"Flee an enemy who knows your weakness." - Pierre Corneille
Nick wasn't going to let it end like this. Now was not the time for revelations. Now was time for an escape.
"Yes. Go on, Nicholas." The fox heard the bat hiss from behind him. "Shine light on your crimes."
The fox simply chuckled. "I think I've got a better idea." He said with a smirk.
Vladzotz's sinister smile vanished. "Wilde, if you think you're going to-"
"Shine light on this!" He shouted.
As he yelled, he turned around, now facing Vlad, and slipped his paw into the hidden pocket in his button-up, pulling out his flashlight. He quickly flicked it on before shoving it right in the bat's face, directly in front of his red eyes. Vladzotz reeled back, hissing at the sudden flash of light and instinctively raising his wings to his face. The fox knew that he'd only bought them a few seconds at best, so just for good measure, he reached over to the nearest (and heaviest) thing he could lift - a large potted plant - and slammed it into the bat's face, shattering the pot and sending ceramic shards and dirt spilling everywhere.
"That's how we do it on the surface, Vlad!" He spat at the bat as he writhed on the ground, blind and disoriented.
Nick then ran over to Judy and scooped her up, classic bridal-style. There wasn't enough time for him to shake her out of her confusion and run away with her. Nope. There was only enough time to sweep her off her feet and bolt towards the exit.
The fox didn't remember much from his previous exploration of the manor, but he remembered enough to find the exit, which wasn't that far off from the dining hall. He ran past a few surprised mobsters, but none of them tried stopping him as he fled. Not sparing any time to waste, Nick slammed his shoulder into the door as he ran, flinging it open, and sprinted outside. Compared to the inky blackness of the bat's mansion, the underground light of the Nocturnal-District's glowworms was downright blinding.
But that didn't slow him down.
He had no idea where he was running, as he had been unconscious the majority of the journey to Castle Fangpyre. But he figured that anywhere was better than that mansion. By the time he'd added another ten yards between him and the manor, the fox heard a horrible screech from behind, followed by Vladzotz's voice.
"GET THEM!"
As if running away from his problems wasn't enough of a motivator, the fact that he now had an entire mob of angry criminals, and one disheveled bat chasing after him coaxed the fox to run faster than he ever had before.
Looks like ugly woke up from his power-nap... Better pick up the pace a little, then. The fox thought to himself.
But as he ran down the narrow and winding streets of the Nocturnal-District, he soon found himself tiring, his adrenaline burst leaving him as quickly as it came. It would only be a matter of time before the bat and his goons caught up with him at this rate. Not only that, but he had no idea where he was going.
In hopes of solving both problems, he briefly slowed down and placed Judy on her feet before grabbing her paw and continuing to run.
"Carrots!" He shouted as they ran side by side. "Where's the cruiser?!"
Judy, being the responsible police officer that she was, had actually taken the time to plot out the whereabouts of their vehicle. As they reared a corner, the bunny recognized it as the same one where they had been jumped by Sprock and Russ. Grinning in relief, Judy pointed toward the car as she sprinted onward.
"Here! This way!" She heaved, accelerating and practically dragging the fox by his arm.
They continued their escape on foot, running for another fifty yards or so before encountering the house where they had parked their vehicle. Thankfully, it was still there, parked and ready.
"Get in, get in, get in!" Nick huffed as he pried open the driver's door, the bunny planting herself in the passenger seat adjacent to him.
He fumbled with the keys before remembering that police cars had a special emergency start-up. He reached around for the hidden lever, groping behind the wheel before his fingers came in contact with something small and sharp. With a click and a reverberating hum, the car started. Nick hesitated, not sure where to drive. Realizing that nowhere in the Nocturnal-District was safe, he decided to make a break back to Precinct Once. They may have been fleeing in terror, but their original mission was accomplished: Find out who had killed that poor journalist, and report back to Bogo. Simple as that. With their job done here, they had no reason to stay, as if being chased wasn't enough of an incentive.
As the fox pulled out of their stakeout location, he heard Judy stifle a gasp. "Uh, Nick? I think they found us!"
Sparing a glance at the rear-view mirror, Nick took in the sight of at least a half-dozen crimson-clad criminals running straight for them. Nick didn't see Vladzotz, which both relieved and worried him, but he didn't allow that thought to linger for more than half-a-second - They had to get out of there.
Flooring the gas, their cruiser accelerated to uncomfortable speeds as they flew down the neighborhood road, leaving the mobsters in the dust.
Ten seconds of top-speed driving led the fox to let out a near-crazed laugh - They'd done it. Not only did they manage to escape from Vladzotz, but they'd gotten heaps of valuable information out of him, and once they got back to the ZPD, they could organize a strike-force and finally take down one of Zootopia's most notorious criminal mobs! Nick could hardly believe that the bat had so carelessly handed out such important intel. He flung his head back and let out another laugh before sparing a glance at Judy, who was also smiling from ear-to-ear. Deep down, though, Nick had a feeling that their problems were just beginning.
As they laughed and smiled at each other, a soft thud reached their ears. It sounded like it had emanated from the roof of their car. Both of their smiles extinguished, and they slowly looked up at the car's ceiling. Two more thuds followed, each sounding suspiciously like footsteps. The sounds stopped directly above them.
Judy looked Nick in the eye. She swallowed before speaking. "You don't think...?"
Nick's eyes widened. "Oh, no-"
"You don't get off that easy, Wilde!" Vladzotz's voice shrieked, cutting Nick off.
One of the windows on the side of their cruiser exploded, with Vlad's fist having sailed through, sending tiny shards of glass flying throughout the cabin. Judy ducked down, avoiding his claws. For the eighteenth time that hour, she wished that the mobsters hadn't had taken her and Nick's tranquilizers. While protecting her head from Vlad's groping claws, she caught sight of the dashboard cabinet and gasped - There was always a spare tranquilizer kept inside. As the arm retracted, Judy lunged over and opened it before pulling out the weapon, rolling down her window, and leaning outside.
She spotted Vladzotz atop the roof, trying to keep his grip while the cruiser made a long turn around the diameter of a stalagmite. The bat locked eyes with Judy just as she pulled the trigger on her tranquilizer gun, sending a small dart sailing right into Vladzotz's neck - An expert shot.
The bat leaned backward woozily, almost falling off of the roof of the vehicle. He lept from the car and extended his wings like a parachute, gliding to the ground and letting the officers escape. As Vladzotz touched down, he promptly fell over, face-planted, and began to snore. As the car continued down the road, and eventually reached the entrance to the district, the bunny watched the bat's body with hushed trepidation. He remained still until Judy could see him no more.
With a sigh, she hauled herself back into the cabin and closed the window. "Shouldn't we go back and pick him up?" The rabbit asked, to which Nick shook his head.
"Whatever Bogo sent us down here to do, this was not it. And his henchmammals are likely still following us - We aren't prepared to fight off an entire mob of angry mammals, Carrots."
For the next few minutes, the only sound was the heaving breaths of both animals. Eventually, their cruiser exited the district and re-entered the surface world. It was nighttime outside, and a light rain was speckling the mountains. The patters of the raindrops against their vehicle soothed both animals as their car glided down the road, the speedometer not dipping below fifty miles per hour the entire way back. The Nocturnal-District was just on the outskirts of the city, yet the drive felt as though it took an eternity.
As they made their way back to the ZPD, Judy took the time to tend to Nick's single injury; A small cut that he had received when the cruiser window was punched in, likely from a shard of glass, or perhaps a rogue talon. Though he insisted he was fine, the bunny continued to stitch up his wound as he drove, her minor-amounts of training in first-aid from her days back at the academy finally coming to good use. The cut wasn't very deep, but Judy shuddered thinking about what it could have done.
There was little conversation throughout the journey back. When they finally reached the ZPD, Nick took to parking in one of the far corners of the lot, away from most of the other pedestrian and officer traffic. Nick sighed as the car pulled to a stop.
"Whiskers... I'm so sorry." He stated. "If I had known that we would be dealing with any of that..."
He trailed off, unable to find his words. Meanwhile, Judy was trying to formulate her own response.
She didn't want his apology: There was nothing to apologize for, in her eyes. She simply wanted answers. Answers to the questions and mysteries behind this entire mess. How did Nick and Vladzotz know each other? What did their relationship have to do with their past? And how could any animal have so much hate towards another? Vladzotz talked as though he had lost something, and that it was Nick's fault. Judy had seen a crazy sort of light flickering in the bat's eyes - A madness born of grief... Born of loss. Judy recalled back to the bat's previous words, about how he'd lost his family in a fire. Nick had also stated earlier that Vladzotz had supposedly died in the very same fire.
Clearly, one of those claims was pitifully false.
The bunny reminisced about Vlad's choice of words, when describing his old family's death. Their blood is on your hands, fox! He had said. She couldn't help but wonder if all of these things were connected - The fire, the fox, the bat, and his old family. There was something that Nick wasn't telling her. Judy found her resolve soon enough.
"Tell me." She demanded.
The fox blinked in apprehension. "About what?" He inquired.
Judy placed her paws on his shoulders and forced him to face her.
"Tell me." She repeated. "Before we report back to Bogo, I want you to tell me about you and Vladzotz. What did you do to him? What happened?"
Nick swallowed hard and blinked once more. He wasn't ready, but he wouldn't deny Judy of the right to know: He figured that she deserved that, at the very least.
He sighed deeply. "I didn't do anything to him, but..." He trailed off, sighing. "Alright, Fluff. You win." He whispered. "Might wanna get comfy, though, cause it's a long story."
Unbuckling her seat-belt, she crawled over the space between the two of them and positioned herself closer to Nick.
"Don't worry about anyone else. This is between you-" She said pointing at him. "-And me." She finished, pointing at herself. "Now tell me. Everything."
The fox simply sighed. "Carrots, what did I ever do to deserve someone like you?"
She elbowed him in the sternum. "Let's skip the mushiness, Slick. The sooner you finishing this bed-time-story of yours, the sooner we get to tell Bogo and go home."
Won over by his mate's rich words and soothing actions, the fox steeled himself to relive this tale of the past.
Hey everyone!
I hope that you're enjoying the story thus far. In the coming chapters, you'll be learning more about Nick's former connections to the criminal underworld (most of which is actually canon, by the way), and how it applies to this story. You'll also be learning some more about Vladzotz and his villainous plan, and the other crime-lords soon! So do please stay tuned for what's to come, as it only gets better from here. I thank you for reading, regardless!
'Till next time...
Peace!