Credit

* All Zootopia characters in this chapter belong to Disney

* Sonic, Tailsko, and the mentioned of Ivo Robotnik in this chapter belong to SEGA/Sonic Team

* The mentioned of the small Thoroughbred character belong to me, serves their purpose for this story

Once I got off my chair, I walked around the table. I heard Carrots snorting at the hedgehog for his snarky line. I slid my southpaw under her armpit, holding her up with my forearm pressed on her shoulder blades, and escorted her to the locker rooms. She rested her right arm around my neck. If I recalled correctly, only the employees of Precinct One were allowed to enter the locker rooms. Once we were in the hall, outside the locker rooms, I let Carrots go and stepped back a little bit.

"Are you sure you can handle change of clothes by yourself?" I inquired.

She nodded, "Can I change my clothes by myself? Yes, yes, I can."

Seeing that she could take care of herself, I turned to the door of the male locker room and walked into the room with a smirk on my muzzle. Carrots seems like she was picking up my habit. I started undressing by unpinning my gold shield and opening my locker. After two minutes of changing clothes, I emerged from the room dressed in the light green Hawaiian shirt along the dark indigo necktie with red-and-blue stripes and the grayish-tan pants. My daily clothes. I grasped my tie to loosen it a little bit as I determined Carrots' condition. I was certain that she wouldn't need my help as she was, and still is, a strong bunny on the force and the effect from the speed force had hardly slowed her down. I sighed as I made my way back to the private meeting room. Once I reached the hall where it linked to the private meeting room, I found Chief Buffalo Butt and our new friends already leaving the room.

"Alright, Wilde. Go with your friends to the lobby, I will be right there in a minute," Chief Bogo called out, stepping away from Sonic and Tailsko.

They stared at him leaving then walked to me so we could walk down the hall to the main lobby. Tailsko was in between of us, the males. I glared at her and was about to speak, but she beat me to it.

"Are you alright - you got knocked out as soon as we got to the scene where Sonic and Hopps were caught?" Tailsko inquired, concerned about my physical well being.

I blinked, trying to reconstruct my mind for the answer. I responded, "Yeah, I am ok for now. I just… needed my one-minute power nap. That's all."

"Funny. That's how you kept Hopps entertained through your hard work as an officer, huh?" the twintailed kitsune chuckled.

I shrugged with my traditional smirk. My boss rejoined us when we arrived in the main lobby and we waited for one more individual to regroup with us; Carrots. Not even two seconds after we settled in the main lobby, my ear flung in the direction of her voice.

"You sure change fast, even being a former conmammal," Carrots mumbled, moving toward Sonic then leaning on him with her arm around his neck.

I grimaced. Tailsko chuckled, "Hehe, that's pretty funny, Hopps."

I raised my eyebrow at Tailsko's words. I shifted my eyes to Carrots as she frowned and relaxed on Sonic. That's the expression I knew - she didn't like to be called by her last name by her friends.

"Please call me Judy. I don't want another cape buffalo in fox's clothing to call me like that," Judy pointed out then glared at our boss, "No offense."

"None taken," Chief Bogo mumbled, leaving the group as he acknowledged that my partner-in-crime was with us now. I turned to Tailsko as she tapped her index fingers together in front of me. Sonic remarked, "Told you, Tailsko… No need to call them by their last name if we are going to be their friends."

Tailsko and I turned our heads to the pair of quickstep individuals and shook our heads in response to his words.

"So let's hit a casual lunch?" he inquired.

Tailsko and Carrots nodded in agreement, making me groan in dismay. The rabbit spoke, "I am thinking of the 'Casual PreyPred' cafe on the road down from Precinct One, considering that we should take it easy."

In a matter of a second, I watched Sonic scooping Carrots into his arms, bride-style. They made quick conversation between them then they vanished into thin air. The burst of their disappearance made me flinch. I shook my head to clear out the tenseness.

"Is he really in a hurry with everything?" I mumbled, walking toward the large glass doors with Tailsko to exit Precinct One.

Tailsko shook her head in her laughing, "Nope, he is who he is."

I halted on a dime once we were outside the precinct, sighing as I watched the kitsune catch her breath. Once she straightened up, she asked what direction. I pointed in the direction on other side from where we were standing. I blinked as I watched her spinning her twintails and lifting into the air. I grabbed her stretching paws and I felt my body becoming lighter. In a couple minutes later, we were a building from the 'Casual PreyPred' cafe when Tailsko started descending. I frowned and looked up to her just in time my hind-paws touched the street. I kept my eyes on her as she landed beside me and slowed her tails to a stop.

"Remember that time we nearly got shot down. Well, I decided to keep that from happening again," she explained, twisting her twintails into one.

I have to admit, she's one really clever vixen. We jogged down the street to the cafe and joined our quickstepping friends outside the building. I took the seat on other side from Carrots while Tailsko took the seat on my right. The waiter, a male deer, came to us.

"What drink would you like?" he asked, readying his pencil and pad.

I blinked as Carrots glanced at us, the predators, and mouthed a word; 'water?'. We nodded in agreement and she turned to the waiter. She replied, "Four glasses of water, please."

He nodded and wrote that down on the pad, then he departed from the table. Sonic pawed me the menu and I opened it after I thanked him. I started to feeling a little sapped, perhaps I was still under the effect of that 'faint' I had when Tailsko and I went to help Carrots and Sonic in some kind of machine-rebellion fight. I blinked as the waiter served our cups of water at the table. I closed my eyes and massaged the bridge of my snout to counter the exhaustion.

"Nick, are you okay?" my partner-in-crime asked.

"Yeah," I nodded, opening my eyes and looking at the table. In a matter of 1 second, I noticed that the menus were already returned to their original place - I didn't remember the food that I ordered, or even talking to the waiter. I guessed that they were already ahead of me and I was sure that Carrots knew what I wanted so she gave the waiter my order. But that didn't matter right now.

"Something bothering you?" Judy inquired, trying to draw me out.

"Am I bothered by something strange in my head? Yes, yes, I am," I start to explain. I decided to dodge her question, "But it's related to the case. So it's better to discuss that when we are back on duty."

I could sense a scolding from my partner-in-crime, but Sonic reacted faster than her mouth could move. She looked at him as he replied, "Hey, take it easy - you were knocked out at the same time Nick was. It's no use to cry over spilt milk."

I frowned at Sonic's choice of words. Carrots reached for her cup of water as she spoke, "The only problem is… We only have water here, not milk."

I dropped my head laughing. The laughter died a minute later then the waiter arrived with our meals and he served them to us.

After a few minutes passed as we ate our lunch, I shook my head and complained, "Bah. With you three possessing 'Time Warp' or whatever. That makes me a BadDonkey Normal."

My partner-in-crime shook her head, smiling. She commented, "At least you still have a silver tongue."

I blinked then nodded in agreement. I noticed that Sonic finished his meal first, following by Tailsko, and then lastly Carrots. I was about to take the last bite of my meal. I grimaced as I swallowed it.

"Guess I will pay for your meals," I called out once I laid the fork on the plate.

I fished my wallet out while I watched the first bunny cop reaching for the empty cup and trying to drink, only to looking at it. I could figure that exhaustion had finally caught up with her. I counted the zoollars for the bill.

I laid zoollars on the table next to the bill to cover the bill and tip, then I stood up and volunteered, "I think that we should go to my place. It has plenty of room to relax and lay low until tomorrow."

I walked to the fence and opened the gate when I heard a scowl from Carrots. Sonic had done something funny to her - he picked her up and held her bride-style once again.

"You're still exhausted and will collapse after a half mile of walking. Trust me, I know when I see it," he said.

Tailsko walked up to me as I held the gate opening. The first bunny cop grunted as she got herself comfortable in Sonic's arms. She responded, "Alright. Just don't be so smart to us. Just say the words, and I will consider it. No need to pick me up each time I am like this. Personal space, you know?"

Then we finally left the cafe and walked to my home. With Tailsko walking beside me, I could feel my heart beating so hard in my chest and my throat becoming dry. When I tried to take a deep breath, I could feel her eyes on me as if she was wondering of what to do with me and my strange behavior. Fortunately for me, the feeling left as soon as my home came into sight.

"Here we are," I said, climbing up the porch to my home.

We entered my home and I guided them onto the living room. I showed them to the couches. An oval table was placed in between the couches. Tailsko moved closer to Carrots and Sonic then whispered something to the doe. Sonic went to sit on the left couch and put her on the seat next to him.

"Tailsko's right. You were already exhausted from your first try. Congratulation for holding out until our 'reinforcements' arrived," Sonic said, laughing at his last three words.

I managed to slip out of the living room undetected and worked my way to the kitchen to make my friends cups of tea. I arrived at the kitchen, picked up the kettle from the small storage beside the oven, filled the kettle with the water, and placed it on the stove. I laid a silver plate on the table to the left of the oven. I turned on the stove to heat up the water in the kettle. I went to the pantry to grab some tea bags. I sighed as I walked back to the oven and left the bags on the table next to it. I tried to stabilize my heart and push away my 'nightmare', the one that I had a few hours ago, that had come back to me. I knew that I loved that kitsune, but the sight of her being… the robot had spooked me. The sound of hissing from the kettle snapped me back to reality. I slapped on the mitt and removed the kettle from the stove after I shut it off. I set the kettle on the silver plate then opened the kettle lid. I took the mitt off, put it away, and grabbed a couple of tea bags. I tore the paper off the bags and dipped the bags in the opining of the kettle. I closed the lid then picked up the mitt and slapped it on again. I lifted the kettle and stirred it in the circle to get the chemical of tea leaves to mix with the water. I laid the kettle back on the silver plate then took off the mitt and put it away, this time for good. I went to dish closet and grabbed four silver cups and prepared them on the silver tray, surrounding the kettle.

"Hm," I considered of what to do with the weight. I had determined that the kettle could stay in the kitchen as I should keep it warm just in case.

The handle of the kettle had cooled off by now. I reached for the kettle and prepared to fill the cups with tea. Once they were filled, I set the kettle back on the stove. I lifted the silver tray and left the kitchen. I worked my way back to the living room. I walked in the room and placed the tray on the table.

"Please serve yourself," I stated, smiling.

Carrots returned the smile, "I think my drink can wait. I need to wash my face quickly."

Tailsko and I nodded in understanding. Judy got off the couch and was about to leave the room when Sonic came up to her. I started to see that he might be interested in her. To be honest, he was kind of hard to read.

"You can help, but I need to walk," she reminded him. He nodded, "Yes, Judy."

"The bathroom is at the end of the hall at your left," I said, giving direction as I sat down on the couch with Tailsko.

Sonic and the first bunny cop called out a single word; "Gotcha."

They left the room. I sighed lightly then I reached for two of the cups of tea and passed one to Tailsko. I sipped mine and tried to let myself take in the calm and quiet atmosphere, but couldn't because of Tailsko's presence and my 'nightmare' was still lurking in my mind. I shook my head and sighed furiously as I put the cup down. I sat back on the couch cushion. I heard Tailsko's cup clicking on the plate then she straddled my lap with her forearms on my chest and her paws on my muzzle. That was sudden, raising my awareness. I was used to body contact with Carrots, but this was Tailsko instead. Her next move was something I hadn't expected - her face came closer to mine as if she wanted to better see my expression. With this new action registering in my body, my arms flung onto her back and our mouths crashed into each other. I shut my eyes while I felt her moving in my arms. After few seconds she settled down and returned the kiss. We purred in each other's mouth then the kiss changed into a deep kiss. Her digits hooked behind each side of my muzzle. Her fangs came in contact with mine, which ground on them lightly. Her body's warm was transferring to my body and my arms… well, her body released the heat in eight directions. In my right arm, I felt her heartbeat. However, we had to beat off the kiss due to catch our breathes. Tailsko loosed her grip on my muzzle as she pulled her head back, bending her back a little bit, and took a deep breath. I gasped a little bit and blinked a few times.

"Nick… are you alright?" she inquired, deciding that the kiss hadn't bothered her at all.

I nodded, "Actually, I was… was scared of losing you."

"Oh," she startled, flinching slightly in my arms. She turned her head away from me. She added, "Judy spoke to me… about how I have to accept…"

I exhaled softly, stroking her back to comfort her. I understood why she was like this. She had some 'girl talk' with Judy earlier today. I responded, "It's alright. Whenever you feel ready, I will be here to listen."

Tailsko turned her head to me with relaxed eyes and a delightful smile. She pressed a couple of kisses on my muzzle then she snuggled her head under my chin and cuddled with me for a couple of hours. I was grateful that Sonic and Judy were minding their business elsewhere in my house and had left us alone. Once it was time to prepare dinner, I patted Tailsko's back and gestured her to get off. I got off the couch and stretched, then Tailsko and I went to the kitchen. I moved the tea from the stove into the refrigerator. We, the foxes, proceeded to make the vegetarian meals. During that time, I called out on Sonic and he appeared from nowhere. I told him to go fetch Carrots. I turned to the kitchen at the same time he vanished into thin air. I went to finish making dinner with Tailsko.

"Dinner's ready," I said as Tailsko and I served the meals on the oval table in the living room.

The dinner went on for fifteen minutes, until our plates were emptied and put away in the dishwasher. The speedsters had left my house, leaving me with Tailsko to look after. Sonic could only carry one person at a time. They were planning to stay at her apartment for night. She had her reasons to require his company. I went to my bedroom to change into pajama and returned to the living room soon after because I didn't want to leave Tailsko all alone tonight.

"Ah," I exhaled as I turned to lay down on the couch that Tailsko and I had occupied during dinnertime.

With the light out, Tailsko crawled on top of me, keeping her day clothes on. Perhaps it was due to her limited rations. I started to drowse and laid my muzzle on her head as she rested on me.

When I came to, I was shaken by some kind of force. As I slowly regained my conscience of the reality, my body was no longer weighted down by someone and my body was little cool than last night. I opened my eyes and saw the blurred figure of Tailsko - she was the cause of my waking up.

"Isn't it the time for you to go to Precinct One?" she reminded me.

With those last two words my sight cleared up, I frowned and realized that it was morning right now. In the next minute, I was in the steaming bathroom, I proceeding to remove my undergarment. Tailsko turned to walk to the kitchen, to prepare something. After I spent five minutes of showering, I dressed in my today daily clothes, since I had left my cop uniform at the precinct, and I emerged from the bathroom. I heard the thump of the toaster in the kitchen. As I approached the kitchen, Tailsko walked out of the room with a plate with a couple of toasts on it and handed it to me. I devoured the toasts as I mentally cursed at myself for sleeping so comfortably last night. Perhaps it's because of Tailsko and my love being confessed. But I still blamed myself for the 'let myself go' reason. I put the plate on the kitchen table then we left my home. We got onboard the deer bus and rode to Precinct One. Once we arrived the precinct, we went separate ways since Tailsko wasn't an officer and I required my uniform. I entered the male locker and got myself dressed for my day's duty. I left the locker only to meet up with Carrots.

"Chief said that we should continue on our case from yesterday, therefore we don't have to go to the bullpen," she explained, walking past me.

I was pinning the gold shield on my uniform when I heard her response. I grinned, "So he finally let us skip the briefing for a double date?"

"Ugh," she stopped on her track then turned to me. She responded, almost yelling, "Nichola Piberius Wilde! Shut your muzzle and get in the private meeting room this instantly!"

I gulped as i felt my cool vanish, then I got my red tail hauled to the private meeting rooms I was told. After all, she was my senior. I sat in the chair next to Carrots' while Tailsko and Sonic sat in their seats on other side of the table.

"So let's get back to the case. Nick, you mentioned something inside your head during the lunch from yesterday. And you also said that it's related to this case… so, let's get that out of your head and use it on the case, if you may please," Tailsko said, reminding me about what I had dreamed during my 'one-minute power nap'.

"Ah, yes. Alright," I said, getting start on the case as I closed my eyes, reflecting on my nightmare. "It's about you girls… well, we were all in the battle, but mainly, it's me, along with you girls…

"At the start, it was us battling against 'Ro-butt-nik' all together. It seemed like a grand ending, but… the true end wasn't right there. ~Censored~ will be robotized as I have picked up his head, and only his head. After that battle, Tailsko and I have getting settled together. However, Tailsko got robotized short after that… And Carrots, from what I can see, went through various changes, included become a robot herself.

"Once I was past that location, I came to a scene where Tailsko and I have our future together, where we were surrounding with the sea of our kits… and grandkits. And that's where I was forced to wake up."

I opened my eyes and saw Tailsko's pale expression. I turned my head to my partner-in-crime, who showed a creepy expression. I sighed as I decided to move on to the next part of the case. However, Sonic beat me to it.

"Ladies, I know that of what Nick saw in his dream creeping you out, but we have to close this case by finding Robotnik and ~Censored~ as soon as possible. Ok?" he pointed out, cleaning out the coming conflicts.

I nodded in agreement. Carrots led and spoke, "Alright. I will go with Tailsko here while you boys have your fun on the ground."

Our new friends agreed to switching partners. We left the table. Sonic went ahead to give the file to Chief Buffalo Butt while Tailsko and Carrots walked with me to the main lobby, only the prey mammalian was a little further from me. Once we arrived at the main lobby, the doe folded her ears and walked away from me and Tailsko. I frowned at her… what was that word again - withdrawing? I blinked as I realized that the dispatcher was presented in the lobby as well.

"Eeeek, how adorable!" the sweet tooth cheetah squeaked loudly.

That startled Tailsko out of her fur while she slowly shuffled from me with a panicky gaze. I reached for her upper arm and pulled her back to me gently. I smiled at her while she gave me an agonized look.

"Do not worry about him - it's what he does to anything that appears to be cu- adorable," I explained, catching myself on the last word because I knew that Carrots would annihilate me if I finished that word.

She blinked anxiously, "If that is so, then… it would be fine as long as it's not Chief Bogo…"

"Aw, Nick… never knew you would pull it off with a mysterious vixen like her," Benji, the dispatcher of Precinct One, called out happily.

"Yeah," I responded, wrapping Tailsko's back with my left arm. "We, the red foxes, bonded together for life."

Sonic rejoined us and we walked out the building. Once we were out of Benji's hearing range, Tailsko playfully shoved me off her, which startled Carrots when I tried to recoup my balance.

"Oh, you sly jester, you," the kitsune said, trying her best to be scary of me. Her attempt failed as we all saw through her expression.

I shrugged with a sly smirk while Tailsko put her muzzle in her palms and giggled. Sonic shook his head and walked to me, partnering with me. Carrots went to guide Tailsko away from us, the males.

"You males go and do your duty, please," the first bunny cop reminded us. Sonic and I turned then jogged down the street.

"I preferred to walk and ask around rather than riding piggyback on you," I explained, giving the reason why I jogged instead of taking a seat on his back.

He grinned, "That's fine - I needed a break from that. It's nice to not be a taxi cab, twenty-four slash seven."

"Ah, that's good to know," I replied.

As the morning rolled by, I stopped at each zootopian within the area and asked them if they had seen the main suspects. I always received a single word; 'no', from them as Sonic dashed all over the section, searching for the suspects. Once we cleared the section, we moved to next section and repeated the same action. For each section that we spent lasted at least fifteen to twenty minutes. Each time we cleared third section, I desired water, which Sonic took a note and disappeared from my side. I flinched at the sound of him vanishing into the thin air - I shall getting used to his 'stealth hi and bye' as soon as possible.

"Here you go," he said, popping from nowhere. I groaned as I shuddered then took the bottle of water from him.

I glared at the plastic bottle, which was made for rabbit, like Carrots, as I unscrewed the lid from it. I drank the whole bottle then tossed it into the recycle bin. I mumbled, "Thank you."

"No problem," he grinned then he vanished into the thin air once again. I shook my head, shaking off the tenseness from my thought.

For next two sets of three sections, we ended up empty-pawed and it seemed our searching was fruitless. Sonic went out of the way to grab two more plastic bottles of water for me to keep myself hydrated. But those bottles of water were not enough fuel to keep me going on. Two hours and twenty minutes in my life - perhaps more than that, I never knew that I had going this far just looking for two corrupt guys.

"Have you realized… that we were so far away from the center of Zootopia, right?" Sonic reminded.

I blinked and looked at the tower that pinpointed the center of Zootopia. Sonic was right about the fact that we were already far from Precinct One and the only way to get back ther was to riding Sonic's back. I turned to the tower just a minute my legs gave out. I dropped onto my knees then on side of my right leg and I looked at the tower. I huffed in exhaustion as Sonic vanished into the thin air once again. I felt the chill in my back as I looked back to the nightmare that I had yesterday. For some reason, I had a feeling that one part of the nightmare was about to be true-

"Ack," I almost startled, feeling the cold metal-like paw on my shoulder. I turned my head to the source that made the physical contact.

My blood turned cold as my sight focused on the kitsune, whom I loved. Like in my nightmare, she was now robotized. Her main form was completely covered with orange- and tan-paint metal frames. However, my absolute focus was on her eyes; they were no longer blue irises with white scleras… they were now red irises with black scleras.