Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Airfare

"Any idea on where Vio is? I'm surprised she's not here," Sonic asked, raising his voice. It was hard to hear over the Tornado's propeller, having started up a while ago. According to Violet, a plane like the Tornado had to warm up for a long time before it could fly.

Unless piloted by an eight year old two tailed fox who decided to strap a jet engine to it, although where Violet had gotten that particular metaphor from, Whisper didn't know. Last she heard, the Tornado was actually Sonic's plane.

Although the blue hedgehog had long since let his pilot's license relapse, due to not having as much time in the cockpit as the laws require. Came with having two kids and having to care for four of them.

"No, I think she's sulking in her room," Amy responded, her voice also higher. "Shadow, Whisper, you two have everything you need?" Amy asked.

Shadow said nothing, instead simply nodding. He was familiarizing himself with the Tornado's controls, which were a lot different than the usual planes he flew. Although when Shadow had gotten his pilot's license, Whisper didn't know.

And she had Green on standby, just in case that the rumors of his ability to fly were in fact just rumors. Green's Hover ability would imbue the Tornado with the ability to glide long enough to get onto the ground, no matter where they were.

"Whisper, you know where you're heading is?" Sonic asked. "You're essentially acting as navigator, and trust me it's harder than it looks!"

Whisper nodded. She dared not try to raise her voice over the propeller. Behind Sonic and Amy stood the three kids that Whisper knew about; Thunder, Mata, and Velocity. They stayed out of the way, occasionally waving. They also had large earmuffs on intended to make sure they didn't hurt their ears next to the loud engine's roar.

In front of her seat lay a compass, and a small GPS screen. Shadow had the same thing in front of him. She also had the same controls that Shadow had, however where his were lit up and active, hers weren't. Hers would only activate if the plane sensed that Shadow, as the primary pilot, couldn't fly for some reason.

Tails had remodeled this thing to last. Some of the controls were foreign to her completely, and she suspected those were the mech controls, because of course Tails would have built a mech into a plane.

Violet was nowhere to be seen, not that Whisper blamed her. There had been loud shouting match between Sonic and Violet, and then the fox had disappeared into her room. Mata was saying nothing about where her sister was.

"Right, Vio already got the fuel for it, so you should be good. If you need more, stop by Central City, near Tails' house, or the Mystic Ruins. Tails has another lab out there. Both have enough fuel to last for years even at the rate Tails generally used it," Sonic advised. "We didn't have much here."

Whisper didn't particularly enjoy the thought of having to go to Central City to refuel, but in this case she kept quiet. She had a very strong feeling as to where exactly Violet was, and it wasn't in her room as she should be, but Whisper wasn't going to say anything.

Shadow nodded, giving a small thumbs up, and handed back to Whisper a headset, complete with radio. The wisps were in their canisters for the most part, settled properly at her feet but ready to connect to her cloak the instant they needed to be. Except Green, he was hovering around, not caring about the noise.

She pushed on her mask, followed by the headset. "Checking contact," Shadow's voice echoed. She couldn't hear him regularly without shouting, and it was probably for the best to have a radio.

"Checking," Whisper responded. He nodded. Despite her usual quiet, Shadow or Violet had modified it so she could be heard. She looked over to Sonic, who had now dressed with an orange and yellow jacket for easy visibility. He was standing out in the field, complete with crutch anyways, holding up a few of the flares that other airplanes used.

"What is that faker doing?" Shadow asked. "If he wants to treat this as a farce, he can," he barked out. Whisper didn't blame either of them. Sonic was acting silly, and thus getting a laugh out of the three kids, and Shadow was being annoyed at it, thus sharpening his intuition to make sure that Whisper really didn't have to trust Green. Not that she didn't, because she absolutely did, but him wanting to imbue himself into the Tornado was...a tricky subject, to her.

Especially when she'd realized just how destructive the wisps could be. That fine from the city of Green Hill and GUN hadn't come through yet, although Belle had been informed about the extraordinarily large sum of money that had been transferred into the Restoration account. The old badnik had...not taken it kindly, to put it into words.

The Tornado started moving slowly, taxiing out to the small runway. "Is this going to be enough room?" Green asked, staring over the short paved area. It was only around twenty feet. Nowhere near enough to actually gain height and not crash into the local houses, such as the three story house right where they were facing.

"Should be," Shadow said. "Ready?" he asked. He ignored anything Whisper could have even started to say as the engine revved and the propeller started to get even louder. "Takeoff in...now," he said, not even counting down.

Whisper held onto the wisps canisters as she was pushed back into her seat. The plane moved slowly at first, but within two seconds had already reached maximum ground velocity. Another two seconds later and Whisper felt like something else had changed, because now the bottom wheels of the biplane barely skimmed over the house next door.

If the small satellite dish on the ground was any occasion, they'd missed it by only a few feet.

The acceleration was pushing her down, and it was hard for her to focus. They were still gaining speed, despite the takeoff in literally suburbia. "How!? Alright, how!?" Green shouted.

"Jet engines and magnetism," Shadow answered back. "The faker told me how it worked. The magnets pushed us up, and the jets gave us lift. A line of magnets means we get lift quickly, and slow down just as quick."

"Alright, that's cool. But who builds a plane that's magnetic? Isn't that a bad thing? Cyan would know."

"Wouldn't that be Blue or Orange?" Whisper asked. Her head was pounding still from the sudden acceleration, but as they climbed higher into the sky, it was starting to wear off. Her ears popped instantly, not that she was worried about that.

"Nah, Orange knows things but random physics? That requires math, and as we all know by now, Cyan's a master. Blue would know why it was built like though."

"And now we see why we couldn't just get out of here earlier," Shadow muttered. Whisper looked over the edge. A large array of air defense turrets lined the edges of where Green Hill was. Some of them were pointed at them anyways, and she hoped that they got the memo that the Tornado wasn't locked down.

"Green Hill Central to Tornado Two, Green Hill Central to Tornado Two, repeat heading," both Whisper and Shadow's headsets crackled.

Shadow kept his eyes on the gauges and on the path in front of him. "That's on you, Whisper."

Wonderful. The amount of sarcasm in the world could not contain the amount of excitement she had for such a thing. "Tornado Two to Green Hill Central. Heading is for Central City. Repeat, Central City."

"Heading for Central City. Path is clear and logged. Been a long time since we've seen that plane flying, Tornado Two. Good luck with whatever it is you need," the Green Hill towers said before disconnecting.

"What does he mean it's been a while since this plane was flying?" Green asked.

Whisper shrugged. "I presume it's because it's Sonic and Tails' plane. And with Tails missing, Sonic hurt, and Amy's not going to be flying it..." she said.

Shadow nodded from the front. "Most likely. Could also be that the plane represents hope. Things were bad here, Whisper, but the rest of the world hasn't gotten much better."

"That's so sad. Even after the mad doctor's gone, the world isn't in any better place. Why is that?" Green asked.

"Many reasons," Shadow answered, "And not one of them is easy. People are greedy, and they always want more. Want more food, want more money...want more safety. And when you get those kinds of people, in an environment that allows them to...well, the world doesn't like it. Others, don't like it."

"But Eggman's gone! He's dead, and gone! They don't need safety anymore!"

"He may be gone but Metal Sonic is still around," Shadow interjected. "There are others, too. Mercenary groups are on the rise as a whole. There's several cities on the far eastern side of the continent that have entire PMC's dedicated to their safety. They're not much safer than Green Hill."

"PMC's?" Whisper asked. "Private..."

"Private Military Contractor's. Similar to what the Diamond Cutters were, I would think, but they were far more noble. And there was a common enemy to unite against back then. Nowadays it's...pretty much just each other."

"Wasn't there a 'Dr. Quacker'?"

"Oh, him. I remember him, vaguely. Thought he'd be the next Eggman. Unfortunately his skill with robots sucked, so instead he enforced his will via enhanced cybernetics, similar to how Starline did it."

"That's why Surge took offense?"

"Heh, more than that. She was, as Kit put it later on 'in a complete bend' about it. Tails found the base, Sonic got rid of most of the enhanced and Surge...well, she got rid of the rest of him. And his data. And his base. And everyone who had a copy of his data."

"She didn't go farther than that?"

"I'm speeding up the process. She did. Everyone even remotely connected to Quacker was taken out. At one point Sonic even tried to save one of them. That's one of the stories of how he got injured."

"By Surge?"

Shadow nodded. "Connected right kick straight to the kneecap. Shattered it, and shattered Sonic's nerves at the same time with her electricity. We can bring back the kneecap, but without massive cybernetics of his own, Sonic couldn't restore the nerves. And that's not who Sonic is. At least, according to the story."

"Did he save whoever he was supposed to be saving though?"

"I don't know. I think so. Little boy, not much older than Violet or Velocity. Obviously couldn't have been connected to Quacker except through the least of obvious methods. Still not sure how Surge found him so quick."

"Is...she still around?"

"Surge? She's still around. Living off in the mountains by herself and Kit. At this point she just wants to be left alone. Kit...doesn't know what he wants."

"You know, I'd have felt bad for her if she wasn't so...well, her. You know how she grabbed us wisps with that weird power thing she had going?"

Whisper nodded. "It's painful to remember," she answered. It was a time of hopelessness, and not one that she cared to try to think about. Although now that she thought about it, if she'd told the wisps to really just let go, it wouldn't have been a problem. But she felt she had to maintain their power, their friendship.

"Yeah, Cyan got a few clues as to what was going on. She had so much cybernetics installed in her that she was more cyborg than islander. Starline literally programmed her to keep going and being evil. She didn't have a chance."

"And you...feel sorry for her?"

"I did. Orange did too, although she hated being used for that purpose. Cyan and Pink though...they hated her. They didn't care about what she'd gone through, every choice is another chance to right the world."

"Not everyone can be that strong, Green," Shadow answered. "It takes a strength of heart most of us don't have."

"You did," Whisper pointed out. "Even when the world was against you."

"As I recall it, I know my history better than you do, Whisper," Shadow admonished. Whisper flinched back a bit. His ears drooped after a second. "Sorry. Sore point. I...wasn't quite myself back then. It's taken me this long to get to the point I can even begin to talk about fake memories."

"Is that why the Shadow robots never spoke?" Whisper asked quietly, even for her.

"Eggman could never get my personality right, so he never tried. I suppose I should be grateful, I've seen what happened to Orbot and Cubot."

"Ha! Can you imagine a shadow robot with Cubot's personality? 'Hi, I am Shadow Mark Five, version 2.1 with exactly 4 horsepower to my main engines, and I am the real Shadow!"

Shadow chuckled. "That sounds more like something Metal Sonic would say."

"He's still around, you said?"

"He is. Ever since Surge knocked Sonic out of the fight though, he's been wandering. Belle keeps tabs on him every once in a while. He doesn't know what to do in his life."

"Any other Eggman robots?"

"Sage. She's guarding Starfall, with a copy of Eggman there for company. Gemerl is still with Cream, acting as a laywer's bodyguard. I suppose when Cream has kids he'd act as their nanny."

The plane twisted and turned for a sharp moment. "Hold on, turbulence," Shadow said calmly as the plane started to turn. Whisper could hear the wind blow at the propeller and the wings. The wings were vibrating hard, to the point she thought they'd end up getting destroyed because the wind was blowing too much.

She felt the plane start to go lower, in an uncontrolled dive. "Shadow, what are you doing!?" Whisper shouted.

"I can't control it! It's like the power doesn't work anymore!" Shadow yelled back. He was wrestling with the control stick. "It's like we're locked into something!"

"Green, hover us!" Whisper suggested. The wisp nodded and imbued himself into the Tornado, and she could feel them leveling out. They were nearly an hour out of where Green Hill was, which meant a long trek back only to say they broke the plane.

The wind blew harder, and even Green was starting to have a hard time keeping them steady. "Shadow..." Whisper said. Should she unleash the wisps? Cyan could probably power up the propeller to unsafe standards, allowing them to get past whatever this was. Blue would allow them to land for a short time, cold as it would be, Pink would allow them to stick to Blue's blocks-

"Controls aren't responding!" Shadow said. "We need to land!"

"For crying out loud," Violet's voice sounded over the radios, "drop the power to gauge two, stop your whining, and grip the control stick to area six. Then power up jet engines to four. This isn't rocket science!"

"Violet!?" Shadow roared, but he ignored the fact that hearing Violet's voice meant she was somewhere on the Tornado as he pressed the right buttons. Whisper wanted to comment that this was, in fact, rocket science, but that might just make Shadow a bit worse.

The main engine stopped, but the propeller was still spinning wildly, Green taking care to make sure that they weren't going to end in a massive dive. Just as soon as Shadow grabbed the stick, he dis-imbued himself and hovered next to Whisper, an untired grin on his face. He was enjoying that.

The jet engines caught a moment later, and Whisper felt the acceleration hit her again. The turbulence ended almost as soon as it had arrived, leaving them to fly peacefully in the air. "Violet. Where are you," Shadow asked, his voice harsh and uncaring. "You're supposed to be at home with Sonic and the others, not nearly two thousand feet in the air with us."

"There's your problem! Biplane, Shadow. We're supposed to be at four thousand. The air's thin enough up there and with the jets we can definitely get to Central City easily within the next three to four hours."

"That's not my question."

"Fine, I tagged along. I'm in the trunk with the rocket fuel," Violet said, annoyance obvious in her voice. "It's too late to turn around now, the Tornado doesn't have the kind of power to outrun that turbulence from the front without the rocket engine."

"...That was back turbulence?" Shadow asked, his face pale.

"Did...did you not know that?" Violet asked. "Whisper, you knew that right?"

"No."

"Well. Shit. Okay. Uh...you can thank me once we land?" Violet asked.

"How bad was a back turbulence?" Whisper asked.

"Bad enough that if Shadow had kept trying to wrench control from Green you all would've crashed badly into the mountainside and probably would have died," Violet answered. "Maybe you should leave the piloting to me."

"No. You're going home. We'll get to Central City, refuel, and head back to Green Hill," Shadow said.

"I don't see what's wrong with having her fly. She's a better pilot than Shadow is, and she's already proved that she knows what to do in even the most random of encounters. And if she stays with the ship, she'll be safe!" Green offered.

"See, Green gets it! Whisper, what do the other wisps think?"

"They are in their canisters, not causing problems."

"...You don't want to risk that, do you?" Shadow asked.

"Not particularly, no," Whisper said. She looked down below, seeing only the blue grass of whatever zone they were over now. The ocean was in front of them, and soon enough they were flying over it too.

"...Can I come out now? It's rather warm in here," Violet's voice said. "I can just stick to Whisper's seat, there's always extra room in there because Knuckles."

"There's not much room in here now," Whisper said, glancing down to the five wisp canisters. Green was hovering out the side, an enjoying look on his face as if he was a dog with it's tongue sticking out.

"It'll be fine!" Violet answered.

"I'm not so certain. I think you should stay back there, because obviously you were intending to be," Shadow answered.

Whisper felt a small knock on her back, and looked back to see a small latch open. Violet's head poked out, her violet ears and fur the first part out. "Dad always had the weirdest reasons for including doors on the Tornado, and I never knew why until now," she announced over the radio, pulling herself out.

She was in mechanic overalls, and Whisper could see a small black and white shirt and pants underneath it. The seat was bigger than Whisper had given it credit for, able to seat both her and Violet, rather uncomfortably all things considered, but them both and the wisps.

"...Why exactly did Tails have that built?" Shadow asked as he looked to see Violet, before he sighed. "That seems like a structural weakness."

"That's what I thought, but that's just another thing we'll have to ask him. Besides, Da-Mr. Sonic didn't give you the code for the Central City lab."

"Of course there's a code, and of course Faker forgot. What is it?"

"I'll type it in for you. It's an eight digit code that only us Prowers know! And Mr. Sonic, I guess. Amy probably knows it too."

"You do realize that as soon as we land, I will be calling them and telling on you?" Shadow asked.

Violet waved her hand around. "Yeah, I know. But I mean, you guys are going after Dad. I can't just...not go. He was younger than I was doing more dangerous things. Or do you not know about the nuke Eggman once threatened Station Square with?"

No, Whisper hadn't actually heard that story. And was beginning to wonder exactly how many times they'd come close to certain death because Eggman was trying something. Seriously, a nuke onto Station Square? Was that before or after the giant water dragon had destroyed half of it!?

"...I don't think I know that story, no."

"Or the time he flew a space shuttle to help with the ARK? Or Metal Overlord? Or Gaia? The End!? How many places did you help with, versus how many did he? He was younger than me!"

"For some of those," Shadow said. "But he was also raised in an era that wasn't safe. You on the other hand...have been. Can you even fight?"

"Whoa whoa, I don't think she needs to," Green piped up. "Seriously, she's a gear head. I have no doubt she had a few wrenches and screwdrivers in those overalls of hers. In other words, she can patch up the Tornado and make sure everything's working, being in no danger at all!"

Whisper stayed silent for a moment, waiting for Violet or Shadow to come up with the obvious argument. Realizing that she'd have to, she sighed. "You forget who we are. How many times have we been in 'no danger at all', only to get into danger?"

"How many times have you wanted to ask Tangle out and then refused for really bad reasons before just blushing and pushing aside and ignoring us for like two hours straight?" Green teased.

Whisper stared at him. "...You're not getting treats tonight," she said, her face feeling a bit flush. Shadow and Violet fortunately realized that Green was saying something that he really shouldn't have.

"...well that's not fair," Green complained. "But, I see your point."

"Cyan would be terrified of you agreeing with me, that we get into too much danger."

"She'd be right to be terrified."

"Umm...how many times as Whisper done all that?" Violet asked. Green let out a small noise of pleasure and adulation, and Whisper felt her face flush behind her mask. "Because I'm going to guess that number is really high?"

"Very," Shadow said from the front. "Belle was keeping track at one point, put the total somewhere near 'ten, with a plus or minus of fifteen.'"

Whisper really felt her face grow warm now, a lot more than even the mask could give her. "You can stop now."

"Yeah, we shouldn't tease her while we're up in the air like this. She's a really good shot, and Orange would agree with her. You can't really dodge it this close," Green advised. Violet blinked her eyes before nodding, slowly trying to make herself smaller in the seat.

"She's not going to shoot at us, Violet," Shadow said.

"You don't see the blank stare her mask is giving at me."

Whisper was staring at her, but her actual eyes were focused more downward than anything. But her mask's eyes were staring directly at Violet, weren't they? That was better for intimidation than Whisper thought. She'd have to keep that in mind.

Despite Violet's jarring appearance in the back of the plane, and against Shadow's better opinion, they kept flying towards the Central City. Whisper could barely see the various skyscrapers out this far, but knew they were there. She'd been to the city only a few times in her life, mostly preferring the small outskirts such as Emeraldville.

Or Spiral Hill, if she had to be honest, but not many were going to ask her about things like that.

"Violet, I'm assuming you know where Tails usually lands?" Shadow asked.

"Yep. Right in the middle of the street. You can't miss the house, it's shaped like his head. I asked Mom why he did that and apparently it was because Mr. Sonic kept forgetting which house was his."

"Sounds like Faker," Shadow said. Whisper looked down at the various instruments, highlighting which street it was on, and hoping that Violet was right, just as Shadow started to take them down.

Fun fact, this is the chapter where I decided on Violet's name being Violet. It was originally Pia, for some strange reason. But I didn't like that, because it has no connections to appearance or abilities, both of which all Sonic characters have, nor do I have the free reign to make a brand new civilization to make the customs of one. Hence, Violet being renamed. If there are any appearances of Pia, please let me know so I can promptly change it.

Until Next Time!