//------------------------------// // Reunion // Story: Sonic Forces: Into the Mania // by GreenS21 //------------------------------// WORKSHOPPING IT Twilight let out a sigh as she sat down on a small crate in the workshop. She was still relying on the cane to help her maintain her balance, but she could feel she was getting stronger throughout the day, and they had found her wings could still support her without much difficulty. Tempest, Grubber, Rainbow, and Windra stood at the end of the table opposite the crate and Sonic sat on the table, all of them watching her. Once she was sure her friend was firmly seated, Windra and Grubber gave her a brief clap, Sonic and Tempest smiled at her, and Rainbow walked over to her and told her, "All right, Twilight, that was good. You went pretty far. Keep this up and you'll be walking without any help by tomorrow morning!" Twilight gave a short laugh and said, "I'm feeling kind of exhausted right now, Rainbow. Don't get me too hopeful." She looked to her left. One of the tables had been moved up against the wall and there was a laptop on it that had a cord running from it to Gemerl's head, the robot sitting against the wall next to the table. Techni was typing on the laptop, the cat having been assigned to getting Gemerl reactivated. Twilight couldn't see what she was doing, but based on the furrow on her brow, she guessed she had hit a roadblock. She looked over at Sonic when she heard scratching coming from his direction and saw he had picked up the pencil and notebook that been sitting beside him on the table and was scribbling something. It caught everyone else's attention as well, with Grubber asking, "Whatcha writing? Keeping notes on Twilight's progress?" Sonic replied while still writing, "Nah. I'll leave that to an expert." He looked up and gestured to Windra, who was writing on a clipboard as she was leaving the workshop. Sonic looked down at Grubber and said, "I'm working on something a little more personal, a little more relaxing, a little…" He trailed off as he looked up in thought, giving an affirmative hum a moment later and returning to his scribbling. "Yeah, I think that'll sound good," he remarked. In her frustrated state of mind, Techni was already getting annoyed by all the talking, but the scratching of the pencil was what was really getting on her nerves. She gritted her teeth and tried to ignore it, but she couldn't do it. She looked over at him and blurted out, "Could you go somewhere else and do that… please?! I can't stand that scratching right now!" Sonic held his hands up, “Okay, sorry, Techni.” He lowered dropped his notebook and pencil on the table, “Man, bad time for inspiration to strike, apparently. Critics.” Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, you don’t need to yell, Techni. Twilight never lets noise bother her when she’s trying to do something.” Techni replied, "Look, I am trying to get Gemerl up and running again and I have run into an issue I have never seen before, and all this noise is not helping!" She turned back to the laptop with a groan and said, "I could sure use a burst of inspiration myself, because right now, this is a pain in…" She was cut off by the door sliding open again, everyone turning to look. Knuckles and Silver stepped into the room, both of them looking around at everyone present. Knuckles then looked over at Techni and asked, "Techni, any luck with Gemerl?" Techni sighed and said, "No, Commander.” She gestured to the robot, “There are signs that the residents of Spiral Hill Village may have tried to fix Gemerl, but he’s not too badly damaged. That’s not the problem, though.” She looked back at the laptop, “There’s something inside of him, some sort of… I don’t know how to describe this thing. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Silver asked, “What do you mean?” Techni clarified, “I want to call it some kind of malware, but I feel that’s not descriptive enough. I’m trying to identify it and come up with a way to remove it from his systems, but so far, every time I get close, something changes that throws everything I’ve done off and it disappears again, like it knows what I’m doing and is adapting. It’s like a… a…” She trailed off, looking for the right word. “A virus?” Twilight suggested. Techni looked at her hesitantly for a moment before saying, “Sure. But paradoxically so. It’s like a computer virus and a real virus merged together. Until we can figure this out, we’re not going to be able to reactivate Gemerl, at least potentially not like he was before this happened.” Knuckles sighed and said, “All right, Techni, that’ll do for now. Why don’t you step away from this for a little while? Matka said she wanted to talk to you about something.” With a sigh, Techni complied, pulling her scanner off and rubbing her forehead in frustration as she left the room. Afterwards, Knuckles looked at the others and remarked, “Considering what Cream said about him protecting her from Infinite the last time she saw him, I guess it makes sense that it wouldn’t be easy to repair Gemerl.” Silver asked, "What could he have done to him?" Tempest said, "Well, you already told us what he seems to enjoy doing to members of the Resistance. Perhaps he did something similar to Gemerl." Silver replied, "But we don't even know how he does it or how to fix it! How can we help Gemerl if we can't really help each other?" Sonic looked over at the laptop, "Hm. Techni said she's able to see whatever's inside Gemerl. At least that's something to work with." He shrugged, “Who knows? Maybe if we figure that out, it’ll also help us figure out how to deal with Infinite’s powers.” There was silence for a few moments and then they heard Pinkie talking outside, “So, you’re telling me that the slogan for this candy is basically saying this is what a rainbow tastes like?” They heard Hip reply, "Yeah, pretty much." Pinkie's voice was getting closer as she said back, "Well, it's a good thing I tried it before I knew that because I wouldn't have then, because this is not what a rainbow tastes like! This candy is sweet, and the one time I tried a rainbow, it was really spicy! What were they thinking with that misleading tagline?!" Hip replied, "Hey, I didn't work for them. I don't know how much thought went into it." The workshop door slid open as Pinkie said, "I'm going to write them a letter when we get home and send a jar of rainbows with it! And I'll attach a note to it that says…" She stopped when she noticed everyone in the workshop. "Hey! What's going on in here, everybody? Are we having a party?" she asked as she bounced inside. Silver replied, "No, not exactly, Pinkie." Rainbow said, “Twilight is getting stronger and walking farther, though. That’s something worth being happy about.” Pinkie rushed over to the alicorn and gave her a big hug, “I knew you could do it, Twilight!” Hip chuckled as he walked in, popping a few colorful candies in his mouth. "Yeah, you bounce back quick, huh?" he remarked. He stopped behind Sonic when he noticed the notebook on the table and set his red pouch down before reaching for it. He opened it to the page the pencil was sticking out from and looked over it. "Hmm. These your handmade music sheets, Sonic?" he asked. Sonic glanced back at him, "Yeah." Hip nodded, "I dig it. I like the rough look; it adds to it. And I wouldn't mind hearing how this will sound when it’s done." Silver asked, "Why are you writing music, Sonic?" Sonic explained, "I wasn't always let out of my cell, so I had to do something to pass the time. I used what I had to indulge in an old hobby. Tapping didn't offer much variety, but I could hear what I was going for in my head. Now that I got a minute, I thought I'd try getting the notes down on paper." Grubber asked, "What about, like, words?" Tempest added, "Can't say I really see the need to write anything music-related down. Seems like everyone I meet has the ability to burst into song on the spot." Sonic shrugged, "Yeah, well, singing was definitely forbidden on the Death Egg. Couldn't even whistle without one of Eggman's robots being a harsh critic." Pinkie popped up next to him with an angry expression. "Ugh, what a party pooper that Baldy McNosehair is! We should finish one of your songs and play it so he can totally hear it! That'll show him what we think of what he thinks about music!" she said, looking and sounding completely serious. Rainbow rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, “Uh, yeah… You know I’m all for messing with Egghead any way we can, Pinkie, but that’s gonna take some work to make happen. And instruments. Should we really be spending time on that?” Pinkie turned to her, still looking serious, “Absolutely, Dashie!” Hip spoke up, “We could make it happen. I used to know a place where they sold instruments before the war started. It’s not that far; if we get a chance, we could go see if there’s anything still there.” Pinkie turned to him with a cheerful look, “Why wait? Let’s go look now!” She bit down on the back of Hip’s shirt and pulled him with her as she trotted towards the door. Knuckles stepped into her path, causing her to come to a stop and look at him curiously. "Hold on, Pinkie. You can't just go skipping out there. We're in a war, remember? Just because we drove Eggman's robots out of the city earlier doesn't mean it's safe to go wandering the streets. And you can't just do what you like; you need to clear it with me first," he said. Pinkie released Hip's shirt and whined, "Aw, but we're not doing anything, Knuckles! There are no assignments, nothing fun going on. It's getting boring sitting around here waiting!" Knuckles started, "I understand that, Pinkie, but…" His Miles Mobile suddenly began to ring, cutting him off. He pulled it out and saw it was Rouge, so he answered it. "Rouge, what is it?" he asked. UNCERTAIN SITUATION On the screen, he could see that the bat was flying while she was calling as the night sky behind her appeared to be moving. "Hey, Knucky. I'm calling to let you know I've picked up an alert from the Mystic Jungle. The sensors near the edge of the base camp went off." Knuckles asked, "The sensors? So, there's been a breach?" Rouge responded, "No. Looks like the two signals came close enough to set them off before moving away into the jungle." Silver leaned over and asked, "Are they robots? Eggman's sent to secure the lab?" Rouge answered, "They're definitely alive, so not robots. Although it looks like the sensors produced some unusual readings when they went off." Twilight wondered, "Unusual readings? I wonder if they're anything like the readings my machine gave when Infinite came through." Knuckles asked, "Rouge, can you go investigate?" Rouge replied, "Sorry, no can do, Commander. I'm working on a lead from one of our spies, and I’m heading into Eggman territory now. Gotta go." With that, she hung up. Knuckles started at his Mobile's screen for a few moments before remarking, "She's as dodgy as ever." Silver looked at Twilight and asked, "So, you saw weird readings when Infinite arrived in Equestria, Twilight?" She replied, “I’m sure that’s what happened now. My equipment was working fine until Starlight said she was getting some strange readings and then everything just went haywire. And after that is when I found the scratch marks outside the library and went back to my room to find someone had been in there.” She bowed her head a bit, “I still can’t believe I had enough information in there for him to be able to locate Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis as well as convince them to join him in such a short amount of time, though.” Silver looked at Knuckles and asked, “Do you think one of them could be Infinite?” He replied, “I don’t know, but we can’t just ignore it.” Tempest stated, "So, someone needs to go investigate." Rainbow shot up, flapping her wings as she said, "I'll go! You can send me, Commander! I'll get there in no time!" Knuckles looked at her, then noticed Pinkie off to his left and turned to look. She was leaning forward with a big grin on her muzzle, as if she was volunteering too. Behind her, Hip was looking at her with concern and a raised eyebrow. Knuckles was able to remain calm as he spoke, "We're still going to have a little talk, Pinkie." The pink pony kept smiling as he looked up at Rainbow and said, "And I like the spirit, Rainbow, but I think it'll be easier to have someone at the base camp go investigate. Besides, you're still a little beat up from that fight with Infinite the other day." Rainbow exclaimed, "What?! No, I'm not!" She then winced as her wings flapped furiously and she felt a sudden jolt of pain from her left wing. "Okay, maybe I do have a few sprains to work out," she admitted. As Knuckles turned to leave, Silver commented, "I just hope it's not too big a task for whoever gets sent." The Rookie came to a stop near the edge of one of the cliffs near the base camp and looked around, Spike trudging to a stop next to him a moment later. It was almost time for their watch to end, the light from the setting Sun shining through the openings in the canopy. While the Rookie was doing his best to remain alert in spite of the calmness in the area, Spike couldn't wait for their shift to be over. Not because he was tired, though that and the boredom were part of it, but mainly because he was hoping to get reassigned to Resistance HQ and get back to Twilight. The Rookie had determined from the start that Spike was carrying a lot of emotional baggage, but he also noticed that he didn't want to talk about it, which had become more apparent due to how little he'd spoken to anyone since they arrived a few hours ago. He'd tried a few things to get the dragon to open up, taking him to nice spots around the camp and trying to let him know he was there for him, but nothing seemed to have any effect. It looked like they were in for a long, silent patrol together. So he was quite surprised when Spike suddenly spoke, "You know, there's some great views here and all, but I'd much rather be back at the base with Twilight and helping her than walking around in circles and having to be with people who don't understand that." He realized what he blurted a moment later and turned to the shocked Rookie and quickly said, "Uh, not that I'm implying you're like that or anything." The wolf held up his hand, indicating he had no hard feelings. He then walked over to a nearby rock and sat down on it, setting his Red Wispon on the ground next to him. Spike walked over and stood in front of him, saying, “I guess I really haven’t gotten to know anyone in the Resistance since I was so insistent on staying with Twilight until she woke up. I definitely haven’t taken the time to talk to you. Where do you come from? I don’t know if I’ve heard anyone say your name yet. What’s on your mind?” The Rookie opened his mouth, but before any sound could leave it, they both heard a beeping. He paused for a moment before reaching for his Miles Mobile. He saw it was Knuckles, so he immediately answered it. The echidna asked, “Rookie, are you there? Is Spike still with you?” Hearing his name, the baby dragon flapped his wings and flew over to the Rookie, placing a claw on his shoulder as he looked at the screen and said, “Yeah, I’m here too. What’s going on?” Knuckles answered, “We just got a report that the sensors near the base camp have gone off. Two lifeforms have been detected, and they seem to be heading deeper into the jungle. We think they may be heading for Eggman’s lab; I want you two to head over there and investigate and figure out who they are.” Spike asked, “What should we do when we find them?” Knuckles replied, “Until we know who it is, we’re not going to have any idea of what to expect. But we’ll rally a garrison and send them to catch up with you so in case you need reinforcements, they won’t be far behind. Now get moving!” With that, he ended the call. Spike and the Rookie glanced at each other, the former suggesting, “I guess we could talk on the way?” The wolf nodded and grabbed his Wispon before standing up, Spike flying after him as he led the way out of the base camp. They ran down a tunnel soon after leaving the camp and, after a minute, they came across a long open log that looked to curve somewhat near the opposite end. Thinking it would be better than trying to go down to the forest floor below, Spike held onto the Rookie as he used his grappling hook to pull himself over to it, both of them following it to go deeper into the jungle area. CASINO RUINS Elsewhere in the forest, Tails and the other Sonic had already reached the jungle area and noticed some lights off in the distance. Suspecting it could be from Eggman's lab, they headed towards it, only to discover some old ruins and structures that were decorated with neon lights. "This must be the Mystic Jungle. Eggman's done up everything to look like a casino," Tails commented. He looked at Sonic, "I hope the Resistance is still in the area. We'd better start looking." The light blue hedgehog nodded in reply. Heading into the ruins, they found the casino look was more than an attempt by Eggman to make the ruins brighter; it was more like he had either copied or taken out part of the Casino Night on Westside Island and merged it with the ruins. The end result was an eye-catching area that made it harder to see the pitfalls and traps that were already present. They figured that out when, less than a minute in, a slab of stone fell away when they placed just a little weight on it, causing it to fall into the water below. Sonic and Tails looked at each other, both of them realizing this might be a little trickier than they'd thought. They found the best way to move through the ruins, for Sonic at least, was to make use of the additions Eggman had made to them. Using the bumpers allowed him to stay off the ground and avoid triggering traps while also not tiring Tails out, allowing the fox to move more carefully and identify where the traps were. The flippers that had been added made it easy to reach higher parts of the ruins where they were less likely to find traps. They tried to stick to the higher areas as much as they could, but the layout of the ruins occasionally forced them to have to go down in order to continue. A little while later, after making it through a section that had been lined with flame traps, Sonic was taking a moment to brush his quills and fur to get out any dark patches while Tails set his toolbox down and checked his Miles Electric. “I’m picking up some odd readings here. We must be getting close to the lab,” he said a few moments later. He looked at Sonic, “I can’t imagine what kind of experiments Eggman might be doing out here. Are you ready?” The hedgehog nodded and got into a running stance before taking off, going through a loop that went over and down. Tails stared for a moment before he grabbed his toolbox and spun his tails around, flying after him. ROBOTS, WATER SLIDES, AND DISCOVERIES Not too far away, the Rookie and Spike used their grappling hook and Enerbeams respectively to pull themselves out of a water flume with a strong current and back onto dry land. They encountered two squads of Egg Pawns and several Nebulas shortly afterwards, the Rookie dealing with the Egg Pawns with his Wispon while Spike used his Enerbeams like the wolf used his grappling hook to pull himself towards the Nebula to deal with them, though he made use of the spikes on his head to smash through them. It wasn’t too hard to deal with them, but when they got on top of the plateau past them, they found more Egg Pawns and a lot more Nebulas hovering overhead. There were so many of the latter that properly engaging them carried considerable risk for them, so they both agreed to get through the enemy as fast as possible, using their grappling devices to use the Egg Pawns to move forward while launching fire at the other robots. When they reached the other end of the plateau, they looked down and saw another water flume flowing below. “Oh boy, this again,” Spike remarked. The Rookie didn’t say anything; he simply leapt from the edge and let himself get carried away by the water when he landed in it. Spike flew down to catch up with him before dropping into the water himself. “You know, you look like you’re enjoying this a lot!” he called to the wolf. They managed to stay together when the flume split off and swung on the glowing pillars past where the slide ended to get back to solid ground. Their path landed them almost directly in front of the entrance to Eggman’s lab. They walked towards it slowly, both keeping an eye out for any potential threats. “This is where those two life thingies were heading, right? Where are they?” Spike wondered. The Rookie was looking around, but he couldn’t see anyone or anything either. When they were a short distance from the watertight door, he suddenly stopped. For a moment, something had flashed across the display on his glasses. It looked like some sort of energy reading, but before he could get a good look at it, it disappeared almost as suddenly as it appeared. Spike noticed the wolf had stopped after a few seconds and turned to look back at him. He was still looking around, but now he was tapping the side of his glasses for some reason. “What’s the matter?” he asked. The Rookie didn’t answer him as he was focused on trying to figure out where the mystery signal disappeared to. While he was doing so, his sensitive nose picked up on the scents in the area. His and Spike’s scents were naturally the most prominent, but he could also smell several scents that were more diluted. He soon recognized traces of Sonic, Silver, Rainbow, and Tempest’s scents, but there was another that he had no recollection of. He could make out hints of what it smelled like, though. There were traces of sterile and wild smells, as well as what the Chemical Plant smelled like and the smell of plants. As he was identifying the different bits of the scent, his glasses picked up the reading again, the heads-up appearing slightly longer and briefly identifying its location; it was coming from the left. He turned and started walking slowly in that direction, his nose still picking up the faint, unknown scent. Spike followed him, confused by his strange behavior. He walked for several seconds before stopping in front of some foliage, the alert appearing again and pointing to the plants, where the scent trail seemed to end. The Rookie turned to the foliage and knelt down on one knee, bringing his hands forward to part the leaves. With the plants out of the way, he saw something that caused him to give a curious “Hmm?” and he reached for it with his right hand. When he leaned back a second later, Spike saw he was holding the magenta icosahedron gem Infinite had dropped the day before in his hand. “Whoa, is that a gem? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one like that,” he said as he ran over to get a closer look. As they were looking at it, the gem lit up brightly for a second before it dimmed, both of them a bit startled by this. A closer look at the gem’s surface revealed that it seemed to contain something as there were some small spots drifting underneath. “It can’t be one of the Chaos Emeralds, but it must hold some kind of power in it. Is that how you knew it was there?” Spike asked. The Rookie looked at him, not quite sure how to explain what led him to the gem. Spike looked down a moment later and noticed something coming towards them from the jungle. He ran around the Rookie to get a better look at it, causing the wolf to look as well. It was coming towards them quickly, but Spike was able to make it out. “Sonic? What’s he doing here?” Spike wondered as the Rookie stood up. As the hedgehog got closer, Spike noticed that he was both familiar yet not the same as the Sonic he mainly knew. It took him a few seconds to figure out why that was, but when he had it, his eyes widened a bit. “Wait, you’re Old-Timey Sonic! What are you doing here?” he asked as he pointed up at the hedgehog that came to a stop in front of him. The other Sonic tilted his head to the side as he looked down at the baby dragon, confused. “Spike?” a familiar voice asked from above, the other Sonic turning his head up to the side and smiling as he waved at the owner. Spike followed his gaze and saw Tails descending, his toolbox in his right hand and his Miles Electric in his left. “Tails!” Spike exclaimed, spreading his wings and shooting straight up at the fox, wrapping his arms around him as much as he could. “You’re okay!” he said as he hugged the fox tightly. Tails was surprised both by the hug and Spike being able to fly so it took him a moment to bring his right arm around and rest it on the dragon’s back. “Uh, hey. You… have wings now?” he awkwardly asked as he continued to lower himself down. He landed next to the other Sonic a second later and looked up at the Rookie. “You seem familiar. Have we met before?” he asked. Spike brought his head back a bit to look up at Tails’ face and spoke first, “Never mind that right now! You’ve been missing for so long! Where have you been? Why haven’t you tried to contact the Resistance?” Tails looked down at him and said, “I’m not entirely sure what happened, but I have a long stretch of hazy memories. Somehow during that time, I forgot where the Resistance base was and lost a lot of my programs so I couldn’t raise anyone. But since you apparently know about the Resistance, maybe you could lead the way?” REUNITED AT LAST Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Silver, the Chaotix, Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Tempest, and Grubber were all together in the meeting room when the door at the back slid open, catching their attention. "Sonic!" Tails exclaimed, almost teary eyed as he flew straight for the dark blue hedgehog. "Tails!" Sonic said as he stepped forward and got wrapped up in the flying hug. "I'm so glad you made it back, bud!" Tails hugged him tighter as he replied, "I'm so glad you're all right! I was worried what Eggman might have done to you!" Sonic pulled back a bit to look at him and softly said, "Hey, it's okay now, bro. The Resistance found and rescued me, you found your way back… It's all good now." Pinkie popped up next to them with a big smile, "It's even better than good! Now our reunion is complete! Another reason to celebrate once this icky war is over!" Sonic and Tails gave her a look and a smile in reply. BACK ON TRACK As Tails was lowering himself to the floor, Sonic looked at him and asked, "So, what happened, Tails? It's not like you to just drop off the map." Tails held his right hand to the side of his head, "Like I told Spike, I'm not entirely sure. The last thing I remember clearly before everything got hazy is running into that guy." Sonic's expression darkened at that. "Infinite," he growled. Tails looked at him, "Is that his name?" Tempest took a step forward as she said, "Yes. And it sounds like he used his power to perform one of his mind tricks on you." When Tails looked at her, she added, "I've had some experience with them myself." Grubber also stepped forward to say, "Yeah, she did. Luckily, it didn't last long, but I've never seen her like that before." Tails murmured, "That's right. He does like doing that." Spike had walked into the room while everyone was talking, standing near the door while he listened. When the talking stopped, he spoke, "Well, there is one good thing about it. Look who he found." He then held his arms out towards the door in a presenting fashion as the other Sonic walked in, Aventura, Salten, and Techni staring at him in surprise from the adjacent room. Most of the occupants in the room were similarly surprised by the presence of another Sonic, but Sonic and six of the ponies were only mildly surprised by comparison. "Whoa, Old-Timey Sonic? No way!" Rainbow said. “Incredible,” Fluttershy murmured. “So, their tales were true,” Espio remarked under his breath. Sonic looked at his counterpart and said, “Man, talk about a timeless encounter. How have you been?” Although he was still a bit confused about some of the things everyone was saying, the shorter hedgehog smiled and gave the taller hedgehog a thumbs up. Applejack looked at Tails and asked, “How did ya find him, Tails?” The fox replied, “I didn’t. He just dropped out of some strange portal that appeared near me in the city. Somehow, when he appeared, the haziness in my head just completely vanished.” Tempest tilted her head, “Really? Interesting.” Tails said, “That reminds me… I was working on Omega when Chaos and Sonic appeared. He seemed to be relatively undamaged, but I couldn’t get him to reactivate.” Silver commented, “Sounds like the problem Techni is having with Gemerl.” Amy turned to the laptop and started typing on it as she said, “I’ll see if we can get everything necessary to perform a heavy lift. As long as you can point us to his location, Tails, we’ll bring him back somehow. We can’t just leave him out there.” Knuckles turned back to Tails and asked, “Anything else?” Tails answered, “Actually, yeah. We encountered Eggman when we were in Green Hill. That’s how we learned about the lab in the Mystic Jungle.” Rarity said, “I hope you two gave him a good what-for for all of us.” Tails replied, “Well, we kind of did. He was being protected by a pink alicorn using some kind of dark magic.” Twilight shifted on the crate she was sitting on as she said, “That would be Cozy Glow. It seems Infinite not only managed to free her and Tirek from Tartarus, but also somehow infused her with King Sombra’s magic.” Tails continued, “I thought it seemed familiar. Anyway, before they both disappeared, Eggman said that he’s planning something big. He didn’t say what it was exactly, but he mentioned it would wipe out the Resistance and that it’ll be ready in three days.” Vector remarked, “Well, that sure sounds ominous. And a lot like old Egghead.” Sonic asked, “Three days, huh? Well, a lot can happen in three days.” While they were talking, the Rookie was standing outside the room with Salten, Techni, and Aventura. He was listening to what everyone was talking about as well, but he was also looking at the strange gem he found in the Mystic Jungle. Finding out what Eggman was planning and stopping it was likely going to be what a lot of the Resistance’s efforts were going to go to, but at the moment, he was more preoccupied with the gem. What was it? Why did it glow before? And why did he feel like he’d seen one like it somewhere before? A FLICKER IN THE DARKNESS Shadow’s eyes stared intently at the computer screen in front of him, watching the progress bar it was displaying. When it finished filling up, he raised his right hand and pulled out a dark blue flash drive he’d connected to it. Holding it up, he turned it over, looking at the pink heart emblazoned on the back. He frowned for a moment before he clicked the drive closed and turned to look at the security monitors. He focused on a screen showing one of the hangers, which had a transport sitting in it. And it appeared to be loading up with Egg Pawns, likely heading back to Earth...