"There you are, Hustler! We meet at last!" Judy thrust her finger out boldly at the red fox across the street. Mammals on the street started gasping and entering buildings to protect themselves. The fox had on a sleek black costume with green trim and a matching helmet with a green visor attached to it. He smirked at the rather plainly uniformed bunny at the other end of the street; she was wearing a gray uniform with an insignia on it: ZED.
"Ah, a new one," the Hustler said wryly.
"I'm Judy Hopps of the Zootopia Empowered Division!" Judy struck a pose. "I'll be taking you in for your crimes, Hustler!"
"Will you, now? That remains to be seen," the Hustler assumed a stance. "You know, I kind of wish the ZED would give you guys better costumes. You all kind of end up looking the same in those gray things."
"Ha! Well you look like a dropout from the last cycling marathon!" Judy threw back.
"So what's your gimmick? Telekinesis? Some sort of temperature-based power?" The Hustler gave some easy, lanky stretches, clearly not taking her seriously.
"Only a fool reveals their powers to their enemy before absolutely necessary!" Judy punched her fists together and gave a bright grin.
"I'd say only a fool attacks a seasoned supervillain as their first act of heroism, but who am I to judge?" The Hustler flashed a grin as well. "Anyway, if you want me to move first, I can most certainly do that."
In a green blur, the Hustler had crossed the entire street in much less than the time it took to blink. He grabbed Judy and crouched down, seemingly storing kinetic energy from his burst of speed. Then, he used this energy to rocket straight up into the sky, spin around in midair, and fling Judy down towards the ground. He expended the rest of the energy to dash through the air back to the ground, looking at Judy falling.
"Wha-OH!" Judy barely had any time to react before she found herself falling down towards the city below.
The Hustler grinned up at her. He planned on saving her at the last safe moment, but he wanted to put some fear into her.
Judy tried to focus and felt her own powers brewing. "I hope this works." When Judy's feet were below her, she thrust them both towards the ground.
TCHAAK!
The thrusting of her feet caused an atmospheric collapse and non-fiery explosion near her feet, which sent her flipping forward through the air.
"Ugh!" The shockwave from the explosion knocked the Hustler over before he could safely jump back up to catch her. "So that's what she does."
TCHAAK!
Another explosion, and Judy thrust her legs out behind her to dash straight at the Hustler, pinning him to the ground. She leaped up off of him and thrust her feet into his legs.
TCHAAK!
"Aaagh!" The Hustler cried out in pain as he felt the force of the explosion in his legs and Judy leaped up and away from him and posed stylishly on the ground.
"There," Judy folded her arms smugly. "You won't be going anywhere with broken legs."
"No, I most certainly will not be," The Hustlers teeth showed in a painful grimace, but Judy's eyes widened as the legs of the red fox started to seemingly vibrate very quickly. The fox grinned. "It's a good thing they aren't broken anymore." He got to his feet.
"How did you...?" Judy trailed off.
"I can accelerate anything in my body, including its rate of natural healing," the Hustler claimed. "Give it up newbie, there's no way you're taking me in." The Hustler started circling her at a high rate of speed, a green, red, and black blur around her. "Even if you do catch me, there's no way they can keep me. I can break out of any prison just by putting my hands on the walls and vibrating them to a point where the matter breaks down. Speed is the ultimate tool."
"I say force is the ultimate tool!" Judy let out an energetic cry and stomped the ground with both feet, causing a bright shockwave to shoot out in all directions. The Hustler lost his footing and tumbled to the ground, and cars and even buildings near the point of impact trembled a bit from the power of the shockwave.
"Ghh..." The Hustler was spinning around on his back, but then flung himself upwards back onto his feet. "You're starting to bother me, Kicks, so maybe you should go home before you get hurt, little bunny."
"Kicks!? The name is Judy Hopps!" Judy made a pose with one foot held up and bent at the knee, ready to kick.
"C'mon, they don't even let you choose a pseudonym?" The Hustler gave a pitying smile, grabbing a few sheets of newspaper from the street and balling them up. "How about Bombshell Bunny? Kinetic Kicks? Wreck-it Rabbit?"
"I don't need some dumb nickname," Judy said. The Hustler spun around a few times, faster than the eye could note, and suddenly threw two small balls of fire at Judy. "Ack!" Judy kicked forward and caused a small shockwave that put out the balls of fire. "How does speed let you throw fireballs?"
"Friction of the air," he explained. "My body and the suit are friction-proof, but nothing I hold is. Just like I'm guessing you're immune to your own explosions."
"Tricky," Judy smirked with her eyebrows furrowed. "I'm not going to lose, though!"
"Yes, you are," the Hustler suddenly frowned. "I'm through playing around."
Judy gave a small breath to prepare herself, but it was little help. The fox almost looked like he was teleporting around her, delivering blow after blow with his fists, whittling down her stamina over the course of mere seconds. Judy tried to stomp the ground again and ended up producing a smaller shockwave with one foot, but the Hustler seemed to purposefully slow down to show her that he was in midair, right above the ground based shockwave, before he delivered a kick that knocked Judy backwards.
"Ughhh!" Judy kept her footing, then dropped down to one knee as her strength failed her. "How could I... ugh."
"You were never going to win," The Hustler slowly advanced on her, and Judy looked up and grit her teeth. The Hustler held his hands behind his back, staring down at Judy.
"What's the matter, don't have it in you to finish off a defenseless bunny?" Judy spit on the ground at his feet.
"Of course not," The Hustler grinned. "It's time for my supervillain rant. Any good supervillain worth their salt should have one."
"Oh, great," Judy tried to make it to her feet, but her strength failed her; the Hustler had delivered very precise punches to keep her immobilized.
"Listen, Kicks, I don't 'finish off' anyone," The Hustler said seriously. "That's not the type of fox I am."
"But there have been ones before me!" Judy huffed with shallow breaths; it kind of hurt her to breathe.
"Yes, the red fox vixen with pyrokineses, and the teleporting pig," The Hustler nodded seriously. "I assume the ZED told you I killed them."
"Yeah, and if we're going to play your word against theirs..." Judy sneered up at him.
"I'll just tell you I didn't kill them," The Hustler replied. "You'll find I haven't killed anyone, if you go looking hard enough into my reported crimes. All I'm guilty of is robberies and breaking out of jail. And to be honest, the people I rob from kind of have it coming, if you look into them."
"That's no excuse!" Judy was quite angry. "Why not just use your powers for good, then?"
"Ah, appealing to my noble sense of justice," the red fox laughed. "Quite humble for a defeated, cocky bunny." Judy growled. "Listen Kicks, I tried the whole 'being good' thing. Yeah, it feels good, yeah I put out some fires by creating vacuums, and saved a few lives by evacuating mammals from cars going off the side of roads. But the truth is, good deeds don't put bills on the table."
"But you have some sort of secret identity, don't you?" Judy tried shrugging, but that hurt as well. "Can't you just 'be normal' in your daily life?"
"I'm not really hiding my identity; the helmet is just to keep wind out of my eyes," the Hustler took off his helmet, and a normal looking, perhaps even somewhat handsome red fox face with green eyes was displayed. "The name's Nick Wilde. I don't care who knows it. I just like going by the Hustler. I can't have a normal life. People like us can't. Why should I hide myself? We're aberrations, rare bits of corruption in the order of the world."
"No we aren't!" Judy protested. "If we use our powers for good, we can help make the world a better place!"
"Your naivete is charming and all," Nick sighed, "but... misplaced. Listen, the ZED is bogus. It's mostly made up of non-powered mammals trying to control those that DO have power."
"What?" Judy was incredulous. "They just direct me to where I'm needed."
"Why do you think they're such a big organization?" Nick shrugged. "Just because it takes a lot of them to subdue the likes of us? I've been in their clutches before... they want to dissect us; learn how our powers work to further mammalkind. Perhaps an ultimately noble goal, but I don't want to have to die to satisfy their curiosity."
"...What?" Judy shook her head. "I don't believe that."
"You'll make a good hero, Kicks," Nick gave a sad-looking smile. "But I recommend staying the heck away from the ZED. I never saw that pyro fox or the teleporting pig again once I defeated them, as I did you. I suppose in some way I did kill them, but only because they were under the ZED's control and they saw them as failures..."
"No..." Judy shook her head rapidly. "I can't believe that. Who's going to fight for good against villains like you if not the ZED?"
"Not to brag, but Zootopia is my city," Nick folded his arms and gave a serious look. "I'm not going to give it up to any other supervillain. I suppose the ZED also hasn't told you about the other empowered villains that have mysteriously shown up defeated at their doorstep." Judy shook her head.
"Nick... er, Hustler..." Judy shrugged. "What am I supposed to do, then?"
"If you must stay with the ZED, see if you can investigate them, confirm what I'm saying is true," Nick nodded. Judy struggled to her feet, holding her shoulder with one hand. She made no movement to attack. "Keep in mind the only reason you have a government-paying job is because there's someone like me to fight."
"I could... heh..." Judy seemed a bit drained of her resolve. "I could always get a job as a demolitionist."
"Just make sure the ZED doesn't try to replace you," Nick put on his helmet to try to hide the tenderness that was forming in his eyes. "Be ready to run and use those legs for their explosions or whatever else you can do."
"No, that's it," Judy gave an ashamed laugh. "That's all I'm good for."
"The ZED would try to apply my speed to transportation and medicine, I'm sure," Nick huffed. "And you, well, imagine handheld weapons that could cause explosions like yours. Once they have the technology, they don't need the mammals the powers belong to anymore."
"I'm not necessarily saying I believe you..." Judy said cautiously. "But what should we do?"
"Well, the public likes a good show," Nick smirked. "Show up to the next few of my crimes! Maybe I'll let you bust me once or twice. I'll escape of course, but if I somehow can't, maybe you could have my back in case the ZED gets their claws in me?"
"Wow, you are some kind of audacious," Judy put one hand on her hip. "You're saying we should fake fighting each other?"
"As long as there's a hero to fight the villain, people will be interested, yeah?" Nick smirked. "Maybe it'll keep you in the game longer, until they try to get rid of you. Speaking of, gotta go!" In a burst of wind and light, Nick was gone. The ZED's distinctive sirens were audible as vehicles surrounded Judy.
"Empowered Agent Hopps, are you injured?" A voice came over a loudspeaker.
"Not seriously, I... I almost got him! I'll get him next time!" Judy called out.
With new doubts in her heart, Judy carefully limped over to the ZED's vehicles. There was no way that scoundrel fox could have been telling the truth about the ZED, the organization formed to utilize empowered mammals against other empowered criminals.
Judy briefly looked back to where Nick had been.
But what if he was right?