Secret Little Assassin

Truth

"Pickle...?" Blaze stared at the green truck in disbelief as he and AJ picked themselves up. "YOU'RE the one in charge of all this?"

"Of course it was me!" Pickle giggled. "It would be obvious by now, sillies!"

"Obvious? OBVIOUS?! How could you DO THIS, Pickle?!" AJ cried out. "YOU! You... We thought you were our friend!"

"I am, I am! And as your friend, kidnapping you and your family is better than killing you all," Pickle replied smoothly.

"What...?" Blaze blinked at him, confused and still shocked. "What... What do you mean...?"

Pickle sighed and turned. "I'll show you. Just stay here, and I'll get your family too,"

With that, he turned and left. Blaze and AJ watched him leave before turning to Crusher, who shrugged and let out a yawn, rubbing his eyes.

"Damn, one more yawn, and I'm gonna fall asleep,"

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Blaze asked.

"Nah, I can't anyway," Crusher shook his head. "My insomnia's gonna make me stay up anyway,"

"Insomnia? You have insomnia?"

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Blaze," Crusher chuckled. "And being best friends with an assassin is just another one,"

"Wait, Pickle's an ASSASSIN?!" AJ's jaw dropped.

"His whole family is, actually,"

"WHAT?!" Blaze gasped.

"Look, he'll explain more later, promise," Crusher assured them. "Let's just wait for him and your family,"

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Phoenix, Flame and Sparkle drove into the room.

"BLAZE! AJ!"

"MOM! DAD! SPARKLE!" Blaze and AJ immediately met their parents and sister in an embrace. "YOU'RE ALL SAFE!"

"Of course they are," Pickle sighed as he drove in after them, laptop in his tires. "I told you that I kidnapped them, not kill them,"

Blaze tilted his head and drove over to face the green truck. "What do you mean by that?"

"Let me show you," Pickle set his laptop on the table and turned it on. "A few days ago, I had a client with the code name of SPK69 email me about an offer. 10 Billion Dollars to kill his target,"

"And his target was... my family...?"

"No," Pickle looked at him dead in the eye. "His target was you. To kill AJ and your parents would be a bonus kill. In his words, not mine,"

"What... What would happen to Sparkle then...?" AJ asked, even when he felt like he shouldn't.

"...you can already guess what that pedo wants with her," Pickle shrugged.

"But you... didn't accept the offer?" Blaze questioned.

"Of course I didn't!" Pickle laughed. "That would be ridiculous! For one thing; I only kill evil people, like corrupt politicians, pedophiles, those who are corrupted and rich, and etc. And for another; you're my friend, and I know you too well to know that you wouldn't do any bad in your life... even when your life depends on it!"

"So why kidnap us?" AJ asked. "Why didn't you just turn down the offer?"

"If I did, he'd hire up another assassin that WOULD kill you," Pickle pointed out. "so I pretended to get rid of you all to satisfy him,"

"Is it to satisfy him, or is it to get the money too?" Flame raised an eyebrow.

"Both, actually!" Pickle giggled. "but don't worry. All the money never goes to our family anyway. We give most of it to different kinds of charity,"

"Okay... but can you tell us who wanted to kill Blaze?" Phoenix asked.

"Sure, here you go," Pickle turned the laptop to them. "SPK69, a.k.a Speedrick,"

"Speedrick?" Sparkle looked confused as Blaze and AJ paled. "Who's that?"

"Speedrick... no, that can't be," the red truck was in disbelief as he shook his head. "He... He's our friend! He couldn't have...!"

"Blaze, I'm an assassin," Pickle deadpanned. "If I could do harm, who says that HE can't? Besides, have you actually MET him?"

"I have... and he's never done anything wrong!" Blaze defended. "Well, except for the time he placed tire locks on everyone to stop them from going fast, but he's learned his lesson since then!"

"Tell that to the time he placed tire locks on me to get to Crusher." Pickle grumbled at the memory.

"O~Kay, I actually wanted to forget that memory..." Crusher gagged.

"Blaze, he's right," AJ agreed. "We don't know Speedrick that much to assure them that he isn't the one who arranged this. I mean, look," He motioned to the screen of the laptop. "This picture is of you when you got to Velocity Ville. Plus Speedrick already had his initials in 'SPK', so it DOES make sense,"

"I know, I know..." Blaze sighed. "It's just that... those I knew... they... they were never what I thought I knew,"

"I'm so sorry, Blaze," Phoenix patted her son's back comfortingly.

"I know it's hard, kiddo, but this is life," Flame told him. "Sometimes things, and people, aren't what they seem,"

"R-Right," Blaze nodded and wiped the tears threatening to roll down his cheeks. "But what now?"

"Well, you guys can't leave the apartment yet, or Speedrick will KNOW that I didn't kill anyone," Pickle told them then he held a heavy-looking sack. "I'll bring this to trick him into thinking that I'm bring Sparkle then after I get the money, I'll kill him. Easy as that,"

"What if he catches onto you, Pickle?" AJ asked, worried.

"Don't worry, he won't," Pickle grinned and turned, slamming his laptop shut. "You guys should get some rest. Hopefully, by tomorrow, this will all finally be done, and you all can go home,"

"But I can't sleep..." Crusher whined.

"Don't worry, big fella, you will eventually," Pickle laughed and patted his shoulder before turning to drive out.

"I'm just glad that you guys are safe and sound," Blaze sighed as he hugged his family. "When you were all getting kidnapped, I didn't even know if I was gonna see you guys again,"

"I thought I was gonna die!" Sparkle shuddered. "That basement of Pickle's is scary,"

"First of all, I think that's the intention he's going for," Crusher pointed out before rolling his eyes. "Second, if you wanna catch up with one another, can you please do it somewhere else? Or maybe tomorrow? Too much family fluff for me to handle,"

"Well, how would you feel if YOU'RE family got kidnapped?" AJ huffed.

"Happy," Crusher deadpanned then he shrugged. "Eh, but it doesn't matter. It's not as if they're alive, anyway,"

"What...?"

Blaze's eyes widened, as did the rest of them, but before any of them could say anything else, the dark blue truck turned to a hall and drove away.