Were it not for the seatbelts, and the fact that they surprisingly didn’t crash into anything, then Fluttershy and Judy may have been dead. The car came to a screeching stop right in front of the Zootopia county jail, allowing the two ladies to finally catch their breaths and breathe once again.
“We’re… here…” Flash spoke, slowly unlocking the doors. As soon as the doors clicked, both Fluttershy and Judy unbuckled themselves and ran out of their door. It was a surprise that neither of them had an accident during the rollercoaster-like ride. Nick, meanwhile, got out of the car and turned to Flash.
“See ya later, Flash.”
“See… you… soon… too.” Flash replied, rolling up the window and driving away, almost hitting more cars along the way. Nick turned to the two ladies, seeing them hugging each other and shivering in fear.
“I-i-I’m n-n-never g-gonna s-s-see sloths th-the s-s-s-same w-way.” Fluttershy stuttered.
“M-Me t-t-t-too.” Judy added.
“You’ll get the hang of it,” Nick spoke, walking into the building. “How else do you think I get to the ZPD so early, Carrots?”
“N-n-never d-do that… a-again!”
“I can’t promise on that one.”
All three of them headed into the prison and walked to a grizzly bear at the front desk.
“Good morning. Name's Officer Tug. How may I help you?” he said in a low, but tender voice.
“We’re here to see an inmate, Bellwether.” Judy said.
“Heh, here to see Smellwether? I'm gonna need to see your-” He paused as he saw Fluttershy. “Wait a second… why is she here?” Nick and Judy turned to Fluttershy. The Pegasus only blinked in confusion.
“Her?” Nick asked. “Have you two meet before?”
“You didn't catch the new video? It's spread like wildlife online.”
“What video?” Judy asked.
“This one.” Tug pulled his phone out and showed the three. It was the incident from yesterday, but recorded through some Teenager’s phone camera. “Yeah, it hit the Internet hard, and it's been hit back as well.”
“Hit back?” Fluttershy asked.
“Ah… the good ol’ comments.” Nick commented.
“It's a war in the comments section below,” Tug added. “But it seems most agree that it's fake.”
“Fake!?” Fluttershy asked in shock.
“Real shame. But if it really is true...” said Tug.
“It is!” said the three.
“... Eh, to each their own. I still need to see your IDs and sign these papers. When finished, see old Tug here. Heh heh.”
They went over to a series of chairs against the wall and sat down. Lucky for Judy, this only took ten minutes, much shorter, simpler, and faster than their time in the DMV. That got Fluttershy confused, both for what the DMV was and what happened at said place.
“There's one thing I find very funny about that.” Nick said.
“Other than my impatience?” Judy replied, standing up and handing over the papers to Tug.
“That's one, but the fact that you can use their guest computers to find and run that license plate.”
“...You can do that?”
“Yep. Been that way 10 years ago. But it was so gosh darn funny, and cute, to see you impatient.”
“... Are there any other secrets you're keeping from me, Nick? Anything we can use that'll help?”
“Other than Hayseed here, none at all.”
“Hm… everything's in order.” Tug spoke, handing the two back their IDs. “Smellwether is at the very end, but we're keeping a close eye on you three.”
“Ok, sir,” Fluttershy replied, walking behind Nick and Judy. “Have a nice day!” She waved back as he did.
“Hm...those wings do look real.”
The three passed by the various cells, each with their own prisoner in matching orange jumpsuits, though in different shackles,ranging from just handcuffs to muzzles. They arrived to the last cell, in which the hallway lights were flickering. Fluttershy swallowed as she approached with the two officers, unsure what Bellwether, or Smellwether, looked like. She thought of some mammal that may be huge and tall, much more than an elephant and giraffe. But what she saw was nothing like that. Instead, sitting with its forelegs crossed was a small sheep with large, black plastic rimmed glasses.
“... Huh… I thought you'd look different.” Fluttershy spoke, breaking the silence.
“And you're not from around here.” Bellwether replied with a Stern tone in her voice.
“Good morning, Bellwether,” Judy spoke. “How's your time here behind bars?”
“The same as most other days, Bunny. I'm baffled that you brought your fox along.”
“It's Nick, sweetie,” Nick corrected. “Now, are you willing to cooperate with us?”
“Hmph! Why would I team up with the duo that foiled my perfect plan to bring peace to Zootopia, let alone, starred in a very fake looking viral video.”
“It's not fake!” Fluttershy retorted.
“Yeah, just like those wings. Which studio is paying you to keep this up? Ancestral? Metro Goldwyn Mare? Pisney? Diznar?”
“We’re not here to discuss lucrative film deals, Bellwether,” Judy spoke sternly, pulling out the various photos of the missing prey officers and affected Predators “We’re here to ask you about who's aiming at the Predator population and another missing mammal case.”
“...Hehehehe… you’re basically doing the same case again?”
“Almost, but we think you know who’s kidnapping them and affecting the others.”
“Hmph! Even if I do know, what would that do for me?”
“Less time behind bars.” Nick simply answered.
“I have all the time in the world, fox. Why don’t you three get out and leave me be; I have some readings to catch up on.” Nick turned around, followed by Judy.
“What are we going to do, Nick?” Judy asked.
“You know her better, Carrots.” Nick replied. “We’ll do good cop-bad cop on her. I’m fine being the bad cop so-”
“Um, I don’t want to sound rude,” Fluttershy spoke, meddling into their conversation. “But I can help.”
“Oh, and how, Hayseed? You can’t go in her cell and cuddle her until she tells you.”
“Well… I don’t want to do it, but… if I have to… I’ll do my special move.”
“Special move?” Judy asked.
“...I’ll warn you about it. I don’t want you to be afraid.” She turned to Bellwether. “Um, excuse me, Ms. Bellwether?”
“What!?” The sheep demanded, lowering a book.
“Um… I-I’m just going to give you a fair warning, but you should tell us what you know, or I’m going to do something you’re gonna regret.”
“...hahahahaha!!! You!? You can’t do anything to me! I’m behind bars, and if you do get in this, I’m afraid the security’s going to take your mechanical wings off and throw you into another cell. Go on… try your move.”
“...Cover your eyes, Nick and Judy.” She walked to the cell and took a deep breath, followed by opening her eyes wide. Bellwether tilted her head in confusion.
“Uh… what the heck are you-?” She froze as it seemed as if Fluttershy’s eyes widened… followed by all her past memories playing in front of her, all of which were her low moments. She remembered the first time she was sheared for the first time, losing all of her wool and going around school, only to be made fun of for her lack of wool. The next was her being bullied by a pack of wolves in high school, all of which gave her the nickname she dreaded the most, ‘Smellwether’. After that, she was lucky enough to graduate from college, and though she got a job in the office, Lionheart, the soon-to-be-elected mayor, treated her like garbage. Of course, it jumped to her downfall, where she landed in prison, where everyday, it’s becoming the same day; wake up, eat, courtyard, reading, meal, more reading, bed, repeat.
Fluttershy continued her staring.
“Well!?” she demanded.
“...Louis!” Bellwether spoke, staring in fear. “That’s all I know! I made a deal with Louis! He helped my subordinates know how to make Nighthowler pellets and supplied me with the equipment needed! Please! Make it stop!” Fluttershy blinked and shook her head. Bellwether regained her vision and fell to the floor, holding herself while rolled into a ball, shivering in fear.
“I’m so sorry, miss. I didn’t want to do it, but I had to. Can I get some more info?”
“....Not here… He’s not here…”
“Where is he?” Bellwether fell to the floor, unconscious. “Oh dear! I overdid it!”
“I think we can work with that.” Judy spoke.
“And what the heck is that!?” Nick added. Fluttershy turned to the two.
“Oh… d-did you see?”
“...Most of it.”
“Oh… well… I-I do this with my animals when they don’t listen. It’s simply called ‘The Stare’. I-I try not to use it, and I promise that-”
“It’s okay,” Judy spoke, placing a calm paw on her shoulder. “As long as it’s not on us and only for emergencies, we’re fine with it, right?”
“Oh, of course,” Nick added. “I’m alright knowing that I’m with a pegasus that can make any animal shiver in fear just by her staring at them.” Judy grunted.
“Nick.”
“I’m just saying!” He turned and walked out. The two followed.
“Know anyone named ‘Louis’?”
“Plenty, but she said ‘not here.’”
“Hm… It’s going to take forever in the ZPD files to find him. One less district is a bit easier, but not by a lot.”
“Um… what if he’s not here.” Fluttershy added.
“Not here?”
“I mean… are there other locations besides Zootopia?” This got the cop duo to stop and blink.
“... Oh sweet cheese and crackers.”
“Grea~t.” Nick mumbled to himself, exiting the building with the two. “If we can’t find some guy named Louis in this city, then we’re dealing with some deeper conspiracy than the last one! Shall we read the conspiracy forums online to see what is real?”
“Nick, you’re overreacting.”
“Oh no! I’m not the overreacting type, you know me better than that, carrots. If I were to overreact, then I’d say that we use Hayseed to find and use her stare on anyone named Louis until we find our guy.”
“I can’t use it all the time, sir.” Fluttershy spoke. “It’s more or less a once a day tool.”
“Oh, and if I’m guessing right, then if we do this, it’ll take at least… one thousand, four hundred and seventeen days to find our guy.” A black limousine pulled up, and out stepped two large, strong looking polar bears, both with matching black leather jackets. Nick jumped and hid right behind the two ladies. “Raymond!? Kevin!?”
“Nick and Judy.” said the first one.
“You are cordially invited to the birthday of Miss Fru Fru’s daughter, Judy.” said the second. This gave Fluttershy a look at Hopps. The rabbit noticed her look.
“We're friends.” Judy answered Fluttershy's unspoken question.
“Now?” Nick asked.
“Now.” The first spoke, opening the door for them.
“...Can you give us a minute?” He turned to the two. “Alright, when I say break, Hayseed, carry Carrots out and-”
“Nick, that's not gonna work.” Judy interrupted.
“She's not gonna snuggle with you, right, Hayseed?” Fluttershy was gone. “... Hayseed?” He turned and gasped as Fluttershy sat in the car seat, oblivious to the polar bears giving her the evil eye. Judy entered the vehicle.
“Don't worry, she's with me.” The polar bears nodded. Nick stuttered, but sighed in defeat, entering the car with the two. One of the polar bears entered with them, keeping a close eye on the three, while the other entered the passenger seat, with the driver also a polar bear. Their vehicle drove away to Mr. Big’s mansion, located in Tundra Town. Fluttershy happily hummed away, excited to head to a new place with a friend of Judy's, but Nick and Judy whispered to each other.
“How can you be so calm right now?” Nick began.
“How can you not be so calm?” Judy asked back.
“Because, despite the fact that you're good friends with his daughter, you and I are cops.”
“So?”
“Mr. Big does not like cops.”
“Well, we're not going in as police, but as friends to his family.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“I'll just ask him about Louis and if he knows his whereabouts. It'll go on from there.”
“And if he doesn't know?”
“... Back to the ZPD?”
“... Well that's a SWELL idea there.”