Any Port in a Storm

by Ashley_Rose_413

Summary:

With her partner left in critical condition, Whisper was resolved to finally bring an end to the one who was responsible; Mimic. She was used to working alone, but with the Restoration left in chaos and Mimic having access to Clutch's resources, she knew she was going to need help.

Surge was furious, once again she was in someone's control, forced to do what Clutch told her to if she wanted to see Kit again. If she was going to slip the leash, she had to find someone who could work in the shadows.

Forced to work together to accomplish their goals, the pair form a begrudging partnership, and find that they aren't quite so different after all.

Notes:

Well hey everyone! This is the first part for my submission to the 2025 Sonic Big Bang!

I'll be posting parts 1 and 2 today and the next 2 will drop weekly.

Some of you waiting on updates to my main fic might have wondered what the hold up is, and when the next chapter drops for it (Very soon) I'll go into more detail, but part of it has been this, so I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: Part 1

In the dead of night, just outside of the city limits of Central City, sat a facility at the end of private road. On it's front was a stylized logo, swooping cursive green text spelled out "Clean Sweep" with the 'l' being a broom that was clearing away a pile of trash into a dustpan. There were several floodlights on, illuminating the front entrance which was being watched by a pair of guards in matching uniforms.

The guard on the left, a beagle with a bored expression, held a hand over his mouth as he yawned.

"Don't fall asleep on me now," Said the wolverine guard to his right. She smirked at him and leaned back against the wall next to the front entrance. "The boss will tan your hide if he catches you slacking."

"I'm not slacking!" he barked back, "The pup's been keeping me up lately."

The wolverine lady cooed in delight. "Ohhhh, how old is she now?"

He grinned and scratched the back of his head. "About 4 months. Cutest thing in the world."

"Haha, I bet she is, you got any pict-"

Their conversation was cut short by a rustling of leaves and branches. They shared a look, then drew their wispons, slowly advancing towards the noise. Clicking on a flashlight with her spare hand, the wolverine swept the trimmed hedges with a beam of light, eyes peeled for any movement.

( Original Soundtrack: Hush)

"…It's probably just a flicky or something, right?" The beagle said uneasily, trying to calm his nerves.

"Probably." She reassured him. "But we aren't getting paid to assume… There!" Just then, her beam caught something small that darted into the brush. "Alright Jake, flush it out."

"Me?!" he hissed, looking back at her incredulously.

She rolled her eyes."Yes, you. I'll keep the light on you, just shoo it away and we can get back to doing nothing."

Fighting to keep his hands steady, Jake inched his way forward, wispon at the ready. When he finally got to the bush, he reached one hand cautiously forward, swallowed nervously, and pulled back a branch to see what has hidden. He was greeted by a small pink floating creature with one eye, looking up at him with annoyance. "A…wisp?"

His light disappeared. "Bailey?!" Jake shouted out in fright. He clumsily fumbled with his flashlight for a moment before turning it on to look where his partner had been seconds earlier.

Nothing.

He spun around desperately trying to find any trace of her or their would-be intruder. "Who's there?!"

The last thing he saw was an impassive mask inches from his face, before a fist slammed into his solar plexus, and he crumpled to the floor in a heap.

Pink trilled happily as they returned to Whisper, swirling around her once before returning to their capsule under her cloak.

"Thanks." She said, before quickly pulling Jake's unconscious body into the bushes he had been checking mere moments earlier, but not before swiping his security card.

Moving quiet as a ghost, she flung a small electronic device from under her cloak that stuck to the camera overlooking the entrance, which Tails assured her would loop its feed from 10 minutes ago after a brief outage. With luck, it should be convincing to anyone not paying too close attention, seeming like in the moment the camera was offline, the guards had returned to their post.

She slipped inside, knowing she didn't have long before either one of the guards awoke or there was a change in shifts. Inside the facility proper, the pristine corporate veneer melted into a stark grim reality. There were racks and racks of recovered Eggman technology, all in various states of being repurposed for Clutche's ends. Egg pawns slumbered in rows of 10 by 10, ready to spring to life at their new master's command.

Not every robot was as docile as those however. At regular intervals, flying wasp badniks with piercing searchlights swept through the halls, ready to raise the alarm and turn this sleeping warehouse into a deathtrap at the first sign of intrusion.

Whisper held her breath as she pressed herself flat against the wall only inches away from being spotted. For all her training, experience, and intuition, there were always times like this where the best play she had was to hope and pray an eye wouldn't turn her way. The searchlight lingered near her, only a few seconds in truth but to her it felt agonizingly long, like it somehow knew she was there and was merely playing with her before ending the game permanently. She let out a silent sigh of relief when finally, it continued along it's predetermined route.

Whisper dashed through the hall, having only a handful of seconds to reach her destination before she was once more at risk of being spotted, and placed the security card she had stole from Jake against the card reader. The door made a soft but satisfying beep, and she swung the door open just wide enough to slip inside before she gently closed it behind her.

Once inside, she took a moment to let her pulse calm down now that she was relatively safe. Illuminated by the gentle soft glow of LEDs shining from dozens of servers, she saw her distorted reflection in one of the chrome panels that lined the walls.

Put simply, she looked awful.

Her face was haggard with heavy bags under her tired eyes. Along her arms were several bandages, covering countless cuts and scrapes from more close calls than she cared to count. Her familiar cloak, a holdover from her time serving with the original Diamond Cutters, was frayed and worn at the edges, desperately in need of some mending.

It reminded her very much of what she looked like in the aftermath of Mimic's betrayal, desperately running for her life before she found the resolve to become the hunter rather than the hunted.

Though, it was never that cut and dry with her and him, they changed roles fluidly from cat to mouse. At times she was the one with the upper hand, chasing him down to whatever foul den of iniquity he slithered off too, hot on his trail. Others, she had been the one on the back-foot, not having a single clue about his whereabouts and thus needing to remain constantly vigilant for what attempt he would make on her next.

By all rights, this time should be one of the later. Mimic held all the cards, he had dismantled her support network and had the vast resources of Clutch and Clean Sweep at his disposal. But she refused, refused to let him be in control once more, refused to let him know a moment's peace. Not after what he did… what he did to her.

The moment kept playing in her mind, over and over. The Diamond Cutters had been on route to help Sonic and everyone else stop Clutch's plan, to rescue Amy and Tails, and unveil the opossum's deceit.

Then 'Duo' tried to put a knife in her back.

It would have worked, if Tangle hadn't seen it coming, hadn't pushed her out of the way and taken the blade in her place.

She never saw the knife strike her, but she saw the Lemur stumble backwards, grabbing at her chest as blood seeped through her clothes. Whisper was so shocked, so distraught that she could do nothing as Mimic slipped away once more, leaving her and a dumbstruck Lanolin to try and get Tangle medical attention.

By the time they get her to a hospital, they got the news: The Restoration was finished. Jewel had chosen to sacrifice it rather than Emeraldvile, and with Sonic completely MIA…

The Babylon Rogues saved who they could, pulling scared and helpless volunteers out from the impending disaster. Many weren't so lucky. Of course, Clutch was more than happy to fill in the void, stepping up to replace the fallen protectors and the people were more than happy to usher them in and too naive to see him slowly start to sink his claws into every facet of society.

And so that left Whisper, alone and outgunned as she tried to finally settle the score with Mimic. She knew this was a fools errand, knew that she was constantly pushing her luck and that any moment now, it would run out and she'd meet her end.

But what else could she do? Lanolin had offered, begged to try and make things right, but the wolf had refused. She couldn't loose someone else to him, she was hanging on by a thread and one more friend taken from her would be her undoing. In the end, the sheep stayed behind to stand by Tangle as she mended.

Shaking herself from her ruminations, she returned to the task at hand. A large computer sat in standby, with a large monitor showing the status of the rows of servers behind her. Fishing through her pockets, she found the small flash-drive with a signature yellow color and fox ears, and plugged it in to an empty port. Within moments, the display changed to a cheerful message saying 'Transferring data' along with a winking pixelated version of Tails' face.

At least through all of this, she could rely on his technical support.

The progress bar ticked up slowly while a cute animation of Tails played below it, running back and forth between two folders carrying files from the one on the left to the one on the right. It was nearly finished when she heard a faint crackle of electricity raise in volume until there was a deafening crash and the door to the server room flew off of it's hinges, nearly slamming into her as she barely ducked beneath it. She saw the scowling face of Surge the Tenrec, wreathed in arcing electricity and standing in the door-frame, before the constant hum of the server room resolved into a sigh of powering down machinery as the entire base was plunged into darkness.

When the emergency lights kicked on, Surge was already zipping towards her. Blue flew into the Variable Wispon and Whisper swung wide, forcing Surge to divert and circle around her. Pink sawblades cut across the floor as Surge hopped over them and casually ducked the barrage of cyan blasts that came shortly in their wake.

"Figured it was something like this." Surge said dispassionately as she dodged and weaved around every desperate attack Whisper threw at her. "Was on my way back from crushing some of the doc's bots and found your handy-work in the bushes." She swayed back just enough to avoid another swing from Blue. "Bad luck on your part on your part, Squinty."

As she desperately tried to find an opening, Whisper felt something was off. She'd had the immense displeasure of fighting Surge before, and then spent weeks with her darkening the halls of the Restoration in the lead-up to the Clean Sweepstakes. Without fail, the tenrec never missed an opportunity to gloat, to revel in the power she had over others, and there was nothing that seemed to give her a high as much as when she was in a fight.

But the Surge in front of her now was a pale shadow of the grandstanding bully Whisper had known her to be. Surge looked bored, uninterested, and if the hard edge in her eyes was any indication, frustrated.

What little of the news Whisper had cared to watch after the fall of the Restoration had been awash with glowing praise of the new hero that had stepped up to fight Eggman, Clutch's powerful enforcer Surge the Tenrec. She played the part flawlessly, smiling for the camera and gloating about her string of wins against the doctor, all while working under the banner of Clean Sweep. She had fully replaced Sonic like she had wanted to, and to the public she seemed like she couldn't be happier.

So why did she look so miserable now?

Taking advantage of Whisper's lapse in concentration, Surge zigzagged around her attempts to keep her at bay with gunfire and got inside her guard, wrenching the Variable Wispon from her hands and flinging it over her shoulder. Whisper brought up her arms to guard herself, but her defense was blown wide open by a flurry of punches, ending in a sweeping leg sending her down to the floor.

The air was forced from her chest as Surge stomped a boot down on her midsection. "Kinda wanted to see you ice the octopus, but thems the breaks." Surge glowered down at her, bathed in red flashing lights as she cocked her head to the side. "Any last words?"

Whisper knew she had the one opportunity to come out of this alive, and settled on the a lingering question she had about Surge after Clutch's ascension. "Where's Kit?"

For the first time in their encounter, Surge showed an emotion;

Rage.

The boot pushed down harder, and she could feel something in her ready to break. "None of your damn business!" Surge snarled.

With what little air she had left, Whisper rasped out."Clutch…has him… doesn't he?"

And then something finally did break. Not Whisper's ribs, which will likely be sore for days after, but Surge's temper, which boiled over as she stepped off the supine form of her opponent just to angrily kick her with all her might, sending Whisper rolling side over side until she collided with the wall.

She groggily tried to get to her feet, only for Surge to snatch her by the collar of her shirt and haul her up into the air. "You think you're so smart, huh?! Gonna get a laugh in before you bite it? Well go on, yuck it up!" Whisper could make out the beginnings of tears forming in the corners of the tenrec's eyes. "I finally had a chance to choose for myself, to live on my own terms, and then another creep comes along and takes it away! It never ends!" Surge was screaming in her face, as her other hand balled into a fist and was pulled back, sparking with power. "It. Never. Ends."

"I can help you get him back."

The sparks on Surge's fist fizzled out as her face, contorted with rage, shifted as her eyes widened in surprise. "You… you're just trying to get out of this."

Whisper shook her head. "You can't act against him. He has eyes everywhere. I can act unseen, and I can teach you how." Surge stood there, holding her up still but letting her talk. "You need me. I need someone to help take out Mimic."

Surge scoffed, a cocky smirk slowly dawning on her face. "And I'm the only one tough enough to do it?"

"No." Whisper said. "Only one I don't care about losing."

Surge dropped her, leaving Whisper in a heap as she threw head back and cackled. "Ha! You know, you were the only one of those dweebs I actually kinda liked. Anyone else would have given me some bull about knowing I could be better person, how I could still make the 'right choice'. But you? You get it."

Whisper winced with pain as she lifted her head up, only to see a white gloved hand offered to her. Warily, she grabbed hold of it and was bodily hauled up to her feet.

Surge smiled at her with that awful jagged smile. "You scratch my back, I scratch yours, simple as."

Her hand still in Surge's, Whisper shook the Tenrec's hand, meeting Surge's eyes with her own hard stare.

"Simple as.' Whisper repeated.

 

Notes:

Please check out this incredibly sick art from Fetti, so cool getting to work with artists for the Big Banf. https://www.tumblr.com/fettiowi

 

 

Chapter 2: Part 2

Summary:

Surge returns to base and has to play nice for her new boss.

Notes:

Figured I'd post these first two chapters together since combined they are the size of each of the following chapters. Enjoy!

The gilded gates of Clean Sweep headquarters swung open as Surge stepped inside, her hands tucked into her pockets as she glanced around at the gaudy display. The atrium was a wide open space, lit by several hanging chandeliers and an open skylight that was dim in the cloudy afternoon. from the balconies set alongside the walls of the open space, vines dangled down towards the court below, bathing the whole space in a sickly green and gold hue.

(Original Soundtrack: Green Fugue)

"And there she is!" A husky voice called out, his cane clicking on the floor as he crossed the open space. The CEO himself, clad in a dapper white pinstripe shirt and a wide brimmed hat. Clutch flashed a venomous smile at her."My number one employee. How are you my dear?"

"Peachy." Surge forced out through gritted teeth.

He sidled up next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. "Good, good. We were just about to have a little meeting in the war-room, how about you join us?"

Surge bristled at his touch. "Yeah, thanks but no th-"

"I insist." he said as he lead her to one of the side rooms.

The room was notably dimmer than the atrium, owing to it's lack of windows and singular light set into the ceiling. In the center was a long table with a map spread cross it's surface, and on it were several figures of badniks, forts, mobians, and little dustpans representing Clean Sweep's forces. On the other side of the table were Clutch's inner circle of criminals turned generals, a real hodgepodge of shady characters dressed up to look the part of legitimate businessmen.

A badger with slicked back hair and a suit a couple sizes too big greeted them. "There's the boss man, now we can finally get this started."

"Gentlemen, sorry to keep you waiting!" He ushered Surge into the room and as soon as he dropped his arm she scooted away a couple feet away and crossed her arms. "As you can see, I brought a guest. I'm sure the world's greatest hero needs no introduction?" There is a chorus of clapping and guffaws, which Clutch silenced after a few moments with a wave of his hand.

Clutch stepped forward and leaned over the table, grabbing what looked like a pool cue with a tiny broom at the end as he started using it to alter the board. "As you can all see, we've made incredible strides over the last month." He used the broom to knock aside several of the badniks off of the board and moved his own forces up to occupy the freed up space. "Surge here has made short work of Eggman's forces to the west, freeing the way for us to move in and begin 'clean-up'."

The men looked down at he board hungrily, Surge could practically see the dollar signs in their eyes. "We've expanded our operations in several towns were the those boy-scouts used to hold sway." The badger indicated several territories now dotted with little dustpans. "The holdouts are finally starting to cave and realize the Restoration really is finished."

"Excellent." A sinister smile spread across Clutch's face as he took in his increased holdings. "Just keep at it boys, and soon this'll all be ours." Once again the room erupted into chuckling laughs and snickering. Turning to Surge Clutch said. "See what's possible with a little collaboration, my dear? Why, we wouldn't have managed even half of this without your help." Disgust welled up in her as he gloated over his progress. "In fact, I think a reward is in order. What's your vice, food? cars? companions? name it and it's yours."

"I want to see Kit." She spat out bluntly.

Clutch hung his head and shook it as he sighed. "You know I can't just show you where he is, that's just asking for you to get ideas. But tell you what…" He looked back to the board and moved up his forces to the remaining Eggman strongholds on the continent. "Finish the job and get me the rest of this territory, and just maybe I'll arrange a nice little video call with the boy, how's that sound?

"Screw you!"Surge snarled, lunging forward to wring his neck before she remembered what it was he had over her. She growled through gritted teeth before she pulled away and clenched her fists impotently.

He clicked his tongue at her "When are you going to learn, Surge? If you just play nice and do your job, you'll get what you want and I'll get what I want. Everyone can win, we just all need to do our part, right boys?" They peanut gallery started laughing on cue.

She practically radiated hate as she shook with rage. "Can I go. Boss?" She added with as much venom as she could muster.

"Yes yes, run along. Take the day off, you've earned it."

Before he even finished she was heading out the door, practically slamming it behind her. She stood there a moment, breathing heavy breaths in and out as she tried to calm down and get herself under control.

There was a soft chime from the front as someone walked into the atrium with her. A short purple cat with an easy smile waved at her as he approached. "You just finish up?" 'Duo' asked.

Oh great, this guy. "How much to have you kill him?"she sighed out.

"That bad, huh?" Mimic said as his disguise evaporated. " Figured he'd be all smiles for his 'top performer.'"

"He was." She spat. "That's the worst part!"

Mimic shook his head. "You got it good here, and you're still not happy. Some people."

Not wanting to give him the satisfaction, she crossed her arms and side-eyed him. "Just get back from embezzling from an orphanage or something?"

That got a genuine laugh out of him. "Just a little espionage. Information is power, after all." Surge rolled her eyes at him as he leaned against the wall. "Oh, but hat's not your style is it? You like the direct route, right for the throat. I can respect that. "

"What's the fun in wrecking something if it ain't with your own two hands, you keep your cloak and dagger bullshit. Although…" She paused, eyeing her surroundings. Right under the surface of it's extravagant exterior, you could see the methods of control. Cameras, nowhere to hide, guards at every turn. "Maybe some things can't just be smashed."

He lit up at that, taking it as a victory. "Now you're getting it. Well, can't keep the boss-man waiting. Happy hunting."

Flipping him off as she went, Surge wandered off, looking to be anywhere but here. The building was a labyrinth of conference rooms, lounges, and bad sculptures. After enough searching, she found what she was looking for, the place she always went when her mood was at it's worst.

A large elevator stood at the end of hallway, with guards flanking it's doors. She stomped over to it, and seeing she wasn't in a talking mood, they pressed the call button and the doors slid open. She stepped in without so much as looking at them, and when she was inside she jabbed the button for the lowest floor of the building.

Absolutely insufferable music started playing from a speaker set into the wall, which she silenced with a single electrified punch. Down and down it went, as she descended into the belly of the beast, deep below the earth.

When the doors opened, the fancy facade of the upper floors was gone, replaced by sheer utilitarianism with a sprinkling of mad-science chic. The walls were a sterile looking white, and what sparse signage there was, helpfully read things like 'laboratory 3' and other equally descriptive titles. After a few turns and unnecessarily long corridors, she found what she was looking for.

Another door flanked by guards greeted her, and like the ones before, they simply stood aside and let her in. Set into the far side of the room was a cell that spanned the entire wall, with a large pane of reinforced glass keeping it's lone occupant secured. This was one of the allowances Clutch gave her, a reward for her continued 'hard work'. Slumped against the wall of his cell, shackled at the ankle, was Sonic the Hedgehog.

She started her usual routine with him, pacing back and forth in front of the cell while she gloated to him about how much havoc she'd wreaked, how he'd never get out of her, and how his supposed friends abandoned him, if they weren't dead already. He didn't give her the satisfaction of a retort, he just looked up at her with a tired look in his eyes.

"Don't you got something to say, 'hero'?" She taunted, flashing him a shark-toothed smile as she stared him down. "Oh wait, that's me now! Guess nobody needs you anymore, do they?"

"You don't look like you're enjoying it." he said.

She grit her teeth and stomped her foot. "I like it plenty! I'm living it up while you rot down here!" She thumped her chest with her fist. "I'VE WON!"

He didn't seem impressed. "Yeah? Then why do you want out so bad?"

"I…!" Surge stammered, how the hell did he always see through her like this? It had to be the worst thing about him.

Sonic held out a hand. "Look, whatever it is, I can help. Just let me out of here and we can take down this guy togeth-"

She slammed her fist into the glass, her breath heaving as she glared at him. After a moment of intense eye contact, she started to break into a laugh. "Nice try. Almost had me going for second there."

Seeing that he wasn't getting through to her, Sonic sighed and sat down against the wall. "Suit yourself."

---

Unbelievable. Where did he get off pitying her? She seethed as she raced off into the city. The one he should be feeling sorry for is himself! Even locked in a cage that bastard still found a way to get under her skin.

People cheered for her as she passed, singing the praises of their new hero, and occasionally she'd even half-heatedly wave back. She hated how empty it made her feel, knowing that they were cheering on some fiction that Clutch fabricated and not the real her. Back during the Sweepstakes, she loved every second of the cheering, the praise, the eyes all on her, back when it felt real.

Eventually the growing sense of self-loathing was too much and she had to get away from them. With some careful wall-running she zipped up the side of one of the tall office buildings and got up to it's roof, high enough to see the sun setting bath the city below in a vibrant orange light.

It wasn't too much longer until her meeting with Whisper. More than once she considered calling the thing off entirely, either ditching the wolf or even ratting her out in hopes it would get her a chance to see Kit. But something always stopped her, a small, desperate hope that wanted to believe there was a way out of this, that she really could be free once and for all.

Who knows, maybe she won't even show. She could have just been bargaining for her life with no intention of actually going through with her plan. Or hell, what if it was a trap?

Eh nah, no need to overthink it. If she tried anything, Surge would make her regret it.

Minutes passed as she waited up on the roof, laying flat on her back and staring up at the sky as sunset turned to twilight, and then night. Satisfied that it was suitably late enough, she peered out over the ledge once more and looked for her destination: the warehouse district out by the docks. As most of the city started to light up, the warehouse district stayed dark since nobody was working this late at night, so it made an ideal spot for a clandestine meeting.

She climbed up on the ledge, and stood there in the bracing wind for a moment before she let herself fall forward, reveling in the sensation of free-fall for a moment and then started running down the side of the building. Like a gunshot, she took off towards the dock when she got to the ground, weaving around parked cars and confused pedestrians alike.

Surge skid to a stop as she arrived at the meeting place, a large, seemingly abandoned building with a gate that was left unlocked, just like Whisper said it would be. She wrenched open the shutter into the warehouse proper and stood there with her hands on her hips.

Empty.

She waited for a few moments more until finally she gave up, resigned to the fact that Whisper was a no-show after all. "Can't believe I let her play me like that." Surge grumbled, then turned to leave. She was stopped dead in her tracks by the sound of a wispon firing, and a bright cyan blast zipped past her with only inches to spare. A metal drone fell and crashed to the ground just outside the gate, and then Whisper herself appeared from a shadowy corner of the warehouse.

"Rule number 1." She said flatly, slinging the Variable Wispon back over her shoulder. "Is don't be followed."

The smoking debris of the machine had the unmistakable markings of Clean Sweep. Surge cursed under her breath.

Whisper stepped out of the warehouse and tilted her head in a 'Follow me.' motion. "We have a lot to cover."

 

 

 

Chapter 3: Part 3

Summary:

Whisper and Surge learn to rely on each other in a do-or-die situation.

Notes:

Hey, it's technically still the weekend. Got caught up with some other stuff as well as wrapping up the latest chapter in my other fic, hope you enjoy this one!

 

Whisper stood at the end of a line she'd marked on the floor, unmoving as she watched Surge bounce on her heels impatiently. In front of them was an impromptu obstacle course of sorts, cobbled together from scrap metal and discarded pallets, along with several sections of the floor marked as no-go areas representing walls or hazards that she'd need to imagine as being present. It wasn't quite as elaborate as what Smithy had put together for her and the other Diamond Cutters, but she wasn't exactly flush with options at the moment.

Surge crossed her arms and started tapping her foot as she waited for Whisper to finally give her the go ahead. "Come on, Squinty! I don't got all night!"

Her impatience was a liability, of that Whisper was sure. She contemplated making the tenrec wait yet longer as both a lesson and to make her squirm a bit, but Surge did have a point; they were on a time-frame. "Go." She whispered, and before she could even finish the syllable, Surge had taken off like a gunshot, making her cloak flutter in the otherwise still air of the abandoned warehouse they were practicing in.

As Surge zipped along the course, a timer started ticking away in the corner of Whisper's mask's HUD. A stack of empty cans meant to be an antenna scattered as Surge smashed through it without even stopping, drifting along a turn effortlessly as she honed in on her next target. In a matter of seconds she smashed through the rest of the course, periodically lighting up the warehouse with a burst of electricity until she zipped past the starting line once again and skidded to a halt with her arms crossed and a satisfied smirk on her face.

"How's that for fast?" Surge gloated as she looked at Whisper expectantly.

It was fast, Whisper had to admit. What might have taken her a good couple of minutes, the tenrec had completed in less than twenty seconds, outdoing Surge's previous best on the course. "Every target is down. In sequence, And in record time."

Surge grinned and punched her fist into her other hand's open palm. "Told you I'm the best, so forget all this stupid training stuff and let-"

"-But you failed the course." Whisper finished.

"What?!" Surge's smile vanished, replaced by shocked irritation. "I did the damn course! I smashed everything!"

Whisper calmly stepped out onto the course and stood over a stretch of black streaks left on the ground in the wake of Surge's electrified sprint. "You did. And you left evidence. What would happen to Kit if Clutch saw this?"

"He-" Surge balled her hands into fists, ready to argue with her. But they slowly unfurled as she seemed to think about it, her expression twisting from anger to frustration and finally to worry as she tried and failed to come up with a retort. Finally she shoved her hands in her pockets and looked back up, not quite meeting Whisper's eyes. "Just… just tell me what I need to do."

Whisper wasn't sure what to make of this side of Surge. She knew the tenrec primarily as a bully and a threat before anything else, but when it came to Kit and the control Clutch held over her, Whisper could see desperation and vulnerability. None of this erased their past, the hurt when she stole Whisper's wisps and sent her to the hospital, but despite herself she was starting to put together context for Surge and why she was the way she was.

Whisper nodded. "I'll show you." She knelt down and picked up a can that had been scattered. "Help me set this back up first."

"Yeah yeah." Surge groused as she started chipping in.

This plan was desperate, even by Whisper's standards. There seemed to be more points of failure than merits. But she was a Diamond Cutter, after all, and they'd done more with less in the past. All she had to do was put in the work, and pray the odds went in her favor.

One way or another, she'd take the fight to Mimic and Clutch both.

---

(Original Soundtrack: Infiltration)

 

Weeks of training had lead to this. It was slow going to be sure, with more than enough heated arguments and petty insults between them, but despite many close calls, they had stuck it out.

Their first target wasn't too different from a lot of the other sites, a friendly exterior hiding a facility dedicated to dismantling, reprogramming, and re-purposing Eggman's technology, fed by the truckload from a network of suppliers who by and large were none-the-wiser to the ends that their clean-up efforts where contributing.

Like all of Clean Sweeps facilities, it was networked with the others to bring crucial information along a chain back towards the company's headquarters, using a private and highly secure infrastructure to assure Clutch held all the cards in his favorite game; the information war. There was one thing that set this facility apart from the rest however, the fact that it was a crucial linchpin in that chain, a single point that well over a third of his sites would route their data though on it's way home.

Maybe it was a sign of Clutch's overconfidence, or his mad scramble to gain as much ground as he could before Eggman could adapt to the sort of fighting Clutch employed. Regardless of which it was, that sloppiness was something Whisper was more than happy to exploit, and in Surge she had the firepower she needed to render the place completely inoperable for a month at minimum. She couldn't be certain if Surge was ready yet, but there wasn't any time for second guessing. They had to act now or their window might close for good.

They'd waited hours outside the facility as the sun set and settled into night, watching the guard rotation and weighing their options for ingress. Doors were a no-go, at least on the way in. Loading dock was also out, no way to work the shutters without making too much noise. Eventually, it was decided they'd use the vents on the roof, easily scaled by the pair with their respective talents.

With a grunt, Surge pried the vent cover off and the pair slipped inside. It was a tight fit, Whisper had to wedge her body such that she could use her arms and legs to slowly lower herself down the vertical shaft.. above her, she could hear Surge quietly complaining as she got caked in dust.

"Don't cough." Whisper warned. "It echoes."

"Easy for you to say!" Surge shot back.

It was, in fact, easy for her to say, as she had taken the time to cover her mouth and nose with her cloak before she descended.

After several dead ends and having to awkwardly turn around, the pair found what looked to be a reasonably safe way down into the building proper. They huddled together looking down through a grate at the room below, a break-room that was thankfully empty at this late hour. With a hefty kick, the grate came loose, only to be caught by a green blur that zipped past it and intercepted it before it could hit the floor.

Surge waved it in the air proudly as Whisper landed silently next to her. "Hah! how's that for fa-"

She was hushed by hand over mouth. "Quiet."

"…" When the hand lowered, Surge mumbled. "...Alright ,sheesh."

"Put it back. Same as it was before, no evidence." Whisper was posted up by the door, peeking out through a small glass window on its surface. Security was thankfully sparse enough that they shouldn't have much trouble getting out, just a handful of pawns occasionally making their way past with plenty of time before the next came around.

When Surge finally joined her, after several moments of fiddling with the thing and swearing, Whisper looked her in the eye. "done?"

As if to answer the question Surge waved her hand in the direction of the grate,once again attached to the ceiling vent.

"it's secure?"Whisper asked as she tilted her head forward.

"Gaia, yeah it's good! Can we go already?" Surge was impatiently tapping her foot as she waited.

This girl was absolutely going to be the death of her, Whisper was sure of it. She beckoned for Surge to follow as she carefully opened the door and slipped through. After a short run down a hallway, they found themselves in a wide open room.

Heat shimmered off of large vats of molten metal where busted parts where being dumped into them via conveyor belts. A series of automated robot arms picked apart and sorted the scrap as it came in through a flap in the wall, likely fed directly from another room nearer to the facility's intake. The constant sizzle and bubble of the red hot liquid along with the acrid stench of it all was overwhelming to Whisper's lupine senses, but she pressed onward regardless, shutting it all out as best she could.

As they darted from shadow to shadow, they could hear the hum of repurposed buzz bombers fly overhead. Just as Surge was about to step into their field of view, She was suddenly yanked down by Whisper, pressing them both tight against the floor as one of the badniks flew entirely too close for comfort. When the danger passed, the wolf breathed out a sigh of relief as she started to push herself up.

"Damn Squinty, if you wanted some sugar you could of asked." Surge stage-whispered as she sat up off the ground. The sudden glare she got in return caused Surge to throw her hands up defensively. "Joking, I'm joking!" Surge turned her head slightly to the side, breaking eye contact. "...thanks for the save."

"…Just be careful." Whisper admonished.

Soon they had their target in sight, a seemingly unassuming door that her schematic from Tails marked as the relay hub. There was just one small problem.

"How the hell do we get through that?" Surge groused as she looked out from their hiding spot.

Whisper held up a finger to her lips, her brow furrowed in annoyance as she surveyed the scene. "By being quiet for a start."

The pair peered out from around the corner of crate that they had managed to sneak behind, with Surge crouched low beneath the wolf as the both waited for an opening. In front of them was a seemingly impenetrable collection of egg-pawns, floating camera drones, and mounted turrets, a rats nest of overlapping sight lines. Had someone been tipped off? Was Clutch aware of how much of a liability this site was?

In any other situation, Whisper would have had to to scrap the mission. But she couldn't afford to miss this chance, and she had one hell of an ace up her sleeve. "We need to take out the drones and pawns."

"Pfft, that's easy!" Surge cracked her knuckles. "I could take on twice this-"

"Simultaneously. Without making too much noise."

Surge faltered. "Oh. Uh… Like, all at once?"

"More or less." Whisper confirmed. "I can hit the drones. I need you to disable the pawns."

"Ain't that gonna like… set off the alarm? or get us shot?" She eyed the turrets warily. "Not that I couldn't handle it or nothing."

Whisper shook her head. "Not immediately. Turrets aren't active without an alarm. Bots act autonomously, need to send out a signal to raise the alarm, if none react in time…"

"Then no alarm!" Surge grinned once more. "But it's gotta be quiet…" she paused and rubbed her chin in thought. "Yeah… yeah, I can do that."

Whisper stood stock still as she watched and waited. Suddenly she raised a hand. "On my mark." Surge crouched down into a ready position, sparks arcing across her body. With a sudden jerky movement, Whisper waved her raised hand. "Go."

By the time she brought her wispon to bare, Surge had closed the gap. Time seemed to slow as she took in a deep breath, she could see the pawns begin to turn and the searchlights of the drones swing towards the tenrec. With a pull of the trigger, a drone fell, then another, then another. When the last dropped, she let out the breath she had been holding and looked down to see how Surge was faring.

She was a blur of green, acting like she was playing the deadliest game of tag ever conceived, darting around and sliding under the egg-pawns as she zapped each of them in turn with the palm of her hand. They each spasmed for a moment after she touched them, their eyes filling with static before dimming as they slumped forward.

The work done, Whisper waited, her body tensed for the moment something went wrong and they would be made. When it didn't come, she stepped out from her cover behind the crate, to find Surge looking uncharacteristically nervous. "…Did we…" She started, looking around at the powered down bots.

"If there was an alarm, we'd know." Whisper reassured her. "Ten minutes before the patrol comes."

Surge nodded slowly, falling in behind Whisper as she led the way. "Man, this sneaking crap is nerve-wracking."

"Scared?" Whisper connected a small yellow device she'd received from Tails to the electronic lock on the door in front of them.

Surge scoffed. "As if! Just… the waiting sucks is all."

There was a beep and the door opened as Whisper let out a quiet and airy laugh. "Sure."

The tenrec looked like she was going to argue before her eyes widened slowly. "Huh, guess you can laugh, Squinty."

"Focus." Whisper slipped into the open door and waited for Surge to follow before closing it behind her. In front of them was a large panel with a series of switches and monitors, hooked up to several machines whose name and function eluded what little knowledge the wolf had on the topic. Disabling this would normally take somewhere in the ballpark of twenty minutes, at least if she didn't to do it quietly and escape with her life. Surge however…

"So what, I just grab this thing and zap it until it stops working?" Surge asked as she looked around at the machinery.

Whisper pointed to a component Tails had detailed in the schematic he had sent her. "This. Steady, increasing flow, will look like a short."

"Sure, whatever, long as it keeps my name clear." Surge stepped up looked down at the bulky device, and placed a hand on each of it's side like an awkward bear-hug. She grunted with effort and slowly the studs and rings she wore started to spark and arc as she turned up the metaphorical dial as slow as she could. Her eyes started to glow a vibrant blue and sweat dripped from her forehead as she strained. "Nerd-boy…better…be…right…" She hissed as the static built and built until Whisper had to take a few steps back, lest she get zapped herself.

The lights started to flicker, and there was a high pitched whine that grew and grew in intensity before suddenly there was a loud pop, and then the sigh of powering down machinery. Whisper folded her arms and allowed herself the faintest of smiles."That did it."

Surge put her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest. "Nothin' to it!"

For a brief indulgent moment, Whisper let her revel in the achievement, before she was harshly reminded why you never celebrate before the job was finished. An alarm started to blare through the facility, jolting Surge out of her celebration. "What the hell?!"

Whisper pressed herself against the wall next to the door and inched it open cautiously. Through the crack they could see flashing red lights bathing the whole place in a menacing glow as badniks began to swarm the area. "The whole place is locked down." Whisper growled out between clenched teeth.

The color seemed to drain from Surge's face. "I swear... I swear I put that grate on good." Her hands clenched into fists as looked down at the floor. "We're screwed!" Surge hissed out. "I knew this 'stealth' crap wasn't gonna work, he's gonna know... and Kit..." her breathing grew more rapid and shallow as she spiraled.

Whisper firmly placed her hands on Surge's shoulders, catching her gaze with her own as she looked her in the eyes. "Surge."

"Y...yeah?" Surge quickly tried to get a hold of herself as she remembered she wasn't alone, but the shake in her voice was still present as she spoke.

In these fleeting moments where she felt she could see the tenrec under the layers of aggression and bravado, Whisper found it hard to maintain the simmering hate she felt for the girl. "Listen." Whisper told her. "You did the job, the array is down. No signals, in or out. Nothing outside the base knows."

Surge nodded slowly in understanding. "Okay..."

"Just need to get out." Releasing her grip, Whisper unslung her whispon. "...and smash anything that sees us."

"Smash em..." Surge started to smile as looked to the door. "Now you're talkin' my language!"

They both stood on opposite ends of the door, sharing a look as they tensed and waited. Silently, Whisper held up a trio of fingers, then lowered to two, then one. When she retracted the final digit, there was a single beat of silent stillness, before they exploded into action and burst out the door.

---

Finally... Finally! Surge was in her element. As soon as they emerged from the relay hub, there was immediate chaos and violence as all attention turned their way. The turrets were now quite active as they tracked their movement, rattling off an endless procession of staccato fire bullets. Surge twisted and sidestepped as Whisper darted off to find a better vantage to fire from, presenting herself as the juicier target as the wolf slipped away. Quickly she was surrounded, and now that she properly had their attention, it was her time to shine.

Tucking into a ball, she smashed through the line of pawns and motobugs that constituted the chaff of their force. Each one made a satisfying explosion as she went, adding more to the cacophony. A larger robot slammed a hammer down inches from her, to which she jumped up and ran along it's handle to meet her foe face-face. She flipped up into the air and came down hard with a lightning infused kick, caving in the thing's head and sending it topping down to the ground on top of it's allies.

The turret fire started to abate as she fought on, punctuated by the occasional zap of whispon fire as Whisper took out target after target from her position on the catwalk above. How long had it been since Surge actually had some proper support in a fight? She'd learned the hard way she had to fight more cautiously without Kit by her side, but now, with Whisper watching her back she didn't have to hold a single thing back.

She cackled in mad delight as she continued brawling, ripping off the arm of a pawn in a black spray of oil only to hurl it back into the mass of them. A laser blast impacted her back, sending a fiery hot wave of pain through her. When she turned to see the Egg-Robo who got the lucky hit in, she could have sworn she saw fear in it's lifeless eyes before she tore the thing in half, snarling with rage as she tossed it's torso aside.

On and on she went, shrugging off the occasional hit that managed to slip through. Knowing these were Clutch's robots now, not Eggman's, added even more to her satisfaction. As her breath heaved, she started to notice their numbers thinning, the tide slowing as she finally was starting to see the end of them. In that moment of waiting as the next wave came to meet her, she felt something was off. Where was the laser fire from Squinty? She risked craning her head up for a moment and realized the problem immediately; Whisper wasn't alone.

A line of badniks were forcing her back as they marched along the catwalk towards her, every one she managed to swat away with her hammer being replaced by two more. She could hear the creak and moan of the catwalk as it strained to hold the weight of all of them, until suddenly, there was a horrible screech as it gave way, sending the robots tumbling down into the molten metal vats below. Whisper herself had the reflexes to switch to her green wisp and hover, but without any momentum she was stuck in place, slowly descending down towards her own fiery demise.

Surge acted without thinking, it was how she worked best, after all. Jumping up int the air, she leapt from badnik to badnik as she used the fliers as a springboard to get more height, until she landed on the side of the wall, her boots cracking with electricity as she hung there for an impossible moment defying gravity. She glowed with arced lightning as she built her power, then rocketed off from her perch, shooting across the room in an upward arc as she flew towards Whisper like a missile, snatching her by the waist with her arm moments before she impacted the liquid metal.

She kept on going until she managed to catch the lip of the next catwalk over with her other hand, halting their momentum as they swung back and forth until they stilled. "Heh, guess we're even, huh Squint-" She was cut short by Whisper grabbing her own waist. "Whu, uh hey I was joking earlier about-"

"Keep still." The barrel of the whispon came to rest on her shoulder as Whisper stared down the sights past Surge. Using the tenrec for stability, Whisper began to fire down at the Badnik's below, cutting down the remaining robots as the two held each other in what to Surge felt unnervingly close to an embrace.

There was something about that stern look on her face as she systematically took down each target, all while she held Surge tightly, almost protectively? Which was, ridiculous, Surge was Surge! she didn't need anyone to look after her like that...

And yet. And yet she could feel her heartbeat race, could feel herself get a bit lightheaded as she kept staring at Whisper.

It had to be the heat, the smoke, the rush of the fight! That's what was doing this, she was sure.

She was sure.

---

It was just clean-up after that. Taking out a couple stragglers, frying the cameras and making damn sure everything was wiped. They slipped out the front door of the now silent facility, covered in soot and sore down to their very bones, Surge was sure she'd sleep better now then she had in months. They found a tree a good distance away where they finally were able to stop and catch their breath, slumped down against it's trunk as they stared out at the very earliest hints of a sunrise out on the horizon.

"Damn Squinty, that was one hell of party." Surge wheezed out between breaths.

"Mmm. Not usually this much fighting." Whisper began to try and dust off her cloak, before pulling out a bandage to wrap around a fresh cut on her arm.

Surge huffed out a laugh. "Yeah well... It just kinda follows me."

With a sudden flash of color and chattering, Whisper's wisps emerged from their capsules and hovered around Whisper as she saw to her wounds.

"Oh yeah, nice one to you guys too. Kinda forgot about them for a sec." Surge reached out to offer a fist bump to the nearest alien, but Pink narrowed it's eye and backed away from the tenrec along with the rest of the wisps. "Sheesh, alright."

Whisper gently patted the wisp on it's head. "They haven't forgotten what you did."

Surge's mood sunk as they sat in silence. Man, she really thought they were starting to get along pretty okay for a second there, then she had to bring up the past. The silence stretched on until it became excruciating to her. "Is this about the hat thing?"

The glare she got in response made it clear that, yes, it was in fact the hat thing. "You took my friends."

"Oh come on, I-" Her voice faltered as she sat and thought about it. Had she felt the way Surge did when Clutch took Kit? Helpless? Terrified? Alone? She pulled her legs up to her chest as she looked off at the impending sunrise. "...Sorry."

Whisper folder her arms as she continued to stare at Surge, 'sorry' was clearly not going to cut it.

"The..." Surge started, struggling as she always did to voice any emotion other than rage or confidence. "... the hat, it... messed up my head. Started... seeing stuff. Stuff that wasn't there. P-people who weren't..." She couldn't finish. Starline was still too raw, too fresh in her mind, and the present she found herself in was too similar.

Softening slightly, Whisper nuzzled Blue as she too stared off towards the horizon. "...You still did it. Still took them. Still helped Mimic get close. Betrayed us."

"Yeah well..." Surge sighed, her voice growing soft. "if it means anything? I really wish I didn't."

They stayed like that for as long as they dared, knowing full well that when staff arrived in the morning, word would get out that something had trashed the facility. No hard evidence that could lead back to them of course, they made sure of that. But what time they had got cut a lot shorter, if they wanted to capitalize on this, they'd have to act soon.

Time was running out. Whether it was for them or Clean Sweep, it would all come tumbling down soon enough.

 

 

 

Chapter 4: Part 4

Summary:

A final Showdown

"So, Tomorrow's the big day, huh?" Surge leaned back into the ratty couch as she kicked her feet up onto the makeshift table in front of it. Whisper's place was... well, about what you'd expect from someone living on the run from an all-encompassing force like Clean-Sweep. It was leaky, drafty, had a persistent stench she couldn't quite place, and every piece of furniture seemed to be liberated from a street corner after it had sat in the rain for a day or two.

Surge loved it.

Her quarters in Clean Sweep HQ were ornate, spacious, well kept. The kind of place that made you feel like you were making it worse merely by living in it. She couldn't come by here anywhere near as often as she liked, she had to keep up appearances after all and Clutch hadn't' exactly lessened her workload. But this place had become something of a sanctuary for her, a respite from the sickening and cloying presence of her new boss.

Whisper hummed in the affirmative as she dropped a map on the table, unceremoniously pushing Surge's feet off in order to make room. "Just got the schematic. Memorize it."

It was an absolute mess of bewildering paths and dead ends, all leading up to their actual target; a reactor deep in the heart of a facility designed to look utterly innocuous from the outside. The heart of Clutch's operation in many senses, without it, dozens of facilities, including his headquarters would go dark, crippling his seat of power, or so they hoped. "You take me to the nicest places, Squinty."

"Keep that up and we'll skip dinner after." Seeing Whisper smile as she quipped back made Surge's heart skip a beat.

Since that first mission, the two of them had come to something of an understanding. Surge wasn't exactly off the hook for the trouble she'd caused, but Whisper wasn't dismissing her out of hand either. They were... well, 'friends' might be a strong word, but they had a good working relationship. What was once a tumultuous truce had settled into genuine trust to have each other's back.

And maybe... something a little more?

Surge wasn't sure what to make of Whisper joining in on her quasi-flirtatious jabs. Was she just matching the energy Surge was putting out or maybe... She cursed inwardly, this is what she got for making the whole thing a joke in the first place.

"Are you Listening?" Whisper asked as she pointed to a crucial junction in the schematic.

Snapping to attention, surge sat up straight in her seat. "Uh. Yeah, got it."

They spent the next twenty minutes bouncing ideas off of one another and making contingencies for potential threats. Well, for Surge it was more bragging about how many badniks she could take on than contingencies per se, but her overactive imagination did help Whisper think of ways the op could go awry.

When they felt they had planed out as much as they could reasonably predict, Whisper rolled up the schematic and let out a deep breath. "Last chance for second thoughts."

"Pfft." Surge waved a hand dismissively as she leaned back into the couch. "Have you even met me? I don't back down from nothin'."

Another faint smile tugged at edges of Whisper's muzzle. "Thank you."

Surge smirked as she met her eyes."Aw come on, Squinty. No need to get all mushy on me."

"Mean it." Whisper plopped down on the other end of the couch. "Don't know if I would've held up. Without someone to rely on."

"Yeah, well..." Surge coughed as she looked to the side. "It's been pretty nice for me too."

Surge glanced over towards her, even slumped down on a dirty couch and several days past due for a shower, Whisper still had this presence to her that Surge felt drawn to. Shit, she probably didn't have a better time than now, should she...?

She cleared her throat as she tried to find her words."So, uh..."

"Hmmm?" Whisper hardly moved as she flicked her eyes towards Surge.

"I was thinkin'..." Gaia, why was this so hard?

In mock surprise, Whisper said, "That's new."

"Jerk." Surge scoffed. "S-seriously though. When this is over and we take out those guys?" Come on, she told herself. You're Surge the Tenrec, you ain't afraid of nothing! "I was wonderin' if you wanted to do something else? Like, together."

Tilting her head to the side, Whisper didn't seem to quite follow. "Lot of work to do when Clutch loses. Didn't think you were interested in clean-up though."

"No no, I don't mean..." Surge growled in agitation. "A movie! or, hell, we could do dinner for real, or uh, I dunno what you like doing, walks? Help me out Squinty I'm crap at this."

Whisper's eyes opened wide enough for Surge to see her brilliant blue irises. "Surge..."

The uncomfortable look on her face gave Surge all the info she needed. "Yeah, I figured." She laughed quietly to herself as she sunk back down into the couch. "Stupid of me to think a few good weeks would make up for all that crap I did."

"That's not it." Whisper shook her head adamantly. " It's just... Tangle."

"Right." Surge nodded solemnly. "Figured you two were a thing."

Whisper sighed. "Sorry."

"Nah, that's on me." Stupid, absolutely stupid to get her hopes up like that, she knew that going in. Surge got up to her feet as she turned to face the door, unable to meet Whisper's eyes. "Don't worry about it. We got a base to explode tomorrow, yeah?"

"You're leaving?" Whisper sounded concerned, but Surge knew she couldn't turn around to face her, she already made this awkward enough, she just had to keep it together until she got out of here.

Pulling the door open she called back, "Gotta keep up appearances with the bossman, right?" She paused just a moment in the doorframe. "...Let's give em hell."

"Yes." Whisper agreed. "Let's."

---

On the day itself, Surge could feel the anticipation like a constant buzz in the air. It was hard not to make a thing of it, knowing that today would be the last time for a lot of things. The last time she had to fill out one of these stupid forms, the last day she had to look at all that gaudy looking gold trim, the last day she had to stand there and act like she didn't want to strangle that damn opossum!

The last day she'd be working alongside Whisper...

She shook her head as she started packing her things, no time for feeling sorry for herself. She struck out, and yeah that stung, but that's fine. It's fine! She could be cool about that, she'd totally handled being rejected before.

Probably.

Hard to tell with the whole amnesia thing.

More important than any of that, if this convoluted plan actually worked, Kit would finally be free from this. She seethed even thinking about what this had to be like for him, Surge at least had the illusion of freedom. Sucking in a breath between her teeth, she splashed some water on her face in the weird basin sink that all these rooms seemed to have, and looked at her reflection in the mirror.

"Eyes on the prize."

Outside of her obligations to Clean Sweep, she had spent most of the day getting things into place on her end. A little false information here, some light sabotage there, all stuff she would have written off as pointless or boring a month ago, but she had the experience to know now would make all the difference.

Leaving her room for what she hoped would be the last time, she ran through her mental checklist. She'd dotted her 't's and crossed here 'i's or however it goes, even made her last visit to see a certain blue loser, only thing left to take care of was-

"Hey there Mean Green, you look like you're going on a little trip, huh?" Great. Him.

Mimic had that fake smile that she knew was meant to get under her skin, same as his his phony chummy affect. She was hoping to slip out of here without anyone seeing her carrying her every worldly prepossession in a duffel, but she'd drilled this enough to not panic. "Faucet's busted, Boss-man hooked me up with a new room while they get it fixed."

"Well, isn't that nice of him!" Mimic leaned against the wall of the hallway, never taking his eyes off of her for a second. "Especially considering it's been set-back after set-back lately."

Matching his casual demeanor with her own Surge slung the bag over her shoulder and rolled her head until she felt a satisfying crack. "Yeah, heard about that. Lotta bases going dark and data getting swiped. That espionage stuff is your thing, ain't it? You're dropping the ball, calamari breath."

"Ha." He pushed himself off the wall and fully stepped into her path. "It's not all bad. I'm thinking it's the handy-work of someone I've been trying to find for a long time. She's a bit of a lone wolf, or so I thought..." He leaned in just a little too far into her personal space. "You know her?"

Surge swallowed hard, she'd practiced bluffing her way past nosy guards, not this creep. "What, you think I'm palling around with some do-gooder? Give me a little credit man."

Mimic sighed theatrically. "I'd love to, really I would." He leaned back a bit and pulled a photo out from his cloak. "But you know what hey say. Seeing is believing."

It was the two of them, Surge and Whisper, The wolf in a bowler hat and heavy jacket, Surge wearing a baseball cap and a hoodie. You'd have to really be looking to know it was them, that was the whole point of the disguise, it let them scope out a target in the daylight while passing as civilians. This phot wasn't taken from one of Clutch's drones, It was too close, on even footing...

How close had he gotten without them noticing?

Surge looked up at his smug expression, and gritted her teeth. "...I could end you right here."

"Maybe." Mimic admitted as he tucked the photo back into his pocket. "But what happens to your little friend then? I don't think the boss would take kindly to that kind of 'workplace dispute'. Besides, I think you're missing the point here. If I wanted you dead? I'd have stuck a knife in you the second I had proof. So why do you think I came and found you like this? I'm sure little Whisper taught you well enough to guess."

That one was easy enough. "You want something from me."

His eyes lit up as he smiled condescendingly. "Good, good, guess you can use that head of yours. So listen up." He drew in close. "You get me who I want... and I can get you who you want."

"Kit..." Surge's face grew pale as she realized what he was proposing.

He backed up as his grin grew wider. "Now you're getting it. You go ahead with your little mission, play at being her friend a little longer. You just need to play your part when the time comes, and the boy is yours." He stuck out his hand to her as he cocked his head to the side. "What do you say... partner?"

---

"You'll have less than a second. Can you handle it?"

Whisper was met with silence. She looked back over her shoulder to her partner, staring off into space. "Surge."

"Huh?" She suddenly snapped to attention.

Pointing ahead to the field of crisscrossing light, Whisper repeated herself. "Laser grid. Can disrupt it. You'll have less than a second."

The tenrec looked ahead for a moment as she seemed to process, before she nodded her head. "Yeah. Got it."

Whisper turned to the panel she had opened up and grabbed two wires that she'd stripped part of the insulation off of. She pressed the exposed copper together and there was suddenly a spark as the lasers started to flicker. "Go."

Before she could even finish saying the word, Surge was gone. Without the faint trail of green still lingering in her wake, she might have had trouble spotting her on the far end of the corridor in the dim light. With a few precise button presses on a control panel, the laser grid faded for good and Whisper was clear to join her.

When the tenrec turned to continue down their way, Whisper grabbed her shoulder. "You've been quiet all night. I need your head in the game." Surge hadn't even deployed her usual snark, something Whisper had to admit she'd started to find endearing.

"My head's fine." Surge responded in a clipped voice, not bothering to turn back to face Whisper as she spoke.

After giving it a soft squeeze, Whisper let go of her shoulder. "Worried about Kit?"

Sighing, Surge slumped forward slightly. "Something like that."

"We'll get him back." Whisper reassured her. "Not much longer now.

"Yeah…"

True to her word, it was only a few more minutes of winding paths and deadly traps before they found what they were looking for, a large reinforced entrance, more of a vault than a traditional door, standing between them and their goal.

Whisper raised her wispon, now in hammer form."Ready?"

There was a moment of quiet before Surge nodded and raised her fists. "On three."

"One."

     "Two…"

"THREE!"	"THREE!"

The door shuddered under the assault and several bolts keeping it in place popped free, sending it toppling forward into the room ahead.

Satisfied with their work, they entered into the large open chamber, round in shape, with a series of columns in a ring surrounding a central raised platform. On the platform was an intricate machine, giving off a pulsating green glow. At it's heart was a large glass orb with a great many swirling motes of erratic light within. It hummed with violent energy, it was unmistakably the chaos reactor they had come here to disable.

"So..." Surge said quietly as she stepped towards the machine. "This is it, huh?"

Whisper nodded as she looked around the seemingly empty room. "Mhmm."

Her footsteps echoing in the vast space, Surge squared up in front of the orb. "Well... here goes nothin'."

"Ah, not so fast." A rasping, familiar voice called out to them, one Whisper had been waiting to hear from the moment they entered. Mimic stepped out of the shadows and into the light, his knife glinting in the unearthly glow of the chaos reactor.

Unimpressed, Whisper slowly turned to face him, letting him casually approach. "Wondering when you'd show."

"Ha! you know me too well, don't you runt? A consummate actor never can resist a proper stage. And boy did you ever prepare one for me, top marks." he laughed mockingly.

Whisper raised the Variable Wispon and leveled it at him. "What's your plan. No disguise? Really think you can take us both?"

A wicked grin spread across his face. "Now now, two on one? that's a little unsporting, Isn't that right, Surge?" He inclined his head towards the tenrec, who had been oddly silent for the whole exchange.

Whisper froze, "What?"

When she turned to look at her companion, Surge wouldn't even meet her gaze. "He... He found me out. He's got Kit." She slowly and deliberately moved between Mimic and Whisper, facing the wolf as she slowly raised her head. "I'm sorry." she choked out, her eyes full of remorse.

"Surge." She tightened her grip on her wispon. "You can't trust him. He'll turn on you the second he gets what he wants."

Her fists trembling Surge spat out; "I know! Of fucking course I know that! But I can't... if I don't do what he says..."

"...Then the boy dies." Mimic finished. Rubbing his hands together, his eyes lit up with sick joy. "Isn't this perfect, Whisper? First I tore your new 'Diamond Cutters' apart and now the last person you had left, the only person you thought you could turn to... even she's betrayed you. Do you get it now? Do you understand? This is how it goes, this is what happens when you get too comfortable, when you lie to yourself and think you've found family. Either you turn on them, or they turn on you."

"Who are you trying to convince" Whisper spat back.

Mimic jolted, his expression shifting from smug assurance to something adjacent to fear for a a fleeting moment, before it crashed down into a snarling rage. "...Kill her."

Surge hesistated, then turned to look over her shoulder back to Mimic. "I want to hear him."

He sighed dramatically and pulled out a transceiver from his shawl. As he turned the device on, Whisper silently reached into her cloak and clicked on her own. "Put the boy on." He barked harshly.

After a few moments of tense silence, there was a crackle of noise. "M-Ma'am?"

"Drippy!" Surge's voice was desperate, "Drippy, where did he take you?"

"Somewhere high up, air conditioned, I can feel the humidi-"

His voice was cut off as Mimic clicked the device off. "That's enough of that." He pointed towards Whisper. "Enough stalling. Kill her or the he dies."

(Shout, Any Port in a Storm Original Soundtrack)

Surge and Whisper looked each other in the eyes, their silent expressions speaking volumes. Weeks of training, of building trust, of coming to rely on one other... all culminating in this. The room was lit with blue light as electricity started to arc across Surge's body, Cyan popped free from their capsule in response and zipped into the Variable Wispon. The air itself felt heavy with anticipation as their bodies tensed, each waiting for the other to make a move.

Predictably, Surge's patience wore out first.

Like a thunderbolt, she took off. blasts of laser fire impacted the ground just a hair's breath short of hitting the green streak as she searched for an opening to strike. When she tried to close, turning on a dime into a serpentine dash towards her target, Surge was swatted away by the swing of a blue hammer, tumbling away towards the darkened edges of the room.

Surge sprung up to her feet. "You're getting faster."

"It won't be like last time." Whisper assured her. Back then she was haggard, exhausted from her solitary fight against Clean Sweep. Working with Surge had afforded her time to recover, to eat properly from lavish food the tenrec had swiped from right under Clutch's nose. "I know you. know how you move."

"Yeah?" Surge, took a step back, starting to disappear into the dim light. "Well you ain't the only one who learned some new tricks."

Whisper waited for the familiar sparks to give away her opponent's position, but was shocked when she heard the sounds of sneakers hitting the floor in the darkness. She wasn't using her electricity, Surge the Tenrec was intentionally going slower to keep the element of surprise. Whisper would have felt proud if not for the fight calling for all her focus.

She slid her mask over her face, relying on the night-vision feature to keep track of the elusive tenrec. Zipping from column to column, Surge was an elusive target, always one step ahead of her aim. Whisper knew she'd get nowhere like this, and muttered a signal for Orange to swap in, but as the wisps exchanged places, Surge made her move.

"Gotcha!" She shouted, stepping out into view as she held her hands out, fingers splayed as her power arced between them, before it all erupted into a bright flash of light and completely scrambled Whisper's night vision.

In a panicked motion, Whisper reached up to slide her mask back off her face, and when she did so, she saw a flash of green come screaming out of the darkness. Surge slammed into her, sending her wispon spinning out of her grasp as she tumbled across the floor. She scrambled up to her feet and swung a fist at her foe, only for her wrist to get caught in a lightning fast motion.

"Give it up." Surge almost looked like she was having fun, the thrill of a good fight shining in her eyes. "You can't bea-" She was cut off by a boot impacting her solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her. Whisper followed up with a swipe of her claws, raking a trio of deep gashes across Surge's face. "Fff- Okay, alright! that does it!"

Surge seemed to disappear into a flash of green light as Whisper suddenly felt a fist impact her face. Then another hit her stomach, then her back, then another and another and another as a green streak zipped around her in a blur too fast for eyes, pummeling her in a flurry of blows. One final decisive strike sent her crashing into the ground, pain coursing all throughout her body.

Mimic cackled as he watched the show, then he crouched low to the ground to enter Whisper's field of vision. "Too bad, too bad! You know, I was rooting for you for a second there." He flicked his knife between his hands. "Question is, do I finish you off myself or let your friend here do it? I've dreamed of the moment the knife sinks into you and I see it on your face, the moment you know you've lost. But the poetry of having your trusted friend do it..." He made a show of really considering it, putting a hand to his chin as if deep in thought, before shrugging as he brought his knife to bare. "Who am I kidding, after all this time... I've earned this."

He stalked closer as Surge knelt down to pin Whisper in place, holding the wolf's arms behind her back as Whisper laid prone. All she could do was wait with baited breath, hope it would all come together, pray that the gamble paid off.

There was a crackle of sound as her transceiver started receiving a signal. "Hey! I got Kit, you're in the clear!" She sighed with relief at hearing Sonic's voice.

"Took you long enough you jerk!" Surge shouted as she let go of Whisper's arms.

Sonic laughed, they could hear the sounds of fighting coming from his end of the call. "Aw come on Surge! I thought we were friends now, since you helped me bust out of here and all."

She seethed as she helped pull Whisper up to her feet, all to the stunned confusion of Mimic. "Hell no, this is a one-time thing, you got that?!"

Mimic ground his teeth. "What?"

"Ain't it obvious, dumbass?" Surge grinned as she helped steady Whisper. "I told her about your plan as soon as I got out of there."

"All we had to do was buy time for Sonic to find Kit." Whisper allowed herself a satisfied smile. "How'd you like our performance?"

Twitching with rage, Mimic could only stare at them. "You... how dare... you little upstarts!"

Surge winced as she ran a finger along one of the gashes left by Whisper's claws. "Gaia, did you have to claw me though?" the wound was quickly closing thanks to her enhanced healing, but Whisper could only imagine it still stung.

"Sorry. Had to be convincing. You didn't exactly hold back either." She lent down and picked up her wispon, her sore body protesting every movement. "Just one loose end to take care of."

She suddenly tensed as she saw Mimic start to shake with laughter. "ha...hahahaha! You think that's it? You think it's over?!" He pulled a small device from his cloak and clicked a switch. "IT'S OVER WHEN I SAY IT'S OVER!!"

The reactor shuddered and the whole room started to shake. Inside the reactor's giant glass orb, the motes of energy within started to shift hue to red and buzz violently like a beehive that had been smacked with a bat. As warning lights and blaring klaxons kicked into life, Whisper paled as she realized what was happening. "He's overloaded the reactor!"

"Are you crazy?!" Surge shouted to Mimic. "You'll die too you moron!"

"If that's what it takes, fine!" He lunged towards them. "I'll prove it to you, this is the only reward for trust!"

Surge twisted out of the way of the knife thrust, sending him stumbling forward where he was promptly struck down by Whisper's hammer. The knife clattered from his hand as he crumpled to the floor.

"We don't have time for this." Whisper rasped out as she looked up to the at the alarming state of the reactor. "If we don't do something, we're dead."

Surge looked between her and the reactor, lost for what to do until an idea came to her. The panicked expression faded from her face as her eyebrows narrowed, and she jogged up to the machine with a determined glint in her eye. "I got this."

She reached up and placed her hands on the glass orb, gritting her teeth as she started to grunt with exertion. The dangerous red glow from the reactor faded to a more muted yellow as she drew power from it, sparks flew from her rings and piercings as she struggled to maintain her control.

"Surge!" Whisper called out as she ran up to her. "What are you-"

"Stay back!" Surge barked out, her voice strained as sweat dripped from her forehead. "I can... keep it stable... long enough... for you to get out!

She couldn't possibly be serious, could she? "And what happens to you?!"

The reactor flashed red for a moment before Surge fought to get it under control again. "Come on Squinty. Wasn't the whole point of working together... that you didn't care if you lost me?"

"It's not true!" Whisper stepped closer, a stray bolt of energy striking inches from her feet. "Damn it Surge... I" she clenched her fist as a tear slid down her face. "I Can't lose you too!

"Yeah well... you picked the worst time... to start caring." The reactor started oscillating back and forth between yellow and red as Surge's control started to waver. "Either you book it... or we both die... come on Whisper, don't make this for nothing!"

But Whisper held her ground. "I'm not leaving you." She couldn't do it again, couldn't let a friend die while she ran. "I'm staying right here."

Suddenly, from under her cloak, orange popped out and turned to face her with a determined look in their eye. "Orange? What are you-" Before she could finish asking, they turned and faced Surge, and suddenly rocketed forward into her body.

"W-woah! what's going on?!" Surge's body started to glow as hyper-go-on energy flowed through her. "I can feel... It's like when I had the hat! but it's... it's different! it's-"

Her body shifted as she started to instinctively use the wisp's power. The energy built and built until it felt like like she would burst. "Don't just stand there Squinty!" She shouted, her voice echoing and ethereal in her transformed state. "Grab on!"

Her eyes wide open in shock, Whisper hesitated for only a moment before she grabbed onto Surge, holding tight as the reactor quickly started to melt down and the whole building threatened to crumble. With a yell that threatened to drown out even the screech of the alarms surrounding them, Surge lifted off into the air and crashed through the ceiling.

When they were free of the cloud of debris Surge created on her exit, they continued up into the sky, far above the facility below which was shuddering as the reactor's violent energy started to collapse and implode. Whisper looked down as a rift formed in the center of the power-plant, swallowing everything until only a crater was left.

Mimic was gone. It was over.

The glow around Surge started to flicker and fade as she slowed her ascent, until suddenly she reverted back to her normal form and Orange popped free from her body. The tenrec looked dazed and on the verge of consciousness as they hung there in the air. When gravity overtook their momentum and they started to plummet, Whisper reached out and grabbed her by the midsection as Green flew into the Variable Wispon, slowing their fall into a gentle glide as Surge slumped forward onto her shoulder.

"I've got you."

Notes:

Had this written and planed out for quite a while before Whisper and Mimic had their confrontation in the comic and I do feel like I made a good read on him wanting her to reject other people.

Also felt like I just had to have Surge use a wisp power to show they trusted her enough to let her use them like that, in the comic itself they went for something similar as well, funnily enough.

See ya'll after the epilogue!

Chapter 5: Epilogue

Summary:

A return to normal, or a new normal entirely?

The party had been, to put it lightly, raucous. While Sonic had reunited with his closest friends after his escape, this was the first time many in the Restoration had seen him since the Clean Sweepstakes and his presumed death. The scattered remnants of the Restoration re-united under his return as if they'd never parted in the first place, and the newly constructed HQ was bigger and better than ever. The feeling was jubilant as friends who had been forced into hiding under Clutch's takeover or those taken captive found each other after months of separation. And at the center of it all was of course the man of the hour, Sonic the Hedgehog, fresh from his victory toppling Clutch's empire and playing off his time away like it was nothing. The celebration continued well on into the twilight hours as the sun started to set.

"The way they're acting you'd think he did all the work." Lanolin said dryly as she watched from a distance, leaning on the railing as she stood on a balcony in the barracks. It was an ideal spot for her, well clear from the party itself. She was never much for that sort of thing.

A chipper voice called out form behind her."Well, he did catch Clutch and wreck his biggest bots." 

"Tangle!" Lanolin stood up straight and jogged over to her. She offered her hand to the Lemur, who was leaning on the wall for support. "Should you be up? Do you need anything?"

Shaking her head with a bemused smile, Tangle waver her off. "I'm fine Lanny. The doctor said I'm good to walk if I take it easy. I was gonna take a look and see if the party is still going, just wanted to make sure you were doing alright first."

"Me?" Lanolin was incredulous. "Tangle, you're the one who got hurt."

"Pffft." Tangle once again waved off her concern. "I'm fine. You've kind of been a wreck though."

Lanolin scoffed, before she turned away and drew an arm across her body. "Why wouldn't I be. It's because of me that you got hurt. If I had just trusted Whisper then Duo... no, Mimic wouldn't have gotten the chance."

"To be fair, I wasn't being the best teammate either." Whisper stepped into the room carrying a fresh set of bandages. Tangle seemed pretty excited by the 'bad-ass scar' it looked like she was going to get, seemingly unphased by her recovery from what by all rights should have been a lethal wound.

Lanolin coughed, feeling a bit like a third wheel as Whisper gingerly replaced Tangle's bandages. "I hardly feel like that's a fair comparison, but thank you. What are you two planning on doing once she's recovered?"

Tangle blinked at her with confusion. "Uh, going back to fighting evil, duh. We got a lot of work to do to get things back to normal."

"We?" It was Lanolin's turn to be bewildered, as Tangle definitely seemed to be including her in that 'we'.

"We're a team." Whisper said simply as she finished dressing the wound. She tugged Tangle's shirt back down over her abdomen. "With Mimic gone I... I think I can finally give it my full focus, if you'll have me."

Lanolin could feel something start to well up behind her eyes. "I'd... I'd like nothing more." she sniffed as she ran a finger under her eyes to catch a falling tear.

"Oh, speaking of sticking together!" Tangle shouted suddenly, turning to face Whisper. "You should hurry if you want to catch her!"

Whisper coughed, turning her head to hide a blush forming on her muzzle. "You're... you're sure it's okay?"

Pulling her into a hug, Tangle nodded. "What makes you happy, makes me happy."

"Ha..." Whisper hugged her back gently, being careful to not aggravate her partner's wound. "I don't deserve you."

Tangle pulled back and grinned at her mischievously. "You deserve the world. Go, Go!" She shooed her girlfriend away, and with a quick bow of her head, Whisper departed.

"What was that all about?" Lanolin asked as she tilted her head to the side.

Tangle's laugh only added to the sheep's confusion. "You'll see."

---

Surge looked down at the party from a hill nearby. She'd been invited by her least favorite person, and while she would have just as soon told to tell him to go kick rocks, she did like the idea of people praising her for actually saving the day instead of only pretending to be a hero. It  wasn't too long until the constant adoration and cheers for Sonic got to her though, so she and Kit were preparing to make their exit. "Well, looks like the loser squad is all back together. Guess the doc had a point about the whole 'cycle' thing."

"Mmmm." Kit hummed in agreement as he stood next to her. He had been sticking to her more than ever after they had been re-united. In any other circumstance she would have told him he was cramping her style by being so clingy, but... Well, she was happy to keep him in her sight after everything that had gone through. "Are we leaving Ma'am?"

She shrugged and turned away from the party. "Yeah, I think we're done here. Come on Drippy."

They started to walk away from New Restoration HQ when suddenly a voice called out to them, one she wasn't at all used to hearing quite so loud.

"WAIT!!!"

Surge's eyebrows raised as she turned to look over her shoulder. Whisper was running up to her, pushing her legs as fast as she could as she rapidly closed the distance.

Instinctively, Kit stepped between them and glared at her, only for Surge to grab his shoulder. "Relax, Drip. She's cool." 

He looked back at Surge hesitantly, before she gave him a small nod and he slunk away to watch from the shade of a nearby tree.

Whisper was out of breath, panting with excretion as she came to a stop a couple steps away form her. "Surge." 

"Yeah?" The tenrec tried to stay casual as she put her hands in her pockets. "What's up?"

Finally catching her breath, Whisper lifted her head and looked Surge in the eyes. "Don't leave. Please."

The direct way she spoke always stood out to Surge. She was skilled at moving unseen, easily circumventing detection. But when she spoke, it was always right to the point. "What, you didn't get enough of me the last couple months?" Surge shrugged as she looked out at the Restoration. "Come on Squinty, even if I helped bust Sonic out, I'm part of the reason he was there in the first place. Folks don't want me here." Despite her best efforts to stay cool, she couldn't quite fight the flush creeping onto her cheeks. "Besides, I uh... I'd probably get over you easier if we don't see each other for a bit. Not like there's much for me here anyhow."

"There is." Whisper corrected as she took a step closer.

Surge turned away from the party below to face her. "And what's tha-"

She was quieted by a hand lifting her chin and a pair of lips crashing into hers. She froze for a moment before she leaned in and deepened the kiss, the pair lit by the flash of celebratory fireworks that probably were for Sonic, but in that moment Surge felt like they were just for her.

After what could have either been an eternity or a painfully short few seconds, Whisper reluctantly pulled back and said, "There's that, for one. Tangle doesn't mind sharing." 

Still stunned by the kiss, Surge mumbled. "Tangle rules." She cleared her throat, trying and failing to look like she didn't just have her entire world rocked. "I guess- I mean, we don't really got a place to stay right now, and hiding in Starline's old bases kinda sucks, so... I guess we could stay here. For now. Any port in a storm, right Kit?"

The fennec sighed, having turned away in disgust at the gross display of affection. "If you say so, Ma'am."

 

 

Notes:

the incredible art was done by Amberstar https://www.tumblr.com/amberstarr08

Thank you all so much for reading! Was fun to do something a lot shorter and to the point. If you like my writing, consider checking out my currently running fic "On Pines and Needles", Whisper and Surge feature in that one as well!

Take care!

Notes:

Please check out this incredibly sick art from Fetti, so cool getting to work with artists for the Big Banf. https://www.tumblr.com/fettiowi