Chapter 3: The ZPD

When Judy and Nick returned to Precinct 1, they were immediately directed to the bullpen by Clawhauser, the chubby cheetah warning them that Chief Bogo seemed to be on the warpath. Upon entering, they saw that they weren't the only ones that the Chief had summoned; the room was packed out with officers from all across the city, each speculating why he had called them in from patrol in the middle of the day. Taking a seat at the front table, they didn't have to wait long before Chief Bogo threw open the door and stomped in.

"Fangmire, lights!" he snapped, as everyone fell silent.

The wolf sitting near the back of the room flicked off the light switch while Bogo pulled down a screen and fired up the ceiling mounted projector. After a moment, an image appeared in the whiteboard. It was of The Flash standing by the burnt apartment from earlier that day.

"For those of you that are not aware, this strange mammal has been appearing all over the city and beyond in the last hour or so. What's more, images of him are being plastered all over social media where ever he goes." He said.

Bogo stood behind the speaker's podium and clicked the button that was used to change the projector slide.

"Tundra Town."

This image had The Flash, appearing as a scarlet blur surrounded by lighting as he broke up a robbery.

"Rainforest District."

This was a series of images that showed The Flash, again photographed as a scarlet blur, racing back along a collapsing walkway. The last image was the only one with a clear picture of him, as he had stopped moving to hand over a giraffe and tiger cub to their parents.

"Little Rodentia."

A quiet laugh went around the assembled officers, as the image had scarlet speedster tip toeing around rodents and miniature buildings as he pursued a familiar looking pickpocket.

"Weaslton never learns, does he?" muttered Nick to Judy as they shared in the collective amusement.

"Deer Brook County," continued Bogo.

This image had The Flash standing beside an ambulance at a crash scene. He was speaking with the Caribou EMT, who was gesturing to the mess of debris between him and the accident site. From the picture, it looked like at least three vehicles were involved and the debris was blocking the ambulance. A second image had a lighting shrouded blur clearing a route for the ambulance and a third even
showed him at the hospital sharing doughnuts and coffee with the exhausted crew.

"Bunnyburrow."

"Are those are my parents?!" blurted out Judy in surprise.

The image did indeed show her parents, Stu and Bonnie Hopps, with their old pickup truck. The bonnet was open and Stu had his head buried in the smoking engine block, while Bonnie stood to one side. The Flash was talking to her, and he was in the act of handing tools to her father so he could fix the stricken vehicle. Bogo shot her an annoyed look.

"If Chitter is to be believed, your parent's truck broke down and he ran back to their farm to get a toolbox, although your father apparently tried to taze him first. That image was posted by one 'Julia Hopps', who followed it up by stating, and I quote, 'he's hot."

That caused Judy to groan inwardly, Julia was one of the eldest of her 275 siblings, and she was constantly getting these high school crushes on any attractive mammal she saw. Then there was her parents, whom she loved dearly, but they could get so nervous around strange mammals. She wondered if they had tried to contact her so she checked her phone and found there were over a dozen unread messages waiting for her.

The lights went back up and Bogo addressed his men.

"We don't know what he is, where he came from, or even what his motivations are. He is to be brought in for questioning immediately." He said.

"You want us to arrest him, sir?" asked Nick. "Only from that, it doesn't look like he's done anything wrong. Heck, he saved Officer Hopps from that fire.

"I am aware of his 'heroics' Officer Wilde," replied Bogo, glaring at the fox. "But the fact remains that, regardless of his actions, he is an unknown mammal and a vigilante, which sets a dangerous precedent. Having mammals take the law into their own paws is something that I. Will. Not. Tolerate!"

He slammed his fist onto the podium for emphasis.

"Now, return to your regular assignments, but if The Flash is sighted by any one of you, I expect you all to drop what you're doing and apprehend him, dismissed!"

"Try Everything! Whoa oh oh oh oh! Try Everything!"

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

"T'll say one more thing for this Earth, it's got great music." Barry said.

Barry was glad that Cisco had installed a scanner into his earpiece; it was originally so he could listen out for crimes through police frequencies, but it could also pick up standard radio signals as well.

He bobbed his head to the beat of Gazelles' number one hit as he sped back towards Zootopia, mulling over recent events.

After exploring some more, as well as helping out wherever he could, Barry had focused his efforts on trying to find a way back home. To that end, he had checked every library he could find and even borrowed a computer from the grateful owner of an Internet Café after he stopped a theft in progress.
However, despite an extensive search, he hadn't found anything useful so far. There was no Central City on this Earth, no Cisco Ramone, Harrison Wells, Chester P. Runk, Caitlin Snow or even an equivalent to S.T.A.R. Labs. Not even his other superhero friends or their cities. The team of friends he relied on did not exist here, and, as he continued his research, he came to a startling conclusion.

There were no humans on this earth at all.

From what he had found, the dinosaurs had gone extinct in much the same way they had on his earth, but instead of apes evolving into the dominant species, every mammal had done so instead. Apes still existed, in fact he had found an image of one in a literal 'monkey suit', but they had not evolved into Homo sapiens. This left him with a bit of a problem, as he could not blend in with the population outside of his costume. Blasting through the city limits, The Flash ran to one of the less travelled parts of the city and stopped in a secluded alleyway to rest. Pulling back his mask, Barry pulled an energy bar from a pocket on his costume and took a bite. The snack was another of Cisco's ideas, they were especially designed to help him replenish the ten thousand
or so calories he burned every day. That was one good thing about his powers, he could eat almost as much as he wanted and never put on weight.

Sitting on an upturned bucket, he took a deep breath as he tried to think. He needed somewhere to stay until he could find a way home, but he had nothing save what he was already carrying. He could always ask for some money from the people he helped, but that wasn't how he worked, heroes didn't charge for their service. Then he remembered what the wolf had said earlier, when you need help, go to the ZPD.
Pulling out his phone, Barry checked the address. Finishing the bar, he pulled his mask back on and was about to speed off when he saw a police cruiser drive past, one that had a familiar looking bunny at the wheel.

"I swear that the coffee gets more expensive every day, moaned Nick as he and Judy left the Snarlbucks. "Why do you keep going there?" He asked.

"I happen to like a bit of flavour to my coffee," she replied.

"Besides, that cheap place we went to was awful, I swear they just re-used the grounds from the last customer." He said.

"Well, you have to keep ahead of the completion somehow," replied her partner. "I remember this one hustle I pulled with powdered dirt-"

"And, that's where I'm going to stop you." interrupted Judy.

"It's not as bad as it sounds Carrots," he replied with a chuckle.

"I still don't want to know how you conned mammals into drinking filtered dirt." She said.

"Meh, your loss," he replied, taking a sip of his coffee.

"So...... what do you think about Bogo's orders?" she said as they turned towards where they had parked their cruiser.

"Arresting this 'Flash' guy? I can see where buffalo butt is coming from; I've seen plenty of 'justice' dealt out by the wrong types before.

"So you agree with Bogo?" She said.

"Now I didn't say that," he replied.

"When you hustle mammals for a living, you get very good at reading others." He said.  He stopped and turned to Judy.

"When he spoke to us after the explosion, I studied his face, posture and even listened to the tone of his voice. It was a bit difficult through that mask of his, but I will say this, if he was pulling anything, then he's a damn good actor." Nick explained.

"So you don't think he's got an ulterior motive?" she
replied.

"Nope, I don't think you do either."

Judy continued walking towards their cruiser.

"You're right; I don't think he's a criminal. He saved my life Nick, and it takes a brave mammal to jump into a fireball for stranger, weird powers or not. But Bogo still wants him brought in for questioning, what I'm hoping, is that The Flash can convince him that he's not a threat to Zootopia." She said.

"Of course, that all depends on our ability to catch
something that's faster than Clawhauser at an all you can eat doughnut buffet," quipped Nick, which earned him an elbow to the ribs.

"Ow! You really like hurting me today, Carrots." Nick said.

"Only because I love you," she replied, innocently.
He felt his heart flutter at those words.

"You do have a point though," she continued turned a corner.

"It's not like he's just going to fall right into our
lap." She said.

"Actually Carrots," said Nick as he looked past Judy.

"You might want to re-think that." He said.

Judy looked over to where Nick was focusing his attention, and nearly dropped her coffee in surprise.
The Flash was by their cruiser, taking pictures with a
smartphone and attracting a small crowd. Spotting the two approaching officers, he gave them a friendly wave as he approached.

"Hi there." he said. "If it's not too much trouble, I need your help."

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