Zootopia: Stories from the Animal City

A collection of stories inspired by the characters and world of Zootopia. Content with non-family-friendly themes will be tagged accordingly!

[zootopiastories]

Ups and Downs at Wild Times: A Zootopia Story

In this Zootopia story, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde take advantage of a rare night off from their police duties by visiting Wild Times, a theme park that encourages animals to embrace their playful instincts. It’s Nick’s favourite childhood haunt, but will rule-bound Judy be able to embrace the spirit of the occasion? Or will she find her professional mindset getting in the way? Find out in this new Zootopia tale for all ages!

It was a warm Friday evening in Zootopia, and the sky was a rich, darkening purple as the last of the day’s sunlight dimmed. A calm had settled over downtown Savanna Central as residents returned from their commutes and bustled around inside their apartment buildings; silhouettes flitted past their bright windows as they moved to and fro, getting themselves ready for nights on the town.

In front of the downmarket Grand Pangolin Arms complex, one small figure was already waiting for her evening to begin. Judy Hopps sat perched on the front steps of the apartment block, wearing her favourite light casual outfit - grey and purple T-shirt over black vest and leggings - and was drumming her fingers her knees, bobbing her head to the music playing through her headphones. Her large purple eyes were fixed in the matching shade of the early evening sky as she hummed under her breath; she didn’t, therefore, notice the reddish brown paw hovering closer and closer to her head, gently removing her ear bud.

“Boo.”

With a violent shriek, Judy leapt several feet into the air, landing on the stone banister of the Grand Pangolin Arms’ stairway in a combat posture, her chest heaving up and down from the sudden adrenaline spike.

“AAAAAARRRGH! NICK, NO! DON’T. DO. THAT. Do not sneak up on me, I hate it, hate it, hate it!”

Nick Wilde was bent double, howling with self-satisfied laughter, clutching at his loose-fitting green Hawaiian shirt as he struggled to recover some composure in the face of Judy’s furious gaze. As she climbed down from the banister and marched over to him, she gave him a firm shove in the ribs, still staring daggers; she tapped her foot in angry agitation as she waited for him to regain control of his hooting laughs and mould his face into the best approximation of an apologetic look he could manage.

“Ahahahaaa! Haha. Ha. Sorry. I am so sorry, Carrots, I couldn’t resist. Do you know how hard it is to sneak up on you with those crazy sonar ears of yours? I’ve been wanting to properly get you like that for as long I’ve known you. The closest I got before was like, what, 10 feet away? This was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It will not happen again. You’ll see to that, I’m sure.”

He held his paw up to signal his oath. Judy shoved the fox again, albeit more playfully this time, and gestured slightly with her head, motioning for them to begin walking together down the street.

“You’re darn right I will, you unbelievable jerk. Try anything like that again and I’m putting you in a chokehold until you black out, then bundling you into the nearest dumpster. You’re lucky I don’t just march right back inside and lock the door.”

“Aaah, come on, Fluff, you know I only try to terrify you with the very fondest feelings in my heart. And you wouldn’t be so cold as to stand me up on our long-awaited playdate, would you?”

Judy raised her eyebrow and wrinkled her snout in mild disgust.

“Ugh, Nick, don’t call it that, that’s weird.”

“Haha, you don’t like that? But that’s what it is, right? School’s out, homework’s done, I bounce down to Judy’s house down the road and see if she’s free to come play. Feels like I’m in kindergarten. But hey, maybe that’s just me getting used to being under an authority structure again. Scratch that, actually - getting used to BEING an authority structure now. Weird, right?”

“Well, you’d better get used to it quick! Cops and authority issues… eh, they tend not to mix too well. But, yeah, it’s been a while since we actually got a proper night off…”

Nick snorted. “Tell me about it. Feels like I’ve not had an actual honest break since ZPD training started, what, almost a year ago? Given I was living out of a van and working three-hour days before that, yeah - it’s been a culture shock.”

“I get it, sure. But hey! Bogo said we did a great job overseeing the Skunk Pride Parade this week, and he knows you and I are buddies outside of work, so he gave us the same evening off. See, I’ve sussed Bogo out now. He likes you to think he’s this ogre, but he secretly cares. He usually gives you the stick, but sometimes he gives you the carrot. Or in this case, the Carrots, right? HEEEEEY!”

Delighting in her own pun, Judy punctuated it with a toothy grin and some vigorous jazz paws. Nick let his head loll wearily to the side and fixed Judy with a look of stone-faced, slack-jawed disapproval.

“Oh, no. No, no, you knock that off, that’s not your style. See, I can pull off a lame gag like that, it’s charmingly ironic coming from me. When you do it, it’s just straight-up lame.”

Judy elbowed Nick hard in the side.

“Hey, give me a break, that was funny. I am, in fact, very funny, I’ll have you know. You just have terrible taste.”

“Sure I do. Look at the company I keep.”

Judy stopped, turned on heel and crossed her arms, ostentatiously pointing her head away from Nick in deadpan mock-offence. “OK! OK then. That’s it, we’re done, this evening is over. I’m not taking this abuse from you or anyone, I’m going back home, and you can go dumpster-diving - or whatever it was you had planned tonight - on your own. I don’t need this.”

Nick snickered to himself, put his paws around Judy’s narrow shoulders, and roughly shepherded the rabbit down the sidewalk, ignoring her half-hearted attempts to dig her heels in.

“Aww, Carrots, I jest. I jest. You know I’ve come to find your lameness very charming, enough that I brush off your frankly tasteless and insensitive remarks that I eat trash. Besides, you’ll be pleased to know I have something at least 50% more impressive than dumpster-diving planned for this evening, you wait and see. You wanna blow off some steam, right? Well, I have just the place in mind…”

Situated downtown by the pier, the Wild Times indoor amusement park was an assault on the eyes, its gaudy flashing lights and exuberant tiki-inspired aesthetic clashing with the ageing industrial infrastructure of the nearby area. Built into what looked like a converted hangar, the domed roof of the structure towered above Nick and Judy as they weaved their way through parked cars towards the entrance, which was lit by oversized flaming torches on either side of the front gate, through which crowds of visitors were streaming in and out. Judging from the number and varying sizes of the vehicles in the car park, the attraction was proving a big draw among all sorts of different species that evening.

Upon catching sight of the building ahead, Judy paused for a moment to take it in, then looked to Nick with an expression of intrigued surprise. “Huh. Wild Times? I’ve driven near this place a couple times, but never actually been up close. I’ve heard… interesting things about it. Isn’t it more of, like, a predator hangout spot?”

“Yeah, that WAS the case, but it’s changed a lot in the last few years. Back when I was a kid, it was, for sure. I used to love it, actually. My mom would bring me down here for birthdays and special occasions - when we could afford it, anyway - and I would go 100% nuts in there. I mean... probably more nuts than was strictly sensible. The safety standards were ehhhh, a bit lax, they let you get away with a lot. But that was all part of the charm, y’know?”

Judy raised a sceptical eyebrow. “Soooo… is this evening gonna end with me getting my head taken off, or us shutting this place down, or what?”

Nick chuckled. “Oh, no, no! Well. I would hope not, anyway. Like I said, it’s changed a lot since then; they renovated it properly about ten years ago, and they’ve been trying to attract a more diverse clientele, get more prey in, make it more of a broad-appeal family park. In fact, they actually have a promotion on Fridays where preds and prey can both get in half-price if they buy tickets together. Which is where you come in, Carrots.”

Judy shot Nick a grin. “Aaah, OK! Now I get it. See, I thought this was you being generous, but it’s actually you being cheap. There’s the Nicholas Wilde I know and tolerate.”

Nick gave the rabbit an admonishing look. “Look, now, Carrots, that’s not fair. You say that like those two things are mutually exclusive. I like to think of this as me being generous AND cheap. I’m a very multifaceted animal, which is part of my irresistible charm-”

Judy rolled her eyes and grabbed Nick by the arm, dragging him in the direction of the Wild Times entrance. “OK, OK, you shush. Let’s go on in there, and I can judge for myself whether the wildness of these times fall within acceptable legal parameters.”

“Two adult evening passes, please! That’s right, of course I’ll be paying for both, yup. For me and my best buddy here… uh, you are still doing the Bring a Preydate two-for-one promotion, right? Yeah? Then yes, of course I’ll be paying for both.”

Nick turned around from the entrance booth, holding a ticket wristband in each paw, and gave Judy a self-satisfied smile that said “you’re welcome”. Judy rolled her eyes gently and leapt up to grab one from her companion’s grasp.

“Gosh, you sure know how to make a lady feel special, with your discount evening passes to PT Bearnum’s Carnival of Death.”

Nick snorted with laughter, but looked slightly affronted all the same. “SERIOUSLY, Carrots, it’s not that bad! Really, I’ve not brought you to some wackadoo duct-tape-and-plywood sideshow; it’s legitimately a nice place now, and I think we’re gonna have a great time, once we get insi-”

“WEEEEEEELLCOOOOOOME!!”

Both Nick and Judy leapt back a little in shock, the fox assuming a karate stance and the rabbit reaching instinctively to her hip for the stun gun she usually carried. Undeterred, the teenaged donkey greeter who had just brayed at them pushed on with his canned sales pitch, a rack of merchandise rattling in front of him as he spoke in his lilting, stilted voice.

“Good evening to you, Sir and/or Madam, and welcome to Wild Times™, Where Your Inner Animal Comes Out to Play™! Are you ready for an experience like no other? A roaring good time awaits you and your loved ones here at Wild Times™, and what better way to get your wild adventure off to the perfect start than by taking one of these free maps of the park! You can find your way at any time by following the yellow signs back to the entrance. Can I also interest you in some of our merchandise? It’s sure to help put you and your loved ones in just the right mood to enjoy the ferocious fun Wild Times™ has to offer.”

The young donkey finished reciting his rehearsed pitch and looked at Nick and Judy expectantly, rattling his merchandise rack again. Judy remained in her defensive posture, but Nick’s eyes were lighting up at the sight of the garish souvenir junk.

“Awww, man, I’ve not had my paws on any new Wild Times collectibles since when I was a kid… oooh, the T-shirts still look the same! Do you still have the baseball caps with the teeth on ‘em? Ooh, how about…”

A few minutes later, the pair were walking into the park’s entrance plaza area, Nick positively laden with merchandise; he had donned a gaudy red Wild Times T-shirt over his signature green shirt, and a baseball cap shaped like a tiger’s head now covered his brow, its foam teeth protruding around the cap’s brim. In his arms, he carried a pile of branded water bottles, sketch pads, giant novelty pens and keychains; his eyes glinted with bright lights and childish glee as they darted around the park’s interior, his ears twitching in all directions, trying to take in as many sounds as they could. Judy, by contrast, was entirely free of Wild Times paraphernalia other than a red ticket wristband, but even she couldn’t help but smile indulgently at Nick’s visible delight. It was certainly an impressive park, with every horizontal and vertical inch of its spacious interior filled with ride architecture, colourfully illustrated signage or neon-lit palm trees that reached all the way to the roof. Everywhere they turned, they could see the names of attractions illuminated in bright lights - Roar-a-Coaster; Otter Slide; Wind Tunnel; Jump ‘N’ Stick - and could hear the whoops and howls of happy animals enjoying themselves. Nick was looking feverishly between the directional signposts and the map in his hand, plotting a route; Judy, however, couldn’t help focus instead on the fact she was one of only a handful of prey animals there, with the majority of the clientele being predator families, couples or teenage friends. She was watching a group of young ocelots jumping into the Ball of Yarn Pit, making undignified purring sounds as they rolled around in tangles of string, when Nick shook her by the shoulder.

“C’mon, Carrots, let’s get moving, there are so many things I wanna do in here! You are gonna have a GREAT time, just you wait, I forgot how much I love this place…”

They walked through the park for about 20 minutes, passing by merchandise stalls, small dining areas and yet more attractions. They shielded their ears from the Howl Along singing stage, watched the progress of the small mammals zooming down the spiralling Otter Slide, and shuddered as the cars of the park’s centrepiece Roar-a-Coaster passed overhead, its bright red iron tracks coiling across the entire breadth of the interior, looping out of the roof into the open air.

“Hey, Fluff, ya hungry? You wanna grab some of the stall food here before we get started on the rides?”

Judy took her eyes off the Roar-a-Coaster to look at the row of refreshment stalls stretching in front of them. There was an array of predator-oriented stalls offering bug skewers and fish kebabs, as well as a colourful tiki hut serving tropical drinks. To her surprise, the longest queue was for a small, slightly rickety-looking shack shaped like a banana, which was being manned by two gawky-looking young foxes.

“Huh. I wouldn’t have thought a little banana stand like that would be so popular in a place like this.”

Nick glanced down at her. “You kidding? There’s always money in a banana stand, especially this one; it’s kind of part of the Wild Times experience, been here since before I was even born. You get a frozen banana, dipped in chocolate and nuts… you know, I actually used to help man this stall, kind of a summer job I had to pick up some change. It wasn’t a bad earner for a cash-strapped kid; y’know, until I found, uh, more lucrative, legally-adjacent avenues for earning…”

Judy raised her eyebrow and shot him a knowing look, prompting him to clear his throat.

“...ahem! Well, no sense dwelling on the past, when we’ve got all sorts of fun to look forward to in the present, right? You wanna frozen banana?”

“No thanks, Nick, I’m not waiting in that queue! And I don’t want to fill my stomach if we’re going on rides, especially not if you’re going to try and drag me on that thing up there; what is it, the Roar-a-Coaster?”

Nick glanced up at the red iron track above him as the cars screamed past on another loop. His hackles seemed to raise as he looked at it, shuddering slightly.

“Ooh, ah. Hmmm. Yeah, no, we, uh, don’t have to go on that one, I’ve, uh… never been a big fan of the ol’ rollercoasters, honestly. Why don’t - why don’t we do one of the sideshow games to warm you up, huh? There’s a target range just over there, let’s go see if we can’t win ourselves something nice.”

Bustling away from the food stalls, Nick and Judy ambled over to the shooting gallery, where a weasel wearing a red-and-white striped jacket and a straw boater was trying to get the attention of passersby. The attraction seemed to involve shooting slow-moving targets shaped like the weasel’s own toothy, grinning face using a foam gun; cuddly prizes lined the walls of the small wooden stall, ranging from tiny plush mice to a stuffed elephant about the same size as Judy.

“Hoy there, folks! How’s about one of you step up and play Pop the Weasel? It’s real simple to learn, real simple to win! You there, mister, what say you grab a gun and win a prize for your cute little girlfriend there?”

Nick snorted. “Ahahahaaa, actually, buddy, she’s-”

Judy pushed in front. “-Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD, and this is my partner, Nicholas Wilde. Hand ME the gun; I can win my own prizes, thanks very much.”

The weasel, already taken aback by her frosty tone, did a double-take at the name. “H-Hopps? I heard about you on the news, you’re the one that… my- my apologies, ma’am! I didn’t mean to imply any.... uh, right! The game. Yeah! The game is simple; it’s one dollar to play, you get five shots. Three hits wins you a small prize; four a medium; five for a big one. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, it’s deceptively difficult, let me tell-”

“Nick, you got two bucks to hand?”

Nick blinked, then reached into his pocket, pulled out two bills and handed them to Judy, who slapped them down on the stall counter. Picking up one of the guns on the table, she lined up its sights, then fired five shots; the first three sailed astray, but the fourth and fifth hit the weasel-shaped target squarely between the eyes. She then reloaded the weapon and shot five straight bullseyes in a row, as Nick and the stall operator watched with wide eyes. Setting the gun down on the counter and leaning against it, she turned to the stunned weasel and folded her arms.

“So, I figured you probably weren’t gonna be playing totally fair with this game and that the sights on the guns here would likely be deliberately miscalibrated, so it’d take me at least three shots to learn how to compensate for that. So I paid up for two rounds, used the first set for practice, then used round two to win that adorable elephant right there at the back - no, the purple one, not the pink one - yeah, that’s the fella. Thanks! Here, Nick, you keep him, it was your money I used. Let’s keep moving, shall we?”

Judy pushed herself up off the counter and strode off into the park, leaving the weasel staring blankly at the back of her head. Nick took a moment to consider the weasel’s slack-jawed face, the heavy plush elephant in his arms and the sight of Judy marching away, before giving the weasel a curt nod and scurrying off in pursuit of his friend.

Nick and Judy continued to explore Wild Times for the next hour, taking part in whichever games and attractions they both decided might be fun. Nick’s bubbling enthusiasm for the park meant he was able to plan an itinerary that took in the most popular sights at a brisk pace, so as not to miss out anything good; however, as time wore on, he had to admit that his nostalgic effervescence was starting to wane in the presence of Judy, who seemed either unwilling or unable to fully enter into the spirit of the occasion.

As they walked, Nick began to find himself annoyed by how many of his favourite attractions - including the Ball of Yarn Pit and the Otter Slide - were being dismissed by his companion as “too silly” or “just for cubs”; by and large, she seemed to gravitate only towards attractions with some kind of physical challenge element, and even these she approached more in the manner of a drill sergeant evaluating a training exercise, rather than a person earnestly enjoying a theme park. Nick had thought she might have fun on an attraction called Upstream, which saw them balancing on a plank rotating in water, triggering plastic salmon to shoot into the air to catch; when they got on, however, he was taken aback by Judy’s hyper-aggressive approach, the rabbit bounding between different combat stances to take down the salmon as though they were suspected arms dealers, while he and the other patrons simply enjoyed splashing in the water. Their experience on Laser Tag was similar, as Judy single-handedly doubled the score of an entire team of opposing felines, most of whom spent the bout chasing the red laser dots across the walls rather than aiming at anyone. Judy also set high scores for the day on Fetch the Stick, Whack-a-Bug and the Wild Times Water Obstacle Course - partly because her level of physical fitness far exceeded that of a typical Friday night theme park patron, but also because she seemed to be the only mammal there treating “winning” as the point of playing the games.

After an unsatisfying experience in the Wind Tunnel - an attraction simulating the experience of travelling at high speed with your head stuck out the window, which Judy had bailed on after two minutes because her ears hurt - the pair found themselves ambling back along the path near the food stalls. Judy had bought popsicles for them both, and they wandered along in silence, Nick carrying bags of merchandise and cuddly toys, while Judy remained largely empty-pawed. The fox licked his popsicle silently and pensively, prompting Judy to regard him with concern.

“Hey, what’s the matter, did I not get the right flavour? You’re looking kind of agitated, and it’s… sorta weirding me out. Are you not enjoying yourself?”

Nick shot Judy a sidelong look and sighed sadly. “Honestly, Carrots, I was gonna ask you the same question.”

“...huh? O-of course I’m enjoying myself! It’s, uh, great here. A real cultural experience. I’ve had loads of fun!”

With that, Judy gave Nick a forced, hasty smile that didn’t reach anywhere near her eyes. Nick turned to the rabbit and raised his eyebrow appraisingly.

“Yikes. I don’t know what bothers me more: the sheer, staggering fakeness of that smile just there, or the fact it was still the most convincing sign of actual enjoyment I’ve seen from you all evening.”

Judy’s back straightened as she went on the defensive. “What? Hey, come on, Nick, I’m trying my best, it’s just… I mean, I played all those games with you when you asked, didn’t I? That was sorta fun, right?”

“Well, yeah, except for any war veterans who had PTSD flashbacks from watching you combat-roll your way through obstacle courses designed for children aged six and up. And let’s not be overlooking the fiasco I just witnessed on the bumper cars.”

“What was wrong with what I did on the bumper cars? I kept a steady speed in a clockwise direction and avoided hitting anyone, just like the guy said!”

Nick placed his fingers to his temple and gave a gasp of exasperation. “Carrots, you… you’re not supposed to do what the guy said. Even the guy knows you’re not supposed to do what he said. You’re supposed to bump the other cars: they’re bumper cars, for Pete’s sake!”

Judy seemed at a loss for words. “Well, I… look, Nick, I’m sorry, I have to be honest with you. Maybe you’re right; maybe I don’t get this place? My instinct is to do things by the book, push my limits, be the best. I can’t let my standards drop and just … goof around in public like I’m five years old.”

“OK, number one: ouch, that hurts me. Number two: that’s not even true. That whole Zootopia’s Finest thing we both do? That’s trained habit, not instinct. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good habit! A great, life-affirming habit! But instinct is different. Instinct is what this place is all about, that’s why I’ve always loved it. It’s about the wind through your fur, the grass under your paws, the simple thrills of just… of just… OK, hold up, watch this.”

Without a second’s further hesitation or explanation, Nick ran straight across Judy’s path towards the Jump ‘N’ Stick Velcro Wall, still carrying all of the evening’s winnings and purchases. He gave a great leap off the springboard and somersaulted through the air, colliding with the wall with a huge thud as the various knickknacks went flying everywhere. Judy clapped her paws to her mouth.

“NICK!”

The fox was splayed upside down on the velcro wall, his necktie dangling across his face and his popsicle now stuck to the red fur of his leg. He was giggling gently to himself as he shifted his weight around, feeling the pleasant scratchiness against his back; moments later, a bored-looking panda stall worker shuffled along with a long wooden paddle and slowly prised Nick off the wall with a loud ripping sound, and he plopped face down on the cushioned surface beneath. As he walked back, shaking the fragments of shattered popsicle from his leg hair, Judy gazed at him with goggle-eyed incredulity.

“What… what the heck was that? You're a mess, and you dropped all your stuff! What was the point of that?”

“The point, Carrots, is that sometimes there is no point. Sometimes, you just gotta be, and I don’t think you let yourself do that very often. When it’s just you and me hanging out, you’re a goofy little fuzzball, but when you’re being Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD? I dunno. I just thought that maybe you wind yourself a little tight sometimes, and I was sorta hoping this place would… eh, help you forget some of that stress. Like it did for me when I was a kid.”

Nick glanced over at a pair of young wolf siblings who had just gotten off the Roar-a-Coaster and were now happily chasing their own tails in a circle, while their parents looked on fondly. Judy felt a sharp pang of guilt, and placed her paw on Nick’s arm.

“Ah, Nick, I… I’m sorry. I really am, I do appreciate you bringing me here, and I never wanted to spoil this place for you, but honestly, I just… being a cop is more than a habit for me. It was a lifelong calling, it was all I ever dreamed about and worked towards for years and years and now? I don’t think I CAN just separate it from my identity and, like, not be a cop for an evening, especially out in public. I… I’m sorry, Nick.”

The fox gave a deep sigh. “Yeah. Bad call on my part, I guess. I’m the one who should be apologising for the choice of venue. I guess we should just head-”

“STOP!!”

Nick and Judy’s melancholy funk was suddenly pierced by a loud yell coming from further down the row of food stalls. Both of their ears pricked up to attention, and they whirled around to see a muscular brown kangaroo bounding towards them at full speed, the hood of her dark grey hoodie pulled right up to cover as much of her face as possible. They had only seconds to react: Judy bounded deftly out the kangaroo’s path in a single reflexive motion, but Nick was only able to barely sidestep the onrushing marsupial and was caught square in the chest by her powerful tail, sending him barrelling backwards, off the springboard and back on to the velcro wall. The shock of the interruption meant it took both Nick and Judy a moment to process the fact that a trail of money littered the ground in the kangaroo’s wake, and that a wheezing old capybara was waddling as quickly as he could after the fast-moving animal, to little avail, shouting as loudly as his gasping breaths would allow.

“That… CROOK! That great bounding THIEF! Knocked over the banana stand ... made off with all the money! Aaaargh, that’s our entire Friday takings; she overpowered the kids I had working the stall and stuffed all the cash in that pouch of hers! Someone call park security, someone help, do something!”

Judy’s mind snapped into focus. “Don’t worry, sir, I’m Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD, and I will make sure that money is returned to you. Nick! Come on, we’ve gotta move, we’ve gotta… Nick?”

She registered for the first time that Nick was stuck to the velcro wall and gesticulating wildly to the panda stall attendant, who was gawking at him with an expression of total bewilderment.

“Hey! HEY! Bamboo! I know, I know, I’m gorgeous. Now put your eyeballs back in their sockets and pry me off this wall, I’ve got a perp to catch! Hopps, you go on ahead, I’ll catch you up!”

“Uh, right! Right!” Judy took off at full speed, following the trail of money along the path, her adrenaline pumping. As she ran, she found herself flanked by two members of the Wild Times security team - a ram and a polar bear - who were running in the same direction, yelling instructions into their walkie-talkies as they moved.

“Uh, ma’am, we’ll have to ask you not to get involved in this, we-”

“Don’t worry, I’m Judy Hopps, I’m a police officer and a witness, I can help with this! My partner and I saw the thief escaping. Has your team secured the exits?”

“They have, Officer Hopps. Don’t worry, we’ve got this one covered. It’s an indoor park; there’s no way she can get out without a member of security intercepting her. And if this money trail is any indication, she’s heading towards a dead end right now.”

Sure enough, they were soon face-to-face with the hoodie-wearing kangaroo, whose pouch was overflowing with currency. As predicted, she had backed herself into a corner, surrounded on all sides by stalls, attractions and the interior wall of the building; the only path away was now occupied by Judy and the two security guards, who were advancing on the thief slowly but imposingly.

“End of the line, ma’am. We’re gonna have to ask you stop running, turn yourself over and wait until the local police come and pick you up.”

The kangaroo glanced around and gave a devious little smile. “Nah, I don’t think so, mate.”

Without warning, she leapt off to the side of the pursuing law enforcers and landed squarely in the middle of an inflatable castle, disturbing a group of cheetah children and an inebriated couple of college-age otters who were bouncing merrily. The weight and impact of the kangaroo’s powerful legs was enough to knock the other patrons off their feet; using all the leverage she could muster, the criminal launched herself 20 feet into the air, bouncing the innocent bystanders completely off the castle. As the security staff rushed over to attend to the crying children, Judy stepped back to see where the kangaroo had landed, and spotted her hanging by her arms from a metal gantry attached to the track of the Roar-a-Coaster. The drop below was perilous, but the kangaroo’s grip was strong, and she was regaining her balance and clambering up on top of the walkway. At that moment, Nick finally caught up, panting and looking dishevelled, with small patches of fur missing from the back of his neck after being hastily ripped from the velcro wall.

“Agh… sorry… I’m late… Carrots. What’d I… miss?”

“Nick! What we’re missing is the crook! Up there on the Roar-a-Coaster’s maintenance gantry, look - she jumped up from the inflatable castle, and… oh my gosh, Nick, she can get out that way! They’ve got security guards on the exits, but the Roar-a-Coaster track loops out through a gap in the roof of the building; she can follow that walkway and then just escape from the roof outside… I’ve gotta get up there! Like, now!”

Nick’s eyes flicked rapidly around the area, his ears twitching in all directions as he searched for inspiration. “Hmmm… nope, I’m not seeing any quick way up there. There’s a ladder, but we’d have to circumnavigate a bunch of stalls to get to it, and Mrs Bananagrabber up there will be long gone by the time we do. Uhh… hmmm. Long shot, but do you think you could bounce up there, the same way she went?”

Judy glanced over at the inflatable castle, sizing up the weights, angles and speed involved. “Like you say: it’s a long shot. But there’s only one way to find out…”

The rabbit took a run up, launching herself at the inflatable castle. Following the same trajectory, she landed in the centre, wound her muscles tight as a spring, and shot upwards… ten feet into the air. She could see the kangaroo above her, claws scraping against the metal as she scrambled up on to the walkway, far out of reach. With a frustrated yelp, Judy began bouncing up and down on the castle, trying as many physical tricks and techniques as she could to gain more height. She tried redistributing her weight and bounced off the sides of the castle, but nothing she did helped her any higher than 12 feet, and she noticed - with growing agitation - that the kangaroo was now standing properly on the gantry, busily collecting up some of the cash she had dropped as she prepared to make good her escape.

“Nick! Get up here with me!”

“What? Me? I can’t jump as high as you…”

“I know, you don’t need to! Come up and act as a counterweight. If we do alternating bounces, I can get the height I need to get up there! And watch your claws, we don’t wanna explode this thing!”

“Oh! Right, good call...”

Nick bounded into action, clambering up on the inflatable surface and taking a moment to get his bearings, before starting a rhythmic sequence of jumps with his partner. Each alternating bounce propelled Judy higher and higher, which only made her more anxious to reach her target.

15 feet… the kangaroo was gathering up the last of the money…

17 feet… the crook took a look back at Judy getting closer and closer, and blanched at the sight…

19 feet… the thief started to make a run for it…

“NICK! PUT IT ALL INTO THIS BOUNCE, SHE’S GETTING AWAY!”

Nick - who by this point was reaching at least 12 feet into the air himself - gave his partner the quickest nod, curled himself up at the apex of his bounce, and then launched himself downward like a red spear, sending Judy shooting up a full 25 feet. She sailed upwards in a graceful arc and down towards the fleeing thief, who turned just in time to see a grey blur arrowing towards her. Judy heard the kangaroo exclaim “Crikey!” before she was roughly tackled against the surface of the metal gantry, cash spilling from her pouch and raining down on the stalls and Wild Times patrons below.

“I can’t thank you enough, officers, you’ve really gone above and beyond! Quite literally, in a sense; Officer Hopps, I saw how high up you had to go to chase that thief down, it looked incredibly dangerous.”

The old capybara who ran the banana stand was wringing Judy and Nick’s paws over and over again, giving them a succession of hearty shakes. Behind them, their colleague Officer McHorn had arrived on the scene, and was speaking to the park security staff while the thief sat sullenly in the back seat of his police cruiser. His business concluded, McHorn gave the pair a little salute and a smile, which they returned before he drove off.

“Oh, it was nothing, sir,” said Judy. “Well. OK, it was something, but for a ZPD officer it’s all in a day’s work! Or, uh, in this case, all in a night off.”

“You two really are the ZPD’s finest, I can see why the newspapers spoke so highly of you!  I’m lucky you happened to be walking by when my stall was robbed. If there’s anything I can do for you, anything at all-”

“Well, now that you mention it,” interjected Nick, smirking, “the newspapers might not mention this too often, but Hero Cop Nicholas Wilde, ZPD - as they call me down at the precinct - actually used to work at your banana stand back in the day! And much as we enjoyed tackling that robber, I think you and I can agree, sir, that the real crime here is that my partner, Officer Hopps, has never actually tried one of the delicious frozen banana treats, with the hot fudge and chopped nuts, that have made your stand such a beloved family institution for so many decades. Surely you must agree that this wrong needs to be righted?”

The capybara laughed wheezily. “Ha, you are a natural salesman, aren’t you? It’ll be my pleasure, and my treat, of course. Have a good evening, officers!”

Minutes later, Judy and Nick were strolling back along the length of the park, their frozen bananas digesting comfortably. As Nick glanced around at the lights and the sights, he laughed wistfully. “You know what, Carrots, I guess this shows you were right. It’s been nice coming back here and all, but… you never do stop being a cop, do you? And neither do I, I guess. It was just… good to come back and see a little bit of my childhood again. Even if it probably does have to be from the outside looking in… uh, Carrots? Hey. Judy! Are you listening to me?”

Judy was gazing off in a different direction, her mind clearly elsewhere. As Nick called her name, she seemed to come back to herself. “Oh… oh! Nick, argh, I’m sorry, I did hear you, I was just a million miles away. I was… uh. Hmmm. I was thinking, actually - before we go, do you… do you think we can go back to the inflatable castle? Just for a little while?”

Nick blinked, and tilted his head quizzically. “You want to go back on the inflatable castle?”

Judy suddenly seemed shifty and scattered, her paws tugging at her own ears nervously. “Uh… yeah! I was thinking, while we’re still here and we have these evening passes, I just thought… because we were jumping up and down on it before and it was crazy and hectic, but it was still… kinda fun, I guess? Maybe? Like, I’ve not had a chance to really just bounce around like crazy since my dad got us a trampoline back on the farm when I was little, and it broke after the first day, because you know, rabbit families, right? So it was kind of a fun thing to-”

Nick stared at the stammering rabbit, a smile playing across the corners of his mouth. “Officer Judy Hopps of the ZPD wants to go and play on the inflatable castle.”

Judy shot a peevish look at the smirking fox and punched him in the hip. “All right, fine, we’ll do this the humiliating way, then, because you’re horrible. Yes. I want to go and play on the inflatable castle. Officer Judy Hopps of the ZPD, Zootopia's top cop, wants to go and play on the inflatable castle.  Are you happy now? Is that what your tiny shrivelled heart needs to hear to make you feel fulfilled?”

Nick grinned broadly and patted Judy patronisingly on the head, ignoring her efforts to bat his paws away. “You know what? It sort of is, Carrots. Maybe you learned something from old Nick this evening after all.”

Judy rolled her eyes, but gave a warm smile at the same time. “Well, thank you, wise sensei. Come on, let’s head over there before all the kids get back on it. And then after that, we’re going on the Roar-a-Coaster.”

Nick’s grin faltered. “Wait, we’re what?”

“We’re going on the Roar-a-Coaster,” said Judy, narrowing her eyes and smiling in a calculating manner. “I wanted to go on it from the moment we came in here, but I was too self-conscious to mention it directly. But thanks to your teachings, I’m over that now, so that’s great, isn’t it? Plus, I got a great view of it when I was up on that gantry, and it looks SO RAD. So I’m going on it, and you are going to accompany me like a gentleman. I’ll even let you hold on to my arm if you’re scared, and cry on my shoulder afterwards. Deal?”

Nick looked up at the intimidating spirals of the Roar-a-Coaster’s red iron track, grimacing, but after glancing back down at Judy’s bright expression, he adjusted his tie and straightened up. “You drive a hard bargain, Carrots, but I accept your terms. I just wish you’d told me this before I ate the damn banana; between the bouncing and the rollercoaster, my stomach is not going to thank me later. Wild Times, indeed...”

[zootopiastories]

New Kit on the Block: A Zootopia Story

In this Zootopia story, rookie ZPD officer Nick Wilde, accompanied by his partner and best friend Judy Hopps, embarks on his first day on the beat. The slick fox couldn’t be more excited about his opportunity for a fresh start, and he’s eager to make a best possible impression - but could that over-eagerness and heightened sense of expectation prove to be his undoing? Find out in this all-ages Zootopia tale!

The window of the red sports car whirred to a close, the engine gave a guttural rumble, and the idling machine trundled away almost sheepishly. In its wake, two petite figures leaned back in the padded seats of their oversized police cruiser, all smug grins and knowing looks, as they basked in the warm glow of an ironically satisfying job well done.

“Boy, it’s much quicker writing a ticket for that guy than it is getting one from him,” muttered Judy Hopps as she watched Flash’s car disappear around the block at a trundling snail’s pace.

Officer Nick Wilde, ZPD, peered over the rim of his reflective aviators and shot his partner a knowing look.

“Come on, Carrots, let’s be fair to Hundred-Yard Dash. He’s still the quickest guy at the DMV; I went down there for my temp licence last week, and I didn’t get through my entire packed lunch before he’d finished it all up. Seemed like a waste to have booked a whole day off for it, in retrospect.”

The grey fuzz on Judy’s snout gave a little ripple as she snorted a laugh in response.

“Yeah, well, he should count himself lucky it was us that collared him rather than… well, pretty much anyone else on the force. You know he almost clipped Fangmeyer in the street the other day, right? He’s not a popular guy; anyone else catches him pulling that again, and he’s gonna end up waiting in the DMV queue with the rest of us chumps in 12 months’ time, reapplying for his licence after serving a well-earned ban.”

A familiar air of self-righteous indignation settled over Officer Hopps as she warmed to her rant. Nick recognised it all too keenly, and leaned back in the passenger seat, letting the sunlight beating down on Zootopia’s streets warm the red fur of his face.

“Aaaah, we can afford to let this little one swim free, partner. After all, it’s a special day of rejoicing and good will, and peace to all mammals. We can do a solid for a guy who’s helped us out, right? No need to take a man’s precious wheels for doing 40 in a 30 zone, or whatever…”

Judy regarded the fox across from her with a bristling, reprimanding look.

“Try 60 in a 20 zone, and you’d be closer! And what’s all this about a special day? I know it’s special for you-”

Nick returned Judy’s stern look with interest, and a dash of mock offence.

“…OK, yeah, special day for the two of us, right, Mr Sensitive. But believe it or not, Zootopia is not holding a city-wide mardi gras celebrating the End of All Crime just because Officer Nick Wilde’s got his first day on the beat. Particularly not if you’re going to be bending the law to do “solids” for mammals you know!”

This time, Nick had the good grace to genuinely feel at least a little abashed, though he tried his best not to show it.

“Ah…well. Come on, Flash is hardly Mr Big, right? A good guy like that gets a little slap on the wrist, it scares him straight, knocks him out the boy racer phase, everyone’s happy. Taking a bazooka to tiny guppies isn’t what I’ve been training for; I wanna get out there and land me a shark or something, y’know? Make a difference, do something that means something. Not just nailing some DMV worker for a joyride.”

Judy’s hard expression seemed to soften a little, and a twinge of indulgent fondness punctured her desire to moralise further.

“Hey, Nick… I do get what today means to you, and believe me, I know what it’s like to want to come tearing out the blocks, but … maybe temper your expectations a bit, OK? You won’t be busting open a conspiracy every day; some days, you’ll just have to mop up the traffic violations, and that’ll be OK, because it’ll be all you need to do to keep the peace and make that little bit of difference.”

The fox digested this thought, feeling slightly too self-conscious to meet his partner’s warm, imploring gaze. Instead, he surveyed himself, glancing downward at the way his red fur contrasted against the pristine blue of the spotless uniform he’d washed, ironed and laid out by hand last night, remembering how it had looked on him in the mirror that morning; he winced slightly at the glare from the morning sun glinting off his golden “WILDE” name tag, which he’d polished to within an inch of its life. Then he looked back at Judy, meeting her eyes from behind his impassively mirrored shades.

“Carrots, you forget who you’re talking to. This is Officer Nicholas P. Wilde, reporting for duty. Keep your eyes peeled and ears upright, because you are going to bear witness to a first day that’s going down in law enforcement history.”

“Weaselton, don’t be cute with us, OK, fella? I know the score here, you know the score, we all know the score. You don’t think Nick Wilde knows a racket when he sees one? Here’s the deal; you own up, tell us what you’re doing, and maybe I consider letting you off easy.”

Nick was attempting an impersonation of his usual unflappable demeanour, but Judy knew him well enough to see right through it. Seeing the way the hairs around her partner’s neck were standing up and his tail bristled, she nervously chewed her lip, trying to maintain her own professional composure. Standing across from them in the middle of a sun-drenched park, Duke Weaselton blinked. His wide, red eyes flicked back and forth between Nick and Judy, a bewildered, blank look on his dilapidated face. Judy couldn’t help but look slightly apologetic; Nick was, after all, not quite himself at the moment, and she felt quite sure this conversation was not going to go well.

In her view, the day had been pleasantly uneventful; since their brief pursuit of Flash, they had moved on a gang of badger youths loitering on a street corner, provided directions to the library for an elderly marmot, and calmed down a potentially raucous rush for Gazelle concert tickets. Her main worry, in fact, was the effect this idyllic day was having on Nick, whose poorly-concealed desperation to make an immediate impact was leading him to perceive conspiracies and potential crimes of the century at every turn. As such, Judy had been required to smooth over a number of instances of rash accusations and belligerent questioning by her partner, including a heated argument with rhino workmen that Nick had accused of trying to tunnel into a bank; an abortive attempt by Nick to search a kangaroo mother’s pouch for concealed firearms; and the interruption of a “hate rally” that turned out to be a primary school teacher addressing students on a field trip. Judy had attempted to settle Nick’s nerves by treating him to a Bug Burger at lunchtime, but even this had ended with her partner accusing the goat teenager behind the counter of trying to poison him.

With the afternoon trickling away, Officer Wilde’s tactics had since shifted from collaring random passersby to an active search for people to accuse. Privately, Judy thought that if Nick had to arbitrarily accuse anyone in Zootopia of a crime with no evidence at all, then Duke Weaselton wasn’t too bad a bet; in this instance, however, pointing fingers at an electronically-tagged weasel carrying a garbage bag and a litter picker was hard for her to justify. Duke seemed to feel this way too, and was having none of it.

“Own up ta what? Buzz off, Nick! Ah, uh, Officer Wilde, whatever. Look at me! I’m doin’ my community service, as the courts ordered, in accordance with the terms of my bail and everything. I’m a changed mammal, a reformed weasel, keepin’ my nose clean, et cetera, et cetera. You ain’t got nothin’ on me, so back off.”

Nick leaned in close, his snout within an inch of Weaselton’s as he sized him up, and Judy tensed as she saw Duke’s bloodshot eye twitchingly reflected in Nick’s aviators at close range.

“Listen, Weaselton, drop the Junior Ranger Scout act; it’s as fake as anything else you’ve ever sold. I worked the same streets as you for years, and I know a weasel doesn’t change his spots that quick. Clue us in, why don’t you? You’ve always got a hustle going; we are going to find out what it is, and shut you down. You mark my words.”

With that, he gave the weasel a hard push in his crooked chest with the tip of his baton. Duke gulped in discomfort, but hardened his posture in the face of Nick’s probing.

“Hey, hey, HEY! Don’t be threatening me, copper, I know my rights! You ain’t got no gang boss friends here threatening to drown me in ice - yeah, don’t think I forgot about that! Youse guys got no right to rough up a law-abidin’ criminal in the middle’a broad daylight, when all I’m tryin’ta do is pick up this garbage and serve my debt to society!”

Weaselton gestured down at the half-filled bag of trash in his paw. Nick glanced down at it, back at Duke, and delicately used his baton to pull down the lip of the bag, peering inside with a look of deepest scepticism.

“Yeah. I’m searching this bag.”

“You - what? Man, get outta there, I’ve been picking that stuff up all afternoon - hey! HEY! Knock it off!”

“Nick! You can’t-”

Judy yelped as she reached out in a vain effort to intercept Nick, but too late, as her partner had already grabbed the bag out of Weaselton’s hand and was starting to rummage through it, throwing the refuse out across the grass with growing agitation. Over Duke’s incoherent yelps of fury and indignation, the fox upended the bag and tipped it all over the lawn, scrambling through festering garbage for any possible sign of wrongdoing. What he found was old newspapers, wads of chewed gum, fruit debris and a half-eaten Bug Burger that was now splattered across the ground. Nick’s irrational annoyance seemed to increase with each piece of legitimate garbage he flicked past; when it became clear that the trash was, indeed, just trash, he shot Weaselton a look of icy disdain.

“….yeah, well. You win this round, Weaselton. But I’m watching you, got it? Officer Nicholas P. Wilde is on to you. You’re on my list. I know you’re up to something big, and I’m going to take you down. Got that? Come on, Carrots.”

On that aimless threat, Nick turned on his heel and marched back towards the street, leaving Weaselton and Judy dumbfounded in his wake. The pair gaped wordlessly for a moment, barely noticing the other was still there; Judy could see Duke’s anger was throbbing in his temple, and before he could entirely regain his bearings, she gave an apologetic laugh, her best attempt at a winning smile, and bounded away in pursuit of her partner.

Catching up with Nick was harder than usual for Judy, who could usually keep pace with her longer-legged colleague, but not when he was storming off down the pavement like a furious juggernaut, the front of his new uniform now covered in dark stains and bits of old fruit. Accelerating, she hopped in front of him and planted her broad feet in the pavement, physically bringing him to a halt with her small paws.

“Nick! NICK! You - have - got - to - get - a - grip! You are out of control, and you will turn around right now and apologise to Duke Weaselton, or I’ll recommend to Chief Bogo that you be taken off active duty. What is even wrong with you?”

The fox, who had seemed only barely aware of his partner, seemed shaken out of his torpor by her words, and met her incredulous gaze. Pulling off his aviator shades, he began gesticulating with them wildly, his usual composure lost in an angry haze.

“Oh, nope, nothing’s wrong here, nothing’s wrong anywhere! Crime is over. We missed the memo, it’s all fine now. The perps and the gangsters are all singing Kumbaya in the park, so the ZPD ought to just pack it up, go home, get some sleep. Tell me, Cottontail: how likely does that sound to you?”

Judy stared back, blank, at a complete loss for words. “What?”

Nick raged on undeterred. “Yeah, well, I don’t buy that, not for one hot second. I know crooks, Judy - heck, I was one not so long ago, and they’re everywhere. Everywhere from the little schemers like Weaselton, right up to the big masterminds like Bellwether. Every second we waste on speeding motorists and jaywalkers or, or, or shoppers who paid one hour on their parking meter and stayed for two? That’s a second we’re not dealing with the guys hiding in the woodwork doing real damage to lives! THAT’s why I became a cop: to make the world a better place. Your words, Carrots, your words. Not to waste ZPD time and resources spending my first day traipsing the streets dealing with… overaggressive pamphleteers, or whatever!”

A fire was burning out of control behind Nick’s green eyes; Judy had never seen him like this before. Wary of a nearby group of wildebeest commuters who seemed keen to eavesdrop on the two officers arguing in the street, Judy shepherded the agitated fox into the privacy of a side alley, and addressed him with as much composure and authority as she could muster.

“Nick… I told you to chill out about this this morning, don’t you remember? You’re putting so much pressure on yourself and this whole first-day thing, and it’s making you… well, psychotic, honestly. I know you want to make a difference, but you can’t expect to crush all crime in one day, and even if you could, going door-to-door trying to find reasons to arrest people isn’t the way you do it! Are…are you absolutely sure you’re ready for patrol duty?”

Nick’s eyes tweaked as he choked with furious incredulity. “Ready? I was born ready. I am laying down a marker today, and I don’t care what-”

Without warning, Nick’s ears pricked up, alert, and his bright eyes flicked upwards to a point halfway up the wall of the building in whose shadow they were currently standing. His eyelids narrowed as he scrutinised what he saw in the darkness, and a small smile seemed to play across the corner of his mouth.

“Bingo. Up there. 11 o’clock-ish. Tell me what you see, Carrots.”

“Nick…what? I don’t…”

Bewildered and distracted, Judy whirled around aimlessly for a moment, before training her own ears and eyes up in the direction of Nick’s pointing digit. Above them was an old-fashioned series of steel ladders and walkways, a fire escape route attached to the Stately Rhinoceros Residential Complex, an upmarket apartment block next to which they were stood. A dishevelled figure was scaling them, trying to reach across to a half-open window on the third floor.

“Now, call it a crazy rookie hunch, but I think that gentleman right there is up to something, Officer Hopps.”

“Ah, well, Nick, I…he could be, uh… hmmm.”

Judy’s trust in her partner’s judgement had taken a hit after their harrowing day, but she had to admit that the scrambling interloper seemed highly suspicious. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she was able to make out some key physical details: a pointed face, glinting black eyes, a heavily-furred physique and a thick, unkempt striped tail. Fiddling with the window mechanism for a moment, the animal was able to prise the gap open wide enough to squeeze himself inside.

“Oh, he could be a lot of things, partner, so I think it’d be educational for all involved to head on up there to the third floor, and ask him in person to explain what his story is? I think it’s gonna be a doozy.”

With a swift flick of the wrist, Nick swung his sunglasses open and replaced them on his face; the lack of light from the setting early-evening sun made it very clear that the gesture was for aesthetic reasons only. He seemed to have regained all of his usual swagger in an instant, and Judy couldn’t help notice a slight skip in his step as he strolled into the lobby of the apartment block.

A gloved grey paw rose to knock on the polished oak door of the luxury flat, only to be caught by a larger reddish-brown paw before it made contact.

“Come on, Carrots, let me have this one.”

“Let you what?”

“I wanna knock, I wanna do the whole ‘get down, this is a raid!’ thing.”

“Nick, what? Don’t say this is a raid! It isn’t a raid! We’re here to ask questions, we don’t have any evidence yet!”

“Carrots, relax, I’m tugging your adorable little tail. It’s me! I’ll be the model of professionalism.”

“Uh-huh.”

Feeling apprehensive, Judy relaxed her paw to her side as she watched her partner straighten his back, adopt a steely look and rap three times on the door in an exaggerated manner. A nasally whining voice came from the other side of the wood.

“Yeah? What?”

“Sir, this is Officers Wilde and Hopps from the ZPD. We’ve observed some suspicious activity in the vicinity of your premises, and we’d like to ask you a few questions.”

Judy tried to suppress a slight smirk at the deeper “professional” voice Nick tried to affect when dealing with members of the public, but had no chance to dwell on it as the door swung open. Standing in the threshold was a raccoon in his mid-20s, who looked very similar in profile to the animal they had seen scrambling up the fire escape. He wore an unironed T-shirt that looked like it had been slept in, with matted, untidy fur spilling out of the sleeves and neckhole, as well as around the hem of the loose sweatpants he wore. His bristly tail had bits of sellotape and candy wrappers stuck in it, creating an air of neglect reinforced by his hunched posture and unpleasant aroma of old garbage.

“I didn’t see anything weird. Who called the cops? Pretty sure I didn’t.”

Nick and Judy exchanged a brief look, raising their respective eyebrows fractionally, before the fox pressed on.

“Nobody called us in, sir; our questions are based on our own independent investigations and observations. May we come in for a moment?”

“Ehhh.”

The raccoon turned on the spot and slinked back into the flat, leaving the door open. Taking this as a “yes”, the officers walked in behind him, finding themselves in a living area of astounding affluence. Whoever lived here clearly had an eye for interior design and a penchant for minimalism; most surfaces were pristine white or spotless glass, with an entire wall dominated by a huge flatscreen TV. Gadgets and modern conveniences lay strewn across the tables, or else were incorporated flush into the furnishings; indeed, the only thing that looked out of place in this immaculate space was the raccoon himself, who was leaning against the back of a chair, looking agitated and defiant.

“Make this quick. I’m a busy guy, and time is money, so you’re wasting both.”

Nick, who was taking in the surroundings, snapped his focus back to the scruffy raccoon’s inscrutable face.

“Oh, I shouldn’t think this will take long at all, sir. You see, we have very good reason to believe that this property has been illegally entered this evening, and we’d like you to tell us everything you know.”

The raccoon shifted his weight slightly, gave a little cough, and responded after a short pause.

“You…what? Right. Yeah, no, nobody’s been breaking and entering in here. I live here, OK? This is my place. There’s no problem, I don’t need any cops, so if you’ll just-”

As he spoke, the raccoon shambled towards Judy and proffered a paw towards her, motioning for the pair of them to leave the apartment. She bristled slightly at the grubby state of his claws, but stood her ground.

“I’m afraid, sir, that we really do need to do our due diligence here. My colleague and I observed an interloper climbing across the fire escapes and entering the window of this property, and we-”

“-we’d appreciate it oh so much if you dropped the cutesy act and just come clean, because we saw you drag your filthy tail in here, sir.”

“NICK!”

Judy’s jaw fell open as she rounded on her partner, who seemed to have entirely dropped his would-be professional voice and demeanour and was now staring down his suspect an open contempt that was obvious even despite his oversized shades. The raccoon, too, seemed dumbstruck for a moment.

“You- what did you say to me?” he spluttered.

Nick leaned down, using his extra height to loom over the suspect, and poked a clawed finger into his chest. “I said you need to come clean - I’m sorry, I know the idea of cleanliness must be confusing to you. I’ll make this really simple, then: we literally saw you climb in this window, with our own four eyes, so you can either come quietly with us to the station and face the music, or we can do this the hard way. Personally, I’m good either way, so it’s your call, buddy.”

Judy’s breath caught in her throat as she gazed wordlessly at Nick for a moment, who was cracking his knuckles in a needlessly threatening manner. Regaining herself, she attempted to defuse the mood, which had turned poisonous faster than she’d feared.

“Uh…Officer Wilde, you can’t just-  what he meant to say, sir, is-”

The raccoon rounded on her, eyes popping with fury. “Oh, I heard him! What is this, you think you can just barge into a mammal’s house and accuse me with no evidence? Don’t you know who I am? I don’t have to put up with-”

Nick interrupted: “Look, Sweatpants McGee, I don’t much care who you are; I doubt it would impress me particularly. But you aren’t blustering out of this: we caught you red-handed, watched you climb in here, and now we’re going to escort you out before you get any more grime on the nice carpet in here, capiche?”

At this point, Judy was struggling to maintain her composure as the situation threatened to devolve into an all-out brawl. Nick’s lip was curling into an aggressive snarl, while the raccoon’s fangs were bared in fury.

“All right then, yeah, FINE! I climbed in through the window, yes! So I locked myself out of my apartment, and I had to climb in from outside like an idiot. Are you happy now? Will you get out of my house now, you dimwits? I’ll show you the documentation if it’ll shut you up-”

The raccoon motioned across to a cabinet across the room, but the moment he raised his paw, there was a metallic flash and a click. It took Judy a moment to realise, to her horror, that Nick had handcuffed the enraged animal and was now attempting to get the suspect’s paws behind his back to completely restrain him.

“Yeah, no, I don’t think you’ll be touching anything else in here, raccoon. I’m sure you have a great story, really great, and the guys down at the police department are gonna be really excited to hear it-”

“Mr Cooney?”

A cool female voice seemed to pierce through the chaos, causing everyone in the room to freeze and look up. Entering the apartment from a side room was a neat, officious-looking ferret carrying a phablet and a stylus, who looked politely bemused - if not overly startled - by the fracas that was unfolding in front of them.

“Grace! Where have you BEEN? You see what happens when I have to answer my own door? Get over here and sort this out, that’s your job! Speak to the Keystone Cops over here, get them out of my house!”

The tension and fury in the apartment seemed to have evaporated in a moment, replaced by a fog of mutual confusion. Nick, who still had the raccoon in a hold, glanced across at Judy, who could only return his look of wrongfooted discombobulation. Through the midst of this, the ferret seemed to glide across the room, a picture of calm, barely looking up from her screen.

“I’m very sorry, sir, I was alphabetising the ring binders you left in the adjacent room, and my access to the door was blocked off. This underlines our need for a better organisational system in there, I would say. Good evening, officers, can I help you with anything?”

Nick tried to speak, but only seemed able to achieve a wordless “uhhhhhhh”, so it was left to Judy to pull herself together and respond.

“Yeah…um. Yeah. Officers Hopps and Wilde, ZPD. What, uh…what the heck is going here? I don’t even know any more.”

The ferret, Grace, glanced up at the mention of their names and surveyed them over the top of her thin-framed glasses with mild interest.

“Ah, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde? Yes, I believe I saw you on the news a few months ago. My name is Grace Ferris, personal assistant to Mr Rocky Cooney. As to what’s going on, I believe you’re in the process of arresting my employer in his own home on what I can only imagine to be spurious evidence, based on the low quality of the conversation I overheard while in the next room.”

A glimmer of recognition lit up in Judy’s mind. “Rocky Cooney? The tech entrepreneur? THE Rocky Cooney? But… I’ve seen you on the news as well. A few times actually; you, uh, usually look more … formal.”

The reality of the situation they were in was starting to dawn on the rabbit, so she was choosing her words carefully. Nick’s expression was curdling like spoiled milk, and she could only assume he currently felt as queasy as he looked. Grace, meanwhile, tapped something into her tablet, and summoned a photo of Rocky Cooney from a corporate website. It was recognisably the same raccoon, though the animal in the image was much cleaner and considerably less furious. The flesh-and-blood Cooney threw off Nick’s hold and started pointing angrily in Judy’s face, the handcuffs jangling from the wrist to which they were attached.

“Well, excuse me, fashion police! Is this what passes for a crime these days? Working at home in my sweatpants? This is what my tax dollars are paying for the ZPD to do? You’re a disgrace to public service! And you, Hopps, out of all of them! The hero cop that saved the city, right? Good to see your career is on the up and up, harassing people based on their grooming habits and clothing choices. Doing Zootopia proud.”

Grace interjected: “It is Mr Cooney’s preference not to leave his home if at all possible - he believes this helps him to focus better on his work without distraction. To this end, he dresses for comfort, rather than aesthetic appeal. It is no symptom of criminality or vagrancy, I can assure you.”

Nick croaked: “But we…I saw you climb in through the window, I only thought…”

“Oh, now he gets his voice back. Wouldn’t shut up before, would you? Not long enough to listen to me when I said I’d locked myself out and had to come in through the window.”

Grace offered: “This is accurate. We exited the apartment for a brief period and returned only to realise Mr Cooney had accidentally locked the key inside. His pride compelled him to scale the building and enter through the window to let me in, rather than ask the concierge for assistance. A rash decision, perhaps, but not one that warrants insults or threats of arrest, both of which he has received from you this evening; as such, I believe the ethics and legality of your conduct is questionable, and you may be receiving a call from our lawyers if you persist.”

Judy’s mind was racing into overdrive as she sought a diplomatic solution to their predicament. Nick appeared to be deflating like a balloon, his bravado and belligerence gone, and he was staring in agitation at his own reflection in a mirror on the wall, seemingly struggling to recognise what he saw. The sight seemed to spur Judy into action.

“Ah…with due respect, I really don’t think that will be necessary. I think it’s pretty clear at this point that my partner and I have made a really very serious error of judgement in handling our inquiries here, and I can only offer our deepest apologies over the way this was conducted. Right, Officer Wilde?”

Nick was shaken out of his troubled reverie at the sound of his name, and responded in a subdued tone: “Uh, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Deepest apologies, I’m so sorry, I just thought- yeah. Sorry for all of this, sir. Ah! Let me just- let me get that cuff off you, sorry.”

He hurried over and unlocked the handcuff from Cooney’s wrist, who proffered his arm while staring Nick down with an expression of utmost loathing. The fox was the taller of the two animals, but seemed to shrink away in the venomous gaze, and retreated back towards the apartment’s entrance looking diminished. Cooney’s eyes narrowed as they followed him across the room.

“Yeah, well, I want that in writing. Grace! Set me up a meeting with the mayor’s office, I’ll be bringing this incident up with them. I don’t care if it means I have to leave the house! You clowns are going to the wall for this, I’ll see to it myself!”

Sensing the time was right to leave, Judy began backing towards the entrance, offering as many apologies as she could as she did so. She placed a paw on Nick’s back and gently ushered him out of the door, as he didn’t seem capable of moving on his own any more.

“…I can only tell you again how sorry we are, Mr Cooney, we do take this kind of thing very seriously. My partner doesn’t have that much experience in the field, but believe me, he really was acting to prevent what he thought was a real crime in progress-”

“If you thought it was a real crime, then you should have sent a real cop to investigate it, rather your work experience idiot here! Get out of my house, I never want to see either of you around here again!”

With that, the raccoon slammed the door in their faces, smashing it heavily into Judy’s toes and Nick’s snout, leaving them writhing in pain on his front doormat as his scratchy footsteps receded away from the entrance.

“Hold your head back and pinch there, it should probably stop bleeding in a second. I think?”

Dusk had fallen on Zootopia, and Officers Wilde and Hopps were making their way back to the police department, both looking distinctly worse for wear. Judy was hobbling awkwardly, unsure of how to distribute her weight across two injured feet; she was also struggling to guide Nick, who was essentially walking blind due to the angle of his head and the mass of tissues he was clamping around his nose. His once pristine uniform, already blotted by his rummaging through Weaselton’s garbage bag, was now stained red around the chest and collar, a souvenir of the heavy bleeding that had accompanied the initial injury. Gingerly, Nick withdrew the blood-soaked wad from his muzzle, and dabbed at it carefully. When he spoke, it was thickly and with little of his usual zest.

“Augh, I think it’s stopped now, just about. Looks like my backup career plan in male modelling might be out of the window, though, I’m hideous now. Deformed.”

Judy gave a subdued chuckle that turned into a yelp of pain as a hard paving stone brushed against one of her bruised toes.

“Haha-aaargh! Ah. Don’t flatter yourself, fox, your chances of a modelling career remain exactly as low as they were yesterday. Besides, I wouldn’t have thought you’d welcome the prospect of another first day any time soon?”

Nick tried to smile, but so weakly that Judy instantly regretted the comment. They walked in silence for a while until Nick tossed his head back and let out a sigh deep enough that it seemed his soul had escaped through his mouth. Judy tensed slightly, trying to keep her involuntary squeaks of pain to a minimum as she hobbled alongside him, and waited for him to speak.

“Hooo, boy. This has not been a success, has it?” he asked, not looking at her.

Judy eyed her partner closely. His body posture was slumped and defeated as he walked, barely seeming aware of his surroundings as he shuffled along on autopilot, dabbing occasionally at his injured snout.

“Well…it’s not been a great day, no. But-”

“But nothing. No silver lining on this one, it’s all cloud. I really messed up.”

“Hey, look, everyone makes mistakes! And I know a bit about Cooney, he’s one of those coder millionaires who came into some money and thinks he owns the city. He’s always making demands to City Hall and the ZPD, he has a reputation for it. Nick, I wouldn’t take what he said too seriously, everyone from Bogo downwards knows he’s a jerk.”

“It wasn’t just what he did, Carrots, it was what I did. You warned me not to put too much on myself today, and I went and did it anyway, and I … ugh. Maybe you were right; I don’t think I’m ready for this.”

Judy put a paw on Nick’s arm and gave him an admonishing little shake. “Hey, come on, you need to knock it off with that kind of talk. I saw your grades at the academy; I worked with you through training over nine months, and heck, even before you joined the force. You can do this. I know you can; I’ve put my own butt on the line vouching for you, so this isn’t just big talk. You are 100% capable of this; sure, you made some mistakes, but nobody learns without getting it wrong sometimes. Right?”

Some light appeared to return to Nick’s green eyes, but little fire. “I guess so…it’d just be easier to think that way if I hadn’t just had the worst first day in ZPD history.”

“Well… I don’t know if I’d say it was THE worst.”

It was now Judy’s turn to let her gaze drift down towards the pavement, as she sank into a painful memory. Another pregnant moment’s silence, and then-

“Hey. Carrots.”

She glanced over and saw that Nick was now looking back at her, with an air of consternation and slight surprise, as though seeing her properly for the first time that day. When he spoke, it was with a halting, hesitant precision that was quite unlike his usual smooth bluster, like he was choosing his words with extreme care.

“I’m… uh. Really sorry.”

“Hey, it’s like I said, mistakes happen! It’s your first day, you’ll learn.”

“Not for my first day. For yours.”

Judy didn’t have an immediate response. That was an old wound that she wasn’t keen to poke at, but there was a sense of purpose to Nick’s tone that overrode her instinct to change the subject.

“Oh, Nick, you… you don’t have to apologise for that now. Ancient history. Just goes to show that even the best of us have a few stumbles sometimes, right? You, me, everybody.”

“Yeah, but there’s a difference between just having a bad day where you make some mistakes, then brush yourself off again, and… what happened to you. Having some jerk come along and dump a lifetime of baggage on your head, then kinda kick you while you’re down, trying to destroy you on purpose. I… well, I don’t think I’ve ever actually said sorry for that, not properly.”

The rabbit’s eyes stung a little as an evening wind blew across her dampening eyes. The memory of her own first day on the ZPD wasn’t one she liked to revisit, but as she looked back to Nick and saw his green eyes focused on her, waiting with apprehension for her response, she found that the pain of the recollection felt less raw than it had ever been.

“…you know what? It was rough, sure, but you were there to help pick me back up off the ground too, and that’s always been more important to me.”

Nick’s weak smile returned, but this time it carried up to his eyes in a way it hadn’t previously. “I guess this would be a bad time to remind you you did have to literally blackmail me into doing it.”

Judy laugh-winced again as her toe clipped the edge of a lamppost. “Ouch! Well… yeah. But you were still there for me, and you helped me climb out of that hole when nobody else would. So today’s my turn to return the favour, because that’s what partners do, and that’s what friends do. And you’re the best one of those I’ve ever had.”

She gave a watery smile and a sniffle as she gave the fox a playful nudge in the ribs. Stumbling slightly, Nick beamed back, looking happier than he’d been all day. For a moment, they walked side by side, neither wanting to take their eyes off the other’s smiling face, until Nick broke the warm silence.

“You know, Judy, you really are a special little-”

CLANG.

“NICK! Omigosh, are you OK?”

Lost in their moment of mutual distraction, Nick had walked face-first into a white van parked on the kerb.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow. Yeah, that’s bleeding again. This is what I get when I try to be sincere, I guess. Karma is trying to tell ya something, Nick ol’ boy, stick to what you’re good at. Leave the sappiness to the bunny. But man, I could’ve done without that van being parked there. In fact… why is it parked here?”

Judy, whose attention had been entirely focused on Nick’s injury, looked over at the van, and her brow furrowed. In addition to taking up far more of the pavement than was safe, its front end was spilling over across an entrance to a side road, essentially blocking any other vehicles from coming in or out.

“Nick… this shouldn’t be here. This is the entrance to a hospital, look! This wasn’t just you being clumsy, this is some legitimately irresponsible and dangerous parking!”

Pinching his nose with his wad of tissues, Nick side-eyed the vehicle as he tilted his head back. “Huh. You know what, Carrots, you might be right on this! Should we… should we call this in? We can’t leave this thing here to block off the hospital entrance; it needs to get towed, right?”

Within minutes, a winch was being attached to the front of the white van, and Nick - whose nosebleed had abated once again - was writing down the licence number with Judy’s carrot pen, as he went over the procedure for file submissions in his head.

“Oh, Fluff, on the way back to the station, I need to stop at that all-night convenience store and pick up a box of donuts. I had a bet with Clawhauser that I’d collar at least one perp today, and somehow I don’t think he’s gonna accept a towed van as an arrest.”

“Hey, no need to play it down!” said Judy, as the tow truck pulled away and they continued on their way back to the precinct. “You did a good thing calling that in. Remember what I said this morning? Some days, just mopping up the traffic violations is all you need to do to keep the peace…”

As she spoke, a siren fired up just behind them, and an ambulance pulled out of the opening they had just cleared, racing past them at high speed.

“…and make that little bit of difference. You see, Nick? That ambulance might not have been able to get out in time if we hadn’t been here! Maybe you just saved a life on your first day, just by faceplanting into the side of a van. How’s that for making the world a better place?”

She gave Nick a punch in the arm hard enough to make him yelp. As he rubbed the tiny bruise, he couldn’t help but grin broadly.

“Well, whaddya know? I’m a crime-fighting prodigy, without even realising. Now imagine me on a good day, huh? You think I can spin this into something impressive enough to get Clawhauser to waive the donut-box forfeit?”

“Ha! Right. Then after that, you can talk Bogo into giving you a promotion to sergeant and a back rub. Don’t push your luck, slick, even your tongue isn’t that silver. But hey, while you’re buying your forfeit donuts, how about we pick up a second box, take them back to my apartment and down them with cups of decaf until we pass out? You’re a real cop now, Officer Wilde; better start acting like one.”

“Yes, ma’am, Officer Hopps, ma’am!” Nick gave Judy a half salute and a smirk as they ambled their way towards the precinct, the sound of the ambulance siren drifting away into the Zootopia night air.