Just wanted to thank all of those again who have read and followed this story, it's much appreciated. This took a lot longer than expected but I wanted to make sure these are the highest quality chapters I can post for you guys. I'm starting to find a direction on where this story may go, I'd love to hear anyone's opinions as well. Anyways, please enjoy!

Chapter 4

"Wake up little spider…"

" Wakey Wakey"

Alex moaned as he heard the calls to get up from a familiar voice, he opened his eyes slowly and realized he was back in his own house only this time he was not alone. "Good to see you up again.." a voice said coldly, "It was getting rather boring waiting for you.". The boy looked up slowly and saw Max Jones there again with his mother, tied up with a terrified look on her face.

"YOU!" Alex said in rage,

He jumped up quickly and shoot a web at Jones to knock him off his feet, however Max caught the web in his hands shocking Alex and his mother. "Nice try kid." Jones said, he then pulled hard on the web which brought alex towards him. Once the boy was close Jones then punched alex hard knocking him onto the floor in front of him, "Did you really think you could keep your powers hidden from the world?" Jones said in a twisted manner. Alex looked up weakly at the man, using whatever strength he had he meekly lifted his hand up at Jones. But before he could fire off a web Jones stomped down hard on Alex's wrist causing him to scream in pain. " You've spun your last web boy" The man said, " Now say goodbye to your mother!" he then took out his gun aimed and fired.

"NOOO!" the boy screamed, feeling strength again his pushed Jones's weight off of his foot and got back on his feet preparing to end the man who murdered his mom. But before he could strike he felt some strange force pull him away from Jones, reacting quickly he grabbed onto the threshold of a door. The boy turned around to see a portal within the living room closet sucking in him and the surrounding objects. Alex turned his head towards Jones and saw an evil grin on his face, he then aimed the very gun he used to murder his mom towards him. "Goodbye Alex" Jones said as he took aim at the boy...and fired.

Alex's eyes immediately opened from the dream he had, covered in sweat and the stiff feeling in his muscles was quickly felt by the boy as a new morning had just arrived. Taking a moment to collect himself the boy sighed deeply and began to get up out of bed and took off his ski mask. "I gotta stop staying up so late" Alex said to himself sitting on the side of the bed, after rubbing his eyes he looked around to see that this wasn't his room at all. The room only had a small looking desk, dresser, and bed which he was sleeping on. He looked towards the bedroom door to see his backpack there with surprisingly all his stuff, "Thank God" the boy said with relief. Suddenly Alex heard noises coming from outside the room, curious to see who it was he slowly walked out of the room and down the hallway. He soon entered into a nice looking apartment living room with a full TV set, couch, and an entryway into the balcony. He looked out the entryway to see a smashed up patio table, 'I must have landed on that when I fell' Alex thought to himself. He then heard a voice come out from the kitchen that took him out of his thoughts, "Oh good you're awake…" Alex turned around as the voice was continued talking and saw something that almost made him scream.

He looked into the kitchen and saw a red fox standing on two legs working on something, but what shocked alex the most was that it was talking, 'HOW IS IT TALKING?! ANIMALS CAN'T TALK!' his mind screamed. It was then that the red fox turned around to face Alex as he continued speaking, "Anyways,I was hoping you could…" the fox immediately stopped speaking when he saw Alex face to face, "explain what happened." he said as he looked towards Alex. The two kept looking at each other for what seemed like an eternity with faces that looked like they had seen a ghost. It wasn't until Alex had enough courage to finally break the awkward tension between the two, "So who talks first...you talk first, I talk first?" Alex quipped. The boy's remark seem to have brought the fox out of his staring as he started thinking of something to say.

"Uh...sorry, but what are you?" the fox said

"I'd like to ask you the same question." Alex responded

"What do you mean? You've never seen a fox before?" The vulpine said in a questioning manner

" Yeah but none like you."

"Wait what do you mean none like…" the fox said

"Hey, where are we?" the boy interrupted

The fox laughed lightly Alex's question, "You're in Downtown" he responded. "Of what city?" Alex said back. His response greatly confused the fox 'Who is this guy? How does he not know where he lives?', "You're in Downtown Zootopia, and I got a couple of questions to ask you." the fox said. Alex didn't know what to make of the fox's answer, he rubbed his face with his hands to try and calm his nerves and tried to get more answers from the mammal, "Do you have a map?". The fox looked at him curiously, "Uh… yeah it's in the drawer on the left side of the desk." he said pointing to the desk in the living room. Alex ran over to the desk and pulled out the map from the drawer, he unraveled the map to find a layout of the city Zootopia as the fox called it on the map. He looked closer to find that this city was divided up into smaller burroughs named: Savannah Central, Tundra Town, Sahara Square, The Rainforest District, and just like the Fox said the Downtown area in the middle of the map. 'What is going on?' Alex thought to himself, "Hey…" the fox said to Alex bringing him out of his thoughts, Alex looked over and saw that the fox was having trouble figuring out his name, "Alex" the boy said. "Right, Alex are you ok?" the Fox said, "Yeah it's just...what did you say this city was called again?" he said. "Zootopia" the fox responded, "Ok,so this... Zootopia is inhabited by animals right? The fox nodded his head, "And you haven't seen anyone here that looks like me?" the fox nodded again. Alex couldn't believe what was happening, here he was talking to a fox in an apartment about a city that is completely run by animals.

There was only one thing left for Alex to do, he ran to the apartment balcony to see if this really was real or just some weird dream. When he reached the balcony everything that he feared the fox was saying suddenly made itself known to Alex. He saw animals walking on two legs, wearing clothes and speaking just like he had seen last night. He could see huge skyscrapers ahead each one as tall as the next with unique designs that would make Alex's world look drab and boring. The boy could no longer deny the truth, he really was in another place, no perhaps in another world, it was the only explanation that made sense in his mind. "Great view isn't it?" Jack said taking Alex out of his thoughts, "Yeah...it is" Alex responded. " Hey I need to ask you a few questions." Jack stated, "What were you doing on the roof last night?". Alex took a moment to think of his answer, he couldn't tell him exactly what happened. The strange pain in his head, the weird hostage situation at the warehouse, it all would have sounded strange to the fox. "I was just getting some air, I was struggling with a migraine all day and it just got the best of me last night." Alex chuckled hoping that the fox would buy his lie. The fox's eyes narrowed at the boy's response, "Ok then, I guess I'll just have to report this incident to the police." Jack said. Alex's eyes widened at what he just said, "No, please!" the boy said, terrified at what the police might do to a new species.

"Then tell me why you were really up on the roof." Jack said

Alex was hesitant to respond, he knew if he told the fox why he was up there he wouldn't believe him and would have reported him to the police. Feeling the pressure of the fox's stare on him the boy answered his question. He sighed deeply as he began,

"I'm out of town and I just wanted to see the city, I saw that this building had a good view so I went up to look. I've had a headache all day, I couldn't buy anything to help it so I just dealt with the pain. I guess by the time I got up there my brain just had enough and just shut down." The boy said with tears in his eyes as there was some truth to his answer, he still had yet to cope with the reality of his mother being murdered.

Jack was surprised by the Alex's response, he felt somewhat guilty for bringing up some bad memories for him.

"How old are you?" he said in a softer tone

"I'm 15" Alex said through tears, trying to collect himself

Jack was shocked at how young he was, as beautiful and safe as Zootopia showed itself to be there are still some dangerous areas around the city, especially for a kid like Alex. He thought about what he could do to help the kid out. He couldn't kick him out, that would just be cruel; a 15 year old out on the streets would destroy the kid. He looked back towards Alex and could see the pain and worry in his eyes, he couldn't fight the feeling of helping this kid out. " Where are your parents?" Jack said to Alex. The boy thought about what the fox had said to him, he thought of his mother, the love and care that she provided for him all of that was suddenly ended in murder. His father, he never talked after their divorce, he was too young to remember. After he left they never spoke, even when his mother had trouble putting food on the table he still stayed silent. It pained Alex that his so called "father" couldn't care less that they were struggling, he began to feel rage burn inside of him.

All these dark thoughts tearing through the young boy's mind almost made him cry but he didn't want to show it to Jack so he quickly recovered. "Their gone…" he said narrowing his eyes and looked down towards the floor. "What?" Jack responded, "What do you mean they're gone?". Alex began feeling angry towards the fox, the more he thought about the injustices that have happened throughout his family the more he wanted to snap but taking a deep inhale he responded. " Their just gone...okay. I don't know where they are, they have treated me like trash all my life. One day they just left...no note, nothing. So I left." he said. Alex felt his heart shatter at the lie he told, while some of it was true, pertaining to the father's lack of care for him and his mom he couldn't bear to share the truth to anyone about what really happened to his family, not now...and not here.

Jack frowned at what Alex had said, to hear this boy's story was heartbreaking. He was trained to never let emotions get the best of him during interrogation but the boy's answer based on his tone and expression seemed honest. The kid was still young, he needs parents to help guide him. It would take weeks for him to get placed into a adoption center, let alone a good one. Adoptions for Alex's age are low if not impossible. Also, he looks completely different from any other mammal(if he even is a mammal) he has ever seen. If word gets out about a new animal everyone would lose it, they'd probably lock him up and treat him like some savage, doing countless test and living poorly. Jack shivered inside at the thought of the cruelty he might undertake if the world found out who the Alex was. There was only one option left in the fox's mind. It wasn't ideal but it was better than all the others, " I'm so sorry, no one should your age should ever go through that. Look, why don't you clean yourself up. There's food and feel free to use the tv if you want. I have to go to work but I'll be back soon." Jack said.

Alex had a look of shock on his face, here was the fox showing him kindness in a time when he needed it the most, he hardly knew the boy and he was trusting him with staying in his home. Feeling gratitude he responded, " Thank you…" Alex said but stopped hesitantly for not knowing the fox's name. "Jack" the fox said, "Yeah, thank you so much Jack." Alex said. Jack smiled at the kid, "Don't worry, everything is gonna be fine. We'll figure this out." Jack said. Alex appreciated the fox's hospitality but he feared figuring out how to get himself out of this situation might be more difficult than he thinks. "Yeah" Alex said, the fox then turned back into the kitchen to clean up, he left some food for Alex which he quickly devoured. He then collected is stuff for work and headed out the front door, "Promise me you won't get yourself into any trouble." Jack said back to the boy, " I won't." Alex said as he sat down on the couch.

After getting a response, the fox turned at left the apartment closing the door behind him. Once he left his home Jack made his way to work, he couldn't stop to think the choice he had made. Letting a stranger stay in his apartment, let alone an unknown species would've sounded crazy to any sane mammal. Yet, it still felt wrong to just turn away from the kid, especially after what he had been through, he had to try...for the boy's sake.

Thanks to all who have read, please like, follow, and favorite. Constructive criticism is much appreciated. See ya!