The days started early in the morning on the ZPD, one could say. Actually, the days didn't started nor they ended, for the police was an essential service to be city, needed day and night to keep order and safety of the people. As a result, the ZPD could not stop, in a way that there was always someone working in there, be it in the bustling time of the day or in the late of the "graveyard hours" of night shifts.
So, in whatever hour it was that you entered the ZPD, you would find at least a few officers working in there, and someone would always be available to answer the phone and dispatch cruisers and officers to see to any subject that would be worth of the police's attention.
Today was no exception, as Precinct 1 was as filled with officers, as it was to be expected. All of them were going around and taking care of their business as they fulfilled their duties.
However, it was possible to notice something about the cops.
Some of them were talking among themselves as they walked, and they were talking as if they were talking about some secret. Also, there seemed to be (for the ones who were observing) some interest of the cops into going downstairs, to the holding cells, as if there was something in there that was worth of their attention.
Of course, this was something that the cops were keeping between themselves, once Chief Bogo had gave them instructions that they were not should not let people on the outside know they had a mage being held up in there.
Bogo gave them these instructions because he wanted to avoid a possible circus from forming in front of the ZPD. He didn't needed people to find out that a mage connected to those responsible for the events of New Den Plaza was in there. That would certainly trigger an income of reporters looking for the next headlines, wackos wanting to use it as an excuse to protest, and curious lookers who would like to see a criminal mage with their own eyes.
It was already bad enough that his officers were so interested in the mage, enough to whisper about it between themselves and to use any excuse that they could to go down to the holding cells to peek at him.
"He really is a squirrel." One officer would say to his friends. "I went in there and took a look on him myself."
"There are really mages of all species, right?" One of the friends replied.
"I heard Bogo and the enforcers had problems to catch him."
"Bogo having problems to deal with a squirrel?"
"It is a mage squirrel." One of them reminded, "Who knows, maybe he has some very strong magic that he used to repel Bogo."
"If he could repel an animal hundreds of times bigger than himself, then why doesn't he just escapes?"
"Because the enforcers did something to make sure that he wasn't going to escape. I heard they put some kind of magic barrier around the cell that prevents the guy from using magecraft."
"Yeah, he is a strange squirrel though." Another would say, "He hissed at me when noticed that I was looking at him, and he had fangs. What squirrel has fangs?"
"That's because he is not a common squirrel." One would say. "I talked to a guy in forensics who took the little guy's DNA, apparently he is..."
However, what the cop was going to say got lost, as one of the other ones elbowed him as someone approached. It was no other than Chief Bogo.
The buffalo stopped to look at the officers, all of whom were looking back at him, and Bogo soon was saying:
"You seem to have a lot of free time, don't you?" He looked at the four cops. "Well, then maybe you should go look for something to occupy your time, like, I don't know, doing your job! Now all of you back to work, before I put you all in parking duty for a week!"
The cops were soon scrambling, and Bogo looked at them go until they were out of sight, before he once more turned around and began to walk.
Sometimes he needed to put his own officers on line. After all, if he selected them himself to join Precinct 1 (well, most of them), then he had the right, no, the obligation of making sure that they would be doing their job properly.
Still, deep down Bogo could not really blame them. After all, this was the first time that they actually had a mage under custody... that they were aware of.
However, Bogo had no time to dwell in this, as he had to go to the interrogation room, and he knew that the enforcers were probably on their way there as well.
They had interrogated the squirrel right after they booked him, got his prints taken and got some of his DNA to be place in the system. However, the interrogatory did not went as smoothly as Bogo would have liked. The squirrel was completely uncooperative, and he made many nasty remarks towards Bogo, mostly referring to him as "some mundane".
Bogo really didn't like that pipsqueak's attitude.
In the end, the only thing that they had managed to get out of that rodent was his name:
Desmond Rotun.
A rather unusual name for a squirrel, but it was a good starting point for both Bogo and the enforcers.
Anyway, since the little guy was uncooperative, they decided to make him spend the night in a cell to see if he would be more willing to talk by the morning. That, of course, after the enforcers had used their runes to place a bounded field around the cell, to prevent him from activating his magic circuits and escaping or attacking someone.
Now they were ready to give another shot on interrogating him.
Well, Bogo was ready to give another shot at interrogating him. Of course, the little critter had been somewhat condescending to Bogo, but he would rather try his chances alone than allowing Emilia Mieczyslaw to go in there with him, after the little show that she tried to pull to "get him to talk".
"I was just trying to do like you cops do." She said to Bogo after they were done, and this left Bogo wondering just where she got her information on how cops acted when they were interrogating a suspect...
Talking about her...
Emilia was standing right by the side of her uncle, when she sighted Bogo, and she immediately waved at him.
"Hey, Big Horn!" She said, rather loudly, and Bogo flinched a bit. However, he simply walked to them both, and nodded.
"Mieczyslaw." He said, addressing both at the same time, and Emilia soon was speaking again.
"So, ready to try and squeeze the perp a little more to see if he speaks up?" She said; imitating what seemed to be a "cop-accent" from some old television series.
"First of all, we are not 'squeezing' anyone, and you definitely aren't going to be taking part on the interrogatory after the little show that you gave last night."
Emilia immediately deflated at this.
"Oh, come on. I was just trying to act like a cop!"
"Emilia, I told you already, cops don't climb on the table and threaten to lock up a suspect with dangerous beasts until they decide to talk." Marceli said, "At least most of them don't."
"And I can assure that none of my cops do that." Bogo said, and Emilia rubbed the back of her head. "Your aggressive stance might have been what caused him to become more defensive."
"I have to agree with Bogo here." Marceli said, looking at his niece, "After how you acted, I am pretty sure that he will not want to talk to you, especially after you made those commentaries on how the Mieczyslaw clan acts when people get on their way. None of which was true, by the way."
Bogo had the impression that the fox was saying that to him more than to his niece. Bogo had to admit, he felt quite disturbed by what the vixen had said about her family punishing those who crossed them. She had painted a rather detailed image.
"So, you had any contact with the headquarters?" Bogo asked, and Marceli said that they had, right after Rotun was escort to the cell.
"And they gave any leads to him or his family?" Bogo asked, "Maybe his record, or anything that would help us with getting him to talk?"
This time, Marceli shook his head.
"No information about a Rotun clan. As far as the records of the Association go, there is no clan with this name anywhere." Marceli said, and Bogo nodded.
"Maybe they are a new clan?" Emilia offered, and the two males looked at her. "Like, brand new?"
"Anyway, this means that we still have nothing solid on him." Marceli said, turning to Bogo, and the, as if on cue...
"Chief Bogo!" a voice said, making Bogo to turn to the source of the voice. He one of the small guys from forensics coming to him, one of the assistants of Hurriet Slothson, and he had some papers with him.
The ferret stopped before Bogo, and soon was waving the papers at the bigger mammal, who looked down at him.
"Chief Bogo, the DNA results from the mage." He said, sounding rather urgent as he said that. Bogo looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"You put it in the system?" Bogo asked, "Is that what you came to tell me?"
"Oh, yes, we put it in the system." The ferret said, "Along with his pawprints, but when we finished his DNA, we noticed something curious with it. We made a few more tests and, they confirmed it."
The little guy offered the papers to the big buffalo.
"Here, see for yourself."
Bogo continued to look at him with a raised eyebrow, and he soon was taking the papers. Fishing his glasses out of his pocket, the buffalo fixed them on his face, and soon he was reading the things that said on those diminutive papers. As if reading normal-sized letters wasn't hard enough already...
Bogo read it, and most of it was some scientific jargons that he didn't fully understood. However, he was able to understand the gist of what was being show in there. About the results of the DNA testing.
"Oh..." Was all that Bogo said. Now that was something interesting.
"I just thought that it could be important, sir." The ferret said, looking up at him, "I mean, not in 'treat him differently' kind of important, but more of 'know who you are dealing with' kind of important. You know, not seeing that as a problem, not that it is a problem, I mean. I have nothing against-"
"That's all." Bogo said, "You can go back to the lab, I am sure that they have other things for you to do. Thank you for bringing this, it might actually be helpful."
The ferret smiled, and soon he was leaving, while Bogo continued to contemplate the new piece of information that he had just received. Now, how to make some use of it...
"Bogo?" Marceli asked, making Bogo look at him, "Did you found out anything interesting?"
"Perhaps." Bogo said, and with this, he added, "I think we should go to interrogate Mr. Rotun now."
With this, the three mammals walked in direction to the interrogation room 02. This room, as the cell where Rotun was kept, was prepared by the enforcers to have an effect over the little guy, preventing him from activating his magic circuits while inside, so he would not try anything during the questioning.
"We have something for you, Bogo." Marceli said as they walked, and the buffalo looked at the fox, how had his arm outstretched for the bigger mammal, his paw open and showing Bogo something that he had.
Bogo looked at it with a raised eyebrow, and he soon was picking it up from the fox's paw, and looking at it.
It looked like a brooch. Not much of an ornate brooch, but seeming one of those plain brooches of tin that you can buy around the street from one of those street crafters. However, it doesn't meant that it was not decorated, as the brooch had many symbols craved all over its surface.
Bogo soon realized that those symbols were runes.
"It is an amulet." Marceli said to the buffalo, "It works by repelling magical energy. It is a bit crude because we had to improvise to make it, but it will ward you against curses and attacks based on magical energy."
"We spent a lot of time making it." Emilia said, chiming into the conversation. "We made it so you would be safe while talking to that guy, and also so you could be protected against other mages."
Bogo looked at her, before looking at the pin, looking at the spiral patterns of runes carved into it, apparently with some improvised tool. He looked back at the two foxes.
"Yeah, thanks." Bogo said, and he said nothing more. Even though he also wanted to say:
Why didn't you made any of those to Hopps and Wilde while you two were partnered with them?
Bogo was soon working on pinning the brooch on the lapel of his shirt, while he and the foxes arrived in front of the interrogation room. Emilia was just about to push the door open, but she stopped when Bogo placed a hoof in front of her.
"I meant it when I said that you were not taking part of the interrogatory." He said, and the vixen protested, only for her uncle to agree with Bogo.
"You had your chance last night Emilia and you blew it." He said, "You can keep watching from that other room, but that's it."
Emilia pouted at this, but she did as her uncle said, and she walked to the door that led to the room where she would be able to observe the interrogation room through the other side of the two-way mirror. Meanwhile, Bogo and Marceli both shared a word before going in, and soon, they were opening the door, and walking into the room.
It was pretty much what one would expect from an interrogation room. Plain walls, big mirror in one of the walls and a plain table with chairs. Sitting on the table was Desmond Rotun. He was sitting with his legs crossed, his little paws together in front of himself, cuffed and connected to the table by a thin chain. Just an extra measure to prevent him from trying anything during the course of the questioning.
Rotun turned to look at them as they entered, seeing the big buffalo followed by the black fox, and he curled his lips, hissing at both of them as they walked near. Bogo sat in one of the chairs, while Marceli climbed on the other. Both of them were facing Rotun, and had their backs turned to the big mirror behind them.
On the other side of said mirror, Emilia had also climbed into a chair, and she was now watching the scene unfold, along with the big polar bear cop who was drinking coffee while he watched the interrogatory.
For a long moment, no one spoke. Soon, however, Rotun was speaking once more.
"So, now you are giving me the silence treatment?" He asked, looking at the two. "Well, this trick won't work on me."
"Really?" Bogo asked, "Then why did you just spoke?"
The little mammal hissed at Bogo once more, baring his tiny fangs, but which seemed sizable inside of his mouth. Bogo and the enforcers had both noticed those fangs back when they apprehended Rotun, and during the previous interrogation session, as they little buy made sure to shown these fangs to them every time that he hissed.
His animosity against them was clear and palpable.
"So, where is that vixen?" Rotun asked.
"She won't be participating in this." Marceli said, "After last night we realized that she still needs to learn a bit how to have a polite conversation with others.
Emilia had an unamused expression as she heard her uncle say that.
"Really?" Rotun said, looking at the tod, "Well, that's too bad, I was starting to like her.
"Were you?" Marceli said, looking at the smaller mammal. "In that case, maybe I could try acting like her, maybe this way you become more cooperative."
"Just try!" The squirrel said, right before hissing at him.
"You certainly hiss a lot, don't you?" Bogo said to him, "Wouldn't it be better for you to talk normally? You know, like a civilized mammal?"
"Like I am going to talk to either of you." The little guy said, looking in between the two.
"Oh, so you prefer to continue uncooperative?" Bogo said, "You know, this way you will not be able to clear your side for having resisted prison earlier."
"Oh, shut up, you mundane." The little guy said, "I don't answer to you."
"Do you prefer answering to me?" Marceli said, causing the little guy to look at him. The fox leaned over, resting his elbows on the table as he looked at the smaller mammal.
"You know, after you told us your name while you were threatening us last night, I contacted my superiors at the Association." Marceli said, looking at him. "I asked them if they had any information on a clan of squirrels named 'Rotun'. I thought it was strange, for I never heard of any clan with such a name. Neither had my superiors, apparently, as they didn't had any records of any mage from such a family."
"This led me to think that maybe you could be the first mage of your lineage. The first mage of the Rotun clan."
"Well, you are not wrong." Desmond said to him, and Marceli nodded.
"Yes, indeed." He said, looking at the little fanged squirrel. "However, Bogo brought in some information that shed some light on the matter."
The little mammal scoffed.
"What information can a mundane have brought about me?" The squirrel said as he looked at Bogo, who remained impassive and placed the file he had on his hooves on the table in front of himself.
"The results of your DNA." Bogo said simply, opening the file. "The DNA that you were kind enough to provide for us after spitting on the table before being taken to the cell. We took the sample and used it to place your DNA on the records. While we did it, we also made a run on your DNA to see if there was any correspondence in previous crime. We don't have divination spells like mages, but we have our ways. DNA is one of them, it let us know if some blood of fur belongs to you, and if you were in a place before."
"I watch television." The little guy said to him, "I know what you mundanes use DNA for. Including you, from the police."
He was still being rude and aggressive with Bogo, but the bovine didn't let himself be affected, and just continued.
"Really? Then you must know that someone's DNA also allows identifying their species." Bogo spoke, looking at the little guy, "Or, in your case, the mixing of species."
There was a change on the features of the little mammal, as he looked at the buffalo, who opened the file and pointed at a certain area in that, which described the information of the species obtained in the DNA exam.
"It says all right in here, clear as day." Bogo said, tapping at the paper. "Fifty percent red squirrel, fifty percent vampire bat."
Meanwhile, behind the two-way glass, Emilia went: "Ohhh, that's why he has fangs." She said to the polar bear that was standing by the side of her chair.
The squirrel, or rather saying, the hybrid showed no emotion, but he certainly was glaring at the buffalo. Bogo simply placed his glasses down and looked at the little hybrid.
"Don't give me that look." Rotun said, looking at him.
"I'm sorry, what look?"
"The look that says that you can understand me." Rotun said to him. "Don't look at me like you can understand what is like to be a hybrid, because you can't."
Bogo looked at him, and soon he saying:
"Yeah, maybe you are right." Bogo said, "After all, I am a purebred Cape buffalo. But still, I have been trying to be more open-minded ever since I had a bunny proving to me that she could do her job as well as any big mammal."
The hybrid said nothing about it, and only looked to the side, as if to avoid even looking at the buffalo. Meanwhile, Marceli decided to speak.
"Hybrids are rare." The black tod said, "Even in the world of magecraft. So, any hybrid mage is subject of interest among the mages."
"As if that is a good thing." Rotun said, still avoiding looking at the two.
"I am just saying that it is a subject for talk when there is a hybrid mage." Marceli said, "There is a lot of interest in hybrids, both to scientists and to mages, as some want to understand the process behind how different species can combine to generate a being of chimeric attributes. Some clans dedicated themselves fully into studying and understanding hybridization."
"So, it is to be supposed that a hybrid of squirrel and bat would be subject to interest, or maybe even famous." Marceli concluded, "But I've never heard of the birth of such a hybrid into a clan."
"Maybe that's because these bastards never truly saw me as one of them, and didn't wanted to be associated to a filthy hybrid like me." The bat said, finally looking back at the two. There was resentment in both his voice and his face, and he looked at the black tod.
"Subject of interest?" Rotun said, looking Mieczyslaw as he spoke that. "Famous? Are you kidding me? Do you even understand the first thing of what it is like to be a hybrid!?"
Marceli said nothing, and only allowed Rotun to continue, and the hybrid seemed like he wanted to continue.
"Well, it is not fun, that much I can tell you!" The little guy said, "You have no idea what my life was like!"
Silence followed those angry words, and soon, Bogo was speaking:
"Well, why don't you explain a little bit to us?"
The hybrid turned to him, and he seemed about to snap. However, he saw that there was no mockery on expression of the buffalo. Instead, it seemed that the big bovine was looking at him with genuine interest. So was Mieczyslaw, as he too looked intently at the little hybrid. Although that could be attributed to the fact that he was ready to act if Rotun tried anything.
After a while, the hybrid sighed.
"My mother, according to her father, was an irresponsible adventurer." He said, looking between the two. "She was a good mage, but she didn't had proper decorum, as she went off using her magecraft for fun, went to the movies, associated freely with mundanes. You know, the kind of things that a traditional family of mage squirrels shouldn't do."
"She pulled out many crazy things when she was alive. But to her family, the worst of them all was to go to bed with a vampire bat." He said, "Yeah, that really ticked them off. Especially when they found out she got pregnant with his child."
The police chief and enforcer both shared a look. Rotun continued.
"Yeah, they made it clear to show how unsatisfied they were with her." The hybrid said, "Both to her and to me. My life with that family wasn't easy, that much I can tell you."
Some moments of silence, before Bogo spoke.
"Yes, I imagine it must have been hard." Bogo said, hoping that this would help him to bond with the little hybrid, maybe allow to actually get anything out of him. "It is hard for any child to grow up in a place where they don't feel welcome."
"Stop it." Rotun hissed between clenched teeth, his big, vampire-bat fangs showing through his snarling lips.
"I'm just saying that I imagine how hard it must have been to you." Bogo said, and the hybrid snapped at him.
"You imagine nothing!" The little mammal said, glaring at Bogo as he speak. "You mundane, purebred bastard, you have no idea what is like to be me! You can't possibly understand!"
"Oh, can't I?" Bogo said, now starting to get angry with the little pipsqueak and starting to raise his voice. "Well, maybe I can surprise you. Being a purebred doesn't makes my life easier. My father was a very strict man."
"Oh, was he!?" Rotun shouted at him. "Did your father kept you and your mother locked away into a room from where you were not allowed to leave so no one would know that his daughter gave birth to a freak like you!?"
Bogo didn't answered, and Rotun continued.
"Did he berated you and insulted you every single time that he talked to you!? Saying that you were nothing but a mistake that he was ashamed of!? Did he forbade you of ever referring to him as his relative and only speak to him if he spoke to you or if you truly had something really important to say!? Did he forbade your mother of giving you the family name, saying that a freak like you didn't deserved their noble name!? Did he refused to call you by the name your mother gave you, instead only calling you 'Mistake' and forcing everyone else of the family to call you that as well, and he told you to your face that your 'stupid' mother could call you whatever she wanted, but that to everyone else of the family would always call you 'Mistake', because that was all that you were!?"
He looked at the buffalo in the eyes, and Bogo could see something past the anger and animosity. Hurt. That was what Bogo could see. Hurt from someone who never knew the love of a family.
"Did your father ever did any of those things to you?" The hybrid said, "Because my grandfather did it all to me."
For a long moment, no one else spoke, and Bogo took in all that he had just heard. This was really the kind of life that this mammal before him had led? This was how his own family treated him?
Bogo cast a glance at Marceli, who was sitting in there, looking at the little mage in front of him, and he seemed to be in deep thought.
"I heard that a number of families are still loyal to the old ways of acting." Marceli said, breaking the silence that had built into the room. "But, I must admit, I didn't knew that some families could act like that to their own relatives."
Rotun scoffed.
"They never saw me as a relative." Rotun said, looking at them. "They never acknowledged me as one of them. Didn't called me by my name, didn't let my mother give me theirs. The only one in that family who ever cared about me was my mother, and she was the only reason why they hadn't just killed me and buried me into some ditch somewhere in the middle of nowhere."
Bitterness and resentment were easy to notice in the hybrid's voice and expression, as well as the way that he talked, which told them that he was pretty sure that this was exactly what would have happened.
"Would they have gone so far?" Bogo asked, not to anyone in particular, but Rotun answered.
"To erase their shame? You can bet on it." Rotun said, and he sighed, looking at the side, once more avoiding looking at them.
"After my mother died..." Rotun said, "I knew that I was with my days numbered if I stayed in that house. They would either kill me in my sleep or lock the door of the bedroom and let me rot in there until I died. Either way, I knew that they were going to get rid of me, so I grabbed my things, put it all on a backpack and left.
He looked back at them, and his expression was serious.
"I didn't had much anyway; my mother was the only one who ever gave me gifts, the rest of those stupid squirrels never cared to give me anything. I'm pretty sure that I saved them the trouble of tossing my things on the trash."Rotun said, before he said:
"Well, it doesn't matter. They made it clear that they didn't needed me ever since I was born, so I didn't needed them as well. I went my way and never looked back."
"How old were you?" Bogo asked, and the little guy looked at him. For a moment, it seemed that he was going to give another rude retort, however, after looking at the face of the buffalo, which showed true interest, instead, the hybrid answered:
"Fifteen."
Bogo looked at him, and he then said:
"I'm sorry that you had to go through this." The buffalo said, and he was being honest, that much Rotun was able to notice.
"Don't be." The hybrid said, "I don't need anyone's pity. I was able to survive. Had to do some pretty nasty things to stay alive, but I managed."
Bogo said nothing in return. Instead, he only kept thinking of what he just heard. It was still hard to imagine anyone doing something like that to a child.
Of course, it was not the first time that Bogo had heard of such things. As a police officer, he often crossed many cases where mammals would mistreat and abuse those who they were supposed to care for. Parents who neglected and abused their own children, husbands who beat their wives, tutors who explored and abandoned the mammals they were supposed to take care of, children who murdered their own parents. Bogo had crossed all of these cases during his many years of service as a cop, however, he never truly got used to it, each case was just as shocking, and just as revolting.
"You shouldn't have to go through this." Bogo said, looking at Rotun, "No one ever should."
"I can definitely agree with that." Marceli said, "Such a behavior would hardly have been tolerated if it was of our knowledge." Rotun looked at them, and after a while, he simply scoffed.
"Yeah, right. As if there is any child protection on the moonlit world." The hybrid said, "Those guys were just your regular proud mage family." Desmond said, "Well, maybe prouder, but they are basically what you expect from an old and proud family. They worry too much with their image, and with producing pure and strong offspring. Of course, they didn't liked the idea that one of their own went to bed with a non-mage and gave birth to a crossbred like me. That's why they went through a lot to prevent anyone from finding out that I even existed, and they did succeeded. No one would ever say that their pure and proud lineage gave birth to a freak like me."
"We would have done something about it if we knew." Marceli said once more, and Rotun looked at him in the eye, before he looked away.
"Anyway, it doesn't matters anymore." The hybrid said, "I no longer give a shit about those idiots, just like they never gave one about me."
"Save for you mother." Bogo said, and then the hybrid turned to look at him. The glare he gave to Bogo was hostile, but after a few seconds, it softened.
"Yeah. Save for her." Rotun said, agreeing with the buffalo.
"What about your father?" Marceli asked, and Rotun scoffed.
"That idiot was useless." The hybrid said, "He flew away as soon as he found out that my mother was pregnant. Never paid a cent of child support and never showed his face. All I know from him is what my mother told me." He looked at the enforcer, "Honestly, if I met him, I would probably punch him right in the snout."
The hybrid then sighed and looked away.
"You can say that I never had a family other than my mother. Until I met them..."
Bogo and Marceli both looked at him as he said that.
"The Black Vipers." Bogo said, but Marceli immediately said:
"No. The Orphans."
Rotun still looked away from both of them, but he gave the smallest, most imperceptible nod.
"I actually found them by accident." Rotun said, "I was doing the kinds of nasty things that I had to do to survive. Smuggling to get money for clothes, invading old houses to have shelter, sneaking to take a few gulps of blood to fill my stomach."
"What?" Bogo said, looking at him. The hybrid looked back at him.
"I'm half-vampire bat." He said, and Bogo kept looking at him, and so did Marceli.
"Relax, I didn't drank blood from mammals." The hybrid said, "Well, sometimes I did. But mostly, I was fine sneaking into farms and drinking the blood from some birds and lizards, even though mammal blood is definitely more filling."
Bogo looked at him, and he shared a look with Marceli.
"So... you found the Orphans while doing those things?" Marceli asked, and he nodded.
"Yeah, it was late at night one day, and I hadn't had a decent meal in days." Rotun explained. "I was just wondering what I would do next, when I crossed paths with this sleeping wolverine. The guy was laying on the grass, looking at the stars. He was dressed in some old rags; I thought that he was a hobo. Well, I didn't wasted the chance that was before me. I approached him as quietly as I could and stood before his face. My mother teach me what she could of magecraft, contrary to her father's orders, and she did taught me how to hypnotize others. I put that to use in that, and made sure that the wolverine was nice and obedient with some hypnosis, and then I bit on his foot. As soon as the blood started flowing, I started lapping at it and drank my fill."
Bogo and Marceli both heard. Both of them were perfectly composed, but Bogo could not help but feel quite squeamish about hearing this kind of thing. Vampire bats drank blood as part of their dietary needs; everyone knew that. This evolutionary trait never disappeared, and it was the reason why people in general disliked their presence. Of course, nowadays there were options for vampire bats, just like there were for most predators but, for some, it didn't changed the stories about bats that would sneak into your house and drink your blood while you slept, probably passing you some dangerous disease or parasite as they did so.
"As soon as I was satisfied, I was ready to leave." The hybrid continued, "But, I just had to raise my head to know that the hobo was sitting up, and that he was looking at me. It turns out, he was not hypnotized at all."
The hybrid chuckled a little bit.
"The guy didn't looked scared, or angry, or anything of the like." The little mammal said. "He just looked at me in the eye and asked me if I had drank enough, and he complimented for the skill that I showed when I 'hypnotized' him."
He then looked at the two mammals.
"The guy actually even offered me to stay with him in an old abandoned building, where we would be able to talk better." He said, looking at the two, "Later I would find out that the wolverine's name was Neville Sinclaw."
The way he spoke was as if this was supposed to mean something. To Bogo, it didn't, but to Marceli, on the other hand.
The fox perked on his seat, now looking at the hybrid.
"You tried to hypnotize Neville Sinclaw?" The fox asked him, "And you drank his blood?"
The hybrid had a smug grin on his face as he shrugged.
"Okay, I'm sorry." Bogo said, "Sounding like one of those guys who come in the conversation knowing nothing, but who is Neville Sinclaw?"
"A mage famed for his power and skill." Marceli said, looking at the bigger mammal. "He is also famous as the founder of the Orphans, as well as their current leader."
"The guy is a legend." Rotun said, "Of course, I didn't knew any of that at the time. Only later I would learn the stories, after Sinclaw himself invited me to join the Orphans."
"After that, for the first time in my life, things actually started to look brighter." The hybrid said, "The Orphans welcomed me. They didn't care if I was a hybrid, and they were very open with me. They gave me shelter and food, they treated me like one of them, and they helped me continue studying magecraft. Things that those tree rats never did."
Bogo and Marceli both heard what he was saying.
"Well, it sounds like you found a family with the Orphans." One of them said, and this immediately caused a change in the mood of the hybrid.
And it wasn't a change for the better.
"Yeah... for a while, I thought that too." The hybrid said, "Before things started to go wrong."
They shared a look.
"What things?" Bogo asked, and the hybrid was answering.
The hybrid looked at him. For a moment it seemed that he was evaluating Bogo, to decide how much he actually should know.
After a few moments, the little mammal was once more speaking.
"It started small. It always starts small." The hybrid said, "Maybe two members have a certain disagreement about how to proceed in a certain situation. One of them wanted to do something in a subtle way, while the other one wanted a more direct approach."
Bogo nodded.
"Well, I guess that it is normal." The other two looked at him as he said that, "After all, when different mammals gather into a group, it is to be expected that some of them will have disagreements between themselves. This is a risk of working in a team."
Rotun looked at him for a few moments, before he shrugged.
"Yeah, maybe you're right." He said, and he continued:
"But, these 'disagreements' were getting more frequent. Discussions on how to do certain tasks, lengthy debates on what kinds of ethics we should follow, some of us starting to wonder what would be the future of the Orphans."
Rotun said, that, and the two mammal listened to him intently.
"Soon it became clear that there were two kinds of mammals inside of the Orphans: those who were ready to lower their heads, and those who were willing to do whatever it took to actually change anything."
Silence befell the room, a silence that Marceli broke.
"By 'lowering their heads'..." The tod asked him, "You mean following the laws of the Codex?"
Rotun looked at the fox.
"Yeah, among other things." Rotun said, looking at him. "The deal is, ever since I joined, I heard on how the Orphans were guys who didn't fit in the standards of those mage families. We were a bunch of misfits trying our best to survive. But, some of us wondered why we should just survive."
"Our families, the Association, the rest of the world of magecraft. All of them turned their backs on us. They abandoned us because we didn't conformed to their laws, and left us with no choice but to lower our heads and accept it." He continued, "And we actually did that. We lowered our heads and we accepted that we didn't had a future in their world, in the terms that they created. Even among the Orphans."
"We all thought that we were gathering and getting ready to turn the tables, but we were doing nothing more than to keep our heads low and accept that we could not compete with those mages. That they were right about us, and there was nothing that we could do to change that." He said, and he sighed.
"You have no idea of how some of us got disappointed when we realized that."
Bogo and Marceli looked at the small hybrid.
"Did you got disappointed?" Bogo asked, and the little mammal looked up at him, to meet his eyes.
"Imagine that your entire life you have been told that you would never be anything in life." He said to the buffalo. "Imagine hearing from your relatives how worthless you were and on how you would never do or achieve anything. Now, imagine that you find a group of mammals that say the opposite, that the way you were born and what makes you different is actually not an impediment, but a blessing, and that you can go as far as any other mage in the world if you put your mind into it and gather with them. Of course, you get very happy with that. You enter the group; you start to learn, to feel welcome, and to know that you can prove all of those stupid bastards wrong about everything that they had ever said to you."
He paused, and then he sighed before continuing.
"Then, time passes, and you see them doing... nothing." He said, "They tell you that you have the potential to face those mages and become greater than them, but they don't try to do that themselves. They tell you that the traditions are wrong and that they should not define the way things are, but they don't try to fight or change these traditions. They tell you that their goal is to prove all of those who looked down on them wrong by standing up to them, but they only lower their heads and prove them right."
Rotun looked at both of them.
"Yeah, I was disappointed." He said, "And I was not the only one."
"We were not happy with the way that Sinclaw was leading stuff. We wanted the Orphans to be more active in their way to do things. We didn't wanted to just survive and live on the margin of the moonlit world because of the traditions. We wanted to change the traditions. We wanted to change things."
"You wanted to start an uprising against the Association." Marceli said, looking at the hybrid, who scoffed.
"Oh, yeah. That is the kind of thing you enforcers would say." The small mammal said, looking at the tod. "They want to go against the rules of the Association, so they must be nothing more than a bunch of troublemakers who want to overthrow the Council and take power. Bah! Typical traditional mage. Of course, what else could you expect from someone of an old family like the Mieczislaw?"
Marceli said nothing, only continuing to look at the hybrid.
"It was not about seizing power." Rotun said, "It was about getting things to change. About actually making a difference and making changes. By force, if we had to."
"Sounds like you actually were planning an uprising." Bogo had to admit, and the hybrid scoffed at him.
"You know nothing!" He spat at the buffalo, "Neither of you do! Neither did Sinclaw! He always gave these answers like 'we don't need to go this far' or 'this is not the purpose of the Orphans', or any of that crap! That was before we started being left out of the important decisions, the other Orphans who followed Sinclaw's words started to avoiding us! They were shunning us away! The Orphans, who said they would always welcome anyone, were turning their backs on their own!"
"That was why we all left! She was right! We could not grow if we stayed with Sinclaw and his Orphans! We needed to have space to grow, and prove to Sinclaw that we could truly do great things if we had some guts!"
The two looked at him, and Marceli them asked:
"You said that 'she' was right?" the black tod was looking at the hybrid. "Who is 'she'?"
"Like I am telling you that!" Rotun said, and Bogo talked to him next.
"Rotun, if you don't give us information we cannot help you."
"I don't want your help, you stupid mundane!" The hybrid snapped at him. "I don't need any of your help! I have the Black Vipers! They care for me and protect me, and they will gut you for daring to touch me! And they will do the same to that fat cheetah secretary of yours!"
Bogo tensed, looking back at the little mammal, who smiled at him, as if he realized that he had found an opening.
"Oh, yeah." Rotun said, looking at him. "I can only describe of you the things that they would do to that fat bastard. You know, I saw him a couple times, and he seems like a wuss, not the kind who would do that thing they accused him. He would never had the guts to do something like that."
Bogo looked intently at Rotun as he said that.
"He would probably cry and scream all the while they ripped his claws and removed his spots one by one. That's what we do to those who messes with one of ours. The Black Vipers take care of their own."
"Really?" Bogo said, looking at him, really not liking the way he was threatening Benjamin. "Curious, considering that they have left you behind while they were running away."
This caused Rotun to stop smiling.
"They didn't stopped to wait for you. They didn't came back to help you. They just left you behind. Maybe the Vipers are not as united as you believe." Bogo said, looking at the smaller mammal. "Or maybe, you are just not important enough to them."
Immediately, Rotun tried to lunge at Bogo, but was hold back by the chains. Still, he continued trying to charge at the big buffalo, seeming not fazed by his size in the slightest, all the while he hissed and spat curses and profanities at the buffalo.
In that moment the two realized that they were not really going to go anywhere anymore, and the interrogatory was now officially over.
"You could have handled it with a little more tact at the end." Marceli said to Bogo as they both exited the room. Behind them, Rotun was still screaming obscenities at both of them, although most of them targeted Bogo specifically.
"Hey, he threatened one of my officers." Bogo said, looking at the tod, "This is not the kind of thing that I can just take standing."
Soon, Emilia was coming to their meeting, and her uncle instructed her to take Rotun back to the cell and make sure that it was secure, and that the bounded field around it was still strong. They could not risk letting the small mage escape.
Emilia nodded at her uncle, and went to provide this, and the two walk away, talking between themselves.
"So, I am guessing that he won't be wanting to talk to you anymore." Marceli asked, and Bogo shrugged.
"Not for today, at least." The buffalo said, "But, I would still say that we can still get something out of him, given enough time."
"Time we may not have." Marceli said, "The MTC could be plotting something as we speak, we need more information and, as of right now, Rotun might just be our best bet."
"So, what do you suggest?" Bogo said, "Keeping him on the cell to cool down and try again tomorrow?"
"It may not work." Marceli said, looking at him, "We need a more aggressive approach. We really need to get him to tell us something, maybe with an alternative method of questioning."
Alternative method? Bogo was not sure if he liked the sound of that, especially with the way that the fox had said it.
"You know, I understand that enforcers have their own way of doing things." Bogo said, looking at the tod, "But, I really hope you are not planning on doing anything that violates mammal rights."
Bogo felt like he had a certain reason to be worried about that. Marceli looked at him, and soon he saw saying:
"Don't worry, I don't plan to torture him." The tod was serious as he spoke that, "We don't do that anymore. It was never a reliable way of obtaining information, anyway. Mammals under torture say anything to get you to stop, they make up answers that they don't know and confess things they never did. No, there are better ways of getting someone to talk."
"Really?" Bogo asked, looking at the fox. "So, what exactly do you have in mind?"
"To find a vulnerability." Marceli said, and Bogo looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Everyone, even the coldest mage or most unrepentant criminal, has at least one thing or person that they actually care about." Marceli explained to Bogo, "When you find out what is that thing, you can explore it. You can use it to reach them and use it as a way of making pressure. That is how we make stubborn mammals talk when we need information, we find the one thing they care about in the world and use it against them. No magecraft can protect you against this kind of thing."
"That is what we should do, we should find the one thing he cares about, and we should use it to reach him, one way or another." Marceli concluded, and Bogo only looked at him.
Well, he had to agree that Marceli actually had a point. Many mammals considered that it was low to use the things someone loved against them, as it was the kind of thing that usually the bad guys did in movies. However, Bogo was no strange for this tactic, as knowing the one thing that a suspect cared about could still be something that would actually get him to talk.
"So, in these cases, the first thing should be trying to find his clan." Marceli continued, as both he and Bogo walked across the hallways of Precinct 1.
"Yeah, I'd rule that out." Bogo said to the fox, "Considering what Rotun said, he would probably just want to see these guys again if they were in coffins. Can't really blame him on that point, considering how they treated him."
Bogo really could not imagine what Rotun went through as he was growing up. He was actually trying not to imagine what it was like for him to grow up. However, the little hybrid painted a good image of what his life was like. Bogo really meant what he said when he said that no child should ever have to go through something like that, independent of species, of pedigree, or whatever other thing.
However, Bogo was feeling it a bit hard to sympathize with that little critter who was so rude to him and who openly made threats against him and against one of his officers. The threats he made against Benjamin were actually the reason why Bogo snapped at him. The image he painted was one that Bogo would rather not have to imagine.
The things he said that his group would to do to the cheetah. Bogo really didn't wanted to imagine that.
The little bastard made sure to say it as soon as he saw it had affected Bogo, right after he mentioned Ben having been accuse of having done something...
"Hey, Chief! Mr. Mieczyslaw!" A voice suddenly made Bogo break out of his reflection, and both he and the black tod turned to look at the figure of Deermond. The deer was still on the front desk duty as he replaced Benjamin, and he was waving at them, calling for their attention.
Both mammals shared a look, and they went to check on the deer, to see if he wanted something.
The deer started to ask them questions about the mage they had in custody. Mostly he was asking out of curiosity, as it seemed that he, like many others, found really interesting that the ZPD now had a criminal mage under their custody.
This, of course, caused Bogo to be annoyed.
"Deermond, is that really why you want to talk to us right now?" Bogo asked, looking at the deer. "Don't you think that your time would be better spent if you continued to focus on your job on the front desk?"
"Oh, but I am focusing on that, sir." Deermond said, "But it is kind of dead, you know? I mean, of course, I dispatch vehicles and greet people but, other than that, it is very calm in here. Okay, there was that strange mammal who came here a few minutes ago asking about Benjamin, but other than that..."
This caught Bogo's attention.
"Did someone came in here asking for Clawhauser?" Bogo asked, and Deermond confirmed that indeed, someone had. A mammal had come in there minutes ago and started asking to see Benjamin Clawhauser, and seemed not to be happy for not having found the cheetah in there. This mammal even started to question Deermond (very insistently, it was to be added) about Benjamin's whereabouts. The mammal insisted so much that Deermond ended up just telling.
This made Bogo worried, for he immediately remembered of the threats made by Rotun, and he got worried that maybe a member of his gang could be actually after the cheetah to do something to him.
Mieczyslaw then asked for a description of the mammal, which the deer did. He could even give them the mammal's name.
After hearing it, Marceli nodded.
"I see. Well, we all better go back to our duties, right?" The fox asked to the two bigger mammals, and soon, the fox and the buffalo were walking back to Bogo's office, while Deermond was once more focusing his attention on his duty at the front desk.
"We need to contact them and let them know that someone is looking for Ben." Bogo said as he and the fox walked.
"You can do that if you want." Marceli said, "But, you don't need to worry. That mammal most likely does not intend to harm Officer Clawhauser."
Bogo looked at him.
"And how do you know that?"
"Because, before Benjamin Clawhauser renounced magecraft, that mammal was his fianceé." Marceli said simply, as he continued to walk, while Bogo stopped on his tracks, and kept looking at the fox.
"His what?"
Movement continued outside of the ZPD, as much as inside.
Mammals and vehicles moved across the street. Everyone was busy taking care of some kind of business, so much that they didn't had time to pay that much attention to what was happening around them.
So, no one noticed the mammal who stopped at a light post at eight meters from the main entrance of the Precinct 1, and neither they noticed that this mammal was doing something with the post.
Around two minutes later, the mammal walked away from the light post. Someone who had bothered to stop and look up close would have seen that now there was a very curious symbol drawn on the post.
Actually, it was not much a symbol, as it seemed to be a complete magic circle.