Note: The beta-reads from Pybro2 just keep coming.

The trio of Amy, Lanolin, and Sonic (stuck in Tangle's body) were…Unsure how to handle the Whisper that stood before them. Lanolin decided to rip the band-aid off and answer, "You are Whisper."

Whisper raised an eyebrow, "Whisper? What kind of dumb name is that?"

Amy knew that required a follow-up question, "Weird way to talk about your own name."

Sonic giggled, "It is on the nose, isn't it, though which of ours isn't?"

Whisper closed her eyes, "This has to be a bad dream! There is no way I wound up like that blue idiot!"

Sonic put the pieces together and did not let the insult go unnoticed, Oh…It's payback time! Sonic ran over to 'Whisper' and gave the most pretend loving hug imaginable, tail hug included, "Oh, 'Whisper' my dearest super mega hyper ultra plus bestest friend in the whole world, I'm so glad you're okay!"

'Whisper' was annoyed, "...What are you doing?"

Sonic feigned ignorance, "Giving you a totally normal platonic hug like friends do."

Lanolin was also glaring in annoyance, "Sonic, why are you-?"

That caused the wolf's eyes to go wide in horror, So this isn't a dream… 'Her' eyes then went bloodshot in the indescribable rage 'she' felt towards the hedgehog in a lemur's body. "YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!"

Sonic gave a smug look of satisfaction, "You're so cute when you're angry."

'She' got out of bed and ranted, "We've lost our bodies and you're treating this like a joke?! Can't you take this seriously for 1 second?!"

That caught the attention of the actual girls in the room, "What?!" They shouted.

Sonic finally explained his conclusion smugly, "Girls, say hello to Shadow the Wolf."

Shadow gave a grumble before nodding and glaring at Sonic, "Are you done?"

Sonic used the tail to pat Shadow's current head, "There there, who's a good girl?"

The anger on Shadow's face was reaching the point of fully displaying Whisper's wolf teeth. Sonic ignored the warning, continuing to pet 'her' head, "Oh yes you are, oh yes you a-"

Shadow had quite enough and bit the tail, causing Sonic to go wide-eyed in the intense pain. Sonic asked, "What was that for?"

Shadow bluntly answered, "I'm not your dog!" The two looked ready to fight.

Lanolin then used the bell wispon to harmlessly create electricity to get the swapped duo's attention, sighing, "And I thought Tangle and Whisper were a handful, at least they're friends."

Sonic, smirked super smugly, "What do you mean? We do everything together too. Take down evil lizards, robots, and gods together; get infected together; and now…" He hugged the hedgehog in a wolf's body and did the heart shape behind them, "…body-swapped together."

Shadow glared to the side again, "More like dragged into your messes."

Sonic smiled smugly yet again, "Look at us, bickering like a lesbian couple."

Shadow glared at him again, "You disgust me."

Amy then glared at Sonic, "I didn't know you decided to be a girl, Sonic."

That caused Sonic to go bright red in the face, Shadow smirking at the remark, "It's called a joke, Amy."

Lanolin built on her point, "You think Shadow wants this any more than you Sonic?"

Sonic shrugged the implication, "No. But he's a stick in the mud. Could learn to take a joke or two."

Shadow took the chance to clap back, "Jokes are supposed to be funny."

Amy delivered further retribution, "I agree with Shadow. What exactly is so funny about this?"

Sonic was suddenly on the back foot, "Girls, come on. You're taking this too seriously."

Lanolin agreed with Amy, "Are we? Why'd this happen?"

Sonic still wasn't quite done, "Maybe because they're so similar?"

Shadow gave a raised-eyebrow glare, "What?"

Sonic continued, "You're both edgelords, have tragic backstories, an obsession with guns, and are lone wolves. You practically were Whisper already!"

Amy gave her own smug smirk, reminding Sonic, "Your shared brain cell with Tangle turned you into her."

That cut Sonic's ego deeply enough to faint. Lanolin gave Amy a fistbump, saying, "Well, with 'Male Tangle' silenced, how did this happen?"

Shadow somehow looked even angrier than earlier as he explained, "I was fighting that…self-proclaimed 'True Sonic' when I was suddenly zapped unconscious. Then I woke up here."

Sonic, even with his bruised ego, was insulted, "The nerve."

Shadow surprisingly nodded, "Agreed, he's even more annoying than you…'Tangle'."

Sonic was annoyed at being referred to by his current body's owner, but insisted, "Even Tangle's more 'Sonic' than he'll ever be."

Lanolin gave a frustrated glare at them both, "You won't stop sniping at each other, huh? But, we'll need to make the most of our unfortunate situation. Shadow, do you know how to use a wispon?"

Shadow gave a neutral expression as he pulled it out, "No, but I've used guns."

Amy was puzzled at the thought, "Oh, yeah…Why would Eggman do this?"

They thought about it. Nothing was coming to mind.

Then the wisps took action. As they flew out of Whisper's cloak, Shadow was caught off-guard, "Right, her companion wisps." Two of them grabbed Whisper's nearby mask and were about to put it on Shadow, but he dismissed the idea, "I'm not wearing that mask."

The Pink Wisp pointed at the Wispon and then did a body language no with its tentacles. Shadow sighed, "Great. I love when my ammunition talks back."

The 5 wisps and Maggie glared daggers at the hedgehog stuck in their friend's body. Lanolin noted, "The wisps are our friends. Show them respect."

Sonic stood up and poked fun at him, "You've used an Omochao gun. They can't be more annoying than that."

Shadow glared at Sonic for the umpteenth time, "Don't remind me."

Lanolin whispered to Sonic, "Seriously, they make those?"

Sonic nodded, "Mhhmm."

Shadow reluctantly put on the mask, immediately, he understood the previous gibberish coming from the wisps. The orange wisp spoke, "Finally. We can talk."

Shadow's expressions were now hidden from sight, but he spoke with a frown, "Talk then."

The cyan wisp spoke, "We suspect why Eggman did this to you."

Pink wisp asked, "That's Whisper's darkest secret."

Rocket agreed with Cyan, "That's why he needs to know."

Blue wisp also agreed, "I'm not one for fighting, but I don't think we have much of a choice."

Green further noted, "I'd want to know if I was abused as a weapon too."

That caught Shadow's attention, "...What?"

The other three were watching, Sonic asking Lanolin, "You didn't tell us about this…"

Lanolin scratched her head. "I didn't know either."

The wisps told Shadow what day to set the playback on the mask. He saw the events of Whisper's worst day. He was unsure what the deal with these others were until he saw them wearing similar masks to Whisper's. He was a little annoyed to be watching this…Until he saw the Shadow Androids killing what he presumed were her friends.

When he took off the mask, even his peak annoyance at Sonic's earlier jokes were a drop in the bucket compared to the sheer, visceral rage Shadow now felt towards Eggman. "He will pay!" He started to walk out of the room. But the wisps stopped him, so he reluctantly wore the mask again, "Why do you insist on this?"

The Green Wisp explained, "Lanolin's our only friend left."

Pink nodded, "We've lost enough friends, we don't want to be separated from another."

The wisps all glared at the former hedgehog, he grimaced as he took the mask off again, "Fine."

Sonic gave a confident grin, "So you'll stick with us?"

Shadow bluntly answered, "No. I have a counter offer. So, your name is Lanolin, correct?"

Lanolin gave a glare, "Yes."

Shadow made his offer, sticking out his right hand, "How about you join my team?"

Lanolin put arms on her hips, "And why would I do that?"

Shadow folded his arms, "I can tell you're frustrated. Sonic's goody-goody behavior lost you your teammates. Your friends. Come with us, and we'll do what's needed to get them back."

Lanolin thought hard about it before coming to her conclusion, "No."

Shadow glared with annoyance, "Why?"

Lanolin explained, "I can tell you're sincere. But I'm not leaving them."

Shadow sneared at her, "Do you really enjoy Sonic's company that much?"

Lanolin admitted, "I agree he's annoying, somehow even more than Tangle." Sonic gave his own insulted glare at Lanolin, "But, his friends will come through. And who knows what Eggman wants with your body, Shadow. Face it, if you and Sonic want to be yourselves again, we need to work together."

Shadow was annoyed but having little choice, since he's otherwise powerless without the wisps, reluctantly agreed, "...You have until tomorrow night."

Sonic then gave a hug, "Oh, Shadow, we'll get along swimmingly, I promise!

Shadow bluntly stated, "Hug me again, and I'm leaving."

Lanolin whispered in Sonic's ear, "Be glad Whisper isn't around. She wouldn't appreciate your parody of her friendship with Tangle."

Sonic suddenly felt horrible, ...That's what I get for not thinking this through!

Shadow then asked, "But, I still need to check-in with GUN." He muttered, "Not looking forward to explaining this…"

Lanolin agreed, "Fine. But I'm coming with you."

The two of them left to go do that. With them gone, Amy mentioned to Sonic, "How about we go check on Tails and Tangle?"

Sonic perked up, "She's still alive?"

Amy smiled, "You know it!" She thought, I don't, but I can tell that's what you needed to hear Sonic.

Sonic smiled, "Then let's get going!"

Tails was hard at work in the lab as the sun was beginning to set. He'd finally found the parts needed to repair and hook up the badly damaged Metal Sonic to his computer. It took hours of patiently soldering Metal Sonic's broken parts off and replacing them with working parts.

Now came the moment of truth as he hooked up the battered robot to his computer. At first, he was a bit disappointed, nothing seemed to be happening. Did it fry Metal Sonic's circuits? He sat there, patiently waiting for something to happen.

Things had not been pleasant for Tangle…Wherever she was. It felt like she was in a dream and would never wake up. But also the most boring dream imaginable. No buildings, no ground, nothing, not even her own hands or Sonic's hands. She didn't know how long it had been since she'd been taken to that meteor by Sonic's evil robotic duplicate. She just hoped she wasn't dead.

That was when suddenly, some light came in. it was moving in 90 degree angles, finally allowing her to see her own hand. To her surprise, it was her hand. Not Sonic's hand, not Metal Sonic's hand, her hand. She tried to speak, and it worked, "Where am I?"

She saw more strands of light entering, lighting up where she was more and more until it was mostly white but with the square patterns everywhere. She decided, "I need to see where they're coming from!" She walked down the corridor, finding it all ended in a small point where all this was coming from. Curiosity got the better of the Lemur, "What does this do?!" She put her hand on it, and suddenly, she felt herself getting sucked into it. She was terrified, "Help! What's it doing to me?!" She was fully absorbed into it, going wherever it led to.

She popped out into a very different place. What she saw, she struggled to comprehend. She still didn't feel quite right…In fact, she couldn't quite describe what she was feeling. But, undeterred and finally happy to be free again, she started slingshotting between anything she could see. They varied from paper looking things, which when she touched one, she suddenly got sucked into them.

After doing one, it looked incredibly barren except for what looked like another…Whatever it was. But, when she touched this one, she got blown back. It was startling, "What was that?!" She then saw a message, "Administrator privileges required." That confused Tangle, "What the heck is an administrator?" She, in her curiosity, touched what appeared to be some paper with notes on it. This caused her to enter what appeared to be a paper with a lot of words on it.

She read the words, "Notes about robotics. First law of robo-Boring. Let's see what else is here!" She ran around, accidentally moving letters and words around in the process. However, then she felt her tail get grabbed briefly. "Oh that feels weird. But, can I-?" She then saw a bunch of new text appear where she was about to step. She took a moment to get to a good angle to read it, and it said, "Tangle! This is Tails. I'm so glad you're alive. I've got something I think you'd like to try!"

She gave a tail-thumbs up…Oh did she miss being able to do that! Shortly after this, She saw a portal open right next to her. She wasn't sure what happened, but she now could see Tails' Lab, and Tails himself.

On Tails' side, he'd finally seen something pop up on his screen, and it resembled a pixelated Tangle. He didn't want to startle the Lemur, so he prepped a text document to write up text for her to see later when he finds the chance. As he did that, he wasn't sure where the Lemur disappeared to, only seeing random files appear on screen.

Tails did a facepalm thinking, The last thing my computer needs is Tangle making a mess of my files! He selected the opened document, which was his notes he'd jotted down learning about robotics. They were looking increasingly messy as the pixelated Tangle had made her way down the document. Tails accidentally clicked on her and then clicked in front of her, chose paste, telling her "Tangle! This is Tails. I'm so glad you're alive. I've got something I think you'd like to try!" After this, he let her enter his projector.

It took a moment, but in front of him, Tangle appeared. She looked just like her normal self, right down to the shoes and outfit. She was taking in what was going on, looking at Tails, her hands, her shoes, and then looked behind her, once again seeing her tail. She gave it a big hug, "Oh, I missed you so much! And I sound like myself! Tails this is great!"

Tails, taking in the giddy digital Lemur now standing before him, asked, "Uh, Tangle, can you hear me?"

Tangle heard Tails' voice, looking towards him, "Yeah? What is this incredible doohicky?"

Tails explained, "It's my projector technology. I developed it for a potential AI assistant. You're the first one I've gotten to test it with."

Tangle raised an eyebrow, "AI? What does that mean again?"

Tails dodged the question, knowing it could invite an existential crisis in his friend. Something about that felt wrong, she really had been the best adoptive sibling he could have asked for in Sonic's absence. In that thought, he spoke, "Doesn't matter, big sis. I'm just glad you're alive."

That got Tangle to glow, "Did you just call me 'big sis'?"

Tails smiled, "I did. How are you feeling?"

Tangle took a moment to ponder it, "Weird. Still, better than a black void." She then ran over to hug the young fox. To his surprise, this worked, "Oh, you even made me tangible. That's so cool, Tails!"

Tails dumbstruck, thinking in his head, Did I? I don't remember doing that…Oh wait, it must have been when I was looking to set up a way to VR into the lab when away. Yeah…I remember now… He tried to explain in a less technical way, "I was experimenting with a way to work in my lab from far away with nanomachines. But, glad you can use it."

Then, Tangle opened the door. She tried to run outside, only to hit a virtual wall. "Why can't I leave?"

Tails awkwardly smiled, "It can only have so much range, sorry."

Tangle sighed, "Oh well…" She walked back inside, testing the limits of her projected form for the next few minutes. Her tail could do most of what her real body could besides limitlessly stretching. Then she tried something else: she called upon her new memories of Sonic's body and form, trying to take that form instead. It worked, "I can even control my digital form." She then thought about Sonic's voice, and tried speaking with it, "Can I sound like Sonic Too…I can! Neat!"

Tails raised an eyebrow, "And you're doing that because?"

Tangle shrugged, returning to her normal Lemur form, "No reason. Just goofing off."

Then a knock on the door came. Tails went to answer it, expecting Amy and or Sonic. Sure enough it was, Sonic asking, "Heya Tails, where is Tangle?"

Tails was glad to be able to answer that, "Good timing, it's getting late. I'll show you, come on in!"

As they walked in, Amy waved at Tangle, "Hi Tangle!" Then she had to do a double take, "Wait…Tangle?!"

Sonic was unperturbed, "Tangle, I'm so glad you're alive."

Tangle responded, giving a sheepish grin, "I am too."

Sonic noticed that Tangle was somehow speaking with her own voice again…The voice he was stuck with…He ranted, "She gets her voice back while I'm stuck with it? How is that fair?"

Tails gave a concerned grin, but Tangle just gleefully gushed, "Isn't it great? It's like we're twins now!" She then hugged her original body, "I've always wanted a twin sister!"

Sonic was internally screaming at this, also being completely beyond belief that this…whatever it was had made her tangible too. But, Tangle's sheer giddy charm made it hard to scold her so all Sonic could manage was, "...Tangle, you say that again, I will scream."

Tangle regretfully released herself from her grip, "Sorry Sonic."

Sonic gave a relieved smile, "I'm happy you're okay."

Tangle then wondered, "What happened to everyone else?"

Amy took in a deep breath, "Silver was with Jewel and Lanolin; Mighty, Ray, and Sticks split up with us; and Shadow and Lanolin went to check in with GUN."

Tangle noticed one name was conspicuously absent from that list, She asked, "Where is Whisper?"

Sonic gave a fake grin, "She's with Lanolin."

Amy struck down his attempted lie, "Only in body. She got swapped with Shadow."

Tangle took a moment to process that, "That Shadow?" Amy and a guilty looking Sonic nodded.

Whisper's dream had been one of Shadow Androids constantly hunting her down. Not the first time, and not pleasant, but she'd had them before more times than she could count. She just dismissed it as another bad dream. But, then she woke up.

She could immediately tell something wasn't right. She couldn't feel her ponytail, her actual tail, or even clothes. She looked at her hands, seeing white gloves and rings on them with black and red highlight fur above it. That sight set off alarm bells. But, she needed to look for a mirror, finding it, "No…This can't be happening!"

In her cell, she saw her fallen comrades. "You failed us!" "We're dead because of you!" "How could you replace us?!"

Part of her knew these couldn't possibly be her friends, but it was getting silenced by a panic attack triggering. She tried to run to a corner, but the rocket shoes triggered, sending her into the wall painfully. This left her on the ground in agonizing physical and emotional pain, she was unsure which was keeping her down now.

All she knew was that the visions refused to stop, haunting her as she was stuck in this nightmare of a cell and body that ensured the memory of her fallen teammates remained on her mind. Other parts of her did her best to remind her of her current team, which undoubtedly needed her more than ever. But, this only compounded her guilt, leaving her feeling even worse for failing to get over it so she could save them.

Eggman was watching the prison cell from behind a screen. He smiled gleefully at the events unfolding, "Ohohoho, this is working even better than intended."

Cubot replied, "I don't get it."

Orbot explained, "That is one sad looking hedgehog."

Eggman was annoyed, "Oh, I didn't tell you, did I? That's Shadow's body, but trapped in it is that annoyingly persistent wolf."

Cubot scratched his flat head, "Why would you do that?"

Eggman pushed up his glasses, "The Shadow androids killed her original team. I've also noticed in footage of her that she always looks uncomfortable seeing Shadow. Well…Now she has no choice!"

Orbot nodded, "So you're using her trauma to keep her, and Shadow's powers, neutralized. Clever move, boss."

Then came a female voice, "Father?"

Eggman turned around, "Oh, hey there Sage. What brings you here?"

She explained, "I've been consulting our databases on Shadow, and I noticed he's used guns. Was it really a good idea to trap him in the body of the Variable Wispon user?"

Eggman gave an amused response, "Hahahahaha, That was the point!"

Sage was unsure, "That does not compute, father."

Eggman sighed, "That hedgehog is a metaphorical lone wolf who prefers to rely on his own strength. Now he's a literal wolf and with the Variable Wispon…"

Sage followed, "He'll be forced to rely on the wisps. I see Father. Anything else you need from me?"

Eggman shook his head, "Nothing you aren't doing already." Sage nodded, leaving.

As she left, Cubot asked, "How come we can't call you 'father'?"

Orbot agreed, "I agree with Cubot, why not?"

Eggman shrugged, "Don't do enough for me. Step it up and maybe I'll respect you!"

Cubot mused, "Dag nabbit. How could we do that?"

Orbot offered, "If Metal Sonic could steal Sonic's body, what about if I took Shadow's body?"

Eggman laughed at the thought, "Did you see what happened to Metal Sonic's body? It was reduced into a dysfunctional pile of junk. It's a miracle it let him take control of Sonic's body. What makes you think you could do better, let alone wield Shadow's powers?"

Orbot sighed, "Understood…boss." The two robots left the room depressed.

Eggman then decided it was time to consult with 'Sonic', calling him up. He was left waiting for about 20 minutes before his new loyal hedgehog picked up, "Sonic the Hedgehog speaking."

Eggman asked, "You kept me waiting long enough. You'd better have a good reason!"

'Sonic' answered, "Duh. I was stealing a chaos emerald! You wouldn't believe how tight the security is in that GUN base. Not that it could ever stop me!"

Eggman smiled, "Excellent work Sonic! Keep it up!" Eggman then laid back in his chair to relax.