Surprises were not stopping for the rescue group until the moment.

First the coming of Zillah Ferron saying that she would join them, and that she was not taking "no" for answer. Then there was their meeting with a group formed by two mages, both of which seemed to be quite violent, if their way of acting and talking was of any indication. Then there was the coming of the group that came to help them, formed by one of Gazelle's tiger dancers (someone identified him as such later, along with the tiger they rescued), Krystin Mieczyslaw, Dawn Bellwether's older sister, and a giant two-headed white snake that could talk. Also, in the middle of the battle, things that the mages identified as "hellhounds" appeared and helped them against the enemy.

As if these all were enough, there was the fact that Meerkovitz informed them by the radio that there were mammals near them that had cameras.

It were the reporters of the previous floor. It seemed that they had ignored their instructions to go to the roof and wait for their turn to get down through the helicopter.

Bogo was furious with them, naturally, and the buffalo could be quite scary when he was angry.

However, the other ones managed to calm him down, and they managed to do something that was quite impressive: convince the buffalo not to mind them following the group.

"Honestly, I don't like having them following us around either." Marceli said to him, "But right now, I'd rather have we remain together in cause there is more problem. They might be annoying, but as long as they don't get in our way, I guess that there is no problem in them tagging along. Making them return on their own could be dangerous, and they would probably come back unless we had someone scouting them to the roof and keeping an eye on them. Right now, we have to stay together in the case of any problem."

This was actually a pretty reasonable argument, and Bogo had to admit it. It was pretty obvious that they would still try to follow them if they were not watched by someone of the group. They could send someone to go with them, but after what had just transpired, Bogo had to admit that it would be better if they remained together. It was bad enough to be sending the needed officers to scout the rest of the rescued hostages to the roof, they could not afford to send extra ones just to be sure that the reporters would actually go with them this time.

This meant they would have to keep up with the reporters hoovering around and over them like a flock of vultures.

"You better not get on our way." Was the only warning that the buffalo give them, and the reporters actually seemed satisfied with this.

A bit too much for the Buffalo's taste.

Bisson was among the ones who was taking this opportunity, as he was looking at the camera as they walked, and he was acting as if he was giving a reportage. He talked a lot about the events that were happening, and at the bravery of the cops in the effort to control the situation that was caused by deranged mages.

He still threw one or another personal opinion here and there, most of it directed to somehow criticize mages and their antics. This, of course, did not went unnoticed by the present mages, including the Enforcers.

Now, some of them were able to control themselves, and ignore the bison completely. Others did not liked at all the comments that he was making. Tyrell and Tyson were both throwing dirty glares at the bison at every chance they got.

However, they didn't had to deal with this for long, for they were soon being guided to somewhere else inside the mall. The place that they were already aiming to go from the beginning.

It turns out the group that came to help them came straight from inside of the security room, and they were soon guiding them all the way into it.

Upon arriving, there was a little of tension, as everyone kind of freaked out when they saw the zombies on the outside, which all looked back at them with empty eyes. They got even more nervous when they saw the mammals that were on the ground, pale and unmoving, looking like corpses. Someone even confirmed that these were corpses, as they detected no pulse in them and this only made everyone even more nervous.

"They are okay." A voice made everyone jump, as they looked up and saw the open door of the security room. They looked at the possum that was standing in there, who looked calmly at them. "They are just under the effects of the coupe de poudre. They will be fine by tomorrow."

The group was a bit nervous, however, they were soon walking inside of the room. Well, some of the officers were, as some of them remained outside, to keep watch along with the zombies (something that made them truly nervous), for added security.

Once inside, they could meet again many familiar mammals.

"Mom! Dad!" Judy said, as she forgot all about everything else and reached for her family. She was warmly welcome by her parents, by her siblings, and by her niece, who still had a blindfold over her eyes. They were all fine and none of them looked harmed in any way. This was a source for immense relieve for Judy, who was very happy as she hugged her family, all under the look of her fox partner.

Okay, now that is wholesome. Nick thought to himself as he saw that scene.

Of course, it was not the only happy reunion, as Gazelle also reunited with the two tigers. She was particularly happy for seeing Tyrell, once she was worried about him ever since they got lost, and even more when she saw him as a hostage. She was so happy that she once more slipped in her mother tongue as she hugged him, and the tiger only hugged her back.

"Excuse me, you." Lapinsky said, as he walked the boar who was with the security. He looked at him and asked him to come with him, as they both went to a corner. The bunny was then proceeding to ask the boar some very important questions.

However, the most of the focus was turning to another mage that was on that room. A small ewe with glasses.

"Ms. Bellwether." Marceli said, walking to her and looking at the ewe. She shrunk a bit under his gaze, but Krys was soon coming by her side, and so was Lana.

"She is not harmed in any way." The fox said to her. "None of us are." He said, but immediately after, he groaned as he took a paw to his shoulder.

"Krys!" Dawn was soon over the fox, asking him if he was okay. It was obvious that his shoulder had gotten hurt. She soon was making him remove his jacket and his shirt, so she could look at it. It was clear that it had a bruise, even underneath the fur.

"Oh, Krys..." Dawn said, and she soon was placing her paws on the area, as she was working on healing his shoulders, as the glow coming from her hooves was of any indication.

Some were still surprised for seeing a ewe who was famous for trying to get rid of all predators being actually so nice to a fox, of all mammals.

Marceli, on his end, had a raised eyebrow as he looked at that interaction.

Emilia, on the other paw, was a bit more worried about other subjects.

"Was she really the one responsible for the hellhounds?" The vixen asked, as she looked at the ewe. "Can she actually summon hellhounds? Her file didn't said that she could summon hellhounds."

Dawn was still focus on healing Krys' shoulder, but she looked over her shoulder, as she looked at the vixen:

"There are a lot of things that my file doesn't says." The ewe said coldly, and this caused Emilia to flinch a little bit.

Okay, no that seemed the crazy ewe that everyone heard about on the news.

"Are the zombies outside your doing also?" Judy asked. She was still freaked out about seeing zombies, like the ones that you would expect to see in series. Of course, they were not attacking anyone and trying to eat them, neither spreading a zombie infection around, but their presence was still troubling for Judy, as well as for some other mammals around.

"Uhhh, actually." Harry said, causing Judy to look at him. "Those are actually Mom's." The bunny said, and this caused Judy to look at him with surprise.

"What?" Judy asked, not fully grasping what Harry just said, but the bunny by his side, with chocolate-brown fur and yellow eyes, confirmed what he just spoke.

"Yeah, that's right." Jason said, looking at his sister. "It was mom who made these zombies. We saw it. It turns out that mom is a necromancer." He said, pointing at their mother, who looked at him with a certain glare.

"M-mom?" Judy said, looking at her. Bonnie looked back at her daughter, and she sighed.

"I'm an ex-necromancer." Bonnie said, still under the surprised look of Judy.

Judy felt like her world suddenly shook.

Her own mother was a mage!?

This was a surprise for her, as well as for who was around.

"Hopps' mother is a mage?" McChill asked, looking at the older bunny. "A mage who creates zombies?"

"I'm an ex-mage." Bonnie said, looking at the polar bear.

"Yeah, right." Dawn said, still tending to the fox, and this granted her an angry glare from Bonnie.

"Okay, so, the zombies are Mrs. Hopps', the smoke things are Bellwether's." Nick said, and he looked around. "What about that huge two-headed snake? Whose it is from?"

"Him." Someone on the room said, pointing at a fat cheetah that was now on the process of healing the snake, his paws glowing and on the area where there was blood coming from, while he talked to the snake.

"You really need to be more careful." Ben said to the creature, "I know that you guys are not really in here, but you still can get hurt, so you should be more careful abouuuuu..." Ben stopped in the middle of what he was saying, as soon as he noticed that there were eyes on him.

"Ben?" Judy asked.

"Spots?" Nick asked.

"Clawhauser?" Bogo asked.

They all looked at Ben, who was now removing his hands from that area of the snake, which now seemed completely healed. His hands now went dim, but not before everyone had the chance to see the magic circuits glowing on his hands.

"Uhhh, hey guys." Ben said with a smile, waving to the guys. They all looked back at him, many of them with surprise. The cheetah felt a bit nervous by all of the attention that he was getting at the moment.

"Soooo... guess you guys already met Slizz and Zass, right?" He said, gesturing to the snake that he just healed, which was now stretching it body and slightly coiling itself, as someone would do when they stretch themselves on the morning. "They are my familiar."

"Only becau-sss-se we want to." One of the heads said, and they looked at the mammals, who all still looked surprise.

"Ben..." Judy said, looking at the cheetah with the same surprise as everyone. "You... you are a mage too?"

The cheetah looked very uneasy, and he scratched the back of his head as he avoided their gaze.

"W-well, I'm an ex-mage, actually."

"Or so he insists in claiming." Dawn Bellwether said, as she finished with Krystin's shoulder, and she was finishing checking on him to make sure he was okay, before she once more turned her attention to the images she created.

"Now, that is pretty interesting." Lapinsky said as he walked near Dawn, looking at the projected images on the mist. They showed the feeds of the security cameras. "Interesting indeed." The bunny said, as he looked at the many images. Dawn looked at him, and the bunny looked back at her.

"You actually managed to hijack the feed of the cameras and redirect them to... this?" He asked, looking at the mist. Dawn looked at him for a few moments.

"Yeah, I actually did." She said, passing a hoof over a circle, causing it to make the images shift between one camera and the other. "It was pretty simple, actually. I just used the wiring of this room to have access to the feed of the cameras. They are basically still doing what they normally do, which is filming and sending the images to a source that can relay them. I just got the signal and replaced a monitor with a different source."

The bunny nodded as he looked at it, and he said:

"Yeah, it is truly simple." He said, and some of the ones who were looking had a look that was like "it is?" as they looked at the two mammals talking.

"It is quite impressive that you actually managed to have results. I mean, using such a primitive solution." The bunny said, and this caused Dawn to look back at him. Lana and Krys also looked back at the bunny, and they looked like they wanted to say something.

"Well, I have to say that would be expected from a mage, actually." He said, looking back at Dawn. "No offense, of course."

"Of course." Said the ewe, and she focused her attention back into the mist. She didn't said anything else, but someone else seemed to have something to say.

"Yeah, that is mages for you." Lana spoke, causing the rabbit to look at her. "We are not like technocrats, with your fancy gadgets and your super advanced 'technology' and all." She spoke, and looked at him.

"You know, I meet a few technocrats, and it was always interesting seeing how they do their stuff." She said, "I would have loved to see you do your stuff as well back them, so bad that you got knocked out. You were truly not prepared for an actual physical combat right? Well, that would be expected from a technocrat." She said, and looked at him and added, in a very sweet tone "No offense."

The bunny only looked back at her for a long moment, before saying:

"Of course."

This seemed to end the interactions between the mages and the technocrat, who now remained silent. This was something the others were thankful for, as they were getting somewhat nervous as they saw the developing trade of words.

As it ended, however, they were able to focus on the other matters. Some of them checked on the rest of the hostages, making sure everyone was alright. Others were focusing on another matter that was on their mind.

"So, why did you planned telling us you were a mage?" McChill asked Benjamin, as the cheetah became nervous with the question. Even more with the look that the polar bear was giving him.

"W-well, i-it was not really relevant. I-I mean, I gave up being a mage a long time ago." He said, and the polar bear continued to look at the cheetah, as if he was still wanting a justification from the feline.

"McChill, leave him alone." Bogo said, pinning the polar bear with a gaze. "We have far more important things to worry about, like recovering and getting everyone out of here safely."

This was enough to make the polar bear leave Ben alone, something that the cheetah was really thankful for. He and the Chief traded looks, and a single nod was enough for them to understand each other. Bogo turned his attention to somewhere else, as he was still planning on how to get everyone out.

However, deep down, the buffalo was still surprised for finding out that Clawhauser was mage. An ex-mage, but still. The cheetah worked under him for nearly five years and he never even suspected.

He was not the only one who was surprised for knowing that someone who was close to him was a mage, as some of the officers shared this surprise for finding out that the cheetah was a mage. And Hopps...

"How come I never even suspected!?" Judy asked in a whisper to her family. Bonnie was among them, and she looked more serious than Judy ever remembered of having seen her before.

"That is because I vowed to left all my past in the past." Bonnie said, looking at all of them. She then looked away.

"Of course, I also vowed never to set foot in this city again..."

"Huh?"

"That's right." Jason said, causing Judy to look at him. "It turns out that mom not only used to be a mage, but she also didn't came from Podunk like she told us! She was born here! In Zootopia!"

Wha...?" Judy said, looking back at her mother.

"Yeah, and she has a Ghost Rider-style shotgun with a skull on it! She used it to take down the golems!" The brown bunny concluded, and this caused Judy to look at her mother.

She... used a shotgun? A real shotgun? With bullets?

"So... did mom saved everyone all by herself?" Judy asked, still processing everyone.

"No, she actually had help." Harry said to her. "From one of your neighbors, actually." He said, pointing at the two who were now close. Judy blinked as she looked at them.

"Yeah, it turns out your mother was not the only hidden mage around here." Pronk said, pointing at Bucky. "It seems mages are really good in keeping secrets from their close ones."

"I didn't even knew I was a mage before today! Give me a break, okay?" Bucky said in his own defense.

"Well, you seemed pretty experienced for someone who just found out to be a mage!"

"I went by instinct, okay?"

"Well, your instincts must be far better than those of the others! Unless that is a mage thing! What else I have to discover about you!?"

"Oh, shut up!"

"No, you shut up!"

"No YOU shut up!"

As the two continued to tell each other to "shut up", Judy was now relying from the discovery that not only her mother, but also her neighbor were both mages, and that she had never even suspected a thing.

"They all look pretty surprised, don't they?" Emilia asked her uncle, as they both took notice of the developments around them.

"They are still learning how to deal with things." Marceli said, "I must say, in general, the non-mages are dealing with this all far better than they always told me they would."

"Yeah, there are no mobs going around screaming 'die witches' and the like." Emilia said, "Kind of a letdown."

Marceli sighed.

"Honestly, Emilia. Sometimes your definitions of 'let down' and 'cool' really worry me."

"What, I like when things are interesting!" She said, and the smile on her muzzle was sincere. That only served for Marceli to get even more worried about his niece and her definition of "interesting".

He would have voiced it, but then something happened that called his attention.

There was something vibrating inside of his pocket. The black tod blinked and looked, before he reached over and reached for his pocket.

He pulled out a stone that had a complex rune carved on it, and it was vibrating madly as the rune glowed ever so slightly.

Marceli and Emilia both looked at it, both of them with their eyes widen, as they shared a look among themselves.

They both knew what that was, and they both knew what that meant...

Back on their apartment, the door had been nearly ripped off the ridges, as the lock was destroyed and the door itself was not in a nice state. Near the door, a small complex rune, the same one of the stone that Marceli had, was glowing very discreetly. This rune was not noticed by the ones who broke in, as they were far more interested in another thing.

"Keep looking!" The panther said as he stood in the middle of the room. "Break this place apart if you have to! We are not leaving without it!"

He was talking to the two that were currently trashing the place. One of them was a big bull, while the other was a small weasel. They both were tossing things and breaking the place apart as they were trying to find something hid in there. The two, along with the panther, were wearing a clothing that made it seem that they were plumbers.

This disguise was all that they needed to be able to get past the entrance, as a little suggestion, combined with the clothes, was enough to let the landlord let them in without asking any questions.

Once they climbed into the stairs and reached the apartment, it was only a question of placing a special spell so no one of the neighbors would be able to hear the door being force open. The same spell was what prevented the neighbors from hearing the apartment being trash, as the ones inside now were turning the place upside down in search for their goal.

"Where is it?" The panther said to himself, as he looked around the place, trashing it along with his two minions. He came across a few things in there, like a few runic stones, and also a pen. But he simply threw them aside, as he was not interested in any of these trinkets. "Where have they hid it?"

"Impatient as always." Said a familiar voice, and the panther didn't even dignified himself to look, for two reasons: one, he always knew who it was; two, he was too focused on the task at paw to let go of it now.

Meanwhile, Cornelius Wilde stood behind him, looking quite smug as he smiled to himself. He looked over to see the two other ones that were trashing the place, and they also seemed to completely ignore the fox, as they continued their work.

"Only two golems?" The fox asked, "I thought you had more."

"I have plenty more." The panther said, not even looking at the fox as he continued to remove the drawers one by one and toss them aside after turning them upside down. "Of course, these two are the ones that I currently have left, due to all the others being focused on your little plan."

"A plan that is working." The fox said to him. "You have broken on the base of the enforcers, and they are unable to come to get you. You're welcome, by the way."

The panther growled. He was force to admit that it was truth, but still.

When the fox told him of this plan, days ago, his first reaction was to want to grab him by the shoulders, shake him violently, and scream "are you out of your mind!?". However, after the tod explained to him the exact details of the plan, he actually felt a bit more inclined to feel like it could be a good plan. Even thought it was more than obvious that it was a desperate one.

He could already picture Tasman and all of the others giving him a very hard time once this was over and they learned what he was force to do. He knew that they would be demanding him to justify his actions, and he would only be able to appease them if he got the package back.

Hence why he was so focus on finding it.

"It still amazes me how you can make your golems look normal like that." The fox said, looking at the two creatures in the room, which looked like perfectly normal mammals. "You can't even tell that they are made of stone..."

"Is just a simple illusion." The panther explained, as he now started to tear down an entire sofa, to see if they had hidden it in there. "The same one that allowed the golems to approach the mall by looking like normal mammals."

"Yeah, it is still impressive." The fox said, before shrugging.

"But, not that surprising actually, considering that you have for years used it to-"

"There is a reason why you are here?" The panther cut him off, now finally turning around to look at the tod, who looked calmly back at him. "Do you have a purpose in here, or you came just because you wanted to annoy me?"

The tod looked back at him. "Peter, you really used to like our talks."

"I also used to be welcome on that house and feel like actually belonged." The panther said back to him. They looked at each other for a long moment, and the tod sighed.

"I just wanted to check if you were alright." He said, "To check if there was anything wrong on your end, if you were having trouble. If maybe you needed a little bit of my help." The tod said to him.

"I already accepted your help with that crazy plan that you came up with." The panther said to him, turning around and once more resume looking. The "bull" had just started to break down another piece of furniture, while the "weasel" looked on small spaces, looking for anything hidden.

"How did you even thought of such a plan, to begin with?"

"What, is it surprising that I came to think of a plan like that?" The tod asked, and the panther actually stopped for a moment to think of it.

"No, not really." He said, looking over his shoulder at the fox. "Everyone always said you were crazy."

"Maybe I am." The tod said, "After all, some of the best ideas are laced with a hint of madness."

The panther rolled his eyes, and he resumed looking. He was starting to get tense for not finding the thing he was there to find, and this was causing him to become more aggressive. Could it be that they hid it on the floor. Maybe on the space between that floor and the lower floor's ceiling?

"Anyway, you gotta admit the plan is working perfectly up until now." The fox said to the panther, and he still had that continuous smile on his face. "The enforcers are far away and too busy with the business in there to prevent you from getting your little trinket back. Not only that, but Nick Wilde is also inside of that mall, where all of your golems ca get to him easily with a little luck. Just as I promised you."

"You also promised me that I would have the package back." The panther said, getting up and looking at the fox. "Up until now I haven't been able to get it."

For a long moment, they looked at each other. The fox still had that enigmatic smile on his face as he looked at the panther.

The big feline looked at the fox, and then was now facing him directly.

"You know where it is hidden, don't you?"

"Yes." The fox said calmly. "I was just waiting for you to ask."

The panther looked at the vulpine very intently.

"And, for how long did you stood in there watching me look for it like some fool?" He said, his voice threateningly low.

"You know, you used to have a better humor." The tod said as he turned around, walking to a wall. "Well, guess I can't blame you for having become bitter, after all that we have put you through."

The panther had his eyes on the fox, as he walked to the walk and removed a single picture from the wall.

It was a big one, which depicted some mammals on a paddling boat. Behind it, it was possible to see that the wall was broken and rundown, leaving a huge dent on the wall, probably the reason why the picture was there, in first place. The place surely was not as nice as the one that Peter had got for himself. However, that was the last thing on the feline's mind, as he looked at what was inside the hole in the wall that the fox had just revealed to him.

A familiar ornamented wooden box.

"Didn't thought for checking behind the pictures, did you?" The fox said to him. "Don't blame you, most mammals don't."

The panther ignored the fox completely, as he had his eyes on the prize that he came there for. He walked to the hole, and reached out, grasping the wooden box and picking it up effortlessly.

He had a wild grin on his face, as he was able to recover the thing that he and his group desired so much.

Oh, how much he wanted to rub that on Tasman's face.

"Well, it seems that you got what you wanted, after all." The fox said, casually walking to the window and taking a look of the view outside. "You got your little box back, and Nicholas is still inside of that mall surrounded by your golems."

The panther had to admit that the fox was right.

He truly now had the package back, and he got Nicholas Wilde right where he wanted him. Just like Cornelius had promised.

"Guess that is your little chance to have your little revenge on the fox for all of the envy he made you feel right?" Cornelius said, and this caused the panther to look at him.

"No!" He said firmly, looking at the fox, whom turned back to look at him. "Not envy! Indignation!"

They looked at each other for a long moment.

"It is not because of envy. Is because that fox ruined everything for me." The panther said, "It is because he caused all of my misfortunes on the day he-"

The panther looked like he was ready to go into some lengthy explanation. However, suddenly, he flinched a bit and went stiff, his gaze suddenly becoming lost.

The fox looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" He asked, looking at the panther, who looked like he had suddenly become distracted with something else. This caught the fox's interest.

"Yo, Peter?" The fox said, now trying effectively to catch the attention of the panther. "Peter? Earth calling Peter, do you listen?"

The panther blinked after a few moments, and he said:

"There is something happening..."

There was a brief silence, as the panther still looked distracted. He then closed his eyes and it looked as if he was trying to focus on something. After a few more moments, an expression of surprise spread over his features, as his eyes widened. A few seconds later, his face relaxed, and now it had an expression that was hard to read.

"I see..." The panther said, "So, you really came to defend him, didn't you?"

The fox looked at the talking panther. For a moment, he even thought that he was talking to him. However, the panther was not looking on his direction. Actually, it even seemed that the panther had suddenly forgot that he was present.

If course, it only took a few moments for the fox to understand exactly what was happening.

"Well, that is no surprise actually." The panther said, now apparently talking to someone other than the fox on the room.

"After all, we all know how much you value his life. It should be no surprise that you would find your way here to rescue his sorry tail." He said, and there was a great hint of resentment on his voice.

"Ever since the first day you showed how much you cared about him. He was always the most important thing in your life..."

"...wasn't him?" The golem said, with the same voice of the panther, right before something blasted on its head, breaking it into thousands of pieces.

Standing a few feet away from the fallen golem was Sophie Wilde, with her paw outstretched in direction to the fallen creature, as if she had just threw something in its direction. Her expression was hardened and unforgiving. Still, someone could be able to notice something in the bottom of her eyes, if they looked very closely and intently.

Around her, it was very clear that there had just been a fight in there, with multiple golems broken apart and spread over the place like broken statues. Tyler and Tyrone were both in there, and they looked around as they had finished clearing the golems of the place.

"We barely went inside and we already went head-on with some golems." Tyrone said as he looked at the destroyed familiars around himself. "They truly are all over the place."

"It makes no difference." Tyler said, as he walked over the pieces of some golem that looked like it had exploded. "We will break anything that stand on our way until we reach our friends and get them out of here."

Sophie said nothing, as she only looked around at the golems that they had broken on their way in.

Getting in was not very easy, as the teenagers showed them a way around security that involved going through the sewers.

There was a sewer system that was connected to the mall, and a passage allowed them to access the mall through an opening on the ground. It was not a pleasant one, once the smell was terrible; after all, it was the sewer.

"I'll take a week to get this smell out of my fur." Tyler said as he pinched his nose as they walked into the big ducts, having to crouch as he and his brother were pretty big for these small tunnels, while the smaller mammals had no problem.

Once arriving at the place, they just needed to climb a stair for a passage that allowed them to go inside the mall.

It was actually surprisingly easy, if you completely ignored the smell.

Of course, it was only easy up until the moment they actually started to walk into the mall, as they immediately met up with a group of burly golems that looked like they could pose a serious problem for them.

However, they were no match for the skills of the three mages, as were most golems.

The battle should have lasted no more than three minutes before the mages emerged victorious and without a single scratch.

As they fought, the Mage Chasers stood on the background, as they witnessed the entire battle, as well as recorded it in their camera (Sully had been pretty insistent for Patrick not to lose anything).

As soon as the battle was over, the three were coming out of their hiding spot, and they looked at the mages that had just gave a show of skill as they fought these golems and broken them to pieces.

"Wow..." Shawn said.

"That was... awesome!" Sully said, giving a small outburst that worried the ones around him. "Did you got it? Patrick, tell me you got all of that on video!"

The pig was grasping the hyena by his shirt and shaking him rather hard as he said that, what disoriented Patrick a little bit.

"Y-yeah!" The hyena said amidst the shaking that the pig was giving him. "Yeah, I got it all on camera!"

"This is so cool!" Sully said, now letting go of the hyena. "With a few more scenes like that we will have the most views on the history of ZooTube! We will surely receive a prize!"

"So, we are still going with them?" Shawn asked, looking quite nervous. "I-I kind of hoped that the images we just got would be enough and that we would be going back and leaving them to do their thing." He admitted, and Sully looked back at him as if he was crazy.

"You kidding?" Sully asked him, "Of course we will continue on! This is too good to let pass! If we see something like that right at the beginning, imagine what else we will see if we continue on! We gotta go to the end now!"

"We gotta keep moving." Sophie Wilde said, and she turned to the teenagers. "You go back."

"No way!" Sully said. "We gotta go along with you and record everything! That was the deal!"

Sophie Wilde looked at them, and it looked like she wanted to say something, but she only sighed.

"There is no time for this." She said in a low voice to herself, and then she turned to the teenagers once more. "Just be sure to stay out of our way, for your own safety."

That was all that she said before turning around and walking.

The two tigers shared a look, before they too followed behind the vixen. Tyler didn't liked having to bring the teenagers alone, but he knew that it was no use arguing now, for they had to save their brothers and friend. Tyrone was of the same opinion, but he was a bit more receptive, as he knew that the teenagers could even come to be useful on the way, as the hyena said that he had walked around the place before, making him somewhat qualified to be their guide.

Sully and his two friends (who were both quite hesitant) were following them closely, as they wanted to be close in the case problem arose, so they could be protected.

As the group left, they left behind the remains of the destroyed golems, which probably was a preview of what the group formed by three mages and three wanna-be teen ZooTube stars were going to be leaving on their wake as they went through the mall.

"There is someone invading our apartment!" Emilia whispered to her uncle urgently, and the tod only continued to look at the rune that was giving to them an alarm, telling them that the perimeter of their apartment had been violate.

"Yes, I know." The tod said, and he looked back at the vixen, who was looking back at him.

"What do we do?"

"What can we do?" Marceli asked her, with his usual calm expression. "We are in the middle of a rescue mission, and we cannot simply leave everything to go rushing back to our apartment."

"Yeah, but there is a lot of important things in there!" Emilia said, "Including..."

"I know." The fox said to her. "But we have a mission in here, and we need to focus on it right now. We will focus on this as soon as we are done saving everyone." The tod said, and the vixen had no option but to agree with him, for she knew that he had the reason.

"I can't believe it." Emilia said as she and Marceli made their resolution to continue their work in there. "What are the chances of our apartment being invaded right on the moment that we are out in a mission like that?"

Marceli stopped for a moment to think of it.

"Low." He said after he pondered over it for a while. "Very low." He said again, and Emilia looked at him, as she was wondering just what the tod was thinking now, but it was obvious that it was something important...

"Your cousin?" Gazelle asked the two as they explained the thing to her.

"Yeah, he is our uncle's son." Tyson explained. "He abandoned the family a long time ago for he said that we were 'not acting as proper mages'."

"After that his name started to come up as someone who was willingly breaking the laws of the Codex." Tyrell said to her, "He is wanted for unethical thaumaturgic experiments, kidnapping, even for murder."

"Dios mio..." Gazelle said as she heard the explanations that the two were saying.

Meanwhile, some of them were around, and they were eavesdropping on what the popstar was talking with the two tigers. The tigers who they all knew as her dancers/bodyguards, and that now they knew to be mages.

"Do you think she knew that her bodyguards were mages?"

"Well, she doesn't' seem surprised."

"Think she was hiding it for them?"

"Maybe they forced her into it."

"Where are all of these mages coming from now? They are popping up everywhere!"

"Just to show that they are all over society."

"Wait, are you saying that you know the one responsible for causing these mammals to act like this?" Judy asked Lana Bellwether, as she and Nick both looked at the ewe that looked back at them.

"Yeah, you can say I know him." Lana said, looking at the two cops. "His name is Bartholomeus Lupo. But he insists for everyone to call him 'Butch'." The ewe said, and the two cops put themselves to think, as the name sounded familiar.

"Wait!" Judy said suddenly, looking at the ewe. "Would he be a big wolf with his claws and his fur dyed in purple and blue?"

"Yeah, that's him." Lana confirmed, and Nick, who got lost for a moment, suddenly had a spark of memory at this.

It was the wolf that he and Judy had seen months ago with Percy and the other dog! And that they saw again a while later in the warehouse performing that ritual!

"Yeah, Butch is a figure." Lana said to the two. "The guys out there, acting like rock n' roll maniacs, that is definitely his doing." The ewe said to the two of them. "He used to do stuff like that while he was still with us, and apparently he hadn't stopped even after changing affiliations."

Nick and Judy both looked at the ewe, and they looked like they were about to ask her what she meant by that. However, their attention was diverged when something started to happen.

"Hey!" It was Dawn Bellwether, and soon, everyone was turning their heads to look at the reason she was saying that.

It was the mist. Where before it showed a high-resolution image of a camera, now the image was becoming vague and out of focus, until it completely vanished.

"What is?" The small ewe said, as she fumbled on the magic circle, as if trying to get information of it. However, it seemed that she was getting nowhere, for she was getting visibly frustrated.

After a while, the ewe shifted to another camera. However, right after the image started to become out of focus just like the last one. This too went out of air, and the ewe shifted to another image.

The next one was already out of focus, and it took only a few seconds before the image vanished.

The ewe now was shifting between images of the cameras, but she only got the same answer from all of them. Nothing more than static that showed itself in the mist created by her improvised ritual.

"What is this?" The ewe said, as she shifted between cameras, and checked on the circle that as giving her information, but that now was giving away nothing.

"What is going on!?"

Everyone soon had their attention turned to the ewe, and they soon realizing what was happening.

They had lost the video from the other floors.

"What is going on?"

"Where are the images?"

"Did something happened?"

"We can't see what is going on around the mall anymore!"

"Why is this happening?"

"Did the ewe messed up the spell or something?"

"Dawn, what is going on?" Lana asked, coming near to her sister, and the smaller ewe looked between the circles and the mist, as she seemed that she was trying to make sense of what was going on.

"I don't know. I-I lost the feed." She said, looking at the video, while other approached.

"Did something happened to your circles?" Marceli asked, as he looked at what was going on.

"No, they are perfect!" The ewe said, and she looked around. "T-there must be something with the cameras."

"Indeed." Lapinsky said, as she approached and looked. The others looked at him.

"I don't know much of your magecraft, but I can tell that Ms. Bellwether did made a good job in accessing the feeds of the cameras, even though she did it with rather primitive means." He said, and the others looked at him. "There seems to be nothing wrong with her methods though. The way this just happened, it is definitely a problem with the cameras."

"With all of them?" Bogo asked, as he looked at the image that they now lost. "What, is it a problem I the system or something?"

"Someone hacked into the security." The bunny said as he continued to look. "Someone managed to hack into the system and cut the feed of the cameras, to be able to leave us without video. Something like that could not be done by common means. Whoever did this is good at enlightened electronic."

"You mean, a technocrat like you?" Emilia asked, and the bunny looked back at her.

"Definitely it is a user of enlightened science."

"Evan..." Lana said, as she looked at the mist.

Lapinsky blinked, and he turned to look at the ewe.

"Did you just said 'Evan'?" He asked her, and she looked back at him. "Evan Canis?"

"The very same." Lana said, to him, before she said in a low voice to herself:

"So, the vipers really are fully involved in this mess. This is not good..."

"We can't see what is going on anymore!" McChill said as he looked at the mist, which now showed nothing. "We have no way of knowing what is going on around the mall anymore!"

"I believe that this is the intention." Marceli said, as he looked back at the Cape buffalo, as well as the other mammals in there. "They have cut off our sight from here so we would not be able to know what awaits us in the next floors."

"But we already do." Benjamin said, looking around the room. "We took a look on all of the floors, and we already know where the hostages and enemies are."

"That was before we met two of the mammals who are in control just some minutes ago." Marceli said, and Lapinsky also spoke.

"Mr. Mieczyslaw is right." The bunny said, gathering some looks. "After they realized that we were gaining terrain, and that we could be a threat, they surely have decided to alter their original plans. They probably decided to change their distribution over the floors and the way they were doing this. Hence is why they decided to cut the feed of the cameras, so we could not know what kind of change in strategy they are doing now."

"So, they could be killing the other hostages, taking them somewhere else, or preparing a trap for us in the next floor, and we have no way of knowing any of what could be happening." McChill said, before he grunted:

"That is just great."

"We need another way of getting information." Marceli said, and then, someone on the group of mammals came forward.

"I can help." Chloe Fanghanel said, and everyone looked at her.

"I can use my familiars to scout out the floors and bring back information on what is happening."

"Your... familiars?" Bogo asked, looking at the thylacine who was Officer Fanghanel's wife. She nodded, and then she closed her eyes and focused. Soon, there were specters forming around her and floating near her body.

This, of course, startled some of the ones who were close, but they relaxed as soon as the thylacine started to explain that they were harmless and that they could be useful.

"They can change out of the visible spectrum and scout the place without being seen." The thylacine explained. "They will be able to gather information and to tell us exactly what they are doing down there, and we will be able to plan accordingly. They won't get us unprepared, that much I can assure."

Everyone looked on surprise at the scene developing, and some of them were more surprised than others.

Fanghanel's wife is a mage too!? McChill thought, as he looked at the scene developing before him. Where are all of these mages coming from!?

Meanwhile, others looked at the specters that the thylacine just created, and they were able to connect the dots on what was going on.

"Well, guess this does explain where that apparition came from." Marceli said, while Emilia was still processing what she was just learning at that same moment.

"Wait a minute." The vixen said, looking at the thylacine. "You mean... that specter I vaporized was yours?"

"Yeah, it was." Chloe said, looking at the vixen. She didn't seemed angry, though. "I materialized it to warm you guys of the mages on your way, when we saw them on the cameras. He was on the way to telling you when you destroyed it."

She looked at the vixen. "That kind of hurt, you know?"

Now Emilia looked a little bashful, like a kit who had broken the vase and now had to explain it to her mother. Marceli only sighed and shook his head, and so did Krys, as he too was familiar with his cousin's impulsiveness.

Eliot was even saying something about how attacking the specter had an effect on "his Pumpkin", and that he didn't liked seeing his beloved wife in pain. This of course, was Eliot being Eliot, and Chloe knew that very well, as well as some of his coworkers.

After a while of deliberation, they all agreed that this was a good tactic, and that this was the way that they should go. As such, Chloe was already on her way to give instructions to her specters, when something started to happen that caught everyone's attention.

It was as if the building suddenly started to hum. There was a very subtle but constant sound going around, follow by a feeling as if the building was vibrating very lightly.

It lasted only around thirty seconds, and it caused everyone to stop what they were doing and pay attention to it.

However, as soon as it ended, it was over, and they didn't heard or felt anything of the like.

"What was that?" Nick asked, and no one really knew how to answer.

Lapinsky, however, turned around and moved into a corner, and he was accessing the device that he had on his wrist.

"Well whatever it was, it is over now." Bogo said, "Now, what about we move on with that plan of using the ghosts or whatever as a mean of keeping surveillance? Meerkovitz will also be doing that, he is in a place where he can hide effectively, he will be helping."

Chloe looked at the buffalo, nodding at this. Soon, she finished instructing her specters, and they were on their way.

The door didn't even needed to be opened, as the specters simply passed through the walls and through the floor, showing that they truly were ghosts.

"That freaks me out." Harry said a little bit, and Jason, who was by his side, said:

"As of right now, there are a lot of things that freak us all out."

Some of the group agreed with them, as they were still taking in everything that was happening to them all around. There were golems and controlled mammals taking the halls, there were giant talking snakes, zombies and specters on their side, not to mention all of the other things that were going on with mages on both sides.

This was a lot for most mammals to take in, and some of these things made the others who were around a lot uneasy.

"So, you sure we can rely on your ghosts, lady?" McChill asked the thylacine, and she looked back at him.

"I'm pretty sure. They follow instructions very well, and as I explained, they can go around without being detected." She said, and the polar bear looked at her for a few moments, and then turned his attention elsewhere, as if he didn't wanted to say anything else on the matter.

A few minutes passed, as everyone waited for the specters to return to give them information, when the thing that had happened now returning. A sound like a humming followed by the feeling as if the place was vibrating very slightly.

"It is back!"

"What is that?"

It lasted longer this time, but eventually, it stopped.

"Well, it is gone now." Bogo said.

"Why does it keep-" McChill started to say, but was interrupted suddenly as there was a sudden shaking.

It was as feeling similar when a car suddenly hits a bump in the middle of the road, causing it to jump.

It really felt as if the whole building had suddenly jolted.

Many of the mammals were caught off-guard by this. Many of them cried out in surprise, some of them lost their balance and fell, while others managed to keep on their feet, but just barely.

"What is this!?"

"What is going on!?"

"Is someone trying to bring the building down!?"

These and more questions resounded around, as everyone recovered and tried to make heads and tails of what had just happened.

This event, whatever it was, seemed that it had just ended. However, it did gave everyone a scare, and now even Bogo could not dismiss it as not being important.

"What is going on around here!?" the Cape buffalo demanded as he looked around. "Someone talk to me and tell me what is going on!"

"It were them." Lapinsky said, granting everyone to look at him, all of them demanding answers.

"The ones who are behind this event." The bunny said to them. "They are the responsible for that."

"What? Are they trying to demolish the building?" Bogo asked, now considering if these mages would be crazy enough to actually being the building down with all of the mammals that were inside of it.

"Not exactly." The bunny said, looking at the many animals that were around.

"I just contacted the headquarters of the Technocratic Union." Lapinsky said, "They are monitoring the status of this building, and they have confirmed my suspicious." He looked all around, as all of the other mammals that now were looking at him.

"It seems that whoever is behind this event is using special means to affect the integrity of the building." The bunny explained to everyone. "It seems that they are using means to interfere with the dimensional integrity of the building, as they are trying to erode away the dimensional synchronism, what could cause the complete shutdown of the pocket dimension and the irremediable mislaying of all that is currently inside of the extra-dimensional space.

Everyone stared at the bunny, and most of them had blank stares, as what he just said made little to no sense to them.

However, some among them were able to get the gist of what was being said.

"Wait." Dawn Bellwether said, and she looked at the bunny, while the others looked at her. "Do you mean, that they are trying to shut down this space of imaginary numbers?"

"Yeah, I suppose that is what it means. In mage terms." The bunny said.

Most of the mammals of that room still didn't understood what that meant. The mages, however, seemed to do, for they were reacting to this.

"Oh crap..." Jade said, as the kangaroo seemed to be becoming distraught, "Oh crap."

"So, any chance we can leave this place before they make it disappear for good?" The possum asked, as everyone looked at her. Some of them still not quite understanding what this meant.

"We have to leave." Tyson said, "We have to leave now!"

"Think we can get to the ceiling?" Tyrell asked. Meanwhile, Gazelle was as lost as the other ones, as she looked confused at her tigers.

"Wait, they wouldn't do that, would they?" Krys asked, looking at his uncle. "Not if they are still inside of the building, it would be madness."

"Maybe they have a way to get out before doing it." The black tod answered. "Or maybe they are simply that mad."

"Hey, hey!" Bogo said, and he looked at the mages, as all of them seemed to know what that meant while the rest of the mammals in the room didn't. This was something that bothered the buffalo, as he now wanted to know it as well.

"Would any of you mind explaining what is going on?"

"We will all disappear forever if we don't either stop them or get out of this building. That is what's going on." Lana said to the buffalo. This had an immediate reaction on everyone who was listening, as they were growing nervous. However, some of them still didn't understood what that meant.

"Would someone please elaborate?" Nick said, looking around, and it was Marceli who stepped forward and put himself to explain to those who did not got all of the magecraft lingo.

"Do you remember how we said that this mall was divided in two parts?" He said, looking at the cops. "That the outside existed in the material world, while the other one existed in a space of imaginary numbers. A pocket dimension, so to say?"

"Yeah, I guess we all remember that." Nick said, and some of the cops nodded.

"I don't remember that." Eliot said, "Oh wait, I was not there."

"Well, the two spaces are able to interact with each other because there is a connection between them." The tod continued to explain to everyone. "A connection that allows the outside to connect with the inside, so things can come in and out of them. Think of is as a bridge that connects an island to the main land through the ocean."

"Yeah, we get it, so?" McChill asked, as he was still not getting. However, some of the smartest among them seemed to be getting it.

"They are trying to bring the bridge down." Judy said, as she was someone who truly got the gist, and everyone looked at her, before they started to grasp what the situation truly was about.

And how dire that actually could be for them.

"Yes." Marceli said, confirming what the female bunny cop had just said. "They are trying to shut off the space of imaginary numbers, cutting the connection it has with the outside."

"Wait, like, separating the two parts?" Eliot said, now getting into the grip of things in there. "What will happen if they do it?"

"Then the outside and the inside will no longer be connected." Benjamin said, and he looked positively worried, as did most of the present mages. "On the outside, the building will become just an empty structure, without nothing inside it. And the inside... Oh, gods..."

Everyone looked at the cheetah, before they turned their heads back to the fox, their gazes asking him to explain. Which the fox did.

"The inside of the building, with no longer a bridge to connect it to our world, will get lost in the inside of the dimension of imaginary numbers." The fox said to all of them. "In other words, this space is going to disappear from the face of the earth, along with everything that is inside of it. The stores, the golems..."

A-and also..." Dawn Bellwether said, all eyes turning to her. She stopped for a moment, and swallowed a lump on her through, before concluding:

"...us."

"There as a cataclysmic silence following these words, as everyone was able to take in the true meaning of what was just said to them.

As they all grasped what was going on, and just what it meant to every single one of them.

And the more they grasped the situation, the more it made them realize just how much trouble that meant for them.

"Great..." Bogo said, as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

Another chapter ready. This one in record time. I can be really productive when I put my mind on it, it seems ^^

Sorry if this chapter feels a bit rushed, considering how fast I actually worked on it, I hope it was enjoyable to everyone.

Please, leave comments; it is good to have feedback. No flaming, but any constructive criticism is welcome.