Sunderance Chapter 27.2 (Patreon)

I’m ready for this, she assured herself as she flipped through the note pad in her paw as Nick drove them towards the courthouse in silence.

   She had already transferred all necessary data onto solid copies, which was tucked away in her briefcase along with every other legal piece of evidence she could present to the court, but she had always found that sorting through her notes in the order that she had taken them helped her remember the sources and means that she had come by the information. Every detail was important, even if she wouldn’t present all of it in her case. She needed to stick to what was most relevant, what would most likely sway the Court with fact, reasonable doubt, and evidence. That was more important than addressing every single fact.

   Once the appeal was complete, though, she was already considering what could be released to the media. Full disclosure on her part, if she could find a way to manage it without being blocked. She somehow doubted that it would be blocked because no matter how many times she reviewed the evidence, nothing had ever led her to the conclusion that the murder had anything to do with The Administrator or The Council. As for who had done it and who had tried to bury the reason under a false charge against Mr. Otterton? Half of that she was almost certain she had the answer to while the other half was shrouded in shadow that she hadn’t even come close to touching yet. That was one of a dozen reasons she intended to stay in Zootopia after the appeal, whatever the outcome was.

   One of the reasons she had decided to stay kept his eyes on the road, even though she was certain he was aware that she was looking in his direction. His sunglasses were back in place, the dark suit was as crisp as it ever was, and the stoic expression on his muzzle gave little away though she could see the way his eyes moved as he drove. A predator watching more than the road. But she understood that this wasn’t him. Well, it was him in the same way it was her when she stood in front of witnesses or a full courtroom and asked questions with a confidence she didn’t always feel. But it was a professional façade, one that he had worn for so long that he had forgotten how not to wear it. She had seen what it was like when he let it drop, seen a side of the male that she hadn’t believed existed when she’d first met him at the train station in Bunny Burrow and for days afterward. It hadn’t come all at once, either. The process had been slow. A smile here, a joke there, words to boost her confidence, a small sign that he cared, even the attraction that had been the last thing she’d expected to come from any of it.

   She watched his eyes linger off the road for a moment, pausing and darting from one spot to the other with seeming interest. He said nothing, but she wondered what he saw when he became so alert? How did he decide what was a possible threat and how did he dismiss it, as he did this time? Likely the same way she decided what facts were relevant to a case and which could clog a courtroom, costing possibly vital moments of attention from the judge. That in mind, when she saw his eyes return to the road like the round the front of the courthouse, she decided that he had not seen anything worth seeing.

   “Hm,” he grunted, his gaze turning towards the front steps of the courthouse as he pulled in, “it looks like the ZPD is finally getting off their tails now that the official hearing has come.”

   When she looked out the window herself, she saw that the throngs of reporters that she had expected were being kept along the sides of the main steps by barriers, and outside of those barriers keeping the peace were two rows of mammals in dark blue uniforms. Not that they were keeping the reporters at bay, since none of the reporters seemed particularly interested in trying to cross a police barricade, but she got the distinct feeling it was more of an honor guard. This feeling was confirmed further when a tall, lanky cheetah made his way down the stairs towards the car. To her surprise, the lock popped open when Nick pressed the button, allowed the officer to open her door when he reached it.

   “Mrs. Hopps,” he said as he bent down to eye level with the smaller vehicle, “I’m Officer Clawhauser of the ZPD. Chief Bogo sent us to see to your security personally from this point onward. The courtroom has been closed for the hearing, so your bodyguard won’t be allowed to follow you in.”

   “But,” she began, only to stop when Nick placed a paw on her shoulder. When she turned to face him, he removed his sunglasses to look down at her calmly.

   “It’s all right,” he said, even though the idea of being separated from him so close to the end of what they had started together made her stomach twist. “The Administrator wants this appeal to happen, so no one inside of the Courthouse will try anything.”

   “Are you sure?” she murmured, looking between him and the officer waiting patiently outside of the car.

   “If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t let you go in at all,” he assured her, giving her shoulder a light squeeze as he held her gaze. “This is your battleground and you’re ready for it. I’ll be out here waiting for you when you come out.”

   She paused for a long moment, her ear dropping back as she closed her eyes drew in a deep breath. She had been willing to come into the city alone reach this point, and the fact that he wouldn’t be in the court with her had always been something she had known could happen. It was no different now, except that she knew she trusted this fox. If he believed she would be safe…

   “All right,” she said, opening her eyes again and looking up at him, one paw raised to rest over his. “You’re right. I’m ready for this.”

   She took another steadying breath when his paw slipped from her shoulder and he replaced the sunglasses again. Then with a firm nod that was mostly to affirm those words to herself, she gripped her brief case with one paw while reaching out to take the large one of the cheetah, allowing him to help her out of the car.

   “Don’t worry, Ma’am,” he said in a tone that was oddly cheerful but easy to hear over the rows of reporters yammering and trying to yell questions at her over the shoulders of the officers standing at the barricades. “There are more officers inside, and we’ve had the courtroom locked down for the past twenty-four hours to ensure that everything is secure.”

   While she was sure his words were meant to comfort and assure her that she was safe, she knew that the only reason she felt it could be true was Nick’s assurance that she would be safe in the courthouse. Still, once they reached the top of the stairs and moved towards the courthouse doors, she couldn’t resist looking back to the car that still waited below with an uneasy feeling. It only lasted for a moment, though, before she reminded herself that she had come to Zootopia for a reason.

   With no option to turn back now ever entering her mind, she turned and stepped through the doors.

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   Nick watched as she ascended the stairs towards the courthouse, leaning over the seats so he could keep his eyes on her until she reached the double doors that would take her out of his sight. That moment of hesitation at the entrance, where she looked back towards the car, where he wanted to demand that he be allowed to go in with her. It would have done no one any good, though, and his presence in the courtroom would have been a distraction more than a help.

   That and he had something else to deal with.

   Once she was gone and the door firmly closed, he pulled away from the steps and started to drive. Not far, but not directly to his destination, either. He drove around the courthouse itself, back into the streets of the city while checking to make sure that he wasn’t be tailed by the media. He wouldn’t have put it past them, trying to learn more about the mysterious bodyguard that was now laughably being called a hero by certain publications. But it seemed their focus was all on the trial now and once he was certain no one had followed him, he took a side street that led him back to the same street he had taken to approach the courthouse from Downtown. There, just before the car would become visible to the throngs of mammals outside of the front steps, he took a turn into an alley and drove in just far enough to block the entrance to the alley and ensure that the car wouldn’t be seen.

   There he sat for a moment, keeping her eyes on the relatively narrow space between the two large buildings before he killed the engine. The moment he opened the door and started to climb out, the pack melted out of their shadows and hiding spots. One of the wolves even came down from the roof, sliding down the wall to land almost soundlessly on the asphalt. Five in total, all in basic tactical dress without armor, carrying no firearms that he could see offhand, carrying what he was almost certain were swords on their backs.

   “I told you he would see us,” one of them said, a white wolf with steady blue eyes trained on the fox with a cool stare that lacked anger, blood lust, or insanity. Professionals, then.

   Waiting for him then. Tension filled his muscles, though he didn’t make a move. Well, he did make a move actually. He raised his arm and pulled it across his chest with the other, stretching the muscles as he watched the males. He had a moment of satisfaction in seeing that all five sets of eyes darted to the motion of his arm to ensure it wasn’t a threat, and then to the gun that the motion exposed in the line of his suit when he pulled the other arm in the opposite direction.

   “I don’t suppose the plan was to make a suicide run?” he said, his tone almost amused as he placed his paws at his back well within view of the wolves, arching to stretch the muscles there. “Breaking in through the rear of the courtroom, going down in a hail of bullets to reach your target?”

   “It’s been decided that as long as you’re alive, it will be more costly to reach our target,” the white replied, as they seemed to pay him the courteously of allowing him to stretch. Confidence on their part. “So, we’re going to remove you.”

   Nick doubted the white male was really the one in charge of this pack even among those in the alley. No, if he had to guess, it was the grey wolf that held his tongue towards the rear of the group. He watched with a predatory, calculating sort of patience that didn’t require him to step up to the front unless it was really needed.

   Nick supposed he would need to make sure it was needed.

   “Five larger predators against little me,” Nick said, tilting his head from side to side and rolling it once before focusing on the white-furred male again. “It hardly seems fair.”

   “We’ve studied how you fight,” said another of the wolves, which seemed to be a cue for all of them to reach for the swords on their backs. The whisper of sharp metal leaving their sheaths filled the alley all at once, swords that were relatively long but not so long that they would be a hindrance within the walls of the alley. At least, not in skilled hands. “You’re fast and very good. But you lack reach.”

   “I could always just,” he began and stopped to tug his jacket open to show the guns.

   “But you won’t,” the white continued, seeming unphased as the display of the guns. “You might get one or two of us, but it would also draw attention. The sound of gunfire would have the ZPD clearing the courthouse, forcing a change in the date of the appeal. That would be risky, force you to bring her out into the open again.”

   “True, though I’m pretty sure that will happen one way or the other, if I survive,” he replied, releasing an overly dramatic sigh as he reached behind his back and freed the baton from its sheath. He saw what they likely already knew; they were at their own disadvantage, having picked this alley as the battleground. While wide enough for them to move easily, it was still too narrow for more than two of them to come at him at any given time. That was, unless some of them got behind him. “Should I draw a line in the sand, snowball? Don’t make me start a howl to get you moving…”

“We do not howl at shadows,” the Alpha of the group said sharply, cutting his sword through the air with a sharp whistle of air. “We kill them.”

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   The courtroom was respectfully quiet, for the most part. Only those who had some stake in the case, or knew the defendant directly, had been allowed into the courtroom. The mammals seated in the viewing gallery were a surprising group, though what had surprised her the most was the appearance of Neveen in the front row behind her. Though the two said nothing to each other, and the vixen hardly spared her a glance, it did start Judy thinking. Had Nick known that she would be here? If he had, it would explain why he had been so willing to allow her to enter without his protection. Especially as Neveen had brought her own personal, and often invisible, bodyguard into the courtroom somehow.

   Though even more telling was where in the gallery she had chosen to sit: directly behind Judy herself, on the side of the defense. The fact that this was a huge showing was not lost on the bunny, and she wondered if that was the real reason the courthouse was on such firm lockdown.

   That thought was set aside, however, as she turned her attention to the otter sitting beside her. In pawcuffs, ankle shackles, and a muzzle as was required by law due to the nature of his crime, the older mammal looked about as groomed as was possible for someone who had come directly from prison.

   “Don’t worry,” she said in a light whisper as she shifted through the papers on the table in front of her. She had already handed over all evidence to the bailiff, a large rhino who stood beside the evidence table to ensure that nothing was tampered with before the appeal began. “Everything is going to be fine, Mr. Otterton. I have enough evidence to prove reasonable doubt.”

   “Enough to prove who really did it?” the otter asked, his voice muffled by the muzzle as he turned tired eyes to her. Tired, but angry at the same time.

   “I,” she began, and was cut off when the door at the rear of the courtroom swung open, causing the rhino to stomp his hoof once on the ground loudly and stand at attention.

   “All rise,” he bellowed, pausing for a moment as mammals all around pushed to their feet as the diminutive sheep in black robes walked towards the high bench. “The Honorable Chief Justice Bellwether presiding.”

   Calming the twisting of nerves in her belly, Judy stood with perhaps more confidence than she felt as she watched Bellwether take her place at the top of the high bench. The sheep sat and adjusted her glasses as she looked out over the courtroom.

   “You may be seated,” she said, lightly tapping her gavel before setting it aside and folding her hooves in front of her as she waited for everyone to settle. “This court recognizes the appeal of the ruling in the case of Emmitt Otterton vs the Mammals of Zootopia.”

   Judy swallowed once as the Chief Justice turned her gaze onto her directly for a moment, making her feel as though the eyes of every mammal in the city were on her. She steadied herself, raised her ears, and prepared to deliver on all the promises she had made to herself and the mammal sitting beside her as Bellwether continued.

   “Court is in session.”