"So, here we stand now, waiting for a way out of here." Mark Bisson said to the camera, while his camera mammal pointed it at him. It was recording him as he spoke. "We can only ask ourselves if we will be able to get out of here. We know that Zootopia's finest will be doing their best to save the lives of the poor mammals all trapped into this death trap created by mages and by their sci-fi counterparts."

"Now, we may ask ourselves which one of them holds the greater blame. The mages, who devised a ritual to be able to shut off an area like that, causing all innocent mammals on it to disappear? Or would it be the Technocrats, who were the ones who created something like that when they had knowledge that this could be turned into a death trap? Well, that is seriously up for discussion. Maybe the blame can be put on both of them, for misusing the gifts that they have been bestowed and not being enough responsible in dealing with them."

"Hey!" Lana said, looking over at the bison, who was not really bothering on being discreet on what he was saying to his camera. "Do you really have to do this?"

"And even though some try to silence the media from letting others know the truth." The bison said, ignoring the ewe who just spoke, but clearly speaking towards her as he said these words. "We still do our best to give information to everyone who wants to hear it. We still dare to ask the questions that need to be ask in situations like that. For instance, did something like this could be prevent with more responsibility from the Technocracy? Do mages do such things out of anger and spite for mammals in general? And, of course, could some mammal who is directly responsible for this event be present right here, in this same room? Maybe a mammal who was supposed to be taken to face mage justice today?"

As he spoke that, Dawn Bellwether flinched. Krystin and Lana were by her sides, and the other ewe, in particular, was pulling her younger sister closer to herself, while many of the mammals around shot angry looks at the ewe. It seemed that some of them agreed with what Bisson had just said, or at least disliked the ewe enough to give her angry glares.

Dawn shied away from these glares; scooting herself even closer to Lana, and Krys was with his paw on her shoulder. He was silently comforting her, while Lana looked around, returning the glares that the other mammals were giving, as if she was silently saying "just say something about my sister if you have the guts, I dare you".

Her glares were something strong enough to force other mammals to look away. However, it seemed that some of them still had their opinion firm on the ewe. Dawn still could feel their glares at her, and she scooted even closer to her sister as she felt all of these glares on herself.

"These are questions that need to be asked, and that need to be answered." Bisson continued, focusing only on his camera and nothing more. "Even though mages insist in keeping secrets and not giving any kind of answer. This might even lead us to question if they actually want anything answered at all, or if they still prefer to leave us all in the dark, as they had been doing in the past centuries while they controlled all of the secrets of the world."

"Do you actually have to do this?" This time Vicky was the one who spoke. She was near the bison as he continued to look at his camera. "Ain't the situation difficult enough as it is? Don't you see that we all are in a lot of trouble now, and what you are doing doesn't help at all?"

The bison groaned and made a gesture to his camera mammal, as if telling him that they would be stopping. With this, he turned to the vixen, and said:

"Excuse me for being a dedicated reporter. As everyone thought that you were." He said to Vicky, and she only glared back at him.

"This is clearly a story, and it needs to be covered." Bisson said, gesturing at the room full of mammals.

"It is also a delicate situation, with a lot of mammals on their toes." Vicky said to him. "It is not the time to try to create some kind of sensational story."

"Well, what is happening is rather sensational by itself, don't you think?" Bisson asked the vixen, and his tone was clearly condescending. "It is the job of a reporter to go after stories and let others know, no matter the difficulty that we face. A good reporter does not stands down only because of feeling pressured by the situation."

"This is not about feeling pressured." Vicky shot back, "It is about having good sense to be able to tell when it is not a good time. It is having respect for the situation and for the ones involved in it, and not going over it like a thirsty bird going for water. Besides, I'm not like you, who blow everything out of proportion and makes personal commentaries and raises questions that no one would ask all so you can have more ratings."

"Yeah, whatever you say." The bison said, as he turned around. "As long as you can make a good excuse, you can justify nearly anything. I guess that in the end, Victoria Vulpen might not be as much of a good reporter as everyone thought."

"Oh yeah!?" Cameron said; he had been listening in silence up until now. "So juts you watch this!" He said, getting his own camera ready, and pointing it at the vixen, who now looked back at him.

"Okay, Vicky, look at the camera and show this guy how it's done!" The dog said to the vixen.

Vicky looked at her beagle camera mammal for a few moments, before she sighed.

"Cameron, please, give it a rest." She said; placing a paw in the camera and making the beagle put it down.

She was not in the mood for that.

She didn't cared what Bisson or any other said. She didn't care if they all were "chasing a story" while she just stood in there and did nothing. She didn't care if they thought less of her because she was not "acting like a good reporter" or anything.

Vicky knew when it was not the moment to go chasing a story at any cost.

She was a very skilled and dedicated reporter, but she also was a mammal of standards. She was not someone who would try to have some gain by going for a tragedy and turning it into a sensational crap without any regard for the feelings of the other mammals. She was not one to trample others on her path only for the shake of having more mammals watching her reportages. She was not one to put a good story above everything else, including the lives of others.

Victoria Vulpen was not a vulture.

And she had no intention of becoming one.

Bisson turned back to his camera, and he was about to resume his reportage that he planned to show once he was out, to show how he survived. However, he was prevent from doing so by the voice of Bogo, who spoke to him:

"Bisson, I swear that if you continue with this monologue I'll make you swallow that camera."

"Excuse me, Chief Bogo." The bison said, turning to him. "Now is it the ZPD that is trying to prevent the media of covering the stories?"

Bisson was a determined reporter, and he was not the kind who got intimidated easily, especially when he was covering a story. However, even he was made to shy away by the glare that Bogo had gave him.

Many of the officers of Precinct 1 already knew that glare, and they knew that when you received one of these you knew instantly that it was a better idea not to provoke.

Many mammals knew that Cape buffalos were not the type of mammals you should mess with, once they could be better know as "The Black Death".

Bogo was not the type that would foolishly look this way at someone who was not his subordinate. However, as of right now he was definitely not in the mood for crap from anyone, including some cheap reporter like Bisson.

They were all stuck into a building that could be made to disappear, surrounded by hostiles, with many more mammals on the mall being kept as hostages. They were doing their best to work on a way to get out of there, risking their own lives in the process. Two of his top officers were out there putting themselves on the line.

The last thing he wanted or needed right now was to hear the voice of Mark Bisson, who was more of an agitator than an actual reporter.

"Hopps, Wilde. Can you two report?" Bogo tried once more, hoping that he would be able to hear a possible answer from them through his radio, now that the bison had finally shut his mouth.

However, there was no answer. Only silence.

"Hopps, Wilde, do you copy?" He asked once more.

These two were taking way too long to answer, and Bogo, although he would not admit it, was starting to get worried.

"Yes, Chief. We copy." Hopps' voice came from the radio, and Bogo almost didn't realized that he had been holding his breath waiting for the answer.

"Took you a while to answer." The buffalo said, now on his normal impatient tone. "You two too busy sight-seeing?"

"Sorry, sir. Is that we had some setbacks on the way. Some unexpected things happened. We found a dangerous group of hostiles. They managed to knock Emilia out, and Nick and I had to deal with them." Hopps said on the other end, to which the buffalo heard.

"Are you all okay?" He said. After all, they were his officers; he too could actually be a bit worried about them, right?

"Yes, sir. We are fine." Hopps' voice once more came as an answer. "We were not harmed. But, we did lost the zombies."

Bogo nodded. Well, at least there was no living loses.

"Is the Mieczyslaw girl okay?" Bogo asked, and this caused Marceli to look up at him.

"She is fine. They knocked her out but she is okay now."

"She is fine." Bogo said at the fox, who sighed in relief. Still, Marceli was surely going to give her an earful later on.

"So, you two actually dealt with the hostiles all by yourself?" Bogo asked.

"Actually, we used the zombies." Hopps admitted. "Also, we had some help."

"From Clawhauser's snake?"

"Not really." She said, "We found Fangmeyer and Wolfard's group and we needed to send the snake to scout them up. We were actually saved by someone else who came into the mall... actually; five of them are probably going your way right now."

Bogo had a raised eyebrow as he heard that, and he was about to inquire more about the matter, however, he was interrupted when the door of the security room opened. One of the officers that was keeping guard outside spoke to the chief, saying that there were some in there who were demanding to go inside.

It were two tigers, which were familiar to some.

"Tyler!?" Tyson said as he looked at his brothers. "Tyrone!?"

"Dudes!" one of the newcomer tigers said, and soon the two were rushing, and they were reunite with their brothers and with Gazelle. The popstar was surprised for seeing the two inside of the building, but she was glad for seeing more familiar faces. They too were happy for seeing her and their brothers.

"What are you guys doing here?" Tyrell asked to his two brothers.

"What else? We came to save you guys!" Tyler said, looking at everyone.

"We are so glad to see you three are okay!" Tyrone said, and he was truly honest as he spoke that. He truly was glad to see all of them okay, although Gazelle looked a bit shaken after all that has happened.

"How did you got inside?" McChill soon was asking, looking at the two newcomer tigers. "The doors are still blocked, and you can't have come through the roof or the windows."

"We arrived through the sewer." Tyler said, looking at him, and this granted some looks from the nearby mammals.

"Well, that explains the smell." Eliot said to his wife.

"The hyena boy knew a passage through the sewers." Tyler added, gesturing to behind himself, where a group of teenagers was already coming in. The hyena, who was holding a camera, waved a bit as the polar bear looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Some of the ones in the room recognized the boys quickly. They were the Mage Chasers.

"Hey, ain't it these boys who got in all kinds of trouble trying to find mages?"

"Yeah, it's them! My nephew showed me a video of them on ZooTube. Darn, the problems they get into are hilarious."

Many were saying how funny it was the problems the teenagers get into, and some of them were actually laughing.

"It's not funny!" Sully said, but they only continued to laugh to themselves, while only made the pig a bit angrier.

"Well, at least we already have some type of fame, right?" Shawn said, and Sully soon was turning to him.

"The wrong type of fame!" Sully said to him. "That is why it is so important that we get this video! Man, we should have stayed with the other ones! There is an enforcer with them."

"There is one here as well." Someone in the room said, pointing at Marceli. The black fox only looked back at the teenagers with a raised eyebrow, and he too wanted to ask what they were doing in there. However, the answer was so obvious that the black tod knew that it was not even worth asking.

"Yeah, but this place is all peaceful and quiet. You all are basically just hiding while the other group solves everything." Sully said, looking around. "The other guys are actually going straight into action. You guys are all in here like a bunch of wusses."

Many of the mammals in there were now looking at Sully, some of them even shared looks among themselves, while others had looks that were clearly hostile. This didn't went unnoticed by the other two teenagers.

"Sorry, he has problems." Patrick said, putting a paw on Sully's shoulder, while Shawn was now hiding behind them, as if he was afraid of the rest of the mammals in that room. The mages in particular.

"So, it were you who helped Hopps and Wilde?" Bogo asked, looking at the newcomers.

"Yeah, we sure were." Tyler said, and soon, Tyrone was talking.

"Your officers and the enforcer looked fine, so we asked them where we could find Gazelle and our brothers. They were kind enough to give us directions." The tiger said, as he looked at the mammals whom he mentioned. "We didn't wanted to leave them alone, so one of us stayed with them to help, while we brought the teenagers here, to keep them safe."

"We don't need to be safe!" Sully immediately said in answer. "We need to keep eye on the action!"

The other two didn't really agreed with him.

"What do you mean 'we don't need to be safe'?" Shawn asked, and Patrick also had something to say:

"Sully, are you even listening what you say right now, or there is a buzzing going on your ears?"

The teenagers were showing that they surely were some figures; however, there were far more pressing matters than that on the current situation.

"So, think they won't have any more problems?" Bogo asked, and Tyrone looked at him as he answered.

"Like the one that they just had, I don't think so. Even if they did, they now have a top-notch mage to give them support."

"A top-notch ex-mage, you mean." Tyler said, and Tyrone nodded, agreeing with him.

Well, that was reassuring. It seemed that now the three would still have support to finish their mission, and a good one, if this guy was as good as the two tigers were saying.

"And this guy is a tiger, like you guys?" McChill asked, and Tyrone looked back at him.

"Actually, she is a vixen." Tyrone said, and that caught McChill by surprise.

Meanwhile, Emilia was standing in front of one of the pillars of the lower floor. She was looking at it. More precisely, she was looking at the complex magic circle that had been draw on it, seemingly with blood, and that was emitting a soft crimson glow.

Cracking her knuckles, she adopted a pugilist stance, and immediately went into action.

The circle had been draw by a taller mammal, so it was a few feet above her height. However, it was no problem for the vixen, who made a powerful jump as she pulled her fist back. Then, she threw her punch forward, hardened by runes and strengthened by sheer magical energy. The fist collided with the pillar, not being able to break it, but being able to cause cracks into the area where the magic circle had been draw, some pieces of it even being chirp off.

This was enough to destroy the magic circle, which now stopped glowing.

Emilia looked at her handiwork, and she was pretty satisfied with herself for having managed to do it.

"One less, four more to go." She said, turning to the other mammals, "Or, is it two more to go, since we only need to destroy three?"

They gave her line of thought little attention, as they decided that it was better to just keep moving and proceed to the next area.

So, all of the four mammals continued to move. One bunny and three foxes.

Among these foxes was no other than Nick's own mother.

Sophie Wilde was demonstrating a great deal of professionalism as she moved along with them. Nick himself remembered seeing her this serious only a few times in the past, which included one time when she marched into a police station and demanded to know why they were keeping her son under custody when there was no evidence against him. Nick was sixteen at the time and, of course, there were no charges pressed on him.

It had actually been one of the closest times that Nick had come of actually being booked during his unruly years before he met Judy. Now, even that paled in comparison to the situation that was developing at the current moment.

Nick was still in shock for finding out that his mother was a mage.

As they walked together, sneaking into the mall, the fox was still trying to make a sense out of the whole thing, while he still kept his better poker face.

The information that his mother was a mage was one that put him to think, as all of sudden a lot of things that he heard from the mouths of mages started to make some kind of sense. Some of these things he had heard months ago, and others he had hear just hours before on that same building.

Nick was now starting to make a lot of connections on his head, as the new information connected with the others to try and make a sense of what they all meant.

Of course, some of them still seemed mysterious, but now he had a bit more of base to be able to understand these claims.

The way that Percy and Zane both seemed to take in consideration the fact that his mother was Sophie Wilde, well, now Nick knew that it was because they both knew that she used to be a mage. Of course, by the way that they had spoke about that, it seemed that his mother had actually been a famous mage, or so it seemed.

Still, there were a lot more questions were still unanswered, and there were even more questions now. Many of them that his mother herself could probably answer, if he asked her. However, that was for another time, for right now they were in a life-or-death situation.

Still, something that truly bothered him was that the discovery that his mother was a mage was not as shocking as he thought it should be. It was as if the idea had somehow been plant on his head a while ago, and that he had somehow grew used to during the meantime. Of course, he was still surprised, shocked even, but he felt less shocked than he should probably be on a situation like that.

Maybe it were all the things he heard and saw in the past months. They rose a few suspicions on his head. Maybe deep inside he truly suspected it, but he had not consciously acknowledge it until the given moment.

Way to rationalize it all, Nick. The tod thought to himself as he continued to walk with the other three. With this skill, maybe you should have tried your paw on psychanalysis.

"Guys, heads up!" Came Meerkovtiz's voice through the radio on the helmets. Nick and Judy immediately gestured at the other two to stop, as they listened to Meerkovitz. "A group of seven crazed mammals are moving on your direction."

Nick and Judy nodded, and they both were getting ready. Right after they communicated it to the others, Emilia too was getting ready. She pulled her dagger and was half-way in placing the runic pebbles on the handle, when Sophie said:

"They are only mammals?" Mrs. Wilde asked, looking at them. "There are no golems among them?"

The others looked at her for a few moments, and soon, Nick and Judy were confirming that this was what Meerkovitz had just told them. Seven mammals who were under the effect of mental interference.

"Then you can leave it to me." Sophie said, showing her flashcard stack. The others didn't even had time to ask her what she meant as she simply walked past them, and they could only walk after her, some of them wondering if she meant that she was going to fight.

Nick himself was ready to hold her back if she actually planned to do that.

However, it didn't seemed that she actually planned to fight, as she walked forward sneaking. Soon the voices of the mammals could be heard, and they all screamed things like "Rock-n'-roll" and stuff. Pretty much as all of the other mammals that were under some form of control on that mall.

Stopping at a corner, and looking over, she was able to see the approaching group of hostiles, formed by three pigs, two lions and two rhinos. All of them looked to be quite strong, and to be the kind who will cause some problem in a direct combat. Luckily, Sophie knew how to deal with them.

As the others reached her, they saw her pull out her little stack and flip through it, until stopping in a specific flashcard. She then bit on it and plucked it out of the stack with her mouth, and held it in her mouth for a few seconds.

"Oh, windy." Sophie whispered through her clenched teeth that held the flashcard to her mouth, before she blew it out, and the piece of paper floated into the air, the words written in it glowing very softly as it tumbled into the air.

Then, the piece of paper suddenly shot into the air, as if carried by a sudden gust of wind, turning the corner and floating away.

It floated to the group of mammals that was coming in that direction. None of them noticed the floating strip of paper, until it floated right among the many of them and burst.

It was not an explosion like that of dynamite, it was more like a small firecracker, producing a few blue sparks and liberating a sonic wave that encompassed all of the mammals within its reach.

Immediately, the mammals shook their heads as their visions started to get blurry.

"R-rock... rock n' roooooooooooo-" one of them said, as they all rolled their eyes and dropped to the ground, completely unconscious.

The group came across the corner, and they saw what Sophie had done.

"Nice trick." Emilia said to the older vixen.

Sophie, however, said nothing in return, but only said:

"We gotta keep moving."

With this, the group was moving, with Sophie following them close from behind. Luckily, they didn't found any more patrolling groups on their way, as it seemed that they had been taken care off in that floor.

However, they were still worried that they would find more problem in the lower floors as they went on. Sophie comforted them a bit in that area, though:

"We met a few of these patrolling groups while we were going up from the first floor." The older vixen said to the rest of the group. "We managed to take care of a good number of them as we went up. We destroyed the golems and knocked off the mammals. They are probably all where we left them in the lower floors, in case you all want to know. We also found some groups on the lower floors, but we could not take them with us, so we left them somewhere they could hide and be safe, I even placed some bounded fields around their hiding spots so they would not be bothered."

Yeah, it was interesting to know, mostly because they would be able to track the knocked mammals and the mammals who were hiding and find them, so they would have everyone rescued. They knew that these mammals were not doing that because they wanted, but because they were being control by magecraft. Unfortunately, they still had a job to do, and this included continue to go down on the floors and to destroy the circles.

They were able to deal with the little problem that they found on the way, as they didn't found any more golems that were so dangerous and destructive as those of the ninth floor, and they were quickly dispatched by Emilia, who seemed like she wanted to redeem herself for being knocked out. Or at least get back at these golems for having knocked her out like that.

They passed by the obstacles on their way as they went down. They eventually found another one of the magic circles. It was hidden beneath a trashcan on the seventh floor. Emilia wasted no time into punching the ground hard enough to crack it. The cracks went along the lines of the complex circle, breaking them and ruining that circle.

They had a bit more trouble on the following floors, but nothing that could not be solve. Sophie demonstrated that she was not helpless, as she removed a few flashcards from the stack and blowing them in the air, where they turned into flaming balls that shot like meteors on the golems, hitting them hard enough to actually case severe damage to them, causing them to fall to the ground unmoving.

"You just need to know the right place to hit." Sophie explained to them. "Golems are much like living beings, once the purpose of goleomancy is to imitate mammals. They have lethal spots, and if you hit them the right way in the right place, they will just fall down and they won't get up anymore."

Emilia seemed to already know that (or she at least acted as if she did), and Nick and Judy both absorbed the information that the vixen was giving them. Nick, on his end, actually wanted to ask his mother how she knew that much, for he was not sure that it was an important piece of knowledge for a mage to know.

They arrived at the fifth floor, where they come cross one of the groups that Sophie and the other ones defeated on their way up. Broken golems were scatter around, as well as unconscious mammals all over, some of them still groaning in their unconscious state.

They also found one of the groups that Sophie told them about. They wouldn't even have noticed that the group was there if one of them had not come to them as soon as they saw Sophie. For the cops, it was as if someone had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"They are hiding in that store." Sophie explained to them, "I place a bounded field around the place to cause anyone who passed near to ignore their presence. It is like a form of social invisibility, to keep them from being found. They won't notice their presence unless they physically cross the line of the bounded field."

They were still on a mission, so they had to leave the group behind, although two of them insisted in letting them come. Sophie reassured them that they were okay, and that they would be safe inside of the bounded field. Many of them took on the vixen's words, but at least one of them seemed not to be willing to trust the word of a vixen.

With this, they continued their way to the mall, and they eventually found the third magic circle of the ritual. It was on a wall on an alleyway right by the side of a bookstore. This was as easy to destroy as the other ones. Just a well place punch from Emilia and chunks of the wall fell off, and the circle with it.

Their mission was conclude successfully, and the magic circles were destroy.

"Great. Good work, you all." Bogo said to them through the radio, as they informed him that they had successfully destroyed three of the five magic circles that Marceli told them about. This meant that the ritual was ruined and that the mammals responsible could no longer make the mall disappear.

"It is one less thing for us all to worry about." Bogo said to them, which was something that the two cops were glad to hear.

"So, this means that now we can worry about getting all of the hostages out of here, right?" Nick asked, to which the buffalo on the other end of the radio was soon answering:

"Yeah, that we can." Bogo admitted. "But it will not be very easy. Fanghanel's wife had been using her ghosts, and it turns out that the superior floors are better guarded than we thought. It seems that they guys caught up that we came through the roof and want to make sure that we will not be able to get out through there. The place is packed with hostiles, and trying to go through there with so much mammals would be a bore."

"So, it seems that we will continue with the plan of clearing the floors and escaping through the entrance they are opening down there." Judy said, and Bogo confirmed with her.

"Yeah, that is the plan." Bogo said through the radio on their helmets. "We actually can talk to the outside again. Lapinsky did something that fixed the radio and the cellphones, and now we can actually coordinate our efforts with the outside once more. Still, it is better if the lower floors are all cleared before we can come down."

"Roger that." Judy said, and this caused the others to look at her.

"What did he said?" Emilia asked.

"Well, basically that now that there is no danger of the mall vanishing, we should clear all of the floors so they can safely come down." Nick said to her.

"Great, it means more action!" Emilia said, and she seemed like she was ready to take on fighting with golems again. However, she was stopped by Sophie.

"We already cleared part of the groups that were patrolling." She said to them. "Maybe they can already come down."

"Not if there are still a few hostiles around." Judy said to her. "They could have casualties on their way down if they meet with hostiles. Especially if they are as strong as these golems that we fought on the ninth floor." Judy said, and she knew that the vixen agreed with her when she saw the expression on her face.

"Maybe they could avoid the hostile groups." Sophie said, and Judy looked at her. "If they had someone to scout their way for hostiles."

What, you mean, like Mrs. Fanghanel's ghosts?" Judy asked, and she actually considered this idea. It could actually work. According to some of the ones present in the room, it seemed that she already used that tactic before.

Just as she was thinking about it, she heard something in the radio again.

It was Bogo, saying to her that they were going to try and move forward down the floors that were with less crowded, and they would be using the ghosts as their scouts.

"It was actually Bellwether's idea." Bogo said to them. Of course it would be the chess master that would come up with the simple and efficient plan. The buffalo thought to himself, but did not voiced this on the radio. "We'll be going along with it and we will meet you when we get down. Hold your position."

Nick and Judy "rogered" that, right after they passed to them the locations of the hideouts of the other groups of hostages that Sophie and the tigers had found on their way up. With this, there was a silence in the radio.

"So, we just clear the floors from this point down?" Emilia asked, and she did sounded hopeful.

"No need." Sophie said, "We can just use surveillance to see a secure path on the lower floors."

"Aww." Emilia said, not hiding her own discontentment with the situation. "This way is no fun."

"Okay, and... how do we survey the lower floors?" Nick asked his mother. "Do you have a crystal ball there with you or something?"

Sophie looked at him. And it was in a strange way.

For a moment, Nick even wondered if he had actually said the wrong thing.

After a few moments, she sighed, and took her small flashcard stack up. She flipped through it, and stopped in a certain flashcard in particular.

She hesitated a bit, as if she was having second thoughts. However, she soon took it to her mouth, bit on it, ripped it out of the stack, and blew it in the air.

The strip of paper floated for a few moments, almost looking like it was fluttering in the air. All the while it was glowing in a soft blue coloration.

After a few seconds, the paper started to unfurl itself, as if it was growing, and then it was folding itself again.

It took a few seconds, but soon the paper was taking a particular shape, as it looked less like a piece of paper and more with the thing that it was actually turning into:

A blue glowing butterfly.

Everyone looked at it, and Judy gasped softly. Nick looked at his bunny partner, wondering why she got shocked. But only for a second, before it hit him.

He turned his head sharply, looking at the thing that his mother just materialized from a piece of paper of her small stack.

The butterfly fluttered in place, and then it replicated itself. One, two, three times, and now there was a small group of butterflies fluttering in place.

"Go." Sophie said, and the butterflies obeyed, and they started to flutter away, all under the watching eyes of the four mammals.

There was a silence as the butterflies floated away, which Emilia broke.

"These are pretty."

Then, Nick turned his head to look at his mother. There was pure surprise on his expression as he looked at her.

"The butterfly... is yours?" He asked, and it almost seemed that he was asking that question on autopilot, as if he was not aware that he was asking the question consciously. Sophie looked at her son, and she sighed.

"Yes, Nick." She said, looking at her son. "The spiritual butterflies are my familiars. I used to use them for surveillance and scouting. They can avoid detection and I can see and hear through them from a distance. They will help find a safe route to out of this mall."

There was another silence following these words, and Nick said:

"A butterfly like that has been following around..." He said that absent-mindedly, as if he was slowly voicing the connection that his brain had already soon after he saw that butterfly materializing.

"You've been spying on me." Nick said. There was no anger on his voice. It was not accusing also. However, it made Sophie flinch a little bit. She looked away, while Nick stared at her, and the other two remained in silence as they looked at them, as if both were waiting to see just what was going to happen.

Nick blinked as he looked at his mother, and she finally rose her eyes to look at him.

"You've been spying on me?" Nick asked. He knew the answer, of course, and he was not sure on why he was asking that to the vixen that was before him. Maybe it was because he wanted to hear a confirmation coming straight from her mouth?

Sophie looked at him for a few moments, and she sighed.

"Ever since the Darkest Hour, I was worried." She said to Nick, and she seemed that she was justifying herself. "I abandoned the world of magecraft a long time ago for my own personal reasons. Still, I spent enough time as a mage to know that what happened could have repercussions, and I had the strong feeling that these repercussions could somehow reach you."

Nick looked at his mother, and it seemed that he had somehow recovered from the surprise.

"So... your solution was to place your glowing minions to follow me around?" Nick asked her. His tone was a bit rude, and he regretted having used it as he saw the hurt that spread over his mother's face. However, she soon was speaking.

"I have always been worried about you, Nick." His mother admitted it. "I have been living with you in this city for our entire lives, and I have always been worried about you because of it."

She rose her eyes to look at the tod. She then reached to grab his own paw on hers'.

"Nicky, I worry so much about you." She said to him, "I wanted to be sure that you were safe and that you would not become the victim of anything coming from the Moonlit World. So... I used my spiritual butterflies to follow you and to keep watch over you. To be sure that you were not in danger."

Nick looked in her eyes, and it was possible to say that she truly did that because she was truly worried about his safety. All she wanted was for her kit to be safe.

Still...

"Well, its okay, I guess..." Nick said, looking at his mother. "But, that does not really changes the fact that my mother has been spying on me using magic butterflies."

There was a silence following these words, and no one really said anything on the matter, as mother and son both parted their paws, and no one really knew what to say on a situation like that.

Either because she noticed that the situation was tense and needed to be diverged, or because she only wanted to say something, Emilia was the one who broke the silence.

"So, these are the famous shorthands of Sophie Wilde, huh?" She asked, looking at the older vixen, who looked back at her. "Not kind of what I expected."

"I'm sorry." Judy said, looking at the younger vixen. "'Shorthands'?"

"My flashcards." Sophie said to her, showing the stack that she still had in her other paw. "Each one of these is a 'shorthand'." Sophie explained, flipping through the cards so Judy could have a look at them. "They are a combination of symbols and writing on a card to produce a pre-determined effect, following the teachings of Notarikon, Gematria and Temurah."

"The teachings of who, who and who?" Nick asked, and Sophie sighed.

"They are all branches of magecraft." Sophie said to him, and to Judy as well, "Which actually originated from the same mother branch: Kabbalah. It is my family's main thaumaturgycal foundation."

"Basically, she combines pieces of different phrases and words to create new phrases and words that activate thaumaturgical effects." Emilia said, as if she wanted to let them know that she too knew about things. She then looked at Nick.

"Words have power." She said to him, repeating something that she had told him earlier on the same day.

"This is a form of magecraft that I learned how to use." Sophie said to them, "Before I quit being a mage."

"Yeah, I heard about that." Emilia said, looking at Sophie. It is truth that they made you quit because you almost-"

"I quit." Sophie said, cutting off the younger vixen. "For personal reasons, which are no important at this moment. At least, not as much as finding an efficient way out of this place."

With this, she turned away from them, and said that she was going to focus to perceive the world through the senses of her butterflies, and that they should be quiet for her to concentrate.

They did as she asked them and kept silence. However, Nick once more had the distinct feeling that her mother had, just like Marceli earlier on that same day, cut Emilia before she had the chance to say what she wanted to say.

With this, they remained in silence near Sophie as she focused. She was receiving information from her butterflies, which were fluttering and flying over the floors. They were easily able to flutter around and stay out of sight and, with the amount of hostiles that had been already take down, they had no problem in navigating, although it took some time for Sophie to be able to gather enough information to allow her to figure out a truly safe path.

By the time she managed to, the group that was coming from the tenth floor now coming. The cops and mages had formed a protective ring around the civilians, and now were helping scout all of them out. Krys was really close to Bellwether, as if he wanted to protect her from anything that could come. Meanwhile, some specters were shifting in and out of the visible spectrum, as they had used the plan of using the ghosts as scouts for their walk around the mall, to prevent themselves from falling into traps and from getting on unnecessary battles on their way out.

Some of them were rather surprised for finding out that the one who was with the other group was Nick's own mother.

"Wilde, what is your mother doing here?" Would Bogo ask to his subordinate, before the situation was explained to him and to the others, and the vixen reminded him that they still needed to get these civilians to safety before they could proceed with anything.

Bogo saw himself made to agree with the vixen, and soon, he was following along with the rest of the group.

Now, they had Mrs. Wilde as their official guide through the path that she had figured out, and Mrs. Fanghanel was helping by using her specters as scouts to catch anything that the vixen might have missed.

They proceeded through the next floors, and meanwhile, they saw Emilia moving away from the group a few times.

"We have to destroy the other circles, to be sure that the ritual is nullified." She said, as if justifying herself.

She was very insistent on it; even though her uncle was insistent in saying to her that there was no need to it for the destruction of three of the circles was already enough to completely nullify the ritual.

"Come on! Let me have a little fun, will yah?" Was Emilia's answer, and this caused her uncle to sigh and slowly shake his head, as he knew that Emilia was just like that.

They passed by the next three floors easily, and by arriving at the second one, they stopped.

"Okay, so you said that there was a great group of hostages down in the central square?" Bogo said, looking at Marceli, and the black tod nodded to him.

"Yes, all of the hostages were gathered on the same place. They have golems and controlled mammals with them helping keep watch over the hostages."

"They are five mages." Sophie said to them, catching their attention. "My spiritual butterflies saw them as they flew. The ones in charge seem to be a horse, a wolf, a dog, a coyote and a tiger."

"Sounds like the Vipers." Jade said.

"Does the dog, by any chance, has blue fur and might have one of his eyes glowing blue?" Lana asked, and Sophie was soon confirming that indeed this looked like the dog that she saw in the central square. She also said that it looked as if he was typing on an invisible keyboard.

"Yup, definitely Evan."

"Evan Canis is not too dangerous on his own." Lapinsky said, "However, if he actually is involved with these mammals, then we should approach carefully."

"They are setting a trap." Zillah Ferron said suddenly, causing everyone to look at her. She looked up, as she placed her glasses back on her face, and her eyes were changing from neon-green back to their normal coloration.

"The hostages have all been affected by mental interference." She said to them, "In the moment that you try to get to them, they will turn on you and it will be a mess."

"Okay, what is she talking about?" McChill asked, as he did not really like what the ferret was saying. However, he was mostly ignore, as some now focused on the ferret, Marceli in particular.

"Are you sure about that, Ms. Ferron?"

"Absolutely." The ferret said, and the fox looked at her for a few moments.

"Well, this surely makes things more complicated." Marceli said, looking at the others. "We may need a little of planning if we are going there."

"Wait a minute." McChill suddenly said, causing some to look at his direction. "Are you saying that you will simply believe on her word like that?"

"Yes." Was Marceli's answer, being so blunt and direct that it actually caught McChill off-guard, and left him unable to say something in return. Nick was actually able to smile himself as he saw the polar bear suddenly at loss of words.

"Excuse me." Someone in the group said, and it was the bigoted donkey. "We understands that you need to rescue the other hostages and all of that, but any chance that you can do that after you have taken us to a safe place?"

Yeah, there was the fact that they still needed to get the civilians to safety.

However, there was the fact that they still needed to go forth and rescue the other ones.

It was very quick that they have decided that they would divide in two groups. One group would be taking the civilians to safety, as they would take them to the entrance that was being unblock, and that should be nearly unblock by now. Meanwhile, the other group would be going in direction to the central square, so they could rescue all of the other hostages.

Among the ones on the group leading the civilians away were Lana, Krys, McHorn, Fanghanel and his wife, and Dawn Bellwether herself.

On the group that was going to rescue the other hostages on the central square, were included Bogo himself, some of his bigger officers like McChill, the two enforcers, and Nick and Judy.

"Judy! What the heck!?" Was Stu's answer as soon as he heard that his daughter would be going to the place were crazed mammals, golems and mages were. Soon he was in a discussion with his daughter, telling her that it was too dangerous for her to go in there, to which Judy immediately answered that there were mammals in there that needed help, and that she could not turn her back on them.

While the doe and her father talked, Bonnie looked at it, and Sophie Wilde was standing right by her side.

The two older females looked at it, and looked at their own children. Then, they looked at each other and, almost in a form of silent agreement, started to walk into a nearby store.

"This is way too dangerous!" Stu said to his daughter. "You should leave it to the bigger guys and to the ones who have magic!"

"Dad, I am a cop!" Judy said to him, "I cannot simply turn my back on those who need my help now! I made an oath!"

"This is too much..." Stu said, seemingly to himself more than to Judy. "This is just too much."

He looked down for a few moments, before he looked up at his daughter again.

"Judy, you need to stay with your family now." He said to her, as if he was trying to find arguments to convince her. "You need to stay with us now. Didn't you said that you were doing this to help us?"

"I'm doing this to help everyone." Judy said, and she continued to explain how she had a duty to help the mammals of Zootopia. That it was her job as a cop. Stu continued trying to convince her to give up and come with them to the exit, he even went as far as to ask his other children and even Cotton to try and convince her.

However, it was no use. Judy had already made her mind, and once she made her mind there was no one that could convince her otherwise.

That was a losing battle, and Stu soon realized it.

However, he was still willing to attempt one last try:

"Bonnie, can you tell Judy that... Bonnie?"

Only then, Stu noticed that his wife was no longer there, and he was looking around to see where she could be. That was when he saw her again.

She and Sophie were now coming out of the sports store where they had entered, and they had changed their clothing. Now they were wearing something that they had taken out of the store, as each one was wearing a feminine sportswear as they walked out. Bonnie wore a purple set of sport shorts and shirt, while Sophie wore a light-green one. Also, each one of them was wearing what seemed to be a sports utility belt around their waists, most likely also from the store.

Everyone blinked as they looked at them.

"So... you two decided to go shopping?" Nick asked, as he looked at both females.

"These clothes are best for the situation." Sophie said, "They will give us more mobility and will be best for what we are going to do."

"What you're... going to do?" Stu said, confused, and that was when Bonnie said:

"We are going with you to the central square."

This immediately got a reaction from the ones near. Now both of their families were trying to convince the two older females that it was too dangerous for them. Even the other cops were trying to convince them that this was not something that civilians should get involved. They were being quite insistent in it, when:

"BE QUIET!" Bonnie suddenly said with a lot of power in her voice, causing everyone to go quiet and to look at her. She took a breath as she recomposed herself after that little outburst.

"Judy." She said, talking to her daughter. "I know that I cannot convince you not to go. Now, I know that you can take care of yourself and that you will have everyone with you, but I'll really feel a bit more calmer if I actually go with you." She said, as she walked to the luggage that she brought, which was still being carry around by some of her children. She opened it, and pulled out a few things from inside.

"So would I." Sophie Wilde said, and this time she was looking at her son. "After all, I know that I'll also not convince you not to go, right, Nicky?"

Truth, Nick was really willing to go in there. Especially since he knew that Judy would be going there as well. No way that he would leave her face it alone.

"A mother's duty is to care and protect her children." Sophie said, as she looked at Bonnie, whom was pulling the skull-decorated shotgun from the luggage, as well as a few bullets made of finger bones. "So, it is only to be expected that we would go along with our children to be sure that they are safe."

"Absolutely." Bonnie said, as she pulled something else from the luggage. It looked like a small bone that she could hold in her paw. She then proceeded to strap it to the belt that she had, so she could reach for it later. "No way that we are going to let our children face it all alone."

"B-b-b-but Bonnie..." Stu said; it was obvious that he planned to protest, however, he was quickly silenced by a single look from his wife.

"Stu, stay with the rest of our children, and make sure that all of them get out of here safely." She said, and she was speaking it casually, but in a way that made it clear that there was no space for discussion in there. Against that look and that tone, there was absolutely no discussion.

"B-but ain't it too dangerous?" Harry said, causing both females to look at him now. "I mean... will you two be fine?"

"We will." Sophie said, and she gestured to her belt, which had now had three flashcard stacks, filled with her "shorthands" in it. "We are taking our arsenals with us."

As she spoke that, Bonnie once more reached out for the luggage, and something else came out of it. Better saying, something also slithered out of it. It was the skeleton of a serpent, which moved as if it was still a living serpent. It did not hissed like a real serpent, but the sound of its bones cackling on each other was somehow just as disturbing. The skeleton snake slithered out and wrapped itself around Bonnie's body.

What's with mages and snakes? Bogo thought as he looked at this, and he, like some of the ones around, still felt a bit freaked out by that. However, he had no time to dwell on this, for that was when he heard:

"I'm going as well." Benjamin said, and this caused others to look at him. Some of them looked a bit surprised.

"Benji, you sure?" Eliot Fanghanel asked. "I mean, you still look a bit pale from when that snake sucked your blood."

"I'm fine, really." Ben said, and he looked around. "I'm a cop too, and I also have a duty in here." He said as he looked around. "I might be rusty as a mage, but I still think that I can help if the situation asks for it. I'll be going."

"Ssss-so are we." The two-headed snake said, slithering around. "After all, it is-sss our duty as-sss a familiar to help our mage in what he needs-sss."

Bogo looked at Clawhauser, who still looked a bit pale, and at the two elderly women. He truly wanted to tell them all to forget about this and to go with the group. However, he was pretty sure that they had already made their mind, and they would lose far too much time to convince them not to go.

He just didn't had the patience for that now.

He agreed to let them tag along, as long as they truly proved to be useful, and did not became a problem. All of them said that it was not going to be a problem, and that they could help.

Their friends and families were still a bit unsure about that, but they knew that it would be no use trying to convince them otherwise. So, with this, the two groups now parted ways, as one group went to the central square while the other was guiding the civilians to outside.

Meanwhile, the Hopps family was still worried about Judy and about Bonnie, however, someone was near to help ease their worries a bit:

"Don't get too worried." Lana said to them, as they walked, and she had a smile on her lips. "Your mother is Helga Höhle and she is with Sophie Wilde in there. The two are both pretty infamous on the moonlit world, and also known for their skills."

She looked back, and as the bunnies looked at her, she actually chuckled a bit.

"Actually, with these two on the group, I would actually be worried for Vipers."

So here it is.

I'm not very satisfied with this chapter, but I was eager to post it anyway. Sorry if it is not on the same quality of the previous ones.

I just wanted to say that the next chapter posted will be the last of this year, and that it will also be the final chapter of what I call "New Den Danger Saga".

So, hope you have enjoyed, leave reviews (constructive criticism welcome always, but no flaming), and I wish you all a Merry Christmas in advance.