"What I am saying is, a place. A place where predators can be themselves, without the burden of the collar." explained Nick, who was at a meeting table in Honey's bunker. Honey preferred to live underground. Here, she was safe. Clawhauser and Finnick sat on the opposite ends of the table. Plates of fish and insects sat scattered around the shelves around them. The room had a misty smell. But Honey felt better when she was down here alone, instead of up on the surface, where dangerous prey lurked.
"What are you going on about now Nick?" she asked, scratching her neck where the collar was.
"What I am saying is that predators need a break. They need some kind of.. of place. Yeah, a place."
"And...?" she asked.
Nick moved his hands in a motion.
"Look look what I am saying is that, what if we open a place?" He pulled out a large rolled up piece of paper and spread it out across the rickety table. He had drawn a picture of a large building that sort of looked like a warehouse. But it was nicely kept. It was big, and had glowing lights all around it. On the front of the building in large bold letters it stated "Wild Times".
Honey stared at the piece of paper, then raised her eyebrow.
"The fu-" Nick raised his right paw up, stopping her.
"Listen Honey, just role with me Kay? An amusement park. A place built by predators, for predators" Nick finished.
Honey looked at him closely. She didn't seem impressed or convinced.
"How do you expect to make this a thing?" she asked.
"Well with the help of my three closest pals!" he said.
They all gave him a funny look. He sighed.
"And.. with a loan..from a bank.. I don't have the money to make this happen by myself."
"Yeah.. a loan.. Where are you going to get a loan from Nick?" asked Honey.
"From the bank..."
"Yeah right you will. You know you don't even have a one percent chance of getting money from a bank. Especially to open a place for predators. You honestly think a prey animal is going to give you money?" she asked.
"I'll... I'll try. I don't have to tell them that the park will allow predators to take off their collars". he said
Honey's mouth dropped open, revealing sharp teeth.
"Take off their collars!? Take off their collars!? Nick! That's extremely illegal!" She said.
"And half the stuff we do right now isn't illegal?" he asked.
"Nick..that's different. Everyday we go out into the city and gather supplies and create our own product with that material, then sell it to make a living. It's what we do. Most police are not going to come after a fox, sand vixen, a badger, and a cheetah for selling Popsicles on the streets. Now, removing tame collars..oh Nick, that'll get you arrested, if you don't get killed first."
Nick's ears lowered, and he made a whimpering noise. Honey sighed, throwing her paws in the air.
"Even if we were to make a place like this.. How would we get the collars off? We can't. It's locked." She asked.
"Ah... That' where this part comes in.." He pulled out four hundred dollars from his pocket, showing the money.
"What? What does that even mean?" asked Honey.
"Look. This isn't just going to happen overnight. This needs careful planning. First, we need to find a warehouse somewhere were prey usually don't come. It needs to be in a predator majority area. Secondly, in order for disguise, we'll need to find a way to make the actual park look uninhabited."
"What?"
"Listen. I'm known to cut corners, but you can find any fake degree from all sorts of places. I don't ACTUALLY need to go to classes. But see, this armadillo had a collar key in his office. The clinic is where animals will enter. They will go through collar check, then pay the fee, then go to the park through a tunnel that connects the clinic to the park building."
"You're crazy.." claimed Finnick. The sand vixen's tail moved slowly across the dusty floor, his small arm reaching up to scratch his fluffy ear.
"You guys.. Really think about this.. This is something I know deep down that you want. That all predators want. We can make it happen." said Nick.
Honey sighed. She got up and walked over next to Nick and put a paw on his shoulder.
"Do what you need to do, Nick. But when this all comes crashing down, we'll have to be there to pick up the pieces with you." she whispered.
Nick cheered, almost enough to wear his collar turned yellow from the excitement.
"Thank you, you guys.. Of course, this is an idea that will take awhile. I have to actually learn a bit of simple medicine in order to open a clinic. But, it can be done...I can do this. For predators."
"For predators..." Said the three others.
Nick took his little replica of the theme park that he had created with him, and traveled to the near by bank.
He sat his replica down in front of the lemming banker and began to speak.
"A place where the only rule is to have fun. A place where you can be yourself. A place exclusively for Zootopia's untapped market. Preds"
Nick pulled apart the window curtain to show some predators on the sidewalk. A bus drove by, ignoring the animals, splashing water onto them. Their collars went off and gave them all a shock.
He shut the curtain.
"You know they say you can't put a price on happiness and I say you can. Bam! There it is!" he slapped a sticker onto the replice that said a price.
"$19.95 a ticket. I have a building lined up, I have the plans, I have the staff" he gestured towards Honey, Finnick, and Clawhouser all dressed in uniforms in the corner.
"I have the dream. The only thing I don't have is a loan to make it happen friend. Will you help me make it happen?" he held out his paw to the lemming, awaiting the prey to label his paper as "Accepted" or "Rejected". The lemming took his stamp and slammed it onto the paper, marking "rejected".
Nick's eyes open in sadness. He tried not to get frustrated. He didn't want or need to be shocked right now. He gathered his replica and walked towards the door, his three friends following closely behind him.
"Now what will you do?" asked Honey.
Nick thought for a moment.
"I'll... I'll just go to another bank." he said. Honey rolled her eyes.
Nick went to the next bank down the road. A large elephant sat at the desk.
After explaining his story again, he asked
"Will you help me make it happen!?" He held out his paw. The elephant labeled "rejected" on the loan application paper.
Nick sighed. He had to keep trying. The next bank had a giraffe at the desk. He had to speak extra loud so the giraffe could hear him from all the way up there.
"WILL YOU HELP ME MAKE IT HAPPEN!?" Nick screamed so he could hear him.
The giraffe pulled out an extra long stick with a stamp on the end of it and marked the paper "rejected".
Nick traveled to the next bank, where a group of five bunnies sat at the table.
"Look I'm just going to lay it out", he said, "You don't like mammals like me and I don't like mammals like you but what do we both like? We both like money. You have it, I wanna borrow it, and then we'll both take a lot of it.Hm?" He put his paw out to shake their paws. The five bunnies all pulled out their stamps and covered the loan application in "rejected".
Nick found himself at the next bank, where a buck was running the desk.
"Desperate? Heh. I'm not desperate.." said Nick. The buck labeled it "rejected".
Nick found himself at the next bank.
"I am desperate" he told the banker. The animal labeled it "rejected".
He found himself at a mouse bank.
"Look, no one wants to throw money down a rat hole". The mouse looked at him weird.
Nick gasped.
"And by that I meant no disrespec-" the mouse labeled the paper "rejected"
Nick went to a Pig's Bank.
"They say you can't put a price on happiness. I say, "hog wash".
The pig looked at him with a glare.
"Wha.. Well.. I Uh.." Nick stuttered. The pig put a big "rejected" on his application.
Next bank...
"Now I don't want to be a dead horse.." started Nick. He looked at the banker who was a horse.
"I'm just gonna leave..." said Nick as he walked out the door.
"Rejected" "rejected" "rejected"
Nick walked out of the last bank he knew of with his replica of Wild Times in his paws. Honey and his friends were waiting outside. They gave him hopeful looks. He looked at them sadly. They frowned, knowing they had failed once again.
"Well Nick, we tried our hardest", said Honey "We're just predators. There is no hope for us."
Nick didn't say anything. He went home and washed up, splashing cold water onto his face. The stress was getting to him. He looked in the mirror. He was growing frustrated. Then, he heard the familiar *beep* and looked down to see the light on his collar had turned yellow. He took a deep breath, and it went back to green.
Nick only knew of one more place. Of course, it was also more dangerous. Nick knew if he didn't pay back the loan in time, the guy would come for him. But it was Nick's last resort. He was going to try.
It was all he had left to do to make his dream come true.