Chapter One

A Diamond Deal

Nack would've killed for a smoke at that moment.

Or a drink. Or ANYTHING to take his mind off of the situation at hand. He had always known that he would find himself on the wrong side of a set of bars someday, but the mercenary had always envisioned that such a situation would happen under less idiotic pretenses. That it would be punishment for some grand heist. Not for something as simple as robbing a corner store for a bag of chips and a measly two hundred in the register. He buried his face in his gloves with a groan.

They had really needed the money. Eggman had been calling less and less, probably thanks to his team's mounting inability to defeat the Freedom Fighters at ANYTHING. To top it off, rumors of their repeated business failures had spread like wildfire through the underground industry and now no one ELSE would hire them either. It was humiliating and pathetic for someone of his profession to resort to robbing a corner store but it had been either that or beg. Nack the Weasel had his pride, however crooked it may be.

He was reconsidering it at the moment, though. Being stuffed in a cell with a massive polar bear unwilling to speak, and a duck that wouldn't shut up tended to do that to a man. Bean had been wrapped in a few straightjackets to prevent him from bombing the walls, but the officers hadn't done them the favor of taping the bird's mouth shut. He seemed to be in an awfully good mood for someone who was in prison—it was almost infuriating.

"Boy, it's been a while since I've visited one of these places! Seems a lot bigger than last time. That's pretty thoughtful of them, don't you think?" Bean rattled on with a wide grin painted across his beak. He seemed to be staring absentmindedly at the wall across from them. "Y'know, usually, these places aren't too reinforced. You'd think they would be, but no! Most of these walls could go down with some of the weakest bombs, y'know?"

Scratch that, it was completely infuriating.

"Well that would be nice if you could USE your damn bombs, wouldn't it?!" Nack hissed, pushing the duck over on his side. Bean giggled childishly and rolled off the metal bench, making quick impact with the rock hard ground. Bark groaned, rising from his seat and lifting the duck back to his seat.

"Not until you get the key for me, Tooth." Bean snickered, bended to the side to showcase the lock twirled around the back of the straightjacket. Nack glared at it menacingly, as if trying to will the lock to explode so they could just leave already. It wasn't working but he could dream. "Until then, we're pretty much stuck right here until we get a lawyer."

"Yeah, I'm sure they're gonna be real keen on getting us one as soon as possible. As opposed to finding some way to lock us up for life without a trial." Nack griped under his breath. They may have not been having a winning streak lately, but the entirety of Team Hooligan was still very much on the list of wanted criminals. Their prior associations with Eggman only made them less popular in the public eye. If they could find some way to lock the three up for life with little conflict involved, the weasel was sure they would jump at the opportunity.

Hell, they'd be lucky if the jailhouse didn't just let the three mercenaries rot where they currently were for the rest of their lives. Nack always knew there was a downside to being a wanted man but he hadn't planned on encountering his retribution anytime soon—hell, he hadn't planned on encountering it anytime within his lifespan. Yet here he was, locked up tight in prison, with his fingers itching for the triggers of the guns that the officers had stored well out of his reach.

"Just ain't right to have a sniper without a gun." He muttered to himself.

"Maybe we should just accept that we're screwed." Bean shrugged. Nack didn't bother to dignify the lunatic with an answer, just sliding his face back into his gloves. "Or maybe we'll get bailed."

"Maybe in an alternate dimension. Who the hell would bail us?" Nack said, voice muffled by his hands.

"I'll bail you."

The weasel's head shot up, staring stupidly at the bars separating his gang from freedom. Standing in front of them, shadowed by the darkness of the jailhouse, was a little girl. A little fox girl, to be precise, with fluffed white fur and black hair tied sloppily into a ponytail that seemed to be perpetually veering to the right. She wore a large French rose peacoat, with a powder pink scarf wrapped across her peach muzzle. Her matching gloves were wrapped tightly together behind her, resting atop her large white poof of a tail that curled around her red boots.

She stared at them with wide, ice blue eyes, and all they could do was stare back.

"….What the hell is a kid doing in the prison?" Nack finally managed as he jutted a thumb out towards the little girl. Her muzzle turned a noticeable red color, cheeks puffing up as her fingers tightened together. Then her lips pulled into a pursed, forced smile as she gestured the weasel forward. Nack snorted and kept his place. Bean, on the other hand, rolled quickly over to the strange girl.

And she promptly hit him in the face with a band full of money.

Bean tumbled backward, a misplaced laugh escaping from his beak, and was quickly caught by Bark and thrown onto the polar bear's shoulder—and away from the reach of the small fox. Red eyes fixated on her with annoyance reflected in them. She simply glared back at the bear and the weasel behind him, fanning herself with the large wad of cash in her gloved hand.

"You don't get it, do you?" She finally snapped, temper breaking as she waved the wad of cash in front of them. Nack's eyes traced the pile of bills with intrigue clear in his expression. "I'm here to HELP you! I'm gonna bail you out."

The weasel snapped out of his reverie, stepping in front of the yellow polar bear. "Who the hell are you? What's your angle?"

"My angle? I don't…" She paused, scratching her muzzle and looking away to the side. "…well, I do have an angle, but you guys are criminals, right? Ain't your concern to be getting out of prison, not what MY angle is?"

"I tend to not take deals that have secret catches, and I just have this crazy sneaking suspicion that some little kid who I've never met before PROBABLY has some provisions in wanting to 'help' us out." Nack commented, his tone smarmy and sarcastic. The fox's face went red with frustration again, her hair twirling as she spun around to mumble to herself. "I don't have qualm with gettin' bailed out, kiddo, but you're a little bit questionable."

She peered back at them, lower lip jutted out. "…Fine, I do have a provisible."

"Provision."

"PROVISION, yes." She reddened even further. "I…I got a job, that I need done by some professionals. And I've heard that you three are pretty well known professionals in the world of stuff like this."

"Mercenary work." Nack supplied, tone bored and expression amused.

"YES, mercenary work. And I want to hire some mercenaries to do a job for me." The fox girl clambered up against the bars of the cell, pushing the tip of her nose past the metal. "I'll bust you out of here for it! All you have to do is find some people for me, that's all. It's a fair trade!"

"I dunno. Does that sound fair to you two?" Nack gestured at the bear and the duck sharing his cell. Bark simply grunted, while Bean gave a loud, sharp, derisive laugh. "Yeah, I don't know…we're some top of the line mercenaries, shortstack. I'm just thinking that if you want us to work for you, that you need to add a LITTLE bit more incentive outside of just bailing us out of jail. After all, chances are in the long run that we'll be able to do THAT on our own."

He was lying out his ass and all of the Hooligans knew it, but the fox child didn't need to be in on that. And judging by the tears threatening to gather at the corners of her ice blue eyes, she had fell for the weasel's crafty choice of words. Normally Nack wouldn't play this kind of risky game when he was already behind bars but the kid's clothing looked AWFULLY expensive…and she had introduced herself by slapping Bean in the face with money. She had to have something more to offer in this scenario and Nack planned to cheat her out of every cent if she wanted to play around in the field of mercenaries.

"…Fine." She muttered, reaching down to rummage about inside of her rose peacoat. With a grunt she loosened one of the metal buttons and pulled out a sizely black box to present to the caged criminals. They all leaned in with interest in their eyes (and in Nack's case, greed).

And with a flip of her pinky the box opened to present a gleaming pink diamond. It was easily the size of her entire hand, with each finely etched cut bringing out the sheer luminous glow of the massive gemstone. Not a single blemish seemed to scar the surface of the entrancing diamond, and if one were to guess, it was easily somewhere around ninety to a hundred carats in weight…if not more.

"This is the Frost family pink diamond." The fox girl said slowly, eyes tracing across the absolutely hypnotized look on all of their faces—Bean was practically drooling as he pressed his face desperately against the bars to get at the shining wonder. "It's a steady one hundred and fifty carats, cut by some of the greatest gem smiths in history…the market price is about fifty million."

"An'….you're offering this. To us." Nack said slowly, still trying to digest the majestic glamor in front of him.

"Yes." The fox said sternly, slowly closing the box over the expensive diamond. She met his eyes—for a split second, the weasel could see a flash of determination within them. He was quickly distracted by the annoyed moan that Bean let out at the disappearance of the glorious shiny that the girl had been presenting them with. The weasel reached out a gloved hand and clamped the duck's beak shut, sending a sleazy grin towards the little girl on the other side of the bars—she shivered a bit, but seemed to hold her ground (despite slipping the diamond case back into her jacket, earning another obnoxious cry from Bean).

"Alright, Shiela. You've got yourself a deal. You bust us out of here and give us that lovely little lady in your jacket, and we'll do whatever the hell you please." Nack leaned forward, pressing his hand past the bars and against the white fox's torso. She stepped back a bit, uncertainty returning to her eyes, before finally slipping her pink gloved hand into the leather covered ones of the mercenary.

"I…it's a deal. And…" She paused, averting her eyes and biting her lip. "…it's not Shiela. It's Stella. Stella Frost."

"Whatever, Shiela. Just hurry up and get us out of here so we can start on part two of this deal." Nack said flippantly, leaning back against the wall, grabbing Bean by the back of his bandana to get the duck away from the bars. Stella stared blankly at them for a minute, then glanced at the clip of money in her hand. Slowly, she nodded, and backed out of the room.

"This is a stupid deal." Bean commented. Nack only grunted in reply.