Chapter Text
“But, please, Chief!”
“I said no, Judy.”
The rather smaller animal in comparison to the buffalo didn't want to let it go. She had been, for a whole year, nothing more than a ticket maid and wished to prove herself, to show she could be more. They walked into the building.
“You know me, sir! I can do this!” He sighed, looking down.
The only bunny in Purrtopia that had a problem with being a ticket maid. She was so determined, even though, for a whole year, he had been turning her down.
“There was never before a bunny officer, and you know it, Hopps.” He looked at the cheetah that now avoided his eyes. His big mouth must have again spoken about missions to his best friend “We can’t make any exceptions."
“But, Chief, you saw me, you know my abilities, you know I can do this!” She now tried keeping the buffalo pace as he went to his office.
She was right. If only she hadn't been born a bunny, he would gladly make her a police officer. Still, since the beginning of Purrtopia, rabbits had only one assignment role in the police, and that was being meter maids. He had a hard time understanding what made her so ambitious. He opened the door to his office, and without even looking back, knowing she would follow, he flopped on the chair. She did, closing the door behind them.
He sighed “Can’t you join your five sisters, and go on? The tickets won't write themselves.” He looked down on the pile of documents. Amazing, another fullnighter awaited him. Picking the first paper, he already frowned.
“But it's just rescuing an alligator from the sewer! I know that I can do this!” Judy patted her paw before staring at Chief. “Please, sir?”
“Then how about this?” He shoved a piece of paper into her paws. “Our only undiscovered case, Nick Wilson, currently living underground, searched for all the bad reasons.”
“That Nick?” She looked down on the paper. It wasn't hard to recognise the cheeky smirk and rather relaxed body language, even though he was just arrested in the picture.
In fact he was a legend around up ground. The only fox capable of finding anything and anyone, and never being found himself. A notorious drug dealer, protected by everyone underground. They had captured mammals from everywhere, and not a single person spoke a word about him. It was the big case she was searching for, the one that could get her recognized.
She licked her lips excitedly. “And if I capture him, sir? Can I become a police officer?”
“Hopps, if you manage to capture Nick, i will personally make you division chief," He chuckled at her. The sparks of excitement were there. “Now then, go along.”
He hushed her out of his office. He should have thought about this before. Giving her an impossible mission would give him a breath of fresh air. In a week, she would be forced to come in and resign all on her own, and by this, he would finally get rid of the bunny that had been on his neck for a year.
He smiled and took a sip of his morning coffee. “You’re a genius, Bogo.”
⋆˚࿔
For a bunny, there were a few carrier choices. In fact, for every prey animal, there were choices, from lawyers to doctors, meter maids to bakers. They were unlimited, and that's what Judy believed growing up. Since the youngest age she learned that predators needed to wear a collar that suppressed their primal instincts of murder. If not for it, they would go crazy and eat all the prey animals at eye level. Thankfully, all police officers had a tranquilizer that worked well with the collar, so well that it was enough to overpower a grown Siberian tiger.
Now she held the paper in her paws. The room she got was small. No wonder, only police officers got their own apartments, while those a little lower needed to work their way up. She looked at it again.
‘
Name - Nick Wilson.
Age - 25.
Family - Canidae.
Appearance - fox with slim build, always owning sunglasses. Red fur, green eyes.
Address - Underground, Wild street, fourteen by eighteen.
‘
She looked at any other information, in any other column, from close family to background, only one word – unknown. So basically she had nothing. Not even any single clue, since red foxes were the most popular, and by wearing sunglasses he could easily hide his eye color. She sighed before looking down at her bed, from the chair. She was still in her work uniform, but even her – bunny who never was underground before could tell that they don't particularly like police officers there, and she almost was one!
A purple shirt with a long sleeve, black plain pants, and her tranquilizer must be enough. She couldn't take any badge or phone, in case they would have the latest system she read about in newspapers. Apparently, certain mice created a system for discovering when a police phone is near. Sadly, because he belonged underground, up ground was yet to get it.
She was scared, but so excited. Joining the police, she wanted to live for the thrill, the excitement in the moment of successfully helping some mammal. Even the predators with collars. She thought this mission might be her breakthrough. She could almost smell the new uniform, and the way she would proudly call her parents.
“Time to go.” She picked the clothes up and moved to her bathroom.
⋆˚࿔
She looked down through the opening of the huge sewer, while many gave her dirty look. No wonder, the road to the train station was just a few steps away. She had never (before) noticed how close these two were, and now, seeing how high the opening was with dark water below, she hesitated. Only real troublemakers ventured there on their own, so it wasn't a big surprise that even Miss Gazelle, who knew her, now snickered into her direction. They probably saw her as one. Still the jump was rather high, but without it, she could never fulfill her dreams of becoming a police officer.
She breathed in and out before taking the jump.
When the water hit her body, it took several seconds and many pairs of eyes on her before she leaped by herself out of the filthy water and shook it off her fur, leaving only smelly, rather little wet clothes. She tried to adjust her uniform, just to realize she wasn’t wearing one. She looked around and saw a whole elevator right next to the sewer, just up to her right. If she hadn’t just jumped and actually stepped to her left up ground she would have noticed it as well.
“Did you just jump into the water?” a voice caught her off guard. A rather skimpy dressed cheetah asked, not even walking outside of the shadow of the alley, the other – as Judy assumed her friend, in a purple, glittery dress stood up, leaning against the wall with a cigarette.
It amazed her how bright the day up ground can look so greenish here. It was almost depressing, but it didn't wipe the smile from her lips. She moved closer to the girls and, with a smile, approached them.
“Excuse me?” She looked at them and without an answer she repeated “Excuse me? Well- oh, sorry to interrupt,” she saw how they looked at her. “Name’s Judy Hopps and I am searching for Nick Wilson.”
“Who doesn't?" The other girl spoke, taking a puff from her cigarette before letting the smoke right into her face. They both laughed, the cruel, mean laugh Judy knew from her academy days.
The other now spoke “Listen, little girl,” They both smiled in the predator way that made her shiver. Her hand immediately went down to her weapon. “Only cops or mammals of pleasure ask for him, and you don't wanna know what we do with cops around here.”
“I am not a cop.” The words went out smoothly.
Yet. she spoke in her brain.
But the girls started to corner her. “All right! All right! I'm sorry, I'll just go my way, all right?”
She had asked, but they showed her their sharp teeth and claws that now shined in the rather dim, green light of the underground.
“Picking on a rabbit now, girls?” A voice asked from the top.
All three looked up to see a rather young looking fox, with black sunglasses, lying on one of the balconies belonging to rooms of this alley. When he jumped down Judy noticed the small scar he had on his clavicle, as his shirt was slightly lifted. He folded his glasses and asked them.
“Nobody wants problems, right girls?”
The cheetahs looked at themselves before hissing and leaving. Even the half burned cigarette was still red on the ground as she swallowed hard, looking at him. There was no doubt he looked handsome, but even more important, he was a fox! Perhaps, just like in her family, they all knew one another.
“And who you might be?” He asked, more amused than threatening, staring down at the bunny, barely half of his height. She was still wearing dirty clothes, and he wanted to throw a rather rude remark about it, but he heard a police signal right outside the alley. “If anyone asks, just say you're with Nick.”
“Wha-” She yelped as he picked her up with ease and leaped over the fence behind him. He used his claws for climbing once. She breathed out nervously as he let her down. She followed him as he had already picked off without her.
“Wait, that Nick?”
“Depends on who asks.” He smirked at her and did a sharp turn to the left into another dark alley, which ended the same way the previous one had.
“I am searching for Nick Wilson, from the underground, Wild street, fourteen by eighteen.”
“Oh, do you now?” He looked up on another fence before taking a leap and landing on the other side. She didn't even notice when they walked into another alley.
“Hey! Wait!” She shouted to the wood. She looked around and trying to squeeze by the wooden desk was impossible. But she was a rabbit after all. Maybe she didn't have the claws which helped him, but she could jump pretty darn high. When she did, he was still there, a little further but leaning against the wall, as if waiting for her.
“And who might be asking that?” He didn't slow down or wait for her anymore. His pace was fast, and if she didn't want to lose him, she needed to walk twice as fast as she was used to.
Still, compared to the training she had done to prepare herself to become a police officer, that was nothing. The problem was she didn't want to reveal who she was. In a moment, it would all burst, and the fox would either run or try hurting her like the cheetahs.
“Judy, Judy Hopps.” She jumped in front of him and extended her paw, which he not only ignored but also walked around her, as if she were nothing more than a street sign! “Hard personality, huh?” She whispered more to herself.
Trying to keep up with a fox who needed to cross four dark alleys after the two was hard enough, but keeping his pace even more. Finally, she saw a rather uninteresting alley, that alone she would never go in. Dark, filthy and smelling awful. Her instincts immediately told her to get closer to him, at least he looked like he knew what he does.
He chuckled down at her, seeing her basically cling onto his shirt. His eyes rolled as he opened the door with a key. Judy was rather shocked.
“You comin’, sweetheart?”
And if he thought that by simply one nickname, he could make her come in, then he was gravely mistaken. But the thought of him actually knowing the underground city, and even more being the Nick she was searching for, was enough to make her hesitate.
Well, that was before she was yanked inside as the door shut behind her.