Outside

Stalker limps, walking away from the rig, Tank holding her left arm over his shoulder while Swiftwing covers their front with his SMG.

"Stalker, where do you feel pain," the tiger asks. The leopard coughs, making Swiftwing grunt resentfully.

"Those bitch-ass fuckers were tougher than we thought," Swiftwing inputs, his face and beak contorted in anger. "The gray one had that weird ass tail that can grab folks and throw them. Not to mention she slipped by me using one of your knives, and the brown one.."

"Has a weapon that transforms to her needs," says an injured Stalker. "But… e-even so, Tank destroyed it, so she's out of commission."

"Yeah, that is true, but with injuries, Stalker, you are out of commission as well," chimes in Tank. A silence is present, the only sounds being those of boots crunching grass.

"I'm a little tougher than that, Tank," Stalker says with a slightly disappointed look. "The only injury I got is a roughed-up back and a minor concussion. They aren't that strong, but even so, none of us expected them to have abilities like that… but…" the leopard looks down at the ground. Swiftwing catches this.

"You're thinking about that wolf, right," he questions. "I think her name was-"

"Whisper," she finishes. "She had a chance to kill us right then and there outside of the rig, but she hesitated." Thoughts throughout the three raged.

"She had those weird alien things trying to protect her," the broad tiger adds. "I would have killed them if mysterious hedgehog hadn't split my gun in two." Stalker pictures the same image of that person who jumped in at the last second to help Whisper and those aliens, and that lemur, Tangle jumping in next to him. In that mental image, she recounted his features. A diamond necklace adorned with a crown pendant, light gray quills, dark brown eyes, a physique nearly on par with Tanks, and black gloves. However, the weapon in his right hand wasn't a physical sword, it was made of some kind of powerful energy. What was its source? Was he born with it, does it come from something? Stalker does her best to imagine what was all in his right hand, that sword and… and…

Swiftwing, holding his MP7 in his right hand pointed down at the ground, uses his left to use his radio. "Yo, this is Alpha 0-3, were under the H.O.B," Stalker looks around, confused. She spent so much time thinking, she didn't realize they were already at their destination.

"Copy, 0-3. Sending the zips," responds a masculine voice over Swiftwing's radio.

"Make sure you have medical ready for me and Stalker," the falcon adds.

"You sorry asshole! Like you need medical when all you got is a little scrapped elbow," Stalker shouts.

"I was gonna say mainly you Stalker, chill," he responds, shouting franticly in response. "Always gotta be up my ass about something!" From the sky above, 3 long yellow ropes descend, along with ascenders coming down too. Although it's a little struggle, Stalker walks to her rope, away from Tanks support.

"Will you be able to go up, Stalker? It is long way up," asks the tiger, grabbing his ascender.

"Yeah, let's just get to the ship and tell Zhire about what we found," responds the leopard, grabbing her ascender. "Whisper, I'll never forget your face, thats a promise. Our next meet is your last, pup," she thinks.

"All ready," questions Swiftwing, already holding his ascender. The two nod back at him, and they press down on their buttons one by one, a zipper-like sound echoing in the distance as they trail up in the sky.

Emeraldville Ruins - Restoration HQ

It took about 40 minutes for Jaiden and Tangle to arrive back at HQ, and Whisper, who had already gone ahead was inside.

Tangle walks up to Silver's garden, which was present as soon as she and Jaiden walk in the seemingly busted-up building. The lemur shoots Jaiden a glance, silently saying, "You'd better look away." Taking the hint as it came, the hedgehog puts his hands up, then turns around putting his hands over his eyes. A few seconds later, he hears some gears shift, before the ground before him declines. It slowly goes down through the earth, before finally, the full HQ can be seen. All Jaiden could do was "woah" under his breath. To say its underground, its huge. He sees people walking by, as if this was their everyday life.

"Man, Eggman really fu-... erm, messed you lot up, huh," the hedgehog asks Tangle. As the elevator reaches its destination, the lemur chuckles awkwardly, looking around.

"You don't have to censor yourself around me, man. I can take it," she starts as the two walk foward. "Aaaaaand yeah, he made things really hard for us. We formed this place to help the Resistance, but when Knuckles decided to disband it, we became the main place of aid." Jaiden raises an eyebrow.

"Wait. They, disba-" his response was cut short at the sound of approaching flying, and a voice.

"Tangle!? Tangle," screams out the voice. Jaiden catches an eye on the approaching person before in an instant, he sees the small person in the arms of Tangle. He doesnt quite catch what they looked like till she pulled back slightly, her face distraught. "Whisper told me everything that happened! I'm so sorry I sent you two there!" The hedgehog saw the french pink blazer and the wings.

"Oh, well thats… another fuckin' beetle/inscect thing…" the obviously surprised and shocked hedgehog says with shrunken pupils and widened eyes. The beetle looks to her left still slightly. It takes her a second to process what shes seeing.

"EEP," she shouts, floating backward in recoil. Jaiden's unfamiliar presence startled her. "T-Tangle, wh-who is this…?"

"Oh," the lemur responds, closing her eyes and scratching the back of her head. "Don't worry, from what it seems hes with us! Jewel, Jaiden, the big scary dude with a cool necklace. Jaiden, Jewel, my best friend and head of this place." The hedgehog said nothing at first, just exchanging his shocked look with Jewels scared look for a moment. He finally clears his throat.

"Its a pleasure, miss," he says, his face back to a neutral expression.

"This was the person that saved us, actually. He had that flashy sword of his and cut right through that tiger guy's weapon like butter," Tangle adds.

"Really," Jewel questions. "Whisper only said that he interfered." As if on cue, emerging from behind Jewel and from a crowd of people walking by, emerges Whisper the Wolf. Her eyes were slightly open when looking at Tangle and Jaiden. Jaiden was confused at what the beetle said the wolf thought about his assistance, as was Tangle, who was shooting Whisper a raised eyebrow. "Well nonetheless, they are still alive and only with a few injuries that we can patch right up, so for whatever you did, thank you, Jaiden." Jaiden nodded at Jewel in response, before Tangle reminded herself of her wolf best friend's wisps.

"Wait! Whisper, how's…" she goes to ask before she cuts her off.

"they'll all be fine," she simply whispers. Jaiden's confusion was met with anger. He did his best to keep his peace, however to him, he needed to say something.

"I saved those little alien things for you. I can't at least get a 'thank you,'" he questions the quiet wolf. In response, she just shoots him a cold glance, before disregarding him and facing Jewel. The hedgehog's anger was starting to boil, and his right hand was faintly starting to flicker, but not intense enough to where anyone noticed it.

"we should talk about the rest of what we found out since they're here," she recommends to Jewel.

"Yes, of course," the beetle acknowledges. "Tangle, take Jaiden over here to the table so we can talk about what you guys ran into."

The three sit down at the big table with the rows of monitors. As Jaiden took his seat, he eye'd the huge monitor they had, comparing it to that computer Tails uses. Across the table, Tangle, Whisper, and Jewel sat next to one another.

"From what Whisper told me," Jewel starts out, the beetle looking at the two girls, before looking in front of herself at Jaiden, who was looking between the monitors. "She and Tangle were able to get to that facility with no trouble. No one was there at the time. They were able to infiltrate it and set it up for a trap for those three scary people: Tank, Stalker, and Swiftwing, all wearing cloth masks to hide their faces. However…" The beetle looks at Whisper, the wolf looking away in response, keeping her eyes squinted. "Whisper hesitated and wasn't able to incapacitate one of them, and that's when the situation turned for the worst. One of her wisps was hit with what she described to be a small metal knife to the tentacle, followed by a horrifying barrage of bullets. They managed to get off of the roof where it was happening at, but then they were ambushed. Whisper took a look at the lady she guessed to be Stalker and saw the knives, confirming that she was behind them. After that, to make a long story short, Tangle and Whisper had to fight through Stalker and what they thought to be Swiftwing. She told me they were using weapons even she had never seen before, and can't even describe."

"Guns," Jaiden cuts in, catching the attention of the three girls, and a couple of bypassers in the background. "They were using firearms. Now I've seen what y'all consider to be effective firepower, but what they use is way more powerful." Tangle's expression was curious, while Jewel's was skeptical, and Whisper's remained her normal neutral look.

"How do you know," the beetle questions, her suspicion rising.

"I come from a place that has them, NOT where they came from… but… somewhere else, my home." the hedgehog responds. The wolf's eyes open slightly, her face now suspicious. "But please, Jewel, continue."

"Um, anyway," the beetle starts. "Whisper got into a standoff with Stalker, and ended up losing her mask to what looked to be a weird-looking pistol."

"What the hell do their pistols look like," Jaiden questions himself.

"After that, she and Tangle kept fighting, but they were being overpowered quickly despite the good fight they were putting up. However, Whisper managed to put Stalker in a bad spot, but who we assume to be Tank, ambushed her and struck her wispon with such force, that it broke it. Tangle, who was fighting with Swiftwing at the time, got captured and was tied up by her hands and tail. Tank had a bigger-looking pistol and was about to… take out her wisps, but a person with a dark blue blade of what looked to be energy, cut it in two, and made the Big 3 back off for now." The beetle pauses for a bit, looking at Jaiden now. "I assume that person is you, right Jaiden?"

"Uh huh," he responds. "I'm glad I came when I did. From what it sounded, y'all put up the best fight you could, but the place they came from is way more advanced than you could think. Almost had them because they didn't expect y'all to have such quirky abilties, but even so…"

Flashback - Abandoned Eggmann Rig

"I heard the gunshots as I was going off the information Sonic and them gave me to come help a 'Tangle and Whisper.' Jaiden hears an automatic, high-stopping power weapon fire to close to him. Birds flew off the trees that surrounded him. He ran over to the hill where the rig stood below of. He stood behind a rock and saw that a big tiger, now identified as Tank, just spraying on the front of the place. "I knew if I rushed in right there, I'd risk getting pumped full of lead by that brute, so I waited a bit longer."

Minutes pass…

"Once I heard things died down, I moved in and I decided to go to the roof to see what was going on. I saw Whisper holding a light blue, hammer, thing at Stalker, but I looked behind her and saw that Swiftwing had captured Tangle. However, even I didn't see Tank's big ass on that top railing before he jumped down and destroyed Whisper's weapon from above. As soon as I saw him take out his Magnum and was about to execute those 'wisp' things, I… I just had to do something about it. It even seemed like he wouldn't care that it would collateral through and hit Whisper also. I thought about the sight me and Tangle were gonna see if no one acted, then my body just… moved."

Emeraldville Ruins - Restoration HQ

"That's when he straight superhero'ed it and cut that guy's 'Magnum' clean in two," shouts Tangle, mimicking the motion of swinging a sword. "Then I used Stalker's knife that she stabbed my tail with to break the ropes, and I stood next to Jaiden to protect Whisper! Apparently it must've scared 'em, cuz they used a smoke bomb to get out of there."

"No, it aint scare 'em, it just gave them valuable information to take and plan a better hit with," Jaiden chimes in. "Falling back there was the right thing to do. They didn't know what else I had on me other than a sword. For all they know, I could have had a gun myself, or be fast enough to cut through all of them in a second. They couldn't face me anyway given the state you two put two of them in, so kudos to you, girls." The hedgehog turns his head to Jewel. The beetle gasps and looks back at him. "Jewel, Whisper and Tangle ran into the Big 3 of a faction called 'XiNai.' They are the top of the line in terms of military and trust me when I tell you, they won't forget their confrontation with them either."

"how about you tell her their goal, and why they are here," Whisper whispers in, her eyes still slightly open and looking at the hedgehog across from him. Jaiden looks at her with an agitated look, before he sighs and closes his eyes.

"They came to this world because they are after me. My species, the Limnites, if of high interest for them," the hedgehog explains quietly, making sure the people around him can't hear. Jewel recoils back at this discovery.

"A-and you're here," the beetle says in a loud whisper. "Are they tracking you? Do they know you're here? Are lives at risk!?"

"NO! No, no," Jaiden extends his hands, shaking them back and forth to empethize himself. "They can't track me just magically and if they could, they would have already stormed this place. Besides, they don't even know about a 'Restoration.' All they know is about Tangle and Whisper, and that they saw me." The three girls exchange glances.

"You keep mentioning other worlds," Tangle starts. "All I know is that we're on Earth, and we have a Galaxy. There's more outside of that?" The hedgehog clears his throat.

"It's a very complicated topic, and it's actually planets. I just like saying worlds, but to put it simply, several galaxies hold other 'Earths,' or renamed Earths like that," he responds.

"What planet are YOU from," Jewel questions. All 6 eyes were on Jaiden now, and now some eyes were in the background too.

"Xevir, Galaxy 007," he quickly replies. "We're friendly so don't worry about too much detail."

"Well, you're here now," Tangle inputs. "And from your awesome actions, you seem trustworthy enough." Whisper looks at her lemur friend with a surprised look contorting her features. "What can we do to be able to take on XiNai?" The male animal looks down at the table for a moment, before looking back at them.

"When it comes to XiNai and how we used to prepare," he starts, pausing right after, then he continues. "You guys will need a major upgrade in your weapons, tools, equipment, and tactics. Those guys are merciless killers, they won't care if you're a small beetle or don't even know what real firearms are." Jewel was visibly shaking. "They'll execute you on the spot without a flicker of hesitation or thought." The beetle was now in Tangle's arms. The lemur was looking in the hedgehog's eyes, all the while Whisper, her face now concerned, looks down at the table. "My sister gifted me something that could help you guys, though. I think you should come with me back to that Resistance HQ thing. They might be working on it still, and I don't know if they were able to figure that stuff out since it's foreign."

"So wait, we're gonna have to look like THEM, to have a chance," the lemur asks.

"Unless you want a repeat of what happened to you a while ago, or that fur coated on their leader, then that's a solid yes, Tangle," responded the hedgehog. His lack of a filter slightly shook the usually optimistic lemur. "This ain't no Eggman situation." Whisper scoffs, before she chimes in.

"and why should we do this? just to protect you? they wouldn't be here if you never showed up from your 'planet,'" the wolf whispers firmly.

"You should want to do it to protect yourself, Whisper," Jaiden responds back with a firm, agitated voice. "Sure they might be after me, but their leader, Master Zhire, is a damn dictator. You think his ass won't wanna possibly try taking this planet over for his own? That means painting everyone in his way without question."

"B-but from what I know, we have an army ourselves," Jewel adds, back in her own space, hovering. "They are all armed with wispons and helmets and padding."

"A 'wispon' is what she was using, right," the hedgehog is pointing at Whisper.

"Well… yea-" Her eyes widen when Jaiden cuts her off.

"You see what the hell happened then. With all due respect, Miss Jewel, that was a stupid question. No damn goofy wispon will stand against hot lead," Jaiden responds harshly. "And without a vest or armor, your folks are meat to the grinder." The unease in the room settled in greatly. All everyone was used to was Eggman, dealing with badniks, and occasionally some other bad apples. Compared to this, though, it was relatively tame. Moments pass, and then a familiar medium-pitched feminine voice cuts the air.

"If what you're saying is true, then we can maybe start with identifying what equipment they use." The four at the table look to their left, seeing Hibra. She still adorned her combat attire. Her yellow eyes met Jaiden's dark brown ones. In her left arm, were the documents of pictures from earlier.

"Oh, Hibra," Jewel exclaims. "This is…"

"Jaiden? Yeah, I overheard some of you guys' conversation," she cuts her off explaining. She quickly puts the documents on the table in front of the hedgehog. "Can you identify what they were using, so we can get an idea of what exactly were up against?" Jaiden looks at her, then back at the documents before him. He grabs them, and opens the file, seeing pictures of Master Zhire, his army, and of course, the Big 3 themselves. He analyzes them for a quick 12 seconds, before he looks back up at the girls before him.

"Yuh, I recognize these," he starts. He first pulls out the individual picture of the army and points at one of the ones holding an assault rifle. "M4s. All custom-built but with the same receivers. Looks like bigger mags and longer barrels. Yeah cuz you see the way M4 platform is, using different parts and components makes… it…" He looked up at the girls, and their heads were tilted to the side. He puts a closed fist up to his mouth and fake coughs. "'Scuse my yappin'." Jaiden shifts the pictures, now shifting to the Big 3. His gaze stays there for a bit, his eyes squinting to recognize the firearms before him. He then sets it down, pointing at the big tiger's first.

"RAAL MG, and of course, his Magnum that I cut in two." He then shifts to the falcon.

"MP7." Now the leopard, which made Whisper shift herself to attentively listen.

"AX50, paired with a 1911 as a backup."

"Now those names sound intimidating," Tangle adds in. "But uh, I'm still lost on what they exactly are…"

"Wispons are weapons that fire energy blasts, right," Jaiden questions. Hibra nods. "Well, these ain't too much different from them. As to wispons, these shoot differently depending on which is used also. The recoil pattern differs, and the looks differ as well. The only difference is, wispons to these guys, are just knock-off space weapons that won't do much of shit. Hell, it'll barely graze their armor." Whisper looks down at the table for a second, crossing her arms. "Y'all are gonna need raw stopping power, actual bullets, some gun."

"And how exactly are we supposed to get that," questions Tangle. "Not like we can pick up some sticks and make our forces guns."

"Well, like I said," the hedgehog begins. "It's back with Sonic and his boys at their HQ. You guys should come because I think everyone's gonna need an upgrade."

"Oh, that's not really my area of operation," the small beetle says, closing her eyes and waving her hands out in front of her. "But I'll send Whisper and Tangle with you. As soon as they come back with some information, we'll be ready to train the rest of our forces with these new weapons. And if it means anything, Jaiden, thank you for keeping my girls safe." Jaiden's face lit up, his expression surprised for a moment. He looks down at his neck, reminding himself of her, through his crown necklace. He holds it in his left hand, a small trace of a smile on his face.

"Of course, not a problem," he responds quietly. He then looked up at Tangle and Whisper, who were talking among themselves. "Tangle, Whisper, y'all mind taking me back there? My ass definitely gonna get lost navigating this place." Tangle looks up at him before she closes her eyes and smiles.

"Sure, Jaiden," she says, chuckling. "Just let me talk with Whisper really fast. Wait for us outside, yeah, big guy?"

"Yeah," Jaiden responds. As he gets up, he sees the wolf look at him from the side of her eye, before she squits them again and turns her head back to Tangle. "Ight." He pushes his chair in, and Hibra walks over to show him out of the place.

Back to the lemur and wolf, they stayed seated as they spoke in lower, more discreet voices.

"What do you mean," Tangle questions with a confused look on her face. "Jaiden is literally the only person that looks like he knows how to deal with these guys. If we give him a chance, then maybe we'll be able to get back at those guys!"

"i know," Whisper whispers in response. "but if they're after him, he'll be trouble wherever he goes. that won't be safe for anyone if he stays around. those people aren't Eggman's bots or anything like mimic." Tangle's face was grudged, but, a flicker of agreement was there as well.

"I'm not gonna deny you and say that you're wrong," the lemur pushes out. "But we can't deny that he saved us. Whisper, you lost your wispon… and… your mask. These XiNai guys play dirty, and we gotta upgrade to stand a chance." She looks down. "I've always wanted to get out there and see the world, and explore it alongside you and the rest of the Cutters, but I'm not gonna be able to do that if our home lies in jeopardy. We've done so much, come so far, and overcome a lot. The way I see it, the worst we have to lose, is our entire way of life." The lemur looks back up at Whisper, a determined smile on her face. She extends her right arm, curling her hand into a fist. "But it's okay, because no matter what, I'll be right with you. You won't face anything alone!" Whisper, her eyes slightly unsquinted and looking at Tangle's fist, had a worried expression on her face, but, a small smile played on her muzzle seconds later. She finally bumps the lemur's fist with her own.

"If it makes you feel any better, Whisper," Jewel adds in, her voice coming from behind. "You'll always have me and the Restoration with you. Jaiden scared me because of his size, but… I think you can trust him. He's a little harsh, but he almost reminds me of Storm, except he didn't throw me like a ball…" Tangle and the beetle chuckle before the lemur turns back to Whisper.

"Now we should go," she says. "It's gonna be nice to see Sonic and the gang again!" The lemur runs around the table and toward the elevator. Whisper's smile fades though as she sees the bandages wrapped around her lemur friend's tail.

"I don't know how you do it," the wolf thinks to herself, then she begins to walk off.

"Whisper," Jewel calls out, stopping the wolf in her tracks and turning her head. "Please, please, please. Be careful." The wolf only looks down for a second, before she turns away, and walks off, disappearing from view.