SITREP A-03: So just got back from a long debrief of my duties, pretty tired right now, but luckily I did write this chapter before that. I also wanna make a shoutout to ZombieSlayerOfTheUnderworld for his nice help and kindness! So yeah, a definite thank you to him. Now, this chapter is pretty crazy, cause there is a lot of things you may not expect. Enjoy reading!
Chapter 3 - Unexpected Visitors & Shippers?
A few minutes earlier in the Zootopian Universe...
It was a regular day for Officer Wilde and Hopps, riding around in their squad car and doing patrols around Zootopia. They were assigned to patrol the City Main Center today, something that is fairly easy to do. The calm breeze of the cool morning air flowed into the car peacefully, and Judy embraced it. Nick was still finishing up his coffee and donuts from the donut shop earlier, indulging on the flavor it had. Judy looked back at Nick with a surreptitious smile.
"You do like their donuts and coffee, don't ya?" She said playfully, while also keeping her eye on driving.
"Yes carrots, yes I definitely do. Foxes have a craving for sweets." He said with a smirk.
She added, "So, you ever tried that vegetarian place over by Paw Avenue? Their grass shakes are the big thing in the city."
He looked at her with a sly disgusted look. "Ew, I hate those healthy food places, they always make my stomach feel worse! Especially those grass shakes, whoever made those should be put on the stake."
She laughed, "You're not gonna have a good stomach if you keep on eating that fast food stuff! I've read how fast food can lead to a bad diet."
Nick liked the fast food places in Zootopia, their delicious potato fries and insect meals always made his mouth watery. He began to daydream about the food, when suddenly Judy nudged him curiously.
"Uhm, you done there Officer Wilde?" She laughed, knowing he was daydreaming about fast food.
He spoke again with a tired tone, "Ugh, yes, I'm done carrots... You sly bunny..."
"Dumb fox! Dumb cause you're eating food that's bad for you, and you forgot to shine those boots of yours. Yeah! I saw your boots Nick."
Nick looked at his boots, and they were actually very dull, clearly not shined at all. "Alright, you got me carrots, but so what? It's not like the higher-ups are gonna look... Oh..."
"Ever heard of uniform inspection? Yep, you tried Nick, but you're not gonna escape this one!" She said victoriously.
"Fine... I'll get them shined this week, IF you agree that I get to drive after I do it!"
"Wait, what?! No, never, you're never going to drive this car, this is my car, I don't want anybody putting a scratch on this thing."
"But, bunnies are still kinda bad drivers, and last time I checked you had to get those brakes checked up at PawX auto store... Heh!"
Judy rolled her eyes at that statement. "Nick, that was justifiable, after the car chases we get into I do have to slam on the brakes often, and I also have to slam on the brakes cause of your rude personality of yours."
"Pfft, you're just bluffing, and I know-" There was a sudden screech! and Nick's half finished donut smashed into his face, smothering cream and sprinkles everywhere.
"Geez, Judy! What the heck! I was still eating that donut of mine!"
"No, Nick, look..." She pointed at the roadway, where several mammals stood in the middle of the street, but their shirts said: NickxJudy! and chanted "Nick and Judy! Nick and Judy!"
"What the heck? Who are these people?" Nick was partially shocked by this strange event.
"I'm just gonna... Talk with these people... Hopefully..." Judy stepped out of the squad car and approached the group. Nick followed her.
"Wait... Is that Judy and Nick?!"
"Oh my goodness it's them!"
"EVERYBODY IT'S THEM! AH!"
"OMG! OMG! OMG!"
Judy became increasingly annoyed. "Alright, alright! Everybody calm down, please step onto the sidewalk, you all are impeding the flow of traffic!" Fortunately the group complied and made their way to the sidewalk, still chanting and building up excitement.
One of the fans that was a Zebra approached Nick. "NICK! Nick, I'm like, your number one fan, I make so much fanart of you and Judy, and, I just wanna show one of my newest creations!" The Zebra showed a very explicit picture of Nick and Judy.
"OH... uh... Ok, yeah that's, uh, good for you, we are just gonna..." Nick stood back from the crowd and tried to take deep breaths to forget about what happened.
"Hey, Nick? You alright?" Judy came up to Nick.
"Judy... That picture..." Judy looked up and looked at the crowd, she saw the explicit picture that the Zebra was still holding up.
"Oh Nick..." She said with disbelief, burying one of her paws in her face.
"GAH! Judy, don't say that, not right now, that's... It's..."
"It's what Nick? What's wrong about saying that?"
"Judy, just try not to say that for the rest of the day, okay? We gotta get out of this mess!"
"Oh... Um alright... I'll get the squad car st-"
Judy and Nick both felt a forceful push behind them, which pushed both of them into each other. Only that the force resulted their muzzles accidentally touching each others, an accidental kiss. They both pulled away in shock, and found that a fan forcefully made them kiss each other.
"Uh... Um..." Nick expressed in shock.
"Okay, yep! We are definitely out of here! Bye guys!" She ran while taking Nick by the paw and pushing him into the car, then sped off. The crowd was still chanting their same chant, only louder. Both Nick and Judy were still shocked from the accident. They sat in silence for a few minutes, but Nick broke the silence.
"So... You're not gonna take that personal, right..."
Judy replied back. "Oh, no, I'm over with that... It was just some crazy people, ya know..."
"Yeah, crazy people... Drawing that, stuff..."
"Let's just forget about that, besides, how did they know about us? I mean I've only been on the news once, but I don't think people know we are partners."
"Probably Mammals magazine..."
"Yeah, probably, wait Nick, you think they're reporting on us?" Judy became concerned.
"Meh, I don't know, but what I do know is that I did kinda look hot in that picture." He grinned slightly, raising one eyebrow at Judy.
"NICK! EW! I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT THAT! WHY!? EW!" She was severely disgusted.
Nick laughed. "Whatever you say, carrots. Just sharing my personal opinion with you."
"Eh, fine, just stop talking about that, please! I need to focus on driving, not that weird stuff!"
Nick took out his sunglasses and put them on. "As I said, just sharing my opinion. Nothing personal." He turned his attention to the front.
They both looked at the street to see a vehicle flying out of one of the alleyways, instantly smashing into the other building on the other side of the street. The side of the building was completely crushed, however the vehicle did look very strange, like a mix of a truck with a car.
"Great, more stuff we have to deal with!" Nick said in defeat.
"Uh... Nick, call backup, now..." Judy said worryingly. Nick obeyed her orders and began radioing in the incident, frantically trying to describe the situation. Mammals flooded out of the damaged building, running away from the scene, while people on the street began to run away also. Nick and Judy parked, keeping a good distance away from the scene, in case of an explosion.
Suddenly a loud noise came from the alleyway, sort of like a semi engine noise. A large truck, about as large as the Zootopia tour buses, also came flying in out of the alleyway, smashing into another part of a building across the street. It was a bulky, strange, huge truck, which reminded Judy of the ZPD TUSK trucks, only this one was much bigger. They were all colored tan, just as tan as the desert in Zootopia.
"Oh my... What is going on Nick..." She said with so much worry in her voice.
"I don't know Judy, backup is coming in a few minutes... Hopefully we do have a few minutes to spare..." He said assuringly.
Just then a group of strange looking animals, dressed in what looked like protective gear and desert-like camouflage to Nick and Judy, came out of the alleyway, with some sort of weapons drawn. They looked confused, just about as confused as Officer Wilde and Hopps. However, they did have weapons, weapons that could harm others. They needed backup quick and fast.
"Nick... They have weapons... Probably guns..." Judy was scared as a deer in the headlights. Her nose was visibly twitching.
"I know, I know, just, just keep your head down and away from their line of sight." Nick said, they both jumped out of the car quietly and took as much cover as possible from their police car. They could be aggressive, even primal animals. But they were certainly not from this place.
Another truck sped out of the alleyway, however this time it stopped in the middle of the street, showing a huge smoking dent in one of its sides. It appeared that the trucks and animals were in some sort of combat, but the way the animals looked was out of this world. Finally the backup came, police cars arrived with blaring sirens at both ends of the street, blocking any path of escape. The officers stepped out, tranquilizers at ready, pointed at the animals. Chief Bogo made his way toward Nick and Judy.
"What the heck is going on? What is this?" He demanded. It was clear he was angrily confused.
"I don't know sir, all we saw was the vehicles and these strange looking animals coming out of the alleyway, but they have weapons sir!" Judy said, clearly scared.
"Alright, alright, I've got the TUSK team arriving shortly, they can handle the situation-" Just then one of the strange animals spoke, holding his hands up towards the officers.
The geared animal spoke towards them in a volume where all of the officers can hear him. "I am Intelligence Officer Mace Macedonia, I am with the United States Military and the International Warfare Agency, please do not shoot us, we have no intentions of harming you!" Right after he made his statements, the animals started to lay down their weapons and put their hands up as well.
"What the literal hell is going on..." Nick said with confusion.
A few minutes earlier in Mace's perspective...
After the nauseating trip in the portal, he finally arrived to see he was in some sort of city, with weirdly shaped buildings in the distance. He looked forward to see that one of the MRAP's and the Humvee smashed into a building over on the other side of a street. He then realized that he was in an alleyway, with the Rangers cautiously approaching the street. The environment was definitely better than the Afghanistan desert, with a cool morning breeze and sunshine. But, something strange came from the buildings, something very, very strange. It was animals, running just like humans with clothes on, away from the scene. He was defiantly confused at first, but then it hit him like a pile of bricks, he realized where he was actually at. Not in a different time, not in a different area, not even on a different planet, but in a different dimension.
His concentration of the surroundings was broken suddenly by the second MRAP speeding just inches near him, almost completely hitting him, which instinctively made him dive out of the way. The Rangers in the alleyway also dove out of the way, while the MRAP came screeching to a halt in the middle of the street. He looked back to where the MRAP first appeared, expecting a teleporter. Instead, there was nothing, just the back of the alleyway. This also hit him like a pile of bricks, since there could be no way back to his world. He remembered how the scientist in his IWA inter-dimensional studies told that there could be malfunctions within the teleporters, and unfortunately they appeared to have encountered one.
He again diverted his attention toward the wrecked trucks, and remembered how he was in a different dimension. He started piecing the puzzle in his mind quickly, thinking of strange animals, dimensions, and his studies a couple of years back. He referenced to the list of dimensions and universes he saw in the IWA, but then it clicked. "Oh no..." He thought in his mind, he knew now. He was in the Zootopian universe, one of the millions of parallel dimensions. He also remembered how someone subliminally made a movie of it several months ago. Instantly, his diplomacy skills activated, and ran towards the outside of the alleyway.
The Rangers were already out on the middle of the street, trying to compute what is going on, but he heard sirens in the distance. "Ah, crap." Mace thought, local law enforcement must be arriving shortly.
With his diplomacy studies in his mind, he needed to make sure that the team does not cause more conflicts in this strange world. "Alright, guys, stand your ground, do not fire at any of these animals! I don't want any more casualties with our team!" The soldiers obediently agreed, still with much confusion. He saw the wounded troops being laid down onto the pavement, with other soldiers trying their best to keep them alive. "Jesus, this is bad." He thought to himself, also seeing bulky police cars blocking off both ends of the streets.
"Alright guys, this may be crazy, but I want all of you to be prepared to surrender, got it?" He ordered, a chorus of "yes sir" came from the team on the street. He knew that surrender was the only option to save the team, since the animals dressed in police uniforms were already pointing their weapons at the troops.
He needed to make a statement towards these animals, and fast. "I am Intelligence Officer Mace Macedonia, I am with the United States Military and the International Warfare Agency, please do not shoot us, we have no intentions of harming you!" He turned towards the team, "Rangers, lay down your weapons and surrender, it's all alright!" And he proceeded to put his hands up.
One of the soldiers did not comply with his order, "This is crazy! Absolutely crazy!" He yelled towards everybody, "I am not gonna surrender to animals sir!" He began raising his gun toward the police, but was stopped short by a tranquilizer dart to the neck, and fell down onto the pavement. This followed by what looked like to be heavily geared SWAT-type animals approaching the Rangers, handcuffing them and stripping their weapons off of them. The wounded Rangers were soon approached by other uniformed animals trying their best to care for them.
Mace then abruptly turned back to his front, finding a huge buffalo, a fox that would about reach his chin, and a tall bunny that would about reach his chest. He looked again at the bunny, and saw very exquisite lavender eyes and a very fit appearance. "To be honest, that bunny looks awfully cute... Geez what are you thinking Mace... Ugh..." He thought, almost to the point of zoning out of the current situation, but was interrupted by the bunny tapping his arm.
"Uh, sir? Hello? Can you speak to me sir?" The female bunny said.
Startled at first, Mace then refocused. "Oh, oh! Yeah I can speak to you... Um..."
"Are you the leader of these mammals sir?"
"Yes ma'am, we do not mean any harm at all, as you can see we are in... Distress..."
"Yeah I see, we're trying our best to help all of you right now, but right now we need all of the answers we can get from you s-"
She was interrupted by Mace. "Wait, wait... Aren't you..." He realized something about that movie months ago. "Are you Judy Hopps? And isn't that Nick Wilde... And is that Chief Bogo?!"
"Uh... How do you know our names sir?" Her eyes became concerned.
"Well I saw this... Well, it's a long, long story, but I would like to know what you guys are going to do with me right now."
"Well we just need to ask questions about you and all of this, because it looks like you guys are in trouble right now."
"Alright... Just make sure my men are safe, I care about them all."
"Yes sir, we are doing our best." She then handcuffed Mace and escorted him to their squad car.
Mace had a thousand questions and feelings about being in this place, even just the luck of landing in such a random dimension is astonishing. He looked at the bunny driving the car, now beginning to notice just how fit the little animal was, how female like she was... "Stop it, you're being too weird man, it's an animal!" His inner-conscious said, and looked towards the window to ignore the driver. He questioned himself and his fate, and decided: How is the team going back to the real world?
Well, poor Mace. He's stuck with trying to not become in love with a bunny, how cute! But anyways, if you guys don't know where the TUSK unit came from, it originated from the first concept of Zootopia that the animators thought of. Although it did really have a dark meaning in that concept (They would have been assigned to hunt down and kill targeted predators), I made the TUSK in this story be the SWAT team for ZPD. "But sir, why don't you just name them SWAT instead of TUSK?", well, in the US, SWAT is basically just a term for a police tactical unit. The police department can name the team with any other name (My cities SWAT team is called Metro S.T.A.R.), so that's just my little lesson for you guys on terms. But really, who gives a damn? TUSK is more "tacticool" anyways.