The Fire Triangle, A Zootopia Fanfiction -- Part One

The Fire Triangle, A Zootopia Fanfiction -- Part One: Fuel - 53

Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.

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The Fire Triangle-A Zootopia Fanfiction

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Part One:

Fuel

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Chapter 6-Nick's Story
(Continued...Pt. 3)

Judy set the coffee cup on the table in front of Nick, and the other in front of her own seat, trying hard not to grumble. (Trust this fox to get a craving for a blueberry cappuccino just as the story was about to take an interesting turn.)

"All right, so what did Finnick say?" she asked, sliding into the chair opposite and ignoring her own latte for the moment.

Nick tapped at his chin with a finger and puckered his mouth, closing his eyes and angling his muzzle upwards, like some ancient philosopher-fox, seeking enlightenment from the gods.

Then he looked at Judy again.

"I-I-I think the first thing he said to me was, 'Where you get off kicking me outta bed at two in the morning?'" He cleared his throat and then added coyly, "Erm, uh...but not in those words."

Judy pantomimed heaving her cup at him. "Oh, YOU!" She might actually have done it if she hadn't been feeling a small flood of relief at the moment. This playful fox was the Nick Wilde she knew, certainly better than the melancholy animal who'd boarded the train with her. Somehow, by some strange twist of logic, Nick's story was helping him to jettison his emotional baggage-but not without laying some of it on her, however unintentionally. At least some of what he'd said had wrung the tears from her eyes.

For a long time now Judy had suspected that that being fitted with a muzzle when he'd tried to join the Ranger Scouts had been the first, but not the only time Nick Wilde had suffered a broken heart. There had been a vixen somewhere in his past, she was sure of it; nothing that he'd told her so far that had come as a surprise.

Except...she had never expected anything quite as wrenching as this; in Judy's imagination, it had always been the age old story; Nick Wilde, back in his high school days, falling for the cheerleader-vixen who refuses give him the time of day; get lost wimp, I'M dating Mr. Touchdown.

But as so often happens in life, the reality had been nothing like the expectation; Robyn McFerral had been no youthful crush, the kind you laugh about with your friends at the watering hole when you get older. She had been Nick Wilde's Pearl of Great Price, the one so rare and special the merchant had sold all his other possessions in order to have it.

The saddest part for Judy Hopps was that she already knew how the story was going to end. Nick had sworn to Robyn that he was done with hustling, and yet when Judy had first met him, he had A), been unattached and B), right in the middle of running a scam; heck, he'd even scammed HER.

How had it happened? How had Nick managed to backslide like that? He was capable of walking away from the hustling life; he'd proven that when he'd joined the ZPD. Not once in the two years Judy had been working with him had the fox made use of his street skills; at least not for fursonal gain. Yes, he'd used them in the furtherance of his duties as a police officer, but that was something altogether different. Officer Nicholas Wilde was a good cop, and anyone who doubted it need only ask the good citizens of Bunnyburrow for their opinion on the subject..

So, what had gone wrong with Robyn; how had he failed to go straight that first time? Judy had no idea, but suspected she was about to find out.

"When I told Finnick what had happened with Robyn, he cooled down almost immediately."

"'Awwww, that's rough Nick; I'm sorry, fox.' He knew how I felt about Robyn, and of course I'd want to talk about what had happened with her right away, no matter how late it was. Mind you, he wasn't quite as understanding when I told him about the promised I'd made."

"'Give up hustling an' go STRAIGHT? Whoa, you really outta your mind with that cross-fox vixen, Nick. You...gone legit? Gimme a break; you been workin' the streets since you was in middle school, you ain't never held a real job in your life. What you think you gonna do, post a resume on , 'Hustling FOX Seeks Honest Work?' Yeah, like that'll fly. Not happening, my mammal; not...happening.'"

"I just let him go on like that for a few minutes-when Finnick gets wound up like that, the only thing to do is let him wind down-and then I said, 'I'm not going to go looking for any job, little buddy. I'm planning to go into business for myself...and I could really use your help.' (Yeah, right...as if there was anyone else I could ask.)"

"Finnick just kind of looked at me for a while, the way he sometimes does; he was touched that I'd thought of him, but I still hadn't delivered the punch-line. 'What...KIND of business.' He finally asked me."

"'Remember that idea we talked about?' I said, and then laid the plan out for him. Instead of answering me, he picked up his cell phone and pretended to dial a number."

"'Hello Cliffside Insane Asylum? Better send over some guys in the white coats, ASAP! There's a crazy fox loose in my apartment...'"

"'Give me that!' I grabbed the phone out of his..."

"What, Carrots? Okay, okayyyy, I'll cut to the chase. What I had in mind was-and I'm perfectly serious-my idea was for an amusement park, but not just ANY amusement park, an amusement park especially for predator species. I even had a name picked out, 'Wild Times - Where A Pred Can Be A Pred.' I..."

"Wh-what are you doing with that phone? Hey, don't YOU start. Aggggh, grrr, at least hear me out before you start making judgement calls, huh?"

"All right; well, it all began about two months before I met Robyn. Finnick and I had just cashed in on our latest score and we were hanging out at the Sweetgum Café, in Savanna Central Park just opposite the entrance to the Natural History Museum. "

"Yeah, I know; it's gone now. Anyway, we were kicking back and watching a bunch of predator kids playing Bush Chase. Yes, I know you never heard of it, Carrots; Bush Chase is strictly a predator's game. It goes like this: One kid gets chosen to be 'it', usually by drawing straws, and then the others all turn their backs while he gets into position. When he's ready, he gives the signal and then turns and runs. The object of the game is for the 'it' kid to try to reach a designated safety zone without getting caught by any of the others. Oh, and, it's almost always played by predator kids of more or less the same size; larger species with larger species and smaller with smaller. In the case of the kids Finnick and I were watching, they were all grade schoolers and big cat species, two young lions, a boy and a girl, a leopard, two jaguars, a snow leopardess and a tigress; the 'it' animal was one of the jaguars. I watched him move around for a minute, looking for the best place from which to make a run for it. He finally found a spot, near one of the Acacia trees over by the pond. Then he gave the signal, "Tiagera Falls!'"

"Why Ti...oh you just pick any word at random Carrots, but when the Jaguar kid gave the signal, it was as if someone flipped a switch, the other kids were all instantly alert, I could see their whiskers nearly twitching with excitement. Then they all shouted out the signal word together."

"'Tiagera Falls!' Slowly they turned...and step by step...and inch by inch, they moved into position for the attack....and then, with a mighty roar they tore after the jaguar kid, who was already running for his life. It was no use; before he could make it even halfway to the safety zone, the tigress was all over him, leaping onto his back and bringing him down into the grass face first."

"What happened next? Oh they got up and it was her turn to be 'it', and uh...what are you looking at me like that for? Oh, of course not; it's no rougher than a game of street football; there's even a 'touch' version of Bush Chase. What now? Oh, if the kid being chased makes it to the safety zone, then he or she gets to choose who's next to be 'it'."

"Because Carrots, all the games that pred kids play are like that, they're all based on using our hunting skills. There's another one, 'silent stalk' where you try to sneak up on another kid and tag him without being seen; if he spots you before the tag you're out. We used to play that one mostly after dark."

"Ahh, I was just getting to that. Watching those kids, I couldn't help feeling a little nostalgic; ditto for Finnick, and looking at the faces of the other preds around me, I could see they were experiencing the same thing. Ahhh, to be a kit again; whatever happened to those carefree, golden days, days when you could just let your fur down and pretend to be one of your ancestors, out on the hunt for wild game? It's a feeling shared by every predator species Carrots, but as we get older we learn to channel our hunting instincts into other activities-sometimes even before we grow up."

"Ohhh-kay, let me try to explain it another way. Remember that leopard kid who appeared with you at the talent show when you were little? Remember what he said? "I don't have to be a lonely hunter anymore; today I can hunt for tax exemptions; when I grow up I'm going to be a statuary."

"All right, an actuary, but do you understand what I'm talking about, Carrots? We predators never lose the hunting instinct. I don't mean the 'blood, blood, blood, and death' part, that's all behind us. What I'm talking about is the rush we get from the challenge of the hunt. And that's what Finnick and I got to discussing. Wouldn't it be great if there was place where predator species could go to experience their inner hunter after they got older? That was where it started and the idea evolved from there. Why limit it to grownups, why not have a place where every predator, young and old, can run with their hunting instincts? We bounced several suggestions off each other, nothing serious, just two guys having fun with a crazy idea. I can't remember which one of us first suggested an amusement park; it might have been me, or it might have been Finnick, but when the idea came up, we ran with it; we even thought up some different kinds of rides and attractions for the park. Like I said, none of it was serious, and after we broke it up for the evening, neither one of ever mentioned it again...not until the night Robyn turned down my marriage proposal that is."

"But even before then, I had never stopped thinking about Wild Times. And the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that maybe, just maybe, it could work."

"Yes Carrots, I knew what kind of odds I'd be facing; I'd be catering to only about 10% of Zootopia's population, I knew nothing about how to run an amusement park-neither did Finnick-and even if we did somehow manage to get our idea off the ground, the city would probably shut us down the minute they got wind of it; the Prey Species Preservation Society was going to have a collective heart attack when they heard about Wild Times. I know they're something of a fringe group now but back then they were mainstream and had some serious clout. So yes, I understood the odds...and yet, deep down, in my heart of hearts, I knew it could work. I'd MAKE it work...for Robyn."

"'So I let Finnick rave on for a few minutes and then said to him, "Okay, so yes or no, are you in with me or not?'"

"He stared at me for a few second, and then grabbed a pillow off the sofa and shredded it with his teeth."

"Can I take that as a 'yes.'?' I asked him."

Finnick spit out foam rubber and then snarled at me, "Stupid, crazy-guts, red fox moron! Yes, that's a yes. Now get the heck out of here and let me get back to sleep!"

We went to work the very next day. The first thing I had to do was wrap-up a couple of deals I already had in the pipeline. Yes, I know what I said to Robyn, Carrots, but if I walked away from either one of them without seeing it through to the end it, I'd have some very unhappy animals looking for me. And these were mostly straight deals anyway, nothing like the hustle I pulled on Lanny Braunwald for Mr. Big."

"And besides, I wouldn't have earned zip off either one of them if I bailed out...and I was going to need every dime I could lay my paws on. The Wild Times project wasn't going to come cheap."

"That was the big question, Carrots; how much was it going to cost to get Wild Times up and running? Before we could answer that question, we needed to figure out where the heck we were going to put the place. It had to be in a neighborhood that was easily accessed from the other districts, fairly close to a ZTA train-stop and with a climate that wasn't too hot for the Tundratown species or too cold for the residents of Sahara Square. Oh, and it had to be in a commercial zone; can't build an amusement park in a residential area. The obvious answer was Savanna Central, but do you remember what I said to Gideon Grey about real-estate costs in that neighborhood? It was as true back then as it is today. Fortunately, I knew of a place that would be almost perfect...IF it was available. It was an old shipping company warehouse on a pier down in Happytown, just underneath the Tusker Bridge. Yes, I know that area's started getting built up in the past couple of years, but back then, a lot of it was empty space. So I went and checked it out and hallelujah again, the place was still available...and if that warehouse wasn't much to look at, the construction was still rock solid and it had all the room we'd need and then some. It even came with a boat dock."

"With the question of location settled, Finnick and I sat down together to try and add up the total costs for the project. When I showed him the final figure, he didn't say anything at first, he just fainted dead away."

"Okay, he pretended to faint...but he was right. I had a fair amount of cash put away, but even if I called in every favor owed to me, I wouldn't have anything even close to what we'd need-and there'd be no such thing as taking my idea to a bank. Not only was I proposing something a legitimate lender wouldn't touch with a 40 foot ledger but, as Finnick had pointed out, I'd never held an honest job in my life, and-I'll say it-I was fox. Remember what I told you about my father? If he couldn't swing a loan to cover a tailor shop, what chance did I have of getting a bank to lend me the money to open a predator's amusement park?"

"Yes, that's right, you guessed it Carrots. And that's what I did, I went to Mr. Big. My main worry wasn't that he might turn me down, it was that he might agree to stake me, but on the condition that I bring him in as a partner. If he did that, forget it, I might as well stick to hustling. No way would Robyn want to be with me if went into a partnership with a crime boss."

"Well, there was only one thing I COULD do, Judy. I'd have to come clean with the Big Shrew, tell him everything, including why I was planning to go straight-because of Robyn. Then he'd either accept or (probably) tell me 'thanks, but no thanks.' I sent word that I wanted to talk to him, and he agreed to see. We met in the place where it all started, The Thaw, only this time in back, in one of the 'private dining rooms.' After the usual greetings-you never talk to that shrew without observing proper etiquette first-I laid the proposition on him."

'Mr. Big, sir...I know this is probably the craziest idea I've ever come up with, that's why I'm being completely up front with you about it, but it can work, I know it can. What does every predator in this town want? An escape from everyday life, a place where the only rule is to have fun, a place where a pred can be a pred; I have a building lined up, I have the plans, I have a dream, and I have money of my own to kick in. The only thing I don't have to make it happen is a loan to bridge the gap. Will you help me make it happen?"

"For a long time, Mr. Big said nothing, just sat there studying his paws while he tapped his fingers together. That's what he did when he was thinking-and all I could do was wait him out. Well at least he hadn't told me to get out and stop wasting his time."

"Finally, he looked me. 'This vixen, this Robyn McFerral, she means that much to you, Nicky?"

"I told him, honestly, 'Mr. Big, before I met Robyn, I never thought there was anything that could make me go legit. Yes sir, she means that much to me; I love her...more than life itself.'"

"I tensed, waiting for his answer, but instead he heaved himself up out of his chair and went over to the edge of his desk, looking out the window with his paws behind his back. I remember there was snow falling outside. Finally after what seemed like a hundred hours, he glanced at me over his shoulder."

"'How many times has it been that I have wished that I could walk away from 'the life'?' He shook his head, "I lost count years ago; someday perhaps...but not today."

"He turned around, and looked straight up at me. 'It is good that you have been straight with me Nicky,' he said...and I felt my heart sink. Saying he appreciated your honesty, or whatever, was what Mr. Big always did before telling you, 'no'."

"But then he kind of smirked at me; it was an expression I had never seen on his face before. "

"'Why do you think it is that I have been so successful Nick? I will tell you. Shrews may be tiny, but we are also predators, the most voracious predators on the face of this planet, and that is how I got to be where I am today, by using my predatory instincts to help me claw my way to the top.' His expression became almost longing and he started to pace back and forth, something else I had never seen him do, "and yet even today there are times when I wish that could leave it all behind for a while-even if only for an hour-and just 'be a pred' as you put it,'"

"He stopped his pacing and looked up at me. 'Very well Nick, I accept your proposition, but with conditions; business is business, capice?"

"When Mr. Big told me what those conditions were, it was the closest I ever came to ditching the idea for Wild Times. He'd front me the money, but on points, and he expected to be paid back, no matter what."

"'If this Wild Times, this Volte Folle amusement park of yours does not succeed, if it should fold up and close down, then you will go to work for me on salary until you have made back my investment for me, all of it, plus the vig. And if you find yourself in need of more money you, go elsewhere for it; you will not come to me again.' He held out his paw. "Do we have a deal?'"

"It was the toughest decision I ever had to make, Carrots. If Wild Times failed, I'd be working for Mr. Big until...heck, I'd probably still be working for him today. And he may have agreed to fund Wild Times, but that didn't mean he was a true believer...as he'd just reminded me. 'Volte Folle'...translation: Wild Times, except 'Folle' means 'wild' as in 'wild and foolish'. And if I failed, that would also be the end of my chances with Robyn; if she didn't want to marry a hustler, you had better believe she wasn't going to marry a guy practically owned by a mobster."

"But what other choice did I have? I swallowed hard and agreed to his terms."

"I didn't tell Robyn everything, not about my agreement with Mr. Big. All I said was that in order to make a go of this project, I'd had to put myself in a position where if it went south, we couldn't be together. She was none too happy when I told her, but finally accepted it. At least I was trying to make an honest go of it."

"What did she think of Wilde Times? Heh, like everyone else I'd told about it, she though it was crazy...but in her case, 'just crazy enough to work.' She had faith in me, Carrots, and she was touched that I was willing to go so far out on a limb to try and win her. More than anything else, that was what kept me going when things got tough."

"And the going got VERY tough sometimes Carrots; seemed like the minute we'd solve one problem, two more would crop up. We had to get construction permits, design the attractions, hire contractors and consultants, install plumbing, get the electricity wired up; if I listed it all, we'd be here for the next two weeks.'"

"Just the same, as time went by, I could see Wild Times beginning to take shape. After a while we had mammals passing by the building site, asking questions about we were up to. 'An amusement park,' we'd say, but we'd never let on that it was geared towards predators. That'd be a big enough problem when we were ready to open, much less now, while the construction was still going on."

"How did we keep that a secret? Well, one of the perks of having Mr. Big on board was that anyone who blabbed about Wild Times being a Predator's Park could count on a visit from Kevin and Raymond. Or that's what everyone thought, anyway. No, I didn't start that rumor. If I had, Mr. Big would have brought ME in for a 'talk'; if there was anything he couldn't stand it was someone else using his name without permission. Mind you, I never did anything to discourage that rumor either. Anyway, it was also thanks to Mr. Big that we never had trouble with the unions. Same thing with the contractors; the guy installing the lighting system nearly walked away and left everything half-finished when he found out Wild Times was being built especially for predators. That was the one time I had to go to directly to Mr. Big for help. No, nothing like that Carrots; he just made a phone call...to his lawyer. The lawyer called the contractor, and that was that; the work went on. That was another thing about Mr. Big; he never used muscle to solve a problem when he could take care of it legitimately."

"While all this was going on, Robyn and I were still seeing each other as much as we could. It wasn't easy, both of us were really pinched for time, and I didn't have nearly as much money to spend on dates as I'd had before. (Fortunately, I knew where to get the cheap eats in town.) Maybe it didn't matter though; right then what we needed most from each other was emotional support. Whenever I had a rough day on the worksite, I knew I could count on Robyn for relief...and whenever she was having problems putting that new band together, she knew I would be there for her. (Tommy Baldorsson hadn't yet skipped town.)"

"One thing we kept up on was our lunch-time meetings. It was on one of these dates that Robyn introduced me to her new manager, a striped skunk named Jo 'Meffy' Newsome. I was impressed when I saw her credentials, what I had been to hustling, (before I decided to go straight), she was to managing music acts. Brash and full of energy, fairly new to the game, but a real up-and-comer; she knew about Tommy, but was willing to take a chance on Robyn anyway. 'Had to do it, she's that good,' she said. And that first time we met, she had a suggestion for me."

"Why not build yourself a stage and feature live music at Wild Times?"

"'I just might do that.' I said to her. I actually thought it was great idea. Lots of amusement parks have built in music venues...and we could use it for live stage shows, too. Of course, I knew what Meffy was really thinking; if I added a live-performance stage to Wild Times, it would be the one venue in town, where Tommy Baldorsson's word carried no weight. (Not that I had a problem with her reasoning, not at all.)"

"Hrm? So why did I act like was I only lukewarm to her idea? Because I had another problem right then, Carrots; the money was starting to run out; I wasn't sure if I could even finish the park, much less add anything on to it."

"If I'd had any real experience as a business-fox, I'd probably have budgeted for at least double the cost overruns we were facing. But I hadn't, and now our cash-reserves were starting to dry up."

"It wasn't anything we hadn't seen coming, and I was determined to deal with it head-on, before we got to the crisis point. So a couple of nights later, Finnick and I got together to try and figure out a solution. He was even grumpier than usual when he showed up."

"'Meetin' at an iHopped! Six months ago, it would have been Halibut's!' (He hadn't lost his taste for the fancy places.)"

"'We'll be back there soon enough,' I told him, 'Keep your head on Finnick.' (Actually, I hadn't been anywhere near Halibut's in months; once I started seeing Robyn...that was the end of that.)"

"'Well, why can't we talk in The Thaw at least?' He just wouldn't let it go. 'That place don't cost us nothin'!'"

"'You know why,' I told him patiently, 'we don't want Mr. Big to know we're having cash-flow problems.'"

"Finnick let out a yip and a snort."

'"You think he doesn't already know that, you even dumber than I thought, Nick.'"

"'Okay,' I conceded, 'maybe he does know; probably he knows. But you know how he thinks; if we go broadcasting it around The Thaw, he might just take it as a backdoor request for more money. Look, do you want deal with this problem, or do you want to waste time arguing over what's already done and done?'"

"Finnick slumped in his seat, 'Okay', and we got down to business."

"We had other cash resources besides Mr. Big; one of the first rules of a good street hustler is to never tie yourself too closely to any one, single source of front money; otherwise you might wake up one morning and find out somebody owns you. We went down the list, discarding names as fast we came up with them. 'Nope, he's in jail; no, if it's not a straight-up hustle, he won't be interested; forget it, if Mr. Big finds out we went to HIM for more money...etc., etc."

"'All right," Finnick finally said, 'what about Mr. Diamond?'"

"'Hmmm, I don't know,' I said, and sat back to think it over."

"I had never met Mr. Diamond, Carrots, not face-to-face; he always worked through intermediaries, usually a wolf named Woolsey...who was actually a sheep in disguise, yeah I know. Weird huh? And dumb...one sniff and I knew his real species right away. Still it was enough to protect his employer's identity; I had no idea who Mr. Diamond was, or even what species he was. On the other paw I had a pretty good idea as to what kind of animal he was. Mr. Diamond was almost certainly a legitimate business-mammal who didn't want his family and/or business associates to know he was in cahoots with any riff-raff street-hustler. And he wasn't the only one of his kind, Carrots. Even today, Zootopia is full of animals like that, and it was even more common back then than it is today.'"

"But getting back to Mr. Diamond; the bad news was that I hadn't done business with him in at least a year; that's forever in hustle time. I wasn't sure if our contacts were still good, or even if he was still active. I had also never cared much for Woolsey-and not just because he was a fake and none too bright about it. I had just never liked him, period."

"On the other paw, Diamond had plenty of money and didn't seem to care what you used it for as long as it wasn't for anything extreme...and as long as you paid him back. There was just one other problem."

"I don't know Finnick,' I said, "You know how he works; he'll not only want his money paid back-on points-he'll also want a favor from us. That's why we turned him down last time; remember what he wanted us to do? Robyn would dump me in a heartbeat for even considering something like that.'"

"Uh, sorry Carrots, that's one thing I'm not going to talk about; let's just say that I have no regrets about walking away from that deal.'"

"'Yeah, that's true Nick.' Finnick reminded me. 'But whatever he wants, he'll ask for it up front at least. We won't be trapped; you'll know right off the bat whether or not it's something we can agree to. And if we can't...well, there were no hard feelings last time, after we shined him on. Let's at least find out if he's good before we decide...and don't forget, the time before last, all he wanted was a pair of good seats for Ham-a-lot.'"

"Yeah, and what I to go through to get those seats, Carrots! Still, if Diamond asked for something similar, I knew Robyn would be okay with it. And so I said, 'All right, go ahead and see if you can get ahold of him again.' (Finnick was the one who'd dealt with Woolsey the first time we worked with for Mr. Diamond.)

For three days, there was no answer...and then one night Finnick came home and found a note under his door. 'Misty's-On-The-Vine, tomorrow, 9:00PM sharp, table at the back.'"

"Yes, I know Carrots, Misty's may be the biggest tourist trap in the Rainforest District these days, but back before the Zootopia Visitor's Bureau got hold of it, the place was strictly a local hangout. I knew Misty's though...I knew it very well; I'd even taken Robyn there for lunch a couple of times."

"When we got there, we found Woolsey waiting for us, but this time he wasn't alone; there was another animal sitting beside him, a kit fox. Woolsey introduced him as Mr. Carson."

"I know, right? Har, har, har. But that wasn't what really put me off, Carrots. If Diamond thought I was going to automatically trust this animal, just because he was another fox, then I had a bridge to sell him; not after Tommy Baldorsson. Not! Happening!"

"And you never met a smarmier individual in your life, Carrots. The minute he saw me, he started gushing like some groupie. 'Hey, Finnick, why didn't you say were bringing Nick Wilde? Wow, I never expected...listen, can I get you guys anything? What do you want it's on me?' When we shook paws, I wanted to grab some napkins and wipe mine off. This kit fox had to be the worst actor I'd ever seen in my life."

"Finnick was nearly as insulted as I was...but neither one of use was ticked off enough to turn around and walk out the door. We slid into the chairs opposite and got right down to business. I decided right away to tell him everything-except for bringing Mr. Big's name into it, of course. Everything else though, I laid right out in front of him, including the fact that Wild Times was an amusement park aimed at predator species. This wasn't because I trusted him, Judy; it was because at that point, I wouldn't have been especially bothered if Mr. Diamond turned me down, (which he would if he wasn't a predator species himself.)"

"When I finished, it was as if I'd blinked and someone had switched kit foxes on me. All of a sudden Carson wasn't my groupie any more, now he was speaking to me as if I'd just crawled out of the woodwork, and I realized that his bad acting from a minute ago had been deliberately bad. I had underestimated him, a mistake I almost never made. Looking back on it, I probably should have walked away right then and there...except I didn't have to; he beat me to it."

"We'll relay your proposal to Mr. Diamond." he told me, and then he slid out of the booth along with Woolsey and they left. Of course, the minute he walked out the door, Finnick and I wanted to kick each other for a field goal; there went our bridge-loan, what had we been thinking? The entire meeting hadn't lasted more than fifteen minutes, and Woolsey hadn't said a single word the whole time we were there."

"So imagine my surprise when two days later, Finnick called me, all excited, to say that he'd found another note under his door. "Same place, 9 tomorrow; he agrees."

"You could have knocked me over with a hummingbird feather, Carrots. When we got to Misty's, Carson was there all by himself. (Woolsey was around though, I could smell him.)"

"This time, instead of being all smiles, Carson was all business."

"'If it were up to me Wilde, I wouldn't touch your crazy scheme with a sixty-foot cargo-boom...but it's not up to me and so here're Mr. Diamond's conditions."

"The interest rate he quoted was steep, but nothing we couldn't absorb, and honestly not as much as I'd expected. I was almost elated, except I knew that wasn't the end of it."

"Mr. Diamond would also appreciate it if you would hire on the firm of Akey Refuse Control. to handle sanitation and trash collection at the park."

"Finnick almost jumped out of his seat when he heard that, 'Deal!'"

"I would have too; that was all he wanted? But little toot-toot had forgotten something. 'Sounds reasonable, but I'll have to clear it with my other lender first,' I said."

"Actually I was bluffing. Mr. Big had no interest in the trash concession, but I at least wanted to know how much Akey Refuse Control was going to charge for their services before I agreed to Mr. Diamond's terms...and how reliable were they? I wasn't about to hire some deadbeat company to collect our trash, not at any price...especially if I couldn't fire them later."

"So I asked around; turned out they were an almost brand new outfit and hungry for business; they weren't about to gouge me. The customers I talked to had nothing but good things to say about them, and so I got back in touch with Carson and gave him the green-light-just in time; our financial problems were just then becoming critical."

"Once we had the cash in paw, things kicked into high gear. As soon we had all the attractions installed we were ready to start hiring."

"What kind of attractions? Ahh, what took you so long Carrots? I would have thought that'd be your first question. Let me see, I think I still have some pictures here on my cell-phone. Ah, there they are. Let's see...all right, our big attraction was the Roar-a-Coaster. We named it that because it was designed specifically to make the big preds let out a roar as they went tearing through the twists and drops. It's something you'll see on almost any coaster if you happen to get on with a big cat. Remember that tiger who was sitting at the rear of the car when we went on the Bald Mountain coaster back on...?"

"Yes Carrots, that's why Bald Mountain didn't particularly impress me; that thing was a kiddy ride compared to the Roar-a-Coaster; ours had two corkscrews, three spirals, a four story loop, a section built to look like the tracks were on fire and a drop that took the riders on a nose dive straight into Zootopia Sound...and I mean straight down. At the end of the ride everyone got their picture taken, looking all wet and crazy, and then we took them through a fur dryer before letting them out; a little item we acquired from the bankruptcy sale of a car-wash."

"It didn't work out perfectly, not at first; we had to suspend the end-of-ride picture taking for a while until we could replace the camera with a digital set-up, one that could photo-hop the pics before showing them. Too many animals were...ummm, 'doing the naturalist shuffle' when the shutter clicked, if you know what I mean."

"Hmmm, did I ever tell you how cu...errr, how nice you look when you blush and laugh at the same time like that? Ohhh-kay...and this was the Cheetah Run, a multilevel track that went all around the perimeter of the park. The predators started off by hiding in a thicket of artificial grass...and then the grass dropped an off they went. And no, it wasn't only open only to cheetahs."

"Because a cheetah can beat anything in a short sprint Carrots, but a distance run is another story-and we had made the Cheetah Run just long enough to kind of level the playing field. See how that one cheetah there is just beginning to tire?"

"Here's another ride we had; it was called the Catch-Me-If-You-Can game, kind of a high speed version of the merry-go-round, except as you can see here the riders are all running rather than sitting; the object wasn't to grab a ring, but to jump through that big one on the end over there. This was the game that was based on Bush Chase."

"That? That's Pounce-and-Stick; you jumped off a trampoline and tried to hurl yourself onto a spinning Velcro wall. Uh-huh, laugh all you want Fluff, but that was one of our most popular attractions."

"No, not all of them were rides, The Bite Me game for example, now where...? Ah, here we are. Basically, it was a variation on the old test of-strength game...except you were testing the strength of your jaws, instead of your arms. What you did was bite down on a fake bug-burger and try to see how high you could make the arrow rise."

"One thing I learn from watching that game, Carrots, is that it's not always the biggest animals that have the most powerful bite. Forget the movies, I never saw a lion or a tiger beat a hyena even once in that game; in fact nobody ever beat a hyena at Bite Me...although I did see a wolverine come close once."

"Yep, some of the amusements at Wild Times were geared towards specific species; Howl-a-Long was aimed at wolves and canines; Laser Tag, as you can see, was big with feline species, and for the bears we had Upstream, in which the object was to run on a rolling log and try to snatch plastic salmon out of the air. The day's high scorer got a T-Shirt as a prize."

"Oh yes, we had a game especially for foxes, it was...it was...uh, well, it really wasn't all that popular any..."

"Ahhh, it was nothing Carrots, really, it didn't even last that long; we took it out after...uh, what's with the foot thumping? Really, it was no big deal, I don't even know why I men..."

"Judy, what the heck is so important that you need to know about one little attraction? Really don't you think you're kind of obsessing...? Wha...? What are you doing, give me back my phone. Hey, don't you go scrolling through my pictures like tha...urrrk!""

"N-Now Carrots, just calm down; I can explain everything. The Bop-a-Bunny game was only supposed to...EEEEP!'"

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Author's notes:

All of the rides and attractions described in this episode were actual ideas proposed for the original Wild Times (in the Zistopia version of the film.)

And yes that includes the attraction depicted below. (Concept Art by Jim Martin)

(Now you know why Judy is ready to send Nick to sleep with the fishes.)

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Easter Eggs: This episode's full of 'em.

1. Reference to a certain animal-themed pizzeria

2. A tribute to the Three Stooges

3. At one point, Nick cribs a line from Disney's Robin Hood

4. Reference to a 'difficulty' with one of the Disneyland rides