Chapter Six
Twinkle Rhapsody
The sun was starting to fall behind the high-rise buildings that the Marvelous Queen was cruising alongside. It had been a long, tedious, unproductive day—while Svetlana Vasin apparently USED to frequent many places in Station Square, such antics had apparently come to a stop many a year ago. Nack was beginning to think that it was a fruitless effort to search for her in the city that he knew she once had loved and spent so much time in. He hadn't seen the wolverine woman in over five years anyways, and the last time he HAD was in the distance as she screamed at him from a ditch. Such experiences tended to hamper one's enthusiasm for…well, anything.
She had probably got more caught up in her work since then, Nack mused. He knew that Jeb and Svetlana had divorced shortly after that…and most of these places he knew her to frequent had been places she often frequented with her husband. The weasel cringed; it wasn't like him to feel bad but it was pretty obvious that the entire weight of that divorce had been on his back.
Had been a nice night at the Casino Zone, though.
"Hey, what's that down there? It's glowing." Nack snapped to attention, glancing over at the little girl being loosely held inside the sidecar by Bean's arm—not that the bird seemed too invested in it. He looked like he was nodding off, though both Nack and Bark knew that the dynamo would recover as soon as something even mildly exciting happened. He was more conscious than Bark, anyways, who seemed to have fallen asleep entirely. They had all had a pretty active few days so it didn't particularly surprise Nack. "Hey, what IS it?"
The gunslinger rolled his eyes and peered down below—they were flying over the Station Square amusement park that everyone seemed so gung-ho about. "'S Twinkle Park. It's an amusement park."
"An amusement park? Here?"
"Well, yeah, kid. It's one of the best known in Mobius." Nack cracked a small smile at the kid. "What, you never been? And here I would think a rich brat like you would be at Twinkle Park every day of the week."
"I…uhm, well…my family doesn't leave the Aurora Icefields too often…" Stella mumbled, pulling weakly at the bottom of her peacoat and staring redfaced at her own feet. "We, uh…we always lived a little too far away from the city an'…uh, well, my parents only left on business and I usually jus' stayed at the mansion with the nannies and my aunt…"
"…You sayin' you've NEVER been outside of your mansion before this?" Nack asked incredulously. Stella nodded nervously. "Cripes alive, kid, how sheltered ARE you? No wonder you're such a massive pain in my ass."
"S-so, uh…" She leaned over the side again, gazing down at the bright and colorful lights of the amusement park. "What, uh, what's there? At the, uh, Twilight Park?"
"Twinkle Park." Nack corrected and the girl's muzzle flushed with an embarrassed powder pink blush. It's a big ass amusement park, recently finished renovations from the floods and reopened. Got all sorts of junk, I guess…roller coasters, games, food, all that crap that'd keep a kid busy."
"Ooh. Roller coasters. I've never been on one of those."
"They're fun, y'know? I got kicked out once because I threw a bomb off on the highest rise of one of the coasters! It was like, geez, I'm just trying to enhance the experience." Bean butted in with a laugh. Stella didn't bother to look at him; her eyes were solidly locked down on the shining indoors park below them. "I think my ban ran out last year, though."
"…Did it?" Stella said, voice monotonous as she leaned forward—the duck absentmindedly grabbed the back of her collar to pull her away from the side. The weasel watched her carefully—he had a bad feeling about where this was going. "…Hey, Nack, do you think…"
"We ain't got time, Shiela." He snapped. "This ain't no cruise, remember? We're trying to finish your JOB."
"W-well, yeah, but…" She paused, then a wicked grin spread across her features. Gloved fists planted themselves firmly on her sides as she stood triumphantly in front of her hired mercenaries. "…but I'm the boss here! I'm the one who's paying YOU, so you have to do what I say, right?"
"…Technically…"
"No technically about it, Snagglepuss." Bean chortled. "She's the one hittin' YOU in the face with wads of cash, not the other way around. So are we goin' to shiny town or what?"
"She hit YOU in the face with the money, you jackass." Nack hissed. Then he leaned back to take a deep breath—the idea of being used as an actual babysitter just for the sake of a job didn't sit well with him but it was a LOT of money. He reassured himself that all it would take was a little patience (which he didn't really have) and a small chunk of time (which NONE of them really had). Whether they had it not, though, they were technically in the brat's employ…
With a groan, he nodded—Stella squealed shrilly, jolting the polar bear aside them awake. Bark looked questioningly at his co-workers. Bean just grinned stupidly at his partner, gesturing down at the park, and Nack rolled his eyes as he began the Marvelous Queen's descent down to street level.
Bean and Bark had disappeared the second they entered the park.
Or, more precisely point, Bean had immediately gotten distracted by the excessive amount of glimmering and shining objects all around Twinkle Park and had dashed straight into the heart of the place with no second thoughts. Bark had followed after the duck as quickly as he could, but keeping up with the hyperactive explosives expert was not an easy task. They had both vanished into the fray of bright lights and excited patrons within a matter of minutes.
Leaving Nack with…the kid.
He had never been good with kids. Hell, he wasn't even good with kids when he WAS a kid and it hadn't gotten better as he grew up. Kids were loud, they were annoying, and they were obnoxiously moralistic. Too much television telling them that right prevailed over wrong, and that everything illegal was akin to being the devil or something. Kids had nothing but gasps and shrieks whenever they saw the weasel was packing heat, and nothing but whiny rants when they found out he took jobs from people on the supposed side of evil—like it was really that black and white.
Point being, he didn't like kids. They were stupid and annoying and his teammates had just done him the pleasure of sticking him with one. An EXCITED one, to boot—they always got worse when they were excited. All that bouncing around, loud excited tones, and general hyperactiveness.
"I've never been to anything this pretty! There's so much here! What d'ya do at a place like this?! Where d'ya go?!" She exclaimed, running back and forth around the weasel trying to get her bearings to the new and exciting place. Nack groaned and rubbed his temples—he was beginning to understand the purpose of child leashes a lot better now. "Wow, that one looks pretty scary. I don't think I wanna go on THAT…"
Nack looked up; the girl was standing behind a large crowd, gazing up at a massive roller coaster as the cars sped by at top speed. It was Twinkle Park's largest, and supposedly most exciting, roller coaster. The weasel couldn't help but let out a sharp chuckle—he doubted that Stella could even fulfill the height requirements to go on the ride she was so afraid of. She glanced back at him in confusion and he shook his head, moving forward to grab her arm and drag the fox away from the fray. It didn't focus her in the slightest—ice blue eyes still darted around to look at all the stands that lined the glass walls.
Then her eyes widened and she shook off the mercenary's hand. Nack let out a small cry of protest as the little girl skipped over to one of the game stands to run her hands over a large, oversized blue plush doll. To the weasel's utter annoyance he realized that it was a doll of Sonic, lined up next to several other plush replicas of the Freedom Fighters. He doubted Stella knew who they were, though, considering how clearly sheltered the rich brat was.
"Excuse me there, young'un." Stella's face fell as the doll was plucked from her hands by a grinning dog. "I can't have you be manhandlin' my prizes, kiddo, or else they might get broken! And then no one is gonna want to play my game…unless YOU want to take a shot at it?"
Stella glanced over at the stand that the doll had been hanging off of—it appeared to be some sort of airsoft shooting range game, with beat up dartboards lined up across the back of the stand. Four airsoft guns, fashioned to look like genuine rifles, rested against the front of the booth. Stella approached one hesitantly, pushing at it with her fingers.
"I've never used a gun before." She admitted. "Not even an airsoft one."
"Well now is your chance to! You could end up finding out you have great marksman skills there, princess." The dog chortled. Nack snorted, leaning against the side of the booth. "It's only five for three shots. Each ring on the dartboard is a different prize level…but oh no! That there is a fine plush toy you're lookin' at, and it can only be won with a bullseye shot. But I believe in ya…so how 'bout it? Y'wanna give it a shot, kiddo?"
Stella glanced at the toy hung on the wall, and then at Nack. The weasel shrugged and gestured at the rifles. Finally she reached into her pocket and produced the money, hanging it over to the fast talking dog. He snatched it up with a malicious grin that made Nack raise his eyebrow a bit—this guy seemed a little off, somehow. He talked too fast and his tone with Stella seemed to be almost sarcastic. Almost like he was mocking the little girl.
The weasel watched carefully as the little fox mounted the rifle on her shoulder, focusing her gaze through the sight to aim at the dartboard in front of her. Her shoulders were shaking slightly, as was the finger that wrapped nervously around the trigger. Slowly, unsurely, she pulled down. A loud bang erupted from the airsoft gun, causing the girl to squeal and jump backwards—her arm caught the butt of the rifle and the BB careened into the ground. The canine carny let out a rumbling laugh and Nack cringed; this kid really hadn't ever touched a gun in her life.
With a sigh, he moved forward and pushed the fox up. Stella sent him a confused look. "Don't get scared by the bang, it's just a sound and it ain't gonna hurt you. And don't put the rifle on top of yer shoulder, hold it right here against yer collarbone. Don't shake so much…okay, no, don't…" he grasped her arm firmly and directed it to the trigger while holding it still. One arm hovered behind the girl to keep the recoil from throwing her to the ground. Her trembles seemed to disappear. "…alright, there. Focus on your target, kid. Ignore the sounds around you. Just concentrate on the target, erase everything around it. Stay still and…pull."
The loud bang resonated again—Nack looked up in shock and Stell frowned visibly as the carny went into another fit of laughter. The BB from the gun had embedded to the right of the target. That couldn't be right. He had put Stella exactly in place, and if she had been looking through the sight of the rifle correctly…
…Wait.
Nack nudged the girl to the side a bit, peering through the sight of the gun. It was definitely set to a position that would've gotten her the shot she wanted, but…it hadn't gotten anywhere near its target. The weasel gunslinger narrowed his eyes. The hell did this carny bastard think he was trying to pull with them? The devious prick—or someone, at least—had tampered with the sight on the rifle. He supposed he couldn't complain, since in the dog's position he would've done the exact same thing, but Nack wasn't exactly fond of being on the losing side of a scam.
He was a professional with firearms. If this stupid carny scam artist thought he could trick him, OR his client, at his own game then he was in for a big disappointment.
"Alright, Shiela, ya did good. Nah, really, ya did." Nack reassured the little girl as her face fell. "But this game has a trick, y'see? Ya gotta set your sights a little further to the RIGHT of where ya wanna hit, get it? C'mere."
"It's Stella…" The girl muttered, disappointment clear in her tone. However, she did as she was told, hefting the large airsoft gun up in her hands to hold against the side of her shoulder. It didn't lift far, being connected to the table, but it was enough for a small child to carry it. Nack knelt down, rearranging her posture a bit, then stepped back. Stella peered through the sight and then hesitantly shifted her aim slightly to the right. With that, she slowly pressed down on the trigger and a bang rang out. Without the support arm behind her, the recoil threw the girl back onto her behind.
But it was with a gleaming smile on her face.
The canine carny looked at the dartboard in shock—embedded right in the center was a small BB, colored to match Stella's gun. He looked over to the weasel and the fox incredulously as she took the massive blue plush off its hook and stuck out her tongue at the dog. Nack snickered and ruffled the kid's hair as they left the confused shopkeeper in the dust behind them.
"Ya did pretty good. How'd feel about firin' a gun for the first time?" Nack paused. "Y'know. Even if it was a rigged shot."
"It was pretty scary! They're really loud. But...but it was pretty fun too, I guess. And I won!" Stella laughed and hugged her plush closer to her. Nack briefly was overcome with the thought that maybe it was okay to take a break, just this once. Or even once in a while.
Of course, he wasn't aware that there was a dark brown wolverine slinking around the booths and watching them with sharp and angry eyes, either.
