Chapter 56

.

.

"Hmmmm… -What do you think dear?"

Mrs Fox looked on, studying the new conspiracy board currently erected in their living room. On it, bluetacked to a whiteboard that Nick had let them borrow, was a printed out map of the lake, various other print-outs linked to it via coloured strings. "I don't like it," she said.

"I can hardly blame you," her husband agreed. "After seeing the one a Miss Honey Badger had accrued over her own, if ill advised, pursuit of the truth, I can't help but feel that this one is a let down."

The heavily pregnant vixen standing next to him raised an eyebrow. "A let down?"

"Yes," he said. "You know…" He clicked his fingers. "It's not just that it's small per say. It's that it's very existence draws attention to how small it is. You know how it is."

"Presume I don't."

"It's that were it not here, it wouldn't draw attention to itself. But, as it is here, it does. Specifically to how undramatic and unembellished it is compared to one produced by a master of their work. It doesn't give the feeling of pure overwhelmingness that such a board should give, and I feel… less of a foxy conspiracy buster because of that."

Her eyes narrowed. "So ideally you'd want a board that covers all these walls in a chaotic jumble of papers and lines, to impress visitors."

"I thought you said you didn't know how it is," he said with a smile.

"I asked you to presume that I didn't."

"Ah, but you do," he reminded her.

"I understand that you have conspiracy board envy, yes."

"Envy is such a mean spirited word. I prefer one-up-mammal-ship."

"I guess we have our own names for it then," she said. "Like potato…"

"-Potato," he finished off. Glancing at her and giving a double whistle, followed by two tongue clicks. "And, along with finishing my sentences, you can help me finish this thing too."

"I'll decline," she said.

"I thought you said you didn't like it."

"I don't. Period. It clashes with the colour of the walls."

Mr Fox turned, looking between the board and the walls, his head tilting a bit. "No. I don't see it."

"And you ain't helping neither," came a voice from the side, Finnick walking past them before jumping up, sticking a printed-out sheet in the lower left corner. He grabbed a length of string and reached up, stretching on his toes for a second or two before coming back down, frowning.

…

"Thank you," he grumbled, as Mr Fox finished the job. It linked a printed out selfie picture with a refreshment cabin. While the antelopes taking them were strangers to them, far off, between their horns, was a particularly suspect character. Small, brown, wiry and with a mean expression on his small face. Finnick looked on, scratching his chin. Yeah, that was probably Duke. He'd been there alright.

Four days ago!

The small fennec stepped back over to his girlfriend, currently operating two laptops along with her phone, filtering through social media posts and forums, looking for anything up to date.

Judy, sipping another coffee to keep her going, was pushing on alongside her with Nick and Jack. They'd been at it for the best part of the day. Ash was due home soon anyway. All while their worries grew. "Give it another hour," Finnick said, "we go anyway."

"You'd be searching for him at night," Nick countered.

Judy, an annoyed taint to her voice, cut it. "For all we know there's no weasel left to search for at all."

"Or," Fenneko cut in. "He's still there. You going there though could still draw our mutual enemies into his general vicinity. That's why I said we should know exactly where he is before committing."

"Yeah," the other fennec grumbled. "But you gotta admit, there's gotta be some point where we cut it and go all in! What do you think cool fox?"

Mr Fox hmmmm'd, stroking his muzzle. "I for one am caught between two tantalising options. The first, is to recognise that prior planning and preparation prevent pitifully poor performance. I myself consider myself an expert at planning fantastically crazy operations."

"And two?"

"Wild animal craziness always finds a way!"

"So yeah," Finnick agreed. "If we don't get the results back from this soon, let's just go in and wing it. We know where he is, kinda. And we can find him."

"It'll be night," Nick warned.

"We're foxes. Night vision!"

"They might have his scent, too," the fox cop cut it, making Finnick and a few of the others blink.

"Wut?"

"Before any of this came down, before Ash even met him, Duke was briefly put in a vehicle by two big cats. Same ones, different, not sure. But, that means they might have some of his fur or even some of his clothes. We get them close enough, they can sniff him out while we're still walking back and forth."

A long silence filled the room, the mammals looking at each other.

Finnick snorted. "Seriously Slick? I knew you had no pride in yo' species, but saying a cat can out sniff you!"

"-It's not called having no pride in your species, it's called being a realist," Nick snapped back. "I'm not even saying they're better, though in some ways they are. I've sniffed Duke one or two times, my memories a bit fuzzy and it'd be tricky. They might have something of his on them, and the cats are really good at telling scents apart. They might be able to pick up a tiny trace of Duke from all the other stuff and hunt him down. That's why we need to know exactly where he is."

"Which I don't think we will," Judy groaned, cutting in. Her eyes were red from several hours of screen glare, while she grumbled, rubbing her head and fiddling with Kozlov's necklace as she did so. "We're close enough, we can ask around, can't we? Just tell them that a pair of dangerous mammals are after this guy and we need to warn him, getting him out."

One of Nick's eyes perked up. "Hmmm, I suppose that is one advantage of this all. We can use that stuff to spook Duke into coming with us, no fuss required. What do you know, every cloud has a silver lining."

"And every mammal has their own digital footprint," Fenneko said, slamming down her paws triumphantly on her keyboard. "Gentlemammals. We've got him!"

Everyone rushed to their screen, pausing as they saw her looking at a forum of some kind. "What…" Judy began, suddenly realising that it wasn't just any forum, it was preddit.

"Given this weasel's reputation, I correctly guessed that his antisocial behaviour would do plenty to irritate a large number of mammals. Like ripples in a pond, look for them and you can find where the stone went in."

They all looked on at the picture, taken from a roadside. Down a small wooded bank, next to a large stream, a small winnebeargo was parked, a few heaps of trash strewn about it. All posted to P/ Trashy.

"That's his van!" Jack said.

"We got him," Nick agreed.

"Not quite," Fenneko reminded them. "But it won't take long to search Zoogle maps to pin-point that place down."

"You heard the vix!" Finnick shouted, "Chop-Chop!"

And soon everyone was searching on, scouring the nearby roads for that scene.

Ash got home from school.

He joined in.

Less than half an hour later, Judy jumped up. "Got it!"

Everyone crowded around her screen, comparing the scene to the one that Fenneko had signed. The vixen looked down at her mate. "Got it?"

"Heck yeah," he said, looking over to Jack and Mr Fox. "Right boys, we got a weasel to bag!"

Jack was already up. "I'll tell Skye. She and the other two should be ready now."

"Excellent," Mr Fox announced. "I'll get Kylie in the bike."

His wife gave a nervous look at him. "Be careful."

"My dear," he said, "I'll come back in one piece."

"That isn't being careful!"

"The end result is the same," he said, as he began making his way out.

Ash's ears perked. "I'm coming with you."

"No you're not," his mother said, a cut to her voice.

"Dear…" her husband began, Ash's eyes widening.

She put her foot down. "No. He's still a kit, and these are dangerous mammals here! This isn't some wild goose chase. These are criminal mammals, what if they have guns!"

There was a long pause, before Nick came forward. "I know your hearts are in the right place," he said, paw on Ash's shoulder. The young fox's eyes trembled, ears and tail going down. "But your cousin will need you to help him when he gets out. The worst thing for him is if he finds out you were hurt helping him."

His ears and tail rose up, slightly. "I'd be happy to get hurt for him," he protested. "But… okay… If you really think it's best for him."

"Yup," Nick said. "You can help from the backlines too! With Fenneko, Carrots and I…"

"We're not going?" she asked.

Nick gave her a long concerned look, glancing back at Ash, then back at her. "Lead by example, Fluff."

"Fine…"

"After all, who knows. They might send their mammals after us here and try to get the information out. You wouldn't want to let that happen, would you."

Judy's bagging eyes narrowed, her nose twitching. Nick couldn't help but smirk as he looked down at Ash. "No wonder I'm good with you, that bunny gave me lots of practice." The younger fox snorted with laughter. "Besides," Nick said. "It is true. You don't know how Kris is hurting right now. You don't want to give him more reasons, do you?"

"I guess so," Ash agreed, wondering just how his cousin was doing right now.

.

.

So far, so good.

The day was coming to a close. Schooling had finished, things were settling down and nothing had gone wrong.

Kris had been right, things had turned the corner. There was no Sarrahson, the screens were back to playing the kit cartoons while everyone hung around minding their own business.. Things seemed okay.

He'd made the right call.

He'd done it.

For now…

Now that he'd fallen apart with Timofey, he figured that it wouldn't be long before certain mammals, eyes landing on a few who'd tried before in particular, thought of trying to get at him again. He wasn't too worried, he'd shown he could beat them. That, and the fact he'd stood up to a guard and won was seemingly giving him a decent bit of… -well, they called it cred, so it seemed that that was what it was.

Whatever the case, while he figured they wouldn't try anything in the short term, there was the long term to think about. Something he did not enjoy doing, but to some degree couldn't help. And, if he was going to be here a long time, it would probably be best to make friends with a bunch of other mammals. Thankfully though, there was a group he knew would take him in, which was why he was now waiting outside Armando's cell.

There was a pause as the capybara, walking over, glanced up and made a slight sound. "Figured."

"Huh."

"Had your fall out with Timofey, you're now asking to join us," he said. "Figures."

"Y-yeah," Kris agreed. "He's…"

"A giant big polar bear, from the literal mafia, who you've probably pissed off. Why would we want your trouble?"

"Well, there isn't really trouble between us," he began. "More an agreement to just stay out of each other's way."

"Really?" he asked, just a bit sceptically.

Kris blinked a few times. "Yes. Really," he said, plainly. "Also…" He handed over a few sketches he'd done, the rodent's eyes lighting up as he saw them.

"Wow! I mean, these are awesome. What's her name?"

"Agnes," Kris said, feeling a soft tugging at his heart. While not a detailed portrait by any means, his pencil sketch of her showed her soft pale fur, the innocent little spots on her forehead, the shadows in the pleats of her dress. He hoped she was doing okay…

"You were wasted in that group over there," Armando said. "Now, how do you fit it together?"

"Huh?"

"How do you show the fun parts?"

"You don't," Kris said, ears ticking back. "This is just a straight sketch, I didn't want to do any of that for her."

The capybara handed it back and shrugged. "Right. Sure you're not ace?"

"Yes," Kris said, fur spiking a bit.

The rodent chuckled a bit, before glancing over at the table where some of his friends were sitting. "See Luka over there?"

"Yeah," Kris said, glancing at the kangaroo.

"In two weeks, if I get my parole, I'm outta here. So there's no reason for me to risk anything for you or anyone else. He's the one I'm having take over our gang when I go, so it's his choice."

"Right," the silverfox agreed.

"I'll tell him to let you in after I go, okay," Armando said, quietly. "That should be long enough to make sure Timofey isn't really after you."

"Sounds fair," Kris said. Indeed it did, it wasn't that far away.

"And ditto if I get screwed over," Armando said, his voice dropping a bit. He slipped into his cell. "Tchau…"

Kris almost replied in kind, only to do something else instead. Paw going out, he tapped the capybara on his shoulder, causing him to flinch slightly. He jerked his head around and glared back, muzzle riven up. "What?"

"Good luck."

For a second, he froze, only to slowly unwind, a playful grin on his muzzle. "Hey, it's still a week away. And I don't need you going and jinxing it 'posa."

Kris smiled back. "Double good luck then."

The capybara rolled his eyes and flipped him a middle finger, not that the fox minded much. After all, a few years back he'd had experience sharing a living space with another mammal who had… interesting ways of expressing his feelings. But given time he'd figured it out and here, now, that rodent was a far easier nut to crack.

Given what he'd heard, he felt good as he walked away, pausing as he felt a paw on his own. "Did the beaver say mean things to you?"

"He's a capybara," Kris said, looking down at Matt.

The pups eyes narrowed. "But you didn't get what you wanted, did you?"

"Not quite," he said, truthfully. "But I did get some good news."

He cocked his head a little. "Which was?"

"In a few weeks I'll be joining their group and doing drawings for them."

"I…" he said, pausing. His eyes narrowed. "I don't want to be with the capybara."

"You can stay with Timofey and his group, if you want," Kris reassured him. "In any case, Armando will probably be gone by then. He's having a parole meeting, they're going to see if he's been good enough to be let out early."

"I… They won't let him go," Matt said, his brows furrowing. "Those kind are mean, they just cause problems!"

Kris felt his ears go down. "Did one of those mammals, a beaver or a capybara do something to you?" he asked.

Now it was Matt's turn to lower his ears, his tail dropping down too. He slowly nodded. "It's… it's why I'm here," he sniffed.

Kris glanced over to his cell. "Want to talk about it?"

"Yeah."

"Come on then," he said, walking him in. The young pup held his paw tight as they settled down on the bed. "First off," Kris began, trying to figure out the best way of saying this. "I know you have problems telling large rodents apart. You called Armando a beaver a few times, but beavers have long flat tails, don't they?"

"I think…"

"So, did any of those mammals have them?"

There was a long pause. "No…"

"So, they're not beavers. Now, capybara have those big square faces. Woodchucks have rounder faces, with their muzzle coming off of it." He sketched it out roughly on the paper. "Then you have things like copyu, muskrat, mara…" He tried to sketch them out as best he could from memory. There were also hyraxes, though he figured they would be too small, even if it was a large adult.

Matt tried to look at them, only for his eyes to gloss over. Shaking his head, Kris pulled them back. "Never mind. What happened?"

"I…" he began, looking down. "I was trying to help my mom," he said. "I wanted to make her happy, and she talks a lot about how expensive it is to give me food… and to get me new clothes. So I wanted to help her." Kris couldn't help but feel a bit of worry. "I wanted a job or something, so I asked around, and I found a few mammals who made deliveries. I just had to pick something up, move it from one place to another, and they'd pay me some money. They were saying I was going to be the man of my house, and I was doing a good thing!"

"Was your mother proud of it?" Kris asked, quietly.

"She said it wasn't real money yet," he said, idly. "But if I earnt a lot more, then she'd be proud! And the guys giving me the work said that if I worked long enough, I'd become a supervisor! And that means I earn more, right?"

Kris didn't want to tell him that he'd been groomed by a drug gang, that they were probably joking to his face with the supervisor remark, that his mother probably didn't love him one bit. All he could do was give a weak nod of the head and a quiet "yes."

The pup huffed, looking down. "And I knew that there were some mammals who wanted to steal the stuff. Once, when I was picking some up from someone, I saw someone hopping around the corner trying to take a picture of us, so I went into a place too tight for him to go. But I was doing so well, until…" His ears dipped.

"Until?" Kris asked.

"I just bumped into one of them," he said, pointing at the face sketches Kris had done. "And he just stole the box!" He sniffed. "I didn't know what to do. And then the boss came and found me, and he was angry as I lost his box! He punched and kicked me, said I was fired, and then my Mom was angry I was fired too… And that dumb beaver ruined everything!"

He broke into a small flow of tears, Kris slowly stroking his head. The younger canine snuggled up to him, tight. "What happened next?"

"I… I just wanted to go back and fight that beaver!" he said, teeth gritting. "And then, I thought I saw him alone, and I ran at him shouting DIE and I punched him over and started jumping on his stomach, and then… then I realised… Then I heard their voice and… It wasn't the same voice. I know his voice, this wasn't it. It wasn't even a boy, it was girl, so I ran away."

"And that's why you're here?" Kris asked. Did he break something in her, cause a heart attack or something? Surely that would be ruled as mammalslaughter. Surely he'd have some mercy in the courts, rather than the ten years he'd been given.

Yet Matt shook his head. "No!" he protested, sniffing. "I saw her get up and walk away, and I went home. But then the cops came, and she was there. And they kept on saying I killed Joey, I killed Joey. She was crying it, I killed Joey! But… But there was no Joey there! She... " he sniffed. "She framed me, and made up that I killed someone, and they called me a murderer and put me in here!" He broke into tears, snuggling his head up into Kris' lap, all while the gears in the foxes head were turning.

At first, he wasn't sure what had gone on. It didn't make any sense. They couldn't just make up that he murdered someone, could they?

Unless the woman had killed someone anyway, and realised that Matt was the perfect mammal to frame.

But surely the police would do a better job at looking at it?

Surely even a bit of investigation would show what had really happened.

Did Matt lose a claw in her and she planted it.

And why was that name nagging at him. Joey… Joey… If he had his friends with him, maybe they'd be able to realise why? Ash… or the wolves. Maybe Beavis, though not a friend, had mentioned a Joey once and that had been why? What about Maisy, or Agnes, or Jen…

His eyes widened, and he felt himself begin to tremble.

"Matt?" he asked, his voice a whisper. "Did this woman have a badge on her or anything?"

"I… Y-yeah, she did," he said, sniffing. "Why?"

"Just curious," he whispered, leaning over and picking up his paper and pencil. A few more drawings, again of a friend from memory, and he showed it to him. "Does she look familiar?"

"S-s-sort of, yeah," he said. "Is that her?"

"I think the woman you hit was a wombat."

"Another rodent?"

"A marsupial, actually," he said, slowly. "Like Luka, the kangaroo."

"Oh," he said, "so I should be scared of him now, not Armando?"

"No, no," Kris said, "just forget about this for now."

"I'll, I'll try," the pup said, snuggling in some more for comfort.

A comfort not shared by Kris. He didn't have the heart to tell him that, just like kangaroos and all marsupials, female wombats had pouches. That they gave birth to very undeveloped young, that latched onto a teat after birth, holding on as they grew. That those babies were all called joeys, and that badge the female wombat wore was a 'joey on board' badge, warning everyone that her tiny baby was holding on and mammals needed to be careful not to bump her.

He didn't have the heart to tell him about a story Jenny Bourke had told her, of one of her own kind being assaulted and losing their joey. He didn't have the heart to tell him what he'd done.

Matt was a murderer.

He'd killed a tiny defenseless baby, likely no bigger than his finger.

But the scared, abused, immature pup had no idea.

Kris didn't want to be the one who had to tell him that. So he just hugged him tight for now, hoping to at least be the friend he'd never had.

.

.

It had taken her a bit longer than expected, but, warrant in paw, Catano finally arrived at the Fox family house. She had to admit, it was quite unique and the large fields around it did help support the idea that maybe some wild nighthowlers were still growing there, lost in the weeds. The house design though did present a slight problem.

Back at the Calrama's place, the ceiling had been low enough to brush her ear tips.

Here, she got the grim feeling that it would be lower still. Sometimes it really didn't pay to be a tall and thin species like her own. Regardless, duty called, and fingers crossed that this would be over with soon enough. She'd even asked the lab for some nighthowler scent tabs so she could get acquainted to the smell again, and could pick up any lingering traces. Unless they'd been scent secured or the box disposed of, of course, but in that case she could press its absence. She could also ask about whether any nighthowlers were used here in the past for pest control, and if the kit had any kind of home chemistry stuff.

If she was right, she had her pawcuffs ready. If not, this was just clearing up a loose end.

And with that, Catano knocked on the door, waiting for a few seconds before it opened up. Out stepped the pregnant vixen again, her face immediately going ice cold. "Hello again."

"Hi there, Kii Catano. ZPD."

"I know."

The cheetah's ears went down. "I'm just here to do a quick check, to…"

"Oh, so you do suspect my boy after all," she said, crossing her arms.

Catano felt her eyes narrow. "We've been investigating this case and found a number of leads, one of which does involve your son," she said. Regardless, she tried to remain civil. "I've recently become aware of a loose end that we just want to check out, ideally to rule it out."

"Which is?"

"Your son has a locked box, under his bed," Catano began. "I just want to check it out, to…"

"So you do think he could have done it," she pressed.

"Potentially."

"Oh, potentially? That's a very on the side way of saying you think my son framed his own cousin."

Catano groaned, her patience wearing thin. "Listen. I…"

"-No, you listen," the vixen cut in. "Right at the start of this week, you emotionally tortured my son. My son! Right after your friends hauled off my nephew, who is locked up right now, for something he didn't do! And, when you and your friends say they're trying to figure it out, I do not appreciate it when the main thing you're looking at is how to pin my son for it instead! I had to hold him tight as you humiliated and toyed with him while he was torn up inside, after being quite torn up inside enough for one day! And then, after I only just about managed to hold it down and keep myself calm about it, telling myself that after that they knew for sure it wasn't him… It turns out that wasn't enough after all! In fact, you full on believe it was him!"

Catano flinched back, only to pause as someone else called from inside. "What's going on?" The cheetah looked on to see Judy Hopps, looking like a university student after a double all-nighter, come down. "Kii?"

"Afternoon Hopps," she began. "I'm just here to…"

"-Continue to hound my son," the vixen snapped.

"What?" Judy asked slowly, glancing back up at the cheetah, her eyes narrowing. "After all this, you're still going after Ash?"

"I'm not 'still going after Ash'," she snapped back.

The bunny crossed her paws. "Then why are you here?"

Catano closed her eyes and began recounting. "From some interviews at the school, I found he is good at chemistry and has a locked box under his desk, one it is best practice to check out…"

"Why would he even do it?" Judy asked, paws wide out in disbelief. "What's the motive?"

"Removing Kris out of the way so he can win back his girlfriend…"

"You really think my wonderful son would be selfish and petty enough to do something like that!" Mrs Fox hissed, grabbing the door. "Well, it seems your past bullying of him taught you nothing. If you were expecting a pleasant welcome, then I'm afraid you're just going to have to settle for an unpleasant good day."

Before she could so much as swing it, Catano's paw shot out, holding the door in place. "Firstly, given what I've heard about how he treated a certain vixen in the past, whether he's guilty or not I think your wonderful son needs some words about how to treat girls in his life. Secondly, I am coming in. I have a search warrant."

She locked eyes with the vixen, orange staring down and amber staring up, before purple finally cut in. "Let her in," Judy said softly, if not sounding too happy about it. "Nothing we can do to stop her."

"Thank you," Catano said. "But, being a fellow officer, I'd think you'd know that this isn't pointless."

Judy huffed. "It is if you knew him," she said. "Heck, the idea that it could be a fox at all is stupid. You're just playing into that hippo's hands, Kii. He's tricked you with his words, and I know you're better than this, and if you just think for a second…"

"I've done all the thinking I need," she said, glaring at the bunny.

The bunny paused, before glaring back. "Are you certain about that? Because I don't think you..."

"Yes," Kii hissed.

The pair stood off against each other for a moment before Judy shook her head, reaching her paws out. "Or maybe you just haven't been hearing the truth about him enough? Let me…"

"I've heard plenty about him from those I've talked to," the cheetah cut in. "How many of his school friends have you interviewed?" she asked, leaning down to get inside. The ceiling height was a good two inches below the crown of her head, so she had to awkwardly hunch down to move through. She could only hope that she could get this over with quickly and painlessly. After all, Judy's foot drumming on the floor was already starting to get on her nerves.

Things were made trickier when they reached the stairs, a tight spiral that forced her down on all fours to get up it. One floor up and she came face to face with the young fox in question, looking quite worried. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I just want to give your room a quick search and ask you some questions," she said, calmly. "Hopefully we can get this all done quickly and easily, then I'll be on my way."

"-I didn't do anything!" he yipped.

She paused, looking at him and his seeming overreaction. "I know you probably didn't," she reassured him, trying to keep it diplomatic. In truth, he'd just helped to weaken that probability a fair way. "But we need to do this to rule it out. Do you mind coming up with me?"

Slowly he nodded and up they went, Catano's patience with this building and how she was having to contort her body to get around with it slowly running down.

Mercifully, they eventually got to the top of the building, where she was able to sit upright at last. Mrs Fox came marching in after, a simmering glare continuously levelled. Judy's paws were crossed, as Catano began sniffing around. Nothing untoward so far…

"See," Judy said, sounding quite exasperated. "We told you…"

"I'm not done yet," the cat said, turning to her. "Stop telling me how to do my job, I can do it quite well, thank you. This is not appreciated."

The bunny kept her gaze fixed at her. "Neither is going after my friends…"

"I'm not going after your friends, Hopps."

"First your tirade against Honey…"

"Who's a terrible mammal," Catano reminded her.

"See. There…"

"You shouldn't be friends with a mammal like that!" the cheetah cut in, face pawing. "Have you even got it into your head how much pain she's caused in her life?"

Judy stood defiantly. "She changed."

"So you say, Hopps," Catano said, starting to give the room a look and a sniff over. "So you say."

"-She seemed nice," Ash cut in. "The few times I met her…"

The cheetah turned to face him, feeling her blood running cold. "Do you even know who she was?"

"She used to make those crazy anti-sheep videos…"

"See," Judy pressed on. "She's changed."

"It doesn't matter," Catano cut in, her teeth beginning to bare. Right now, she didn't even care whether Ash had done it or not. "And in what kind of a world did you think it was a good idea to introduce an emotionally vulnerable kit to her!? In mammal! One who could be brainwashed into the same kind of sheep hate!"

"Hey, I'm not…" Ash began, only for Judy to cut in.

"Sheep hate? Listen, that's just the damn DA again. He doesn't even care about it, it's a means to an end for him, and if anyone's been brainwashed it's you Kii. Literally the only reason he brings it up is as a distraction against those he doesn't like."

"Which doesn't mean it's not a problem, Hopps!" Catano yelled. The bunny flinched back, the cheetah feeling a growl in the back of her throat. "Why can't you see that? Is it that you just don't care, huh?"

"I'll tell you what I care about," Hopps said, arms crossed. "I care about my friends, and I care about someone coming in and persecuting them, humiliating them, treating them as terrible mammals who I know they're not, and refusing to give them a second chance. And you know what, I was happy to give you a second chance too. Maybe the Calrama's had fed you all sorts of lies, or maybe you were dumb enough to believe that crazy DA at face value, all to brainwash you into…"

"I am not brainwashed!" Kii said. "Stop telling me I'm too stupid to come up with my own opinion."

The bunny looked on, foot drumming harder and harder. "-But I'm really beginning to second guess whether you could actually earn it."

"From you," Catano said, turning to Ash's desk. "I don't think I care."

She began opening the draws as the sound of a new pair of feet coming up rang out. "Okay, okay," Nick said. "Go to the bathroom, the world falls apart. What's going on?"

"Catano just persecuting another one of my friends," Judy said, the cheetah feeling her claws extend.

"Wilde, please keep your partner out of this. I have a reasonable level of means and motive for Ash being the guilty party. Ergo, I am investigating further. If he is innocent, then you shouldn't have any problem with this."

Judy began to say something in protest, Nick saying something to try and calm her down, all of which Catano filtered out as she did a quick cursory look around the room. Nothing untoward here, nothing suspicious there. There was a small chemistry set, still in box, far too basic to do the kind of processes required. "Are you good at chemistry?" she asked, looking at Ash.

He began to open his mouth, only for Judy to put her paw on his shoulder. "You're under no obligation to answer that."

Catano felt her teeth grit as she leant in and opened the box. She smelt no traces of howler in it, or in the rest of the room, so if anything had been in here it would have had to have been in a scent proof box. She crouched down and looked through the storage areas under Ash's desk before…

"Ah-ha," she said, finding a locked box.

"-Not that!" The room fell quiet, everyone turning to face the fox that had just squeaked. Ash stood there, trembling a little, eyes on the box. "It's… It's really private, okay…"

Catano felt her paw begin to tremble. "Can I have the key, please?"

"-Please don't," he squeaked, beginning to flinch in shame. "It's…"

"Ash?" his mother began.

"-Embarrassing, okay!"

"Catano," Judy finally said again. "Leave him alone."

"Hopps," she began, turning to look around. She thought she'd seen a keyring before.

"Stop hurting my friends."

"You know this is suspicious," the cheetah cut in, glancing up and spotting the keys. Immediately finding the right one, she put it in and turned. Part of her mind was already recounting the protocol for handling nighthowlers, another reminding her where her pawcuffs were.

"If you just humiliate him again…" Judy warned, staring her down.

Ash looked like he was trying to shrink into himself, as the box came open and revealed…

"What the…?" Catano said, her head tilting. Inside were a bunch of… things. She held one up, getting increasingly confused looks from everyone else. It was a plastic coffee cup, a bunch of holes stamped out and some elastic string on the back. The rest of the items were pretty much all the same. Some with the ends of bottles or small plant pots, and with strings or stuff instead of the elastic straps. She held one up. "What on earth are these?"

She looked up, seeing Ash, the fox currently trying to shrink into a ball and vanish. There was an awkward second or two, before he spoke. "A muzzle…" he almost whispered, trying to pull himself further into himself.

Catano was… Confused.

"Why would you…"

He sniffed. "After they put one on me in the hospital I… -I kind of liked the feel and… You know…"

.

Catano blinked. "No…" She really, absolutely, didn't.

Ash, shaking, glanced up at Nick. "Y-you know, when you…"

The room was silent for a second or two, before the cheetah, with a sudden feeling of bile running up her throat, very much did. "Euuughhh… Oh god, right," she said, stuffing them back in and pushing the box hard back into his cubby hole.

All while Ash, on feeling his mother touch his shoulder, screamed out a cry of fear and raced out the door, both his mother and Nick following on. Judy, meanwhile… "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"

The big cat turned to see the bunny marching up to her and stood up, slamming her head into the ceiling and yowling with pain.

"I warned you not to humiliate him!" she kept on shouting.

"Hopps."

"-But look what you just did! What the beef do you have against my friends!?"

"Calm down…"

"Do not tell me to calm down! I should have stopped you from coming in here and…"

"What? Interfered with my investigation?"

"Who are you really investigating?"

"I'm trying to find the mammals who did this!"

"What? By humiliating a 'vulnerable' teen boy?"

"I didn't know he was into freaky stuff!"

"Oh sure! Call it freaky to drive it in further! Do you feel like a real big cat now?"

"I feel like you've gone crazy!" she yelled back. "I feel like you have no right to talk, as you keep on thinking you're so much better than me, all while making friends with unabashed mobsters and unrepentant bigots!

"Honey is not unrepentant! She apologised!"

"Yeah, to her followers, not to her victims," Catano hissed. "Here's the thing, Hopps," she said, pushing back past her. "You know what these mammals are, but you keep being their friends. So that tells me you're either happy with what they do, or are just one real dumb bunny, and either way I think that means you have no rights to go lecturing me on how to do my job!"

"Or maybe that's you just lashing out because you're a bad cop or something. After all, look at which one of us was right and which one wrong just now," she shouted, as Catano went back on all fours and raced down the stairs. Turn after turn after turn. Finally she was out and, after making a fair distance away, she stood out and got out her phone. That bunny was getting out of paw. Maybe she'd helped at the start, but it needed to stop now. She couldn't make her, but she knew someone who could. She phoned up Bogo's line, her ears rising as he spoke out.

"Catano."

"Chief. It's about Hopps. She…"

"-Is she with you?" he cut in.

Her ears dropped. Something was off with his tone. "What about Wilde, and that striped bunny?"

"The fox is, the other… I don't think." She didn't see him here.

"Good," he said. "I need you to get them to my office one hour ago!"

"Why?"

"Something is going on outside of city hall," he said, the sound of his teeth grinding coming through. "And if they can, have them bring their badges too. There's a good chance I'm going to need them back!"

.

.

In another corner of the field, Ash sat, curled up alone. Far away, his mother stood, looking at him but not sure what to say. Nick, saying he did, came up to the young fox and sat down.

"Hey Mr," he began, before spitting on the ground.

"...I think I need to go back to the hospital."

"Why's that? There's nothing wrong with you."

"I want to die. I want to more than die. I want to have never existed. I want to vanish into a ball of nothing."

Nick paused, looking up at the sky for a second. "Oh don't worry. That's the normal reaction after such a thing."

Ash just made some grumbling sounds in response.

Nick, taking his time, put his paw on his shoulder. At first he flinched, before settling down. The older fox waved Felicity over while the younger one huffed.

"Sooooo…. Muzzles."

"I feel safe in them," he huffed. "After I wore them in the hospital, I realised I… -I'm a freak, right?

"Nah… Just have a few little wires crossed up here," he said, tapping his head. "Probably like all of us. You know, I'm…"

"I don't want to know!"

…

"Socks."

"-Socks?" he asked, looking down to the pair he had on his feet. "I mean, I like wearing them, but… You like them… more, right?"

"Yup," Nick said. "I have a certain bunny who starts me up. But put the both of us in long songs though and then, woah!"

…

"Your mother doesn't know though. That's the cussing difference."

Nick glanced back at the approaching vixen. "She doesn't know what?"

Ash flinched as he saw her coming, only for the vixen to pause. "Know what?"

"Mom…"

"Know what dear?"

"You know!" he said, standing up, paws out.

"I really don't. You might have to tell me again."

Ash slapped his face. "You know! Stop this, it isn't working."

"What isn't working. What do you think I know?"

He growled. "That I like…"

He froze, unable to carry on. His mother walked forward, paws on his shoulders. "I know you like what, dear?"

"I like…" he froze up, pausing, glancing between the two older foxes. Up came a paw, then a finger. "We never talk about this again."

"About what again?" the pair of foxes asked.

Ash slowly let a smile grow across his face, only for it to be wiped out as a figure approached.

"Nick?" Catano asked. "Where's the striped bunny?"

"Jack? He's gone. We won't be able to get him."

"Right, I need you to get Judy and follow me to Bogo's office."

"What for?"

"I don't know, but he sounds mad."