The night was calm and it seemed to have no problems. But of course, as usual, it was only appearance.

In the middle of the desert street, an old building was laying there. Decayed by time, and damaged by the years that had passed. It was old and decrepit, and it was the kind of place that, in many movies, would be a perfect spot for a hideout and for the base of a villain.

Funny how life sometimes mimics the movies, as this place just happened to be really a hideout for someone who plotted something.

<b>XXX</b>

"I almost have it ready now." Said a man as he made the last few checks in his laptop. He was a small man, no more than 4.2 feet tall, and he was very scrawny. He looked to be around his late twenties or early thirties, and he had red hair in his head, pale skin, and green colored eyes. He was wearing long jeans pants, white shirt and a blue colored jacket over it.

As he tipped the keyboard of his laptop, by his side a great machine was analyzing a great glass container, full to the brim with a red colored liquid. The machine made several analyses and it showed the results back into his laptop.

He could not understand enough of the whole information that was in there, but he was able to force himself to learn enough from the scientists that were his partners in this business to know that it was almost ready.

"This is great!" He said as he looked to the screen of his laptop. "Now all I need is..."

Just as he was about to say something else, he heard some sounds into the outside of the place he was in. As he did, he turned his head to look, and he was able to hear man screaming something in the outside, while he could hear also the sounds of heavy objects hitting against each other and see some kind of light coming from the door.

He knew what it was. He knew who it was. While many would be deeply worried with that, this man, however, smiled to himself, as he was able to feel very confident due to what was going to happen.

"Speaking of the devil..."

A few moments later, the noises and the faintly light stopped, and two figures burst through the door. They were both in their late twenties. One of them was a young man, with light-blonde hair and a young face and white skin. He was wearing long jeans pants, white sneakers, white T-Shirt with the logo of a predator feline's skull in the front in red. He looked at the man angrily and for a moment, his green eyes seemed almost to glow as he looked at the other man.

By his side was a girl, she was in her middle twenties and she had short light-brown colored hair. Her eyes were hazelnut colored and her skin was tan. She had a very nice body, and she was wearing long indigo pants, tank-top pink shirt and sports shoes. She had a look very much the same as the boy, and she had the same look of anger in her face.

The man simply smiled at them, particularly at the boy. "Mr. Hunter! What a pleasant surprise, I was exactly thinking about you." Said the man, closing his laptop and walking in direction to them, while both of them seemed to be ready to attack if the man tried anything.

"Give up, Stoats." The young man, called Hunter said, and he continued to look at him, his green eyes acquiring some kind of shine colored shine while he looked at him, "We are not alone in here. Our friends are in the building, and we will all get you."

"Oh, yes, Alex Hunter, always bringing his little friends to play with him." The man mocked as he stood at a distance from the two of them, and he said, "Tell me, do we all should expect one of them coming to save your sorry neck once more?"

"This time is different." Alex Hunter said, and he added, "I learned a lot of things and I had a lot of time to practice." He said, and he moved his hands to the side, as if he was ready to do something, "Want me to show you?" He said with a smug grin, and the man was actually able to grin too.

"It would be nice, but I think I would prefer you to give me what I want." He said as he continued to walk. "You still have it, don't you?"

"Like I would ever work with you!" Alex Hunter screamed back. The man looked at him for a while, and slowly shook his head from one side to another.

"You know, I still don't understand why you want so much to stop me." The man said, and he seemed to be almost honest as he said that. "I mean, if I just did it would be so much better for everyone, including for you! You wouldn't have to be different from the others anymore, and you would have a lot more of your little friends to play with." He said that as if he was telling to him all of the advantages of buying a new cellphone, as if the situation was totally different from the life or death that it was.

Alex looked at him, and he said, "You still don't get it, do you?" There was a silence as they simply looked at each other. As they stared, the building shook slightly with the distant sounds of explosions and shots that seemed to be happening into the very same building. It were Alex friends, and both he and the other man, Stoats, knew that pretty well.

"You have lost, Stoats." Alex said to him, "It is over."

Stoats smiled to him, and he said, "You have very interesting little friends, Hunter." He said, turning around and walking in direction to the vault full of the red liquid. "I too have interesting friends, and guess what?" He turned back to look at Alex and the girl, "Some of my friends just happens to know some of yours."

Alex shared a look with the girl, and they both looked back at Stoats, and Alex was about to open his mouth to ask him what he meant, when Stoats beat him to it. "Mr. Bastille!"

It took only a few seconds to other two people approach them, coming from behind Stoats.

"Let me go!" Said a feminine voice that Alex found to be terrifyingly familiar. Soon, he could see the owner of that voice: it was a woman; she looked to be in her earlier thirties. She had light blonde hair, green eyes and she was very beautiful, slender and muscled in the right places. She was wearing orange colored t-shirt, long white skirt, and pink colored shoes. Well, one of them was pink colored, while the other seemed to have disappeared and now it was only possible to see the white sock she wore underneath it. She had a few wounds in her face, along with a cut in her cheek, and she looked to be fighting to the man who was holding her.

He was a little taller than she was, and he looked much muscled. His hair was brown colored, his eyes were of a hazelnut color, and his skin was dark-colored. He was wearing a good choice of clothes, with a brown colored suit with black social shoes and yellow colored tie around his neck. He looked like he was ready to go to a social event as his hand held the woman by the arm, keeping a strong grip on her as he dragged her to the line of sight of the two other ones.

Both of them widened their eyes, as they immediately recognized both of them.

"Misty!" Alex cried, giving one step forward, and immediately, the man holding her tightened his grip in her arm, making her cry out in pain as she led her own hand to the place that was being held. Alex stopped in his tracks, and the woman looked at him, and she mouthed to him: "I'm sorry."

"Bastille, you piece of shit!" The girl who was at Alex side shouted at him, hate in her eyes as she looked what Bastille had done with the woman, Misty.

Bastille looked at her, and he said, "Miss Thompson, we have to stop meeting like that!" He spoke as if it was some kind of social meeting, and he looked at Alex, "And Mr. Hunter... it is always a delight to see you." He sounded awfully confident and courting as he said that, as if he really believed that to be nothing more than a formal meeting. While this, he continued to have a tight grip into the arm of the woman, making her wince in pain, as the strength with which he held her was starting to cause bruises in the skin of her arms.

"Bastille! Stoats! You bastards!" Alex said, and he gave a step forward, but Bastille immediately brought his other hand and grabbed the woman, Misty, by the face, and he said, "Ah, ah, ah! No!"

Immediately, Alex stopped dead in his tracks, and Bastille looked at him with a smirk, as he said, "You know me very well, Hunter. You know very well what I can do to her in a blink of an eye."

Yes, Alex knew. He already faced Bastille in the past, and he knew that Bastille could actually kill Misty if he wanted, and he only would need a few seconds, and even Alex would not be able to react fast enough to save her. He could only glare angrily at him, and then back at Stoats, who had a very similar smirk in his face as if he had just won in the lottery, and that completely infuriated Alex.

"I already saw how low you can sink, Stoats." Alex said, the disgust and the hate very clear in his voice, "Still, when I see you going so low like that, I still get surprised."

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Hunter. I'll take that as a compliment." Stoats said, and he then said, "Well, we are both very smart, and so, I'll not play any games and go straight to business." He was speaking with a confidence that was unnerving Alex to his very core, making him want to go right to there and strangle Stoats with his two bare hands. Stoats didn't noticed, or pretended not to notice it, as he pointed to his back, to the glass vault full of the red liquid, and he said, "See that? I have it almost completely ready. It was hard to get it done after the recipe was destroyed, and I had to work with only that little sample I got, but I just got it finished! The only thing missing is... well, you know what is missing, don't you?" He asked, and he walked in his direction, with that same smirk in his face, "After all, you have it with you. You still have it right? Just give it to me and I'll let your friend go, otherwise, well, I can't promise that your friend will be fine after what Mr. Bastille will do with her."

As he spoke, Bastille brought Misty's face very next to his own, giving a smile to the two, as he spoke, "I'm sorry, I have nothing against your friend, but you know, he is the boss, and he is paying me." Bastille spoke, as if he was simply stating something like "it is only business", or something of the like.

Of course, this did not helped one bit into the anger that the two young adults were feeling towards the duo in front of them. "What about that." Alex friend said as she stepped forward, her look fiery as if she wanted to open holes into them with her vision. "I'll throw you two across the room, keep the next fifteen minutes kicking your butts and then throw both of you by the windows, and me, Alex and Misty go back to our homes after setting this building and everything on it on fire?" She spoke as she clutched her fists, as if she was ready to fight.

"Try." Bastille said, squeezing harder into Misty's face, making her wince and groan from the pain, "Try anything to see what I can do with this pretty face." He spoke, but he somehow was managing to turn a threat into a simple statement, as if that was nothing more than a friendly conversation, not a situation with a hostage, as what it was truly looking like. The girl bared her teeth as she seemed ready to attack him, and Bastille held Misty's face, as if he too was ready to do something.

"Linda, no!" Alex said, and she stopped, and she looked at him.

"But, Alex!" She said, and Alex said, "We can't take risks!" He spoke as he looked at her, and he looked at Bastille, and Linda also looked, and they saw him with that confident, almost courting smile as he held Misty's face, as if he was ready to break her jaw with just one hand. Linda also knew Bastille, and she knew that, despite being very good in fighting, there was no way that she could do something to Bastille before he was able to do something to Misty. She hated to admit it, but now, it looked like she was losing.

Like they both were losing.

Stoats looked very intently at their reactions, as if he was trying to read what they were going to do next. He was the kind of person that never let himself be caught off guard, and he knew that the only reason why he lasted that long in the world was because he knew when problem was coming to him, and he knew what to do next to keep his safety. He was sure that these two would put the safety of their friend in first place, but still, he was smart enough to keep an eye on them, to be sure that they would not play anything on him.

He continued to look at them, and he was soon getting calmer and more confident as he saw that they were slowly seeing that they didn't had much of a choice. Just as he expected, these two were far too sentimental.

"So, I guess we can make a deal here?" Stoats asked, and Alex looked at him, a look of the purest contained hate, a hate that come into his voice as he spoke.

"I hope you rot in hell."

Stoats laughed, and he said, "Kid, hell would spit me back!" He walked, and he said, "So, we have a deal? What I want for your little friend's safety?" He spoke, and the sounds of explosions continued to reverberate into the building, but all of the ones in the room were far too focused into the current situation to actually give it very much attention. Besides the fact that, in the past months or even years, they had passed by way too much things to let themselves be shaken so easily. "I suggest you to think fast, for sometimes, Mr. Bastille can't get very much a grip on himself." Stoats spoke, and Bastille gave him a humorous glance, as if that was a very good joke, but he continued to have a vice-like grip into Misty,  not giving her even the slightest chance to escape him.

But of course, he didn't covered her mouth, so she spoke. "Don't do it, Alex! They will kill all of us once they have-HMMMPH!" She said as her mouth was suddenly covered by Bastille, who used a hand to cover her mouth while he passed his arm around her from behind, immobilizing her.

"Shhh! Talking too much can cause serious trouble, lady." Bastille said as he held her mouth shut and her body immobilized. Linda saw that, and she grunted in anger, and she looked at him, stretching her fingers in her hands, as if they were itching for her to do something to him. However, she knew that she could not do much before Bastille could do something to Misty, and Misty was a very dear friend to her and Alex, and so, she was not willing to risk her being hurt by that bastard. Being so powerless was something that she was not used to, and it made Linda completely mad, and wanting to simply go there and give that idiot of Bastille a punch right in the face to break his nose and wipe away that stupid smile of his face.

Alex looked at them as it seemed that they had put him between a rock and a hard place. He knew that they would to hesitate into hurting or even killing Misty if they had to, but he also knew very well that Misty was right. Alex was far from doubting that Stoats and Bastille would both kill them once they got what they wanted, to be sure that they would never get in their way again and also to get back at them for the things they had put them through in the past months.

Alex knew that giving them what they wanted would be a disaster for everyone, so it was absolutely out of question, but he also knew that refusing and letting them hurt Misty until he decided to cooperate was something that went completely against his morals and his very nature. Alex found himself in a difficult situation, but he remembered himself that other of his friends were in there, and that they would most likely come to help as soon as they were done clearing the place from the rest of Stoats' men.

Alex looked at Stoats, and he said, "You are never going to get away with this, Stoats, and you know that." He spoke with confidence, and he stepped forward, as if it was a way to say that he was not afraid of Stoats or Bastille, and he said, "There are more of us than you."

Stoats looked at him, and he chuckled, shaking his head slowly as he walked up to Alex. "Mr. Hunter, didn't I already told you that I have my own friends? Matter of fact, I think some of them had already started to have acquaintances with your friends right now." As he spokes, more explosion sounded across and building, and for the first time, Alex realized that they could be caused by more than just his friends.

Alex mentally cursed and kicked himself for not predicting that Stoats would resort to hiring people like Bastille to fight for him and to protect him. He had really not predicted this kind of thing, and he completely hated himself for so. Not only he had put himself in a difficult situation, but he also put the rest of his friends and allies, people who trusted him, into a serious danger by bringing them to a fight that they were not ready to face. They hadn't trained and got prepared to this kind of thing.

Stoats smiled to him as he approached, "Your little friends are not coming to help you this time, Mr. Hunter." He said that with a prepotency that truly filled Alex with anger for him, and made him want to walk to there and break Stoats' teeth even more than he already did. Stoats continued to walk to him, and he said, "So, back to our little business, do we have a deal, yes or no?"

Alex was cornered, and he knew it. He gave glances to everyone around him. He looked at Misty, who was looking at him with pleading yes, shaking her head, while Bastille continued to hold onto her, keeping her immobilized and silent. He looked at Linda, who looked as helpless as him. Alex knew that she hated to be in situations like that, powerless and without any kind of action. She looked down as she knew the situation was dare, and that they didn't had many options in the given moment.

Alex finally looked back at Stoats, who still had that arrogant smile in his face, and that shine in his eyes that Alex came to recognize and to hate with all of his might. Still, he knew that what the answer was. Mindy was far too important to let her be harmed. He knew that Stoats was most likely going to backstab them, but still, Mindy's safety came first.

Alex knew that what he was about to do was a betrayal of their goal, of what he had promised to his friends, and even the promise that he had made to his mother more than fifteen years ago. But, in the current situation, Alex knew that he could still somehow gain the upper hand somehow, if he was able to think enough. Right now, he knew that the only way to make things work out somehow was to give to Stoats what he wanted.

To turn things around, he needed to first give to Stoats the impression that he had won.

So, Alex looked to him, and he slowly lowered his head, as if to signal that he had accepted it and that he was defeated. Everyone looked at him, Linda with anger for being defeated like that, by these cowards. Misty with a desperate look, and also some guilty, as if she was the responsible for the failure of their goal that they had planned so carefully in the last months. Bastille had the tranquil look and smile in his face, feeling that he had indeed scored some points and that he had done a good work and that he had managed to grant his own paycheck by helping Stoats to get what he wanted. And Stoats, he had the biggest grin possible, as he had finally won, and after so long, he was finally going to get what he had planned for the past years, and it was Alex Hunter himself who was going to give it to him. He had finally won.

Nothing could ruin this moment.

As he enjoyed the feeling of victory, Stoats walked to Alex, and was about to say something, when suddenly, the lights started to flick. Everyone stopped and looked up, as they saw that the lights were going crazy. Actually, there was a lot of things going crazy. The nearby cellphones and watches were going crazy, and the machines that were scanning the red fluid started to go crazy all of sudden, as Stoats' laptop started to buzz and to show all kind of confusing messages in the screen.

It took a few seconds to people to make sense of that, and Stoats looked at Alex. "What kind of trick is that, Hunter?"

Alex had no idea of that. This was not his doing, and he had absolutely no idea of who or what was doing it. He was about to say that he had nothing to do with that, when suddenly, the whole building seemed to give a sudden jolt, knocking everyone off their feet. Bastille let go of Misty as they both feel into the ground, and  Misty was dazzled as she was in the ground and not free, but Bastille was soon able to get on his knees and look around. Alex and Linda too were getting to their feet, while Stoats looked around, completely confused to what was going on.

And before anyone else could make another movement or make sense of what was going on, there was a sound, loud, sounding like something that maybe you could hear from a sci-fi movie.  It seemed to make the whole building vibrate. It took a few more seconds before another jolt came, and this time, Alex, Linda, and Bastille were able to keep their ground, while Misty and Stoats were still in the ground. Stoats was crawling into the ground, trying to reach the laptop and the vault with the red liquid, when the building jolted once more.

As the building shook with each jolt, the flickering of the lights and the strange behavior of everything electronic around constantly followed the sound that was like the buzz of the turbine of a spaceship continued. Soon, there was a sound coming from the building itself, almost as if it was breaking apart.

The people in the room all looked around, and soon, they were feeling a gust of wind, and they looked over, in time to see the doors being ripped from the knobs, and being sucked into some kind of vortex. Everyone in the room cried out in surprise, as the vortex started to spread and expand, as if it was some kind of tornado, taking the room. Alex hold on to Linda's hand, to avoid her to be sucked.

As he tried to get to his feet, Bastille was slowly moving away from the vortex. That was something that he had not been warned about, and was not in his paycheck. Misty was still in the ground, and she was covering herself as she was slowly dragged into the ground, but she was trying to hold onto the ground to avoid being sucked. Stoat was moving in direction to the vault, as if he wanted to reach it and be away from the vortex, but soon, the vault jolted as the strength of the vortex, which sucked everything in the room, almost as if a black hole.

Everyone looked at the vortex, as it seemed to almost pulsate, before it sprung forward, expanding and encompassing all of them and the room itself.

<b>XXX</b>

Outside of the building, sirens sounded as police cars were approaching the place. They had received a call from someone who told them to be in there to arrest a dangerous group, someone who called himself a "good citizen" and who claimed that the criminals would be in there, beaten up and ready to be delivered.

As they approached, they could see the building, and they could also see the light coming from the inside of the building. As they approached, however, they saw that the building was seemingly jolting, as it moved to the inside, when suddenly the building started to tear itself apart.

As it did, it was possible to see a spiraling vortex inside of it, it glowed and it seemed to be sucking out the building like a whirlpool. Soon, the building was breaking apart as it was sucked inside of the vortex, which now formed a great ball.

The police stopped their cars at a distance from the building, and the officers came out of their vehicles and they stared in disbelief at the spiraling orb that sucked the building all to itself. As soon as the building as a whole had disappeared, the orb swallowed itself and disappeared completely, leaving behind only a cloud of dust into the empty space where once there was a building.

The officers looked at it, amazed, and all of them thinking the same thing:

What the fuck just happened?

<b>XXX</b>

Alex took a few moments to be able to make sense of what was going on. He knew that he was not in the floor anymore. He was spinning, or at least that was the feeling that he had as he was feeling like there was no up or down in there, but he knew that his body was moving, and that he was moving in some short of circle, and that something was anchoring him and preventing him from flying away.

"ALEX!!!" Linda's voice finally made Alex snap back to reality and open his eyes, and he saw her. Linda was holding on his hand, and they were both spinning. She was the anchor that was keeping him from flying away.

Alex looked at her, and he looked back around himself. He saw pieces of the building flying around them, colliding with each other as they were into some kind of hurricane. Alex took only a few moments to realize that they were inside that same vortex that had sucked everything.

Alex was completely baffled by what was happening, but he was much more worried on Linda to actually give it the proper attention.

She was looking as scared as he was, and she was holding on to him for her dear life. She too had no idea of where they were and what was going on. She was afraid, and it was rare to see her show this kind of emotion, and Alex knew it well.

Reaching out, he grabbed both her hands and kept a good grip on them as he pulled himself in direction to her, and she did the same to him. They both were now keeping a grip on each other, as if they were each other's only anchor to the world and to all that they knew, and it could very well be the case.

As they spun into the vortex, two pieces of the wall of the building they were in collided, and they exploded, causing a roar as they crumbled into bricks, pieces of concrete and scrapped iron. Linda cried out as the sound reverberated through them and around them, and Alex pulled her close, and spun his own body, to protect her from the debris.

Luckily, said debris seemed to be stuck into their own flow inside that vortex, and they all floated away from them. Alex barely felt more than one or two very small pieces of concrete and a lot of dust, coating his clothes and his hair. Alex barely cared, and he only looked back at Linda.

She looked back at him, and after a while, something else behind her caught Alex's attention, making his eyes widen. He immediately pushed her away, but kept a hold of her hands, keeping her linked to him as both of them laid into the horizontal.

In that same moment, a big piece of wall passed by the place they were, and their position allowed them to slip right over the window in it. The wall passed by them and collided with another piece, breaking apart and booming inside the vortex, which seemed to only grow in power and speed as both of the young adults spun inside of it.

It was getting harder to keep a grip into Linda's hand, and Alex was trying, but the strength of the vortex was pulling them apart just like an hurricane would do, and slowly the hands were slipping from each other. At a given moment, one of the hands slipped, and now Alex and Linda were holding on to each other only with one hand.

"Linda! Hold on!" Alex cried out, and Linda looked at him with fear.

"I... can't..." She said, and soon, their hands started to slip from each other. Neither of them had enough strength to hold into that, and after a while, their hands slipped.

"LINDA!"

"ALEX!"

They both cried out as they were pulled away from each other, both of them spinning. Alex tried to keep an eye for Linda, but soon, he lost her. He looked at all sides, trying to keep himself stable as he spun, but it was almost impossible, and no matter where he looked, he could not see Linda, and neither could he hear her voice.

A million thoughts passed by Alex head, all at the same time, but he was unable to make any sense of them. All that was happening was sudden, it was something that he had never experienced before, and it was making very hard to take a grip on things and make any sense of what was actually going on.

As Alex spun, he thought about his friends, and he wondered what was of them, if they had been caught into that same strange vortex, along with him, Linda, Misty, Bastille and Stoats. Of course, he would never feel sorry for these two pieces of trash, but he could not avoid feeling the worst possible feeling as he thought about Linda and Misty, and all of his friends, by that matter.

Alex wondered about all of them, ad about how that thing caught them, and if they were all as scared as he was as they were floating somewhere into that giant vortex of light. Alex also would wonder why he could not see or hear any of them, just as Linda had suddenly vanished from his sight just a few moments ago. However, he could not think of that, for he was far too worried about his current situation to let his mind ask itself these stupid and trivial questions.

He continued to spin in there, as if he was in a whirlpool, and as he spun, he could swear that the vortex was becoming brighter, as if the light the composed it was starting to focus and to become more powerful. As it did, Alex opened his eyes, he could see the vortex around him becoming more vivid, and it was almost as if the light was closing in above him.

Alex felt like he had been pulled into another vortex, as his body made a sudden turn to a direction, and he felt like the vortex he was in was smaller and was much more powerful. He could barely keep track of his own position as he turned to all directions at the same time, and the light of the vortex blinded and dazzled him, and after a while, he felt like the light itself was being poured over him, and it burned as if molted iron was being poured over him

Alex cried out as that burning feeling passed by him, into his skin, and then into his flesh, and it finally seemed to be reaching his very bones.

That was it. Alex was going to die. He never imagined that this was how he was going to end. His whole life started to pass in front of his eyes like a HD movie. He saw every single happening of his life, big and small, passing to him again, as if he was reliving his own life from the beginning to that very same moment of ending.

He had a good life. Alex just realized it. Despite all the problems and tribulations that he passed, he had lived fully to his potential. Or at least, that was the feeling that he got. Even if at some points, his life has been excessively hard, or painful, in the end, Alex realized that he had lived it fully, and that he had, in fact, made very good things with his life while he lived it, and made a lot of friends.

Well.... At least we stopped Stoats. Alex thought to himself, even though the thought did not truly gave him comfort for knowing that his friend could be, in that very moment, sharing the same fate that he was having now.

But... it actually was not that bad. The hot feeling was searing, but at that moment, it was starting to calm down, to become more bearable, until it became a warm feeling, and now, it was vanishing slowly, and leaving his body cold.

That was what was like to die?

Actually it was not that bad.

Alex let out a sigh as the feeling of heat left completely his body, leaving him feeling cold, as if he was taken by a sudden gust of wind during the winter, and so, his mind started to go dark as he felt the vortex pulling him to whatever it was what could it be his final destination.

And he was almost arriving in there now.

<b>XXX</b>

A fox took a deep breath of the night air by the window of the car, before letting it out in a sigh. "Ahh, Zootopia's night air is amazing." Said Nick Wilde as he admired the nocturnal lights of the city. Of course, being a fox meant that he was nocturnal by nature, and he was used to the night, actually, it brought him memories of the times that he used to wander through the streets of that city at night, doing all kinds of stuff that many other people would not be proud to talk about.

By his side, the bunny Judy Hopps, who was driving, took a sip of her coffee, and she looked at him, saying, "Yeah, these night shifts are way too easy for you, right?" She was smiling as she said that, and he partner looked at her and smiled back, before taking one more bite of that delicious blueberry pie that had been left of the small surprise party that Judy had prepared for him.

It was not his birthday, but it was a special day, nonetheless. Today, it made exactly one year since Nick had graduated into the police academy and joined the ZPD as a law officer.

Nick could still barely believe it. If more than one year ago someone had told him that he would be in there, wearing the police uniform, with a badge on his chest, inside a police car, making night patrols with his partner and best friend, who was a bunny, Nick would surely have laughed about it all.

But indeed, it had happened. The event of the Night Howlers Case was a distant memory, and still, Nick knew that it had changed his life forever, for it had brought him to meet Judy Hopps, his "Carrots", who turned his life to the most unexpected direction, and strangely, Nick had welcomed that change with open arms as it proved to come for the better.

Since then, Nick and Judy lived many adventures as police officers, of course, their first cases were the light kind, like some stolen values and some vandalism, however, as time went on, they started to go deeper into Zootopia, and they saw a bit more of the kinds of crimes that you could find in its dark underbelly. Kidnapping, aggressions, drug dealing, organized crime, and even the occasional murderer investigation, even though there were not many of them in

Zootopia as a whole, there were still as many as it was to expect of a big city. It was a transition that proved to be quite a difficult deal for the two police officers, but they had already matured enough to be able to deal with this kind of stuff.

Later on, Chief Bogo himself would admit to them that he had, for a while, kept them both away from these kinds of cases, until they were in the force for long enough to be ready to deal with the more serious cases. Of course that this made Judy a little offended that the chief had thought that they were not ready to deal with the serious things that Zootopia had to offer, but still, she understood that they needed to show that they were able to deal with the less severe crimes to be ready to deal with the more serious ones. In fact, many young cadets needed to be more familiarized with the work of the police before they had matured enough to be ready to coupe with the kinds of crimes that involved dangerous criminal masterminds, violent drug dealers and the murderers that lurked into the shadows of the city, independent of the species.

Nick himself had some experience with the underworld of Zootopia, and he already heard a lot about these guys, but still, he always kept his distance from them, but now, with this new job, he saw himself forced to face some of them head-on to do his job. He had learned a lot from Zootopia that he himself didn't knew, but sure, this didn't affected his natural confident self, and neither did it made any kind of visible damage into Judy's own kind and brave heart, always jumping at each new case and going after every lead that they got.

They had been partners for exactly one year today, and Judy, of course, prepared to him a small surprise. Nothing too big or fancy, only some close friends and a few blueberry pies that were courtesy of a "business partner of her parents". They were delicious, of course, and even more for Nick loved blueberries, and everyone else liked them. It felt very nice to have people around complimenting him for the time in the ZPD, especially carrots, who had always been supportive to him ever since the beginning, Nick had indeed a lot to thank that miraculous bunny, who turned his life around in the most amazing way ever since they met.

But, of course, only because was the anniversary of his joining of the ZPD, this did not stopped their boss, "Officer Buffalo Butthead" from assigning them to yet another night patrolling of Zootopia, and these usually tended to be quite boring.

Sure, Zootopia was the kind of city that never truly slept, as it had a good deal of nightlife, but these patrols usually were the ones with the time of which the activity was lesser, and so, the nightshifts, while being the calmer, were also boring. Of course, the time too was a complication, not for Nick, but for Judy, since bunnies were not nocturnal by nature, so, staying up at night messed with her biologic clock, and demanded her to rely on coffee to stay awake to late, and she usually slept until late in the next morning.

Nick continued to eat that delicious blueberry pie, the best he ever ate, and he made a mental note to himself to know that guy when he had a chance and ask for the recipe.

"You know, you should not eat during service." Judy said to him, and Nick looked at her.

"Oh, come on, Carrots, you know that empty bags don't stand." He said, taking another fork of the delicious pie. "Besides, it is not like we will met another danger right in the next corner."

"The night just started Nick." She said, checking the clock that signaled that it was 21:10, their shift usually went to 3:00, and they still had a good while to go. "Besides, I must remember you that some of our cases had started into night patrols?"

"Yeah, but this time of the day most bad guys are sleeping." Nick said, trying to make a point in there, even though he and Judy both knew that he just wanted the chance to eat his pie in peace.

Nick looked at the window as he ate. They were in the middle of Savanna Central, the urban part of Zootopia, where all of the other districts met, and the start of there were still many mammals walking around the city, taking care of their own business into the city. Some of them going into dates, other returning home from work, and others going out to party with friends or do many other business that was of their lives. From bunnies to elephants, all kinds of mammals walked into the streets of the city, showing just how much Zootopia was bright and full of life, even during the night.

"Crime never rests, my dear fox partner." Judy said, and Nick rolled his eyes as he smiled, and he already knew what was coming now.

"Crime never sleeps nor tires, and it is always ready to show its ugly face in any situation." Judy said, and Nick chanted at the same time as her, as if it was some short of mantra that he already heard her saying many times in the past year. "So we must always be ready to fight crime whenever it appears, and keep the peace and the order in Zootopia, to ensure that the world will always be a better place." They both finished at the same time. Yeah, Nick had heard that a lot already.

"Carrots, you will never change." Nick said.

"That is a bad thing?"

"Not at all."

They both smiled to each other, and they continued to drive, and Judy stopped just as they reached a red signal, and she continued. "Well, it was true. We never know when something new and amazing will happen in our lives, and we must be ready to face anything that the world might throw at us."

As she spoke that, the radio started to make a strange buzz. Nick looked at it, and he tried to change the station, but the buzz continued.

"Huh? What is that?" Judy said, and Nick looked at her, before looking at the traffic signal, and he saw that it was now flicking every signal in it on and off. Red, yellow, red, green, green, yellow, green, two or three at the same time. It seemed as if it had broken.

Suddenly, the sirens of their car started to light and horn on its own, and the inner lights started to flick on and off, just like the signal.

"What is that!?" Nick said, in surprise, and soon, as he looked out, he realized that it was not happening only with their car. It seemed to be happening all around them.

In the streets, the light posts were flickering madly, and the lights of the establishments too were flicking madly, as if they all were facing sudden peaks of power, and the animals all into the streets were looking at them, as it seemed to be happening all at the same time. But it wasn't only with the objects connected to the power lines. The lights of cars were flickering as much as the other lights, and some of them seemed to have their honks and even their alarms activated on their own. In the pockets of mammals or in their paws, their electronic device seemed to be going completely crazy as if they had all had a malfunctioning suddenly.

All the animals looked at it, completely baffled at the force that was seemingly having a trouble all at once. "Nick, what is going on?" Judy said, as she saw what was going on around them, but Nick was unable to answer, as was any other mammal as the strange even was happening to all electric things and to everything that worked with battery.

It lasted for around thirty seconds, and then, suddenly, it went off.

It was like someone had suddenly flicked everything off at the same time. The lights went off, the cars died, and the carrot phones, tablets, MP4, and all of the other devices had suddenly turned off.

The streets were left completely dark, illuminated now only by the lights of the moon and stars. All the animals let out surprised exclamations, as they all looked around, trying to see something into that sudden darkness, and they all were trying to understand what had just happened.

It lasted for another fifteen seconds, and then, the lights all returned. The cars started up again, and all of the mobile electronics returned to work, as if nothing had happened.

All of the mammals into the streets were confused by what had happened, and they were looking at the lights, at the cars, at their mobile devices, all of them as if that would give them any clue of what happened. Some talked to themselves and exchanged glances, including Judy and Nick.

"What just-" Nick tried to say, but then-

<i>BAM</i>

Nick and Judy both let out surprised exclamations as something hit their car coming from above. They were action less for a few moments, before Nick looked to the window, and he saw a furred arm hanging from above their car. It took only a few more seconds to both him and Judy come out of their vehicle and look at what happened.

It was a big feline. A cougar and he had light-cream fur with black on the tip of his ears and tail. He was wearing long jeans pants and white colored t-shirt. He was laying in the roof of their car, and it was clear that he had fallen in there, for he had slightly crumbled the top and broke their siren-light.

"Oh my goodness!" Judy said, and she gave a jump and supported herself into the door of the car, and picked the wrist of the cougar to check on his pulse. It was still there, and it was somewhat accelerated, as if you would expect from someone who had just run a marathon.

"Nick, help me out!" Judy said, and soon, she and Nick were both pulling the bigger cat by the arm to off the vehicle. It was a bit hard, considering the difference of size and weight between them, but they managed to pull the unconscious feline to off their car and to lay him into the ground.

As they did, many mammals had stopped what they were doing and they looked at the two small mammals helping the cougar, who seemed to have dropped into their car, literally.

"Where did he came from?" Nick asked, looking up and trying to point out exactly where that cougar had fallen from. There were a few buildings around, and some of them had their windows open, maybe the cougar dropped from there as an accident, or maybe he was a jumper?

As Nick looked up, Judy was trying to talk to the cougar. "Sir? Sir? Are you listening to me? Sir?" She said as she gently shook the cougar, and after a few moments of not having success, the feline coughed, and took a few gasping breaths, startling her, Nick, and the curious animals who were gathering around to see that scene.

He opened his eyes slightly, but they seemed to be out of focus, and he seemed like he was not able to actually keep them open.

"Sir!" Judy said, holding him and she turned to her partner. "Nick, help!" Nick took a few moments, but he was able to run to her and hold the cougar's head, helping him to keep it raised, as the cat was trying to open his eyes, but he seemed too dizzy to do so.

"M-my friends..." The cougar said. "My friends... are they-ACK!" He was unable to finish, as if a sudden pain afflicted him. Judy continued to stay close to him, opening his eyes as she tried to see his pupils, but his eyes didn't wanted to remain open, and he seemed far too dizzy to give any real help.

"Someone call an ambulance!" Judy shouted, and the animals around all looked as the two cops helped the strange cougar.

"Sir, my name is Judy Hopps, I'm a police officer, please talk to me! Do you know where you are?" Judy asked, the cougar seemed to be trying to find her by her voice, but he seemed too dizzy to do so.

"I-I am... I was... in a building... with my friends..." He spoke, and he didn't seemed to be full aware of where he was.

"Carrots, I think he is more out than in." Nick said, and Judy looked at him, and she looked at the cougar, and made one last attempt. "Sir, what is your name?"

The cougar managed to open his eyes just slightly, letting her see the green of his eyes, as he managed only to say groggily before blanking out:

"Hunter... my name is... Alex Hunter..."