Chapter 8

Silent Support

The alarm sounded throughout the old pyramid base, as Sonic dashed through a series of armored blast doors while a mysterious figure watched him from a pipe. "Way too slow!" Sonic called to the door. "C'mon! Step it up!"

Several stun traps burst out of the ground and fired their stun bolts at him, but he avoided them by hopping on one of them and bouncing off the wall. He then encountered several Spinas, Badniks that were almost sphere-shaped robots with vague bat features. The upper halves of their bodies are purple with cyan-glowing eyes, two pointy gray ears with yellow front stripes on top of their bodies, and a white mouth panel below their eyes. The lower halves of their bodies on the other hand are silver (except for their lowest point which is purple) with two stubby yellow-tipped studs on them. They also have a gray ring around their middle. They also have spinning semicircles, which are purple, silver and cyan in color, on each side of their bodies, mimicking wings. Lastly, they have electrical currents running between their ears and wings, creating a hazard zone for anyone trying to mess with them.

Sonic dealt with them by putting out an enormous burst of speed, destroying all of them. But the door was about to close, and this whole mission was about to be a bust. But then, the mysterious figure fired a spinning pink blade that lodged the gap between the door, allowing Sonic to slide through before it was crushed by the door' pressure, wiping his brow in relief.

He then saw a massive Spina waiting for him. "Ooh! You're a big one," he said, curling up into a Spin Dash and attempting to smash a hole in the center of the massive beast. Suddenly, it was wrapped in a cyan aura and it smashed into the floor. He then heard a voice that he hadn't heard for a while.

"Mind if I cut in?" He turned and saw Silver, a hedgehog from the future who had the powers of psychokinesis, the power to move objects with his mind.

"Silver!" Sonic said, tapping his foot. "I had that, man!"

"S-sorry!" Silver said. "I didn't mean to step on your toes."

"It's cool," Sonic said. "I'm glad you're here. Thanks for holding the door for me back there."

"What door?" Silver said, confused. "I came in through the other way." As they were talking, another Spina was sneaking up behind them.

"If you didn't help me, who did?" Sonic asked. Just then, a bolt of energy zipped through the air and nailed the Spina directly between the eyes. Both hedgehogs watched in astonishment as the remains fell to the floor.

"Since when could you do that?" Sonic asked.

"I didn't!" Silver said. "It must be the legendary Guardian Angel!"

"The legendary what-now?" Sonic asked.

"How do you not know about the Guardian Angel?!" Silver said, his eyes sparkling.

"I spent six months in a small cell in space," Sonic reminded him. "I missed a few things.

"Oh, right!" Silver said. "You missed most of the war." He then told him about the sighting. "Multiple units in the Resistance reported a mysterious person who would turn the tide of battle, but never joined the military. Whoever it was saved my life more than once! They must be here to help us again!"

"So is that why you came back from the future?" Sonic asked. "Looking for an autograph?"

"Er…no," Silver said. "I came back because defeating Eggman didn't save the future."

"Couldn't even play along. Had to bring the mood down," Sonic said, stretching his legs. "Okay, what happened this time?"

"When I left, my time had been conquered by the Eggman Empire," Silver explained. "Everyone lived in fear, choking on polluted air. When I went back, the Eggman Empire was gone-but so was everyone else. There was nothing left. No people, no animals, no machinery. Only water, and sparse, metallic plant life."

"Well that's…eerie," Sonic said, running as Silver flew alongside him, surrounded in a cyan aura.

"I know, right?" Silver said. "So I came right back to find out what happened. Amy said you were looking for clues in Eggman's bases and I came to help."

"So did your Guardian Angel, apparently," Sonic said. He knelt beside a Spina, the hole in its head still smoking. "Whoever it is, they're not using a standard Wispon."

"How can you tell?" Silver said, slowing to a hover.

"They're built for clearing out crowds of robots with the Wisps' power," Sonic said, recalling his knowledge of the weapon schematics. "This is way more precise."

They then heard the sounds of crashing nearby. They rounded the corner to find a masked figure smashing at a locked door. But the thing that was the most interesting was how the Wispon operated. One moment, it was shooting out a laser. The next, it was firing a pink spike ball, and the next a rocket, and then it transformed into a hammer.

"That must be her!" Silver called. "Hey! Guardian Angel!" The figure suddenly realized she was being watched, so she transformed her Wispon into hover mode, and hid among the various pipes lining the base. "No! Wait!" Silver called. "I…I don't understand. We're all on the same side." And then he muttered, "I'm a big fan…"

"Silver…" Sonic began. "…you said she never joined the Resistance, that she never interacted with anyone, right?"

"Well, yeah…so?"

"So she obviously prefers working solo-for whatever reason. Not everyone likes being part of the crowd."

"I see," Silver said. "I guess I've been so lonely for so long, I never considered wanting to be alone."

Sonic the called to the figure hiding in the pipes. "Yo! Sorry for coming on so strong. I'm Sonic, and my over-eager friend here is Silver. We appreciate your help. We'd like to help you too."

Just then, several Wisps popped out of the containment capsules in the figure's cloak, and rushed to Sonic, who happily embraced them all. "Whoa! Haha!" he said, as a blue cube Wisp tackled him from behind. "Hey, guys! I thought I saw some Wisp powers go off."

The figure reluctantly jumped out of the pipes and landed in front of them. "I saved their planet from Eggman a while back-long story," Sonic explained. "I guess that left quite an impression."

The figure removed her mask, and Sonic could now see that she was a wolf, although her eyes were closed. "Whisper," she said.

"Cool," Sonic said.

"Okay," whispered Silver, "But…why?"

"No, genius. Whisper is her name," Sonic corrected him.

"Oh, right," Silver said, embarrassed.

Sonic then gestured to the door. "Care to get the door for us, flatware?"

"I said I get it!" snapped Silver. "Don't have to rub it in…" He then wrapped the door around in his psychokinetic powers.

"Everybody, get ready!" Sonic called. Whisper lowered her mask and powered on her Wispon. When Silver lifted the door, they found themselves face-to-face with a horde of Spinas, and a massive E-100-series unit coordinating the bunch. A serial number on the side said that it was called E-107 Theta. Whisper lead the charge by blowing apart one of Theta's legs with a rocket shot from her Wispon, with Sonic bouncing from several Spinas while wrecking their droid brains. Whisper then sawed through one of Theta's legs apart with a blade from her Wispon.

"Whoops!" Silver called, as he unexpectedly let go of the door he was holding, causing it to crash down with a boom.

Meanwhile, Whisper was using the hover ability of her Wispon to find a suitable sniping position to use against E-107 Theta, while Sonic and Silver tore apart Spinas at an alarming rate.

"Silver!" Sonic called, dodging a missile launched by Theta. "We need to finish off the little ones so we can focus on the big guy!"

"Right!" Silver said, beckoning to Sonic. "Come at me!"

Sonic curled into a Spin Dash and leapt at Silver, who caught him and rebounded him around the room, crashing into all of the Spinas and littering the floor with wreckage.

Meanwhile, Whisper nailed E-107 in the head, causing him to rotate one of his cannons around and fire on her position. She fell to the floor as three Spinas who avoided the barrage from Sonic closed on her as she attempted to reach for her Wispon. The Wisps suddenly emerged from her containment capsules, all of them ready to defend her from the Spinas.

Suddenly, the Spinas were encased in a cyan glow, and were hurled towards three missiles launched by E-107, slamming into them, and temporally blinding the robot, while saving her from the debris that rained down on their position, just as Sonic rushed in to scoop up a missile from E-107, and hurl it back at the robot, while peppering it with multiple Spin Dashes that finally caused the robot to explode, freeing the animals inside it.

"It's okay if you prefer to work alone…" Silver said, tossing one final piece of debris off to the side. "…but it looks like to me you've put together a team." He gestured a hand at her, seeing that see was cradling the orange Wisp. He extended a hand to her. "And I'd be proud to be a part of it."

"Maybe," Whisper said, smiling. She took his hand and stood up just as they found the main computer, bearing the Eggman Empire insignia. Before Silver could ask her something, she snapped into a blind rage, her eyelids opening to reveal cadet blue eyes.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa!" Sonic called. "You can tear apart this place when we are done, but first, we need vital intelligence off of that computer!"

Whisper looked at him with her eyes and nodded. "Okay," she said, her eyelids sliding back down.

"What did Eggman do to you?" Sonic muttered to himself, as Silver hacked into the computer. "Let's see here…" he said. "looks like there was a major update across the Eggnet. It's almost like Neo Metal Sonic isn't hiding what he's doing any-" His eyes soon widened in horror. "Oh, crap!" he called.

Sonic turned, and was shocked to see the files as well. "We need to call Knuckles-now!" he said.

X

Resistance HQ

Knuckles felt some tremor go through him, almost powerful enough to make an elephant dizzy. He grasped the edge of the chair for support as he gently lowered himself into it.

"Knuckles!" Amy cried, rushing over to him. "What happened?!"

"It's, the Master Emerald," Knuckles said, rubbing his temple. "Something's wrong…"

"But, it's hidden on Angel Island. That's the whole reason you've been helping us for so long," Amy reassured him.

"I know," Knuckles responded. "But as its Guardian, I've got a special connection to it. It's calling out to me…" He then heard the chime of the computer. He rushed over, and responded to the comm message. The holoscreen opened up to reveal Sonic and Silver, both of them very surprised by something.

"Amy! Knux! Are you there?!" Sonic called, all humor from his voice gone. "Silver found what Neo's up to! You're gonna need to call in everyone!"

X

Angel Island

"The Master Emerald. 'The Controller.' One of the most powerful gems in the world, with the ability to neutralize the Chaos Emeralds." Neo said, sitting on top a makeshift throne he mounted over the Master Emerald. The entire altar was enclosed over a statue of Dr. Eggman himself. Outside, the Egg Fleet was initiating patrols of the skies for any Resistance craft, several squadrons of interceptors were up as well.

"So, come to me, Sonic. As yourself, or as Super Sonic," Neo muttered, already savoring Sonic's final defeat. "Either way…you will be powerless to stop me."

Next time: The Battle for Angel Island!