Sonic Chaos Powered

"Heh... Oh I know it is Knuckles trust me but hey... Trust me, I can handle it!"

She knew better than most in fact, the power of the Chaos emeralds. It still disturbed her that in ways they were her siblings. She was the only one mother hadn't... Well, but of course their had been reasons for that. She hadn't been nearly strong enough to be made one anyway. It wasn't a fate she wanted anymore ether. She wanted.... To keep this world together. If she had to borrow the power of her siblings for that....... It was fine. Some of them were real jerks anyway.... And she hoped the few that didn't simply understood. She had to do this... For her Vani. But back to the subject with knuckles....  She'd nod her head, but not move until Tails and Glint had finished their talk, chiming in with a bit of her own.

"No one should have to fight alone Tails, it is... A lonely existence. I.... Even given my feelings.... They can help you more than if you tried to find him alone I can as well!"

She'd then turn back to knuckles with a light frown.

"I hope you understand but.... I'd appreciate it if Glint could come with us to the Master Emerald. I'd ummmm.... I'd feel more comfertable about all this"

Fiona would take this chance to chime in herself, rather excitedly at that!

"Hey can I come with to? I need to inform you about the lead on the next emerald anyway and, besides that I've always had a thing for blonde foxes...."

She'd give a wink in Tails direction, flirting with the two tailed fox. If Knuckles accepted both requests she'd proceed to follow knuckles and the others after he finished up with everyone else. Besides if two rookies were being allowed to go she certanly wasn't going to be left behind!

-------

"Sticks no"

"But their watching us!"

The duo had landed on Prison Island a while back, though little more than a ruin it had been cleaned up a bit before this.... Eggman disaster. Because of that they used it as a base of sorts. Few people knew it had been cleaned out and because of that it had made a good sea based hideout for the four, though only for the two standing amongst it now. Unfournatly one of these two was Sticks and this used to be a government based place so naturally.....

"Sticks you know this place was rendered  a wasteland a long time ago, theirs nothing but the random odd animal around here, and even most of them are mutated messes!

Sticks would quickly shake her head, before patting a rather annoyed Blaze on the shoulder.

"That's exactly what they want you to think! Unfournatly for Eggman and his government cronies I know story structure! This is exactly the place where the next baddie is prone to show up when the heroines arrive!"

She'd give a confident nod, certain in what she said as Blaze sighed.

"That's other thing, why do you keep going on about story building? What do you think this all is exactly, some story being written in three peoples rooms?"

Sticks eyes would immediately go wide as she pushed right up against Blaze, looking with an intense glare at the 'screen' again.

"Wait wait wait, you see them to?"

Blaze gave a sigh as she tried to get herself free, but to no success.

"I know I'm going to regret asking this but.... See who?"

"The two boys and the girl of course! The ones writing every words being said, including that typo right there!"

"Sticks I'm pretty sure you just slurded your words"

"See there it is again!"

The cat gave another heavy sigh, instead resolving to simply drag the badger along with her, though Sticks,.....

"There it goes again! Now she's using commas incorrectly!"

From another plane of being, a girl gave a heavy sigh.

"Huh?"

Glint stopped him as he started on his way out, he took the time to hear her out though, because well...He had no reason not to. She did make some fair points though...

"W-Well, no I don't, but-..."

He gave a nod, there was really no arguing with the points she was making. Even if he did hate that she was right in some ways. Still, he couldn't hide the fact that he was worried. Finding Sonic sooner rather than later would really help, but...Well, she was reassuring, too. He could tell she meant it, and gave a smile in response.

"Right! I'll stay then! Thanks."

He gave a smile to Motet as well, noting her encouragement, it was surprising, but not unwelcome.

Still, Knuckles revealed a pretty shocking truth. Robotnik...Or, Eggman, or whatever he wanted to call himself had almost total control of the entire world. It was...Surprising to say the least. He knew that villain's control extended pretty far, but to be THIS bad? Just what in the world happened here...?

"Clearing a path huh...? I might be able to help get us to that point, but...You're right, one thing at a time. Let's get this emerald powered up! -er..."

"A thing for blonde foxes"? Tails just rubbed the back of his head and avoided eye-contact with Fiona, that was surprising too! He just...Kinda quietly followed Knuckles to the Master emerald, trying not to think too hard about that.

Still, he was still a bit curious on one thing, that much he couldn't deny, it was who this tech girl of theirs was. He did hope he could meet her soon! He had so many questions for her! This was one thing he put aside his quietness to ask.

"So...Who's your tech person? Did they make that big screen thing? What about Glint's weapon?"

-------------

Someone was watching Sticks and Blaze from the shadows...They were prepared to approach, and would certainly put the duo in danger, up until...

"Strewth!! I knew you two would be back soon! How did the mission go? Did the Sea Tornado perform well?"

Blaze's eager Raccoon companion, Marine approached from out of the ruins!

"I was busy havin' a right good look at all the leftover technology in this place when I heard someone breaking the fourth wall! Even if ya did make another typo, I can't blame ya for it. Strewth!"

Well, it seemed like a lot of people were interested in seeing the Master Emerald! Knuckles wasn't too sure about it. But he mulled it over for a moment. "Well... The Master Emerald is really important to our base. It's what is giving us power, and it's masking our location.", he'd state. "So truth be told, I'd like to keep it as secret as possible.", the Echidna adds.

But it's not like he had any reason to distrust White Glint or Fiona. Tails seemed okay with everyone here too. So he'd finally give a nod. "Alright. I guess it's fine for you all to see it. But make sure you don't let anyone know where it is or how to reach it! We can't afford it falling into danger... And I especially can't, as it's Guardian."

He'd speak his piece on the subject. But he seemed fine with everyone coming along. So... Now he would show them the way. The Master Emerald was, surprisingly enough... Hidden in plain sight! He'd walk towards a fairly nondescript wall. The only catch was, he'd press his hand against it -- And his hand would go through it! No visible damage done, either.

"I've gotten a little more clever in hiding it! This way.", he'd comment with a grin, and then step through the illusory wall.

_____________________________________________

White Glint was following, of course. She was rather surprised to learn about all of this. The Master Emerald sounded really important... For a variety of reasons. It seemed like Knuckles was placing a lot of trust in all of them to reveal this artifact. Well, that was fine. The Hedgehog certainly wasn't going to betray his trust! They wouldn't immediately reach it, however. There were plenty of halls to go through before they'd even come close.

But along the way, it'd give them the time to talk. Tails ended up asking about who their current tech person was. "Oh, her? You'll get to meet her soon enough! Her name is Deadeye. She's the only Human working with the Resistance right now. If you want, I can take you over to her lab and introduce you. She's probably going to want to hear about my Wispon anyway.", Glint replied.

"Probably the Grappling Hook, too.... She's made a lot of the technology here for us, and helps us maintain it. Though her passion is definitely towards research and development of weapons. I just did a field test of some of her newer models. With luck, we should be able to mass-produce them and outfit everyone with stuff like this!", she continued.

"Don't be weirded out by her or her name, though. She's actually pretty nice. If a little... Eccentric.", she finished the explanation.

___________________________________________

And finally... They arrived in a grand chamber. Atop a raised platform was the Master Emerald. You could hardly fault someone for mistaking it as a Chaos Emerald, save for one simple detail. It was several times larger. Around it's altar-like platform were seven comparatively smaller pedestals, though those were empty. Presumably, that was where you would put each Chaos Emerald.

Knuckles would then turn to the group that had followed him here. "Here it is. The Master Emerald. Right now, we haven't stored any Chaos Emeralds here. But there's a spot for each of them.", he'd then turn slightly, pointing to one of the pedestals in particular. "That's the one you'll want to use, Motet. Just place the Chaos Emerald there. The Master Emerald will do the rest."

"Of course not, that would be foolish"

She gave a firm nod at what knuckles said. It was... Good to know though they wearnt leaving something as important as the Master Emerald just laying around. Knuckles was it's guardian however, she be disappointed if he did. Still she found it ironic that the Master Emerald was now being used to power the Emeralds given.... The past. It was necery of course, but still a bit... Funny to her. That aside however one could tell Motet became considerbly more comfertable and relaxed with Glint coming along. Much more so than the alert state she had been in since she arrived. She was walking at a more relaxed state with the emerald in hand, though it was also noticible that she stayed close to Tails and Glint while walking, if one looked closer they could see that mostly applied to Glint. She simply felt more at peace there, even she wasn't even sure why, it just felt right being at her side.

It helped that the two hadn't given her any reason not to trust them, if anything the firmness earlier.... Helped. Motet was just... Odd like that she supposed, at least she was sure that's how others saw her.

This would show itself in a moment in a more extreme way. She followed Knuckles directions, since she had only seen the master emerald used in the opposite sense. If one payed attention they'd notice Motet glow very lightly as she placed the emerald on the pedistal and the Master Emerald began it's job, it wasn't long before the emerald regained its normal purple color! More was also full of energy, setting that resulted in quite the scene as she grabbed the emerald.....

Because she was now rapidly circling around Glint with a delighted smile on her face and now talking in a considerbly more cheery and excited tone!

"We did we did we did it! I got it back back! Woo! Yes yes!"

Words like this continued as she circled and jumped around Glint. Though it wasn't normal to them, this was Motet's true nature bubbling to the surface. Before Vaneera was gone, this was how she was... An excitable happy and innocent girl, full of energy and life

Something that should probably be enjoyed while it lasted.

Though Fiona watched she probably had the most negative reaction, this recruit was nothing more than a child with the way she acted. She needed to take this more serious! This wasn't a game!

---------
Blaze was the most calm headed of the trio, and thus gave her report despite the raccoons rather excitable intro.

"It was just a normal scouting mission, no signs of Sonic as of yet Marine, though their are a few points of interest I think we should look into checking next time around, in addition to finding a way to contact Motet and Vaneera later. As for the tornado, shes working fine, right up to standards we didn't run into enimies but..."

This was where Sticks butted in her normal excited self!

"We'll have to be careful though Marine! Blaze wouldn't let me take out any of the scouts spying on us along the way!"

"Sticks, it was a Dolphin"

"I read the script Blaze! Those were very clearly Eggman's spy machines made to look like Dolphins!"

"The script.... Oh Marine not you with the typos to..... Oh Vaneera why did you do this to me..."

She would run her brow in annoyance, but Sticks would run to Marines side and pull them both shoulder to shoulder.

"That's right Marine! Hey can you see them to....? We can start a rebellion, take them down once and for all! The lack of typos in this post is only proof of our success!"

Another sigh came from blaze before she snapped her finger, sending a blaze of fire for her finger tip to get their attention.

"We need to focus on the actual problems here, namely finding Sonic, communicating with the other two... And looking at this technology if you found anything useful Marine"

The response from Sticks was a grumble.

"Still think we should have taken out the scouts"

Deadeye huh? Was...A little odd of a nickname, but then his was 'Tails', so he supposed maybe there was no room for judging nicknames. Besides, she sounded nice from what Glint had said. More than that, it'd be nice to try broadening his skills. Perhaps she'd be the key to improving his ability to invent! It was perfect, really. It was exciting to think about. Still, there were more important things to focus on right now, namely that emerald. It wasn't too long before they arrived.

"Wow, you took the entire pedestal too? How'd you manage that?"

It certainly appeared as if the entire resting point for the master emerald had been taken alongside it. Though...There was something he realized in the moment that made him gasp with panic.

"W...Wait a minute! If the emerald is here, what about angel island?!"

A very fair concern considering the last time he had witnessed the taking of the master emerald, Angel island had sunk like...Well, a rock. If it wasn't there on the island, wouldn't the place be in danger? Though, even setting that aside, something else odd happened, yes the emerald recharged just as expected, that was fantastic, buuut...

"Are you...Okay?"

Now Motet had changed completely, hopping around the room with excitement, that was a complete 180 from how she had been before, cold and bitter straight to warm and bubbly? What happened? Better yet, with one glance he noticed Fiona, and had to ask to himself, what was her problem? He just had to shrug it off for now...They had one emerald in their possession, and that was already one more edge they had on the enemy.

"With that done, what's our next order of business? I don't exactly mind checking in on your tech person!"

...It was pretty obvious he was excited to meet this Deadeye, if only because of how likely it was that she'd be working on something he found interesting. If only he had his modifications to the Tornado to show to her...Oh well, he could probably invent something else in the moment if he had to. He WOULD likely have to. And he had just the right idea for such an invention...

________________________________________

"I knew she'd get ya where you needed to go! Ain't she a beaut?!"

She gave a nod to Sticks.

"She has a point Blaze! If those Dolphins are working for Eggman, we'll be in trouble!"

...Poor Blaze.

Marine would just give an innocent look to Sticks however.

"See who? Oh, you mean the writers! I dunno mate, I think that'd be mighty rude!"

...Evidently Blaze wasn't the only one sick of this, as someone screamed in frustration from behind a wall.

"ENOUGH WITH THE DAMN FOURTH WALL BREAKING, I'LL BREAK YOUR NECK!!"

Well, seems like Tails was the one to ask the logical question here -- That made sense, he was the only one out of the group to visit Angel Island. At least, to Knuckles's knowledge. "Unfortunately, that island is among the conquered... When Silver came and warned me about what was happening, we ended up having an encounter with Chaos... Or a fake of him, anyway. About then, I decided it was time to move the Master Emerald to a safer place."

The Echidna didn't exactly like leaving the island behind... "If I had stayed on the island, the Resistance wouldn't be as well off as it is right now. And there's no guarantee I could have held off Eggman or his new general by myself. In due time, I'll return the Master Emerald... But for now, it's safer here and it serves a purpose.", he finished his explanation. It was pretty clear he was looking forward to when they were able to bring back peace, and he could go back to his island.

_______________________________________________________

White Glint on the other hand, was more focused on Motet. It didn't escape her notice that she had this strange glow as the Chaos Emerald began to react to the Master Emerald... Though. Before she could really begin to even ask any questions about that, Motet began to express her happiness that the Chaos Emerald was charged up again! It... Was quite the unexpected change. But a welcomed one! She looked far too gloomy before. This was a better fit, in her honest opinion.

She'd just smile as Motet practically danced around her in a circle, expressing that joy. "Well, that's one Chaos Emerald! And we've already got information on another one! Think you're up to hunting it down with me? Someone is gonna have to go and get it, after all!", she'd ask. Since Motet really seemed to be after the Chaos Emeralds, it only seemed fair to bring her along.

Though, one step at a time. Tails mentioned their tech person again. "Ah, yeah. We need to make a stop over at Deadeye's Lab. Knowing her, she heard about my return and isn't going to stop acting up until I head in there and let her know that everything worked as intended." so... Seems like they'd be making a stop there first. "Since it seems like we're done here, why don't we head over there now?"

If everyone was in agreement on that, Glint would start leading the way back, and then to the lab.

_____________________________________________________

Knuckles would then give a nod. "Yeah. I'm going to do a little touching up here, and hear what Fiona's full report. Then we're going to need to plan out the best course of action. Take this time to unwind a little and meet everyone in the base."

Fiona didn't have to much to say about the trips reaction. She was of course glad they had reactivated a Chaos Emerald, it gave them a needed edge and brought them one step closer to their goal. That was great for her, and she was eager to make a difference! It was something she needed to do, no matter what it took! But that was besides the point. She had to give the rest of her report to Knuckles, which she'd begin once the others went off to visit their tech Deadeye, her and Tails were gonna make a good combo for sure. Now on to the report..... .

"Well the good news is that with the tech Deadeye gave me to help track it we can say with certainty that the Emeralds there, the downside is that it's in the Eastern hemisphere, specificly the area most controlled by one of Eggman's bosses. Bride Of The Conquering Storm, in the Yurashua area. To get an exact location we'd need to send a team further in than I went but.... It's defently there, whoever we send should know though, shes defently one of Eggman's stronger forces in terms of milatary force from what I've seen with her 'egg clan' Though... You probably know that just as well what am I saying. Point is, whoever we send would need to be careful I think. That's all I have, I do hope it's helpful"

She'd give a firm nod, awaiting any further questions from Knuckles, or being g dismissed to go in her way.

--------

Motet was still on top of the world as she looked at the emerald. One of her siblings, restored. Well... Energy restored anyway. But that was juat as good. She was pretty this one would want to help her anyway. Most of her siblings were loyal like that. And besides this one had helped Vani considerbly in both accounts and states. So... He would help again.  She'd giggle at Tails apprent worry as they walked however.

"Oh I'm fine Tails! I'm just... Happy, the first time in a while I've had a reason to be! .... Thank you guys, for getting me to come here, and... Letting me I suppose. I still don't have the best opinion of anyone but you two but.... I dunno maybe that'll change soon, we'll see right?"

The smile didn't leave her face, and in fact only brightened when the subject came to Looking for the next Emerald, and Glint's offer for her to come with her. It made her feel warm to be trusted like that.... Their we're other feelings if warmness to but... She assumed that was just from not having someone care for so long. Yeah that was it. In any case she was excited! She would have gone looking for the emerald anyway of course but.... This felt better, felt right. The Enchdina still had quite a bit of energy in her to! One might even think it was non stop now!

"Yes of course Glint! I'd be more than happy to! I need to find those emeralds anyway so I'm defently coming along!.... After we visit your techy anyway. Hehe.... Then let's go! No time like the present!"

Full of energy as she was she even tried to take the lead! Though a small word from ether of them would put her on track. If not and they assumed she knew.... They'd be going on a wild goose chase for a bit!

------
The familiar voice of Shadow had mixed reactions. Blaze surprisingly seemed to have a post like she was thanking some good for the interference no matter Shadows intention. She reached out a hand to Shadow in greeting.

"Considering you haven't attacked us like 'you' did before, I'll assume the other one was in fact a fake. Greetings... It was Shadow I believe? I'm Blaze and these two are...."

Sticks would charge foward pushing their leader back a bit and giving a growl towards the black and red hedgehog.

"Don't give him our names Blaze! This guy is very clearly the bad guy I was talking about! Just look at him! Black, red that constant look of anger in his brow! We have to take him down!"

Blaze would take the chance to push back Sticks, who was doing her best to push past Blazes arm, one might give the similarity to that of a rabid animal.

"Sorry about that she's.... Unique. So Shadow, why are you here?"

"They took even Angel island? This is serious...So the same thing we fought back in the city then. He definitely put up a fight. Still...Since the emerald is in a safe place, I'd be interested in running some tests on it some time. If I could gather important data about it's energy, I might be able to further tech creation. I've never gotten a chance to really look at it!"

Come to think of it, that's true. The only times he had dealt with the Master Emerald was when Robotnik was trying to steal it...He imagined if there was another him in this world, he probably hadn't gotten a good chance either. There was rarely a reason to go to Angel island, after all. The Master Emerald definitely had incredible power though, there was no denying that, nor was it particularly difficult for anyone to figure it out. If he could really get a reading on it's powers then there's no telling how far he'd be able to take his inventions.

"Yes! I'm sure you'll get used to the others! Besides, you're not alone, I...Don't know most of them myself."

He smiled at Motet rather innocently, though it was true, she wasn't exactly alone in having to adjust to the others. Though he simply gave a nod when Glint mentioned going to see their tech person.

"Studying the Master Emerald will have to wait either way. Let's go!"

He followed along to the Resistance lab, curious on just what exactly he'd be greeted by.

__________________________



Shadow jumped out of hiding, landing onto one of the island's many fallen pillars that once made up the prison there. He'd scoff at the mention of the other "Shadow".

"Ha! That pathetic illusion isn't even good enough to be my fake!! unfortunately his existence is a necessary evil...Everyone is convinced I'm either dead or working for Eggman. That's exactly what I need in order to topple their empire from the inside out. And it all starts with this..."

He held out a chaos emerald.

"A gem containing the ultimate power! Once I've gathered all seven, I'll take care of the problem myself. That fat bastard has gotten cocky after defeating Sonic. His army has only just now started hunting down more of the emeralds. I will take them all for myself before he can even properly react."

He'd nod, however. Giving Blaze an answer for the reason he came here.

"I came here to find the gem you see before you. But I couldn't exactly ignore someone snooping around these ruins, either.

Seems there was a chaos emerald sitting right here on this island...Still, he tossed out some photographs towards the trio.

"Crikey! What're these?"

"While I'm here I may as well share information with the one person I believe will still act. These photos show something important; Eggman's eastern eggclan has been mobilizing more frequently lately. I have a feeling they're looking for one of the other emeralds...Go there if you want, or not. I however plan on paying them a visit."

He'd simply give Sticks a glare.

"Hmph...I'd take care of you myself if I didn't have to keep moving. That damn bat will catch up soon, but I don't exactly have time to sit here and wait. Remember this, you NEVER saw me."

He focused on the emerald in his hand, letting out a simple chant...

"Chaos...Control!!"

And disappearing within the blink of an eye. True to his word however, the photos he handed over to the trio did in fact depict the egg clan seemingly up to something big.

"Oi! This is big! What do you think we should do, Blaze?"

First things first, Tails expressed his concern over Angel Island, and then curiosity over examining the Master Emerald. True enough, it was an intriguing artifact... And he'd rather not risk it falling into danger, but things were pretty desperate. Knuckles could trust him too, but right now everyone had their hands full and they just came back from the field. "Tell you what, Tails... We'll talk about the Master Emerald in greater detail later.", better than outright refusing the idea, anyway.

Knuckles would then listen intently to what Fiona had to say; so the good news was that Deadeye's most recent invention worked pretty well... Although, it did have a drawback. Specifically, needing to be within a certain range to get a proper reading. That was fine enough if they weren't already working blind in terms of... Just about everything as is. Simply put, they needed to know more.

But without Tails... It was the best they could do. Of course, since they had *a* Tails now.... "Right. Once we're finished here, I think I'll have you take that locator over to Deadeye's Lab. Everyone should be there -- Including Tails. If anyone can figure out how to improve it... I'd wager he and Deadeye can if they work together.", he'd address that point first. More concerning however was the fact that this Chaos Emerald was located deep within enemy territory... Under the control of one of those Egg Bosses, no less.

"Still... One of the Egg Bosses, huh... We won't be able to afford sending in just anyone for that. We'll probably need a full strike team for that. I'll discuss the details with the others.", all in all, it was about as much as they could hope for. Fiona did good work out there. "You've earned a rest, good work out there. I won't ask you to do anything else major today, just take Deadeye's locator over to her lab and then you're free to do as you like.", Knuckles would then dismiss Fiona.

______________________________________________________


White Glint would smile as the two seemed quite eager to meet Deadeye. The Hedgehog briefly wondered how it would go. The Human could be... Quite a bit to take in at first. Still, she meant well and these two seemed to have their heads on straight. So Glint wouldn't worry about it too much, instead focusing on showing them the way to the lab. It wasn't a very long trip, thankfully.

Automatic doors would slide open with a hiss, giving way to a much more hi-tech looking area. You'd be forgiven for thinking that Eggman might have even had a part in it. But there were no particularly rotund scientists at work here, no devilish mechs to battle. No, just a surprisingly young looking girl tinkering away with a mess of parts on a desk. At first, it looked like she was using an eyepiece to better see what she was working on...

But as the girl in question turned to look at the guests in her lab, that very much seemed to not be the case...



"Ah, Glint! Just the person I was looking for! It looks like my prototypes served you well!", she'd then usher for the Hedgehog to step over. "I see you have guests, but I need you to test another invention of mine real quick. It won't take long!"

White Glint arched a brow, but walked over with a slight shrug. "Sure thing, Deadeye. I know you're not gonna listen anyway."

Deadeye just continued to grin as she then retrieved a helmet off of the desk and place it on Glint's head. "You learn quickly. Now, think about a girl you like."

That prompted silence out of White Glint, as she tried to process what she just heard. "... Um, okay, I guess I'll think of Amy. She's been something of a mother to a lot of the people that lost their homes..."

Deadeye's grin would then fade. "No no. Think of a girl you're romantically interested in."

Glint blinked... But decided to oblige. "Well... I guess there's the girl over in Cat Squad..."

Nothing happened. Deadeye then let out a frustrated sigh. "That's odd... Maybe I made a mistake in the calculations."

The Hedgehog then decided to probe for information. "Can you tell me what this invention of yours is for? It doesn't look like it's for protection."

Deadeye would calmly pull off the helmet and set it back on the desk, nodding. "While it could certainly protect you, you're right about it not being the primary function. I've heard that love is the most powerful force in the universe, so I was trying to harness it as a weapon!"

White Glint was dumbfounded... But then looked over to Motet and Tails, then gesturing to Deadeye. "Motet, Tails, this is Deadeye. She's our Scientist. Eccentric as can be, but she's proved invaluable to the Resistance... And she hasn't hurt anyone with her experiments either... Not for very long, in any case."

Deadeye would then turn her attention to the other two, beaming that smile in their direction now. "Pleased to meet you two!"

Motet became interested in one aspect of the doctors creation. And it brought up memori s of her past. Vague ones... That was so long ago. Another time, another place. Another reason. Before her mother.... Did what she did. Before Vani's kingdom fell. Before they.... Left.

'If ever I lose myself then you....'

"Mrs Deadeye... Could I try that out? If you don't mind of course theirs.... Someone I care about"

If allowed to she'd proceed to place the helmet on herself, and focus. If Deadeye's invention did work at all as intended it would register her thoughts the way they needed to be. Vani, her Vani, Vaneera. If it worked shed get fed the intended result. Depending on how strong.... It might reveal other things as well. Motet's intent? Vani was gone... But if their was another way to use that then once eggman was done she could.. . She could make it all right

Something from when Glint had mentioned a girl in the Cat Squad.... A tinge of jelousy perhaps? The Enchidna would do her best to hide the feeling on the surface however, assuming the machine couldn't register it. During this time. Fiona would visit the lab as well, handing over the prototype she had been using as well as giving the same report on it's performance she had given Knuckles, then leaving to enjoy her break as ordered!

Motet would think a moment before asking Glint a small question, though her tone of voice might seem odd, it even sounded odd to her. After all why should she care to much about her romantic interests? Yet still....

"You... Like a girl in a squad romantically?"

-------
"We split up"

The cat would give a sigh as she thought over the given information. It was only the three of them, and Marine wasn't much of a fighter. She served more the purpose Tails did for Sonic, minus the partner fighting skills. That left Sticks to be sent to one area and Blaze the other. Despite her... Uniqueness (shown by her calling after Shadow as he warped calling him 'emo copy paste hog' She was a great fighter, and a strong ally to have around in any fight and, if she had to could handle a situation with need even with her brand of weird mixed in.

"It seems Shadow is going to the Emeralds location as well.... Hmmm Sticks, can I trust you with this?  We can't be in two places at once"

That and she and Marine were much more suited to actual negotiation with this Resitence than Sticks. She was just to.... Essentric, maybe a just a little paranoid to. Sticks didn't seem to catch that however, instead giving a confident thumbs up, believing Blaze had given her the most important part of the mission.

"Right I got this! I'll take the Mini to tornado since it'll just be me, and stick it to those government cronies.... I'll get the dolphins along the way to don't worry so y'all go meet that crew without worries!"

Blaze would give a sigh, she really hoped this wouldn't be a mistake. After they shot off the 'mini' tornado for Stick's use Blaze would signal for Marine to follow her her back aboard the full sized Tornado. They were going to continue the search for Sonic, as well as meet this Resitence group.

"Come Marine, we've got our part to do to"

Tails would look around in surprise. This room was pretty impressive, it had a lot of machines he had thought beyond even HIS capabilities. This was more something Robotnik would make...Though, less malicious, and with fewer safety violations. Though in his defense, he rarely had need to make things like the various machines around the room. He focused mainly on the Tornado, his and Sonic's trusty air plane. ... Thinking about it though, he kinda got a little worried for the Tornado, last time they had it, it sort of...Crashed into the desert. Jeez, it was gonna take some heavy repairs to get it back into working order!

Though in any case, he stopped thinking in the past, and focused on the present for now. His attention was immediately brought to Deadeye herself.

"Huh? A human?"

He couldn't really help but notice that first and foremost. They were...Well, really rare on South Island. The surrounding areas too, come to think of it. This wasn't a Tails who had been involved in the Station Square incident yet. His interactions with humans were limited, so he was surprised. Ironically, the one human he was most familiar with was Eggman...Off the top of his head, he remembered that Sara girl too, but they didn't really get involved with her much, Sonic tried avoiding her as much as possible.

Though he also quickly became apologetic, feeling that maybe he was insulting, even though that wasn't his intent. Apologizing frantically to Deadeye.

"S...Sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it like that! I just...I'm not used to seeing humans where I come from, that's all!"

He'd rub his head embarrassed, still, he noted that those...goggle things seemed to just be part of her eyes, though he didn't say anything, nor did he linger on it too long. He wasn't exactly without flaws himself.

"Er...Yes! Nice to meet you as well! I'm Miles Prower! But you can call me Tails!"

He reached his hand out to shake her own, though once that was exchange was over, he quickly noticed all the things she was working on, and headed over to them to give them a look over. He was definitely impressed as he gave a gasp of excitement.

"Wowww! Is this a harmonic frequency syncronizer?! This thing is incredible!"

...He was far too lost in his own little world to notice Glint and Motet messing around with that helmet, he probably would have been determined to make it work regardless. Still, this was all pretty incredible, if it wasn't for Fiona entering the room, he would have still been a bit too focused on that device Deadeye was working on. She seemed to be holding her own piece of tech, created by Deadeye as expected.

"A chaos emerald radar...? So it's not very strong, huh? Well..."

He examines it himself a little more closely, taking hold of a screwdriver and prodding at it a little. He thought it over in his head, a method of perhaps completing it. It'd...Take some permission from Motet, however.

"If it detected the power frequency emitted by the emeralds, and grabbed that reading from high up, it could very well detect from anywhere in the world! Of course, we'd need an example of a chaos emerald power frequency, and...There would be no getting around the issue of having to take the readings from high up in the air. But...I think I have a solution for both of those issues."

He'd look over at Motet, more specifically her emerald that had just recently been restored. He knew how tightly she held onto it, and he wouldn't blame her at all for wanting to keep it held right where it was, but stilll...Once she was finished trying on that helmet, he would call over to her.

"I know that emerald is important to you, so I'm going to ask this in complete faith...If I can borrow it for a little bit, I think I can help us find the other emeralds. I promise I'll take good care of it, if you'll allow it! You can trust me!"

He gave her a smile just way too innocent to really leave any doubt to the average person. He genuinely wanted to help find the other ones, with the whole set, they'd have an edge on Robotnik and his goons for sure!

"If I use this harmonic frequency syncronizer, I can hopefully get a near perfect reading of the power frequency given off by the emerald, and match the radar's detection systems to that reading. Then all we'd need is a plane, and we could potentially get an idea of where in the world the other six emeralds are!"

It was definitely a gamble, even he wasn't sure if that would work. Though with Deadeye's own inputs, there was a good chance that they could improve it exactly as he had mentioned. If they knew where to find the chaos emeralds, there was no guarantee they'd be unclaimed, but at the very least, they'd know where to look. Which so far would still be better than "Somewhere in the Eastern Hemisphere". They had to try.

___________

Marine would give a nod when Blaze suggested splitting up, and would perk up even more when she commanded Marine to come along with her in the Sea Tornado.

"STREWTH! The Captain of the Sea Tornado and Blaze, off on another rippin' adventure! It's right privvy ay?!"

Ah, so it seemed that Tails wasn't used to seeing Humans before. Deadeye seemed to take it in pretty good stride though; there was certainly a lot worse he could take away from their first meeting. Especially with the 'good Doctor Eggman' on the loose. "Yep. Don't worry about offending me either. Your reaction is honestly one of the tamer ones I've gotten.", the smile on her face practically showed there were no hard feelings. Even with those strange eyepieces she was wearing, it was pretty easy to tell that she meant well for others.

Though it was her turn to show some surprise as well. "Oh? So you're Tails? I've heard quite a bit about you. It's nice to finally meet another scientific mind.", there was also what happened to Sonic, from what she had heard. But she wasn't going to bring that up. It was probably a sensitive subject. It was nice to have another pair of hands helping out around here. And if he was half as good as the stories said he was with technology.... Maybe they could start making some real headway!

Not that Deadeye didn't think she couldn't do the job by herself, of course. Seems like he was already checking out some of the projects she was working on, too. "I'm surprised you could tell what it is just by looking at it... We're definitely going to have to coordinate efforts at this rate!"

It wasn't long before something else came up though. Motet expressed her interest in testing out that helmet. Deadeye didn't particularly seem to mind the idea, she'd retrieve the helmet. "Sure. Just face that wall over there, and make sure you keep aiming at it while you think about the person you like.", she'd explain, then placing the helmet on Motet's head after giving the instructions.

A moment would pass, and then... Nothing? "Hmm, I guess I really did make an error. That's too bad-"

Before she could even finish her sentence, the helmet glowed and fired off a rainbow colored beam; quite a large one at that! The entire lab ended up being rocked by it -- Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the beam didn't last either. About two seconds. Hardly the weapon and result that Deadeye was hoping for. Especially since it seemed like the helmet short circuited rather than just need to recharge... "Well... It works. But a weapon you can only fire once isn't going to be very practical, all things considered... No telling just how well it would work out on the field, either."

That wall was fairly damaged, but fortunately it was only used for weapons testing anyway. This was a pretty controlled testing environment. "Well, thanks for helping me test it. That's some useful data regardless.", she'd then carefully take the helmet back.

Shortly thereafter, Fiona dropped in and handed off the prototype radar for the Chaos Emeralds. So it worked... But not perfectly. Yeah, about what she expected. Especially considering she didn't have any of the Emeralds in question to work with. "I'm glad that it worked... Hopefully, anyway. Without actually seeing the Chaos Emerald, there's no way to tell. On that front, it's entirely untested. We didn't have any of the Emeralds to work with here, after all."

It did speak to her ability to fashion up such a device regardless. It looked like Tails was willing to make improvements as well. This ended up grabbing Deadeye's attention. He really did work fast. "Ah... So I have a rival now.", she'd state jokingly.

_________________________________________________

Glint wasn't entirely sure how to react when that crazy weapon of Deadeye's actually WORKED. Nor did she know how to react when it actually turned out to be really goddamn powerful, even for the short span of time it could be used! Regardless of your opinion on the weapon, it was a buggy prototype in it's current state... It gave her a measure of personal comfort. That thing looked way too dangerous to be a mass-produced weapon.

But she'd never mention that to Deadeye either. That was a fast track to signing yourself up to a LOT more experiments. They were on good terms, best to keep it that way. When things began to settle down a little, Motet ended up asking Glint about the girl she was apparently romantically interested in. The Hedgehog fidgeted slightly. It was... Kind of an awkward subject, truthfully.

It really seemed like she wasn't very good with romantic things... "To tell the truth... Not really. I find her cute and all, and I wouldn't mind seeing if there could be anything between me and her. But who has the time for relationships right now? I don't think I can call it anything more than a crush. There's no guarantee she'd even like me back.", she'd explain.

"I'm kinda famous in the Resistance, but I'm also a lot more likely to go out to missions, and a lot of dangerous ones at that. I don't think many could put up with that type of stress on wondering if I come back or not, and the limited time to spend together... She could find someone better, I think. I don't know if that's what you wanted to hear or not."

It was her first time trying to articulate those feelings into words. Settling down and relaxing a little with someone she liked did sound pretty nice, but... There wasn't really time in the world right now to do that. The Resistance needed people that could fight, but lovers needed their partner to be there for them. She couldn't just drag someone out of their Squad along with her either. Not to mention all of the risks associated for the types of missions she gets...

Simply put. It wouldn't work out. She was also vaguely listening to what Tails was saying... Most of that went over her head. But apparently he could improve it to get better readings on Chaos Emeralds? The only tricky part here would be convincing Motet. "Ah... So putting it simply for the non-scientists here... You need the Chaos Emerald to improve that device, so we can find the other Emeralds faster and easier? I think it's safe to give the Chaos Emerald to him and Deadeye, Motet. If nothing else, Deadeye will definitely make sure it gets back to you."

She'd then smile lightly. "Not that I think Tails would keep it from you either. He seems too nice for that. I won't say what you should do, though. It is your Emerald, after all. You found it, not us."

Motet sighed, she had hoped the weapon would be more... Effective. Oh well, even she could understand something in it's prototype stage having errors... Though she kinda hoped it's a project Deadeye didn't abandon. Without Vaneera... She might need it one day. That being said Motet wasn't sure why she had felt that spark of jelousy to begin with. But... It calmed with her explanation, though still lingered from the part about 'seeing if they could get together' which was also confused.... Oh well. She'd hand the helmet back to Deadeye, Conti in the talk with the others.

"It's fine Glint, just weird feelings is all, don't worry about hehe, anyway...."

Motet flinched back at Tail's question, clutching the purple emerald close to her chest. Not because tails had been rude, but because of all the memories that were apart of that gem. He wanted to take that from her!

"But you... You have a location! That's what it was already doing right? W..why does it need to be exact! Were fast we can just... Search around! Why do you need Vani's gem for that! You don't! So you can just...!"

Again Glint's words were the calming nature, she'd likely say more after her outburst, and it would all serve to calm the Enchidna, like taking a shot for relaxation she'd slowly calm down, becoming less and less frantic until she simy stared at Glint, the Tails with a confused, fearful face.

"You.... You promise? You won't take it...? I... It's one of the only things I have left of her... I... I can't lose it.... So... You promise?"

If Tails agreed a light, but weak smile would cross her face as she placed the emerald in his hands. She.... She wanted to trust Tails and Glint. Even if she didn't trust anyone else here yet.

This was.... The first step.

"R...Right."

He smiled at Deadeye, honestly relieved he hadn't made a bad first impression. Of course, he was surprised to hear her mention him in such a light as if he were famous or something. He wasn't really sure what to make of that, maybe his other self was really well known? In any case, he gave an enthusiastic nod.

"I mostly work on Sonic's airplane, but...I did make this really cool jet-propelled body board once."

He was definitely glad to have been correct on that device though, it was ALREADY really fun talking to Deadeye, Sonic usually didn't go too crazy when it came to technology, he kind of wondered why the blue hedgehog had an airplane to begin with. Oh well, he just gave a nod to the idea of coordinating efforts. In any case however, it was now on to what Motet thought of his idea. She definitely seemed hesitant, understandably so.

"Motet, listen...I know you're worried, but we need all of the emeralds. You have the ability to save the day! We need your help. You can trust me!"

He'd give her a genuine smile, and an honest nod. Speaking calmly to her, just to get his point further across.

"Of course, I'll keep it safe until I bring it right back to you! I only need it until the upgrades are finished, anyway! Besides, I don't have any long-term use for these. Eggman's the only one I know of who wants to hoard them!"

He gave her a grin and a small laugh, simply joking around about the evil doctor to lighten things up. He calmly held his hands out to grab the emerald, letting her release it first, just to be sure he didn't accidentally swipe it away. Still, he was definitely glad to have it! He walked back over to the work station Deadeye had set up, placing it on the harmonic frequency syncronizer. It took him a minute of prodding at the machine to figure out how to turn it on and start it's job, but once it did, it made a pretty shrill beeping sound!

"Y...Yowch! Well, that's to be expected with an emerald...I'll have to adjust this thing a little. Er...You don't mind, right?"

He looked over to Deadeye, waiting for approval before tinkering with the device further. it was gonna take a minute to get it aligned just right, it needed to be able to handle the immense power output  by the incredible gem.

"You two...Might wanna sit down. This is gonna take a minute to get set up. If you have to go on that mission, I COULD stay here. Though...It might be a bit dangerous with just the two of you, right?"

He wanted to get this upgrade ready as soon as possible, but...At the same time, he didn't want to abandon those two, not after they had helped him so much. It didn't feel like it would be right. He hoped there would be suggestions regarding that issue.

______________________
(No one HAS to reply to this segment here, only if you get an idea for it, or want to.)

Another portal, just like the one Tails had come from appeared in a snowy wasteland, what exactly was about to appear from it? None other than a familiar blue hedgehog of course! He flew out with a lot of force, dropping right down into the snow below.

"WAAAHH!! OOF!!"

He landed with an impressive thud, his head getting stuck in the snow, though after getting his bearings, and pushing his head out of the white land, he got a chance to look around. There wasn't a lot to see...Just lots of snow, hills, and the occasional iceberg. Still, the scenery changed pretty fast, and not for the better. Eggbots arrived on the scene, and immediately became alert of Sonic's presence.

"Alert: Target 'Sonic the Hedgehog' detected. Moving to dispatch immediately."

"Oh so you want a piece of me, huh? There's SNOW way I'm letting that happen!"

He rolled up into a ball, spindashing forward in an instant to take out two of the eggbots, while the others gave chase, he rolled up the side of a small cliff-face, rolling up a sort of upside down ramp to smash into another of the bolt buckets. He bounced off of it, using his momentum to dispatch the last of them by landing on them as well, until he hit the final one, catching himself ontop of it with his hands, doing a few tricks, and hopping off of it's wreckage into a perfect dismount.

"Sheesh! So much for the warm welcome, huh guys? ... Guys?"

He looked around once more, this time picking up on something he had missed before. Tails & Knuckles were both completely absent. What happened? Where were they? Better yet, where was HE? This was looking to be quite a predicament, he remained calm, but still he knew it was going to take some looking around to figure things out.

"Well, I guess I better start looking around. This place ain't getting any warmer, and Robotnik's bots aren't getting any smarter!"

Deadeye was a little disappointed that the weapon didn't work out as well as expected too. Still; it was possible. She just needed to figure out a method to properly harness and channel that type of energy now. "I'll have to tinker with this quite a bit longer... But there's definitely potential here. But since you're willing to help out with my experiments, I'll be sure to give you plenty of weapons that DO work. Just come into my lab anytime and I'll see what I can fix you up with."

It was Deadeye's own unique way of showing gratitude to Motet. It made sense in a way, too. The human was responsible for all the technology that the Resistance was using, so she could very easily double as the Quartermaster in terms of equipment. Probably for the best that she didn't also handle rationing of food and drinks though. She could REALLY get people to sign up for her experiments then. What was more important was that they were asking Motet for that Chaos Emerald so they could really fix up that radar to work like it's supposed to.

Naturally, Motet had her concerns about it. Deadeye would shrug lightly. "It's like they said, we won't force you to give it up and we're not going to keep it. But my device is very imprecise since I didn't have an actual Chaos Emerald to work with. Fiona had to travel out very far and even then we only have a rough idea. If you're interested in finding more of them, then my locator being more precise is beneficial to you.", she'd speak her own piece on the subject.

Fortunately, everyone did their own part in comforting Motet. And although the Echidna was obviously reluctant to give it up for even a little while, she finally agreed to do so. And that meant she and Tails could get to work. So when he asked if it was alright... She'd just grin and nod. "Of course! I'll be helping out too. I think we can cover any other issues that way.", she'd reply.

And true to what one could expect, it was going to take them awhile to work on it and make it as precise as possible while also extending the range. With any luck, they'd then be able to retrieve all seven Chaos Emeralds and really start turning things around!

________________________________________________________

White Glint would end up smiling at Motet for being brave enough to hand over the Chaos Emerald temporarily. "Hey, I'm proud of you Motet! I know it's not easy. But with this, you'll not just have one or two Chaos Emeralds, we should be able to get them all!", she would however take notice of the fact that their work was going to take a little while -- and with the shrill noise coming out of that machine... Yeah, she could believe that.

The Hedgehog would just give an understanding nod and look over at Motet. "Why don't we take the time to relax? We did just get back to the base after two fairly difficult battles. Deadeye won't mind us making ourselves at home here." she'd point out. "Truth be told, when she's got that look on her, she's going to put all her focus into her work..."

The Human was a dedicated one, to say the very least. In any case, Glint seemed to like the idea to have a seat and rest up for a bit. Doubtful that they would get much of a chance to. They were going to be taking on a lot more missions after all. Not just for the Chaos Emeralds, but to start taking the world back from the Eggman Empire too. They couldn't afford to get lax just because of a few wins. They didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things...

So maybe it was better to put their attention onto something else. The Hedgehog would take a seat over in the small lounge area in Deadeye's Lab. "Jealousy over me liking someone, huh? I guess I need to be careful of that, too... I imagine a lot of people like me and are grateful. I don't really want to hurt any of their feelings just because I end up picking someone."

The Hedgehog would scratch the back of one of her ears, thinking it over. "I wonder if this is something Sonic has to put up with too... I hear he was against the idea of hooking up with Amy for awhile...", she'd muse aloud. It certainly seemed like Glint wasn't any good at dealing with romance...

A spark, a jolt came from the emerald when Glint took hold of it, something that would slowly work its way through the hedgehog's body. As for what that spark caused? Memories coming in, at first vague and shadowy but becoming clearer as they were focused upon.

A cat girl, clad on robes stood before two people one was Motet, though in clothing far more tribal like than what she currently wore.  The look on her face was clearly conflcited-her body was weak. As was the familar form of the hedgehog before Glints site. Someone who looked like her... But different. The clothing warn and her general style differing from what she currently called her own.

The cloaked girl frowned, and reached a hand out for Motet.

"Why...? I forged you of the emeralds might... A weapon, a tool... My daughter to choose who would rule this world... Me..."

"She's not a tool for you to use! She's a person! She matters! If you really cared you would get that!"

The words of the Glint look alike would begin to echo as the scene faded away. The scene reforming to one now only containing the Glint look alike and Motet. Though at first it was simply The hedgehog staring at a sword once she grabbed it it became the familar form of the Echinda in a flash of light. She still wore the familar tribal clothing at this point at gave a serene smile to her. the tone she spoke with was happy, bubbly but serene.

"Oh seeker of the light... You have been deemed worthy"

"Huh...? I came for a sword to destroy this witch I'm... How are you..?"

The Echinda tilted her head, clearly confused.

"A witch? Hmmm I... Don't know what you mean. Mother forged me, and my purpose-my true form only shows to the one meant to wield me... Meant to be ruler. It... Unfornalty was not mother.. but I'm sure she will be overjoyed to learn a ruler has been chosen! May I know name of the lands future queeny?"

This time the hedgehog was the one to frown.

"I'm not so sure... I'm Vaneera, but... What about you..? Do you... Are you able to have a name?"

The echinda's expression became confused once more. Name? No she didn't have a name why would she?

"If it helps you.... You can call Caliburn, I am the holy sword that chooses rulers!"

The scene faded once more. This time Motet was clad in the armor she now wore when Glint and tails first saw her. Her face was determined as she looked out to a castle in the distance. The one previously dumbed Vaneera stood beside her, similar armor as Motet on her own form.

"Before we go...."

"Oh what is it van van?! Don't worry I'm fully resolved! We're gonna beat her nine lives in!"

"No... No Cali she's not that much like a ca... No look! I think... You should have a name, beyond just your status as a sword"

"A... Name.... Vani I'm a wea..."

Vaneera shook her head, a determined expression on her face.

"Your a person! Just like me. You love.. you cry, you feel... Your hurt and you smile, that makes you a person... And a person deserves a name"

"V..Vani..."

The hedgehog cumped the enchidas hands I'm her own and smiled

"I've been... Thinking on it a long time. How about.... Motet?"

The bright and warm smile the Echinda have served as her answer as the scene faded away once more.


The last scenes to show came by fast. Motet and Vaneera wounded, fled from the woman... Morrigan. Barely escaping they used the power of the emeralds-able to be used away from the woman gliding after them... And they warped. But their warp clashed with another and swirled everythig out of control.

One flash. A masked menence as Vaneera and Motet stood before him.

Motets tears as she came to terms with losing who she had come to love.


And them everything came back to the normal world. The form of Motet stood a few feet off from Glint now. Still clearly, still mistrusting of the people around her for. The most part. She stood away from them now. Having separated from Tails and Glint when it seemed they had become busy-she was alone with her thoughts, lost in them really.

--------

Fiona also separated from the others, but she decided to approach Tails once he was away from the others. When he was she would tap his shoulder in an attempt to get his attention.

"Excuse me Tails? I hate to bother you but... Could we talk for a bit?"

She seemed a bit distraught, different from the irritation showed earlier...

----

"Sir we will send the new robot solder to deal with him, she should leave him sutably open and..."

"You will NOT"

The solder stuttered back, cleared stunned by the walrus man's answer, as well as the tone he took with it. The general, the Egg Boss had a stern glare as he looked at the racing blur on his secrutiy screen, as it dispatched what had already been sent. No he would not use tricks of the heart to take his for down. No....

"I will handle him myself"

Tails' adjusting of the device, experimenting with the emerald, it was going steady, though the tone had not silenced yet. He was interrupted by Fiona's inquiry. He looked up at her with a curious look in his eyes.

"Oh...Fiona? What is it? Give me just one second"

Tails spent some time tuning the harmonic frequency synchronizer, although the loud beeping was suddenly drowned out by a...Different sound. A whirring sound that slowly grew louder. It had become rather immediately impossible for anyone in the lab to ignore, and then a shouting from the next room over added to the noise.



"YES IT'S WORKING! IT'S WORKING! IT'S... OH GODS IT'S BURNING, WHY IS IT BURNING?! OW IT BURNED MY FINGER!!! HOW CAN SOMETHING THAT SHOOTS ICE B U R N?! -WAIT I TURNED OFF THE FAIL SAFE! SON OF A BI-"

A loud boom rang out silencing the whirring noise and shaking the walls of the lab, and then was immediately followed by a cloud of smoke billowing out from the other room's entrance, quickly covering the lab in a thick layer of soot. Tails had completely stopped his tinkering at this point. Just...Baffled by the unseen chaos that had just occurred. His jaw hung open in disbelief.

"Wait, false alarm! The smoke put out the fire!"

The source of this voice soon entered the main lab, revealing herself to everyone in the room.



"It's okay everyone! I'm a trained professional! There is NO fire! The lab isn't burning!"

She waved her hands in the air, coughing as she accidentally inhaled a lungfull of the smoke filling the room. With the offending substance quickly subsided, she waved calmly when she spotted White Glint. As if...Nothing had happened.

"Hey Glint, what's up? Who're your friends? OOOOH!"

She quickly stepped over to Tails, observing his work.

"I see you found my Harmonic Frequency Synchronizer. What are you doing with it? Sabotaging my inventions?"

Tails simply blinked looking up to her.

"Sabotaging your inventions?"

"Are you?"

"No."

"Good because that would be bad."

"How bad?"

"I'd have to scold you."

"That would be bad."

"Yeah it would. What are you trying to accomplish?"

Tails was...Very confused at this point. He tried his best to respond honestly despite the baffling situation currently unfolding.

"trying to read this emerald's signature so I can match it with an airborne reading."

Ayami placed her hands on her hips. Bending down slightly to get a closer look at the device. She'd rub her chin in thought for an awkwardly long amount of time before finally giving a response.

"Why would you do that?"

Tails' confusion only grew stronger by her question. He... Wasn't entirely sure how to answer that when it seemed obvious to everyone.

"W...What?"

Ayami tapped the emerald, a grin forming on her face as she brainstormed.

"These things give off energy readings. Very LOUD ones. Just... Get an accurate reading and then broadcast that out of a radio tower. Most of those babies are so high up you should be able to scan most of the world from one of them. Send it out and then let the tower RECEIVE. It's like uh... Echo location. 'Cept you're bouncing a bunch of massive energy readings off of each other."

... Her idea was...Surprisingly simple. He wasn't sure why he hadn't figured that out himself sooner. Instead of painting a target over themselves by taking an airplane out, just... Send an invisible broadcast out and match the signals that come back.

"Uh... But I didn't see any broadcast towers on the way into the HQ..."

"Well YEAH duh. Only those rotten eggs have something like that. Any civilian radio stations were converted after the Empire's big land grab. But there's one close to this area. I've seen it when I go out scavenging! It doesn't really seem very well guarded, Glint over there could probably take it by herself. And her prickly friend looks ready to bite the nearest bot truth be told."

Tails was...Surprised by just how resourcseful she was in this case. The others had seemed so intent on keeping a low profile, but here she had gathered intel and sort of scouted the exterior while busy doing something else entirely. It was...Reckless. But he just supposed that this team had all kinds of people.

"And you're sure it will work?"

Ayami gave the fox a confident nod, standing up straight.

"Eggman would have to be AWFULLY clever if it didn't. And - I'm not gonna lie. I like the cut of Glint's gib."

Tails scratched his ear, looking at her in surprise.

"You're not going to go help? Even though it's your idea?"

Ayami rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Uh well, you see about that... I'm not really a...Fighter. Also I'm super busy with a project Deadeye and I have been working on! It's a secret weapon that will help us turn the tide! That big egg isn't gonna see this one coming at all! He'll be all like 'Nooo I can't believe this!' and then I'll be like "YOUR EGGS ARE COOKED BITCH!" And then he'll be like 'I can't compare to your staggering intellect and stunning genius Ayami! I surrender!'  and then I'll totally receive the praise of the entire resistance! Yeah...Heheh."

... The two were silent as Ayami simply grinned with her eyes closed, imaging the rather...Unlikely scenario in her head.

"...Right... so that means..."

"It means I'll be with you all in spirit!"

Ayami gave them all a very proud, confident nod.

"In the mean time, I can absolutely synchronize this frequency. You just go talk to your lady friend."

"Who? Fiona? She's not... Alright I guess."

Tails stepped away from the device, facing Fiona. It seems his hands were no longer tied with experimentation.

"Soooo... What did you want to talk with me about?"

_________________________________________

Ayami paused the syncronization for a second to have a word with Deadeye.

"Oh yeah, I need to make another salvage run. Our schematics are flawless. But... We just don't have any robotics. No microchips, no processors, no modules. We can make a hell of a lotta guns, but there's not enough parts for our project. Can you get me clearance for the mission?"

Deadeye no doubt had great knowledge of just how reckless Ayami was in the field. But she wasn't wrong in this case. - They just didn't have any robotics stolen from the Eggman Empire. Most robots that were fought were totally destroyed, leaving nothing to carry. Besides, soldiers had their hands too full to really rely on carrying around heavy parts the entire mission. It led to a scenario where despite the schematics for their project being easy to set up, they just didn't have the items needed to complete it.

"I've got the perfect target in mind... Totally, absolutely ten billion percent safe! I just... Need someone with weapons to back me up. Just in case y'know."

With her request gotten out of the way, she returned to tuning the chaos emerald's frequency. She'd listen to what Deadeye had to say as the girl worked away on the device. ... Incidentally, she had forgotten to introduce herself to all the new faces in the room. Which just added to the confusion of the entire situation.

_________________________

Sonic was definitely confident given just how easily he had dispatched that squad of bots. He looked at one of the robots' still active cameras, getting very close to it so that those in the Egg Boss's control room could only see... An eye.

"Well Scrapbrain? You gonna come get me? I'm waiting over here! What's the matter? Is that mustache weighing you down as much as your eggy body?"

He moved away from the camera, confused as to why it was so quiet if they were LOOKING for him...Thankfully as he tapped his foot impatiently, eyeing the surroundings, he spotted a structure through the blizzard. As much as he didn't really want to go right into one of Robotnik's bases, there really wasn't much of anything else around... He zipped away from the scene, heading right towards it as he blazed a trail right to the Walrus' location. He was... About to get into a battle he wasn't entirely prepared to handle, to put it lightly.

To say that Glint was overwhelmed with the rush of memories would be an understatement. Every moment that she had shared together with Motet flooded back all at once. All of the hardships they went through, Vaneera teaching Motet what it meant to be alive, to be a person... And ultimately having to flee their own home, only to run into Infinite. She still didn't know how she survived the encounter with him, but she knew one thing.

Motet did as well... None of this had been easy for her, though. Motet fully believed that Vaneera had died back then, and it wouldn't be easy to convince her otherwise. Especially when she needed a moment to compose herself. After the memories had ceased their rush to restore her very being, she places a hand on her own forehead and closes her eyes...

"I... Remember everything."

That was the first words out of her mouth as she could finally straighten herself out, lower her hand, and open her eyes. She turns to Motet, and for the first time in awhile, it actually seemed like she was 'awake'. The Echidna could probably recognize the very gaze that the Hedgehog had now. One of silent determination, and most importantly, of care for her beloved friend.

"Motet... I don't expect you to believe me... But, I'm Vaneera. I didn't die against Infinite, and I remember Morrigan too. I remember that we had to escape from our world."

She explains calmly, and directly. Vaneera knew that this would probably be upsetting for Motet, but... A good kind of upsetting, perhaps? Knowing that she was still alive might restore some of that former self that Motet had. But having all of these memories back also reminded her of the dangers lurking in the shadows. Morrigan... The one that created the Chaos Emeralds. She wasn't going to stop looking for her and Motet.

One way or another, they needed to find a way to deal with that. Vaneera reaches her hand out to Motet. "Motet... Let's go. I have an idea, and I think we need some privacy."

It was a tender moment for them to share... Only interrupted by a sudden explosion from the lab. For a brief moment, Vaneera wondered if they were being attacked, but then she very clearly remembered the voice that was shouting right now....

________

Deadeye wasn't quite as calm about it.

"Don't tell me you mixed up the flamethrower with the frost cannon again!"

Though she wasn't exactly running to help either, instead she crosses her arms. Knowing her assistant, it wasn't a deadly explosion or really a fire. Just... Another one of those over-enthusiastic moments that resulted in catastrophic failure of the device.

Hey, not like Deadeye couldn't say that never happened to her own experiments.

"And I keep telling you that you can't just put the two functions into a single gun! If we couldn't figure it out together, then it's not possible!"

Still, Ayami was just as energetic as ever, and as soon as she assured everyone that the lab was not on fire, she goes straight to introducing herself to Tails in a very... Unorthodox way. And even comes up with a surprisingly solid plan to improve the Emerald Radar. Of course, it wasn't without risks, but they were in a Resistance. Sooner or later they were going to have to take those.

"Well, I guess it's time we finally suggest that mission. They're getting really interested in the Chaos Emeralds now."

The Human comments, which leads right into...

________

... Vaneera realizing that there might be a little bit of a delay to act on her plan. "Aha... Why don't you guys run it by Knuckles first? I need to go and take care of something personal real quick."

Before anyone could offer protest, she takes Motet by the hand and rushes off. Navigating the twists and turns of the base and charging straight through the illusory wall to return to the Master Emerald's Chamber, all with Motet in tow.

She comes to a stop in front of the giant Emerald, and turns to Motet. "Sorry... Didn't mean to take you by surprise like that, but I know we needed a moment to ourselves too... And this will also let me try something."


Vaneera states, and then turns to the Master Emerald. She takes a deep breath, and then hops on top of it. She psyches herself up, and proceeds to take some of that limitless power into her own form. As a result, she rather suddenly turns golden, and her eyes turn to a glowing red.

She looks herself over for a moment, and then begins to zip around the massive chamber, testing out the new form and her ability to control it. Though she soon returns to standing in front of Motet, and then the form simply ends like that.

"Damn... It almost works perfectly, but the form doesn't last for very long. I can't use it reliably without taking the Master Emerald with me, and that's not going to happen... But I know something else it can do."

She then calmly raises a hand to the Master Emerald, and takes in power from it once more, though this time channeled into a very different way. This time, she was using it to attune herself to the Chaos Emeralds, so that she could sense them and better track them down. They were going to be a key in stopping Infinite, and taking the Phantom Ruby.

That was the wild card in this whole mess... If she could get a hold of that, it should even be able to help them stop Morrigan. Still, none of this was going to be easy. With that taken care of, she turns to Motet.

"Sorry... All finished now. I imagine there's a lot you want to say and do, so... We're alone here, and it's safe. I'm here for you, Motet."

__________

Deadeye looks over at Tails and Ayami after that straight reaction from White Glint. "What do you think that was all about?"

After thinking it over for a moment, she simply shrugs. It seems like there were other things to focus on anyway. Like the fact that Ayami also wanted to go on her own salvage operation in order to find the parts they needed, apparently even having a target in mind... Her enthusiasm and assurance that it was "ten billion percent safe" made Deadeye a little skeptical.

But she had been working with Ayami long enough to know that she did good work, and had a lot of good ideas too, and since she even said that she needed backup...

"Well, I approve of the mission on my end. Make sure to ask Knuckles about getting backup, too. We'll go ahead and pass along both of those requests. The sooner we start fighting back, the better."

She could already tell that was going to make Ayami happy, so she braced herself for that, half expecting the Chinchilla to hug her out of sheer gratitude. Though either way, that was the ultimate thing to take away from this; Ayami just got full support on both of her ideas from Deadeye, and suggested taking it straight to Knuckles.

Once the Leaders knew what was up, chances were pretty high that they would act on it in pretty short order.

Vaneera turned to face her, and the look in her eyes brought confusion to the Enchinda, intially causing her to back up a bit in surprise. Focused, clear... But what brought her confusion... Was the care that laid behind that gaze. Care for her...? But why? Her next words however ceased that confusion and brought a flare of anger to her eyes, anger and hurt. How dare she! How dare she make such a hurtful claim! Was she trying to to manipulate her heart?!

"How dare you mock the dead!! What kind of sic..."

Her eyes went wide however as she mentioned Morrigan to, as well as the escape from their world. Motet had told no one of that sense she came here. The only ones that knew WERE her and Vaneera.

"H..how do you...?"

She had seen it, seen Vaneera die in front of her. She held the body-she marked the grave. So how? How could this possibly be... But no one, no one else knew. She looked once more into her eyes. The care directed at her... Only one person had ever shown her that care and affection.. the person who thought her she was more than just a sword. Gradually her face changed to one of hope, of want.

"I...is it really you?"

The hedgehog reached out her hand and Motet took it tightly in her own. It felt right, familar-she didn't want to let go for anything. For the first time in a since that horrible incident her body relaxed and her expression became more happy. This felt familar, it felt right. She hadn't fully recovered but... She knew this was true.

"V...Vani it really is you..."

She nodded at her statement. Yes they defenitly needed privacy. They needed to talk. She wanted to hear her vani... Her Vani... Hehe...

She then heard an explosion and went into a combat position-immeditly moving in front of Vaneera in a protective manner. She WOULD NOT lose her again! But gradually she would relax, coming to realize it was just another member of the resisitence. She sighed in relief and her body returned to it's normal position.

"Your sure....? O..oh ok! We'll be back soon have fun ummm be careful mechanic girl!!"

The Echinda already seemed brighter even as Vaneera grabbed her hand and dragged her off once more. It was a noticble difference clear to anyone who watched her. As Vaneera pulled her along... Her face formed into a small smile. When they did stop they were in the chamber of the Master Emerald once more, this time just the two of them. She finally had a chance to recover and... Before anything else she pulled Vaneera into a tight hug.. then let her go, 5his time with a bright smile.

"I missed you... So much... I'm so so sorry I let you down. Ah... What did you want to try...?"

She was still guilt ridden-yet she wanted to see Vaneera's idea. She would soon get her answer as she absorbed energy from the emerald and turning bright gold! She zipped around the room like a hero, with Motet jumping up and down and clapping until she landed.

"But still that's cool!"

As Vaneera finally finished Motet began shaking and, without much warning would once again leap forward and grab her in a hug, this time not letting ago unless she was asked to.

"I missed you... So much.... I... I was so lost without you Vani... I..I just..."

She couldn't find the words... But to her friend it was likely clear as day-she had likely felt the same after all.

------

Fiona had seen the explosion as well, it coming from the other mechanic of the resistence. She then backed up a bit as she and tails talked. She was rather.... Energetic she had to admit. She supposed their was nothing wrong with that, she was just difficult to keep up with-though she had to admit a bit funny to.

"Well as... Wild as she can be she and deadeye are the main reason the resistence is as well equiped as we are, they come up with all kinds of things that are useful in the field"

She rubbed the back of her head with a small smile on her face. Ah! But this whole thing has gotten her distracted.

"Thanks for the hard work as always Ayami"

She would give the girl a thumbs up, then turn her attention back to Tails.

"Well.... I heard you had to watch your best friend get best by Infinate... And now he's missing. On top of all that you even had to engage in a rough fight before you got here... I suppose I just wanted to ask if you were alright?"

The look of concern on her face was clear and geninue-she wanted to help him if she could.

------


Sonic would find he was able to enter the base-quite easily in fact. Perhaps eerly easy. He didn't get much resistence. Robots would appear at their station from time to tell but no actual solders. The doors shutting behind him as we went might give the impression they were trying to cut him off from escape.... Until he would come across a large one ALREADY shut in front of him.

"Greetings, Sonic. I must admit... You look shorter than I expected... Still- I apologize for the lack of.... Entertainment? We both know the usual solders wouldn't have done much without their own machines"

He said that, but one might be able to tell a more obvious reason-he had made EVERY living solder leave. It was so they did not come to uneeded harm.

Still the hedgehog did look familiar to him despite that, perhaps he had somehow become younger? It didn't change the mission he held.he stood hovering over the intruder with a look of determination on his face-he intended to see that mission through.

"I do not expect you to stand down, I would be shamed if you did in all honesty... Shall we get this over with?"

His fist slammed into his hand, the force of which was enough make the area they were in shake just a bit.

Yep... This was going to be a rough one.

Ayami simply blinks as Vaneera takes a confused Motet by the hand, leading her away to places unknown. The Chinchilla wasn't exactly one to gossip.... .... Usually. But her rather blunt way of speaking rose to the surface in this situation.

"Jeez Glint, if you needed to go to the bathroom so badly why didn't you just say so sooner? Sheesh, some people..."

Ayami rubbed the back of her head, grinning bashfully as Deadeye scolded her recklessness yet again.

"I guess I just can't help myself. I know we've failed like twenty times, but you know the old saying! Failure is the mother of invention! ... or...Was that necessity? ... Hmm."

The mechanic looks at the ground in deep thought for a moment, before seemingly brushing it off.

"... Uh, point is! If we could just get past that flaw, imagine a variable wispon! With tech like that backing us, there's no WAY we could lose. Combat effectiveness would increase by at least 300%! Right now we're having to delegate combat roles based on weapon types, but that means if someone gets separated from the rest then they're fighting at lowered efficiency right?"

Ayami gave a confident nod, clearly undeterred by the rather concerning number of set backs on the road to creating this "Variable Wispon". Still, the topic came back to the missions. She was...Admittedly surprised Deadeye was even humoring her ideas in this case. Usually the doctor was...Careful when it came to the mechanic. It was less out of disrespect and more out of closeness.

Though naturally to the chinchilla this only spurred her on more. It seemed that despite everyone's best efforts, Ayami felt...Restless.

"Chaos emeralds huh...Way ahead of you! I'm gonna make sure this mission plan BLOWS EM AWAY!"

She grinned to the Doctor. Always full of boundless optimism.

___________________________

"She's...Definitely something! Even Sonic doesn't get this fired up!"

He was surprised that just these two were able to come up with so much. Especially considering one of them just exploded a few seconds ago. It made him realize that for better or worse, they really were ragtag in this resistance team. Part of him had to wonder just what everyone here would be doing if Eggman hadn't gained so much power.

Setting that thought aside though, Tails was taken aback by Fiona's apparent concern. The name was...Familiar to him, she was definitely someone from his world. But it had been so long ago, he couldn't quite remember just when they had met... Was she like this in his own time? As much as he tried to remember, his memory was a little fuzzy. But she also seemed to have mistaken him for the Tails of THIS world... He wasn't entirely sure how to explain this in simple terms.

"About that... I'm not the Tails you know. ... Well, I am but- It's...Complicated. Sonic IS missing, but he's a different Sonic too, kind of... Sort of."

He scratched the top of his head, trying to figure out how exactly to explain this in a way most could understand.

"I... Guess the easiest way would be to explain that I'm from the past!"

He smiled bravely when she asked if he was okay from his fight though.

"It's nothing I can't handle! I just fought like Sonic always does!"

A statement that wasn't entirely inaccurate, but also wasn't entirely true. The strategies he employed were a little unconventional compared to Sonic's own hit and run style, but he did employ speed and a modicum of bravery...Uh, sorta.
__________________________

Ayami gave a mischievous grin when Deadeye questioned Vaneera and Motet's reasoning for leaving the room in such a hurry. She rubbed her chin and took on a smug expression as she spoke bluntly

"They're probably making out in a closet somewhere."

... The mechanic was certainly not one for restraint or tact in any given situation, that much was obvious.

But with Deadeye's reluctant agreement to the salvage operation, Ayami leapt towards the human at dangerous speeds, latching onto her in appreciation for the doctor's humoring of her friend.

"You really mean it?! I can go on a big mission?! This is the best day of my life!!!"

Her cheerful grin and starry-eyed stare could power a city right now. To finally have her chance to make what she feels to be a difference after having only been allowed to sweep the immediate area around the HQ... Now she was going to get to go beyond the borders of safety, it would certainly be dangerous but this Chinchilla was prepared to face it all!!!

... But first she'd have to run it by the leader. She released the doctor from her vice grip, quickly taking notice of Fiona's appreciation. Her eyes somehow becoming even brighter in response:

"Me...? Am I finally being recognized for my contributions?! I'm truly becoming a rising star!!!"

She closed the gap between herself and Fiona in the blink of an eye, staring directly into the fox girl's face with glee as she latched on.

"A great mechanic can always meet the demands of her clients: no matter how dangerous, ridiculous, or poorly thought-out they are! You can count on me!!!"

She grinned, leaning in closer as she looked at Tails.

"I see you're getting bold in your pursuits... Don't get TOO cozy you two, you just met after all!"

____________________

Tails began to panic at the mechanic's suggestions, waving his hands frantically as his face turned red.

"W...Wait, it's not like that! She's just making sure I'm okay! That's all!"

___________________

"Uh-huh, Uh-huh, I understand perfectly!"

She grabs them both by the shoulders, pulling them in close as she whispers to them.

"Don't worry, I'll keep your tryst a secret from the others, Ooohohoho~"

She gives Deadeye an enthusiastic salute, grinning from ear to ear.

"I'm off to request our missions to the leader! I WILL RETURN!"

She hurried out of the room. ... Completely forgetting about the emerald frequency.

________________________

As he rushed in, dispatching the bots with ease, he failed to take notice of the doors closing behind him. With his failure of noticing he had mere seconds to slide to a stop as the door in front of him shut, he snapped his fingers.

"Guess that old bothead wants to do this the hard way! Well, it wouldn't be the first time!"

He turned to face the sudden voice appearing to greet him, surprised to see not a robot, or Robotnik himself... But an animal soldier?

"-Short? Hey! I resent that remark y'know! I might be small but I'm quick!"

He was clearly not taking this threat too seriously, as was normal for him. But he did take note of how rare it was for someone not robotic to be working for Robotnik... There were certainly instances, but for someone to be this loyal was a bit odd!

"Well now! I didn't realize his rotundness was hiring! Heh, sending your buddies off to fight me by yourself? I can respect that!"

He wagged his finger towards the Walrus eggboss, grinning.

"If it's a fight you want, you've got it! But a word of warning? Don't blink!"

He leapt away, landing on a wall in response to the room shaking fist impact, a kneejerk reaction more than anything, but he quickly capitalized on this by turning and running up the wall, leaving a blue blur behind him as he ran, he doubled back around behind the walrus, leaping right towards him for an assault from the other side!

It was an emotional reunion for Motet. Just like she said... It had appeared that Vaneera died back then. She very nearly did. Although the details of the battle were still hazy for her, she did have a recollection of how she survived after that. She also returns the hug that Motet had given her. Since the other one, she was still in a rush to try and prove her identity and execute a critical plan.

"Yeah... I still don't remember it very well. But I know that Infinite didn't finish the job, at the very least. I woke up some time after the battle, both of you were gone."

She explains. "I also lost my memories after the fight, so I just... Picked a direction and started wandering. I was still injured from the battle, so I wasn't making very fast progress."

Vaneera pauses for a moment, trying to remember everything that happened. "I was pretty lucky at the time, none of those robots were on patrol. But I did run into a scouting party from the Resistance. They took me along with them, assuming that I was a survivor of the war."

Vaneera adds, by now, she eases up on the hug, but doesn't pull away.... Motet needed the comfort right now. She knew that. "After that, I was fixed up, and started my training... 'White Glint' was born soon after that."

All things considered, she got pretty lucky... So did Motet. Both of them managed to survive terrible circumstances, and now they were back together. She takes a deep breath, and looks determined once more.

"Motet... I remember you saying that we have to work together to defeat Morrigan, and I know you're right. But right now, we need the Chaos Emeralds to deal with all the other threats to this world. Then we can prepare for her... Maybe we can even use the Phantom Ruby to help us."

Vaneera then begins to explain her plan to Motet. "The Resistance is our best bet right now. So let's keep working with them... Does that sound good to you?"

She then queries, letting Motet have her say in this.

________


Ayami wasted no time in coming right out and saying it; it looked a lot like White Glint and Motet were a couple right now. Not exactly how Deadeye would have said it, but... Hell, not like there was anything to disprove it either.

"Sometimes it's scary how you just say whatever comes to mind, and it ends up being right more often than not..."

The Human comments. Spending so much time with Ayami meant that Deadeye was pretty familiar with how things often turned out with her.  Which also meant that she knew a rather eager hug was coming her way, and right on cue, Ayami did just that. Deadeye sighs a little, but cooperates with the hug and returns it

Still, on a different note, Ayami was pretty excited about making a variable Wispon a reality, and she couldn't deny that if it ever worked, it would definitely increase the odds in their favor in any given battlefield...

"Well, you're right about that. I also know better than to think anything I can say would make you stop experimenting too. So, keep at it. We have a safe testing environment here..."

Ayami certainly never lacked for enthusiasm, even in her ideas when it came to missions. Still, Deadeye couldn't deny that getting those two feats accomplished would put them in much better conditions. Having a clear way to track down the Chaos Emeralds, and being able to complete their secret project...

"Knuckles and the others will definitely appreciate having the information. Everyone is getting pretty restless, and they want to start fighting back. I have a feeling your leads are going to be the right first steps for just that."

With all of that said and done, she was also in the perfect position to hear what Tails and Fiona were talking about... The admittedly confusing nature of Tails's circumstances naturally made her curious, so she steps over in order to address it.

"Yeah, speaking of that... Traveling through time is an anomaly we haven't really heard of.... But considering what the others had to say about the 'other' you, it's clear something is going on here. Do you think anything could have caused you ending up here?"

... Ayami of course intervenes in her own special way, assuming that Tails and Fiona were an item right now. If Deadeye had normal eyes right now, you could assume that she would be rolling them. At least the Chinchilla decides to rush off in order to go speak to Knuckles... Forgetting about the Emerald Frequency in the process.

"... Honestly, that girl is so energetic, hardly even taking a bit of time to properly plan things out... I guess it works out for her, though."

She couldn't help but admit to being a little worried for Ayami. But it was also time to let her friend spread her wings and find out what really made her happy. Deadeye could tell that she wanted to do more than just sit in a lab all day. She needed a passion for something.

All she could do right now was support that.

"Well. You two are welcome to relax here for as long as you like."

She then turns her attention to Tails.

"And if you feel like helping out in the lab, feel free to. I've heard enough stories to know that you're good at this."

Deadeye then extends the offer. Now it was just a matter of letting things play out and see where all the pieces fall...

She listened close to Vaneera's words. So the Resitence had saved her. The same one she had been mistrusting and recoiling away from all this time. Despite her memory loss Vaneera had managed to survive-even thrive and grow. Meanwhile Motet had done the opposite of what Vaneera would have wanted for her. She had regressed, let her life become consumed in a hunt for revenge. She... She hoped Vaneera didn't connect that particular part from the fight earlier. For all intents she had allowed herself to devolve back into a weapon in the ne of revenge. But now...?

She gripped Vaneera tighter, all of that had been shattered in mere moments. Vaneera could likey tell a difference, she was the Motet she remembered well again.

"I'm thankful it's just... Hard... The only other group I was apart of... Were the others. Pieces for her plan... You promise this is different? They... Arent just using us to their ends?"

She thought hard on Vaneera's suggestion, going through what she new about Morrigan. The Sol Emeralds and Chaos Emeralds were both born of her, one set her children the other set her 'pet'. The Master Emerald was crafted by those she taught, and used to repel her. But the Phantom Ruby? She couldn't recall it being connected to Morrigan. At least not in a way she had been told about.

"Of the gems we know of... I don't remember that ruby having a connection to mother... It's worth a try to, if nothing else improve our odds against the others, and help us stay stable against her. We should defently be careful though... We don't know where it's from yet"

She wanted her to stay with the Resitence. Both of them. Vaneera felt it was the best way of getting to their goals. She... Supposed she owened them as well for taking care of her Vani. Vaneera had never steered her wrong! Well... Except for that time Vaneera stared dueling her opponents in "duels of honor" in order to get free meals using her as her blade. But still, ninety nine percent of the time everything was fine! So....

"I think your right Vani... I owe them anyway for taking care of you. And besides... We shoudnt keep doing this alone"

She then giggled, holding Vaneera's hands in her own with with a grin.

"We should get back huh? In my experience people say you do all kinds of weird things when were alone for a few minutes....! Like the time with what was it... Oh yeah! Rolling me down a hill fast and hard!"

Yes, Motet was defently back to her old self.

---------
A different Tails..? Wait where was theirs then? Fiona frowned, but her concern didn't lesson. This world was dangerous. More so for smaller, innocent types like tails. They put their trust everywhere, the only one worse was Knuckles. One of her worries was that one day that naivity would break him one day. She didn't want to see Tails broken. From his wording he didn't, or this one at least hadn't developed his own fighting style. He jsut followed what sonic. Considering a lot of the time the way Sonic approached things was... Reckless at best that only made things worse in her mind

"I see... I'm glad your ok, our Tails or not"

She smiled, despite her worries Tails was safe for now. The little cutie had survived. Still she would have to find a way to help him past that innocent phase at some point, less the cruelity of this world crush him

"So... Your just from the past then, does that mean you time traveled?"

She couldn't help but laugh at Ayami's statement. She had a different problem. See underestimated her contributions quite often... Despite being a core part of this team. This Resitence

It was always fun being a rebel.

"Of course! You may not be a fighter but the take you and Deadeye make has saved our hides more times than I can count!"

Thogh at Ayami's statement a blush ran through her... Good thing her fur already had a reddish tint in places.

"It's nothing like that! I simply worried about his well being"

As the mechanic went off on her own she coudnt help but sigh. Ayami was always a handful.

------


"Perhaps 'hiring' is not the best term, but it is a conversation for another time. Hmphf.. do not misunderstand. Their is no sense in waiting their lives not their well being fighting a foe. Well aware they would all fall to. It is best to cut to the point"

He grunted, a rough chuckle escaping him at the hedghogs words. He was the fastest thing on this planet. Precious few could hope to match his speed and he certainly was not one of the. It was why he chose a area like this. Jsut enough room for them to fight. But for his little games of cat and mouse? Well he had answers for that.

"Very well"

Though Sonic's intial attack managed to connect and deal him a knockback, Sonic would likey notice just how sturdy he was in the process. He'd get a measure of his physical prowess in the next moments as well as she slammed his his fist full force into the ground, the result wave of sonic energy likely knocking the hedghogs off balance if he didn't find a way to keep himself balanced. With his momentum the eggboss would then attempt to come straight down upon him with his large fist.

Tundra wasn't one for bragging in the middle of combat. Words could wait when one of them lay broken. On the ground.

For now? He wanted to see what this hedgehog could do. See for himself if all the feeds showed his capabilities. Of word of mouth said enough about his actions.

Yes... He would see for himself.

A resistance soldier stood before Knuckles, giving a report on a recent scouting mission Unfortunately for this soldier he was just a LITTLE too focused on his report to notice the mechanic pop up right next to him.

"YO RAD RED!!!"

"DAUGHH?!?!"

The poor soldier dropped all of his papers on the floor in shock as the chinchilla stood there, staring at the resistance leader with a concerningly excited expression on her face. Seems she came with pretty important business considering she rarely dealt with Knuckles directly.

"I've got two mission requests directly from the lab! A salvage mission lead by yours truly, and a mission to take over some land for our emerald radar project."

Ayami stepped over to the main room's map projection, pointing out an area not far from HQ. - In fact, it was just down the block.



"Right here! A radio station. No doubt being used to send out that Scrambled egg's propaganda messages. ... And terrible 80s showtunes...Eesh."

The mechanic tapped away furiously at one of the command's keyboards until an image appeared displaying the last known floor map of the radio station.

"With how close it is we could run a raid on it any day now. And once we do... We can use the radio tower to send out a signal and cause it to radiate with the emerald energy signatures across the world. We'll have a long range tracker right at our finger tips! I've passed by there a few times on my salvage missions... It's not very well guarded. At most I would expect a single squad of egg soldiers stationed there."

She would bring a hand to her chin, thinking carefully as she closed her eyes.

"But... We'll need to plan our raid carefully. If we just run in there blindly and let the whole world know we're taking it, they might be able to find the location of our HQ.

Maybe we need a squad to take territory somewhere else as bait...?"

The chinchilla would then close the radio station's imagery, zooming the map out and making it roll over towards Station Square.

"Mission 2 is easier than easy! Right there off the coast of Station Square! I think some of you here might be familiar with this one - It's the sunken egg carrier from years ago. The plan here is simple; To finish our secret weapon, I need robotic components. So I waltz in through the front door, sweep the sectors that aren't submerged, grab the parts that dummy was too dimwitted to take on his escape, and then I leave!"

She triumphantly put her hands on her hips, nodding with a grin.

"All I need is a little bit of backup to account for any still-active security measures. That thing has been sitting for a while, so I doubt there's even power left... But it's better safe than sorry. Besides, if no else is there, they won't get to see me totally save the entire resistance single-handedly! Please, hold your applause everyone, I know my plan is flawless, but we've gotta let it play out first!"

She puffed out her chest with pride, feeling confident that not only would HER mission succeed, but the other one would as well.

________________

"Thanks!"

Tails smiled at Fiona brightly, even if he didn't exactly know her all that well, having someone care for his well being was...Rather refreshing after what he'd been through since arriving here. Honestly this is the first time he's gotten a chance to relax since the phantom ruby showed up in his own time.

A time traveler? He was a bit lost on how to respond to that...

"Well... Yes, I think so! Considering Amy is older... And a lot more responsible than before. ... And wears less green."

He looked over at Deadeye, who was clearly curious to know more about his circumstances. He thought back to that decisive battle from before he ended up here. Honestly a lot of it was a blur... But he tried his best to explain.

"I don't really remember that much... But we had beaten robotni-...Eggman, and then the emeralds were drawn to the phantom ruby, and then it opened a huge portal that pulled all of us into it! The ruby came along too, and... Maybe the emeralds did too! All I know for sure is that the massive power boost applied to the phantom ruby must have caused it to open a portal into the future!"

He rather suddenly took on a concerned expression as he thought over the consequences of such a thing.

"You don't think...Eggman would try to do that, do you?"

____________________________

Sonic did indeed take notice of just how little that attack affected the eggboss. Smirking as he jumped away.

"Hey, you're pretty tough! Got any more tricks up your sleev-Whoaaah?!"

The shockwave was enough to catch him barely keeping his balance on one leg, and the resulting rush ALMOST caught him off guard, the eggboss having almost caught him in a combo attack! He quickly zipped a circle around the walrus, standing at his back.

"Aw yeah, this is happenin'! You're the first thing that ol' Eggbeater has sent my way that's an actual challenge!"

He sped over towards one of the solid steel doors, tapping his foot and yawning as he waited for Tundra to rush at him. He was clearly trying to bait the eggboss into an attack focused in just the way he wanted!

"Wellll? We gonna wait all day for your next attack?"

It certainly seemed like Tundra was going to get exactly what he wanted, perhaps more than that too.

Motet was understandably vulnerable right now, and she just... Needed to be assured that this was real, that her fears were wrong. Vaneera was happy to accommodate that, holding her close.

"I promise, Motet. You met all the others, right? You think Knuckles cares about anything other than making sure the Master Emerald and the world is safe?"

She asks rhetorically.

"And Deadeye is eccentric... But she'd never harm you. Same for Ayami. You don't have to like everyone in the Resistance or bond with them all either... But they're a good group, fighting for their world. Just like we were fighting for ours."

Motet then expresses her thoughts on the Phantom Ruby. Just as Vaneera suspected, it was a gem of incredible power that was entirely unrelated to Morrigan...

"Right. Then I think that's going to help us a lot. I know it won't win us the entire battle, but every advantage we can get..."

Vaneera trails off her response, pausing. Part of it was her own fear and doubts coming into play... The last time they fought Morrigan, it ended badly. The Chaos Emeralds were thankfully beyond her reach, though likely not for long. And then there was Infinite... Sure, she was weakened after that fight. But his strength was equally as impressive.

"I'm sure his power comes from the Phantom Ruby..."

She muses aloud... Though, she's shaken out of it as Motet agrees to stick with the Resistance, preferring not to do this alone. Right now, this was the best way to prepare for the future, get this world back in order, warn everyone about the impending threat, and secure as much power as they could. They'd need every last bit of it.

She gives a nod to what Motet what to say about sticking with the group, and then smirks as her friend then implies heading back, before rumors about them start to spread. Vaneera decides to have just a little bit of fun at Motet's expense...

"Oh? Since when were you the shy girl, huh?"

Vaneera leans in closer, whispering into Motet's ear.

"Getting a little flustered at the idea of being my girlfriend?"

After letting that work it's magic, she'd calmly throw an arm around Motet, and begin to walk out of the Master Emerald chamber with her.

"But seriously speaking... I don't mind whatever they have to say. We're a team, and this was a personal moment that we needed."

Presumably, nothing else would come up that would interrupt them, so they'd return back to the base proper, and Vaneera would gently pull her arm away so that they could walk normally.

"I guess now we just relax until people need us. Unless there's anything about the Base you'd like to know about?"

She then queries of Motet.

-------

Knuckles would sigh a bit as Ayami makes her usual loud entrance, startling the poor soldier that was just giving their report.

"Ah... Ayami. I can never forget your trademark entrances."

One might think it strange that Knuckles took her seriously, but Deadeye always vouched for her work, and he'd seen just how capable that she was firsthand as well. Plus, her antics did, in their own way, do a bit to restore morale around the place. Most people were dark and gloomy all the time -- hard to blame them, but having someone that seems to run on perpetual cheer makes a difference.

Ayami wastes no time getting right into her explanation.  They were for two requests, one for a salvage mission that she wanted to lead personally, and another for some land... A radio tower. Not very far from the base either. He listens intently as Ayami goes through her explanation. There were some risks associated to taking the radio tower, but nothing too major.

"I'm not too worried about them finding our base, as long as we don't leave obvious trails... Still, caution is the better part of valor here. I like your way of thinking, so we'll consider this a joint operation. One to serve as a distraction, one to take the radio tower in the chaos."

Knuckles then comments. He then allows Ayami to proceed with her second mission, the one that she wanted to do herself. It was a salvage op, but a pretty special one... He recognized the location right away, and judging from the specific coordinates... It was the Egg Carrier, which the Chinchilla wastes no time in confirming as well.

Though she also adds a bit of her own flair to the end of her mission debriefing... That kind of confidence was pretty staggering in it's own right, even Knuckles had to take a bit to adjust to it. He clears his throat, and then delivers his response.

"Right... I can see why you want backup for this. It's a deserted ship, but you can never be too careful with Eggman tech. I'll assign two people to help you; Barby and Fiona. Make sure you're all ready before taking off, no need to take risks on this. If you keep it quiet, there shouldn't be any trouble though."

Still... This was pretty well thought out, even had solutions for the potential risks involved. Ayami was definitely coming into her own here.

"And Ayami? I know you haven't started your mission yet... But good work. Not too many people can plan that far ahead on their own."

He wanted to encourage that kind of prepared thinking. He was the type of guy to rush in and just punch things, but... For obvious reasons, that wasn't going to work now. It was a little difficult to adjust to, but he had the others to help him. Plus, the faster this was taken care of, the faster he could take Angel island back...

-------

Deadeye listens to what Tails is saying with great curiosity. A time traveler! Such a strange phenomena. But it certainly seemed true. He looked a little too young right now to match up with all the stories she had heard... But then again, he wasn't particularly old to begin with. Hmm. In any case...

"I see. So there was a battle over the Phantom Ruby, and the Chaos Emeralds were involved as well... Your theory is certainly sound. Taking two incredible powers and having them clash with each other could have caused any number of things to happen. At least it seems fairly benign in this case, though, we'll have to figure out how to get you back to your own time later."

The human then replies.

"I'm sure that's not exactly what you want to hear. But we'd certainly welcome your assistance, and that may speed up the process of getting you back home. Maybe we can even find your Sonic too."

Still... Despite saying that, Tails had a very legitimate concern of his own.

"The tyrannical dictator constantly building "machine utopias" and and an endless supply of robots, constantly trying to abuse the Chaos Emeralds? I hate to say it, but ripping open a portal through time sounds like something he would do. How intentional it was, that's debatable, considering the battle that was going on... But we should definitely keep it in mind now."