Hello readers new and old, Last Edge here, and welcome to... The Longest Chapter of Broken Clockwork... so far, I think.

This one took a while, there's a whole load of stuff happening, so hopefully it'll keep you going for a little while. As always, leave a comment or drop me a line, I love hearing what you guys have to say :)

Oh and we've broken 12000 views on Fanfiction so that's cool (Actually hit 12300 while I was finishing it)

I don't normally give chapters names but, I give you

See Tiger, See Tiger Run, See Tiger Disappear Screaming Into The Night

Chapter 29

Rennie Lamane surveyed his territory with the gaze of a king, certainly it appeared that he was simply looking around the secret club hidden beneath the Blue Tide, but Rennie Lamane was looking beyond just one building.

In his mind he could see the whole of Zootopia, this gang he'd taken control of were mainly based in the Canals and the Rainforest District, even though he'd moved his headquarters out to the coastline of Sahara Square.

But with the help of Dusk, Rennie Lamane could see a vivid bloody orange like a sunset, spreading across the city like ink in water. Running through all the cracks and crevices, pooling in the shadows, and by the time anyone realised what was happening it would be too late. The whole of Zootopia would be in his grasp.

Raucous laughter filled the air off to one side and Rennie glanced over, several of his higher-ranking subordinates were lazing around in one of the booths, they seemed to have found something very amusing.

"Get a load of this, Boss" shouted a wolf, the bared fangs and savage eyes showing they were on Dusk.

The wolf threw his phone over at the booth Rennie was sat in and the grizzly bear who always seemed to be nearby snatched it out of the air. A smirk appeared on the bear's face as he looked at the screen briefly before he passed it to his boss.

On the phone was a news article detailing a bank robbery in Vornoy Plaza and the hospitalisation of two police officers. A slow smile spread across the lion's face as he scrolled down the page.

"Carlos?" he called out while still perusing the phone.

A few moments later the black buck rabbit appeared out of the shadows, if Carlos wasn't out on business then he was always within earshot, though that was a fairly large range for a rabbit on Dusk.

"I expect you've already looked into this" drawled Rennie as he finished with the phone and threw it back at the wolf, who caught it easily "was it one of ours? Or just a small-time crook? More importantly, was Dusk involved?"

"I've put out a few feelers" said the rabbit adjusting the cuffs of his suit "it wasn't one of our jobs, but the ones who did it did have some contact with us. Looking at the idiots who got themselves caught and the name missing from that list, I think the culprit was a tiger called Mathew Caspian" Carlos paused as his mouth twitched into as much of a grin as he ever made "and Mathew Caspian buys Dusk."

Now Rennie Lamane started to laugh, throaty chortles that almost sounded like roaring, as he leant back in his seat.

"Find this tiger" he said as he gestured for a nearby waiter to fetch him a drink "the first Dusk user to achieve something here in Zootopia, I would like to meet him… here, tomorrow morning. You can manage that can't you Carlos?"

The black rabbit nodded briefly before he disappeared back into the smoke and shadows that filled the room.

"Heheheh" Rennie snickered "now things are starting to get interesting…"

Reginald Exmoor, Mayor of Zootopia, sighed as he read through the report Chief Bogo had provided him. The various charts included showed the stark difference just a few weeks had made on the amount of crimes being committed in the city. There had to be some sort of connecting factor, a spark that was setting everything off, but so far the ZPD hadn't managed to discover the link. Perhaps even more worrying was the severity of the crimes, in just the last few days things had advanced from muggings and burglaries to bank robberies and heists.

Thankfully, Zootopia's police department was well prepared, thanks in fairly large part to Chief Bogo. The cape buffalo kept the ZPD running at peak condition, even on weeks when the most interesting thing to happen was a missing cub, so when this new crime spree arrived, the police hit the ground running.

The good news was that the ZPD was not being overwhelmed yet, they still had a deep pool of resources to pull from and officers to spare.

"Your officers are working admirably Chief Bogo" said the stag as he continued to leaf through the paperwork "How are they holding up?"

Chief Bogo calmly watched the mammal in front of him. He had never particularly got on well with Mayor Lionheart, the pompous fool made far too many unreasonable demands of those working under him without understanding how any of the departments actually operated. Reginald Exmoor was definitely better than Lionheart, however at first Bogo had thought that Bellwether was a better Mayer than Lionheart and look how that had turned out.

No, Chief Bogo had learnt his lesson and made the personal decision to pay close attention to any other Mayors that came to power during his time as Police Chief. After several months, however, Mayor Exmoor had showed no hints of any evil schemes or conspiracies. The city was in a much better state than when Reginald took over and if the stag really was lulling everyone into a false sense of security in the long run, well, Chief Bogo decided it was worth the risk with this one.

Besides, he much preferred the stag's no-nonsense attitude when it came to work and politics.

"I do not allow any slackers on my force, sir" began Bogo "all my officers are kept in tip top shape and fully trained to deal with whatever Zootopia can throw at them. They're a bit tired from the sudden influx of work but they'll adapt, I know they will."

"Glad to hear it, any mammal can see that there's something wrong with the city at the moment, it's reassuring to have a police department we can trust"

"That's one of the things I'm potentially worried about" said Chief Bogo, frowning as he sat forwards in his seat "Currently the ZPD can still cover every incident that occurs across the city, but if this upwards trend doesn't stop then eventually things will be too much even for us to handle. The moment we show even a shred of weakness the media will descend on the ZPD like flies. You know it, I know it, we all know the media loves a story regardless of the damage that might cause to individuals or the city as a whole."

"You raise a very good point" said Mayor Exmoor rubbing his temples "I'll think on what we can do to try and dampen that, if we raise as much public support for the ZPD as we can before things get to that point perhaps we can limit the panic that might ensue."

Chief Bogo nodded and opened his mouth to say something when his phone went off. Reginald simply smiled and gestured for Bogo to take the call. Glowering at the item of technology as he took it out of his breast pocket, Bogo answered the call rather tersely, he'd told administration not to contact him during his meeting with the mayor.

"This had better be important! Clawhauser?! I know you're head dispatcher but there are rules you need to follow as part of ZPD Administration. You can't just go calling the Chief of Police whenever you… What about Hopps and Wilde? CALM DOWN, CLAWHAUSER!" Bogo took a deep breath "Sorry, sir" he said to Mayor Exmoor before focussing on the call again "Calm down and explain what has happened or, if that is not possible, please pass the phone to someone who can tell me what exactly is going on"

The mild amusement on the Mayor's face slowly faded away as he realised that this call could potentially be quite serious. As he listened to whoever was on the other end of the call, Chief Bogo's face transitioned from glowering to scowling and finally settled on stormy, the kind with black thunderclouds.

"My apologies, sir" said Chief Bogo as he put his phone away again "I will have to amend that report you just finished. We have had our first casualties in the line of duty."

"Hopps and Wilde? The rabbit who isn't the best at press conferences and her partner the fox?" Bogo's expression darkened even more "I'm not holding that against them, everyone makes mistakes here in Zootopia, those two went above and beyond what anyone expected of them and they saved the city from Bellwether's plot. We need more cops like them. Alright, I think we've covered everything we need to today, go see how they're doing Mondara"

Chief Bogo nodded curtly and stood up to leave.

"Keep me updated on the situation" Mayor Exmoor said as the chief of police exited his office, before the stag also stood and moved to one of the windows "it would seem things are progressing faster than we hoped. What is happening to you, Zootopia?"

The view from his window was silent as Mayor Exmoor pondered the future.

Cherry dragged herself in through the front door while Fizz reset the various locks and bolts on it.

"You look tired" said Fizz hoarsely, pausing to cough several times as he followed the otter back into the main room.

"You would not believe; do you know how many detours I had to take today? Seven! Seven times I had to back track or go out of my way so as not to be suspicious" complained Cherry as she flopped onto one of the sofas "Because all these mammals have got it into their heads to commit crimes willy-nilly, the police presence everywhere has almost doubled. I nearly ran into patrolling officers three times in some of the rougher areas"

"Hmm, well that's not good" said Fizz as he sat back down at his desk with his computer "I've been running the numbers, profits have been down almost fifteen percent since this crime spree started, and it would be more if not for the proportion of Dusk being sold going up"

"Ugh, do these morons not know how Zootopia functions?" groaned Cherry as she flipped round onto her front on the sofa and looked over at Fizz "You keep within certain boundaries, you make sure you aren't stepping on anyone else's tails whenever you plan a job, and you certainly don't take on the ZPD directly!"

"The city is changing Cherry" said Fizz while dotting some numbers down on a piece of paper "just look at what happened to us and our gang. We aren't the only ones who have been reorganised because of all the new mammals flocking to Zootopia"

"Well they should do some research before they fuck everything up for the rest of us" snorted Cherry "Hey, I did hear something interesting while I was out, rumour is that someone took down two cops today, sent em straight to hospital"

"Seriously? Didn't think things had got to that stage yet?" said Fizz looking up from his work.

"That's just what I heard, here, gimme a sec to look it up"

Cherry fished out a slightly battered phone and started to check the news, she let out a low whistle a few moments later once she found the right articles.

"Hoo boy, they weren't kidding" exclaimed Cherry with a grin.

"Alright, alright" said Fizz putting down his pencil and picking up a part drunk can of Cub Soda "you've got my attention, big names involved?"

"Oh yeah, they took out Judy Hopps"

"I need more than a name here Cherry" sighed Fizz exasperatedly to which Cherry just looked at him like he'd crawled out from under a rock.

"Judy Hopps? You know, the first rabbit cop in Zootopia, kinda caused all the backlash against predators about half a year ago, then uncovered Mayor Bellwether's Night howler plot and mostly put everything right again? That Judy Hopps?"

"Cherry, if I recall correctly, that was around the time that the new boss was making a 'hostile takeover' shall we say" Fizz grimaced "I was a bit preoccupied making sure we stayed relevant and useful and weren't disposed of… besides you know I don't really pay attention to the news that often"

"Yeah but… it's Judy Hopps, can't believe there was someone in Zootopia who hadn't heard of her" said Cherry zooming in on a picture of the bunny "Heh, look at her, with that dumb smile, looks like she doesn't know the first thing about the real world"

"And the other officer?" asked Fizz taking a swig of his drink.

"That would beeeee… er, here we go, Officer Nicholas Wilde, first fox cop we've had you know, he-"

PBWSHSHWSH

Fizz spat his mouthful of Cub Soda out, turning his head to avoid getting any on the otter, before choking a little bit.

"You ok, Fizz?" Cherry asked a little concerned.

"Who did you just say?!" Fizz sputtered in shock.

"Nicholas Wilde, he helped the rabbit with the Night howler fiasco, then went on to become a cop officially as well, why? You know him?"

"A long time ago" said Fizz a bit blankly before he snorted "well, what do you know, the bastard got out after all"

"It doesn't say how they are, just that they got sent to the hospital" said Cherry scrolling down the article a bit further "so how'd you get to know a cop then?"

"I wouldn't worry about that fox" said Fizz shaking his head "he's harder to get rid of than a cockroach. I knew him from waaay back in the day, before I worked for this gang and met you, he was just a sly fox back then. Course it was worse when the other guy was still around" Fizz winced "I would not want to be involved with that if he was still in Zootopia"

Cherry of course just had more questions now, but the cougar clammed up and went back to work on his numbers. He still seemed fine on the outside, but Cherry could tell that her friend had been rattled.

A series of bubbles rose to the frigid water's surface, causing little ripples that gently shook the floating chunks of ice.

And then Raymond replaced the trapdoor over the hole and the deed was done.

"Un peccato, I quite liked that squirrel" said Mr. Big as he steepled his fingers and looked down at the trapdoor as Raymond covered it back up with a rug "though, I always felt Mr. Kodiak was the more cautious of the two. Have you found that brown bear yet?"

"Not yet" rumbled Koslov, standing watch behind Mr. Big as always "but our mammals have found his trail."

"Eccellente, while he will not be sharing Mr. Dreyson's watery fate, Mr. Kodiak is still in need of punishment."

The recent restlessness of the criminal underworld, along with how fresh some of the faces appearing there were, was causing all sorts of upsets for already established organisations. Normally the biggest mobs, gangs and mafias were exempt from this but every so often you got cocky newcomers who didn't believe everything they'd ever heard about the crime bosses of Zootopia.

Which led to a situation like this one where said cocky newcomers become the latest tale of stupidity warning others that you do not mess around with Mr. Big.

Mr. Big opened his mouth to ask Koslov about their next order of business but paused as both he and the two polar bears in the room heard something very quiet. It was rather muffled but the high-pitched voice shouting "MOVE FASTER KEVIN!" definitely belonged to Fru Fru.

A few moments later the loud thuds of a polar bear running could be made out before said polar bear barged into the room. Kevin looked rather apologetic, it was disrespectful to enter Mr. Big's office without knocking, but his hands were full as he transported the little mafioso daughter.

"DADDY!" Fru Fru practically shrieked once she saw her father "THIS IS TERRIBLE!"

Kevin stepped forward and let Fru Fru down onto the desk where she ran forwards and threw her arms around Mr. Big.

"Calm down baby" said the mafia boss patting his daughter on the back "tell Daddy what's happened."

"It-it-it's Judy! And Nick!" stuttered Fru Fru as tears started to form in her eyes "They've been hurt, they were sent to the hospital!"

Hearing this Mr. Big waved his free paw and Koslov nodded, pulled out his phone and started to make some phone calls. Meanwhile Raymond found the relevant news articles on his phone and presented it to his boss.

Mr. Big read through the information, paying note to the escaped bank robber implied as the suspect, as he comforted his now crying daughter.

A few minutes later, as Fru Fru was starting to calm down again, Koslov stepped forwards and whispered what he'd learned to Mr. Big.

As the right-paw mammal of Mr. Big, Koslov had a lot of important contacts he could call upon, and it had taken only two calls to find out the situation at the hospital.

"Che sollievo, it is not as bad as you think Fru Fru" said Mr. Big as his daughter let go of him "Judy is fine, just some bruising"

"A-and Nick?"

"Nicholas was more badly hurt" Fru Fru's hands shot to her mouth in worry "but his surgery was a success and he should recover within a few days."

Hearing that her friends were going to be alright seemed to take a load of the little arctic shrew and her body language relaxed quite a bit. Soon after that however Fru Fru started to frown.

"What are you going to do about this Daddy?" Fru Fru asked, very firmly.

"I'm not going to do anything right now" said Mr. Big after thinking for a few moments.

"Why not?!" said Fru Fru, shocked "You aren't a crime boss for nothing, right Daddy? You could find their attacker!"

"Certo, I could" said Mr. Big with a sigh "but if my mafia gets spontaneously involved in this so quickly then any mammal with some sense would find something suspicious. I do not want to avenge Nicholas and Judy only to ruin their careers"

Fru Fru's face fell, she certainly couldn't argue with that logic.

"Then how about if-"

"The second reason I will do nothing is because there is nothing for me to do" her father cut her off "Judy and Nicholas both seem to be receiving adequate care so there is not much else for us to get involved in"

"But that bank robber is still out there!" you could almost see steam pouring out of Fru Fru's tiny ears.

Mr. Big just started to chuckle, his bushy eyebrows shaking, and Koslov snorted softly in the background.

"Looking for the culprit is even more pointless, Fru Fru" grinned Mr. Big viciously "I imagine Broken Clockwork is already scouring the city and this is something they excel at. I remember the last time Nicholas got injured… A gang called the Tusks disappeared overnight, and Broken Clockwork became a well-respected name in Zootopia"

Upon seeing the police vehicle arrive outside the hospital, the gaggle of reporters felt that maybe they'd finally get something, and they moved towards the car in a group. The moment the intimidating figure of Chief Bogo stepped out of the vehicle, however, the reporters' momentum died instantly and they started milling about.

Bogo took a quick glance at all the news-mammals congregated in front of the hospital and could feel a headache coming on.

"Ladies and gentlemen" said Chief Bogo, immediately grabbing the reporters' attentions "I will not be answering any questions at this time. The ZPD will release a statement once we are in possession of all the details regarding today's incident" there was a murmuring as the reporters looked disappointed, there expressions made Bogo frown "since there is nothing here for you to document perhaps you would all like to vacate the premises before I have to start arresting people for Loitering and Obstruction of a Public Service…"

Chief Bogo had a profoundly solemn countenance, Nick had serious respect for the Chief's poker face, so none of the reporters could tell if he was joking or being serious. But none of them wanted to be the one to find out so the front of the hospital very quickly became empty.

Shaking his head as he watched them all leave; Bogo turned and entered the hospital.

The entrance foyer was fairly empty and Chief Bogo could walk right up to one of the reception desks.

"Thank you for getting rid of those silly mammals" said the kindly old female ferret at the desk "they've been causing a ruckus all afternoon"

"Not a problem ma'am" replied the Chief of Police "Could I trouble you to find out where officer Wilde is currently?"

"Certainly young male" said the ferret as she typed away at a computer, thankfully she wasn't anywhere near as doddery as she first appeared "Ah yes, here we are, Nicholas Wilde is in room 113, take that corridor, first stairway on the left and the room should be to your right"

"Thank you, ma'am" said Chief Bogo as he turned to go, but he paused and looked back at the receptionist "Where can I find officer Hopps?"

"The young rabbit? Oh, she should be in 113 as well, she was lucky that a registered contact arrived at the same time"

"Thank you ag… what do you mean lucky?" a frown appeared on Bogo's face despite his best efforts to prevent it "Are you saying that officer Hopps was not allowed to see her partner?"

"That would have been the case, if not for one of Mr Wilde's registered contacts turning up in the nick of time. The poor dear looked like she was about to have a breakdown" said the ferret sympathetically.

"Well, I know the first thing I'm going to talk to the Mayor about after this" grumbled Bogo to himself, he nodded to the ferret and set off for room 113 "I'd prefer to amend the hospital's policy but if I know anything about bureaucracy that won't happen. Maybe I can alter the ZPD contracts to state that partnered officers are classed as registered contacts, then we'd just need to tell the hospital a list of partnered officers and let them deal with it" nodding his head to himself and fine tuning how he was going to bring this up to Mayor Exmoor, Bogo found the ferret's directions to have been spot on and soon arrived one floor up outside room 113.

Chief Bogo let out a deep sigh, knocked twice on the door before he opened it and stepped inside.

Judy's ears flicked up at the sound of knocking, followed by raising her head in time to see her boss walk into the room. Judy hurriedly stopped leaning on the bed and stood up straight as she wiped her eyes.

"Chief Bogo, sir" Judy greeted him.

"Relax, Hopps" said Chief Bogo calmly "this isn't really a situation that demands formality, how is he?"

"N-Nick is doing well, all things considered" said Judy, the slight stuttering giving away how unsettled she was "his surgery went w-well, and they say he should wake up in… in a day or so"

"I'm glad to hear it" said Bogo as he looked over at Nick lying in the bed before his gaze returned to Judy "and what about you?"

"Some minor bruising, sir" said Judy trying to be as bright and cheerful as she usually was "I'll be ready for duty tomorrow morning"

"No, you won't" said Chief Bogo bluntly, he seriously doubted how minor Judy's bruises were "I'm putting both you and Wilde on sick leave until I am satisfied that you have both recovered"

"B-but sir!" Judy almost spluttered as her ears drooped "we need all the officers we have at the moment; I get Nick but I'm fine"

"Hopps, this is the first time you've had an incident like this happen to a colleague, especially one as close as your partner" Bogo looked Judy in the eyes till she glanced away "I can already tell that you are not alright, and there is no way I'm letting you back out on the streets in this state."

"I-I…" Judy found herself staring at Nick again, tears forming at the corners of her amethyst eyes "it's my fault"

"No, Hopps" said Chief Bogo moving round to stand beside Judy going down on one knee and putting a hoof on her shoulder "I rather doubt that, now, what happened out there today?"

Almost robotically Judy began to retell the events that had led to her and Nick being sent to hospital. Everything sounded fairly by the book to Bogo, ignoring Judy's thinking outside the box in order to sedate the bear with the handgun. True, an argument could be made that Judy should have waited for back up before chasing the last criminal, but conversely said criminal would probably have escaped by that time.

It was when Judy started to talk about the chase, and how she had issues catching up to the thief, that Bogo began to feel something was amiss. When Judy revealed the bank robber who had nearly outrun her was a tiger, one of Bogo's eyebrows rose about three centimetres, the highest Judy had ever seen it go.

Bogo's eyes narrowed as Judy narrated her fight against the tiger, how fast and strong they had been, how Judy was defeated and how she'd gotten her bruises. Then Nick arrived but couldn't escape with Judy and ended up in conflict with the tiger as well.

"Nick fired his tranq pistol at almost point blank range but the tiger managed to knock Nick's arm… the dart… it broke the tiger's sunglasses…" Judy looked up at Bogo, her nose twitching "Sir, the tiger was savage!"

The raised eyebrow on Bogo's face rapidly crashed back down to join its fellow in a deep frown.

"Are you suggesting that this is like the case with that Jackal pup a few weeks or so ago?" Chief Bogo asked seriously.

"Yes sir" said Judy, focussing on the conversation and not Nick lying next to her "They clearly had savage eyes. If you add that to the facts that this tiger nearly outran me and shrugged off hits that should have stunned him…"

"I had a bad feeling when Night howlers reappeared" said Chief Bogo rubbing his forehead "Are you certain?"

"Absolutely sir, there's no way I couldn't have handled a single normal tiger, and Nick wouldn't… wouldn't have…"

"Look at me, Hopps" said Bogo to drag Judy's attention away from her partner again "if this had been a normal situation, you'd have caught up to the tiger in no time and back up would have been with you almost immediately… You can't blame yourself when you didn't do anything wrong given the information you had at the time"

Judy took a deep shuddering breath as she gazed at Nick and nodded, though Bogo wasn't sure if she'd taken his words to heart.

Chief Bogo went to pick up Nick's medical records only to find the clipboard smashed to pieces. Gingerly detaching the paperwork Bogo decided not to enquire about it right now. The cape buffalo had read enough medical reports of officers over the years that he could get all the relevant information just by casually flicking through the pages. Thankfully it simply confirmed what Judy had said previously, Officer Wilde should have a fairly straight forwards recovery.

"Hopps, there's one last thing I need to ask before I go" said Chief Bogo gently "I need a description of this tiger, as detailed as you can make it"

Judy nodded and thought to herself for a few moments as she tried to cast her mind back to earlier without getting caught up in her emotions. She described the tiger's height and build, features such as the distinctive scar on his face, and clothing though she knew that was less essential.

Bogo jotted all of this down in the notepad he kept in his breast pocket, the first thing he was going to do was contact the mayor and see what he could do about all that bureaucracy, the second was return to ZPD headquarters and make sure the description Judy had provided was sent to all officers on duty.

And then I'll have to organise what we tell the press Bogo thought to himself groaning inwardly.

"Hopps" said Chief Bogo as he stood up "since your partner is currently unconscious, I see no harm in saying this. This tiger has put two of my best officers out of commission at a time when this city needs them most. On the one hand, the ZPD needs the two of you back in top condition as soon as possible. But I've seen too many cases of officers returning to duty prematurely and ending up in an even worse situation… I've seen careers ended that way, Judy, I don't want that happening to you and Wilde"

Judy swallowed and wiped her eyes again before standing straight at attention.

"Thank you, sir" she said with the most confidence Bogo had seen in her thus far.

With a nod Chief Bogo turned to go, a quick glance over his shoulder at the door showed that Judy had gone back to her place at the side of the bed, the sadness clear in her expression. Bogo sighed deeply and left the room, he had quite a lot of work to do now.

Judy listened to her boss's footsteps become quieter and quieter as he walked away down the corridor.

"You hear that Slick?" Judy said quietly, a small smile amongst the tears threatening to fall again "Bogo said that you're one of his best officers"

Something about the situation brought Judy back to the last time Chief Bogo, Nick and herself had been at a hospital.

"See, I told you I was getting into his good books, although maybe he just likes seeing me injured"

"Want me to break your legs?" replied the bunny grinning evilly "You could make detective in a month"

"Sly Bunny"

"Dumb Fox"

"I… I never wanted you to get hurt again" Judy whispered as the tears began to fall.

Judy reached out for Nick's paw and held it to her face as she watched over her partner. Judy Hopps wasn't going anywhere.

The sun was low in the sky when Miranda Wilde finished work. It normally was at this time of year, Miranda hadn't built Furleeze from the ground up by going home early, she was normally the last mammal in the office at the end of the day.

It was a fairly short walk from Walnut Street, where Furleeze's offices were located, to Cypress Grove Lane where her home was. It was one of the reasons she'd located Furleeze where she did, the other, fairly large, reason being that it was directly opposite the Brush-havens.

The neighbourhood was… alright, it was a bit rough, plenty of teenagers hanging around on the streets doing things they shouldn't but no outright criminals loitering about. Besides, Miranda Wilde had lived here for decades, she'd seen most of these teenagers grow up. There'd been enough encounters with cocky young mammals over the years of her walking to and from work that she'd gained a bit of a reputation.

Her strict authoritarian presence could reduce any of these wannabe gangsters to small children who'd done something wrong, and no teenager wants something like that to happen to them, not with how much reputation meant to them.

No, the gangs of teenagers had a healthy respect for Miranda Wilde, a few said hello to her as she went past.

The journey home took Miranda about fifteen minutes and, even in that short amount of time, the sky was growing darker. Finally arriving at 1955 Cypress Grove Lane, Miranda walked up to the slightly run-down council house and fished out her keys.

Many of her colleagues had tried to persuade Miranda over the years that, given how successful Furleeze had become, she should move out into a nicer house.

But Miranda simply waved the suggestions away each time. She couldn't leave here. This was the house that she and her husband, John, had managed to find. Back when they were young, foxes had worse reputations, Zootopia had mellowed tremendously over the years and still found foxes to be sly and untrustworthy. So the amount of effort that had gone into being allowed to rent this little council house was immense.

It was the house her son grew up in, so many memories were attached to this building that it was almost just another part of Miranda by now. She would never leave it.

Miranda stepped inside and closed the door behind herself before taking her coat off and hanging it by the door.

First, she picked up any mail that had arrived as she made her way into the kitchen, filled the kettle and set it boiling, before turning on the radio. She sat at the kitchen table and began to leaf through the various letters she had received as she listened to the radio and waited for the water to boil.

"That was Gazelle with Ara-bunny Nights and I'm afraid that is all we have time for this evening. But don't you worry, Scott Quills will be on after the news to keep you company till late into the night…"

Miranda didn't normally pay much attention to what was actually on the radio, it was just nice to have a bit of conversation going on in the background, the house could get awfully quiet if she wasn't careful.

"… the new fragrance from Coco Camel…" shortly after this the distinctive ZNN tune began to play, heralding the news reports "Crime continues to be on the rise in Zootopia but the ZPD is on top form with over six counts of robbery being halted today alone. Sadly, two officers have been injured in the line of duty, Officers Hopps and Wilde were injured during a bank robbery at Vornoy Plaza earlier today, all civilians involved were safely rescued…"

RIIIIIIIIIIP

A small part of Miranda's brain saw that the letter she had just ripped in half was just an advert for a local restaurant and sighed in relief that she hadn't just destroyed an important document.

The rest of her mind was running through what she had just heard again. Miranda got up and went and picked up the radio, turning the volume up slightly.

"Unfortunately, Officers Hopps and Wilde, Zootopia's first rabbit and fox officers respectively, were injured in the line of duty. They have both been admitted to Zootopia General Hospital, however we have yet to receive any other information, the ZPD has told the press today that they will be releasing an official statement tomorrow morning. In other news, Tundratown played Sahara Square in…"

The radio carried on blaring away from the kitchen floor where it now lay. The slam of the front door echoed around the house.

"You should have seen it" boasted the tiger "Bang! One punch and the rabbit slammed into the wall and couldn't move. Then the next cop appeared. Wham! One slash of my claws and he was down for the count. I'm telling you guys, that Dusk stuff is the bomb!"

Mathew Caspian was sat in a dingy smoke-filled bar surrounded by many other criminals and cutthroats.

First thing he'd done after escaping Vornoy Plaza was head for his secret hiding places around the city and squirrel away the money. After that he'd lain low for a while, he'd expected two cops being injured to make the headlines, and he wanted to make sure he knew what was being said. When the news finally started to spread and there wasn't any information on the culprit, Mathew sighed in relief.

He hadn't wanted to have to live under a rock right after such a big score, sure someone might catch his trail eventually but for now he could enjoy himself. So he'd taken some spending money, eaten some nice food and gone to one of the bars that mammals like himself frequented.

Mathew had planned to keep things on the down low, but criminals love to gossip. Some of them of course knew about the Vornoy Plaza job, knew who'd been down to do it, and it didn't take an idiot to work out who was the only mammal left who hadn't been arrested at the bank.

Initially the tiger had still tried to brush aside the conversations but this was the first time so many mammals had paid attention to him, that he'd been respected by his peers. So eventually Mathew had started talking about the day's events.

It had been great, mammals had bought him drinks, and new criminals kept turning up at the bar and asking what the hullabaloo was about. So Mathew told the story over and over again, gaining more and more confidence, all to cheers and roars of laughter.

On a bit of a high and rather drunk, Mathew decided to visit a few other bars that night, help spread the word of how awesome he was.

It was part way between two bars that he was approached by a large polar bear from out of the shadows of an alley. The raw, bestial aura the bear gave off did wonders to sober the tiger up.

"You Mathew Caspian?" asked the bear gruffly.

"Might be… what's it to you?" replied Mathew cautiously, wishing he still had some Dusk left.

"You've been busy" said the bear "How was the Dusk?"

"Du… you're with them?" asked Mathew rather stunned, he'd only heard rumours about the head of the gang that Dusk was supposed to come from.

"Yes, and the Boss was pretty impressed with you" the bear grinned coldly "He wants to meet you"

Mathew Caspian blinked a few times and just slowly nodded, he couldn't believe it, the mammal behind Dusk wanted to meet him?

"2:30am in the alley's behind Connor's arms" said the bear as he disappeared back into the night "You're moving up in the world, so don't be late…"

Mathew had checked the time first, it was still early, he had loads of time to get to the meeting point. Which led up to the present moment where he was whiling away the hours in a smoke-filled bar till it was time for him to move.

"Ah come on, it was a rabbit and a fox" said a sceptic listener "You're a tiger, of course you took them out"

"Show em the marks, Caspian" shouted another criminal, one who'd already heard all this before.

Mathew downed his drink and lifted up his shirt with a grin, parting the fur you could make out an enormous purple bruise on his lower abdomen.

"That rabbit packed a serious punch" chuckled the tiger "Or kick rather, I tell you, if I wasn't on Dusk I reckon I'd have been down on the ground throwing my guts up. And that fox? Well, if I didn't have the better reactions Dusk gives you, then I'd have been shot full of tranquiliser darts and I wouldn't be sat here telling you guys all about it."

Another drink appeared on the bar in front of Mathew, he didn't know who it had come from, but he'd lost count of the mammals who'd bought him drinks by now.

At this point some newcomers walked into the dive and spotted him.

"Hey, it's Caspian, what the fuck happened to you today dude?"

Mathew just grinned as he prepared to tell the story all over again.

Lunette had had a rough day, everything up till the bank robbery had been fine, but after that things got a bit shaky. She could still picture the scene when she and the other officers had arrived, Judy kneeling over Nick's body, the pain on the rabbit's face.

It hurt Lunette watching her friends be transferred to the ambulance, and it hurt when it left and suddenly she didn't have Nick or Judy around anymore. But Lunette was made of pretty stern stuff, you had to be to survive in Los Antleres, so she had wiped her eyes and carried on dealing with the aftermath of the bank robbery.

Chief Bogo had called her into his office when she had finally returned to Precinct 1 at the end of the day. He'd updated her on Nick and Judy's statuses, which had taken a weight of the wolf's mind, and informed her that she would be patrolling alongside Officer's Krumpansky and Delgato until Nick and Judy resumed active service.

It was the best Lunette could have hoped for given the situation, it would be good to interact with some more of her colleagues than just Nick and Judy, at least that was what she was telling herself.

The whole day's events had really brought it home to Lunette that Zootopia wasn't this bright shining star that she'd always heard about back in Los Antleres. Certainly, it was a lot better than her home city, but Zootopia was just that, a city with all the good and the bad that came with that.

By the time Lunette could finally clock out all she wanted was to go home to her family. Thankfully it really wasn't a very long walk back to Chrysalis Tower. Lunette's mind was preoccupied with Noct so she didn't even notice the walk home.

Has Noct found out? There were reporters at the scene, it could be on the news by now… What if he doesn't know? How am I supposed to bring this up?

The thoughts just ran round and round in her head, as she walked through Downtown, as she entered the Tower, as she rode the elevator to the top. Before Lunette could come to any sort of answer, the door to the penthouse was in front of her.

With a sigh, and a little prayer that she'd be able to improvise, Lunette opened the door and walked inside.

The first thing Lunette noticed was the smell. Pizza. Double cheese, red onion, peppers and anchovies if she wasn't mistaken.

The second thing Lunette noticed were the voices.

"And then? Then what happened?"

That was Asra sounding rather enthralled.

"Ha, well, you're Dad wasn't gonna stand for that" came a deep voice that sounded a little familiar to Lunette "Since this motorcycle gang busted up my van, then Noct gave them the old eye for an eye. Snuck into one of their gatherings and slashed the tires on every single bike there without any of them noticing. When they came to leave and finally discovered what had happened, they…" there was booming laughter "they caused such a ruckus that some mammals found their 'secret' gathering spot and called the police on them."

Lunette smiled to herself as she walked further into the room, that certainly sounded like something Noct would do.

Upon seeing her appear, Asra's tail started to wag even harder than it had listening to the stories about Noct, and the little jackal bounded over the sofas and into Lunette's arms.

"Welcome home Mom" said Asra hugging her tightly.

Lunette hugged him back as she looked around the room. The other mammal here was a bit smaller than Asra even, a fennec fox wearing a dark blue polo shirt and cargo shorts, who was staring at Lunette in surprise. He looked rather familiar, but it didn't click in her head till she pictured him in a junior ranger scouts' outfit.

"You?!" said Finnick incredulously "You're the lady cop that finally managed to catch the great Noctis Lacerda?! Oh, those brothers just keep getting more and more alike."

And then he started to laugh that deep belly aching laugh again.

"Uncle Finnick has been telling me all about when Dad and Uncle Nick were younger" said Asra with a big grin on his face as he looked up at Lunette "and he bought me pizza!"

Lunette picked Asra up and walked over to sit down where Finnick was located, Asra immediately grabbed another slice of pizza and began to eat.

"Thank you Finnick" said Lunette sincerely which just made the fennec fox uncomfortable.

"Yeah, well, he's a good kid" mumbled Finnick "Noct never mentioned when you'd be back so I got some food in, he definitely takes after his Dad though I don't get how, the kid eats like a horse"

Lunette then noticed the three empty pizza boxes that were put to one side, in addition to the two mostly full boxes Asra was currently munching his way through.

"How much did all this cost?" asked Lunette reaching for her bag.

"Don't sweat it" said Finnick waving his paw as he reached for a slice of the pizza himself "besides I'll just get Noct to pay me back"

"Speaking of which" said Lunette slowly looking around the penthouse for signs of her mate "where is that damn panther?"

"Dad's gone to catch the bad guy" said Asra through his food "the one who hurt Uncle Nick and Aunty Judy"

"So you guys already found out?" sighed Lunette.

"It's been plastered all over the news" said Finnick with a frown "don't suppose you've heard anything?"

"Yes" said Lunette "Judy is fine, she just has some nasty bruises. Nick however needed surgery for the cuts on his chest and he lost a lot of blood. But he seems to be doing well and is due to make a full recovery."

"Well, that's good" said Finnick rather gruffly "Anyway, I guess I'll head off now that you're back"

"Aw, please stay a bit longer Uncle Finnick" pleaded Asra "I want to hear more about you and Dad and Uncle Nick!"

"I wouldn't mind hearing about it too" said Lunette with a small grin.

"W-well, I guess I could stay for a while" said Finnick who was floundering a little "Alright, well, how about the time Nick and Noct got into some trouble in the Rainforest District and Noct took Nick on a little impromptu base jumping. You see what happened was that…"

Judy didn't know how much time had passed but it had to be late in the day by now, there weren't any windows in room 113 so all she had to go on were the lights out in the corridor.

She'd run out of tears by now, though there was still a dull ache in her chest whenever she looked at the fox she loved.

She'd tried talking to Nick, Judy remembered reading somewhere that hearing a familiar voice could be beneficial, but without Nick's quick wit to keep things rolling Judy found her conversation drying up.

It could have been the pill Noct had given her to keep calm, or that enough time had passed for Judy to come to terms with everything, or maybe it was just being close to Nick again that was soothing Judy.

Whatever the reason, Judy was feeling a lot better, her heart wasn't tearing itself apart anymore at least. The main problem was that the more the negative feelings receded, the more Judy had to accept the positive ones left.

She loved Nick.

She knew that much.

Judy had never been in love before, she'd always been so focussed on achieving her dream that stuff like love didn't seem very important to her.

Sure, she'd had some teenage crushes as she was growing up but that was it. In fact, those crushes were helping set the bar, what she felt for Nick was far deeper and more powerful.

She loved the way they played off each other, the way they always had each other's backs, she loved Nick's sense of humour though she'd never tell him that. She loved the way he looked, Judy had never found other rabbits as attractive as some of her siblings made them out to be, and she loved the way he looked at her. She loved that she was one of the few mammals who knew the real Nicholas Wilde, that they could be open with each other about things they normally never talked about.

The longer she had to think, the more reasons came to mind, and the harder it became to look at Nick. Eventually it got too much for Judy, it hurt her all the more to see her partner lying there in a hospital bed when they were also the mammal she loved.

Judy was tired, she was drained, and as much as she hated herself for it, she needed to be away from Nick for a little bit.

So Judy had dragged herself over on to one of the chairs around the walls of the room, the one furthest from Nick, tucked her knees up to her chest and tried to rest her heart and mind.

Judy didn't know how much time had passed, maybe a few minutes, maybe hours. She had at least dozed for a little bit, she couldn't tell if she'd fallen asleep completely, not that she felt like she got much rest at all.

Amethyst eyes fluttered open when Judy heard the door be pushed ajar. Judy looked over blearily, expecting to see a doctor or nurse come in.

Instead Judy saw an older vixen who was wearing smart business dress, though it looked a little dishevelled, cautiously enter room 113.

The vixen took a few steps inside, her nervous gaze focussed on the bed, and she entirely missed Judy curled up in one of the corners of the room.

Judy watched the vixen notice that Nick was asleep and saw a mixture of pain and relief appear on her face. After a few moments just looking at Nick, the vixen approached the side of the bed and reached out a hesitant paw to stroke Nick's forehead.

"Oh my poor little Nicholas" whispered the vixen.

"Wh-ngh" Judy cleared her throat and tried again "Who are you?"

The vixen jumped and span round, her tail bushing up somewhat, as her eyes scanned the room.

"My goodness, don't scare me like that, dear" said the vixen who put a paw on her heart as she spotted Judy.

Judy tried to shake herself a bit more awake, this was striking her as something important.

"Are… Are you…?"

"You must be Judy Hopps" said the vixen as she left Nick's side and went and sat on the chair next to Judy "Yes, I am Nicholas's mother, for what it's worth. You can call me Miranda"

Now that Judy could get a closer look at Miranda, she started to see the similarities, the same cheekbones, the shape of the muzzle, that proud glint in her eyes.

A combination of shock and tiredness left Judy unable to process the fact that Nick's mother was here.

"You look terrible my dear" said Miranda a little concerned as she looked Judy over more closely "but I expect you've had a rather trying day"

"I… Nick… I…" Judy didn't know how to begin.

"You've been blaming yourself for all this, haven't you" frowned Miranda as Judy's eyes widened "I've done enough of that myself over the years, I know what it looks like"

"But…" Judy looked over at Nick and the pain hit her all over again.

"Judy Hopps" said Miranda, looking the rabbit up and down "you managed to succeed where I failed, you saved my son. I can't even begin to explain how I felt when I saw pictures of Nicholas graduating from Police Academy. And I saw pictures of you as well and I always wondered to myself what sort of mammal could have managed to turn my son around so drastically?"

"I… I'm not making a very good first impression" sniffed Judy.

"Nonsense" said Miranda waving a paw "I've seen mammals make far worse starts than you. I can see what's important, that you care about Nick"

"H-he's my partner" said Judy holding back a sob "And… and my best friend"

"And I'm so glad you found him" said Miranda putting a paw on Judy's shoulder.

"Y-you seem to be holding together better than I am" said Judy wiping her eyes again.

"On the outside yes" said Miranda turning to look over at Nick "but on the inside? I think I'm talking to you partly to distract myself. I haven't seen Nicholas in person in almost 10 years, but I never thought that this would be how it happened. I… I'm not entirely sure what to do, what to feel"

As Judy grew more and more awake, she became more and more aware of who exactly was sat next to her. Unfortunately, that just made it harder and harder for Judy to work out what to say.

"We're a little too alike in some ways" said Miranda slowly, gaze still fixed on her son "a bit too stubborn, a bit too proud, a little set in our ways sometimes. We had a falling out, after… well… I couldn't connect with Nicky like his brother could"

"If you don't mind me asking… what… what happened between you and Nick?" asked Judy slowly.

"I do mind a bit" said Miranda with a sad smile "as I said, we had a falling out and the reason why is a bit of a taboo for foxes. It wouldn't be right for me to say anything if Nick hasn't talked about it."

Judy's ears shot straight up and she started to babble out an apology, Miranda just chuckled lightly.

"It's alright dear" the vixen continued after a brief pause "after Nick's brother disappeared, he hit a new low, did you know Nick had a brother? Not an actual sibling, just-"

"You mean Noct?" asked Judy "He got me in here to see Nick earlier today"

"Yes, that panther" said Miranda after being surprised for just a moment "well, that panther was an emotional crutch for Nicholas, when he disappeared my little kit was crushed. As I said before, we're a little too alike, Nick and me. A little too sarcastic sometimes, a little too snappy, it started with just bickering. But that became arguments, and then shouting matches, and we said things we shouldn't have said…"

"He misses you"

Miranda looked round at Judy, the grey doe's purple eyes shone brightly and with certainty.

"When he first talked about you" said Judy seriously "I could see the regrets in his eyes, I'm pretty good at reading that fox you know"

"Oh, that's fairly impressive" smiled Miranda "my Nicholas always had a good poker face"

"He certainly does" sighed Judy "but for some reason I can put cracks right through it. Not that he'd have you believe it"

Miranda looked at Judy for a long moment before she stood up and moved to stand by the bed again, looking down at Nick.

"Tell me how you two met" Miranda asked quietly "what happened to put him back on the straight and narrow?"

Judy slid down off her chair and moved to stand next to Miranda. She began to recite the story about the Night howler Case, starting from when she first arrived in Zootopia.

When Bellwether's plot was first revealed to the public, and things were beginning to return to normal, all the media in the city was reporting on the story of Judy Hopps. The part of the con artist fox was rather downplayed, much to the fury of Judy when she first read the articles. Even after Nick graduated as the first fox police officer of Zootopia, the media never amended Nick's involvement in the Night howler case, and this had hurt Judy more than she let on to her partner.

So, from what she had read and heard, Miranda had never been sure as to how Nick had tied into everything and definitely not how he'd managed to become a cop.

Judy told the tale the way she always did, emphasising what an ass Nick had been at the start which got a laugh from Miranda, but always talking about how the fox had helped her. True it was grudgingly at first, but by the time Judy got to running from the savage Mr Manchas and how Nick had defended her in front of Chief Bogo, there was a warm glow filling her heart.

Judy paused as she started to sob when she reached the part with the press conference. Miranda waited quietly for Judy to continue, all while looking down at Nick in amazement. Then came Judy's resignation and the eventual discovery that would solve the case. Miranda listened quietly to how Nick had forgiven Judy.

"Without Nick the evidence would have been destroyed, Bellwether would have caught me, we wouldn't have been able to trick her into spilling her whole plot. Nothing would have worked without Nick beside me, and that's how it's stayed now that he's my partner on the force"

Judy finished talking and glanced up at Mrs. Wilde only to find her silent with two lines of tears running down her cheeks.

"He was always a good kit deep down" said Miranda quietly "wanted to be a junior ranger scout…"

"Nick told me about that" said Judy putting a supportive paw on Miranda's arm.

"He did?" Miranda looked down at Judy, eyes wide in shock "I didn't think he'd ever tell anyone else about it after all these years. You really are special aren't you Judy?"

Judy and Miranda carried on talking quietly while watching over Nick. The topics varied and changed from Judy and Nick's work, to Noct, to Nick's childhood which Judy thoroughly enjoyed hearing about. She had plenty of material to tease him about if he ever stepped over the line now.

Miranda was quite happy watching the enthusiasm and joy on Judy's face whenever she was talking about Nick. She could see how her son had been caught in Judy's flow, the rabbit's personality was infectious. They spent several hours just talking, about each other, about Nick, about Judy's family, about many other things.

It was exactly what the both of them needed, to help Judy recover and Miranda deal with the current situation. They probably would have continued for longer but Judy began to flag again, it was definitely rather late by now and her body needed rest.

"I'll leave you to get some sleep Judy" said Miranda moving to pick up her bag.

"Are you sure? You wouldn't disturb me if you stayed, I come from a family of bunnies, you learn to sleep through earthquakes" said Judy a little disappointedly.

"No, I'm afraid I can't, I have work in the morning and the company would collapse without me" said Miranda shaking her head "but I think I can safely go home now that I know that Nick has someone like you looking after him"

"Thank you" said Judy a little shyly "That means a lot coming from you"

"It was lovely to finally meet Judy Hopps, though I do wish the circumstances had been a little happier and" Miranda hesitated for a moment before continuing firmly "When Nicholas wakes up… please don't tell him I visited"

"Are you sure?" asked Judy sadly, she had sort of expected this.

"Yes, after seeing Noct again for the first time in years and then meeting you, well if Nicky has those sort of mammals around him then… then maybe I'll be able to meet him again properly one day… but not now, not so one sided like this…"

As an afterthought Miranda reached into her bag and pulled out a small vial of perfume, a company sample she always kept on hand, and sprayed it around the room.

"I'm sorry about the smell" apologised Miranda with a small smile "but if I know my Nicholas then he'll work out I visited from my scent even after all these years"

"My nose isn't overly sensitive" Judy assured Miranda "Miranda… I'm looking forwards to the next time we meet"

Miranda's smile grew and she turned to take one last look at Nick before she left.

"Yes, so am I Judy"

With a short goodbye, Miranda exited room 113, and Judy followed the sounds of her footsteps down the corridor.

Judy could feel sleep coming for her now, making one last concerted effort she managed to push one of the large chairs over next to the bed. Clambering on, Judy took a moment just to watch Nick sleeping. She felt a lot calmer now, more at peace with herself, Miranda's arrival had been just what she needed.

Judy smiled as she settled down, a little bittersweet given how Nick was still injured. She curled up on the chair and rested her head on the bed besides Nick. Then she reached over and pulled Nick's arm over her. The scent of fox, Nick's scent, gently soothed Judy and she slowly drifted off to sleep, tears glistening at the edges of her eyes.

Noct was currently in one of Broken Clockwork's many safe houses. There were several broken pieces of furniture littering the room, a few he'd broken on purpose, but most were accidents, it took him a few hours to adjust to his body's capabilities after taking a Catalyst, at least for the finer control.

Since returning to Zootopia, Noct had been visiting all of these safe houses when he had the time, checking which ones still had resources he could use, which ones had been compromised over the years, and restocking the ones he still found useful.

Noct had just finished applying a coating of his special Deodorant to his fur and attaching the microphone he used to keep in contact with Bakari.

Lying on the table in front of him, about the only thing still intact in the room, was a black outfit. It looked vaguely military in its style, form fitting and easy to move in, along with a headpiece. It wasn't quite a helmet and it wasn't quite a mask, but it was tailor made for the panther. If you looked closely at the outfit you would find that it wasn't pure black. There was a pattern of inter-meshing gears that he was so fond of, and each one was a slightly different shade of blacks, dark greys and blues. It was subtle, you had to look carefully to notice it, but it helped break up his silhouette in the darkness.

Noct?

The panther just grunted at the sound of Bakari's voice in his ear and began to put the outfit on.

I must admit, I've gotten a bit rusty, it took me far too long to get into the city's cameras. The ZPD have a description of the culprit on their system so I borrowed that. Tiger with a curved scar on their face, I've got a search running for an ID but no results yet. I managed to spot them on camera shortly after the… incident. It was a bit of a pain, but I've kept track of them and…

Noct picked up the headpiece and slotted it on over his ears, the tinted visor blocked any view of his face, and with Noct's senses the tinting didn't impede his sight at all.

"Where are they Bakari?" asked Noct, his voice ragged and guttural, as he headed out of the safe house and back into the darkened city streets. He listened to Bakari in his ear before setting off with razor-sharp purpose to his movements.

Lia Clawson, bobcat, had been valedictorian of the most recent year of graduates from the Zootopia Police Academy. She had requested to be posted to Precinct 5 in the Rainforest District since she'd always loved the scenery and landscape there. Despite not being naturally adapted to the humidity and amount of rainfall, she did have a good sense of balance and a good eye for climbing and jumping.

The Superintendent in charge of Precinct 5 was a hippopotamus called Rhyman Dale. He'd been on the force for longer than Chief Bogo but was very happy with his rank and his Precinct and had never moved for a promotion. Superintendent Dale had seen nearly every aspect of the ZPD first-hand during his long service and he was a strong believer in officers steadily working their way up the organisation.

Lia Clawson was a little headstrong and ambitious, she would be lying if she said she wasn't at least a little proud of being valedictorian of her class. However the sights, sounds and scents of the rainforest she loved so much kept her satisfied. It mattered less to her that she was stuck patrolling the less pressing areas of the District when she could soak in the scenery around her.

Superintendent Dale had seen mammals like Lia many times before, they normally gave him some issues with their eagerness to prove themselves. Despite seeing the ambition in the bobcat's eyes, Superintendent Dale had found Lia to be polite, hard-working and able to follow orders. After talking to her a few times, the hippo managed to work out what was keeping Lia's eagerness sated.

Other than Precinct 1, which covered Downtown but also sent officers to all the other districts, new officers normally rotated around Precincts 2 – 5 to get hands on experience in each of the city's environments. The Academy did the best it could to prepare its trainees, but nothing beats the real thing.

And Superintendent Dale felt a bit sorry for the leaders of the other Precincts who would eventually have to deal with Lia when she was away from the Rainforest District.

He also had a strong hunch that the Bobcat would be straight back to Precinct 5 once she'd finished her rotation. Which suited the hippo just fine as Lia was shaping up to be a fantastic asset for the ZPD in the Rainforest and Canal Districts.

Being a new officer, but also fairly capable, Superintendent Dale had recently assigned Lia to a stakeout to give her some broader experience. The orders had come from Precinct 1, apparently they'd received a tip that certain gangs might meet in the alleys behind a pub called Connor's Arms.

So for last week, Lia had spent her evenings sat in an unmarked police car a little way down from said pub, with a good view of the nearest alleyway. She'd been assigned to work with a more senior officer on this case, a zebra called Lucy Chapman.

Lucy had the trickier job of trying to get a view on the potential meeting spots within the alleyways. She'd found what seemed to be the most likely area to meet, nicely hidden from the street and with a little bit of breathing room. So the Zebra had found a way up onto a fire escape that ran up one of the buildings, and settled down with a tarp covering her to watch the area.

This was the Canal District so it was fairly damp, and while it didn't have set periods of 'rain' like its neighbouring district, being between the open water and the Rainforest District meant it had plenty of showers all by itself.

Officer Chapman was normally drenched by the time they finished keeping watch for the night and Lia felt it was the least she could do to take her fellow officer to the nearest café that was open and buy her a hot drink. Especially since Lia got to sit in a car all evening.

So far the stakeout had been wholly unsuccessful, Lia had spotted a few mammals approaching the alleys but Lucy had then watched each and everyone of them walk on through. After a week both the officers were starting to flag, Lucy had told Lia that she wouldn't be surprised if they were switched out in the next few days.

Even then Lia was trying her best to stay focused on what was a rather dull assignment. It had just finished a light shower, it was approaching 2 in the morning, and they were due to call it a night soon.

"Lia, I have movement" came Lucy's voice through their walky-talkies "There's a mammal hanging around down below me, some sort of horned mammal but I can't make it out properly"

The bobcat perked up a bit at the prospect of something actually happening. As time passed and nothing else occurred, Lia began to relax again. Then, about half an hour later, her eye's widened slightly as a figure then appeared under one of the streetlamps at the end of the road. With the weather and the time, any mammal that Lia spotted was a potential suspect, especially with one mammal already at the meeting place.

"Lucy, I see one mammal at the end of the street heading towards us."

"10-4 Lia, this might just get interesting"

Lia's paw that wasn't holding the walky-talky clenched, as well as she'd performed at the Academy, this might be her first proper experience dealing with a criminal. So far her patrols had been fairly lacklustre, plenty of helping citizens, no real crimes per say.

Straining her eyes, Lia tried to make out as many details about the mammal as possible. After disappearing in the shadows and then popping up again under the next streetlamp, Lia could get a better view of them. It was a tiger; they were wearing a nondescript tracksuit and they had a rather distinct scar on one of their cheeks.

Lia frowned as she watched, so far the tiger was still heading in the right direction, but something about them was nagging at her.

"Hey Lucy, what was that description Admin gave everyone earlier today?"

"You mean for the perp who injured Officers Hopps and Wilde? It was a male tiger, I can't remember the clothing off the top of my head, but they had a curved scar on their face, why do you ask?"

Lia drew in a sharp breath, she hadn't been going crazy, she had remembered the description correctly.

"Well, that mammal I just spotted seems to fit the bill" said Lia slowly, keeping a close eye on the tiger "Do we call for back up? We were warned the perp was extremely dangerous"

"… I'll call it in, worst case scenario we'll just watch the meeting from afar and maybe try and tail one of them afterwards"

"Well do it quick and stay quiet because the suspect is heading straight for the alleyway" said Lia, a little concerned.

A minute went past as the tiger sauntered over to the alleys and eventually disappeared from Lia's sight.

"Ok" came Lucy's voice over the walky-talky, barely a whisper at this point that Lia had to hold the device to her ear to hear "I have sight on the tiger, you were right rookie, he definitely fits the bill"

There was a pause, the fact that Lia couldn't see what was happening now began to unnerve her.

"One meeting under way, annoyingly I can't make out what they're saying but that's probably safer at the moment, I'll see if I can… What was that?"

"You alright Lucy?" asked Lia worriedly, the fact that there wasn't anything she could do to back up her colleague was grating.

"Ah, yeah… thought I saw something moving up above one of the rooftops, but there's nothing there now... The other suspect is an impala from what I can make out now that they've stopped skulking around long enough to meet the tiger."

"Be careful Lucy" urged Lia "don't do anything conspicuous"

"Don't worry, I've been sat here too long, couldn't move if I tried. Wonder what they're meeting about, doesn't seem like a trade of any kind, wait, hang on they're both starting to move now."

"Which direction? Towards me?"

"No, opposite side towards the waterways, damnit, that's going to make it a pain to keep track of them and… HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!"

CRASH

"Lucy?! Stay quiet!" hissed Lia over the line while staring at the alleyway "What's happening?! I could hear that crashing sound from here"

"Something just dropped out of the darkness onto the two of them and then tossed both the tiger and the impala across the alley. It… it's some sort of mammal, a pred I think, but they're dressed all dark and covered up. The impala isn't moving, they hit a wall, but the tiger just flew down the alleyway. The tiger's scrambling to their feet, they're heading towards you Lia!"

Lia swallowed and kept a close eye on the alleyway.

A few moments later, there was movement and the tiger tore round a corner and into view, charging towards the street, arms flailing about as they struggled not to trip in the dim light. Lia could see the fear on the tiger's face, and then a few seconds later she saw the reason. A masked figure, dark and hard to make out in the shadows, crashed round the corner as well, rebounding off the wall in their haste.

The tiger had just made it to the exit of the alleyway and Lia could almost see some hope in the suspect's eyes.

The dark figure however was moving far, far faster than the tiger, Lia blinked and it seemed to have covered the length of the alley. Her eyes widened as she saw the figure go down on all fours for a few steps before it launched itself at the tiger.

The tiger managed to get one paw out of the alley before the dark figure collided with them and smashed the tiger to the ground with more force than Lia expected from their size. The tiger moved feebly, reaching an arm out to try and pull themselves further away. Lia raised her paws to her mouth as she watched the dark figure grab the tiger's head and slam it into the ground, leaving them bloody and unconscious.

"Lia? What's happening? Did they escape?" came Lucy's voice over the walky-talky.

Lia didn't respond. She gritted her teeth and swallowed nervously as her paws shook. The moment Lucy's voice had come through, the dark figure's head had swung round, and Lia could tell that they were staring directly at her.

The figure just stared at Lia's vehicle for a long moment before they turned, grabbed the tiger by a leg, and headed back into the alleyway dragging the unconscious body with them.

"Lia? Are you ok?"

"…Yeah, I'm fine" Lia gasped after fumbling for the walky-talky "That thing noticed me"

"What?!"

"Yeah, it's caught the tiger, rather brutally I might add, and it's heading back into the alleys"

"Yeah, I see them, damn, what did it do to that cat? It's grabbed the impala as well and… SHIT!"

"Lucy?! I've had enough shocks for today now!"

"Sorry… it noticed me too, stared straight up at me before it dragged those two out of sight"

"Lucy, I think you should get back here pronto, something out of our leagues just happened"

"Yeah, I agree, give me a sec"

Lia took a deep, shuddering breath, her left paw drumming on her seat beside her without her noticing as she waited to her colleague to return. She nearly jumped out of her fur when Lucy opened the side door and climbed inside.

The bobcat and the zebra sat there in silence occasionally catching each other's eye. Lia opened her mouth a few times but didn't know what to say. The whole ordeal had left the both of them rather shaken.

Just as Lia opened her mouth to speak for the fourth time, two other vehicles rapidly pulled onto the street and approached them. The cars pulled up and four mammals got out of each one, Lia and Lucy recognised their fellow officers from Precinct 5. From the looks of it, the entirety of the night shift had been sent out as backup. Lia might have thought of that as overkill if not for the craziness that had just happened.

"How the hell are we going to explain this?" Lia asked Lucy.

"With coffee" said the zebra as she went to get out of the car to go greet their colleagues "lots and lots of coffee"