"No! Nonono!" A stag started immediately after spotting the vixen pulling up to the gas station "I don't care if he is your friend, boyfriend, or the president, I won't cover for him too! Not happening."
"Come on, Ed! How long have we been friends exactly?" She tried to soften up her friend, who just got more stubborn
"I don't care! I'm already helping out your rabbit friend you've come here with last time! Now you officially crossed the line, Mia!"
"Mia, huh?" Nick grinned at this information "Nice to meet you, Mia. It's good to finally get a name."
"Not now. We'll talk about this later." The vixen whispered and turned back to the stag. "Come on, I promise this is going to be the last favor I ask for."
"I… No! I…" He was starting to calm down and talked less loudly, with his reasoning voice "Look, the police are already skulking around the place, interrogating everyone here every day. They ask what happened during the night, they need a full list of the exact number of customers we serve out. We are already on thin ice here! I won't go to jail because of you!"
"Aaaaand you won't go to jail if you keep laying low. I won't talk, and you can be sure that HE… " Mia elbowed Nick "Won't talk either. Right?"
"Absolutely!" Nick nodded. He received an unsure, quick look from the stag, who finally sighed and nodded
"Alright… 200 dollars for each refuel"
Nick's eyebrows rocketed up his forehead "200?! Are you insa..."
"He'll gladly accept it" Mia interrupted and gave a 'Shut up' stare to Nick. "It's a ripoff everywhere else, you won't get a more friendly offer. You want to be a known racer. Everyone will want to get as much from you as possible. Get used to it."
"Great…" He pulled up his wallet with a scowl and gave his previously earned money to the stag."I'm gonna go bankrupt before I could get recognized. And now what?"
"Now you wait." Ed glanced at his watch. "We will have the cam reset in 20 minutes. You'll have a three-minute window, try to make the best out of it. That's the ideal time we can easily manipulate with. Five minutes is riskier but still doable. However, that's plus 100. If you don't disappear until the eight-minute mark, We'll have to report you, and we WILL report understand? I'll give you the signal when you can come. Oh and park somewhere less open space. The car wash should be perfect." He glanced to his right, then looked deep into the vixen's eyes, while pointing at her "And Mia… No... More... Favors... You already owe me big time!"
"Yes I do owe you, and I will be there whenever you need me!" Mia said while sitting back into the Mustang. After Nick drove to the closed car wash, he stopped the engine and waited for their signal.
"So Mia." He started a conversation. "Nice name. I have no idea why you haven't told me yet."
"It's not my… I mean kind of… It's complicated. I mean not that I don't trust you, I really do, but you need to be careful when it comes to your identity and…"
"My name is Nick." He interrupted, leaving the vixen speechless "And I mean my real name. Kind of. Complicated. Now I know your name, you know mine. Fair trade isn't it?"
"Umm yeah… yeah," Mia said after the shock
"Speaking of real names… Do you know What's Jack real name is?" Nick asked as he needed all the smaller information from that rabbit he could get.
To Nick's disappointment, she just shook her head. "Erh not really. He loves to do this 'Staying anonymous' thing with everyone. Can't blame him though."
"But you are friends with him, right?" Nick kept on pushing to get anything useful out of the vixen. "Your friend Ed mentioned a rabbit, he is filling a tank for. Is that Jack?"
"Maybe… Is that important?"
"So he is also racing? Not only starting the races?"
"Is it that surprising? Of course, he does race. The only reason he is organizing other races is…" She bit her lips to stop as if she already said too much "I shouldn't talk about this. If he hasn't told you yet, I won't be the one to cross his plans."
"Wait, so you know the reason… That means it involves pulling other mammals into his plan."
"You're talking about him like he was an evil mastermind behind some planned terrorist attack, and he was gathering cime partners. What, are you a cop?"
"Heh, No?" Nick chuckled "I'm just curious. I want to see the connections."
Mia laid back, and started at the gas station. "You'll see them… eventually… Or not… Depends on Jack. As I said I have nothing to do with his businesses. He helped me start street racing, I helped him out too with easier tank refills. Nothing else to see into this."
"So how much do you know about him?"
"Alright, you are suspiciously interested in him. What's your deal?"
Nick spread his arms and shrugged. He accepted that pushing the question won't benefit anyone so he just abandoned this topic "I said, I wanted to move up the ranks. That rabbit seems like my best bet in that."
"When he wants to talk with you, he will. Be patient."
"Yeah, if the waiting won't kill me..." Just as he said it, he saw the stag giving them the signal. "Alright, 3 minutes, start the timer," Nick said and rolled out of the shadow, quickly stopping next to the pump and hopped out of his car, starting to fill the tank with record speed. Time seemed to go too fast and the gasoline was flowing way too slow. He didn't want to pass the 3 minute mark, as he had no plus 100 on him right now for the extra minutes.
So he was just standing there, looking at the display, occasionally hearing Mia's voice about how much time he had left. 30 seconds before the 3 minute mark he decided it will be enough. The tank still wasn't full but it would need a few more minutes to be filled properly. He just gave a nod to the stag and sat back into the car, leaving immediately.
As he left the station behind, another question came up in his mind. "How did you meet with Ed?"
"High school friend." Mia shrugged. "I guess you will just ignore rule 2 from now on huh?"
"As long as I get answers… I will ignore that rule."
"Ah so all I have to do is stay silent and you will eventually shut up?"
"Maybe… But the real question is, can you keep yourself from answering them? If my senses aren't failing me you are desperate for some connection."
"Yes, your senses are failing you. I'm not desperate for anything. I just answered your questions because they were in the less personal category. You can drop me off here."
"Ooh and you are avoiding conversation. That's like a 'you are right' sign shown above your head."
"Pull over, stop the car. And I'm not lying."
"I'm sorry babe, I'm a walking lie detector."
"You wanna refrain from calling Babe."
"You're right Sweetpea. I won't call you babe."
Mia sighed and before closing the door behind herself she said "Little bit of plus tip. Find a song that keeps you rolling."
"A song? Like what?"
"I don't know. You can listen to opera too, for all I care if that's what you want. I'm not the one to judge. But trust me, it really does help you concentrate. It should be something fast-based, I'll let you think out the rest." She nodded, and before Nick could answer, she already closed the door.
"A song?" Nick whispered. He had no idea what type of song would help him perform better on a race, but to be honest he even doubted it would count. However, he had no reason not to give it a try. Let the song hunt begin.
"Okay, are you sure you can't remember anything? Just small fragments!" Judy tried her best in interrogating Clawhouser, which turned out to be a dead end.
"I don't even remember what I ate yesterday morning, how could I remember what I did 2 months ago?" The cheetah sighed shaking his head, but he suddenly looked up "No wait…"
"Yeah?" Judy asked in hope.
"I do remember what I ate yesterday. It was fish with…" looking at the hope lost rabbit next to him, he closed his comment immediately. "Sorry."
"Alright let's take it 1 step at a time." Judy came up with the idea "Walk me through one of your days. You wake up… you have breakfast… come on! Give me anything!"
"I told you, even if I found something to be odd… I won't remember it after months… I..."
"Clawhauser!" A strict and demanding voice came from behind, making both the rabbit and the cheetah flinch. "Is there a particular reason you are not answering code 3 calls?"
"Chief! Uh… I… I just…" Ben searched for words which didn't seem to come up
"It's my fault." Judy saved her struggling colleague. "I distracted him a bit too much, I know I shouldn't have, especially not now, but it was an important matter."
"And what is that 'important matter' 2 hours after your shift has ended, Hopps?"
"Well… umm…" Now she was the one in need of help. She looked at Clawhauser, who silently gave a 'don't look at me I'm just as lost as you are' look. "The uhh…"
"I see what's happening here!" The buffalo said with crossed arms
"Really?" Judy sighed "Sir, I can explain!" She started, hoping she could still salvage the situation, but got silenced by Bogo's held up hoove
"No need for explanations Hopps. But isn't the best time for discussing surprise parties.."
For a brief moment, Judy got confused, what party the chief was talking about but after that, it immediately snapped into her mind. It all started as a joke that they should celebrate the chief's birthday in the most ridiculous way possible. At start ideas like 'Go bungee jumping' and 'Get an appointment for skydiving' got brought up, but with time more realistic things were planned, and in the end, the non serious planning turned to an actual surprise party plan that everyone looked forward to.
However, with too many officers knowing about it (and mainly because Clawhauser couldn't keep himself from gossiping) it quickly changed from a surprise party to a simply 'everyone knows about it' party, and the chief wanted to shut it down, saying his birthday wasn't more important than anyone else's, and they couldn't afford to make a party for everyone. But as the planning continued and smaller 'donations' for the 'good cause' were made, Bogo had to compromise. So the party will be made on his birthday, but it's a common one for everyone, and no alcohol is allowed. Whoever will be on duty has to stay clear.
"Oh! OH! Yes. I'm sorry, Chief. Won't happen again!" Judy blurted, taking her opportunity.
"Good. And Clawhauser, back to work. We have a vehicle description matching one on the blacklister's car. They already made a fool of us three times before. Civils are rooting for them for some unforsaken reason. So get… him… now… before any more damage will be made."
"On it!" The cheetah quickly nodded and switched the radio back. After the chief had disappeared, clawhauser whispered to Judy "We'll talk in the morning."
The rabbit nodded and before heading outside she gave an encouraging smile. "Don't worry, I'll find out what happened."
Nick meanwhile was having a blast. He listened to song after song, occasionally singing along with the music, but nothing was his favorite. He also tried opera. (Hey, no harm in trying!) But after a while, it got boring too. He had fun, mimicking the loud 'O's' and 'A's' but it definitely wasn't anything he'd listen to.
"Skip… Skip… Skippidy Skip…" He said after the first 6 notes with every song. Maybe he just doesn't have any 'Racing song'. How much does that help anyway? He would give his best with, or without a song, it doesn't mean anything to listen to something during the race. It just makes you less focused on the road. As he pushed the skip button one more time, no more song started playing, meaning he reached the end of the pawtify playlist.
Well, that's it. I don't have a favorite song. He thought to himself and closed the list named 'Rock and roll'. Who would have thought that finding a song would cause this much of a headache?
So he was running out of possibilities. He listened through the various genres of music and hundreds of songs, yet the most possible candidate was still gazelle.
Nope, I'm not going to turn into a fanboy. Not happening. One Clawhauser is enough in the ZPD. Sure Gazelle has some nice music but… NOPE, I won't race while 'She wolf' is going in the background. He sighed as he scrolled through the 'Rap' category. He listened to that kind of music next to Finnick just enough to know it's not his favorite.
Metal. Yeah sure that's what I'm missing, some screaming from the bottom of your lungs, while headbanging. I'm not that desperate yet.
He was just about to close Pawtify, admitting his defeat when a completely new type of genre caught his eye that he had never seen before.
He furrowed his eyebrows and clicking on the playlist, he muttered "What's Zoorobeat?"