You landed at HQ awhile ago, escorting families back together, reuniting some siblings, and having a little girl gossip with Olive. But now, Sonic and Cream asked to see you outside the control room. Olive headed inside, and you waited for the duo.

Cream was talking about snacks with a smile on her face despite the doom and gloom or the rest of the room. Another little brightness in the dark that she was, and she cut herself off mid sentence when she saw you, "(Y/n!)"

"Hey Cream," You waved to the girl and held her hand when she ran up to you, "How are you guys doing?"

Sonic stood close by, but was still careful not to touch anything. "Today was a close call, but I'm doing ok." The typically jumpy and charismatic hero took a deep breath and sighed at this time of rest, something he rarely got between dispatches and running off the infection. "I was on my way to tell Tails the same thing, and check up on his stuffs for finding a cure."

"I'll head over to, besides, I've got something for him back on the ship. I don't know if you saw it, but Shadow seriously ripped into Omega. I managed to grab his head with his core processors but that was it- Are you coming too Cream?"

The little rabbit shook her head. "I'm going to see if Miss Amy is ok. She's been stress a lot you know?"

"Oh yeah." You and Sonic agreed at the same time. You added that, "We'll check on her later too. I'm sure Amy would be happy to see her lover boy here."

"(Y/n), don't you dare start that." Sonic playfully punched your protected shoulder, careful to thank about it first before doing it. You chuckled back.

You brushed off your shoulder and put your hands back on your hips, "If I need to be the messenger of another relationship I will."

"Olive?"

"Yeah, finally."

"Oh, good for her. But hey, let's get moving."

"Sure, I'll go grab O-"

"Already on it." Sonic had disappeared and reappeared with Omega's head in his hands, screaming in robot to be either put down or demanding to be fixed so he can continue your promised massacre of more Eggman badniks.

"Oh."

Cream waved goodbye and jumped into the control room, through the glass you saw Amy smile for a moment before being distracted with more callouts, two red dots on the screen- two ships that were missing...

Sonic noticed your disappointment in seeing that, and tried to pull you away from the tactical battles going on and towards a brighter area, Tails lab for the cure.

"By the way, Olive's 'friend' said that I was a part of a team now? Like an official one." You shrugged and looked at Sonic.

Sonic placed a hand on his chin, thinking, "Hmm, first I've heard of it but sounds awesome! Whose you're third?"

"Gante apparently. I had no idea he even wanted to be on a team."

Sonic huckled, "Something tells me the guy is protective over two strong girls, like a father you know? My dad and uncle were like that for me."

"I suppose?" You continued to walk, thinking about why Gante would want you and Olive over his squad. Unless he- oh no... You'd have to ask later. For now, you and Sonic made your way to Tail's lab. This time, the fox was working on a harness, knowing Omega would be here and wanted to be fixed as demanded.

"Tails, I've got him here." Sonic raised Omega over his head and the robot announced his anguish with more bickered static.

"Perfect, put him up here." Tails patted a spot on a wooden crate. The hedgehog placed the robot's head on its personal resting place and proceeded to turn to his buddy, but was met with yellow eyes instead.

"He's smaller than I thought he was."

"Silver! You're up!" Sonic smiled at seeing his friend again, who guarded him from an explosion before your release. You jumped back from his sudden appearance, eyes wide as you looked at the futuristic boy.

"Yeah I am, I'm ready to start helping out again." Silver raised an eyebrow as he examined his friend, "I'm glad you're doing good so far despite the infection. You look- uhh."

"-tired? Heh, I hate to admit it but I actually got winded on my way back." Sonic sighed and stared at the ceiling, his arms on his hips reveling in, how that could even happen. Or HOW he'd even allow it to happen. Nothing stops his speedy adventures. He shook his head, "but hey, I'm still kicking. Oh, and I'm sure you've heard about my pal (Y/n) here?"

Sonic did some azz hands behind your back to introduce yourself on his behalf, ushering you forwards to talk to his fellow hedgehog friend. Silver smiled at you. "Yeah of course, you like to use your name rather than (N/n) right?" He held out a hand to you to shake in respectful fashion.

"Yeah, and you're seemingly quick to trust, in a wholesome kind of way." You shook hands with the white hedgehog and he smiled back.

"Sonic says you're on our side so you're all good to me, no worries (Y/n)." Silver stepped back and crossed his arms, blinking at a sudden blindness in front of him, as he inconveniently stood close to the path of Tail's workbench, sparks flying as he began to fix Omega. "Ow, and hey, can you really fix Omega? He's really beat up."

You and Sonic turned around on instinct and were both blinded as well. "ACK." you hissed, spinning around to get away from the brightness. Tails stopped his work and began to apologize, you and Sonic laughing at his need to just keep working.

"I can, but it will take awhile. As you know..." Tails spun his hand and nodded his head to you to finish his sentence, where you and Sonic happy replied that-

"Eggman tech is notoriously weird."

"Mhm, but I'm also working on the cure. Unfortunately, I still don't have data to go off of regarding combatant cells or other sciency words I'm sure you won't understand. So, that's why I made two of these!" The fox held out two wrist watches that looked like fitbits, heart-rate monitors were on display, eerily flatlined as they had no pulse to read yet. He handed them out to their respective owners, "I made one for Sonic to read his speed, and how it fights the virus, and then one for you (Y/n), for comparison data."

"I don't think you'll really get anything from me but ok." You slapped it on, tightening it on your (less dominant side) wrist and examining the cool lights that turned on now that it was measuring your biometric data.

"No problem Tails, we'll get that data for you." Sonic cheered, assuring his fox friend of their success in classic Sonic charisma fashion. "But I did want to tell you that- today was a close call."

"I know- I watched the video live feeds from the control room... I promise I'll find a cure for us." Tails looked a little sad now, but nodded in confidence at finding a cure. The conflict was escalating to a do or die level, and he wouldn't let the world suffer like that. The world... or other worlds. Silver. Silver's home world... "WAIT. Silver, why did you come back?"

The futuristic hedgehog looked to Tails confused, thought about it, and then smiled as he remembered where he was and why, "You guys were dealing with the virus right? It's metal and corrupting everything. Well, sorry (Y/n), but I thought it was you that caused all that destruction-."

"Heh-" You murmured...

"-But now, I thought that my future might have been caused by the virus."

Sonic raised an eyebrow, "But you never mentioned any zombots? It was just you and Blaze right?"

"Right, but that's because I never saw any. I had no idea if they even previously existed or what. I came up with an idea that maybe over a few hundred years they eventually disappeared. Poof, gone to dust." Silver snapped his fingers.

"That could be it, metal does corrode and rust over time. And rust does turn to dust eventually." You added.

Tails perked up, "It's a good theory, I'll look into it. For now, you guys should get back to your dispatches."

[]=====[]

A lavish platypus sat in a chair, rubbing his forehead in disappointment, thinking about how his battle plan hasn't been very successful. Or rather, his superiors. Dr.Starline was focused on helping Eggman, but suffered at Eggman's own mistakes that the Dr seemed to ignore. He wasn't preparing for the future.

He sighed, "Dr. Eggman has no plan to control this virus... Why can't he see how important it is to get his under control? Or else we'll be victims too-..."

Dr. Starline clacked away at a small desktop on his counter, blueprints and datasheets were scattered throughout the surface, pulling up an empty graph with various signals on it, "Hopefully we'll get some results from the test tomorrow..."

There was silence in the room, thoughts filled the henchman's mind and he yelled out in sudden frustration, "Why can't Eggman see these issues! WHY didn't (N/n) see the potential in this project! She should be here, helping ME fix this. She wants to rule the world right? (N/n).. or (Y/n) as she stated... Hmm..."

Starline scooted into his computer, scavenging through files as he took matters into his own hands. He searched up your name, dropping down was a serious of information you had collected before being imprisoned. Something came up, a reference to one piece of tech you created. Eggman had his own information on it too...

"The Lost World Project... How interesting."

I swear to god you all better not think Gante is some creepy guy. I wanted him to be a father figure as he admires the reader and Olive's courage, and wants them to succeed.

Chapter Length @1710 Words