It was a beautiful day inside the city of Zootopia. The streets were incredibly busy, as animals were spending their valuable time either heading to work for the day or simply using their free time in different ways.

One of those animals who were already at work happened to be a bunny whose name was Judy Hopps. She had only recently moved into Zootopia after spending much of her young life living outside of the city in a place called Bunnyburrow.

Now, most of the folk who live in that town are more than comfortable eking out their lives selling carrots or performing other rural-related tasks. Judy, however, was different than that.

She had always wanted to be a police officer ever since she was little, and that determination had never wavered, even in the face of her parents reluctant to fully embrace her career choice due to the dangers involved with it.

While Judy could see some reasoning behind her parent's wishes, considering her…small stature…this still didn't prevent her from following her dreams as she made the decision to move to the city.

Unfortunately, things didn't start out well, as while she did manage to graduate from the police academy at the top of her class, the other officers at the department were reluctant to fully embrace the first rabbit officer considering she was only there thanks to Mayor Lionheart's Mammal Inclusion Initiative.

So anyway, while the other officers managed to get some more interesting cases, Judy ended up getting stuck with parking duty. Even though she was very unhappy to get stuck with something so boring and thankless, she was determined to prove herself in any way possible.

As Judy drove through the streets inside a small meter maid cart that barely outstripped the sloths in town, her mind began to wander as she tried to figure out a way to go above and beyond Chief Bogo's admittedly low expectations.

"Okay Judy, the Chief expects you to get a hundred tickets printed by the end of the day? Easy. I can even double that, and by lunch time, too! Oh, I'll show you that I'm not a bunny to be pushed around." she said to herself, a determined look on her face as she continued driving.

After a few minutes, though, Judy's ear immediately flew up as she heard the telltale crank of a parking meter expiring.

"Yes! Thank you enhanced hearing!" Judy said, pumping her fist as she quickly drove over to the offending meter.

Unfortunately, when she got out of her cart and took a look at the offending car in question, she found it to be way taller than she was. Luckily, though, she was very resourceful.

Planning out her moves carefully, she jumped up as high as she could, bouncing off of the top of her cart on to the parking meter and finally landing on top of the car.

Satisfied, Judy printed out the parking ticket and slipped it under the windshield wipers.

"Alright. This shouldn't be too hard." she said to herself before suddenly hearing another meter go off.

Judy rushed through the city as the meters went off at an alarming rate. Judy, however, was more determined to get her quota done than be concerned with why the meters were going off so quickly.

Eventually, Judy finally printed out her last ticket, finally reaching her quota just as the clock struck noon.

"Great job, Judy. Now to head back to the station and show Chief Bogo how this bunny operates."

However, before Judy could do as she said and head back to her cart, she noticed something strange going on across the street, as a fox in a tacky-looking Hawaiian shirt and tie snuck into an ice cream shop across the street, looking incredibly suspicious as he led a smaller looking fox in a grey costume into the shop.

"Is that his kid? What's he doing taking him to an ice cream place for elephants?"

Despite being new to the city, Judy could tell that the shop was for large mammals from the size of the door. As much as she wanted to just leave him alone and head back to the station, her curiosity overcame her as she walked across the street and into the shop.

Inside the shop, which was decorated like one of those old-style ice cream parlors Judy saw once in a while in Bunnyburrow, she found a large number of elephants in line, looking very impatient. It came as a surprise to her exactly why that was the case, though, as she found the two foxes had somehow managed to get to the front of the line, which seemed impossible considering the short amount of time that passed between the two of them going in and Judy following.

"One Jumbo Pop, please." said the fox as he looked up at the elephant at the counter.

"Excuse me? These pops are meant for elephants, not foxes like you. Now please move along. I've got a bunch of customers waiting."

Judy watched as the fox looked away for a second before quickly turning back towards the elephant, a sly smile on his face.

"Oh, I'm sorry sir. It isn't actually for me. You see, my son here, he's always wanted to become an elephant ever since he's been little. Now, I know it doesn't seem realistic to have those kinds of dreams, but seriously. I'm his dad! I couldn't say no to that face."

The smaller fox quickly pulled the hood of his costume over his head, revealing an elaborate-looking tusk and ears, which made the kid look just like a tiny elephant. He even tooted to emphasize his point as well, which caused even Judy to giggle a bit.

"See? Isn't he precious? I bet you'd want to sell that Jumbo Pop to him now."

Judy looked up at the elephant, expecting him to willingly sell the pop to him now, but to her surprise, the elephant remained firm.

"No, I don't. If you'll look over on that wall, you might notice a sign that says that we have the right to refuse service to anyone that my products are not suited for, and in this case, neither of you are, so please get out of my store!"

The elephant pointed over to one of the walls, and both the fox and Judy noticed that there was indeed a sign pointing out what the elephant had just pointed out.

Judy considered just letting things go as is and not insert herself into the proceedings, but her insistence on helping others out overrode her other desire, and she stepped forwards, finally making herself known.

"You know, I really think you should be a little bit nicer to this father and son over here. They're just trying to buy a popsicle and you're essentially spitting in their faces!"

"And what do you plan on doing about that, little bunny?" asked the elephant.

"Well, Mister…Jumbeaux. I believe that I am a cop, as you can tell by the uniform, and I can write you up for a health code violation considering your…method…of serving your customers."

Judy held out her hand, pointing towards one of his workers, who was absentmindedly scooping ice cream with his trunk and spitting it into the bowl.

"I can't imagine how much snot is in that ice cream right now." said Judy, suppressing an involuntary shudder.

As for Mr. Jumbeaux, he noticed all of the customers' looks on their faces when they were told of what was in the ice cream they were eating and rightfully freaked out.

"Please, this is all I have! A health code violation will destroy my business!"

"Hey, I'm willing to let you off with a warning if you just serve those two." she said, pointing towards the two foxes.

"Alright! Alright, I'll do it. It's fifteen dollars." said Jumbeaux as he turned towards the foxes, the bigger one's face lighting up as he realized they were finally getting what they wanted.

However, his face soon fell when he patted at his pockets and realized that he forgot something important.

"Oh no…I think I might have left my wallet at home. Sorry, little buddy, it looks like we're gonna have to head home without that Jumbo Pop."

The bigger fox grabbed his son's hand and began leading him out of the store, looking dejected. However, Judy didn't want her attempt to make things right to go in vain, so she walked up to the counter and slapped a twenty dollar bill down with her paw.

"Keep the change."

Unfortunately for Judy, the twenty dollar bill she had was most of what she had set aside for lunch today, but seeing the look of happiness on the father and son's faces (despite the son's face being covered by an elephant costume) made it all worthwhile for the rabbit officer.

"Wow, thanks so much for the assistance, officer. You don't know how happy I am that my son gets to taste a treat like this." said the father.

"Well, that is my job, you know. Helping people out is my specialty." said Judy, placing her hands on her hips.

Nick gave Judy a warm smile before leading his son away.

"Come on, little buddy. Use both of your hands."

Judy watched as the two foxes went down the street, but instead of heading around the corner like she expected, the two of them went into an alleyway, which caught her very much off guard.

At first, Judy began to think that they weren't as well off as she originally thought they were judging from the way they acted inside the ice cream shop, but as she walked over and took a peek into the alleyway, she found a large panel van with a garish looking paint job on it, as Finnick loaded the popsicle into the van.

"Come on Finnick, hurry up! We've got two hours until the lemmings clear out of the offices, and we've got a long drive ahead of us!" said Nick, who was in the driver's seat, leaning out of the window.

"Hey, I don't see you helping me carry this thing! It's double my size!" said Finnick, with a deep voice that came as a pretty good shock to the normally unflappable rabbit.

Eventually, Finnick managed to get the doors closed, and he hopped into the van soon after. As for Judy, she quickly ran towards her cart, her suspicions about the foxes' real motives overcoming her intent to return to the station as she began following the two of them.

Judy watched closely as the two foxes drove all the way to Sahara Square, Nick melting the ice pop on top of a building as Finnick caught the juice in a series of jars, loading them into the van.

The two foxes then went over to Tundra Town, Finnick creating paw prints in the snow and placing small wooden sticks into each of the prints as Nick filled them with the juice.

"Wait a second. Are they making popsicles?" asked Judy to herself as she hid behind a nearby snowbank.

Eventually, they returned to the main city, and Judy watched at a safe distance as Nick set up a small booth, placing each of the popsicles on display as a long line of lemmings came out of the nearby office building and headed right towards the booth.

The puzzled look on Judy's face was soon replaced with mild indignation as Nick began handing out the pops, collecting money from the lemmings as they chewed on the pops, tossing the sticks into a nearby recycle bin, only for the side to open up as the smaller fox named Finnick rolled a small cart stacked with the sticks back into the van.

As much as Judy wanted to confront him right there, she couldn't help but wonder what they were doing with the used sticks, but she didn't have to wait any longer, though, as the foxes drove to a nearby construction yard inside Little Rodentia and left it next to a rat foreman.

"Here's the redwood you asked for." said Nick as he collected the money that the foreman handed over.

"Ooh, that is it!" said Judy, having had enough of watching her kind gesture be thrown in her face like that.

After following the two of them to another alleyway, Judy angrily made her way into said alleyway just as Nick was splitting the money between him and Finnick.

"Hey! Don't move!" said Judy, making her presence known.

Nick flinched, his eyes widening in surprise before they returned to their normal half-lidded stare, a smirk on his face as he saw Judy walking towards her.

"Oh hey, it's you again! Thanks again for buying us that popsicle by the way."

"Actually, that's what I'm here for. I saw the two of you using the popsicle that I bought for you just to make money."

"So? That doesn't mean that I was doing anything wrong."

"Excuse me?" asked Judy, indignant.

"Listen, lady. Just because someone buys a popsicle doesn't mean they have to eat it. Life doesn't work that way, especially when you're as resourceful as me." he said, smirking once more.

"That doesn't mean you can just rip people off like that! It's not right!"

"News flash, Carrots! This city isn't as precious as you think it is. You have to do some desperate things in order to get by in this world. But hey, it's working out pretty well for me so far." he said, spreading his arms wide.

"Oh really? And how well are things going for you right now?" she asked, secretly pulling something out of her pocket when she realized that she had got him flustered enough so that something will slip out.

"I'm making two hundred bucks a day doing this since I was twelve, and believe me, all of the money I earned was completely legit, and it's all mine and Finnick's."

Judy immediately knew that she had managed to catch him saying something he shouldn't have, so she immediately went into action.

"Wow, that's really great. Too bad you're not going to be able to use any of that money, though, because you're under arrest."

"For what? Hurting your feewings?" he asked, infusing as much smarm as he could into the last word.

"Felony tax evasion."

Nick's eyes widened in shock as he realized that he hadn't considered that factor.

"Yep, I've bet that you never filed a tax form in your life, have you? Let's see, with two hundred dollars, that's gotta be around oh...one million four hundred and sixty thousand. And judging from how much you're bragging about it, I assume that none of that was ever reported. That's not good, my friend." said Judy, finally looking smug herself.

"Hey, it's my word against yours, Carrots! Who do you think they're going to believe?"

"No, I believe it's your word against yours."

Judy then pulled out a simple looking pen shaped like a carrot, but after pressing a button, Nick's eyes widened further as he heard his own voice come out from a secret recorder, repeating exactly what he said about his income.

Nick's thoughts were soon rudely interrupted when he heard a click noise from below him. Looking down, he saw that a metal cuff was placed around his right wrist, the ring too small for him to simply slip his hand through.

To his surprise, though, he saw that the other cuff was actually attached to the officer's wrist as she firmly locked it with a small key she held in her free paw.

"Um, aren't handcuffs supposed to go on both of my hands?" he asked, pointing out the flaw in Judy's plans.

"I'm aware of that. I just want to make absolutely sure that you don't get away." said Judy, although the look of apprehension on her face made Nick believe that there was something else going on.

He remained silent, though, planning out his next move considering he had no intentions of being taken in for money he earned fairly.

"Look over there!" said Nick, his eyes widening as he pointed towards the end of the alleyway.

Judy ended up falling for it, and as she looked towards where Nick was pointing, with her grip on the key loosening just a bit, he made a move to grab for the key. Unfortunately, with how quickly he moved his hand to grab it, all he managed to do was knock the key out of Judy's hand, and it was sent flying.

Both Nick and Judy rushed forwards, trying to catch the key as it flew, but just as they both made a jump for it, it slipped right through their fingers and into a nearby grate.

Judy looked over at Nick, glaring at him as the fox could only muster a sheepish smile.

"Uh…sorry?"