Judith L. Hopps, she never did like hearing her full name. It was usually followed by a long winded lecture from her parents about how she 'had them worried sick'. Back then all she wanted to do was help, standing up against a bully, helping rescue a friend stuck in a tree, whatever the young rabbit could do, she did. Of course that typically ended up with her wondering away from her family, often times returning with a few scrapes or bruises. The response was always the same, a quick hug from her mom, glad she was alright, then a scolding about how she should give up on her dreams to become a police officer. Her parents were just trying to keep her safe, teaching her not to take unnecessary risks, but Judy learned a different lesson from their sternness. Through the years, she learned persistence, she leaned not to give up.
Whenever her parents called out that name, it was reinforcement. Letting the determined rabbit know she was actually doing something, little by little making a change. The last time Judy heard someone use her full name was at her graduation from the police academy. When she received her badge, she knew all those years of reprimand and determination payed off. She worked hard to make a difference, and achieved that goal.
Hearing her full name used once again in that cramped hideout, brought Judy right back to those days of being reprimanded by her parents. She worked incredibly hard to become a cop, and even harder to prove herself as one. Now, it seemed someone out there was trying to punish her for it. At that moment, only one thought lingered in the rabbit's mind, persistence. She would never give up.
"Okay," Judy took a deep breath, drawing all attention to her as she attempted to compose herself, "Here is what's going to happen. Bentley, I want you to look through this paperwork, get me any information you can. About their operation, how it involves me, anything. Sly, start thinking up risk assessment, you witnessed what they do first hand, how much danger am I… are any of us in? Murray, can you please pack up the van and plot a route to the ZPD station in Savanna Central. And Nick…"
The rabbit trailed off as she turned to her partner. Nick was sitting there, staring blankly at the paper still sitting on the table in front of them. He was spaced out, contemplating something, evident by the way he slowly fidgeted with his paws. Judy was going to try to get his attention until she realized no one at the table had moved an inch at her instructions. Except for Murray, who jumped up in excitement when his name was called, before slowly sitting back down again.
"Judy…" Sly spoke to the staggered cop in as comforting of a tone as he could manage, "I know you want this taken care of quickly, I absolutely understand that, but right now you are safest with us. Give us a few minutes, we'll go over what we know, see if we can figure out what their plan is, and then come up with a plan of our own."
At a loss for words, Judy turned to Nick for support. The fox was still gazing down, keeping himself out of the issue unfolding next to him.
"Nick?" The urgency of her voice mere moments before was gone, replaced with the soft touch of comfort and concern over his well-being.
With his head still pointed firmly down, Nick slowly lifted a paw, bringing it up to his face. It held there for a moment as if to form a physical barrier between them before gliding backwards, combing through his matted red fur. Tugging his ear down behind his head, he turned away.
"I…" The fox spoke quietly, exhaling deeply before facing Judy, still avoiding eye contact, "I think I have to agree with Sly on this one…"
"What?" She tried to hold herself, but the disdain in the cop's voice forced its way through.
"Let's take some time to figure out the situation before doing anything."
"Take some- Figure out- Nick, are you serious?! We need to get this to the ZPD right now, you've seen what they do, and I'm their next target! We don't have time to wait around and 'figure things out'!"
"I don't know what to do!" The table shook as Nick slammed his paw against it, shooting out of his chair and looking Judy in the eye. Within an instant, her face jumped from anger to fear to understanding, the stress had gotten to him, the stress of worrying about her. "I don't know what to do…"
Realizing the violence of his action, the fox quickly calmed himself, breaking eye contact and sitting back down. "I'm so sorry. It's just… I can't lose you…"
"No, you're right." Judy placed a paw on her partner's shoulder, which he quickly shook off.
"Well, on that note," Nick tried his best to maintain his trademark tone, "what do ya say we get to work? You can all think of a plan, and I'll go sit over there before Sly hurts me."
Attention shifted to the raccoon who was still standing, he had gotten in position to hop the table once the fox jumped out of his seat. Slightly embarrassed, Cooper shrugged it off with a grin. As he sat back down, Nick excused himself, heading off to the other side of the room.
"Is he okay?" Sly commented, finding his guest's reaction understandable, if a bit over dramatic.
"No, no he's not." Judy replied, her tone wavering on disappointment, "But there's nothing we can do about it. He's going to need some time alone, the stress is getting to him, and I'm afraid we aren't helping."
She was right, Nick needed some time away from everyone, but stress was not the only reason. He needed to figure himself out. This whole situation was eating away at him, he was caught right in the middle of who he was and who he is. When the two clashed, even briefly, he let his emotions slip. If things got worse, and he was forced to choose… he knew there was only one obvious way to go.
"How ya doing?" Murray's impossible to hate voice proceeded the pink ball of joy, who had wandered over to check on Nick, "I know how you feel, sometimes I need to get away from the rest of the gang for a while. Bentley's fancy computer talk and Sly's smart remarks can get me worked up sometimes. My old guru taught me some sweet meditation techniques. He said to relax and think of all the good times we've had. 'Never let a single thorn ruin the rose', or something like that, it was hard to make out what he was saying sometimes."
"Hey, thanks Murray." Nick looked to the blissful, smiling hippo beside him. He never expected him to be a source of life lessons, but then again he never thought a rabbit could be a cop, or that he would be one too. The thought manifested itself as a subtle grin of his own.
"Yeah, or I go smash some faces in!"
With that, the grin turned into a genuine laugh. Murray seemed like the type of mammal who could make anyone smile. How he ended up as the enforcer for a gang of criminals Nick did not know, but at that moment he was glad he was. As the laughs faded back to silence, the two heard Judy talking with Sly back at the table and decided to join her.
"-zootopia's extradition laws would prevent any actions taken by Interpol, so-" The rabbit paused her explanation to Sly once she noticed her partner approaching, "Nick! Listen, I'm sorry, it's just all-"
"Don't worry about it, fluff." He interrupted her, not wanting to bring up the same topic again, "Besides, I should be the one apologizing… What was I thinking leaving you with Rocky Raccoon here?"
Sly ignored the jab, watching as Nick gave Judy a rather rough rub on the head. The banter he had witnessed the two officers shoot back and forth since they met was still there, though it felt forced. A vain attempt to cover the stresses the two were both under, especially now with one of their lives on the line.
"Before you so rudely interrupted me," A halfhearted, sarcastic glare was sent from one cop to the other, "I was explaining to Sly the ZPD's protocol for witness protection."
"Ahhhh, you think Bogo would grant them immunity for providing the information? Especially with Interpol breathing down his neck?"
"He'd have to, and once that's taken care of, Interpol wouldn't be able to touch them."
"I hate to break it to you," Sly butted in, "but Carmelita doesn't work that way. If she found out I'm here, absolutely nothing would stop her from taking me in. Especially now, she'd declare war before letting me walk."
"And we'd go to war right back to protect you." Judy insisted, confident in the ZPD's ability to uphold the laws.
"As wonderful as having the police on my side for once would be, I'd like to hear other options."
"I pretty sure anything other than that ends up with you in jail."
"At least then I'd still be breathing."
"Actually, there may be a third option." Bentley's voice caught the group by surprise. He had been buried behind his computer the whole time, going through the files from earlier, "Through my review of this data, which was greatly accelerated to ease the time restraints imposed mind you, I believe we have all the information needed to execute an operation which would not only prevent Longfellow from continuing his 'business', but would let us rescue Penelope as well!"
"You found her?!" Cooper enthusiastically called back.
"It's right here!" The turtle pointed out a line on one of the inventory manifests, reading it aloud, "She's being held in cell 1-15, scheduled for transfer tomorrow night. It doesn't affect the timetable we already had, but I think I can have the plan finalized in an hour or two."
"Great! Let's aim to step off just before dawn."
"I'm sorry, what?" Judy commented, slightly confused, hoping she misheard something.
"Good news," Sly replied cheerily, "there's no need to go to the ZPD, we'll be handling the whole thing! Bentley's getting the heist plans finished right now."
"Indeed," Bentley remarked, "and you two might be crucial in helping pull it off."
"No offense, but that's not going to happen. You guys are great at doing whatever it is you do, but this is personal now, and I need to take it to the ZPD."
"I can respect that," Cooper replied empathetically, "but our goal here is still rescuing Penelope. Unless the ZPD can guarantee she will be saved and released to us, we don't have another choice."
"We'd have to talk to Bogo about it, which would take time."
"Time that we don't have."
"Hey, guys?" Murray's voice attempted to break into the conversations, quickly dismissed by Judy's however.
"What do you think Nick? Any bright ideas?"
"Guys?" A second try, making as little progress as the first.
"I mean, working an actual heist sounds awesome… but I would feel safer with the station backing us."
"THE MURRAY HAS A SUGGESTION." The hippo's voice thundered, his tone remained loveable, but had an intense presence to it.
"What's up big guy?" Sly acknowledge him with a smile.
"Why don't Nick and Judy go get the rest of the police while we run in and grab Penelope, then they can make the arrest after we're out."
The entire room sat pondering for a moment, the plan made a surprising amount of sense.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Bentley was the first to recognize the practicality of the idea.
"The timing would have to be perfect, but I think we could make that work." Sly too liked the concept, "What do you two think?"
"Bogo wouldn't be happy if we kept our source private…" Judy thought for a minute.
"Bogo's never happy with anything we do." Her partner pointed out, half joking.
"True… If you can grab Penelope without causing too much of a scene we should be able to clean it up nicely."
"Not causing scenes is what I do best." Cooper commented smugly.
A few minutes later and the plan was set. Judy and Nick were to return to the ZPD overnight, giving the information they had on Longfellow to Bogo. During that time, Cooper and his gang would work out the details of their heist. Around dawn, Sly's portion of the operation begins, where they break in to the compound and secure Penelope. While they are underway, Bogo would be getting the proper warrants and organizing a task force to arrest the giraffe. The trio of thieves would have a strict time limit, they needed to clear the area no later than 7:00 am. Nick and Judy would have no way of knowing if their objective was completed in time or not, but it was a risk the gang said they were willing to take. Besides, they had outrun plenty of cops before, so if they happen to get caught up it would just 'add to the fun' as Sly put it.
With the clock creeping past two in the morning, Murray started up the van and the rest of the group took a walk outside. Off in the distance, the lights of downtown cast their glow over the rolling dunes. It was quite a sight, one that they all took an extra few seconds to admire. From the pillars of light that were the city's skyscrapers to the neon glow radiating from signs lining nearly every side street, Zootopia at night was purely breathtaking. The moment was bittersweet though, depending on how things went in the morning, this could be the last time the two sides saw each other. No goodbyes were said however, only 'good luck'.
"Seeya later." Sly said softly as Nick and Judy climbed into the back of the van.
"Hey, make sure there's someone left for us to arrest when we get there." Nick smirked, making sure he got in one last quip. His partner gave a quick wave before the doors were shut.
Murray hopped up front while Sly and Bentley headed back inside, needing to get ready for the day ahead. The trip back to the station was mostly quiet. Occasionally their driver would attempt to lighten the mood, but was meet with lackluster responses. Nick and Judy were not in the mood for discussion, as much as it would help. The two were trying to mentally prepare themselves for whatever was going to happen in the few hours.
It was not long before they came upon the familiar road housing the ZPD headquarters. The van stopped just short of the station, leaving the two to walk a few hundred feet. A quick thanks and brief farewells were given all around as they exited though the side door. After a moment, during which it appeared Murray was trying to bring himself to say some final thought, the hippo simply gave a nod before driving away. The two cops watched as the eccentric blue van that started it all disappeared into the night. Just like that, they were alone.
The walk over to the station, however short, was unnerving nonetheless. Nights were typically quiet there, the staff on duty was minimal for the graveyard shift, usually only one dispatcher and a pair of officers. But that meant safety for Judy, who was clutching onto an envelope containing their information on the case, and the ability to contact the chief. The two entered through the front door into the quiet lobby. They were surprised to find the reception desk, where the dispatcher or one officer usually resided, empty.
"Uh… Anyone home?" Nick called out hesitantly, his voice echoing out into the darkened halls. He was answered by the sound of paws scampering across the tiled floor of the station.
"He-Hello?" A familiar, if not tired, voice called back from above.
The pair looked up to see a weasel poking his head over the second floor railing.
"Winthrop? What are you doing here so late?" Judy thought out loud.
"I could ask you the same thing." The Interpol constable replied in a lighthearted tone, "Nah, I had some extra paperwork to finish up so I decided to stay the night here, it's way quieter than the hotel Carmelita has everyone staying in."
"Who's on duty tonight?" Nick questioned, slightly concerned at the lack of ZPD officers.
"Beats me, I haven't seen anyone since I came up here to get some sleep."
"Right, well we need to contact the chief, it's a bit of an emergency." The fox explained as he walked towards the reception desk, picking up one of the radios stored on it.
"Is everything okay?" Winthrop asked, beginning to make his way down the stairs to meet the officers.
"It's a ZPD issue," Judy answered, following her partner, who tuned the radio to Bogo's emergency frequency, "we'll be okay."
"Wilde to Bogo. Wilde to Bogo. Wilde to Bogo." Nick transmitted the alert, awaiting a response.
"You're paging an emergency channel at two thirty in the morning, that doesn't sound okay to me." The weasel voiced his concern as he approached the desk as well.
"Don't worry about it, it's not an Interpol problem." She insisted.
"Wilde to Bogo. Come in Chief Bogo."
"I don't care about Interpol, I'm asking as a friend, what's wrong?"
"Officer Wilde paging Chief Bogo. Final Call."
"Let's just say I'm in a bit of danger." The rabbit let out minimal information.
"What kind of danger?"
"I can't get him over the radio." Nick called to his partner, "I'm gonna see who else is here."
"Okay." Judy acknowledged, placing the envelope she had been carrying onto the desk, "And you, the kind of danger that requires calling the chief at two in the morning."
"All officers on duty, report to the front desk immediately." The intercom blared throughout the station as the cop called for whatever help was available in house.
"That doesn't help." Winthrop said, hoping to get a better explanation.
"Where is everyone?" Nick wondered to no one in particular. An all-call like that usually resulted in a stampede of officers running to the lobby. Even at night, there should be at least one mammal responding.
"Something's wrong…" Judy heightened her senses as she realized things were not adding up.
As if on cue, a pair of headlights slowly illuminated the street outside. The rumble of an engine grew louder as the vehicle drew closer to the station. All three mammals inside directed their attention through the glass doors in nervous anticipation. A large white box truck eased to a halt right outside.
"That would be the danger."
Note to self: Stop making promises. Sorry its been taking a while to get these updates out. We are nearing the end of the story now (Wow, I can barely believe it!) and I have to be extra careful not to screw up any of the plot points I've started, so it is taking a bit longer to get everything how I like it. Anyway, enough of that, lets talk about the story. Yes it really is almost over, but what twists and turns will it take before we get there? If you have any crazy conspiracy theories I would love to hear them, see if you guys have figured it out ;) Next chapter will be up whenever it's finished, not setting a deadline but expect a quicker update. As always, thanks for reading, you are all awesome.
-Times change
-Pasts remain
-Hopps is the key