Disclaimer: See first chapter.
Travelogue
Shadow glared at Violet from on top of the wings, the fox girl giving a wide grin. "You did that on purpose," he accused. Her grin got wider, and his eyes got narrower.
Whisper was unfortunately not paying much attention to the byplay. She was thinking too much on Blaze's words, and how the pyrokinetic cat had essentially infiltrated her dream. Or even if she had, or her mind had just made it up.
The Tornado had another navigation screen, and while Violet and Shadow were arguing over things, Whisper checked to make sure that they would still be on course even if she were to look through the map.
She pressed a button, and watched it zoom out. She moved it around a little bit, and tried to feel for the plane turning on its own. The stick kept straight, a sure sign that they weren't turning. As long as she didn't do much else, she'd be alright then.
"When were these maps last updated?" Whisper asked. Shadow and Violet, in the middle of arguing with each other about whether or not Violet had turned off Shadow's magnet shoes, turned to look at her.
"I update the maps with a GPS every time we land," Violet said. "Mr. Sonic said that Dad always did that whenever he brought the Tornado somewhere, so they're...I'm not going to say super up to date, because GPS satellites are kinda rare, but they're fairly up to date. The ones on Green Hill probably wouldn't be, but give that one another week or two. Why?"
"I want to check something. Fern Valley and King's River."
"More like you want to check out to make sure that Blaze's words are somewhat factual," Green said from the side. Whisper nodded. Neither Violet nor Shadow made any movement to show they'd heard the wisp.
"Oh, right! Yeah, those maps should be...well, only a week old at most. But we haven't heard of any earthquakes or any ground shattering nonsense coming up over there, so we should be good to go," Violet said.
"Spiral Hill first," Shadow warned.
"No, Fern Valley first!"
"Spiral Hill!"
"Fern Valley!"
"King's River or Planet Wisp!" Green piped up. The two arguing ones kept going, ignoring him completely. His body drooped in what would have been a shoulder slump if he'd been an islander. "You listen to me, right Whisper?" he asked.
"Of course. You want to go home?"
"No, I just want to be heard," Green answered. Whisper nodded. It was...hard sometimes, when the only one who could hear were ones who weren't listening in the first place.
Whisper looked down at the maps, trying to find 'Fern Valley' on it. It seemed that it was a long stretch of trees and valleys and canyons, all highly forested over. There wasn't much in terms of a pathway, although there was a small note that said there was one. A long snow-covered mountain range covered the north and west of it. Shadow had said it had been 'destroyed'. Were the plants just taking over it?
Now for the hard one. Keeping an eye on Fern Valley, she zoomed out the map until she found what looked like a large stretch of white. White didn't exist on maps unless she saw snow, and based on the elevation map snow should have been impossible there.
The white patch stretched for nearly two hundred miles at its widest point, before it suddenly popped into color again on the far side. A large blue chunk was rendered, coming out of the white patch. King's River.
So that white patch must be where the magic kingdom was.
Two hundred miles. That's how much area she had to search, in nearly a white square. "Why is there a white patch here?" she asked Violet.
The fox turned downwards towards her own screen. It must've duplicated what Whisper was seeing. "Oh. Uh...I don't know. I'll ping a satellite and see if we can't get eyes on that."
Shadow turned to look over her shoulder. "Can't. GUN's been trying for a while. There's some form of EMP that's almost pulsing out of that area. It distorts all pictures to the point of unsuitability. That's why the render of King's River, on the far side, is so badly damaged. They can only see one side of it. Same with Fern Valley."
"Think it's a Chaos Emerald?" Violet asked. There was something her voice that was almost hyped up to be trying to hunt a Chaos Emerald. Whisper wanted to roll her eyes, but didn't. Just because her dad did it, doesn't mean that she had to.
"No, most of the Chaos Emerald's are accounted for. Even then, GUN can make sure that none of the chaos radiation affects satellites, and they do. Frequently. No, whatever it was that's affecting them, it's not a Chaos Emerald," Shadow said.
"So what could affect a satellite like that?" Violet asked. "If it's not a Chaos Emerald."
"GUN doesn't know, and I don't either. Could be any number of things. Eggman tech, too, could cause that. The Restoration still has some old GPS maps from during the war. The amount of white space on those is...significant."
"Maybe they just stole some Eggman tech?"
"Unlikely. Unless they found Metal Sonic or Surge, but we know where Surge and Kit are, and they've been keeping to themselves."
"And Metal Sonic?"
"...We don't know."
Whisper blinked. Metal Sonic was a major assassin robot, and they didn't know where he was at all times? "How? How do you not know?" Violet asked for her. "Isn't that kind of a big deal? Mrs. Amy still shudders whenever the name is brought up."
"He moves around. Ever since Eggman died, he and Sage are off...doing who knows what. Sage we know is stationed, on her own decisions, on the Starfall Islands. Metal Sonic, they tracked him to the tundras in the north, but that's where the trail ends. And he was heading south, from there. That was nearly three months ago."
Whisper looked up the map, seeing the same places Shadow was talking about. The cold circle, is what her mother had called it, way back when. She could find it easily enough, and she imagined the blue robot slowly trudging through the snow with a brown cloak on. Why brown? She didn't know.
"Ooh, I bet that we're going to meet them at some point. Why else would they be brought up by now?" Blue muttered, floating next to Whisper's head and looking over the maps.
Whisper rolled her eyes. Blue, for some reason, was now thinking in terms of stories, as if everything was just one big...coincidence, written up by someone else.
Orange popped out of her canister, and for a moment Whisper relived the moment where Orange had decided to imbue a taxi and take off at two hundred miles an hour. "Or, it could just be that one is a very dangerous AI and one is a very dangerous robot and it's only for the sanity of everyone that we keep an eye on them!"
"Well, yeah, but what fun is that? Seriously Orange, think of the stories! What else could be better than a lost love between a robot and a girl lost in time-"
Both Orange and Whisper exchanged looks. "No more romance novels for you, Blue," Whisper proclaimed. Blue's eyes got wide, and started to look awfully sad before he grinned. "You wonder why no one listens to you..." she murmured.
"Hey, just because I have crazy conspiracy theories doesn't mean I shouldn't be listened to."
Orange shook her head, "No, Blue, that's exactly why you shouldn't be listened to. Now when you have a good point, such as pointing out that King's River is technically between us and Spiral Hill, well..."
Shadow and Violet's ears twitched. Whisper felt a small pang of satisfaction. They were listening, and not just arguing for the sake of killing time while on board an airplane. Piloted by a twelve year old. She looked at Green, hovering above them with a look of longing as the wind rushed by his face, once again satisfied that she'd be safe because if anything she trusted the wisp more than she trusted the other two.
"Is it really?" Violet asked, looking at her own map. "I mean, it's off by a few hundred miles, but I didn't think King's River was that long..."
"That's why it's called 'King's River'. Longest river that we know of," Shadow said. "It's still quicker to go to Spiral Hill than it is to go to Fern Valley. And we will need to refuel."
"No we won't?" Violet asked. "There's more than enough fuel to get us to Fern Valley and Spiral Hill without refueling at all."
"I think there's another reason Shadow wants to go Spiral Hill, and I don't think my crazy romance theory is correct..." Green murmured.
Shadow sighed. "There is, actually. Because I've been reinstated as a GUN agent, one of the things they wanted me to do was to go around to all the old higher ups of the Restoration and Resistance."
"And Jewel's at Spiral Hill," Whisper realized. And it was nearly impossible to go much higher than Jewel. She was the leader for the entire time that Whisper was part of the organization, after Amy had stepped down. The beetle was well organized, and didn't mind running ridiculously long hours to make sure everything was up to snuff. That is what made it so easy for Surge and Kit to infiltrate the first time around, but...well, Whisper and Silver knew that something was up.
And if she'd had Cyan track them throughout the Restoration base without anyone realizing it because honestly who could ever track a laser wisp throughout an electronic camera system, well...that was just her knowledge.
Although Tails had found a way to track her, and had promptly locked her out. Right before everything went kaput, actually.
"Yes. Amy is already accounted for. Angel Island is...well, they think they know," Shadow said.
"Angel Island? You mean Uncle Knuckles' place?" Violet asked. Whisper had to stop herself from facepalming. Of course Violet and the other kids would know who Knuckles was. Just because the last echidna was actually the last echidna didn't mean he didn't like visitors. That she knew.
And that he wasn't afraid to punch in the face.
Although Whisper hadn't actually known him all that well. She'd met him a few times, and while he seemed like a good person, certainly dedicated to the Master Emerald as he should be, there was an inherent air of loneliness about him at times.
Whisper could relate, but only in the times when the wisps weren't around. Most of the time they kept her company enough for several people.
"Yes. You know where it is?"
"...Yes? Is that a trick question? Island floating in the sky. Kind of hard to miss," Violet answered.
"Not a trick question. The Master Emerald gives off similar radiation that blocks most electronics. GUN has yet to figure out how to deal with the Master Emerald."
"You say that as if you know a way, and you and GUN are separate," Violet pointed out.
"I do. It's called ignoring it because Knuckles is a capable guardian."
"I don't think they know how to. A gem of extreme power that they don't control? Pretty sure that's anathema to them," Orange joked.
"You joke, but that's effectively correct."
Whisper nodded. She almost wanted to stop by to see him, to make sure that he didn't have any information to get Tangle and Tails back. And yet...she wanted to leave him alone. He was, at most, Shadow's friend. Her own friends were the wisps, and Tangle. And that one was why she was out here to begin with.
"Any sign of the Time Eater?" Whisper asked quietly, even for her own standards, to Orange. The orange wisp looked up, and looked around. "You saw it first last time."
"Yeah I did. I don't see it now. Green?" Orange asked.
The green hover wisp shook his head and body. "Nope. Not around. Ooh, is that Never Lake?" Green asked, looking downwards.
Whisper made sure she was strapped down, before she stood up and looked over the side. It gave only a slight tilt, and one that Violet corrected for barely blinking an eye on it. Didn't the Tornado have an autopilot system?
Sure enough, far down below them was a large glassy lake. It was mostly surrounded by forest, except for one mountain that looked as if it had been a victim of both erosion and a volcanic eruption. The Little Planet was nowhere near, it seemed.
"Definitely some temporal distortions," Orange muttered. Cyan and Pink popped out of their canisters a moment later.
"Ooh, temporal distortions! Time's just acting weird, that's all." Cyan clarified.
"It's all spiky here. Feels nice," Pink answered. "Seriously, it's a giant jagged curve. I don't know of anything else that does this."
"I do. Remember how Eggman caught Planet Wisp originally?" Blue said. Whisper was now almost pushed to the side of the Tornado's co-pilot seat by all the wisps. Despite the fact they had no mass, they could still effectively 'push' her out of the way.
"I don't...you'll have to remind me?" Green said. Whisper noticed that both Shadow and Violet and turned silent, one of their ears both pointed towards the wisps.
"Right. He chained them up. Guess what he did down there, you can see the remains. And given the temporal distortions..." Blue answered.
Cyan nodded, her head nodding fast. "He moved the chain through time and space! Meaning he must have come back here after Sonic and Amy had already left!"
Blue turned to her. "Wait, Amy was here too?"
Green nodded. "It's how they met. A real meet-cute kind of situation, saving her from Metal Sonic right before the Metallic Madness."
"...How do you know that's the name?" Pink asked suddenly. "I don't remember ever seeing it anywhere, and Sonic didn't say it."
Green, if it was possible, blushed. Parts of his face turned red, and seemingly just hovered in front of him. Small little red elliptical things. "Oh...uh...on the bus. Bus ride to the Restoration, that is. They uh...made a game out of it. Called Sonic And Little Planet. Played it. Beat it. Thought it was meh."
"Faker has games on his adventures?" Shadow asked no one, yet his voice was proudly shouted from the radios.
Violet nodded. "Oh yeah, bunches of people play them. It's actually one of the reasons Mr. Sonic's never really had to worry about work. He got some licensing fees, and because it's a nickname he's allowed to trademark his name. Doesn't make a lot, but as he says 'its enough to pay the bills'."
Shadow snickered. "Heh, Maurice..."
That hadn't happened yet in Whisper's time. She'd have to remember to tell him that, if only so he could get on it. Unless she already did, and this was taken into account everything..."Green...time travel tropes," she asked quietly.
"Uh...what kind?"
"Any and all kinds!" Pink answered for her. "Wait, I know this one. Don't worry Whis, I know all of these too! Just because Green's the only avid reader...you're worried about paradoxes, aren't you!"
"Pink that's not what she asked-"
"To get rid of a paradox, you just have to point at it and shout at it really loudly, and that'll make it go away! You have to shout out, 'I don't believe in paradoxes!' and poof it goes."
"Pink that is absolutely not-"
"Alternatively, just avert your eyes! Nothing can happen if you don't actually SEE the paradox happen. So if you suddenly were to appear in space or turn into a bowl of petunias-"
"Pink, those are two different books-"
"Then you just shout out really loud and everything goes flying and you can jump like ten thousand feet in the air. What were we talking about?" Pink asked.
Blue, Cyan, and Orange were openly laughing at this point. "Pink, those are games. Or other books."
"Well yeah, wasn't that she was asking? Come on, every one of those games or books has some kind of time travel nonsense."
The air around the Tornado was silent for a moment as Whisper thought about it. Half of those references didn't make sense, but she knew better than to underestimate any of the wisps. Particularly Pink. He had a way of finding a lot of things out that by all rights he should have no way of knowing.
"...You're not wrong..." Green was forced to say quietly.
"Wait, I recognized one of those! Was that the Elder Emeralds Five? When did you manage to play that one, it only came out like ten years ago!" Violet asked from the pilot's seat. The vixen's ears were definitely pointed back now, focused on hearing everything she could from them.
"Well, part of that was Emeralds Three, Yesterzephyr," Cyan clarified. "But in general, yeah, how did you manage to play that one?"
What Whisper really wanted to know was when the wisp's managed to have time to play games at all while with the Restoration. She certainly didn't have time, and even she wasn't working twenty four seven. Admittedly hunting down Mimic didn't exactly help with her timing problems...
"Oh, same reason that Green was able to play Sonic and Little Planet. The bus had a bunch of random games on there. Whisper was passed out half the time."
She was? She remembered that entire trip, and not once did she remember taking any naps or having a bunch of time suddenly pass her by. She thought the wisps had been too busy watching that one children's show...
Or maybe that was just Orange and Cyan. Wait, Pink had been at the back of the bus. Whisper shook out her head. They had been on there for a little over a day, there was plenty of time for all of that. She thought.
"I was a bit busy making sure the Time Eater wasn't catching us," Orange bragged. The others froze, turning slowly to stare at her. "What? I knew it was following us since we left Eggman's base!"
What followed was a bunch of wisp words that Whisper had never known about, and in fact her translator was faltering. She gave a glance at both Shadow and Violet, to find them both staring in shock at the other four wisps who were quite loudly chewing Orange out for something like neglecting to inform them of said eldritch abomination.
After around five or ten minutes, Whisper wasn't sure which because she was currently cramped against the side of the plane, the other four finally calmed down, heading back into their canisters. Green stayed out, but he stayed silent, glaring at Orange the entire time.
"You know, I could have sworn that I heard somewhere that wisps have two languages, and they only use one when they want to be heard," Shadow said from the front. "But...I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to hear that one."
"I'm going to look up all of those words the instant we land somewhere. See if there's an online translation that my translator couldn't get," Violet answered.
"I just didn't want to worry anyone..." Orange muttered under her breath. "How much longer until Spiral Hill? I'm...I'm tired."
Whisper opened her jacket, inviting the wisp to take a rest in her canister if she so chose, or alternatively to just let her rest.
"About...three to four hours. We'll get there by the sundown," Violet clarified. "Doesn't help that we'll be jet-lagged."
"Eh, sleep is for those who need it," Shadow said from the front.
"So...you," Violet shot him down instantly. "I saw you sleeping on the couch last night Mr. Shadow."
"I'm not mad," Green said softly. Whisper felt her emotions pitch and rise as Green said something else. A sense of knowledge, of unearned wisdom, recollection, and duty. She gave a glance towards both Shadow and Violet, who seemed to have much less of a reaction towards the wisp tongue than she did.
"I know," Orange said, giving him a small head bump before heading back into the canister. Whisper stared at Green for a moment, before her eyes went over towards the edge.
Endless fields lay underneath them, the forest well behind them. It wasn't fields of wheat, but rather of plain tall grass, reaching for the skies and heavens above them. Rarely, small trees could be seen, towering over the grass. Non islander animals could be seen grazing upon it. Deer and various elk were in separate groups, keeping an eye on each other. Whisper had no doubt that rabbits were there too, along with every other non islander animal.
Violet gave a giant yawn as she looked over the records again. "Alright. We'll be coming up to Spiral Hill shortly. Shadow-"
"Magnet boots already on."
"Good, you've learned," Violet teased, even as Shadow's eyes narrowed. It gave a haunted feeling to Whisper, who knew that those eyes narrowed were one of the last things the other Diamond Cutters saw. She doubted the black hedgehog ever knew why she disliked him at times.
Or if he had even cared.
"Sky Fox to Spiral Command, I repeat, Sky Fox to Spiral Command," Violet said loudly into a microphone on her dash. "Come in, Spiral Command."
The response was instantaneous. "Yeah? The hell do you want."
"Uh...landing confirmation."
"Shit. You're gonna make me do my damn job aren't you...Alright Sky Fox, license number and model plane."
"License number is 857654-A453," Violet rattled off, although she gave worrying glances to both Shadow and Whisper. She noticeably turned off the microphone. "We might have a problem."
"I hope that's not a fake license number," Shadow said, standing up tall. "I am a licensed government agent now."
"No, no, it's not fake, I actually am a certified pilot," Violet said. "But...that seems weird. Every where else I've ever seen were all professionals at the radio tower."
"Something does seem off," Green said. "Didn't they also ask for the model of the plane?"
"He did, but I can't give him that. Usually they just use the plane model numbers as simple identification, but the Tornado is a custom craft. It doesn't have a standardized model number."
"Model number too Sky Fox. I'm gonna need that shit too," the voice repeated through the radio.
"This is a custom craft, it doesn't have one," Violet said.
Whisper could almost hear the grin pop up on the other side's face. "Well I guess you can't park here then. Go to some other airport."
Spiral Hill even had an airport now? Wait, of course it did, Belle and Shadow had talked about getting tickets back when Whisper had first shown up.
"We don't have enough fuel for that! We need to land!"
"Can't land here. No space open. Also you're a 'custom craft'. That also usually means better fuel mileage. Hey, Antispiral Hill airport has an opening!"
Green stared at the radio. Whisper could tell he was starting to get a bit angry, and she reached up with one hand to gently calm him down. "Sky Fox to Spiral Command, I am demanding emergency landing protocols!" Violet shouted into the radio. Whisper glanced at Shadow, who also had narrowed eyes towards the radio.
"Under whose fucking authority!?"
"Under mine, you righteous-!" Violet shouted into the microphone, cutting herself off. Whisper could see the small droplets of water that threatened at her eyes, and the back of her head. She calmed down instantly, turning the radio off. "I'm...sorry," she muttered under her breath.
"No, keep up that energy," Shadow argued.. "I appreciate it, as a note. However, it may be best to keep that temper down. Next time, just use my authority," he continued.
Whisper looked down to see the...now city of Spiral Hill, rather than the village that she'd known it as, coming into view. There weren't any skyscrapers, with the tallest building only being maybe four, five floors at most. It was no Green Hill, and definitely no Central City. But it seemed quiet...almost too quiet.
The runways had been cleared, but in a manner that was close to 'just barely good enough'. Planes were strewn about everywhere, bags were left where they were...if Whisper didn't know better, she'd say they had wandered in to a zombie movie set. They claimed they 'had no room', except that was an obvious lie.
Violet gently landed the plane with a bare bump on an empty runway, much better than Shadow's initial take off had been, and she looked around. "This...doesn't seem right to me," she said. Whisper nodded. Potholes were left on the runways, as if they hadn't been serviced for a long time.
"I'm...going to find Jewel. Violet, Whisper, stay here and refuel the Tornado. Got it ready for an emergency takeoff if we need it," Shadow said. Whisper looked at him, wondering why she was supposed to stay. Wasn't he the government agent? "I know where Jewel moved her museum to. Unless you know it?" he asked.
Whisper stared at him for a while. Tangle was from here; of course she knew Spiral Hill like the back of her hand. And she'd gotten a good look at the general map when flying over it, she could find Jewel's place easy. He gave a sigh as the wolfess stared at him. "Fine. Fine, you go. I'll stay here and help Violet," Shadow shrugged.
Whisper nodded, and asked Green to go back into his canister. She wasn't going to make the same mistake she'd made at Green Hill, and only take Orange. No, she was going with them all.
Even in the city of silence.
Welcome to Spiral Hill.
Fun fact, Violet was supposed to keep going with that line, but I cut it off because I don't think she'd call anyone names if she could help it.
Until Next Time.