Ch1 Not what is expected

I've seen several Ship fics since the movie came about, but I wanted to do something different. As many of you may know there was another plot to this movie with Nick as the main character where all the predators wore electric collars to keep their aggressive instincts subdued. Well, I want to tell that story as I think it might have played out. Anyway, hope you might enjoy.

Zootopia is a vast brimming metropolis where all animals can live in peace. The city is made up of sectors that give each animal his or her own element to reside in, from a frozen wasteland to tropical rainforest. In the very center is the main city where all animals can come together. It is here where the city becomes one and here where life is meant to be amazing. At least, that is what everyone wants to believe.

In downtown Zootopia where the buildings are not as beautiful and the streets grimier, there is a fox standing on a street corner fingering the leather strap that is secured around his neck. The collar he has been forced to wear since his fifth birthday has become increasingly itchy on the warm summers day. This city is split between predators and prey. Predators like himself have been forced to wear these horrible leather collars. They were to make sure predators wouldn't fall back on their instincts and start killing prey and throw off the precious peace of Zootopia. Any predator found without one is arrested and shipped off to a facility that most predators are terrified of because no one knows what happens to those who go there. The collar has been around since the Fox has a memory and as he satisfies his itch he smooths his Hawaiian shirt and straightens his tie as he sees a van driving down the street and come to a halt in front of him. The window rolls down and a very tiny Fox pops his head out the window his huge sunglasses slipped down so his eyes peek over the top of them.

"Hey Finnick, what's up," The red fox says a huge smile on his face as he throws his hand out for a handshake.

Finnick doesn't return the handshake but motions for the Fox to get in the van. "Hurry up Nick, we've got a job to do," He says as he pushes his sunglasses back on and turns his music up waiting for his companion to get in.

Nick walks around the front of the van and pulls open the door and hops in. Looking over at Finnick he can see the small fox wearing a ridiculous baby elephant outfit. "The popsicle job," He asks.

"Yeah," Finnick responds without looking over as he throws the van into gear and they speed off into the upper parts of Zootopia where they hope to pull a job and make a bit of money that day. Along the way Nick keeps his eyes focused on the passing buildings when they come to a stop at a red light and a large T.V store has all their televisions set to news channels and he sees a bunch of missing mammal cases. Each one was a predator and no one knows where they went, but Nick knew better than that. All the time a predator will go missing and the authorities will find their collar torn off and the animal completely was gone. All predators suspected that the government had been picking off predators and dragging them away to whatever facility they take predators that break the law. It seemed that these cases were different cause the collars were never found. Nick always wondered why they didn't just use the chips in the collars to find the missing animals, but even that seemed to have a cover up since the authorities said it's a possibility the collars were tampered with. Nick knew it was a bunch of elephant dung, but he couldn't do anything about it so he usually kept his mind on the current job.

Today's job with Finnick took him to an elephant ice-cream shop. As the drove up to the shop, they parked around the corner and Finnick threw his glasses on the dash and pulled the hood of the stupid outfit up, an elephant head with a trunk, and Nick made sure it looked convincing. "Yeah it looks stupid, but everyone will think you're a kid so don't worry too much about it," Nick said adding the last part quickly when Finnick gave him a very sour look.

"Yeah I bet you'd be on your tail laughing if I wore this crap around for the heck of it eh," he said cracking his neck and pulling at his own collar "Gah wish it didn't catch on this thing."

Nick chuckled but he remembered a long time ago when he was young. Even then the collars were mandatory for even the youngest. Well, all except babies and toddlers. When you turn five you have to get the collar and every year after that you go into a special government building a lot like a hospital to get it replaced and updated. All the bigotry around predators centered on these collars. The predators that rose above the bigotry held some pretty powerful positions in the government. Their own mayor was a predator, but they all knew he was just a puppet.

Nicks train of thought derails as Finnick clears his throat "let's go, man I ain't gonna wear this all day," and with that, he slips out of the van and waits impatiently for Nick. Nick slips out of the van and with Finnick beside him he slips in-between larger animals that are trotting down the sidewalk and he quickly slides into the ice-cream parlor with Finnick. They step in line and wait behind several elephants that quickly get their ice-cream and sit down. When it is their turn Nick looks up at the elephant behind the counter and smiles.

"What do you want Fox," the elephant emphasize that last word with a little contempt.

Nick gives a fake nervous chuckle "Well sir you see it's my son's birthday and he really wants to get some ice-cream," Nick says then to Finnick he says "well son what kind of treat do ya want?" Finnick stumbles up to the glass and points to a large picture of a cheery flavored ice pop. Nick smiles "can I get one of those?" he asks.

The elephant laughs coldly "No, get out fox," He says and after Nick doesn't budge he points his trunk at a sign sitting on the counter "Do you see this. It says I have every right to refuse service to anyone now beat it."

Nick opens his mouth to retort, but to his pleasant surprise, a voice chimes in before he can say anything. "Sir I'm sorry, but as you can see I'm a cop." Nick turns to see who came to his aid and keeping his surprise at seeing a little bunny walking up to the counter he suppresses a chuckle. "I'd love if you could kindly help this man and his child."

"And why should I do that bunny," The elephant says glaring down at her

"Well I mean I guess your clients wouldn't like to know they're getting snot in their ice-cream," She says and instantly all the customers spit out the ice-cream they are eating. "I'm sure you well know that it's illegal to serve food with ungloved trunks, and seeing as I'm a cop I could easily write you up for health violations." The elephant gives a rather audible gulp as the bunny continues talking "I could just let you off with a warning…if you would serve this customer."

Nick is actually speechless at how well this bunny handled this situation and admires her ability with words. After a second, he clears his throat and looks up at the elephant with an expecting look. The elephant sighs "fine the jumbo pop is twenty-five dollars," he says and holds his trunk out for the money.

Nick is about to pull out his wallet when he remembers the bunny standing there and smiling inwards he pretends to pat his pockets and then groans "Oh no come on," He says and puts his paw to his forehead looking defeated "I'm so sorry but I forgot my wallet at home."

"Now you can get out," The elephant says but just as Nick expected the bunny had pulled out the money and hops up and slaps it on the counter. Minutes later Nick is hoisting the huge jumbo pop out of the parlor with Finnick and the bunny in tow. As the three of them step out onto the sidewalk nick turns to the bunny. "Thank you so much I'm sorry, I can't repay you right now," He says with his very skilled fake sorrow voice.

"Don't worry Mr...Uh?"

"Call me Nick," He tells her "You?"

"My name is Judy Hopps," She says smiling and looking down at Finnick "Not much of a talker is he."

"No he doesn't like to say much, but anyway have a good day ok." He says and hoisting the Popsicle onto one shoulder and shakes the bunny cop's hand and then he and Finnick set to work as they walk back to the van. The van has a large freezer in the back of it and they stow the popsicle in it then drive into the hottest biome of the city and pulling the pop out they melt it down into several large buckets and with those buckets they drive to the arctic biome and chose a large area with flat snow where Finnick sets to putting as many paw prints in the snow as he can with Nick pouring small amounts of the melted ice pop into each paw print. Before they all freeze Nick and Finnick put Popsicle sticks in each print. With all this done their job is half done. They set up a Popsicle stand next to a rather large lemming business corp. When the gerbils catch sight of the popsicles the all come to buy one and once all the pops are gone they all throw their sticks into a recycling bin. Finnick is waiting to gather all the buckets of popsicle sticks and they haul them off to a small construction site where mice are building homes and sold the sticks to them "Why is it red you ask," Nick says "well its red wood of course." All in all, they make several hundred dollars that day without having to spend a dime.

Nick waves Finnick goodbye as he pockets his cut of the money and turns around and comes right face to face with the bunny cop, Judy. "Hello cotton tail," He says chuckling. He knew he wasn't going to be able to bull crap himself out of this if she just saw Finnick drive away.

"Don't cottontail me you," She says her foot thumping against the ground at increasing speed "you lied to me. To that elephant." She looked like she was about to burst with rage.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Nick lies casually as he makes an attempt to step around Judy and she blocks his way again.

She holds up a finger "I should arrest you," She says

"For what," He says coolly.

"Well for one, you were selling food without a license, and oh how about selling that wood to the mice telling them it was redwood."

Nick is one step ahead of her on this as he whips out a piece of folded paper and showing it to her "here is my license and I didn't say it was redwood I said it was red-wood. There's a space between those words you see." He says and then successfully steps around her and begins to walk off with her in pursuit.

"Don't you dare walk away from me," she says bounding after him "how can you just stand there and lie to someone."

He stops and looks back at her and smiles "Well it's called a hustle cotton tail," he says "now go play cop somewhere else." With a wave of his hand he sets off again, but his last words seemed to spark a rage in the rabbit as she runs after him and plants herself in front of him.

"How dare you insult me you sly coward," she says with anger in her voice "I am not just a pretend cop I'm the real thing so don't just go throwing insults around like that."

"Well bunny let me fill you in on something about the world," Nick says leaning in close "You are just a bunny and this world eats prey like you for laughs. So just run off I think I hear some meters calling your name." with this he turns down an alleyway and leaves the bunny standing there with a shocked look on her face.

Nick soon finds himself back in the same grimy area of Zootopia again as he pushes his apartment door open and shuts it. The lock clicks and he goes and sits down turning on the T.V and sees the same news flash of missing animals. He sighs flipping through the channels and then he feels the same unbelievable itch around his neck and he begins to slip his finger behind the collar and scratch it. His hatred of the collars rose up for a moment and he was tempted to cut the damn thing off and throw it away and try to hide until the cops gave up looking for him, but he knew it wouldn't work. They'd find him. They always found the defects. He looks over at a picture on the wall and sighs flipping the T.V off and walking over to it. The picture is of him and his mother. She has her hand on his shoulder and he is wearing a faded outfit of the Junior Ranger Scouts with their logo patched on the left chest pocket. He only kept the picture because his mother was in it. She had disappeared one day when he was all grown up and out of the house. He never found her and eventually believed her dead. With this depressing feeling crushing him he looked away from the picture and slumped off to bed. He fell into it fully dressed and closed his eyes as the words he spat at the bunny surface in his mind. "You are just a bunny and this world eats prey like you for laughs." It echoes in his head as he eventually falls off to sleep.