A/N: Nick and Judy have finally met Batman for the first time, and they also see him as a potential ally in order to put a stop to the Phantasm's killing spree. And just as Judy feared, the Phantasm just made Nick a target. So now Batman has been taken to the hospital, completely sedated by a tranquilizer dart with Nick and Judy watching over him. Now, back to the story, enjoy!
Bruce began coming to, his vision was still slightly blurred but it became clearer in a matter of seconds. He saw that now he was no longer in his suit, now he was in a hospital down with an IV hooked into his arm. He felt very numb and the pain that was in his side from Talia's knife was gone too. He peeked underneath his gown to reveal that his knife had now been properly stitched up with REAL stitches instead of the black thread he kept with him to stitch up his cape in case something happened. The wound was properly cleaned up and medicated, as well as two bandages that formed the shape of an 'X' was right on the area below his pectoral region where the dart penetrated his armor and pierced his skin.
"Looks like somebody's awake" said a familiar voice. Bruce looked to see both Nick and Judy entering the room.
"I don't get it, why did you bring me here? I thought you wanted to arrest me" Bruce asked still slightly tired as the drugs were still wearing off.
"We were, but Carrots here said you offered to help us catch the Phantasm, so we decided not to arrest you" Nick said before taking a sip of his coffee. Judy had a cup in her paws too, and had decided to hand it over to their still slightly drugged human friend.
"Here, some caffeine will help you feel awake a little more. Those sleeping agents in the darts are pretty strong" the rabbit said. Bruce took a sip and tasted hazelnut mixed with some vanilla crème. The taste helped him feel a little more awake and managed to sit up in his bed.
"Where's my suit?" Bruce asked.
"It's back at the ZPD evidence locker. Don't worry we're gonna let you have it back, we just cleaned it up for you and washed the blood out of in from that poorly treated knife wound you have. We also stitched the tear up too" Nick said. Judy then began asking more questions.
"So tell us a little about yourself, because I have a feeling your real name isn't 'Batman'" Judy said taking out a notepad from one of the black leather pockets on her belt, as well as a pen in the shape of a carrot with some buttons on the side.
"My real name is Bruce Wayne, I'm a human. Batman is just my alter-ego" Bruce explained.
"Uh-huh, and where are you from exactly?" Judy asked as she continued writing on the notepad.
"Gotham City, New Jersey" he added.
"Never heard of it, is it an area outside of Zootopia?" asked Nick.
"Zootopia? Is that what this place is?" Bruce asked.
"Yeah, Zootopia. It's where mammals of all species, predator and prey alike live in harmony. And where anyone can be anything" Judy answered. This world was still very new to Bruce, a world where only animals existed and the only creatures that evolved were mammals instead of primates, reptiles, and birds was something out of an animated kid's movie.
"What's Gotham like?" asked Nick.
"It's a city infested with crime, corrupt cops, thieves, murderers, and drug dealers. Every corner you look someone's getting mugged or carjacked" Bruce told them. Everything Bruce had told them sounded awful, about a city where there was hardly any justice passed and that criminals wandered freely in the streets.
"And why did you become Batman exactly?" Judy asked, changing the subject.
"Years ago, when I was about eight, my parents were gunned down in front of me, leaving the family butler to raise me. The man who did it got shot in court on the day of his court hearing where he was to be released in exchange for testifying against a very powerful mob boss named Carmine Falcone. After that I began traveling the world trying to learn different ways to face crime and injustices. After a month I met a man who called himself Ra's Al-Ghul, he began training me as a member of an organization of assassins called the 'League of Shadows'. I learned every kind of fighting and stealth technique under his tutelage, when I found out he was gonna destroy Gotham, I turned against him and destroyed their base of operations. I then returned to the city, using some of the prototype technologies from my parent's company to combat the crime on Gotham's streets" he explained. While the story was a bit lengthy, Judy and Nick were slightly in awe from it. Both of them were amazed that an ordinary being would stand up to do something about the crime and corruption in their home.
"Wow, that's... kind of awesome" Nick said.
"It really is, but what I can't understand is how you got here" Judy said, looking over everything she wrote. Bruce's entire story took about five pages of notepaper to cover it all.
"A former member of the League of Shadows, Bane had plunged the city into anarchy and held it hostage using a weaponized nuclear reactor core. I flew the core over the ocean for it to detonate in order to stop the city from destroying, but somehow I ended up here when the bomb exploded" Bruce told her.
"Well, you made one heck of an entrance because your flying machine's crash made it to ZooTube with over sixty-five million hits" Nick said, causing the human to chuckle slightly at what they called their version of YouTube.
"Well, I always had a taste for theatricality" Bruce replied. Judy then took out the Batarang that was left at the crime scene of the muggers who tried robbing those two children and showed it to Bruce.
"One more question. Why bats?" she asked.
"Bats frighten me. Ever since I was little I've been scared of them. When I first became Batman, I figured it was time that the enemy shared my dread" the human explained.
"You wanted to give them something to fear, right?" Nick asked. Bruce only smiled slightly and nodded.
"Well, Bruce, we have some good news for you. While you were busy sleeping, we were able to talk the chief of our precinct into dropping the charges being held against you, as long as you help us tracking down and arresting the Phantasm" Judy said.
"You mean that grim reaper cosplayer I fought on the roof last night?" He asked.
"Exactly. That piece of his armor you knocked off of him while you two fought was an excellent clue. We were told that after killing a criminal, the Phantasm just disappears without any trace or clue except a security camera video. Now we actually have a solid lead on him, thanks to you" the rabbit answered.
"So if you help us catch this guy, the ZPD will no longer consider you a threat" Nick told him.
"Well then what are we still doing here? Let's get to work" Bruce replied with a small grin, which both Nick and Judy returned. After Judy got Bruce some hospital clothes for him, which was a simple teal t-shirt with a pocket stitched on the left side of his chest, and a pair of sweat pants in the same color and some sanitary slippers, Nick and Judy got Bruce into their cruiser and drove down the road to ZPD Precinct One. Bruce looked out the window and saw all the different things that the city had. He saw a lot of billboards for products that his world had such as the iPhone (but instead of 'Apple' it's 'Carrot'), and a chain off coffee shops called 'Snarlbucks' instead of Starbucks just like they did back in the human world.
"This place is beautiful. It reminds me of the cities my world has, except some of your buildings come in some pretty odd designs. Never seen a skyscraper that looks like it's twisting around to look like an antelope's horn" Bruce commented as he looked out the window.
"Yeah, I remember how awe-struck I was when I first arrived in Zootopia. It still is mesmerizing to me today" Judy said, a small smile formed as she replied to how Bruce reacted to the beauties and differences of Zootopia.
"And what about you? When did you first move to Zootopia?" Bruce asked Nick, who was reading a paperback copy of 'Zootopian Psycho' by Bandicoot Easton Ellis. The fox closed the book and rested it on his lap before answering Bruce's question.
"I was born and raised in this city. Guess you could say I was born a natural Zootopian" he said. After one or two minutes of silence, they had arrived at the precinct and parked right in front of the building. Since Judy had deactivated the cub-locks on the doors (which they normally had on for when making sure criminals they had apprehended didn't try to escape) Bruce got out of the back seat of the cruiser, and began following them into the building. Some mammals gave Bruce wide eyes of awe, never seeing a creature such as him before, while others were too busy being hauled off to their cells in cuffs and muzzles, or looking at their phones, laughing at something they saw.
"Pretty big place" Bruce said, not minding the gazes others gave him.
"Yeah, it is. Second largest precinct out of the five we have all over the city" Nick told him. They walked right on over to the front desk where Clawhauser was eating an entire box of donuts, taking up one chocolate glazed one after finishing a strawberry glazed one with cream cheese drizzled on it.
"Clawhauser, hey Ben!" Judy said trying to get his attention. Clawhauser stopped eating and had swallowed what he had just consumed before looking to see Nick and Judy with Bruce.
"O M Goodness. THE Batman. What!? I gotta imagine you are not anything like I imagined without that suit" Clawhauser said, acting like a small child who just found out they were going to the circus. Bruce just remained silent at the obese cheetah's comment.
"Or is it just Batman? Your choice of course" Clawhauser asked with a small giggle.
"I think outside the suit you can just call me Bruce" he said extending his hand out to him. The overly-excitable cheetah took his paw into Bruce's hand and shook it.
"Benjamin Clawhauser, but just feel free to call me Ben, or Clawhauser. Whatever float your boat, Bruce" Clawhauser said before they broke up their shake.
"Bruce here is actually helping us with the Phantasm case. We stopped by to give him his suit back and show him the weapons inventory, we figured we're gonna need one or two of the prototype weapons that buffalo-butt keeps locked away just in case" Nick told the receptionist.
"Oh, you'll need the key cards to get in. Bogo always has them stay with me and has me give them to anyone who needs to get in for any reason. Just gimme a minute" Clawhauser said before he began looking underneath the desk and the sound of multiple objects being shuffled around was heard by the human, fox, and rabbit that stood right on the other side.
"Oh my gosh! My Gazelle snow-globe! I've been looking everywhere for that!" Clawhauser said before he placed the snow-globe, containing the popular Zootopian idol Gazelle inside it surrounded by a picture of the city at night time in the background. He also placed on the desk a hula-dancer figure of Gazelle on the desk just right beside the snow-globe.
"My Gazelle doll's down here too!? I thought I lost you under my mattress at home!" Clawhauser cried out in joy placing a silicone doll of Gazelle that reminded Bruce of a Barbie doll of a famous pop-star every girl wanted back in Gotham for their birthdays or Christmas.
"There you went you little tricksters" they heard Clawhauser call out before he got back up to above the desk and handed Judy two key cards, one gold and one silver.
"Gold's for the weapons inventory, and silver's for the evidence storage" the cheetah said.
"Thanks Ben, enjoy the rest of your day" Judy said before walking off, with Nick and Bruce following right behind her. After climbing up two flights of stairs, Judy had lead them to the evidence storage room and used the silver key to unlock it. Once the three of them walked inside, the motion detector activated the lights and they were no longer walking in the dark.
"We placed in here" Judy said, walking over to a metal locker and pulled it open to reveal Bruce's Batman suit placed on a Styrofoam mannequin.
"We also stitched up that tear the bullet made. Sorry about that by the way" Nick apologized as Bruce now took off every last piece of armor off the mannequin and placed it back on his body, except for the cowl which he still held in his hand.
"What is that suit made of anyways? Never seen anything that can block out bullets and sleeping darts" Judy said, recalling when she tried shooting Batman with a tranquilizer dart but it didn't work since she hit his shoulder.
"Covered head to toe with hardened Kevlar plates over titanium dipped tri-weave fibers. The separation of the plates is what leaves me vulnerable to knives and bullets" Bruce explained as he put his cape on as well as his utility belt, placing back on the compartments that kept his gadgets onto the belt's surface using magnetic technology.
"Got everything here, got grenades, sonar signal emitter, Batarangs, and gas powered grapple-gun" Bruce said as he put the gadgets on. Nick and Judy were impressed at how advanced the technology Bruce used to battle crime was.
"Not bad, not bad at all. But wait until you see the stuff we got" Nick said as he swiped the gold key card right out of Judy's back pocket. Judy placed her paw right on the backside of her uniform and felt that the key was missing, he swiped it without a single signal that he even took it.
"Nick, you sneaky fox" Judy said rolling her eyes with a small smile. They followed Nick, shutting the door to the evidence storage behind them before they continued. Nick had lead them down to the basement of the building, which was where the interrogation rooms and holding cells usually were. Hardly any of them were full, and they passed by some arrested mammals who were either sitting on their metal beds and giving the stink-eye to whoever passed by, or playing a harmonica.
"Ah, here we are. Some of the most advanced weapons ever created lie just beyond this door" Nick said when they reached the end of the hall. Once Nick swiped the key, the door was unlocked revealing several lockers and drawers made of blue painted metal.
"Didn't know this world had advanced weapons of their own" Bruce said looking around the room.
"We got them from some of Zootopia's most brilliant scientists and weapons designers. Bogo just favored the old fashion ways of fighting crime too much and said to store them all down here. Guess he didn't want his officers going around with weapons that looked like they came off the set of the 'Star Trunk' movie" Nick explained. Judy opened up one of the drawers and pulled out what looked like a cordless chrome hot glue gun, but the handle looked like a regular gun's and a little red button on the very bottom, inside a glass tube was a blue substance that looked like shaving cream.
"This is explosive gel. Inside this stuff are little tiny micro-beads with bits and traces of gun powder. Apply it to any surface, press the little red button and then... kaboom!" Judy explained before handing it to Bruce. Smiling, he placed it behind his back where his grapple-gun was. Nick was the next to open one up and handed what looked like another gun but had a miniature satellite dish with a tube shaped light-bulb right in the middle.
"EMP gun, firing this little bad boy at any electronic device weather it's a phone, car, generator, anything that runs on electricity or batteries will be shut down for about three and a half hours" Nick said as he showed him the weapon, as well as showing there was a switch that allowed the dish's flaps to close on the bulb like a Venus fly trap.
"I used to have something like this, but it was bigger" Bruce said before placing it with the explosive gel gun and grapple-gun. Judy then opened the drawer right next to the one where the EMP gun was stored. This weapon looked like a circular tube of lipstick, but it wasn't, it was covered in dark bronze, the same color of Bruce's belt.
"This right here, is a weapons-disabler. Press the button right here and it'll shoot a tiny little dart out that jams a weapon's main functions. Any kind of weapon can be affected ranging from a taser to a rocket launcher" Judy said handing it to Bruce, who placed it right next to the compartment where he kept his Batarangs.
"Anything else you think we may need?" Nick asked. Bruce turned his attention to something large covered underneath a white tarp.
"Oh the Blade-Glider? We haven't used that for a while" Judy said. Bruce walked over to the vehicle and took the tarp right off to reveal a beautiful white sports car that looked like the Lamborghini Ferruccio, a sport's car that wasn't even available yet in the United States.
"We designed her to help track down a group of street racers. This baby right here is the ultimate racing machine" Nick said opening up the doors, which opened upwards instead of sideways to reveal the interior. The inside was covered in black leather, the dials and knobs on the dashboard, the speaker systems on the doors, and even on the ceiling there were lines of glowing red LED lights.
"Right behind the two back seats are two tanks of NOS, a grand total of four. With just the press of a switch, it can send the NOS into the two fans underneath the back grates of the car, making it go super fast like a rocket. It even comes with a tracking device which can be turned on and off with the flip of a switch on the car's computer, which is how we lead our allies to each race to arrest the racers" Judy said giving Bruce the grand tour of the vehicle.
"It's an electricity-charged vehicle, so it's pretty eco-friendly. Not a single drop of gas needed to help it run, just plug it into the wall" Nick said pressing his paw on the panel which would normally reveal where the gas cap is and revealed a cord which could be plugged into a generator.
"The seats are the kind that the drivers in the dragster racing industry use. Cushions made entirely of memory foam, it completely adjusts to the driver's back to make them feel more comfortable" Judy said pressing her paw down on the middle of the seat. A print of her paw was made and it disappeared, forming to it's original state.
"Our tech team also feared that some of the racers would try to use guns to either kill the driver or flatten the tires but the good news is, there is such a thing as bullet-proof glass. And so we had all the windows and windshields replaced with it" Nick said before he took his gun out and shot at the windshield, the glass deflected the bullet onto the ceiling, where it was stuck in the cement foundation the room was made up of.
"And the tires, we got these from a friend across the seas. These tires are made of nomex, they're known to be durable against anything, rocks, glass, spikes, you name it, it won't cut right through and it'll just feel like hitting a bump in the road" Judy said knocking her paw against the tires like they were a door.
"They bullet-proof too?" Bruce asked.
"Anything but a straight shot. These things also stop knives too, one stab and the blade breaks off like bark from a tree" Nick added.
"It's also got shock absorbers hidden deep in the vehicle's frame. It can survive a fifteen foot drop and keep running just like monster trucks do" the fox continued.
"The entire body is bullet-proof too. Polished titanium, leaves nothing but a tiny little chip in the paint which we can fix easily. Not even a dent can be made on this baby, except with bazookas of course" Judy said.
"So, what do you think?" Nick asked. Bruce gave a smirk and exhaled.
"Does it come in black?" he asked.
A/N: And there you have it. Batman has agreed to help catch the Phantasm and have Nick and Judy along for the ride to take down the vicious serial killer. Not to mention we've got a ton of new 'Toys' for the job, even got a new Batmobile too. Also, a reference to one of Christian Bale's greatest movies 'American Psycho' was in here too, and a referent to 'Batman Begins' too. Now the real work begins. More to come in the next update. Please review, thanks!