Disclaimer: See first chapter.
Morning
"Yeah! That's why my dad named me 'Mata'. Short for Nekomata!" Mata said, her two tails dancing around her legs. They weren't true two tails, the way her dad's were. Instead it was one tail, split halfway down the middle creating a type of forked tail. Each one was basically prehensile, Whisper noticed.
Sonic let out a small huff. "That was before Blaze told her it meant 'Cat monster'."
"No it doesn't! Bakeneko is 'cat monster'," Violet spoke up. "I remember that."
"How, you were two?" Shadow asked. "I remember everything when I was two, but that was because I'm the ultimate life form."
"Ultimate life form, created being, your pick," Sonic grinned. "Anycase, Vio, Mata, this is Whisper. She's an old Restoration member who...I guess got shunted forward in time. Not that that hasn't happened before, thank you Little Planet, but rather odd that it was only twenty three years."
"Twenty three is plenty long enough," Whisper responded. "It's nice to meet you," she said, turning to the two girls.
"Why do you whisper? Is it because its your name and you feel you have to?" Mata asked, getting up far too close to Whisper for her personal liking.
"Mata, Whisper doesn't like having people so close. Give her some space. She's also meeting you for the first time, so please don't jump in. Her friends, the wisps, are also quite jumpy," Sonic warned.
"Oh. Sorry," Mata said, not looking sorry at all as she took five giant steps back, more than the entire living room. Violet shook her head.
"No. I whisper as that's...just who I am, now," Whisper answered.
Shadow turned to Violet. "You said you've been studying the schematics of the Tornado. Would you be able to work on it, but not fly it?" he asked.
Violet nodded. "Absolutely! I even know the code to get into the hangar!"
"Admittedly, one nine nine two is not the hardest of codes to crack," Sonic cringed. "But...fine. Tomorrow. You both still need to get some sleep in. We'll talk about you working on it, tomorrow," Sonic said, his voice brooking no argument.
Violet grinned wide. "Okay, Mr. Sonic!" she said, speeding out of the room in a way vaguely reminiscent of the fastest thing alive.
"You gave in way too easily. What's your take," Shadow said, glaring at Sonic. Sonic grinned.
"She was just going to do it anyways. She's hitting that age where we're starting to have to use reverse psychology. By allowing her to do this, and just work on it, she's unlikely to want to take it and run with it."
"Vio wouldn't do that!" Mata said, stomping her foot. "She'd listen to what you say. You're her mom and dad, just like Mom and Dad are!"
Amy knelt down next to her. "We know we are, and she knows that too, but she's also old enough to easily remember both your mom and dad, and us. It's not easy for her. And you need your rest too, I know how channeling Uncle Chuck's spirit is hard on you," she said softly.
"I'm not tired though!" Mata retorted, yawning wide a second later. "That wasn't a yawn, you're seeing things!"
"I'm sure it wasn't," Amy agreed, gently pushing Mata back to her room. "Sonic, guest room isn't ready," she murmured as one of their adopted daughters walked back to her room.
"Oh...yeah, you're right. Um, hmm-" Sonic started.
"We'll sleep out here. I'll take a chair, Whisper the couch. This alright?" Shadow asked, turning to Whisper.
Her first instinct was to say that she'd take the more uncomfortable chair, but she'd realized that the couch actually doesn't have all the holes the chair did, which means that it mostly was Amy and the kids that sat there. She nodded a moment later. She could place the wisp's canisters on the other chair too, in case they wanted to come out.
Sonic yawned. "Alright, I'll get some blankets and pillows. How are you going to try to get the mayor to open up Green Hill though? They'd shoot down the Tornado if you left now."
"We'll handle that one, Sonic. Don't ask if you don't want to know," Shadow commanded. Sonic rolled his eyes in a huff, before he grabbed his crutch and hobbled off to another door, filled to the brim with blankets, pillows, toys, and various other things.
Now that things had quieted down, Whisper had the best opportunity she'd had in a long time to really sit down and think. She was like that; she needed time before she could formulate responses. Shadow was being more helpful than he'd ever been before.
Sonic was injured, Amy was a mother, Tails was missing, Blaze was missing, Jewel was back at her museum, and most importantly, Tangle was missing.
Belle was stuck at the Restoration base. What about the others? There had to be others that she hadn't thought about. Lanolin, Silver?
The couch was surprisingly comfortable, Whisper noticed, or it could have been that her back was thanking her for finally letting the variable wispon off of it onto the other chair, with the wisps next to it.
The rain pattered down on the roof, giving a soft soothing sound that Whisper knew from her home. It reminded her of the times that she'd stay up just to watch the rain, a hobby that she still occasionally stuck to, even when camping out in the middle of nowhere with the other New Diamond Cutters. Lanolin thought she was weird for staring at it, and Tangle often bored herself trying to find what it was that Whisper was looking at.
The morning came too soon as Whisper was woken abruptly by a tiny pink hedgehog in her face. She looked like a small Amy, reversed around ten years from when Whisper had known her as the commander. She even had on a similar green dress!
"Hi! Hi hi hi! Mom says its time to wake up because the sun is up and when the sun is up that means its time for food and since today is the start of a weekend that means we get pancakes and waffles and Saturday morning cartoons and which cartoons do you like I like them all but I especially like the ones without those weird morals in them like 'don't do drugs kids' and 'you should never hurt anyone' because you should only hurt someone if they're really bad people like my dad did to Eggman he was a bad man-"
Was she saying something? Whisper stared at the mouth, continuing to move in mysterious ways as the words hadn't yet caught up to how fast the young hedgehog was talking. "Thunder! Leave her to sleep, I told you that! If you need to watch your cartoons, watch on the floor!" Amy's voice cut through it.
Whisper blinked, before she pushed herself up. "Oh. Sorry," she said quietly. Her back was protesting every movement, and her arms weren't entirely listening to her yet, but still she forced herself to stand and start picking up the blankets.
"Whisper!" Amy said from the kitchen, "You don't need to get up yet. Thunder's just being obnoxious because she doesn't know you yet. Thunder, this is Whisper, one of our friends from the Restoration!"
"Hi!" Thunder said, her voice thundering into Whisper's ears. "You were on my couch and I can't bug Uncle Shadow because he's always grumpy whenever I do that."
"Or whenever you speak to me, or whenever you look at me, or want to play games with me-" Shadow said from the table, a small mug of steaming something in his hands. He was smirking lightly, but only so Whisper could tell the sarcasm.
"Exactly! You're so grumpy Uncle Shadow. Ooh Teenage Ninja Turtles is on!" Thunder said, parking herself on the couch as soon as Whisper moved the pillow.
The wolf grabbed her wisps, noticing with a sigh that all of them were vacant. The wisps were probably out running amok. She grabbed her wispon and hoisted it onto her back. She moved soundlessly to the kitchen counter, watching as Amy moved with a large apron, whipping up eggs and pancakes faster than Whisper had ever seen her move.
"Well, since you're up anyways...do you want any coffee? Storm is supposed to be letting up for another day or two. Might get some minor flooding in the lowlands," Amy asked, pointing to the coffee maker.
"Where's Sonic?" Whisper asked after a long moment. "And coffee...sounds good," she finished. Amy gave her a smile before a large cup was in Whisper's hands a minute later.
"Sonic's with Velocity. He had a bad dream last night, apparently, Velocity did," Amy explained. "They'll probably be out shortly, and then you'll have met the entire family!"
"Yes. All of them. Where are your wisps?" Shadow asked with a smirk.
Whisper took a sip of the coffee, feeling sudden wakefulness hit her a bit harder than usual. "Oh no," she whispered.
"They went with Violet to check out the Tornado. I don't know what they were saying, but they were chattering like mad before they opened the door. Also, did you know that Cyan can open doors?"
"Yes, and she shouldn't," Whisper said. She checked her cloak just to make sure all six canisters were in there before she headed towards where she thought the hangar was. The house wasn't actually that large. It just seemed bigger than it was, given such an open floor plan.
The first door Whisper tried led to the laundry room, and the second led to the pantry. Amy was watching her with an amused look on her face as Whisper returned, red-faced. "Where is it?" the wolf asked quietly.
"Outside. Go through that door, there's a shed with a code on it. Door should already be open. You might want to..." Amy said before Whisper was already headed to the door. She didn't catch what it was as she took her first steps outside into the cold rain.
She figured out what Amy was going to say the instant she put a foot down on the rock steps. 'Get some shoes on first'.
The shed wasn't far from the house, and there was a series of rocks that led to it similar to a trail. Grass was on the sides and around it, a small field that had a tiny goalpost sitting on top of it. The door to the shed was open, and Whisper could see the small figure of Violet staring at the red fuselage of the Tornado.
It was already too late to go back inside, in Whisper's mind. And besides, five unruly wisps could do a lot of damage if they wanted to in only minutes. They were much stronger than they let on, even to Whisper. She knew that much, but she never knew just how much they were holding back.
The rain felt weird on her bare feet and head, but she didn't stop to put her hood up or anything. Small patches of water were starting to build up in the grass, and more than once Whisper felt herself almost slip.
The shed had a concrete base, and it was freezing cold when Whisper stepped onto it. The Tornado was in its base form, the red biplane with a small jet installed underneath its wheels. Its main fuselage was open as Violet was underneath it, small wrench trying to loosen up some of the bolts.
Cyan and Green were hovering over her, giving her advice. Blue and Orange were looking at some of the other gadgets on the wall, and Pink was checking out the inside of the Tornado's seats.
"Oh, oil change! I remember how to do this one, first you unscrew the oil cap, let it all drain out, run it a bit before you put it back!" Cyan was saying.
"No! That's a good way to get it hurt. First you unscrew it, then you run it to let it drain out, then you put new stuff in!"
"I know how to change the oil," Violet said, not having noticed Whisper. "And you're both wrong."
"Drain the oil, put it back, run it," Whisper commented. Violet let out a small shriek and jammed her head into the Tornado's fuselage, holding her hand to her head as she took a step back.
"Oh yeah, that's what it was!" Both Cyan and Green said at the same time.
"Don't...don't do that to me," Violet murmured. She had on a large set of overalls with Tails' old logo stamped on it, her purple tail hanging out easy. "You scared me there."
"Sorry. Looking for them. Making sure they didn't get into trouble."
"Would we do that?" Cyan asked.
Orange, Green, Blue, and Pink all nodded their heads. "Yes, yes we would."
"Yes, yes you would. All of you would," Whisper commented. "Would you prefer to work in peace?" she asked Violet after a long moment.
"Uh...no, they can stay here. You might want shoes next time you come out here though, there's sharp bits and bobs," Violet said, pointing to the saw blades on the wall. "This is where Mr. Sonic keeps his lawnmower for me and Velocity."
"Why do you keep calling him Mr. Sonic? Seems strange. Mata called him Dad," Pink asked. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Sonic doesn't seem the type."
"He's not. And...it's complicated. I know who my dad is. He may not have been able to raise me much, but I knew him. Mata...Mata only knew Mr. Sonic and Aunt Amy."
"And why the Mr? You use Aunt for Amy's name."
"That's because a salesman used it once and he couldn't stop laughing for a half an hour because it sounded so weird, so I kept calling him it to get him used to it."
"Did that work?"
"No."
Whisper chuckled, sending Violet another foot in the air. "If you're fine out here then," she said before she stepped back to head back to the main house.
The rain had only gotten harder in the last few minutes. The stones were far more slippery now than they were before, and Whisper walked on the grass instead.
The main house was much louder now, as it appeared that Mata, Thunder, and Velocity were all up and about in the few minutes Whisper was talking with Violet. Amy was still doing breakfast, more and more plates slowly piling up with various food. Shadow was at the table, unconcerned by the growing chaos around him.
Sonic was in the living room, attempting to keep order with all three of the kids there wanting to watch different shows. If anything, that to Whisper showed that Thunder had it right; get out there early so she could watch what she wanted to.
"Find your wisps alright?" Amy asked. Her apron was a bit messier now as she almost reflexively wiped her hands on it. "Breakfast should be ready soon."
"I did. Is it always like this?" Whisper hesitated to ask. She took a long deep breath, "and what can I do to help?"
"You're a guest, you don't need to help at all!" Amy answered. "And on the weekends it is. Sonic's actually doing a better job than he usually does, if only because Vio's not adding to the chaos."
They were stopped by yelling over in the living room, followed by screaming and shouting and then a bit of taunting before crying.
Whisper didn't know who was doing what.
"Oi! Quiet down over there!" Amy roared from the kitchen. "Sonic, you want to swap?" she asked.
Sonic let out a quiet groan before he grabbed his crutch and came to the kitchen for the necessary rescue. "Sure, I'll take over. Looks like you did all the hard things anyways," he noticed.
A light blue, not quite violet, hedgehog came up to Whisper. "You're the other guest that isn't Uncle Shadow. I'm Velocity," he said, holding out his hand.
"Whisper," she answered.
"Ok...but why?" Velocity asked, whispering. Whisper had to withhold her giggle as she heard Sonic's facepalm. "No, I'm being serious, why?" he kept asking.
"No, that's her name," Sonic clarified. Velocity went 'ohh' before he heard the sounds of Thunder and Mata turning on a game console.
"Oh no you don't, not my games!" he shouted as he bolted over.
Whisper leaned against the counter as she watched the three kids get into more arguments. Amy was watching over them like a mother hawk, but wasn't actually stopping them. "Reminds me of Silver a bit, you know?" Sonic stated as he watched over the three of them.
"They're all so different, but so close to the same. Vio's just like Tails, Velocity and Silver, Thunder and Amy...Mata and Knuckles," Sonic noted.
"Knuckles?" Whisper asked.
"Once you got him to open up he's quite goofy. Takes a while though," Sonic said as he flipped another pancake onto a plate. "And that should be good. Alright, breakfast time!" he shouted, putting them up onto the counter. "Just watch," he winked at Whisper.
Almost as if he'd known, three blurs of various colors snatched up the plates and in an instant they were gone, replaced by not full ones. Violet came by a moment later, her own plate taking a few seconds longer, but replaced just the same.
Whisper counted. Around thirty seconds, maximum, and an entire breakfast that took nearly an hour and a half or so to cook was gone.
"Yeah, they're fast eaters," Sonic grinned. He gave a noticeable look to the floor. "And Vio didn't even get water inside!" he noted. He also looked at the other water splashes next to Whisper. "If you need to towel off, use a towel from the pantry. We keep those ones high up so that way the kids don't get those ones dirty and we always have a few clean ones," Sonic said.
Grimacing, Whisper carefully tried to not get any more water on their floor as she reached into the pantry to grab a clean towel. It took a few moments, but in that time Sonic had dished up the rest of the food for those that wouldn't act as a vacuum.
It took much more time than the kids took, if only because Sonic and Amy took turns being able to actually take their bites.
As Sonic wolfed down the last of his pancakes, Amy turned to Shadow and Whisper, long since done with theirs. "How are you two going to talk to the mayor? You're not going to cause any international incidents this time, are you Shadow?"
What did she mean by this time? Whisper raised an eyebrow as she glanced at Shadow, who was surprisingly red-faced before he looked away. "No. That's not in the cards. It wasn't then, and it isn't now."
"Alright then. I'm assuming you have a plan?"
Whisper's plan had honestly been to 'ask him nicely' and if that didn't work she'd find another way out. It's not as if she hadn't done that before, either.
"Plan A is to ask him," Shadow said. "Whisper'll take care of that part. Plan B, and the one I'm doing, is to actually take out the cause of it at its root."
"Shadow, you can't just...go in and blow everything up. You're an agent, shouldn't you know this?"
"I was part of GUN a long time ago, Amy. I don't plan to go in and 'blow everything up'. I plan to go in and act as a scalpel, not a bomb."
"...You know it's just going to end up as an international incident anyways, right?"
Shadow was glaring at her. "No, it won't, because I say it won't. Faker..."
Sonic shrugged, not bothering to hide his grin, "What? I'm not going to go against her. Sides, you know better than to go in and Chaos Blast everything you see."
Whisper was starting to see why Shadow was considered too dangerous to put on some of the easier Restoration tasks back in her home time. Even the ones that were good public relations, and the ones that Sonic and the others did all the time.
She pushed herself up, not saying a word as the other kept talking. Velocity, Mata, and Thunder were all down in the living room, the television on but on low sound, their eyes paying more attention to the discussion than the show.
Whisper pulled on her boots, and did her usual check to make sure everything was on. "Sounds like Uncle Shadow's going to cause trouble again," Velocity muttered.
"Oh no, not again. Last time he did that there were protestors outside our house for weeks," Thunder said, her ears being brought down low.
Mata rubbed her adopted sister's back lightly. "Hey, we'll get through it. We did last time, and we will last time. And this time he has Whisper along. You won't let anything get out of hand, will you?" she asked the wolf.
"That's the plan," Whisper agreed. Shadow was still talking, about how he would handle the situation. She was an unknown, where as he was easily recognizable.
It was easier to cause havoc if no one recognized the person about to cause it.
She doubted that any one of them, except maybe the kids, even realized that she was out the door. Their door was fairly quiet, and Whisper was even quieter than that. She gave off the whistle to call the wisps, not surprised when only Orange answered her. "The others were more interested in Vio. But if you gave off a second, they'd probably come running," Orange answered.
Whisper shook her head. "No, we should be good," she said. The rain poured around them, and Whisper saw Orange imbue herself into the variable wispon. Not just to protect herself from the rain, but to give Whisper a weapon should she need it.
She did pull her cloak and hook up this time, blending into the darkened city easy.
It took her only half an hour walking and running speed to get her into the city proper. Green Hill wasn't the biggest of cities, no matter how anyone would look at it. The downtown area was dull and grey, with only small sides of greenery from the trees and bushes. The hills that gave it its name however were easy to find, looping around everything. The city was set in a valley, it seemed.
There was a host of protestors outside the city hall, screaming at someone who was underneath a cover. The protestors had umbrellas, but no unified cover from the pouring rain. "We want our city back! It's our city, not yours! Our city! Not yours! Our city! Not yours!" someone was screaming into a megaphone, a chant followed.
The person underneath the cover, a sheep who looked nothing like Lanolin, was letting the words bounce off of him. "Yes, I'm aware that you think that, but you don't! The Baragrafo Bullies are back in town, and they will not stop until Mayor Ziepard is dead and buried! We will not stoop to letting assassin's get what they want!" the sheep shouted back.
Whisper had to give off a sigh. She could do this the easy way or the long way. "What do you think Orange? Easy way, or long way?" she asked after a moment.
"I'll leave it to you to decide. I say long way, if it's the safer way. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy."
That was something the original Diamond Cutters had put into her head a lot too, wasn't it? The easy way to charge in and deal with the mayor directly, in Whisper's mind. Was she capable of it? Probably. Would she feel good about it? Probably not.
She gave her hood another pull to make sure that the rain wouldn't make it worse for her, as she walked past the protesters, past the poor guy who had to defend the mayor, and past the news who were watching everything like hawks, waiting for the big story to break out.
Her boots hit against the concrete solidly, splashing against the small pools that congregated from the rain, as she focused on her next task; to deal with these 'Baragrafo Bullies'. If that's what they were called.
More hints at things to come...Also, an average day in Sonic's household.
Until Next Time!