Time marches on.

-Chapter 108: Loss-

Sonic couldn't keep up with Metal, so he stayed in hot pursuit of his metal alter-self with sharpened werehog hearing. His size slowed him down. It didn't help that it hurt as he trounced through the brambles of the jungle. He tried to search high and low, one was easier than the other. Though his werehog body healed any injury almost instantly, small cuts stained his fur with a few blood spots.

He zoomed past a small clearing where a dark shadow caught his attention. Figuring it was Metal, he investigated with a u-turn around the trunk of a thick tree. He was mistaken. A bare fleshy foot delivered a kick that sent him careening into some spiky vines. "Always with the thorns!" He grabbed the clutch that tangled him and threw it aside. Sonic looked up and saw a Gogo'Ba tribe member in a red and gold outfit. "Was that you? I'm not your enemy! Watch out for-"

Sheera pointed a condescending finger at him, "Quiet, louse! My people have suffered a level of shame, the likes of which Chinchilla kind has never endured before. I'm here to quell the cries of my people and planet by snubbing out your wretched existence!"

"Woah, geez," he said, shocked, "That's a lot of anger all at once, spread it out, would you? That reminds me: I seriously need to thank Shadow for his patience when he gets back."

She looked furious. "You best take me seriously and heed my warning." Red irises flared brightly in the night. "I won't stop until you lay cold and lifeless in the rising tide." She cracked all the knuckles on one fist, then used it's thumb to make a 'cut neck' motion.

Sonic sighed, "I admit, it was wrong of me to transform like that in front of everyone, but as you can see, we've got bigger things to deal with right now. Don't know if you noticed, but there's a tsunami sweeping the village away. I'll find a way to give this ability away or get rid of it as soon as I can, I promise! We need to leave now though! There's a dangerous robot out here and he's going to kill us both if we're not careful."

Sheera delivered another kick toward his head, which was dodged. "That's not important. You die!" She landed a short distance away from him.

Green eyes lit up over Sheera's shoulder.

"Watch out! He's behind you!" Sonic saw Metal right away.

Sheera gave a light laugh, "From what I can tell, I'm not the only one who wants you dead." She gently side stepped and allowed Metal to stand beside her. "Join me. Together, we shall destroy this hedgehog scourge!"

Metal stood beside her and gave her a condescending head shake. With a single punch, he knocked the Gogo'Ba warrior out. She didn't go far, but she made a full three-sixty spin before she collapsed onto hit the dirt she stood upon. Metal picked her up and threw the lifeless body towards the trees down the hill, where the water still rose. He curled a finger in Sonic's direction, indicating he wanted him to come closer.

Sonic was mortified. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Rolph tries to help you and you attack him! She was ready to team up to beat me to death and you do that! Seriously, dude, what is actually wrong with you? I don't think Eggman would have programmed you to be like this. I think your broken, naturally. I know you're a roboticized person, so again, tell me, what's your problem? We want to help you get back to your home; especially if this is who you really are."

Metal attempted an attack with two semi powered fists, but Sonic parried and leapt over him.

"Forget you! I need to save her first! Stay right there!" Sonic surprised his assailant with an attack that used his elongated arms. A big fist at the end of his elastic limb made contact with Metal and sent him flying back through the foliage and out of sight. Sonic then swung through the branches of the trees to avoid the thorns, in search of the grudge soaked Gogo'Ba. Brown, sludgy tsunami waters, litter and other debris rose and pooled in low lying areas of the forest. "I have to find her." Sonic faced his fear and stayed above the water to locate her. His werehog vision at night was much sharper own during the day. "Be okay. Eggman's definitely going to blame your death on me if you aren't."

Up on the mountain, the remaining members of Team Sonic went to Rolph's side. He slowly came around. "I sure don't heal like I used to. Damn, that really smarts," he said as his neck finally cracked back into place with the aid of his arms and hands. "BG saw that happen to me, she screamed. I hope she's not too freaked out. She don't know how nanomachines work." Rolph sighed, "Ah, if she were a bit older, I'd imprint on her in a second. I mean, no woman could truly replace Barb, but she's a good silver medal."

"Glad your fine, but shut up, please," Julie-Su said. "Where's your sister?"

"I have a concussion, or two, can you have more than one of those at a time?" Rolph, still dazed from being dosed, looked around, "She's, uh...hmm...sis, where'd you go? Hold on, this is hard to do with my head like this." He took a minute and searched for her, both eyes opened. He turned towards the town and saw the massacre. "Holy...how bout that," he said and turned back to the group. "Even I didn't see that coming. That's why you're all up here, I guess." He reached into his tattered coat pocket and pulled out and applied a damp eye patch. His clothing and fur had been ravaged by Metal Sonic bashing him around, but his high quality threads held together. "I can't say where Ann is, for reasons. She's helping and she's fine."

Jules sighed, "Better than nothing, I guess."

Tails chimed in, "On a positive note, all the seismic activity we've been hearing was from town hall's doing, not Eggman. And since he wasted so much time watching what we were up to, he didn't even notice the carpet pulled out from under him, by them. Kind of rewarding, won't lie, I'm actually reveling over here." Tails tails fluffed with excitement.

After a rousing round of thank you's and gratitude, the crowd let Manic and Roater get to business.

"I bet that's Team Sonic, over there. Look at the size of the red guy; that's got to be Knuckles." Manic took a knee and caught his breath. "Ugh, still not feeling the best. I need a big drink of water, I'm dried out," he said and rested his forehead on his knee.

From afar, Cream heard his discomfort and went off to get bottles of water for the two newcomers.

"You're dehydrated? I'd believe that after the heat we had to put up with on the way here," Roater adjusted his rifle strap on his shoulder.

"Of all the people I didn't expect to, or hope to, see ever again," Lady Walrus said and strut up to her ex-husband. "You're looking not unkempt, for a scoundrel, I mean. Who's your little pin cushion of a friend? He's got more holes in hi face and ears than a block of Swiss." Her tightly folder arms and 'shoulders back' posture was incongruent with her kindly tone and choice of language.

"Manic and me are here to help excavate, and or, evaluate the island's minerals," he said as he took in the magnitude of damage that had been dealt to the village. "After the water recedes."

Lady didn't look impressed, her expression remained a stasis of calmly irritated and bemused. "Convenient. I suppose you want to see Chumley? I'll talk to him and see how he feels."

Roater shrugged, "That's all I was gonna ask for. Thanks, Lady." He turned to Manic. "Let's go."

Lady huffed at the lackadaisical conversation attempt and turned back to the one percent elites.

Manic waved to the members of Team Sonic as they approached. "Yo!"

"Who're these guys?" Julie-Su asked.

Tails spoke up, "I think they're the two soldiers Shadow was recruiting to help us out." When they were close enough. "Manic and Roater, I presume."

Manic gave them his trademark wide smile. "You got it. The major, er, Shadow was all, 'hey, you two like rocks, come look at rocks on a beautiful tropical paradise'. Now, here we are, ready to get our 'rock' on." Manic was first to speak up and the first to nearly blow their cover.

Tails was intrigued at the similarities this new green hedgehog shared with their leader. Their smiles were almost identical. Before he could introduce the rest of the group, Tails realised they were short an additional member. He panicked, "Where's Sticks?!"

Knuckles panicked too, "She was asleep in her burrow when we left her!"

Sticks spoke up, "I'm right here." She was behind them the whole time.

Everyone sighed in relief.

Sticks wiped a bit of sleep from her eyes, "Y'all forget I live next to Froglodytes? Good swimmers, that bunch."

Julie-Su looked around and noticed a few missing faces she hadn't seen since the morning. "Where's Xaun? And Mina?"

Cream came back over, she had forgotten the water bottles she picked up and looked on the verge of tears. "Could you guys come here, please?" She led them to her sister who was bawling and shaking while she held her knees on the bare ground.

"What's wrong, BG?" Tails asked.

BG held up her phone, "I had it on silent, so I didn't see the message come in till now." She hit the screen and brought up the last message that Staci sent her. "It was twenty minutes ago...it just says 'help' and it's got her location...I tried calling and it went to voicemail. I tried Xaun, but he's gone to voicemail too. They were both going out today," BG sobbed and tried to catch her breath.

Dave was nearby, he came over and tried to calm BG down. He knelt down next to her and his bangs fell in his face for him to brush away. "We got this BG. Let's start a search party, right away."

"Okay," she said and watched him go over and talk to Tails. Cream was the only one left to her sister's side. In that moment, BG realised something about his actions, "That thing Dave does with his hair...Staci does the same thing."

Cream listened carefully.

BG continued. "Staci was there for me when I drank too much the first time, last year, like Dave did this time. She was also the one I watched that cartoon he lent me, when we were growing up. I'm not in love with Dave...I fell in love with my best friend and he just reminded me of her a bit...and now I'll never be able to tell her how I feel. I need her to be okay, please find her," BG's sobbing became quiet and sombre. She reclused her head to the room between her torso and legs.

Cream hugged and held her sister close and cried quietly with her.

Tails spoke loudly and addressed the crowd, "Any able flyers or swimmers, we need your help with search and rescue! As of this moment, we have three people unaccounted for. Come over to me to get gear to search in the dark." He pulled a compact device from his bag and set it up. Tails had created a small version of his 'build it box', portable and able to produce small inorganic items. A laptop with cords going to a folded out half meter wide hexagon of silver metal laid on the ground powered on.

Any anthro skilled in the aqua or the aero took to their respective element with bright search lights.

Knuckles saw Julie-Su's blank expression. "Don't worry, we're gonna do our best to get everyone home safely."

She nodded, "He was so happy when Re'Kar told him he could stay here."

Knuckles hugged her tightly.

TT_TT