Investigations
A large leaf crunched under Rarity’s hoof and she came to a stop, lifting her hoof up to take a look. Seeing no offending green on the underside, she set it down and looked around. There were signs that the jungle had seen some fighting in recent times, trees with broken branches, burnt leaves, and holes of varying sizes in the ground and walls, but it seemed as though the war hadn’t really affected it much, at least compared to Adabat. Things were tense in what was left of the coastal village when they’d arrived; it took the Chaotix and Terv hastily disembarking from the shuttle to convince the villagers that it was the Resistance and not the Eggman Empire. After exchanging some words, they allowed them to make their way across the water to search for clues in the jungle.
“Hm. Well, it’s certainly nice to see that some parts of the world haven’t been utterly ruined in spite of Eggman’s takeover. At least he didn’t decide to completely burn this jungle to the ground,” Rarity remarked.
Espio came to a stop next to her and looked at her as he said, “Yes. And hopefully, that’ll help us locate some clues that will help us uncover any unusual activities in the area. Fortunately, Terv is helping us search from the air. As is Charmy.” He turned to look at Pinkie, seeing the pink earth pony with her nose pressed against the ground and her right eye looking through a magnifying glass as she moved like a dog sniffing out a trail, her chef’s hat replaced with a deerstalker cap. “And we have Pinkie as well,” he added after a moment.
Rarity replied, “Pinkie is most definitely giving it her all, as usual. As long as she gets to be herself.”
Vector came up behind the mare and commented, “I’m surprised you wanted to be a part of this, Rarity. Didn’t think this was really your scene.”
Rarity brushed her mane aside with a hoof as she began, “Well, this is hardly the first time I’ve been in a jungle, my green friend. That’s not to say I’m in them often, but this is not my first showcase.” Espio turned and started walking away as she continued, “As for private investigator work, I’m rather fascinated by the literary works of Shadow Spade and I channeled her once when I solved a crime that would’ve cost Rainbow Dash her place in the Wonderbolts.”
Vector crossed his arms as the two resumed walking, “Did ya now?”
Rarity glanced up at him, “Oh, I see that look in your eyes and that smile of yours, crocodile. I assure you that, in spite of Rainbow Dash’s impatience, I solved that case and uncovered the culprit. Not as fast as my costume change, sadly, but I still solved it with time to spare.”
Vector nudged her a moment later and asked, “Speaking of costume changes, you doing okay with that coat on?”
Rarity came to a stop and Vector did as well, uncrossing his arms as he turned to her. “Actually, it has gotten a bit too warm for this,” she admitted. She used her magic to open her coat and pull it off, holding it up. She started to take a step when Vector cleared his throat. She turned to him and saw him holding his right hand out to her. After a moment, she lowered the coat into his hand and he took it with a slight smile and nod, swinging it back so it rested on his shoulder.
Pinkie suddenly dropped down from above between them with three of her legs tangled up in vines, allowing her to dangle upside-down. Rarity and Vector yelped at this, but before Rarity could chastise her, Pinkie spoke, “I spy with my blinky inky Pinkie eye… a green and yellow thingy that does not belong here!” Rarity noticed she was looking intently through her magnifying glass and tilted her head to try and see what she was seeing.
She didn’t have to look long before Espio called, “Over here!” Vector and Rarity looked and saw him further ahead standing next to an object sticking out of the ground that, now that it was pointed out to them, did not belong there. Pinkie untangled herself and followed them over. A closer look revealed that it was in fact a board of some kind.
Rarity stared at it for a moment before saying, “I’ve seen a board like this before. What was it called again? We briefly used them before. They were called…”
Vector answered while he pulled it out, “Extreme Gear. And this one’s gotta be Jet’s.” He held up the board and pointed to the insignia on the bottom of it, “The Babylon Rogues always mark their Gear with this symbol. It’s a dead giveaway.”
Rarity nodded, “That’s right.” She then raised an eyebrow, “But what’s it doing here? And where is the unruly hawk it belongs to?”
Espio spoke, “Well, judging from how we found it, I’d say it hasn’t been here too long, which would suggest that he was attacked.” Vector nodded in agreement as he examined the other side of the side of the board, a pensive expression on his face.
Suddenly, Charmy flew above them and yelled, “Hey guys! Come quick! Terv found something!” He turned and flew back the way he came, Vector tucking Jet’s Extreme Gear under his left arm as he and the others followed the bee. He led them through the jungle for a bit and out through an opening amidst all the plants that emptied out onto a beach. They saw Terv up ahead, the blue hawk standing near the water’s edge. As they got closer, they saw what had caught his attention, Terv briefly turning to look at them as they came to a stop next to him.
In the water outside the line of buoys that marked where the water was less deep was the Babylon Rogues’ airship. While it was to be expected that the ship would be in the area where the Rogues were, the group could see from where they were that they had not landed in the area entirely by choice. The front of the blimp was tilted down towards the water, smoke was rising from several propellers, and though they couldn’t see it from where they were, the rudders were missing. Even so, it was clear to everyone that the Babylon Rogues had been attacked, and it was likely that whoever was responsible had followed them down to finish the job.
Aventura, Matka, Techni, Rainbow, and Tempest’s heads all broke the surface of the water at the exit to the Labyrinth, Techni breathing heavier than the others as she held onto Matka’s back. The cat quickly checked her electronics while everyone swam to dry land and pulled themselves out of the water. While the others shook the water off, Matka remained on all fours as she looked back at Techni and said, “Okay, Techni dear, you can let go. We’re safe now.”
The cat nervously replied, “If you say so.” She slid off the bear’s back and ran a short distance away before shaking the water off while the others moved away from Matka so she could do the same.
After shaking and patting herself for what seemed like longer than necessary, Techni went back to checking her gear. Tempest walked up behind her while she was doing this and asked, “You can’t swim, and you don’t seem to like water at all… Did you know we would be traveling through an underwater maze when you accepted the Commander’s orders?”
Techni answered while checking her scope, “I’m a cat; we typically don’t like getting wet, and it’s not like I’m the only one who doesn’t know how to swim.” She then glanced back at Tempest, “And yes, I had a feeling this was the way we were going to go.”
While they were talking, Rainbow looked at Aventura and said, “That place was kinda rough, especially when we had to swim all that way at the end. Is this really the only way to reach Eggman’s old base?”
The wolf replied, “No, but under the circumstances, it’s probably the best way. The other way would involve passing through the Star Light Zone, and that place was razed a while back. If he really is setting up something here, then we wouldn’t have a lot of cover available to us if we went through there.”
Rainbow replied, "Hm, okay." She looked around the passage they were in, "So, where does this put us again? I don't usually have a problem going up and down and all around, but going through all those tunnels was confusing."
Aventura replied, "Well, between all the water and having to find alternate ways around collapsed passageways, that's understandable. We should be right below the Scrap Brain base. Just a short climb up."
Rainbow said, "Well, let's get going, then! Right, Tempest?"
The unicorn gave one last look at Techni before glancing over and saying, "Yes, let's. I'm tired of wasting time here."
Matka raised a finger, "As long as everyone is ready to keep going." No one had anything to say against that, so they all made their way towards the exit.
As Aventura said, it wasn’t long after leaving the Labyrinth before their surroundings became less natural and more metallic. As they walked past the derelict old buildings, they could see signs of recent visitors, but the Scrap Brain was still gloomy, lights barely functional and flickering and various parts ready to break off. This became apparent when Tempest and Aventura were the first to walk across an old trapdoor that was barely open and the second half broke off shortly after they stepped on it, forcing them to have to jump to safety. Rainbow flew over and hovered in front of them, asking, “You guys okay?”
Tempest looked up at her, “Yeah.” She stood up and, while Aventura got up, looked around and asked, “How did this base fall into such a state of disrepair? Was it in such a bad state that Dr. Eggman saw no reason to maintain it until now?”
While dusting herself off, Aventura answered, “Probably not, but that’s Eggman for you. Most of his bases end up destroyed nowadays, but even if they haven’t been damaged that much, he’s still prone to abandoning them and leaving them to rot.”
Tempest raised an eyebrow, “That doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do.” She glanced back and shuddered a bit as Matka jumped over the gap while carrying Techni with her.
After she was set down, Techni remarked, “You’d think that, but it doesn’t seem like he leaves much behind on the rare occasion that he does abandon a base. I’m guessing he does it mainly to avoid being caught.”
Matka stood up straight and looked at the buildings off in the distance as she said, “I’d prefer if this one remained inactive. The pollution from Eggman’s factories was so bad, it was making a cloud over South Island. Fortunately, it managed to clear up all at once, but I’d rather not look up and have to see something like that again.” She faced forward again, “So, let’s empty this old base out and shut it down for good.” With that, the group started moving again.
A little later, after moving carefully and keeping an eye out for patrols, the group arrived at the building that Techni identified as the main base. The front door was locked, but she was able to patch into the old security system and override it, causing the door to noisily slide up. The fact that it was locked was a sign to them that they weren’t alone, so once they confirmed that there was nobody waiting for them in the dimly lit entrance, they carefully walked in, Aventura taking the lead.
A short while later, Aventura suddenly stopped and raised her hand, signaling to the others to do the same. "What's up?" Rainbow asked.
Aventura bent down and picked up something on the floor. Turning around slightly, they could see it was a closed switchblade. She held it up to her nose and sniffed it a few times. "You recognize that smell?" she asked, holding it out towards Matka.
The bear stepped forward and sniffed the blade's handle. "Hog… and something else. Something putrid. I’d say we’re on the right track," she stated a moment later. Aventura put the blade in her pocket and the group continued moving.
Not long after, while walking on a deactivated conveyor belt, everyone heard a voice from further ahead say, "Hey, watch what yer doin' over there! You're gonna set somethin' off if you keep that up!" They heard a snorting sound, seemingly in reply, and hurried to get a closer look.
While working their way around, they heard more voices. “Look at these things! How many more do ya think they’re keeping here?” a second one asked.
“Hopefully a lot more. Not sure what they’re doin’ here or when that madman ever made ‘em like this, but I’m glad that tip paid off. What a haul!” a third voice replied.
“Tone it down! And get back to work! We gotta get these back to the bosses and see if they’re still good for anything! Come on, let’s go!” a fourth voice that sounded more commanding than the others said. As the group walked across another conveyor belt, the dim lights allowed them all to see below into another room and they stopped as they could make out the owners of the voices.
Four burly hogs were on the floor below, one of them overseeing as the other three were carrying some slim, humanoid robots that looked like they had guns in place of hands. The hogs appeared to be dressed like they were part of a bike gang and they looked to have motorbikes with trailers attached, which is where they were placing the robots. The design of their bikes and the lack of wheels made Rainbow and the Resistance members wonder if they were Extreme Gear.
“Who are these jokers?” Rainbow whispered.
“No idea. Pretty sure they’re not allied with Eggman, though; he’d never approve of those fashion choices,” Aventura whispered back.
“They may not be part of Eggman’s extended army, but they’re clearly working for someone. We need to figure out who and whether they’re someone we can trust,” Matka said.
Tempest remarked, “Well, we should be able to discern that fairly quickly.” She looked up at Rainbow and nodded to her when the pegasus caught her gaze. She then moved off the conveyor belt and began making her way down to the floor, Rainbow quickly following after her.
“What are they doing?!” Techni quietly hissed while she, Matka, and Aventura watched them.
“Calm down. Let’s see what happens,” Aventura whispered back.
Down on the floor, the hogs were still loading up the deactivated Egg Gunners when they heard a sound behind them and turned to see Tempest standing up straight across from them. They stared at her for a moment before the leader asked, “The heck are you supposed to be? And what do you think you’re doing here?”
Tempest replied evenly, “I could ask the same of you. Sneaking around an old base, helping yourselves to some old robots… None of us should be here, but you four seem to have an ulterior motive. Care to explain what it is?”
The lead hog said, “That’s none o’ your business.” He pulled out a switchblade and flipped it open, “Now you better get outta here if you don’t wanna get hurt!”
Tempest eyed the blade for a moment before looking back at the hog’s face and asking, “Are you trying to intimidate me or humor me? Because you’re not succeeding either way.”
The hog replied, “Oh, a wise guy, eh? Well, let me show you what I do to-” He was suddenly cut off when a rainbow blur shot past him, knocking the blade out of his hand. After it hit the ground, he looked to the left and saw Rainbow against the wall, her wings spread and her hooves pressing against it.
“She could totally take all you guys no problem, but I’ve made it a rule to not stand by when someone threatens my friends,” she said. She dropped down onto the floor, “And you mess with one of us, you messed with all of us!”
The lead hog asked, "Oh yeah? Who's ‘us’?"
He was answered by Aventura, "Look up, piggy." He and the other hogs did and saw her, Matka, and Techni had moved down closer while Tempest and Rainbow had been talking, now close to almost being on top of them. Now that they were revealed, they leapt down.
Although they were surprised, the hogs were quick to respond. With the exception of Matka, they were able to throw off the attacking Resistance members fairly easily when they tried to grab them, and while their fighting style was a bit wild, they were able to keep them at arm's length.
About a minute later, one of the hogs intercepted Tempest when she tried to leap at him, grabbing and trying to restrain her. She struggled against him, causing him to stagger a bit. Her movements slowed when she saw Matka rushing towards her, but the hog noticed too late to try to stop her. She tackled him from the side and knocked him off his feet. He landed on his back near one of the bikes.
Tempest was sent flying with him and bounced off of his belly before she landed on the floor. As she bounced, however, a sizable spark escaped her broken horn and hit one of the robots in the trailer, causing it to shudder and convulse as it sparked like it was being electrocuted. After a moment, its machine gun began firing, the robot's convulsing making its already jerky shots even more erratic.
"Get down, everyone!" Matka yelled as she dropped to the floor, Aventura, Techni, Rainbow, Tempest, and the hogs quickly doing the same as it was the only option available. With the way the robot was laid out in the trailer, the shots were currently going high and there was nothing available to take cover behind.
One of the hogs started crawling towards one of the bikes. “Boss, we gotta get-” he started before several stray bullets suddenly hit the bike when he got close to it and caused it to explode, throwing him on his back. Tempest glanced at the robot, watching the way it was shooting for a moment before she raised herself up and ran towards it. By keeping her head low, she was able to stay below the shots and reach the trailer. She put her horn underneath it and used all her strength to lift it up, knocking the robot into the air. She was about to leap up and buck it into the wall, but Rainbow beat her to it, shooting up from the ground and sending it flying into the wall where it broke apart.
“Hey, ‘ppreciate the help,” the lead hog said a moment later. Tempest and Rainbow turned to see him and the other hogs running over to their bikes, the one from earlier jumping into one of the trailers. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ll just be…” He was cut off when a cyan laser shot down at an angle and hit his bike, causing it to explode. Before they could react, two more cyan lasers shot down and destroyed the other two bikes, all of the hogs being sent flying.
“What the…?” Rainbow uttered before running a few steps forward and turning her head to look up where the shots had come from. Despite the dim lighting, she could see the biscotti-furred wolf standing on the highest conveyor belt, her unusual Wispon in her hands. She only saw her for a second, though, because she quickly turned and ran further into the base. “Hey, wait!” Rainbow exclaimed, spreading her wings and flying up after her.
“Rainbow Dash!” Tempest called after reaching the spot where the pegasus had been standing a moment too late, seeing her rainbow blur disappear from sight. She heard some exclamations and grunting and turned to see the leader hog had gotten up and pushed his way past Aventura, Matka, and Techni, and he was now charging towards her. She leapt out of his way and turned to see him climbing up the conveyor belts surprisingly quick for a hog of his side. Tempest grunted and turned back to the others, “Can you handle these three?” She received affirmatory responses, so she said, “I’ll go after him, then, and try to find Rainbow afterwards.” She turned and ran over to the conveyor belts, jumping up from one to the next.
Rainbow, meanwhile, was flying through the base looking for their mystery helper. She’d lost sight of the wolf when she caused her to shoot down one passageway before running down the one next to it. Rainbow had quickly doubled back, but so far, she hadn’t been able to catch even a glimpse of her. “This place is like a maze,” she thought as she flew up a shaft and through a door that was mostly open. After almost a minute of flying, she flew through a doorway and found herself outside. She came to a stop and fluttered her wings as she looked around and asked aloud, “Where did that wolf go?”
She heard a voice behind her, “No idea who you’re talkin’ about, but with all your zipping around, you weren’t too hard to find.” She turned her head to see the hog leader standing in the doorway. He got into a fighting stance, “Now, where were we?”
Rainbow turned around completely and replied, “Hmm… Pretty sure I was about to kick your big piggy butt!” She shot towards him, but he retaliated by thrusting his belly forward, stopping her charge and sending her flying onto her back. She recovered after a moment and looked up to see him rushing at her; before she could react, he jumped up and was going to belly flop on top of her when he suddenly froze in midair, a green aura surrounding him.
Rainbow tilted her head up and saw Silver descending. When he landed behind her, he moved his outstretched right hand to move the hog back a short distance and straighten up. "Care to do the honors, Rainbow?" he asked.
Rainbow leapt to her hooves, "With pleasure!" She shot off the ground and swung her hind legs around, Silver releasing his psychokinesis as her hooves connected and sent the hog flying up into the wall behind him. He dropped down and landed on his front a few seconds later.
The hog raised his head to look up at the two and managed to say, “Ya know… the two of you doin’ that… gangin’ up on me… that seems a little unfair, don’t you think?”
Rainbow replied, “Yeah, well, someone as big as you counts as, what, two, three people? Seems fair to me. And I bet you and your guys would’ve ganged up on Tempest before the rest of us stepped in.”
She then heard Tempest say, “I would imagine so.” She and Silver looked up to see the unicorn standing in the entrance. Said unicorn noticed that the hog still seemed to be moving, so she ran over, jumped on his back, and brought her hoof down on top of his head. He let out a grunt before his head dropped down, his body going limp. “And that completes it,” Tempest remarked as she leapt off of the hog’s back.
“Nice one, Tempest,” Rainbow said. She then looked at Silver and asked, “What are you doing here, Silver?”
The hedgehog replied, “Knuckles told me what was going on, so I thought I’d come out and see if you guys needed any help. Sorry it took so long; I got attacked by Eggman’s forces and needed to deal with them. What’s going on around here? Who is this guy, and how’d you get separated from everyone, Rainbow?”
Tempest spoke up, “No idea who he or his little gang are, but they don’t seem to be working for Eggman. From the sound of things, they’re working for someone else and were planning to raid this old base for anything useful. As for Rainbow Dash, she caught sight of a strange wolf who helped us and was trying to catch her.”
Silver asked, “A wolf?” He turned to Rainbow, “You saw her? The Guardian Angel?”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “Who?”
Tempest asked, “You know this wolf?”
Silver replied, “Well… no, I don’t know her… but for a while now, she’s been appearing and helping the Resistance fight Eggman. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of pattern to when she shows up, but when she does, she helps us. She’s saved a lot of lives these last few months, so she’s gained a bit of a reputation. Some of us have been referring to her as the Guardian Angel of the Battlefield.”
Rainbow remarked, “Whoa, cool.” She shook her head, “Wish I could’ve caught up to her. I’d like to know why she hasn’t joined the Resistance if she’s been helping so much.”
Tempest said, “I was wondering that myself.”
Silver shrugged, “She must have her reasons. Maybe she prefers to have the element of surprise or something.”
Tempest nodded, “Perhaps.” She looked at the hog beside her, “Back to the matter at hoof… I think we should try to get everything we can out of this hog and his gang. I get the feeling whoever they’re working for isn’t interested in aiding the Resistance’s efforts. If they’re actively impeding the Resistance in any way, we need to find out and put a stop to it.”
Rainbow and Silver nodded, the latter saying, “Okay. Where’s the rest of the gang, and where are the others?”
Tempest replied while taking a few steps towards the doorway, “I should be able to figure out the path I took to get here.” She looked back at Silver, “Do you think you could carry him?” The hedgehog replied by raising his right hand, a green aura forming around it and the hog. Seeing him get raised up a moment later, Tempest turned and resumed walking, Silver and Rainbow following with the hog in tow.
A short while later, at the Resistance HQ
Sonic followed Corvin, Fuchsia, and the rest of the Resistance soldiers through the door at the base’s entrance, the Rookie following close behind him. In his right hand was a bouquet of flowers he’d managed to find and pick in Green Hill. He’d sought them out because he knew someone who liked flowers and wanted to give them a gift.
“SONIC!” The sound of the cry alerted the hedgehog that he was going to have to change his plans slightly. It belonged to Amy and, given where she was standing in the entrance, it seemed like she’d been waiting for his arrival.
“Well, was kind of expecting that,” he thought. Fortunately, Fuchsia and Corvin started giving Amy their report when she approached them and she stopped and seemed to be listening to them, so that would buy him a few seconds. He turned to the Rookie and held the flowers out to him while whispering, “Hey bud’, do me a favor. Take these and give them to Cream. You can tell her who they’re from if she asks.” The wolf took the flowers and looked at them for a moment before looking back at Sonic. He nodded, “Just go. I’ll cover for you.” Although he was still a bit uncertain, the Rookie turned and went to the left before moving forward.
Amy making her way through the line of soldiers meant the Rookie was harder to notice, but it was unlikely she would've noticed him anyway since her focus was on Sonic. "Oh, Sonic! I was so worried about you!" she exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around him.
"Hi, Amy. I missed you too," he replied while rolling his eyes at the display of affection. He noticed something different about the hug and glanced down, noticing her outfit for the first time. "Is that a new outfit?" he asked.
Amy let go of him and took a few steps back, doing a little pose as she asked, "Do you like it?"
Sonic looked her up and down for a moment before looking at her and saying, "It's different, but I kinda dig it already." He heard the door behind her open and looked to see Knuckles coming through it. "Speaking of digging…"
Knuckles walked over to the two and said, "Welcome back to Earth, Sonic. I heard the news; good job on the rescue and sabotage mission."
Sonic replied, "Yeah. Hope that deals a major blow to Eggman's war efforts." His smile eased off and he asked, "I heard about Twilight. Is she still…?"
Knuckles nodded, "I'm afraid so."
Amy added, "Terv's assistant Windra has been keeping an eye on her since she was brought in. She says her injuries are healing nicely, but she hasn't shown any major signs of waking up."
Sonic looked down for a moment before saying, "I'm gonna go see her."
Knuckles replied, "Sure, that's fine. Spike would probably appreciate it too; the kid's determined to stay by her side until she wakes up, and probably afterwards too. The way he's acting, I'm guessing he was there when their bad guys attacked Twilight."
Sonic said, "I'll see what I can do. Let me know if anything comes up." He made his way around Knuckles and Amy and headed into the base, both of them following behind him.
It didn’t take Sonic long to find the infirmary. Stepping inside, he looked around and saw a lot of the beds were being used by mostly former Death Egg inmates. Windra and the other medics were doing their best to see all of them and determine what they needed, but it was clear it was going to take a while to get to all of them. Sonic began carefully walking through the room, looking for Twilight and Spike.
He found them after only a couple of seconds. In addition to the two, Grubber was sitting on the bed as well, one of his hands resting on Spike’s shoulder. Sonic walked up to the end of the bed and tentatively asked, “Spike?”
The baby dragon looked to his left at the sound of his name. “Sonic…?” he murmured. He then smiled for the first time in days as he suddenly used his wings to launch himself at Sonic, pressing against the hedgehog’s chest and wrapping his arms around as much as he could as he exclaimed, “Sonic! You’re okay! I heard you were, but… it’s so much better to actually see you!”
Sonic placed his left hand on Spike’s back and held him there, feeling a little bit of wetness on his chest fur. “There, there, Spike. It’s great to see you too, bud,” he said. He glanced up and saw Grubber had slid off the bed and was walking over. “Hey. You’re Grubber, right?” he asked, bending his knees a bit and holding out his right hand.
Grubber eagerly took the hand in both of his and shook it, saying, “Yeah, that’s me, all right! I guess you heard about me from Tempest and the other girls, huh? I’m a hedgehog just like you! Isn’t that cool?”
He released Sonic’s hand after a few moments and the blue hedgehog acted like he was scrutinizing the other hedgehog as he straightened up. “Hm… Tell you what. Get yourself some shoes and gloves and maybe we’ll talk…” He let that hang for a moment before raising his right hand and saying, “Ah, I’m just messing with you, dude. It’s cool.” He moved around Grubber and took a seat on the edge of Twilight’s bed. He reached over and patted the spot to his left with his right hand.
Grubber grinned and ran over, jumping up and struggling to climb up onto the bed again. His struggling was pulling on the bed sheets, so Sonic set Spike down on his lap and reached over to help him up. “Thanks!” Grubber said as he sat down on the bed.
Sonic nodded and turned his attention to Spike, who had turned his head to look at Twilight. “Hey Spike, you okay?” he asked softly.
Spike blinked, “Huh? Oh, uh… I guess, I don’t know…”
Sonic turned to Grubber when he started talking, “I’ve been trying to keep him company since we got back from that West Island or whatever it’s called. Been trying to comfort him and all that.”
Spike said, “You should be doing something else, Grubber. This is my fault…”
Grubber asked, “How is it your fault, Spike? You didn’t cause this to happen to Twilight. It was that… jackal guy.”
Spike uttered, “But I got angry, again. I walked out and left her alone, again. And something bad happened when there was no one there for her… again.” Tears started to leak from his eyes, “It doesn’t matter if I could’ve helped or not. I should’ve been there with her when it happened. I should’ve gotten beaten up too…” Sonic was about to say something to him, but he suddenly leapt from his lap and wrapped his arms around as much of Twilight’s neck as he could reach, squeezing hard. “I’m sorry, Twilight! I didn’t mean to leave you alone! Please, wake up!” he cried.
Sonic noticed a slight change in the way Twilight was breathing and turned on the bed slightly and started to reach his hand out towards Spike, saying, “Spike, ease up a bit, bud. I think you’re squeezing too hard.” He heard a noise and glanced up to see Twilight’s horn sparking slightly. More sparks started to appear on its surface, so he reached forward and grabbed Spike with both hands. He started to pull him back, “Spike, you need to back off, seriously.” It took Spike another moment or two to come back to reality and notice what Twilight’s horn was doing.
As the sparks gathered into the tip, Sonic got on his knees and gave Spike a hard pull back, the action nearly knocking Grubber off the bed and disturbing the position Twilight was laid out in. As she moved a bit towards the foot of the bed, her head briefly flopped forward, at which the sparks were released from her horn as a bolt of magic that hit Sonic. He grunted from the shock and nearly fell backwards, dropping Spike back onto the bed. He managed to steady himself by placing his left hand on the bed and his right hand on his knee and opened his eyes to look at Twilight, seeing her lying in a more lopsided position.
Windra, who was already coming over to investigate the outburst, ran over when she saw Sonic get hit. “Are you okay?” she asked. Despite receiving a nod, she took a closer look at where he was hit before she was satisfied and then moved around to the other side of the bed. She placed her hands on Twilight, “Can you help me get her into a more comfortable position?” Sonic slid off the bed and helped her adjust Twilight until she was lying like she was before. Windra then picked up Spike and began rubbing his back, comforting and calming him. While she was doing this, she looked at Sonic and said, “I should’ve warned you about that. Her magic has started going off like that in the last day. We’re not sure why. That was the strongest display she’s shown so far, though.”
Grubber looked at Sonic, “I’m surprised it didn’t seem to do much to you. Sure, it wasn’t a big spell, but I thought it would’ve seemed more painful than it looked.”
Sonic glanced down at himself with a raised eyebrow, “Me too…”
Suddenly, the infirmary door slid open and Amy ran in exclaiming, “Sonic!”
Everyone turned to look at her, Sonic asking, “What’s up, Amy?”
The pink hedgehog answered, “We just received an emergency call from Silver! He was on his way back here when he got attacked by that… that thing!” There were many surprised looks and some gasps at that.
Sonic’s expression turned serious and he quickly walked over to Amy. “Where?” he asked her.
“In the Mystic Jungle. We’re also picking up reports that Eggman’s forces are sending backup units there. We’ll try to send over some of our own, but you’d better hurry!” she replied.
Sonic nodded, “I’m on it. I’ve been waiting for the chance to get a second round with that guy!” He walked past Amy and she saw him start to run in the direction of the exit tunnels.
Back in the infirmary, Spike let out a gasp and Windra soon saw what had caused it: Twilight was moving. It wasn’t much movement, but it almost looked like her front hooves were trying to reach for something, which was a lot more movement than they’d seen since she was brought in. Was she starting to regain consciousness?
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Does Infinite have her in his thrall?
11007465
No.
Sonic is going to have his rematch with Infinite. Payback time!
Funnily enough this actually was kind I of confirmed in the Sonic Channel story with Sonic and Rouge. Eggmanland is still around, but abandoned. Kind of weird for him to just let it rot considering he was trying to make the thing since Adventure and it’s a city filled with his image. Also really recommend looking up fan translations of those Sonic channel stories, because they are really good. Personal favorite of mine is the Sonic and Metal Sonic story since it actually shows what he thinks of his rivalry with sonic.
I’m assuming the bird armada attacked the Babylon Rogues. Nice to see more Whisper again.
Sweet of Sonic to give flowers to Cream. Considering Sonic was surprised he wasn’t hurt by Twilight I wonder if Twilight’s magic is weakening in some way.
Wait wasn’t Silver just with Rainbow and the group? How is he getting attacked by Infinite… uh oh somethings not right here.
Great chapter can’t wait for more!!!
All I can say is it’s great to see another chapter, and love the reference you gave to whisper of her being a guardian angel! You outdone your self again greensonic21!
Yeah definitely saw the Adventures reference in you that there would be some gag with Grubber's species eventually. Cool to see Whisper make an appearance.