Zootopia belongs to Disney. Spider-Man belongs to Sony.
He was in his normal routine - sitting at a desk and handling paperwork - the perfect job for an aging wolf. Zsander Lukagi, a German-American former Seal who had spent time in Vietnam as a prisoner of war, was nearing his fifteenth year as the owner of Lukagi Industries. The wolf had always displayed a passion for developing methods of defense/attack that extended beyond the innate ones given at birth, especially after his were torn out in Nam - his fangs and all sixteen of his claws, which had been a horrible procedure. He had developed the idea in the moments following the torture, lying in a muddy crag in the side of a cliff set with bars, that if there was a way to kill his guard, who stood over a dozen feet away... thus, the concept was born. Following a satisfying rescue and an honorable discharge, he returned to the states, only to find that the best the immigrant former Seal could find was a job as a host at a prestigious restaurant. But his earnings were just enough to fund his construction of a machine that could kill at a distance. After over a decade of hard work with many trial and numerous errors, the first gun was created.
Though the design was crude and could only fire one pellet at a time, the machine was patented by Lukagi and then developed further by Angle, the primary American military supplier. The object was first called a "pistol" by the CEO of Angle at the time. In the course of just under fifty years, he went from a filthy crack in the earth to one of the highest pegs in the nation's totem pole. And recently, he believed his luck had expanded greatly when he came across a small boy whose strength and eidetic memory would make him a valuable asset. He smiled proudly as he zipped open the bag that had been set on his desk by Ms. Kityarn just minutes prior, gathered by Mr. Serpiento and his ward. More money to count. But his smile didn't last long. The realization came as soon as he laid his hands on the bills. He breathed heavily, snarling with fury.
He set the bills down on the desk and scooped up more, feeling each and every one. Their thickness, color, even their smell was off.
"Counterfeit!" the Shark exclaimed, throwing the handful of bills in the air and then dumping the rest of it on the table to examine all of it. "That elephant!" he screamed. "That worthless lion!" Getting his phone, and muttering curses the whole time.
The large wooden door at the front of his office open suddenly, revealing a finely dressed wolf, slightly younger than Lukagi but much calmer. His nose pointed in a slightly upward angle. "Is there a problem, sir?" he asked smoothly.
"Yes, there's a problem!" he grated. Standing up from his chair, he grabbed the bag and dumped all the cash on the floor. Kicking through it, he looked around for any real money. Just one bill. But he couldn't find a single one. "Look at this, Bevins! It's all fake!" he yelled, throwing the bag down.
The butler looked around the pile, but he honestly couldn't tell whether it was fake or not. One thing he could see, however, was the impending mood swing which the wolf was infamous for. He stepped backward and shut the door. As soon as the door clicked shut, the crashing began. Glass broke, objects crashed, papers rustled. And Lukagi swore up a storm the whole time. Once things calmed down, the fellow wolf opened the door to see the mess within. The crime lord stood in the middle of it, breathing deeply. His face was still twisted in rage.
"Sir, remember your blood pressure," said the wolf, still in that smooth voice. But Lukagi seemed to ignore him. He pulled out a bottle from his pocket and withdrew a pill. He held it out to Lukagi, who swatted his hand away. "I don't need that, you idiot!" He then went around the room, gathering up all the bills and stuffing them back into the bag. "I'll kill that worthless feline," he whispered as he zipped it shut. "He ain't worth nothing! Can't even teach that kid to use his powers properly!" He indelicately shoved the bag into the emotionless Bevins' arms. "Incinerator! Now!" he growled. The butler obeyed immediately.
He then yanked his phone out, speed-dialing a certain number he called nearly every day. He calmed somewhat, eager to hear the advice of his Guardian Angel, or GA, as he called her. The female voice answered on the first ring.
"What's the problem?" the saccharine yet simultaneously stern voice asked.
"Oh, I got a big problem," he said in a dangerous voice. "Serpiento and his kid brought me fake cash. I'm beginning to think that this kid ain't worth anything! John does fine on his own, but that cat holds him back! I mean, Kityarn thinks he's a god because of his strength! I don't know what to do about him!"
"Send out a message for another enforcer to get the money you need. Go ahead and start the experiment. I'll make sure to keep the police off your trail in the meantime."
"The experiment? But wasn't that down the road-"
"I thought you said that he was useless."
"Yeah, but wasn't that down the road when he was a bit... older?"
"Do it. It was getting close to time anyway. Moving ahead of schedule won't change anything, now that you're so close to developing the serum. But a fair warning, Kityarn will find out and try to get him away from you. Let her. And when she does, you know what to do."
"You mean a little blue pellet action?"
"Could it be any more obvious? Then, he'll come right back here and you won't have to do anything beyond restrain him. Have everyone present darted."
"Understood," he said before hanging up. Sitting in his chair, he looked around at the mess he'd made and shook his head in embarrassment, despite the fact that no one had been witness besides his faithful butler. But he still had a job to do. He steeled himself for what he was certain to be the defining moment of his life: calibrating the status quo of predators. He buried his apprehension deep down. He'd have to do a lot of things he didn't want to. But if he was going to do this, he had to. For predators everywhere.
Sarah grunted as Nigel forced her leg to bend while also forcing her arm behind her back, and used his superior weight to keep her on her stomach.
"Meow, little kitty. It's the only way to get out of this" he said. An arrogant smirk tainted his voice and made the cat cringe at the slur.
"Not gonna happen!" she growled. Twisting herself, she managed to throw him off balance. He fell to the floor beside her and took Sarah's foot to the chest. He crawled away and stood upright to continue sparring. She threw a roundabout kick but he caught her leg. Sarah's eyes widened as she was lifted by her leg and flung over his head to thud hard right back onto the mat.
Standing over her, he dusted himself off and lay his hands on his hips. Meow, little kitty. It's the only way to tap out."
Suddenly, a phone pinged. Walking to it, to see if it was hers, she saw that she did indeed have a message from Boss. "Sorry, gotta take this," she said to the polar bear, who was suddenly disappointed he wasn't able to finish the match. Standing up, she massaged her lower back with a grumble. She would take that polar bear down one of these days.
Rolling her eyes, she opened the message and read it.
The next thing she knew, she had searched the majority of the factory, only to find him in his office. "John!" The lion looked up from an application and actually seemed somewhat relieved by the distraction.
"Sarah, I assume your sparring match went well?" he asked over the ambiance of the tv droning on in the office. "You delivered that cash to Boss, right?" he looked back down at the application.
"The money's counterfeit!"
His pen froze immediately, along with the body attached to it. Out of all the things that she could have started with, that came out of left field. Like, way left. His pen was still connected to the paper. He looked up slowly at the wide-eyed ocelot, who looked like someone who had just heard his closest family member had been mauled to death. "Counterfeit..." he repeated matter-of-factly.
"Yeah! Counterfeit! It means-"
"I know what counterfeit means, I'm not stupid!" he growled, slamming his pen on the table and standing up. He turned around, slapping a hand over his eyes and squeezing them with a loud groan of bewilderment. If there was one thing he knew about the Shark, it was that he took his business deathly seriously. This was not good, especially since the police were so intimately involved in this job. He turned back around to say something, but nothing came out. His mind, however, was tossing like the ocean in a typhoon. His eyes stared past the ocelot toward the floor, his mouth hanging open.
All of it.
Sarah gestured for him to spit it out! He looked at her and immediately snapped out of his stupor. "Let me guess, he's going to ask me to go get the actual money."
"Why do you think I'm here?" she asked, her voice swelling from soft to loud.
"No, I won't do that."
"WHAT!" she shouted angrily.
"You're the one who's supposed to check the money before giving it to Boss. So it's your problem."
"I did check it! And it looked real enough to me! You had the chance to make sure it was real at the bank! They have markers to check the bills, you know! Oh and thanks for dumping all the responsibility on me, you jerk!"
John groaned. "Ok, you're right. I'm sorry. That was a stupid move. I just... I know that Boss is not taking this well."
"Oh, really," she said sarcastically. "He messaged me, John. He's blaming you and Danny!"
John's mouth opened in surprise. "Danny? Por que?"
"He's the Shark, John. Do you need a better explanation? Now, are we going to get the real money, or what?"
John backed up and turned the tv toward Sarah. The news station was covering the story of the bank robbery that had occurred just an hour ago. The building was swamped by police. "No way we're getting the money now."
"We have to, John," she said in a voice that almost sounded like pleading. "I have a feeling that if we don't, then he won't hurt us, he'll hurt Danny."
"Sarah, Boss doesn't allow us to do anything beyond what he tells us. I don't know if we could do anything if we wanted to," he said softly, raising his hands in hopelessness and letting them fall back to his sides. "I mean, the only reason we made it out of there was because Danny managed to fight off both of them."
"Then... he could do it again, couldn't he?" she asked, doubt lacing her voice.
"No," he answered immediately. Sarah's face tightened in disgust at his reluctance. "If there's one thing I've learned about Danny, it's that he might be strong but he has no fighting spirit. I could tell he was scared, very scared. Besides, the whole city is looking for the one who's doing this. If one of us is captured..."
"Then you'd spill the beans, John. Like the spineless coward you've always been." With that, she stormed off. John watched her go, then let his face fall with a wince. "You might have been his caretaker, John, but you didn't raise him. I did that." That was the last thing she said before she slammed the door to his office.
John covered his chest from the sting her last comment had caused him, which brought back a deep regret he'd harbored now for decades.
Meanwhile, Sarah marched toward her room, her face hardened in anger. It was a good thing that everyone was at work, or else she probably would have torn into anyone who passed by her. She had a few words that she wanted to give to Boss. Once she made it to her room, she shut the door and dialed Lukagi's number. She opened her mouth the moment he picked up.
"Boss, I thought you were better than this. I really did. The fact that you would threaten Danny's life like this, I can't- you're seriously...?" She hesitated, then groaned quietly in frustration. "Danny is new at this. He made one mistake. I mean," she laughed incredulously, "you're punishing him... you're getting rid of him because he's not very good at stealing? Are you kidding me?! You can't be serious- If you want to take out your anger on someone, take it out on me or John, but not him. Because if you think I'm going to let you do anything to him, then you can know for certain that you no longer have access to my services. And by the way, I don't care what you do to me! So leave him alone!"
There was silence on the other end of the line after her rapid-fire diatribe. For a moment, Sarah wondered if she had gotten the wrong number. "Thanks for the input," he finally said in a low, snide voice before hanging up.
Sarah stared forward for a few seconds. Her brain was still on overdrive, but there was nothing for her to unload her angst on.
She found herself pacing back and forth in her room for who knew how long. She clasped one hand over her head. Her brain hurt. One dozen of ideas after another was filing through her mind like an overclocking CPU. She breathed heavily through her other hand, which cupped her mouth.
She wished she didn't have all these posters covering her walls... they were just so distracting.
"THINK!" she yelled, kicking her futon. If she couldn't come up with something, then her friend could be dead by this time tomorrow. "Ugh! There's gotta be some way to keep Boss from..."
Ok, ok... slow down, Sarah. Slow down. Deep breaths. Now think. What do you know at this point? You already tried talking to him, which probably only made it worse... Danny can't pay Boss back because the police are becoming more aware of this business and because Boss is a greedy jackwad who doesn't know how reality works. And you don't know how much time you have until he does something to Danny. What to do? If she could just get him out of here for even one day... she froze. Her eyes turned to the pamphlet that she had been given just the day before. Picking it up, she smiled.
That's it!
She sat down and breathed deeply to calm herself. Ok, now you have something to start with. Tomorrow morning. Early tomorrow morning, I'll get him out of here. If John had a problem with that, then she'd tell him to go and... do certain things to himself. But she was going to do what she could to keep him safe.
"Chief." The water buffalo took a moment to respond. He looked up from his current report to see Officer Gaines. "The Mayor is here, sir."
"All right," he said, "let him in." Though he had injected respect and energy into his voice, he was currently wishing that the visit had been from anyone but the Mayor. Being the Chief of Zootopia, that is, being the head of all precincts in the city, all the weight of the city's biggest problems rested on his shoulders. "One more problem to add to the pile" was all he'd hear out of his mouth.
The tall, lean leopard appeared in the doorway and walked in with halting footsteps. "Chief Bogo, it's a pleasure, Sir." He reached out to shake his hand, and the buffalo shook it with a small smile.
"Pleasure's all mine, Mr. Mayor. To what do I owe it?"
"Ah, well, you see..." he began while sitting down. "I don't want to beat around the bush here, Chief. And I-I hate to be the bearer of bad news."
I knew it, Bogo thought ruefully, though he kept his expression blank.
"I'm sure you're aware of the incident at the bank?" asked the Mayor.
"Yes sir, I am. And two of my officers were injured, unfortunately."
"And the criminals were able to escape," added the Mayor.
The Chief sighed. "Yes."
"Sir, I decided not to say this at the meeting last night, for your sake, but I'm asking you to pick up the pace and get this under control. Because I... I can't lie, Thelonious. The crime rate is rising every day. The city is beginning to lose faith in the ZPD. And as a result of this, citizens are beginning to shirk their taxes, businesses are embezzling, you name it. I just... I really hope the ZPD can get this under control."
"You think we're not trying?!" the Chief suddenly snapped.
"No, I didn't say that. I mean, the ZPD is doing a great job, but-"
"But what?" He gestured toward the tall stack of paperwork on his desk. As he continued, his voice began to rise. "I'm well aware of the crime rate, Sir! I stare at it all day long! And you think that riding up my buffalo tail is going to help anything?!" He leaned over his desk, gripping its edge as he glared at the Mayor, who leaned backward in his seat in intimidation. "That's all City Hall does around here, is remind us of the obvious while brushing everything else under the rug for the common mammals to ignore. I'm here, grinding my hooves with a cheese grater and fighting through long-winded burnout for the better part of twenty-four hour days. I'm fighting as hard as I can. So thank you for standing behind me, Mr. Mayor. Real pleasure to have you visit my office." He ended by sitting down slowly, keeping that glare on him the whole time.
Mayor Kenten didn't say anything for a long time, but his wide eyes remained on the buffalo. Finally, he murmured while gesturing vaguely behind him, "I-I'll just... see myself out..."
The Chief watched him leave, still wearing that worn-out scowl.
Once the door closed, the old Chief slumped in his chair. His fingers wiped his tired eyes, trying his best to keep the darned things open. He didn't know how much more he could take. Everything was just so awful right now, but he didn't know why.
Breathing deeply with steeled resolve, he grabbed a stack of forms and continued writing. Don't give up yet, he told himself.
