Chapter 16

.

.

It took Kris a few seconds to realise that something was wrong.

This didn't feel like his bed.

He'd fallen asleep in one bed only to wake up in another a few times in the past, often due to his father picking him up late at night from whoever had been childminding him while he was off on a visit to one of the mainland cities. Returning home at the airport (or across the bridge, had he simply been attending a seminar in Halifox or Frebearicton), his father would drive home, pick him up while he was still asleep and then tuck him in.

The next morning, he'd wake up, confused for a second or two before feeling a wash of deep familiarity and comfort.

This wasn't like that. It wasn't his bed he was waking up in, it felt completely different, but there was a familiarity from the night before. It was more like his first few nights sleeping under his Aunt and Uncle's roof, or then with his father in their new place. Yes, he'd fallen asleep in this bed.

In prison.

His eyes opened and he sat up, looking around the cell. "Oh…" he sighed, as the memories came flooding back in. "That's right."

He didn't know the time or anything, though it sounded quiet outside. Inside too. He felt oddly alone, vulnerable too. That thought could be explained by his nightwear. Just a thin vest and a pair of underwear, the latter of which he instinctively tried to pull up before remembering that they operated that way. He'd taken off his striped jumpsuit the night before, folding it up and placing it on his desk, so he quickly went over to put it back on. Legs first, then the front up, arms going up the sleeves. It was then that he remembered the whole back zip thing, and the fact that he might as well go to the toilet before doing it up fully.

A bit of awkwardness sitting down on the cold seatless rim, and a while later that was out of the way. Fumbling with the back zip, he did it up, washed his paws and then made his bed. The mattress was hard and coated in plastic, which made it crinkle as his weight shifted on it and felt cold to the touch, noticeable even through the bedsheet they provided. The duvet was thin and light too, requiring a bit of wrapping it up around him to get some comfort out of it. Sure, he currently, or now that he thought about it, previously slept under a sheet, given the biome he'd moved to, but most of his life he'd been used to sleeping under thick comforting duvets, which this new one wasn't.

When sleeping under his sheet, he tended to grip a pillow while falling asleep as a substitute, something he couldn't do here as he only had one, probably too thin and un-fluffy regardless.

Still, it just about did its job in supporting his head, just as the duvet did in stopping him getting cold and the mattress did in giving him something not hard to sleep on. He hadn't had a bad night sleep, just an austere one.

Walking around, he looked out of the small window slits in his cell door, thinking he noticed a bit of movement in one or two cells across the hall. There was a pause as he noticed a few guards walking around, paying little mind to anyone looking out.

He retreated, picking up the schedule off of his shelf. The quick readthrough was broken by a shrill bell screaming out, which meant he had ten minutes until he was unlocked. He could spend that reading through the other documents, giving himself a bit of a refresher. His train of thought was broken off though by a definite shriek from the cell next door. Kris' ears went down. The pup. Probably woken up and remembered where he was, poor guy.

He read on until a second bell rang, his signal to stop what he was doing and stand by the door. Thirty seconds later, the sound of it unlocking rang out and he stepped out, paws hanging down by his side, just like all the other mammals who'd stepped out.

Ones that didn't include the pup. A guard, the serval Sarrahson, checked her clipboard, saw it and walked over, sweeping right past Kris and making him flinch back. "Come out," she ordered.

"Noooo!" Came a wail from inside.

Her ears went down. "I'm going to count to five. One. Two…"

"I can't!"

"Three… Four…"

He walked out, trembling, dragging his duvet around his waist. Kris was breathing in when something tingled inside of him, triggering a few further exploratory sniffs, a slight instinctual nervousness running through him on sensing a particularly pungent odour. In an instant, he realised exactly the pup had been so shy.

Sarrahson didn't, and had torn the duvet away before anyone could say anything. The pup tried to shield the area between his legs with his paws, but the massive wet stain on his white stripes was still clear for everyone on the other side of the block to see. They burst into laughter, pointing and giggling, all as he began bawling. Sarrahson's reaction did a flip, her ears going down as she went forward and held him. "Don't worry," she spoke, as the crowd began taunting. Some called out to ask if his mommy had forgotten to change his diapers, others just straight up calling him a baby. The serval snapped to look back. "Shut up! NOW!" They didn't, and her anger grew. "Three until you all lose everyone's free time! One… Two…" They got themselves under control, merely coughing here and there (though Kris could swear that some of them were laughs). The serval told him that it would be okay, before asking if he could put his paws out. She cuffed them, before throwing the duvet back in the cell and locking it, leading the still crying boy out. "Just going to the nurses office to get you cleaned," she said neutrally.

There was a pause, before one of the other guards spoke. "Okay, at ease. You're third for breakfast this morning, so off you go."

There was a general mumble as the crowd moved out. Kris found himself joining a naturally forming line of mammals from his half of the cell block, which merged in with a line from the other half. He found himself wondering how many there were. There were fifteen cells on each side of the ground floor, six on each side of the top, two wings which meant eighty four overall. He guessed though that one third were empty, which meant that there were fifty six mammals here. A quick count seemed to suggest that that was about right. He also counted eight or so preds, one in every seven, though that didn't include him and the pup. Preds tended to get into more aggressive trouble than most prey, operative word being most. Many of the prey here were rutting mammals, bighorn sheeps, deer, along with razorbacks. In the same way, he knew that many 'meeker' prey were more commonly arrested for theft, rats and rodents for white collar crimes and fraud, while bunnies, generally very law abiding, disproportionately committed sexual crimes.

He couldn't help but notice that there were actually six or so bucks here, a mix of rabbits and hares.

Part of him wondered why he was keeping track of all of this, before another part reminded him that he didn't really have much else to do, other than wander down a long corridor and settle into a small holding room.

"Hey," someone spoke from up ahead. "They've turned off the news!"

There was a sudden chorus of cheers and clapping, broken off as a capybara in glasses next to Kris shouted out. "What have they put on instead?"

"Adverts."

"What after, you dingus," another mammal shouted.

"Well I don't know."

The capybara huffed. "If they've put on 'Everymam gets on with Desmond', then the news is better."

"Cuss," the first mammal spoke, looking up. "Come on, preschool channel."

A bunch of other mammals began crossing their fingers and hooves wishing for just that, Kris stuck in the middle of it, staying silent on the surrealness of it all. He could only look on and think like before, though he now guessed that it did have a purpose. If he was going to survive and stay strong for his friends outside, he had to understand how everything worked here. After all, how could he make the right decisions if he didn't know how things worked?

"Come on, gimme something," a tall wolf spoke, standing away from the rest of the group with his own posse: a hare, two bunnies, and a few other prey mammals.

The mood in the room flipped completely, many of the mammals turning and telling him to shut up, often interspersed with calls of him being a perv. One did so in particular, a massive polar bear who dominated the room. He turned, glaring severely, before yelling out in a russian accent. "You! Nobody wants your opinion on this! Shut up, leave us alone."

The wolf's ears and tail drooped and he did just that, just as the adverts ended. An energetic little mouse was then shown at a desk with a puppet flower to her side, happily presenting the little kids channel and being met with a thunder of applause by the teenage prisoners. It only increased as she cheerily announced that Luna the Moon Princess was up next, the reaction this side more akin to one expected of a live Gazelle concert or… well, whatever they actually enjoyed.

For the next ten minutes, Kris watched on with the joking crowd as the wolf resident of Aphowlo Castle got ready to take her little brother out on a trip to the beach, promising that they'd be swimming happily in the sea of tranquility. On being warned that there was a light meteor shower, she told him to stay by the door, saying that she'd slip out and see how bad it was. The crowd held its breath in anticipation as she went offscreen, before bursting into laughter as lots of 'Ooo's and Eeee's' came out the other side, the princess running back in with lumps on her head (even pointing out that her crown had lumps). She then began working on all sorts of ways to let them go out and enjoy their day on the beach regardless. From working with their resident mad scientist on a giant umbrella (which got blown away by solar wind), to a giant magnet that would suck all the rocks to it (it didn't, but it did steal a moon rover (with made in China written on its bottom)), to asking NASA to see if they could do anything (No, they couldn't, and on being asked what their point was then, they said: 'well, not that'.) The frustrated princess then went to her parents, asking them to ban the meteor shower or something, so that her brother could go to the beach. This then led to the moral of the story, that sometimes there are unfair things that you just can't change, and have to live with until they're over.

Kris frowned. It wasn't quite the message that he needed reminding of. The episode ended, the credits playing to 'the best, best dance, the moon, moon dance,' just as the door at the back opened, the wolf pup (in a fresh prison suit) walking in. "Why's that baby show on?" he asked.

"For you," someone called, and then the crowd was laughing again, pointing again, taunting again. His ears went back and his lips wobbled, especially as some mammals began giving his rear a light slap, or even grabbing his tail and poking their nose in to give his rear a sniff. He began flailing about, shouting at them to stop it, and Kris made up his mind.

"Stop bullying him," he spoke, walking up to him and putting his paws out, waving them off. It quietened down as he looked down at the pup. "Don't worry, stand by me, I won't taunt you for a common disability."

He kept quiet as Kris put his arm around him, leading him into an empty area. One mammal, a goat, stood up to him and laughed. "Hey, crying to daddy?"

Kris walked to the side, pulling the pup with him, their backing off met with the pointing goat advancing, Kris quickly deciding to take some preventative action. The goat thrust his hoof forward and the silver fox grabbed it, twisting it and pulling it past him, the goat yelling in pain as he was pulled away, Kris making sure to take the pup out of his reach. The caprid looked back, nostrils flaring. "You're going to regret that, filth!"

"I don't want a fight…"

"Yes you do chomper!"

"I don't want any bullying," Kris said, plainly, though inside he was worrying. Was that the right move, or had he just made a terrible mistake?

"As if, you lying pelt!"

Did it even matter? Thankfully he didn't hold the goat in any high regard, even before he outed himself as one of those… He could easily let the insult flow over him, even though he really didn't like it. What was far more worrying was what the hateful goat would do next.

The pup scowled and spoke up. "He knows karate! He'll beat you up!"

Kris held up a paw to hold him back as the polar bear from earlier stepped between them, sparing him a glance before staring the goat down. That was the end of that. By that point, the next episode was well underway, and everyone was back to watching it. As the credits rolled, Kris realised that they'd probably changed it from the news because of his situation. He wondered what was going on outside.

No time left for that though, as a door opened and they walked into the canteen. It was loud and noisy, the large area split into two. One half was full of other prisoners, busy pushing through their food, the other was being departed by what must have been the first bunch in that morning. Kris and the others just lined up, grabbing trays and getting their food. A few slices of toast with some butter spread, and the option to take some jam, honey or marmalade (Kris felt like the latter), followed by some baked beans and the option of cereal, oatmeal or a silage salad. They only had soya milk and he wasn't a grazer, so the silverfox went for the middle option, also choosing some fruit (apples slices and some berries) and receiving another one of those predator protein shakes.

There was some wining behind him, the pup naturally complaining that he didn't like the look of any of it. Thankfully he seemed to be making his mind up quickly. Kris used the time to swap his marmalade for honey (he could use the toast to mop stuff up, while he felt the oatmeal could do with some honey) before guiding the pup onward. The tables were already filling up, and Kris took stock of who was where.

Most of the tables were only filled with prey, it made sense given the majority. One particular bunch had the goat who'd bullied the pup before, so that was ruled out, even before he and some of his friends began giving the two sideways looks. On the other paw, a different table had five of the predators, half of them. Kris wondered if they were a gang, and whether they'd accept the pup, given that some were looking at him darkly. The only other tables with predators on them were mixes of pred and prey: one had the tall wolf and his posse of bunnies and others; one had a racoon, the capybara with glasses and a few other pawed mammals, including a kangaroo; the last contained a civet, most of the other bunnies and a few sheep and others.

The last one seemed to be the most invited, a few of them were waving them over, Kris beginning to make a move. He paused though as he realised that the pup was wandering off to another waving table, the one with the wolf and bunnies, all putting on big smiles. An alarm went off in his head and he walked over, grabbing the pup and stopping him.

"He can sit with us," the wolf said, looking down. "Come on, you can be in my pack. You can both be my betas."

Kris scowled, only for the pup to tug away. "I wouldn't," he warned.

"But… But I can be a beta!"

"Yeah," the wolf carried on, "cute little beta."

"We'll treat you both nice," a pig said.

"Cute silvy fox too," the wolf spoke, smiling.

Their happy faces then morphed into fear as a shadow approached from behind Kris and the pup, the group looking away. Kris looked up behind him, just as the polar bear from earlier lumbered up, staring the table down. He then glanced at the pup, who was quivering. "You stay away from those sick mammals," he spoke, "unless you are sick like them. Are you?" the pup shook his head. "Then sit there." He pointed to the table that Kris had been going to, the pup wandering off as the bear looked over at Kris. "Come with me. I have many things to talk about, but we eat food first."

Kris nodded and followed, settling down with the rest of them and eating up. The food was bland but edible, the honey helping with the oatmeal. Kris was mopping up the remaining bean sauce with his last piece of cold toast when they were given the order to pack up and go. Eating on the fly as he moved out, Kris' ears rose as the bear spoke. "So, tell me. Why do you look after pup?"

.

.

The city centre of Zootopia was beating like usual that morning, hundreds of thousands of mammals swarming in for another usual day of work and sometimes play. Amongst them all, three mammals were entering one of Yakatomi Plaza's elevators. "Morning," Anai said, sitting back in the lift and looking at his phone. Haida and Retsuko glanced at him and nodded.

"Morning," they both replied.

"You weren't in yesterday, so I didn't get any lunch orders for you," he added.

"We'll get takeout," Haida said. The Japanese badger nodded, turning back to his phone and scrolling through.

"Do you know where Fenneko is?"

The two glanced at each other. "She was feeling unwell," Haida said, as he pressed their floor button.

"Fair enough," he said, before frowning a little. "I'd completed some work for her and was hoping that she could check it."

"Well, I can do that after clearing my urgents," Retsuko reassured him, as they began to rise.

"Say," the badger asked, looking up. "Have you seen Pounceheart's new video?"

The two glanced at each other, knowingly. "You mean Anton Pounceheart?" Haida asked.

"Yeah! He's the guy who called the nighthowler crisis. Now the DA is going after an innocent fox kit."

"Huh?"

Anai looked up. "Someone tried to stitch him up by planting howlers in his locker," he said, looking down and shivering slightly. "Now he's abusing the laws to send him to prison. Even the Chief of Police said he should go home!"

"Can I have a look?" Retsuko asked, peering over. Anai opened his phone again and played out the video. It was near the end, the fox presenter in question turning away from Dr Silverfox and Mr and Mrs Fox to look at the audience.

"Let's be clear here, this is not justice. This is an act of pure revenge against a fox, done because he's a fox, by the remnants of Bellwether's speciesist schemes. Three years ago, we didn't defeat them. This wasn't our Battle of Bärlin, it wasn't our Kurshka, Stagengrad or even Mooscow. They are still out there, they can still win, and the establishment is happy for them to still be out there, within them. It's not just our DA, but thousands of prey within the rank and file civil servants, contractors, mid and low level officials and members of local government and councillors. All part of her flock, all hiding behind their fake smiles and white wool, all sympathetic to her cause and secretly hating predators and looking for ways to put, us, down! I said it before, I'll say it again, we need a complete purge of all prey potentially connected and a restart from ground zero, otherwise the attack on this innocent fox will just be another page in the middle of a long book. They didn't give up after the first crisis, they won't give up even if we defeat them in this one, and all the while we'll suffer from institutional discrimination. If anything, Kurt Wassermaim is the useful idiot for all the sympathisers, his big attack distracting us from their thousands of miniscule, individual, unseeable little attacks going on every single day that all add up into death by a thousand cuts! But that's for the future. First things first, we need to show them that we won't back down. Tomorrow we'll be organising the first of many protests against Kurt Wassermaim and bringing the fight to them. Please, join us there."

"Pretty on point, right?" Anai said, slipping his phone back down. "Not like the TV news would have the guts to say that. I remember his arguments about their institutional speciesism, I used them for my complaints to ZNN after the truth came out."

The two other mammals looked at each other, quietly sympathetic towards whoever had to deal with all of those, as they reached their floor, the doors opening.

"Haida! Retsuko! I saw you on the news!" They turned to spot Ookami walking up to them, cup of tea in paw. "What was going on there?"

"They were on the news?" Kabae asked, the hippo joining up with them. Anai looked on, utterly confused, as a few other office workers began crowding around, Retsuko calming them down before giving them the cliff notes: going out with their friends, the call, meeting the family and then seeing him get taken away. Most looked on and listened in, whether they'd seen the news report or not. Both workers couldn't help but notice Kabae begin to shake and shiver, eventually bursting into tears as they recounted it all. There was a pause, Haida offering to help, only for Ookami to hold up a paw and do it himself, wrapping an arm around her and leading her off.

"She's a mother, isn't she?" Anai asked rhetorically. "Must be rough imagining one of her children in the same spot." Retsuko couldn't help but think the same thing. She'd seen how distraught Kris' father had been when they'd taken him away, while she herself had felt a gut punch about everything that had happened. There was also the fact that children were something she wanted too in her life, likely via a sperm donation now given her and Haida's biological incompatibility. She wanted little things to love and be loved by, and imagining them being ripped away… It sent a shiver down her spine, and that was before imaging how bad it must be for them.

"Yeah," Haida said, nodding. "Also, you hadn't joined when it happened, but someone falsely accused her of espionage."

"You weren't in either, Haida," Komiya the meerkat pointed out.

"No, I had pneumonia."

"And Tsubone had a broken wrist while we were all doing the end of month accounts! Do you know how much of a nightmare that was?"

"Probably not as much as it was for her," Retsuko said, glancing over. "Or her family. But we thought that if we could help this kit, then that was a good thing to do."

"Yeah," Anai agreed. "Maybe I can try and help out too."

"The more help the better," the red panda agreed. There were various nods of support and calls, only for them to fade off as Director Ton walked around the corner.

"Come on, we're running behind. You're not paid to stand around you know?"

The various parties split off to their various workstations, quickly logging on and getting to work. Retsuko in particular had a small backlog, which she needed to focus on and clear as quickly as she could. Plugging herself with a coffee, even though she'd never been a fan of the taste, and slipping in her little Bluefang secret radio, she got to work, making sure to send a certain email off to a certain someone first. Some critical information requests had come in yesterday, which she quickly began filling in. Then there was some other data, handed in with her in charge of updating the central files. Much of it was rote copying, not helped by the fact that some of the specialist business plan spreadsheets did not react well to straight up copying and pasting. The fact that she could gently rock along to the music tunes certainly helped though, especially as it kept her thoughts in line. Even so, as she worked she couldn't help but think about what it must be like for Kris, or what he was doing, or how he was coping. The musical and chemical stimulation kept her productive though. Typing through, then scrolling back up, she finished all of yesterday's work as the time hit eleven.

"And now the news update,' the little earpiece spoke. " District Attorney, Kurt Wassermaim, has been accused of abusing power after going over Chief Bogo and the ZPD in order to use a piece of anti-terror legislation to imprison an anonymous vulpine accused of nighthowler possession after four refined pellets were found in his school locker. In a statement, the ZPD has stated that they didn't believe the evidence was high enough to warrant charges, and there is strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that it was a set up. Regardless, in stark contrast to the Youth Justice Laws, Wassermaim invoked the Nighthowler Act. The anonymous vulpine is currently being held in Zootopia Youth Penitentiary and could wait one month for formal charges to be served, and a further six until his trial date. There are claims that this was due to antipredator sentiments of the DA by eyewitnesses to the event. In contrast, the District Attorney has released this counter-statement."

There was a pause, before his voice spoke up. "For all those claiming that this is due to antipredator sentiments, how does that square against the fact that the Chief Justice, knowing nothing about the species' involved, decided that my judgement was fair and appropriate? I used the law as it's meant to be used, unless of course someone is saying that they don't apply to a fox? Something that sounds pretty speciesist to me. Mammals want us to be hard on those still dealing with these things, so I'm being hard on them. The predators of the city can sleep easy at night knowing that I'm willing to keep anyone messing with these things off the street, all while being fair in my judgement, paying no heed to the suspects' species, age, sex or creed."

Retsuko's brow furrowed and she felt her internal rage light switch on. Shut your mouth you big fat hippo! You just want him to suffer, your mouth needs a zipper! Pred Hateeeerrrr… Pred Hateeeerrr…

She finished typing, bringing her paws off of the keyboard and slamming them down on the desk, all while the DJ decided to play an 'appropriate song'. Retsuko listened on curiously, only to frown as a set of drum beats ramped up, followed by hard electric guitars ripping along. 'Breaking rocks in the, hot sun… I fought the law and the, the law won.'

Frowning, she turned it off and put it away, closing her eyes and breathing in and out. Too soon, too hard, too rough.

Without the music though, her mind wandered once more. Back to Kris, back to how he was doing, back to how he must have felt waking up that morning. She pondered and thought for a while, before finally getting pulled back to reality.

"-Uh, Retsuko?"

"Oh, yes Anai?" she asked, snapping out of her mental stupor and looking over.

"I sent the documents you said you'd check over."

"Right," she mumbled, turning back to her emails. She paused, spotting that a reply to her earlier email had come back. Reading through it, she glanced at her junior. "I need to go in an hour. Do you have anything left to do until lunch?"

"No."

"Right," she said, noticing a small set of updates, similar to those she'd been doing earlier, which had come in today. "Mind updating the reporting files with these?"

He nodded and she sent them across, before she clicked through his work. A bit of a rush at the end, but she saw that he'd got it all correct, just in time too.

Away from her desk, she spotted Haida and gave him a nod, him returning it, before she went up three floors. Exiting out, she looked up and saw a large sign hanging in front of her.

.

'Marketing Department'

.

"Retsuko!"

Looking forward, she smiled as she saw Director Gori walking up to her. After all, who else was best to drink the DA under than her. A massive gorilla, a long term friend, emotional enough to easily fall right behind the cause and confident enough to do it. That DA was about to meet the baddest bitch in the room. "Hi Gori!"

"Why didn't you tell me about the Triple Date?"

"Uhhhh…" she blanked. "Y-you know about that?"

"Of course," she said. "Washimi told me."

"Washimi knows?"

"Of course she knows. But how was it? What went on? Give me everything! I need to know!"

"Right," she mumbled. "I'll do that, but first, I need you to do a big favour."

"Ooooh, what is it?"

"Well…"

"I'd be happy to do it, whatever it is."

Retsuko felt an odd mix of relief and annoyance, swallowing it down before carrying on.

"-As long as it doesn't include alcohol, of course!"

Retsuko blinked. "Uhhh…"

"Oh, didn't you know?" she asked, gesturing to an area just above the right side of her pelvis. "I was having some gut pains and it turned out my appendix was inflamed. No worry, I just have to take a course of antibiotics, but that means no alcohol for the next two weeks. Still, we can do lots of stuff together, can't we?"

"Y-yes," Retsuok mumbled, internally grumbling. Of all the weeks for it to happen!

"Say, do red panda's have appendixes too? I'd think so, given that it's only rabbits and such where they become cecums."

"Yes, we do," she replied, bitterly. "Say, if you weren't undergoing medical treatment, would you be willing to help out-drink a corrupt government official in order to expose him and help free a wrongly imprisoned child?"

There was a pause, then a gasp. "This is about the thing you were on the news for in the morning! I was going to ask about that after the triple date, but of course I'd have done it." She stood up, doing a supermammal pose, then stretching one hand up into the sky and gazing heroically up at it. "I'd have been an awesome crusader for justice, helping free an innocent mammal! It would have been amazing. Incredible! I'd have done you so proud!"

"Yes," she sighed, looking down.

"Ah. Are you internally death metal raging about the stupid timing?"

"Yes."

"Can we talk about the triple date now?"

Retsuko huffed. She really wasn't in the mood.

"Washimi will be buying lunch for both of us at that place you really like. Sound good?"

"Yes."

"Feeling better."

"Yes."

"Good. And don't worry, whoever else is helping you will likely be having better luck on their side. This is a super exciting endurance marathon, not a sprint."

Glancing up, the red panda smiled. "Thanks. I'm feeling a little better, and hopefully they are having better luck than us."

"No worries, it's what friends do. Now let's get lunch and talk triple date!"