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"Wilde! Hopps!"

Judy's ears sprung to attention atop her head as they were wont to do when being addressed. "Yes, Chief?"

It was an admittedly slow day in the bullpen. Everyone present seemed to be rather reserved or tired. Mondays did tend to be that way though, even the great guardians in blue of the city preferred sleeping in some days. Nick was staring at something a little out of focus, and Judy frowned. He must not have had much time to meditate or whatever he did, what with their weekend hangout.

Bogo's voice boomed again. "You're excused for the day from normal duty. You're first up on the firearms training list. I guess they want to get our celebrities through before the public starts to swarm too much." The buffalo shuffled his papers quickly, rearranging their order as he peered through his tiny eyeglasses. "Report to the firing range on the far side of the station, we've got guests from the ZSA here to administer the tests as independent observers. Try not to make a fool of the police precinct while you're there." His last statement was sincere, and with the amount of trouble the pair of officers seemed to get into perhaps it was well deserved.

Judy nodded, her ears burning slightly as the comment drew a small chuckle from those seated in the room. Sure, she may be much more well respected than she had been when she first arrived, but the officers in the bullpen didn't pass up an opportunity to rib their coworkers. "C'mon loverboy, let's go shoot some guns," she covered her embarrassment by tugging her vulpine spaceman out of his chair and out the door. He was busy staring at nothing again, or at least Hopps hoped it was nothing and not her ass when she wasn't looking. Well, some of her hoped that.

The trek to the firing range was familiar, yet foreign feeling at the same time. Hopps had only been to the police firing range one time before despite having been working for the precinct for a few months, the only officers she ever saw go this way were those that volunteered for SWAT detail. ZPD SWAT officers were the only officers that used firearms, and in order to be considered for such a position they had to maintain some general skill in marksmanship. Judy had never tried to get involved in that program. As ambitious as she was, her distaste for the thought of potentially killing anyone was well known and the SWAT team only really got involved when there was lethal danger that demanded the potential for such a response. Until now, those were the only ones who needed weapons training. Now, maybe that was about to change. The lapin's nose twitched in distaste, she hoped that the mayor wasn't being too hasty about his decisions. The last thing he needed was another controversy, especially with how narrowly he had escaped the repercussions of the Bellwether trial.

Nick smiled at the lapin beside him as he started to open the heavy steel door to the range. "You were quiet the whole way Carrots, you feeling okay? There's been a whole lot less bouncy bunny lately and more of the biting your lip thing. That must hurt with those big front chompers of yours."

Judy squeaked, surprised. How had he noticed that? Oh that's right, he was staring at her because he was in-

The rabbit stopped dead, her heart jumping into her throat. The fox beside her paused as well, doing a bit of a double take.

"Hey there, great to finally meet you two. Our local heroes, Mr. Nick Wilde and Ms. Judy Hopps!" A grey rabbit not too far off of Judy's distinct colors but with dark black stripes that ran around the back of his ears greeted them, making a show of the introduction. His hands rose in a mock reveal, a broad, confident smile covering his face. He was dressed in a tight black combat uniform that was covered in various pockets and clips and showed off his toned form rather nicely. Conspicuously several of them were being occupied, such as the pistol hanging from his hip and trio of flash grenades strapped under his right breast.

Nick smiled back, though it was somehow missing some of its usual charm. "Well, you certainly look familiar."

Jack Savage smiled back, holding a hand out to him and shaking the vulpine's orange paw. "I'm flattered. You've seen my movies?" The bunny finished his handshake and moved to offer a paw to Judy.

The female rabbit, for her part, looked like a deer in headlights. Her pupils were tiny dots fixed on the agent before her, and instinct finally kicked in a few seconds too late, blankly staring as she shook his hand.

Jack gave a sideways glance to her partner, still wearing that confident smile. "I'm Special Agent J-"

"Jack Savage!" Judy blurted out, her eyes still a little wild.

The bunny in front of her took a half-step back, blinking a few times. "Yes, that would be my name. I suppose that answers my last question?" He chuckled, shuffling his small paws into his pockets. The female lapin suddenly noticed he was a few centimeters taller than her, which mattered more when you had so few to spare. She tried to hide the fact that her ears were turning scarlet.

"Yeah, she's a big fan of yours actually. You should hear her, talking all day about 'The Bun Who Loved Me', I think she might even-" Nick yelped as Judy slammed her fist into his stomach, a kiloton of nervous energy exploding out of her and into her poor partner. "Jeez Hopps!" He coughed, doubling over.

The Special Agent before them merely raised an eyebrow in amused interest, but spoke up as the fox caught his breath. "I would recommend avoiding friendly fire, despite the name it's not very friendly at all."

Judy's ears shot up and she blushed harder, straightening her back instantly and standing at attention. "I'm sorry sir! Wait... did you just quote Canine Roy-"

"Canine Royale, yes. One of my personal favorites. Gotta say, I don't quite see what you do in The Bun Who Loved Me, too much of the plot was overridden by that shoehorned-in romantic subplot if you ask me."

Judy nearly exploded. "You're really Jack Savage? Like, you're the actor and you're also an actual ZSA agent? I mean, I read about the ZSA sometimes being a bit closer to home than most know but like... I never expected that you actually did all of that stuff in those movies in real life!"

Jack chuckled again, pulling his wallet from a front pocket and flicking it open in one fluid, practiced motion. A shining gold badge on the inside flap boldly read 'ZOOTOPIA SECURITY AGENCY' in navy blue. "Well, it's easy to act like something is happening if you've experienced it before. Don't get too excited though, those movies are nothing but fiction. Our real job isn't nearly as... well, glamorous sometimes." He pocketed his wallet, turning on his heel to begin the trek to the nearest firing booth.

Judy finally had gotten over her shock and accepted that yes, this was actually happening by the time they reached the front of the range. She did her best to hide her fangirling (massively too late) by adopting a respectful and determined slash. Sure, this was her mancrush, Jack Savage. Except, not like just the man on the screen, it turned out that man was real. Not just the face, but the body, the profession... she found it hard to keep that respectful slash and admitted defeat, letting her lips upturn into a smile not unlike the one she wore during her commencement from the police academy. The lapin turned to Nick for the first time since she had seen the agent, squeaking quietly and still wearing her bright grin.

Yet, the fox didn't really look as excited as she did. If she were being honest, she would even say that he looked downright uncomfortable. He was probably nervous about the test, shoot, the test! Judy had nearly forgotten completely about the fact that she was about to be graded on her performance with firearms. She focused, deciding that she could worry about the celebrity in their midst after they were done with what they had come here for.

"Either way, today I'm doing grunt work regardless of how 'Special' or famous I am. So, you two are taking a rudimentary firearms test today. The order of escalation will be as follows:" he paused, getting straight to business, "handguns with non-lethal then lethal load, shotguns with the same after that. Long rifles and assault weaponry optional after that point but recommended, lethal load only. You two will be fine regardless of how well or poorly you perform, so try not to worry too much about this. Just be as careful as you always are around firearms, blah blah blah, required safety briefing this and that." The bunny was referencing a required course all officers had to periodically take that covered a variety of topics including safety and response in case of an active shooter or found firearm.

Judy nodded, her ears bouncing atop her head.

"Officer Hopps, is that you volunteering to go first?"

The rabbit cop jumped, looking to the still silent and rather uncomfortable-looking Nick and back to the Special Agent. "Uh, I suppose so?" She smiled and laughed nervously.

"Alright. Skye!" Jack shouted behind him to where the heavy steel door to the armory was slightly ajar against one wall.

There was some rustling, and after a few moments a figure emerged from the reinforced room. Nick's head shot up, and Judy's eyes followed his gaze to one of the most beautiful vixens she had ever seen in her life. Her fur was a bright, pristine white, and she was dressed similarly to Jack, lacking only the pistol at his side and grenades across his chest. She was carrying two handguns, one in each paw, and carefully marched forward to the pair of officers.

Nick seemed to finally be paying attention, and his usual sly confidence had returned seemingly instantly. "Let's hope she doesn't drop one, eh Carrots?"

Judy shot him a look as her stomach clenched horribly. She had a bad feeling about this vixen, but she couldn't quite place it.

The arctic fox reached them, ensuring that the safeties were switched to the active position on both weapons before setting them on the range counter. She turned to Nick first, just as Jack had, flicking her tail slightly. "Anaya Skye. Good to finally meet the fantastic fox of the nighthowler case. I must say, I'm a bit of a fan." Her voice was of a moderate tone and sounded vaguely exotic in nature, possessing an accent that was hard to place.

Jack nodded, jabbing a thumb at the ice white vixen. "Skye here is the real hero honestly. She's the one that keeps me up to date with all the neatest toys, a glorified quartermaster of sorts. Of course, we're inseparable according to the agency, so she got stuck with the same assignment as I did."

Anaya gave a little head bow, then reached down to shake Judy's paw. The female rabbit did admit that her grip may have been much too tight to be considered anything but hostile, but the fox apparently took it in stride. "It really is great to meet you both, great job figuring out that whole mess. I understand you were the driving force behind the investigation, Ms. Hopps?"

Nick interrupted, and Judy let her mouth hang open for a few seconds in surprise before she shut it again. Normally all of the official introductions were left to her by the fox. "Well, remember who gave the press conferences."

The arctic fox smiled under a paw at him, raising an eyebrow. "I do suppose that is true, in that case I must catch your side of the story some time then, Officer Wilde."

Nick smiled right back, the usual cocky grin that normally brightened his partner now directed to someone else. "You might not know what you're getting into, Ms. Skye. As my partner can probably attest, putting up with me can take a lot out of you." He gave Judy a quick look.

The lapin officer did not look her usual self, instead her eyes were gunning down both her partner and the fellow member of his species he was talking to. The red fox had never seen her like that before, and kept right on turning.

Jack cleared his throat after a few moments of awkward death-glares. "Alright, well. Officer Hopps. Please. Your first set."

Judy nodded, taking a deep breath and calming herself. She couldn't believe her partner. He had used that joking, sarcastic tone with the vixen. That was supposed to be for her! She felt vaguely cheated, but tried to push her insecurities to the back of her mind for a moment. This was rapidly going from one of the best days of her life to the worst, and she couldn't even honestly figure out why her reaction was so strong. So what if Nick... made friends.

The grey doe advanced on the counter, picking up the smaller of the two slightly differently-sized handguns. It immediately felt much too heavy in her paws, being used to the lightweight plastic tasers the force commonly used. She glanced back at the group, Jack was watching her intently. The rabbit flicked the safety off, sighting downrange. Her hands shook ever so slightly, and she pulled the trigger.

_ BANG! _

The weapon went off, nearly wrenching Judy's shoulders from their joints, the sound of the gunshot stabbing into her head as her hyper-sensitive ears rang. She inspected the target after a moment of shaking her head to try to clear it. Nothing. The rubber bullet hadn't landed anywhere on the target, much less near the silhouette of a moderately-sized mammal printed on it. "Oh..." she peeped meekly.

"Here, you're holding it wrong. Hands on the back of the grip, like this." Jack was at her side in a flash, immediately covering her embarrassment and acting as if such a dismal failure was par for the course. He was much closer now, and Judy noticed a slightly pleasant aroma to his fur, like watermelon. He must shampoo pretty regularly. The rabbit found it a bit easier to relax and forget about Nick and the vixen for the moment as his cool demeanor and deep voice focused her. "Wrap your thumb around like... that. There. Perfect."

"So this is good?" Judy stood, her back straight and weapon pointed toward the target at arm's length.

Jack smiled gently, getting even closer to the bunny, his paws suddenly on her hips. "No no, here. Your stance is all off, you don't need to be afraid of the gun, it's a tool." The Special Agent slowly moved his hands higher, the doe's ears turning a solid brick color as they moved her arms back a bit, his hard, warm chest pressing to her back to guide her into a sort of hunched-over position, leaning over the gun almost. "There, try now. Oh, and you'll want these this time." He pulled a set of earplugs from a nearby dispenser, offering them to the lapin.

Judy gratefully accepted them, and noted out of the corner of her eye that now Nick was the one giving a deadly stare to Jack. She frowned at that. It's not like the fox didn't like his movies, whatever his problem with the Special Agent was, he could get over it. The rabbit refocused, taking the stance that had been demonstrated again and pulling the trigger more confidently this time. Again there was the horrible noise of the weapon going off, but it was much more manageable with the provided earplugs. This time, there was a pea-sized hole in the target several centimeters from the silhouette of the mammal. Better than nothing, she supposed.

Agent Savage tapped her shoulder, and she removed an earplug. "There, that's better. Now discharge the rest of that magazine downrange and you'll be good to go for this test." he patted her shoulder again, this time in encouragement, and stepped back.

Judy tried her best, she really did. Maybe she just wasn't cut out for this though. There wasn't any sort of grouping to speak of, all of the holes in her target were scattered randomly despite her aiming for the same point of center mass every blast. She frowned, whimpering to herself as she inspected the damage. "That's not so bad, right? I mean, what does a good result look like? Like, agency standard?"

Jack raised an eyebrow at her gentle pleas. He stepped forward, drawing his own sidearm from his hip and flicking the safety off. The Special Agent emptied twelve rounds down the rage in the span of several seconds, all twelve striking the target in the head and neck within several centimeters of each other. Savage holstered his weapon again, smirking lightly to the bunny. It wasn't often he got to show off while not on set. "I would say that's what a good one looks like."

Judy squealed partially in fear, and partially as the inner fangirl broke through her attempted containment.

"My turn, right?" Nick's own confident tones shut down whatever either of the two were about to say, and the fox casually pulled his handgun off the counter in front of him, eying up Agent Savage. The male rabbit nodded, still smiling slightly as the vulpine took aim.

Nick took a similar stance to that which had been demonstrated to his partner, loosing his own barrage much more quickly than Judy. Jack moved over one stall, standing behind the fox as he lowered his weapon. He nodded once in approval but said nothing more, and Judy peeked her head around the corner of her stall to see the results more clearly. Her face fell. Nick had done nearly as well as Jack had! Then, she stopped worrying about her own performance and grinned. Why does she care that she can't shoot, she should be proud of her vulpine companion. He really was cut out for this police work. "Nice shooting, slick."

Nick's ears perked up at that, but the bunny agent next to him didn't seem quite as impressed. "Pretty okay for a rookie, but lethal rounds are a bit harder to control when you're used to a taser. Skye, bring out the rest of the weaponry, will you?"

The arctic fox nodded, quickly scampering off and returning in stages with more and more deadly-looking firearms. Judy shifted nervously. Was all this really necessary to test?

Jack nodded to himself as the vixen returned for the final time with an assault rifle slung over each shoulder. There was an impressive set of weapons on the table in front of them now, pistols, shotguns, rifles, even several of what appeared to be mid-range sniper rifles. The Special Agent smiled slightly, turning to face the two agents staring at the piles of steel.

"I didn't even know we had all this. I mean what does Bogo think we're going up against, tanks?" Nick spoke up finally, apparently snapped out of whatever mood he had been in by the subtle intimidation.

"Nope, this wouldn't do anything to a tank. Need something much bigger for that, but the agency doesn't like to let me take their toys to places like these or I would've offered a bit more. Sorry that you can't play with the missile launchers, they certainly are the most fun of the whole lot." Jack chuckled as he took the opportunity to casually fill his handgun's magazine from a carton of bullets nearby, slotting it back into the weapon and holstering it again as if it were a daily occurrence. Judy jumped a bit. It probably was. "Either way, quicker we do this the quicker you two get to go home. I figured having all of them available would give you a better-"

The sound of a phone ringing cut him off, all of the assorted mammals' ears twitching and turning to the sound of the noise. Jack started somewhat uncharacteristically of his usual confident outward appearance as he realized it was his. He took the call, walking away from the party. "It's HQ," he offered as a quick explanation for the interruption, "Hello?"

Skye was left facing the two officers as she shook her head at the retreating rabbit. "He's so bad about that. Not to mention, you would think HQ would know he's busy. They did send us here after all." The arctic fox smiled at the two, and Judy suddenly felt very opposed to the vixen's existence again when Nick smiled back. "Either way, I can administer the tests just as well as he can, despite what he might think. So, shall we?"

The rest of the firearms proficiency testing went pretty much as the handgun round had. Judy needed a bit of help to even load a few of the later entries, and downright refused to use the sniper and assault rifles. She didn't think it would be necessary in any way for the kind of police work she was cut out for, but Nick happily took both up and seemed to be a natural at work. Jack finally returned just as the red fox was finishing off his test of the precision rifle.

"Alright, quick work you two, that's what I like to see. Sorry about that, the brass called. They told me a bit about the case you two were working on actually. Tell me, what do you two know about the Silver Paw?" Jack spoke as Nick returned the sniper to the table.

Judy frowned, the inner fan wanted to be an expert in this case to impress her hero, but her brain knew better. "Nothing. Well, besides that they stabbed a lamb the other day." Great job Hopps, first you spray bullets all over the place, now you know nothing about a primary case. Smooth.

Nick shook his head to confirm that he knew just as little, returning to her side silently.

Jack stroked under his chin, nodding slowly and seeming to come to some sort of a decision. "Okay, just checking. As for scores, would you two like to know how you did?" He changed the subject quickly, collecting the reporting sheets Skye had been using from her. The pair nodded, and the lapin continued. "Alright, Hopps. This is in order of the tests taken: 15, 19, 20, 13, 17."

"Is that good?"

"Out of one hundred, Hopps."

Judy's face fell, ears flopping dejectedly to her side. She might not like guns, but that was pretty dismal.

"Nick, same deal. In order that you took them: 93, 91, 88, 90, 75, 97, 99. Tell me, Officer Wilde. Do you happen to have any previous experience with firearms?"

The fox frowned, shaking his head. Jack was looking at him oddly, almost suspiciously.

"Because that is the best set of scores I have literally ever seen any non-agency personnel score. You have to be lying."

Nick's frown deepened even further. "I don't know what you're trying to say, Agent Savage. With all due respect, maybe I'm just good at this." Judy looked back and forth between the two men. As much as she liked Jack, what did he have against Nick? He was a good fox, surely if Skye really was around Jack as much as they said he would understand that.

The Special Agent shrugged, turning away. "Maybe you are. Regardless, I'll be giving Chief Bogo your placements to relay to you during tomorrow's morning briefing. In the mean time..." his voice trailed off and he looked from side to side as if the walls themselves were eavesdropping, again his demeanor changing in a split second. "Now, I can't technically do this, but I have a job to do actually, one of the fun ones. Tell me, how would you two like to tag along?"