The Fire Triangle -- Part II, Oxidizer

The Fire Triangle: Book II - Chapter 10

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

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Part Two:

Oxidizer

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Chapter 2—Finding Conor
(Part 1)

To gain access to Zootopia's Police Precinct-1, visitors are required to ascend a short flight of steps, six at the most.

For Judy Hopps, on this hazy, sultry, Savanna Central morning, it felt as if she were climbing the slopes of Mount Doom.

Chief Bogo's call had come in two days ago. "Hopps, be in my office the day after tomorrow, 9:00 A.M. sharp...and come in uniform."

He had offered no explanation.

"Yes sir," Judy had said, and when the Chief had rung off, she had caught herself fighting back the tears. His call had contained only about a hundred harbingers of bad things to come. First of all, he had told her to come in 'the day after tomorrow.' Not good; if he'd wanted to talk some more about her meetings with the Red Pig, and Joe 'The Shadow' Porcini, he would have instructed her to come in right away. And then there was the matter of that '9:00 sharp'; he never set a specific time for a meeting unless it had something to do with your performance record. And, last but not least, he had ordered her to appear in uniform. That had been all she wrote as far as this doe-bunny was concerned. She was being summoned to a disciplinary hearing; it couldn't be anything else.

Reporting first to Benjamin Clawhauser, as instructed, Judy was told to take a seat in the lobby and wait for Bogo to call her. The plus size cheetah's face showed neither sorrow, nor sympathy as he delivered the order. He was, in fact, his usual bubbly self. That told the doe-bunny it would be pointless to ask him for any clarification; he wouldn't have known what Bogo wanted her for either.

After several minutes of searching, she managed to find a bench that was currently unoccupied, (she didn't want anyone else near her right now.) Checking her watch, she saw that it was 8:55, a few minutes early; as always she had been punctual to a fault.

To a fault...yes, that was a good way to put it. These next five minutes were going to seem like centuries.

Maddening centuries; for all of those next few minutes, the animals passing by her offered only the briefest of glances, if that much. Nobody stopped to talk to her; nobody said a word to her. On the plus side, nobody pointed a finger in her direction and whispered an aside to their companion—and nobody seemed to be going out of their way to avoid her either. It was just another day in Precinct-1 as far as everyone here was concerned. At one point Judy spotted Detective Lieutenant Charles Saw, on his way up the concourse to Chief Bogo's office, but he didn't look at her either. (Of course, he was all the way over on the other side of the Precinct's front foyer, so he probably wouldn't have noticed her anyway.)

"When I'm done here," she told herself. "I need to go talk to Dr. Hind. Oh, wait a minute...will I even be eligible to see him after today? And what about Mom and Dad, what will I tell them? Oh, sweet cheez n' crackers, they're going to be here on Friday with Erin; her ZAPA audition is coming up Saturday, I forgot all about that. Ohhhh, how can I face them? Will they let me come home, after that business with...my former partner, and now THIS? And I just renewed the lease on my apartment. And how am I going to get packed up in only....? QUIT GETTING AHEAD OF YOURSELF, DUMB BUNNY!"