Chapter 10: Working Together/Bogo's Ultimatum


A brand new day, another day of working on the Zootopia Police Department to keep the city safe. Alex was driving around the city on patrol when his route happened to cross Judy's. He noticed that the animals who were receiving the parking tickets were visibly upset with her, and this in turn was noticeably dampening Judy's enthusiasm. Alex was about to go and comfort her, perhaps offer some encouraging words, when something happened that would change both his and Judy's lives forever.

A weasel darted across the street carrying a duffel bag, with a frantic pig following him. This was clearly a robbery, and as the pig stopped to explain to Judy, Alex parked his police car and jumped out, pursuing the weasel. It didn't take long for Judy to catch up to Alex. "Alex?! What are you doing here?" Judy exclaimed.

"Saw the frenzied pig chasing after the duffel bag carrying weasel, put two and two together." Alex replied. "Alex, I can do this on my own!" Judy protested. "I don't doubt that you could take this punk on your own, but unless you want to face serious animosity from Bogo you're going to want my help. He seems to have something against you." Alex answered. Judy nodded in understanding.

As they continued to chase after the thief, Alex recognized the street they were on as nearby one of the four cardinal entryways to Little Rodentia. Instantly he realized the thief's escape plan. "That imbecile's going to toss the bag over the fence and then squeeze his way through the entrance to Little Rodentia!" Alex yelped. "I could follow him in there! I'm about his size!" Judy suggested.

Alex shook his head no in response. "That's too risky! Any animal larger than a fennec fox could easily step on one of the citizens, or cause structural damages! If someone gets hurt because you go in there, then the ZPD would be liable for property damage, and possibly injuries! Bogo would have your badge for sure!" Alex argued. "Then we have to stop him before he gets into Little Rodentia! Got any ideas!?" Judy replied.

"I do, but I'm not sure you'll like it! It involves me throwing you at him!" Alex told her. "That's so crazy, it just might work! At this point, we don't have any better options!" Judy chuckled, giving Alex a grin. Finding a sense of reassurance in the bunny's smile, Alex picked her up and tossed her through the air with all his might, Judy landing right on top of Weaselton and pinning him to the ground. The lagomorph then got out some handcuffs from her belt and restrained the thief's paws with them.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything that you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." Alex announced as he read the rights to the criminal. Grinning, Alex and Judy gave each other a high five. "Rookie, you and I make a great team." Alex remarked. "We sure did!" Judy cheered.

After a drive back to the station, with Alex taking Weaselton and the stolen bag in his car, the wolf waited for Judy to arrive before they walked in together. "We popped the weasel!" Judy announced with pride. Then they saw Bogo standing on the second floor and pointing to his office angrily. "Hopps, Moon. A word." The police chief hissed.

A little nervous, the bunny and wolf climbed up the stairs and entered the chief's office. "I cannot believe you, Hopps! You abandoned your post to go and play hero, and you knew there were other officers in the area capable of handling Weaselton. And do you know what you managed to do? You managed to stop some crook from stealing two dozen MOLDY ONIONS!" Bogo scolded, unzipping the bag and revealing the contents.

Not fully realizing the gravity of the situation, Judy started to correct the chief. "Mmm, hate to disagree with you, sir, but those aren't onions. Those are a crocus variety called Midnicampum holicithius. They're a Class С botanical, sir. Well, I grew up in a family where plant husbandry was kind of a thing-" Judy started to say, but Bogo cut her off.

"Shut your tiny mouth!" He roared at her. "Chief… She saw the crime, and reacted to it. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have been able to catch Weaselton." Alex pointed out. "If she abandoned her post on the second day of her job, that doesn't bode well for her future!" Bogo argued.

"Chief, uh, Mrs. Otterton's here to see you again." Clawhauser's voice came over the intercom. "Not now." Bogo grunted in frustration. "Okay, I just didn't know if you wanted to take it this time, she seems really upset…" Clawhauser's voice continued. "NOT! NOW!" Bogo screamed, punctuating his words with button presses on the intercom.

"I abandoned my post on my FIRST day and I didn't experience any reprimands! I was PRAISED for it! This is no different than back then!" Alex argued. "Yes it is! You were saving lives! She was just trying to fulfill her fantasies!" Bogo shot back. "This may have saved lives too! He was going to make his escape through Little Rodentia! If he had gotten inside the rodent district, he could easily have squashed someone underfoot in his escape attempt. Or caused several hundreds of thousands worth in property damages!" Alex explained.

"Why are you sticking up for her!? She needs to realize that life isn't some cartoon musical where you sing a little song and your insipid dreams magically come true!" Bogo hissed. Suddenly, a female otter entered his office. "Chief Bogo, please! Five minutes of your time!" The female otter pleaded. This must have been Mrs. Otterton. "I'm sorry, sir… I tried to stop her, she's super slippery… I gotta go sit down…" Clawhauser panted as he appeared in the doorway before leaving.

"Ma'am. As I've told you, we're doing everything we can." Chief Bogo said calmly, a mask of stone on his face. Mrs. Otterton pulled out a photograph of herself with two children and a male otter, presumably their children and her husband. "My husband has been missing for ten days. His name is Emmitt Otterton." Mrs. Otterton said.

Alex felt a pang of sorrow and sympathy for this woman. To have your husband disappear without any explainable reason was bad enough, but with children being left behind… it reminded Alex of Arie, the sister he had lost long ago. "Yes, I know." Bogo nonchalantly responded. "He's a florist. We have two beautiful children. He would never just disappear!" Mrs. Otterton exclaimed.

"Ma'am, our detectives are very busy." Bogo grunted, growing irritated with this woman. And at this point Alex couldn't keep his mouth shut. Why was his chief indifferent to this woman's plight?! "She can." Alex blurted out, gesturing to Judy. The rabbit nodded her head enthusiastically. "I will find him." The rabbit promised.

Mrs. Otterton smiled, tears of joy forming in her eyes. "Oh, thank you!" She gratefully said, hugging Judy. "Bless you, bless you little bunny!" The otter exclaimed as Judy returned the hug. She gave Judy the photograph. "Take this, find my Emmitt. Bring him home to me and my babies, please." She told Judy.

Bogo sent Mrs. Otterton outside before glaring angrily at Judy. "You are FIRED." The buffalo snarled. "WHAT?! Why!?" Judy gasped. "Bullshit! What the hell do you have against her, Chief!? There is a woman out there with two children who is worried out of her mind about her husband. There are FOURTEEN missing mammals right now, and you're devoting minimal resources and mammalpower to finding them. There would be no harm in letting the rookie attempt to search for this missing otter. It would certainly be a more enlightening experience than parking duty." Alex growled.

"She is going to go out there and tell that otter that YOU are taking the case, Alex. She is now a former meter maid with delusions of grandeur!" Bogo angrily said before opening the door to find Mrs. Otterton with the assistant mayor Dawn Bellwether. "I just heard Officer Hopps is taking the case!" Bellwether excitedly said. "Assistant Mayor Bellwether!" Bogo yelped, putting a surprised smile on his face.

"The mammal inclusion initiative is really starting to pay off! Mayor Lionheart is going to be so jazzed!" Bellwether giggled, pulling out her phone and firing a text off to the mayor. "No, no, don't tell the mayor yet!" Bogo groaned, but it was too late. "I'd say the case is in good paws. Us little guys really need to… stick together, right?" Bellwether chuckled to Judy. "Like glue!" Judy agreed, earning a laugh from the sheep.

"Good one. Yeah. Just call me if you ever need anything, okay? You've always got a friend at City Hall, Judy. Alright. Bye-bye!" Bellwether assured Judy before leaving. "Officer Moon. Would you please escort the mayor out of the building?" Bogo asked Alex. The white wolf hesitated before following the ewe. This would be a chance to speak with her, check in on how she was doing.