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Riding down the never ending road, with the great hills passing over the horizon, Nick let out a pathetic whine.
"Carrots…"
His company glanced at him from the corner of her eye, almost missing the 'Welcome to Possum Springs! You are not lost – You're here!' sign at the side of the road, which signaled that their travel was nearing its end.
"Hm?" Judy intoned, looking back at the leafy street, "Yes, Nick?"
"I hate this place already. Look at this!"
His demand-like plea came at the right time, because Judy had to stop their police cruiser before a red light. She faced her partner and saw him holding up his smartphone. He pointed a claw at the top-left corner, right where the signal strength was supposed to show. She blinked once, twice, even thrice just to make sure she was seeing right.
"No signal? How is that possible?" she asked, her paws stretching over the dashboard to take her own iCarrot.
"The right question is; why is that possible? Twenty-first century, hellooo?" Nick said with a huff, retracting his hands. He looked down at his phone, typing in Finnick's number once more, just for the call to fail even starting. "You can't tell me we are far from Zootopia, nu-huh Ma'am, because I checked. 20 miles, not 200."
Judy tilted her head, the edge of her mouth stretching to a half-grin. "Why are you being a baby about this? There is Wifi at least."
Nick turned his head and saw Judy now holding up her own phone with 'Settings' opened, showing the many names and Wifi signals around. Some had full strength, some lacked intensity; but they were there.
"Okay," Nick began, straightening out in his seat, "In which universe does it make sense to have Wifi and not basic signal? This place does being poor poorly."
"This universe apparently," Judy replied, throwing her phone back onto the dash. She pressed down the gas pedal as the light has turned green in the meantime, "You didn't answer my question."
Nick rolled his shoulders, his fingers smoothing over the collar of his own uniform. "I'm a twenty-first century fox from the city, Carrots. I have twenty-first century city fox necessities too."
Judy frowned. "You are thirty-two, Nick. Sorry to say, but you are not from this century."
Nick waved her off distractedly, breathing on his sunglasses and rubbing it on his uniform. "Pity details."
"And what do I have then?"
"A haystack and fertilizer behind your ears, Countrygirl."
His toothy smirk disappeared when a painful kick connected with his left shin.
"Hey! No kicking inside the car, it isn't fair!"
Now it was Judy's time to smile at Nick's futile trials to retrieve the sunglasses he had managed to drop onto the carpeted floor of the car. It was especially funny, because his wonderful seatbelt made it the most impossible for him to lean down..
"Sorry, my late twenty-century country girl necessities include having my legs stretched. Rural life for the win, wohooo!"
The now unimpressed-looking Nick glanced at her enthusiastic body as she pumped one arm into the air, the other keeping a firm hold on the steering wheel. Looking behind her, his signature smirk painted itself onto his muzzle. "So…" he drawled, still watching how she basked in the victory of their little squabble, "Any idea where the police station is?"
Caught off-guard, Judy looked at the stores on both sides of the road, her eyes roaming over the many residential houses and small shops. Her eyes stopped at one named 'Snack Falcon', cringing at the implausible amount of glass shards laying behind the building.
"It should be around there..."
"Oh, it is," Nick began, finally hooking his feet under the sunglasses, and with a quick flick, he launched it right onto his lap, "Or was. We passed it."
Never had he seen her head whip up and turn so quickly. "WHAT?! Wait, when did that happen?!"
Nick leaned back on his seat, the sunglasses now comfily balanced on his muzzle. "While you were busy committing felonies against poor me. Aggravated Assault is bad Carrots, and it shows."
The 'tsk' sounds he made had Judy growling in her seat. Oh, how she hated him times like this, when he was purposefully using the knowledge he gained in the academy to tease her. She had a particular weak spot for that.
"Do you even know the difference between a simple and an aggravated assault?"
"No clue."
Especially when he couldn't even get it right.
"Have you finished reading that stupid file?" she bit out, turning with the cruiser.
"Fret not," her partner waved off her agitated tone and reached between them, where a yellow dossier laid below the gear. He picked it up, opening it as he snugly settled it in his lap, and he sniffed from the resulting air that shook his sensitive whiskers.
"We have one Casey Hartley, nineteen-years-of-age, male common cat. You don't see those around anymore, huh. Ooh, lookie, are those several warnings of misdemeanor for small-scale vandalism, jaywalking and petty theft I see? Such a little daredevil."
"Anything on his disappearance?"
"Last seen on the morning of twenty-seventh of July, didn't come home that night. And… that's all," Nick said, closing the dossier with a resounding flap.
"That's even less than I had on Otterton…" Judy whined, parking the cruiser in front of the police station. The gray and blue building seemed miniature when compared to Precinct One, but still emerged from the nearby buildings. Its parking lot also lacked the many police cruisers Judy was accustomed to, only having one on standby, while four more parking lots stood empty. She presumed they were out patrolling the streets, but still; five police cars definitely meant that she needed to get used to a smaller scale operation.
"Small town, small station," Nick hummed next to her, before the clicking of his seatbelt getting undone reached her ears. She stopped the engine, put the gear in parking mode, and followed her friend. She found Nick leaning on the hood of the car, waiting for her to catch up.
"Are you ready for finding more missing people, partner?" the fox smiled down at her, holding up his paw.
"You bet!" Judy replied jovially, jumping up to high-five the fox, "Though I still don't understand why Bogo would lend some of his own for a case like this. I thought he was already running low on us, what with the Halloween festival ongoing. Any idea?"
As they began strolling towards the opening of the station, Nick scratched his cheek at the question. "You know how it is. One missing person case turned corrupt Mayor arresting was too big not to be a fluke. He probably wants to see how we manage with even fewer leads, less space, and less civilization. Seriously, having no signal should be a crime, I'm telling you."
Judy giggled and took the files from Nick's hands. "Let's hope this will go swimmingly then."
"No delusional sheep with power?"
"No delusional sheep with power."
Nick clicked his tongue, satisfied, then pushed the station's door open.
"Sooo… where are we going again?"
"Weren't you listening Nick?"
"Sorry, I was just too preoccupied with a simple, but very important fact - the chief here looks like a distinguished mall cop."
Judy really wanted to argue with Nick on that point, but even she had to admit; she had only seen cops like Molly in the central mall of Zootopia.
"You still should have listened."
Nick shrugged, comfy being back again at the cruiser's seat.
"Why should I, when you always suck up all the info and recite it in a much cuter way?"
She really hated her past self for willingly giving Nick the 'c-word pass'. Saving her life and career or not, he was a horrible, horrible person for abusing it.
Her notepad flew through the air and landed straight on Nick's nose, quivering on the top of the fox's thin muzzle before it flopped over. Said vulpine blinked at the sudden weird turn of events, and after catching it midair, he began scrutinizing the contents of the top paper.
"Casey was apparently part of a local, small-scale band. He had strong connections to all its members, so I thought we could check out the local studio. They are practicing right now, according to the chief."
"Ah, music to my ears," Nick said, grinning at the eye roll he got, then turned back to the notepad, "Greggory Lee, Mae Borowski, Angus Delaney? Are my eyes deceiving me or this place has no puns-for-family names?"
Judy sent him a pointed look. "Yes, it's one of the things this town is famous for."
"Ah yeah. I remember reading that," the fox shrugged and took out a pen from the front pocket of his uniform, then began doodling on the notepad, „I must have been too skeptical at the time of the existence of such a place. Hey, what do you think about their species? Perfect opportunity for a little guesswork."
Judy mulled the question over in her mind, tonguing the inside of her cheek in thought. "Hmm. I'm guessing… an alligator, a stag and a cat."
"In that particular order?"
"Ha ha, no. In a random order."
The click of a pen signaled that Nick finished whatever he decided to draw on Judy's notepad, and from the corner of her eye she saw him putting it on the dashboard, face down.
"Aren't you gonna guess?" She asked, eyeing his smirking and carefree partner.
"That looks like a studio to me," his words made no sense to her, right until she focused back on the street, and found that he was right; among the many convenience shops, there was a building with no name or any kind of advertisement outside. Its front windows were broken in and the door was ajar. A catchy tune accompanied by a deep voice flowed out into the street, and it reached her ears through the rolled-down window of their cruiser.
Judy nodded to herself; Their first lead was about to expand.
Nick was already out of the car by the time she swiped her notepad from the dash'. Hopping out of the car, she looked over what Nick had done with the names and snorted when she realized that the doodles were simple crude drawings of the heads of different species.
"Oh."
"Sooo, how many did you get?" Nick's teasing voice asked from her side, far but still louder than the music from the studio. She looked through the broken window, where she could see the corner of a small stage with many cables connecting to big, box-shaped speakers, and among them stood four characters. Focusing on the silhouettes, she learnt with some amount of disappointment that her guesses weren't completely on the mark.
"Well, they seem to have gotten a fourth member for the band. So in best-case scenario, two out of three, I can see an alligator and a cat."
"And me?" his voice asked, much closer now. Judy glanced up to see him proudly stand there, his arms clasped behind his head, his eyes closed, probably thinking he had won. She glanced back at his drawings, and cringed when he realized that even in the worst-case scenario, they were on equal grounds.
"Two out of three it looks like. Nice job, Slick."
She did not expect him to tense up and open his eyes wide, "Wait, only two?"
"Well…" she hummed, starting to walk over towards the studio, "You did get 'bear' and 'cat' right, but none of them are birds. There is another fox, though."
"Another… fox…?"
Judy hadn't heard his uttered words as she was already stepping through the opening, the blaring music overpowering the rustles of autumn leaves. Confused, Nick quickly ran after her, his utility belt juggling with each long step he took.
"…why that was, neighbor kids say it's because autumn was weird in a waaay… "
That juggling was soon too silent compared to the melody. Nick pushed through the door and his eyes found the four delinquents and his partner. He made a note on how the latter was already bouncing on her heels and clapping along.
"That stayed in the house and weird it remaaains…"
Then came a solo part, where the cat in the orange shirt with the gray nullset sign ripped on the bass. Her performance was admittedly shaky, some notes didn't seem like they belonged in that particular sequence. By the frown on her face, Nick guessed that she didn't fancy the mishaps either. Or it may be even her first time doing this song. Whichever way, the bass solo was still surprisingly pleasant, the alligator gal did a marvelous job drumming on that laptop while looking like she was in a calculus class with a very grouchy teacher. But Nick didn't dwell on those thoughts, his eyes kept going back to the fox in the jeans and leather jacket combo, with the goofy, wild smile splitting his face as he bobbed his head to the rhythm and tapped his feet with it; like he was weightlessly floating in the great flow of music.
Nick smiled at the sight.
"Hey man have you seen her around? Have you seen her todaaay?"
"Weird Autumn! Weird Autumn!"
"I only knew her a week before she went awaaay…"
"Weird Autumn! Weird Autumn!"
The cat and the fox played a ferocious last few notes, and even the ali-gal (Nick thought it was a genius nickname) looked mildly interested finger-smashing that last button. The cymbals went crazy at this moment, before all went away.
"Amazing!" the fox shouted gleefully, already facing his cat companion. Nick's ears twitched at the barkish and boyish sound the fellow fox emitted.
"Yeah, nice job," the bear agreed with a baritone, warm voice, one that would definitely need some good ol' honey tea later.
"I think I did pretty good for a second time," the cat agreed with her teammates' compliments.
Ali-gal was ready to add something, when her eyes found Nick and Judy, standing at the corner of the room. Those reptilian eyes slitted by an almost unnoticeable amount, and Nick sighed inwardly; one of the greatest disadvantages to this job was that the cool kids no longer liked you. He quickly sent a thumbs-up to her, relishing from the confused blinking he got as an answer.
"Oh, no! It's the effing cops! They came for our crimes!" the fox shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at them.
Nick watched every pair of eyes look over to him and Judy, some narrowing, some widening. The elder fox noticed the big guy with the fedora putting a foot in front of the fox, like he was defending the little guy. The older fox cooed under his breath, wishing he could be a naïve teen again.
"No need for worrying! I am Officer Judy Hopps, and this is my partner Officer Nicholas Wilde," Judy began greeting them in her welcoming, chirpy voice, to which Nick followed up with a two-fingered, lazy salute, "It was really a great performance! Did you guys compose it?"
Nick saw the other fox lean close to the bear's ear. Thankfully, he could make out the whispered words. "Why are they not arresting us? Is this a trap?"
"I don't know. They may be buttering us up," the bear muttered back and from the corner of his eye, Nick could make out Judy's ear tensing up. Of course she would be hearing it too.
"I hope they brought PBJ for me…"
"It's ours, original. Did Molly send you? Because we haven't even done anything yet today!" the cat asked them, looking even more unimpressed with her half-lid eyes and flat look. Nick was happy that this expression found its way to this under-a-rock place, it scared him that his teasing wouldn't get the required reactions like in Zootopia. Reactions were half the fun.
"You mean the Molly that looks like a twenty-four-seven cop from a chick-mall?"
The other fox giggled at that, and Ali-gal stopped her mad scrutinizing.
"Yeah, her."
"We were sent by the chief of your police department," Judy cut in before Nick could, "She requested the help of Chief Bogo, the head of the Zootopian Police Department to aid in a missing person case in Possum Springs."
"You guys are from Zootopia?! DUDERS, we always wanted to go there!" the other fox said, stepping out from behind the bear with his face positively beaming.
"We considered moving too. The flat prices were too expensive." Big Guy Romeo added, letting his Juliet move forth.
"Whoa. Zootopia sounds cool. Is it really a utopia, or just another government lie?" the cat asked, and Nick curiously sniffed at the air at the sudden serious turn on the conversation. One of his partner's ears dropped in surprise.
"W-what? No! Zootopia may not what it portrays to be, but it is a wonderful place. It was my dream to be there, and I am happy."
"I'm born-and-raised biased. The place's a corrupt hellhole filled with naïve idiots, but it's home," Nick cut in. He felt a sharp nudge from his partner, one that made him wince a bit, but he had enough wit to pat her shoulder back mockingly.
"Who is the 'missing person' the case is about?" Ali-gal asked in a croaky, slow voice. Nick wondered where had that cigarette between her lips come from. She sure didn't have it while imitating drums on that laptop of hers.
"Casey Hartley."
Both officers knew they hit the jackpot when the young-adults tensed hearing the name.
"C-Casey? He just disappeared without a trace," the younger fox whimpered, his sudden joy vanishing on a whim.
"And the police never bothered to even start looking!" the cat strengthened her friend's argument, her arms wide open in outrage.
"That's why we're here now. Sooo…" Judy said with a sad smile, clicking her pen ready to write on his notepad, "If you could tell us anything about Casey. Likes, dislikes, hobbies, frequently visited places…"
A metaphorical lightbulb lit up in Nick's mind.
"Hey Carrots, how about we divided work?" he asked, and Judy raised a brow at him, "We could both ask questions and it would save time for both us and them. They look like they are in a hurry."
"I mean… we could do that-"
"Great!" Nick was already raising his hand, snapping his fingers and pointing, "You, in the leather jacket. Are you Delaney or Lee?"
The fox shrugged. "I'm just Gregg."
"Gregg rulez, ok?" the cat nodded next to him.
"No arguments here. Would you be so kind to follow me outside?"
Gregg sent his mouth into a thin line, but after Angus gave him a lighthearted smooch onto his cheek, he relaxed.
"Eh."
Judy and the rest watched the two foxes leave through the creaky door of the studio.
"Great," Judy huffed, "Which means I get Delaney and Borowski."
"That's me," the bear in the fedora said, walking up in front of her with the cat in tow.
"I heard my name too."
Judy cursed. This meant that she had only guessed 'cat' right, while Nick hit the nail with 'bear' too. Damn, she owed him one.
"Do I need to be here?" the alligator asked, still standing on the stage.
"Do you happen to know anything about Casey?"
"Some."
"Then it would be appreciated. If I can have your name, Miss…?"
"Santello. Bea Santello."
"Is Gregg gonna be okay? He isn't arrested, is he?" the cat, now identified as Mae, spoke up. Judy noticed how the feline's eyes squinted, looking outside the window, presumably to see what Gregg and Nick were up to.
The rabbit waved off her concerns. "Don't worry. My partner is just quirky. If it helps your conscience, we have no warrants for arrest."
"Which means what?" Bea asked from the corner.
"Which means if we were to detain any of you without that or a probable cause, we would face charges of disturbing the peace and harassment."
"Whoa," Mae breathed, mesmerized by what she heard, "We, like, have power over the cops."
"As long as you don't do any crimes," Angus mentioned from the side.
"Sweaty. But cool."
Judy readied her pen and began gathering information.
Outside the studio, the two foxes weren't much in a talkative mood. Nick lazily rounded their parked cruiser, then hopped into the driver's seat. Gregg followed the fellow fox with anxious eyes, which widened when Nick reached over to open the door for the shotgun seat, beckoning him to join right after.
"Hop in, Pedro."
"But I'm Gregg," he said, but nonetheless followed up.
"Greggro? Predrory?"
"Greggro sounds cool. Like an outlaw," the door closed behind him with a click.
"Predrory it is."
"Hey! I wanted the other one!"
"Sorry bud, I don't make the rules of nicknames."
Gregg pouted, which looked extraordinarily adorable to Nick, especially with that tiny overbite. Jade eyes glinted with mischief, but soon darkened when the shine of something found them. The older fox frowned and reached out, intent on inspecting on just what could Gregg have on his leather jacket. Said younger fox noticed the advancing paw and blinked up at Nick.
"Officer Wilde?"
Nick didn't reply as he already was in possession of the light's source. He brought it close and inspected it with a hard eye.
It was a glass shard.
"You know…" Nick chuckled, throwing the identified thing in the air just to swipe it midair, "When I was your age, vandalism was all the hype too. Smashing glass behind a convenience store is something I have yet to try, thank you for the idea by the way."
Gregg fiddled with his fingers in his lap, his fur warming up suddenly. "You are welcome?"
"And having not one, not two, but three knives on you? Buddy, that's just asking for it."
The corrupting features of fear spread across Gregg's face as he looked down to his breast pocket. He could have sworn he had neatly closed it up and gulped when he realized that the ends of his knives' handles were obviously poking out like a sore thumb.
"I should probably get you into questioning…"
Gregg didn't even realize he was whining quite loudly, he was too preoccupied with edging closer to the door, his entire body readying itself to bolt-
"…but I won't."
From bolting to freezing, his body went all at once. His head whipped back to Nick in surprise. The older fox was eyeing him behind half-lid eyes and a smirk, his paws resting on top of the steering wheel.
"Huh?"
"I could, but I am not heartless," upon the rapid blinking he got as an answer, Nick continued, "You smell strongly of cat, alligator and bear, especially bear. Trust me kid, I may not fully know your struggles, barely some of them, and that's more than enough."
Gregg, his paw still frozen on the door's handle, watched dazedly as Nick grabbed the gear. He moved it from parking mode and the engine roared alive.
"So, Predrory bud, do ya know any place two foxes can have some immature fun?"
Nick's foot patiently waited on the gas pedal, watching the fear melt off from Gregg's face, replaced by a smile that went from one ear to the other. For a supposed 21-year-old, the other fox had an admirable amount of childish excitement stored in him, as he didn't need a moment before he was shaking all over, his paws easily fixing his seatbelt.
"To the Snack Falcon!"
Nick laughed and pressed down. "To the Snack Falcon we go."
In the meantime, Judy was furiously noting down all the info spoken by Angus, her enthusiastic smile giving a happier shade to the entire room.
"…and then he didn't come to band practice next day. Or the next one after that. Then we saw the missing posters, and just accepted that he was gone."
"Did you try to search for him?" Judy asked eagerly, and the bear's ears dropped.
"Yeah, we did. But he was always big on the idea of leaving, so we thought he had done it. That's all."
Judy's mouth soured. Excited as she was of getting so many new leads, she still felt horrible for all these people. Losing such a crucial friend, not knowing what happened to them and then simply living with the only explanation that would mean their friend was happy…
Well, not for long if she and her partner had anything to say.
"That's a lot of great leads. Thank you for your cooperation, we'll-"
"Hey, Bunny Cop."
The usually demeaning, but by now casual nickname made her turn, and saw Bea and Mae gazing out of the window.
"Yes?"
"Didn't you say you had no way to arrest us?"
"Yes, why? Wait – did Nick leave with your friend?!"
"Seems so," the alligator said, pointing out towards the leaving cruiser.
Judy sighed heavily, her ears falling over her slouching body. She raised a finger, while her other hand was grabbing the phone in her pocket and dialing Nick's number.
"Let me just ask him real quick," she said, straightening out, her ears becoming erect again, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience."
The three animals shared a glance. Mae giggled when the obnoxious beep of an unsuccessful call reached their ears.
"What?" she said, stupefied, then remembered something recent, "Oh right… no signal. Sweet grapes in the attic, why would Nick do this?"
"Hah. I'm saving that for Greg," Angus whispered, smiling.
"Not if I tell him before you!" Mae challenged the bear's words openly, to which Bea puffed her smoke.
"Is he arrested or not." the alligator asked flatly.
Judy sighed once more. "If I have to guess? No, no he isn't. Nick never fancied arresting people, only if they were outright violent and dangerous."
Even Bea had to snort at this. Implying that Gregg was anything close to 'dangerous' was just ridiculous.
"So?"
"So, I'm guessing he just… took him away. Isn't there a place around where two foxes can do whatever they want without repercussions?"
There was a moment of stillness, where the three animals looked up in thought.
"There is one, actually."
Strolling on the sidewalk and nearing the edge of town, Judy's ears picked up a different kind of music.
"Isn't that…"
"That's that one Lion King song! The one at the beginning!" Mae shrieked and ran forward. Judy, after shaking off the shock from the sudden explosion the cat's voice had presented, followed her quickly. By the time they arrived, their jaws collectively slackened.
"It's the Circle of Lifeee… And it moves us aaall… Through despair, and hooope… Through faith and looove…"
At the roof of the building that proudly wore the sign 'Snack Falcon', did Nick stand at the very edge. The way crazier part was that he held Gregg's abdomen in his paws, holding the younger fox up high for all the streets to see. The giggling Gregg had his arms open wide, enjoying his newfound role.
Judy could not believe it. Nick left her in the studio to play out a movie scene?!
"Look Mae! I'm totally Simba!" the young fox shouted over the blaring music that came from none other than their police cruiser's radio.
The cat pointed a finger up at her friend. "You can't be Simba, you are not even a cat! I would be a better - Hey Officer Wilde, can I show my dumb friend how I would be a better Simba than he could ever hope to imagine?"
Nick winked down at him, and with a squeal the cat took off, disappearing behind the building.
Judy grasped her own head, the telltale signs of a headache forming. Feeling a scaled arm on her shoulder, she looked up to see Bea next to her. The alligator didn't look fazed by the event; she looked like she had already accepted all this.
"There are two of them now. There is nothing we can do about that."
Meanwhile, Angus was recording everything on his phone.