Chapter 1: Welcome to zootopia...

Entry 1

It's been a while since I wrote and I lost my old journal so I'll start again. I am Marcus Greenfield, I was part of a British security force that was assigned to protect a multinational arctic expedition team. Before I joined the security force, I was a soldier a British tank crewman and I served in Iraq when I was 20 as a part of the 7th armored birgade under the command of General Adrian Bradshaw. I was the gunner in a challenger 2 tank. My tank commander was Phillips Dorchester, the loader was Tomas Hairring, and the driver was Percy Phillips. I joined back in 2003 and served until 2004 when I took some shrapnel to my leg when my convoy was ambushed. I did go back home to my cooking career but I stayed on reserves. On this expedition, I was issued an sa80 on me as well as a m9 beretta but I did manage to sneak two frag grenades with me. I was never briefed on what we were supposed to find, all we knew was that something was broadcasting a strange signal in the arctic circle and we had to protect the research team. We were out there for a good 14 days trying to pin down that signal. There were 20 of us, 8 were researchers, 4 were American soldiers, 4 British soldiers, and 4 french soldiers. Most of the soldiers thought it was aliens, however, the scientists believed it was due to an anomaly in the magnetosphere. During a blizzard, I got separated from the unit and I had to hide in a cave. That's when I noticed some sort of glowing crystal at the end of the cave that was giving off an extreme amount of heat. When I attempted to approach it, shocked me extremely hard and it knocked me out. When I woke up, I was in the middle of a white room, chained to a bed. The strangest part was the fact that I had become a red fox. Apparently, I fizzled into the ZBI building in the middle of Zootropolis or Zootopia from what the yanks called it, with all my equipment. Needless to say, they were really freaked out by me coming in out of the blue.

I remembered watching Zootropolis when it came out, it was a pretty good movie. They questioned me for days on end but eventually they began to realize I wasn't supposed to be there, nor was I an actual threat. Eventually, they let me go, I was given an identity, background, they gave me back all my weapons, gear and set up place to stay for me. Apparently, they don't have lethal firearms here and the best thing they got are tranquilizers and tasers. In turn, I would join the ZPD to contribute to society as well as preform special tasks for them. Not as bad as I thought it would be considering the fact that I'm basically one of them. I've already gone through training, graduated and became the first fox police officer of Zootopia which goes to show I'm at the beginning of the movie. Today is my first day of work as precinct one. Good luck me.

Also, fuck me, I'm starting to write and sound more like a yank. Mother was right, I am becoming an American. At least I haven't called football soccer... Yet.

I put my notebook back into my satchel as I sat in the crowded briefing room, there were wolves, hippos, tigers and loads of other mammals. It's not at all like home where everyone just sat down quietly and waited for the major to brief us. Then, she came in. Judy Hopps, I remember her from the movie and we were in the same class. We never talked, though I knew she was uncomfortable around me, her eyes had that glint of fear that I knew all too well. She walked to the table across from mine and sat down next to a rhino. I was sitting next to a polar bear and 2 wolves. Suddenly, the hippo in the front of the room shouted for our attention and we all stood. The mammals around me, except for Judy, began to hoot loudly as the chief entered. "Alright. Alright! Everybody sit."

The chief stepped behind the podium before he continued, "I've got three items on the docket. First... we need to acknowledge the elephant in the room..."

The whole room seemed to freeze as the chief looked up from his papers, "Francine- happy birthday."

The room briefly erupted into a cacophony of shouts and cheers as they began to praise their fellow officer. The room fell silent again before the chief continued. "Number two; there are some new recruits with us I should introduce, but I'm not going to because I don't care."

Everyone briefly snickered and I joined in. The chief straightened out his papers before he began to read off them again. "Finally; we have fourteen missing mammal cases- all predators - from a giant polar bear to a teensy little otter, and City hall is right up my tail to find them! This is priority number one. Assignments: Officers Grizzoli, Fangmeyer, Delgato; your teams take missing mammals from the Rainforest District."

The three officers walked up to the front of the room and took their file. "Officers McHorn, Rhinowitz, Wolfard; your teams take Sahara Square."

Another three went up and took their file. "Officers Higgins, Snarlov, Trunkaby: Tundratown."

Now it was just Judy and I waiting in the room for our assignments. "And finally our first bunny and fox officers: Officers Hopps and Greenfield...parking duty. Dismissed!"

"Yes sir!"

He stepped of the podium and headed for the door and I followed him out. As I walked down the hall way, Judy ran up to me with a confused look on her face. "Wait, wait, wait. You're just going to agree, just like that? You and I did great at the academy, we passed all the tests, we were qualified! You're just going to give up like that?"

She was very distressed and anxious as she followed me to the locker rooms. Great, it's just like the greenhorns back home. Alright, time for the standard get off my back explanation. "Yes, this is just the hazing process, everyone goes through this, it's just to make sure we aren't spastics in the field."

Judy looked at me in disbelief, shocked that I wasn't disturbed by this dilemma at all. "But still, there were fourteen cases, we could have taken one of them."

I shrugged at her and sighed. "True, but we haven't been here long enough I guess. They don't want an overconfident rookie tarnishing the credibility and reliability of the department. If we work long and hard enough, they might let us take on a case in the future."

I turned right and went into the male locker room leaving Judy behind. I opened my locker, placed my bag inside and grabbed the meter maid vest. Meter maid, what a dumb name, I can't think of anything better but still, there has got to be another way to name us. God, I hope I won't be stuck like this forever. I strapped on the vest, went out to the parking lot and got in that sorry excuse for a car. Screw that hat, it's looks like a cap a pompous asshole would wear. Either that or something one of the officers would wear back home. I have no respect for those men.

2 hours later

I have only issued about 40 tickets now and it's almost noon. It makes me look bad but at least I know I'm not some huge overzealous twat. Suddenly I heard a loud horn sound off from across the street. I turned to the right and saw a fox scurry past a truck that was being driven by a sheep. Oh right, her. Strange enough, the Nick in this universe happens to be a vixen, named Nichole. Not what I expected, but I did make acquaintances with her. Sometimes we go out to the bar and watch the footie games. Others we would just walk about and talk. Finnick wasn't too keen on having me around though, he was always afraid I would turn them over to the law, despite Nichole's efforts to calm him. I quickly crossed the street and entered the ice cream shop. I stepped in and I saw Nichole and Finnick in line to get ice cream. Finnick, who was wearing that little elephant, turned around to look at me. I gave him a little salute and he turned around when the ice cream guy glared at Nichole. "Listen, I don't know what you're doing skulking around during daylight hours, but I don't want any trouble in here, so hit the road!"

Nichole cringed at the elephant's words before he mustered up the courage to speak again. "I'm not looking for any trouble either, sir. I simply wanna buy a Jumbo-pop for my little boy. You want the red or the blue, pal?"

"Okay, come on, kid, back up. Listen, fox,aren't there any fox ice cream joints in your part of town?"

Nichole back up but she immediately stood back up to the elephant. "Uh, no-no. There are, there are. It's just, my boy, this goofy little stinker, he loves all things elephant, he wants to be one when he grows up. Is that adorable?"

The fennec in front lifted the costume over his head and gave a little toot toot to emphasize her point. "Who the heck am I to crush his little dreams, huh? Right?"

The elephant gave them a dead look before he grabbed a sign that read we reserve the right to refuse service. "Look, you probably can't read, fox, but the sign says we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, so beat it!"

He emphasized the words by slamming the sign down on the counter. Finnick made a crying noise with his weird tooting thing. Now, I was going to intervene, time to get my act on. I cleared my throat. "Excuse me sir, may I have your attention please?"

The elephant looked up from the two and glared at me. "Hey wait your turn fox, no one's going to give you the right to walk all over us just because you've got a new costume."

I flashed him my badge before I continued. "That's officer to you, and whether or not you believe I'm a officer that doesn't change the fact that you're serving your customers ice cream that's contaminated with mucus and trunk hair."

I heard the sound of an elephant spitting out their ice cream as I continued to look at the store owner with a smug expression as everyone around me seemed to pause and look at me. Nichole smiled and nodded. "Now, as I'm sure, with my police training, that scooping ice cream with an un-gloved trunk is class 3 health code violation. Not my problem because I'm not eating your ice cream but I'm sure you'll have to answer a few questions when your customers start getting sick."

By now, the elephant was staring at me with his mouth partially opened. His partner has already ditched him, the customers were watching me. "So, here are your options, I could tell the health department that you're giving this gross ice cream to your patrons, or you could glove those trunks and oh I don't know, give this vixen and her kit a red jumbo pop."

The elephant stared at me for a few seconds before sighing in defeat. "Fifteen dollars."

Nick perked her ears up and smiled. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

She gave me a bone crushing and she began to rub her face on my chest. Then pulled out her wallet and handed the cashier fifteen dollars

I opened the door for the pair as Nick carried out the giant popsicle that was twice her size. She turned to me and gave me a wide smile. "Oh thank you officer, I don't know how I'm going to thank you. My names Nichole Wilde by the way officer..."

"Alright, Nichole, no need for theatrics."

"Aww, your no fun."

"Sorry Nichole, but I'm a workin fox now. Got places to be and things to do."

Finnick lifted his mask and pulled out his pacifier and spoke and a hushed shout. "Nichole, hurry up, we don't got all day!"

"Oh fine. Hey, meet you at the bar right?"

I gave her a small salute. "Same one same time?"

"You know it."

I would have gone to go about following Nichole and Finnick in their little operation but I would have to go out of my way to do so and I have a quota to keep. It was almost the end of my lunch break and I was just finishing up a tuna sandwich I had bought from a nearby cafe. I was on the same street where Nichole and Finnick were splitting their money behind a car on the other side of the road. I heard Finnick's voice. "Hurry up, that cop could come around any second now."

"Come on Finnick, he ain't so bad."

I heard Nichole fork over the last bit of money to Finnick. " Yea yea, give me my money. I'm out of here."

Damn, that guy really doesn't like me. I wanted talk to them but I knew I had to restrain myself so I held off contacting the two again. Finnick then opened the door to his van, started the engine and drove off. The sound of rap getting softer was my signal to move. As the van drove down the street, Nichole stared after him. Nichole had a half eaten pawpsicle in right paw and her other paw in her pocket. I stepped out from behind the car and approached her. "Hello dear. Nice to see you again."

She yipped loudly before she took a look at me. "Marcus, don't scare me like that!"

I stood up and joined her on the sidewalk. "Sorry... Hey, you didn't save any for me?"

She laughed a bit. "Sorry Marcus, but those hamsters really wanted popsicles today, How could I resist and extra two dollars?"

"Drat. Well, how were your sales today?"

"Same as last time."

"Right, I'm not surprised. Those hamsters at lemming brothers buy your pawpsicles like hotcakes."

"Yea, well, I'll save you one next time. For a price of course."

"What, but can't you provide me with a discount. I'm your best friend after all."

"Are you sure, how would you know it's not Finnick?"

"Because you love me?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Haha, yea. Say, have you seen a little gray rabbit about also on parking duty."

"Oh, you mean that Judy Hopps doe you mentioned. Maybe, what's it to you?"

"Have you seen her at all today. I want to know how she is holding up."

"Should I include the part where she was running away from a giant mob of mammals?"

Oh dear, I need to hear this story. I took a look at my wrist watch. It was almost the end of my lunch break. Damn, I wish I could stay a little longer. "Maybe later, tell me at the bar tonight and I'll get you a drink."

"Sounds good to me."

7:49

I was in the locker room of the station. I was changing back into my normal clothes. Blue jeans, a white t-shirt and my digital green camo expedition coat. I stepped out of the locker rooms and turned right back to the front entrance. Oh god, what is that smell? Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder. When I turned around, I saw Judy with a downtrodden expression and her ears were folded back. "Hey, you alright?"

She signed and shrugged. "Kind of, just wondering, did anyone harass you today, in any way?"

I looked to her with a sympathetic expression "Let me guess, you went overboard with the tickets?"

She nodded her head. "Yea. There were a lot of mammals that were angry at me and I even had to hide in a dumpster at one point to get away from them. But that's not important, what happened to you."

Ahhh, that explains the sudden scent of rancid garbage. I sighed. "Sorry to hear that Judy, but if you must know, I only got a few complaints from some overdue parkers but other than that it's been alright."

Judy let out a forced chuckle. "Oh, well okay... See you tomorrow I guess."

With that, she turned around and left me behind as she began to jog towards the entrance. I passed by the front desk and I saw Clawhauser sitting at the desk playing with his phone. Before I could get past him, he lifted his head up and saw me. "Hey you, Greenfield right?"

I turned to him. "Yea, your Clawhauser right?"

He seemed to perk up at my statement "Yep! Say I didn't see you this morning..."

I feigned a moment of thought. "Oh yea, I kind of sped past you before you could see me. It's not that I'm racist or that I hate fat mammals, I was just running late this morning."

"Oh, it's okay, I fully understand."

Then I remembered that in the movie, Judy wasn't registered into the police systems which made me question if I was. "Say, am I registered into the police system?"

Clawhauser typed something into his computer before he locked back up at me. "Noooo, not yet."

I scratched the back of my neck. "Does this mean the tickets I issued today are going to be thrown out or something because technically I'm not an actual officer?"

Clawhauser froze up at that statement, unsure what to say. "Well, can you get me registered by tomorrow."

He snapped out of his stupor and continued. "Oh, of course, I'll send a request down to the MR department. It usually takes them about four to five hours to register a new mammal. I don't know why they haven't registered you yet."

I smiled at his words. "Thanks pal."

I turned around before and ran out the door so I could take the metro to the west side of downtown.

I entered Richard's bar to the familiar smell of booze and cooked meals. It was a quiet day for him, especially since it wasn't sporting season. It was quiet, a few patrons here and there, a band playing some tunes and various games like darts and chess. The bar looked like the pub I went to back home, minus all the stuffed animal heads and other British decor. Also, I couldn't order any of my favorite dishes like mutton or a shepherd's pie. Instead, it's bloody fish and chips or bugs. The lynx, who was bartender and the owner of the establishment, was a bloke named Sterling Richards. He didn't mind the presence of foxes in his bar so long as nobody tried to put any drinks on a tab that wasn't prepaid for. "Hey Sterling, mind hitting me up with the usual?"

"You got it."

I sat down at the bar and Sterling gave me my usual drink, a lager. I preferred lagers over an ale because of the taste but I could always drink an ale. I took a sip. It wasn't at all like the beers back home though. Something about them was a little different. Perhaps it was the taste, maybe it was the brand, or perhaps it was just me and my bias to foreign beers. Then, I felt someone come up behind me and cover me eyes. Though I couldn't see, I could instantly smell that it was Nichole. "Hello love, bout time you showed up."

"Awww, that's so sweet of you. Thank you for buying a drink for me."

I pulled her paw off my faced and looked down to see Nichole had taken my lager. Damn, she is good. She sat beside me and smiled. Well, time to catch up on that story Nichole was going to tell me. "Sooooo, Nichole, about the story of Judy. What happened to her."

"Well, I don't know, why don't you buy me a martini first. I hate the taste of beer."

"Alright. Hey, Richard, why don't you give the little lady here a martini. And, while your at it, can I get a plate of fish and chips?"

"You got it."

"Thanks."

While he went off to prepare a drink and a meal, Nichole gave me back my drink. "So, Nichole, why don't you tell me about what happened to Judy?"

"Oh, alright. Well, I first noticed her when I was melting down the popsicle in the square. I saw she was spying on Finnick and me but I didn't really think about it because she was a rabbit after all."

"That's a bit specieist."

"Oh be quiet. So, as I was saying, I noticed her following us around-Oh thank you."

She took the martini from Richard who nodded and continued to serve the other patrons. "So, she followed us the entire way, from the square to tundra town, the bank and little rodentia. So, after you left me in that alley, that rabbit came by and confronted me about my business venture."

"And?"

"She started going off about how immoral my actions were and that what I was doing was illegal, how I didn't have a permit or a vendors license. And even when I flashed her those documents, she still kept going off on me with morals and other stuff so I led her into a street she had been through. And, surprise surprise, there were about twenty mammals there who were really angry at her. They started to yell at her and she just kept trying to justify her actions. While this was happening, I managed to sneak away while the mob chased her."

"Bloody hell Nichole, you keep this behavior up and I'll start thinking I did this to you. She did end up hiding in a dumpster after you left."

She laughed before she managed to calm down and catch her breath. "Ah, who cares. She's way to over her head."

"Come on Nichole, that sort of stuff can do something to a rookies head."

"Naaah, she'll just roll over and give up. A doe like her wouldn't last a month."

"You never know. She's a little to bright eyed to just give up like that. Oh hey, our food is here. Thanks Richard."

"No problem. Put this on your tab?"

"Yep."

He set down a plate of fish and chips between us as well as a bottle of ketchup and tartar sauce. I always liked a chippie, I just hated the mashed peas that sometimes came with it. And even if there isn't any extra salt or malt vinegar to go with it, ketchup will do. Nichole however, like that tartar sauce more. We split the meal and watched the sitcom, F.U.R.E.N.D.S that was playing on television which was a parody of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. How strange.

Hey, I took a look at the damn thing and realized. Oh shit, I this guy is so inconsistent in character, why did I create this fanfic. I wanted to re-write the story completely so that the main character would be a female lynx and everyone else would be the same but then I realized I didn't like that either. I changed this chapter of the fanfic so Nichole would be less like a whoreish lap dog and Marcus wouldn't be a creepy horn dog because I felt like I was ripping off albine fox's striped up characters. At least in the earlier parts of his story. And I wanted to give them some connection rather then have Nichole latch onto him the second she saw him. I've re-written the rest of the fanfic.