Welcome to one of the tortures my muse subjects me to when I don't write often enough. I do hope you enjoy it.

To be clear, this is absolutely NOT canon to either of my main stories. If anything, it might be a bit closer to the original Zootopia storyline, with some GhostRider added in for extra flavor.

I do not own Zootopia, GhostRider, or anything that is not my own OC. I could do so much more with them then they are, but I'm just some puke on the internet. Easy to claim that.

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Nicholas Wilde.

Fox.

Hustler.

Stunt Mammal.

Superhero?

Can you call yourself a hero when you mortgage your soul to a demon, maybe the devil themselves? At the very least a demon with designs on becoming the top baddy, and the power to back it up.

1

Wilde Times Amusement Park

At its start, Wilde Times was a park, started in secret, and specifically for predators. A place to be free of their Tame collars, if only for a few hours. To let their fur down and relax.

It was a place to let their heart rate spike. A place to roar, howl, gekker, or scream. It was the only escape for most predators, and so its existence was protected jealously, almost religiously, by the predators of Zootopia.

Still, as with such things, its origins were not nearly as laudable. The plan for Wilde Times, when initially established, was to make as much money as possible, as quickly as possible. Thus allowing the owner, one Nicholas Piberius Wilde, to buy the way for himself and a few select friends, beyond the influence of Zootopia and freedom from their collars.

Yet, as is also often the case with such things, Wilde Times took on a life of its own. Even once they had enough money to escape, Nick, Finnick, Honey, Emmett, Skye, and Ben, could not bring themselves to abandon it and the predators of Zootopia. They kept their plans should they be found out, but also prepared to fight for what they had created. It is because of this that the powers that be discovered Wilde Times, and made to destroy it.

As it grew, they added rooms, much like a hotel, where many a new predator was conceived, their parents free to be with each other without fear of electrocution. Over the initial ten years of its existence, Wilde Times became one of the biggest reasons that the plans for the eradication of all predators within the influence of Zootopia was stymied. This fact drove the city's rulers to seek its destruction all the more.

The plan was simple. Send in a recently minted ZPD officer, and the first rabbit, Judith Hopps. A country rabbit from Bunnyburrow on the borders of Zootopian influence. It was assumed that a rabbit would be terrified of uncollared predators and just as specists as those who sent her into Wilde Times. That she had been attacked as a kit by a fox, not unlike the proprietor of Wilde Times, Nick Wilde, was assumed to ensure her reaction.

The plan included the insurance to ensure success by swapping the tranquilizer in the darts of those set to respond to her call for help with the extract of the Nighthowler flower. The concentration sufficient to drive the darted predators savage, then kill them within a few hours. Thus proving the Zootopian administration's contention that predators needed to be eliminated. That putting the predators down would be a mercy.

The plan however, backfired. Quite spectacularly.

Judy instead saw their joy, the animation of the predators within Wilde Times. A stark contrast to the predators within the city itself. She listened and realized that the collars were the devices of torture and slow genocide that the predators knew them to be.

At the end of the confrontation. The truth was revealed. The lies of the Zootopian administration were laid bare, and the citizens of the city turned on its government. The Bellwether dynasty fell, and as punishment, the leadership, from Mayor Dawn Bellwether, her mate and head of security, Doug Ramzies, and anyone else who knew the truth, became the only mammals wearing the collars. Although what they wore was missing the most evil and diabolical part.

The collars were designed to not just shock their wearer, but had a small vial of Nighthowler that could be triggered remotely, and was, whenever the administration needed to stoke a bit of fear in the population. ZPD policy had been changed so that they would put down any predators who went savage, once tranquilized. Most officers not knowing that the tranquilizer counteracted the Nighthowler, and if they had but waited for it to wear off…

Despite the collars being gone, Wilde Times remained an outlet for the city's predators. Nick and crew, with Judy, were lauded as hero's.

Over time, Judy rose through the ranks of the ZPD, and Wilde Times expanded. No longer needing to maintain secrecy, that expansion included attractions for prey mammals and themed areas.

Judy and Nick grew closer, and were the first open pred\prey couple married in the city. They were the first to prove that predators and prey were not so different either, as they welcomed five hybrid kits as well as adopting three who had lost their parents to the collars and the Nighthowler within. Born to the WildeHopps were Nicholas, Bonnie, twins, then Stewart, Lizz, and John as triplets, and in that order. Adopted into their family were Eric, a Wolf-Tiger hybrid, Janice, a rat with gigantism making her as large as a capybara, and Melanie, an arctic/red-vixen.

As they grew up, Judy and Nick instilled their strong sense of right and wrong, and of doing the right thing, into their kits. Bonnie, Stewart, John, and Lizz all took over the running of the ever expanding Wilde Times, as it grew into a larger and larger theme park, eventually turning it into a resort. Eric, Janice, and Nick Jr. became cops, while Melanie found her calling under the tutelage of her Auntie Maria, becoming a superstar, yet always performing a concert at Wilde Times whenever she was in town.

That is how this story plays out, but not exactly the reason why it happened as it did. Just two weeks after Nicholas and Bonnie's 12th birthday, members and sympathizers of the Bellwether dynasty sought revenge against the mammals they saw as must responsible for their fall from power and into global disgrace. Judy had retired from the ZPD as a senior detective after being shot for the tenth time, and this time finding herself unable to heal to the point she was able to return to work. Although she still consulted for the ZPD on major cases. This had the benefit of giving her more time with her mate and kits.

The Sympathizers got their hooves on a sample of a third generation Nighthowler variant, shooting both Judy and Nick with it as they exited Wilde Times. Their kits there to watch as their parents became nothing but animals. While tranquilized quickly by security, current and former ZPD officers, the damage was done. The city nor the ZPD took kindly to the attack, and the perpetrators were apprehended within a day. That however left two mammals in a savage state that did not cure itself after being tranquilized.

After three months, both mammals were still savage, while they were able to be together, and even needed to be. Their mate bond seemed to have been far deeper and transcending their instincts. They were still savage, and the scientists were unable to find a cure, or even a treatment. It was revealed to the WildeHopps family that, due to the shock and stress on their bodies, Judy and Nick would die within the month. This is where we join this story.

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Secure wing - Savannah General Hospital

The WildeHopps family, along with their closest family friends stood outside the small enclosure where Nick and Judy were being kept. Separated by thick plexiglass. They could be seen, curled around each other, sleeping, but that is not what had the attention of the collected mammals. They all turned to the vets and scientists that had called them all there.

The head vet, a capybara, looked over the assembled. "I know that you suspect why you have been called here, and I know without question what you hope my answers will be." Wiping a tear. "It is my most sincere regret to inform you that we simply cannot find a cure for their conditions. While they are no danger to each other, and putting them together reduces stress on them both, the stress that this new variant of the Nighthowler is putting on their bodies will eventually kill them."

Several shouts of rage, disbelief, denial, and sobs are heard. The doctor holding up a paw. "Please. I want to assure you. I promise you all that we will not stop trying to fix this. Even if we put them in an induced coma, the toxins will continue to attack their organs. That is in fact what is killing them. It is a miracle that they have lasted this long. At the rate their bodies are deteriorating, their livers will shut down from the damage within three weeks, and once that happens, it will be a matter of days at most before they die. The truth is, we expect Judith to go first, and Nick to follow shortly thereafter. Being a fox, and the fact that he is clearly fully bonded to her, there is no way we expect he will survive her loss.

I promise you this. Again. We are not stopping work. We will keep trying until they pass, and even then, we will find a cure so that no others may suffer this fate. If you are praying mammals, then do that. Pray for them, and pray for us, that we may find a cure. I truly wish I had better news, but we wanted to set expectations. The way the variant they were exposed to is formulated, if anything, tranquilizing them seems to have extended their lives, but also set the toxins in such a way that their bodies are not able to clear them out. Do you have any questions?"

Finnick stepped forward. "So you tellin me, that after all they done. Everythin they been through. Those bastards have won? That they succeeded in steelin these kits parents from dem?"

The doctor nodded. "I'm sorry. I don't pray, and I have been. Because we do not have a sample of exactly what they were exposed to, we are having to reverse engineer it from what is in their bodies, and that is incomplete. We've tried many different things, and nothing seems to work. We're currently trying a series of engineered antibodies and enzymes, built to target the toxins that we have identified. While it worked in the lab, it seems that their immune system has been engaged, and it destroys the antibodies and enzymes before they can do their work." Further discussion and questions were asked by the adults in attendance.