Welcome back!

You know, I never expected to find myself writing fanfiction. The urge never really found me. I've written plenty of other things, sure, but they all included my own original characters. Not once have I loved a story to such an extent for me to want to sit down and continue it on my own terms.

It's a little surprising. I've been greatly moved by other movies and books before. The Harry Potter series really comes to mind. But I don't want to make a fanfiction for that. For some reason, Zootopia is the first story to really motivate me to do this.

Nonetheless, I'm glad I'm finally doing it. It took me months to finally work up the courage to upload my first chapter, my first fanfiction, on this site. I've never had anyone else, other than people I know, read my stories. There's a first time for everything, am I right?

And that brings me to my next topic. I really want to thank all of you who have favorited and followed this story and myself. I can't express how good it feels to hear my phone chirp with a new email telling me that my story has been favorited, reviewed, or followed.

I still get very nervous and anxious whenever I drop a new chapter. I constantly ask myself, 'Will they like it? Is it worth their time? Am I doing well?' and so on. Perhaps that's part of the reason why it takes me so long to release a new chapter that's only around two-thousand words. I just want to perfect it (and that is difficult to do when you are writing on a smartphone with the Microsoft Word app that likes to crash whenever it feels like it). I have lost count of how many pages I've scrapped because of reasons like bad word flow. I know I'll never achieve true perfection, but I will always try to. I want this story to be good enough for you all to continue reading and to, hopefully, remember. It's weird. I want to make you guys proud, but I don't even know any of you.

But it seems that, so far, I'm doing something right.

And so, without anything else to say, here is chapter seven! *Awkward screaming*

Side Note: I've re-read my previous chapters and noticed that I didn't even introduce Bogo as a character (unless I somehow skipped over the part where I did, indeed, introduce him). I just threw him in without any background for him. I barely described him. So, I'm going to properly describe him in this chapter. I sincerely apologize for my error and will try to learn from it. Live and learn, as the saying goes.

…..

Being the chief of the Zootopia Police Department is an overwhelmingly difficult job. On a daily basis, you have to deal with the dirtiest scum in the city. The ignorant bliss you once had, all of those innocent thoughts of how clean and happy the city of Zootopia is, will all be burned out of your mind once you see what really happens behind the curtains. Drug rings, gang violence, criminal masterminds, hundreds upon hundreds of murderers; you have to deal with it all. It's your job to fix the city, to make it as safe as possible, and that means you'll have to expose yourself to despicable creatures that cannot even be considered mammals anymore.

One of the hardest parts of the job, though, is losing your officers. You're there to protect them, but to also toss them into harms way. You're there to keep a professional relationship with them, but they inevitably become family to you. And you're there to move on when one of them dies on the job, but you'll see them in your dreams and wake up wishing they were there the next day.

It's not like he still had his job, anyway. That part of his life was behind him. Really, it felt like a new chapter was opened onto Bogo's life… and everyone else's. Everything was about to change once shock collars are distributed out.

Shock collars. Those disgusting devices… they are actually coming back. Collars are no longer a distant memory, and with them, predator lives will never be the same again. He sighed and thought of his best officers. Wilde and Hopps. The two craziest and, somehow, most successful officers of the entire ZPD. Their lives will never be the same.

At least they still have their freedom.

Still, it was one of the most idiotic things Bogo had ever seen his officers do. What were they thinking, really?

Bogo sighed and thought back to what happened only a day ago. Things had gone downhill from there.

*** Flashback ***

"Not on my watch!" Bogo heard Nick yell as he began to sprint towards the Mayor with Judy beside him.

"Tsk tsk tsk," clicked Mayor Keegan as two of his personal bodyguards came to his side. They were hiding behind two pillars that were part of the font of the ZPD's building. Both Nick and Judy stopped in their tracks.

One of the bodyguards, a freakishly buff elk, was holding a studio camera. He was recording the entire time.

"See, citizens of Zootopia? This is why predators need to be restrained!" Keegan was speaking to the camera. Nick's and Judy's ears drooped. "This is why we have to collar the predators!"

"I know predators who are a better mammal than you are, Keegan. They don't deserve to be collared, and you shouldn't be in a position of power!" Judy's fur was standing on end in anger.

Keegan turned to face Judy. He said in a quiet voice, "I am twice the mammal than that lowly fox," he looked at Nick and back at Judy. "He is a predator! He could kill you in a heartbeat with one quick bite to the neck!"

Judy stepped forward. "He would never do that!"

"How do you know, huh? Why do you trust that conniving fox so much?"

"Because I know him better than anyone one of you!" She turned and looked at Nick with a shy smile. Nick wrapped one arm around her.

The Mayor's pupils widened. "Wait… are you two dating…?"

"Yes, we are," Judy answered.

"Did you catch that?" The hare turned to his cameraman/bodyguard who nodded yes. "Oh, the public will tear this apart!" He eyes lit up with happiness.

"What are you talking about?" Both Nick and Judy questioned. They got no answer. The Mayor turned and left without a another word. More elk followed as they exited several other hiding spots. Each one was clutching a camera except for a couple who had audio equipment.

It was all a setup.

Bogo stepped up to the couple and shook his head. "I'm happy for both of you… but, you should not have told him that."

*** Flashback End ***

Maybe one could say they were not in their right minds at that moment. They did just see over ten dead bodies, some of them being savage predators, and then were told that one of the most cruel instruments ever used on predator kind, the shock collar, was coming back (and the assumption can be made that it'll be modified, 'improved'). All of that happened in a matter of minutes. It's a lot to take in.

That still doesn't change how incredibly foolish it was to charge towards the Mayor of Zootopia. And of course they didn't stop there. They just had to announce their relationship to all of Zootopia (albeit accidentally). It's great and all that they are together, but there are millions of mammals who are disgusted by interspecies relationships, and the fact that it is between a predator and a prey will only make the argument for shock collars and other such things even stronger.

It doesn't matter now, anyway. The damage was done.

It was evident by the news Bogo was watching on his sixty-inch AMOLED television and the similar articles he was reading on his smartphone. Most prey in the city were disgusted of Nick and Judy, disgusted and afraid. They kept congratulating Mayor Keegan with his decision, saying that it woild, 'Keep everyone safe,' and other such things. Of course, there was extreme predator-backlash, but their opinions were ultimately being buried under the prey's opinions. Considering the fact that ninety-percent of Zootopia's population is made up of prey, and ninety-percent of all prey support Mayor Keegan and all of his actions, there was nothing predators, and the small amount of prey who disagree with Keegan, could do to change the course.

Well, not peacefully, anyway.

At least Bogo, despite being a cape buffalo which is a prey animal, is part of the small prey population who completely hates Mayor Keegan's guts. This was a crime against predators and their basic mammal rights. Predators, he thought, can be just as good or better than prey. There are plenty of upstanding predators within the city, many of them working with the buffalo. They deserve to be treated equally. It was an outrage, and the Mayor knew that. He isn't in it just to protect prey. He wants rid of predators.

If only the cape buffalo had handled the situation with the Mayor a bit more carefully. It had cost him his job. If he still had his place at the Precinct, then he would be able to do a lot more to stop the Mayor and his plans. He'd need to do it in secret, but he would still get a lot done.

He wasn't going to quit, though.

He isn't going to just sit around and allow this injustice to stay. He doesn't care if it kills him… predators deserve better than this. And he can contact the officers that used to be under his command for assistance. Surely, at least a few of them will support predator rights and help fix things.

His officers were good mammals.

He sighed and got up to the bathroom, stopping at the sink to turn it on and splash water onto his face. His thoughts were getting to him. Today was not a good day by any standards. What was he going to do now? At least he owned his home. He wasn't about to be homeless.

He looked at himself in the mirror and saw the same cape buffalo staring back at him as if nothing had changed. His brown eyes were still narrowed at all times, his dark grey fur was still neatly cut short, his left ear still had a tiny cut on one side, his muscles were still insanely large and toned, and his absurdly huge horns still made the shape of a comical mustache on top of his head – the kind you'd see in a stylized kit's cartoon, that is. He looked no different, but everything was different. The world was crashing down and he was out of his supposed dream job, stuck unemployed in a world controlled by discrimination.

The reason he became part of the ZPD was to stop things like this. He always hated discrimination, and he thought that he could combat it as in officer. Bogo actually did a lot of good. He's highly regarded amongst the predator community.

But it apparently didn't help enough. Even the time and effort he spent reducing discrimination as the, now former, Chief of Police didn't help. It seemed his efforts were in vain. The city was returning to society's old, withered roots; pure hatred towards each and every pred. The entire point of Zootopia was to let everyone live the lives they want to live regardless of what they were. But, in a few short weeks, predators will be stripped of rights they previously owned. They will lose their ability to live the same fulfilling lives that their prey counterparts can. Zootopia will be just another city where predators are the lowest class.

There has to be something he can do.

…

At least the night was quiet for Nick and Judy. They got some much needed sleep.

Judy was the first to wake up. Usually, her fox would wake up with her, but when she checked his room, she found him snoring with his alarm blaring. She walked over to it and turned it off, but then set an alarm for an hour from now, eight forty-five, with an obnoxious 'death metal' song she knew he detested. 'That'll wake him up,' she thought to herself with a smirk that mirrored Nick's.

This was something they did to each other often; annoy each other to their fullest potential. It had become a game to them. A game they both loved. Somehow, it strengthened their relationship exponentially.

They're just as much best friends as they are a couple.

She wandered into the kitchen and began making breakfast. It was her turn and she needed something to do pass the time, anyway. Things get very boring without Nick as it is.

She kneeled down and grabbed some two small boxes of pancake mix, one flavored carrot and the other flavored blueberry. As she stood up, though, she noticed something odd. There was a folded up paper beside her door. It must've been slid through the bottom of it.

She placed the boxes of pancake mix on their granite countertops and made her way to the paper. Her eyes widened as she read the words over and over again.

…

"You can't just evict us!' The still sleepy fox was yelling at their landlord. "We've done nothing wrong!"

"You two are dating! It's unnatural! I can't have my property value dwindle because you live here! And it disgusts me all the same!" The average sized wildebeest was practically staring daggers at the fox before him.

"Sir, we have done nothing wrong. Our neighbors would vouch for us." Judy paused for a moment. "Mr. Odell, this is highly unfair and unjust. Please, don't put us out on the streets."

"I've received five complaints from your neighbors as of last night when your relationship status was let out to the world." He wasn't letting them stay. "They already gave me their opinions. You have a month to get out. Good day." At that very moment, the alarm Judy programmed into Nick's phone suddenly began screaming in Nick's pocket. "OUT!" their angry landlord said. Nick and Judy scurried out of there. It was no use.

"Did you program that into my phone?" Nick said as he renamed the alarm to 'Failed Prank, by Judy Hopps,' and showed her the screen. He was joking with her.

"I'm sorry…"

"It's alright, Cottontail. Just know I'll get you back." He patted her shoulder.

"What are we going to do, Nick? Seriously. At this point, I'm afraid we'll lose our jobs. And where are we going to live?"

"Already on it," he murmered as he tapped his cellphone display and then put it up to his right ear. "Hey, mom." Judy sat down on a bench near them and motioned Nick to join her. "I know, I'm sorry. Well, you'll get to see a lot of more of me soon, if you want. Yeah, it's.. wait, how do you already know? I thought you didn't watch the news. Oh, I see. Yeah yeah yeah, I know, yeah, hey, listen for a moment. I need to ask something big of you. Yes? How did you know I was going to ask… okay, okay. Alright. Judy and I will be there in a few days." Judy giggled. His nother seemed to be waiting for this call. A mother's intuition. "I love you too," Judy then stared up into his eyes and made a goofy face, mocking Nick playfully. He kissed her cheek and her pupils suddenly grew wide. She did not expect that. "See you soon, bye." He hung up. "You're okay with living there, right? In hindsight, I should've asked you before I called…"

"Did you just kiss me?"

"Well, I-" she kissed him back, but this time on his lips. For once in his life, he couldn't think of anything to say. No witty comebacks, no smart comments.

"Yes, I'm alright with living there. Maybe I'll even get some embarrassing stories out of her." Her eyes began to look a little too mischievous to Nick.

"Dear lord no…" he finally uttered. She playfully pinched his arm and leaned on him. "Hey, Judy…?"

"Yes, sly fox?"

"Are you okay, though? Really? Our relationship just cost us our home. Imagine what people will say to you…" he looked down at the pavement.

"Nick, I'm the luckiest bunny in the world. I'm staying with you whether people like it or not." Nick sighed and looked back at his girlfriend. "But are you okay staying with me? You'll have to deal with worse. You are a fox and a predator. I can't imagine how much worse it'll be on you."

"Judy, you know how I feel about you. Of course I am. I've never been happier."

"My fox."

"My bunny. My cute bunny."

"Hey!" He leaned down and kissed her again.

"Well, you are cute."

"Shut it, fox." They sat their for a moment, forgetting the world and their problems. It was five minutes later when Nick spoke up again.

"We still have problems, though. Shock collars are coming back. We need to start thinking of a way to stop this."

"We need to get in contact with Bogo."

"Ah, buffalo butt. I have his number. I'll call."

…

Author's Note: I'm switching from Microsoft Word to an app called JotterPad. Recently, my phone was updated to the latest version of Android and, for some reason, Microsoft Word is now perfroming terribly. It'll often make my keyboard not register some of my inputs, leaving me with letters missing when I know I pressed the key. It isn't my phone, though. It has the fastest processor of 2015 with an insane amount of RAM for a smartphone, but, for some reason, Micorosoft Word is just being annoying. Perhaps it isn't optimized for my processor (you can have a supercomputer in your pocket, but some apps can still have performance issues due to bad optimization for your phone's unique hardware). So, with the, hopefully temporary move, to JotterPad, I should no longer have these annoying issues. But, now, I am missing a lot of features like the ability to italicize my writing. It doesn't even tell me when I mispell a word (apologies in advance if there is a large number of mispelled words). I'm going to send an email to Microsoft detailing my problems and my device. Hopefully, they can patch the issues I am having. It really is a simple matter of properly optimizing their app for a wider range of devices. But, until then, I will have to work with JotterPad and its limited features. At least it works and I can still write.

But, please do not worry. I will not give up on this story. I am staying with it until its finished no matter what happens. If I have to, I'll bust out my old laptop. It has an incredibly slow AMD processer, but, I can still write on it. It'll still register my inputs consistently unlike the Micorosoft Word app on my phone.

So, please, have faith. I'll continue to update until we reach the conclusion of this story. We still have many, many more chapters to go through!

Until next time! Thank you!