ZOOTOPIA IS PROPERTY OF DISNEY

Cover Artwork was NOT made by me. To anyone who knows the author, please let me know so I can give them due credit.

On the day Judas Hopps boarded a train bound for the mammal metropolis of Zootopia, ready to begin his lifelong ambition of law enforcement, he made his mother a promise.

One that involved unearthing a grim memory of kithood Judas was always keen to tuck away far into the recesses of his mind. When he was no more than ten years old, playing a game of cops and robbers with his younger siblings, Judas jumped into a nearby river to save a drowning brother. He was successful in dragging the brother back to shore, but the effort had fatigued him too much to fight against the current any longer.

When he finally opened his eyes, he found himself lying in bed and cocooned in several thick blankets in a hospital room. Sitting by the bedside, his grief stricken mother had remained by his side the entire night, lovingly holding his paw and humming a generations old Hopps family song. A song that spoke of strong spirit, purity of heart, and the hope of divine guidance.

The promise to his mother, was that the day would never come when she would ever have to hum that song to him again.

Too bad neither of them had accounted for a facility wide riot in the deadliest supermax prison Zootopia had to offer.

The window of a prison guard outpost shattered in a spectacular fashion as an orange jumpsuit wearing zebra came crashing through. Staring dumbstruck at the fallen prisoner, a group of five prisoners, some canines, a bear, a skunk, and even a kangaroo, all turned nervously to find a small mammal waiting patiently for their attention. The rabbit officer cracked his neck, flexed his fingers, and drew himself into a combat stance.

"Bring it," he said with determination.

A deranged coyote took the challenge. The criminal charged full tilt toward the puny rabbit, eyes wild and lips pulled back with the smile of a lunatic. Charging ahead, Judas easily dodged the coyote's swings by sliding smoothly along the floor, between the coyote's legs, and rabbit kicking him square in the middle of the spine. Sending the confused coyote flailing to the floor with an agonized yelp.

Judas had hardly landed back on the floor when he had to quickly jump away from the brown bear slamming both paws down upon him. As Judas engaged his next opponent, all around him the central hall of the prison was becoming an ocean of insanity. No one knew how it started, some sort of scuffle with a guard perhaps, but the trick had worked. An entire wing of the facility was free.

The guards had seconds to spare to lock down the entrances before anyone could escape into the city. Hardly fifteen minutes later, the elite, tactical teams of the ZPD had arrived to contain the situation. It was nothing special, a textbook "clean house" scenario. But something was wrong, the prisoners had expected them. Now, Lieutenant Judas Hopps, an officer of five years, found himself cut off from his group, weaponless, and engaging mammals magnitudes larger his size in direct face to face combat.

Despite the odds, he had this brawl in the bag.

So the prisoners decided to be cowards.

They came at him as a group of six, arms laden with prison bed sheets. They overcrowded the rabbit, smothered him with the sheets, and began to pound him mercilessly. Anticipating their motives, Judas did his best to squirm and roll around under the blankets to avoid most of the bone crushing blows. It seemed to work, he was mostly certain he had one good eye left.

The world shifted into a daze, everything was turning numb. He hardly noticed when the sheets were removed and he was lifted into the air upside down by his feet to come face level with one ugly maw of a walrus. Somewhere in his now mushy brain, Judas deduced the walrus was perhaps a ringleader of a sort. Judging by the growing, orange circle of sinisterly gleeful prisoners around them, who all shouted and hollered jubilantly at something the walrus said to the brain numb rabbit.

Not knowing what was said, Judas decided to raise his fist….

…push it closer to the walrus's face…

….and flick him on the nose.

Now it was Judas's turn to crash into a guard outpost window. Falling down onto the floor, Judas painfully opened one eye to find the walrus hovering over him. As the large mammal raised his leg to end the rabbit with a stomp, Judas closed his eyes and thought of the one thing his heart feared the most at that moment in time.

Sorry I disappointed you mom, I tried so hard not to break another one…

It all happened so fast. From above, there was a holler of victory, then one of pain, followed by a sudden crushing feeling that enveloped his entire body.

So that's it I'm dead…..I've been killed by a criminal, now I'm dead

…..

So why the hell am I bouncing?

"Hey, wake up!"

What?

"Come on, wake up you stupid rabbit!"

Judas was confused. The voice didn't sound anything like the walrus did, the voice sounded intelligent, elegant, and so much more pleasant to the ear. He must have a concussion forming, the voice sounded like a woman….

"Hey, stay with me! Focus now!"

Judas opened his eye to find a sight most peculiar. He was staring straight into the face of an gorgeous orange and crème furred fox. A fox, he now realized, was carrying him in her arms down the hall as fast as she could. He didn't know who she was, what she was doing there, or where she was taking him, but he couldn't see any prisoners following behind. But more worryingly, he couldn't see any of his fellow officers either.

"Who…?" he began to say but was promptly cut off.

"No talking. Talking uses blood, which anyone can clearly see you don't have much of anymore." She snapped.

Huh, that's why I'm so cold…

With his head flopping to the side, Judas could now make out his rescuer with improved clarity. She was dressed in a sky blue tank top, wearing a pearl bead necklace, and possessed eyes greener than any forest in the whole of the Tri-Burrows.

The strange vixen must have arrived at her destination, for she drew to a halt and lowered the rabbit onto some kind of table before vanishing out of sight. In the time of a few heartbeats, the vixen reappeared and was rummaging through a box, mumbling angrily about something so quietly even he couldn't make out her words.

For several minutes, Judas slipped in and out of consciousness as the vixen did her best to patch him up. Wherever they were, the rioting must not have been too far away, for it sounded like there was arguing nearby. Eventually, the vixen completed her task and settled close to the rabbit, taking one of his paws tightly into one of her own, and delicately stroking his ears back behind his head with the other.

"Hang in there Cottontail, your pals in blue are coming for you." she said gently.

It took every ounce of strength he had to face her. "Wha's…or…ame?" he mumbled, now far too exhausted to speak properly.

There was a pause. He wasn't completely sure, but it seemed the vixen grimaced a moment before giving him a soft smile.

"Nicole…Nicole Wilde." She said softly.

The rabbit closed his eyes once more, everything was so cold now…

Nicole…what a nice name…

Everything went black.