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Chapter Text

Nothing can make you experience dead more so than going underground with no light. Not been able to see beyond 2 feet in front of you. Even hearing complete silence for the first time can become one of the scariest events that somebody could encounter. Yet, there I was, underground doing a job that most mammals will never know I’m doing.  I’m not complaining just so you know, been down here away from hateful eyes is a nice bonus… I’m not saying that I never go up there either. I can’t live down here even when I like it. Most of my work makes me descent into the bowels of the city, but I still need to get up there for food and water. Plus living in constant fear of getting buried alive can’t be good for anybody’s physical or mental health.

*Splash*

Of course working down here also has his set downs. Like not knowing when you about to go into a puddle and get water up your knee and pants. I should get water proof gear if this job ever pays more than just enough to live by. I should avoid more puddles, but the splashing sounds easies my mind from the complete silence. Besides, it’s not like I won’t eventually have to get wet.

Eventually even the splash sounds go quiet, which tells me that I’m getting close to my goal. The organization received the reports of small quakes coming from below the city, quakes that are not “natural” to say the least. I was sent to investigate the occurrence as the last team that was sent here went missing. Why alone you may ask? Because the organization wants it as such. Although I secretly think they want to get rid of me, but I doubt that’s the case. How many mammals do you know that would go down into the vowels of the earth to investigate some weird stuff?  I know everybody, and let me tell you… not many!

My movement got slower, seems like I’m getting super close to it. The water is getting denser now too. I follow the river to a white sand island. A rocky figure stood before me on top of the sand. A statue of some kind, with arms deep in the sand and a head deep buried on the ground above. There was no possible way to know what kind of mammal it was… or if it was a mammal at all. The chest was opened with some spherical object hanging. I approached it knowing what I had to do.

As if knowing of a new presence, the object started making a pumping sound, a sound that caused the dust and dirt to jump. Dirt and dust that took eons to set in were easily moved. I don’t know what color the object was, nor the liquid that came out of it. It was even darker than the liquid that was surrounding me a few minutes ago. For now I ignored the sound and came close to the object, still pumping more and more liquid. Between pumps, a language that nearly no mammal could understand was coming out of it. Once more, the dust and dirt flew with a gust of wing. The object convulsed, the cave shook unnaturally. Something came out crawling away from it. The liquid turned solid. It rose from the ground with invertebrate limbs, attaching itself to the sealing and the walls around it.

It was clear that what was in front of me was not from this realm or the next. It was outside of dimension, something that shouldn’t be here yet here it was. The limbs grew eyes staring at everywhere at once; to it I must look like a pebble in comparison. One step and one rock sound was all it took to focus on me. Every single eye focus on me, it felt as if a starry night sky stood before me with galaxies for eyes. It looked at me as if trying to comprehend what I was. Or what was the place it was in. It felt like looking at the eyes of a new born been amazed by the wonders of the world. The eyes scanned me till they were satisfied. Took out the book and read from it. As I kept reading from the passage,  eye by eye kept closing; leaving only a starry night sky in front of me. The liquid went back into the object in the chest piece. The cave felt different now. I went back the same way I came in. I went through the dense water and outside the cave. Somehow it felt a lot shorter this time. I needed to report my findings to the organization… if only life was that easy.

“Hey fox! What you think you are doing here?”

The light from the police car blinded me. Then I noticed my body… it was dripping in blood. Oh boy was this going to be hard to explain.

“hey officers, just walking around.” Still not sure who the officers were as the light of the car was still blinding me. “Can you guys turn off the light from your cruiser? It’s hard to see as it is, and that light is disorienting me.” I was thankful they did so fast, but now my eyes needed to adapt to the normal city night light.

“So fox, what you doing here?” They started approaching… it wasn’t surprising when both pulled their weapons. Wolves have a very good nose. They must have smelled the blood, and seeing as I’m talking easily and don’t seem to be in any sort of pain. It figures that I must have hurt somebody else. “ok fox,  slowly walk here, both paws in the air.”

“Should I wave them I like just don’t care?”

“Shut up. Turn around and hands behind your back.” I did as order, worse things will happen otherwise. They took my backpack and then put on pawcuffs. “Want to tell us whose blood is that?”

“I don’t know.” I really didn’t, up to my knowledge it was just weird… goo thing and not blood. In fact, I didn’t smelled blood. Even now I don’t, I guess my nose got used to the smell as I was moving for a while on it. The boss is so going to let me rot in jail after this… “Went to explore the cave and fell into the water. After that I came out and found you gentlemen outside. By the way, what you guys doing here? This cave is really far from any major street.”

Both wolves look at each other before replying. “We received a tip of a mammal walking around the park on going into a prohibit cave area.”

“Right…” I looked at them knowing that fox was probably on the message before they omitted it in front of me, it’s nice of them to do that.

“Rick, be the big wolf and check the cave.”

“Why should I check the cave?”

“Because shut up. There should be a flashlight on the car. Get it and check the cave really quick. If we need to, we will call for experts.” Rick went to the back of the car searching for the flashlight. “So, before I look what’s inside your backpack… do you want to tell me what’s in there?”

“Giving me an opportunity?”

“You can call it that.”

I examine his face; see if there is anything that gives me some bad vibes, but nothing. He seemed honest. “There is a book inside, but it will be better if you don’t touch it or look at it.” He looks at me both amuse and curious to see what I’m talking about. I see Rick finally found the flashlight and is walking towards the cave.

“Why a book? I doubt a cave is a good reading place.” He opens up my backpack, and I I said, there is only a book in there. “No flashlight?”

“I’ve always had a good night vision.”

Suddenly a scream came from the cave. Rick came out screaming bloody murder and running faster than his body could keep up with as somehow his legs were in front of him.

“Call everybody! There are corpses, many of them.” Both wolves look at me.

“I didn’t see them.”

"I thought you had good night vision.”

"I do, but I didn’t see corpses. I saw darker water, but that’s about it. I didn’t know it was blood.” They look at each other before Rick putting me in the back sit of the car, not a good sign, and start calling for forensic teams, back up, the chief and possibly news programs.

I sit on the back of the car while I see every type of mammal come and go.

“I’m so screwed.”

It takes an hour before im send downtown to the police station for booking. Both my backpack and book come with me as evidence. I don’t know what sort of evidence is going to be… as I’m sure whatever killed the mammals in the cave was not with anything that this world could produce or make.

I’m waiting at the interrogation room for maybe another hour. I’m cuffed into the table and the chair. I guess I’m considered as dangerous. I don’t blame them; I would see any mammal dripping in blood as dangerous… especially not his blood. The door opens with nobody in sight.

“Hello?”

“Hi!” My vision is suddenly filled with a grey rabbit that looks way too happy. Of course, the sudden appearance of a rabbit caused to almost fall off the chair. Never though I would be thankful to be cuff to a table and a chair, but weirder things have happened.

“You shouldn’t be so quiet; you can cause a heart attack to the next mammal.”

“Sorry.” She seemed apologetic enough. She puts a water bottle in the table in front of me. “I though you would be asleep or something. I was just going to leave the bottle.”

Something felt off. Why would she leave that to somebody suspected of multiple murders and taking a bath in their blood? That’s my best guess on what they are going to try to charge me with. Not that they are going to succeed, but I have to know what I’m dealing with.

“Do you even know why I’m here?”

“No. Not really, nobody ever tells me anything.” Her voice sounded sad. “Since I don’t know, and doubt anybody will tell me anything, why you are here?”

“For multiple murders.” A strong booming voice came from the door. A big buffalo was standing right outside the door. I’m starting to wonder if stealth is part of the academy as I failed to notice his presence till he talks.

“Allegedly.”

“Not much allegedly when cops find you in the scene of the crime, covered in blood and your dna all over the bodies.”

“I fell into the water! How many times do I have to say it? I refused to talk till you at least give me my call.”

“Just save us the time and confess.”

“Chief, it’s on the law that at least he gets a call.” I was not expecting the rabbit to talk on my behalf to be honest. I looked at the rabbit as she talked, and then looked at the buffalo. I see his face going into multiple reactions at once, finally going for tired and angry at once.

“Fine, Fangmeyer!” The chief really doesn’t need a megaphone to make himself been heard as 10 seconds later I see a tigress at the door next to him. “Take mr. Wilde to make his call.” The tigress enters the room and takes out a key that frees me from the table and chair. I follow her as she takes me away. “Hopps, a word.” Is the last thing I hear him saying before he closes the door. Those rooms have nice sound suppressors the more I notice as I can’t hear him booming voice coming out of it.

I’m taking to side area with payed phones on the wall. I’m surprised those things still exist in this era. The tigress gives me a token and sits on a sofa chair close.

“Thanks stripes.” I can feel the eyes rolling coming from her.

Now to the hard part, I make my call’ knowing fully well how it’s going to go. The phone rings once before I hear the screaming from it.

“You stupid idiot!”

“Hey boss…”

“Don’t you hey boss me! What happened?”

“I finished the job, and got pick up by the police I was coming out.”

“So the reports on tv are real? You aware how bad this looks and how hard it will be to take out off there?”

“Yes boss…”

“How bad is it?” resignation on her voice.

“I was covered in blood, didn’t know till the cops cast the car lights at me.”

“Got it, I’ll what I can do. Don’t create more problems while I get there.”

“Does that…”

“Yes includes you making everybody around you want to kill you on the spot! Just keep your snout close and don’t say or think anything. I’ll get there as soon as possible.” I back away after the sound of her hanging up. I feel like something like that doesn’t have the same effect with smartphones. I guess that’s why people still have landlines.

“Hey stripes, I’m done. Want to take me back?” The tigress just stood and followed as I made my way back to the interrogation room. As I did I see the rabbit from before heading out with a meter maid outfit. I guess her burst of defending me cost her a small punishment. As I get into the room, I see the buffalo and the two wolves that arrest me in the room.

“Fangmeyer, you are dismissed. Fox, Sit down.” The tigress leaves and once again I’m put on the chair cuff to the table. “So, want to confess?” I look the buffalo and then the two wolves and back at the buffalo. “I already heard both testimonies from the officers that found you and arrested you. It’s pretty open and shut case, we just missing your confession. It will save this city a lot of tax money if you confessed.”

“Allegedly, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Or my officers were in the right place at the right time. There was a report of a group of mammals investigating those caves after some unusual readings coming from under the city.” He shows me multiple pictures from all type of mammals. I look at them and then back at the buffalo. He lets out air from the nose and his eyes are laser beaming me to death in his mind. I can see his patience is getting thinner by the second… and I haven’t even said anything to make him mad yet! He takes more pictures out, this time of the cave lit up. I see multiple corpses or made up corpses bled to dead in the water. I’m surprised I managed to swim around all those bodies without touching them. Once again I’m not showing any reaction. What? I’ve seen worse thing all over the place. Bleeding corpses is not a pleasant view, but after seeing what I’ve seen; I wouldn’t put this on the top 10 of the worst scenarios. My silence however starts getting to them. He takes another file out, this time it has my picture.

“Nicholas Piberius Wilde. Age unknown, occupation unknown, and residence is an outback abandoned factory owned by you.” He says it without looking at the file, as if he memorized the whole thing. Not that is hard to do with so little information on me. “There are no records beyond that. What little information is on you and add the fact that two officers saw you at the scene of the crime. Pinning this on you will become so easy that no lawyer will defend you. They will just show up in court and not defend you at all. Confess and save everybody else time!”

This went on and on for an hour or two. With me saying little to nothing and they trying to get me to get angry and finally confessing. Somebody knocks on the door. The buffalo yells at the door. Another knock follows right after. The buffalo stands up towering over me. By this point it’s just me and the buffalo. The buffalo is quite stubborn, who would have guessed.

“I’m busy, it better be important.”

I can’t see who is behind the door as the buffalo covers the door with his huge body.

“Bogo.”

“Lionheart? What you doing here?” Somebody pushed aside the buffalo aside and look into the room.

“Are you Nicholas Wilde?” A well-dressed lion shows up at the door asking for me.

“One and only.” I answer with a grin.

“Bogo, let him go. Called the case closed and let your officers know not to say a thing about it.”

“What!? You can’t be serious. You aware what he did?”

“He didn’t do anything.” A smaller voice that I very well know by now comes in.

“And who are you?” the buffalo asks to the voice that’s coming behind the lion.

“Karmen, with a K. I represent Mr. Wilde and I have authority way beyond the city to free him. Now take away his cuffs.” Sometimes I wonder how she does it, been able to talk down mammals 4 times her size. The red vixen that is representing me right now is part of the organization, she takes care of any legal problem we might have… more often than not it’s about been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Again, this wouldn’t be a problem if the organization came out with what they know. Somehow she always makes me feel and look underdress.

“Hi boss.”  I said almost hoping she will go easy on me.

“Don’t you hi boss me, Mr. We told you not to go alone, yet you did it.”

“It was an easy job, besides…”

“I don’t want to hear it. Chief, if you don’t mind. We have other things to do.”

“No hold on. Nobody is leaving this place till somebody explains what’s going on. Who are you, and what authority is this beyond the city to be able to free a murdered from facing consequences.”

Karmen seemed to not be in mood to play around, especially with the buffalo. She simply looked at Lionheart. The lion simply put a paw on the buffalo’s shoulder as sign to give up. That was the thing about the organization, there was no possibility of going against it, a chief and a mayor could easily be replaced. An organization so high in the hierarchy was not. The buffalo look defeated, but took my cuffs away. I got my book and backpack and we left the precinct. We move towards a parking lot around the courner.

“Did you sealed it sir?”

“Now I’m sir? A few minutes ago I started to wonder who is the real boss.”

“You know I need it to play the part.”

“Sometimes you play it a little too well.”

“You are the captain, I’m just the one in charge of the legal problems that may rise… and by may I meant the ones that will.”

“Yeah, the organization has started to become more expose to the world as time goes. Eventually we won’t be able to hide it.”

“I don’t know if mammals are ready for such thing.”

“They are animals, adapt or die is on their nature.”

“Theirs?”

“Theirs. However, we should start by avoiding getting thrown in jail in the regular basics.” I get in her car on the passenger sit. Her car is a small and old orange beetle car. I put the seat belt and put my hands behind my back.

“What’s the plan then?”

“I don’t know yet.” I look at the side mirror of the car as we leave the parking lot. I see a small rabbit with meter maid outfit in it, putting a ticket on a windshield of a car twice her size. “But, I think a plan is coming together.” I smiled.

“Oh boy, can’t wait to hear about it.”

“Yeah, me neither.” The smile turns into a grin.

Chapter Text

I didn’t know how to deal with this. I had to do something about what just happened. I freed a possibly… no, a definitely dangerous mammal into the city. All because the major told me to.

“Lionheart!”

“I know that you have questions. It would be better to talk in your office, away from other ears.”

“Fine.” I lead him to my office. Once inside, I closed the door behind him. By the time I turned around he was already sitting in the chair.

“I don’t know much. How long did you have Nicholas Wilde in custody?”

“2 or 3 hours before you showed up to free him.”

“I see. They work fast. Ms. Karmen was in my office around 2 hours ago.” He took a file from his suit and pushed it across the desk towards me.

“What’s this?”

“Their credentials.”

I opened up the file. The first page was a discolored piece of paper that seemed to have seen better days. The second thing I noticed was the texture of the paper, it felt like nothing I touched before. It felt harder than normal; moreover I don’t remember when was the last time I’ve seen actual calligraphy on ink in a file. The calligraphy almost seemed artistic. This, however, only distracted me a little bit before my anger returned. The top of the page had Institute of Super Natural Occurrences.

“Is this some kind of scam?” I asked Lionheart, the veins in my arms became visible.

“Keep reading.”

Besides the tittle of the ‘organization’. The paper described what kind of job they would take; from simply investigation of supernatural origins to actual scientific events with unknown origins. I kept reading, getting angrier as I kept going. Seeing nothing but an over elaborated  scam. At the bottom of the page lied a total of six names.

Agents:

Nicholas Piberius Wilde

Finnick

Skye

Karmen

Melvin

Chris

“What is this?” I looked up towards Lionheart. Not caring that only Wilde had a complete name compared to the rest of them. Not caring enough about that for the moment.

“Like I said, their credentials.”

“What kind of sick joke is this? How could you made me let him go with just this as proof?”

“Ms. Karmen arrive to my office 2 hours ago, what do you think I was doing this entire time? This precinct is a 15 to 20 minute drive from my office in city hall. I made some calls.” He lean in over my desk and turned to the next page. This page looked relatively new compare to one on top; moreover it seemed to actually be computer printed. “Those are names and numbers from the top of the food chain.”

“I never liked animal analogies.”

“It’s the best way to say it and I’m not joking. I called those numbers and check with some acquaintances how much of it was real. I selected random names and numbers. They are all correct. ZBI director, president, Supreme Court, and anything that file says. It’s all real.”

I sit down, trying to digest what all these organizations were thinking when they signed up such bill and credentials for this group.

“This doesn’t make sense. Why would they do something like this? Or why not going public on it? Those foxes must have some blackmail on everybody.”

“That could be, but all of them?”

“Ok, maybe not everybody. Just the big fish on the pond.”

“Now look who is doing the animal analogies.”

“Not now. Is there something I could do to stop them?”

“It’s better to let it go Bogo. If they have this kind of backing, there must be some true on what they do.”

Even when he says it, I can’t seem to relax. There is no such thing as super natural occurrences, especially not in the city with so many cameras and mammals walking around. The technology now makes it impossible for such a thing to: one be missed by more eyes, and two to go unreported.  Lionheart stood up, I offered him the file back; but he simply shook his head side to side.

“Keep it, I’m sure you going to need it more than I do.”

“What am I supposed to do? The bodies and murders will hit the news soon; they know I had a mammal, a fox, as suspect.”

“Tell them it was a mistake, and that Mr. Wilde was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He left as he finished the sentence.

What was I supposed to do? I can say it was a mistake, even when I don’t believe it.

*ring ring ring*

“Clawhauser, what is it?”

“Chief, I have a call from a Mr. Wilde. He was asking to talk to you.” It took a lot of self-control not to break the phone, desk and office in seconds. “Put it through.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Hello? Chief Buffalo is that you?”

“What do you want fox?”

“That’s not very nice Chief Bogo. I’m trying to help you with the reporters. I’m sure they will have some questions.”

“How you know about that?”

“Not important. You should receive an email soon. That should have the questions and answers that you will give during the conference.” I felt lost at such statement.

“What… what do you mean?”

“I made some calls and I’m giving you a freeby as sign of good will. They will ask you those questions and you will answer exactly as the email says. You will look good, the department will look good, and you won’t have to worry about any repercussion.”

“Are you blackmailing me? Is that how you got those credentials and bills passed?”

“You hurt me, chief. No, I’m simply trying to help you and to be prepared for what’s to come. That’s all. Read the email and answer the question in the conference. That’s all.”

The line went dead after that. It was a moment of silence in the office. No sound what’s so ever. Seconds and minutes passed. I was left alone thinking on what to do.  If the organization Wilde belongs is actually real, and from what Lionheart has shown me. They must be powerful mammals. Having control over the press doesn’t seem so farfetched. A sound from my pc broke me from my thoughts. Just as Wilde said, there was an explanation with questions, answers, and even time slots showing what went down there before my officers showed up to investigate and arrest Wilde. The answer was something that Wilde was talking about during the entire interrogation. He was down there investigating the quakes that were anomaly registered when he fell on a puddle that ended up been mixed with blood. When he came out the officers arrested him for believing to be a suspect in the murder of all mammals that went missing not long ago. The reason why  to be found this time was that they were so far away from where they were missing. That last part wasn’t completely wrong. They went missing close to the west entrance of the underground area, yet where both officers found Wilde was in the opposite side.

‘This might work after all.’ Besides, finding what happened to a group of mammals that disappear is good. Just see the positive things. I don’t need to overstress in everything. I kept reading to see what else I was supposed to say… then I saw what the final question and the final statement was going to be.

Q: “What caused the accident in the in the cave?”

A: “We still don’t know. We think there might be some mammal underground, but we need to explore the caves before we can come up with a conclusion.”

Q: “Is the police sending a team to explore them?”

A: “The ZPD will send a private organization to explore the cave. The organization wishes to stay anonymous, but we will be sending an officer with the organization to make sure nothing goes wrong… or another ‘wrong place, wrong time’ happens.”

Q: “Have you decided on who is going with this organization?”

A: “We decided on Judy Hopps.”

That last line… echo over and over again in my head. My body started to vibrate. I press the intercom, attempting to control myself from destroying it and my desk with it.

“Clawhauser?”

“Yes, chief?” He sounded scared, must have felt my anger through the phone.

“Call Major Lionheart and put him on the line.”

“Yes, sir.”

He must have something to do with it. There was no other explanation to it. It made the more sense, that’s why it would explain why he suddenly agreed to help them.

“Sir, Line 1 is with the mayor.”

“Bogo? What happened now?”

“Did you have something to do with it?”

“Something to do with what?”

“You know exactly what! I received an email from Wilde saying that Hopps will help in the investigation of the deaths in the caves.”

“Really!?” I was caught off guard on the sincerity in his voice at asking. Almost as if he didn’t believe it himself. “Well, it was about time that she would start doing something else besides meter maid… which I still don’t know why you keeping putting it in that.”

“It’s for… that’s not important. You really didn’t have anything to do with it?”

“Why would I? Bogo, I can’t go over your command and make you do something like that. Up till you called me, I wasn’t aware of such thing.”

“Ok, thanks.”

“Why I’m been thank for?” I can feel the smug through the phone.

“Bye.”

If he didn’t have anything to do with this… then it click. Hopps was talking to Wilde before I got there.

“Clawhauser!” I screamed enough for him to hear me even if he was in another building across the street.

The intercom immediately dials towards my office. “Yes… chief?” Fear on his voice was something I will have to apologize after.

“Send Hopps as soon as she comes back.”

Chapter Text

I completed my goal, I love my job, and I work hard to maintain it.

*Ding*

Another park meter goes off. I don’t know why I keep trying at this rate. No, don’t think like that. Keep yourself up. Eventually chief Bogo will show some sympathy and give me an opportunity. Although that was thrown out as soon as I helped that fox with some water… and his call, I guess that set me back to zero. I wonder if he still there. The way the chief talks, I’m sure he will ask for mercy for everything to end quickly.

I put the ticket on another car. This makes it the hundred for today. I’m going to take a quick break and eat something at the station. The chubby cheetah would probably be eating the second lunch with some extra pastries on the side.

“Hey Claw… what?” He opened his eyes wide. Something was wrong from that reaction.

“I should be asking you that… the Chief wanted to see you.” He said pointing upwards to Bogo office.

“Did he say what was it this time?”

“No, but he sounded furious to me. He simply said that when you came back to send you upstairs… alone.”

“What you mean alone? Who would be with me?”

“Don’t worry Judy, I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.”

“You say that, but last time I had parking duty in Tundratown.”

“That time, they had low numbers of new recruits. The other precincts also sent new recruits.”

“But only I showed up…”

“Which Bogo made everybody else do double turns as punishment for not following orders.”

“But most already have a partner and doing patrols now.”

“Well Judy, you are the only one on your size category. We can’t put you on patrol alone.”

“Yea, I guess that’s true. Anyway…”

“HOPPS!” I could feel the building actually shaking.

“You better go now… it just going to get worse if you wait.”

I never thought possible to do the walk of shame in the day. The walk up the stairs to the chief’s office felt like a mile long walk going uphill on a sunny day. Finally made it to the office… which was open already, not a good sign.

“Close the door.” Second not good sign. “Sit down.”

I jumped into the chair. They should add a little staircase for small mammals.

“How is you day officer?” Third not good sign.

“It’s a normal day, chief… sir.”

“Good, normal is good.” He was smiling, but at the same time it felt super fake. I don’t feel like calling out on him out of respect and fear to know the reason behind it. “Officer Hopps, do you remember the fox this morning in the interrogation room?”

“Yes sir, what about him?”

“Well, before I got there. What did you two talk about?”

“We started to talk when you arrive.”

“Did you two meet before today?”

“No, sir.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir. Sorry sir, but what is this all about? I don’t even know his name.”

He rose from his chair. Looked me in the eyes, as to see if  I was lying. “Mr. Wilde, that’s his name, is free of charges for the bodies we found early morning.”

“Oh, that’s good…” he glared at me. “Isn’t it? I mean, it’s a good thing that we didn’t arrest the wrong guy.”

“Right. I don’t know if he is completely guiltless, but I had to let him go after no hard evidence against him.” His face twitched when he said that. There was more to it, it was obvious, but I rather not to his bad side immediately. “There is going to be a press conference in a few hours. Make sure you are there. Most will be explained there, and I rather not explain it twice.” He sit down back in chair, he looked defeated for some reason.

“Ok chief. I’ll be there.”

“Good. Dismissed.”

“Yes sir.” I hopped down and left the office.

That was weird, why would he called me so angry and yet he seemed to be defeated by the end of it. I guess I’ll get me answers at the press conference. Right now I should just eat lunch; I can worry about that after.

I wasn’t expecting the final line of the conference to be what it was.

“Officer Hopps will be joining the special investigation. No more questions for now until the case is closed.” He left the podium after such revelation. I attempted not too jump on triumph and simply left the room before the reporters knew I was in the room. Of course, after I left the room I was jumping up and down in the hallway.

“Hopps, my office, now.” Not wanting to cause more anger from the chief.

“Thank you chief.” I said as I was following close behind.

“For what exactly?” he didn’t even slow down a bit.

“For this opportunity, I started to get worry you would never do it.” There was a small buzzing sound coming from my pants. Took out the phone and I did a quick glance to see parents on the screen.

“Shouldn’t you pick that?”

“It’s just my parents. I will call them after today’s shift. Oh boy a special investigation! Thanks you again chief!”

 He looked down at me with a serious glare, but he didn’t say anything. We passed the front desk where Clawhauser gave two thumbs up with a full smile on his face. He was probably watching the press from his desk. This time, the walk back to the chief office felt different. He opened the door and let me in first. He closed the door and walk around towards his chair.

“Sit.” I was already sat before he said it out of pure excitement.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I started vibrating in the chair.

“Hopps…”

“When do I start? Who am I working with?”

“Hopp…”

“Thank you again, have I thanked you enough yet?”

“Hopps! This wasn’t my idea.”

“What?”

“I don’t know who you going to work with. Besides Wilde and maybe his lawyer, I have no clue on who the rest of his team are.”

“but, you said to the press..”

“Hopps, this wasn’t my idea. I don’t even know whose idea it was. That press conference was just a show. I was told to read and answer the questions following a script.”

“Chief, isn’t that illegal? What about…” a ding distracted both of us coming from the chief computer. He read it with his eyes only. He turned white with wide eyes. He started to look around before focusing on me.

“Hopps, they will pick you up tomorrow around 8 am. Show up for morning briefing before that like usual. Don’t talk to anybody about what I just told you. For the public, you are simply joining for a special investigation.”

“Chief, what did the email say? What’s wrong?” another ding distracted us.

“It’s better to not know Hopps. Just be happy that you will be given an opportunity to do good for this city.”

“Is it even legal?” a third ding.

“Everything is legal, you don’t have to worry about that. I can guarantee that much to you. If you still feel bad about this by tomorrow morning, I could talk on your behalf to have other officer assist you or go in your place.” There was legitimate concern in his voice, but at the same time, he didn’t show confidence and what he could and couldn’t do. He gave the feeling of a mammal going blind on an unknown place.

“No, I’ll do it. I need to show I can do the work. I won’t disappoint you, sir.”

“Ok. Dismissed. Finish your shift now. Go home and rest, again not a word about what we talked about.”

“Yes, sir.” I salute and left the office.

Since my shift was over. I should just get something to eat on the go, call my parents and call it for today. I sent them a message to not worry and that I was going to give them a call once I make it back to the apartment. I talked a little with Clawhauser before heading out for today. I picked a vegetarian dinner plate at the quickie market and head home.

“Oh wow, the bunny cop is here early. What happened? did you get fired?” My neighbors could be more supportive to be honest.

“You couldn’t be more pessimistic even if you try!” both of them could use be less than that at this point. I’m starting to think they play coin toss to see who is pessimistic for the day, since I’ve heard their ‘support’ words before.

“Hey Bucky and Pronk. No, I didn’t get fired. I was given the rest of the day off because I have a special assignment tomorrow.”

“They promoted you from meter maid?”

“No, I was just given a case. I start tomorrow in the morning.”

“Was the case that thing on tv?”

“I can’t say anything on an open case.”

“And like that, she has confirmed it. Congrats on your assignment bunny cop.”

“Hey! I wanted to congratulated her first!”

“Too bad, already did it. Plus it was just turn to be pessimistic.”

“No, it wasn’t!”

“Yes, it was!” they closed the door, not like it helps on the silence as I can still hear them in my apartment.

I put my dinner on the table and make hopefully a call without any chaos with my parents. The phone rings maybe once before they immediately pick up.

“Hi mom.”

“Honeybun! Stu, get here. Judy is on the phone.” It takes two seconds before dad shows up next to her.

“Hey, jude. What is this about you working with a special organization? “

“Straight to it?”

“We just need to know you going to be safe?”

“I can’t tell you guys everything about the case. I don’t know much about the case yet besides what you already heard on the news.”

“I see.” My mom shows some concern and I don’t blame her.

“But do you think it might be dangerous?”

“I wouldn’t be able to tell you. I’m a cop, danger is part of it. So this would be just another case.”

“But you were a meter maid not long ago.” Of course they would remind me of that. “Isn’t this too suddenly?”

“It’s been a month since graduation, and I was finally given a change to do something besides writing tickets. It wouldn’t hurt to be a little supportive.”

“Sorry, honeybun. You know we are proud of you…”

“…and worry!”

“…But still proud.”

“I know guys. I’m going to eat dinner, take a shower and hit the bed early. I want to make a run tomorrow before work.”

“Ok, Jude. Calls us again tomorrow. We want to hear how it went.”

“Ok. Love you guys.”

“Bye Judy. Take care.”

Silence hit me again. I put the dinner in the microwave for 60 seconds.

“They sound really supportive.” And the silence is gone.

“They sometimes are.”

“Be careful out there. You never know when you going to encounter a psycho.”

“I know, thanks guys. It’s nice that you care.”

“Of course we care. You are our favorite neighbor.”

“I’m your only neighbor. You guys keep driving away everyone around you.”

“That automatically makes you the favorite… and it’s Pronk’s fault. He is too loud.”

“No, it’s you the one loud!”

“No, you!”

I press the stop button on the microwave to avoid having it beep insanely, not that like it would make a difference with these kinds of neighbors. I’m glad Clawhauser recommended me that quickie mark. This looks like an actual dinner compared to others I’ve been unfortunate to eat. I finish dinner while watching a movie on my phone. Left the phone charging and took a shower at the end of the hallway. I wish there was a shower in each apartment, but the shower room stays relatively clean. By the time I’m done, it’s 8 pm. I put ambient music on my earphones and sleep for the night. “Tomorrow will be better.”

I get into the precinct around 7:30. Clawhauser is already eating a box of donuts with a cup of coffee. He offered me a donut to congratulate me on my special investigation. A pair of wolves, probably from the nightshift, looked over me and whispered to each other. I get into the room for the morning briefing. The room goes silent as soon as I go in. Everybody stared at me.

“I don’t remember my team ever been this quiet. Hopps go to your chair.” The chief was right behind me, but the room felt weird. “The patrolling will stay the same as yesterday except for one team. Fangmeyer and Wolford will be replacing the lookout team at the crime scene from yesterday. Rhinowitz and Francine will switch with you after lunch. Hopps, stay behind for your assignment. Everybody dismissed.” All officers stood and left, I still noticed them giving me a quick side glance at me as they left.

“Hopps, how you doing?”

“I’m ok chief. Just excited for the assignment.”

“Nothing has changed from yesterday? You can still backout if you not feeling…”

“No chief. I’m ok. Just ready to make the world a better place.”

“Ok.”

“Hey chief. Officer Hopps.” A third voice in the room surprised us both.

“Wilde.”

“The one and the same. Just in time too.” The fox from yesterday was standing at the door with a silver pocket watch that he puts on the front pocket of his shirt. An awful looking green Hawaiian shirt. “Just to pick up officer Hopps.”

“Chief?”

“Hopps, this is…”

“Nicholas Wilde. Everybody calls me Nick. Nice to finally meet you, officer Hopps.” He moved closer and extended his arm at me.

“We already met yesterday. Judy Hopps.”

“But we didn’t give each other our names, did we?” He smirks as he said that. We shake paws. “What does she know, chief?”

“As much as I do.”

“Not much then. Let’s go Hopps.” He wink at me and started heading out.

“Wilde, hold on. I have some questions.” The fox stopped and looked back at the chief. “Why her? I have more experienced officers capable to assist.” I know he is trying to get information, but throwing me under the bus like that, although I understand where he is coming from, still hurts. The fox does a quick glance at me and then turns to the chief.

“The team is low size compare to the big guys you have on this precinct, the entire ZPD for that matter has only big hitters. Am I wrong?” The chief glares at the fox. “We don’t have gear for big size mammals. Hopps here, we have gear for her size. We also have transport for her size. I can’t afford or want to get a car to take an elephant in.”

“What kind of gear? We might have something.”

“Chief, this is not up for debate. I’m taking Hopps. End of discussion. Hopps, let’s go.” He left the room.

“You better bring her back safe.”

“Don’t worry chief; I take care of my mammals.” He said from outside of the room. His voice was getting farther and farther away. I sprint to catch up to him. He was walking towards the entrance. I gave a goodbye wave to Clawhauser and followed him.

“So, where we going?”

“Right now? Let you meet the team.” As we walked outside a van with a very artistic paint job on the outside was waiting right outside.

“about damn time Nick, what took you so long?” a small fox with big ears was in the driver sit.

“Yeah yeah yeah.” He knocked on the side door of the ban. The ban opens to a white vixen wearing a black shirt and pants. “Let me present you the other two mammals you will be working. The cranky with short fuse is Finick.”

“Screw you Wilde.”

“Hello.” I wave at the driver. He simply nod at me.

“Skye.” Says the vixen as she extends her arm. We shake paws.

“And this is Judy Hopps.”

“We know, we watch the news compared to other mammals.”

“I have better things to do than to read the newspaper.”

“Nobody uses the newspaper anymore. We told you to get the news on your phone already.”

“Yeah yeah yeah.” Nick gets into the ban. “Ready to make this city safer?” he rose his fist at me. I looked at the three foxes. Some sense of acceptance growing in me coming from them.

“Yeah!” I cover my mouth as I wasn’t expecting to come out as a yell. I fist bump him and get into the ban.

“That’s the spirit.” He closes the side door. “Finnick, let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“The cave.”

Chapter Text

I don’t know what I was expecting from a van with an artistic outside… but high tech van was at the bottom of the list. The opposite side from the door had a full on computer with multiple monitors and what looked like radios. The backside had some sort of storage unit. A sofa was next to where I was standing. I had enough space for three small mammals to sit.

“You alright?”

“Yes, Mr. Wilde. Thanks.”

“Then, have  a sit and it’s Nick. How are you with reading in a vehicle?”

“What you mean?”

“Well, cranky pants over there…”pointed at the fox on the driving sit which was now looking through the mirror back at us. “…Will have a problem if you throw up in his van.”

“That’s right. You will never hear the end of it, don’t you forget it.”

“There is no problem, I don’t get dizzy easily.”

“Then, here you go. You should start by reading this.”

“What’s this?”

“This is the coroner’s report on the cave’s murders.” He said as if it was normal having something like this at hand. “Before you ask, it’s legal. We are investigating the case and this information is needed. Plus, you are with us; you can’t assist us if you don’t know at least this much.” I started reading before he points at cause of death.

“Blood loss?” I read out loud.

“That’s right, they bled to dead. However look at the back.”

I turn at the page. Following the general information from the first page and cause of death, there was the diagram showing all the injuries they suffered. This is when the case became weird. None of the mammals in the report showed any injury on any of the bodies. They were unscathed. The confusion showed in my face enough for Nick to look me with a sympathetic smile.

“I know this looks weird, but the coroner is not wrong. These mammals died by blood loss. Somehow, they bleed with any injury. That’s what this organization is going to investigate.”

“By organization you mean.” I looked around at the three mammals, the one driving and the two around me.

“We are just a division.”

“What does this organization do?” both foxes tensed up a little bit at my question.

“Before I answer that, what’s your stand on… supernatural events?” My skepticism was obviously clear on my face, together with a confusing one.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well… that’s what we investigate…”

I don’t know in what kind of situation I let myself put into. Something is for sure; I can’t share this with anybody… specially my parents. The rumor mill would run so fast that I’m sure zootopia would hear about it day one. I will be the laughing stock for my entire life. I can already see my brothers and sisters creating joke at my expense whenever I decide to visit the farm.

“Hopps?” Nick started moving his paw in front of me side to side. “You ok? You looked like a deer in headlights just now.”

“Hey! That’s speciest!”

“It might be. Regardless, that was an interesting reaction. I was half expecting you to laugh at us.”

He was not wrong. “And the other half?”

“Anger.”

He was not wrong about that. In a level, I’m disappointed that my first actual case is nothing and more than likely a scam.

“This isn’t a scam Hopps.” He smiles at me with both compassion and understanding eyes. I almost feel my mind been read… but I guess my face is way too expressive. “This is an actual investigation. We just do it from…” he moves his paw in air. “…Another angles. You read the dead certificates. This is not your usual case file, so we need to be creative to solve it. In this instance, we need to start by going to the cave and do our own research as the coroner office and ZPD more than likely missed.”

“This isn’t a scam, Officer.” I hear the vixen next to me. “Believe it or not, we all been in your position before.”

“Even Finnick.” Nick points at the driver sit.

“Give us a chance. I’m sure you can enjoy this little investigation.”

“Of course you can always go back to parking duty. “

“How do you know?”

“I saw you yesterday. It’s partly the reason why we asked for you.”

“What’s the rest of the reason?”

“Secret.” He winked at me.

“Hey Nick! Get in here. We have a problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

“A tigress and a wolf.” He points at the two officers that are coming towards the van. I guess we made it to site faster than I though.

“Hey, it’s stripes!”

“Stripes?” I wasn’t the only one asking.

“Sorry sir, this area is restricted…” The tigress froze as she saw us.

“Hey stripes, how you doing?”

“Hello Mr…”

“Wilde, but everybody calls me Nick.”

“Mr. Wilde, what you doing here?”

“You know the fox, Fangmeyer?”

“Not really, but he was arrested yesterday.”

“Come on stripes, I was simply detained. I f I was arrested, I wouldn’t be here today. Anyway, we are here to investigate the murders from yesterday. You can call the chief if you don’t believe me.”

“Sure. Wolford, can you check with Clawhauser about it?”

“Sure thing.” He walked off.

“While they are doing that, let’s get the equipment on the ground. Hopps, and Skye let’s go. Finnick set up the camera.”

“Yeah yeah. Do you mind us moving the van closer to the cave? It will make it easier to get everything down.”

“I can’t let you guys do that until I get confirmation from the chief.”

“Come on stripes, you heard yesterday conference that a team was going to investigate it instead of the ZPD. We are that team.” While doing so, Wolford returned and simply nodded. Fangmeyer moved out of the way.

Skye opened up the storage in the back together with the backdoor. Finnick took a camera that I’m surprised he was capable to carrying with the big difference in size between them. He let it down next to the van. Skye and Nick both carry these weird looking poles, at simple glance they looked like parking meters.

“Hopps, there are two more inside. Can you bring them with you?”

“Sure.” On closer look, they were clocks with only the minute hand and the numbers around it.

I took the two that were in the storage when I notice Skye and Nick setting up the poles a few feet apart from each other. They set up a total of six poles. All in diagonal direction towards the van, Skye then went inside the van and brought multiple cables connecting each pole to one another. Meanwhile Finnick was finishing up setting up the camera pointing towards the cave.

“Make sure you have all six poles and the cave, Finnick.”

“I know what I’m doing, Nick. Not the first time I set up a camera.”

“Hopps, come here. I need help carrying the power source.”  The bottom part of the storage had what looked like a huge motor. We tried to move it together… but it was useless. It didn’t matter how many groans we made while attempting moving it.

“I knew we should have brought Chris for this.”

“Told you so.”

“Shut up, Finnick.”

“Idea. Hey stripes! Can you help us moving this?” Fangmeyer looked at Wolford, Wolford simply shrug. Fangmeyer let out some whisper that I couldn’t hear and started walking toward us.

“What you need?”

“Move this close to the camera. We can set up the rest.” She lift the motor like it was a piece of paper and let it down next to the camera.

“Thanks, stripes. You a stand up gal.”

“Whatever.” I could see she rolled her eyes as a smile crept on her face.

“How you doing there Finnick?”

“Almost done. Just need the power source and we can start.”

“Skye?”

“Almost done.”

“Ok, now Officer.”

“You can just call me Judy. As I see you are on first name basis with everybody.” He looks at me weirdly for a moment. As if he is trying to decide on something.

“Judy then. Let me explain what your job is going to be. Skye and I will go into the cave to get some samples and investigate it. While we do that, you and Finnick need to check the monitor and the poles every 15 minutes. This…” He gave me a clock. “…doesn’t leave the van. No matter what, never let it leave the van. Every 15 minutes. You will walk towards each pole and write down where the minute hand is.” The clock looked really old fashioned. It even had a winder in the back. “If you have any question ask Finnick.” Skye and Finnick seemed to have finished setting up everything.

“We done, Nick.” The power sourced seemed to be solar based as it didn’t emite any sort of noise and was simply there connecting to all the poles, camera and the van itself… I’m guessing for the computer inside to avoid using the van’s battery. Both Skye and Nick went to the back of the storage again and took two backpacks.

“Finnick, while we are away. You in charge.”

“G, what an honor.” He sit down in front of the computer inside.

“Judy, see you guys in a while.”

“Take care.”

“We always do.” Skye wave a goodbye with a smile and a wink. They went into the cave, I eventually lost sight of them as they got deeper into the dark.

“Don’t worry, this is not the first time going into a cave.” He moved forward towards the clock and gave  it a few turns at the winder. “Now we play the waiting game.”

Chapter Text

I’ve never been a fan of caves. They are dark and disgusting places, but this is part of the job. I still question how much of this is actually legal. They already did investigate it, so they missed the most important part of this case. The supernatural that Nick already dealt with as I didn’t see him picking up the equipment necessary for sealing back at home.

“Now that we are alone…”

“Skye! No! what would your mother think?”

I punch him. ”You know my mother! And that’s not what I meant, you jackass!”

“yeah, I do…” he suggestible moves his eyebrows up and down. I punch him again. “…and not a jackass, I’m a fox.” He laughs as he rubs his arm.

“Or so you say.”

“Of course I am, and I know your mother…. Just not that way.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s not what I wanted to ask though.”

“I know. Ask away.”

“What’s the deal with the bunny?”

“There is no deal.”

“Don’t play with me. There must be something for either you or the organization to have her work with us.”

“Not really, but I guess you have a point there. For now, it’s just to avoid getting caught again.”

“You just don’t Karmen to bust your ass out.”

“You heard about that, didn’t you?”

“Hard not to, you could hear her screams all over. Why her tho? I’m sure there were more seasoned or veteran cops that could have assisted us more.”

“That’s true, but she tried to help me when I was in custody. I saw her later get reprimanded too because of it.”

“You’ve always had a thing for damsels in distress.” He eyes me with a smirk. We stay a little bit silent for now.

We’ve been walking for a while now. I turned on the flashlight as my night vision is not as good as Nick’s. The cave seems to be like any other we’ve gone too before. It’s hard to imagine this cave housed multiple corpses not long ago… and the supernatural thing that Nick already dealt with. I know he is next to me, but even then it feels really earie down here. The quietness is also very uncomfortable. I can’t believe Nick was down here by himself. He suddenly stopped and lowered his backpack. He signaled at a wall on the other side of the shallow water. He grabs my paw.

“Put on boots, I made that mistake last time.” He takes out the boots and puts them on. I do the same. They easily cover a good portion of our legs. The water feels weird as we make our way towards the white sand on the other side. The sand seems undisturbed. It also feels out of place. The coast is nowhere close to it, and this is the only sand anywhere in the cave. There was dirt but this doesn’t feel the same.

“Get a sample of the sand and the wall. I’ll take the pictures?”

“You’ve always been better than me at taking pictures. Make sure to get the river too.” He nodded as he said it. I take the camera out and put the flash on. The camera is very old school; you can even hear as it switches to the next shot.  I took a picture looking away from Nick as he is kneeling on the sand. I hear the brush he is doing to the sand towards a small container. The cave seems to be far going even deeper. From here, it looks to be endless. The second picture is towards the wall. I still don’t see what Nick is capable to see. He says there is something on the wall. I don’t’ see anything, but a rocky wall. I guess he really did deal with the problem, but we still need to investigate. There is been an increase in events within the city.

The third picture is towards the exit, which much to my surprise… seems to be endless too. It’s lucky that I’m here with Nick. Otherwise, I would be really scared right about now. I hear some chiseling from behind me, Nick is taking Rock samples now. I turned around… just to find nothing. Even the chiseling went quiet as I turned around.

“Nick?” I hear no response. In fact, it has gotten quieter. I look back towards the exit, then back towards deep in the cave. “Nick, this isn’t funny.” I don’t hear anything else. I take a few more pictures, the flash illuminating around me. The camera produces a sound as I take each picture, but that’s the only sound I can hear. Eventually, even that goes quiet. I look down at the camera, but I don’t see anything wrong. I shouldn’t panic; this is not the first time that something like this happens around Nick. I pull out a pocket watch. Nick always says to have one at hand. Mine is emerald green. I open it up to see completely frozen. So, it’s just a matter of time before this ends.

I turned back towards the wall Nick pointed out early. Something was standing right on my face, a big dark figure with 6 sharp glowing eyes looking at me. The head was bigger than the slim hunchback body stance. The eyes had a glowing purple color on them. It didn’t seem to have arms, but two moving wormlike things were on the chest part.

If you’ve watch a horror movie, there is always the horror trope of having the mammal completely and overly paralyzed when they encounter the creature. Many mammals laugh at such cliché, not knowing that it’s there for a reason. The first thing that happens if your body getting cold, the second thing is been paralyzed and not been able to breathe either. The next thing is your eyes going wide; attempting in vain to make whatever is in front of you smaller than it actually is. Finally, if you are not dead already, you can start moving. Your legs are the first to react… one at a time causing you to fall on your tail.

The figure leans towering over me. It’s getting closer to my face. I close my eyes.

“Skye!” makes me open my eyes immediately. Nick is kneeling in front of me shaking me from my shoulders. “What happened?”

“I don’t know… what did you see?”

“You kept taking pictures one after the other. Then you stopped moving then you fell. Didn’t matter how much I yelled, you weren’t reacting. What did you see?”

“A figure, a black figure with six eyes.” He looked me over, then look behind him at the wall, then back at me.

“You have the pictures?”

“I think?”

“Ok, let’s get out of here. I have the samples.” He stood up and helped me back on my feet. We picked everything back and made our way back to the exit.

“I thought you dealt with it already.”

“I did. I’m not sure what you saw, but what you described is nothing like what I saw that day.”

“You think…”

“I don’t think so. I don’t feel anything from that night. What’s the last thing you heard?”

“When you chiseled at the wall.” He looks down then back at me. Eyeing me before answering.

“Maybe it was a defense from what I already sealed in there, but I’m not sure. Don’t make a big thing out of it, it’s not the first time nor the last at seeing things like that.” He smiles back at me.

“I know. It’s hard to get used to some random unexplained creature.”

“Doubt anyone could.”

“You seem to do just fine.”

“I’m me though, don’t overthink it.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Good, that’s my girl.” He starts petting my head until I push his paw away.

“Don’t call me your girl!” I push him with half a laugh.

“It makes you happy.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“It does, the traitor behind you told me.” I look behind just to be ashamed at my tail moving side to side.

“Damn it. So, you already dealt with the problem in the cave. The question still stands though, who woke it?”

“Not sure yet, but more cases are happening in the city and the intervals are getting smaller and smaller.”

“At least we get a bonus every case.”

“Yeah, but I rather have less money than cases and danger around every corner.”

“You just don’t like working to earn money, do you?”

“You know me so well.” I can see him smiling as he closes his eyes. “I also want a quiet life.”

“What you thinking?”

“I don’t know… a farm life or forest one.”

“I can totally see you farming, with how the home is set up. I can see you as a farmer for a small plot of land.”

“Yeah, that would be nice. The city has its charms. But a peaceful life is also tempting.” I can see he is serious when he says something like that. But on this line of duty, substitutes are hard to find… especially for someone like him.

We walked in silence for some time. The sunlight from outside finally reached us. Somehow the way in was shorter than the way out; I looked at Nick with a side glance, but he doesn’t seem to be thinking the same. Once we make it out, the bunny cop is in front of the time poles. I guess she really takes the job seriously, even when she doesn’t know much yet. Maybe a little too seriously as I see her taking multiple glances at each clock before noting it down. I wonder if anything happened while we were gone… hopefully, Finnick didn’t do anything weird or dumb. On a quick glance, I see other cops on the side. Maybe the turn of the tigress and the wolf was over.

“Go with Finnick and eat something. I’ll pick up the poles.” I see Nick going towards the bunny cop. Inside the van seems to everything being the way we left it as.

“Hey Skye.” He salutes me with two fingers.

“How was it to be the one in charge of a little bunny.”

“You don’t wanna know.” He grabs the wooden bat that he somehow always keeps at arm's length.

“What did you do?”

“Me? Why you always think I’m the one causing problems!?”

“Because that’s how Nick found you.”

“Hey! That fox got me in more problems that I had to fight to get us out of!”

“That’s what you say, but where would you be if it wasn’t for him, now?”

“Probably working a regular job without having to worry about getting kill all the time.”

“So a boring life?”

“Yeah, a boring life.” I smile at his sincerity from his words. He never likes to admit, none of us do, but we all like this job. Even if it gets scary sometimes, we still enjoying working on making the world safe. But God save us if Nick ever hears of it.

“We should start packing up.” I hear some rambling coming from the side of the van.

“Whatever you say, carrots.” Nick makes his way to the van with the poles and puts them in the storage.

“Stop calling me that! It’s demeaning!”

“It’s your fault for using that cute pen of yours. Where did you even find that? I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“In Bunnyburrow…”

“Figures.”

“What you mean by figures?”

“I’ve never seen one before, and I’ve never been in Bunnyburrow. Therefore, figures.” I can see Nick is antagonizing the bunny cop already.

“Don’t overthink it, officer. He does that to everybody.”

“I still don’t like it.” I see her inflating her cheeks like a rodent… was not aware that rabbits could do that too.

“You don’t have to. Finnick, anything happened while we were gone?” I see Finnick do a quick glance at the bunny cop and then towards Nick… something definitely happened.

“Nothing worth mentioning.”

“Great. Let’s pick things up. Save everything.”

“What do we do now?”

“Well, Carrots. We need to give the samples back to our lab, while they run tests we will do some more research as to what exactly… I don’t know yet. Any guesses?”

“We could do cams at the entrance park, maybe we can find suspects that way… although that might already be back in the precinct. Not sure how we would get it though.” She looks down as we all look at her.

“Well thinking Carrots. Don’t worry about the how, let the how to me.” He then looks back at us. “What you guys doing? I said to pick things up. We need to move while there is still sun.”

We finish saving and storing everything back. I see Nick is reading the bunny cop’s notes. It finally came to the problem with the solar power source that we needed the help of the tigress cop to move. Of course, Nick had a solution. Request help from the new cops to move it back. The elephant lady, of course, it had to be the lady one, helped us move it back into the van. We finished storing everything.

“Back home?” I hear Finnick ask from the driving seat.

“Back home.”

Chapter Text

15 Minutes

I leave the van towards the poles. I check each time a couple of times before writing it down. Then move towards the next pole and repeat it again. I don’t understand what’s important about these, but they mostly mean something if I was asked to do them. The small fox is inside the van sitting in front of the monitor. I check on the side and I see officer Wolford talking to officer Fangmeyer. They seem to have a conversation before taking a quick glance in my direction.

I go back into the van. The small fox, Finnick I think it was his name, is still sitting in front of the monitor. He does a quick glance at the clock that was in the dashboard in front of him, and then back to the monitor. We stay silent for the most part.

15 Minutes

I walk outside again to take the time. Before I walk towards the poles I notice that both officers are now standing outside of the car. I don’t pay it too much time and simply walked towards the poles. I don’t understand why they need multiple clocks or even the camera recording, but there must be a reason. Once I finish I go back inside. I sit on the mini sofa looking at him from the back. We stay silent again until it’s time for me to check the poles.

15 Minutes

Once more I walk outside. Wolford was standing next to the van looking at the camera.

“Hey, Hopps. High tech gear you are working with.”

“I guess. Although not sure what everything is for.”

“You don’t?”

“I don’t, I’m just checking the time numbers every 15 minutes.”

“HEY! Not talking about the work.” Finnick yelled from inside the van.

“Who is that?”

“That’s the one Nick left in charge while he is inside.” I moved towards the poles annotating them.

“Let me guess. You don’t know anything about these either.”

“Nope.” Writing the times for each pole. They all seem to be going at the same pace.

“You changed one-meter maid for another.”

“It wasn’t lost on me that I was doing that.” I knew what this looked like. I just didn’t want to say out loud.

“I guess you are right.” He moved away from the poles went back into the cruiser. I finished up the numbers and I walked towards the van. Finnick was still there sitting in front of the computer. This time I didn’t want to stay silent while waiting for the next 15 minutes.

“Finnick right?” He simply looked at me and nodded. “Can I ask you something?”

“You already did, but shoot.”

“What’s all these? Are we actually doing something is this just a façade to the actual real work going on inside the cave? Am I just a token bunny-like at ZPD for this group too?”

He looked at me as evaluating me before answering. “It’s not much, but we are actually doing something important. We need to keep tracking records of everything that we do and investigate. Let me see your notes.” He extended his paw. I gave him the little notepad. He looked through them fast, not that hard to just look at times. “This is good. It means that nothing is wrong and whatever happened in the cave is over.” He returned the notepad to me.

“So, what we do actually matters?” I attempted to sound not as skeptical, but it still came through with the way I sounded.

“Yes. You don’t have to worry about it. Also, don’t tell them what we doing here. We can’t trust them.”

“They are ZPD officers, we can trust them… can’t we?”

He looked at me and simply moved to the radio machine next to the monitor.

“Chief, Hopps seems to be out of the loop for whatever they are investigating. She seems to be outside to take notes of these weird parking meters. She does it every 15 minutes.  No, it’s useless to try and get answers from her. I’m going to try to get some answers from whoever is inside.”

He cut the transmission then.

“Don’t trust them. At least not about this case.” I don’t how I should act after that kind of revelation.  I was stunt, confused, angered, and a little disappointed. It sort of made sense for them to investigate this sort of organization. However, they didn’t show any kind of hope towards me for the time I’ve been working there. I had yet to patrolling with anybody. I kept getting parking duty.

15 Minutes

It marked the clock again. I took the notepad and myself outside once more. Wolford was walking towards the back of the van. This time, he ignored me as I walked towards the poles. The minute arrow seemed to be slightly moved… I better bring this up with Finnick. Only the first pole seemed to be different. It was a minute, maybe two behind? I made it back to the van just to see Wolford walking back to the car, that didn’t take long.

“Hey, Finnick, one of the poles showed a minute or two behind compared to the rest.”

He looked at me and extended the paw. He checked my notes. “Only the first one?” I nodded. Went to the monitor and rewind it a little bit. He started typing on the keyword; he seemed to write something like a note within the video.

“So, what does it mean?”

“Could be nothing, could be something. I’m not sure yet, but if more of the poles start acting up…” He stayed silent for some time.

“What?”

“Nothing, let’s hope nothing bad happens.”

We stayed silent until it was time for me to leave and check the poles again.

15 Minutes

I saw the cruiser leave, which was weird. They were supposed to leave around lunch. A new cruiser came back with an elephant in the driver seat, Francine I think it was her name. I walked towards the poles and took notes. This time all the poles had different times. It was hard to figure it out by how much. I went back into the van just to have Finnick talking with someone on the phone. He noticed me.

“What happened?”

“The poles, they are all different.” He extended his arm again to see my notes. “They should be coming back soon.”

“How you know?”

“Whatever they did or touch inside must have caused something. Nick doesn’t risk things when he is with somebody.” I wanted to ask what if he was alone, but I decided not to. We stayed silent again, but I noticed Finnick was a little inpatient.

15 Minutes

I went outside. I was writing any change, but all the poles seemed to have reset back to cero. Then I noticed the silver vixen walking past the poles and into the van. I turned around and see Nick standing behind me.

“What’s that?” He pointed at my pen, a pen mind you was in a carrot shape.

“A pen?”

“That’s so cute, Carrots.” It took a moment to register that he was calling me carrots. Not to mention the fact he said the word cute.

“Hey! Don’t call me carrots!” He moved towards the poles, disconnected them, and started carrying them towards the van.

“Get the others, Carrots. We are done here.” He walked towards the van.

“Stop calling me Carrots!” I took the rest of the poles.

“Whatever you say, carrots.”

“Stop calling me that! It’s demeaning!”

“It’s your fault for using that cute pen of yours. Where did you even find that? I’ve never seen anything like that.” He sounded actually curious.

“In Bunnyburrow…” I didn’t want to say it out loud.

“Figures.”

“What you mean by figures?” I didn’t want to sound as angry, but that sort of answer got to me.

“I’ve never seen one before, and I’ve never been in Bunnyburrow. Therefore, figures.” So that’s what he meant by that…

“Don’t overthink it, officer. He does that to everybody.” The vixen said it with an endearing smile.

“I still don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to. Finnick, anything happened while we were gone?” Finnick did a quick glance at me follow by looking at Nick.

“Nothing worth mentioning.”

“Great. Let’s pick things up. Save everything.”

“What do we do now?”

“Well, Carrots. We need to give the samples back to our lab, while they run tests we will do some more research as to what exactly… I don’t know yet. Any guesses?” He actually seemed interesting in my answer. Might as well go by the book.

“We could do cams at the entrance park, maybe we can find suspects that way… although that might already be back in the precinct. Not sure how we would get it though.” I look down after noticing all three look at me.

“Well thinking Carrots. Don’t worry about the how let the how to me. What are you guys doing? I said to pick things up. We need to move while there is still sun.”

While we all start storing and saving everything. I see Nick is looking at my notes. Hopefully, they are good and it’s exactly what he wanted me to do. He seemed content with the notes. We finish storing everything, with help of an elephant.

 “Back home?” I hear Finnick ask from the driving seat.

“Back home.” Says Nick as he sits on the copilot sit. I stayed on the back with the silver fox who seems to be eating a bug protein bar. It was a long drive away from the cave. We left downtown and moved towards Sahara Square. Never been outside of downtown or Savanna Central; however, I remember looking at it as I went past it. It has a completely different feeling. The van moved towards the big Palm Hotel. The building easily towered the entire district, and I bet it could be seen from all Zootopia. Before reaching it, the van went off-road.

“Where we going?”

“Home, I own a property, a factory of sort, in the outbacks of the city. This is the only way towards it… well not really. More like the safest way.” The trip took less than 30 minutes from the Palm Hotel. We cross a stone bridge and I can see the factory Nick mentioned. It looked rusty from the outside. I can’t imagine what it would look like from inside. “There used to be a train station long ago close to this place. It was used for mammals to work in the factories close by. The track still there, but it was reused for the railroad coming from the burrows. I’m sure you rode past it when you came to the city. Now, only my property is left standing, the rest were either demolished or were reused for apartment buildings.”

I know he kept referring to it as a factory, but the more I look at it. It looks closer to a Hanger than an actual factory. Maybe it used to be a storage unit. As we approached to the main entrance, I see that quite tall wolf stood next to it. He waves his paw, something Nick answers with a wave from the window. He opens the entrance which the van goes in. Inside looks closer to a receiving area for a grocery store. There are many shelves holding car parts, from old used pieces to brand new parts. We all open the doors and get out of the van except for Finnick. He simply walks over the sofa inside the van and crashes there with zero intention of moving it seems. A red vixen was waiting on a platform close by. She was wearing a blue vest open in front showing a white shirt and skirt showing only the lower part of the legs.

“It was about time you showed up.”

“Too much traffic.” Nick answered.

“Yeah, right.” The wolf was closing the door using a chain in the inside of the building. He was definitely a tall wolf towering easily over Skye and Nick. He was wearing a white shirt and blue pants. The pants were either overused or had stylistic holes.

“Good thing you are here Chris. Here…” Nick threw his backpack at him. “…brought you something. Start working.”

“Oh, you shouldn’t have.” He grumbled before heading deeper into the building.

“Is this her?”

“Yeah. Carrots, Karmen. Karmen, Carrots.”

“Nice to meet you, officer.” She extended her paw.

“Call me Judy for short. Nice to meet you too.”

“Come on, let’s go. It’s time to eat and I’m getting hungry. Is Melvin back?”

“He should be printing what you ask for. I’m going to start preparing lunch, in the meantime, Skye, take Judy to the backfield to help you pick ingredients. And you Nick, the bosses asked you to call them as soon as you made it back to discuss the investigation.”

“Got it, I’ll do it now. Tell Melvin to bring the stuff to the Diner once he is done.”

“Aye Aye captain.” Karmen made a mock salute and then went inside followed by Skye and Nick.

“Hurry carrots, you gonna love this.” I hate the nickname still, but I follow them inside. I don’t know what I was expecting… but an amusement park inside this building was the last thing I had in mind. My jaw dropped at seeing it. “Welcome to Wilde Times!”

Chapter Text

I was starting to think that I should stop been amazed at this group. From the van to the amusement park, it was a surprise after the other. Although the amusement park had what it feels like old rides, the place seemed to have been maintained to its prime condition over time. The main thing that you could see was the huge clock on what might be the center of the factory. It was a clock fully working with rusty stains in some parts, but overall it looked in great condition. The wolf entered what looked like an infirmary? The building had a red cross in the front.

“It was kept close to the main entrance in case they needed to rush to the hospital for one reason or the other,” Nick answered my question. I guess I was looking at it for a bit too long. “That place now is more of a lab than an infirmary.”

We moved through the building towards the clock. On our way, we went past an arcade corner, but it didn’t seem like any arcade game I’ve ever seen. They all looked really old, but again, in good condition. Next to it was one of those track racing competitions where multiple people would sit to attempt and win a prize. There weren’t any rewards or prices to show, which made me think it hasn’t been used in some time. Next to it was a shooting gallery. I approach it as the guns didn’t look familiar from other festivals or amusement parks.

“Careful, those have a lot of kick on them.”

“I’ll have you know I graduated as number 1 marksmanship.”

“Oh, this I gotta see. Let me turn it on.”

“Nick, you have a meeting!”

“Come on, this is going to take what, 10 minutes? I’m sure they can wait that long.” He moved behind the counter and into the backside. Some seconds later and the place turns on. It had music and everything… really old music too. “Ok ladies, step right up and win this valuable plush doll worth hundreds of hundreds of hours to make.” He said as he held a weird looking ball with two lines for eyes.

“Didn’t know you made that one again! Oh, I’m so in.” The silver fox got into a sit immediately after seeing the prize. I took the seat next to her. I had to stand up on the chair to reach the gun.

“Sometimes I feel like the people I work with are all just kits!”

“You are just mad you never win!”

“Ok, I’m in too.” She sat on the right side of the silver fox. She looked determined and ready.

“The game is simple, hit the most targets.” He does a snap with his paw and the ducks started moving left and right. “We going to do 1 round, so make it count! Carrots is orange, Skye is blue, and Karmen is green.” As he said he put a magazine on each gun. “Ready!?”

“Ready.” We all screamed.

“Set! Go!” he moved to the side just in time and paintballs started flying all over the place. After a few minutes of shooting it was over. We were all out of ammo. The ducks stopped moving all painted in different colors. Some of the ducks had more of one color in them. The match ended with 7 orange, 6 blue, 3 green, and around 10 or so undefined.

“Damn it!” The red vixen yelled as she stepped aside.

“Congratulations carrots! You get the super prized and overly worked on plush doll! Exclusive to Wilde Times.” He gave me the one color ball plush.

I looked to the side at Skye that was eyeing it. “Do you want it?”

“No, sharing! Skye has enough of those in her room. She usually wins.” Nick went behind the shooting gallery turning it off.

“I’ll be in the Diner, Skye go with bunny cop to pick fruit for pancakes. I’ll start the kitchen.” She went away not before telling Nick to go have the meeting.

We went towards the back of the factory, passing along the way, by the clock. The clock was standing on top of a fountain. Once we reach the end, Nick separated and went into a small two floors building with windows for the upper part of it. We meanwhile went through the backdoor towards a big greenhouse that was outside. There I saw all kinds of vegetables and fruit crops. We got a basket and picked different kinds of fruit. We made it back and walk towards a Diner… an actual Diner; like the kind you see at a truck stop but it was inside the factory. The building looked out of time; however, it captures the attention of any looker. It wouldn’t be hard to bring mammals in when the park was fully operational.

Inside stood a new fox, joining multiple tables to turn it into a big one. He had a backpack with him. He started laying papers on top of it when he noticed us.

“Hey, Skye and bunny cop.” I’m starting to think foxes have a thing for nicknames.

“Judy this is Melvin, Melvin this is Judy.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” We shook paws.

“Same.”

“Skye, bring the fruit back here!” She took my basket together with hers to the kitchen.

“What you doing?”

“Nick asked me to get some papers from downtown and the team in charge of the topography of Zootopia.” On the tables looked like multiple underground and land maps. “So, bunny cop, how’s your first day with our little group?”

“It’s been good so far, but I haven’t done much besides keeping watch of some clocks.”

“Yeah, you would be surprised how weird some jobs or assignments can get.  Regardless, for as small as a job could get, everything is important. A clock needs all its pieces to work, right?” He says as he shows me a pocket watch that he took out from his pants. A black obsidian pocket watch. He puts it away before kneeling down towards his backpack.

“What’s that?”

“A projector, there is a limit to what paper could do and this just makes it easier to work. Nick is just stock in his old ways. Would you believe it wasn’t until last year that he got an actual smartphone? And even then he refuses to use it beyond call and texts!”

“Stop saying secrets from Nick, you know what happened last time that you did that.” The wolf was back. Melvin tensed after hearing that.

“Are you done testing the samples?” Skye joined us back.

“The machines are running, we should have the answer in an hour or two.”

“What about the footage and notes?” she looked at Melvin.

“Haven’t had time to look at it completely; however, there is definitely a time-lapse. The notes and video aren’t matching.”

“What you mean by that?” my question made the 2 foxes and wolf look back at me.

“Sometimes with paranormal occurrences, time-lapse desynch can happen. Meaning, time can either go faster or slower for a certain area while everything else is different.”  I could feel my eyes growing big and wide.

“You joking?” the silence in the diner grew.

“We are all serious in this job, bunny cop!” it came from the kitchen.

“She is not joking, believe it or not. This is not a joke. What I watched was around 30 minutes of footage but you show up once near the end. You were taking notes every 15 minutes right?” I simply nodded at the question. I would need to look at myself to fully understand it. “You will see soon.” He gave a few pets at the projector.

“Everyone come and help me, pancakes are ready.”

“Why it’s always pancakes with her.”

“Because that’s all she can cook.”

“I heard that!”

We all pick a plate with 2 or 3 pancakes on each and one big one with multiple on them. We sat at one of the tables close to the big one Melvin was working on.

“How are all my favorite foxes and vegetable officer?” Nick arrived, but something made me eyed the wolf.

“What’s wrong?” they all noticed me.

“Are you a fox?” He was mid-bite and stunt by my question.

“Believe it or not, he is indeed a fox. He is a genetic marble, isn’t he?” Nick took an extra place and took two pancakes before moving to the big table with the papers.

“How?”

“Genetics, somehow my parents managed to get old genes to awake on the pregnancy. Because of that, my body is much larger and I’m also much stronger.”

“He also eats a lot more!” Nick yelled from his table which caused all of us to laugh much to Chris's embarrassment.

“That’s really interesting.”

“It is, it really is.” He gave some more chews at the pancakes. The rest joined in silence chewing. “Nick, how is it going there?”

“Figuring it out… I think. It just doesn’t make sense… unless…”

“Here we go.” They all rose with the plates in hand and walked towards Nick.

Nick had two maps in front of him. Both maps were titled underground. He took a marker and put an X with the lines West entrance. The second X he wrote Cave. “The tunnels don’t have any sort of connection to each other, yet the mammals went from here…” he draws a line between both X’s “…to here. Melvin, when you asked for these maps, did you notice anything?”

“Honestly? No. They guided me on how to get them from their website, but nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Did you get the report of the disappearances too?” He moved towards a side where a pile of papers was stacked on in a corner. There were also multiple files on the side.

“Everything is here. But I didn’t see anything wrong on it.” Nick revises them. “What you thinking?” He made a scramble on top of the West entrance and left the one that we were in with just an X.

“The underground tunnels, what can you tell me about them.”

“They cover a good portion of the city with some of them going into other districts. And the cave one goes…” he put a claw on top of the cave and move north of the city. “…Between Tundratown and the Rainforest district.”

“Are there public entrances on those districts to the tunnels?” I asked.

“Depends on what you define as public access. Rainforest uses the tunnels as a means for water drainage from the artificial rain the sprinklers produce; for the most part, they either end on lakes or ocean. Tundratown is a completely different thing that cave goes under the ice. And it’s hard to get to it add that to cold water and it makes it impossible for most mammals to even attempt getting close.”

“So our best bet is Rainforest?” Karmen voiced her question.

“For now, it is until we get our hands on the cam footage,” Nick replied and looked back at Melvin. “Did you get it?”

“What do you think?” Melvin smirked. He then connected a laptop to the projector. “Lights.” Skye moved to one side and turn it off.

“I took a looked at the footage of the West entrance in the park. None of the mammals ever showed up in any camera surrounding it.”

“How did you get this footage?” I asked.

Their glowing eyes in the dark looked at me. “Not important,” they all answered in unison.

“Thought so.” The silence grew in the room as we all seem to try and figure out what could possibly be the answer. “What can you tell me about the cave?”

“No camera close to it, it’s a blind spot.”

“Before the cave?”

“There is footage of the street before it, but the entrance towards the cave is a full-on blind spot.”

“So we have no footage of that either.” Dead end on multiple paths.

“How about our footage?”

“For what little I watched. There is video desynch compared to the notes.”

“Can we see it?” He opened a few carpets and show the footage outside the cave.

“Is that time in the bottom right?”

“You mean the 3 hours in it? Yeap. told you. Freaky isn’t it?”

“What time-lapse would resynch them?”

“Only one way to find out.” A few minutes later and the video showed was sped up. “It seems like twice is the answer.” I couldn’t believe it. The video originally seemed to be at a normal pace, but it didn’t match the 15-minute intervals that were meant to be there. When Melvin sped up the footage it now matched the 15 minutes that I was taking notes on. This could also explain why Wolford and Fangmeyer left earlier than I thought, their shift watching the cave was over and they must have received a message by radio.

“This could be residue from yesterday night.”

“That’s possible. We would need to go into the cave one more time if we were to determine it.”

“Nick, What did you do in the cave?” I asked.

“I sealed… something in that cave.”

“Shouldn’t it be safe if you already sealed?”

“These… things don’t awake just because Judy, this thing was awoken and it’s our job to find out why and stop it from happening again. Right now our only leads are the mammals that died and the tunnel going north of the city. We can explore the tunnels tomorrow, for now, Karmen bring the whiteboard… everybody pick a file and start reading we need to find a connection between these mammals.”

Chapter Text

I left (ha ha) Carrots with Skye. Entered my room and by room I mean building. Two of the edges of the factory were used for storage back in the day. They were repurposed when making the park and turned into offices. I have the small one on the back while the girls hold the one on the side. Chris and Melvin bungle together at the infirmary’s beds… now that I think about it; they have better beds than me.  Whatever, I guess taking the short end of the stick for my team is part of being the leader. Finnick lives in that van for some reason; Chris and Melvin have mentioned they can add another bed in the infirmary for him. He prefers the privacy the van gives him I guess. I don’t blame him. I push the door to my building, there is no lock whatsoever. My team knows better than to come inside without me anywhere close. Let’s just say this building is not 100% safe.

The first thing that you will notice is how dark the room is. The staircase to the second floor is to the left of the door.  I would usually just go up the stairs to crash and fall sleep. But of course the big bosses want to talk to me now of all days. Melvin set up a computer on the first floor. The walls are covered on shelves full of books up to the roof, all except for a wall where a curtain is hanging. What’s on those books? It’s better to not know than know what I know. Let’s just say, they are closer to weapons than actual books. The curtain contains probably the worst part of my collection. I don’t like talking about it.

“It was about time you showed up Nicholas.” I hear as I approach the monitor. I’m welcome to a goat, a lion, and a horse.

“Marilyn.” I acknowledge with a nod and sit on the chair. Marilyn is a goat with way past her age to be working, yet she shows she has a lot of years left in her. She is also the main head of the organization. “I was busy working the case.”

“We thought you already dealt with it.” My eyes move to the side towards a horse with glasses.

“So did I, but there were some after-effects when we went back and checked it today.”

“That could be from leftover after you sealed.” I hear a lion's voice to the side.

“That’s what we think; we are going to check it a few more times before we can call it a case closed.”

“Nicholas, we’ve been talking. The city has had a recent increase in cases; do we need to send you reinforcements? We are pushing your team a little too much. What are your thoughts?”

“I don’t know. The cases have increased, but the organization hasn’t found any connection yet, right?”

“Besides the only factor, you mentioned on your reports that seem to overlap on multiple cases. Mammals related to the cases, locations, and the event itself don’t seem to have any connection.”

“The gods leftovers seem to be from the same origin. It’s both a clue and not a clue.” The gods' leftovers is what we decided to call it within the organization. After summoning… a thing for lack of better words, the area surrounding it leaves residues. These residues seem to share the same components in all the cases of the city, but that’s also a problem in itself. It’s the only possible connection that doesn’t let any of us drop this as different cases and instead grouping them together. The only possible cause for this outcome is that the city is a major hotspot for them, and awakening one has caused them a domino effect. But if that was the case, the residue wouldn’t be the exact same thing, unless…

“Nicholas, what are you thinking?”

“Could I be sealing offsprings…?” I voiced my thoughts out loud. They all look at me like I grew a second head. Well, they have seemed or read worse, but I’m guessing that’s the face normal mammals would make in case that ever happened. “Hear me out, the cases all are leaving a residue of the same origin and that’s the city. If I was sealing entities the residue would be different in each case. But I’m only sealing offspring.” I repeated it. “We are dealing with one entity.”

“But the reports, you never mentioned the same entity.”

“It has been on different places in the city, it was testing forms?”

I hear both comments. “It has a host and a host that knows what it’s doing.”

“Still, doesn’t explain why take mammals now, the cases before didn’t have any deaths.”

“It got careless? I don’t know.” It didn’t make sense to suddenly take lives.

“What’s your plan going forward with this revelation?”

“Need to see what my team has for data from the mammals in the cave. I also need some data from the city’s underground cave systems. Once all that’s done, I can start thinking about the next step.”

“Good, let us know once everything is decided.”

“I will.”

“I think that’s enough for today. We need to think over these new… advances in this case. We will stay in contact.” The communication was cut after that. I rose from my seat and started walking out. I can smell pancakes coming from the Dinner.

Five hours. That’s how long it took us to go over all the mammals’ files and the only thing that we have written on the whiteboard is that they worked in the same place. The lab results are exactly what I was thinking. Same origins as other cases, so I guess my theory is going in a good direction.

“Ok, we have no connection with any of these mammals beyond working in the same place. Great advancements we had today.” Didn’t want to share the piece of discovery I found at the meeting. It was better to keep it to myself for now. I see Finnick walked into the Dinner after his afternoon nap.

“You didn’t save me any pancakes?”

“Why would we? You didn’t help to investigate the files!” Karmen hits him in the back of the head after he sat down at the table.

“Compared to you foxes, and bunny, and bunny, I worked at night! Speaking of which, I need to start going. I'm guessing I’ll be taking bunny cop with me?” He eyed me first before moving his gaze towards Carrots.

“I’ll be going with you, you can drop me off together with her.”

“Where are you going?”

“That’s none of your business my big ear friend.” I pet his head. “Let’s go carrots. We won’t get any more information out of the files. We are going to need to take another angle.”

“What kind of angle?”

“That, we can discuss tomorrow. Come on, Finnick. We gotta go now or you are going to be late.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, wait for me at the van. I’ll get a cup of coffee first.”

We walked out of the dinner and head towards the garage area. I need to check a few more things in the city before tomorrow morning. Finnick has a side job… for some reason. I guess he wants more money on the side for emergencies. I don’t blame him; this job barely pays enough to survive, if it wasn’t for the factory. We would come across food and shelter problems more often than I want to admit.

“Nick?”

“Uh?”

“You ok? You were daydreaming.”

“Yeah, sorry. Just thinking about the case.”

“What you make out of it? Looks to me you are the most experience in your team.”

“Yeah,  I guess you could say that. I have a theory, but I don’t want to alert anybody until I have more concrete evidence. How about you carrots? Any theories on that long ear head of yours?”

“The academy didn’t train me for any of this, you aware of that right?”

“Yes, but for the past 5 hours, we’ve been reading files after files of actual mammals. Nothing supernatural.”

“I guess… you also are aware that still don’t believe in any of this right?”

“Even after the video?”

“Could be a glitch.”

“That’s true. Back to the question, what you guess from the files alone?”

“They knew each other from work, maybe a hobby out or something like that would also make sense.”

“Nothing like that from the files. That’s true, we have their professional side but nothing from the emotional. I guess we can approach that point. Interview family or friends. Maybe mate or mates, you never know.”

It wasn’t long for Finnick to join us at the garage area by the entrance. We got inside the van and started heading for the city. We are supposed to be on the warm side of the city, but the night is always cold, especially near the factory. The city lights look very different tonight. I don’t know what it is, they just don’t look right. Even the sky looks different, the stars are never visible yet, there they are.

“Beautiful isn’t it?”

The question got me out of my trance. “What is?”

“The city, it’s something I’ve been dreaming for my whole life.”

“Not a very big dream eh Carrots. I’m sure you can dream better dreams.”

“Of course, you wouldn’t understand.”

“I get it Carrots. I really do get it. Freedom and leave your leave a trail for future generations. I get it.” I gave her a smile that she seems to appreciate greatly based on her face. Within an hour we make it to her apartment. It should be around 6 or 7 right about now, mammals still on the street making their way back from work and others making it to work. This city doesn’t feel like sleep at all.

“How do you know I live here?” I looked at her surprised face at been right in front of the grand pangolin.

“Not important. Listen; prepare a bag to stay at the factory for a few days. It will make it easier to work if we are all in the same place. I’ll ask Skye and Karmen to get a bed ready for you. Think it over and let me know tomorrow. I’ll meet you at the Precinct.” I hit the van side twice to indicate to Finnick that we are leaving before she gets to answer. “Later Carrots!”

“You are an ass, Wilde.”

“No, I’m a fox.”

“Or so you say. Where you want me to drop you?”

“Drop me off around the corner.” He drives a little bit more before stopping the van.

“What you planning on doing?”

“Doesn’t matter what I’m planning, what matters is that you should pick up the others after your shift ends and I’ll meet everybody at the Precinct.” I leave the van. “Have fun.”

“Shut up.” And he drives off.

There is still daylight, but not for long. It should be dark in less than an hour. I started walking down the street. I look side to side, my body moves on its own towards a specific place. I make it out of the tall buildings and make it towards the districts to the west. There is still some sunlight on the horizon on this part. This district is full of two-story houses and big front yards… with possibly even bigger backyards. There are some kits of different species and sizes in the kit park. I feel out of place, and the mammals around don’t try to hide it either. I sat at a bench looking at the kits playing. They seem to be playing hide and seek. Within those kits, there is a red fox kit. I stop looking for a few minutes to write a text message.

“It’s rare for you to come here, Nicholas.” A sweet voice comes from the side together with a wheelchair. I send the message and put it back in my pocket.

“I’m Nicholas tonight?” After she joins me, fewer mammals decide to look at me.

“There are no eavesdroppers at the moment, but it’s better to be careful than sorry.”

“How many know about me?”

“Not enough to convince the rest. Besides, you wished it this way.”

“You are right.” I look to the side to look at her. She is an old vixen. The red fur has almost turned white with tints of silver. She is wearing small glasses but she seems to be able to see just fine. She managed to recognize me from afar after all… although, not many red foxes would come here in the first place.

“Would you want it to be different?”

“Maybe? I don’t know… I just didn’t want to go through it again I guess.”

“Yet, you still here why…?”

“Leave the city for a few days.” It was a fast and precise cut to the main point.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know yet. That’s the problem. Cases have increased, and they don’t seem to slow down.”

“I’ll make arrangements for tomorrow.”

“Tonight, make arrangements for tonight, the earlier the better.”

“I’ll see through it. Everybody?”

“Would be for the best.”

“I’ll let everyone know. We will go to the villa at Bunnyburrow.”

“When did you get a villa?”

“A daughter-in-law bought it. It seemed like the owner wanted to get rid of it for some time. She got a good price for it too.”

“That’s nice. Seems like everybody is doing well.”

“They are, Nicholas.”

“That’s good. I should leave soon. I don’t want to be here too late at night. I don’t want to make cops do extra work tonight.”

“Stay safe, Nicholas.”

“You too, Susan.”

I left her and made my way back to downtown. The streets have grown quieter but mammals still on the street. The city never sleeps. I receive an anonymous message. I read it fast. It should be open now; I take my pocket watch out of my shirt just to be double sure. It’s 10 at night. I head towards a specific alleyway. An alleyway that anyone would pass and wouldn’t look at it a second time before speeding past it. The brick walls end in a black metal door. I knock on it twice before I see a small door move on top of it.

I can see two blue eyes glaring down at me from it. “Sign.”

I made a sign with my right arm. The door closes. After a few seconds, I hear lock after lock after lock behind the door. Finally, it opens to a huge black bear. He moves to the side to let me in. He closes the door immediately and leans his back on it; not before I notice different signs from top to bottom. He growls at me. I raise both hands as a sign of defeat. Do a 180 and head inside. There is a bar on one side and poker tables on the other. Cocktail waitresses are taking care of each table and patron. All the employees are wearing a mask covering any face detail. I head towards the bar stool and sit.

“What you want?” a gruff voice coming from a wolf bartender, also wearing a mask.

“Blueberry Sundae. Go easy on the ice cream; I need to take care of my figure.”

He eyes me for a few seconds. “It’s going to take 15 minutes.”

“Not going anywhere.”

“Hi, Nicholas.” It’s the second time in less than 24 hours that a sweet voice creeps out on me.

“Penny, I wasn’t expecting you to be here.” I turn around and smile at the lioness. She was wearing a black tuxedo with a mini skirt on top of it. Without that skirt, she could easily be confused for a handsome lioness instead of a good dress one. Compared to everybody else, she wasn’t wearing a mask.

“oh please, you used my sign at the door. You knew I would be here.” She takes the stool next to me. “You already ordered?”

“Yeah.”

“Blueberry?” she smirks.

“You know me,” I smirked back.

“Bartender, make it two. Mine with vodka.”

“Vodka? Somebody wants to hit it hard this early.”

“Not that early for what you about to ask I’m sure.”

“What’s this interrogation? Maybe I just wanted to have a talk with my old… acquaintance.”

“Old?” She eyes me with a raised eyebrow.

“Come on, I’ve known you for all your life… that should count as something.”

“I’ll give you that. Go to the point, what you need.” I take my phone out of my shirt and slide it towards her. She scans it fast before saying anything. “This gotta be good. Bartender, make it double.”

“I need to find out anything on that.”

“How bad are they?”

“I don’t know yet. I just found out about it not too long ago.”

“Shouldn’t you pass it to higher-ups before me?”

“Can’t, if this is as huge as I think it is… it’s better if I don’t for now.”

“Ok, I’ll let you know as soon as I find something on it.”

“Remember, don’t dive too much into it.”

“Don’t worry; I’m a big kitten now.” She grabs my cheek as she says it. I slap her paw away.

“You are, that’s the problem.”

“I’ll ask a few questions. I’ll let you know.”

“Good.” The bartender comes with both cups. “Give me some of your vodka.”

“I knew it was the right call.” She leans her cup dropping some of the vodka in.

“You really a big kitten now.” I smile.

“Took you long enough. Cheers.” She raised her cup. I hit it with mine.

“Cheers.”

Chapter Text

I left the place soon after. She needed places to go and investigate while I took of a few things before the morning light started to show its colors to the city. I made my way to a friend’s house close to a park by the south side of the city. To any passerby, this was just an abandoned old moldy house with overgrown nature around it, but for those that knew, it was the house of a very capable mammal. I knock on the iron door twice, a space in the middle, and knocked once more. A few seconds later the door opens to a chubby honey badger with military-looking overalls.

“Honey.”

“Of course it had to be you, who else would refuse to learn the knock password.”

“What you talking about? I’m the only one that visits you as nobody can remember a 5-minute knocking pattern. We all told you to change it to something else.”

“Ha! For your information, I already changed it to 2 minutes!”

“Still not great.”

“Come in, I just finished the gear you asked for.

“You worked fast.”

“As long as it ain’t a sheep, I already have gear for any other species. To be honest, I never expected to work on the bunny model. Not many in the city. Much less in this workplace.”

“I’m guessing you already know who is using this gear then?”

Honey closes the door. I wait for her to pass by me and go into the lower levels. The top of the house is nothing but a façade. Although the outside looks abandoned, the inside is just like any normal house. What’s important is the underground area below the house that goes deeper level under the city streets. The area below is full of gadgets and machines with a lot of workbench at any sight. I sometimes wonder if she ever intends to finish them. Thankfully, she can focus when I ask her for something specific. She throws a file to a desk close to me. A picture of Carrots from the academy.

“Judith Laverne Hopps from  Bunnyburrow. 26 years old. Daughter of Bonnie and Stuart Hopps…” She keeps rambling after that with all sort of information on Carrots. Her mother's name catches my attention. I picked the file up, not much information on her. Makes sense, this is Carrots file. I somehow was expecting a picture at the very least. “…it’s a good thing her file had her measurements. It was useful.” She gives me a backpack. “Everything is in there.”

“Thanks.”

“You better get going, don’t want mammals to know that somebody lives here, much less me. Plus, you have a long way to walk to get to Precinct one.” She started to shove me out the door.

“You know, I’m one of the few mammals that come visit you. You could be a better host.” Before I realize it, I was outside.

“Yeah yeah yeah, hospitality is for those that can afford to lose time. I have projects to do, and yours delayed them.” She closed the door.

“Bye honey, love you.”

“Love you too.” I hear from the other side of the door.

The crazy honey badger, I put the backpack on and start making my way to the Precinct. The rays of morning sunlight start making their way to the city. The city mammals are waking up for their morning jogs or getting to work. I walk through the city and the crowd of mammals gets bigger per minute. I arrived at the precinct, and to my surprise Carrots is already there waiting for me. She has a bag with her which makes me smirk at her.

“I see you are staying with us for a couple of days?”

She punches me lightly in the arm. “You didn’t give me a lot of choices when you decided to speed up.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“What’s on the backpack?”

“You will find out later.” I wink at her. I take out my pocket watch to check the time. It’s 6 in the morning, so the day shift won’t start in an hour or two. I doubt the chief is in his office right… but Carrots is here, he might be the same. I move towards the entrance with Carrots following close by. A chubby cheetah in the front desk with… a bowl so big I didn’t know existed, at least not for mammals my size… or his for that matter. He must have bought it from a store catering to big mammals.

“Oh, hey Judy! Who is your friend.”

“Hey Ben, this is Nick Wilde. He is the one in charge of the cave investigation.”

“Don’t remind me.” He seems to tremble at the bare thoughts of what happened there. Although I doubt they have revealed how bad it was inside. “Nick Wilde, the name sounds familiar.”

“We talked two days ago.”

“Oh, now I know. I recognize that voice.” He said that with so much joy. I doubt any mammal ever showed that much emotion when meeting me.

“It’s nice putting a face to a voice I’m guessing. Is the chief in his office? Need to talk to him before the morning shift.” Both mammals look at me weird.

“He should be, I can check.” The cheetah picks up a phone and dials in the chief office. “Chief, Mr. Wilde wants to talk to you. No, chief, he is here with officer Hopps. Ok. Ok. I’ll send him in. Your welcome, chief.” He hangs up before looking at me. “You can go now, top floor, first floor to the right.”

“Thanks, Spots. See you at the bullpen later Carrots.” I start heading towards the staircase. “oh, I almost forgot, some foxes will be coming soon. Carrots, can you wait for them? You already know them. They will bring some files with them. Help them bring them in here. Got it?” I wink at her before leaving.

“Got it.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.”

One staircase over, I reach the top floor. Just like Spots said it, first door to the right. I knock out of courtesy. I’m a nice mammal… in theory.

“Come in.” I hear the gruff voice from the other side of the door.

“Morning, Chief. You are as elegant as always.”

“What do you want Wilde?”

“Come on Chief. I was nice enough to get you out of the conference with almost your pride intact.”

“What do you want?”

“I need help. By help I mean, your officers. I’m lacking numbers and certain aspects have come up and this needs to be solved fast and efficiently.” He eyes me for a few seconds.

“What would they be doing?”

“Interrogations. They should know at least that much?”

“The basics, some more than others. Detectives get better training.”

“Good enough. Officers should be enough; I’ll have Karmen do some crash course before leaving today.”

“Your boss?”

“She sometimes likes to act that way. Don’t worry about it.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

“Fine, for how long?”

“It should be done by today, we can cross-examine later today if there is time and at the latest tomorrow morning.”

“How is Hopps doing?”

“Not much to do, for now, let’s hope it stays like that until the case is closed. I don’t want this to get into the worst scenario.”

“I see.”

“There is one more thing. I’m leaving three of my team here to access any possible situation while I’m gone. I would have left them at home, but I think they would be more useful here.” I examine any possible reaction from the Chief after I said that. He doesn’t have much room to react after what the organization and I pulled not long ago. I know deep down, he wishes to know what he and his team are getting themselves into. It will be fine as long as they don’t gaze too deep into it.

“Will they need something?”

“Just a place to work and it doesn’t need to be big.”

“I’ll see to it. What species are they?”

“Foxes, we all foxes.” I smile at him just to irritate him.

“Got it. I will take care of it. Anything else?”

“Yes. I need you to be the one to give this assignment to them. If they have any questions at the end, I will answer them.”

“Why me?”

“I need them to do it properly and seriously, and for that, it needs to come from you.”

I explain to him how I want it to be handled. The plan was easy; have the teams pick two files each, go to the locations, ask questions, investigate with the best of their abilities, and report by the end of the day.

He didn’t seem to have any more questions. With a simple nod, we agree and went downstairs. When we reached there, my team was coming in with a rolling cart carrying folders. Karmen is in her regular lawyer clothes… I wonder why she keeps wearing that outside. Skye is wearing her black waterproof clothes, I’m glad she came prepared. Chris and Melvin just look like regular mammals that somehow made it all the way in the precinct without having them been questioned or thrown out. Having Carrots with them helped. Finnick is probably outside sleeping in the van.

We wait for an hour for the rest of the mammals to join us. Besides Chris, all mammals present are 3 to 4 times bigger than my team. I keep looking at mammal going in sitting down, eye my team then the chief, then Carrots, and finally the files in the front desk. After I see the entire team filled up, the Chief starts. He goes over the work from yesterday, the reports that are still missing in his desk follow by any news on any case they are working on or news in general. Finally, he mentions what he and I discuss about the files. He tells them the teams will stay the same, each team will pick up two files, head to the locations, and do a general investigation of anything that the files were missing on the mammals that are dead and those around them. They all seem to grasp their assignments. However…

“And that’s going to be the assignment for today. Any questions?”

“Why us?” A familiar-looking wolf, he was at the cave when we went to investigate it, talks immediately after the chief finishes.

I can feel the eyes of the buffalo on my neck. I jump on the desk so the mammals on the back can also see me while I talk. “I lack mammals capable of doing an interrogation investigation.” I can see the eyes go towards my team and Carrots. “My team consists of a lawyer, an engineer, a scientist, a driver, and an assistant. Besides my lawyer and me, the rest lack any sort of training on this kind of job.” I look at all the mammals to see reactions before moving forward. “As you can see, not very good interrogators. We also need to do our own investigations uptown.”

“What kind of questions?” A rhino on the back said.

“Each file will have a paper with a set of questions for each specific mammal you will be visiting. You can add any question that you have while interview them. I don’t think I need to remind you guys of this, but I need you to make notes with each meeting. Anything you pick either from their homes or the mammal themselves.“ I scan the room once more. “As I say, feel free to add questions or anything when you doing your job. If you have any more questions or problems in how to move forward, my team will be available to assist you. Call through your radio and the cheetah at the front desk will get you in contact with them. Now, any more questions?” They look at the room and each other before their eyes moving towards the chief. I also look towards the chief who is looking at me before addressing the room one last time.

“You heard him, do your investigation properly and treat it as the most important assignment you will ever get. Screw this up and it will be. I don’t think I need to remind you, but I’ll do it anyway. This is an open investigation; don’t talk to anybody about it. Be careful out there.” Much like me, he also scans the room before finishing with: “Then same teams as the past two patrolling days. Pick two files, and you are dismissed. Any questions contact Clawhauser. Wilde’s team, come into my office after handing the files. I need to assign you a room to work on while you are here.” He moves towards the door to leave the room, but he motions me to follow him. I leave my team behind, knowing they can more than handle handing the files.

“Good enough for you?”

“You were perfect Chief.”

“Are they in any danger?”

“If they follow directions properly, they should be safe.”

“For your physical health, I sure hope so. No organization will be able to protect you completely.”

He leaves. “Glad you care about your team Chief.” I see him walking

I returned to the room and the files are been handed in. Once that’s over, all that’s left is my team and Carrots. I say goodbye to Chris, Melvin, and Karmen and leave with Skye and Carrots. I knock hard on the van to wake the sleeping fox inside. Something he decided to answer with a bat in hand, not sure who would try to rob him in front of a police station. Skye and Carrots get inside through the side door and I get into the front door. I throw my backpack to Skye.

“That’s Carrots gear. Help her put it on.”

“Fine, bunny cop.” She hangs the bag in front of her with a smile. “Let’s put your new gear on.”

“I have the one from the ZPD, this should be fine... right?” She goes back and forths between Skye and me.

“This gear is better, I can guarantee that much.” Her nose started twitching. “if it helps, I promise not to look back.”

“You better not!” I hear the yell. We keep driving down the street about to take the freeway towards the north of the city and into the rainforest district.

Before we reach it, however, Finnick presses the breaks hard. My seat belt breaks most of the momentum. I hear the yelp from Skye and Carrots on the back. I check Finnick to see what happens. He is yelling at a goat that’s yelling back at him from the side of the van. I check behind to see Skye on the floor and Judy with her pants around the ankles which show carrot printed underwear.

“Out of curiosity, is carrot printed underwear a bunny thing or a you thing?”

I didn’t see it coming. Not because I wasn’t expecting it but because it hit me right in the eyes. It took me a while to see… or wake up from it. As after I woke up we were already crossing districts and the rainforest district was welcoming us with a nice rain. I look back and see that Carrots is already on her gear. Blackwater and cold-proof gear with a hoodie in the back and military boots for the feet. She is also throwing me a glare that more than likely would make me explode if it was possible.

“You know… it was just a question.”

“Shut up. Don’t want to hear it.”

“Nick, since you are talkative again, why don’t you help me with the map. I’m having a hard time looking through the rain to keep track of the map too.”

“Yeah, fine.”

I guide Finnick towards the closest location for our next investigation.  A few minutes into guiding, the rain stops. The rain in this district sometimes is natural, but most times is artificial with been turn on at certain times of the day. We reach a parking spot with a few cars already there. There is a trail to the side towards a residence, but what we looking for is beyond those. We all leave the van except for Finnick. I get inside the backside of the van.

“What you doing?” I hear Carrots voice from behind.

“Well, Carrots. I need to switch my clothes. This super fashionable getup is very delicate.” I can hear a snort coming from both Finnick and Skye. “So I need to switch to something gear more towards this district. You are welcomed to stay after what happened back there.” I wink at her.

“Just get in.” Skye closed the side door of the van. I go to the back to get my gear. “Why are you blushing bunny cop? Don’t let it get to you. He is mostly joking, although if you want to go in…”

“I’M NOT BLUSHING, AND I DON’T WANT TO GO IN!”

“Carrots, you aware I can hear you right? You don’t need to be so loud. A simple no was enough.”

It takes me a couple of minutes to put the gear on. Mine is very similar to both Carrots’ and Skye’s.  Black color, water, and cold proof cloths. The Higher-ups thought it was dumb to make gear that satisfies both at the same time. We weren’t going to be in two districts at the same time they said, it’s a waste of money they said. With Zootopia weather wall control, this was the best solution. I leave the van with two backpacks, one on my and the other one I throw at Skye. I close the door.

“Let’s go you two.”

“No backpack for me?”

“We don’t have one your size. Plus plenty of equipment on these two.”

We left Finnick in the van. We walked through the trail for a few minutes before it opens up to one of the riverbanks in the district. The trail leads to a bridge that crossed the river towards some apartment buildings.

“Wow.”

“Right, is this your first time coming to this district?”

“Yes and no. I saw parts of the city when I arrived on the train. This is very different to seeing them from the train.”

“It really is. This district is very different from the rest of the city. Instead of making a city with different weather for these specific mammals, they decided to have the city blend in with the trees and the water. This district has kept the original nature side of the land on it while making living space with it. Come on, our destination is beyond the buildings.”

We walked past the bridge and went farther back from the buildings. There is a trail that we follow through the forest. After a few minutes of walking down the trail, an artificial rain started. We all put our hoodies on and kept walking. A few more minutes passed and the rain is gone. I hear both Carrots and Skye sniff the air. Skye always liked the smell of rainy water on the dirt. I guess Carrots also liked that smell, maybe a nostalgic smell of home. We kept walking through the forest until we reach a small ravine with a warning sign to be aware of possible landslides. It’s a good thing our boots are prepared for this kind of terrain.

The ravine surrounds the entrance we are looking for. We cross the ravine towards some dirt stairs on the side. High ground, there is another open path towards somewhere in the middle. We follow it until we reach a slope. It’s not a dangerous slope, but it’s better to be careful. I take out a rope from my backpack. I circle it around me before making a knot and asking both Carrots and Skye to do the same. I wait for them before we keep going.

“You didn’t think you would be tie to me this fast, did you Carrots?”

“I don’t get it.”

“Don’t ask.”

We keep going and I can hear water falling in the distance. The top trees are covering a lot of the sunlight which makes the ground really dark. I can still see just fine, but I don’t know about the other two. It’s one of the reasons why I told them to tie a rope around their waist. Keeping us together and safe in case one of us trip or fall.

“What’s that smell?” I hear Carrots ask.

“What smell?” I eye Skye and she simply nods at me before she covers her nose with a protector from the hoodie. “Carrots, come here.” She approaches me I grab her around the neck of the hoodie looking for hers. I find it and put it above her nose. “Cover yourself for now. What you are smelling, is called Miasma. That just confirms, there is something bad down there.” I finish up with her then I see both of them with big eyes looking towards me.

*Crack*

I can’t confuse that sound. I raise both paws in the air. I see both Skye and Carrots do the same and I turn around. I see two glowing green eyes in the shadows and a big dirty metal shotgun pocking from the same place.

“What are you three doing in this place? You don’t look like city workers.”

A black cat pops from the shadows.

“hey there, sir. We were just.”

“Choose your words carefully, Fox.”

Chapter Text

Guns are not that common in a city. They are more common in rural areas as a way of defense, but even then it’s a highly regulated weapon of defense. I don’t know of any bunny with a gun, and I wasn’t expecting to face one in the city. The rusty metal of the gun showed how much the mammal behind it had experience using it. Much like Nick, I have both my paws in the air. I can’t see Skye but I’m also hoping she is doing it too.

“Bunny cop, can you hear me?” the voice is really low, even my ears can barely pick up and she is right behind me. “Wag your poof for a tail if you do.” I do so. “Good, listen. Move a little to your left. Slowly. Try to cover me.” I don’t know what she is planning, but it’s better to not do anything reckless with a gun pointing at us. I can’t say much given that I don’t want to give away we are planning something. Another rain falls as we wait.

“I see you are dressed this time around, and very few of you compared to other days.” Those statements caught me off guard. I can tell Nick too with the way his tail rose in the air.

“I don’t know who you think we are, but this is our first time coming here.”

“Then it was your friends the other nights?”

“No, no friend of mine would come here without me dragging them first.” He points the gun at Nick. “Don’t shoot. We are just investigating the cave systems.” I hear Nick say through the falling water. The cat holding us at gunpoint doesn’t seem to budge a little bit.

“Those black suits don’t look like city workers to me. Who are you?”

“You are right, we don’t work for the city, but we are investigating something.”

“What kind of investigation.” He moves forward towards us.

“I can’t say. Open investigation.”

“You sound like a cop.”

“We are not.”

“I am.”

“Not now Carrots.”

“I knew it, never heard of a bunny cop.” I was surprised that he was able to tell me what I was through in the rain.

“She is new. Unless you been outside of the forest in the past month. More than likely you didn’t hear any of it.” The cat seems to be content with such an answer, but not by a lot.

“That’s true. Haven't left the forest in over a month.” He is less than 8 feet away from us. He lowers the gun, but not by a lot. His movements showed wariness and readiness for any sort of outcome from us. “Why don’t you be more specific about what you doing here… I might be able to…” he wasn’t able to answer as I hear a dart gun go off from right behind me. He falls hard into the mud.

“Damn it, Skye! What took you so long to take a shot?”

“Try to aim with the rain and while having a gun pointing at you, you jackass!”

“I could have taken a shot the second he started walking, but I wanted to get some information before.”

“Before what? he filled us out with iron pellets? Like you have a gun with you anyway.”

“You don’t know!”

“Who you think put your gear on the van, dumbass!”

“Fine. Get the rope, we need to tie him before he awakens. Carrots take the shotgun.”

I take the gun. Now in my hands, it feels heavy. Rusty metal barrel but wood handled. Skye helps Nick tie him up with the rope we were using. Skye then takes out a needle and a small bottle. She puts a little bit of the liquid in the needle before injecting him. A few minutes passed and he then wakes up agitated.

“Calm down. We won’t hurt you.”

“Screw you, you pelts! You tranq me!”

“It was hard to talk to you with a gun aiming at us. Second, this should tell you, we mean you no harm. We just want to talk. I will untie you if you calm down.” He glares at all three of us before nodding.

“Good.”

Skye and Nick then untie him. Nick extends his paw towards me and I give him the shotgun. He then gives the shotgun to the cat.

“Let’s go, even though I don’t mind the rain, it’s another thing to stand under it while we talk. My house is a little farther into the forest.” We follow him through the dense rain. A rain that ends in a few minutes into the walk. “There should be another one in a few minutes.”

“That’s rare for a cat to live in such a humid district.”

“I could say the same thing to your pale companion. I was raised around dogs, water never bothered me as much as other cats do.”

“What you doing all the way in here?”

“Living my life in peace, quiet, and away from the city lights; or at least I was until mammals started to show up around here.”

“You mention city workers.”

“Anybody can live off the grid if they so wish for. Just don’t give the city mammals something to complain about and they will be happy to look the other way.”

“What’s with the gun, that should be hard to get.”

“It was. This piece of junk can shoot, but as you can see. Not very well acclimated with the weather. It was the best I could get with such short notice.”

“Why getting it then?”

“Like I said before. Mammals have started to show up around this area. Don’t know where they come from or why, but they come at least once or twice a week at night… I had seen their lights other nights. It wasn’t hard to notice, the nights at the rainforest were completely black. Some light could be seen on the farthest side, but those never move. Those were from the apartment building and where most mammals in the district would live. These however were too close to the ground and they moved. One night, curiosity got the better of me. I left my home and follow the lights. I found a large group of naked mammals. Many species to count or notice all of them.”

“Did you report any of this?”

“Tried. Didn’t believe me. Then I got a gun.”

“Not a good gun if I was able to lay you down before you could shoot. Do you even know how to shoot?”

“I do and this is the best I could get. Anyway, we are here.”

The place that we got was a few minutes away from where we found him. It’s a wood cabin with one floor. Windows seem to have some dust screen on them, but seem to be in good shape. The grass surrounding the cabin was cut. The constant rain doesn’t seem to affect the structure from outside at least. Just like he said, the rain started as we get inside.

“How did you know about the rain?” I asked as we get inside. He left his gun by the door. He then turned on the gas heater that was in the middle of the room.

“Every now and then, they test the sprinkler system for the district. When they do, there are rain regulations. Like you can see and hear, this is the third or fourth rain in the past hour. It’s a good thing I encounter you when I did… when this happens the water in the tunnels rises more than normal. You three would have been wiped out and recovered in a few days somewhere in the city. Tomorrow should be safe for you three to explore the tunnels. On normal days, it doesn’t rain more than once per hour. Even then, the rain stops after 10 minutes.”

“Well, I guess our investigation will get a day delayed,” Nick says as he sits down in a chair by the table.

Looking around the place now, it looks like a nice home.  It lacks the welcoming guest feeling that homes usually give, but this looks to be a nice place for a one mammal living. The table Nick was sitting close to had enough space for one or two mammals to have a nice meal. The sofa for one mammal was close to the gas heater. There was a gas lamp close by. A bookshelf was on one of the corners and a bed on the opposite side. It had enough space for a mammal, and maybe the occasional guest that might show up. It looked lovely if I may say so myself. The windows were only by the entrance which I found odd, maybe the cost of glass is high in the city.

“What else can you tell us about the mammals?”

“Not much besides what I already said.”

“So, they were… naked?”

“In the fur, I was surprised too when I first saw it. They had these weird lanterns with them… which I found odd… who would use a lantern at this day and age?” he threw his arms in the air while waving them.

“That’s odd, what about species?”

“Like I said, all types. Prey and predator alike, and all type of species.”

“Makes sense, it’s Zootopia after all.” I comment out loud. All three eye me for a second or two before looking at each other. “What?”

“She new?”

“To the city? Oh yeah.”

“Sounded like it.”

“How about location? Where were they going?” I wanted to ask more, but the priority was the case, I could probably ask for an explanation later.

“Towards the tunnels, that’s where I stop following, only one way into them, and more than likely they would have seen me if I kept going.”

“Besides them, have you notice anything? How long has this been going on?”

“Besides them no. And I’m not sure how long, I noticed them one night when I ate too much fish and couldn’t go to sleep. Hard not to notice the lanterns in the middle of the night.”

“It’s weird they haven’t found your house.”

“You saw it during the day. At night, this entire area is cover by shadows. You would really need to deeply look and know where it is to see it at night.”

I see Nick eyed Skye A question seems to be asked just by the way they look at each other. Skye then seemed to answer with a shrug.

“So big fella, I see no calendar or clock in any of your walls… how do you know what day of the month is or what time is it?”

“Don’t really need the day of the month, but for the time I just need a mirror.” I can see him smile as there was a joke in it.

“Interesting.” I see both Skye and Nick smile at his answer… but not sure why. The list of questions for later is growing I guess. “We should better get going, don’t want to overstep on our business relationship too soon.” He motions both Skye and me towards the door. Skye goes first, I second, and Nick last. “What’s your name?”

“Should have asked that at the beginning. I’m Kyro.” He extended his paw towards Nick.

“I’m Nick. I hope you honor your namesake.”

“Always have and will. Come on, I’ll walk you guys out of the forest.” He closed the door.

We started making our way back. Kyro seemed to have a much better understanding of the forest. It only takes us a few minutes to make it to residential areas that we passed on our way here. The rain didn’t stop the entire time that we made our way back. Kyro mentioned that was weird. He also mentioned avoiding attempting to use the same route we just took. As we more than likely will get lost if we did. We parted ways there and then. We made our way back to the van. Nick had to bang the van a couple of times for, more than likely, wake him up.

We got into the van. All three of us stayed on the back… with the amount of rain, it was no wonder that we were beyond dripping wet. Something the grumpy driver fox point out almost immediately. Not much we could do in that place and time. He turned the van’s heater on, at least that should dry us up a little bit and keep us from catching a cold.

“I have a couple of questions.” I broke the silence of the drive back that way.

“Ask them out.”

“What did Kyro mean when he said he only needed to look at the mirror?”

“Cats’ eyes dilate differently throughout the day. He could tell the time just by looking at a mirror.” I was baffled at such a weird piece of trivia. “Part of this job requires knowing weird things like that.” He smirks at me. “What’s the other question.”

“Why did you all look at me weird at the house when I made the Zootopia comment…”

“Carrots, the city tries to sell itself as this utopia-like city. When in reality it’s far from it, prey and predator tolerate each other at best. If what Kyro says is right, and there were all forms of species and classes. It should in theory narrowed down by a lot on what we are looking for. Not many groups out there that would openly accept other classes and species in a group. I could probably count them in one paw the number of groups that would accept mammals of any species or class.” I look at Skye but she simply confirms it with her head.

“Get used to it bunny cop, you are new still. Better make up your mind about it and accept it, the sooner the better.” I hear Finnick from the driver's seat comment.

“let’s look at the positive.” Nick continues. “We should be able to find the group responsible faster this way.”

“Hey, Nick, where we going?”

“We need to pick up the rest of the team, hopefully, they will have something to go and find out mammals.”

We head back to the precinct. By the time we made it back, it was late in the evening. Nick spent the drive back on his phone. Skye was getting both her and Nick’s gear in order and back to where they belonged. I helped her a little bit just to kill time. Melvin, Karmen, and Chris were outside waiting for us already. Karmen took the copilot seat while Melvin and Chris sat on the back with us.

“Any news?” Nick asked not taking his eyes off his phone.

“We couldn’t get all the interviews before you came to pick us up. But so far, there is a period of time that many of the mammals had missing time. Once or twice a week, their family didn’t know where they were.” Skye, Nick, and I shared the same thought as we looked at each other. “What?”

“We might have something then… still doesn’t explain the deaths, but it sounds like we might be on the right track. What else?”

“Besides those instances, each mammal was just your average mammal. Work 9 to 5, families, some with kits, but nothing out of the ordinary that would cause their deaths.

We spent the rest of the drive back looking over the notes Chris and Melvin had gather based on the interviews the ZPD had made. The more we looked; the missing times were the only things that stock up on each interview. By the time we finished going over, we made our way to the factory. Karmen and Skye took me to their building. The building was close to the back of the warehouse, close to the back door and next to the 2 store building that Nick lived in. It was a long building with an unlocked door… I’m guessing this place relatively safe been in the middle of nowhere and having the only mammals close by been your coworkers. The first room looked very simple, white painted walls with nothing in them… not a picture in sight.

On the side, there were two wall closets with different objects on each. There was a foot army locker on each wall closet.

“We keep most of our thing in here, in case we need to move fast, we just need to pick whatever is in it,” Skye explains as she puts down her backpack in the right closet.

“You two should take a bath so you don’t catch a cold,” Karmen mentioned from behind us. “I’ll turn on the heater.”  Karmen started to take off her clothes to switch to more casual attire. Once she was done, she went inside the building. I hear some valves spinning and making some loud noise before a waterfall sounds through the room.

“What’s that?”

“Wait and see.” Skye winks at me as she throws a towel at me. She starts walking to the side of the building that Karmen disappear to. I follow behind just to feel my eyes going wide. On the side of the room we were just in, there was a pool with a small fountain in the middle.

“This was some kind of washing room back in its factory days. We repurposed it to a pool and Nick had the idea of putting the fountain in the middle. It’s the closest to a spa house that you can get this far from the city. The boys have one too, but it’s not as fancy as this one.” Karmen explained. “Give your gear, we need to clean it up for tomorrow. “ She took Skye’s and mine gear. We went inside the bath and I don’t think I’ll be able to take a normal bath after this. “Also bunny cop, Nick sent me a text. What would you want on your pizza?”

“Somebody delivers this far from the city?”

“No, Nick is making a few for dinner and was curious what would you want on yours?”

“Anything with a lot of vegetables.”

“Got it, enjoy your bath.”

The water was really warm and the bubbles coming from the bottom were really good at massaging the body. Skye was coming into the pool area. She sat down and the water only covered up to her chest area.

“Been an Artic fox, I can only use the spa bath for so long. I’ll join you for a little bit.” She explains. “After that, I will cool down on the side showers that are by Nick’s building.”

“Nick’s building?”

“it’s the building next to the back door. That’s where Nick lives. This building doesn’t have a shower or bathroom area, so we have to go there if we just want to take a shower or use the bathroom. The other bathroom is by the entrance with the boys. They don’t keep it as clean as they should.”

“Why not build one in this building?”

“It would be too expensive, we already cutting it short with our budget.” Something felt off from that statement as I see around.

“How can you guys afford all this?”

“What you mean?”

“I mean, the factory, the maintenance to this place shouldn’t be cheap. Or food, water, and electricity. How does the budget can cover so much?”

“The budget is our paycheck, and it’s not that much. It’s a good thing that the factory is so self-sustaining. The garden in the back covers most of our food needs; electricity is power up by solar panels and store so we keep it at night. Water might be our biggest problem, but we have found our ways to do it. Water comes from a pond and it’s stored on the side of the warehouse. Although we are in this district of Zootopia, sometimes it rains, so we store that too. Water used for bath and showering is then sent to the toilets or for irrigation in the garden. Anything extra like this homemade spa or the games outside, you would need to ask Nick.”

“This place sounds amazing.”

“Nick had to plan it for years before it was finally complete. If it wasn’t for that, we would be in a lot of trouble to make ends meet.” She shows a really fond smile as she makes that statement.

“How long have you met?”

“Since I can remember, he has always been there. So it’s safe to say all my life.”

“Are you two…”

“What? A couple? No, no we are not. I’m just his assistance. That’s good enough.” She goes out takes a towel and heads outside. “Don’t stay there for too long. The pizzas should be done in 15 to 20 minutes. And believe me, it tastes better the warmer it is.”

I do as she says. I stayed for a little bit before I head out. I put on the clothes I had before putting on the gear Nick gave me and head to the Dinner area which is the only area light up in the warehouse that’s mostly dark beside the main walkway around the games. Inside is everybody, but Skye, waiting for the pizzas on a big table they made from the smaller ones.

“Carrots, thank you for joining us.” He brings out two pizzas, one on each arm. He puts one that’s half full of vegies with fruit on the other side. And the next one is full-on what I’m guessing to be meat substitutes and half with pineapples. He looks at me and then behind. “Where is Skye?”

“She is taking a shower after the bath,” Karmen answered as she took a slice.

“I’ll go check on her. There are two more in the oven, so eat fast. Karmen keep an eye on them.”

“You know Skye doesn’t like that.” Said Melvin.

“Yeah yeah.” He left the dinner in the direction of his building.

“Is he always like that towards Skye?”

“He is very protective of Skye, I pity the mammal that decides to go after Skye.”

“Really? I pity Skye, no mammal could come close to Nick in any department.” Karmen said as she stood to walk to the kitchen.

“Of course, you would say that.”

“Shut up.” Everybody laughs at what I’m guessing to be a normal exchange of words.

“It’s not just Skye he is overprotective. He is with all of you.” Finnick voiced his opinion. “All except for me.”

“Somebody sounds jealous.” Chris teases Finnick.

“You kidding? I don’t want to be looked down on by that smugness in fox shape. Much less be treated like a little sibling.”

“Little sibling, he is more like a father figure with how much he does.” Karmen returned with two more pizzas. These looked to be completely out of cheese.

Soon after, Nick returned with Skye close behind. We ate while Nick shares some funny stories about how stupid some mammals that he knew could be. We finished eating and we all retire to sleep for the night. Nick stayed behind cleaning the Dinner. I can see why they see him as a big brother or even a father.

It got really late by the time I joined Skye and Karmen’s building. I simply sent a text message to my parents so they wouldn’t get worried. Saying something along the lines that I stayed late for the case I was working on and that I was going to call them the next day. The beds were very simple, nothing fancy. I’m guessing the idea was the same as the closet, for use only and not really home living. I was given a similar bed to the side. I was big enough for a fox to fit, making it huge for me. We started chatting about different topics, eventually we each got sleepier and sleepier. Eventually, I was the last one still awake, but soon enough I also succumbed to tiredness. 

Chapter Text

I woke on a place I’ve never been before. I looked around attempting to think where I was. I was in a forest. There was a wooden field below me and green grass going through it. Orange dried up leaves around, and snowy hills between the trees.  The trees tops were high in the air, I could barely see the end of them. Sunlight beams with falling snow were coming through the treetops, but not a lot of them. I was dark below, but it wasn’t cold. The snow wasn’t melting either. Where am I? I attempted to remember how I got here, but that only cause my head to start pulsating.  I heard leaves been stepped on behind me. Dark covered whatever was making that noise, but I could tell it was big.

I could feel my eyes widening at what I was staring at. It docked down and moved on four… limbs? It had a horse head with blank white eyes… but that’s was the only thing I could understand from it. Everything below the head was like nothing I have ever seen. The limbs of this thing, for lack of a better word, were like no mammal known. It didn’t have hooves, fingers, claws, anything! The skin looked smooth but with a weird exoskeleton-like appearance. It looked around scanning. The front limbs moved like arms, but the back ones were backward. It extended the front limbs slowly to get a feel of the field before deciding for a move. It kept moving the head from side to side like it was looking for something. It looked to be blind, and it did the movement more out of instinct than actually looking. Slowly but surely, it was approaching me. I needed to move.

As soon as I moved, the head and limbs stopped in their track completely. That startled me; I could see my nose twitching. Both the head and limbs were directed at me. The slow and careful movement from before was now replaced for fast and sloppy movement. I ran away from it, following the wooden floor. I could hear that thing trashing everything behind me attempting to catch up to me. The forest was too risky, I could get lost easily. The wood path was my best bet.

I kept running without stopping, all the ZPD training was worth it. I could run for hours and hours… or at least I hope I’ve been running for that long… I don’t know. I lost the sense of time… I guess that’s what happens when you are running for your life. I stopped hearing that thing coming towards me for some time… but I don’t want to look behind me. I slow down to a normal exercising run, never stopping. I take this time to look around to see if anything has changed. To my disappointment, everything looks exactly the same way as when I woke up. With some distance from… the creature, I attempted to remember how I got here. This only caused me to get a hard headache. I remember a factory or warehouse… sleeping in a bed…

I don’t think I’m alone in this… I hate waking up in the middle of the night for no reason other than the body needs to do something… that something I’ll leave to interpretation. I tried to do as little noise as possible. I don’t want to wake up Skye or Karmen. I go outside, most of the warehouse is quiet and dark, all except for the Dinner and the few lights lightning the road around the games. Maybe Nick is still there.

Nick… the name sounded familiar, but the headache was punishing me for thinking. I slowed down to a walk noticing something felt off about the forest. It wasn’t the snow, green grass, or anything like that. This forest got super quiet all of a sudden. I don’t remember ever having this feeling before, of complete silence. Growing up with other bunnies, this was not in the realm of possibilities. Then I heard dry leaves been crushed, but I didn’t know where it was coming from. It sounded it was from everywhere. I drifted away from the path. I hid close to a snow hill and between some rocks that were sticking up from the snow. The crushed leaves became louder, then it went quiet. Everything went into complete silence.

“Hsz jzf stotyr qczx?” the voice came exactly behind me. I made a long jump towards the path. In a single jump, I came out of my hiding spot, move away from the snow, and reached the wooden floor. I looked behind and I see a figure under a grey robe. The face covered completely. It might be a canine, based on the shape of the head and the size of the body… not bigger than a fox… a fox…

‘Skye mentioned the bathroom been close to Nick’s building.’ I walk there, the windows are completely dark, it’s kind of creepy. I see what looks like a big outhouse next to the building… I hope it looks better than what the parents’ have around the farm for emergencies. I go inside hoping for the best… and I’m not disappointed. The place looked squeaky clean. I’m guessing having the two only girls in the team had something to do with it… or maybe Nick was a clean freak. Regardless, I thank whoever is responsible for this. I finish my business before heading back to bed… when a creaking sound got my attention. It was coming from Nick’s building… the door opened slowly.

“Nick?” No answer. I tried to look in, but it was too dark to see. I walk to the door but I just see darkness going in. I tried to grab the door to close it, but the door opens up completely hitting the wall. The noise causes me to step backward. I check the wall for a light, but there is no switch. “Nick, you in here?” I call out inside. I grab the nob of the door and start closing it when I hear steps from inside. “Nick?” I call out again, a little louder, but nothing.

“Lcp jzf lwctrse wteewp clmmte?” It kept talking in this weird-sounding language. I don’t know how does sounds were coming out of a mammal.

I stepped back as it was so close to me. The voice sounded male. I started crawling backward trying to get away from him. He raised a paw towards me, indicating to stop moving.

“Who are you?” no answer. “What do you want from me? I can’t understand you… can you understand me?” Nice questions Judy, showing those ZPD training. Top-notch. Calm down, just breathe. He doesn’t seem to be a threat so far.

“I can now. What are you doing here little rabbit?” He stood, but kept his distance from me.

“I don’t know… I woke up here… well not here, I ran away from…”

“That?” he pointed behind me.

I notice that creature, the creature I long left behind coming at great speed towards us. Not coming from where I was running from, but instead where I was going. I felt a paw grab me by the arm and move me towards the snow mount close to the rocks. As we did, the creature stopped moving and started to look around… it would then turn around and kept going forward.

“Don’t step on their road. It’s safer to walk away from their path.”

“What was that? What you mean path?” How do you…” he put a paw covering my mouth.

“I will answer. Not here. Come.” He started walking away. “Espcp lcp yz pypxtpd spcp. There are no enemies here.”

He extended his arm towards me. I took it and he picked me up from the snow. I followed him through the snow. We avoided wooden paths as we did. I saw other creatures similar to the ones that were in the path I was in. Their heads, however, were different. Some were oxen, other elephants, other tigers, there were so many I lost track of how many we passed and how many were walking around; however, everything below was anything but from a mammal I had seen.  They don’t seem to mind us.

“They follow a path, carved and lay down for those that came before. They get angered if somemammal step on the paths that don’t belong there.” I felt as if he was eyeing me as he said it… like he knew more than he wanted to admit. “I on the other paw, walk what I choose to walk.” I don’t understand what he is trying to say.

The snow path took us to a cave. A big… gloomy… dark… and creepy-looking cave. Ancient fear crawls itself inside my mind. My nose starting wiggling fast. I notice he started moving towards a gong on the side of the cave. He made it sound once. Then suddenly the cave made a loud roar. For the first time, I felt cold air from that thunderous roar. I grab my ears and brought them in front of me as I put my back towards the cave. As I do this, I shut my eyes.

I go inside there must be a light switch somewhere. Nick’s night vision can’t be this good. Regardless of what most mammals think, for night vision to work, there needs to be a light source of any kind. I go into the room. I see the bookshelf in every single wall full of books. I see a blinking light on the side. Without me noticing, I came close to it…

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A deep voice said. I look around, but there was nothing but books and darkness.

“Hello? Nick? Is that you?”

“Who are you?” A second voice joined. Very different from the first.

“Who are you? Hsz lcp jzf? Who are you? Hsz lcp jzf? Who are you? Hsz lcp jzf? Who are you? Hsz lcp jzf? Who are you? Hsz lcp jzf? Who are you? Hsz lcp jzf? Who are you? Hsz lcp jzf? Who are you? Hsz lcp jzf? Who are you? Hsz lcp jzf?”

More and more voices kept joining, they were coming from everywhere in the room. My ears started to vibrate more and more. I felt nauseous with more and more voices kept coming. I got to my knees and both my paws trying to cover my ears but to no use. The room started spinning. I closed my eyes, mouth, and ears as I collapse into the fetus position on the ground.

It was then that I finally remember how I got here… or at least I think I do. I was at the factory… in Nick’s room when I suddenly woke up on that wooden road in the forest.

“lcp jzf zv?” This voice sounded different. Female? I look up and see a huge group of robe… mammals? In front of me. They all had robes covering their entire bodies. But they all seemed to be from canines. With the way their head shape had. All the robes were different colors. I back crawled to try to get some distance but was stopped by the Grey robe. Who put his paws on my shoulders. They all approached but they stopped after Grey Robe stopped them by extending his paw towards them.

“Oz yze delcewp spc. It’s ok Grey Rabbit. They won’t harm you.” He stood up and walk towards them. “Espcp lcp xlyj. Oplw htes espx. T htww dpyo estd zyp mlnv.” What kind of language do they speak? How do they even make those sounds? They all seemed to nod and walk away from the cave and into the forest. He moved back towards me and gave signals with his paw to follow him.

I followed him deep inside the cave. Contrary to the big gust of cold wind early, the cave was not cold. After a while we reached an open room with a hole in the ceiling to the outside… but a deep dark hole on the ground. Then I noticed it, the snow was floating up towards the ceiling. Without realizing it, my body came close to the hole. I looked up… it was sunny. Then I felt a little push on my back.

“Rz mlnv ez esp hlvtyr hzcwo, Nlcczed” He said something as I fell into the dark hole in the ground. My body eventually made a hard stop in the air before been pulled back up into the air and into the sky. Even though I knew I was going up, it felt like falling. I close my eyes as my speed increased and the wind made my eyes cry.

Then I hit a cold dark floor. I look around and notice Skye and Karmen beds next to me. What just happened? Was all that just a nightmare?

Chapter Text

“Welcome to the waken world, Carrots.” Without me realizing it, I made my way to the Dinner. Not really surprised, I see Nick analyzing the underground tunnels at the Rainforest district. His eyes move from my face and go down. “Interesting outfit.” I follow his gaze and notice what he was looking at… It was my pajamas or more like what I use as pajamas. No sleeve white shirt with pink pants.

“I’m…” I felt my body warm up really fast.

“Going to change? Go ahead, Karmen and Skye are picking up fruit and Finnick is bringing pastries from the city. You are lucky I’m the only one here. The shower is by my building, it’s the one by the back door.”

His building, those words echo within my ears. I look back and see it. It’s like any normal building. But after the dream or nightmare from yesterday, it looks very different now.

“You ok, Carrots?”

“uh? What do you mean?”

“Your fur is turning white or really pale skin? You feeling sick?”

“No, I feel fine. It’s just…” I look at the building again. I felt a creepy feeling coming just by looking at it. I feel a paw on my shoulder.

“Judy, you ok? What’s wrong?” Hearing my actual name felt weird, but not unwelcome. “Did something happen last night?”

“No, it was just a dream. It’s stupid just forget it.”

“Are you sure?” He eyes from head to toe and back.

“Yeah.”

“Ok, come on. I’ll show you the showers.” He walked past me and headed towards his building. We walked past Skye and Karmen on our way there. He walked past his entrance, but I stopped and noticed a small lock at the door. That wasn’t in my dream… but makes sense. It was a dream.

“Was that always there?” I voiced my thoughts that made Nick do a U turn and return to the door next to me.

“Yeah…. Why? It’s for security reasons. I’m the only one with things worth stealing. Don’t tell the rest of them. “ He whispered the last comment.

“I want to go inside.”

“Carrots, that’s a little forward coming…” I can hear the contain laugh, but I stopped him from talking when I grab his arm.

“Please.” I was leaving no option. He watched with analyzing eyes before assenting and opening the lock followed by the door. He then moved inside. He went to the left in the darkroom and turn on the light.

“You coming in?”

I did. I saw around, the space looked about the same from my dream… at least what I could perceive as space. I wasn’t able to find the light, so I can’t be completely sure if this was the same as my dream. All the walls were covered in bookshelves with books filling out completely each one of them. There was one wall with no bookshelf and instead had a curtain. There was a computer on a desk at the end of the room.

“Nick, what’s all this?”

“Books, carrots. You never seen them?” I almost wanted to smack him.

“I know!... just, books about what? What’s in them?”

“It’s better if you don’t know carrots. Believe me, you will sleep better not knowing.” He headed towards the switch and motioned me to move outside. He did so and close the door with the lock. He then showed me the shower room that was next to the building. It was a small building on the side of Nick’s. It had 3 doors. “The first door is the toilet, and the other two are shower rooms. Everything that you need like a towel is on a pantry door once you are inside. You will see it.”

I go inside one of the shower rooms. There was a sink to the left with a mirror. The shower with a bathtub was at the end and to the right was the pantry door Nick mentioned. I opened it and there were the towels. It’s a good thing that brought my own shampoo as I don’t see anything but canine shampoo and conditioner all over the place. It makes sense with all of them been foxes.

“Nice place Nick.”

“Thank you, I try.” He smiles proudly. “Well, need to make coffee for everybody if you excuse me.” He left me. “Oh! Right! How do you drink your coffee?”

“You know what a carrot latte is?”

“If I can find a video guide online, I’ll let you know.” And he disappeared.

I left for Skye and Karmen room. Took out my bag and brought it to the shower room. This is not a big room like the spa in the next building but feels really comfy. I took a quick shower and dressed on fresh shirt and yoga pants. After all, I’m going to switch on the gear that Nick gave me later. I look myself in the mirror and notice that my outfit hasn’t changed much this is kind of what I used at home… HOME! I should call my parents.

I check my phone, multiple calls starting from this morning. 1 ring, that’s all it took for them to answer. Not a good sign.

“JUDY! STU! JUDY IS CALLING.” My mom answered. I can hear the rapid steps from my dad in the background.

“Hey…” didn’t let me finish.

“Don’t you hey us! We’ve been worry sick for you! Look at the time…” I looked at the time on my phone. “…It’s been two hours since you were supposed to be awakened!” They are not wrong, always been a morning person. I guess the quietness of the factory-made me extra sleepy. Plus yesterday's trip to the rainforest district tired me more than I could have guessed.

“Sorry guys just woke up. I swear.” I lift my paw showing in the camera.

“Ok, how was your day?”

“It was good. I got to see the Rainforest district. We did some investigation there, but we are going to continue today.”

“Nothing dangerous?”

“Nop.” I decided to lie as I doubt my parents want to know that their daughter had a shotgun aimed at her.

“Good, so, this team you work with. What are they like?”

“They are good mammals. Accepted me almost immediately, and they are really close.”

“Speaking of close, where are you? That doesn’t look like your apartment’s bathroom.”

“No, no it isn’t. I…” I shouldn’t lie to them twice within minutes. “I’m staying with them during the investigation.” This revelation ended with silence.

“Are there males?” the silence was broken by my father.

“Yes dad, there are also females. I’m staying with females. We have our own area away from them.” Didn’t want to say we were close to Nick’s building. They won’t find out anytime soon anyway.

*knock knock knock*

“Bunny cop! Breakfast ready!” I can distinguish Karmen’s voice through the door.

“Be there in a minute!”

“Hurry! You don’t know how much foxes like sweet things.” And then she left…

“um…” I look back at my phone hoping that they didn’t hear that. I can see both with eyes the size of plates. I guess they did hear that.

“Did I hear foxes!?” both of them started talking.

“Yes… I’m working with foxes. Guys, it’s fine. I’m safe, believe me. Anyway, I…”

“Don’t you dare hang up on us! Why didn’t you say anything about them being foxes?”

“I didn’t think it was necessary. I said I was going to work with a team outside of the ZPD. Besides, when I said, I didn’t know they were all going to be foxes.” I left the bathroom. Walked to Skye and Karmen’s room and left my bag there. I walked towards the dinner.

“Where are you?”

“Told you guys. I’m at their place.”

“But it doesn’t look like a house… or anything resembling a house.”

“Yeah, their leader has this gigantic factory with an amusement park inside. “ I switch the camera to show around with a quick glance. They didn’t say anything as I was showing them everything on my way for breakfast.

“Carrots! Good for you to … join us.” They all look at me weirdly as I held my phone up in front of me. “What you doing?”

“Mom and Dad, meet the team. Guys, meet mom and dad.” I got closer and span the phone and camera to show them. They all look at my phone with two rabbits with open mouths and wide eyes. My parents are looking at a group of frozen foxes blinking as they stare at them. “Somebody please say something.”

“Nice to meet you…?” Why did that sound like a question? Nick sounded like if it was the first time that he had met elder rabbits. The rest of the foxes wave silently at my phone.

“Aren’t you going to reply?” I shook my phone.

“Nice to meet you…?” why that sounded like a question too??

“Melvin, Camera projector now.” I hear Nick said and Melvin attempted to say no with a mouth full of muffin… probably something along the lines that he was eating. “Now.” Nick pointed at the laptop and projector on the side. He grumpily stood up and started walking there. He connected everything and the projector started working. He then asked for my phone connected with it.

“Done.” He walked back to the table and kept eating the muffin he left unfinished.

“Hello, mr. and ms. Hopps. I’m sure you have some questions for us. We are taking good care of your daughter. We’ve been feeding, cleaning, and taking care of her since yesterday. As you can see, this is our first time taking care of prey, but I think we’ve done a pretty good job. Don’t you think so, officer Hopps?” It felt weird to hear Nick calling me that.

“Yes, you have.” I’ve basically given up on having a normal conversation this morning. It all started with me not waking up at the usual time… I blame last night's nightmare and the quietness of this place.

“There you have it.” He smiles at the camera without showing his teeth at my parents.

“Who are you?” somehow my parents managed to muster a question while visibly trembling.

“My name is Nick. I’m the leader of this group of foxes and the owner of this place. This is my team. The muffin mouthful here is named Melvin.” He tried to muster a hello but was stopped with a slap on the back of the head for attempting to talk while full-on muffin. “The overgrown grey fox is Chris.” He waved hello with one paw. “The lesser grown one is Finnick.” He flipped Nick off but was hit in the head by Karmen. “The one that looks like a boss is Karmen.” She waved. “And the white vixen is Skye.”

“Hello.” Skye was the only one that actually talked.

We all stared at my parents who seemed to not be able to say anything beyond that question.

“Tell you what. We need to eat breakfast. You guys need to swallow… all this news. How about you think over for the rest of today and you hit us with more questions tomorrow. Sounds good?” they both assented with their heads and hanged up before waving me goodbye. I’m still surprised they managed to ask at least a question. “That could have gone better.”

“You think!?” we all voiced the exact same question.

“I didn’t have much time to prepare to be fair. Next time, Carrots, gives us a better sign than just shoving us into a conversation.”

“Not much I could do… I already lied about been safe yesterday… and didn’t feel like lying twice in a day.”

“You are a beckon of honesty, Carrots. Stop it.” He walked past me towards the exit. “Carrots, quick question. Your mom’s name is Bonnie?”

“Yeah… wait, how do you know?”

“Was she named after somebody else?” decided to ignore my question I guess.

“Not that I’m aware of. We tried to avoid having the same name as other bunnies usually, but it can only get you so far. Why do you ask?”

“Just curiosity.”

“How do you know her name?”

“Not important. Might be a huge coincidence.” And he left. I look at the rest of the team and they simply shrug.

I go grab a muffin from the table. Karmen wasn’t joking when she said foxes love sweets. There are only 2 left and I can clearly see the big box on the garbage can.

“Oh right, Nick left this for you. He said he tried his best.” Skye gives me a hot cup of coffee. Based on the smell I can tell is close to a carrot latte. “He made it low on caffeine… he said that bunnies don’t need that much, to begin with, and you been you didn’t need to be extra active.” That comment made me giggle a little bit. I take a sip and I’m surprised how close he got to it.

We eat breakfast while talking about some generic topics. Nick returned after a while dressed in his gear. He gave Skye and me a bag each. I guess he was picking it up.  Nick then grabbed a cup of coffee and sat with us. He seemed to be deep in thought. It seems like I was the only one that noticed. Around 10 in the morning or so, we put our gear and left the factory towards the precinct. Everybody stayed there but Nick, Skye, Finnick and me. We then parted towards the Rainforest district. I rode shotgun with Finnick. Skye and Nick were talking on the back, but couldn’t tell what they were saying. We entered the tunnel connecting the district, as soon as we left it we got hit by rain.

This was weird, I thought they weren’t going to use it today. I look back and both Skye and Nick looked at the rain. Finnick kept driving, but look behind using the mirror at them. Nick simply assented. We arrived once again at the same location as yesterday. Finnick stayed in the van.

“Finnick, stay awake. It might be nothing, but just do so.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

“Finnick.” Nick grabbed his arm. “I’m serious. Stay awake.”

Nick, Skye, and I left the van and walked towards the tunnel. The rain felt heavier than yesterday. It seems I wasn’t the only one to think that as there was nobody outside beside us. Nick and Skye eye each other as if they were having a mental conversation.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Could be nothing, but the rain feels weird.”

“You too?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah. Feels heavier than yesterday.”

“That it does.”

We made it past the bridge and the buildings. The rain kept pouring on us. The trail was muddier. I can feel the mud creeping up my legs. We made it to the ravine that has a lot more water than yesterday running. It wasn’t enough to be of danger, but it was a possibility. We crossed it fast and move towards the tunnels. We took precautions again and use a rope to tie us all. When we made it to the same slope from yesterday where we could feel the smell and met Kyro.

“No smell.”

“Skye?”

“She is right, I don’t smell it either.”

The rain kept falling. Nick instead of going down the slope he headed towards Kyro’s home. Skye and I followed right behind.

“I just have a weird feeling. We can check the tunnels right after.”

We walked for a few minutes and reach home, but something was off. The place looked very different.. The windows were broken. The wood looked moldy, the trees, and grass around the house was overgrown. It looked like nature was claiming back the place. We approached the house, as we did a weird smell started coming from it. It was similar to the one from yesterday but slightly different. Nick was the one in front and Skye motions me to put on the mask. Nick opened the door and black smoke came out of it. The door fell down. It looked like termites ate the door from the inside. Nick took out a flashlight and went in. Skye follows right behind and I did the same.

The inside didn’t look any better. There was so much dust everywhere. The sofa and the table were on the floor in a weird position, both pointing towards the door. They looked like a fort my brothers and I would do with the furniture back home. The bookshelf was out of books and on the floor. The bed looked to be muddy and cut in different ways. There was no bed sheet in it. I see Skye attempting to light up the place using the gas lamp, but it didn’t turn on. Nick made a whistle to call both Skye and me. He was standing by the turned-over sofa and table. He was aiming at the floor where the missing bed sheet was. There was something underneath. We share glances at each other before Nick kneeled down to remove the sheet. We already had a guest on what was going to be under it.

The first thing that hit us was the smell. It was an awful smell. I almost threw the breakfast. To no one’s surprised, it was Kyro. The fur was white and looked a lot thinner. He had mud on top of his fur. Nick then looked at the table he was using for cover. There was some writing under the table and a broken mirror. I couldn’t read the writing even with the flashlight on it. Nick seemed to be able I see babbling.

“What does it say?”

“Looks like he was counting something.” He pointed at one of the corners. “Here he wrote. Still night. Cant see, Cant sleep. Where is the hole?” He kept moving his paw all over the table. “They come, cant leave, spin in circles. He keeps writing the same thing over and over again.” Nick then moved to examine Kyro.

“You shouldn’t touch him. There could be evidence.” Nick stops touching him, but he still looks him over.  The mouth opens and a centipede comes out of it. I lost it and I’m glad I wasn’t the only one. Both Skye and I lost our breakfast. We both stepped aside. Once our bodies seem to be in control we turn back and Nick is staring above the table and through the door. Both Skye and I follow his eyesight. There was somebody standing in the distance. A dark figure. Even with the rain outside, I could notice that somebody was there. I couldn’t tell what species it was. Then that thing started running towards us. It was moving like it just learned how to walk and tried to run right after. It fell but it stood right up and kept running.

“Skye!” Nick yelled started pushing the table towards the door.

He stepped on the centipede and Kyro corpse to do so. Skye joined him immediately and I did the same. We pushed it to block the door. Skye took out her dart gun and took aim from above the table. I can hear shot after shot.

“That thing is still coming towards us! It’s crawling now! Prepare for impact!” We pushed the table and then we got hit. Although it was crawling it came at such strength that we all got pushed back a little bit. We pushed the table back in place, just for that thing to throw itself over and over again.

“Carrots, look for the hole!!”

“What hole!?”

“The one Kyro mentioned! He must have an escape route somewhere! Just look for it. Hurry! Skye! Slow him down!”

I started tearing through the place, looking for anything resembling a hole or where one could be hiding. The place was torn already so not many places to look.

“That was my final dart!”

“Carrots hurry!” the tackles against the table were slower, but it seemed like it still had the same strength as before.

There was no hole anywhere I looked. The only place that seemed untouched for the most part was…

“THE BED!” I moved the bed and the wood there looked different compared to the rest of the cabin. I pushed it with my legs and it opened. There it was a hole to outside. ”FOUND IT!”

“SKYE! GO!” Skye took the backpack and ran towards me while Nick stayed holding the table. Skye went into the hole first. “CARROTS GO, I’LL MEET YOU OUTSIDE!” I follow Skye. We made it outside at the back of the cabin. I can hear some struggle inside before Nick made it outside. He blocks the hole with the piece of wood I pushed. “Van, now!”

We made our way around the cabin towards the way we came. As we did, I turned around to look at the cabin, the dark figure is inside crawling with one arm. I can see a glaring light from the number of darts Skye put in it. I still can’t tell what the shape of it is. I keep running with Skye in front and Nick right behind me.

The rain was slowing us down. I could tell, It felt like we weren’t moving at all. I can hear Nick struggling behind me with his backpack searching for something.

“FINNICK WAKE UP, HAVE THE VAN READY. EMERGENCY!” I looked behind and see Nick on the radio.

“Nick? WHAT’S WRONG?” I hear Finnick on the other side of the radio.

“JUST DO AS I SAY!”

“On it!”

Then I see that Nick stops halfway the slope.

“Nick! What you…” I crash on Skye. We don’t fall but it was a hard stop. “Skye what…?” Skye was standing still much like Nick. I look up and see what they were looking at. Black figures… everywhere, in all shapes and sizes. Too many to count. They were just standing there with the rain falling in them. I can hear Nick behind me talking on the radio again.

“Finnick, get out of here. Tell Karmen to contact the organization.” His voice was calm.

“Nick? Nick? What happened!?”

“Just do as I say Finnick.” I can hear the radio be turn off behind me.

Chapter Text

Damn it, damn it, damn it. Nick, what did you get yourself into??? I drove as fast as I could without flipping the van over every single curve. Just remembering what the radio produced before completely going death.

“Skye, Judy, behind me.” Nick’s voice sounded startled. I connected the radio to the recorded in the van. I always wondered why he had that thing installed… I guess I should never question him. I might still do as that recording machine only came in handy a couple of times at best.

“I am Nicholas Piberius Wilde, who are you?”

“What do you want?”

“I don’t know what you talking about.”

 “Hey, come back here!”

After that, it just sounded like hundreds of animals roars until the line went completely silent.

I started driving the van through the rain. I noticed mammals coming out of the forest where Nick and the others went in. I didn’t see what was coming from it, or even if they were following. It gave me enough space to think on what to do.  The call isn’t going through to Karmen. The rain is doing more harm than good. Maybe I can communicate with them through the emergency line? But I don’t know if I’m been followed or still in danger, better get to somewhere safe before I do anything. I keep driving, but I see no cars or anywhere to stop safely. Where is a cop car when you need one??

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. I look behind me and notice the blue-red light plus siren getting closer. Good. I will probably never say that again.

I stop the car and two sheep come out… just my luck.

“Where you think you going with this speed? It’s raining too. You could cause an accident!”

“Not the time, cop! Call dispatch there is an emergency!”

“What you talking about, fox?”

“Call dispatch and connect you with Precinct one! There is an emergency! “

“Are you under the influence or something? Or is that a new thing on the street to get away from a ticket?” He eyes me weirdly with those horizontal-looking eyes. Who decided to make sheep creepy looking?

“No, officer I’m completely sober on anything. My boss would have my tail on a wall if I didn’t.”

“Ok.” He stepped out away from me but still kept me in his vision. “Dispatch, Officer Barbados here. I have a fox somewhere around 20 Acres Lane.” He seems to attempt to do it in secret by stepping away, but I guess this is the first time that he is ever dealt with a fennec fox. ”He sounds frenetic but was asking to get in contact with precinct one for an emergency. Yes, I don’t get it either. Yeah, it’s better to bring him in. Going to need…”

“Hey! I’m not leaving my van here! I will drive to the precinct as long as I get to make that call. Everything can be explained as soon as I make that call.”

“Did you hear everything?” I guess that answers the question.

“Big ears! they are not for decoration!”

“What do you think I should do? Yeah, we will bring him in. It’s better than pay to get him there. Yeah, see you in 20 minutes more or less, if the rain stops at some point, maybe faster.”

“Ok, fox, you going to drive close to us. If I see you drifting off, you can forget about this van staying in one piece by the end of today. Got it?” I nodded. “Good.”

Dumb sheep. We made our way through the district; the rain didn’t stop for a single second. We didn’t travel a lot, but the rain-delayed us a lot. A hippo was at the front desk. This place was a lot different from the one at Precinct one. It was a lot smaller and less attractive. This place could use a new paint job and possibly an interior designer.

“Hello short guy, are you lost?” the tone child almost made me threw up.

I hear a laugh behind me. “No, but you will turn out lost if I don’t get a fast call to Precinct one, Now!”

“Hey, calm down.”  The hippo tone changed very drastically after hearing my voice… or the threat. One of the other.

“I will as soon as you connect me to Precinct one! The one with the big chubby and golly cheetah! This is an Emergency!”

Why do I have to be the one in charge of overgrown kits!? Where the hell are they? They are two foxes, one overgrown beyond fox standards and the second one on the normal size. You would think finding those two in a police station would be super easy. You get distracted by five seconds and they flat out disappear. I walk around and I see the front receptionist calling me with wave signs.

“What’s wrong officer…” I see the nametag. “…Clawhauser?”

“We got a call from the rainforest district, I think it’s that cute small fox…”

“Don’t call me cute! Get Karmen! This is an emergency!” I could hear the deep voice from Finnick coming from the headset. I jump into the desk and jack his head towards me and put the headset on my ear.

“Finnick, what’s wrong!? Where are Skye and Nick?”

“I don’t know! He told me to run and call you… and tell you to call the organization. Karmen, this is bad!”

“Stay put, I’ll call and get everything in order.”

“Clawhauser, what’s wrong? You know this fox?” The voice sounded different.

“mhm…” Noticing how close I was, I push him back. “Yes, just. Keep hold for a second.” He looks at me. “What should I do?”

“I need to get my team first, talk to the organization and the chief… Have you seen them?”

He looks at the clock on his desk and then a Gazelle calendar? “The chief should be in the gym practicing. How about… Finnick?”

“Tell the district to keep him safe. That the chief will contact them soon.”

“Ok.”

“Where is the gym?”

“Back building across the parking lot” I speed through the building, as I do so, I regret having a skirt. I ran past the parking lot and entered the gym. I see my fox colleges watching the chief boxing with a rhino just slightly smaller than him. The foxes can wait.

“Chief!” I called out causing both the rhino and the buffalo to completely stop.

“Come on, Karmen! I have some money on the rhino!”

“Name is Rhynowitz!”

“What’s wrong?” the chief approached me after jumping off the ring.

“Emergency, my team needs assistance.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know everything, but Nick, Skye, and Judy are missing at the moment. Finnick asked me to contact the organization. We need to get back to HQ and I need mammals to help me find them.” He studies me carefully. “We should keep this in the down-low. I’m not in the liberty to tell you much, but the least mammals we include the better. I don’t know how deep this will go.” We came to an agreement with our eyes.

“Rhynowitz, call Fangmeyer, Wolford, Trunkabby, and meet me outside. Tell Higgins to take the foxes to their place.”

“Yes, chief.”

“Thank you chief.”

“Before they get here, Explain as much as you can.”

I explained the subject as much as I had based on Finnick calling it an emergency and me needing to contact the organization.

In a few minutes, I see what could be the officers the chief mentioned. A hippo took us back home. I told Chris and Melvin to put on gear while I make the call. I go into Nick’s building… I see a lock on it, thankfully the key was in it… when did he put that there? Well whatever, I go in, turn on the light, and head to the computer and I avoid that creepy feeling of something staring, glaring, and looking at me from all directions… especially the curtain. I turn the pc and make the call. It doesn’t ring twice before I’m connected to the organization. A sheep, a lion, and a horse.

“Codename Karmen, third in command of Fox Unit, asking for clearance.”

“Cleared. Karmen, where is Nicholas?”

“At the moment, missing.”

“Why contact us?” I hear a horse on a side of the monitor.

“Before disappearing he managed to send a message, saying to contact you.” All three stare at me.

“For now, assess the situation and call us back in 24 hours. With or without Nicholas. Am I clear?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The call turned off after that. I left the building and went into mine. I put on my gear and got ready to leave. Melvin and Chris were ready already. We all shared the same kind of gear that Nick and Skye had. We left with officer Higgins back into the district and explained the situation to the officers and the Chief.

“Higgins, stay here as temporary Chief until I get back. The rest of you, let’s go.”

 I was driving to the rainforest district when I decided to ask a question I should have asked back at the Precinct. I look to the side to see a young vixen that I’ve only met this week. I look behind through the rear mirror at my team closing in. I look below and see the other two foxes sitting in the back seat… at least I think one of them is a fox. I’ve never seen a fox that big in my life, he is closer to a wolf.

“I didn’t ask them when they investigated the place yesterday, but knowing they took their gear there meant that it’s a possibility.” The vixen answered me.

“You should know we don’t have any high gear to counter a virus.”

“Not a virus. And said that wouldn’t be a problem. Contacted somebody to provide your team with gear… just give them back after you are done. We can’t afford to give it up for free.”

“Who is this somebody?”

“Not important.” I hate that answer, but I’m at disadvantage on this. “How much more to get there?”

“We would be there by now. The rain is slowing us down.”

“Why not stop it?”

“The district chief already made a call, but it seems like there is some technical issues. They don’t know why the rain hasn’t stopped. Flash flood emergency broadcast has been issued and emergency services are on high alert. A district team has been dispatched to the site entrance to guide us safely to the location your team was lost.”

“Not lost, just absent.” She sounds confident in that statement, but I can hear a level of uneasy in her voice too.

We make it there. Rain hasn’t stopped. I see the van plus a fennec fox standing next to it with a Honeybadger on military overalls.

“About time you made it here. How is the ZPD not issue better transportation?” I can’t say I don’t disagree with her… but I have to defend my gear.

“Because those cars are for the central district. They are not 4x4 cars.”

“Just cut the middle mammal and cover all your bases. Not that hard. Anyway, are those your mammals?” She pointed with her head at my team getting out of the cars.

“Yes, they are.”

“Who is coming?”

“What do you mean?”

“I have gear for everybody but the sheep, but I don’t think we should all go there.” She eyes the fennec fox who rolls his eyes before opening the van.

“You gotta hear this.” The inside of the van surprised me with the number of gadgets and gear that seems to hold. A part of me is kind of jealous. He turns on a recording machine where we all hear Wilde’s voice talking to somebody. It was then followed by hundreds of roars until the device that was transmitted from goes dead quiet.

“That’s why.”

“I’m staying right here, and nobody is moving me.” The fennec sounded very set on his decision of staying.

“Decide on who is going so I can give you the gear.”  The honey badger then moved towards a military jeep on the side of the van.

“Trunkabby and Rhynowitz stay here. We will contact you if something happens.” Both nodded at me.

“Melvin, you stay too. Chris, you are with me.” I hear the vixen shout through the rain.

“You two are coming with us.” I pointed at the two sheep.

“I already said I have no gear for sheep! They have to stay.” One by one, my team got their gear that consisted of some sort of mask. “I Didn’t have time to get everybody full-on gear. This should suffice for your investigation today. Don’t lose it, or you can forget about your savings.

“What’s the problem?” I pointed towards the sheep officers.

“I keep telling them I don’t have gear for them, but they don’t listen.” I look around and see my team plus the foxes got their masks on.

“Why not?”

“I don’t have any sheep gear.”

“Then what do you expect them to wear for this investigation?”

“What do you need them for?”

“Guides for where your…”

“Friends.”

“Friends got lost.”

“Absent.” I hear the vixen say on the side.

“You have a map?” I look around.

“I have the one Nick used yesterday.” The honey badger goes back into the jeep and takes out a mask together with a backpack.

“Alright then, let’s go.”

“Good. Both of you stay here and vigilant with them.” I pointed at my team plus the foxes that staying. “The rest let’s go.”

“Yes, chief.”

“If something happens to my jeep, you can forget about making it through the day.” She points at them with a finger gun with a pulling the trigger motion.

We left the cars behind and move through the district. We reached the apartment buildings followed by more forest and finally a ravine with running water. I look at the foxes and honey badger, but they seem to hold up just fine. We make it above a little hill and we head down. I can hear what sounds like a waterfall on the side; however, a shiny object in the mud catches my attention. The vixen and honey badger approached the object at the same time.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Nick’s radio, this must be where Finnick’s recording came from.” I look around, so did everybody else.

“Wolford, any smell?”

“hard to tell, chief. I smell mammals and many mammals at that. The mud is covering most of the smell. Can’t tell if they went somewhere either.”

“Fangmeyer, any paw prints?”

“Many, chief. Way too many.” She was looking at the ground. I did too. The water was taking out any clues we might have left.

“Let’s look around.”

We took the center where we found the radio, we then made spirals from it. Regardless of where we look, there were just a bunch of paw prints. It wasn’t until a few minutes that Wolford pointed three very distinctive paws on an extreme end of the circle. Three small prints that somehow survived the water and the stampede.

“Fangmeyer, what do you think?”

“One is from a bunny clearly. The other two could be a canine, but they are more than likely the foxes.”

“Nick and Skye.” I hear the vixen coming close from behind.

“let’s follow, Fangmeyer, upfront. Rhynowitz, rear.”

“yes sir.” Both voiced.

We moved through the muddy floor and the rainy air across the forest. It wasn’t long for us to find a cabin hidden under the shade of the trees. Fangmeyer approached, but she didn’t go that far before she looked back at me for orders. I ordered Wolford and Fangmeyer to go around while the rest of us went through the front door.

We approached the residence that looked abandoned for a long time. The fields at the front looked unattended. The cabin looked moldy and old. The wood looked and smelled rotten, with maggots coming out of them. The front door was broken in and a table was inside broken in half. I notice the windows were broken from the inside. I stop everybody with a raised hoof and took out my dart gun. I sent in Rhynowitz first and followed right behind. He went left and I right. We check every corner before meeting at the center. I notice a hole behind the bed, but not much besides that.

“Clear.” I hear Rhynowitz before we notice a body in the center. I kneel to check for vitals. There were none. I check the body and notice a lot of darts… more than a body this small should be able to handle. It was an orange cat, or at least that’s what I think it was. The head was quite small, the arms and legs were longer for some reason. The paws were dirty and muddy. The body was not in better shape, the fur was wet almost dripping and it was covered in dirt. It was also naked.

“Chris, check the body.” I hear the vixen. The “fox” and honey badger approached the body and check from up and down. He looked back at the vixen and nodded. “Alive?”

“yeah, he is alive somehow. The pulse is very small, but it’s there.” Said the honey badger.  I couldn’t believe it myself. He somehow survived after getting hit with that many darts. They both started by taking the darts one by one inspecting each one of them. Before I could voice anything, Rhynowitz rushed in and defuse him.

“No!!” Said all three before chaos ensued.

The chief ordered both Fangmeyer and me to go around the cabin. Besides the look and smell of rotten coming from it. There wasn’t much to it. We then found a body on the back. A white feline based on the triangle ears. Check the pulse, but there was none. The body was next to large piece of plywood that looked from a different material to the rest of the cabin. I moved it and saw a hole that looked to be going inside. Then I heard a loud “No” coming from the cabin. We rushed around and saw something really bizarre as we made it to the front door. For starters, I saw a flying bison coming out of it.

“Chief!” Fangmeyer went to check on him while I head inside.

Inside, it wasn’t anything normal. Rhynowitz was somehow been overpowered by a small cat with longer than normal arms that were maybe a third the size of Rhynowitz full standing position. The honey badgers and the foxes were on the side behind half a table. I couldn’t see what they were doing, but I needed to help Rhynowitz somehow. I cat? Had its back towards me so I rushed from behind to surprise him. Just for its head to do a 180 towards me… follow by the arms and legs. Blood came from the articulations. What happened next was something not in my wildest dream could happen… it flipped Rhynowitz towards me launching a rhino projectile twice my size.

“Just hurry, I doubt those two will be able to keep it busy for that long!”

“I’m working as fast as I can! Luckily there are some unused darts in the floor and some of the liquid was still in the darts in him!.” I can’t believe I’m stuck making a tranquilizer strong enough to put that thing down on the fly! We were then shut by a loud noise. We look above the table and see a flying officer rhino hit a wolf and floor it. That thing then turned its sight towards us. In seconds it was right in front of us. Without any warning, Karmen hit it with an iron rod across the face.

“Finish it, Chris and me will keep it occupied.” Chris took out two gloves and put them on and hit them together. It made a heavy sound. The thing rose up with the face twisted to the side. It fixed itself by using both paws and twisting it back in place. I docked down again and kept working on my job. They should be able to keep it busy.

“Chief! Are you ok?” I paw to see if anything is bleeding. Who could be able to throw the chief through a door and also send him flying! A cape buffalo weights at least a ton, with the muscle from training, the Chief should wait at the very least 2!

“Fangmeyer, what happened?”

“You went flying!”

“I… I what?” He looked around and sees where he is in relation to the cabin. The distance he traveled.

“Where are the rest?”

We both heard a heavy slam from the cabin. We both rushed in and encounter a weird sight. Rhynowitz was on top of Wolfard who was immobile. And the foxes seemed to be taken on a cat with long limbs. The vixen was wielding an iron rod and was on a high stance with the rod above her head. The other… is it really a fox? His size was way beyond that of a fox but would be weird for them to not have a fox on their numbers. On the side, the honey badger seemed to be busy with darts.

When the cat threw a slash at the vixen, she would parry with the iron rod followed by a step back. This gave the opportunity to the other fox to throw a few punches. If the cat would attack the fox, the vixen would get in with her stick and get a hit or two. It was obvious they were used to fight together. Soon, they managed to corner the cat. But that was the point they all reached to a standstill.

“Check on them.” He pointed at Wolford and Rhynowitz. He walked towards the foxes. I could see the muscles of the arms tense. I thought a vein would pop any second. He stood behind the foxes. “That thing is no mammal correct?”

“No.” The vixen answered.

“Good.” I don’t any of us saw it coming, much less the cat. The chief threw a punch that floored the cat hard. The wood under it cracked. He then picks the cat up and slams it against the floor again. The cat was moving still or attempted to until both the chief and the fox pin it down to the floor. The honey badger rushed in and manually darted it. It stopped moving immediately. They didn’t take their paws from it until they were one hundred percent sure it was down for the count. “Ok foxes… what the hell is that thing?”

“I don’t know… these things are supposed to be done by Nick and Skye usually. Honey, any idea?”

“Not a clue. This is nothing like anything Nick has described over the years I’ve known him.” The honey badger’s name is Honey?

“I’ve read Nick’s reports. Nothing comes close to this thing.” He kicked the body a little bit. “Are they ok?” he pointed at the officers down which I just remembered I was supposed to check on.

“I could be better if Rhynowitz decides to move.” I attempted to move the big Rhino but with no luck. The chief and the fox joined me and we managed to roll him off Wolford.

“You ok?”

“Never been better.” Wolford seemed to be hurt, but it seems like the wood under him giving save him from been flatten.

“Rhynowitz?”

“My everything hurts.”

“Everyone?” the honey badger got our attention. She was kneeling next to the cat. “It died… I feel no pulse and it’s getting colder and colder by the second.”

“Fangmeyer, called it in and give our location. We need a bigger team to investigate everything.” He eyed the vixen.

“Should be fine, this is just a crime scene at this point. Honey?”

“The place doesn’t seem to be, for lack of a better word, dangerous. It should be safe to be without a mask.”

“Chief… there is another body behind the cabin. It should be next to that hole.” I pointed at the hole next to what looks like a bed.

“Let’s call in forensics too. The more information we can get from this, the better. Let’s wrath it up then.”

What’s he doing in that cave? Koslov said to follow him since he was acting weird. We all noticed, but seeing it confirmed was different. He is missing for a long time now. Something left the cave but as no polar bear. Too small to be a polar bear. I walk to it and notice a very fat fox. I could tell because of the red fur. But something was off. The body is too fat to be one… also whitetail. Foxes didn’t come in multicolor. He collapses in front of me.

“Help.” That’s what he said. I inspected and found another fox on the back. A white fox. And a grey bunny attached to the chest.

Call Koslov. Should know what to do.

“Maxim, talk. Where Daniel?”

“Daniel still missing.”

“Why call?”

“two foxes and a bunny came from cave.”

“Same cave Daniel went in?”

“Yes.” I hear boss voice talk to Koslov in background.

“Boss says, ice them and wait for Daniel.” I hear argument… can hear voice of little missy. “Boss says to bring them back.”

“Alright.” Pick them up. They are light. Throw them on the back and drove back to mansion.

Chapter Text

I drove back to mansion. I had to slow down for blizzard too strong. What’s wrong with weather walls?  Seems to get worse as the night grows long. I see call on car phone. It’s Koslov.

“Where are you? Should be back by now.”

“Blizzard slow me down. Should be there within hour.”

“Yes, there seems to be problem with weather walls. All city in emergency.”

“Turn on the car sitting heats… ” The voice distracted me. I look thought mirror to see the fox looking back at me. He was at far end. “They need to heat back up. Just do it.” A growl came from fox. Some part in me respects him for attempting to intimidate a polar bear. I growl back at him to put him in his place.

“What’s wrong?” Koslov calls me back.

“Fox woke. Wants me to heat the car for other two. Growl at me.”

“Haha.” Never heard Koslov laugh before, but laugh sounds scary. “Turn the heat on.” I obey and put it on.

“Happy fox?” He simply stare at me.

<Can he hear me?> Koslov started talking Russian.

<Yes.>

<For now let it go. Little missy wants to see them recover, once that’s over we can take care of him>

<Ok.> I smile while looking forward.

<Take care of me, how? And who is this little missy?> I hear the fox speak in perfectly articulate Russian behind me. I stop the car and look in the mirror. He is right behind me looking at me with glowing yellow eyes. <Don’t turn around.> for some reason I obey.

<You speak Russian?> Why is my body trembling.

<I can now.>

<Who are you talking to?> Koslov asked.

<The fox.> It wasn’t me the one that answered.

<How do you speak perfect Russian.>

<Not important.> Koslov growl at the answer. < I need medical assistance for my comrades. Can you get a doctor with you fast? I’m sure you can, I doubt you need to look hard to get one to do a job under the table. Am I right?>

<How dare you talk to me like that? Maxim, why are you letting him talk to me like that?>

<Yes Maxim, why haven’t you done anything to stop me> I couldn’t put it on words, but ever sense he started to speak Russian. There was something off about him.  Even the eyes made me feel small <You were going to take care of me right?> the smile that the fox was giving me was sharp and my instincts were screaming at me to abandon the car and run. However, that same fear was also stopping me from fleeing. I wanted to keep him on my sight.

<Koslov… don’t mess with the fox.>

<Now you are giving me orders!?>

<No… I’m warning you. There is definitely something off about him. Can’t explain.>

<You should listen to him Koslov. You are away from me compared to him. But you won’t stay away from me for very long. I need a doctor Koslov. Get him and I’ll give you information on your missing bear.>

<What missing bear?> the anger was gone from him for the most part, but I could still feel it in Koslov.

<Don’t act dumb with me. I saw your bear comrade not long ago. He is been acting weird lately, isn’t he?> Both Koslov and I stayed silent. The fox knew something. <Get me the doctor and you will know more.>

<Fine, you have a deal.>

<Female. They going to need a female.>

<Fine.> I can tell Koslov was losing patience. He hanged up. Now everything was silent. I started driving once more; at least the car could make some noise. The blizzard is staying strong.  It didn’t take long for my curiosity to get the better of me. I wanted to see behind me so badly. But fear was keeping me from it.

<You can turn around if you want.> I turned around, but  I didn’t see anything wrong. It was only two foxes and a bunny. His eyes were green too. The yellow glowing eyes were gone. “Happy now? Hurry my team needs a doctor.” The fear was gone and was replaced by confusion at the smug fox sitting behind.

The team of forensics took their time to get here. The location didn’t help. It was hard to get here. We investigated as much as we could with the rain and mud as factors thou, this was a hard job. Forensics didn’t seem to get much information either. They took the bodies and sent them to the morgue. We went back to the precinct. The wolf and rhino needed some first aid. The rest of us were just dirty, wet, and a little tired. When we got inside there was a lioness in a black shirt with blue jeans and raincoat talking to the chubby cheetah.

“As I said, we can’t investigate a missing mammal at the moment. The weather walls are acting weird so most officers are supporting emergency services at the moment. Plus, the fox you looking for is an adult, meaning he needs to be missing for over 72 hours for us to start an investigation.” I hear the cheetah say.

“I know the rules, but this is important. You don’t know the kind of mammals he often deals with. So If I can’t contact him; it means that he is in danger.” She slammed her paw on the desk. Her voice sounded familiar, but it couldn’t be her… could she?

“Penny?” I voiced out loud. The lioness turned around to see me.

“Karmen?” she sounded confused and surprised at seeing me.

“Wow, look at you. You have grown since the last time I saw you.” I approached, both Melvin and Chris behind me.

“Of course, I’m a big lioness now.” She pointed at herself sounding proud. “What you doing here?... is Nick with you? I’ve been trying to contact him for a few hours.”

“I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing here? No, Nick is not with us, he is… missing, to say the least.”

“What you mean missing?” He looks that it’s only us three. “Where are Skye and Finnick?”

“Finnick is in the van outside. Skye is with Nick… we hope.”

“I see. I was trying to file a missing report on Nick, but not much luck.”

“Why are you looking for him anyway? And why here?” the cheetah looks at me weirdly. I can tell what he is thinking, Shouldn’t come to a police station for help to search a mammal the first thing anybody should do? The answer would be yes in some cases, but with the problems that we deal with. Involving multiple mammals is not for the best.

“Nick asked me to investigate a lead that he had, but he couldn’t follow completely. He also told me to be careful. I did the investigation.”

“Dangerous?”

“You could say that. So I tried to fill the missing mammals plus get some sort of protection in here. You know, killing two birds with one stone.”

It made sense. “What did he have you investigate?”

“This.” She gave me a piece of paper.

“Blood Unification.” I read out loud. “What does it mean?”

“He told me to investigate if there was a group of mammals that were meeting anywhere in the city. That term is what came up in my investigation. After finding the term, I’ve been feeling weird.”

“Weird how?”

“Weird as in been followed. That’s when I decided to come here. This place seemed safe. At least safer than my home for now.”

“It might be safer for all of you to stay here.” The cheetah behind the desk caught our attention. He pointed at tv in the lobby and turned up the volume. It was an emergency broadcast. There was a moose and a snow leopard on screen.

“This just got in, for all mammals to stay at home and not leave unless there is a personal emergency. The weather walls are out of control causing drastic weather changes all around Zootopia.” The leopard said.

“That’s right Fabienne. The only mammals going outside right now should only be emergency services mammals that are there to assist any problem that might come up. Otherwise, we advise you to avoid going outside until new notice. To counter extra mammals coming in and out, the city is been closed down. Any form of transportation has been shut down. The least mammals need assistance the better, wouldn’t you say?”

“Couldn’t have said better, Peter.”

We all look at each other. This was bad, something was happening to the city. A train was coming, and we didn’t know when or how it was going to hit us. I check my clock, 10 hours away to contact the organization. Damn, Nick. Where are you?

The news on the radio about the city been shut down came as a surprise. We should still be able to make it back home I hope. My dad and I were on our way to meet with a friend of his in Tundratown. A polar bear on a limousine showed up at home to pick us up. Dad seemed to want to talk to him, but couldn’t because of the strong blizzard that was covering this district at the moment. I was told they needed my help with a couple of mammals suffering from possible hypothermia. I took whatever I had in hand to counter it and got in the limousine.  It was a good thing that my pharmacy had a little bit of everything. This wasn’t the first time that I was asked to do something like this for my dad’s friends. They helped me got my business off the ground, so this was a nice way to pay them back.

We reached the mansion, Koslov with two other polar bears was at the entrance. I could never differentiate them. Koslov was the easiest to spot… he was huge, even for a polar bear. He was easily a head or two taller than the other polar bears. The dark blue suit also helped, he was the only one wearing that color.

“Mr. Otterton, Mr. Big waiting inside.” My dad went inside to meet Mr. Big. I stayed with Koslov to show me who needed my help. He simply said to wait as they were making their way over. Oh God, I hoped they are not too badly injured. However, the polar bear mentioned Hypothermia… can polar bears suffer that too? I guess is a possibility.

A car approached I went to meet them. Both polar bears followed me, Koslov stayed by the entrance. When I reached the car and opened the back door. Two foxes and a bunny were there. One of them seemed conscious enough, the other two however seemed to have entered hypothermia. Their skin and fur color were paler. I ordered both polar bears to carry them inside and to do it with little movement. The conscious fox follows right behind me. He seemed to be doing fine. I walk past Koslov.

“You the fox?”

“Very observant of you to notice it.” My tail and ears went flat. I’ve never heard of anybody brave or foolish enough to sass Koslov. I mean, look at him! He is huge. The fox is barely the size of one of his legs. Koslov growled but the fox didn’t back down. He stood his ground. “Need to make sure my team is fine. Once I do, we can discuss.” Ok, the fox wasn’t going to make it beyond the next minute.

A bear approached Koslov and whispered something to him. He nodded and then look at the fox. “Fine. Peter, company them. Bring fox to Office later.” The fox walked next to me and the Peter the polar bear was walking right behind.

I look at him with a side glance. There is something off about the fox… besides the fact he is still living after talking to Koslov like that. “Anything you want to ask Ms. Otterton?” I was caught by surprise at him knowing who I was. “Don’t worry, that’s all I know of you.”

“You are a brave mammal. You are the first one to survive after talking to Koslov like that.”

“Not for long.” Said Peter from behind. We turned our heads to see him. “Night young. Plenty of time to change that.”

“If you say so.” The fox said not missing a bit. “I have something that he needs, and until he gets it. I’ll be safe.”

“What after you give that to him?”

“He won’t harm me even then, because even after I tell him what he wants to know. He will still be missing a polar bear.” That surprised me, what missing polar bear? We reached a room with two polar bears standing on a door. The ones from the entrance I’m guessing? We go inside and a polar bear with Frufru was waiting for us.

“Hi, Alice.”

“Hi, Frufru.” Frufru’s high pitch voice was very contagious. “Let me check the patients before we can talk.”

“Little miss wished to see them.” So it’s a female polar bear, that will help us. I see the fox's ears go up and attentive towards the smash shrew.

The bunny and vixen were on a huge bed. I check their bodies’ pulse. They were low but slowly moving up.

“We need to take their clothes off. “I took out a pair of scissors. The least move them the better. “Please prepare a hot bath for the bunny.” The polar bear nodded, put Frufru on a table close to the bed, and went into the room’s bathroom.

“Wouldn’t she go on shock if you do?” I heard the fox said.

“Yes, but we are not making her take it right now. It’s for once her temperature goes back to normal. The vixen should be fine with just taking her cloth off, and letting her rest for a while.

“Fox, comrades fine. Time to talk with Mr. Big.” A polar bear called out from outside.

“Yeah yeah.” He started walking towards the door, he then turned around and looked at me. “Take care of my team while I’m not here. I’ll be back.” He sounded very confident.

Why would the boss call me now? I had to leave the fox to peter for now. I made my way over to the dispatch.  I opened the door. Mr. Otterton was sitting on the desk with Mr. Big. Dimitri was standing behind the boss.

“Koslov, my son. Where is the fox?”

“He is with Ms. Alice. The fox wanted his team to be safe.”

“I see. So he is worry for his comrades. What you make of him?”

“He is either brave or a fool. He stood up to me.”

I see the boss show a grin smile. “Let’s go brave for now. What you know about Maxim?”

“Haven’t talk to him after he returned.”

“Daniel?”

“Came back before Maxim could see him.”

“You sent somebody to follow him before. When he started to act strange.” I nodded. “Where he go?”

“Mystic Spring Oasis. We followed for few months to be sure.”

“Emmitt, please tell Koslov what you came to tell me.”

“I haven’t seen Daniel in a few weeks at the Oasis.”

“Why you stop following?”

“DIdn’t seem necessary. We all need time off. We each do in different forms.”

“I see.” There was a knock on the door. The fox came in with peter. I ordered Peter to stay outside.

“Talk.”

“What do you want me to talk about?” He asked with a smirk. I raised my fist about to slam the smirk out of the fox. “I know, just trying to light up the mood. You must be Mr. Big.” He approached the desk, but I cut his advances by stepping between.

“Koslov, calm down.” He approached the desk and took the boss paw and kiss the ring on his paw. He seemed to be accustomed to such greetings. “I am, Mr. Big. Mr…?”

“Wilde, But everybody calls me Nick.”

“Mr. Wilde it is. My son here tells me you might know where my missing bear might be… or knows his whereabouts.”

“I see where he takes the serious and professional side now.” He looks back at me and gives me a smirk. “However, I don’t know where he is.” That was it, I approach from behind. I’m ready to punch him through the floor. He raises an arm. “I’m not done talking big guy. I’m not sure if it was with the mammals that attack me and my team. There were too many to count or distinguished. But if you had a bear close by the cave, it was highly possible that he was between them. Now, I don’t know what those mammals were doing there, more than likely were waiting for my team and me to show up and ambush us. I’m sure you’ve heard of the bodies found in a cave not long ago?” We all nodded. “I’m doing that investigation. The mammals found at the cave were reportedly acting weird before they end up dead. Not only that, every week they would all disappear for a day away from their families. Their whereabouts are completely unknown during the outings. The only possible relation between them was these missing times. Meaning it’s likely they were together during these times.”

“What does it have to do with Daniel?” I asked.

“That’s your bear’s name? If he was like the missing mammals so far, he was doing exactly the same as them. Now, what can you tell me about Daniel? I know you wouldn’t have one of your bears suddenly disappear and not do your own investigation. Am I wrong?”

“You are not wrong, Mr. Wilde. Koslov?”

“Daniel was going to a club downtown. Mystic Oasis.”

“Mystic Oasis?”

“I guess this is my time to talk.” Mr. Otterton raised his paw as he spoke. “Mystic Oasis is a naturalist spa club. All mammals are allowed regardless of size, species, or class.”

“I see. I guess I know where I’m going next.”

“Mr. Wilde, how far lost is my polar bear?” I hear concern coming from the boss. Regardless of what other mammals think, the boss is not a bad mammal. He treats those close to him like family, even with the obvious differences.

“I wouldn’t be able to tell. The mammals that attack us were no longer sane to put it lightly. He might come back to his senses if the problem is solved, but I can’t promise anything.”

“Mr. Wilde, please bring my son back.”

“I’ll do what I can.” I guess the fox is not that bad at all.

Chapter Text

“Bun-bun? You ok?”

“uh?”

“You drifted into nothing just now. If you are not feeling ok, you can always delay your trip.”

“I second that!” Dad sounded really hopeful at that.

Mom and dad were looking at me with concern in their eyes. We were standing at the train station. The train was almost ready to depart. I take one final look to Bunnyburrow. I look around and as I did, my eyes focused on one direction. The city looks so different from the farmlands I’m used to. The whistle takes me out of my trance. The train was now departing. I give mom and dad a hug and got on the train. Within seconds, their figures grew smaller and smaller. The train is really empty. Maybe it will fill up as we got closer to the city. I go to the upper deck. Multiple fields passed by. The train slows down every few minutes to stop and pick up new mammals. Maybe it is a slow day as I don’t see many going in, or anybody going to the upper deck.

“It’s not a slow day.” I hear from behind me. A red fox was sitting just across from me. He was wearing a green shirt with khaki pants. When did he get here? I don’t remember seeing him as I got in, or since I’ve been here.

“How did you get here?”

“Through the stairs just like you?” I was never a fan of sarcasm. Living with a family of bunnies with over two hundred members beat it out of me.

“Your sarcasm is not welcome; regardless, the question stands. I didn’t see you coming in, and I don’t remember seeing you coming up the stairs.”

“I was already here. You just didn’t see me because you were distracted by the outside look.” He stood up and walk across the train towards me. “May I?” He asked as he motioned the sit right next to me. I nodded once. “Thank you. So, first time going to the city or first time traveling on a train altogether?”

“A little bit of both, I’ve ridden a train before. Just not big distances and yes, first time going to the city.”

“Anything looking forward to?”

“Just been part of protecting the city and their citizens.”

“And how will you do that?”

“I’m part of the ZPD! Just graduated this summer.”

“Congratulations then I guess.” I don’t know if he sounded serious or not. The smirk on his face is hard to read. “Trying to read my face I’m guessing?” I unconsciously flinched. “It’s ok little rabbit. I’m seriously happy for you. Just be careful out there. It’s a rough city.”

“Rough city?”

“Don’t let the city slogan con you into believing the city is this paradise on earth. It’s far from it. You’ll see.” I look out the window and see the big desert. “That’s called Sahara Square. I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t like warm weather. A few minutes in and we arrive at a tunnel. The weather control walls are a big part of Zootopia’s features. It allows any type of mammal to come and join the city. We reached the snow district.

“Let me guess, you don’t recommend it if I don’t like cold weather?”

“Nop, wouldn’t recommend it generally, dangerous district, especially up north.”

“What? Why?”

“Problematic.”

“Well, maybe I’ll be part of the team to solve it.”

“Many have tried, none succeed. It’s safer to stay away from their path.” That last sentence sounded really different. His voice changed, drastically. His eye color switched too, but I somehow can’t remember what it was before. Something in him was different.

The train kept going forward. We passed another weather wall. This time we were welcomed to rain; a stormy thunderous rain. I don’t remember the weather controls been capable to produce thunder. It was never mentioned in any of the tourists’ pamphlets or any online article. The rain…

“Skye, Judy, behind me.”  Nick called up to us, Skye took my paw and brought me behind. I attempted to argue, but I was Shush by Skye. One of them approached, a deer with white blank eyes and… naked. With how intimidating the situation was with these many other mammals… I decided to overlook that aspect for now.

“Nicholas Piberius Wilde…” It said in a weird-sounding voice. It sounded like somebody attempting to speak English but their vocal cords were not used to speak it yet.

“I am Nicholas Piberius Wilde, who are you?”

“We are from the other side…” Nick’s tail did a fast-twitch.

“What do you want?”

“The gate…” Nick’s tail went down and his ears pinned against the head.

“I don’t know what you talking about.” He moves his head looking at all the shadows.

“Then die…” He moved back and immediately made a roaring sound… something a deer shouldn’t be able to have the vocals for. The rest of the shadows surrounding us did the same.

 “Hey, come back here!” Said Nick, but I didn’t understand why he did. The deer didn’t move. I looked around they are started closing in on us. Nick did the same and focused his eyes in a location and pointed at it. “Run.” He was pointed towards the tunnels we were supposed to explore yesterday and today.

“Run, bunny cop.” Skye was close behind Nick with no doubt on her resolve of following him. I did the same, what else could I do, even with training, fighting this many mammals two or three times bigger than me was a losing battle. Plus, they didn’t sound right. Something about the roars was striking a chord inside me to the core. I ran after them. The rain and the mud cause me to feel heavier. The training at the academy didn’t make me feel this heavy. The rainwater and the ground felt different.

We got into the tunnels with the mammals getting closer and closer to us. I can feel my body beginning to panic as I couldn’t see a way out. There was a huge torrent of water filling up the tunnels. Nick and Skye were in the border. I stood next to them and notice Nick’s panic face. Skye was just looking at Nick. I look behind and I see them approaching, fast. The mud seemed to have slow them down a little bit. Compared to them, We three weighted a lot less.

“How long can you hold your breath.” That took me out of the trance of looking at the stampede coming for us. Then I felt a rope around my hips.

“Uh?” I can’t believe I voiced such a dumbfounded sound.

“Hold your breath, how long?” Nick asked again. Making double sure the rope was tight.

“2 Minutes while moving if I concentrate…”

“Can you hold for 3?” I see Skye has a rope across her hips too.

“I don’t know.”

“Try.” He took my paw and Skye’s and we jumped.

“A storm is coming little rabbit.” There is that voice again. I moved away from him, he didn’t seem to mind it. In minutes, we moved again through the weather wall; however the train this time stopped halfway through it and started going backward. The district looked different, in the seconds that we didn’t see the district changed. The storm was stronger and rocked the train side to side. I was shaken and pushed to the side. The fox however hadn’t moved a single inch. We passed the next weather wall and into the next district.

Just like the last one, the weather was different.  It was hail instead of snow. The windows shattered as the train sped up even more.  The cold wind filled up the wagon fast. Cold…

We impacted into the water. I held my breath as we got in. We sank for a little bit. I paddle trying to float, but I couldn’t reach the surface. The water was cold even with the suit. I felt a pull that brought me to the surface. Nick and Skye are on the surface. We all three look behind at the group of mammals. None of them jumped. The river got us away from it, but now was the problem, how did we get out of the river. I felt another pull that brought me close to Nick. He graved me by the hips towards him. He then pulled for Skye and brought us together.

“How are you holding up?”

“It’s cold.”

“It would be a lot worse without the suit,” Skye said, she seemed to hold the cold water much better than Nick and I.

Then I felt a weird pull. The water current pulled us in a different direction. The water got colder. I could feel my arm and legs going numb. I could see Nick’s color draining from his face. Skye seemed to have changed too. Her teeth chattering and her face growing paler. Then I heard it, I turned around and see rapids but beyond that, I could hear a waterfall.  I turn back towards them and I can tell they are thinking the same thing. We hit the rapids, while doing so, I see Skye and Nick take the rope between their teeth and chew on it. They cut it before we reach the waterfall. After that Nick pushes Skye and me away from him. I held my breath and hit the waterfall first. It wasn’t a big waterfall, but as soon as I reached the bottom. A strong underwater current pulled me, fast.

I open my eyes and see Skye and Nick following me close behind. The water gets colder the farther we traveled by the current. At some point the current stops. Skye and Nick come crashing unto me. Nick points upwards and starts swimming. Skye follows him and I do the same. My body is going numb, but I can still move it. Sloppy but I managed to keep up as we seem upwards. The edges in my eyes were starting to turn blurry. Then we hit it, we hit a hard cold wall. It was ice. I look at Nick and Skye, but had panic written in their faces. This was it.  My body gave up. My eyes turned dark. I felt my body sinking and numbing itself into oblivion. A bubble of air pushed through my mouth. I felt something in my mouth, but I could no longer see…  the only thing in my mind was my family as I drifted into nothing.

Within seconds we made it across to the next district. The car stopped making me stumble and fall to the ground. I open my eyes and see a white robe figure standing in front of me.  It kneels and offers me its paw.

“It’s ok, little rabbit. There are no enemies here.” The voice was the same that the fox had at the end of it. He was wearing a white mask covering his head. It must be the fox, but where did he get that robe from? I take his paw and he helps me up. I look down the staircase and there is nothing there. Only darkness, it’s so dense that I can’t even tell if it’s a bottom. I look at the broken windows and I see nothing. It’s completely dark. The sunny desert was gone.

“Who are you?”

“The place is getting darker.” He look around, although I don’t know how well he could see with that mask covering his entire head.

“How could you tell with that mask on your head?”

He chuckled. “That’s ok, darkness never bothers me anyway.” He took out his mask. What was under it couldn’t be described. The head was that of a canine. But the fur was of a color I couldn’t even begin to describe. Then there were the eyes, at first I thought he had black eyes. There was something wrong with them, it wasn’t that they were black. It was that they were missing, Instead of actual eyes, there were two sockets where eyes were supposed to be.

I was in bed. In a room, I’ve never seen before. It looked like a 5-star hotel.

“How you feeling?” an otter came into view.

“Like I was in a freezer and probably crash.”

“Close enough, I’m Alice Otterton. I’m your doctor for this evening. You can ask me anything now?”

“Where the others?”

“I’m here, bunny cop. I’m not sure where Nick is. Knowing him, he should be fine, just a little bit tired or sore, maybe both. Welcome to the waking world.” I look around to see Skye sitting in a big sofa chair. If it wasn’t for her fur color and the contrast with the chair’s color, She could easily be invisible. This place is definitely bear size at least. But that doesn’t explain the other… where are we?

Chapter Text

“I’m just going to check your vitals. We don’t have any advanced technology, so we just have to go a little medieval.” The otter sound quite friendly and tried to joke around to ease both Skye and me. I never stop looking around. Everything was really big in comparison to any of us. They were the size of big mammals. Not elephant size, but larger than canines. Maybe lion or tigers?

“It’s ok.” I moved my eyes towards Skye. She doesn’t look stressed, but something felt off. I examined her more, and notice the lack of clothes. She isn’t naked, but I can tell there is nothing below that towel. Then I look down at myself and notice the lack of any clothes besides my underwear. “Where are my clothes?”

“We had to cut you from it. The least you move the better.” Then she signals Skye with her head. “And in her case, it was just to be safe.” She kept checking my vitals. Besides being a little sore in some parts, I felt my body was ok. That didn’t answer a huge question in me tho…

“How did we make it out alive?” I voiced my question to Skye.

“Honestly? Don’t know. We would need to ask Nick.”

The door then opened to a big polar bear and shrew in the paws. I bet pop-pop would be happy at this statement, speaking of the devil; a red fox was right behind them.  He also closed the door behind him.

“Hi, you two. I’m glad you finally awake.” The shrew seemed to be friendly… overly friendly. But that was very welcome to the contrast of the polar bear that was carrying her. I wonder if all polar bears are like that. “I brought you some clothes; I hope they are to your liking.” The polar bear raised an arm to show the bags and boxes.

“Any of those for me?” Nick asked.

“I wasn’t expecting you to survive Koslov if I’m been honest. I don’t have male clothes at hand. These were presents for friends. I would need to buy them again once the weather clears out.”

“Who is Koslov?”

“Huge polar bear. We are besties.” The room then shook followed by a growl coming from the other side of the door. “See? Besties.”

“Do you have to keep making enemies everywhere you go?” Skye stood up and walk towards the polar bear and the shrew. The polar bear handed her a couple of boxes and bags.

“I don’t have any bunny friends, so I’m giving you the closest to your size. I hope is ok.”

“More than ok. Thank you.” I was about to stand up, but then I felt like deer in headlights. I froze as my eyes went directly to the only male in the room. The polar bear approached the bed and handed me a couple of bags. “Nick, would you be a gentle mammal and leave the room while we change?”

“Why Carrots? I already saw your carrot underwear. Besides, look at Skye. She doesn’t mind.” I look to the side at Skye already dropped the towel and started scanning through the bags and boxes. She was wearing dark blue underwear that showed a big contrast with her white fur. Of course, that didn’t stop me from glaring at Nick.

“You should take a bath. To clean yourself, and while you do so, I’m sure fru fru can have your clothes clean too.” Nick looked at the otter and then down to himself. His clothes looked dirty. It also looked to have cuts and holes as I could see glimpses of his red fur.

“I could ask around. We might have clothes for a small wolf. I’m sure it will be close to your size.” The shrew said; motioning to the polar bear towards the door. They soon left, probably to ask if it was possible. Nick walked towards the bathroom.

“What? Not doing it outside?” I attempted to tease.

“I didn’t get to see you, you don’t get to see me.” He gave a goodbye smirk with a wink and closed the door.

“How can you live with him?”

“Big house and secure job, for the most part, help. Plus, he is not that bad.”

“I guess your bar has gone down.” I leave the bed and open the boxes and bags to see if I can use anything of it.

“It has gone down like you wouldn’t believe. How do I look?” Skye was now wearing dark pants and an open sweater. Under it was a redshirt.

“Wow…” the otter voiced. Not realizing she was still in the room. I gave Skye a thumb up and kept looking at the boxes. Hopefully, something as good was somewhere around here for me. “So, who are you three? It’s the first time seeing you three. And based on your species, I don’t think you live in Thundratown. At least for… Skye?”

Skye nodded to confirm it. “We are doing an investigation. I’m sure you’ve heard of the cave murders.”

“so you three are investigating that?” She sounded surprised. I finally dressed up, I got jeans and a sleeveless white hoodie. Not as good as Skye, but I guess this will have to do. I was lucky enough to get something close to my size.

“Yeah, we are.” The shower in the bathroom was turned on.

“What have you discovered so far?”

“We can’t share anything, it’s still an open investigation.” I voiced.

“Not much to share if I’m been honest.”

“Skye! We are not supposed to say anything!”

“Speak for yourself, bunny cop. I’m not a cop.” She gives me a smirk that I’m sure she copied from Nick. We hear a knocking followed by the polar bear and the shrew coming in with a black suit and a red tie. The suit looked way too professional. Couldn’t wait to see how bad he would look in that. The suit also looked to be one or two sizes bigger than fox size.

The shower stopped. “Are the clothes here?” We heard Nick ask.

“Yes, they are wolf size. I hope is not too big.” The shrew said.

“I’ll give those to him.” Skye moves to take it to Nick. She knocked three times at the bathroom door and then slid her arm and put it on what I'm guessing was the doorknob. I found it weird. She had no problem being in her underwear in front of him, yet it looks the opposite can’t be done.

It took some time for Nick to be ready. While we waited the shrew presented herself as Frufru. It was probably some type of nickname of some kind, but I didn’t press on it. She seemed nice. Her polar bear bodyguard seemed nice too. Not completely approachable, but she felt nice. The door of the bathroom opened to show a well-dressed fox. The suit was supposed to be one or two sizes bigger than him, yet the suit looked like it was made for him. He had the red tie loosed and suit open to show the bottom-up white shirt.

“What you gals talking about?”

“Not you.” Answered Skye with a smile.

“You hurt me.” He said in a mock response.

“Enough about that. What’s the plan?”

“First thing is first, we need to go to the precinct. “ We all agreed in this aspect. We needed to show that we somehow survived. We still needed to discuss that. There was a knock on the door. There was a huge polar bear outside the door. He had to dock to be able to enter.

“There is a big problem.” He made us turn towards the tv.

There was a newscast about the chaos that was going on right now. It seemed like the city was on lockdown. Nobody could come in or out. The weather in all the districts was in disarray, and a curfew going on right now. We all looked at the screen in disbelief.

“We need to call the precinct.” I voiced finally breaking the silence.

“Can’t. Blizzard has cut communications.”

“We need to go there. Now.”

“Can’t, blizzard too strong for our cars.”

“Not all of them.” A small voice came from the hallway. Another polar bear showed up, this one relatively smaller in size in comparison to the other one. He was carrying another shrew, this one had a cane. “Koslov, take them to precinct one in the emergency car.”

“But sir…”

“Koslov. Let me finish.” The huge polar bear stayed quiet after that. “I need you to pick up Mrs. Otterton and bring her back. She is downtown right now. And if my guess is right, they need to go there. Might as well take them there. We will be fine here, the blizzard will help our family stay safe and await your return.”

“Very well.” He nodded, then turned at us. “We leave in 20 minutes.” He left after that.

“I must apologize for my son. He is a little overprotective of us. I might have influenced that aspect on him.”

“I can understand that.” Nick smiled and gave a side glance towards Skye. “Appreciate the help.”

“Mr. Wilde, do you know anything about this storm that is affecting the city?”

“Yes and no, I know it’s just the beginning of worse things to come. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do something before it’s too late.”

“I see you don’t wish to tell me.”

“It’s for the best. You wouldn’t believe me if I were to speak them out loud. I would expect you to ice me or send me to a sanatorium.”

“Sanatorium?”

“I apologize, mental asylum. Regardless, we better go. I don’t wish to anger your good son.” He gave a wink to the shrew, something that was seconded by a growl coming from the polar bear behind the shrew. He motions Skye and me to follow.

We walked down the hallway for a little bit in silence. “Seriously Nick, you should do something with that characteristic of yours.” Skye broke the silence.

“What characteristic?”

“The ‘make enemies anywhere you go’ characteristic.”

“I don’t know what you talking about.”

Skye shook her head. We kept walking. The house was huge. It made sense now with the polar bears as their occupants. The shrews however been the wants in command didn’t make that much sense. How did they manage to have the polar bears, the biggest predator on record to be under them? It was a mystery. Every few minutes we would encounter another polar bear.

“So, who were the shrews?” I can see the polar bear close to us tense a little bit and move its eyes towards me.

“Careful there, Carrots. But I guess the sooner you find out the better. That shrew was Mr. Big. Mod boss of Tundratown.” I could feel paws around the hoodie as my feet started to tangle in the air. “Not so fast, Carrots. Even if you managed to capture Mr. Big. What’s the plan to survive them?” It’s then I noticed every single bear that we passed by is behind us.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, good luck capturing him and making it out of here in one piece.” Nick decided not to test me as I was not able to touch the ground until we made it outside. The blizzard made it impossible to see beyond 10 feet. Then a big green vehicle parked in front of us. Koslov was driving it. It was a military hummer with space to hold probably 6 polar bears. We were lucky that we were small in comparison to what this thing was intended for. Koslov had moved the driver’s seat a little bit, as he was a lot bigger than the average size I would imagine for polar bear standards.

“Get in.”

Chapter Text

“What you thinking Karmen?” I hear Finnick ask. He parked the ban inside the precinct as the wind from the storm was moving it.

I only have a few hours before I have to contact the organization. We can’t go back to the factory at the moment. The weather is getting worse by the hour. Asked Melvin to try and connect to the computer through here, so far nothing.

“Don’t know yet. Melvin, how’s the connection?”

“Weather isn’t helping.”

“Keep trying.”

“Come on, you the one in charge for this whenever Nick is gone.”

“I know, this just feels off somehow. What happened in the forest, and now the weather? True, the weather is not new. But that’s different in Zootopia. In here, the weather is controlled by the walls.”

“So what are you saying?” The voice of the chief doesn’t need to be that threatening for a simple question.

“It means that something is really powerful.” I hear a very distinguished voice coming from the front door. “Hey.” I see Nick wearing a suit. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him wear a suit before. He looks good, but somehow he looks bigger… but I don’t care. In seconds I’m already hugging him. “Calm down, Karmen. It takes more than the weather and hundreds of mammals to stop me.” I see Skye and the bunny cop are also there. “I see Penny is here too.”

Chris, Melvin, and Finnick shake hands with Nick. I hug Skye next, then I feel a big group hug from everyone but Finnick… Chris fixes that by picking him up. I see bunny cop went to salute the chief. The chief looks a bit relaxed at seeing one of his cops return. He still has that stern look on him. Probably doesn’t want to show others he cares a lot. Now with all pleasantries down… I punch Nick.

“Where the hell you’ve been!? Why didn’t you contact us!?”

“First off, ouch. Second, we couldn’t. I don’t know where any of our phones are. We lost them. And even if we did have them, we wouldn’t be able to contact you. Have you seen outside? It’s like the second flood is coming.”

“It’s not just this district, Fox.”

“Chief.” He nods at the buffalo.

“Start talking.”

“It makes sense; this thing is growing by a lot. We have a lead at least. Do you have a vehicle that is capable to take the rain and wind outside?”

“We don’t.”

“Then that will just make this harder. Why don’t you fill me in with what we are dealing with? What happened after we disappeared? Did you contact the organization? Anything in the forest? And Penny, anything for me?”

We moved to the bullpen. We each gave out findings and what has happened so far. Penny was the first as her part was small in comparison. Finnick followed with what he did after Nick’s final message. Then what I did after Finnick contacted me. How we contacted the organization and gave the objective of contact back within 24 hours. We then to the rainforest district as soon as possible. That’s when his face changed.

“What you mean you went there?”

“Well, you disappear and we had to look for you somewhere.”

“That’s not what I said! Or the Organization! What happened there?”

“We found a body and a lot of mammals’ paw prints and scents.”

“A body? That’s it?”

“We also found a cat… long limbs.” Nick remained silent. “We fought it. It died.”

“Where is it?”

“It was sent to forensics. It’s a building a few blocks from here.”

“Contact them now.”

“What do you mean?”

“They are in danger. Is there any way to contact them fast?”

“We work on an emergency line separate from public ones. This allows us to respond regardless of weather problems. What you mean they are in danger?”

“Forensics didn’t take a corpse. They took a problem.  Call now.” The chief left the bullpen and headed towards the front door.

“Clawhauser, call forensics building. Ask for status.”

“Yes sir… “ We caught up to the chief. The cheetah looked to be in a panic.

“What’s wrong, Clawhauser?”

“Well, sir.” He pointed to the other side of the desk. We all moved towards the front. There in front, all of us stood… two very wet and panic-looking rabbits. Both were wearing raincoats and boots.

“Chief! Have you seen Judy!? We’ve been calling her for hours and hours and then we saw on the news what was happening in Zootopia and and and…”

“Mom… Dad? What you guys doing here!?”

“JUDY!!!” they both screamed and squished her between them.  The crying and yelling completely derailed us from our train of thought. How did they make it to the city?

A few hours ago

The farming life never seems to end. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing it. I start when suns come up, sometimes earlier than that, and end when the sun comes down. Repeat the next day and the day after that. I’m lucky to have a big family; otherwise, many of the fields would go unattended for more than a day or two. Then I hear what can be described as the most alarming sound at the Hopps farm… Family Emergency call. It’s a loud noise, to make sure anybody within our property will be able to hear it. Once that sounds, it means to get back to the main house.

I’m not that young anymore and based on the number of vehicles parked, I’m the last one getting here. I go inside and check where we are supposed to meet. Big family, big house, it’s hard to know when meetings are supposed to take place. Whoever makes the call, leaves a piece of paper by the front door. Multimedia room… JUDY!!

We haven’t heard from her since yesterday. The multimedia room is relatively new. We were thinking about doing multiple sofas with a tv per each; that way, there would be multiple options for everyone to go to. It wasn’t until a few of the older kits that we decided to go with a big screen for a community movie night and a few small ones. ‘We just watch everything on our phones anyway’ they said. I was not surprised to see everybody been glued to the big screen. We are looking at local news talking about what seems to be not much on the situation of Zootopia. The city seems to be under lockdown after a malfunctioning on the weather walls.

“See!? That’s what happens when you are against nature. That many species living so close to each other. Something was going to happen when you mix and match them together.”

“Dad, not now.” I hear Bonnie say. “We are worried about Judy.”

“Prudy? She made it to the city?”

“Judy. And Yes, Dad. She’s been there for some time now.”

“No wonder, I haven’t seen her. So, what are you going to do?”

“What can we do?” I voiced out loud.

“Pipsqueak? That you?” I can’t believe after all these years… he keeps calling me that.

“Yes, Otto. It’s… ouch.” He hit me with his cane.

“Mr. Hopps for you pipsqueak!”

“Come on, Dad. It’s been years.”

“He still doesn’t get to call me by my name.”

“Just let it go old m… Mr. Hopps.” I so the cane and my brain just decided to switch words. “Ouch.” He still hit me tho. “What was that for?”

“Calling me old. I’m barely in the 70s range. Back to my question, what are you going to do?”

“We can’t do anything. The city is far away.”

“Didn’t stop me when you tried to elope with my dear daughter, Pipsqueak.”

“And it’s closed. The train would be our best bet, but that’s shot down.”

“Modern Technology failing, who would have guessed it.”

“We can’t use cars to get there! The streets are closed too!” I sometimes feel my mouth and my brain don’t get along. “Ouch.”

“Don’t raise your voice, pipsqueak. These ears are not just for decoration.” Or so he says… we have to repeat some of our names from time to time because he either forgets them or doesn’t hear it right the first time. “Get me the map that’s in my room. And you sweaty, get me the one from Zootopia. I’ll be in the kitchen.” And he left the room.

I went to his room. His room is on the upper floor. He might be the only rabbit that likes to sleep above ground. It’s his house, so he can sleep wherever he likes I guess. I enter a barely lit room… I can’t believe how dark the room is. I find the map easily as it’s above the bed. I take it down no problem. Of course, I had to knock the picture on his nightstand as I got down from the bed. I notice is a really old picture that could use some cleaning. I clean it up a little bit. It’s a picture of multiple mammals of all sizes and species. They are in front of the town sign. That’s right, this town didn’t use to be called Bunnyburrow. I can’t tell what the name of the town is. It seems like this picture was more about the group of mammals than the actual sign. I don’t see that many predators besides a fox and wolf. I guess not much has changed since those days.

I take the map to the kitchen where Bonnie is giving Otto some tea. I extend it next to the one Bonnie brought of Zootopia. I can’t believe how big the Hopps’ land is. Otto points at something near the edge of it, towards the North.

“There are some reasons why this land is as big as it is. Reason number one was the cursed land of the red foxes around here. It’s the villa that we finally managed to get rid of.”

“Why did you buy it then? You are aware that you made us clean it up once a month didn’t you?”

“Because thanks to them, it’s that we have this big piece of land, pipsqueak.” He hit me again with the cane. “And because those bastards wanted to demolish such a beautiful building! Even if cursed, you gotta appreciate the style those foxes had.”

“Why sell it then? You seemed to be fond of the villa.” Have I mentioned that my mouth and my brain don’t get along? “Ouch”

“That’s none of your business, pipsqueak! The villa is gone to better hands. Hopefully they will take care of it. That thing is as old as this house. Don’t you forget! Anyway, reason number two, this used to be the station for the mammals that established the roots for Zootopia. The station is North West, it’s a straight line to Zootopia, follow the train tracks. You should arrive at this area in Zootopia.” He then moved to the other map. “You should make it to this area. This used to be where everybody in this town went to work every day. Years later, the factories were closed down, but that’s where Zootopia really started. Instead of going back here, they established a town over there. Soon, the city started. Soon after that, the train stopped circulating. They recycle some of it to create the Zootopia train. Some of the track was taken, but not all. If you want to make it to Zootopia, that’s the way. Not many mammals know about that tunnel.”

“Tunnel???” Both Bonnie and I yelled. Of course, I was the only one that got hit. “Ouch”

“That tunnel was made to last 100 years. It was made by the best mammals of both this world and the new. You should make it to Zootopia in a few hours.” He took a sip of his tea but never stopped looking at me. It felt like he was sizing me.

“I’ll get the car ready. You coming?”

“I’ll get the raincoats.”

Back to the present.

“Hopps, why don’t you take your parents to the cafeteria? Give them something hot to drink.”

“But Chief, what about…”

“We will deal with this, you deal with them.”

The three bunnies left. Clawhauser attempts to make contact with the forensic unit. But no answer came through. This just increased our worries.

“Clawhauser, how many police officers we have closed, available and are raid trained?”

“Most are patrolling the city, but the few that are raid trained should be here. Wolfard and Rhynowitz are in the infirmary."

"Call down Trunkabby, Higgins, Fangmeyer, and Delgato, tell them to get swat gear. We taking the Swat van.”

“I thought you didn’t have an available car.”

“The car is just for emergencies and not an investigation. We can’t establish a connection to the forensics unit. This is an emergency.”

“I’m coming with you.” Said Nick. I see Skye step forward, but Nick stopped her. “Skye, you staying, you don’t have a gun and I doubt the chief here would have something your size.” He nodded not happy to confirm Nick's guess. “Karmen.” He extended a paw at me. I knew what he wanted it. I gave him my iron rod.

“Don’t lose it or break it, it’s new.”

“I’ll try my best.” He gives me a wink. “Melvin, keep working on the connection, Skye will help you. Karmen, if you talk to the organization, tell them we need backup. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good. Chris, let’s go.”

Chapter Text

I’m surprised there is a van big enough to hold an elephant and a hippo… also this is not a van as much as close to a bus. A bus that is capable to hold an elephant and hippo at the same time. In total, we are seven. Lucky number 7, I hope we get lucky today and this ends fast. But my luck has never been that big, I expect this to be as bad as it can possibly get. I see the eyes of a Lion and hippo on me… the elephant is also looking, but she is trying to be discreet.

“So… who are you?” the lion breaks the silence.

“Who are you talking to?”

“The fox.”

“Which one?”

“wait…” he looks at both Chris and me, going back and forth between us. “There is no way he is a fox.”

“Well, I am.”

“Look at you! You are almost the size of Wolford, and he is big for his species.”

“That’s the wolf?”

“What was the first clue, Sherlock? Now, out with it. What did you eat to grow that big?”

“My genes for some reason came from ancient ones. Both my parents carried the recessive gene. Miraculously, I was born with those genes mixed in. I’m a lot taller than the average fox, and I have this weird look on me.”

“What’s weird about it? You look cool, I bet I got you some pretty good dates growing up.”

I can see Chris tense up a little bit. “More than you think and less than you hope,” I answered for him.

“So you two have known each other for a long time?”

“I guess you can say that.” I feel Chris's eyes on me.

“Regardless, who are you?”

“You already know me, remember? I presented myself a few days ago.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t explain why you are here… or why we are taking you. I mean look at us, we have raid gear. You don’t have anything besides the ancient fox.” Chris smiles at that last comment. I know what he is laughing at, but I decide to move past it.

“Where we are going, you going to need me. If you don’t believe me, ask stripes and the chief. They will tell you.”

“is it true chief? We need him?”

“I know what it looks like Delgato. Just trust us.” Stripes answered. The chief is too busy driving the bus in this windy rain. The bus is not moving that much, but the weather is definitely getting worse.

“Alright, if you say so.”

Silence once again comes back to the bus. It was supposed to be a few blocks down, but the rain has definitely slowed us down. In a few more minutes we make it there. The chief and stripes move to the back with us. They get their gear on, riffles around my body size.

“Can those fire live rounds?” I see a twitch on all of them. I stay serious on that aspect.

“It’s illegal to use live rounds within the city. You should know that.” The lion didn’t sound friendly at saying such a statement.

“That doesn’t answer my question.” I stand my ground. He starts walking towards me, Chris gets in the way fast. “Hey, calm down. I’m not sure what we are facing in there, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.” I look at everybody. I can see their eyes moving towards each other going back and forth finally landing on the chief.

“They can. All of you, take two magazines, double and speed loaders.” I can see them tense at the Chief’s orders, but this is required. I want them to be ready for anyone… or anything. I nod at the chief.

“Alright, listen up. This will be my first raid, but it isn’t my first time dealing with this kind of situation. The truth is, we can’t be sure what it’s in that building. I just know that something bad is in it and it has hostages. This is what we are going to do…”

“Woah, hold on. You taking over this. Chief?” The lion starts getting on my nerves.

“He is. He is the expert on what we deal with. Whatever decreases the chances of this going wrong, I will take it. Fox?”

“Thanks, chief.” I eye the lion for a few seconds before directing myself to the group. “Like I was saying, we will go as a group, don’t go too far, and before you do anything take second guesses because more than likely, your first guess is and will be wrong.” I let that sink in before continuing. “Ok, let’s go.”

We get off the bus and start heading to the front door. We try to shake off some of the water from our bodies and clothes. The inside looks normal. Lights are on, but nobody at the front desk. It’s really quiet. There is only one way to go, a door behind the front desk and a clock on the wall.

“Chris, give me your watch.” Chris then takes out a pocket watch. His watch is rusted metal. I open it and notice the different times between the clock on the wall and the pocket watch. “When was the last time you tune it in?”

“I do it twice a day, should be correct.”

“What does that mean?” I hear the chief.

“Something is wrong. Let’s go”

 We move around the front desk and walk through the door that opens to a hallway with multiple doors with a stairway at the end of it.

The first door to the right, I don’t hear anything coming from it. I see the elephant leaning in too. She moves the head side to side. I take that as there isn’t anything inside. I still open the door and check. Nothing besides a storage room with files in. Close the door.

I then open the next door on the left. Same as before, check for any noise, the elephant follows, no noise, check inside, and close the door. The next sets of doors are double-sided doors. No noise coming from the one on the right, but the one on the left is different. Something is definitely behind it. I check with the elephant and she confirms there is something in there. I attempt to know what’s behind the doors, but the sound is very small. We open both doors and go inside. Even if it’s dark, I can tell it’s a big cafeteria. I hear the Chief try to turn on the light, but it didn’t seem to work. The sound is coming from somewhere, but I can’t tell where exactly.

The elephant has better hearing and points her flashlight towards the backside of the cafeteria. There is an average size mammal in the corner. Can’t tell what it is. The white lab coat is hiding all possible features. We start moving towards it, I see all of them pointing their flashlights everywhere. Possibly checking for anybody else, but they all come back towards the one in the corner.

“Wait, stop.” We all do. And look at who said that. “Something is off.” The elephant says.

I try to catch what she is talking about, but I can’t tell what she is talking about. We get a little bit closer, this time slower. We are halfway across the room when we hear what she was talking about. There was a small wail or whimper coming from the corner. I can tell the cop’s instincts kick in because I see them moving faster, but still warry. Then I notice what was off about the sound. I can tell the elephant does too because she stops the hippo by touching the shoulder. I can see the fear written on her face. I can tell the chief does too as she stops stripes the same way the elephant did. The lion, however, was still moving forward, in fact, he started moving faster leaving us behind.

“Chris!” Christ moves in grabs him and pulls him back.

“What’s wrong with you! It could be hurt!”

“Shhhhh. Listen carefully. That thing ain’t hurt.” The sounds coming from it came in the loop. *Wail moan sob, wail moan sob, wail moan sob.*

Then it stopped. Have you ever heard silence before? I know it doesn’t make any sort of sense, how can you hear the silence? If you’ve never been in complete silence before it’s completely understandable. Complete silence is when your animal instincts kick in fully, telling you something is completely wrong. You start sweating, the hair in the back of your neck stands up, and everything in you starts screaming that something is wrong. We all had that feeling kick in fully, the figure suddenly felt a lot bigger than it probably was. Everybody starts backing up. Then somebody falls, the lion tripped over a chair on the floor. We all move our eyes towards him and then back to the figure. It was missing. The only thing left was the lab coat on the floor. We all put our back towards each other. Flashlights were going in all directions searching for it. The lion crawl towards us and took place in the circle. He was standing in one knee. Then we hear the sound coming again. Same loopback. It was coming from somewhere, but we couldn’t tell the exact location. Even the elephant was having problems. Then a new sound came in. Of dripping water. The dripping water was getting closer. That’s what made me lookup. I wasn’t the only one as the flashlights joined me. And there it was, a white fur mammal on the sealing of the cafeteria.  Then it fell over the elephant, or at least try to. The elephant stops in midair with her nose and throws it against the wall.

The mammal stood up against the wall. The head span around, but the body was still towards the wall. The face looked familiar, but It had some lacerations that made it difficult to tell who it was. Then it started running towards us.

“Fire!” I hear the Chief yell. They all shoot with their darts. The thing kept dodging them in some unnatural way, it looked it was floating as it was doing it and dodging the darts by blending the body. The chest was open, probably an outcome of having done a biopsy on it. Then I heard the clicks of the guns running out darts. I hear them drop their magazines and start to reload a new one.

<The gate, give us the gate!>

<What do you want to do with the gate?>

The thing was trying to communicate.

<We need to open the gate>

<the gate is not for you>

<You fool!>

Then it opened its mouth far beyond than the jaw actually allowed. It gave away and started opening like a snake’s. What came from it was surprising as it was infuriating.

“Run!!” “To where?” “Go up now!” “Judy!”

I could tell what those voices were. Then it started to laugh.

<Give us the gate, guardian!!>

<You want the gate!? I give you the gate and some teaching newborn!>

<how dare you call me… what are you doing?”

I push in my claws deep into my paws until blood starts dripping. I start with some hand signals. I can tell it doesn’t know what I’m doing.

“Chris, get back to the precinct now. I’ll take care of this here and join you there.” I hear Chris running full speed across the hallway. He should make it there in a few minutes. It tries to approach me to stop me from doing whatever I’m doing; however, it’s too late. <Open!> It’s body paralyzed.

<What did you do!?>

<This is how I know you are a newborn. You don’t know the question you were asking. You shouldn’t have divided this many times. You want a gate, I’m giving you a gate!> It’s a good thing I still have Chris’ watch with me. This will do.  I’m using this body as a gateway towards the main mind and then sealing it in the watch. The body’s fur color starts switching to a darker one. <Every body is connected to you, I’m just exploiting it.>

<You will pay for this.> the body falls. It cut its connection to this body. It will be more careful at diving itself in the future. This should have weakened it. It won’t make a move in a while at least.

I turn around and see that all the officials are looking at me with weird faces. The storm calms down. I can hear it slowly going down.  I can even see some rays of sunshine coming from the windows. “We need to go back.”

Chapter Text

I couldn’t believe what I just saw. First, we have a mammal, with an abnormal body, that dodged all our riffles with no problem. Then I saw two foxes deal with that same mammal, followed by one of them doing something completely out of the ordinary and talking in something that I could only describe as gibberish. One of the foxes left running, and the other one was now standing in front of me.
“What’s wrong chief? The cat got your tongue?”

“You aware I can arrest you for that right?”

“Any problem, stripes?” He asked that towards Fangmeyer. “And you?” then Delgato. I see both of them nodding side to side. “See, no problem.” He then proceeded to leave the room. He started walking deeper into the building.

“Wait! Shouldn’t we go back? I was able to hear Hopps voice coming out of that… thing.”

“Don’t worry; there is nothing Chris can’t handle. Plus, the weather should get better for a little while at least.” I see around, my entire team seems to be in the same level of shock as me. I stood up and followed the fox.

The place felt different somehow. Compared to how it felt as we came in at least. Then I remember the forest.
“Hey, fox! Shouldn’t we be wearing a mask or something?”

“Don’t worry. Chris would have noticed as soon as we came in if that was the case. His nose is much better than wolves.” We headed downstairs. The fox was walking normally through the dark. I was turning on the lights as we passed the switches. “How many mammals are supposed to be working here?”

“There should be two or three per examination room. There are three underground floors.”

“Besides the thing upstairs. I haven’t seen anybody else. This doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t? I hear Delgato ask behind us. “So far I haven’t seen anything making sense so far in this building or case for that matter.”

“Why attack this place, it doesn’t make sense.”

“All of you, go back and wait for us outside. The fox and I will investigate this place.”

“Yes, sir.”

The fox keeps going deeper and deeper checking room by room, No mammals in sight. We reached the bottom, and nothing changed. The bottom floor was used for storage, anything that the labs needed was there, or would need. “There was something here, it’s gone now.”

“That was a weird way to say it.” I walked towards him. I look around, but I don’t know what he is referring to. I just see a bunch of boxes full of chemicals I know nothing off.

“Right here, there was a big box right here. The dust is different on the floor. Something was brought here a few days ago, and whatever is behind this attack, wanted it. It’s the only explanation for attacking this place.”

I was a little surprised at the level of analysis that came from him. He was fast on the observation. Something was off though. “I don’t remember anything that was ordered for the labs.”

“Maybe they asked without your permission?”

“Can’t, the order can only be done if it passes by my desk first, otherwise it can’t be completed.”

“Odd. Any way to figure out what it was? Regardless of whether you allow it or not. Something was here.”

“They have a list for receiving packages. Even if they receive it by mistake. We might be able to reverse-track it and find out what they sent. As this is part of the city department, we are limited on who we can deal with.”

“That’s one of the downsides to working for taxpayers.”

“How about you?”

“Nice try chief, secret.” I hate how easily the fox gets on my nerves. “Not much we can do from here, any info on the mammals working here?”

“I can pull their files back at the precinct. I have to do it anyway to start investigating their disappearance and to inform their family.”

“That’s a good start as any. A lot of work to do, but we are going in a good direction.” He said looking at his pocket watch.

We made our way out. The weather seemed to have gotten better, just like the fox said. We made our way back to the precinct. The front door window was broken. That made all of us, except the fox, rush in. Inside was anything but clean. The front desk was broken, and there were tranq mammals all over the floor. Naked mammals all over the floor. The foxes were talking to Clawhauser.

“Clawhauser! Explained.”

“Chief! You wouldn’t believe what happened! Right after you left all these mammals came in rushing. We went to the back of the building and hid in the armory. We tried to contact reinforcements, but there is zero reception area in the armory… we should probably do something about it! Skye then used the ventilation system to head outside. She took a few guns with her by the way… and before you say anything chief we were in an emergency! She then went upstairs to secure Hopps. She was holding her ground as best as she could with Rhynowitz and Wolfard with her. They then went commando on all the mammals in here. She is now with both of them upstairs again, it seems like her dad didn’t take the mammal rush very well.”

“Ok, I’ll let it pass about giving civilians guns as this was clearly an emergency. What else happened?”

“Uh, chief. You might want to see this.” I hear from behind. Delgato was kneeling next to a zebra.

“What is it?”

“These are the missing mammals.”

“What missing mammals?”

“The ones from the lab. I recognize him as I had to go there a few days ago.” He pointed at a zebra on the floor. I went to check by myself. It was indeed a lab employee. I started going one by one, they were all there. At least I no longer had to make that dreadful call to their families.

“Clawhauser, call the hospital, we going to need a lot of diffusers and doctors. Try to keep it from the news until we know more about this. I don’t want to deal with them just yet.”

“Well chief, it seems like you recovered your mammals.” The fox leader came walking with a smug face plastered all over his face. He looks around. “Where is Penny?”

“She is upstairs in the infirmary.” The silver fox answered.

“What happened?”

“It got a little rough.”

“I’m fine. Heard smugness and decided to come down.” A tiger with a few bandages around the arm and head came down. Following right behind were Wolfard, Rhynowitz, and Hopps. Out of the three, the less hurt seemed to be Hopps.

“Since everybody is here, a few things we need to say…”

We caught everybody up with all the information we gathered from the lab encounter. Ambulances came in a few minutes later to take everybody out of the lobby and into a hospital bed. We couldn’t tell if any of the lab employees were in any other sort of danger. They need to get a general checkup to make sure nothing was wrong with them. After the ambulances left, we all went to the presentation room.

“What’s the next step in this investigation?” Couldn’t tell who it was that said it; however, I shouldn’t be surprised that the one with the least experience was the one taking notes and standing at the table.

“Right now, we have some free time until that thing returns.” The fox answer the question; at least I think he did.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I got us a few hours before those things do another attack.” He takes out a watch and spins it around. I don’t understand the significance of it to the case or why we have free time now. “Regardless, I need to go to Mystic Springs Oasis…”

“Not it.” I hear from everybody in the room except for Hopps and me.

“I see most of you already know the place. Been there?”

“Not outside patrolling the area.”

“Heard of the place before.”

“Not really interested in coming anywhere close to it.”

I heard the excuses fly. Hopps looks interested in what kind of place it is, I guess she hasn’t had the time to see much of the city since she came here… although she has had parking duty before, I was hoping she would know more of the city by now.

“Well, I can go solo.”

“I can go!”

“Hopps, your parents are here. Besides the foxes you are the only one that can keep them secure without intimidating them by size alone… and knowing how diverse Bunnyburrow is, It would be better for you to stay.”

“Yes, sir.” Well, that was easy. Although I can see the disappointment in her body language.

“Hey Nick, call.” The fox excuses himself and leaves the room.

“For now, all of you. We need to find out what was sent to the lab and it’s no longer there. City emergency is still on and I’m going to have you do extra time since we have the budget for it. Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir.”