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


Every convict was out. Out in the streets of Zootopia.

The lights were still out, but plenty of mammals saw them as they passed by. He found clothes that would fit him - which was rather time-consuming. He commanded many of the largest predators to follow him - primarily large felines and bears - while the rest were set loose on the city. They rode in a prison bus, a black bear at the wheel.

Kenten asked the bear to take his time, greatly anticipating what he was about to do next.

He and the thirty or forty others arrived at Kenten's desired destination. The entryway was gated by a steel-reinforced door, and sat strategically near a military base on the outskirts of the eastern front of Sahara Square. That didn't matter to him. No one knew he was coming, and what he was there for... the military wouldn't be helpful.

"Sir, what are we doing here?" asked one of his henchmammals. "Isn't we meant to dake down City Hall?"

"Don't worry. One thing at a time." He stood up as the bus came to a stop. Most of the others stood up to follow. "No, stay here. I'll be back." He stepped out of the bus.

A grizzly bear grumbled when the door closed. "No fun."

Kenten marched up to the gate, inspecting its design. Hm. This was top-notch. Of course, she designed it to withstand the blast from a PF-98 rocket launcher - a Chinese innovation. But, unfortunately, she had not included an American god in her variables. He punched the metal. A loud sound, like a gong, reverberated throughout the area. He'd have to put quite a bit of effort into this. Digging his feet into the rocky ground, he wound up and slammed the solid gate with as much power as he could muster. The six-foot-thick gate warped, but only just.

Hm. Maybe he underestimated the strength of this gate - or overestimated his own strength. No matter how strong his muscles were, he still had limits.

Ah! So did this gate. A twenty-foot tall barrier. They never anticipated someone like him, did they? He backed up a few dozen feet and estimated the distance between his position and the very front of Nizhang's front door. He felt nothing but excitement. He could not wait to test it all out - his strength, his speed, his reflexes... the sky was the limit for him, and he was about to measure how far it went.

He bent his knees and pushed with all of his strength. He soared upward and forward, far beyond the height of the gate. It was not until he reached his peak that he looked down. The entire complex was below him. He had leapt beyond the automated defense network and even the security check. Heh, this was going to be fun...

He flew toward the ground at terminal velocity, slamming into the pavement of the parking lot he landed on. The asphalt ground into dust beneath his feet. His fist buried itself underground. His eyes were closed. He heard the shouts of guards coming and surrounding him on all sides.

...very fun.


Gazelle knocked at the door. She was worried, every worried. About the city, about her upcoming concert, about the Wildes... everything seemed to be falling apart. She had heard through the grapevine that there was a prison break and that the escapees were creating havoc in Downtown. She lived on the Western side of Savannah Central, opposite from the Wildes. So she had hoped that the police were somehow taking care of the problem... until to her horror she had seen several orange-clad, flashlight-wielding hooligans chasing after a small group of prey near her car. She had tried to call the police, her friends, Danny, anybody! But the cell system was simply down. Stores were being raided for food, robberies had become commonplace overnight... she hoped this would all end soon.

She knocked again, hugging herself against the cold. She brushed her hair aside. The power had been off for two days, but her hair and fur didn't need more than a little wash. She was thankful for that. It would have been hell if she couldn't manage without ugh, yada yada yada, all about hair. Still, she needed a haircut. She'd meant to get one this weekend, but then all this happened.

She knocked again. They probably weren't home; they never took this long to- oh!

The door opened. She smiled, hoping they'd give her a warm reception. These were dark times. Her smile drooped when the fox greeted her. Wordlessly, that is. In fact, he almost seemed...

Nick stood there, looking almost as if she was the last mammal he wanted to talk to at the moment. What's going on?

"Nick, are you ok? Where're Judy and Danny?"

Nick's lips pulled back in a brief wince. He rubbed the back of his head. She didn't know yet. Course she didn't; the news stations were down. "Uh, Gazelle... would you like to come in?" Gazelle looked behind her before nodding.

She hung her coat on the rack beside the door. There was Judy on the couch, and... she was a different doe altogether.

She studied at the bunny as she walked up to her, noting the blank look, the circles under her eyes, the disheveled clothing. She was a mess. Judy didn't even seem to register that she was standing there. Or... anything in her environment. What in the world happened?

"Is Danny ok?" she called to Nick, who was in the kitchen. She heard his footsteps slip to a halt. She looked back to Judy, whose head slowly sunk lower. "What? Where is he?"

"Uhm... come in here; sit down." She heard a chair scraping. Nervously, Gazelle went into the kitchen and sat down in the chair that Nick pulled out. He sat next to her.

He opened his mouth and sighed before shaking his head. "Gazelle... something happened last night after the power went out... Something really bad. And... we're still... dealing with it." Gazelle wasn't stupid. She could tell he was trying to ease her into it. She always hated that.

"Nick, whatever you're trying to tell me, just tell me. Is Danny ok? Did he get hurt?"

He gave a couple of false starts. But she would have none of it. "Where. Is. Danny? Is he hurt? Did he run away? What?" He looked away and rubbed his temple as she spoke. What is so hard about...

"Gazelle, he's gone," he said flatly.

"Gone, like he's gone somewhere?"

"He's gone, as in..." his breath hitched. He looked her in the eye. "He's dead, Gazelle."

She... didn't react. Not immediately, at least. Honestly, he'd been expecting some kind of outburst. At least, something more than silence. Gazelle was too kind for words, but her personality was intense. This kind of news... losing a close friend... he wished he could keep Judy from all of it, carrying her pain so she wouldn't have to. Taking Danny away from her had truly left her with nothing left.

The worst part was that he was not given a proper funeral. The coroner's office wasn't able to perform an autopsy on him because of the power outage, and so he was just buried at the cemetery with a crude wooden plaque and the promise of a real headstone once the power was restored.

After a while, she smiled slightly - almost a smirk - and shook her head. "No, he's not. He stopped that robbery on Friday. He's fine."

Nick exhaled quietly and nearly dropped his head to the table. Having to explain this - this was one of the few times he actually felt anything, and he hated it with all his heart. He wished someone, anyone else could explain it to this girl, whose denial stuck out like a broken thumb. "Gazelle, he..." he put his paws on his face and wiped it with a quiet groan. He kept one paw over his eyes as he continued: "He was shot when he was walking to the precinct. He, uh..." he winced and gulped at the memory of watching him suffocate. Coughing up blood. "I'm so sorry, Gazelle." His voice warbled as he finished. "He-he died."

Her eyes were wide. She didn't answer for several seconds. " You're lying," she asserted quietly before raising her voice. "How could you lie about something like that?! Puede alguien decirme lo que esta pasando...? Can someone just tell me what is going on around here?!"

Gazelle jumped, gasping as her chair was pushed sideways. She turned and saw an angry, disheveled Judy standing there. "He's gone!" Judy sobbed. "Didn't you hear him, he said he's gone! He got shot in the chest and he died, what is so hard to understand about that?!" she mumbled almost incoherently as she struggled past her tears.

Shocked, Gazelle stared at the bunny, her breathing slowly becoming erratic. She stood up and quickly walked out of the house, slamming the door behind her. It had started pouring down rain at some point. She stopped at her car door, the words she'd heard finally registering. Was this really her friend's death all over again? Maria, her closest friend, the purest Spaniard she'd ever known, dying from cancer... Danny, a little boy who just wanted to do good, shot to death in the street? What kind of world... what kind of God...? She backed away from her car door before falling to her knees. The rain soaked into every part it could reach - beneath her clothes, into her fur, her ears, and her heart, weighing everything down. Why? It camouflaged the water dripping from her eyelids. She remembered the prayer she had whispered the day before she met him. She spoke quietly, her anger, grief, and confusion drowned out by the rain. She spoke in Spanish. It was just her and God. No one else would ever know what she said, because one of the few mammals who could understand her... He had taken him away.

"Por que, mi Papa en el cielos? Por que has dejado que esto suceda? Don't you care at all?!" she rasped, her heart broken. Broken by the realization... there was no good in this world.

...

The door opened to find Weston with a gas lamp.

"Gazelle?" His girlfriend stood there, soaking wet, sadness contorting her face into an expression of sorrow. "Baby, come on out of the rain; you'll get sick. What happened?"

He fetched a towel for the grieving gazelle. It was cold. There was air conditioning, which helped her to stop shivering. She had no other clothes, so he told her to relax while he drove back to her house for some fresh clothing. He had to wait behind a long line of cars that were navigating throughout the city. Since the street lights were out, the city treated them as stop signs. It was long and grueling, but it was better than anarchy and abject chaos. When he returned two hours later, she had calmed down enough to relate the horrible news.

"What?!" She nodded. "Someone just... shot him?"

She didn't answer that time. He covered his mouth in disbelief. He couldn't wrap his head around it. He fell down in his chair, unable to think straight.

"Weston... why would God let this happen?" she asked, her tear ducts swelling up once more. "If there is a God, why would He do this to him?"

He closed his eyes. Oh, he wished he understood how to answer that question. He wrestled with that very problem more often than he cared to admit. He worked in law. It came with the job. He had to face many horrible tragedies, read about crimes that, from his perspective, belonged in novels concocted only by a sick mind. Being a Christian, how could he not come to that question? And every time he wrestled with it, he always came to the same conclusion.

"I don't know why, Gazelle, but one thing I do know, God can turn it around for good."

"HOW?!" she snapped. Weston, for some reason, was not surprised. "How can He have meant Danny's death for good?"

"N-no, I mean, he didn't cause it..."

"If God could stop it, He would have!"

With that, she turned and looked out the window. He wanted to say something, but he knew it wouldn't help. She just needed time to grieve. And she needed him to be there with her. And he would be. Always. He stood up and patted her shoulder, squeezing it to let her know he was with her. She didn't respond but he wouldn't require her to. He'd wait and help carry her through it. He grieved for Mr. and Mrs. Wilde. He didn't know them well, but Danny seemed like a really special kid. He wished he'd had more time to share the Gospel with him. He hoped maybe he'd... come to terms with God.

He knelt down at the foot of his bed. "Lord," he whispered, "I don't know why this happened, but I know You can turn it around for Your good purpose. If Danny is with You, take care of him. Protect Gazelle and this city. Amen."

At that moment the rain stopped.


2 hours later

"It's so hard to see the names in this light."

"I can see them just fine."

"Of course you can, you have a flashlight!"

"I know, I'm kidding. I've been meaning to come here for a while. Power outage gave me the chance. I just haven't seen his grave in-oof!"

"Ha! Ya gotta watch where you're goin'!"

"I definitely tripped on something really sturdy. It... what is that! Mammal alive! Is... is that a zombie?! He's... ugh! He's sticking out of the ground!"

"Hold on, let me... no, he's warm... I'll call for help real quick."

"We're sorry, but we're unable to..."

"Ah, right, forgot the cell service is down."

"I keep forgetting that too."

"Help me dig him out. We gotta take him to Dr. Zepher's."


Uh-oh. What's going on here?