Bogo had always considered himself the kind of mammal who could make good decisions, even when under pressure. He would not have made so far as a cop if he were not capable of at least that much.
Of course, he had to admit (with a lot of personal shame) that many times he had allowed personal feelings to get on the way of his better judgement. It was something that he used to do often, and that he often justified with all manners of rationalizations. However, after Hopps proved him wrong, Bogo started to think that maybe all of his rationalizations were actually excuses.
It is hard for someone to acknowledge his own faults, especially someone as prideful as Mansa Bogo.
Bogo had decided to improve himself, and to not let his personal feelings get in the way of his decisions, once he already recognized that they could keep him from upholding his oath of serving and protecting the mammals of Zootopia.
Still, Bogo was the kind of mammal who could make good decisions when the situation asked for.
That is, as long as he knew what exactly he was facing.
Which has not been the case lately.
Bogo was still getting used to the fact that there were mages out there, and that magic (or magecraft, as it was the case) was really a thing, probably like many of the mammals out there. After all, this meant many things for everyone, and made everything seems different now. For Bogo, that meant that he was now finding things that he couldn't really understand or deal with.
For example, mages attacking his police station and bringing down everyone in there before they even went inside.
There was no training for this kind of thing.
Just like there was no training on what to do when someone attacked you using magecraft.
Now, all that Bogo could do was watch as his officers were take into the ambulances and drove off to the nearest hospital. All of them were still unconscious and looking like they wouldn't wake up any time soon. Many of them were pale under their fur, and they looked to have problems breathing, as the paramedics had to place apparatus on their muzzles to help with their breathing.
All of the mammals who were on the station during the night shift was affect by this. Officers, the ones working on the cubicles, the forensics team on the lab, the cleaning team, even the few mammals who had been arrest and place on the holding cells for the night. All of the mammals just dropped to the ground and lost consciousness, and they remained unconscious all night. Even the mammas who entered the place later found themselves falling unconscious. It happened even to the paramedics who went inside to help the mammals, for crying out loud!
They weren't even able to go inside to help everyone under the risk of falling victims to whatever it was to help them.
They needed to rely on Bogo for help. The buffalo suspected that he had broken his ribs, but he was the only one who could help them. He and Fanghanel, once they were the only ones who had not been affected by whatever it was that the mages did that brought everyone else down.
They and Clawrence.
However, the panther could not help them as well, for he was still unconscious and under a pile of rubble with his head still bleeding. Bogo had pained ribs, but he was still able to get up, as well as Fanghanel, whose ears were still ringing due to the number that the little hybrid did on him. They both had to struggle to get that rubble off the panther and then take him outside. He was the first one that they brought out so the paramedics could take a look on him.
Then they had to work on bringing everyone else out of the station. They spent nearly the whole night and part of the early morning doing it. They figured out that, whatever it was that they done, only affected those who came within a certain distance from the station. If they stayed within a certain distance from the place, they had nothing to worry about.
So, they had to go inside and take everyone in out for the paramedics to be able to look at them without becoming victims as well. They couldn't even count on the other cops who were arriving in the place, once they would fall victims to this as soon as they tried to enter the station.
Even now, after all of the other officers had been safely removed by the buffalo and wolf, they were still unable to get in there, once whatever it was could still be in effect. All they could do was keep their distance and wait. Although, some of them were not sure what they were waiting for.
As soon as the enforcers came, it became clear that they were waiting for them.
As soon as the two foxes came closer, they stopped at a certain distance from the station and just kept looking in there. It was obvious that they had noticed something wrong. Soon, they were walking around the station, in look for something, leaving Bogo and Fanghanel to finally receive some attending from the paramedics.
Bogo had been liberated (or rather, he liberated himself) after confirming that he only had bruised his ribs, and that he was not in immediate danger. Immediately after, he got two phone calls. First one from Clawhauser back in the mansion, the second from his brother on his house back on the poorer part of the Rain Forest District. Both of them wanting to know if he was okay, as they had seem news regarding the attack on the ZPD, and both had seem images of him at an ambulance.
Now, while Bogo was annoyed when people were on him due to some injury, he had to admit that it warmed his heart to have those two mammals worrying about him...
"Yo, Chief!" A voice suddenly distracted Bogo, as the buffalo turned to look at who it was. He saw two familiar mammals walking to him.
"Fanghanel." He said, looking at the wolf. And he also looked at the panther coming with him. He now had a bandage around his head, and he had the same serious expression that as co common to see on his face.
"Clawrence. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on your way to the hospital? You need to see that wound on your head." Bogo asked as the panther and the wolf approached. The panther simply looked at him with what seemed to be indifference.
"And you need to go to the hospital to see your ribs, ain't that right?" The panther said, causing Bogo to look back at him.
"It is only a bruising."
"And this is only a slight concussion and a gash to the head." The panther said, pointing at his bandaged head. "So, since we both are in perfect conditions to work, I assume that we must focus on business, right?"
Bogo looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Clawrence being sarcastic and ironic? Maybe he really did hit his head too hard...
"Sooooo, do we have some orders, Chief?" Eliot asked, looking at the buffalo, who looked back at him.
"You will order, as soon as I have some information. Do either of you know about the rest of the affected?"
"They are not in danger, according to the paramedics." Clawrence said, "They are all showing signs of asthenia, but they also show signs of other forms of complications. The doctors are taking them to the hospital for treatment and for further exams. They are sure that they will be needing medical care, though, even though they cannot identify their proper condition, or its origins."
"But they are sure it is not some kind of bacteria or virus." Eliot said, "They already gave up calling CDC, but they still don't want to go inside, not after the guys in asthma suits fell down as well."
"But they have already determined that it is not contagious." Clawrence said, "Only those who enter in the affected area get affected. They are not sure of what it is, but they are sure that they will need long medical care. It seems that we will have to work with reduced personal for a while."
"Yeah, so it seems." Bogo said, looking around, and then he caught sight of the enforcers. They were in a corner, and they were looking at a light post with a lot of attention. "Seems that they found something." Bogo said, looking at the enforcers, and seeing how attentively they were looking at the post.
Soon, Bogo and the two offices were going in there to see what the enforcers have found. Immediately, they pointed at the post, and the three went around it to see what they were pointing at. Something had been draw on the post. It looked like a set of symbols forming a circle. It looked like a crude drawing, out it was also complex (the lines looked like they were made with crayon or even with someone's fingers, but the way they were drawn was rather complex, as it seemed that they used a ruler to measure the exact positions of the symbols that formed the circle).
"And what would be that?" Bogo asked, looking at it.
"A magic circle." Marceli answered.
"Like the ones from the mall?" Eliot asked, and the enforcers nodded.
"Yes, but this one is actually serves to set a boundary." Marceli explained, "There is a bounded field around the station."
"We actually noticed it as soon as we arrived." Emilia said, "This bounded field is actually very crude. It is easy to notice. Truly a sloppy job. If it was one of ours no one would have been able to notice it."
The three cops looked at the enforces, as they continued to explain how that bounded field worked. Basically, it was a magecraft delimiting the space. It was like the bounded field that had been place around the entrances of the mall days ago to alert of anyone crossing it. However, this one was a bounded field that was made to enforce a magic effect inside the delimited area. Basically it separated inside and outside and placed a magic effect on the inside. In that case, the effect was a curse that was set to affect everyone inside who didn't had magic circuits to resist the effect, suppressing and absorbing their life force. That symbol on the light post was an anchor point, a specific anchor made to shape and delimit the area of the bounded field.
Just like Benjamin said... Bogo thought as he passed his hooved fingers over the symbol on the post.
"So, it basically was a spell to knock down everyone inside of the Precinct who was not a mage?" Eliot asked, to which the enforcers confirmed.
"We are not mages." Clawrence said, referring to Bogo, Eliot and himself. "Why we weren't affected by it?"
Bogo looked at the enforcers, as he too was curious about it. The foxes were soon explaining:
"You still have the protection we gave you." Marceli said, and Bogo looked at him for a few moments, not understanding. Then he remembered.
The brooch.
Bogo soon was holding the lapel of his shirt, looking at the runic brooch in it.
"It protected you from the effects by rejecting the magic energy that caused the curse." Marceli explained, and he then turned to the other two. "As for you two, I can only assume that you also had some kind of protection against magical energy."
"What kind of protection?" Eliot said, "You guys didn't gave us any brooches or anything."
"Eliot." Clawrence said, causing the wolf to look at him. "The necklaces."
Eliot looked at him with a raised eyebrow, as he didn't understood what Clawrence was saying. However, he understood as the panther pulled something from inside his shirt, and revealed that he was wearing a necklace around his neck.
"Oh, yeah!" Eliot said, as he also reached for inside of his shirt and pulled out a necklace that was identical to Clawrence's. It was also made of what seemed to be a fossilized old tooth with some metal around it forming complex patterns. The enforcers immediately got interested on it.
"Where did you got those?" Emilia asked, looking in between the two identical necklaces, to which Eliot was soon answering that his wife gave them both to him, and said to him to give one of them to his partner.
"She said that they would protect me if I ran into a mage." Eliot said, and soon the enforces requested to see them closer. As an answer, Eliot and Clawrence both kneeled to allow the foxes to have a closer look.
"Those are definitely laced with magecraft." Marceli said, looking at them. "They serve for protection against spells and curses."
"Like this brooch you gave me?" Bogo said.
"The brooch is something we improvised. Those look more as if they were fabricate from scratch. You can see that they are more complex than the brooch." Marceli said, examining the two necklaces, and he soon was adding:
"But, they do act on pretty much the same way. They create an aura around the wearer that rejects magical energy coming from external sources, especially the harmful ones. This way, it protects against basic magecraft, including hypnosis, and it also serves as protection against curses, like the one imposes by the bounded field. They protected you from the effects of the spell, which was why you didn't fell unconscious as well."
After he said that, Eliot immediately brought his own necklace closer to his face and kissed it.
"Thank you, Pumpkin!" Eliot said, as he held the amulet close to his chest, and the others soon were discussing more about the bounded field. Mainly, Bogo wanted to know if there as a way that they could undo it like they did with the bounded field on the mall. Luckily, this bounded field was a lot less complex than that one, and it would be much simpler to get rid of it. All they needed to do was to find the magic circles that were the anchor points and ruin them to break the delimitation of the area and bring the field down. They even demonstrated it by simple running the circle by passing a dagger over it and destroying the symbols.
"Sometimes magecraft can be incredibly simple, nearly to the point of being childish." Marceli said, and Bogo nodded. Soon, Emilia was going on to find more of the symbols around the station and ruin as many of them as she could. Meanwhile, Marceli was speaking with Bogo, as they discussed their next course of action.
"We need to continue investigating." Marceli said, placing the obvious first. "We still need to find more about the presence of the MTC in the city, as well as their interest in having that object back and other possible plans that they have."
"And we need to find and recapture Rotun." Clawerence said, "After all, I understood that you were still not done talking to him."
"Indeed, we need to try to track him, if possible." Marceli said, "We still haven't learned enough about the Black Vipers. The Association has a great interest in the existence of a splinter faction coming from the Orphans, and they want to know if they could represent a threat in the future."
"Well, the guys attacked both the mall and the ZPD. I'd say that they are a threat." Eliot said, and Bogo had to agree with the wolf.
"Doing something as daring is really a shock." Marceli said, "Combined with the actions that they performed in the case of the mall only adds to the level of danger that they represent in the eyes of the Association. They are already being consider erratic and incontrollable. Right now, I am under pressure to find out more about them and their possible connections with the MTC. Needless to say, after this they are already on their way to become a group of great interest. Soon, finding more about them will be just as important as figuring the motives and plans of the MTC."
"And to think you guys came here just to take Bellwether away..." Eliot said as he looked at the two foxes. Meanwhile, Bogo was pinching the bridge of his snout
It were just so many things happening at the same time. He needed a break. As soon as possible. However, he knew he could not have a break until the situation had been solve. He learned that a long time ago. First, you solve the problems, resting can come later.
"They are terrorists at this point." Bogo said, answering to Marceli's commentary on how it was important to find more clues about the Black Vipers and maybe apprehend a few more of them for questioning. "And they made it personal when they attacked my station."
"Yes, I know of how it can affect you when one of your own is a target from someone. Believe me." Marceli said, looking at Bogo. "But we need to keep objective and to proceed with caution."
"You don't have to tell me." Bogo said. However, perhaps it was good that the fox was telling him that.
Indeed, it became personal after his own station was attack. Those Vipers just got into the top of his list now, maybe even more than the MTC. Having his own men targeted by those mages truly made Bogo want to do something about it (and feel glad that Benjamin was not in there during the attack, but he would never admit it). Still, he needed to keep calm and think rationally. He knew what he had to do now. What he could do now:
Go with the enforcers and continue to investigate with them the best he could. So, as soon as Emilia was back, announcing that the bounded field was down, Bogo left orders for all of his officers to continue their job, and soon, he was on his way to help the enforcers investigating.
Bogo was pissed.
He really was pissed at that moment.
Okay, he understood that enforcers had their own way of dealing with things. He understood that mages were still full of secrets, and that some of them could not talk if Bogo was present. But that didn't made him any less beamed of being made to wait by the side of the car while the enforcers went to talk with their contacts.
It made him feel like a little calf who had to stand by the car while his parents were talking grown-up stuff with their friends.
Was that how Hopps and Wilde had to "help the enforcers" with their investigations? They were made to drive those two around like chauffeurs and remain by the car while they talked to their sources?
Well, Bogo was sure that he didn't liked it. Not one bit.
As he waited by the side of his car, he saw the enforcers coming back to the car.
"So, any luck?" Bogo asked as they approached, not letting it show on his own frustration for being made to wait, but the way that he spoke seemed to make his feelings clear, by the way that the foxes looked at him before Marceli shook his head.
Bogo let out a snort of frustration. It was one more of the sources that had not given anything useful to them.
"Did this one even talked to you this time?" Bogo asked. It was a valid question once, according to the enforcers, some of the ones they tried to talk with were not very cooperative. A number of mages out there didn't liked talking to the enforcers, as it seemed. Some of them have been very polite, while others had been completely uncooperative with them.
"They are not forced to talk to us if they don't want to." Marceli explained to Bogo. "Especially here in Zootopia, where our influence is reduced. Some of them actually have enough resources and connections that they could actually cause us trouble if we pressed them for answers. Not the mention the amount of bureaucracy that it would take to get documents from the Association that would demand them to cooperate or face legal actions. Basically, we can only hope them to want to help, and it seems that they don't want to."
Yeah, that was something that happened sometimes. You could only go forward with a case if the people who you talked with were willing to talk to you. Police officers could face this problem as well, as sometimes it was just hard to be able to get someone to speak to you.
"He said he cannot help us more than he already did." Emilia said, "Said that he already did a lot by telling us about the place, and that he cannot risk tell us anymore."
"Risk?" Bogo said, a raised eyebrow, and Emilia shrugged.
"Yeah, I didn't understood it either." Emilia said, "Sounded like he was just telling us to beat it. But I had the impression that he seemed worried with something."
Bogo reflected on it. Could it be that their sources didn't wanted to talk because they were afraid? They feared that talking to the enforcers could cause the Black Vipers to target them? These thugs seemed to be the kind who would threaten people to keep quiet about them.
"If they are afraid, we could offer them protective custody." Bogo said, causing the two foxes to look at him. "We could ensure them protection from the Black Vipers in exchange for their cooperation. Perhaps we could even move them to a safer place as we investigate until we have the whole group arrested."
"Yeah, like mages would agree with something like that." Emilia said, and Bogo looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What, there are no protective custody with mages?" Bogo asked, and Marceli was soon answering:
"There is. But it is a lot more complicated than it is to non-mages." The fox said, looking at the bull. "Placing someone under protective custody is a very complex process, as mages have much more means of finding and hitting someone than a non-mage. We are talking about complex spells to discern someone's location and powerful curses that can come out of nowhere. Not to mention the possibility of freelancers being involved. All of this makes the process of placing a mage under protective custody all the harder, as it will involve all kinds of precautions and measures that just cannot be done on a whim. So, this of thing is only done in the cases considered the most important, as it is the kind of procedure that involves a lot of resources, not the mention the mobilization of part of the limited rankings of the enforcers."
"You don't do it for just anyone." Bogo concluded, and Emilia then said:
"And most guys don't like being put under 'protective custody'. It is a blow to someone's ego and reminds them too much of the... original purpose of the enforcers."
Bogo looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Marceli cleared his throat.
"Indeed, pride is a very common thing among mages. It is very rare for a mage to admit openly that they need help. It is cultural, once mages are often used to solve things themselves, and do not like being seen as vulnerable or weak, and neither as being dependent on someone else. Normally it takes the direst of problems or situations for mages to see for anyone outside of their clan for help, as it is seen as the same as admitting that you are not skilled or strong enough to solve your own problems."
Bogo took in what Marceli said.
"So, basically they prefer to keep quiet and continue being afraid than to speak to you and ask you to help them out?"
"That's just how most mages are." Emilia said, looking at the buffalo. "We are all a prideful lot, generally speaking."
Bogo sighed, as he leant against his car.
Marceli and his niece shared looks, before following Bogo's example. Due to the size of the car, the two enforcers leaned against the wheel. And remained looking around for a few moments, before Emilia said:
"I'm hungry."
This was what it took them to decide to take a break, and soon, they were all in a table of a local diner place, having a bite and wondering
"That's frustrating."
Bogo said nothing, but he definitely agreed with the fox. Few things could be as frustrating as not being able to move forward with an investigation. It was so unnerving not having the answers you needed.
"The worst part is that, I have the feeling that one or two of them really wanted to tell us something, but they were hesitant." Marceli said, "As if they were really afraid of something."
"The Vipers?" Bogo asked, but Marceli shook his head.
"It seemed something else." The fox said, reflecting on it. "It seemed that it was something bigger."
Bogo looked at the fox.
"The MTC?" He asked, and Marceli reflected on it.
"Maybe... I am just not sure." The fox said, "Some of them already said that they know nothing about any of that, but I am not sure if that is true. Maybe they know something but don't want to talk, and they don't want to tell us in our faces that they don't want to talk to us."
Bogo nodded at the fox, and then he says:
"So, what now?"
"Perhaps we could look for some other sources. There are also some nearby that we haven't tried talking with yet..."
As Marceli spoke, Emilia looked at the side, as she took the views of the city as she ate. She was halfway to bite on her sandwich when she stopped midway, her eyes focusing on something.
"This is something quite interesting about Zootopia. It is a city that has a surprising number of mages living in it and not fighting each other over territory." Marceli said, "Mostly because they all have to submit themselves to the three clans while they remain in here, and the clans don't like problems on their lands."
"Uhhh, Uncle Marcel?"
"Yeah, I guess we should be thankful for that, right? I wouldn't want to have to come to work every day worrying about two mages starting a war." Bogo said.
"Chief Bogo?"
"Anyway, there are some other local mages that we could try talking with." Marceli said, looking at the buffalo. "Perhaps they will be a bit more cooperative than the ones we've seen until now."
"Good, maybe this time I can go along to talk with them." Bogo asked, looking at the enforcer, while Emilia was still looking at something else.
"Guys...?"
Marceli looked back at Bogo.
"I really think it is better if you keep waiting on the car." Maceli said, "Some of those mages might really feel discouraged to talk if there is a non-mage present."
"If they don't like who is not a mage that's their problem." Bogo said, not being able to hold back is frustration for a moment. Marceli looked at him with a raised eyebrow as Bogo recompose himself and reformulated his words.
"Guys!" Emilia said, but she was still being ignore by the two.
"I have experience talking to witnesses." Bogo said, looking at the fox, "I know that some mages can be hostile to non-mages, like Rotun, but I am sure that I can be of help in talking to them. Believe me, I can be quite good in convincing others to talk."
"You mean, like you convinced Rotun? Because that didn't worked very well." Marceli said, and he and Bogo both kept looking at each there for a few moments, until:
"Yo, you two old farts!"
The two immediately turned to look at Emilia. She looked back at them with an annoyed expression that, reasonably, they were the ones who should have. Then she gestured as she said:
"Check that out."
And they both looked at what she was pointing. They then noticed that there was something in there.
At first, they thought that it was a mouse or another really small mammal. However, the more they looked, the more they realized that it was not the case.
The small beings was not wearing any clothes (unless the red tissue around its neck could be classify as clothing). However, there was no problem, for the small thing had no... attributes, so to speak. And there was the fact that its "skin" was devoid of fur, and that it looked as if it was made of pieces of patchwork, sewed together, with some straw coming out of its joints and from certain spots where the patchwork was ripped. It was carrying a folded paper that it held over its small shoulder, and it's small button eyes were looking back at the three.
"What is that?" Bogo asked as he looked at the small straw doll.
"I don't know, it arrived while you guys were talking and has been only looking at us ever since." Marceli said, and Bogo was the one who was investigating it closer. The buffalo got up and looked at the small thing up close. He kneeled to look at it up close, and the doll looked back at him with its button eyes.
Then, the rodent-sized doll removed the folded paper from its shoulder and offered it to Bogo.
The buffalo looked at the enforcers, both of them who looked back at him, Emilia shrugging. Bogo then looked back at the doll, and reached out (carefully) and picked the paper from the "hands" of the little animated doll.
As soon as the doll gave him the paper, it stood to attention and did a salute to the buffalo.
Then it burst into flames.
Bogo nearly let out a curse as he backed away, and watched as the small doll continued to burn spontaneously on the ground, until there was nothing left but ashes and a pair of charred buttons.
Bogo looks at it for a few moments, before he turned to look at the enforcers.
"What the heck was that?" Bogo asked, to which the enforcers answered that they didn't had a clue.
"What is in the paper?" Marceli asked, as he was the more objective. Soon, Bogo was opening it and the three were reading what was written:
If you want information on the Black Vipers, meet me and I will tell you what can. But no one can find out that I talked to you, or me and my family will be in trouble.
Beneath, there was an address.
Said address guided the ZPD's Chief and the two enforcers to an abandoned alley between two buildings on the suburbs of Savannah Central. It looked like your everyday dark and dirty alley. The kind of place where drug dealers would hang out and a murderer would be on the lurk waiting for his next victim.
"Nice place." Emilia said, as she walked forward in place, followed by her uncle and by Bogo. "It got that kind of vibe that you get from places like that on the movies. What is the word for it? ... Stabby!"
"We really have come all the way here because the note from that living doll told us to?" Bogo asked, as he looked at Marceli. Mentally, the bull made a note of another item that he could mark on his "things I never thought I'd say" bingo.
"It seemed to be a clue worth following." Marceli said, "If someone went through that to contact us, than it is to be assumed that they really wanted to talk."
"Or maybe they wanted to lure us into a trap." Bogo said.
"Yes, I thought of it too." Marceli said, and his paw gripped tighter at the handle of his dagger. "Be ready for anything."
As he said that, Bogo held his dart gun more intensely. Of course, his past interactions with mages told him that it would do little good, but it still helped make the buffalo feel more confident, as well as make him believe that he wouldn't be useless in the case of problem.
They walked into the alley, making sure to keep their eyes and ears open. Marceli was the first of notice something, as he suddenly turned into a direction.
"Who is there?" The fox demanded, pointing his dagger at that direction. "Show yourself!"
Bogo and Emilia both were facing that direction now, and they looked very intently at the area, which looked empty at fist glance. However, soon a paw peeked out of the darkness, followed by another, both of them open.
"I mean no harm." The owner of those paws said, as he slowly walked into the light, allowing the three mammals to catch a good sight of the mammal.
The jackal couldn't be older than a teenager. He should be between eighteen and nineteen years old at most. The fur of his face was golden in coloration, with a darker, duller shade down his forehead and bridge of his snout, and with a lighter, faded shade on his undermuzzle and down his neck. His brown eyes focused on the three mammals before him as he slowly approached with his paws put up as if in surrender or to show that he was not a threat. He was dressed rather simply, with a white shirt, a blue jacket over his body, and a pair of ripped darkened jeans. It was also possible to see that he had a few rings on the fingers of both paws, as well as a necklace hanging from his neck and a feather earring on his left ear.
He slowly approached the three mammals, once more repeating that he meant no harm and for them to calm down. When he arrived at a certain distance, Marceli told him that he as close enough already, the jackal immediately stopped where he was and didn't tried to get any closer.
"I came here to talk." The jackal said, "About the Black Vipers."
The three mammals were careful with him. Emilia asked:
"Who are you?"
"I won't say." The jackal told them, and the three immediately got on guard. The jackal then was saying:
"If I talk to you, I need to make sure no one knows that I did." He had a very serious tune as he said that, "The Vipers said that if I blabbed to anyone about them, they would come after me and my family."
The three shared looks, and then Marceli, who gave a single cautious step forward, talked to him:
"So, the Vipers have talked to you?"
The jackal looked at the fox, and he nodded.
"A few days ago." He said, looking at the three. "They found me and my brothers when we were out on the street. Three of them, and they talked to us for a while."
"About what?" Bogo asked, and the jackal looked at him as he answered:
"They wanted our help."
Bogo looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Your help with what?" The buffalo asked.
"With a ritual they were performing." The jackal said, looking back at them. "They didn't gave us any details, but they said that it was a ritual that would help them a lot, and that we would be very well rewarded if we helped them out."
"Maybe it was the ritual we interrupted." Emilia said, and Marceli nodded, as it was very likely that this was what they were talking about.
"Was that all?" Bogo asked, looking at the young jackal. "They simply came and asked your help with the ritual?"
"Yes, they did." The jackal said, and then he added:
"Right after they invited us to join their group."
This caught the interest of the three, as they were now looking at the jackal, who then proceeded to give them some information on the Vipers. Some very enlightening information.
The Black Vipers were looking for mages to join them. New members for their gang.
"They want to increase their ranks." The jackal explained to them. "They are looking for people who could be interested in joining them. Renegades, pariahs, delinquents. Anyone who has motives or need to join. And, for what I could understand, they are particularly keen on having others that are as violent and angry as they are."
"But why?" Marceli asked. "Why are they looking to supplement their ranks?"
"Well, it seems that were a few motives, but the main reason seems to be that the Orphans are doing the same." The jackal said, and this caught their attention.
"What, the Orphans are hunting down for new members as well?" Emilia asked. "What, they are looking around to see if they find anyone who has nowhere to go?"
"Are they looking for families to join their ranks?" Marceli asked. "Convincing mages to separate from their lineages and from the Association?"
The fox somewhat hoped that it was not the case. For, if it was, this would mean that the Orphans were truly overstepping their boundaries in doing so. One thing was for them to take in mages who ran away and abandoned their previous affiliations on their own. Another thing was to try encouraging other mages to do so only so they would become associated to them instead.
The Council would not take it kindly if that was what the Orphans had decided to do.
"They don't have to." The young jackal said. "Apparently they have been finding a lot of new mages that don't have any previous association."
Emilia and Marceli looked at him as he said that.
"What, as in, families that never formed ties to any group before?" Emilia asked, but the jackal shook his head.
"Rough diamonds." He said, and this caught the attention of the enforcers. "The Orphans are recruiting a great number of rough diamonds."
Emilia and Marceli shared a look between themselves. Meanwhile, Bogo was thinking of all that he was hearing.
"Rough diamonds?" Bogo asked, as he scanned his mind. The term was familiar, and then he remembered:
"Wait, Ferron mentioned them on the interview months ago, didn't she? Those are mammals who are born mages even though neither of their parents are, right?"
"Yes, that's correct." Marceli said to the buffalo. "Individuals born with magic circuits despite coming from lineages that never produced mages before. But such cases are rare."
"Not so rare." The jackal said, causing the attention to shift back to him. "On the last months, the Orphans apparently found dozens of them."
"Dozens?" Marceli said, sounding surprised.
"No way." Emilia said, "It is very rare for rough diamonds to appear. The most of them that appeared in a single century were twelve."
"That we became aware of." Marceli corrected. "There has always been the suspicion that there could be a number of undiscovered rough diamonds, who never became aware of their magic circuits and spent their entire lives as non-mages, or even that were found and trained as mages by other groups." The fox then turned to look at the jackal once more.
"But dozens?" He said, looking at the canine. "That would be too great of a number. Greater than it should be statically possible, by all known accounts."
"Well, maybe then someone got their statistics wrong." The jackal said, without a hint of irony as he spoke that. "Apparently, there are way more rough diamonds out there than the Association thinks. And the Orphans are finding a lot of them and putting them under their wing."
"The Black Vipers noticed it." The jackal continued. "They noticed that the Orphans were gaining new members, and they found out that they were finding rough diamonds. They are basically finding those new first generation mages and taking them under their wings. Teaching them magecraft and training them to be mages."
"But that takes years." Emilia said, and Bogo then said:
"Maybe they are thinking on the long haul. Planning for the future."
"Seems the more likely." Marceli admitted. "Is that's true then, once these new mages are ready, the numbers of the Orphans will increase significantly."
"And the Black Vipers don't want to be behind on that area." The jackal continued. "They have tried to find their own rough diamonds to match the Orphans. They found a few of them, but the Orphans are still way ahead of them on that area. Apparently, they have more skill to find unaffiliated mages than the Vipers. So, the Vipers are now looking to find mages who want to abandon their families and join them. Since Zootopia has a particularly large number of known resident mages, they have stuck around in here, trying to find people who want to come to their side. They tried recruiting us."
"But you didn't accepted." Bogo said, looking at the jackal. The canine shook his head negatively.
"We told them we were not interested, and that we were happy where we were. They looked pretty understanding, but then they told us that if we told anyone that they contacted us they would come for us and for Nana."
Bogo nodded and so did Marceli.
"So, that's what they are doing?" Emilia asked, looking at the jackal. "They go to the guys, invite them to join and then threaten their families?"
"Well..." The jackal said, looking at the vixen. "I guess only with those who refuse."
"Why not go to the clans?" Marceli asked. "Why not inform the clans that there is someone threatening the mages who live on their lands?"
The jackal looked at the black tod.
"You're kidding, right?" He asked, looking at the vulpine. "The clans are scarier than the Vipers, yes. They are scarier because they can be much worse than them. Not to mention that they only help you if it is of their personal interest. If you go to them to do anything other than to say that you are still behaving and won't bring them any kind of problem, then you can be sure that they won't be happy with you."
Bogo was hearing all of that, and he couldn't help but notice that, the way the jackal talked, it seemed that it was preferable to be afraid of being killed by the Black Vipers and trying to reach the clans for help.
Were those families that bad?
"Besides..." The jackal continued, making Bogo once more pay attention to him. "We don't really want to try going against the Black Vipers, now that they are associated with the MTC."
The three mammals looked at the jackal, and it was Marceli who spoke:
"You mean, about the fact that they made business with the MTC in the case of the mall?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that too." The jackal said, looking at him, "But, I am talking about the fact that the Black Vipers now will have some form of partnership with the MTC."
"Partnership?" Bogo asked, looking at the jackal, "What, you mean, they are helping each other now?"
"That's what I was told." The jackal said.
"Told by whom?" Marceli asked, and the jackal answered:
"By the guys of the Black Vipers who came to ask us to join them. They bragged about how the MTC had contacted them again, saying that they were very satisfied with the work they did on the mall and that they wanted to form a lasting relationship with them, so they could mutually help each other. They said that it was some fox who had come to them in the MTC's name to tell them this, and that they just needed to perform a few more tasks to them to prove that they were reliable enough to deserve their help."
"What kinds of tasks?" Marceli asked, looking at the jackal, and so were Emilia and Bogo, as they all had gotten really interest in all that the canine was saying.
"They didn't told." The jackal said, "They said it was only for the Black Vipers to know, and that we needed to be members if we wanted to find out. But, I guess that the ritual they wanted our help with had something to do with that. They seemed to really want us to join so we could help them with it, and they seemed upset that we refused."
"And, I assume they didn't gave any details about that ritual, did they?" Bogo asked, to which the jackal shook his head.
"They only said that it was a complex ritual they got their paws into months ago, and that they needed more people to help." He said, and there was silence as the cop and enforcers took all that they heard.
This was brand new and very important information.
"And they didn't gave any description of this fox?" Marceli asked him, and the jackal shrugged and thought for a moment.
"Well, they said that he was 'some black fox', so I am assuming that he had black fur like you." He said, and the tod nodded as he heard that. Then, as the jackal continued to think, he remembered one more thing:
"Oh, and one more thing..." He said, once more catching the attention of the foxes. "They said that the fox mentioned that the MTC had plans to 'get their property back from the enforcers and the ZPD'. They didn't said more than that, but the way they talked gave to understand what something would happen soon. You guys better be careful."
The three mammals traded looks among themselves, and they nodded.
Emilia then asked to the jackal if he had anything else to add, and the jackal soon gave him a series of addresses, including an old storehouse in Sahara square and an alley on the Rain Forest District.
"They said that we could find them in one of those places in case we changed our minds about joining them." The jackal said, "Now, I am not sure if you can still find them in there. Considering what happened last night, they probably would want to leave the city as soon as they could, but you never know. Maybe they left clues behind."
The three took in the news, and Bogo used his notepad to write down everything that the jackal told them, including the addresses that he gave. All of them seemed to be abandoned places, and Bogo remembered how Emilia had said that mages preferred abandoned places like that to do their business.
The jackal soon explained to them that this was all that he was going to say, as there was nothing more that was relevant. The enforcers thanked him for this, and soon, they were all leaving. Bogo was still taking notes, when the jackal talked to him:
"Chief Bogo, right?"
The buffalo stopped to look at the canine, who looked back at him. After a few moments, the jackal asked:
"Benjamin Clawhauser is still working with the ZPD, right?"
Bogo looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He confirmed it to the jackal, who them proceed to ask if the cheetah was doing okay. Bogo asked him why he wanted to know, and if he knew Clawhauser.
"Well, not personally." The jackal said, "I Charlie told me about him. How he met with him when he first moved into the city years ago."
"Really?" Bogo asked, looking at the jackal. He was about to ask whom this "Charlie" was, and what he had said about the cheetah, but the jackal continued by saying:
"Yeah, he said on how Benjamin was really different from what he imagined from the rumors."
This really caught Bogo's attention.
"Wait, what rumors?" The buffalo asked.
"About the accusation." The jackal said, "About the crime that Benjamin Clawhauser was accused of having committed."
"What?" Bogo said, looking at the jackal, "What are you talking about? What crime?"
The jackal didn't answered, and actually seemed to realize that he had talked more than he should.
"Hey, I asked you a question!" Bogo said, perhaps more aggressively than he should. "What was Benjamin accused of doing?"
The jackal looked back at him. For a moment, it was as if he was deciding if he should tell Bogo or not. The buffalo was about to demand once more to know, when the jackal sighed and said:
"It is really not good to talk about rumors and gossip regarding the past of others. Especially those who belong to important families, like the Clawhauser clan. If you really want to know, then you should ask Marceli Mieczyslaw. He can certainly tell it in far better detail than I ever could."
Bogo was about to press the jackal for answers, but then a voice came:
"Oy, Bogo! We gotta go now! We need to check on those places to see if we can find some more perps to squeeze!"
Bogo looked to see Emilia waving at him, while her uncle was still walking forward. He only looked away from the jackal for a moment, but it was enough so that, when he looked back at him, the canine was nowhere to be see.
Bogo felt like looking for the missing canine, but the vixen once more called him, and so, Bogo was coming with them.
As he left on to their next stops (the addresses he noted down on his pad), he couldn't stop thinking on what the jackal said about Benjamin.