Chapter Text
Past the pink van walked Judy. She had just exited the Hopps warren and now opened the barn door. Her jaw dropped to the dusty floor as she laid her eyes on a tricked out black Zooyota 4x4, not unlike the one she had seen at Carrot Square a week ago… No, that was yesterday… Strange.
Judy couldn’t believe it, this was a dream come true for her. She approached the pricey vehicle and ogled it for a while. Something on the hood caught her attention. Just as Gideon had promised, there were heart-shaped pies inside a box. Judy laid down the greeting card next to them and inspected the vehicle further. There was a clock on the dashboard.
Time and date: 10:36 - Saturday, 26th October 1985
“How about a ride, miss?” asked a friendly voice from the open barn door behind Judy. She turned to see Skippy. He looked the same as always: Great, handsome, enticing, with wonderfully fluffy cheeks, and like someone to fall in love with. “Skippy, oh, you’re a sight for sore eyes,” admired Judy verbally. She stepped closer to her boyfriend with nothing but love in her eyes. “Let me look at you.”
The buck was hard-pressed to understand why his girlfriend was making such a big deal out of seeing him. Judy had to think hard but for him, their last interaction had only been the previous day. The disoriented lapine put her hands on his shoulder and took one of her buck’s hands. She only stared at him with a dumb look on her face, she was completely and entirely lovestruck.
“Judy, you’re acting like you haven’t seen me in a week,” said Skippy. “I haven’t,” was the only response he got from his girlfriend. The buck patted down the doe’s black tipped ears. “Are you okay?” asked the buck caringly. “Is everything all right?”
The stunned and happy doe looked back at the Hopps warren. Stu and Bonnie stood in the doorway, arms around each other. They were watching Judy and Skippy with smiles of their own. Now that they had been discovered, though, they headed back inside, leaving the younger couple alone to allow for some more privacy for them.
The time traveller looked back at Skippy. “Aw, yeah. Everything’s great,” said the doe gladly. They moved closer to each other, the two bunnies were about to kiss. This was a happy reunion that needed to be celebrated. Their lips almost met, when…
Judy noticed her fur stood up on end, charged with static electricity. Skippy’s did the same, which was most easily visible on his puffy cheeks where his fur was a little longer.
A sonic boom interrupted the moment and the young lapines both turned. All four bunny ears were briefly blown about violently from the accompanying sharp blast of wind. The Jokemobile streaked up in front of the house! Tires screeched and the time machine drove over one of the rubbish bins before coming to a stop on the driveway.
Judy approached the frosted over vehicle with her boyfriend following close behind. She noticed the licence plate no longer read ‘OUTATIME’ and instead simply displayed what the doe assumed to be some type of bar code of sorts. The white plastic door opened up and Nick jumped out, more frantic than Judy had ever known him. His clothes were very bizarre and unlike anything the bunny had ever seen anywhere else before. It looked like an odd mixture of past style and unfamiliar futuristic elements.
The slender red fox wore a light yellow silk jacket that reached all the way to below his knees. Or was that a light green jacket? Maybe in different lighting conditions, it would appear slightly differently. Underneath it, there was a red collar shirt with white text symbols of one of the interior’s many languages, neatly arranged in a grid pattern, alongside depictions of black spiders all over.
A piece of plastic hung from Nick’s neck. It took Judy a moment but she finally realised this was his tie… a transparent tie. Furthermore, the tod wore yellow trousers, or maybe they were green, and black boots with bright red bootlaces. Short dark green socks peeked out from inside the boots. They covered not only his feet but also the bottom end of his trouser legs. But most strikingly of all, there was a shiny pair of metal glasses on Nick’s long snout. They covered his eyes completely.
“Carrots!” he exclaimed frantically. The tod ran over to Judy and grabbed her shoulders. “You’ve gotta come back with me!” The doe waved a hand in front of the strange headwear. “Where?” she inquired in confusion.
“Back to the future!” he clarified quickly while raising the opaque glasses up to his forehead, revealing a wild-eyed face beneath. Nick opened one of the rubbish bins and rummaged through it. He picked up peels from potatoes, carrots and other vegetables. The fox had found the compost bin. Judy and Skippy both stepped closer. Neither bunny had the slightest idea what the tod in front of them was trying to accomplish there.
“Wait a minute, what are you doing, Slick?” inquired Judy. The vulpine picked up a discarded can of carrot juice from another bin and looked at the label carefully. On the back of the time machine, there was a shiny new device which Judy had not seen before. Nick must have added it some time in the future, since she was unfamiliar with the brand. There was a white tube-like structure with a black base and a little window on one side. It was labelled ‘Westingmouse Mr. Fursion Home Energy Converter’.
“Go ahead, quick. Get in the car,” Nick urged his friend. He turned the whole attachment on its side, revealing an opening beneath. In went the veggie peels, one by one. “No, no, no, Slick,” protested Judy. “We just got here, okay? Skippy’s here. We’re gonna take the new truck for a spin, enjoy pies.”
Nick emptied out the last few drops of the old can of carrot juice into the tube. Then he threw in the can itself as well. “Well, bring him along,” The fox once again turned to Judy and leaned down to her eye level. “This concerns him too,” he elaborated.
“Wait a minute, Nick. Wha… What are you talking about?” asked Judy. Her nose possibly might have twitched once. “What happens to us in the future? Do we become jerks or something?” The bunny was confused as to what would have Nick so concerned. And why did he need her at this very moment? He had a time machine, he could come back the next day or next week or any other time.
“No, no, no, Carrots,” insisted Nick. “Both you and Skippy turn out fine,” he calmed. “It's your kids, Judy! Something has got to be done about your kids.” Skippy turned to his girlfriend with big and very round eyes. She awkwardly turned to him too. Now the doe would have to explain time travel to him.
The lapine pondered on something for a moment, though. Why would Nick get her and Skippy from this very day? Why not from years later? She would have more context then. If there was a bigger problem with their children, why would Nick take them to the future at all, instead of just telling the young bunny couple how to prevent whatever would be happening by being better parents?
Nick sat back down in the driver seat of the Jokemobile. Reluctantly, the two bunnies joined him with Skippy in the middle seat and Judy in the outermost passenger seat. She closed the door next to her, as Nick was already pulling out of the driveway. He stopped again right away, however. Last night he had backed up much further, Judy remembered it vividly.
“Hey, Slick, we better back up,” advised the doe. “We don’t have enough road to get up to eighty-eight.” She turned to face Nick with a sceptical look on her face. He established eye contact with the bunny, sporting a sly smirk on his own face.
“Roads?” he asked dismissively. The fox flipped down his metal glasses once more. “Who still drives on roads?” The vulpine made this sound like it was a rhetorical question but Judy could not for the life of her think of a logical answer that made the fox’s tone less confusing. “Where we’re going we don’t need… roads.”
Nick hit a new switch on the upgraded dashboard. Judy felt the time machine move upwards, lifting itself into the air. It was actually hovering. How was this possible?
The bunny looked at the fox, hoping for an explanation of what was happening. Skippy meanwhile was growing increasingly anxious, as indicated by his twitching nose. The Jokemobile started flying off, gaining altitude and accelerating rapidly. Judy and Skippy were pushed tightly into their respective seats.
The time machine blasted off into the sky like a shooting star moving backwards. Once again, coils started glowing and soon enough, a white flash of light signalled their departure into the future…
Time and date: ??:?? - ?????, ??th ????? ????
A series of staccato flashes of white light through the windshield were quickly followed by pouring rain. Visibility was almost nonexistent. Nick flipped on the windshield wipers, but they did not help much. In front of the Jokemobile was a small yellow dot rapidly growing bigger and bigger. The fox behind the controls of the time machine jerked the steering wheel around and the entire vehicle nearly turned sideways. Judy and Skippy screamed, it felt like they were on a roar-a-coaster! The bunnies both had their ears back at a defensive forty-five degree angle.
There was honking outside, coming from the yellow dot as it whizzed past. Nick manoeuvred the Jokemobile to the correct side of what appeared to be floating lane markers. The lapines both tried to look back to see what had almost hit them. Their noses didn’t just twitch or even wiggle, no, they were vibrating.
“What the butternut squash was that?!” asked Judy, exasperated. The fox two seats further left appeared stressed and maybe a little annoyed but certainly not shocked in any way. His ears were pointing back slightly, likely from the adrenaline kick of almost getting hit by what surely had to be some sort of missile.
“Taxi cab,” responded Nick definitively. This confused the doe. How come a taxi was flying? Judy now noticed several other dots whizzing about, all at dangerous speeds. She looked closer. These dots might have looked like fireflies initially but now the doe could tell something very surprising. They were all vehicles! Most of them were cars but there was even a tractor or two. The bunny was sure there was a misunderstanding. Maybe they weren’t cars but rather kites or oddly shaped model planes, right?
“What do you mean, a taxi cab?” asked the confused bunny. “I thought we were flying.” This situation was a little overwhelming to the young time traveller, she was a little on edge. “Bingo,” answered Nick. He piloted the Jokemobile with intent focus. “All right, Slick,” said the doe with a healthy dose of forced calmness. “What’s going on? Where are we? When are we?” The answers to those questions, Judy hoped, would clear up most of her confusion.
“We are descending towards Bunnyburrow in the Tri-Burrows…” said Nick. He paused and lifted his strange metal glasses to look at the time readouts. His clawed finger pointed at numbers in the ‘Present Time’ section as he read them out loud. “…at four twenty-nine p.m. on Friday, October twenty-first, twenty sixteen.”
Time and date: 16:29 - Friday, 21st October 2016
“Two thousand sixteen?” repeated Judy incredulously as she perked her ears at the impressive number. Skippy stared at Nick and out the window behind him. He was likely wondering what he had gotten himself into and why Judy wasn’t nearly as shocked as she should have been. “You mean we’re in the future?” asked the doe. Her boyfriend now whipped his head around to face her. The buck’s ears mimicked hers, as they now stood up tall as well.
“The future, Judy, what do you mean?!” he asked in disbelief. “How can we be in the future?” The grey-furred bunny relaxed her black tipped ears and opened her mouth to talk. She was thinking hard about how to explain the entire situation to her boyfriend. “Uh, Skippy… Uhm…” She was likewise very fascinated by whatever was outside the windows. It was mostly darkness, stormy clouds, and rain.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, but…” she said. The doe turned to her lover and formed a sly grin with her lips. “Remember the thing Nick had asked me to check out last night?” Skippy replied with hesitation. “Yes, what does this have to do with anything?” Judy’s smirk grew even wider. “You’re in a time machine,” she revealed. Skippy stared out the windshield. He needed some time to wrap his head around this reality. Judy understood, she had felt the same initially. “And this is the year two thousand sixteen?” he asked in disbelief.
“October twenty-first, two thousand sixteen,” clarified Nick. His mind was primarily occupied by driving… piloting… the time machine. “Gods, so like, you weren’t kidding,” the buck blurted out in shock. Not knowing what else to do, he kept staring at his girlfriend, who gave him a warm and smug smile. “Judy,” he said. “We can actually see our future.” The doe wasn’t ashamed to admit, at least to herself, that his reaction was adorable. She still rolled her eyes, though, because his words did not reveal any new or useful information. He needed more time to understand all the implications of time travel. Judy would make sure to help him wherever she could, if he had questions.
“Doc,” started Skippy, turning to the vulpine to his left. “Now, you said we were married, right?” This apparently flustered the fox. “Yeah, uh…” he stuttered. “Yeah?” asked the buck. He was smiling broadly. “Was it a big wedding?” Judy had to admit, she would have loved to hear the answers to those questions too, now that they had already gotten asked. “Wwwellll…” Nick dragged out the word dramatically, unsure how to respond.
Skippy turned to his right again to face the doe beside him. “Judy, we’re going to be able to see our wedding!” She knew Nick had gotten them for a reason, and seeing the start of their marriage was not it. The doe needed to steer the conversation away from this topic but didn’t know how. “Wow,” she deadpanned sarcastically.
The bunny glanced over to her vulpine friend for guidance. He lifted his opaque shiny metal glasses once again and threw Skippy an odd look. One of his ears pointed up while the other one pointed off to the side. This pose looked cute from Nick, Judy had to admit. If Finnick were with them, he would surely call the red fox jealous right about now.
“I’m gonna be able to see your wedding dress early!” gushed Skippy. Judy huffed in amusement. “Oh, don’t you dare,” she responded. Like before, her sarcasm was likely not very convincing at all. Regardless, the two bunnies in love shared a genuine laugh. The tod next to them shot another glance their way.
“I wonder where we live,” continued Skippy. The buck started to ramble. “I bet it’s a big house… our own farm, can you imagine?” His face lit up as an idea crossed his mind. “The Whitaker family wouldn’t be complete without lots of kids…” The bunny turned to the fox in the driver seat. “How many kids…”
“Hold on, Skippy,” interrupted Nick with a concerned look on his face. Judy thought she saw a hint of a smug smile there too. The buck stopped talking. “Let’s not jump to conclusions too quickly now.” Skippy stared at Nick and so did Judy. “Do you mean we won’t have many children?” asked a confused buck. “Wait, are you saying we can’t have children? Will we adopt?”
If the doe wasn’t sure before if Nick was smirking or not, now there was no doubt that he was. “You’re hopping from one thought to another quickly there, rabbit,” said the smug fox. He put an emphasis on the word ‘hopping’. “Might I interest you in some grade-A deluxe Bunny’s Leap?” he asked.
“Nick, what are you talking about?” asked Judy. Her boyfriend nodded at the question. “Here,” answered the tod. “I can show you.” He pulled out a penlight device and brought it up to Skippy’s face. It strobed blue light and exuded an electronic beep.
The buck passed out.
Judy’s ears shot up. She swatted the odd device away, concerned for her boyfriend. “Nick!” she exclaimed frantically. “What the red hot chilli peppers are you doing?!” The concerned doe lovingly held Skippy’s head to prevent him from slouching over uncomfortably. The bunny’s nose was once again twitching quickly. Of course, Nick was a good friend who could be trusted and who would never hurt a fly, but this was a little too far for Judy’s liking, especially because there was no warning whatsoever.
“Relax, Carrots,” he calmed. “I put him to some well needed Bunny Sleep. With a space exactly in the middle, between the Y and the S. A bunny that is sleeping.” The fox held up the device again for his lapine friend to see. Judy had no idea what the object’s purpose was, so getting another look did not help to ease her nerves. “It’s just a sleep-inducing alpha rhythm generator,” explained Nick. Those were big words, the doe almost understood some of them. “He was asking too many questions and no one should know too much about their future.”
The fox flipped down the shiny glasses again and shifted his focus back to flying the Jokemobile. Judy still had no idea what they were there for. “This way, when he wakes up, he’ll think it was all a dream,” reasoned Nick. While he talked, Judy checked up on Skippy. She gently pulled his eyes slightly ajar. He looked fine, just asleep. The bunny furrowed her eyes and looked at the fox like he was the dumbest individual in the car. Right now, he might very well have held this title. “Then what did you bring him here for?” Judy demanded to know. This question from a confused lapine sounded very accusatory.
“I had to do something,” huffed Nick in response. “He saw the time machine and I couldn’t just leave him there with that information.” Judy shook her head in disapproval. “Don’t worry,” dismissed the fox. “He’s not essential to my plan.”
By now, the doe was very miffed. She stared her fox friend down. “I’m not lying,” he assured awkwardly after a brief pause. “I believe you…” responded Judy calmly. Her irritation did not go unnoticed by the fox and he turned to face her. “Then why are you looking at me like that?” The tod spoke slowly and with uncharacteristic uncertainty. The frustrated bunny sighed and nodded. “Well…” she said, unconvinced. “I guess you’re trying to help… You’re the Slick, Nick… The Doc, I mean.”
“Here’s our exit,” the vulpine said, changing the topic. He was more than happy to drop the subject for now and piloted the flying time machine between more floating lane markers. This had to be an off-ramp.
Through the clouds the Jokemobile descended. It flew past a levitating sign which read various disconnected words and phrases:
‘Welcome’
‘Bunnyburrow’
‘Mayor Dawn Bellwether Jr.’
‘A Nice Place To Live And Farm’
‘Please Fly Safe’
‘Ejection Seats Save Lives’
Around the sign with all the bits of text was an array of numerous awards and logos. The whole set was well illuminated by a group of lights forming a loose circle around the structure.
Time and date: 16:35 - Friday, 21st October 2016
The Jokemobile threaded the needle between two rows of houses. Nick landed it in a side alley and flicked some switches, and then he did absolutely nothing. Judy looked at him sceptically. Putting Skippy to sleep, leading a young doe into a dark side alley, what would be next? Those thoughts were merely the bunny’s humor, of course, but her confusion was genuine.
“Are we… gonna head out?” asked the curious lapine. “You can go right ahead, Carrots,” responded a smug fox. He checked his wristwatch. Judy reached for the door handle but didn’t open it yet, she waited to see what the tod beside her would say next. “I’ll wait here for five more seconds.”
The lapine narrowed her eyes. Had she missed something? She looked around, out of the windshield and the window on her side of the vehicle. Judy’s ears fell behind her back. “Right…” she said in acceptance. “It’s pouring rain.” She leaned forwards and glanced out the windshield. The cloud cover did not look like it would subside any time soon.
Not a moment later, the rain stopped at once, it was very abrupt. Bright sunlight fell down into the narrow side alley and through the Jokemobile’s windshield. Judy could now see there was no ice or frost on the stubby hood of the vehicle, the rain must have molten it before they had landed.
“Right on the tick,” praised Nick. He looked up to see the sky all clear and blue. “Amazing. Absolutely amazing.” He checked his wristwatch again, then opened the driver door and stepped out of the time machine. “Too bad the post office isn’t as efficient as the weather service.” Judy got out of the vehicle too, still looking at Nick expectedly.
“First you’re gonna have to get a change of clothes,” explained the vulpine. “You’re taking me shopping in the future?” asked Judy. After Nick had been so smug about waiting for the rain to subside, the bunny simply had to retort with her own sly remarks. “I have a boyfriend, you know.” Nick rolled his eyes and smiled.
The bunny took this moment to observe her surroundings. The alley formed a narrow pathway between brick buildings on both sides, though it was wide enough for the Jokemobile to fit into just fine. Next to the doe stood a strange machine. It had pipes running down into it from the adjacent building and a vent which exuded a slow and steady stream of steam. This thing looked like air conditioning, but why was steam coming out? Judy found some branding, she looked closer, hoping to find out more about this odd device. ‘Fursion Industries’ and a matching logo. It looked like the same icon as the one on the new addition on the back of the time machine, Mr. Fursion.
Surely, this one machine wasn’t everything that was new in 2016. Nick alone had quite the number of unusual gadgets on him already. There had to be more to discover in the future.
This was the future. There had to be more to discover right now, right here.
Judy looked down the alley to find a familiar building. It was the courthouse with the iconic clock tower. This side alley branched off of Cabbage Road right at Carrot Square and ran parallel to Pitchfork Way. The bunny was lost in thoughts about what the future might bring and how Carrot Square would look in 2016. Had Bunnyburrow officials decided to bring back the pretty greenery? Was the tree still there? Did it look even more run down than it had in 1985?
Those thoughts were all interrupted when Nick started speaking in an apologetic tone. “Excuse the disguise, Judy,” he said. “…but I was afraid you wouldn’t recognise me.”
What was he talking about? What disguise? The doe would recognise this fox, he was a close friend. She turned to face him, then she reacted with disgust. The vulpine pulled on his fur right under his snout. He pulled it right off… No, not just the fur, the skin too! Was he a robot now? What sort of science-fiction was this? The fox peeled himself. What he removed from his face looked like a material similar to silicone or plastic. The tod pulled it off like a mask, except he ripped it apart completely. The bunny simply stared in disbelief and slight discomfort at those strange body modifications.
“I went to a rejuvenation clinic and got a whole natural overhaul,” explained Nick matter-of-factly. The lapine slowly nodded along but struggled to follow. “They took out some wrinkles, did a fur- and claw repair, changed the blood, gave me a vaccine for pneumonia…” Nick listed those things like they were a common shopping list. It all sounded very alien to the past bunny, however. “Added a good thirty to forty years to my life. They also replaced my spleen and colon.”
With a stronger final pull, Nick removed the rest of his unusual mask. This action revealed an almost identical fox underneath. He looked indistinguishable at first glance. Perhaps the tod appeared a little bit healthier and younger. This version of Nick looked like a blend between the Nick from 1985, who Judy was familiar with the most, and the Nick from 1955, who the bunny had seen for only the past week.
“What do you think?” asked the fox with an anticipating smile. The doe nodded at him in response, still firmly keeping her sceptical expression. “You look good, Slick,” she said. Her sarcasm might not have shown as much as she had hoped. Regardless, Nick smiled genuinely, then he turned to the time machine and started rummaging around.
Judy had enough of her friend’s antics for now. She turned towards Carrot Square once again and slowly started to step in its direction. “The future…” she murmured to herself. “Unbelievable.” The bunny addressed Nick. “I have to check this out, Slick.” She didn’t take her eyes off of the clock tower. It looked different but the lapine couldn’t quite tell why. A second later, she felt a hand on her shoulder. “All in good time, Fluff,” said Nick. “We’re on a tight schedule here.”
This struck the bunny as odd. How could they be on a tight schedule when they literally had a time machine? For now, though, the lapine gave in to Nick’s disappointing answer. The future of Bunnyburrow would remain a mystery for a few more minutes.
The fox hadn’t commented on the bunny’s own life, however. “Tell me about my future,” requested Judy. “I mean, I know I'll make it big.” The doe was daydreaming. Her guitar playing would surely be something impressive with so many years of practice. “Do I become, like, a rich rock star?” she asked. Anyone could be anything, right? Who was to say Judy couldn’t step up into a famous musician’s footsteps?
“Please, Carrots,” responded Nick with a hint of irritation. "No one should know too much about their own destiny.” He went back to rummaging in the Jokemobile. “Right, right…” Judy took her friend’s reaction as a ‘no’. She likely wasn’t famous in the future. The bunny grabbed the transparent plastic tie dangling from the fox’s neck and pulled him back around to face her. “I am rich, though. Right?” This last question wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. Judy liked to tease Nick about everything and anything sometimes, including money.
“It’s a bummer…” sighed the tod. He didn’t feel like joking back and forth at the moment. “Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this. Maybe I should just forget this whole thing and take you both back home.” He was deep in thought. “Hey, I’m sorry, Nick,” responded Judy honestly. “I’m just excited, that’s all. Everybody wants to know about their future.”
“The bunny got that right,” came a new low voice.