The new tales from Zootopia

by Vindictive456

This story is a well thought out work of fan-fiction that will cover in moderate pace how Judy came back to the force and convinced Nick to be her partner, Nick's training to become an officer and his days at the academy, a weird new case involving corrupt mammals and a new dangerous drug, all of that sprinkled with the growing love between Zootopia's favorite pair of officers.

27. Episode 27: Wounded

Author's note: Salutations, everyone. It is I, Valiant, and I have prepared a brand new chapter of my Zootopia Fan-fic. These last few weeks have been kinda rough, I just learned about the death of my favorite power ranger and that hit me hard. The distractions around me have been plentiful but I still put out lots oftime and energy in order to push this next chapter out of the presses as fast as I could. What happens next leaves a lot out in the air and you may probably guess by the title alone that something bad is about to happen, you may think that I'm pandering to some other story devices seen in a lot of Zootopia related comics and Fan-fics, but, love it or hate it, this is not some cheap story device that I introduced in order to add to the drama or get more readers, I hope this next part will keep you wired to the story and speak to you all going forward as it has spoken to me. I'm not sure if the next chapter will come out before the end of this year but I'll do my best to bring more of the story to you. I hope you will enjoy what I have put up as a Writter and I wish to you all an amazing read.

ONWARD!

Episode 27: Wounded.

Nick and Judy had been taken, the bunny was rendered completely inactive thanks to the tranquilizer dart while Nick was still awake and somewhat aware but dealing with the harsh pain dealt by his attackers, the back of his head was pounding as he felt his body being dragged through back alleys until they entered an old building. Nick had his eyes closed for most of the time, he could smell dust, moisture, old concrete bare through unpainted walls as well as almost no fresh air at all, the fox felt panic for a moment, he was completely turned around and he had no idea where they were being taken, he only hoped that Judy was alright.

Taking peeks with his left eye every once in a while, Nick tried to make some more sense of where he was currently located, his glances lasted not more than half a second so no major details were taken to mind, he had to keep the appearance that he was knocked out and defenseless, same as Judy. Nick did his best to make the joints of his body seem dormant and without tension, add it to the act, minutes after arriving at the unknown hidden location, he and Judy had their arms bound by pawcuffs and were tossed inside the confines of a small closet, they were trapped but not out of the game just yet. Nick made absolute sure that there was no one else around that could pose as a threat, he and Judy were alone, left to isolation to be dealt with later, that was fortuitous.

Nick looked around, he was seated on the dirty hard floor and his movement was restricted but he was still alive and able so there was still a chance to escape from those confines and to apprehend the goons that tossed them in there. Nick looked around and he did not have to look too hard to find Judy, immobile and seated right behind him much like a scene from a movie where the two heroes would find themselves trapped and immobile but still kept together so that they could still work on a way to escape such a bind.

"Sheesh, you would think that this guys have never heard of a cliché before."

Nick thought to himself, finding somewhat strange how their ambushers would not think about those sorts of things before locking them up together. Nick turned his head and his sight as far as he could to the right, he found that Judy's breathing was calm and regulated, she was calmly and easily placed over his back and was sleeping soundly, she had to wake her up right away.

- Carrots. Yo, carrots. Wake up.

Nick moved his upper body around, speaking with a controlled volume and scooching about to jostle Judy awake, it proved ineffective. Nick looked around once more, just to make sure there would be no compromising presence around that would disrupt him, he listened and took a few sniffs of the air but the unnerving calm around them remained unchanged. Nick tried jostling Judy up one more time, he moved a little quicker as he bumped her body with a swing of his right shoulder and spoke up with louder volume to his voice:

- Judy, c'mon. Please, wake up.

That did it, Judy opened her eyes and groaned with discomfort as she began to slowly wake up, the bunny shook her head around in order to shake the fog out of her thoughts and clutched her shoulders to try and move about freely, she quickly came to the realization that she could not do so. Judy moved her head slowly to the left as she tried doing the same thing as she did before, her wrists were bound together by thin chains and she only had to think for a second to realize, the binds that entrapped her were her own pawcuffs, she released a sigh of disappointment, disappointed at herself that she would fall down and be captured like that, it felt almost unbearable, then again it might have just been her body slowly overcoming the tranquilizer shot into her.

Nick smiled, glad that Judy was now awake, he nudged his head in her direction and spoke up:

- Heya there, carrots. I'm glad you're alright. Welcome to the party.

That bad joke did nothing to dissuade Judy that the situation they now found themselves in was less than suboptimal, they would need a quick plan to get free but they would need to take heart on the situation first. Judy tried to calm herself as best as she could, she scooched her body back until she was completely leaned over Nick with her back straightened out and looked around before asking:

- Nick, where are we?

The fox understood that, as he was the one among them who was mostly conscious during their relocation, he would have the perfect answers to put her at ease. Nick cleared his throat and put the answer right out there as he said:

- I don't really know for sure. I had my eyes closed most of the time. They dragged us pretty far from that alley where they ambushed us. At the very least, we're both still breathing.

Judy nodded her head twice and spoke out:

- Right, that's good.

Judy tucked her legs in, she wanted to make sure that all the sensation had come back to her body, she wiggled her toes and grunted with effort as she confirmed all of her extremities were in order before saying:

- Yeah. Also, we're both in one piece.

Nick nodded once, confirming that he was glad about that as well even if that gesture went partially unseen. Nick directed his head up and gave Judy his load-out about where they were, trying to be as eloquent as possible as he put out his own description of their current predicament:

- So, here is the deal: We're bound together by our own cuffs and locked inside what I can only assume as a supply closet inside some forgotten warehouse. There are five goons waiting for us, that we could see at least, and one of them is most likely keeping watch just outside. We at least have some light coming from that little looking seam on the door so we can see each other, that's a plus.

- I don't hear anything.

Judy had waited for Nick to complete his sentence before saying that, the lack of sound that was present all around them, except for their own voices, finally hit her and she spoke out to it. Nick turned his head in the direction of Judy's voice, the volume she used to speak to him was the one thing that called to his attention as he asked quickly of her for further clarification:

- What was that?

- I… don't hear anything around us. There are no steps, not humming of electricity, I don't even hear the sounds of the street outside. We must be underground. Not so far as to have lack of light or fresh air but we must be underground somewhere.

Nick tried his best to stay quiet and listening in to what Judy was referring to. Just as the bunny had mentioned, Nick could not hear the sound of traffic outside and there was no smell of pavement or exhaust coming from anywhere nearby. Nick lowered his head and started to think on an expedient way on how they could figure out where they were and call the ZPD for assistance, escaping, however, took first priority. Nick began putting an escapee method into action but Judy's voice entered his trail of thought as the bunny looked over one more time and spoke up:

- They took my safety vest. They took my shooter and my radio.

Judy scooched around for a little more until she also find out one last detail about her swiped belongings, speaking up with an annoyed tone of voice soon after:

- And I left my cellphone in the cruiser. What about you?

Nick put a halt on his controlled efforts trying to escape to check on himself on on what gear he still had, he did not have to check long to figure out what he was missing:

- I think they took my cellphone, also my shooter and extra clips are gone.

That was when Nick move his shoulders slightly up and felt a comfortable pull of weight coming from underneath his shirt, the fox turned his head to the left in order to project his voice more comprehensively towards his partner and say:

- Hey, they didn't take off my safety vest. I guess they didn't find out I wear mine under the shirt.

Judy nodded and spoke up to that while also doing her best to breathe and keep a cool head:

- Good. That's good. Of course that still means we're trapped here with no radio or weapons with heaven knows how many goons waiting to pick us off.

Judy lowered her head and she could feel Nick moving slightly right next to her, she imagined right away how the fox was trying in vain to slide free from his entrapment, imagining her partner putting himself in unnerving and impractical strain only made her feel more uneasy about that moment. Racked with the feeling of ineptness and thinking that she was the reason why they lost their fight and were now trapped, Judy turned her head to the right and talked to Nick, apologizing for her fail to react accordingly against the threat that sprung over them:

- Nick, I'm really sorry. If I saw that wolf drawing his shooter when he did, we would not be in this bind.

Nick turned his face in the direction of Judy's voice and comforted her as he said:

- If anyone in here needs to apologize for what happened, it's me. I should have recognized that guy as soon as I saw him walking our way. If my mind was a little bit faster at the time, maybe we wouldn't be stuck like this.

Judy questioned Nick in relation to what he just said, it might not have been the most opportune time but she wished to gather more information about his relation to the wolf that lead the ambush:

- How did you know that guy anyway?

Nick continued to shimmy and move about, he answered Judy's question without feeling like she was prying too much into what he knew:

- He was wearing a little pendant on his shirt, it was a wasp, that's what they call themselves. I knew them as goons on the employ of Mr. Big, they were charged with gatering information about every little thing that happened around Zootopia but they tried to get some dirt on Big and his family and got busted in the process. Last I heard of them, they had disbanded. I should have put the pieces together faster, sorry.

Judy did not move her head but her ears twitched up as she heard Nick's voice saying that, the fox returned to the movement he was employing before as soon as he was finished speaking, putting a lot of focus on whatever he was doing in order to get free. Judy sympathized with Nick's words and said to him:

- Nick, don't apologize, don't say stuff like that. You were as quick to react in that fight as any officer would have been. We just need to put our heads together now and get out of here. Then again… that might be easier said than done if those five brutes are keeping watch out there.

Nick adjusted his shoulders and spoke with a little strain in his voice as he called out to Judy but she was distracted still in her head about all of the difficulties they had to surpass:

- Carrots…

- And, if you take into account that we're underground, there is a risk that we will not be able to reach precinct one even if we get our radios back.

Nick tried calling out to her again with more volume and less strain in his voice:

- Carrots.

- Anyway, first things first, we need to stand up in order to find a way to get out of this closet.

Already fed up with Judy not listening to him at that time, Nick added to the volume and called out to her decisively:

- Judy!

Her ears darted up and she asked right out to see if her partner had any more information that could add up to the tension of that moment:

- What is it, Nick?!

To Judy's surprise, Nick raised his arms up and showed that he was, somehow, freed from his cuffs, the fox put his paws to the ground and pushed, repositioning into a favorable angle as he stood up but he did not put himself on his feet just yet as he turned around and placed himself on one knee to see if he could free Judy from her cuffs. The bunny was left completely stunned by what she witnessed, Nick was free from his restrains and he did not even made a big deal about it, she did not even heard the sound of a latch being undone, spent some time, with the fox meddling on her cuffs, she noticed that he only managed to slip one of his paws out, the metal ring of the cuffs was still around his right wrist. Judy moved her head around, right and left, trying to see how Nick got free like that, she asked of him at last while tucking her left leg for balance and turning her head to the right:

- Nick… what in the…? How did you get free?

The fox stopped with his meddling and answered while showing both of his paws in the air:

- Back in the academy I took on a bet with the other cadets to see if I could free myself from a set of standard pawcuffs and I practiced a lot with that concept. I learned how to dislocate my thumb and slip out without an issue, still hurts a bit though.

Judy smiled, once more her partner had brought something completely unforeseen to the table and she could not wait to be free and help arrest the ones responsible for putting them there. Nick studied the cuffs Judy was trapped in and he quickly found out that there was no way to get her out of those without the key, he leaned his upper body a few degrees to the right so that he could look Judy in the eyes and tell her about that:

- Bad news, fluff. I don't think you can get out of these. That is… unless you'd be willing to let me dislocate your fingers.

Nick could hear Judy breathing in and exhaling a long dash of air into her nose and out through her mouth, he thought that the bunny was trying to express her frustration in a controlled manner, he was surprised to get that sort of reaction out of her since he knew that Judy was not the type of mammal to demonstrate anger or frustration in any form without lots of pressure being thrown against her. Truthfully, the biggest surprise came as he heard her voice coming up once more to tell him:

- Alright, go ahead.

Nick's ears twitched and he asked right away:

- W… wait, what?

Judy tried raising her shoulders as to move her wrists back and closer to Nick before clarifying what she meant:

- Do what you said. Press my paws, dislocate my thumbs and get me out of these cuffs.

Nick retreated from that possibility, mentally and physically. The fox leaned back and took his paws away from Judy and he spoke up:

- Whoa, okay, you didn't even hesitate on that! Just hang on there, fluff. I'm not about to break your paws just so you can get out of those things. It might put some serious damage on your knuckles, as well as a few other things, if I'm not careful enough.

Judy did not mind that, she appreciated Nick's concern and sense of control but she still wanted to go to any extreme in order to escape. Judy insisted upon it as she turned her upper body to the right so that she could look at Nick and tell him that she put enough consideration to that plan that would warranty the uncomfortable feeling of her fingers being dislocated:

- Nick, it's alright. A little pain right now may be worth it if we can both get out of here.

Nick put his foot down, figuratively, bluntly refusing to harm Judy in any way even if that would ultimately be the quickest way to help her escape the cuffs. The fox leaned his body forward and spoke up with a tone of voice that communicated how much he refused that possibility but he did not open his mouth wide to control his volume which made it seem like he was talking through his teeth out of frustration but Judy picked up on the true meaning of that as her partner spoke:

- Judy, I'm not gonna dislocate your fingers.

His voice was so close to her, so conclusive, she seriously reconsidered her previous stand on asking him to dislocate her fingers. Nick continued to look for a way out of that predicament, convinced that the only way he would be able to free Judy would be finding the keys to those cuffs, he also still had the cuffed ringing of his own restrains around his left wrist and he did not trained on how to do exactly the same on what he did with his right paw to be free of that. Nick decided to take a look outside to check on what were their options, he asked of Judy to wait for a moment while he checked things out.

Nick jumped to the small windowed seem on the door, doing his best to not make any noise or arouse any suspicion as he hoisted his body up to check on the space immediately outside. Nick lowered his ears as far as he could to the back of his head and focused on doing a quick search at the room outside, a much bigger space awaited just on the other side of the door, a room with a metal desk that supported all of the equipment that was taken from Judy and himself as well as an inattentive tiger keeping guard over it all. Nick only had a quick look outside but he did notice a small window near the top of the opposite wall that could give them a clear view of the outside world and get him a better notion of their location but they would have to take a really big gamble and it would not go favorable for them without their gear. Nick approached Judy again and spoke to her:

- Carrots, listen up and keep your voice down, that big tiger guy that decked me is just outside and our gear is sitting pretty over a table right next to him, we need to get it back so we can call for reinforcements and bust out of here. I think I have a plan on how to do it but I'm going to need your help.

Judy watched as Nick positioned himself right in front of her and listened carefully to every word as he spoke quickly to explain her the main details of what he had seen outside. Judy nodded once and answered to that:

- Alright, tell me your plan.

Nick came a little closer and said:

- If we can make some noise and convince him to come in, we can take him out since he doesn't know I slipped out of my cuffs, but we're going to have to be stealthy about it and we'll have to take stock of what we have. Are you sure they took every last piece of gear out of you?

Judy looked over herself and her uniform and remembered one crucial thing about her gear, one small detail that the criminals may have missed. Judy nudged her head to the left and spoke to Nick, telling him what to look for:

- Look over on my belt, there is a little pouch with extra tanq ammo at the back left side.

Nick was just about to reach over at Judy to search her belt for the mentioned items, if they were still where she told him where they were located, their odds of escaping just increased significantly. However, just before placing his paws over Judy's belt, Nick halted his movements and asked for further clarification on where to search for, he signaled with both of his paws pointing in opposite directions as he asked:

- Wait, my left or your left?

Judy looked at Nick and clarified briefly as she nudged her head in the direction she was referring to initially and answered:

- My left.

Nick got that and began searching, it took him little time to find what he was asked for, a little rectangular pouch that was otherwise very well hidden on Judy's utility belt. Nick undid the small button that was keeping the pouch closed and retrieved two darts filled with tranquilizer, he had already formulated a plan as he placed the tools he would use to mastermind an escape in each of his paws and spoke up:

- Alright, here is the deal: We're gonna have to make a lot of noise to call to his attention, after he comes to check on us, we'll need to provoke him, really egg him on, so he can come closer and I will be able to jab him with these.

Judy thought that over in silence for a few seconds, Nick's plan slowly stablished solid footing in her mind as she constructed a detailed diagram of how the plan might play out. There were little to no variables for Nick's plan, there was only way entryway for the goon outside and they would be able to succeed as long as there was no alarm to call to any others in the vicinity. Judy prepared herself, thinking up the correct mindset to lure the sighted crook into a trap, she was a little surprised to see Nick sitting down in his original position right behind her so she asked:

- Nick… what are you doing over there?

The fox turned his head to the right and answered her:

- He needs to think that we're both still trapped. Help me nudge our bodies closer to the door.

Attending to Nick's request and convinced that the fox would be able to get it done, Judy tucked her legs in and helped him move ahead by pushing her body little by little over the hard floor in the direction Nick pointed out. As soon as the tow of them were close enough to the door, Nick turned his head to the right and whispered:

- Okay, it's go time. Follow my lead.

Nick tucked both of his legs and banged his feet against the lower surface of the door, making a lot of noise as the hard surface of the door rattled slightly due to the repetitive impact, he added to the noise by yelling out loud:

- HEY! LET US OUT OF HERE!

Nick continued banging on the door uninterrupted and Judy yelled out as well, making herself look and sound as angry as she could possibly be, yelling without making her voice sound squeaky or desperate:

- WHEN I GET MY PAWS ON YOU CROOKS I'm GOING TO TOSS YOU IN THE SAME CELL AND THROW AWAY THE KEY!

Nick was satisfied to see Judy get into the spirit of things, it would add more believable coherence to the plan but the way she took the acting was not exactly what he had in mind. Nick turned over to speak with Judy as he whispered:

- Carrots, you should be acting more concerned. Scared even.

Judy turned her head in the direction of Nick's voice and countered that with her words by saying:

- I'm trying to stoke the fire so he will feel forced to come check on us. It's hard for me to act in any way beyond angry when I'm *feeling* angry.

After putting a little emphasis on the way she was feeling, Judy put a little pause on her words as she clarified one crucial detail about herself:

- Nick, I *am* angry!

Convinced that it would be for the best for Judy to aim that newfound sense of anger at someone else rather than him, Nick turned his sight back at the door and continued to act according to his plan. The fox banged against the door as best as he could without letting the precarious hold of balance he had on the floor tumble him to the ground, it might mess things up if he were to fall down at the wrong angle and cause the mammal on guard to see one of his paws out of the cuffs.

Nick did not have to bash the door with his feet or yell insults for much longer, the tiger noticed the noise through the sound of his earbuds and went to check on the prisoners, Dexter swung the door of the closet open and found Nick and Judy, seated on the floor, bound together, two great officers of Zootopia posted beneath him and completely at his mercy. Dexter did not even try to hide how pleased he was in seeing the bunny and the fox like that, the toothy grin on his face said it all and Nick's stare only showed how much he wanted to kick the tiger into the dirt, focus and timing would be crucial from that point on. Dexter leaned down, placing himself on one knee, he pointed a claw at Nick and spoke up with a menacing tone and without letting the smile he had fade away:

- Well, now this is a nice sight. Two of Zootopia's finest, smacked on the ground.

Nick had to get a good shot at the goon, he needed Dexter to come closer or he would risk wasting a prime chance, he had to provoke the villain which certainly was a risk of considerable size in that scenario. Nick leaned forward, determined to call to the tiger's attention and speak loudly:

- Even with my tail against the floor, I can still take you down without even trying.

Dexter leaned closer but not close enough, Nick needed to be quick in order to catch him with the element of surprise, the tiger was confident but he still played with caution, placing himself just beyond the fox's reach. Dexter's tail swished to the right and his head leaned to the left, trying to catch a glimpse of Judy to check if she would have something to add to that, the bunny stayed quiet, being prepared in case Nick needed something else from her for his plan to work, she still kept her body moving, pretending to be struggling and turning her body as well as she could without pushing on Nick right behind her so she could get a good look at the mammal talking to them. Dexter spoke up as she felt satisfied with Judy's struggle, though his words were directed at Nick:

- Strong words for a mammal who finds himself and his bunny defenseless and trapped.

Nick had to provoke him further, he had to appear hostile. The fox showed his teeth and answered:

- She is not *my* bunny and neither of us are defenseless.

Judy's ears twitched after hearing that, she clutched her paws and tucked her feet in, the time to jump into action may have been closer than she thought. Dexter clutched his right paw into a fist, trying to intimidate the fox, Nick kept his eyes focused on him without batting an eye as the tiger puffed and spoke up:

- I don't think I paid you enough for the zapping you gave me. Maybe I'll let your friend there watch as I break you apart.

The risk factor rose significantly but Nick was still confident that would be ideal for his plan. Judy suddenly became worried, she pressed her lips shut and turned her head to the left, Nick lowered his ears over his head and leaned back slightly, speaking up as soon as he figured how hostile the tiger would react after hearing one more taunt coming from him:

- Bad move, pal. My partner here took down bigger and better than you and she didn't even break a sweat. You wanna risk pissing her off even more than you already did then you are just punching your own ticket to prison with an added merit.

Dexter took one good look at Nick, the spark in his eyes adding to the infuriating gleam of his smirk, the fox displayed an irritating mixture of smugness and defiance that did not sit well at all with the tiger who thought of himself as clearly the one in control. Dexter had enough of Nick's words, he wanted to smack the smirk right out of the fox's face and he endeavored to do just that as his right fist pulled to the left before striking the fox with a back pawed wave that pushed the officer to the side and caused him to tumble to the ground. Judy heard the sound of the impact against her partner, she felt as Nick's presence was pushed aside suddenly and her heart ached for a fraction of a second as she heard his grunt in pain after his side hit the ground. Judy was just about to turn, to check on Nick to see if he was alright, she gasped and turned her head to the right, looking at her partner fallen like that sparked an angry light in Judy but she was stopped from going any further with her actions after feeling a soft tap over her lap.

Judy turned her head back and looked down, Nick's long tail tapped twice next to her left leg and she got that as a warning to hold off and not raise any suspicions, things had taken a turn but the plan was still heading in the right direction. Nick heard Judy gasping with concern for him but he was still conscious and still willing to keep his gamble going strong, the fox fought hard against his instinctual impulse to block the attack or cushion his own fall with his arms, he had to keep his arms behind his back until the time was right. Dexter maintained his position, perched on one knee overlooking the fox as he fell down, the tiger spoke up with an angry tone of voice as he asked:

- How's that for a 'punched ticket'?

Nick groaned as he found himself tossed to the floor, the right side of his head was sore and his vision was a little blurry, he pushed through the pain in order to turn his head and look at the tiger once more as the feline pointed a claw at him and said:

- No matter how much of a tough guy you think you are, that uniform doesn't make you any stronger. You can talk all the trash you like to put me down but it won't make a difference. You're small and weak.

To which Nick retorted with an exhausted tone to his voice while he was still lying full-body against the ground:

- And you're big and ugly, so… where does that leave us?

Angry beyond measure, Dexter grabbed Nick by the neck piece of his shirt and hoisted the fox up, the tiger's right claws digging into the fabric but not into his target's skin while his left paw formed into a fist that was prepped to dish out a straight shot on to the fox's face. Dexter took a breath between his teeth and launched a full blown threat over Nick as he said:

- Oh, I'm gonna cave that smug muzzle of yours in.

Nick felt the pull on his throat and his shoulders and put his reaction into effect as his paws clasped the side of the hidden darts prepping both for a swift jab before he opened his mouth to say:

- I'm sure you are. But, before you do that, can I ask one more question?

Dexter smiled and answered:

- Sure, you're going to be out like a light so that sounds fair. What's the question?

At that moment, Nick sprung his trap as he swung both of his arms forward in a slamming pinch arch and put both of the darts on the tiger's arm. Dexter did not even know what had happened until it was too late, he felt the pain of the dart penetrating his skin followed by a numbness that quickly took hold of his right arm, his paw opened and dropped Nick down and the fox landed on his feet before landing a catch phrase that was molded as a defiant question directed at the tiger:

- How do you like them apples?

Dexter wobbled around and the thought came to his mind to call for the help of his comrades, believing that it would be prudent to not let the two officers escape the confines of their hide-out even if he would be unconscious in a matter of seconds thanks to the tranquilizer, unlucky for him, the chance to cry out for help would never arrive. As soon as Nick got his footing back, he dashed ahead and climbed over the tiger's body, leaning the feline's body back far enough that the fox could not stand over him without falling down, Nick knew that he was now over precarious footing and taking more of a risk but he just had to make sure that no support would come for the tiger any time soon. Nick was now face to face with the tiger, the fox dished out one heavy punch to the right, another to the left and finished his combo with a devastating right elbow shot right between the feline's eyes, Dexter fell down to the ground silenced and completely defeated by a strategy he did not even see coming.

Nick watched the tiger fall to the ground, satisfied that the immediate threat was dealt with and that thorough retribution had been achieved. Nick wasted no time in racing to the desk ad roaming around in search of the keys to Judy's cuffs, Judy tucked her legs and leaned her body in order to stand up completely and rush over to Nick so she could be freed and help out wherever she could, she could not be more glad with the fact that her partner was so amazingly apt in dealing with that situation, she found herself nearly speechless. As Nick approached Judy once more, keys tightly held in his right paw, she turned around so that the fox could unlock the cuffs and spoke out:

- Nick. That was… you were… I mean…

Judy suddenly found herself unable to formulate a complete sentence towards her partner, she did not know why, but she really wished to congratulate her partner on such a great job and keeping his mind so calm during a crisis, she wished to tell Nick that he did much better than she could ever have done. Nick figured that there might have been a criticism heading his way, there was little time for the exchange of words, be it harsh or deserving, the fox showed the palm of his left paw as soon as he was done unlocking the cuffs and spoke out of turn as he told Judy to save any words she had for later, he gave Judy her cuffs back before saying:

- I know, I know. 'How do you like them apples?'?! What kind of line is that? I really should have come up with something with a little more impact. Maybe next time.

Nick signaled towards the knocked down tiger and asked of Judy to come help him restrain the feline, putting him in cuffs and then dragging him into the closet where they were previously imprisoned. Now that Judy was free she turned her mind towards efficiency, saving the compliments she had for Nick for a later time when they would be undoubtedly celebrating the arresting of every goon involved in the ambush. Judy regulated the rings of the cuffs she was now in possession of to fit the tiger's wrist, using a little dial mechanism on the side to enlarge the restrains so that they would fit the wrists of the large feline, Nick too the time to retrieve every single piece of their gear, putting his shooter and extra shock cartridges back in their places before returning to Judy and helping her carry Dexter into the closet.

- (Grunt)… Hunf! It's like carrying a couch.

Judy spoke so as she pushed Dexter by the legs in the direction of the closet while Nick put as much physical effort as he could muster in pulling him by the shoulders. Nick added to Judy's comment as he said:

- Yeah! (Grunt)… An ugly, angry couch.

After a short time, Nick and Judy had successfully stuffed Dexter into the closet and turned their attention to more urgent matter soon after. Judy put her armored vest back on and checked around to make sure all of her belongings were back in place, she reloaded her shooter, grabbed an extra pair of cuffs from one of the vest pockets and checked her radio to see if it was damaged in any way, Nick did the same thing for his cellphone. Nick's phone was not damaged, only deactivated, he turned the screen back on but was immediately disheartened by the warning on the top left corner of the screen that alerted her to the lack of any phone service in the area, he showed it to Judy, turning the screen in her direction, and said:

- No luck over here, I'm getting no service. This is the same problem we encountered outside and I can't call anyone for help. Not even the texting app is working right and I can't send a message without a signal.

Judy grabbed her radio, being the only communication item she had brought along and tried to get a signal to precinct one, no luck, Judy tried different combinations of channels but all of them sounded off the same screeching static noise she had heard previously, their communications devices appeared completely inoperable for the time being.

Judy put her radio away, deciding to try it later as soon as they were out of that room, she approached the exit door and put her right ear to the side of the door frame, trying to catch the sound of steps coming closer or any presence that could come from the other side. No sound was heard and Judy believed it was safe for her and her partner to talk things over and plan their next course of action, without any back-up they would have to act on their own and find their own way out of there. Nick understood what Judy said right away, he put his thoughts into another thing that would help out in that moment, discerning their exact location in the city, making sure that he could still get a little more data to take control of the situation.

Nick called out to Judy, he made a gesture with his left paw, waving in the air in a summoning fashion and asking silently for the bunny to follow close, they moved together to the far side of the room until they were right underneath the narrow rectangular window, the only source of day light in that room. Nick grabbed a tall chair that was placed nearby, the seat where Dexter was perched previously, and dragged it closer to the window, he climbed on it and helped Judy climb on as well by extending her a helping paw. As Nick and Judy stood over the solid seat of the chair, he noticed that they were still nowhere near able to peek their heads through the window, placed just out of both their reaches, Nick looked over at Judy and had another idea, one that might just give them an edge. The chair that the two officers were standing on was spacious and it gave Nick more than enough room to kneel down and tell Judy what she would need to do:

- Carrots, hop on.

Judy looked at her partner, kneeling down right in front of her and was confused about what she needed to do in answer to that, almost unsure if the words that came out of his mouth were some sort of joke. Judy had her ears leaning slightly apart from one another and asked for clarification shortly after laying her eyes back at Nick:

- Excuse me?

Nick pointed both of his paws to his shoulders and said:

- Hop on my shoulders. I'll hoist you up so you can see what's out there.

Judy looked to Nick and up at the window shortly after, her ears twitched as she thought that over and silently agreed that doing as Nick said would be the best course of action. Judy stepped gently over Nick's left shoulder, placing her right foot over it, she placed her right paw on top of his head before putting her left foot over his right shoulder, Judy only had to adjust her center of gravity for a short second before she confirmed that she was ready to be elevated towards the window, Nick got her signal and slowly rose his body up but even that moderate sense of speed during the elevation made Judy feel uncomfortable. Judy was now precariously balancing her body over Nick who was balancing both her weight and his own over a chair, Judy leaned her body forward, placing the palms of her paws on the cold hard wall right in front of her in an effort to inject more of a sense of balance into her body, she did not wish to admit it but Judy was very worried about falling down from that height, even if she would not suffer much damage from such a fall.

Nick waited until Judy was perched straight and stable over his shoulders, the bunny had such small feet and the fox was a little worried that her feet would feel painful pinning over his shoulders, pushing over a pressure point that would not feel good for him, luckily that was not the case. Judy was not heavy and Nick did not feel any pain or discomfort as soon as he pushed Judy upwards, he waited for a moment before asking:

- Can you see the outside?

Judy was only a strides away from peeking out the window, she needed more altitude and she said so as she told Nick:

- Can't… quite reach it yet. Give me more of a boost.

Nick nodded and answered to that:

- Alright. You're an amazing mammal and others say nice things about you.

Judy clutched her right paw into a fist and the tips of her fingers scrapped the wall with no paint on which she was leaning on, she looked down to her partner and called out to his name using a demeaning tone aimed at his attitude:

- Nick…

The fox smiled, figuring that his joke about a 'morale boost' got across without bothering Judy too much, he put his paws on his shoulders to hold on to Judy's feet as he said:

- I know what you meant, fluff. Here, put your feet on my paws.

Nick provided Judy with a new steady foot hold that she could use to reach a little higher, the bunny placed her feet on Nick's hold one at a time and was gently hoisted up just enough so that she could see outside. Judy signaled for Nick to stop elevating her and he stood perfectly still as soon as he got her signal, asking of her once more what could she see just outside:

- Judy, tell me exactly what you see out there. Don't let a single detail escape you.

The window had some scraps of newspaper stuck on the glass, Judy had to rip some of them out in order to get a clearer view of the world outside, she moved her eyes around and described a list of details from least to most important on the picture she was now seeing:

- I see a street, really wide, lots of empty parking spaces, broken parking meters on the other sidewalk, I also see some spots that are overtaken by herbs growing past the concrete. It's a mess out there, there is littler everywhere and graffiti on the walls… and I don't see anyone around.

Nick was getting the picture for himself, he had some sense of their location as he mumbled:

- So… we're in a building with a level below ground on a street that was left overgrown and hasn't seen much movement. What else? Keep going.

Judy kept looking around and took note of the bigger structures on the other side of the street, she leaned her body so that her head could look at different angles and make it better to identify any specific landmark that could aid Nick. Passed five seconds or so, Judy raised her paw to scratch away at some grime stuck at the glass and she persisted on doing so before discovering that most of the dirt that was obscuring her sight was located at the other side of the glass, Judy had the instinct to break the glass, shatter it into pieces so that she and Nick could find a way to crawl out of that creepy basement, not even bothered that she might be cut by the glass, that was not an option, the window was barred by a set of thick rusty metal rods, they needed an exit but the window was not an option for such. As Judy kept an eye on the outside, she was able to identify something else that could be reported to Nick:

- Wait, there is an old electronic store on the other side of the street.

- Great, can you see the name of the place.

Judy squinted her eyes and leaned forward, there was a little glare of sunlight against the glass, it was late in the afternoon. Jud spoke up as soon as she was able to identify the letters on top of the store's front door.

- The place has been abandoned for a while, there are planks covering every window and a small water tower on the roof, I think it's called 'John and Son'

Nick gasped as he heard that, a picture of the street appeared clear as crystal inside of his head and he signaled Judy to come down so that they could talk. Judy got Nick's signal and began her descent, gently stepping down over his shoulders and letting the fox lend a helping paw in getting her down. As soon as the two officers had their feet back on solid ground, Nick pointed out to the window up above and told Judy where they were located:

- If John and Son's is right there, we can only be at Turnabout Clinic's.

Judy had her eyes opened wide with surprise and her ears darting straight up but she did not actually knew where that was or what the meaning behind that name could possibly be. Judy leaned closer to Nick and asked:

- Wait, what? Where is that? A clinic?

Nick cleared his throat and explained as briefly as he could:

- This place used to be a community "hospital" back in the day. We are near the old Galia Prints building, in a place called 'Rundown Avenue'. A colorful name that the mammals of Zootopia chose for this place.

Nick took in some air through his nose and continued his explanation:

- This street used to be full of stores, pharmacies, bars, but it all just… closed down. Other parts of Zootopia developed so fast that this little piece of the south savanna just got left behind in the dust. Tons of other businesses tried ceasing and settling here but nothing worked, financers even said that this place had a curse of some kind. This basement of the building we're in right now used to be a clinic for mammals who could not afford hospital service, gangsters and goons used it a lot back in the day when they got involved in violent dealings with other criminals.

Judy was glad that Nick was able to provide an accurate location for them within the city, she was glad that Nick could remain calm and collected through it all, but the main problem remained in which they had to find an escape route from that place and the door leading out of the room, further into the basement itself, seemed to be their only option. They had to take the chance.

Nick went ahead as he turned the knob on the door and slowly opened it, there was a low creaking sound as the hinges moved but the fox only opened the door just enough so he could see what was on the other side, he looked to the left and to the right seeing nothing but an empty hallway, there were no adornments on the walls and a single door far off to the right by the opposite wall, it looked to be barricaded with a safety rail held in place by a sturdy lock, another blocked path, not looking very promising.

Judy popped out of the opened path right after Nick to check things out for herself, half expecting to find a new target to place under arrest, she stepped through the hallway and her steps echoed as she moved to the left, crossing through the hallway with ease and being followed closely by Nick, his steps were slightly heavier and echoed louder as he followed her close as soon as she signaled the fox that the path was clear. The two officers moved ahead, each of them covering each other's back, Judy was leading the way this time, she volunteered to take the lead as they moved out since her sensitive hearing would be far more useful in detecting other presences than Nick's sense of smell, the only scent he could track was their own as well as the faintest of dust and dank air, the doors had been closed on that place for quite a long time.

Judy and Nick moved stealthily through the hallway, it was a rather dark path that they had to walk and Nick continued to sniff around the air in search of any scent and scan about for a breeze that might lead them towards an exit, no luck, that place made him stressed, he felt like his movement was severely slowed as he followed Judy through the halls, the fact that he hated hospital environments was not helping him. Judy halted her walk ahead abruptly and signaled with a wave of her paw and a twitch of her ears that she had heard something ahead, she resumed her walk with a faster set of steps and Nick followed close as soon as she saw her moving forward once more, the two officers soon found themselves near a cross 'T' section of hallway and Judy pointed to the right, that where the sound she heard before was coming from, they decided together to go ahead and investigate, they had their shooters drawn out just in case they found any obstacles on their path.

The two officers were now walking side by side, their steps were as silent as they could manage since they still did not wish to alert any other suspect or raise any alarm that would reveal their presence, their feet tapped against the cold tiles of the floor with each step and their eyes moved from wall to wall as they scanned for anything that could pounce over them unexpectedly but they did not have to walk very far to find their destination. Judy nudged her head to the left, Nick directed his attention to a set of doors that lead to a big waiting room, the meeting spot of the other goons and the one leading them, the sound Judy had heard earlier was the conversation they were having devolving into a full blown argument.

- You are idiots! Shambling, impulsive, idiots! Every single one of you!

Nick could hear the harsh words coming from the other side of the door as well, him and Judy stood ready just outside as they kept hearing the conversation, the shouting they just heard came from an unknown mammal but it was easy to identify that gruff voice belonged to the one mammal in charge. Nick leaned next to the door and was able to hear the voice of the wolf that lead the ambush, Darfang spoke up with a nonchalant tone of voice:

- Why are we still making a big deal about this? We caught the two officers and prevented them from catching a whiff of our true dealings. Everything is fine.

The steamed feline directed his sights at the wolf and pressed the fingers of his right paw against the temples of his own head in order to emphasize the need for cautious thought in that moment, something that the rest of that group clearly forgot to consider. Utterly done with the wolf's pathetic attempt at appearing calm in the face of a potentially fatal error that could impact everyone around them, the angry feline went right to him, grabbed him by the coat hangs and spoke menacingly:

- Listen here and listen well you empty-headed little gnat, neither of them had any idea who you were or what we were up to, no one at the ZPD had any idea I existed, and, in one fell swoop, you managed to push them right on top of my trail. You might as well shine a bright light towards the sky and shout: 'Hey, we're here. COME RIGHT OVER AND ARREST US!'

The volume used by the ocelot was so loud and aggressive that Nick, who was still by the door listening to the conversation, retreated and directed an eye at Judy out of worry. Neither of the officers had ever heard that voice before and the owner of it, whoever he was, sounded legitimately unhinged. Nick turned to Judy and whispered to her, being sure she was the only one that could hear him at that moment:

- Someone needs a hug.

Judy was not sure why Nick felt the need to flaunt that comment out in the open like that, they returned their attention to listening in to the conversation coming from the other side of the doors as they heard a young voice telling the ocelot to calm down and think a little more about what had just transpired:

- Wait! The fox officer recognized Darius when he tried to get them off our trail, they were about to leave and report us. He decided we should deal with the problem right away. What would you do in that situation?

The ocelot let go of the coat wore by the older wolf and answered to the young canine's question as he pointed a claw to the exit and said:

- I would have let them leave. I wouldn't have brought them to this outpost that could have remained undiscovered if it wasn't for your so called leader's 'decision'. Do you realize who those two are?

The ocelot took a pause to catch his breath but he continued to talk just as angrily as before

- That is Judy Hopps and her partner, those aren't just some random cops you just caught, she is the most famous cop in this city. The ZPD has regularly scheduled check-ins with every single one of their officers and as soon as they realize she was not present for her check-in, the ZPD will be all over us.

The ocelot turned around and murmured to himself:

- And it will be all over for me.

The raccoons approached the feline in charge, airing the options they thought over in less than a second of conversation:

- Should we call the boss?

- Should we bug out?

- Should we turn it all off and leave?

The ocelot turned to them and pointed a claw to the two identical raccoons as he answered:

- No one is going anywhere until this is all sorted just right.

With a few paces around the room as the thought of what to do next formed in his head, the ocelot turned to all of those present in the room and asked:

- You're sure the two cops are still sleeping an unaware?

Everyone answered to that question positively. Another question was soon to follow:

- And you are sure that none of you used mine or… 'His' name:

Everyone confirmed that there was nothing to be worried about in that front as well, the ocelot now seemed calmer, there was a pause, no words were heard and that worried Judy, she signaled to Nick that they should fall back and hide somewhere safer in order to revise the situation better. Nick and Judy searched for a spot to hide, the only thing that was worthy of a temporary hiding spot was a clump of boxes by the corner, not too far from the set of doors they were inspecting in order to eavesdrop on the conversation.

After a few seconds of waiting, the double doors opened with a quick swing from each side and revealed Darfang, his younger brother, Damian, and the ocelot coming out of the waiting room, no sign of the porcupine or the raccoons, they must have been told to wait inside. The ocelot halted his walk and turned around to certify that the other mammals following him were still mindful of the plan set in motion, he took a short breath through his nostrils and said:

- You two are coming with me, we'll pass by the office area to grab the documents I left there and then we'll go check on the cops, they will be kept asleep, transported and dealt with later. Maybe there is a way we can still come out of this mess without any more chaos ensuing. Those three will go and make sure that the SWORD is still safely stored and active, until said otherwise, it stays on. Got it?

The two wolves answered with a simultaneous nod of their heads and the three mammals went right ahead to check on the prisoners. Judy tried peeking her head over the boxes with her ears placed behind her head in order to catch a good look at the mammal giving the orders but she had no luck in getting a good visual on him, he turned away and walked off too fast. Nick and Judy were very well hidden behind the pile of boxes and the mixture of smell still present in that environment did well to hide their presence from the canines that had exited the waiting room right behind the commanding ocelot, the two officers shared a look of apprehension since they already knew what was about to happen: in little time, the ocelot would find out that they were no longer confined and the others would hunt them down. Nick made a series of gestures with his paws, telling Judy that they should go in the offensive, invade the room and subdue the three mammals that were still waiting in there. Judy understood Nick's gesturing but she told him to wait on it, she had a better idea.

Ash, leaning against a waiting chair that was much bigger in size than him, lowered the spines on his back and relaxed, he was confident that the two officers would not give them any more trouble, they were both left confined to a broom closet and cuffed together after all, and he felt like there was no more need to rush the task he was entrusted with. The porcupine took out the huge access key that was left in his coat pocket and studied it well, the plastic encoded item continued to resemble something straight out of a sci-fi movie and he got lost in thought with that. Suddenly, there was a strange sound coming from the outside, a unexpected low knock on the door and the clinking of small metal pieces falling to the ground, Mark and Stan heard the suspicious noise and shared a look of confusion relating to what could be causing it, Ash stood straight and ordered the two raccoons to come along so they would investigate what was happening.

Ash went ahead, passing through the threshold and looking from side to side, not seeing anything besides a pile of old boxes by the left side, he went on to check behind the boxes but there was nothing there, Mark and Stan moved swiftly in the other direction, the hallway stretched relatively far and they had a lot of ground to cover together. While Ash stayed behind, taking care of the key entrusted to him, the raccoons took initiative and moved about, checking every door in the hallway for the signs of whatever made that strange noise, Stan was checking a door by the left when he heard his brother calling out to him with a whisper:

- Pst, Stan, check this out.

The raccoon abandoned the previous target of his search and went to check on what his brother had found, the two mammals were staring at a bunch of metal screws and nuts that were left on the floor, miniscule pieces of metal that were left just lying scattered about the hallway, a weird sight to be sure. The two raccoons looked around and sniffed the air in order to find a trail that would lead them to whoever left those metal parts there but they were not even aware that they had walked into the reaches of a trap.

Just behind on the path the raccoons had passed through, hidden cleverly inside an old metal bucket and underneath a dirty mop, Judy appeared and went to aim her tranquilizer straight at one of the raccoons, her eyes were focused, her shooter was primed and her plan was unfolding masterfully, although she had a few reservations about her own choice in camouflage. Stan and Mark moved slowly through the hallway, they kept their search going until they heard that the sound of small metal pieces falling had returned, it echoed menacingly around the corner but they were not afraid to investigate what was causing it. Stan went right ahead but, just as he was about to turn the corner, he felt a sharp pinch against his neck, he had been hit by a tranquilizer, all that his brother could see was the feathery blur of the dart flying through the air.

Stan fell to the ground, the tranq dart took quick effect since he was a small mammal, Mark went to his brother's assistance but he was halted without even giving a single step forward. Another dart flew through the air and struck the second raccoon on his right shoulder, Stan was laying on the ground while Mark was struggling to stay up, he dropped to one knee and looked to the dirty floor right beneath him and that is when he saw a thin shower of metal bits falling and tumbling about right in front of him, it was somewhat peaceful for him to see and hear that as his eyes were starting to shut, but a good look at the origin of the metal bits revealed it to be Nick, holding up a small box of spare parts that was found amidst the pile he and Judy were hiding before and laying the lure for the two trouble-makers to follow.

Nick set the box down, leaning closer to Stan as he did so, and waved a quick hello before clutching his right paw into a fist and knocking the raccoon's lights out with one straight punch to the face. Judy got out of her hiding spot and ran towards Nick, she carried Stan, dragging him across the floor while Nick carefully hoisted Mark up and followed close, they had to hide the two raccoons away somewhere safe and move on to capture the next suspect on their list. Ash was still looking for the cause of the noise next to the door to the waiting room where he had just emerged, he could no longer detect the sound of the falling metal pieces but something else called to his attention, a thin trail of dust that suddenly stopped over the surface of a huge box placed nearby. The mind of the porcupine studied that dirty spot for a few seconds until he realized the obvious answer, something was removed from that spot fairly recently.

Ash hurried to find Mark and Stan, the two raccoons had to be alerted about the fact that the two officers had escaped and were lose somewhere in the basement. The porcupine reached the corner to the eastern part of the hallway where the others had gone to search and called out to the raccoons by name, hoping they would answer straight away:

- Stan? Mark? Where have you idiots gone to? We have a problem.

He continued to search around for any trace of the two mammals but he was stopped suddenly when he felt a harsh pain at the bottom of his right foot. Ash jumped back on his path and looked down, the hallway was a little dark but he managed to see that he had stepped over a small field of metal parts that were left strewn about. No metal piece pierced his foot but it still hurt a lot. Ash continued to move forward and, to his shock, he found the bodies of his cohorts unconscious and tossed on a corner.

The porcupine suddenly felt a tinge of panic climbing his back and it caused all of his spines to tremble, his friends did not look harmed, only knocked out, but it was still a sign that he was not safe alone in that place, he had to look for the others and ask for help. Ash turned around with the clear objective in mind, find the others and alert them about the possible location of the two escapees, he began to walk but was surprised by a presence he did not see coming. Judy had snuck up behind the porcupine, she had hid herself inside a small wall closet that used to house medical supplies, another brilliant bit of camouflage that she managed to come up with in the spur of the moment, Ash released a loud gasp as soon as he saw the bunny standing less than a single step away from him but his thoughts became a little muddled once he saw the pose that the bunny was making.

Judy was standing right in front of Ash now, her right leg forward and supporting most of her weight while her left leg was resting nicely and sturdy behind, her right arm was tucked away nicely by the side of her torso and her left arm was extended forward as the palm of her left paw was openly shown. Ash thought that was ridiculous, some strange way to make him halt his movements and surrender quietly, something he was not going to do, grave mistake. While standing still in her fighting stance, Judy looked up to the porcupine, calculated the best target for her next move and told him:

- Take a deep breath. This is going to hurt.

With amazing speed, Judy tucked her left arm in, unclutched her shoulders and unleashed the newest move taught to her by agent Howlbert as she delivered great pressure to Ash's chest causing him to step back and release a painful gust of air out of his lungs. Ash did not know what had hit him, the little bunny managed to knock the air out of him with a single attack, he coughed and grunted in pain as he put both of his arms in front of his chest in order to try recovering some of the breath he lost, he tried yelling for the help of the others since he knew they would hear his voice echoing through the halls, but he fumbled on his steps until another attack knocked him out for good. Nick popped from out of the far corner and shot a low intensity shock from his taser pistol, the bolt of blue electricity flew through the air past Judy and hit Ash in full, knocking the porcupine to the ground and silencing him utterly.

Nick walked slowly until he was placed next to Judy once more, the fox admired their work seeing the three goons knocked to the ground in front of them and complimented Judy for a great plan as well as remarkable execution, taking those foes down stealthily was far easier than just blindly storming their keep. Nick pointed a finger at Judy and spoke up:

- Alright, there is no more denying it. I'm one hundred percent convinced that you are a ninja now.

Judy held on her laughter and turned the fox's attention to more urgent matters, they needed to restrain the three criminals but she did not have enough pawcuffs for the three of them, even if they shared a pair it would still leave the chance of them waking up and dodging arrest out in the open. Nick looked around, in search of something that could help them, he found just the thing. Hanging from the side of the wall there was a long piece of wire that was left rolled up and abandoned, it was initially intended for electrical mending but it was later repurposed for tying together packaging accouterments, the fox was just about to repurpose the wire once more for the function most needed at that moment.

Nick grabbed his multi-tool, the one item he made a point to always carry on his belt going forward, and selected a small wire cutter extension, he grabbed the wire and extended it along the floor, measuring by eye the best length he would need to cut it and then use it to tie the goons he and Judy had knocked out. Nick picked up the wire and it was not too difficult to twist it around for what he needed to do, the wire worked just like a rope and Nick tied the paws of the goons with a meticulous and complicated series of knots that would assuredly keep them restrained. Judy watched as Nick worked, keeping her ears attentive in case the others were to return, she knew that they would only have a limited time to work things out but Nick was swift as he placed shackled knots on each of the three mammals with unbelievable efficiency.

As soon as Nick was done, Judy came close to admire his work and was rightly impressed, the fox managed to weave the pieces of wire around to make them look like perfect little chains, with knots so intricate she did not know where even to start unwinding them. Judy pointed to the improvised cuffs that Nick managed to manufacture and asked of him with a whisper:

- Nick, how did you learn to do that?

Nick stood up straight and looked right at Judy before answering:

- I studied to be a scout, remember? I might have not got in but all I learned is still right here.

The fox finished his answer while tapping the tip of his right pointing finger on to his own head. Judy looked around one more time, scanning their surroundings to check if there was any other presence coming around that she did not make a note of before, she did not detect any immediate threats. Nick left Judy to her surveillance, he leaned closer to the three mammals seated and tied next to him and decided to search their pockets to check for anything that could provide an answer to what was their end goal in all of that, who was in charge, maybe what they were so adamant in protecting from the prying eyes and curious minds of the ZPD. Nick searched the coat pockets of the two raccoons first, he found nothing more than loose change and pocket lint, but, on the side pocket of the porcupine, he found something truly noteworthy.

Judy returned to Nick's side, she found the fox kneeling close to Ash, still knocked out on the ground, and asked of him:

- What do you got there?

Nick directed a side glance at Judy before he turned his eyes back to the mysterious item he had in his right paw, a translucent red triangle made of hardened plastic and showing strange crossings of circuit within, Nick guessed it as some sort of keycard but his mind was definitely set on that being a small part of a much bigger piece of machinery. Judy looked at the item in Nick's paw as well, the fox's silence spoke volumes on his uncertainty, he was so deep in thought trying to understand with a glance what that object actually was that he did not even had the right words to say so, Judy moved her eyes and ears around, no sound called to her attention but a thought came over her, a word spoken by the mammal in charge of the wasps. Judy gave a single step closer to Nick, leaned her body slightly forward and asked her partner:

- What do you think Sword is?

Nick looked at her, turning his head quickly in her direction and speaking up without knowing exactly what she was referring to:

- What?

Judy clarified her previous question as she said:

- The… guy in charge. The one that was barking orders and insults at them all. He told these three to stay back and keep tabs on something called 'Sword'. What do you think it is?

Nick looked back to the plastic rectangle still in his grip, he clasped the fingers of his right paw around it and thought if the mentioned word and the item were related in any way. Nick stood up straight, looked at Judy and said:

- Whatever it is, it sounds serious… and possibly destructive.

Judy took rushed steps towards the corner closest to them, there was still no sign of the other three mammals that departed to look for them and she thought how they could be back at any second, she was on the right mind track. Not too far from the T-cross hallway, Andersen was exerting his frustration against the wolf brothers since all they had managed to find in the place of the two officers imprisonment quarters was the unconscious body of the tiger, cuffed and left inside of the closet. The ocelot was almost exploding with anger, ordering the two wolves to search for the officers and take them out on sight, Darfang went to alert his comrades while Damian took another path, darting through another hallway to see if the two officers were still anywhere to be found.

Nick and Judy needed to act fast. Judy poked Nick's left shoulder and told him what she was thinking:

- Nick, listen, we might be able to catch the other suspects unaware if we figure out what this 'sword' thing they are protecting really is.

Nick already had a good idea on what Judy was about to suggest, he tried protesting but her words came out faster as she said:

- You'll have to find out about that, while I'll try and find a way out of here.

Judy turned around, decided to leave for her own mission but she was halted by Nick as the fox placed his right paw over her right shoulder in order to turn her around to face him again so he could say straight at her:

- Carrots, that is a bad idea and you know it is. If those guys come after you, there is no telling what might happen. We should both find our way out of here and call for back-up.

Judy placed her left paw over her right shoulder, she grasped Nick's paw and gently guided it away from her as she said:

- Nick, no. If we leave now they will all escape. All the evidence gone just like that. There is more to all of this than meets the eye and I think we just stumbled on a massive plot that might harm the city in the long run.

Nick lowered both of his arms and spoke:

- Story of our lives I guess.

Judy understood that comment, it was way past coincidence for them to be involved in such a ploy and the fox noticed it. Judy showed a little smile but her expression turned back to stern and focused as she said:

- Nick, the interference that was affecting our radios is still in effect, by the time we manage to call for help these guys will be gone and they will have taken all with them. If we don't stop them now, they will get away.

Nick clutched his paws, he knew that Judy had a point and he also knew that standing there arguing about that would only subtract from the time they had left to act. Nick relaxed for a bit, he took a deep breath and ultimately agreed with Judy in what they should do next: Judy would double back and take care of attracting the attention of the remaining criminals while Nick would look for the so called sword and gather as much information as he could about it before meeting up with his partner so they could leave together.

Judy was just about to head on her way but she was stopped again by Nick:

- Yo, carrots.

He called out to her and Judy turned around on her own to face him, asking him with a tone of annoyance in her voice:

- What now, Nick?

The fox did not speak, as his answer, he simply grabbed his taser shooter and showed it to Judy, offering her the weapon as an extra edge. Judy watched as Nick grabbed the weapon and pushed it in her direction while directing the weapon's handle closer to her. Judy was a little taken aback by that, she felt like she should not accept that, the bunny raised her right arm and asked:

- Nick, are… are you sure?

- Yeah, go on. Take it. You might need it.

Judy hesitated for a moment, she reached for the handle of the weapon and took it in her right paw, it was big and heavy, her finger could not even grasp around the trigger properly, she needed both of her paws to hold the weapon firmly. Nick pointed forward and spoke the abridged version of the safety measures when using that weapon:

- Look, it only has four shots in it and there is a little bit of recoil, watch out for that. The shock potency is low but it is still enough to pack a punch. The safety is right here.

Judy nodded once, she placed the shooter away, reluctantly agreeing to take it with her, it was a hard decision but one that she accepted based on a tactical standpoint. Judy was low on tranq ammo and Nick's shock shooter was a much more viable weapon, taking it would mean that her partner would be unarmed but it would give her more of an advantage if she was actually unyielding in her plan to attract the attention of the remaining adversaries in that place. Nick extended his left paw to Judy, clutching it into a fist and expecting a bump in return as he said:

- Stay safe, fluff.

Instead of a bump, Judy reciprocated Nick's gesture by placing both of her paws over his fist, softly answering him and thanking him for his assistance and trust at the same time before saying:

- You too, slick.

Judy dashed on her way, still a little worried about Nick but also confident that he would be able to take care of himself. Nick began his search after separating from Judy, convinced that his partner would figure out what to do on her own but also having the nagging feeling that splitting up may not have been the smartest play in that situation. Nick moved around quickly, opening every door he could find on his path to check if there was anything that would be considered evidence, he also made sure to not stick around in the same place for too long to avoid being discovered and caught unaware. As Nick moved deeper into the abandoned clinic, the environment around him became darker, harder to navigate, luckily his sense of smell and his enhanced vision were helping him navigate around more expediently.

Nick opened one door after the other, all of them lead to very similar rooms with some distinguishing features between them, some were spacious and many of them were cramped little storage units but all of them looked empty, nothing truly noteworthy was found. Nick was almost giving up hope, convincing himself that he had to hurry back and find Judy but the last door that he would open would reserve an impressive surprise that would provide some answers while opening up room for even more questions to take their place. Nick continued to search but he halted his movements through the hallway once he noticed a sound, a familiar sound, it sounded like… an engine, it was coming somewhere further ahead and he decided it was worth investigating. Nick reached a door that was left ajar, the sound was louder than before, he opened the door all the way and it lead to a room almost identical to the one he and Judy had escaped from, there was even a narrow window next to the upper far corner of the room from where light coming from the outside shone through illuminating the room, there was some dust on the floor but, most noticeably, there was a big device near the right side wall, humming with a soft electrical charge.

- What in all the hells bells is this thing?

Meanwhile, as Nick pondered what that device could be used for, Judy was sneaking back the way they came and searching for any traces of the other suspects, she did not have to search long. Judy caught sight of the older wolf turning a corner and decided to follow his trail, surprise him with a well-aimed shock. Judy stepped closer to the corner, shock shooter held firmly with both of her paws and ready to shoot, she went over the instructions that Nick said to her only a couple of minutes ago as well as the preparations listed by Jack during his presentation of the new weapon. Judy whispered to herself:

- Security switch undone, pop the clutch and wait for the little hum.

Judy did one final check before giving one final step past the corner, Judy aimed the weapon out and straight but the wolf was right there, in front of her and just waiting for her to step forward, it was a set-up, she was the one caught off guard. Judy saw the large canine, stepping heavy in her direction and opening his arms, caws in view and ready to grab her, Judy had to act fast and she did just that as soon as she realized that the wolf was now the one with the set advantage.

With a dive to the left, Judy dodged and rolled out of the way of the wolf's grapple, Darfang grabbed nothing but air as both of his arms crossed in front of him only to see the bunny rolling out of his reach a second later. Judy prepared the weapon to fire once more, the wolf turned his body a few degrees in her direction and raised his left foot up into the air, he bent his knee and sounded a loud grow as he leaned closer, there were no words he wished to say to the police officer, he knew it would be a waste of time, he was about to kick Judy down thinking that a low kick would be the easiest and fastest way to subdue the bunny officer. Judy held the weapon firmly with both of her paws, holding it as steadily as she could handle, she squeezed the trigger and the shot was fired. A thin bolt of electricity shot out of the barrel, a loud crackling sound was heard as the bolt left the weapon and struck Drafang right on his stomach, the wolf was pushed back, he collided back first against the wall and Judy was also pushed back due to the weapon's recoil, just as Nick warned her.

Judy put her right foot back to hold her down, the weapon Nick had lent her had performed admirably, Darfang had his back against the wall as he slid down to the ground witnessing as his attack had failed and the bunny cop was still standing up. Judy stepped forward slowly just a single step and noticed that the canine was still conscious, the impact of the shock had left him in pain and feeling numb on his lower half but the potency of the shot was not enough to knock him down, she would have to restrain him after making absolute sure he would not attempt to tackle her once more. Darfang cursed himself over and over again in his mind, he couldn't believe how a single bunny was able to take him down, he smelled her coming in his direction and even laid out the perfect way to catch her but she was still able to take him down.

With another squeeze of the trigger and a determined look in her eye, Judy shocked the wolf again, wasting another shot of the taser pistol but making sure the leader of the wasps was not getting up for a rematch any time soon. She put her last pair of cuffs on the wolf before running off to catch the remaining goons, not knowing that one of them had taken a different route and slipped right past her in the direction of her partner.

Returning over to Nick, the fox was absolutely stumped, astonished, curiously unnerved as he stepped slowly towards the device, everything in that abandoned clinic was old and grimy but that thing, whatever it was, looked brand new. The machine looked like a marvel of engineering, like one of those strange devices a starship would transport to the surface of a planet chosen to be explored and colonized in an episode of a television show, it had a keyboard connected to a small screen which had only one sentence scrolling around it: 'Operational check in progress', which did not mean much to Nick. The machine had an antenna perched at its very top, beaming a signal well above the fox's reach and it was pulling its electrical charge in order to remain operational from a loud generator, the perpetrator of the loud engine like sound he had detected before. Nick had no doubt in his head that he would have to deal with that device, however, he had many doubts on how to do so.

Nick leaned his head to the left and to the right to check if there was any sort of logo or inscription on the device that would tell him anything about that machine, he did not find a logo but he was able to find a series of words indented on a lower panel.

- Hum…

He passed his paw over the letters embedded on the metal and squinted his eyes as he read them:

- Short Wave Omnidirectional Radio Disruptor.

It did not take Nick too long to pick the first letter of every word he just read and put them together:

- Oh… S.W.O.R.D! It's an acronym. Alright, that's actually clever.

Nick kept studying the machine further, he quickly put together that the reason why no cellphones or radios worked around that area was because of that machine. Nick had a rudimentary understanding of radio waves and how a disruptive frequency could interfere with all sorts of electronic signals so, the next move was obvious to him, he would have to disable that machine.

The first instinct that popped into Nick's mind was to find something really heavy somewhere and smash the machine into inoperable bits but that thought left his mind as soon as it arrives since there was no guarantee that the effects of the signal dampener would disperse quickly after the device was destroyed and the risk to his own well-being would rise exponentially if a harsh impact were to cause an electrical shortage and a fire. Nick's second option would be to turn off the generator supplying the machine with energy, that option presented much less risk but there was also the lingering chance that the signal provided by the machine would not simply drop out of existence, it would take considerable time for any communication signal to return to that district and the possibility of the machine possessing some sort of internal safeguard or emergency energy supply hidden inside also made that choice less viable to him.

Nick released a sigh of annoyance, the most favorable option for him would be to fiddle with the controls and turn the machine off, disable the dampening signal properly and assure that the signal sent by it in all directions would subside. There were so many more doubts that Nick had, like how those criminals managed to get such an advanced machine transported and assembled in that place? Also, what would be the point in disrupting the communication signals of an entire district? Was there someone more powerful and imposing financing such a thing? So many questions that would be left unanswered.

Nick leaned closer to the machine and stared at the keyboard, not sure what button to press, imagining that just looking at the problem for long enough would gift him with a solution. He was just about to give up trying to think his way through that problem and resort to brute-forcing his way out of it as he thought:

"Damn it! I'm a clever fox, sure, but not even I have the brains to figure this stuff out in a matter of minutes. What am I supposed to do?!"

Nick deviated his eyes from the screen, thinking that looking away from the problem might give his mind some clarity and just at the corner of his eye he could see something else. Nick turned to the right and kneeled down to the ground as he saw something he did not notice before, it was a bunch of packing equipment tossed aside into a huge pile and just left there, there were pieces of Styrofoam and shreds of paper tossed everywhere but there was something in that pile, amid all the trash, that was actually of some use to the fox. Nick rummaged through the pile and saw a thick book that bared the same name as the device in its cover, it was written right there as plain as daylight:

- "S.W.O.R.D tactical deployment and maintenance". This is a user's manual!

Nick raised from the ground with the manual in his paws and mumbled to himself after opening the book up at some random page and looking over it for a bit. There were schematics about the effects of the device deployed in urban areas, there were diagrams about the electrical current that should be used and monitored for the internal systems and even an easy guide on how to aim the brunt of the signal at a single structure to block it from sending or receiving any communications. Nick flipped through the pages until he found exactly what he needed, a set of instruction on how to turn the device off:

- Got to say this: at least the bad guys think ahead in terms of accessibility.

Nick began to read the instructions, distracted with the goal ahead and not knowing that an adversary had followed his trail and was about to enter the room:

- Let's see here: Insert the digital key into the slot and access the main service drive before inserting the command.

As soon as Nick read those words, "Digital Key", a concrete image popped into his mind and he retrieved the curious looking item he had snagged from Ash's pocket. Nick leaned closer to the machine once more, with key in one paw and the instruction manual in the other, searching around for a slot that would support the key, he found it and released a puff of satisfaction from his mouth before promptly inserting the key. There was a short pause of silence but the machine soon released a positive sound, there was a welcoming message on the screen welcoming the identification of a familiar user to the system and a short list of configurations to be selected. Nick moved his body so that he would be positioned right in front of the keyboard but something o the corner of his eye alerted him that he would need to move out of the way soon enough.

Nick saw a small glint on the corner of the screen, he moved his head a little to the right and saw a reflection, the image of the door right behind him opened and revealing a presence that he had not detected until then, a wolf, waking slowly into the room and aiming a tranq shooter right at the fox. Nick felt as his heart skipped a beat, he knew right then and there that he would be shot with a tranquilizer agent as soon as he turned around, the wolf had his finger on the trigger and Nick deduced quickly that not even he would be fast enough to dodge a straight shot. Nick was now aware that the wolf was in the room but he performed a short pause in which he continued checking the screen in front of him and making the canine believe he was not yet aware of anything else, there was little time to act as well as a small chance that the wolf would miss his chance to fire effectively and actually hit Nick's vest as before but that was a chance on which the fox was not confident to gamble on so Nick would have to be unpredictable.

Still pretending faint ignorance, Nick placed his left paw over the key board and closed the instructional book with his right paw, Damian stepped closer to the fox, aiming for the neck area, a small window for a shot but also very favorable to assure him of instantaneous victory. Nick held the book by its spine, he lowered his ears, swooshed his tail to the left and, as soon as he heard the wolf stepping closer, he sprang into action. Nick turned around as fast as he could and flung the book up in the air, the instruction script opened and flipped around in midair obscuring some of the wolf's field of vision until it hit the intended mark. Damian was surprised by the fox's nimble moves, his first instinct was to raise his arms and protect himself against the book, worried that it would hit him square in the face, that was the chance Nick was rooting for.

Nick exited his turning spin and stepped to the right, lowering his body as he picked up enough speed to pounce against his opponent while doing his best to dodge out of the way in case an accidental squeeze of the trigger would launch a dart against him. Nick got close as Damian slapped the book out of the air out of sheer reflex, Nick raised his right arm for defense, pushing both of Damian's arms out of the way, Nick darted in closer and past the wolf's reach, past the crosshair of the shooter and close enough to deal out a straight left punch to the side of the wolf's torso, Damian let out a grunt of pain and went right ahead for a counter attack.

Damian growled, angry with the fact that he had fallen for such a predictable diversion, he aimed the shooter at Nick after taking a step back but the fox was still on the move and Damian could not find a straight shot. Nick continued to dish out attacks, focusing on the wolf's right side, Nick noticed the wolf trying to retreat, get off the fox's path and get a shot in, Nick wasn't having any of it. Nick stepped forward, trying to follow Damian's flow of fighting, keeping an eye for the movement of Damian's feet and focusing on the same target he hit before to stack up the damage, Nick reached up with his left paw, clamping his fingers on Damian's right arm to keep the aim of the tranq shooter away from him while also leaning in for another series of hits. Nick clutched his right shoulder in and began to hit Damian's lower chest, one punch after the other, driving his knuckles against the wolf's torso, weighing every hit with aggression comparable to a hydraulic piston.

Damian could not even catch sight of the fox to get a shot but the feeling of pain and frustration accumulating over him caused his paw to clutch and he squeezed the trigger in the process, the dart flew off but it did not struck anything but the far wall of the room. Nick was not letting up, he was fighting far more aggressively than before, probably because he wanted to let nothing fall to chance in order to get back to Judy as fast as he could, his revised fighting stance was not elegant but it was very effective. Damian was fed up with the fox officer, the wolf attempted kicking Nick away but the fox saw that coming and stepped out of the way, freeing the wolf's arm from his grip and stepping ahead to search for a new opening and a new angle of attack, Nick delivered a low sweeping kick to the back of Damian's right foot, a low blow that caused the wolf to stumble back and drop to the floor.

Nick watched as his opponent fell down to the ground, the fox officer spared his opponent of any clever remarks and decided to focus on taking the tranq shooter away from him, a loud clacking on the floor warned Nick that the weapon had been dropped so his adversary was far less threatening than before but no time was given for Nick to search for the shooter as a sudden impact against his stomach came forth in the form of a violent kick. Damian's fall was not that harsh, he let go of the tranq shooter on the way down but he still had enough of his senses left to turn on his side and lean his right leg upwards with the fuming intent to get some payback against Nick. The fox officer stepped back while having his paws over his belly, his armored vest did not cover the lowest part of his torso and he felt the bulk of that hit in full.

Damian raised from the hard floor with no rush, he kept his eyes on Nick as the fox regained his breath, the wolf raised his arms and asked out right:

- Why the hell did you do all of this? What could possibly have you so hell bent on sticking your cop noses where they don't belong?!

Nick pointed a claw of his right paw at the wolf, he could see by the questioning that the canine was actually plenty young, a detail he had let slide during their first confrontation. Nick took a short breath and answered:

- Hey, you and your lousy posse were the ones that dropped the hammer on me and my partner, we would have gone off on our way if you hadn't picked a fight with us. You're all busted so you might as well throw in the towel, punk.

Damian grinded his teeth before saying:

- I'm not backing down. We threw off a few cellphone signals, big deal. Was all of this tantrum throwing really necessary?

Nick answered to that with a louder tone to his voice:

- You all did disrupted the flow of information to a whole district. What if someone was in need of medical assistance?! What if an accident had happened and no one was able to call for help? Had it ever occurred to you what this machine could have caused?

Nick actually brought some good points but the wolf still refused to see it any other way, he was loyal to his older brother and to the rest of the wasps. Damian pointed a claw to the fox and asked:

- Why do you even care? Why would you put out your neck to save the life of anyone in this rotten town? Don't even think you can give me the whole 'protect and serve' shpeal.

Nick showed a sharp frown to the wolf, he blinked and deviated his eyes off into the blank screen of a wall to his right before looking straight back to the wolf and showing a more relaxed stance. Nick took a long breath of air through his nose before answering:

- Truth be told: I was not one hundred percent sold on the whole 'protect and serve' shpeal myself. I went through the loops and got into this uniform to fulfil a promise, but it became so much more than that.

Nick gesticulated with both of his paws as he continued to talk, sharing with the young wolf all of the things that had transpired since he took on the path of becoming an officer of the law:

- I met mammals that count on me, depend on me, to truly make a difference. I met with old enemies and got boosted forward by great allies. I broke the mold in every way but… it somehow felt like it was not enough for me.

Damian was still preparing for a scuffle but Nick continued to talk and explain himself, the wolf could not figure out if that was some sort of strange tactic meant to make him drop his guard or if the fox was actually spilling his feelings out in the open. Nick clutched his fists and continued to talk only that next part of the conversation took a bit of a turn:

- Since meeting Judy I faced off against crooks, thugs, bullies and ne'er-do-wells of all kinds. The thrill of it all has given me quite the rush and I can't get enough of it.

Damian had his ears raised after hearing that and asked:

- Wait, what?

Nick clarified his words from before as he pointed to the wolf and gave out an example that would make it easier to understand:

- Have you ever seen a movie or read a book that shows the protagonist facing off against a villain and the villain has this unbearable condescending attitude towards everyone, not caring who gets hurt or who needs to be trampled down on the way? You just wish to see the battle unfolding, to witness the bad guy get his comeuppance. That is how I have been feeling.

Nick pointed to himself, placing his paws over his own chest as he did so, Damian gave a step back, retreating physically against the fox's strange logic. Nick gave a step forward before saying:

- The feeling that I get, that rush when I see a thug that thinks of himself as untouchable, hit the ground and get thrown in jail is like nothing I have ever experienced before. I wasn't sure how to feel about it before but now… it has taken a whole new meaning. I might actually be hooked on it.

Damian lowered his paws, unmaking his fighting stance, asking with an astonished tone:

- Are you insane?!

Nick leaned his head and flopped his ears slightly to the left as he answered without thinking too hard about it:

- I think I might be a bit out of sorts. But, then again, some of the greatest mammals who live in this city have been known to be a little screwy when it comes to making a difference in the best possible ways.

Damian let the fox finish with his speech but he was, in fact, out of patience. The wolf looked around in search of something that could give him the edge in finishing Nick off, he managed to find his tranquilizer shooter on the ground but it was too far away from his reach, he looked in the other direction and found something that would be far more useful and viable for combat. Damian reached down and put his right paw on a pile of discarded packing items, he retrieved a tool that had been left there earlier to unpack the jamming device, an iron crowbar which was not too long but it was plenty heavy and would be of use to take Nick down for sure.

Nick directed a sharp look at the young wolf, it was easy to see that he was about to use that tool angrily but there was still a chance to stop it. Nick made a dismissive gesture with his paws before saying:

- Now, now, that is not something used for swinging around. I'll tell you one more time, give it up and no one else needs to get hurt.

Nick's words fell on deaf ears, Damian advanced against the fox and took to swinging the crowbar wildly against the officer. Nick had a feeling that words would have not been enough to defuse the situation but he still had to try. One swing after the other was directed against the fox officer but Nick could read the direction of Damian's attacks without any difficulty, Nick dodged and ducked to avoid every swing and it was evident to see that Damian was already getting winded, he was not the most apt fighter among the wasps after all. Damian took a step forward, intent on unleashing a massive vertical swipe against Nick but the fox was ready for it and he took the chance as he saw the massive opening left by his opponent, it was time to end that fight.

Nick dodged to the left, performing a long leap that gave him plenty of distance to work on a counter attack, Damian turned around to direct a new series of attacks against him but the fox was already advancing with a conclusive strategy in mind. Nick leapt back in Damian's direction, leaned his body and turned slightly to the left to take advantage of the momentum, prepped his shoulders, clutched his paws and performed a double punch hit applying pressure straight at the young wolf's chest, placing his fists in perfect parallel as his knuckles struck their mark in perfect synchrony. Damian was pushed back with a drastic impact that left him stunned, Nick saw that his adversary was still struggling to remain up so he dished out another hit, he ran ahead and launched his whole body up with a strong leap that ended on a devastating double fist uppercut. Damian fell to the ground once more, seeing stars, completely disoriented, letting go of his weapon, unconsciously declaring Nick the winner.

Nick reached for his belt and bound the wolf using his last pair of cuffs, he grabbed the crowbar off the ground and returned to the task he was set to do before that confrontation, turning off the jamming device. With a few simple key inputs on the keyboard, the message that the signal dampening wave had been overthrown scrolled around on the screen and Nick reveled on a job well done. Nick removed the electronic key from its slot and looked over the device one more time before making a strong connection in his mind, a connection involving the screen in front of him and the crowbar in his right paw:

- Well… best to make sure of it.

After the configuration bar on screen was completely full and the device had transmitted its last disruptive wavelength, Nick made absolutely sure that no one would be able to use that thing ever again. Nick rushed behind the machine and unplugged it from the socket attached to the power generator, he knew all too well that both of those could be used as hard evidence that would pile up against the wasps and whoever was truly behind all of that. With a growl in his mouth and a spark in his eyes, Nick let down all of the surplus aggression he still had in him into bashing the keyboard of the machine as well as its screen, the internal circuitry was still intact but no command would be issued for the 'Sword' ever again.

Nick smiled after damaging the jamming device beyond repair, he slowly flung the crowbar and rested it over his right shoulder, the tool had seen its fair share of uses that day and the fox was very glad to be over with that part of the confrontation, unfortunately, the day was not over yet. Just as Nick was taking a step back to grab the tranq shooter still lying in the floor and taking a moment to admire his handiwork, he heard something, a loud 'bang!' coming from outside, it was far off from his current position and it did not sound like anything else he had heard. It sounded almost like a small explosive, it did not sound heavy or metallic, that was the impression he got from hearing that sound only once and playing it as an echo in his mind, no certainty was placed in his mind about the nature of that loud noise, that is, except for one:

- Judy?

Nick grasped the crowbar tightly in his paw, stored the shooter which only had one final shot in the chamber away and raced off, exiting the room, passing through the hallway he had come from and looking for a way out of the clinic, back to the world outdoors, praying in silence that his partner was alright.

---

Judy had just apprehended the leader of the wasps, the wolf self-named Darfang was seated on the ground, paws cuffed and with his back against the wall, the bunny officer made a recount in her head and knew that there were still a couple of stragglers to round up but she still seated over the advantage. Judy left the unconscious canine alone, turning around and scanning the environment with her ears in search of any loud noise that would guide her towards the remaining suspects.

Not too far from Judy's position in the hallway, Andersen was nervously organizing a myriad of documents inside his briefcase, making sure to not leave behind any papers or receipts that could be perceived as a trail straight to his employee. The ocelot wished to leave nothing to chance, he had a back-up plan to bug out and leave the inept members of the hired crew if they were ever to find any obstacles that were too much to handle, it was no surprise that he intended to betray the hired goons and leave them behind if the situation called for it. In the midst of packing up the papers, tying up and left over loose knots in that location that served as a testing ground for an ingenious prototype, Andersen also found a valuable relic, an old shooter shown to him by his superior and entrusted for transport, he had to take it with him on the way out as well, he could not let anything else go wrong.

Andersen reached for the small case containing the vintage weapon, he opened it and took some seconds of the precious time he had to admire it once more, he looked around, listened to the unnerving silence around him which only made him more anxious, he had to leave. Andersen took the weapon out of its case and holstered it in the pocket of his outer wear, it would remain hidden yet still accessible, he turned around but, in doing so, his left elbow bumped against the empty shooter case over the desk and it fell down on to the floor, the impact caused a loud sound to echo through the halls and the sound was caught by Judy right away, the bunny walked with a rushed set of steps in the direction of the sound as she thought over:

"Did one of the criminals get careless? What happened?"

Judy's body kept moving, she passed a corner right in front of her with the taser in her paws, ready to pull on the trigger in case the tables turned once more and she was just walking straight into another trap. The corner lead to the right, that was the only direction she had to turn and the only way a foe would come by to attack her, no surprises this time, she turned the corner and aimed the shooter ahead as she saw the silhouette of a large feline exiting a room, her first instinct was to shout:

- ZPD, stop right there.

Andersen turned to the left and saw the shadow of the bunny standing right there, half a hallway from his position and aiming straight at him. The ocelot ran away towards the exit, Judy fired the next shot locked in the chamber although, once more, she did not count on the recoil. The bolt fired from Judy's position strayed away from its intended target and it hit the ceiling above, Andersen was getting away but Judy was not going to let him.

Judy holstered the shooter lent to her by Nick and rushed forward to capture the mammal responsible for all of that, or so she thought, all of the answers she had would be answered once she took that criminal to precinct one, she had to do that, she needed to know what all of that was about, she had to fulfil her duty. Andersen ran as fast as he could, doing his best to leave the bunny behind and reach for the exit to the abandoned clinic, his thoughts were thrown into panic as he still did not know how all could go so wrong for him, he would have a lot to explain to his superior, to the mammal that entrusted him with such a vital task and who did not take kindly to failure.

The pursuit continued undeterred, Andersen had nowhere to seek cover in case Judy decided to take another shot at him, most of the boxes that were stored in that location had been loaded off and transported somewhere else, the feline could only rely on speed to keep himself safe and out of the officer's line of sight. There were stairs ahead, Andersen was still leading the way but Judy was gradually gaining up on him, he climbed the stairs two steps at a time to gain maximum distance away from his pursuer, being cautious in his rush to not trip and jeopardize his entire escape. Judy looked ahead, convinced that those stairs lead to a way out and, although she could not climb as hurriedly as her opponent, she could still step efficiently over each step with notable agility.

Andersen reached ahead with his left paw to pull on the locking lever of the exit door, his escape was within reach, he swung the door open and stepped into daylight, making sure to kick the door right behind him in order to close it and leave the bunny officer behind with a solid barrier slapped right on her face but she was much quicker. Judy saw the light just ahead, the way out of that dreadful place and she took a chance as she stepped over the top of the stairs and dove ahead at a precise angle to pass through the narrow opening of the door and catch the criminal unaware. The distance between Judy and the door was not too long and she was able to dive out and be left one on one against the ocelot she had been pursuing, she found both of them standing outside, next to a single story building in a grimy alleyway that connected two different streets from the rundown avenue, Judy rolled out after her dive, drew the shock shooter and yelled out:

- Paws in the air, perp! I got you now!

Andersen heard her voice, that voice demanding him to drop it all and surrender, he was annoyed beyond any measure. The ocelot dropped the secured case filled with important documents and it fell over the hard ground, his right paw was reaching for the shooter he had stored in his outerwear lapel pocket and his thoughts raced around the few viable options he had come up with: Andersen could distract the bunny, sent out a signal with his phone which was also well in his reach, but that was risky, Judy had him dead to rights and there was little chance he would be fast enough to send a signal that would reach any near allies of him in time; His best option, as judged by him, was go far against the wishes of his superior and reveal himself to the ZPD, fight back with everything he had, including the concealed weapon he was reaching for.

Judy squinted her eyes and spoke again, ordering the feline to reconsider his stance and surrender:

- Don't even think on it. Turn around and keep your paws where I can see them.

Andersen turned around, but, to Judy's surprise, the ocelot was holding on to a shooter of his own that he managed to hide away from her the whole way through. Judy and Andersen were now aiming their crosshairs at one another, the feline had now shown his face in clear daylight for the bunny officer to see, the moon shaped scar at the right side of his face as well as the unhinged look in his eyes only alerted Judy to the fact that she was in for one hell of a confrontation but she was not intending on backing down. Andersen showed his smile without flinching, his mentality was evident as he asked defiantly:

- Can you see them, officer?

Judy held on to the shock shooter's handle firmly, making sure that the recoil would not interfere on her aim once more, she aimed for middle mass and kept both of her eyes peeled as she said:

- Throw your weapon down. It is over. Even if you get a dart on me, I still have you pegged down.

Andersen released a little laugh, showing off a toothy grin that only added to his mad appearance, the feline looked straight at her and answered to her by speaking conspicuously:

- Oh, I see what is happening here. You think that this is just a tranq shooter, like one of your adorable side arms. That's where you're dead wrong.

Andersen aimed his shooter up, Judy watched as the feline moved his weapon away from a direct line towards her and thought that would be the prime chance to take him down but, suddenly, Andersen pulled on his trigger and fired a shot into the air, and came out of the barrel shocked Judy and filled her with the urge to retreat. A loud explosive bang emerged from the barrel as well as a flashing spark that died down almost as soon as it had appeared, the noise echoed around the alleyway, frightening Judy and alerting her that the danger she was now faced with was far more extreme than she had previously thought, the weapon had fired a bullet, letting a little metal shell bounce and clink across the ground, and it still had many more in the clip. Andersen felt a little dreed emerge from his chest after firing the weapon in his paw, the loud noise and the spring like recoil felt a little oppressive at first but, then, he felt the power he was now in possession of, he saw the bunny only a few steps away from him flinch and shrug it away, he was in control now.

Judy did not know how to react, she felt short on breath, her legs felt weak, her ears fell down behind her head and her heart bumped against the inside of her chest, for the first time in a long time she felt an indescribable sense of fear and she wanted to run away. Judy's breath got stronger, deeper, her nose twitched as she made an effort to keep herself in the steady position she was in, she watched as Andersen turned his aim back at her with both of his paws holding on to the weapon's handle and heard as the feline put out the most intimidating act of his life while speaking loud and clear for her to listen:

- This here is an old time 'lead-spewer'. This here ain't gonna put you to sleep… IT'S GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU UNLESS YOU BACK THE HELL OFF!

Judy pressed her lips together, her next move in that scenario would be decisive, her mind bounced all over the place as she imagined her life hanging by a thread, there would be no support from anyone else, she had to make a move that would help her come out on top but it would be difficult when she was already scared out of her wits. Andersen was preparing to pull the trigger once more, she was sure of what he wanted to do in that moment and he was also sure he would be rewarded for such an act, he had to act, he had to kill a police officer.

The wind blew through the alleyway, breaking off the silence that descended over that scene, Judy tried to control her breath, she tried to pull the trigger and end that confrontation, she did her best to rush past her fears but her entire body felt frozen, she couldn't move, not even an inch. Judy felt anxiety, fear, sipping into her mind, her instincts and her firm line of thought clashing and making her even more frazzled for what could happen. Andersen pressed his finger against the trigger, the time had come, Judy could no longer run away, and suddenly, another sound was heard, the loud sound of a door swinging open out of nowhere. Nick had appeared.

Nick exited the building, following his gut and searching for Judy, he opened the door leading to the way out and found his partner, locked in a standoff against the feline, his only thought at that very second onward was to help her, to get her away from harm, one glance at her face as she turned her head to look in his direction alerted him that she was in a crisis. Nick did not think about any options, he could see clearly that Judy was in danger, she was hesitant, while her foe wasn't. The fox propelled himself forward, everything to him seemed to run a whole lot slower as an insane amount of adrenaline pumped through his entire system, he dove ahead and yelled out:

- Judy! Watch out!

Judy felt the impact of the fox diving over her, her body went limp as her partner pushed her out of the way and the two of them landed over a cluster of soft garbage bags placed next to one of the alley walls. Judy feared for herself and her partner, she did not have time to alert him about the lead-spewer at the paws of the ocelot but she also was not sure if Nick would have even cared about it, once more, he had risked everything to help her. Judy could sense an avalanche of feelings washing over all of her senses, she saw a blur of colors passing in front of her eyes, she felt the sudden impact causing her body to finally move out of the way, but she also heard the loud and familiar bang of the ocelot's gun firing again, Judy felt faint, so much stimuli at once and she could hardly handle it, her mind turned into a blank once she felt her entire body land over the plastic bags behind her.

Judy did not take too long to return to herself, only five seconds or so after the scare, she opened her eyes and looked around, she felt Nick's weight over her and her eyes moved around to make sure she was still awake, able to move and prepared for what came next. Judy moved and jostled around frantically as she struggled to get up once more, she placed her left paw over Nick's right shoulder and looked over her partner, his eyes still opened and his breath loud next to her ears but she could also hear another sound in the distance, loud steps getting far away in a hurry, Andersen was escaping.

At that point, after that entire ordeal, Judy did not even want to get up and pursue the ocelot any further, she was glad to be out of that place, back outside with Nick and…

- Carrots…

Judy turned her eyes and ears in the direction of Nick, she saw as the fox slowly got up but there was something wrong with his movement, she wasn't sure what it was. Nick only stood up part way, she placed himself on his knees and took the palm of his left paw over to his right side only to take it away from that position shortly after, Judy watched his motions, scanning him over and over again until she saw something dripping from his paw…

"Blood?!"

Judy looked over at Nick once more, the fox looked enervated, his body leaning from side to side as he looked over himself and to what he now had on his left paw, that blood belonged to him, a realization only accentuated by the searing pain he could now feel coming from the upper right side of his back. Nick flinched forward, the whole world around him shook and stood still repeatedly but his eyes still remained focused on the bunny right in front of him, her voice called out:

- N… Nick?!

Her soft voice asking for any reaffirmation, he spoke out with much of the same tone he used before as he said:

- I… I don't feel too good.

Nick leaned forward, for a second he could feel his body and mind giving out but not enough that would make him go down in an instant, Judy raised from the floor like lightning, extending her arms in his direction in order to provide support. He was wounded, Nick was wounded, she had to do something:

- NICK!

Judy called out to him once more but the fox did not need to have his attention called out to anything or anyone else at that moment, he was still conscious but the hammering pain he was feeling was definitely not helping him keep a cool mind, he could feel Judy's soft touch keeping him firmly steady, keeping his body from going totally loose at that moment, he felt a cold touch coming from his back area and spreading around, he was losing blood fast. Judy saw the red stain spreading over the blue of his uniform, her fear only multiplied by the frightful sight, she needed to act fast.

Judy reached for Nick and began taking the shirt of his uniform off, pulling the knot of his tie loose, pulling the buttons of his shirt apart and undoing the elaborate series of straps in order to remove his armored vest, she ended up tossing all of those aside tactlessly so she could go right ahead and identify the piercing point of the projectile on Nick's body. The fox let his partner do those things without protest, he felt too tired to do otherwise and he trusted in the fact that she apparently knew what she was doing. Judy saw the pierced spot on Nick's body underneath the fur on his back, she was stunned with the fact that the fired projectile penetrated right past the armored vest and sunk right through his flesh, her chest tightened as she imagined only a fraction of the pain her partner was under, she asked for Nick to remain still as she applied pressure on the wound to keep him from losing much more blood and he gladly replied that he would do so with a nod of his head and a low puff of air from his mouth. Judy did not really know what to say to calm her partner down but she felt like she had to say something, anything, so she just said:

- Nick, you saved me again. I'm so sorry you got hurt. I didn't even…

Nick cut into her words as he spoke up:

- Hey, don't you worry, fluff. It only hurts when I laugh. Just don't tell any jokes and I'll be fine.

Nick felt like he did not have much strength left, he could hear his own heart beating loudly and he felt a strange twitch from his right arm, he tried speaking something else to Judy, thinking that doing so, keeping a conversation going with her, would maybe calm her and himself down but no words were given permission on being exchanged as he felt the palm of Judy's paws being sturdily pressed against his back over his wound which only added to the pain. Nick sounded off a sharp inhale and decided to lay down on the ground, his muzzle turned to the right so that he could still look at Judy while also preserving his remaining strength. Judy was panicking intensely as she saw her partner laying himself on the ground in front of her, she saw the small trail of blood slithering across the ground next to him and wondered what could be done to help, she was too scared to think of more options but her partner was still awake and thoughtful enough to provide them. Nick moved his left arm and pointed to the door he had just exited as he said:

- Judy…

There was no strain coming from Nick's voice, that was a good sign, it meant he was pushing past the pain without much effort, it still felt hard for him to endure it continuously however. Judy heard his voice and saw him move but protested against him performing any unwarranted effort, telling him so:

- Nick, don't move. Save your energy. I'll… I'll think of something.

The fox could clearly hear that his partner was afraid for him but she had to tell her what she needed to hear, he took in a long breath air through his mouth, his chest expanded and he could vividly feel the lead well inside of his flesh, reminding him of the pain, he barreled through it as he knew what he had to say. Nick pointed to the door once more and said:

- Judy, I destroyed the thing blocking our signals. Grab the radio. Call for backup.

Judy heard what Nick said, his volume and tone of voice was far calmer that she could ever hope to be in that situation, she had her right and left paw one over another and pressing on Nick's wound, keeping the excess blood from escaping but such a thing was not going to last, she had to call for help an she went ahead on doing so. Judy took her left paw away from Nick, still making sure to keep her right paw over the wound, and reached for her radio, the interference was truly gone as shown by the receiving sign on the little screen and she took the chance to press the button on the side in order to send an urgent signal directly to precinct one, she prayed for a voice, any voice, to come and answer her call. After pressing the button over and over again with small intervals so the signal could be interpreted correctly, Judy heard a familiar voice asking:

- Hello? Hello?!

It was the voice of Benjamin and Judy gasped with relief after hearing it. Judy spoke up:

- Benjamin?!

- Hopps?! Where have you been? The chief said you went up to answer for a call at the lower Savanna and never called it in! He just sent Wolford and Delgato to serch for you and…

Judy yelled and made sure the cheetah knew that there was no time for idle conversation, Benjamin was scared as the loud voice coming from the radio sounded off and called to the attention of all the remaining officers passing by the precinct main lobby:

- BENJAMIN! LISTEN TO ME!

Benjamin became quiet and the reason for that yell directed at him came soon as Judy explained:

- Nick and I were ambushed by a crew of thugs, we caught most of them but Nick is badly hurt. We have a 10-5.1 Officer down. I repeat: Officer down. Call an ambulance, fast!

Benjamin grabbed a hold of the radio with both of his paws as his nerves flared up after hearing that, he stayed silent in case Judy ad something else to say but no other words came from her so he asked for more clarification:

- Hopps! Where are you guys?

Judy did not know how to answer that, she could give a rough estimate of their location but nothing specific. Nick was still awake and he provided Judy with his map like knowledge of their location as he spoke with low volume, listing the main points of their position:

- Locata lane, Coutranera heights, south savanna.

Judy caught that and spoke to Benjamin, putting emphasis on her words so that she would not be misunderstood when saying it:

- We're at the south Savanna, Locata lane and Coutraners heights. We're in an alleyway adjacent to rundown avenue. Please Benjamin, Hurry!

The cheetah left his post behind the counter and rushed to alert chief Bogo and any other officer close by, Judy's voice was well heard from the radio and the entire precinct was alerted about the crisis situation. Cruisers were departing for Judy's location and emergency services were alerted promptly, chief Bog left his office in a hurry and hopped on the first vacant cruiser he could find in order to drive there himself, he had to learn what had transpired and he also did not wish to waste any time doing so.

Judy was glad that her called was answered and she could do nothing more except remain next to Nick and wait, she turned the emergency signal on her radio which would continuously send a little ping that would keep her in line with other cruisers on their way just in case but she had to keep her attention focused on Nick and with helping him from that point on. Judy stared at Nick, both of her paws placed over his wound once more as the fox laid on the ground, breathing slowly, making a frown of pain and doubt, he was also a little insecure about what would happen, the pain he was feeling was becoming almost unbearable and his mind was starting to wander off, he did not want that to happen. Judy spoke up, leaning her head closer to Nick and telling him:

- The EMTs are on their way, other officers will be coming as well. You're going to be alright.

Nick smiled after hearing that, Judy still sounded afraid, but there was a touch of hope behind that and he was thankful for it. Nick took a short breath and said:

- Not a doubt in my mind.

Judy kept applying pressure on Nick's wound, some blood was still seeping through her fingers, staining her fur and her paws, she did not pay any mind to that, only Nick's safety mattered. Nick was starting to feel the pain of the projectile that burrowed into his flesh more intensely, it was becoming hard for him to keep a straight thought, Judy asked of him:

- Nick, how are you feeling?

The fox smiled once more and answered with a tone that was meant to comfort Judy, telling it more as a joke than anything else:

- I'm getting blood all over my uniform and I got my face against the dirt on the floor, fluff. I guess I felt better.

Judy shook her head and looked around, anxiously awaiting to hear any sign of the approaching support of medics and her fellow officers, the had to hurry, they had to be there. Nick's voice interrupted Judy's thought as he called out to her:

- Judy, this… this really hurts.

Judy placed her eyes, felling like she could pick on a fraction of the pain communicated by her partner's voice, and spoke up:

- I know, Nick. I know it hurts, but you need to keep still and I need to keep pressure on the wound. I got to keep you from bleeding out.

Nick took a series of breaths from his mouth, he felt a searing discomfort coming from his back every time he took a pause to breathe, it was like the single pin of pain his mind had caught from before had turned into a larger that caused his entire body to ache in alarm. Judy was still right next to him, Nick felt safe in her care, knowing that she would not deviate herself even if she was scared beyond reason. Judy leaned closer to him once more, her ears continued to move around as she said:

- Nick, talk to me. Speak, say anything, just stay awake. Please.

Nick sounded off a little puff of air before taking another breath and saying:

- How's a guy supposed to pass out in peace with you yammering me on and on like that. I'm not going anywhere, Judy.

Nick moved his left paw, its palm and his claws passing over the floor as he did so, and he spoke again:

- Just stay right there. Talk to me some more. It's going to be alright.

Nick felt for a moment like he was just saying one thing after the other without true reason to do so, just keeping Judy calm, but the fox was actually comforting his partner and letting her know that she was not going to get knocked out that easily. Judy pressed her lips together and could already feel herself starting to cry, her ears dropped and her shoulders locked in place as she said:

- I know that. I know it's going to be alright, because you're going to be alright.

Nick kept his smile and he spoke once more to Judy before turning to silence:

- Judy, you're the greatest. Always remember that.

Judy heard Nick's words loud and clear, she kept tabs on the rhythm of his breath, making sure that the fox was still awake and capable of answering to her if she needed to hear something more out of him. Judy raised her ears, she heard the sound of sirens coming closer, the help she requested had arrived, they were close and all she could do to call out to them, to tell their precise location was to yell out:

- OVER HERE! WE'RE OVER HERE! PLEASE, HURRY!

---

Fifteen minutes passed by and the streets of 'rundown avenue' which resembled more of a ghost town were now filled with noise and movement, a myriad of officers from precinct one and medical mammals were called to the scene and what they had found was nothing short of absolutely shocking. Judy was taken to one of the ambulances that rolled in, she was set over it and advised by one of the medical officers to remain seated as they checked her for any injuries but she refused to stay still, insisting that all of the attention should be placed on Nick and saving his life, she was assured shortly after that a crew of the most capable responders was taking care of her partner and they would be taking him to the nearest hospital post haste.

Judy just refused to remain still, the equine nurse instructed to keep tabs on the bunny officer just could not hold her back, Judy ran back to the alleyway as she saw her partner being placed and strapped on a medical doolie with a breathing tube over his muzzle and being put in a rush inside another ambulance. The emergency vehicle took to the streets on the shortest route for the hospital with blaring sirens, All that Judy was left with were the last words her partner said to her, complimenting her efforts, and she felt like she did not even deserve them.

Judy turned around and herd the thundering voice of chief Bogo calling out to her, he did not sound angry like he usually did, he sounded worried and, as he saw the bunny's partner being taken away by an ambulance, he felt like he had the right to be just that much worried about what had occurred. Bogo asked straight out for an account of what had happened and Judy obliged straight away, telling the buffalo about how, earlier that day, she chose to answer for a call about a stolen motorcycle and how they were taken off-guard by the thugs, how they were imprisoned and were able to escape, how the leader of the goons was armed and how Nick saved her life.

Judy was no able to finish her oral report with the efficiency she was known for, she took long pauses in the middle of her words in order to catch her breath, put her thoughts in order, but chief Bogo had heard all that he needed to heard. A thorough head count of all the apprehended suspects would be made as well as the archiving of all the hard evidence left behind, the chief suggested that Judy should either get back to the precinct or go home in order to rest and cope with everything that happened but Judy straight up refused to do so. The bunny told the chief that Nick's mother had to be notified and she volunteered to do so herself, Bogo did not even saw it fit to question Judy in any way beyond that, she just turned her back on the chief and made a track back to her cruiser so she could drive in the direction of Maria Wilde's residence, tell the elder fox about her son's condition and what happened to him.

Bogo watched as Judy walked with tight steps away from him, passing through the paths of all the other officers and investigators walking about, he kept an eyes on her for a short time as his body gradually turned away so that he could return to other tasks relating to that newest investigation, he felt bad leaving Judy to just walk away like that, he could hardly imagined how the bunny must have been feeling in that moment. Judy walked through the streets, paying no mind to any other mammal around her, she had a direction and an objective set in her mind and that was all she had to do, so she thought to herself, ordering her body to keep moving forward until… she took another look at herself. Judy halted her walk, she stopped in the middle of the street, her uniform was a mess and her body felt heavy, almost like it was slowly sinking into the asphalt, she raised her paws and took a long hard look, the fur on her palms, stained in pure red. Her partner's blood on her paws.

For a long punitive moment, Judy looked over at the palms of her paws and thought over about what she had gone through, how her partner, her friend, was injured, how a moment of fear and hesitation costed her dearly. Judy felt the world around her become a blur, melting away from view, she was left in a void, just her, her thoughts and a punishing voice in her mind telling in repeat:

"This is my fault."