A/N: This is another slightly silly chapter where not much happens… well, except for what happens to Tanya. The idea for what happens to her has been going around in my head and I decided to put in right here. Next chapter things will pick up… A LOT. A lot will happen next chapter. It may even be the end. This storyline will be continued in "A Case of a Curse."
Anyways, enjoy!
...
Judy walked Nick to the garage. His little high would wear off pretty soon, probably by lunchtime according to the doctor, but in the meantime, he was a bit loopy. She had to turn around to get his attention as he got distracted by various random things.
"Hey fluff, you ever see this bench over here?" He said, standing and pointing at it in surprise.
"Yes, Nick, That's been there forever."
"You know, that's funny, I've never seen it before."
"That's nice but we gotta get to the cruiser, Nick," she said as she held his paw to tow him along.
"Ok," he replied complacently as he let her guide him through the halls. Other officers stared in confusion as Judy dragged Nick along. Nick excitedly waved at them as he passed.
"Hi Delgato! We're going to get lunch!" He said, ecstatic. Judy facepawed and pulled him harder. Why does he have to be so obnoxious? She was embarrassed by the whole situation. They made it into the garage and got into their squad car. Judy made sure to remind Nick to buckle his seatbelt.
She pulled out of their spot and she started driving to the Bug-Burga. Along the way, Nick was growing more and more intent on playing some music. He would reach over to play with the radio but Judy would slap his paw out of the way.
"Nick stop it you're going to press the wrong button!" She said, trying to focus on driving.
"I got this carrots, don't worry," he responded. Just as he was reaching over again, Judy made a turn, and his lack of balance made his arm go straight into their control panel. The sirens started blaring and Nick recoiled, startled. Judy watched as the cars in front of them all pulled over.
"Nick! I told you this would happen. I gotta drive, you need to turn them off!" She said. Nick stared at all the buttons, groaning with anxiety. He cautiously poked one, seemingly to no effect.
"What did that do?" Judy said, immediately realizing what it did when she heard her voice echoing outside. Oh sweet cheese and crackers he turned on the megaphone.
"You gotta turn that one off, it wasn't the right one."
"I don't know which one I pressed!" He said. His drunken reasoning figured the radio might do something, so he started fiddling with it, hitting various knobs and buttons. The radio started blasting screaming death metal, the song being broadcast outside by the megaphone.
"That's definitely not it Nick!" Judy shouted. She decided enough was enough and stopped the car in the middle of the road to turn everything off. Once all of the obvious buttons were switched off, she glared at him. He had a very sad, guilty look on his face.
"I told you not to play with the radio!" She yelled.
"I'm sorry…" He replied, giving her puppy eyes. She shook her head, and suddenly Clawhauser's voice came through their radio.
"Attention all officers, we have a squad car down on Fern and Rain Street! Repeat, squad car down on Fern and Rain street!" He said. He switched transmission frequencies to just their car's.
"Nick, Judy, what's happening! Please tell me you're ok!"
"Yeah we're OK, we just…" She started, realizing that she wasn't transmitting. She tried the transmit button again but it still wasn't working.
"Guys! What's going on! Oh god, please tell me they're not dead…" Ben said, choking up. Judy rushed to figure out what was wrong when Nick suddenly hit a button, nodding to her to try again. It worked.
"Ben we're OK, so sorry for startling you, we accidentally hit the wrong button."
"Oh thank god you guys are ok! I don't know what I'd do without you! All the morning conversations and antics, and betting on when you two would finally go out on a date. Gee, I thought you two were getting kidnapped or…" He started, rambling on about how he thought they were dead, or the various things that could have been happening.
"Yes, we're ok… no that didn't happen… Ben… Ben!... BEN!" Judy yelled.
"...And the robbers were taking you two hostage and… Oh, sorry. Got a little emotional there."
"It's alright, we appreciate the concern," Judy said. She then noticed a very familiar black sedan whipping around a corner behind them. It had emergency lights in the windshield and the headlights were also flashing red and blue. It screeched to a halt, the agents quickly getting out and drawing actual firearms.
"Oh no… Ben, you gotta call the false alarm!" She said. Why do they have real guns! Oh, this is bad, this is so bad… she thought.
"It must be a carjacking!" James yelled to Tanya as they slowly approached the car, their guns trained on the windows. Nick and Judy stared at each other as Tanya yelled for them to get out of the car with their hands up. Suddenly, another squad car arrived in front of them, Rhinowitz and Fangmeyer getting out but staying behind their doors. Rhinowitz immediately went to the back of their car and returned with a shotgun.
The agents were glad for the backup, but from Rhinowitz' perspective, he saw Nick and Judy sitting in the front seat of the car, with two suited mammals threatening them at gunpoint.
"Drop your weapons and step away from the vehicle!" Rhinowitz shouted, training the shotgun on Tanya. She looked at him for a second, confused. She then saw that Nick and Judy were in the car. She still had her gun raised when she realized what this must look like, given their sedan was obscured by the officers' car. But it was too late, and before she could act on this realization, Rhinowitz fired.
The slug hit the left side of her chest. She spun slightly from the force, and stumbled, slamming her back into the squad car. She slid to the ground, clutching her chest. Rhinowitz saw it all unfold, seemingly in slow motion to him. Clawhauser's call-off came through, but Rhinowitz wasn't paying any attention. He just saw the mammal he had probably just killed leaning up against Judy's squad car.
While Rhinowitz was still in shock, Fangmeyer went to help Tanya, given that he'd heard the call off and saw James holding out his badge. Judy got out of the car and immediately went to Tanya's side. She was sitting up against the car, holding her chest, barely breathing from the pain, but conscious.
"Oh my God, Tanya…" Judy said, not even bothering to ask if she was ok. Fangmeyer crouched in front of the two with a first aid kit. As James came around to Tanya's side of the car, he saw where she was hit and let out a huge sigh, putting his hoof over his forehead. He had never felt so relieved.
"Alright miss you'll need to lie down so I can help you," Fangmeyer said as he opened the first aid kit. Tanya lifted her free paw, waving 'no' and shaking her head slightly.
"I'm OK…" She said, the words straining through clenched teeth. She lifted her other paw off of her chest, holding the flattened lead slug. The officers stared in disbelief. She dropped it and lay down, bringing her hind paws closer to her and giving her tail a tiny hug.
"Our suits… they stop the bullets but… Oweeeeeeeee…" She said quietly.
"Oh poor Tawn-tawn…" James said in sympathy.
"I am so, so sorry miss..." Fangmeyer said. Tanya just waved as if to say 'don't worry about it.'
"Not the first time I've been shot… just last time it wasnt a shotgun slug… and it wasn't right there…" She said. They all cringed when they realised she had been shot directly in the mammary. Judy covered her own chest in a moment of sympathy pain.
"Right in the kitty titty…" Fangmeyer said with a guilty smirk. James facehoofed, partly to cover his smile. Judy snorted and covered her muzzle to stop from laughing. Tanya let out a short laugh and soon enough the four were cracking up, Tanya hacking and coughing, trying to avoid laughing due to the pain.
Meanwhile, Rhinowitz had finished calling in the incident and was making sure Nick was ok, figuring the situation was under control. Nick was definitely acting weird.
"You alright Wilde?" He said.
Nick silently nodded to him with a blank expression.
"She's ok by the way, in case you were wondering…"
"I heard…" He replied, not looking at Rhinowitz.
"You sure you're ok dude?" he asked.
Nick slowly looked up to him and gave him a nod.
"Alright…" Rhinowitz said, uneasy. He went around the car to talk to Judy. The four of them had stopped laughing and were kneeling or sitting, Tanya having leaned up against the squad car again.
"Hey Hopps, Nick is acting real weird in there, you might wanna talk to him." He said to Judy before kneeling down with Fangmeyer.
"I am so sorry miss… God am I glad that you had body armor on though. I thought I had just killed someone…"
"I'm pretty glad I had body armor on too." She replied, making Rhinowitz chuckle. He was still shaking from the adrenaline rush. He then noticed that she had no bullet holes in her clothing and no vest.
"Where was your armor?"
"My suit is bulletproof. Pretty neat huh?" She said. His eyes bulged out of his head. He knew that bulletproof suits existed, but ones that could stop a 12 gauge shotgun slug without any sort of visible damage to the suit or severe injury to the wearer was unbelievable to him.
Meanwhile, Judy was going to check on Nick. She opened his door and looked up at him. He watched the door open then stared at her blankly. She already felt uneasy about the way he was acting.
"You alright Nick?" She asked.
He slowly but confidently nodded.
"You don't really seem ok…" She said. She hopped up onto his seat and closed the door.
"You want to talk about it?" She asked, concerned. Nick wrapped his arms around her and started patting her back. She slowly wrapped her arms around him, confused.
"Why are you hugging me?" She said, her words pulsating with his rhythmic patting of her back.
"You seem worried," he said plainly, switching to a rubbing motion. Judy was still confused.
"Yeah, I'm worried about you, you're acting really strange," she said. He released her from the hug.
"oh… well, I'm fine, so, don't worry," he said, looking at her with the same dead expression. She was very uncomfortable with the way he was acting, but she saw Tanya standing up outside and figured she should go and talk to them about what their plans were.
"Ok. Well, just sit tight while I go talk to those two about what we're doing next," she said. She opened the door and hopped down. She walked around to the other officers and the agents. Rhinowitz and Fangmeyer were enamored with the two, figuring they were super spies or something of the sort.
James and Tanya were trying not to crack up. Since they couldn't really say much about what they did, their lack of disclosure had the two officers convinced they were spies of some kind. Judy had to intervene.
"No guys. They aren't spies. Turns out we're working with them on our current case, and we kinda need to get back to work… and clear up the road…" She said, noting that while mammals had room to pass them and that it wasn't a very busy place, they were still in the middle of the street.
"Well, we'll let you four get back to work. Again, we are so sorry Agent Vecher. Have a nice day." Rhinowitz said. Tanya waved as the two officers walked away.
"Huh, that's not something you see every day. Somebody shoots you and not 10 minutes later they tell you to have a nice day," James said.
"Yeah, I'd say. So what's the plan?" Judy asked.
"We should take Tanya to the hospital just to be sure she's alright," James said.
"I'm hungry though. Can I go to the hospital after we eat?" Tanya said. James was half amused, half proud.
"You get shot in the chest with a shotgun and want to get lunch before you go to the hospital. Tanya, has anyone ever told you that you're a total badass?"
"I'm not a badass, just a hungry idiot," she replied, laughing.
"Then let's get something to eat," Judy said. They all nodded and went to get back in their cars. Judy hopped up on to her seat to find Nick with his head slack and his eyes closed. He was motionless, and for a second Judy thought the worst, but she reasoned with herself before she panicked.
"Nick?" She said, to no response.
"Nick?" She said again, slightly louder. He snorted. Ok, he's not dead, that's good. She let out a rather loud sigh, rousing Nick more. He lifted his head and looked around for a moment.
"Ha, good morning slick!" She teased. He gave her a surprised look and checked his watch. He then looked back at her, still confused.
"Carrots I gotta say I have no clue what's going on. Why are we here and where have I been for the last 3 and a half hours?"
"You took an anxiety pill and it made you very, very loopy. Then we left to get lunch and one thing lead to another and Rhinowitz shot Tanya with a shotgun." She said as she started driving. Nicks jaw dropped.
"That's terrible! What happened? Gosh, poor Tanya. Is she in the hospital or…"
"Shes fine. She's in the car behind us. It happened just before you passed out and you woke up fairly soon after."
"Shes fine? Was it a sandbag round?"
"Nope, a lead slug. Her suit is bulletproof, stopped it no problem."
"Oh, gee that sounds like a good time. Thin suit stopping a supersonic chunk of lead. She isn't going to the hospital to make sure it didn't cause any internal damage?"
"Nope. She wanted to eat first, so we're driving to Bug-Burga right now." Judy said. Nick smiled at the thought of her wanting to get lunch after being shot.
"She's tougher than I thought! What a badass."
"Ha! Yeah, that's what James said. Gee, I am so glad you are back to your usual self, high Nick is quite irritating."
"Well if it makes you feel any better I don't plan on tripping on my anxiety pills again any time soon," he said. Judy smiled. High Nick was pretty amusing in retrospect, even though it didn't seem like it at the time.
Soon enough they had arrived at the Bug-Burga. Tanya and Nick got cricket sandwiches, while James and Judy got salads. They munched away on their variously portioned meals and made small talk. Things were fairly plain until they started discussing why they chose the careers they did. James asked Judy first.
"Well, I didn't really have a tough time figuring out what I wanted to do. Ever since I was a kid I've wanted to become a police officer. I just want to help people and make the world a better place," she said. The agents both smiled, they knew the feeling of being driven from a young age.
"What about you?" She asked. He leaned forward a bit and spoke quietly. The restaurant was loud enough that nobody would hear him.
"Well, when I was young, I always had a fascination with unresolved causes, and I couldn't stand those cases where they thought the got the wrong guy. I joined the A3I so I could help solve some of those old cold cases or free some people who didn't deserve the conviction. But as I started working on those old cases, I realized that some of them were just... beyond normal explanation.
"I brought some of my findings to my higher-ups and they agreed that things were happening that needed special treatment. They created the Enigma Project so they could have a specific group of people investigating these strange cases," he said. Tanya figured it was her time to chime in but she had a mouth full of bug burger. She covered her mouth and held up a paw as if to say 'gimme a sec.' She swallowed and started speaking.
"I used to be a physicist, but I only became a physicist because I always knew there was more out there than what we saw, and I wanted to explain things rationally. Well, that, and I love physics... Anyways, I just wanted to know the truth behind myths and legends, I wanted there to be science behind it.
"I was known for publishing papers discussing UFO sightings and ghosts and monsters and all of that sort of thing. It was just a hobby really, and everyone knew it was just that, so I wasn't seen as one of those crazy tin foil hat people. The A3I took an interest in me when they realized I was doing exactly what they were trying to do with Enigma. So they offered me a job and, of course, I took it. We've been working on the project for 3 years now."
The officers nodded. They had a lot more respect for the two now that they knew their intentions. They were just driven by curiosity. Nick had a question though.
"If you two are so interested in the truth, then why do you cover everything up?" He said. The two gave a heavy sigh, and James started.
"As you might be able to imagine, it's not our choice. We would rather have these things be well known and studied by everyone, but our superiors feel that the public isn't ready. I disagree with covering things up, but l don't know if the public is ready, so I'm torn." He said. Tanya gave her side. She looked down at the table, fiddling with a sandwich skewer.
"I lose a lot of sleep thinking about what we do. We do the things that make it hard for people like me to learn the truth. We are the secret government that doesn't want you to know what goes on in your own backyard... We try to protect people by sheltering them. I guess we have some comfort in knowing that we aren't the worst though," she said, looking up and chuckling.
"I don't know how much I should tell you but there's another group in the government that causes half the problems we solve. They're always unleashing all sorts of demons and creatures and just doing tons of dumb stuff. I can't believe they haven't been shut down yet." She said, smiling about all the crazy antics of the military's paranormal research group.
Nick and Judy stared for a moment, terrified by what sorts of 'demons and creatures' could be unleashed at any moment by this secret government group. Tanya noticed and tried to calm their fears.
"Don't worry about that though. All of that stuff happens in military bases-" She paused to face paw "-you weren't supposed to know that… how about we change the topic. Nick, why did you join the force?" She asked. He smiled, remembering how far he'd come in the last year or so.
"Well, when I was young I always wanted to be a ranger scout, but they were very speciest and it didn't go so well for me. After that, I gave into stereotypes and became a con artist. What I did was barely legal but I had everything I needed to be impervious to legal consequences. The one thing I forgot was tax evasion.
"Knowing that, carrots here blackmailed me into helping her solve a missing mammal case. That case ended up being the Night-howler Conspiracy. After all we had been through, she convinced me that I could be more than just a low life, so I joined the force." He said. James and Tanya looked at each other perplexed.
"Wait a minute… Judy, did you go to the DMV with him while you were investigating all that?" Tanya asked.
"Yeah, why?" Judy replied. Tanya gasped.
"So that was you before you became an officer Nick! James and I were in line to get our licenses renewed and we saw you two! We knew who Judy was since she was the first rabbit officer, but we had no clue who you were! We always wondered if you were one and the same but figured it was just coincidence. What a small world." Tanya said. She felt like she had just solved a great mystery.
"Huh. What are the odds," Nick said, remembering the day. That was one hell of a day. He thought, recalling the multiple near-death experiences, and hustles he pulled on Judy. They were all finished eating and decided to go to the hospital. Tanya was quite sore but she could tell there was nothing more serious than bruised tissue.
"Should we just head back to the precinct or come with you two?" Judy asked.
"Well, since this is technically a gunshot injury it's going to be reported to police anyways, might as well have you two come with us," James said.
"Yeah, we probably should. We'll follow you two." Judy said as she got in her car. James took the wheel in their car and they headed to the hospital, all hoping the prognosis was good for Tanya.
...
A/N: If you go to the DMV scene in the movie, there actually is a female snow leopard and male deer/antelope/oryx of some kind standing in line next to each other. You cant see the horns so I can't tell, but the tail isn't white so that's not good for the case of it being a whitetail deer. I don't care though, its James and Tanya dammit! Also, I actually imagine Tanya as being quite a bit smaller in build and height, and James being significantly larger in build. Not super ripped or muscular but "big boned" as they say. Tanya's tail is also more like a real snow leopards tail: huge and fluffy. In other words, they are the same size as their real-world counterparts except James has a similar build to a horse, though not as lean.