A/N: 10 follows! Thank you all! This chapter has 2,666 words in it (not including authors note). Perfect!
Also, please review! If you don't like something, let me know! And if it's absolutely perfect, that would also be nice to know!
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Nick and Judy whipped around to the sound of the back door slamming open. Their paws were on their holsters and they saw the two agents, Tanya in the doorway and James jogging around the side of the house. They all stopped in their tracks, staring at each other, not knowing what to do. The agents didn't know what was in the shed, but they had a good idea of what it was, and James facehoofed. Tanya wrapped her tail around herself and started fiddling with it in her paws, looking over at James.
"What do we do?" She asked.
"I don't know…" James said, rubbing the bridge of his snout. Meanwhile Nick and Judy had relaxed a bit, moving their paws off their holsters. They looked at each other confused, and Nick shrugged. They looked back at the two suited mammals when Tanya walked over.
She approached them but excused herself as she passed them to look into the shed. She pulled the door open slightly and gave a 'hmph, yep' before turning around to face the officers. She looked at them for a moment, still not knowing what to do.
"Hi," she said meekly, shrinking a bit and raising her paw to greet them. Nick gave her a little wave, while Judy just stared at her, confused out of her mind.
"Who are you?" Nick asked, confounded.
"Oh! Right! That would be a good start, geez… I'm special agent Tatyana Vecher of the A3I, that's my partner, James Miller," She said, pointing at the deer who was slowly making his way over, still holding the bridge of his snout.
"You can call me Tanya…"
"Yeah, that's great and all, but, what is going on?" Nick asked, his question not really answered. Judy seemed to be on a whole other level of confusion. She was practically drooling her jaw was so wide open.
"it's… going to be hard to explain, but…" -Tanya started, leaning over to Nick and whispering- "does she normally do that?" She asked, disturbed by Judy's expression. Nick glanced over at her.
"Carrots the fly-eating competition isn't till next week," he quipped. Judy snapped out of it with and looked around, eventually coming back to focus on Tanya.
"Anyways, we're going to need you to come with us…" Tanya said.
"We don't have a choice do we?" Nick asked. Tanya gave a sympathetic nod. She didn't like exerting her power over mammals but she needed to in this case. They all walked to the agents' car and Tanya got in the passenger seat, Nick and Judy sitting in the back. James went to talk to Maria.
Judy was still in a state of disbelief, not only over what she saw, but because somehow she recognized the two mammals. She couldn't pinpoint exactly where she had seen them but she couldn't get the thought out of her head. She leaned over to Nick, whispering.
"Nick I swear I have seen these two before," she said.
"Where?" Nick said, intensely curious.
"I don't know! But I know I've seen them!" She said.
"What are you two whispering about back there?" Tanya said as she turned the mirror to look at them, like a mother scolding her children. Judy figured it couldn't hurt to just ask.
"I'm sorry but I swear I have seen you two before," she said. Tanya scrunched her brow for a moment before having some sort of epiphany. A smile spread across her face and she turned around in her seat to look at the two.
"That's right! We were in your apartment!" She said, excited because she also had the same feeling of deja vu. Judy wasn't as excited.
"What!?" She shouted.
"Apartment complex! Not your apartment!" Tanya said quickly. Judy was relieved.
"Oh, geez, phrasing lady."
"Yeah, sorry," Tanya said. Judy was still confused.
"Wait, what were you doing in my building?"
"Oh… I don't… I can't tell you?" She said, the pitch of her voice rising with the last few words.
"Are you not sure that you can't tell me?"
"Yeah… hold on…" She said as she rolled down the window, wanting to talk to James as he was just coming out of the house.
"Call a cleanup crew. Also, what are these twos' security clearance now?" She said.
"Well what are they asking?" James said.
"She's just wondering what we were doing in her building."
"Oh… can't hurt to tell 'em considering everything they are probably going to learn." He said, shrugging. She nodded and turned back to the two officers.
"We were investigating the two that live next to you."
"Bucky and Pronk? What did they do? Or what are they I guess…"
"Well, there's no easy way to put this; they're psychic is what they are," Tanya said very matter-of-factly. Judy was again in disbelief, and so was Nick. Tanya saw their expressions and laughed.
"Yeah, isn't that something! James had the same look on his face when he figured it out too. Ohh, good times," She said, glancing out the windshield.
"So that's why they can always hear me!" Judy said, astonished.
"Yep, probably even before you've thought it," she said. James hung up his cell phone and got into the car.
"Hey, sorry for the wait. I gave the whole speech to Maria. She took it well, I don't think she'll be an issue," he said, the officers giving a troubled look. Tanya attempted to assuage their concerns.
"Don't worry, we just have to tell people to keep their mouth shut, and we only use positive reinforcement... until they disobey, then we take legal action," Tanya said to the officers.
"How much did you give her?" She asked James.
"Five-thousand dollars," he said quite plainly. Nick and Judy's eyes bulged out of their heads, but Tanya was unfazed.
"Did she heckle?"
"No, I was just feeling generous, plus we need to reach that quota."
"Oohhh, yeah I forgot about that," Tanya said. The officers were getting a little restless.
"So what exactly is going on?" Judy asked. James took a moment to think before responding. He started with a sigh.
"You two stumbled across evidence of a cryptid that we have been trying to find since Steven went missing. Our job is to resolve cases like this before the public learns, and cover it up to prevent panic," He said. He then started the car and began driving.
"A cryptid?" Judy asked. Tanya responded.
"Yeah, by definition it's just an animal that isn't known to science but rumored to exist. The giant spider had been known about for a very long time among the natives here, they called it the J'ba Fofi," she said, Nick asking another question.
"Wait, that spider left the claw marks on Steven's house?" He said.
"Yes, spiders actually have claws, two at the end of each leg. They're also retractable." James replied.
"Huh… Where are you taking us?" Judy asked.
"To our office in the headquarters, we need to have a longer talk with you two since you are not only celebrities, but you are police who were assigned to do the same thing we were doing. We're going to need to deal with your higher-ups. Also, do you two mind giving us your phones? For security purposes of course." He said. The two complied, figuring they probably should, no matter how much they didn't want to. These two seemed quite disorganized, or at least Tanya did, and they didn't like it.
Given they had a history of blowing the cover on government conspiracies, they were also quite unhappy with the whole premise of what these two did for a living. Judy was already thinking about how to get themselves out of this situation. They wanted to keep asking questions but the agents refused, telling them they would tell them everything once they were in their office.
It was a tense drive, and everyone could feel it. James kept a straight face while the officers shot him glares through his mirror. Tanya, on the other hand, was very uncomfortable and simply sat there looking around, trying to distract herself by fiddling with her paws. Eventually the two duos began talking amongst themselves, and slowly the tension was reduced to a minimal level, but still ever present.
They arrived at the headquarters, and James pulled the car into the massive underground parking garage. The agents led the officers to their office, putting their cellphones in what seemed like a safe. After all their chatting in the car the tension between the two parties had all but dissipated, but the peace wouldn't last long. They all took seats around the agents' desk, and James started speaking.
"Allright, to start off with, we are special agents at the A3I. We work on what is called the Enigma Program. This program was started in order to investigate seemingly unexplainable events, which we call Enigmas. It became top secret when we realised that there were actually supernatural things occurring in many of the cases.
"This is something we do not want the public to know, because there would likely be mass panic. In order to prevent the public from learning about this sort of thing, we cover up what happens and pay people off to keep their mouth shut. Something we know that you two don't like.
"But let me remind you, this operation is top secret. You will not find mention of it on any piece of paper, or in any computer. The only people who know of its existence are either in the white house or the agency, or they are civilians who have sworn to absolute secrecy. If you speak up about what we do, you'll not only find yourself in trouble with the government, you'll also lose your reputation. Nobody will believe you."
James paused as the officers glared at him. Nick was upset because he never trusted the government very much, and now he knew for a fact that they were doing all the shady things he thought they were. Judy, on the other hand, was royally pissed that they were trying to hide things from the public. The tension in the air was oppressive, and Tanya hated it. She started fiddling with her tail. James began speaking again.
"As for this particular case, we have no info on Steven. He was probably brought back to the J'ba Fofi's burrow and eaten. As for the creature itself, there isn't much more to say other than the fact that it is much, much larger than any other spider species on the planet, but it is a typical tarantula in every other way. That means it has a burrow somewhere, and rest assured, we intend to find it and deal with it.
"Now, for the cover up. We have already spoken to any witnesses of the creature. All we need now is for you two to keep quiet, and use this report as your own." He said as he handed them a file. Judy put it down on the desk without even opening it. James sighed as Judy began speaking.
"Alright, I don't even know where to start. There are a million things wrong here. Why do you think the public cant handle this sort of thing? What are you going to tell Steven's relatives? Why can't our police chief be informed of what's going on? Why, if you two are so high ranking, on such a top-secret program, were you not able to avoid conflicting investigations with other law enforcement agencies? This whole thing is insanity," she said, fuming.
James returned with his own list, and the argument kept escalating. Nick didn't like what the agents were doing but he had no interest in arguing with them given their position. Judy was starting to scare him as she continued arguing. Tanya was also upset with the way their discussion was going. As it raged on, Nick and Tanya were glancing between James, Judy, and each other. Nick's ears were flat against his head, and Tanya had her tail in her mouth as usual.
"Officer you are out of line! We technically outrank you, you cannot tell us what to do!"
"I will make sure the truth comes out! I swear on my life! All I care is that the citizens are safe, and if they don't know what is endangering them, they won't be able to protect themselves!" Judy yelled. James and Judy then noticed their partners' discomfort. After a few moments of looking between their partners and each other, they sighed.
"Maybe we can come to an agreement…" James said, looking at the state of the other two in the room with shame.
"Yeah…" Judy said. They started working out some terms, but they still couldn't agree on whether to tell the public. The discussion was much more civil this time.
"Listen, us two as famous officers can break the news, and nobody would know about your operation, but the public would at least know what happened," Judy said, hoping to convince James.
"I know you really want to but, just trust us, it's not good when more than a few people learn about things like this."
"I can't imagine the city would go into panic over this. The creature is so rare that this is the only real evidence of its existence ever found, there aren't many of them so they aren't a real threat."
"Officer Hopps, I hate to bring this up, but how many savage predator attacks did it take for that news conference to cause a city wide disaster?" James said. Judy solemnly thought. While realistically, that was driven more by a long history of bad relations between predator and prey, Judy couldn't think rationally about something so troubling to her.
This shifted the argument in James' favor, and Judy conceded that the public would indeed panic over such a disturbing event, despite its relatively low threat level. Nick decided that since the argument was over, he might as well take peace where he can get it, even if he didn't like the deal they got. James recapped the plan.
"So, you two will inform the police chief of what exactly happened, and make sure he knows of its secrecy, then you will work with us to find the creature's den and kill it. The public won't know, but Steven's immediate family will be told."
"Agreed," Judy said. Nick nodded as well.
"I'm glad that's over. Sorry guys," James said to Nick and Tanya.
"Well, we're all still in one piece so it could have gone worse," Nick said, and they all had a chuckle.
"Now that that's over, what's next?" Judy said. They all looked at each other and shrugged.
"How about you two tell your chief and get that all sorted out, we'll begin work on locating the burrow," Tanya said, strangely authoritatively.
"Sounds like a plan!" Nick said, surprised by her sudden leadership.
"We'll have some security escort you out," James said, picking up the phone. After a few minutes, two more mammals in suits arrived, a wolf and a puma. Tanya opened the safe and retrieved their phones, handing them to the two officers. The officers put their phones in their pockets immediately, as per the agents' orders. They then said their goodbyes and were escorted to the front of the building. They left and found their cruiser waiting for them right in front, a badger standing next to the car.
He spotted the officers, greeting them, and handing them the keys. They got into their squad car and they felt like a weight had been lifted off their shoulders.
"Well, back to normal…-ish," Judy said.
"Yeah, for now maybe."