Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Portal

Whisper pulled down the mask, letting its familiar weight assure her of what she was doing. What was she doing though? She had lost her mind at some point, probably several times. More than that, most assuredly. The rooftop was familiar to her, seeing as how it was close by to the mayor's building, in which GUN was starting to set up the inauguration of a temporary mayor until they get the next election going.

She'd been next to the building just a few days ago, but it was only now that she managed to climb to the top of the six floors. Off in the distance through the scope she could see Shadow on top of the mayor's building, trying to find a decent place to hide. "So we aren't actually killing anyone, right?" Blue asked from next to her.

Whisper shook her head. "Not if we can help it. All we're doing is spotting. It's up to everyone else to keep them from success," she answered. Blue gave an audible sigh of relief. She didn't blame him. She wasn't fond of the idea either. Even when confronted with an evil being unlike any other, she'd hesitated long enough that a six year old was able to talk her down.

She just realized, that with the twenty three year gap Cream was now older than her. Cream didn't already have kids did she? That was so strange to even think about... "How should we be doing this, exactly? Some of us don't have three eyes," Cyan asked from the side. She was laying down low, looking bored. Orange was above, her eyes going and looking every which way.

"Just keep an eye out. You see someone that looks like they're trouble, tell the rest," Whisper answered. "We're not doing more than that." Cyan nodded, her body twisting as she did a few rolls in midair. Pink went over to help stabilize her, only to get headbutted by Green. "If you three are bored, go talk to Violet about helping with the Tornado," she said after a moment.

"Last time we did that, you got hurt. We're not leaving again," Pink answered instantly. Cyan and Green both agreed, their bodies doing most of the work rather than just their heads. "Even if we get bored doing it."

That was fine. Whisper knew they probably wouldn't do anything terrible even if they were bored if she was nearby. She raised the scope on her wispon again, looking down the main street on one direction, checking every person for every sign of a weapon. There were only a few suspicious ones that she could see, ones with their hoods up and walking along shakily. She put most of those out of her mind, instead focusing on the 'normal' people. Anyone truly suspicious wouldn't act suspicious, but instead try too hard to seem normal.

She blamed her experience with Mimic as to why she knew that.

There weren't any in one direction. "Anything?" she asked Orange. She trusted Orange more than the others when it came to spotting. The wisp knew exactly what she was looking for and why. Back in the Diamond Cutters, Orange had been the wisp assigned to her directly, with the others coming after...everything.

"Not yet. Nothing unusual at least," Orange said softly. "Hey, can you three calm it down? It's distracting!" she called out to Green, Cyan, and Pink. The three were now wrestling on the floor of the rooftop, stabbing at each other with their spikes, energy arms, or whatever it was that Green called the weird bulbs he had at the bottom of his body. Green was losing, for obvious reasons.

"Yeah, yeah. Calm your eyes Orange," Cyan answered. "Ooh, I see something over there!" she pointed out. Whisper was on it instantly, her wispon pointing up to where it was the wisp had pointed out. "Next to the church steeple!"

Whisper saw it. "I don't know," she said after a moment. It looked like a big black mass of...something. Bulbous things that acted more like water. "Shadow," she said, changing her radio frequencies to only the black hedgehog's. "There's...something weird. Four hundred feet from you, next to the church."

The black hedgehog turned. "Where?" he asked, his voice sharp. He didn't see it? Then again, neither had she until Cyan had pointed it out. "There's nothing there."

"Yes there is! It's getting closer, step by step! Three hundred feet now, it's getting past the...Whisper, did it just jump across the street in one motion?" Cyan asked. Whisper nodded, watching as it didn't even bother stopping to try to jump. It just...floated across. There was no stopping, there was no stalling, it just floated across as if there was a wind current.

"Whisper, there's nothing there," Shadow clarified. "I don't see it at all. Fire Orange at it?" he asked.

Whisper shook her head as Orange gave a massive sigh of relief. "I don't think she wants to, and I don't want her too. Cyan instead," Whisper said, her voice light. Cyan gave a mock salute as she imbued the wispon. While Orange was quieter and much more accurate, Cyan also didn't have to physically go where she was firing. One of the reasons why Orange was so accurate, she could error-correct in midair. Pink, too, was one that didn't have to physically go. "Firing," she announced, pressing the trigger just slightly.

There was no recoil. Cyan's imbuement didn't give any, unlike Orange or many of the others. Blue's imbuement was entirely based upon the recoil if she had to be honest. The cyan laser streaked across the grey sky above, leaving a long trail in its wake.

Whisper held her ears as the laser hit the black monster thing, and it let out an ear shattering, soul scattering howl of pain. Each of the wisps reacted to, most of them immediately going back into their canisters except for Cyan, who Whisper could barely hear scream out, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

It barreled over the rest of the church and city hall, gathering up speed the more it went in a straight line. "Whisper, why did you fire?" a voice shouted in her ear. It wasn't Shadow, probably one of the GUN agents. The thing came closer, faster, and Whisper felt it in the back of her mind that this thing was out for her blood if anything.

"I don't see anything, Whisper," Shadow said through the radio. "Whisper said she saw something. I told her to fire to show me where. Still don't see it."

The black thing was literally covering the black hedgehog, making it impossible to see him. An undulating mass of darkness covering him completely, and yet Shadow's voice came over the radio. "Whisper, where is it now?"

Fear gripped Whisper's heart, and she knew it wasn't just hers alone. Cyan was screaming her native language, singing a song of fear and horror. "It's...on top of you..." Whisper muttered. She was taking steps back, but the thing had noticed her, and Cyan wasn't helping.

"On top of Shadow? Agent Conway, you see anything?"

"Nothing, Admiral Nelson."

"I don't feel any different either. Whisper...you haven't taken anything have you?" Shadow accused.

"Green!" Whisper called out as she flat out bolted away from the black mass. It glided over the empty space above everyone, twisting and turning in infinite darkness. It had no head, it had no body, it had no hands, no legs, nothing more than a mass of black and dark. The wisp heard her, and imbued himself into the wispon immediately, letting her glide down as she jumped off the rooftop.

"Whisper!?" Shadow's voice and Agent Nelson's voice called over the radio. She glanced behind her; the mass was right there, undulating towards her, covering everything as it passed by. No one else noticed, except her, like a nightmare made flesh and incorporeality-

She stumbled into a car, sending her back a foot. "Sorry!" she said quickly. The mass was right on top of her, it was going to get her what was this thing-

The car honked, or the car alarm went off, Whisper didn't know. The mass let out another howl, recoiling from the sound. The sound shot through Whisper's mind too, far more effective and loud than it should be. "Got an idea!" Cyan said as she popped out. Whisper flicked an ear towards her as she ran some more, pushing every bit of energy she had into her legs. "First, find a rooftop! It'll be less noticeable up there!"

She could do that. The mass was still chasing her, but now it had slowed down a bit, unsure by the sounds affecting it. There weren't that many rooftops down this far, but she could find a way to get onto a fire escape, much as she did back at Drug Alley.

"Here, use me to slam into the ground!" Blue screamed into her ear as he imbued himself into the wispon. That was an idea. There was a dumpster close by too, four stories up and two stories to the fire escape. Only one block away. She ran for it.

The undulating and crawling mass of black was still chasing her, but now it was closer to the ground and seemed to be more unsure of things. It followed her anyway, chasing her. She slammed Blue onto the dumpster, letting the recoil push her up into a high jump. "Got it!" Orange said as she imbued herself, pressing the trigger down herself. Usually Orange's imbuement only gave a sniper's shot, but the variable wispon could also control mass and velocity. A lot of both of them meant a lot of recoil, sending her skyward another ten feet.

"My turn!" Green shouted, letting the umbrella open up and letting her fall gracefully onto the fire escape metal. Whisper gratefully whispered her thanks to the three wisps, squirreling up the ladder towards the rooftop.

Now that she'd gained some height, so too did the black mass, and it seemed much more at home in the sky. It was moving quicker, floating and falling at the same time. "What was your idea, Cyan?" Whisper asked as she leapt over the railing onto the roof. There weren't any GUN agents up here, and city hall was four blocks away.

"Right. Use me and Pink at the same time! Pink can use energy blasts, we might be able to at least beat this thing back!" Cyan admitted. It was a plan, at least.

"Aww yeah, now it's my time to shine! Bring it on!" Pink shouted as he imbued the wispon. Small spikes came out of the blue spherical shell, and needle like spikes were shot out of the front with every press of the trigger. Pink was staying with her, another wisp that didn't have to physically travel.

The spikes didn't seem to hurt it overly much, but it recoiled just the same. Whisper mostly took pot shots at it, her wispon firing as rapidly as it could but she made sure to absolutely not miss.

Whenever Pink needed a recharge, Whisper switched over to Cyan, and the laser didn't have much of any effect either. But the mass was slowing, at least, the wisp energy seemingly eating away at the thing. It gave another loud soul shattering roar as it she managed to push it back another few feet.

"Whisper, are you back in your mind at least?" Shadow asked over the radio. She blinked, completely forgetting basic radio communication. That was going to be a black mark on her.

"Fighting. It's recoiling, so we're doing something at least," Whisper answered. Each strike of the pink or cyan energy pushed it just a few more inches.

"We can't see anything of what your fighting. Take your mask off?" Shadow suggested. It would only take her a second or two, she could handle at least that. She reached up for the mask, moving it up and staring at the black mass.

It was still there, almost seemingly more real than anything else around it. She pushed her mask back on, and it took on that same black 'less' real feel that it had far earlier.

"Still there," Whisper answered.

"Huh. I'm going to throw a chaos spear," Shadow's voice called out. The hurling mass of chaos energy speared overhead, landing directly into the black mass. It gave another howl, it's body becoming even darker somehow, before a purple portal of some kind opened up, and it flew through a moment later.

"That got rid of it. It flew off through a portal," Whisper said. Her heart was beating furiously fast, and she was breathing just as hard. The wisps popped out of their canisters, staring hard at where the thing vanished. "You know what that thing was?" she asked.

"Not a clue." "Nope." "Got less than an idea than you do, I think." "Sure, if it's opposite day." "Yeah, I got an idea," Orange muttered. All four of the other wisps and Whisper turned to look at her. "Remember the one time that we...well, ended back up at Planet Wisp with no memory of how we got there? And it was all blank and white for a while?" she asked.

The others shook their head. "Right, you may not have been there for that. I was. I saw that purple portal thing before. Ask Sonic, he'd know more I think."

Whisper nodded, and gently opened the cloak again. The wisps nodded to each other, going into each of their canisters once more. "I'm fine now," she answered into the radio.

"That's good. What happened?" Agent Nelson asked, his voice brooking no arguments. He wanted nothing but the facts and details. It was easy to hear how he'd become Admiral now.

"Black shaped undulating mass," Whisper described. "It could fly, and only wisp energy seemed to hurt it. It covered Shadow but didn't seem to do much," Whisper said. "Cyan hit it, and it roared back and started to chase. I fled, heading down to ground level to keep it away from everyone else. She had another idea, and I went back to a nearby rooftop to hit it with Pink and Cyan. It did nothing for the most part, until Shadow's chaos spear hit it."

"Did it? It just kind of flew out into the air. There wasn't anything there, Whisper."

"The wisps all saw it too. Orange thinks that Sonic might know more."

"I see. Go and look into it. The inauguration is mostly finished, and it looks like your firing display actually helped anyways. A few characters saw the lights and fled," Agent Nelson said. "And Whisper, try to contain yourself."

Whisper nodded. "Understood," she whispered back, much quieter than normal. She hated being chided by higher ups, regardless of whether or not she was part of the team at all.

Shadow came by a moment later, running up the side of the building. He landed silently in front of her. "It covered me, you said?" he asked. His radio was off.

Whisper turned hers off too. She had officially been 'dismissed', which meant that soon enough she could leave to Spiral Hill, find Jewel, who can lead her to Tangle and Tails. Maybe. Hopefully.

This was going to be a long trip, wasn't it?

She nodded. "Completely. I couldn't see you."

"Interesting. If the chaos spear had as much effect as it did, you'd think it was based on chaos energy," Shadow muttered. "But that couldn't be...there was that one time though..."

"What one time?" Whisper asked. She asked Green to help her down, and Shadow jumped down as she floated down. The black hedgehog was silent again as he started skating, slowly, towards the suburbs where Sonic lived.

She had to run full out in order to try to keep up. The speed difference between them was still astonishing. She knew that she wasn't faster than Sonic or Shadow, or Blaze, or even Tails and Amy, but she'd hoped that by now she'd have some way to keep up!

"There was...an odd time, many years ago. I don't remember it much. It was just another day for me, until the White Void showed up. I fought Sonic again for the Chaos Emeralds, but it was afterwards, during the fight..." Shadow murmured. Whisper's ears twitched; he was speaking far quieter. Was he actually talking to her, or simply muttering to himself?

Whisper had to stop several times over the course the half hour trip, if only because Shadow was ridiculously fast and she didn't have the stamina to sprint for thirty minutes continuously. Instead she alternated between running, sprinting, and walking when she needed to. By the time she'd made it, she was covered in sweat.

Shadow, meanwhile, looked as if he hadn't just ran nearly ten miles in thirty minutes, or it was just a minor jog. "You need to get faster," he said as soon as she stopped near him. She was leaning over, trying to get as much breath into her body as possible.

"I'm not you or Sonic."

"You're also carrying around much more gear than Sonic or myself. Ten miles is still a considerable distance," Shadow said. "It's something to work up towards."

Amy opened the door before Shadow could even knock. She was dressed to the nines, a long red dress that flowed around every curve she had. "Oh, Shadow! Whisper! Back already?" she asked. "Don't mind me, just stepping out for a few hours," she smiled and nodded, stepping out of their way.

Sonic was still on his chair, his head back and his eyes shut. His chest was rising and falling rhythmically, and there was a small plate of chili dogs next to him with a small note from Amy. Whisper couldn't see where any of the kids were. She suspected Violet was out back working on the Tornado, but the other three kids...were somewhere. It wasn't that late in the afternoon either, probably just after lunch. Were they at school? Did they go to school?

"Oh great, the Faker's asleep," Shadow said, stomping over to him. He kicked the old blue hedgehog lightly in the shoe. "Wake up. We have questions."

"Don't go Amy...don't just leave me here..." Sonic whispered, rolling over onto his side, his eyes still shut. His bad leg was somehow even looking worse, with the way the rest of the hedgehog moved, and yet his leg didn't.

"Well, he's asleep and won't wake up," Shadow said loudly. "Go find the kids," he told Whisper. "I'm going to keep to keep trying to wake up the lazy one."

"I don't think he's lazy..." Whisper said quietly as she took off her boots to walk throughout the house. She looked in Violet and Mata's room first, not expecting to see anyone. Violet wasn't in, certainly, but there was a dark shape near where Mata's desk was. "Mata?" she asked quietly as she walked through the sheet.

The two tailed cat was asleep on her desk, small pieces of paper in front of her scattered. Whisper picked one of them up, seeing a bit of math homework on it. It had two different signs of writing, one much cleaner than the other.

There was a nine pointed circle on the floor, painted very carefully using white paint. It was an odd shape, and not one that Whisper had ever seen before. "Mata?" she asked again.

The cat was whispering something, small amounts of sweat coming down from her forehead. "No, take me, not him, not him..." she whispered. Her eyes were still shut. Whisper reached out, touching the cat gently on the shoulder.

A feeling of dread, a feeling of hope and hopelessness, power and powerlessness. It dragged her in, the emotions creating a perfect storm.

She'd been at the center of one not long ago, almost exactly like this. But that power hadn't been associated with Mata, but rather the wisps. She could break out of it, she wasn't hopeless, she was Whisper! "Mata!" she said much louder. Immediately the feelings stopped and Mata fell off of her chair, shaking her head as if she was just woken up.

"Gah!" she screamed as she fell. "I must have fallen asleep. Sorry Ms. Whisper!" she said, standing up instantly.

"It's alright. You looked like you were having a bad dream," Whisper noted. Mata nodded.

"Dreams are...bad. Dreams are bad. I was talking with Tails, I think. Or for him. And Mom was there..." Mata said, falling down onto her bed. "I think something's wrong with a lot of things."

"It's alright. Trust in Sonic and Amy. They'll take care of you," Whisper nodded. Orange came out and nodded her agreement.

"Oh, a wispy! Hi wispy..." Mata said quietly. "Why were you looking for me?" she asked Whisper.

"Sonic's asleep, and Amy just left. We figured we should take a look around and make sure the rest of you are fine."

"Oh, yes! Violet's still working on the Tornado I think, but she promised Dad that she wouldn't do anything dangerous. Apparently that trial run a few days ago knocked it back a few pegs. Thunder and Velocity are probably asleep. I'm guessing Mom ran out?" Mata asked.

Whisper nodded. Mata continued, "She does that from time to time. Was she dressed nicely or going to the store?" she asked. Whisper tilted her head. "If she was dressed nice she was going clothes shopping. If she was going to the grocery store, she'd have brought a bag."

That was worrisome. But...Whisper shook out her head. She didn't need to know that. What Amy and Sonic did were up to Amy and Sonic. But having the kids know about it...Whisper sighed, trying to restrain herself.

"It's more comfortable to nap on a bed," Whisper noted as she sat down next to the two tailed cat. It was strange seeing her from so close, now. There was definitely the hint of Blaze in her, the eyes a deep gold but the fur Tails' own orange and yellow. Her muzzle shape was short, like Blaze's, but had the nose shape of a canine.

"I know. But I needed to get my math done, and with Uncle Chuck passing onto the River, I needed a new tutor. Most people I get just want to go back to resting, and I don't mind, but every once in a while I find a good one. I found a flicky this last time! She could even talk too, and knew all kinds of math because she was a robot once!"

Whisper nodded, despite not understanding any of this. Did Mata's ability to literally resurrect the dead come from somewhere? Were there limits to it? Obviously there were, but the very idea haunted the sides of Whisper's mind.

"She was nice. She's up there now," Mata pointed to the ceiling. On one of the rungs was a small blue flicky, a bit larger than the normal ones that Whisper knew about, its head buried in its wing. Flickies were small birds that generally weren't considered sapient, with the exception of a small few. Whisper couldn't tell the difference between them. Unlike with Uncle Chuck, this one didn't grate as much at Whisper's existence, instead a small keening wail that something was still off.

Mata yawned again. "It was nice. I like having friends to talk to. Are you my friend too, Ms. Whisper?" she asked. Whisper gave her a smile and nodded. "And you, wispy?" she looked to Orange.

Orange gave a small glow, and Whisper felt her mood increase, a sense of friendship and positivity. The emotional language of the wisps, and one that Whisper had no translator for. But some things needed no translator.

Mata leaned back and rested her head on her pillow. "Do you think, Ms. Whisper, that we're going to be okay?" she asked gently. "When you go back and undo everything?" she kept going. The word undo struck her mind, battered it around, there was obviously something to it but it generated a storm within Whisper's mind.

"That's not how time travel works. Or maybe it is. Alternative futures are a thing. I really wish I paid more attention to White whenever he went on one of his formulative rants," Orange said. Mata giggled.

Her eyes shut, and Whisper waited until her breathing evened out and she fell back asleep. Mata was an odd one, that was for sure. But what was with that word, 'undo'?

The first of the words.

Until Next Time.