Disclaimer: Zootopia and all canon characters are owned by Disney. All other characters, product names, trademarks, and copyrights, belong to their respective owners.
A/N: Music for this chapter: EDM Remix of Zootopia Try Everything by Dream Ami on Youtube.
…..
"Turn into the parking lot over there."
"You're kidding. I'm not parking Sally here, she'll get heisted for sure in this neighborhood."
Nick shook his head, "Shut off the engine and the lights. This is just the map point."
"Map point," asked Judy. "What's that?"
"Just wait, oh impatient one."
A few moments later, headlights blinked from across the parking lot.
"Come on," said Nick getting out of the car. "The map point is where we get our IDs checked, pay, and get the final directions to the rave. Kind of a security measure to keep the riff-raff out."
Judy huffed, "I thought ravers were the riff-raff."
Chuckling, Nick said, "The legal riff-raff, especially cops like us. So, turn on that Grrsey charm and see if you can talk the bouncer into letting me in."
"Dude, be easy. Finessing this mook'll be easy-peasy."
Gently pushing Judy up to the door of the low-rider car their tanuki bouncer was sitting in, Nick whispered into the closest large ear, "Easy-peasy? Remember you're not a benny, you're a Grrsey girl now."
Bapping Nick's muzzle with said ear in response, Judy hopped onto the low-rider's running board and said, "Yo, Moe, two for the cabbage night," and then turning, she stuck her tongue out at Nick.
"IDs," said the tanuki without looking up.
Judy passed over Torrie's fake and waited.
"Van Bunn, Van Bunn. Oh yeah, Torrie, here it is. Okay, the ID checks out, you're good. What's the other name?" asked the bouncer handing Judy her ID back.
"Coppertail," blurted out Judy.
"Got it. ID."
"Well, abouts that, Homeslice," said Judy twirling an ear. "I was sort of chopped when I texted his name in, and I, uh, kind of spelled it wrong, so don't be a herb and OD on me about his ID being fugazi. My cuddy's legit, I swear I'm not lying – them's are the cold, hard facts."
The tanuki finally looked up at Judy and then over at Nick and raised a brow.
Nick shrugged.
"Don't break my balls, girl. Either I see his ID, or he doesn't get in, especially with him being a fox. You can't trust foxes. They're always skulking around trying to get in where they don't belong so they can run a hustle. I bet mister shifty fox here's got a load of third-rate glow sticks he's planning on scamming for top dollar, and double or nothing says, not one of them lasts till midnight."
"What!" yelled Judy as her ears shot straight up and her dull claws extended. "What do you mean you don't trust foxes? Nick is a great guy! And hustling everyone just because he's a fox? That's an incredibly speciest thing to say. Nick hasn't hustled anyone in, like, a while now. And if you don't apologize right this second, I'm going to, uh–"
"Carrots," said Nick trying to calm his now angry bunny, "I'm sure this nice mammal here didn't mean anything by what he said. Right, Nuuk?"
"Nope," the tanuki replied, smiling at Nick, "I pretty much meant everything I said." And turning to Judy, he winked as he added, "By the way, nice Grrsey accent there, Miss Van Bunn."
Turning back to Nick, the tanuki held his fist out the window and said, "How's the tail hanging, Wilde? I haven't sniffed your sorry scent in a long time. Kind of surprised to see you're still alive."
Fist bumping his friend, Nick smiled back, "Yeah, still alive, mostly due to my girl here. How have you been? Aren't you getting a little long in the tooth to be running the door for a rave?"
"Yeah, they're not like they used to be, all new mammals running the show nowadays. Did you know there's actually a manual for doing this now? It used to be you'd just sneak into a place, hack the breaker box, set up a couple of turntables, and voila, a party. Now, I don't know. It might be time to spin that last record and go mainstream."
"You guys know each other?"
"Carrots, I keep telling you, I know everyone."
*grrrrrr*
"Feisty one, isn't she."
"Yup," replied Nick with a smirk.
"Nicholas Wilde, I am about to show you feisty. If you knew all the people running these raves, why didn't you tell me? We might have been able to find DeeDee and Billy a couple of days ago."
"Carrots, come on, you heard the mammal, lots of new faces have been organizing the raves lately. If I'd tried to reach out, we might have tipped the wrong animal off and blown our cover. Besides, no one knows anything about anything until just before the party starts. You know, loose lips, sink ships, and all of that, right Nuuk?"
"Yeah, Wilde's right. I didn't even know where tonight's rave would be until this afternoon."
"So, is this one of Ernie's raves?"
"No, he's been working the Nocturnal District for a while now. He said it's kind of weird running a rave during daylight hours, but that's what they want, and Ernie's home every night to tuck in his kits for bed."
"So, who's running this one?"
"An Iberian lynx named Joy Cattin, she's okay people. Worked under Ernie for most of a year, and now she's taken over what's left of the old crew. She's been running shows most weekends and hasn't gotten rousted by the cops in almost six months."
"Can we trust her?" asked Nick.
"Mostly, just don't tell her more than you have to, and you'll be okay."
Pulling out his phone, Nick unlocked it and opened up a picture, "We're looking for a lioness named DeeDee, and," swiping to the next picture, "a lion named Billy. We think they were at your rave last Friday. Did they come through your map point?"
Nuuk motioned for Nick to go back to DeeDee's picture and then to Billy's again. "Yeah, they look familiar. Last week I worked a map point not too far from a Metro station. They were on the list, paid, and caught a ride the rest of the way in with a pickup truck of kits from one of the colleges around here."
Nick swiped his phone to another pair of pictures, "Are you sure it wasn't an old white van driven by a goat and a ram?"
Squinting, Nuuk shook his head, "No, the kits they got a ride from were all on the list and ready to party. I didn't see any white vans or anyone older than you guys trying to get in."
"How about at the other map points?"
Nuuk shrugged, "The guys running the other map points were newbies more focused on the girls than the screening, so it's possible, but I don't know. I can give you the names of the other two bouncers that worked last Friday, no promises they're working tonight, but if they are, they might swing by the party later, and you can ask them."
"Can't you just call them now and ask?" said Judy nodding toward Nuuk's phone on the seat next to him."
"No can do, darlin'. The tech guys that help set up for the rave are good at picking cell phone dead spots or fiddling with the cell towers. Either way, your cell phone is pretty much useless from here on in. No one, especially not Cattin, wants the cops seeing a text or a post that gives them an excuse to bust the party."
Judy huffed, "We're not here to bust up any dumb party. We're just looking for our two lion friends so we can figure out what happened to them."
Nuuk rubbed his chin for a few moments before looking at Nick and saying, "Was all that crap I heard on TV true? Did you really go cop? Is that what you're doing here?"
Nick nodded, "Yup, Carrots here talked me into becoming her partner, so I'm ZPD now. But don't worry, like she said, we're just looking for a couple of missing mammals."
Nuuk raised a brow, "A rabbit, talked you, Nick Wilde, hustler extraordinaire, into becoming a cop?"
"Yup."
Looking Judy up and down, Nuuk chuckled, "Yeah, I guess I'd go cop too if I had a partner that looked like her."
Judy rolled her eyes as she put out her paw, "That's enough, Romeo. Where's the party?"
Placing a strip of paper in Judy's paw, Nuuk gave her a wide smile and said, "An abandoned warehouse about a mile from here. I comped you your cover charge. I hope you have fun."
"Thanks, buddy," said Nick.
"Pffft, I comped her ticket, you still owe me twenty. Buddy."
Judy hopped down and examined the directions as she walked back to the car.
Two sets of canid eyes studiously watched as her cotton ball of a tail bobbed its way back too.
"We're undercover, so keep all this to yourself, okay," said Nick out the side of his mouth as he handed Nuuk a bill.
"Got it. You know that's one hell of an outfit. Where do you think she keeps her ID?"
"Or her phone?" added Nick.
"Yeah…"
"Nick, honey," said Judy over her shoulder, "I have pawcuffs too, don't make me have to use them."
Nuuk raised a brow.
"It's the ears," whispered Nick.
…..
*wub wub WUB wub wub*
Judy let her sensitive ears droop down her back as soon as she and Nick passed through a partially open overhead door and into the warehouse's dock area. She could already feel in her bones, what she and Nick were about to hear full force.
"Do you want me to hold the car keys?" asked Nick reaching out for the door handle.
"Nope," replied Judy, "they're safe right where they are."
"And where is that, exactly?"
Judy winked in reply as she checked herself over one last time. She brushed down a few tufts of fur, adjusted her top, then finished her self-review with a little hip wiggle to make sure her skirt was set right.
"Okay, I'm ready."
"You're sure?"
Judy nodded once for Nick to open the door… and was almost pushed back into the dock by the full power of a bass beat.
*untz untz UNTZ untz untz*
And almost blinded by the strobe lights, the swirling lasers making patterns on the ceiling, the light art on the walls, and the random patterns created by the glow sticks some of the dancers were wearing.
*wub wub WUB wub wub*
All that was missing was–
*UMPA UMPA wub wub wub UMPA UMPA*
"A mirrored ball," Judy said to herself as a Mangalica pig DJ with waist-long dreadlocks changed beats and remote-controlled lights from every corner of the abandoned warehouse were suddenly being reflected off a mirrored ball hanging in the center of the large room.
"Pretty crazy, huh," yelled Nick into one of Judy's ears.
Standing just inside the now closed entrance doors, Judy gawked a bit. This was nothing like the Gazelle concert she'd taken Nick to. There had to be about two hundred mostly small to medium-large sized mammals spinning, gyrating, sliding, and looking at a drunk kangaroo wobbling as he turned in circles, doing whatever that guy was doing.
"Yeah, crazy," yelled back Judy as she pulled Nick's head closer to hers using his hoodie drawstrings.
At all the concerts Judy had been to before, most mammals swayed or danced in their seats or sometimes found a spot near the stage to bounce around. A lot like when she'd hip bumped her fox until he started to wiggle his fluffy tail, and do whatever that dorky arm-spinning thing he liked to do.
'Nope, this was way different.'
*WOB wob wob WOB wob wob WOB*
The warehouse looked like it had been vacant for months and converted into a dance club sometime in the last few hours. The dance floor took up most of the open space between where she and Nick were standing and a section of offices or storage rooms on the opposite side of the room from where the DJ stand was. Straight in front of her and to the right of the DJ stand were large stairs headed down. And to her left in the corner was a pop-up bar with a few kits waiting in line for drinks.
"Never been a huge fan of EDM," came another yell from Nick. "How are these things holding up?" he asked, shaking one of Judy's slack ears.
Judy pulled her ear out of Nick's paw and, patting him on the cheek, said, "I'm just fine. It's you I'm worried about. You better be ready with some real moves if we're going to fit in here."
"Don't worry about me Carrots. I've played hundreds of hours of 'Dance Dance Revolution' in preparation for a night like this, which means this fox is ready to bring it!"
Judy rolled her eyes and led her dorky fox by his hoodie drawstrings, into the gyrating mass of mammals and toward the DJ stand.
A few feet in, Judy realized the flaw in her plan and tugged Nick down lower, "I'm too short. I can't see anything."
Nick nodded, and with a grin on his face, grabbed Judy by the waist and stood her on his shoulders.
Judy was about to thump Nick in the head with her foot when she felt him grab her by the ankles and heard the mammals around them whoop and holler at her crazy move. One glitter-covered elk cow even gave Judy a high-hoof before rubbing her tail up against her plastic-covered, ski goggle wearing, date.
Laughing now, Judy started bouncing to the beat as Nick continued winding his way through the crowd.
The costumes were wild. Judy went from laughing at the elk couple, to being confused by a wolverine wearing a steampunk goth outfit, to covering her eyes at a serval queen wearing less than any of the most revealing outfits Torrie had had in her closet.
Or only slightly less than what she was wearing right now.
Judy's eyes narrowed as she felt a tingling sensation in her tail, a feeling like the sixth sense that ancient rabbits felt just before some predator was going to pounce, the feeling that a predator was stalking her.
Judy looked down, just in time to see her fox's eyes jerk down and Nick start whistling as he innocently surveyed the mammals dancing around them.
Judy lightly bapped Nick on the side of the head with her hind paw.
Nick smiled but didn't look up again.
Smiling herself now, Judy gave Nick's shoulder a gentle squeeze with her toes, and then after he'd given her ankle a squeeze back, Judy got back to the mission.
Nick had started moving again, so Judy continued to bounce to the beat of the DJ's mix while she looked for DeeDee and Billy.
"Whoa," said Judy to no one that could hear her. "Manes." Judy spied a pair of maned mammals out of the corner of her eye and, nudging Nick with her toe, used it to point toward the edge of the crowd near the DJ stand.
A few moments later, Nick and Judy, no longer stacked, carefully squeezed between a trio of gyrating porcupines to find…
"Sloths?" said Nick watching the two mammals engaged in the impossible, a slow-motion Melbourne Shuffle.
"Maned sloths," replied Judy. "Sorry, it was hard to see up on your shoulders."
Nick nodded, "Yeah, next time you carry me. Fox vision is way better than your bunny eyesight."
Boxing her fox in the side, Judy said, "I think my tail has had enough of your 'fox vision' for one night. How about we talk to the DJ and see if he remembers our lions."
"After you," replied Nick with a gallant flourish of his arm toward the DJ.
Judy started, and stopped, "Nuh-uh, after you."
Nick's smile drooped at his bunny's ploy until, giving Judy a wink, he wrapped his tail around his waist and sauntered up to the DJ station.
Thwarted, Judy stuck out her tongue as she saw Nick turn and waggle his brows in victory just before queuing up pictures of DeeDee and Billy on his phone.
Watching as Nick waited until the DJ finished scratching for a moment, Judy hung out by the Mangalica's crates of vinyl LPs. Turning her head so she could read the record labels, Judy whistled at the selection, and about to run her finger across the spines, she was stopped by a brush of Nick's tail.
Judy looked up in time to see the DJ shake his dreadlocks 'no' and motion toward the basement stairs where an Iberian lynx queen had just appeared and was now watching the crowd.
Nick started to thank the DJ but was interrupted by Judy pointing back and forth between the two of them, followed by her pointing at the crate of records she'd been admiring.
The DJ smiled and nodded and finally laughed when Judy pulled an album out of the crate, showed it to him without Nick being able to see it, and put it on the top of his stack for the next set.
With a thumbs-up from the DJ, Judy grabbed Nick by the drawstrings and led him toward their next clue.
…..
"The DJ said that's Miss Cattin, the rave organizer Nuuk talked about," said Nick as he reached for his phone, only to see Judy's phone magically appear in her paw.
"Excuse me, Miss Cattin, we're looking for a couple of friends of ours, and I was hoping you might be able to help us find them."
"Sure," replied the lynx wearing a black '128BPM' t-shirt. "You're Torrie, aren't you? Decided to go a little more conservative this time out, huh?"
Nick snickered.
Judy stepped back on the fuzzy appendage behind her.
Nick whimpered.
"Yeah, my friend here is a newbie, and I, uh, didn't want him to freak out."
Cattin nodded knowingly and said, so only Judy could hear, "You need any help showing him the ropes, you just let me know."
Judy coughed, "Thanks, but I think I've got it.
"About my friends, though," said Judy, holding her phone out for Cattin to see, "they're both lions, DeeDee and Billy. We were supposed to meet up with them at last Friday's rave, but we missed them. I was hoping you'd know if they're coming tonight or maybe what happened to them last week."
Looking hard at the pictures, Cattin grunted, "Yeah, they were at the rave last week, I don't remember when they got here, but they were gone before…" Cattin straightened up and went through a mental list of names until, "they were gone by the time Yakboy Slim was done spinning. That would have been around one."
"And tonight? Did they sign up?"
Cattin shook her head, "I don't think so. I don't remember any lions on the list for tonight."
"When do the guys close down the map points?" asked Nick leaning in so Cattin and Judy could hear him.
"Twelve, twelve-thirty depending on how many people sign up. Why?"
"We're also trying to figure out if a couple of guys in a white van might have shown up last week to maybe meet with our friends. They might have been a ram and a goat."
"Or a ram in a wolf cosplay costume," added Nick.
Cattin's eyes narrowed as she looked back and forth between the bunny and the fox and said, "What are you guys, cops or something? Are you setting me up so you can bust my rave?"
Nick looked around quickly as he motioned for Cattin to keep her voice down, "No, no, nothing like that. Tonight we're 'or something.' If you really have to know, we're doing a favor for DeeDee and Billy's families. No one's heard from either of them since your rave last week, and we're quietly checking things out."
"So, you're not here to bust me?"
Waving a paw, Judy said, "Nope, just trying to find out what happened to DeeDee and Billy."
Brushing a paw through her head fur, Cattin groaned, "Alright. I don't remember seeing a ram or a goat in a white van, but things get pretty crazy around here, and with the rave running all night, I really can't say for sure." Checking her watch, she added, "Slim will be here in about an hour and a half to get ready for his set, and the mammals handling the map points should be here a little after that. So when they get here, I'll hook you up, and you can ask them about your mammals."
"Yeah, thanks, that's great," replied Judy, "And if DeeDee or Billy show up, please let us know as soon as you see them."
"Gotcha," said Cattin. "By the way, who are you really? I can see the makeup on your ears and face, and if I remember right, Torrie has a much better Grrsey accent than you do."
"Alright kits, this next one's a request for a special rabbit and her guy." Came a booming voice from the loudspeakers.
Judy's ears shot up at hearing the DJ getting ready to play her request, so grabbing Nick's drawstrings, she yelled toward Cattin, "Judy, Torrie's my little sister," and dragged Nick out onto the dance floor.
"Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh"
"Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh"
"Noooo!" begged Nick, "An EDM remix of 'Try Everything?' You can't be serious."
Judy laughed and made very sure that Nick didn't just stand next to her doing that dorky arm twirling thing.
…..
Nick, waving his paw in front of Judy as the third Gazelle remix of the DJ's set started to come down a few decibels, yelled into the closest ear, "Okay, Okay, that's enough. We should look around and check things out before that Yakboy Slim guy shows up."
Judy finished her moves with a very enthusiastic version of a Jumping Fist Pump dance style, followed by a double Head Bang and an ear flip to counter the more noob-ish style Nick had fallen into right after she kept him from convincing everyone on the floor that an African Ant Eater Ritual was actually a new-wave dance.
Finally, jumping up and giving a drunken kangaroo a high-four, Judy landed right in front of Nick and said, "What happened to Mr. Bring it on? You're not going to give up and let some little bunny outdance you. Are you?"
"Yes, yes that's exactly what I'm going to do. One more Gazelle remix, and I think my head will explode."
Judy shook her head as she followed Nick over to a slightly quieter spot so they could come up with a plan.
"You bounce around the dance floor and watch for any of our mammals, good or bad, and I'll check out the back offices down that hallway."
Judy nodded and, showing Nick the time on her phone, said, "We'll meet back here in fifteen minutes."
"Alright," said Nick, checking his own phone. "Fifteen minutes."
Judy turned to start her circuit when Nick grabbed her by the arm and, nodding toward the phone in her paw, asked, "Come on, you don't have any pockets. I gots to know."
Smiling, Judy waved for Nick to bend down, and once he was close, she gave him a quick kiss on the side of his muzzle and said, "Too bad, it's a girl secret. Boys can't know."
A moment later, a stunned fox watched as his bunny sashayed back onto the dance floor, gave him a final tail wiggle, and disappeared into the crowd.
Nick panted as he kept staring after the best thing that had ever happened to him, panting that didn't have anything to do with his lame dance moves and everything to do with the girl he loved. 'Wilde, you are one lucky fox,' was Nick's parting thought as he made his way down the hall to check out the offices.
…..
Into the thick of the crowd, Judy took a quick peek back at her fox right after her last tail wiggle, and smiling to herself, she silently thanked her sister. Not that she'd ever admit to Torrie she was right about wearing this outfit, but–
"Wanna dance?" yelled an old gopher in front of her, doing a moon-walk that turned into an energetic twerk.
'Maybe Torrie was too right,' thought Judy as she shook her head and made her way to the far corner of the room where the bar was protected from the worst of the noise by a wall of shipping crates.
Hopping up on a stool where Judy could still see most of the dance floor, she waved over the bartender who was handing two red plastic cups to a deer buck.
"What can I get ya to drink?"
"Nothing right now," replied Judy showing the bartender her phone. "I'm looking for my friends. Have you seen them here tonight?"
The bartender shook his head.
Putting away her phone, Judy asked, "How about a billy goat with short horns, maybe hanging with a wolf?"
The bartender thought for a moment before stepping out from behind the bar and standing next to Judy so he could scan the whole floor.
"Over there," said the bartender pointing toward the stairs Cattin had just come up. "I saw him talking to a wolf earlier."
Following the bartender's finger, Judy saw a goat's head bobbing out of sight as her new target disappeared down the stairs.
"Thanks!"
Judy sped across the dance floor, weaving between and around dancing mammals. She even slid between the legs of a tapir dancing the Robot.
Stopping near the top of the stairs, Judy appeared to be casually examining her claws, looking for chips in the new polish, when in reality, she was checking to make sure there wasn't a spotter backing up whoever just went down the stairs.
Not seeing anyone that looked suspicious and making a mental note to ask Torrie about her claw polish because she did find a chip, Judy silently followed the goat down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs, Judy lifted an ear and rotated it around like a radar dish until–
"Gotcha!" Judy whispered.
Sneaking up on the first door to her right, Judy peeked in on a unisize restroom. Not seeing anyone, she padded past the open door and, stopping outside a room marked 'Maintenance,' extended an ear through the partially open door and waited.
Nothing.
Gently pushing open the door, Judy spied a pair of fading glowsticks on top of a rubber mat in the middle of the floor and two more glowsticks illuminating stacks of wooden crates from a tool bench against the far wall.
Empty.
Crossing to the other side of the basement, Judy stopped outside a closed door to what had to be the building's boiler room. She could hear the flames of an industrial gas hot water heater almost being drowned out by a large vent fan and–
'Moaning.'
'Someone's in trouble.'
Judy's paw unconsciously went to her thigh to pull her tranq but instead came away with a pawful of her skirt's barely-there material.
"Great, no weapon. Now what?"
Judy stepped back from the doorway and looked around the basement. Not seeing anything usable in subduing a mammal likely ten times as big as she was, she hopped back to the maintenance room and its workbench.
"Yes!" Judy fist pumped, "A crowbar."
Hefting up her new weapon, Judy slapped her palm a couple of times to get the feel of it and quickly made her way back to the furnace room.
More moaning, followed this time by a groan-bleat.
Standing outside the room, back to the wall and holding the crowbar to her chest, Judy took a deep breath… and silently psyched herself up, 'Alright girl, you've taken on larger mammals with less than you've got now. You can do this.' And then, looking down at what she was wearing, Judy sighed, 'Okay, never mind, this will be a first.'
'Three, two, one.'
Holding the crowbar like a bat, Judy kicked open the door, hopped into a room of flickering light, and yelled, "Freeze–"
Judy froze.
Two dozen candles surrounded a mattress occupied by a goat and a small Arabian gray she-wolf hugging each other.
"-Z"
They were both naked and more than hugging.
"-P"
"I ordered a soda, and the guy gave me a beer. It's not my fault," yelled the young goat.
"-Uh."
"She's cute. Do you think she wants to join us?" whispered the she-wolf.
"-What?"
Both mammals smiled at Judy.
Looking at the crowbar in her paws, Judy quickly hid it behind her back and said, "Sorry, I was, uhm, looking for the bathroom."
Both mammals pointed out the door to the bathroom across the basement.
"Gotcha, thanks," replied Judy backing out of the room, "You guys have a great time. I'll just go find that bathroom that's not here. Where you guys are. Doing whatever you're doing. All naked like. Bye."
Standing outside the room, back to the wall and holding the crowbar to her chest, Judy took a deep breath… and prayed that Nick would never find out what she'd just done.
…..
Making his way behind the DJ stand toward the back-office area, Nick took one last look to where he saw Judy go, and seeing a pair of solid gray ear tips, he at first smiled but then growled as his hackles went up, 'First thing that happens when we're done is all that makeup comes off my bunny.'
'And maybe a few other things…'
'What the hell, Wilde,' Nick said to himself, shaking away a series of inappropriate thoughts. 'Get your head on straight. Time to work.'
About a third of the way down a wide hallway, Nick looked into an office to his right and saw, through a cloud of incense, a capybara giving a girl a table massage. And from the body parts the large rodent was focusing on, Nick could tell the guy didn't know what he was doing.
'Or,' Nick huffed, 'maybe he did, just not about massage.'
Stepping into the room, Nick cleared his throat and, holding out his phone, asked, "Hey guys, have either of you seen my friends here tonight or at last week's party?"
The pseudo-masseuse grumbled at his hustle being interrupted and said, "No."
Holding the phone so the girl on the table could see it, Nick asked, "How about you?"
"Not tonight, but maybe last week. I think I saw her in the chill room getting a water bottle."
"Did you talk with her, maybe hear where she was headed for an after-party or anything?"
"No, I was on my way back out to the floor to dance. Check in the chill room. Some of the mammals in there spend their whole night, every night, 'chilling,' if you know what I mean."
Nick nodded, "Yeah," and leaning closer to the skunk girl's ear, whispered, "Have you ever gotten a real back massage before?"
The girl shook her head.
Nodding toward the capybara, whose paws seemed to be spending a lot of time on the girl's butt, Nick said, "You still haven't gotten one."
Nick made it as far as the doorway before he heard an "Ummmph" followed by a pawsy creep moaning on the floor, holding his crotch.
Making it to the end of the hallway, Nick turned into what looked like a large breakroom that had been converted into a getaway from all the craziness happening in the main room. A mellow space, somewhere to cool down, get a water bottle, and cuddle with half a dozen friends. A chill room.
Whatever conversion had been done, had been done in a hurry. The room still looked pretty industrial, but someone had set up a couple of projectors that decorated the wall above a long couch with a random light show. And in front of a glass block window on the far wall, someone had set up a sound system looping a gentle version of a recorded EDM playlist.
Nick's eye was drawn to the center of the room, where a group of girls were all cuddled together on a pile of pillows giggling, grooming each other, and off to the side, braiding a mini-Highland cow's hair.
"Would you like a sticker?" asked a flighty otter sow as she put a small yellow smiley face and a couple of blacklight hearts on Nick's arm before stumbling over to one of the couches to decorate the mammals chillin' there.
Nick shook his head, he and Finn had worked a couple of raves in the past, mostly selling over-priced glowsticks and costume accessories like goggles or colorful sunglasses, but that hadn't lasted too long. Figuring out when and where a rave was going to happen and keeping enough merchandise on paw to be able to set up with only a few hours notice wasn't worth the hassle.
He'd also caught wind of some real bottom feeders that would crash a rave and take advantage of the party scene to loot the dancers. A good pickpocket could make a killing, heck, even a bad one could make hay in a chill room. Both reasons for a fox not to be hawking merchandise anywhere nearby, especially if said fox didn't want to get blamed for anyone losing a phone or a wallet.
Stepping toward the cuddle pile of mammals on the floor, Nick stopped again and took a sniff. "Damn," he whispered. Amongst all the smells in the room, alcohol, incense, candles, and sweat, he made out a touch of Nip. 'Good thing Judy's not here. She'd bust the whole place regardless of us having to stay undercover.'
Sighing, Nick made a note to himself to whisper in Cattin's ear and let her know what was happening. He remembered that Ernie tried to run as drug-free of a rave as possible. It was one thing to get caught trespassing in a vacant building. It was another dealing Nip to a kit that trips so bad they OD.
Going down to one knee next to the pile of females, Nick cleared his throat to get their attention and showed them his phone, "Hey there. Have any of you seen my friends here? They might have been hanging with a goat or a–"
"Ooooh, a foxy fox tod. Hey Moana, someone for you."
A paw snaked out of the pile and, grabbing Nick's shirt, pulled him into the pile. Now looking up at a pawful of female muzzles, Nick tried to sit up but was held down by the paw on his shirt which was attached to…
'A vixen, an arctic fox vixen.'
"Hi handsome, I haven't seen you here before?"
"Uhhh, yeah. I was supposed to meet my friends here," replied Nick showing the vixen his phone. "But I can't find them."
Taking the phone, the vixen shook her head, "I saw them last week. They went outside during Yakboy Slim's set. I didn't see them the rest of the night."
"Thanks," said Nick motioning for his phone back.
"Ooops."
The vixen dropped Nick's phone in between two pillows next to Nick's head and then, with a giggle, dove down with her muzzle to get it.
Letting her muzzle rub against Nick's along the way.
"Sorry," she said, handing Nick back his phone. "My name's Moana. You smell like prey. Would you like to stay awhile and see if I can fix that for you?"
"No, no, no," said Nick getting himself out of the pile and away from clutching paws. "Very helpful. Nice to meet you, Moana, but, no, that's not happening."
Stumbling a bit over to the door, Nick looked back at more than a few disappointed females and hurried out of the chill room to the safety of the main dance floor.
…..
Judy steadied herself and, after a few calming breaths, peeked back in at she-wolf and goat who'd quickly picked up where they left off and were now writhing around and–
"Sweet cheese and crackers, that's something else that didn't happen at the Gazelle concert."
"Try it, you might like it," came a breathless female voice from inside the room.
Judy made a beeline back through the basement to the base of the stairs up.
"Try it, you might like it," she whispered to herself.
Looking up the stairs, Judy saw laser lights flashing and colored flashes reflected from the mirrored ball against the ceiling and walls. Unconsciously, one of her ears rotated back toward the furnace room at the sound of a faint moan.
One foot on the bottom stair, Judy chewed on her lip for a few moments and then, glancing back one last time, she nodded, "Okay girl. You love him. He loves you. Easy-peasy."
One step then two, she patted down her skirt and top.
Three more steps, she combed her midriff fur smooth with her claws, followed by her arm fur.
A few steps further, she smoothed her head fur down and gently brushed her ears.
"Tail!" Stopping at eye level with the main floor, Judy brushed her tail fur out.
Reaching the top, she cupped her paws together and breathed into them, followed by a sniff test. "All good," she said.
With a final deep breath, she stepped out onto the dance floor.
*WUB wub wub WUB wub wub WUB*
Judy held her ears high, looking for her fox. Bar, dance floor, then she saw him come out of the hallway on the other side of the DJ stand. "Easy-peasy."
*thump thump THUMP thump thump*
Nick slipped his phone back into his pocket as he came out of the hallway looking for Judy. Dance floor, bar, then he saw her over where the stairs to the basement were. "Wow, she's beautiful."
*MMMM MMMM MMMM MMMM*
Catching Nick's eye, Judy waved as she started over.
*OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO*
Nick waved back and moved to meet his bunny halfway.
*OOOM OOOM OOOM OOOOM*
They came together in the thick of the crowd, and standing only inches apart, Judy took Nick's paws in hers and looked into his eyes.
"No one's seen–" Nick started.
"Dance with me."
Nick smiled and pulled Judy to his chest as they both felt their own beat emerge from the thrumming dance music. A slower, sweeter rhythm, a rhythm that wasn't Nick's or Judy's but was theirs together. A small bubble where they swayed and danced amongst all the hopping, gyrating mammals around them.
For all the energy Judy put into everything, this was perfect. Being held by her fox, not caring who saw what they were doing or judging them for it. Just living in this moment. This was heaven.
Nick smiled down at the amazing girl he held in his paws. There was no music except for what he felt when she was close. The most important person in his life was tight in his arms right here, right now, and never would he let that change.
Leaning down, Nick rubbed the side of his muzzle across the top of her head and then kissed the girl of his dreams between her ears.
Judy shivered in joy as she felt Nick renew his mark on her, and again, when she felt his light kisses on her head. Lifting herself up on her tippy-toes, Judy returned her fox's loving gesture by gently marking him on one side of his muzzle, and then, leaning around to the other side, she…
…growled.
Pulling his muzzle close, Judy took another sniff, and another, until she turned his head and growled into his ear, "I smell a vixen on you."
Nick's eyes bugged out, and putting a paw to the side of his muzzle, he shook his head and yelled back, "No! No! It was some arctic fox I was asking about DeeDee and Billy. She was high or something and dropped my phone on purpose so she could get near me picking it up. She must have left some of her scent on me. I had no idea. I swear that's what happened, I'd never do anything to hurt you."
Judy barely heard anything Nick had said. Ears vibrating on alert, she'd circled him while he spoke, checking for any other signs that a vixen had touched her mate. Almost done with the inspection, she caught it.
A white tuft of fur.
Judy's vision went red as she scraped the offending hairs off of Nick's mesh hoodie and then forcibly pulled his muzzle down and proceeded to mark him unmercifully.
"WHERE."
Right side of his muzzle, until all trace of vixen scent was gone, gone, GONE.
"IS."
Left side of his muzzle, just as thoroughly.
"SHE."
The top of his head, including the back of his ears.
"NOW!"
Nick tried moving his mouth, but… He'd heard of mated foxes marking each other thoroughly when they were in danger, or as a precursor to claiming, but to see, and feel, a rabbit do it, that was… scary now that he could focus on the enraged bunny in front of him.
"Why?" asked Nick waving his paws nervously in front of Judy. "What are you going to do?"
Judy pulled out her phone, and holding it up to Nick's nose, she growled out, "First I'm going to take a picture of that vixen so her corpse can be identified by her next of kin, and then," turning toward the hallway Nick came out of and pointing her phone at it, "I'm going to–"
Judy's flailing arm knocked into a girl walking past carrying two over-filled red cups from the bar. The girl jumped back while the cups she was carrying doused Judy from head to toe in fruity alcoholic drinks.
"Sorry," said the porcupine as she turned drunkenly to go back and get new drinks.
Judy was drenched. All except her phone, which she handed to Nick before trying to brush the fluid out of her fur.
"Aaaargh!"
Failing at cleaning off much of the spilled drinks and now looking like a refugee from a wet t-shirt contest, sans the t-shirt, Judy yelled to Nick, "I'm going to the restroom to clean up." And nodding toward the bar, she said, "Order me something, and I'll meet you at the bar in a few minutes."
Nick nodded as he waved Judy's phone toward the bar and mouthed, "Sorry."
Stomping her way back downstairs to the restroom, Judy stormed into the medium-mammal sized bathroom and went to the end of the row of sinks to where the paper towel dispenser was, grabbed the towel poking out from the bottom of the lower towel dispenser and…
…groaned as she held the last few towel sheets the now empty machine would dispense tonight. "Seriously! What else is going to go wrong!"
Hopping up on a stool, Judy patted as much of her top and her fur as she could before the paper towels were useless, disintegrating globs of fiber that she dropped into the sink. "Great job, Jude the Dude," Judy said, berating the face she saw in the mirror. "All you had to do was keep dancing, but noooo, one whiff of a vixen on him, and you go all psycho girlfriend. And now look at you, you smell like an umbrella drink, your clothes are soaked, fur matted, and the guy you're in love with is hanging out at the bar all by himself, probably getting hit on by every girl in the place.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid. Any other girl would know what to do. Heck, Amy would've already bedded him by now.
"So why is this so hard for you?" asked the reflection. "You knocked a rhino out in one hit, you've taken down nip dealers, you even caught a savage jaguar by the tail, and after all that, you've gone and screwed everything up."
Judy sighed as she stared at her reflection, "By everything, you mean whatever chance you had of being able to jump his bones tonight, don't you?"
The reflection pulled her ears down over her eyes and groaned out, "Yes, I want him, I really do. I know I told him we should wait, but I'm tired of waiting. I just don't know what to do. I've never been in a relationship before, and I don't want to mess this up any more than I already have."
"Wait a second," replied Judy letting her ears bounce back up, "you could bonk him over the head…
"Or maybe pawcuff him to the bed," added the reflection helpfully.
"How about you kiss him first?" came a muffled voice from behind Judy.
Still looking in the mirror, Judy nodded, "Yeah, that could work. He's a good kisser, you like kissing him. Okay, kiss him first."
"Then pawcuff him," said the voice.
"Wait, what? Who said that?" yelped the startled bunny, looking around the restroom.
"Over here."
Stepping off the stool, Judy padded over to the end toilet stall and said, "Oh, sorry, I was talking to myself."
"Yeah, I heard," said the voice from behind the door, "You want to jump your boyfriend's bones. And I said, instead of bonking him on the head, you should just kiss him."
"Oh."
"Guys like that, you know."
Judy nodded, "Okay."
"Yeah, my advice is just to do more of that, and the whole bone-jumping thing will take care of itself."
"But what about my clothes and my fur being a mess?"
"Have you ever taken a shower together?"
"No."
"Maybe add that to your list of things to do before bonking him on the head."
"Okay, I can do that. Anything else?"
"What kind of mammal is he?"
"A red fox."
"Are you going to let him knot you?"
A blush ran up Judy's ears as they dropped over her eyes, and she whispered, "Yeah."
Judy heard a rustling sound followed by the voice saying, "Here, you'll need this."
Judy saw a palm-sized foil package poke out from a gap in the door just below the handle. Reaching out, Judy took the square package, and, turning it over, said, "A condom?"
"Yup."
"Thanks."
"Sure. Your paw didn't look like a vixen's. What kind of mammal are you?"
Judy hesitated for a moment before saying, "A rabbit."
"Oh," replied the voice, "In that case, you better take these too."
Judy sighed as she took the five-pack of condoms the voice fed through the door.
"There should be enough there to hold you over until you can get to the store in the morning."
Rolling her eyes, Judy hid away the packages and said, "Thanks, but I don't think I'll need all of these."
"You never know. I've heard rabbits are pretty good at–"
"What is it with the rabbit math jokes?" said Judy huffing and throwing up her arms.
"I was going to say cooking, but if you want to turn this into a discussion about sex, that's on you."
"Good night," Judy said, chuckling.
"Good luck!" replied the helpful voice.
…..
Judy made her way up the stairs while patting herself down with an actual towel she'd found in the maintenance room where she'd earlier armed herself with a crowbar.
"Okay," Judy mumbled to herself, "my top's dry enough, mesh skirt is still attached, plenty of uh, protection. So, the first step is to bonk him on the head. Nope, scratch that, the first step is to kiss him, then bonk him on the head. Wait, first, we have to find the kitnappers, then we can do the kissing part. Okay, I've got a plan. Now all I need is my fox.
"Gosh darned redberry mites, where is my fox?"
Judy was standing at the bar. She could even see a glass of carrot juice waiting for her on the counter, but no Nick.
"Excuse me," Judy said to a young spotted hyena dog, "have you seen my friend? He's a red fox wearing black pants and a mesh hoodie. He was also probably the one that bought that juice drink."
"The twenty-ish hyena nodded, "Yeah, he was here a minute ago. He–"
"Hey girl!" yelled a snarling muzzle filled with teeth belonging to a very large spotted hyena female. "Back off, this dog's mine. Go find your own."
"Now, now, Doreen, me, and the nice bunny girl were just talking. She's looking for her friend, the nice fox that was just here."
*ROAR*
"Right, just like those two sleaze buckets I chased off in the parking lot. Everyone is out to claim my mate, and I'm not going to allow it."
Please, Doreen, we've talked about this. I only have eyes for you, and you growling at everyone who wants to talk to me isn't healthy. How about we dance for a little bit, and later we go to the chill room so I can show you how much you mean to me."
Subdued now, the large female took her smaller male's paw and started to lead him out onto the dance floor.
"Excuse me," said Judy waving a paw, "What about my friend the red fox?"
"Oh, yeah," said the dog, "He took off when I complained to the bartender about a couple of sleazoids in the parking lot who tried to wave me down. Doreen chased them away, but I wanted to tell someone about them in case they tried it again with some other guy."
"What kind of mammals were they? A goat? Maybe a ram or a wolf?"
"Yeah, one of the guys was a goat, and the other looked like an overweight ram about to explode out of a cheesy wolf costume. How did you know?"
Judy took off.
Crossing the length of the dance floor, Judy dodged between couples, around and over tails, and through a few pairs of legs until she burst out of the door, jumped up on a railing, and scanned the parking area and the street looking for her fox or…
"A white van," Judy said to herself.
Down the block, a white van pulled away from the curb.
"Left tail light, please work, please don't be broken."
The van was moving away when she saw it slow down to turn, both taillights coming on and…
Judy blinked. The left taillight was way brighter than the right one like someone had… like someone had put in one of those super bright bulbs those kits who liked to cruise used to pimp out their cars.
Judy reached for her phone but only found a bunch of condoms and a set of car keys. Nick had her phone.
"Damn it, they've got my fox," yelled Judy as she ran for Nick's car.
…..
A/N:
A special thanks to Blkdragon7(BlkPhoenix7) for looking over this chapter for me.
AaronJay, over on DeviantArt, created a fun piece of fanart for this chapter. If you'd like to see his work, it's located at: www{dot}deviantart{dot}com/mikey2084/art/Rave-937692599
