Happy New Year, ladies and gents! Yes, I realize it's well after New Year's, but what can I say?

Really appreciate the encouraging feedback on last chapter, but since I left you all hanging like I did last time I won't linger on that. Instead, on to the resolution of last chapter!

"And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all fishes of the sea. Into your hand are they delivered."

Genesis 9:1

"Wait, you mean there's been one of the farms right under your nose all along, and you never made the connection?" Nick asked when Judy informed them of her find.

She shook her head. "It wasn't like they were part of a case before," she pointed out, laying back her ears. "I never really paid attention to the farm when I was growing up because no one in my family worked there."

Nick looked from the screen to her and back again. "Yeah, okay, but it might have helped to mention it."

"Do you automatically think of every store you've ever been to when you hear big boxes are being checked out for legal violations?" countered Catano, glancing down at him and keeping her tone neutral.

"Well yeea-no, not really," he replied, slowing down and backpedaling as he realized that admitting he did keep tabs on issues of shady business would not reflect well on his history. "I guess you've got a fair point."

Catano nodded, then turned to Judy. "All the same, this would have been helpful to know. However, I'm not sure you're the best one to investigate it."

"What, you think she can't be objective?" Nick argued, looking up with Judy and speaking just ahead of her.

"To be honest, not really," came the cheetah's flat answer. "Besides, my opinion doesn't matter here. It's what lawyers might think – and if Poisson is up to no good you can bet she'll be looking out for rabbits. I think our best approach is still to try using your-"

"Attention all units!"squawked her portable radio. "All available officers to Savanna Central Mall! Elephant gone savage!"

All ears shot straight up, and Nick's face took on a look like he hadn't worn since he and Judy landed in the back of Mr. Big's car. "Did they just say-"

"Come on!" shouted Catano, bolting for the door with Judy and Nick close behind. It was hardly a fair race, especially as they reached the hall and joined other officers stampeding for the door. Judy did a fair job of keeping up, doing a parkour jump off Trunkaby's leg as the elephant passed and using that jump to slip through a gap between two passing lions.

Nick hastily pulled back from the seething mass of mammals as his phone rang in his pocket. Aw, for crying out loud, he thought as he tucked himself into a corner on the leeward side of a pillar. Who'd be calling now?

The answer nearly made him drop the phone.

"Wilde, this is Catano,"the officer's voice came through. "I had a feeling your number would come in handy. Stay out of this."

Nick stared at the phone, wondering when he had given her his number and then remembering that she had access to police files. Pinpointing his phone would be as easy as running a plate to someone of her expertise.

Knew I should have gone with a prepaid phone, he thought to himself, recalling the many times such phones had been used to dodge tracing. "Hey, I'm with you guys, remember?" he protested, deciding to address one crisis at a time.

"Not this time, you're not," she snapped. Then, sounding as if she had turned away from the phone, "Hopps! In! Let's go!"

Biting his lip, the fox weighed the situation at paw. On the one paw, raging elephants were way above and beyond his duties as an informant. On the other, Judy was going, and every hair on his body rebelled against the idea of letting her tackle a crisis while he hung back.

"What about Nick?"Judy's voice sounded in the background, apparently unaware who was on the line.

"He's stay-" Catano's voice cut off as the call ended.

Nick sighed and lowered his phone as the last officers exited the building. Much as he hated it, he was out of the loop on this one. Truth was he'd just be underfoot – perhaps literally.

It didn't take long for Judy to catch onto what was happening. "Did you just leave Nick behind in that stampede?" she asked aghast.

Catano slipped the phone into a compartment on her cruiser's dashboard and peeled out of the garage. "He's a smart fox with good survival instincts," she answered firmly, gripping the wheel tightly with both paws. "If the stampede was going to get him before he got out of the way, I wouldn't have reached him on the phone."

Judy would have been impressed with the cheetah's shrewd bit of thinking on the fly if she hadn't been so bugged about everything happening at once. She was used to having to think fast, but her brain was torn between the crisis at paw and having just ditched her friend.

Evidently the cheetah guessed what she was thinking. "Hopps, you're rattled. Think about it. Wil…" she paused, then spoke again in a voice which was less commandeering, but audibly strained against its natural vehemence. "Nick is a civilian. We can't bring him to an MCI no matter how we bent the rules last time."

At this last point all of Judy's objections died in an instant. She hadn't forgotten the last time Nick went into a danger zone on this case, and while it was true she had drawn him into multiple danger zones herself, Catano was right. Knowingly taking a civilian – even a medic – into something like this would be way, way over the line, and not just legally either.

There was another reason why Catano's point stopped her cold. MCI stood for every good cop's three least favorite words: Mass Casualty Incident. From train wrecks or major car accidents to deliberate attacks like this one, every officer hoped and prayed they would never have to deal with a case where deaths could number in the dozens or even hundreds.

Catano glanced over at Judy and could guess the state of shock threatening to seize her brain. She remembered all too well her own first time: a gang fight with several mammals – children, no less – caught in the crossfire. She had taken it more bravely than most cops on the outside, but inside the thought still tied her stomach in knots.

Unfortunately, she couldn't afford to let Judy respond the way any healthy mammal would of their own accord.

"Hopps," she said firmly, whipping the cruiser around a corner. "I know it's rough, but you have to focus. I need you to keep it together, or you'll be no help to the mammals at the scene. Understand?"

Judy nodded, blinking several times as if to pull herself out of a trance. Catano supposed that in some ways she was doing exactly that, and in a way she was glad. Any mammal who could deal with this kind of thing and not be bothered should be an executioner, not a cop.

"Text him," she ordered. "Tell him to get ready for his date, and then get your head clear. We both need to be on top of our game here, or Obearon wins. Can I trust you?"

Something in that question or the cheetah's tone of voice snapped Judy's nerves into place – or as close as they could get under the circumstances. Straightening up, she nodded, though she didn't bother to hide her queasy expression.

I know how you feel, Hopps, she thought, focusing her eyes on the road. For once I know exactly how you feel.

By the time they arrived, mall security was already well on their way to evacuating the mall. Out in the parking lot several mammals who seemed to have deputized themselves for the occasion were doing their level best to direct traffic as several mammals, in their haste, tried to leave the lot all at once. Others did their best to keep those staying around safely out of the way on the grassy areas or in the outdoor eating spots. Judy guessed that the actual security guards must be inside, doing their level best to keep everyone safe during the evacuation. Over the hubbub of voices and cars, her sharp ears detected the sound of fire alarms inside. Hopefully, she mused, that was just a ruse to get mammals headed for the exits without revealing the true nature of the threat.

As per instructions they had received on the way, Catano wheeled around to the entrance nearest the mall. Joining several other officers, she and Judy headed for a service entrance rather than take the main doors into the mall. Having some mammals see them and realize the police-heavy presence belied a fire was inevitable. Still, the fewer and later they realized that, the better.

Judy had never been in the back corridors of a shopping mall, and if she hadn't been tailing Catano to get to the crisis she might have noticed the contrast. The walls were white and gray – more like a hospital than a store – and the halls were lined with rolling racks full of various merchandise plus a few personal items belonging to staff who had tucked them out of the way. Several mammals – police and civilians alike – were working to move the racks out of the way and clear a path for the largest officers. Judy and Catano, meanwhile, slipped through like water and kept right on going.

"This way," Catano ordered, leading Judy around a corner.

"Have you done this before?" asked Judy.

"Practiced," the cheetah replied. "When I noticed that the Night Howler attacks were mostly hitting public places, I used some of my time off to learn the layouts of potential targets."

Judy almost stopped running as the cheetah lifted her radio to her mouth and asked where they should rally with the other officers. Under any other circumstances the strategy would have sounded ridiculous and paranoid. In the present context, it was actually quite brilliant; frighteningly so, in fact.

Following the instructions she got in response, Catano led Judy out into the main hall – now largely deserted – and in through the front entrance to the theater. They found a mass of other officers, including Officer Trunkaby and another elephant temporarily assigned from a neighboring precinct, standing outside theater four and hastily ushering mammals out through the doorway. Based on the sounds from inside the targeted tusker was still going full-on berserk, and Judy almost asked why they hadn't gone in and subdued him. Then she remembered the risk of harm to bystanders.

"What's the situation?" asked Catano sharply.

"Almost got everyone out who can," a horse reported. "Officers grouping at the back entrance. Once we get the signal we go in and flank him with them."

"Method?"

"Anything necessary."

Judy felt her stomach twist. She had trained to fight large criminals, of course. Even allowing that her sparring partner had been a rhino rather than an elephant, she had every confidence she could survive this fight. No; what bothered her was the fact that they were about to attack a civilian who was as innocent and decent as Mr. Killrahb, Manchas, or even Emmitt Otterton. She didn't have time to really think in words, but like a wave it hit her that in the next few minutes they might be forced to take out an elephant who could have a wife and kids somewhere before he did much the same thing.

"The world's already broken, Hopps," a voice over her head quoted. "That's why we need you."

Surprised, she looked up to see Catano looking down at her gravely.

"Did you just…?"

The officers' portable radios crackled. "Team One! Team Two! Move!"

With no time to ask how Catano had known those words, Judy found herself caught up in the rush swarming into the theater.

Guest Reviews:

Guest: Yep. You might have noticed that's one of the underlying themes of this story – and, in case I've neglected to mention it before, something I'm really hoping they address in any sequel(s) they may write. Let's face it: Nick's past leaves a lot to clean up.

Guest: Naturally. Gotta keep things interesting, yes? :)

Easter Eggs

Thor: Ragnarok

Easter Egg Answers:

Chapter 31:

The part about Catano's pursuit of an oversize anaconda through a sewer mingles notes of Megaconda and Lizard Man, two episodes of a series about unknown animals. Megaconda provided the giant snake, while Lizard Man dealt with first responders fighting a reptilian monster in the storm drains.

Chapter 32:

Who's that Pokemon Easter Egg? It's Meowth(busters), when Taelia is reflecting on research into using sound to trigger the brain. And yes, they really did do an episode about that, but I won't get into details because it's gross.

Maybe I'm off my hinges, but I believe there's a Home Alone 2 quote in Nick's scene "interrogating" the judge's secretary, Mr. Stangahoof.

Nick's reflection that you'd think smoking would be an easy habit to break harkens back to a Calvin and Hobbes Sunday comic.