No fancy introduction this time, just enjoy the chapter and sorry for the delay

"Wh- what happened?" said Larry after a long pause of shock.

"It was against Metal Sonic," explained the Director "He was the only one available and we severely underestimated him, it seems that he got some upgrades".

"Well, can't we repair him?" said Tangle hiding the bit of sadness she had, after all there was always a solution with situations like this "Don't we have an artificial intelligence on our side?"

"What about Uncle Chuck?" Larry added a suggestion.

"I'm afraid Nicole can't do much about this situation and the solution given by Charles is least than favorable…"

"Does Elias know about this?" interrupted Silver.

"I was waiting for the right moment to tell you about it and see if we could come up with a way to save him but I'm afraid I cannot wait any longer".

"What about the solution?"

Harvey sighed.

"It's a complete reboot of his systems".

-X-

Whisper was waiting where she was told to with all her wisps out just checking the place and unlike many people would, she wasn't touching anything, the place was pretty amazing to say the least and it looked so organized and so… secret. Curious, this was a team hidden from the rest of the ordinary people but doing a huge amount of help from the shadows… It was nostalgic for her of course but it didn't change her mood, in fact it was pretty odd that it was Tangle's turn to play the 'from-the-shadows' role and she wondered how she was handling it.

Suddenly, the door opened and both Larry and Tangle came out.

"Are you sure there's nothing else?" asked Tangle "You've been in this world longer than me, are you sure that-".

"I don't know… I don't know how this kind of stuff works" the lynx replied.

Tangle looked away in disappointment spotting Whisper remembering that she was, in fact, there.

"Everything okay?" the wolf asked.

"Maybe..? I don't-," she stopped for a second searching the way to explain it to her "You see, it looks like this world has its own hidden team that makes secret missions… hooray!"

"How long have you been here?"

"A week or so, where were you? We never found anything about you until like a day ago, why?"

"I've only been here for that time".

A face of confusion appeared on Tangle's face.

"Hehe, what do you mean by that?" she asked keeping a playful tone.

"My stay in this place. It hasn't been as much as yours".

"So you're saying that you appeared here just a few days ago which is not the same amount of time Tangle has been because she's been with us the whole time and that's why we couldn't find you?" said Larry trying to put the pieces together "Why did that happen?"

"We went through that portal at the same time, right?" it was clear that none of them understood the situation.

"You've been with them for this whole time" Whisper said as a question-statement.

"Yeah, they have been keeping me busy!" she said bringing Larry in for an arm-hug "This little fella, me, another Silver and-… did you know that this world managed to make Metal Sonic a good guy? You wouldn't even believe he used to be bad-!"

-X-

"You can't solve this either Silver".

"But this can't be the only way! Can't you save his memory or something?"

"The gem in his chest, the damage in it was too much during the battle, we can do something about it but we cannot save the memory, we would have already done it if it was possible".

Silver was frustrated, he knew the director was right but he also didn't want to accept this as Shard's fate. He stood there for quite a while thinking before brutally changing the topic trying to focus on something else.

"What are you gonna do about our guest?"

"The wolf? I would like of other-'worlders' to stop arriving into my base without an invitation but we might have to keep her as well just not as an official member, we'll report Nicole about this… although that little creature was interesting. You can continue with your mission or await for a new one".

"Wait," the hedgehog remembered something "Something happened on my way to the Death Egg… uh, a light happened, I woke up somewhere else and Whisper was there…"

Harvey obviously knew he wasn't lying but he didn't had an answer either.

"Take care of our visitor, I'll handle Shard".

Having no other option, Silver left the room and into the lobby to be met with Tangle and Whisper near a hologram and Larry seeming to be getting along with the wisps.

"Um, Whisper-" he called.

"Oh, Ace," Tangle ironically called his code name shutting off the hologram "Anything else?"

"Yeah, um- she's staying".

"Yes!" she said excited deeply hugging her friend.

"But she's not in the team" Silver quickly interrupted.

"Aw… knew it, what happened? Not enough card names?" she said sassily "But it doesn't matter… I think there's a solution… for Shard".

This statement light up Silver's eyes but right after that, the remaining members of the team had arrived, Elias Acorn and the wolf twins Leeta & Lyco.

In the Death Egg, the trio of Sally, Bunnie and Antoine –and T-Pup- was in quite a pickle, the ship had set sailed with them on board and they didn't had a clue if someone was aware of their presence or not, if it was the former then it was dangerous since it could be a setup of some sort but for now they were hoping that no one knew they were there. Their situation at the moment was that Sally had retrieved some data that wasn't really worth it since at the end; the target they were looking for were in the Death Egg itself and that was distressing enough let alone adding the fact that they were completely lost.

The trio exchanged a few ideas around like punching their way out or communicating via T-Pup which both of them were shot down by Sally indicating that the former was dangerous because they were still in the air and the latter was risky because no one knew if T-Pup on T-Pup communication would cause the same thing as physical contact. So the only option was T-Pup sharing the info he got about the route when Sally sent him for a scout a few minutes ago, and he hadn't returned so that was worrying, maybe they should have followed him, in fact, why didn't they do that in the first place, it's not like they were busy doing another task.

It didn't matter because the little robot had returned to the happiness of everyone and he didn't seem in such a bad state either.

"Glad to see you again!" said Sally grabbing the pup in mid-air and placing it down "Got anything for us!"

A happy yelp indicated that, yes, there were some good news and him beginning to fly away meant that he wanted to be followed and so they did… while fully expecting something to jump directly in front of them.

-X-

"Sal, where a' we headin' next?" Bunnie asked, referring to after they had left the Death Egg. There were a few seconds of silence but Sally ultimately replied.

"Huh, I hadn't really thought that far ahead… Maybe we should reuniting with the rest would be the best".

The trio kept walking for about a minute until T-Pup barked at a room that looked the exact type of room they were looking for, pretty fancy but not too detailed, and six escape pods all around in fact, Sally recognized it pretty well realizing that there weren't any notable differences.

"I knew it was around here. Good job buddy!" she said congratulating T-Pup.

"Different enough… but still familiar…" noted Antoine.

"Very well," Sally proceeded "Take your pick, Antoine, you can carry T-Pup and Bunnie… keep the data we gathered, not that we need it now but we may find something useful after all".

They opened the pods; Antoine and Bunnie got in, Sally was just figuring out the buttons but they were more than ready to go. Until a loud 'clank' on the metal floor was heard and the scenario they had been expecting to happen, happened. An out-of-nowhere robot ready to strike them down, the catch was that this wasn't any ordinary robot or someone like Metal Sonic.

It was Mecha Sally herself.

No one had seen her before but not like if that was needed to identify her. For just a few seconds they all just stood there with Mecha just standing there but it wasn't until she ignited one of her sabers where one of them acted, and act they did.

Antoine unsheathed his sword and without hesitation launched himself forward engaging in a set of rapid aggressive sword strikes with Mecha simply defending them. Before Sally could even digest what was happening Bunnie had joined the fight with her shooting trying to overwhelm her but Mecha instead kicked Antoine away focusing only on Bunnie and it wasn't easy. The rabbot had quite the arsenal and was ready to use it in this exact scenario, avoiding a hand-on-hand combat was the best approach and that's what she tried by shooting from the air.

Mecha took this chance to also take into the air which given the room they were in, it wasn't much. There was some air battle between them that was interrupted by a sword throw from Antoine, this made Mecha choose to approach at a now sword-less Antoine before being blocked by one of the bracelet-shields from Sally's arm. This, being a full surprise for the robot.

Sally pushed Mecha Sally back, quickly switching from a shield to a sword. Bunnie retrieved Antoine's sword throwing it back to him and the trio took their positions for an all-out attack. A door behind them closed, locking all of them in the room and this caused a split-second distraction among them, that one distraction was all Mecha Sally needed.

With one tackle she sent Antoine away with tremendous force knocking him out directly into one of the pods, one big and precise shot to Bunnie's cannon arm leaving her out of the fight and a slash to Sally that she blocked with her swords as well but the pressure Mecha was applying was greater and greater. And during that moment their stares crossed and the feeling the two of them felt was inexplicable, Mecha Sally had felt something, for a split second she did it but that feeling went away as fast as it came. For Sally it was more complex but what she saw was someone in pain and not a threatening machine.

"You want to be free…" Sally whispered.

Mecha Sally retracted the sword and held the chipmunk firmly by the arms causing the painful shock that happens when two duplicates interact, however Mecha was completely unaffected by it.

"I am free".

Sally was struggling to get out of her grip but it was no use, not only she was being hurt tremendously but Mecha's strength was more than expected and she was not letting go and was willing to cause as much pain as possible

'Mecha Sally, stop what you're doing immediately!' said a radio voice that could only belong to Eggman and for a very slight moment she considered the idea of not obeying and continue to do what she was doing but she ultimately listened and dropped a barely awake Sally to the ground.

"Yes master, I shall continue with the plan" Antoine was in the escape pod and was slowly waking up so Mecha Sally ignited her laser and fired away the capsule from the Death Egg just not in the way that it way it was intended.

Next, she spotted T-Pup who had stayed at one of the pods silently recording everything so now she targeted the pup with her laser but it was Bunnie who stood in the way. Mecha turned off the laser and with no preparation she gave one powerful slash with one of her claws sending her directly into the pod and activating the laser and damaging the capsule, releasing it from the ship as well. The last thing Sally heard as she blacked out was a washed out scream from Bunnie calling out her name

Hey there fellas, took a while but it's here, I'm still learning how to do battle scene so if you see anything that's wrong then don't be afraid to tell me. I hope you're all enjoying the chapter and I'll see you soon!

Also, also, I watched that Sonic Movie 2 trailer and it's fantastic, although this fanfic is still set after the first one ;)