Ain't No Thing Like Me

Chapter 1: On The Case

The angry red display of the alarm clock ticked up to five thirty, causing it to commence blaring it high-pitched electronic wail. The alarm clock was only able to sing it's song for a few moments however, before a hand quickly reached out and shut it off.

The owner of the hand, a grey, female rabbit with purple eyes, sat up in her bed, rubbing the sleep and yawning as she did. Blinking her eyes clear, the rabbit smiled as she glanced around her apartment, still dark with pre-dawn gloom. It was almost ridiculously small, consisting of one room with only her bed, a desk and a bureau for furnishings. Save for a few personal touches, the apartment was spartan, with a bare wooden floor and walls covered in peeling wallpaper.

Still, the rabbit smiled. After all, it wasn't much, but it was hers.

Hopping out of bed, she quickly dressed for the day, not bothering to turn on the light, as she knew the cramped space by heart. When she was done, she was dressed in light blue, high collared shirt and navy blue pants held up a black utility belt. Along with this, she wore a black, armored vest, bracers, knee guards and spats that left her toes exposed. A golden badge in the shape of a shield with the words "Zootopia Police Department" was pinned just above her heart.

Double checking the pouches on her belt, the rabbit smiled to herself before walking to her door, opening it, and promptly letting out a short yelp of surprise while taking a short hop into the air as she found someone standing directly on the other side.

As she landed a short distance away, the rabbit was able to get a better look at the other animal as they were backlit by the lights in the hall. The animal was a male fox with the telltale red and brown fur. He wore a police uniform much like hers and regarded her with bright green eyes and a sly grin.

"Morning, Carrots," the fox greeted smoothly before he held up one of the two steaming paper cups in his hands for her to see, "Coffee?"

"You scared the crap out of me, Nick," the rabbit replied, clutching her heart as she took a few, calming breaths, "How'd you get into the building?"

"Someone was nice enough to buzz me in," Nick replied with a shrug before slowly shaking the coffee cup at her, "Now, do you want to coffee or not, Judy?"

"I don't really drink coffee," Judy replied as she walked back over to Nick, "Rabbits have enough energy as it is."

"It's carrot flavored," Nick said in a singsong voice, holding it close enough to Judy's face that she could smell it. Judy's nose twitched as the aroma wafted up it as she settled a level glare at Nick, who only grinned back at her. Finally, after a long moment, Judy rolled her eyes at Nick and snatched the coffee out his hand before taking a sip. As the warm liquid flowed down her throat, Judy's eyes went wide with surprise.

"Wow, Nick, this is really good," Judy commented.

"Told you," Nick replied as he took a sip of his own coffee before he nodded down the hall, "Come on, we don't want to be late."

Together, the two police officers made their way across the bustling metropolis, passing by mammals of every description as they went. Using the city's public transit system, they made their way to the heart of the city. Walking out of one of the stations for the subway system, the two found themselves in a large, sunny plaza dominated by a singular building at its center. The building was tall and imposing, with a circular shape and constructed of dun colored stone. A short flight of stairs led up to the main entrance where a sign displayed prominently above the door read "Police."

"And so I say, 'Howler? I barely even know her!'" Nick exclaimed as he and Judy walked out of the subway station, causing her to break into a fit of laughter.

"That's a good one, Nick," Judy replied as she caught her breath and wiped a mirthful tear from her eye.

"So, whatever happened to Flash?" Nick asked curiously.

"Last I heard, he had got his driver's license suspended," Judy answered.

"Ouch, how long?" Nick questioned as they walked up the stairs towards the front of the building.

"About a year," Judy answered as they stepped into a huge open foyer from which multiple hallways branched off of and continued deeper into the building, "Turns out this wasn't his first offense."

"Looks like Flash will be getting a taste of what it's like on the other side of the DMV," Nick observed with a wry smile.

"Morning, Nick!" The receptionist behind the front desk, an overweight cheetah, greeted sunnily, "Morning, Judy!"

"Good morning, Clawhauser!" Judy replied with a smile. As she did, a beeping came from Judy's pocket. Looking down in surprise, she fished her phone out of her pocket and looked at it, chuckling as she did. Looking over her shoulder, Nick saw Judy's phone displaying a picture of her and another rabbit.

A male one.

His eyes narrowing, Nick a slight step forward to get a better look. The picture showed Judy, looking a few years younger than she did now, taking a selfie as she kissed a male, brown furred rabbit on the cheek.

"Ooo, what's that?" Clawhauser cooed with curiosity as he looked over Judy's other shoulder.

"Just a picture that popped up on my social media," Judy answered with a small smile.

"Who's that guy?" Nick questioned, his tone neutral.

"Him?" Judy replied, glancing up at Nick and cocking an eyebrow, "He's just an old boyfriend from back home in Bunny Burrow."

"Ooo, old flame?" Clawhauser questioned with a big grin.

"Sort of," Judy replied with a shrug, "We didn't work out though. It happens."

"You were probably too much for a country bumpkin like him to handle," Nick commented with a shrug, prompting both Judy and Clawhuaser to turn their attentions towards him, "What?"

"You should be careful, Officer Wilde," Judy stated with a smirk, "That sounded like something dangerously close to a compliment."

"What can I say?" Nick replied with a casual shrug, "I like to live dangerously."

Judy chuckled and shook her head as she began walking away from the desk, putting her phone away as she did. Nick moved to follow her, but stopped as he noticed Clawhauser eyeing him with a large grin.

"What?" Nick questioned, looking at Clawhauser in confusion, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You like Judy," Clawhauser stated, pointing an accusatory finger at Nick as he spoke.

"Well, yeah," Nick replied, looking at Clawhauser like the cheetah was stupid, "She's my partner and friend."

"No, no, no," Clawhauser said quickly, waving one paw about in dismissal, "I mean that you're attracted to her."

Nick froze at the comment, his eyes going wide as a few hairs on his head and tail began to stand on end. In response, Clawhauser let out an excited gasp as he covered his mouth with both paws.

"You are!" Clawhauser whispered excitedly.

"I'm not!" Nick hissed, his ears going flat and his eyes narrowing as he glanced around.

"You are!" Clawhauser replied in a sing-song voice, punctuated with a giggle.

"I'm not!" Nick snapped, his voice echoing through the high-ceiling building, prompting everyone passing through the room to stop and glance over at him in confusion. Ducking his head in embarrassment, Nick glanced around at the people looking at him, including Clawhauser who seemed to be doing his best impression of the fox's own smug grin.

"Come on, Nick!" Judy called, tapping her foot against the floor impatiently as she looked back at the fox, "We need to get to the bullpen. Chief Bogo won't like it if we're late."

"Right," Nick replied bashfully before he walked over to Judy's side, "Lead the way, Carrots."

Judy rolled her eyes at him before the two began making their way across the room and down one of the side hallways. Eventually, they came to a room near the center of the building from which the sounds of energetic conversation emanated from. Entering it, they found a room set up similarly to a class room, with a series of tables and chairs, all sized for mammals larger than Nick and Judy, facing the front of the room, where a podium sat before a map of the city. The room was already full of Judy and Nick's fellow police officers, mostly made up of either predators like wolves, tigers and bears or large herd animals like elephants, rhinos and hippos. Making their way to the front of room, Nick and Judy found an empty seat at the front table and both hopped into it, the chair large enough to accommodate them both.

As soon as they were seated, another door leading into the room slammed open and a water buffalo dressed in a police uniform came marching into the room with a grim look on his face.

"Alright, alright, settle down," the water buffalo, Chief Bogo, commanded, causing the conversations between the officers to stop as everyone gave the mammal their full attention.

"No special announcements for today," Bogo stated, holding up a pile of files as he spoke, "So, I'll just get straight to handing out your assignments for the day."

Bogo proceeded to hand out various assignments to groups of officers, giving brief explanation of the cases as the officers walked to the front of the room to collect the files.

"Hopps, Wilde!" Bogo called, prompting Judy and Nick to hop out of their chair and make their way to the chief, "Got one here you might be interested in."

"Why's that, chief?" Judy questioned as she took the file from Bogo.

"Because it seems to involve Night Howlers," Bogo answered, a grim look on his face.

"Night Howlers?" Nick said in surprise before letting out a tired sigh as Judy quickly took the file and began flipping through the file, "You've got to be kidding me."

"Does it look like I'm joking, Wilde?" Bogo grumbled at Nick.

"I'm sorry, sir, I forgot you had your sense of humor surgically removed," Nick replied with a wry smile, earning a snort from Bogo as the fox turned his attention towards his partner, "So what is it? Savage predator attack?"

"No, a rhino actually," Judy replied while reading over the file, "Rocky Steadherd. Member of the Rawhide Bike Club. Any idea how he got infected, chief?"

"Yeah," Bogo answered gravely, "He did it to himself."

A silence so complete you could hear a pin dropped fell as Nick and Judy looked up at Bogo in shock.

"Excuse me?" Nick questioned quietly.

"Seems that somebody has figured out how to mix Night Howlers with Nip," Bogo explained, "They're calling it Primal. According to users, it makes you feel invincible."

"How invincible are we talking?" Nick inquired cautiously.

"McHorn was the arresting officer," Bojo elaborated, "Said he put three tranqs in the guy and still ended up with a broken arm."

"Three tranqs!?" Judy exclaimed, "Those are designed to take down an elephant!"

"You can imagine how McHorn felt," Bogo quipped.

"We have to get this stuff off the street," Judy said as she turned her attention back to the file.

"You let the detectives in Vice worry about that," Bogo replied, "What I need from you two is more immediate. Steadherd's dealer is still out there, dealing this poison. I want him stopped and I want to know who his supplier is. I need you two to bring him in."

"You can count on us, sir," Judy replied, snapping to attention and giving Bogo a salute, prompting Nick to do the same.

"Good, now get rolling," Bogo replied with a solemn nod before turning away from the partners and walked out of the room.

"Come on, Nick," Judy said, hitting the fox lightly on the arm to get his attention before heading out of the room as well, "We need to go get the cruiser."

"We'll probably want to know where we're going before we get the car," Nick pointed out as he fell into step next to Judy.

"The file has the transcript from Steadherd's interrogation after they arrested him," Judy said as she flipped to the appropriate page in the file, "The only thing they could get out of him was that he bought the Primal somewhere in Savannah Square."

"A whole sector of the city, huh?" Nick replied sardonically, "Boy, that narrows it down."

"I know," Judy stated with a sigh, "We can probably narrow it down further to somewhere near the bar where Steadherd was arrested. Here, there's a photo of the crime scene."

Looking over Judy's shoulders, Nick took in the sight of the picture depicting a cordoned off area outside a rough looking dive bar. As he looked, Nick's eyes suddenly widened in surprise as he spotted something before he took the file out of Judy's hands.

"What is it, Nick?" Judy asked in confusion, looking up at her partner as he took a closer look at the photo, "What do you see?"

"I see something better than a crappy bar," Nick answered with a grin as he held the photo up for Judy to see, pointing at a specific part of the image, "I see someone who will know exactly what we want to know."

Narrowing her eyes, Judy looked closely at the area of the photo that Nick was indicating to, but saw nothing but a pair of feet among the group of onlookers captured in the background of the picture.

"You can tell who that is by their feet?" Judy questioned dubiously.

"You kidding, Carrots?" Nick quipped as he shut the file and began making his way down the hall, prompting Judy to follow him, "I'd know those gum shoes anywhere."

Later,

The elevator opened on the fourth floor with a ding and Judy began walking down the hall of the office building. Reach a corner in the hall, she found the door she was looking for and stopped in front of it.

Before Judy was a simple wooden door with a frosted window set in it. The window gave a vague impression of what lay on the other side of the door and on its surface, etched in black lettering, were the words "Duckfield Detective Agency."

Judy reached out, turned the knob and stepped inside.

The office was a simple one, consisting of a wooden desk that faced the door with a swiveling chair situated on the other side of it, a row of windows set into the wall behind that. The rest of office was furnished with a few filing cabinets, two chairs on the opposite side of the desk and a small table on which a coffee maker sat, all designed for an animal roughly her size. A closed door in the wall to her left led into another room.

"Hello?" Judy called out, her purple eyes scanning the room.

"Sorry, just a minute!" a voice called from the other side of the door, "Is this the delivery? Because I've been waiting on those damn curtains for two weeks now!"

"Uhm, no, sir," Judy continued as she stepped into the office, " I'm Officer Judy Hopps with the ZPD. I wanted to ask you a few questions."

"Oh," the voice answered with a surprised tone before a long pause fell between the two, "Uh, like I said, I'll be out in a minute."

This was followed by the flush of a toilet and the sound of a faucet being turned on. Sighing slightly to herself, Judy crossed her arms and began impatiently tapping her foot against the floor. A moment later, a loud creaking sound came from behind them door, accompanied by a muttered expletive.

"Sir?" Judy said, taking a few steps towards the door while cocking a curious eyebrow, "Are you alright in there?"

"Y-Yep, I'm fine!" the voice replied, grunting with what sounded like exertion, "Don't worry about-agh!"

As the voice's words were cut off by a surprised shout followed by a metallic clang, Judy's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Sir, I'm coming in!" Judy announced, squaring herself before kicking the door near the knob, cracking the wood around it and causing the barrier to fly open. Before Judy was a small bathroom, no larger than a closet. Across from the door was a toilet while to her left was a sink, the spout still spewing water into the basin. To Judy's right, a window set into the wall sat wide open, the distinct sound of feet pounding against metal emanating from beyond.

"Hey!" Judy called as she rushed to the window, sticking her head through just in time to see a figure descending the fire escape on the other side.

"Stop!" Judy shouted as she pulled herself through the window and began rushing down the fire escape, the figure already a few floors below her.

The figure was breathing heavy as he reached the bottom of the fire escape, using the ladder at the end to descend to the ground of the back alley it led to. Before he could finish though, an empty soda can suddenly came flying through the air and hit the figure on the head, startling him and causing him to lose his grip on the ladder. Letting out a yelp of surprise, the figure plunged through the air before landing in an open trash can at the bottom of the ladder. The force of the landing caused the trash can to turn over and go rolling down the alley before it came to a stop as someone placed their foot against it.

Groaning in disorientation, the animal inside the trash can stuck his head out before his eyes managed to focus on Nick standing over him, smiling smugly.

"Morning, Howie," Nick greeted in return, lowering the sunglasses he wore so he could look the other animal in the eye, "Now, where are you off to in such a hurry?"

"Nick," the animal spat as he began pulling himself out of the trash can, "I'd heard you'd gone straight. Still not sure I believe it."

"It's the truth," Nick replied, pointing to the badge pinned to his chest as evidence.

"You've always had a funny way with the truth, Nick," the animal said as he started pulling himself to his feet, "So forgive me if I don't immediately trust you at your word."

"Fair enough," Nick replied with a shrug, his smug smile still plastered across his face, "But you can trust my actions. Like for instance, I could tell my partner that you have an unlicensed tranq gun in your office. She's a very by the book type and I'm sure she'd love to have a reason to drag you down to the precinct after the stunt you just pulled. A few hours in lock-up will probably show you how truthful I'm being."

"Alright, alright, eesh, don't get your tail in a twist," the animal complained as he started to dust himself off, "So, that was your partner who came into my office?"

"Yeah, and I think she has a few questions for you," Nick replied, turning his attention towards the fire escape as Judy finished climbing down the ladder and hopped to the ground.

"He give you any trouble?" Judy questioned as she jogged over to Nick.

"No way, Carrots," Nick replied with a shake of his head, "Easy as pie, just like I told you."

Turning towards the other animal, Judy was able to take him in for the first time. To her surprise, the animal was not a mammal at all but a bird, a duck by her estimation. He stood roughly as tall as Nick, his body covered in white feathers save for his flat, orange beak and his similarly colored legs and webbed feet. He was dressed in a three-piece burgundy suit with his short tail sticking out of his pants. He also had a hat to go with the suit, which he was currently picking trash off of.

"Oh, right, let me make introductions," Nick said with a chuckle, "Howie, meet Judy Hopps, my partner. Carrots, meet Howard Duckfield, private investigator."

"Charmed," Howard replied as he placed his hat on his head, his expression anything but.

"What's a duck doing in Zootopia working as a PI?" Judy questioned in confusion.

"What's a bunny doing working as a police officer?" Howard snapped back, his blue eyes narrowing at Judy, "You're a little far from the farm, aren't you, sweetheart?"

Judy glared at Howard, her hands tightening into fists as she moved to approach the duck, only for Nick to place a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Now, now, Carrots," Nick said with a chiding but friendly tone, "We need to ask him questions, remember?"

Judy shot Nick an angry look before taking a deep breath and easing herself back, crossing her arms as she turned back to Howard.

"Well, if you've got questions, I suppose it be easier if we did this in my office," Howard stated as he turned to make his way out of the alley.

"It would have been quicker if you hadn't run from me," Judy pointed out as she and Nick followed Howard.

"Look, toots," Howard said, stopping and turning to look back at Judy, "You stay in this game as long as I have, and you'll find out that not everyone with a badge is exactly an upstanding citizen. I'm pretty sure you ran into a situation like that pretty recently, didn't you?"

Judy's mind flashed back to the ram officers who had assaulted her and Nick before a realization struck her.

"Hey, how'd you know that?" Judy questioned as they continued walking.

"I read the paper," Howard replied with a snort, "It doesn't take a detective to realize there's only one bunny on the force, Officer Hopps. Now, how about we keep the questions to ourselves until we get to my office?"

Judy glared at Howard's back as he led Nick and her through the building's front door.

"I don't like him," Judy muttered to Nick.

"He's just a little grouchy right now," Nick replied with a shrug, "Trust me, he's a friend of mine."

"Which is probably why I don't like him," Judy grumbled, earning a snort of amusement from Nick.

"Trust me, we're lucky," Nick continued as they made their way into the building, "We could have run into someone who wants me dead."

A/N: What's this? Another new story? Yep, I've been taking some time to put down some ideas I've had in my head for awhile. Or, for this one, a few weeks or so. None the less, I hope you guys like it! Also, it should be mentioned that the idea for Nip (as in catnip) as a drug came from the story, Zootopia: At Our Core. Go give it a read! As always, feedback and critiques are always welcome, so please review! Later!