Chapter Text
“All right, everyone! Listen up! At the ZPD, partnership is the cornerstone of success. You want to put bad guys away…? Then be on the same page every day.” Chief Bogo announced to the assembled officers in the room.
Alex glanced over to his current partner, a gazelle named Denzelle. Denzelle was the sister of the pop star Gazelle, and she was one of the newest recruits. It had been little over a week since Nick Wilde had joined the force, and with that change accompanied several other changes. Alex was no longer Judy Hopps’s partner, having been part of Nick’s conditions for him joining: the fox was to be Judy’s police partner.
Speaking of Hopps and Wilde, where were they? At this rate, they were going to miss their assignments.
“Now, today’s bad guy has been smuggling illegal overseas cargo through the city’s shipyard.” Bogo explained, pointing to a picture of the city shipyard. “Captains Hoggbottom and Truffler will lead. Higgins and Bloats, you will flank left. Chèvre, Bûcheron, right, and down the middle… the Zebros.” Bogo instructed.
As the chief listed off each officer, Alex recounted his knowledge of them. Bloats and Higgins were hippopotamuses who he personally didn’t like; they were rude and weren’t afraid to use their size or their strength to intimidate others. Chèvre and Bûcheron were a bighorn sheep and markhor respectively, Alex had little quarrel with them. Hoggbottom was second in command and led the ZPD’s special weapons and tactics division, a personal squad she nicknamed the ‘Razorbacks’. He and Hoggbottom weren’t *friends*, but they respected each other and were amicable to each other. She was easy to rile up though if you knew how to press her buttons right.
Then there were the Zebros: Zebrowski and Zebraxton. Zebrowski wasn’t even a proper zebra, he just painted himself to look like one. And they were always trying to take credit for the work of other officers.
Hopps and Wilde, I know you’re eager to prove yourselves, but as rookies, you will observe only and watch the veteran teams show you how it’s…” Bogo trailed off as he realized Nick and Judy weren’t present.
“Chief, hi, if you’re looking for Nick and Judy, they said “they got it” and they are already on site. With their baby!” Clawhauser exclaimed as he poked his head into the room.
“Denzelle! Stay here with Moon and monitor the situation from the security cameras!” The Cape buffalo commanded as he sprang to his feet. “Everyone else! Move out!” Bogo bellowed to the remaining officers.
Alex and Denzelle exchanged a look as the other officers flooded out of the Chief’s office. “Mierda. This will not end well for Nick and Judy. I was hoping to ask if I could accompany them on their observation…” Denzelle cursed.
Alex guided Denzelle over to his desk and opened up the security feeds for the streets right outside the shipyard. “With Hopps and Wilde now gone rogue, I don’t think that’s an option. Damn it all to hell, this potentially blows up the entire operation!” Alex growled as he watched the shipyard parking lot, fearing for the worst.
“Does Hopps always defy orders like this? I heard that when she first joined the force, the bunny was quite… rebellious.” The gazelle inquired.
“She stopped when she got saddled up with me. I kept her from running off or getting caught off guard. I thought that she’d keep doing that once she was transferred over to Nick… apparently I was wrong.” Alex murmured.
Not even ten minutes passed before the situation devolved into chaos. Antony Snootley, their target, tore off in a van that was carrying a blue crate. Alex prayed that was the end of Judy and Nick’s involvement… Alas, his prayer went unanswered as he saw Judy drive after him in a Hog Rod car with Nick riding shotgun.
“Follow them in the cameras, we can’t lose them.” Denzelle quickly said.
Alex frantically tried to keep up with the high speed chase. It seemed like everywhere Antony drove, Nick and Judy followed and caused problems. A wool basket getting hit by one of the cars caused wool to fly everywhere… Judy and Nick refused to back down when Hoggbottom ordered them to stop… the porcupine quills that the other officers had set up as spikes ended up flying into Bloats and Higgins… and the chase ended with Judy and Nick crashing into the statue of Ebenezer Lynxely in front of Mayor Winddancer as the horse was in the process of concluding a speech that he was giving.
Denzelle watched the discord unfold on the streets, frantically flipping between the street security cameras. Animals were panicking, public property had been damaged, there was a dik dik trapped inside of a tuba due to Nick and Judy nearly crashing into the Gnu Jersey parade… and that was just what she could see from a surface glance of the footage. The true extent of the damage was likely far worse. “No está bien. Esto no está bien.” Denzelle groaned, which translated to “Not good. This is not good.”
Alex slammed his paw on the desk, which was curled into a fist. The resulting vibrations knocked his thermos off of his desk and made it spill ice water all over the floor. He knew that he would draw ire from Clawhauser and the other officers if he uttered the next set of words which he wanted to say in English, so he instead opted to use Spanish, which only Chief Bogo and Denzelle spoke. “¡Maldita sea! Me encanta esta coneja, ¡pero no puede seguir comportándose así!” Alex shouted angrily, which translated to “Motherfucker! I love this rabbit but she can't keep acting like this!”, which drew a gasp from his gazelle partner.
To say that the albino wolf was pissed would be a severe understatement. Judy was an excellent officer when she actually took the time to make a plan and had an understanding of the potential consequences of her actions, traits and qualities that Bogo and Alex had tried to cultivate and implant in her so she would refrain from making the same mistakes with Nick as she made during her first few days as a rookie officer. It unfortunately appeared that the bunny had thrown all of that away after they had managed to apprehend the sloth that was speeding through Sahara Square.
Now… the ZPD had to deal with the aftermath.