Continued from Chapter 30
"Getcher pawpsicles!" Judy said merrily, waving a few purple-colored pawpsicles in the air that neatly matched her eyes. "Only two dollars, and feel free to donate a dollar towards helping canids out!"
Judy smugly dragged the cooler away once it was empty of her wares, and around the corner she was accosted by a red fox wearing a medical mask.
"Hey Nick," Judy said airily. "Sold out in ten minutes, and thirty percent of the customers gave me an extra dollar."
"You're making me look bad," Nick grumbled. "And isn't it a bit disingenuous to say you're 'helping' canids with the extra dollar?"
"Nope!" Judy smirked. "I never said it was a charity, after all."
Nick shook his head, closing his eyes with his arms folded. "Wow, Carrots, I don't know whether to be impressed, proud or disgusted."
"Any of them works for me," Judy chuckled. Her phone started to buzz. "Aw creamed corn, it's my parents again. Could you back off?" Nick nodded and got out of range of the phone's sight. Judy released a sigh and touched the phone. "Oh hey, guys!"
"Jude!" Stu said, obviously worried. "Still with the black fur, huh?"
"Oh, this?" Judy pat her cheek. Her fur had been dyed entirely black. "Yeah, it's-"
"Are you sure that's not some sort of phase you're going through?" Bonnie interrupted, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"No, mom," Judy's eyelids fell. "It is definitely not a phase. I told you guys, I'm undercover. I'm so deep undercover, in fact, that if you went to the ZPD they would say I'm no longer working on the force."
"But it's been a few years now, Jude," Stu looked worried. "I guess your mother and I are just a bit concerned."
"You know I can't talk about my work, guys!" Judy grit her teeth. "All of this planning we've done could be destroyed with one wrong word! Sometimes to do the right thing we have to make some sacrifices, right?"
"I know, honey, but can you blame your father and I for being a little worried?" Bonnie asked with pleading eyes.
"No, I can't, but I told you I can't talk about this," Judy said firmly. "Now, I'll see you guys later, okay?"
"All right..." Bonnie nodded. "Bye, Bun-bun."
"Love you, sugar!" Stu agreed.
"Bye...!" Judy waved, then hit the button. She groaned. Nick came back from around the corner. Judy gave a small laugh, full of self-scorn. "I've been lying to my parents since the very first day I actually got on the job, you know."
"It gets easier," Nick shrugged.
"Yeah, it is getting easier," Judy gave a shrug with one of her shoulders. "That's what worries me. I don't want to erode my conscience into nothing."
"We're still working for this city, in our own way," Nick gestured casually. "I just feel guilty I can't help out with the hustling nowadays."
"Hopefully this whole sickness thing blows over soon enough," Judy folded her arms, nodding. "Wh-wait, what's going on over there?"
"Nh?" Nick turned, feeling a spark of fear. "We don't have our costumes...!" Nick followed Judy's pointing finger, and it was directed at a large TV monitor plastered across a building, which was set to the ZNN news channel. The screen fizzled out and was replaced by a shadowy figure, that looked vaguely feline.
"Hello, citizens of Zootopia," the voice was distorted, but definitely female and somewhat acrid-sounding. "I'm disappointed in our scientists and doctors. I thought by now someone would have figured out what was going on here in this city. By that, I mean all the dogs dropping dead." Cars slowed and there was gasping in the streets as more hands pointed to the monitor.
"Terribly effective, hasn't it been?" The figure continued to speak. "This little virus of my design. 75% fatality rate. Perhaps you think you're safe from it because the cases have been few. Don't worry, little degenerate mutts. You'll get your turn at death's door. I'm continually making adjustments to it. In time, all of you slavering, whining imbeciles will be silent forever, and I'll finally have the city I want. One without canines." The feed suddenly cut out, leaving a couple of very distressed-looking newscasters on the ZNN who were trying to process what just happened.
Judy had a floored look on her face that quickly turned into fury. "What the...!?"
"Well that sucks," Nick said flatly from behind his mask.
"We've got to find that- that feline..." Judy clenched her fists. "I'll put her to sleep."
"You do mean using your Serene Blade, right...?" Nick asked cautiously.
"Okay, Nick, question time," Judy said, pounding one of her fists into her other hand. "How do we find this cat so I can punch her?"
"I hate to say it," Nick placed his hands in his pockets. "But our best bet is asking Honey."
"Aww... no!" Judy whined and rolled her shoulders forward, looking at Nick desperately. "Not Honey!"
"'Fraid so, my dear," Nick squinted his eyes in an amused way.
Nick and Judy found themselves in Honey the badger's secret underground lair, which doubled as their secret underground lair at times. It contained copies and backups of their equipment, gear, and costumes. Also, there was a lot of technology and computer equipment strewn around the messy bunker. The only problem was that Honey wasn't entirely "all there".
"Nick babe! Judy doll!" Honey waved as the two approached, swiveling her chair to regard them. "Thought you might show up soon."
"Please don't call me 'doll'," Judy sighed. "Also, please tell me you saw that creep's statement about the canids and the virus."
"I did..." Honey nodded seriously, whirling back around to face her computer. "I've no doubt the sheep are behind it."
Judy groaned in frustration. Talking to the badger always felt like running into a wall. "Again with the sheep, Honey?"
"No no, it makes perfect sense," Honey said, busily opening up programs and maps on her computer, flicking her hand dismissively. "Since prehistory, sheep and canids have been enemies. It's totally them. They're probably just using this cat chick as a decoy because of the whole 'cats and dogs' stereotype!"
"Brilliant," Judy rolled her eyes.
"Anyway, can we locate her or figure out how she's distributing the virus?" Nick asked patiently, nodding to Judy. "Hang in there, Fluff." Judy grit her teeth slightly, then closed her mouth and exhaled slowly.
"Of course!" Honey said, running some searches and activating some programs. "I've been working on the infection vector for a few days now." She brought up a map of Zootopia and a bunch of dots appeared on it near northern Savanna central and a few other blips. "Here's where all the victims of the virus so far live. Red dots for females, blue for males. Okay, what's weird about this?"
"Uh..." Judy stared at the map, willing an answer to come to her. "They're mostly females?"
"Also," Nick held a finger up. "The virus isn't spreading. It's... congregated all through here? That's not how viruses work."
"It must have a narrow infection vector, like blood to blood," Honey nodded. "So that means-"
"The feline is actively infecting the victims?" Judy interrupted.
"Probably," Honey tapped some buttons. "Now, I've been running simulations to see if I can figure out where the victims all were at the time of infection, but it's slow going."
"Wait, how can you track all these individuals anyway, or where they're from?" Judy winced. "That sounds kind of a little bit illegal."
"It's information the ZPD has access to," Honey smirked. "I hacked their firewall."
"That sounds even more illegal," Judy huffed.
"As is pretty much anything we do," Nick gave a sly shrug. "But we do it for a good reason."
"So most of the victims are female," Judy said. "That means we should be looking at... what... beauty salons? Spas?"
"No, needs more traffic, I would guess," Nick shook his head, folding his arms. "The chances of a canid coming to a specific place are fairly low, so it needs to be a popular place."
"Females... uh... s-shopping then!" Judy rotated her hands at the wrist. "Mall, or department store. Maybe she's tainting water or food. What's up there in the north?"
"There's a Mousey's Department Store," Honey said. "Looks like all of their cell phone signals passed through there at least once before they got sick."
"God, that has to be it, then!" Nick blurted.
"We'll go there during a high-traffic day and hour," Judy nodded seriously. "Tomorrow is Saturday. We'll go. Midday."
"Got it," Nick cracked his knuckles.
"When you capture her, see if she knows anything about the sheep!" Honey called out to them. "Okay, babe? Doll?"
"Right...!" Judy tried not to sound annoyed as she turned around, with Nick grinning down at her.
The black-furred bunny and red fox entered the department store, wearing normal clothes, but their tight, spandex costumes underneath, and both wearing backpacks that had their other disassembled gear in them.
"Okay, so the goal is to find someone suspicious without being too suspicious ourselves," Judy murmured to Nick. "Think like a back-to-school shopper..."
"Let's just do a casual lap around the shop and look for anything off," Nick whispered. "Keep together." Judy returned the barest nod of confirmation, and the two did a small tour of the shop. Judy even stopped at a back-to-school display, looking at some colorful pens and highlighters.
"You make a great hustler," Nick teased from behind his medical mask.
"Hush, fox that I definitely don't know!" Judy tried not to smile.
They completed their lap across the store. Nick nodded subtly to Judy. "So, anything?"
"I think so," Judy nodded. "That black jaguar behind the perfume counter doesn't have a name-tag on."
"Huh..." Nick walked around, taking a glance at her here and there. "She's holding a bottle of perfume guardedly and hasn't actually sprayed anyone with it that's walked by her. Suspicious..." Nick walked towards her casually and then backed off before she noticed. "She smells like your fur dye." He gasped lightly. "What if the perfume is laced with the virus?"
Judy's jaw dropped, but she shut it very quickly and thought. "What are we supposed to do though, Nick? I don't want to wait for a random canid to walk over to her and get sprayed, if that's what she's doing..."
Nick tapped his finger on his nose. "Mm... I may have an idea. Let's get dressed." He jerked his thumb to the dressing rooms.
Minutes later, out of the corner of her eye, the black jaguar saw Piberius striking a dashing pose.
"We know what you're up to, cat!" Nick said accusingly.
The jaguar gasped, then grit her teeth and grinned darkly. "Try a perfume sample, Piberius?" She leaped over the counter and sprayed her perfume all over him. She gave an almost wild laugh, leaning in to taunt him in a quiet voice. "Ha. Try convincing the public about me when you're busy choking on your own blood, mutt! Yes... breathe in deep, dog. I cannot wait for one of the city's most stalwart defenders to die in excruciating pain from my virus...!" She frowned suddenly. "Wait. ...Are you breathing?" She tapped on his chest and heard an unusual sound. "Wh-WHAT!?" She unsheathed her claws on her free hand and slashed twice at the costume. There was an off-white plastic body underneath. "A decoy!?" She felt a sharp nip in her side. "Grhk!"
"You're lucky I'm nice enough not to run you through," Judy said angrily from behind the jaguar, cleaning her tranquilizer-soaked blade and sheathing it. "Enjoy prison."
"Foolish rogue!" The jaguar turned her head to face Judy, her eyes starting to flutter. "There's no way you can pin anything on me without giving yourselves up as whuh-well..."
"Oh no?" Judy said smugly, holding up a phone. "Had to buy a brand new camera-phone to get your little confession on video, but it was worth every penny. Rot in jail."
"No...! No..." The jaguar slumped over and her perfume bottle gently clinked on the floor. Judy planted the cellphone into the jaguar's coat pocket. A small crowd of mammals was beginning to form in a semi-circle around Judy.
"It's Amethyst! Amethyst, mommy!" An excitable giraffe youth told her mother.
"Whoa, is it really her?" A teenage porcupine male asked. "Can I have your autograph?"
A coyote boy stepped forward. "Did you just beat up a bad guy, Amethyst?"
"Don't get any closer!" Judy warned with her hands out in caution. "This jaguar here is likely the one behind the canid virus. Be careful! You there, citizen!" Judy leaned up and saw Nick in the crowd, looking on with pretend interest. "Call the ZPD! Make sure no one approaches her until the police get to her!" Nick nodded and made his way to a phone.
The audience gasped, but was getting thicker around Judy. Escape was going to be a problem. She reached into her utility belt. "Hey kids, want to see Amethyst do a magic trick?"
"Yeah!" The young members of the audience said in glee.
"Time to make this bunny... disappear!" Judy threw down a pellet which burst into thick purple smoke. When it cleared, Amethyst was gone. The amazed and bewildered audience looked left and right, but saw no sign of her. One little cheetah cub saw Judy leaving from the dressing room dressed in her normal clothes, but he took no note.
"It's starting, it's starting!" Judy exclaimed excitedly, hugging her knees close to her, sitting on the couch in Nick's shabby apartment. She bit her lip and stared at Nick's TV.
"It's just Major Mousawitz giving a speech," Nick shrugged, drinking from a cola and sitting on the couch next to her. "Do you really think he's even going to mention a couple of vigilantes like us?"
"He has to say something," Judy beamed, watching Vince Mousawitz take the tiny stand. "I've never heard him speak before, so this will be fun!"
"Ladies and gentlemammals of Zootopia..." Mousawitz started. He paused to collect his thoughts, seemingly very serious. His voice was very rich, deep, and had a commanding presence.
"That's... that's his voice?" Judy's jaw dropped in amazement.
"Wow, he could do radio," Nick's eyebrows lifted in surprise.
"As you may know," Mousawitz continued, "of late there has been a horrible virus that affects only canids moving through Zootopia. But there is good news. The ZPD did end up capturing the manufacturer and distributor of the virus." There were cheers, but Vince didn't look that pleased. He closed his eyes and gently gestured for everyone to calm down.
"See? The ZPD gets the credit. Of course," Nick sipped his cola, looking at Judy.
"Aw," Judy bit her lip in disappointment.
"However," Mousawitz looked at his notes. "The city of Zootopia has a debt of gratitude to pay towards those two mysterious vigilantes that have been defending us behind the scenes." The audience started murmuring. Judy gasped and started rapidly pawing at Nick's arm excitedly. "They go by Amethyst and... Pie- Piebeereeis."
"Close enough," Nick had a wide smile.
"Eee!" Judy held her fists close to her face and shook them.
Mousawitz closed his eyes and shook his head. "While I cannot in good conscience fully condone their actions... their efforts to rid Zootopia of heinous criminals that the ZPD has not been able to reach has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated." Mousawitz paused. "Some may know that I have... I have adopted a wolf daughter. The fear of her contracting the canid virus has given me many a sleepless night. But now I know that she is safe, thanks to the efforts of Amethyst and puh- um, our masked canid protector."
"Poor guy," Nick said, though Judy didn't know if he meant his mental state or the fact that he couldn't pronounce Nick's middle name.
"So, I know that you two cannot come out and accept thanks publicly," Mousawitz continued, "but please know that I appreciate your efforts to do what's right. I know that you must work from the shadows, so I will thank those shadows for giving you to us. Thank you. Zootopia is blessed to have you two." Vince Mousawitz stepped off his podium to a roar of reporter questions, which he brushed off. Nick shut off the tv.
"Kinda gives you a warm feeling inside, doesn't it?" Judy smiled brightly.
"Warm and fuzzy," Nick agreed, nodding once.
"I'm... kinda worried though, about your costume," Judy nibbled at her fingers.
"Why's that?" Nick rolled his eyes. "You know Honey has like three more waiting for me already."
"It's in the hands of the ZPD now," Judy said, "surely they have gotten your DNA."
"They can have all of that they want," Nick shrugged, "it's not going to help them. I was never officially brought in or sequenced on the books, remember?"
"Oh right, good," Judy sighed in relief. "Heh, I wonder what Bogo thinks about all this..."
"Fantastic," Bogo said dryly, hanging up the phone. "Now the mayor is on their side." Bogo frowned and glared up at the wanted posters of Amethyst and Piberius on the wall. They read: "Subjects may be dangerous. Please detain if possible."
Bogo groaned and sat back in his chair. "Did I do something to a bunny in a past life? Have I offended the Lapine Goddesses somehow? That's the only explanation I can come up with for why I'm having so much trouble with those blasted hopping creatures of late. First that crazed upstart Hopps, then this gallivanting showoff Amethyst, and now I've got..."
"Um, sir...?" An arctic hare's head worriedly poked into his office. "You wanted to see me?"
"Karen Skippel," Bogo sighed, and nodded. "Come on in."
Karen bit her lip and walked in, handing him a report. "Th-the full report of the Canid Virus case."
"So, Serena Prowlmore is definitely the culprit," Bogo shook his head. "Those two knuckleheads are making us look bad at the department."
"Agreed, sir," Karen nodded. "Vigilantism is not the way."
"Mm..." Bogo looked through the files. "At least we got that fox's costume from the fox dummy at the store. What's the situation on that?"
Karen swallowed hard. "There's... there's nothing we can use from the costume. It's just a costume."
Bogo's eyes narrowed as he handed the file back to Karen. "What."
Karen winced. "The only unusual things about the costume were that the mask was soaked with the sample of the canid virus."
"Surely he's not a non-shedding fox?" Bogo asked in disbelief, holding his hands palm up.
"Oh no, we have his DNA now," Karen nodded rapidly and nervously, holding the file close to her chest. "But... he's not a registered criminal."
"Unbelievable!" Bogo slapped his face and ran his hand down his cheek. His voice was low and grumbling. "Do you have anything else to report, Skippel?"
"Ah..." Karen cringed. "I ran a security sweep of our systems, and it looks like a fairly accomplished hacker has gotten into our databases and retrieved some of the information there."
Bogo flinched, then his voice became dangerously nice. "Well, Skippel, can you do anything about that...?"
"Y-yes sir, I believe so!" Karen quickly assured.
"Then do it!" Bogo finally snapped.
"Yes, Chief!" Karen squeaked desperately, leaving in fright, dropping the case file onto the floor.
Chief Bogo sighed and leaned over to pick the file up, filing it in frustration. He looked over the wanted posters again. "Amethyst, Piberius. You'll make a mistake eventually, and I'll be there when you do. Winning over the mayor won't save you from the law."