The Great Jungle, South of Northamer

Night

"...Are we there yet?"

"No Isabelle. We're not there yet."

"Ugh!" Isabelle groans, walking through the jungle at night with the moon providing a natural light source past the trees and foliage. "Can't they be good boys for once and just show themselves to us right now so we can get this over with…"

"If you stole and made off a government project, showing yourself would be the last thing you want to be doing."

"Thanks for stating the obvious, Monica."

"And you guys say I'm impatient." Sonic quips to Rotor, the pair leading the pack through the jungle while following the emission trail to find their thieves. The walrus shaking his head.

"Still is."

"Can't believe you, a friend of mine would wound me like that…" Sonic did a mock dramatic gasp.

"And Shadow's just giving you tough love?"

"Tch. I already have a dad and an uncle; I don't need him acting like a stepdad to me."

"You better treat us to a good day out or we'll be telling Shadow you called him your dad."

"He'll just shrug it off with a smirk, knowing he's got something to use against me."

"Or he'll be so overjoyed like he discovered marble racing exists."

"What gives Shadow his joy is A. Me losing a race, B. Admitting 'George & Margeret' is better than 'A Likely Tale' and C. Me saying I'm envious of his chest hair."

"Well, are you?"

"No." Sonic replied quickly before moving onto the next subject; "What do you think of him?"

"Shadow? He's a handsome fella; don't real—"

"No, I mean Gadget." Sonic clarified. "The new guy. The red guy that's not Knuckles."

"Oh, right…" Rotor glances at his tracking device before looking up to answer the hedgehog's question; "Based on my limited interactions with him so far; he seems nice enough and intelligent. Rather shy disposition though."

"Shy? Doesn't seem that shy when he is chatting with you guys."

"He'll talk to you alright when you speak to him. It's that it feels like he's nervous while trying to hide the fact he is feeling nervous around us. Makes me feel we're all intruding on his personal space and he's only talking back because he has to rather than wanting to." Rotor sighs, trying to get across his thoughts in proper words and as politely as possible. "I'd need more time with him to get a better reading on him but that's the impression I got off him from what little time I've hung around with him."

"Didn't seem that nervous with me."

"It's probably because a war was going on and he had time to get used to you. It is one thing going from being a civilian to fighting a large scale war but it's a different zone when you're coming out of a war and suddenly be made a member of the same group as your heroes. Not as an honorary member but as a full time member and the responsibilities that come with it. That's like going from a fan of the Forget Me Knots to being an actual member of the band just because Mina appreciates you for filling in for Max when he took a hand injury. It's quite a leap when you think about it."

"I'm a firm believer that if you don't grab life by the horns, you won't know what you're missing out on and would rather play it safe."

"Sonic. Not everyone is cut out for the life we're in and that's the honest truth; some would much rather prefer the mundane than the fantastical. Myself included but I'm conditioned to roll with you guys when my help is needed."

"I know he got what it takes. He just needs a nudge in the right direction, the right encouragement and you'll see what I see."

"I believe you because you personally advocated for his inclusion more than anybody and know you wouldn't do that without a good reason for it. It's why I want to be his friend and make him feel welcomed with us but I can't force it on him." Rotor turns his neck to Sonic to ask pointedly; "Have you ever considered the possibility he might not really want this but doesn't want to disappoint you by accepting it because you're the one who offered it to him?"

"..." Sonic didn't answer. How could he address a question when he doesn't know anything about the answer.

"I'm not assuming anything and I am probably figuring him all wrong here. I'll happily say in hindsight that I had judged him wrong when he proved to us he is definitively prime Freedom Fighter material and I would love to see him succeed. Just something I had to get out there for your sake. Might I ask what you personally see in him?"

Sonic's mouth line curves to a smile.

"...Maybe I'm being nostalgic here but I see something of the old Tails in him. Everyone overlooks them because they're not it or treat them like a piece out of place while I see something special; untapped potential and heart everyone else isn't willing to see. Tails thought he wasn't good for anything because of his second tail and isn't cut out for anything more than being the sidekick until he learned the sky's the limits on where he can go. Maybe I feel that my work with Akira is far from finished yet…" The blue hedgehog adds with a slow nod. "It's one of those things you just know and you're compelled to help see it through to the end."

"Might just be me but the way you're telling it; you make it sound like him becoming one of us is his first, best destiny and anything else is a waste of material. Did Silver put you up to this?"

"Never consulted him on it; it was my call. You'll know if he comes over and demands who screwed with his timeline because of what I did."

"Where would you be if he chose to come barging in blazing hotter than a charged up Blaze?" Isabelle interjects, adding herself to the conversation. "And whatcha talkin' about yo?"

"I'd be somewhere in Soleanna. Safely out of his reach." Sonic looked back over his shoulder to the nosy hedgehog. "And we're talking about official business. For your eyes only."

"Including the reason Silver wants to give you a good kicking?"

"If he's mad at me, we can talk it out. Like adults."

"Didn't know talking constitutes being an adult in your case."

"And eavesdropping on friends when they're chatting doesn't equal actual journalism." Sonic retorted playfully. "Gossip listening would be more appropriate for what you're doing."

"Shush guys…" Johnny spoke up and put up a hand with everyone stopping in their tracks. "I hear something faint…"

"Ze zhieves?"

"No, more like… Like a helicopter approaching."

Sonic looked up to the dark skies, brow furrowed with the focus of an EX Gear professional. "How close Rotor?"

"638 yards from our current spot." Rotor reported, pointing ahead. "Around 6 to 7 minutes at our current pace."

"Then let's pick up the pace if that's their pickup coming over!" Isabelle says impatiently before charging off with her kinetic-charge; spinning forwards like a tornado. Eager to get to the thieves right now before they get a chance to escape.

"Wait!" Johnny cried out when the more brash Sprout Sister raced off.

"Zhat fool's running headfirst into danger!" The coyote exclaimed in irritation as the group hurried after Isabelle's lead with Monica and Sonic speeding on ahead while the rest followed behind in their sprints.

"...You're hearing that, aren't you? You got a pair of things called ears." Jason says to Lindsey when he hears the distant sounds of whooshing approaching over towards their current location; the thieves heading through a forest site near a waterfall. The freckled woman's mouth sneers at the news and snatches the briefcase off the closest henchman to her.

Her eyes looked for the hooded figure that was sent to accompany her group but found the being inexplicably missing and right when she actually needed its' assistance the most. "Just what we need… Alright you maggots, time to get yourselves into position and ambush the idiots trying to follow us. Fill the bodies all with iron for their troubles…"

Due to the way the jungle terrain is formed and how the Sprout Sisters' kinetic tornadoes work, Isabelle was able to get some distance. Being slower in speeds than Sonic but has the verticality advantage to clear through plenty of the uneven and entangled path with relative ease before the other two speedsters caught up to her.

Monica started to chide Isabelle, irritated by her lack of patience. "Can you not bull in headfirst int—!"

Sonic quickly pulls Monica and Isabelle over to a rock shaped cover as they are hailed with gunfire; the three having wandered right into an ambush. Lindsey's goons opened fire upon sighting them and all trained on their current cover.

"We're going to be having a word about this later…" Sonic says to Isabelle, looking off to his right with narrowed eyes as he picks up a pebble the size of a watermelon to test something out and tosses it out into the open where it proceeded to get blasted into multiple small pea-sized pebbles from a burst of coordinated gunfire before the smaller pieces landed on the ground. "Both of you wait here until I can draw most of their fire away."

"Affirmative." Monica nodded, her back against the stony cover as is her twin who's looking like she made a fool of herself. They both know Sonic can outrun those bullets in the open better than they can.

Putting his mind in the zone and bracing himself for a movement trick he's learned from one of his trips to Soleanna to compensate for the small room he has to get his super speed going; he'd proceed to shoot forwards out of cover with a surge of speed. To the sister, it looked like he was in a track warmup pose before instantly zipping off without even seeing either of his legs going into a wind-up position preceding his run; appearing instantaneous to their naked eyes.

Following up on said surge by using his own running speeds going to quickly dodge the hail of bullets that appeared almost instantly and reach the right side of the area where the natural formations there provided more room for cover from gunfire. More room for Sonic to be able to devise his next move.

With his quick-thinking and having a rough idea on what direction the bullets are coming from thanks to the muzzle flashes, he would speed over to dispatch the three nearest gunners relative to the Sprout Sisters' position and pile them up behind the nearest tree. To the other shooters present, they'd only see a blue streak moving through the darkness and all three zipping out of existence from contact.

"C'mon guys, I've seen chefs dice red onions into little pea-shaped cuts faster than you can draw!" Sonic taunted the other shooters, zipping between covers at each syllable as they fired in his direction and signaling to the other two hedgehogs. "I bet your dads went at it with your mums faster than that!"

Seemingly striking a nerve through his words or annoying them enough to get under their skins, Sonic found himself having to play tag the hedgehog with bullets right when the twins got going and separately moved themselves over to more favorable tactical positions. The two covered both sides of the combat area and both quickly got to work in dispatching more of Lindsey's men the same time the rest of their group arrived at the scene.

"...Hey, where's the stolen cold fusion at?" Rotor answered a call from Sonic through his golden combat suit's comms while behind cover, looking at his tracking device.

"It's past this area a few yards from our position and currently moving through the path over by the waterfall ahead of us as we speak." The walrus told him, blind-firing a beam over his cover. "Any sign of Lindsey or Jason here?"

"Probably with the prizes; they're not exactly known for sticking around with their grunts. I'll go and intercept them while the rest of you guys mop up the trash mob here."

"Roger that. We'll meet you soon. Over and out." Rotor tosses a flash grenade over where his attackers were and emerges to engage with Lindsey's goons after it went off, using his visor set to night vision to locate them. Antoine and Johnny were managing well on their ends.

With the way things are looking, they have this in the bag. However a part of Rotor thinks something's up here but can't place a finger on what that off sensation is…

Sonic called up Monica for backup and she quickly followed him over to the area right at the waterfall situated near a cliff overlooking the tropics below and offering an unobstructed view of the full moon overlooking the Great Jungle. In the distance, they sighted Lindsey, Jason and three of their mooks hurrying through the route with the stolen container plus the briefcase. Knowing the pickup point is not too far from here.

With the five thieves out in the open and looking like easy pickings, the two hedgehog made beelines towards the humans but as they were nearing when they've reached their end of the water brook; a hooded figure suddenly drops down like a predator of the night and lands right in their path which forced the pair to brake on the spot.

The sound of the landing alerted Lindsey and her group to the hedgehogs' presence amidst the ambiance of the waterfall close-by. Though seeing the hooded figure blocking their pursuers from getting to them, Lindsey barked at her men to keep running and leave the insurance policy to deal with the pests.

Appearing as an ominous silhouette against the full moon's bluish hues; the menacing glow of red from the figure's upside down triangle eyes were the only points of interest they could see from the cloaked shape.

"Guess they weren't entirely alone…" Going with his trademark daredevil smirk, Sonic says the unexpected figure; ready to battle the being. "Things just got a lot more interesting~"

The two mobians were quick to engage in a battle with the newcomer and right off the bat, the cloaked one proceeds to smack aside Monica after dodging an attack of hers'. The lavender hedgehog crashes into a tree while Sonic finds himself on the defensive against the unknown opponent; dodging a flurry of attacks and ducking a claw swipe aimed at his head.

'Whoever they brought along with them; I see now how they gave Shads' people the slip…' Sonic quickly jumps to the side when the other being shot a red beam from the sleeve with the laser obliterating the rock behind him while the hedgehog zips onwards and does a Homing Dash on the red-eyed figure who puts up the forearms to block the attack. Shoving the blue hedgehog back, the cloaked fighter charged forward and went for a roundhouse kick that connected with the speedster's stomach.

The force of the kick sends Sonic scraping across the half-grassy, half-dirt floor until he crashes through a small tree that splinters to pieces and lands on his feet a little dazed. Monica would prevent the attacker's intent to follow up through her spinning kicks that it blocks but afforded Sonic the time he needed to recover and get back into the fight.

"I'll keep this one busy while you go stop them!" Sonic orders Monica before re-engaging with his hooded opponent. The lavender mobian nodded and hurried off after Lindsey's party.

The blue blur and the mysterious figure traded fast strikes between each other; the brawl bringing them over to the stones protruding from the shallow streaming water washing through. As the slightly soaked Sonic was fighting his opponent, a thought occurred to him at how… Familiar the other fella's moves felt to him. How similar a lot of them are to his own moves including the latter even pulling off a Sonic Eagle; a riff on the Taekwondo technique Axe-Kick that he dodges.

He dismissed the deja vu feeling; remembering he's fought against others with similar fighting moves before and simply focused on keeping the other person busy. Keep the robed figure's attention on him like he's the target.

Lindsey, Jason and the three henchmen accompanying them were hurrying through the bushes; rushing to get to the pickup point where a helicopter will be awaiting them. The sooner she'd be out of this god forsaken jungle, the better.

As she was fantasizing the thought of getting a big payday for the job or double crossing her client and selling the stuff to the highest bidder, two of her henchmen were suddenly knocked down by Monica who then held her capture device at her like a gun. Jason and the henchman carrying the container were held at capture point as well; seeing as they'd have to set down the weighty container to pull out their guns but she wasn't going to take the risk when it's just her present.

"Put down the briefcase and your weapon." Monica ordered sternly, eyes on Lindsey, Jason and Butch. "Slowly."

"Alright… Alright..." Lindsey sighs, a look of defeat plastered across her face while slowly setting down the briefcase and the pistol in her hand. "You got me…"

"You're just going to let this pipsqueak—"

"Can it Jason!" The red-headed woman cuts him off, setting the hands down at the sides of her waist; within grabbing reach of a concealed second pistol under her shirt while keeping her eyes on Monica with the two at a standstill. "She's got us red-handed here… Say, aren't you Amy Rose?"

"Wrong hedgehog." Monica retorted at the question. "Do us hedgehogs look alike to you Honey?"

"Never knew any personally… More of a humanist gal myself." The freckled woman smirked, mirthlessly chuckling to herself. "Not opposed to doing business with animals."

Monica scoffs. "You never oppose anything as long as it fills your pock—"

"Monica?" Isabelle's voice calls to her through the wrist comm. "You got Honey-Bunny and her boytoy yet sis?"

"I have them here now and I'm looking for a hand right now. What about the rest of their gang?" Monica had brought her communicator up to under her device-holding hand to tap the open comm button before responding while keeping the eyes on the three thieves.

"All rounded-up."

Isabelle declared proudly to her twin while hurrying down to the waterfall area. "But I thought Sonic's with you?"

"He was but the thieves brought along someone that's giving him trouble." Monica told her.

"That's not very specific Monica." The boisterous lavender hedgehog drawls. "You could be describing half of his enemies there you know."

"Whoever Lindsey has with her; he's more formidable than the rest of her gang."

"Even the Girl Boss herself?"

"I'm being serious."

"Okay, okay… 'Sides, I'm heading down right now."

When Isabelle made it to the water brook area, she saw Sonic and the hooded figure duking it out in the shallow water. Her teammate just avoided a stone being thrown at him.

"I see your mystery fella alright…" She tells her sister, seeing the fight going on between the two. "Must be a mad monk or a real ugly one to be wearing the robes…"

Isabelle rushes down to go help Sonic out and the unrelenting fighter starts blasting lasers at her; the lavender hedgehog dodging the strikes when rushing in on the opponent. Upon getting in close, her and Sonic double-teamed the cloaked being with her taking the rear side while he took the front.

Sonic would yank down on the hood to cover the eyes before uppercutting the being with Isabelle following it up through barging through under the enemy, making it crash onto its back. Both hedgehogs felt a bit sore from laying direct hits to their body like they're punching against metal.

Isabelle goes to tell her twin through the comm. "You're not kidding when you said he's—!?"

Rotor in his battle suit would arrive the same time the opponent recovers and quickly strikes Isabelle with a punch, sending her flying in the walrus' direction. He goes to catch her; gently sets her back down and rushing over to engage with the battle.

"Isabelle?" Monica said in concern when her twin was suddenly cut off on the other end, enough to momentarily break eye contact with Lindsey to shift her gaze to the wristwatch. "Isabelle!"

In the brief moment her eyes were snapped to the comm, Lindsey seized her chance and immediately drew her pistol on the Freedom Fighter. By the time Monica looked back to the redhead, she saw the human quickly pulling the trigger and so quickly as she did so that when a shot was fired off at such close range; the hedgehog didn't have time to dodge the bullet.

Monica's eyes went wide when the bullet struck her followed by a second before blood patches start appearing here she's been shot and the wounded Sprout Sister went down to the ground.

"Nothing personal kid..." Lindsey smirks wickedly when she sees the hedgehog go down, grabbing the briefcase and picking up her other gun. "It's just business… And I personally hate it when stupid rats like you get in the way of it!"

She delivers a swift, hard kick into Monica's sides and spitting at her before gesturing to Jason and the others as they hurried off from the scene. Leaving behind a bleeding hedgehog in their wake.

The same time Rotor went to catch Isabelle, Sonic lunged at his opponent and grabbed the soaken robes.

Tearing the battle-damaged brown fabric off his unknown opponent and unveiling what they look like under it. When the billowing clothing finally left his sights to let him see the true face of his adversary; his confident demeanor suddenly evaporated to one of side-eyed horror and let out a loud gasp as he dropped the robes at his feet.

With a shiny blue coat reflecting against the moonlight and stars, seeing his own reflection in one of the black spaces where the red optics were and bearing a hedgehog silhouette before him; he knew what he was looking at… Mecha Sonic.

Red upside down triangle optics, a shiny metallic blue coat, red feet, white servo hands, golden forearm guards, golden knee-guards, golden strips on both sides of the neck, gunmetal circles at both sides of the gunmetal mouth's cheeks that resembles hinge-joints or headphones, gold trimmings around the shoulder guards and resembling a male hedgehog. This robotic Sonic is bulkier and more angular in shape than Metal Sonic's streamlined design.

However, that's not why he reacted so fearfully when he saw him. He's fought plenty of robotic doppelgängers from the prototype Pseudo-Sonic to the various Silver Sonics, the occasional one-offs like X-Robot and even more than one Mecha Sonic in the past.

No. What makes this exact Mecha Sonic different from all the other robotic Sonics bearing the moniker is this is not only the main progenitor of the all-encompassing Metallix Family the Metal, Mecha and Silver lines fall under but it is the Robian Mecha Sonic he was forcibly turned into four years ago.

The one Mecha Sonic he always dreaded the return of. The Robian sent out to kill his friends without remorse or mercy and full of contempt for them. And now this dreadful chapter of his life is back like a ghost of the past made manifest to haunt him in the present and now exists as a living nightmare with no means to cast the iron beast back into its' cage like last time.

Due to his own shock at seeing a past face standing before him, Mecha Sonic's optics flashes and went to go take a swipe at the hedgehog before Rotor came in to pull back his friend; the metal claws missing him by a few inches. With him snapping out of his trance, both Sonic and Rotor fought the robotic hedgehog for a moment before the latter suddenly backed away from them when the sound of a passing helicopter was heard by the machine.

"Smell ya later losers!"

Mecha Sonic grabs the robes and starts quickly flying off after the helicopter but not before Rotor shoots out a tracking bug from one of his wrists that magnetizes onto one of the retreating doppelgänger's legs.

"You looked like you've seen a ghost, non?" Antoine says to Sonic when he and Johnny arrive to see Mecha Sonic flying off, noticing the uneasy expression on him.

"Maybe I have…"

Sonic slowly looks over to Rotor. "Please tell me you saw what I saw."

"I can't believe it…" The walrus nods in disbelief. "It's a Mecha Sonic alright but… But what? Eggman's back? Is his empire making moves now?"

"It'd be less worrying than what I just saw..." Sonic commented, clenching his fists tight under the gloves. "I don't know how or why bu—"

"We have an emergency!" Isabelle's worried and frightened voice cuts through their comms with Sonic taking the call.

"What's up Belle?"

"I-It's Monica…" The usually energetic twin said uneasily, trying to keep it together on the line. "S-She's been shot and I-I'm trying to s-stop the bleeding! She needs urgent medical attention!"

That hit the already shakened Sonic like a sack of bricks. He had her go stop Lindsey's group on her own because he assumed it was the safer outcome than having her face the danger Mecha Sonic poses. Instead, he's sent her out to be shot at and is now fighting for her own life now.

It happened on his watch because he was too busy fighting his warped mirror to prevent her from being gunned down a few yards away. A major miscalculation that may have cost Monica her very life if she isn't able to survive her wounds long enough to make it to an operating table… Worse still?

The nightmares were being proven true tonight despite his own attempt to avert a tragedy from taking place…

Author's Notes: Yep. It's happened and the worst has yet to come; we're just merely witnessing the instigating event for our blue hedgehog.

Not much to say here other than that they failed to retrieve the stolen project and a face from the past returns to haunt the present. A routine mission gone wrong at the end.

Some character building, exposition and what have you; the bits that all writers have to do before they start getting to the good parts. Build some intrigue and reveal some key details for this one.

Like what you see here? Find our titular character a good everyman foil to Sonic and like his interactions with the other characters so far?

Leave your thoughts in the reviews and I'll see you all another time.