I do not own sonic the hedgehog or any of the characters from the games, movies or comics but I do own this story and the other characters, I hope you enjoy it.

Just a friendly heads up I am currently editing the entire story chapter by chapter so the story will be a little more streamlined and the excess code will finally be fixed. I hope you stay for the rest of the story as I have many plans for it.

Things Only Whispered In The Shadows

CH.1 Talon and Whisper

This world was peaceful before the wars we once fought for greed. Before the chaos when monsters first appeared in our world. Before him, the demon who took our parents from us. We were just a couple of orphans to the world now and there wasn't much anyone was willing to do about it, so we took matters into our own hands. I lived on the run with my big brother Talon and when we weren't running from monsters we were looking for our parents killer. Finding him wasn't the hard part, we knew who and where he was, getting to him was the hard part.

Our parents had been craftsman in the wars, Artificers, they created weapons and armor of nearly unrivaled quality. Most craftsman relied on the abilities they could put into their tools and goods, our parents were masters at the art of creating a perfectly balanced sword suited to its wielder, and armor with just the right qualities both magical and non-magic alike to protect the owner and to help further their own abilities. Another reason that they were so well renowned was their refusal to create weapons and armor for any other reason than to protect and defend. They had never created a weapon with the intent to kill another person so their equipment had the highest defensive abilities anyone had ever seen.

Talon was four when the wars ended and the chaos ensued, monsters began to appear all over the world and there wasn't much most people could do about it. Our parent's skills had saved us all on more than one occasion but my brother was more interested in monster slaying than crafting at the time so our parents had created a "weapon" for him to keep him safe on his excursions. It was a scarf dubbed the Golden Sleeve and it was nearly indestructible along with having the ability to help sustain ones momentum. It held true to its name and he became known as the green and gold Talon. The Golden Sleeve had spurred him to push himself to even greater speeds.

Shortly after his fame began to spread, I was born. Our parents, thinking ahead, created the Silver Sleeve for me.

In five short years I was fighting alongside my brother and learning the craft from our parents. Unlike his Golden Sleeve my Silver Sleeve was lighter and instead of sustaining momentum it increased it. It would have been more impressive if that meant that I went faster with less effort but it's more like spend more effort to go faster than I should be able to. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining, when I try hard enough not only could I out pace my brother at half his age I could sometimes get somewhere fast enough to leave him in the dust.

By the time I was ten our skills were at the top of the food chain, when everything went wrong, we were impressive in our own right to be sure and we didn't hold a candle to our parents but that didn't stop them from being snuffed out like armatures. It took everything they had to help us escape and we still nearly lost our lives that day. I don't remember much about that day, the only thing that stuck with me was the memories of the monster who took them from me, from us.

I had never seen the demon who killed our parents before that day but I recognized him immediately. He was the one our parents had opposed in the wars before the chaos and it looked like he and his army had finally overcome the monsters. He was a regular black cat at first glance, but the murder in his eyes told you otherwise and if you looked close enough you could see countless scars covering his hands and up his arms from untold battles. His most defining feature though wasn't his blood thirsty gaze, it was the large red gem hanging from his cloak that starkly contrasted his dark colored outfit and cold blue eyes. His name was Salem, he had murdered thousands before and he was now my enemy.

- A couple of years later -

"Hey ugly! Over here!" Talon jumped from one minion to another as we lead the Golem deeper into the cavern knowing full well that there was a drop off not more than twenty feet behind us.

"Talon switch out!" I calmly dodge between the smaller golems dancing around flailing arms, legs, and the occasional club or sword. Golems weren't the most intelligent monsters. Talon was still stronger than me but I could hit harder when I got my speed up, a wry smile crossed my face as I dashed up along the wall flanking the golem and spinning it around as he tried to follow my movement.

"Whisper?! Where are you going?" he stood there confused dodging the odd minion here and there. "We need him to go the other way!"

I grin wider at that and turn sharply back toward the golem and Talon picking up momentum all the while. I leap at the golem and hit it dead center with enough force to throw it back to the edge of the drop. Talons eyes widen as the boulder of a golem hurled toward him forcing him to make a quick and sloppy dodge.

"Are you freaking crazy!? I think your trying to kill me now, a little warning next time maybe?" he looks at me with his half smile half glare that says it was at least a little more entertaining than it was dangerous.

"Oops" I back up as the golem stands back up and nearly steps on me, my brother dropping into a crouch to avoid a swinging arm. This time he smiles.

"You missed the hole, This is how you drop a golem!" he jumps forward and punches the golem in the face forcing it to take a step back, one two many steps. As a few small chunks of rock fall from the golems shattered face it drops down the deep pit for a while before hitting water and sinking into the large lake at the bottom. Grinning like an idiot he turned back to me and shakes his fist out a little. "So that's one more point for me then little sis."

"Uh no... that would be My point dearest brother. If it weren't for me you would have never gotten near the thing." I gave him my sincerest deadly smile and he backed away still smiling.

"Of course it is, of course it is. Now how shall I celebrate?" I began to chase him around the cavern, smashing minions as we worked our way to the exit both grinning like idiots laughter echoing off of the craggy walls.

We continued on like this for a few more minutes in the seemingly endless fields outside until I gave up the chase, dropping to the grass panting. I may be faster with the Silver Sleeve but if he can dodge long enough I don't stand a chance of catching him.

Talon drops down beside me chuckling "What's the matter? Having trouble keeping up?" I punch him in the shoulder playfully then look up at the sky. It had been a while since we had watched the clouds like this, we were usually to busy hunting monsters and finding new places to call home.

My mood sobers as I think about how dangerous the world had become in the few years we had been on our own. It would be great if defeating that golem and its minions was about all that needed to be done to make the world a safer place but it was far from enough, our world needed a hero or two and no one seemed to be stepping up to be that hero. I sighed and closed my eyes. Imagining what a world like that would look like.

"What's wrong? We kicked golem butt back there and still have time to do whatever we want with the rest of the day, what's eating you?" Talon had stopped watching the clouds to look at me.

"I..." I sit up, pull my knees close and set my chin down. "The world needs help and no one will stand up and fight him... We don't stand a chance against him and so we're here beating on third rate monsters hoping that we will get stronger and that it will help someone..." I squeeze my eyes closed hoping to stop the tears from pouring down my face to no avail.

My brother put his hand on my head, "Then we'll just have to try harder and do more! If no one else will do it then we'll be the heroes." I looked at him, wiping tears from my face. He was smiling again. "Salem will never know what hit him."

I smiled back and nodded.

Look out demon here we come!

- A couple more years later -

I didn't know what we were doing here, Talon didn't tell me anything other than he had a lead that would help us avenge our parents and stop Salem from taking the rest of the world under his twisted and tyrannical reign.

We had spent the last couple months hunting any and all monsters we could take on as well as routing supplies from any poorly guarded supply lines of his. When we weren't taking on our impossible task we were training hard to be faster, stronger, and smarter. I began training my stamina and relearning everything about crafting that our parents had taught me. I was proud to say I was advancing again but there was still a long road ahead before I could make true weapons and armor.

I wasn't blindfolded or anything but it was incredibly unnerving not knowing where we were going other than getting farther and farther from our usual hunting grounds. We were currently climbing possibly the most dangerous mountains in the world, although it was the best season to do so. Even Salem and his armies stayed well clear of this place, which made me wonder even more if Talon had lost his marbles when he hit his head the other day while training. The monsters living in these mountains were more than enough to deter potential visitors and as if that wasn't bad enough there was supposed to be some ancient ruins of the last civilization that tried to make this place home. If an entire civilization couldn't tame this place how in the world did my brother expect to find help here?

"We're almost there." He looks down at me, a reassuring look on his face as we climbed the sheer cliff.

Even though he assured me that this was the quickest way there, after climbing for three hours I was skeptical, I swore that if we got to the top and he told me it was all just for training and there was no lead I would push him off the top. "If you're lying..." a deep rumbling cut my threat short, shaking the mountainside. I clung to the cliff like my life depended on it, and just as suddenly as it started it quieted.

"You alright?" I glanced up at his worried expression just in time to see the landslide barreling down the mountain as the the faint rumble became a roar. The look on my face had to have been enough of a warning coupled with the quickly growing roar of hundreds of tons of dislodged rock heading straight towards us.

Talon dropped down to me, scooped me off of my precarious perch and in one strong leap to the side narrowly avoided being crushed by a boulder the size of a house. "Don't worry, I got you" He wove his way through falling debris, up and around the landslide. We were almost through when I heard a sickening crack and felt my brother tense up. Suddenly we were falling and looking down I was horrified to see blood pouring down Talons leg. He was still trying to hang on to the cliff, only managing to slow our decent. We finally hit a narrow ledge just wide enough to catch us.

I was sobbing by this point, thinking that all of our hard work to get here had nearly ended in the blink of an eye. We had to get out of here but that would mean going back down the mountain we were already mostly over and the chances of getting hit with another landslide were not looking good. Our only other option was to get where Talon was trying to go originally and hope there really was help there, if we didn't end up dead first.

"Hey, don't look so sad we made it this far. Only a couple more minutes, well maybe a couple hours now, and we will be there I promise." I could see that he was trying to look calm and collected but he only pulled off a half pained smile.

"Talon..." I begin to cry again as I pull myself off of him and over to sit beside him on the ledge. Then I saw a cave entrance further along the ledge. I sniffle a bit and headed over to check it out. The cave was much larger up close and realizing I left Talon out on the ledge with a broken leg I head back out. "Talon! Look at this!"

"Good work Sis..." As I turned down the ledge again I saw that Talon had hefted himself up on one leg and using the cliff to lean on was working his way over on his own. I rushed over to help him to the cave careful to avoid falling off of the edge.

"Don't push yourself Talon, we need to get you help..." He sat down and leaned against the cave wall looking around, probably thinking up a new plan of action. "Is it as bad as it looks?" My voice quivers a bit when I ask, trying not to cry again.

"Probably, but we've got bigger things to worry about. If we don't make it over the peak by sundown we're in for the fight of our lives..." He grimaced as he shifted positions.

"Are you always this depressing?" An unfamiliar voice emanates from a nearby shadow in the cave. "If you're looking for help you just found the one and only shortcut." an orange and black striped cat strode out into the lighted part of the cave. "Names Fel, Am I right to assume you're looking for the old grey geezer?" despite his attitude Fel knelt down next to Talon. "Lem'me take a look... Not much I can do without supplies from the geezer but I can help you get there..."

"Why are you helping us?"

A look of surprise passed over the cats face before turning into a slight smile as Talon settled for a more stern but apologetic look. "Whisper!" Talon was sometimes a little too trusting of new people, I on the other hand trusted no one without reason. "Please forgive my sister she can be a bit, wary of strangers... and people in general."

Fel gave me a thoughtful look for a bit before replying, "Because you and your brother need my help if you want to make it before nightfall. That and I'm probably the only thing on this mountain other than the geezer that won't try to eat you." With that he turned to help Talon up. "We should get started before it starts getting dark." I was loath to accept the help of someone so confident but Talon needed the help and I had no idea why we were even here.

Frustrated I fumed for a moment letting them disappear around the corner, then glancing out the entrance I see that the days light was already an hour or two from disappearing. Who knew what kind of unthinkable horrors came out in the dark of this already hellish place? I gave a squeak of surprise when a drop of water landed on my head and promptly headed after them into the darkness.

"Wait for me..." I nearly bowled the two of them down when I rounded the corner at full speed. Ignoring the near accident I grabbed on to Talons free hand and held on like my life depended on it, Talon trying to stifle a smile. "So, now that we're up shit creak without a paddle Talon, why are we here again?" It was too dark to see the blush spread across Talons face but I knew it was there behind the wince of pain. I was expecting a full explanation before we made it out of the cave.

Heading deeper into the darkness Fel continued on without hesitation, taking us with him.

Thanks for reading. Feedback is appreciated!