"Alright. That will conclude our session today." Amy said as she closed her notebook and put her pencil in the rings on the side. Both Wendy and Sonic were in front of her.
Wendy, though relieved the session was over, at least seemed to be smiling. She gave a nod to Amy and began leave the chair she was sitting in. Sonic was smiling too. Most likely because he was glad to be getting out of the same room as the pink hedgehog. He uncrossed his arms and legs as he stood up.
Amy began to stand up and was about to head toward the door to let them out when a voice came over the intercom. It was Knuckles. "Sonic, come to the command office. I need you for something." With a click, the com went off.
"Finally, I was beginning to wonder when I'd be let out somewhere." Sonic stated as he boosted off past Amy.
"But Sonic, I don't think you're ready to-" Amy started, but the blue blur had already sped off, "...go yet." She finished. With a quick glance at Wendy, the pink hedgehog headed toward Sonic's destination. The wolf followed close behind.
Once Sonic entered through the grey, metallic door, he saw Knuckles staring at a screen in the front of the room. On that screen was a map of the surrounding area. Many of the dots on it were red however a few blue ones were popping up. A tag next to certain patches of land stated the name of a known Eggman base. Many were blue and dismantled however there was one in particular that was still active.
The red echidna sighed. He turned around to face the three others in the room, however only addressed one of them. "I'm sorry about having to call you in so soon, Sonic, but I need to send you out on a mission."
Amy, who had just arrived with Wendy, stomped her foot. "What?! Knuckles! He just came back two weeks ago! He's still recovering! You can't send him off now!" She crossed her arms and looked at the ground. Wendy placed her hand on the pink hedgehog's shoulder and nodded to back her up. The wolf may not know Sonic all that well but even she still needed more time to recover, and she only had a single experience that didn't include her being beat.
"I know how you feel about this, but if we want to snuff out the Eggman Empire, we're going to need Sonic's help."
"But..."
"There's no buts Amy." The red echidna went over to Sonic and pointed toward a particular spot on the screen. "I've sent out everyone I could, even tried to get Shadow. He refused though and ran off. Probably for the best." His brows furrowed when he added the last part. Clearing his throat, Knuckles continued. "Silver might have been able to get past, but he's on a mission with the Chaotix to an abandoned Eggman base. The only one who could get in and out is you, Sonic."
"I still don't even understand why you sent Silver out. He's already in enough danger." Amy huffed, crossing her arms and biting the inside of her cheek. When Tails had returned, one piece of information he gave was that Eggman had sent Infinite to take out Silver. The reasoning was simple. They couldn't afford to lose him though. Even after everything, he was still the strongest fighter they had and the one thing they didn't have when his future was taken over. Amy was perplexed as to why Knuckles even took that chance in the first place.
"Look, I know how much you disliked the decision but at the very least, we know where he is. You know he would have just gone off anyway no matter we said. At least now he has the Chaotix with him." Knuckles explained.
"Fine, fine. I'll give you that one, but why couldn't you just send Shadow or something?"
The echidna looked down. His face seemed to scrunch up. "Like I said, he ran off before I could get him on a mission. If I'm being honest though, that traitor is lucky we're even letting him stay here."
Wendy's ears went down. Geez, and she thought Silver was mad at him. Brushing off what she believed to be a hair from her shoulders, Wendy turned her attention back to the conversation at hand.
"Any further questions or do I need to ask you to step outside for a moment Ms. Rose?" Knuckles side-glanced the pink hedgehog, daring her to ask even one more time-consuming question.
Amy looked down, defeated. "No..." Wendy looked over at her. She really didn't want to azure hedgehog to go apparently. Maybe there was something she could do to cheer the pink hedgehog up?
"Alright then." Knuckles turned his attention back to Sonic, who had begun to cross his arms and tap his foot rhythmically on the ground. "So, you up to the task?"
The blue hedgehog smashed his fist into his palm and nodded. "Who do you think you're talking to? I've been waiting to get back at Eggman for those six months he left on the Death Egg."
"It's set then. You'll leave imme-"
"Wait!" Wendy suddenly shouted, causing everyone to jump. "Why don't I go with him?" Knuckles raised an eyebrow. Wendy sighed. "It'll give me more experience and give Amy some peace of mind."
Knuckles sighed and turned away. "I've already answered enough questions about this today. Someone else explain it, if you can that is."
Picking her head up, Amy looked at the wolf. "Thank you for the offer but I don't think you'd be quick enough. You would probably just slow Sonic down and jeopardize the whole mission. Besides, your wispon is beyond repair so you'd be going in without protection! I wouldn't forgive myself if something happened...to either of you."
"I know, but I just...I feel like this would give a better outcome. I don't think Sonic's ready to go it alone quite yet..." The wolf looked glanced at the azure hedgehog who gave a huff in response. Wendy sighed. At least, when they were both on the Death Egg, they watched each other's backs. Sonic may have been scared but the azure hedgehog hid it so well that it would be impossible to spot it. This time though, Sonic didn't seem to be hiding his emotions as well as before. For him to be doing that, something bad could happen if he got too ticked off.
Something nudged her shoulder. Wendy looked over. A red arm was outstretched towards her, the hand attached to it holding another wispon. This one was different though. It was in the shape of a lightning bolt instead of a fire and the color of it was yellow. Out of it popped an unfamiliar wisp. This little guy squeaked once it saw her, though, and popped right back into the weapon.
Knuckles placed the wispon into her hands. "This is one of the only wispons we can spare. I know yours won't work with it, but it would get you back in the fight if you really want to go."
Wendy grabbed firmly onto it and nodded. "Thank you."
"Just don't screw this up." Knuckles walked back to the screen, glimpsing at Amy who appeared to finally be accepting of this. "Alright, let's move. That base isn't going to destroy itself."
💥———✨———💦———✨———💥
Shadow grunted as he placed down a box of medical supplies. The pink cat in the room perked up from the sound and gave a wide smile. "Thanks for helping me with that Shads!" She exclaimed as she bent down to take out a few packaged items.
The ebony hedgehog looked down and turned to walk towards the door. Blossom looked over at him and cocked her head. "Oh no! Did I say something wrong?"
"No, it's just, I haven't heard anyone call me that in a while."
"That was the nickname Sonic gave you, isn't it?"
"Yes." Shadow never quite liked the name. Every time the Faker would call him that, the two would have a small argument over it that changed absolutely nothing. Although the azure hedgehog irritated him to no end, he was actually starting to miss the banter. Especially now, when he had an annoying task that wasn't even his choice to do.
He had thought of everything to delay what that jackal wanted. At this point, he didn't even trust himself around Rouge, who was still recovering in the bed behind him. There was no telling when he would lose control again. Even knowing about his past with Eggman six months ago, why did the Resistance let him join? Was it to keep a better eye on him? It was almost too much to process.
"Shadow? You okay?" Blossom asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.
"I'm fine."
"You were thinking about the Resistance, weren't you?"
Shadow looked at the pink cat who still kept her smile. "How did you?"
"I'm not as oblivious as you think." Blossom placed down some of the equipment she was carrying onto a tray. "Don't look so down! Lots of people would give up their left leg from another chance like this! Make sure you use it!"
Shadow nodded. "I understand." His eyes fell on Rouge. "What about her? Do you think she'll have another chance?"
The pink cat gave a thumbs up. "You can count on me for that! She'll be up an at 'em before you know it!"
"That's good to hear." The ebony hedgehog took a few more steps towards the door. As he walked, he said, "Thanks for the talk."
"No problem!" Blossom exclaimed as Shadow closed the door to the nurse's office.
The ebony hedgehog thought that was it for the talking that day. Something told him he was wrong. He continued down the hallway, looking side to side at each of the doors. After walking a bit, he walked into one of the rooms and let out a sigh. "What do you want Jackal?"
Looking almost hologram-like, the crimson villain appeared in front of Shadow. He was hovering with his left hand covering most of his masked face. His eyes narrowed. "You know exactly what I'm looking for. Information about the Resistance. Dr. Eggman must know there every move."
"And what makes you think I'll give you the information?" Shadow crossed his arms and glared at the jackal.
The crimson villain laughed. "As if you have a choice. If you ever want your precious teammate to live, you'll do exactly as I say, without question or else..." He raised his hand and immediately, Shadow's body tensed up as if he were in a full body paralysis, "let's just say only one of us with be having a good time." The jackal released Shadow and disappeared.
Shadow sighed. What did that pink cat say? A second chance? It was difficult to imagine one with the pickle he was in. At least the jackal seemed more distracted. Usually, their chats lasted longer. That gave him enough time to plan a strategy.
Heading out of the room, the ebony hedgehog analyzed the hallway. A shadow slinked around the corner. Intriguing. Shadow chose to ignore it for the moment and decided to head in the opposite direction. Light shone on the ground. So, he was right about where this path led. He pushed the door open and softly closed it behind him. After making it outside, he promptly turned around. The door slammed shut. Shadow sighed. "I know you've been following me. Come on out."
Slowly, the door was pushed open. When it was open enough, the ebony hedgehog could see a brown falcon nervously opening the door. "You know, I wasn't actually following you."
'Keep telling yourself that.' Shadow thought. He looked at the figure. "Mind telling me what you're doing then? And perhaps who you are too?"
The door closed. "I...um...well...fine!" The brown falcon crossed his arms. "So, I was following you. What's the big deal?"
"Hm...what about your name?"
"So many questions." The falcon rolled his eyes. "Name's Arrow. I'm from...another side of the Resistance."
"And why were you following me?"
Still keeping his arms crossed, Arrow looked from Shadow to the door. "You went from bad to good so suddenly. Why is that?"
"Hmph, I thought I was asking the questions." Shadow crossed his arms as well. The falcon raised an eyebrow. The ebony hedgehog sighed. "I'm afraid I can't tell you."
"Oh really? I wonder why."
"It's not for the reason you think." Shadow walked over to the falcon, causing the bird to jump off to the side. What the hedgehog was doing was reaching for the door handle. "Curiosity isn't best when it comes to something like this. Don't make the same mistake I did." With that, the hedgehog left the falcon to his thoughts.
💥———✨———💦———✨———💥
Wendy panted as Sonic stopped to gaze at the giant pyramid in front of them. She spat out some sand and brushed off her sleeves, narrowing her eyes a bit. She's never heard about him kicking sand in someone's face. At least, not recently.
"Hey, I know you're not used to this, but the least you can do is keep up." Sonic stated as he looked back at the wolf.
Wendy's ears went down. "I know I'm not that much of a runner but that's really no reason to leave me back there in the sand." The wolf stated, brushing off more of the grain. She went a couple steps ahead of him and gazed out. "Hm, there are quite a few robots ahead. Maybe we should try taking a different path?"
She looked down from the metallic road they were on. Tails had said he and that younger Sonic saw some supplies being moved up and down these ramps. Below them, though, were multiple rocks and alternate metallic pathways. There were still a few robots around the area but not as many as up ahead. "What about down he-" A gust of wind blew past her. "Okay then, I guess we'll just...yeah..." The brown wolf sighed as she jumped down onto the rocks right next to the platform. She would head him off later.
Wendy jumped on top of the rock formations. She went from each of the reddish-orange stones, pushing off of them and onto whatever platform was next. At least she was good at agility. This area did kind of require it. Especially since she wanted to avoid the gaze of as many robots as possible.
Once she got so far, a large gap came between her and the other side. She looked up at the ledge above. Sadly, she hadn't thought of bringing any type of tether or rope to swing across. "What? But I've come so far! I can't turn back now!" She glanced over at the platform Sonic was still on. She was a little ahead of him surprisingly. That was probably because of all the twists, turns, and looping platforms Sonic had to navigate. The wolf sighed and went back to her current issue.
If only she had her burst wispon to fly over the rocks. Wait a minute. She did have a wispon though! The lightning wispon caught her eye. "Okay, let's see what you can do. It better be something to help me across, or I'm toast." Crossing her fingers, the wolf pulled the trigger. A glowing whip dangled out.
She looked from the whip to the ledge. "You know, this might work. Thanks!" Bringing her arm back behind her, Wendy took a step forward and threw her arm up. The whip wrapped itself around the rock. Wendy pulled on it to ensure it wouldn't fall and began running toward the ledge.
Right before her feet had left the ground, she slowed down. The gravity of jumping off a cliff had just come to her mind. She stopped inches before the edge. The other side was so close, but she just couldn't do it. Wendy looked up at the rock, then at her wispon. Her ears drooped as she moved the whip around to try and retrieve it. Before she was successful, something flew by her face. It was...her red wisp?
"Hey. You little naughty guy. You do know you're supposed to be resting, right?" Wendy put her hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow.
The wisp landed on her wispon and spat out some wisp garble, most likely trying to give some reasoning. Wendy just nodded. "Uh huh, I'll just take your word for it."
The wisp shook his head and sighed. He decided to go for the more direct approach. Making his way behind her, he began to push her toward the ledge. He had underestimated the difficulty of this, thus beginning to pant and grab onto her arm for support.
Wendy planted her feet. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, are you crazy?! No way am I doing that!"
The wisp sighed and pointed at Sonic, who was already past her location. Wendy looked down. "Fine, I'll try it again."
Wendy went back again and ran toward the gap. She closed her eyes and took a great big leap. Before she knew it, her feet were on solid ground again. Cheers from her red wisp friend echoed in her ears as she untethered the whip. The two gave head other a high five. "What a rush! Thanks for the help little guy. Now, let's catch up with Sonic." The red wisp landed on her shoulder and the two of them headed toward the path.
Over on the metallic runway, Sonic jumped on a few robots right before an elevator platform. No matter how many he took out, more always seemed to appear. The hedgehog scowled as he went at it again, even hitting robots into each other to take them out faster.
Once Wendy finally caught up, she was surprised to see him still fighting off Egg Pawns. She thought about helping when another collapsed in front of her. It...it seemed like he had it handled.
She was about to sit down and watch the show when her red wisp shouted. "What is it?" Wendy asked. The wisp pointed back at Sonic.
Despite the amount of robots the azure hedgehog had taken out, one was still functional. Wendy was sure there weren't any others around when she looked. It pointed its arm at Sonic, it glowed red as if ready to fire. No time for thinking. She had to act.
The wolf looked down at her wispon. Would the whip really work on a robot? She pulled the trigger and out limped the whip. Well, it was worth a try. Wendy brought her arm behind her again and threw it forward, this time, leaping forward with it. The lighting yellow line smacked straight through the robot, causing it to split in half and explode.
Sonic turned around and looked down at the robot as she whacked into another robot. "Not bad...for a rookie."
Wendy reeled the whip in. She slightly rolled her eyes. For the fastest thing alive, he sure did make a process like this slower than it needed to be. "Uh huh. Now, are you done with these guys, or do I need to grab some popcorn?" She motioned to the hedgehog's pile of robot parts as she made her way to the elevator platform that was lowering itself down.
Sonic sighed and kicked one of the metallic heads of the bots as he followed Wendy. The two continued from there, smashing through robots and making it down the runway. It was quick, especially with Wendy pulling Sonic out of more "endless" robot fights. After a point though, the sheer number of robots looked overwhelming. That was when they made it to the base of the pyramid.
Sonic readied his stance, pushing his feet back as his hands touched the ground. He would push off at any moment. "Why don't you stay here? I can handle the rest." His feet kicked off however he didn't make it far.
Wendy had her wispon held out with the whip latched around Sonic's wrist. She was grounded in her stance as she tried to stop him. "Hey! You're not getting...rid of me...that easy! You'd still be...back there fighting...ghosts if I hadn't come!"
Sonic sighed as he ceased running. "Well then, what do you propose? I'm not gonna wait for you to make it all the way up that pyramid before heading in, that's for sure."
Crossing her arms, the wolf raised an eyebrow. "If you're gonna be like that, you may as well carry me."
"Fine." The hedgehog held his hand out. "Come on."
Wendy sighed. She was kinda joking but, what other option did she have? To be honest, she'd rather not do this at all, but if he wouldn't slow down, what other choice would there be?
She grabbed his hand. As soon as both gloves touched, a green spark ignited. It was barely visible, not even catching the attention of the two as they suddenly took off. Sonic barely had a hold on the wolf as they basically flew up the ramp.
"Sonic! I know you want to get this over with, but you just had to wait a second!" Wendy exclaimed as she placed one foot after another down on the platform. It was surprisingly easy to do so. She didn't exactly feel like she was going at the speed of sound though. Her feet were moving at the same fast pace as Sonic's so, maybe she was?
"What?! Hey, it's not my fault my feet moved on their own!"
"Well, they are attached to your body!"
Sonic opened his mouth to say something back, however he seemed to reconsider.
The two blasted up the pyramid, destroying any robots that happened to be in the way. Once they made it to the top, gravity took effect. Both let go of the other's hand as they began to freefall.
"Well, that was kinda weird." Wendy commented. "Does stuff like that happen to you often?"
"Not usually. I mean signs have been able to help me travel through time before, but at least I could see them coming. I'm not really quite sure what that was." Sonic replied as he rolled onto his back. "Anyways, how far is the ground?"
"The...what now?" Wendy finally looked down. Her hair stood on end as she began to grow wide-eyed. Barely having a grip on the wispon, the wolf flailed her arms around. "WHEN DID WE END UP IN MIDAIR?!"
Sonic yawned. "You act like you've never fallen into a building before."
"Of course not?! When would I have ever done that?!"
Sonic sighed. "Just follow my lead."
He began to dive down, barely missing the red lasers that had begun to seep out of the walls. Rolling over on his back, he took a look at how Wendy was doing.
"Ow! My tail..." Wendy exclaimed as she grabbed her smoking brown tails and began to blow on it to cool it off. Her red wisp came to the rescue and sapped out all the heat. "Phew, thanks."
Sonic sighed again. "Guess I should've figured it wouldn't be that easy." He ceased his dive and spread his body out to slow his descent. "Hold on. Let's try a different approach. I'd rather not be responsible for someone getting torched." Grabbing onto Wendy's leg, the azure hedgehog pulled the brown wolf down. He held out a hand. "Just hold on and you'll be fine."
Wendy questioned whether she should or not but the impending doom of the plethora of lasers that had just come out below made her mind up for her. She gripped his hand and down they went.
Left, right, through, and so on and so forth. Despite a few close calls, the lasers didn't even skim them.
Once they reached the ground, Sonic landed on his feet and straightened up. "Hey! Great job there!" Sonic encouraged. Wendy didn't hear it though. She was trying too hard not to scream. Sonic sighed. "...You can open your eyes now."
Sheepishly, the wolf did as she was told and giggled in embarrassment. "Um...l-let's forget this part happened, okay?"
"Fine by me." Sonic shrugged.
Wendy hopped out of his arms and landed on the ground. Oh, how she missed the ground. She would have embraced it but thinking about how disgusting that would be drove her away from the act.
Sonic turned his head to marvel at the interior of the place and began to walk forward. "Hey, I feel like I know this place."
The walls were beige in color and had designs that with green and red lines. Brown hieroglyphs lined the sides of the floor which was lined with green and white spirals. The walls themselves even told a story, giving images of different ancient pictures along with curved red and green lines crossing between each other. What wasn't elegant though, was the great big fat red Eggman symbol smack dab in the middle of the flooring. The marveling stopped after that as Sonic's smile turned to a scowl.
The two continued forward until the hallway ended. Last time, Eggman hadn't ruined the pyramid this badly. They exchanged glances before staring with gaped mouths at what was ahead.
"Does this look familiar?" Wendy asked, pointing ahead. Directly below them was a ginormous factory. Mechanical arms moved about rhythmically, placing body parts on the multiple robots that littered the room. Bins and piles of unused parts stretched far and wide. It was no wonder the security was so tight. They were trying to hide this large robot making nightmare.
"Not in the slightest, but at least we know exactly where the robots are being built." Sonic jumped from the beautiful Egyptian decoration and into the dark machinery. He ducked behind the bins that were lined up in front of him before helping Wendy down. "Now, let's see what makes this place go boom."
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To be continued...
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Well, I got this out quicker than I thought I would. Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. While I was working on it, I came up with a few ideas that'll help me fix up the structure of the actual Forces story. Next chapter, you'll see more of what I mean with the first major change (that doesn't include adding a boss that should've just been there) I plan to make. Hopefully I'll get it out soon 😅 Anyways, I'll cya later!