Chapter Seven
Chaos on the Midway
"You win all of those by yourself?" Nack commented with a grin. Stella peaked out from behind her large blue plush and giggled. It was hard to not laugh at the approaching bear and bird, loaded down under the weight of a plethora of carnival prizes. Bean himself was carrying an awkwardly large rabbit plush, its arm slung around his shoulder to rest on his back like a bag. It didn't seem to kill his enthusiasm much—a stupid grin was pasted across the bird's beak.
"Nah, Bark did." Bean explained. The bear nodded. "Strongman game."
"Cripes. Ya leave them anything at all? Ya sure didn't leave them any dignity." Nack commented. Bean shrugged, loading the stuffed rabbit down onto Bark. The bear rolled his eyes but patiently hefted the toy up with the rest of his carnival junk. Stella padded up to him and held out her large Sonic plush insistently.
"Where'd you get the knockoff Speedy Cheese?" Bean questioned, sliding up aside the girl and her doll to poke at it curiously. She immediately pulled it away from him with a frown. "Aw, c'mon, share!"
Nack left the bird to have his argument with the seven year old. He sidled up next to the polar bear with an exhausted sigh, leaning up against the railing that lined the glass windows. Bark gave him a questioning look, gesturing the best he could at Stella and her newfound doll. The weasel shrugged noncommittally and Bark shook his head, gesturing more urgently at them. Nack groaned and pulled his hat over his eyes.
"She won it herself, unlike your little boyfriend." Nack snapped irritably; Bark wrinkled his nose but looked away. The weasel sighed—that had come out harsher than he meant it to. He supposed hitting raw nerves had always been his specialty. "Airsoft shooting game."
Bark gave him an incredulous look and the purple mercenary scowled. The weight of his pistol felt so much heavier under the weight of such a judging expression—not that Nack could really blame the polar bear. The little girl clearly displayed no proficiency with firearms so anyone with half a brain could have figured out that the weasel had helped her. And he wasn't exactly known for being generous or helpful, especially towards children.
The two watched silently as the bird and the fox ran up and down the runway. Bean had all the enthusiasm of a child, Nack realized, despite not being too trustworthy when it came to taking care of them. Everything that the bird lacked, though, his quieter associate was more adept with. Softer methods, more controlled method, for when a child was crying or being troublesome. For such a large, intimidating type, he was definitely better for dealing with the rougher times with someone Stella's age.
Nack wondered where that left him.
He shook the thought off fiercely. He didn't NEED to be anywhere in this cluster. Stella Frost was a client, not a little baby that had been thrown on their laps to take care of. She was PAYING them and he sure as hell wasn't keeping the kid around for the fun of it. Sure, it had been fun to play around at the shooting game with the fox child, and her willingness to partake in less legal avenues was both charming and amusing to the weasel, but…
No. That wasn't a road he was going to go down. Children were TROUBLESOME, not worth caring for.
An ugly look had unknowingly pasted itself onto his face as he shook his head free of such thoughts. Bark watched him cautiously—every one of the Hooligans knew that look, and they all knew it never led to anything good. Nack had always been the temperamental type and when it burst out, it usually ended in disaster of some sort. The unease in the pit of the bear's stomach was verified when the weasel stomped away from him, towards the duo running cheerfully up and down the glass hallways.
"BEAN! Y'idiot! Stop acting like a little kid! You're a damn professional, though it sure the hell is hard to tell sometimes." Nack snapped, shoving the bird to the side. Bean blinked at him with clear confusion reflected on his face. Stella tittered lightly as she clutched her blue plush against herself in some sort of victory pose—a poor decision. It attracted the weasel's attention to her. "And you…what's your PROBLEM, kid? You hire us to do some all important task, to find yer parents, but I guess it ain't all important enough to NOT waste time in an amusement park?! What's your game, kid, to just waste my time?!"
"W-wha…" Stella trembled, taking a small step away from the mercenary. Tears were gathering in the corner of her eyes—Nack rolled his own. "I…I just wanted to…I-I mean, well…"
"Spit it out, kid, we ain't got all day. Or hell, maybe we do? Based on your approach, there ain't seeming to be any urgency in your case." Nack sneered. "I don't even know why I accepted this bullshit case to find a bunch of dead people."
That did it. The dam burst, tears streaming from the fox girl's eyes as she choked out muffled sobs against the blue plush in her arms. Her whole body shook as her muzzle dampened—dark wet stains piled up against the Sonic doll she held. Powder pink boots took shaky steps away from the Hooligans, finally turning tail to run deep into the park. Deep, heaving sobs could be briefly heard, until she disappeared completely into the crowd that was staring at them incredulously.
"Nice, Nack." Bean commented. "Real nice."
The weasel grunted, ignoring the bird while trying to ignore the knot of guilt tying up in his stomach.
Stella sat with red eyes below the roller coaster, clutching her huge doll to her chest as the cars whizzed by above her head. Passing parkgoers sent curious looks to the fox but she didn't return the favor—her eyes were glued firmly on the concrete ground. She didn't blame them for staring, though. The girl figured that she had to be quite the sight with her reddened eyes, wet muzzle, missing boot that she had lost while running, and loose ponytail barely containing her mass of black hair.
She held up the blue plush, shaking it back and forth—a shaky smile attempted to cross her face, but quickly fell off at the thought of the bounty hunters she had ran away from. The doll in her hand…it was theirs, not hers, not really. With a pout she tossed it to the side, only to crawl back to it with a hug a few minutes later. It felt like the girl's only comfort at the moment.
Stella sniffed pathetically. The weasel's words HAD been harsh, but the reason they had stung so much was because she knew he was almost entirely right. They WERE wasting time at Twinkle Park, and…it was more than likely that she was chasing her own tail by trying to find her parents. The bodies hadn't been found, it was true, but the Aurora Ice Field was a nightmare in the winter. For the bodies to be buried under ten pounds of snow was a definite possibility.
Yet here she was, far from the warmth of her home and the arms of her aunt, trying to chase after what was nothing more than a fleeting chance. A chance that was easily less that ten percent. Tears blossomed in her eyes again, running down her muzzle to drip onto the Sonic doll in her arms. The fox just wanted to believe, but she really had to wonder sometimes if she was just being a fool purposely ignorant to the obvious truth right in front of her.
She buried her face in the doll's chest.
"Ah, little girl. Why are you crying so, yes?" Stella started as a shadow fell over her; she looked up into the dark red eyes of the female wolverine. There was a bright smile pasted on her face, her lips twitching uncomfortably at the corners to reveal rows of glistening fangs. In fact, 'uncomfortable' pretty much was enough to describe the woman now crouching in front of her—Stella felt nothing but bad vibes from her. She didn't seem to be going away, though.
"Ah…u-um…I'm, uh, lost." Stella lied. Or perhaps it was a half-truth. The fox wasn't really sure anymore. The answer seemed to amuse the wolverine, though, as she put her fangs on display with a full grin. Stella flinched at the sharpened points.
"That is a very large pity, yes? Maybe Svetlana can show you to place where you are needed to be." A hand was held out to the girl; Stella simply stared at it blankly. Her eyes travelled up the arm to the woman's face as she studied her with fascinated eyes. Svetlana grit her teeth in annoyance but somehow managed to keep a smile on her face. "What is it that you are looking at, my child? Svetlana is just here to being help you. You should being come with me."
"You're Svetlana? S-Svetlana Vasin?" Stella asked nervously. The grin dropped off the wolverine's face quickly, replaced with a disgusted frown.
"You are having hearing of me?"
"U-uh, well, that is to say…" Stella's eyes darted to the side, scoping out the crowd on the left. It seemed heavy enough to lose a person in, but light enough for a child of her size to slip through. Her eyes quickly focused back on Svetlana, letting out a nervous chuckle as she stumbled to her feet. "I, uh, I may have heard of you from, uh…some associates of mine?"
"…I am suppose that means I can be skip the formalities, then." Svetlana chuckled darkly, sliding right in the path of Stella's escape route. From her left hip she drew a gleaming white gun, tucked under the folds of her jacket to avoid attention. The fox paled visibly at the slight, stepping away only to hit her back against one of the large panes of glass covering he park.
"Y-you…you want money, right?" Stella stammered. Svetlana laughed.
"You must be being familiar with way of mercenary, little girl." Stella scowled at her words; her grimace disappeared as she was pulled towards the wolverine and against the butt of the white gun. "I am want money, yes. It is what all mercenary is want. But I am not need your paltry earnings."
"I-if you don't shoot me…"
"You will what?" Svetlana whispered. "Offer me the diamond in your coat? It will be go back to where it belongs soon anyways. I will be getting my fair share soon enough, though lord is to know that I am not get paid enough for this nightmare of a job. It have perk, though."
"Perk? W-what perk?" Stella gulped.
Svetlana laughed.
"There is no pay better than to see the blood of Nack the Weasel spilled all over the midway, my dear." She whispered into the fox's ear. "Trust me when I am saying this: I would give up even the fifty of millions in your coat just for the opportunity to be seeing that. And I am about to be getting that best pay, all thanks to the darling that once was mine."
Stella shivered, hugging the plush against herself. Fear, and to her surprise, concern ran through her small form as she looked back across the midway with forlorn eyes—those guys, those jerks, they were about to be in a lot of trouble. And even though Nack had been a massive jerk to her…the little girl couldn't help but feel worried about ALL of the Hooligans.
She dipped her head as she followed, obedient but unwilling, after the wolverine woman. They would need a miracle at this point.
