Zootropolis A new Day {Book one of the Zootopia series}

Chapter 2 Back on Duty

Nick finally got out of the hospital, after 4 weeks. 4 weeks full of annoying Yoga sessions and other othropedic exercises. He was very happy to be inside the headquarters of Precinct 1 again. But no one else seemed to be happy to see him. Wherever he went, no one wanted to talk to him. Instead, every single mammal stared at him with an angry face.

He walked through the main hall and towards the receptionist's desk, where a happy, chubby cheetah squealed like a girl, as he saw his friend. "Hey Ben how are you today?" Nick smiled up at Clawhauser. "Oh hey Nick, glad to see you in one piece again." Clawhauser answered and looked at Nick's belt. "Excuse me, but where's your gun?" The cheetah asked, pointing at Nick's belt. "Excuse me what?" "Haven't you heard it yet?" Clawhauser answered and put on a serious face. Nick just shook his head slowly, completely confused of the situation.

"No idea what you're talking about Ben..." Nick replied, which made Clawhauser take a few deep breaths. "Where should I start. Okay, shortly after you were shot. Many other criminals began to use ballistic weaponry, with that I mean guns with bullets and gunpowder 'n stuff. These guns are now massively used and every day, we suspend more and more new types. This also caused a way higher crime rate and even more heavily injured or dead officers. The city council then decided to purchase these new weapons as well and with that it has offered the ZPD an arsenal of these completely new weapons. There is now a 24/7 duty of carrying at least one semi-automatic pistol instead of a tranquilizer- or Taser-gun. There is also a new shooting range and I suggest you, to get there now." The cheetah took a minute to catch his breath again. "Well Nick....the times were we just shocked each other are over." He said sorrowly and looked at a framed picture on his desk. Obviously an image of a certain famous gazelle.

With even more confusion than before, Nick just waved good bye. "Okay, see you later clawing-gator." and walked away, towards the huge, new, black door on the other side of the entrance hall. "See ya." Clawhauser replied. "Oh by the way, there are two new faces here. Mr. Savage, some sort of special agent. He is here to train the officers psychologically and check their health. A pretty nice guy. I bet you'll like him. And then we have..." Nick turned around and just ignored the cheetah. " Yeah, thanks Ben."

"New guns? New faces? I don't fucking care! Where is Judy?" Nick thought as he walked towards the new arsenal. Guns, guns, guns and even more guns were hanging on the walls or put into illuminated shelves. Everything from small-calibred pistols to heavy shotguns and automatic rifles.

"God damn..." Nick walked towards one particular pistol on one of these shelves. It looked a bit too big for his paws, but as he held it and aimed down the sights, it had a pretty good feeling to it. Nick felt strong, like nothing could hurt him. "Nice choice officer." Nick jumped up by the sudden sound of a voice and turned around to where the voice came from. It belonged to a dark-grey wolf in a normal police uniform, but it looked way too preppy. The wolf walked right next to Nick and pointed at the gun in Nick's paws. The red fox slightly looked to see the right side of the wolf's face and muzzle. "M9 Beretta, caliber 45, semi-automatic." The grey wolf began to explain and held a magazine towards Nick. "Ah thanks for telling." Nick replied slyish and put on a smile.

It faded as he saw the other half of the wolfs face. Where its left eye should have been, there was a blue glowing and summing thing. Also, the left side of the wolf's face and its cheek were covered in scars, which looked like claw scratches. The wolf, noticed Nick's face and stare. "I know I look scary as hell itself. But trust me. Deep inside, I'm a hopeless romancer." "Okay then." Nick put on a fake smile and backed away slowly, but of course the wolf walked after him. "A-hem." The wolf coughed up and gestured towards Nick. "And you are?" The wolf sounded a bit annoyed and walked closer to the scared red fox. "Um....I'm Nicholas Wilde." The wolf's face started to soften up.