Sooner than usual? Maybe but there are some characters we haven't seen in a while [as always], let's see how they're going.
The Digital World. Home of no one and yet the place Nicole went back to the most, after all, she was at the end of the day, artificial intelligence and made entirely out of coding, it was understandable that this plane of existence was where she felt the most comfortable at and despite the similarities, the more she studied this new world, the more she was fascinated by it. But right now she wasn't here for herself, her counterpart from this world explained the main situation, a situation that wasn't supposed to be shared: A secret team that Prime Nicole helped to create, one of the members, Shard the Metal Sonic, a former enemy, a previous of Metal Sonic now reformed for good purposes.
However, after a fight with the real deal of Metal Sonic, Shard had suffered some damage, some serious damage, with his life force now on the line, Prime Nicole didn't ask for help but it was impossible to deny the offer her counterpart insisted on. So now, here she was in the digital world on her own, skimming her attention through three translucent screens all of which had the history of Shard, information, and data about the robot she needed, she went like this for several minutes until she finally put the screens away by swiping them and waiting, anticipating something to see if it had worked.
And slowly but surely, it was working, a materialization of Shard, lying on the ground with his black and yellow paint looking as if he was never involved in any physical fight—more anticipation. Nicole reached out to him only to be startled by Shard himself who opened his eyes and stood up so sharply that he would be gasping if he had the lungs to do so. Instead, he just looked all around him trying to get a grasp of where he was and once he did, he felt quite a sense of relief as he was greatly familiar with the digital world as well.
"Hello?" said Nicole trying to break him out of his trance "Shard, right? Are you feeling alright?"
"Nicole?" he asked, still trying to understand the surroundings "Woah, you look… dazzling in that dress, not that you didn't before-".
"Thank you, although I'm not the Nicole you're used to. I am from another dimension, I currently managed to bring you into the Digital World using… what remains of that gem in your chest".
"Wh… what?" he said, not processing these rapid pieces of information so Nicole gladly elaborated.
"The Nicole you're probably looking for is busy at the moment, actually, we all are kind of busy, but she should be joining us soon. Right now, your physical form is still at Secret HQ and still in great damage, what I did here is only temporary and… tough to achieve".
"Great damage-? Metal Sonic-! Our fight!" he said, finally piecing it together.
"Good that you remember some".
"And, you say that my physical form… Are you implying that-".
"Not yet," she cut off, leaving the moment in silence as Shard slowly processed this information.
"And you say this is temporary?" he said, asking for confirmation
"Very likely".
"And that Nicole would arrive shortly?"
"Yes, Shard?" said Nicole, but not the one he was currently talking to, another voice that surprised the robot from behind "Need anything?"
And that was the Nicole Shard was familiar with, purple dress and all, the sight of her was enough for him to crack a smile.
"Hey," he began to say as he slowly approached the lynx "You are the true Nicole, right?"
"I don't think there is a true Nicole here, but yes, I am the one you know, and… your body can be recovered, however, we fear that you would go back to zero, start completely from scratch".
Naturally, Shard lowered his head understanding the situation before raising it again now with a challenging smile.
"If this is temporary then we shouldn't be wasting our time-... Care to play a round of chess?" he said while holding out an inviting hand for Nicole to grab which she did with a smile and materializing a chess board all set and ready to play.
Archie Nicole was on the sidelines now with curiosity, a friendly chess match felt out of nowhere but was welcomed. She decided to bring back the holo-screens from before, any good game of chess requires a good analysis and the match was certainly gonna be an interesting one–Nicole played as your usual player, while Shard felt more like a kid playing with toys, for him, it wasn't a match, it was a straight-up battle. Archie found it amusing, hilarious even, how serious and exciting it was.
"What was that?!" said Shard after a bishop had come out of nowhere.
"It was always there, you know" Nicole explained as if it was evident to which Shard replied by blowing up said bishop "You know… if you keep doing that then you take the stakes out of chess".
"I would say I'm adding to it! Your turn!".
Nicole chuckled before smirking, trapping the king inside green cubes, an iconic move she implemented whenever Shard got overboard.
"Checkmate," she said with Shard's expression showing that the rules in chess do, in fact, lose their stake.
"Hmph, I didn't want to play chess anyway".
"Then what did you want to do?"
"I believe it's better if we leave the chess for now," Archie Nicole interrupted. "I wouldn't want to push this, and the results were… positive," she finished with a smile.
Prime Nicole agreed with a light smile but Shard looked sad and understandably so, the information both Nicoles had given him did not look pretty, and he still wasn't sure what was gonna happen, that part about losing the memories didn't sound pretty but deep down he trusted everyone around him that everything would end up fine, there was more stuff that he wanted to say to Nicole but maybe this wasn't the right time. He gave a salute with a cheeky smile indicating he was ready and with that, he vanished from the Digital World as quickly as he came in.
The two lynxes stood there in silence letting the situation settle in before Archie Nicole broke it.
"A chess match," she said as an observation. "It was quite unexpected but I did enjoy it, I'm assuming you two enjoyed it more".
"Well, watching a chess match between two AIs sure can be fun, especially with the rules he makes".
A light chuckle from both was followed by another period of silence.
"You know… the city, New Mobotropolis, right?" Archie pointed again.
"Yeah?"
"I had assumed you built it".
"I did build it" she stated.
"You are the city," Archie said in realization with her counterpart lowering her head.
"I'm not- it's- I mean, you're right but it's a bit more complicated than that and… sometimes I wish I wasn't".
"What do you mean? I find it quite impressive".
"It is, truly, but it does come with certain responsibilities, some of which you can't control".
Another pause.
"I see," Archie said after carefully choosing her words "You know, I also found my evolution fascinating at first but this form I made for myself didn't come from me, it is a mix of artificial intelligence and the body of a young girl, his father, and my creator… who tried to preserve the life of his daughter and it worked… somewhat. It does linger in my mind from time to time but the emotions are still hard to define properly".
"They are," Prime replied after carefully listening to the story "New Mobotropolis is the result of years of experience with the nanites but when you leave control of the entire city to a computer, all it takes is the right enemy to turn that against you… I was afraid of what a Nicole from another dimension in an unstable fabric of reality could do, that's why I didn't want you to interact with it too much, but… feel free to explore".
Archie smiled.
"Shard will be okay," she said, "Besides, I'm not the only one who's helping".
Whisper didn't understand much of this world, what was happening, why was it happening nor she had been where the major stuff was happening, right now, she was sitting next to a wall watching as Larry Lynx was warming up to the wisps, they were indeed having fun, and it was a cute sight to see. She decided to stay behind while Tangle would catch up with their Sonic among the many that were walking around. So now she was with this team simply because both Tangle and Silver were in it, it didn't matter that this Silver was completely different, it was still nice to have him around.
Speaking of Silver, he approached and sat next to her which she gladly allowed.
"Hey," said Silver trying to start a conversation "Enjoying the team? I hope we haven't come off as… I don't know- not good".
"It's fine," she said straightforwardly as usual.
Silver waited to see if she was going to elaborate on that leading to a weird pause so he resumed, this time a bit more hesitant.
"You know… I was wondering -since I don't think he came with you-. the Silver you know, how is he? How did you guys meet?" it was clear that he was nervous in asking that
"A brave hero, we've fought side by side before".
"Oh, I see… it's not so different, although we haven't really fought together yet".
More silence.
"And he's from the future as well?"
"He is. Always trying to save it".
That little fact hit him like a truck, this could only mean that in the vast world of the multiverse and dimensions, there was an alternate Silver that was trying to achieve the same thing that he was and this was the answer he was trying to get at, he was wondering if all these different Sonics and friends meant that the possibility of another Silver who did manage to complete that one 'saving the future' mission —that's even if he had the mission in the first place—. It was the 'always trying to save it' line that scared the hedgehog, because it implied repetition, and repetition was something that he had done a lot and failed miserably each time.
Whisper could notice that Silver looked worried and thoughtful but before she could inquire about anything, Larry called out to her.
"Do they have a name?" he asked with curiosity about the wisps.
"Just the color".
"Oh, well that's easy to remember… and you say they give you energy?"
"Temporarily".
None of them said anything for a while, Larry decided to sit next to Silver to rest after appreciating the wisps more than enough with the little aliens floating and flying around as they wished when Prime Nicole came out from a room.
"Whisper… right?" she called out with a smile "You should bring your friends in".
Whisper obeyed, not knowing what to expect, her companions gladly following into the room where Shard was lying down on a table surrounded by Elias, Harvey Who, and Prime Nicole carrying a handheld with her; for Whisper, it looked like a very important meeting of some kind but she remained composed nonetheless.
"Hello, Miss Whisper," the imposing owl greeted, "I've understood that you've decided to help us?"
"Your friends are fascinating, truly," Prime Nicole resumed "We managed to build a capsule that could use its power according to what you and Tangle described to us but we're not familiar with them so… we're not so sure of what might happen".
The wolf looked at the lifeless body of the robot for the first time and looked back at the wisps who decided to take a closer look themselves, inspecting the capsule that was inserted in Shard's chest that looked like it would be the piece that would use the wisps' power. In fact, it looked familiar, the five little aliens began discussing among themselves in their gibberish that no one could understand but their tone was joyful and Cyan approached Whisper energetically nodding. They were ready for it. Well, not all of them since it only required one and it was Cyan who was up for the brave task.
So without wasting any minutes they started, Prime Nicole instructed to wait for the signal because unseen to everyone, Archie Nicole also had a role in this from the Digital World using the nanites and Shard's remaining power gem to her advantage, and the only thing that was missing was a little juice, a juice that would come in the form of the cyan wisp who was ready to enter the capsule and when he did the entire body of the robot began to light up in crystal blue. Maybe too much light.
Take it out. Prime Nicole read on the screen of the handheld, it was her counterpart communicating with her and in return, she communicated it to the group.
"Alright, that's enough," she said but nothing happened except for the blue light to intensify leading to Whisper to call out without a response, it was the light itself that shut down on its ownand the room went quiet for a second… Until the wisp left the capsule in the robot's chest feeling dizzy but quickly shrugging it off before falling into Whisper's embrace, waiting in anticipation, everyone holding their breaths for something to happen, anything… but no difference was seen and the realization of the situation was quickly setting in… That was until Shard's eyes opened instantly and the robot jolted upwards from the table he was in faster than anyone could register it. However, it was a harsh awakening given that he even activated his cannon and pointed at everyone in the room. If he had any sort of lungs he would probably be gasping for air.
"Elias?" he said finally calming down from the sudden rush with the chipmunk awkwardly waving at him "Director… and you- I don't think we've met before," he said to Whisper with her just staring unsure of how to react to the situation, but whatever they did had worked.
"She's the… newest addition," Nicole explained "Are you… feeling okay?"
"Have I ever! Feels like every circuit of my body has been juiced up to the max!" he said jumping down from the bed "Where's the rest of the team though?"
"They're right outside that door," said Elias who was also happy to see him back on his feet "And they're waiting for you".
-X-
After lots of hugs and 'welcome back's between the reunified team with Larry and Silver, Whisper couldn't help but smile at the sight of it all, she wasn't familiar with any of these people other than Silver and obviously, Tangle but the fact that she played part in what was unfolding in front of her was a nice feeling, albeit a bit scary on the procedure. As she was witnessing this, the twin wolves, Leeta and Lyco approached.
"Whisper, right?" said Leeta "Since I guess you're part of this team now, we both have made something for you".
"So if you'd like to come with us" finished Lyco with Whisper following them unsure as to what to expect.
-X-
"Hey, where's Tangle?" asked Shard after he realized that the group was missing one member.
"Oh, right," said Larry "She's outside talking to the other Sonic".
"Other Sonic…?" It was clear that Shard required a recap of everything that had happened while he was sleeping, it would definitely come in handy. But the good thing was that the Secret Freedom Fighters were complete once again, and in good timing as well, because they were about to need all the unity they could get.
Another chapter is finished, this one came a bit faster didn't it? I don't have much to say in this author's note other than I'm absolutely excited to write Shard, not much to feature in this chapter regarding the lovable Metal Sonic but still…
Anyways, see you soon!