This story is inspired by my favorite movies, Zootopia, and Sam Raimi's 2002 movie Spider-Man. The main character, while inspired by Peter Parker, has the same powers, but a different personality and backstory. But some elements from the 2002 movie will be present in the story. As per the rules of the public domain, neither source belongs to me. Zootopia belongs to Disney, and Spider-Man belongs to Sony and the aforementioned director, Sam Raimi.


He loved staying after hours throughout the night. Not that he wanted to spend time away from his family, he just enjoyed the peace and quiet when everyone else had left. But it was also because he had a bit of an... issue, one might say. Everyone had their vices. His happened to be casino-hopping. He usually made enough and was able to provide for himself and his own, so he didn't see much of an issue.

If only he had paid back what he owed in time, then there wouldn't have been any issues. But, ironically, the one species expected to, pun intended, "have the memory of an elephant" suffered the same problem as other mammals: he forgot. Being manager of the largest bank in Zootopia, his reputation was very important to him.

The only sound his large ears picked up was the bills rustling as he counted the profit for the week.

CRASH!

The sound of broken glass pierced the quiet, and the bills went flying. He sat still. It had probably been his imagination; he hadn't slept well the night before.

Another sound, something like a filing cabinet falling over. He grabbed his desk landline and dialed 911.

A female voice answered. "911, what's your emergency?"

"This is Lorian Biggles," he whispered, "I work at ZCB. It's after hours, but I think someone's breaking in." He heard another sound. "Please, please send the police."

"All right, hold tight, Mr. Biggles. We're sending officers right now. They'll be there in a few minutes."

"Hurry!" the elephant whispered frantically into the phone. The suit-clad businessmammal crouched in a corner, wishing he had been born a mouse... wait, he's terrified of mice... anything small, besides a mouse. Lorian Biggles had heard rumors that the Sharks, a kind of "subdivision" of Angle, had found a new enforcer that was half the size of a mountain lion, yet had beaten several large mammals within an inch of their lives.

"The police are on their way, sir. If you can, try to find a place to hide." He couldn't. There was no place for a massive elephant to hide in his small office with a single door. One way in or out. Either way, the burglar was coming for him.

"Please hurry," he repeated in a terror-stricken whisper.

Oh, why did he listen to the roulette wheel rather than simple logic? Why did he ruin his marriage? Huh, anticipation really clears the perspective. If he lived through this, he was going to try to make amends with his family.

Another crash in the room opposite his caused the large African elephant to cringe. He grasped the phone to his chest with his modified, sweat-covered hoof-nail hybrid phalanges, his whole body trembling.

Silence. Where is he? What will he do to him?

The whole room seemed to be frozen in time. Lorian remained crouched against the corner of the dark office, not daring to breathe. A cold sweat slowly rolled down his temple. At that instant, he suddenly remembered. He reached into his desk drawer, pulling out a white envelope. The money he meant to pay back. He cursed himself for forgetting. "Memory of an elephant, my big fat-"

BANG!

"AAH!"

The burglar was right. At. The. Door.

Lorian jolted with a yelp, crouching down even further. The wooden door was warped, a large crack near the doorknob. Why, why, why had he decided to work overtime?! Stupid elephant, stupid, stupid, stu-

Another loud bang and the door swung inward, leaving the doorway wide open. Nothing stood between Lorian and this monster.

The elephant whimpered, straining his eyes to detect his attacker. He considered scrambling for a note to leave for his wife in case he... but he wouldn't even be able to find a paper and pen in this darkness! He began to panic, wishing this... thing would just do it and be done with it.

Suddenly, in the dark, a silhouette, barely visible, silently slunk through the doorway. On the ceiling.

Lorian's face twisted in horror and wonder at the sight. He wanted to scream, to run, to do ANYTHING! But his legs were glued to the floor. His heart thundered in his chest, about to tear from its vessels and leap right out of his chest.

The shadow crawled on the ceiling to the center of the room. He stopped there, remaining totally still. Lorian began to pick up the sound of sirens in the distance with his large ears, but he knew the burglar could kill him 4 times over before they got there.

Another shadow entered the room, walking toward him. Oh no, two of them. Make that 8 times over. Lorian's heart continued to pound ferociously, and he briefly wondered how he was still alive at the moment. His blood pressure was probably somewhere up orbiting the moon. The shadow began to slowly walk toward him, and the elephant reacted.

"Just TAKE IT!" he shouted at the figure, tossing an unsealed envelope in the horror's direction. "Leave me alone!" he whined, bringing his legs to his chest and resting his face against his knees. His fear intensified as he realized the shadows might just do him in anyway. He closed his eyes for who knew how long. When he opened them again, they nowhere to be seen.


John caught the envelope dexterously before slowly sliding it into the pouch of his solid black bodysuit. That had been too easy, even a little fun, if he was being honest. John gave his friend on the ceiling a thumbs-up. They saw the elephant had close his eyes. They decided to play one last trick on him. Danny launched himself from the room, using his instincts and night vision to make a silent exit. John followed, doing his best to be quiet. Trying to keep from laughing, they ran from the building.

"How was that for a great idea!" Danny exclaimed, giving John a high four.

"Ha! Did you hear him say, 'Memory of an elephant, my AAH!'?" asked John, deepening his voice in a mocking caricature of their client.

His first assignment had gone without a hitch. He was glad to have John there; his past as an electronics specialist was invaluable to infiltrate the bank.

Sirens.

Oh no. How long had they been in there?! The sirens couldn't have been more than 100 meters away.

"Come on, this way. Look for an alley."

Danny turned and sprinted in the opposite direction, trying to find an alley to lay low in. The buildings were all one unit; none were present.

Funny. Now they were in the same position as that stupid elephant. They stopped to frantically search anywhere to hide, or even an open door. Danny's chest flooded with panic when the cars pulled around the corner. A pair of cops ran on all fours on either side, the foot soldiers.

Danny ran to the side of the street and pressed against the wall to try to blend in with the shadows. John followed him. He hoped none of them had night vision. The cops stopped in front of the building he had come from, with the wimpy elephant inside. He was probably still shaking in his fancy-schmancy work pants. The coward.

A few of the officers stayed outside. Danny kept completely still, not wanting to draw any attention.

Of course, life likes to get in the way, does it not? At that moment, a street light not too far down the street flickered, grabbing the attention of the fuzz.

"Hey! Freeze!"

They were screwed screwed. Turning to run, they huffed if as fast as they could.

"Stop! ZPD! Jed, Ally, get in the car! We'll chase him on foot!"

Danny resisted the temptation to run at full speed, but John was not like him. They reached the end of the block right before the sirens began again. This road had plenty of alleys, but they kept running. Looking right and left, they passed alley after alley. The red and blue lights exploded from around the corner, a skidding noise superimposed over the siren. John grabbed the sleeve of Danny's black tights and jerked him toward an alley. Landing on each other between the 2 buildings, they untangled themselves. Danny jumped for the wall on his left as hard as he could.

DONG!

"OW!" He landed gracelessly onto the hard, wet pavement, rubbing his sore head. He looked up through one eye at John, who was glaring at him, then looked above him, and realized the top of his head had made close acquaintance with the 10-foot-high fire escape of a manky townhouse. He groaned before leaping once more and grasping the railing of the fire escape. John jumped and grabbed his foot, and Danny flung himself and John over the railing, catching John and setting him down. They crouched low, hoping against hope they had not been seen. Wouldn't have been too difficult to find them, what with Danny's noisy little mishap. And it wasn't that dark yet. His body clenched at the approach of the sirens. He knew they saw them, he just did. Please go by, please go by.

He began to relax when the cars didn't slow down as they passed the alleyway. Apparently, they didn't see them.

As soon as the sirens began fading into the distance, he sharply released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. He lowered John over the railing and let him fall to the ground before jumping and landed with a roll to minimize the noise.

"That was way too close," said John.

"ZPD! Freeze!"

Danny turned toward the voice to discern 2 barrels pointed straight at them. Of course, they had seen them go into the alley. The warm relief he had enjoyed 2 seconds ago was banished by cold dread. Oh, but it wasn't the cops he was afraid of. He was afraid of tardiness. He was afraid of what he would do were he late on one of his first assignments.

"On your faces, paws behind your backs," commanded a female voice. Danny's night vision allowed him to see that the 2 officers were cheetahs. Danny was no slacker when it came to running. But it hadn't been enough this time. He was held back by John.

If he was late because of this - or worse - if his manager found out the police even so much as caused an inconvenience...

They had to lose them. Now.

"I said on your faces, paws behind your backs!" The female cheetah took a couple of steps forward.

"Yeah, we heard you," we heard you, John answered.

Slowly, they began to bend forward, as if about to kneel. In less than a second, one of the officer's pistols rested in Danny's paw.

The now-unarmed cop realized after a moment where her gun was and raised her arms. There was a look of shock on her face that, in different circumstances, would have been hilarious. But Danny had missed the other cop's pistol.

Great!

Hiding a grunt of effort, he crushed the pistol with his paw. At the same time, he leaped onto the wall, launching himself toward the other officer. He impacted the cheetah, knocking him into the other wall - not hard enough to hurt him too bad but enough to stun him.

"Hold on to me," said Danny, allowing the lion to wrap his arms and legs around his torso somewhat awkwardly, since the panther was about half of John's size. Gripping his feet, he jumped toward the wall again.

DONG!

He ignored the new, stinging pain on the crown of his head, launching himself onto the opposite wall, rapidly crawling for the roof.

"What-!" the male cheetah exclaimed. "How is he doing that?!"

"Uh, dispatch? This is A212."

"Copy, A212, what'cha need?"

"Perp's... climbing up the wall," she said in a neutral tone.

"Come again...?"

Danny knew they had seen them. Honestly, he didn't care; he just wanted to get out of that alley, away from the cops. The good thing was they couldn't see their faces. But now they'd probably be the news reporter's darling, and that was the last thing he wanted. Kenten, his boss, preferred to keep his underground business as far out of the spotlight as possible. And he probably ruined that just now.

After pulling himself over the ledge, he relaxed, trying to catch his breath. John rolled off of him and stood up. Hopefully Kenten's stupid client got the message tonight. If he was dumb enough to keep putting off his payments, especially considering the ever-increasing interest rates, the least Kenten would do would be to reward Danny with a whole lot more nonsense work like this. As if his life wasn't already messed up enough. He covered his face with his paws, taking a deep breath.

Beep beep! Beep beep! Beep beep! His earpiece assaulted his cochlea with the unpleasant realization of his impending tardiness.

Terror gripping him from the fact that he was about to run late because of his detour, he began the journey home, using the rooftops to travel quickly. It was still a 7 miles distance to travel in half an hour. He ran to the opposite side of the building and got down on his belly to look over the edge. Again, he had John awkwardly hold onto him. Gripping the wall with his whole paw, he carefully dragged himself over the edge and climbed down. How ironic, a panther with the ability to crawl up a building, and he's afraid of heights. Once he reached the ground, he and John huffed it. Danny forced himself to keep pace with John and let him lead the way. He was still learning the area.


He jogged into the office complex with less than a minute to spare.

His paw grasped the envelope filled with the filthy lucre that Kenten was so concerned about. He stopped outside his boss's door. John patted his shoulder.

"Don't worry," he said in his Spanish accent. "I got your back."

Danny tried to calm himself. He just had to silently put it on the jaguar's desk and walk out.

The big, huge, massive, scary, terrifying, horrifying...

Not helping!

He breathed deeply before stepping trepidatiously into Doug Kenten's nighttime office, John close behind him. It was a relatively small office; it was clear he preferred function over form. The large cat was seated in an equally large, brown, fine leather chair. His desk was treated oak, painted dark brown. The claws of his feet were visible under it, lying still, but danger radiating from them. His face exuded youth, his slanted, yellow eyes exuding vast intelligence.

As the two predators stepped into the office, Kenten paid them no attention. He appeared to be working on his desktop, his eyes diligently poring over something on it. The panther was not much bigger than Danny would probably grow in the future, but to him, Kenten was a giant in more ways than one. In only 8 years, he had managed to establish himself and his name probably the most powerful crime lords in Zootopia, with greater influence than Mr. Big in Tundratown or the Bone Dagger Syndicate in Sahara Square.

Danny paced up to the desk and meekly placed the envelope close to the desktop, squeezing his eyes shut tightly as he did so. Turning quickly, he nearly ran from the room.

Kenten cleared his throat.

Danny stopped dead in his tracks, his chest exploding with anxiety. Oh, how he prayed that this had been done right. Oh well, even if he hadn't, he could share the blame with John his superior. Still, Kenten expected the best from each individual under him and held them accountable for failure. He turned to face the crime boss, wringing his paws.

Kenten reached for the unsealed envelope and opened it quietly. Pulling out the crisp bills, he let the money roll out onto the wood. Without saying a word, he counted the bills. One. By. One.

Danny bit his lip, wishing the guy would just hurry up! If he did it right, he could go. If not, at least he could have his punishment now and get it over with, rather than having to endure waiting for him to drop it on him.

Finally, finally, Kenten finished counting. He set aside the bills and rested his elbows on the table before bringing his chin to rest on his folded paws. He appeared to be formulating his words. But Danny knew what was happening.

He'd failed.

"I thought I told you," he said with perfect articulation, his voice surprisingly tenor, "to collect 8,000 dollars from Mr. Sliver. His quota is 1,500 dollars short."

All Hell broke loose in Danny's brain at the mob boss' charge. He had not counted the money before leaving, but instead assumed the full amount was given! How does that happen?! He didn't know what to say, with the exception of some fragments of words and sentences.

"I-I... I'm sorry, I thou- I thought we had..." Kenten lifted a paw, cutting Danny off. He waved John from the room. The older lion laid a paw on the cub's shoulder, squeezing it before making his exit. He shut the door behind him, leaving the little boy with the crime boss.

Leaning forward, the leopard spoke, as always, with his silky voice. "Danny..." He pursed his lips for a moment before clicking his tongue. "How long were you on the street during Dawn Bellwether's stint in office, and following?"

He may have been little at the time, but he could not forget.

"Almost 2 years, sir."

"And what was the most that you and your father got from a life on the street?"

...he couldn't answer. Bitterness seeped into his chest at the memory. Kenten kept going.

"And what about when you were taken in by the shelter?"

... where his dad had been taken from him.

"And now? Do you feel like you have received as much or less than when you were an urchin? What is life like now?"

Anger began to build up within Danny. I'm reduced to a slave, kicked around like a mutt, threatened with a beating or worse if I fail to squeeze every last cent out of your victims, belittled and scorned. But hey, at least I'm...

"Well fed, sir."

Kenten nodded slightly. "It's just business, Danny, just business," he said softly. If he had never known him, he might have actually believed he was compassionate. He had that effect on mammals. But Danny knew better. "I loan money, and I expect that money to return to me." With enough interest to pay off the national debt 10 times over. You and the rest of your buddies. "Your job is to alert our clientele when their payment is past due. And if you," he pointed at the cub, his voice growing stern, "my primary enforcer, fail to convince our constituents to faithfully follow quid pro quo, then this isn't a business anymore, now is it? It may be a bit cliche, but we're not a charity." By this time, Kenten was leaning forward in his chair as he gazed down at Danny. "Get the remaining 1,500 dollars."

"But sir," that's already way over what he borrowed!

He was cut off before he could finish. Kenten had slammed his paw on the desk hard enough to rattle the floor. The panther's eyes turned fierce, a grave warning. Unsettlingly, his voice remained just as calm and articulate. "Sliver is a cheater. You will retrieve the rest of the money he owes me within the next 2 hours. John will not be going with you; I need him here."

"What if I can't find him?"

Kenten leaned forward a bit further, narrowing his eyes. He knew exactly what that meant.

Are you a liability?

Danny's only option was to obey. Without another word, he hurried out of the office, failing to stop himself from slamming the door loudly.

He didn't know whether it was because he was in a rush, or because he was angry. But he did know that he hoped that wouldn't come back to bite him on the rear soon.

Kenten called John back into his office. "They're ready for distribution?" he asked.

The lion nodded.

"Start with Precinct 2; I have someone on the inside there by the name of Daken. He's an auditor for the ZPD. He'll need you to walk him through it."

"Yes, sir," he said, before leaving to complete a very long, dangerous assignment.