Chapter Four

Home, Away From Home

A single red light, weak and billowing up into the fetid air, illuminated the dirty hotel room. It was close to the weasel's nose—burnt down nearly to a crisp as he shifted against the creaking springs of the bedframe. The nose of his gun tapping rhythmically against his knee as the ashes fell against his leg. He took a quick, sweeping glance across the room—Stella at the window, Bark huddled in a corner, and Bean leaning forward from his perch atop the television.

All staring at the unconscious woman in the bed that he sat on.

Mina Mongoose groaned in her slumber, shifting slightly towards the edge of the bed; Nack's arm shot out to push her back. While there hadn't been any specific instruction other than to deliver Mina to their client, he could only imagine that they didn't want to bring damaged goods. No one paid good money to have a pretty girl kidnapped, only to have said pretty girl showing up looking like she got hit by a six wheeler.

The girl shifted again; green eyes were opening blearily. Nack nodded at Bark and Bean. The bear shifted away from his corner to stand in front of the door, while the dynamo slid over by Stella at the window. The fox girl quickly slammed the potential escape route closed. Her ponytail nearly hit Bean across the face when she turned back to the bed where the young singer lay groaning.

"Wha…where…where am I…?" She mumbled, sitting up to rub her eyes. Nack didn't bother to turn towards the mongoose; he just rubbed out his cigar on the filthy yellow bedsheet. For a second she stared, eyes half lid, at the burn mark below her feet. Then, after taking a shocked look around, she let out an ear piercing shriek. Nack flinched and snapped around to stare at her with wide eyes.

"Whoa, she's loud." Bean commented. Nack looked back and forth desperately, then pounced forward to slap a gloved hand over her mouth. She immediately began gnawing viciously on the leather. The weasel snapped his fingers with a snort and Bean pulled rope out from under the bed to snap between his hands. The purple haired popstar froze.

"Restrain her, for god's sake." Nack groaned, rubbing his temples. He felt a headache coming on. "And DON'T forget the gag. Here I almost thought she'd have the common sense to NOT act like a spaz but hey, no credit where it's due."

"W-wait!" Mina's shriek pierced the air and they all turned to her with suspicion clear on their faces. She covered her mouth slightly as Nack's spare hand drummed impatiently against the gun at his side. "Wait. I mean…wait. Let me…negotiate."

"Negotiate?" Nack said incredulously; the popstar could almost hear the beginning of a laugh in the back of the weasel's throat. He dipped his head in thought for a moment, holding his hat over his eyes, before he finally let it out and threw back his head in a loud cackle. Mina bunched up the blanket atop her, lips pursing in annoyance and ears drooping downwards. As his laughter faded out, the weasel spun around; Mina flinched visibly as he slammed his boot against the frame of the bed and leaned down to her eyelevel. Amusement danced in his eyes as a wicked smile spread across his face to expose his sharp overbite.

"That's cute, popstar. That's real cute. But I don't do negotiation with targets. They have a tendency of backing out of the payment." Nack sneered. "I'd rather sit with the thousands I'm getting just for babysitting your ass from here to Station Square than waste my time on your false pleas. Now, was there anything else you wanted to blubber about before we head over to Spagonia and chart the first ship the hell out of here?"

"Station Square? Babysit?" Mina repeated blankly. "Who…who hired you, anyways? And why me?"

Nack shrugged. "That's for me to know and you to find out when we get to Station Square."

"He never asked!" Bean supplemented from his perch on the windowsill. Nack shot him a fiery glare and the duck just shrugged. "Well, you didn't."

"What a clod." Mina commented, crossing her arms.

"He really is." Bean agreed.

"Sometimes not so good at thinking straight, yeah." Stella said with a wide smile.

"I appreciate the HELP, you two, I really do, but shockingly it is NOT DOING MUCH." Nack said through gritted teeth, pulling his gun out of his holster to aim at Bean's head. The bird just put up his hands by his side defensively and rolled his eyes with a smile. In front of him, Stella tilted her head to the side in confusion. Mina watched in confusion as the three of them banter.

This wasn't the bandits as she had formerly known them. Or at least, it wasn't how she seen them in her mind. She hadn't had any direction interactions since their little gang was formed but she could frontally remember picturing her failed assassin as being, well, more dignified than THIS. Now they were just running around the room like children yelling (well, in Bean's case, laughing)—it was as if the weasel and the duck had forgotten about her entirely. The only one who seemed to remember his post was the serious looking polar bear…although slight twitches of annoyance seemed to be peeking at his right eye. She supposed that she wouldn't be happy either if she were him.

"So you're Ms. Mina!"

"H-huh?!" Mina tore her eyes away from the pair of idiots to look down at the little girl who had crawled onto the bed. Stella now sat crosslegged aside the mongoose. Her eyes shone with what couldn't be mistaken for anything but pure adoration and admiration. Mina recognized this girl—this had been the girl that had stopped the van. So apparently she WAS with these three…

"Ms. Mina, I just have to say that even though we're kidnapping you, that I really enjoy your work." The girl interrupted her thoughts. "My favorite song of yours is Lookalike, I think its just so catchy and touching! I know that you caught some slack from your managers for changing genres for a little while, but your voice is pretty no matter what kind of music you're singing."

"U-uh…thank you, Miss…?"

"M-MY name? It's Stella Frost! I-It's really nice to meet you!" The little girl just seemed happy that Mina had asked her name at all. Mina gazed away from her over to the three assassins—the polar bear was guarding the door sternly, but his eyes were on the the duck that had left his post at the window to argue with Nack. He was currently atop the television making faces at the weasel, who had uncomfortably enough still had his gun out and was tickling the trigger. Mina pulled the blanket closer to her chin.

She tried to stay strong, and rely on herself, but Mina couldn't lie that being right in the middle of the danger sent chills down her spine. In the back of her mind she still felt the urge to freeze up at the sight of the weapon being waved around, at the sheer size of the bear surveying the situation. She had helped in fights before, but…sometimes she panicked. And right now, she could feel panic rising in her throat. Her eyes darted fearfully over to the window.

With a quick hop, she was out of the bed and at the sill; Nack and Bean immediately snapped to attention as she stuck her head out. The night wind tousled her lavender locks around her green eyes; they stung with the force of the wind around her. Blinking the tears out of the way she finally was able to focus…and what she saw practically froze her in her tracks. They had to be on at least the fifth or sixth floor. She could barely even see the people walking around below.

"Real shame. REAL shame." Mina jolted to attention to look over to the weasel resting his elbow on the windowsill. His hand held his head up, his muzzle ripe with a smug grin. "I'm kind of offended, you know. I know we have a reputation, but you couldn't have possibly expected us to not foresee that obvious of an escape attempt. We ARE professionals."

"Y…you…how dare…" Mina stuttered. She could feel that helpless feeling setting in, tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. Her legs gave out from underneath her. Nack simply lit up cigarette quietly, blowing a trail of smoke into the dark air as she collapsed against the side of the windowsill. She had tried to control it, this fear of hers, but it was taking over…the uncertainty. The fear. All those childish feelings that she had convinced that she had buried away once she had set into her career.

Apparently not.

"Cut the waterworks. They won't do any good." Nack said, letting the cigarette hang out between his fingers. She looked up, ignoring the little girl that had crawled beside her to pat her arm in an act of mock comfort. "Look, I don't like your type, popstar. Peppy, whiny, bratty, and cue the waterworks as soon as any trouble comes up. And I can imagine you don't like me either. Me or anyone here. I can already list off what you're thinking of us. Dirty, cheap, evil, cruel, rude, the list goes on. But for the next few days, or maybe even weeks, we're gonna have to just deal with it."

"Just deal with it?!" Mina finally spat through her tears. "Just DEAL with it?! You kidnapped me! You laid a trap with this…this innocent little girl as your pawn! And now you just expect me to COOPERATE with you while you drag me across the ocean just so that you can turn me over to some lunatic who could just do who knows WHAT to me?! S-Sonic…!"

"…does not need to know about this but we'll deal with that once it happens." Nack bit his lip. He probably already did know about it. That stupid hedgehog had a bad habit of showing up wherever he wasn't wanted. And Mina Mongoose's support and alliance with the Freedom Fighters was legendary. She even had a few songs about the group. Shameless brainwashing promotion, or at least he'd say that if it wasn't for the fact that everyone loved those self-righteous idiots anyways.

It didn't change that he was being glared at by the pop star, though. He sighed and snuffed out his cigar, crouching down by her so they could see eye to eye. She flinched backwards and pushed past Stella, smashing against the wall. An immediate look of rejection flashed across the child's features; Nack pulled her over by the arm and patted her head reassuringly. He groaned when the child buried her head in his shoulder; Stella wasn't THAT hurt, he knew, she was just trying to distract him. She HAD expressed a clear fondness for the singer, after all…

"…Did you kidnap her too?" Mina asked nervously. Nack didn't reply; he just holstered his gun. With a sigh he swept a hand under the fox's tail and propped her up against him as he stood to take her back to the bed. The mongoose could see the child's eyes drooping. "Hey. Hey, answer me. Did you snatch that poor girl up from her parents? Are you waiting on some ransom for them, you…you…!"

She was surprised to find the barrel of Nack's gun at her forehead again, with his fang bared. "Stella is none of your business. That's our business and our business alone. Do NOT mention her parents again, understand?"

"I…I…o-okay..." Mina stuttered. Nack nodded approvingly and shoved his gun back into its holster, turning back to look at the girl behind them. She hadn't been roused by their hissing argument—the fox had curled up into a ball in the blanket, eyes already fallen shut.

"You joining her or not?"

"W-what?" Mina stuttered. Nack rolled his eyes.

"You joining her or not? You wanna sleep on the bed, or you wanna stay there on the damn floor? I can guarantee it ain't gonna make your back feel good." Nack jutted his thumb towards the bed. "Don't get any funny ideas, popstar. Bark and I will be on staggered shifts to watch over you and make sure you stay riiiiight here with us four, safe and sound. We, uh, can't trust Bean with it. But hey, two out of three ain't too bad...so go to sleep and be sure to know that you ain't goin' anywhere without us for a while now."

Mina mumbled an unintelligible answer but rose listlessly to her feet, stumbling over to collapse by the fox kit. The child hummed in her sleep, curling further up against the new source of warmth. Somehow, even with the attentive red-eyed gaze of the massive polar bear, the slow breathing of the little girl was…comforting. Maybe it was because it was the only thing that wasn't so outwardly threatening in her current company.

Mina gazed over her shoulder. The duck had just picked a random corner and fallen asleep in it, for some reason with his butt in the air and his chin resting on a thin suitcase. He snored loudly through his beak—it was an obnoxious sound. In a nearby sofa chair, beaten by long years of rough use by off-color hotel clientele, sat the weasel. He wasn't paying attention to her. Just leafing through some unknown documents. Mina could only assume it was files for this whole kidnapping affair and the wicked weasel was cleaning up paperwork matters. But every once in a while, his fingers ghosted instinctively over his gun at his side.

Mina stared at the wall, fearful and unsure, as she lay in a dark hotel room with burning red eyes watching her every move. And somehow, she felt just as small as the child at her side.