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Upon entering his basement apartment, Nick discovered an alternative use for his partnership book. He stuck it beneath a leg of his coffee table to keep it straight. Then he grabbed a jar of peanut butter from his kitchen. He settled in to watch a Winddancer action movie.
The film was just getting good when his phone rang. “Well, well,” he said, answering the call. “Miss me already?”
“Venomous snakes tried to steal the Lynxley Journal before,” Judy said. “What if they're back to steal it again?”
“This is you studying your partner book?” Nick replied.
“The stolen van with the snakeskin is from the same catering company that's working the gala!”
“No snake has set foot in Zootopia in forever,” Nick said skeptically. “If they had feet.” Nick heard a knock at the door. He moved to answer it. “We're already in the hot seat , Carrots, and the pizza's here. Gotta go.”
Opening the front door, Nick didn't find any pizza. Only Judy. “If there's a fanging at that gala and we do nothing to stop it, then we're not doing our jobs,” Judy said, looking inside Nick's mess of an apartment. “Yikes, no wonder you never invite me over.”
Trying to obscure her view of the apartment with his tail, Nick said, “Foxes are solitary . Look, we go and you're wrong, Chief Beef will split us up.”
“And if we don't get a win soon and prove we're great partners, the chief will split us up anyway,” she said. Trying to convince Nick, she continued, “Check the perimeter , snoop a little, we find nothing, we bail . We need this.”
There was a brief pause, until Nick said, “Fine. But we'll still have to get through security. And in fancy town, a fox and a bunny won't exactly blend in .”
Without missing a beat, Judy plopped a parking-duty vest in front of Nick. “Then it's a good thing orange is your color!” she said.
They quickly left Nick's apartment and hopped into Judy's old parking-duty cart. “See, you're still in the driver's seat,” Nick said as Judy drove off.
The gala was aglow with glitz and glamour as celebrities and the elite of Zootopia arrived at Lynxley manor , ready to celebrate the Zootennial in style.
Judy and Nick also arrived, with a lot less glitz and even less glamour. From their parking-duty cart, they could see an outdoor stage. The pop star Gazelle strutted in front of the audience with her tiger dancers behind her, singing her heart out. She was mesmerizing as always, but Judy knew they weren't there to take in the show. They had a case to crack. They watched as Mayor Winddancer arrived. He performed a quick karate demonstration for the press before heading inside the manor.
A limousine pulled up outside, and an Arctic shrew walked out, surrounded by polar bears. It was Mr. Big, a well-known crime boss in Zootopia. A photographer tried to snap pics of Mr. Big, but the polar bears smashed the camera.
Judy and Nick got closer to the entrance and saw Milton, the grandson of Ebenezer Lynxley, with his children Cattrick and Kitty. Reporters swarmed the lynxes.
“Mr. Lynxley, is it true you'll soon be passing your company down to one of your children?” a reporter asked.
“Who's it gonna be?” another reporter inquired.
Cattrick ushered Milton away from the reporters. The family was planning a Zootennial expansion but wasn't ready to release the details yet.
Meanwhile, Judy and Nick slipped past security in their parking-duty cart. Up ahead, Judy saw several catering vans, just like the one that Snootley had stolen. One had melted snow beneath it.
“This one's warmer. A reptile in Tundratown might need that to survive the cold...” Judy said.
They hopped out of the cart and approached the van. Nick opened the door slowly, looking inside. “Oh my! A viper!” Nick gasped, pointing inside. “A vindow viper. Ja? ”
An unamused Judy shined her flashlight at Nick's face. Then she noticed something. A side door to the manor was slightly open. Judy motioned toward the door as Nick said, “Anyone could've left it like that. And you said, ‘snoop a little’—not break and enter. Plus, I doubt the dress code is meter-maid chic .”
With lightning speed, Judy reached inside the duffel bag she had stowed aboard the parking-duty cart and produced a fancy tuxedo .
“Ah, we were always going inside,” Nick said. “Got it. Same page means your page.”
“It's called a hustle, sweetheart,” Judy said. “You change out here. I get the van.” A grumbling Nick switched into the suit, while Judy disappeared inside the van.
Moments later, Nick was suited up and about to add the cuff links . He grinned when he noticed that Judy had brought him pawpsicle cuff links. As he finished, Judy exited the van. Gone was the meter-maid attire , replaced by a stunning dress. Her ears were done up just so, giving her an elegant look.
“It's the Zootennial gala... a bunny comes prepared,” she said. “You know, I used to dream of infiltrating a place like this.” Putting a flower in Nick's lapel , Judy smiled.
“You know... this is not your worst idea,” Nick said.
“Wow, that was almost a compliment.”
“Your worst idea is what you did with your ears,” Nick joked.
Judy punched her partner playfully as they entered the gala. A robed figure stopped the door from closing behind them. A robed figure with a distinctly scaly tail...
Inside the manor, the gala was in full swing . But Judy had only one thing on her mind: She needed to locate where the Lynxley Journal was being kept.
“Why would a snake wanna steal some old book anyway?” Nick asked.
“No one's gonna steal it, because we're here to protect it,” Judy pointed out. Then Judy handed Nick a device called an ear com that would allow them to communicate if they became separated.
“Wow,” Nick said as Judy placed a giant ear com into one of her ears.
“Proceeding to VIP section, over,” Judy reported on the ear coms.
“Yeah, I'm right here, and you wanna fit in,” Nick said. “It's not just the clothes... it is the vibe .”
It was then that Judy saw what they'd come to the gala for. “There!” she said. Judy directed Nick's attention to another part of the room with heavy security. In a thick, acrylic case, surrounded by three imposing snow leopard guards, was the Lynxley Journal .
“I don't think it has enough guards,” Nick deadpanned . “Come on, it's safe. And why would a snake try to steal that when they can get a copy from the gift shop?”
That was a good question, and Judy wondered: Why was the actual journal so important that a snake would try to snatch it?
“I'll get a closer look,” she said. “Make a distraction.”
“That is the opposite of lying low,” Nick said as he turned and accidentally walked into a tower of drinking glasses.
As the glassware toppled over and the beverages within spilled, Judy grinned and said, “You're the best.”
With all eyes now on Nick and the spill, Judy ducked past security. She was closer than ever to the Lynxley Journal .
Nick's eyes followed Judy, but he almost ran smack into Captain Hoggbottom. The nimble fox managed to hide in time, and he saw Chief Bogo enter the room, heading for a nearby stage.
Meanwhile, Judy examined the acrylic case that contained the journal, noting that it had a metal cover. Looking at the book itself, she saw that the volume was open to a page that read, “Patent of Ownership—Ebenezer Lynxley, Inventor.” Curiously, it appeared as if a page had been torn from the book.
“The Gruffalo Buffalo has now entered, three o'clock.” It was Nick's voice, over her ear coms. Judy looked up to see Chief Bogo. She ducked to avoid him. Then she turned back to the journal and accidentally bumped into a lynx, spilling his drink.
“Oh, excuse me, I'm so sorry,” she said, her apology overlapping a similar one coming from the lynx.
The lynx attempted to clean up the mess as Judy steadied his glass.
“Wet nap ?” she said as she offered it to the lynx, only then realizing that he had just said the same thing to her.
“Lynx jinx . I'm a lynx who jinxed.”
Both Judy and the lynx then snorted with laughter.
“Judy. I'm Judy Hopps.”
“I'm Pawbert,” the lynx said. “Wait, the Judy Hopps? Are you working this? I mean, you're working it.”
Embarrassed, she replied, “Well, I'm... oh... I, uh...”
Nick looked over his shoulder and saw Judy laughing with Pawbert. What was she doing?
“So, what's the case?” Pawbert asked, leaning into Judy. “You gonna arrest another mayor?” Pawbert gestured toward Mayor Winddancer, who was giving yet another demonstration of his karate prowess to some partygoers.
“Uh, no, I'm actually... well, it's just a hunch , protecting... that,” Judy said, nodding at the Lynxley Journal .
“Good, I don't think it has enough guards,” Pawbert said.
Nick heard Judy laugh way too hard over his ear com. “That was my joke,” Nick said.
Judy switched off her ear com so his voice wouldn't distract her.
“Look, I do not like this guy,” Nick said, unaware that Judy was no longer listening. “And there's nothing here. Let's call it a night. Hopps—”
Wondering why Judy didn't respond, Nick removed his own coms device and accidentally dropped it. Reaching to the floor to pick it up, Nick saw something that looked like paper. No, not paper exactly. This was thin, almost translucent , with a bumpy texture. A texture like snakeskin.