Chapter 2: Urchin Tears

Silver huffed. "You're a machine…and probably won't understand my answer."

One of Metal Sonic's arms morphed into a weapon barrel. He was running out of time and if the hedgehog insisted on being idle, it would be a threat to the whole operation. "Irrelevance is obsolete. Are you?"

The robot really had it in him. Metal has never really done anything evil for Silver to witness, but the idea of helping Eggman's invention sounded fishy. Still, it was the only quick way to get a Chaos Emerald and get back to finding Blaze. Being targeted didn't matter.

"No."

Metal took a more relaxed stance, turning in the sun's direction. The entrance must have opened wide to let more light in.

"Help E units to receive the emerald."

"Are you sure nobody will get hurt?

Sonic's look-alike beeped a few times. "This intelligence must save Doctor Robotnik. Search and destroy is not a priority."

"I'll take your word for it," Silver nodded.

"Waypoint map uploaded. Go," Metal ordered, before blending in with daylight and running off.

The organic life form was weak and emotional. Silver couldn't even put the cargo box down after lifting it out of irritation. The male's G.U.N. uniform, however, offered more leverage than necessary to assure success. Strong infatuation with the female from the future made him a good ally, even if short and expendable. Having chosen a side, he'd stick to it long enough.

Metal Sonic would benefit from the surprise meeting. Eggman's signal was turning weaker every day, and while power chips of all robots were linked to that man, he remained an unsolvable nuisance. Speeding down a dirt road with the jet turbine offline would guarantee a satellite lock on Silver the Hedgehog and much-needed safety from G.U.N. patrols.

Left alone in the warehouse, the teen was impressed and even scared by the robot's senses. Seconds after his disappearance, the military stormed the building. Armed from head to toe, soldiers searched everything in sight. Some of them had exoskeletons with robotic legs and large cannon modules. Others wore strange helmets with a single tomato-sized eyeball that emitted light. Silver had never seen humans in such a getup. Then again, if Rouge was with them, they were probably just assuring good order.

A figure appeared right in front of him. The uniformed being was just as tall as the hedgehog. A lot more muscular, wearing some expensive-looking equipment and a disturbing fly-eye face mask. He held shard-like stars between long curved fingers.

One hand pointed threateningly at Silver and made a swiping gesture to the side. The time traveller just took distance, baffled and weary. Noticing that, the militant newcomer put the set of stars back in a small container below his gloves and took off the armoured gas mask. It revealed a discontent face of a purple chameleon.

"Put down the stolen cargo or behold my ninja powers!"

Oh! Silver had completely forgotten to put the levitating box down. He blushed in embarrassment.

"Sorry…umm, Sepia, right?"

The chameleon frowned. "It's Mr. Chameleon to you, private," he reprimanded and quickly peeked around the corner to check if they had privacy. "But you can call me Es-pio. Colonel Rouge warned everyone you'd be confused."

Silver didn't know whether to agree or feel insulted. A ticking sound in his ear made the choice for him. Time was of the essence, and he had none for offence. "So can you explain what's going on?"

Espio jumped atop a tower of transport boxes without any warning to set a stream of projectiles at something outside. The tiny stars managed to fly between the window's iron bars and reach a tree branch outside. A bird had landed on it. The chameleon killed the innocent creature for no reason.

Remorseless, the combatant leapt back with instructions. "Reach our HQ at Delta first. We need to repair your sat nav. What did you do?"

Was he talking about the communicator bolted to his head? It could spell trouble. "I…fell…a few times. Was dizzy," Silver lied. The timer had gotten louder.

"You better hurry. Just don't use anything Chaos. Anomalies may set the barrier on permanent lockdown," warned the soldier before trailing off.

Silver waved goodbye. He managed to cruise through the ant trail of G.U.N. operatives surrounding the warehouse. Hopefully, they wouldn't harm more birds.

Outside looked normal: deep blue sky, glaring sunshine and no clouds. It meant a nice and cheerful day for people with normal lives. For Silver, solar flares meant a considerable nuisance and an eyesore. He didn't like extremes, especially nice ones that always made him paranoid. Metal came up offering him an emerald, and now Espio asked him to go to the same spot, Delta, wherever that was. Yes, he'd need to pin the location first. He levitated up to the fifteen-metre-high rooftop of the surrounded warehouse. The view was much better from there.

The small weakly-defended building was located amidst pine woods. Majestic trunks towered the land in dark green. Mature birches and maples drizzled softer shades in the big picture. If that was a base of some sort, Eggman had gone to great lengths to hide it from civilisation.

And he might not have been the only one. There was a peculiar shine coming from several kilometres away. Needing more altitude, Silver pounced on a flexible birch and began shuffling up. The tree was tall enough to give him a more detailed outlook.

Eggman's outpost lay in a huge green valley. Shaped like a sink, it was rimmed with bald mountain tops, preventing random travellers from straying into the zone. For a worthy cause, too. A hill had somehow limped into the sink's centre. A dominant brown streak meant that there was a road leading down, but Silver's sight moved higher to the strong gleam. It was a building. Enclosed in barbed wire. That must have been the G.U.N. HQ Espio had mentioned earlier.

Now, if he could just find a safe way back.

"Whoah!" exclaimed the hedgehog, support swaying from his hands. The tree was falling down!

He tried to push away, but the branches smacked him in the face. Struggling got him into a leafy mess, and the crackling sound from below meant lots of hurt. Silver closed his eyes, sealing himself in a tight bubble to defy gravity. The tree crashed without him, and the teen could descend safely to remove the leaves and twigs out of his quills. And be shouted at.

A G.U.N. patrolman with an eye helmet approached him. "Are you blind, man? You'll call out more urchin tears if you keep playing top rodent here."

Silver looked down shamefully. Not that it was clear what he did wrong, but neither levitation nor tree climbing appealed to those people. "I'm not…" whispered the hedgehog, catching a glimpse of the strangely equipped soldier in hope of forgiveness.

Phew. The guy turned around to work on something. Curious, the teen inspected the process. That person was putting together some sort of timer. Several others were doing the same near the warehouse's corners. Silver first wondered whether it would be polite to interrupt, but he had to know.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

The soldier's large eyeball moved to picture the hedgehog. "We're blowing up this dump."

Wait! He was not allowed to climb a tree and those people can raze the whole place? Silver grimaced indignantly, causing an immediate reaction. The man stopped working on the bomb and took off his headgear. Now he looked almost normal for a human being. The teen hadn't expected a pale long-faced young adult under all that high tech. Stark emerald eyes stared into the hedgehog's bewildered glance. The soldier's lips quivered as he tried to say something, but words wouldn't come out.

He just looked at the dark midday sky worriedly. "The road moved again. We've lost our trucks."

The answer didn't tell him anything. How could a road move? Silver felt he didn't wish to find that out and decided to inquire something else. "Can't you call a helicopter for help?"

A weak grin formed on the soldier's face as he patted the confused hedgehog's shoulder. It was the kindest touch he had experienced since returning to that world. "You better run to our field HQ. The sky is clear…" the young man said, not losing sight of the deep blue above.

Silver joined him to gawk for a spell. The heavens looked nice and cool. He used to smile at the colour: serene, yet firm like Blaze's attitude. Again, the boy caught himself daydreaming. To be completely honest, though, someone else found him guilty of stalling.

Espio's huffing approach was heard. The chameleon thought little of stealthy entrances. "Come here!" he barked at Silver, scowling at the lad's tardy pace. "You must have something against ninja advice." The chameleon grabbed his collar, pressing the infantile boy's wet nose to his scaly face. "Don't go sniffing for answers like a needy brat. We're all edgy, so you might get hurt. The whole valley is one big mistake and anyone slowing us down now puts more than his life at risk." He squeezed the collar tighter. "I got here with fifty men. There's twelve of us now! We've missed Metal again, couldn't find Eggman and our comms are down. Cause us trouble, and I promise we'll find a scapegoat for this mission, ninja's word."

The hedgehog felt all chewed over when Espio dropped him to the ground. Getting up, he thought it was a lot more comfortable with Metal Sonic earlier. At least, that robot didn't shout at him and his breath didn't reek. Remaining silent, Silver glared at the hothead. The mad lizard let go, sure, but left him no room for words. Espio demonstratively pulled out a shuriken.

"You have three to get out of my sight or Vector will have to admit he was wrong about you. One!"

Silver couldn't believe that. Why was everyone so mean to him in the first place? Who did they think they were? He's done nothing wrong. "You guys are crazy!" he yelled.

The look on the soldier's face was not blissful. His yell shortened the fuse more.

"Two!"

Seeing that a few G.U.N. troops joined Espio in the life threat, the hedgehog began retreating. "F-fine… See you."

"Three!"

Running away like a stray hound, Silver zoomed past the first trees, thinking it would be enough. But no, branches started falling down. Whole pines tumbled afterwards, clear-cutting the path. The hedge gulped, striding deeper into the woods until their voices couldn't be heard.

"You're too hard on the kid," the emerald-eyed man told Espio back at the warehouse.

"Tell that to the next curtain call," retorted the chameleon, nodding that Silver got the message. "Ready for fireworks?"

Sure enough, Silver had enough action for one day. With hands over his head, the boy looked around fearfully. The tree next to him was knocked off ten metres from its stump. He shuddered, trying to get up. Why was everyone so mean to him? Sure, Espio's team got lost, but why blame your failures on the first new person? The answer would sadly have to wait, a buzz in his earpiece taking up more attention.

He tapped it a few times, making a message sound out: "…a recording. Silver, we've lost track of you. Reach the central area ASAP, but stay low. Touch nothing; trust no one. This is a recording. Silver, we've lost-"

Another poke shut it off again. He could now remove the device and unplug his ear. It felt much better that way. The hedgehog would have to find the G.U.N. base and demand an explanation. Though, just before he got ready to move out bravely, a shockwave knocked him down.

Kissing the tree stump with his snout, the hedge blacked out on the wobbly world. Whatever had caused that made him lose consciousness for a few good hours: the shadows moved. Five in the afternoon according to his watch. Just great! Several hours lost and now he could only guess which way was right. He sighed, hoping for Espio's path of destruction to give him directions.

He turned around and saw the forest, plain and wholesome. All was sound, and not a single leaf misplaced. The violently erected stump was there, but other wreckage disappeared. Silver shuddered and bit his upper lip to remain quiet. Wrong things were happening in the woods. He'd try not to think about them. Maybe the explosion just chucked him further away? Yes! That's a rational explanation, as Blaze would have said.

Silver smiled, deciding to use shadows as a pathfinder. With barely a few kilometres separating him, the hedge would be at the goal in no time. And the idea hadn't left him for a second. The woods didn't seem scary at all after half an hour of walking, but the hedgehog kept his guard up like Rouge's message had suggested. He didn't pick a single berry and dodged edible-looking mushrooms even though his tummy protested.

However, when the forest darkened at front, Silver's attention turned to alarm. Before him stood an unusual wall of shades, hanging from the trees. It fluttered silently in the soft wind like a thin veil. The whole thing looked amazing and scary at the same time. Its nearly obsidian colour clashed with the tree bark's brown. Approaching the veil let him see it was made of the thinnest strings tied together, like a masterfully hand-crafted fabric or locks of wet hair.

Probably someone lost a parachute.

Pacing closer, Silver yelped upon examining the obstruction: it crackled and popped like an electrified rug. He stopped for a gulp as he stared at the long strands of unknown substance. Would it really be bad if he just moved a part away to pass? Probably not.

The hedgehog reached out and parted his fingers to touch the hair-thin shroud's edge as low as the knee. Eyes closed, he pulled it aside and quickly jumped forth. Ah, no harm done, he thought, trying to ignore its rattling noise.

Rubbing his palms to clean them of moisture, the teen noticed discomfort. Looking down, Silver saw pieces of his glove sliced through, along with singed fur beneath their material. Silver's pupils widened, the head shaking warily in denial. Parachutes don't give you burning papercuts.

A low grumble reached his ears. He turned in its direction. "W-who's there?"

Not a soul in sight. The boy looked back, holding his aching hand. His grip turned into a nervous squeeze when Silver noticed the whole forest was full of those shady veils. Everywhere, they had him surrounded, each ready to put him in pain the moment he'd try to flee.

More grunts had occurred.

"Hello?" He walked absentmindedly in haste, anywhere but here. The sound only turned louder over time. "Show yourself! What are you?"

All the freaky tree blankets hissed at the scream, making him trip from clumsy gawking. Getting angry, the teen was about to stand up, but froze on the spot. Silver couldn't believe his eyes. The forest wind was… It's impossible!…the wind really was…alive.

Now you have gotten a preview both of some characters involved and the world they inhabit. Don't expect the unexplainable to cease in the next chapter, but be sure that the puzzle forms a picture. Starting with chapter three, there will be no notes or announcements. Please express your opinions and expectations in a review. They are most useful while the fiction is still young.