Chapter Text
Gadget
The sun was casting a molten orange glow across the sky, the sound of the crowd chattering echoed across the slowly reforming town center as the wreckage was being pulled away from the still standing structures. Gadget was off to the side leaning against one of the building walls, taking a breather after a long day working with the restoration. They had managed to clear a decent amount of destruction from this town so far, the effort slow but clearly progressing as the days went on. It wouldn't be long until they could start rebuilding what was lost and get this community back to its original form.
It had been roughly three months since the war had officially ended, three months since Infinite vanished off of the face of the earth, the only thing proving he was here at all being the scars that he raked through the world that they were left to heal. The wolf spent the first few weeks searching through the ruins trying to find anything that could lead to the Jackals' whereabouts but to no avail. It was as if the criminal just ceased to exist, not even a body left to be found.
It frustrated the wolf to no end that there was no clear-cut resolution to everything that had happened, Eggman retreated back into hiding who knows where, and the harbinger of devastation himself was either dead and gone or hiding away to get his revenge another day. It was an uneasy feeling that he and many others had to bear, always lurking in their subconscious that they would have to go through this all again.
At the very least, the Restoration, formerly the Resistance, was a great outlet for letting him get out that unwanted energy. Gadget was almost always the first volunteering for missions, taking pride in his contributions and getting everything back on track. There were a lot of missions that took him out traveling to assist in missing persons cases, badnik removal, or in the case of his current assignment, town rebuilding efforts.
He was currently stationed in a small seaside town surrounded by a rocky mountain that was hit by a fleet of Eggman’s bots near the end of the war, the structural damage was pretty substantial but for the most part it was a simple job. The most taxing part was the labor, but even then he had his trusty modified wispon to make short work of things. He had been working in the city for a little over a week at this point, spending his mornings and afternoons helping with cleanup while using the evenings to explore everything the quaint salt dusted location had to offer.
His new routine was stable, if a bit stagnant. In some ways he appreciated the ease of which things flowed, but in others he felt like he should be doing more. He was so used to the constant shifting that the war demanded, and slowing down felt painful.
Things used to be worse when he was stationed back at the Restoration’s headquarters, Gadget’s key involvement in winning the war had quickly pulled him from his “Rookie” status and elevated him to a position that held much more weight. There was an awkward period in the beginning of the restoration's directive shift where he was asked to join in on their meetings and offer input, but he quickly recognized that it wasn't his thing. He tried for the sake of Sonic and everyone else in those first weeks but the stress of such heavy decisions while not being able to personally see any progress became too much for him and he politely asked to take on other roles within the organization.
One thing he really enjoyed while at Headquarters was the resources and free reign that allowed him to fully indulge in tinkering. He was allowed full 24-hour access to the workshops where he would often be tasked to help in repairing wispons and other related gear, even working with tails on a few larger projects when the fox was available. But the true joy for him was in the after hours work, where he would immerse himself in his projects for hours at a time. upgrading his gear and creating new types of- for lack of a better word, ‘gadgets’.
He came from a modest family of inventors and mechanics, so tech came naturally for him. Before the war had begun he had actually been in his first year of college for an engineering degree, his brother about to graduate high school. Thankfully his family had made it out of everything alive, he hadn't been able to contact them throughout the entirety of Eggman’s crusade but located his brother Gizmo after the dust had settled and communications came back online. He didn't see them often but the knowledge that they were safe meant more than the word to the scarlet wolf.
His time in the workshops was his way of coping with the new version of the world he found himself in, and it worked for a while. But the longer he stayed within those walls, the more claustrophobic they felt. About a month into his stay he felt that he needed to get away for a bit, but wanted to do so in a way that he could still make a positive impact. So he put in his name for a mission that was a few towns over, and from that point forward he never stayed in one place again.
The day carried on like any other, with a day full of labor followed by taking a walk over to one of his favorite small restaurants for a quick and easy dinner. Some of the other Restoration members had the same idea and called him over to join their table, the wolf politely accepting their invitation and silently munched his food while listening to the antics of the others. It didn't take long before he was back on the streets wandering to new corners of the town as the sun slowly fell into the horizon of the ocean.
Gadget was heading towards his temporary lodging in the city when he first felt it, a sudden shift in the air followed by a distant rumbling. The best way he could describe it was how the ground vibrated intensely as a freight train thundered by, but instead of the sensation localizing to the floor below, it shook the atmosphere around the scarlet wolf with a growing intensity. His fur stood on end as he started frantically looking for the source of so much raw power, he could hear the shouts of alarm and fear from the people around him as he shot his grappling hook out and took to the rooftops for a better vantage point.
He quickly sent an SOS message through the communicator on his wrist as he vaulted for the bell tower that sat at the center of town, hoping that sonic and his crew could speed over as soon as possible. Gadget knew that whatever this was, it was likely more than he could handle himself and he couldn't risk the town’s safety by waiting to assess the danger before calling for back-up.
When he made it to the top of the tower his breath caught in his throat at what he saw, in the near distance, maybe a few miles away at most, was the mountain range that surrounded the town. And eclipsing part of those mountains was a gigantic black hole, or at least what Gadget could only assume was a black hole. The moon that was sitting just behind the mountain ridge appeared to be getting wrapped around the edge of it, the light bending around and seemingly vanishing into it.
Panic flooded the wolf as he tried to figure out what to do in the face of something so insurmountable, but all he could think to do was evacuate the town. Even if it was simple, at least he had some semblance of a plan structured. Time was of the essence so he jumped down to the bell sitting in the center of the tower and activated the switch before leaping down to the ground and found a group of restoration members trying to keep the peace.
“We need to evacuate away from the mountains, get as many people as you can to the southwest entrance and keep them moving. I’ll head towards the north of town and get as many people headed that way as I can.” rushed out the wolf.
A brunette cat stepped forward with a look of determination “understood, l’ll head eastside and start directing everyone I see on my way, as well as get the rest of the restoration members on the same page.”
Gadget nodded and aimed his wispon, swinging into the rapidly approaching night. He directed everyone that he could as he slowly made his way closer to the black hole, the rumbling in the sky growing stronger the further he pushed. He was terrified to know if it was growing, the chance that it could swallow up the entire town and overtake the people escaping was an overwhelming thought. He shook his head, setting his eyes on the large wall that separated the mountain range from the town. He knew he needed to keep an eye on it and assess its progress so that sonic and his crew would have as much information as possible. He had to put faith in his team and let them take care of the evacuation for now, his focus needed to be the direct threat in front of them.
With that in mind he scaled the wall and perched, gazing out at the black hole. The slowly darkening sky only served to obscure the black hole further, but it hadn't seemed to expand any more than what he saw on the tower. The wolf let out a small breath of relief, before looking at the large mass closer. Upon further inspection, the rim of the black hole almost looked like it was bleeding a very dark purple mist out.
That one thought was all that it took, that one thought slammed into the canine with a startling force and clarity, he had seen something like this before. Only a few times but now that he had a moment to process what he was seeing, it looked an awful lot like the null space that Infinite had ripped open during the war, just much, much, bigger. His heart plummeted to his stomach, did this mean that the Jackal he had fought tooth and nail was back?