It had been a normal day - hanging out with Clawhauser at the reception desk and bitching about the corporate lifestyle - when something in her usual complaints about not being given the chance to measure up to the larger mammals in Knight Elephant and to show she was more than a PR stunt had caused him to look at her askance, then invited her to join him for a couple drinks after work. When she had shown up, half expecting to be hit on, he had taken her into a secluded corner booth and asked her her opinion on cybernetics. She had replied that the only thing keeping her from that option was that in KE, cybernetics came with a lot of fine print that locked you into a near-lifetime exclusive contract with them, as well as a repayment scheme that seemed design to keep someone in permanent debt to the company. Then Clawhauser had told him her secret.

Before she had come to work at KE and gotten to know the lithe but lazy animal she knew as Clawhauser, he had apparently been so fat he was practically spherical - he had shown her some pictures on his commlink to prove it. When he had failed a physical and given a deadline to get in shape or be fired with cause and no references, he had gotten in touch with a friend of a friend of a friend and gotten a little off-the-books enhancement. She had listened with mounting horror as he described the large, slug-like creature that had been designed and grown to his specifications and implanted in his stomach, that happily guzzled every scrap of food past a certain point to keep him able to keep to his current weight no matter how much he ate. Then, thankfully, he had gone on to describe a much less disgusting procedure - an increase in the strength and flexibility in his diaphragm, which increased the tidal volume of his lungs threefold. In this way he had eliminated his problems with running out of breath when forced to run, and was then able to pass that portion of his physical.

"It also came in handy in other areas," he had said with a waggle of his eyebrows, and Judy had rolled her eyes with a tolerant smile.

So she had called the commlink number he had given her, and now found herself loitering by the edge of a busy road on the first day of the week off she had taken, trying not to look suspicious.

Judy jumped in, and the van's side door slammed shut behind her as it drove back into the busy morning traffic, all outside sounds blocked out in an instant after the door latched closed. She grasped the door's handle for balance as she got her bearings, taking in the sight before her.

She had expected blood and rusty tools, perhaps even a dangling, flickering fluorescent light. But the setting before her looked very far from the stereotypical street doc's dodgy mobile operating theater she had imagined. The operating table was all gleaming steel, built to accommodate creatures much larger than herself, and innumerable dangling gadgets swayed gently above it from the van's motion. And sitting down in a comfortable straight-backed leather chair was the mammal she had spoken to over the phone: Dr Nicholas Wilde, Ph.D., D.A. (Hon), UDC. She had no idea what those letters meant, but it sounded impressive.

She had seen foxes before, of course, normally slinking around the edges of the Pupallup Barrens, constantly on edge and looking for an opportunity to dart forward and grab something or a reason to flee into the ruins. This fox was the complete opposite to that. Entirely at ease, and comfortably dressed in a loose palm-tree print t-shirt, he looked almost civilized. If she passed him on the street, it would barely even occur to her to demand his SIN and pat him down for contraband.

"Officer Hopps, I presume? Please, take a seat."

Behind her, a fold-out seat had emerged from the wall. She gingerly lowered herself into it. "Um, yes, Doctor. I spoke to you on the phone?"

"Please, call me Nick. And yes, you were looking for an edge over your colleagues."

"I don't want an edge, exactly, I just- well-"

"No need to explain. I bet it would be tough enough to be a bunny cop before metatypes and mages unbalanced things further. I take it you're entirely standard, then?"

"Yes. Complete pre-emergence typical." She tried, and failed, to keep the bitterness out of her voice, as she had a hundred times before.

"Well, we can change the 'typical' part, I think." Nick handed her a small handheld device that was projecting a holographic catalog. "You probably already have some idea what you want, but please take a moment to go through the options. Some of what we offer isn't available at your local While-U-Wait bionics kiosk."

Judy nodded and started to go through the pages, glancing at each of the options at first and then looking closer as she stopped being able to recognize the options. She had been thinking improved reflexes to increase her natural speed even further and maybe some cybereyes so she could run mammals' records without having to look away from them to consult a peripheral device, but some of these options made her practically salivate at the possibilities. An implanted taser so she could incapacitate with a touch? An implanted gland with some alterations to her mouth so she could exhale neuro-stun? An internal autoinjector so she could flood her system with combat drugs at a thought? Entirely new senses so she could see with thermal vision or radar or echolocation?

"Feel free to speak up if you have any questions," the fox said, shaking her out of her fascination.

She bit her lip as she flicked through the catalogue, practically drowning in options. "Do you have any recommendations?"

The fox cocked his head at her, a distant look crossing his eye for a moment before he answered. "Most of our customers have a demand for very short bursts of violence, but I get the feeling that you would require something a bit more prolonged." He waved his paw in a complicated gesture, and the catalogue rearranged itself. "The first priority would be reaction times. By adding a series of implants throughout your nervous system we can effectively increase your speed twofold with the base model, as well as increasing your reaction times." She eyed the entry in the catalogue thoughtfully, concealing her wince at the cost.

"Second priority would normally be for something to help you withstand damage - orthoskin or bone lacing or similar - but with your size, physics is your enemy. No matter what we add to you, you don't have the mass to take a hit from some of the creatures out there. So we need to consider how to avoid you getting hit in the first place. For that, you need to be able to spot threats before they become threats. A radar sensor implanted in your cranium, projecting ultrawideband and terahertz radar in short stepped-frequency pulses, would allow you to detect cyberware and weapons on mammals from up to fifteen meters, as well as giving you the ability to map your surroundings even through walls - useful for a patrolling officer that may find themselves in unfamiliar surrounds, don't you think?" She nodded, watching the little demonstration that played on the catalogue. Walls rendered transparent, concealed weapons visible as darker blotches on someone's silhouette, all overlaid on top of normal vision.

"Third, now that you can react quickly to danger you can spot, is to deal with that danger. As a rabbit I've no doubt you're already fairly agile, but if you can increase that you can improve both your ranged and hand-to-hand combat abilities, as well as your ability to avoid danger." Two implants, side-by-side, appeared at the bottom of the catalogue. "The first possibility is the cheaper of the two, but most balk at it - understandably so, in my opinion. By replacing every single muscle in your body with synthetic replacements, we can increase your strength and agility for a reasonable price. But it is very invasive. The other option is to incorporate vat-grown biological fibers into your existing muscle tissue, thereby increasing your muscle tension and flexibility. From the biometric stats you sent us, the base model would increase your current agility by 20%. It is also compatible with similar treatments to increase strength in the future, if you'd be interested."

Judy bit her lip thoughtfully, doing some mental arithmetic. She could afford maybe two of those options without trouble, but all three would be a problem. "Are there cheaper options that have the same effect?"

Nick shook his head. "I'm sure, officer, that you aren't suggesting that law-abiding citizens such as myself would deal in second-hand cybernetics." Judy winced. She was sure that he did, but she was equally sure he would never admit it to a KE officer he had only just met. "However, I think we can work on a discount if you'd be willing to make a few concessions." The fox's eyes gleamed, and for the first time Judy felt truly nervous about this. "A friend in Knight Elephant is a useful friend to have, after all. And if you'd be willing to moonlight with some little jobs here and there in your off hours, your existing expertise and these mods could let you erode your debt very quickly indeed." With another wave of his paw, the holographic catalogue she was 'holding' shimmered, and the prices were knocked down significantly to what must have been nearly cost.

Judy considered for a long moment, and the silence stretched between them. She had crunched the numbers a dozen times, and between her current savings, the line of credit she could take from her bank, and her future paychecks, she could just about afford some of the cheaper mods without putting herself in dangerous levels of debt. She had toyed with the idea of gambling on putting herself as deep in debt as possible and hoping that the more advanced mods would let her earn bonuses or promotions at work and thus pull herself out of financial danger, but had written it off as too risky. But if she took this fox's offer, she could afford all of those mods, plus a few others, with her existing funds and just a small line of credit.

It was dangerous, of course. To put herself in the debt of this unknown fox was a risk. But then again, to move to Zootopia in the first place was a risk. She could have just stayed at home and eked a living out of the soil like the rest of her family. But she had set her sights higher, and she wasn't about to back down now.

"I accept your offer. But if you'll return the catalogue to standard, I have a few other additions I'd like you to make..."

After the bunny had made up her mind, Nick had handed her a celebratory glass of champagne and told her it was spiked with general aesthetic to put her out for the operation. She had taken a deep breath, raised the glass in a toast to him, and drunk the entire glass in a single gulp. Moments later, she was sprawled out on the chair, the glass falling to the floor of the van where Nick scooped it up and tucked it back away in the drinks compartment.

"And she's out. You there, Honey?"

A slightly distorted voice sounded from a speaker mounted above the table. "Always, Nick. That word-a-day calendar must be paying off for you, you barely sounded like yourself there."

"Well, these corporate types expect some fancy talker as the doc. Gotta play into their expectations. Thanks for sending me the data to give her, by the way." He took the rabbit in his arms and lifted her onto the table, where the remote-controlled mechanical arms had unfolded themselves and had started to flex their 'hands' expectantly. "If they learned I was just the nurse and the actual doctor was a rigger working out of a Pupallup bunker, they'd be a lot less willing to do business."

"SINners." The voice scoffed, and Nick nodded in agreement before turning towards the driver.

"Finnick, take us by our supplier in Leverett. This bunny has exotic tastes, and we don't have some of this stuff in stock."

"Sure thing, Nick."

"Alright." Nick leaned over the unconscious rabbit and started to undo the buttons on her shirt. "Let's make us a superbunny. If all goes well, she might end up our hitter, so let's not fuck this up."