"The truest wisdom is a resolute determination." - Napoleon Bonaparte
*BONUS QUOTE*
"Fall seven times, stand up eight." - Japanese Proverb
4:38 P.M
Throughout their time on the force, both Nick and Judy respectively have had their fair share of rather unorthodox moments, least to say.
Many times before, the two tiny officers had chosen to purposefully break protocol in order to perform what needed to be done. Frankly, it was the reason that they were in the Deciduous-District in the first place! Time and time again, the lapin and vulpine had bent rules for what they truly believed was the greater good, or the greater decision, yet in the end, it was clear that their many impulsive choices and sudden endeavors had piled up to one straw too many, ultimately breaking the figurative camel's back for good.
Nick himself had a feeling that it would have come to this sooner or later, though he had no idea just how disastrous it turned out to be; Ratsputin was dead, Nick and Judy's trust with Chief Bogo was forever tarnished, and the two of them had been forcefully (Albeit temporarily) exiled to an alien district as a punishment for their misdeeds. However, despite being a rather frequent pessimist, the fox personally believed that things would turn out for the better soon enough, despite all of the rather troubling circumstances that had gotten them in their current situation in the first place.
Beyond his own 'sly-fox' nature, Nick knew very well that rules were made to keep order intact, yet alongside that, he firmly believed that sometimes, they were meant to be broken, if the reasoning behind the act itself called for it. He had quite the record of rule breaking, though he had always been confident in himself and his abilities to clean up what was left behind him, no matter how messy. This whole temporary exile of theirs was just another obstacle to overcome, and although some souls may view their will as stubborn, both Nick and Judy knew that their intentions were just, and past all the intolerance of those around then, they would do anything to ensure the safety of others.
Even if it involved the direct manipulation of their superior's steadfast orders.
"Okay Nick, Chief Urzo was expecting us to be at his office nearly an hour ago, at this point, so please just stick to what we planned out; We quickly explain to Chief Urzo what we managed to find out about the crime at Castle Lochlan, show him all of this evidence that we brought with us, and pray that he isn't too mad at us for disobeying his orders."
"And hope that he doesn't kill us, too. Don't forget that." The fox added with a coyish tone of voice. "Or even worse: Give us more parking duty. Now that's diabolical."
"Come on, Nick, you're not helping." Judy chided, though not without a very slight grin tugging at the edges of her lips. "Let's just get this over with."
At that, the rabbit slightly picked up her pace, now nearly speed-walking as she made way in the direction of Chief Urzo's office, with Nick following behind closely in pursuit. Clutched tightly in Judy's arms and pressed against her chest, a thick stack of various papers, folders, and binders related to their recent findings in the Precinct Seven archive was just barely slipping out from between the bunny's fingers. A few stray sheets of paper occasionally fluttered out from the stack and to the behind of her, only to be caught by Nick, whom was starting to develop his own smaller stack of evidence just from the loose papers that his mate continually let off as she hastily head towards her destination.
Upon at last reaching Chief Urzo's very own private office, of which was hidden in the back of the building's main lobby behind a row of leafy green bushes, the two tiny officers approached the base of the large, towering oaken door, which thankfully, was slightly ajar, allowing easy access to their intended destination. It took the two of them together and all of their strength combined to push the comparatively massive door open all of the way, causing it to swing to the side and reveal the interior of the room to them both.
The chief of Precinct Seven sat alone in his office chair musing over a number of different papers strewn about his desk, along with a half-eaten blueberry muffin and a still-steaming cup of coffee, which Nick found interesting, if not a bit strange, since it was nearly a quarter to five in the evening. He didn't think about it for very long though, for as soon as his gaze locked with Urzo's, the grizzly bear's nostrils flared and his brow lowered in contempt; Nick mentally prepared himself for yet another stern lecture from his boss.
"You're late, officers. I thought that I told you to come here as soon as you were finished with your assignments... Why do you pester me now, of all times?"
Quickly breathing in as she steeled herself for her coming explanation, Judy hastily began with a simple apology;
"We're so sorry, sir, but we were doing some thinking, and I think we've made a tremendous discovery. We would have come earlier, but we were doing some research-"
The rabbit was suddenly cut off when Urzo growled aloud; "Wait." From there, he rose from his office chair and began sniffing the air around him, as if searching for something.
"You both smell like old papers and cobwebs..." He muttered dubiously before looking down upon the two smaller officers standing before him.
Chief Urzo's eyes narrowed in suspicion, apparently having finally noticed the rather sizable stack of papers and files that Nick and Judy had carried with them into the office.
"Were you two rummaging about the Precinct Seven archives without permission?" The bear snarled in a terrifyingly quiet voice.
Both Nick and Judy were silent to the count of five.
"Uh..." Nick muttered. "Maybe?"
"You two just won't give up, will you?" The grizzly bear grumbled lowly with a slight tone of seeming disbelief. "Again and again, you just keep breaking rules!"
"Call it obstinance." Nick swiftly interjected.
"I'd call it a thick-skulled ideology!" Urzo shouted back, clenching his fists. "Your stubbornness to sit back and simply obey orders is a flaw that will destroy you." He added darkly.
"Sir, we're telling you, this isn't some ploy to cause trouble! We really have some crucial information that could-" Judy continued, but was promptly cut off mid-sentence.
"Enough!" The chief of Precinct Seven demanded, effectively silencing the room.
"B-but we were just..." The rabbit timidly tried to continue, but quickly trailed off as her superior fashioned a smoldering glare upon her, causing her to swallow her own words.
"Why don't you leave the professional work to those of us that aren't wearing meter-maid vests." Urzo finalized before pointing towards the door with one clawed fingertip.
Judy's jaw lowered in shock, but her expression of disbelief was quickly replaced by one of frustration and anger. She momentarily glanced down at her orange and yellow vest, and then glared at her significantly larger superior as if she were about to say something venomous in rebuttal, but ultimately closed her mouth and walked away, shaking her head as she took the stack of papers with her and walked out of the office door, of which was still hanging upon from their earlier entrance. Nick looked back and forth between Chief Urzo and Judy, soon running off after her and out of the room, not even bothering to pick up any of the papers that were trailed behind her, marking the rabbit's path.
5:40 P.M
By now, both Nick and Judy respectively were quite used to being battered about by those around them.
Nearly four years past, back when the two of them had first met, Nick and Judy were no strangers to the feelings of contempt and prejudice that came from just being alive. One rabbit, one fox; Both reviled in their own unique way. Yet still, it could be said that all mammal species were guilty of, and subject to, the very worse than sentience had to offer: Hate, anger, and bigotry. For with conscious, came ego, and from ego, the spurning of others, and from the spurning of others, a thick sense of prejudice, gall, and hopelessness.
It seemed a viscous and unstoppable cycle, that was, until the will of two small partners turned the whole system upside down and on its head.
Their combined influence managed to convince many of the city of Zootopia's citizens that not everyone was destined to be stuck in a boring life pre-written by destiny, but that instead, one could forge their own path if they had the courage and the resolve to do so. Together, Nick and Judy both became police officers for the ZPD, and did all that they could to make the world a better place, even if it involved bending the rules a little bit here and there; All of their actions were done with only the very best of intentions in mind.
Yet still, even past the brave new world that the two of them had worked so very hard to forge, the hive of society's worst had continued to fester and grow.
Despite everything that they had worked towards over all these years, there were still those that sought to tear their world down, and them with it. Both Nick and Judy recognized, acknowledged, and understood that in the end, no matter how hard they fought, there would always be those that were intolerant to their ideology. They didn't blame them, though, for they both knew that it was all about perspective and perception, and that sometimes things just weren't meant to be changed, for better or worse.
The fox himself, being of the predator race, understood this better than just about anyone. He'd made many a different enemies over the years, some of which earned the title by merely glancing at him, and deeming him to be unworthy of his citizenship, rights, and even life itself, all based upon the simple status of his very own species. For many years, he had been subject to such despicable environments, but when he at last met the love of his life and joined up with the ranks of the ZPD, he quickly realized that not everyone was out to get him, and that there was still some good left in the world. Over the coming years, he had worked with Judy to bolster that goodness, and make it whole.
For quite some time, he didn't feel as though he was at the bottom of the pecking order, but after seeing Chief Urzo so casually discard their pleas, he felt as if he were below it.
There they were, willing to comply and to coordinate, and yet their superior had so quickly and so callously shrugged them off as a deplorable nuisance. The two tiny office knew that what they had was important, and that lives could potentially be at stake if they failed to act, making them all the more eager to show the chief their findings. Neither Nick nor Judy respectively had managed to get in more than a few sparse words with the considerably, yet understandably irate grizzly bear before he had cast them off and out of his office, doomed to find their keep elsewhere. With their twin tails beneath their legs, both the lapin and the vulpine checked out of the precinct for the day, their work being done.
That had been nearly an hour ago.
Upon stashing away their stack of paper evidence taken from Precinct Seven's archive into their own private office, small and disorderly as it may have been, Nick and Judy then set out to use up the remaining hours of their day effectively, starting off such with a rather light dinner at a small local comfort-food restaurant not too far off from their temporary place of residence in the Deciduous-District. Their purchased meals had been small, and the event itself had been quiet and lacking in much conversation, mostly due to the fact that the two tiny officers didn't want to so candidly speak about their private problems in public, but also because neither of them wished to relive them in that time.
Once their hunger was satisfied, their moods began to lift, and their intentions showed it brightly; After finishing dinner, the two of them set out by foot to a nearby sightseeing location known as Pine-Point, which Judy herself had recalled to be some sort of natural, cliffside lookout over the landscape of the Deciduous-District, where one could see far and wide the wonder and majesty that the forest had to offer. Eager to explore and willing to make the hike, both Nick and Judy promptly set out in the direction of their intended destination, carefully following the earthen trail as it winded through the army of trees and boulders, all the while slowly ascending in elevation and overall slope as the path led them to the mountainous lookout point. To the two of them both, a soothing breath of fresh forest air was just what they needed to calm the soul and ease the mind.
Eventually, they reached the very peak of Pine-Point, and in that moment of finality, two jaws dropped in unison as they cleared the highest ridge and gazed out over the land.
For as far as the eye could see, a vast sea of trees stretched onward to the horizon, only halted by the towering rocky mountains that bordered the forest district in the distance, of which were colored a shade of deepening blue as the sun set lower and lower as time went on, darkening the landscape in its entirety. In the far west, the setting sun sent shining beams of orange-ish light across the maple section of the district, the combination of colors consisting of red, yellow, and orange creating a miasma of warmth and tranquility.
"Oh wow..." Judy muttered to herself, taking in the sight of the scene before her. "What a view."
Nick snorted in seeming amusement. "No kidding." He added with a slight tinge of teasing sarcasm. "I think I'm gonna go sit on that log bench over there... I'm pooped..."
"But Nick, just look at this place!" The rabbit exclaimed, throwing her arms out and gesturing towards the landscape. "How can you be so tired? The walk here wasn't that long."
"You rabbits and all your energy... It took us nearly a half-hour to get here, ya know."
"Just a warm-up!"
Chuckling quietly to himself, the fox settled down on a nearby wooden log with a bench carved into it, no doubt a creation of the park services that managed this particular area. After seating himself upon the bench with a steady sigh of relief, Nick then cracked his neck audibly before once again taking the time to stare out over the Deciduous-District.
On the opposite side of the setting sun, in the east, the township of Beaverdam with its wooden and concrete buildings stood stout and firm beside a nearby river, with countless generators and other sources of hydroelectric power situated directly at the riverside. Nick and Judy were both all too familiar with the residence of Beaverdam; It was, after all, where the city's air-conditioned walls received the majority of their power. Eyeing down the length of the river that bordered the town, a large concrete hydroelectric dam had been constructed farther away from the residential areas, where it undoubtedly worked hard to provide a clean, efficient source of energy for many a different citizens of the city.
Having actually taken a brief moment to sit down and admire the scene before him, Nick accumulated a sense of awe and admiration that only seemed to grow with each passing second. As the son of an artist, he figured himself to be, at the very least, moderately accustomed to the appreciation of the world around him, mainly through color and visual scenery. Sighing once again, the fox just barely noticed his mate as she approached the log and joined him as he sat upon it. Wrapping his arm around her shoulder, he said;
"Tired or not, I gotta say, this place really is pretty amazing."
"Good to know that even someone as cynical as you can appreciate nature sometimes." Judy replied back.
"Well, I am who I am, but it's kinda hard not to appreciate a view like this, wouldn't ya say?"
"Yeah..." The rabbit claimed easily, leaning back into the bench with a steady exhale.
Despite their earlier confrontation with Chief Urzo back at Precinct Seven, both Nick and Judy respectively were feeling much better, for with one another's solace and comfort, they knew that they could overcome any obstacle thrown their way. The day behind them may have been exceptionally stressful, due to their superior's rather stubborn attitude towards the two tiny officers and their endeavors, but together, they knew that they had learnt something from it. Thinking back over their plights, the rabbit mumbled aloud;
"Some day, huh?"
"Mmm hmm." Nick acknowledged back. "Some day."
Ever since first arriving in the forested wilds of the Deciduous-District, Nick himself honestly hadn't expected to be doing much more than boring old paperwork and parking duty during their stay. However, with the unveiling of a mysterious new situation involving the murder of an innocent mammal and the theft of countless expensive artifacts, the fox reasoned that something fishy was afoot in the forest district, and he had a feeling that one way or another, his little temporary exile might be getting more exciting soon enough.
The fox thought back to what the wolfish officer had told to he and Judy once they had first arrived at the scene earlier that day...
No weapon was found at the scene, and there are no signs of a scuffle, or even any footprints in the mud, 'cept his own. The victim was struck a single time in the back of the head, likely killin' him near instantaneously, before he fell to the ground. No tracks, no weapon, no DNA, no nothing! It's like the perp that did this just vanished into thin air!
"No tracks, no weapon, no DNA..." Nick verbally repeated slowly and steadily, almost as if he were in some sort of a trance. "Hmm..."
"What's that?" The rabbit beside him inquired curiously, having detected her husband's audible ramblings.
"Oh, uh... It's nothing... I was just thinking about the scene of the crime from earlier this morning." Nick claimed, drumming his fingers on the top of his kneecap all the while.
"Anything on your mind in particular?"
"Hm... Well, the whole no weapon-" He emphasized with finger quotes. "- Business seems pretty suspiscious to me."
"Right. How could that poor, innocent mammal have been... Killed..." Judy managed, as though the words left a sour taste in her mouth. "So mysteriously?"
"Good question. I just wish we knew the answer."
"Yeah, me too. But still... It seems pretty clear that we aren't exactly wanted over there." The rabbit grumbled with a tone of seeming disappointment and even sorrow.
"Oh, don't blame Chief Grouchy-Grizz... He's just doin' his job, really. To be fair, we did kinda disobey his orders."
"True, but he shouldn't have been so mean! I mean, did you even hear what he said to me?! That guy's just as bad as Chief Bogo! Maybe even worse!"
"I suppose you're right on that one point, fluff-butt. He was pretty mean to you. And as much as that makes me want to be mad at him, I honestly can't blame the guy."
"Humph. Forget him..." Judy muttered huffily. "He can have fun stumbling around in the dark while we sit here with information that could help him solve a serious crime."
The fox pursed his lips as he took in and registered the words that his mate had previously uttered. It was quite clear to him that Judy wasn't exactly a fan of Chief Urzo, but regardless of what she thought of their grizzly bear superior, Nick knew that negotiating with him was the best way to ensure that they stayed on his good side, small as it may be.
"Aw, don't be like that, Carrots." He requested. "What ever happened to the bunny police officer willing to solve any crime to make the world a better place?"
Judy sighed longingly, slowly closing her large, amethyst-colored eyes all the while.
"I'm sorry, Nick... It's just that these past few days here have been pretty... Uh..."
"Out of the ordinary? Not your cup of tea? Cray-cray?" Nick suggested with a half-lidded grin across his muzzle.
"Bizarre." The rabbit settled on. "They've been kinda bizarre."
"How so?"
"Well, getting sent, or should I say exiled, to an entirely new district is one thing, but having all of these strange things happen to us along the way, including that crime scene from earlier this morning, just makes it all a bit complicated, I guess. Getting used to this place has been hard enough, and that nasty old grizzly bear isn't making it any easier."
"Sometimes the best things in life are earned through hard work, right? I know it's been kinda tough as of late, but it's nothing that we won't pull through, Carrots."
"I suppose you're right."
"Course I am. I'm me!" The fox joked. "But in all seriousness, you yourself have a pretty good point too, actually... If Urzo doesn't want our help, why give it to him anyways?"
Judy pursed her lips and made a slight hmm sort of sound beneath her breath. She momentarily took the time to think back over just what her husband had told to her, and what it meant for their relationship with Chief Urzo and Precinct Seven as whole. Meanwhile, Nick himself continued to stare out over the Deciduous-District, quietly and peacefully watching as the sun sank lower and lower over the mountainous horizon in the western distance, painting the sky with a miasma of orange and purple coloration.
A slight flutter of air brushed against his cheek, effectively earning the fox's attention. He gently turned his head in time to see a blur of dark movement flicker across his vision before settling upon his shoulder. Nick's emerald-colored eyes widened in surprise as he took in the sight of considerably large moth perching on his shirt. The insect's wings and body were colored almost identically with the bark of the nearby oak trees, and its fluffy little antennae swiveled around just a mere few inches from the fox's scruffy orange chin.
Clearing his throat, he tried not to panic as he stated aloud; "Uh, Whiskers, you ever seen a moth this big before?"
Judy's long ears perked up as soon as she detected Nick's words, and then she promptly turned towards the sound of his voice, and the fox watched as the rabbit's purple eyes expanded in shock after catching sight of the large insect sitting motionless on her husband's shoulder. She backed up a few inches away from him, understandable a bit startled.
"Say, I am kinda hungry... What do you think it tastes like?" The fox questioned, to which Judy gagged aloud.
"Ugh, that's disgusting, Nick! You predators and your bugs... Bleh..."
"What, would you rather us predators eat you, then, hm?" Nick teased back. "Beggars can't be choosers, as they say."
"Gross..." Judy mumbled.
With a slight gust of its chitinous wings, the moth flew off of Nick's shoulder and made way right over the edge of the nearby cliff, flapping off into the coming times of dusk.
As the moth fluttered off and into the distance, Nick followed it for some time with his gaze, watching until he could no longer see it. From there, he refocused his vision to the background of the direction that the insect had been heading, and came to sight with a winding river cutting through the trees of the forest district. The fox took note of the river's somewhat curved flowing pattern as it meandered down the distant mountain passes, with one section bending at nearly a ninety degree angle. It almost looked like a...
The sudden realization struck him like a bolt of lightning from the heavens themselves. Nick sat straight up, the jerkiness of the action nearly causing him to fall off the bench.
"Boomerang!" He shouted aloud, startling the rabbit lounging beside him.
"Gees, Nick, what was that about?" She asked, slightly irritated as she rubbed her ears tenderly. "My ears are pretty sensitive, you know."
"That night guard at the castle was hit with a boomerang, Carrots!" The fox claimed excitedly, turning swiftly towards Judy. "It was a boomerang!"
The rabbit blinked a single time in confusion. "A what?" She muttered with an expression of seeming bewilderment across her face.
"Okay, okay, lemme start over..." Nick breathed out in an effort to calm himself down. He promptly stood up before beginning his explanation;
"That guard at the museum was struck just once, a single time, in the back of the head with a blunt object. Someone had to have gotten close to hit him, but there weren't any tracks, so that means someone must have thrown something at him! Something fast, thrown from a long ways away, striking him once before flying right back where it came from."
"A boomerang!" Judy herself concluded as she jumped up from the bench and threw her arms around her husband. "But wait, why use a boomerang?" She asked as she let go.
"Carrots, who did we just recently deduce to be the culprit of the crime?"
"Uh, Iluka something or another?" The rabbit guessed, not quite remembering the mammal's last name.
"Right, and where exactly is Iluka from?"
"Outback-Isl-Oh..." She trailed off. "That makes sense..."
"Dumb-bunny."
"Shut up, you." Judy retorted, though not without a slight smile tugging at the edge of her lips.
"You know you love me."
"Occasionally." The bunny teased.
"That's good enough for me."
"But anyways, I can't believe you figured it out! A boomerang! That's brilliant, Nick! Great work!"
"Hehe, yeah, I am pretty-"
"Oh, can it, scruffy, your self-flattery can wait... This is huge! We need to go see Chief Urzo right away!"
"Seems a tad bit on the dangerous side, don't ya think, Whiskers?" Nick joked, though with an admittedly serious undertone to his words.
Judy bit down on her lower lip in thought. Chief Urzo had been incredibly specific and explicit with his words the last time that they had spoken with him. The grizzly bear clearly had his own agenda planned out for Nick and Judy, but deep down, the rabbit knew that she couldn't accept that as it was: This was information that their superior needed to know, regardless of whether or not he wanted to hear it. Judy knew that she and her husband were already on very thin ice, but it was a risk that they would have to undertake.
"Nick, we need to do this." The bunny stated at last. "Even if we aren't the ones to investigate, Chief Urzo needs to know what we've discovered. It's very important."
With pursed lips, the fox took one last look out at the landscape of the Deciduous-District before turning back to Judy and sighing.
"Fine... I just hope that we don't get more parking duty for this..." He said.
"Don't worry, we'll make it work out just fine, I promise." Judy claimed with a bright smile aimed at her mate.
"Guess that's another thing to hope for." Nick grumbled cynically.
"Alright then Slick..." The rabbit started firmly. "Let's get back to Precinct Seven."
6:11 P.M
Back at the Deciduous-District's police headquarters, Nick and Judy promptly made way towards Chief Urzo's office, the very same place where they had tried and horribly failed to convince the easily irritable grizzly bear of their findings earlier that evening. This time, however, they had no intentions on letting this golden opportunity of theirs slip away.
Upon arriving at their superior's private workplace, they firmly knocked against the large wooden door and awaited a response.
Five seconds of silence was followed by a groaning sigh and the heavy footsteps of something big walking towards the door from the other side. Soon enough, it opened, and the two tiny officers found themselves staring up at Chief Urzo's grizzled face once again. The bear's hairy ears lowered in shame, and he took a small step back into his large office.
"Good evening, officers... I see you've brought your evidence to me once again." Urzo mumbled, gesturing to Judy's stack of papers. "Come inside, then, and we can talk some."
The lapin and vulpine exchanged a single, brief glance at one another, both being somewhat surprised at their superior's sudden lack of aggression and dominance. Shrugging in unison, they followed the grizzly bear into his office before closing the door behind them. They approached Urzo's desk, all the while watching him as he seated himself behind it.
For a few seconds, there was nothing but awkward silence. It was finally broken when the grizzly bear managed a string of careful words;
"I apologize for my demeanor from earlier, officers. It was very... Unprofessional, of me..."
The grizzly bear's face hardened as he continued;
"But you must understand that it is quite literally my job to be strict with you two, just as it is your job to do ticket work and parking duty."
"We understand, sir, but this is something that we need to tell you." Judy stated firmly and without any hesitation. "It's importance could mean the saving of innocent lives."
Chief Urzo sighed audibly. "If you've pestered me about it for this long, I suppose it must be important. Speak, then." He finally requested, much to the joy of the two officers.
"Thank you, sir. You won't be disappointed." The rabbit claimed.
"I would certainly hope not. Just skip the formalities and tell me why I should let you two investigate the case at Castle Lochlan."
"Alright then." The fox muttered candidly. "No more sugarcoating here. We think that the criminal figurehead known as Iluka Rombahe was the one behind the crime"
The grizzly bear clenched his fists. "Preposterous! What could possibly attract the crime-lord of Outback-Island here, of all places?" He roared, lightly slamming his fist on his desk.
"You see, that's what we thought too, chief." Nick added quickly. "But after taking a step back to think about it, the evidence is undeniable: Iluka is here, right now, in this district."
"And just what evidence is there, precisely?" Urzo questioned with a slight tone of annoyance.
"Glad that you asked! Now, I don't know about you, but Hopps and I have been noticing a lot of marsupials milling around these parts, as of late. Real suspiscious stuff."
"So?" The grizzly snarled.
"So isn't it even the slightest bit strange that large troves of marsupials have been seen in such numbers all the way out here, so far away from Outback-Island?"
Chief Urzo took a moment to think over the fox's statement. "I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary." He claimed with an expression of pride.
"I'd be willin' to bet that other people have! If you let us investigate, the first thing we'll do is question various mammals about these marsupial sightings to see if anything adds up."
"Even if there are a bunch of marsupials running around, that isn't enough evidence to require a full-scale investigation." The bear countered.
"Perhaps not, but it's a good thing we brought more." The fox said before glancing towards the rabbit and gesturing at the desk.
Bending back down and picking up the stack of evidence that they had brought with them, Judy lept up onto the nearby office chair before reaching up and piling the mound of papers onto the chief's comparatively massive desk. The bear's beady brown eyes narrowed in contempt as he reached outwards and selected a few choice sheets of paper from the pile. He took a few short minutes to read through them before glaring back down at the two tiny officers before him with a look of frustration on his portly muzzle.
"So you were digging around in the archives!"
"Yes sir, we were, but it was only with the best of intentions, we promise!" Judy claimed swiftly, hoping that her words would help quell her boss's anger.
The grizzly bear growled beneath his breath. "Fine. Just keep talking before I kick you both out." He grumbled before leaning back in his seat.
The fox swallowed before continuing;
"Okay, so from all of this evidence here, we managed to deduce that this Iluka guy is the perp behind the crime at the museum, both the murder, and the theft. Reading through all of these records here, it seems that this guy likes stealing things, dusty old artifacts in particular, and that the Deciduous-District is one of the few places that he hasn't hit up, as of yet. First time for everything, right? So he comes here and robs the museum, but the only problem is the night guard, so for whatever reason, he has him killed."
"I thought that the forensic investigators at the scene determined the guard to have died from slipping on a rock?" Urzo briefly interrupted, his tone bursting with curiosity.
"That's what they ruled while we were there, yeah, but we think we might have figured something out, chief." Nick claimed.
"That's right!" Judy added matter-of-factly. "We have reason to believe that the security guard at the museum was killed with a boomerang."
"A boomerang?" The grizzly bear repeated.
"Yeah. Think about it... The victim was struck a single time by a fast moving, blunt instrument, with no signs of a scuffle, weapon, or perpetrator whatsoever..." Nick started.
And then Judy finished;
"And the only way he could have died was if something was thrown at him, a boomerang, which hit him once, killing him, before returning right back to the thrower's paw."
Chief Urzo seemed to take a moment to think over the officer's claim. He soon stated aloud;
"It makes sense, I admit, but the chances... It had to have been an expert shot!"
"Done so by an expert user." The fox finalized. "So, what do you think? That's pretty much all that we've got so far, really."
The grizzly bear exhaled with a deep and audible sigh. He stroked his chin in deep though for what felt like forever, before finally leaning forward and placing paws on his desk.
"Fine..." Urzo deeply sighed at last. "The evidence here seems too credible to ignore. You two have my permission to investigate the case."
"Yes!" Judy cried out as she jumped up and high into the air, pumping her fists around in excitement.
The grizzly bear growled beneath his breath before interjecting;
"However! If you should come back empty handed from your little adventure, I will ensure that your punishment of exile here in the woodlands is extended twofold!"
"What? Twofold? Why?" Nick questioned.
"I am not supposed to be letting the two of you do anything other than what I was ordered to assign by Chief Bogo himself. Deviating from this puts us all at risk, but, clearly, there are bigger things at stake here than anything the three of us have to offer. I do hope that this investigation of yours manages to succeed, but if you fail in your cause, and if I find out that I sent you off on some renegade investigation with all risk and no payout, then there will be nothing to protect you from me! Do I make myself clear, officers?"
"Crystal, sir." Judy claimed with a steadfast salute for effect.
Urzo sighed almost stressfully and pinched at his bushy brow, all the while finalizing the conversation with one last statement;
"Come tomorrow morning, you two may investigate your claims involving the case. Go and get some rest, officers... I have a feeling that you are going to be needing it."
Hey Everyone!
Okay, for starters, I don't think I covered this particular topic well enough in my last author's note... As I'm sure some of you have realized by now, this story has just recently surpassed its one year anniversary. I'm not normally one for celebrations of simply surviving another 365-ish days (Which is probably why I didn't cover this very well in the last chapter), but I admit that this has been a truly remarkable experience thus far: Over the past year, I've learnt so much, seen so much, and done so much (If nearly half a million words doesn't qualify, then I don't know what does), all the while gaining recognition for this little writing project of ours that began all those months ago.
In the end, I would say that I have none to thank but the dedicated readers and supporters whom have provided me with the motivation and the resolve to continue this work of ours. It has expanded oh-so much after all this time, and it has only got even more room to grow, it seems like. Soon enough, I intend on revealing and delving into even more projects, all of which I will be glad to bestow upon you, though for now, I thank you all greatly for these many experiences.
Happy anniversary, everyone, and may this story of ours continue to grow and expand the universe that has captured the minds of so many different people.
Thank You.
That being said, I suppose it's okay if I continue with the other announcements, then; More fan-art has been posted on my Tumblr account, a brand new poll is up on my page here right now, and eventually, I'll reveal yet another wee project that I've had on my mind for quite some time, at this point. Until then, do feel free to review, favorite, and/or follow this story of ours if you haven't already! All are greatly appreciated, and only serve to benefit my resolve.
Anyways, that's pretty much all that I have to say for now. Thanks for readin', as always, and do stay tuned for the next chapter, comin' your way soon! :)
'Till next time...
Peace!