This whole situation was aggravating. That much anyone could say.
It was aggravating enough that it was one of the rare occasions were the ZPD and the Beastar Corps would work together in the case, whereas they only tried to stay out of each other's fur for the most part.
And not only that, but they were all working together with the enforcers so they can get to the bottom of the strange events that are happening in Zootopia currently. Events involving the criminal mage group known as MTC and the interest they had on the mysterious package which was directly related to the Darkest Hour.
Yahya, however, was not there to oversee the investigation, much to Bogo's annoyance. Instead, he decided to send two of his best agents, a leopard named Clawstone and a Bear named Pawllone, to be his contact with the ZPD. Apparently, they were old enough on the organization and competent enough that Yahya Manechester trusted them to be his bridge with the ZPD. That was how that old horse was, always the lone hero who didn't worked directly with anyone other than his own subordinates.
That much Bogo had learned to accept on the years he had known him and on the rare times they interacted. As annoying as it could be.
Luckily, Mieczyslaw was still keen on sharing information. That was good, because that fox upholding important information from them would be doubly annoying, and that was something Bogo didn't felt like he could deal with right now.
So, the first thing they did as they had a session with the two BC representatives was to put them on par of everything that was happening and all they knew. The two listened and nodded and, as they took in the big picture of things and then they started discussing the details, as they all shared their knowledge and resources and put their heads together to crack this case.
While the Chief had a meeting with everyone, some cops stood outside of his office, talking to themselves as they were waiting to see what would happen next.
"Think that the Beastar Corps will come up with something?" Fangmeyer said to Gerald and Delgato. "They always say that it is nearly like those guys have some kind of sixth sense to crack the cases the ZPD can't."
"That's because they are not afraid of using those downright criminal methods to solve any case they come across." The lion said, "Didn't you heard the stories? About how they do things like illegally hacking into government servers, or break into private property to look for clues? I even heard that once they picked up a suspect, handcuffed him to the rear bumper of their car and drove around until he finally told them the information they wanted to know. Seriously, it is like those guys think they are in one of those bad detective movies or something. I don't know how to manage to avoid any lawsuits for unprofessional behavior and abuse of power. Maybe that old horse gives the judges money to keep them off his back..."
Indeed, those were some of the rumors that went around about the Beastar Corps and their... questionable methods. Hard to say how much of those was truth, a fact that Gerald was sure to remind his two friends of the force.
"Anyways, maybe they might actually be able to give us some lead." Fangmeyer said, "Maybe they can get that hyena who the enforcers talked with earlier to spit out who was the one to whom he gave the information regarding the owner of the storehouse of the golems."
Gerald ear perked and twitched as he heard that. He looked at the tiger.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, yeah. You haven't heard, have you?" The tigress said to the black panther. "The enforcers talked to some guy who told us more about the place where the golems were being kept before they attacked the mall. It is a warehouse under the name of a thylacine named Tasman. I don't remember his first name, but it is something with a K, I think. He told that he already gave this information to someone else earlier. Some wolf, I guess, but he refused to say more."
Gerald heard it all, and he had an unchanging expression on his face. That totally betrayed how fast his mind was working at that very moment. At the information he was just given and connecting it to a lot more information that has been happening recently.
"So, what do you think they are talking about in there?" Delgato asked. Gerald, however, didn't answered to that, instead, he only said, in a neutral voice:
"I just remembered there is something I need to do urgently. If you would excuse me."
And he walked away, with a sprint on his step, walking as fast as he could without really running. It was so sudden that it caused the two cops to look at him as he went his way with surprised expressions.
"Was it something we said?" Fangmeyer asked as she and Delgato looked at each other.
As they questioned if something they had say upset the panther, Gerald made his way across the precinct, not stopping to talk to anyone as he made his way to the garage where the cruisers and other vehicles were kept.
He went straight to his cruiser and entered it, as he took to drive all the way to the house of a certain wolf.
He had to ask his partner a few questions.
Eliot was on his house, on the living room, sitting on his haunches as he stood there on all fours, just looking at the burner phone on the table.
He had been there all day, and he was waiting for it to ring again.
Tasman said he would call again, and that was what Eliot was waiting for.
He had been waiting for hours, and he would continue waiting. Tasman was going to call him again, and Eliot could not miss the call. He had not moved from there since he placed the phone on the table, right by the side of the wrapped package. And he just stared at it, without moving, without getting away to eat or even to pee.
He could not afford to be far from it when it rang, otherwise he could miss the call that would give him the chance to see his family again.
That was something Eliot Fanghanel could not afford to allow to happen. That was why, even it took a day or two, he would not move from where he was standing until the phone rang.
Just as he thought about it, the phone rang.
Eliot jumped into it, and he was soon pressing the answer button and taking the phone to his ear.
"Hello!? Hello!? Is that you, Tasman!? You dirty mongrel!?"
The answer came right after, in a controlled and formal voice:
"There is a set of abandoned warehouses on the very edge of the Marshlands. Near the marsh market. You know, where most of the city's fish are farmed? Look for the one with a lion's head graffitied on the front. You will find me inside. And don't forget to bring my package, otherwise you will not leave this place with your pregnant wife."
He sounded like he was about to hang up on Eliot after giving those instructions. However, the wolf would not be letting him turn off so easily.
"Let me talk to Chloe!" The wolf demanded. "How do I know if she is even still alive!? Let me talk to her now!"
"You are not the one making demands here, you mutt." Tasman said to him, but Eliot was having none of it.
"I am now!" The wolf barked back. "Put her on the phone and let me talk to her, so I know she is alive! Do it or I will toss this thing on the toilet and flush it down, then good luck trying to fish it out of the Zootopian sewer system!"
Eliot could hear growling coming from the other end of the phone. However, soon after, he was hearing Tasman's voice saying something like "talk to him", and then he heard the voice of his wife:
"Eliot?"
"Chloe, my Pumpkin!" Eliot said in surprise, his tail wagging just from hearing his wife's voice for the first time in a few days. "Chloe! Are you okay? Did he hurt you? Is our baby okay?"
Chloe's answer came rushed, as if she wanted to tell something important to her wolf husband:
"Eliot! Don't trust Kolby! If you come here, he will-MMM!"
"Chloe!? Chloe!"
"There. As you can hear, she is alive." Tasman said, and this time he did not allowed for Eliot to dictate how the conversation would go. "If you want it to stay like that, then come here with my package within the next two hours. Don't. Make me. Wait."
And with that, Tasman hang up before Eliot had the chance to say anything else or to make any more demands.
Now, some people would have been suspicious. Especially considering what Chloe seemed to have been trying to tell him before she was interrupted. However, when a single-minded lover man like Eliot felt like his beloved pregnant wife was in danger, he didn't had time to stop and think about anything.
All he could think about was having Chloe back. All he wanted and cared for was having her come back so he could take care of her until she gave birth, and then look after both her and their new puppy.
This was all he wished for.
Is that really your wish?
Eliot stopped as he heard it, freezing for a moment. This was the second time he heard the voiceless voice. This time, however, he didn't had time to think about that.
Chloe and their baby were in danger. He needed to save them. He just decided to attribute the voice on his head to the stress and picked the wrapped package on the table, leaving the burner phone there as walked out of the house.
Either by fate or by sheer coincidence, Gerald arrived on his cruiser right to the corner of the street just as Eliot was coming out.
Eliot failed to notice him, but the panther noticed the wolf coming out of his house, with a suspicious package that he was keeping close to his body as he tried to keep it hidden from whoever could be looking at him.
The wolf had always been bad at hiding things, and that much Gerald learned from being his partner for over a year.
"Eliot, what are you doing?" Gerald said as he watched as the wolf rushed to his car, entered, and then started to drive away.
What was a cop to do in those moments but to start tailing the one mammal who is acting in a suspicious manner?
Luckily, Gerald was much better at tailing someone without being noticed than Eliot ever was and, even though he was in a police cruiser, with a combination of careful driving while keeping a decent distance and some misleading tactics to make the mammal he was tailing thinking they were not after him, Gerald put himself to follow the wolf all the way to the Marshlands.
"… and they say that Aleoxder the Great himself met Dogogenes." Krumpaski said to his partner as they both stood guard just outside of the house of the Manechester family.
"He was like 'so this is the famous philosopher who renounced all material possessions to live like a beast?', and then he asked Dogogenes if there was anything he could do for him. You know what the dog said?" The rhino asked to the bear, who was taking a sip of his coffee. "That dog looked up to the guy who conquered half of the world and, without stuttering, told him to move aside because he was blocking the sun."
"Can you believe it? The guy just said to a literal rutting king to get out of his sun! Like it was the most natural thing in the world! Seriously, the guy had the Chief's same 'I know who you are, but I don't really care' attitude."
Krumpaski continued telling the grizzly bear about the tales and exploits of Dogogenes the Cynic, learned from History Channel's special, while, just a couple dozen meters away, the mages continued to do their work.
Caitlyn Clawhauser, Lumia and Tibor Horne and Gosha Drachenwolf were all working together in order to make sure that there would be no more invasions into the mansion. Each one of them was cooperating with their own specific knowledges and skills, creating layer upon layer of bounded fields around the house, that would not only warn them of anyone approaching the house and trying to come in unannounced, but also actually keeping them from getting into the mansion without permission.
They also put additional layers of protection to block every form of offensive magecraft they could think off, curses included. They also put into it an extra field to block thaumaturgical espionage. An extra feature to ensure that there would be no one gathering information on the people inside of the house, and that they would be warned if someone even tried.
As soon as they were done, they went back inside, with the cops staying outside on their cruiser to watch in shifts.
As the mages returned, they met the guests and residents gathered in a room and announced to all of them that they were done. When Adrian asked them if the house was safe, then Lumia said:
"We are all professional mages. We can do a much better job than those two morons when it comes to bounded fields." She gestured at her son and godson as she said that. "You can take our word when we say that this house is secure. Our families are staying in it, after all, and you can bet we would not allow for them to be in danger."
"I second that." Caitlyn said as well and, while some of them were not very convinced, Yahya seemed to take their word for it, especially when Gosha himself told him that they made sure the house was safe with seven layers of bounded fields, and how he used the same types of protections in a previous mission in a classified location over three decades ago.
With this, it seemed that everyone dispersed, as they were now reassured that the house was safe and that they finally could breathe at ease with no fear of invaders or dangers of any kind.
Emilia, on her end, was not all that worried.
I mean, if Gosha Drachenwolf himself said that the house was safe, then she had no reason to doubt him. I mean, the guy was a literal legend! Every young enforcer who joined heard the stories of his deeds and accomplishments and of how good he was, both as an agent of law in the moonlit world and as a mage.
Emilia could still not believe that she was on a mission with this legend of the enforcers! She was told that he had been traveling the world in a crusade for enlightenment and to achieve his clan's goals after retiring.
Would he give her his autograph if she asked nicely?
She was willing to try, which was why she tried to talk to him and ask. She tracked him across the mansion, and she was about to enter a room, when she heard him talking to someone.
"I just didn't expect to meet this kind of problem here, Lumia. Especially with Legoshi so close. I mean, it is already too risky to be in Zootopia with how the Bellwether clan is still out for my head after what happened the last time I crossed paths with one of them..."
The wolf seemed saddened as he said those last words, then Horne spoke to him:
"Don't start beating yourself over this again, Gosha. Destiny Bellwether was a crazy wench who was ready to kill a whole family as sacrifices for a ritual, and she was trying to kill you. You did what you had to do."
"Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact she was Asher Bellwether's mother."
"Yeah, she was..." Lumia sighed. "Look, it has been years, maybe even Asher Bellwether has mellowed out after so long."
"Do you really believe this?"
"... not really. Look, the other clans will hold him back. They actually like you, remember?"
"Yeah, that much is truth..." Gosha admitted. "Noah Wilde and Verona Höhle actually offered me a job working for them after I was fired from the enforcers."
This caused Emilia to pause.
"Fired...?"
"Yeah, they probably figured out you would be useful to them." Lumia said to the wolf as the two of them leaned over the window, looking outside. "And wanted to use the fact that you got kicked out of the enforcers for pissing one of the council members to their advantage. Especially after hearing how they also ruined your finances."
There was silence after this. Emilia was listening carefully to what was being said, being unusually quiet.
"I nearly accepted, you know?" Gosha said to the gazelle. "I was seriously considering Noah's offer. Especially when he mentioned he could allow me access to some of their archives. It would have helped me so much with my research and in finding the cure. But I decided it was not worthy working for the two of them. The price they would ask me in return could have been way more than I'd ever been willing to pay... even though it could have saved Leano."
Lumia looked at him, and placed a hand on his shoulder, comforting him. The wolf accepted it.
Meanwhile, Emilia was looking from the ajar door, and she was still processing what she heard.
As she gave a step back, she caught herself bumping into a pair of legs. She looked up, and saw Joshua Clawhauser there, looking down to her.
The look on his eyes told her that he had heard that as well. And they both silently agreed not to say anything about it. So, with that, the two of them walked away.
"And you have confirmed that the documents are legit?" Adrian asked on the phone, as he stood on one of the coffee rooms, his phone held to his ear as he spoke to the one person on the other side of the line, who said something back to him.
"Right, I see. And you managed to contact Woolack and had his word on the subject? Yes? I see. And this is his official stance?" Adrian continued to speak, moving from side to side, his hooves clopping into the floor as he did.
He was so focused on that one call that he failed to notice the figure approaching him on all fours, until said figure was laying right in front of him and he nearly stepped on him by accident.
"You!" Adrian said to Dogo, as the dog looked up at him with a wagging tail and a smile on his muzzle.
"Hi." The dog said as he continued to smile like a fool. Adrian would have given him more attention, was not for him being in the middle of a conversation with someone else.
"Yes, I am still here." Adrian said, "Please, go on."
"What Adrian doing?" Dogo asked but was ignored.
"Is that so? I see. Well, that's useful information. Have you confirmed it?"
"Who Adrian talking to?"
"I see, I see... well, try to confirm that information as quickly as possible, I need to know if it proceeds. This is very important for me."
Adrian continued to talk, while Dogo was looking up at him while sitting on his haunches.
"Adrian want to play?"
Adrian bit back a groan, and he just limited himself to give Dogo a glare, while making a silent gesture by placing a hooved finger before his lips. Dogo looked at him while tilting his head to the side, and then he remained quiet, what Adrian was thankful for. He was able to finish his conversation without the dog interrupting him with his voice.
"Get back at me as soon as you have it all confirmed and officialized." Adrian said, and he ended the call. And Dogo was still there, looking at him.
"Can Adrian play now?" Dogo asked, to what Adrian harshly said he could not.
"But Dogo lonely!" The dog whined. "Dogo wants to play! Adrian can throw stick and Dogo chases it! Dogo loves that!"
"I am not playing fetch with you!" Adrian said to him.
"Then Adrian can scratch Dogo's belly!" The dog laid as he spoke those words, baring his stomach for the horse. "Dogo told Dogo's belly very soft and warm!"
"I am not touching your belly until you've taken at least three baths with anti-flea shampoo."
"Dogo doesn't likes bath..." The dog said, looking to the side and looking like he was pouting.
"I don't have time for this!" Adrian said, using his hoof to push Dogo out of his way and continued walking.
"Wait!" Dogo said, getting up and following him. "Horse Adrian! Wait for Dogo! Dogo lonely! Dogo wants to play!"
"Will you STOP talking!?" Adrian snapped at the dog, making him stop on his tracks and shrink a bit, with his tail tucking between his legs as Adrian continued to yell at him.
"You have a lot of NERVE acting as if you are intimate to us, you mutt! As if we have brought you to this house and welcomed you with open arms! You are nothing but a squatter! A plague! I don't even know why I have not kicked you out myself yet! Just leave me alone and stay in a corner! Don't cause us any more inconveniences than you already did, because I have half a mind to have you taken to the dungeons to make Clawde company!"
With this, Adrian marched away, leaving Dogo with his tail between the legs, watching as he went, and looking down as he whined softly.
Then, another figure, who saw that, made his way towards the dog.
"Dogo?"
The dog looked up to see the figure of Yahya standing there. The dark horse looked down at him with a neutral expression.
"Adrian mad at Dogo..." The dog whined, looking down.
Now, normally Yahya would not care very much about some random dog. Especially one that was basically an intruder on his own house, and who has been violating it the way that dog has. However, as he remembered what Gosha said to him that Dogo saved his life, and that he proved to be both brave and loyal, Yahya felt an inclination to be kind to him.
"Adrian has been under a lot of stress lately." The horse said to the dog. "Well, to be honest, he is always hostile towards others, but he gets worse when he is stressed out. I think so do most mammals. Try not to take him too seriously, he would probably never have liked you anyways."
This didn't make the dog feel better.
"But... Dogo tried so much to be good boy..."
He sounded about to start whimpering again. Yahya looked at him.
"You are a good boy."
Yahya didn't know why he said that. It felt like the right thing to say. Could it be that he was used to say things that help to people who he just helped rescue on his job on the BC, and now he was saying it to the dog because he looked like them?
"Dogo is?" The dog asked, looking up at Yahya with wide eyes, like those if a puppy.
Yahya looked at him for a moment, before nodding.
"Yes, you are." He said, and it sounded genuine. "All things considered, I mean."
Dogo tilted his head while looking at him.
"You did some pretty questionable things. But, from what I can tell, you didn't do any of them with malicious intent." The horse said, "Honestly, considering the way you behave, I am not even sure if you are capable of making anything with malicious intent. Some of the things you did even seemed to have been done with this family's best interest in mind. You were well-intended, although a bit misguided."
Then Yahya looked at Dogo.
"You are a good boy."
Dogo's tail wagged so fast that Yahya could swear it was creating a light gust of wind.
Next thing he knew, the dog had leaped into his arms and was licking his face.
"Okay. Okay! That's enough! Stop!"
As Dogo climbed down, he was smiling as he looked up to Yahya.
"Yahya play with Dogo? Fetch?"
The horse looked at him for a few moments, before shrugging.
"Sure, why not?" He asked, "I think Euphemia still has some of her old tennis equipment somewhere. I'm sure she won't mind if we take a ball or two."
Dogo's tail was wagging at a speed that Yahya honestly found baffling.
"But what is this!?" The sudden voice made Yahya flinch, and immediately he was looking all around, using his wide field of vision to try and pinpoint the exact location of the person talking. "Yahya Manechester considering playing fetch with some dog? For real? The guy who didn't even played checkers with his own grandchildren?"
"Angus? Where are you?" Yahya demanded, looking around.
"Can't tell even with that wide vision of yours?" Angus asked, chuckling as while still out of sight. "Just another proof of how mundanes like you cannot fight mages like me. You can't even see me coming if I use a simple glamour for camouflage. This is basic magecraft, you know, and I can sneak up on you easily. I could have sliced your neck if I had wanted to."
Just as he said those words, a loud bark was heard, followed by a movement so fast even Yahya could not follow it. Dogo had pounced, and he landed on something that Yahya could not see, but that became visible as soon as it was knocked down.
Angus had a shocked expression on his face, as Dogo was snarling at him with bared teeth.
"Intruder horse don't touch Yahya horse..." Dogo snarled at him, his words sounding scarier than any other that Angus heard on his life. Even Yahya, to whom he words were not directed, felt his fur stand on end at the weight of the threat of indescribable violence they carried.
The two horses were frozen in place as the dog continued to snarl on top of Angus, looking like he was ready to bite his face off if he as much as blinked. It was Yahya who reacted first, and he told Dogo to get off Angus.
"He threats to hurt Yahya!" Dogo said, still baring his fangs.
"Yes, I know he does, but I don't think he would have gone through with it." Yahya said to the dog. "Dogo, calm down and get off him now. It's okay. If he tries anything, I can bring him down myself. Get off him now. Down, boy!"
With those words, Dogo stood down, getting off Angus's chest, but still snarling at him as he went to Yahya's side on all fours and sat on his haunches, still glaring daggers at the younger horse, who was getting up, still shaken, but disguising it well.
"Well, won't you look at that." Angus said, "Looks like you got yourself a new pooch to teach to attack. Maybe you can even train him better than he did with the wolf."
Yahya glared at Angus as those words left his muzzle.
"You mind your words, boy."
"What, got upset that I talked about your pet wolf?" Angus said, dusting his clothes as he did, ignoring the murderous glares he was receiving from both Yahya and Dogo as he talked about Gosha.
"You know, Gramps? You have been weird since that wolf showed up." Angus said, "You laughed for the first time since I've known you, you asked him to stay home and even forgave his grandson for lying to your face. And now you are being kind to this dog just because your wolf friend knows him. All of that is really unlike you, and it makes me wonder if that wolf might be having some effect on you..."
Yahya didn't seem fazed by Angus' words. He only continued to glare at him as he spoke with a firm, unwavering voice:
"Gosha made me laugh because he still gets my humor. He knows me, and I trust his character and judgement. So, if he tells me that his grandson is a good person and that this dog here is worthy of my trust, I will be inclined to take his word into account, considering the respect I have for him."
Yahya then gave a few steps forward.
"As for me asking him to stay, it would be because, even after all the years we have been apart, that wolf and I still share the same spirit of camaraderie that we shared all those years ago, when we were two young fools who only wanted to help other mammals and make the world a better place. This is the kind of bond that can truly resist the test of time. It is something few mammals can actually have on their lives."
He looked Angus dead in the eyes as he said the next words:
"That is the kind of feeling someone like you cannot truly understand."
Hearing that from Yahya's mouth made Angus pause.
Those words... were familiar.
Angus himself had said something like that... no. Not "something like that". Angus had said those exact words seven years ago.
Back when Adrian kicked him out and disowned him as his son, and then stomped out of the room. Angus stayed behind with Yahya, and he confronted the older horse, asking him if he was okay with his son cutting him off. To that, the horse only said that it was Adrian's business, and that he could do as he wanted since Angus was his' son.
He seemed to be purposefully overlooking that he spent the last two decades or so grooming Angus to be his successor on the Beastar Corps.
"But you should probably have expected something like that." Yahya said coldly. "I did warn you many times that going too far on your proximity with a member of another species would only bring about consequences."
And that was a classic Yahya comeback. The kind that Angus expected and, on his mind, the real reason why Yahya did not oppose him being kicked out of the family.
And Angus, while knowing that he would be leaving soon, decided to say a few things right to Yahya's face.
Like how his whole view on the world was bogus. How he was just a bigoted jerk who used all those scientific and empirical justifications to excuse his own prejudices. That he was an emotionless bastard who barely showed affection to his own family, and who was more interested in chasing after criminals than being a family man.
And he never even knew what love was on his life, so he had absolutely no idea how Angus felt about Benji, and what that cheetah meant to him.
"That is the kind of feeling someone like you can't truly understand."
Those were the final words Angus said to Yahya before marching to what then was still his room and starting to pack his things in a small suitcase.
And now, either he realized it or not, Yahya said back those exact same words to Angus. On the exact same way, and with the exact same look Angus knew he once had on his eyes.
"What's so funny?" Yahya said as he saw as Angus started to laugh.
"You know, I always wondered why you were so mellow when it came to wolves." Angus said in between laughter. "You always said that they were trustworthy and reliable because of their pack mentality, and that it made them stand out from other preds, but that was only with wolves. You were as weary of coyotes and dingos and wild dogs as you were with any other predator, even though they all had the same pack mentality as wolves. And now I know why! It makes so much sense! Oh, this explain so many things! Ha ha ha ha!"
"What do you mean by that?" Yahya demanded. "What are you getting at?"
After a while, Angus finally stopped laughing, and the he sighed as he looked at Yahya, still with a smirk on his muzzle.
"Just that, after so many years trying to understand what goes on inside your head, I think I have finally truly started to get you." Angus said. "You rutting hypocrite."
Without saying another word, Angus turned around and left, leaving Yahya to look at his departing form, with Dogo still sitting by his hooves, growling at the departing horse, who the dog seriously saw as his enemy.
All because he now recognized him as Yahya's enemy.
She still looked at him as if he was her enemy. That did not sit well with Kolby, considering that she was once his fiancé. To have her look at him like that, even after so many years, when before they were in good terms, did made him a little upset.
"Come on, Chloe." Tasman said, as he looked at the female thylacine, who had her paws tied behind her back and her feet tied together by the ankles. The special ropes on her enchanted to suppress her magic circuits and keep her from activating her magecraft.
"Could you please stop looking at me like I am the worst garbage in the planet?"
"You kidnapped me!" Chloe demanded of him. "You broke into my house and attacked me and took me with you! And now you are holding me hostage to lure my husband into a trap!"
Tasman looked at her for a moment, and then he shrugged.
"Yeah, guess you have a point." He said, "But still, I don't like you giving me those looks. Seriously, you are such a kind person that a scowl just doesn't looks good on your face. You always were almost too kind to be a mage..."
"I won't be kind once I am out of here!" Chloe said, squirming against her ropes, but unable to escape them due to how tight they were and how they suppressed her circuits and prevented her from activating any kind of magecraft, even the simplest of spells.
"Careful there, girl." Tasman walked around her calmly. "Stressing all that much would not be good for your baby."
Chloe did stop struggling at this. She would have put her paws over her stomach if they were not tied behind her back.
"You gotta look after the little one, after all." Tasman said. "How would you feel if you had a miscarriage because you worked yourself up too much? It could happen, you know?"
"You talk as if you are not going to kill me by the time this is all over!" Chloe shot back at him. "Because that's what you are planning, isn't it? To get Eliot to bring that thing to you, and then kill him! And then killing me and my baby as well!"
Tasman said nothing in return. He didn't have to. Chloe had hit the nail right on the head.
"You won't get away with this!" Chloe said to him. "The ZPD will investigate this! And so will the enforcers, once they hear that an ex-mage was one of the victims! They will uncover everything!"
Tasman looked at her and, much to her worry, he began to smile.
"Yes, they will investigate this case, won't they?" Tasman asked. "And they will find out how you and your husband, despite looking like a happy couple on the outside, were actually fighting day and night ever since he found out you were a mage."
Chloe blinked, looking up at him.
"They will find out how your dear Eliot, being crazy in love with you, wanted to prove to you that he was worthy. That he wanted to show you that he was deserving of being your husband despite being just a mundane, but that you did not saw him as your equal after he failed so miserably to protect you in the mall." He said, as he crouched to look at Chloe up close. "That you stopped treating him like your husband and treated him like your servant instead, and that it broke that poor wolf's heart, because he was still crazy about you."
"And that, once he got some information on the package, and what it could do for him, he decided that he could use it to impress you." He continued, as Chloe's eyes slowly widened. "He went through all the problem to contact a mage who was willing to sell a bunch of puppets to him and invade the Manechester mansion to steal it from his own friends, all in hope that this could finally convince you he was worthy of being your husband. But, as he went back home, he found out you were not there and, by a stroke of luck, he managed to find out you had come here... to meet me..." He leaned over. "Because you were trying to convince me to take you back behind his back."
Chloe's expression now was one of pure horror, as Tasman's intentions were becoming clear to her.
"When your husband found out, he went so crazy with jealousy that he attacked you, and you were out of practice for the years since you last used magecraft, then you were unable to defend yourself from him." The male thylacine continued. "You tried to stop him by revealing that you were pregnant, but that backfired. Because, you see, since he assumed you and I have been having an affair for a while, assumed your baby was mine. So, he killed you."
"And, once he calmed down, and realized what he had done, that he killed not only his wife, but his own child... he could not take the blame and killed himself. All of that right before I arrived here after receiving your letter to have a meeting with you and walked into the grizzly scene." He concluded, "What do you think? Too soap opera? I mean, it could happen. Don't you hear about all those loving husbands and wives who go crazy with jealousy after finding out the partner is cheating on them and end up killing them and then themselves? It could happen. I think it actually sounds pretty convincing."
"You... are a monster." Chloe said to him, and Tasman only looked back at her with that same smirk.
"I am a pragmatist, my dear." He said to her. "I evaluate my options and take one that is the most practical and advantageous to me, like a proper mage should. I'd also say I am a bit of a script writer. I came up with this little script in just a few days, can you believe it? And I think it's pretty good, although a am not much of a tragedy fan."
He looked at her, and then his ear twitched, as he caught something on the bounded field he erected around the place.
A car had just arrived.
"And, it looks like the tragic hero has just arrived..." Tasman said, "Time to get ready my dear." He then picked up a muzzle from the side. "You don't have lines, but you have an important role to play in this tragedy. Put your all into it."
"No!" That was all Chloe managed to say, before Tasman forced the muzzle over her maw, silencing her.
It is quiet... too quiet. This corny, cliché line was the thing that went through Eliot's head as he stopped by the old abandoned warehouse. He could not help thinking it, as the place was so quiet that it was like not even bugs were around the area. No crickets chirping and no mosquitos buzzing. No fireflies anywhere, with the only light around was a single lamp on the side of the warehouse, offering earie illumination to the place, and allowed him to see clearly the monstrous, nearly demoniac, lion face graffiti right by the entrance.
Was this really the place?
That was what Tasman said. Eliot had been trying to find it for a while, until he finally found out that one place that seemed to nearly be purposefully hiding.
Come to think of it, it made sense he would want a place like that... Eliot caught himself thinking. He then, just for a moment, asked himself if this was a good idea. However, as he remembered that his wife and future child were both in there, at that bastard's mercy, and his husbandly/fatherly instincts kicked in.
He had to save them.
That was all that mattered to Eliot. He picked the package, neatly wrapped, and made it out of the car, walking forward.
As he did, he failed to notice that a police cruiser, which had been following him since he left his house, even as he drove in circles around the area while looking for the place, stopped nearly a yard away from his own car, just behind the line of the bounded field erected by Tasman around the place.
Gerald made it out of the car, looking as Eliot made his way to the warehouse, and then he pulled his dart gun from his holster and, without warning the owner of the bounded field, he carefully made his way there and started to approach the same warehouse his partner went in.
Eliot looked around, seeing the empty warehouse, making his way inside as he looked for the people in there.
"Tasman?" Eliot called. "Tasman, you there!? I came here for my wife! Tasman!?"
He looked around but saw no sign of him.
"Tas-" Eliot was about to call again, but he stopped as soon as he caught sight of a figure on her knees under the light coming from a hole in the ceiling.
"CHLOE!" Eliot was soon running to his wife, who turned to look at him, and she was trying to tell him something. However, Eliot did not paid attention, he was rushing to her so he could hug her. However, he was stopped dead on his tracks when a giant paw of rock and dirt rose from the ground, blocking his path.
"Ah, Fanghanel." Said Tasman, as he walked into sight, causing Eliot to look at him. He had his paw raised, and he was wearing a gauntlet on his paw, made with black leather and bronze, with a complex symbol on the back of the hand and a bunch of emeralds incrusted in the knuckles.
"Good thing you arrived, I was starting to think you were going to keep us waiting..." He said, smirking at the wolf. "So... did you brought it?"
Eliot glared at him. He then slowly unraveled the thing on his paw, showing it to him. As he saw the glowing thing, he smiled and lowered his hand, causing the giant paw to mimic the movements, sinking into the ground and leaving Eliot's view unobstructed to his wife, who was tied up into the ground, desperately trying to tell Eliot something through her muzzle.
"You put a muzzle on my wife!?" Eliot barked at the male thylacine. "You bastard!"
"Hey, she was trying to bite me!" Tasman said, "I swear she was not that feisty back when we were engaged. Maybe it's your influence..."
"Get that thing off her now!"
Just as Eliot demanded that, Tasman rose his paw with the gauntlet and clenched his fist, causing the ground under Eliot's feet to shake like a small, focalized earthquake, that nearly caused the wolf to fall flat on his butt.
"When are you going to learn, Fanghanel?" Tasman asked, "A mundane like you have no position to make any kinds of demands to a mage like me!"
"You are a useless mutt! A pathetic worn! A powerless maggot!" Tasman said to him, walking to the wolf. "You cannot hope you protect Chloe from me! Just like you could do nothing to help her back on the mall! You don't have the power to do so!"
Eliot was shaken after what just happened, and Tasman's words cut deep into him. However, as he looked back at Chloe, and he saw the tears starting to run down her cheeks, he found new strength within himself.
"Yeah, I may not have power to face you..." Eliot said, and then he turned to Tasman once more. "But that doesn't mean I won't try. I will fight you with my claws and teeth alone if I have to! I will do anything to protect my family! To protect Chloe and my child that she is carrying!"
Tasman looked at him, and then he smirked.
"Oh, really?" The thylacine said, approaching Eliot. As he did, he started to focus his magecraft.
"What if I told you that the child growing in Chloe's womb... is mine?"
Eliot blinked.
"What."
"The child your wife is carrying is mine." Tasman said. "She cheated on you with me."
Eliot's eyes widened, as he looked at Tasman.
"Wha... what are you talking about!?" The wolf said, "There's no way I'll believe that!"
"Oh, but you have to." Tasman said, approaching him even more. "It is the truth. She has been unhappy with her marriage with you ever since she saw how useless you were at the mall. She realized she deserved better and wanted a male who was truly worthy of her. That was why she came to me, asking me to take her back. She even managed to get me to sleep with her, and that was how she got pregnant. She was about to leave you for me and get me to marry her by using the excuse that I had to take reasonability for her child."
Eliot looked at him. He stared, as his mind was reeling from the non-sense the thylacine was spouting.
"You are sad for hearing that?" Tasman had a smirk on his face, as his voice sounded deep and powerful. "Are you angry at her? Are you angry at your wife for tricking and betraying you? You certainly are. You dedicated your life to her, and that is how she repays you? How dare she? She deserves to pay. She has to pay. You should take this chance to punish her for betraying you."
No.
He did not.
Chloe would not betray him. She loved him. She would never do that to him.
He just needed to take one look at her, one look at her tear-stained face and at the look on her eyes to know. Everything Tasman just said was a blatant lie.
She didn't do any of that. She couldn't. If anything, Tasman was the one who tried to force himself onto her and she pushed him back right away.
Yes. That was the only reasonable explanation.
"You rutting liar!" Eliot barked at Tasman. "Don't you dare talk smack like that about my wife! I will beat all your teeth out if you do again, do you hear me!?"
Tasman looked positively shocked at this, as if he was not expecting this kind of reaction.
"It... it failed!? But how-" The thylacine was looking at the wolf, trying to figure out how a mundane managed to resist his mental interference. That was when he saw the necklace the wolf had.
"Take that off!" Tasman said to him. "Take that off, now!"
He went to Eliot, and soon the two of them were struggling, as Tasman tried to remove that one necklace that was protecting Eliot from his influence. He needed to be able to control the wolf.
That wolf needed to be the one to kill Chloe and then himself, otherwise his entire plan would go down the drain!
However, his plan would be going down the drain for another reason. Because, just as he was grappling with Eliot, the panther who followed him there saw it, and cop training kicked in instantly.
"ZPD, don't move!"
"Wha- Gerald!?" Eliot said as both him and Tasman stopped, looking in surprise as the panther who showed up in there, when no one else was supposed to be there.
"You tricked me!" Tasman said, as he pushed Eliot away with a kick to his stomach, causing the wolf, still with the package on his paw, to drop to the ground roughly.
At that very moment, Gerald pulled the trigger, firing darts at Tasman. The thylacine easily blocked them with swings of his gauntlet, parrying the darts and even breaking them. Then, with a swing of his paw, the thylacine sank it into the ground, causing it to break into a line that traveled from him until Gerald's feet, at which point it exploded upwards in dirt and pebbles, causing the panther to be flung backwards by the powerful explosion.
As this happened to his partner, Eliot, who was recovering, was looking at his wife.
"Chloe!" He rushed to her but, before he could get to her, the ground beneath her moved, and then a giant hand of stone wrapped around her body, holding her firmly.
"Chloe!" Eliot said, getting to her and trying to pry the stone hand's fingers open, but being unable to do so.
"I warned you, Fanghanel!"
Eliot looked over at Tasman, who had a furious expression on his face as he held his paw up, the emeralds on the gauntlet he was wearing glowing green.
"I warned you what would happen if you tried to pull a smart one on me, and you bring one of your cop friends to our meeting!?" Tasman demanded of him. "I am not a mammal of empty threats!"
"Let her go!" Eliot said, "I didn't brought Gerald here! I don't even know how he found this place!"
"You should have been more careful, you stupid mutt!" Tasman said. "Now, your wife and unborn child will pay the price for your stupidity!"
"No!" Eliot said, as the stone hand started to squeeze. It was squeezing very slowly. Tasman was making it slow.
"Stop!" The wolf demanded, trying to pry the fingers open, but they were not budging. He tried to kick and to punch to break them, but he was nearly breaking his own paws instead. Eventually, he panicked and tried to charge at Tasman to try and force him to stop, but the thylacine simply kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying back, until he stopped right by the side of the stone had.
"Stupid mundane trash!" Tasman said, "When are you going to realize that you can't do anything!? All you can do now is watch as your wife dies!"
"N-no..." Eliot said, getting up. He reached out for the package he dropped.
"I'll give it to you..." Eliot said, raising it in the air. "I'll let you have it... just please... please, let her go..."
Tasman's answer to that was curl his fingers, causing the stone paw to squeeze Chloe ever so little tighter. The female thylacine's breath hitched as she was squeezed, she looked at her husband, tears streaming down her face. Eliot was crying too, as he looked up at Chloe.
"Pump...kin..." He said, reaching out for her, placing a paw on the stone, and now wishing, more than anything, that he was a mage, so he could save her.
Is that your wish?
...
Is this the one thing your heart desires?
The thing for which you'd put your life on the line?
Yes.
Are you sure?
Yes. I am.
Then speak up.
Raise your voice and say your wish.
Let it be heard!
Eliot's breath quickened, his fingers flexing and his lips curling to bare his fangs.
"I..." The wolf trembled, and then, with every air on his lungs, he screamed:
"I wish I had the power I need to protect my family!"
Then, a gust of wind blew through the place, as a blinding light came from the object Eliot had firmly held on his paw.
Chloe looked away due to the bright light. The same bright light that made Tasman cover his eyes.
"This can't be!" The thylacine said while, a little further away, Gerald stirred, as the bright light caused him to look at it while squinting his eyes.
Meanwhile, Eliot felt as if fire was being injected on his body. As if burning oil was leaking under his skin and spread all over his muscles and internal orgasm. This feeling of burning was painful to him. But it was a dull kind of pain. Then, suddenly, a memory came to his mind.
A memory of when he was just a cub. Of when his father was still alive, and they were in the middle of summer. On that night, the moon was shinning on the sky. They had gone to the countryside because it was far from the city, and they could be able to see it better, without all the light coming from the buildings.
They had the perfect view for when the moon started darkening, and then turning into a shade of red. It seemed something supernatural, but that was merely the effect of the natural even that was happening.
An event that would forever be engraved on the young wolf's memory.
A lunar eclipse.
Eliot opened his eyes as he felt his entire skin hot and tingling. He felt like a kettle on the fire, with smoke ready to start blowing out any second. With a particularly big amount of heat coming from his stomach.
Images appeared on his mind's eye. An image of a complex circle with symbols and letters he never saw before, but that still looked familiar somehow.
Words came to his mind that he never heard before, but that he knew exactly how to pronounce, and their meaning.
Logic path.
With a snarl and a newfound strength, Eliot managed to force himself to his feet. Looking at his wife, he planted both his paws into the giant stone hand trapping her. The words flowed from his mouth naturally, as if he had known them his entire life:
"Straße Gehen!"
As he said those words, the same heat running all over his skin and making it tingle poured into the rock, spreading all over it. And, with this heat, a single word went along, which impregnated the rock:
PULVERIZE
With a flash and a sound of stone being crushed, the entire hand broke apart and was reduced to nothing more than broken pebbles, allowing Eliot to holding his wife on his arms.
As Eliot looked at her, she looked back at him with eyes wide in shock.
She was staring at the glowing lines he now had on his body.
His magic circuits.
Tasman was also looking in shock.
The package...
It was the package! It did that!
"Give that to me!" He said, as he lifted his paw and swung it. As he did, pieces of the ground broke and flew in direction to the wolf, who quickly hugged his wife and dove with her out of the way. But still, Tasman continued to fire pieces of the ground on him, and Eliot soon saw himself forced to act. His cop training mixing with... whatever it was that was happening to him and making him charge into the attacking thylacine, who quickly summoned floating rocks from the ground and flung them at the wolf.
"Straße Gehen!" Eliot screamed, as he swung his glowing paws towards the coming rocks, pouring energy forward along with the word "SMASH". This word sunk into the rocks as soon as they were hit, causing them to be shattered as Eliot made his way to the thylacine, completely surprising him as he tackled him and struggled with him onto the ground.
As they did, Gerald got up, and he was looking at it.
"Eliot!"
"Gerald!" The wolf said, looking at the panther as he grappled with the thylacine, his body still glowing with the activity of his magic circuits. "Get Chloe out of here! Now!"
The panther looked at him, before doing as his partner said, and going to his wife, who was still tied up. He was soon telling her it was okay, a she proceeded to untie her from her biddings.
Meanwhile, Tasman managed to punch Eliot hard in the face with the gauntlet and push him off him and get up. That was when he saw the panther removing Chloe's ropes.
"You!" Tasman said, stretching the paw with the gauntlet in their direction, focusing his magical energy into it and causing the emeralds to start emitting a green glow.
That was when someone grabbed his other hand, and he growled as he closed his gauntleted paw into a fist, turning the focused energy into a form of attack, and he turned the wolf, ready to deliver a punch.
At the same time, Eliot also had his paw pulled back, glowing as it was coated into a word:
CRASH
"GEHEN!"
And the two mammals thrust their respective paws at each other.
The resulting impact produced a flash of light and a sound akin to that of an explosion, and it caused the two mammals to be flung backwards. Eliot landed flat on his back, while Tasman managed to firm his feet on the ground and remain standing, but he was soon grasping the wrist of his right hand in pain and shock.
Did I feel that through the Earth King's Gauntlet!? He thought. How much magical energy did he put into that last attack!?
He was looking at the wolf who groaned as he laid prone on the ground.
That's my chance! He thought, and he was about to go for the kill, when suddenly, his body started feeling heavy. So heavy that Tasman could not stand and saw himself on his hands and knees instead.
Spectral thylacinid-like figures came into vision, wrapped around him like snakes, putting conceptual weight into his body that translated into actual weight, eventually bringing him down. They were a courtesy of Chloe, who could use magecraft again now that the ropes suppressing her circuits were out.
However, even as she kept her focus to keep the male thylancine down, her greatest worry was still her husband.
"Eliot!" She rushed to him, while Gerald, who freed her, picked up the glowing object Eliot dropped and slid it into his pocket, before rushing forward as well, pointing his dart gun at Tasman while he stayed on the ground.
"Eliot! Honey, are you alright?" Chloe said, helping Eliot to a sitting position. The wolf then said:
"Pumpkin!" He rose the paw up he used to counter Tasman's strike, which was shaking. "I can't feel my fingers!"
Tasman, meanwhile, was not going to just lay low and accept defeat.
He was the head of the Tasman clan! He would not be brought by those pathetic losers!
With a growl, he managed to sink the fingers of his gauntlet into the ground, sending magic energy into them, the gauntlet's own supernatural properties amplifying his elemental magecraft and allowing him to cause the ground to crack under those two.
Unfortunately, the spikes that sprouted out of the ground missed the two, and Tasman could only curse at the two. Gerald was about to fire a dart at him, when the thylacine released magical energy from all his body, making it take the form of a karmic blast that pushed the panther back and dissipated the apparitions Chloe's magecraft created.
Despite being free, Tasman had quickly to go into defensive again, as more ghosts came towards him, created by Chloe. And those were enveloped in blue flames as they attacked him, forcing him to fight them as not to be hit.
"We have to leave!" Chloe said, "They won't hold him back for long! We gotta go, now!"
She was talking to both Eliot and Gerald, and the two listened to her. With his wife and friend's help, the wolf managed to get out of there.
By the time Tasman had managed to destroy all the apparitions with prana-infused blows, they were already in Gerald's cruiser, and the panther was driving away with them.
Tasman arrived outside in time to see the car with the three of them and, most important of all, his precious package inside driving away.
All that the thylacine could do now was scream in frustration and rage.