Chapter 28- A Long-Awaited Confrontation
"Nick! Hold up!" a voice shouted from behind him. The fox turned around to see his father running up the burning stairs behind him. Nick turned around and gave him a curt nod, then continued running with the older fox in tow. While Nick wanted to say something or hug him or whatever, he couldn't bring himself to do so yet… Since, ya know, they were in a burning building that was threatening to blow up at any minute. The pair ran in silence up flight after flight of stairs, the only sounds being the groaning of the dying building and Nick's panting. Between the flames and the armor, the fox was roasting alive and wanted nothing more than to get out of there.
In some parts of the stairwell, the smoke was so thick that the two had to proceed forward blindly, hoping the stairs in front of them were still intact. Not only could they not see, but the smoke choked them out as they gasped for air from the physical exertion. Twice Nick saw his vision falter and nearly collapsed, but the thought of protecting his family from the bloodthirsty assassins spurred him onward. He was going to save the day or die trying, but he really hoped it'd be the former.
After a fiery eternity up countless flights of stairs, Nick and John finally reached the top of the stairs. Since he was wearing armor, Nick was the one who kicked open the door, assault rifle raised. He saw several assassins in suits which must've been the Boss' bodyguards. They turned back towards the door as quickly as they could, but it was still too late for them; Nick began spraying suppressive fire all over the group, giving John a chance to run out of the burning stairwell and find cover. The bodyguards all seemed to clump around one area, so Nick concentrated his fire on them before ducking behind cover to reload.
"Got anything in that fancy suit of yours?" John asked as Nick ducked down next to him.
Nick started patting his pockets, feeling a few extra cases of bullets for his gun, but nothing too good, until his hand brushed over something spherical in his chest pocket. Reaching into it, he pulled out a shiny green frag grenade, his eyes widening in surprise.
"How did you not know that was in there?" John asked when he saw his son's reaction.
"I just grabbed this from the armory, I didn't check to see what was inside the pockets!" Nick replied.
"It kinda worries me that there would be live grenades just laying around your station…" John mused, but then turned serious again. "Hurry up and use that thing before we get shot."
Nick looked the grenade over for a minute, then glanced back behind him and tried to calculate how to aim the thing. John just sighed, grabbed the grenade, pulled the pin and threw it without so much as looking behind him. The two heard panicked screams, then a muffled explosion and several more screams. John chuckled darkly to himself.
"Why're you laughing?!" Nick cried in almost horror before remembering that John was desensitized to killing long ago.
"One of em must've jumped on the grenade. He couldn't have done it right though, because those screams mean there were more casualties."
Nick cringed. That was dark, even coming from a hitman. Still, pressing their advantage, the two foxes began shooting again. John was carefully picking off single bodyguards while Nick shot the screaming ones, trying to put them out of their misery.
Despite the sound of the battle raging on around them, the sound of helicopter blades suddenly overpowered everything else and a strong gust of wind made them duck again and cover their eyes. Looking up, Nick saw the transport chopper from earlier landing on the building, confirming his fears from earlier. Nearly all of the bodyguards were dead or dying now, so the foxes both stood up, weapons raised.
"Freeze!" Nick screamed at the two closest to the chopper.
Without warning or hesitation, John simply shot them both in the head.
Nick cringed but said nothing. Now all that remained was one lone figure, standing inside the helicopter with its back turned. John aimed his pistol, but clutched his hand as he felt the weapon fly from his grasp. It had been shot out of his hand.
The foxes turned to see a jackrabbit advancing towards them from the side, a smoking gun raised and a mean smile on his face.
"Hurts a little, doesn't it, Wilde?" he said cockily.
"Don't even pretend you weren't aiming for a solid minute behind that wall trying to get that shot, Savage," John shot back, rubbing his hand. Jack stood in front of the two between them and the boss, his gun staying raised.
"Good shot, Jack," came a frighteningly calm voice from inside the helicopter. Nick hadn't even realized that the pilot had shut off the engines until the voice spoke.
"It's a shame you couldn't shoot him in the head just yet, but don't worry, your time will come very soon," the figure continued.
John let out a low growl in the back of his throat, but it was Nick who spoke up first. "You must be the Boss that everyone's been talking about," he started, trying to buy them some time, but the figure easily saw through the tactic and cut him off.
"Yes, child. I am The Boss. While targets and traitors will both meet their ends by my command, I feel that the two of you deserve some kind of explanation as a reward for being the most painful thorns in my side I think I've ever had."
"Why are you doing this? What have I or Judy ever done to you?" Nick asked, attempting to wrest the conversation back from him. The Boss didn't seem to care.
"My dear child, it's not what you have done, but what you can do," he explained. "Taking down entire criminal organizations in just matters of days? We can't have you two jeopardizing us or our clientele, can we? I'm sure you understand it wasn't anything personal… until you managed to kill dozens of my men and several very expensive helicopters."
Nick didn't want to believe that a mark could be put on him and his family for something he hadn't even done yet, but sadly the Boss' explanation made sense.
"And we can't have traitors running around either, can we?" the Boss continued, addressing John this time. "They know too much and can be irritatingly slippery. I take pride in constructing the best agents I can, you know. It's a personal thing."
"You aren't the only crack shot, Wilde," Jack remarked, the first thing he had said the entire time.
"You're hardly even a shot, Savage," John shot back.
This seemed to amuse the Boss, as he gave a deep, throaty laugh. "Ah, my dear boys, my construction of you both goes so much deeper than just weapons training or fighting skills. I've had you both psychologically conditioned to be able to kill with no regret and no hesitation…" he smirked a little at the next part, "and neither of you even realized. I dropped hints so subtle and powerful that I managed to implant a fear into Wilde so deeply that he left his family to try to protect them from some boogeymen that might come after them. As if. The real reason was so that they wouldn't be a distraction from your work!"
Both foxes bared their teeth and growled at the figure in the helicopter, but he didn't seem the least bit intimidated.
"And it was damn effective, wasn't it Wilde?" he continued calmly. John said nothing. "And our dear Jackie, I tried to get him to do the same, but he just wouldn't leave his wife no matter how I pried. Such a shame, but she simply had to go."
At first Jack had been smiling arrogantly, but his grin faded entirely, being replaced with an expression of sheer horror. "You… You w-what…?" he choked, slowly lowering his gun and turning to face the Boss.
"I had your wife killed, Jack. It was so long ago, I'm sure you can understand how I bettered your through it in retrospect." His tone did not suggest he gave a single damn about anything he had just said.
Meanwhile, Jack began shaking in place. He shifted a little to the side, then raised his gun. A loud crack of a gunshot sounded, and Jack's pistol fell to the ground. The Boss' silhouette stood in the darkness of the helicopter, a raised gun pointing out of it.
"We'll discuss your little… Insubordination later," the Boss growled. "The only reason why I'm not killing you now is because I understand what you're feeling, but if this happens again I won't show the same mercy. Now, I'm going to tie up these loose ends and we're going to fly back to base. Understood?" The Boss didn't even wait for Jack to respond. Instead, he unceremoniously shifted the gun and aimed at John, then pulled the trigger. John closed his eyes.
When the fox opened them again, Jack was standing in front of him, shaking in place. A thin trail of red began to leak out of his chest and down to the ground below him. "Tell a-anyone, Wilde, and ill… ill s-skin you alive…" the rabbit wheezed, then fell.
"Touching," the Boss remarked simply, raising the gun again.
Nick finally remembered he was holding an assault rifle at that point, and squeezed the trigger. He was shaking so hard that he hadn't been able to aim, but several of the bullets in his spray hit the Boss' arm. The figure swore and dropped then gun. The doors to the helicopter shut and the engine roared to life, the blades quickly spinning up. Nick fired a few rounds at it, but the exterior was completely bulletproof.
The two watched helplessly as the helicopter ascended, leaping into the air and away from them. The Boss watched them through the window and laughed as the chopper flew away, back the way it came. Just as it was flying over the officers, Nick glanced down at a glint of something shiny on the ground. Without warning, smoke covered the area where glint came from. From the smokescreen, a rocket leapt out and slammed into the underside of the helicopter, causing it to blow up in a glorious fireball and plummet back to earth in a smoking heap. When the smoke cleared, Nick saw he was staring at Judy Hopps, standing on top of their cruiser, holding his Stinger missile launcher.
