The silence of the room was broken solely by the sounds Gabe made while thinking, looking at his notebook. That and the few things he said, almost whispering. "How it'd switch…", he said. Without being very conscious of his physical actions, he sunk his teeth into the pencil in his hand. "Mobile plates, maybe… But it's small… Holographic technology…" In case it wasn't obvious enough, the young man was thinking more than anything in the Wispon he'd told Veloz about on the first day. Since then, some days had already passed. As he kept talking to himself, the young man loosened the pencil in his mouth and wrote the ideas. "... How–"

Together, we can show the world what we can do! You are next to me and I'm next to you! Pushing on through…

Gabe jumped in his seat when the phone started ringing with Veloz the Wolf's name on the screen. He took it and answered. "Hey, Gabe, it's Veloz. How's everything going?", asked the dark-gray-furred wolf. "Good… Said the other one with a yawn. "Thinking of ideas for you-know-what.", he answered. Ah, had I forgotten to mention this was happening at night? "Any signs of Rough and Tumble?", asked Gabe. "Nope. Nothing yet, there haven't been any reports nor sightings… Just tiredness.", said Veloz, with which he yawned softly. Like a puppy's. "Hey, mind if I stop by there? I doubt I'll find them on this patrol, and I'd like to talk with a friend… And I'm close to a chinese food place. What do you say?", he added. Gabe took a bit to respond–Chaos, why was it so difficult getting used to having a friend?–But he answered nevertheless. "S-Sure.", he answered. "You don't have to buy me anything, I already had dinner… But if there's dumplings–" Veloz laughed a little. "You don't have to hide the fact you have cravings, Gabe. I'm on my way.", he said, and hung up.

"Dude… I think that place is a gold mine.", said Veloz with part of a dumpling still in his mouth. "Definitely.", said Gabe with a little laugh. "Do you not go for Chinese food often? I've gone to some places in the past.", he said while drinking some tea. "Not a lot… But I definitely will do it more often now, heh.", said Veloz. "But anyway, what about those ideas you mentioned?", he asked. Gabe had gotten enough confidence to give Veloz the notebook directly and leaf through it. "Thinking about designs?", he asked. "Mhm. I feel that'll make it easier to discern when it's in which mode. Though right now I have more problems with thinking about how to store different color powers.", explained the white wolf… And laughed a bit afterwards. "I don't think more than one Wisp fits in such a small device.", he added, amusing his friend. "Yeah… But hey, I'm sure you'll think of something.", said Veloz, handing the notebook back to Gabe. He smiled sweetly while putting the little book away, thanking the Mobian across him.

"This will sound really weird, but…", Veloz was starting to say while Gabe washed the dishes. Gabe turned to see him. Huh. Veloz didn't seem like the kind of Mobian to sound as insecure as he did when saying that. "... N-Nothing, forget about it.", he said. As if Gabe had channeled the adrenaline that he felt during the fight at the prison, he hummed in denial and shook his head accordingly. "Nope. I won't.", he said, turning the sink off and turning around to look at the other wolf, who was sitting on the couch. "Tell me, Veloz. Go ahead.", he said with a smile that was a mixture of smugness and kindness. Veloz sighed and answered. "... Can I stay here for the night? I know we just met, but it's almost midnight and my house is very far.", Veloz explained, a bit uncomfortable by the question. Gabe felt that feeling of guilt for making his friend uncomfortable, but with an inner "shut up", he answered. "How far?", he asked. "Near Marble Zone.", answered Veloz. "Holy Chaos.", answered Gabe with a shocked expression. That far? "Of course, I won't have you walking all the way there when it's so late… Just, I don't know if it'll bother you to sleep on the couch.", he added. Before answering Gabe's proposal, Veloz got up, approached and hugged him. leaving the white wolf surprised. "You're a lifesaver, Gabe, thanks…", he said sweetly. Gabe took a bit to react, but he finally hugged back. "... Hey… Anything for a friend, right?", Gabe said, slowly relaxing in Veloz's grip. "Of course… And, don't worry about the couch, it wouldn't be the first time… You know, studying and things like that." Gabe whispered an "I'm glad" in response and there was a bit of silence afterwards. It broke when Gabe noticed Veloz had already let go of him and he had not. One blanket and pillow later, Veloz got ready to sleep on the couch. "Oh yeah, remind me to tell mister Gadget about the ax tomorrow.", Veloz added. "Oh, right. We've been prolonging that for a while. Sorry.", said Gabe, lowering his ears a bit in sign of shame. "Eh, it's ok.", Veloz said as he got comfortable. "Goodnight, Gabe.", he added while closing his eyes. "... Goodnight, Veloz.", said Gabe with a smile while retiring to his room. He could get used to having friends. Or, well, a friend.

After a rather quick breakfast, both of them headed out of Gabe's house–an apartment, part of an alignment of several other ones–and went to the Restoration's HQ. Gabe's insecurity had returned partially for that morning, so it wasn't too strange to see him a bit nervous when asking Veloz something common to start a chat on their way there. "Do you plan to show me what you can do with those weapons?", Gabe asked. Veloz shrugged and nodded with a "yep"... That's how far the topic got. Then, Gabe came up with the next question that came to mind; "What did you dream of?" "I think it was you and me going to that chinese restaurant?", he said with some amusement. Wow, he really liked it so much to the point of dreaming about it? Now that's good publicity if I've ever seen it. "You?", he asked back. "I don't remember.", Gabe said… Lying like a rug. He remembered what he dreamt well, and that something was… Something that I shouldn't say just yet. Don't want to ruin the surprise. Either way, both kept walking and when they eventually got to the place, they were led straight to talk with Gadget… Who'd gotten his own office. "Good morning, Gabe. Veloz.", said the scarlet wolf, smiling at his recruits. "Look, I wanted to talk with you directly to explain something. You've already seen some of the main work rookies get in the Restoration, but I wanna show you… This.", he said, getting up from his chair and directing their gazes towards a corkboard with some pins and thread. "When we receive a request in particular, we add it here. For example right now we're looking for the fugitives, Rough and Tumble, so we have the wanted poster here, etc. Basically–" "You'll assign us missions based on the requests on the board?", Veloz asked. While Gabe got a mini heart attack when he interrupted their squad leader, this feeling of fear passed quickly when Gadget, smiling, said; "Correct, Veloz. Think of it as a videogame divided into missions…" he said, though he soon added, with a more serious expression: "Just don't treat your job with less importance because of this. You're still soldiers at the end of the day… But anyway.", he said, sitting back down again. "Any questions?" This was the moment in which Veloz would finally ask about using an ax instead of a Wispon. And though he didn't show… Having Gabe there calmed him down and made him able to ask. "Yeah… Look, I'm still not used to using Wispons, so… I was wondering if I could use another type of weapon instead. Like an ax.", Veloz explained. Gabe turned his gaze to Gadget, and he had his look fixated on Veloz. Like a wise man once said, 'looking like he'd drowned his goldfish to death'. "What?", said Gadget with a blank, smiling expression on his face, almost comically. "I-I mean," he started, "You could, but… It is a requirement that soldiers carry a Wispon with themselves…", he said. He was noticeably still surprised by the request, but not to the point of turning it down. "... I'll tell you something… Show me what you can do, and I'll let you use it… As long as you keep a self-defense Wispon handy.", the red-furred wolf asked. Gabe watched attentively and silently at how Veloz accepted and how he asked "But, how do I show you?"

"This is the training room for advanced techniques. We use tangible, holographic technology to practice without any risks here.", the wolf explained while leading the recruits into the room. It was big, tall and white. Very white. Gabe looked around at it when out of nowhere he heard Veloz speak. "ECHO!", and the subsequent echo that resounded on the rounded walls of the room, causing him to give a startled hop and turn. It didn't take long for Gadget to start laughing, followed by Veloz, and lastly, Gabe, out of peer pressure. Once the three of them finished laughing like idiots, Gadget handed a green rod to Veloz. The moment he touched it, it turned into an ax, to the rookies' shock. And, with a few touches in a panel that the two wolves didn't have the slightest idea as to what it was for, the room took the appearance of a field full of trees and Badniks. "Summing up, the rod turns into what you have in mind. I took some of that information and put it into the room's hologram for your practice.", Gadget said, like it was the most normal thing in the world, while Gabe looked at the ax, his surroundings and Gadget with a surprised expression, while Veloz got into position. "Well… Show me what you got.", Gadget said, confidently. Veloz nodded and started to run. One, two, three badniks were out in two seconds, one after a normal slash, another one with a slash Veloz gave, pushed forward by the first ones' explosion, and the last one with a hop above it before it exploded. It must sound like that would've been enough, yet Veloz grabbed onto a branch from one of the trees, and with relative ease got up with the ax on his back. Like a monkey you'd see in an exaggerated action movie, the wolf moved among the trees, be it throwing Badniks down from them or giving them a good blow with an ax. Of course, Gabe and Gadget now had the same expression on their faces. Veloz descended slowly from one of the trees, agitated but not tired. "Was that the last one?", Veloz said. Gadget answered indirectly. "Forget the stupid Wispon, this is enough.", laughing in awe. Veloz gave an excited "yes!", putting the ax on the floor to energetically shake Gadget's hand. "Thank you, sir, thank you, thank you, thank you!", he said before running towards Gabe to hug him. "What did I do?!", Gabe asked in the middle of a confused laughter. Veloz sighed and patted his shoulder softly. I'll tell you once we go to that Chinese food place tonight.", he said with amusement, amusing the white wolf in turn. "Well, you can leave, I'll reach out to you if you're needed for a mission.", Gadget said with a wink.

Curiously, said mission didn't arrive that day, with it mostly being about a collaborative effort to ask around about Rough and Tumble through the streets. Gabe quickly got tired a bit from having to ask "have you been giving shelter to these two individuals?", when… I mean, not only were there posters of them throughout the whole city, have you seen them? Who'd give them shelter?

Eventually, sunset came and due to a lack of results, the squad leaders said the recruits could go back home. Gabe and Veloz found themselves at the same place as last time, but before saying "goodbye", Veloz remembered something. With a "follow me", he took Gabe while holding his hand to a certain place. Gabe had already forgotten what the ash-colored wolf was taking him to, and he couldn't be blamed, but he remembered the moment they arrived at a fast food place in a shopping district, and seeing Sonic the Hedgehog at the entrance, looking at something in his cellphone. Gabe got nervous again, but helped (dragged) him towards him. "Hey, Veloz!", said Sonic when seeing them both. "Hey, Sonic, sorry for taking so long to meet you here.", said Veloz. Gabe barely just told him not to talk to him so casually, but Sonic got ahead of him showing he didn't mind. "Oh, it's nothing.", he said, unbothered by the casual treatment from the Restoration rookie. "Though, who are you?", he said, approaching Gabe. And… Silence. Gabe stayed quiet with an expression that showed both nervousness and excitement. But more so the former than the latter. Stumbling on his own words, he started to talk. "I-I-I'm… G-G-Gabe–... Uh… Gabe the Wolf…", he said, lowering the volume of his voice with every part of the sentence. "... Hey.", Sonic said in a calmer than usual tone. "It's alright. Breathe in, breathe out… In…", he said, and Gabe did so. "And out…", he said, and Gabe did so. "... Gabe the Wolf.", said Gabe, still as nervous as he could be, but calm enough to say it in a normal tone. "Pleasure to meet you, Gabe.", said Sonic, shaking the snow-colored wolf's hand. The three Mobians entered the place and sat by one of the windows. "Gabe?", said Veloz at one point. "... Is there… Something you wanna tell Sonic?", said Veloz with certain shyness. He was noticeably nervous and a tad… Guilty, even? Yes, and Gabe knew why. Sonic was interested. "You see, Sonic… Gabe had a–" "Veloz, don't…", said Gabe in an almost begging tone. Don't misunderstand Veloz. He didn't want Gabe to feel bad, but rather return the favor by helping him present the idea for his Wispon to the hedgehog. He knew that without any help, he'd probably keep it hidden forever. "Hey… Gabe, it's alright.", said Veloz. "But Veloz…", said Gabe. It was at this point Sonic entered the conversation directly. "Gabe, is something wrong?", said the hedgehog, gently. "It's alright if you'd rather save it, but you can tell me anything… I'm just another Mobian, like you.", he said with a comforting smile. "... But you're… You're Sonic the…", Gabe started to say. Sonic laughed a little. "You remind me of Gadget when we met. So I'll tell you what I told him.", he leaned forward and put his hands on Gabe's, which were clenched into shaking fists. "Forget I'm a celebrity. From now on, we're in the same ship, and therefore, we're friends, and we can trust each other with whatever… So don't be afraid. This is your moment. Don't let that feeling of fear own you… Ok?", he said in a sweet tone. Gabe relaxed on his seat, lowered his gaze towards Sonic's hands and back to his eyes. He turned to look at Veloz, who had already put his hand on his shoulder in support.

For the first time, besides Ebony and Pyjamas, Gabe felt the relief of being among people he could trust. And that loved him.

So, Gabe took his notebook out and started to speak, starting by one option in particular. "Boost. You use White Wisps to speed up, so I thought maybe there was a way to imbue someone with speed through this…", said Gabe with a soft and gentle voice as he swallowed food. "It's a good idea without a doubt… It reminds me of Whisper's, it's just as practical.", said Sonic after finishing a chili dog. "Mind if I show Tails?", he asked. Gabe felt somewhat surprised at the request, but having already grown fond of the two Mobians near him, any fear he felt in regards to what the young prodigy could think couldn't stop him from saying "Absolutely… I'd love that." "Perfect! I'll tell him tonight.", said Sonic while taking some pictures of Gabe's drawings, who was exhibiting them for him with a kind smile. With thankfulness in his eyes, the white wolf aimed his gaze at the ash-colored wolf.

"Well, Veloz, hold on.", said Sonic, to Veloz's confusion. Outside of the restaurant and with the sky starting to darken a little, Gabe smiled a bit and explained. "Since you live so far away, I asked Sonic to take you home. Don't worry, we'll go to that Chinese food place soon.", said Gabe half-joking. "... You're great, you know that?", said Veloz while hugging Gabe, who was still surprised by the physical affection, yet still hugged him back. "That's what I've been told…", said Gabe in response… Though he still didn't fully believe it.

The next day was rather different. For starters, when they got to Restoration's HQ, Sonic was the one to receive them with a bit of an angry expression. "You're late!", the hedgehog exclaimed with said angry expression. Veloz immediately got surprised by the welcoming while Gabe's fur stood up… Veloz was about to say "we're sorry, we came as soon as we could" when Sonic laughed. "Gotcha! HAH, you owe me 10 rings, Tails!", said the hedgehog while going back into the building. Both wolves sighed in unison while following him in. Waiting for them in the training room once more was Tails… And something that vaguely resembled Gabe's drawings. The wolf glared at the device with eyes wide open until Tails spoke. "Good morning, Gabe, Veloz.", the young fox welcomed them, addressing Gabe first, prototype for the Wispon at hand. "Sonic told me about your idea, and, I'll be honest…", Gabe's heart sank for a moment instinctively, "It's fascinating!", Tails completed. What did these two have with nearly giving poor Gabe a heart attack? "It'll take some time to complete it, but the concept sounds pretty useful, and I plan to see it through… And, since it's your idea, I decided we could try the first mode here.", said Tails, to the surprise of both of them. "Wait, wait, wait… You already have a mode ready?", Gabe asked. "How?"

A little lesson. The nervous system of a living being works off electricity, and every Mobian has their biological differences in certain aspects, including this. The White Wisps' energy, Hyper-Go-On, basically increases the speed at which the electricity flows through someone's nervous system, as well as giving a dose of adrenaline to avoid getting tired fast. This is the information Tails gabe both wolves. "Did you understand anything? 'cause I didn't.", said Sonic. Tails only rolled his eyes and continued. "I could make a replica of the energy a White Wisp produces off an original sample of it. So it should be able to cause an increase in how fast you can run. The only thing is that–" "Theoretically speaking, since it's an imitation and we don't have the same speed as Sonic's it won't be just as effective.", Gabe finished. The other three Mobians looked at him for a while before Tails replied with "Exactly. So, to better test this, we have this." The fox pointed towards three treadmills with a connected monitor. "These speedometers will show us how fast you can run." Once more, Veloz was the one to get nervous, since as you may recall, he wasn't as fast as he was agile. But in order to help prove Gabe's idea, he got on one of the machines while the other wolf and the hedgehog did the same. On Tails' instructions, the three of them got to running as fast as they could on them. Sonic's speedometer showed 300 km/h, naturally; Gabe's showed 15 km/h, a little above what an average human could run… And Veloz's, 12 km/h. On Tails' signal, all three of them stopped and the fox… Gave an awkward sigh. "So… I know it'll sound weird, but… At least at the moment… I have to shoot you with this for the effect to work.", he explained, to the three Mobians' shock. "You're sure this isn't harmful, right?", Gabe asked. "99,9% sure.", Tails answered. For anyone, that'd be something relieving… But for Gabe, it didn't help his nerves much. But before he could say something else, Gabe felt a spark in his chest–You know that feeling of a zap when you touch a random surface? Something like that–followed by a rush of adrenaline… Veloz felt the same, and on Tails' signal, all three started running again. In a matter of seconds, Gabe's and Veloz's speedometers went up, Gabe's to 150 km/h and Veloz's to 130 km/h. All four Mobians laughed in awe. "... I wonder…", Tails said to himself. He gave Gabe and Veloz another dose of Hyper-Go-On, and though the latter was a bit tired, he guessed it was partly because he saw the speedometer go up to 230 km/h and his friend's up to 250 km/h. A little while went by afterwards and they found themselves sitting on the floor, catching their breath–Notice how Veloz needed it more, clearly–and drinking water while Tails explained something else. I'll spare you the trouble of doing math for this since he summed it up as "The effect of the discharge lasts one minute. The second discharge added one more minute."

Experiment; successful.

"Veloz, you're my hero.", Gabe said after swallowing part of a dumpling. They'd gone to the Chinese restaurant from the other night after the experiment, explaining they needed something to recover energy. That, and for another reason, but at the moment, what Gabe said left Veloz a bit confused. How didn't he get it? That's what Gabe thought with a smile. "If you hadn't mentioned my idea to Sonic, I surely wouldn't have…", he said, putting his hand for the other wolf to take, which he did. "Thank you…", Gabe concluded. Veloz smiled back, rubbing Gabe's hand with his thumb. "You don't have to thank me. The credit's yours, Gabe… Besides, I owed you." This time, Gabe was the one confused. "I was terrified about asking Mr. Gadget about my ax… But just having you there, and cheering me on to ask him the night prior… That helped me. A lot.", said Veloz. And as it couldn't be any other way, Gabe smiled, laughed gently and while he did so, his mind was debating whether or not to get up and hug him. Instead of that, he just said: "Well, you know what they say… That's what friends are for." with gentleness, to then ask a nearby waiter to put what was left of their food to take away.

"By the way, I have something special to ask of you.", said Sonic. Gabe rested his head on Veloz's shoulders on the cab to the village Sonic had mentioned. Consciously, unconsciously? That's up to you, but he didn't back away when Veloz put an arm around him. Eventually the taxi stopped at a place near the village and both of them continued on foot. "... The silence makes me uneasy.", said Gabe while walking. Veloz looked at him, and after thinking for a bit, he snapped his fingers. "... I don't care what you're thinking, as you turn to me…", he sang, signaling to Gabe to continue the lyrics. Gabe smiled awkwardly–poor guy must've gotten the wrong impression at first–but soon conceded. "'cause what I have in my two hands is enough to set me free…", he continued. They kept going like that on the way there. "Let me show you just, what - I'm - made…", they sang in unison and were interrupted when they got there. The leader of the village took them to the house and both of them were frozen in place when the owner of it opened the door. "Yes?", he asked both young wolves, who looked at him with their mouths agape… At least until Veloz asked back. "... Mr. Tinker?" "Yes, and you are?", the voice that threatened the world so many times said. "My name is Veloz the Wolf, this is Gabe the Wolf, my friend… We have orders from Sonic to come see you, and–" "Oh, you're friends of that kind hedgehog! Come in, come in, I was about to make some tea to drink along with some biscuits.", said the man. "U-Um, we'd really like that, truly, but… We have strict orders of simply coming to see your… 'Project'…", said Veloz, turning to Gabe, who was still frozen. "Oh, you must be referring to Eggmanland. Follow me, I'll show you.", he said with a kind tone as he left his house and headed to the storage place right beside it. Inside, several empty Badnik shells were placed on some mechanisms similar to those of a park; Some kind of mini roller coaster, a carousel, and what was basically some spinning cups… And between everything, a wooden Mobian giving the final touches to the latter. "Hey, Mr. Tinker, it's almost done!", she said with a happy voice and a happy expression to match. "Oh, perfect, Belle! You can take a break, you've earned it.", said Tinker, to which this 'Belle' left. "... Are you sure you don't want some tea?", Mr. Tinker asked, in a sort of disappointed and innocent tone. It's curious, but both wolves found themselves feeling some… Pity, for the human in front of them. So they nodded. "We can take some… As long as you don't tell our superior.", said Gabe with a nervous laugh.

Elder Scruffy, leader of Windmill Village, explained to both wolves the story many already know. How Eggman ended up there, how he lost his memory and everything. Gabe and Veloz left feeling a bit mixed, but deciding that, if Tinker wasn't harming anyone, and hadn't harmed the village, then it was alright… Besides, he seemed to have become a charming little man.

… What is it?

You don't remember things happening this way?

… When did we say we were telling you the same story?