In the garden near her house Whisper was helping her daughter Ava use the wispon. She was pointing it at a hay target leaning against a tree "Okay, hold on, don't shoot". Whisper hit a switch and the wispon turned cyan. She stepped back letting Ava hold it on her own "You see where you're going?". Whisper had a tag on her leg for her house arrest. She stood behind Ava "Okay. Look through the scope" "Okay" "Can you see?" "Yep". Whisper playfully covers her eyes "How about now?" they laughed. Whisper stepped back "Alright. Finger on the trigger and don't tense your arms too much, there's no recoil". Close by Tangle was setting up a picnic at a table while Raynor was walking across the grass with his sister Sonia the Hawk on his shoulders. Tangle looked over to Whisper and Ava "Hey, you guys want mayo? Or mustard? Or both". Ava looked disgusted "Who puts mayo on a hot dog" "I know right. Uh, two mustards please! Thanks, mama!". Ava aims the wispon and gets a bullseye leaving a burning hole. Whisper laughed proudly "Good job, Agent" she gave her a high five "Now put out the fire". Ava then realised that the target was starting to burn, and she quickly ran to a bucket of water. Whisper chuckled and turned the safety back on her wispon on when she heard the bucket drop. She looked over to the target and saw that Ava was gone, there was only a cloud of ash blowing away "Ava? Honey?". She looks around confused "Ava?" nothing. "Hey, babe!" she turns to the field only to see that Tangle, Raynor and Sonia were gone as well. Whisper's expression grows concerned "Tangle?" she runs over to the table; all the food was still out. She whistles loudly "Ray! Raynor!". It was clear fields on all sides. She couldn't find anywhere they could have possibly gone "TANGLE!".
In deep space on board the Griffith Sonic was sitting at a table looking dishevelled and skinny. Opposite him was Lien-Da who was holding up her hands like goalposts. Sonic flicked a metal triangle towards her, and she tried to grab it out of the air. Sonic smirked "You don't need to do that. You're just holding position". Lien-Da with a glum face takes a turn flicking the triangles. She grunts as she hits it, but it misses. Sonic nods "That was close". She keeps trying and eventually gets between Sonic's fingers "That was a goal. We are now one apiece" "I would like to try again". They now both take turns, Sonic takes a triangle and raises his eyebrows "We're tied up. Feel the tension? It's fun". He flicks the triangle but misses "That was terrible. Now you have a chance to win". Lien-Da then tries and is able to score. Sonic nods "And you've won. Congratulations. Fair game" he holds out his hand. Lien-Da looks taken a back and then hesitantly shakes Sonic's hand "Good sport. You have fun?". Lien-Da sits back down and blankly stares at the table "It was fun". Sonic takes out a bag of rations and holds it out to Lien-Da. She stares at it for a moment before pushing it back to Sonic.
Sometime later Sonic was sitting on the floor of the cockpit looking incredibly weak. He puts in one of his earpieces and taps it "This thing on?". He sighs "Hey, Miss Rose. Ames". He leans back against one of the seats and exhales "If you find this recording don't post it on social media. It's gonna be a real tearjerker. I don't know if you're ever gonna hear these. I don't even know if you're still…". He sighs and covers his face "Oh, Gaia, I hope so. Today's day 21… No, uh, 22. You know, if it wasn't for the existential terror of staring into the literal void of space, I'd say I'm feeling a little better today". He put his hand over the scar in his stomach that Lien-Da healed up "Infection's run its course, thanks to the Red Meanie. Oh, you'd love her. Very practical. Only a tiny bit sadistic. So, the fuel cells were cracked during battle, and we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge and brought ourselves about 48 hours of flight time". He sighed "Uh, but it's now dead in the water. Thousands of light years from the nearest Chilli Dog stand. Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning and that'll be it. Ames, I know I said no more surprises but I gotta say I was really hoping to pull off one last one. But it looks like… Well, you know what it looks like". He leans forward "Don't feel bad about this. I mean, actually, if you grovel for a couple weeks and then move on with enormous guilt". He rests his head in his hands "I should probably lie down for a minute. Go rest my eyes… I… Please know when I drift off, it'll be like every night lately. I'm fine. Totally fine. Because I dream about you. Because it's always you". He takes out his earpieces and he lies down on the floor. His eyes shift solemnly before they close. As he sleeps Lien-Da enters the cockpit and sees him. She helps him onto one of the seats. She puts a jacket over him and then lowers her head before leaving.
Sonic was still sleeping when a warm light suddenly covered him, and he heard a boom sound. He slowly opens his eyes and covers his face. He squints his bloodshot eyes and looks out to see Sally Acorn gazing at him. She said something in her wrist device and after a moment a chaos control portal opens and Razor hovers out. Sonic and Razor stare at each other for a moment before Razor looks away shamefully.
At the Choatix facility Shadow was standing at a sink splashing water in his face. He took a breath when he suddenly noticed a mirror shaking. He rushes outside into the dark night. He meets up with the others including Amy and they run onto the grass as a portal opens. The Griffith emerges from the portal being carried by Sally with Razor flying behind the ship. Sally gently places the ship down, Razor walks away before anyone gets a chance to talk to him. Shadow runs to the ship's stairs where Lien-Da was helping Sonic down. Shadow takes him and helps him walk, Sonic glances back to Lien-Da thankfully. He then looks to Shadow with a traumatised face "I couldn't stop him" "Neither could I". Sonic stopped walking "I… I lost the kid". Shadow shook his head "Sonic, we lost". Sonic was afraid to ask but "Is… Is Am-". Amy ran up to them and started to cry "Oh, Gaia!" she hugged Sonic who barely had the strength to return it, he kisses her on the cheek. Wave walks past them and sits on the Griffith steps next to Lien-Da. Wave pats her hand without looking but Lien-Da quickly takes it.
Inside the meeting room Sonic was sitting in a chair hooked up to an IV machine. Holograms were shown over the table showing the allies that were dusted now including Charmy and Dr Ellidy. Mighty paced around the room as he spoke "It's been 23 days since Infinite came to Mobius". Sonic was staring at the images as one of Tails appeared. Sonic looked away shamefully. Sally stared glassy eyes at an image of Tower. Rouge sighed with her arms crossed "World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census and it looks like he did it… He did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Infinite wiped out 50% of the dominant life on every planet". Razor sat nearby staring down at the floor fidgeting with his hands. Sonic looking half dead looked over to Shadow "Where is he now? Where?" "We don't know. He just opened a portal and fell through". Sonic messed with his wheelchair and looked over to Razor "What's wrong with him?". Wave was sitting in a chair and shrugged "Oh, he's pissed. He thinks he failed. Which, of course, he did but there's a lot of that going around, aren't there?". Sonic narrowed his eyes "Okay, I don't know who you are. For all I know you're the pizza girl" "Maybe I am" Wave said not having the energy to give a retort. Shadow leaned against the table "We've been hunting Infinite for three weeks now. Deep space scans and satellites, and we got nothing".
He paused then "Sonic, you fought him". Sonic tilted his head and glared at him "Who told you that? I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the amazing Diddy Kong gave away the store. That's what happened. There was no fight, cause he's not beatable". Shadow half-heartedly nodded "Ok. Ok. Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?". Sonic gave a fake salute and blew a raspberry. Rouge rolled her eyes as Sonic looked around the room weakly "You know, I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming". Shadow stood up straight "Sonic, I'm gonna need you to focus". Sonic scoffed "And I needed you. As in, past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late, buddy. Sorry". He sniffs a plate of food in front of him "You know what I need?". He hits the table with his fist knocking over the plate and he stands up "I need a shower". He then pulls the IV out of his arm "And I believe I remember telling all youse…". Mighty stepped forward "Sonic, Sonic" "Alive or otherwise, that what we needed was the world to be defended. Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not. That's what we needed". He glared directly at Shadow who kept his gaze "Well, that didn't work out, did it?" "I said we'd lose. You said, 'We'll do that together, too'". He started to breath heavily "Well, guess what, Shads? We lost. And you weren't there".
Shadow didn't have anything to say to that, his face slowly looked guilty. Sonic continued "But I suppose we have a chance now". Mighty tried to stop him but Sonic just stood his ground "I mean we couldn't beat him before and now half of us are dead and he's a god. Sounds good to me. What do you think, pal?". Mighty tried to push him back "You made your point. Just sit down, okay?". Sonic shook his head "No, no, here's my point" "Sonic, you're sick. Sit down!". Sonic pointed at Sally "She's great by the way. We need you. You're new blood". He pushed past Mighty and staggered right up to Shadow with an angry face "Got a bunch of tired old men here. I got nothing for you, Shads". There was nothing but venom in his voice "I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust, liar". Shadow just stared silently at him. Sonic took out the syphon containing the hyper ring and he gave it to Shadow "Here, take this. You find him, you absorb that. You hide". Sonic breathing gets faster before he suddenly drops to the floor, Shadow quickly kneeled down concerned "Sonic!" "I'm fine. Let me…". Mighty came over to help him but Sonic collapses.
