Don't worry, I've not abandoned ship! It's just been a very busy few days, and i'm very sorry for that! Thank you for being so patient with me, and for all of your lovely follows, favourites and reviews!
Finnick wasn't in the mood to be annoyed today. He had some money to make, now that he had to work twice as hard with Nick Wilde out of the picture. It amused him, really, that the sly fox had turned to the fuzz rather than continuing on with the street life. But who was Finnick to care? If he wanted to prance around with a bunny that was just as good at the conning game as he was, then hats off to him. Finnick didn't have time to judge, for he had far more important things on his mind.
Important meaning money, of course. And to be nosey.
And yet, when he saw his old "friend" circling a familiar bunny, he felt nothing but frustration.
It was Leo, the familiar feline who believed he was a better thug than any mammal to ever roam. Of course he was wrong, nothing more than a snivelling cat wanting to be more than he ever would be. His peculiar scent of dark, spoilt earth and the constant purring beyond his control had Finnick pulling his lips back over his teeth. His irritation was increased further when he watched him prowl around Judy Hopps, a bunny who had once amused him, only to later come to him for help in finding her friend. He liked her, despite being part of the fuzz. She was clever and funny, and better yet, she had once promised him to never expose him after the events of the Night Howlers.
He listened before he approached, unable to miss the conversation at hand. Perhaps Hopps could handle her own, and if that were the case, then Finnick would happily go about his day. Slinking into the shadows, he pried with his overly large ears, which were currently vibrating in the rhythm of their conversation just a few metres away.
"You were there last night," Hopps was saying, agitation evident in her voice. "I could smell it. You attacked those children!"
"I think you have me mistaken for someone else, fluff." Leo replied, digging his paws into his pockets and smirking.
"I smelled coal! I could smell your fur!"
"Anyone and anything could smell of coal," the cat reasoned. "Besides, if I stand correct, didn't the perpetrator roar? In case you didn't know, which I'm sure you do being a rabbit and all, cats meow."
"How do you know they roared?"
"Cat's intuition."
"Liar. I should have you arrested for withholding information."
"If I recall," Leo squinted at her, mockingly and smirking in an almost similar fashion to Nick, minus the cleverness. "Wasn't I the one who told you about the red squirrel?"
"You gave me no name, no address, no background; that's hardly helpful." Hopps snapped, tapping her foot impatiently while folding her arms stubbornly. Finnick almost chuckled to himself. The bunny showed no ounce of fear; her heart beating at a steady rate while her expression remained firm, giving nothing but exasperation away. She put her weight onto her left leg, her ears slanting in the tilt of her head to the right.
What a poser, Finnick thought with a grin. He'd bet money on anything that she could easily outwit that nuisance of a cat, who just tried to appear lazy and uninterested.
"Yet you still got the information you needed, correct?" Leo challenged.
"If you claim to be the know it all you say you are, tell me more." Hopps ordered, pulling her notebook from her breast pocket and her carrot pen from her belt.
"Why?"
"Because I asked you to." She snarled. For a rabbit she could be pretty frightening.
Finnick found himself increasingly interested in their choice of topic. Who was this red squirrel they spoke of? And what attack on children? What on earth had this bunny gotten herself mixed up in? He thought that her last case had been a big enough of a job for her, yet this one seemed a lot more shady that the first. And while he listened, he was also curious as to where old Nicky was. It was rare not to see the pair together, whether it be on or off duty. Had something happened?
Suddenly, Leo exposed his claws to the young bunny, glistening in the midday light. She naturally froze, a reaction beyond her control, yet her heart remained steady. The cat teased the fur of her cheek with a long, threatening talon, so delicate that he seemed to be counting every individual strand of fur. Out of eyeshot from the main public in Savannah Central, hidden in the darker backstreets, only Finnick was here to witness the threat, and he'd frankly had enough.
"Back up, Leo." he called, glaring in his direction as he made his way towards them. The cat relaxed his paw, momentarily looking confused. And then his eyes lit up in recognition, and he slunk away from the rabbit to await the little fox's greeting… or lack of.
"Finnick! Long time no see!" he said, feigning a pleasant smile.
Finnick snarled under his breath, coming to stand beside a gobsmacked Hopps. "Why are you threatening the bunny?"
"Oh come on, that wasn't anything, it was an empty threat!"
"Don't annoy me, mittens." Finnick snapped. "Either give her some information or beat it."
Leo flexed his expression into one of defeat and displeasure. He would never be a match for Finnick, no matter how much bigger he was. Finnick had been on the streets all his life, right from the beginning, and he knew the ins and outs and how to survive. He had a tough demeanour because he didn't have a choice in the matter. Whereas Leo had only come into this lifestyle within the last few years, before that having been well groomed, well fed and generally well off. He came here out of choice, because he thought it would be cool, and not out of desperation.
"I don't have any information."
"And I have elephant ears." Finnick retorted sarcastically. "Tell her the truth." Leo literally hissed at him and Finnick rolled his eyes. "Then get lost before I bite your face off, fur ball. Miss bunny here has better things to be doing."
With a final glare, Leo moved off, shooting Hopps a deadly scowl. The rabbit glowered back, unflinching, and awfully stiff in her stance. Finnick coolly folded his arms as he watched Leo disappear into the shadows and out of sight, unlawfully smug with himself.
"You really need to control that freezing reflex, fluffy." He told her calmly, finally looking up at the officer. She stared at him, open mouthed, an almost laughable expression. "It'll get you hurt otherwise."
"Why did you do that?" she demanded, following slowly as Finnick went to continue his morning stroll.
"Because you're a dirty cop; you got my back, then I've got yours, that's how it works." He told her. "I also hate that guy." He stopped and turned to her, raising an eyebrow. "These attacks you're talking about? I don't think Leo did it, whether you believe you smelled him or not. He is literally a typical cat, scared of his own shadow."
"He's right." Finnick knew that voice from behind, identifying him as none other than his former colleague. He turned with a sly grin in greeting, catching sight of him in the green shirt and light brown trousers. He had something in his left paw, a plastic bag containing several heavy looking items. Finnick squinted to try and get a better look before scowling at the larger fox.
"And where have you been?" he demanded hotly. Nick shot him a glare, his green eyes large, swimming with information.
"That's a good question." Hopps agreed, looking distastefully at her friend. Suddenly Finnick felt the tension between the two, looking between them again and again in utter confusion, like a child stuck between two parents fighting. Nick bit his lower lip, his ears falling back ever so slightly when he felt the pressure of Hopps' stare.
"Researching, just like you asked." Nick told the rabbit, lifting the bag he was holding.
The look of surprise on the bunny's face was a note for Finnick to slink away, deciding respectively that they needed time to talk.
And not to mention he had a feeling their conversation was going to get very boring very quickly.
Judy watched the footage in astonishment.
At the time of the attack, she never realised just how much danger she had put herself in. She could feel her blood run cold beneath her fur, her ears drooping back in terror. She wanted to run away, yet at the same time she was glued to her seat with Nick closely flanking her, staring at the screen with a blank look.
They were in the library, using the computer and video player resources to watch the CCTV footage Nick had managed to obtain. Nick had practically dragged her there the minute Finnick disappeared, refusing to tell her anything and that it would be better to show her. She tried to find it in herself to be angry with him, so kept her mouth shut while he led her to where they were now. He said nothing, only pushed the tape into the player, found the correct software, and hit play.
There were several segments, all black and white. The first was from a high angle, located behind the three children Judy had encountered, with her slowly approached just out of view. The next showed the children fleeing, and Judy running after them just a few seconds later.
The cameras then switched to one just beyond the alley in which Judy had sprang through. It spun slightly, trying to lock on to her, but she was so fast it was unable to keep up. This continued for the next thirty seconds that she was running and using the walls for leverage, the camera barely capturing a shot of her before she disappeared around another corner.
The final shot was not of Judy, however, but of the child she was trying to rescue. The little otter looked utterly petrified, running this way and that to escape whatever danger was present. Judy squinted, trying to spot whatever it was that was chasing him. He disappeared out of the shot, and a mere few seconds later, the culprit made himself known.
Indeed, it wasn't the cat, Leo.
Fur black and wild, jaws filled with glistening white teeth, the two fangs longer than Judy's head, and claws capable of tearing a lion to shreds, let alone a young otter. She stared, utterly taken aback. The power in that creature, the muscle that rippled with its quick movements, made her feel sick. She hadn't been going up against a cat. She'd been going up against a bear.
"He's not savage." Nick said quietly, pausing the video. He zoomed in with the mouse, and used a short nail to tap against the screen where the bear's ear could be seen. "He's wearing an ear piece; the wire disappears beneath his shirt, and you can just make out a light in his trouser pocket. See?"
She did see. "Yes."
"I want us to take this back to Bogo, and then I want you to drop the case, Carrots." He said it so bluntly, so clearly, that she thought he was certain she wouldn't argue.
"Are you serious?" she demanded, finally tearing her eyes away from the screen and staring at him.
He frowned, looking at her like she was stupid. "This thing is bigger than the both of us. You could have been killed last night, Carrots, don't you get it?"
"Yeah," she countered. "No thanks to you."
She immediately regretted saying it. The flash of hurt was there, right there in his eyes, and it almost knocked the breath out of her in remorse. But he didn't give her a chance to speak.
"I messed up, I get it. I'm trying to make it right. I was out all last night trying to find these, and before you ask it's not important how I got them, and then I saw this. You can't carry on with this, it's too big!"
Maybe it was too big. But maybe that was her best weapon. Who would suspect a rabbit to take down a scheme like this? They, whoever they were, would never see it coming. Lives were being threatened, homes were being broken into, and it was only a matter of time before the press clocked on to what was happening and the whole of Zootopia would break out into panic. She had to stop that from happening. She couldn't let the past repeat itself, where prey fears predator, not after everything they'd worked for.
"Nick," she murmured, looking him in the eyes as gently as she could. "We have to do this. It's big, but the consequences of doing nothing will be much, much bigger."
He let that sink in for a moment. Finally, in a very tired gesture, he sighed. "Then what do we do?"
She looked back at the screen. "We find ourselves an angry bear."
Nick planted his face against the desk in defeat and dread whilst Judy replayed the footage again.
Poor Nick, always putting up with Judy's crap :')