Chapter Fifteen
Showdown
Nack jumped away with a yelp as the massive warthog's fist slammed down against the floor. Stella let out a shriek as she was pulled away from them onto Bark's shoulder, tucked into the green scarf. Chunks of marble flew everywhere as the thick hoof lifted and the deep indent in the hard marble was suddenly clear. The purple weasel felt a shiver run down his spine as his own wide eyes met with the narrowed ones of the massive ex-hitman. Jeb's mouth was curved into a malicious smile, revealing lines of finely sharpened front teeth.
"Been a few days, ain't it, weasel?" Jeb snorted, turning on his hoofs to face the sniper; with wolves crowding at his side, Nack had nowhere to move so he just shot the warthog a hesitant grin as his hands shakily grasped at the gun by his side.
"Felt like a million years, Jeb. And here I thought you weren't gonna get out that alive. You know, most would consider it kind of weird to survive being at the epicenter of an explosion of fire and glass, but not you, huh?" Nack rambled. He jumped nearly a foot in the air when the warthog's massive hoof slammed against the wall above his head. Each protruding spike dug deeply into the stone, the loose rock crumbling from the wall to fall against Nack's head.
"You always have been one stupid little shit, ain'tcha? You should've learned by now that Jeb the Tusk don't die. Especially by the hands a' some incompetent, washed out wannabe hitman like yourself." Jeb's grin had morphed into something more malicious, and the wolves around the weasel seemed to have closed in further to the weasel pinned against the wall. "But it do hurt my feelings, boy. It hurts them real bad to know that a little greenhorn punk like yourself would even THINK that you could take me outta th' picture. So I'm thinkin' its time YOU left the picture."
"WATCH OUT FOR THE DUCK!"
Nack flinched and the wolves pressing him into the corner loosen up in confusion; Bean had leaped onto Jeb's head to spring onto a hanging lamp above the fray. The duck looked barely awake, yawning in annoyance as his hands piled up with small bombs, already fizzling down to the point of no return. Nack watched the dynamo in horror; the idiot was going to blow the Hooligan ringmaster up thanks to his inability to pay attention.
He looked down in confusion as he felt a hand wrapped around his tail—seated between Jeb's feet was the smiling white fox child. Nack yelped as he was yanked between the warthog's legs, the bombs descending down on the group. The wolves were blown off to scurry away, Vanessa screaming orders at them, Bean being thrown away from the blast carelessly to be caught in Bark's awaiting paw. Nack blinked, face blank, as he stared up at the rest of the Hooligans from beside the polar bear's foot. Stella sat next to him with a toothy grin…but a sliver of unease in her eyes.
Nack didn't have time to deal with it, though. Jeb was already lumbering through the haze of smoke from the bombs, his massive hooves slamming down on the small fires spreading across the floor. The weasel jumped to his feet, dragging the fox with him by her wrist. He held it up to Bark who nodded, taking the girl by her small hand and tucking her back into his scarf. With that, Nack motioned at Bean and Bark and then at the wolves. Bark nodded but Bean just gave him a blank look. The weasel rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"GET THE WOLVES, you simpleton!" Nack snapped. Bean let out a small gasp of realization clearly laced with amusement; even now the duck couldn't help but mess with their leader. "I'll take care of Jeb."
"What?! No! Nack, he's HUGE! He'll kill you!" Stella shrieked, fumbling through the folds of the massive scarf. Nack snorted.
"And here you act like I don't have a plan. Damn, kid, you would've thought that you know me better than this by now." He replied, drawing the pistol out of its holster. "Bark, Bean, get rid of those wolves as quick as you can. I damn well hope you can do that because there's gotta be SOME reason I'm payin' you. When you're done, meet me at the far side of the ballroom. We'll either be there or we'll be dead. If it's the latter then its up to you two."
"Wait, what—" Stella tried to yell back, but was cut off when Bark spun around to slam his massive arm against a group of the white wolves. Bean cackled wildly, jumping atop the bear's head to leap into the air, throwing handfuls of bombs across the ballroom. The guests who hadn't yet evacuated in fear screeched, pushing past Vanessa and Erik to flee up the stairs. The white fox woman growled loudly, heels slamming down as she stormed downwards—only to get thrown onto her back by one of the wolves falling against her. A loud and frustrated shriek rang out in the room.
Nack ignored it, bounding around the room with the massive warthog in tow. The room almost seemed to shake as the massive beast barreled after him—for such a big guy, he was pretty quick on his feet. Nack was already having to resort to swerving back and forth across the room to keep the pig from actually catching up to him. Jeb was quick, but he wasn't very good at changing directions during a chase. It took him several seconds to reorganize himself, while Nack could immediately shift and go any random direction with ease. Nack just could thank God that at least the ex-mercenary's large size managed to provide SOME sort of disadvantage, or else the purple weasel would've been a red smear on the ground by now.
He skid to a stop next to the high rise windows. Several of them had crashed down in the fray, glass and unconscious bodies littered all around his feet. Nack had no time to focus on either thing, though; Jeb slammed to a halt in front of him. The weasel spun around to face the towering creature and couldn't help but feel that shiver return—there wasn't really a way to not feel intimidated by Jeb the Tusk. The man dwarfed some of the tallest creatures, and seemed to be made of pure muscle. As a rather regular sized individual, it wasn't hard to tell that no matter what Nack did, he was going to be at a disadvantage.
So he quickly sidestepped to his left. Jeb caught the movement with amusement in his eyes, stomping to the side so that he would still be looking the sniper in the face. Carefully, Nack took another step, this time slightly upwards. His gun was cradled carefully in his shooting hand but his eyes never left contact with Jeb's. The warthog followed the weasel's movements in perfect tandem, raising an eyebrow in confusion. His own hand was playing across the gun at his side now; slight uncertainty had entered his eyes as the weasel slowly led him around in a circle.
And then he ducked.
With piles of unconscious wolves against his back, Bark lunged over the weasel to slam into Jeb. Nack stumbled to his feet, each arm caught by the remaining Hooligans. Bean chuckled mischievously. "So this was your plan the whole time all along, huh, Tooth? Corner the beast? Not bad."
"But not perfect either…he's not gonna go DOWN." Stella's voice quaked as she watched the bear and the warthog tussle in front of them. It was true. They seemed evenly matched but Nack knew that Jeb has more stamina—he could already see the beast of a pig pushing the polar bear back against the marble floor. With a glare the weasel knocked the hands away from his arm.
"It ain't my plan to have Bark take him down. I need you on this, Bean. Come on." Nack snapped, pushing forward to slam against the back of the fighting pair. Bean laughed loudly and followed in the weasel's path, ramming right against the yellow fur to push heavily against the bear's back. Bark gave them both a questioning look, but quickly caught on when he looked beyond Jeb's shoulder—the ice cold air fluttering in from the broken window. All together they pushed, and Jeb finally slid back. Nack's eyes widened and he held back a cackle.
He hadn't thought that would work.
"Push harder, ya goddamn lunatic!" Nack shouted to neither Hooligan in particular. Bark flexed his shoulders tightly and shoved forward; the warthog's eyes widened as, with the weight of all three mercenaries against himself, he took a tremendous slide backwards. A cautious glance was chanced back at the window that he was heading for, a grim snort puffing out from his nose.
"Nice try. Th' weight a' three, it's a good effort to make against me. Ya idiots really do try your HARDEST, don'tcha?!" Jeb chortled; with a quick shove, all three of them were pushed away from the window. Not quite as much as all three had managed against Jeb, but still enough to cause concern. "Ya should know by now, Nack. There are two times when I try my hardest. When I'm bein' paid on pretty sum, and when I'm feelin' the humble call of revenge. And unfortunately for you, both bells are ringin' right now. All in the hands of the reaper, boy. All in the hands of the reaper."
"D-dammit…!" Nack choked out, pushing his strength against the bear's back; aside him he could see Bean turning around to push as hard as he could against the flow of Jeb's strength. It wasn't showing as much anymore—they weren't getting nearly as much shove as they needed.
They wouldn't be able to get him off that cliff side.
Nack was ready to give up, he honestly was, for the first time in his life. But to his surprise, a smaller weight pressed up against him—a little fox girl shoving all of her minimal strength against them in order to help. Stella's dress was torn to shreds at this point, her hair fallen apart into a mess, and still she managed to press on. At her side, paws firmly placed on the bear's back, was her red fox uncle. He sent an awkward smile over to the weasel. For a moment, Nack simply stared at both of them, and then a grin broke out across his face to reveal his massive fang.
"PUSH, YA GODDAMN IDIOTS!"
The panic was clear in Jeb's eyes as his feet scraped against the side of the window; behind him was a waiting plunge of who knew how many feet down. But they all knew it was into a cold, dark, and unwelcoming abyss. For the first time, fear seemed to cross into the warthog's eyes as he glanced back at the Hooligans, right before his hooves went past the point of no return and slipped out from underneath him. With a harsh shout, Jeb the Tusk plummeted down beyond them as the five all collapsed on top of each other.
It was silent in the ballroom for a few minutes as they caught their breath. Even Bean seemed to finally have nothing to say or laugh at, simply to curl up near Bark's head to pat the bear on the head. Nack threw his head back to rest against the yellow furred back, Stella laying across his lap and his uncle collapsed by their side. Slowly but surely, a laugh started to erupt out of him. The others in the pile joined in quickly, forgetting themselves just to enjoy their triumphs for a moment.
"Shut UP!"
The loud sound of a heel clacking echoed across the ballroom as Vanessa stood, panting and frustrated, in front of the Hooligans. Stella immediately shrunk backwards; Nack pushed the girl behind his back and rose to his feet with the girl's uncle. Eric's eyes were cautious, with a clear drop of disappointment reflected in them. His wife didn't even bother to notice; she simply stomped up to them and shoved her husband backwards against the bear to fume in Nack's face.
"Stop your LAUGHING! I've been planning this for YEARS, for YEARS, I poured piles of money into hiring the most efficient mercenaries and hiring the most effective guards! I specially rig this chandelier to drop, even when its not originally supposed to! I buy the silence of every idiot in the world and then YOU and your little IDIOTS come along!" She screeched in his face. Nack made to reply, but Stella stepped between the two of them and pushed her aunt backwards. Vanessa stared at her through frayed banged, not seeming to believe what had just happened. Then her eyes narrowed again and she stepped back up to them to shove the girl back into the purple mercenary with a shriek.
"And YOU. You little BRAT. Everything was going just fine and dandy until you decided you needed to go FIND YOUR PARENTS." Vanessa leaned down and roughly pinched the girl's cheeks. "They were in a damn CAR CRASH and you just gotta think they still AWIVE, don't you?! You couldn't just stay where you were and play your role, oh no, you had to run off and cause me trouble instead of—"
"Instead of just dying for YOU?!" Stella screamed. Vanessa released her cheek, raising a curious brow. Then the girl's aunt grinned.
"Yes. Don't you know your place? I'm older than you, I've been around this fortune longer than you, and I deserve it more than you." Vanessa cooed, closing in on the girl again—she was met with a barrel of a gun in her face as Nack dragged the girl back against himself. She looked into it for a few moments and then her eyes travelled up to meet the weasel's gaze. "You. You're a pathetic mercenary. Real mercenaries don't get attached to their client. And all it did you was absolutely nothing. This is my estate, my fortune, and eventually this is going to be my dead niece. And there's nothing you can do about it."
"There is something I can, though." Nack started when Eric pushed him aside, eyes full of resentment—all directed at his wife. Vanessa bit her lip and stepped back. "How long have you been playing this game, Vanessa? Don't answer, because I don't care. But I do have open access to the Frost family bankrolls and bankkeepers. All I have to do is access them. Because you used our fortune to fund this little exploit of yours, didn't you?"
No answer from the older woman; she just bit her lip harder.
"As I would've though. Well, I'm closing it down. And I'm closing down your operation. For good. I'm opening the books to the whole thing and I'm sure the police will be interested to see what you've been putting our money into. I'm ashamed in you, Vanessa. And ashamed that I would've married someone willing to do something like this. All I can give you credit for is that you're a very good actress." Eric snapped. Vanessa's entire face seemed to fall at the mention of the police. "You're going to be behind bars for a while, my dear, and it isn't going to be with a niece you can get to…or a husband."
"Eric, you can't—"
"I can and I will." The red fox turned to his niece with a sad smile. Stella simply clutched against Nack's leg harder, looking up at him with eyes threatening to tear up. "I'm sorry, my dear. I'm sorry this had to happen." He looked up to the Hooligans again. "And…to you three. You didn't have to get dragged into this. And you did a lot for Stella despite all of that. I can't imagine how I could repay you all."
"There's a lovely pink diamond that has been calling our names…" Nack said, scratching the back of his head. Stella peered nervously to the side as her uncle cocked his head to the side in confusion.
"What pink diamond?"
"Th' pink diamond. She offered it to us in exchange for our service as mercenaries. It's gotta be worth somewhere in the hundred millions, easily." Nack explained. Eric's face contorted slightly, biting back a smile as Stella creeped away from the weasel cautiously. "What? What's going on?"
"That, uh, pink diamond of hers…is a toy. A replica, so to say. It's a very well done replica, but it's a replica none the less. It LOOKS very real, but its not actually worth very much money." Eric explained as Stella buried herself underneath one of Bark's arms to avoid Nack's flabbergasted expression. "All in all, that 'diamond' of hers is worth about…maybe ten dollars."
Nack stared blankly ahead.
Then he let out a scream that reverberated off of the ballroom walls.
