Nick and Judy's rounds on one particular day found them very near the border of Savannah Central and Sahara Square. Judy was driving as usual, and as usual the day was fairly uneventful. Nick tapped just below the cruiser's window, while Judy kept her eyes on the road.
"So, Carrots," Nick began, breaking the silence. "I've noticed that I barely ever see you actually eating any carrots."
"Wouldn't that be akin to cannibalism?" Judy shot back wryly.
"Crud, I hate it when you have such a quick comeback," Nick chuckled, relaxing back in his seat.
"I've been hanging out with you for too long," Judy replied accusingly. "Carrots are sort of a treat for bunnies, especially raw ones. Almost like eating a candy bar."
"So, when I call you Carrots," Nick considered this, "it's like I'm calling you 'sugar'?"
"Yeah, something like that," Judy hummed a terse laugh. "With a bit of a country flair. Maybe you can see why I didn't want you calling me that at first."
"But now..." Nick trailed off, his eyes widening slightly. Judy smirked, darting her eyes over to him briefly.
"You're a smart fox, you figure it out," Judy teased.
Their reverie was broken from a desperate-sounding call over the radio.
"This is Agent Fetcher of Immigration Customs Enforcement!" the radio barked in a female voice. "Requesting any available law enforcement near the Port Krill Shipping Yard to rendezvous with me there. Repeat: Agent Fetcher of Immigration Customs Enforcement!-"
Nick picked up the radio to Judy's nodding. "This is Officer Wilde, ZPD. Officer Hopps and I are inbound." Nick put on the sirens and Judy pulled a sharp u-turn as they headed in the direction of the shipping yard.
"An ICE agent asking for help from random law enforcement?" Judy murmured. "That can't be protocol."
"Something's up," Nick nodded. The two equipped themselves with their gear, drew their stun guns, and headed into the shipping yard.
Judy picked up her radio. "Agent Fetcher, Officer Wilde and I are at the location. ETA?"
"Five minutes!" The harried voice came back. "Do you have a sniffer?"
"Yes," Nick replied into his radio as Judy looked expectantly at him.
"See if you can locate a coyote," the agent went on. "She's probably in trouble or worse; her name's Agent Aurum!"
"Got it," Nick dropped his radio. Sniffing around, his pupils became pinpricks.
"Nick?" Judy noted his brief look of terror. "What's the matter?"
"Not... sure," Nick's muzzle twitched in discomfort. "Let's go, I think I've got the scent of a coyote." Judy quickly followed Nick down the stacks of shipping crates until they came upon one with a padlock on it. Nick grit his teeth, his voice quieting. "It... the scent ends here." Judy was about to beat on the container, but Nick motioned for her not to. Judy nodded at the silent communication, and retreated a bit to report into her radio.
"We think we've located her inside a locked shipping crate," Judy said in a low voice. "Bring some lock cutters."
"Affirmative, do not engage until I arrive!" the voice had some steel to it, but there was a note of worry. Judy rejoined Nick, who still looked nervous.
"What's up, Nick?" Judy hissed quietly.
"I don't know," Nick said worriedly. "That's the problem."
"Since when where you scared of the unknown?" Judy returned firmly, the normal teasing levity from her voice missing.
"The thing is, I don't know what we're dealing with," Nick admitted, "and that scares me." He sniffed in deeply. "I have no idea what animals we're dealing with here. I have three or so different kinds of scents."
"So?" Judy shrugged. "So we're unprepared. Never stopped us before."
"Judy... I..." Nick showed his teeth in worry. "I know the scent of every kind of mammal in Zootopia. This is... something else."
"Oh..." Judy's eyes also widened. "Something else...?"
At that moment, Agent Fetcher arrived, clad in her Immigration Customs Enforcement uniform. She was also a coyote, just a few inches taller than Nick and of a more solid build. She had a bandage wrapped around her head that looked slightly bloody. She was wielding a large pair of lock cutters. Nick motioned at the shipping crate and the ICE agent nodded, sniffing a few times to confirm. With a focused look, she clipped the lock, motioned Nick and Judy over, and set the lock cutters down gently.
"Set your stun guns to medium," Agent Fetcher whispered. Nick and Judy prepared their weapons, then the three threw open the shipping container as quickly as she could.
"Zootopia ICE, drop your weapons!" the coyote snarled. Nick and Agent Fetcher could see that there was only one mammal in the container. It was the other coyote agent. She was of a slighter build and just a hair taller than Nick, she was bound and gagged to a chair.
"Mff!" she said, her brown eyes brightening and tail wagging.
"Cheyenne! Oh thank Karma," Agent Fetcher deflated a bit. Judy turned on a flashlight to see into the container better, but nothing looked out of the ordinary except for a few small spatters of blood. The ICE agent quickly loosed her fellow coyote from her bonds.
"C'mon, Amber, we've gotta go!" Cheyenne sprang up from her chair as soon as she was loosed. "Maybe we can still catch the reptiles!"
"Reptiles!?" Nick echoed incredulously. That was why he couldn't pick up what kind of animal they were; he'd never smelled a reptile before.
"Are you hurt?" Amber asked.
"Not seriously, c'mon!" Cheyenne rushed out, drawing her stun gun. She tossed Nick and Judy a pleasant, brief smile. "Hi, officers!"
"They didn't even disarm you?" Judy asked as the four started rushing to the docks.
"They have bigger fish to fry than Agent Aurum, thankfully," Amber said. "But I'm glad they didn't hurt my partner. Anyway, thank you for the assist, but-"
"Amber, we got ambushed by the reps last time!" Cheyenne said, still rushing. "If they're willing to reinforce, let's go for it!"
Judy nodded. "Let's go."
Amber groaned, but nodded. The two got to the dock, where they saw a boat revving up, and a half-dozen reptiles of varying types pushing away from the dock. Cheyenne barked in irritation; the boat was already too far away for their stun guns. Judy stared in wonder, she'd never seen a reptile in the fur- well, flesh, before. There appeared to be an iguana, two komodo dragons, a horned lizard, and-
"Take cover!" Amber screamed, and the four mammals scattered just an instant before three crossbow bolts sunk into the ground where they had been standing. Judy and the canids took cover behind some stacked beams. Simultaneously, Amber and Cheyenne holstered their stun guns and drew their rubber bullet guns. The two fired repeatedly from out of their cover, hitting two of the escaping reptiles and putting them on the deck of their boat from the force of the bullets. The remaining reptiles screamed something in a language neither Judy nor Nick understood.
Judy and Nick both drew their tranquilizer guns and carefully fired while the remaining reptiles tried to reload their crossbows. Judy's shot missed, but Nick's shot hit one of the reptiles in the shoulder, and they dropped their weapon.
"The boat's pulling away! Cover me!" Cheyenne yelled, drawing a third kind of gun and rushing forward.
"Cheyenne, fall back, there's no cover!" Amber bellowed, reloading her pistol and firing a few more times at the rapidly retreating boat. All of her shots missed, and one komodo lined up their crossbow to shoot at Cheyenne. Judy dashed forward, close to the ground.
"Judy, are you insane!?" Nick yelled.
"Yup!" Judy shot the reptile right in the neck with her dart and this made him lurch backwards as he fired, the bolt missing the bunny and coyote and sinking into a crate nearby.
"Fall back, Chey!" Amber ordered. "They're too far, and most of them are downed or soon to be!"
"Rgh!" Cheyenne fired her gun. The shot landed on the deck of the boat. Her tail started to wag.
"Agent Aurum, what was that about?" Judy asked. "You risked yourself just to shoot at nothing?"
"Not nothing," Cheyenne smiled. "We're going to get those sneaky reptiles yet." She touched at a bud in her ear. "Aurum to Sherby, come in Sherby."
"Could you stop calling me that?" a male voice popped up that Judy could barely hear. "Are you okay, Cheyenne?"
"Just fine," Cheyenne nodded, smirking with her brow furrowed. "We've got the reps' ship on tracer. Could you pull it up and send us the coordinates?"
"Got it, got the ship," the voice said. "Sending location now."
"Thanks, Bert," Amber said. She turned to Nick and Judy. "This is where we have to part ways. This is an ICE investigation. Thank you for the assistance."
"Who were those guys?" Judy asked with a hint of wonder. "I've never seen reptiles in Zootopia before."
"Illegals, obviously," Amber sucked at her teeth. "Intel suggests they're part of a pelting ring." This didn't seem to make things any clearer to Judy.
"Pelters?" Nick's eyes widened. "God..."
"We got a good lead on them, then they jumped us," Cheyenne explained. "Looks like they only had enough muscle to drag me off, though."
"Officers Wilde and Hopps, report this to your superiors," Amber pointed at Nick. "ICE might need the cooperation of the ZPD if there are any relevant cases linked to pelting."
"Will do," Nick nodded.
"Thanks again, Officers!" Cheyenne waved as the two coyotes made their way off.
"See you!" Judy called after them. Nick and Judy started walking back to their cruiser. "Pelting, Nick?" She smirked wryly. "Is that anything like what you did to get that 'skunk-butt' rug?"
"No, it's not," Nick said stonily. Judy blinked at the gravity in his voice. "Pelters are a level of cruelty even Mr. Big doesn't approach."
Judy let her thoughts run to what this must entail. "Oh... why, then? Sheep's wool can be dyed and grows back."
"Why does anyone do anything illegal, Judy?" Nick sighed. "Because there's a demand for it. Some reptiles are known to wear mammal pelts, obviously the ones that don't like mammals."
"Why would another sapient being...?" Judy trailed off, getting into the cruiser with Nick.
"According to the history books," Nick started to explain, "reptiles have been around far longer than mammals, but mammals reached sapience first. Reptiles lagged behind by a few thousand years."
Judy started the cruiser, reflecting on this. "So then... the first mammals would have seen the reptiles as ...savage?"
"Mm," Nick shrugged. "I guess so. Maybe there's some sort of lingering resentment. 'You say I'm a savage? Well I'll wear you like the savage I am'."
"Ugh," Judy shivered. "You think Agent Aurum might have been in danger?"
"She probably would have been had they known Agent Fetcher would likely be after them, hence the quick escape," Nick thought. "Either way, I hope Chief Buff doesn't put us on this."
"Why's that?" Judy wondered. "You don't want to be looking up relevant case files?"
"Well, I'd like to be able to keep my lunch down at work," Nick made an uncomfortable-looking face. "The methods pelters have aren't pretty."
"Mm..." Judy grit her teeth. "I can't believe there are people like that in Zootopia..."
"'Anyone can be anything', huh?" Nick quipped sarcastically.
"Tch..." Judy drove off with Nick, disgusted.