There were several seconds of silence in that room, as the two mammals in there looked at each other.
The gazelle looked at the cougar, and the cougar looked back at the gazelle.
Linda had always been a beautiful person. What suited her, because "Linda" in some languages, meant "beautiful", so it fit her just like a glove.
Alex had always found her beautiful, even if it was not a "show-off beauty", like the one of models. She was beautiful, that was for sure.
Now, Alex looked at the gazelle in front of him, and somehow, even if she was no longer human, Alex could still see the same beauty that she always had in his eyes. Her beautiful eyes of a hazelnut-color, and the beautiful way that she smiled, which seemed perfectly natural, even with the new muzzle that she had.
A few moments ago, Alex was worried that he would not recognize Linda if he ever saw her again, but now, that he looked at that gazelle in front of him, he was sure that there was no way that he would mistake her for anyone else.
It was Linda.
There were more moments of silence, before both mammals rushed to each other. They hugged, and they started to kiss.
That kiss was full of love and of some passion, much like all the other kisses that they had shared. That was only one more proof to Alex that this one gazelle could be no other than Linda. There was no way that he could mistake that feeling of kissing her.
After a few moments, they broke the kiss, and they looked lovingly into each other's eyes. Alex looked at Linda, and saw that she was still smiling.
SLAP
Suddenly Alex felt some burning feeling on his cheek, and he took a moment to register that Linda had just slapped him in the face.
He looked back at her, shocked, and she now had stopped smiling and had a serious look in her face.
"Wha..?" Alex mumbled, and Linda looked back at him, before saying:
"Where have you been?"
Alex looked back at her, and after a while, she hugged him very close. Alex blinked, and after a few moments, he heard Linda saying, "I thought I was never going to see you again."
Her voice was full of worry, and he knew that she probably had thought that she could never see him again, much like Alex had caught himself thinking about it, and the thought was one that made him very uneasy.
She had the right to be worried, after all.
Alex hugged her back, and he said, "A lot of things happened." He was trying now to comfort her. "I didn't knew where you were or how to find you. If I could, I would have went straight to you as soon as I woke up."
There was another moment of silence, as the two animals just continued to hug each other, finding comfort into each other's presence. Now, Alex could smell Linda's scent. He had never truly noticed it, but it smelled nice. It was a comforting smell, it made him feel like in home, and made him feel that everything was going to be okay now that they found each other.
"Alex…" Linda said, as she continued to hug him. "You smell like rain."
Alex could not think of anything to come up as an answer, and so, he only said: "Linda… I'm so happy for seeing you again." He broke the hug, "But… how did you found me?"
"Well, it wasn't hard." She said, "You are all around the news."
Alex now felt goofy for having asked that. After all, he knew that God-knows-how-many reporters had recorded him, and now he was probably on the way to have his fifteen minutes of fame.
"You really don't lose a chance to be a hero, do you?" Linda asked him, with quite a smirk. Alex looked at her, and he chuckled, and she did chuckled with him. "Alex, you truly are a lost cause." She said, and despite her words, Alex knew that she actually admired him for that, and that she meant it into the best way possible.
"Yeah, maybe I am." Alex said, and he looked at her, and then, he asked. "Linda, what about the others? Jeff? Tania? Nora? Martin? T.J.? Vivian?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing…" Linda said, and Alex knew that she had no idea where they were, or if they were even alive. "We can search for them later, but now we have to escape."
"Huh?"
"Yeah! Why do you think I came here? I here to rescue you!" She said, and she looked back at the door. "If we rush than maybe we can get out before they notice that you are gone."
"Wha… Linda, what are you-" Alex asked.
"Alex, I don't know how long they might take to come back, but I think we need to go now to avoid any of them. If we need we can just use our powers."
"Linda. Linda! Hold on!" Alex said, holding her by the arms "Calm down."
"Alex, how can I calm down?" She said as she looked at him. "Alex, I saw the police taking you on the tv! And they had already took you earlier! It is back home all over again! And now people are talking all about us again! Just like the girl into the Ferris Wheel!"
"Yes, Yes, I know!" Alex said, trying to calm her down. "But I'm not a prisoner. They just took me here to threat my wounds."
She looked at him, and he looked back at her. "Linda, they didn't do anything with me. Well, the doctor seems to have interest in my abilities, but he has being very polite with me, and none of them tried to drug me or to lock me up now."
She looked at him, and after a while, he said, "I think that they actually trust me."
She looked back at him, and she said, "Alex…"
"Linda." The cougar said, looking her in the eyes, and guiding a gentle hand to her face. That new face that seemed perfectly natural to him, just as her human face had always been. "Maybe things are going to be different in here."
Alex didn't needed to explain what he meant. Still, Linda looked back at him with worried eyes. "Alex, only because they are not making a case of it now it doesn't mean that it is going to be different." She was looking on his eyes as she said that. "You know how things work, it is going to be a witch hunt all over again."
"Maybe not." Alex insisted to her. "Maybe it IS going to be different now."
"But what if it isn't?" Linda asked him, and Alex looked deep in her eyes, and he saw that she was worried. She had the right to be. Alex sighed, and he said.
"I really don't know." He admitted, and looked at her, "But, I'm trying to be positive here, and I think that cooperating is good." He said as he looked at her, and she looked back at him. "Last time there were the Renautas back at home, and the bombing of the Summit, and all of the stuff."
She looked back at him, and Alex said, "But… I have been thinking, and there is none of these guys in here."
"But what if they appear?" Linda insisted.
Alex looked at her, and she spoke. "Alex, I'm scared."
He looked back into her eyes, and gently caressed her face. "Me too." He admitted, as he pulled her into another hug, putting his arms protectively around her. "But I'm trying to make the best of the situation." He spoke that as he continued to hold her close. "They haven't done anything to me up until now. I'm my opinion it is a good sign."
"Alex… sometimes you are too much optimistic." Linda said, and Alex chuckled, "I thought you liked that in me."
She chuckled too, and she said, "I still think that we should leave."
"And go to where?" Alex asked, "We don't know exactly how this place is, and I'm pretty sure that we don't even know the city very well, and we would end up getting lost. We don't know where our friends are, and we don't know anyone in this city. I'm pretty sure that if we ran we would end up in a bigger mess than we already are."
Indeed, Alex really had the feeling that he was being able to build some kind of trust with the animals in there, and if he ran away it could jeopardize it. Anyways, Alex had ran away for a very long time, and honestly, he had gotten tired of it two years ago. He didn't wanted to start to run and living in fear once more, not when it actually seemed to have a chance of a better future.
After a while, they broke the hug, and Linda looked at him, "What now?" she asked.
"Well, we stay here and try to cooperate." Alex said, shrugging. "I'm not sure of what will come up next, but I'm willing to give it a try, at least with the guys that seem to be nice at me."
Linda nodded, seeing the cougar's point. "So, it seems that I sneaked into a solo rescue mission for nothing." She said, looking mildly annoyed, and Alex chuckled.
"Well, it wasn't for nothing." He said, "After all, you got to be again with your handsome boyfriend." He said with a sly smirk.
She smiled back, and she said, "Good to see that going furry have not changed you too much." She smiled, and gently caressed his cheek, Alex smiled and closed his eyes, enjoying her touch, and both of them heard a sound that caught them both by surprise.
"You were… purring?" Linda asked, and Alex felt himself blushing madly at this. Linda, on the other hand, smiled, and returned to caressing gently his cheek. Alex could not help but purr once more, just like a kitten receiving some attention.
Linda giggled. "Oh my God! My boyfriend is a giant kitty!" She said with humor, and continued to caress gently his face, and even scratched a bit at his neck, what made him purr more. Alex couldn't help it, once he had always enjoyed the way that Linda played with him like that, and now, that he was a big feline, he seemed to enjoy it a lot more.
"I just realized I have forgotten-" A familiar voice said as the door was opened, making Alex and Lind snap out of their little moment to look at it.
Dc. Moosard was just in the door, the papers still in his hands as he looked at the scene before him. At his feet, was Ferris, also looking surprised.
"What the… who are you?" He asked to the gazelle who was now with her hand into the cougar's face.
Linda looked back at him. "Who are you?" She questioned back.
"Uhhh, Linda?" Alex said, causing the gazelle to look back at him. "This is doctor Moosard, he is the doctor who is taking care of me. The little one is Ferris, he is from the police forensics."
Linda looked at the moose, and only then, she looked down, at the small white ferret, who looked back at her. "Wait, Linda?" Ferris asked, taking a step forward. "Linda as in… Linda, Mr. Hunter's girlfriend?"
The two lovers shared a look, and Alex said, "Yeah, that is her."
"Oh…" Ferris said, while he and doctor Moosard both looked mildly surprised.
"Well, that is… ahem! Well, it is nice to meet you." Ferris said, and Linda looked from him, and back at the doctor.
"Miss… may I ask you how did you got inside?"
"It was not really hard." Linda said, letting go of Alex and standing to the doctor with her arms crossed over her chest. "You really need to enforce the security in here."
There were a few moments of silence, before the doctor found the words to say. "Miss…"
"Thompson." Linda said, "Linda Thompson."
The doctor nodded, and he said, "Ms. Thompson, this area of the hospital has been temporarily claimed as a restrict access area." He said, and she looked at him, and then at Alex. The cougar only shrugged. "You need to have special permission to come here, and you can't enter to see Mr. Hunter at any time you see fit unless there is someone doctor or officer into the room."
"Oh, so you are preventing people from having contact with him?" Linda asked, "Sorry, I didn't knew that I needed permission from someone to come to see my boyfriend who I thought was dead."
The way she talked made both mammals recoil. Alex had always admired the way that Linda didn't took crap from others, and the way that she always made sure to leave her point clear. She did it once more, because these two animals now looked slightly uncomfortable.
"I-I'm sorry, Ms. Thompson, but due to the recent events, and due to the great amount of reporters that were coming here, the authorities thought that it was better to restrict the access to Mr. Hunter, to save him from unnecessary attention." The doctor said, as if he was apologizing to her. "He just came out of a stressful situation, and we thought that it would be better for him to be able to rest without being bothered by other mammals."
Linda looked at him, and she said, "Well, I don't think I'm bothering my boyfriend." She said, and she turned to Alex, "Am I bothering you?"
"Not at all." Alex said with a smile, and she smiled too.
The doctor only looked back at her, and he said, "Oh, okay then, sorry for this." He said, really seeming sorry for talking to Linda like that. "Well, I just going to talk to the officers and let them know that you are here."
By hearing this, Linda immediately tensed, and Alex noticed it quite well, but the doctor seemed to have missed that.
"I'll be back in a few, I just need to find them and-" the doctor was saying, but as he had turned to leave, the door immediately sung shut.
The doctor looked surprised at it, and Ferris himself turned to look at the door that had closed. Moosard walked to the door and tried to open it, but once more, the door, seemingly by its own, shut itself, and right after, the lock of the door moved by itself, locking the door.
Blinking confused, Moosard looked back, and he saw Linda looking at him, and she seemed angry.
"Linda. Linda!" Alex said, placing hands in her shoulders, and the gazelle continued to look at the two mammals, who were now backing away slowly, looking scared. "Linda, calm down." Alex said gently. "It is okay, they are not going to do anything to us."
Linda looked at them, and slowly, she turned her head back to look at Alex, and at his gentle eyes. "We will be fine. Trust me." He said, as gently as possible, and it seemed to be enough. The gazelle looked at him for a few moments, before the tension that was visible in her stance disappeared, and she was able to relax.
However, the two mammals continued to look at her, still scared, but also with some kind of bewilderment.
"So… it is true." Ferris said, "You are a meta mammal too."
"What?" Linda asked, and Alex whispered in her ear:
"That is how they can us, just go with it."
Linda didn't had much time to think of it, but she simply accepted, and she sighed. She looked at them, and she looked at them, and she only nodded.
"T-the door…" Moosard said, gesturing to the door behind himself, and both mammals knew what he was going to answer, Alex looked at Linda, and she looked back at him, before sighing and she nodded.
"Linda is a telekinetic." Alex told to them. "She can move objects with her mind."
Both moose and ferret looked at her, and Linda sighed.
"Watch." She said, as she looked around the room, and saw a cup of glass into the drawer. She focused in it, stretching her hand in direction to the cup, and soon, it started to levitate from the drawer.
Looking over, she made a hairbrush from another nearby drawer to levitate, and soon, she was making both object to move into the air. She made them dance in the air, and as she did, the two animals in there, were watching it as if it was the most interesting thing in the world… and wasn't it?
They looked as she made the two objects fly into the air, right before they flew each one to one of her hands. She looked back at them, and they only stared, unable to think of anything to come up with.
Linda looked at them, and looked at Alex, who looked back at her, before looking back at the two. "Hey, imbeciles!" He said, and the two seemed to snap out of it.
"This is… that… it was so…" Ferris said, unable to finish any of the sentences that he intended. He had just witnessed what many said was nothing but a myth: the true proof of the power of mind over matter. That was the kind of thing that put him into a 360° loop.
"… Amazing." Moosard said, and Ferris could only nod, as this was exactly what he was trying to say, and the best thing that he could come up with in the present situation.
Linda sighed, placed both cup and brush in the bed, and she turned back at them. "So… what happens now?"
"Huh?"
"What?"
"You know what we are." Linda said, and she looked at Alex. "What happens now?"
The two mammals shared a look, they seemed a bit confused by this, and Alex sighed. "You see, being the ones we are, we already faced a lot of problem for this." He explained to them, and he said, "Well, is just that, by facing it for a while you tend to develop trust issues."
"Oh…" Both animals said, quickly understanding what was the point there.
"I see…" Dc. Moosard said, and he looked at the gazelle, who still seemed uncomfortable with their presence. "Well… I guess is understandable. But you don t have to worry about it from us." He said, trying to cheer her up a bit. "I was never the kind of mammal to judge others. If you have those abilities, if anything I'm very thrilled about them."
"Yeah." Ferris agreed with him. "We both don't mind that you have these powers of yours, we won't judge you for this." He said, also trying to reassure her. "Neither for you two being intersexual."
"Being what now?" Alex asked, as both he and Linda looked at the ferret with surprised expressions, and there was an uncomfortable silence following soon after.
"Yeah, I mean…" Ferris said, seeming to be a bit awkward "I mean that we don't really mind for you two being a couple and being of different species."
Both animals blinked as they looked at Ferris, and then at each other. That was probably the first time that they actually realized that they had become two completely different species. Alex was a cougar, a predatory feline, and Linda was now a gazelle, an herbivore animal from Africa.
This detail seemed to have escaped their minds up until Ferris had said it, and it kind of surprised the two. Still, for some reason, this didn't actually seemed to be of any real importance to them.
"Well…" Moosard said, catching again the attention of the two lovers. "The point is, that you don't need to be afraid of us, Ms. Thompson. None of you needs."
He sounded sincere as he spoke that, and Linda looked at Alex one more time, and saw the look in his face, telling her that it was alright. She was able to relax a little, and she looked back at the doctor, as she nodded.
"Yeah, but we still need to talk to Bogo and the others." Ferris said, causing the looks into the room to turn back at him. "I mean… it would be better to let the chief and the others to know that Ms. Thompson is here, instead of having they arrive and find her here and then having to explain to them about her. I mean… it would be more practical this way, right?"
He seemed nervous as he talked, as if he was afraid that the wrong words could cause someone to go really mad at him. There was a brief silence, and Linda sighed, and she said, "Yeah, it is a very good argument."
It was her way of telling him that she agreed with the idea, and with that said, Dc. Moosard said. "So, I'll go search for them." He said, and he turned to the door, he unlocked it and opened it easily, and he said, "Mr. Ferris, I believe that Mr. Hunter and Ms. Thompson would like to stay alone for a while."
The ferret looked at him, and back at the two mammals. "Oh, right!" He said as he quickly rushed in direction to the door, along with the moose.
"We'll be back in a few." He said, and he closed the door, leaving the two animals alone.
There was few moments of silence, and after a while, Linda finally spoke. "They seem to be really nice."
"We, some of them really are." Alex said, and he turned to her, "Some of them are really interesting. You have to meet officers Wilde and Hopps."
"The fox and the bunny, right?" She asked, and Alex looked a bit surprised at her, and she chuckled. "I have been walking into the place since morning trying to learn as much as I could. I heard someone talking about them. A fox and a bunny who are police officers? Sounded interesting…" She said with a smile in her lips, and Alex couldn't help but smile a bit with her.
"Yeah, that bunny is cute, but see seems to be hardcore. The fox guy is a smooth talker." Alex said, telling her the impressions that he had of the duo of cops. "It seems that he is an ex-con artist."
"Yeah… how did you met them?" Alex flinched a bit at this question, and he sighed. Soon he was telling to Linda how he had woke up into the hospital and how he first met with doctor Moosard and with the gazelle nurse. He explained to her how confuse he was, and the impressions that he had later on.
He explained how he escaped from the hospital and later on, he stopped at the "Bug-Burga".
"You ate bugs?" Linda asked with a slightly frown and a mild look of disgust in her face. Alex scratched the back of his head.
"Yeah… when in Rome, like the romans, you know? It was actually very good."
Alex continued to explain to her that he saw himself in a situation where he would need money, he resorted to the thing that he was teach on his youth by that street rat, and he started to muggle wallets from other animals. This, of course, granted him to have Linda giving him a disapproving look with her arms crossed, which made him feel like a young kid who just got caught by his mother with the hands in the cookie pot.
Alex explained to her that he was desperate at the time, and that he needed to have the money to have food and a place to stay, while he figured out what to do next. She seemed to accept that, but she was still very disapproving of Alex's actions.
Alex then proceeded to tell to her about his first meeting with Officer Wilde, and how he they had a talk, before Alex felt the need to go when the fox talked about taking him back into the hospital or to jail. Alex tried to leave, but the fox cuffed him, so Alex had no other choice but to use his powers on the fox so he could escape.
"But I made sure to not hurt him seriously." He said, and Linda nodded, she was not surprised at all. Alex was the kind of person that would hurt others for nothing.
He explained to her that he walked away from the place, and ended up into the mall where there was being the beneficent event, next the two officers found him, and then the robbery took place.
"The rest, well, I guess you can see all of the videos in the internet."
"Yeah, I saw a few of them…" Linda said, and she looked at him. "And, they arrested you…"
Alex sighed. "Yeah, I guess they didn't knew how to deal with me at the moment." He said, and he looked at her. "But, you know what happened?"
Linda looked at him, and Alex spoke. "Some of the animals of the mall stood for me." He said it as if he was still a little moved by the event. "They actually stood in the way of the police and were protesting while the police was taking me… they were saying I was a hero…" Alex couldn't help but smile at this. Linda looked at him as he looked back at her.
"That was what made me simply turn myself in, you know." Alex said, and Linda looked at him as he spoke. "Since they were seeing me as a nice guy, I would not ruin it by fighting the police and painting myself as a criminal. I decided to cooperate, and hope for the best."
Linda looked at him for a few moments, and soon, she was asking, "And what about the bank?"
Alex sighed. "Finn Rhinehart was in the building, that evo with wind manipulation that was famous for taking hostages. He too was brought here, and he got turned into a rhino. He wanted someone to explain to him what was happening, and so he decided to go for me." Alex felt that Linda was tensed as he knew that she had already heard of Rhinehart. "He took hostages into the bank to make the police take me to him."
"And they just handed you to him?" Linda asked, sounded a bit outraged, Alex sighed, and he said:
"Actually, they didn't wanted, but I insisted in coming." Alex said, and looked at Linda, who was looking at him with a serious expression. "What can I say? I like playing hero." Alex said with a smile, and Linda could only sigh and shake her head slightly. She was already too familiarized with Alex's personality to be surprised.
"I got into the bank, we have a discussion that turned into a fight. You might have saw it on the news." Alex said, and there was a brief silence, as Linda nodded, and next thing Alex knew was that Linda had punched him on the arm.
Hard.
"OUCH!" Alex said, as he nursed his bruised arm.
"You could have been killed!" Linda said, and Alex noticed that she was truly worried about him, what was absolutely no surprise to him. He said nothing, as he only looked at her, as the anger in her face melted, leaving behind only the worry, as she reached out and gently took his four-fingered, clawed hand, into hers' three-fingered, hooved one.
"I'm glad you are okay." She spoke softly, and Alex smiled at her. He put his other hand over hers' and he smiled at her, leaning forward to give her a brief kiss on the lips.
"I'm just glad that I can see your face again." Alex said, and these words held much more truth than Alex himself expected, and Linda smiled back at him.
"But… what happens now?" Alex looked at her, and he sighed. "I don't know…" He admitted, and he said, "Well, I guess we will just have to wait and see." He sounded worried as he spoke that, as the threat of things could go into this new world pretty much the same way that they went into the human world. However, Alex was now finding himself more optimistic than he was a few moments ago.
"But, you know what?" He said, as he looked at her in the eyes. "Whatever it is that will come next, I'm pretty sure that I can handle it, now that I have you by my side."
Linda smiled, and she looked at him in the eyes. "You never stop being romantic, do you?"
"Only when you are not around."
She giggled, they remained like that for a while, until Linda brought up another subject that was a matter of attention. "What about the others? Are they in Zootopia too? Are they in this world?"
"Well, you, me and Rhinehart all ended up in here." Alex said, "So, I guess that maybe the others did too, and they must all look pretty different now, and they must be confused…" Alex said, and he turned to her, "I mean, I was confuse when I woke up and saw myself as a puma. And you, weren't you confused by waking up like this?"
She shrugged. "Yeah, I woke up into what seemed to be a small oasis into the desert, saw myself as gazelle into the water, and later on I met a group of talking camels. Yeah, you can say I was confused." She admitted to him.
Indeed, while Alex had ended up into the area of Savannah Central, it seemed that Linda had landed right into the middle of Sahara Square. She explained to Alex that she spent most of the day trying to figure out what kind of place that was, and she ended up taking a train that took her to a tour into the city, which had not only the desert, but also a complete tundra and a rain forest.
"This city is a very strange place." She said, "But I gotta admit, it is really beautiful." She added with a smile, and Alex was able to smile too.
"Yeah, I guess that we are going to be staying in here for a while." He said, "So, I guess it is good that we could start to like this place."
"Now that I know you are here, I like it even more." She said, and she leaned in, to give him yet another kiss. Alex accepted this kiss, and soon, he found himself purring once again, but this time, he didn't actually cared about it. All he cared was the kiss that Linda was giving him, that was the most important thing on his mind at the moment…
**************************
"A gazelle?" Judy asked as Ferris had just told to them about the new guest that had arrived into Hunter's room.
"Yeah, Linda Thompson." He said to both her and Officer Wilder, who he had found into the cafeteria of the hospital. He was quick to bring them both into a table into a secluded part of the hospital where they would have no chance of being heard by others, because it was clear that everyone was wanting any information that they could have about Alex Hunter, and they needed to keep discretion.
"She sneaked into the hospital without being seem." The ferret said.
"So, his girlfriend is a gazelle, hum?" Nick asked, and he sat back, "I didn't took him for an inter." He said, and Ferris and Judy both looked at him.
"A what?" Judy asked.
"Inter." Ferris said, "It is the popular term used to describe individuals that have romances and relationships outside of their species. You know, interspecies, "inter", this kind of thing."
"Oh…" Judy said, nodding. Yeah, she heard a lot about interspecies relationships, and she also met some examples of it in Zootopia. This kind of thing was rather rare into rural areas, like BunnyBurrow, but it was more common on big cities, like Zootopia. It wasn't uncommon to find these kinds of couples walking around the city, if you looked into the right places and with attention.
"And she has powers too?" Judy asked, and Ferris nodded.
"She seems to have telekinesis. She moves things with her mind."
This caught the duo's attention. "Seriously?" Nick asked, "You mean, like those mammals on tv that bend spoons with their thought?"
"She made a hairbrush and a glass cup float into the air." Ferris said, "It was quite impressive."
"Wow…" Judy said, and Nick looked over.
"Man, I wish I was there to see that." He said, and Ferris added:
"She is with Hunter in the room. Moosard and I left them alone to go looking for you."
Judy nodded, and she asked, "And, has she been hostile?"
"Well, when we said that we were going to get you she became distressed, but Hunter calmed her down." He quickly added, by seeing that the two officers had gone into attention. "It seems that she had been through a few things with normal mammals, and she has troubles to trust others because of this."
"I know the feeling." Nick said, remembering bad parts of his past that led him to mistrust heavily in everyone else. Judy knew pretty well what he was talking about, and she could not help but feel sorry for her partner. Still, they had to focus to the situation they had in paws.
"You know if anyone else came in with her? Or if she had help to get inside?"
"Well, you will have to ask her." Ferris said, "She probably is still with Hunter in his room."
"Doing what?" Judy asked, and who answered was Nick.
"Well, I don't know. What two adult mammals, a male and a female, who happen to be lovers, would possibly be doing in a room all alone?" He said as he gently raised his eyebrow to her, suggestively.
Judy groaned as she rolled her eyes, sometimes Nick's way of thinking could really make her feel uncomfortable. She decided to turn her attention back to Ferris. "Does the chief and Razorback already know about it?"
"Know about what?" A voice behind them asked, and they turned to see the familiar one-eyed boar looking down at them, chewing on a sandwich.
There was a silence, as the three smaller animals looked up at the bigger mammal, and shared looks among themselves, wondering just how much the boar had actually heard.
"So, talking about anything interesting?" He asked, and the smaller animals shared another look, before they started to share the story with him.
*******************************
"I don't get what you are saying." Bogo said to the phone, and the voice on the other line said:
"I'm saying that you need to keep an eye on Alexander Peregrine Hunter. A very good eye."
"What do you think I'm…" Bogo started to say, but he realized one thing. "How do you know his full name?"
No answer.
"Savage, I made you a question!" Bogo said, and the voice came once more.
"Bogo, you know that I have my own way of dealing with things. I'll have some of my own personnel going to the city undercover and watching over the situation, you just make sure to keep an eye on Hunter." There was a brief silence, and Bogo heard Savage letting out a sigh, and say: "And one more thing… contact me if Alex Hunter has contact with any other meta mammal. I want to know exactly who else is with him. We'll keep on touch."
And with that, Savage hung up, and Bogo took his cell phone out of his ear and looked at it.
Damnit, how he hated that habit of Savage! Acting like his own job was more important than anything else!
However, the cape buffalo could not help but to recall this conversation that he just had with Savage, about the thing of the situation being more serious than he originally thought. He didn't gave any details, of course, he only said that it was a matter that demanded his attention.
Now he was going to "send his personnel" into the city to survey the situation.
It seemed that he knew something that Bogo didn't… Well, of course he did, but now it seemed that he knew something pretty important about Alex Hunter. As if he knew that he was going to have meetings with other meta mammals.
Well, it was to be expected, since he talked about some friends of his'.
But… Savage didn't really knew of that, for Bogo had not shared this information with him. Also, there was the fact that the mammal seemed to have used a full name to refer to the cougar. How could he know the cougar's full name?
Had… had Savage already met with him in the past?
"Ah! Chief Bogo!" Said a voice, which pulled Bogo out of his reflections, as he turned around to see doctor Moosard coming to him, and the moose seemed that really wanted to have a word with him. "Good I found you!"
"What is it, doctor?" Bogo asked, and the moose looked back at him.
"Well, it kind of happened something regarding Mr. Hunter." He said, and Bogo immediately had his attention called by this.
"What? He escaped again?" He asked, wondering if it was a bad idea having left him alone with only the doctors and his two small officers.
"No! No, Mr. Hunter is still into his room. He didn't tried anything."
"Then what is it?"
The doctor thought for a moment, as if he was deciding what would be the best way of giving this information. "Well, how to put it… do you remember how Mr. Hunter talked about his friends, and his girlfriend?"
"Yeah, what about it?" Bogo asked, not seeing the point in reflecting about it.
"Well, his girlfriend is a gazelle called Linda Thompson, and she apparently has telekinetic powers."
Bogo looked surprised at this. "What? He started to talk about her?"
"Actually, she is in the room with him."
"WHAT!?" Bogo nearly shouted, and the doctor flinched slightly. There were a few moments of silence, as Bogo reminded himself that he was still into a hospital, and so, he had to keep his voice in check. Still, he was very surprised by the new information that just came from the moose.
"Well, Mr. Ferris and I returned to the room to get a few papers I had forgot with Mr. Hunter's exams, and we returned, she was in there with him." Moosard explained to the cape buffalo. "She said that it was not easy to break inside, and she seemed a little nervous about us talking to you. She tried to prevent us from leaving the room."
Bogo tensed at this. Yet another meta mammal, and this one seemed to actually be more troublesome than Hunter.
"But, it turned out that she was only a bit nervous. Mr. Hunter calmed her down and she even gave us a demonstration of her abilities." He said, and he seemed a bit excited about it. "I never thought I would see something like that in the real life! It was so amazing-"
"She is still in the room with him?" Bogo asked, trying to prevent the doctor from diverging from the important subject.
"Oh! Yes, she is in there with him, right where Mr. Ferris and I left them." The doctor said, "They are both alone in there right now."
"What!? Officers Wilde and Hopps are not in there?" Bogo nearly demanded, and the doctor flinched once more.
"T-they went out for a bit… T-they thought that, after all that happened, they could trust Mr. Hunter enough to leave him alone for a while…"
Bogo sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, and he now wondered what he should do about that. Well, two things were for sure; one, he was definitely going to talk with Wilde and Hopps for leaving Hunter unwatched; and second, since there was a new meta mammal with Alex Hunter, one that he had talked about himself, it was possible that the rest of his friends would come to him also. It seemed that once more Savage had a little bit of reason about this, once the mammal had requested him to keep him on touch if Hunter had contact with other meta mammals.
By the way, Bogo would better call him and tell him about that development, but first, he had to go there to check this whole situation out.
"Lets go to that room…" He said, as he walked back into the room, with doctor Moosard coming right behind.
*******************************
Alex continued to purr, while Linda was kissing him deeper and with a bit more of passion. That was not the first time that they kissed like that, and the previous kisses were all pleasant and very good. This new kiss had the new shape of their muzzles, but somehow, it felt just as natural and good to both of them like all of their previous kisses.
The kiss was starting to get heated, and both of them were really getting into it, they barely even heard the door opening. Still, they took a few moments to stop kissing, until they finally realized that there was someone in there, when this someone made a throat-clearing sound.
Both of them looked at the door, and they saw a big buffalo into police uniform in there. Alex already knew Chief Bogo, while Linda had only saw him once in the hallway. She immediately tensed when she saw him, and the buffalo noticed this, and so did Alex. He put a hand on her shoulder, and she looked at him, as he gave her that same look.
"It's okay." He said, and this seemed to be enough to make her clam down. She looked back at the buffalo, who was looking back at her with a neutral expression, as they both analyzed each other.
Linda was looking at that big animal, who seemed like he really could put up a fight. She was confident into her own abilities, of course, and she knew that she could pin him into the wall easily if he decided to attack. Still, seeing such a big creature looking down on her like that was something that made her uncomfortable, like it would for many other creatures.
Bogo looked at the woman who was sitting at the bed with Hunter. She had a somewhat frail appearance, since gazelles were not famous for having a lot of muscle; still, the way she looked at him was one that said that she would not go down without a fight. She seemed determined, and while she seemed a bit intimidated by him, it was clear by the look in her face that she wasn't scared of him, and that she would have a fight with him if there was the need.
There was almost a whole minute of silence, before the big buffalo into police uniform finally spoke. "Linda Thompson?"
The gazelle looked back at him, before saying. "Yes?"
The buffalo walked inside, and he said, "I'm Mason Bogo, Chief of the Zootopia police department." He said as he walked and stood at a respectable distance from both her and Hunter. "If you don't mind, I'd like to ask both of you some questions." He spoke as he picked a chair and sat on it.
Linda looked at him, and back at Alex. The cougar looked at her, and he put his own hand into hers'. This was a silent sign that he was at her side, and that he would be there to support her if she needed at any moment.
This was enough to tranquilize her, as she took a deep breath, and then turned back at the buffalo. "Sure." She said simply, and that was all that she needed to say.
Bogo then started. "Miss Thompson, how did you discovered where Mr. Hunter was?"
"It wasn't hard. He was into the news, and I just had to search for a hospital that had a lot of reporters in the gates." Linda said.
Bogo nodded, and he asked: "And, how did you entered?"
BY the front door." Linda said, "I still don't believe how easy it was to enter here, you need to check better on who comes, I mean, what if I was some psycho?" Linda asked him, and Bogo simply looked at her.
"Yes, but how did you found out Mr. Hunter's room?"
"Some of the nurses were talking about him, and I heard the number of the room. I just had to go in the reception and ask for the directions to the room and they gave me." Linda said, "Seriously, it was too easy, you need more security." She added into a tone of critique. Bogo and Moosard both shared a look, and both were thinking about having a talk with the staff about this kind of thing.
Turning back to her, Bogo resumed his questioning. "Have you came here with someone else? Some other meta mammal?"
"No, I came alone." She said, and she was getting used surprisingly quickly to the term "meta mammal", even though it sounded a bit tacky…
"Are you sure?" He asked, and that was quite a strange question. Both Alex and Linda looked at him, and the buffalo quickly said, "I mean, you could have been followed without you realizing it."
"I'm sure I came alone." Linda said, not liking the kind of things that the buffalo was possibly implying, and she made sure to let it clear with the glare that she was giving him. Bogo looked back at her calmly as she looked at him with a glare that made him feel very uneasy. A glare that he thought that only his wife was able to make.
Returning to the subject, Bogo said, "So, Ms. Thompson, what were your intentions by coming here?"
There was a silence, while she looked at Alex. The cougar looked at her, and he nodded, silently saying her to tell him the truth. Linda was not sure of either it was a good choice or not, but she decided to trust Alex.
"I came here to rescue Alex." She said, and this caused Bogo to perk up into the chair as he looked at her intently. "I woke up this morning lost and alone, and I thought that the others who were with me were dead or something, including my boyfriend. Then I see on tv that he is alive, and that the police has taken him into custody." She was casting a hard glance at Bogo, and he only nodded.
"Go on…"
"I saw that he had a fight with some wind controlling guy, and that the police took him in, again." She spoke as she looked mildly annoyed, and somewhat outraged by this, and the glare she made seemed to be directing her anger towards the buffalo.
Wow… she and my wife have the same 'this is all your fault' look. Bogo thought as he saw the way that she glared at him.
"So, when I heard that he was in this hospital, and I thought that you guys were holding him in against his will, well, I just had to come to go help him escape." Linda said shrugging, as if it was something that anyone would do.
"But, you didn't helped him escape." Bogo said, "Why?"
"Well…" Linda said, "Alex kind of convinced me that staying would be better, because running away would not be good and because you guys actually seem to accept him."
There was another moment of silence in the room, as Bogo processed thig new information, and he looked at the gazelle, and he seemed to be about to say something, when the door opened.
The four animals turned around to look at the door, and they saw four more animals walking in. One big and four small ones.
"Hey, Bogo!" Razorback greeted the buffalo, and he looked over at the bed, to see the gazelle and cougar sitting in it. "And, I assume this is Ms. Thompson, right?" He asked, and the gazelle only looked back at him. Meanwhile, the three smaller animals were looking at their chief, who looked at them with a not amused expression.
It was clear that he was angry with them for leaving Hunter unwatched, and giving him a chance both for that gazelle to swoop into the room unnoticed and for the cougar himself to possibly escape. "Hey, chief!" Nick said, opening his arms wide, and he seemed about to say something, when a single gesture from the buffalo, a finger pointed right at the fox, was enough for him to know that he shouldn't even try, and that he was going to talk to all of them about that later on.
Judy cleared her throat a little, and she decided to try to break the situation a little, as she approached the gazelle, and she said. "Linda, right?"
"Yeah, and you are Officer Hopps, right?" She asked, "You are cuter than on tv."
There was a very awkward silence into the room, and Linda asked. "What?"
"Well… you see…" Judy said, "Bunnies can call each other 'cute', but if other animals call us this, it kind of sounds offensive."
"Oh!" Linda said, and she started to blush from embarrassment. "I-I didn't knew… I didn't meant… I' so sorry…"
"It's okay, really." Judy said.
"I'm really sorry." She said, and she turned to Alex, giving him a punch in the arm. "Alexander Peregrine Hunter! Why didn't you warned me about this!?" She demanded.
"Ouch! I didn't knew either!" Alex said, rubbing his arm. Actually, he really didn't imagined that being called cute could actually be taken as something racial, or even offensive, even though he knew a certain person who would really hate to be called that…
The other animals looked at them as they seemed to be having one of these "couple moments", and it was somewhat awkward. "Sooooo, Thompson, this is your first time in Zootopia?" Nick asked to the gazelle, trying to break the tension, even if a little bit.
"Huh, yes!" Linda said, quite glad for the change of subject. "I never been in a place like that before. It is very nice in here."
"I'm glad you feel welcome." Nick said with his trademark smile, and Judy was able to agree with him. One of the things that Nick was good into, was to relieve the tension into a place with his smooth talking, the same trait that made him a so prominent con artist.
With the moods into the room now calmer, Bogo was able to ask Hunter. "So, your middle name is Peregrine?"
"Yeah, kind of…" Alex said, rubbing the back of his head. Bogo simply nodded. While this, Dc. Moosard now spoke:
"So, is good to see that it is all okay." He spoke as he walked ahead. "So, Ms. Thompson, how long do you plan to stay in here visiting Mr. Hunter?"
"And where can we find you if we need?" Judy asked.
This caused Linda to stop a little, and after a few moments, she said, "Well, I don't really have a place to stay… I mean, I just arrived into the city yesterday night."
Everyone looked at him. Alex was not surprised, since the event that brought him into Zootopia had put him very much into the same situation. There was another silence in the place, as the animals in the room took the information, and soon, Moosard made a suggestion.
"Well, you could stay in the hospital."
All the eyes turned to him as he made that suggestion. "I mean, you could stay here in the hospital for a while with Mr. Hunter, in separate rooms, of course, and while you are here, we can make a few exams."
"Exams?" Linda asked.
"Yes, I mean, like brain resonances, maybe some blood tests."
"You want to make tests on me?" Linda said, immediately growing nervous, but Alex placed a hand in her shoulder. She looked at him.
"Linda, calm down, it is all okay. They are not going to hurt us." Alex reassured her, and Moosard was quick to talk too:
"Of course not! We would never even dream of that! We just want to understand better your abilities and the things you do." He said.
"You mean the mind power thing?" Asked Razorback, and Linda looked at him, and she turned to Bogo.
"Would you stand up a bit, please?" She asked him, and the buffalo looked at her for a moment, before getting up of the chair. Linda looked at the chair, and made a gesture with her hand, causing the chair to move closer to the bed, causing some of the animals in the room to jump in surprise.
Linda then made a pushing gesture with her hand, and the chair moved away. She made a spinning gesture with her finger, and the chair rotated. And with a lateral push of her hand, the chair moved back to the wall, where it originally was when Chief Bogo entered and picked it up.
"What about this for 'mind power thing'?" Linda asked, being slightly amused by the stunned expression in the face of the boar. Bogo was actually able to chuckle to, since it was rare to see someone leave Razorback speechless like that.
"Man, when you think you have already saw everything…" Nick said, and Ferris spoke:
"Ms. Thompson, I think that you should stay into the hospital for a while." He said that to the gazelle, and he spoke, "Since you and Mr. Hunter don't have where to go for now, you could stay hosted in here until you find another place to stay. Also, while you are here you could allow us to run a few exams and tests."
Linda looked at him, and at the moose dressed as a medic, and the look in his face told her that he had very much the same opinion as the ferret. "So, you are saying that you will let me have a place to stay if I let you guys make experiments on me?" She asked, and the tone in her voice was saying that she was not completely fine with that.
"Please, we just want to help you…"
"I already heard that from a guy in a white coat." Linda said darkly, and the way she spoke made it clear that it was not a pleasant experiment.
"We both had." Alex said, placing a hand into Linda's shoulder, making her look at him, as he spoke directly to her. "But these guys never showed any care for us. They actually are."
Linda reflected on what Alex said, and she realized that he was right. She looked back at the animals, and she saw in their eyes that they really seemed to care about her well-being, unlike other people who she had contact with in the distant past.
"Ms. Thompson, please, we won't do anything that you won't feel comfortable with." Moosard said, "We might even make no exams at all if you wouldn't like, but still, you can stay in here all the time you want, until you have another place to stay."
She saw honesty into the words of the moose, and she looked back at Alex, who was looking her with a look that told her that it was going to be okay. She took only a few moments to make her decision. "Alright." She said to the doctor and the ferret, "I'll stay, and I'll cooperate with your tests. But if anyone comes near me with something to probe me the guy is going to get out of this hospital flying through the window."
The way she talked made the doctor give a step back, and Alex, better than anyone, knew that Linda was most likely able to do so to anyone that actually made her angry. After all, Alex already saw her doing that to some poor lads that dared to try to make her angry, and he knew that a smart guy who knew what she was able to do would not dare to mess with her.
The doctor nodded, "Y-yes, of course. I-I'll let the staff and my colleagues know about it." The moose said, clearly he was not the one that was going to mess with Linda, as well as he was not going to mess with Alex.
"Speaking about it, shouldn't we talk to the other officers and tell them about Ms. Thompson?" Nick said, gesturing to the gazelle.
"That is actually a good idea, Wilde." Bogo said, "I want to know who I'll have to get fired for not guarding well the entrance of the hospital." The buffalo said, and he got up, "Hopps, you come with me, the rest of you, stay in here." He said, and he was now walking in direction to the door, with Judy coming right behind him.
"Wait!" Linda said, causing the two animals to stop, but she looked only at the bunny officer. "In the news I saw that footage." She spoke, as she looked at the bunny. "You were the one who knocked the rhino out."
Well, yeah, kind of." Judy said, feeling proud about herself due to that. It was nothing new to her, once she had already knocked out other mammals much bigger than herself, starting with the "enormous criminal self-defense" tests into the academy.
Linda looked at her, and she said, "Thank you for saving Alex." She did really sounded grateful as she spoke that, and this surprised as few of the animals in the room.
"Oh… You're welcome?" Judy said, feeling the tips of her ears and her cheeks heating up with a blush. Bogo looked between the two females, and he said:
"Okay, now let's get going Hopps. Wilde, no more getting out for snacks! I mean it!"
The fox officer gave him a salute, while the buffalo simply rolled his eyes and walked out, with Hopps going right behind him, the door closed once more, and the room was left into a brief silence, before Alex himself broke it by saying, "I was going to get out of the situation by myself, you know…"
The eyes all turned to him as he spoke that, and Alex finished, "I could have found a way to beat Rhinehart on my own."
"Really?" Linda asked him, "Then why you didn't?"
"She has a point." Nick said, causing Alex to look at him, and back at Linda, and he saw that they both had similar smirks.
"I was going to! Eventually…"
"The images I saw on the tv said otherwise." Linda said.
"Yeah, from where I stood you seemed like you were having your tail handed to you into a plate." Nick said with an amused tone. Alex didn't answered, and instead, he simply looked away as if to avoid having eye contact with the two animals. This caused Nick to chuckle, and Linda actually giggled a little, right before she gave him a kiss in the cheek.
"Anyway, I'm glad that you are okay." She said to him in a loving tone. "And I'm glad that we are together again."
Alex looked back at her, and he smiled. "Me too…" He said, and he put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. She gladly accepted it, resting her head into his shoulder (the horns were kind of a problem to it, but they managed to, and Alex had a feeling that it was something that he was still going to have to get used with), and she gently rested in him as he used his other hand to hold hers.
They barely even minded that there were others in the room, as they found out comfort and strength on each other, and they knew that, no matter what would come in the future, they both would be able to face it together.
