The Zoosters sat quietly on the subway. Melman's neck bent around to the other side of the seats. In the corner next to Alex's right, was a man who was trembling. The lion squinted and leaned in close to read the words

GOLDEN STATE CRUSH KNICKS AGAIN.

The moment the man peeked from the newspaper - in his point of view- Alex roared.

"Aw! Knicks lost again." Alex had groaned dejectedly from the news as Melman glanced at them from the other side and responded in a monotone voice. "Eh, what are you going to do?"

A noise called out that could be easily mistaken for someone talking through a fan that could've had their wisdom tooth token out crackled over the intercom.

"Did that say 'Grand Central Station' or 'my aunt's constipation'?" Alex asked aloud, confused, as Gloria nodded softly.

"This is it!" She replied.

"Grand Central Station!" Marty breathed, taking in the scenery of the building and lights. "It's grand and it's central."

"And it's a station." Ayana snickered.

As soon as the train doors opened up, despite Alex pushing them apart, they ran to the stairs that led to the location where Marty and Aina were most likely to be. A deafening clatter rang out. Melman, who had been wary of the city in the first place, got his head caught in the shutting door.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"

After unclogging his head, Melman began floundering around and accidentally trampled through the remains of what had to be a drum kit that belonged to a man in dark sunglasses.

The chaos continued when Alex, the King of New York was swinging from a suspended light then jumping to the floor where crowds of citizens ran amuck through the stairs, screaming for their lives.

"Move aside. We have an emergency here. This is an emergency situation. Hey, hey. Just chill out. It's not that big of an emergency. Upstairs, downstairs." He notified the people.

An elderly woman peacefully walking by saw Alex frantically running about and with impossible speed and agility, and swung her handbag right at his head. "Upstairs, downstairs!" She screamed.

Before he could even respond to the woman, she struck him a few times maced the grown lion. "How do you like that?"

Alex cried out in pain, lifting his right arm and the woman grabs it, letting out a yell, and flipped him over.

"Lady! What is wrong with you?!" Alex was then pelted with more hits in the back of his skull. "Get a grip on yourselves, people."

As the lion ran away before she could give the lion another beatdown, the older woman scorned him. "You're a bad kitty!"

Marty and Ayana watched as the board changed.

"Dagnabbit! We missed the express. Looks like we're gonna have to take the Stamford local."

Ayana shrugged. "Oh, well. Not like the wild is going anywhere."

Unexpectedly, the two were tackled to the ground by Alex.

"I got 'em! I've got 'em!"

A wave of relief travel through their bodies.

Frightened humans came spilling down the steps, terrified at the sight of the escaped zoo animals, and you honestly couldn't blame them. Zoo animals didn't belong there. Gloria reached the top of the escalator first. "He's got 'em!"

"He's got 'em! He's got 'em! He's got..." Before Melman could continue his celebration, the old lady hit him hard in the side, sending the giraffe sliding across the smooth floor. The world began spinning - no - he was spinning.

"I got something for you!" Were the words that he could make out from all the screams and words of his friends.

Melman's face crashed into a clock in the center of the station, but he yanked the clock off its perch. His heart was racing with panic, but he shook aside his fear for his friends, no matter how difficult it might be.

"Whoa! What are you guys doing here?" Marty asked, dumbfounded.

"Oh!" Alex sighs, embracing his two friends as Ayana slightly twitched from the touch. "I am so glad we found you."

Gloria was talking at the same time. "Oh, we were so worried about you!" The hippo cried.

"Don't worry, we're fine, we're fine. Look at us. We're fine." Marty indicated to his and Ayana's unharmed bodies as if they didn't sneak out of a zoo that same night.

"You're fine?" Alex repeated. He turned to Melman and Gloria. "Oh, they're fine. Oh, great! Hey, you hear that? Marty and Ayana's fine. Ah. That's good to know."

That was a bit of an understatement. So much could've gone wrong. But from Marty's words, they were both unharmed and that was all that mattered to their friends.

Ayana blinked. She was waiting for the yells, the screams, and the arguments that were about to happen. Her friends had multiple personalities that brought them together for some reason, and what made them, them is what could bring all of them apart. So, she watched as Alex went on.

"Cause I was just wondering..."

In a snap, he shook Marty by the neck vigorously. And confirmed Ayana's thoughts to give her a sense of peace.

"How could you do this to us? I thought we were your friends!"

"What's the big deal?!" Marty choked. "We were coming back in the morning!"

Alex began choking their friend from the love, hurt, and anger they were all feeling. What had Marty and Ayana been thinking, not mentioning their plan? Sure, Alex knew, but he blew it off and claimed it was a joke. What about Gloria and Melman? They had no clue.

Leaving in the middle of the night without telling a soul was a bit rude, to say at the least.

If either of them told those two, they would have tried to talk them out of it.

"Don't ever do this again. Do you hear me?" Alex asks, tightening his grip as if he wasn't already strangling the zebra.

"Do you hear him?" Gloria wagged a finger like a mother disciplining her child.

"Guys," Melman spoke up, lowering his head. "We're running out of time." The broken clock still encased as a protective shell on his head made Ayana chuckle, appreciating the unintended pun.

"Oh, Melman, you broke their clock?" Gloria asked.

"Do you even realize what you've put us through?" Alex ranted, now clutching onto Ayana's shoulders and shaker her. "Don't you ever do this again! Don't you ever, ever do this again!"

Nonetheless, the animals should've been paying attention to more important matters. Matters like the entirety of the police force, barging in Grand Central Station on a rampage.

"Come here." The hippo firmly but gently grabbed the clock and began trying to pull it from the giraffe's head. Despite her strength, the clock wasn't budging.

The penguins were even there, and they noticed the charade and let the newspaper down.

"We've been ratted out, boys." Skipper announced to his team before they held their fins up in surrender.

Ayana noticed the police after wincing from the loud noise they made. By then it was too late. The animals were surrounded by blue-clad men and women with bullet-proof shields held in front of them. Surges of spotlights shine down on them and they froze on the spot, starting at the large posse of authoritative figures cornering them. There had to be well over a hundred of them with their teeth bared.

"Hold your fire!" An officer shouted in the distance.

When things couldn't get any crazier, they did.

Firemen, animal control, and even the drummer guy and the old lady showed up.

The penguins then started to waddle back into the middle with the larger animals. Their new plan was to keep grinning as if they were nothing but purely innocent bystanders caught in the center of this disaster. "Cute and cuddly, boys. Cute and cuddly." Skipper chimed.

The chimps were also there. One standing on the other's shoulders, dressed up in a coat and fedora as Mason held two tickets. Suddenly, guns cocked in their direction and they stuck their hands up in shock.

"If you have any poo, fling it now," Mason told his colleague.

"It's the Man," Marty whispered. It was unlikely that the four large mammals would be on their merry way. No. Marty and Ayana had bit the hand. Still, the zebra tried to play it cool.

"Good evening, officers," Marty called out, recovering his charm.

Alex immediately shushed him.

"No. No. No. Okay? You're not so good with the putting-the-words-together-and-they're-coming-out-good thing. You keep it - shh!" The lion stepped forward and clasped his hands in a welcoming manner.

The humans shuffled nervously.

"Hey!" The lion greeted cheerfully. "How you doing? Yeah. You know what? Everything's cool. We just, uh, had a little situation here. Little internal situation. Actually, my friends," he motions to the leopard and zebra, still splayed on the ground. "went a little crazy - it happens to everybody. The city gets to us all. Went a little cuckoo in the head."

"Hey don't be calling me cuckoo in the head!" Marty quipped, placing a hoof on his hip.

"Just - shush!" Alex hissed.

(A/N: Decided to cut the argument Ayana and Alex had!)

He spun around to confront the humans once more. There was the sound of a woman's heels clicking against the glossy floor and a cry of pain from Alex as he got kicked between the legs. "I got him!" The elderly woman shouted victoriously. Alex slumped over as the old lady got whisked away by two hustling police officers.

"Oh! Would you give a guy a break?" Alex squeaked out, clutching the wounded area.

After a few moments, Alex recovered and composed himself.

"We're just gonna take my little friend here home and forget this ever happened. All right? No harm, no foul, right?" Alex opened his arms in a friendly manner and walked forward a little.

The assembled humans scrambled to get out of the lion's way, and so he immediately attempted to reconcile."Oh, no, no, no. Hey, it's cool! It's me, Alex the lion- from the zoo."

Ayana pinched the bridge of her nose as Alex let out a little roar, similar to the one he used every day in his routine at the zoo, probably in the hopes that it would alert the people to his identity. However, there were no cries of recognition, only of fear. He was terrifying them.

"What's the matter with them?" Alex turned back around and directed his thumb to the people.

A particular man in a green uniform, however, stood out from the others, shaking like a rattlesnakes tale in front of his brothers in arms. He clumsily held a rifle in his hands and aimed it straight at Alex's back.

Ayana saw him aiming and raced towards the lion. The fuzzy, pink end was like a dandelion, its sleek, metal body shining under the bright light...it had struck Alex.

Then it struck her as well.

They both began to fall.

"Ow!" Alex cried out again. "Ow..." The lion fell silent, but he stumbled around. Gloria now left the giraffe's side. Melman followed her shadow and peered downwards, but could not see anything.

Alex swirled around lightly on his toes before he fell into Gloria's arms.

Ayana stood still; she's felt tired before and knew how to keep herself awake. It was one of the many talents she taught herself.

The leopard was going to fight for every breath. Or perhaps die of Carbon Dioxide Poisoning (thank Melman for telling her this!) from the hundreds of people surrounding them.

She stares at the gun that shot her, and another dart spits out. It landed right on her heart.

The kill zone.

Ayana loses her footing and fell flat on her face. The clopping of hooves rush to her side and picks her up. Slowly, the zebra trudged where Gloria and Melman stood and carefully place her body down next to Alex's.

Both of them knew the cool tiles of the floor was their only feeling. As the rest of their bodies throbbed with numbness. The big cats' brains felt turning to mush in half a second. Ayana felt so tired all of a sudden. More tired in her whole life.

The other Zoosters crowding around Ayana and Alex. All of them; Gloria, Marty, and Melman with his broken clock, started becoming impaired as if they were looking at them through a warbled screen of glass.

The final thing the Leopard heard was Alex talking, obviously loopy from the dart.

"Wow! Hoo! I feel really, really weird. Hey, oh. I love you guys." Alex said weakly. "I love you so much..."

The hands of the Grand Central Station clock ticked for the last time, clicking into place over its white face.

"Not again..." Ayana squeezed Gloria's hand, in hopes of keeping herself awake. If anyone was strong enough to pull her out of it, it had to be her. "Please, Levi..."

And she slept.

Music seemed to play. Sammy Davis Jr.: The Candy Man. It was a vision. A vision of their friends dancing to the beat of the music, moving their bodies to the rhythm. Gloria dressed up as the Statue of Liberty and flew to the screen. She readies her torch behind her and smashes their heads in. A pack of stars swarmed over the darkness, leaving a dark pit of nothingness.

Then she woke up.

A roaring crowd of people, many of them holding up signs in protest as guards stood in their position with tranquilizer guns. Before the people was a News reporter, and Ayana lifted her head slightly to listen to her words.

"Last night's dramatic incident in Grand Central is an example of what animal rights wackos have been shouting for years: The animals clearly don't belong in captivity. Now they are to be sent back to their natural habitat, where they will live their lives in the freedom they so clearly desire."

"Hey. Little help?" She overheard Alex say, catching a glimpse of him raising his hand to the public.

"He's awake! He's awake!" A guard screamed.

Someone noticed Ayana as well.

"She's awake!"

That's when an array of tranquilizer darts while the crowd of people ran away. One hits her shoulder and another on Alex's hand.

"Oh, man." The lion mumbled, going through the numbness and weird, deep rest he and Ayana just went through.

The same vision and music but faster. Their friends dancing to the beat, and Gloria smashing over their heads as she cosplayed as Lady Liberty. The stars zoomed over the darkness, officially conducting their sleep once more.