Judy's bedroom was chock full of police forms, tons of equipment, pictures and case notes.
"Whoa" said Nick "Judy what's all this?"
"It's all that's been going on here in Zootopia" Judy replied "Recently in the past couple of weeks, there have been fourteen animals that have been attacking . All of these missing animals are predators and they all had their collars off the last time they were seen."
"Looks like I'm not the only one" Nick remarked.
Judy reached into her pocket and took out some sort of key "Nick...hold still"
Judy walked over to Nick and inserted the key into his collar and to Nick's surprise...he was free...free from his shocking prison (no pun intended).
Nick felt his now-bare neck and was surprised by what Judy had done.
"Judy...my collar...it's gone..." he silently gasped. "Why did you do that? You know I went savage and crazy back there and you know why I have this on. Why did you do that?"
"Because...I trust you..." She replied.
"Gee Judy...thanks" Nick said, surprised.
Nick couldn't believe it. Judy, a cop, a little bunny no less had actually trusted him.
"Don't enjoy it too much, I'm still putting you back in your collar when we continue the investigation." said Judy. "I have been looking into my board of the feral animals, and I realized that all of them have been captured, and I figured that since you haven't been captured yet, you might be able to help me track down to where they might be."
"And how would I do that?" asked Nick.
"You'll pretend to go feral and attack me, and then, the person who tracked you will take you to wherever the other animals might be." Judy explained. "Then, I'll follow them and you'll let me inside of wherever they took you."
"Gee, that's not a bad idea." said Nick. "Come on, let's get to work!"
"First thing's first, though..." Judy said as she put the collar back on Nick. "There! We can't draw any unwanted attention to ourselves."
"Well, that experience was short lived." Nick deadpanned.
Nick and Judy walked out of Judy's apartment and decided to continue with the investigation. While on the way, Judy was thinking about what she and Nick had been through the entire adventure. At first, she hated Nick and only brought him along for convenience, but then, he stood up for her. Nobody had ever done that for her before.
"You know Nick, I never really thanked you for helping me back there with Chief Bogo..." said Judy.
"Don't mention it, Jude." Nick handwaved her.
"But I'm confused. Why would you stick up for me after all I've done to you? I don't understand..." Judy continued.
Nick sighed "When I saw what was going on back there, it reminded me should never let people get you down or to you"
"Why? Do you ever let people get you down?" asked Judy.
"Not anymore" Nick sighed "But...I was small and emotionally sensitive like you once."
"Very funny" Judy deadpanned.
"No, I'm serious" said Nick "I think I was maybe eight or nine when it happened..."
FLASHBACK TIME BABY!
Many years ago, Nick's dear old dad, John Wilde had been looking for work to provide for his son after the recent passing of his wife. He and his son, Nick were living on the streets and desperate for money and food. Luckily, John had a long term plan to make their wonderful fortune and all animals in Zoo City happy...
"Wilde and Son's Suitopia!" John proudly said to the bankers "A wonderful place to get new, wonderful suits! Courtesy of me, John Wilde and my son, Nick!"
"Yeah" Nick agreed "It's gonna be great! We'll make a bunch of suits and a special one for you for free"
"All we need is the funding from you" said John "So, what do you say?"
For the tailor shop, John managed to acquire an old one to set up shop in, but it was all old and broken and hardly anyone noticed it. The idea wasn't approved the banks and John's loan application was denied because he and Nick were predators. They were back out on the streets with nothing.
"What do we do now, dad?" asked Nick.
"I don't know son" said John "But don't worry. We'll make it through. We always do"
Nick and John tried other ways to make money, but they couldn't find any decent form of work that would hire them. Usually, they would be lucky as to find five cents on the ground or a dollar bill. One day, Nick and John were taking a nice walk together when all of a sudden, some large animals pushed them both.
"Watch where you're going, you fool!" the rhino rudely exclaimed.
"You watch where you're going!" John shouted to the rhino.
Just then, John's collar went off and it caused the other animals to separate the father and son from each other. Nick and John tried looking for each other, but they couldn't find each other in such a big crowd. Even during nighttime, they couldn't find each other.
Nick was determined not to let this get to him and keep finding his father, but along the way, he ran into some familiar faces, who tripped him, causing him to land on the sidewalk.
"Huh?" he looked around, confused.
It was the prey bullies from school.
"Well, well if it isn't Nick Wilde?" a beaver folded his arms "What are you doing out here all alone?"
"Nothing...I was just looking for my dad..." Nick said fearfully.
"Oh really?" a zebra asked in mocking tone "Here that? Widdle Nicky misses his daddy!"
"Well, if you want to make it through these streets alive, you'll have to not go savage, so we're going to give you something" the beaver smirked "Get him boys!"
The prey bullies dog-piled on Nick and started beating him up. Nick tried to get away, but he was outnumbered by them. The beaver then took out a muzzle and strapped it around Nick's muzzle.
"There!" the beaver laughed "You sure are properly dressed now! Because foxes are useless, untrustworthy, vile, pathetic animals who deserve to be muzzled and put in cages!"
The other bullies started laughing mercilessly at Nick's demise and the little fox cub ran away to get the muzzle off. Even though he was far away from the bullies, he could still hear their irritating laughter. Soon enough, Nick ran away to underneath a bridge and was finally able to pull the muzzle off. Still emotionally scarred by what the bullies did to him, he started to sob and give up hope on ever finding his dad. Nick...was alone.
END OF FLASHBACK!
"...it was the worst day of my life" Nick finished. "Eventually, I ran into my friends and I moved in with Fennick. It was okay living with him, but it just wasn't the same without my parents. Times became tough for me and my friends and soon enough, I had to face the fact that I would probably never see my folks again. Throughout those hardships, I had learned two things; number one is to never let people get you down..."
"And number two?" asked Judy.
Nick sighed "If the world is only going to see a fox as a horrible and untrustworthy being...so be it."
"You're more than that, Nick" Judy tried to comfort him "I know you are"
Judy tried placing her hand on Nick's arm for comfort, but the fox quickly turned away from her.
He put his finger on his ear and started looking at the traffic, "Anyways, how on Earth are you gonna track me down?"
"The Jam Cams!" Judy exclaimed. "The Jam Cams record everything, so they will help me track down whoever is taking you. Unfortunately, I'm not in the Computer System yet, and Chief Bogo is probably not gonna let me use any after what happened."
"So how are you gonna use the cameras?" asked Judy.
"Luckily, I have an old personal friend of mine works at City Hall, so she will probably help." said Judy.
"That's good to know." said Nick. "But how are you gonna track me down? What if the people head somewhere without monitors?"
Judy then placed some sort of beeping thing on Nick's tie. "This transmitter will help just in case."
The two then went downtown, where there weren't a lot of people.
"Okay Nick, I'm going to City Hall now to see my friend." said Judy. "You
Judy and Nick went to City Hall, where a sheep was using a computer on a desk.
"Judy!" said the sheep "What are you doing here?"
"Hiya Dawn" Judy waved her hand "We need your help with something"
"What is it, Judy?" asked Dawn.
"Excuse me, but who are you?" Nick asked Dawn.
"Oh sorry" Judy chuckled "Nick, this is my old friend, Dawn Bellwether. Dawn, this is Nick"
"Charmed to make your acquaintance, Dawn" Nick said as he held out his hand.
Dawn looked nervous at shaking Nick's hand "Uh...nice to meet you too...Nick. So Judy...what are you doing here?"
Judy wasted no time in explaining the situation to Dawn. Dawn then agreed to help the duo on their mission and took them to the traffic cam monitors in her office, which was nothing more than a broom closet.
"Okay, now what do you want me to do?" asked Dawn.
"We want your to tap into the rainforest cameras and help us figure out what happened to a certain panther we encountered before." Judy explained.
"Sure" said Dawn "Just give me a minute..."
While Dawn was tapping into the camera footage, Nick noticed the fluffy wool on her head and started playing with it, much to Judy's shock.
"Oh my God..." he whispered "It's so fluffy. Sheep never let me get so close to them. It's like cotton candy, but without the stickiness"
"Stop that!" Judy sternly whispered and flicked Nick's hands away "You can't just touch a sheep's wool like that!"
"Where in the rainforest do you want me to go to?" asked Dawn.
"Vine and Tujunga" Judy replied.
Dawn typed in some more on the keyboard and various pin marks were shown on the screen for Vine and Tujunga.
"These are all the cameras on the Vine and Tujunga area" said Dawn "I think I might find playback tapes on the missing jaguar. This is pretty exciting, I never get to do anything important"
"But you're the assistant mayor" said Judy.
"Yeah, but I'm more of a glorified secretary at best" said Dawn "I think Swinton just wanted a lowly assistant. Sometimes, he calls me 'Smellweather' and I'd better go clear her afternoon. See ya!"
Dawn walked out of the office to go help the mayor.
"You think she counts herself when she goes to sleep?" Nick whispered.
"Oh shut up!" Judy said, annoyed.
Judy then went to the computer and saw the playback tapes on Mr. Manchas. Just then, a truck arrived and there were some people coming out of it. In that same playback, Machas was going feral and trying to back away from the wolves.
"What are those guys?" asked Judy.
"Timberwolves, Judy" said Nick "They're always howling. Betcha they're going to howl any second now"
Just then, the wolves shot a net at the panther and took him away into their truck. Before they did that, they started howling like well...what else? Wolves.
"Told you, so" Nick deadpanned "Seriously, why do we canines have to howl all the time?"
"Wait a minute..." Judy thought for a moment "Mr. Manchas was talking about Night Howlers and wolves howl at nighttime, so he must've meant them and those were probably the trench coated wolves we were asking him about before!"
"And if those wolves took Mr. Manchas, I bet they took Otterton too" added Nick.
"The question now is; where are they going?" Judy tapped her cheek.
Nick cleared his throat and made it to the monitor "Well if I were to get away with something illegal and avoid video surveillance, and I'm not saying I ever have, I would take the maintenance tunnel 6B, which would put them out..."
Nick changed the surveillance tape and saw the van crossing another lane.
"...right there!" Nick snapped his fingers.
"Wow look at you, Mr. Junior Detective" Judy smirked "I think you'd actually make a good cop"
"Yeah, I probably would" Nick remarked as he continued to search the surveillance tapes "Acacia Alley? Ficus Underpass. South Canyon"
"They're heading out of town" Judy concluded "So, wherever they're headed to must be somewhere in that area. Come on, let's go!"
Later, the two went to some random, dark place, ready to put their plan into action.
"Okay, here's the tracker." Judy said as she put the tracker on Nick's collar. "Now go crazy and feral. I'll be following you via my car."
Judy then hopped out of the alleyway and gave Nick the signal.
Nick started growling and running about like a crazed psycho. After waiting for a while, the same wolves who took Manchas shot a net right at Nick and carried him into the truck, where they drove off to the outskirts of town.
"Hang on Nick, I'm coming to save ya!" Judy said as she started the car.
Author's Note:
Looks like Nick and Judy are finally seeing each other eye to eye. Not to mention they've got a lead on what is possibly going on. Stay tuned for more! Like I said, once an author has started, he keeps going to the finish.