Chapter Text
Zootopia, 1993
The place: just outside a Junior Ranger Scout meeting, beside the staircase.
The time: late into the evening, just as the lights in the city come on and the sun is almost fully over the horizon. A light rain has started to fall as well.
Our focus: a nine-year-old fox crying his eyes out, a muzzle tossed harshly to the side.
Nicholas P. Wilde, known to most as “Nick,” had just had his biggest dream in life crushed by a group bullies for one singular reason: he was born a fox. Foxes were thought of as sly, shifty, and untrustworthy creatures, and even if Nick was none of those things (the exact opposite, actually), that didn’t stop the Junior Ranger Scouts of Pack 914 from muzzling him and telling Nick that under no circumstances would they ever let a fox join their pack.
FOX. Nick hated the way they said that word. FOX. Using his species name almost like a slur. It made the young kit sick to his stomach as the scene kept replaying over and over in his mind. He wasn’t untrustworthy, was he? …But if those scouts saw him as nothing more than a sly fox, then what chance did Nick have at being anything else? What even was the point of trying to be anything else?
“You okay there, kid?” a smooth, older voice asked.
Nick looked up to see a grey wolf looking down at him, most likely in his late 20s to early 30s by the looks of him. The wolf wore a red leather jacket and green combat pants, an eyepatch covering one of his red eyes.
“I… I’m fine,” Nick lied, wiping away his tears.
“Doesn’t look “fine” to me, kid,” the wolf, shook his head. “It’s dangerous to be out all by yourself at this time of night. What’s got you all worked up?”
Nick’s mother had told him not to talk to strangers, but now, the kit didn’t feel like listening to common sense. “I wanted to join a pack, but they didn’t want a- a fox to be a part of them.”
“Kids can be cruel,” the wolf laughed lightly. “Tell you want, how about I take you home, kid? I’m sure your mother is very worried about you.”
That made Nick snap out of his funk a bit. “Uh, no thanks. I know how to get home from here.”
“Come on, kid! I promise I won’t bite,” the wolf said with a fanged grin. “It’s the eyepatch, isn’t it? I got this from the last guy I decided to put my trust in. Take it from me, kid-”
“My name is Nick,” Nick cut in, annoyed at constantly being called “kid.”
“…Nick, you have to be careful of who you put your faith into in this world,” the wolf finished, holding out a hand.
Nick looked up at the wolf, standing from his sitting position and reaching out his own paw… only to slap the hand away and bolt down the street.
The wolf sighed, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a sci-fi looking blaster. With a single shot of blue energy Nick toppled over to the ground, unconscious, the wolf walking over and picking up the fox by the back of his shirt and hoisting the kid over his shoulder.
“Sorry about this, Nick, but I have a mission to finish,” the wolf muttered to himself before taking out a radio device and speaking into it. “I have the bounty. Returning to the recon point so we can jump out of his backwater system… No, we won’t be sticking around much longer. If we’re lucky, we won’t have to come to this sector of space ever again.”
The wolf put his communicator away and pressed a button on his belt, a red and silver ship materializing overhead. With another button the wolf and Nick teleported inside the cockpit, the wolf securing Nick in the back before igniting the engines and leaving the planet’s atmosphere. Zootopia quickly became a distant speck as the spaceship alongside three similar ships blasted through a hexagonal portal that opened in space, never to be seen again.
Zootopia, Present Day
“All right, let’s do this one last time. My name is Judy Hopps. I was bitten by a radioactive spider, and for the past fourteen years I’ve been training to be the one and only Spider-Woman.”
When Judy Hopps was only ten years old, her life changed forever during a school field trip to a science center. It was a small establishment in Bunnyburrow, an offshoot of a larger company based in Zootopia that was currently studying different food growing techniques and pest control methods. One of the exhibits proposed using radiation to genetically alter bugs as a way of population control, with a spider being the chosen test subject. The spider escaped from his container after the demonstration however, and…
“Uh, Gideon, when did you get a new hat?” Travis asked.
“I ain’t wearing no hat, Travis,” Gideon scoffed.
“You aren’t, but you do have a spider on your head,” Sharla pointed out.
Gideon looked up, saw the spider sitting on his head, and promptly freaked out, flailing about in an attempt to dislodge the arachnid from his head.
“Gideon Grey, calm own this instant!” their teacher chided, trying to get the child to settle down.
“Shaking it off isn’t going to work! That’ll just make the spider angrier!” Judy exclaimed, hoping on top of the tod and grabbing the spider from his head. “Trust me, my brothers have been bitten by smaller spiders than- youch!” She winced as the spider bit down on her hand hard.
“Oh my goodness!” the teacher gasped.
One of the scientists came over and quickly scooped up the spider. “There’s no need to worry, miss, nothing a bit of first aid can’t take care of. We made sure to use spiders that weren’t deadly to mammals in our experiments.”
“Judy, are you okay?” the teacher asked.
“I feel a bit dizzy from the bite, but I’m fine,” Judy said, holding her head as the spider venom coursed through her system.
“Yep, I got my powers because my school bully was scared of spiders. Glad I’m the one that got powers and not him. Anyways, it didn’t take long for me to discover I had powers when I got a weird tingle in the back of head and managed to leap out of the way of an out-of-control tractor and straight to the top of the family barn in one leap. With a house as big as my family’s I couldn’t keep my powers a secret from everyone, so inevitably a few of my brothers and sisters found out and started testing me to see how my powers worked.
“Enhanced strength, speed, and agility. The ability to stick to surfaces. A “danger sense” that warned me of incoming harm even if I couldn’t see it. The proportional powers of a spider, all in one bunny-sized package. The few that knew about my powers vowed to keep it a secret between us, but soon I started having ideas…”
Judy slapped a few pieces of paper down on the table, each one with a list of details, drawings, or diagrams. “I know what I’m going to do when I grow up!”
Her older brother didn’t look up from his engineering book and sighed. “I know, Judy. You want to be a police officer. I’m pretty sure everyone in the burrow knows that, even the babies.”
“This is different, Andrew. It’s about the you-know-what,” Judy whispered the last part.
Andrew set his book down. “I’m listening…”
“I was thinking… If I have these amazing powers, I should use them to help others, right? Make the world a better place?” Judy asked rhetorically. She grinned and pointed at one of the papers. “So, what’s a better way to help people with powers than to become a superhero!?!”
Andrew raised an eyebrow. “So you’re just going to give up on being a police officer and become a superhero? That’s historically not a well-paying job, you know.”
“I’m not giving up on my dream, I’m just… adding onto it.” Judy clarified, “Look, I made of list of everything I need to become a great superhero: a cool costume, a catchphrase, the works! But I can’t do this all on my own, and you’re the smartest guy in the burrow that can help me get a head start on this.”
Andrew looked at the page Judy handed him. “You want a device that can create webs?”
“So I can swing around like a spider! That’s like the one spider power I didn’t get,” Judy answered.
Andrew shrugged. “We’ll need to get some of the other sibs to help with this stuff, but your crazy Idea might just work. It’ll be a lot of work, though. You up for it?”
Judy gave a salute. “You know I am! Let’s make Spider-Bunny a reality!”
“We are not going with that name,” Andrew said flatly.
“We did pick a better name eventually, but with the help of my brothers and sisters I trained, got this awesome costume, and by the time I graduated high school and college I applied to the ZPD academy and aced my exams with flying colors. I may be the first bunny police officer in Zootopia now, but the city already knows me by a different name: Spider-Woman.”
Now twenty-four years old, Judy smiles under her mask as she takes a leap off the top of the Zootopia Express, ears flying in the wind as she extends her hand and releases a strand of web, giving a whoop of joy as she swings over the heads of the animals of Zootopia. Her costume is an eye-catching white and blue, a neon green spider symbol emblazoned on her chest that made it no question which superhero she was.
“Head’s up, Spider-Woman!” a giraffe called out, holding up his hand for the hero to high-five as she swung by.
“Right back at ’cha, big guy!” Judy replied.
As Spider-Woman came into Downtown Zootopia proper, she landed on a building and ran up it in leaps and bounds. Once she made it to the top, a quick web line and spin let her perch nimbly on top of a communications tower. Judy removed her mask and dropped her hood, taking a deep breath.
“Whew! Who needs jogging when a quick swing around Downtown the best work out a girl can get?” Judy laughed. She pulled out her phone and opened up a news app to see what was going on in the city. “Okay Judy, the chief is sure to finally let you off meter maid duty tomorrow, I can feel it! In the meantime, let’s see if there’s anything Spider-Woman can get done today…”
Judy pulled up the most recent headlines on The Daily Barker, a sensationalist news group but the most reliable source when it came to all things super-related.
“Hm… “Overseas Company Moves Headquarters to Zootopia.” That’s nothing new. How about… “Eccentric Theater Troupe: Real Magic or Just Illusions?” Phhft, as if magic is real,” Judy laughed to herself. “And this one is… “Comet Falls in Rainforest District: Aliens Among Us!?!” Come on, I’d much sooner believe in magic than aliens!”
She sighed before a notification popped up on her phone. “There’s a break-in Downtown? Now that’s what I’m talking about! …I mean, this looks like a job for Spider-Woman!”
With a flick of her wrist Judy was off to the scene of the crime where a weasel of all animals was holding up the bank. “Listen here! Just give me all the money you got, and no one gets hurt,” the weasel warned, holding up his arms which were covered in strange gauntlets.
“How about you surrender, Duke, and no one gets hurt?” Judy called, making the weasel look upwards to find the rabbit hanging from the ceiling.
“Spider-Woman!?!” the weasel exclaimed, turning his gauntlets towards the hero and firing off waves of energy.
Judy’s spider-sense tingled as she jumped out of the way, the spot where she had been standing vibrating before breaking off a piece of the ceiling. “Neat trick, Duke Weselton. Did you make those yourself? You never struck me as being technically inclined.”
“It’s Weaselton!” Duke corrected, firing another blast at the hero who dodged again. “And for your information, I go by the Shocker now. These babies were giving to me by a very special friend.”
“Changing your name wouldn’t change my opinion, Duke. Care to tell me all about your “special friend” after I put you jail, again?” Judy retorted. This wasn’t her first run-in with Duke Weaselton, a petty crook whom she had dealt with in both her civilian and superhero life. Duke was slippery when it came to lawbreakers, but Judy was simply faster than him and had taken the weasel down multiple times in the past year (much to the annoyance of her boss, Chief Bogo, who insisted that she focus on her meter maid duties unless called to action otherwise).
“Again with the jabs, Spider-Woman? How about I deliver a shock to your system with these!?!” Duke shouted as he continually blasted vibration waves at Judy.
“You’re really trying to make that villain name happen, aren’t you-” Judy raised an eyebrow before she was suddenly blasted by one of Duke’s attacks, pushing her through the wall of the bank and outside into the streets.
“Ha-ha! I finally got one over on ya, Spider-Woman! See you around!” Duke laughed as he grabbed a bag of money and fled, using his gauntlets to blast himself in long leaps across the city.
“Oh no you’re not!” Judy huffed, sending out two webs before turning herself into a living slingshot, rocketing down the street to catch up to Duke. The hero chased her target all the way to Little Rodentia, where Duke started slowing Judy down by weaving between buildings and pushing the small structures over. “Hey, there are people living in these! Can’t we take this fight to a different area!?!” Judy chided as she quickly used webbing right and tie down the rodent buildings.
“Not my problem, hero! The Shocker has bigger fish to fry!” Duke laughed before using his gauntlets to blast a large donut sign at Judy.
The hero caught the donut before it could harm anyone. “You all okay down there?” she asked.
“Th-Thank you, Spider-Woman,” a female shrew said.
“You’re welcome, citizen. Nice hair by the way,” Judy complimented before tossing the donut at Duke. With precision she managed to knock the villain flat on his face, dazing Duke long enough for her to web him up and retrieve the stolen cash. “Gotcha! Guess you could say I dou-not let you get away with this!”
“Ugh, the puns…” Duke moaned as Judy hoisted him over her shoulders and brought the weasel to the arriving ZPD officers. “It’s always the puns with you…”
“Good work catching this villain, Spider-Woman,” a wolf officer thanked, taking Duke off her hands. “We’ll make sure Mr. Weaselton is nice and comfortable in his usual cell.”
“I’ll be out in a week, I guarantee it! And it’s the Shocker!” Duke exclaimed as he was tossed in the back of the police cruiser.
“I’ll be there to stop you “Shocker,” just like I am every time,” Judy replied with a mock wave.
“Hey, she used my villain name! That means I’m making it to the big time, baby!” Duke laughed as the cruiser drove off.
Judy sighed. “Some animals never learn… Man I am beat! I think I’ll call it a day and head back home. Duty calls tomorrow, after all.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, an odd band of misfits were causing a scene as they walked down the street. The most noticeable of the group was large tree-like creature as tall as an elephant, a raccoon in a green outfit on his left shoulder and a golden-furred otter in blue robes sitting on his right. Walking in front of the tree was a duo of odd animals, the first being a vixen with blue fur wearing a strange flight suit with a staff strapped to her back and the second being what could only be described as a purple dragon with golden eyes and small wings that were somehow keeping him hovering a few inches off the ground.
Leading the group was the most normal looking of them all, being a red fox with green eyes wearing a black jacket with triangle patterns on the front and strange blaster weapons holstered to his belt. “So, Guardians, what do you think of Zootopia so far?” Nick Wilde asked.
“It’s as amazing as you described it, Star-Lord,” the blue vixen said, looking around in awe. “And I thought Corneria was impressive. To think the lower technology of this world could produce something like this.”
“Glad that you like it, Krystal,” Nick grinned. “Lockheed, what do you think?”
“Lockheed wants food. Zootopia better have good food,” the dragon, Lockheed, replied with a snort, expelling a small bit of flame from his nostrils.
“Where we’re going, you’ll have some of the best food this side of Downtown,” Nick promised.
“I am Groot?” the tree-like being asked.
“Of course they’re staring, Groot. This planet is so far out in the star sector that they’ve probably never seen an alien before,” the raccoon answered. “This place better be more friendly than the last planet we went to, Wilde. I don’t want you leading us into another paradise-turned-death-trap. Again.”
“I’m fairly certain Zootopia is a much better place to live than that place, Rocket,” the otter assured the raccoon. “I want to see as much of the city as possible. Maybe we can even find a good spot to finally settle down…”
Rocket blushed at the otter’s comment. “Lylla, not in front of the guys…”
Groot and Lockheed laughed at their friend’s expense. “Lay off Rocket, guys. You know Lylla is the only one that makes him think with something his other head,” Nick joked, making the boys laugh even harder.
“Men, I swear…” Krystal shook her head.
“Flark you too, Wilde. Just don’t forget how I saved our butts from crashing the Renard on this backwater world,” Rocket frowned.
“Yeah, yeah,” Nick waved off. He stopped as the group came to one of the houses on the block. “Well, here it goes…” Nick muttered, stepping up to the door and knocking on it.
After a few moments another fox opened the door, an older female who shared similar looks to Nick. Her eyes went wide when she saw him standing there, hands reaching out to touch his face as if he would disappear forever. “Nicky? My boy?”
“H-Hey Mom,” Nick replied, his voice cracking a bit as tears came to his eyes.
Ms. Wilde quickly pulled her son into her embrace. “When you disappeared all those years ago, I never stopped hoping you would return home, even after everyone else thought you were abducted or worse.”
“Well, I was abducted… by space pirates,” Nick answered with a nervous laugh. “Remember those stories you would tell me about Dad being from the stars? Turns out you weren’t lying about that. There’s a whole galaxy of animals out there… and I found my own family that I want you to meet.”
Nick turned his mother to face his friends, his teammates, his family. “Mom, meet… The Guardians of the Galaxy.”