A wall of wind slammed into the back of the fox, ruffling his fur and causing him to stumble. Dust from the side of the road pelted the back of his dark blue uniform as the semi flew past. The driver was probably speeding, but another officer would have to deal with them since this fox already had a vehicle to deal with at the moment.
The road was part of the massive system of highways that ran through and around the city. Even though this section was elevated above the surrounding buildings, the high retaining walls prevented him from enjoying the local view.
Walking close to the white line that marked the limits of the drivable zone, he slowly approached a minivan sitting on the shoulder. The vehicle's turn signal was still blinking with a regular pulse, but it eventually stopped once he got closer. He caught a glimpse of the driver through the side view mirror. It was a female prey mammal, and he could also make out what looked like horns from the shadows that managed to escape through the dark windows. Another gust of wind brushed across his back causing him to step farther away from the edge of the lane.
Flashing red and blue lights reflected off the rear window of the dark blue minivan in front of him. Since he had left his aviator sunglasses sitting on the dresser this morning, the bright lights contrasting with the dull gray sky caused him to wince in pain. He could also make out the reflection of his partner sitting in the squad car and talking to someone on her phone. It was probably her parents again. That thought brought with it a pangs of guilt. When was the last time he spoke to his own mother? Six months? A year? No, it had been only a few days before he met that dumb rabbit who inevitably changed his life.
Her image slowly came to mind. Those long ears, like radar dishes that caught even the smallest cries for help. And that tiny twitchy nose, always eager to find the next clue. The softest paws... and those huge feet!
The todd viciously shook his head to clear his mind. Focus, Wilde! He almost spoke the words aloud.
Approaching the passenger side of the van, he casually tapped on the window. The driver, an antelope in a flowery pink blouse, had already rolled down her window, expecting the officer to approach from the driver side. After a few near misses, the fox had learned that it was much safer to stand on the opposite side of the vehicle as the traffic when on the freeway. After a few moments of tapping his fingers on the glass, the window in front of him slowly rolled down. "Good morning officer," the antelope said, with a smile on her face that did little to cover the obvious tension in her voice.
"Hello, I'm Officer Wilde. Do you know why I pulled you over today?" the fox asked.
"Um, well, ah, not really," she said with her voice a little shaky.
"I was going 65 miles an hour in the far lane and you blew past me like I was standing still. May I see your license, registration and proof of insurance, please?"
"Oh! I'm sorry," she apologized while rummaging through her glove compartment for the requested papers, then handed those over, along with the driver's license that she'd already taken out of her wallet.
"Can you explain why you're in such a hurry today ma'am?"
"Well, you see, I was taking my son to the doctor, and," she paused mid-sentence and turned to look at the three children in the back seat. The youngest one, who looked to be about five years old, was obviously sniffling and coughing. The two older ones looked almost identical to their mother, however, the little one, sitting in the middle of the long bench seat, appeared almost out of place between them. His fur was covered in a nearly hypnotic pattern of dark and light stripes, and his muzzle was much broader than those of his siblings.
After some careful thought the todd replied, "If this was some kind of emergency you should have called an ambulance."
The antelope's concern suddenly turned to shock and she shook her head saying, "No, no. No it's, it's not an emergency! I was just so worried that I wasn't paying any attention to how fast I was going is all."
"Alright then, just wait here while I get these processed," he motioned with the papers in his paws, "and I will be right back." He then casually strolled back to his car and climbed into the driver's seat.
The interior of the squad car always felt a little cramped to him, even for a small mammal like a fox. All the communication and policing tech that was built into it left little room for anything else. It didn't even have cup holders, so he was constantly having to find creative ways to place his morning coffee so it wouldn't spill when his overly excited partner was driving.
"Maybe that's why I always feel so cramped in the driver seat," he thought, "all the controls are set for a rabbit's height. I really should have let her drive today." Looking over at the well groomed rabbit sitting in the passenger seat he passed her the antelope's papers, but she just ignored him still chatting away on her phone.
"Ok mom, I gotta go back to work now. Thanks for calling, and yes I will remember to call you this evening. Ok bye," the uniformed rabbit spoke into her phone before quickly hanging up. When she finally took the proffered papers from her partner, and glancing at them quickly, she replied, "Antelope, huh? So Nick, what was the excuse this time?"
"Just another one of those 'Taking my son to the doctor kind," he shrugged slightly, while looking through the rear view mirror with feigned disinterest.
"Typical," the rabbit exclaimed entering the licensing info into the police computer mounted between them.
"It was strange though", Nick commented.
"What do you mean strange?"
"Her son had stripes more like a zebra than an antelope"
"Maybe a kudo?"
The fox shook his say exclaiming, "No, definitely not a kudo, the muzzle was all wrong."
Judy looked up from her typing with a curious glint in her eyes, "What's so wrong about it anyways? He might have been adopted."
"Yeah, I guess you could be right." However at that moment his curiously foxy mind kicked into high gear, "but isn't Zootopia General several miles away, and in the other direction?"
"Nick! You're really not thinking this morning are you?"
"Huh, what's that supposed to mean?" He took another sip of his still warm coffee.
"It means, Dumb Fox, that she was probably going to a private clinic instead."
"Oh…"
"Family doctors have offices all over town, not just in the big, fancy hospitals ya know." She emphasized her point by waving the other driver's Id in front of his nose. "And besides isn't there a family planning clinic just right down the road?" Not waiting for an answer, she quickly turned her attention back to the laptop.
After a few moments of typing she looked up again, "Now if you want to see something strange, take a look these records." She swiveled the laptop around so he could read the screen.
Looking at the screen, the fox's eyes widened and his brow raised slightly. "Oh, wow! Looks like Officer Growler pulled her over last month too, and in almost exactly the same spot!"
"Yep!", the bunny nodded, "And, look at the reason."
He chuckled slightly when he read the next line, "Same reason given. Growler notes she was taking her son to the hospital. This is almost too funny Carrots." Then he turned the screen back to his partner to let her finish the report.
Several more seconds of typing and the bunny looked up from the screen again. "she's got an arrest record too."
"Not surprised."
"It was only 5 years ago."
"Now, you have got me curious. What was it for?" He said looking to his partner with a bright gleam in his eye.
"Nothing serious, just a minor vandalism charge, oh, and indecent exposure."
Nick chuckled again almost spilling his coffee this time, "Indecent exposure?"
"Yeah, looks like she broke a window, then mooned the cops during some kind of civil protest five years ago."
"That's all very interesting, sweetheart, and I love digging into other mammal's records, but what does that have to do with this current moving violation?" he asked pointing at the family vehicle in front of them.
The rabbit only frowned at his comment and replied, "Not much really, no warrants or anything else suspicious. But with the warning from last month, we can charge her the full amount for speeding."
"Oh, well I do kind of feel bad for her though. I don't think the kid was faking it just to get mom out of another speeding ticket."
"Whatever you say, partner." She handed him the completed citation forms, "One minimally fined ticket for going 20 miles over the speed limit."
"Thanks, Officer Hopps," he said winking at her as he climbed out of the cruiser with the citation in hand.
"And your welcome, Officer Wilde," she replied, watching him close the driver's door with a smile. Her smile broadened and her ears stood up sharply as she watched him saunter over to the minivan, wagging his tail the entire way. "What a show off!"
As Nick approached the vehicle he heard a loud string of sneezes coming from the backseat and a female voice trying to calm her child, "Here you go sweetie, here are some more Kleenexes. That will have to last until we can get to the doctor's office, ok?"
The only reply came as several more sneezes and a loud cough.
"Is everything alright here?" Officer Wilde asked with genuine concern.
The antelope looked up suddenly, surprised to see the uniformed fox standing at the window again. "Yeah, yeah, were just fine," the sarcasm barely audible in her voice. "He's always like this. It's just," she lowered her eyes trying not to look a the mammal outside her window. "It's just the last few months seem to be getting worse, and we really don't know what to do."
"I am sorry to hear that ma'am."
"It's ok," she looked back up him and smiled slightly.
"Now, I need you to sign the bottom of this form. It states here," he pointed to a paragraph half way down the sheet, "that you were going 20 miles over the speed limit and will be fined the amount listed below."
"Ok," she took the citation from him and began to look over the words carefully.
He continued his speech, "You have 30 days from today to appear in court at the address listed at the bottom of the form, to either contest the citation or pay the fine. You also have the option of paying the fine online, at the website listed there, and the optional ways to make payments, regarding fines."
"Oh. Um, thank you officer," she said, signing and handing the form back to him.
He tore off the bottom copy and passed it back to her, "This is your copy ma'am."
"Thanks."
"I hope your son gets better soon, and PLEASE drive more carefully next time." He then turned and slowly walked back to the police car.
While climbing back into his own driver's seat, he watched the minivan carefully pull back into traffic. Sitting down, he looked over at his partner to make a suggestion for lunch, but she suddenly grabbed his muzzle and held it closed. The rabbit then held up one finger in front of her lips and let out a soft hissing sound, "Shhh," then pointed at the police radio.
Oddly the radio was giving off a lot of static and Nick could barely understand any of the garbled words. The radio must have been on the fritz again. He tried to adjust the dial slightly attempting to get a better signal and then turned up the volume so that his largish fox ears might be able to hear better over all the static. Then the dispatcher's voice came through again. It was still very garbled but much louder this time and Nick was able to make out most of what was said.
"Repeat, shhhhzzz, 10-79 in progress, shzzzztss, JM Lemuris Middle shhhuulzzzt, any unizzzzzzt, lease respond shhhhhhh."
The fox looked puzzled, "Whats a 10-79 again?"
"Barely out of the academy and you've already forgotten your radio codes?" the rabbit punched him in the arm, hard this time, because he was being a 'dumb fox' again.
"Oww! Gee thanks. There are over 300 codes and I still don't remember what the difference between all the As, Bs, and C,s are, " he explained. "I know that 80 was for an explosion but what's 79?"
"Well if you know 80 then 79 should be easy Slick." She slowly winked at him.
Ignoring the wink he replied, "Sorry. Unlike some over achieving rabbit I know, I just don't remember if it was an 'Explosive Device Found' or the 'Bomb Threat' one."
"It's a bomb threat dummy, and at a middle school too. We better go check it out."
"That school is two blocks from here!" the fox exclaimed before putting the car into gear and hitting the sirens. He put his paw down hard on the excelerator and the car leapt forward with a loud growl.
Judy grabbed the mic pressing down hard on the button in her excitement. "This is Officers Hopps and Wilde responding. We are on the I-10 overpass near the Coolidge exit, ETA to Lemuris Middle School is 2 minutes."
After several seconds the radio responded with a short series of jumbled words and static, "ssstzzzger Hoppsssszzz Wilde shhhsssire department already on ssssssszzztsssss."
Hanging the radio mic back on its clip the rabbit jumped up and down in her seat, "Punch it Nick!"
"What? I'm already going 90!" The fox exclaimed while swerving on to the nearest off ramp. He had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting several cars sitting at the bottom of the ramp waiting for the red light to turn green. After the light changed, he made a quick turn and sped up again. A minute later they could make out the middle school.
The school was one of the old fashioned modeled schools made from red bricks. It was not a very large building, but was fairly spread out and surrounded by a large, grassy field and playgrounds. In the field were at least a dozen groups of small and medium sized mammals, all lined up and standing as far away from the building as they could, while still staying on the school grounds. Each group of children was accompanied by at least one adult, while another group of adults was milling around in the parking lot fairly close to the building.
The parking lot, unfortunately, was on the other side of the building from them, so they were forced to drive all the way around. When the car finally managed to pull into the lot, Nick had to swerve to avoid hitting a black and green Tusker SUZ that was quickly exiting the scene. He also had to avoid a couple of fire trucks that had arrived prior to them, before he could park the cruiser near the small crowd of medium sized adult mammals.
Before either of the two officers could get out of their car an old meerkat exited the crowd and walked up to them, and stated in a gruff and demanding voice, "Finally, the police arrive. What are you going to do about this?" She looked directly at Nick with her fists on her hips like the whole mess was somehow his fault.
She was dressed in a light brown business suit, a tasteful long skirt and a pair of fashionable blue shoes. The whole ensemble was far too expensive for your average teacher's salary. One of those fancy shoes tapped impatiently waiting for either of the officers to respond.
"Excuse me ma'am, " Nick said, "I am Officer Wilde and this is Officer Hopps. What can we do to help?" He closed the car door and stepped up on the sidewalk approaching the fancy and formal meerkat.
The meerkat folded her arms in front of her chest and raised her voice as if she was speaking to a crowd and not to a mammal two feet in front of her, "I am principal Foosa, and it has been over ten minutes since ..."
Nick immediately realized he was going to have to take a firm hand with this principal or she was going to run over them like a stampeding water buffalo, so he promptly cut her off, "Were you able to get everyone out of the building ma'am?"
"What?" she asked gruffly and a little shocked at being cut off. "Yes? Oh, yes! Everyone has been accounted for, even the new janitor. We had a few stragglers but …"
Cutting her off again, to kept the conversation focused on the facts, he asked, "Can you tell us what happened, and start from the beginning please." He nodded to Judy who promptly pulled out a pad of paper and her carrot pen and began jotting down notes.
"Well, all of the older students were helping to get ready for our end of year Indlamu, when that evil mammal called to threaten the entire school."
Two fluffy ears stood straight up and the curious rabbit asked, "What is an Indlamu?"
"Oh I'm sorry, " the principal seem surprised that the small officer didn't know what she meant. "It's a social event we have on the last day of school, to help the older children be prepared any dances they might attend in high school."
"Oh I've never heard of it out in Bunny Burrow."
"It's new to me too, Carrots."
The older mammal seemed almost annoyed at the fox's nickname for his partner but continued to explain. "Well the event is kind of like a Sadie Hawkins, but the last couple of years we have encouraged the kitts to pick different kinds of partners. Yes, we know that mammals of different sizes and shapes can be difficult to dance with, but it is meant to be a learning experience to help the children grow and make new friends."
"We never had anything like that when I went to school," the fox finally noted.
"It is quite new, and we are the only school in the city that has anything like our Indlamu. The first one was such a success that we decided to make it a tradition here at JM Lemuris." Her eyes turned hard and fierce glaring at Nick while pointing a well manicured claw at him. "And this was to be our third year, but out of the blue some mammal calls and tells me to cancel the dance or they will blow up the building!" She then pulls a carefully folded piece of paper from her jacket pocket and hands it to the fox. "This was also in my mail this morning. I didn't think anything of it until the call a few minutes ago. That's when I called the police and the fire alarm went off."
Nick unfolded the paper to look upon several very crude crayon markings with a vague resemblance to the building in front of him. The one thing that caught his eye were the red lines and puffs of smoke coming out of the roof, and the small crying stick figures upside down in the sky. He casually handed the picture to Judy, and once again turned to face the snobbish principal, "Do you have any other evidence of the threat ma'am? Other notes, drawings or phone calls besides today."
"None that I can think of, no." she said, shaking her head.
"Did anyone else hear the threat on the phone, or see anything strange going on in the last couple of days?" Again the meerkat shook her head.
Judy stopped scribbling on her note pad for a second and asked, "Do you know anywhere in the building that might be a good place to hide a bomb?"
"Um not really. Well actually yeah, there are lots of cabinets and cubbies in every classroom but they are usually locked tight most of the time. Only the teachers, and the janitor have the keys though. There are the gym locker rooms too, and the music room, and the wood shop, and the kitchen, and gee, the halls are lined with student lockers, now that I think about it, there isn't anywhere that you couldn't hid something nefarious." Her voice rose several octaves, "Oh my god, what are we going to do?"
"Please calm down ma'am. We'll be bringing in a specialist," Nick explained, "An expert in sniffing out these kinds of things."
While Nick and Judy were continuing to question the principal, three small mammals were arguing in the grass several feet away.
"We should get back to our groups, your going to get us in trouble." the young ferret was trying to explain to her chinchilla friend.
"We have to tell someone what we saw. And besides I know that cop," the chinchilla said pointing at Judy.
"You mean, 'what YOU saw,' and since when are you friends with a cop?" said a fluffy squirrel while pointing a claw at his rotund friend.
"None of the rest of us saw anything," the ferret agreed.
"I'm not exactly friends with a cop," the small round rodent explained draw out the word 'exactly' to its vernacular limits. "But I have seen her on the TV a lot of times and I heard she is really nice."
"More like 'once'. She was only on TV once."
"I saw her twice," added the ferret, "and she does seem kinda nice. But I am not going anywhere near that mean fox talking to Mrs Foosa!"
"Oh really," cried the squirrel. "He doesn't look all that bad to me! In fact, I bet you I could do a triple flip off his back and land on his shoulders!"
"Could not!" yelled the ferret"
"Could too!"
"Could not!"
"Could too. Watch me!" Then the young squirrel scampered towards the uniformed fox as fast as his little legs could go. The ferret hot on his tail yelling "Could not, could not, could not!" When they reached the fox they began running circles around his legs. After three laps around the confused fox the squirrel made a leap for Nick and began to clamber up the back of his legs.
The meerkat principal saw what the children were doing and immediately clapped her paws together twice. "Children, stop that this instance! What have we told you about climbing on other mammals without permission?"
"Sorry Mrs Foosa," both children said lowering their heads shamefully towards the principal, and the little squirrel let go of Nick.
"Now apologize to Officer Wilde!" This, she directed at the young squirrel.
"I'm sorry for climbing on you, Officer Wilde," he said, with a shameful swish of his tail.
"It's ok kitts," Nick replied, "But don't do it again or I might have to arrest you." This got their attention and the both stood up straight and exclaimed, "Yes, Sir!"
Through all this the chinchilla casually sauntered up to Judy. "Officer Hopps, we have something, very important to tell you."
"Now now children," the principal said scowling down at all three of them. "Run along now, back to your classes. You shouldn't be bothering these nice cops right now.
"But this is VERY important! And we have to tell someone about the fire alarm right away," the young rodent said, never taking his eyes off Judy.
"The fire alarm you say?" The chinchilla nodded vigorously to the rabbit. "Go on, let's hear what they have to say." Judy carefully pressed the record button on her carrot pen she held behind her back.
"Ok, but we have to tell you about the stranger first."
"What stranger?" the rabbit asked.
"There was this strange goat dressed like a janitor coming out of the boys room. He was carrying a strange bucket with him too."
"It was a female," the little ferret cried.
"No, I saw his face. That goat was definitely male," the chinchilla countered.
"Yeah, I saw his face too," the squirrel decided to add.
"Are all boys blind? Males don't walk the same as a females," and she began strutting about with a very pronounced hip swish that made the squirrel's eyes bulge. "And that stranger was definitely walking like this." After a few more struts, she stopped and stuck her tongue out at the confused squirrel.
"Ok, but that's not the important part." exclaimed the young rodent ignoring his two friends. "The important part is what I found in the bathroom!"
Judy leaned over putting her hands on her knees with a serious expression on her face and looked straight at the small, gray mammal in front of her. She was all business now. "What did you find in the bathroom?"
"I, I don't really know what it was," he said turning away trying to avoid the rabbit's intense glare. "It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. I didn't realize it was even there at first, but then I spotted some wires sticking out from behind the largest toilet in the other stall, so I went over there to get a better look at it. And there was this black metal tube with wires coming out both ends. Some of the wires were connected to a weird clock and some others were connected to an old phone like my mom used to have around the house when I was little. And the whole thing smelled strange like gasoline and sugar. That's when I decided to pull the fire alarm!"
At the word 'clock' the fox took off at a sprint towards the school, not even waiting for the small mammal to finish his story. Once Judy realized what he was doing she started after him. "Nick wait! Stop Nick, we have to wait for the sniffers to get here. Nick!" She was almost crying as she ran after him, but he was too far ahead and too focused on reaching the bomb to notice her.
The fox officer quickly rushed inside the school with the door slamming shut behind him before his rabbit partner could reach it. The sound of the fire alarm from inside blared painfully in her large ears. No one had bothered to shut it off yet. In fact everyone else was a afraid to even enter the building, except her 'Dumb Fox.' Where was he, she thought looking around the large entrance.
"Nick!" she yelled down the empty halls hoping to be heard over the obnoxious alarm. "Nick get your foxy butt back here!" There was no reply.
The door to the principal's office could be seen directly off the foyer, but then the hall split into two different directions. She choose one and rushed down it in hopes of spotting her partner before anything bad happened to him. Halfway down the hall, she heard a door slam from around a corner. With a fierce shove, her two large bunny paws propelled her body down the hall even faster.
She barely reached the turn in time to spot a familiar red and black tail disappear down another hallway. "Not again!" she said. Suddenly this all felt so familiar, like she had done this before. Chasing that dumb fox around twisting corners and through dark alleys was nothing new to the fit bunny. "Nick wait, dammit!"
Near the end of that second hallway she spotted a door with an image of a male mammal on the front. Not stopping to take more than a cursory glance at it, she sped past in pursuit of the rogue tail.
"What is wrong with that fox today? He could never outrun me like this before. What has gotten into him?" The thoughts racing through her mind as she spotted another glimpse of that black tipped tail as it vanished around another corner.
"NICK!"
"Maybe he can't hear me over this siren." she thought.
Charging around the next corner she spotted him ducking into another door with a male mammal symbol marked on it.
"I've got you now, you infuriating mammal!"
It only took her a moment to decide if she should enter the boys restroom. This wasn't some high school sneak and peek while trying to catch a boy indisposed. They were looking for a bomb, and if it was in the little boys room, then that is where she had to go!
The rabbit took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders before speaking to herself, "You can do this Judith." Then she kicked open the door like a cop at a drug bust. The door promptly swung open wide, then closed just as fiercely, almost smashing her face and chipping her large buck teeth. Rubbing her nose to stop the pain she push the door open a bit more carefully.
"Nick!"
"Carrots! What are you doing here?" He turned and looked up at her, his paw pushing open the stall at the far end of the room. "It's dangerous, you shouldn't be here!"
"I could say the same about you! We're supposed to wait for the bomb squad!" the frustration in her voice echoed loudly in the empty bathroom.
"It's going to be ok, Fluff. I'll take care of everything," the heavy bravado thick on his voice as he slipped through the stall door. "Please, just go back outside and help Mrs Foosa with those kitts while I take care of this."
The expression on her face turned cold and even downright vicious, "You ignorant, stupid, dumb fox!" Kicking open the stall door, she spotted her partner down on all fours reaching for something behind the large toilet. If she wasn't so angry at him at the moment, the sight of his large foxy posterior and fluffy tail might have brought a crimson blush to her cheeks, but she was too furious at his wreckless antics to notice. "How DARE you think for one damn minute that I am going to let you handle something like this on your own!"
"I am not going to let anyone get hurt today, especially all those small kitts out in the yard," he tried to explain, pulling something large and black and covered in wires from behind the commode. It almost looked like some weird kind of techno spider.
"What about me Nick?" Her shrill voice was almost a scream inside that tiny tiled room. "What happens to ME when you get yourself blown up, and I am left without a partner or a friend?"
The fox never noticed the stream of tears running down her face as he handed her the strange device. "Here."
"Oh." One look at the ticking timer on the top of the bomb and her expression turned very firm and business like. "What do we do now Slick? There is barely a minute left and we might be able to make it outside if we run now."
"No, We cut the wires!"
"Which one?"
"The red one. In the movies they always cut the red one, or was it the blue one?"
"This isn't a movie Nick, and besides I don't have any wire cutters."
"Use your utility knife!"
"Ok," pulling the sharp bladed object from her belt she tried to cut one of the wires but it was no use. They would not cut, "I can't cut them Nick. My knife is too small. Try yours instead."
The timer was getting dangerously low as Nick finally pulled out a large knife. Unlike Judy's small blade, half of this one had a serrated edge and would slice through the wires with ease. "Which ones," the fox cried.
Judy thought about it for a second before exclaiming, "Cut all of them. Cut all of the wires!"
With one swift stroke Nick sliced through all of the wires between the cylinder and the timer. All of the lights on the device immediately shut off, however the ancient cell phone also lit up. The fox immediately cut those wires too, only moments before the phone started to ring.
Looking at the rabbit in puzzlement he casually said, "Go on, answer it." So she did.
"Hello," she said after pushing the receiver button on the front of the phone.
The husky male voice coming through the device sounded relieved, "Henry? Finally!"
"No,' said the rabbit holding the phone up to her ear, "this is Officer Hopps. Who am I speaking too?"
"Where is Henry? This is his number right? I know it must be, cuz he gave it to me personally."
"I'm sorry. Henry isn't here right now, but if you give me your name maybe we can help you find him." Nick winked at her and mouthed the words 'Clever Bunny.' Her silent reply looked a lot like 'Dumb Fox.'
"Damit," said the now irritated voice, and the phone went dead. Judy quickly hit the redial button and let it ring for several moments, but there was no answer.
She hung up and directly dialed another number. This time the other end picked up promptly "ZPD emergency hotline, how can I help you?"
Judy almost yelled into the tiny speaker on the very old and outdated phone. "Clawhouser! This is Officer Hopps, I need you to trace the location of the last call made to this number ASAP!"
"Ok, I'm on it Judy," the cheetah on the other end replied.
"Thank you," said the rabbit and then hit the cancel button ending the call.
Nick, looking at his partner with pride and proclaimed, "You can be brilliant sometimes!"
The expression on the rabbit's face slowly changed to one full of fury. She dropped the phone and the rest of the bomb parts on the floor and began to pumble her partner with a pair of tiny tight fists. "You are the stupidest, dumbest, most incorrigible damn fox ever! Don't you ever do something like that to me again or so help me, I will... I will... I'm gonna..." The anger boiling up inside that tiny furry body was so great, that it would not let her finish the statement, and she was so blinded she didn't notice that she had socked Nick in the muzzle several times and his nose was slowly starting to bleed.
"Oww, Judy stop! Please stop. I am sorry. Ouch!" The bruised and bloodied fox tried to grab those furious paws in an attempt to calm her, but she just kept on swinging, and crying at the same time. He only managed to catch the flying paws of fury when the phone began to ring.
"I hate you so much right now."
"Judy, the phone," said Nick, ignoring her hurtful words, and motioned to the device laying on the tiled floor in a pile of wires and bomb parts.
"Oh no, Clawhouser!"
With her paws still shaking, she carefully picked up the cell phone, hit the call button and spoke in the receiver. "Yes?" She turned away from the fox ignoring him and pressed the phone to her ear. "That's great Clawhouser, what did you find?" Her ears perked up and her nose began to twitch enthusiastically. "A phone booth, oh really? Do you have an address?" Pulling out her notepad she scribbled a few notes in it. "Bus stop on the corner of Coolidge and Harriet? Thanks buddy." Pressing the cancel button, she hung up the phone and handed it to Nick.
"So what did Spotts have to say?"
"The call came from a payphone, and it's across the street." She grabbed Nicks paw and began to exit the bathroom stall. "That means the perp is across the street right now. Come on, we have to hurry Nick!" Judy exclaimed, running through the little boy's room door and down the hall with Nick hot on her heels. Now it was his turn to chase after her, and she always won this kind of race.
In the hall outside the bathroom were two large boar in full body armor and carrying kevlar lined shields. On the front of their armor and shields were four bold white letters, TUSK.
"Wilde! What are you and Hopps doing here?" one of them asked as Nick ran past.
"Sorry fellas, can't talk now. Hopps thinks she knows where the perp is. Will tell you more later." the fox explained before turning a corner in pursuit of his cute, little, fluffy partner.
Soft furry paws struck the floor in front of him in a steady rhythm. A plush cotton tail swayed back and forth atop the round, blue rump, hypnotizing the slower fox and causing his pace to wane even further. He was forced to close his eyes and shake his head in order to clear his mind of all the thoughts of cuteness that were trying to take over his brain. The next thing he knew his body slammed into the side exit door his partner had just run through.
When he joined her outside, she was standing on her toes in the grass with her ears straight up and her nose pointed up in the air twitching faster than he had ever seen it move before. Her head swiveled back and forth and she raised a paw to her brow like she would to block out the glare from the sun, even though the sky was still gray and cloudy.
"What is it sweetheart, do you see anything?"
"There!" she pointed with the paw that was previously shading her eyebrow. Across the field where she was pointing, sat one of the typical electric driven city busses. Not even waiting for her partners reply, she took off again, sprinting through the tall green grass. In the fox''s mind, it appeared as if she was pleasantly hopping over the grass instead of running as fast as she could after a possibly dangerous criminal.
It only took a moment to clear the daydreams and quickly follow after her. He reached the bus stop seconds after she did, however it was already too late. The bus was long gone, heading towards its next stop. Luckily, a young mammal was still sitting on the waiting bench. She was wearing a pair of overalls and a light blue pullover with the hood up, and had a fashion magazine in front of her muzzle. The magazine was several months out of date with a sexy gazelle on the cover showing off an attractive winter coat. A large purse sat next to the mammal on the opposite side of her from the two cops. Nick thought she might have been a coyote or a hyena but could not be too sure with her head covered like it was.
Judy was already interrogating the pour girl, who seemed like she only wanted to be left alone. "Did you see anyone using this payphone recently?"
"Um, yeah, sure." the coyote replied, keeping her muzzle deep in the pages of the old magazine.
"Can you tell us which way he went?" the rabbit inquired.
"Yeah, he got on the last bus a few minutes ago." Nick caught the witness's strange emphasis on the word 'he' when she answered his partner's last question, but Judy either didn't notice or didn't care.
"Come on Nick," she took off again, this time running towards the school parking lot where they had left their squad car.
A brief sprint later and he had reached the squad car, but the exuberant bunny was already there waiting and yelling for him to get his lazy tail in here. "Shesh," he thought, I've been running for almost 5 straight minutes, "I can never keep up with this hyperactive bunny."
Climbing into the driver's seat he started the engine and carefully exited the school parking lot heading in the direction the young coyote said the bus had went. "Some mammals have no sense of fashion," he exclaimed to his partner.
"What's that?" she said, still intently focused on the chase.
"I mean who wears overalls anymore? And did you see those foot coverings." the fox commented with a hint of disgust.
"What foot covers?"
"Those boots on her hind paws! They made her look like she had hoofs. Disgusting!" Shaking his head, he turned the next corner and they spotted the bus they were looking for, sitting on the side of the road at the next stop. Nick quickly pulled in behind them, but the bus began to take off again. He quickly hit the siren and the bus pulled back over to the side of the road.
In an instant, both Nick and Judy leapt from their police car and approached the front door of the stopped bus, paws on holsters. When the sliding doors opened, Judy pointed her dart gun at the driver and shouted, "ZPD, don't move!" The driver promptly raised his hands in the air and said, "Yes ma'am."
"Shut your engine off and stay where you are." Turning to her partner, she added, "Cover me," then she climbed inside the bus and proceeded to the passenger compartment to leave Nick watching the driver.
This time of day, there were only a few mammals on the bus, some going to work while others were returning home from a late night. In the seat nearest the driver was an old brown bear sitting next to a large grocery bag that was only half full of food stuffs. A few seats back a smallish cougar was resting his head against the window with his eyes closed. The only other mammals on the bus were three badger females sitting near the back gossiping about shoes, and males. The suspect described by the children earlier was nowhere to be seen. She even walked all the way to the back of the bus and looked under the seats, but he wasn't on the bus.
She returned to the driver and asked if he had seen anything. "Did a goat or ibex come on this bus recently?"
"No ma'am. I ain't seen no'un like that today."
"How about anyone using the payphone at the last stop?" the fox interjected.
"Nope, that phone hasna' worked in years, since befo' I started drevin' this route. Thems were spose'ta have ripped it out years ago. So's I duna' know how is possible sum'a coulda been use'n it at all." His accent was nigh incomprehensible but they were able to make out the gist of what the old driver ment.
Hours latter, the two diminutive cops found themselves sitting together on the large, stiff, plastic chair in their boss's office. A very large and very angry water buffalo was shouting at them from the far side of the desk. His eyes glowed a fiery red and Nick would swear later that smoke was literally rolling from his ears. The great hoofed fist of Zootopia's finest police chief slammed down on the top of his desk, causing both the fox and rabbit officers to jump in their seat. "What the heck were the two of you thinking! You could have gotten yourselves killed, and I would have instantly lost two of mine finest, if not youngest officers, both at the same time!"
"But sir. We got the description of the perp, and the bomb's location, from the children who witnessed everything. Plus they were the ones who pulled the…"
"Shut your tiny mouth now! And that goes for you too Wilde. Not a word out of either of you." It wasn't the words so much as the snarl, that cause them to close their muzzles and sit back in there chairs, heads hung low.
"Your blatant disregard for protocol, and refusal to wait for backup in this situation is grounds for suspension, possibly even termination!"
The rabbit officer's ear perked up and she stood up looking directly into her boss's angry eyes to say in their defense, "But we found the bomb, and disarmed it, and we found out where he was calling from."
The buffalo only snorted. "Your brief encounter with an exploding train last time does not suddenly make you demolitions experts. No, you only found one of the bombs."
Judy lifted her head up towards him with a puzzled look on her face and slowly sat back down.
"That's right, there were two other bombs on the premises. The T.U.S.K. sniffers found one in the janitor's closet and the other in the ceiling above the school gym. If you had waited for backup then you would have found this out. But instead you both rushed into a highly dangerous situation without any skills or prior training, and proceeded to 'handle' it yourselves."
In an attempt to protest, the rabbit stood up again, but before she could utter a word the buffalo swiped his arm through the air to preemptively cancel her objections. "No! T.U.S.K. officers are trained and is skilled in the use of equipment for handling these kinds of situations. Neither of you have even been here for a more than year, and have yet, it seems, learned how not to rush into things."
"But the building sir…" she barely managed to get those few words out before her boss snarled again.
"Is far less valuable than the lives of any of my officers. Protocols are not to be taken lightly and "only there when it suits you"!. They are there to protect your lives and the lives of the officers around you. Is that clear?"
The red fox lifted a finger with a snarky expression on his face, but was quickly cut off.
"The only thing I want to hear out of your muzzle Wilde, are the words, 'Yes sir'"
"Yes, Sir!"
The chief looked over at his smallest officer, "And is that clear Hopps?"
"Yes, Sir!" She stood and sharply saluted him.
"Now, in order to teach you both to follow the rules, I am going to have to suspend you til the end of the week."
:"But it's already Tuesday chief." the fox interjected.
"Shall we make it two weeks then?"
"No Sir."
"Then you are both dismissed, hand over your badges and get out of my office. I don't want to see either of your muzzles until Friday. And when you get back, I will personally make sure you have so much paperwork, that you will be stuck to your desks for the next month! Now get out of my office."
"Yes sir!" the both exclaimed. Removing their badges, they placed them on the large buffalo's desk and headed for the door.
"Well that was fun," Nick commented trying to cheer up the sad looking bunny by his side, "maybe we should go get some…"
"Please don't talk to me right now, ok Nick?"
"Sure, whatever you say Carrots." he said stopping cold in his tracks.
After about five more steps, Judy stopped and said, "Maybe I will call you later, or in a few days, once I am no longer mad at you." But before she walked away she turned back to look at her fox one more time.
He just gave her a quick wink, she turned forward in a huff and slowly walked out of the precinct.
Later that evening in Judy's apartment her phone was blinking. The text message from her mom read - Hey bun bun. Hope everything is ok. You never called me back.
She lifted the phone off her desk and replied - Sorry, rough day at work. Will tell you about it later.
- Ok hun. Have a good night. Love you.
- Love you too mom
Shutting off the lamp she lay back in her bed and cuddled up with her newest plush toy, a red fox with big green eyes. "I hate you dumb fox," she told it with tears streaming down her cheeks and across her nose. Several plush rabbits soon joined the fox as Judy slowly fell asleep.
[A/N] I am so very sorry for the extremely long break since the last chapter. My new job tends to leave me emotionally and creatively drained, so its been hard to find the time and mood to continue writing anything cute, flirty, and romantic.
Reading all of the wonderful stories out there right now has encouraged me to try and continue this story. I have tons of action, tears, and fluff planned, that I still want to share, so I will try and keep the chapters flowing again.
The entire story was originally drafted from Judy's point of view but several reviews have pointed out that Nick's character seems a little flat. Thus in this chapter I decided to try to tell it from Nick's perspective, and I hope it turned out alright. And if it goes over well I will try and do more of these, or maybe something like a split screen, going back and forth between our two favorite cops.
I want to thank VariableMammal for letting me use the three school kids from their amazing story Partners. Go check them out if you havent done so already.
Thank's for reading and I hope to hear what everything thinks of this new chapter.
~OneWolfe