaulting females of other species before, like in this crazy video from not so long ago."
He facepawed as a recording of him jumping down onto a loose paving slab, and launching Skye and Retsuko out over a rocky pond, played out. Retsuko patted him on the back, at least holding on to the fact that she wasn't getting it bad.
"And then there's the red panda. And she's even worse!"
Retsuko-dot-exe encountered an unexpected error as clips of her brief relationship with Tadano, the billionaire onager and tech guru, played out. "This proves that she acts as an intermediary between the corrupt super rich financiers and the on the ground cryptofacist forces. She also agrees with the hyena's sentiments." She was shown comforting Haida after his outburst and hugging him. "Making her the one thing worse than a misogynist. A female misogynist."
"Oh come on! You can't get crazier than that!"
"And, as a final proof of their nastiness, here is her showing her allegiance to evil!" The clip returned to the karaoke as she rocked around, a paw up in the air, her fingers waving around. Suddenly it paused, her fingers froze in a random jumble. "That's right, the notorious new speciesist paw gesture. What else can I say to that dog whistle? This is Fabbie Ferret, totally rocking this social justice thing!"
"Wait. What!?" she exclaimed, bringing her paw up in front of her and moving it around, trying to recreate what had been seen. "And come on, 'new speciesist paw gesture?'"
"Hang on," came a mumble from the side, Haida scrolling through his phone. "Ah! Fur-Chan. 'We tricked those libtard idiots into making the OK-sign speciesist. Let's see if we can do it with a random paw gesture for lulz'." He flashed it to Retsuko, the red panda seeing the exact same thing she'd made during her headbanging.
"I… -It's okay. That's about the cheapest, shallowest, most vapid influencer I've ever seen! No-one with any brains could possibly believe that, could they? I mean, what kind of mindless drones would believe that crap?"
"Well," he mumbled, "speaking of mindless drones, this is Instagrowl, so I'd say everyone who sees it for a start. Counting Fabbie's followers… then adding Tsunoda's… -That makes one million, five-hundred and sixteen thousand, nine hundred and two…"
…
"Now nine hundred and three… So, that's a lot. Isn't it Retsy… Retsy, uh… -Death metal inbound?"
"... YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
CUSS MY LIFE! CUSS MY LIFE!
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT FERRET BITCH!
MAKING EVERYONE THINK I'M SPECIESIST…
FOR CUSS' SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE…
FOR CUSS' SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE…"
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The shake and rattle of an old cargo elevator rang out as it rose, slowly climbing up its shaft of old red brick and riveted iron lathered in black paint.
Too slow.
Its sole occupant paced around, urging it to hurry up. He was pulling the time pretty close, if he planned to get back in time for his next lessons.
Thank-you early school start and first period being a free one! Much appreciated.
With a ding it reached the top and he raced forward, diving into a metal cage and jumping down onto his zero-g chair. Not gonna bother with the whole goggles and gloves work here, just a quick check-up. Now, if they'd…
He almost jumped up and down on seeing the newly arrived email and, opening it, couldn't help but let a white and gold toothy grin grow on his muzzle. Ha! That was not what he was expecting… That must be from… Oh, he was so going to have to ask about what kind of stuff they were getting up to. He might have a little thing for the cool spy stuff, but that must like being on the front line of a live concert.
Oh, he so hoped that they were going to do more of this stuff against that hippo, but if he wanted to get back with time to spare he needed to get his tail moving. Opening up the image, he quickly cut it down to just the one of the fox 'kit' himself. He then did the same thing to a screenshot of him being arrested, before moving into his computer files and opening up a particular app.
Impalta.
Oh, now here was the naughty bit he was doing. Still, he didn't think they would mind that much. Both images were loaded in and he set it to work, a crossweb of lines mapping against both of them. It didn't matter that they were both at odd angles and poor quality, this thing was designed to do its job on blurry jamcam footage and stuff. Okay, yes, it was intended to compare them against straight up mugshots, which if he had a bit more time he could certainly acquire with his resources. But, fingers crossed…
The program fired back his response and he leapt out of his chair, fist in the air. A fist that then went straight to his phone.
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The mood was sombre when Ash got in.
He'd wondered if there'd be ribbing, or anger, or teasing or crying or just anything.
He hadn't expected nothing.
Nothing was the closest he could describe this.
He was pretty certain that everyone knew about it and it would be the topic that everyone would be talking about, except for the fact that no-one wanted to.
He sat down on his seat and joined them, only to hear a cough from across the table. He looked up at Jenny Bourke, the wombat sitting close to Agnes, and scowling at him hard. "Ash…"
"Yeah…?"
"We need to talk."
He blinked. "I gathered that from your tone."
"-Oh no," she warned, taking him aback. "None of that sass here, foxy…"
-Which pulled in Remmy Packson. "Woah, what the cuss, Jenny?"
"Stay outta this," she warned him.
"Oh no," Remus Packson said in turn, eyes narrowing. "When someone says fox like that, I know exactly where that's going, and we don't let it go there. Seriously Jenny, what the cuss?"
"Oh cuss off for a moment," she shot back. "Firstly, that wasn't offensive, wasn't it Agnes?"
"Uh, no… She just wanted his…" she began before trailing off, her voice especially sad and frail. Almost certainly thanks to the morning news.
"Secondly, I trust that if Maisy was here and I said 'no hiding in the herd, sheep', you'd be equally angry."
"I… -yeah," Remmy said, paws waving out. "You're still attacking one of our friends either way."
"Yeah!" his brother added. "And now you're trying to make this about species or something."
"I…" she blinked. "No, you were the ones who made it about species," she barked back, before turning to Ash. "-And if it had been him who'd said it about Maisy…?"
"It would be uncool too," Remus said.
Remmy was full on waving his paws up and down in front of his own face. "We don't see species."
The wombat nodded, turning back to Ash. "So then, why did you do those horrible things to Maisy yesterday!?"
The red fox blinked, looking between Jenny and Agnes, his ears going down. The wombat must have heard somehow. "-I thought there might be a link," he said, jumping straight to the truth. Jenny leant back, eyes wide and blinking. "She might have had a clue about what happened to Kris."
"What… Why?" she asked, before her eyes narrowed. "Please. Tell me right now that it's more than her being a..."
"-I can't tell you," Ash said.
"Oh, really?"
"Because it's not my place to tell and it's unfair on her."
"Oh, convenient. But it's enough to grill her…"
"-Because some in her family knew certain mammals," he barked out. He breathed in and out. "And me telling you guys might lose her friends, which is stupid as I now think it's so unlikely to be her that you have no reason to hate her, but I don't know for sure. But I'm not telling okay! I just had a good reason, and I thought that if I could help Kris…" He trailed off, looking down. "I just wanted to help my cousin, okay!"
"By hurting Maisy…?" Jenny asked, slowly and quietly, her voice much softer.
"I didn't want to do that," he said, looking up at her, then over at Agnes. "And I want to say sorry, and help her as she's thinking some really dumb things right now…"
"Maybe," the wombat began, slowly. "-If you think she thinks 'dumb things', you shouldn't try and help her."
He looked up at her, cocking his head. "Agnes thought some dumb things, and I helped her."
All eyes turned on the surprised vixen, her ears folding back. "Yeah," she began, before relaxing. "Some really dumb things, and you told me off enough to make me change them and… and thanks for that. It really helped, back before…" She sniffed, sniffed again. "Oh god, they have a picture. They have a picture!"
"It's a fake!" Remmy said. "Pounceheart said so!"
"Yeah!" his brother agreed. "If you believe anything that hippo says, you're just a mindless shee…-oebill stork!"
Remus had hoped to make Agnes feel better, and in a roundabout way he succeeded as the vixen burst into a snort of laughter. Remmy keeled over and began laugh-howling at his brother's paw in mouth moment, which only pulled Agnes into a few more, with Ash giving a few chuckles too. Even Jenny had to roll her eyes in the end, though she still kept her gaze Remus, the wolf eventually putting his paws up. "Hey! If you have an alternate PC adjective, then you may throw the first stone."
She smiled. "Drone."
His mouth hit the floor. "Okay okay, I'll use that next time…"
"And I'll carry on matching you with rhymes." She turned to Remmy. "I have no stone, so I give you the honour to throw unto your brother, who is now pretty cussing boned."
Remmy smirked, and before Remus could react he felt a brotherly fist land in his side.
"Oooopppphhhhh…"
Agnes laughed some more, and Ash looked over at her and smiled. She was happy, that was good. And as they quietened down, he felt his phone chirp. Bringing it out and reading the update text from Fenneko, he smiled some more, his tail full on wagging. "It is a fake."
"Yeah, of course it is," Remus said.
"-No, I mean I've literally had a friend say they confirmed it is with facial recognition software or something. The ZPD are going to look at it, and they're going to tell the world that that hippo made it up!"
"Yes!" Remmy cried, fistpumping. Agnes meanwhile choked slightly, weeping tears of joy. Ash would have gone over and comforted her some more, were it not for the bell ringing and everyone having to go off to lessons. Still, he tried, walking over and offering a hug. She managed a quick one, before they were all off on their way.
"Listen," he said, looking over to Agnes and Maisy. He breathed in and out. "I need to talk to Maisy. To say sorry. And it needs to be in private, and…"
"She's not in today," the wombat warned. "But… I'll try and talk. -But she needs a friend there!"
Ash closed his eyes and groaned. "If you're there and hear some things, you might… -There are things I know about her I can't tell you, okay. Unless she's happy with you knowing, and…"
"Well, one of us will be outside and if she calls us, we'll come in," she said. There was a pause, as her eyes narrowed. "But do not hurt her again!"
"I won't, I promise," he said, as they split up, going their separate ways. Ash would have been happy for that to have been that for now, but, annoyingly, someone else had other plans.
"Heya there, Ash my friend, my buddy, my pal, my boyo!"
His eyes narrowed. "Morning Beavis," he muttered as the annoying chipmunk nudged up against him, before they widened again. Beavis! "Did you tell the weasel?"
"What!?" he exclaimed, jumping back as Ash turned and grabbed him.
"Did you tell that weasel my locker number?"
"The… Why," he smirked. "Finally wanted some deliveries from him after you screwed him over?"
Ash growled. "Given that his deliveries are why Kris is not here right now, no. Did you tell him!?"
"No," he said with a smirk, crossing his arms.
Ash stood across from him, staring him down as his tail fluffed up and the ridge line of his muzzle twitched. He thought back, before his scowl deepened. "Why didn't you ask if I meant Kris' locker?"
"Because after you said that it was that weasel who planted it, I guessed that you thought he got confused. You're the little one, but you have the higher locker? Now there's dumb for you. Glad you could agree. Welcome to the club, bestie!"
"We are not besties," Ash barked, stomping a foot. "We're not even… -worsties, either."
"Hey-hey-hey… Chill. None of our faults here," he said, smiling.
Ash groaned, turning and walking away.
"Hey, I'm serious," he said, following on. "I'm not blaming you, and for the same reason it's not my fault either. We're all victims."
Ash kept on walking, a brief flick of annoyance glancing across Beavis' face before he smirked once more.
"And I mean, I'm being very generous here. After all, I should be calling you out on your anti-mustelid sentiment, shouldn't I? Huh? I mean, you have a real problem with mustelids, and that's a real problem 'cause, if you think the foxes have it bad, you haven't seen nothing yet!"
"I have nothing against weasels," Ash shot back.
"Neither do I," Beavis replied, smiling. "After all, given how low down they are according to the literature, to even think that they could do something wrong means you're a terrible speciesist mammal. But don't worry though, being a fox means it isn't your fault…"
"Given all the times you've tried to annoy me with fox slurs," Ash groaned. "Do you really think it will work this time?"
"Fox slurs?" Beavis asked with a melodramatic cuss ton of shock. "No, no, no. This isn't any fault with you being a fox. In fact, according to the literature, being a fox makes you a victim. Just like I, an oppressed rodent, am a victim too!"
"Victims?" he asked, immediately beginning to regret it.
"Well," Beavis carried on, smiling. "I decided to look up what all the important mammals think about biases and species and stuff, and it turns out that the moral thing to be, the only thing to be if you want to be able to call yourself a good mammal, is an interspecialisist! Which means you're entirely dedicated to interspeciality!" He smiled, pointing a thumb back at himself. "What does that mean you ask? Basically, everyone is a member of a species, and a gender… of which there are millions… and religion and all sorts. There are loads of different ways you can split mammals up. And all those different ways will mean mammals are affected differently. With me so far?"
"I guess," Ash nodded. He wasn't going to say it but that more or less made sense.
"Right, so if you go about scamming or sneaking or breaking trust or just being a wet sandwich, it will hurt every mammal differently."
And now the old Beavis was back, and Ash was off.
"-And all these situations fit into a pecking order that pecks down and down," he carried on, stepping his paw down and down. "And, according to interspeciality, those at the bottoms are victims of it, trapped by it and powerless, their behaviour forced by it. While those at the top are the bad guys and the enemy, who have all the power. And the meaning of life is to actively attack up that pecking order and bringing down those up there, so that everyone is equal! I… Are you listening!?"
"Since you said I was out doing 'fox' stuff, not really…" he muttered.
"Wait-wait-wait… Don't worry, it's not your fault! You see, you're a victim here who I get to save, and those things aren't actually bad things. Because they can only hurt and cause damage if you have power. And, according to Zootopian interspeciality, the only mammals with less power than foxes are… duh-du-du-duuuh… Mustelids! So, unless you're scamming and sneaking weasels, no worries. And, even then, the best thing is it still isn't really your fault!"
Ash rolled his eyes. "So whose fault is it?"
"Oh, that's easy! It's those at the top, who peck down on everyone and have the most power! As a result, everything they do that is in their self interest hurts others below, and is naturally evil. And everything you do is done in reaction to the order they've created, it's you surviving in their world so everything you do wrong is ultimately their fault. And as the meaning of life in interspeciality is to attack those at the top and to destroy that order, the moral thing to do is to always call out them out, actively disadvantage them and basically declare war on them! You can't be 'mean' to them, or speciesist, or anything, 'cause you have no power and they have it all! So doing what you're doing to make their lives miserable isn't wrong, it's right! As the meaning of life is to pull them down to where they belong! You scamming them isn't hurting them, it's checking their privilege, which they deserve because, after all, they're the reason you're forced to scam in the first place!"
"So according to you I can be mean to you all I want, and you can't be back," Ash said, turning and smiling. "I'm thinking I shouldn't even call that stupid!"
"Ah-ah-ah," Beavis said, waving a finger. "We're all disadvantaged, I'm a rodent after all! So we must ally together and unite, turning our slurs and scams against the true enemy! The ones whose inherently speciesist lives it is our moral duty to shatter apart. And, it seems you already got started yesterday with Maisy…"
"Wait," Ash began, "this is all an excuse to hate on sheep!"
"-Cuuuuuuzzzzz….. Sheep are evil! Very, very, evil! They're the biggest evil in the whole wide world! Their rams are evil and ewes are evils, and even the little lambs and girls…"
The red fox started angrily at the singing chipmunk, as the rodent waved his paws open at him. "Come and sing along with me…"
"I'm not an ovinophobe, so no," he spoke, turning away, only to find Beavis jumping in front of him.
"Oh don't worry," he said softly. "Ovinophobia doesn't exist. Didn't you listen to my talk about interspeciality? You can only be speciesist and mean going down the order. Going up is what good mammals should do! After all, speciesism is based around those with power attacking those without. And as sheep have all the power, it's impossible to be speciesist against them! So, off the top! Weeeeelllll…. Sheep are evil, very very evil, they're the biggest evil in the whole wide world…"
Ash pushed him aside and walked on. "Speciesism is being mean about someone because of their species, just like you are. Now… -GET LOST!"
"Fine, fine," Beavis said, paws out but a smile still on his muzzle. "That's just your internalised speciesism talking there. The sheeps fault, of course." He looked on as Ash glanced back, and gave the fox a saccharine smile and wave. Even though the vulpine immediately turned a corner, the woodchuck didn't care. This whole morning, after a tough few days, he was on top of the world. "Well, at least I tried! Seems like you were much tougher to convert than Maisy was, which is dumb, but whatever. Enjoy living in misery Ash, 'cause I'm off to be a good interspeciesal mammal, you dumb, sneaky, untrustworthy, scamming, criminal, gay, chicken stealing, revolution betraying, baretailed, wet sandwich." He blew a wet raspberry, gave a cheeky flick of a finger salute and sauntered off down the now empty corridor, singing as he went. "Oh you'll never know the truth, dumb fox... -you'll ne-ver know the truth! You'll run around and hate yourself, and ne-ver know the truth…
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By the time Nick and Judy arrived for their day of (potential) work, it was already clear that the protest today, if it was going to happen, would be far smaller than yesterday.
And, though most of the more troublesome factions would still be turning up, the whole bussing in shebang that had gone on yesterday would not need to be repeated.
Regardless, Clawhauser had told them on arrival that Bogo wanted a word with them, and they were to head right up. So they did, Nick guiding a baggy eyed Judy into an empty lift against her pre-set instinct to head straight to the stairs. Her long morning of work had caught up to her hard, and she offered no resistance to the guiding vulpine paw. Indeed, it took longer than expected for her to clock on to the fact that he wanted a quick pre-grilling talk with her, in private.
"Okay," she groaned as the doors closed. "What's up?"
"It's probably going to be about Honey," he said.
"So…?"
"So we don't need you going off on a big rant defending her or anything. Keep it simple, keep it clean, in and out."
"But…" she began, only to be cut off by a finger to her mouth.
"We tell the truth," Nick said. "On looking into this, our friend Skye said she knew a mammal with certain skills. We went and found a mammal we'd previously arrested after escaping from a mental health institution, and who reacted with fear on seeing us. We de-escalated, and made sure she was okay, and on hearing our situation gave us some pertinent information. She volunteered to work for us, at which point I was contacted by our shared therapist, concerned we were leading her back down a dangerous path. She conceded that I could also monitor her and make sure she knows how to fully manage her investigative urges. We only became aware of the full notoriety of her ovinophobia yesterday, after she was chased out by a bunch of her former followers who refused to believe she was their old leader, proving she's changed. Given the news this morning, she chose to leave our group herself, showing that my following of the therapist's idea was a good call. The end."
"I…" Judy began, pausing to think as the door opened. They stepped out, her paw going up as she walked, a drive of righteousness pushing through her exhaustion. "-It'll depend on how much he insults her. I have limits after all, especially when my friends honor is on the line."
"Don't we all," Nick said, pausing as he looked up. "Isn't that right, Kii?" he asked.
The cheetah, who'd been walking the other way with a bunch of files, nodded. "Yeah," she said, just a bit quietly. Nick didn't get a chance to ask her about it though, as Bogo leant out of the door and called them in.
Down they sat, as be brought out a familiar looking photograph. "Do you know this mammal?" he asked, pointing at the picture of Honey, keeping an eye on Nick all the while. Judy's nose began twitching, seeing his anger thrown at Nick rather than her. It didn't feel right, but before she could protest her fox was speaking.
"Given my facial memory, and the fact that we arrested her after her escape from a mental hospital, I'd say yes," he said, pointing at the picture. "And there is a mammal we know to have serious emotional problems in the middle of a melt down. A young raccoon kit met her first, and being an upstanding citizen helped to calm her down, at which point my partner took over, learning of her failure to convince a bunch of ovinophobes that sheep weren't all evil."
Bogo looked at him for a second or two, then turned to Judy. "And the rest, Hopps."
She huffed, and narrated everything that Nick had told her to say. The Chief looked on, emotionlessly, his face an unreadable mask of chiselled stone. Even Nick couldn't tell what he was thinking, not a chip or speck of erosion exposing itself other than a hint of annoyance as the fox's phone chirped. He gestured at it and, after receiving a nod had given it a quick glance, his head tilting slightly.
In the end, Judy finished, and he turned down the files. "Where is she now?"
"Smuggled home, to have no part in the investigation going on," Judy said, unable to help a tinge of regret come into her voice. It wasn't fair…
"Good," Bogo noted. "I can put forward a quick statement refuting what he said. But we can't let you be seen with her again. The press will be watching you from now on. They will find out."
Judy nodded, unable to let her sagging ears perk up, an eyebrow rising. "And if they deep fake us with her?" she asked, crossing her arms as she did so.
He paused, nodding. "I can't comment on that picture given that it's an ongoing case, but it is under investigation."
"Good," she said, pausing to yawn. "And naturally, we'll update you if we prove it so."
Bogo nodded, only to pause, frowning. "And how would you have a copy?"
Her eyes widened. "Oh… Uh…"
"Did you get it from the ZPD," he pressed, rising up out of his chair, his voice rising like the tremors before a volcanic eruption.
"We were watching the hippo," Nick cut in, "he was bragging about it, and we got a pic. A pic that an associate claims to have run through 'Impalta' and found a negative match."
"Impalta?" Bogo asked, turning to stare down Nick, the fox's tail going down. "Do you even know what that program is?"
"Well, I guess a facial recognition…"
"-Not a facial recognition program. The facial recognition program," he replied, his voice rising dangerously fast. "No civilian is meant to have that! How?"
"Is it illegal to own a specific computer program?" he pressed out.
"I…" he began, before holding himself. His nostrils flared as he snorted angrily. "I'll tell the techs to test that, and if it disproves it then so be it." He held himself, hard and dangerous, keeping an eye on them as he waved a hooflet. "You're lucky," he warned. "Very lucky. Let me remind you that giving you the chance to support your friends here is a privilege, and you have a lot of responsibilities tied to it. Now, this whole ovinophobia thing is a whole fuss over nothing as far as I care. Just that hippo acting like the actions of a few nutjobs nobody cares about is a major issue and trying to make it seem like there's a whole conspiracy going on." He snorted. "Thankfully most mammals can see through his claims that a well off species that tends to be one of the biggest sources of speciesm is the real victim here, and him trying to hammer my best officers for it. But that isn't helped by said officers hanging about and being chummy with the nutjob prime!"
"Don't…" Judy protested, standing up only to wilt under his burning warning glare.
He spoke slowly but sharply, his words like a longsword slowly grazing along her throat. "This isn't some happy animated buddy cop movie where you can be friends with anyone you want to be. It doesn't matter that Wassermaim's claim that sheep are oppressed is just distracting nonsense, designed to make mammals ignore the real bad stuff going on, that kind of mammal isn't the kind that cops or any mammal for that matter should be friends with, ditto for whoever is messing around with that software. Tread very carefully... Do you understand?"
She nodded slowly.
"Good," he spoke, his voice echoing out. He sat back down, silent for a second or two, before carrying on. "Is there anything else?"
"I… -Oh! You know about the officer who arrested Kris?"
He frowned a little. "Yes."
"Nick and I witnessed him yesterday mistreating a fox officer. We agreed that we'd be witnesses to the event."
Bogo nodded. "I heard so from a rather angry Officer Hyenandez, complaining about him mammalhandling her partner. That will happen when it happens." He paused, drumming his fingers. "What species is he exactly? There's lots of desert foxes, they sort of merge into each other."
"Arctic, sir," Nick said, smiling.
His eyes narrowed. "Yes, Wilde. The Sahara Square precinct being given an arctic mammal. Why would that happen, exactly?"
His grin grew ever so slightly wider and smugger. "Because the ZPD is a monolithic, hierarchical, top heavy public sector bureaucracy full of mammals who either don't care or think that they know best?"
"...It seems that the protest today will be much smaller and, though we've had some reports of antivulpitic hate crimes going on that you may want to cover… That I would appreciate if you could cover, I don't think you two will be needed today."
"Understood," Judy agreed, jumping up. "Right Nick, quickly. There's plenty more we can…"
"Hopps!"
She froze, turning back. "Sir…?"
He was looking at her, a slight look of concern on his face. "One last thing. Look after yourself," he spoke.
"I," she began, one ear going down. "I mean I always do. I can handle myself, and…"
"-Wilde," he spoke. "Look after her."
"Yes sir," he cheered, standing up and walking out, leading Judy with him. She looked around blinking, before she glared up at him.
"Excuse me? Is there something I'm missing here?"
"Well…" he began. "You look a bit tired, don't you agree?"
"I…" she said, before bringing out her phone and switching it to selfie mode. Bags were growing under her eyes and her ears hung limp. "It's nothing," she grumbled. "I can just have another coffee, and I'll be fine."
He looked on, unconvinced. "Are you sure? How much did you sleep last night?"
"I didn't," she grumbled.
Nick looked on, his head tilting.
"-I couldn't," she stressed. "Not while Kris was suffering. Not after they threw that thing against us. You heard what Wassermaim said. He thought that we didn't wait and took the lead. He's now doing the same to us. I have to give our all, because if I don't he'll do things like this again and again and again. We have to meet fire with fire!"
He looked on, before shaking his head a little. "I'm not sure he's starving himself of sleep or anything."
"I can deal with it," she waved off, turning and marching on.
"Bunnies need their bed rest you know," Nick said, following her along. "You can crash at my place and…"
"-I'm good."
"I'm sure jam cam scanning and stuff can wait and…
She slammed a foot down and turned on the spot to face him. "I SAID I'M GOOD!"
...
"Carrots...?"
"No! Don't you Carrots me!" she scolded. "Right now Kris is in trouble, and if I'm not helping him then…"
"You need sleep too," he cut in.
"I'm FINE! I'm…" She paused, breathed in and out, looking down. "I'm sorry Nick," she mumbled. "Just a bit stressed from you guys getting on me."
"I was asked to look after you," he pointed out.
"You don't have to," she waved off.
"I want to."
Judy began to speak, only to hold herself still, her eyes narrowing. "Do you trust me?"
"I…" Nick began, blinking. "Of course I do, I…"
"So why are you acting like I can't look after myself," she pressed. "Like I need someone to manage my life? Like I'm some weak dumb bunny who needs looking after? Because I'm not Nick, and if you knew me you'd know that too."
His mouth hung open, trying to work out what to say, but… Seeing her gaze and anger, he held myself back. "Sorry," he said. "But…"
"But what?" she pressed.
He paused to collect his thoughts, before jumping back into it. "You're a smart, clever bunny Judy, and you're your best when you're helping other mammals and putting your mind and body to their best use. And you can't do those last things when you're not one-hundred percent, can you?"
She paused, turning down and rubbing her eyes before sighing. "I guess, but the way things have gone on, it's the others going out there doing their stuff. I… -I don't have a hero problem or anything, I get that there are better mammals to send undercover and stuff. But if that leaves me doing the boring grunt work, then I'm going to do the best boring grunt work there is!"
Nick paused, thinking. "Okay, but we still need a clever mammal thinking things out. Where do we go next…"
"That's up to what the others find," Judy pointed out.
"So," he concluded happily. "Rest until then."
"I…" she began, drumming her foot. "Nick, if I wasn't doing this kind of stuff I'd be worrying twice as hard, and not getting any rest anyway. Besides, there's still work to do though, isn't there?"
"Well…" he began, not quite liking where this was going.
She nodded. "If it was a different fox in that picture, who? Why? Could it be 'Shylock'?"
Nick gave a shrug. "I don't know."
"So, we've got to find out," she said.
Nick begrudgingly nodded, only for his ears to jump up. "Ask Catano to compare his picture to ones from the security cams using that face comparer or whatever..."
"I… Brilliant," she said, pausing as she looked around. Leaning up, she glanced at the cheetah in question walking down across the lobby to the ladies locker room. "I'll be back in a sec!"
Nick nodded, and watched as off she went.