CHAPTER 4
"Paulie? Hudson?" A familiar, soft voice called out to them both. The pretztail picked up the sound as he felt a nudge against his arm. It was enough to stir him from his slumber. "...Paulie?" The voice noticed the pretztail twitch slightly, Paulie could pin that voice to a pinata in an instant.
"...Tina?" He groaned, peeling his eyes open slowly as the light from the torches on the deteriorating walls attacked his eyes. By the sound of her voice he knew they had reached their destination, but he couldn't remember half of the journey of getting here. He lifted his head up, his vision focusing on the half-twingersnap who wore a rather large, white cowboy hat. Her other half was still long gone after a dispute left them going separate ways. Instead, her end was bandaged up into a makeshift tail.
"Thank goodness you're okay, Paulie!" Tina smiled at the pretztail, but only for the moment, knowing there was only one reason why the pretztail would be around these parts. Paulie's underground encampment was in trouble and traveling through their one way escape route to the sewers only confirmed it further. "You two came through the tracks out cold! What happened?" The twingersnap started asking the hard questions to a pretztail still trying to grasp at reality.
"...I dunno, last thing I remember was that I was running… And then I blacked out," Paulie glanced about with his recovering eyes, searching out for a certain Horstachio. His eyes found Hudson in the cot next to his, snoring like a rashberry. "Hudson must have carried me the rest of the way," his mind subconsciously pushed out all thoughts and mentions of Fergy from his recent memory, leaving him slightly confused about how he passed out in the first place.
"Well, whatever the case, I'm just glad you two are still in one piece," Tina nodded, soon turning her attention to the horstachio as well. "But geez, Hudson snores worse than my brother!" The twingersnap complained which prompted Paulie to ask her a question.
"How's Teddington doing anyways? You still talk with him anymore?" He was genuinely concerned, knowing their bumpy relationship across the years back when things were easy. Hearing her other half's name, Tina instantly scowled, wishing Paulie would have kept his yap shut.
"Fine… Just, fine," Tina didn't elaborate on anything, hoping Paulie wouldn't pry her for more information. Paulie was intent on keeping up with his friend, it had been too long since their last reunion. Discussions of catching up with the times took his mind off the situation at hand.
"So you two at least on speaking terms now?" The pretztail asked inquisitively. Tina rarely got along with her brother, but she would put their bitter history behind her if it meant gathering a resistance and protecting their own kind. Communication was necessary, if not annoying, brief, and few and far between.
"Hardly," the twingersnap rolled her eyes, "and I intend to keep it that way too!" She glared at Paulie, making sure he wouldn't get any ideas of pressuring them to back together again. Of course the first few weeks of separation were rough for Tina, forgetting her other half was practically on the other side of the island countless of times. Eventually, the fact stuck with her that Teddington wasn't there anymore.
"I uh, see…" Paulie felt a little awkward for bringing it up, but it was nice to know that Teddington was still alive, at least according to Tina. Before another word could be said, a bandana-masked mallowolf had made his way into the room, crossing his arms and glaring at both the horstachio and pretztail once he made his entrance. He made himself comfortable, leaning his back against the wall. Tipping his hat down at the pretztail in acknowledgement, the mallowolf turned his head to speak to Tina.
"Looks like our visitors are doing just fine," he commented while eying up Paulie's rifle, which lied against the cot the pretztail was laying in. They didn't have many firearms for their ragtag group of soldiers and Paulie's sniper rifle was mighty alluring to the shady mallowolf. "Though I'm curious to why you trust these... outsiders," he branded them carefully, though he couldn't help but recognize them from somewhere before. His rash words had set Tina off, taking offense for her friends.
"They're not outsiders, Marvin! I know these people!" She hissed at the mallowolf. Despite being the one who found them, Marvin wasn't fond of them. Regardless, he took them for interrogation, with Tina's permission of course. But plans entirely changed when the twingersnap found out who it was exactly that Marvin found. The fact that they costed him the chance to deliver a good beating didn't sit well with him. Through the mallowolf's eyes, it was boring down here, most of the action was up above, but also certain death. Marvin was bored, but certainly not suicidal.
"They're outsiders to me," Marvin figured he would get the best out of the deal by at least seeing what this ragtag duo was all about. "And I've told you a thousand times, the name's El Sketcho," Marvin didn't like going by his former name at all, but Tina would have none of it.
"Whatever, El Scrapo," the twingersnap would have been gutted by the mallowolf for that kind of remark if she wasn't the leader of their whole group. He had too much respect for Tina to let his pride get in the way. They needed each other in these dark times. El Sketcho needed a place lay low from the chaos and Tina and her crew needed a pinata who was fast on the draw. The mallowolf dropped the pencils and papers in exchange for knife throwing, or anything that was sharp, bladed, and pointed for that matter.
"El Sketcho?" Paulie recited the name, recalling it from way back in the hayday. The pretztail knew the mallowolf looked familiar with that goofy looking bandana over his muzzle and that duster hat on his head. All those years of drinking had nearly washed Marvin from his memories. "I'm surprised you're still around!" Paulie smiled, happy to see another familiar face.
"Surprised?" Marvin raised an eyebrow, wondering why the pretztail would even be so in the slightest. The mallowolf had more experience under his belt than Paulie could ever dream of. But Marvin could see the drastic change the pretztail made since they last met, especially through his eyes. "I'm more surprised about you pretztail, thought the world would have chewed you up and spat you out by now," Marvin replied with brutal honesty that hadn't phased the pretztail at all.
"Hey, when the mache hit the fan, it either made us or broke us," Paulie crossed his arms with a smug, candy-eating grin. His cocky attitude didn't go over so well with the mallowolf.
"Glad to see that celebrity status didn't go to your head 'er nothin'," Marvin replied in dry sarcasm. Being fluent in it himself, Paulie interpreted it as an attack, but didn't let it hurt him in the slightest.
"Ouch," Paulie feigned getting hit in the heart by a bullet. "I can see your words are still as sharp as your aim," the pretztail laughed it off. It was true though, off the camera Paulie used his status to hook up with as many girls as he possibly could. It wasn't until the show finally ended that he tried to settle down with someone. Though his motives seemed to fail time and time again as no one had any interest in a has-been. And things only had gotten worse since then.
"Anyways," Tina cut in, returning their attention to the matter at hand, "they're fine, no need to worry, Marvin," the twingersnap motioned with an upward nod for the mallowolf to leave. Marvin refused to budge from his spot, wanting to catch up with old acquaintances. He completely ignored Tina and continued to converse with the pretztail.
"What brings you city-slickers down here anyways?" Marvin asked at the pretztail, Tina turning also to face Paulie for an answer, wanting to ask the same question herself. The pretztail glanced over to the sleeping horstachio for a moment to recollect his thoughts from before.
"Well, Hudson dropped by bearing a message, but before he could say anything about it, Pinata Central was all over us!" Paulie began, El sketcho still hiding behind his poker face. Tina showed showing great concern for the pretztail's story. "We got out of there no problem, but… Something happened," Paulie began to think a bit harder to recall what exactly happened. Tina slithered a bit closer, growing curious to what happened next.
"Sounds bad if you can't remember it, did you get hit on the head on the way over here?" Tina wondered. "I know the ride down isn't exactly safe, but I was certain Prewitt would have worked out all the kinks with the tunnel…" Tina scratched the back of her head with her stub of a tail.
"Maybe," Paulie shrugged it off, "but all I remember was Hudson talking about something horrible he saw inside of Pinata Central and that he needed my help with it." The pretztail could remember no more.
"Hudson made it into Pinata Central!?" Tina blurted out, eyes wide in awe at the feat. It even managed to make El Sketcho raise an eyebrow for a moment as the twingersnap went on. "You've gotta be kidding me! No one comes back alive from that place! No-body!" She glance over at Hudson, who was still peacefully snoring away.
"Well he did!" Paulie replied with just as much enthusiasm, taking pride for the horstachio as the pretztail hopped out of bed, strapping his rifle over his back. Marvin butted in once again, bringing something else entirely to the conversation.
"By the sound of it, it seems like you two are heading back into that hellhole," El Sketcho pulled himself from the wall and took a few steps closer to the group. Paulie had to think it over for a moment, wondering if that's what Hudson really intended to do.
"I… I think so," Paulie rubbed his head, trying to coax out some memories to go off of. Nothing of use came to mind as he glanced from face to face. Tina decided to flaunt her authority about in response.
"If that's the case, I won't allow it. You guys are staying here," the twingersnap ordered, causing Paulie to drop his jaw. He wasn't sure why Tina wouldn't grant them the permission to leave, but he was sure going to find out.
"What!? How come?" The pretztail scowled slightly at the twingersnap, who gave it right back to him. It wasn't like Tina to deny her friend's requests.
"We don't go poking our noses about up there and that's that!" Tina put her metaphorical foot down, refusing to budge a single inch. She would rather die than sabotage the wellbeing of everyone here.
"But-!" Paulie started, only to get cut off instantly by the twingersnap getting right in his face.
"But nothing!" She countered boldly, staring the now hesitant pretztail in the eye, "...And by some miracle you DO manage to make your way inside Pinata Central, what would you guys even plan on doing?" Tina bought the hard questions back again.
"I… I dunno, I figured Hudson would come up with something," the pretztail assumed, hoping it would get the twingersnap off of his back.
"And he laid out the welcome mat to your encampment for Pinata Central, what's to say he doesn't screw something else up when you two get out there?!" Tina blathered on carelessly. Thankfully the horstachio was still sound asleep, unable to pick up on the twingersnap's words. Paulie recoiled a bit, knowing that it was Hudson's fault that the pretztail's base had come under attack by Pinata Central Forces. There was no denying that, but Paulie had to look ahead. What hudson was telling him might have given them all a chance at freedom.
"...So this is it, huh?" Was the only thing Paulie could say. "destined to grow old and die in this murky old pit? And that's if we're lucky..." Paulie knew there was the possibility of a rude awakening from Pinata Central but dared not to mention it.
"I'm not gonna argue with you about it, what I say goes," Tina slithered to the doorway, glancing back for a moment, "...Just get some rest." She left them with those words as she made her exit. El Sketcho followed suit. The mallowolf didn't say a word to the pretztail, instead giving a glare that clearly stated he would keep an eye out if the duo tried any funny business. The door closed behind them, an audible lock latching from within.
"Tch… I see how it is," Paulie grumbled, hoping back up into bed. There was nothing more he could do but take Tina's advice and sleep it off. He might as well get used to his new life in the sewers. The sooner the better.