AN: So, Acting out is over, now for something completely different. I blame Crewefox for inspiring this inclusion. Additionally, I have some awesome art by Giftheck over on my tumblr and the A03 version.
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FFOZ 2 (Elementary introductions)
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As she walked into the ZPD, Judy Hopps' ears were drooping. The determination she'd felt when the news of a nighthowler theft had put an end to her day off had faded, replaced with an underlying worry. She put on a brave face, gave a wave to the dispatch officer filling in for Clawhauser on his day off, and carried on walking. She could manage; her feelings weren't that unusual. After all, for all her optimism and cheery nature, Judy happened to be a bunny who worried.
A lot.
Why wouldn't she?
However much she wore rose-tinted glasses and pushed forwards to make the world a better place, she'd always known that there was bad stuff out there.
The very nature of her job was built around protecting mammals from the realities of that fact.
It was more than that though. While misled by a mammal who had deceived her, and so many others, she had let herself be deceived into making the world a worse place due to her actions. Accidental, misled, and manipulated actions, yes; but they were still her actions. Even if the case was now closed and the balance paid, it still worried her how easily she'd fallen into that trap.
She still smiled and loved life, of course, but her commitment to making the world a better place, to be a better mammal herself, had only grown stronger afterwards. While she always preferred to focus on the bright future, and about how much good there was, the fact that she was aiming higher meant she had to worry by default.
She'd just gotten over worrying about her partner, who'd been going through a personality crisis, when something else came up.
Something which she was worried about very much.
A report of Nighthowlers being stolen, and the chance that another crisis was about to hit the city once more.
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"Doing okay, Carrots?"
Judy sighed, looking up and giving a quick shake of her head. "Not really, no." She wasn't. Not when a danger she'd faced, that she could have been killed by, that she thought was gone, forever, was back.
Nodding in agreement, Nick held down a paw, which she held onto. It made her feel better. She was still worried, but with the help of her fox she doubled down on the confidence that they could fix this.
Together.
They shared a glance before a maroon paw knocked against the Chief's door.
A deep "come in," rumbled out and, paw in paw, they entered the office of Chief Bogo. Being smaller mammals, they felt extra small in here as always, dwarfed by furniture meant for tigers, wolves, and rhinos. The great cape buffalo glanced up at them through a pair of half-moon reading glasses before looking back down at his desk. "I understand that you feel this way, and I do have strong faith in my officers. But given their smaller size, there is still an inherent risk…"
Nick's head tilted slightly, a classic canine sign of curiosity and confusion, before a new voice spoke out. It had the same accent as the chief, but it was lighter, faster and more refined.
"Yes, yes, quite. But we're seasoned professionals who've dealt with far more."
"And I understand that," Bogo continued, Judy guessing that he was speaking into a communicator or something. It was hard to tell when they were standing at the bottom of the bull's massive desk. "But, I have an inherent duty of care that I must uphold. You'll still be working with Wilde and Hopps, alongside an extra set of eyes, ones attached to larger paws that can defend you and fast feet to evacuate you in a worst case scenario."
"A reasonable compromise," another voice spoke up, "though one we both consider unnecessary."
"Well in that case, let us agree to disagree," Bogo huffed, before turning to the newly arrived mammals. "Take a seat," he said, gesturing to the extra adjustable chairs that had been provided. "I apologise for pulling you in on your day off. Overtime pay or extra holiday days will be supplied."
Nick and Judy nodded, before both speaking out. "Holiday/Pay," they said respectively. The fox and the rabbit then exchanged a smile before the door behind them opened, a female cheetah officer joining them.
"Catano," the Chief said with a nod.
"Afternoon," she greeted, sitting down as both Nick and Judy climbed up their chairs, having them on their highest setting so that they could see over the desk. They both paused though as they saw something that they hadn't expected.
It hadn't been an intercom that Bogo was talking into, but a pair of mice. One was taller, thin, and had a fast and cunning look about him. The other was a bit shorter, much rounder, and had a very homely feel to him; a look complemented by his large bushy moustache.
"Officers," the chief spoke. "Meet two of the newest benefactors of the MII. Inspectors Basil and Dave Dawson. Formerly well renowned PI's in Little Rodentia, they quickly became the senior investigators back when the LR Precinct was set up as part of Lionheart's reforms. They've had a high success rate in their Borough, and have trained up a large number of apprentices, who can now take over for them while they're here."
Judy smiled, looking over the pair. "Hey there," she greeted, reaching out a finger for them to shake.
"Pleased to meet you Miss Hopps," Basil replied.
"Indeed, splendid it is," Dave enthusiastically added, trying to shake her finger vigorously.
With a smirk on his muzzle, Nick spoke too. "She's just glad that she isn't the runt of the ZPD litter anymore."
"Shut it, Wilde," the Chief muttered, as Nick took his turn to greet the rodents.
"I wouldn't worry about a bit of fun humour," Dave said, smiling. "I like a mammal who tries to warm the mood up in dark times."
There was a huff from Bogo. "That's one way of describing it…"
Judy glanced up at him but stayed quiet. Sure, she knew that Nick could get pretty annoying, but she enjoyed it. More importantly, after all the issues he'd been having recently, it felt wonderfully reassuring to have a bit of classic Wilde irritance present. Especially, she remembered sadly, due to the seriousness of the situation.
"Speaking of dark times," the cheetah spoke up, "how bad is it?" She gave a little swish of her tail, before carrying on. "I heard this had something to do with Nighthowlers, but not much else." Judy silently agreed. Kii Catano was an older, but still young, officer on the force, and one the bunny liked. She was always one to get quickly to the point, and often the solution. There was a nighthowler issue in the city, and the bunny felt that it was best to get on top of it as soon as they could.
Bogo nodded, before bringing out a case file. "Earlier this morning, the owner of a nearby flower store phoned in. He reported that, on a stock check, he discovered that the bulbs…"
"Corms, sir," Judy corrected on reflex.
"Corms… Had been secretly swapped with replacements. Mouldy onions probably." There was a dark levity in his voice as he briefly glanced Judy's way.
"Did he ever have any reports of customers coming back, reporting that their pest control wasn't working?" Basil enquired. "Records and such could give us a timeframe for how long this situation has been ongoing, and a sense of how much of a threat we are facing."
"He was brief, and the details will be something for you to fill in," Bogo replied. He stood up, glancing at them all, before letting out a deep breath, his nostrils flaring. "I'll be frank. This is going to be treated seriously. Very seriously. Searches, restrictions, drills in public institutions… I never wanted a repeat of the nighthowler case, but we may be facing savage mammals, pred or prey, in the streets. I've talked to the Mayor and we've agreed; if there's the slightest chance of more savages, then we're willing to scare this city to the core if there's a chance of stopping it." He looked down at the assembled mammals before nodding. "That stopping part is your job," he said. "Do not let me down."
Judy saluted hard, harder than the rest. "Yes, Sir!" She said, and she meant it.
Bogo nodded. "Good. And maybe after this, we'll get a proper ban on those damn things."
There were general nods of agreement from all parties, except one. Judy shook her head and spoke out. "Sir, that won't happen."
He paused, turning to stare her down. His presence would always send a chill down her spine, right to the tip of her tail, and this time was no exception. "You're not looking at it from the other side," she elaborated. "I come from there, from a farming family. Replacing midnicampum holicithius with traditional pesticides would increase our overhead by twenty percent. Given the low profit margins, end costs would just do the same. No pest protection would result in major losses and similar price increases. The Burrows would never pass such a ban."
"She's right," Nick added in. Judy turned to look at him, smiling happily due to his support. "In any case, while I don't like the idea of another savage crisis… -how many died in the nighthowler scare? None."
"We were exceptionally lucky there, Wilde," Bogo said, a dark levity in his voice.
"I know," he replied. "But just consider what she said about the end costs going up. How many mammals on the breadline will suffer if that line jumps up twenty percent, huh? Unintended consequences."
The chief paused, before nodding. "Understood. Then maybe not a ban in the Burrows, but in the city, perhaps..."
Nick shrugged. "Maybe. But still, unintended consequences. I personally know how nasty those can be."
Bogo paused, looking down at Nick with a characteristic look on his face. The one Judy knew he used when Nick had given a dose of snark, over which he saw a chance of grilling the fox back over on. "Oh," he asked, "do you now?"
Judy noticed Nick's fur bristle slightly. "Yeah. I've been around," he said, looking off into a corner for a second or so.
"I insist Wilde," the Chief carried on, smiling slightly as he enjoyed the chance of getting a little payback for the fox's antics. "On pain of parking duty in the future, please tell us what dumb mess you may have gotten yourself into?"
Nick glanced at her before taking a deep breath in and speaking. "I was fourteen in May '98, Chief."
There was a pause. Bogo was oddly still, before he sighed. "My apologies," he said. Judy looked on, suddenly curious about what all this was about, though she didn't get a chance to ask. The chief stood up tall and looked at his newly arranged crack team. "Suit up and get out there. I want to nip this in the bud. Understood?"
"Yes sir," they replied in unison, Judy, as always, the loudest of the bunch. They saluted him, before the two mice detectives jumped into Catano's paws, while Nick and Judy went to their respective lockers.
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"Nick," she said cautiously, as they reached the top of the stairs. She kept herself focussed on his expressions, trying to see or read any clues as to what was going on inside him. While he'd given tips and advice before, she didn't have the raw talent at reading mammals that he did. Still, she could spot his ear tips raise ever so lightly, see him rise as he took a short breath in and… Smile?
"Wondered how long it would take you to ask about that," he said, his voice relaxed.
Judy smiled, he'd been waiting and expecting.
"-and I'll tell you." There was a pause, as they reached the ground floor. The lockers were nearby, so he found a secluded alcove with some seats in it where they could talk. He cleared his throat, before carrying on. "I'm sure you've heard me talk about the Squirrel Troubles before," he said, and she nodded. It wasn't that long ago when he'd briefly mentioned them in a store in Sahara Square. She didn't know the details though, something she expected was about to change. "Let's just say that red squirrels and gray squirrels don't exactly get along - some convoluted historical grudge that changes depending on who you ask. Either way, it's a long and deep hatred. Bunnies and foxes? I guess there's a fair bit of worry and caution in some parts with the odd bit of hatred. But red and grey squirrels?" He paused, chuckling. "That is where you go for pure unreserved triple distilled despisement. -Anyhow, this resulted in them pretty much segregating themselves from each other, on their own volition. You'd have areas full of reds, and others of greys, and if they so much as looked at each other funny… it wasn't pretty. It really wasn't."
Judy nodded. "It's dumb," she said, as, whatever way she looked at it, it was.
"I know," Nick replied, smiling a little. "But you know how it is. The nastiest fights are all over the ittiest bittiest littlest differences. -Anyway, most Mayors and politicians were okay with this, happy to let it be. But in 'ninety-six, we had a big change in both the mayor and council. Lots of progressive utopianists replacing the more conservative, cynical, 'don't fix what ain't broke' old guard." He paused, a little smile flashing across his muzzle. "Basically replacing a bunch of 'me's', who were in charge, with a bunch of 'you's'".
Judy chuckled, and Nick paused, smiling as he did so before carrying on.
"And like you, they thought the squirrel situation was stupid. So, they tried to fix it. All squirrels in school would be moved to new ones so that red and grey mixed, the idea being they'd get to know each other and fix this."
She nodded, before a sad realisation hit her. "I guess it didn't go that well."
He nodded, his expression shifting slightly into something far more serious, and she knew right then that it really didn't go well at all.
"Apart from pulling tons of students from their friends, and ripping away so many irreplaceable lie-ins from those who used to live next to their school, they pretty much created anarchy in the classrooms." There was a pause, and a little grin grew across his face. "One fight kicked off while I was studying Romeo and Juliet, our teaching calling it the Fourth Civil Brawl.
"That must have been rough," Judy said, her ears drooping as she leant forwards to hold his paws. To comfort him… Only he shook his head and backed off a bit. There was more.
"Detentions and suspensions didn't work, since the parents would practically give their kits parties for fighting the enemy." He sighed, and looked down, scratching behind his ear. "So, those in charge got desperate. They eventually had the really smart idea of letting teachers give those kits extended detentions in juvie. A day or two behind bars, to actually make sure they were punished. But you can't just make it so that only squirrels have this done to them. Species-specific laws either need approval via a referendum from that species, or a supermajority vote in the council. But applying it universally? They could do that, and they were desperate, so they did."
Judy nodded on, only to pause, a creeping horror coming over her. She remembered what he'd said, and that he'd been through so much, and she remembered an odd answer to a certain question on a certain form. Where, on what should have been a simple yes or no, he'd written 'maybe'. "Oh Nick…" she gasped, looking up at him and suddenly feeling sorry for him all over again. So much he'd been through, so much unfair, and all that he'd bottled up. She walked forwards, putting her paws in his and holding him tight. Letting him know that he wasn't alone.
"It's okay, Carrots."
"No. It's not." It wasn't, and wouldn't ever be.
"It's over twenty years ago, and I was in for less than two days…"
"Two days too long," she told him. "What did you even do?"
He shrugged. "The school bus was late, I signed in with everyone else, but a few bad teachers used it as a chance to take their anger out on students they didn't like, which included yours truly."
"That's even worse," she gasped, as a righteous fury took hold of her. If he'd have been innocently goofing, it would be dreadful, but this… A mistake by the school, which he then got singled out and penalised for! Incarcerated for! It was intolerable. Evil…
"Relax, Carrots."
"I can't," she told him, truthfully.
"By the time I arrived, they'd actually run out of prison uniforms. I was put in an overcrowded cell with some real inmates, and plenty of others sent by teachers on power trips, before the Warden gathered us detentionaires in the sports hall. He personally apologised for this mess, said he'd be telling the Mayor himself that it was a farce, before they turned on a projector and gave us a film fest. We camped there overnight, the next day was the same until I was released, and like many parents my mother straight-up refused to send me to school until the law was removed! It was such a catastrophe, it was repealed in less than a month!" He chuckled a little. "Unintended consequences fluff. Happy optimistic modern government didn't realise just how many teachers were power-tripping jerks."
Judy looked on and sighed. She felt a bit better. There was also a nagging sense of melancholy there, a sadness for a government that tried to make the world a better place, only for their actions to mutate and break, making it so much worse. She knew how that felt. But still, it wasn't okay. "I'm sorry for that, Nick," she said, holding him tighter, wanting to make him feel okay.
"It's water under the bridge," he said. "For what it's worth, it caused a complete reform of the youth justice system. Now only the really violent ones go to juvie, with the rest going to reform schools and such. So, happy ending I guess?" He winked as he got up, making his way over to the men's lockers. "Besides, I made friends in Juvie. It was where I met Finnick."
"Was he in there for being late as well?"
He looked at her and smiled. "Drug dealing, assault, resisting arrest and grand theft auto."
…
"-Okay, I can see that," she admitted.
"Yeah. Also, he's actually really cute in black and white stripes."
Judy chuckled as she reached the door to the womens' locker room, giving one last glance at Nick.
"Also, the friend I met there who was in for being late was Flash," he said, giving her a wink. "Be outraged or humoured at your own pleasure."
Then he was off, inside, and after Judy shook the shock at the treatment that sloth had received out of her head she went to get changed too. The others would be waiting for them. As she got out of her civvies and into her uniform though, Judy couldn't help but think of a young Nick, coming into class with the rest of the mammals from his late bus, only to get singled out. Grabbed, cuffed, thrown in the back of a squad car and driven off to jail, his book bag still at his feet.
She closed her eyes. He said it was okay, but she felt he needed some sympathy. Something, or other, to bring a smile to his face and make him do that.
She could do that.
She would do that.
Ideally, before lunch!
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"Are you the cops!? Thank goodness you're here!"
It took a few seconds for Judy to realise that the store they were going to was the same one that Weaselton had stolen from before she took the Otterton case. The pig proprietor, who she'd only met once and briefly at that, seemed every bit as frantic as he had been on that day.
"That's right," Judy saluted. "We're cops. Real cops."
"We're totally not not cops," Nick added as well, earning a light ribbing from Hopps. Catano, meanwhile, held out her paw, the pig racing forwards to shake it, only to pause as he saw the two mice sitting on her paw pad. He held still for a second or so, before moving his hoof-finger forwards to lightly shake both their paws. They all introduced themselves, before heading in and sitting down in the office at the store's rear. Basil led with the questions, while Judy wrote everything down.
"When did you realise that something was a problem?"
The pig nodded, before giving an aside glance. "I tend to look things over every now and again, just a spot-check you see. But I got this letter a few days ago, talking about an inspection of my midnicampum stocks as part of the Nighthowler Act…"
"The MHSCA," Judy clarified. "Midnicampum Holicithius Security and Control Act, regulating the sale, control and usage within city limits, and the actions that police can take against suspects."
"Right, right " he said, before pausing, gulping slightly. "S-suspects? I'm not a suspect right? I swear I…"
"You're just a scared mammal whose side of the story we're trying to get," Dave reassured. He glanced over to Basil, who nodded and then spoke.
"Do carry on, in your own time of course."
"Yes. Sure. Now, anyways, I don't advertise them anymore since that dreadful scare… During it, alongside that weasel, I had much of my stock repeatedly stolen! Again and again, and I just replaced it, not reporting it as there was all that panic going on… I guess those nasty sheep were taking it. But after Bellwether got arrested, I put them in a special safe like the law required, and I only sell them to old customers; allotments and sorts, though most have stopped using them now."
"Why did you keep any of them if your sales had gone?" Basil asked.
"I don't like throwing away good stock," he confessed, looking down guiltily. "I thought I'd just let them sell out slowly but surely before I got out of the game."
"Sounds fair," Nick added. "I used to make a lot of money hauling old brick rubble from demolition sites. Cut the blocks into bricks and get off the mortar with a decent band saw I got secondpaw, and then sell them for things like garden walls at half the price of normal bricks." He paused, gesturing down at his uniform. "With my new employment though, no time for that. But as I don't need the cash to pay off my rent, I can sell my remaining stock off over a decade or two at ten times the price, to whichever mammal has an interest in super deluxe vintage garden bricks!"
The pig smiled and relaxed just a little. "Thanks. Nice to know there's a fellow business mammal who can empathise with me."
"Empathising is my speciality," he said with a wink.
"I can tell," the pig said, before carrying on. "Anyhow, I usually do a quick check with my eyes every now and then, but this time, with the inspection and everything, I took a closer look, sniffing too, and found out that most of my stock had been swapped!"
"With onions?"
"No. I'd have noticed it right away if that were the case! It's with the corms of some other type of crocus. I only noticed when I sniffed in closer." He paused and sighed. "I think they're for the flower you get saffron from. You can get those just about anywhere… But that's just a rough guess. I really don't know!"
Basil nodded. "Can we see this safe?"
The pig, who went by the name of Mr Trottington, led them over into the store room, which was kept under lock and key. In there was a safe, it too being unlocked with a key. Opening it up, the officers looked in, taking pictures of the stored corms. "I thought about sorting them into 'real' and 'not real', but then I thought I should leave it be."
"Quite good," Basil said, before pausing. He glanced around, before looking up to Catano. "Mind going up a bit?"
"Huh?" She asked.
"Move us up a bit."
"Like this?" She asked, lifting her paw up slightly.
"Yes, like that, now just to the right. -Ten-O-Clock. Forwards, forwards, STOP! Up a bit, down a bit, right, higher, Higher! BINGO!"
The rest of the group looked on, confused somewhat, as Catano, her legs and arms straining, held the two mice up to the side of an unused heating unit, covered with cobwebs and dust. "Do you feel what I feel?" Basil asked to Dave, excitedly.
"Well, apart from a slight queasiness, I'm pretty certain that I can feel a distinct draft!"
"Exactly!" he said, leaping off onto the top of the unit. He walked over to a little bit of wood siding, almost hidden for the others, and ran his paws along it. "Not here… not here…. not… -AH!"
"What is it?" Judy asked, unable to see him.
"This panel is loose!" he said out loud. "I just can't get it open. Dave?"
The other mouse leapt off Catano's paws, just about making it, before running over to help. Judy, curious, found a chair near the back of the room and climbed up to get a better view. From there, she saw the little panel shake before suddenly swinging out.
"My goodness," Basil said.
"Quite so," Dave added, as the pair move in, and out of sight for the others..
The larger mammals looked on with bated breath for a few seconds, before a joint set of screams rang out.
Catano flinched, before jumping, grabbing the heating unit and pulling herself up. "Are you okay?"
…
"Apologies," Dave called out. "There was a rather large spider."
Catano frowned. "Your scream made it sound like you were in danger, not spooked by an insect." She let herself down, just as Dave wandered out, looking down at all of them.
"I'll have you know that, first off, it was not an insect. It was an arachnid. Second of all, you'd be screaming too if it was wider than you and came up to your waist!"
"I…" Catano began. "Oh, right…"
Dave nodded. "I mean, it must be like you coming home one day to find one of those spider crabs in your hallway, but with the claws replaced with potentially venomous fangs or something." He paused, shivering. "Or one of those 'Bui-Bui's' you hear about around campfires and stuff."
"My apologies," she said, before turning to Basil, who'd just arrived. He looked over to Mr Trottington and spoke.
"Good sir, I believe I've worked out how you've been preyed upon."
"How so?"
"Elementary, my dear," he said, straightening his bowtie before carrying on. "To take this much care in swapping your stock out takes great perseverance. Whoever was doing this was far more concerned with not being spotted than getting a large quantity of flowers. After all, the smash-and-grab approach used by the weasel who tried to supply your howlers to the miscreants behind the Night Howler Panic turned out to be the crack that my two colleagues here could widen and widen, until they broke the whole thing apart! Moreover, we don't know how long this theft has been going on for, but it could have been years, surreptitiously swapping those infamous flowers whenever you brought in new stock. In short, stealth was the priority, and coming in the front way poses a lot of risks, especially on repeat visits. Thus, I presumed it likely that there might have been a back-door method of access to this room. Buildings such as these are full of old drain pipes or gaps, from which a simple entranceway can be procured. Once in here, I was able to sense a slight draft and, on investigating it, find the method of entry!"
"Wait," the pig said, gasping in shock. "Someone tunneled through my shop!? Is it still safe?"
"The means of entry down to this hole appears to be a cavity between this building and the next," Basil said, before pausing. "Next door appears to be significantly newer in construction. Were you there when it was built?"
"I just about remember the old building when that came down. Had to sign a few forms and such about the party wall."
"And during the demolition, a steel frame would have been erected to support the other side of your wall," Basil carried on. "When the new building went up, they placed a stud wall next to your one, and filled the gap with insulation. This miscreant of ours has just pushed that insulation to the side to make an access way going up! They then dug through a single brick, -not harming the integrity of the building you'll be glad to know, before affixing a fake bit of siding as a door!"
"Complete with hinges, and those little sliding clippy things whose name eludes me to keep it closed," Dave added.
"So, someone's been serious about this," Nick said, wandering over to the corms with Judy. He began sniffing through them, while Judy looked at and studied each of them.
"Maybe that weasel again!" the shop owner said.
Nick looked up from his little investigation and shook his head. "Listen, I know that weasel. He's too dumb to pull off this kind of operation. Besides, after the last time he messed with those things, he's probably sworn off them for good."
"But what if he's found some mammals to pay him enough for it?" the pig carried on. "I mean, thinking back now I'm pretty sure I remember some brown fur. A weaselly smell. I just shrugged it off at the time, but now that I think about it…"
He trailed off, before Dave spoke. "Our minds can play a lot of tricks on us, especially with regard to memoriy. We haven't seen any brown fur. Wilde, can you smell any weasel?"
"I smell a hint of some rodent on a few of those bulbs…"
"-Corms."
"-Thanks, Carrots. But it's hard to tell given how strong the corms themselves smell," Nick explained. "Even if you just had the smell, I don't know what kind of small rodent it would be. Mouse, rat, water vole... "
Basil went oddly quiet and glanced over at Basil. "So, a rodent was involved?" he asked, a hint of worry in his voice. Dave looked back.
"Potentially one of the many, many types in our city," he said, almost reassuringly.
"Even so," Nick replied. "We'd want to get a pic of him." He paused, thinking. "Are there any security cameras on the roof? Traffic cams that could spot where he comes out?"
"I don't know," the pig sighed. "We could go up to the roof and have a look though?"
"Excellent idea!" Basil replied, before looking down at Nick. "Officer Wilde, care to join us?"
He smiled. "After breathing in crazy corm fumes, I could do with some fresh air."
Judy nodded, before stepping forward. "I could stay here. I've noticed something about the corms." She gestured over to two piles, one made up of just three corms, one made up of a dozen. "The one on the left are the ones that Nick judged as the real deal. The ones on the right are the fakes. Visually identical. Back when Weaselton stole them, I only identified them thanks to a tag with the latin name attached. However, someone's been making marks on these new ones." She held one up, turning it over, and revealing a little cross cut into it. "Each of the new ones are marked this way. Blink and you might miss it. But once you know, it's obvious."
"Tracking which ones he swapped out," the pig mused. He then walked forwards, examining his safe. "It's only a basic key on this one, I guess my robber made himself a duplicate!"
"Most likely," Basil said. "You might want to invest in a new one!"
"Not quite yet," Nick jumped in, turning around and smiling. "You might want to invest in some cameras in here first," he said. "After all, this guy's job might not be finished yet."
There was a chuckle from Dave. "What a marvellous idea," he said. "Set a trap for our mammal. We can work on that later. But first, Judy can help separate the swapped plants from the originals and find out how much damage we've got. Wilde, Mr Trottington, Basil and I can check the roof!"
"What about me, sir?" Catano asked.
"Well, I suppose you can get us down from here for starters," he said, before giving a hearty chuckle.
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It wasn't long before the groups split up. Catano chose to stay with Judy, searching around for clues and cataloguing the crime scene. As she did so, the bunny sorted the corms. The ratio was worse than she'd thought; less than a fifth of the corms were genuine nighthowler. With over a hundred bulbs in all, it got her worrying again, about what this new wrongdoer was planning to do with them. Added to that was her concern for Nick, and her wish to make him feel a bit happier.
"Say, Hopps."
"Yes, Kii?" Judy asked, turning to see the athletic cheetah taking some pictures of the entranceway, having found a chair to stand on.
"I heard about that undercover operation that you and Wilde have been pulling. The one with the corny name."
"Operation Pacifier Clip?"
"Yeah that's the one," she said, turning to face Judy. "I'm guessing it was one of his, wasn't it?"
"Idea or name?"
"Both."
"Well, you're right on both counts," she said proudly.
Catano smiled. "Nice. He's a clever mammal, and I have to say that I'm impressed by that whole setup." She paused though, thinking. "Say," she said, her ears drooping a bit. "You don't think he, you know… -enjoys it?"
Judy paused, turning towards Catano and shrugging. "I mean, he enjoys pulling the ruse, if that's what you mean. Then there's the feeling once you get the perps in the end."
"Yeah," Kii replied, relaxing a bit. "That must feel good. Great even. Thrill of the hunt?"
"I'd say more one-upmammalship."
The cheetah gave a little snort of a laugh, before stepping down from her chair. She walked over to the safe and, shining a bright light into it, began taking pictures. "I think that's how Basil and Dave operate, always trying to one-up each other. No wonder your partner is their favourite," she said, chuckling a bit. There was a pause, before she chuckled a bit louder.
"What's so funny?" Judy asked, smiling a bit. The laugh had lightened her mood a little, even as she still sorted the corms into a very depressing ratio.
"Oh nothing."
"No, it's not," she teased.
"Just something dumb."
"So, it's not something sensitive like Nick's was," Judy stated. "So I don't get to feel guilty about pressing it. Come on Kii, what's got your tail in a twist?"
"I…" she said, before shaking her head. "Okay, fine. Do you remember that the chief introduced them as 'Inspectors Dave and Basil Dawson!' Wondered why, exactly?"
"I don't…" Judy began, before pausing. "I didn't think about it, but do they have the same last name?"
Kii nodded. "After tying the knot, they did."
Judy paused, before glancing up to her friend and smiling. "They're married? That's so adorable! I didn't realise!"
"Dave started out as a lodger and an assistant to Basil during their PI days or something," Catano explained, carrying on her investigation as she did so, now taking pictures of some of the other plants and seeds that were present. "Started living together, then solving cases together, then hanging about, then needing each other and arguing like a couple! I don't know the exact details of their sexuality, but one day they realised they loved each other. The rest is history."
"That's so nice," Judy commented, before pausing. "Though I still don't know why you were giggling."
"With how alike they are, I was thinking about Nick joining them to be a threesome or something!"
Judy burst out into laughter, shaking her head as she did so. "That's… How would that even work?" she asked. "Compare the size of a mouse to the size of a fox. How?"
"I know," the cheetah replied. She paused though, noticing that Judy was about to finish her work. "Mind having a look under these shelves?" she asked. "You can get at them better."
"Just a sec," the bunny replied, as she settled the last corm. "Thirty one of these are midnicampum, one-hundred-and-seventeen are not," she said, before sighing, deflating as the implications of that settled on her. Looking down, rubbing the front of her head, she pushed herself to get off her chair and go help Catano. She quickly got into the swing though, taking picture after picture in places the larger mammal struggled to get to.
…
"I mean, the whole reason it's funny is how can a fox and two mice work," Kii continued, the return to the silly topic bringing a little smile to Judy's face. Lighting the day up a little once more. "I mean, the whole three mammal things is quite weird for a start," she went on. "Not sure how that got into my thinker, other than popping into it. But I guess, if it works for them, it works for them. As long as they really love each over. But still, imagine them trying to kiss."
Judy chuckled. "With tongue or without?"
"Either way," she said. "And what about hugs? Do they get a set of robotic arms that they use to wrap around him? And then you get grooming. They'd need a machine or something, to give a fairly dull groom at that. A good brush groom, yet alone a real tongue groom, is out of the question!"
"Wouldn't any groom sort of count?" Judy asked, not really sure in the ways of such things.
Kii shook her head. "With mammals that socially groom, Hopps, there's grooming… and then there's grooming." She paused, thinking, before carrying on. "Even if I had inter tendencies and fell for a mammal that didn't do tongue grooming, I'm not sure if I would follow it through. The whole grooming thing is so important, such a real way of showing and expressing love for us, it would like you having a relationship with someone who couldn't really touch you or anything. Just, a deal-breaker."
"Oh, fair enough then," the bunny replied. To be honest, she'd never really looked into the romantic social cues and customs of other mammals that much. In all honesty, she hadn't really considered dating or romantics for quite a while. She'd looked around a bit in high school, and university, but she liked to keep herself busy with her work. She didn't really think that she had the time to actively look, but she had a good hope that, given time, she'd stumble across a nice mammal.
"Anyway, it's all dumb," Catano replied, inspecting some more things. "After all, I don't even know what way Nick flips. I'll bet it's vixens only for him."
"Probably," Judy replied. "He's my best friend, but I don't know what his romantic life is like. It's not really my business, so I haven't probed or anything."
"Good call," Kii agreed, only to pause. "There's some high-up areas I can't reach. Mind going on my paws?"
"Sure," Judy agreed, and soon she was being lifted up. Even though Kii held onto her feet tight, and kept her paws steady, Judy still had a disconcerting wobble. "There's a ledge up here. If you…"
"On it," she replied, as she brought the bunny over. Releasing her paws, she watched Judy climb up and over to have a look.
"Thanks!"
"You're welcome," she replied, before looking around, trying to see if there was anything she'd missed. There wasn't.
"You know Kii," Judy said, giggling slightly. "When you asked, 'how it would work,' I first imagined the bedroom activities."
The cheetah groaned, her ears going flat against her skull and her body slouching there. "Bleaugghhh… Did you have to bring that up?"
"I… -why, don't you like it?" Judy said, before her ears drooped down with realisation. "Oh Kii, I'm sorry if…"
"I… -I just don't like how it always goes to that," she said, tapping one of her feet on the floor as she did so. "I mean, yes it's fun to do, but it's a special part of a relationship. But 'ha-ha S-E-X', it's like everyone's a creepy teen boy or something who finds that funny. And it's not…"
There was a pause. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable there."
Kii's face lightened up a bit. "Thanks… Just…"
"Want to talk?"
…
Judy cleared her throat, before speaking. "Do you know Mystic Springs Oasis?"
"The naturalists, yeah," she said. "I'm cool with them. It's a sort of feel-good thing with them, not a freaky lusty thing. I get that, even if I would never step in there in a million years."
"When tracking down Emmitt Otterton, Nick knew that he'd last been seen in there. He led me to it, without telling me about the 'dress code.'"
"Oh dear," she gasped, doubling over slightly as her eyes closed, a light and huffing chuckle coming from her mouth.
"Yeah," she replied. "For a mammal who's dealt with a warren of naked kits running this way and that for all my life, I was surprised at how embarrassing all that was!" There was a pause, and her voice softened. "I guess sometimes you get embarrassed by dumb things."
"Maybe…" Kii replied. "Maybe… -Have you ever seen the film Rear Window?"
"Is that the one where the guy is homebound, and looks on at his neighbours and witnesses a murder?"
"That's the one, yeah. Anyway…"
"-I'm about done up here," Judy interrupted. "Mind giving me a paw down?"
"On it," the cheetah said, her paws quickly going up and lowering the bunny back down to ground level. "Is this what I've become? A small mammal lifter?"
Judy chuckled, a smile flashing across her face. "Thanks, Kii," she said, before pausing, looking at the dust and cobwebs on her. "Better dust myself off."
"Let's go into the front," the cheetah replied. "Get some natural light."
Nodding her head, the bunny led the way, Catano following. "Anyway, rear window; when I was a teen I might have had something a bit similar, thinking I was seeing a torture session. I think you can tell where this is going. It involved a phone call to the police after witnessing certain things going on, and a lot of embarrassment after…" She looked away and sighed slightly, rubbing the back of her head as she did so. "The whole thing just creeps me out a little. It's part of the reason I don't like mammals jumping to the lewd jokes either," she said, before looking at Judy. They were in the front shop now, sunlight bathing down on them and the sweet smells of flowers in the air.
Judy, who was brushing herself down, nodded. "I didn't realise you felt that way. Sorry for bringing it up."
The cheetah sighed. "Don't be. Just… Urgh…. -You know those mammals that the undercover mission caught?"
The bunny remembered, quite distastefully. "Yes."
Kii nodded, before walking over to a corner of the store, leaning back there with her head in her paws. "I mean, that was all the creepiness…" She paused, moving about a bit, before carrying on. "Just turned up and up, all done by these horrible selfish mammals who think that it's okay, you know?" she said, before taking a long pause. Judy looked at her, her nose twitching slightly. Something was up with the way she talked and the way she was acting. It was almost like she was a little drowsy. "Just doing it for… for… for themselves, and their own pleasure, and all in really dumb and stupid and weird ways that… that…" There was another pause, as Kii rubbed her paw all over her face vigorously. "It's all just perverted and disgusting… I mean… where does it even start…? Don't they know they're… weird, and wrong… and really quite gross and really sick when…" Kii stopped talking again, before rubbing both paws on her head, hard.
"Kii?"
The cheetah suddenly marched forwards, right over to the other side of the room, where she stood, panting slightly. "Woah… Sorry, long time. Didn't realise what was going on until just then," she said, before rubbing her face again.
"What was going on?" Judy asked, both relieved and confused.
"Catnip," she said, before chuckling a little. Judy turned and, in the corner of the store, she saw a large plant of it in a pot.
"Ooops…"
"Yeah," Catano replied, rubbing her face once more. "Might need to ask to use a sink. Wash this all off."
Judy nodded before pausing, curious. "What does it feel like, by the way?"
"You know when you're drifting in and out of sleep when having a lie in, under thick covers. It feels like that, thick covers included. Plus you're a little tipsy. Plus getting stroked and stuff feels really nice, like it does when you're getting groomed, but warmer, smoother and gentler."
"So, like a parent's hug after not seeing them for a long time?" she asked, curious as she stepped over to the plant in question. She knew it wouldn't work on her, but still…
"I guess," Kii replied, before standing to slightly as she heard some mammals coming down the stairs. A door opened, and out came Nick, Trottington, Basil, and Dave. She turned to the pig first. "Do you have a bathroom I could use?" she asked. "I didn't realise I was next to some catnip." He nodded, before pointing the way. "Thanks," she said, and off she went.
"We found the exit on the roof," Nick said. "But no cams with a good view of the site."
"What about the jam cams?" Judy asked.
"Our fantastic fox here thought the same thing," Basil said, patting Nick's shoulders as he sat on it. "We don't know, and it'll be something to check."
"It will be," the bunny replied, as she thought back. She told them just how many howlers had been stolen and watched as a grave expression took over the mammals faces.
"With so many," Dave pondered, "and with so much time this could have taken place in, who knows how many news ones they might have propagated. How many toxins they might have refined! This is most worrying."
"I agree," Nick said, sighing. "I… I don't usually say this, but we need a big search going on now. And get mammals ready in case the worst…"
Judy nodded her head. "We'll tell Bogo everything."
"Still," Nick continued as he sat down, his head resting on his paws. "At least we know what it is. At least we know that there's bad guys behind this. We can trust ourselves, for a start."
"Right," Judy said, only to pause. A new line of worry was suddenly coursing through her, and she couldn't help but step up to Nick and place one of her paws on his. "Nick… -are you okay?"
"Just…"
"If you want, I'll…"
"Sorry," he said, his head going up again. He paused, took a deep breath in, and she felt his paws tighten slightly around hers. "During the crisis, when we didn't know what was going on, when preds were going savage." He paused, a slight scowl appearing on his muzzle. "You were scared, and things were going wrong, things getting worse than you ever remembered. Yet you couldn't really blame them, could you? Preds were going savage. You could go savage." There was a sigh, as he stood up. "The worst part was not being able to trust yourself. Worrying if there was something fundamentally wrong about your very self. Worst feeling in the world..."
Judy was about to speak, only for Basil to beat him to the chase. "You know, Wilde… This may be something completely different, but it might help… -There were a few weeks when I sort of felt the same way. I could crack any case, but there was something new and worrying going on with me, something that I couldn't fathom or get my head around." He paused, before looking over to Dave, the mouse having put his paw on his husband's. "I could solve any case, but not this one, and then the truth hit me. Took some time to accept, but I'm better for it now." He smiled, putting his paw on Dave's shoulder and nodding slightly.
Nick nodded too, accidentally shaking the pair and almost sending them crashing to the ground, though he didn't notice. "Thanks," he said, before looking to Judy. "As I said. We know what causes this now. We know it's not preds themselves. We know it's some jerk with a bunch of flowers."
"Yeah," Judy replied, firmly. "And we will get them."
"Most certainly," Basil said out loud. "Nick, could you take us back into the store room. I'd like one last look around."
He nodded, and off he went with the two mice, leaving Judy with the store owner. She stood there, waiting for Catano, while thinking about Nick. About what he'd been through, both a long time ago and recently. About how she wanted to give him something to make him feel better about himself, maybe make up for those bad times in some way, all while working hard to seal this potential wound before it ever grew.
Wandering about, she paused in a certain corner, an idea hitting her. She turned to Mr Trottington and spoke quietly. "Mind if you keep this private?"
"Private?" He asked, before relaxing. "Well, I guess we all have our little secrets," he said, giving a quick wink. "Every mammal wants a place where they can be alone, don't they?"
Judy nodded in agreement. "Does catnip work on foxes?"
He paused, "some does, some doesn't… foxes that is, not the catnip." He walked over to the plant and pulled off a few leaves. "If you want to test some out, try this" he said, as he placed them onto a white plate, which a little dome was fixed to. Only half a buck."
Judy nodded, eagerly buying the leaves from him, then taking a quick look at them before stashing them away. In their container, they almost looked like features in a snowglobe. Regardless, she put them away in a pocket, just as Nick, the mice, and Kii arrived. The fox had a look in his eyes. "-I at least wait until I get home, Catnipo," he teased, looking at her and missing Judy's fist bump.
"I didn't realise it was there," she said. "Been ages since I got some."
"Me too…"
"-Regardless," she said, looking at the assembled mammals, we need to head back now. Fill in the chief about all we've seen. She turned to the shop owner and gave him thanks, before they all walked out.
It wasn't far to the Precinct, but the walk seemed long. In their quietness, the full sense of danger about what they'd discovered sunk in again. Their brief to Bogo was brief and simple, with no banter or joy, and he nodded. He phoned up the Mayor, advised Nick and Judy to be ready for a big briefing the next morning, before firmly saying that there was a lot of work to be done. More things to investigate, mammals of interest to find and interview, and so on. He gave a quick reminder that he'd remunerate the pair for their time, in the way they wanted, before waving them out.
They sat together in the alcove where Nick had told her his story before, and she said she had something for him.
"Oh my…"
"Yup," she said, handing him the catnip. He opened the top, quickly brought out a single leaf, and sealed the rest up again. He rubbed it along his chin, smiling. "That's the good stuff," he said, chuckling. "Can't wait to use the rest of it tonight."
"Well," Judy said. "Now I know it works, I'll get you a whole plant."
"Please don't…" he chuckled, all while rubbing the leaf into his face intently in a very comic display. "I have discovered this thing called productivity recently… And this stuff is the anti-that!"
Judy chuckled hard, before sitting up. "Tell me when you next have a long weekend," she said, before giggling as Nick let out a purr. "I'll get it then."
He just let off a few more purrs, as Judy smiled. "See you at roll call, Nick," she said, giving him a wink before heading off.
He kept on rubbing himself, only to pause as he saw Judy go. "Uh, fluff?" he asked, standing up. "You realise the lockers are the other way?"
She nodded. "I know, but… -well, with this new scare, I thought I could spend a few hours searching through the cams, seeing if they caught anything. Not like I'll do anything productive at home?"
"Oh," he said, putting his nip leaf away. He still rubbed his face a few times, but was happy to focus on her. "You don't have to."
"I know," she replied, honestly. "But I want to."
"Fair enough," he said, a paw coming up. "I guess, see you soon."
"See you soon, Nick," she said with a smile, as she went over to the desks. Sitting down at one, opening up the portal to the camera systems, she looked through. First order of business was finding which ones would actually be helpful.
She was a bunny who worried a lot. Why wouldn't she be? She knew what the first howler scare had done, how it had felt, and while this would likely be far less bad, that was still too bad. She could spare a few hours to help out.
To make the world a better place.
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Her ears lifted as she heard someone arrive and, looking up, she saw Nick peeking over the cubicle edge, dressed in his civilian clothes.
"I thought you said you were going home?"
"Did I say that?" he asked. "No, no I did not." He walked over to the desk next to hers, and placed a tray of donuts between them alongside his phone, which had a pair of earbuds plugged into it. "As long as I get my playlist, and all the blueberry jam ones, who cares about my life outside of work?" he teased.
Judy chuckled. "Thanks Nick," she said. "But you don't have to."
He put one earbud in his ear, the other offered and accepted by her, before sampling a donut. "I don't," he said. "But I quite like it here."
She nodded.
They fist bumped.
And, together, they set to work. Making the world a better place.
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AN: This kind of thing was what I was imagining my series would mainly be made of. This is a larger one-shot, many will be smaller, but it has its own little story that works on its own.
The crew from the Great Mouse Detective are here, too! Now, when planning this series, I thought I'd have Basil and Dave as a couple in a tribute to Crewefox's fics. I also watched the film too, and throughout that… Well…
Imagine a line chart. X axis is where in the film you are. Positive on the Y axis is 'why can't two men being together just be great friends -ness', while negative is 'yup. They're great as a couple -ness'. Starting the film, it started slightly negative, and progressively rose and rose… -to the point where I was dead certain that they were best represented as good friends and colleagues…
Then, in the last minute, said line nosedived and is currently startling penguins off of the south east of New Zealand.
So yup. They're gay. Or rather… My headcanon is that Dave was always a very relaxed if not never really caring about it gay, and takes a long time to really warm up to any relationship. He's got a lot of relationship momentum, if you know what I mean, so he was a good friend with Basil, then appreciated him, and that slowly turned to love without him noticing it. Basil meanwhile was bi, first realised it with Dave (though he was very attached to him without knowing for a long time). Went through a bit of confusion, before coming out, Dave at that point feeling that a relationship might be a rather fine thing to try.
I decided to make this a 'Judy POV' chapter to try and give her a bit more characterisation. Out of the fab four (Nick, Jack, Skye, Judy) she's probably the least developed atm, and I wanted to give her at least some development. At least some POV things… I'll be trying to develop all four of them well and nicely going on. It'll take a bit of time to set them all up, but once they all are things should be great.
Kii Catano is an 'official fanon' character, designed by the creators after the film. She'll be more of a supporting character in series one than a main. Her personality, like Skye's and Jack's, is there to do what you like with it.
The next 'one'shot will be revisiting and diving into two mammals last seen in 'Different', and should be good fun. See you then.
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The chief stepped out of his office. It had been a long and tiring day, briefing the mayor and the other emergency services. He did not want this whole horrible affair to be starting again, but he was confident that they'd hold firm. They'd stand their ground. Whoever this was, whatever their plans, they were going to end up behind bars.
He was sure of it.
He had the right tools.
The right mammals…
The right….
.
He paused, thinking he could hear singing. He wandered over to the office cubicles, which should have been deserted at this time of night but were most definitely not. Two mammals were in here, and he groaned as he recognised the voices of the two in question. Turning a corner, and looming over them, he saw them both at a desk, both scanning through some jam cam footage, with a box of mostly eaten donuts between them. They were leaning in, like predators about to strike, as they fast forwarded through the recordings.
"Every breath you take," Nick sung.
"Every move you make…" Judy sung back.
"Every bond you make…"
"Every step you take…"
"I'll be watching you…"
Bogo turned and left them to continue their overtime machinations, smiling slightly as they carried on. Not due to their singing voices or perseverance to the duty, mind you.
He just liked the band for some reason.