Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Drill

Whisper immediately turned to Violet and Metal Sonic, telling them to get out into the open. By the time she could, she saw them ten feet in the air, hovering using Metal Sonic's inner jet. Good, that was one thing she didn't have to worry about.

"Green!" She called as the ground started to shake and vibrate more. He looked down from his position, immediately imbuing himself into the variable wispon and ejecting Pink. Whisper didn't have the chance to say sorry, not yet.

She jumped off the ground, letting Green hover her in midair for a few moments. She could see the ground vibrate hard, rocks being torn apart and sundered, parts of the snow falling into a crack that suddenly appeared, and the crash of snow and water being ejected as the rocks were pushed together.

It was over in a minute. In that minute, the landscape had changed dramatically. Where before it was mostly rocky, hidden by the snow, now it was mostly dirt with nothing but ice hidden. The green grasses had been eaten up by the quake, and spat out somewhere else.

Whisper landed, her boots clanging down. This wasn't a time for stealth. "Whisper! Metal has an idea, we're looking in the center!" Violet called as the robot hedgehog turned his jet and flew off towards the center of Fern Valley.

Orange watched her go. "That seems kind of stupid."

Whisper could only nod. "Why? He seemed nice to me," Cyan said from next to her head. Whisper blinked. "You do look strange without the mask on."

"Shouldn't you be with them?"

"Nah, they can get by...no they can't. Shoot! I'll be back, keep your radio on!" Cyan yelled as she shot towards the quickly disappearing duo.

"I repeat. That seems silly," Orange said. Whisper nodded.

"Orange, Pink, Green. You three saw it. Explain in more detail whatever it was," Whisper said, sheathing the variable wispon on her back. She wasn't silly enough to try running through a jungle or forest she didn't know in bad weather when an earthquake had just happened. Honestly Metal Sonic should know better too.

Orange nodded. "Right. So we were hiding in the grass, arguing with each other. Pink noticed it first."

"Yeah, Orange was too busy trying to win," Pink said, sticking out his tongue, "But it also helps that it was through vibration. You know, spikes and all that, sensitive to that kind of thing. At first it was real subtle."

"Neither of us noticed it either," Green offered. "But that changed once Pink brought it up. It was as if it was moving through the dirt, rock, and roots."

"Once Pink spotted it, it was easy to track. Small vibrations of the forest just kind of...got bigger. And bigger," Orange explained. "We figured it was getting bigger towards us, and that's when we ran back."

So it had been some kind of creature or something? Whisper wasn't sure what kind of creature could do that. She knew robots that could do that easily, but they would have heard robots coming a mile away. Robots that could make that kind of destruction were usually loud and made no attempt at hiding their presence. Probably not a robot then.

To create a localized earthquake, she knew, expended a large amount of energy. To create any earthquake actually. But the kind of devastation that this one caused, based on the way her boots were now hitting dead grass rather than the green stuff, meant it was either extremely close or extremely powerful.

She wondered then if it would be possible to alert the creature or specimen or robot or whatever it was to come back...if they also created a localized quake of their own. "Blue. Think you can create a cube that's heavy, and send it flying down from high up?" Whisper asked.

The blue wisp nodded. "Easy enough. What's the plan?"

"I want to lure it out. If Metal Sonic and Violet think it's heading towards the center of Fern Valley, we want it to be somewhere else. If we can lead it out here, it'll be easier."

Blue nodded, along with the others. Good, she knew they were smart, but it was a stark reminder how smart they were. He waited until she had gotten on top of a larger rock, despite the cold biting into her, and gave him the go ahead. He flew as high as he could, or at least as high as Whisper thought he could, before he created a cube.

Whisper had seen him create cubes before. It was nothing new. What was new was how big and fully dense he could do them. "They are old...and wisps get stronger the older they are," Lavender said to her quietly. She must've shown the surprise on her face.

It was a cube, yes. But it was a massive one, nearly the size of a small hill, or of Surge and Kit's house. Basement included. And it was so dense that it didn't show blue anymore, but rather pure black, a lightless void that absorbed anything, even light that tried to go against its power.

Whisper motioned to Green to imbue the wispon. She had a feeling she'd need him, and she hovered in the air nearly ten feet off the ground before Blue let it drop.

The impact force shot her straight up in the air. It shattered the rocks below her, the snow in the area melting instantly as the pressure overrode its ability to stay as a snowflake. The pressure wave itself was visible, the trees shaking as it passed them, half of them already down and partially fallen onto others nearby.

If Whisper needed a reminder that the wisps were powerful, she had it.

Blue came down as Whisper landed, feeling the aftershocks of the localized earthquake still jump up and down on the ground. He wasn't breathing hard, wisps didn't breathe per se, but he looked tired. "That was fun!" He grinned.

He turned to the others. "And you all wanted to take a vow. Proved useful now didn't it?" He asked, a teasing voice in his tone. Orange and Pink decided to take up Cyan's usual position and start arguing with him.

"Do you think it worked?" Whisper asked Lavender, one of the only ones to not keep up the argument. There were some words that Whisper understood, but she also knew that this was a conversation that she shouldn't have been a part of. They wanted her to be, their use of the learned language proved it, but she didn't know half of their culture.

"One would hope so. They took a Vow?" Lavender asked. Whisper shook her head.

"You weren't there for that. Green Hill. I was...healing, basically. I'd gotten hurt. They wanted revenge, and in turn remodeled the entire landscape. Not just geographically, either."

"I couldn't even dream of being so strong I needed to make a Vow," Lavender sighed.

"So what is a Vow? They've mentioned it before, right after the Green Hill incident. But they needed more evidence first, so they took a...Geas, I think it was?"

Lavender nodded. "It'd have to be. A Vow is...honestly, it seals away about three quarters of a wisp's ability to manipulate themselves. A Geas on the other hand, is a time-locked version of the same, or given a mission or something. It allows them to act more freely, without worrying about hurting others."

They locked away three quarters of their power? Or no, that was what they wanted to do. "How much does a Geas...?"

"About one half or two thirds, whichever is higher. It's intrinsic to wisps, basically it's just pure instinct. The fact that Blue can do that...and still under a Geas? Green Hill must have been terrified."

"They were Islanders. I think they were fine with it, honestly."

Whisper remembered the conversation with the GUN leader, before knowledge of the Time Eater hunting her, about how an ice cream seller was just waiting for an opportunity. And he did. The Islanders of Green Hill weren't just opportunistic for it...they wanted the change.

Or at least, from Whisper's perspective, they had. "That's honestly more terrifying. I've heard Mother had two Vows before, but now I wonder. To have a being that strong..."

"Violet did mention that it required Super Sonic to break through to her."

"Who's that?"

Lavender had met Sonic, right? Maybe she hadn't. No...she wouldn't have. "Sonic is Violet's adopted father, considering her own biological is...well, we're helping search for him. With the power of the seven chaos emeralds-"

"Say no more," Lavender said instantly. "I remember hearing about those. Dr. Henderson wanted one to study, badly, hoping that it was the chaotic power of the emeralds that would bring a painless transition to Nega."

Admittedly, if he had mentioned that to anyone of the Restoration, he probably would have been visited by Sonic or Shadow much earlier. It must have been one of those thoughts that one has, even if they never act on them. "I doubt it would have been painless."

"I doubt it too," Lavender said. She was about to keep going when Orange suddenly shouted in alarm.

"It's coming here! Your plan worked, Whisper!"

"Well I did the real hard work," Blue said, preening himself. Whisper smiled but rolled her eyes.

"We don't know what this thing is. Green, get ready for imbuement. Pink, Blue, get ready for blocks and spikes. Orange, get ready to switch with Green at a moment's notice," Whisper commanded.

The wisps nodded. "And...me?" Lavender said.

"I don't know the form the wispon would take with you. I don't know if you can fight as a wisp, or if you need to imbue."

"...That's fine. I'll just...stay out of the way."

Whisper stared after a moment. No time like the present, really. But not during a potential combat situation, like this one was going to be.

The ground started to shake again, and Whisper noticed that the Blue cube was starting to evaporate. It was slow going though, unlike his usual cubes.

She jumped into the air, letting Green keep her there for a few moments. The ground was shaking visibly, and she started feeling confused and annoyed.

The world was hers, darn it. Why did everything have to be so annoying all the time? If the world was shaking, then she should have been the one doing it. Not anyone else, her! Orange started to speak up, and Whisper felt herself calm down a bit. It was almost relaxing, the tones of soothing and understanding. And explanation.

It was a wisp causing it. And it was a wisp that didn't know she had a translator.

Green put her down gently as she motioned for him to do so, and the shaking stopped as a pair of yellow eyes popped up out of the ground. Her heart sang with happiness, but it was dulled by lack of understanding.

"She's new," Green hovered next to her. "Only a few years at most. Practically a child, still trying to understand what life is, and what's going on."

Orange hovered next to her, her own feelings of calming. Things were going to be okay, she translated in her head. Lavender's hue brightened up a bit, before it darkened again. "It's been so long since I heard our voice..." She murmured.

Blue came up next to Orange, chatting amicably. Pink came up to him, and Whisper felt herself be positive for a bit, not happy but content, before Pink's words started, then she felt only teasing and virtue.

There was a sense of questioning, and it tossed Whisper around as if she was in a laundry machine. Questions and answers were passed around and through her, and each one only left a taste of what the emotion was before it left.

Minutes passed, and by the end of it Whisper had a raging headache that was as if Blue had landed the giant cube straight onto her head. She had questions, answers, more questions, calmness, happiness, contentedness, questions, understanding, annoyance, more answers, everything raging like a hurricane inside her mind.

"Uh...I think we messed up Whisper," Orange said softly. Whisper's eyes opened as she stared into Orange's. "You okay?" She asked.

When had she gone onto the ground, why was she facing skyward, and why was there a good inch of snow on her stomach? She'd been there for that long before the wisps thought to check up on her? Or maybe the snow just came down harder.

The snow was coming down harder now. The sun was high, according to the bright spot in the dark clouds, so it was probably around noon or early in the afternoon. It hadn't quite reached blizzard levels again, but it was starting to get there.

"I'm alright."

The yellow wisp, a small pyramidal creature came up to her. It had one eye, with three small appendages hanging down. A small feeling of greeting someone new, half-bothered by anxiety. The headache that she had roared back to life.

"Wait, don't...argh this is going to be frustrating. She's too young to know how to talk. To Whisper, at least," Pink muttered under his breath. He came up to her, and Whisper got a sense of containment, ease, and rest. The headache came back as another sense of contentment and agreement was reached in her head.

Despite the feelings being calm and soothing it sure did nothing to calm and soothe the headache in her mind!

Pink reached in for a canister...specially Lavender's original canister, the one that the nega-wisp had vacated. Seven canisters, seven wisps.

Whisper sighed as Yellow soared into the canister, and with it the sense of unease and distrust slowly started to vacate. Whisper hadn't even realized it was there.

"Yeah, so that's gonna be a problem..." Orange said. "So. Who wants to be the one to teach her how to speak where she won't cause problems?" She asked.

"Is that what happened?" Whisper asked. She waited around on the rock for a moment, but it didn't seem as if any of the wisps were alarmed at the newly identified Yellow.

"You know our language, our original one, deals with emotions? Or rather, we talk through our emotions, and channel those out to everyone nearby," Orange offered. Whisper nodded. She didn't quite know the exact science behind it, but she'd at least put together that much. "When we're born, that's instinctive. Talking like this, vocally or at least sonically, requires effort to learn, and time to learn."

"Yep. Yellow hasn't had the time yet, even if she had the inclination. Judging on her annoyance when Blue did his thing, it was unlikely that she would have," Green continued.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think it would cause that many issues. I thought your plan was good!" Blue commented. Whisper shook her head. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't even her fault. It wasn't anybody's fault.

"What that also means is that some people's emotions aren't supposed to change that rapidly, especially during a long conversation like that one. It...uh...well, it knocked you out," Orange explained.

That also explained why she didn't remember most of that long conversation. "Did Metal Sonic and Violet come back yet?" Whisper asked.

Lavender shook her head. "Not yet. They said towards the center of Fern Valley, that'll be a bit for us to get to."

Yes, it would. It would probably not be another full day, but it would be early evening by the time she managed to reach down to the forest in general.

"Any idea how to get used to your language?" Whisper asked as she jumped down from the rock. Her boots crunched on snow, and she missed her mask again. It not only kept her face warm now in the cold but she had grown so used to wearing it that she felt off without it.

"There really isn't one," Orange answered. "Just...be around it. With Yellow you're probably more bound to get used to it."

"The first few days might be a bit rough. We'll try to keep her from being too excitable," Green said. "But Yellows and excitement go kind of together. They like the earth, and they really like water."

Which explained to Whisper why Yellow had been in the mountains to begin with. Particularly mountains with a lot of snow. She wondered idly if any of the yellow wisps had helped Sonic out during their original fiasco. Some had helped the Resistance. There was another yellow wisp, too, shaped more like a lightning bolt.

"In the Resistance, there were multiple yellow wisps, but they looked different," Whisper started. Orange and Green nodded.

"Yeah, we know the ones. We just called them gold. Gold wisps and yellow wisps. Gold ones are the ones that are more about current and flow, kind of like Cyan except without the laser aspect," Orange explained.

"How many different types are there? I've heard you mention Crimson and Black."

"A lot," Green muttered. "Blacks are kind of the explosive ones, they really like explosions in general. Some don't, but broad strokes and all that. Crimson are the time-alterers, they kind of...bend time around themselves, recalculating probabilities."

"In reality, they just like hitting things and making sure they hit," Orange deadpanned. "Think of them like red shells from that one kart game Tangle used to try to get you to play."

"Ooh, we talking about plumber kart!? I loved that game!" Pink said, jutting himself into the conversation instantly. "Seriously, I'm like the best there was!"

"Best being compared to...who? The people like Tangle who beat you every time you tried to play?" Blue teased. Pink's eyes narrowed, and Whisper ignored the two as he dive-bombed Blue.

The mountains around slowly started to fade from the rocks and snow to more plants and snow. There weren't nearly as many large boulders now, nor were there any paths. Although the paths Whisper could understand, depending on how long Yellow had been out here.

But if Yellow was young, didn't that mean that she wasn't as powerful? In that case, how could she cause that much damage? That had to be a lot of energy expenditure.

"What other types are there?" She asked after a moment. She had a lot of questions, and right now it looked as if most of her friends were forthcoming. Unlike Green's 'Don't tell her!' moment from earlier.

"We mentioned Gold, or Ivory or whatever, we called them Gold, there's...regular reds, not crimsons, and they have fire. Or...Burst? I don't know what they called it. Let's see, the nega-wisps with Void and Frenzy..." Orange started to go on.

"You've mentioned bomb, right?" Green asked. "Wait, you did, those are black. Um...I think that's most of them."

"There's white, like Lavender was originally," Orange said, nodding her head to the lighter than normal purple wisp. "Um...I think there's a few more."

"Jade! The ghosty ones, they're fun to play with!" Green suggested. "They can do all kinds of fun things. Even the oldest ones aren't that old, only a few million years old."

Whisper made sure to note that in her mind. 'Not that old' meant 'a few million years'. And here she thought she was getting old when she was only sixteen. No, seventeen now. Not including the plus twenty three from the time travel.

Which meant that when Lavender had suggested that her friends were 'old', as in first or second, that meant they had to be nearly several times older than 'a few million years'. What was the term she'd heard before? Time abyss?

"The grays, too. And indigo, which aren't nega-wisps, surprisingly. They're like...more voidish," Orange commented.

"How does that one work?" Lavender asked, her head tilted entirely one way.

"Oh, they like to break things down. There's more than that, but I think the others are rarer. The most common of us are all of us here, actually. Orange, pink, cyan, yellow, blue, green, and white. Lavender, actually, but you get the idea."

"I completely forgot about the grays. They could do the same thing Yellow was doing, but more localized. That was their own unique power. And the less said about the black bomb power, the better," Green nodded.

By now the forest start line was just ahead, and off to the side Whisper could see a small dirt road that probably led to a main interstate. It was in shabby condition, not just because of the snow, but because of Yellow's influence. There were no tracks on it, and what snow was on there was quickly building up after having melted.

Fern Valley was considered to be a destination hotspot for hikers in her time. Probably not so much in winter, or close to it like they were. It wasn't winter, not yet, but in a few months it most definitely would be.

The snow was still blotting out the sun, but it had gone back from its heavy snow to a lighter one, and more than once Whisper felt it fall onto the back of her head and chill her spine and tail.

She reached down for her belt, reaching down to her emergency pack. No matter what anybody said, she'd always carry one, least of all because of situations like this one. She pulled out a small physical radio. Short distance only, unlike the one in her mask, or the ones most of the Restoration had carried.

"Violet. This is Whisper," she called out into it.

"Whisper?" The answer came back instantly. Violet's voice sounded strong, that she wasn't in pain. "Hold on, I need to turn up the volume on this thing, I can barely hear you!"

That was the point of her whispering, Whisper thought. So that way she wouldn't be loud. She waited patiently for a moment. "There's a button on the inside, next to the clasp. Hit that twice. Cyan can do it too," she advised.

"Oh hey there it is! Thanks Cyan!" Violet's voice called out. "So uh...what's wrong?"

"Just got to the entrance of Fern Valley. How far in did Metal Sonic take you?"

"Not far! He's actually been really nice, I don't know why anybody would be afraid of him- that's a compliment Metal!" Violet shouted. Whisper held the radio away from her head for a moment before she brought it closer. "He's been helping me learn about all kinds of mechanical stuff."

"What's the path?" Whisper asked. While she was interested in Violet's newfound technological ability, not that it was newfound at all to anyone who was remotely informed about the girl, Whisper still wanted to actually get to Tangle.

The entire reason she was here to begin with.

"Uh...Metal Sonic doesn't know. Trees are interfering with the GPS signal. And so is Angel Island actually. So...just go on in, we'll find you!"

No one actually had taught Violet the mechanics of being lost in the woods, did they? That was both smart and extremely worrisome on both Tails and Sonic's part. How often had those two gotten lost in the forest?

Actually now that she thought about it, probably not often. "No," Whisper said gently. "Stay there, I'll find you," she said. Rule number one of being lost in the forest; stay put. It was much easier to find someone who wasn't walking any which way than it was to find someone who was.

Rule number two was to try to find water, and stick by it. Everyone needed water, and if someone was lost, by following the water they reduced the amount of space needed to look for someone by a lot.

Whisper turned to the five wisps still outside of their canisters. Pink and Blue were continuing to argue about...something. It was obvious on Pink's side that he was just bored, and Blue was just humoring him. Green and Orange were trying to remember times on Planet Wisp with the other species...varieties...with the other wisps.

And Lavender was close by, eager for the next thing she could help with. Whisper nodded to her. "Alright. Into the forest. We'll stop for the day once we find Violet and Metal Sonic."

"I bet those are words you'd never thought you'd ever say!" Green grinned. Whisper rolled her eyes but had to admit he had a point.

Not much to say. New wisp! I was trying to find a way to put Yellow in sooner, but this was the earliest I could figure something out.

Until Next Time!