Chapter 6: The Theories of Life
Time passed, whoever was making sure Whisper didn't escape just stayed upstairs, and didn't bother to go down to the basement. There was no clock, so Whisper had no idea what time it was, but it had been dark outside for a while, according to the small window, so Whisper assumed that it was late into the night. The only sound that Whisper could hear was the faint mumbling of a TV playing upstairs, and the occasional sound of walking. She was about to fall asleep, as there was nothing else for her to do, when she heard the sound of the small window shattering on the ground.
"... Oops…" Tangle mumbled.
"It's okay, we just have to work quickly." Jewel whispered back, as she flew into the basement.
"You guys really came back… After everything that happened earlier…!" Whisper said happily, tearing up a little.
"Of course…!" Jewel responded.
There were footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Oh great… This shit… at this hour…"
"Well well… Look who we have here!" Lux said, recognizing the voice to be of one Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow's face quickly revealed itself in the light from his newly formed Chaos Spear, confirming Lux's guess.
"I'm tired and pissed off, so you better scram, or I'm killing you AND your friend!" Shadow threatened.
"Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try!" Lux said smugly, as her and Tangle were still outside the window. Shadow growled and pulled the two through the window and onto the ground.
"DON'T. I'm NOT in the mood to be toyed with by some asshole teenagers." Tangle and Lux got up, and Shadow took the opportunity to attack, about to punch Tangle right in the mouth, but Lux came to senses much quicker than Shadow was anticipating, and ran in front of Tangle, blocking Shadow's attack.
"You ain't doing SHIT to her until you get through me, Mr Edgelord!" Lux yelled, and kicked Shadow in the chest.
"So I see you have a death wish then?" Shadow snickered, summoning some more Chaos Spears. He targeted them at Lux, not expecting her to be able to defend herself, but she deflected the spears with shining white shields.
"What the-?!" Tangle blurted out, just as surprised as everyone else.
Lux's unknown power against Shadow's Chaos Control powers, the two got into a full on battle, though Lux was mainly just using her power to defend herself, and using her raw strength to attack, which is what ultimately led to Lux winning, as Shadow using Chaos Control for both offense and defense without any Chaos Emeralds on hand quickly drained his power. Soon, Shadow was too tired to fight back, and was quickly pinned down by Lux, as Jewel and Tangle got Whisper free.
"Alright, let's blow this joint!" Lux said triumphantly.
"We'll be back tomorrow for Whisper's wisps, though!" Tangle added.
With that, the four climbed out the window, and left.
Though, out of curiosity, Whisper stuck behind a bit, looking through the window.
"Dammit… Dammit! Why am I such an idiot!" Shadow yelled at himself.
"I don't think you're an idiot..!" a voice randomly spoke up. It sounded familiar to Whisper. Quickly after saying that, the owner of said voice popped into Whisper's view; it was the young fox girl from before, with her magenta bangs covering half of her face as always.
"Ugh.. What are you doing u- HOLY-! Is that you?!" Shadow flipped out, confused.
"Oh, yeah! I finally finished my new body! What do you think?" The young girl asked.
"New body…?" Whisper mumbled.
"You… You made THAT all by yourself?" Shadow asked her.
"Yep!" The girl asserted proudly.
"Wow… You really are just like your mom…" Before Whisper could listen in more, she was pulled away by Tangle.
"C'mon! Before they capture you again!"
"Right.." Whisper sighed, and joined with her friends for the journey home.
"Anyway, what WAS that, Lux?" Jewel asked excitedly.
"Oh, that? That was just a light shield." She answered nonchalantly.
"You have light powers?!" Tangle asked.
"Yep. Had them for as long as I can remember… I mean, my name is literally "Light" in Latin…" Lux laughed. "How very creative of you, parents.." She added, sarcastically.
"Reminds me of Whisper and I a bit, though with us, our names fitting us so well was a coincidence!" Jewel noted.
"But yeah, I think your powers are super cool!" Tangle said to Lux.
"Aw jeez, thanks Tangle! That means a lot to me, coming from you." Lux responded, which made Tangle blush. Jewel and Whisper giggled.
The next morning, Tangle made sure to wake up the earliest out of everyone, determined to go retrieve Whisper's wisps from Doctor Clysdale's clinic. Though, Tangle was quickly figured out.
"Where do you think you're going..?" Lux asked her.
"Ah-! You're awake?" Tangle pouted. "Man… I just wanna get Whisper's wisps back!"
"Remember what happened to Whisper when she went there alone?" Lux reminded her. "We can't afford for something like that to happen again, especially with them being extra mad at you for breaking Relic's arm yesterday." Tangle sighed, and agreed to stay. "Thank you. Now, sense we're both up, how about we see what's on TV?"
"Sure. I guess we're waiting til Jewel and Whisper get up for breakfast?" Tangle responded.
"I mean, we don't have to if you don't want to. We can have ourselves some breakfast now if you want." Lux suggested. Tangle nodded in response.
While Tangle and Lux were making breakfast together, Jewel flew downstairs to greet them.
"What you guys making?"
"Oh, just pancakes and bacon, nothing special." Tangle responded.
"Neat! Can you guys make me some?" Jewel asked.
"Of course!"
"At this point, we might as well also make some to set aside for the resident late sleeper, eh?" Lux said. Jewel and Tangle giggled.
"I think Whisper would like that."
"Alrighty then!"
Whisper finally woke up and went downstairs just as breakfast was nearly finished, and just as Tangle predicted, she enjoyed that the others took the time to think of her.
"Sense we're all here, how about we sit and talk some?" Tangle suggested.
"Sounds good to me!" Jewel responded happily.
After sitting down and starting to eat, Lux was the first to speak.
"Hey, I've been wondering… How are y'all able to have this house here? I mean, it's real big, and I see no adults around!" She asked.
"Oh! Yeah, Jewel's parents are LOADED! They gave her everything she needed to live on her own on her eighteenth birthday. You should've been there, all three of us were blown away!" Tangle explained.
"Oh! So Jewel's technically an adult, but still a teen… cause ya know, eighTEEN? Ey? Get it?" Lux laughed, and everyone else giggled a bit too.
"Yeah, that's basically it!" Jewel responded.
"So, same with you and Whisper then?" Lux asked Tangle.
"Nah nah, both of us are sixteen. It's just that my parents trust Jewel and her parents a lot, so they're okay with me living with her."
"What about Whisper?"
"Oh… She doesn't ever talk about her parents, so I think it's best to not bring it up." That explanation from Tangle made Lux feel bad, and she quickly apologized.
"It's okay…" Whisper assured.
"So, I'm guessing your parents let you out into the world a bit early? Considering you told us you're seventeen." Jewel asked Lux.
"Yeah." Lux responded simply.
Everyone quickly finished their meals, the first of them being Jewel, who afterwards went to her computer, finding a message from Amy.
"Hey Jewel, just wanted to let you know that Knuckles and I are about to go to the interview, and I just wanted to let you know everything's fine. The two of us are happy to talk to you after the interview! You already know everything we plan to say at the interview, so don't worry about having to watch it."
Jewel showed the message to the others.
"Oh, you got in contact with one of the Freedom Fighters…? That's great..!" Whisper said happily.
"Yeah! Actually, you mind joining me while I talk with Amy? I think your time in their base could be helpful to us info-wise, ya know?" Jewel suggested.
"Sure! I always wanted to talk to one of them, actually…" Whisper admitted.
Two and a half hours later, Jewel got a new message from Amy.
"Hey! I'm back! :)"
"Great! You don't mind if I have a friend with me, right? Her name is Whisper, she has some info I don't, so she's here to potentially answer questions I can't!"
Amy responded quickly.
"Yeah that's fine, I mean, same reason Knuckles is with me right now."
That made Jewel feel relieved.
"So, just wanted to let you know, it seems that Shadow is working with Wilma Brewer, that girl associated with those disappearances."
Amy started typing right away.
"WAIT SERIOUSLY?"
"OH MY GOSH!"
After the second message, Amy wasn't typing anymore, so Jewel responded.
"Is there something wrong?"
Amy responded a minute later.
"Knuckles told me that I shouldn't get so excited, and that maybe Shadow is just working with Wilma… Because?"
"Though this DOES make our theory more probable."
"What theory?" Jewel started typing, but Amy sent another message before she could finish her response.
"I'm gonna get a snack, I'll let Knuckles take over the conversation a bit."
Jewel understood.
"So, Knuckles, I know Amy just left, but I think you should know that Shadow isn't the only one working with Wilma." Jewel explained.
"Is that so? Who else, then?" Knuckles asked.
"Well, she's also working with this guy named Doctor Clysdale, and their assistant Relic." Jewel told him.
"Relic? Blue pika, hair in two low buns, Relic?" Knuckles asked.
"You know her?" Jewel asked back.
"Yeah, she was my friend a few years back, she used to live with me on Angel Island, but then she just... left." Knuckles explained.
"Oh wow… that's awful."
"Yeah! I don't know the Doctor Clysdale guy though. Care to give a description?" Knuckles asked Jewel.
"Of course! They're a gray fox, with some red stripes to them, their color scheme overall is kinda dull, other than their eyes, their eyes are a seriously striking amber." Jewel described.
"Amber eyes ay? What are they a doctor of anyway?" Knuckles asked.
"Wispology, why?"
No response from Knuckles. Actually, there wasn't a response for a good few minutes… Until…
"Oh! So sorry! I walked back into the room with a bowl of popcorn and here is Knuckles freaking out." Amy explained.
Jewel audibly laughed.
"And he thought you were over excited about us confirming that Shadow and Wilma are working together? Lol"
"Yeah. Knuckles is telling me that we should get over there in person, like, RIGHT NOW. We're just calling Sonic, cause I told him that now would be the best time for him to find out about you guys, in my opinion." Amy explained further.
"Oh great! So, does Knuckles know who Doctor Clysdale is?" Jewel asked.
"From what I can get of him, I think he does, but the "Doctor Clysdale" name doesn't ring a bell." Amy answered.
"What I'm saying is that I think that "Doctor Clysdale" may be a fake identity…" Amy continued to explain.
"Who knows though, at this point, I think just about anything can happen."
"Anyway, we'll be there in around 30 minutes, so sit tight!"
