Chapter Text
A red quokka hums to themself as they wash dishes in pristine fashion. The art of this task was actually very intricate. Of course, it’s a well known process. Hot water, proper soap, and a lot of scrubbing.
…
Okay, Barry was seriously bored right now.
Something happened at their previous job, and while they weren’t there for it, Barry was let off a couple weeks ago and now they needed to search for a new job. Which they haven’t had much luck on doing recently. A lot of available positions they were either unqualified for or just straight sounds awful working in.
As they look around for jobs, this at least gives Barry more time to take care of the apartment and even play some of the video games they’ve been meaning to play for a while. Sometimes being unemployed is just the best thing ever.
Sucks that they don’t have a whole lot of money though.
“And… Done!” Barry says, putting up the last water soaked dish. “There. I’ve washed the dishes, vacuumed the carpets, and got rid of any lingering dust… Oh, and took out the trash. What else is there to do?”
They’ve already cleaned their room. Tidied up the living room…
Man. Despite being so productive, they still feel so unaccomplished.
Barry sighs. “Guess there’s nothing to do until there’s something to do.” They make their way to the living room couch. “Might as well wait until Gadget comes home. Maybe we could play Mario Kart together or something.”
Knock knock knock!
Oh, wow. What timing! Usually those odd jobs Gadget takes lasts until late afternoon.
“Coming!” They call, redirecting themself from the couch and towards the entrance.
Barry opens the door and finds their roommate. “Gadget? You live here, don't you have a… Why are your eyes red?”
The war hero’s eyes are puffy, red, and clearly a little teary eyed. He sniffs once, probably to stop a bit of snot from falling. Which… Ew. All of this is clearly an indication of something that happened at least one hour ago. And it probably took a whole hour for it to stop.
“Were you…” Barry tilts their head. “Crying?”
“Mhm. But don't worry!” Gadget coughs, a smile appearing on her face. “They were happy tears. And I have someone to introduce you to.”
Gadget gestures to someone next to him. Said person is wearing a mask and a battered black cloak. Yeesh. Whoever this is, they’ve must’ve been through the wringer and back. Not to mention pretty… scary looking.
“Hullo.” Is what comes out of their mouth. It’s low and whispery. Almost nervous.
“Um, hi? Who are you?” Barry tilts their head in confusion.
Gadget pulls this mysterious entity in for a gentle side hug, causing both of the individual tails to gently wave back and forth. “This is my sister, Whisper! I’ve talked about her before, right?”
…Does she mean her dead sister? The one who died in the war? And who is now standing before them wearing a strange mask and shrouded in tethered black? Who Barry just basically called creepy?
Yeah, let’s think twice before ever speaking out loud again.
“Ah.” Barry says, smartly. So smart. “Um. How is she standing here? Alive??”
So much for that.
“Well, as it turned out, she didn’t die after all.” Gadget explains while also explaining nothing at all. “Er. We should probably step inside now.”
“Oh, right!” The quokka moves out of their way as if they suddenly grazed their hand towards a very hot frying pan. “Of course, what am I doing? Come in, come in!”
Whisper and Gadget enter the apartment, with the former taking in the scenery.
…It was a lot smaller than the former expected for two people living together.
As far as she could tell, there was only one bedroom (at least, she assumed it was the bedroom considering there’s only one other door) and across it was the bathroom. The living room was pretty spacious at least. There were some goofy looking paintings hung on a wall, one of them she’s pretty sure of being from Minecraft.
There were some photos sitting around at the TV stand, some of her, Gadget and… Slinger. It’s nice. He won’t be forgotten. None of them will, of course, but it’s nice to see it as a reminder.
(Whisper could never quite track down any family of Smithy or Claire’s. She never asked and they never told. Maybe that was a mistake.)
“Make yourself at home.” Gadget calls from the kitchen. Which wasn’t far nor a separate room but it still counts. “Well, make yourselves at home.”
Right, the wisps.
“Come on out, if you want.” Whisper lightly flicks back her cloak, gesturing to her little buddies to make an appearance.
A colorful hue of wisps lights up the already brightened atmosphere. Cyan waves bounce off the walls excitedly, making pink and green beings follow behind closely and prevent anything getting damaged. Blue and Orange just watch as they stay by their caretaker.
Barry yelps as another flash passes by them. They sigh, “And here I thought Vee was bad…”
Oh, right. It hadn’t occurred to Whisper that Gadget had her own little alien buddies. Her tail wags slightly from the chance to meet them. “May I see them?”
Gadget smiles. “Vee? Burst? Come meet my sister!”
Two red and blackish purple aliens pop out from the inside of Gadget’s pockets. Which is weird because... is it that spactious? Whisper has no idea. The two of them spot their kind and warble delightedly, flying up to each and every one of them, rekindling their bond. Whisper’s wisps do the same.
A rainbow ring of wisps is formed, conversation taking place in their language. Barry eventually joins Whisper on the couch, in awe of the bunch of extraterrestrials in their living room.
“Heh. Despite living with them, it’s still amazing to see them.” Barry says, smiling.
Whisper agrees, “It never gets old.”
The wisps that accompany Gadget lead the other five around the apartment, likely telling them of the items that are scattered around the area. It’s more than likely for some of the things to be foreign to them, Whisper was never the kind of girl to stick around in one place for so long. Plus, she camped out more than she thought was good for her. The fridge is probably the most interesting appliance to them.
“What’s Gadget doing?” The blonde wolf asks.
“Just getting some drinks. She said she was making something quick for you.” Barry responds.
Ah. He remembered. That’s sweet. Whisper’s tail wags in anticipation. It’s been a long time since she’s had her favorite drink made.
Though, there is one thing she's been wondering.
“Hey.” Whisper starts, breaking the comfortable silence. “How did you meet Gadget anyway?”
“Oh! Hm.” Barry’s ears flick in thought. “It was a little after the war. Her place was completely destroyed and she thought you and your parents were…”
“Dead.”
“Yeah, that. My place was the same so we went to the same homeless shelter until we managed to get back on our feet.”
“You met at the shelter?”
“Nah. We first met when we were at the hospital.”
“Ah.”
“Yeah. Then we got to know each other better when we were staying at the shelter.”
“Oof, that was a weird time.” Gadget cuts in smoothly, a platter of drinks in his hands. “It feels like a lifetime ago when realistically, it was just a couple months ago. Oh, and here’s the drinks.”
Whisper smiles, tail once again swooshing behind her, and politely takes the drink from her sibling’s hand. Then she drinks it all in one gulp.
Gadget eyes her. “I’m not making more.”
“I know.” She grins at him. “Worth it.”
Warm milk mixed with cinnamon and a touch of sugar. It was heavenly after so long. Whisper feels like she could almost cry from the amount of joy she felt. How comforting it was to have something she thought she’d never have again.
(Sure, she could just make it herself. But it wouldn’t really be the same. Not to her heart.)
“Anyways,” Gadget picks up where Barry left off. “Since a lot of landlords are eviler than Eggman, some of them raised rent to people who didn't have anywhere else to go. Barry was really the only friend I felt I had left so we both decided to move in together and help each other.”
“It was shocking at first.” Barry chuckles. “I actually didn’t know he was the one to help save Sonic and, you know, be a war hero. He had to tell me himself and I didn’t believe him until Amy Rose herself came to visit!”
Oh, it would probably blow their mind how Whisper is practically friends with most of the heroes of the planet. Well, she’s on her way for that at least. Maybe she should keep that fact to herself for now.
“I swear, everyone knows about me but can’t ever recognize me.” Gadget smiles. “Anyways, I took some odd jobs here and there, ones that may or may not require my wispon sometimes, we moved in, got settled, maybe had to threaten our landlord a bit—”
Whisper blinks. “You what–?”
“—Then the rest is history. Of course, there’s more to it than that but…”
Ignoring that one tidbit, Whisper just nods. “We’ll get into it.”
Not just Gadget’s side of the story.
“Alright.” He nods back.
The sound of wisps grabs their attention and the two wolves find their respective alien companions once again at their side. Whisper huffs amusedly before grabbing her masks to translate.
“Whisper, we need a Switch.”
“She doesn’t have the money for that.”
“Then we’ll steal this one!”
“How about we don’t do that?”
“Ay, why don’t we jus’ share?”
“I would be surprised if he even knew the word existed.”
“Hey!”
“What are they saying?” Barry asks.
“Uh, something about robbing us?” Gadget guesses.
“Huh?”
Cyan bumps Orange playfully, all of them chuckling. Red and Violet, or Burst and Vee as Gadget called them, float up to Whisper. Seems they’ve gotten the courage for introductions now.
“Hello. I’m Burst and this Vee.” She sounds very calm and collected. Practically the opposite of their type. Neat.
Something nicked at her ear and she pats it instinctively, finding that the violet wisp was nibbling on her ear.
“Er, sorry. That’s how they show affection.”
Vee just giggled.
“It’s fine.” Whisper said. Simply unexpected. “Do all violet wisps act like this?”
“Not that I know of. They… Wait. You can understand me?”
“Through the mask, yes.” She points to it.
“That’s so cool!” That was Vee. “Usually, Gadget has to guess what we’re saying. I mean, he’s picked up some stuff but it’s still a hassle.”
Speaking of, Whisper glances at her sibling and finds what may have to be the most heartwarming moment she’s seen since reuniting with her thought-to-be-dead sibling.
Pink naturally found his place on top of Gadget’s head, as he does with anyone he likes. Cyan lies on the wolf’s shoulder, talking a mile per minute. Whereas the rest float nearby and listen, chiming in where possible.
Gadget notices her watching with a smile and sends one back.
“Aw, what the hell?! Someone else got all the action already?!”
Surge angrily kicks a pile of burnt up bolts and screws. All the action was done and taken care of when she got here! Sure, all the people are safe and junk but that’s not…!
“Urgh. That is the point.” Surge groans to herself. Yes, she wants to be flashy and admired but there won’t be any of that if there ain’t anyone to begin with. Damn it, Pinky.
Still, she’ll let herself be pissed for showing up from, like, five towns and a city just to find her job to be done for her. That was her kill! All that running for nothing! At least a little more street cred would’ve been nice.
Sure, this was far from the only badnik attack in the last few days, but that doesn't mean someone else gets to have all the fun while she's stuck playing monkey in the middle for some god damn metal punching bags!
Maybe it was Kit’s fault. Should’ve been faster in reporting the badnik attack for her.
…Nah. That’s not fair.
“Ma’am!”
The devil speaks. Or however it went.
“Ma’am, I understand you were excited but please wait a bit for–! Oh.” Kit paused, jet water coming to a halt. He takes in the very notable wreckage of robotic corpses. “I believe this is a new record time, ma’am.”
“As much as I wanna take the credit for it, this wasn’t me.” Surge deadpans, though the tone wasn’t meant for him clearly. “Some other schmuck beat us to it.”
“...Oh.”
“Feh. These things wouldn’t have put up much of a challenge anyway.” She glares at another dead mechanical body like it personally insulted her. “Not worth much.”
It does raise the question as to why Eggman has so many badniks prowling around. Is there something on the island that he wants? If that’s the case, if Surge could get her hands on it first before he does then maybe…
“Hmm…”
Surge pops herself out of her thoughts and finds Kit inspecting the scorched badniks. “What is it, Drippy?”
“The report said there were more badniks than this.” He answers. He turns to her and gestures to all the robotic bodies. “Some of them are missing.”
“So?” Surge shrugs. “Maybe it was those Restoration punks who cleaned up.”
“Wouldn’t we have seen some workers by now then?” Kit argues. “People cleaning up the rest of this mess instead of leaving it out here?”
“...Fair point.” Even though it isn’t necessarily out of the question, Pinky did tell them that other branches of the Restoration existed or whatever, that didn't explain where those people were at this very moment. “What’cha thinking?”
Kit looks to the side, contemplating. He’s been doing that a lot.
“C’mon, spit it out! We haven’t got all day.” Surge, well, urges.
“...Clutch.”
The mere name being heard makes the tenrec spark small bits of lightning into existence. A scowl forms on her face not soon after the light show.
“That bastard.” It makes sense. That’s what Clean Sweep does. Clean up the mess for their own profit. The only thing that’s not adding up is, “Didn’t Eggman kidnap him or something?”
“Maybe he got away. Or maybe Eggman is using Clean Sweep for himself?” Kit ponders, a hand to his chin. “But it also wouldn’t make sense for them to leave some badniks behind.”
That’s true… Unless they were baiting them. But Kit isn’t sure why Eggman would do that or especially the old man. He had to have known that Surge and Kit were more than a match for any badniks he had in store.
Or it wasn’t any of them at all.
“Bah! I’ll just ask someone who was here.”
Kit jolts out of his thoughts. “Ma’am?”
Surge jaunts over to a nearby pedestrian.
“Um, ma’am wait!”
“Hey, you!” The thunderous punk catches the attention of a cow about to walk in a deli. “You seen what happened to these heaps of trash?”
The cow blinks. “What, you mean who destroyed them?”
“No. Actually, yeah. Do you know who?”
“Uh, a red wolf and another wolf. One of them had a mask thing while both had wispons.”
Ah. Everything made sense now. Sort of.
“Is no one gonna clean it up?” Surge asks.
“I heard word was sent to Restoration members a few minutes ago.”
Okay, so they just showed up early. Makes sense, Surge is the fastest thing alive. Probably doesn’t rule out Clutch even if he isn’t making any moves though. Clean Sweep itself is a mystery going on right now.
But Squinty being in the area is interesting. If she’s here then there’s gotta be something worth checking out! There always was with these big hero types.
“Cool, thanks.” Surge walks. She faces the fennec with a sharp grin. “We’re in luck, Drippy! Something must be going down in this city if we got big shot snipers here. I say we find it first and take the glory for ourselves!”
Kit smiles, “I’ll follow your lead!”
She ruffles his hair, “‘Course you will. Let’s move it!”
They zoom off, leaving trails of electric water particles in the air and the ground respectively.
…
A wisp flies out from under the cow’s poncho. He turns to the little guy, “I probably shouldn’t have told them that, right?”
The wisp shrugs.
“Yeah, probably not.”