Now I know I haven't done this in a long while, and trust me I hate that I haven't written anything in this length in a long time, but I decided to re-read the abomination that was my previous story The Deepest Shades of Red. And that got me thinking, "This could be a whole lot better if I re-did this". Yes, I'm re-writing this story again, but this time it should come out a lot smoother than the last one did. I also plan to change the way the story goes this time around.
Now then, please sit back, grab a snack, put on an inspirational song (mine is Everlong by the Foo Fighters), and enjoy the first chapter of Under the Red Light.
Nick woke to the sound of his blaring alarm. With a groan, he slapped the offending clock and sat up to rub his eyes. The damned thing had woken him from a good dream. Almost a wet dream, but got cut off as it was just about to get good.
He got up and flipped the switch to his bedroom light, squinting at the sudden brightness of the room. Giving himself a minute to let himself adjust to the light, he began his morning routine. This particular morning he let his bed just be the way that it was. It was Monday and he didn't want to get up anyway. With a sigh, he pulled his belt into the loops in his blue jeans and grabbed a clean shirt from his top drawer.
Nick didn't bother with his coffee pot as he grabbed his keys and phone from the dresser to leave. He planned to hit his favorite shop this morning and get some of it. And of course, he wasn't going to forget his partner's coffee either. With that thought, he slipped his 'mask' onto his face and stepped out of his apartment.
The trip to the coffee shop was a short walk from his apartment building. It was a bonus that it was close to work as well. As he stepped in he noticed the rather short line of mammals waiting. It odd for a Monday morning, but he thought nothing of it. As he got into line he pulled his phone out to be greeted with a picture of him and Judy smiling at him. He genuinely smiled for a moment before unlocking it. He scrolled through the news for a minute before he got to the counter to take his order. A tigress stood behind the register.
"Good morning, Mr. Wilde. Your usual I assume?" He asked. Nick made a clicking noise and pointed a digit at her.
"You got it, Mina." The tigress giggled and rang it up for him to pay for. He reached for his wallet, but before he could Mina stopped him.
"This one's on the house, Nick." Nick's eyebrows raised for a minute and he looked at her as if asking, 'You sure?' "Yes, I'm sure."
It didn't take long for his drinks to get to him. They even came in a two cup carrier which made it a little more convenient. As Nick walked out of the coffee shop, he noticed a small card stuck in beside his mug. He grabbed it and took a look at it. It was a phone number with the words 'call me' and a heart next to it. The tod scoffed a little and smile a bit wider before tossing the card into the trash once he knew he was far enough away.
Now that he had coffee for him and his partner, he began his walk to the precinct. It was one of the many in Zootopia, with the one he worked at being the HQ of the Zootopia Police Department. It was where Judy had made her big break as the first bunny cop, and him as the first fox cop.
Again, the walk was short-lived. He opened the front doors to be greeted to a rather 'fluffy' cheetah chowing down on his breakfast. With his signature smirk still plastered on his face, he sauntered up to the front desk.
"Morning, Ben. Have a good vacation?" Nick asked his hefty friend. He waited patiently for Clawhauser to finish his mouthful of cereal.
Once he had swallowed his food, Ben responded, "Yeah. My mom was giddy as a gumdrop to see me." He chuckled a little, which made his rolls jiggle. Nick laughed with him. "And then my sister decided to visit at the same time that I was, so I got to see her as well."
"Well, there you go," Nick said, raising his eyebrows a little. "Been a while since you saw her?" the cheetah nodded a little before looking over Nick's shoulder. The fox grinned wider and set the coffees down on the counter. He knew what the look on Ben's face meant. Judy was behind him and he knew what was going on. With a practiced turn, he met Judy's jump hug with his arms outstretched.
"Good morning to you too, Carrots." He told his rabbit partner. From the depths of his shirt, he could hear and feel the muffled giggles that were coming from her. When she finally pulled away from him, she took a deep breath and looked up at him.
"Morning, Nick." She told him enthusiastically. "Are you ready for today? I think Bogo was saying something about someone coming out from the ZBI to help us out and do a little bit of training while he's here." Her words almost sounded winded, as if she had run the entire way to the precinct from her apartment. It wouldn't have surprised Nick if she did.
"Yeah. I got the text yesterday." Nick set the rabbit down onto the ground tile floor, "And of course, it being Monday and all, I went and got us some coffee." He turned back to the counter and grabbed the one marked latte. "One extra espresso carrot mocha latte." He said as he handed the drink to his partner. He took it and sniffed it for a moment before taking a sip of the dark liquid. His smile widened as she hummed at the flavor and warmth of the drink.
Nick took up his coffee and sipped it. His wasn't as dark as his partners' own. He had gotten a french vanilla caramel macchiato with extra creamer added to it. It had enough caffeine in it to keep him going throughout the day without making him too wired that he couldn't focus. He looked up to his partner for a moment over his cup to see her downing the rest of her drink.
As soon as the two had finished their morning 'ritual,' they headed to the bullpen for morning announcements. Of course, the room was full of many of the officers that worked the regular nine to five. Some were arm wrestling, others were making bets, and some were staring at their phones. Nick made a beeline to his seat and jumped up into it. Judy wasn't too far behind and the fox held out a paw for her, which she smiled at and took it.
Just as Nick had pulled her into the chair, and eerie quiet fell over the room. The temperature seemed to drop significantly and the air was almost charged with electricity. Nick's fur started to rise. When he listened, he could hear the loud thumps of the Cheif's footsteps getting closer and closer. Everybody watched the door as Bogo's shadow came over the door and turned the doorknob to walk in. When he finally did walk in, a somewhat surprised look was on his face. Though eyes weren't on the chief, but on the gray wolf that was walking in behind him.
"Alright. Right down to silence. Good." The buffalo said to no one in particular. He stomped up to the podium and set down the files in his hand. "I've got a few things on the docket today. First off, I would like to welcome the two recruits, Lisa and Grant Todd." There were no words as Bogo waved over to the two wolves. "Second, Fangmeyer. Happy birthday." At that, there were cheers, whoops, high fives, and pats on the back.
"And third, as most of you already know, we received an agent from the ZBI to help us with any cases that we need assistance on. Special Agent Ardenhu Fangman is also here to provide martial arts and firearm training. He'll be here for the next several months and will be assessing every one of you. Mr. Fangman, you had a few words?" Bogo turned to the wolf that had followed the chief in. When the buffalo stepped away from the podium he stepped up to it.
"Yes, and thank you Chief Bogo for letting me do this." He said, his voice somewhat deep and nodding to the chief. "Now then, I have a few rules that I like to go by. First of all is that no matter your size or how strong you think you are, you're not exempt from being put in your place." Now the room was dead silent and cold. "Secondly, step out of line, and I will not hesitate to put you back there. And lastly, depending on your results, you may be granted some leisure time while the rest of the crew are training. But be warned, these will be given few and far between." The wolf scanned the room, looking at each face in turn. He said nothing yet his eyes were cold. "I'll give you a thirty-minute prep time before we start training. Dismissed."
With that, he stepped down from the podium and walked out of the bullpen. As soon as he was out the door the room seemed so much warmer than it had before. Nick looked over to his partner and she looked back at him. A small smile began to creep onto her face as she looked him up and down. Then she started to giggle. Soon after, the entire room was laughing at Nick's rustled up fur.
Thirty minutes passed as if it was only five, and everyone was gathered in the gym held near the back of the precinct. Ardenhu was already in the middle of the large wrestling mat that was kept in the center of the room. The wolf had changed into a different set of clothes, which were loose-fitting and perfect for close-quarters combat.
Nick was one of the last of the thirty-some-odd of them that had attended the roll call. He, like everyone else, put on better clothes suited for training. A t-shirt with ZPD written in gold letters across the middle and a pair of blue sports shorts.
"Alright, now that all of you are here, we can finally start with the first part of your training." The special agent said, "For the next month or so we'll be doing martial arts training. And while yes you did receive some of that in basic training, I'll be giving you formal training. Fangmeyer, you're up first." He motioned at the lioness to step forward. When she did, the wolf took up a fighting stance. One of his arms was outstretched in front of him with the other nearer to his face. He had turned his body sideways to allow for his left leg to bend and move his center of mass out of the way.
Fangmeyer moved in quick, swiping her claws low at his legs. Ardenhu jumped and spun, bringing his leg around to smack the tigress aside. The blow landed and Fangmeyer was sent sprawling to the mat. Within seconds she was back up on her feet and charging at the wolf again. Once more she swiped at his legs, yet this time she feinted her claws and rose to slash at his face.
As if on cue Ardenhu ducked and swept the lioness's legs out from under her. She fell hard with a groan afterward.
"That's enough. I've seen what you're currently capable of." He said as he folded his hands behind him, "You adapt well, but you seem to have no counter plan to anything that I do. You could use your size to your advantage, and you seem to do that rather well but not enough. But then again size isn't everything." Fangman's eyes scrolled around as Fangmeyer got up grumbling about only being able to charge at him twice.
For the next several hours each of them went one-to-one with the special agent. Not one of them had been able to land a claw on him. He didn't even look winded. And now there were only two of the group left to step onto the mat. Nick and Judy had yet to step up to the plate and take their swing at him.
"Alright. Hopps, you're up next!" The wolf yelled out. Judy jumped up and down a little and rolled her neck as she hopped her way onto the mat. "Already I can tell you're excited about this. Or maybe nervous. Can't tell. I could never read bunnies like a certain fox I know." Ardenhu shook his head and took up the same stance he had been taking after the first round. He stood rather casually as if not expecting much out of the fight. Thus far there hadn't been anyone spectacular to note. But Nick knew better. Judy was the only one who could keep up with the red fox tod in a sparring match.
The rabbit started to stretch, pulling her arms tight and almost sitting to stretch her legs out. This made an eyebrow raise for the wolf. None of the mammals before her had done this. Nick's casual smirk widened.
When Judy was done, she did a few more jumps and threw her arms out to the sides to release any leftover tenseness. The first thing she did was rush out with a low kick at the wolf's legs. Like with Fangmeyer he jumped and swung out his leg. However, Judy stopped short and slid without actually following through with her kick. She went right under Ardenhu's kick and behind him. While he was still recovering from his kick, Judy sprung up and slammed her foot into the wolf's knees. His legs crumpled under him.
Judy's followup was incredible. While he was kneeling, she took his left arm and pulled it, placing her right pawn behind his neck and running forward so that he followed her movements and slammed his head into the mat. She immediately let go and jumped back letting him compose himself.
Nick looked around at the rest of the mammals that surrounded the mat. They were either shocked or had smirks spread across their muzzles. This only made Nick's smirk widen a little more.
"Okay. That's good." Ardenhu said as he pushed himself off the floor, "That was very good, Hopps. They didn't exaggerate when they told me that you were able to chase down a weasel in Little Rodentia." Judy walked back to where she was standing beside Nick. As she passed by him they fist-bumped. "Alright, Wilde. You're last for today. Come on."
Nick sauntered up to the mat with his signature smirk still plastered to his muzzle. He wasn't worried about this too much. He had taken down the rhino 'criminal' in basic training like it was nothing. This shouldn't bee too much different from that. At least that's what he would think if he were facing just some normal mammal off the street. He was being pitted against a top-level ZBI agent who probably knew more martial arts that could kill that any of the rest of them did.
With this in mind, Nick slowly but surely slid closer and closer to the wolf with his arms raised to cover his face. He had decided to take up a boxing stance since he figured he might be able to use his fast movements to get a few blows in. As he got closer, Ardenhu pulled his arms up to cover his face and took up his stance. It was similar to Nick's, yet it seemed like he had more control of the situation at hand than Nick did.
The fox took a few test jabs at the agent to gauge his reaction. Both punches were blocked and the wolf jabbed back at him. Nick dodged to the right and went for a body blow. Ardenhu dodged out of the way and jabbed at him a couple more times.
The two of them traded blows for a while until both were breathing heavily. Neither had landed any critical blows yet the sting from blocking and constant dodging left them worn out. With a deep breath, the wolf dropped his stance and kneeled over to hold his knees and take a breather.
"That'll do." Ardenhu said, "You did rather well, all things considered. You're fast, hard-hitting, and hard to hit. Although I recommend a different fighting style. Maybe Muay Thai to make use of your legs." The wolf stood and turned to address the group. "All of you need work and we'll get to that later. For now, you're dismissed from my training."
With that, he turned and walked out of the gym and down the hall. Once the door had closed the chatter started. Nick turned to his partner and walked over to her. Her face was written in the excitement that she was almost bouncing up in down.
"Oh my carrots, Nick, that was awesome! I didn't know you could fight like that!" She told him, hopping into the air to give him a fist-bump.
"You never asked." He said nonchalantly. "Anyway. I'm all sweaty and I'm hungry. What say we go grab something to eat after our showers?" The look on Judy's face was almost priceless.
"That sounds amazing!" She nearly yelled, "Where are we gonna go? That mom-and-pop down the street? The one that has really good salads?"
Nick put a digit to his chin and thought for a moment. "No, I have a different place in mind. It's a personal favorite of mine and I haven't been there in a while."
"What's it called?" Judy asked him.
"You'll find out," Nick smirked again as she gave him a pouty face, "Now if you really wanna go we need to get showers over with. I don't want to smell like a dirty sock walking in there." He told her. Judy's nose curled up cutely at the thought of that. She nodded and walked towards the door to the gym to make her way towards the locker room. Nick followed behind, watching her hips sway back and forth as she walked.
"Damn it…" He thought as the bunny left his line of sight behind to girls' locker room door.
Holy macaroni… I haven't written this much since I was in high school… And this was all done in a few days…
Okay, now then, how was this? Did I do better this time around now that I'm a little better at giving details? Is the pace good and not rushed like it was before? I hope so because I have plans to make more chapters after this one, trust me. Thank you to those who decided to read this.
May inspiration light your paths,
Leon