Disclaimer: I do not own Zootopia or its related characters. All is the property of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Clark Spencer, and Byron Howard. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
Under a Green Hood
Chapter Five: Rescue Fair Maiden
In hind sight, Nick's big mistake was not cuffing the Hood the moment he got the other fox on the ground.
The vigilante rolled over onto his back and kicked Nick in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and forcing the cop-fox away. The Hood retrieved his bow before lunging at the bunny. One paw outstretched -claws extended- grasping for the shield on her chest and the feather behind it.
"That's mine!" He closed a paw over the shield, claws digging into the fabric webbing covering the kevlar vest.
Eyes wide with shock at the sudden attack, Judy didn't think, she just acted. Letting her prey instincts for self preservation take hold of her. She lifted both feet and landed a hard two footed kick to the red fox's collar bone. The Hood was thrown backwards, accompanied by the sound of strained fibers and ripping fabric.
Judy climbed to her feet. She was fine. But her shield had been ripped from her chest, and with it, Robin Goodfellow's badge.
She looked down at the patch of exposed kevlar where her shield and the red feather had been. Then up at Nick. He might have given it to her, but he was the one it actually carried meaning for. Some archaic aspect of Vulpine culture she was only just beginning to understand. He gave it to her, making it sound like it was something hallowed and honored and now she had just lost it to a criminal in a hood.
Glaring, she turned her attention to said hooded criminal. Knocked back from the force of her rabbit kick, he lay on his back, the vinyl hood of his green vest thrown back to show his face clearly for all to see. Judy recognized him instantly. The fox that had come in earlier just that day looking for Nick. "Robert Loxley!"
"What?" Nick came up to her, one arm wrapped around his mid-section where Loxley had kicked him. "But I thought Loxley died."
"The sixth one did, yes." Judy nodded. She had been doing enough Loogling today to know. "This must be Robert Loxley the seventh, his son."
"Grandson." Loxley corrected. He started pushing himself back to his feet only to realize that he now held Judy's shield in his paw, and sandwiched in the shield was the feather of Robin Goodfellow. The badge of a Robin under the Hood. He pulled the feather out carefully -almost reverently. "But you can call me 'Robin'."
A low, angry growl was felt more than heard and it took Judy far longer than it should have to realize the sound was coming from Nick. "The Robin mantel has to be earned! You can't just take it!"
The bunny placed what she hoped was a calming paw on the fox's arm. She still felt like an outsider to all of this, but she recognized actions and artifacts of power when she saw them. To her it was just a stupid feather and the name of a children's story character. To him... it was much more. "This is really important to you."
He took his eyes off Loxley just long enough to turn to her. "Its my history."
"Okay then." That was about all the warning she gave before spinning around, drawing her own ZPD issued taser gun and shooting Loxley square in the chest. She was a lot quicker than Nick and a better shot too. He might have been top marksman in his graduating class, but she was top marksman in the precent. (Someone in her size-class had to be, couldn't take chances with larger Mammals.)
The taser bolts stuck in the vinyl of Loxley's vest and the wires between them lip up with blue sparks. Loxley looked down at the taser bolts in alarm that quickly melted into relief.
"Vinyl." Plastic.
He was insulated.
And that hadn't even been a design feature of his outfit. He wanted a material that looked like leather because the original Robin Hood wore leather. But a Mammal can't go walking around in this day and age wearing someone else's skin! So, all the leather parts of the uniform were replaced with vinyl and as an added bonus, he was protected from tasers.
"Should have shot him in the arm!" Nick growled.
"Oh, how was I supposed to know his shirt gave him a plus-10 against Thundaga." The bunny rolled her eyes.
Pulling up his hood, Loxley slid the feather into place through two loops that were designed specifically for it. Then he tossed Judy's badge back to her. It landed at the bunny's feet with a distinctive clink of metal on wood. "Looks like Goodfellow's already favoring me with his luck." He said. "You can have that back. I already have the only badge worth anything."
That was the thing that really set Judy off.
If another Mammal held personal beliefs that placed importance on other symbols or talismans, fine. Every citizen of Zootopia was free to hold and practice what they believed. But that did not give a Mammal the right to insult the symbols or talismans that other Mammals held dear -and Judy held her position at the ZPD and the shield that went along with it very dear to her heart. She spent the better part of fifteen years -that majority of her life so far- working towards that one goal, and nobody got to insult that! Not Nick, not the Chief, and especially not some foreign hooded vigilante with delusions of grandeur.
Yanking a riot baton from her belt, Judy launched herself at the Hood. "I'll show you what a ZPD badge is worth!"
The first blow caught the fox in the shins and sent him tumbling to the floor. The second blow was to the back, knocking the wind out of him and forcing him down further. She grabbed a first full of his green hood -and a bit of the ear underneath it- and pulled his head up to look at her. "Breaking and entering, assault, theft and resisting arrest!"
The paw gripping his hood -and his ear- also happened to be wrapped around the feather in its loops. She shoved Loxley's head back down and pulled the feather free, holding it out for Nick.
He took it gladly, relief from a tension he didn't even know he had flooding his body. Nick slipped the feather behind his own shield. He still wasn't sure that he actually deserved it, but -for the moment at least- he could keep it safe from others even less worthy than himself who tried to take it. His paws free, the fox did what he should have done earlier and pulled his cuffs from his belt. "Carrots, maybe instead of redefining 'excessive force' and 'police brutality', we could just arrest the guy?"
He offered the fox-sized cuffs out to his bunny partner.
Seeing the cuffs, Loxley grabbed the bunny before she could take them. He held her against him, one paw around her delicate little neck so that she couldn't bite him. Getting bitten once by Wilde was enough for him. The other paw held her ankles so that she couldn't kick him again. Given their position, she would have hit someplace much more sensitive than his collar bone.
"I can't believe you tried giving Goodfellow's badge to a bunny!" The hooded fox snarled.
Nick froze. He and Judy didn't have the upper hand anymore. Loxley had a hostage. Switching tactics, Nick tried talking the other fox down. "You make it sound so crazy. But don't you remember one of the original Robin's right hand Mammals was also a bunny."
That's right. Remind him that bunnies have always figured into the Robin Hood legends. The original Robin Hood had Skippy, the white rabbit whom was also an aspiring archer. The Scarlet Pimpernel had Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, and Zorro had Frey Felipe. No matter which Robin under the Hood you looked at, bunnies always figured heavily into their tales. Was it really such a stretch to imagine a bunny being given the title some day?
"You don't have to remind me about Skippy of Nottingham." Loxley growled. Then his frown melted into a taunting -almost cruel- sneer. "Who do you think Robin and Marian ate for their wedding feast?"
The bottom dropped out of Nick's stomach. "That's not funny!"
Loxley rubbed the side of his face against Judy's cheek, exaggerating an inhale of her scent. "Bunny... smells so yummy..."
Judy's eyes went wide with alarm and she struggled in Loxley's arms, a paw reaching for the small canister of fox replant that wasn't there. She hadn't carried it since she reconciled with Nick.
"Don't even play like that!" Less than a year since they took down Bellwether, those kinds of jokes were not the least bit amusing. They reminded Nick just a little to much of 'what could have been' if they hadn't thought up that spur-of-the-moment plan to swap the Night Howler for some blueberries. Nick would never admit it during his waking hours, but he occasionally had nightmares about the 'what ifs' of that night. "Let her go!"
"Or you'll what? Continue to whine like a little kit?" Loxley taunted. He tightened his grip on Judy's throat just enough to deter her from fighting back. She might be small, but the Hood already learned that she was deceptively dangerous. "But I'm not unreasonable. I'll trade you for her." He held out a paw. "Your pet bunny for Goodfellow's badge."
One paw flew to his chest, right over his own ZPD shield and the red feather behind it. Two badges that meant as much to Nick as Judy did. But Goodfellow's feather was sent to him. It was entrusted to him. That meant that he was obligated to safeguard the values the feather represented and the meaning it carried for the vulpine community. He couldn't just give it away to a thug and bully who didn't respect everything that it stood for.
But he couldn't just stand there while the other predator had his claws around the delicate and vulnerable throat of his partner, best friend, and the bunny who changed his life.
Nick hesitated a little too long.
"Perhaps you need a little time to think about it..." Loxley suggested. He backed himself -still holding Judy- up to the edge of the sky tram platform. "I'll shoot you a message of where to meet. Don't take to long deciding, okay. I might get hungry."
And with that, the Hooded fox jumped off the platform -taking Judy with him.
Nick ran to the edge, heart in his throat. He peered down to see the green clad form plummeting through the foliage. He let go of Judy long enough to notch an arrow in his bow -another of the cabled kind with rope attached (where did he get all of those?)- but in free fall the bunny didn't have much opportunity to get away from him. Loxley's arm was around her again in moments and then they were swinging off. Away from Nick. He lost sight of them in the denser lower levels of the forest.
That was when their back-up finally showed up. Delgato, Grizzoli, and Fangmeyer. The three of them lead by Chief Bogo.
"Wilde!" The water buffalo snapped. "Where's Hopps? What the heck happened?"
Nick didn't even know where to begin.
…
It was frustrating that the fox didn't answer -or couldn't answer. The difference was nuanced and Chief Bogo didn't care to examine that nuance -especially not at this moment when he had an officer missing. It took the entire drive back to the station and several minutes pacing the Chief's office before the fox finally spoke.
"How much do you know about foxes?" Wilde asked spontaneously after several minutes of ignoring his superior's impatient and hostile glares.
"They're small, irritate me, and have no respect for proper police procedure." Bogo supplied. Admittedly, his sample pool of foxes he interacted with regularly was pretty much limited to just Officer Nickolas P. Wilde. So it was entirely possible that his perceptions were skewed.
In spite of his rattled nerves and anxiety over his favorite bunny being kidnapped by a fanatical member of an ancient Robin Hood cult, Nick found himself cracking a smug smile. Channeling his pre-Judy self's philosophy of 'never let them see they get to you'. "Aw, Chief... You say the sweetest things."
The water buffalo slammed his fists on the desk, making the wood groan and shaking stacks of papers and files. Bogo exhaled loudly through his nostrils, sending a jet of warm air to ruffle the fox's fur in an uncomfortable way. "Damn it, Wilde! One of my officers is missing and you are the only witness. So tell me something! Or, so help me, I will strip you of your badge and send you back to selling marginally legal ice cream on the street!"
"It wasn't ice cream." The fox muttered.
"Wilde!" Bogo snarled, almost shouted.
"I'm thinking of a plan!" Nick snapped, forgetting that this would not reassure the brass tacks Chief of Police.
"I didn't ask you for a plan." The buffalo growled, low and threatening. His patience with the fox was almost worn out. "I asked you what happened. You've been acting strange all day, absent from roll call, Hopps says for bereavement but you don't look very bereaved to me, Clawhouser bursts into my office saying you're being held at gunpoint, several calls about disturbances in Rainforest District come in as a result of your little chase, and now Hopps is missing. So, I'll ask you again -and this will be the last time- what happened?"
Nick hesitated again. The Brotherhood of the Hood and badge of Robin Goodfellow were fox things. One didn't generally discuss them openly and candidly with other, non-vulpine, Mammals. He was willing to share with Judy because she was his partner and practically a fox in all but body -a sort of honorary fox. That, and if he wanted her to be the Robin under the Hood she would need to know what it meant. But Westley Bogo was a different story.
Still, he had to say something. The glare the Chief was giving him was just one step below 'murderous'.
Taking a deep breath in an attempt to settle his nerves and get his thoughts together, Nick attempted an explanation. "This morning I got an envelope in the mail. The return address was from an estate from the Old Country that I am distantly related to. It was a legal envelope, so I assumed it was some version of an inheritance. Instead, all that was in there was..." Here the fox hesitated. But he'd already began. He should at least finish the bit that he started. It wasn't like no one knew about the feather. Delgato held it up for all to see. Nick pulled Goodfellow's badge out from behind his ZPD shield. "All there was inside was this."
He held the feather up for the buffalo to see clearly.
There was a beat of silence.
The Chief continued to glare.
Nick was at a loss as to how to continue.
"I'm hoping this will eventually lead into why you were attacked in your home and Hopps is gone." Bogo informed him in his best 'keep talking or lose your job' voice.
"It's..." The fox began, slipping Goodfellow's badge back behind his shield. "Its hard to explain..."
"Try." The buffalo commanded.
Opening his mouth, Nick took a breath. But before another awkward syllable could escape his lips there was a knock on the office door. Without waiting for a reply, Officer Delgato turned the handle and slipped inside. Before the Chief could object or reprimand him for interrupting, the lion held up a file. "I promise, this is relevant."
Nick was glad for the distraction. Even more so when the Chief gave a slight nod for Delgato to explain himself before he was kicked out.
"I was the one who opened Wilde's letter this morning." He began as he flipped open the file he carried and pulled out a photograph. "I thought the seal looked familiar, but I couldn't place where I'd seen it before. Then it hit me when the DA called to make sure the Bellwether files would be ready for pick-up on Monday. It was in Lionheart's office."
He passed the photo to the Chielf. Nick was just a little too short to see it and he glared up at the larger Mammals' belt buckles, willing them to drop it or something so that he could see what they were talking about.
"After the arrests at Cliffside, you sent me and Fangmeyer to search his office at City Hall. It was on the wall right under Lionheart's coat of arms."
"What does this have to do with anything?" Bogo asked. He lowered the arm holding the evidence photo, pinching the bridge of his snout with the other. That was when Nick finally got a look at what they were talking about.
It was an evidence photo from the Missing Mammal case. A wide shot of Liodore Lionheart's office focussing on the wall behind his desk. There were his bachelors degrees in sociology, political sciences, and law, as well as numerous plaques and awards for charitable events or similar philanthropic endeavors. But above everything was a large framed piece of rough woven and very old looking linen embroidered with the coat of arms of the Lionheart. The original Lionheart. Nick vaguely remembered some rumor floating around election season that claimed Liodore was actually a descendant of the Lionheart. At the time, the fox neither believed it, not actually cared.
But under the almost authentic looking coat of arms, in a slightly smaller frame, was an entirely different crest. An arrow and a bow embroidered with gold thread over a background of dark forest green. The Loxley family crest, but also -and more importantly- the symbol for the Brotherhood of the Hood. Lionheart might not have been a fox, but he was a Brother of the Hood. (That actually also gave more credence to his claim of being descended from the original Lionheart, but that was neither here not there.)
"I thought it was familiar, but I didn't recognize it at first." Delgato continued. "But that symbol in combination with the Lionheart-" 'the Lionheart' here was talking about the king of the Old Country, not Liodore "-can only mean one thing. The trickster of the Greenwood who stole so much tax money that he nearly bankrupt the Old Country and prevented Prince John from being able to pay the ransom that was demanded for the Lionheart's safe return."
"What!?" Nick was insulted. He'd never heard Robin Hood be described as such a... villain. "How could you possibly think that!?"
Delgato gave an unconcerned shrug. "Every lion knows the story of the traitor who nearly cost the Lionheart his life."
"You and I, Degato. When this is all over, we're gonna have words." Nick was about in inch away from attacking the larger predator's kneecaps.
Bogo subtly dissuaded him. Handing the photo back to the cat, moving in a way that oh-so-casually placed himself between fox and lion, whom replaced the picture back in his file. "I'm still waiting to see what this has to do with my city."
"Clearly, the one who attacked Wilde in his apartment is a member of the Cult of the Hood and wants what was sent to him." Delgato finished.
That wasn't actually to far from the truth. As insulted as Nick was, having his people's hero called a traitor and a villain, and the Brotherhood of the Hood called a cult, he did have to admit that -with the little amount of information he had to go on- the lion managed to deduce most of what was actually going on. Still, that didn't stop him form protesting the insult.
"Its not a cult!" He shouted up at the larger predator, climbing onto the chair in front of Bogo's desk to be at a closer hight to them. "Its a loosely connected system of beliefs based off of historical events with a dollop of mysticism thrown in the mix."
They paused to look at him for a moment. Requarding him quietly. Then Bogo summed up, "One of my officers was attacking in his own home..." a skeptical pause, "...for a feather."
Both buffalo and lion watched the fox, silently demanding further explanation.
Placing a paw over his ZPD shield and the badge of Goodfellow behind it, Nick took another deep breath. "Its not just a feather -for foxes. Its not just a feather for foxes. Its the mark of Robin Goodfellow. It identifies a Robin under the Hood. There are lost of Brothers of the Hood -what Delgato's calling a 'Cult of the Hood'- but in each generation there's only ever one Robin... Hood."
There was another beat of silence.
They stared at him, struck silent by the sheer absurdity of his statement.
Then Bogo snorted.
Nick had never heard the buffalo laugh before. He didn't know the buffalo knew how.
"Wilde, are you telling me that you are Robin Hood?"
His paw tightened over the badge -both badges. He didn't think he was worthy. Didn't deserve the honor. He might have saved one city, but that was just a one-off thing. A fluke. He wasn't really a hero. But the badge had been sent to him. Of all the foxes of his generation -including Loxley's own grandson- he was chosen to receive Goodfellow's feather. That had to mean something, right?
"Someone thinks I should be." The fox deadpanned, glaring at his superior and his colleague with deadly seriousness. "And someone else disagrees. That's why Carrots- Hopps, that's why Officer Hopps was taken. He wants to make a trade. Goodfellow's badge for Judy."
Delgato scoffed. "Oh, just give him the stupid feather, Wilde."
"We don't negotiate with kidnappers." Bogo reminded his officer. To Nick he said, "I don't like vigilantes or violent fanatics in my town. You mentioned you had a plan."
Nick smiled. "That depends. Does the ZPD armory stock bows and arrows?"
…