A friendly individual gave me advice, which I will be taking. I won't be switching POV's like crazy as I have in the more recent chapters. I'll try my best to stick to one or two switches throughout chapters, or none at all. This leaves more room for character developement, but I fear it could make the story less interesting, but how I plan on doing this is to show different scenes as different chapters instead of cramming it all into one chapter; this also means it could be shorter, but we will see.
Alex's POV
After a few hours of Nick's apartment, we headed to the ZPD. We met up with Judy near the front desk, who requested us to be there in the first place. I scratched behind my ears as we paced over to the bunny, I heard voices, itching inside.
"Alex is here, I've got to have a word with him anyways, don't forget what I told you, Evans." I heard Chief Bogo say, I looked around anxiously, but didn't see him. Evans was the tiger, right?
"I filed those reports, took me long enough, you owe me coffee, and that's still scraping the minimum." I heard a deep, annoyed voice echo in my head.
"My mom is making spaghetti tonight, can't stay much longer, show me so I can go." I heard a higher, raspy voice. I looked around once again, confused.
"Alex." I heard a faded, but familiar voice. "Alex." I heard the voice again, along with a few snaps. I blinked a few times and looked at Nick, who had his paw in front of me.
"Yes?" I muttered, still collecting myself.
"You get enough sleep in that hospital? Did they disect you all night or something?" He chuckled, as much as he was joking, he was partly correct, they did do a few strange tests on me.
"Yeah, if you look closely, you can almost see the scars." I followed through, making everyone, including Clawhauser, laugh, but that wasn't very surprising.
"Alex, I need to have a word with you." Chief Bogo's voice entered my ears, luckily this time I was able to spot him, he was walking over from behind Judy and Nick.
"Yes sir." I said, taking a pause, "Your office or...?" I dragged on the end, waiting for him to interupt me.
"I would prefer, yes. Nick, Judy, you two come or stay, up to you." He waved a hoof, heading back towards the stairs. I followed, pondering what he would have to say to me. Nick and Judy of course followed close behind, all three of us lined up as we acsended the stairs. Bogo closed the door behind us as he entered his office, he took his seat across from us.
"Alex, not sure if you are aware of this already, but you and Ivan have been quiet the magnets for attention recently." He generalized, making me on edge, but wanting to hear the rest. All three of us stayed quiet, awaiting the rest of his story. "The general public is forming their opinions about your credibility as an officer and Ivan's sentence for jail time." He said flat out, luckily looking less angry and more disappointed.
"That's ridiculous, well at least for Alex." Judy jumped in, leaning forward. Nick was looking at the ground however, clearly thinking.
"Ridiculous is part of life." Bogo groaned, leaning back in his chair.
"I may be losing my job?" I gulped quietly, not in anger, but rather sorrow. Bogo quickily sat up, leaning over his desk.
"No," He paused, awaiting my change of expression for only a brief moment, "Alex, you're a hell of an officer to the ZPD, I am merely stating the facts. Without you, Mr. Wilde here would be dead, and we'd have less hospital bills to cover." He said, not getting any laughs for the joke at the end.
"I understand where they're coming from though." Nick interupted the awkward silence from Bogo's joke.
"Nick!" Judy slapped the fox on the arm, not too hard, obviously.
"No really, he has commited crimes, technically, and some mammals sadly won't ever be content." He shrugged his shoulders.
"Like you've never commited any crimes." Judy muttered, making Bogo and I pulled our head backs slightly in fear of getting between the two of them.
"You didn't seem to care the day I joined the force." He smiled, making Judy sigh heavily.
"Okay, I should have waited to bring this up, we will discuss this further another day." Bogo interupted the pair. "I have a conferenced scheduled in about five minutes in order to discuss our stratagey for catching Dr. Harris, and you three will be there." He instructed, checking his watch for the time.
"Yes sir." We all three said out of sync before getting up from our seats. I lead as we took to the door, taking us towards the conference room. As we arrived, several other mammals were still entering, and some were already seated. There was about twelve of us by the time everyone had taken their seat.
"We are gathered here to discuss this individual." A rhino exclaimed, pointed to a picture of Dr. Harris, which was taped to a board on a kick stand aside the table. "We need a plan to find him, and soon, he could lay a game changer on us at any minute, and we have to be ready." He explained. That made sense, but there was really no way to catch him, as far as I could tell. The mammals around us started talking amongst each other, rather unorderly if you ask me. Guess it was brainstorm time.
"Oh yeah! Alex, we have a certain jaguar that should be here." Judy said from beside me, seated between Nick and I. Ivan was in the cafeteria, I forgot.
"Go fetch him, I'm sure you won't miss anything." She said, shooing me with a paw. I smiled and exited the conference room as everyone talked over one another. The cafeteria, why would Ivan even need to go there? Hopefully Judy sent him with supervision, I would assume so, since she didn't seem to trust him one bit since I last saw them together. I strolled down the hallway, seeing nothing but, as many of the mammals were in the conference room or where just not in the general area. As I neared the cafeteria, my ears twitched.
"We are in the middle of a police station, I know how careful you are." I heard a pretty heavy english accent pick up. The cafeteria doors pealed into view, and I slowly slid my head into view. I saw Ivan sitting at a long cafeteria table, the ones with attached stools. Across from his was a fox, probably the one that spoke only a moment ago. They both calmly sat there, sitting up straight, professionally.
"Why did you come to my 'interrogation'?" Ivan disregarded whatever the fox previously was talking about, which I hadn't a clue.
"I had to tell you not to open your trap." The fox whispered, but I could still hear his voice in my ears broad as daylight. No one else was present in the cafeteria but the two, unsure why the fox had to whisper in the first place.
"My father didn't open his." Ivan gritted his teeth, leaning forward slightly. A slick smile crept up the fox's face, leaning back only slightly. I felt bad for eavesdropping, but this seemed like something they'd kill me for listening in on without their consent, let alone walking in on them.
"Ivan, I consider you a friend, regardless of your current affiliation with Dr. Harris." He chuckled, trying to remain serious. Ivan retained his neutral stance, slouching, however.
"You will never be my friend." He muttered, his anger dying out. The fox sighed lightly.
"Your father and I were pretty close. As a matter of fact " The fox was cut off by Ivan quickly lunging over the table and grappling the fox by his shirt. My eyes widened as Ivan tore him from his seat and slammed the fox on his back behind him. The fox gasped as Ivan kicked him in the ribs, moving his whole body in the grusome process. Ivan punched him in the snout while still lying on the ground, the fox raised his paws in defense, but Ivan pushed past them and grabbed him by the shirt once more. I watched in horro as Ivan half tossed half slid him into the stools of the cafeteria tables. The fox barely managed to sit up as Ivan slowly loomed over, raising his shaking fist: the killing blow. My instincts finaly took over, and I charged into the room, tackling Ivan in a matter of mere seconds. I remained on my feet, stumbling a bit, as Ivan flew to the floor, sliding a few feet. He quickly spun to his feet, remaining a slow posture to stay balanced.
"Move." Ivan gritted his teeth, but remained still. The fox got to his feet, with a bit of trouble, before taking cover a few feet behind my tail. I stood my guard for a few more moments as Ivan awaited me to move, but I'm sure he knew I wasn't going anywhere.
"Never take the easy way out." The fox taunted, obviously refering Ivan killing him, which I guess would be so. Ivan growled, his growl wasn't what I would consider normal, it was more of a blood fueled rage kind of growl. I slightly trembled awaiting Ivan's response to those words, unsure if they had any symbolic meaning or not. Ivan lunged forward at me, and reached towards my vest with open paws, he was going to either try to push me or throw me aside. I was quick to push his paws down, backing up only slightly. Rejecting his attempt only made him angrier, and he swung a low kick towards me. I instantly shifted downwards, grabbing the kick with both paws, before dropping one to defend myself.
He threw a jab with his fist, and I shifted my head aside, watching it breeze right past my ear. Ivan used the same paw to grab my shoulder, and his last standing leg toppled backwards. I fell down with the jaguar below me, before he flung me over top, sending me down the cafeteria, skidding to a halt on my back. Ivan, however, did a backflip from the ground to his feet, using the momentum plus his strength to succeed. I recollected myself, rolling over and watching as Ivan sprinted towards the fox that was stumbling towards the door. The fox turned around and raised his paws, begging Ivan to stop. He scooped the fox up with a single paw, grasping his neck and raising him high into the hair. The fox tore at Ivan's paw, but his attempt to get his neck free was futile. I ran up behind him and kicked out one of his legs, and using both paws to wrangle his metal chest. In surprise, Ivan released the fox, right before I swung him off the ground, falling onto my back, a crack echoed through the room. I quickly dropped to my knees and landed on Ivan, his eyes were half closed, and his jaw hanging open naturally, as he was panting just like me. His eyes sprung open as he swung a fist at me once again. I grabbed his knuckles, pushing them aside to avoid getting hit. I let out a slight roar as I slammed my other fist in his snout as hard as I could.
I slumped off of Ivan, down on all fours, looking up at the fox who was still climbing onto his trembling legs. Ivan was out cold, a victory, yet a lose. I sighed heavily, catching the fox's attention, who fell back to a sitting position, using his arms to prop up his angled back.
"It's funny," I wheezed in exhaust, "You're one of the three foxes I've met in the last few days." I chuckled. My smile remained as I furrowed my eyebrows. "Yet you look just like the other two." I laughed along side my panting. The fox looked so uncomfortable, which is exactly how I felt in that damn cell. "Don'tcha, Elliot." I said slowly, climbing to my legs.
"What are you talking about?" He stammered, trying to get back to his feet as well.
"You do a mean French accent, you know that." I said, towering over him. I was the angry one now, but I don't think I'd hurt him, only make him think I would. He chuckled so nervously I could have sworn he was me giving a speech in fourth grade.
"I'm sure we can resolve this in a different way..." He sputtered, slowly pushing himself backwards on the floor, away from me. I leaned down and picked him up by his shirt, similar to Ivan earlier. I hoisted him to his feet and placed him down. His shoulders pressed against his neck as I looked down at him. This was a grown mammal, I shit you not.
"Are you scared because you heard about the hospital incident? I assure you your pathetic attempt to brainwash me only half worked." I whispered in his ear sadistically, making him pull his head back even further. I heard a growl from behind, spinning myself around only to see an injured and exhausted Ivan wobbling on his legs. He slowly reached behind himself and pulled out a pistol. My heart sank, was he really willing to shoot me to get the fox?
"Get outta my whey." He slurred, slowly moving towards Elliot and I, if that even is his name. "MOVE OUTTA THE DAMN WAY!" He yelled so loud that the officers probably could hear it, regardless of how loud they were. My brain told me to move, but my heart forced me to stay, no matter what Elliot did, I didn't want to see his head blown open.
"No." I stammered, my breath shaking heavily. Ivan's anger didn't subside, and he cocked the gun. I expected him to instead try to move me physically, but the jaguar's arm tensed, his index finger followed. My eyes widened and used my right leg to kick the fox behind me to the ground. The crackling explosion of the gun flooded my ears, startling me. I snapped my head to the side, my spine swerved as well. I watched as the bullet passed my head by an inch, smoke following behind it. The bullet tore into the wall, before not a sound was heard but the tink of a casing bouncing across the floor. Ivan's pure rage faded, and he instead looked shocked. He dropped the gun, and looked down as it fell.
"He murdered my father." He murmured. I suspected it was something like that, but damn. He leveled his head to face me again. "Because he declined to partake in the super soldier project, the same one that made me into, well, this." He said, moving his paws through the air across his chest. That makes me hate the fox even more, but I still refused to let him die. While processing all of this, half my brain was still squirming over the fact that I dodged a bullet, literally.
Author's Note
Not the longest chapter, Nick and Judy's talk in the conference room will most likely boot the next chapter, leading into the clusterf*** that they end up finding in the cafeteria, but anyways, sorry that it's been almost a week, only to find a short chapter, I haven't written much in the last several days, actually, I finished this in one day. I've just been busy doing nothing, and sleeping, don't forget that.
Stupid Facts
1. Ivan says to Nick that he may "possibly take one word wrong and injure someone" in a previous chapter, however, Alex ends up doing this instead.
2. The whole fight scene was originally going to take place in the ZPD parking lot, and all the officers would have watched, I changed this since I wanted there to be more freedom in the scene, such as the other officers pulling a gun on Ivan.
3. I didn't plan for Ivan to get back up with a gun.
4. Ivan got his ass whooped