"So I say 'they only add sawdust to their bug-loaf every other day'!" Nick sniggered. "A load of shit, but it got him to talk!"

"The things some people will believe," Clawhauser said, with a laugh. "Honestly, sawdust?"

Nick shrugged. "Actually, the lie was that they cut down. They say the only crooks that come out of Hoth fatter are the beavers!" Nick gestured at his snout. "So, yeah, keep your nose clean, Claw."

Clawhauser reached up and touched his upper lip and the white powdery substance there. "Heh-heh! It's powdered sugar, Nick!"

Nick waved him off indifferently. "Hey, I don't judge."

"So," Clawhauser said, leaning in. "I hear you and Judy had another 'case review'. Isn't the Rikko case closed?"

"We'll know for sure later today, when the lab results get back." Nick shrugged. "Carrots was feeling down about losing the informant, so I decided to hang with her a bit."

Clawhauser donned a confused expression. "Lab results? Lab results for what? Also, an informant? What?"

Nick sighed and rolled his eyes. "Oh, that figures. The Mayor wants this case closed now that he's gone and publically announced that it was. Anyway, without telling the biggest mouth on the force–"

"Hey!"

"–any compromising info, I'll just tell that you we may have found a lead. Trust me, I don't want this case to turn into a whole big kaboodle, but our informant, he knew things. Not just things about the Rikko case, but about a bunch of other things, too. So, y'know, just sit on that for a bit." He turned around, his ears perking up. "Oh, hey! Here's Carrots now. Wish me luck, I'm gonna have to keep her sane until the results come back."

Judy darted up to them, practically dragging a profoundly soused goat behind her. She sat the goat down against the front desk and grabbed Nick by the wrist. "Claw! Found a drunk, do the thing. Nick! Fish fuck in it! C'mon!"

"Off to a good start, eh, Nick?" Clawhauser called after him as Judy dragged him away.

"Hey man," the goat slurred from the floor. "Izzis th' sleepin' place?"

Clawhauser shook his head. "No, that's in the back. Would you like a glass of water?"

"Dint ya hear th'lady?" the goat said defensively. "Ent drinkin no fish swimmers!"

Nick stumbled along, trying to keep up with her as she bobbed and weaved them through their fellow officers. "Carrots? Hey! What's all this about?"

"I took a page out of your book, Nick!" Judy said, not looking back at him. "I was talking to this drunk homeless guy and I got a flash!"

"Yeah, that's a risk you run," Nick said, flatly. "You seem to be taking it well, though."

"Ha-ha. I meant that I got a hunch, like, a super hunch! It's the water, Nick, they's gonna poison the well!" They finally arrived at their cubicle; Judy practically jumped into her chair and logged on, anxiously waiting for the computer to boot up. "See, there used to be these big pumphouses all over the city, four in total, I think, they pumped water to the treatment plant that used to be under downtown."

"Yeah, I remember those." Nick thought back to his youth and the sinister-looking buildings, how he used to dare his friends to stay overnight in their dark, damp, groaning halls. "Spooky-looking places. They got rid of them when each district began purifying their own water, if I recall correctly they still use the big main pipes to get water to the Bridgeway super-pump."

"The beating heart of the city," Judy said, cracking her knuckles as she set in on drumming up the information. "I remember the slogan. Funny how they tried to sell 'we don't want to decentralize public services' as a Zootopian ideal."

"Politics," Nick scoffed. "So, what are you doing?"

"Pulling up the city water map, all the pipes, pumps, access stations, sewers, you name it." Judy's ears drooped as the crisscross tangle of pipes and mains popped up; to call it a maze was a profound understatement, it looked almost like an avant-garde fractal of pipes. She rallied quickly and accessed the search bar. "Moment of truth…Rikko Electronics Warehouse."

The computer paused for a single agonizing second before the tag that was the address appeared on the screen, a zoom-in revealed that it was situated directly overtop one of the four massive intake water mains that led to the giant water turbines of the Bridgeway super-pump station. Judy tapped her finger to the screen hard enough to deform it slightly, squealing excitedly. "Nick! Nick! Look!"

"I see it," he said, leaning over her shoulder and typing into the search bar. "Now, what could a warehouse, a mansion, and a grocery store have to do with the water?" He typed in the addresses of the other two places and, sure enough, both were located directly above the water mains. "Oh, my God…"

"All of them were built over the old pumphouses," Judy said, her voice hushed and horrified. "Bylaws state that those areas need to be filled in or given rudimentary access points."

"Three guesses as to which option they took," Nick grumbled. "And it's not the one that involves fifty grand worth of concrete!"

"Nick," Judy said, looking up at him, horror clear on her face. "All the water that goes through those pipes has been filtered, anything that gets introduced at those points…"

"Will go straight through the main pump and into every reservoir in the city!" Nick slammed his fist on the table and made for the hall. "Let's tell the Chief that we need to renew the Rikko warrant."

Judy took a screencap of the various parts of the map and sent them to her phone, shooting to her feet and racing after Nick. "I'm right behind you!"

Bogo stood up and looked out his window, looking out at where, just the day before, hundreds of various media outlets had turned out at the Mayor's request. How the lemming had known they'd caught Manny Beetz, much less the fact that he had confessed was still a mystery. 'Going to have to crack down on this place. Loose lips and leaky faucets…'

"Sir?" came from behind. "Are you going to call the Mayor?"

Bogo turned around and looked at the fox and bunny sitting across from him. A year and a half ago, if anyone had told him that not only would he have a bunny and a fox on the force, but that they'd be two of his best people, he'd have suspected them of some kind of profound substance abuse. And yet here they were, WildeHopps, a moniker he had reluctantly grown fond of, uncovering yet another heinous crime. Or, they would have been, were it not for the political element that so frequently barged its way into police work.

"The Rikko Case is closed. There will be no warrant renewal." Bogo said, flatly, awaiting the deluge of indignant protests that he knew were coming.

"You're not even going to try?!" Detective Wilde exclaimed, leaping to his feet.

"I already did," Bogo said, sitting his massive bulk down. "The second the press conference was over, I approached the Mayor and told him what you had found and requested an extension on the warrant. He denied it out of hand, said that I should have brought it up before the 'impromptu press conference'! You'll have to wait until the lab results show something conclusive, then we can petition City Hall for a renewal."

"But we don't know how long that's going to take!" Detective Hopps cried. "Forget the renewal, we'll open a new case with what we have."

"And what, exactly, do you have, Hopps?" Bogo rumbled. "A vial of 'something', the testimony of a known terrorist who, by your own admission, either went into hiding or is dead? Even with your reputation, you wouldn't be able to get so much as a rejection letter with that. Now, unless you have something else to go on, preferably something that doesn't require a warrant, I'd suggest you sit tight and wait for the techies to do their jobs."

Wilde scoffed and turned to Hopps, who had a contemplative look on her face. The fox turned back to the Chief, smirking as smugly as possible. Bogo himself smiled internally, both he and Wilde knew what that face meant. Hopps snapped her fingers and grinned. "In Tundra Town! The pumpstation up there hasn't been demolished yet, it's city property; we wouldn't need a warrant to investigate! And I'll bet my ears that whatever it was they were doing at Rikko, they did it there first!"

"We'll need probable cause, though," Wilde said, already knowing the answer.

"I have it on good authority that several persons were forcibly removed from the premises, with at least two alleged murders," she said proudly.

"Drunk, raving authority," Wilde clarified. "But it's good enough. Chief, do we have authorization to investigate a month-old public disturbance?"

Bogo snorted and leveled a glare at the pair. "You two do understand that if you find anything, anything at all, that supports your conspiracy theory, the Mayor will look like a complete fool?" Bogo's glare gave way to a rare and decidedly malicious smile. "Well? What are you waiting for? You'd better get on the road if you're going to beat traffic!"

With that the Detectives shot to their feet and were out the door, Bogo smirked to himself and began filling out the required paperwork. 'Impromptu press conference, eh? Have fun explaining this one to the board, Ketchikan!'

Nick examined his sidearm as the cruiser thundered down the highway towards Tundra Town. "Hmm. These things only carry three zap-nets. You think that'll be enough?"

Judy scoffed, twisting the steering wheel in her hands. "You say that like they'll still be there. We get in, sniff around, inspect the water main, and if what we need is there we report back and get our warrant. Easy as pie!"

Nick thumbed three magazines into his belt, making a mental note of every pepper pellet and net canister he had on his person. "I'd still be there, Carrots; if this was my operation, I'd make this place my alpha-site. Think about it, unguarded, plenty of access hatches and maintenance tunnels to duck into, not to mention the place is built like a fortress. If they started there like you think, I'd say odds are pretty good that they stayed there."

Judy ruminated on this and started pulling spare magazines from the storage unit in the center console. "There are times that I'm glad that you didn't become a criminal mastermind."

"Yeah, me too." Nick flicked the switch on his MSIM and smirked. "If I was, I'd have you on my tail!"

The cruiser entered the tunnel the intersected the wall between downtown and Tundra Town, the massive vacuum-insulated barrier that partitioned the typically sub-zero habitat from the rest of Zootopia. Even through the great wall, the thrum of the heat-scubbers could be heard as they streaked through the tunnel, siphoning thermal energy from the atmosphere of the frigid district and blasting it out where it was needed in Sahara Square. The scrubbers had been working overtime during the heat wave, and now that it had broken they were still in the process of winding down: it was a cold day in Tundra Town.

They pulled to a stop just outside the pumphouse. The wind howled and kicked up sand-dry wisps of snow that whirled and danced around the undeveloped fields surrounding the large, ominous concrete monolith. Judy leapt out of the cruiser and started towards it with Nick close behind. The freezing wind of the tundra cut through her uniform like a knife, but she withstood it, knowing that even though it was abandoned the pumphouse would have some sort of heating device to prevent the water pipes from freezing. The concrete would act as insulation and keep the interior bearable; not comfortable, but a sight better than outside.

Judy reached up and grabbed the knob to the rusted steel door, she turned back and looked at Nick, he pulled his sidearm out and readied it, giving her an affirmative nod when he was ready. She twisted the knob and, with a low metallic groan, the tumblers disengaged and the door swung open. Judy stepped through the door, her nose curling at the smell; it was damp, humid, and cloying in its richness, the kind of earthy mold smell that reminded her of the grain silo that had collapsed back on the farm due to a burst irrigation pipe: the smell of disturbed earth and rotting wheat. She turned back to look at Nick, who was also no fan of the dilapidated stench. She could tell by the way his ears snapped back and the unconscious sneer exposing his fangs that his sharp fox nose was picking up something else, something worse.

"What is it?" she asked, her hand drifting down to her sidearm.

"Can't say. There's so much rot around here, it could be rust and water and mold…" he said, walking out in front of her, his arm outstretched as he corralled her behind him, "…or blood. Keep behind me, Carrots."

Judy scoffed and made to walk out ahead of him. "The gallant knight to my rescue? One side, Wilde!"

He grabbed her by the shoulder and held her in place, making a show of flicking the inoperative light switch. "More like 'let the guy with night vision lead the way' dumb bunny!"

Judy noted the uncharacteristic tension in his voice and nodded, shuffling back behind him. Nick flicked on the red-LEDs of his flashlight, to his sensitive eyes the hallway lit up as though under a floodlight, but to Judy there was only a meager cone of murky crimson. The two proceeded at a fast, hushed pace; neither making so much as a sound as they turned the corner. At the far end of the hall was a door, a thin sliver of light shone out from under it. As they approached Nick hissed quietly, Judy noticed his shoulders tensing as he sniffed the air.

"Smell anything?" she whispered.

"Blood," he replied, his voice hoarse. "Blood and…other stuff. Also, ferret."

"Oh, God." Judy reached up and opened the door, quietly as possible, and the two slipped in, closing the door behind them.

The room was sparsely appointed, with a tiny bed off in one corner, a flimsy-looking chair and a crate-and-board desk covered with papers. Judy rushed to the desk, scanning over the assembled documents. "What on earth…?"

Nick groaned and clapped his hand over his nose. "Ah! God! It stinks like musk and blood and piss in here!"

She spun around, two pieces of paper in her hands. "Nick, look at this. These are official OmniGreen and Bug Burga documents, they look like sales figures."

Nick walked over and looked at the documents in her hands, pointing at the margins where a scrawl of letters and interconnecting dashes were. "What's this gobbledygook in the margins?"

"Looks like chemical formulas…" Judy turned back to the desk, seeing the far more amateurishly laid-out documents. "These were done independently, there's the same chemical formula here as in the margin. But what do these graphs mean?"

"Uh-oh." Nick pointed at the nearest line-graph's y-axis, or rather its label. "Population Adipose Saturation. Sounds kinda familiar, doesn't it?"

Judy shuffled through each document, her ears drooping in horror. "Predator, Prey, nearly every major genus group…what the hell are they up to here?"

"Nothing good," Nick said, sniffing the air. "Not that we needed legal documentation to figure that out."

"Hhhhhhgggggg…" a groan sounded throughout the room, both Nick and Judy spun on their heels, their weapons drawn on the source, a door in the adjacent wall.

Judy stepped forward when Nick stopped her, signing for her to look at the foot of the door; there was no light inside. He then gestured at himself, signing for his night vision followed by a questioning affirmative; Judy rolled her eyes and nodded. Nick started forward, weapon at the ready, he flattened himself against the wall and inched closer. He reached out and grasped the doorknob, slowly turning it and opening the door. He leapt from behind the wall and into the doorframe, weapon up. What struck him first was the stench, the god-awful stink of blood, fear, and other unfortunate odors that rolled out of the room and washed over him in a hot front. And then he saw him, saw the state of him, and cried out. Nick stepped back, his ears flat against his skull as his lips fleered back in a terrified grimace, a low groan of horror escaped his mouth.

"Nick?" Judy said, starting towards. "What's in there?"

"Carrots!" he turned and rushed towards her. "Don't! Don't look in there! It's–!"

Judy easily sidestepped her partner, only for him to reach out and grab her wrist. "Let go of me, Nick!"

"Judy!" Nick exclaimed. "I think…I think it's Richie."

Judy's ears dropped instantly, her eyes wide. She pulled her arm free and raced over to the room, even with her less sensitive sense of smell the fetor emanating from the room made her gag.

"…Judy?" a weak, slurred voice said.

Judy gasped, a shape in the dark moved as he raised his head, his remaining amber eye catching the light. "Richie."

She rushed over to him; he was tied to a chair, stripped naked, and he looked like…something had been at him, all over. That eye followed her, the ruins around it twisted in some familiar way, was he trying to smile? "Knew you'd come."

"Don't talk, Richie," Judy said, her voice hitching as she tried to stay calm. "We'll get you help, okay? We'll-we'll…oh, God…"

"I did good?" he croaked.

"Yes!" without thinking she reached out to grab what used to be his left hand, but stopped herself. "You saved the city, Richie."

The eye fluttered and closed, his head fell forward. Judy reached out and felt for a pulse, a sigh of relief escaped her when she felt a weak, slow pulse. She pulled her hand away and looked at it, Richie's warm, sticky blood coated her fingers.

"I just called for back up!" Nick said, carefully walking into the room. "An ambulance should be here in…is he…?"

"No," Judy said flatly. "He's alive, somehow."

Nick walked over, trying his best not to look at the poor mammal's ravaged body, instead focusing on what appeared to be a mason jar full of water strung upside down from a coat-rack, connected to Richie's right arm via surgical tubing. "Rut me…is this what I think it is?"

"McNulty was a registered nurse way back," Judy said, her voice in that same flat, cold tone, "Kept him alive…more fun that way."

"Carrots?" Nick walked over to her. "Are you okay?"

"No," Judy said, flintily. "I'm not. We're going to get him, Nick. The others I couldn't care less about, I want him."

He swallowed nervously; this was a side of Judy he'd never seen before. "Well, how do you want to go about it? Wait for back-up?"

Judy shook her head, drawing her weapon. "The sirens will give us away, they might escape. I say we track them down and net them."

Nick sighed and nodded. "I'm right behind you, Carrots."

They turned and made for the door when it swung open suddenly, happy singing preceded a small furry rump as a ferret pushed his way through backwards. "No doubt about it/we fight and we tout it/we're the very best at being baaaad guuuys~' Honey, I'm home! Sorry, I got a bit peckish and made myself some lunch. I made you lemongrass veggie soup! It may sting a bit, but you need the electrolytes if we're gonna play anymore. So I–" he turned around, in his hands was a tray with a sandwich, a glass of what appeared to be beer, and a bowl of soup. He stared at Nick and Judy for a moment, his expression more bemused than concerned. "Dick-Dick! Rude! You shoulda told me you were bringing friends over! I'll go get some more refreshments…"

"Freeze! Get down on the ground!" Judy roared, her MSIM trained on the ferret. "Now, creep! Now!"

"If it's that big a'deal, you can have my sandwich," Finn said glibly. "I'll just make another one."

"Unless you want a little pepper with your lunch," Nick said, brandishing his weapon. "You'll get down on the ground and put your hands on your head!"

Finn sighed and placed the tray down on the floor, he picked up the glass of beer and began to drink. Judy stepped forward, gritting her teeth. "What the hell are you doing?! Down on the ground! Now!"

Finnegan gestured 'wait a second' as he drained the glass, belching loudly when he finished. He chucked it over his shoulder where it shattered against the wall. With a decidedly casual flair he knelt down and put his hands on his head, lying down on his belly.

Judy was on him a second later, pulling his hands behind his back. "Finnegan McNulty, you are under arrest for kidnapping, torture, attempted murder, and trespassing on city property. Do you understand the charges as they are read to you?"

"Okay, I know this looks bad," Finn said, spinning his head around completely to look at her, his dark eyes glittering like flecks of obsidian above a shiny white shark-grin. "But it's actually much, much worse!"

Nick walked over and nudged the sandwich with his foot. "Oh, God, what's in this thing?"

Finn rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation. "It's tuna. Do you think I'm some sort of savage?"

"A question for the ages," Nick muttered, turning to look at the ferret. "Oh, and by the way; we know. About the water mains, about the poison, that nice little romp you guys set us on, we know it all!"

"You're not wriggling out of this one, McNulty!" Judy hissed in his ear. "Not this time! Once our back-up gets here, you and your friends are going someplace cramped and dark and you're never getting out!"

Finn smirked, there was something in his eyes that wrapped its cold fingers around her insides; it was admiration. "Has anyone ever told you that you're beautiful when you're angry?" Judy scowled and twisted his arm up painfully, Finn hissed and tensed, but his smile returned a moment later. "~Moooore~"

"Don't let him get to you, Carrots," Nick warned.

"Eh-heh! 'Carrots'!" Finn's smile widened, somehow. "That's cute, you two are cute. I like you!"

"Shut up!" Judy reached into her pocket to get a zip-tie.

"Eh-heh-heh-heh!" Finn chuckled. "I'm guessing I'm your first ferret perp. Well, for future reference: we're flexible."

Finn's lower body arched up like a rising snake, his feet clasped around Judy's head. With a modicum of effort he flung her backwards, her head slamming against the concrete with tremendous force. Stars exploded behind Judy's eyes as a hideous pain burst inside her skull, stunning her. Finn was on his feet before Nick could bring his weapon up; he coiled long body like a spring and flung himself at the fox with tremendous speed. Nick grunted as the heavy, muscular body struck him center mass, staggering him, claws dug into his skin as Finn clambered over and onto his back. Nick screamed as long, sharp teeth dug into the flesh of his shoulder, Finn whipped his entire body up on a pivot and brought it back down with all the power he could muster, planting his feet firmly on the floor as he swung the fox backwards in an arch, slamming him into the ground, bouncing his head against the concrete. Finn bounded for the door, swinging it open and turning back to the dazed cops.

"S-stop!" Judy said unsteadily, getting to her feet as she gathered her weapon. "I won't let you get away!"

Finn hopped and pranced in front of her, his body undulated and snapping about in a jovial boneless manner. His eyes were shiny black marbles, glittering with hateful amusement; Nick's blood soaked the fur around his mouth, making him seem like some sort of grotesque clown. "Well then! Come and get me! Chase me, bunny! Chase me! Eh-heh-heh-heh!"

He darted out the door and scurried down the hallway, his laughter echoing off the walls. Judy almost took off after him when she heard a groan from behind; she turned to see Nick stirring on the ground, clutching the goose egg forming on his head. "Nick! Are you okay?"

"No…" Nick said, touching his hand to his shoulder, grimacing at the blood on his fingers. "But I'll live. I think."

"Good!" Judy shot to her feet. "Now, let's go ferret-hunting!"

"Hopps, wait!" Nick stood up. "What about the others? He's obviously leading us away from them! We should wait for back-up to get here."

Judy took off out the door. "Wait for back-up, then! That little monster's mine!"

"Judy!" Nick called after her, her footfalls growing ever quieter. He paused, looking around the room, before finally cursing to himself and collecting his sidearm off the floor. He set off to follow Judy but stopped when he smelled something; the food that Finnegan had brought, the scent trail led in the opposite direction, down the hallway. Nick agonized for a moment. 'What if they set it off early? What if they're just that crazy? But Judy…what am I saying? She doesn't need you to protect her, Slick! She's the strongest person you've ever met! Go stop the bad guys, she can take care of herself…she can take care of herself…'

Elim thumbed through various real-estate ads on his phone, making a mental note of prices and cost of upkeep; forty million was a lot of money, and he had some pretty good ideas on where to buy stocks, but he was a frugal mammal regardless.

"Mama, it was good to talk with you, now say goodbye," Grigori spoke slowly into his phone. "No, Mama, in English. You need practice if you're going to live here…da, da, you are. You are going to live in the New Country. It's better…you and Anya and Kseniya, you all come live with Grisha, da? …Keep the old house and rent it out, or sell it, it's yours…that's right, it's yours…Practice your English with Anya, Mama. She's better than me! Da, Grisha loves you too. Goodbye Mama."

Elim snorted in amusement. "For the scariest guy I know, you're adorable."

Grigori only hissed and sat down in his chair. "For the smartest guy I know, that was a stupid thing to say!"

Elim opened his mouth to retort when his phone buzzed, Finn was texting him. He opened the text and read. 'did someone order craft beer?'

Elim blinked, so much about that question didn't make sense. 'wat'

'because wildehopps delivers apparently!' was the response. 'they're here and they're bringing friends! got the bunny chasing me, but the fox isn't. do something.'

Elim felt his heart drop into his stomach; his hands began shaking so badly he nearly dropped the phone. 'the papers?'

'on my desk, go grab em. i'll be in the access tunnel on the far side. take care of the fox and meet me there, I don't think they know where we hid the truck'

"Shit," Elim muttered hoarsely as he leapt to his feet. "Shit, shit, shit! shit! Get the spare canisters!"

"What–?" Grigori said with a start.

"Now, dammit! Now!" Elim bellowed, rushing over to the table holding his laptop and various file folders. Grigori hopped to his feet a raced out the back door, Elim began shoving the papers and files into bags and stopped to type on the computer. He hit enter and the program began to initialize, a loading bar slowly began to progress, he never took his eyes off it as he slug his backpack over his shoulder. "C'mon…c'mon…"

"Ah-bup-bup!" a voice said from behind. "Drop the bag and put your hands on your head!"

Elim complied and turned around, a serious-looking red fox leveled some kind of weapon at him, the bloody bite-wound on his shoulder and the look in his eyes suggested that he was in no mood to mess around. "Hey now…uh, officer?"

"Detective," he corrected, tersely.

Elim stepped back from the computer, subtly changing his body language to suggest that there was something important off to his right. "Hey now, Detective! Look, my buddies and I are from out of town, we're between jobs and shit; we just needed a place to stay, y'know? And rent is such a bummer, dude!"

"Cut the shit, Elim!" Detective Wilde growled. "I know what you're up to! You, McNulty and Yivjennyvick."

"Yevgenyevich," Elim corrected. "And…okay, I'm dying to know. How'd you figure it out?"

"I didn't," Wilde said, walking forward, noticing Elim's subtle use of preference for the space to his right. 'I'm being led. He's using a false feint, making it seem like there's something I should notice to his right…heh, used this trick in my slight-of-hand scams all the time! Don't hustle a hustler, buddy!'

Nick took aim and fired a net, the capsule screamed across the room and deployed, encapsulating the laptop and sending it skittering off the table. Elim cursed and spun around. The laptop seemed to be in working order, the load bar was nearing 80%, Elim sighed in relief when a crackling buzz filled their air, the computer sparked and smoked as the net electrified, obliterating its hard-drive.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the fox said as Elim turned around and glowered at him. "Did you need that?"

"Prick," Elim spat.

"–Rhymes with Nick," Wilde smirked, brandishing his weapon anew. "Where were we? Oh yeah, hands on head, belly on ground, now!"

Elim complied, slowly and deliberately, and Wilde hopped on his back, wrenching his arms around and fastening them with Zip-ties. "Elim Boakye, you are under arrest for suspected terrorism, kidnapping, assisted torture, attempted murder, and aiding and abetting a known felon. Do you understand the charges as they are read to you?"

"Felons," Elim hissed as his arm was twisted.

"What?" Nick said, leaning in.

"I aided and assisted known felons." Elim looked up at him, an unpleasant smirk spread across his face. "Plural."

A huge, obscenely strong hand grasped the back of Nick's neck; another streaked down and swatted the sidearm from his hand, sending it clattering on the floor. Nick felt strangely paralyzed as he was lifted clean off the ground and brought face-to-face with a huge snarling lynx, his enormous golden teeth glittering in the light.

"Hey…" Nick croaked around the massive hand collapsing his airway. "Nice teeth."

Grigori's snarl fell for a moment and was replaced by an amused smirk. "Thank you."

A moment later and his giant fist slammed into Nick's right side, just below the ribs. Nick felt an insurmountable wave of pain wash over his entire body, his breath exploded from his lungs in a quiet wheezing scream. It was as if his body had forgotten how to work, his legs wouldn't listen and his arms sucked against his body in a feeble attempt to protect his core. Grigori snorted and hurled the agonized fox across the room and into a concrete wall, Nick couldn't so much as brace himself and simply thudded against the wall and collapsed on the ground.

Grigori chuckled menacingly as he stomped towards the fallen cop, only to stop when Elim called out to him. "Gori! Untie me first, you idiot!"

"Ah, sorry Elim." Grigori knelt down and snapped the zip-ties off with his teeth and helped his friend to his feet.

Elim ran over and gathered his things, turning just in time to see Grigori towering over the helpless, gasping cop, his hands flexing, ready to break bones. "Leave him! We've got to get out of here! Grab the canisters and go!"

Elim sped out of the room, Grigori turned to Nick, a decidedly unfriendly smile on his face. "You are lucky. If I had my way, I would have thrown at the wall until you stuck to it. Oh well, next time."

He reached down and patted Nick on the cheek, a fond gesture that was decidedly mocking given the circumstances. Nick shuddered on the ground, still unable to do much more than tuck into himself and watch as Grigori thudded out of the room, over a dozen metal cylinders bound together was slung over his shoulder. 'I hope Carrots is doing better than me…'

Judy tapped down the hallway, it was wide and tall, clearly meant for larger mammals, and the ceiling and walls were festooned with pipes and cables of all sizes. Even over the reek of mildew and stale water she could smell the ferret, but she just couldn't pinpoint his location. Her eyes strained against the darkness of the unlit hallway, her flashlight only offering a tiny oval of visibility. She gritted her teeth and carried on, she had to find him, to bring him down. Nothing else mattered at that moment.

"McNulty!" she called out. "Give it up! The plan's out, so you can kiss that thirty million goodbye!"

"Forty," a voice in the dark hissed. "It's forty now, because…well, you know."

Judy felt her skin crawl as rage crept into her guts. "Is that what life is worth to you?!"

"Forty million?" he snorted, unseen. "I've killed people for four fish-sticks! No, what you saw in there, that was gratis, that was for me."

"Monster!"

There was a scuttling behind her, Judy spun around shining the flashlight on nothing, a voice from all around sounded. "Pssh! Like I haven't heard that screamed at me today! Not to say that you're old hat, Detective. You're not. No bunny's ever chased me before, I have to say it's…exciting."

"Shut up!" Judy's ears rotated in all directions, trying desperately to locate the ferret.

"A bit of snap to you, eh? That's good, I like that." Finn chuckled that infuriating chuckle. "I can see why Dick-Dick was so taken with you, Detective. You certainly are unique. I wonder how you taste…"

Judy took a deep breath, listening to the steady drip of water, the groaning of water pipes, anything but the hideous glee in his voice; Nick's words echoed in her mind 'never let them see that they get to you.'

There was a pause; he was waiting for her to react, waiting for her to slip up, no doubt. Judy brought her light up to scan the ceiling, an impenetrable throng of crisscrossing pipes, dripping old fetid water that made it even harder to scent him. He scurried silently amidst the tubes and down the wall; his shimmering black eyes watched her intently.

"He was waiting for you, you know. Waiting for you to save him. He told me. People do that when you're working on them, they tell you things, anything, everything, all the things. When they're in the state they're in, they grasp at straws, babbling anything that might get you to stop. He told me that you'd come, that you'd figure us out and send us running. He was half right, anyway." Judy growled and fired a net canister into the wall, it didn't deploy, it only shattered and exploded with a reverberating boom. The light streaked across the walls and ceiling, her scans becoming more and more frantic.

Finn only just kept out of sight, silently hopping across the hall. "Eh-heh-heh-heh! Stuck a nerve, did I? He cried and sobbed, he begged you to show up, to kick down the door like some kind of hero! And where were you? Even if he lives, he'll be too chewed up to show his face in public! He'll be a freak! Because of you!"

Judy spun around and fired three pepper pellets at the source of the sound, a wall just to her right, and got caught in the cloud of stinging dust herself. As Judy stepped back, coughing and retching. Finn had once again clambered up the wall and hid amongst the pipes. When her coughing subsided Judy was panting; tears of rage and frustration spilled down her cheeks.

"Alright, alright! He didn't actually say any of that. He actually didn't say much of anything. In fact, all he really said was…" He set down behind her and screamed horribly, shrilly, as though in unimaginable agony.

She spun around, her flashlight illuminating the ferret for a brief, terrible second. His face was a nightmare of teeth, pink and foamy with blood, his crimson lips fleered back to expose gums. His black eyes shone in the glare of the flashlight, illuminated into something infinitely more horrible. But worst of all, worse than all the teeth and blood and glinting eyes was the sheer lunatic glee, the hateful intelligence that lived within. Against all reason and logic, Judy felt as though she wasn't seeing a person anymore, but an actual monster, a foul creature from somewhere else; her hate and rage evaporated and she froze, her eyes wide with terror. His scream shifted into shrill, mocking laughter as he swatted the weapon from her hands and leapt upon her, coiling his muscular snakelike body around her, pinning her legs as he wrestled with her arms. Judy struggled as best she could against him, but found herself overpowered, his coiling, flexible body preventing her from exploiting any leverage. Finn pressed his chest against her back, looping his arms around her and pulling her into a chokehold.

He began to squeeze, sighing contentedly into her ear. "It's the little things in life you treasure, bunny," he said, his tone dry and conversational. "A golden sunset on the ocean. A good beer. That face you just made. Honestly, it's what I live for."

Black spots flashed before her eyes, her thoughts becoming slow and sludgy, Judy knew she had between five and ten seconds before she lost consciousness. In an action that was more muscle memory than conscious thought, her hand reached down and pulled out a magazine for her sidearm. In her last moment of awareness before she slipped into the inky blackness she flicked a pill-sized pepper pellet from the feed chamber and into her hand. As her arm went slack, the pellet's tip connected with the concrete and shattered. With a snapping pop, the pellet exploded into a large cloud of dust that enveloped them.

Finn coughed and sputtered, letting go and skittering away. "Ack! Clever cottontail!"

Judy crawled out of the dust cloud and gasped for breath, shaking her head as blood slowly began to flow back to her brain. She craned her neck, even the bare action of turning her head sent the room into a spin; the fan of light from her discarded sidearm illuminated the pinkish haze of the dissipating pepper dust, Finn strode through the cloud, his fangs bared as gummy red tears streamed down his face. Judy knew that she could barely stand, much less fight, but she pushed herself up onto her knees. She was going to try; this thing had gotten the drop on her once, but not again. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, it was so loud and sharp it almost sounded like…footsteps?

Both Finn and Judy looked down the hallway to see a flashlight wobbling towards them. Finn squinted and lifted his hand to his eyes. "Elim?"

"Finn!" Elim bellowed as he sprinted towards them. "We! Are! Leaving!"

"Can I just–?" Finn began to say, gesturing at Judy, before he was unceremoniously scooped up by the scruff by the larger mammal.

"No!" Elim barked, annoyed.

Judy scrambled out of the way as the gnu galloped by, Grigori stopped a moment and looked down at her, notching his finger to his brow in a mini-salute, his expression was that of respect. "Ma'am."

With that the lynx took off after his teammates. She tried desperately to get to her feet and pursue, but the second she got on her feet her vision grew hazy, dim, and she collapsed to the floor, nauseous. Face down in a cold puddle of stale water, she closed her eyes and let herself begin to sink away. The sound of a door slamming echoed down the hall, rusty and metallic.

They'd gotten away.

She'd lost the perps.

She'd failed.

Another door slammed shut at the other end of the hall, and her eyes snapped open. Manfully, she pushed herself up off the ground and propped herself against the wall. Staggering, muted footsteps made their way towards her, she strained to see a figure as it staggered into the light given off by her sidearm, he was largish and walked with a stiff, hunched over gait. He shambled into visibility, his orange fur a splash of welcome color in the dank hallway. Nick looked up and smiled wanly, clearly in a good deal of pain.

He stumbled up beside and pressed his back against the wall, gingerly he lowered himself down, clutching his side, sitting next to her with a pained grunt. "You okay?"

Judy grabbed him by the shirt and pulled herself close, burying her face in his chest and began to sob. Nick smiled sadly and draped an arm over her shoulders, patting her back soothingly as she wept. His ears perked up as he heard approaching sirens.

"Let's…just sit here a bit, yeah?"