Chapter 1: A Brilliant Plan

The events that happened yesterday were fresh on his mind.

"Either you allow rabbits or I'm making my own show." Carla threatened him. "I'm tired of turning them away."

Gideon needed her. He worked with her for the last year and a half already. "Fine," he said.

"You won't regret it."

"I trust you.'

Gideon lingered outside the building, thinking of what changes would happen next. "Earn Your Tail" was about foxes earning a new tail. How would they even tie rabbits into the show? The sign above featured a two-tailed fox with one translucent tail.

Nothing would be the same again, Gideon knew it despite how benign her intentions were. The show only happened by happenstance – him helping an ever-longer number of foxes, to the point that he had to choose. It turned into a show for foxes only.

Rabbits outnumbered foxes something of twenty to one in Bunnyburrow. Setting quotas for his show wouldn't feel right. It was different to exclude rabbits from the start. He strode into the building for another live recording of "Earn Your Tail." The show was in its third season.

Gideon stepped into the studio. The other two foxes were already there in their multi-tail fox costumes.

"Thank you for finally agreeing to this, Gideon." Carla's five tails waved playfully around her.

Gideon grunted. He agreed back then, but he didn't have much choice. She wasn't someone that he could easily replace.

"Don't go there, Carla. He's still the nine-tails," Tobias said. "I just hope that your idea doesn't ruin this show. There are way more rabbits than foxes."

There was still plenty of time for Gideon to get into costume, but he decided not to. It wouldn't feel right to intimidate a bunny by putting it on.

"You're not putting on your costume?"

"I don't want to scare a bunny," Gideon said. "Let's go. Yours only has three tails."

The foxes headed towards the set where filming would take place. There was a comfortable chair for each fox.

As his luck would have it, a rabbit was first up. Gideon studied the rabbit – nothing noticeable in her paw. There was only a plain table in the middle of the room. That meant the bunny had either nothing to demonstrate or it was all on her. She wasn't dressed fancily either. There were patches and clear signs of wear and tear. He didn't want the first contestant to be a disaster. Before the cameras started, Gideon said, "Maybe, he's just selling air. Hopefully, this ends quickly." Hoping that she would leave.

"We're live, Gideon," Carla said.

Gideon sighed. The rabbit might be the first, and if he was lucky, she would also be the last.

The rabbit approached them with – seemingly nothing. She hadn't even unveiled the covered object in the middle of the room. "Greetings f-foxes, my name is Harley Brackenfield."

"A nervous one too, ugh," Gideon uttered. "This is going great already."

"Don't mind him," Carla said.

"I – I'm h-here to ask for one million dollars for ten percent of my company," Harley said.

That rabbit didn't say her company name yet, not even for a few seconds after. She just paused as if gathering her thoughts. "That we don't know the name of still! He's so incompetent," Gideon yelled, he hoped that she would get the sense that she wasn't wanted.

"Keep going," Tobias said.

"I grew up on a farm where we had problems with drinking water. Three of my siblings ended up in the hospital when I was five, and one of them passed away because of tainted water. That trauma eventually inspired me to create this water bottle." Harley took five minutes to stutter through her entire speech.

"How does it work?" Carla said.

"And we still don't know the company name. Can he just leave?" Gideon said. "What a waste of time."

"I ended up founding my company Aquazest." Harley didn't say anything for a minute.

"Is that it?" Gideon said. The rabbit didn't even care that he got her gender wrong. If only she was male.

"When I realized that this was really in demand. It doesn't matter what liquid you fill it with, you will be drinking pure water," Harley said. "This water bottle currently contains water from the road." Harley exhaled loudly.

She placed three cups on the table. The fourth one fell off, and she had to retrieve it from the floor. "As you can see it is currently brown and a clear health hazard. Now, when you pour it out – you still get clean water. I realize that this might seem daunting so I've poured myself a cup as well."

Gideon grabbed the cup filled with clear water. He drank it in a gulp. "It tastes terrible. I'm out, and good riddance."

"Of course, you would say that. You wanted me gone from the very start," Harley accused. "Even to the point of lying."

"Sorry about him," Carla said. "Let me try." She started drinking. "I can't invest in this. The taste is awful. As much as I like to support other females, I'm taking an early out this time."

"Sorry, this hasn't happened before," Harley said.

Tobias tried to drink his cup regardless. He couldn't conceal his distaste and spat it right out. "Maybe it's not for foxes after all. How many of these have you sold?"

"A hundred and fifty in the past year by going door-to-door charging ten dollars each."

"And you're asking for a million because?"

"Bunnyburrow has a population of a hundred million. I would also like your expertise. The advertisements that I purchased didn't have much success."

"I'm sorry, I don't think scaling up that fast is a worthwhile risk. I do think the bottle has potential though. Unfortunately, I'm out."

Harley made her way to the exit dejectedly before deciding to double back. "It's all or nothing, you can do this." She started walking towards the foxes again.

"Did you forget something?" Tobias asked.

"The real reason it tasted terrible is that I've poisoned you. Would anyone like to change their minds? You have five minutes to decide. Why do you think I've never drank the water?" She walked towards the foxes slowly. "It will be one million each."

This impudent rabbit dared to come here with such a threat. Gideon felt extremely angry. After a minute, he realized he had his teeth right around the rabbit's neck, and tasted blood.

Peace was good.

Peace was annoying.

Especially when it persisted for days in a row. It was the first time in forever that Judy had to deal with extended parking duty for lack of anything important going on. The area Chief Bogo assigned to them was peaceful. It was a waste of her talents. She shuddered that she dared to hope something would go wrong so she would have something to do.

Judy recently finished a round on the block. This time there weren't many cars to ticket. She sat in the cruiser while waiting for her partner to finish his part.

"Parking duty, parking duty, parking duty, every day we had parking duty," Judy said when he joined her.

"You know, I'm pretty sure saying things three times in a row tends to summon old gods," Nick said.

"If only. Parking duty, parking duty, parking duty."

Her cell phone started ringing which was fortunate since she wasn't on the move.

"Oh, how many tentacles does he have?"

"Pretty sure the characters in Sucker for Love were female."

"Girlfriend then. Been doing research, I see."

"Yes, on your computer. Why were you playing that?"

"Shouldn't you get that?"

Judy looked at her phone. "It's just Gideon."

"Just Gideon?" Nick said.

Gideon started talking, "Judy, I messed up bad–"

"Slow down, Gideon," Judy could barely make out what Gideon was saying.

"–I-I k-killed someone, and now I'm going to die," Gideon stuttered.

"Gideon?" she shouted. The fox remained silent for several seconds, so she shouted his name again.

She could hear his heavy breathing.

"It's all my fault, isn't it? I persuaded him to go through with this."

Judy didn't recognize who said that, but it wasn't Gideon, and sounded feminine. The line went dead shortly after. Immediately, Judy tried calling Gideon, hoping that he would pick up.

"What's your relationship with Gideon?" Nick sounded worried.

Was Gideon even a friend? He did kill someone. Yet she had the inclination that she should drop everything and rush back there to see if he was alright. They were friends, right? He gave her pies whenever she visited Bunnyburrow since his apology.

"Judy?" Nick waved a paw in front of her face.

She realized that she spent such a long time thinking. "Friend."

Since Gideon killed someone, that meant he was dangerous – but why was he going to die? She was contemplating her next move. Why did Gideon even call her with such a vague message? He had to know that she was part of the ZPD. Bunnyburrow had their own police department, and she was certainly too far away to help. Although, if she had to put him behind bars, she didn't know how that would feel. It was strange enough that she wanted to check it out for herself.

"I need to go to Bunnyburrow. Something isn't right," Judy said. "I'll call Chief Bogo." She dialed the Chief, "An emergency came up. I need to go to Bunnyburrow."

"Hopps?" Chief Bogo echoed.

"Can I please leave, now?"

"Elaborate."

"My friend thinks he's going to die," Judy said. "I want to be there for him."

"Gideon also killed someone," Nick said, earning him a glare from Judy.

"Hopps, Wilde, go, I will expect a full report," Chief Bogos said.

Nick was a complication that she didn't want to have, but nevertheless, she started driving towards Bunnyburrow.