Chapter 25: Alex Rests and Recuperates! The Steaming Hotel Of Love and Passion!
Alex groaned as he was placed onto the medical examination table by Gouhin. "Sorry about the mess. I wasn't expecting you to be injured like this. Lie still, I'll get the bullet pulled out of your leg," Gouhin told him.
The wolf winced as he felt the bear dig around in his leg with a pair of medical tweezers. However, he didn't let out a single sound as Gouhin extracted the bullet with surgical precision.
Gouhin was impressed at the wolf's ability to stay silent in the face of such excruciating pain. The wolf didn't even utter a whimper as Gouhin sewed his skin back together. Alex could feel the wound already beginning to mend.
He began to sit back up, and Gouhin ran in front of the doorway, blocking him. "You're not going back to the Shishigumi manor tonight. I forbid it," Gouhin growled.
"But Louis-" Alex began to protest.
"WILL BE FINE! Agata is buying us time, and I trust that he'll be able to stall long enough for you to get in there and save your friend as long as you bring backup!" Gouhin roared.
Then, another thought pierced through Alex's head like a knife. Legosi! The wolf shot up and got back on his feet, pulling his phone out of his pocket. Was Legosi all right? "Where's Legosi?!" Alex demanded.
The bear's eyes widened, realizing the wolf was right. "Shit!" the panda swore.
Alex got his phone out and activated the tracking application. Only ZPD members had access to this application, and it could be used to track a variety of different signals. Alex had already gotten his app set up to be able to track and monitor the fitness watches he had given Legosi and Haru.
The technology came through, and Legosi and Haru's coordinates as well as their vitals popped up on his screen. Alex sprinted out of the clinic, heading for his car. His quick pace allowed him to cross through the black market and to his parked car in a matter of minutes. The wolf jumped in and slammed the car door, before inserting the key and activating the ignition.
Alex then remembered that he was in Cherryton, not Zootopia, and had to resist the urge to floor the gas pedal. He had to stay in the speed limit, and so his car slowly cruised through the streets. Alex had to change his course as he noticed Legosi and Haru's signals changing in location. Where were they heading?
The wolf's tense body relaxed when he saw both of them come into view. They were standing outside of a hotel. He parked the car and ran up to them. "Legosi! Haru!" Alex called out.
"Alex!" Haru happily said.
Legosi noticed that Louis wasn't with him. "Where's Louis?" the gray wolf worriedly wondered.
"He and I parted ways after we got out of the manor," Alex lied. Lying was one of the wolf's many skills he had developed during his time growing up on the streets of Zootopia. Someone as sincere and kind as Legosi would likely be unable to detect the wolf's deception. "So, what are you two doing at a hotel? Shouldn't you be heading back to Cherryton?" Alex then asked curiously.
"Well, actually, we're here because we're gonna try and sleep together!" Haru told him.
"HARU!" Legosi yelped, blushing intensely.
Alex arched an eyebrow back. "You're really wanting to try to do this now?" Alex asked. Both the gray wolf and rabbit nodded yes. "Then I'm getting a room too. The two of you aren't going to do this without someone supervising, or else there might be an 'accident'. Kids and their hormones these days..," Alex sighed. The albino wolf walked up to the front desk, with Haru and Legosi trailing behind him. The wolf got his wallet out of his belt and slammed his rainbow credit card down on the receptionist desk.
"Huh, we don't usually get polyamorous relationships here," the receptionist, a nice fox lady, commented. Alex and Haru blinked before bursting into laughter.
"Hahahaha! That's hilarious, we're not a threesome!" Haru guffawed.
"I'd like to rent two rooms for the night; one room for the other two and a single room for me. Make sure that they're adjacent to each other," Alex told the receptionist.
The receptionist swiped his card and had the payment processed. She then handed the wolf three key cards, two of them for the same room. Alex gave Haru and Legosi their key cards and they headed up to their rooms.
"How did you guys know where to find me?" Haru wondered.
"The watches," Alex answered. Legosi and Haru glanced down at the watches, and then they realized what the white wolf meant.
"You don't mean that-" Legosi started.
"THEY'RE TRACKING DEVICES?!" Haru gasped. The bunny glared at Legosi, who wilted under the bunny's withering stare.
"Alex gave me them, told me to give you one as a present!" Legosi explained. The bunny leapt towards Alex and slapped him across the face.
"How DARE you put a tracker on me without telling me! And you even made Legosi disguise it as a gift!" Haru growled.
Alex sighed, putting his paws up in the air. "I wanted to tell you that they were trackers, but Gouhin wouldn't let me!" Alex explained.
"Who the hell is Gouhin?!" Haru demanded.
"You mean the panda doctor? What does he have to do with this?" Legosi wondered.
"The watches are meant to collect your biometric data as well as record your conversations with one another, to gauge your relationship and determine whether Legosi's feelings for you are genuine or simply a false front for his predatory instincts," Alex clarified.
"You know I'm not some defenseless prey animal, you know," Haru huffed.
"It's for Legosi's safety as well as your own," Alex responded.
"Do we still have to wear them then?" Haru sighed.
"Why wouldn't you? These watches are standard ZPD issue, provided by the Iris Corporation. They not only track your location and monitor your vitals and emotions, but they can also be used as radio communicators," Alex said. He then showed them how to use the radio function on their watches, before standing up and beginning to walk out of the room.
"Wait, where are you going?!" Legosi blurted out.
"To my room, which is directly next to yours. I'm not going to watch the two of you have sex with each other!" Alex snorted.
Legosi looked anxious. "But what if something happens?" Legosi fretted.
"I'll be listening in via the radio function and monitoring your vitals. If things start to go south, I'll step in," Alex reassured the gray wolf.
Legosi gulped, still troubled and nervous about what he and Haru were about to do. "Oh, relax, Legosi! You're such a worrywart!" Haru teased her rescuer, booping him on the nose playfully. Legosi couldn't help but smile and blush.
After some idle conversation between the two of them, Haru began to undress Legosi. She looked at the slightly busted up ZPD bulletproof vest that Alex had given Legosi to wear for their rescue operation. She whistled. "Dang, Legosi, you look really heroic in this cop vest," the bunny complimented.
Legosi's cheeks turned extremely red. "G-g-gosh, Haru, thanks…" Legosi stammered.
The bunny giggled, before scratching Legosi's chin. "You're so adorable when you get all flustered like that!" Haru chuckled.
Alex listened to them nonchalantly as he focused on the notes he had been taking throughout his time at Cherryton ever since the Tem murder had occured. He had poured over these notes for hours in his dreams, trying to pinpoint the murderer's identity. He was almost certain of three traits that belonged to the culprit.
One: The culprit was a predator, and probably one that was large in size. Given that there were very few bones that had been found in the toilet where Tem's skull was discovered, only a large predator could have digested the alpaca's body and broken it down to that point.
Two: The culprit had been friends with Tem. From his history of investigating murder cases on the ZPD, Alex knew that many murders were comitted by friends or family members, and
Three: The murderer likely belonged to the drama club. Evidence that supported this theory was the fact that a trail of Tem's blood had led to the drama club stage, and only drama club members would have been able to get in the building at the time where the murder's occurrence was estimated.
At this point, Alex had the drama club circle connect to a circle labeled as "PREDATORS" which branched off into many circles listing the names of the predator members of the drama club. Among the names listed were "TAO" (the panther), "AOBA" (the eagle), "BILL" (the tiger), "JUNO" (the wolf girl), "LEGOSI" (the gray wolf), "SHEILA" (the cheetah), "WILLIAM" (the warthog), "CRAIG" (the crocodile), and lastly "RIZ" (the bear).
(Author's Note: There's an unnamed crocodile and an unnamed warthog in the manga who are part of the drama club.)
Legosi and Bill's names were crossed out, signifying that Alex had ruled out any possibility of them being the killer. Ellipses (three periods) marked Juno's, Aoba's, Tao's, and Sheila's circles. The ellipses meant that Alex doubted that they could be the murderer but still thought that they were possible suspects. Exclamation points marked William's, Craig's, and Riz's circles, showing that Alex believed that they were the most likely to have been involved in the murder.
Off to the side was a circle labeled "MOTIVE" and the only connection was with Kai, the mongoose. Kai's motive was that he wanted to have Tem's role in the Adler performance as the water spirit, but Kai was moved to the stage crew after Tem's death. Alex didn't think that Kai was a probable suspect because he was a mongoose (too small to digest Tem the way that the culprit had) and the mongoose seemed like a reasonable animal. Sure, he had gotten upset at Louis, but that deer was being a prick at the time.
Alex's thoughts were interrupted by his phone beeping. He looked and saw Haru was experiencing a high amount of fear and other emotions, as well as an elevated heart rate. "Haru? What's going on?" Alex asked, concerned as to what was going on. The bunny didn't seem to hear him.
"L-Legosi… i-it wants to go inside your mouth!" Haru cried out nervously. Alex leapt to his feet.
"Okay, you two, that's enough! I'm heading to you," Alex ordered. He opened the door using Legosi's keycard that the wolf had given him.
Alex was astounded to see Haru trying to pry Legosi's jaws open. Legosi's eyes met Alex's, and he could tell the gray wolf was begging for help. Alex pulled Haru's paws off of Legosi's muzzle, surprised at the amount of strength he had to use to tear Haru's paws away from Legosi's mouth. Legosi breathed a sigh of relief.
"What the hell is going on?!" Alex demanded.
"My instincts took over…" Haru sighed. Alex thought to himself about how he should have them proceed with their relationship. Clearly, Haru needed help mastering her instincts. Luckily, he knew the perfect animal to help Haru with her problem.
"Sunday morning, eleven in the morning. Be at the gardening club building. A friend of mine will show up and start giving you weekly training sessions," Alex instructed the white dwarf rabbit.
Haru gave him a salute and giggled. "Aye aye, captain!" Haru chuckled. Alex frowned and gave her a glare.
"This is serious, Haru. If this romance between Legosi and you is going to work out, you're going to have to get a grip on your instincts and purge those primal reactions from your mind. You just tried to open Legosi's mouth and climb inside, for God's sake!" Alex snarled. Haru tensed up, now fully understanding the gravity of the situation.
Alex then looked at the time. It was thirty minutes until midnight, and he knew he had to get some sleep. "Yell if you need me. I'm going to sleep," Alex groaned. The wolf flopped down in his bed, getting the carrot pen out and starting another audio log.
"Day nineteen. Those watches probably saved Haru's life. Members of the Shishigumi gang kidnapped her in broad daylight and abducted her to the black market. And no one would do a thing about it. Not the cops in this town- well, except for Lem if he knew about it. Not the mayor either. I had to team up with two fucking TEENAGERS to save her. Legosi and Louis stormed the manor with me and we managed to save Haru," Alex began.
The wolf then dropped his voice down, not wanting Legosi to hear this next part. "Legosi got Haru out of there all right, but… I got shot, Louis and I retreated to the bathroom where he treated my wound. Then I chased after the gang boss, and that fucker shot me in the leg and reopened my wound. I was fully prepared to die, but Louis unloaded his entire round of ammunition into him and killed him. Unfortunately that alerted the rest of the lions to our location. And then Louis…" Alex whispered into the microphone before pausing, starting to cry.
"I wouldn't have left without him. I would have fought my way through those lion criminals and escaped with him. But my leg was on fire, and the bullet was stuck in it. He… tossed me over the balcony and I landed on my feet. He's probably dead, dying for me. Tomorrow, I'm gonna gather as many cops as I can and storm that place. If he's alive, he's coming back with us. If he's dead, I'll throw all of them in jail or kill them," Alex sobbed. Tears streamed down his face as he ended the audio log.
After Alex takes Legosi and Haru back to Cherryton Academy, he stocks back up on supplies and goes to retrieve Lem from the police station. The two of them make a desperate rush to save Louis! And the ending will be most shocking! Be here as the climax of BEASTARS: The Divergent Variable resumes at the next chapter!
Chapter 26: Alex and Lem's Last Stand!
