[Sonic Forces] Spark

Good-Bad Luck

A/N: I had an idea, can't say that it's a very good one. But I'm about five chapters in now so I might as well start posting it.

Enjoy.

-.-

There were a thousand ways this could have gone, but she was fairly sure that none of them would have been in her favor.

"Not so special now that the blue pest is gone, are you darling?" the dark violet colored Mobian bird chuckled as she made her way over. "It's been months since the war- and yet here you are, acting as if nothing has changed for you. Between us."

The once rookie of the Resistance just barely dodged out of the way as the other Mobian placed her foot on the ground- full intent on breaking the rookie's wrist. The bird only gave a cruel laugh and continued her sure path. It would have been smart, at this point, to get up and get the heck out of dodge. But that was just the thing- the rookie hadn't been expecting the other Mobian, and what a grave mistake it was. Everything hurt now. Oh blessed Gaia, it hurt so much...

"Has the war broken you that much?" the bird then mused. "Pretty little thing- you never did like conflict."

There was a flicker of a bitter sweetness in the bird's eyes before she delivered a rib cracking kick to the rookie's torso. In lieu of a scream, the rookie gave a distressed mewl. It only served to amuse the bird further.

"I see they didn't help you get your voice back. Pity. I almost miss the sound of your fear-filled babbling..."

The rookie prepared for another kick, but it never came. Instead, the bird Mobian bent down to get as close to the rookie's face as possible. The bird gave a nasty smirk before yanking on the rookie's ear, making sure that she had her attention- it elicited another desperate squeak from the helpless Mobian.

"The Eggman Empire will rise, with or without that fat old man." she then hissed. "And you're going to help me get the message out."

Of all the years the rookie had known this Mobian, that could only mean one thing. Thankfully, she had succumbed to the rest of her wounds before she received that blow to the head.

. . .

By the time she came to again, who knows how much time had passed since that encounter. The pain was still there but something felt off. Was she lying down? Why couldn't she move her body? She tried to wiggle a bit to get some of her bearings, but she was quickly greeted with a sharp pain on her side.

"She's waking up." a gruff voice said not far from her. It sounded familiar, but from where? "Go tell Knuckles."

"Right!" a much sweeter voice agreed in a determined tone. What followed were the sounds of the sweet voiced Mobian leaving and allowing a stiff silence to come through.

"You're lucky to be alive." the gruff voice mumbled. "Be prepared to hear it a lot."

She tried to offer a small nod of acknowledgment, but was quickly greeted with a splitting headache. If she didn't have bandages covering her head and eyes, she was sure she would have seen multicolored migraine-induced ribbons.

"Is she awake?" a new voice (Knuckles?) questioned as they and some other -possibly the sweet voiced Mobian- came into the room.

There was a very unhelpful grunt from the gruff voiced Mobian, but there were no other answers than that. Knuckles then gave a grunt of his own before moving closer to her. It took a few moments and soon the bandages fell away from the rookie's eyes. She had to squint a bit before her eyes adjusted, then she took a look around the room. Sure enough, beside her bed was the red echidna himself, holding the bits of her bandages in his hands.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." he greeted her with a smile. "We were hoping that you'd wake up soon."

We? The rookie looked around the room to only find two other Mobians there: Amy Rose (who was standing by the door with her hands clasped together) and Shadow (who stood by the window with his arms crossed and looking as pleased as usual). The rookie then turned her attention back to Knuckles- the look she gave him demanded answers.

"We got a distress signal from your communication watch." the echidna admitted. "The only one available to check it out was Shadow, and he found you in pieces. Almost literally!"

Curious, the rookie gave Shadow an inquisitive glance. It was rebuffed with an annoyed scoff and his attention diverted elsewhere. The rookie then turned her attention back to Knuckles, bidding him to continue the story.

"You've been here for about three weeks." he went on. He then gave her a guilty looking expression as he scratched the back of his head. "We thought we were going to lose you for a moment there; your rib cage had completely collapsed on itself, some of your cuts were so deep that the bleeding almost didn't stop, you barely had a pulse..." That was the moment Knuckles shook his head, as if trying to get a bad memory out, before starting to grin. "But now you're awake! We'll have to do a check-up, of course, but for now all you have to do is rest. We'll get you back up and running in no time, rookie!"

"Who did this to you?" Amy quietly asked as she moved a bit closer to the bed. If they had expected a verbal answer from the rookie, they must have easily forgotten that she was a mute. Even then, she had to think about it for a moment. A small moan escaped her lips when she remembered. She was dead. She was so, so dead when she found out...

"Was it Eggman?" Amy asked. The rookie shook her head- careful to not move too quickly in fear of another splitting headache.

"Infinite?" Knuckles then questioned. Another shake. This was when Shadow narrowed his eyes and moved closer.

"It was someone you knew."

The rookie turned to look him dead in the eye. She gave a small nod of agreement. Whatever mood Shadow was in worsened at knowing this.

"Who was it?" he demanded.

"Shadow!" Amy admonished. "She just woke up, you can't force her to...!"

Shadow flashed Amy a look so dark that the female hedgehog immediately shut up. With Amy silenced, Shadow turned back to the rookie.

"Who was it?" he demanded once more, this time in a much more annoyed tone. The rookie looked at him with some amount of fear before scanning around the room for something to write with. Knuckles was able to pick up on this and quickly withdrew the doctor's clipboard. The rookie gave a small nod of thanks, chose to ignore what the doctor's notes were, and (in an incredibly shaky and barely legible handwriting) wrote her answer in the general note section of the form;

fay'lin

my boss