A/N Hey guys, I'm so sorry for not updating since real life and writer's block got in the way but here's another chapter and I'm going to be using the LAPD radio codes since the ZPD is based on the real-life law enforcement agency so sit back and enjoy.
"Sir, could I ask you something?" Hopps inquired as we were making our way to the armory.
"Sure, say what's on your mind since we're not on duty at the moment," I said and gestured for her to go ahead before she nodded.
"I was wondering, what's wrong with the uniform and gear I currently have?" Hopps asked in confusion.
"Glad you asked, now let's start from your feet up. Firstly, those foot protectors are not bulletproof or anything really, and while they may protect you from you stepping on a nail or something similar, that's pretty much it.
In this job, when you're fighting against a perp, they're going to look for anything that can be used against you so they'll immediately go for your feet once they see that they're not fully protected and once you go down, that's pretty much it for you.
Next are those pants, they're not waterproof or puncture-proof so if you find yourself being transferred to the rainforest district for whatever reason or if it's just plain raining, you're going to be soaked to your undergarments and the same goes for your undershirt.
As for your current gear, you don't have the equipment to do your job properly or accurately defend yourself while you could definitely use a better radio, at least one you could get approved for law enforcement and you could use better cuffs, but the biggest issue I have with your current gear that needs to be switched out is your vest," I explained as I pointed out all the issues her current uniform and gear had, and Hopps tilted her head at the last part.
"My vest? What's wrong with my vest?" Hopps questioned in confusion, making me send her a look of disbelief.
"Are you kidding me? What isn't wrong with it? Listen, I think it's better that I show you since a picture is worth a thousand words after all," I stated as we soon arrived at the doors that led to the armory.
I opened the doors and held them open for the rookie as she entered the armory, then I took the lead after that and a short walk later had us go through an entryway until we arrived in a large room that had a caged area filled with weapons, ammo, and equipment for every single officer and members of SWAT in precinct 1 while set to the right was a giant bear-sized steel door and in the middle of the cage was a big window where officers would be handed their equipment as Hopps looked around in amazement.
"Welcome to the armory, where regular officers and members of SWAT are supplied with the proper equipment to do their jobs so this is the place where you'll be outfitted with your new gear, now you can stop gawking and follow me, boot," I said, causing Hopps to snap out of it and she looked embarrassed as we approached the window where a coyote officer by the name of Mitchell was manning the desk on the other side and he smiled when he saw me.
"Sergeant, good to see you so what can I do for you today?" Mitchell asked pleasantly, then he spotted Hopps and appeared curious for a moment until returning his attention to me.
"Hey Mitch, we just got some new blood and I brought her here to get properly equipped because as you can see, what she currently has shouldn't be approved for field duty," I said, then Mitchell leaned forward over his desk to get a better look at what Hopps had on and he made a face at that.
"Oh wow, you're not kidding since her current gear is terrible with most of it missing and that will only get her killed by an aggressive and dangerous suspect, not to mention that the vest she has on shouldn't be approved for field duty so this won't do at all," Mitchell stated before Hopps started looking frustrated.
"Okay, with all due respect, just what the hell is wrong with my vest?! It's a kevlar vest!" Hopps exclaimed in exasperation, her outburst taking me by surprise when she clapped a hand over her mouth with a look of horror for shouting in front of a superior officer until Mitchell chuckled.
"Hey, it's okay since you have every right to be confused so I'll show you what I mean," Mitchell reassured before Hopps started looking puzzled, but decided to do what he said as the coyote opened the steel door and ushered us inside until we went in and Mitchell locked the door.
"Alright, let me see your vest," Mitchell said, prompting Hopps to undo her vest and handed it to Mitchell before he gestured for us to follow him as he started walking, and we stayed right behind him until we arrived at the shooting range.
"Okay, this is where I test the weapons and new vests so we're going to test yours, now I'll let Sergeant Jameson explain it," Mitchell said as he went to set everything up before I nodded and turned my attention to Hopps.
"Alright boot, when we get new vests in and such, Mitch does three tests to see if they are good enough to be worn by us so the first test is puncture by knife, where if your vest can't stop a small blade, it will unlikely stop test two.
Test two will be gunfire, and Mitch will start at a 22. before building to a 45. so this is just a handgun test as it is the most common firearm to encounter while on duty, then test three will be to see how well a vest will be able to handle claws from a smaller predator and building up to Mitch's.
Hopps, the vest I'm wearing under my uniform shirt is strong enough to stop all knives, handgun calibers up to a 45, and it will stop Mitch's claws so let's say a coyote were to swipe at me and I was hit in the vest, I would be knocked down from the force and my ribs would be bruised but I'd still be alive," I explained just as Mitchell finished setting everything up and turned to look at Hopps.
"Okay, everything is set up and we will show you just how bad your vest really is, so your vest is on the ballistic gel and the gel represents you but if there are any penetrations in the gel, then you're pretty much dead and the vest will fail.
Now, it's time for the first test and the sergeant will demonstrate," Mitchell said as he handed me a switchblade and I took it.
I nodded at the coyote and walked over to the vest and ballistic gel before flicking the switchblade open and stabbing the vest without hesitation, the blade going right through it without any resistance before I pulled the knife out and closed it until I showed the hole in the vest and the mock wound in the ballistic gel to Hopps.
"As you can see, the first test was a fail so if this were a real-life scenario with an armed perp pulling a knife on you and you weren't able to react in time, he or she would've stabbed you in the heart with the vest putting up no resistance at all and you would've died instantly," I explained and I saw Hopps gulping at the thought of that being her in an actual situation before I added, "Now you're beginning to understand, so let's begin test two."
Because the ballistic gel was on a cart, Mitchell pushed it about five feet away as I grabbed a small 22. caliber handgun and loaded it before doing a brass check and taking the safety off, then we all put on ear protectors after the gel and vest were in position and Mitchell was at our side until I fired one shot and the round didn't penetrate the vest.
I wasn't done and simply grabbed a larger 9mm handgun before firing one shot, seeing the round go straight through the vest and impacting the wall behind it before I placed the firearm back down and sighed as we all removed our ear protectors.
"Hopps, if that vest didn't stop a 9mm, then it won't stop any other large caliber weapon from that distance and again, if that were a real-life scenario, then you would be dead so let's finish up with the final test," I said as Mitchell went over to wheel the gel and vest back up close before Hopps gazed at the bullet hole and grimaced at the thought of that being her.
"Okay, you swipe the front and I'll swipe the back," Mitchell told me as I was handed a pair of gloves that mimicked a fox's hands, then I put them on and used a fast aggressive swipe to rake the false claws across the front of the vest.
At that moment, I noticed Hopps flinched at seeing me using the gloves as her hand went to her left cheek, and Mitchell seemed to have noticed it as well before we exchanged a glance of concern since I recognized that kind of reaction and thought that she might've had a bad experience with a predator before and it caused her to develop a form of PTSD, kind of like how that ambush and my father's death six years ago gave me nightmares and reactions to certain triggers.
Mitchell went over to the vest and went around to the back of it before swiping the vest, then I heard the claws easily going through it without any form of resistance and made sure to watch Hopps while that happened when I noticed that she didn't react this time and considering that the gloves I used were made to mimic a fox's hands, that told me she only reacts to a fox's claws so that might be an issue that would need to be addressed if it starts to affect her ability to do her job.
'I'm going to have to ask her about this at some point if it starts to become a problem,' I thought while Hopps stared at the remains of her vest that was on the ground and looked shocked.
"Wow...you're going to have to reimburse me for that, sir," Hopps told me in disbelief, and I let out a small chuckle at her joke.
"No problem, but now you see what was wrong with your vest since it was thin and a light-based kevlar, designed to only stop small-caliber rounds and be light as a feather so it's not meant to be an officer's vest.
Your new vest will stop all handgun calibers, is stab-proof, and fang and claw-proof so it's going to keep you alive and if you were to ever take a hit, then you'll be given a second chance and be taken to the hospital instead of a trip to the morgue," I said and Hopps nodded slowly, still looking shocked that she would've gotten killed eventually if I hadn't pointed out the vest's terrible quality until something seemed to occur to her.
"Um, sir, that vest is going to be standard issue for every small mammal cop...it's the one I was shown at the academy and bigger mammal vests are that different unless they buy their own," Hopps admitted, shocking me and Mitchell judging by the look on the coyote's face.
"Seriously?! I know the department's going through a budget issue right now, but that's not good!" Mitchell exclaimed in alarm while I stared at Hopps with a deadly serious look.
"Are you absolutely sure?" I questioned and Hopps nodded once.
"Pretty sure," Hopps confirmed, then Mitchell looked less than happy to hear that.
"Okay, that's something I will not stand because fellow officers can and will die if this is best we can do in terms of the quality of the vests we have, so this is something that needs to be dealt with immediately," Mitchell stated firmly before he gestured for us to follow him.
After that, Mitchell took off at a brisk pace back the way we came with Hopps and I being forced to jog to keep up before we reached the front of the cage again, then Mitchell went out of sight for a few moments until he came back with a box and handed it to me before opening the steel door and ushering us through.
"Here, I managed to find the right equipment for Officer Hopps and I'll have to make a few calls to a friend and have him ship the proper vests here to the precinct so you two should get going for your assignment," Mitchell told us as he also handed me a beanbag shotgun and 870 Police Magnum before quickly gesturing for us to leave.
After that, I had Hopps follow me and we soon made it to the entrance of the female locker room, then I had her go in and change into her new uniform and put on her equipment when I found myself waiting for a short time while holding the shotguns safely until Hopps soon left the locker room with the box and I got a good look at her as she gestured at herself.
"So, what do you think, sir?" Hopps asked, and I didn't say anything yet as I examined the new uniform and duty belt she had on.
I could see that the uniform appeared a bit more padded to give her a less feminine look and a more tactical one as this uniform didn't hug her curves, which I approved since the old uniform looked like something from a party store than an actual police uniform while the new foot protectors looked to be something that can actually prevent a perp from targeting them and now she had hand protectors on.
As for her duty belt, the new one had all the necessary equipment she needed to do her job properly and her new service weapon was a Glock 26 that was holstered while she had two mags in her ammo pouches.
As for the radio, it was much better than her old one with her new cuffs being better as well and I was glad about that but she didn't have a vest since the department had no appropriate ones for her because of the ZPD's current budget issues, so I decided to take her to a nearby store that should sell her the right one as I finished examining her uniform and duty belt before I sent her an approving nod.
"Much better, so now the only issue we have to solve is getting you a new vest and I know a nearby store that should have what we need," I said before I motioned my head in a gesture for her to follow me.
We headed to the parking lot, making a quick stop on the way so that I could get the keys to my patrol car while also putting on our body cams and we continued on until we exited the building with Hopps following me until we soon arrived at my patrol car that was a dodge charger with a light bar as it had the standard black and white paint scheme with the ZPD's insignia on the front doors and the department's motto on the sides of the hood just above the tires.
I unlocked the driver-side door and opened it, securing both shotguns in the gun rack and did a check around the charger to see if it was in good condition before getting in the car while unlocking the passenger door for Hopps, who got in and I saw that she was too short to see out the windows so I decided to have that taken care of later as we fastened our seatbelts and I started the charger before reaching for the mike on the dash radio and turning it on.
"Dispatch, 624-Adam is now 10-8 and ready for calls," I reported and started driving out of the parking lot as the dispatcher responded.
"10-4, 624-Adam," the dispatcher said as I drove out into the street and started taking Hopps to our destination.
It was a mostly quiet drive to our destination while Hopps was resting the box on her lap, the two of us not saying anything for the most part during our trip when we soon arrived at the store with the two of us getting out and heading to the front door before we entered the store.
Hopps looked around in wonder as I approached the female middle-aged cheetah working at the register, then she saw me and smiled warmly as I walked up to the counter and nodded in greeting.
"Sergeant, good to see you so what can I do for you?" Carol inquired as Hopps stood next to me.
"Hey Carol, the precinct just got a new rabbit recruit and she needs to get outfitted with a proper vest since her old one wasn't supposed to be approved for field duty," I explained, just before Carol leaned over the counter to look at Hopps and she looked surprised.
"Well now, I heard that the ZPD was going to get its first rabbit officer, and seeing her for the first time is such a pleasant surprise since something like this would've been unthinkable when I was younger, goes to show that times are changing so how bad was her old vest?" Carol inquired.
"Well, the vest failed on all three tests that had been set up by Mitchell and Hopps here told me that her vest was going to be standard issue for all smaller mammals that graduate the academy," I answered, and Carol's jaw dropped open before she started scowling.
"Are you serious? Okay, whoever thought that was a good idea should get a swift boot up the ass and I have half a mind to march down to precinct 1 myself so that I can tear Chief Bogo a new one for agreeing to hand out such shoddy vests to smaller officers," Carol said irritably as Hopps looked surprised by the cheetah's rant.
"So, would you mind helping her out?" I asked before Carol smirked.
"Hon, I'd thought you never ask since this kind of travesty needs to be corrected immediately," Carol declared before exiting from behind the counter and gesturing Hopps to follow her, causing the rookie to look at me in uncertainty and I motioned for her to go until Hopps followed Carol into the back room and I waited for them after that.
After a short time, Hopps and Carol came out of the back room and I saw the rookie wearing her new vest, which was similar in color to her old one and looked twice as thick while appearing heavier too so I was glad that she was now more protected when it came to body armor as I noticed that she was holding a small crate.
"Nice vest, so I take it you like it?" I asked before Hopps nodded.
"Yeah, this is one of the vests Carol hands out to smaller mammal FBI agents whenever they leave their field office here in the city and need replacements, so I had no idea that the FBI had a male rabbit who works in the behavioral analysis unit," Hopps admitted with a look of surprise and I chuckled.
"Yeah, the FBI hires small mammals all the time so I'm just glad the ZPD was able to catch up with them finally," I stated before Carol cleared her throat.
"Well, I'm just glad I was able to solve this issue, and it's on the house so don't try to convince me otherwise because my mind is made up," Carol declared before I smiled at her.
"Thanks for that, now we should go before we get chewed out by the chief for not doing our job," I said as Hopps and I were about to leave, then Carol waved at us in response before we left and got back into the charger until Hopps used the crate as a seat so that she could see out the windows as I drove us away from the store.
"So, what do we do now?" Hopps asked as I put on my sunglasses since it was bright out today.
"For now, we just drive around savannah central and keep an eye out for anything suspicious or respond to any calls that are in our jurisdiction," I replied as I drove calmly, following the traffic laws until I decided to test Hopps and asked, "Okay boot, what do you do if a suspect you are chasing goes into Little Rodentia?"
Hopps appeared taken aback by the sudden firm question and thought hard about it for a short time before she answered, "Call it in."
"Technically, that's correct since the first step is to pause your pursuit and call it in, then an alarm will go off in Little Rodentia that will instruct cars to pull over to the side of the roads and for rodents to remain on the sidewalks.
Understand that it is imperative you do not follow the perp in since that will allow the perp to calm down and not trample any rodents or topple structures, then you go to one of the four law enforcement doors and these doors are there in case regular-sized officers need to go into Little Rodentia.
Once you reach one of the doors, the code will be relayed to you through dispatch and the goal will be to cut the perp off and flush them out while other officers will be blocking the exits so he flushes out one hole, but the worst-case scenario is that you might have to take the perp into custody in there," I explained and Hopps nodded while looking surprised.
"Wow, the academy didn't even go into such detail so how do you know this, sir?" Hopps asked curiously.
"My dad dealt with a similar situation during his first year in the department where he and his training officer had to chase a perp, who fled into Little Rodentia and it was called in by his training officer before he was sent in to flush the perp out but the perp tripped and fell by accident.
Because of that, 14 rodents and 4 children were killed so the ZPD had put protocols in place to make sure that something like what happened years ago wouldn't happen again," I answered while Hopps looked a little solemn from the tragic story.
"I'm sorry to hear that, sounds rough," Hopps told me before I sighed.
"You don't need to apologize, some things just happen that are out of our control but the most important thing is how we deal with it in the aftermath," I reassured as I recalled how much of a wreck I was after my father died and decided not to think about it anymore.
I drove in content silence for a few minutes when I had to stop for a red light, soon looking around while waiting for the light to turn green when something caught my attention and I narrowed my eyes slightly in suspicion until I subtly motioned my head at it.
"Okay boot, what does that look like to you?" I inquired, then Hopps followed my gesture to a human and a mongoose in an alleyway with the mongoose looking twitchy and showing signs of addiction withdrawal while he and the human were trying not to be noticed as they subtly exchanged something.
"A code 966, definitely a drug deal in progress," Hopps answered and was about to get out of the car when I caught her arm to stop her.
"Easy, you don't just rush in like that because that's how an attempted arrest can go wrong, so you see how the mongoose is all twitchy? He's going to bolt the second he sees you or hear you announce yourself so you take him and I'll hold the human," I instructed as I let go of Hopps, and she nodded.
"Yes sir," Hopps said before I grabbed the mike off the dash radio.
"624-Adam to dispatch, we're code 6 on a possible code 966 so stand by," I reported as Hopps went to grab her door handle, dispatch acknowledging what I said as the rookie looked at me.
"Okay, I'm ready," Hopps told me, then I pulled the charger into the alley before we both got out and the perps spotted us.
"Hey, how are you guys doing?" I asked with a friendly tone before I spotted the bags of narcotics in the hands of the perps as they realized that they had been caught, prompting the mongoose to run and Hopps chased after him with the human appearing like he was about to grab her when I pulled my taser out and aimed at him until he froze.
"Don't even think about it, now show me your hands," I demanded, then the male human immediately shot his hands up while simultaneously tossing his drugs into a nearby trash heap before I sent him an unamused look.
"Are you serious? I can always search to get that out of there so you're an idiot, now turn around and get down on your knees before putting your hands behind your head and interlocking your fingers," I instructed, ready to tase the man if he even so much as tried anything while he seemed to realize that there was no way out and complied.
After I arrested him, read him his rights, and checked him for any weapons or other contraband he might have on him, I put the man in the back of the charger and proceeded to search the trash pile but I was lucky to see the small bag of cocaine sitting on top of a trash bag and not buried in the pile so I took it and went back to the charger to wait for Hopps.
Five minutes later, Hopps came back with the mongoose in front of her while he was cuffed and she looked proud of herself as she guided the mongoose over to the charger and looked up at me with a smile.
"I can see you got him, so did you read him his Miranda rights?" I asked before Hopps nodded.
"Yep, and I got the bag of narcotics he tossed while I was chasing him so it looks like he had cocaine on him," Hopps reported before I sent her a look of approval.
"Good work boot, the most important thing you always have to do is read a suspect their rights while placing them under arrest because not doing it will have their lawyer all over it and we'll have no choice but to let them go, not to mention that it'll be grounds for a lawsuit so you don't want that and the department really doesn't want the bad publicity," I explained as I opened the back door so that Hopps can put the mongoose in the back.
After that, we secured the narcotics into evidence bags, got into the car, and I radioed in that the situation was code 4 with suspects in custody and that we were returning to the precinct to drop off the perps, then I drove us back to the precinct and parked the charger before we got out and brought the perps into the building through the main entrance until Clawhauser perked up when he saw us.
"Hey sergeant, I see our new rabbit officer made her first two arrests so congratulations," Clawhauser praised, causing Hopps to look bashful while I chuckled.
"Yeah, she did and she followed all the correct procedures so I'm glad my gut instinct was right about her," I replied before Clawhauser squealed in excitement, causing the perps in our custody to grimace at the loud noise and a few officers to look to see what the commotion was before doing double takes when they saw that Hopps had a criminal in custody.
"Oh...m...goodness, that's great news! Well, what will these two 'gentlemen' be here for?" Clawhauser asked.
"The human will be booked for possession with intent to distribute while the mongoose will be booked for possession and resisting arrest since he bolted from us, so we'll take these guys to their new homes and go bring the evidence to the evidence room to get it processed," I answered and Clawhauser nodded.
"Will do, have fun," Clawhauser said before Hopps and I escorted the perps to lockup and soon retrieved our cuffs once we were finished getting the perps processed and putting them in two cells.
Hopps and I dropped off the evidence in the evidence room to get it tested for narcotics before we left the precinct and resumed our patrol, spending most of the morning driving around and making a few arrests with the perps being either vandals or causing a public disturbance while I learned that Hopps' first name was Judy until I eventually noticed that it was lunchtime and looked at her.
"Hey, fancy taking a lunch break? It's noon so I'd figure you must be hungry by now, boot," I offered, just before Judy's stomach rumbled and she looked embarrassed at that before she nodded.
"Yeah, I could use something to eat right about now," Judy told me, and I went to grab the mike off the dash radio.
"Dispatch, 624-Adam is code 7 at this time," I reported before dispatch acknowledged it and I spotted a kiosk near an ice cream store, pulling at the side of the street and turning off the engine until I got out and started making my way to the kiosk with Judy right next to me.
We approached the kiosk and greeted the zebra working behind the counter, then we ordered our meals and waited when I heard someone blaring their horn and shouting at somebody from behind me, making me sigh since it was never a dull moment in this city and I kept waiting until the zebra soon handed me two medium salads and drinks consisting of a mocha and carrot juice before I thanked her and went to hand Judy her meal and drink when I noticed that she was gone.
I looked around and didn't see her anywhere before I hurried back to the car in the hopes that she might've decided to wait for me there instead, but she wasn't there and I didn't see her sitting in the passenger seat as I placed our meals and drinks on the hood until I started feeling alarmed that she might've been kidnapped without me noticing as images of me finding her dead body in a nearby alley ran through my mind.
Just when I was about to reach for my radio to call in an 11-99, I saw Judy leaving the ice cream store across the street with a red fox and what appeared to be a fennec fox dressed in an elephant suit, the red fox looking familiar as his green Hawaiian shirt and striped tie reminded me of someone but I couldn't quite recall who while the red fox was carrying a massive red popsicle.
I saw Judy and the red fox chatting about something while I was relieved that she was okay, but I was pissed that she decided to go off on her own without telling me so I was going to let her know how stupid she was being since you never go off on your own without your training officer because of how dangerous it is as I saw the red fox handed the smaller one the popsicle and Judy started talking to the little fella.
She chatted with him while having a kind smile on her face before putting something on his costume, then they finished talking until the two foxes walked away and Judy started hurrying back to the car when she saw me looking less than pleased while I had a scowl on my face and she grimaced as she came back hesitantly while looking uneasy and was about to say something when I cut her off.
"I don't want to hear it, so what the hell were you thinking? You never go off on your own like that without your training officer because that's very irresponsible, so what if something happened and I wasn't able to get to you in time?
One thing you can't ever do is be reckless because that's just going to get you into a situation you wouldn't have been able to get yourself out of, not to mention that you're my responsibility so my ass would've been on the line and I would've been forced to make the call to your family and tried to explain why their daughter is in the morgue," I lectured sternly while Judy flinched, then she started appearing guilty.
"Sorry sir, I thought I saw something suspicious and went to check it out but it turned out to be nothing," Judy explained while looking regretful, then I sighed.
"Look, even if whatever you saw turned out to be nothing, always notify me about it first before you make any decisions like that. Now, let's have lunch since I'm hungry and it's time to relax for a bit before we get back on the job," I stated, and Judy agreed before we got in the car and started enjoying our meals.
Once we were done with our meals and dumped the trash in a bin, I notified dispatch that we were ready for calls and continued patrolling around savannah central for a while but there wasn't anything interesting that happened during that time until dispatch notified us about a broken-down vehicle and we responded to the location, where a large sedan was parked next to the sidewalk with smoke coming out of the engine and a hippo was trying to fix it with no success.
The hippo greeted us and explained that her car broke down while she was heading home, then I went to check the engine and saw that it had seized up before I grimaced and went to look at the driver while resting my hands on my duty belt.
"Okay, we're going to have to have this car towed since it's not going anywhere anytime soon so do you have anybody who can pick you up, maybe a relative?" I inquired and the driver nodded.
"Yeah, my cousin can pick me up and take me home," the driver answered.
"Alright, hold on while I call in for a tow truck," I said and went to grab my radio.
I contacted dispatch and had them notify a tow company so that a truck would come down here to take care of the broken-down car, then we waited for a short while until a tow truck finally arrived and I went to speak to the driver.
"Hey Carl, got another one for you," I greeted warmly and Carl smiled.
"Hello Sergeant, I'll take this off your hands so just hold on for one second," Carl told me as he got out of the truck and went to hook up the car's front bumper.
Carl hooked up the front bumper to the back of the truck and went to raise it as the wolf hummed some tune I didn't recognize, then he was done and shook hands with me before he went back into the truck and drove off just as a ford SUV pulled up and the hippo staying with us had perked up.
"Well, that would be my cousin so thanks for the help," the hippo told me before I nodded.
"No problem, now have a nice day," I replied before the hippo went over to the SUV and got in, then it drove away before I contacted dispatch to tell him that everything was code 4 and we were 10-8 as Judy looked at me.
"Well, I'm guessing we're done here?" Judy asked and I rested my hands on my duty belt.
"Before we go anywhere, I want to ask you about what happened when you decided to go off on your own," I said as Judy tensed up until she sighed.
"Okay, I saw a fox acting kind of suspicious so I wanted to check it out, only he turned out to be a regular dad wanting to buy a jumbo pop for his kit so I helped him out when the owner wasn't being very nice to him," Judy explained.
"Look, as nice as it is that you decided to help him out, you didn't even call it in when you thought he was being suspicious and you went off on your own without notifying me about what you saw so you didn't follow procedure and that's going to get you into trouble with IA, which is something you really don't want so let me know if you see something next time," I lectured before Judy nodded.
"Yes sir," Judy said just as I noticed what appeared to be a small can on her duty belt, and I got a good look to see that it was a can of fox repellent when I narrowed my eyes.
"Boot, you want to explain to me why you have a can of fox repellent on your belt?" I questioned with a hard edge in my voice, causing Judy to flinch as she started looking nervous.
"Sir, I can explain that," Judy said uneasily as I scrutinized her with a hard glare.
"Let me give you a piece of advice, lose the fox repellent because it is vital that we're to have the public's trust when it comes to doing our job and what you have there on your belt, that certainly won't give the public a good first impression because they'll see you as a racist who's stereotyping foxes," I stated sternly until Judy started looking guilty.
"I'm sorry sir, my parents were being pushy about having me take it when I was about to take the train here, so I took the can so that it would get them to stop bothering me about it," Judy said quietly, then I stared at her for a few moments until my eyes softened.
"Look, I'm sure you're a good person, just try not to carry something like that on your belt since it'll give people the wrong impression about you," I replied and Judy nodded.
"Don't worry sir, I won't carry the fox repellent anymore and I don't even know why I thought that was a good idea in the first place," Judy stated, then I noticed something across the street that made me furrow my eyes in confusion.
"Hopps, that fox you were talking about, was he wearing a green Hawaiian shirt with a tie and khaki pants while his son was dressed in an elephant costume?" I asked, catching Judy's attention and she perked up.
"Yeah, why?" Judy inquired curiously, then I simply pointed at what I saw across the street and Judy turned to look when she smiled as she saw the small fox in the elephant costume and was about to call out to him, only she got a good look at what was happening across the street and she started appeared puzzled.
By a rain gutter for one of the apartment buildings were several glass jars of notable size standing upright, most of them already filled with some kind of red liquid and it was too light to be blood, but what was interesting was that the fennec fox kit from earlier was pushing one of the jars into position over the exit of the gutter as the red liquid poured out from it.
Up on the roof was the red fox from earlier, only he had aviator shades on and had the almost melted remains of the massive red popsicle from earlier propped up on some makeshift platform, the red fluid from the popsicle flowing down the shingles on the roof and into the gutter.
After that, the fox had shaken the stick to get off the last little bit of the popsicle and chucked the stick off of the roof, then he slid down the shingles and used the gutter as if it were a firefighter's pole while I stared with narrowed eyes since he still seemed familiar to me and I had no idea where I knew him from so that was a little puzzling.
The fox and his son gathered the jars after sealing them with caps and loading them onto a van that sparked a hint of recognition in me, then they got into the van and it started with a smoky backfire before it took off down the street and I was flabbergasted to see the fox's kit driving the van as he sucked on his pacifier occasionally.
"What the hell?" I questioned with wide eyes while Judy and I shared a bewildered look.
"Sir, how the hell could a kit be driving a van?" Judy asked until I frowned suspiciously.
"I don't think that was a kit who's driving the van so I'm going to call this in, but before I do, hand over the fox repellant," I said as I held out my hand, then Judy removed the can from its holster and gave it to me.
"Sir, what are you going to do with it?" Judy asked and I stared down at the can in disgust.
"I'm going to get rid of it because whoever came up with something like this deserves a swift boot up the ass, and if my father were still around to see an officer carry something like this, then he would've ripped them a new one," I said before I headed to a trashcan and dumped the fox repellent into it.
After that, I contacted dispatch to let them know that Judy and I were code 6 on possible suspicious activity and requested an ID on the driver of the van by giving them a description of the vehicle and the license plate as Judy and I headed back to the car and got in, then dispatch soon informed me who the owner of the vehicle is and my eyes narrowed when I heard the name.
"Are you okay, sir?" Judy asked when she saw that I didn't look happy.
"I know who owns that van and if I'm right, then I have a feeling I know who the passenger is," I replied while starting the engine and didn't elaborate as I started driving after the van, beginning to follow it while I kept my hardened gaze on the vehicle.
A/N So, I'm finally finished with this chapter and I couldn't find a code for a drug deal in progress so I had to come up with one myself and I hope I don't keep you guys waiting like that again since real life and writer's block can be a real pain sometimes.
Well, with that said, let me know what you think and stay tuned.