I'm sorry to be getting this chapter out so late, I've been preoccupied with some personal issues. But they've been mostly resolved and, on top of this chapter, I should have another one (or two, depends on how this one goes) up by Saturday! I also apologize if this chapter seems a bit all over the place, I had a lot of things to get down but not nearly enough brainpower. Thank you again to everyone who takes the time to read my story, it really means a lot to me. Alright, enough jabbering. Enjoy, everyone!

óÓÒò ~

Little under three weeks had passed since Chief Bogo had informed Judy and Nick about the assaults on the streets. And in those two weeks, every officer had been sent out on patrol, and reported a similar situation to what the fox and rabbit had: hear about a robbery, show up, report, patrol a bit, find the robber, a small, hooded figure walking off, and then lose said figure in an alley. It had grown to be a pattern, and it was driving the chief wild. "There is no possible way this is just a string of coincidences," he had yelled one morning. "This same situation happens every single time, with only a day or two in between. We can't have some mammal running around, roughing up and catching thieves in our city."

A long, almost thirty minute rant about stopping a potential vigilante had ensued after assignments were given. Never before had Judy felt her ears ring from just shouting, and she could've sworn that the podium creaked and cracked slightly under Bogo's might. After a final dismissive grunt, the officers began to file out of the room. The silence was shocking compared to the loud shouts that had occupied the room not two minutes before.

"Hopps, Wilde. My office. Now." Judy's ears pivoted as her head turned, looking up at the imposing cape buffalo with concern, before nodding. Nick had been surprisingly silent through the rant. Surely they weren't in any sort of trouble?

The trio walked in silence to the chief's office. And more silence as the door shut behind them, the buffalo staring down at Nick and Judy as they took up a single seat, a red folder resting beneath his hooves.

"We've gotten a bit more information on our assaulting mammal," the chief started. Nick's ears perked up a bit. "Like what, sir?" the fox asked.

"Since the number crimes like this have gone up, we have been able to connect a few dots. Every single mammal that was attacked had recently robbed a florist of some of their flowers. Each one was found within three blocks of said shop and, surprisingly, no video footage could be found of the actual attack. Except," he held up a hoof to silence Judy as she opened her mouth, reaching into the folder. "For one single frame that our tech team dug up."

Bogo slid a picture across his desk, Judy's small paw reaching up to take it. She and Nick examined the black and white photo, taken from a security camera adjacent to an alley. Inside was a sheep, a hoodie covering his head though, thanks to the camera's angle, an expression of fear could be seen on his face. A smaller mammal in a black hood and lengthy coat that only ended around his ankles, a bushy tail slipping out from the slit in the coat's lower back. A single strap backpack rested on the small mammal's shoulders, a larger one by his side as he held what looked like a stick to the sheep's face.

"Sir, this is the only confirmed sighting we have?" Nick asked. Their chief nodded with a snort. "Believe me, I'm disappointed about it, but it seems we're lucky to have this one. Every other bit of security footage was wiped clean." Judy frowned, leaning into the picture with squinted eyes as she tried to pick out anything else they could use.

With a groan of irritation at finding nothing, she passed the photo back to Chief Bogo. "On top of this, we've also gotten the thieves to describe who it was that attacked them. A fox, dressed in black. Boots and tucked in pants. Somewhat aggressive behavior, even before attacking. Blue eyes."

"Sir, with all due respect, why are you telling us this information, and not the entire department?" Judy asked, brow furrowed in curiosity. The cape buffalo leaned back in his seat slightly.

"Because, Hopps, I'm making this an official case, and assigning it to you two. You were there during briefing – we cannot allow this to go on."

Now Nick finally spoke up, his usual grin resting on his muzzle. "Are you sure this isn't just a way to get us out of your horns for a bit?"

The only response was a snort and creak of a chair as Bogo leaned forward, sliding the folder to the duo. "I guess you'll have to figure that out for yourself, Wilde. Now get going. This isn't going to solve itself."

óÓÒò ~

Nick yawned beside Judy for the tenth time in the past quarter hour. "Carrots, we should take a break. Maybe get something to drink?" he suggested, a bit of hope in his voice. Several times now, the gray rabbit had needed to wake her partner, finally resorting to simply punching him when he wouldn't wake from a shake anymore. Finally, she had threatened to inform the chief about his naps and, much to the fox's credit, he had been fighting to stay awake ever since. But it quickly became evident that it was a losing battle.

"Nick, why is it so hard for you to keep your eyes open?" she asked.

Her partner laughed a bit. "It's warm in here, the seat is comfy, the engine purrs, and I never got my coffee this morning."

Judy rolled her eyes. "Should've gotten up earlier, then."

Nick grinned impishly. "Yes, because it's so easy to just 'get up' when a bunny is curled against you and won't budge."

Judy felt her cheeks grow warm, the memories of last night being fresh in her mind. She hadn't meant to fall asleep against Nick during their sudden movie night, it just happened. The lights were out, the movie was slow enough to make her sleepy (the fox had already fallen asleep), and she was laying on the couch beside him, his fluffy tail resting along her back. As she had grown more drowsy, the rabbit had curled up and tugged his tail around her like a blanket. The warmth of it was enough for her to completely lose her battle with sleep, and when the two had awoken, she was curled against Nick, who had laid himself out along the couch at some point in the night.

Upon waking up, Judy was mortified to see Nick staring down at her, a smirk on his face as he immediately began to start jabbing at her with sly, teasing remarks. It wasn't until after she had fully woken that she realized she had reactively kicked the poor reynard over the couch edge, leading to her laughing herself nearly to tears at seeing his legs and tail stick over the arm of the couch, hearing him groan in pain.

Judy snickered at the memory, no longer feeling quite as embarrassed, though she knew she had given Nick more fuel to tease her with.

"What can I say, your tail is too soft and fluffy," Judy smiled, pulling into a Snarlbucks drive-thru. Nick snorted. "Yeah, about that," he started, making Judy's ears droop a bit as she ordered. "You probably didn't know but..."

Judy looked at Nick, hating how he was drawing out his words, but the expression on his face seemed to be him fishing for the right ones. She pulled up to the window, reaching out for their drinks as he continued buying time. He was waiting for something, she realized, passing Nick's drink to him as she brought hers to her lips.

"For a fox, touching one's tail is kind of an... Intimate thing."

Judy coughed and choked on her drink slightly, looking over at Nick with wide eyes. "What?!" she choked out, the embarrasment from before flooding through her again.

Nick held his composure and serious face for a few seconds more, before grinning and laughing as Judy gave him a scathing look. After his laughter dying down into a chuckle, Nick turned his gaze out the window.

"I should've taken a picture of you then, Carrots. That look was priceless!" Nick smirked as Judy rolled her eyes.

"Unbelievable, Nick."

"You know you love me," he replied, sipping down a bit of his drink.

Judy ignored him as she turned their cruiser back onto the streets, not noticing her partner's expression go from joking to serious as he turned to her. "But I wasn't completely lying. I'd be careful around a fox's tail if I were you, Carrots. It's kind of like calling a bunny cute." Judy raised an eyebrow and glanced his way, silently asking for a more thorough explanation.

The fox beside her sighed. "I'll explain it later. Just be careful, alright? Typically a fox doesn't let anyone get near their tail unless they're related, or mates. And so far, I don't think I've got any Hopps DNA in me, and something tells me..." he trailed off there.

A strange silence settled between the partners. "Something tells you what?" Judy asked. She saw Nick shake his head out of the corner of her vision.

"Sorry, what? Drifted off for a second there."

Internally, Judy yelled at Nick for just brushing aside her question. Externally, she knew better than to pester him about it right now. Instead, she mentally filed the question away for another time. Among the many dozens of other questions he was yet to answer.

But the rabbit knew when she could and shouldn't ask her partner any of the things she had let build up in her mind. Most of the time, when she did ask, the response was Nick's typical joking comment, letting him dance around and away from a real answer. Infuriating as it was, Judy had begun to stop asking, instead hoping to catch her partner off-guard with them someday.

That day was not today, Judy thought defeatedly.

óÓÒò ~

"This is why I hate patrols," Nick complained, hitting his head against the steering wheel. Judy snickered at his pain, finding it amusing to be the passenger for once, having Nick suffer the horrendous traffic that plagued Zootopia's afternoons.

"Not so fun when you can just nap through half of it, is it, Nick?" Judy teased. Nick groaned again, tilting his sunglasses up to peer onto the road. "This is ridiculous! The light is GREEN! Move!"

Judy snickered at her partner's frustration, even more so when he smacked the steering wheel. With a shake of his head, however, the fox regained his composure and sat back in the seat, giving a soft chuckle. "It's almost like no one remembers how to drive," he muttered, letting his usual smile rest on his muzzle, dropping the sunglasses back over his eyes. "Now you know why I always have a headache at the end of the day," Judy said with a smile, keeping watch out the window for anything suspicious.

"At least we're not on the freeway," Nick commented. "All the honking horns and yelling would probably make you want to tear those giant bunny ears of yours right off." Judy nodded in agreement. "Not to mention, this is bad enough. Can you imagine the traffic going on? I feel sorry for any teams coming back on one," she added, shaking her head, yet thankful they'd been given a relatively clear route for most of the day. This also made their day relatively easy, as there were few things that would demand the officers to so much as exit their cruiser.

The chief had been assigning the pair routes with as many shops that sold flours as he could, within reason. A lot of the time it was a simple ride around downtown, as that was where most of the robberies and assaults had been reported. The occasional one from Tundratown or the Rainforest District came in, but the officers in that area responded well before Judy and Nick could ever have hoped to arrive.

The little gray rabbit groaned internally. The eleven days the pair had worked since they had been given an official case had led them to nothing. No video footage, no photographs, next to no witnesses, and absolutely nothing to really go on. The number of foxes who could've fit the vague description of their masked attacker was in the hundreds, making the act of narrowing them down near impossible, especially given the hostility assumed when a fox was accused of any criminal activity.

Despite the improvements that Zootopia had been making in the past months since the Night Howler case had been solved (and before, but not as significant), there was still ever-present discrimination amongst most mammals, though it ranged from use in friendly banter to derogitory insults. And, as much as she hated to admit it, areas further from the city, like Bunnyburrow, had much more of the old world outlook on predators in general. Judy's 'scuffle' with Gideon Grey at age 9 had been used to instil a cautious – if not downright terrified – mentality into her younger siblings, though she and her closely aged sisters and brothers managed to keep (most) of the young ones from being as fearful as their parents.

It was a big help in her eyes that the Hopps family farm had partnered with Gideon Grey some years later, around when he became one of the best pastry chefs in the tri-burrows. She had noticed a change within the community after that – the majority of families had been slowly growing more welcoming to newer ideals – such as not hating predators for instincts they had no choice in having. It warmed Judy's little rabbit heart to see such progress in a place so important to her.

A cough drew her attention back to reality, making Judy shake her head and look curiously at Nick, letting out a small "huh?"

The fox motioned his head in a way that indicated him rolling his eyes, taking a moment to respond. "I asked you what time it was, Fluff."

Judy looked down at her phone, slightly annoyed with herself for losing herself in through again. "Six seventeen," she said, putting it back into her pocket. Nick laughed again, and this time Judy caught him muttering "gullible bunny", making her ears drop slightly as her eyes narrowed. She drew back an arm to punch his shoulder again, before pausing, considering how many times she had done that as of late. He probably had a small bruise somewhere from the repeated blows, but had never said anything.

Nick's smirk grew ever so slightly wider as she lowered her paw, and she saw his shoulder sag almost imperceptibly. He had braced himself for the hit, she realized. Maybe I've been hitting him a bit much lately, she through, frowning. When she failed with a comeback or got too excited for words, her usual resort was a punch she had assumed was lighter than it really was. If it was enough to make her partner reflexively tense up at a raised paw, it was clearly a problem, and she would have to keep herself in check.

"Are you sure you're not a sadist?" Nick had once asked her, laughing at her flustered reaction as she quickly denied the very thought. "Wow, Carrots, I didn't think you were like that."

Of course, this had earned another punch, only adding fuel to the fire as he let out a slightly pained snicker and rubbed where she had hit.

The radio sitting between the duo crackled to life, Clawhauser's voice breaking through the dull hum of the cuiser's engine. "Cruiser 217, what's your 10-20?"

Judy grabbed the radio before Nick could even get close to it, smiling as she responded. "We hear you, dispatch. Currently eastbound on Grass Street, what do you need us for?"

"Possible theft in progress on Savanna Central, a florist's shop, are you two able to check it out?"

"Copy that, dispatch. We'll update you as soon as we arrive."

"Roger that, dispatch out."

Nick snickered as Judy put down the radio, causing her to give him a curious look. After a glance to her, causing him to snicker again before explaining. "It's like one of those crime dramas we watch," he told her. Judy took a minute to compare what had just happened to a few of the many episodes they had watched of the multiple reality TV crime shows, and gave a chuckle. "I guess it's pretty similar in some regards," she admitted.

Eight minutes later, Judy picked up the radio again. "Dispatch, this is cruiser 217, what's the name of the shop?"

"Looks like... The Savanna Central Florets."

Judy nodded, hearing Nick whisper "Florets? Is that wordplay or do they really just have small flowers?"

Ignoring her partner, she looked out the window, pointing to a street with a matching sign just down the road. "Copy that, dispatch, we are 10-23. We'll keep you updated, over."

"10-4."

Nick looked at Judy and gave a small laugh again, shaking his head as he parked the cruiser outside the florist's shop, both officers hopping just out and beginning to approach the door. Nick paused as they reached the entrance, making Judy's ears twitch curiously as she turned around. "Nick?" she asked, frowning slightly as he held up a paw.

"I smell something, hold on. See what info you can get from the store owner really quick," he said.

Judy frowned, but nodded as she walked into the shop, noting a few overturned pots and hastily shoved about sets of flowers as she approached the counter. A portly looking lion in jeans and a tucked in navy blue shirt walked around it, broom and dustpan in paw, clearly oblivious to her presence as he began sweeping up and cleaning the small mess.

"Sir?" she asked, smiling slightly as she saw him jump in surprise, watching him set down the broom as he turned to her, a look of relief on his face. "Oh, officer, thank goodness!" he sighed, his surprisingly soft voice catching the rabbit off guard. It didn't quite match with the mammal before her, she noted.

"A weasel came in here and tore up my shop!" the lion said, running a large paw through his mane. "I still don't know what he took, if anything. It only just happened, but he made a mess of things."

Judy nodded, jotting down what the lion said on her notepad. She had taken it out almost as soon as he had begun speaking, the small lines she made forming into nearly illegible text that she would have to decipher later as she tried to keep up. The lion began describing what he had seen – a small weasel, a bandana covering his face and baseball cap on his head, dressed in a gray windbreaker and sweatpants, barging into the store with a backpack. He'd recounted how he had seen the weasel begin tearing through the plants, frantically searching for something, only to run off when the manager came out to confront him. There had been a dirt trail, but it disappeared outside the shop from a combination of wind, passing cars, and pedestrians.

Judy wrote down everything as fast as she could, silently cursing her sloppy notes as she thanked the lion, whom she found out was named Rob (ironically). As the two walked to the front doors of the shop, Nick opened one, waving at Judy to follow him, eyes filled with urgency and, of all things, hope.

The confused rabbit bid the equally lost lion a brief 'goodbye, we'll follow up here' as she followed her red-furred partner. "Nick, what is it?" she asked, brow furrowing as they jumped into their cruiser. "First thing, did we get a description of our suspect?" he asked, slamming the keys into the ignition and hitting the gas as soon as he could.

"Yeah, a weasel with a cap, bandana, windbreaker, and sweats. Why?"

"I think we found him already," he said, peering down the road. "Oh... That was fast," Judy said, smiling.

"No, no, it's not that. We found him because someone reported seeing a small masked mammal chasing a weasel with a cap and bandana."

Judy's eyes widened with hope at hearing this. "You think it's our guy?"

"I'd bet on it, and you know how my bets go." Nick smirked, referencing the plethora of wagers he'd often make with other members of the ZPD – out of roughly 143, he had won 119. Judy's smile widened. She liked these odds.

"Then step on it, Slick!"

"We may be cops, but we still have to obey laws, Carrots," Nick chuckled, though he did step on the gas a bit more as they headed towards an unmarked destination, an alleyway between a stores.

After a nod to the alley from Nick, Judy jumped from the car and brought her ears to face forward, listening for anything. The alleyway itself was empty, but she could hear something further down it. Pained gasps. An occasional thud. Metal hitting brickwork. A blur of blue and red went next to her as Nick passed, the rabbit following after and quickly surpassing the taller mammal.

The alley ended with a split path, causing Judy to pause and look both ways before spotting what the officers were looking for, down a convenient dead end to their right.

A weasel was curled up against the brick wall, arms held behind his back by something unseen, matching the description given to the officers to the letter, minus a backpack, cap, and bandana. If one were to peer closely, though, they could see these items on the other side of the alley, tossed away with little care, dirt spilling from the backpack.

Over the thief stood someone matching their vigilante's description, as best they could see: the right size for a fox, with a black, beaked hood covering their head and ears. A mask was brought up and around their muzzle, a silver, digitalized mark running diagonally down it, the center going in a zig-zag pattern and breaking in the middle. A slender black rod gleamed in the dreary alley light, extending from a gloved paw. The coat they wore, a matching black, ran almost to the ground, the frayed and cut tails of the coat visible behind a pair of boots with urban digital camouflage pants tucked into them. A single strap backpack was slung over their shoulder, navy blue in color.

Judy reached for her radio as Nick began moving down the alley, flashing his badge and yelling "ZPD, don't move!"

"Dispatch, this is Hopps, we've found the thief and it seems he's in custody, but we have a possible assailant, requesting you send someone for pick-up. I don't see this one cooperating with us." she said, beginning to go after her partner.

"Hopps, this is dispatch, what's your 10-20?" Clawhauser responded, sounding slightly concerned.

"The alleys connecting Grass Street and Flock Street," she responded, watching as Nick slowed, badge up, but taking a more relaxed stance as neared them. Judy knew what he was doing – playing the good cop, trying to ease tensions, make everyone's lives easier.

"10-4, unit 4 is en route."

Fangmeyer and Delgato, Judy thought. "Copy that," she said, before setting the radio in its holster, coming up beside Nick as the masked fox took a few steps away from the weasel, who was on the ground, groaning in pain. A metallic clacking noise bounced off the walls as the item in the fox's grip was collapsed and put away, beneath the coat.

"So, uh... Exactly what's going on here?" Nick slowly put his badge back down, stuffing his paws into his pockets, though Judy knew he was gripping his taser. The weasel looked at the cops hopefully. "I was just heading home from class," he said, gritting his teeth in pain, though Judy doubted how much pain he was actually in. "When this guy decided to start chasin' me... Right down this alley, decided it would be a good idea to tie me up and mug me... C'mon, officer's take him away!"

"Heading home from class, huh?" Nick said, a bit of doubt clearly evident in his voice as he looked over to the backpack. "You don't seem like the type to be into botany. And besides, it isn't that simple. What about you, what do you have to say?" Nick nodded upwards to the other fox, who had remained silent.

"Don't play dumb, you know he robbed Rob's store," the fox said, his voice sounding almost hoarse, gravelly in a way. The weasel gave a pleading look, scrambling upright to sit against the wall. "N-No way, he's lying!" he nearly shouted.

"He was stealing something that should've been taken off the shelves a year ago – Mendicampum holicifius. Night Howler seeds." Nick gave the fox a look of suspicion. "Don't believe me? Look in the bag." The fox stepped away from the bag and officers, both paws held up, empty.

Judy let a paw fall to her tranquilizer gun as Nick took a cautious step towards the bag, both wary for sudden movements from either mammals. As the uniformed fox neared the burgundy backpack, Judy noticed the weasel's expression shift to one of defeat. A brief moment later, the backpack was unzipped, and Nick peered inside, shifting the contents by rotating the bag a bit, before nodding.

"That's what it looks like, at least. Which means, you're both coming in for questioning." Nick set the bag back down, paws on his hips as looked expectantly at the other fox, who still had his gloved paws raised. In silence, he narrowed his eyes, slowly bringing them down and out for Nick to cuff him. Judy watched warily as Nick drew out his handcuffs, slowly approaching the fox. Something within the rabbit didn't sit quite right.

The weasel to their left was the one to try and run away. He scrambled to his feet, eyes wide as he rushed towards Judy, dropping down to run his shoulder into her and knock her out of his way. The gray rabbit gasped from the sudden impact, Nick turning around as the other fox cursed and pushed past the blue-clad reynard. Judy scrambled back to the ground as the masked fox leaped forward and tackled the weasel, whipping out a zip tie and lashing it around his ankles as the smaller mammal let out a cry of anguish at being caught.

Nick was at the other fox's side in an instant, prying him off as the weasel shouted curses at the group. Judy drew up her tranquilizer gun as she saw Nick struggling with the other fox, who was jerking away to keep her partner's handcuffs off of him. "I'll go willingly if you stop trying to cuff me!" he hissed, Nick pulling one paw behind his back.

Nick shook his head. "No way, pal, we can't let you do that."

"Well," the other fox hissed through gritted teeth, though Judy couldn't see it. She flicked the safety of her weapon off, ready to shoot the fox if he struggled much more.

"I can't let you just take me in, then."

With that, the masked fox pushed back and forced Nick against the wall. She heard him gasp and saw his grip loosen, letting the black-clad reynard leap forward. Judy fired off a dart, watching as it flew just over her target's back. Another shot, this one lodging into his backpack. And her third shot managed to hit her target, lodging into his side.

Satisfaction filled the officer as she saw him gasp and reach around for the dart, pulling it from his side as she and Nick walked over. Her partner let out a "tsk, tsk" as he neared. "You could've made it easier and just come with us, but you both just had to try and run for it."

The other fox, down on all fours, was reaching under his coat, leading the partners to be wary as they got closer. Judy's ears perked as she heard him let out a gasp. "There was no 'try'," the masked fox groaned, surprising Judy and Nick as he pushed himself up to his feet and began running.

"What?" The rabbit said, looking at her dumbfounded partner for a moment before giving chase, the pattering of feet behind her telling her that Nick was right on her tail.

Judy reached up and grabbed her radio. "Dispatch, this is Hopps, we've got a 10-95 but the other is making a break for it, we are in pursuit!"

She and Nick shared a glance as the fox ahead rounded the corner and disappeared from immediate view, each sharing one thought: What just happened?