Chapter 1: I. Me and my mission
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.
Chapter Text
“First rule of the underground, sweetheart; always come in fast,” He winked at Judy before his voice became a little more serious. “Believe me, you don’t wanna be caught outside your home… around here.” He smirked.
“Make sure that the doors will always be closed.” He smiled, but something in that smile shined off dangerously and made the bunny shiver.
She looked at him as he kicked off his jacket onto the floor before walking down the stairs. She braced herself (after gulping down the fear) and looked around. The small entrance they were in was rather purplish, while all remaining walls downstairs were green, the old dirty green.
The entrance had a small cushion and a mirror large enough, so the fox could see himself. These few steps (as Judy later counted six stairs) were rather cold and made out of stone; on the right side was a drawer, and she prayed that the white powder she saw was just flour. In the middle of his room was a couch, large enough so that they both could lie down, and still some place would remain. The TV was against it, and a small table, where all sorts of filth could be seen.
In the corner of the right side where the TV was was a huge pile of clothes, she couldn’t really see what sort, but what really captured her eye wasn’t the bed, big enough so that even her parents' bed in Bunnyburrow couldn't really compare, but the lava lamp on the left side.
A huge, green lava lamp, bigger than the fox in the corner of the left side. She knew no one who owned one, even Chief Bozo only dreamed about getting one with his high salary. It was the most expensive item one could ever obtain in the whole Purrtopia. She looked down, and by the end of the bed, she noticed another drawer and a door where Nick’s voice was now.
“Don't break anything, sweetheart!” He smiled, and only then did she saw it was a bathroom, a rather small one, as she could only see a cabin of the shower before her eyes went on shirtless Nick.
Judy immediately looked away, embarrassed, not even knowing when her curious steps took her so close to the lamp.
“It’s…” She calmed down and sighed. “It's truly beautiful." she said while the door remained open and she could hear pouring water. He probably didn't even hear her while taking a shower with open doors!
Judy now also saw the small, open kitchen with a fridge, and she begged that the small black dots on the counter weren't bugs. Judy hated bugs, she would still help them, but the thought of one being near her made her ill.
While she was a few paws away from him, she looked away and moved to the drawer where she had seen some of the white powder before. Lost in her thoughts, she wanted to taste if it was really the flour, so by a paw she took it on and tried licking it, but Nick stopped her paw.
“Don't do drugs, at least not (in) here.” He spoke as if Judy would ever even try! She was about to open her mouth only to realise the fox still had wet fur but at least wore some pants and a white shirt that now clung to his fur.
“I-I didn't!” She spoke clearly embarrassed before waking up, it was the case, and you just heard he has drugs, Judy! “Wait! So you do admit those are drugs? Your drugs?”
“Don’t do them, if that's your question.” He spoke clearly, bored and a little irritated, before letting her paw go and resting on couch. As if he could talk all high and mighty. Still Judy needed him, especially if he was the Nick she was searching for, so she followed his footsteps and sat down, wishing to continue the conversation.
“Nobody told you you're rather a dumb bunny?” He looked at her.
“What?!”
“Look, this is a fox den, the crazy predator house that you rabbits must be shivering and telling scary bedtime stories about, and you're here alone, not even a little afraid of what I could do?” He smiled and moved closer to her until overpowering her, sitting on top of her hips. It was then she realised that even if she tried wriggling, she wouldn't be able to overcome his strength, but she was a trained individual, just by seeing what the real police officer training looked like, she knew some tricks. And sometimes you had to play dirty to win. She kicked his ankle, and as he let her go, she jumped off the couch.
“I'm not a dumb bunny.” she spoke, standing up with a tranquilizer.
“Oh, I'm so scared!” He clearly spoke with sarcasm while massaging his hurt paw. “Has anybody ever told you, you hit hard?”
Then he threw something on the table next to him, and it took a second for Judy to realise what it was. Collar. His collar was no longer on his neck but instead freely next to him.
“T-That-” She stuttered, shocked.
“Yes, yes, scary, bad collar that was taken off, you watch Zootube? Netfox?”
“Wait, you can take it off?!” She asked, scared, but seeing the fox still relaxed, Judy immediately got up to his face, even throwing the tv remote from his paw, she got so close he would really need to have the talk about personal space, she was beyond help.
“You don't have a collar.”
“Point for observation, sweetheart.”
“How come you're not killing me?”
“Really? Didn't notice.” He smirked lazily, as if putting on a mask. “And get a little bit closer and I might eat you.”
She ignored his suggestive eyebrow move and repeated more to herself. “You don't have a collar, and you didn't try to bite me or eat me. A fox next to the rabbit didn't try to kill it…”
His sigh was loud and clear, the annoyance even from his body would be enough for her to understand if she wasn't in the middle of cracking the cases she loved so much.
“Just because I don't get electrocuted for thoughts doesn't mean I don’t have them,” He said looking down at her. “And you really don't wanna know what I think about when you look at me like this.”
“Do you wanna bite me?” She asked, still a little bit scared and conscious, covering her neck with paw, he chuckled.
“More of a bite you would like.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t want to ruin your sweet dumb bunny head.” He pulled her ear. He pulled her ear!
“Hey!” She shouted and let his paw freely fall over her ear. “You’re so-”
“Sure, sure,” he yawned, "now go home.” A silence only met him. “ I get it, but I have my things to do, so would you kindly leave?”
“I… don't know where the exit is.” She whispered embarrassedly.
“You really went down the sewer and just expected to find me?” She could almost hear the dumb bunny from his mouth.
She almost bit down on her lips, realising what he just confessed to. He was the Nick Wilson she was searching for!
“Call it luck, sly fox.” She smiled while he stood up.
“All right, carrots, get up. I got a job in few hours and a nap to take.”
Carrots? She thought, but ignored the way it made her feel.
Nick smiled, almost as if it was his resting face, and climbed the stairs. He opened the door. “Ladies, first.”
She indeed walked out first but half looked at him behind, if he decided to slam shut his door and leave her here, she would be in real problems.
“Don’t worry, wouldn't leave ya. Now up.”
Judy looked up and already saw him on the fire escape stairs. She jumped, and just then he helped her a little to not fall over.
“You go left and climb up on Third Street, by-”
“Street?”
“I mean balconies-” He saw her expression. “Don't tell me you never climbed before.”
“I did! But with proper equipment and-”
He sighed so loud it made her head snap in embarrassment. “All right, all right, or you'll wear my ear off. Follow me, my lady?”
He exchanged his paw, and if she wasn't in the middle of the case and he wasn't a predator, criminal, or searched fox, she would think it was truly a scene from a fairy tale book she often read as a child. When the rabbit in white armor protected the princess bunny, and they lived happily ever after. Her eyes rolled as she passed him with a smirk on her face.
That day, or rather night, as they had arrived late, she was safely brought back to the alley she was in before, almost caught up by the cheetahs, but when she turned around to thank Nick, he was nowhere to be found.
He already disappeared.
⋆˚࿔
When Judy came back to her small room, she almost couldn't believe it. She had not only found Nick Wilson, but also he was not wearing a collar, he took it off by himself. A predator without a collar didn't try to kill her. She sighed, lying on her back with the uncomfortable bed, and in the moment she heard the music next door, it was her clue to get up.
Another hard night of barely any sleep. she thought.
Her neighbors weren't bad mammals. They were just nocturnal animals, two opossums that shared one room, twins. Always polite, giving her their parents' homemade candies, but so she could not possibly have a good night's rest with the loud noises practically right next to her ear. The thin walls weren’t helping. Nor did the medicine. Pillows on ears or even hypnosis – she tried once. Desperately enough, nothing worked. She tried talking to them, but all talks ended up in the same way, with nothing being resolved.
She sat down with a heavy thump, tired from the whole day of news, and wrote down.
‘
Judy Hopps, 22 May.
First day of the interrogation. Found out Nick Wilson lives under a different address. Apparently he can take off his collar, and- isn't dangerous? Didn’t try to eat or kill me. Does every predator-
‘
Judy realised what she had written and immediately scratched it out before sighing and throwing the whole paper sheet into the trash bin. Later on only three sentences could be found on her desk, as she was already in bed.
‘
Judy Hopps, 22 May.
First day of interrogation. Underground criminal Nick Wilson can take off his collar whenever he wishes.
More to be approached.
‘
Notes:
Hi, It's QVR!
The zootopia 2 was soooo good! Loved Nick's yearning!!
I hope you got how the fox's den look like more or less, since i truly suck i explaining those things.
Hope you have a good day! Big hug, QVR.