Chapter 2: A Brief Morning
Robby walked into the busy briefing room, as he went to check his watch he couldn't help but overhear some of the words his fellow officers were saying. Two officers, a grey wolf and a young lion, the wolf was clearly the lions partner due to the way they talked so nonchalantly, "how'd she get out anyway?" the lion questioned, seeming partially intrigued and slightly worried, "no one knows, apparently her connections go deeper than anyone thought".
Robby passed by and his left ear flicked with interest, but he couldn't stop to listen and just carried on walking. He found the nearest empty seat and lowered himself down gently, making sure not to sit on his tail, after an incident in high-school he always took extra care not too.
A tall foreboding figure appears at the briefing room door, and in walked the chief of the Tundra Town Precinct, A polar bear with one ear, large and white he walked over to his desk, his paws filled with files, Robby assumed they were today's assignments and as usual, he was right.
"A ten-hut!" The chief growled at the top of his voice, every officer in the room stood to attention, saluting their chief, "At ease officers" he said in a much calmer pitch with a brisk accent that sounds almost Russian but is clearly of Zootopian origin. Every officer in the room took their seats, Robby the last to sit due to his overtly careful nature when sitting down.
"As a lot of you know, there is a very dangerous criminal roaming our streets, now, it wouldn't usually be our problem and we'd have detectives from city central would be dealing with this, but as we know the city central cops aren't exactly good in the snow so it's now our issue, and by our issue, I mean your issue, because I don't want anything to do with this until its resolved, so, as this was just dumped on my desk I'll be giving it to anyone who wants it"
Robby threw his hand in the air as fast as he could, he wanted this case to be his more than anything. "I'd be happy to take this one sir" he shouted, not wanting to be ignored. The chief glared at Robby. "Officer Elmore! Our newest officer, our first fox officer no less, don't they usually send your kind to city central? Anyway, I'd be happy to give you this one but unfortunately you don't have a partner and I couldn't in all good consciousness send you after such a dangerous criminal all on your own".
Robby seemed offended, "Sir, I am just as capable, if not more capable than any officer here, I find it rather ignorant that you'd instantly assume I'm lesser of an officer due to my species, as far as I'm concerned this case would be perfect for me and by the way no other officers in the room even offered I feel like its pretty obvious that I should be taking this case"
The chief snarled loudly, but came to the realisation that no other officers did offer to take the case, so he had no choice but to reluctantly give Robby the case. "Fine, officer Elmore you can have the case, BUT, and this is a big but, you WILL have a partner, and you WILL have the case solved by next week, or else you'll be on traffic duty for the rest of your professional career, how does that sound officer?"
Robby's ears fell back as he realised what he'd just been told, but being as overly confident as he is, he accepted reluctantly and took the folder from the chief. While being passed the folder he managed to get a glimpse of the chiefs badge, "Chief Polaski" the badge read.
"now, who is going to be our new officers partner?" the chief shouted, every officer in the room groaned at the mere thought of having to work with the new guy, except one. "I'd be happy to work with officer Elmore" a soft, timid voice shouted from the back row, Robby looked back and didn't see anyone, so he assumed that whoever it was must have been behind one of the rhino officers, so he decided to wait until he's either introduced or met by the officer to try and greet his new partner.
"Fine" Chief Polaski said with a sigh of relief, "Officer Willow will be partnered with officer Elmore, now that we're done with that I can hand out the rest of the assignment" Chief Polaski looked down at his folders.
While the chief was handing out assignments to the other officers, Robby was busy reading the assignment, he skim read mostly due to the amount of time he had but all he needed was the name, the last location and known associates, as he read through, he found the name: Dawn Bellwether, Last Known Location: fish market, Known associates: Doug Ramses, Duke Weaselton, Mr Big.
"Mr Big? They took him down last week, He's probably still being held in the City Central holding cells, I'll have to pay him a visit." He whispered to himself. Robby continued to skim read but found no other information that could help his investigation.
The timid voice that Robby heard before comes from behind him, but closer this time, basically stood right behind him, "Officer Elmore, I'm officer Willow, I'll be your new partner", Robby looked for the source of the voice and to his shock, standing next to him was a rhino nearly twice his height, looking even bigger due to him being sat down. Robby wondered how the voice could belong to such a towering, and frankly frightening figure.
"Ah, officer willow, glad to make your acquaintance, hopefully this case will be relatively smooth so we can get to normal duty, I'm sure you would rather be partnered with anyone else but me considering the ramifications" Robby seemed assured in himself that the way he acted during briefing had more than likely already garnered him a less than pleasant reputation with the other officers, however, he knew that he had to be as thick-skinned as possible or else he'll just be pushed around.
"Don't be so hard on yourself Elmore, we were all new once, I'm happy to be your partner" Officer willow said this in a very chipper manner, "Besides, this case is pretty much open and shut, you've got one of the best officers in the precinct as your partner" Officer willow was clearly a seasoned officer, She seemed like a good partner for Robby to have on his first day, and Robby was pleased to know he'd be working with someone whos competent, but he was going to remain wary of her nevertheless, as he always did with people he'd just met.
"Officers Elmore and Willow, please come to me, I have one small thing to discuss with you regarding this case". Robby and officer Willow strutted over to the Chief who called their names in a very stern tone. "Officers, this case is extremely important, Officer Elmore you may be new to this precinct but understand this" Chief Polaski knelt down to get better eye contact with Robby, "If you mess this up, you already know whats going to happen, but I forgot to mention that this particular criminal is more than likely in possession of a very dangerous weapon, used to turn animals primal, you probably know of the night howlers case, so you will probably understand how volitile the situation is, you WILL bring her in, you WILL recover any and all night howlers, or night howler weaponry that she has, or else you will be no more than a meter maid for the rest of you career, have I made myself one hundred percent clear officer?"
Robby's ears were as far back as they could possibly go, he took a huge gulp and answered, "Y-yes sir, I fully understand the situation, and we will have it resolved within the week". Chief Polaski snarled. "Good", He stood up to face officer Willow, "you won't be stuck on meter maid duty if you fail to bring Bellwether in within the week, but any chance of you getting promoted to detective will be out of the window, do I make myself clear?"
Officer Willow didn't even seemed phased by the threat, "Yes sir" She said, as loudly as her unnaturally timid voice would let here go. "Good, I don't want to see either of you until the case is resolved, if you need any resources Officer Trunkski will be the mammal to see for this operation, now get out there and bring in the sheep", Chief Polaski nodded too the two officers, and walked away in a such a manner that it seemed almost fitting to an army general rather than a police chief.
"So… Officer Willow, where should we start with this one?". Robby said, the worry was still noticeable in his voice. "Well Officer Elmore, I think the best place to start with would be the donut store 2 blocks down the road." Robby turned his head, seeming confused, "Why the donut shop? Does one of her accomplices hang around there?". Officer Willow Laughed, "No, if we're going to start such a big case I can't do it on an empty stomach, and I missed breakfast", Robby looked shocked, "Donuts? Didn't you hear what the chief said? Our careers are both over we don't get this solved within a week, this is definitely not the time for donuts." Officer Willow laughed again, "Officer, it's always time for donuts".
Authors notes:
Wow, I had so much fun writing this chapter. So lets get on with the obvious things, yes, I'm making bellwether Robby's first case, and this is going to be the majority of the first act of the story, I'm probably going to be averaging around 1500 words a chapter from now on because honestly I'm having so much fun writing I just wouldn't be happy putting any less, now, from this point forward we are going to be going a bit faster story-wise, I'll try and limit each day to 3 chapters from this point forward, however this is only my personal guideline so I'll probably not stick to it exactly.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter as much as I did writing it, Expect the next chapter in 2 days, although I may try and get a full chapter done tomorrow if I can find the time. And as usual this chapter is subject to change in the future, I will go over each chapter at some point in the future and try and fix grammar, continuity, character dialogue etc... If I feel like my future work is better than what I'm currently outputting I may rewrite large chunks of chapters, also, feel free to leave a review if you'd like, I'm always trying to improve.