Chapter 5: The Shrine

It took almost the rest of the day, but the wayward Mobians finally arrived back at the bunker late that evening. Miles immediately separated from Ellie and the others to go check on the greenhouse situation without so much as uttering a word to anyone else. Nobody complained and quickly went about properly storing the spoils of their eventful expedition, with the hopes there would still be time to scamper off to their respective quarters for some much needed rest and just maybe… The Commander would forget they were even involved with the party that ventured outside the bunker to begin with. It was a pretty safe bet, considering anyone not named Ellie D'Coolette had basically been absorbed into that faceless/nameless blob of Mobians that roamed the bunker.

Miles' examination of the agricultural sector of the bunker had left him absolutely perplexed. It was just as Ellie had told him. Of the forty individual stations they used to grow various crops, only three appeared to have any living vegetation inside of them…. All three stations exclusively growing beets… The rest of the crops were either withered and dying or simply hadn't bothered to begin growing at all. More peculiar yet, the problem didn't appear to be mechanical. The temperature control on each station was still working perfectly, the lighting used to mimic artificial sunlight functioning properly as was the sprinkler system. Whatever was wrong, it didn't appear that Miles could fix it with a screwdriver or a wrench, and that wasn't a good sign.

Miles next stop was the underground lake. Sure enough, the body of fresh water was currently sitting at less than half its usual capacity… They were in no danger of running out of water anytime soon, but this was still yet another foreboding sign. At least this issue had a rather straightforward explanation… The climate had become so dry that it barely rained in this region anymore. Those spring rains that they relied on to refill the lake every year just stopped coming. One more dry spring and the bunker would face the very real possibility of going dry.

With the water issue more or less settled, Miles returned to the farming sector of the bunker. He focused his attention on station 24… A greenhouse that grew tomatoes and appeared to be the station hardest hit. Miles frowned as he walked inside… The fields looked very much like some malicious force that despised fruit had invaded the greenhouse and slaughtered every tomato vine in sight… Miles switched the setting of his cybernetic eye in order to get a better view of what was going on beneath the dirt these dead vines had been planted in. His analysis indicated that some type of strange substance had seeped into the ground, and it appeared to be attacking the roots of the plants.

"Nicole, are you seeing this?"

"Indeed, I am Miles… And this doesn't look good… I've seen this type of chemical signature before… Usually found outside of cities that contain large robotics factories…"

"Hold on?! Are you suggesting that our food supply has been taken down by chemical runoff from Robobum's assembly line?! We're miles away from any of the major cities… We picked this location 'because' it was so remote!"

"We've gathered sufficient evidence over the years that tells us the pollution caused by Robotnik's rapid expansion of his empire and nearly nonstop production of robots has slowly spread from the city and into the surrounding countryside…. I suppose it was only a matter of time before his corruption of the land would eventually spread to this region as well."

"It was always inevitable wasn't it…" Miles groaned in frustration as his fingers found their way through his head fur. "I thought we'd have more time… I doubt even the beets are safe to eat at this point…"

"I'd highly advise running a PH test on the lake as well to ensure the water's still safe for consumption."

"Right, because our situation couldn't possibly get any worse…. If the water is contaminated, that may explain why the crops failed… There'd be no telling how long we've been poisoning our own food supply!" Miles would've tossed his hat to the ground if the sentimental value of it didn't heavily outweigh his disgust at their rotten luck. "Under these conditions, there's no way the bunker can possibly continue to support a colony. Which means we're going to have to call a code yellow…"

"That would appear to be the most logical course of action… But it was my understanding that Site B was only partially completed before construction had to be abandoned…"

"It was…" Miles sighed at the thought of all the work ahead, but there didn't appear to be another option. "Most of the essential facilities were completed though… Like the greenhouses, the ventilation system, and the plumbing… The lake at that facility is almost twice as large as this one even… We just might have to rough it for a while until we can get proper quarters constructed for everyone. The hardest part will be getting our people and our essential supplies moved, seeing as Site B is way up north in a much harsher climate… Which is saying something considering how this location turned out, but it's basically as far away from any Robotnik operations as we could get, so hopefully we won't have to deal with this problem there anytime soon."

"Do you believe the colonists are going to accept that decision though? Life in the bunker isn't easy as it is, and now we'll be asking Mobians to abandon everything they know to relocate somewhere where the potential for survival is even more dubious…"

"They'll have to make that decision for themselves. Just like they were never forced to live down here with us, we won't force anyone to relocate either. Anybody who wants to stay behind and take their chances with no food and potentially poisoned water is welcome to try. Anyone genuinely interested in surviving will follow our lead like they have for years…"

Nicole hesitated momentarily before asking. "Isn't this going to delay your search for the Chaos Emeralds significantly though?"

"It can't be helped… There's no guarantee I'll be successful in collecting all seven emeralds by the end of this journey, let alone can I even guess how long trying will take, so I can't risk dooming the entire colony based on the outside chance I might be able to fix the past, so this future never happens… There are too many lives at stake, and I have a significantly higher probability of preserving there's..."

With the greenhouse situation on hold, possibly indefinitely, Miles had one last problem child left to check up on, even if fixing the bunker's communications system felt arbitrary at this point. After twenty minutes of poking his nose around the insides of this dinosaur of a radio, he got frustrated and accepted defeat before he gave into the temptation to use his arm cannon to blast the piece of junk to hell where it belonged. He felt a twinge of envy towards his twelve-year-old self who probably could've figured out how to get this hunk of crap working with a little time and effort… But that kid had a lot more free time on his hands and a lot less on his mind, so he could tackle a problem like this from fresh creative angles that the Miles of today would likely never even have time to consider. He was still an engineer at heart, and an inventor by trade, but with his various responsibilities pulling him in so many different directions, nowadays his genius was strictly reserved for essential projects like the greenhouses that grew their food underground, and the ventilation system that created enough oxygen for them to breathe beneath the surface. Miles had a difficult time remembering the last time he'd built something or even tinkered with a project purely for fun… Ten… Twelve… Even fifteen years maybe?

Once the need to have him out in the field superseded the need to have him in the workshop creating, his favorite hobby made the slow brutal transition into work. Any free time he once had to tinker was now controlled and mandated by his superiors in the Resistance, or something vital to the survival of the few remaining Mobians… Or you know… Building artificial body parts to replace the ones he lost over the course of a war that refuses to end. Over the years, all that passion he had to create new things and restore old things when he was younger had slowly been beaten out of him. The mechanic in him was simply another one of his many jobs that he barely had any time to delegate too.

Fed up with his inability to get any tangible results while doing what he supposedly did best, the fox left the stubborn radio for dead and headed straight for his private quarters. He still had one important piece of business to attend too before he called it a night.

Miles' quarters wasn't that much larger or extravagant than your standard home space within the bunker. The only special amenity he insisted on adding was a moderately large storage closet lined with several rows of shelves bolted to the wall. This closet housed the most precious items the dual-tailed Freedom Fighter had collected over the years… The totems of those lost during the war, mostly the objects that just weren't practical to carry around on his person, housed here for safekeeping. If he was being perfectly honest, he'd admit that the makeshift cabinet was more of a shrine to the past than an actual storage room.

On the top row to the far left sat the strangest and most morbid looking item in his collection… What appeared to be the hollowed-out head of a wooden puppet. Next to that was a partially burnt medical kit that Cream had gotten years of use out of when she served as a sort of medic for the residents of the bunker. She didn't possess any formal medical training, but Dr. Quack had taught her everything he could about treating or patching up basic injuries. On the far right, was the burnt-out shell of Nicole's original PDA. Wait a second… There should've been a wrench up there as well, but he quickly recalled that he had added the item to his own personal toolbelt a while back. He must've left it back at the communications center when he stormed off in a huff. He'd need to go back and retrieve it as soon as he was done here.

The second shelf was more clothing themed. A pair of Knuckle's gloves, an older pair of Sonic's sneakers, a rusty cowbell, and a folded vest once worn by the Freedom Fighter's original leader. The only item below the second shelf was part of a propeller lifted straight from an old biplane… From the Tornado to be exact… The only piece of his beloved plane that he was able to bring with him when New Mobotropolis fell. The aircraft had already fallen into disrepair from neglect, once Tails no longer had time to spare on maintaining the upkeep on the Tornado, and that old girl needed a lot of love and care to keep it in flying shape. When the city fell, escaping with the plane just wasn't practical… Not to mention that there really wasn't any way to haul a large, barely functional plane underground, nor would Tails have wanted his fellow Freedom Fighters to risk their safety or waste the resources required saving his vanity project. The propeller though, was every bit the totem as every other item in that storage shrine. Only this totem was in honor of the optimistic child he once was, the kit that loved to build and fix planes, that kid being as much a casualty of this war as everyone else represented in that shrine.

The gleam of a small metallic object that somehow had not lost its shine drew his eyes to it. It was a badge used by the Resistance's resident team of detectives, the logo being very familiar to him.

The Chaotix… The name of the former detective agency was one that remained a major source of guilt and shame for the vulpine, but also gifted him with an important life lesson about leadership… That he couldn't always look at every situation from a purely analytical standpoint. Sometimes you had to trust your instincts if something feels off… If he had bothered to do so, maybe they'd all still be alive today. That badge represented one of his first big blunders as the leader of the Freedom Fighters, a sign of how woefully underprepared he'd been for the responsibility.

The Chaotix came under the Resistances umbrella late into Sally's regime. The Acorn Kingdom had been making headway in the war at the time, pushing back on Robotnik hard… Enough so that the Princess decided to establish the new city of New Mobotropolis… Which admittedly was little more than a glorified propaganda stunt and epic display of grandstanding designed to be a symbol of hope to the citizens of the kingdom and a sign that the momentum of the war was shifting… Though over time, the influx of refugees, mercenaries, and folks just looking to help the cause, helped turn what was essentially a military base into a functional settlement. Robotnik was waging war on multiple fronts though, and other parts of the world less equipped to deal with the badnik hordes were still struggling… And that's basically how the detectives found themselves on the outskirts of New Mobotropolis. The Chaotix would have their biggest impact after Amy took command however, effectively filling in some of the gaps after the loss of several of the Resistance's heavy hitters over the years. The Chaotix never quite felt like family like the Knothole Freedom Fighters, and later, the Spiral Hill refugees had. They were more like their own semi-independent wing of the resistance, but never-the-less had still become vital allies and friends.

So when intelligence came in concerning suspicious activity within the ruins of Station Square, even though his gut was telling Tails something was off, he ignored his instincts in favor of the data and didn't hesitate to assign the Chaotix to the task due to their familiarity with the city. They agreed with their trademark gusto, and the entire team shipped out to investigate… Vector, Espio, Mighty… Even the two younger members Charmy and Ray, though Miles couldn't understand what they added to the team for the life of him. He'd be a massive hypocrite though if he judged anyone purely by their age, so when Vector vouched for them, that was good enough for the fox.

It turned out that Tails should've trusted that uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. The intelligence they'd received proved to have been intentionally and maliciously leaked to them hoping to ensnare the Resistance's new leader, who'd built an early reputation of being very hands on with his leadership style, as the young fox often found himself stalked by this persistent nagging feeling that he needed to prove himself. To validate all this faith the other Freedom Fighters appeared to have in him, while Tails himself couldn't understand what anyone saw in him.

And thus, the first time he delegates a sensitive assignment to somebody else, he misreads the situation and sends his subordinates walking right into a deathtrap. The only member of the Chaotix who returned was a bloodied and bruised Espio, who over the next several years would struggle with an intense case of survivor's guilt. He felt like he left his team to die while he slipped out of death's clutches through the shadows like a coward. Miles could strangely relate to what Espio was going through. This would be the last time he would delegate any potentially dangerous mission to somebody else without Miles being personally involved, unless he just had no other choice. It wasn't out of lack of trust of faith in his team… Far from it. He was just determined that nobody else was ever going to take a bullet meant for him again.

Feeling he had reminisced enough, Miles got down to the business he'd opened this makeshift tomb to complete. He placed the inhibitor rings on the second row between the gloves and Sonic's shoes. He then carefully removed the two halves of Whisper's old mask from his pack and placed them on the top shelf between the puppet head and med kit. "I'm sorry I didn't take better care of you… You can rest with the other's now." Miles was keenly aware that… Talking to his collection of totems as if the individuals they represented still resided within them wasn't exactly healthy but… If it helped him cope and keep the pieces of his fractured mind together, then he dared anyone to say anything about it. His eyes, filled with regret, continued to rest on the broken mask as an old memory of the wolf that once wore it flashed before his mind's eye like an old home movie.

It was a time of celebration for the revamped Freedom Fighters. They'd completed their fourth straight successful mission, effectively halting Robotnik's progress into the western territory of the Kingdom of Acorn. It was true that the small militia resembled more of a merry group of mercenaries these days, dedicated to making life for the egg-shaped tyrant as miserable as possible, more so than an active standing army. That didn't mean they weren't able to make a difference, no matter how superficial their success might appear at times.

There was one person conspicuous by her absence from the rather mild and controlled revelry. Whisper tended to keep her distance from the rest of the team when she wasn't assigned to active duty with them, despite Tails and Tangle's best efforts to reconnect with their old friend. Thankfully, she wasn't difficult to find, as she was far too responsible to stray very far from the camouflaged Freedom Stormer… An all-terrain vehicle that was part tank, part troop transport, and part mobile base.

"Didn't feel up to celebrating with the others." Tails stated more than asked, as he approached Whisper from behind, startling the typically very alert wolf. She'd perched herself inside the opening of a rocky crevasse up on a hill near the Stormer, giving her a nice view of the bland rocky terrain they were currently laying low in. "Not that I blame you, those guys can get a bit rowdy when they cut loose can't they?"

"I'm… unsure what they're even celebrating," Whisper mouthed in her typical soft tone. "We haven't accomplished anything substantial… We merely slowed Robotnik down, and he'll be right back at it again before we've even had time to recover. Fighting his army feels like fighting a mountain… No matter how hard we throw ourselves against it, it's just never going to budge."

"True… But that's part of the reason why the crew needs to take advantage of times like this to unwind a bit. And to be completely fair, so could you. Why don't you join us? No one's asking you to be the life of the party… Just be present, that's all anybody expects of you."

"I… Don't quite feel like I belong in there with them… I'm more comfortable out here with just myself and my thoughts…"

"But you're part of the team Whisper… Why would you think you wouldn't…" Tails paused, then sighed upon realizing he already knew exactly what the wolf's problem was. "Look, I get it… You don't completely trust us yet… Especially considering your circumstances, I know it's going to take some time to earn that trust back, but that's never going to happen if you're not at least willing to give us a chance. I mean, we were friends once before we got separated and you went missing after that surprise attack … We thought you'd been killed…"

"And I thought you all had left me to die," Whisper grimaced at the unpleasant memory.

"We did everything in our power to try and find you… Thankfully, you wound up falling in with the Diamond Cutters, so at least you weren't alone…"

"Knothole felt like home for the brief time I lived there… But when I met the Diamond Cutters…They were… The closest thing to family I ever had… Until Mimic betrayed us, and that was taken away from me too…" Whisper's eyes snaped shut tightly at the painful and intrusive memory. "It's not exactly that I don't trust the Freedom Fighters… I do. You and Tangle in particular have always been… Good to me. I don't want to have to watch anyone else I care about get hurt… So, if I keep myself at a distance…"

"You'll be lonely and miserable… Hiding out on a big rock instead of enjoying yourself with your friends. I empathize with your pain Whisper, I really do… But the Freedom Fighters are built around a foundation of trust and being there for one another. It's your choice at the end of the day how involved you want to be, just as long as we can trust you to have your teammates backs when we need you, but you don't have to close yourself off from everyone else."

"It's just not that simple Tails… You don't know what it's like to see everyone you cared about get ripped away from you…"

"Excuse me Whisper…" There was a bite to the Commander's tone that made Whisper flinch as she realized she might've said the wrong thing. "I don't know what it's like to lose the people who matter most to me?! Sonic the Hedgehog, Sally Acorn, Antoine D'Coolette, Knuckles, Amelia Rose… And those are just the names off the top of my head of the people I've lost over the course of this war… People that were not only my friends, but that I considered family! And yes, each loss gets progressively harder than the last, but I never allowed that pain to keep me from letting others in and adding to my family… And whether you want to see yourself as part of that family or not, it still includes you… Always has, even if we were estranged for a while."

The sniper stared at the fox, her jaw slightly agape. It would be so much easier to play it safe and keep everyone at arm's length, but Tails had a persistent tendency that made completely isolating herself difficult… Tangle too.

"Hey… I understand it's going to take some time for you to reacclimate yourself to being a part of the Freedom Fighters again, and we're not going to rush you. Once you're ready to walk through that door though, we'll be waiting for you with open arms. I know it's… Hard to open yourself up again once you've been hurt, but it's like my Aunt Sally used to tell me… A heart that's been broken is one that has felt love or has been loved… And that's what makes the risk worth it."

Sure enough, Whisper would eventually walk through that door, and sooner than anybody expected she would. While awkward at first, she gradually got absorbed back into the Freedom Fighter family like she'd never left and quickly became one of Miles' most trusted operatives. Right up until the day she died… In a way so unfitting for the courage and dedication she'd shown throughout all her years of service. No blaze of glory, nor protecting one of her fellow Resistance members like so many others had before her. She'd been struck down by an errant blaster shot straight through her chest from some random Swatbot after little more than a split-second distraction. The type of cannon fodder robot they'd scrapped hundreds of thousands of during two decades of war. One lucky shot, and one of their best was gone.

Lonely and miserable she'd be, he had warned her… Ha… What a hypocrite he turned out to be…

Shaking his head clear of the memory, Miles closed the doors to the shrine before taking a seat at the table near the end of this bed. Really the only other notable piece of furniture in the room. Acting on autopilot, Miles pushed a series of buttons that detached the artificial portion of his arm from the rest of his limb with a metallic hiss, causing him to wince. He'd had to make use of his cybernetic appendage quite a bit since he last left the bunker, these past several days especially, so some routine maintenance was overdue to make certain his prosthetic limb was in pristine working condition. Twenty minutes had soon passed which saw the fox so laser focused on tinkering with every gizmo he'd ever incorporated into that mechanical arm, that he failed to realize he'd forgotten to close his door.

"Uncle Miles? Are you…" Ellie's words died in her throat upon poking her head inside the room and getting a closeup glimpse of the stump that remained of Miles' left arm. She'd seen him without the artificial limb before of course, but that didn't stop her from turning her head away as if she'd just walked in on her parental figure naked. The fox's eyes widened at the sight of his young charge, his first instinct being to cover up his arm so Ellie wouldn't bear witness to his deformity, but without anything handy… He decided the tune up was satisfactory and, with a slight grimace, reattached his robotic forearm.

"Sorry you had to see that…"

"Oh, that don't bother me none… You just built that arm to look so real-like that it's… Easy to forget it's made of metal..."

"Your mother used to love teasing me about that. She'd say, of course you'd immediately invent an artificial limb that was 'all life-like and packed with all the bells and whistles when it's your two-tailed hide that loses a limb'…." Miles chuckled weakly at both the memory and this pathetic attempt at mimicking his old friend's accent. "That's unimportant, however… What brings you to my door this time of night Ellie?"

"I just… Wanted to check in and see how you were doin'… I can't imagine losin' Aunt Whisper's mask was easy on ya…"

"It's fine, it was just a mask," he lied through his teeth. He was seething at himself for being careless enough to allow the mask to get damaged. Again, it probably wasn't a positive indicator for the status of his mental health but losing one of his 'totems' could feel like losing that person all over again. Anyone who dared to question why he'd risk carrying these items on his person if they were so important to him was certainly welcomed to ask, if they didn't mind having their face ripped clean off their skull afterwards. "As long as I can still feel them in spirit fighting alongside me, I'll be fine…"

"You're startin' to sound like Espio…" Ellie chuckled shyly as she rubbed at her right arm, a common nervous tick of hers. It was in moments like this when she looked anxious that Miles could really see her father in her. "Umm… Didja figure out what was wrong with the greenhouses?"

Miles frowned at the news he was about to give. "Yes… I plan on updating everyone in the morning once we can get the entire colony gathered… It's not good news, so be prepared."

"Okay…" Ellie could barely manage a whisper over the lump in her throat. Still rubbing her arm, she looked back at the door as if she was considering escaping out of it, but there was one last thing she was determined to say before she left. "I'm… Sorry Uncle Miles… For disobeyin' you… I know I wasn't suppose to…"

"You did the right thing," Miles cut her off, much to the rabbit's surprise as hinted at by her widening eyes. "The colony was running low on food, and you been unable to get in contact with me for weeks… It was the only logical decision to make."

"B…but… You got so mad when…"

"My response was an emotional one… When I saw that imposture standing over you like he was going to… Rationality went out the window. It's decisions like those that are the reason I put you in charge of the colony while I'm away, not nepotism. You're willing to make tough calls even when you know I might not be happy with those decisions at the end of the day… That's a big part of what being a leader is all about…" Despite seeing the smile beginning to spread across her muzzle, Miles did have to throw a cup or two of cold water in her direction. "Don't take that as an invitation to be circumventing the rules whenever you please though."

"I won't, I promise!... I guess I should probably get goin' so you can get some rest… I'll uh, see ya in the mornin' Uncle Miles!"

Ellie sprinted out of the room feeling tons giddier than she had when she first approached her uncle's room. Miles found himself smirking at the display despite himself. Seeing Ellie very much react like a teenaged girl was… Heartwarming. That smile quickly dipped into a frown as the image of that faux Shadow standing over her menaced him. If something ever did happen to that girl… Chaos help whoever was responsible. Wherever they fell, all that would be left was a smoking crater, with an angry fox standing in the middle of it over a shattered corpse.

Miles looked down at his artificial arm and wondered if this was how Sally felt whenever he showed hints of independence or put himself in dangerous situations. That very question prompted the memory of how he lost half of his left arm in the first place.

Tails couldn't believe what he was seeing. Sonic the Hedgehog… Looking very much the exact same as he had when they all thought that he had been killed in that explosion five years earlier… Wearing that same coy smirk he was famous for, restlessly kicking his legs over the hospital bed he was seated on as if he were an impatient child waiting for the doctor to give him his lollipop so he could leave. Only this wasn't a hospital… This was Freedom HQ in the center of New Mobotropolis, and the bed was on loan from the nearby mash center… A proper hospital had yet to be built within the confines of the young city but the last of the Acorn line did everything she could to ensure the fledgling city had the best medical care possible.

It was from that bed that this young hedgehog had been poked, prodded, and analyzed to his last quill by every doctor, scientist, and sentient AI the Freedom Fighters had at their disposal. All that testing led everyone who studied him to the same mindboggling conclusion.

"Nicole… Are you one hundred percent certain?" Sally asked again, the hope in her voice damn near impossible not to notice.

Nicole, in her Holo-Lynx form, definitely didn't look certain but she nodded her head in affirmation anyway. "As impossible as it may seem, the test results appear concrete… His DNA profile is a 99.98% match for Sonic the Hedgehog, age approximately 18 to 25 years old. Dr. Quack's initial assessment was correct… Somehow, someway, this is indeed Sonic."

"Told ya Sally!" Sonic grinned as he formed his fingers into the shape of a gun, creating a clicking noise with his tongue. "You're favorite thrill-seeking hero has returned!"

"Why wasn't it a hundred percent match?" Tails asked skeptically, still in disbelief. He couldn't keep the frown off his face no matter how badly he wanted this to be real… Something just didn't feel right.

"The most likely explanation would be external contamination," Nicole explained. "Even keeping for a slight margin of error into consideration, the results are far too close to a perfect match to ignore…"

"I watched those landmines explode while you were still in the room… We found your shoe with your foot still inside and part of your leg still attached to it! I guess they both spontaneously grew back?"

"Don't know what to tell ya Tails… As you can see, I'm alive and well… With all my limbs fully intact I might add!"

"Where have you been all these years then?…" Sally asked aggressively, yet still more reserved than Tails would've expected. She wasn't buying into the idea that this was actually Sonic, was she? "We needed you Sonic! We had a golden opportunity to overthrow Robotnik if you'd been around to play your part! Why just suddenly show up back into our lives now?!"

"I didn't stay away by choice Sally… That explosion didn't kill me, but it sure did knock me clear into next week… Almost literally! I woke up unconscious in a cell underneath Robotropolis… I've been a prisoner of his ever since… I have no idea why Robotnik kept me alive all this time, I guess as a trophy maybe? A chip to use against you guys if he ever found himself completely backed into a corner? Don't know, and don't really care now to be honest. I finally managed to escape, and once I got word that the Freedom Fighters were camped out in New Mobotropolis, I knew this was where I needed to be!"

"It… It really is you isn't it?" There were tears in Sally's eyes as she embraced the hedgehog in a warm hug, one that Sonic returned without a hint of embarrassment. Tails, still very much unsure of what to make of this, shared a look with Nicole who appeared equally put off by Sally's eagerness to accept Sonic's miraculous rebirth.

"It sure is Sally… It sure is…" The chipmunk slowly untangled herself from the embrace before looking back at the other two Freedom Fighters in the room who were noticeably keeping their distance. "Well… Aren't you guys going to greet him? Especially you Tails… Your best friend… Sonic has basically come back from the dead, and it's nothing short of a miracle! Why aren't you thrilled?"

"Yeah… Thrilled…" Not quite the word Tails would use to describe their current situation. He also couldn't understand why Sally was so recklessly accepting this… Hedgehog's sudden appearance. She was usually the posterchild of caution, but the idea of a living breathing Sonic certainly seemed to cause the princess to put on her blinders.

"Hey, I know this is a lot to take in Tails… But it's really me, your best bud," the so-called Sonic said as he hopped off the bed and took a step towards the fox. "Come on pal, gimme a chance to prove myself to you."

"Pal?" Sonic had a lot of nicknames for the fox when he was younger… T2, big guy, little bro, little buddy, just straight up T… 'Pal' was not amongst them. To that point, Sonic had absolutely no reaction at all to how much older Tails had gotten since the last time they'd seen each other. He was a full head taller than him now for Chaos' sake! Not to mention that Sonic hadn't appeared to have aged in the five years since his supposed death. Before Tails could call out the hedgehog on any of his suspicions, they were interrupted by the sound of the sliding security doors opening. A dark figure with a slight resemblance to the blue hedgehog stomped forward as a coyote in a military uniform desperately tried and failed to impede his progress.

"You're not allowed in here monsieur! This area tis for authorized personal only!" The visitor simply shrugged the coyote off of him without a word and continued to march straight towards the blue hedgehog in the middle of the command center.

"It's fine Antoine… Shadow more or less requested permission to be here," Sally assured her subordinate. Of course, by 'requested' Sally meant Shadow had given her prewarning that he'd be arriving in New Mobotropolis shortly, almost the exact moment he'd been informed of Sonic's miraculous reappearance. For Shadow, giving you a heads up that he was paying a visit rather than just dropping in whenever the hell he felt like it was kind of his version of asking permission.

"I had to see this for myself…" Shadow announced as he stopped in front the ever upbeat blue hedgehog, looking his old rival up and down. He wasn't exactly impressed or anywhere near convinced. "And you're supposed to be the loudmouth? You look the exact same as you did when faker died… I'm technically immortal, and even I look like I've aged some."

"Hey, don't be jealous because I was able to keep my boyish good looks Shadow. It really is me though… The genuine article, the fastest thing alive!"

Shadow continued to glare daggers at Sonic before diverting his attention to the princess. "Don't tell me that you're buying that… This is actually Sonic? Not to sound insensitive, but the last time I checked, it was rather difficult to unexplode yourself."

"Yes, I'm absolutely positive! And we didn't just take his word for it either. We ran extensive tests on him to make sure he was the real deal. He's a perfect DNA match, and other than a few gaps in his memory, there's nothing we've been able to detect that sets off any alarm bells that Sonic isn't who he says he is…"

"Gaps in his memory huh? Convenient… Are you certain you haven't rushed to that conclusion because that's what you want to believe?"

"I'm far more responsible than that, thank you very much Shadow… I was just as skeptical as you at first, but I just have this feeling deep in my heart that this is Sonic the Hedgehog… And I trust Nicole's assessment of his identity whole-heartedly."

"Um…" Nicole offered intelligently. While she trusted the results of her examination were accurate, she still certainly felt that it was ill-advised for Sally to take her findings as gospel.

"What about you?" Shadow asked, tilting his head towards Tails. He could already tell by the look on the fox's face what the answer was. The real mystery was whether he had the nerve to speak his mind or not.

"Well, he does appear to lack some general knowledge Sonic should know, but that could possibly have been caused by a blow to the head during the explosion, or subsequent torture as a prisoner of Robotnik over the years…"

"So, translation… You think this is all crap too, and you just don't want to say so in front of the princess."

"Is that true Tails?" the leader of the Freedom Fighters asked the two-tailed inventor.

"Aunt Sally… Look… I want to believe this guy is 'actually' Sonic just as much as you do, but certain things just aren't lining up! You are familiar with the expression, when something seems too good to be true, then it usually is…"

"I can't believe I'm hearin' this from you of all people Tails," Sonic spoke up, looking hurt. "Come on, this is your pest pal Sonic here… What do I gotta do to convince you that I'm really me?"

"Sonic… Could you answer me a question as honestly as you possibly can?" Tails waited for a response, and Sonic replied with a nod. "You appear to have forgotten some key moments that happened during your short life… When you first saw me, how did you recognize me though?"

"Well duh! The second tail was kind of a giveaway! Even without that rather enormous fluffy orange ID tag, how could I possibly not remember my best friend? I mean come on! You haven't changed one bit!"

Tails winced as if he'd just been punched in the gut… Shadow's eyes narrowed as he also picked up on the blue hedgehog's colossal fuck up. Even Nicole raised an eyebrow at the comment. Only Sally didn't seem to find anything suspicious in what Sonic had just said, perhaps too blinded by the euphoria of the cobalt speedster coming back to her to notice all the red flags whipping in the wind.

"Sally… Shadow… Would you two mind stepping outside with me so we can discuss this matter in private?" It clearly wasn't a request as Tails immediately turned around and headed for the door. Shadow didn't need any convincing and followed after him. Sally conceded with an annoyed huff and made sure to give a few supplemental orders before joining her surrogate son and occasional ally in the next room.

"What has gotten into him?... No Matter… Nicole, Antoine… Would you two please look after Sonic until I get back? This shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

"Affirmative."

"Of course, my princess."

"Alright! I haven't gotten a chance to catch up with ole Antoine here yet!" Sonic said as he wrapped his arm around the nervous looking swordsman.

"Umm… Yes… This would be our first time conversing since your return, wouldn't it?"

Sally joined Tails and Shadow in the next room over, away from prying ears. Fueled by anger, Tails opened his mouth to speak, but the princess cut him off quickly. "What the hell do you two think you were doing in there?! I'd assume both of you would be smart enough to pick up on what I was trying to do, but instead you've seriously risked blowing my cover!"

"Wait what?" Tails flinched, his anger ebbing. Even Shadow's brow creased slightly. "You mean you know that can't really be Sonic?"

"Of course, I've realized that Tails, I'm not a simpleton! To be perfectly frank, it infuriates me that Robotnik would dare use his face for something this vile!... I've known Sonic most of my life, so I didn't need a DNA test or even ten minutes alone with him to notice something was off about our returning 'hero'. I wouldn't need both of my hands to count how many times he's addressed me as 'Sally' instead of 'Sal'. I even went out of my way to refer to you as his 'best friend' to see if he'd absorb that information and add it to his backstory, and he didn't disappoint… Whoever that is in there, I don't want him to know that we know he's not who he claims to be, at least until we figure out who he actually is and why he was sent here."

"Well… The former likely has a straightforward solution…" Tails said gravely. "We do know Robotnik has been dipping his toes into cloning research…"

Sally winced at the potential implications. "You think he might've been successful…"

"It would explain the almost perfect DNA match, and also why it was just barely off… As well as the gaps in his memory and the mannerisms that just aren't quite right…"

"I see what you're saying…" Shadow added, as he began to put these various observations together. "Physically he's a perfect match and appears to have a general idea of Sonic's dialect and speech patterns but lacks general knowledge of things Sonic should know and how he converses and interacts with people."

"That makes perfect sense if it was Robotnik who programmed this Sonic to serve him and infiltrate the Resistance… He'd know plenty about Sonic and his mannerisms due to his obsession with him, and would probably know a lot about Sally too… He thinks he's so far above us Mobians though, that he sees the rest of us as too unimportant to even concern himself with. I doubt he even knows any of our names, let alone understand Sonic's relationship with everyone or how he'd speak to them." Tails looked over at the princess pointedly. "If I can make an amendment to your deception, I think it may actually be beneficial that some of us remain skeptical rather than blindly pretend like this hedgehog is the real deal."

Sally didn't appear so sure but knew better than to dismiss a suggestion from Tails offhand. "Explain…"

"When something as momentous as a supposedly deceased hero coming back from the dead occurs, it's only natural that there would be some discourse surrounding his arrival. Some of us being openly suspicious makes your ruse that much more believable. Shadow in particular would be the first to question this potential clone's legitimacy… This 'Sonic' might not pick up on little details like that, but Robotnik sure would if he's indeed reporting back to him."

"If this hedgehog is a clone of faker, we should have him eliminated as soon as possible. If he possesses Sonic's powers and is under Robotnik's control, that could prove disastrous."

"It certainly would be… I still want to play along for a bit until we can hopefully figure out what Robotnik's attempting to achieve having him infiltrate New Mobotropolis…" Sally cupped her chin within her hand. "Robotnik's ego certainly won't allow him to admit openly that the Resistance is the least bit competent at anything, but deep down, he has to realize that it wouldn't take us long to see through a fake Sonic, so I doubt he sent him here to attempt a lengthy infiltration…"

Sally went silent as the lights flickered on and off, preceded by the whirl of a generator… Something that had been happening quite a bit that day.

"Forget to pay the electric bill princess?"

"Just one of the pitfalls of trying to be energy self-sufficient … Tails, could you please go check the generator and make sure it's running properly? I'm going to give SONIC, a tour of our new base… Shadow, I know you're a busy man so…"

"I'm not going anywhere until this 'situation' is dealt with…"

Sally simply nodded her head before pushing passed the boys to enter the control room, designs on tending to their 'guest'.

Tails made sure that his walk to the generator was a slow one, giving the young fox plenty of time to think. His eyes drifted towards his feet as his boots made a familiar clank against the steel of a ventilation grate. Freedom HQ had grates like these dotted all throughout the walkways of the complex, designed to help ventilate the scalding hot water that would go rushing through the tunnels beneath their feet every few hours or so… Freedom HQ also doubled as the workshop where all of their gear and vehicles were created, churned out at quite an impressive pace mind you. This production helped the command center moonlight as a small factory, which brought to bear the same pitfalls that any normal factory that dealt primarily with heavy metals would face… The tunnels served as a subterranean highway used to both keep the boilers and forges in the workshop from overheating, and theoretically, preventing dangerous chemicals and gases from getting into the air supply. The tunnels were designed with a special filtration system, that again in theory, was supposed to remove toxins from the boiling hot water as it traveled its way through four different stations and gates, before finally escaping the building, and getting directly diverted into a canal that led to a large Mobian made lake. It was a fine design in principle, but its biggest flaw was that the fancy sewer system only half worked. The filtration system could only do so much, which meant that the runoff from the factory still contained enough traces of heavy metals to make it potentially poisonous to anyone foolish enough to drink it. The tunnels had been a bit of a pet project of Sally's, and she didn't initially take kindly to Tails, Rotor and Nicole finding flaws in her design. She eventually acquiesced, and they placed warning signs around the canal, and access to the amply named 'Iron Lake' was highly restricted.

Fixing the generator proved to be a rather simple matter. There wasn't anything inherently flawed with the generator's design, just a few minor defects mostly caused by the rushed nature of its construction, combined with the fact that the power grid of the fledgling city was in its infancy stages. The worst side-effects being flickering lights, and the occasional blackout typically concentrated around Freedom Fighter HQ… The most ravenous consumer of power in the growing military settlement.

Finished with the rudimentary repairs, Tails headed back in the direction of the command center, taking the long way in hopes of maybe bumping into Sally and 'Sonic' along his route… He didn't like the idea of the woman who practically raised him being alone with the blue imposter. This sucked… It really, really sucked… He should be feeling over the moon after discovering Sonic had survived the explosion and was alive and well but believing that to be the case just took far too many leaps in logic. His convenient lapses of memory, his apparent lack of any noticeable aging, but most alarming… The inconsistency of his dialect. Sonic had a very distinct way of speaking that was hard to duplicate. Laid back but to the point… Condescending and impatient when he was irritated, encouraging and kind when he was in a good mood or trying to be supportive. Witty insults, on occasion, childish nicknames for enemies, and endearing ones for his friends and others who looked up to him. It was easy to tell when something was off with Sonic when he spoke, and this person claiming to be the hero was kind of all-over-the place, like somebody doing a bad impersonation of the blue blur… And most glaring too him of all, the all too obvious fact that this Sonic didn't actually recognize him, and likely never would have without the extra tail.

Tails was distracted from his musing by an alarming site… A trail of blood ranging from small droplets to large puddles that could be traced down the eerily silent corridor. Most alarming of all was the large splatter of blood on the wall to his left, and the blue-shaped spear like protrusion sticking out of it… It almost looked like… A quill?

Oh, Chaos No…

Trying not to panic, Tails followed the trail of crimson to a ventilation grate on the floor that appeared to have been forcibly opened…. Cautiously, he poked his head down through the opening… And for the second time in his young life, the heart of Miles Prower shattered into a million pieces.

Slumped against the wall, Sally Acorn sat motionless with several of those quill-like projectiles embedded into her body and the blood… So much blood everywhere. His leader… His friend… His princess… The closest thing to a parental figure that he'd ever had. All rational thought ejected clear out of his brain, influencing him to jump down into the tunnels to check on her.

"Aunt Sally!... Sally!... Oh Chaos, HE did this too didn't he?! Say anything… Please!"

Barely clinging to consciousness, Sally struggled to lift her head even slightly, her half-lidded eyes revealing a distance murkiness to them. "Tails… You… Need to get out of here!... He's… He's… Still… Down here…"

"Whose still down he…" The question died on his lips upon realizing the obvious answer. He also wasn't oblivious to the ominous shadow looming behind him. Tails rolled out of the way just in time to avoid several spikey blue projectiles, shot with enough velocity to embed themselves into the steel wall, one coming dangerously close to impaling Sally through the head, furthering to enrage the multi-tailed vulpine. Staring back at him was the smirking face of someone he once idolized. "You did this you son of a bitch! I knew you were phony, I knew it! I should've put a blaster round between your eyes the second I saw you…"

The hedgehog's sinister smirk only grew. "Shame for the poor princess there that you didn't… Then I wouldn't have turned her into my personal pincushion! It's kind of funny how she bought into me hook, line, and sinker… And the Doc warned me that she was supposed to be the smart and observant one."

"I'm gona do a lot worse than just shoot you in the face you miserable fake!"

Tails rushed Sonic and unleashed every second of combat training he'd ever received whether it be from Sally, Knuckles, Bunnie, Antoine, or even that week of glorified hellish torture that Shadow referred to as 'survival training'. As to be expected though, Sonic was too quick and able to dodge all of the foxes attempted strikes with seemingly minimal effort and a smirk on his face. His failed assault was not completely for naught though, as he did learn some vital information about this false Sonic.

"What's the matter 'PAL'? You're not tirin' out on me already, are you? Still not fast enough to keep up with me huh?"

"Perhaps not…" Tails didn't appear winded at all despite the effort he just exerted. "But then again, neither are you… In fact, I'm kind of disappointed with how slow you are… What's the matter? Robotnik couldn't figure out how to replicate Sonic's speed?"

Sonic frowned, clearly displaying that he didn't like the insinuation, while simultaneously confirming that Tails was right on the money. "Still faster than you runt…"

"Who are you calling a runt short shit! Are you fast enough to outmaneuver me and still think on your feet?" Tails goaded, causing the faux Sonic to frown.

"What the heck are you yapping about?…" Sonic easily leaned out of the way of a quick jab from Tails, bringing a smirk to his face, but completely failed to notice that the fox had followed up by completely rotating his body around into a low roundhouse kick, the fox's foot burying itself into the hedgehog's abdomen. There was enough force behind the kick to send the imposter into the steel wall, which hurt almost as much as the kick. He hunched over and grabbed at his midsection, shocked at being struck. This Sonic wasn't accustomed to feeling actual pain, at least not at this level. "You little bastard!"

Tails didn't give the fake time to recover before he was back on him, and the clone was too winded to move out of the way of the heavy punches now raining down upon the creep daring to wear his brother's face, with a force the hedgehog had not expected. His vision starting to blur, the clone Sonic finally managed to duck out of the way of a right and rolled a few feet away from the enraged fox. It didn't matter much as the vulpine quickly closed in on him, and the clone found himself knocked flat on his back once again. He struggled and failed to either push or swat the fox off of him as Tails continued his attempt to cave his face in. "Get off of me you runt!"

"Do you even know what a runt is?! I've been taller than you since I was fifteen!"

"Doesn't matter brat… You'll always be nothin' but the 'sidekick' as far as I'm concerned!" The clone finally managed to free up his legs and feet enough that he was able to deliver a doubled footed kick to the two-tail's torso, finally knocking the fox off of him and onto his ass. Tails quickly recovered, but the brief reprieve was all the imposter needed to prepare for his next stunt. "You want to see speed… I'll show you speed, freak!"

Tails knew he probably shouldn't have been, but he was mildly surprised as he watched the clone curl up into a ball and spin dash in the fox's direction. He managed to twirl out of his way, but the Sonic clone was hardly done, using the circular tunnels as ramps to ping-pong himself back and forth and putting a ton of pressure on Tails. Now completely on the defensive, it was taking everything the fox had just to avoid getting sliced in half by what was essentially a speeding sentient buzzsaw. In the middle of his rampage, the clone struck a pipe and sawed it in two, releasing a boiling hot plume of steam into the tunnels that could melt the skin off a Mobian's muzzle if struck directly. The bigger problem at hand though was that the steam was quickly filling up the tunnel and severely limiting the visibility for everyone inside. This was not good news for Tails who was already having enough trouble dodging the balled-up hedgehog when he could see clearly. Relying on his sharp hearing to track the hedgehog's movement's he managed to dodge out of the way of the clone once more…

But that's where his luck would start to go south. As steam continued to fill the tunnel, sweat began to pour down his face from the heat. His visibility down to zero, he tried to swat the steam clouds away from his face when he heard a slice… Accompanied by a sharp pain near the base of his forearm, just above the elbow. At that same moment, the steam had finally cleared up enough for Tails to get a good look at his arm… Only to watch the top half slowly slide away and fall to the ground, a gush of blood erupting from the stump where his hand and forearm used to be. Going into mild shock, Tails fell onto his rear, never once taking his eyes off what was left of his arm.

"Ouch… That looked like it hurt…" The clone mocked from somewhere within the steam plumes as they slowly continued to dissipate. "But hey, why stop the fun now?! How about I take you apart piece by piece…"

He was certainly capable, but the fake Sonic had pissed away too much time and his advantage by wasting it taunting, allowing the steam to clear enough for Tails to clearly see the bastard that had just severed his arm. A new fiery rage filling his soul that refused to allow this cheap copy of his best friend to mutilate his body without repercussions, Tails whipped out his blaster and started to fire wildly at the hedgehog. This seemed to catch the clone off guard, and the fake Sonic went into preservation mode as he found dodging blaster fire a lot more difficult than punches or kicks.

Karma as it turned out, did have a sense of humor, or at the very least balance. An errant blaster shot struck a pipe on the other side of the tunnel just above the hedgehog's head, releasing a plume of hot steam directly into the retreating Sonic clone's face. The scream of the imposter could be heard from one end of HQ to the other as he grabbed at his face, the skin tissue beneath the fur around his eyes bubbling until they were essentially sealed shut as he staggered about in total shock and panic. "Fuck! Fuck, fuck, you dirty little freak fucking bastard!"

Aiming his back in the direction he'd last seen the fox standing, the clone sent a volley of his deadly quills spraying in almost every direction, hoping the impale the fury orange bitch that had just blinded him. Tails hit the deck, watching as half a dozen of those spear-like projectiles sailed passed overhead, but not one hit the clone's intended target. Sonic stumbled about while trying to force his eyes to open, hoping to see a skewered fox. Instead, all he could make out was a blurry shadowy image standing directly in front of him.

"Language asshole," Tails said roughly as he raised his blaster to the helpless hedgehog's chest and fired… Blowing a hole straight through him. The clone flew back a few feet before rolling to a stop, it's brief existence in this world coming to a quick and violent end.

Tails had no spare time to savor his victory. The first thing he did was walk over to the closest pipe and used his blaster to cut it in half. Tails made sure to steer his face clear of the steam before pressing the stump of his severed arm against the intense heat of the pipe. He cried out in sheer agony from the red-hot burning sensation against his flesh, but his quick thinking had the desired effect of cauterizing the wound and stopping the bleeding.

Light-headed from the amount of blood he had already lost, Tails stumbled his way back to Sally. Thankfully, the intense heat from all that steam didn't seem to have affected her. "Sally… Are you still with me?" Tails tried to shake her awake but her body's only response was the chipmunk's head falling against his shoulder. She wasn't breathing… He couldn't find a pulse... Tails himself found it difficult to breathe all of the sudden…There was a desperate crack in his voice as the fox whimpered out, "Aunt Sally… Please…"

"What the hell is going on down there?!" A gruff voice asked from above. When he didn't receive an immediate response, Shadow the Hedgehog dropped down into the tunnels through the broken vent, his eyes widening at the sight of what had been waiting for him below.… An almost certainly deceased Princess Acorn who appeared to have been impaled, and a Prower missing part of his arm while desperately clinging to the resistance leader with the limb he had left. Before Shadow could ask what in the hell had happened, he noticed the corpse of the blue hedgehog only a few feet away… His puffy face had this whole melted cheese look going on, and there was a hole through his chest. It wasn't hard to put two and two together from there. "So, he 'was' an imposter…" Shadow's gaze did betray a mild hint of sympathy towards the fallen princess. "Foolish girl…"

Shadow flinched as he heard a clicking sound at his back. He'd visited Freedom HQ enough times in the past to recognize what that sound meant. The gates to this section of the tunnel system were about to open and unleash a deluge of boiling hot water. "Tails, we need to get out of these tunnels now unless it's your intention to get boiled alive down here!"

"Please… Help me get her out of here…" Tails softly begged, barely acknowledging Shadow's presence otherwise.

"Fox, I know I don't have to tell you this, but she's gone… We don't have time to remove… Those quills pinning her to the wall and still have time to carry her out of here before that gate opens!"

"I'm not leaving her down here! It's bad enough we didn't have enough of Sonic left to bury, I'm not letting…" Tails fell silent as a hard strike to the back of his neck nearly knocked him unconscious. Shadow hoisted the none too light fox up on his shoulder, and quickly leapt upward, grabbing on to the side of the adjoining grate and pulling the both of them up and out of those tunnels a mere second before the gate opened, and the torrent of scalding hot water surged inside. From his hands and knees, Tails was just aware enough to force himself to watch as Sally's body was washed away, more than likely never to be recovered. He couldn't bring himself to move, still not over the shock of what had just happened.

Shadow said nothing, paying Tails only a brief glance before having to look away and cursing himself. He should've done something about that obvious imposter before any of these events ever had a chance to unfold. Now the leader of the Resistance was lost, and the brains and heart of the movement just might've been broken beyond repair in the process.

Tails metallic hand clenched tightly as he tried to banish the painful memory from his mind. Sally Acorn's body was indeed never recovered. They even dredged Iron Lake to see if her remains had been carried there but nothing was found. All Miles had left of her was one of her old vests that he kept housed in his shrine to his fallen comrades. He used to have pictures, but none of them survived the sacking of New Mobotropolis.

It was sad to think about, but Sally was never really the same after Sonic's death. She was still an excellent leader, hell the adversity probably helped her to become an even better one, but not exactly in the best ways. Her heart seemed to harden a bit and that personal touch she once had back in Knothole that so endeared her to her subjects and subordinates dulled to some degree. To her inner circle of people that she trusted, she wouldn't have appeared to have changed much, but she gradually grew into more of a traditional military leader, keeping her troops outside of the Freedom Fighters at a distance. Something that always bothered Tails at the time because it was so unlike her. There was just no more room in her heart for anyone new. It was funny really, because this all sounded depressingly familiar.

Sally may not have been Miles biological mother, but he damn sure seemed to take after her in a lot of ways, and on occasion… It wasn't always her best traits he carried on.

End Chapter 5

If you're familiar at all with the IDW comics, I obviously had to play with Whisper's backstory just a bit. I wasn't about to take it away from her, since that backstory is so essential to her characterization and why she is the person she is, but I love the character and was determined to use her in the capacity I wanted to use her in, so this was the compromise I came up with. Just fudged the timeline a little bit so Whisper falls in with the Diamond Cutters a little later in life than she did in the comics.