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… Finally, he does something smart haha jk… 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 in 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 FIND WHISPER!" 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!"

"Oh really? That's neat! So, who's the friend?" Jewel responded.

But Amy didn't respond back.

After waiting for about 10 minutes, Jewel messaged Amy, concerned.

"Amy?"

No response at all.

Even after another 15 minutes, there was no response. Chalking it up to a sudden event, Jewel kept the computer on but went to do something else, hoping that Tangle and Lux would be able to help Whisper without anything really bad happening.