Hey everyone! Here's your next chapter! And I really should check up on everyone else so I'll do that.

A portal opened, Sonic went through it, the portal closed… Sonic was with Knuckles then with Mighty, then in a place called Apotos after he asked his way around and it was a pretty place but still he had no information as to where exactly he was, because this was a location that wasn't in his world –not even Albion was- so he was pretty lost… and there weren't many options he could take other than lying around and waiting for something to happen like he was used to do.

Except that that was exactly happened. It was late at night and the hedgehog was getting quite tired after not resting for a while and he wasn't in the mood to think of a solution so he just decided to sleep and come up with something in the morning, lucky for him, he didn't have to wait until the morning because the help came in the middle of his sleep, which now that I say it I don't know if it was really lucky from his point of view.

That help came in the form of a ring opening, and that certainly meant some sort of trouble, he peeked to see what was going to come out hoping for the worst but it turned out to be his old buddy Knuckles –at least the one from this dimension- and well, that was quite a relief for him with his worry turning into a grin and getting from the ground to receive them… yeah, 'them', because Knux had not arrived alone, he was accompanied by none other than Ray the Flying Squirrel, someone this Sonic knew was around but wasn't familiar with.

"Sonic?" said the squirrel once he exited the ring with some visible panic "Where are we? Where's Mighty?"

"Heh, there was a little accident… wait- you guys said that you had to know the location right? Where are you guys coming from? How are you here?"

"Ray…" said Knuckles who was in shock for some reason "How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"A Warp Ring cannot be opened without a known location… how did you do that?"

"I don't know! Where's-".

"Whoa, whoa! Wait a second. One ring opens, and then it closes after I take a little trip, what happened to you?"

Knuckles sighed.

"Metal Sonic escaped so we returned to Angel Island and the absence of you two was felt and… we-".

"And you wanted to stop trying!"

"I didn't," the echidna said in a quiet but menacing tone "What you wanted was not possible, you saw that it wasn't".

"Apparently it was…"

"Let me guess, he attempted the 'take me to where someone is but I don't know the place' maneuver?" Sonic said putting emphasis on the fact that that was what Knuckles wanted to achieve.

"Twice," the echidna stated "It only worked once… Ray what did you do?"

"I don't know, I was looking for Mighty but it didn't open, then I looked for you because I thought that you would and-"

"-And now you're here" Sonic completed the sentence for him. Knuckles instead just put two plus two making a clear and obvious connection looking at Sonic in realization "Whoa, wait, I don't think it's what you think!"

"Then what do you think it is? One cannot-".

"Yeah, yeah, I know the rules and how it works but, are you saying it only worked on me?"

"Do you have any other explanation?"

"Um, no… but I have a solution. You close your eyes, I go away, you use the ring and we'll see if you are right".

"Fair enough" said Knuckles going through the proposal, Sonic just replied with 'cool' and blasted away leaving a path of smoke behind with Knuckles and Ray taking cover from it, after a few seconds of waiting for him to get far away, Knuckles took a deep sigh and threw the ring with only one thought and that was to go to the exact location where Sonic was and if this worked…

The ring opened. Just like before, Sonic was right in front of the other side, this time him also being surprised but accepting the 'defeat' of the challenge and crossing the side.

"Yay?"

"How?" was all Knuckles asked "We know it won't work with everyone".

"That is something we're going to find out don't we? I'm ready for a mystery adventure! Like… why did a killer robot that looks just like me sent me to a place that looks just like your number one vacation spot?"

"It's not a coincidence… it might help us".

"Then let's use that help… I suppose you're gonna tag along?" he asked to Ray.

"The Chaotix are guarding the Emerald and… yeah I want to come with you!"

Sonic smiled.

"Cool!"

Lucky for Silver, he could already use his powers without his head being in pain around halfway through the journey so that was better for everybody. Whisper was still wondering what was Tangle's story and wanted to understand their predicament but the lynx and Silver didn't look like they were very willing to tell her what was going on either and the lemur felt as if she was in a contract to not disclose anything.

Shortly after they arrived to the outsides of a city that was covered by a seemingly glass dome where they all stopped, finishing the trip.

"So… what do we do now?" asked Tangle referring to Whisper, she knew what they were doing but she knew that the wolf wasn't supposed to follow them.

"We know who's in this team…" Larry whispered to the core group.

"What's your story with her Spades?" Silver added.

"I'm from another dimension, duh… are you sure we can't bring her in? I can really vouch for-"

"Of course we can't!" Silver tried to keep his voice down "You know how serious this team is, the Director would kill us!"

"But… Tangle says she is trustworthy, right?" Larry interrupted trying to convince himself.

"We can't bring anyone we like into the team! The Director chose us for a reason".

"Well, that reason was mostly 'give them another chance' wasn't it? I think I wasn't supposed to be in the team initially but here I am… and I don't think we should be out in the open for so long".

Silver sighed, he didn't wanted to let a complete stranger into a top-secret group except that apparently, according to Whisper, he was no stranger to her and that was something that interested him even if he had no idea who she was he decided to take Tangle's suggestion not because of the 'second chance' -maybe- but because he decided to trust her trust on him, after all... that was something Silver didn't had much of. Also because they were staying in the open for too long and that wasn't good.

"I'll regret this" he said giving the sign and knocking on the wall surrounding the city which caused a hole in the shields allowing them through 'I'll regret this'.

-X-

"You did what?!" said the Director upon the arrival of the team to Secret HQ.

"Listen sir-" Silver tried to excuse the situation but was cut off by the owl in charge.

"You have no right to bring a stranger into-!".

"I did it sir," Tangle interfered by stepping out "She is someone from my world and it was my idea".

"I also helped in the decision…" Larry slowly came into the conversation by also taking some blame.

The Director Harvey Who deeply sighed but internally appreciated the team responsibility they had, maybe he would deal with them later but his focus changed to the unexpected newcomer, Whisper, who had been standing near the tube-entrance of the base without her mask listening to the little discussion trying to figure out what was this whole deal was –and maybe thinking it wasn't a great idea to come-. The owl approached her curiously with only one question in mind.

"Who are you?"

Whisper relucted to answer for a moment.

"I'll be leaving" she replied softly turning around.

"I'm afraid you can't lady," Harvey replied "At least not now. If you're here then I suppose you're already familiar with the entrance to this place and I cannot take the risk of any of this to going into the light… If you excuse me, what's your story with Tangle?"

The wolf slowly covered herself in the mask not looking at the owl directly.

"This is a team made for secret mission's right?" she asked.

Harvey saw that Whisper was quite perspective and he didn't like that because she was already in too deep to let her leave but still she hadn't told anyone who she was. Anyways, Whisper looked at his reaction and she pretty much had her question answered by it.

"Her name is Whisper, sir," Silver said instead "and… she's a wolf".

"Maybe I could explain a bit more but… with a bit of space?" Tangle asked for permission with a nervous smile trying to convince him. The Director looked at her and back at Whisper and he was going to allow a chat with the lemur until a curious shot of energy came from Whisper's wispon to the surprise of everyone.

It was a wisp of course, Cube, to be more precise, and it just decided to stand directly in front of Harvey floating around and talking in its language with eyes that weren't those from a begging puppy but weren't also demanding, they were just cute and friendly eyes. After the lil' alien made its point –whatever that was-, he returned to the place he came from like if it wasn't a big deal.

"Wow!" said Larry with Silver just being in awe.

"What was that?" Harvey asked. Whisper quietly tapped the wispon inviting all her companions to come and so they did with all of them but cube rushing to give Tangle a group-hug.

"Aw! I also missed you!" she said.

"Interesting," added the owl "My name is Harvey Who and I am the director of this team, I believe we can make introductions right now".

"Wait!" Silver intervened "Shouldn't we wait for the whole team to be here?"

"The King and the Queens are on a side mission keeping an eye to one of our targets'… erratic movements".

"Then what about Shard- um, Jack?"

"I've already told you, he's unavailable".

"But where is he?" added Tangle still with the wisps around her "Isn't he like part of our team?" Larry agreed with her, they hadn't seen him in a while

Harvey painfully accepted their request but with a bit of sorrow kindly ordering Whisper and his wisps to stay behind for a second leading the rest to another room… showing them what they asked to see but definitely they least they wanted to see. As Shard the Metal Sonic was in a bed half-broken in the middle of a repair.

A chapter a bit shorter than others… this time is okay, I needed it

I assume some of you readers may not know who this guy is, or maybe you do, so... this will be the last time in these A/N's where I'll redirect you to my tie-in fic 'Secret Tangle' that explains Tangle's misadventures.

But don't worry about it if you don't want to read it as I'll be explaining everything in the next chapter anyway, until then… See you soon!