The Fire Triangle, A Zootopia Fanfiction -- Part One: Fuel - 16

Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.

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The Fire Triangle-A Zootopia Fanfiction

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Part One:

Fuel

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Chapter 3 - Day of Carrots and Blueberries

(Continued...Pt. 8)

"Nick, Nick...over here!"

Judy was waving to him from a picnic table, along, with several of the Hopps kids...and the red fox was happily relieved; she was greeting him with a raised paw, not her paws on her hips. He also noticed that a few more young bunnies had joined the entourage since last he'd seen her, not including-he was glad to note-Erin Hopps. (One encounter with little Miss Attitude had been enough for today, thank you very much.) Also seated at the table were Gideon Grey and another fox, a plumpish vixen with rust-colored fur, dressed in a barista's outfit.

As Nick approached, they also waved.

"So, did you have a nice talk with Finnick? Judy asked, sliding over to make room for him. It was a question with an edge, a serrated one.

Nick knew he'd have to give her something; it was that or he'd have her barely speaking to him for the rest of the day. Fortunately, he could tell her at least part of the story; that he'd been deliberately avoiding the fennec-fox since joining the ZPD-and also why he'd been staying away from his former partner.

"Oh Nick, you should never have dumped him like that." Judy said when he had finished, and the red fox quickly raised a paw.

"I know, Carrots. It was a big mistake, and I should have at least..."

"No, I meant you didn't NEED to." She interrupted, mildly exasperated. "Chief Bogo wasn't planning to bring Finnick on board as a CI; no one was. That was only a rumor."

"What's a CI?" Little Cotton asked from the next table over

"It means Confidential Informant, honey." Judy told her.

Cotton's ears went up and her brow furrowed.

"What's a confi...denshul in-form-ant?"

"He means a snitch, dummy," one of her brothers piped up.

Cotton clenched her fists and thumped her foot.

"Don't call me dummy, dummy."

"All right, that's enough." Judy said, and the two little rabbits went back to their pieces of pie.

"All right, maybe it was just a rumor, Carrots" Nick conceded, trying to put the conversation back on the rails. "But what if I'd had to BUST Finnick, what then?" He raised his paws in an effort to head off any protest. "Judy I'd never do this to a friend, but even I have to admit that Finnick would make a great CI; he knows the streets of Zootopia almost as well as I do-heck, he knows Sahara Square better than me-and he's been working them for a long time."

"Okay Nick, I see your point." Judy admitted, nodding, "And anyway, the important thing is that you patched things up." She narrowed an eye and raised an ear. "Have you pathed things up?'

"We have," Nick answered offering another ranger-scout salute, and then grinning, "Finnick never could stay mad at me for long, and honestly Carrots, I really have missed the little guy; I'm glad we're back to being friends and... Whoa, what's this?"

Gideon Grey had just slid a wedge of pie in front of his fellow fox, a layer of blueberries atop a layer of fluffy white.

"The specialty of the festival." The burly fox said, a note of pride in his voice, "My new blueberry vanilla pie. I got cherry and blackberry vanilla too, but Judy tells me you're partial to the blues."

'She's absolutely right about that." Nick said, and took a bite of his pie. All at once, his eyes rolled, his mouth pinched, and his tail began to swish in an S-curve.

"Ooooo," he said, pointing to the plate with his fork, "I want to LIVE here!"

"Does that mean you like it?" the vixen two seats over teased.

"Where'd you ever get that idea?" Nick teased right back, eagerly taking another forkful.

Gideon laughed and put an arm around the female fox's shoulder.

"Nick, this is my fiancée, Bette Renaard; she owns the stand next door to mine. Nick looked and saw parked next to Gideon Grey's, a van bearing the logo, Dutch Girls' Coffee.

"It's not mine, Gideon," Bette protested, nudging him with an elbow, and then turning to Nick. "It's a family operation, me and my two sisters."

"That have anything to do with how you and Gideon met?" Nick asked, nodding at the other fox.

"Well, what's pie without coffee?" Gideon winked, and then turned to nuzzle his intended.

Nick was seriously glad to have finally made his acquaintance.

Then Judy spoke up. "Okay Gideon, come on, don't keep me in suspense; what the OTHER big piece of news?"

The husky fox hooked his thumbs in his apron.

"Gonna open up a franchise in Zootopia, Judy...next March if everything goes right."

"Yay!" Judy cheered and threw her arms in the air, drawing curious looks from her younger siblings.

"Which district?" Nick Wilde asked, genuinely interested.

"Old Growth City." The other fox answered, and Nick nodded approvingly.

"Good call,"

"Not downtown or Savanna Central?" Judy asked. She sounded a little disappointed. That was nowhere near where she lived, much less close to Precinct One.

"Nope, not with the real-estate prices in THOSE districts," Bette responded, illustrating the point by pretending to lop off an arm and a leg with the flat of her paw. It made Nick wonder if perhaps she was the brains of the operation.

Just then a boy bunny from the other table came over and tapped Judy on the arm.

"Heads up Jude," he murmured pointing up the concourse with a pair of fingers.

Judy looked, and Nick saw her seem to collapse inward. Gideon Grey's reaction was even more startling; his mouth became a hard, flat line, and his neck fur began to stand up.

"'Scuse us, please folks." He muttered tersely, and then he and Bette got up quickly from the table.

At first Nick was unable to see what the hubbub was all about, but then he noticed that Judy was fixing her gaze on one particular rabbit in the crowd.

The newcomer was perhaps half a head taller than Judy, but of a breadth more akin to Benjamin Clawhauser. He had tan fur with a brown muzzle and arms, a color scheme the fox had noted several times among members of the Hopps family...but UN-like them his fur was slightly unkempt He wore a beat-up red work shirt and a pair of stained painter's overalls. The top of his head was crowned by a faded blue cap bearing the logo "Let's Make Zootopia ROAR", the campaign slogan of the now disgraced Ex-Mayor Lionheart.

He was also headed in their direction...and pretending he hadn't noticed Judy or any of the other Hopps bunnies-a deception so obvious that Nick almost felt pity for him.

The fat rabbit was about ten feet away when he halted in his tracks and his ears fell backwards in a badly feigned display of surprise.

"Judy, is that you?" he said, throwing up a paw in greeting.

When Judy waved back, it was with a notable lack of enthusiasm.

"Hello, Uncle Terry." She said, sounding as if she were reciting a lesson by rote.

Nick turned so that face was invisible to the approaching rabbit and lowered his voice to a near whisper.

"Uncle Terry?" he queried, cocking an ear halfway, "Your same Uncle Terry who accidentally ate some Nighthowler once?

"Yes." Judy's voice was a hiss out the side of her mouth, and she was grimacing as if preparing to receive a tetanus shot. This bunny was obviously NOT one of her favorite relatives.

It didn't take long for Nick to discover why.

"How's my favorite niece?" the thickset bunny boomed, a well-used line that Nick suspected Judy's uncle Terry Haredigg used to greet all his nieces.

"Just fine, Unk." Judy answered somehow managing to bend her grimace into the reasonable facsimile of a smile.

"That's great," Terry responded apparently unaware of her disdain for him, a fact that became painfully obvious when he spread his arms and said, "Come here and give your uncle a hug."

Judy got up and let Terry hug her., but refused to return the embrace. (To Nick Wilde, she looked as if a cactus had just its arms wrapped around her. )

"It's great to see you again, Judy." The other rabbit said, "How long has it been?" His accent was a lot like Gideon's but more Midwestern twang than Southern drawl.

"Not long enough," Judy's face seemed to say, and before she could say anything aloud, the older bunny was coming in Nick's direction with an outstretched paw.

"And you must be Nick Wiley," he said, "I heard a lot of good stories about you; been hopin' to meet you someday."

"Actually, it's Nick Wilde," the fox corrected, keeping his voice pleasant. Privately, it was all he could do to keep his fangs hidden; now he was really beginning to understand why Judy didn't care for this rabbit. Heck, now he was beginning to develop a healthy dislike for Terry Haredigg himself; every word he'd spoken had sounded forced and insincere.

"This poor fool wouldn't last five minutes, hustling on the streets of Zootopia." The red fox swiftly decided, but then accepted the paw nonetheless. When they shook, it felt like his paw had become enveloped in a wad of bread dough.

"Nice to meet you too," Nick answered noncommittally, but the bunny wasn't paying attention.

"Say," he said, looking down at the wedge of pie on Nick's plate, "that looks mighty good, son. You mind if I have just a little taste?"

"Well..." the red fox started to say, caught off guard for once; (it was a completely unexpected request.)

If he hadn't blinked in the next half-second, Nick might have seen what happened. As it was when he looked at his plate again, it was almost empty and Terry's cheeks were nearly full; he looked like a chipmunk with a mouthful of sunflower seeds.

"Mmmm diff is deffifcious." The chunky rabbit was groaning and blissfully rolling his eyes.

(Behind the counter of his pie stand, Gideon Grey was rolling up his sleeves-and Bette was getting quickly in front of him.)

Terry meanwhile was finally getting down to business, turning to speak to Judy once again.

"Listen Jude, I hate to ask, but..." he said, and now it was his niece's turn to roll her eyes, only in her case it was with an expression of, 'Here it comes.'

"I got myself pulled over on Route 99 t'other day." Terry was telling her, "Now I wasn't...y'know really speeding, but that new deputy Mac Cannon, the bobcat? Well he's a real hardcase that one, wrote me up just like that, and said I was driving reckless too."

Okay, now it was unanimous, Nick Wilde was rolling his eyes too; Judy's uncle sounded just like a teenager, trying to explain why he was coming in at 2 in the morning.

"So you think maybe you could help your old uncle out and take care of this of me?" Terry asked her, by way of conclusion.

There...there it was. THAT'S what Judy's uncle was doing here, and now Nick thoroughly understood her contempt for him; not just a moocher, but a clueless one at that. Did this dumb bunny-yes he'd say that about Terry Haredigg-did this moron have any idea how badly he'd just insulted her? No member of the ZPD prided themselves more on their integrity than Officer Judy Hopps. If the red fox hadn't been aware of how capable she was at handling her own problems, he would have been halfway out of his seat by now.

"I'm sorry uncle," she told him. She appeared to be perfectly calm, but Nick could see that she was standing on her foot with the other one to keep it from thumping. "But I'm ZPD, not Burrows County Sheriff's Department; The Burrows is out of my jurisdiction." She shrugged, "I have no authority here for anything like that."

Judy was playing her ace immediately, Nick could see. Good for her; a bunny like her Uncle Terry wasn't going to accept any arguments against helping him, based on moral principles alone.

And he wasn't accepting this one either.

"Yeah, but you could go and have a talk with Mac, couldn't you, one cop to another?" He was practically whimpering.

Judy shook her head.

"Wouldn't help, it's out his paws too. Now it's up to the traffic court."

That wasn't entirely true and Nick knew it. The bobcat deputy could at least make a recommendation to the court, although the fox seriously doubted he would, even if Judy asked him. It didn't take much imagination on the red fox's part to conjure up a picture of the song-and-dance Uncle Terry must have given the sheriff's deputy after he'd been pulled over. (Since joining the ZPD, Nick Wilde had many times born witness to a similar spectacle.)

"Then you won't help me?" Terry was spreading his arms, and looking like a hurt little bunny.

"Not 'won't', 'can't', Judy corrected him. Her voice was firm, but not unsympathetic. Nonetheless Terry looked at her as if she'd just wished him dead and burning in Hell.

"And I thought we were family." He sniffed, and then slunk away with his ears drooping, several times glancing over his shoulder as if expecting her to come after him. It didn't happen; Judy remained rooted to the spot, regarding her uncle with a fixed gaze.

Nick got up and went to join her, catching up with his partner just in time to see her cross her arms and mutter, "That trick might work with Mom buster, but it won't work with me."

"What now?" the fox asked, unable to stifle the question before it came out.

Judy sighed and turned to him, "Mom can't say no to him Nick; whenever he plays the guilt card on her, she always folds.",

Nick's ears went up like bottle rockets.

"Wait, what? Hang on Carrots. He ate some Nighthowler and attacked her-and now she's the one who feels guilty?"

Judy raised a sardonic eyebrow. "Yes, well you know WHY he ate that Nighthowler Nick? It was because Mom dared him to; happened back when they were kids, and he's never let her forget it."

"Say no more, Carrots, I get it now." The red fox swiftly raised a paw. Being poisoned with Nighthowler was every bit as traumatic an experience as being attacked by an animal exposed to the toxin. When the victims recovered, they had no memory of their actions after being darted, but suffered vivid nightmares for weeks, sometimes months thereafter. At least two of the mammals darted by Doug had needed to be kept under 24-hour Crisis Watch, lest they harm themselves. One of them had been Mr. Big's limo driver Mr. Manchas, (who had suffered the double-whammy of being attacked by a predator darted with Nighthowler, and then being darted himself.) "Do you think your uncle might put the touch on your mother about that ticket, try to get her to pressure you into fixing it?"

Judy bit her lip and shook her head. "Nooo, maybe I shouldn't have said that mom never..." She looked over at Gideon Grey. "Gideon, is it okay if I tell him?"

The thickset fox just nodded, "Yeah, go ahead."

It had happened right after the Bellwether bust, while Judy had been in the hospital recovering from the injury she'd sustained during the museum chase. Judy's uncle had blown into the Burrows, arriving at the family produce stand just as Gideon Grey was pulling out. The amount he'd wanted to borrow had been larger than usual and her parents had reluctantly turned him down.

"We just put a lot of money into new business partnership." Judy's mother had said, waving at the departing pie-van.

"That's when Uncle Terry put his foot in it," Judy was shaking her head again. "He told Mom, 'How can you neglect your own family in favor of a dirty FOX?'"

That had too much even for Bonnie Hopps, and she'd curtly informed her brother that he needed to be on his way and right away.

Nick heard a growl and saw Gideon Grey's neck fur standing rigid; he felt his own fur trying to do the same. Bro-THER, that hadn't been just putting your foot in your mouth; try stuffing it in with a broom-handle. No wonder Uncle Terry had felt the need to raid Nick's plate; after a remark like that, he sure as heck wasn't getting any pie from Gideon.

"Mom forgave him later on, of course." Judy was saying, "But it goes to show that she does have her limits, and my uncle knows it; he won't push that ticket business any further."

Nick was just about to respond to this when Gideon slid a fresh piece of pie in front of him.

"Sorry about that," he said.

"No problem." Nick answered, offering his fellow fox a fist bump.

Just then, little Cotton piped up. "I'm done, can we go on the rides now? I wanna go on the roller coaster." She was talking quickly, and Nick guessed it was a reaction to the pie she'd just consumed. Gideon's fruit-and-vanilla pies were heavenly, but sugar-free treats they weren't.

Judy looked at Nick before answering her.

"Uhhh, maybe in a little while Cotton, but not right now."

"Why?" the little bunny girl asked, looking up at her.

"Uhhh because riding a coaster isn't something you want to do on a full tummy." Judy answered, trying to be as tactful as she could.

"Why?" Cotton asked again. Her blue eyes had grown big and winsome.

"Because you'll puke all over yourself, dummy." It was that same brother again.

"I will NOT, Timmy!" Cotton thumped her foot and turned indignantly on the other rabbit, a medium gray bunny maybe a year or two older than her.

"Will too." He said.

There followed one of those childhood debates that make up for in passion what they lack in eloquence.

"Will not!"

"Will too!"

"Will not!"

"Will too!"

"Will NOT!"

"Will TOO! Ow! Judy, Cotton kicked me!"

"He called me Dummy first!"

"All right both of you; that's enough, or you're going home right now." Judy was standing with her arms folded, as if to say, 'Don't test me.'

Cotton and Timmy looked at each other and then at her.

"Not fairrrrrrrrrr!"

Nick snickered and then sighed. For all that he'd just seen, it would have been good to have some brothers or sisters of his own.

He quickly went back to work on his pie. The others were already done with theirs, and the sooner he finished his, the sooner they could all move on.

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Meanwhile at another picnic table, one aisle away....

"Ewwwww!"

"I know, right? What a jerk!"

Erin Hopps was holding court with her best girlfriends, and had just regaled them with the tale of her encounter with Conor Lewis. (With the proper embellishments of course; she was, after all, 13.)

Erin's clique was not, as one might have expected, an all rabbit posse. In fact, two of her buds were predators. Terri Blackburn was a ferret, and Sue Cannon was the daughter of Mac Cannon, the bobcat Sheriff's deputy. Cara Combs was a sheep, and rounding out the group were Tawny Lloyd and Jill Pepper, both of whom were also rabbits. It might have seemed an odd group of associates, given Erin's confrontation with predator just a short while ago, but she had known these girls since kindergarten. Besides that, they all shared a firm and singular conviction. Each and every one of them couldn't wait to get the heck out of Bunnyboring and the sooner the better-and now with Erin's pending acceptance to the Zootopia Academy of the Performing Arts, it looked as if she might be the first of them to actually accomplish that task. As such, she was the group's de facto leader, at least for the moment.

"Are you sure he was a fox?" Jill Pepper was asking, "I never heard of fox that color before."

"I don't know," Erin shrugged coolly, "But he sure as heck looked like one to me."

"Did he have black and gray fur?" a wee voice piped up from below, "and was his name Condor or something?"

They all looked and saw that another member of their posse had arrived on the scene, a Douglas squirrel wearing a brightly adorned t-shirt.

"Hey, Lisa, where you been?" Erin asked her. The little squirrel was a member of the Chatterton clan and one of closest friends. She lowered a paw laying it flat on the ground, pawlm up.

"Getting one of those Gazelle Japanese t-shirts," Lisa answered, pointing to the one she was wearing as she climbed on board Erin paw.

"Ooo, cool." Terri chirred, as Erin lifted Lisa up and set her down on the table top. (If the table had been wood the squirrel-girl could have easily scrambled up one of the legs; but it wasn't wood, it was aluminum, and so she'd needed a helping paw.)

"Wow, I have got to get me one of those." Jill Pepper declared, peering closely at the shirt. Though most of the girls at the table deplored pop music, Gazelle was a large and very prominent exception to that rule.

"Well, you better hurry if you want one." Lisa cautioned, seating herself on an overturned cup that Erin had just provided, "That place is already a plinkin' madhouse. They'll probably be sold out by this evening."

A collective groan went up from the table.

"Baaaaah, I did NOT come here to wait in line all diddly-dang day," Cara Combs lamented, folding her arms and pouting.

That was another thing Erin and her friends had in common-every single one them came with a healthy dose of youthful angst. (It showed in the way they dressed. Terri's lower forearms were encircled by a pair of studded, camo wristbands and Tawny was wearing a tank top under her jacket, decorated with a bright-red anarchist's, 'A'.)

Erin swiftly decided it was time for her to take charge.

"There's only one way to do this, if we all want one of those shirts guys. We know each other's sizes, right?" The others all nodded and Erin nodded back. "Kay, so we put our money together and then we draw straws; short straw takes the money and gets in line for the shirts, and then gets one for each of us. That work for you?"

With varying degrees of enthusiasm the other agreed, except for Lisa Chatterton.

"Ummm..."

"Oh not you Lisa." Erin said, moving quickly to assure her friend, "You've already been in line once, and anyway, you couldn't carry the shirts for all the rest of us, not by yourself.

"It's not that, Erin." Lisa's incisors were clicking against one other. "That fox I heard you talking about? I-I think he works at that table."

"Are you sure it was the same guy?" Erin asked.

"Are you sure that he's a fox?" It was Cara.

Lisa answered the sheep's question first.

"Yeah, I heard someone else ask him; he said that he's a silver fox."

"A silver fox? I never heard of that species." Jill Pepper was lifting an ear.

"It's not a species; it's a color phase of the red fox." Lisa explained, "I heard that too while I was waiting."

She looked at Erin. "He has black fur with gray on top, except around his face and arms; they're all black. And he has a black tail with a white tip, too. Oh, and he's dressed like one of the kids from Mewsies. Is that your guy?"

"What do his eyes look like?" Erin asked. She was almost certain this was the same fox she'd encountered inside the barn-but only almost.

"Kind of scary," the squirrel answered, with her tail shivering slightly, "Like burning charcoal, or that's what I thought.

Erin groaned and let out a hiss of air from between her teeth.

"Yeah, that's him." She said.

"Great," said Tawny, slapping her knees, with her pawlms, "Then you can't draw either, Erin."

"Yes, I should, it was my idea." The white-furred bunny countered, thumping her foot. Erin Hopps might have tended to act thoughtlessly now and again, but in no way did that attitude extend to her circle of friends

"Erin, no." Terri Blackburn protested. "When he sees it's you, he might refuse to sell you anything."

Lisa and Sue rolled their eyes, and Tawny and Erin gave each other a look. The girl ferret had always been the group's resident worry-wart.

"Look," Erin finally said, "let's just draw the straws and we'll worry about what happens next, if I get the short one, okay?"

As things turned out, there was no need to worry. When they drew the straws the short one went to Jill Pepper.

She responded by lifting her feet up onto the bench and giving them a dirty look.

"LUCKY rabbit's feet...yeah, riiiiiight," she grumbled, accepting her fate with a lopsided grin.

When she had gone, Lisa turned to Erin.

"So what happened with you and that fox? I only heard the last part just now."

So Erin told the story once again, and when she got to the punch line, the Douglas squirrel's reaction was the same as the others. "Ewwwww! Whoo, it's a good thing you didn't get the short straw, Erin."

"Tell me about it," the bunny said, able at last to give vent to her relief. She waved a paw in the direction of the old red barn's cupola, just visible in the distance. "Said he sings and play guitar himself. Yeah...as IF!"

"Actually, I-I think he does." Lisa was clicking her incisors again, "Or at least he plays; I saw a couple of guitar cases stashed under the table while I was waiting in line...two of them, a plugged and an unplugged. He had 'em chained to the table with a bicycle lock."

"So he has a guitar, that doesn't mean he can PLAY it." Tawny Lloyd pointed out batting her paw in the air.

"Yeah, really." Erin nodded, but privately she wasn't so sure. Not one but two guitars, an acoustic AND an electric; that spoke of a musician a little more serious than an upgraded air guitarist.

"I just hope that creep doesn't show up backstage when I'm playing tonight." She said. Actually she didn't really think he would, but it was as good a way as any to change the subject of their conversation to the talent show.

In the case of Terri and Sue, it didn't work; the two just looked at each other and then the girl bobcat winked at the ferret, her yellow eyes aglow with feline mischief.

"Want me to get Craig to go beat him up?" she asked. Craig Roberts, a lynx two years older than Sue was her sometime boyfriend...and also a star player on the local small-mammal La Crosse team.

It was meant as a tease, but Erin simply waved dismissively.

"Naw no need, I already kicked that fox-jerk's butt."

This revelation was greeted by a quintet of shocked expressions. Erin hadn't told them this part; she'd taken it a fox? Was she crazy? It was all the encouragement the girl-bunny needed.

"Oh come on girls, you don't think I'd let any guy, even a dirtbag fox, talk to ME that way, do you?" She gleefully pounded her fist into a pawlm. "Got him-BOOM, put my foot right upside his face! Teach him to show me...a little...re...spect..."

Erin's voice ground slowly to halt. Why were her girlfriends still looking at her like...? And why was Terri making slicing motions across the tabletop with her paw?

Oh, snap!

Erin's eyes screwed shut and she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"My mom is standing behind me, isn't she?"

She turned around and looked.

No, it wasn't her mother; it was her older sister, Judy...arms crossed and right foot thumping.

Standing beside her was another fox, her partner, Nick Something-Or-Other.

Ohhhh, double snap!

And surrounding them both was a gaggle of Erin's younger siblings, all of whom were regarding her with looks of gleeful anticipation.

TRIPLE Snap!