Notes

Well, kids, we've come full circle and reached the final book of the Hooligan Havoc triad! I always intended it to be a set of three but I was never particularly sure if I was going to get around to writing the final one. After Archie was cancelled and the Hooligans were basically banned from use (because no fun allowed), I admit I wasn't in the mood to even really think about Hooligan Havoc. But hell, time heals all wounds, and here we are. And its good to see you all again.

Naturally, a warning to first time readers: This is the last installment in a series of three. And unlike the first sequel, I can guarantee this story will make absolutely no sense without reading the first two stories. The first one is Pink Diamond and the second one is The Mina Mongoose Affair. A lot of information and stories built up in those volumes are going to be the main focal point of the story, including characters that were introduced previously, and a family of original characters who are the foundation of the entire mystery.

Either way, enjoy this story-its been a long time coming Maybe too long, even.

Chapter One

Formulation Separation

Flakes pelted the front of the Marvelous Queen as it stormed across the vast expanse of the snowy field, carefully and precisely veering around the jutting spikes of ice that rose from underneath the powdery white snowdrifts. Gloved hands revved the engine of the straining vehicle as a streak of curses uttered from underneath the driver's breath. Both of his passengers seemed to be completely unfazed by the growing storm coming down on them, but one of them was a certified lunatic and the other was a native of the northern islands.

Nack hated this weather. He would've done anything to just be inside right now, preferably with a bottle of liquor to warm up his insides and his head. But here he was instead storming across the Aurora Ice Fields. The last time he had willingly put himself in the middle of this snow covered hellhole, he had the promise of a massive payout from a glorious looking gem. It had turned out to be a complete lie but it had at least been what the mercenary could call valid motivation.

Now he was just pushing past snowdrifts on his airbike to go see some kid.

Goddamn, what happened to my life…

"Wonder why foxy loxy decided all the sudden that she wanted to talk to us." Bean interrupted the weasel's train of thought; Nack barely graced the smug bird with a sideways glance. "It's been what, a year now? Since she asked to go back to stay with her uncle at the manor, I mean."

"Don't be daft, ya idiot. The kid said on the phone why she wanted to talk to us." Nack growled irately; both Bean and the bear whose lap he sat in quirked a brow at the irritation that immediately passed over their leader's face. "She has a job she needs done and she wants to pay us to do it fer her."

"She didn't talk much about it."

"A'course she didn't. What'dya think this is, y'idiot? Some sort of goddamn playdate so we can just all hang out?" Nack snapped. That seemed to shut the green duck up, though Bean did crane up his neck to shoot a questioning glance at Bark. The team muscle did not take his harsh red eyes off the weasel behind the wheel of the airbike, even when clumps of snow hit him in the snout. Nack was not about to give him the vindication of responding to the accusation in his eyes.

He hadn't even been sure if he wanted his team to come along on this job, but SHE had insisted.

That stupid kid.

Stella Frost.

He grit his teeth.

Bean was right. It had been almost a year now, maybe even more. The whole incident seemed like a blur in retrospect—everything seemed to be returning to normal, with the Hooligans carting the young arctic fox around the world on her uncle's paystub. The popstar had been returned to her dumb world of glamour and Sonic had taken his pet fox and left them alone. Even Stella's consistent pain in the ass of an aunt had been completely removed from the picture. Last he heard, the woman had gone straight back to prison along with nearly all of her goons and criminal connections. The chapter of Frost family conflict had ended and all they had to do now was mercenary work and enjoying their lives.

Or it had seemed so, anyways.

A few weeks after all of the loose ends with the Mina Mongoose hysteria had been tied up, the fox ward of the Hooligans had begun to act strangely. She was quieter. She was not as interested in their missions, was always sitting around in the corner of the hotel on the laptop or with her head buried in a notebook. The worst of it had been that whatever it was that was bothering her, Stella had refused to talk to any of the Hooligans about it. Nack would never admit it but at some point the little girl had started to actually worry him; the newfound attitude was completely antithetical to what the mercenaries knew her as.

And then it had happened. She had just shook him awake one morning in one of the dingier hotel rooms they all stayed in, and told him that she wanted to go back and live at the manor with her Uncle Erik.

Nack knew he couldn't be pissed about it. Stella was a child, only nine years old, and she belonged with her family. But it wasn't like Erik Fairfield had any more blood relations to the arctic fox than the Hooligans did. He was only the girl's uncle by marriage to her bitch of an aunt. Kids needed stability, though—they needed homes. So he had driven her back to the manor and dumped her there in complete silence. He supposed he hadn't been so subtle about how much it irritated him even though he knew it was stupid to be angry.

It was just a kid. Wasn't even his own kid. Wasn't even his own PROBLEM. Hell, he reasoned, this way he got out of the situation having been paid a huge amount of money by Fairfield without ever having to deliver on what he promised to deliver. Whenever the weasel thought of it that way, though, it just made his blood boil more—he had failed to complete the job that the annoying kid had approached him with. He had never found out what happened to her parents.

Nack's anger had boiled away into a plummeting feeling at the pit of his stomach whenever this thought came to mind. He had failed to figure out the mystery behind the disappearance of Genevieve and Paul Frost. Stella had left.

The kid thought that we couldn't do it.

His grip tightened on the handles of the Marvelous Queen. She had thought they couldn't do it, and then she had disappeared for a year only to call them back and ask them back to the manor. The girl had provided no explanation of why or what was going on. Just that she needed them at the manor. As if the brat had any right to order them around, to tell them to come cross country at the drop of a hat just because she needed them to do some undefined task for her!

…Of course, he had come anyways, and he rather didn't want to think about why.

Kids. They're useless and annoying, always causing trouble.

"Nack? Geez, Tooth, are you paying any attention at all?"

The weasel jerked out of his thoughts to stare blankly at Bean. The duck sat with his arms crossed over the side of the sidecar, wind and snow blowing his feathers around haphazardly. One gloved thumb jerked forward. With barely any time to react, Nack ended up defaulting to reflexes as he hurriedly shifted the bike sideways to screech to a halt. Bean was knocked backward against the silent polar bear behind him; Bark himself grasped tightly at the metal siding of the bike as it nearly spun out. The air blasting up from the Marvelous Queen blew ice and snow all around them in a circle, splattering all over the lemming maid standing in front of them.

Her brown eyes were wide in shock and her entire body shook like an earthquake had struck only the small space she occupied. Shivering paws gripped at each other desperately as a shriek stuck in his open mouth, staring in fear at the bumper of the airbike mere centimeters from her stomach. Nack flipped his hat up to eye the maid standing seemingly in the middle of nowhere, near ready to collapse in fear.

"….Yer Emma, right? Emma Lemming? You work at the Frost Manor." Nack said bluntly. He didn't really know what else to say; the only reason a Frost Manor maid would be out in the cold of the icefields was if her employers had sent her. And the only reason they could've sent her was to meet up with the guests they were expecting. Still, it was pretty pathetic to watch her cowering behind the folds of her apron.

"Yu….Yes, Mister Sniper. Mister Dynamite. Mister Bear." The lemming nodded meekly at the pair behind Nack; Bean jauntily tipped an imaginary cap at her. It didn't seem to amuse the maid. If anything it made her shuffle back a few more steps. The maids from the manor had always been a skittish lot. "I…I was sent here to greet you. The mistress and the lord felt that with the snowstorm getting so bad…well, that it might be for the best for someone to p-pick, uh, pick you up. Lady Stella said t-that she helped you find the manor the last few times."

"Is that so." Nack snorted. Even the slight sound seemed to terrify the lemming; he had a feeling that if it wouldn't cost her a job, Emma Lemming would have run to the next country over by now. Not the best guide to send. She was bound to be more of an annoyance than an asset but Stella would probably be unhappy if he didn't bring her back with him. Nack wanted to think that wouldn't bother him in the slightest but even the weasel knew he'd just be bullshitting himself at that point. "Get in. We're only about a mile or two from the Manor."

"The storm is getting worse." Bean observed as the lemming climbed into the sidecar shakily. She pointedly shifted as far away as she could away from the duck and the polar bear. It didn't save her from the pointed and almost curious look latched onto her by both of the other occupants—though Bean's gaze could be better called maniacal. Nack couldn't resist revving the Marvelous Queen; it shook underneath them all and elicited a shriek from Emma.

"Don't worry about it." The weasel chuckled. The weak glare he received from the maid was well worth it. "If we move now, we'll be there before the storm really picks up. Let's go."

"That's not the right way." Emma interrupted as he shifted the bike eastward. Nack stopped to state blankly at her. Her arm shot out in the opposite direction. It shook weakly, though the weasel wasn't sure if it was from the cold or just from plain fear. Maybe, he thought absentmindedly, it was both. "That way. R-remember?"

Nack groaned and pushed his weight to pull the bike around.

"Yeah. I remember."

Nack was not prepared for what greeted him at the mansion.

In the back of his skull he could hear familiar shouts, a high pitched voice from a little girl and hands yanking at his belt to make him stop. It turned to mush in the back of his head as the barrel of his gun rested firmly between the cobalt fur above the temples of green eyes glaring determinedly back into the weasel's blue ones. Behind him, Bean was hurriedly lighting up a bomb as Bark had grabbed a pair of mutated yellow tails to hold their owner far above the ground. Small fists batted weakly at his thick chest.

"Nack, PLEASE! Stop! Stop it RIGHT NOW!" Stella's shriek finally penetrated the weasel's mind and he snapped his head down to stare at the girl. The first thing he registered was that she had grown a few centimeters—a child once at his waist was now looking up at him with pleading ice blue eyes from chest level. Long black hair had grown out to fall around her hips, covered in a newer burgundy jacket. Some odd instinct tugged at the man deep within him and he lowered the gun jerkily to his side. It didn't make him any less pissed when Sonic shot him a shit-eating grin, though.

"Now see? We can all get along."

"Eat me, hedgehog." Nack spat. "Is this some kinda joke, kid? Or is it a setup? What, you go away from us for a year and decide to buddy up to these tools and turn us in? That it?"

"W-What?! Nack, no, of course not!" Stella protested, muzzle puffing up in protest. "I would never do that! They're only here under the rule that they DON'T try to put any of you guys in jail!"

"Unfortunately, she's telling the truth. We're here on…let's call it commission for the sake of the greater good." Sonic said dramatically as he threw an arm around Nack's shoulders—it only earned him a glare and a growl in return. "Hey, look on the bright side, buddy! I absolutely can make free time in my schedule to arrest you some other time. Now could you tell your goon to put Tails down before I have to break my word and beat all of you up? I'm not keen on lyin' to kids, you know."

Nack pushed the hedgehog away from him and glanced over to Bark with a slight nod. The polar bear released the appendages in his mitten covered hands and Tails crashed in an undignified pile on the floor. His best friend was at his side immediately to help him up, casting a warning look at the massive creature above him. Bark didn't even as much as flinch at the implied threat, watching the two carefully.

"Maybe," Stella began, stepping between the two opposing parties. "I should explain what's going on before you all rip each other apart."

Nack's only reply was the sound of his gun cocking.