"So tell me that again, Mister Otterton?" Senator Bogo asks, hoof pinching the bridge of his snout in tired exasperation. "She didn't come home yesterday, and then what? I don't doubt what you're saying, but I get the feeling that the police would be a better help than me. I was never a cop, I was in the Academy for about two and a half months before I washed out. Why did you come to me, of all mammals?"
"Because I know you can't be bought out, Senator, because, well…. You know why, you know what happened the last time any of our members tried to fight Bellwether…," Mister Otterton tries to protest, but the Senator cuts him off with a wave of a hoof, and then seemingly things better of it, placing his hoof over his eyes and letting out a breath that sounds like it's been held in for a long, long, long arse time… no offense meant to any donkeys out there…
"You're right, Mister Otterton, you're right… so when what can we do?"
"I have no idea, Senator, really…. and please, call me Emmitt… you know me, don't you remember…. Please, help us, Adrian!"
"I would if I could!" Senator Bogo says, slamming his hooves onto his hand and letting out a breath with a snort. "But the last time we did that, Johnathan and Marian got left behind, and, well, we all know how well that turned out…. And their son Nicholas, poor thing… I don't want a repeat, we all know what happened there…."
"I- I- um, you know you're talking about me, right? You know I'm Nicholas…. Bonnie Hopps is my mom, Marian and Johnathan, well… yeah, I know the story, switched at birth, yada yada, but what does that have to do with anything…."
"You tell none of this to anyone outside this room," the Senator says, going around to all of the doors and windows, twisting latches, sliding bolts, drawing the blinds, everything to make sure that no mammal can see us in here. "Your biological parents, Nicholas-"
"It's Nick," I interrupt him. "And yeah, I've heard it all, and honestly, it doesn't matter, I love them all anyways, Judy too…."
Feeling an unwelcome blush creep into my cheeks, I put a paw behind my ears as I continue. "So if you need help, Mister Otterton, we'll see what we can do."
"No, you won't," the Senator says, pounding a hoof on the counter once again, making the lanterns that light this cramped room, with its musty carpet and ancient, fire scarred wood-paneled walls and grimy sole window, shake. "No, Nicholas, you won't, do you have any dam idea what the hell you're going to be getting into if you go through with this?"
"Not entirely, Senator, if I'm being entirely honest, but really, well and truly, I don't care."
"Well I do," Mrs. Wilde says. "I fricked up and I'm not about to let a kit get hurt because of it…"
"And I'm not a kit anymore, I'm fifteen, isn't that old enough?" I say, tapping my paw anxiously on the floor, feeling grit stick to my pads and trying and failing to brush it off.
"Nicholas, they almost fucking killed us!" Mrs. Wilde says, letting her tongue slip for the first time in all of the time that I've known her. "They almost fucking killed us, and you want to what? Dive back in and go through hell to take her down? You're not going to be able to get there alive…. And if you did, they'd dart you…. Why do you think my body looks this beat? I'm thirty-six, and my muzzle's already gray… let's just say night howler does a number on a mammal…. And we were far from the only ones that had to go through that hell…. so no, Nicholas, I'm not going to let you…"
"Aunt Marian… is it okay if I call you that? Aunt Marian? We're closely related enough, I mean, if you don't mind…. I hope it's okay with you..."
"Mm-hmm, yeah, Nick, it is," she says, tears in the corners of her eyes as she nods.
"Aunt Marian, I- just…. Look, if we can't just go straight at her, then what are we supposed to do? How could we get to City Hall? Is there, you know, like, a tunnel system that we could go through, a subway?"
"Um, yeah, there actually is," Mrs. Wilde- Aunt Marian- says. "Adrian, we could do this this way this round around, so what do you think? Do you still have those connections that you used to, way back when?"
"I do, Marian, I do," Senator Bogo says, sighing once again. "But they're not going to appreciate being called back up to service after so long, you know that, right?"
"Of course, Adrian, of course," Mrs. Wilde- gah, no, Aunt Marian, keep it straight, screwball fox- says, smiling enormously, and, well, rather toothily at all of us. "You know, Adrian," she says, tapping her paw like a thought's just come to mind, "I don't think the Banyan Street Station's going to be guarded, not after the drug lab explosion there years ago, nobody would want to go near the area again… that's where we should go through and into the system, and besides, it's the closest station to here, isn't it?"
"You're not wrong, Marion," the Senator says, letting his breath out in a huff for the third time, and honestly, what's so stressful about trying to save the world?
That was supposed to be sarcastic.
"Pardon me, everyone," Mister Otterton interjects, "but what the heck are all of you talking about? I'm worried about my wife here, do any of you have a plan so we can find her alive?"
"Yes we do, Mister Otterton, yes we most certainly do," Aunt Marian says. "So, um, who's hungry? I haven't eaten breakfast yet, and well, I can't think well without my cup of tea in the morning… come on, Emmitt, join us, we'll fill you in."