Disclaimer: See the first chapter.

Pushed to the Brink

Hundreds of colors blurred around Whisper. She was frozen in place, unable to move or barely even think. Her mouth was stuck open, and there was nothing in the air for her to smell or taste.

It wasn't bright or dark, but rather some combination thereof that made it impossible to make out anything. Flashing lights of all kinds, everything blurring together. She was standing still, her hand curled around the clock device.

Her wisp friends were still huddling in her cloak, probably stuck in the same place as she was. The floors underneath her moved and tore open, but still she was frozen, unable to blink, unable to think, and unable to fall.

The clock device was beeping though. She couldn't hear it, there was no sound, but she could feel it through her gloves. It went faster and faster, and hopefully Whisper thought it meant it would lose power soon. Would she be stuck like this until Tangle went to get Tails?

The thought flashed through her mind for only a second before she fell to the ground, the clock losing all power now. Where before she was standing on cold hard flooring and tile, now it was the ground. Still dirt, still had a bunch of tiling around, but right where she was the flooring had been removed. "-gle!" Whisper finished her call.

The console had been right there. It wasn't there anymore. Whisper blinked, slowly forcing herself to stand up. "Any ideas?" Orange asked. Whisper shook her head.

"Nothing's the same. Planet Wisp has moved on though," Green murmured. "Did we move to an alternate universe?"

Whisper hoped not. That would be...rough. Very rough. "Can you contact Planet Wisp?" Whisper asked.

Blue shook her head. "No. We can tell where it is, vaguely, but most of us decided to live here. It's nicer here...most of the time."

"Not to mention that so much more craziness happens!" Pink cheered. "Seriously, I was so bored there. There's more excitement here in a month than there is there in a few hundred years!"

Whisper didn't want to comment on the 'few hundred years' part. She knew the wisps were older than they let on sometimes, and there were times when she thought they were basically immortal.

The console was gone, the tubes were gone...and the sun shone through the hole in the ceiling. Which hadn't been there ten minutes ago. "Green?" she asked. The wisp nodded and carefully buoyed her up the ten feet to it.

It had been night only a few minutes ago, but now it was almost noon. The complex, which had been hurt but still in decent shape, had been run roughshod. More than three quarters of it were demolished, and what was remaining was slowly being taken over by various plants.

But seeing plants growing in Eggman's lot...that wasn't normal. The madman never let plants grow anywhere that he didn't want them to. And all of this change in only a few minutes...Whisper glanced back down to the clock in her hands. It had no writing that she could understand even with the translator in her mask, and it was obviously not of Eggman's design.

Whisper did not want to dwell on the possibility that entered her mind. She reached for the radio in her mask, turning it on to the regular frequencies that she and Tangle used.

Not even static. "Anyone out there?" she whispered into it. Her mask had a special function that made her whispers turn to normal volume. "Anyone?" she asked again.

Silence was her answer.

"I don't think anyone's out there, Whisper," Blue said softly. "Not Tangle, not Lanolin...anyone."

"No. They're here. This is just..." Whisper started. "Enough of this. Someone answer. Lanolin. Tangle?"

There was a slight shuffle from her jacket, and Whisper let Cyan out a moment later. She yawned, as much as the wisp could, before she started talking, "They aren't here, Whisper. Check back at the base? Someone's always there."

Right. She could do that. She turned the frequencies to those commonly used by the Resistance, or Restoration as they were known nowadays. "This is Whisper. Someone answer," she said softly.

Static this time, which was much better than previous. She'd been getting nothing, showing no connections available. Static meant that at least someone was out there.

There was a small click. "I don't know who this is, but that's just plain naughty of ya. We got more important things to do than talk with some kid," Whisper heard Belle's synthetic voice say. It wasn't quite the same as the warm wooden one that she was used to. It was definitely still Belle, but...different.

"Belle, this is Whisper."

"I told you, this ain't funny!" Belle's voice said before the line cut out, the static turning into silence.

Whisper stood for a moment, taking everything in. "I don't want to be the one to say it but..." Pink started quietly.

"Then you probably shouldn't," Orange responded.

"We're all thinking it. We got transported through time."

Whisper was hit by a series of groans from the other wisps. "For mother's sake, we did not." Orange said. "Don't even joke about that," Blue answered. Green, "I think you've been watching too many movies."

"I think he's right," Cyan said softly. The other three and Whisper looked at her. "Think about it. Clock device. We all know Eggman doesn't do plants, but there are plants growing all over the place. And some of these grow really slowly!"

"Can you imbue yourself into the thing and see if you can make heads or tails of it?" Blue asked. Cyan shook her head. "Worth a shot."

Whisper felt herself fall to the ground of the roof. She felt tears peeking in the sides of her eyes.

No.

Whisper steeled her heart. She forced herself up, standing up gently. "Tails, Sonic, this is Whisper," she said aloud, dialing into another frequency.

No static again. "I don't think anyone's there..." Orange started. Whisper snarled as she darted forward onto the roof, jumping straight down into the rough road below. The five wisps were taken aback, but a moment later Whisper found them all around her.

"Alright, this is what I'm talking about! What's the plan!?" Pink cheered.

"Find the Restoration. Find Tangle, get the truth. Get back to our own time, if that's what happened," Whisper said as she landed softly against the dirt. All five wisps nodded, their path set and chosen.

Whisper was not the fastest runner. She was no Sonic, who could effectively go over mach one without too many issues. She was no Tails or Amy, both of whom were fast enough to keep up with Sonic for a little bit. Even Tangle was faster than she was.

But she still felt herself go fast enough. Her wispon was attached to its holster on her back, and she ducked and weaved her way through the ruined wreckage of what was once Eggman's base. She hurled herself over a pipe, sliding underneath a broken fragment of concrete.

"Whoo! This is fun, we should do this more!" Pink said.

"I disagree! Whisper, what if you get hurt!?" Green responded from the back. "We don't have any bandages or anything! Unless we do and I just didn't know..."

"We do," Whisper acknowledged. There was a small medicine pouch on her belt, with a few extras for the wisps. They couldn't be hurt in a traditional method, but she carried around a few re-energizers, a treat made from a rare mallow plant from Planet Wisp that helped them regain their energy should they be on empty. She also had a few special treats that Tails had made, tucked away for a rare occasion.

"Oh, that's forethinking," Orange noted. "Did you have an idea this would happen?"

"I think we've long since realized that 'anything' can happen at anytime with these people," Cyan said. "I mean, I can't be the only one that met Sonic up there."

Wait, Cyan had met Sonic before the Resistance was formed? Huh. That was new. Whisper hadn't known that about her.

"No, no, I met him too," Pink answered. "Ooh, watch out, incoming!" she shouted. Whisper stared straight ahead as what looked like a small purple bug thing popped out of the concrete. It wasn't a badnik, or at least didn't have any obvious mechanical components to it.

Whisper ducked around it, jumping backwards from another piece of concrete in one solid motion. It gave off a spitting hiss before it threw one of its arms, a natural curve forcing Whisper to duck underneath it. She could feel how sharp it would have been to get hit with.

She turned and ran, not expecting anything to just come by and try to hit her. She was alright with taking out badniks, as they just did as they were told and there were others trapped inside, but something like this bug? Not okay.

The bug didn't give chase, and let off another hiss as it went back to the alleyway. Whisper kept up her run, now having her eyes dart to every dark alley she was nearby. She doubted the thing was alone; that just wasn't how things worked.

"I see the clearing ahead! Back where we parked!" Orange said. Whisper nodded, ducking over another small pipe before she found herself in the outskirts of the complex. The hard grays and steels of the base turned rather abruptly to the browns and greens of nature.

Whisper felt her boots contact the hard ground, and she slowed down from her run. While she was always going to be a 'city wolf', she appreciated nature just the same. And to be out here with nature was probably the best place for her.

She changed her radio frequencies again back to the ones used by the New Diamond Cutters. She was going to give it at least a few more tries before giving up, and she'd heard Belle's voice when she tried the Restoration's. Which means that someone, somewhere, was still monitoring them.

Could this be an alternate universe? She remembered hearing about those from Sonic and Tails, way back when, during the time of the Resistance. That was a possibility too, but unlikely.

From what she knew of Eggman's devices, or the works of the ancient ones, they almost all looked like something that would tell kind of what they were for. A clock device, like the one hanging from her belt, was probably more for time than going through alternates.

Maybe she could find Blaze? Wasn't Blaze from an alternate world? Or Silver! Silver was from the future too, wasn't he? He must have some trick to get back to the past. Certainly he did it more than enough.

She knew people who would help her, no matter where she was. And she still had to find Tangle. And Lanolin too, she supposed, but mostly Tangle.

"Found the clearing!" Blue cheered from just up ahead. Whisper heard her voice dwindle before she could find her. That was an ominous sign, Whisper thought. She pulled apart a few branches, not surprised at seeing nothing there. No signs of them, no tracks, it was as if they had just up and vanished. It was definitely the same clearing though, as Tangle had carved the words 'Tangle was here' into one of the trees.

It was hard to read, as if the tree was growing around it, but it was still definitely there. Which meant this was the right clearing.

"...anybody remember the closest village?" Green asked a moment later. "We had to pass by a few to get here, right?"

"We passed by Carn and Rosebud," Whisper clarified. "Carn city and Rosebud village," she finished. Cyan nodded, before she looked off towards one of the trees. "Wrong way," Whisper said, already heading towards the edge of the clearing.

It was already a longshot, but it was one that Whisper felt she should have taken. And even though it didn't pan out, it at least told her that Tangle and Lanolin didn't stick around.

The forest wasn't thick, but it was a large one. Roots and branches kept sticking onto Whisper's mask, and it was all she could do to keep it on. "You know, you can probably take the mask off. Isn't it hot under there?" Blue asked.

"It is. Not off the job yet."

"Whisper, you got sent across time. I think the job's on hiatus," Green said.

"That hasn't been proven."

All five wisps gathered in front of her, and fixed their best deadpan glare. The wolf stopped and stared at them, before she gave off a sigh and slowly undid the mask, pushing it off to the side of her head. "Happier?" she asked, still not any louder than before.

"Much!" Green said.

There was a translator in her mask that allowed her to understand the wisps, however Tails had given her an earpiece that allowed it to do the same thing, taking some of the technology out from the mask. She technically didn't need it, but Tangle kept asking her to try it on 'so she can finally understand her friends!'.

More like so she could get tattled on by all of them. Whisper knew how they worked.

"You know where the Restoration HQ is from here, right?" Blue asked. Whisper nodded. It wasn't too far, as the crow flies. It would take several days of walking, if not a couple of weeks depending on weather.

She'd done this kind of thing before, with her old group. They weren't just a mercenary band, but a general 'helpful' one too. As in, they would come in and help out anyone that needed it while they were around.

She checked her pack, just to make sure that everything was still there. A little bit of food, a bit of money both in cash and in cards, treats for the wisps, and a water purifier. Tangle always looked at her weirdly for including that last one, but Whisper would always tell her it's the first thing she packed. Always.

The forest was thick on the farther side, away from Eggman's compound, and the going was slow, although Whisper wasn't going to complain. Branches reached towards her, snagging on her jacket. More than one overstepped their boundaries and snapped off a moment later.

Her jacket was tough, and wasn't going to break because of anything like branches. Occasionally Cyan and Pink would go on ahead, cutting down some of the longer branches. Whisper's boots crunched down on them hard. It hadn't rained in a while, apparently.

Which was strange because it had been raining on their way there. She remembered that because Lanolin had been driving and was upset that the window wipers weren't working, so had to get Tangle's tail to act as makeshift wipers.

It was better than Green's plans at least, which was 'make a shield of energy to keep the rain off'.

It had only been a few hours when the sky started turning pink above the canopy. The ground was already fairly dark. Whisper lowered her mask to her face again, feeling it's comfortable weight on as she activated the night vision.

She could keep going. "I think you should find a place to stay the night," Orange murmured. "It's pretty late already."

"I can keep going."

"It's not a question of if you can, Whisper, it's whether or not you should!" Blue spoke up. "You need your sleep too."

"I don't need to sleep."

"Everyone needs to sleep. You'll feel better with a meal and some sleep in the morning, guarantee it!" Green said.

"I don't need to sleep!"

"Whisper..." Cyan came hovering back.

"I don't need to sleep! I need to find Tangle!" Whisper yelled.

Silence for a long moment as Whisper realized what she'd done. Guilt flashed over her, and regret instantly. "...I'm sorry," she said quietly, even more so than usual.

The five wisps stared at her. "It's okay. We shouldn't have pushed," Orange answered after a minute.

"...I think you're right. Does it look good here?" she asked. The five wisps glanced around before flying around and making small changes. Cyan and Pink broke sticks up, with Blue and Green picking them up and flinging them off to the side. Orange flew around, acting as spotter for even the smallest of sticks that would pierce her tent.

Within ten minutes she had a small clearing in the middle of the forest, barely big enough for her to set up her tent. It was a collapsible one, designed by Tails when she'd asked for one on these longer trips.

With a small push of a button, the canvas and rods aligned magnetically, setting it up in only a minute. With a few grounded stomps, it was set into the earth and soil to make sure it didn't fly away. It had a curved design with a simple opening, much like what others used when going camping.

But hers was a bit different as well. It had a small opening in the top that could be open or shut, venting for smoke or cooking to get out. It had a small area for the wisps to play around in, or sleep. Best of all, it was sized for two regular islanders.

Tangle always forgot her own tent. Always. No matter how many times Whisper reminded her.

The inside was a pitch black until she hit a small tab, letting in some of the natural light. How Tails had done it, she didn't know, but there were some light tags or something that emitted light when pressurized, but didn't take up any extra room.

There was even a small set of sheets there. Tails had planned for almost every occasion with this thing. Whisper nodded, she hoped so. It was worth being his guinea pig for a month, testing out all kinds of inventions that he really didn't want to test out on himself.

The five wisps congregated in their corner immediately, Pink being pushed out of the way by Blue for the sleep chamber. "Be nice you five," Whisper said solemnly. It got a sarcastic nod from Cyan, before she went and started pushing the others around in some semblance of play.

She sat down on the 'bed', feeling it fill up slightly with air in response to the pressure. She took off her boots and socks, before reaching for the small bag she kept at her side.

She didn't keep much in it. Unlike the medical bag, which was filled to the brim, her usual bag was kept to the bare minimum. Three ration bars and a canteen, with a water purifier. She was set for a few days.

They were as they almost always were; bland, tasteless, and wholly unfulfilling. Tangle would've complained about them endlessly. Then again, so would everyone else, except Belle. Could Belle even eat? That was a question she wasn't sure of.

She laid back, staring into the darkened canvas of the tent. There was a large cold spot next to where she was, a hole that wasn't going to fill itself up.

"Whisper? Why are you still awake? It's almost midnight," Blue said, coming out of the wisp area, fully 'recharged' from his nap. Whisper said nothing, merely turning so her head was facing away from him. "It's okay to say you miss her, Whisper."

She brought up one of the covers to cover her ears.

"It's your choice then, I guess. We'll be here if you want to talk."

She wouldn't. Not for a long time, if ever. She remembered what being too loud did. Too cheerful. And here she was again, alone in the world with only five beings of anomalous energies for company.

The morning came too soon, in Whisper's opinion. She didn't know if she got any sleep or not, but as soon as the sky turned a blood red the tent was packed up and she was out on her way.

The forest was quiet, and her silence was only interrupted by the constant chattering of the wisps. They talked about a lot of things, from what they were thinking she was feeling, which they weren't right, to how the world's changed while they went through time, which also wasn't right, to the color of the canisters in her jacket.

"It's a light green," Green said simply. Blue shook her head.

"No, they're light blues!"

"Green!"

"Blue!"

"You're both wrong, they're cyan," Cyan interrupted with a malicious smirk. Whisper rolled her eyes. Cyan wasn't technically wrong, but the color was a mix of blue and green, so neither of them were...

"I wonder how many of our friends settled down. How long do you think we were gone?" Orange asked Pink above her.

"At least a few years. Plants can grow fast, when they're nice and spiky. I want to know more about that insect thing though. It looked like one of the badniks Sonic used to talk about."

"Oh yeah! The ones from that one Zone in that one place."

"Metropolis Zone, on Westside island," Whisper supplemented. Orange nodded wildly, her eyes shaking up and down in a way that made Whisper's head hurt.

"Hey, Whisper...can we go into the canisters? We want to see if we can tell the color from the inside," Blue asked her. With a simple sigh Whisper opened her jacket, inviting them in. The three arguing, Blue, Cyan, and Green, all dove into different ones.

The quiet snaked around them like a blanket, and Whisper sighed in contentment. She liked them, don't get her wrong, but they really acted like immortal kids sometimes. That was probably because they technically were.

She remembered only a bit of the history they've told her. Eggman had come to their planet at one point, and used a hyperspace chain to connect to his amusement park. He'd taken care to use the energy that composed their bodies for his various antics. Sonic and Tails had come by to stop him.

Then Sonic had, according to some of them, almost outran a black hole that was caused by the, in Tails' terms, 'inversion of Hyper-Go-On energy mixing with fundamentally altered energy.'

Whisper didn't understand it, but apparently the fox did. The wisps were impressed by it, and assisted him back down to the ground. Planet Wisp had since taken back off to its original system, although nearly three quarters of the wisps had stayed on Earth.

Which was why, not long later, they had taken great offense to Eggman acting as he always did, again, and started to help the Resistance by imbuing themselves into the Wispon weapons.

It was that technology that Whisper relied on. She was one of the few with a translator, so most wisps had to get by either in the wisp colony, which according to Orange was about as packed as their original planet had been, or using body language.

"Do you think any of your friends already settled down?" Orange asked.

"Not likely," Whisper answered. Depending on how much time had passed, if that's what had happened. For all she knew, the clock had traversed time and space, and she was just in another alternate dimension. How many of those had Eggman weaponized again?

It was a lot, she knew that much. Tails was only barely second on the multidimensional technology thing, and that was only because the fox had this thing called a 'moral code'.

The trees thinned out a bit, the sticks slowly degrading back into the ferns and leaves of a forest starting to end, before Whisper came out to the plains.

She remembered the last few minutes of their trip to the area, of Lanolin having to grip the wheel and yell out 'Hold on!' as she went off roading. It had been a bumpy and ridiculous ride, and Whisper honestly regretted not being able to copy the wisps and just jump into a canister, which supposedly had no physics.

It wasn't Lanolin's fault that she and Tangle ended up bumping heads more than once or twice, but really...Whisper was going to hold it against her anyways.

However, last time there had been nothing here, no road for them to follow, nothing to mark their path.

As she glanced over to the side, there was a small dirt road carved into the hillside, with a small sign on the edge reading 'Egg Complex Park - Vacancy for campers!'

Continuing with chapter 1's Bios, here's a few more!

Mimic the Octopus: Whisper's enemy, and the traitor that killed off her original team. A cruel shapeshifter who pretends to be allies before shifting back and showing his true colors. He effectively led the entire team into a Shadow Android ambush, killing off all of them except for Whisper. In turn, she has been gunning for him for a long time before the start of all this.

Dr. Starline: A notorious quack, a doctor who assisted in turning Dr. Eggman back to normal after his brief foray into goodness with Mr. Tinker. Starline created Surge and Kit, cybernetically enhancing them to be on par with Sonic and Tails. Killed by Eggman.

Kit the Fennec: As Tails is to Sonic, Kit is to Surge. Programmed to be extremely loyal to the girl at great personal costs, and with enhanced hydrokinesis, he's surprisingly a good fighter. Whisper has more of a beef with Surge than with Kit.

Jewel the Beetle: The leader of the Restoration after Amy stepped down. She managed a jewel shop before the Restoration, not having joined the Resistance. She has an eye for detail, and is quite good at dealing with all the paperwork that the Restoration generates.

Until Next Time!