Chapter 16 Cleaning Up the Town
Edited by KungFuFreak07 & R3D Fawkes
AN: Thank you for all the well wishes on my trip to Disneyland. Yes I met Nick and Judy. Yes, I did catch them playing footsie with each other while also flirting shamelessly with each other.
I'm just waiting on Disney to send me an invite to their wedding. I wanted to make sure it got to them so I put my card into a blueberry pie and gave that to Nick for safe keeping.
The week after the dinner flew by in a flurry of activity for Judy, of which topping the list was the impressive listing of criminals brought into the jail by the rabbit Capitán after she made some adjustments to the patrol schedules. It may have also helped that she personally led most of the patrols after she had followed several and had grown frustrated when they all seemed to begin at the fort, and end at nearby taverns.
The second time she had watched it happen, the five soldiers on patrol were met by a very irate bunny, thumping her foot so hard against the dirty road that a nice display of dust had arisen around her. She had quickly taken action, breaking up the groups that had up until that point had been self-created, making sure to put officers she could trust leading each one. And if one wasn't available, she'd lead them herself.
Which led to the latest problems she faced: jail overcrowding.
For Zootopia had only five cells in it. When she had gone into the city to find the local jail and constabulary force, she had found an aardvark asleep at the front desk, with a sign over the three cells they had stating, "Lock yourself up and leave when you need to", with the keys for each cell hanging next to the doors.
Never in her life had Judy felt like smashing her head against a brick wall more than when she saw the state of affairs in the city regarding how they dealt with criminals. Especially when the aardvark told her that nobody has had to arrest anyone in months thanks to The Fox.
That is going to change...Judy had thought, and change it did.
With her new guidelines in place, reforms taking effect and personally leading patrols in and around the city, a newfound fear had come into the hearts of the criminal underworld. By the end of the fourth day, the fort's cells were full and by the next day, the town's jail had reached its limit with the amount of smugglers, thieves and banditos she and her soldiers had caught.
Well, that or Zorro had caught and left as gifts for us...she silently grumbled as well.
Each morning, as the soldiers would go to raise the Zootopian flag above the town square, they would find several bandits tied to the pole, confessing their guilt to their crimes to a stunned rabbit, while a large Z would be found, carved into the dirt road.
The insufferable fox grew upon her mind, and even though she silently thanked him for helping to clear the city of criminal behavior, she would rather that the city did not require a masked vigilante, who himself was a criminal, to clean up the streets and keep mammals safe.
It had become her new goal to capture the Fox, and bring him to justice before Bogo could return. Just so she could show him that she could indeed do her job. The memory of their last meeting still wounded her pride, and she would show the large mammal that she was worth just as much as any other Capitán in Califurnia.
Though only one mammal knew of that internal frustration and surprisingly enough, it was another fox.
Don Nicholas de la Wilde was the fresh air she needed to continue going each day. That first day after their dinner together, and directly after she had found the first batch of thieves tied to the flag pole, she had seen him walking across the street and ran over to him. Through a wide yawn he seemed surprised to see her, expressing it in his incredulous gaze, though that soon changed to a smile as she greeted him with a hug. They had talked about the dinner, the two wolverines he had seen tied to the pole, as well as Judy's bold declaration, which had come with red tinged fur and heated ears, that she wondered if they could make their dinners a daily occurrence.
To her delight, Don Wilde had cheerfully obliged, stating that, 'With you, I could never feel safer nor so whole again.'
With that confusing statement, one which seemed to cause his own tail to suddenly dig to the ground before rising swiftly again, he had bid her adieu, kissing her paw..as well as placing another deftly upon her cheek, before he hurried away. Judy had stood there in silence, her paw reaching up to the spot where he had kissed her, only for the muffled laughter of the troops watching her to bring her out of her fox filled dreams.
The next few days, if any word could describe them for the bunny, would be divine. A moonlight stroll with Nicholas along the docks came that night, followed by finding the next group of criminals tied to the pole, which had come to be known among the soldiers as "Zorro's Standard", the next morning who she had seen unloading cargo the night before from a small skiff onto the docks.
Apparently Zorro had seen them as well, and noticed, where she had not, the catnip inside a few of the containers. The next night came a carriage ride along the outside of his villa. Judy had been thrilled with the invention, peddling as fast as she could while Don Wilde steered and stressed about how fast they were going over the sound of her whooping and hollering.
The next morning? The mole she had seen along the pathway outside the Don's villa carrying a shovel and bad of 'dirt', showing up tied to Zorro's Standard, with the bag of dirt open, revealing coffee grounds which had been stolen through a hidden tunnel from the Don's private stores.
She had returned the beans to the fox that night, who accepted them gratefully and praised her work in finding them for him. Though she couldn't lie, and as she revealed that it was Zorro, and not her, that had found them and captured the perpetrator of the crime, Nicholas had smiled, stating that he'd have to thank him sometime for saving his caffeine supply.
Her frustration, and silent praise, for the masked vigilante, grew with each day, something that only grew more with each villainous character he captured. It was after three straight days of this that she decided to begin a regimen of nighttime patrols.
So here she was, walking down the center of Palm street with two soldiers accompanying her as they let the moon guide their path.
"Capitán Hopps!"
Judy turned at the shout from behind her, only to frown and draw her sword at the figure before her. The Fox stood in the middle of the street, the moon outlining his figure as his cloak tossed in the soft breeze blowing towards the bay.
"It is good to see you again, and in such high spirits for so late at night," Zorro laughed, the flash of his teeth visible in the pale light cast from the glow of the moon. "I was afraid that you'd forgotten that villains tend to come out at night rather than during the day."
"Villains such as yourself?" Judy answered, taking a step forward while the two wolf soldiers with her stared at her in disbelief.
" Capitán, what are you doing seeking to cross blades with The Fox?" whispered Wolford.
"Yes, Capitán," the fox chided with his ringing laughter. "Why cross blades with me when there is a richer prize in store for you and I, no?"
Judy grit her teeth and took another step forward, "The only prize who'll receive is a cell with your name on it, Zorro!"
Judy bounded forward, followed sullenly by the other two soldiers. The Fox laughed before he turned and fled further up the road.
"Don't lose his scent," she hollered towards the wolves, who nodded in agreement as Zorro dashed around a corner and out of sight. They managed to follow him throughout the city, his ringing laughter or slight catches his cloak twirling around a corner the only reason they were able to keep up with him.
After nearly a mile, they lost the trail completely at the entrance of a large warehouse. Judy growled out her frustrations, stabbing her sword into her scabbard while thumping her foot.
"How could you have lost his scent, Wolford?"
The wolf shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sorry Capitán, but I don't think that was his scent we were following."
Her head turned slightly. "What do you mean, Corporal?"
Wolford gulped. "What I mean, is that the scent I was following from him led us here, but there are no other scents around."
Again, he has outfoxed me...she thought angrily, looking up at the warehouse before her. A sudden sound of wood knocking against wood, and a muffled cry from inside brought her gaze to the door.
"In there!" she shouted, before darting to the doorway. In a powerful leap, she slammed her feet against the door, smashing it open, the bunny rolling to her feet as she landed inside.
"Oh..." was all she could murmur, before she rolled away from a sword that nearly took her head off. She quickly drew her own, just as the badger approaching her swung his cutlass again at her. She deftly knocked the blow away, before slicing his wrist with her blade. It wasn't deep, yet the larger mammal dropped his sword with a howl of pain as he grabbed as his bleeding arm as Wolford and Howlerton came through the door. Two quick kicks to the face, and the badger was out like a candle.
Inside the rest of the building was complete pandemonium, and not just because of the three panda's currently engaged in a swordfight with the object of her chase. The three larger mammals were chasing Zorro around the room, The Fox grinning and laughing as he dodged their sword strikes and, in the case of one of the pandas, a swing from his short staff. There were cartons and containers of illicit cargo, drugs, and paintings she knew to be stolen littering the room. Covering the floors, the walls, and even hanging in boxes from the rafters.
"Nice of you to join me this evening, my cute little bunny!" Zorro laughed as he deftly dodged a rather large club aimed at his face before clocking the panda in the head with the hilt of his sword. "Would you care to take one of these panda's as your dancing partner?"
Zorro couldn't have missed the eye twitch on the rabbit even if he had tried.
Good... Nick thought as he spied several more mammals bursting into the room from a side entrance. She's going to need all the anger she can muster to help me bring down Po's gang.
"Howlerton," Judy's voice was steady as she undid her cap and gently laid it upon a nearby crate.
"Yes Capitán?" the wolf stated as several more brigands appeared from around a corner, their sights set on the small grey bunny and two wolves.
Facing towards the group, she turned only her gaze to the wolf. "Go back with Wolford and grab the wagons and some men. I'll need them to help clean up the mess by the time you get back."
"What mess?" the wolf whimpered, fearful at the tone in the Capitán's voice as the rabbit rolled her shoulders and popped her neck, eyes set upon the nearest brigands running towards her.
"The one I'm about to create!" she thundered, as she raced towards the approaching group.
AN: Oh boy...cliffhanger time! And second oh boy...Nick, er, Zorro, called her cute. Something that any normal mammal that wants a healthy and long lifespan would not do. Any guesses as to what will happen next chapter? Or will those pandas make it un-bear-able for our two heroes? XD