Ewe Don't Wanna Know (Zootopia — Movie Pt. 5)
Sunset's Isekai
Ewe Don't Wanna Know (Zootopia — Movie Pt. 5)
By Wanderer D
While Judy had never been to the central offices of Clawhorn and Hoof, it was hard to miss them. They were one of the biggest firms to exist, and their Corporate Headquarters reflected this, being one of the tallest buildings in all of Zootopia. The thing itself was at its base as big as a city block, and it went up so high it was one of the first things she had seen when travelling to Zootopia via train, and even though she had driven past it several occasions by now, it still seemed overwhelming.
"Huh." Sunset leaned back, looking up into the distance. "Seems like someone is compensating for something."
Nick barked out a laugh, ignoring the disgruntled look several of the lawyers walking by gave them.
Judy smirked and shook her head. She had a lot… a LOT… of questions for Sunset, but she couldn't deny the mysterious wolf had something about her that was disarming and engaging. It was a dangerous thing, as she and Nick both knew from experience that sometimes some individuals used that charisma for less than helpful purposes.
Still, Sunset's jab had served its purpose, and the building was nothing more than a large building now. It's threatening presence lessened by a simple joke.
The trio walked into the lobby, thick glass automatic doors parting for them with barely a whisper. It was huge inside, as expected, and it took Judy a moment to spot the front desk, which was no mean feat, considering it was long enough to allow at least six employees to help customers side by side. Looking around, she could see other, similar desks further around the lobby.
"I think that's the closest one," she said, pointing to the first one she saw. "Come on."
They made their way to the desk, and stepped up to speak to a smartly dressed gazelle, who was smiling placidly at the latest customer that had just left her desk. She extended that same smile at them, politely nodding as she greeted them.
"Welcome to the Clawhorn and Hoof Corporate Headquarters, my name is Jenny, how can I assist you? Do you have an appointment already, or would you like to set one up with one of our advisors?"
Judy cleared her throat. "I'm Officer Hopps, and this is Officer Wilde, we're here to speak to Mr. Clawhorn about a Clawhorn and Hoof crate that was found at the Museum."
The smile did not disappear for even a second. "I'm afraid Mr. Clawhorn is unavailable, but you can speak to any one of his lawyers about anything you'd like, Officer Hopps."
Judy bit her lip. She didn't have anything she could use to force the issue, and without a warrant, if Mr. Clawhorn didn't want to talk to her, she'd be bogged down by possibly hundreds of lawyers. It was unlikely that he'd even hear of them being there at all.
"Hm," Sunset spoke up. "I believe I can help with that, Miss, if you could search if I had an appointment, I would appreciate it. My business partner, Rarity Belle might have set one up already with him. If not, it might be under my name; Sunset Shimmer."
The look the young gazelle gave Sunset—studying her attire, head to paws—and the almost condescending twitch to her smile were particularly annoying, but seeing that Sunset took it in stride, Judy elected to not say anything.
"Let's see…" Jenny said, typing away at her computer, "Sunset… Shimmer…" She waited for a moment before smiling even more placidly, if that was possible. "I'm afraid not, Sunset. As I said, Mr. Clawhorn himself is an extremely busy individual, and I'm sure whatever it is you need can be perfectly handled by one of our junior associates."
The wolf shrugged. "No, need, thank you for checking, Jenny. I'm sure I have his number somewhere back at the office."
Sighing in disappointment, Judy guided them out of the building.
"Well," Nick said, "that went just about as I would have predicted."
"I can't believe they wouldn't let us speak to him," Judy muttered. "We're officers!"
"And that is more likely to make it even more difficult," Sunset pointed out. "Especially if there is any chance of an investigation happening in relation to him."
"I—" Judy stopped and her ears twitched. "Did you hear that?"
"We're not rabbits, Carrots."
"Wait!" Jenny's voice reached them.
They turned around to see the gazelle running towards them as fast as she could, her cloven hoof held out pleadingly, while several lawyers and guests moved out of the way to gape at her.
Judy and Nick exchanged glances, then looked up at Sunset, who shrugged. The trio waited for the gazelle to stagger up to them, gasping. "G-good, I caught up with you, Miss Shimmer."
"Oh, it's Miss Shimmer now," Nick drawled.
"Um, yes," Jenny said, making herself look a little smaller. "I do apologize for… um. Mister Clawhoof asked me to escort the three of you to his personal office."
"How many non-personal offices does he have?" Nick asked as they started following the gazelle back.
"Five. It really depends on who he is meeting with," Jenny replied, her tone subdued and nervously giving Sunset a side-glance.
"And… how many personal offices does he have?" Judy asked.
"One," the gazelle replied, clearing her throat. "Just one."
"Ah, Miss Shimmer!" Mr. Clawhorn eagerly walked over to where they all three stood at the exit of the private elevator, which had opened onto an entire floor of the building. "What an honor to have you visit my humble business!"
"My pleasure, Mr. Clawhorn, I'm glad you were available, I heard you were a very busy individual."
Judy tried not to smirk at the whimper that emanated from Jenny, who was hovering nervously behind them.
"It is quite an impressive office," Sunset said, looking around and apparently noticing several items of interest. "I like your collection." She walked to a nearby plaque with strange symbols on it. "Kzinti, if I'm not mistaken."
Mr. Clawhorn's smile was frozen in place for a moment. "Ah. Yes, um… I assure you I obtained that in um…" He trailed off, looking at them and Jenny. "...an uninvolved manner."
Sunset giggled. "No need to fear anything from me, Mr. Clawhorn, I'm just a humble bartender."
Judy crossed her arms, shooting Sunset an annoyed look. There was no way she was a bartender.
"Um… of course. In any case, that is indeed Kzinti, and it was a gift from Rarity to my grandfather, to celebrate one of our first deals together in the early days of the company."
Something about that made Judy narrow her eyes, but what it was exactly escaped her at the moment. It was strange enough that such a prominent figure would even begin to think to justify anything he owned at all to a bartender. The whole situation was surreal, and with what had happened in the museum, it was starting to make her wonder just what kind of underworld she and Nick had stumbled into.
"We do have some sensitive issues to discuss," Sunset said, "and we wouldn't want to keep you from your important business."
"Nonsense, I have all the time in the world for you and Miss Rarity," Mr. Clawhorn said, motioning for them to head inside and making Jenny whimper again. That was enough for him to focus his attention on the gazelle, who stood paralized in front of the large tiger, as if expecting to be executed. "That will be all, miss… um… Fletcher."
Jenny opened her mouth as if to correct him, but seemed to think better of it, and then simply nodded, hurrying into the elevator. A few seconds later they were all alone.
"You know her last name was Blumenthal," Nick pointed out.
"Was it?" Mr. Clawhorn asked. "No matter. Please, make yourselves comfortable," he added, motioning with his paw at a large sofa.
"Really, Mr. Clawhorn," Sunset said, "you don't have to feel so nervous around me. You're doing business with Rarity, after all."
Mr. Clawhorn sighed. "Perhaps, but you do understand that you have a reputation, Miss Shimmer."
"I wasn't aware that it was anything but good."
"It is!" he immediately replied. "It's just… you are best friends with Charlie Magne, and a close acquaintance of Lucifer Morningstar, and several other… individuals of considerable influence. I believe even Rarity is sometimes surprised at your ability to befriend others."
Sunset smiled. "Thank you for the compliments, but buttering me up, as flattering as it is, is only going to distract us from our real objective here... Well then, we do have some questions for you, I believe Officer Hopps wanted to talk to you about them?"
Judy blinked, suddenly finding herself the center of attention. So far the conversation had gone over her head. Who were these individuals that Sunset knew that so impressed Mr. Clawhorn? They weren't names she was familiar with, and a glance at Nick—who had shaken his head in bewilderment at the conversation earlier—had confirmed that they were unknowns to him too… which was a bit scary, considering how familiar he was with the criminal elements of the city.
"Ahem." Judy nodded. "Mr. Clawhorn… when we went to investigate the cause of the fire, we discovered that someone had attempted to break into the storage room, where they found a destroyed crate with the logo of Clawhorn and Hoof on it."
She put down a few of the pictures from the file on the table for him to look at. "While it doesn't appear now that the contents themselves created the fire, it seems like it did react to a blowtorch being used to attempt to open it."
"Hm." Mr. Clawhorn picked up one of the pictures, and his eyes widened slightly. "I see."
"Whoever started the fire that put in danger the life of your granddaughter and her schoolmates was trying to get this," she pointed out. "Whatever records we could find did not indicate the contents or even why the crate was there." She pulled out her notepad. "Is there anything you could tell us?"
"I haven't seen this crate in a long time…" Mr. Clawhorn said, carefully. Judy noticed how he glanced at Sunset as if to ask for permission to speak. "The… contents are not volatile exactly, but it was something that… was not best kept here." He swallowed. "The contents needed to remain pure…"
"I'm not liking this," Sunset said. "What would you need to contain away from here? Couldn't a normal seal work for it?"
Nick's ear twitched, and Judy nodded to herself. The way Sunset had said 'seal' had an extra meaning there.
"No…" Mr. Clawhoof sighed and went over to his desk, pouring himself a glass. "We're not Wolfram and Hart, Miss Shimmer… but our origins were not that different."
"I gathered, given that you brought up Morningstar and Charlie, but didn't mention Belldandy or—"
"Yes, exactly," Mr. Clawhorn interrupted. "But we are not them," he insisted. "When Miss Belle helped establish this office… things changed for a lot of the senior partners. We are invested in the welfare of the people of this world… of Zootopia. As you can imagine, since Rarity is one of our business partners, we still deal with a lot of… unconventional things. But we take care of them in different ways. The content of this crate… is old. It's… misplaced. And it has no business being in a place where its inherent… purity… could be corrupted however unintentionally."
Judy could feel a headache coming. "Corrupted how?"
Mr. Clawhorn gave Sunset a pleading look, then glanced back at Judy with a sigh of resignation. "Miss Hopps… Officer Hopps. There are things out there that really don't fall into the Zootopia Police Department's scope. If you delve more into it, you will not be able to see the world as you did before."
"If you're going to avoid answering the question—"
"It's true," Sunset said, interrupting Judy. "You guys need to be careful, once you fully open the can of worms, there's no putting them back in. We can still figure out whodunnit without the whole thing… being exposed... we just need to find the culprits."
"I think we could do that, right?" Nick said nervously. "It's basically what we're supposed to do."
"Don't tell me you're afraid of… whatever this is, Nick," Judy said. "We need the full picture if we want to solve this!"
Nick raised a claw to argue, then grimaced, closing his mouth. "I hope we don't come to regret it, Carrots."
"Then we're going to continue?" Mr. Clawhorn clarified.
"Yes," Judy said, sitting straighter and giving him a defiant look. "We need to know."
Mr. Clawhorn cleared his throat. "Well then. So be it. The reason it couldn't stay here is that the being trapped inside is too pure… too young to survive the slow corruption that we have to deal with here every day unscathed, especially since it is unable to fight it."
"You had someone trapped in there?!" Judy asked, aghast.
"What is it?" Sunset asked, leaning forth, her eyes narrowed. "There's not many things out there that would fall into that category, and I have to wonder, if you don't trade in such things, how did it come to be here?"
Mr. Clawhorn grimaced. "I don't know… and we don't. But it was brought to us by… others. We felt it was our responsibility to procure it from them, and a deal was struck. No doubt they thought we would put it to use for something, but we rather stored it and—I'm afraid—forgot about it until now."
He sighed and took a sip of his glass, giving Sunset an unsure look. "They said it came from a deprived world."
Sunset growled. It was a visceral growl that made Judy nervous and Nick's hackles rise. The type of growl she'd expect to hear from someone being affected by Nighthowlers.
"No one who would try and steal it knew it was there," Mr. Clawhorn said. "And those of us that hadn't forgotten about it… wouldn't need anything other than showing up to reclaim it. No one would be the wiser."
Sunset stood up. "I think… we should go."
Judy jumped to her feet, rushing after her as the wolf stomped over to the elevator and pressed the button to summon it up. "Wait, we can't! There's a lot of questions that need answering!"
"We won't find much else here," Sunset countered, her claws unclenching. She glanced over at Mr. Clawhorn. "Thank you… I'm glad you don't engage in that kind of thing."
"Sorry I couldn't be of more help, Miss Shimmer," the tiger replied. "I hope to see you again… perhaps in happier circumstances."
"I'm sure I can make time for my lawyer every other century," Sunset said, her body relaxing a little bit. "I really hope we have a chance to talk when things like these are not hanging over the city."
"Well, I can honestly say," Nick started as he drove the police car towards the street where Sunset's home was, "that I learned nothing today."
"We should have stayed," Judy insisted, giving Sunset an accusatory glance from the rearview mirror. "Maybe he said a lot of things that make sense to you, but not to us. And we are the ones that have to solve this case."
Sunset shrugged and smiled as they pulled to a stop in front of her place. "How about you two come in for a drink?"
End Part 5
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This is getting good!~
And the dynamic duo shall find out about the bar and the multiverse. Wonder who can hold their booze better.?
Hmm, interesting. I do like that they're not Wolfram and Hart, at least.
Who is this person?
10254776
My money is on Nick holding his booze better then Carrots lol
10254778
Charlie. From Hazbin Hotel.
10254793 Huh.
I thought it was a kind of pun on "Charlemagne".
Y' know... the Holy Roman Emperor?
10254793
Thank you. :)
Ooof. that king of oof that you know something big, nasty, and very much primordial is about to meet the metaphorical unstoppable object made literal.
She totally is though
*phew* that's good
You really don't, but if you wanna go for it then go for it
Oh, gonna give them the crash course huh
So Sunset knows Lucifer. I'd love to read that chapter. :) Lucifer trying to get her into bed the whole time is bad enough, but Maze would be downright dangerous. She'd probably pick up on the residual evil in Sunset. After all, the girl did go Demoness very briefly, and I strongly suspect a child of Lilith could pick up on that. She might wind up with an... unhealthy interest in Ms. Shimmer...
Edit: It's also good, now that I think about it, that Clawhorn and Hoof isn't Wolfram and Hart. The latter is so well defined now, it would be hard to do anything new or creative with it. Being similar but different offers more room to maneuver.
Also, on an unrelated note, up where you mentioned the Kzinti artifact, there's a quote missing . Also, Nick's hackles rose, not his heckles. :)
Well that's not supposed to be there...
Woah there buddy, you can't just go dropping Names like that, somebody might notice.
Sounds like a plan to me, lots of serious business going down, all involved need a bit of time to sort it out.
I just kept imagining Sher Khan from Tail Spin cowering before Sunset Shimmer, and that made me happy.
I am aching to see the next part!
Wish I could press the like button 3 or 4 more times! Keep up the great work!
10254794
It wasn't until this chapter that I put that particular reference together. And it has made me start looking at the Hazbin Hotel in a different light. Who is Roland? Ogier the Dane? Naimon the Advisor? Oliver? Turpin? Is the hotel a manifestation of Joyeuse?
*Cries* Why?! Respectfully, the pace of this story is torture! I REALLY wanna see this Zootopia story finished up, cause waiting between chapters is torture. It's just SOOOO good.
Oh I'm loving this where this mini-arc is going. Great suspension!
Judy and Nick must have a really good reputation with Clawhoof for him to down right ask if they want to open that can of worms.
Also, I think something went missing here:
Possibly a number.
Kzinti? Rarity, you couldn't have given them something Caitian?
Now, to set the scanners to alert me when they detect a dimensional disturbance.
If an anthro yellow lab wearing a blue Starfleet uniform with Commander pips walks into the bar, then welcome aboard the USS Ares NCC-63591. Be sure to have some Dr Pepper available. ;)
10254884
Well, depending on Sunset's reputation, he may have just realized that some Cosmic Events are inevitable. This is normally how the uninitiated wind up involved in these events. And he's genre savvy enough to realize that this is their "moment." But he asks them if they really want to do this before diving into the Big Reveal.
10254794
Yeah, me too!
10254917
I think the Hazbin character is supposed to be a play on his name, so it sort of is.
I imagine/hope she'll make clear just what kind of world is that.
At least how many employees? You forgot to add a number, I think.
Huh... that was unexpected. I thought ckawhorn was behind this
Belldandy! I was literally thinking about her showing up before this chapter was posted! Kinda makes me think how she and Charlie would get along. Would Charlie call Belldandy auntie?
For those of you wondering, Belldandy is literally a child of God which depending on how you look at it she would in fact make her Charlie's aunt
Dropping high level dimentional names? Oh dear.
The thing about Kzinti artifacts you have to be careful of, is the Puppeteer tech that might be in them. Given the apparent age of it, at least shouldnt have to worry about the Class 2 Hyperdrive shunt nanites.
So, the object could be effectively AU Spikes Egg?
Oh ho. Not the sort of cat people you'd normally find in Zootopia. Shame on you, Mr. Clawhoof. Sure, the locals won't know what it is, but that sort of chatchka will be a red flag for the multiversally well-traveled. (Granted, it's in his personal office. He'd normally make sure anyone who'd recognize that item wouldn't make it in or would be the sort of person he'd want to see.)
You know, the gorgeous gazelle who looks to be Sunset's age. Completely unsuspicious statement.
Ah. We're dealing with that sort of entity. Though I do have to wonder about that second point. And precisely which instance of Lucifer we're talking about. Goodness knows there are a lot of different ones out there.
Judy is the kind of person who'd read a copy of the Necronomicon just to see what all the fuss is about.
Interesting. What manner of corruption are we dealing with, and for that matter, what manner of deprivation? I suppose all will become clear in time. Pay close attention to the pictures on the wall, you two. They answer some questions and raise so many others.
10254776
I'm with 10254788 based solely on body mass.
10255101
Depends on which Spike we're talking about. (Go look up where Wolfram and Hart are from if you need an explanation of that one)
You seem to have omitted a number in this phrase.
10254794
It is.
Edit: This is Charlie.
I had to look up more of the mentioned names than I'd like to admit.
Didn't look up Lucifer Morningstar. With a name like that I'd probably be redirected to religious sources. Could be any universe that pulls from that. First one I thought of was the Lucifer from Afterparty. And I love that idea because that Lucifer, in addition to being top-dog of hell, also loves to throw wild parties and has a severe drinking problem. I can easily imagine someone like that visiting the Isekai to source some booze for a party and having Sunset Shimmer cut him off after he's had a few too many.
I cannot believe both Judy and Nick missed that slip.
One gigantic can of worms is about to be opened. Hope Judy and Nick can handle it.
10254794
I mean, i'm not Vivziepop. I don't know where she got the name in the first place. Maybe that is the pun.
10255184
I was kinda assuming it was Lucifer from Lucifer.
Wait, there are friendly versions of Lucifer in fiction? Geeze... I’m gonna have to avoid those fictions just on principle.
10255131
I'm thinking the one from Netflix. The one who bangs women by the group, and can seduce a therapist into accepting sex as payment for his talk sessions.
10255184
Try Netflix
10254788 Agreed, Nick seems like the type that can hold his own while Judy's too much of a lightweight. Of course Sunset would want them cognizant so I doubt she'll give them anything hard enough to get them plastered.
10255232
There isn't a version of Morningstar that's "friendly". They just prefer subtlety on their dealings. Haven't seen the Netflix version, but it seems like he's one of those.
Personally, I thought he was Mainline DCU Lucifer the one "Garraespina" (oh derp, Clawthorn sounds adorable in Spanish) meant.
10254821
I can imagine Sher Khan from The Jungle Book cowering before Sunset "Isekai" Shimmer... It was fun
SO many references in this chapter.
""Yes, exactly," Mr. Clawhorn interrupted. "But we are not them," he insisted. "When Miss Belle helped establish this office… things changed for a lot of the senior partners. We are invested in the welfare of the people of this world… of Zootopia."
I'm taking by this line that Clawhorn actually IS one of Wolfram and Harts senior partners?
Love the "Known space" reference. I think L. Niven would be happy.
Wait for it...
This is gonna be good
10255131
Thank goodness I wasn't the only one grinning at Niven making an appearance.
10254869
NO!
Stall as long as possible because this Zootopia story arc is awesome!
<chuckles> Oh, Alastor would love the suffering this is creating.
It's called the Mutiverse my dear cops.
Enjoy the ride.
"to allow at least employees"
Should there have been a number there?
Would it be racist to make an Alice in Wonderland reference?
10254840 I've never watched Hazbin Hotel, and have only seen passing references to it (art on Deviantart; etc.) , so I don't know that much about it.
(I don't personally have Netflix, for one.)
As to Roland, he was (supposedly; in the story of him) the nephew of Emperor Charlemagne.
The others I don't know about.
10254917
10254959 Probably.
10255179 Cool.
And I've seen enough pics of here over on Deviantart and other places to know WHO she is; I've just never watched Hazbin Hotel.
10255196 'Tis okay.
And probably.
10255377 Indeed.
And what a ride it will/would be!
10255523
I meant, I wondered if any of the HH characters would have eventually equated to characters from the Matter of France. :D