Set during IDW Sonic 25.
As the World Slows to a Crawl, Which Side of History Will We Be On?
From their safe haven in the sky, Wave observed the carnage through holographic screens. She stood with her back as straight as a pencil, her body dyed in a faintly luminous green light. Poor citizens fled for their lives only to wind up screaming when the metal liquid coated their bodies, leaving them empty husks of their former selves. Parents shoved their children away for them to flee while they braved the mindless Zombots, but none could escape the plague's grasp, and Wave tightened her grip on her elbows as she watched a boy wail for his father when a dog grabbed him by the throat, his bright yellow fur turning metallic.
"Can you turn that racket off? Me and Storm are trying to organize the next raid over here," Jet ordered from his seat, his heel tapping rhymically.
She closed her eyes and tapped the edge of the screen. It vanished, leaving her to stare out the window. The sky was the same. Unlike the world below, it hadn't been contaminated. Pure white cumulus clouds cascaded across the horizon. The same light blue hue which stretched as far as she could see seemed unrecognizable above the current state of the planet. The sunlight peeking through the thick clouds mocked everyone, providing warmth that the Zombots would not feel and hurt Wave's eyes when she gazed for too long.
The feathers on the back of her neck prickled. She shivered and quickly shook her head as if that would erase the truth from her thoughts. Pivoting on her heels, she faced Jet and Storm with her face falling naturally into a neutral expression.
They were hunched over a set of blueprints for Westopolis' largest jewelry complex over his desk. Jet was dragging his finger across a corridor, informing Storm that he would be the one to take that wing while he took the other. Storm bobbed his head up and down and clenched his fists, eagerly accepting the command.
"And Wave," Jet began, grinning at her, "you'll be taking the left wing. That's where the diamonds are."
"Of course," she said plainly, nodding once. She fiddled with her necklace, rolling the orb between her fingers.
"Man, this should be a cakewalk, right, boss?" Storm asked, grinning widely. "With all of those Zombots around, it's makin' stealing a lot easier."
Jet smirked, leaning back in his chair and bouncing his leg. "Of course. I'm sure this is gonna blow over soon enough, so we might as well take what we can. I'm not gonna complain if the easy way's given to us."
Wave frowned and dropped her hand to her hip. She glanced between them, wondering how they hadn't been affected by the cruelties happening down below. The news broadcasts they had watched were met with apathy from her cohorts, the panicked words of the anchor having gone through one ear and out the other.
"Don't you think-" She swallowed when they gave her their full attention. "-we should be a little worried about this crisis? It's only getting worse."
"Aw, what, us? 'Worried?'" Storm crossed his arms and laughed deep from his belly. "No way! We're gettin' so many gems now. It's ain't like anyone can stop us if they're all like that. I don't even hafta punch anyone to get them outta the way anymore."
Jet uncrossed his legs and pressed his knuckles to his cheek. Setting his elbow on the armrest, he chuckled and said, "You know we're much faster than them, too. With our Extreme Gear, we can swipe and go as we please." He waved his hand. "Not like we'll get infected as long as none of us screw up and fall off our boards."
Storm seemed to take pride in Jet's addition, for he nodded along with every word. "Yeah! The boss is right. You're the one being a worrywart, Wave."
She clicked her tongue and gripped her hips. They did not seem to be thinking ahead, returning to their discussion as if she was not there. And as they did, her thoughts raced like she would on her Extreme Gear, foreseeing the final results of the contamination. Acquiring food would be difficult after a few raids. Procuring essentials like fuel seemed even harder, as those would require docking the ship and leaving their base. To invade groceries, convenience stores, or ports where Zombots certainly lurked, they would be forced to face them head-on, and even if they were slow and cumbersome, their legion increased by the second, outnumbering them by millions to three.
Someone as clumsy as Storm and as reckless as Jet could have easily fallen victim to the Zombots with one mistake. She knew them well enough that their arrogance could not be swayed by the challenge. While she prided herself for her many accomplishments and strengths, her calculations overrode her ego. She needed to protect the Babylon Rogues from the Zombots and themselves, something she knew they would not fully understand as they continued planning out their next heist without a single care in the poisoned world.
Wave ran her hand down the smooth curve of her beak. She felt like criticizing them, but her tongue shriveled. Neither of them would listen to her. As the plague spread, so did their boldness. They had smashed and grabbed to their leisure, something which she gloated about as well in the private comforts of their airship. Enabling them during the infection had been a mistake, which she knew she should have curbed as the Metal Virus spread beyond her understanding, but being loyal to a fault kept her pinned to the side of Jet's desk.
"Uh, what's up with that, Wave?" Storm suddenly asked, pointing at her necklace.
She blinked and drew back. Her hands rose as her gem glowed a brilliant scarlet. Clearing her throat, she replied, "It's a transmission, but I can't tell from who though. Not like we get many calls as it is." Quickly detaching it from her necklace, she tapped the top and held it out for them, Jet twisting in his chair to face her and Storm hobbling behind his boss to get a better look.
A sea green holographic screen projected above her orb. Static crackled, overpowering their thoughts, and Storm winced, his fingers twitching in front of his chest. The screen flickered with colors. Steel grays and brick red shades trickled in through the pixels before meshes of pink and scarlet came into view, forming a figure and a dark, metallic background of the interior of a skyship, which bewildered the Babylon Rogues.
"Amy?" the trio blurted, their eyes wide and beaks dropping open.
Instead of the spunky adventurer they had come to know, before them was a girl whose brow was dampened with sweat. Bits of grime clung to her quills. They looked like they had not been brushed through, split quills curling upwards while others hung lankly by her muzzle. Although her headband was pristine, her dress was wrinkled. Her smile stretched into her cheeks and collapsed as quickly as she came into view, a heavy sigh escaping her. She dropped her head, relief exuding from her for a reason they could not fathom, knowing they were not exactly close with her or her gaggle of friends.
It was not like they helped with the Resistance. They had remained in the sky away from Eggman's war. They had only been contacted if Amy or Knuckles were desperate for aid, which they would give for a promised price that would later be returned with interest. For that reasoning alone, Wave suspected Amy's basis for calling before the hedgehog opened her mouth.
"I'm so happy to see you guys are still okay," Amy said, forcing her lips upward.
Hints of dark circles had formed underneath her eyes. Stress coated her every word, a breathless relief. Wave noted that and offered a slight nod.
"You bet we are," Storm replied, punching his chest.
"As if we'd turn into Zombots so easily," Jet sneered, straightening in his chair.
"And since you're taking the time to speak with us, I take it something's wrong on your end," Wave said, her assertion drawing Jet and Storm's attention.
Amy's cheeks dimpled, her smile appearing forced. She leaned forward and clutched the keyboard. Taking a breath, she hunched her shoulders and nodded. "That's right. You have no idea what's really been going on."
"Oh, we do. The Zombots are rampaging, and Eggman's taking over again, right?" Wave asked, a hint of a smirk on her face.
Her gaze dropped as did her voice, and she avoided Wave's eyes. "I wish it was as simple as that."
She tilted her head back. From the news reports and online articles she had researched, she knew the Metal Virus was Eggman's latest scheme for his pursuit of world conquest. It would spread from person to person with a simple touch from the infected. No cure seemed to be in sight, and she hadn't been contracted to help create one, so she remained in the sky with her fellow Rogues.
Taking a deep breath, Amy explained everything. As she spoke, Wave's heart sunk lower until it reached the dark pit of her belly. Sonic's contamination, Tails' failed attempt at creating a cure, the loss of life from people she had raced before such as Vector and Shadow, Eggman losing control to the so-called Deadly Six, it was all so much to take in. She suppressed her shudders and forced her expression to remain steely, even when she felt like interjecting for more information, her instinctive need to know everything almost overwhelming her.
But she did. She committed Amy's every word to her memory. She heard Storm's breath quicken behind her, quietly tapping his hands together. The only sound from her leader was a sharp gasp upon learning Sonic's predicament and how weary he was becoming as the infection ravaged his body. Afterwards, they had all stilled when Amy finished, Wave wondering about their intentions as Jet slowly drew to his feet.
Jet pressed his hand on the smooth oak surface of his desk and leaned towards the hologram. "And you called us because…?"
Shock shadowed her expression. Her mouth fell open, but she quickly grit her teeth and bit back her anger. "Because we need your help, of course. You guys stayed in the sky when the virus spread." She crossed her arms. "Not to mention again that Sonic is infected, and he's exhausted from running around so much. Do you get what I'm saying?"
Wave gripped her wrist and stood her ground. The implication was loud and clear. She had expected as much. Amy's basis was sound with no room for argument, and she would be surprised if her cohorts could come up with a rational refutation.
"So, you need our help? Is that it?" Storm asked, scratching his head. Wave rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to reprimand him.
"Yes!" Amy cleared her throat and breathed out her annoyance. "I mean, we really need your help. We only have a few people left who can, but we don't have enough to tackle the Deadly Six." She clasped her hands together, her gloves appearing tight around her knuckles. "Please, we really, really need you guys. Even if it's a quick smash and grab to get a Chaos Emerald back, then that's all you need to do!"
"And you can't get the Hooligans to do it?" Jet sneered, his brows furrowed.
She gawked. "Wha-? You know they won't lift a finger unless they get paid!"
Jet drummed his fingers on his desk. "And you aren't paying us? Pretty cheap, girly."
Her pupils constricted. She sucked in a breath and glanced at her boots. Wave almost felt a splotch of pity for her as Amy wrung her hands around the hem of her dress.
"No, no, I know-I mean, I know that you'd want to be paid," Amy murmured, a mist crossing her eyes. "It's-it's been-oh, you have no idea!" She slammed her hands down, the impact making a few keys shoot up around her. As Storm flinched, she gnashed down on her teeth, her canines appearing like small fangs, and she bellowed, "I watched my friends turn into Zombots, and there was nothing I could do to save them! Sonic's struggling to survive, and I can't help him at all! He can't sleep, and he can't stop moving or else he'll become just like them!" She leaned forward, sweat on her brow and fury in her voice. "And the entire world could be covered in Zombots in a matter of days! Maybe even hours with the rate of the Deadly Six are going now that they have the Chaos Emeralds!" She jabbed her finger down at Jet, hissing, "But you have the nerve to ask me if I can pay you? How dare you, Jet? You're not that heartless."
Wave peered down at the hawk, a notable shiver running down his spine. Storm continued fidgeting behind her, averting Amy's glare and rubbing the front of his beak. When he caught eyes with Wave, he winced and looked at the far wall, as sheepish as ever.
Amy swallowed the lump in her throat and squeezed her eyes shut. She pressed her palm to her chest, her glove still tight around her knuckles. Her eyelashes seemed damp, and when she pulled them apart, her eyes seemed distorted and hazy, lukewarm tears filling the corners of them.
But she refused to shed them. As Amy wiped her eyes with both thumbs, the solution popped into Wave's head. Though, it had been the answer from the start, which she knew she should have said, but she was not the leader of the Babylon Rogues and took her place by Jet's side.
Wave supposed her realization came from a place of admiration. The little girl who had lost to her in the first EX World Grand Prix really had come into her own. Her confidence was a far stretch from the overzealous girl Wave had met in Splash Canyon. Whatever she had seen on the surface had transformed her, and when Wave mulled it over, she wondered if that boldness had been there all along.
"We need you. Sonic needs you. Knuckles and Tails and the rest of us need your help more than ever. If it's money you want, then I'll be indebted to you for the rest of my life," Amy vowed, refusing to break eye contact with the stony-faced Wind Master.
Jet seemed to be ruminating. His expression twitched, a mixture of distress and irritation. He dug his fist into his forehead, slouching to the side. He crossed and uncrossed his ankles, the tapping of his boots filling the silence broken only by Storm's shuddery breaths.
"Boss? Boss, what should we do?" he quietly began, rocking from side to side. He gaped at Jet with half-lidded worry, rubbing his hands together. He quickly turned his attention to Wave when Jet's silence reigned. "Wave, um, uh, what are you thinking about?"
"Isn't it obvious?" She cocked her hip out, one long feather falling over her shoulder.
"Uh, no? I'm not a mind reader," Storm grumbled, scratching his head.
She did not dignify Storm with a response. As he growled, Wave tickled the underside of her chin and asked, "Amy, you said you were on Angel Island, correct?"
She nodded. Suspicion pooled in her irises as she replied, "Yeah, that's right. It's the only place that hasn't been hit."
Wave held her forearm. "If I was the leader of the Babylon Rogues, then I'd pilot this ship over there as soon as possible."
Jet leered at her, his beak dropping open. But he did not sputter, unlike Storm who threw his arms out and blurted that it was not her decision. Jet shook his head, the silent order given as Storm quickly clamped a large hand over his beak.
"That's why I said 'if I was the leader of the Babylon Rogues,'" she said, raising a finger as Storm rubbed his head. She slowly lowered it to Jet. "You're the leader. I'll always defer to your orders, but hear me out."
He rubbed through his head feathers, Wave's attention entirely on him. Then, he nodded, a quick bob of his head. Another silent order given had been given, igniting a spark of ambition within Wave's chest at the thought of him taking responsibility.
"Thank you," she said, bowing slightly. She glanced up at Amy, the hope illuminating her expression almost too much to bear. "If the entire world falls to the Metal Virus, then where would we go? How will we procure food or fuel? Who would we steal from? There would be nothing left for us, just as there was nothing left for our ancestors when they had to abandon Babylon Garden." She snickered. "It's not as if we can summon Babylon Garden now and blast off this planet when we don't have the Chaos Emeralds."
Impassivity became Jet. He merely waited for her to continue.
She knew he was never one for logical explanations. Her opening had done nothing to pique his interest. Smirking, she crossed her arms and said, "I'm sure you wouldn't want to let Sonic become a Zombot without proving yourself to be the Fastest Thing Alive." She raised her head to Storm. "And you wouldn't want to let Knuckles have all the glory when it comes to defeating an opponent who you could possibly best?"
"Wh-wha-what? Nuh-no way! No way, not at all! I'm not gonna let that red mutt have all the fun!" Storm blurted, smacking his fists together. He grimaced, his outburst causing Jet to glance up at him. Fidgeting with his necklace, he mimed whistling as Wave sighed.
"Then, I'm sure you feel the same way, Jet," she said, curling her fingers into her palm as if she was grasping victory.
She felt Amy's gaze on her, and her silence was appreciated. There was nothing more Amy could say. But Wave sensed her appreciation through the screen with the way delight sparkled in her eyes and the tiniest hint of a smile gracing her face.
"Sonic the Hedgehog," Jet murmured, closing his eyes. He hunched forward, clasping his hands together and dropping his head.
The silence was heavy, pregnant with anticipation. Words burdened Wave's tongue, and she swallowed them down. She had given her reasoning, and it was up to Jet to decide. Whatever he would decree would be their next course of action, one she would obey as she always had.
Even if Wave disagreed, even if she felt disgusted with herself, even if it made the tears welling in Amy's eyes spill down her cheeks, she would fulfill her duties as a Babylon Rogue.
"Is he really that sick?" Jet asked, his back still hunched as he peered up at the hedgehog.
Amy trembled, her lips quivering. She cupped her neck. A choked breath escaped her, so she answered him with a nod.
"And his speed won't last forever?" He stood up, pushing back his chair and letting it clatter behind him.
"No, it-it won't, Jet. We…" Amy pursed her lips and clenched her fists in front of her chest.
"He doesn't have much time, does he?" Wave finished, peering at Jet.
She nodded. "We don't know how long it will be until he becomes a Zombot. He can't outrun this."
"That's...that's awful," Storm rumbled, somberness washing over him. "An-and all they got left i-is that red mutt's place, so…so..."
"So, you'll set a course for Angel Island to get us there as soon as possible, Storm," Jet announced, thrusting his finger at the door.
Storm jumped to attention, squared his shoulders and saluted him. He immediately complied with the order. He raced out of Jet's quarters as quickly as his stubby legs could take him and slammed the doors shut behind him, his excitement palpable.
"Jet! Jet, oh, my gosh, thank you so much! You have no idea how much I appreciate this!" Amy cried, her face filling the screen as she leaned forward. She outstretched her arms only to titter, quickly lowering them when she realized she could not embrace him.
"I'll have Wave send you the invoice when this shindig is done," he sneered and snatched his Extreme Gear. He turned back to Wave, handing his board to her. "I'm gonna make sure Storm flies us in the right direction. Do a last minute check up on all of Gear before we arrive. Got it?"
"Understood," she said, bowing her head.
As Jet left the room, worry and contemplation following his every step, Wave set her gem on his desk. She grabbed his chair and set it upright, the slight gesture bringing a sense of orderliness to the situation. As she pushed it in, she met Amy's gaze and held Jet's board under her arm, realizing it was her first time alone with the Restoration Organizer.
"You're the one I should really be thanking," Amy said, hugging herself. She tilted her head back, her tears hiding behind her eyelashes and several blinks.
"Think nothing of it." Wave narrowed her eyes. "Seriously, think nothing of it. I'm only doing this for the greater good of the Babylon Rogues."
Amy chuckled. "Whatever you say. When should we expect your ETA?"
"Hm, I'm not sure at the moment. I'll reply in a little bit with that information." She cupped her hand to her beak. "Between you and me, I'm sure Jet wouldn't want Sonic to know of our arrival."
"It'll be our secret." She winked only to wince, the sounds of distant arguing reaching their ears. She faced the fighting and huffed. "Oh, I gotta go. Whisper's trying to snipe Eggman again."
"I wish her the best of luck," Wave said, grinning at the giggling hedgehog and tapping the side of her gem.
She reattached it to her necklace and sighed. Looking over her shoulder at the pristine sky behind her, a fleeting worry passed her. If it would be the last time she saw the clouds up close, then she was glad it was in the comfort of the airship.
Sighing, Wave clutched Jet's board to her chest and marched to her workshop. She had been given a timed mission, and she was not going to fail. As she felt the ship turn, Wave continued on her way with her head held high, and her thoughts raced with scenarios and outcomes, each more detailed than the last.
Wave's loyalty was tethered to the Babylon Rogues, but the relief and joy Amy expressed confirmed she had made the right decision in coaxing Jet to take charge against the Metal Virus.