Chapter 15

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Day 2

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Tuesday morning, and across Zootopia mammals were waking up. For most, it would be an ordinary day.

For some, though, everything had changed.

Dr William Silverfox sat down at his empty breakfast table, holding a piece of toast in his paws but having little to no will to finish it. He sighed, putting it down before taking a wander. He rarely went into his son's room, but he felt drawn by it today. A gentle knock on the door, to let him know that he was coming in, before he went in anyway.

No…

He wasn't there after all. He'd been hoping that…

He sighed, sitting down on his bed and looking around. It was neat and it was tidy, and it felt dead. His son was meant to be here, the mammal he loved and cared for, the closest family he had left.

His gaze flicked around, before landing on a little picture frame resting on the bedside cabinet. Holding it up, looking at the tiny kit smiling joyfully in it, not knowing where he was or what would happen today. He closed his eyes tight, opening them as he looked over to his wife. "Roz…?"

She remained silent, just looking out joyously like her son, the pair blissfully ignorant to their fates. "I'm sorry," he choked, a finger wiping at the corners of his eyes. It wasn't fair, it wasn't! Why her? Why not him?! Where had he gone wrong?!

Why couldn't they all be together again, back at home, with another son or daughter or maybe both in the family. He shivered. He didn't like being alone, and if Kris was anything like him…

This wasn't like before, when he had his aunt and uncle. He was alone right now, and could be alone and scared for years. He felt his heart ache. "Kris," he whispered. "Stay strong, please stay strong. We're going to get you out of there."

He took a breath in to steady himself before standing up. Placing the picture down and wiping the front he stepped out of the room and past the food on the kitchen table. Normally it would all be tidied away as a point of principle. Today he couldn't draw on a single ounce of energy to do so. He was going to wander over to Felicity's place, to see what was going on, only to be cut off as he received a text. He froze, looking at it, bracing himself as he turned on the television and sat himself down.

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"Yes Buchō, understood."

Ookami slipped his phone down before taking the last sip of his coffee. A few bites to finish off the last chunks of wolf-apple in his morning salad and he placed his dishes in the machine, making his way over to the bathroom. His television was playing, and he idly listened to the news report as he added a bit of toothpaste onto his brush and turned it on, slipping it into his mouth and slowly working on his fangs.

"-And in other news, the District Attorney Kurt Wassermaim has come under fire from Chief Bogo of the ZPD after overruling their judgement on a case involving a youth suspect and refined nighthowlers."

The maned wolf's ears perked up and he walked over to get a better look. He'd heard that correct, right? They'd found a lead in this whole nighthowler situation? He wondered if Nick had anything to do with it.

"-Early yesterday, a small sample of refined nighthowler pellets, similar to those used during the nighthowler plot, were discovered in the locker of an anonymous vulpine in one of the city's major schools. After being arrested and interviewed, the ZPD initially planned to release him with a tracker on his ankle, monitoring him while investigating further. Instead, the District Attorney invoked the Nighthowler Act, requiring the youth to be held at Zootopia Youth Penitentiary until the date of his trial."

Ookami mused on it a bit. That seemed fair, he guessed. After all, that kit or whoever was found with the things in his locker. It seemed fair to put him in custody until he was tried. Dumb fox had probably screwed up his life, but given what he'd been messing with, he didn't feel any sympathy.

"This was directly against the wishes of ZPD Chief Bogo, who argued that the chemicals could have easily been planted there, and that there was little additional evidence. A video was captured of the exchange, as shown by field reporter Steven Stinkman."

Ookami looked on curiously as a shaky camera phone showed the hippo facing off against the cape buffalo, one arguing against the other. The narrator described the confrontation as taking place after the planned release of the anonymous vulpine (his grey figure pixelated out), fitted with a tracker for monitoring. Through the thrumming of the toothbrush in his mouth, the large canid felt his thoughts shift a bit. As the narrator described how easily such a plant could take place, and how it could fall in line with actions such as swatting and false sexual assault claims, Ookami felt himself feel a bit of sympathy with the fox in question, especially as a blurred figure (likely the father) begged to know what the Nighthowler Act meant. Then again, the hippo did have a kind of point…

Walking over to spit out the suds, the maned wolf thought it through. Sure, someone could have put those howlers in his locker, but surely the more reasonable explanation was that they were his. In which case he agreed that sending him behind bars was probably the safest option, and the fairest. You shouldn't mess with that stuff, period! Especially if you were a predator and knew first paw how much pain it had caused. But then again, hearing that he could be away for up to seven months… If there was a chance he was innocent, get him to a speedy trial. Three or so months sounded fairer.

At the same time, it wasn't the fox making the opposing arguments. It was the Chief of Police, who likely knew more about this than anyone. He thought it was fair and safe to let the kit out, being monitored, so maybe he believed he was innocent. Ookami wasn't really sure what to make of it. But then he saw Nick Wilde himself there, arguing for the kit, saying that the youth justice laws overruled the other ones. In that case then, Ookami's mind was set. He trusted Nick, so he knew which side he was on.

The news feed cut to a skunk reporter, standing outside of the ZPD building. "After the disagreement, the case was referred to the Chief Justice to figure out whether the Youth Justice Act or Nighthowler Act took precedence, the latter eventually being chosen. The anonymous vulpine, who started school yesterday thinking it was an ordinary day, was then sent to Zootopia's hardest juvenile prison, alongside convicted murderers and sex offenders. As of today, and potentially for the next four weeks, he hasn't so much as been charged with a crime."

Ookami frowned. Okay, at this point the District Attorney was taking things too far. Couldn't house arrest or something have done the job?

"If this smells funny to you…"

-Cuss yeah it did.

"Then you're not alone. No one at the ZPD has elected to comment, with all officers and Chief Bogo himself stating that they couldn't comment on a case in progress. Two witnesses though, who saw the incident go down and recorded it, were available to speak."

Ookami almost collapsed coughing as Haida and Retsuko appeared on the screen, sitting down in an interview room. "So?" the reporter asked. "Do you think that the District Attorney sprayed too far?"

"Well yeah," Haida spoke. "I mean, I was there with various family members, friends and cops, and they all thought this was a mistake. We're talking about a perfect student here, and nobody could work out how he'd got them."

"All they knew was that those things had ended up in his locker," Retsuko spoke. "But anyone could slip them in there. The police were saying that they'd need more evidence, and the real culprit was likely still out there. The kit was going to be let go, he had an ankle tracker which the Chief of Police felt was perfectly adequate to keep an eye on him. Nobody seemed angry that he was walking out like that."

"Except the DA," the skunk reporter said.

"Yeah," Haida spoke, his eyes narrowing. "He barged in, calling the kit a terrorist and a menace, which he wasn't! He talks the talk about trying to protect preds like us, but do you know what I think? I think he was having fun sending the kit away because he was one."

"All he could do to argue back after we said he was going too far was saying that we hate sheep."

"As we saw," Stinkman agreed. "Given your opinions, what do you say to those who stink that he's getting just desserts for messing with Nighthowlers?"

"Well, you'd better hope that whoever placed the things in his locker doesn't find you next."

The skunk reporter nodded. "Who do you think had the interests of the city and its residents at the front of their minds that day? The Chief of Police or the DA?"

"The Chief," they both said in unison.

The camera cut back to the front of the ZPD. "On reaching out to Wassermaim last night, we only received this short reply: 'I simply applied the law as it's meant to be applied. Nothing more, nothing less.' No further comment was made. On speaking to Councillor Aurelina Canidae, original author and co-sponsor of the Nighthowler Act, on whether it was meant to be used to send suspected kits to a high security youth prison for months before trial, she had this to say."

The video changed to that of a morbidly obese black wolf with a mane of (presumedly dyed) pink hair, coming down in long locks or tied up in buns with knitting needles threaded through for decoration. Ookami couldn't help but wince at the style disaster that was her pink fleece jacket, over a dusty pink and black dress. The purple-ish dab of lipstick at the end of her muzzle was the gaudy cherry on top. She stood there blinking a few times, before responding. "Uh… No...?"

The image cut back to the skunk. "Stark words. As of today, the anonymous vulpine is waking up to a new life, away from his friends and family and surrounded by hardened criminals. Even if he did nothing wrong and the charges collapse at his trial, it could be his future until the start of next year. This is Steven Stinkman, live from outside the ZPD. Back to the studio."

It switched back, the picture changing to the familiar news readers, shuffling their papers. Fabienne Growley started to speak again, her voice clipped off as the outside feed took a second or two to switch off (her 'in other news' muddle up with Stinkman's 'holy crap I finally got to spray that.')

Ookami looked on and thought, before jolting out of his revery as he saw the time. Leaning in to pick out a new shirt, still smelling fresh from the launderers, he buttonned it up before getting ready. He was now on the side of this fox kit, whoever he was, and he'd likely be that way even if his friends weren't. Quickly slipping on his bluetooth speaker and shades, he locked up and entered the lift, slipping down to the basement. Starting up his car on roaring out, he flicked through the contacts before pressing the one marked 'Daz-Senpai'. He was curious to know what he thought. Heck, he wondered how much of a fuss this would all pick up.

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While he was leaving for work, others were arriving.

Officer Kii Catano was looking through her emails as she waited inside the ZPD central precinct. Her mouth twitched from side to side, before her ears rose as the door to the room opened. Oates and Bogo walked in, both looking tired despite the night of rest they'd had before. Oates, at least, managed something vaguely in the same family as a laugh when he saw her. "No surprises seeing you here."

She shrugged back, before looking back at the horse. "I'm pretty sure Bogo will have told you about the kit."

"Yes, he sure has," he grunted, swivelling out his chair and collapsing down on it. "Snivelling water cow…"

Bogo glanced at him. "Just remember that Higgins is part of this precinct too, Oates."

"Well he's not a craven scumbag, so I think he'll know about the difference," he remarked back, giving a loud nostril flaring snort.

"We need to keep this professional," Bogo spoke, "things have been quiet so far, but they might flare up. There was a journalist outside pressing for my take on this…"

"A skunk?" Catano asked, the cape buffalo nodding.

"You saw him too?"

"He asked me about it," Oates said. "And I didn't answer, saying that it was all part of an ongoing police investigation. But he was also asking me to collaborate what had happened, so I'm guessing he had other witnesses."

"Of course he had," Bogo remarked. "The kit's family, another fox and bunny pair, a red panda and a hyena in need of the mother of all dental braces. If I were in their situation, I'd go to the media. Nothing came on last night, but keep your eyes out for the news this morning. I, meanwhile, have had a call from the mayor's office. It seems that our District Attorney has just caused a diplomatic incident."

Oates groaned. "Don't tell me, the kit's father's gone and run to the embassy."

"Yes, and they are not happy," Bogo muttered. "The thing is though, this stuff usually relies on us actually listening to outside pressure. I do not think that our District Attorney will do that."

"What about when he learns that the call was originally taken out against the cousin?" Catano queried.

Bogo snorted. "Oh he knows, he just doesn't care… -Don't tell Wilde that! I'll probably get asked about how it feels... But Wassermaim knows it so well that he's holding us firm to rights on the youth protection laws, stopping us from bringing it up. It'll only come up at the trial, at which point six months will have gone by."

"But still, there's not enough evidence to convict," Oates added. "At least, with a halfway decent lawyer, which this kit will certainly get."

"You're right," Bogo agreed. "Not enough evidence yet in either direction. Which brings me to the topic of the day. How are you two doing?"

"Well, despite missing our two best detectives, we made a start yesterday," she explained, opening up a folder. Bogo looked in, finding a rough map of the school, the locker room, classroom they were in and main entrances lined up. "We don't know how long those things were in there. The lab report stated that it's been about two months since the pellets were manufactured, presuming they were done to the same composition and formula as Doug Ramses' product. However, if the kit didn't do it, then logically they were most likely to have been planted early in the morning or late on friday night. Sadly though, the school only has very sparse camera coverage period, yet alone in the area in question. A mammal could have slipped in and out undetected. Lab reports also show no trace of any mammal on them, whoever did this wore gloves and took great care."

"Which I'd say would be a stroke against our kit being the perp," Oates remarked. "As, on top of everything else, if he was so careful there why would he be so obnoxious to put them all up on top of his books like that?"

"It isn't much, but that does seem to suggest that someone else wanted them to be found," Catano mumbled. "That cousin could have slipped them into there easy as pie."

"And then called out an anonymous tip on himself," Oates rebuked, only to pause. "Well, if it was the case, it would certainly work to confuse us. It's confusing us now."

Catano nodded. "Reverse psychology from a fox living up to every nasty stereotype they're labelled with." She looked away distastefully while Oates snorted.

"Crazy like a fox, huh? Or maybe our anon vulpine stored his things like that just to confuse us if we did find out?"

"But why," Catano rebuked. "The cousin at least has a semi-plausible motive to throw the family's golden child under the bus. Not like he hasn't done crazy stuff due to it before. Even if it's weak, it's the best the two of us have come up with."

Bogo looked on and nodded. "Still, these are just conjectures and baseless arguments. Meanwhile I'm beginning to face some blowback. Both ADA Deaux and Chief Ramic have contacted me, stating their deep reservations about these goings on and assurances that they're willing to stand and resign with me if I try and take a stand. I stated firmly that us dropping out would be a victory for him, but if this gets piped up in the news it won't be long before a lot of people who don't know what's going on will start coming after us. It'll get easier when the detectives Dawson get back, I'm regretting getting my own back on them already, but until then we need to do the best we can."

Catano nodded. "Fortunately, we do have other leads."

Bogo paused. "You said that that was all that you and Oates had found."

"Yes. Oates and I."

Bogo blinked a few times, before a little smile grew across his muzzle. "What have Wilde and Hopps stumbled across then?"

Catano waved the two other mammals over to her laptop and showed them the email that she'd received. "They believe that a mammal with a vendetta against them tried to frame one of the kits for this, getting their own back."

"Bit full of themselves," Oates remarked. "And 'one of the kits'?"

Bogo crossed his arms. "They may have guessed the whole anonymous tip thing." He shrugged, unable to stop a sliver of a smile grow across his face. "After all, it kind of makes sense."

"It does," Catano remarked, "especially given the comments regarding the two leads."

"Two?" Oates remarked. "Dagnammit, those two will have me outta a job before I know it."

"Yes," she said. "First one, known to all of us, is Duke Weaselton."

Bogo groaned. "Our first ever nighthowler arrest. Didn't he cooperate with us last time he was busted?"

"They suspect he was giving false information, in which case he'll get the book thrown at him when we get him."

Oates nodded in agreement. "It'll be good to finally give him just a one way ticket to the pen."

"Anyhow, he was arrested back then on suspicion of supplying alcohol to minors, taking a plea deal to get out of it. Moreover, and this is where more things make sense if they suspect the issue with the tip off, the cousin, Ash, was there to witness it and 'helped' bring him in. Helped in terms of just being there and pointing out what they already knew. Apparently some insults and dismissals were given and then, on Sunday, they bumped into him on his final day of community service, accidentally causing a mess from him. They tried to apologise, he just got angrier, swearing he'd get his own back."

"So he then sneaks into the school at night," Oates filled in, "tracked down the red kit's locker and put in the howlers, only he messed up and got the wrong one. He then dropped the tip, sat back, and watched his revenge play out."

"Unfortunately no," Catano said. "They say he seems to have gone AWOL."

Now it was Bogo's turn to groan. "In which case, we can send out a call to bring him in for questioning and check out his home, but that's about it. If he's left the country, we'd need more to get a warrant."

"I could scan the school cameras," Catano replied. "Catch him coming in at night, if he does come in at all."

"Hold up," Oates cut in. "Now, I know that this mammal has spent time in the past for burglary and such, and schools were never that well protected anyway, so he could easily sneak in and out. But how would he know which locker to open up?"

Catano shrugged. "He could have bribed or asked a naive student to tell him, or gone into the main office first and found the records for who had what locker. Either way, when getting to them he could have easily made the mix-up mistake."

"Right, I'm still a little less convinced about that one. What's this other lead then?"

"This," Catano began, "is the interesting one. Apparently, they found out that Bellwether's niece goes to the same class as the boys."

Oates coughed a few times, while Bogo rushed up to the screen. "Wouldn't we have known it before?"

"They changed their names and moved careers and schools," Catano said. "On the same day they met that weasel for the second time, the boys tried to introduce her to Nick and Judy. She panicked and ran off."

Oates huffed. "Seems the apple doesn't drop far from the tree then."

"I wouldn't say so," Catano said. "They suspect that she doesn't want to do it and tried to get away so her parents wouldn't know. Only, out of worry, they sent a text outlining the situation to her, which her parents may have seen. At which point…"

"At which point," Bogo carried on. "She was ordered to do the deed."

"Obviously too scared to rat her parents out," Catano spoke, pausing to think. "You know, I just made it sound easy there, but thinking it through…" She shook her head and sighed. "Urghh… I'm being silly. She was probably scared and confused, and they think she did try to do something to limit the damage."

"Go on," Oates said.

"Maybe the whole tip-suspect mismatch wasn't a mistake."

Oates smiled a bit. "Well, clever girl if that's the case. Just a shame we had a nasty DA who wasn't interested in playing fair. Throw the weasel idea out, I think this is our big lead."

"I respectfully disagree," Catano spoke.

"How come?"

"You know, I think this calls for a practical demonstration. Let me show you," she said, standing up and walking out. The others followed, curious to see what she had to show them.

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"Are you sure you want to do this?" Mrs Fox asked, looking down. A bunch of other faces: familial, friendly or just recently familiar joined hers.

Ash nodded. "Kris would do it for me," he said, as he slipped his bag onto his back. It felt scary, going back to school so soon. But he needed to be there for his cousin, he needed to be there to fight for him. He could play a part. He could find out what Agnes had texted, before looking into Maisy herself. He was going to do what had to be done.

"I've told the principal that you're still a bit worried, she says that you can still take any day of this week off… Stay safe, please."

He looked up and nodded. "I will."

"I know you will," his father said, walking up and hugging him. Nick was there, behind him as well.

"Investigate your heart out, Mr…" he began, before making a spitting noise. Ash stood up tall, nodded and walked out to the salute and applause of foxes, fennecs, bunnies and even a ratel and opossum alike. With that, he was out of the door and on his bike, racing down to fight for his cousin. It wasn't that he had a favour to repay, it wasn't due to some sense of adventure, it was because he had to fight for him, period.

The mood he'd left in the Fox family house went quiet, everyone seeming to be holding back, waiting for someone else to make the second move. The fennecs had returned to busily tapping away on their computers, Fenneko directing her mate on what to do and him nodding along, interjecting here and there with a new point. There was a comment about the ZNN report, which they'd all taken a break to watch, another about the Pounceheart video that had just gone up. Mr Fox was busy working with Skye and Honey on devices for discrete drinks disposal, while Jack, groaning as he did so, was doing some push ups, helped by Nick. Haida and Retsuko were back at work, but busy finding a large mammal to help with the mission, while Mrs Fox was sitting by her brother in law, currently working away on some important emails.

Jack groaned as he completed the last of his exercises, slumping hard onto the floor.

"Yeah, that's natural for a beginner," Nick commented, sitting down next to him. He paused for a second or two, before looking down at the tired bunny. "Say, what's happening with your play, now that you're busy with us?"

The bunny blinked a few times, his eyes widening. "Oh… ehhh…"

"Jack!" Nick said, standing up and glancing around. It was broken off though from some laughing from below.

"Payback…" the striped buck panted. "For bunneh torture."

Nick frowned. "Seriously though…"

Picking himself off the floor, Jack shrugged. "Oh, with Buster Moon organising all of these, all I had to do was mention the slight potential usefulness of a delay, and he's pulled back the release date by a few weeks. We'll be starting after the half term holidays, which works for him as he gets to employ all the other actors in one of his child friendly matinees through the week."

"Which makes pretty good business sense if you think about it."

"Yeah… But for the love of god don't tell him. Don't want to give him any more ideas."

"Will do," Nick agreed. There was a pause as he looked around, spotting everyone at work, before looking back. "I could also give you some basic self defense lessons too," he said.

"Okay then. Yeah!"

"Right, first off," Nick spoke, grabbing a cushion with his paw, "let's see this lapin boxing in all its glory."

Jack narrowed his eyes, before letting out a flurry of paw beats, the pillow rumbling and pulsing as the hare's paws drummed on it. There was a sudden rip, a tear, and the whole thing was disemboweled, chunks of feather stuffing tossed onto the floor.

"You two are cleaning that up," Mrs Fox said, the pair nodding. Nick looked back to Jack. "Interesting, Carrots doesn't do anything like that," he said.

"It's because it isn't effective at knocking out larger enemies," Judy said. She'd been busy on her own computer, but slumped away from it, ears drooping, as she walked over to have a look. "I had to relearn how I fought to pass the academy, getting used to landing hard fast strikes at pressure points at exactly the right time, so that larger mammals had their weight and momentum turned against them. Lapin style boxing doesn't give any forward momentum." She began moving her arms in a slow motion version of Jack's boxing technique: her shoulders acted as the pivots, her elbows swayed back and forth and her wrists moved up and down, straight in line with her lower arm. The result was large bats down with her fingers.

Nick nodded. "Good point. Also good point, Jack isn't going to be taking down giant mammals. Many might be his size, and with the larger ones he just needs to run. So maybe his style boxing can help?"

Judy paused, nodding slightly. "Okay then, we could do some practice," she said, breaking off to yawn. "Sorry, spent last night checking the cams."

"Found anything?"

"Duke seemed to go home, then definitely left, taking an old bike out on the main route out of the city and country. He was also wandering around in between, but I couldn't track where he went, the cover isn't universal. However, had he called a zuber or something in a blind spot, he could have easily got to the school, spent a few hours there, then come back, all in the right time frame."

Nick frowned. "And no coverage of the school?"

"Only one side has a public camera covering any part of it," she groaned, "and even that has blindspots. All we know is that he had the potential. I'll just keep looking, seeing if I can identify a car or anything." She nodded, then turned and slipped off.

Jack glanced at her, then at Nick. "Wasn't she going to give me some practice?"

"Yes, I thought that too," he replied, turning to face him. "Okay, here's an idea for fending off an attacker a bit larger than you. Box, kick, run."

"Go on, go on."

Nick nodded, taking the time to slip over to Skye and Honey and borrow some safety goggles, pulling them over his eyes. "A short, sharp, spell of boxing over the eyes, making him shy away. Then you jump and twist, giving a kangaroo style kick in the groin to shock them." He stuffed the remains of the pillow down the front of his pants as he said it. "Finally, you use that speed to scarper away. When against larger mammals, you can turn and run faster and jump longer. Reach a crowded or tight place, you win."

"Okay," Jack said, "I mean, I'm not really sure abo... " In a flash he leapt, his paws drumming out. Nick's goggles were almost torn from his face, only kept on by the presence of his muzzle and even then nearly exposing his eyes. He instinctively closed them, shying away from the pain of claws scratching down and thundering down on his brow before leaping forward, paws out, to catch the hare. He winced back as the kick to the groin came, thankfully dulled, before carrying on, eyes finally able to open again. His left paw grabbed Jack's trailing left leg and drew him back in. His momentum torn away, he fell hard to the floor, panicking for a second before flipping himself over, drumming his free foot onto Nick's paw. The fox hissed, diving in with his other paw to restrain his leg, only for Jack to curl up. A flurry of lapin boxing stayed his paw for a second or two, while surprising him enough to let a hard kick loosen the other one's grip. Another kick, along with a pull, and Jack was free, scrabbling along the floor. Nick pounced forward, landing hard on top of the hare and rolling to his side, taking him with it. Pinned to his chest, the fox's legs wrapping around the hare's, Nick panted for a second or two before smiling. "You're dead, Stripes."

He let go, letting Jack slip off, the hare panting and shaking as he got to his feet. Their eyes met and, through a pant out, the striped bunny flashed a smile.

"Fun?" Nick asked.

"Crazy…"

"Like a fox and mad as a march hare," Nick replied. "Seriously though, if I didn't have combat training you'd have gotten away from that, even with the padding and goggles. Nice work not giving up and fighting off my first capture too. Not bad for a first timer."

Jack stood up, an infectious grin on his face. "I wanna know kung fu."

"Don't know it, but I'll keep training you," Nick said, pausing to look at Judy. The bunny blinked, slapping her face.

"Cheese and crackers, sorry… Just, been busy, not enough sleep."

"There's not enough hours in the day, period," Skye added, nodding.

Nick did too, only for his ears to go down. "Except if you're our anonymous vulpine," he grunted. "Right, how are we on the plan to check out Weaselton's place?"

Finnick looked over. "Might be about time to get going. Stripes, Slick, cool fox, get in the van with the two mechanics. You coming too, bunny cop?"

Judy looked up and nodded. "Might be worth it in case something goes wrong."

"Yeah," the fennec nodded. "You can bunk in the back too, get a power nap while we're on the way."

The bunny smiled. "Thanks. I need one."

"Right," he announced. "Come on gang, time to go investigating!"

They nodded and packed up their things, slipping away. "Good luck," Fenneko saluted, before looking back at her screen. "Good luck to the other teams too."

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AN: A new dawn, a new day. Being an addicted pre-writer, I originally wrote out all the events occurring on this day in large blocks. So there'd be a giant chapter or two dealing with Kris. One or two for the 'Suko crew. Three or so for the ZPD… After finishing them though, I realised that they were bulky, and decided to have a go at a little bit of editing. So, instead, each chapter will generally cover small parts of two or three different teams' work, moving through them all at roughly the same pace as they come out and the day goes on. For example, this chapter covered the main crew, Dr Silverfox, the ZPD and had a side feature, showing the news report. The next will cover Kris and the 'Suko crew. I feel this was a good move, and fingers crossed you enjoy it too.