Story time. Nick's been a little left out, but he'll be more involved once we get into the more personal part of the story.

Zootopia belongs to Disney. Spider-Man belongs to Sony.

For the first time since beginning his project, he was scared. He was beginning to regret ridding himself of his crew at his old office complex, even if it was a necessary move. Having mammals behind him had been a secure environment, but now he just felt more alone than ever. Only a week and a half left to finish his plan, and he was barely beginning to construct four portable rebreathers. His apartment may have been tolerably suitable, but he missed the lab achingly. He pushed his regret down; there wasn't anything he could do about it. And he couldn't ask Nizhang for help because she was busy with her own task. And they hated each other.

He had made plenty of progress. He had discovered the reason Dr. Andrews had perished was that his cells were not able to support the amount of energy suddenly being funneled into them all at once. He had managed to concoct and inject a hormone-based serum that would convince the cells in his body to triple or quadruple mitochondria abundance per cell in order to be able to keep up with the energy input. Of course this would mean he would require much greater regular calorie intake and a higher density of red blood cells per unit of blood, but that was easily fixable: just eat a lot and spend time breathing from an oxygen tank. His body would adjust accordingly. He knew all those years of heart-wrenchingly boring study would pay off. And he had just heard from Daken that everything was in place with all the precincts and the power grid. The mammals at the other three complexes were ready for the order. He just had to finish with this rebreather and his mask. But it was very possible that it would not be enough. He had to be ready.

Everything was being put into place; he had to finish.

The next task would be to commit a grand crime, one that would send himself to Catswell prison. The same prison Bellwether was sent to. He had to make sure the crime was grand enough, and he knew exactly what it would be.

"Hey, Daken," said Judy as she passed the middle-aged mongoose, who was seated in a chair near the front of the station. Daken Vibane was the plumber for the ZPD and ZPF. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but was very shy and always appeared to have something on his mind... oh well. Probably personal stuff. "Are you doing well?"

"Uh, hey Officer Wilde, I'm just finishing up here." He was stuffing papers into a file. He was more jittery than normal.

"Hey, is everything all right?" she asked, walking up to him. "Something wrong?"

"No! No, everything's fine, officer. I just, uh... I'm late for something. I have to get going. Hey, by the way, there're a couple of wallets and... watches... and other stuff like that in the trash can out there."

She furrowed an eyebrow. That was strange. She'd have to look into that. "Which one?"

"Uh, t-the one at the side close to the back parking lot."

"Hey Wolfard," she said into her radio.

"Yeah, Wilde, what's up?"

"That trash can you always walk by when you leave, can you check it out real quick? I was told there's a bunch of wallets inside. Check to see if they still contain any valuables."

"Yeah, sure thing. I'm about to leave anyway."

Wait. Wallets, watches... those were usually the items reported stolen. Was... was he getting out somehow? If he was, then why would he come back here?

She thanked the plumber before turning toward the hall to the left of the foyer leading to the holding cells. Unlocking the door, she descended the steps and walked past the empty cells toward Danny's. She called his name before she reached his cell, remembering how she'd startled him the last visit.

Judy was glad the chief had allowed her to make this her case. There was plenty of press coming her way as to what would be done with the Black Spider, but she had done her best to remain vague, for his sake. This was a delicate situation requiring patience, finesse, and, above all, privacy. All she had to do was keep this under wraps until the chief could keep the public eye off of him, and then something reasonable could be done about him. This new development was a big, big problem. Nick, on the other paw, was tasked with investigating the murders at the office complex as well as the ruined laboratory. He always enjoyed this kind of work, sitting down, studying records, asking around... allowed him to put his old hustler's skills to use again in a constructive manner.

"Hey, Judy," he said to her in a strained voice. He came into her line of sight within the cell to see a sweaty panther doing pull-ups with one arm. The strange thing was, he was hanging off of a flat ceiling.

By his fingertips.

"How do you do that?" she asked in amazement.

"What?" he grunted.

"Stick to surfaces with your fingers."

"Unh! I dunno, it just happens. I... just want it to happen and it happens."

"How many of those have you done?"

He grasped the ceiling with both paws and feet, breathing deeply. "Two hundred on both arms," he replied. He dropped to the floor. "Whew! I'm not done but I'll finish them later."

"You are so strong," she remarked in awe.

He looked at her for a moment before shrugging. "Mm; I've been like this for as long as I can remember."

"How much can you lift? Like, what's your max capacity?"

"I... I've never really tested it. But I did lift the front end of a truck once for a couple seconds. That was pretty hard."

"Wow."

He smirked. Then he looked at her contemplatively. Since he had met her officially the day of his arrest, she had been nothing like he had always imagined her to be: cold, domineering... fake. He had yet to see any of that. She had been nothing but gentle and, he couldn't believe it, likable. Still, he wasn't about to let anything go that easily. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure!" she answered cheerily.

"...This has been on my mind for a while." He looked at her intently, wanting to see how she'd react to his question. "Detective, why did you tell everyone that predators were savages?"

Judy's expression changed so starkly he might as well have slapped her. Her face had contorted into a hissing cringe that disappeared as fast as it came. She wasn't angry. She looked ashamed.

"It's... not something I like to remember," she said, a wistful melancholy tone in her voice.

"Oh, uh... sorry."

"No, no! I'll tell you, it's just it still hurts when I think about it." After saying this, Judy sat down. Danny sat down with her, only the bars separating them.

She told him the whole story, starting at the very beginning. She began with the way her parents raised her, her ambition from an early age, Gideon's attack, her academy days, her first disappointing day on the force, meeting Nick, the case she had to fight to have, hustling Nick (both of them laughed at that one), and everything leading up to those three minutes that shattered the city for three months and beyond.

Seven years ago

"Mmn! I'm so nervous," said Judy, resisting the urge to bite her stubby claws off.

The fox behind her stepped up to offer his help. "Ok, press conference 101: you wanna look smart, answer their question with your own question, then answer that question. Like this: 'Excuse me, officer Hopps, what can you tell us about the case?' 'Well, was this a tough case? Yes, yes it was.'"

Judy looked up at him gratefully. "You should be up there with me; we did this together."

Nick leaned casually against the rock display. "Well, am I a cop? No, no I am not."

She sighed a chuckle. "Funny you should say that. Because... well I've been thinking," she pulled a yellow sheet from her pocket and unfolded it, "it would be nice to have a partner..." She held it out in front of the fox, whose easygoing facade vanished. His eyes widened in muted surprise. She pulled out her infamous carrot pen. "Here, in case you need something to write with." He took it slowly. He said nothing, but it was clear that he could not have been more touched. He gave her his first genuine smile, one that lit her heart up.

Judy heard Bellwether quietly calling her to give the press her statement. She turned to her friend, giving him crossed fingers (wish me luck), and walked up to the podium with as much confidence in her gait as she could muster. The chief announced her, and the confidence shattered immediately when dozens of reporters began vying for her attention.

"Y-yes?" she pointed in a random direction.

A fast-talking beaver shot the first question: "What can you tell us about the animals that went savage?"

"Uh, the an- the animals in question, um..." she automatically turned toward Nick for support. He gestured: Remember, 101. 101...

She did it his way. "Are they all different species? Yes, yes they are." Immediately everyone scribbled furiously on their notepads. She didn't see it, but Nick gave her a thumbs-up.

A bunny spoke up next. "Ok, so what is the connection?" Judy suddenly forgot 101.

"Well, all we know is that they are all members of the predator family."

A ram, whom she would later realize was Woolter, one of Bellwether's accomplices, spewed his loaded question: "So, predators are the only ones going savage?"

"That is acc - yes, that is accurate, yes."

"Why? Why is this happening?" a pig asked, whom she also recognized in retrospect.

"We still don't know." That answer began to spark some anxiety. Judy decided to give a theory she had heard the night before at Cliffside. It was a decision she would regret for the rest of her life.

"It may have something to do with biology."

This caused Nick to look up from the form she had given him, her suggestion spiking his nerves. What did she mean by that?

Some scattered requests for clarification came her way. "A biological component... you know, something in their... DNA."

"In their DNA, can you elaborate on that, please?" a gazelle near the back asked.

"Yes." Judy remembered her talent show speech from 16 years ago and drew on it: "Thousands of years ago, predators survived through their... a-aggressive hunting instincts. For whatever reason, they seemed to be reverting back to their primitive savage ways." Out of her line of sight, Nick was watching in horror as the bunny all but condemned predators by means of their ancient biological nature. Seeing the photos behind her of the muzzles on the faces of the predators... "Is he gonna cry?"...

No. Please, Carrots, no!

"Could it happen again?" asked the pig.

"It's possible, but we must be vigilant." As she spoke, the crowd began to grow more and more restless from the news. "And we at the ZPD are prepared and are here to protect you."

Suddenly, cameras began flashing. Everyone drew near and began barraging the little bunny with question after question, all leveraged toward what the ZPD would do about the predator problem.

Nick was shocked. This was the girl who had told him that he was "so much more than that?" More than a predator who should be muzzled?! He didn't know what to say, but when she ran back up to him, the words just came.

"Uh, that went so fast! I didn't get a chance to mention you or say anything about how we-"

"Oh, I think you said plenty."

"Whaddoyou mean?"

"'Clearly there's a biological component? These predators might be reverting back to their primitive savage ways?' Are you serious?"

"I just stated the facts of the case. I mean it's not like a bunny could go savage."

"Right, but a fox could, huh?"

Judy was so confused. Why was he saying this? "Nick, stop it. You're not like them."

"Oh, there's a them now."

"You know what I mean, you're not that kind of predator."

He gestured toward the photos of the poor predators. "The kind that needs to be muzzled? The kind that makes you think you need to carry around fox repellant?" Judy looked down at the tiny bottle of mace, her expression dropping as she began to understand what he was getting at. But she had not yet repented. She needed one... more... push. "Yeah, don't think I didn't notice that little item the first time we met. So, let me ask you a question. Are you afraid of me?" Judy looked at him, a nervous tingle worming up her spine. "You think I might go nuts?" His claws extended. "Do you think I might go savage?" He bared his fangs. "Do you think I might try to... EAT YOU?" And that was it.

Judy flipped open the holster carrying the mace, holding out her paw in a halting gesture, prepared for him to strike. But he wasn't about to. That one motion said it all: he was nothing but a fox even to her.

"I knew it," he scoffed. Judy snapped out of it, realizing what had just happened. A look of pure rejection darkened his eyes. Judy's chest wrenched at the expression she had never seen before from her ever-confident partner. The kind that friends wore when they felt irreparably betrayed. "Just when I thought somebody actually believed in me, huh." Judy's ears dropped but he didn't care. She tried to say something. He interrupted her by placing the yellow sheet into her paw. "Probably best if you don't have a predator as a partner." He marched away from the speechless bunny, her face reciprocating his own expression of rejection. She exhaled sharply when she saw the form was completed.

Her throat began to close up, and she fought back stinging tears. She gasped quietly when she saw Nick tear something off of his chest and throw it on the floor. The fake badge she'd given to Finnick, who had given it to Nick. Oh, that stung.

"No," she breathed before running after him and calling his name. And the stupid reporters blocked her path and once again began barraging her with questions. One of them asked if that fox had threatened her.

"No, he is my friend," she said, trying to force her way through.

"We can't even trust our own friends?" a fellow bunny asked.

"That is not what I said. Please!" she again tried to get past them, but the panicked group pressed into her, trapping her. She felt helpless, alone without him. She didn't answer another word of their questions, but remained silent until they dissipated enough to let her through, but when she ran outside...

He was gone.

In the present

"Everything kept getting worse. There was that peace rally you saw and after that I... I just couldn't take it anymore." She chuckled ruefully, her eyes moist. " I watched the city tear itself apart. 10% predator population against 90% prey... it was chaos. Prey got the best end of the deal. Chief Bogo and Bellwether even tried to make me the figurehead of the whole ZPD. I just... couldn't do it. I quit that day."

Danny listened silently, absorbing every detail. This was not what he had thought had happened. She had never suggested all predators were savages. When she paused, he asked a question. "What brought you back?"

She smiled. "I heard from a friend that the savage attacks were caused by Midnicampum holicithias."

"Midniwhat now?"

"Mid- um, Nighthowlers. It's a flower that's used as a pesticide but it also has powerful psychotropic and endocrine effects." Seeing his confusion, she clarified. "...Which means it causes animals who eat them to 'go savage'. It mimics the aggression predators exhibited before civilization."

"Ah! Wait, so the reason all this happened was Bellwether was feeding predators a bug-killing flower?"

"Well... she was having someone shoot them with darts full of poison derived from it."

Danny stared for a moment. "Who would've thought...?"

"Heh, I didn't," she said. "I never even figured it out on my own. I had help from a couple of foxes. It's ironic; I was terrified of foxes growing up."

"And now you're married to one," said Danny, chuckling.

Judy laughed and put a paw on her forehead. "Yeah! What was I thinking?! I should have married the giraffe!" They busted out in loud laughter. The first time Danny had genuinely laughed like this in a long, long time. It felt strange but wonderful.

Meanwhile, Nick watched the exchange, jokingly wondering whether he should laugh at the joke at his expense or ask where in the world this giraffe was so he could strangle him.

Once they stopped laughing, Danny looked at Judy with a crooked smile.

Judy smiled widely in gratitude at the cub. "What about you, Danny? What was life like before... everything?"

Danny's expression turned apprehensive, his shoulders tensing a bit.

"If you don't want to tell me-" she said quickly.

He held up a paw and shook his head. "Well, uh, I... I was four when all that happened. My dad and I... we were kicked out of our trailer by a bunch of prey mammals who lived around us, and they burned it down." Judy covered her mouth with her paws. Danny snorted. Well, she asked for it; not much more to tell than the hard life he'd had up to now.

"I was on the streets for a long time, scrounging what I could. One day, I was found by a hyena by the name of Peter Andrews. He's... he was a doctor who worked for someone named Kenten."

"Wait!" she interrupted him, "Kenten? Doug Kenten?"

"You know him?"

"I knew I recognized him," she said quietly. Her expression had become serious. Her eyes focused on him and her eyebrows furrowed. "Tell me more about him."

Ha! Anything to get that son of a bitter old leopard. "O-ok. He, uh, he allowed Dr. Andrews to take me in, basically raised me. A few weeks ago, he sent me on an assignment to get this elephant..." he thought for a second... "Biggles. Biggles was his name. He had me and a lion, John Serpiento, take the money he owed from him."

"Owed, what do you mean?"

"Kenten was in the business of lending money and demanded it back with interest."

"Sharks," she whispered.

"Yeah! I've heard him called that before. This polar bear, Nigel - he used to work for Mr. Big - that was his nickname for him - the Shark."

"Nigel Witfurr?"

"Yeah, that's him. How do you know about him?"

"Never mind, keep going."

"Ok. He always told us that if we weren't useful to him, we'd have no place there. He loved using the word liability or weight." He nearly spat the word. He had suffered many nights in fear of exile, often thinking, This is my last day here. Better enjoy it.

He finished with the events that culminated in his arrest, what he found at the lab when he returned from... another assignment, the fight.

She sat still, chewing on this information. Oh, she had quite a bit to tell Bogo.

"I have to go," she said, leaving Danny confused. Had he...?

"Wait! Did I say something?"

Judy turned, walking back to him. "No. No, honey, you didn't do anything wrong. You've given me a lot of information for your case. I'm going to give it to my boss, see what he's going to do." She continued looking at him, suddenly thinking about how she could help him further. She was only tasked with keeping everything quiet for the sake of a legitimately unprecedented case, but she wondered if there was something else she could do. She wanted what was best for this little boy, and she was going to make sure he got it, no matter what. If she could find a way to get him to stop pilfering (not to mention leaving his cell if that was what he was doing), then he could have a chance at a normal life.

"I'll be back tomorrow, ok? I promise."

"Ok," he called back as heard her run up the stairs and burst through the door. He sat back, thinking one thing over and over again.

She didn't mean for any of it to happen...

But he wasn't going to forgive her. How could he?

"Sir!" Judy practically yelled as she entered the chief's office.

"Detective," he deadpanned, "you may have earned my utmost respect, but knocking is still a common courtesy." He smiled sarcastically.

She sighed, her eyebrows forming a straight line. "Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"It's Wilde, sir."

"Oh good! Least you're not the taller one." Judy didn't laugh; his joke had the feel of coming from someone who was too stressed to show any etiquette at the moment. His expression suddenly turned gruff once again. "Now then, what do you need, detective?"

"Sir, Mr. Arcturus gave me new information on his activities."

"Incriminating or otherwise?"

"It is incriminating, but not for Danny. It might appease City Hall because now I have a testimony from Mr. Arcturus that the muggings he performed were coercive."

"Oh?" He looked down at her and took off his glasses. His curiosity was piqued. "Coercion, you say? Do tell."

"Mr. Arcturus was taken in by Doug Kenten, the former stockbroker on Wall Street. Remember him?"

"Oh, yes," said the chief with a rueful nod. Oh, he knew about him. He was a stockbroker suspected of several fraudulent stocks that he sold under the pretense that he was representing various businesses, but he was acquitted in court. Most of the officers involved in the investigation had seen the evidence and were absolutely convinced he was guilty, but the evidence they presented was apparently not enough to secure a guilty verdict; it was ruled as insufficient. So Kenten had walked clean.

"Now we have more evidence on him," she said. "Maybe now the focus can be put on him instead of Dan- Mr. Arcturus."

The chief stood up with a grunt and walked to the window. "Do you know where he is?"

"Uh, no sir."

"This is a delicate situation. Remember, Wilde, you caught him in the process of assaulting a citizen, according to your report. If any of the burglary/mugging victims are allowed to press charges, the only way to prevent the ZPD and this kid from taking the brunt of litigation would be to give them the one behind his actions."

Judy sighed. She paced the chair, tapping her chin in thought. Nick had made progress with his own investigation, investigating the building where they had found Kenten and Arcturus. It seemed the criminal had forgotten to shred all the evidence of his activities as a loan shark. Now all they had to do was find the guy.

"Forty-eight hours."

"What?"

"You have forty-eight hours to find him."

Judy stared at him, her eyes widening. This brought back more bad memories.

He waved a paw and chuckled. "Just kidding, detective."

Judy breathed a sigh in relief and glared noncommittally at him before running out of the office.

"Door!" he shouted.

The bunny ran back and pulled the door shut with a grunt (and both paws).

There was a knock at Kenten's door. He got up and went to peer through the peephole. Daken. He watched the mongoose walk back to his car and leave before opening the door. A small, brown package lay on the stoop to the side. He picked it up and took it inside. Using his claw, he carefully cut the tape and opened the box, letting slide out the object within. A little device resembling a stout tv remote fell onto his paw. Except instead of buttons, there was a singular red switch guard. He smiled. All that was left was to get sent to Catswell at the north branch near Zootopia Central Bank, and everything would be right where it needed to be. He stored the device in a compartment under his sofa.

He was halfway done with the rebreathers. After they were finished, then would come the really fun part.