Chapter Thirteen

Two Steps Ahead

You know, Nack thought listlessly, I really need to stop getting thrown in jail.

Well, thrown was a delicate term. It was more along the lines of that after his encounter with Vanessa and Sonic, he had unpleasantly woken up to the putrid stench that usually followed along with buildings full of half-washed felons. Now, this wasn't a particularly unusual occurrence, but it usually followed along with a hard bout of pure rage boiling in his stomach that would be promptly vented to his cohorts (who typically would barely pay any attention to him, if any).

But the first thing that him when he awoke behind bars was pure nausea and welting pain from a bruise developing around his eye.

They had screwed up.

For good, this time.

Hundred of miles across the world for nothing, not a single penny of payoff. Hours upon hours of listening to the popstar complain and croon songs and it had all been for nothing. Misfortunate and jail time seemed to follow any encounter he had with Mina Mongoose—maybe, the weasel thought in the back of his head, he should just stop accepting any work that involved her. It never seemed to end well, always with him in a jail cell and someone getting threatened. It certainly didn't help that he wasn't stuck with the simplicity of just sitting there waiting for their typical chance at an inevitable breakout.

Oh no. Of course not. That luxury had finally fallen to the wayside. Now he was stuck here, locked up tight in a cell and stripped of all his weapons, while god knew what was going down outside.

And God help him, Nack actually felt bad. He actually felt responsible.

That damn kid is starting to get to me...children, I swear. Nothing but a bunch of trouble waiting to happen.

Not that there was anything he could do about it anymore. Wasn't much he could do for the kid, and there wasn't much he could do about his paycheck either. The Hooligans had been bamboozled again. All he could do was grunt and lower his hat over his eyes in annoyance, lying back against the wall as his teammates cast glances at him. It wasn't like he hadn't expected it; he knew what the moralist of the group was thinking. He could practically hear Bark saying it. It's our responsibility to go help them. We have created this mess, and endangered someone under our protection. Blah blah blah, do-gooder bullshit.

Or maybe that was the hint of guilt still nagging at the back of his skull. Nack couldn't quite tell anymore.

"Could you get my jacket?"

Nack groaned. Leave it to the bird to break the mood. He would've been thankful if Bean wasn't so annoying.

"No, Bean, I can't get your straightjacket. It's electroshock." When the bird just stared at him with a blank, waiting smile, Nack was overcome with the urge to smack him into next week. "If I touch it, I'll get electrocuted and so will you. Get it now, dimwit? I'm not hurtin' myself just so you can fail to get out of your cuffs. Now go sit in a corner or something."

"But we gotta go get our paycheck. There wasn't time to get it." Nack could feel a headache coming on. "We should get them to pay us in gold. Heavy, pretty, shiny gold. Hold it up to the sun and you know its real—"

"WE'RE NOT GETTING PAID, Bean. They gyped us. Vanessa screwed us over, she was behind it the whole goddamn time." Nack snapped irritably. Bark sighed lightly, turning away to look out the barred window. His smaller companion simply stared back at the weasel with a dumb smile on his face. "She took the money, she took the target, and she took the ward. We ain't got anything left and we ain't getting anything more. Welcome to the absolute rock bottom. Sit back and get comfortable because it's gonna be a long time."

"Aw, you're always like that whenever we get thrown in." Nack flicked an ear irritably; Bean ignored it, staring out the same window that Bark was gazing through. The vapid smile had not dissipated from his face. "Y'get all grumpy, and yell-y, and swear a lot, and bitch about how we really messed up this time. You'll get over it."

"It's different."

"How?"

"It just is, alright? Shut up, Bean. I don't want to talk with you." Nack snapped, barring his long fang at the bird tied up on the bench across from him. As usual it didn't threaten the dynamo in the least. Bean just nudged his way over to Bark's bench to rest his beak on the windowsill, staring out into the quickly setting sun. Across the darkening city, pricks of light were beginning to light up Station Square. In the far distance, aside the beach, long lines from spotlights sprung through the urban skyscrapers. Their purple and pink colors streaked across the clouds and buildings, as if to drag the denizens of the city into their thrall.

"You think that's where the concert is?" Nack snorted at Bean's question. "Do you think it's the mongoosy's concert?"

"I don't know and I don't care."

"Do you think that's where they're keeping Stella?"

"I don't…I don't care, Bean. Just shut up."

They fell back into an uncomfortable silence again, Bark and Bean hanging on the edge of the window staring out as Nack's eyes stayed firmly and stubbornly glued to the brick wall across from him. Occasionally the long reaching spotlights would flash through the bars to illuminate them in bright pinks or purples; the single flickering bulb above them couldn't hope to drown out the powerful colors. Yet neither Bark or Bean budged as the lights hit their eyes, staring almost morosely out towards the spectacle buried behind walls of skyscrapers and pavement.

Somehow, those fluorescent lights made the dingy cell feel more welcoming. Yet it also made that nausea surface in Nack's stomach again, his shoulders hunching in frustration as he sunk back against the wall as he watched the patterns that flashed occasionally onto the cell floor. It was a simple cement floor but every whorl and imperfection seemed to be illuminated by those lights. If he had been a more artistic man he would've considered how nice it made such an ugly surface seem—instead he just pushed his hat over his eyes again to block out the show.

A loud clang against the bars woke him from his sulking reverie, though. Bark and Bean had both jumped backwards from the window, their backs slamming against the cell bars. An electric shock ran across the duck and he fell wheezing against the polar bear, who swung the bird onto his shoulders as his fur bristled. Fists rose defensively in front of him as Nack stumbled to his feet to behold the odd sight in front of him. The sight of one of the last people he expected to see at the windowsill of the Hooligan's jail cell.

He checked everything off in his head—yellow fox, bright blue eyes, white gloves with red shoes, and a pair of distinctive white tipped tails that swung in a rapid helicopter motion behind him. Yeah, the weasel was DEFINITELY seeing Sonic's little sidekick brat, but he wasn't quite sure if he wasn't hallucinating as he watched Miles Prower float outside their window. If the weasel had his guns where they SHOULD'VE been, right in his hands, then he would've shot first and thought later. Right now he had no such option and found himself just freezing up to glare through the bars at the fox darkened by the distant spotlights.

"H-hey! Lower your fists!" Tails protested, pistoning backwards to shield himself with his shoes. "I'm not here to fight!"

"You got a funny way of showin' it, kid, what with throwin' us in here and all! If you hadn't wanted to fight then you would've stayed away from our jobs to begin with!" Nack growled, slamming his boot down on the hard wood bench next to the barred windows. A malicious chuckle rippled out when the yellow fox twitched and inched backwards nervously. "What's wrong, kiddo? You ain't SCARED of us just because your nanny goat bodyguard isn't here, are you? Does everyone's favorite hedgehog even know his little baby brat is hanging around a jail?"

"What?! N-no! Look, stop trying to pick a fight, okay?! This is serious!" Tails snapped defensively. His gloved hands grasped on the bars of the window to pull himself against the bars. "I need to talk to you three."

"I ain't got jackshit I need to talk to you about."

"It's about the cult…"

"I don't CARE."

"…and the fate of this entire city, maybe this entire PLANET…"

"You not know English, punk?"

"…and Miss Mina…"

"Oh, cry me a river. Like I give a shit about Popcorn."

"…and its about the little kid."

"…Fer God's sake. You're even more annoying than she is. How th' hell does Sonic put up with someone so talkative and obnoxious?" Nack sighed—he should've known better than to think he would just be allowed to sit by and ignore everything. But he had damn well been hoping that he could, no matter how irritable and nauseous it made him. Though now that irritable nausea was being replaced by cautious nausea…this kid, as good hearted as he was, had always been nothing short of infuriating. He was too clever, that was the damn problem. Even as the weasel spoke to him, he could see a glimmer of knowing in the yellow fox's eyes as he led up to the Frost family ward that they kept guard of.

"So will you hear me out?" Tails asked hesitantly. Nack glanced over to his team; Bean had a goofy smile plastered on his beak and Bark had already huddled into a more compliant posture. If he wanted to tell the kid to back off, he certainly would have no support in the decision. The weasel groaned under his breath and gave a slight nod. "T-thanks. I know you don't trust me, and I don't trust you guys either, but something isn't RIGHT here. Something just feels, I don't know, a little off. And I was hoping that you could help me figure out what that WAS. You all acted so weird back there."

"Let me guess, your fearless leader didn't notice anything out of place whatsoever." Nack said sarcastically. The genius fox's grip on the bars tightened considerably as his lips pursed tightly—the weasel let out a cackle. "No need to get all bent outta shape, everyone knows that you and the Princess are the brains of the operation. Sonic's clever but he's a bleeding heart underneath that annoying grandstanding. Not as easy to fool as that idiot Knuckles, but not much of a feat to pull the wool over his eyes either. So lemme see if I can put the pieces together: Vanessa somehow bamboozled Sonic into letting her out by making herself out to be the victim despite being in prison."

"Well, I mean, she said she was…"

"A victim of us. The Hooligans. And it was easy to believe, weren't it? You've fought us enough to believe we'd start some kind of trouble with her." Nack sneered. Tails flushed, his hands dropping to the bottom of the bars shamefully. "I can't say I blame ya even if you're causing me more trouble than you're worth. Though you must be thrilled that you let out an attempted kiddie-killer cultist."

"Well, the last part is new on us too, tooth." Bean reminded the purple weasel. Nack simply rolled his eyes.

"'Kiddie-killer'…?" Tails said uncertainly. Nack climbed up onto the bench to make direct eye contract with the yellow fox; he had to admit, he was a little impressed that the kit didn't recoil just at meeting the more harrowed glare of a trained mercenary. Instead his glared back with big, blue, determined eyes. It seemed that this particular kid didn't get his foolhardy determination from just being around the Freedom Fighters. No, it was homegrown and individual determination.

Do all kids have that or something?

I gotta stop letting these little brats get to me, I swear.

"We'll tell you all about it. Hell, we'll even HELP you with your stupid problem. But…" Nack pulled his glove down further onto his hand, the metal strapped onto the middle flashing against the spotlights and right into Tails' eyes. The fox winced slightly. "…we won't do it for free."

"Do you do anything for free?" Tails asked in a defeated tone.

"Not typically, no."

"Fine. How much do you want?"

"You get us out of here with our weapons in tow. And an acquittal for anything we got charged for in this miserable job. Everything goes back to square one, with all of us away from your little hero group. ALL of us." Nack stated smugly. Tails seemed to be catching his drift. "Then, MAYBE we'll help you clean up this mess that could've been avoided if you two had just butted the hell out."

"Wouldn't we still have given Mina to a cult and ruined everything?" Bean interrupted loudly.

"Shut up, Bean."

"You want your weapons? Well, I mean, I already got that part covered, Sonic and I took charge of your belongings for the good of the Freedom Fighters." Tails remarked. Nack gaped; THAT was where his lost weapons went whenever he went to jail? To THESE losers?! He could barely stand to think about it. "As for getting you out…it depends on how big and showy it can be."

Nack grinned widely, his fang glistening in the light.

"The bigger, the better."

"Then I'm gonna need some rope to tie to this window…and my plane."

The weasel's grin dissipated a bit.

Nothing could ever just be easy, could it.