A Few Hours Previously.

Tangle was so excited! She recently got back from a failed stake out searching for Mimic, and while that wasn't exactly happy, the idea of raiding one of Eggman's bases was making her bounce off the walls, (more so than usual, anyway). She rarely got to do anything like raiding, the few times the Diamond Cutters were tasked with something similar, the base was usually abandoned and/or already forgotten about. Maybe some leftover badniks to crush, but that was it. But now she got the chance to raid an active base that Eggman himself was inside!

Before Tangle could jump into the stratosphere, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked around and saw that Whisper had grabbed her to calm her down a bit. Tangle sighed but stopped jumping around so much. She couldn't let all her energy out, but it was worth it to see the smile on Whisper's face. They had been friends for what felt like forever, although honestly it was maybe a year in total. Regardless, they were nigh inseparable. Tangle looked over at Tails and Lanolin, who were discussing possible entry points for the Egg base. Tangle let out an exasperated sigh. As nice as all this preparation was, she wants to raid the base right now. Before she could say something, she once again felt the wolf's hand on her shoulder.

"Hey. I know you're impatient, but surely you can wait a few more minutes?" Whisper said in her naturally quiet voice, trying to sooth the agitated lemur.

Tangle once again sighed. "I know, I know. New undiscovered base in unfamiliar terrain. Plus whatever Eggman has planned. It's just so exciting! This is the first time I've been able to join a raid against an active base in forever. Besides, it's not like all this planning is gonna change anything, not that it matters cause Sonic destroys bases like this all the time! It'll be easy!" Tangle said, her excitement getting the better of her.

Whisper turned away and looked at a wall off to the side. "Planning Is important. Never know what might happen in an active base like this one…" She said, a bit quieter than usual.

Tangle looked at her a mite confused until the light bulb went off in her head, and she immediately felt bad.

"Oh Chaos, I-I just meant-" Tangle said hurriedly.

"No, it's ok." Whisper put up a hand to stop Tangle's apology. "You can't plan for every eventuality anyway. Besides, you're right, Sonic doesn't seem like the type to follow much of a plan and he manages anyway." Whisper quietly joked, with a small smile that Tangle was 99% sure was fake.

Tangle forced a laugh for the joke anyway, although inside she felt like a jerk. Whisper's team, the original Diamond Cutters, were all killed in a trap set up by the team's former infiltrator, Mimic, in a plan devised by him and their psychic Claire. Not only did she indirectly make fun of the idea that plans didn't matter, which is how her team was killed, she also practically mocked the fact that the Diamond Cutters were killed in an active base that had Eggman in it because it "would be easy".

Tangle thought to herself, for once without any excited energy, One of these days, me and my big mouth is gonna say something that'll burn my friendship with Whisper to the ground. Tangle sighed unhappily, the excited energy drained from her body. It wouldn't be the first time. She thought, when suddenly a very dark corner of her mind supplied, At least if that day comes, you have enough ammunition to turn that blaze into a glorious forest fire.

Tangle's mind came to a screeching halt with that awful thought. What was wrong with her? She shook her head to clear away whatever dark part of her mind dredged that up. She had to remind herself that everyone has those kinds of thoughts sometimes, despite knowing how horrible they were. People even joke about it and call it "Intrusive thoughts". Didn't mean she was ever going to act on such ideas.

"...angle?" Tangle heard, as soon as she stopped fussing over her own head. She looked at Whisper who seemed slightly concerned.

"Yeah, sorry what?" Tangle asked abashedly.

"I just said that they were waiting for us, it's time to go." Whisper said, still looking concerned. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"What? Nah, I'm fine! Also, it's time to go? Sweet! I'll get in the car!" Tangle said, quickly bouncing into a van outside using her giant tail.

Whisper looked over at her with the same concerned expression, before it slowly morphed into a smile. "Well, at least I can be assured nothing will keep her down." She muttered to her wisp canisters. The Cyan wisp hopped out and nodded her head happily. Whisper then followed Tangle into the van. As the van started driving away, A hoverbike with a red wolf Islander could be seen silently following.

Present

Lasers and Missiles were launching wildly all over the place, and Tangle really had no one to blame but herself. Once the Diamond Cutters (and Sonic) reached the Egg base, Tangle immediately jumped out of the van and rushed the base, completely forgetting that they had a well thought out plan for when they got here. In her defense, they spent several hours in that cramped van and Tangle was about to lose her mind if she spent another minute in there. Because of that, Sonic and the rest of the Diamond Cutters had to join in to keep Tangle from killing herself. Now, they were stuck in the middle of what could reasonably be called a war zone. Tangle was fairly sure when Lanolin wasn't firing her wispon, she was giving glares Tangle's way, and Tangle was too afraid to look over at Whisper to also see if she had a glare, or worse, if she had her disappointed in Tangle look on her face. So Tangle just did what she did best, smashing Eggman robots.

After what felt like an eternity but was probably only five minutes, Tangle destroyed the last robot in front of her, and whooped loudly. A mistake in hindsight, because the fight was still going on and her early celebration got her caught by an egg pawn who was sneaking behind her. Instead of just attacking her normally, it grabbed her and held her still. She tried struggling out of its grip without much success. She then tried using her tail, but whether it was entirely accidental or on purpose, a laser struck her tail right at the end, shocking the tail still with pain.

Tangle then noticed that one of the base's turrets was pointing right at her, lit up with an ominous purple and green glow. She tried struggling some more, to no avail. She then looked over at the rest of the group, who were all too busy to notice her plight, with the exception of one member.

Whisper.

Whisper saw the turret pointing at Tangle, and saw how Tangle was trapped. She couldn't get a clear shot on the turret or the egg pawn before the turret fired. The last thing Tangle heard before being blinded by a purple-green flash was Whisper screaming her name.

Back up at the turret's side stood Alcurine, holding a remote and wearing a smug smile.

"And that's a hit." She said gleefully. She turned over at Metal Sonic who was giving (what she assumed) a smug thumbs up. "Now, who to go for next?" She mused, looking over at the clearly distressed wolf who was running to the lemur. "She'll do." Alcurine said, grinning maliciously. Just gotta wait for the cube to recharge, then the wolf would be joining her lemur friend.

Whisper ran over to where the blast hit Tangle, already starting to tear up at the thought of losing her. Shockingly though, Tangle seemed utterly fine. The robot seemed to be smashed, and Tangle only looked slightly frazzled. Whisper stopped in confusion, and not a small amount of relief. But suddenly, Tangle's normally bright fur seemed to darken several shades, and when she opened her eyes, they were a bright red instead of the normal violet they usually were. Whisper slowly prepared her wispon, because something wasn't right here.

Tangle looked over at Whisper, her friend. Friend? More like a fragile glass cup she looked after. Tangle thought, snorting at the idea. Man, Whisper really was fragile! Wow, that's hilarious. Tangle smiled cheekily, showing a sharp toothed grin. When were my teeth sharp? Tangle thought to herself, running her tongue over her new teeth. Whatever, I bet I actually look sick. Like Surge! Wait, didn't Whisper break down that one time when Surge took her wisps? Man, that was pathetic! Tangle laughed at her own thoughts. Something told her maybe she shouldn't be thinking these things, but whatever was telling her that was small and insignificant.

Whisper saw Tangle laughing and wanted to lower her wispon, hoping that whatever happened was merely aesthetic in nature, but the way Tangle laughed was unlike anything Whisper ever heard her sound. At least it didn't seem to be something like the Metal Virus, as Tangle was clearly still conscious, although what was going through her head right now was something Whisper almost didn't want to know. Something just felt off about Tangle at the moment, and it wasn't just the new look.

"Tangle…?" Whisper said, worried.

"Hi~ Whisper!" Tangle said, still giggling in that way that normal Tangle never would have.

"Man, did anyone ever tell you that the whole edgy lone wolf aesthetic you always have is actually kind of badass? It's just a shame it's tempered with so much lame trauma! You could have been even more badass!" Tangle said, simultaneously in a way Tangle would have, and very much not in any way Tangle would have ever said something like that.

Whisper froze, stunned for a moment. Tempered with lame trauma? Tangle may be insensitive sometimes, but she would never joke about that. Whoever was standing there was not her Tangle. Whisper unfroze, and now she was pissed. Before she could do or say anything though, Tangle suddenly piped up.

"Hey Whis, you may wanna move! I think there's an egg pawn sneaking up on you! Oh man, wouldn't it be funny if it-" Whatever Tangle said was unheard by Whisper, who suddenly moved out of the way of a knife that was about to stab her in the back.

Whisper looked at the "egg pawn" that was about to assail her, The pawn looked at her, before slowly morphing into a very specific octopus.

"Aw, I almost got her. Why'd you have to ruin the fun?" Mimic said, sarcastically cheerful, to Tangle.

Tangle just shrugged "I dunno man, maybe I just thought it would be boring if you just stabbed her in the back. Kinda lame." Tangle said, with what Whisper recognized with dawning horror as genuine disinterest. This Tangle did not care that Whisper was almost killed in a surprise attack. This Tangle only saved her from a knife in the back because it was boring.

Mimic also seemed to recognize that Tangle wasn't just making a sarcastic quip like usual. She genuinely didn't care. Even Mimic looked a bit shocked for a moment, before grinning maliciously. "Well well well." he started, looking over at Whisper, "guess I'm not the only one who doesn't consider you their friend." He said, his smile growing wider.

Whisper once again froze, this time in panic as she realized that Mimic was right. This Tangle didn't consider Whisper her friend. Hell, Whisper got the distinct feeling that this Tangle would have joined Mimic in betraying her original team, but not for self-preservation or profit, but for fun. It was like…

Whisper suddenly looked towards Tangle, who was back to smashing bots with slightly crazed laughter.

It's like It's all of Tangle's traits in the worst ways possible… instead of fun and adventure loving, it's having fun no matter the cost or who it hurts, and for adventure loving? It doesn't matter how immoral the adventure, as long as it is one. Tangle's sometimes Insensitive, This… "Dark" Tangle just doesn't care about what she says. Whisper thought darkly. It was very simply the worst version of Tangle.

Suddenly Whisper rolled out of the way of Mimic's knife again, which ended up with it stabbed into the grass. "Hey now, no daydreaming in a battle!" Mimic said, smiling cruelly. "Your friend isn't coming to help you!" Mimic said, chasing after Whisper, who, unlike her usual self, was fumbling due to all the thoughts and shocking revelations due to 'Dark Tangle'.

Suddenly, Mimic was bowled over by a blue blur, before getting his face smashed in by a fist from Lanolin. "Maybe not, but we will." Sonic said, stopping next to Whisper.

Sonic held out his hand and pulled Whisper off the ground. She looked around and realized that all the defenses and egg pawns were destroyed while she was having a crisis. Whisper slowly lowered her head in shame. Then she looked over at Tangle, wondering what comment she was going to make of Whisper's failure. Instead, despite the fact that Dark Tangle clearly knew what Whisper was thinking, she just shrugged, once again looking extremely bored. Apparently, that's another one of her changes. Instead of being excited for the next adventure, she's just bored until it happens. Whisper thought grimly.

Sonic looked at Tangle with an unrecognisable look. "So, wanna explain what's going on here, Tangle?" Sonic said, his tone carefully neutral.

"I dunno. I was held by an egg pawn, and then was shot with this weird purple-green laser thingie. Now I look sick as hell and I guess I'm different somehow? Eh whatever." Tangle said, before bringing her tail to her face and lightly messing it up.

"So you're aware you're different somehow?" Lanolin said, stepping closer to Tangle, who seemed to not care.

"I mean, I guess? I remember being kinda a wimp scared to say what was on her mind. I also remember me being kinda annoying or something? Hey, when can we go inside the base? I wanna smash stuff!" Tangle said, suddenly perking up.

Sonic looked at Tangle with an inscrutable look on his face. Then he looked over at Whisper. "You good with dealing with this Tangle until we find a way to fix her?" Sonic said quietly, so Tangle wouldn't hear.

Whisper looked at Tangle again, who once again started looking bored out of her mind, before nodding quietly. She can handle this Tangle until they find a way to reverse whatever happened to her.

Suddenly Tangle perked up again, looking excited by something. "Hey guys, can I hold Mimic for a second?" She said out of nowhere. Sonic looked at Whisper again. "Would an evil version of Tangle torture someone?" he asked quietly. Whisper's eyes opened just a fraction at the question, before closing like normal. "No. Not this evil Tangle anyway." She said in grim confidence. This Tangle had some problems, but it didn't seem like this version's style of fun involved sadism.

Sonic looked back at Tangle and gave her the ok. She looked even more excited before quickly wrapping her tail over Mimic's unconscious body, and pulling him close to her. She then turned and stared at something on the base. Whisper wondered for just a brief moment what she was looking at before remembering that the direction she was looking is where the purple-green laser came from. Whisper immediately turned to look at the spot where the turret was, just to see a purple-green laser speeding towards her. She didn't have any time to dodge. She completely closed her eyes and waited for the blast to hit her. She briefly wondered what a "Dark Whisper" would be like.

Suddenly, she heard the blast, but didn't feel anything. She slowly opened her eyes only to see that Mimic was right in front of her. She immediately backpedaled. She turned and saw Tangle laughing like a maniac.
"Oh man, that was perfect! I got the timing just right!" Tangle said, laughing crazily.

Whisper was confused for just a moment, before she saw Mimic's skin shade lighten up from a dark blue to a much lighter shade, although nowhere near sonic's light blue. And then she realized. Tangle, in her bored state, decided to see what would happen if Mimic got hit instead of Whisper.

Dark Tangle threw Mimic into the laser.