Chapter 4: Technology ADVANCE!

Tangle, Jewel and Lux all woke up in the timespan of an hour to two hours after Whisper left. They all had assumed that she was just sleeping in, and talked about what they should do once Whisper came around. For the most part, they only came up with unreliable ideas they all agreed that wouldn't work. That is, before Jewel checked through some stuff on her computer and made an exciting discovery.

"Woah! Hey, guess following her on social media was a good idea!" She said to herself, not realizing that Lux and Tangle could hear her.

"Who?"

"Yeah, Jewel, what you on about?"

"Oh! I decided to follow Amy on Twitter! She just made this thread…" Jewel cleared her throat before reading the tweets. "A lot of people have been sending me many messages, most of them very kind! Though, a few are angry towards me…. A lot of people are concerned about what happened at my Sweet Sixteen party, and rumors have been spreading around… The first one I would like to address is the rumor of Knuckles assaulting me, it isn't true… And I'm incredibly saddened by you all assuming that of him…. Yes, he's a bit brash and has anger issues, but he would never hurt me!... And for those who believe that Knuckles is innocent, but think I intentionally set him up to be attacked like this, I NEVER WANTED THIS!... I love Knuckles just as much as I love all of my friends, and would NEVER want to frame one of them for ANYTHING! I'm crying right now... … Sorry, I just don't want to see any of my friends be hurt like that… Anyway, the other rumor, the one about someone close to me dying… At first you all thought Sonic was the one who died… But he was smart, and made sure everyone knew right after that he was still alive… I wonder if I'll become that smart when I turn 19… ANYWAY No one at ALL that was close to me died recently, though I appreciate your well wishes regardless!... Oh! There is another rumor, though I don't consider it a "rumor", because this one is actually sadly spot on… About someone once close to me turning "evil", this is true… Knuckles and I have set up a live broadcast with United Nations News tomorrow where we will say who… In order to keep you all safe from that person.. Sorry for making you all wait all this time, these days have been just awful for me and my mental health…" Tangle and Lux were shocked, but Lux looked the most shocked out of the two of them.

"Man, I really thought that it was a death! I was thinking it may have been one of Wilma's victims…" Lux said.

"But it could still be connected to her! What if this person Amy is talking about is working with her?" Tangle suggested

"I'll message her soon, asking for some info about the person she's talking about." Jewel said.

"Yeah! Sounds good! What do you think Whis-" Tangle turned to talk to Whisper, but realized she wasn't there. She looked at the clock, seeing that it was now noon. "That's weird… Whisper never sleeps THIS late into the day..!" Suddenly, Lux yelped.

"You okay?" Jewel asked.

"Yeah… Just stepped on this…" Lux picked up a phone that was on the ground; The phone that Jewel set up to be the business phone for the Freedom Trainees.

"What's that doing on the ground?!"

"Huh. Weird. I'm gonna check up on Whisper." Tangle said.

"I'll come with!" Lux offered.

The two headed upstairs, making their way to Whisper's room. They eventually got there, and noticed the sign on her door.

"I'm at Doctor Clysdale's clinic. I left at 5am, and considering the time to get there from here and vice versa, and some extra stuff, I should be back at 10-10:30am at the latest. If I'm not back by then, come look for me. I'm scared. Listen to the voicemail from 1am this morning and you'll understand."

Both girls looked at each other, terrified, and ran downstairs, to see Jewel trembling, with the same voicemail mentioned in the note playing from the phone.

"WE NEED TO GET HER!" Both Tangle and Lux shouted, simultaneously. Jewel collapsed to the floor.

"I… I didn't know… I… It's my… fault-!" Tangle hugged her.

"It's not. You stay here, get some more info on the Amy stuff. Lux and I will find Whisper."

"But-"

"No… Don't worry Jewel… We'll be fine."

And with that, Lux and Tangle took off.

Jewel took a deep breath and got herself a cup of tea and some cookies, her favorite comfort snack/drink combo. After she finished making the tea, she brought the cup of tea and plate of cookies to her computer, and hopped back onto Twitter, sending Amy a direct message.

"Hey, I know you probably don't know who I am, but my name is Jewel the Beetle. I'm the manager of sorts of this little fan spinoff hero team, based on you Freedom Fighters, called the "Freedom Trainees". Right now, it's just me and three others, we're all still teens, but right now, we're dealing with a string of disappearances all connected to a single person; Miss Wilma Brevair. I'm messaging you to figure out if the person you referred to in your thread could possibly be working with her."

Jewel waited for a few minutes, worried that her message was going to be ignored. She accidentally drank all of her tea in her nervous state, and went to the kitchen to make herself another cup, but halfway through, she heard a ping sound come from her computer.

"Hi! ^^ I've heard of you! I found a poster about you guys on a morning walk the other day! I was actually going to get in contact with you after all of the drama settled down, but now is fine, too."

Jewel was stunned, she couldn't have imagined a better response!

"Wait, seriously?"

Amy replied back almost instantly.

"Yeah!"

Before Jewel could respond, Amy sent another message, addressing the other part of Jewel's opening message.

"As for the Wilma cases, I've heard of those too! I'm not that well versed into them, but I'm of the type that thinks these "disappearances" are actually all murders. Also I think 100% that Wilma is guilty, but she's sneaky… So I have no actual solid evidence to get her locked up, sadly. A few other Freedom Fighters and I have this SUPER niche theory about her, also, and in the chance that theory is correct, my ex-friend is most likely working with her in some sort of way."

"Oh sorry! I'm rambling… You have no idea what I'm even going on about."

Jewel took her chance and quickly replied.

"No no! It's fine, it's fine! Who's the ex-friend? Are you allowed to say before the new broadcast tomorrow?"

This time, it took Amy a bit to respond, around five minutes.

"Sorry for the wait, I went to ask Knuckles if I could tell you. I had to explain who you were, and I showed him the poster. He's with me right now, but not cause he's suspicious, just super curious! Anyway, the ex-friend is former GUN agent Shadow the Hedgehog."

Jewel was intrigued.

"Is that so? I heard that him and Sonic used to make a kickass duo! What the hell happened?"

Amy's reply took a while, though once she sent it, Jewel could see why.

"Ah, it all started like… 2 years ago? We all heard him, and one of his two teammates, E123-OMEGA had left GUN. The one of the trio that stayed, Rouge, refused to give any details back then, We all didn't press it onto her because she was really sad and also really uncomfortable with answering even the basics. We didn't see him or Omega AT ALL until mid last year, when the situation with Infinite happened. He showed up, beat the crap out of Infinite, and left. We assumed that this meant that Shadow was gonna start working with us again, maybe as an independent ally, or maybe as a full on Freedom Fighter! But he never returned… That is, until Knuckles encountered him a few days before my birthday. He had decided it was about time to figure out what happened to his friend, who left Angel Island around the same time Shadow and Omega quit GUN, and happened to bump into Shadow as well. This friend of his, unlike Shadow and Omega, hadn't come around at all or anything. She just packed her bags and left one day back in 2009, and now two years later, Knuckles still hadn't heard from her. Anyway, he was walking around in some city some hour or so drive out from here in Knothole, an hour and a half from Spiral Hill? I know that's where you guys are based in. Anyway, He actually managed to bump into her, Knuckles said she looked a bit bloodied. He started asking if she was okay, but she kept blowing him off and telling him to leave her be. This is when Shadow came in. Shadow stormed in and got into a fight with Knuckles, and Knuckles' friend only walked off with a snide grin on her face. After Shadow decided that Knuckles had had enough, he said… "It's none of your fucking buisness what we do in order to survive." So cryptic, right? I mean, not really. I have an idea of what might be going on, so does Knuckles, but explaining that might just be a whole other tangent entirely…."

Two more messages got sent right after that one.

"Unless…"

"Hey, how old are you, Jewel?"

She expected that question at some point from Amy, but not at that exact moment, like, what's that gotta do with anything? Jewel answered anyway.

"I'm 18. Why?"

Amy responded with another question.

"When's your birthday?"

Jewel answered again, still confused.

"April 24th."

Amy responded yet again with a question.

"Alright... So you were 12 in November 2005, right?"

Jewel just got more confused.

"Uh… Yeah? Isn't that when that alien invasion happened? They were called the "Black Arms" or whatever… right?"

Five minutes… No response from Amy.

Ten minutes… Still nothing.

"Amy?"

Three minutes after Jewel sent her check up message, Amy replied.

"So sorry! I gotta go! Rouge just barged in and started an argument with Knuckles, about him planning to talk out our issues with Shadow on the news, and she's lashing out at him. I'm helping him to get her out of our house."

Jewel replied with a simple "okay", and figured that the conversation was over for now, and now it was time for her to put together the pieces she was given.