Chapter 29

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"Officer, I hope that this visit will be more professional than last time."

"I can assure you that it will be," Kii said, trying her best to assuage the hard glare of the school principal. To be fair, she could hardly blame the springbok's cold reception given her previous encounter with the police and how that had turned out for those she cared for. Still, she had to try her best, both for her sake and to show that that was NOT how the police conducted themselves. "I was ashamed of that officer's handling of the arrest, and hope to provide a true example of police conduct."

She kept a cold glare on her. "I hope so too, Officer Catano."

"Likewise, Principal…"

"Van Der Horne," she said, "though for simplicity you may call me Angela." Her tone suggested that, though technically on first name basis, they weren't there spiritually. Still, Catano and her partner would do their best.

"Thank you," she said, sitting down before gesturing to her side. "This here is Officer Wolford, here to help me out."

The grey wolf nodded and brought out a paw, Angela shaking it in return. While the cheetah would normally have Oates by her side, the nature of what they were doing required someone with a keener set of nostrils. Anthony Wolford was an experienced officer, his lower rank not nearly doing him enough service. The fact of the matter was that he'd been on the force for a good while longer than Kii, and the only reason he'd not moved up, as was his right, was that he felt his place and purpose was on the beat. This kind of investigation then wasn't quite up his avenue, but, combined with his nose, he had one more ace up his sleeve that made him incredibly useful right here and now.

"Sniffer duty?" Angela queried.

He nodded. "I happen to have a lot of experience with a major suspect in this case," he said. "Both with him and his scent."

"I guess that it would be police business to ask about who this mammal was?"

"No, not at all," he said smiling. "A weasel named Duke, who has some circumstantial evidence against him."

The springbok's eyebrows rose. "Hang on, was he ever arrested for selling bootleg stuff by the school grounds?"

Catano nodded. "He was."

"I've had a few reports about that mammal harassing some of my students," she said. "Seems like you finally took notice of our calls and brought him in a while back."

"We'd wanted him for questioning, and found that he had alcohol on him, potentially for sale to kits. He took a plea bargain and got away with community service that time," Kii explained.

Angela gave a distasteful look as she learnt of his crimes. "And that leads into this time how?"

"That is police business," Catano said.

"Yeah, but trust me, if we find his scent here, that's great news for everyone." Wolford added. "We finally get to give the annoying pest a one-way ticket to where he belongs."

The principal's look was nigh on impossible to read, but the broad strokes painted it as hard and unsympathetic. "So, what do you need from us?"

"He'd need to know where to find the locker, and for that he'd need the records. Where do you keep them?"

She nodded and led them forward. Along a corridor, passed the locked door and constant sounds of the reprographics department, currently busy printing out exam paper after exam paper, and into a small storage area. Passing by a mink who was busy filling stuff away, Angela grabbed a key and led them to a large filing cabinet, marked with an 'L'.

"Despite how much of an idiot he is, he could find this," Wolford said, Kii nodding in agreement. Out it came and there, back in 'LO', were the sheets. Catano brought it out while he began sniffing around. There were two different sets of documents for this year, one set by last name and one set by locker number. Scrolling down, Kii quickly found Ash's locker number, before carrying on to find Kris'. Each was a column number followed by a letter, primarily A-D but in a few cases flowing further up the alphabet. It was very plausible that Duke read Ash's 273C and misremembered it as a 273D. That and the fact that the smaller (but apparently older?) cousin had the higher locker.

"Any reason why they had the lockers that they had?" she asked, turning to the principle. Wolford gave a tap on her shoulder, gesturing to the sheet, which he took before giving it a strong set of sniffs.

"Each form gets a set close to their form room, and we naturally have a twenty percent overcapacity," she explained. "When his cousin got in, I saw that there was a spare locker right under his cousin's and it made sense. Ash would be showing him the ropes, acting as a guide, and thus it just made sense."

"Can't blame you," Wolford said, sniffing further.

"What about swapping them around, wouldn't it make sense for the tallest fox to have the higher…"

"Kii," Wolford interrupted, almost sounding exasperated. "Have you ever dealt with kids? Logic doesn't come into it, and above the age of three rubbing in that one is smaller than the other is a recipe for trouble."

"Ah, right… I didn't know you had pups."

"My wife had an adopted adult son when I married her, and we have an adopted twelve year old too."

She looked up at him. "I didn't know that. You don't tend to talk about your personal life, do you?"

"No I do not," he replied, frowning as he handed the sheet back. "Can't sniff the weasel on there or here either."

Catano winced. Dammit, she'd been holding out hope. Wolford saw it and cut in. "Which doesn't rule out him being here. He's a sneak thief, so he'll be familiar with industrial strength musk mask and scent control procedures. You'd be surprised how cheap a rubber suit can be bought for. Now, their noses are nothing against mine, but they're probably enough to know if he'd leave a trail that you could still smell after a few days."

"So, he's still under suspicion, but we have no proof," Catano summarised, watching as the sheet was put in and the cabinet locked up. She leaned in closer to inspect the lock, but it was old and worn, plenty of scratch marks covering it. Any sign of the lock being tampered with would be long lost.

She sighed. "No, nothing," she said, shaking her head. "We disprove nothing either, but if he did work out who was in what locker then he might have found out another way… Say, you said that students were harassed by him, right? He might have asked them about it."

She nodded. "Mainly the oldest students, those who could have lunch off site."

"Ah," she said, shaking her head. "No use."

"Not exactly," she said, raising her hoof. She walked over to a new cabinet and opened it up, beginning to filter through. "Now, plenty meet him before or after school too, and I'm sure that for every student that complained there were a hundred who ignored him. BUT, in terms of those who did complain, there is one who I know knew where Kris' locker was."

"And how's that?" Catano asked.

"Because she complained to me in person about that weasel, and she met Kris in my office on his first day. After all, being his form prefect, she was also in charge of looking after him, and that involved showing him his locker." Out came a timetable, which she scanned through. "Here we go. Brittany Voxen, age eighteen, red fox vixen currently in a free period… However, she tends to head to the gym a lot so you might find her there. She has some spectacular blonde hair that puts Gazelle's to shame, you can't miss her."

Catano nodded, and off she went.

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Meanwhile, Mr Fox, Kylie and Finnick rolled up to city hall on the formers motorbike, the fennec perching himself on the front of the saddle and holding on to the red foxes thighs. He glanced to his left and let out a whistle. "It's gettin' busy!"

Mr Fox looked over and nodded as Kylie got off his back. The crowds at the protests were slowly increasing, Watering Hole Plaza looking increasingly full as more and more mammals trickled in. "Your vix is certainly good at getting a crowd together. For want of not looking useless, I'm going to have to pull my own thing off even better. She's also very good at motivation, so the amount of better has just increased further."

Finnick chuckled a little. "Boyo, the cavalry ain't even here yet!"

"Even bringing the horses into it," Mr Fox commented as he slid his bike to a stop and began chaining it up. "Let us increase that better even further."

"Nah… Not horses!" Finnick said, hopping off. "Something pretty special that we've been keeping secret."

"Ah, a surprise," Mr Fox remarked. "Now that's just giving me nothing to judge myself against. Do you know how unfair that is in a competition? I've now got no ballpark as to how spectacularly I need to pull off this little scheme."

"Yup," the fennec remarked, looking out.

"Though, on the other paw, I do like surprises."

"Well, that makes you," he said, smiling. "I don't think that Flopsy the Copsy and Slick'll be very pleased when they find out this one. Why d'ya think we never told 'em?" He gave a few hearty chuckles, Mr Fox nodding along.

"And, why we won't tell them about this, either."

"Nope!"

"And now onward, to mischief!" On they went, skirting around the protests and making a beeline for city hall. The front entrance had several lines of fencing around it, defended by a large number of officers who were assembled behind it. Others were manning the gaps to the side, briefly giving each mammal a glance before letting them in. Finnick, who'd (regretfully) left his bat with the bike, went first, the guard barely paying him any attention. Even less was paid to Kylie. As for Mr Fox though…

"Reason for visit?" he asked, giving a glance at the assembled crowd, currently chanting 'Hippopotamustgo!' and clapping to a rhythm.

"Mr Fox, part time newspaper columnist and observational writer. Just going in to…"

"-Press," he moaned, waving him in. He joined up with Finnick before walking through the doorway, entering the massive atrium of Zootopia City Hall. Realistically it was a full parliament for the city-state, though given that, excluding the domestically autonomous burrows, four fifths of Zootopians lived in Zootopia and the mayor acted as head of state (with city scale decisions taken by district representatives), it was still known as City Hall. As a result, security in some areas were pretty tight. Ahead of them, the building split into two towering halls, skewering out at angles. On the outer sides were many of the offices for day to day administration work, the civil service that Anton Pounceheart so thoroughly campaigned to be purged and replaced from the ground up. The inner sides though were blank, containing within them the debating chambers. Down on the ground floor were the security checkpoints, mammals going through airport style checks before being let into the public access areas. The two foxes dutifully lined up and waited, all while sparing occasional glances up at a large TV screen, displaying the ongoing debates. Most of what was going on was clouded out by the general background noise though, with his ears, Finnick began tuning in. He wanted to hear what they made of the whole protest outside…

"-Regardless," a zebra mare was saying, "this industry has always been a method of trying to funnel some money back into the hooves of large prey with low wages and large food and housing costs. But, as has become ever clearer, recent changes in the labour market have left elephants and giraffes relatively unaffected, their strength and height still opening up many lucrative niches from which they can earn large amounts of money. In comparison, the already bad poverty among large equines has continually been increasing. It's all well and good saying that a more technology based society will give us chances to move up, but when you need dexterous fingers to input and interact with that technology at a competitive rate, the point is moot. We didn't ask for no fingers!"

She thrust her hoof up, before carrying on. "Large equids are the poorest demographic, end of; something that is continually sidelined and put on the backburner when each new, trendy, cause is introduced, be it anti-predhate or anti homophobia or anti whatever. History will judge you for ignoring our plight. This ask isn't the cure, it's merely a single step in a long road, but it is a step. Prioritising and promoting equid milk as the prime choice for citizens and the only for public sector procurement would massively increase the demand for it and, in many equid families, open up a new income source that could stop the fridge running empty at the end of the month."

Finnick frowned, particularly as a jaguar got up and began going on about the right of choice, and how cows milk was oft considered the favourite choice for premium quality and elephant milk on a cost basis. It wasn't even down to the fact that the fennec himself hadn't drunk milk for years (and when he had it had been under the table non-regulated goats milk purchased from a neighbour). It was the fact that the stupid zebra was going on about milk and stuff while an innocent kit was locked in prison and a massive protest about that was literally right outside the building. Sheesh… Boo hoo, flat hooved mammals were all poor. He lived out of a van. Welcome to the club.

Up the mare went again, angrily talking about horse families often going on 'grazing picnics' to local parks, and having to ration their foals' diapers (which were apparently expensive, both due to being large and needing complex pull cord tightening systems given that 'sticky tabs' were too fiddly). He braced himself for a jibe about how he'd naturally be an expert in the subject…

-Before remembering he wasn't with Nick!

He was with Mr Fox, who hadn't said a peep!

Yeah, this fox was awesome!

In any case, they were pretty much at the security checkpoint. Dumping his phone and wallet into one of the trays, he hopped through the scanner and let a sniffer wolf have a little nosey at him. The fennec ignored him, now listening to the mare say that careers such as drivers (train, bus or otherwise) should have been species locked for them and set up with high wages as compensation for the dock layoffs back when containers were brought in. Urghhh… So now she thought they were owed certain jobs and others could get stuffed…

Besides, those were the kind of roles where you put the sloths! It was only their movement speed that was slow, their thinking and reaction time was fine and, as long as their claws were all on the important buttons and it was fully calibrated, you could hardly tell that a sloth was driving you. Instead the DMV had decided to take on the role of giving them all a job, despite all the filing and mammal interaction that was required… Yes, it was already a slow joke and mammals didn't have any competitors that they could go to, but still… If you were gonna give horses a job, why not give them ones there?

Politicians were stupid. Regardless, he was waved through the checkpoint and met with Mr Fox on the other side. The whole area around them was filled with mammals going off to various places and another. There were a variety of meeting and conference rooms, different booths for different pressure groups (such as the food importers, the Bunny Burrow Cooperatives, the transit union and the housebuilders federation) or media outlets and even a large glazed off area that official looking mammals had to use a swipe card to get into and out of. But, what Mr Fox had in mind was an entirely different place.

...

"-They have a bar in here?" Finnick asked, blinking.

"No, of course not. They have two," he said, starting to walk forward before pausing. "Where's Kylie. Kylie!? Ky… -Ah, there you are."

They walked back over to the opossum, his head tilted up.

"Hey," Finnick began. "Come…"

"Shhhh…" the small mammal interrupted, pointing up at the screen. "I'm trying to follow this."

The two foxes looked at each other, before shrugging and leaving him to it. Going back to the previously discussed catering establishments, they walked into one and sat down. While mostly enclosed and out of public view, they were looking at, for all intents and purposes, a restaurant complete with a bar. It was semi-busy too, filled with a number of mammals having brunch. There were even a few children in one area, tucking into their food. "Now, this happens to be a pretty popular chain and, like all members it should have…" He went over to a kiosk area and picked something up, moving over to the bar and paying a good few bucks for it. Back he went, showing off…

"A dessert coupon?"

"A one free dessert, no questions asked, coupon," he corrected, before walking out again. Finnick followed him, curious as to how this would fit into the plan. Annoyingly, Nick had always been the one who worked out those extra complex multi-stage hustles, and so he struggled to work out how this would help, racking his brain in thought. Not helped as Mr Fox's phone rang. "Yes Kylie? A mammal of interest, you say? Right!" He glanced down at Finnick. "Follow me."

Finnick nodded, tracking on as Mr Fox turned left, turned right, began going faster and slower, evidently trying to intercept the target. He looked up, focussing up high and trying to peel his ears for the sound of heavy thuds. Where was he, where was that hippo! He was focussing so hard he didn't notice who was in front of him until the moment he collided hard with a soft, fluffy mass.

"Woah…"

"'Scuse," Finnick said, at least able to recognise that if anyone had failed to look where they were going, it was him. He looked up to see a particularly small sheep looking at him. Almost as small as Dawn Bellwether, speaking of which…

"Sorry," Finnick said, bowing his head and putting his paw forward. After all, it could just be a coincidence, but then again… "I should'a been watching my step. The name's Finnick."

"Uh… Dominic," he replied, his tongue tripping over itself a little. "I… -no worries."

"Nice name," he said, slipping past him and looking up to Mr Fox. Mr Fox looked back, giving a single hard nod. He got it too. They both kept an eye on the sheep as they parted company, the woolly mammal looking oddly nervous and apprehensive compared to those around him. As he stepped out of view, Kylie turned up.

"Found him?" the opossum asked.

Finnick nodded. "Bumped into him," he said, turning back to Mr Fox. "Any change of plans."

"Not yet, let's see how the main mission goes first. Don't want to overextend ourselves, do we? Not unless we know we can reach it and grab it all up!" He sauntered up to a kiosk and held out a paw. "Three tickets to the viewing gallery please. I want to see democracy, in mammal!"

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Fauna and Flora was not far away from the protest, and by the time they arrived Judy could already pick up some of the noise thanks to her ears. Nick strained to pick it up too. "Ooooh, is that a 'Down with this sort of thing'?"

The bunny next to him, already perked up from her latest coffee and with synapses ablaze, couldn't help but smile as she shot out her response. "Careful now."

"Ah," he sighed smugly. "The classics are the best. There are three universal constants about protests, Fluff. One: you'll have funky homemade placards. Two: whatever's being protest, most of the professional looking placards will be from 'Zoocialist Mammal' and say that socialism is the answer. Three: Down with this sort of thing."

"Careful now," Judy added with a smile.

With that he pushed the door in, the bell ringing, and the pair entering a shop that they had first stepped into back when this whole mess had begun.

"Oh, you two, what a surprise!" They turned to see the proprietor, Mr Trottington, sitting there, listening to some classic music as he waited. Flipping up a remote, he turned it off, before walking up to them, paw out. "I'm guessing you're here due to the protest."

"Well, originally," Judy said, stepping up to him, paw out. "But we got a recent lead on that old case, and we thought we'd come and just chase a few things up."

"Ah," he said, walking over and flipping the sign on his door to 'closed', before pushing up one of the locking bars hard. "Is it from all these recent events? With the silverfox kid?"

"Yeah, I…" Judy began, before pausing. "How do you know his name?"

He paused, blinking a few times. "Oh, that's his name?" he asked, pausing. "Oh dear, I… -I'm not in trouble, am I? I just saw the video, I saw a silverfox, so…"

"Technically a platinum fox," Nick corrected, "but I'll give you a pass."

"Yup," she said. "Anyhow, we actually got a separate lead, and we'd like another look at your storage room. You know, just to see if there's anything we missed at the time that lines up."

There was a long pause as he fumbled with his hooves. "I'm… I'm not sure how to put this, so I guess I'll just show you."

"Show us what?" she asked.

He waved them on, the pair retreating back into the storage room that had been broken into. Opening the door, they were met with a blast of warm humid air, sweet smells and the whirring of fans. The dusty storage room was gone, replaced with a high tech clean room, almost completely full of sealed shelves. Each one was filled with LED lighting: pansies, morning glories and all sorts of other small simple flowers growing in them. Judy's stomach couldn't help but grumble, they looked delicious.

"In my defence, that, exactly," he said, pointing at her stomach. "Flower cuisine is big among some species, but unless you get a garden and can eat it when it comes, you have to settle for dry stuff. I thought, 'fresh flowers whenever you want', sounds like a good idea."

Nick gave a whistle, flicking one of the growing units with his claws. "I am not totally envious that I didn't think of this."

"Yeah, thanks," he said, smiling warmly. "-But after the theft, I thought I'd get rid of those howlers and do something with this space. But of course that meant tearing out all the places the thief could get in and out. I mean, I called you guys and you said that it was fine to do! I hope this isn't…"

"-It's fine," Judy said, smiling. "These things happen, and it was a long shot anyway."

He froze mid-speech, visibly deflating as he relaxed. He wiped his brow, before looking forward, a smile on his face. "Thanks."

"What happened to the howlers by the way?"

"Oh, you guys took them. Well, not you guys specifically, but you know…"

"I know," Nick said, as he and Judy walked out. He closed the door behind him and locked it up, before pausing, an eyebrow rising.

"You know, the roof is still the same. Tell you what, if Miss Hopps goes up there and has a look, I could have a talk with Mr Wilde."

"Sounds great!" Judy said, before jumping up to catch the keys as they were thrown her way. Coffee perked up, she marched off, turning a corner before vanishing.

"Right," the florist began. "You know…"

He was cut off as Judy marched back in. "Actually, it would be better if Nick did it. You've been up to the roof before, haven't you?"

"Guilty as charged," he said, as he caught the keys.

The pig kept quiet, watching the two as they swapped, Nick going up to the roof. Judy, meanwhile, smiled, looking up to him. "Anyway, you can talk to me instead," she said, a perked up smile on her face. He shrugged and led her on to a small alcove, sitting down amongst a bunch of non-descript nettle like plants. "Isn't this catnip?" she asked, leaning forward and smelling some.

"My feline customers may enjoy this nook quite a bit," he said, before pausing. He stepped up and walked away before coming back, a small bowl in his hoof. "If it's any consolation, here's some of the things that replaced your evidence."

"Oooh," Judy said, salivating a little as purple and pink morning glories were set in front of them. She took a mouthful, tastegasming. "These are amazing!"

"Why thanks."

"I… -consider me a patron."

He nodded, thinking a second. "We could set up a subscription, that was something I was pondering. Beats taking these things through that protest."

"I guess so."

"Yup. What do you think of it?"

"Huh?"

"The protest," he pondered. "I mean, I used to have to go through all sorts of loops and regulations, and I could have lost my business if I'd messed up with the howlers. So I think the whole custody thing is harsh but fair…"

"Personally, it's not fair," she said, her nose twitching as she cut him off. "I mean, I knew that kit before…"

"-Did you now?"

She nodded. "Nick's friends with the family. And I knew him as a sweet, mature, kind mammal, and one who wouldn't do it. I mean, I was with the Chief, thinking that he hadn't done it and it was probably a set up."

"Oh heavens," he said. "The poor family."

Judy nodded. "What's worse is that his aunt is about to have a new kit, it was supposed to be a happy time for all of them, but everything's been ruined!"

"Oh gosh, oh gosh, I… -It might not be much, but I could send them some flowers. If you give me the address, I could…"

"-That would be great," she said, smiling. He brought forward a sheet of paper, and she started writing it down.

He smiled too. "I'm guessing you've been investigating it then. Right?"

"Well, not officially, conflict of interest and all," she said. "But we've been helping the family look itself up by themselves. We've made a lot of real discoveries, which we're both looking into ourselves and handing back to the police investigating it themselves."

"Amazing," he said. "I mean, it's fascinating. What kind of monster would decide to frame a kit like that?"

"Urghhh…" she groaned distastefully. "We've actually got two suspects…"

"-Two?"

"Yeah. I can't really tell you who the second one is, other than someone who had an indirect connection to the original nighthowler plot. The first also had one. He's the mammal who stole from your shop."

"Duke Weaselton?"

She nodded. "And we're pretty sure he left the country and is in Oregon right now."

"So you're waiting for the police to bring him in, or trying to do it yourself?"

"We've got some friends who'll go out and try and get him, when we know where he is."

"Remarkable, remarkable," he said, shaking his head. "This whole thing. Still, it must be amazing for that family to have so many good friends."

"Well, it's what friends do."

"Right… Just like enemies do what they do. Why would that weasel do it to him?"

"Well, we think it was a petty revenge ploy," she sighed.

"And the others, the same?"

"Yeah," she said, sighing, her foot beginning to thump.

"But why?"

"Well…" she began, before pausing. "No, I can't tell you. It'd be unfair if it turned out not to be them."

"Them?"

Judy sighed, standing up. "Let's just say they were close to Bellwether and leave it at that, okay?"

"Okay," he said, nodding. "Just want to know how I could help and all."

"Unless you've seen our weasel friend after, then no…" she sighed. "I mean, you said it yourself, you disposed of the howlers that were left."

"Seemed like the wisest choice," he said apologetically. "But no weasel anytime before then, though he probably had a cache somewhere. What species were the others?"

Judy paused, thinking. "I guess Ican tell you that. Sheep."

He shrugged. "Plenty of sheep here and there, everywhere. If I had a name…"

"I'm pretty sure they'd use a false name or a friend or something. That or having their own cache too," she said, thinking back. After all, with so much effort already put into changing their identity…

"I mean, if you ever change your mind…"

"We'll keep you in mind," she said, turning back as Nick came down, a slight frown on his face.

"Nothing that stands out," he said, "but I got a call from the precinct I'll tell you about outside." He looked at the two. "Had a good chat?"

"Yeah, sure," she said, only to pause. "Though we got sidetracked, I think. What did you want to talk about at the start?" she asked the pig.

"Oh, I just wanted to catch up. What with everything going on. And it seems that I can help too. I'll have those flowers over as soon as I can. Most I can do for refurbing out your old lead."

"Well, it's deeply appreciated," Judy said, waving goodbye. She marched out, purpose in her step, before jolting hard against the locked door.

"Ah," he said, trotting up and pulling down the bar. "Best of luck with the protest."

"Thanks," Judy said, as she and Nick stepped out. The noise from the protest was like it was before, a quiet thing off in the distance. In fact, it seemed to be fading against the noise of traffic. The bunny paused, her ears raised; was that right, or was the noise of traffic increasing?

Nick scanned around. "Badge and Delilah are safe. But their childhood friend, city prosecutor Kyle VanDal, was caught in a hit and run late last night. He's recovering in hospital, they're supporting him, meaning they've stopped taking on new cases."

"Sweet cheese," Judy muttered, pausing for a second. She was about to ask if that VanDal was related to another mammal of the same name, a war hero who'd been caught in a bunch of legal issues a while back, only for Nick to carry on.

"From what I gather, Sam Burmowitz leapt off his penthouse balcony due to a tactically placed cucumber."

"-WHAT?"

"Thankfully he guided himself down onto the pavement, not the road, and is fine," he carried on. "Sprained paw, but not his writing one, and he's arranged some protection going on. There was a mention he'd be increasing his workload to spite those who did this."

Judy relaxed, shaking her head. "Thank god he's a cat," she said, relaxing. Her ears flicked up slightly as she thought she heard some more strangely loud traffic noise, only for Nick to carry on again.

"So it seems we were right, they were trying to keep the lawyers off the case, but they failed." He glanced down and smiled, relaxing. "I guess we did here too, but… Well, nothing lost, is there" he said. "And it seems that protest is keeping itself nice and non…"

He paused as a roar of an engine shrieked through the air.

"-violent…"

It returned again, and the pair turned to see a large chopper bike, a massive biker wolf sat atop it, race past.

Nick blinked. "Okay, he probably just heard about it…"

More engines roared, and five more biker wolves raced past.

"And brought his friends…"

Looking back, they saw a whole pack of them speeding down the road.

"Oh… Cuss," he said, "She did not. She did NOT!"

"What?" Judy asked, her ears shying away as the massive convoy began roaring past, heading straight towards the protest. Nick meanwhile had his phone out and was dialing in, hammering the numbers.

"FINNICK!? Is your girlfriend there?"

…

"Because when she said she'd get together mammals to protest this thing, I didn't think it would include the cussing Lang family!"

…

"-Kind of instructed you!? Someone who was their friend, I… -You do realise that we're the schmucks who have to deal with them?"

…

"Okay then, I will talk with your Vix, even if I do end today on a feeding tube." He hung up hard, a worried look on his face as he nervously looked to the side, yet more biker wolves roaring past.

"I… This can't be that bad, right?" Judy began, her nose twitching. "I mean, this 'Lang Family.' It's not like they're out of Mad Yax or any…" She trailed off as a doof warrior like guitar riff filled the air. They both turned, spotting a massive wolf on a massive bike roar past. On the other side of his vehicle was a sidecar, the heads of the offending instrument peeking out over the bodywork.

They both turned to each other, her nose twitching and his ears folding back. There was a buzz as their radios went off, both pulling them up.

"Yes! We're coming!" They replied, before turning and hurrying off.