For a long moment, the two groups looked at each other, almost looking like a standoff worthy of the old Wild West movies.
On one side, there was the rescue group formed by many cops on special tactical equipment, two enforcers, and an "agent". On the lead of the group, where the two enforcers, Officers Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps, and agent Lapinsky. The two cops had their gun ready, and so did the agent, as he pointed his two plasma guns forward, aiming carefully. The enforcers were also with them, and they both had their daggers in paw, Emilia's dagger already had flames forming around it. Behind them, the other officers all had their weapons ready, and they were all pointing their rifles and other dart guns forward, as they took position and aimed at the enemy.
On the other side of the bridge, only a couple meters away, was the other group. This group was form by golems and maddened mammals forming a circle around an inner group. The inner group was a source of worry, for it was form by innocent mammals, hostages that were surround and probably fearing for their lives. On the lead of the group, three mammals stood, being two mages who were clearly their enemies, and another hostage, that was being hold in place by bounds made of solid rock. The tiger in the middle stood where he was, and he clearly looked like he was trying to free himself, but was failing. The horse and other tiger that stood by his sides were looking at the group of rescue, and they looked to be pretty calm, maybe even bored, as they looked at the mammals who were their enemies.
"So, officers." The horse said, directing himself to the bunny and fox on equipment. "Really fancy meeting you guys here."
"Percy Colter!" Judy Hopps said, "You are currently keeping mammals as hostages! This is qualified as kidnapping! You have to cease your actions now and surrender!"
"Yeah, cannot do that." The horse said very casually. He was acting as if this whole situation was an everyday thing to him. He seemed awfully calm to someone who was in the middle of a process of kidnapping many innocent mammals.
This greatly bothered the officers.
"So, it is safe to assume that you two are behind this?" Nick asked, pointing his gun at the tiger, who still looked at him with a lot of interest. The guy truly gave Nick the creeps, and he was doubly careful with that guy.
"Not really." The horse said, granting everyone to look at him. "I mean, yeah, we are giving orders to the golems, and the guys under hypnosis are Butch's doing." The horse explained, gesturing behind himself, at the golems and controlled mammals that surrounded the hostages. "And we are the ones that are technically keeping the mammals as hostages, but we are not the masterminds behind all of this. We are only following orders."
"Following orders?" McChill asked, looking ahead as he pointed his dart gun at the horse, aiming right on his forehead and ready to fire if the horse as much as put a hoof behind his back to reach for something. "Orders from who?"
"Some guy who is giving us money." The horse said to them. "We don't really know very much, he is just offering us a lot to do this."
"You are doing this for money?" Emilia asked to horse, looking at him. "For reals? All of this just for a couple bucks?"
"Oh, it's more than just a couple bucks." The horse said to her, "Seriously, for what the guy is paying I would set this building on fire with everyone inside of it."
This caused everyone to get really worried. The horse really seemed that he would have no problem doing so, by the way that he was talking. This showed how dangerous he truly was. The enforcers, in particular, gave him a look of despise.
"Oh, don't give me that look." The horse said to both of them. "It is just business. We don't have our clans to cover us, neither the Association to have our backs, so we have to survive the best ways that we can. If that means getting a lot of mammals hostage to get some payment, than that is what we are going to do." The horse said, as if he was explaining something very simple to a child.
"Besides." The horse added, under the look of all of the rescue party and of the hostages. "The Boss has already accepted his money, and she made it clear that we were to do what he paid us for."
"Even if this means breaking the laws of the Codex?" Marceli asked, walking forward and looking at the horse. His eyes gleaming. "Even if it means having to deal with the consequences of your actions?"
"You mean, fighting you?" The horse asked, looking back at the fox, and simply shrugging. "Yeah, sure. I prefer it than having to tell the Boss I chickened out. I'm more afraid of her than of you."
They looked at each other for a long moment, and Marceli's dagger start to glow, as the enforcer gave one more step forward.
However, as soon as he did, Percy raised his hoof high, and this caused the golems who were surrounding the hostages to take position, as they pointed their spears made of stone to the defenseless mammals. They shrunk in fear, as the weapons were point at them.
At the same time, Zane reached out for the other tiger, and pulled him forward, shoving him to the ground roughly. Zane now had the tiger pinned by a foot planted on his back, while he held firmly his hammer on his paws. The message was clear: "I can smash his head like a grape if you give me reason to".
Marceli stopped on his tracks, and so did the rest of the group.
"Crap!" McChill said, and the rest of the group shared of the opinion.
"Hold your fire!" Bogo said at the radio, making sure that the message would get heard by everyone who had a radio. This included the meerkat who was watching from a strategical point.
Meerkovitz was looking it all develop from his spot, and he was as nervous as everyone else was for what was developing before his eyes.
This ain't good. The meerkat thought, as he saw the two groups now stuck in a standoff, but the advantage was clearly on the side of the group that had hostages. He even felt inclined to dart one of them, but that would get the ones surrounding the hostages to start killing, and that would do them no good. Even because some of them were golems, to whom the darts meant nothing. This definitely ain't good.
The officer meerkat was not the only one who thought this way.
"This cannot be good." The camera mammal said, as he continued to record what was happening.
Following a group without being notice was a challenge on itself, even more if you were carrying recording equipment with you. Luckily, some of them had experience in handling cameras, so they were able to sneak around behind the group and record them while remaining out of sight.
Right now, they were hiding in a position that allowed them to be able to watch the developing situation from a good perspective. They could zoom in to be able to catch details that escaped from a distance. That for those who had the cameras, of course, as two of them were recording while other was taking pictures.
Meanwhile, the reporters that were with them were following.
"Man, this does not looks good." One of them said as he saw the golems pointing the spears at the hostages. Indeed, it did not looked good.
"We can do nothing to help." Simply said Bisson to his camera mammal. "Just keep filming." He concluded, and the mammal did as he was told.
"You know, I really don't like doing this short of stuff." The horse said, as the golems and crazed mammals behind himself threatened the hostages. "I really, really don't like doing this."
"Oh, really?" Nick asked, looking at him, "Then why don't you let the hostages go?"
The horse shook his head.
"I wish I could, but the instructions were very clear." The horse spoke, looking at the mammals that looked back at him. "Use the hostages as an advantage if the situation asked for it. The guy was very thorough."
"This is very dishonored for a mage." Marceli said, and he looked at the horse. "This is the kind of behavior that the Codex condemns deeply."
"Oh, the Codex." Zane said, rolling his eyes as he said that. "The noble set of rules and regulations that were created so mages would not lose their dignity and their mammaldon to the pressures and temptations that came into the world."
The mockery was clear as day in his voice. He then grunted, looking at the fox.
"These are nothing more than a set of rules that limits everything that mages do!" He said, clearly with despise. "Nothing more but restraints to our works and advancements!"
"They prevent us from acting as monsters!" The enforcer shot back. "From becoming monsters!"
"They hold us back!" The tiger shot back, while everyone else waited and listened to the exchange.
"Three hundred years ago there were new breakthroughs nearly every day! Now there are what!? Five or six every year, that if it was a good year!" The tiger said, and it was obvious that there was a lot of passion on what he was talking about. "And you know why? Because the Codex didn't existed! Because we didn't had to worry with a bunch of written rules to guide our behavior every single day! Because we knew that to advance we needed to do whatever it took!"
He fumed as he looked at the enforcer, who looked back at him with a cold, but intense, glare of his own.
"The mages of five hundred years ago would weep if they saw us now." He said to the fox. Neither of them was showing any sings of looking away or wavering. "They would weep if they saw how much we decayed and how much we limited ourselves. All because the noble Mieczyslaw clan decided that such behavior was 'wrong'!"
The tiger sounded very dismissive as he said that, and many continued to hear as they looked at the tiger. Many of them were more worried with what the tiger could do if he got really angry, as they thought that he could maybe order the golems and controlled mammals to start killing everyone.
Some, however, were able to register what the tiger had just said, and they were actually able to make a connection from it to what the tiger had said to something that was heard months ago during the interview with a mage. Among the ones who made this connection, were Judy, Nick, McChill, and Bogo himself.
The Mieczyslaw clan wrote the Codex?
"I never agreed with any of this!" The tiger said, looking at the fox. "I never accepted to have all of my actions and works restrained by these laws!"
"All of your relatives accepted the Codex." The fox said to him. "All of them followed the laws, and they still do, Zane Tigereye!" The fox said to him, and the fox looked at him with even more hatred.
"You bring shame to your clan."
"My clan brings shame to me!" The tiger nearly roared back. "They bring shame to me by abiding to these stupid laws in detriment of their studies and of their progress! All of that so they would please the Council!"
The tiger was practically fuming.
"Hypocrites, they don't even follow the same laws that they defend..." The tiger said, looking at the fox, who looked back at him. "I soon saw that my vision would not fit in the Association. That's why I left." He said, "And now, I am associated to a group that is much more open to my ideas." He said rather proudly.
"And we are proud to have you among our ranks." Percy said to him, many of the ones who were hearing that traded looks among themselves. Some of them were quite unsure of what to do of all that was happening, however, they knew that they needed to do something if they wanted to help the hostages.
"There will be an opening soon." Someone whispered to Nick, Judy and Emilia. Zillah Ferron was standing next to them, and she had a low voice as she spoke to the three of them.
"Wilde and Hopps, you both will have to aim for the controlled mammals. Don't try to aim for the horse and the tiger, it will go wrong." She said to the two cops, who looked back at her, before she spoke to Emilia:
"As soon as you see the opening, you rush forward and start trashing the golems. This will create a chance to rescue the hostages. Don't lose this chance, because I don't think we will have another."
They all looked at her.
"What are you gonna do?" Emilia asked her, and the ferret simply said:
"I'm not going to do anything. Be ready."
They didn't quite understood, but they had no time to think about it, for soon they were hearing someone say:
"Look at you, big and strong tiger." It was McChill; he looked at the big feline with a lot of disdain. "You talk as if you are such an important guy, as if you are full of crap, but you are just a coward."
The big feline looked at him with anger. "I'm no coward."
"Really?" McChill said once again, "Well, you certainly are acting like one right now. Using hostages for your advantage, keeping us from getting to you all so you can have the advantage on your side. Using civilians as a shield is something that only cowards do."
"I'm no coward!" The tiger said to him, and he was flashing his teeth as he growled it at the polar bear, who had a dart rifle pointed at him. "I'm a mammal who uses all the cards at his disposal. Like I'm doing right now!"
"They are innocent mammals!" McChill snarled at him, and the tiger laughed.
"For you they are innocent mammals!" He spoke, as if the whole thing was somehow amusing to him. "For me, they are a card that I can use to have the advantage! I don't really care about any of them! I don't care if they die or if they live! I wouldn't hesitate to kill everyone in here to get what I want! I listen to my ambition above any of that stupid moralist crap that the Codex represents! I am a proper mage!"
The hostages shrank even more in fear upon the tiger's words, and the cops all tensed even more. Judy was thumping her foot in nervousness as she was starting to point her dart gun at the tiger. However, Zillah put her hand on the weapon and directed it to another place.
"Dart the controlled mammals." She whispered to the bunny. "Save the hostages, the chance will come soon."
"Maybe that is one of the reasons why I have the better in here." The tiger said, looking at all of them. "Look at you, all of these big and fancy weapons of yours and you can do nothing against us." He said, looking at the cops. "Unable to do anything to stop us, because if you tried, we would have you all killed in minutes."
The cops flinched at this, and he then looked at the enforcers. "And you, who follow the rules of the Codex, are not putting in risk the lives of some stupid mundanes that you don't even know, limiting your own actions only because it is 'the right thing to do'." The mockery was obvious on his voice. "Now that is a typical Mieczyslaw behavior! Even though it would be expected from your 'cousins'!"
"Why you..." Emilia growled as she was about to go for him, but Zillah stopped her with a paw on her shoulder.
"Focus on the golems." She said, "If you go for them it will be trouble, focus on the golems."
The vixen looked like she wanted to protest, but a single glare from the ferret was able to cause her to stop and rein herself in.
"I surely am the one who has the advantage here." The tiger said, "I play my cards and I can have all of you unable to act. I have the advantage over you!" He said, and passed his eyes on the mammals of the rescue party. "Over every single one of you." He added, as his gaze stopped on Nick, who was still looking at him.
Fox and tiger locked eyes for a moment, and after a few moments, he started to say:
"Still, sometimes even the best of us have to admit that they were wrong at a point." The tiger said, as he looked at the fox cop. Nick looked at him carefully, ready to start firing if the tiger tried anything.
"I have to say, I misjudged you, Officer Wilde." He said, looking straight at Nick, and the fox looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Thank you?"
"Yeah, I spend all that time thinking that you were just a cheap freelancer using their name, that you were just a poser." The tiger said, "But it turns out, you are actually the son of Sophie Wilde."
Once more, someone mentioned Nick's mother.
That seemed to be a trend lately. One that Nick was not very keen into...
The tiger looked at him once more.
"Now, this raises the question: did she remained true to what she said decades ago? Or did she actually taught you anything?"
Nick looked at him, unsure of what that meant, but not letting any emotion get through. The tiger, however, seemed like he knew the answer, and just asked it as a rhetorical question. The big feline scoffed as he turned his head from the fox.
"Of course she didn't taught you anything." The tiger said, looking at Nick. "If she had taught you anything you would not be so stupid. I guess she really did abandoned everything."
Abandoned everything...
"I guess it should not be surprise that her child turned out to be weak." The tiger said. "Just like her."
Okay, now the guy was pressing his luck.
"Well, this just proves that weak parents produce weak offspring." The tiger said, ignoring the angry glare that the fox was giving him. "That is why I plan to be as strong as I can be."
"That is good for you." A new voice said, causing everyone to turn their heads to look at the source of the new voice.
They saw another tiger standing on the rails of the edge of the bridge. He had a hard expression on his face as he looked at Zane.
Zane's eyes widened as he looked at Tyson, while Tyrell tried to say something, surprised for seeing his brother in there. Everyone else as just as surprised, as they looked at the newcomer, who had all of his attention on Zane.
Zane, on the other hand, soon calmed down, and he just looked at Tyson with an indifferent expression.
"Tyson. What a surprise." He said, but he didn't seemed surprised at all. Nor amused. "Although, I already half-expected this, once I know that all of you never wondered too far from each other for long." He said, looking down at Tyrell, who did his best to look over his shoulder and glare at him.
"Yeah, you are right about that." Tyson said to him. "We always were united as a family. We tried to pass this to you, you know. You also used to enjoy being around us, and you were a lot friendlier."
Zane looked at him with despise, before saying:
"Well, it is always good to see family, I suppose." He looked at both of them. "Even though they are a disgrace to the Tigereye clan and to mages everywhere."
Tyson curled his lips, growling at him. Meanwhile, everyone was still looking at the scene developing, some of them quite tense, others a bit calmer.
"Great, we just walked into a troubled clan." Emilia said, and Zillah nodded, agreeing with her.
"I heard about the family troubles among the Tigereye clan." The ferret said, agreeing with the others. "But I had no idea that it was so serious."
"Talk about a messed up family." Nick said, looking at the scene developing before him, and he whispered to the ferret:
"Now, is that opening that you spoke about?"
"Soon." The ferret said, and they continued to look at the scene developing.
"Free my brother, and everyone else." Tyson said to him. "Do it now."
"And why would I do that?" Zane said, "I'm not the kind who is willing to give up an advantage when I have it."
"You really haven't changed." Tyson said to him, "And we thinking that you actually could."
"Become weak like all of you? No, thank you." Zane said, "Now, if you came only to ask that, I suggest you to be smart and leave while you still can, unless you want to join them."
Tyson looked at him, and didn't moved. However, the water on the bottle tied to his waist started to move and to gather on his paws. The water shifted in shape and started to form something. Some noticed what was going on, among them, Zane.
"You are not honestly thinking you can win, do you?" Zane asked, looking at the other tiger, while the one under him still struggled in an attempt to free himself.
"I can fight well in a battle." Tyson said to him, "Uncle Lars trained us all, remember? I already fought you before, in case you forgot."
"Oh, I remember." Zane said, and he looked at the other tiger. "But this time things are a bit different."
"Yeah, this time you are hiding behind a bunch of golems, controlled mammals, and hostages." Tyson provoked. "It seems that there was a thing that changed: you became a coward. You weren't afraid of going into battle a few years ago."
Zane growled at him, and he flexed his finger, unsheathing his claws as he squeezed the handle of his hammer.
"Okay then..." Zane said as he looked at the other tiger. "Percy, I want you to stay out of this, do you hear me?" He said to the horse, who simply shrugged. It seemed to be enough answer for the tiger, who got his foot out of Tyrell's back, causing the prone tiger to groan as he tried to get to his knees.
"You want a battle, Tyson?" Zane asked to the tiger. "Alright, I'll give you one. An honorable fight between two mages, if you are still have enough honor as mage for that." The tiger said, "Let's see if you can fight me being alone."
"I'll fight you as a mage." Tyson said, "But I'm not alone in here."
Immediately there were the sounds of explosions, startling everyone and making them cry out.
"What the!?" Zane cried out, but at this moment, Tyson jumped on his direction, mantis-like scythes on his paws as he roared.
"Now!" The ferret said, and the three mammals that were near her took this chance to move. Nick, Judy and Emilia rushed forward, passing by Percy, who had been momentarily distracted, but noticed them passing by him.
"Wait a minute." The horse said, as he saw the mammals passing by him. He was about to do something, but he was distracted by something that suddenly flew in front of him. It looked like a strange-looking piranha, with insect legs underneath it and dragonfly wings on its back. It clicked its teeth as it looked as if it wanted to bite him.
Percy looked at it for a few moments.
"Lana." The horse said, sounding a bit bored as he looked.
Soon, more identical creatures appeared, and they clicked their teeth threateningly at the horse, who looked mostly unimpressed.
Percy simply materialized a card of kaleidoscopic rainbow flame on his hoof and, with a swift motion, sliced through two of them at once, making them dead entities fall to the ground, in pieces and smoking.
This caused the other flying bug-piranhas to attack, as they clicked their jaws and advanced, only for Percy to cut them off and make them fall.
However, more of them appeared as they buzzed around the horse, until he was surround by an entire swarm of these things. However, the horse simply looked around as he materialized another card on his other hoof.
"Still with the same tricks, Lana." Percy said, as the swarm all came to him.
Meanwhile, Lana was with the others on the back of the bridge. She knew that her familiars were surely giving a lot of trouble to the horse, although only for a few moments, knowing Percy.
The other two were attacking, as the two-headed snake spat sprays of strange liquid substance at the golems, causing then to hiss and erode away as the acid ate through them; and Krys used the sowilo rune to produce flame, which he shot at the golems, causing explosions as well. It was particularly effective when it hit the acid on the golems, causing it to combust and explode. They already took down three of them by doing this.
Meanwhile, the cops and enforcer were taking the chance, as Nick and Judy used their dart guns to dart the controlled mammals, causing them to fall to the ground. Meanwhile, Emilia advanced to the golems, breaking them with her bare paws.
In the midst of this, an opening allowed the hostages to have the chance to escape. They made a run for it, as they were able to pass by the opening that the cops and the enforcer created, and passed by the two busy mages. Zane was busy fighting Tyson, while Percy was busy slicing through the swarm of flying piranhas that surrounded him.
As they ran, the hostages found refuge on the cops and on Agent Lapinsky, who all welcomed them on safety, as they moved them away from the battle that was developing; many of them looked on the developing scene.
The hostages were safe, but the battle was not over yet, as Judy and Nick still darted as many controlled mammals as they could, knocking them unconscious. One of them approached them from behind, looking like he was ready to attack, but being intercepted a dart fired from Meerkovitz sniper rifle, as the meerkat continued where he was, watching the entire scene that was developing.
Emilia was still busy with the golems, which seemed like they were focusing on her now. She was able to damage them with her bare fists, and she was showing that she was good at this, as they were able to approach her and attack her with their spears, which she barely managed to dodge.
As they did, the others started to approach from the other end of the bridge, with Krys being on the lead. He saw that a golem was going on her direction, and he removed the fingerless glove from his other hand, showing that there was a very complex rune tattooed on his pad. He pointed it at the golem, and said:
"Chodź do mnie!"
Immediately, the golem that was ready to strike her down was pull backwards, flying back in direction to the fox, and landed on its back in front of the tod.
As it did, something crawled out of Lana's clothes and into her arms. It were two geckos, both green and both with gems embedded on their backs. "Make me strong!" The ewe said as both of the geckos wrapped around her wrists by biting on their own tail, and the gems on their backs started to glow.
In this, the ewe jumped forward, raising her fists high and bringing them down on the head of the golem, completely shattering and even producing a small crater on the ground of the bridge.
Emilia blinked as she looked over, and saw a familiar tod looking back at her.
"Hey, Krys!" She said, waving at him, she barely noticed another golem coming her way, but Krys did, and his eyes widened.
"Emilia! Za tobą!" The tod cried out, and the vixen blinked and looked behind herself. She saw the golem right as it rose its spear to strike her. She would have reacted, but at this same moment, a spray of acid spit flew through the air and hit the golem right on the head, causing it to erode away, causing the golem to fall to the ground, unmoving.
The vixen blinked, and she looked back at them, just in time to see a giant two-headed white snake slithering next to her brother.
"And we sss-still have to sss-save you mammals-sss." One of the heads hissed, as they looked in annoyance. The other head looked to be amused actually, as it let out a hissing chuckle.
Judy and Nick were being force to move back, as the golems were coming for them. The others on the group were trying to help by firing, but the darts did nothing to stop them. They also tried to dart the enemy mages, but it was hard to have a clear shot by the way they were moving. Some even managed to get a few shots at the horse, but it seemed that he had eyes on the back of his head, for he would swing his flaming cards into the darts, which would fall to the ground uselessly.
Nick and Judy were soon being force to retreat, once they realized there was nothing that they could do at that moment. Meanwhile, Krys, Lana, and the snake were all coming forward, and they looked like they were ready to fight.
Percy had just finished with the piranhas, and he looked at the newcomers, taking special attention to the great white snake that was with them, as he looked at it with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey there, Percy." Lana said to him, "It makes a while, doesn't it?"
He looked at the ewe, and he was actually able to smile.
"Hey, Lana. Sorry for the fish." He said, gesturing to the many dead flying piranhas that laid on the ground around him. "So, is the snake new? I'm pretty sure I never saw you use it before."
"It's not mine." The ewe said, rather casually. Meanwhile, the snake took forward and looked at the horse as it hissed:
"We are not u-sss-sed by anyone." One head spoke, and the other confirmed:
"We only do things-sss when we want to."
"Oh, it speaks." Percy said, looking at the snake. "Now that is an interesting creature. Too bad I'll have to destroy it." He said, raising a hoof that held a flaming kaleidoscope hooffull of cards on it. The two heads hissed at the horse.
"Try, mammal!" The head said, as both of them looked back at the horse, and they were about to try something, when something landed on them from behind, making them fall forwards.
Tyson had just been toss in their direction. It was Zane who tossed him, and he had a few cuts and bruises, but he looked to be pretty satisfied.
"Hah! Take this, Tyson!" He said, as if bragging, as he watched the tiger trying to get up, while the snake under him forced him out of its back. "Thought you could defeat me, well, I just showed you!"
"Hey! Who is-sss throwing cats-sss at us-sss!?" The snake said as it got Tyson from under its back. The tiger was still dazed, but the snake now turned both its heads to Zane. "Do you have thing for throwing things-sss at others-sss?"
"Oh, shut up, you enlarged leather belt!" The tiger said to the snake. "Familiars are supposed to do obey mages' orders, not to talk!"
They blinked at him.
"Enlarged... leather belt?" One head said, as both of them looked at the tiger, their hood flaring out as they hissed at him.
Before Zane could react, one of the heads sprayed a squirt of acid that flew right past his ear and landed on the other side. As he heard the sound of fizzling, he looked over, to see that there was dent forming where the spit fell, as it ate away through the solid rock.
The tiger turned around in time to see the snake getting ready to spit again, and this time, he was fast enough to react. By slamming his hammer on the ground, he caused a sizable chunk of it to just pop out of the ground, and serve to intercept the next squirt spat on his direction.
It connected with the chunk of rock and fizzled loudly, as the acid ate through the rock, which fell back to the ground. The acid produce foul fumes as it ate through the stone, which temporarily cut of the sight, but as it cleared, they all saw Zane looking back at them, and he looked pretty angry.
"You scaly worm!" The tiger said, as he once more slammed the ground with the hammer, causing the ground in front of himself to shatter in multiple pieces. With another movement of his hammer, he caused all of the broken pieces of the ground to fly forward, as a wave of shrapnel.
Everyone had to jump out of the way to avoid the damage, but some of them only barely avoided it. Krys and Emilia managed to dodge just in time, but one hit Emilia, as it sliced through her leg, but the damage was minor. Lana avoided them completely by lying flat on the ground, along with Tyson, who only got some minor scratches on his back form the flying shrapnel. The snake, on the other hand (so to speak), was hit by a number of them, as they pierced through its scales and produced wounds, causing the snake to hiss as it slithered out of the way, but none of the wounds looked to be fatal.
As for Percy, he made a mortal jump as soon as he realized what Zane was doing. He made a backflip over the shrapnel as he moved on the air, and landed right by Zane's side. If he had not done so, he would have been a casualty as well.
"You know, since we are on the same side, you could at least give me a warning when you are going to do something like that." The horse said to him, not sounding angry or even annoyed as he looked at the tiger, who completely ignored him. He was still too focus on the ones who he recognized as his enemies.
However, he didn't failed to notice Tyrell, still on his stone bounds, getting on his feet and looking at him with anger, before lunging at him. Zane didn't even turned to look at him, merely turning his paw on his direction and making a downward sweeping gesture, causing the other tiger to slam into the ground, unable to move.
"The guy who hired us said that we would have problem." The tiger said as he looked at the recovering mammals. "But I wish he could have been more specific on the amount of trouble that we were going to find."
As they got up, some were getting ready to attack, but Zane was faster, and he slammed his hammer on the ground. Almost at the same time, the ground underneath their feet just burst, throwing them around. Tyson himself almost fell out of the bridge as he collided with the handrail.
"Hey, you! Stop it!" Judy said, as she and Nick both pointed their guns at the tiger, and so did others around, including Lapinsky. Zane barely minded them, as he was too focused on the mammals in front of himself.
In fact, he was so focus on them that he totally failed to notice the shadow moving behind himself. He barely even saw when Marceli jumped on him, his dagger ready to strike at the tiger from behind.
However, someone else saw, and Percy was quick to react. He quickly moved and got on the way, swinging his leg at the fox violently.
Marceli, by his skill, was able to use his arms to block the kick, which stung both of his arm heavily as he was propel to the side, to the group of rescue that was looking. Poor agent Lapinsky didn't even had the time to react as the fox flew on his direction and landed on him, sending both mammals to the ground.
This caused an immediate reaction from the group, as many pulled the triggers and started to fire darts at the horse and the tiger, only for the horse to swiftly intercept all darts in the air with flaming cards, causing the darts to fall to the ground ruined and smothering.
Zane looked as if he was ignoring all of that, but as soon as Percy was done, he rose his hammer and slammed it hard on the ground, creating a small crater. Instantaneously, cracks came out of the crater and moved in direction of the rescue party, and once they arrived, they erupted, causing pieces of broken stone and of dust to fly upwards, surprising and blinding the cops.
"Nice one." Percy said to his tiger friend, but Zane was still focus on the mages and familiar that he was fighting.
"Mundanes should know their place." The tiger said, all of his attention "They should know not to meddle in the business of mages."
He walked in their direction as they recovered, and the mages were already getting up. The snake, on its turn, was still on the ground, squirming a bit due to the pain, but it was far from being defeated now. Among the ones getting up was Krys, who was already pointing his paw with the sowilo rune in it, and it was already producing a flame on it as he got ready to fire.
However, Zane caught on it, and he was quick to react. With another blow from his hammer, he caused the ground to erupt on a line in front of himself, prompting them to dive out of the way quickly, including Tyson, who had to move out of the path of the eruption as not to be blast out of the bridge.
Krys, on his end, barely avoided the attack, and he fell to the ground, groaning as he tried to recover from the blow. Meanwhile, Zane was walking to him, growling in anger as he looked at the fox as if he was ready to maul him.
All of that under the gaze of a camera, that was blinking as it focused on the developing scene.
"Oh, no!" Dawn said as she looked at the image. "Krys!"
Everyone was looking at the developing scene as they companied it through the camera, and they were all on the edge of their seats, so to speak, as they saw the mages and the rescue team have trouble.
Ben looked very distressed as he saw his snake getting hit, and everyone was nervous as they saw that the enemy was having advantage. Dawn, in particular, looked very distressed when she saw Krystin getting hit by the attacks.
"Man, I guess that fox is toasted." The donkey said. Someone could notice that he actually had some short of satisfaction on his voice as he watched this. However, Dawn did not shared of this satisfaction, as she was watching it all with genuine concern, and she was quick to act.
Moving away from the image, she turned to someone and said:
"Open the door, now!" She spoke that with such authority that the person who heard didn't even hesitated into doing what she told. Meanwhile, the ewe reached out for two more pieces of chalk, and started to drawn another circle on the ground, and this one looked very different from the other ones that she had drawn before.
The circle was ready in about a few seconds, and some were amazed at how fast that ewe could draw. The ewe then held both the purple and the red chalk in her hooves, and chanted a few lines in a language that no one else understood.
Then, she tossed both of them on the inside of the circle, only for them to burst into a purple flame, startling who was around. But the ewe was not done yet.
"Fumus et cinis voluntatem parere. Tenebris fingunt te et ministra mihi." She said, as she looked at the flames, before she blew over the fire snuffing it out as it produced black smoke and purple ashes.
This smoke and ashes moved across the air, forming a shape that soon became solid. It looked like three big, quadruped creatures, with big mouths and sturdy bodies, with long claws and spikes coming out of their backs. The creatures had elongated heads that looked like a mix of a reptile with a canine of some kind, and it had a mouth full of sharp teeth, but devoid of eyes. The creatures were pitch black in color, but they had purple light coming from inside of them, as if there was a fire burning inside of them.
Everyone took steps back as they looked at the creatures that just materialized in front of them, as not only they made them very scared for their appearance, but also something about them was just terrifying. Among the ones giving several steps back, were the Hoppses, who looked at the entities, their noses twitching madly, including Bonnie, although she, unlike the rest of her family, was able to recognize these creatures, and so did Chloe, as her husband pulled her close to his body protectively...
"Hellhounds?"
Dawn looked at the entities, which looked back at her, before she said:
"Go fetch!"
The entities growled and turned around, as their bodies partially dissolved in smoke and purple ash, making them look like clouds in the form of the monsters, and these clouds immediately flew forward, passing by the open door, which was promptly close shut as soon as they left.
Everyone on the room was silent as they tried to process what had just happened, while the ewe remained right where she was, eyes closed. As she opened them, she had a fierce expression on her face, and her eyes both were pitch-black like the starless night sky.
Zane had just tried to deliver another blow at Krystin with his hammer, with the fox just barely dodging another blow that was able to open a small crater on the ground. He was having troubles to fight him, along with the rest of the group, as Zane was proving to be a challenge to them.
Meanwhile, Percy was keeping the rest of the rescue crew at a distance with his flames, as they were unable to get close enough of him to attack, and the horse intercepted all of the darts that were aim either at him or at the tiger.
"Someone else thinking that this isn't being easy?" Nick said as they were still unable to get through due to the wall of kaleidoscopic fire that the horse had erected that prevented them from going forward. Even Lapinsky and Marceli were unable to actually do anything. However, it was unknown if the situation would actually be a true challenge to the agent bunny, once the impact of Marceli falling on him had knocked him unconscious, and he was now groaning as others checked on him, to see if he was okay. He was unharmed, but he would remain unconscious for a few more minutes. Meanwhile, Zillah Ferron had something in her paws, and she was looking at the wall of fire ahead of herself.
"Everyone stay back!" She shouted, and showed that she was carrying... a thermos?
Removing the lid of the apparatus, she pointed the opening of the thing at the wall of flame, as the magic circuits on her arm lighted up and she passed magical energy into the object. The reaction was instantaneous, as the apparatus started to suck out the rainbow flames.
Many looked amazed at this, however, the horse countered it by feeding more flames to the wall, keeping it in place while the ferret tried to suck the flames to inside of her thermos.
"Just a little longer..." Zillah said, "They will be here anytime now."
Meanwhile, Krys had just fallen prone to the ground, dazed by the last blow that he had barely avoided.
"Now I got you, fox!" The tiger said, raising the hammer high, all under the horrified gazes of the rest of the group.
However, he was interrupt as a sound was hear through the mall.
It was long and terrifying.
It sounded like a howl.
"Is there someone howling?" Judy asked, as everyone had stopped when they heard the sound, and now they were looking around, as if they were trying to figure out where it was coming from.
"It doesn't sound like a wolf." One of the wolves on the group said, as they surprisingly were not howling along.
The sound continued for a few more moments, and it was getting closer, what sent chills up and down everyone's spines.
Soon another sound was being hear. The sound of some kind of feral growling and snarling, and it was getting closer fast.
Zane turned his head just in time to see them come.
Black and purple clouds in the shape of monstrous beasts, snarling and growling as they flew in direction to the tiger.
Zane reacted immediately, as he hit the ground and caused pieces of it to fly in direction to the creatures, only for them to pass right through the clouds without any damage to them whatsoever.
"Hellhounds?" Percy said as she looked at it, and he had gotten distracted, which was what Zillah needed to continue her work and actually start to reduce the fire from the wall.
The creatures approached Zane, as they now became less of cloud and more of tangible entities.
The tiger reacted immediately, by trying to hit one on the head with his hammer, only for the creature to turn into a cloud and the head of his hammer to pass right through it.
Immediately after, the head of the creature once more became tangible, and it advanced to the tiger, and bite on his arm hard.
The tiger roared as he stumbled back, and the creature let go of his arm. The place that was bite now had a marking that was half a bite scar and half a burn.
Two more creatures were now surrounding the tiger, and now they all took turns attacking him and biting him, leaving behind charred bite marks.
Zane even tried to return by hitting the creatures, but they were nothing more than smoke and ash. The hammer passed right through them. He was clearly at disadvantage there.
"P-Percy!" The tiger said, turning to the horse, who had been out of that until now. "Percy, help me!"
The horse looked at him for a few moments, before sighing and jumping into action.
He quickly produced blasts of rainbow flame in the shapes of suits of cards. These blows were not physical, but made of heat and flame, and so, they were actually able to affect the entities, as they were able to chip away pieces of the smoke and ash that formed them.
Meanwhile, the groups were recovering.
Tyson took this opportunity to go to his brother, and to start working on his bounds. They were too strong for him to break, but he had help, as Lana came to his side and used well place blows to shatter the rock, allowing the tiger to be freed.
Meanwhile, Zillah was still sucking out flames from the wall, but she had to stop at some point. According to her, "it is at its limit", as the thermos on her paws was vibrating slightly, as if it was about to burst. But she had already opened a hole in the wall, one that was big enough so the group was able to cross to the other side, and that they did.
Percy still fought the hellhounds, and he had actually managed to destroy one of them. However, he soon stopped as he looked behind himself.
"Oh, dear..." The horse said as he looked over, and so did Zane. They were now looking at a crowd of mammals staring daggers at them. Tyson and Tyrell standing side by side. The enforcers and cops all gathered and ready to fight. The other mages by their sides. The two-headed snake looking at them with a murder shine in its two pairs of red eyes. Even the two remaining hellhounds moved forward and now joined the crowd that was opposing the two.
"Oh, come on!" Zane said exasperated, and Percy looked at them for a few moments, before he made a sudden movement, producing a big heart of flames on his hoof, which glowed in a threatening red coloration.
"My voice is thunder and hurricane." Tyrell said as he walked forward, standing in the front of the group, and he took a deep breath.
Right as the horse fired the flaming heart at them, Tyrell roared.
However, this was no ordinary roar.
This roar was so powerful that it generate waves in the air, and projected towards as if it was a physical attack. The sound was so loud that many of the ones who were close had to cover their ears. The power of the roar was so great that it affected the flaming heart, snuffing it out into nothing more than sparks.
However, more than just undoing the heart, the roar continued forward and impacted into the two enemy mammals. Now, it was not strong enough to knock them prone or to send them flying, but it was strong enough to thrown them of balance, and force them to reel back by a couple feet.
They had been push back around ten feet before Tyrell stopped roaring, and now was staring daggers at the two, his teeth bared at them.
The ones behind were quite impressed by what they just saw.
"What the heck..." McChill said.
"Now that is what I call a roar." Nick said to Judy, as both of them still had their ears rigging from what had just happened.
"Well, I guess that is it." Percy said, his ears also ringing, as he looked at Zane, and the tiger looked back at him.
Zane looked pretty angry at something, still, there was a resigned look on his face. He knew as well as Percy that they could not win something like that. With so many enemies who were so skilled, it would be hard even for them to get the better in such a situation. So, that left them only one option:
To run.
Turning around, the horse and the tiger both sprint into running.
This, of course, prompted some to run after them. Among them, Emilia and Judy.
"Where are you two going?" Emilia said as she rushed, ignoring her uncle calling her name.
"Stop in name of the law!" Judy cried out as she dashed by Emilia's side, ignoring Nick's cries at her.
The two passed by the mammals that they had been controlling and that were unconscious at the ground. Judy and Emilia were still hot on their heels, along with Lana and the two-headed snake.
The two realized that they were being follow, and they were not willing to take that now.
With a roar, once they were out of the bridge, Zane turned around and rose his hammer high. He cried something in another language, and brought the hammer down on the edge of the bridge.
The result was instantaneous.
Cracks appeared all along the bridge, as the ground that formed it cracked and almost exploded.
The one in pursuit barely had time to hold themselves back and to avoid falling into the gap that was being create. They had to recover quickly so they could move back into the bridge, once it was still falling.
By the time the bridge stopped falling apart, a good portion of it had already come down, and there was a sizable gap between them and the two mages, who looked at it for a few instant, before they turned around and ran to the inside of the floor, disappearing from sight.
"You cowards-sss!" The left head of the snake hissed at them threateningly, as they had moved out of sight and out of reach for them to attack, even from a distance. "We sss-should have sss-spat acid at them when we had the chance!"
The other head agreed, and meanwhile, the group was recovering, with the ones that almost fell still recovering, and others coming to check on them.
As the group recovered, they paid attention to some very weird things that were in there. Namely: the two-headed giant snake, and the pair of dogs made of smoke.
"Hellhounds", was how the enforcers called them.
"Dawn." Krys said as he looked at both of these creatures, which looked back at them for a few moments (although they had no eyes to be able to look) before they vanished in the air, in smoke and purple-colored sparks.
As the tension of the battle was finally fading, the group was able to recover and relax, but not by much.
They were able to check on themselves for the wounded. To check on the hostages, which were still shake. They were able to check on the darted mammals (the bridge stopped falling apart before reaching them). They were even able to check on Lapinsky, whom was still lying unconscious after Marceli collided with him.
All the while, Meerkovitz kept his eyes open through the scope of his rifle, to be sure that no other foe would be coming their way while they recovered. The meerkat was making sure to keep his eyes peeled for anything that could... Wait, these guys had cameras?
"Come on, dude!" Sully said as he looked at the burly cops that were preventing him and his friends from going inside. "We need to get this! The Enforcers said that we could have our story!"
They were trying to get into the mall to be able to "get their story". However, they kept being barred by the cops in front, who were not letting any civilian to get inside, especially not teenagers.
Sully was still insisting, saying that the enforcers had given him permission to come with them so they could have the story. That it was an agreement that he had with them.
Of course, that was a big fat lie, and the two mammals who were with him knew it. The Enforcers only agreed to give them an interview; they didn't said anything about them following around, neither before and much less after the event of the mall. The cops too didn't believed that, and they continued to deny entry.
"Sully, let's go, we are getting nowhere." Patrick said, as he and Shawn did their best to push their pig friend away from the cops. After a while, the pig begrudgingly accepted that he was not going to convince the cops, and that trying to go inside was not an option.
Soon, they were leaving, and the two mammals actually felt relieved.
"Why do you even wanna go inside, anyway?" Shawn asked the pig. "This kind of thing is dangerous!"
"It could be all that we need!" The pig said to both of his friends, "Don't you guys see that this could make us into legends?"
"It could also get us killed!" Shawn said to him. The memories of their first encounter with mages were still on his mind as if they had been burn with hot iron in his brain. He could not forget the flash of the teeth of that wolf as he looked at him with a sadistic gleam on his eyes. What would have he actually done to Shawn and to the other two if the cops and the ferret had not interfered?
"Well, they already didn't let us go inside, so I guess that we will have to forget it." Patrick said, but Sully looked back at him.
"That's where you are wrong." The pig said, and he had a smirk on his face. This was a smirk that both the hyena and the sheep knew well, and it made them very uneasy. "We just have to use another mean."
"They are all around the place, and all of the doors are blocked." Patrick said to the pig. "How do you think we could get past them and get inside?"
Sully looked back at him, with a smile, and he said:
"The same way that you got inside a few times when they were still building it."
Patrick blinked behind the fur that flopped over his eyes, and he had to hold back a groan, as he knew exactly what the pig was talking about...
Many months ago, Patrick had found a way to get inside the building, and he used it a few times to go inside while they were still building. It was not allow, but it was a chance to see the place before it inaugurated, not to mention it was a good place for his parkour. Of course, he didn't told anyone about that, save for Sully and Shawn, who were his best friends.
Now he wished that he had only told Shawn.
"We use that same passage that you found and get inside of the building." Sully said, already explaining his plan to the two. "Once we are inside-"
"We will get captured and mauled by crazed mammals and by these golems." Patrick said to him.
"We can be careful." Sully reasoned, but his friends were having none of it.
"We will be in deep trouble as soon as we go inside." Shawn said to him, looking back at the pig. "We are a small pig, a scrawny hyena and a geek sheep. They will be all over us and get is before we can react! We would not be able to defend ourselves and would be easy targets as soon as they came our way! We would be sitting ducks!"
Sully looked at him, and he was getting ready to give an answer. However, he was unable to, for he knew that Shawn was right.
They would really have no way of defending themselves once they were inside. They were a horde of mammals and of "stone golems" (as Shawn described them, something that he took from his B&B games), and they were only three teenagers, and they would be easy targets to them.
"We would not last five minutes inside, Sully." Patrick said to him, "Not unless we found mages to go inside with us. Just let it go, dude."
He didn't wanted to, but he now saw himself with little choice on the matter.
He really had to admit that it would be suicide to go inside without the help of a mage to defend them. And where would they find a mage now?
Sully sighed, and soon he was walking along with his two friends. They still tried to comfort him, saying to him that this was not a total loss, for they had managed to get some interview with the enforcers before the events. Still, the pig looked grumpy for not getting the amazing thing that he truly wanted.
As they walked, they passed by three mammals who were apparently having a discussion. A mature vixen and two adult tigers.
They barely paid mind to them as they passed by them and turned the corner, until one of the tigers said:
"We really can't do anything!? For crying out loud, we are all mages!"
It took only a few seconds before Sully's head popped from around the corner, as he now looked at the three mammals.
"We should be able to do at least something in this situation!" The tiger said to the other big feline and to the vixen. "Especially you, who once were-" The tiger said to the vixen, but she cut him off.
"But I'm not anymore."
"But you still haven't lost your touch, right?" The tiger asked her, and the vixen looked down, as if she was unable to answer.
"I say we go inside like mages would!" The tiger said to them, "We go back to the guys who denied our entrance, and we make them let us inside. It is not like we will be using mental interference for personal gain, we would be using it to help others the ones we care about!"
"We would still have trouble to get inside." The other tiger said to him. "The doors are blocked, and I don't doubt that they put bounded fields around the doors."
"We can get our way around them!"
"They would probably notice, and we would only be in trouble." The tiger said to him. "We also cannot go inside without calling attention, have you seen how many eyes and how many cameras are all around?"
"Why is that a problem now!?" The tiger demanded to his companion. "Dammit, Tyson, Tyrell and Maria are in there! They might be in serious danger! Even these two would have trouble in a situation like that! Are you not worried with them at all, Tyrone!?"
"Of course I am, Tyler!" The other tiger, Tyrone, said to the first tiger, who was Tyler. "But I'm trying to be reasonable around here! We can't simply rush inside without a plan! This way we will only put ourselves in danger and we won't be able to help them at all! We need to think before we act!"
"There might be no time!" Tyler said back at him. "They might be dying at this moment! We need to get there now!"
"How!?" The other tiger said. "If the ones inside even suspect we are going inside we could be putting everyone else inside in danger, including our brothers and our best friend! We would not be helping them at all! How do we go inside without letting them know what we are going!?"
The two tigers looked at each other, as none of them knew what to say about that.
"I might know how." Sully said, all of sudden making the three mages all turn their heads to the pig, who looked back at him.
"Sully, what are you doing!?" Shawn whispered to him, as he and Patrick both stood by the sides of the pig, looking at the three mammals who looked back at him.
"We can get you guys inside." The pig said to them. "We know a way around security and to get inside without being seen. We could show you guys." He said, and the mages all shared looks among themselves.
"If." The pig added, causing them all to look at him more intently. "You guys let us come with you and record what you do for our page on ZooTube." He said, gesturing to Patrick, who still had the camera. The hyena shied away a little bit. "And protect us while we are inside, of course."
The mages looked at them for a few moments. Tyler had a raised eyebrow, while Tyrone seemed like he was seriously considering the idea. However, the vixen beat them both to it.
"Deal." She said, surprising everyone on how blunt she was. They all looked at her.
"My son is in there, and I know he is in danger in there." She said, looking at all of them. "If you can take me inside, then I'll go along, as long as you stay out of my way."
The way she spoke was serious, and everyone knew that she was not joking. This caused the Mage Chasers to feel a bit nervous. However, the tigers considered what she said, and soon, they both are deciding to go along with her idea.
The three mages accepted to go with the teenagers, and Sully was very happy for it, while Shawn and Patrick are nervous, as they were already dreading what could happen to them in there.
The tigers both noticed that the teenagers were acting strange, with the hyena and sheep being somewhat worried, while the pig seemed to be a bit... aloof. They were a bit worried about bringing them along.
Sophie Wilde, however, barely cared about that.
She only wanted to go inside and help her son...