A/N: Sorry that this is a shorter chapter, and sorry for the wait! School has been getting busy, being an engineering major is hard! Next chapter is already started and should be out relatively quickly.

Enjoy!

...

Judy drove while thinking about how to tell Nick what was on her mind. After seeing the horror inside that shed and the emotional roller coaster that was their encounter with the agents, Judy had finally remembered that she made a bet with a certain cheetah.

"So, uh… I got something I need to tell you…" She started, worrying Nick tremendously. She saw his expression and immediately eased his concerns.

"Nothing serious! Don't worry, its nothing to worry about… just stupid." She said, Nick smirking at her, knowing a guilty Judy when he saw one.

"What did you do Carrots?" He said teasingly.

"I may have made a bet with Clawhauser…"

"Uh huh? And?"

"I may have said that if Steven was attacked by monsters that we would buy him dinner for a month…" she said, wincing. She expected some sort of negative response but Nick simply stared out the window for a moment. Tense seconds passed as she waited to hear from him.

"Honestly carrots, I can't even be mad. You made a bet with odds incredibly in your favor and lost fair and square. Now the real issue is, do I have to pay, considering you dragged me into it?" He said.

"No, I guess I-" She started, Nick cutting her off.

"Wait, wait… we don't have to tell him, do we? I mean, he would never find out…"

"Nick!" She responded, glaring at him momentarily.

"Alright, alright, sorry, nevermind," he said apologetically. They sat in silence. Judy's face then developed a devious grin.

"I mean, technically we aren't really supposed to tell him…" She said. Nick gave a massive smirk.

"Sly bunny," he said, Judy continuing to smile.

Meanwhile, at Precinct One, Bogo was at Clawhauser's desk, concerned for two of his top officers. Their cruiser had been left at an address near the site of the recent Paradit case, and it hadn't moved for hours. They had no radio contact with officers, and they also hadn't answered their phones.

The car started moving again and Ben told Bogo about this new development. They watched in confusion as the unresponsive police vehicle moved normally through the streets, abiding by all the traffic laws. Bogo figured it was just some radio malfunction, and decided not to act.

Then he realized where it had stopped; the A3I headquarters. He facehoofed, hoping that they weren't getting involved with the A3I for this investigation. After a few minutes, it started moving again. Bogo figured they should try radio contact, and he nodded to Clawhauser.

"Officers Hopps and Wilde this is precinct one, please respond, we are very concerned," Ben said. On the other end, Judy and Nick looked at each other in confusion. Judy picked up the radio.

"This is Hopps, what's the concern?" Judy said. Bogo responded rather angrily.

"The concern is that you two went radio silent for 3 hours and then went to the A3I headquarters without warning. What in the world is going on?"

"Oh, right! Well… it's a very long story, we can't say over radio but we will tell you everything when we get there Chief. Sorry for not responding, we have a reason, one that you might not believe."

"It better be pretty unbelievable… I'll be in my office." Bogo said as he ended the transmission. Judy and Nick looked at each other, terrified. He was already angry, and their explanation was not going to make him any happier. This made for a rather somber attitude, and gave them time to reflect on the events of the day.

Nick looked out his window, wondering what other things happen out there that he doesn't know about. He looked at the mammals that he saw passing by, wondering if they were being paid to keep quiet about dark secrets beyond his imagination. He wondered about all the things that he had seen over the years that just seemed a little off. His world was turning upside down, and Judy wasn't faring any better.

She didn't have to look out the window to wonder what went on in the shadows. She had always wondered if there was more out there. But she always left it as a curiosity, something that was just fun to think about. She liked watching the grainy surveillance videos of supposed monsters and ghosts to scare herself. But the truth was too much. Her fear of Bogo paled in comparison to this fear.

"Hey Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"You know how they always say you're afraid of what you don't know?"

"Yeah…"

"Why am I still afraid now that I know that things like this actually happen?" She said. Nick just stared off into space. His mind was truly wandering. He wasn't very afraid at the moment, in fact, he didn't really know what he was. It was a strange feeling, having your view of the world change over such a short timespan.

He had a question or two answered, but this opened the door to many, many more. His thoughts were interrupted when he realized they were close to the precinct. He looked at Judy and she looked back and him. They weren't worrying about Bogo anymore, they had bigger concerns.

Judy pulled into the garage as the doors opened, and made her way to their spot. She parked and they got out, looking at each other before starting their journey to the Chief's office.

"How the heck is he gonna take this you think?" She said.

"I couldn't tell you carrots. He might not even believe us," Nick responded. They started walking and greeted a few of their coworkers, nearly all of them stopping to ask what happened. They made up something about a radio malfunction, but Clawhauser saw them and knew something was up.

"Geez are you guys alright? The Chief isn't gonna kill you, ya know. You two look like you've seen a ghost!" He said, concerned. Oh, you should'a seen what I saw, Judy thought.

"Nope, just a monster," she said, teasing him. She hoped this would ease his concern but it was no good. He gasped.

"I knew it! I told you it was a monster!" He shouted. The two officers quickly shushed him.

"Would you be quiet? We don't need anyone spreading rumors. No, we did not see a monster Ben, I was kidding." She said, hoping he'd listen. He whispered back.

"Don't try to fool me, I know you went to the A3I and I've seen enough TV shows to know what that means! It's a government conspiracy to hide the truth!" He said with goofy, fanatical certainty. Judy rolled her eyes, Nick facepalming.

"Alright whatever, right now we need to talk to the chief."

"I'll see you two at dinner," he said with the most intensity he could muster.

"Yep, bye!" Nick said as they speed off. They power walked to the Chief's office and knocked on his door. He called for them to enter and they did so, taking a seat on the one chair in front of his desk. He looked at the two for a moment, expectantly. Then he gestured with his hand for the two to start talking. Judy began.

"Oh, right, sooo…" -She said, turning around to check if the door was closed- "We kinda got ourselves into a bit of a situation. Nothing that will have any large-scale impact, but, we're going to be busy working on this case for a while…"

"And, what exactly is this situation, Hopps?"

"Ok, you might not believe this but, a giant spider killed Steven, and two A3I agents stopped us from investigating further. They brought us back to their headquarters to explain that they're a top secret operation, with the purpose of investigating and resolving supernatural cases…" She said.

As she continued talking, Bogo stared at her with an incredulous look on his face. However, his expression slowly changed. As he looked between the officers his eyes opened wider and wider, his movements growing faster by the second.

"Oh my god, you two are dead serious aren't you?" He said, baffled. They simply nodded. He rubbed his face and head with his hooves. After a while of doing this, he sighed.

"Ok, so let me get this straight… you two found out that a giant tarantula killed Mr. Paradit, and a top-secret government operation is working to cover this up. They are forcing you to keep quiet and leave the case unresolved… and you want to help them deal with the spider… There are no words Hopps... just, what?"

"It's not what we want but here we are Chief," Nick said, hoping to side with Bogo.

"Why are you helping them?" He asked.

"Would you rather us just trust that they are actually going to deal with the threat?" Nick said. Bogo bobbed his head from side to side, taking Nicks persuasion rather well. He looked at the two and gave a sigh of resignation.

"Alright, I suppose it could have been worse, but you two stay out of more trouble. And please, for the love of god, don't get eaten by this monster."

"That is quite high on my list of things to not do, sir," Nick said, Judy nodding.

"You two always find trouble, I knew I shouldn't have given you that case. Dismissed," Bogo said, chuckling. They saluted and left his office. Judy gestured to head back to their own office and they started making their way to it. When they arrived, they each sat down and discussed what to do next.

"How about we search social media for more reports and see if we can find where the most reports are coming from?" Nick said.

"Hmmm… that would work, if people saw the thing and talked about it online that is. Let's see what we can do," Judy said, the two getting to work on their computers. After a few hours of digging through social media they had managed to find fifteen reports that seemed to match the description they needed.

They were in two clusters, one near Steven's town, and one in a town just north of it. Between the two clusters was another, smaller cluster, located in a group of abandoned buildings. Between the three clusters were uninhabited, rainforested areas.

"Well, looks like we have two possible locations for a burrow. The forest right next to Steven's neighborhood, or the next forest over on that same island." Nick said after they had plotted all the points.

"Yeah. Except all the ones in that other neighborhood are much more recent. It hasn't been back in Stevens area since Saturday night when Maria saw it. Though it seems that the abandoned buildings are a good mix of recent and older. Do you think this thing even has a burrow? What if it's nomadic?"

"Well, I can't think of another way to explain that, but we don't know anything yet. Although it is odd that it would moult in Steven's neighborhood then move to another," Nick said. He looked at the time.

"Woah! Carrots is eight o'clock, we gotta get home!"

"What? Geez we got really absorbed into this, at least we got something useful out of it…" She said as she got off of her chair to leave. They started walking to the garage. They saw the front desk was empty. Ben must have left, not wanting to bother them. They were about to enter the garage, but neither of them liked the idea of going home alone.

"Hey, could I stay over at your place tonight?"

"I would not mind the company after a day like today," he said. They began walking out of the precinct and headed to Judy's apartment to pick up toiletries and a change of clothes. There weren't many mammals out at this time of night, and the sun had set already.

A weeknight in the city was quite eerie. It was quiet, and the few mammals who were out and about were rather dark figures. The two went down into the subway and waited for a train, uncomfortable on the nearly empty platform. They were just waiting for something to happen, for their culprit from hell to emerge from the shadows.

A train arrived and they boarded, the only passengers in their car. The train started moving and they were quickly ushered into the pitch black subway tunnels. Their anxiety was quite high in this perfect environment for supernatural occurrences. Soon they reached their stop and got off, heading above ground again. The reminder that it was still night raised their anxiety levels even more. Judy inched closer to Nick, and held his arm.

"I don't know why you're holding me carrots, you're the better fighter here." He joked, trying to make it less awkward.

"Ha! As if what we're afraid of could be fought, Mr. Meat Shield!"

"Oh so that's all I am, I see how it is."

"Pfft, you foxes, so emotional," She said. Nick rolled his eyes, smiling. They made it to Judy's apartment and she gathered her stuff. She felt awkward knowing that the neighbors could read her thoughts. She tried her hardest to just think of what she was gathering and to get out.

She got everything and the two left for Nick's apartment. The same eerie tension was with them along the way. The subway ride to Nick's was no different though, and they safely made it to his apartment.

Nick offered Judy to sleep in his bed, and he would take the couch, but she refused. They got comfortable in their arrangements and said goodnight. Judy slept soundly, the couch more comfortable than she had expected. Nick was not as lucky.