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 Six: Gearing Up
Judy was no fool. In mid-free fall was not the time for an ill conceived and poorly thought out escape attempt. Mid-free fall was the time to hold tightly to the Mammal with the rope and hope he doesn't reconsider your value as a hostage and just drop you to be free of the dead weight. She gripped the vinyl of his vest, face pressed into his chest. He smelled of linen and pleather with a distinctive musk that was all fox, but for some reason it was far less pleasant than Nick's natural musk.
The moment Loxley's paws touched down on solid ground, the bunny pushed away from him. "Let me go!"
One punch to the jaw and a kick to the stomach and she fell from the vigilante fox's arms. He groaned in pain, irritation, and a reasonable amount of exhaustion. He yanked hard on the cable they just swung on, detachment it from the arrow that was stuck to deep in the tree trunk to ever be pulled free again. He coiled the cable around his arm. "I don't know how Wilde can put up with you."
She reached to her belt for another weapon. Her taser was gone, her riot baton was gone, even her radio was in absence. She didn't carry fox repellent around any more, so all Judy had left was a spare battery back for the taser she didn't have and her cuffs. These she drew from the belt. Holding one ring, the bunny swung the short chain in a wide arch -extending her arm perhaps more than she should have- and clocked the fox in the side of the head with the other ring.
Absorbing the inertia so that the chain didn't arch back and his herself, Judy twirled the cuffs. Spending the momentum until she held both ends safely in her paws, chain pulled tight as she glared at Loxley.
"I'm clever and resourceful!" She snapped at the hooded fox. "Nick's lucky to have me!"
Rubbing his head where the cuffs connected, he glared right back at the bunny. She might be resourceful, but she wasn't smart. A smart prey would have taken this opportunity to run from him. Not hang around to banter. Loxley took the coiled cable and swung it rather like a whip. Like a proper Zorro. He wasn't nearly as polished with the cable as Judy was with her cuffs, but it offered the Hood longer reach.
Judy jumped back to avoid her nose being clipped by the sharp wire cable. Loxley raised his arm, swinging the cable for another pass. This one coming from the side. Judy also jumped to avoid this one, moving to the side just ahead of the cable. But she was paying more attention to the fox and his makeshift weapon than she was where she was jumping and the bunny soon found that what they were standing on wasn't nearly as wide and she originally thought. One foot slipped off the side and she would have tumbled over the edge if her enemy hadn't caught her.
Dropping the cable, the Hood rushed forward and closed one clawed paw around Judy's ankle and pulled her back up.
"Carful now. Wilde won't give me what I want if you're dead." Loxley reached for his cable and began tying her up. Feet first, then paws and shoulders. "You're my bargaining chip."
"Then what was all that about eating me?" The bunny demanded.
Hoisting her over one shoulder, Loxley waved off her concerns with an unaffected tsk. "That was just banter. Mammals don't eat other Mammals. That's just sick. Although... Wilde did seem to take it unusually seriously."
She was draped over the fox's shoulder like a sack of potatoes, head tilted down his back, so she had to both raise herself a little bit as well as turn her head to even attempt to look at him when she said, "You have no idea why Nick was given the Robin mantel, do you?"
"He took down two corrupt city leaders in the space of a few month." The Hood replied, unconcerned. "Grandfather read about it in the paper -I know, right. Who still reads the paper in this day and age? In a moment of senility brought on by his failing health, he sent Goodfellow's badge to Wilde."
That last statement sounded uncommonly bitter to Judy. But she didn't feel like drumming up any sympathy for this fox to care enough to wonder why. After breaking into her partner's apartment, assaulting said partner, causing several disturbances in the Rainforest District, and know kidnapping her and holding her ransom, the bunny cop found herself completely unwilling to sympathize with the hooded vigilante.
Instead, she decided to continue arguing. She couldn't fight him tied up like this. But she could at least annoy the crap out of him. "So, you don't actually know what the corrupt mayors were doing, or what Nick had to do to stop them?"
"Don't care, actually."
They were heading north, to the Meadowlands district. There were cameras all over the city. Judy wondered how exactly Loxley planned to get her wherever it was he was taking her without being seen.
"Bellwether -the second mayor- was drugging predators so that they went Savage and attacked the Mammals around them. Attacked them, and tried to eat them!" Judy announced. She felt just a little gratified when he skipped a step at that announcement, throwing off his rhythm. To his credit, though, Loxley recovered quickly without saying a word. So, Judy continued. "Lionheart -the first mayor- was covering it up and when we exposed that, he got removed from office and Bellwether took over. We didn't know at the time it was her causing the Savage outbreaks. We didn't find out until literally the last hour of the case."
The Hood have a soft hmph, and the bunny couldn't tell if it was a laugh of derision or an unconcerned snort to indicate that he didn't care.
Either way, Judy pressed on, determined to make the fox see that Nick was far more deserving of whatever honor they were fighting over. "You wanna know how Nick and I finally took Bellwether down? Nick pretended to be affected by the drug and acted Savage. He chased me around, snarling, teeth showing, drool dripping from his mouth... It was actually legitimately frightening. All the while, Bellwether was giving us the cliché bad guy speech where they spell out the whole plan. Then Nick pretended to kill me. Jaws on my neck and everything. Clearly, I'm fine. He didn't even bite down, really. But I know he has nightmares about it sometimes. Just like he still has nightmares about being muzzled when he was nine."
She thrashed her body a bit, trying to wiggle in a way that would allow her bound feet to kick Loxley somewhere uncomfortable.
"So don't make jokes about eating other Mammals around him!" Judy commanded. "They're not funny! He's a vegetarian for crackers' sake!"
The Hood rolled his eyes. A vegetarian predator. Could Wilde be any less worthy of Goodfellow's badge? Loxley hefted the bunny on his shoulder. She might be small, but she wasn't exactly light. They entered the underpass that connected the Rainforest District to the Meadowlands. Loxley followed the path until they made it to a service tunnel. Then he turned, away from surveillance cameras and the Meadowlands or Rainforest District.
…
The ZPD armory did not stock bows and arrows.
Luckily, his status as officer in the city's police department gave him an open-carry license and permit to purchase semi-lethal weapons for personal use. He'd never exercised this right before, and felt very awkward walking into the sporting goods store that catered to small Mammals. He walked right up to the counter, took off his aviator shades, and leaned on the glass display case, offering his best 'casual and easy going cop' grin. "Hey, I need-"
"Please, no leaning on the glass." Said the Mammal behind the counter. A sand colored culpeo with a nick in one ear. She took out a bottle of glass cleaner and roll of paper towels. Without even looking at Nick, she sprayed the non-existent smudge he hadn't caused on the display case and began scrubbing furiously.
Blinking in mild disbelief, Nick stared at her scrub for a moment before shaking his head as if to wake up from a daze. He tapped the glass right in front of the culpeo's nose, forcing her to look back up at him. "Hey, excuse me." Channeling his inner Carrots, he tapped the brass badge on his chest. "Officer Nick Wilde, ZPD. Hi. How ya doing?"
She blinked at the shield, eyes narrowing at the red feather poking out from behind it. She pointed, keeping her clawed paw far enough away so as not to be in danger of accidentally scraping the shield or the feather behind it. "Is that... is that a robin's feather..."
Ears folded back with hesitation and a perfectly healthy amount of skepticism she raised her eyes to look at Nick's face. Really look at him. A red fox, wearing a robin feather -literally- as a badge. She seemed to remember something in the news about a fox helping to stop the Savage outbreaks and apprehend the corrupt government official.
"Oh my Goodfellow! Are you-"
"A customer waiting for service." Nick supplied before she could finish her question. He was running out of patience with Mammals asking him if he was Robin Hood. He didn't think he was, but so long as he still carried the red plume, what he thought of himself didn't seem to matter. "I need a bow."
"Uh. Uh. Of course!" She left the glass cleaner and paper towel forgotten on the counter as she rushed to present him with a selection of fancy looking hunting bows. Carbon fiber, and stainless steel, and lightweight aluminum. Long bows, short bows, cross bows, collapsable for easy transport.
Nick blinked at the selection. He had no idea there was so much variety in the world of bows. The fox was honestly just expecting a bendy piece of wood with s string. "Uh..."
"Are you looking for something lightweight and compact that can easily be carried while jumping from rooftops in the pursuit of truth, justice, liberty, and more relaxed tax laws for the economically disadvantaged?"
Nick stared at her.
The culpeo pause. Glanced again, taking in his police uniform and ZPD shield. She released an awkward laugh. "Or, uh, are you just looking for a normal hunting bow because turkey season is in a few months and that's a perfectly normal and legitimate thing that Mammals do with semi-lethal weapons. Not like that other thing I said. Which is completely crazy. Am I right?" Another awkward laugh.
He massaged his temples, ears folding in exasperation. "Look, I just need something bendable with a string that will shoot a sharp stick at something."
Several minutes later, he exited the store with a lightweight aluminum bow and a quiver of arrows with bright nylon fletching. He hopped into the squad car that was waiting outside for him, Delgato at the wheel.
"Well, that took forever." The lion commented. "What happened, you shoot yourself in the foot?"
"Shut-up, Simba." The fox growled. He was in no mood to explain that the Mammal behind the counter was also a species of fox and he made the mistake of wearing Goodfellow's badge into the shop. But then, he wasn't about to take it off. So, he might as well get used to that reaction from other foxes so long as he had it. "Lets just get back to the station and wait for Loxley's call for when and where to meet."
…
Loxley didn't put Judy down until they finally got to his destination. An upscale looking hotel in the city's center. The hooded fox entered through a back entrance and took a service freight elevator up several floors. They exited out onto a wide, well lit hallway with red carpeting, ecru colored walls, and identical doors lining the hall in both directions. The only thing to distinguish them from one another where the numbers polished to a golden shine.
Shifting her from one shoulder to the other, Loxley fished in his pocket, pulled out a card key, and let them into a room.
Judy was thrown down on a wide bed and then promptly ignored as Loxley similarly set down his bow and quiver of arrows, pulling the hood down off his head. Opening the room's mini-fridge, the fox pulled out an instant cold pack and disappeared into the bathroom.
Now out of sight of her captor, the bunny wriggled herself up into a sitting position. She glared at the cable binding her ankles, legs, wrists, arms... just about everything really. It was twisted wire -metal- not nylon or polyester cord. Not anything she could chew through. In fact, the only thing preventing the cable from cutting into her wrists and ankles were the bands that she wore. She wasn't going to be getting out of her bindings anytime soon.
With a huff and a sigh, Judy made a very un-bunny like growl and flopped back down on the bed.
A few minutes later, Loxley emerged from the bathroom. No longer wearing his hooded vest, a bandage wrapped around one paw where Nick had bit him and the instant cold-pack pressed to his collar bone where she had kicked him. Whatever first aid he was doing on himself done, the fox selected one of the cute little bottles from the mini-bar and took a long sip... that completely drained the whole tiny bottle. He selected a second one, this one actually pouring into a glass like a civilized Mammal. He swirled the drink around as he assessed his hostage.
"If I untie you, are you going to attack me again?"
"If you don't untie me, I'll eventually have to pee and then won't that be a mess all over this expensive looking bedspread." Judy shot back.
Loxley only gave an unconcerned shrug. Taking a sip from his glass before he replied. "All I'll have to do is just call housekeeping to change it for me while we're out making the trade with Wilde." A pause. "That is, assuming I read him right and he cares about you as much as he does the Robin mantel. If he doesn't... well, that'll be a problem for you."
Judy refused to be intimidated. "I hope you know that you have kidnapped and are detaining a member of the Zootopia Police Department. Do you even know how much jail time you're gonna serve for this?"
"None." He shrugged.
"What?" Judy blinked at him, disbelieving.
Peering back into the mini-fridge, Loxley added an ice cube to his drink, then pulled out a bag of grapes and something that looked like a meat stick. He took a large bite of the processed bug and fish protein stick before crossing the space between them and holding a grape in front of the bunny's lips. "Don't bite me, or else I might rethink my hospitality."
She did not accept the offered grape. Instead Judy just stared at him. "After everything you've done already, you think you're gonna get away scot free?"
Loxley shoved the grape in her mouth, more to just shut her up than out of any actual hospitality or concern that she might be hungry after the day she's had. "Two words, bunny. Diplomatic. Immunity."
At her silent blink of disbelief the fox continued.
"I am an Earl of the Old Country, filthy rich, and personal friends with Prince Hairy." Loxley informed her. "And if there's one thing I know about your country's judicial system, its that the rich and privileged don't have to suffer consequences for anything."
"Well." Judy said, swallowing the grape so that she could speak clearly. "Then I guess its a good thing I'm personal friends with Robin Hood."
After all, making sure the rich and privileged suffered consequences for their corrupt actions was kind of Robin Hood's specialty.
He snarled at her wordlessly. Loxley tossed his ice pack back in the mini-fridge and pulled his hooded vest back on. Picking up his bow and quiver, he moved to the door. Pausing just long enough to tell his hostage, "I'm going to set up the exchange. Try not to soil the bed while I'm gone."
And he left.
Judy was all alone, tied up so thoroughly that all her struggling succeeded in was making her do a rather uncanny impression of a caterpillar.
…
Nick snagged a doughnut from Clawhouser when he and Delgato returned to the station. He hadn't eaten much all day and was starting to feel it.
"Chief wants you both back in his office as soon as you're back." The cheetah informed them. "Since you're back, I guess that would be right now."
No sooner had these words escaped Clawhouser's doughnut filled mouth than the Chief himself poked his head out of his office door and and shouted. "Wilde! Delgato! My office! Now!"
Sometimes Nick wondered if the water buffalo knew how to vocalize a sentence longer than three syllables.
Both lion and fox did as told. Filing into the Chief's office and shutting the door behind them. The Chief noted the shiny new bow Wilde carried and raised an eyebrow at he. He knew the fox had gone out specifically to acquire one, but for some reason, the buffalo just didn't think the rookie fox would follow through. Clearly, he had underestimated Wilde's ability to follow through where his 'loosely connected beliefs based one historical events and mysticism' were concerned. Either that, or Wilde's ability to follow through where rescuing Hopps was concerned. They were a tad close -even for partners- especially for rookie partners.
"You have all the right licenses and permits for that?" Bogo asked.
"Yes, sir." The fox nodded. "But just to put you at ease, after we rescue Carro- Hopps, you can personally audit all of the paperwork I have on this thing. The Mammal that sold it to me was very enthusiastic."
"The fox took forever in the store." Delgato groaned. "Probably chanting nonsense with another Hood Cult member."
"You are being remarkably intolerant and unhelpful." Nick snapped back, glaring up at the lion's belt buckle due to their extreme hight difference.
Bogo pinched the bridge of his snout in an attempt to stave off an on-coming stress headache. "Enough! I don't care!" He glared at the two predators until they backed off from one another and demurred under his scrutiny. He lifted something from his desk. A piece of card stock paper, heavily creased like it had been folded and twisted. "This arrived for you while you were gone, Wilde." He reached a second hoof to lift something else off the desk. This time it was an arrow. "It was delivered on this. I don't appreciate vigilantes shooting projectiles into by building. Someone could have been hurt."
Nick raised a brow. "You're blaming me for something someone else did?"
"Wilde!" The Chief shoved the paper at the fox. "This fanatic is after you. Hurry up and take him down. I want this nut-job off my streets."
Nick read the instructions on the card stock. "Alright. I'm off to rescue fair Lady!"
"And take Delgato with you." Bogo added. "You might need the backup and theres no telling if Hopps will be in any condition to preform when you retrieve her."
Fox and lion glanced at each other, skeptical and unsure. Neither one was really looking forward to working with the other.
...