Disclaimer: Zootopia and all canon characters are owned by Disney. All other characters, product names, trademarks, and copyrights, belong to their respective owners.
…..
Slamming the car into gear, Judy ground out, "Moldy cucumbers, Nick, what were you thinking? Why didn't you come get me?"
Hitting the gas, Judy skidded out of the parking area and raced down the street she'd seen the van take.
"I know, I know, because your partner was being all crazy bunny and trying to find me meant our kitnappers would probably be able to snatch someone else and get away again."
Looking, out of habit, for a radio, Judy groaned, "Tomorrow, first thing, lights and a radio, and I don't care what Hoofson or Ackerbunn think about a fox marauding around town pulling over tractors in a convertible."
Shifting gears, Judy hit the expressway at Mach-something and went into search mode, "Okay, where are you?"
Judy saw a pair of taillights go bright, one way brighter than the other, as a van in the distance slowed down and moved around a slow moving mini-bike.
"Gotcha!"
Speeding up a bit, Judy positioned herself a couple of cars behind the van and slowed down once she was settled. Close enough to follow but far enough away that she blended in with the rest of the late-night traffic.
Judy followed the van for about twenty miles through parts of two districts. She didn't know how long she'd been driving since the clock in Nick's car wasn't working, but it felt like forever. Fortunately for her, whoever was driving the van hadn't spotted her, and unfortunately for her, whoever was driving the van was driving the speed limit to avoid attracting any ZPD attention.
Only one time did Judy worry about being spotted. The van had been creeping up on a slow-moving truck in the right lane. A normal driver would have lane changed and passed the truck, but the van didn't. Instead, the last buffer car in front of her pulled around the van and the truck, leaving Judy having to slow down as the distance between her and the van started to shrink.
Grinding her teeth, Judy went over the options, slow down even more and probably get spotted, or lane change and hope they pass me and the truck before they take an exit and I lose them doubling back.
Closing the distance, Judy suddenly slapped the steering column, "I've been driving like grandma Grazer trying to stay behind them, and as soon as they get a look at Sally with her top down and the half-naked party bunny tailing them, they'll know something is up.
Still creeping up on the van, Judy tried to think of what to do. Until, passing under a large highway sign showing that the next exit was two miles away, her inner Torrie came up with an idea.
Pulling her top down enough to show off what little cleavage she had, Judy dawned the best drunk-bunny look she could muster and changed lanes.
Pulling alongside the van, Judy looked over to see an overweight ram in a partial wolf fursuit leering at her as he rolled down his window and motioned for her to pull off her top.
Judy blew him a kiss but ended the paw motion by giving him the finger as she accelerated past.
The van aggressively changed lanes and started tailgating Judy until she waggled Sally like a surprised drunk and pulled back into the right lane.
The van sped past Judy doing well over the speed limit and with a ram's hoof held high in the air returning her gesture.
Judy chuckled as she fixed her top and made sure to give her prey enough of a lead that she wouldn't have to pull that trick again. Of course, a patrol mammal happening by right about now would be kind of nice.
'Yeah, where's a cop when you need one?' Judy wondered. "Probably in a restroom talking to a stranger about jumping their boyfriend's bones," huffed Judy, "instead of watching their partner's back like they should have been."
Their fox's back.
Their mate's back.
Judy let up on the accelerator that had suddenly been trying to catch up to the van and push it into the median or…, "Or you make them do something stupid, roll their vehicle, and have everyone die in a fiery ball of death," replied Judy to herself.
"Relax, Jude. First, you find out where they're going. Then after you get Nick back, you pound him into the ground for making you worry."
A few miles later, the van's blinker came on as it carefully pulled over onto the exit ramp.
Seeing the van pull off the expressway into an industrial zone on the south side of Savanna Central, Judy gave it lots of space as she watched them drive into a blighted area dominated by old warehouse buildings, most abandoned or in need of serious repair. Judy drew on her ZPA training and the fact it was a dark, moonless night to keep track of the van without them being able to detect her following them.
Running with her lights off, Judy stayed back a couple of blocks until she saw the light from a large door opening illuminate the van as it pulled into the loading area of a five-story building. Pulling Sally behind an old, stripped-down junker across the street and a long block down from where her prey had just scurried into their hideout, Judy could see in the fading garage light that the building's windows were all blacked out except for one with a dim light shining out on the top floor.
A few moments later, the large door cycled down and closed, letting the dark return.
Shutting off Sally's engine, Judy tapped a thumb on the steering wheel as she went over her options. "What to do? No phone, no radio, no backup," and looking around at all the dark buildings, "and no one to ask for help.
"Pfft, at least in all the old buddy cop movies, there was a broken payphone around you could hotwire, but no chance of that around here.
"Alright, girl. They've got your fox and hopefully Billy and DeeDee in there, and it's going to be all up to you to get them back."
About to open the car door, Judy huffed as she looked down at herself, "Clothes would be a good start."
Reaching into the back seat, Judy grabbed her backpack and dumped her clothes out on the front seat. Well, she tried to, but all that was there on the bench seat was a piece of paper. A little rummaging around in the glove compartment for a small flashlight, and the piece of paper became a note. A note from her sister…
Adding Torrie to her list of mammals to punish later, Judy grabbed the keys from the ignition and went around to the trunk to see what she had to work with there. Even one of Nick's ugly green Pawaiian shirts would be a godsend right now.
Popping the trunk, Judy found another note.
Torrie's name moved up the punishment list. Dramatically.
"Okay fine, so no clothes. I guess my vest will have to do double duty," said Judy as she moved a Star Fox themed duffle bag out the way, looking for said vest with her flashlight.
"Barley blight and fennel fungus, I am such a dumb bunny!"
Pounding the lip of the trunk with her fist, Judy remembered that she'd cleaned her vest and the gear Bogo had sent with Connor to Bunnyburrow a couple of nights ago, and right now, it was all sitting in Nick's closet, ready for official duty.
"Great," she mumbled, fiddling with the straps on Nick's dorky gamer bag. "Now what?"
Hoping there might be something more useful than a retro game console in Nick's bag, Judy dumped it out and used her flashlight to see what kind of gamer emergency supplies her fox had packed.
"Nicholas Piberius Wilde, what in the holy heck–"
Tossing the empty duffle away, Judy wanted to hug her missing fox, "I take it all back. Nick Wilde, I love every adorkable thing about you."
Opening the lockbox mounted to the back of the trunk, and thankful she'd skipped cleaning her gun, Judy pulled it and a stack of loaded magazines out and added it to an equipment stash that would make any gamer drool.
Judy geared up.
Tomb Raider style, double-holstered gun belt with quick-load magazine holders, cinched around her waist and tied down to her thighs, check.
Bandolier for all her extra magazines, check.
A pawful of special surprises clipped to said bandolier, check.
Her pistol, loaded and holstered, check.
An empty holster on her other hip causing her left paw to feel left out, uh… Judy fished around in the lockbox again and…
Nick's pistol, loaded and holstered, check.
Bagels and shmear for Gunny Hartbull for running her through a set of emergency left-pawed shooting scenarios during her weapons recert two weeks ago, check.
Old cleaning rag to wipe off makeup, check.
Her dorky fox's Smokey the Bear hat, check.
Except it was way too big, and now she couldn't see.
'Darn, so much for channeling my inner Doc Howlliday.' Tossing the hat back in the trunk, Judy checked herself one more time and headed toward her own O.K. Corral.
Crossing the street, Judy hugged the wall of the one-story, abandoned furniture outlet and eased herself to just back from the intersection where she could see the main entryway of her quarry's hiding place. Unlike the upper floors with their blacked-out windows and bars, the first-floor frontage windows screamed 'visitors not welcome' by being replaced with thick glass blocks, shaded glass behind thick metal bars, or metal shutters with slits.
Writing off a fire escape or an open window as a stealthy entry point, Judy also gave up on the building's lobby entrance as another bad choice. The main door looked locked down and solid enough to fend off an elephant-sized battering ram, and with gun ports down low, Judy was pretty sure even a bunny scout would regret trying to sell cookies to these guys.
*zzzztt*
Judy looked up at a streetlight trying to come alive and illuminate what was left of an old bus stop made up of a pair of concrete planter boxes filled with weeds and a stone bench covered in graffiti.
*zzzztt*
Like a drag racer seeing the starting lights go green, Judy sprinted across the street and along the side of the building and ducked down behind a dumpster.
Extending an ear up, Judy waited.
"I… *muffle muffle* you…"
Judy froze as the sound of two pairs of hooves on concrete came from the back of the building toward her position.
"Twenty says the Tundrawolves go all the way."
"No way, the Bulls have their number. Besides last game, the Wolves center missed a free throw because a fan tried to start a howl."
Judy put her paw on her gun as soon as she heard the hoofsteps slow down and held her breath as she heard the barest 'tink' of a matchstick landing in the metal dumpster.
"You know you shouldn't throw your used matches in the trash like that, you could cause a fire."
"What?" said the pair of hooves that had paused to light a cigarette and were now making their way past the dumpster.
"Yeah, there's this guy from one of the Burrows who's been doing these fire safety videos on EweTube. You should check him out."
"Sure, and I bet next you'll tell me he's got videos on how smoking is bad for me too."
"Well, now that you mention it…"
Waiting until the voices faded around the corner, Judy let out her breath and silently crept toward where the two guards had just come from, toward the large garage door and hopefully a way in.
Gliding between an old crate, a couple of tires, and… well, whatever gross thing was under that tarp, Judy slipped behind an air conditioner condenser unit sitting by a medium-mammal sized door.
Judy sat in the dark and listened with an ear stretched out toward the door.
A minute stretched into two, then three. The foot patrol circuit was probably ten minutes, which gave her–
"Can we stop at the mini-mart and get some laundry detergent on the way home?"
"No, I don't want to. I'm tired and hungry, and I want to go to bed. A whole day driving to dump off White's experiments and then a late-night collecting that pelt, I'm worn out."
The heavy door swung open as a goat staring at his phone stepped out into the dark and held the door open with his hind hoof, "Damn, no bars. The cell service around here sucks."
"Come on, please. This thing stinks, and I want to put it in the wash before I go to bed," said the ram Judy had flipped off earlier carrying an armful of a large something that had to be the fursuit she'd seen him wearing.
Judy slipped inside behind the ram.
"Fine, but you have to drive, and I want some sunflower seed waffles from that all-night place."
"Did you hear something?"
"No, just you lugging that wolf disguise around. You know, now that I think about it, it does make you look fat."
The heavy door slammed shut.
"Does not."
Judy let her eyes adjust to the dimly lit interior of the empty loading dock as she stayed backed against a wall. 'Well, Jude, good job. This has to be the right place, a ram and a goat, a wolf that's not a wolf, and a mammal with short horns. Of course, that also means the same bad guys that have DeeDee and Billy have your fox.
'Yeah, finding a phone or a radio about now would be nice.'
With eyes finally adjusted to the dim light, Judy spied the white van she'd been following parked in an empty area in front of a large set of double doors. And one of its rear doors was open, showing the back strewn with gear.
'A radio, maybe?' Judy hoped as her ears scanned the empty room on high alert.
About to move, her bunny early warning radar picked up hoofsteps coming from the other side of the set of double doors leading to the interior of the building. Hoofsteps that turned into shadows she was able to watch as they disrupted the light peeking through the torn weatherstripping on the doors as they made their way past.
Padding silently over to the van, Judy climbed in the back and saw it looked more like a prisoner transport than a cargo van. There were ropes, small and medium-sized muzzles, and multiple sets of pawcuffs hanging from clips mounted on the wall, everything anyone kitnapping predators would need to keep them quiet.
Toward the front of the van, Judy spied a box behind the passenger seat. Hoping to find a radio, she opened the box and shook her head instead as she saw ZPD issued tranquilizer darts. Bogo was right to be worried, someone inside the ZPD had to be helping these guys.
Closing the box back up, Judy poked her head between the two front seats and scanned the dashboard for a radio. Still not finding one, she popped open the console as a last try before giving up. 'Darn-it all to heck, the one time I try and follow procedure and call for backup I can't find–'
The dock's overhead lights came on.
"I say we grab the van and go get some take-out. The food packs White got all suck? What's an MRE anyway?"
Judy frantically looked around, and seeing an old blanket piled on the wooden bench mounted to the inside wall of the van, she dove over and made it a slightly larger blanket pile.
"Meals Refusing to Exit based on what happened to me the last time I ate one. Talk about disgusting, I mean, creamy spinach fettuccini? I hate spinach."
Judy felt something that had been caught up in the blanket land on her leg.
"So, let's do it."
Hooves and Claws headed her way.
"No, you heard White, we're all here for the duration. I think he's worried about something happening before Orange is ready for the great reveal."
"Do you think he's worried about the ZPD finding this place? YooHah, I'm ready. Give me a gun, and I'll shoot me some coppers."
Hooves and Claws stopped behind the van.
"It's 'Hooah' mister Call of Duty, and we're lab techs, not guards. Let those mammals do their job, and you do yours, and maybe we'll be out of here before we're stuck eating the chili with beans MREs. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put beans in chili needs to be shot."
Judy carefully grabbed the object and kept it from hitting the bench and making noise.
"Yeah, all we don't need is two-dozen guys sitting around in a circle eating beans and… What's wrong?"
Holding the open door, Hooves almost gagged, saying, "It's that damn pelt, the van reeks of him. Why'd those two have to grab a fox anyway? They smell everything up."
"They probably had him wrapped up in that blanket. You want me to throw it away in the dumpster outside?" asked Claws.
"Nah," said Hooves tossing a medieval-looking muzzle, a cloth hood, and a bundle of straps into the back of the van and shutting the door. "I heard White's going to have his boys dispose of the van and the carcasses of our last three test subjects as soon as Orange is done experimenting on them. He doesn't want anyone to catch wind of what we've been doing in the lab or the animals we've been doing it to. This time next week, the shit hits the fan, and the preds in this city are done."
Judy stayed frozen in place.
"I'm still hungry. How long until the pelt wakes up?"
"I don't know exactly. Not for a while, though, based on when Marvin said they darted him," replied Hooves shutting off the lights and opening one of the double doors. "Why?"
"Do you think anyone will notice if I grab those broccoli and cheddar hot pouches someone left in the breakroom freezer?"
"Yeah," grumped Hooves letting the door swing closed, "those are mine."
"Oh, sorry. I'll grab that old package of Jimmy Green veggie burgers instead."
Judy stayed motionless for a count of twenty before relaxing. Pulling the blanket off her head, she took a couple of breaths and pulled out her small flashlight to see what she was holding in her paw.
Nick's phone.
Judy resisted the mandatory fist pump. Well, besides a whispered 'Whoop' and maybe a tiny fist pump.
Pressing the button on the side of the phone, Judy smiled when she saw the screen light up, 'It must have slipped out of Nick's pocket, and the kitnappers didn't notice because they must have found my phone on him first.'
Hitting the emergency call button, Judy waited for the phone to connect.
And waited.
No connection.
The kitnappers were right, the cell service here sucked.
Groaning, Judy stared at the phone in her paw, trying to figure out a plan B, when she remembered Nick talking about how text messages were different from voice calls, and sometimes they'd be able to get out even if the cell signal was too weak for a regular phone call.
'But what's his pin code?'
She tapped 1-2-3-4 and just about fist-pumped again as she watched the screen come to life but stopped when some old-style text flowed across the screen.
Greetings Professor Falcon. Shall we play a game?
1. Chess
2. Checkers
3. Poker
4. Global Thermonuclear War
Gritting her teeth, Judy pressed '4'.
Wouldn't you prefer a good game of chess?
"Aaargh," Judy whisper-shouted, "Nicholas Piberius Wilde, you are such a dork, and as soon as I find you, I'm going to pound you and–"
Voice code accepted.
Hello, Carrots. Welcome to my phone.
The text flashed twice, disappeared, and was replaced by Nick's home screen, which was a cute picture of the two of them at Sparkle Falls.
Holding off on any further fox punishment plans, Judy quickly typed in a text message to Clawhauser, letting him know the location of where she was, that she was inside the kitnapper's lair, Nick had been taken, and she needed backup right away.
Hitting the send button, Judy silenced the phone before stashing it away and hoping to heck that Nick was right about how texts worked and she'd be hearing sirens soon.
-/-/-
"Sir, are you sure about this?" asked McHorn.
Bogo sighed as he leaned against the hand railing at the bottom of the staircase, "I'm not sure about anything, all I've got is a feeling."
Chuckling, McHorn replied, "Usually, your feelings about Hopps and Wilde end up with them on parking duty."
"Clawhauser," yelled Bogo toward the lobby reception desk where the normally jovial cheetah was all business watching a quad-tree of monitors while listening for anything from the ZPD channels or his phone via a headphone over one ear.
Ben shook his head without looking up.
"Damn," grunted Bogo checking his watch.
McHorn nodded.
"One more hour. If we haven't heard anything from Hopps or Wilde by then, I'll pull the plug.
"Pawson's in the garage. Let him know, and tell him to come to my office when he's done." And looking McHorn in the eye, Bogo ground out, "The full comms blackout stays in effect. Normal chatter on the official channels is okay, but we do it the hard way for everything else."
"Yes, sir."
Bogo's only reply was to nod and head up to his office.
McHorn turned to go to the garage when he stopped at seeing Schweinly coming out of a restroom with a phone up to his ear.
"Yeah, late shift. What's up?" said the boar into his phone.
"…"
"Uhhh, no, not since–"
Schweinly's phone was suddenly pulled out of his hoof, stripped of its battery, and stuffed back in his shirt pocket.
"Hey, what the hell McHorn? What's your problem? I was in the middle of talking to someone."
"My problem is you. What part of full comms blackout did you not understand when you came on shift because it meant personal phones too."
"I, uh, look, I need my–"
"Shut up and get your ass back to work. Or would you rather spend the rest of your shift cleaning the drunk tank cages?"
McHorn glared at Schweinly until he was safely headed back to his cubicle. He'd meant to talk to Bogo about Schweinly. There'd been some whispers around the station about a speciest prank he'd pulled on Hopps while they'd been on patrol, and if McHorn ever nailed down that it was true, he'd personally rip the boar's curly tail off and stuff it down his throat.
-/-/-
Slipping through the doors Hooves and Claws had just used, Judy found herself in a wide hallway that went to the left and right with a freight elevator in front of her. Looking to her left, Judy saw someone with a paper sack and water bottle exit an open area off the far end of the corridor, step across the hallway, and through one of three doors along that side of the wall.
'That must be the break area Hooves was talking about,' thought Judy, 'and those doors must be offices or something.' Glancing to her right, Judy saw the hallway meet up with another one that looked like it headed to the front of the building. If the other floors were laid out like this one, then a large 'L' shaped hallway connected exterior facing rooms on one side and an interior set of offices or larger spaces on the other.
'Spaces like a large lab or a holding area that needed technicians.
'But where were they holding Nick and hopefully DeeDee and Billy? Which room and which floor?' thought Judy as she wished her nose was as good as Nick's or Connor's so she could sniff her fox out.
Getting low and about ready to try unleashing her inner canid, Judy spied a tuft of red-orange fur stuck in the metal threshold of the elevator door, fur that was at the end of two clean tracks left on the floor.
'Like Nick had been dragged from the van in the dock and…'
Judy pressed the elevator button, and the door immediately opened. Hopping in, she quickly looked around and spying another clean spot on the floor along with more red-orange hairs, she pressed all the floor's buttons.
'…dumped in the corner of the elevator like so much garbage.'
Judy growled and nearly bared her claws when the door opened on the third floor, and she saw more drag marks on the dirty linoleum floor going to the left around the corner and stopping at a large door conveniently marked, 'Lab, Authorized Personnel Only.'
Pulling her 'Authorization' out of its holster, Judy listened at the door and, not hearing anything, quietly turned the knob and let herself in.
-/-/-
Janae carefully, and oh so quietly, turned the handle on the front door and opened it without so much as a whisper of a squeak.
It was way late. She and Dalton had been out watching a gorgeous sunset from a private spot on the east side of Bean Lake, followed by a dinner of skewered veggies barbequed over a small campfire and ending up with another amazing night of stargazing while snuggled together under a blanket.
'Well,' thought Janae as she unconsciously wiped her lips from the long good night kiss she'd just experienced, 'Dalton might have been able to point out one or two stars before I gave him something better to do with his paws.'
Padding quietly into the house toward her bedroom, Janae made it as far as the kitchen when she saw an outline in the dark staring at a mug in front of her on the counter.
"Mom?"
The outline's ears popped up in surprise.
"Janae?"
Adjusting a dimmer switch to add a little light, Janae replied, "Uh-huh. What are you doing up so late? You weren't waiting up for me, were you? Dalton and I sort of lost track of–"
"No, dear. I don't worry about you and Dalton, he's a nice boy, and you both know how to take care of yourselves."
Janae huffed and was about to detail a few of the 'nice' things they'd been up to when she remembered that this was her mother, not one of her sisters teasing her about boys. "Oh, uh, yeah, Dalton's a very nice boy. So, why are you up so late, is everything okay?"
Ears droopy again, Bonnie sighed as she said, "I don't know, dear. You know I've always had a sixth sense about my kits, and I woke up a little bit ago with a terrible feeling that Judy was in trouble and something awful was about to happen to her."
Sitting down next to her mother, Janae shook her head as she said, "You know Nick's probably with her, they're inseparable, and he'd never let anything bad happen to Judy." And with a bit of a chuckle, "I'm sure your Mom-radar is just acting up."
Bonnie shook her head, "No, not this time, dear, because my instincts are just as strong about Nicholas, and they're telling me he's in trouble too."
Gently rubbing her mom's paw, Janae said, "But, Nick's not one of your kits, how–"
"Of course he is, the same way Dalton is family now too. Which means I worry about all of you, no matter where you are or what you're up to."
"But…"
"No but's dear, and be sure to brush out your ear fur before bed. It looks like you and Dalton were doing a lot more than just stargazing tonight."
-/-/-
Hearing a rustling from the far corner of the room, Judy silently made her way over to the nearest lab bench and crawled under it. Ears up and on a swivel, Judy listened for anything that sounded like animals up to no good, or worse, mammals that had gone savage.
Not hearing anything new, Judy poked up from under the bench and took a look around. She'd been right about the interior rooms of the building being huge spaces, and this one had had all the windows walled in, and the interior walls removed down to the beams to create as large a space as possible. She'd also been right that her lab techs appeared to be enjoying a late-night snack in the break room because the lab was empty and likely had been for a while since the overhead lights were in night-light mode.
Squinting in the dim light, Judy could see a large desk to her left with a pair of monitors glowing as the screensaver pattern danced across one of the screens, and to her right, two more desks facing a large table with a sheet covering something. A something with an uncovered clawed paw hanging over the side of the table.
Padding over to the table, Judy lifted the sheet and almost gagged. An old serval in the middle of an autopsy. "Big John," Judy whispered to herself, she didn't want it to be him, but she knew it was.
The next large bench over was covered in laboratory equipment interconnected into some sort of elaborate experiment. There were beakers of solution with hoses coming off of them sitting on butane burners, droppers discarded next to a half-filled volumetric flask clamped to a ring stand, and a crucible with the remains of a plant crushed in it. And an open case half-filled with sealed vials.
About to reach for one of the vials, Judy heard the rustling again, followed by a quiet, high-pitched mew.
Looking to the far corner where the sounds had been coming from, she saw the tops of a half dozen cages over another lab bench and in between two large video monitors. Video monitors on and showing that two of the cages were occupied.
Leaving everything, Judy rushed over to find Nick lying unconscious in one of the cages on top of some moldy hay, and in the cage next to him, a pair of young lions wearing dirty and torn medical scrubs were sitting on their own pile of hay and staring blankly at her.
"Hi Billy, DeeDee. I'm Judy Hopps, ZPD. Nick and I are here to rescue you."
Both lions looked around and past Judy.
Pointing into the cage, Judy said, "That's Nick."
Both lions looked at the unconscious fox and back to Judy.
Judy shrugged, "I know, but if it weren't for Nick, I wouldn't have found you guys. Do you know where the keys to the cages are?"
Billy slowly raised a paw and pointed at a pegboard on the wall behind a table.
Running over to the table, Judy hopped up and grabbed a set of keys off the pegboard and, about to jump down, she saw a sad sight. Her phone, or what was left of it. It gave its all and then some for her investigation. Saying a silent prayer for the dearly departed, Judy hopped down and unlocked the lions' cage along with Nick's.
Rushing into the cage, Judy checked over her unconscious fox, "Nick. Nick. Wake up."
Nothing.
Shaking him a bit, Judy finally groaned out, "They must have used more than one tranq on him. Otherwise, he'd be awake by now."
Arranging Nick so she could attempt a firemammal's carry to get him out of the building, Judy grabbed his arm and– stopped and looked over at Billy and DeeDee.
The lions were still sitting on the floor of their cage, staring at her.
Judy huffed, "Come on you guys, get over here and help me with Nick."
Both lions nodded as Billy stood and opened the cage's door.
*Squeeeeek*
"Quietly!" whispered-shouted Judy.
The sound stopped as Billy lifted the cage door a bit and opened it the rest of the way, careful not to make any more noise.
DeeDee silently slipped through the door and, a moment later was kneeling next to Judy, followed by Billy.
"Billy, you pick him up, and then both of you follow me. We're getting out of here."
Billy picked up the much smaller predator and, nodding to Judy, stood and waited while DeeDee lined up behind him.
"Shut up, I know I heard something," came a voice as the door Judy had just come through was opened, and all the lights in the lab came on.
Hopping out of Nick's cage, lions following closely behind, Judy scanned the room for another way out that didn't involve being seen by the mole rat and deer buck lab techs that were headed her way.
"Sure you did. If rats can hear so well, how come you didn't hear White trolling everyone for third-shift coverage and think of a way for us to get out of it?"
"Hey, it's the preds. They're escaping!" screamed the rat. "And there's a rabbit helping them."
'Too late,' thought Judy as she motioned Billy and DeeDee behind a metal desk.
"Is that the rabbit cop? She's supposed to be dead," asked the buck, pulling something out from behind his back.
"Nah, can't be, cops aren't that hot looking," replied the rat.
Judy looked down at herself and, with a confused look, whispered to Billy, "Am I…?"
Billy nodded.
DeeDee growled, and her tail fur bushed out just a touch.
"Good," said the buck smiling as he aimed his small pistol, "then no one will come looking for her body."
*pew pew*
A desk lamp tipped over, popping the bulb and sprinkling Judy with a few tiny bits of glass.
The rat yelled at his partner, "What the hell are you doing? You'll hit the preds."
Firing again, the buck yelled back at his partner, "She's seen the operation, we have to kill the rabbit."
This time a box of tissues with a small hole in it fell in between Billy and DeeDee.
"You know you're a terrible shot. You might as well be a stormtrooper as bad as you are with that thing."
*BLAM*
A heavy centrifuge packed with yellow liquid-filled vials exploded on the counter in between the buck and the rat, shooting glass and metal shards all over.
"She's got a gun!" yelled the buck, grabbing his partner and diving behind a solid metal lab bench just to see a printer, right above their heads, torn open by another bullet covering them with four colors of toner and bits of shredded paper.
"Holy god, what the hell kind of gun does she have?" whimpered the mole rat.
"Judy Hopps, ZPD. Come quietly, or there will be… trouble."
"Go to hell, copper, we ain't surrendering to no damn pred-lover!" yelled back the buck while shooting blindly toward where he hoped the rabbit was. And then to his partner said, "Alright, grab the heavy-duty pred taser out of the drawer, you go right, I'll go left and–"
*BLAM*
Both the lab techs looked between them at a new fist-sized hole in the heavy-duty metal desk they were hiding behind.
"Like hell," said the rat scurrying on all fours to the door, "I say she's White's problem."
"Yeah," said the buck as he threw his pea-shooter of a gun on the floor and pressed a big red button on the wall, "good idea." A quick second later, both lab techs were running down the hall, ears covered and screaming for help.
-/-/-
"What the hell?" said White looking up at the flashing light above his office door and hearing the building-wide alarm sound from down the hall.
Pressing a key on his keyboard, White turned to the large monitor on his wall as the picture switched from an old movie to a split-screen showing multiple camera feeds, one of which showed empty cages.
"The preds," said White as he zoomed out the camera view, "Where the hell are my preds?"
A rabbit doe with barely anything on except for holsters and a bandolier of gear walked into view of the camera, followed by two lions, one carrying an unconscious fox.
"Damn it, what's Hopps doing alive? Brown swore up and down she was dead. Damned fool, I ought to–"
Taking another look at the scantily-clad doe as she led the small group across the lab, White changed the view on his monitor to the outside of the building and looked for any emergency lights, cop cars, or mammals trying to look homeless.
Nothing, except…
"Nice convertible for a cop," mumbled White as he did a quick ZPD comms check.
Nothing. And with this building being in the middle of one of the lousiest cell phone cells in Zootopia, it was going to stay that way too.
Hitting a red button on his desk console and grabbing a microphone, the flashing lights and building alarm went off while White's voice rang out.
"The preds have escaped, and a rabbit is helping them! Kill her! Kill the rabbit now!"
White flipped back to the cameras in the lab just in time to see the escaping animals exit the room, and a moment later…
*BOOM*
The monitor on White's desk vibrated.
"What the–"
White's door flew open, and a large coypu, trying to tuck his shirt in, yelled, "Someone is using artillery on us!"
"Calm down, it's just the rabbit cop."
"But–"
"No buts, she's here alone and undercover. She must have seen the snatch and grab at the rave and followed the van here. If she'd been able to get hold of anyone on the way, we'd be neck-deep in cops already. So, kill the rabbit, kill the preds, kill whoever you need to, but do it quickly before someone hears something and really does call the cops."
The coypu whimpered at the sound of another muffled explosion.
Shaking his head, White started typing on his keyboard, "I'll lock everything down so she can't escape the building. Now go kill the rabbit."
"Yes, sir," replied the coypu saluting.
-/-/-
"Come on, this way," Judy yelled over the explosion, "They've got the freight entrance covered like fire ants cover their mound when it's kicked, and I've only got a couple of megafauna stun grenades left."
Leading the lions away from where she'd come in, Judy headed toward the front of the building, where she hoped she could find a fire escape or some way down and out.
"I see 'em!"
Judy turned and emptied her pistol's magazines into the smokey cloud of her most recent grenade.
"I lost 'em."
Judy smiled as she ejected the spent magazines and speed-loaded her pistols with new ones from her hip carriers.
"Pretty decent action for an older version Mousermann," Judy said as she holstered both pistols, "and it's not that much bigger than mine either."
Coming up on the offices in the front of the building, Judy saw locked metal shutters covering the insides of the windows, and looking in through another office where she hoped to see a fire escape, she saw the outline of an old exit bricked in.
Backing away from an almost certain stack of fire safety violations, Judy looked to her left and spied a large alcove where she saw the passenger elevator, doors wide open.
"All right! Come-on."
-/-/-
White rubbed his hooves together in excitement as that idiot rabbit took his bait. Watching the small group step up to the open elevator had been short-lived once the rabbit shot out his cameras, but watching the floor numbers change as it slowly eased down to the main floor had gotten the ram salivating.
"Hang tight," said White into an old army-surplus walkie-talkie, "I've got the car traveling at half speed, and I'll hold the doors until you're ready,"
"Yes, sir," replied a woodchuck wearing a greasy t-shirt and waving a pistol around as he tried to organize his team of guards around the elevator doors.
"We're ready, sir."
"Okay. Three, two, one–"
White pulled the walkie-talkie away from his head at the sound of a massive volley of automatic gunfire tearing into the opening elevator doors and shredding everything inside.
"Alright boys, reload quick. Can anyone tell if we got her? I can't see a damn thing with that fire extinguisher spewing its guts all over," yelled the woodchuck.
"I'm out. Anyone got a spare magazine I can have?"
*clunk, clink, roll, roll, roll, plink*
"What the hell is that?" asked the woodchuck.
-/-/-
Seeing that her throw went true, Judy shut the stairwell door and, motioning for the lions to stay low, whispered, "Important safety hit, a lot of Class B and C fire extinguishers use a gas to smother out a fire, and they get messy when you shoot them."
The lions nodded.
The heavy door shook in response to a woodchuck's question.
"Time to go," said Judy opening the door.
Seeing the pile of unconscious guards in front of the elevator, Judy motioned toward the garage where she came in and started that way when, at the end of the long hallway, she saw more guards turning the corner and–
"There they are, blast 'em," screamed a coypu from behind the group now running toward Judy.
"Front door. Run," yelled Judy over her shoulder to the lions as she threw her last stun grenade down the hall and then, with a double quick-draw move, shot the security gate control just inside the elevator alcove and the stops holding the gate up in the ceiling.
Jumping backward and throwing herself on the ground, Judy narrowly avoided the heavy metal gate that came crashing down and the explosion that turned the pursuing guards into another pile of unconscious mammals.
"The rabbit's wiped out my team! I need reinforcements! Hurry! Hurry! She's brought the main security gate down too. The preds are getting away. Someone, anyone, help!"
Except for the coypu poking his head around the end of the hallway, screaming into a walkie-talkie.
Judy shot the walkie-talkie out of the coypu's paw.
"Aaaah! The bitch rabbit shot my radio!"
Shaking her head, Judy holstered her pistols and ran around to the end of the hallway where it dumped out into a small lobby. Sliding to a stop next to Billy and DeeDee, who were standing in front of a thick metal door with an electronic lock engaged and flashing red, Judy jiggled the handle to verify that, yes, it was locked.
"I've bought us a few minutes, but that's all. How's Nick? He should be able to open the lock."
Billy stared at Judy blankly.
"Mmmmmh, ooody, luv ew."
Judy rolled her eyes as she moved in closer to her fox, "I love you too, but right now I need you awake so you can pick this door lock."
"Lick lawk, open art to wuhve."
"Great, you pick now to get all romantic on me," groaned Judy as she looked up at Billy and asked, "Do you know how to pick a lock like this?"
Billy nodded.
"Okay, set Nick down and see if you can open the lock. I'll watch for guards."
Billy nodded again, but before Judy could move to take up a defensive position, Billy reached toward her glitter mesh top.
DeeDee growled and snapped her teeth as she batted Billy's paw away from its intended target, the target which was one of the bobby pins Judy insisted Torrie install to keep the top decent.
Deftly snatching a bobby pin whose MIA status wouldn't cause a major wardrobe malfunction, DeeDee handed it to Billy and growled as she pointed to the lock.
Judy fake-laughed as she pulled a gun and said to Billy, "You pick the lock while I, uh, wait right over… there."
DeeDee stood with her arms crossed until Judy took up position, good and far away, behind a large sand-filled cigarette urn, and then with a huff, DeeDee dismissed the rabbit with a mane flip and a raised tail flick.
Sighing, Judy sighted her pistol down the hall without mumbling anything about how DeeDee and Billy were the weirdest acting lions she'd ever met.
-/-/-
*zzzzzt crackle pow*
"Damned idiots," growled White slamming his walkie-talkie down on the desk. "She's a hick rabbit, for god's sake, just kill her already."
Pounding a key on his keyboard, a new display came up showing the status of all the security doors and gates in the building.
"Damn rabbit, what'd she do? The main security gate and–"
"Sir," said an out-of-breath antelope, "All the building's security doors have locked themselves, and the loading dock security gates have deployed. Nobody can open anything. We're all locked in. What do you want us to do?"
"Son of a… that damn rabbit, she must have shot out the main control panel."
"Sir?"
"The second-floor repair shop, there's a portable torch in there. Grab it and cut your way out of the dock. Then circle around to the front of the building with whoever you can find. I'll see if I can override the security lockout from Brown's office and if I can, we hit the rabbit from both sides and put her out of my misery once and for all."
Running down the hall to Brown's office, White unlocked his boss' door with one of only two building master keys and slid open a fake wall panel that only the two key holders knew about. Tapping a manufacturer's code on the panel that was lit up like a bloody Christmas tree, White rerouted enough control to hopefully open the main security gate.
"Alright, rabbit," mumbled White, "One more code, and your bullet-ridden carcass is pred food."
-/-/-
*BAM BAM*
Judy felt the heavy urn she was hiding behind shake, followed by the sound of sand spilling on the floor.
Returning fire, she took out a chunk of the corner beam her assailant was hiding behind. "Hurry up," yelled Judy taking two more shots and turning an eight-point buck into a four-pointer. "More guards are coming."
The security gate started to squeak with the sound of grinding metal.
"And they're opening the gate."
Popping up, Judy scattered the guards by rapid-fire emptying both her and Nick's guns into their position. With the guards now cowering, she hopped over to where Billy was still busy trying to pick the main door lock.
"Two minutes," said Judy slamming fresh magazines into her guns.
*clang, chhhhunk, nnnguh*
"Thirty seconds, we have to go now."
DeeDee took a deep breath and about to roar her displeasure…
The lock light flashed green, and the door opened.
…kissed Billy.
"DeeDee! Enough! Billy, pick up Nick. We. Are. Leaving!"
Judy pushed the lions through the door and, twisting her bobby pin into the lock mechanism to short it out, pulled the door shut behind her and yelled, "Move your tails, we've got to go!"
The lions wagged their tails.
Running around the lions, Judy yelled, "Follow me, my car's the convertible parked down the block."
"Yowch!" Judy cried out as a chunk of asphalt hit her in the thigh. "They're shooting at us. Hurry, behind those planters!"
Judy dove behind a large concrete planter and then popped back up with a pistol in each paw, looking for a target.
A bullet hit the inside lip of the planter, spraying dirt all over the lions.
The lions that were standing behind Judy.
"Get down behind that other planter," yelled Judy as she shot back at someone with horns aiming a pistol through the bars of a previously blacked-out window. "Both of you, now!"
Hitting the sidewalk, Billy and DeeDee barely avoided mane-cuts from three bullets that whizzed past and left divots in the brickwork behind them.
"Yyyooowwwwlll."
DeeDee and Judy both looked over at Billy, who'd just set Nick down and was now quietly yowling and licking at his bleeding arm.
More dirt was kicked up from a bullet hitting the planter to the right of Judy's head.
Judy popped up and used a few rounds to encourage her new target to duck and cover, but quickly dove back down seeing more animals breaking out windows so they could join what was soon going to become a twisted carnival game of shooting a rabbit in a barrel.
"They've got too much firepower," whispered Judy to DeeDee, "and I'm down to my last few magazines."
DeeDee hissed her reply at Judy as she tore a strip off the ratty scrubs she was wearing and tended to Billy.
"I'm sorry, just stay low. It's dark out, and as long as they can't see us well enough for a clean shot, maybe–"
*zzzztt*
The streetlight above them picked now to start working.
"Over there everyone, I think it's just the rabbit helping the preds. As soon as they move, shoot 'em."
Judy shot out the light, and then from in between the two planters, she shot a couple of rounds into the window opening where mister bigmouth's voice had just come from.
"Bitch, that hurt! Come on guys, blast her!"
Tightening the makeshift bandage on Billy's arm, DeeDee looked over at Judy now sitting low with her back against the planter.
"Don't worry, we'll be okay. Backup is on the way."
Chunks of concrete were blasted off of the planter boxes as more guns joined the fray.
DeeDee raised a brow.
"I know," Judy said, and then holding her pistols in front of her chest, she whispered, "Come on Ben, please be coming. I could really use a little help right about now."
…..
A/N:
AaronJay, over on DeviantArt, created a fun (and gritty) piece of fanart for this chapter. If you'd like to see his work, it's located at: www{dot}deviantart{dot}com/mikey2084/art/Bun-with-a-Gun-941711728
I also wanted to give all of you reading this story a shoutout. It's been almost four years since I started posting and longer since I started writing this story. I really appreciate all the support you guys have given with your likes, kudos, comments, suggestions, art, and PMs.
I hope everyone had (is having) a great holiday season, and the next chapter should be up in a few weeks.
~Mikey