In the middle of the night of Sun City's Downtown, reporters are closely encircling a car crash. In the middle, assistant mayor Hammy Pink and police officer Judy Hops are standing, reporters are swarming the pig and the bunny with questions: "did Judy hops saved your life?" "Were you surprised to found the mayor in the car crash?" "Was the predator trying to kill you?" "Could the assistant mayor have died if you weren't here?" Judy, unlike Hammy pink casually answering questions, feels much muffled. In hopes of answering every question at the same time, she says loudly "alright listen up, I will tell how it happened and after that, I won't answer any more questions, I have other things to do." Many reporters turned to Judy, pointing their microphones to her.
''I was patrolling close to the incident when someone reported over my radio that a serious car crash happened near me and a car was on fire. It took me only a minute to get to the incident, the fire wasn't so bad. I got the pig out of the burning car and found out it was the mayor, yes I was surprised but she is a Sun City's citizen like everyone else, so she didn't get special treatment. After this, I dragged the wolf off of the other car, he was unconscious. The assistant mayor told me to arrest him, because apparently he tried to kill her. Just as a precaution, yes, I cuffed and muzzled him. Then backup came and picked him up. I don't know if he was trying to kill her or not and I don't know what is going to happen to him. Also, yes, I am glad to have saved Ms. Hammy Pink. That is all.
As Judy returns back to her police car, the media, especially the stubborn "pawx news" team, is still trying to get more answers "can predators be dangerous when driving?" "Are some criminals trying to kill Hammy Pink?" Ignoring the questions, Judy starts off the car and leaves. The assistant mayor, on the other side finds pleasure answering as much as she can: "yes, I think that predator was trying to kill me, his car was way bigger and he drove straight at me" "Of course, we should incorporate a stricter Code of Conduct."
Judy, driving back to the police station, puts background music in her car to relax her from all that pressure she had with the media. (I'm like a bird by 'furnado'). Why was there so many reporters? She asks herself. Was it just because it was the assistant mayor? She just did her job. Anyway, her work is almost over, the only thing left to do is put some papers in order and then she's free to get a nice sleep back home.
Nick wakes up but doesn't get up. He just lays in his bed, looking at his dripping roof, contemplating the world around him. How could such a crazy city not fall apart? Or maybe it will one day, maybe it's just a fragile house of cards. Maybe someone just has to poke it, to challenge its structure. Or maybe, it's already a broken house of cards. That's most likely it, a broken, stupid city, full of stupid animals, full of-
Nick's thoughts get suddenly interrupted as his cellphone vibrates. Looking at the notification he received, he frowns a little. Duke Weaselton, a weasel he knows because of his pickpocketing skills, sent him a text message. He's only a contact like many others Nick have. Just someone that he could work with to get money. Nick doesn't have a lot of friends, in fact, he doesn't have a single real friend he could go out with and enjoy a walk together. If he knows someone, it is because he needs them to make a little money, and if they know him, it was for the same reason. A sly fox that is a con artist can be very useful for a lot of animals.
The message he received from the weasel was oddly short: "come to my apartment building I have something big". Annoyed by the fact that the weasel seemed to act "mysterious" Nick tries to hide the fact that he is intrigued and replies "big for you, little weasel". But the number was no longer in service. The fact that Weaselton managed to delete his phone number after the message scared but intrigued Nick even more. Maybe he really has something big to say. Well, he has nothing to lose, finally getting out of bed, Nick quickly does his morning routine and goes out.
By taking a bus, he arrives at his destination, in happy town again. The apartment building Weaselton lived in was even crappier than his. It was about 6 stories high, the doors and apartment windows were made for smaller animals like ferrets and bunnies, but there was a bigger door enveloping a smaller one for bigger animals. Nick noticed before entering a polar bear waiting in his car just outside the building. Looking at his fancy clothing, Nick noticed the polar bear was probably from the tundra mafia. It was probably the worst mafia of SunCity, what was he doing here? Hoping it doesn't concerns someone in the apartment building, Nick stops staring at the bear and enters it. The hallway was fortunately also adapted for bigger animals, even the windows were at a good height. But it didn't mean the building was any less crappy, the walls weren't even painted. Nick goes upstairs to the 3rd floor, where Duke Weaselton's apartment was. He was about to knock on his door when it unexpectedly opens. Weaselton comes out smiling mischievously with his paws behind his back.
Nick annoyed, replies "Please, Duke not-so-wise-elton, just get to the point."
The weasel, still keeping his smile responds "I called you because I knew you were the kind of fox that would know how to make money with the treasure I have" He then stomped on Nick's feet, saying "Don't you call me names, fox!" as Nick yipped.
"Why did you do, that? Wait, HOW did you do that?" asks Nick as he notices Weaselton's collar is turned off."
Weaselton, excited, gives Nick a controller "Look at it, that's the treasure I was talking about! It can deactivate your collar! Imagine the things we could do with this! We could deactivate some collars in exchange for money!" Nick, surprised by the rectangular controller, but also worried, looks at it. It only has two buttons: on and off.
Turning back to the weasel Nick asks "I bet that thing is very illegal, where you found this?" casually, he replies, "I stole it from Kozolov" Kozolov was the godfather of the tundra mafia, Nick couldn't believe what he heard.
"Kozolov? Are you crazy? "Before the weasel could reply, Nick quickly remembered the polar bear he saw outside the building "oh no…" "What?" says Weaselton. Wide eyed and talking very fast, Nick says "quick, we need to get out of here, Kozolov's men followed you, there was a polar bear outside he must-" before he could finish, they heard heavy footsteps climbing up the stairs. Weaselton looking very stressed, Tells Nick "w-wait here, I will talk to them"
Two big polar bears come up the stairs, and are stare straight in the fox and the weasel's eyes. They do not look very happy and… their collars… were turned off.
As the weasel slowly walks towards them, Nick whispers to him "This is suicide!" but Weaselton keeps walking. Looking down their feet at the weasel, the polar bears seem to wait for an explanation. "It's the fox I swear, look he has the controller, get him!" That stupid weasel! Thinks Nick. One of the polar bears grabs Weaselton By the neck while the other one walks straight towards Nick. Recoiling back Nick turns looks around him for a way out. The window at the end of the hallway, It's the only way! Turning around Nick runs towards it while the polar bear, having noticed his intentions, starts running too. Closing his eyes and hoping he won't break any bones, Nick jumps out of the window, breaking it into pieces and falls from 3 stories on the grass. Landing on his back, Nick gets up fairly easily "Ow" It hurt but at least he didn't break his legs if he was able to get up, being light has its advantages. Not even looking back at the building, Nick runs, he runs literally for his life, passing on red lights, making cars honk, he doesn't care, he does not look back and he keeps running like tiredness never existed. After almost a kilometer he finally stops and rests his back against a wall in an alley. Panting, he peeks out of the alley to see if someone followed him. What a relief, it doesn't seem like it.
Getting back to reality, he notices he still has the remote on his paw. He looks at it like it was a rotten bug burger. Looking at a garbage container he considers throwing it away to avoid problems… but this thing could solve a lot of others too.
Nick waits in a coffee shop in the rainforest district near his home for his friend Finnick. He works with him a lot, he is a rough Fennec. Nick needs to figure out what to do with this remote and that fennec is the only person he knows that he could trust, at least a little. Still waiting for him, he sends him another text "Are you coming or not?" Finnick immediately replies "Calm down your tail I'm not your pizza delivery guy, I will arrive when I want to!" Tough guy that Finnick, Nick says to himself. While he waits for him, Nick unfolds a newspaper that was on his table and reads the headline
"Bunny cop now becomes best cop In SunCity!" Nick thinks to himself: "huh, at first people were laughing at the first bunny police officer, and now she is the best in the city. Sometimes I love the craziness that city brings."
Hearing the door of the shop open, Nick turns to his side to notice Finnick entering. He had sunglasses. Nick loves when Finnick wears those, he looked like a little thug, which he actually is. Finnick is the kind of animal that always looks angry, but isn't really. That's great for him, if he really was an angry living being, he would probably get shocked to death by his collar. Finnick jumping on a chair in front of him, greets Nick with his deep voice.
"Well here I am, what the hell do you want?"
"Hey Finnick, you look pretty tough today, it must be the glasses" says Nick, smirking
Pulling them out and revealing his brown eyes, Finnick replies: "Quit the boring jokes and spit out what you want to say"
"Well, It's about that thing" Nick warps the controller in the newspaper and gives it to Finnick so he can give it a look
The fennec unwraps it, takes a glimpse of it and gives the controller back to Nick.
"Okay, so what the hell is it?"
Nick, putting the controller back in his pocket, answers: "this controller can deactivate our collars."
"Where the fox did you found that?"
"Do you know Weaselton?"
"Yea, I know him, and I don't like him"
"Well, he stole it from Kozolov"
"What? That weasel is crazy! Why do you have it now?"
Nick, leaning back into his chair, explains in details the events that happened in Weaselton's apartment block. Finnick hears the fox with a stupefied look on his face.
"Nick you are a genius for keeping that controller but also an idiot for jumping through a window"
"Well I actually wanted to ask you advices about it. Should I just throw it away?"
"No don't throw it away, are you crazy? You can do a lot of things with that, you can make money and use it personally if you ever need it one day."
"Yea I guess. I just hope I won't get tracked by the police or Kozolov or something…"
"Kozolov probably has a hundred of them, he tracked Weaselton because he disrespected him, that's all, and the police doesn't know anything so you can sleep peacefully."
"You're right Finnick. I'll think about it tomorrow, I'm tired right now, I think I'm going to bed now."
"I can't guaranty that I won't murder you in your sleep because you called me a cutie the other day, so watch out"
Laughing, Nick replies "Alright I'll watch out how cute you are, don't worry"
Finnick leaves first, putting his sunglasses on even though he is in the rainforest district. What a show off, thinks Nick.
Nick finishes a water bottle he bought earlier and then heads home, where he sleeps, indeed peacefully, but with mixed feelings of excitement and wonder.