“Attention, please!” The elephant with the black mask covering his big face said, as the lion by his side pointed a loaded weapon at the other animals, who all remained crouched, kneeled, or even laid flat into the ground, covering their heads in fear.

“First of all, I’d like to say that I’m terribly sorry for this inconvenient, and that I would really thank if all of you collaborated.”

“Look down!” Said one of the wolves who was around, also wearing black and with a mask in his face, to the zebra who tried to loom up at them. There was probably six of them around, along with the other eight who were into the footbridges above, all of them with the same kinds of weapons, and all of them pointing them at the mass of mammals in the middle of the shopping mall.

“I know that you all had other plans when you came to the mall this morning, and I’m sure that this was not among them.” The elephant continued, as all the other mammals were scared, looking at him and at the other animals with guns, including the lion and wolf. “But, I can assure you that this situation will all be over in a few minutes, if all goes according to the plan. Oh, and for anyone who might be thinking that can play hero, you better not try. My friends in here have their weapons loaded with bullets, and they are not afraid to use it.”

As he spoke that, one of the wolves triggered the weapon he was holding, causing some mammals to whimper and recoil in fear.

“I particularly was not very keen on this, but they insisted, so, I strongly recommend you all to avoid doing anything too stupid.” The elephant finished, and all the mammals whimpered as dangerous criminals, armed with deadly ammunition and ready to shot anyone who dare to oppose them, cornered them.

“This is bad…” Nick said as he peered from behind the column that he, Judy and Alex had all hidden in the moment that the thing had started.

“I told you they were up to something!” Judy said, as she already had her gun out and begin readied.

“And what a something…” Alex said as he looked at the criminals in there, all of them with weapons. It seemed strange that someone would use this kind of weapons and personnel to assault on a mall…

However, as Alex remembered himself, there was having a charity event into that very same mall, and it was for getting money. These boxes actually looked to be kind of full, and it was safe to assume that should be around a few tens of thousands into them, if not more. Surely it was the kind of thing that would attract ambitious guys who would be ready to do what was needed to get an easy money.

As Alex was thinking that, Judy and Nick’s radios both chimed to life, and Bogo’s voice was coming from the other end, and he was sounding worried.

[i]“Wilde! Hopps! Status!”[/i]

Judy took only one moment to grab her radio, and she talked into the radio. “Chief! We have a problem! Robbery into the mall!”

[i]“I know!”[/i] Chief Bogo said into the radio. [i]“I’m outside, with the SWAT. We just heard the commotion, and now we can see two armed wolves into the entrance! And what are you two doing in there!? I told you to not go into the mall!”[/i]

Judy flinched, and she looked at Nick, who had that “I told you so” look in his face. Soon, they heard the radio again, with their chief’s voice talking.

[i]“Nevermind that now. Give me your status. Are you hurt?”[/i]

“Negative, Officer Wilde and I are fine.” Judy said, “We are on the first floor, hidden, but we have visual of the suspects. There is at least 16 of them, one is an elephant, one is a lion, and the others seem to be wolves. They are carrying military weapons, and they are loaded with lethal ammunition.”

[i]“What else can you tell?”[/i] Bogo asked, and Judy said:

“They probably came here for the money of the charity event. Right now they have a few dozens of mammals as hostages, and they are threatening to shot to kill.” Judy said, and Nick pulled his head out of sight, and he said:

“Well, at least they don’t know we are here.”

Just as he spoke that, they could hear the leader of the criminals speaking:

“Now, since we have settled up all of the basic rules, I’d like now to speak with Officers Wilde and Hopps.”

There was a dead silence as all of the animals expected. Alex, from where he was hiding, looked at the two small officers, who were looking at each other in surprise.

“Officers Wilde and Hopps?” The Elephant said once more. “May you come out from wherever you are?”

“How do they know that we are here?” Judy asked in a whisper to Nick.

“I don’t know!”

“You!” Judy said, turning to Alex, “Did you informed them?”

“What!?” Alex said, surprised for the sudden question that sounded more like an accusation.

“We talked right with you just a moment before it all happened! What is your involvement with it?”

“Wha- I… What makes you think I have anything to do with it!?” Alex said in a whisper, really feeling offended for that small little cop thought that he had anything to do with that. “How could I have something to do with it!? If I had then why would I be hidden in here with you!?”

“He’s got a point.” Nick said, and Judy was about to say something else, but the elephant’s voice came again.

“I’m not in the mood for games! We know that you are there, officers! Now, unless you want us to cause any unnecessary harm to these poor hostages, you will get out from where you are hiding, with your weapons in sight, and you will surrender pacifically!”

As he spoke that, one of the wolves triggered their weapons, causing many of the hostages to whimper and cry out in fear. Nick and Judy both tensed as they heard this, sharing a look.

Now they were in a difficult situation, if they surrendered and let themselves be disarmed, they would be totally helpless, and then they would be nothing more than other hostages in the power of these criminals, who would do god-knew-what with them. But, if they didn’t do as they were demanding, they were probably going to open fire against some hostages, and as cops, that was something that the two animals could not allow to happen if they could prevent it.

They were outnumbered, and they had little chances of actually doing anything against these animals. They were really very low in choices.

It took only a few moments, before Nick closed his eyes, and he sighed. He opened his eyes once more, and he looked at Judy, giving her a nod.

Judy hesitated for a moment, and she nodded back at Nick. One year of being friends and partners gave them this talent to read each other, and now, they both had made their decision about what to do.

They both reached for their dart guns, pulled them out of their holsters, and held them into their paws. Before they went for their next course of action, Judy turned back to the cougar, who was looking at them, and she said in a whisper:

“You stay right in here!”

Alex looked at her, taken back by her assertiveness. The cuteness that he had saw in her was almost all gone, and instead, now she really looked like a very strong cop, like the females police officers that Alex had seen back in his own world. Alex could only nod at her, and she added:

“And poor you if I discover you are related to that!”

Alex didn’t even had time to answer that, as both officers started to walk from out of behind the column, with their paws raised, holding their guns to the air, to show that they were obeying what the bandits had requested.

They were soon sighted by a nearby wolf, who pointed the gun into them, as the two police officers held their own weapons into the air.

The elephant looked at them as they walked, and he said, “Good to see you are willing to cooperate. Now, put your weapons into the ground and kick them away.”

Judy and Nick shared a look, and they obeyed, putting their weapons right at their feet, and both kicking them to far from themselves. The elephant had a smirk underneath his trunk as he saw that, and he turned his head to one of the wolves, and gave to him a nod.

The wolf nodded back, and dug into a bag that was still into the ground, and pulled something else from it, it was not another AK47, it was something bigger, and with a more threatening look, and he aimed it right into the two officers. Nick saw it, and his eyes widened.

“JUDY!” He called out, jumping into the way, just as the wolf pulled the trigger.

Many animals cried out in surprise as the bazooka-like thing that the wolf had shot up a net that hit the two officers, making them both fall to the ground and tangling them into it.

Judy and Nick struggled as they had been caught off-guard by it, and now, they were unarmed and completely helpless. The elephant smirked as he saw that the possible threat had been completely neutralized.

Alex was hidden behind the column all the time, and he was able to peek from behind it to see what was going on. When he saw that big thing into the wolf’s shoulders, there was a delirious moment in which he thought it was actually a bazooka, but them, he saw it throw the net into the two officers.

“A net launcher?” Alex said in a low voice to himself, but before he could say or think anything else, his attention was once more called back to the elephant, who resumed talking.

“Well, now that we have dealt with this, we can go on now, right?” As the elephant spoke, another wolf with an AK47 approached the fox and rabbit in the net, and dragged them, as they both kicked and tried in vain to get free from that net that was holding them down.

Alex watched it from behind his hiding spot, as he had a feeling that things were going from bad to worse…

[i]XXX[/i]

…the situation was definitely going from bad to worse.

Bogo looked as the SWAT formed a perimeter around the entrance of the mall. This was supposed to be a simply apprehension of that cougar, but instead, it had somehow escalated to a situation with at least fourteen armed criminals who were with hostages in there.

It was amazing how things could escalate quickly like that. Bogo noticed that it had the tendency to happen each time in which [i]that guy[/i] somehow got involved. He and the kinds of things that were related to him… like that cougar.

As Bogo looked, he saw an animal walking in his direction coming from the entrance of the mall. It was one of the SWATs, wearing their uniform, and he was a boar with grey colored fur, bulky, and with a scar over his right eye, which was milky-white and blind, opposed to his other eye, which was of a shade of caramel. He had a small earring into his right ear, and his face made it clear that he was not there to play around and that he had already seem many situations like that.

“Bogo.” The boar said, and the buffalo said:

“Razorback, talk to me, what do we have?”

“Two armed wolves into the entrance, they claim to have dozens of hostages and that if we try to approach the door they will start killing and they will throw the bodies into the street.”

Bogo groaned. He had already dealt with situations with hostages before, and so did Razorback, this kind of thing was surely not new to any of them. Still, Bogo was worried with that cougar, for he knew that Razorback had never faced a situation with something like that cougar before.

Bogo himself did, but it had only been a few times, and it made a while…

“Hey, Bogo.” The buffalo was snapped back at the situation by the voice of the boar, who looked at him. “Did you heard what I just said?”

“Huh? Sorry, I was distracted.”

The boar seemed not to mind, as he simply repeated. “Me and the boys sniffed the place, but the problem is that a lot of mammals go in and out of that place every day, and we can’t seem to find the smell of the guys. But, we can smell something that seems to be gunpowder, and this seems to confirm that they have lethal force weapons.”

“This is a problem.” Bogo said, and the boar nodded.

“It is not the first time that a crazy guy gets the paws into that kind of thing and uses it to threaten people. It is nothing new.”

“Yeah, but they never took a whole mall as a hostage before.” Bogo said, knowing that a number so great of hostages could very well end badly.

“They surely came in here because of the event that Gazelle was putting up. They said that she had already reached the house of the thousands in the start of the first day. These guys surely were thinking that they could snag on that money and run away before being caught. Still, I have to say that it is quite bold.”

The boar looked at the mall, and he said, “They would probably have run by now if we had not arrived in here…”

There was a silence, as Bogo looked at the boar, and the porcine looked back at him, his expression hard to read. “Why did we came here again, Bogo?”

The buffalo didn’t answered, just looked at him, before turning his sight back at the mall, but of course that the boar was not going to let it down easily.

“You know, we have been friends for a few years now, and I never was the kind of guy that questions everything. So, when you said that you wanted the help of the SWAT to bring into custody a ‘highly dangerous mammal’, I didn’t asked anything, both because I follow orders and because I trust you”

Razorback looked at him, and he said, “But don’t you take me for a fool. You requested a good deal of my best men, including me and my brothers, and you even asked to my superiors that we would be able to bring lethal ammunition to take care of this event. It seems like a lot of effort and care to take care of only one mammal.”

Bogo didn’t said anything, and he simply turned to look back Razorback into the eyes, as the boar looked back at him, and he continued. “Bogo, you are a good guy, but I can’t help to find it somehow suspicious. I know that you don’t get intimidated easily, and so, I supposed this guy you told us to arrest must be dangerous enough to scare you, what is very hard to do. So, I guess you can imagine my surprise when he was described as a cougar who didn’t had any criminal or military record.”

Bogo looked back at the eyes of the smart boar who, despite being smaller than him, was just as intimidating, in his own way. “You brought us here to arrest someone who was, by what it all seemed, a normal guy, who actually didn’t seemed like he could be a danger. And right when we arrive, we see the mall suddenly being robbed. You know my opinion about coincidences, don’t you?”

Bogo looked at the boar, and he understood what was being asked. The buffalo sighed, and he said, “Maybe the cougar is… related to this. I can’t deny is a possibility, but I’m really not sure.”

The boar continued to look up at him, seemingly not very much satisfied with this answer, and he asked, “Then why the team with the best members of the SWAT was called here? Why we came here armed until our fangs to catch a normal guy?”

Bogo looked at him, and he knew that Razorback had all the right to ask these questions, especially the last one:

“Why this Alex Hunter makes you so scared?”

Bogo knew that the boar, a long-date colleague and friend, had all the right to make these questions, and that he probably deserved to have them. Still, Bogo knew that he could not simply tell the boar them, for several different reasons.

So, the buffalo simply sighed, and he went back to the radio, pressing it and speaking.

“Wilde, Hopps, update, what is your current status?”

The boar looked at him. He knew that Bogo was not the kind to lie, so he would not say a lie to someone like him, who was an old friend and a good colleague. Still, he knew that the buffalo was not going to tell something for some reason. The boar simply sighed, as he already knew that he would receive something of the like as an answer, still, he thought it was worth a shot.

One thing was for sure, Bogo considered that cougar dangerous enough to be worried about him. And if someone like Bogo got worried about that cougar, then maybe it was better for the rest of them to get worried too.

There was a silence, as they both didn’t had anything more to say to each other for the time being.

Silence.

Too much silence.

“Wilde, Hopps, update your status!” Bogo said once again, and he waited for an answer, but it was not coming. He was starting to get worried.

“Hopps, Wilde, are you two there? Do you copy?”

The buffalo once more waited for an answer, and so did Razorback, who was by his side, and listening to all of that.

Bogo felt a momentarily pang of relief as he heard the sound of the other end of the radio being activated. However, it immediately disappeared as he heard a voice in the other side answering, which wasn’t Wilde’s nor Hopps’.

[i]“Hello.”[/i]

Bogo shared a look with Razorback, and he pressed the button of his radio to talk. “Who is it?”

[i]“My name doesn’t matter, what matter is who I’m talking to. Are you the one in command outside?”[/i]

Bogo shared another look with Razorback, and after a few moments, the boar nodded back, and they both knew what to do.

“I’m one of them. The other one is right by my side. We are both hearing.”

After a moment, the voice in the other end came again. [i]“Right, good to know. Look, you may call me Mr. E, and I have your two small officers in here with my colleagues and me.”[/i]

Bogo felt his stomach churn as one of his worst worries was coming true. He took a deep breath, and he pressed the button of his radio again. “What do you want, Mr. E?”

[i]“Well, if you already spoke with my two friends into the entrance, than you know that we want all the cops and members of the SWAT to remain away from these doors, so, at the moment, it is all that I want. You will stay out there and stay away from the doors, to not make any sudden moves and not to try to make a fool out of us, because we are armed and with hostages, including the two cops in here. If you try any funny business, we are going to put bullets into the heads of your cops and thrown them into the street for you to recover their bodies. Did I made myself clear?”[/i]

Bogo shared a look with Razorback, and they both could say, by the tune of the voice of the animal on the other side of the radio, that he was not kidding. If they pushed wrong his buttons or made him feel pressured, he really sounded as if he would kill Wilde and Hopps.

[i]“Are you still there?”[/i] The voice came, and Bogo looked at the boar, who nodded, and soon, Bogo let out a defeated sigh, and he said.

“Yes, we are still here, and we understand what you said.”

[i]“Good, now, if you have any more questions, you might ask to my associates into the entrance, and they will transmit the questions to me, and them they will transmit my answers all back to you.”[/i] And he didn’t even waited for an answer before he turned off the radio, and Bogo didn’t even made an effort to try to reestablish communication.

That animal made already very clear what he wanted and didn’t wanted at the moment, and that was how it was going to be.

“This day is just getting worse and worse.” Bogo said, and Razorback patted his arm.

“Yeah, it comes with the job.” He said, and Bogo knew that he was right. Now there was nothing that they could do about that, about their officers, about the criminals, or about the cougar.

Bogo would lie if he said that he wasn’t worried about the armed criminals and the well-being of his officers, but definitely, the cougar was surely what was worrying him the most. The possibility that he was with the criminals, or if he was against them.

Honestly, Bogo didn’t knew what one of these two options made him worry the most…

[i]XXX[/i]

As soon as the elephant said what he wanted into the radio, he dropped both of the radios into the ground, and steeped on them hard, crushing them to nothing more than pieces.

Judy and Nick could only watch impotent as their radios, which had been taken from them in the moment that Chief Bogo called, were used by the elephant, leader of the criminals, to talk with their chief and threaten the lives of every mammal in there, including their own, if the ones in the outside tried to do anything. Next, they could only watch as the elephant stepped hard into the radios, destroying their only possible way to once again have communication with the outside.

The officers could only groan as they struggled into their net, which was being held onto by one of the wolves. The elephant, barely even minding them any attention, turned back to the animals, and he said, “Now, if you don’t mind, we would like to take some of the money.” As he spoke, he nodded at some of the wolves.

These wolves who he nodded to picked up the bags and walked among the animals, while the other wolves continued to aim their weapons to the mammals, as if they were ready to shot anyone who decided that wanted to play hero. As the wolves approached the boxes full of money, a female voice spoke.

“You can’t do this!”

There was a silence as everyone turned to the source of the voice, which was no other than Gazelle herself.

She stood there, with an angry expression in her face, and the two tigers were still by her sides, and she spoke straight to the elephant.

“This money is for the school! You can’t take it!”

The elephant looked at her, and he slowly started to walk in her direction. The animals who were on the way all moved out of the elephant’s path.

As he approached, one of the tigers snarled and stood between him and Gazelle, but at this moment, the same wolf who shot the net into Judy and Nick, shot another right into the tiger, who got tangled into it as he was shot backwards.

Many animals gasped, and the elephant continued to walk to Gazelle. The other tiger snarled and bared his claws, but Gazelle put a paw in his shoulder to make him stop when she saw that the wolves were pointing their weapons at him.

The elephant approached, and he lowered himself to her eye level, and he spoke. “I know that you are worried with other mammals, but right now, I guess you should be worried about the ones in this mall, yourself included.”

Gazelle only looked back at him, and she said, “Why are you doing this?”

“You mean, besides the monetary gain? Very simple.” The elephant said, and he approached her even more, and he said, “Because I can.”

Gazelle continued to stare at his eyes, with a look of disgust, and the elephant drifted his eyes to her neck, which was decorated by a very beautiful, and expensive-looking, sapphire collar.

“That is a very nice choice of jewelry for a special event like this.” He said, opening a smile underneath his trunk, and his trunk moved to his wrist to grab something.

Immediately, the tiger by Gazelle’s side snarled, his claws ready. The elephant pulled out what seemed to be a bag, and he held it with his trunk in front of Gazelle’s.

“Do you mind?”

Gazelle only looked at him with the same look of disgust, before she slowly moved her paws in direction to the back of her neck, and untied the collar, before putting it into the bag.

“The rest of your jewelry too, please.”

She removed her bracers and her ring, and placed them all into the bag, always looking at the elephant with that same look. However, the elephant little seemed to mind, as he simply removed the bag, now filled with the expensive jewelry, and he said, “Thank you for your cooperation.”

He turned around, and he nodded at his wolves, and they all started to work.

Soon, the wolves were removing the money from the boxes and filled it into their bags, notes of zoolars being removed as the wolves all had smiles in their faces with the glee of getting their paws into so much money. There should be easily thousands in there, all gathered by Gazelle with some effort into this campaign, and all of that destined to help a school.

Well, now it was theirs!

Gazelle looked at all these animals with disgust written all over her face, as she simply could not believe in how selfish some animals were able to be.

While the wolves removed the money from the boxes, other were passing the bags by the hostages, and taking off their money, carrot phones, any jewelry, and any object that they had that could have some value.

“You won’t get away with this!” Judy said, and the wolf holding both her and Nick snarled.

“You quiet!”

All the while, Alex was watching it hidden from behind of the column.

“Not good… Not good… Not good…” The cougar repeated to himself as he watched all of the events unfold. This was escalating very quickly, and he knew that this kind of situation could become a tragedy in a matter of seconds.

These animals were armed and they seemed to be ready to kill if they were defied, and the fact that they were surrounded while they held hostages only made the situation more difficult, because they were surely feeling under pressure, and a person (or animal, in this case) when under pressure, could do insanities. Alex understood enough of situations like this to know that it usually was only a matter of time before things would go shout and someone would get a bullet into the chest, or worse.

He also knew by his own experience that any cornered animal tended to attack, this included humans. The fact that these ones weren’t humans, but anthropomorphic animals, did not diminished his worries, for he was to suppose that they were much like humans as much as they were animals.

Alex peered from behind to column, making sure to remain out of side at all times. He counted around eight wolves (counting with the two guarding the doors), including the one with the net launcher. Also, there was that that one that was some big feline (the rest of a thick fur coming from under the mask made Alex believe that it could be a lion), and the elephant.

The pachyderm was Alex’s biggest worry, for while he didn’t had any weapons in him, his size, and obvious brute strength, alone made him the most dangerous of that group of criminals. The elephant was so big that Alex supposed that he could easily stomp him to death if he wanted, as well as he could do with any other smaller animal in there.

While he looked at the elephant, Alex noticed that his paws didn’t had fingers, so to speak, they were very much like a feral elephant’s paws. The elephant was only using his trunk as a hand, and he seemed to be good at it. Alex didn’t even had the time or mood to care about it, as he continued to look into the animals around.

The lion and the wolves were all armed with what Alex could recognize as AK47, with the exception of the one who had the net launcher. They could shot him dead in the moment he tried to stand to them. Not to mention the wolves into the footbridges of the upward store. They too were armed, and they had their weapons all turned to the hostages, and the position they had above gave them a good edge of advantage, as they could watch the movements of everyone underneath, and immediately shot down anyone who tested them. Alex was going to have to be careful with them, because in the moment they spotted him acting, they could very well…

Alex stopped.

Why was he thinking about doing something?

He couldn’t. Not without calling out too much attention on himself.

But… the people in there were in danger, and these guys seemed to be ready to shoot them down.

No. There was too much of them, and they were armed, Alex would have absolutely no chance with them. They would shot him dead in the moment he tried to stand to them, the elephant himself would probably crush him out as if he was a bug.

But… Alex had already faced battles of the like in the past, armed thugs with weapons and things of the like, and he had managed to win. Of course, he never faced wolves, a lion and an elephant before, but still, Alex imagined that, if he worked hard enough, he would surely be able to beat them, after all, he had already beat some difficult enemies before.

But… he only was able to win in the past thanks to his abilities…

If he wanted to have a chance of defeating all of these guys, he would have to use them once again… And it meant to show to everyone in there what he could do, and exposing himself to them how he truly was.

That, of course, meant many things for Alex, as several images of things that had happened to him in the past when he did so came back to him. Most of them very unpleasant…

“You stay quiet!”

Alex could hear the angry voice, and it snapped him from his thought, and it made him look from behind the column, and he looked to see a wolf, one of the criminals, yelling at a lioness who was holding her little son in her arms.

“Stop crying!” The wolf screamed, and the little cub, who couldn’t be older than six, continued to cry in fear as he hugged his mommy.

“Please, stop! He is just a cub!” The mother said, and the wolf screamed back.

“Or you make him shut up, or I’ll shut him up for you!”

Alex looked at the young boy, scared and crying. And at the wolf, who seemed to be on the verge of pointing his gun at both the cub and the mother.

Seeing these two mammals in danger, a mother and a cub, sparked up something inside of Alex, and as he did, for a moment, it seemed like a spark had flicked in his eyes.

“I said shut up!” The wolf screamed, calling the attention of many of the mammals in there, and the mother hugged her son into her arms.

“You are a monster!” The mother cried at him, “It is predators like you that make the prey think the worst of us!”

The wolf seemed to take that as a personal insult, as he triggered his gun, and he pointed it at the mother. “Why you…” He snarled, and all the hostages, Nick and Judy’s eyes widened in horror, as they all expected the worst…

However, before the wolf could actually shot, a furred paw grabbed the gun, and another one collided with his muzzle.

The wolf was stunned, and before he could react, he received another punch into his chin, and next there was his own gun hitting him into the stomach, making him bent over, right before a furred foot hit him in the side of his head, making him spin as he stumbled and backed away.

Many of the animals in there gasped, and they all looked at this brave mammal who dared to do that, including Judy and Nick, who looked at him with wide eyes.

Alex stood in there, holding the wolf’s weapon into his hand, and the wolf took a moment to recover, while the rest of the criminals looked at that scene. Alex had his eyes only for the wolf, as he dropped that weapon into the ground, and only continued to stare at the wolf.

The wolf soon recovered, and he looked at Alex, and he pulled out an army-style knife, as he snarled. “You bastard cat!”

“Enough!”

The booming voice made the two mammals look at the elephant, who looked hard at the wolf, before turning his attention to the cougar.

“Well, I have to say that this is kind of embarrassing.” The elephant spoke as he looked at the cougar. “You will have to excuse my friend in here, he has a lot of anger management problems, but I didn’t expected him to resort to pointing a gun into a woman and her cub.”

He really sounded as if he was apologizing for the behavior of the wolf, and he added, “I’m going to have a talk with him after this is all over, but for now, I have to say that you had an admirable course of action. Very brave. Not many mammals would do the same in your position.”

Alex would feel a little flustered for a compliment like that, but he only stared at the elephant, who after a moment of this silence, cleared his throat, and he said, “Well, now that this situation is solved, you might want to go with the other hostages.”

“No.” Alex said, and he stood his ground, looking at the elephant, who looked back at him, surprised.

“I won’t let you hurt anyone.” Alex said, his voice firm and decided. Many animals looked at him.

Was the cougar insane?

He really was going to stand up like that to more than a dozen armed animals all by himself?

“Don’t be a fool.” The elephant said, “You already played hero, now sit down and lower your head, so we can get this over without very much causalities.”

Alex looked back at him, and he spoke, his voice filled with a determination that catch everyone off guard.

“I’ll give you all one chance, and only one chance.” He spoke, and he looked at all of the armed thugs as he stood in place. “You will drop your weapons, go outside, and surrender to the authorities. You will return all of the money you took, and you will leave all of the hostages be free. You haven’t stole anything yet, and neither have you hurt anyone, so, if you simply surrender, then maybe they will go easy on you.”

The elephant looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He had not expected this kind of situation, even less from a small animal, who was, most likely, a civilian.

“And, what if we decide to don’t do it?” The elephant asked, just doing so out of curiosity to what that cougar’s answer was going to be.

Alex looked at him hard into the eyes, and he said, “Then I’ll stop you.”

The cougar was crazy!

Some of the wolves laughed at this, finding it funny that the cougar thought that he could beat them all alone and unharmed. Maybe if he picked up the weapon, he could at least put on some danger to them. However, even if he did, he would still be outnumbered by many to one, and they all had guns.

He really believed that he had any chance of actually representing a danger to them?

“This…” The wolf with the knife said, still cackling with laughter, and holding his belly from the hard laughing. “This is just so funny! You really think you can take on all of us?”

Alex didn’t answered, he just looked at him with that same anger in his eyes, while the other animals looked at the cougar with pity for that poor cougar. The elephant himself shook his head, sorry for that clearly delusional cougar, and he said, “I really wished we wouldn’t have to resort to this so soon.”

He looked at the wolf, and nodded, and the wolf opened a toothy grin, and he played with his knife into his paws, as he looked at the cougar, and he said, “I hope you enjoy having your face cut.”

Alex looked back at him, and gave one defiant step forward, as he said. “And I hope you enjoy feeling 1200 electric volts passing through your body.”

The wolf chuckled at this, and he said, “What, do you have a Taser in you? I’d like to see-”

But the wolf never finished that sentence, for in that moment, the cougar raised his paw, and a bolt of lightning parted from his palm, and hit the wolf into the chest.

The wolf was hurled backward, and landed heavily into the ground. He twitched into the ground as electricity ran into his body, and soon after, he lost his consciousness.

All the mammals around gasped when they saw that. The criminals, the hostages, and Nick and Judy.

That cougar had just… shoot a lightning!?