"CHAOS CONTROL!"
Reality twisted around them. The stone beneath them fell away, replaced by shifting sand. Pretzel scrabbled for purchase, flaring her wings to keep her balance. The ocean lapped at her feet. Instinctively she turned to face Whip, relieved to see him standing beside her with a pleased smile.
"You don't actually have to say that," Pretzel pointed out. "It's not actually Chaos Control when we do it."
Whip shrugged, grinning. "Yeah, but it's fun. You should try it!"
"Sorry," Pretzel said, keeping her tone flat and dry. "I'm afraid you got all the 'fun' parts of our personality. It's only fair, since all the intelligence went to me."
"You must have gotten all the boringness, too," Whip shot back.
"And all the good comebacks, apparently."
She looked around, squinting at the bright light. Empire City's beach was bright and sunny, as it should be. It was also, thankfully, cool. "Thankfully" because it was September and heat would be unnatural, not thankfully because she personally liked it being cool. Obviously. Resenting the natural seasons would be terribly un-Gaia-like of her.
Across the street, Pretzel spotted the heap of rubble that had once been their apartment building. Workers in safety gear swarmed over it, while bright yellow machines rumbled around the perimeter, waiting to be called on. And there, standing nearby and chatting with a couple of humans, was a familiar pink hedgehog.
"Amy!" Whip called enthusiastically, shooting towards her. Pretzel followed more slowly, picking her way across the closed-off road and around the strewn pieces of rubble.
The clean-up crew was doing a good job. The sidewalk and road were already clear, and the massive hunk of collapsed apartment building seemed much smaller than it had a few days ago. Pretzel noted with satisfaction that the nearby grass, bushes, and trees had regrown in abundance. She'd already known that—it had been her doing, after all—but it was nice to see in person. She and Whip had made the right choice. Gaias shouldn't be cooped up in the core of the world. They should be out in it, experiencing life in all its variety. How could they know how best to protect the world if they never saw it for themselves?
Amy spun around, and a wide grin spread over her face as she saw them approaching. "Whip! Pretzel! You're back!"
She laughed with delight as Whip slammed into her, already chattering a mile a minute about their "adventure". Pretzel arrived a moment later and sat at Amy's feet, nodding politely to Amy's startled parents. Nice people, the Wachowskis. Clueless, but nice.
Amy shifted Whip to one arm and scooped Pretzel off the ground with the other. Pretzel put up a token protest Amy paid no attention to before settling into the hold, closing her eyes contendly. She let Whip's ceaseless chatter and Amy's occasional interjection wash over her, as familiar and reassuring as the ocean waves. Yes, they'd definitely made the right choice. Apartment or no apartment, this was home.
"And Pretzel talked to Sonic," Whip said, finally winding down. "Apparently he's not feeling very well but soon he'll be back and then we can bully him into taking a vacation so it'll be fine, right?"
"Of course," Amy agreed. She looked at Pretzel. "Did he tell you when he's coming back?"
Pretzel reached out, brushing lightly against Sonic's mind. It had settled in the past few days—and wow, it had been three days since Pretzel and Whip defeated Eclipse. Apparently they'd need to be careful not to lose track of time when using their Gaia powers. She felt a wave of deja vu as she recognized where Sonic was, on the space elevator with Tails. But this time he was heading back to Earth instead of away from it.
"He's on his way," Pretzel said. "He should be here in just a few—"
Pretzel gasped. Whip screamed.
Pain seized her, a horrible ripping sensation tearing through her mind and body. She'd thought losing her connection to Sonic hurt, but this agony was far worse. It felt like someone had taken a knife and was carving out her insides, gutting her like a jack-o-lantern. The overwhelming pain was accompanied by a powerful fatigue. It beckoned her, the exhaustion, a looming chasm that seemed almost inviting if only it meant she didn't have to hold onto this cliff, this pain, anymore. The pain wasn't just hers; she could feel it echoing in Whip, in the very world itself as all the energy they'd given to heal its wounds was ripped away again.
Energy. Someone was taking their energy.
Dimly Pretzel was aware of Whip beside her, his presence flickering weakly in her mind, and of Amy speaking to them, urging them to respond. The siren call of unconsciousness was growing louder. Pretzel could feel herself fading away, but she had to warn Amy first, tell her what was happening.
She grabbed Amy's arm with her claws, willing herself to stay there, stay conscious just a moment longer. She struggled to form coherent words. "Sonic— Tails—"
"It's alright," Amy said, sounding panicked, almost hysterical. Amy was never hysterical. That wasn't right. "It's going to be alright, Pretzel, please just hold on—"
"Warn them," Pretzel urged her. She could feel herself slipping. All that power, and they were rendered helpless in an instant. "Something's taking it."
"Taking what?" Amy asked, desperate.
Pretzel barely understood the words. She was clinging to a cliff, hanging over a terrible void, the wind slamming against her while her grasp weakened with every moment. Everything was slipping away, fading into something worse than darkness. Into nothing.
"Warn them," she choked out once more, and fell.
Eclipse was right. They'd been too weak to stop this.
It was up to Sonic now.