Alex wasn’t sure about for how long he kept walking. It was probably midday already, but Alex had no way to tell, for he had no watch. Besides, the human who got turned into a cougar wasn’t sure about how exactly time behaved into that strange world. For all he knew, the days could last only six hours. At the given moment, Alex wasn’t sure of very much anything.
Alex continued to walk, trying not to call much attention to himself as he walked among the many kinds of animals that walked into that place. He didn’t knew what to do next, and neither were to go, mostly because he didn’t knew that city and he wasn’t sure that he would be able to find his way even if he tried or if he had a map.
Alex groaned as his stomach rumbled, making the cougar put his paw over it.
It seemed that even the thing of being transported to another world and being turned into an animal had not diminished his hunger. After all, animals needed to eat to survive, and the consequences of hunger were well known by all living things, including Alex, human or cougar, he still needed food.
Alex remembered the trail with that delicious-smelling fish that the gazelle nurse had brought to his room while he was at the hospital. How he regretted not having eat at least a piece of it before he left the hospital in order to don’t be locked into a cushioned room. Alex was so hungry now that he could very well eat a horse.
Ironically, as he thought about it, two horses just crossed his way, but of course that Alex was not going to jump at them in the middle of the street and devour them. Actually, the thought of devouring something that was so much human-like, and that had feelings and thoughts like him, actually made Alex feel sick, almost as if it was cannibalism.
Still, that didn’t changed the fact that his stomach was aching. Alex barely remembered when was the last time that he had eaten something. He needed to find food for his stomach, and he needed to do it soon.
“Excuse me, sir.” He said, stopping a rhino that was crossing the street, the rhino looked at him and let him approach, and Alex asked: “Sorry, I’m new in town and I don’t know that place very well. Do you know a place where I can get some food?”
“There is a Bug-Burga in the next block.” The rhino said, before continuing his way.
Bug-Burga… the name was kind of strange, but Alex simply shrugged, and he continued his way. If it was a place where he could get some food to satiate his hunger, then he didn’t minded the name at all.
Alex walked in the direction the rhino pointed, he almost ran, as his hunger was making it hard for him to stand it, until he was able to see the place. It was a big place with green and orange in the decoration, with a big sign in the front with the words “BUG-BURGA” in green between two lines of orange, making it seem like a stylized hamburger.
Alex only needed to look at the style of the place and at the animals coming out with food boxes in their paws to realize that the place was a fast food. Alex knew that he should not eat junk food right in the morning, but with the hunger he was, he was barely even minding, as long as he was stuffing his stomach with something.
Alex hurried inside, and in there he was received with the smell of something being fried. Alex didn’t knew what it was, but it smelled delicious, and made his mouth water and his stomach grumble louder, wanting nourishment.
Alex sighed, and he entered into the line. He waited for around ten minutes before he was attended. The attender was an antelope, wearing an orange and green uniform, with a small name tag in his chest reading “Larry”. The antelope looked at him and he said, “Welcome to Bug-Burga, the number one fast food industry for predators of Zootopia, what is your request?”
He spoke it rather mechanically and with a bored expression, as if he had said that around two hundred times only during the morning. Alex knew that working into a fast food was not exactly a glamorous job, but the antelope seemed not to like it very much, and he only continued to look at Alex expectantly with a bored expression, which made the cougar a bit uneasy.
“Uhhh, what do you have for today?” Alex asked, and the Antelope simply pointed up behind him, at the menu that was written into the walls. “Oh, right!” He said, and he looked at the menu, seeing one item after the other, and as he read, he took a surprise.
“Cricked chips… cicada burgers… grasshopper shakes?” Alex looked at one item after the other, and almost all of them seemed to be insect-based. Maybe it was a joke? Maybe the place was some of these fast foods with humor.
However, Alex looked into the attender of the side, and saw a wolf picking up a trail that had a cup in it filled with Alex could immediately recognize as bugs, and they seemed that were fried. Alex then realized that the items in the menu were actually made of bugs, and that was somehow of a startle to him.
But, on second thoughts, he should kind of expect it from a place with a name like “Bug-Burga”. He had first took the name as some kind of joke, but it seemed that it was as serious as it could.
“Are you going to order?” The antelope asked, and Alex only then remembered that he was into a line, and that were other people behind him waiting for their turn to order.
What would he do now? Would he order it? Would he actually eat bugs?
As his stomach grumbled once more, Alex was deciding that, in Rome, you must do as the romans. If all the animals were eating it, then it could not be that bad, and the pain in his stomach and the smell that was coming from what they were frying in there, be it bugs or not, was making him decide that it was not the moment to be picky with his food. Besides, for some reason, the idea of eating bugs was not as repulsing as Alex imagined that it should normally be. Could it be because of his transformation?
“I… I will want the standard Bug Snack.” Alex said; pointing to a package that was composed of one cicada burger, a canine-size bowl of cricket chips and a canine-size cup of grasshopper shake.
“One standard Bug Snack!” The antelope said, and the people behind him were already working into what the cougar had ordered, and he turned back to him and said, “28 zoolars and 45 cents.”
Alex took another startle as he heard the word “zoolars”. Alex mentally kicked himself for forgetting about money, and for not predicting that a place like that would have their own currency, and that it would be very different from the “dollars” he was used with. Darn! What would he do now?
The antelope continued to look at him, and he repeated, “28 zoolars and 45 cents.”
Alex looked at him, and he said, “W-well, sir, look…” He said, picking up from his pocket. “All I have is…” But his voice trailed when he looked at the money.
When Alex was sucked into the vortex, the only money he had were sixty dollars in his pocket in notes of twenty. However, as he looked at the money he had, and they were still sixty in three notes of twenty, but the money was not what he remembered. Instead of the image of one president, it had the image of the head of a stag, staring back at him. These were not dollars.
As Alex stared dumbfolded at the money that he had, the antelope decided to serve himself. He reached out and picked out two notes of twenty, and after a while, he put in Alex’s paws a few coins of his change. “Wait for your order to be ready and pick your trail on the side.”
Alex barely heard him, but he nodded anyway, and he move to the next balcony to pick up his order as soon as it was ready. He then walked to one of the table inside the establishment and sat down with his trail, and just remained in there for a moment.
One thing was his whole body changing. However, his own money changing from dollar into the currency of that world was something that really felt off. Suddenly, something clicked into Alex’s mind, and he reached into his other pocket, and he pulled out a folded photograph.
Hesitating, he slowly unfolded it, and looked at the picture. It was a picture of him when he was younger, around eighteen years ago, with his mother and his brother. They were still there, but they were all cougars. Alex could see the one that was the younger version of himself, as well as his brother, and his mother, smiling like she always did. However, the ones that were previously humans into the picture had all been turned into cougars. The strange was that, even with them having their faces and appearances transformed completely, Alex was still somehow able to recognize instantly all of their appearances, as if they had always looked like that.
Alex wasn’t sure of what disturbed him more. The fact that the faces in the picture had been changed, and that his mother and brother had been turned into cougars, or the fact that, even in their new forms, he could still recognize them as he always did. It made him reflect that the vortex had not only change him, but all of his possessions. As it had did with his money and with the photo, and it occurred to Alex that it did the same with his clothing. When he was getting dressed, Alex noticed that his pants and underwear now had holes in them, by which he could perfectly fit his new tail, but he had dismissed it as his tail having bored these holes in the clothes when it grew. However, now it seemed that the vortex had transformed his clothes too, with the exception of his shoes, that had completely vanished. However, Alex noticed that most animals in the city walked barefoot, so he decided that it wouldn’t hurt to walk barefoot too… or would it be… barepaw?
Alex became so lost in his thoughts that he barely even remembered his food or his hunger, until his stomach insisted in remembering him about it.
Looking at the trail of food, Alex folded the photo again and put it back in his pocket, along with the miraculously transformed money that he had now, and he focused on the food. He opened the box and pulled out the burger that he had ordered. Alex knew that it was made from cicada, which was a bug, but still, instead of feeling nauseated by this, Alex felt his mouth watering even more.
Without really caring if it was insect, he opened his maws wide and gave it a bite, chewing on it and letting the flavor fill his mouth and his taste buds. It was surprisingly good. Alex kind of like the taste, even knowing that it was bug. He continued to eat the cicada burger, giving an occasional gulp into the grasshopper shake, which too was very good, and Alex was discovering that he liked that food.
Soon the burger was gone, and Alex sighed, as he looked at the “canid-size” bowl of cricket chips. Slowly, Alex picked up a single one of them, and he put in his mouth before chewing. It was crispy, salty, and it was simply delicious. Soon Alex was goggling hungrily into the, which caught the eye of some of the other patrons, but Alex barely minded. That thing was just too good!
Once Alex finally finished his meal, he sighed as he laid back into the chair, patting his belly. That meal was truly delicious. Alex never imagined that one day he would eat a meal that was composed of bug-derivate products and that he was actually going to like it. However, he actually liked it very much. He sighed as he looked around, to the other animals that were buying their food and eating it.
He saw lions, wolves, tigers, leopards, bears… For the first time, Alex noticed that almost all of the animals in there were the generally considered predator species. He remembered what the attender had said, about Bug-Burga being the number one place in Zootopia for predator alimentation. Well, if animals lived together in harmony, it would made sense that predators would restrain themselves from eating other animals, for it would not be acceptable into their society, so they ate insects and fish. It actually made a lot of sense in Alex’s mind.
Alex remembered to himself that he was a cougar, a predator species, so it was supposed to be natural for him to find insects succulent, once they were his source of protein. Still, the whole concept of him being turned into an anthropomorphic animal was still some of a difficult thing for Alex to process.
Well, the problem of the hunger was solved, and now, he could leave and go to his other business. As Alex was leaving the place, he passed by a store that sold off maps, and they were selling a map of the city for 15 zoolars. Alex thought about buying it, but them, he realized that he had very little money on himself. And as if that was not enough problem, Alex realized that he would have other problems due to the lack of money.
With low cash on himself, he would have to sleep in the streets and he would have no food for him. The idea of living like a beggar was something that disturbed Alex, and he was not willing to pass by this. Still, he had little choices, as jobs would take a while to pay him, and he could not afford making debts in this strange city, once he didn’t knew how debts were solved around there. There was also the immediate need for money, once his needs would not wait until his next paycheck from a job that he wasn’t even sure that he was going to be able to get, once he didn’t had references, professional resume, or any kind of object in his possession to even leave as a guaranty. He once more felt like a fool for leaving most of his belongings behind when he went to that mission with his friends, they told him that he might need a few things, but Alex was sure that he would not. He should have listened to his friends.
Well, what was done was done, and now, Alex needed to worry about how to get money to get by, and the solution that formed in his head was quick and sure. It was something that Alex didn’t wanted, but seeing his current situation, he assumed that he had little choice, once he was not willing to spent the nights in the streets or to go hungry. Not to mention that Alex really needed money to help him start the search for his friends and for a way to truly understand all that was going on.
Sighing, Alex saw that he didn’t really had a choice.
He looked up, and scanned among the animals that were passing by the street, and he sighted one, a hippo. Alex walked straight into him, and they bumped.
“Hey!”
“Sorry!” Alex quick said as both of them kept moving, the hippo keeping an eye on him as he continued to move. Alex looked over his shoulder, and he looked at the wallet that he had taken from the pocked of that hippo when they bumped. He opened it and he saw a picture of a little hippo dressed as a ballerina. It was a girl, and she should be around eight or nine. Alex wasn’t sure how he knew that, but he knew.
Sighing, Alex checked the wallet, there should be around one hundred zoolars in there, but Alex only picked up ten. Closing the wallet again, he turned around, and saw that the hippo was still in his line of sight.
“Sir!” Alex called out as he ran after the hippo. Soon, the hippo was looking at him, and Alex was close, and he said, “You dropped your wallet.”
The hippo looked surprised at him, and he checked on his own pocket, only to find out it was empty. He picked the wallet from the cougar’s paws, and he checked on it, once he saw the photo of his daughter in her ballet outfit in there, he knew that the wallet was his.
“I think it dropped when we bumped.” Alex said as innocently as he could, and it worked, the hippo thanked him and he continued to go his way.
Alex watched him walk away, and let out a sigh as he turned around, checking out the ten zoolars that he had just picked from the wallet of that hippo, and he put them on his own pocket, turning his attention back to the streets once again. He took only a few minutes of walking before he sighted his next target. It was a kangaroo, and he came half-walking, half-hopping.
Anyway, Alex was able to get a good look at his pants to know the pocket that had the lump of the wallet. Once again, he bumped into the target, saying a quick, “I’m sorry”, while he kept his eyes on the kangaroo’s eyes, to see if he didn’t noticed anything.
Alex opened the wallet, and he found in there the driver license, and a photo of a female kangaroo with the head of a young kangaroo sticking to out of her purse. When Alex searched for money into the wallet, he only found 15 zoolars. Alex closed the wallet again, with all of the money still inside of it, and he ran after the kangaroo.
“Sir!” He said, and the kangaroo stopped to look at him, as Alex looked at him, and he offered the wallet, “You dropped this when we bumped.” He said, and the kangaroo looked at it, and he took it and looked inside, and he checked his own pocket.
“Oh, yes, it is mine! Thank you.” He said, and he went his own way, and Alex looked at him leaving, before turning around and going back to walking, waiting for a few minutes and maybe a turn into the next avenue for his next target.
XXX
“There must be a way to find him.” Judy said as she looked at the sides as she drove the car. They were in that for almost one and a half hour as they were searching into the city, as if there was going to miraculously appear a clue of the runaway cougar into the next corner. Nick was in that for a bit with her, and he was getting somehow tired of it.
“Carrots, if chief Bogo finds out that we have stopped our patrol to search for a crazy cougar, he will be ripping off our ears.” Nick said, and Judy was fast to think of an answer.
“We are not stopped our patrol, we are still doing it, and while we do it, we are searching for the clues of that cougar. Besides, he might pose a potential threat to people, so we are making our job by searching for him and making sure that he does not end up hurting himself or someone else.”
Nick rolled his eyes, as Judy seemed to have a prepared answer for nearly anything that Nick could say to her. Still, thatg didn’t changed the fact that they were doing it for around one hour and a half without any stop, and Nick was starting to feel the growing need to take a whizz.
“Judy, can we at least make a stop?” He asked, and she said:
“We have to find that cougar. For what we know, he could be stalking someone or doing some short of crime. We need to find him and nothing will make us stop.” Just as Judy spoke that, however, Nick’s ears could catch a grumbling sound, and he looked at Judy, who remained silent as she blushed furiously.
“Carrots, did you eat this morning, I mean, before you nearly broke into my house to drag me to that building to search for clues about that cougar?” Nick asked, and Judy said nothing at first. She was very thrilled to go to the buildings and to ask the animals about the cougar, to find out the more she could about him as soon as possible. In her rush, she had simply got up her bed, put on her uniform, and rushed to Nick’s house, arriving right after Nick finished his breakfast.
She waited impatiently for him to finish getting dressed and then they both were rushing to the buildings, the rest is history.
The fact was that, in the rush to get at the bottom of that case, Judy ended up forgetting both her breakfast and her lunch, and she was now nearly starving as her stomach hurt. She groaned, and she nodded, feeling bad for letting Nick know that he had actually made a point on her, and she didn’t looked at him, for she knew that she would see that same sly smile in his face if she did. In fact, Nick had very much that smile now.
“So, I guess we could use a break for a lunch, right?” He asked, and he said, “I just happen to know a good place in here to get some grub, we can even eat in the car if you want. You just have to let me get off to go in there before my bladder explodes, okay?” He said as if he was negotiating with someone, and Judy said:
“Okay, but make it quick, we need to keep searching and we can’t let the patrols.” Judy spoke that still without looking at Nick, and the fox simply chuckled, as he knew that he had made a point now.
Soon, they were driving in direction to the Donut Safari, one of the best donuts in all of Zootopia, and the best in that area of Savanna Central. It was one of the favorite places from all of the officers from the ZPD, and it was almost an obligatory stop during their days at the patrolling.
“I’ll be back in a few.” Nick said as he stepped out of the car, and Judy was quick to tell him.
“If you take more than twenty minutes I’ll go in there after you!”
Nick chuckled, knowing that she would most likely do so if he really took too long. Still, Nick was taking it all as a joke, and he simply smiled at her as he walked into the establishment. After a quick visit to their restrooms, Nick was empty and he was in his way to the counter, and he picked up two boxes of donuts. One for him and Judy, and the other for their dear friend Clawhauser, who was just the biggest fan ever of the Donut Safari and they delicious donuts.
Soon Nick had the box in his arms and was carrying them to the outside of the place, as he looked at the animals passing by. As he looked, he saw something that made him take a double look to be sure that he wasn’t confused.
There was him, walking with his paws in the pockets of his pants. Alex Hunter. The same cougar that had fallen in their car last night and that they had been searching for the last hour and half, walking into the streets just in the place Nick and Judy decided to make a stop and take a break from searching. And he even wearing the same clothes from last night!
Wow, talk about coincidences.
Nick looked at him as the cougar walked into the street, soon he bumped into a rhino, who said something to him about “being careful” and the cougar seemingly apologized to him, and they both followed their own way. As they walked away from each other, however, Nick noticed that there was something into the paws of the cougar that wasn’t in there before, and it was a wallet, and it looked pretty big to be his’.
Nick looked very intently as the cougar opened the wallet, removed some money for it and put in his own pocket, before putting the rest of the money back and closing it once more. The cougar turned around and Nick heard him call out “Sir!” The next thing the cougar did was to run in direction to the rhino, who had turned around to look at him, and he offered the wallet to him.
The rhino looked at it with wide eyes and checked on his own pocket, before he picked the wallet and looked inside. He grumbled something at the cougar while he put the wallet in his pocket, and the cougar looked at him for a few moments, before he turned around and continued to walk, with his paws in his pockets.
Nick looked to him, having realized immediately what had happened.
“Sneaky cat.” Nick said with a lightly smirk, as he recognized the simplicity and yet high intelligence behind that trick the cat was using. Nick looked back at the parking lot, where Judy was waiting for him to return. After a few moments, he decided that it would not hurt to go talk with that cougar, just to see if he really was as crazy as he had seemed when the doctor had described. By what he was doing, it was possible that he was not as bad, still, Nick checked at his holster, and when he felt the handle of his dart gun in there, he felt more confident.
So, Nick started to follow the cougar…
XXX
Alex stopped after a corner, and he looked to the sides, to be sure that no one had saw or followed him, and he took of the money from his pocket. By now, he had a great bundle of that money of that world, zoolars.
Alex made a count of it, and he counted around 500 zoolars. It was a good amount, maybe enough to buy him cheap meals and maybe even a stay into the cheapest building he could find. It was a big city, surely it had some place that was cheap and that would not ask many questions to him, and maybe they could even be discrete about him if he gave them a good incentive.
“Wow! That is a good deal of money.”
The sudden voice made Alex jump back and look to the sides, but he didn’t saw the source of that voice. He continued to look to the sides, when the voice came again.
“Down here.”
Alex turned his attention to below, and once he did, he saw a small animal looking up at him. It was carrying two boxes in its arms, and above them, he could see a canine-like head, with red fur and with two ears on top. The green eyes looked at him as the small animal had a sly smirk in his face. The cougar was also able to see a busy tail behind the creature.
Alex took a moment to recognize the animal as a fox. Once he saw him, he said, “Yeah, it is a lot of money.”
The fox nodded, and he said, “Any chance of some of that money have come from the wallet of a rhinoceros?” The fox asked it more matter-of-factly than as a real question. Alex looked down at him as he looked back at him, evaluating that fox, who seemed to actually being smart, despite being way smaller than the cougar himself, and obviously far less bulky and muscled, the fox could actually mean problem if he was way too smart.
“Would that be a bad thing?” Alex asked, being sure to measure the reactions of the fox, to see what he would do next. It took only a few moments before the fox said:
“Well, if I was any other fox, I would answer with something clever but…” He said, putting the boxes he was carrying down. “… seeing my profession, I will have to say that it means a little problem for you.” He stood and puffed his chest, purposely letting Alex see the police uniform he was wearing.
Oh, bloody hell… Alex said mentally as he looked at the unmistakable blue uniform of the police that the fox was wearing, and knowing that the fox was not only a cop, but also a smart one, by itself meant a lot of problem that could come to Alex’s side.
Nick continued to look at the cougar, measuring his reactions as much as the cougar was measuring his’. It was clear that they were both smart mammals, and that they should both be able to talk calmly and from equal to equal. Thinking on that, Nick said: “So, there is a bus stop right in there, can we make a stop by there to talk?”
Alex looked at him, and nodded, and he soon was walking with the fox in direction to the bus stop, and soon, they both were sitting into the bench. Alex had even offered to take the boxes that the fox had been carrying, which Nick accepted, and took as another sign that the cougar was not as bad as he had first seemed, or at least that he was somewhat decent.
Once they were sat down, Nick opened one of the boxes, revealing that they were full of donuts. “Want some?” He offered to the cougar, and Alex gladly accepted. He took a bite, and it was delicious.
“Hey, this is rather good.” The cougar said, and Nick answered:
“Yeah, the Donut Safari makes the best donuts in Savanna Central.” The fox said, and Alex looked at him, and they just stared at each other for a few moments, before the fox offered his paw. “Nick Wilde.”
Alex looked at him, and shook his paw with his much bigger one, “Alex Hunter.” Next to it, there was a brief silence, and Nick said:
“I already saw you before.”
“Huh?”
“Last night.” Nick said, “When you dropped into our car.”
“Oh!” Alex said, looking at the fox, and remembering that he had dropped into a car. No one had told to him that it was a police car. Alex was surprised, even more for a cop that was on that car, was there talking with him. That was enough to keep Alex surprised, still, he didn’t forgot that he was an officer that had just caught him stealing and, despite that world being strange to Alex in many ways, he doubted that crime of smuggling wallets would be taken lightly.
“So, getting down to business.” Nick said to him, making Alex looked at him, and their green eyes met each other. “I’m a smart mammal, and you are surely a smart mammal too, so let’s just have an honest talk, one mammal to another. I mean, let’s pretend that I am not a cop and that we are just two guys talking in the street about their lives. Come on, one predator to another?”
Alex looked at him, and after a while, he sighed, “You saw me do it, then I guess you already figure it out, didn’t you?” Alex said, and Nick nodded.
“You bump into the mammal, and smuggle the wallet in the process. You open the wallet and takes only a little of the money that there is in there. Next, you deliver the wallet back to the owner, making it seem that the wallet had just dropped when you two bumped and that you are just being a good citizen by returning the wallet to the poor unaware victim. The victim does not expect a smuggled wallet to be returned, so the victim does not realize the scam, and even if the victim checks the wallet for the money, once only a little bit of money was taken, the victim does not realize, unless looking with very attention. By them, you have already moved away and the victim can no longer reach you.” Nick said, describing very well the trick that Alex had been using with very much efficiency for the past hour.
Alex looked at him, and he let out a small chuckle, “Yeah, I guess it is true what they say about foxes being clever.” He said that without thinking that it might be an offense, but Nick didn’t minded. He already received a lot of that in the past, and that cougar was actually nicer than many of the other animals that Nick had met in his past, that received him with dismissal and rudeness. That cougar was actually very nice to be around, only giving Nick more reasons to think good of him instead of bad.
“Anyway, I only steal from people who have a lot of money and who will not miss it. Like that rhino, you believe that he had around two hundred bucks in his wallet, and from that I only got-” Alex was about to say something, holding up the twenty zoolars note, but as he did, he suddenly stopped, and he looked straight at it.
“…buck…” He said, as he stared deeply into the head of the stag that was looking back at him. Nick noticed this, and the cougar turned to him, and said, “Is this… the pun was intentional?” Alex said, being only able to think that this was a pun. Nick however, looked at him confused.
“What pun?”
Alex looked at him and he said, “No. Nothing. Nevermind.” He said, and looked away, knowing that he would only sound crazy if he did that, and he didn’t wanted someone else to think that he was a lunatic. He sighed, and he continued:
“I haven’t needed to use that trick in a long time.” Alex said to him, and Nick looked at the cougar as he continued, “I learned it from a guy. A street rat that wanted to use me as a source of income for himself. Luckily my mother pushed me away from that life long time ago, making sure to let me know that she wanted more to my life than to be a smuggler.”
Nick nodded, feeling like he could sympathize with the cougar, “Yeah, I too didn’t had exactly an honest life a while ago. I mean, before I became a cop.” Nick spoke that, and he added, “And I had a lot of trouble of relationship with my mom because of that. She always said that I was wasting my potential, and that I could be much more than just a scammer.”
“She too pushed you out of that?” Alex asked, and Nick said, “Actually it was my partner. Of course, that was one year ago, during the Night Howler incident.” Nick said that, and Alex looked at him.
“Who?”
Nick looked at him, surprised as it seemed that the cougar didn’t knew. “Night Howler incident?” Nick tried again, but the cougar only looked at him. “Toxic flowers? Ex-mayor Bellwether? Missing mammals? Savage predators?”
Alex only continued to look at him, and after a while the cougar said, “Sorry, I’m not from here, I have no idea what you are talking about.”
That really caught Nick off guard, and he took around five minutes to explain to him about the Night Howler case, which was about the ex-mayor Bellwether who made a serum with a toxic flower that caused the afflicted predators to become savage. That this caused a wave of fear into the prey of Zootopia, what stirred a wave of hate towards the predator population.
That left Alex in wonder, it was quite a story. “Yeah, it was a difficult situation, but you have to consider that the prey were all scared.” Nick said, and he added, “During this time was almost impossible for a predator to live in Zootopia peacefully. I mean, we only make up 10% of the population.”
Alex nodded, as he totally understood what was to be into a minority and having to deal with the fear that the people had from you. He could totally understand the kind of situation that the predators of Zootopia had faced during this time. He totally could.
“I’m surprised that you didn’t heard about it.” Nick said, “I mean, it was in all the journals and in the internet for some months. I think it was the main topic in the area of the Three Burrows.”
Alex simply shrugged, really unsure of what he could say about it, but he was able to think that this “Three Burrows area” was something that was a little familiar to his home. Still, Nick said, “But, back to topic, what would your mother say if she hears that you have been back into smuggling?”
Alex looked down, and he said, “She died ten years ago.”
“Oh…” Nick said, kicking himself now, and feeling like a jerk. He wanted to make a good score with that cougar, and he would be unable to if he screwed things up like that. Alex sighed, and he said:
“But, you are right, she would not like it. She raised me better than that.” Alex said that kind of distracted. “But… I don’t really have a choice. I just arrived in Zootopia yesterday, I’m not even sure of where exactly I am, and I don’t know anyone. I was with my friends, of course, but I got lost from them, and I don’t know where to go next. I don’t have a place to stay or anyone to talk to, and I need money.” Alex said simply, he sighed heavily, “I’m pretty sure that my mom would understand why I had to do it.”
Nick reflected a while about what the cougar had said, choosing carefully his next words, trying to make the best choice of words to conquer the animal’s trust. “Well, you can go back to the hospital, after all, we talked to the doctor, and they don’t seem to mind hosting you into there for a day or two.”
Alex sudden perked his ears as he heard the hospital being mentioned, and as soon as the fox finished, he turned to him and said, “So they can put me on a padded cell with a straightjacket? No thanks! I have spent enough years in straightjackets!” Alex said, not caring about how it sounded.
“Oh… really?” Nick asked, and only then, Alex realized that his words could be misinterpreted.
“No! Is not what you are thinking!” Alex said in a rush, and Nick raised his paws defensively at him.
“Hey, I’m not thinking anything.” He said, and Alex looked at him, after a while, they both calmed down, and Alex looked away, and he said.
“I don’t want to go back to a place where they will lock me up as if I’m a monster.” Alex said, and Nick realized that the cougar had already been locked up, for one reason or another.
Nick knew that he had to choose his next words very carefully, for he was treading into an unknown and possibly unstable ground. He spoke: “Look, the doctor is a nice guy, and he just wants to help.”
Alex let out a snicker that sounded somewhat like the sound of a cat, and Nick looked at him, before Alex turned back at him. “I already met people who ‘wanted to help’, and they caused me a lot of pain. They almost broke me.” The cougar looked at Nick deep into the eyes, and he spoke “Because of these people, I spent years of my life scared to get out of my home.” Alex said that as if it was the purest truth, as if he had really suffered into the paws of someone who promised to help him. Now who and how was totally up to Nick’s imagination.
“So sorry if I have trouble in trusting in people who look at me like I’m some kind of freak and then claim that they want to help me, or ‘fix me’, or anything of the like.” Alex concluded, looking away and crossing his arms, and letting it clear that the discussion was finished about this topic. Nick looked at him, and he imagined that the cougar must really had passed by some bad times into his life.
Nick looked at him, and he said, “You know, maybe some people who say that they want to help you really do want to help you.” Nick said “And besides, I think the hospital might not be so bad, considering that I just saw you stealing money from someone a few minutes ago.”
Alex perked his ears, as he looked at the fox, and he said, “Are you giving me the option of going to the hospital and be locked as a lunatic or going to jail and locked up as a criminal?”
“I’m saying that you are finding a lot of trouble in the past hours.” Nick said, trying his best to make it clear to the cougar that he was not his enemy. “I’m saying that I saw you stealing from someone and that as a cop I have a job that I had promised to do, due to this badge, and I have to honor it.” Nick was trying his best to make a point in there, but he was also making clear to the cougar that he was not kidding in there.
To Alex, that discussion was lost. He knew that he could not give his own arguments to the fox without making himself sound ridiculous or crazy, and he knew that he didn’t wanted to be locked up either way. So, he could only decide that it was the time to walk away.
“Well, it was very good to have this chat with you, Officer Wilde, but I’ll have to go now.” Alex said, and he turned to leave, but as he did, the fox stood up into the bench, and he said, “Sir, I’m afraid I cannot let.”
Alex looked at him, and the fox once more said, “My partner forced me to walk around the city in order to search for you before you got into trouble, and it seems that you already have. If she hears that I let you walk away like that she will never let go of my tail again. So, I’ll once again ask you politely to come with me.”
Nick’s face was serious as he spoke that, and he was going to let it clear that he was not taking a “no” as an answer, and that he was going to insist until the cougar said yes. Alex simply looked at him. This Wilde seemed to be a nice fellow, but Alex knew that he could not simply go with him. So, looking the fox up and down, he stood up, standing as straight as he could, and he said, “I’m pretty bigger than you. Not to mention that I have claws and teeth, and that I’m stronger.”
Alex spoke it gently, and it didn’t sounded as a threat, but only as if he was stating a fact. “So, if I wanted to walk away, and you wanted to stand in my way, I could very well knock you out with a single slap.”
Nick looked up at him, and he answered, into the same tune of voice, as his paw travelled to the handle of his dart gun. “So, are you saying that you will resist?” He said as he held the hilt with rather a bit of strength, and Alex saw that.
In the moment Alex saw the handle of the gun being held, he knew that the fox was armed, and he knew that this could very well be a great problem to him, but still, he was not willing to go with the fox to wherever it was. He remained with a cool expression and looked at him as he used the same tune to talk to him, and he said:
“I’m not resisting to anything. After all, you don’t have any true evidence against me, and you could very well have misinterpreted what you saw earlier.” Alex was playing with his intelligence, and he was the smart kind, just like nick had imagined of him. Alex knew how to play the game of law just as well as Nick himself. “I’m just saying that, if I wanted, I would pounce at you so fast and hard that you would be out before you had the chance to understand what happened.” The cougar said and, giving a quick glance at the handle of the gun, where Nick’s paw was, he added “And you wouldn’t have a chance to use that.”
For a long moment, they both stared at each other’s eyes, neither of them moving and neither of them blinking, as they stood there into the desert street. For who looked, it would seem that they had both became statues that were glued exactly into the place that they had stopped, and that they weren’t even breathing, as if they were each just waiting for the other to make a move so they could be the first to react and the first to win. Just like the old cowboy movies.
After what seemed like an eternity to the two mammals, Nick Wilde finally sighed, as his paw traveled away from his dart gun, and he put both hands into the air, as if he was giving the silent message that he was surrendering.
“Well, I tried.” Nick said, sounding defeated, and Alex was able to hide his surprise.
He wasn’t expecting this to work, but it seemed that it had. Indeed, the fox hadn’t any proof against him, and Alex could simply walk away and claim that the fox didn’t saw what he thought he saw. Anyway, that was settled, and with that, Alex was finally able to relax. He turned away from the fox and started to leave, but in there, he made a stupid mistake:
He gave the fox his back.
As Alex was walking away, he barely noticed the movements of the fox behind him, until he heard the *click* and he felt something tripping his left ankle and preventing him from moving his foot away.
“What the-!” Alex cried out as he looked back, and he saw officer Nick Wilde looking up at him, before backing away. Alex looked at his foot, to see a band of metal that was connected to a chain, that was connected to another band of metal, that had been attached to the feet of the bench.
Alex looked astonished at it, and then at the fox, as he tried to move his ankle, but it was trapped. The guy had cuffed his leg to the bench!
“Why you!” Alex said as he tried to liberate his foot by pulling with all the strength he had, but it seemed that the cuffs were made of reinforced metal, strong enough to handle the strength of a feline his size, and now, the fox was out of his reach and he simply watched the cougar with a bemused smile.
“Just doing my job.” Nick said defensively as he kept shrugged, as if he was simply apologizing for doing something that he was really supposed to do. While this, Alex continued to try to break free from the cuffs strapping his leg at that bench. Well, it didn’t helped that the bench was screwed to the ground, and so, there was absolutely no chance of it moving whatsoever.
As Alex was trying to free himself from the cuffs holding him down, Nick’s intercom buzzed to life, and Judy’s voice could be heard coming from it. “Nick? Nick, are you there?”
Nick pressed his intercom, and he said, “Hey, Carrots, how you doing? You’ll never guess what happened!”
“It has to do with you not being into the place you said you would be?” She said, sounding as if a mother who was scolding her kit for lying at her. “What was the plan, to use this to sneak away so you would leave me planted in here?”
“I found our runaway cougar.” Nick said, deciding to go straight to the main point to get Judy to get off his tail before she pulled some fur out of it. While this, Alex continued to pull at the chain in a futile attempt to pull himself free.
“What!?” Judy nearly screamed, and Nick continued.
“I was just getting out of the shop with our donuts when I sighted him smuggling the wallets of other mammals. I followed him, we had some talk, and then I managed to cuff him to a bench.” Nick said as if he was narrating the events of his favorite soap opera, and in the end he added. “No big deal.”
“Nick! You saw the suspect and you followed him without requesting reinforcements!? Are you out of your mind!?” Judy asked, “He could be dangerous!”
“Hey, Carrots, calm down, I got him already, he is cuffed to a bench that is nailed to the ground and I’m at a safe distance from him. It is everything okay. Besides, if you want my opinion, I think he is not as dangerous as he looks.” Nick finished.
As Nick talked with his partner, Alex continued to try to free himself. He could not accept that he was caught like that and that he was going to be either locked up or arrested. He looked to all sides, trying to find a way out, but he found none, and he looked at the fox.
He surely had the keys, but of course that he was not going to let Alex have them. Alex knew that he was already in trouble, so he needed to get out of that by any means necessary. Alex already did things in his life, and he was willing to do some more and to step a few boundaries. Which included a few things regarded to policemen.
Alex wanted to escape, and he wanted to escape before he was into a situation that he would be unable to come out from later on. He looked at the fox, and he was seeing that the canine had made the same mistake that Alex did: he was giving him his back.
With one last look around, to make sure that the street was desert, and that there was no one around, Alex looked fiercely at the fox, and took a deep breath, before letting out a sigh.
XXX
Judy was very nervous.
She had waited for almost twenty-two minutes for her partner to return, she then got feed up waiting and she went after him, just like she said she would. Arriving in there, she saw that he was not in sight, and so she searched for him in all possible places, including the males’ restroom. She contacted him to scold him and to know his location, to find out that he had sighted the cougar and gone after him without any backup, and that he had managed to cuff him to a bench after talking to him.
Judy could not even start to count in how many different ways Nick had put his own safety at risk by doing that, and she was too nervous to think about that in the moment.
“Nick, you should have called me in the moment you saw him.” Judy said in her radio, and Nick soon answered.
“Oh, Carrots, you are worried about me, that is so sweet.” He said, and Judy rolled her eyes at him, but this didn’t stopped Nick from continuing. “But, don’t worry, as I said, I talked to him, and I believe that he is not so dangerous.”
“Still, you need to be careful at him! Tell me where you are!” Judy said, wanting to be in there to give Nick backup if he needed.
“Getting out of the donut shop, at the left, turning the first street corner that goes to the right. There is a bus stop with a bench on which. Our cougar is cuffed to the bench and I’m at a safe distance. And don’t worry carrots, you know that I’m care-ARRGH!!!” Nick suddenly cried out as the radio buzzed like mad, startling Judy so much that she almost dropped her radio.
“Nick! What was that!?” She asked at the radio.
XXX
“Nick!? Nick re you there?” Judy’s voice continued to come out of the radio, which was fallen into the ground, very close to Nick’s paw, which was twitching.
“Nick!? What happened!? Nick, talk to me!” Judy called, and Nick’s paw went limp, right before it was dragged along the ground as Nick himself was dragged.
“NICK!!!”
XXX
Judy burst through the doors of the Donut Safari, looking at all sides and hyperventilating. She pressed her radio “Clawhauser! Clawhauser, answer me!”
“Judy! What happened?”
“Send backup! We have an 11-99, possibly wounded officer! Send paramedics too!” She said as she looked around, trying to think rationally and to remember the direction that Nick had pointed to her.
She looked at the left, and she saw a street corner that turned to the right of who was following. It had to be it.
She rushed to it as fast as she could, stopping many surprised drivers, and she was actually forced to jump over a few vehicles in order to be able to reach for the place, and as soon as she turned into that corner, she saw a bus stop, and at it, there was a bench, and cuffed to it…
Judy’s eyes widened as she gasped, and she ran.
“Nick!” She called out as she approached the fallen form of her partner, cuffed to the bench by his wrist.
Judy quickly approached him, and started to touch his body. He was still warm, she put her ears next to his body, and she let out a relieved sigh as she could hear both his breathing and the beating of his heart.
She placed a hand in her own chest, glad to see that Nick was alive. She looked over, and she could see a distant shape turning the corner. She instantly knew who it was.
Looking at him, she wished to go after him and to dart him for that. But, right at that moment, her partner needed her.
But at that moment, Alex Hunter had just turned that personal.
