Spending a night out was a good way of recharging your energies to face a new day.
Of course, the night out that Judy and nick had planned for their families did not developed the way they expected, with the surprise appearances of Noah Wilde and Verona Höhle, as well as the coming of that jackal who seemed to have some serious problem with these two and nearly took it out on them.
Still, the families both agreed that the night had been enjoyable, although the ending gave them a bit too much emotion.
"I'm missing BunnyBurrow already." Stu would say to them after they left the restaurant. "That place is a bit boring, but you can't deny that, as of lately, it seems way safer than Zootopia."
Even Judy saw herself forced to agree with her father in this. Still, she felt glad that all of them liked the night out that she and Nick had provided, and they had to admit themselves that the night out was something that they truly needed to relax after the day that they had.
It was good to spend a while with their families and have a good time. It was what it took to refuel their energies and get ready for what waited for them in the following day.
And the following day came soon, after a night sleep and an early wake up.
Judy's alarm clock sounded within the early morning, as it was usual for the bunny, so she could be ready for the new day that waited for her.
Nick met her in front of her building as usual, and he and Judy took the train to their station and walked to the station as they did every single day.
Little did they knew of what was waiting for them in there...
Upon arriving, they stopped at the front desk, as they usually did. In there was Lewis Deermond, the stag who would be staying at the front desk while Ben was on his health leave, courtesy of the cheetah's mother, who had a word with the Chief and somehow managed to convince him to give the front desk officer a few days off for him to recover.
"I gotta talk to her and see if she can ask the boss to give me a weekend off any day." Nick said to Judy joking, and the bunny could only smile and shake her head at her partner.
"Officer Deermond." Judy said to him, and the stag soon was looking at both of them.
"Hey, Wilde, Hopps!" He said at the two, "About time you two arrived, the Chief has been waiting for you."
"Our dear Buffalo Butt postponed today's briefing only so he could wait for us?" Nick said, and placed a paw to his chest. "Oh, I'm deeply touched."
"We had a problem with our train." Judy quickly said, as she had been preparing to apologize to Bogo himself when he invariable demanded to know why the two were late, and said that if the reason was not good enough then they could both get fired. "We'll be going now." She said, pushing her partner in direction to the briefing room, and telling him to "not even think of saying anything stupid."
"The chief is not at the bullpen." Deermond said, causing the two to stop and look at him. "He is at his room, along with the enforcers."
"What? At his room?" Judy said.
"With the enforcers?" Nick repeated, and the fox and bunny shared a look, and Deermond nodded at the two.
"And they are all waiting for you." He said, and he reached out for the intercom. "Chief, it's Deermond. They have both just arrived."
The equipment buzzed, before the Chief's voice came in answer:
"Good. Send them both in now."
Deermond looked at them, and he nodded.
The two cops could not help but share another look among themselves.
The Chief was in his office waiting for both of them? And the enforcers were with him? What was going on?
Well, the best way of finding out was going up there with the Chief. So, one elevator ride and soon they both were standing in front of the door, and Judy was the one who would knock, for the Chief's booming voice to answer from the other side:
"Come in!"
And in they went. Inside, they found the Chief sitting behind his desk, with two chairs before it. From one of the chairs, the heads of the enforcers peeked to look at the newcomers. Judy and Nick both looked back at the two foxes, and then they looked at their boss.
By his expression, it seemed that, whatever it was, it was truly serious.
"Close the door and take a seat." Was the Chief's blunt answer, and the two shared a look. They closed the door on their way in and both climbed into one of the big chairs, now standing in it as they looked at their boss, who looked back at them. Just like the enforcers, who were both sitting on their own chair, Marceli with the machine in front of himself and Emilia with her feet dangling over the edge of the chair that was much too big for them both.
There was a brief silence, and then, Nick broke it:
"Okay, why don't someone just say what we have done wrong and in how much trouble we are in?" He asked, looking around, and Bogo sighed.
That fox was truly incorrigible.
"You two have done nothing, Wilde." Bogo said, looking at them, "At least, I hope you haven't. Even because it was what I spent nearly twenty minutes telling internal affairs."
Nick and Judy blinked.
Internal affairs?
That division investigated cases of grave police misconduct! These mammals investigated the cases of corruption!
Even Nick didn't had a witty remark for that, for now he understood that the situation in question was really serious, if the guys from internal affairs were involved in this.
"Sir... why were you talking to internal affairs?" Judy asked.
"And why was it about us?" Nick asked, now feeling a bit worried himself.
Bogo looked at the two officers, and he asked:
"Have you two saw the ZooTube for videos this morning?"
They shared a look, and answered negatively.
"I imagined." Bogo said, looking at them, "If you had, you would have seen that there are some videos about the dinner you two were in last night."
"Excuse me?" Judy said, looking at her boss with a surprised expression. He looked back at her and Nick.
"Two mages nearly starting a scene in a restaurant?" Bogo asked, looking at both of them, "Of course someone would pay attention to it. And of course someone with a cellphone would record it and post it on ZooTube. They recorded everything, including when the jackal talked to both of you."
"Really?" Nick asked, looking at his boss, "Do I look good in it? Because I didn't really had time to preen my tail back on that day."
Judy gave her partner a glare, and so did Bogo. Still, Bogo was able to ignore the fox and focus his attention on the phone that he fished out of his pocket, and soon he was fumbling into it, as he accessed the video that he spoke about online.
"A couple mammals took the video and posted it right after it happened, and they picked up a lot." Bogo said, as he fumbled through the videos. "They picked up the bigoted bunny being told off by that doe, the discussion that the jackal made with them, the giant fireball..."
As he said that, he selected one of these videos.
"Of course, the guys from the City Hall and internal affairs saw the videos, and there is a particular part that really captured their attention."
As the Chief said that, he moved the bar to position the video in a certain point, and then he pressed play, showing it to the two officers, who were able to look at the phone that was meant for a much bigger mammal.
It showed the images of the jackal caught from the back, and he looked like he was rambling.
"So, in these cases, it can be more convenient for them if the problem can be avoided altogether. " the jackal spoke, as whoever it was that was filming focused on him. "Maybe some information in a case being investigated can get to their ears so they can do something about it. Maybe some piece of evidence that would compromise them could disappear. Maybe the police could simply look the other way and pretend that nothing happened."
It still recorded the jackal, including when he turned his attention away from the bunny and fox on the table, and to other bunny and fox that were near. "In this case, I guess everyone can agree that it would be convenient to have relatives on the ZPD." As the jackal said that, the camera zoomed on the faces of the two cops.
That was when Bogo paused the video, once it was basically all that needed to be said. It didn't took a Sherlock Howlmes to figure out what this was about.
Judy and Nick both looked as their boss pulled his phone back. Nick had his arms crossed, and a frown on his face before he spoke:
"So, because of what that jackal said, now the guys in internal affairs think that we might actually work for these mage clans?"
"This is ridiculous!" Judy said; looking very outraged that someone could think that she and Nick would use of their position to arbitrarily favoring anyone, even if it was their own relatives. Relatives with which they didn't had any form of contact before, it was to be added.
"Yeah, I said something like that when the guy from internal affairs came here and asked me if you two were really trustworthy." Bogo said, and he looked at them. "You two know how I am careful with the ones who join Precinct 1, and that I pick them myself whenever I have the chance." He said, looking at them, "And it really displeases me when someone comes in here and accuses my officers of doing anything that conducts police misconduct."
"Well, at least we know that you are on our side." Nick said, and Bogo looked at him, expecting to see the usual smirk that he did when he made his little jokes.
However, that smirk was nowhere in sight, instead, there was a seriousness as Nick looked at the buffalo. This was enough to convince Bogo that, at least in this occasion, the fox was being completely honest when he said that, and he almost seemed glad, or maybe even thankful.
"Hey, we are on your side as well." Emilia said, looking at them, and the cops both looked at them with a bit of surprise.
"What? We like you guys." The vixen said to the two, "You are nice to have around, and you didn't looked like you worked for the clans. I mean, if you did, I'm pretty sure that we would have noticed."
"The clans don't need the ZPD to work in their favor to get what they want." Marceli said to the two, "They have other means to get in it." He looked at them, before speaking, "Don't worry, no one in this room thinks that you are double agents."
"The guys in internal affairs, however..." Bogo said, casting the attention back to himself, "Don't know you two so well, and neither do some of the mammals in the City Hall. The fact that these videos seem to have become popular is also part of the issue, once it means that there are more mammals around seeing these accusations against you two."
Nick and Judy fully understood. They both had been on the force for long enough to know that accusations to a cop's integrity were a serious issue.
"They consider seriously any suspicion or accusation of improper behavior within the ZPD, even if unfunded." Bogo said, looking at the two, "And, with this accusation in particular being directed at two of the ZPD's icons, and with both of them being confirmed to be related to two mage families, they are taking it rather seriously."
"Okay, but thinking that Officer Wilde and I would use of our position to offer help to someone is insulting!" Judy said, and Bogo looked back at her.
"I understand that you feel like this, Hopps. Believe me." The buffalo said as he looked at the bunny, "But this kind of accusation is serious enough that someone has to look into it. They are even doing that because of the public, once they know that someone could make a noise because of it. Maybe the same guys that are still trying to start anti-mage protests."
"Yeah, because everyone knows that our mothers used to belong to these mage families." Nick said, and Bogo nodded.
"Don't worry." Emilia said, looking at them. "We are on your side on this. We will let these 'internal affair' guys know that you two are so clean that you sparkle."
Judy and Nick looked back at her, and Marceli looked like he was about to say something, when the machine before him started to work once more. The black tod then turned his attention to the machine, and read the lines being write in it.
"Message from the bosses?" Nick asked, as everyone looked at the black tod, and after a while, he looked up at them.
"Yes, I reported about all of the ones we talked with yesterday." Marceli said to them. "He is just saying that I did a good work and that I should continue the investigations, and that I..."
The black tod was saying, but he trailed when the machine wrote another line. He read it and suddenly his expression became more serious.
"What happened?" Nick asked, looking at Marceli, but the black tod didn't gave him attention.
The black tod was soon typing on the machine, and he had a serious expression as he type some words in there.
The answer came after a few seconds, and the tod still had a serious expression as he typed an answer.
The machine continued to answer, and the tod continued to write his own phrases in there in the runic letters.
The ones around looked at him, with Emilia, who was the closer, even tried to look over his shoulder, to see what was being written in there.
The other three mammals on the room looked at the tod that seemed to have forgotten all about them as he typed on the machine. They even traded looks among themselves, as they noticed that the fox seemed to become more serious with each message.
At a point, there was a series of three messages from the machine, and when the last one was written, Marceli only stood in there, facing the machine, for nearly a minute. Then the machine typed one last message, and the black tod hesitated a little, before he typed an answer and sighed.
Now the fox was only sitting in the chair, looking at the machine as if he wanted to punch it. All of the mammals around looked at him.
"Mieczyslaw?" Bogo asked, but the fox didn't answered.
"Uncle Marcel?" Emilia tried, but the fox acted like he couldn't hear her. Eventually, the tod looked at the buffalo.
"Officers Wilde and Hopps are both still assigned to accompany us during our investigations, right?" he asked, looking at Bogo, and the buffalo noticed something on the eyes of the fox, as if he had just received an order that he would rather not follow. He knew because he was sure that he had the same look on his own face more than just a few times in the past.
"That is correct." Bogo said, and the fox nodded at him, before turning his gaze to the two other mammals in there.
"We have one more assignment today." He said to the two, "There is another mammal that we need to question about the events of New Den Plaza. Someone who we didn't talked with yesterday."
"Okay then." Nick said, quite glad to have something to distract himself from the guys that were thinking he and Judy were double agents. "So, who are we going to speak with?"
He had a smirk on his muzzle, but that smirk vanished as soon as Marceli answered:
"Benjamin Clawhauser."
This granted all of the cops present to stop and look at the black tod.
"Excuse me?" Bogo said, looking at the fox, and Marceli looked back at him.
"He is an ex-mage, and he was in there."
"Yes, but you don't think that Clawhauser actually had anything to do with that, do you?" Judy asked, looking at the tod, and he looked back at her.
"I don't." He said, looking back at the bunny, "But the Association wants him to be questioned in request of the clans. They claim that Clawhauser could be a subject of interest due to his... history."
"What history?" Judy asked, looking at him, and the tod only looked back at her, before he looked away.
"It is a long story and it has nothing to do with this case." The tod said, getting up and looking at them. "Bottom line is that the clans want Clawhauser to be questioned along with all of the other mages and ex-mages present. They are already onto the Association, demanding to know why he was not questioned as well."
"They actually think that Clawhauser had anything to do with that?" Judy said, finding the notion just as ludicrous as the idea of Nick and her using their position to help the clans. Nick was of the same opinion.
"I wanna have a word with these clans. They obviously don't know Spots like we do. He would never do something like that." Nick said; looking at the black tod with arms crossed. "You can type that back to your boss."
"We still need to question him." Marceli said, and he looked back at the red fox. "It is superior orders, and we cannot really avoid them."
"Mieczyslaw." Bogo said, getting up and looking at the fox with a serious gaze. "It is already bad enough that two of my top officers are being targeted by internal affairs because of some jackal's wild accusations. I'm not in the mood for having another one being targeted only for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Especially after he risked his life to help ensure the safety and survival of the mammals stranded on that mall."
The words were calm, but they came out in a way very similar to a tirade. Almost a threat. The black tod looked back at the buffalo with an equally serious expression, as he spoke:
"I'm not wanting to target Benjamin Clawhauser, Chief Bogo." He looked in the eyes of the bigger mammal, "Believe me when I say that I would like nothing more than to leave that cheetah alone and out of this mess. However, right now, this is not an option. I was ordered to go question him, and I want to just go and do it so I can officially rule him out as a suspect and leave him alone."
They looked at each other for a long time, while the three others waited to see what would happen.
Eventually, Bogo sighed, in a resigned way.
"Alright." He said, looking at the tod and looking down at his table.
Marceli nodded at him, and turned to the other two.
"Let's go on your cruiser." He said to the two cops, but Bogo said:
"No."
All the eyes turned to him, and the buffalo looked back at them.
"We are all going on my car."
Nick and Judy looked at him with wide eyes. Emilia, with a tilted head. Marceli with a raised eyebrow.
Just like in the mall, that was not up for discussion.
Bogo was going with them.
After a stop on the lower floor to give to Higgins the job of handing the assignments, they all were into Bogo's vehicle and driving straight into Ben's house.
Benjamin lived in Savannah Central, in a nice place filled with trees, which were already changing colors with the season. The place was rather pleasant, and it had that city look, but at the same time that it had a rather "suburb" look into it, with the small buildings raising side by side, with a classic style and with a nice front on each one.
"So, this is where our dear Spots lives?" Nick said, taking a moment to look around. "Not bad."
"This is the first time that I come to Clawhauser's house." Judy said, looking at the place and noticing how simple it was. Not that she ever expected anything luxurious, of course...
"It is the first time that anyone comes to Clawhauser's house." Bogo said to her, and she looked up at him. "According to the other officers, despite being always friendly, Clawhauser is not really the kind who invites someone to visit his home."
"We have a job to do." Marceli said, remembering this to them, "Lets just get this over with."
They all agreed with him, and soon, the five mammals were walking into the building. The inside had the same simple and homie look of the outside, they were soon seeing which apartment was Ben's, and they were all moving to the stairs to go for the apartment.
"Hey, watch out!" Someone said, and Emilia looked down to see that she had nearly stepped into someone. The mammal in question was a gopher, and he stood on nearly nine inches tall and had sand-colored fur all over his body, with beady eyes that looked at the vixen that nearly stepped on him and buckteeth on his little mouth that was curled in a frown. He was wearing white t-shirt and black pants, and had his tiny paws on his hips.
"Oh, sorry, little guy, I didn't see you." Emilia said, looking down at him, and he looked up at her with a sneer.
"Well, be more careful." He said, looking at her, and that was when his attention turned to the other mammals in there, and he then noticed that some of them had police uniforms.
"May I help you, Officers?" He said, and it was Judy who talked to him.
"No, is alright, Mr. ..."
"Littlefield." The gopher said as he looked up at the bunny, "I'm the landlord in here."
"It's alright, Mr. Littlefield." She said to the gopher, "We have just came in here to have a word with a colleague who lives in your building. Benjamin Clawhauser."
"You came to see Clawhauser?" The gopher asked, looking at them, "Well, I need to have a word with him too."
"Really? What about?" Nick asked, and the gopher looked at him for a few instants, before saying:
"Just wanna talk with him about a few complaints I have bene receiving."
"Complaints?" Marceli asked, "Of what kind?"
"Just some guys that are saying that they feel a bit nervous now that they know that there is a mage living in the building." The gopher said, giving shoulders.
"Ex-mage." Judy said, and the gopher looked at her.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." The gopher said to her, "Still, it is annoying to have guys complaining about that. So, I'm gonna go up there to have a word with Clawhauser about this. I will ask him if he can come in the next condo meeting and tell the guys he won't be casting curses on them. I mean, it's already annoying enough that the guys complain from when he stays up till late watching television really loud, or suspecting that he eats street lizards, I don't want to have them complaining about him having cursed the whole building or some other stuff like that..."
"Eating street lizards?" Judy asked, an expression of disgust on her face, and Nick was the one who spoke.
"Well, Spots is a little fat, but I'm pretty sure that he doesn't goes that far." Nick said, looking at the gopher, "As for the television, you will have to speak with his roommates about that."
The gopher looked at him, blinking. "Roommates?"
"Yeah, the roommates that he has living there with him." Nick said, and he turned to Judy, "Remember, he told us that they lived with him and that they stayed up till late seeing the horror marathon at night."
Judy looked at him, and she then remembered of how that happened months ago.
"Yes, that's right." Judy said that, "Ben did said that his two roommates are the ones who watch television till late."
"Wait a minute." Littlefield said, looking at the two, "Are you saying that Clawhauser is living in his apartment with roommates?"
"Yeah..." Judy said, looking at the gopher, and then she got it. "You... didn't knew?"
"No, I didn't." The gopher said, and he looked at her, before looking away.
"That fat cat is subletting his apartment?" He said to himself, and he scoffed. "That sneaky feline."
Judy and Nick shared a look, as they had the feeling that they had just put Ben in a difficulty situation.
"Now I'm definitely going to have a word with him." He said, walking to the stairs. They were so big that it would be hard for the small mammal to climb them. Luckily, he had something to help him win that obstacle.
Installed at the baseboard of the stair, there was a single chair with a rail-like tral going all the way up the stair. This was the kind of thing that old folks usually had in their homes so they wouldn't have to climb up and down stairs, but it was also the kind of thing that one could have at places in order to allow the smaller mammals to have the same kind of access that the bigger mammals could have. Just one of the many things that made mammals with so many differences among themselves to live in the same place without problem.
Sitting in it, Littlefield pressed a few buttons and soon, the small chair was moving up at a considerable speed.
Considerable for a mammal of that size, as to bigger mammals the speed that it moved was not that much in relation to the distance. The thing should be around five miles per hour, a lot for a gopher, but not much for a bigger mammal. Bogo had a raised eyebrow as he watched as the chair moved across the baseboard of the staircase, and he even shared a look with the other four.
Emilia shrugged at them. Marceli simply started to climb the stairs, as it was very easy to keep up with the little chair that moved up into the stairs, and soon the others were climbing right after.
They all stepped into the respective floor along with the gopher, who was already hopping out of the chair and marching in direction to the cheetah's apartment.
"Subletting his apartment without my permission. He didn't even told me that someone was living there with him. I can deal with him being a mage, but making money on the apartment that I rent to him? Oh, that cat will hear some." Littelfield said as he walked, and Judy was close to him, and she was trying to tell him that Ben was actually not making money of that. Nick, however, thought that it made no difference.
There were laws about subleasing in Zootopia. Even if he was not making money out of it, Ben still needed the permission of his landlord to do something like that. If he was living in there with two roommates without his landlord even being aware of it, then he was really in violation. Something that was quite serious, even if a minor infraction, since Ben himself was a cop.
Soon they were standing in front of the door, and Bogo was the one how knocked.
At the same time, Littleton reached out to what seemed to be a small intercom on the baseboard by the side of the door. He picked up something from around his neck and inserted it in an opening, and this caused the doorbell to ring.
"This is something that I had installed." He said to the bigger mammals. "It plays a different doorbell, so the tenants know that it's me."
"Nice thing to have." Nick said looking at the small gopher as he placed the necklace back under his shirt, and soon, there was someone answering the door.
"Hey, Clawhauser! We came here to..." Emilia was saying, but she trailed off when she saw that it was not a cheetah, but a horse who has answered.
"You are not Clawhauser..." Emilia said as she looked at the big horse.
"Mr. Manechester?" Judy asked, looking at Chandler Manechester. The horse looked back at her, as he had been looking down, probably already expecting to see the small landlord, and he seemed surprised for seeing the cops and the enforcers in there.
"May I help you?" He asked, looking at all of them.
"Yes, by telling that fat feline that I need to speak with him!" The landlord said, "No, you know, what? I'll tell him that myself! Where is he?"
The horse looked down, and he blinked.
"O-oh... He is just inside, with the others. We were having a chat and he was introducing me to them. They are quite nice." The horse spoke.
"Them?" Bogo asked, "You mean his roommates?"
"So they are all in there?" The gopher asked, "Good, this makes this whole thing a lot easier." He said, and unceremoniously walked inside, passing between the horse's legs as he walked into the apartment. The horse blinked as he looked down, and soon, the others were going inside the apartment as well.
"What are you even doing here, kid?" Bogo asked Chandler as he walked in.
"Well, I came in to check on Ben, to see if he needed anything." The horse said, "I was surprised for finding out that he wasn't alone in here."
"So, you didn't knew about these roommates as well?" Bogo asked, and the horse shook his head.
"Definitely not."
"Clawhauser! I need to speak with you!" Littlefield said with a surprisingly loud voice, despite his small size (of course, that made his squeakily voice sound even more high-pitched, making it quite comical) "With all of you!"
"Mr. Littlefield, what may I help... guys?" Ben said, as he saw the gopher, and then saw the others seeming surprised for seeing all of them there, including the enforcers. Meanwhile, they all looked at the two mammals that were on the living room with Ben.
The first one was a cheetah, but he looked pretty different from Benjamin, as while the cop cheetah was corpulent, the cheetah currently sitting on the chair and resting his feet on the table was muscled. It was easy to say to for he was without his black jacket (which was resting on the arm the same chair), and he was wearing a sleeveless shirt that hugged his body, letting others see his bulging chest as his muscled arms were folded behind his head. His fur was around the same coloration as Ben's, and so were his eyes, which looked at the newcomers. He looked like he had been just resting on the chair as they walked in.
The other one was standing, and she looked like she had been looking at a nearby mirror before she turned around to look at the others. She had also taken of her jacket, which was now resting on a hanger and was of a red coloration with a hood. She was wearing a green blouse and green camouflaged pants. She also had a necklace around her neck, with what seemed to be a small glass vial hanging from it, which quite looked like a spherical bottle. She was a... well, actually they found it a bit hard to say what she was. She stood on 5.5 feet tall, being shorter than Ben and the other cheetah, and she was rather attractive, with a body with fat in the right areas. She had a canine muzzle, but her ears were not like those of most canines, actually kind of looking like Benjamin's and the other cheetah's. She had fur of a cooper-coloration with spots all over it, and a cream color on her muzzle and down her neck. Her tail was long like the one of the two felines, but it was also bushy, and it ended in a white tip. Her wine-red eyes were looking at them.
The six newcomers looked at the two, in particular at the female, before Littlefield looked at the plump cheetah once more.
"Clawhauser, for how long have these two been here?" He asked, nearly demanded, and the cheetah blinked, before he stammered a little:
"T-They arrived thirty minutes ago." Ben said, "I was surprised when they came in."
"Yeah, that is because we climbed the fire escape and came in through the back window." The female said, scratching the back of her head. "We should have told him we would be coming in like that."
The gopher looked at her, and back at the cheetah. "I'm not asking when they arrived." He said, looking at the fat cheetah, "I am asking for how long you have been subletting your apartment to them."
"Huh?" Ben said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow and a tilted head.
"Don't even try." The gopher said, "I already know that you have roommates in here. Your friends from the fuzz have told you in."
Ben blinked, looking at the cops in there. Nick mouthed a "sorry" as the cheetah looked at them.
"You can't sublet your apartment without my permission." The gopher said, looking at the cheetah and at the two mammals in that room. "I like to know what happens in my building, and this includes being consulted before a mammal is invited to live in here."
"Oh, so you like knowing who is in your buildings?" The muscular cheetah said, leaning over to look at the gopher. Some of the ones who heard it couldn't help but notice on how familiar his voice sounded...
"I sure do." The gopher said, looking at the stranger, "I'm the kind of guy who likes to know with how many tenants he has to deal with. I have spent a while under the impression that I've been dealing with a single cheetah here in this apartment, and today I found out that I am actually dealing with two cheetahs and..." He said, turning to the female, and looking at her for a few moments.
"Whatever the heck you are."
"Oh, she is a cheetah too." The male said, looking at her, "Well, half-cheetah, anyway. The other half is vixen."
"Oh, a hybrid, huh?" The gopher said, looking the female up and down, and she looked back at him.
"Is that a problem?" She said a paw on her hip as she looked at the small gopher, who looked at her for a few moments before shrugging.
"You know, I'm really quite upset at you, Clawhauser." He said, looking back at the plump cheetah, "This is one more thing that we are going to discuss in the next condo meeting. And you two are coming along."
"We are?" the female asked, looking at the gopher, and so was the muscular cheetah.
"Yes, you are." The gopher said to them, "If you two want to defend your case and continue to live here in this building."
The two mammals looked at the smaller one, shared a look, and looked back at him.
"But we don't live here." The cheetah/vixen hybrid said, looking down at the smaller mammal, who looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "We only came here to check on Ben."
"Wait, you mean you two are not his roommates?" Judy asked, looking as surprised as the gopher, "Then who are you two?"
The question hanged in the air for a few moments, before Ben cleared his throat.
"Mr. Littlefield, Chief Bogo, Judy, Nick." He said, looking at the mammals "I'd like to introduce all of you to Joshua Clawhauser, my twin brother..."
"Sup." The muscular cheetah said with a smirk.
"...and Marceline Foxgrove, my older sister." Ben finished, and the fox/cheetah hybrid nodded at them.
"Nice to meet you."
Everyone looked at the two mammals, some with raised eyebrows, and some with wide eyes. Judy was one who had wide eyes, while Nick was one who had a raised eyebrow.
These two were Josh and Marcy?
"Sister?" Bogo said, looking at the hybrid, and she smiled back at him.
"That's right." She said, looking back at him.
"Twin?" Littlefield said, looking at the muscular cheetah, who now stood and was standing by Ben's side. He smiled back at the gopher.
"You can still see the similarity if you look close." He said as he put an arm around Ben's shoulder.
"They arrived just this morning and they wanted to check on me." Ben said, looking at them.
"We needed to see if Ben was as bad as it had seemed." Josh said, "And to know if we would actually have to beat the crap out of someone for laying a finger on him."
"Luckily he is fine." Marcy said, walking closer to the two cheetahs. "But we still would like to kick someone's tail for doing that to him."
"Oh, guys." Ben said, looking at the two, and the ones around continued to look at them, before Littlefield was the one who broke it.
"Wait, but, you have roommates or not?" The gopher asked, Ben looked at the small rodent, and he looked like he was trying to formulate an excuse or a justification, when the sound of the flush came from a nearby bathroom.
"Okay! Bathroom clean!" A voice came from there, and soon, the door was opening.
"You can thank us-sss with sss-some nice gecko!" The creature said as it slithered out of the open door, startling the ones present. Littlefield in particular.
"S-SNAAAAAAAKE!" The gopher screeched, as he quickly scurried away, looking for protection by clinging at the leg of Bogo, who was looking at the snake, along with the others on the room.
"Oh. Its-sss you." The snake said, as its two pairs of eyes looked at the mammals who had arrived, and they all looked back at the creature, which was bringing a bucket with cleaning products at the end of its tail.
"Fancy sss-seeing you all again." The other head said, and everyone looked at the same creature that they had seen back in the mall. Bogo, in particular, was a bit on guard as he looked at the snake.
"Clawhauser..." The buffalo said, "What is that thing doing here?" He asked to his subordinate, and Ben opened his mouth, but seemed to not really know what to say.
"We live here." The snake answered, and everyone looked at the snake, before Ben finally found his voice, as he cleared his throat, once more calling everyone's attention.
"Guys, I think you already met Slizz and Zass back at the mall, right?" He asked his friends, and he looked at the gopher, "Mr. Littlefield, these are Slizz and Zass and... they kind of live here with me..." He said, looking quite bashful.
"You mean you keep that... that THING in my building!?" The gopher demanded.
"So, your 'roommates' are a giant snake with two heads?" Nick asked, looking at the big reptile.
"How long have you been keeping it here!?" The gopher demanded, looking at the cheetah, who shrunk a little.
"Well, they actually came with me when I moved in." Ben admitted, as if he was explaining to his mother why he was with his paws in the cookie jar. "Remember that huge box that I needed help moving up the stairs when I moved in?"
"We were in that box-sss." One of the heads said, and the gopher looked at the cheetah.
"You've been keeping a dangerous beast in my building ever since you moved in!?" The gopher demanded, "I told you the regulations! Pets are forbidden here! Especially those that can eat me whole!"
"They are not dangerous!" Ben said on his defense, and one of the heads of the snake then said:
"Yes-sss we are."
"No!" Ben insisted. "They don't attack other mammals! And they have never eaten anyone! I only feed them with geckos and some chickens!"
"And we al-sss-so sss-serve our-sss-selves-sss with sss-some of the lizards-sss that roam behind the building now and them." The snake said once more, and this once more caused the others to look at it. "Ben is-sss kind enough to dis-sss-po-sss-se of the bones-sss when we sss-spit them out."
"Yeah, and the neighbors caught me doing that more than once." The cheetah admitted, and the landlord continued to look at him.
"You cannot have this thing in here! You need to get rid of it!"
The snake then looked at him.
"What about we get rid of you?" The snake said, and this caused the gopher to squeak and hide behind Bogo's leg.
"Guys, please!" Ben said, sounding exasperated as he looked at the snake. The creature's two heads turned to the cheetah, and saw the expression on his face. This seemed to cause the creature to stand down, but it still glared angrily at the gopher, who was shaking as he held onto the buffalo's leg for shelter.
"Well, this is really very interesting." Emilia said, "But, I guess we still need to talk to Clawhauser, right?"
"Talk with me about what?" Josh said, looking at them, "You want my help with the case? I came here to see how Ben was, but I can help if you guys really need it." He said as he looked at the enforcers.
Emilia and Marceli looked at each other, and it was the black tod who spoke next.
"That... is not a bad idea." He said, looking at Josh, "However, we actually came in here to talk to your brother."
"What? Me?" Ben said, quite surprised as he looked at the black tod, who looked at him with a surprised expression.
"Due to insistence of the clans, the Association has ordered us to question all the mages and ex-mages who took part in the events of the mall." Marceli said, looking straight at Ben as he spoke that.
"Yeah, just to see if any of them have anything to do with that." Emilia said very casually. At the same moment, Marceli whipped his head in her direction, giving her a glare that made her shrink away.
Meanwhile, Ben's face became pale.
"W-what?"
"Wait a minute!" Marcy said, looking at the black tod. "You don't think that Ben actually took part in that, do you?"
"Please..." Marceli said, but josh interrupted him.
"This is ridiculous! Ben never would do anything like that, and you know it better than anyone, Mieczyslaw!" His voice was fill with outrage as he looked at the fox, who looked back at him.
"It is orders of the Association." Marceli said, looking at him, and Ben became even paler.
"I didn't do anything..." The plump cheetah said, in a low voice.
"Orders from whom of the Association?" He demanded, "It was Sanders, wasn't it? That pipsqueak hates us!"
"If you keep this attitude it will only cause more trouble." Marceli said to him, his expression serious, "You are making this way harder than it needs to be."
Ben was starting to hyperventilate, his pupils shrinking.
"I didn't do anything."
"Ben?" Judy asked, seeing what was happening to the cheetah.
"Clawhauser, are you alright?" Bogo asked; his voice denoted genuine concern.
"Benjamin." Marceli said, sounding very gentle as he said that. "If you remain calm..." He tried to say, and Ben looked at him.
All he saw was a fox with a serious expression, pointing a dagger at him.
"I DIDN'T DO IT!" The cheetah cried out, startling everyone.
"I didn't do it! I didn't do it!" Ben continued to repeat, moving away, his arms close to his body, as if defensively, he was shaking and hyperventilating.
"Ben!" Marcy said, as she tried to calm him down.
"Benji! Calm down!" Josh said, as he too looked like he was trying to calm him down. However, the cheetah seemed like he wasn't listening.
"I didn't do it!" Ben continued to repeat. "I didn't do it! I never did! I wouldn't! I never... I-I never..."
Ben was now sweating bullets, and his eyes were becoming glazed. The ones around were looking at the scene were all ready to go to Ben and try to help him calm down. However, the two-headed snake beat them all to it.
It slithered in his direction, dropping the bucket on the ground as it went. Soon, it was right next to Ben, and it wrapped its tail around his neck.
"Ben!" Bogo cried out as he saw that, reaching for his dart gun and aiming at the snake.
The serpent ignored him, and used the firm, but gentle, grip on Ben's neck to make the cheetah look at its heads.
For a long moment, it was as if the scene had frozen, and the snake kept making the cheetah look at it, as the cheetah continued to pant.
"I didn't do it... I didn't do..."
"Benjamin!" The snake said, looking deep in the cheetah's eyes, before saying:
"Breathe in. Breathe out. The cub is okay, without a doubt."
Ben blinked looking at the two heads of his familiar.
"I-I didn't do…"
"Breathe in." The other head said, cutting him, "Breathe out. The cub is okay, without a doubt."
Ben blinked, as his breathing normalized a bit, as he continued to look at them.
"I-I..."
"Deep in. Deep out." The snake continued, and the tail wrapped around Ben's neck loosened, letting go. "The cub is okay, without a doubt."
"W-without... a doubt..." Ben said, looking at them, and soon, the snake was moving its heads closer to Ben's own. One was leaning over him and touching its own forehead on Ben's, while the other was nuzzling on his neck.
"Deep in. Deep out." The head that was touching foreheads said.
"The cub is okay, without a doubt." The head that was nuzzling completed, and Ben closed his eyes. Some of the ones that were around looked at it, and some of them could swear that they could hear Ben purring.
They remained like that for a few moments, and the ones around only looked at it, all of them with raised eyebrows as they looked at it.
"Uhhh." Nick said, "Should we give you guys a moment?"
After a few more moments, the snake moved its heads away. Ben was a lot calmer now, although he still seemed a bit shaken.
Marceli looked at it, and he gave a few steps in direction to Ben. Only for the snake to get on his way, hissing as it flared both its hoods. Marcy and Josh both also looked like they did not wanted the tod to get any closer, as they both were snarling at him.
Marceli stopped, and he looked straight at the plump cheetah.
"Benjamin." The tod said, putting both paws together as he looked at the cheetah, and spoke with all gentleness. "I'm not here to accuse you of anything. I don't want to accuse you of anything. You can believe that I am absolutely sure that you had no connection to the event, and that you would never have anything to do with it."
Ben looked at him, and he still seemed to be a bit scared. The tod looked at him as he continued:
"The Association only wants you to be questioned because the clans are insisting on it. You've been in Zootopia for five years; you know how things go when it comes to the clans."
Ben looked at him in silence, and then the fox continued.
"They won't let it go until they get what they want. We already questioned many others who were present at the mall, but they also want you to be questioned." Marceli said to him, "I just want to ask questions to you so I can tell them I did it so they will leave you alone. Please."
There was a silence, as the cheetah and the black tod looked at each other, and after a few moments, Ben took a deep breath, and he looked at the fox.
"Alright."
Marceli and Emilia were now in one of the bedrooms, questioning Ben. Meanwhile, the other ones were all waiting in the living room as they did what they had to do.
Some had insisted to be present, like Bogo and Ben's siblings. Even his snake asked if he wanted them to be there, but Ben told them all that it was okay.
"Scream of you need help." Josh would say to him anyway, as he went into the bedroom along with the enforcers, leaving the other mammals and the mutant snake all to wait in the living room as they proceeded with the questioning.
As the minutes dragged, silence reigned in that living room. And unnerving silence.
"So..." Nick said, and everyone looked at him, but his gaze was in the snake. "You are a giant snake..."
The two heads looked at him, one of them hissing as they both looked at the fox. Nick had a smile as he looked at them.
"Well, that is interesting..." The fox said, "So... what is it like to be a snake?"
They looked at him, and one of the heads said:
"Sss-satis-sss-ficing."
Nick looked at them, and he then said:
"Nice." A brief silence, and soon he was asking, "So, how long have you been Spots' familiar?"
The snake looked at him with its two pair of eyes, and soon, one of the heads was saying:
"Eleven years-sss."
"Ever sss-since he sss-saved us-sss from oblivion by putting us-sss in this-sss body." The other head spoke.
"Really? How interesting." Nick said, looking at the snake, "So, I guess this means you two know him pretty well, right?"
"Not as-sssss well as-sssss the-sss-s two." The snake said, gesturing to the two who were on the room as well.
"Yeah, we surely know Ben." Marcy said, looking at the mammals in there, and she looked at Judy in particular.
"You have been looking at me for a while, bunny girl." She said, surprising the bunny cop. "Got a crush?"
Judy blushed as she looked away.
"Sorry, is just that... You are the first hybrid that I've met." She said, and Marcy simply chuckled at her.
"Yeah, there aren't many of us around." She said, and then Bogo was the next to speak:
"So, you are really Clawhauser's sister, Ms. Foxgrove?"
"Sure am." She said to him, "Well, half-sister, but you get the gist."
Bogo nodded, "And, you do not have the same surname?"
"I was born outside of wedlock." She said to him, "You see, my mother was a non-mage. She worked in the Clawhauser manor as a maiden."
"Oh, right." Nick said, looking at her, "The classic case of the rich boss who gets chummy with the servants, right?"
"Yeah, something like that." Marcy said to him, and Bogo continued to look at her, before he turned his gaze to the other one on the room.
"And you are his twin brother, right?" He asked the muscular cheetah, and this one smiled at him.
"Got it right, hot-stuff." He said, winking at Bogo, making the buffalo look at him with a raised eyebrow. This caused Josh to chuckle a little bit, "Mirrored twins. Yeah, we don't look exactly alike, we both changed a lot with time. But we still do look alike, if you look with attention."
That was truth. Benjamin was corpulent while this cheetah was fit and athletic. However, the similarities were still there to see. They had the exact same color of fur and eye, and their patterns were amazingly similar, with a familiar two-eared figure formed by three spots being located in the left side of his head, while Ben's was on his right side. The voice was also nearly identical to Ben's, despite being just a tad bit deeper.
"Yeah, I guess now we know what Ben would look like he if laid off the donuts." Nick said, looking at the fit cheetah. "And hit the gyms."
"Like it, foxy?" Josh asked, smirking at him as he eyed him. Under that gaze, Nick couldn't help but have the feeling that he was being checked up. This made him a little uncomfortable.
"They are taking a long time, aren't they?" Littlefield said, looking at his watch. Some of the ones present were agreeing.
"I hope they are not being rough with Ben." Judy said, looking at the door.
"They better not be." The snake said, "For if they do, there will be con-sssssss-sequences-sssssss."
Some noticed the look of hostility in the eyes of the snake, and someone felt like pointing it out.
"Is that worry that I see?" Marcy said, looking at the snake, "Perhaps this snake is not as cold as they wanted us to believe."
The snake gave her a glare with its two pairs of airs, before it letting out a hissing scoff as it looked away. This caused the hybrid to chuckle at them. Meanwhile, Josh had his attention turned in direction to the door, and he looked at it with a serious expression.
"I can't believe that Ben is being forced to go through this." He said, looking at that door as if he could see what was happening on the other side. "I'll tell you what, if I was in charge of this, and the Association told me to do something like that, I would tell them exactly where to go."
"Of course you would." Marcy said, smiling at him.
"I'm sorry. If you were in charge?" Bogo asked, looking at the muscular cheetah with a raised eyebrow, and this one looked back at him.
"Yeah. If my squad had been assigned to this you can be sure that I would not let the clans force me to do that." Josh said to him.
"Your squad?" Judy asked, and it was Marcy who spoke next:
"Josh is an enforcer." She said, patting the shoulder of the cheetah.
"Really?" Judy said, looking at the cheetah, who smirked back at her.
"That's right, bunny buns." He said, "I am a member of the Berserker Squad. An elite team among the enforcers."
"Now that's interesting." Nick said, looking at him, and Marcy nodded.
"Yeah, they are designed to a special kind of job." The hybrid said, looking at her brother, "The kind that is very different from a job like scouting Dawn Bellwether to the Association in secrecy."
"Hey! We could do that!" Josh said, looking at his sister, "If we felt like it..."
Marcy chuckled at him, and she looked back at him.
"Yeah, if you did, you can be sure that I would be helping you with that." She said, patting his shoulder.
"Oh. Are you an enforcer too, Ms. Foxgrove?" Judy asked, looking at her, as she was finding the talk to be rather interesting. The hybrid looked back at her.
"Actually, I am a freelancer." Marcy said, and the ones around looked at her.
"Freelancer?" Littlefield asked, "Aren't these guys mage mercenaries?"
"That's right." Marcy said, looking back at the others. Bogo, in particular, had a raised eyebrow as he looked at her.
"Don't worry, I don't break the law, or anything of the like." She said, seeing the look that the buffalo was giving her. "I have a code of my own, and I am good enough so I can choose who I work for and the types of jobs I do. I don't work for bad guys and I don't harm innocents. I mostly work with retrieving stolen goods, rescuing mammals and also working as a bodyguard."
"That's... nice." Bogo said, looking at her, and Nick asked:
"So, are you really good at it?"
"One of the best." She said, looking back at the tod. "Marceline Foxgrove is known for ensuring your satisfaction and not to fail. Your satisfaction is always ensured, as long as the payment is good."
"Now you spoke like a mercenary." Nick said, looking back at her, and she smiled back at him.
"That's how I earn my life, Officer." She said, smiling at him, and soon, the door of the bedroom was opening, and the three inside were walking out.
Marceli and Emilia were coming out, and right behind them was coming Benjamin. The cheetah looked a lot calmer, although he still looked down.
"Ben." Chandler Manechester was the first to go to him, followed close by Ben's siblings and by the two-headed snake. Ben raised his head to look at them, and they all looked at him with worried eyes.
"You alright?" Marcy asked, and Ben looked back at all of them.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He said, and he was able to smile at them. "I'm alright."
They were able to relax a little, and meanwhile, Marceli and Emilia walked back to the officers.
"This was all." Marceli said, "Now we can tell the Association that Benjamin is clean and that there is no reason to investigate him at all."
"Well, that's good." Bogo said, and he was soon getting up, and so were his two smaller officers.
"Alright then!" Said someone on the room, and all the eyes turned to the gopher. "Now that this is solved, I guess we can tackle on the real issue in here!"
The gopher looked at the cheetah, and pointed at the big snake.
"Do you still plan to keep this thing in here?"
Ben looked, and cast a gaze at his familiar, and they were both looking at the gopher.
"They are not a danger to mammals." Ben said, "They don't eat mammals or anything of the like."
"Becau-sss-se we don't want to." The snake spoke, "But that can ea-sss-sily change."
"You have nothing to worry about!" Ben said to his landlord, "They won't do anything bad, and you won't even notice that they are here. I mean, you haven't noticed them for the last five years..."
The gopher looked at the cheetah.
"Pets a forbidden here." He said to the feline, "And snakes are forbidden by the Zootopian law."
"Not if they are fully domesticated." Judy said, looking down at the gopher, "As long as there is no danger for them to killing or eating mammals, it is allowed to have snakes as pets."
She looked at the gopher, and he looked back at her.
"Well, pets are still forbidden in this building. I could have him evicted for that." He said, and Ben flinched. Judy, however, continued to look at him.
"Did you asked him if he had pets when he moved in?" She said, and the gopher looked at her, blinking.
"What?"
"When he was first moving in, did you asked Benjamin Clawhauser if he had a pet or anything similar?"
The gopher looked at her.
"W-well... I did informed him that it was forbidden to have pets because they could bring problems. And that the pets that could represent a danger to other mammals were particularly forbidden." He said, looking at the cheetah. "And he told me that I didn't had to worry about it."
"But did you asked him if he had a pet with him?" She asked him, and the gopher looked back at her, hesitating a bit before answering.
"W-well, no, I didn't." He admitted, and Judy nodded.
"Mr. Littlefield, you probably know that a landlord can ask tenants if they have pets before they move in, and that he can deny rental applications because they have them. That's what the law says." She said, looking at the gopher. "However, the law also says that, after the rental application has been filled, the landlord cannot evict a tenant because they have pets. Not even if the rental agreement has a 'no pets' clause."
The gopher looked at her for a few moments.
"She is right, you know." Bogo said, looking at the gopher, who now looked up at him. He then looked around, and everyone was looking at him, as if they were all waiting for his answer.
Everyone now knew that he could do nothing.
"Alright. Alright! So I can't have you evicted!" He said, turning to Benjamin once more, and pointing a finger at him, "But I still can demand you to be really careful with this snake! As a matter of fact, I could have you have its fangs removed and have it wear a muzzle! Two muzzles!"
The snake hissed at him, but said nothing, and neither did Judy. She knew that this was something that he could actually demand, especially if there was a suspicion that the snake could be dangerous for mammals. The subject of pets was rather thorny in Zootopia when it involved anything bigger than a gecko or a chameleon, especially if it involved a carnivorous beast.
"I can also demand you to pay extra for having that snake!" He said, pointing at Benjamin. "After all, you are in violation of the building regulations, and as such, I have the right to apply a fine for that for as long as you keep that monster!" He said, and Ben did looked down at this.
"A fee, you said?" Marcy said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, a fee!" The gopher said, "You know! Money. Cash. Dough."
They looked at him for a while, and no one said anything, as they all seemed to agree that the gopher seemed to a point. He did had the right to demand Benjamin to pay a fine for infracting the regulations of his rental agreement.
"Oh, that reminds me!" Josh suddenly said, as he had suddenly remembered something. He walked to the chair where his jacket was, and he fumbled into the pockets. Soon he was coming back, carrying something on his paws.
"When the guys of the Association heard that I was coming to see you, they asked me to deliver you this for them." He said, presenting the thing on his paws to Ben. Everyone looked at it, and their eyes widened.
Josh had just handed Ben two gold bars.
"Josh!" Ben said, looking at him, and then he looked around, at the others who were looking at the gold bars that were on his paws.
"What? They thought it would be better than sending it through the mail again." The muscular cheetah said to his twin, "You gotta admit it is reasonable."
Ben looked around, and the ones in there who were not mages were all looking at him with wide eyes.
"Clawhauser." Bogo said, "Why has your brother just gave you two gold bars?"
"Oh, that is from the Association." Josh answered for his brother, looking at the buffalo. "They were going to send it through the mail, but since I was coming, they asked me to deliver it to Ben for them."
Bogo blinked.
"And why the Association did sent him two gold bars?" Bogo asked, and Josh said:
"Oh, that is the money for his patents. Well, it is his part for our patents." He said; placing a paw on Benjamin's shoulder, as the fat cheetah looked around at everyone.
"Ben?" Chandler asked, as surprised as the cops and the landlord, and Ben looked at him and at the others.
"W-well..." He said, looking quite sheepish. "B-before I renounced magecraft, Josh and I did a lot of experiments together." He said, looking to his brother. "We were kind of like the Weaseley brothers from the Harry Trotter books. We did all kinds of experiments back home and... Well, we did invented a few rituals and formulas, and we gave them to the Association, and they did became quite popular."
"All of our formulas are still used." Josh said, "And the guys really love some of the rituals we've made."
"W-when I renounced magecraft and left my home, my parents managed to convince me to still receive the money that was my half of the money of these patents." Ben said, looking at them. "They said that it was my own money, that I earned with my own effort and intelligence, and that I deserved it, even thought I would no longer be a mage."
"So, now he receives a small payment regularly for his part on our patents." Josh concluded, and everyone looked at Ben.
"So..." Littlefield said, looking at the cheetahs. "He gets two gold bars a year for the spells he invented?"
Josh laughed a bit at it.
"A year? Yeah, that's funny." He said, looking at the gopher, "Ben here receives two gold bars a month."
Everyone blinked, looking at the cheetah with wide eyes, and Ben only smiled sheepishly back at all of them.
"Seriously?" Nick said, quite surprised himself.
"Two gold bars a month?" Littlefield said, looking baffled.
"Yeah, it is a little thing that I get." He said, looking at all of them, "I mean, I never truly spent any of that, but..."
"Why gold?" Judy asked, looking a then, "Why not make a check? Or just place it on his account?"
"Mages don't really trust this kind of thing." Marcy answered, "We prefer to make our business on live. We don't rely on credits or bank accounts or the kinds of things that most non-mages use."
Judy blinked at her.
"This... sounds like tax evasion."
"It does? Well, that is how mages have always done it." Marcy said casually.
"So, you only make business with cash?" Chandler asked, still reeling from finding out that Ben received this kind of money.
"Actually, we prefer to use precious gems and metals." Marcy said to him, "They are easy to carry and easy to hide, and they can easily be traded for credits and money. Gold, in particular, is quite popular as a form of payment among mages. It is very easy to trade and you can melt it to turn into other things, making it easy to carry around. Gold bars are the standard form of payment that the Association uses, including to pay for the patents of other mages."
Everyone looked at her, and they turned his attention back to Ben.
"Yeah... that's how mages always preferred it..." The cheetah admitted, under the eyes of all of his friends, boss and landlord. "I mean... I just get the gold every month and there is no way of returning it. But, it is not like I use the gold for things, anyway. I mean, I never even spend it."
"You haven't?" Judy asked.
"Are you say you still have all of that gold?" Bogo asked, looking at him.
"Where do you keep it?" Chandler asked.
"Uhhh, in here?" He said, and everyone continued to look at him.
"You keep all that gold in your house?" Chandler said, looking at him, "Ain't that a little dangerous?"
"So, you keep all of these gold bars under your bed?" Nick asked him, and the snake was the one who answered.
"Of cour-sss-se not." It said, looking at the tod. "He keeps-sss it in-sss-side the walls-sss."
Ben looked at his snake, and then back at everyone, who was looking at him. He raised a finger and opened his mouth, and stayed like that for a few seconds, before he turned and walked in direction to a nearby piece of furniture.
Such piece was a big and wide cabinet that was fill with little statuettes of lizards, birds, and of chibi-like mammals. The said cabinet had wheels on its base, making it quite easy to move. Ben just pushed it out of the way, revealing that there was a big hole in the wall.
"I found it out as soon as I moved in." He said as he gestured to the hole. "I guess that the mammal who lived here before me made it and used the cabinet to hide it, and he even left the cabinet in here. I should have told you that I found the hole, but Slizz and Zass said that it could be a good place to hide the gold. I'm sorry, Mr. Littlefield."
Ben sounded as he was apologizing to the landlord, but the gopher looked like he had barely heard what the cheetah had said. He was too busy staring at the hole, like the other ones.
However, it was not at the hole itself that they were staring, but at the pile of gold bars that was inside of the hole.
Stacked like bricks, the gold ingots were in there for everyone to see, shining with the light that came from the windows under the eyes of the mammals who just discovered it.
Emilia whistled as she looked at that, and she and her uncle did not seemed so surprised for seeing that gold, and neither did Ben's siblings and familiar. The others, however, seemed quite baffled.
"Sweet cheese and crackers..." Judy said, looking at all that gold.
"Benjamin..." Nick said, looking at it, quite baffled himself. "All of this gold is yours?"
"Yeah..." Benjamin said, looking at them. "It is the money that my parents insist that it is mine."
"That's... a lot of gold." Chandler said, looking at it, and so was Bogo.
"How much gold there is in there?" The buffalo asked, trying to calculate the amount of gold that there was in there.
"Well..." Ben said, looking at it. "Mom and dad gave me fifty gold bars when I left, and I have been receiving two bars a month for the past seven years, so..." He said, and tried to make the count, but Judy beat him to it.
"214."
"Huh?" Ben said, looking at the bunny.
"Fifty gold bars in the beginning, plus twenty-four gold bars a month for six years, plus two gold bars a month from January to October of this year. That is fifty, plus one-hundred forty-four, plus twenty. That's two-hundred fourteen gold bars."
Ben blinked as he looked at the bunny, and so did the others.
"Well, if you are saying."
"Wait, how much this is in money?" Littlefield asked, Judy looked at him, and she soon was pulling her phone and was fumbling into it.
"What are you doing?" Marcy asked, and the bunny answered:
"Seeing online the current value of the ounce of gold." Judy said, soon she was seeing what she said and she turned to the room once more. "How many ounces each bar has?"
"A hundred." Josh said, looking at the bunny, and Judy took in this information.
"Okay, this makes twenty-one thousand and a hundred ounces." Judy said, "This multiplied by the current value of the ounce of gold, this gives around..."
She closed her eyes and muttered to herself as she made the calculation on her head, and everybody looked at her.
After nearly ten seconds, her eyes opened wide.
"15.668.744 UZA$ ..."
Silence befell the room, and soon, Judy was looking at Ben once more.
"Ben..." She said, looking at him in the eye. "You have over fifteen and a half millions in gold!"
For a moment, no one said a word, including Benjamin, who was looking at the bunny.
He blinked, and then asked:
"Really?"
The cheetah looked at her for a few more seconds, before turning to look at the gold, and then looking back at her.
"Are you sure? I thought it was more..."
Everyone stared at Ben, and the cheetah was growing seriously uncomfortable.
"Wow..." Nick said, "Just... wow."
"Yeah, that is not a bad amount." Emilia said, looking at the gold, along with the others.
"Not a bad amount?" Judy said, looking at her.
"Excuse me, but I know guys who would dream with that much gold." Nick said to her, and she simply shrugged.
"And you keep all of that at home?" Chandler said to the cheetah, "Ben... do you know how dangerous that is?"
"Dangerous?"
"Yeah, dangerous." Chandler said, "I mean, what if someone breaks into your house and find this? They could take all the gold and you would lose everything at once!"
"You know, I learned a few things in life before I became a cop. One of them is that a lot of money in a single place is the perfect call for burglars and thieves." Nick said, looking at the cheetah, and so was Bogo.
"They have a point, Clawhauser." Bogo said, looking as his subordinate. "It can be dangerous to have all of this gold at your home... Not to mention that I'm pretty sure that this gold was not really declared, and this could land you in trouble."
Ben looked at him as he thought to it, and he realized that the Chief was right. This gold really was not declared, and this meant that he was technically practicing tax evasion. This did not bode well. Especially for a cop.
"Do I need a tax lawyer?" Ben asked, starting to get worried.
"I can recommend one." Nick said to him, "He is quite good, but a little expensive. But, I guess this is not problem for you."
"Sounds like a good idea!" Littlefield said, causing everyone to look at him. "After all, we wouldn't want out dear Benjamin to get into any kind of trouble, right?"
Ben blinked, as he looked at the gopher.
"Did you called me 'dear'?" The cheetah asked, and the gopher looked back at him.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I call you that?" He said, looking up at Ben, "After all, ever since you moved in this building you made us feel more like a family."
Everyone looked at the gopher, some with raised eyebrows, and some with scowls.
"Seriously?" Nick said, with a scowl as he looked at the gopher.
"Yes, your kind ways and your bubbly personality have brightened this place so much!" The gopher continued, "I have to say how lucky we are for having you, as well as your dear snake." He said, turning to the snake, which looked back at him. "Such a majestic and beautiful creature. And it's so tame."
The snake than opened its both mouths and hissed at the gopher, showing its fangs. This caused the rodent to squeak and quickly scurry away, looking for shelter under a chair.
"Well, this was all very interesting." Marceli said, gathering attention, "But, I guess that we should be going now, don't you all agree?"
The cops looked at him, and they realized that he was right. In fact, they still had other things to do, and so, they were soon bidding farewell to Ben, and the cheetah nodded at them. Littlefield was also going, as he didn't wanted to be left in the same room as that giant snake.
Now, the only ones left in the apartment were Benjamin, his siblings, his snake, and his horse friend.
"Seriously, Ben." Chandler said, "You should consider opening a bank account. Or at least getting a safe to place all this gold."
Ben nodded at him, and his brother was standing at his side.
"They are really just like you described." Josh said to his brother, and the plump cheetah looked at him. "Especially that Bogo." The muscular cheetah said to him, a smirk on his lips, "He really is a hottie."
"Joooosh." Ben whined a bit, and this only caused the other cheetah to chuckle.