The fire was burnt out and was just a little glow in the wood. The sun managed to get its light into the cave during sunrise, which woke up Nil. He looks around a little and rubs his eyes.
He then turns his attention to Tangle, who was still fast asleep. Perhaps they should get a move on.
Nil goes over to Tangle and nudges her, "Oi, get up,"
She whines and sits up, "Morning already?" she yawns.
"Yeah, let's get moving,"
Tangle stands up and stretches a little before picking up the small bag with their remaining bread. And so they're off again. Barricade Town should be close by.
Soon, they come across a large wall. Guess they're here.
"Huh, this is strange...how do we get in??" Tangle tilts her head, looking up at the wall.
Nil thinks for a moment, "Something's wrong. I know they only close off the town if there's trouble, but I don't see or hear anything that could be of trouble,"
"Maybe they want to isolate themselves from everyone else?" she asks.
He nods, "If there was a change in laws, perhaps,"
Tangle sighs and puts her hands on her hips. She hums.
"You know...I could slingshot us over the wall, but we're gonna need two stands firmly on the ground,"
Nil looks around. There were trees, but they were too far from the walls so they'd probably just end up hitting the ground.
He gets an idea as he spots an open window, "How far can you stretch your tail?"
"Huh? Um..." she thinks, "Hopefully it's long enough for whatever plan you've got,"
"You see that window?" he points to it.
Tangle turns around, "Ohh!"
"I'll throw you up there and you can, possibly, use your tail to "bungee jump" back down here to help me up,"
"Sounds like a plan!" she smiles, "Okay, throw me!"
Nil grabs her by her bodysuit and she curls up in a ball so it could be easier for him. He throws Tangle up to the window. She couldn't grab the window with her hands but her tail was able to do just that. She pulls herself up a little and gives Nil a thumbs up.
Nil walks up to the part of the wall directly under the window, and Tangle jumps down with her tail still hanging onto the window.
"Hi!" she greets with a smile.
"Hey,"
Tangle grabs Nil's hands before they were brought back up to the window. She lets him in first then she rolls in, but she tumbles down, "Ouch!"
Nil looks at her.
"I'm okay!" she chimes, standing up, "Okay, so what's next?"
"Walk around, see what's up, and hope we find something good,"
"Alrighty!"
Suddenly, a brown Mobian dog walks in and gasps upon seeing them, "How did you guys get in here?!" he quickly closes the door.
"We jumped in through the window," Tangle says.
"You guys shouldn't be here! We're not allowed to let anybody in!"
Nil's ear twitches, "Says who?"
"I can't tell you,"
Tangle leans to Nil and whispers, "Sounds a little suspicious if you ask me,"
He nods in agreement.
"Look, we can obviously tell something's up. We can take care of it,"
The Mobian looks down and sighs, "O-Okay...I'll trust you," he opens the door, "Follow me,"
Tangle was a little surprised and nudges Nil, "You sure have your way to convince people,"
"It's just experience,"
"Ohhh!"
The two eventually follow the Mobian outside.
"Okay, I'll...um, try to summarize this as best I can," he shuffles a little, "Oh man...where do I start..?"
"Just start from when it began," Tangle tries to reassure.
"Well, it started a little after the war finished. You see, we were the ones who helped the resistance with supplies and Wispons,"
"So you're part of the reason as to why I got my ass beaten by a little wolf..." Nil growled in thought.
"Anyway, we were in the middle of rebuilding our town a little since we were affected by the war, and these two guys came. I think they were skunks...one was smaller than the other. They said that they were gonna help us and...that's when things went downhill," he explains, "Now they're using our factory like their own little hideout and bossing us around! We don't stand a chance against them..."
"Wait a minute...I feel like I've met them before..." Nil looks up at him, "Do you know their names?"
"No, sorry,"
He sighs and looks to Tangle, "You okay with helping with this?"
She nods excitedly, "Yes! Totally!"
Nil then turns to the dog, "Well, guess we can spare some of our time to help you. Where are they?"
"They're in the factory. It's down that alley and go left," he points.
Nil nods then turns back to Tangle, "Let's go,"
She nods and runs off with him. The residents of the town either jumped through a window and into a building or closed and locked their doors.
"I wonder how scary these guys are when they've got the entire town all spooked," Tangle mutters.
"Shouldn't be that scary,"
They come across the factory the dog mentioned and looked at it for a moment, "Now how do we get in..?"
"Ohh! There's an open window over here!" Tangle points to it.
"I guess windows are our luck now," Nil comments as he climbs in.
Tangle let out a snicker as she follows close behind. Nil jumps down from the boxes he landed on and looks around.
"Stay up there for a minute," he tells Tangle, "Do you see anything in particular?"
"Um..." she squints her eyes as she looks around, "I can't see much from here, mostly because of the boxes all stacked around,"
"Of course....why do I even ask?" he asks, "Alright, you can come down,"
Tangle jumps down and uses her tail to land quietly. She spots something, "Oh hey, aren't these Wisps?"
Nil turns to her. She found a few capsules of small aliens with sad expressions, "Might be,"
Tangle gives the Wisps a reassuring smile, "Everything will be okay. We're gonna save you and your friends! Can you help us out a little though, and give us an idea where these bad guys are?"
The Wisps lets out a few mumbling words, definitely in their language, while also making "hand movements." Tangle was trying her best to understand, but she managed to understand that they were pointing in a certain direction, "Oh, that way? They're over there?"
They nod.
Tangle smiles and whispers to Nil, "There ya have it, Nil! That way!" she points.
Nil nods and carefully makes his way around the boxes so he's not heard by whoever was here. Though, laughter can be heard as he closed in.
He found a stack of boxes he can perch on so he can look at what's there. Tangle soon joins him, just sitting on a box below him.
"Huh, they are skunks," Tangle mutters.
Nil nods, "Criminals, in fact. Not very well known, though, but I have seen their faces somewhere...I just can't remember where..."
"We can figure that out later man! Right now, what's the plan to get them to pack up and leave?"
Nil sighs and thinks for a moment. He soon spots something red and shiny by the table the two were sitting at as some people served them food and drinks in ridiculous costumes. He just growls a little.
A sudden crash and the sound of glass breaking can be heard, which then snapped Nil out of thinking.
"Nice work, idiot!!" the large one laughs, "Now get us another!"
"Any time now, Nil!" Tangle whispers to him.
"Ugh, fuck it,"
Nil jumps down and lands where they could see him. The two jumped up from their seats out of being startled.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?!" the smaller one exclaims, "Came to resent us, now, did ya?!"
"Or are you just here to ruin our fun?" the larger one growls. He then punches his fists together, "Speak now or we'll beat your face in!"
Tangle jumps down and lands beside Nil, "I didn't think you were gonna actually face them..."
The Mobians that was serving them had already rushed out and away from the scene.
"So there's two of ya, huh?!"
"Course he didn't travel alone!" Tangle retorts, "And we're here to drive you outta town!!"
"Ya lookin' to scrap, little girl?!"
"Then get ready to crumble!"
"Brace yourselves for..."
"ROUGH AND TUMBLE!!" the two skunks say in unison.
Nil and Tangle remained silent as the laughter they were trying to hold in kept building up.
"You mustn't laugh, you mustn't laugh, you mustn't laugh, you mustn't laugh!!" his thoughts cried.
"Nil..." Tangle manages to squeak out, "I was not prepared for this..!"
"Hey! What's so funny?!" Rough yelled.
Nil sighs so he can calm down, "I do have one question for you,"
"Oh yeah? And what's that?"
"What's with the red sword?"
Tumble takes the sword and admires it, "THIS sword? Found it in one of that "Eggman" dude's bases. It looked so nice that we took it!" he then glares to Nil, "Why're you so worried about it?!"
"Tell ya what. Give me the sword, and you won't have to get YOUR faces beaten in,"
Tumble laughs and puts the sword back on the table, which Rough then takes it, "As we would listen to a small jackal like you,"
"I'm not THAT small..."
"Alright then," Nil sighs, "I figured as much,"
"Where are you going with this, Nil..?" Tangle whispers.
"You handle the big guy,"
Tangle pauses before nodding, "Alright, I trust you got a plan,"
"Don't worry,"
Tangle managed to drag Tumble away from Nil and Rough, literally.
Nil sighs, "Alright, so. Why don't we handle this slow and to an adult level of respect?"
"Nah, it's better this way!" Rough smirks as he lunges at Nil.
Unfortunately, Nil dodges his attack and grabs the skunk's wrist to flip him onto the table. The force caused it to break in half, and Rough dropped the sword. Nil took it in his hand and examined it.
"It felt like an eternity since I've held this sword. Oh, the trouble we had to go through to just get it," he thinks to himself.
Rough hisses in pain and looks up at Nil, "W-Wait a minute...You're the-!"
Nil grabs Rough's head and holds him up as the skunk squirmed, "I don't need a reminder," he snarls before dropping him, "Just shut up and stay down before I make matters worse,"
He hears a few boxes being knocked over so he quickly ties up Rough before rushing off to find Tangle and Tumble. Nil would eventually climb up a few boxes to try and get a visual but ended up seeing Tangle being thrown across the room by her tail.
She crashes into the capsules with the Wisps, "I'm okay!!!" she calls, "Give me a sec!"
Luckily, her crash broke a few of the capsules, so the Wisps helped her up. Nil watches them for a moment until...
BURST!
Nil turns around and his eyes widen as he sees Tumble jump up to him and point a red Wispon at him, "Say goodnight!" he smirks.
He wasn't able to react in time as a quick burst of red Wisp energy blasted and caused Nil to lose balance. He fell from the pile and dropped the sword for a quick moment before he retrieves it after hitting the ground.
"Nil!! You okay?!" Tangle calls.
Nil stands up, "I'm fine!" he grunts, "I've had worse anyway,"
"So, ya still standin' huh? Well, ya won't be for long!!"
LIGHTNING!
Tangle came out of nowhere and hit Tumble with the Wispon she picked up, "If you hurt my friend, you're not getting away with it buddy!!"
A yellow Wisp pops out of the Wispon and looks at Tangle. She smiles, "Thanks for helping, little guy!" she holds her hand out for a high-five, which the Wisp then gave.
Tangle grabs Tumble with her tail and holds him up. He was still holding the red Wispon, but the Wisp for it popped out with an angry expression and floats away from him.
"Hey! Get back in here!!" he yells.
"Looks like you've got it handled. I'll go back and get that other guy," Nil says, walking away.
"M'kay! Meetcha outside then?"
"Sure,"
Tangle walks to the door and opens it, "Yooo!! We took care of the baddies for you! Come and arrest them!" she calls to the residents.
Nil soon comes out with Rough, just growling a little.
Two Mobians walk over to them, "Okay, we'll take over from here,"
"Yep!"
Both of them hand the two skunks over and they cuff them. Tangle then nudges Nil, "How was that burst to the face?" she snickers.
Nil rolls his eyes, "Don't,"
She just giggles. Eventually, the dog from earlier was running to them, "Wow! Thank you two so much! How can we ever repay you?"
"We don't need much, but we want to take a look at the map with the nearby towns," Nil says, looking away a little.
Tangle nods, "Just a quick peek, yeah?"
"Oh," he nods, "Sure thing! Hang on, I'll be right back!" he then runs off.
"Them metal bars ain't gonna hold us for long!" Tumble yells.
"Yeah! And you will regret messin' with-!"
"Rough and Tumble!!" they say in unison again.
One of the Mobians escorted them to prison scoffs, "Yeah yeah, whatever. Get a move on,"
"We should make a little saying of our own like that!" Tangle laughs.
Nil scoffs, but smiles nonetheless, "If you want to be embarrassed,"
"Haha, very funny. Anyway, what're you gonna do with that sword?" she points to the red sword he's holding.
Nil looks at it and pauses, "Not anything serious. Just gonna use it for self-defense,"
She smiles nervously, "Uh...how..?"
"Who knows? It could be intimidating, and I never said I have to use the blade,"
"Ohh! I get it now! Smart!" she puts her hands behind her head, "So, where to now? It kinda looks like the sword was what you were looking for,"
Nil hums, "We'll see,"