One week had passed rather quickly in Alex's eyes. The doctor had kept his word, and both he and Linda were allowed to stay in there for all the week since day the day they both had arrived.
They received their own room, access to most of the place, three meals a day, and even their own privacy and alone time, whenever they needed.
Linda had been hesitant during the first days, but she soon started to grow to trust in Doctor Moosard, and soon, she was feeling comfortable around him. Still, she did not felt so comfortable around the other doctors that came to see her and Alex in a daily basis.
Since their first day, they had been in reunions with teams of medics from the hospital, and even some scientists that had come in there only to see them. They were there to see the "animals with real super powers" with their very own eyes and, of course, to run out some tests with their abilities, to try to understand a bit more about them.
Alex had already been expecting this, and so did Linda, still, doctor Moosard made it very clear to all the involved that both the cougar and the gazelle were going to receive good treatment and that they were not going to be molested in any way.
So, the tests that they ran were limited to demonstrations of their abilities while there were some monitoring machines attached to them, brain resonances, blood exams, and other procedures that would not require surgery and neither would be too invasive. Alex was glad for that, even though he thought that it was somewhat perceptible by the look in the eyes of some of these scientists that they wanted to go deeper into their procedures than what they had already made clear that it was going to be.
Still, doctor Moosard was adamant to any requests that they made to make deeper exams into the two animals, like when one bear, whose name Alex didn't remembered, requested them to make an exploratory surgery into Alex to see if they could find some uncommon organ that did not appeared in the x-rays.
Doctor Moosard immediately requested that bear to be escorted outside and told both the hospital staff and the authorities to keep him away from both the hospital and the two meta mammals into the place, and he made very clear that this was going to happen to anyone else who requested anything similar.
"They are not some test subjects, they are mammals! For Christy's sake! We cannot just treat them as if they were not living beings and do whatever suits us! I don't want to hear anymore suggestions like that, and anyone who has some of them to make might as well get out of this hospital now!"
This event stopped any kind of future request for invasive procedures into the future, what both Alex and Linda were very thankful for, and they both grew to trust doctor Moosard even more after that. And so, the daily tests and requests of the doctors continued, but always respecting the wishes of the two mammals, without them even being forced to continue if they felt tired or uncomfortable, and they had the liberty to refuse any kind of test and walk out at any time that they wanted. Doctor Moosard really was a moose of his word.
"Okay, Ms. Thompson, just one more time." Said an impala in a white lab coat as she and a few more of the doctors and scientists into the room looked at the gazelle. Linda was sitting in a table, with a few wires from a neural-reading machine into her head, as part of a special helmet she was wearing. In the table, in front of her, there were a few pencils and a piece of paper.
Linda sighed, then she looked at the objects in front of her, and she raised one three-fingered hand and pointed it at the pencils. Soon, the pencil started to move, and very smoothly, as if an invisible hand was holding it, it floated into the air, and moved, so its tip was pressing into the paper.
The pencil started to slide over the paper, while the machine that was reading Linda's neural signals was registration every event that went off on her brain, and soon an image was starting to form an image into the paper, drawn by Linda using nothing more than her telekinetic abilities. After almost twenty seconds, Linda had finished, and the pencil laid gently into the table, as the paper now showed the drawing of a flower. It was nothing too impressive, much like those simple drawings that were made by a toddler, but it was made only with telekinesis, so it made it far more impressive than it would be otherwise.
"Very good." Said the impala, picking up the drawing and examining at it, "Very good indeed."
"It is nothing great." Linda said, shrugging.
"Well, you just made it with your mind." Said a tiger scientist, who was holding a camera. "I would call that grrrrrrreat."
Linda blinked as she looked at that tiger doctor, suddenly imagining him with a red handkerchief in his neck and holding a bowl of cereals. "Yeah, I guess so." Linda said, shaking it off as she gestured at the pencils into the table, making them all raise into the air, and floating in direction to the can, gently being put in there.
Another doctor, a badger, asked her, "You always makes gestures to control objects. Would you be able to move them without making gestures?"
Linda looked at him, and she said, "Well, it is easier to me to move things by making these things." She admitted, looking at her hands, "Like when you are trying to remember a song you used to play into the piano, and it is easier to do that if you move your hands as if you were playing the piano. I mean, it is easier to move things if I have an idea of the kinds of things I'm doing with them, but I don't need to do it all the time."
"So, you could do it without any gesture?" asked the impala once more.
"Yeah, but I would have to focus a little harder." Linda admitted, and the doctors all nodded as they talked among themselves, a few of them making notes on Linda's words. Linda only looked at them, and she said, "So, are we done now? I really want to go out and do some other things."
The doctors looked at each other, and the impala said, "Yes, Ms. Thompson, of course. Let us know about some time of your convenience so we can make more tests."
Linda sighed, she removed that techno-helmet thing from her head and placed it on the table, and she got up and walked out of the room, closing the door behind herself as she finally let out a heavy sigh that she had been holding back up until now.
Yeah, these testing that they conducted were tiring. Still, she was glad that they were only "annoyingly" tiring, than the kind of tiring that used to be the tests that were conducted on her when she was younger. Still, many of these doctors had the same look into their eyes as had the ones from her ten-years-old…
"Linda!" A voice called, and Linda turned her head to look at the approaching form of Judy Hopps, clad into her police uniform, waving at her with a smile on her face.
"Judy! Hi!" Linda said, glad to see the friendly face of the bunny officer. Over the last week, some of the police officers of the ZPD had been making guard into the place, for the extra protection of the two mammals into the place, because over the course of one week the craze about Alex Hunter had not diminished. In fact, it seemed that this craze had grown in size only two days later, when a reporter who had come with a hidden camera caught a glimpse of Linda using her powers inside the hospital, and these images were soon broadcasted, revealing to Zootopia that now there were two mammals with super powers in the city. Of course, this intensified the wave of reporters, weirdos, and even some crazy people who wanted to come to them for whatever reason it was, and the police was forced to keep guard into the place to protect the two from any unwanted attention. Some of these officers occasionally happened to be Hopps and Wilde, and this gave the chances that they needed to spend some time around the two meta mammals and actually form bonds with them. In Judy and Linda's case, the two girls soon developed a friendship, mostly because they had a lot in common when it came about their personalities.
"I was looking for you!" Judy said, "How you doing?"
"Just finished another of these tests." Linda said, sounding slightly annoyed as she spoke that. "I can swear that they are only making me repeat the same things over and over again."
Judy nodded, and soon, they were walking away from that door, as they spoke.
"So, is Nick here too?"
"Yeah, my dumb fox rarely stays too far from me." Judy said, and they continued to walk, "He went with Chief Bogo and Ferris, they all came here to discuss a few things with you."
"Me?"
"Well, first we will talk with dc. Moosard, and then we will talk with you and Alex, well, mostly with Alex. Do you know where he is?"
"Having tests into another room, I was just going to find him. What is that you want to talk with him?"
"Well, Chief Bogo knows the details, but it has to do with the situation that there is in Zootopia since you two appeared."
Linda nodded, and she knew that the city was in uproar since they appeared. Starting with all of the social Medias, where both she and Alex seemed to be the main subject. Linda had seen the account of some other animals in the MuzzleBook (Alex had already alerted her that, coincidence or not, this place they were in seemed like a world made out of puns) that there was a lot of discussion going on about them and about what they could be. There were some who wondered if they were some kind of mutation (these were very close to the truth), and some who wondered if they were aliens (there were just slightly right about that), and she saw a few posts claiming that they were some kind of government experiment. There was even an account of someone named only "Honey Badger" that said that the sheep were related to them, either as their creators or their pursuers.
It seemed that everyone was talking about them, and overtime, Linda also heard some more things that were claims of the hospital staff and even of the police officers, claiming that the city seemed to be in a craze about them. There were people outside of the hospital that wanted to talk with them about possible contracts (Linda didn't got details about where or what), people who were asking to take selfies with them or even to get their autographs, and so on with all the things.
However, there were not only good things, for it seemed that there was a good deal of animals who thought that they could be dangerous because of their powers. Some of them even asked if they were really animals or if they were some other kind of strange thing, and if they even deserved rights at all.
These commentaries made her really nervous, and made her have a lot of flashbacks of the human world, and about all the things that followed the great reveal of evos to the world. Still, there were no mass riots and people with torches and forks in hand, so she felt a bit calmer about all of that. Still, she remembered that there were not riots into the beginning, and that they only came later on…
"Linda?" Judy asked, made Linda snap out of her daydream and look at the bunny, who was looking back at her worried. "You went quiet all of sudden, is everything okay?"
"Oh… Y-yes, I was just… remembering things…" Linda said, looking away, and Judy could easily notice that it meant that she was not comfortable to talk about it. So, the rabbit decided to leave it be. "There it is. This is the room Alex said he would be staying." Linda said, as she stepped behind the double-door of the room.
Soon, she gently pushing the doors open, and she and Judy walked into a scene similar to what was happening to Linda into the other room a few minutes ago.
The scientists were sitting around Alex, many of them mumbling with each other, while others were making notes as they looked both at the cougar and at the machines that were wired to him. Alex had his eyes closed, as he was hoovering into the air, small arcs of lightning jumping from his feet and hands into the ground, as the cougar floated slightly into the air, a little less than two feet above the ground. Alex sighed as he leaned forward, floating slowly forward, and he stopped, before leaning backwards and moving back to the place he was.
"This is amazing!"
"The readings of the machine are off-record! He generates so much energy!"
"He needs to generate a great deal of electromagnetism to create this kind of self-levitation! It would be enough energy to power up all of Savannah Central for weeks!"
"Imagine if we could replicate the process! We could create a new kind of electromagnetic vehicle that could make possible any kind of transportation!"
They were so focused into Alex that they seemed not to notice the two mammals who had just entered. Linda and Judy shared a look, before the bunny cleared her throat loudly, catching the attention of most of the animals present, who turned to look at them. Except for Alex, who still had his eyes closed, and his face denoted al the focus that he was making. Slowly, he let out a sigh, as he lowered himself to the ground, and as soon, as his paws touched it, he let out a breath, and he was panting slightly as he put his hands into his knees to support himself as he recovered his breath.
"Are you okay, Alex?" Linda asked, and the cougar looked at her, and gave her a smile.
"Yeah, I'm fine… Is juts that… this trick is hard." Alex said, as he recovered his breath, and he noticed the small bunny officer by Linda's side. "Hey, Judy!"
Judy waved back at him. She and Alex had indeed got a bit closer, as they had a chance to know better each other into the week that had followed. Even though they didn't got as close as she did with Linda, she was much more amiable to Alex than she was when they first went after him one week prior.
"So, doctors, could I take Mr. Hunter borrowed from you just a bit? It is kind of important." Judy said to the doctors, who all shared looks among themselves. Alex answered for them.
"Yeah, I need to take a breather." Alex said, as he removed the wires that were on his arms and on his temples. "I'll be back to this as soon as I can, okay guys? Any doubt, you just search for doctor Moosard." Alex said, and didn't even waited for the answer of the doctors before walking to Linda and Judy. Of course, none of the doctors raised their voices to complain, even though some of them were not happy with the intrusion when they were making some progress like what Alex had showed them.
"Thanks girls, I was crazy to get out of there." Alex whispered to the two females as they walked out of the room.
"They are making you tired too?" Linda asked, and Alex sighed.
"I swear that they are making me repeat the same things over and over again and making all kinds of tests while I do them. I think some of them only want to see me doing it again to be sure that it is no trick."
"Yeah, it must be hard." Judy mentioned, and soon, she said, "Alex, Chief Bogo wants to talk with you two, he says it is important."
"Huh?" Alex looked at the smaller bunny officer, "About what?"
"Well, it has to do with all that is happening into the city right now. He will explain better." She said, and Alex was satisfied with that. "I guess he is talking with doctor Moosard now, we better go find him."
And with that, the two animals started to follow the bunny officer down the halls of the hospital.
*********************************
"We have learned so much in the last week." Doctor Moosard said as he tapped the keyboard of a computer with a great screen. "I mean, Mr. Hunter and Ms. Thompson both look like any regular mammal of their species, but they also have some aspects of their biology that somehow differ."
As he spoke, Bogo was leaning by his side, to look at the screen of the computer, and Nick and Ferris both had climbed the desk so they could have a better view of the computer. On the screen, there were several images showing, most of them recordings of the tests that were made with Alex and Linda, both with demonstrations of their powers. As well as images of resonances and electroencephalograms of them.
"Do you see this?" The doctor pointed as the image of a brain resonance appeared into the screen. "We made these while they were actively using their special abilities, and they both demonstrated that during this time they activate a specific area of the brain that is located into the superior area of the brain, and you can notice that it overlaps with the limbic system."
"Limbic… system?" Nick said, quite unsure.
"It is the area of the brain that is responsible for the emotions and emotional responses." Ferris said, filling Nick in, who answered with a simple "Ohhh."
"Does this means their powers are connected to their emotions?" Bogo asked, and doctor Moosard said.
"Considering the fact that this area is at least partially located into the limbic system, I wouldn't be surprised if high activity of that area could affect that area of the brain and cause strong emotions to activate their abilities. But I'm still not sure, it would require more exams, and maybe some tests, but they would be too unpleasant to them."
Bogo nodded, and Ferris said, "So, you have notice other peculiar things into their biology or anatomy?"
"Well, the x-rays and ultrasounds showed that their anatomy seems not to differ at all from the regular for their species. But, we noticed something peculiar when we made some blood tests." He said, as he tapped more into the keyboard. "Officer Wilde, do you remember eight days ago when I called you and officer Hopps, and said that Hunter's antibodies seemed strange?"
"Vaguely." Nick said, and the doctor said:
"Well, we made more analysis, and also looked it into the electronic microscope, and we were able to observe it better." As he spoke, another window popped open into the screen of the computer, this one showed what seemed to be an antibody, and it was round and slightly amorphous.
"This is one of his antibodies?" Bogo asked.
"No." Doctor Moosard said to the buffalo. "This is the antibody of a regular cougar…. This one…" He said, pressing more keys, and opening a new window. "Is one of Alex Hunter's antibodies."
This antibody was clearly different from the other, starting with the shape. While the other was round and amorphous, this one has a more defined shape. It was still amorphous and gelatinous, but it also had a distinctive shape, which made it somehow look like a very rudimental, three-dimensional star of four points.
"Wow…" Ferris said, since he was probably the one in there who the more understood of science and biology, and knew how uncommon that antibody looked.
"Yeah, I thought the same thing." Moosard said, and he added, "We also observed something similar into Ms. Thompson antibodies." He tapped some more keys, and opened another window, which showed an antibody that was very similar to Alex's. "This is one of her antibodies, and you can notice the similarities."
"Yeah, they look a lot alike." Nick said, and Bogo simply looked at these two antibodies, that actually looked nearly identical.
"The geneticists took a closer look into them, and they discovered that they have a mutated gene in the RNA." He said, pressing a few more keys and opening a window that showed what seemed to be a helix of RNA. "This mutated gene seems to be what makes them have this appearance. Other than that, the genetic code is not that different from others of their species."
"Wow, wow, wait." Nick said, "A cougar and a gazelle who have the exact same thing on their DNA?"
"You would be surprised, Wilde." Ferris said, "Practically all species share very much the same genetic board. Even species completely different from each other share at least a few common genes. In some cases, only a few genes can actually differ a certain species from another."
"Indeed." Doctor Moosard said as he looked at the windows into the screen. "In fact, this particular mutant gene seems to be shared by both Mr. Hunter and Ms. Thompson, and I have to say that I never saw it in any other mammal before."
"So, it might be what gives them their powers?" Bogo asked.
"Maybe. But saying that with absolute sure would require a much deeper analysis, and until then, anything I could say about that would be mere speculation."
"So, can you analyze this gene and maybe give us some answers about them, or their powers?"
"Mr. Bogo, I see that you don't understand completely what this entails." Doctor Moosard said, turning away from the screen and looking at the buffalo. "The geneticists who looked at the gene all agreed that it is different from everything that they ever saw, and that it seems to interact with the rest of the genetic board on a different way. They would have to study it for years before they would be able to come up with any possible conclusion about that or about what it could be."
Bogo looked at him, and let out a sigh. Yeah, he should actually be expecting something like that, for he knew that the scientific things took time. Still, he thought that it would be better to have at least a few solid answers right at the moment, at least more than the ones that he just received.
"Just one gene made them have superpowers?" Nick said, still looking at the screen. "Man, I guess that they are really saying the truth about genetic lottery…"
Before anyone could come up with an answer, there was a knock on the door. "Who is it?" Doctor Moosard asked, and the answer came from Judy's voice.
"Is officer Hopps in here, Hunter and Thompson are with me. Is Chief Bogo in there?"
"Hopps, come in." Bogo called, and soon, the door opened, and the three mammals walked into the room.
"Bogo. You wanted to see us?" Alex asked, and the buffalo locked eyes with him, and he sighed, and he said:
"Yes. Yes I did." He turned to the moose, and said, "Doctor, would you please let me have a word with them in private, this is a business that is exclusively between them and the ZPD."
"Oh… right." The doctor said, and picked up his things, closing the windows in the screen and turning of the monitor. He walked out, passing by Alex and Linda, while he said, "Good morning." And he walked out, closing the door behind himself and leaving the all the other animals in there.
There was a few moments of silence, before Alex spoke. "Well, I guess it really is important."
"Yes it is." Bogo said, as he looked at the two animals with his hands folded behind his back. The buffalo let out a sigh, and he said, "Well, I know that you two are aware that since you two came along, the city has been… agitated."
"Yeah, I guess it is a way of saying it." Alex said, and the buffalo looked back at him.
"Of course, it seems that you two have fans, and they are not few, but at the same time, it seems that some animals are somewhat nervous about this whole situation." He continued as he looked at both cougar and gazelle. "Mostly because they don't know exactly what is going on."
"Yeah, I guess that is normal." Alex said, and Bogo nodded.
"Yeah, it is, that is why the City Hall has decided that, to calm them down, it would be better to finally give them a few answers." The chief concluded, making Alex and Linda share a look among themselves.
"So, you called me here to say that you finally decided to share some information with the reporters?" Alex asked.
"I called you here, because I want you to share information with the reporters." Bogo concluded.
This took Alex back, who looked at him surprised, and so did Linda, as they both looked to the buffalo who had just gave them this information.
"Say what now?" Alex asked, slightly baffled "You want me to take part on a press conference?"
"I would rather put someone else in it, maybe myself." Bogo admitted, "But the guys of the City Hall have decided that it would be better if it were you. After all, you are the 'Lightning Cougar', and as far as we know, you are the guy who is at the center of everything in here."
Alex looked at him, and back at Linda, and she looked back at him, and he looked back at the buffalo, who continued to look at him.
"Well, if you don't want to you can just say, I'll find someone else to talk to these vultures. Maybe Ferris." He said, causing the ferret to perk his head as he heard his name being spoken. "But I suggest you to answer soon, because the press conference has already been marked to this afternoon."
"Wait a minute!" Alex said, "You have come to ask me to talk in a press conference after the conference has been marked?"
"Yeah, it is sudden, I know, but they want it like that." Bogo said, seemingly to be annoyed by that. "Apparently things are getting heated around the city, with some guy who is trying to incite riots around the city because of you two. Something about you being monsters and that you two should be locked down before you would hurt innocent mammals. We had to take him in three times in the last week for disturbing the peace."
Alex looked at Linda, who shared the same look that he had on his face as Bogo spoke about that. Well, maybe they both knew that it was a matter of time before the first of these guys appeared…
"Yeah, the guy never shuts up, and he is quite a struggler." Nick added, "Most of these wackos are."
"Still, because of him the mayor is worried that things might actually get worse if people don't start to receive some answers now. They are already talking about all kinds of conspiracy theories out there, thinking that you might be some new kind of weapon from the government, or alien invaders, or whatever. They want some real information, and since you are in the center of that, the mayor wants you to be the one who will give this information to them."
Alex looked back at the buffalo, and he asked, "So, they want to hear it right from my mouth, right?" Bogo only looked back at him, reading his expression.
"I know that it is all too sudden, and you have all the right to not want to take part of it." Judy said to him, catching both his and Linda's attention. "But, I guess that it would be more convincing to them if they heard you speak those words. Just tell them your side of the story, the same things that you told us a week ago. Some of they are starting to get scared, and maybe hearing your story, and knowing the things that we already know, will help to calm them down a bit."
Alex looked at the bunny, and he was forced to admit that she had a certain reason. Back into the human world, much of the trouble came from people not truly understanding evos, not knowing where they came from or how to tell one of them from a regular human. They didn't knew their moralities, or if they would or not use their powers against them. People were scared, and as a friend told him, "fear has its origins in the lack of knowledge".
Looking back at Linda, she looked back at him, as if she was waiting his decision, just like everyone else into the room. Alex sighed, and somehow, part of him knew what he had to do.
"Okay." He said simply, as he turned back to look at Bogo, and he said, "Call your mayor, and tell that I'll make the speech."
******************************
Two hours later…
Alex was into a police car, with Linda by his side, as they were being drove by Bogo himself in direction to the City Hall, where Alex was going to talk into the press conference. During all that time, Alex passed and repassed about anything that he could and would say in that conference.
Well, he was sure that he was going to tell them pretty much the same things that he said to the officers and to doctor Moosard. That his abilities were a fruit of a genetic mutation into his body, and that he had them since he was young. Alex knew that he was going to have to tweak a bit the same parts that he did with the officers. Starting with the thing of the human world, for he was sure that talking about alternate dimensions where animals had not evolved and the only dominant species was something that they had never seen or heard about was a bad idea. At least for now.
By his side, Linda was sitting and she was looking at the windows as they were being driven in direction to their destiny. Meanwhile, she had a chance to catch a better glimpse of the city of Zootopia, once she was quite in a rush in her first day, and since after that she basically had stayed in the hospital. Now she had a better chance to admire the landscapes of the area known as Savannah Central, and she had to admit that it was pretty nice.
As she walked, she suddenly felt something buzzing into her thigh, catching her attention, and she looked at it for a moment, before realizing that it was her cell-phone, and that it was vibrating in a way that it was letting her know that she had just received a text message.
She looked at her cell phone, wondering just who could be sending a message to her… when she realized that someone was sending a message to her!
Looking over, she saw that Bogo was still with his eyes into the road, and she looked at Alex, who was leaning back into his seat, and she gently poked him. Alex looked at her, and she pointed at her cell phone, and she mouthed a word to him, that he soon could read as "message".
Alex blinked at her, and he looked back at the phone. Oh, right! She was telling him that she just got a message on her phone. Well, that was nice, but Alex wondered why she wanted him to know, and why was she mouthing instead of simply saying it. When it hit him.
Alex and Linda had arrived into this world just eight days ago, and ever since that day, they barely had contact with anyone outside of the hospital and the police officers, and none of them had Linda's number. But their friends had! It could be one of them making contact!
Alex was about to say something to her, but she gestured for him to remain silent, and she looked back at Bogo. Alex quickly understood what she meant. Even though they had grown to trust into the ZPD, they still knew that some of their friends would probably have some reservations about that. They didn't had to share everything with the ZPD, at least not yet.
Alex knew that it was a great thing that one of their friends was making contact. Maybe to try to regroup or to hear something of them. But… why making contact now? After more than one whole week? Could it mean something?
The two human-turned-mammals looked at each other, almost as if they were trading some short of telepathic communication, and they nodded at each other.
Silently, Alex leaned on, and Linda too leaned on back at him. Anyone who looked, including Bogo, through the rearview mirror, would simply assume that they were getting comfy by resting in each other's shoulder. But Linda was holding down the phone, and she unblocked it, and quickly she was scrolling it, until she found the message of a new text message.
It said, unknown number, and the title of the message only said: "SHOW THIS TO HUNTER NOW!"
Alex and Linda shared a subtle look, and Linda tapped into the message to open it. The message was somewhat long, and it said the following:
Alex Hunter, you are about to give a press conference to several reporters who will surely not hesitate into using anything you say as a way to have more audience. You need to know exactly what to say so you won't turn this into a mess even bigger than it might become in the closer future.
First of all, you probably already realized that you should not mention humans or the human world, for it seems like a bad idea. Well, it IS a bad idea, and I strongly recommend you not to do so. Believe me, the last thing you want is someone thinking you are a dangerous lunatic with super powers, you DON'T want this kind of attention.
Also, avoid mentioning anything that would refer to the human world, including the term "evolved human", instead, I recommend you to use the term "meta mammal", maybe it is one that the ones of this world can deal better with.
I also strongly recommend you to avoid sounding like you think badly of the ones who don't have powers, either by thinking them to be monsters or being inferior to you in any way. If they think you don't like them they are more likely to start having something against you. And don't make them nervous about talking about whole groups of dangerous super powered individuals, but feel free to tell them what you think it is okay, just don't give them any reason to panic.
Also, avoid mentioning too much about your past, because, as you know, this world has concepts that might not fit with your past, and your past into the human world might present them with concepts that might be very strange, even disturbing, to this world.
Other than that, try to be honest with them, and don't fuck it up!
That was all that the message said, and both Alex and Linda had wide eyes as they looked at each other after reading the message to the end. They both shared a look, as they both knew exactly what the kind of content into the message entailed.
It was someone who knew about the human world, and about evos, and pretty much, meant that this person knew about everything else. They immediately thought about their friends, any of them could have sent that message to Alex.
But… who?
Alex was thinking about it, and after a while, thinking about each one of them, and Alex finally thought of someone who could have possibly sent that message to him.
"Jeff…" Alex said in a whisper, making Linda look up at him, and she looked back at the message, and then at Alex, who was still looking at the message that was just sent. Just as that happened, they heard Bogo curse.
"Damnit! They already started to crowd the place." The cape buffalo said as he approached, and the two animals looked away from the cell phone and into the windows of the car. They almost immediately saw the windows being crowded by several animals with cameras, microphones, and paper blocks, all of them coming into the car, and they seemed to be making many questions at the same time. They soon were blinded by flashes as the animals tried to get shots of them, and they were forced to look away, as Bogo continued to drive, albeit more slowly, through the living mass of reporters and newsmammals.
Soon, they were forced away from the car by some of the officers, who were preventing them from getting too close to Alex and Linda, as the two animals who got so famous into the past days, came out of the car. Chief Bogo, who snorted a "vultures" at the reporters who seemed that they almost wanted to jump into the two animals, immediately scouted them into the building of the city hall.
Linda felt a bit overwhelmed by that, and she was nearly clinging into Alex's arm, as if she was searching for shelter within him. Alex too felt a bit overwhelmed with that, as he looked at the great amount of reporters who seemed to have come there specifically for this even. It almost seemed like a circus.
"Sorry about that." Bogo said to the two as they finally were away from the reporters, and still, they had a place where they could see very well them gathering into a crowd, very in front of the place where Alex would be talking. "Hard to believe how fast they. Mayor Amur only announced the press conference half an hour ago!" He sounded mildly annoyed at this, and he looked at the reporters all gathering up.
As Alex saw all the people who he would be talking to, suddenly, he started to have second thoughts about that.
This wasn't just any speech that he was going to be given. It was going to be a speech that he would give in name of all of his friends! Only then it seemed to finally be damning into him, and he suddenly realized that if he said the wrong thing he could be the one who was starting the very same events that had unfurled back into the human world.
Oh crap, what was he thinking!?
Alex stared at the place where he was supposed to go, while Bogo walked to there, and the reporters seemed to get feistier as the cape buffalo climbed in there and talked to them, something about the events that had transpired into the last week, and how it was time for the city to have answers. But Alex was barely even listening, he seemed to almost have frozen.
Linda looked at him, and she put a hand on her shoulder, feeling a slightly surge of static that was forming into Alex. Still, she was too used to it to get startled, and she only said. "Alex?" The cougar blinked, and looked at her, and he was about to say something to ehr, when a familiar voice came.
"All okay, Hunter?" The two animals looked over to see the two approaching ones. Wilde and Hopps. "Man, this looks like a circus. Look at all those clowns!" Nick said as he gestured to the crowd of reporters, and Alex simply looked at him, before looking back at the people he would talk to. People who could easily distort his words and turn them into something that would make life a living hell to any of his friends who had ended up into that strange world. Much like what happened when they were all still humans.
"I-I can't…" Alex said, giving a step back, making the three animals look at him. "I just can't… I don't know if I should…" He seemed about to turn away and flee, when Linda placed both hands on his shoulders, and made him look at her.
"Alex, you made me come to here and I don't want to believe that it was just so I could see you chickening out and running away!" She said to him into a firm voice. "They want you to talk, so I really think that you must go there and talk! Because you said that you would do it, and my boyfriend is not the kind of guy who goes back on his word." She said firmly to him.
Seeing the look into her face seemed to erase at least part of Alex's doubt, and he looked at her, feeling strangely reassured as he looked at her eyes, much like he always did when he was having a trouble.
"Yeah, press conferences are not that bad… Even though the last one I was in was not very pleasant…" Nick admitted as he adopted a kind of sad look, and so did Judy. The bunny sighed, and looked up at Alex, before she said. "Just go there and be honest with them… and… think about something before speaking it…" She said, and Alex almost had the impression that, to her, it was some kind of personal advice.
Looking at her, and back at Linda, Alex felt his doubts easing up, and he soon heard Bogo's voice.
"So, in order to explain in more details what is going on, Mr. Alex Hunter will answer some of your questions."
As soon as these words were said there was an uproar from the crowd, as they started to take flashes, and to make several questions at the same time. The buffalo got down and looked back at the cougar, who locked eyes with him. Bogo looked at him, almost as if he was asking him silently if he was going to back away now or not. In a second, Alex made his mind. He already came to there, and he was going to the end.
Alex adopted a more confident look, and nodded at the buffalo, who nodded back at him. Alex rested his own hands into Linda's, and soon, he was walking to stand in front of the crowd, while she and the other animals looked at him go.
Alex felt a knot tying strongly into his stomach, while his heart was beating faster and his chest felt heavier, making it harder for him to breathe. Each step he took seemed to land loudly into the ground, even though he had new, padded feet, which made his steps much lighter than before.
He stood in front of the pulpit, the microphone in there right in front of his face, as Alex was somewhat blinded momentarily by the lights of the video cameras. His eyes soon adjusted, and he was able to look at the reporters in front of him, all of several species, from beavers to giraffes, and all of them asking questions. They were talking all at the same time, and Alex actually had trouble to keep up with them.
"I… I just… I don't… I want to… Stop it, stop it now!" Alex nearly screamed, startling the crowd of reporters, who all looked at him in silence. "Just… just one question at a time, please…" Alex said, and soon, many of the reporters were raising their hands into the air, all of them having questions.
Alex looked at them, trying to decide which one he should answer first. He end up pointing at one of them. "You, the tiger with red and yellow stripped shirt."
The reporter put his own mic close to his mouth, and he asked. "Mr. Hunter, what exactly are you? I mean, we know that you are a cougar, or at least looks like one. But how can you do what you do? Is this some kind of mutation, or is it a trick?" And he put his mic in direction to Alex, and the cougar could see that many of the presents, if not all of them, were doing the same.
Alex hesitated a little before answering, but he said, "Well, my abilities are not a trick, in the proper sense… well, how to explain… I have my abilities thanks to a genetic factor in my blood."
"So, are you a mutant?" Another reporter asked, this one was an impala. Alex looked at her, and he wondered what he could answer about that. He remembered the message that they received a few minutes ago, and he decided to go along with it.
"Well, you see… I am… a meta mammal." He said, and the words came out of his mouth with surprisingly naturally. As soon as he spoke that, the reporters all were making several other questions at the cougar, and Alex was a bit overwhelmed. But he was able to recover, and he was able to point at another of the reporters, this one a capybara, and she understood that Alex was going to answer her questions.
"So, how you acquired your abilities? It was due to some accident, or due to an experiment?"
"My abilities came from my DNA." Alex said to her, "I have them since I was young."
"So, you have had them for years?" Another reporter asked, and Alex was soon getting into the swing of talking.
"Yeah, I had a lot of time to practice with my powers." Alex said, and the reporters continued to give him questions.
"So, what has led you to reveal your powers to the world now?"
"I didn't actually planned any of that." Alex admitted, scratching the back of his head. "You see, I just happened to stumble into events where I had no choice but to use them. Maybe it was fate?"
"Mr. Hunter! What about the gazelle and the rhino? Are they like you?"
Alex looked at him, and he said, "Yeah, they are quite like me, but not quite. They have powers too, Linda is a telekinetic, and that guy from the bank, Flinn Rhinehart, is a wind manipulator."
"There are others like them? Like you?"
Alex felt himself tense a little at these questions, but he was able to stay as firm as it was possible to him. He wondered how exactly he could explain to them about that without letting out much about his past and about the events of the human world. He opted for a small speech. "You see, genetic mutations are the source of all life in the world. These were the things that allowed the first living beings to change from small organisms to greater and complex species."
Alex looked at the reporters, as they all had their eyes glued on him. "Genetic mutation was what granted us all our characteristics, or qualities, or sentience, and allowed us to become what we are now. Many of what we do, and of what we are, is determined by our DNA. Even now, with our apparent complete domination over the world, the process of genetic mutation still occurs, and as a result we continue to change and… well, to evolve."
"So, sometimes appears someone who has a characteristic that no one else has, like being born with an extra limb, or with some natural ability to do things. The same thing applies to… us meta mammals." Alex made a pause, and he sighed, "So, yes, there are others like me around."
Another round of frenzied questions, coming from all of them reporters.
"Are they dangerous?"
"They have abilities like yours?"
"Do you have contact with any other of them?"
Alex was really getting tired of feeling so overwhelmed by the questions all the time. Still, he knew that now that he was in there, he had to go with it until the end. "You, the bison!" Alex said, pointing at yet another reporter, who quickly made a question that possibly many of them had in their minds.
"Mr. Hunter, how come no one ever saw or heard of anyone like you up until now? Why were you hiding?"
Alex stopped for a moment at this question, and remained in silence. The reporters all looked expectantly at him, and so did Linda and the others, who looked at him somewhat worried. In his mind, Alex was wandering back at some dark times on his past, on the facility 20. He shuttered, somewhat visibly, and this made all of the reporters look at him.
Alex looked forward, and he said, "There were… already some people who knew about us…" Alex admitted, and the reporters all were looking at him, and approaching their mics even more. "These people had their own goals in mind. These people… they came after some of us…"
The reporters all mumbled among themselves, as they were making sure not to lose a single word of what the cougar was saying. "Some said that they wanted to help, that they wanted to understand what made us different and maybe fix it… These people…" Alex stopped, and he was visibly becoming shaken as he spoke. He made a pause and he took a few gasping breaths, as the whole crowd looked anxiously at him.
After Alex recovered, he turned his eyes back at the crowd, and he looked to have recovered his control. He continued. "The world can be really cruel with the ones who are different." He spoke simply, and the reporters all looked at him. "Be it in people who don't understand you and see you as strange or dangerous, or in your own parents who sue you away because they can't understand you. Being different sometimes means that you are in for a lot of trouble in the future."
"When I was younger, I heard about a boy in a small city who could heal and kill others only by touching them. He was scared of his own abilities, but he was a good guy. But the city didn't thought like that. They saw him as a monster, they were scared of him, and they wanted him gone. That boy was mauled by the city, and the irony is that, with his ability, he could simply touch them and kill them, but he chose not to. He refused to harm them and simply stood there and took what they threw at him. Still, they killed him, only because they didn't understood him, or his abilities."
The reporters continued to listen to them, and Alex sighed, before saying: "I think all of us went through it. Being feared, being rejected, being persecuted. We all passed through it one way or another, so many of us have learned to be afraid of the world. We learned that to protect ourselves, we should avoid being on attention, and we should never let others see what we could do… That was one thing that I learned…"
The reporters continued to look up at him, and Alex raised his head, and he said, "But, there are times in which you just can't hide anymore. There are times in which lowering your head and blending into a crowd is just not an option. When these times come, you have to raise your head and let everyone know that you are there, and that you won't back down, and you have to be ready to deal with the consequences of your actions." As Alex spoke, he looked at all of the reporters in there, all different kinds of animals, and he sighed, before saying. "What can I say? I'm just a cougar. I made a decision, and I know that it will have consequences, but I'll take them. I'm ready to face this world. I just hope that this world is also ready for us."
The reporters once more started to bombard him with questions, but Alex felt like he had already spoke enough to them, so he simply went down from the place and walked away, all the while the other reporters continued to bombard him with questions, following his movements with their cameras.
"Mr. Hunter, wait!"
"Just one more question!"
"Do you know the names of other meta mammals?"
"Where do they live?"
"How we identify one of them?"
"How many of the meta mammals are dangerous?"
They would have kept going after Alex, but they were stopped by a wall of police officers, all of which would not let them get any closer to Hunter. Alex sighed in relief for them, and he turned his attention back at Linda, who was smiling at him.
Alex approached, and she said, "That went very well."
"Well, it is still early to say." Alex said, giving her a weak smile.
"Oh, cheer up! It was really nice." She spoke, and as she did, her cell phone vibrated. She looked at it, and saw that there was a new message. She opened, and read what it said, and she opened a bigger smile. "And someone else seems to think the same. " She showed Alex the new message, which only said:
Well done, Hunter.
Alex read it, and somehow it assured him, and he and Linda were able to share a smile among themselves.
"Yeah, this was surely good." Nick said, "Now we must just hope that no funny guy into the news try to use it to evil instead of good."
Alex chuckled a little at him, and Judy came right next to him, "Well, I can see that for someone who looked nervous you did really good." She smiled at him, and Alex was able to smile back at her. He was glad that she had become very more amiable to him in the last week, and that now he was able to start to consider her his friend.
"Lets hope that this is enough to calm the moods of the city now." Bogo's voice came as he approached the animals, and they looked at him. "Lets go back to the hospital now, before some of them manage to break through the officers."
Alex nodded. There were moments that Alex really felt like the hospital was almost a prison, but still, compared to what he had just went through with the reporters and all of that attention and the nervous feeling that he got from all the cameras and questions, he was eager to go into a place where they would not get to him. It would be better if the place was an actual house, but since the hospital was the best that he had, it was where he and Linda were going.
Of course, leaving the place would not be as easy as it was getting in, because the reporters seemed not to be ready to leave them go yet. They continued to crowd them and to give Alex all kinds of questions.
"Mr. Hunter, there are other meta mammals living in Zootopia?"
"Do meta mammals have some special characteristic that is common to all of them?"
"Are you able to sense the presence of others like you?"
"Mr. Hunter, what are the chances of other meta mammals to be a threat to society?"
"Would you say that it might be needed to form a party to search for other meta mammals?"
"Mr. Hunter, do you think that there are meta mammals who would use their abilities to practice crimes and break the law?"
It took some effort, but the buffalo was able to make them pass through the great sea of reporters, all the while saying things like "nothing more to say" and "no commentaries". After a while of forcing their way through them, Alex and Linda finally were able to reach the car, and as the doors closed, the reporters continued to taking shots of them through the windows.
"Man, these guys are wild!" Alex said as they finally had some semblance of peace, and Linda could only take out a loud breath she had been holding. They had took nearly twenty minutes to reach the car, and it was only thanks to Bogo, who intimidated most of them, otherwise, Alex and Linda were pretty sure that they would have to resort to their powers so they could pass.
As she breathed, she heard the ring of her phone. She was so tired that she barely realized that it was her phone, and she simply took it to her face, and she only said, "Linda Thompson, who is it?"
It took only one second, before she opened her eyes, and said in surprise. "Jeff!?"
Alex jumped too as he herd what Linda just said, and he looked at her as she now was on the phone. "Oh my God! It is really you! Jeff, where are you?"
Bogo had entered the car, he then noticed the gazelle talking at the hone with someone, and he noticed that she seemed to be getting agitated. "What is it?" He asked as he turned around to look at them.
"It is Jeff!" Linda said to him, "One of our friends! Jeff, where have you been? We haven't heard from you in days!" She said, and she remained silent as Jeff was talking to her in the other line. "Wait, wait, Podunk? Wait, why is your voice so high-pitched?"
Alex looked at her, and she continued to listen to the one on the other end of the line, as he spoke to her. "Yes… Ah ha… Yeah… Okay… I see… So, when will you arrive? Twenty minutes?... Okay, okay we'll be there. See you soon." She said, and she hung up on her phone, looking at both Alex and Bogo, who both looked at her.
"It was Jeff?"
"Yeah, it sounded like him… kind of… He said that he want to meet us, he is coming to Zootopia by train, and he will arrive at the Savannah Central Station in twenty minutes."
"Wait a minute." Bogo interrupted, prompting the two animals to look at him. "This 'Jeff', is he another meta mammal?"
Alex and Linda shared a look, knowing that they better not lie to Bogo, for it would jeopardize the trust that they have been building. "Yeah, he is." Linda said, and she added, and he also said that you could go with us to the station to receive him if you wanted, as well as Hopps and Wilde."
"He knows about us?"
"He knows a lot of things." Alex said, and he added, "And he really want us to go to the station to meet him?"
"He said that he wants to talk to us, since he is having trouble to find the others. It seems that he called us from a borrowed phone, because he lost his own." Linda said, looking at the cougar, and then back at the buffalo. "He really said that he wanted to see some familiar faces and to talk about what is happening."
"So, he thinks that he can just met up with you two at the station?"
"And he can't?"
Alex and Bogo shared a look, as the buffalo said, "Well, I'm not sure if it is secure to let you two meet with a meta mammal I don't know."
"We know him. He is our friend."
"Yes, but the Savannah central station is a crowded place, and after what happened, I'm not sure that it would be good for you to go to a place with lots of people." He admitted, and he added, "They would be all over you, and you two are already getting to be quite famous, you would call a lot of attention."
They had to admit, the buffalo had a good point.
"Maybe we can use some disguise, maybe a hooded jacket and some sunglasses." Alex suggested, "I mean, none of them has ever seem us personally and up close, right? I don't think they even really know how Linda looks like, they would probably mistake her by any other gazelle."
Bogo looked at them, as he pondered this whole situation. After a few moments of silence he said, "You two trust this guy?"
"He is one of the ones we trust the most." Linda said, and Alex agreed with her. Bogo continued to look at them just for a few more moments, before he sighed in defeat. He turned around, started to car, and he picked up the radio.
"Hopps, Wilde, are you two there?"
"Here is Wilde talking, Chief, what's up?"
"Change in the schedule, we are not going back to the hospital yet, we are heading towards Savannah Central Station." He spoke, "Hunter and Thompson just received a call from a friend of theirs, and they are going to meet up in there. We are going with them." That was all that he said, before he turned the radio off, as if these words were enough for the two officers, and he knew that they were going to follow it.
He looked at the two mammals on the backseat through his rearview mirror, and he said, "I really hope that you two don't make me regret this." He spoke, and he started to drive. As he did, Linda and Alex both shared a look among themselves, and as they did, they both had a lot of questions going on through their heads.
Like, why didn't Jeff called sooner? What kind of animal had he turned into? And why was he insisting on meeting them right into the Savannah Station, instead of arriving and going to look for them later?
Well, it seemed that these and more questions were going to be answered pretty soon…
Here it is! The new chapter, and this one had less action, but a lot more of plot development! I really hope you all have liked, and I promise that I'll try to make the next chapters a little more filled with action.
Also, Mayor Amur is part of the headcanons of TheHook1, a fellow from DeviantArt.
