To say that Tiger was not excited to be working with Hammy was an understatement.
Now, Tiger didn't dislike any of the hedgies in the slightest. He actually quite enjoyed the company of some of them. Obviously, he was with Stella, he liked someone who could dish and take. He respected RJ's leadership (even if his plans did have a few too many moving parts to them), and he actually quite enjoyed the company of Ozzie and especially the porcupine family, even if the latter left him with multiple quills stuck in him.
But then there were others like Hammy, who he was stuck on this mission with. Again, he didn't hate any members of the hedgies at all, but Hammy tended to push his tolerance level to the utmost max.
As for why that was the case?
"Oooh, Tiger, what if you had another name, like Stanley!" Hammy spoke aloud.
Yeah, Hammy did not know the meaning of the word quiet.
Tiger bit back a retort as he knew that any insult against the squirrel would hurt his feelings, and he knew that if there was one rule he had to follow, it was don't insult Hammy. Verne apparently learned that the hard way, even if it was by complete accident.
Thankfully, he didn't need to worry about that now, since the house was in view. Tiger was observant enough to note that the sprinklers that would usually be on around this time were off, which was good news to him. Letting out a small sigh of relief, he turned to Hammy.
"This has to be easy." Tiger spoke.
"Why?" Hammy asked.
"Listen, hear anything?" Tiger replied, before going quiet, letting Hammy hear what he was hearing…or what he wasn't hearing.
"I only hear my own thoughts." Hammy replied, much to Tiger's chagrin. "Are we listening for anything food related?"
"No-I mean…no Hammy." Tiger said, barely catching himself from snapping. "No sprinklers means the family is out right now."
"Oh…" Hammy replied. "So, we're free?"
"Yes, we're free." Tiger spoke, before looking at the house. "Only question is…how do we get in?"
As much as Tiger loved to flaunt his supposed intelligence, even he had to admit that his heisting left a bit to be desired. Part of that reason was him simply overthinking things, which he could acknowledge was much like RJ in a way. However, while RJ's reason for overthinking came from just simple grandeur and stuff he just found fun, Tiger's overthinking came from second-guessing himself.
That heist where he brought the others out after RJ found out about the Taxidermist was the crux of all this. He kept telling himself that he didn't know, and even Stella admitted that this was new territory for them in general. Yet Tiger just couldn't forgive himself for being so insensitive.
"Could we get in through the window?" He mumbled to himself.
"Oooh, Tiger, Tiger!"
Oh great, just what he needed.
"Yes, Hammy?" He asked, barely able to mask his annoyance.
"We could go through this door." The hyperactive squirrel replied.
A door? Unless Hammy forgot that there was no way they could get through a human-sized door since it'd obviously be locked, then he was curious just what Hammy was on about. Upon heading over to where the squirrel was, he saw what he meant.
A pet door.
"I remember you came out of one of those." Hammy spoke. "So, what if we went through…right there!"
The logic was sound enough, which certainly surprised Tiger considering he usually just wrote off Hammy's thoughts as nothing really that particularly special. However, what made things particularly good was a small red light above the small pet door. He recognized this from his old pet door, where his old collar would be used to get inside.
"This works." Tiger spoke, and trotted over to the door, and without any sort of buildup that could build suspense in this chapter, the light flicked to green, meaning the door was unlocked. Of course, he had to make sure to thank Heather for tinkering around with his collar, making the signal universal.
But who was the pet door for? Once getting inside the house, they found out exactly who.
A decently big dog that was passed out in the kitchen. Tiger nearly wanted to just call a retreat once he saw that thing laying there. Sure, it may've been asleep, but cats and dogs do not mix for a big reason. He could take many of the smaller critters easy, but a dog, especially one of that size? He might as well be writing his will.
It didn't help that Hammy was starting to make some noise. Noise that would probably awaken the dog from its slumber. Briefly looking out of the pet door they just came in, Tiger took note of the doghouse with the name "Nugent" written above the arch.
How did he miss that?
"Nugent, who's that?" Hammy said.
"Hammy, shush." Tiger sharply spoke to Hammy. He could tell that was a bit harsh, but he'd take the chewing out later. He just didn't want to be chewed on. By a dog obviously.
"Hammy, be very quiet." Tiger spoke, gesturing towards Nugent. Hammy seemed to realize this and was about to reply until Tiger quickly slapped a paw over his mouth.
"Please, quiet." Tiger said, not removing his paw from Hammy. "Okay?"
Hammy would just nod, and true to his word, he went quiet. Tiger resisted the urge to let out a sigh of relief, in case that was what caused Nugent to wake up. He had so much to do, so much to see, so much to discover, he had no time to have his end come at the hands of a dog.
Okay, focus on the objective Tiger. Where was that garage? Logic dictates that the garage would be on the ground floor, AKA first floor, so they were on the right track. Also, they entered through the back, so the entrance could very well be near the front of the house.
Yup, Tiger had a pretty good idea on where it could be. Managing to barely sneak out of the kitchen, he noticed a particular door off to the left with, get this, another pet door. It was almost like luck was on their side today for once.
Well, that was if Hammy wasn't making some weird grunting noises. They were quiet however, so maybe he didn't need to worry that much-
"Gahhhhhhhhh." Hammy blurted out, before breathing heavily and effectively causing Tiger's heart to jump up into his throat. He was not expecting that noise to come out of Hammy whatsoever. Of course, that wasn't the only issue.
No, the issue was the sound of the dog getting up.
"In, now!" Tiger spoke, pulling Hammy over to the pet door and quickly clambering inside along with Hammy. Based on how Nugent didn't seem to be barking his head off, that probably meant that Nugent didn't see them. Tiger let out a sigh of relief, but only when was he far enough away from the pet door.
"Sorry, I was being quiet by holding my breath!" Hammy spoke.
Note to self, make sure to ask for permission to throttle Hammy later. He wasn't going to get that permission, but hey, might as well try.
"Hammy, radio please." Tiger spoke, resisting the urge to just knock him on the head. Thankfully, Hammy handed him the radio quickly, although it was likely because of the look on Tiger's face. Hammy knew when he made someone particularly mad.
"RJ, we're in."
"Copy that, we're at the sandpit."
Surprisingly, getting to the sandpit wasn't hard at all. All they had to do was bring the wagon and the car they used for the first wagon heist, and the time to get there was drastically cut down. Sure, the wagon came close to being knocked over a few times, but aside from that, the trip was easy. Heck, the streets actually seemed to be pretty clear from humans, which actually gave the impression that this mission wasn't going to be that hard.
Yeah, the hard part was simply digging the sand.
There were two things RJ was seriously regretting before going out with Verne and Ozzie. The first was the fact that they didn't actually do measurements for the beach. For all he knew, the porcupines could be digging a massive hole that would span at least a few trees, if not more. If they wanted to go for full accuracy, then not only would they have to cover up as much dirt as possible with the sand, but they had to layer the hole with sand. Already, a lot of sand was going to be required.
Then there was the second thing RJ was regretting, and that was not bringing shovels. Okay, RJ at least brought his bag, which was pretty solid for shoveling sand, and Ozzie did find at least one plastic shovel left in the sandpit. That of course left Verne without any tool to shovel with…except for one thing.
His shell.
RJ and Ozzie were taking extra care to avoid turning around to see Verne au naturel. Okay, RJ didn't really care that much, he's seen Verne like that before. Ozzie also did, and he did not like what he saw. That allowed for Ozzie and RJ to have a bit of time to talk amongst each other…not that Verne minded. Anything to keep eyes off him.
"So, RJ, how are you feeling?" Ozzie asked as he shoveled another bit of sand into the wagon. RJ was about to do the same, but hesitated as he processed the question.
"I'm alright Oz." RJ replied. "I'm just glad to be moving about for once."
The conversation kind of trailed off a bit from there, mostly because Ozzie wasn't really sure where to go from there. In a way, he felt he could relate to RJ's situation, as he hated to admit it, but he had his own demons. At the same time however, Ozzie really struggled with trying to address it. It wasn't for a lack of trying, but rather, once again, it was just because Ozzie didn't know what to say.
"Are you mad at Heather by any chance?" Ozzie asked, not even thinking about what that could imply. As much as he was aware of Heather's crush on the raccoon, he knew that in the end, Heather did care about him in a platonic sense as well. Him being mad at her would just crush her.
RJ's deep sigh would seemingly confirm Ozzie's worst fears.
"No, I'm not Oz." RJ replied, allowing Ozzie to relax, at least somewhat. "I'm just glad she's okay."
RJ would then go back to shoveling, not saying a word. The expression on his face however told a story, a story that showed that RJ was in very deep thought. This wasn't unlike his heist thinking, where he would just automatically know what to do. This clearly was something that he had to think about.
"I never thanked her for helping me out that night." RJ spoke. "She saved me from the Taxidermist, and I never thanked her."
Heather never mentioned that bit. Ozzie couldn't blame her, considering that was all over-shadowed by…well it's obvious why it was overshadowed. However, it was still something she did, and that just got the gears turning in Ozzie's head.
"Maybe you should thank her when we get back, I know it'd be a great birthday present…"
Although she wasn't as familiar with the Taxidermist as RJ, being in his backyard sent chills through Heather.
In the woods, at the very least they had the ability to somewhat hide from any humans that came stomping their way through. It wasn't a guarantee, but hey, it's better than nothing.
This was the equivalent of going right up to a serial killer alone without any protection and asking them to attack you.
"Whoa…so this is where he lives?" Luby asked. Heather could only nod her head in response to this. In the meantime, Stella was peeking through the glass door, trying to find any sort of movement. The door was already open, which already tipped them off that something was amiss, which prompted Stella to just double check.
"Anything Stella?" Heather asked.
"No, nothin' there!" Stella replied, heading back over. Judging by the expression on her face, she was definitely worried that at any moment, he would show up.
"I still can't believe we're doing this." Stella spoke. "I mean, there has to be another way that doesn't involve us getting skewered."
"Unfortunately, no, I think we have to do this." Heather replied, before moving towards the door and squeezing through, with the others following suit. "Remember, all we need to do is to the basement, grab the evidence, and get out."
"So…how do you know this place?" Luby asked. "Because it seems like you really do."
Oh yeah, Luby didn't know the history with the Taxidermist. To her, it was a dangerous human, which, okay, was pretty much how everyone else viewed him. To RJ however, it was more than that. This was a human that terrified him more than that bear.
"We went for a heist here one time before we realized who it was." Heather replied, and as she said that she looked over at the fridge. She shivered, not just because of the cold radiating off it, but because of that meat she had discovered there.
"What's up?" Luby asked, clearly noticing the discomfort.
"You don't want to know what's in the freezer." The opossum replied. Luby looked back at the freezer, and while she looked tempted to see just what she was talking about, she resisted the urge.
"This human…it's personal I assume." Luby said.
"With RJ, yeah." Heather replied. "He encountered him before, scared him really badly, caused him to get lost in the woods."
Luby didn't reply to this, instead just looking ahead. Heather wasn't really sure what to think at this point. Luby was clearly getting all this, but she seemed more…reserved in her reactions towards this knowledge. She wasn't expecting her to be over the top shocked, but she was thinking of something more than that.
"Huh…okay then." Was Luby's response.
Arriving at the basement door, the three of them took a moment to collect their thoughts. This was it. There was no turning back now. They had to do this, not only for them, but for RJ.
"Okay, all we need to do is get the evidence and get out." Heather said.
"Yeah, because we escaped so easily last time." Stella replied.
"That's not very assuring." Luby spoke.
"We got out without any issues…aside from us being scarred for life." Heather quickly replied.
"Again, very reassuring."
Each step down into the dark, unlit basement felt like they were just one wrong move away from death. Everything was just telling them to turn back now, maybe the taxidermist would just…move away for whatever reason. Maybe there would be a day where he would just take care of himself and leave.
That was all wishful thinking unfortunately, especially once Luby got a look of the skinned pelts lining the walls.
"What the…" Luby mumbled, her words escaping her as she gazed at the horror before her. Heather and Stella could barely make out the pelts on the walls, and the two had to resist the urge to freeze in their tracks. Luby on the other hand…
"Oh no…that's…I think that was-"
"Luby, shh." Stella spoke. "We jus' need'ta grab a pelt and get outta here."
If only things seemed that simple, because as soon as they got their wits about them, they heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs.
Another chapter complete, this time with RJ and Ozzie having a talk, Tiger dealing with Hammy's antics, and now Heather, Stella, and Luby in deep trouble.
Yeah I don't have that much to say about this chapter, bye!
