"We will often find compensation if we think more about what life has given us and less about what life has taken." - William Barclay
3:15 P.M
The consistent whir of the car's engine had been the loudest sound for the past hour; Its droning buzz something that every driver became accustomed to eventually, and police officers were no single exceptions. And despite having been on the force and subject to the art of driving for the past three and a half years, Nick Wilde still found the pestilent noise to be as aggravating as it ever has before. The fact that the drive to Bunny-Burrow took nearly three hours didn't help either.
And to think that after we bag these dumb bunnies, we still gotta drive back all the way back... Nick thought to himself.
It had been a full since weeks since the car accident, and although the fox had been completely cleared from the hospital as "healthy", he couldn't help but feel a bit sluggish: He was still getting back into the groove of being a police officer, and it showed.
In fact, on the first few days of being released from the hospital, the fox experimentally went to the ZPD's shooting range to get his accuracy back up to-par, but with disastrous results. He had only fired one bullet before he doubled over in pain, clutching his paws against his head. Unbeknownst to the fox at the time, he was still plagued by the leftover remnants of his concussion, and firing a gun in such close proximity to his still-recovering brain did not help with his condition.
And now, he was cooped up in his assigned police cruiser with his mate, Judy, driving all the way to Bunny-Burrow to nab the thugs that as Judy called it, 'kicked the smug out of him.' Their warrant was tucked away in the backseat, ready for use. Many weeks earlier, during the Spring festival, Nick had been assaulted by a trio of bunnies. The two good partners had spent spent the past few days of Nick's hospital leave discussing their plan to put the offenders behind bars for good. And after nearly three hours of driving, the two tiny officers had finally reached Bunny-Burrow.
It was time to finish what they had first started.
Nick stared down the farmhouse in the distance as it grew in size with each passing second.
"So is that it? That the Orin's place?" He asked the bunny beside him.
She briefly glanced at him before training her eyes back on the road in front of her. "Yep. That's their farm. See all the carrots?"
The fox turned his head to look out the passenger window. Sure enough, hundreds of carrots packed in rows grew in every direction surrounding the farmhouse in the distance.
Nick remembered what Judy had said before about the Orin's: How their family was her own's biggest competitor in the carrot market. Seeing the fields laid with countless carrots truly expressed that idea. But alongside that thought, Nick wondered about the Orin's themselves. Were the parents of the family so careless about their own children that they let them run around beating up innocent cops? That thought made Nick snort out of his nose.
"So, Whiskers," He while asked turning to his mate. "What's the deal with you and the Orin's, huh?"
Judy's ears twitched at the sound of his voice.
"Now there's a question I don't get asked very often. All of Bunny-Burrow knows about the feud between my family and the Orin's. It's been going on for as long as carrots have been grown here."
Nick looked out the window again, at the thousands upon thousands of orange vegetables growing in every direction. "So a long time, I'm guessing?" He inquired.
"Oh yeah." She replied back. "A long time."
"Any idea why?"
Judy took a moment to think about that question. "No clue, really. I guess it's been so long that we all just forgot. I've heard it had something to do with carrots before, though."
"Ya don't say?" The fox said as he watched row after row of carrot lines vanish behind the car as they drove by, only to reappear in the rear-view mirror.
Judy's voice acquired his attention once more.
"The bad-blood has just been around for as long as anyone can remember. The Orin's have sabotaged us before, even going so far as to burn our crops. We've tried to get the local sheriff's department involved, but there's never enough evidence to make any arrests. The saboteurs always get away... But we just know that it's those Orin boys."
A vision of a family of bunnies so hell-bent on profit that they risked killing their competitors in massive carrot fires passed through Nick's head.
He shuddered.
"Sounds like these guys really got what's comin' to them, eh?" He said whilst twirling a pair of handcuffs around his index finger.
Nick saw a smile tug at Judy's lips. "You got that right, Slick." She shifted her weight in the driver's seat. "We're here now, actually."
The fox craned his head in the direction that Judy was looking. The farmhouse from earlier was now directly in front of them, looming in the way of the sun so as to cast a shadow over the hood of their car.
The house was small compared to Judy's old place, but it was still large. Massive oak trees dotted themselves around the perimeter of the homestead, applying even more shade to the already shadowed area. The house itself wasn't much: It looked a lot like the Hopp's family's house except that it happened to be a tad bit smaller. The wood and stone walls fashioned in the shape of an oversizes egg rose high into the pristine sky. in Nearby, large grassy hills, likely the tops of burrow homes, jutted out of the ground like earthen tumors.
Nick opened the door and stepped outside. Despite the casting folds of shadow that encased their car, Nick's eyes were immediately ravaged by a beam of light. Squinting, he reached for his shades and with a single flick of his wrist, opened and placed them atop his muzzle, shielding his eyes from the onslaught of sunlight.
Meanwhile, Judy had already reached the front door, and was knocking against the wooden surface; The sound echoed deep into the house. Nick heard the creaking of wood as someone above them on the second floor ascended to their level. Soon enough, a face peered behind the haze of the clear-stained glass that was embedded in the door-frame.
Nick breathed in sharply through his nostrils: He recognized that face.
It belonged to one of the bunnies that had attacked him... Ronny, was his name.
With a look of terror on his face, Ronny turned-tail and ran back into the depths of the house.
"Heh. Guess nobody's home?" The fox joked.
The bunny rolled her purple-tinted eyes as she raised her fist and rapped another series of knocks against the door. "ZPD! Open up, please!" She shouted.
"You would say please." Nick muttered, earning himself a glare from Judy.
"Shut up, Wilde." She said.
A few short seconds later, a new face answered the door. It was a young female bunny, probably no more then ten years old. She had pink ribbons tied along her ears that matched the color of her dress, and multi-colored eyes of brown and blue.
"Can I help you, officers?" She asked softly.
"Yes, we're from the ZPD. We're here to speak with your three older brothers; Ronny, Roy, and Ryan." Judy answered without hesitation.
She'd known the identities of the three troublemakers ever since her childhood. Gideon Grey may have been a jerk at the time, but at least he had grown out of it.
The little bunny shifted her weight and glanced to her left at nothing in particular. "I don't think they're home right now... They're probably out picking carrots, like usual."
"Well, we saw your brother Ronny just a few seconds ago. He nearly answered the door. Could you please go get him for us?" Nick asked slowly.
The bunny mumbled something Nick couldn't quite make out before agreeing, and then slipping away back into the house. It was as dark inside as a Zootopian back-alley at midnight. Some time after, Ronny shuffled up to the door, looking distraught. Nick couldn't help but notice the bunny stealing brief and agitated glances of him in particular.
"Uh... Yes?" Ronny inquired in a flat tone. He obviously wasn't very comfortable, and Nick took the opportunity to hone in on his anxiety.
"Heya buddy," He started. "I believe we've met before, haven't we?" The fox asked while pulling down his shades, so that his emerald eyes locked on to Ronny's brown ones.
Ronny made a choking sound in the back of his throat. "I-I don't recall... Have we?" He stammered.
"Yup. Just a few weeks back. Spring Fair. Ring a bell?" Nick said while leaning forward in a bit of intimidation. Judy placed a paw on his shoulder.
"Nick." She warned, before turning her attention towards Ronny. "Could you please get your two brothers, Roy and Ryan? We need to talk to them along with you."
Without replying, Ronny cracked a nervous smile before once again running off into the house.
"I don't like this." Nick muttered. "Something's not right here."
Deep in the house, Judy heard another door open, and someone yelling. With her enhanced hearing, she had trouble making out exactly what the voices said, but she managed to get a few choice words out of them. Cops, Hide, crap.
"Nick, I'm going around to the back of the house," She said softly. "Don't follow me unless you hear me call for it, alright?"
"Fine. Make it quick though."
And with that, Judy made her way to the back of the house, leaving Nick alone at the front door.
Staring into the dark recesses of the homestead, standing alone and without his partner, Nick felt a since of discomfort. He placed his hand upon his tranquilizer, which was still clipped firmly into his utility-belt.
He suddenly found himself keenly aware to every little detail around him. The creaking of footsteps in the house and the smell of something burning found their way to his ears and nose.
Wait...
Nick took in several light sniffs of the air around him. Something was definitely burning... but it smelled less like a campfire and more like a gasoline fire.
Something was wrong.
Nick pulled his tranquilizer out from its holster and knocked once again on the door. The footsteps he heard from somewhere in the house abruptly halted.
Then, from somewhere in the distance, he heard Judy call out "STOP! Paws where I can see them!", which was followed by a loud crashing sound.
Tired of standing around, Nick bolted off in the direction Judy had gone, steeling himself to face whatever lay ahead.
The first thing that Judy noticed about the place was the smell. It had a distinct undertone to it... Like burning gasoline, almost.
The bunny traced the perimeter of the house, tranquilizer in hand. She didn't know what to expect, but she certainly didn't like the elusiveness of the whole ordeal. Farms were never quiet: There was always some sort of noise; whether it's work being done, tools grinding, or the grunts of laboring farmers.
Here, the only sound was that of her own heartbeat in her ears.
She was nearing the corner of the house, and would be entering the backyard area of their property once she went around it.
Placing her back against the wall, she spared a leaning glance around the corner, so as to see her destination before jumping right into it.
She saw boxes upon boxes piled up in one big heap, at least ten large crate-fulls of blue-berries stacked haphazardly atop one another, forming a small, messy pyramid. A crowd of bunnies was gathered around the pile, the Orin's no doubt.
Labeled on each of the box's in red-print words, Hopp's Family Farm.
Judy suppressed a growl: They were burning her family's blueberry harvest.
Suddenly, another bunny cloaked in too-big overalls ran up to the flaming pile of crates, a fire-extinguisher clutched in their right paw. They quickly doused the flames, causing the fire to sputter into nothingness.
No wonder Ronny and that female bunny had been so jittery at the front door: They were in the middle of another one of their subversions, sabotaging her own family's hard work.
That thought made her mad.
Without wasting any more time, she turned around the vertex of the corner, and with her tranquilizer pointed at the closest bunny, shouted out;
"STOP! Paws where I can see them!"
Immediately, the crowd of bunnies all turned around in the direction of her voice. The bunny holding the fire-extinguisher instantly let it go, dropping the red cylinder with an audible thud against the hard dirt ground.
Suddenly, there was an awful cracking sound. Judy turned to its source: The pile of blueberry boxes. The lowest part of the pile had shattered, the wood weakened from the fire, and it caused the entire left side of the pyramid to collapse on top of itself, sending hundred of tiny blue orbs spilling out across the ground.
"What is this?!" Judy found herself shouting.
A sound behind her caused the bunny to turn around, and she was greeted with a wooden board to the face.
Nick turned around the corner of the house, and saw Judy standing with her tranquilizer raised on the other side of the property. The fox had no idea what she was seeing, but it obviously didn't make her very happy.
"What is this?!" Nick heard her shout, her voice strained with anger.
Nick was sprinting towards Judy, but nearly stopped altogether when he saw a large bunny clutching a wooden board in his paws appear on her left, just out of Nick's line of sight. Nick watched in horror as the board thwacked Judy right across her face, the force of which sent her careening several feet backwards, dropping her tranquilizer.
He then got a clear sight of Judy's attacker as the board-wielder stepped into Nick's field of view, closing the distance between himself and Judy's crumpled form. It (surprise) was another bunny. He raised his board above his head and was just about to bring it down on Judy once more when a loud pop sound echoed throughout the area. Sprouting from the attacker's neck was one of Nick's tranquilizer darts. The bunny's arms fell to his side, and with a stumbling step backward, dropped the board and fell over; passed out cold.
Then Nick burst around the corner and saw the source of all the commotion. He registered the entire scene in a single second: It was all he needed.
A smoking pile of boxes was stacked some 30 feet away from Nick, a crowd of about 7 bunnies gathered around it. Some of the boxes had apparently fallen over, spilling their contents out across the ground. Blueberries, much to Nick's surprise. Hundreds of them had been crushed beneath the weight of the collapsing crates, and a large puddle of juice was pooling out from the shattered boxes.
Nick saw Judy stir out of the corner of his eye, but out of fear of taking a wooden board to the face, he kept his eyes trained on the group of bunnies in front of him.
"ALRIGHT, EVERYONE ON THE GROUND, NOW!" He yelled loudly, effectively causing every last bunny to drop to the dirt.
With the offenders taken care of, Nick spared a glance at Judy, who had gotten to her feet and was now leaning against Nick. She was bleeding slightly from her mouth and nostrils, crimson liquid streaming down her face and wetting the top of her collar.
"You alright?" He asked her. Unable to form a reply, she simple nodded. It was good enough for Nick.
He turned his attention back to the Orin's. Only now did he realize that all the blueberry boxes were labeled with the print of Judy's family farm. It suddenly became clear to the fox what exactly was happening here.
The two of them had came here to set things right with the Orin brothers, but had instead found themselves in the midst of a crime scene: This was arson.
Nick cleared his throat loudly and shouted out to the bunny's once again, "EVERYONE STAY PUT!" He then turned toward Judy.
"Whiskers, head back to the car and call for back-up... we're gonna need more cruisers if we're planning on taking all these fluff-butts to prison."
7:34 P.M
It had been nearly 4 hours since the whole fiasco with the Orin's had been wrapped up.
Soon after Judy had placed the call to the nearest station, two more cruisers had come on scene. Both of them belonged to the local Sheriff's Department, but were no less welcomed by the fox and bunny.
It took a while rounding up all the offenders, but in time, the officers managed to wheel them all back to the nearest police station for questioning.
Despite getting smacked with a board, Judy was more then pleased about the outcome of the situation. The local Sheriff's Department finally had enough evidence to put the Orin's in their rightful place... Apparently, twelve half-torched crates of blueberries were enough to prove that the Orin's had been sabotaging the Hopps's harvest: Justice had caught up to them at last.
Compensation had been achieved.
8:02 P.M
The taxi glided down the street with ease, its passengers all silent and unmoving. The night was tranquil.
After dropping their cruiser and gear off at the Police station, Nick and Judy had decided to pay a visit to Bogo so as to explain their recent activities.
They described every last detail of the incident to him, from start to finish.
In the end, they had achieved their goal of putting the Orin brothers behind bars. And to both the tiny officers, that was all that mattered.
Once their conversion with the Chief had ended, and they were excused from their duties for the night, they hailed a taxi to take them back to their apartment. The ride back was a silent one, as the driver asked no questions, and the two passengers were 'talked-out' from their report with Bogo. When they had finally reached their apartment, they thanked and paid the driver before stepping out into the night.
It wasn't particularly cold, but it was enough to make the bunny's fur stand on end. Gentle breezes swirled past the two of them as they retreated back to their home for the night. When the door was closed shut for the night, Nick stifled a full-body shiver. He sighed and promptly trudged over to the foot of their bed before collapsing onto it. He'd been waiting all day long for this moment, and was eager to relish in his sleep. In his mind, at least, he had earned it.
Hey Everyone!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I had fun creating this chapter, and find it to be a very unique one at that, as it contains actual cop work performed by our two favorite mammals! The next chapter (and many, many to follow) will also contain actual cases with a true plot to them that spans over many chapters, rather than just this fluff that I wrote for the first 14 chapters of the story, before I really knew where I wanted to take it in early 2016. I assure you though, chapter 15 takes things to new heights, and beyond!
As always, If you enjoyed what you read, feel free to drop a review, or to follow and favorite my work: They all help tremendously! :D
Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue reading, as chapter 15 is where the true plot of the story finally begins! You won't want to miss it.
'Till next time...
Peace!