Before I start, I would like to ask a few questions, feel free to answer none of them or any number of your choice.
-Would you forgive me for the long delay? This chapter was a little more difficult to write than the others were, so I have to use some extra time. Again, terribly sorry.
-Should I change the story description? The original intention for the current one was simply a fake out, something to throw people off. As I was writing the drafts of this story, I began to notice how cynical, depressing and obviously how dark the original vision was (that is why I love it). However, something in my guts just refused to make a dark and depressing description, so I went with the straightforward route and a joke. Heck, even the title is a joke. By the way, it is not false advertising, the puns I put in this story are not something I particularly proud off.
-With you being my (lovely) readers, you would have a better look at the story than I am, so I humbly ask for your suggestion(s) of a new description.
-What are your thoughts on the story so far?
-How was your day?
With those questions out of the way, please enjoy the chapter.
Disclaimer:
The following is a fan-based fiction. Zootopia and its characters are owned by Disney. The songs I reference here belong to their respective artist as well.
(The song Clint Eastwood by the Gorillaz begins to play)
Chesterization proudly presents
A Zootopia fanfiction
Wild times with Wilde
(Song ends)
Chapter 5: The perfect storm
It was 9 am, 14thJune. To Judy, the day started out just like any other day. She woke up from her creaking bed and did a few stretches. Something in her back always made a snapping sound. The muscles on her back refused to give her a break. They still tightened themselves and injected soreness all over. Still, she felt refreshed, great even. The day was long ahead, and for once, she did not have to worry about anything, at least not yet. She looked at the clock on her little desk. She had been sleeping for 8 hours and 30 minutes straight. It was something happened only on Sundays.
As usual, she had some plain bread with peanut butter for breakfast. She needed something to balance out all the sugar in the carrots that she consumed each day. She quickly filled up her stomach and get dressed. Maybe a casual walk would make her feel even better. After a few minutes, she left her apartment. It was hot out that day. The forecast on her phone told her that it would stay that way for the rest of the weekend. This was a perfect weather for an outing.
She wandered around Zootopia, regaining some of those awestruck moments when she first set foot in this place. Everything was so bright and colorful. Everyone was constantly on the move and so lively. She kept on walking forward, then once in every while took a left or a right turn. At this point, she was just planning on waste time until lunch and waste some more until nighttime. She traveled to an entirely new part of town, one filled with alleyways and shabby apartments. Something caught her attention. A group of six predators was gathering near an alleyway. All looked and dressed like up like any high schoolers on the weekend. Normally, she would not have noticed this sort of thing, because "a second lost would be a ticket lost". However, she grew curious and started to follow along the group as they headed for a nearby train station. All were laughing and joking the whole way.
Somehow, something in Hopps's mind interpreted a group of predators wanted to spend their Saturday having fun as something alarming. Maybe it was because once every while, one of those predators stopped and had a look around (their eyes were hiding something); maybe it was something her colleagues, or rather "real cops" were talking about; maybe, she just perceived a group of predators as something worth checking.
However, the moment they stepped on the highway and got out of the city, she knew something was up. Judy hid behind the field of tall grass a few minutes before the predators looked back one last time. They pierced their gaze to the end of the highway, making sure that there was no car in sight. Once confirmed that the road was clear, they all shouted "Wooooooooo" and started running at full speed. Noticed the change in sound, Judy began to run as well.
Her ears and swift feet allowed her to catch up at parallel speed and direction. The sound under the predators' feet changed. They stopped. Had they discovered her? No, they just made a turn. Judy took a step back, avoided bumping into them. They were still joking, something about punching all the fish.
Judy waited for a moment before advancing. Once she did, a clearing and the sign with the fox in the collar of shame were in her view. "A clinic? For predators only?" Her mind then tried to piece all that together. Maybe these predators were just trying to get to this clinic, after all. However, that scenario was shot down immediately when the thought "Who would visit a clinic so far out of town with that kind of attitude?" came. She had a closer look at the sign, something about those drawings and handwritings seem oddly familiar.
She turned and went along the trail of cut grass. Soon, she stumbled upon 23 cars, all of which neatly parked around this unnamed "clinic". She quickly ran to the side of the clinic, kept her posture low to evade the view from the window entirely. Her hands then had a feel at the wall, "This doesn't seem to be built to code", she thought. With her ear pressed against the wall, she traced the mumbling sound from within. The sound made all the way to the back of the clinic. Reached the edge of the wall, she stopped and observed. The first thing she saw baffled her. It was Clawhauser unlocking the collar for one of the young predators. He was giving them that traditional smile and greetings. "How?" The thought sparked in her head. Instinct then told her to jump in the tall grass on the side. The employees in charge of Collar check would have seen her if they had just turned to the left.
Slowly, yet steadily, she approached the giant hangar behind the mock clinic. She got to the wall of the hangar and found a line of climbing ladders nailed tight to the wall. Her mind was about to go nut at how this had violated so many safety procedures. However, no violation could top seeing how the T.A.M.E shock collars had been unlocked like magnetic tags from the supermarket. She no longer cared what was wrong anymore. She wanted some answers. Judy grabbed on the first ladder, the thing immediately creaked in protest. It was then she caught a message scribbled on the rusted wall. "For the love of everything holy, Ben, don't climb this!" She did not know who this Ben was, but she hoped that he was not a rabbit. She gradually got herself on the roof; the near midday heat was not too bad up there.
She started walking around the roof, wondered why every window was covered in black this thick black coat of paint. Slight vibration happened under her feet, punctuated by the scream of excitement and howling. She approached one of the blackened windows and had a peek through a crack. She was confused for a moment as if she had looked into one of those expensive dollhouses on TV. This dollhouse appeared to be "Wild Times" written in reverse. Instead of a depiction of a castle or a mansion that no girl could afford, this dollhouse simulated a fair of some sort. She could now see the group of predators from before; they were getting in line for the Go fishing attraction. All the actions going on made her completely forget that none of these predators had their collars on. Soon, she caught on. "Of course, that's what the Collar check for." She thought.
However, what was not so obvious to her was seeing Nick among the crowd. She rubbed her eyes, thinking that would somehow make his image change to another fox. That did not work. She squinted her eyes and had a better look at what he was doing. The idea of Nick being one of the customers was immediately shattered when he pulled the lever of the Roar-a-coaster. She turned away from the glass and lay on the roof; her hand covered her eyes. After a second or two, she pulled out her phone and had a look at it. The lighting was giving her a hard time to tap on the call function. A thought ran through her head, but before she could double check on that idea, she tapped Nick's number.
Nick stopped what he was doing and pulled out his phone. Usually, no one would call him at this hour, so it might be important. The screen flashed the name Carrot. Seeing so made him a little concern. "Did she decide to cancel the whole thing? Or did something go wrong again?" He then ran toward Clawhauser's post, saying, "Hey, Clawhauser, can you fill my spot for a moment? I have an emergency call."
"Oh, sure. No Problem, Nick." The leopard saluted him.
As Nick sprinted toward his office, Finnick told Clawhauser. "I bet ya 50 bucks that's the girl on the line."
"Who do you think is the lucky or unlucky Vixen?"
"The kid said she's no Vixen, I know that much. Anyway, I think you should take his post. The lines are getting long."
Nick quickly entered his office and closed the door. Once again, old habits die hard. He forgot to lock it. He turned to the window that watched over the park and answered his phone. Right at that moment, his office door opened. His Wild-Times'-president-energy oozed through the line. "Hey, good morning, Carrot. How are you feeling, today? Any better?"
"Kinda, there is still something that bothers me. I can't shake it off for some reason."
Nick chuckled, "Well, I can't help you with that. I'm no psychiatrist, but I can lend you some money to get a good one."
"No please, I can take care of myself."
"Suit yourself. So, what's the occasion? You're not canceling the dinner, are you? I have already booked the place."
"No. I was just wandering around. I don't know what to do, so I decided to bother you a little. Is this a bad time?"
He looked out at the park, seeing how Clawhauser was doing a bang up job. "Ehhhh, I'm kinda busy right now, so, find your own answer in that."
She paused. "Sorry about that. Are you enjoying your work?"
He shrugged. "Yeah, it is not as glamorous as being a meter maid, but it's good enough. It's a little loud, though."
"I see" she took a deep breath then exhaled "then I should let you get back to it. See you tonight, then."
"I'll pick you up at 7 near your place. See you around, Carrot."
"Stop calling me that."
"Not in a million years. Bye." He hung up the phone with a smile on his face.
Nick turned around and faced his uninvited guest. The wolf in trench coat gave Nick no chance to utter a "Who are you?" He shot a syringe dart into Nick's right arm. The pain was no worse than a bite from a fire ant, but the blue liquid in the dart made parts of Nick's brain fired up on all cylinders. Nick's heart beat faster, making the chemical course through his veins easier. His neck and shoulder muscle tensed up. The fox's chest tightened and caused pain. His vision began to get hazy. However, unlike the traditional kind of hazy, where everything turned black, everything turned red for him. The wolf calmly removed the dart on Nick's arm and headed for the door. Nick thought was overtaken by something. He completely forgot about the task of keeping the park running or dinner with Judy. In his mind were screaming. "BITE AND CHEW." The wolf quickly exited instances before Nick got on all four.
Only after the wolf had stepped down from the stair and reentered the crowd, did Judy return to observing the park. A series of statements ran through her mind.
"Maybe he has a good explanation."
"At least all the predators are contained."
"I mean, it's not like anyone got hurt from this."
"To be fair, some of the rides look kinda fun."
"I wouldn't mind trying one of those."
"Maybe I could blackmail Nick into it."
"What are you saying, Jud? That's not being an officer is about."
"Would you just face the music already? You are not a real officer. You're a meter maid. If they don't take you seriously, why should you? Have some fun for once."
"No, I can't just do that. What'd happen if"
A floodgate of distressed screams broke her thoughts. She saw how the predators where sprinted toward the exit like a colony of ants whose colony had just been stepped on. She looked at the opposite direction. What she saw made her cover her mouth. Nick was on all four; his claws stuck out like switch knives. His olives sized pupils were aiming at his prey. He jumped then started swiping his claws left and right, ferociously attacking the badger in charge of the gift shop. The only thing that prevented her from being torn apart was a small wooden door ripped straight from the shop. The badger was using it as a shield, a great strategy, for the first few hits. As more claw marks began to show up on the wooden surface, the shield became less and less effective. Fortunately, a rock flew to the side of Nick's head. The sharp sudden pain distracted Nick from Honey, giving her the perfect window to run away. The sight made Judy's breaths turn fast and shallow. She touched the side of her cheek where the three scars resided. They began to sting again.
Down at the park, right after the rock was thrown. Finnick yelled at the top of his lung. "Hey, Jackass. Over here." He waved his tiny arms, hogging all Nick's attention to himself. Nick snarled at him. The fox crouched down on all four. Finnick knew all too well what Nick was about to do. He just muttered to himself. "This is a horrible idea." Nick lunged at him. Finnick quickly back stepped, gained some distance away from Nick. As Nick was about to do a consecutive attack, a flashing red dot moved from Nick's forehead to his right eye. The intense light made the fox recoil and wince. The red laser dot did not let up, as Nick opened his eyes, it continued the assault on them. That caused the fox to bash his head to the ground as if that somehow would rub away the blinding red in his eye.
"What is happening to him?" Clawhauser said as he clutched tight to the Laser tag gun, which was just a hairdryer with a laser pointer attached. The leopard could feel the handle of the gun started to get slippery.
Finnick said while backing away alongside Clawhauser. "I don't know, but I ain't sticking around to find out." Finnick turned around, yelled. "Everybody get out. We are experiencing technical difficulties." That would not be needed for the park was nearly empty when he said that. Seeing how Nick was still rolling on the ground, trying to recover from the light assault, Finnick and Clawhauser immediately bolted out of the park. Just as they exited the gate, Honey's hands were already on the handle. The three employees of Wild times closed the main gate; contained Nick inside.
From above, upon seeing the influx of predators running toward the parked cars, Judy muttered to herself, "No, no, no, you are not supposed to do that." Judy looked away from the window crack. With her breathing under control, she dialed the ZPD.
After some time
It was awfully quiet within Alex's little quarter, but not for long. He opened his eyes and stared into the white light mounted on the ceiling. His head may be in a blender loaded with razor blades, but his urge to "get to work" forced him to stand up. His vision still refused to cooperate. He frantically searched for the chair in front his computers desks and sat down. Alex had a look at his main phone. "Crud, it's 11:30 already? Well, that's what days off are for." He tapped on his phone, making a phone call. Alex opened his mouth halfway, changed his voice a little. "Hello, Mr. Douglas, yeah, it's me, Mark Lago. I'm calling to, yes, I am terribly sorry. I was, okay, let's be honest here, I had an unexpected party yesterday, and, well this is embarrassing, but, that's why I couldn't go to work today." He opened one of his drawers and took out a pill bottle. He consumed one pill while the animal on the other line spent time reminiscing about what it was like to be young. "Oh, thank you for that sir." The pill intensified a headache on the back of his head for a second then completely eradicated the pain. "Was there any trouble during my absence? No? Oh, good, that's a relief. Well, that is all sir. I wish you a good day, and again, terribly sorry. I'll write my report and sent it to you." He hung up.
It was then Alex noticed how quiet everything around him was. 11 am, especially on the weekend was the time when the park became the most crowded. However, that day, it was more silent than a mouse's funeral. As soon as he could walk straight again, he unlocked the door and stepped out. All the lights were on, that meant the park was open, but the main gate was not. The lack of customers was rather odd. Alex heard something from the distance. It was Nick, sharpening his claws on one of the palm trees. "Eh, hello? Nick!" The sound pulled Nick away from the task. He turned around and got back on all four. With him still somewhat hungover, Alex did not know how to respond to that but, "Why are you on all four? Where the hell is everybody?" Nick gradually approached him. Alex started to see and hear those claws leaving imprints on the concrete floor. Alex took a few steps back, slowly. "What in the flying hell was this about?" sweat started dripping from his back. Nick locked his vision on the confused cat. With no warning, he charged forward. Alex's fight or flight function cranked to its maximum efficiency. Adrenaline instantly fueled his muscles. The cat dropped on all four and bolted toward his "little box". Nick pounced forward, Alex made a sharp turn, narrowly evaded a strike. Once Alex had swiftly got back inside his quarter, he slammed the door shut and locked it. He then took cover beside the door.
Alex screamed out while feeling the fist within his chest tried to punch its way out. "Nick, are you nuts?" Nick responded with a growl and started slamming against the door, dented it in just one hit. Alex let a schoolgirl yelp escaped. "Eek, okay, you got me, very funny. A-class prank on the poor foreigner. But this is starting to scare the living crap out of me." Alex saw his trusty gym bag lying nearby; he reached and grabbed it. Another slam occurred. This time, it busted one of the hinges open. He quickly retreated to the corner. As Nick's incoherent growling continued, Alex unzipped the bag and took out his makeshift shock baton. The two Taser guns from before were now strapped to the area above the bat's handle. The wires and probes taken from the guns were connected to copper wires that wrapped around the middle section to the tip of the bat. With two hands held tight to the handle and his back pinned to the wall, Alex shouted. "Nick, listen, let's talk about this, like civilized beings." He took a deep breath. "What the hell is up with you?" The slamming once again did not let up. "You got to stop this Nick, or I have to use force. I know fencing. I'm gonna parry and riposte the hell out of you." Alex twisted a little nub at the bottom of the bat. White electricity sparks danced wildly on the copper. Nick popped the door right out of its hinges. Forward momentum pushed the fox, along with the door, onto the floor in a loud bang. With a few precious milliseconds, Alex thrust the weapon forward. The tip touched Nick's side and immediately stiffened the fox's muscles. Nick's jaws shut tight prevented him from uttering a sound. As soon as he could see the tail hair standing up, Alex disconnected the tip from Nick's body.
Alex noticed how fast his heart was beating and he, himself was breathing. He tried to slow it down with breathing more from the chest; those self-help books the old mayor gave him were finally put into use. Alex held tight to the bat and had a look at Nick. Nick had lied there motionless for quite some time. "Huh? I guess I don't need to read that book after all." He dropped the bat and sat down, his hands grabbed to his temples. "Okay, okay, let all calm down and think this through. " He started to retrace his memories. "Maybe he ate something weird and went nut. Yeah, totally logical explanation. Nah, who am I kidding, that's not it." He had a thought. "Okay, come to think about it, this is not too bad. He probably will wake up, and get over this, like a bad hangover. I'll give him some fancy soup at that Italian place as an apology for tasing him. It was self-defense, yeah, he can't hold that against me. We all then get back to work. Yeah, it's not like someone would call the police."
Like a punchline to a cruel joke came the sound of a police siren. Alex slapped himself in the forehead. "Spectacular Alex, you jinxed it." He frantically looked around his quarter. "Crap, crap, crap, what to do, what to do?" He snapped his fingers. "The safe, priority number one." He quickly approached the most valuable item in his room and start twisting the passcode into it. He opened it and took out a single gym bag. The gym bag had a tag that read, "In case I can no longer work and everything goes to hell." He opened it, revealing wads of cash inside. He gathered all the smaller gadgets on the workbenches, included the fully restored flip phone from before and shoved it in the second gym bag. He unplugged his two laptops and put them in it as well. He took down all the pictures tacked on the wall. There were only four of them. One photo captured him during his childhood and seven other cats, all white fur, standing on a boat and pointing at a huge tuna hung on a hook. Young Alex looked rather happy in that. The next one was a picture of a teenage Alex in a hospital, he held a thumb up with no smile, beside him was an x-ray of a cat with a chunk of his tail missing. The next one was he in a graduation gown, holding two certificates of the sort. Standing next to him was a pig with white hair. The last one was he with the Wild Times's crew, taken moment after the park's completion. He folded them all and shoved them into his backpack. When everything was fully packed up, he put on the backpack and hung the two gym bags on his shoulder. "The weight of the load had not dropped at all", he thought.
Alex reached down under his bed and pulled out a gasoline tank that read, "Evident destroyer." He poured the liquid on the computers, but stopped halfway; he remembered Nick was still lying on the broken door nearby. "Damn it! Almost forgot." He put the tank back on the floor. "Bah, they are bound to find out sooner or later." He walked to the left most corner of his room. With a swift kick, he opened a previously cut exit. "Don't worry Nick. I'll come back for you." He said before crawling out through the square hole. He ran a quickly as a cat carrying three bah through a field of tall grass could. He muttered to himself the whole way. "My god, how can this happen. This thing was supposed to be like one of those feel-good movies. A big wig comes; try to shut us down; we do a quick montage; liar, in this case: me revealed; everyone get mad; I say a bunch of hippy bull crap; we hug, make peace; we do something outrageous; save the park; reform the bad guys; everyone sings and lives happy ever after. Why can't we have that?" He slapped himself in the face. "Now is not the time Alex. Remember, always be one step ahead." He paused. "Yeah, one step ahead."
Nick finally came to. The faint smell of gasoline had woken him up. He had this strange burning pain at his side. He touched it, no wounds or burn mark was there. He tried to get up; now noticed how he had been lying on Alex's quarter door. He did not recall what had happened, but the ringing sound in his ears and the dents told him that he had slammed his head on the door, repeatedly. Nick got up and saw the open safe along with the exposed exit. "What happened?" He whispered before dragging his body back to Wild times. Something was off; Nick expected to see Finnick, Honey, or Clawhauser to be there, instead of ZPD officers pointing their tranquilizers at him. A water buffalo commanded him "Put your hands in the air".
(The song I hate to tell you by Yuk Cheung Chun, begins to play)
Later, Nick was led to a police car outside of the mock clinic. Both of his hand were cuffed and put behind him. "No you don't understand, this is not what its looks like. Predators without,urgmrgm." A sheep quickly muzzled him and pinned him against the clinic's wall. Nick could feel his shoulder joint starting to come loose from that. He was then dragged and pushed around. A few news reporters had ambushed the police car that Nick was heading too. The camera flashes, capturing the precious moment. The quick bursts of white light made him winced and shook his head in protest. Judy could only watch, as her colleagues got Nick into the car and shut the door. Nick, once in the car, could only see Wild times being barricaded and wrapped with police tapes. Judy was looking back at him. Something about that blank expression made his spine freeze over.
The water buffalo with the tag Bogo approached Judy. "Who would have thought? Just when everyone thought everything was under control, things like this runs amok. Excellent work, Hopps. Because of you, we managed to contain a possible threat. The force had managed to capture all the escaped predators." He had a look at the turned off Wild times sign. "Well, let's hope that ought to do it. Anyhow, congratulations. Look like you have earned yourself a promotion. Lose the parking duty outfit. And if the press ever asks for an interview, tell them that you are a Lieutenant. That's an order."
Judy looked up at him, surprised and confused. She had been waiting for a promotion the past few months, but she did not expect to receive it like this. Something about it felt wrong. However, her training convinced her that orders are above all feelings, naturally, she responded with "Sir, yes sir" and a salute.
(Song ends)
A week later, in a random restaurant, located somewhere in the first district.
"Congratulations, Judy." Her parents along with a dozen of her brother and sister said in unison. This small part of her family had taken six tables from this restaurant, and in charge of making most of the noise. Her father, sitting beside her, said. "We are so gosh darn proud."
Soon followed by her mother, "Can't say that I didn't have my doubt, but, you pulled, though. And that alone is amazing."
"A lieutenant in six months, you are on the up and up, Jude." He gave her a soft, encourage punch.
Judy put up a smile. "Yeah, thanks, guys."
While a dozen of her brothers and sisters were chatting and eating along with her parent, Judy's mind began to wander off to earlier that day.
"Good morning, Lieutenant Hopps." A rabbit prison staff greeted her. He had just finished delivered breakfast to all the inmates in cellblock D. Among those inmates was Nick. She calmly strolled through the medium sized predator' cells; all the prisoners looked at her with fire in their eyes. She turned to Nick's cell. They had taken his suit and replaced with the standard blue prison uniform. Nick just turned his back to her. His face stared dead at the collection of newspaper articles duct taped to the wall. The prison staff had brought all these newspaper to him. These newspapers were free anyway, so, there was no harm in giving prisoners some insights of the world outside. Nick's pieces of the newspaper had headlines written in bold fonts, such as "Predators on the loose"; "Another predator went savage, 5 were injured."; "Biological or Intentional?"; "Protest turned riot". Nick had scribbled red circles on some articles. These were "Scientist hypothesized the danger of malfunctioning collars." In that article, Nick circled the quote "All the predators that went savage have faulty collars". There was another article featuring mayor Bellwether. Her quotes were circled all over. "Mayor Bellwether: It breaks my heart to say this, but please, for your own safety and everyone else's safety, have a collar checkup."; "We are trying our best to figure out the cause."; "It is best not to fuel the chaos with all these unnecessary conflicts." At the center of all the articles was the article published the morning after Nick's arrest. The page featured the image of him, all muzzled up, but his teeth were showing. The picture caught the perfect moment when he appeared the most threatening.
Judy said while maintained the same blank expression. "Good morning, Nick."
Nick said, completely drained of all his energy. "Why are you here? What else could you take from me?"
She put her finger on her badge. "Take from you? What you did was against the law, Nick. As an officer, I have to enforce them. Don't let us have this conversation again."
Nick sighed. "Fine, again why are you here?"
"I'm here to help you, Nick. I have a talk with chief Bogo. I can reduce your sentence, as long as you answer a few questions."
"Help huh? Fire away, Lieutenant."
"Your associate, Bach Mieu, we need info on him."
"You mean Alex?" He looked up. "He helped me create the park, fixed machine and brought food to me from times to times. That's all I know."
She pointed her finger downward. "Nick, I'm serious, mammals out there are being hurt because of him."
"How did you come up with that conclusion? I read the news, everything seems inconclusive so far."
"Then how else did that happen? This whole thing started right after his escape."
"I've told you, I don't know. I don't know what makes predators or me salvage. But I'm sure as hell it was not the collar turning off. A wolf invaded my office drugged me. That's all I know. The kid and I bear no part in the attacks."
"You don't have to cover up for him, Nick. He is a dangerous criminal. I'm just trying to help you here. You got to cooperate."
"Dangerous criminal? Do you know this kid, like at all? He is dork, a constant nervous wreck and has a weird relationship with theater. Does any of that scream a dangerous criminal to you?"
She crossed her arms. "Knowing someone personally is irrelevant to this, Nick. Their past actions determine who they are, the records, the profiles, the database. The facts, those are what is real. Personal connections just make it harder for you to see who they truly are. They just make you appear vulnerable, weak and, and exploitable to them." She looked down for a brief moment but resumed her stern expression right after. "So, you refuse to give any information."
"Do I need to answer that? No."
"I should have known better. Talking to you is a waste of time. Good day, Nick." She then left.
"Goodbye, Lieutenant Hopps."
Her mind then drifted back to a meeting happened the day before.
Chief Bogo was at his usual position in front of a city map. That day, photos of various predators and documents were tacked on the map. At the center of all, that was, an old picture of Alex when the fur under his eyes was still full. The buffalo cleared his throat and said. "Our priority for today would be the same as yesterday, stop all the savage attacks." He then handled a stack of record to a hippo, who then distributed them to the officers. "However, there has been some new development. We have recovered data from the computers found at the crime scene." Bogo pointed at the picture of Alex. "We identified the suspect to be 20 years old, Bach Mieu. He had ten other aliases, but let us sticks with that."
An elephant said. "Bach Mieu, isn't that Swinton's pet?"
A sheep then responded. "Yeah, that's him. I thought he returned to that backwater island of his ages ago."
A zebra said. "I always thought he offed himself sometimes ago. Don't give me that look, it's a possibility."
The cheif slammed his fist on the map. "Quiet. Regardless of who he was, that's not what important. He is now our number one suspect. We stopped his little joy ride, so he decided to give us all a hard time. The attacks started almost one day after his escape. Here is what I take from that, he knows how to unlock collars. As far as we know, predators without functioning collars always go salvage. Simple solution, we capture this cat, the attacks would stop, or at least reduced." There were whispering among the officers; Judy, on the other hand, was reading the profile given to her. Chief Bogo continued. "If anyone of you is intimidated by his two master degrees, here is an assuring piece of news. The computer revealed that the only hacks that he had done were simple credit frauds. Any two-bit hacker could do that. He didn't even have the guts to take more than 50 bucks in one account at once, so no worries. He is not going to bring down the force's computer system with a click of a button." He then continued while walking in between the rows of desks. "That doesn't mean he is not a threat. Remember, the only way to stop the attacks is stopping him. So, learn that face. He is a cat in Zootopia. There are like 200 or less in this city, so he would stick out like a sore thumb. Hopefully, that would make our job easier." He pointed to each mammal, Judy included. "All of you. Tighten the screening and searching process, plaster wanted poster everywhere and search every corner, leave no stone unturned. Every minute this cat is outside breathing fresh air, another life is hurt. That is all, dismiss."
"Sir yes sir." The ZPD forced shouted.
A nudge on her shoulder sent Judy back to the real world. "Hey, Jude the Dude, what's wrong?"
Her mind had the perfect answer for that. "I don't know dad, my secret childhood friend built an underground amusement park that breaks god knows how many laws; his friend is supposedly this roaming criminal that causes predators around the city to go savage. And the city is falling apart as a result. Oh and I personally put my friend in jail. But at least I have this promotion, which may or may not be a mean to shut me up about the meter maid thing. Oh, did I tell you that I was essentially a token bunny for the force, and had to practice the least prestige of all professions for six months? This meeting would have been so much different."
Her mouth did not. "Nothing dad, just a little bit tired."
"That comes with the promotion, honey," Her dad said with a smile. "You'll get used to it, just like how I and your mother get used to you being an officer in the big city."
Due to the demands from some of his customers, the restaurant manager decided to turn up the volume on the restaurant's TV. A moose news anchor delivered the troublesome news for that day. "This just in, there has been a prison breakout at the Zootopia Penitentiary. The "
Judy did not need to hear the rest of that before getting out of her chair. "Sorry guys, I have to go, duty calls." Just as she about the exit the place, she shouted. "Save the cake for me, love you guys, bye." She then sprinted straight to the Zootopia Penitentiary.
Author note:
Thank you so much for reading. If you enjoyed what you have just read and wished to see more, please follow or leave a review. They would give me the motivation to write more for everyone. All feedbacks will be appreciated. If you find anything lacking or flawed in my story (grammar, word use, etc.), please tell me in the reviews as well. I shall do my best to update these chapters sooner and make them more polished. This is one of my first stories so please forgive possible mistakes in the future and help me fix them.
Thanks again and have a pleasant day.
