For those who may not be aware, Shift is actually one of the displeasuring Sand Blast Freedom Fighters from the comics. I own neither him nor Phoebe.
Shift E. Wolf and Phoebe: Disappointment
She couldn't believe this. She just couldn't believe how easily that horrid wolf had played her—how they had all played her.
'Bunnie, Sonic, and Tails...they were right all along.'
And she had no one but herself to blame for the current situation.
How could she have been so blind and ignorant?
As if today were being tampered as part of a plan by Fate to deepen the distraught Japanese girl's pride-wounds even further, Shift strolled jovially over to where Jack had left her after certain..."justifiable reprimands" had been made. There were no scars on her body...but even if there had been, they would have paled in comparison to the emotional blows the Sand Blasters had dealt to her—especially from Shift...
"My sincerest apologies, Ms. Heyerdahl," he cooed overly sweetly, his hands clasped in mock sympathy, "but I regret to reveal that our leader Jack has decided that you have become more of a liability than an asset to our cause."
O, how she wanted to send a haymaker into that mutt's snout! Just the sight of his smug grin brought Phoebe's blood to a boil. Instead, the young, scarred girl picked herself up, surprisingly calm as she addressed the russet hound.
'No...You're better than this, Phoebe Kyoko Heyerdahl. You're better than him.'
"I wanted to be like you. I thought you were cool." She defiantly rubbed away her once dominant tears, her Helga-like scowl nothing but prominent on her delicate face.
Shift merely tsked condescendingly, shaking his head as he did.
"Oh my dear, naïve Fifi, the world is riddled with ignominious failures and disappointments. You are a prime example of both."
And with those coolly stated yet scathing words left in the air, Shift nonchalantly turned his back on his former fan and gaited back to Sand Blast City...leaving a young adolescent Phoebe out there in the orange tinted evening-time desert, heavy and deep in thought.
Before too long, a faint, buzzing noise brought her attention to the far-off horizon. Just beyond the glare of the sinking sun, she could spot the shadowy shape of a familiar fighter plane in the distance.
A gracious though slightly sly smile replaced Phoebe's frown.
'I'll show you who's an ignominious failure and disappointment.'
A bit of an open-ended conclusion, I suppose...