With a quiet grunt I secured my dark green boots over my grey socks and tightened the matching bandana securely tied around my neck. Tired confidence hung in the air as I looked around at my fifteen other teammates. Five of them were anxious cats with brightly colored fur, seven of them were alert birds who kept checking their wispons, two were jumpy frogs that wouldn’t stand still, while the last one was a grey wolf, like me. Our leader, a grey walrus with a small mustache and captains hat signaled for all of us to quiet down and make sure we were well hidden. At the moment, we were hiding outside Metropolis City waiting for orders from the other resistance groups. I edged quietly over to Gizmo, the other grey wolf that also happened to be my best friend. Little did I know that today’s events would haunt me for the rest of my life.

                “I hope this works,” I whispered to him. “This is the first time in forever that we’ve had a real chance at striking back against Eggman and his wicked empire.”

                “I know,” he whispered back, “I really hope this goes well. Now that the resistance has Sonic back, we have the first real advantage in forever.” His hands clenched into fists, and he stared determinedly ahead. “This HAS to work. Enough waiting in silence. This world belongs to everyone, and it’s our job to defend it and win it back.”

                “I agree whole heartedly, the time HAS come to take back our world. Just remember, listen to the captain, he’s the one from whom we take orders.”

                Gizmo blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. He didn’t usually follow orders well and he knew that I was implying that he probably should start making sure he DID follow orders so that he would be a better soldier.

                “Heh, well I’ll try. Wait, Captain’s saying something.”

                My pointed ears turned towards our leader as he began speaking to us in a hushed voice.

                “Alright troops, I just received the word from Commander Knuckles. We’re moving in through the western side of the city. We need to take down as many of Eggman’s robots as we can, so use your wispons well. For this mission, throw stealth to the wind and make as much damage as possible. Keep your earpieces on at all times. Everyone understand? CHARGE!”

                I grabbed my hover wispon and began to run towards the city. My team and I had been hiding behind the broken remains of a Death Egg Robot that had been destroyed by another team the day before. As one, we sprinted into the city. The sounds of other groups blasting robots in other parts of the city could be heard as I dashed ahead of my teammates, across a street, and around a corner.

A group of six large robots noticed me instantly and turned their plasma blasters in my direction. They all blasted at me at the same time. I laughed and activated my wispon. In less than a second, I whooshed into the air above the blasts. This particular kind of robot could only fire every five seconds, but the blasts were deadly and hard to avoid. However, my hover wispon, hence the name, allowed me to take flight for brief periods of time. The blasts passed harmlessly below me, and then the rest of the team leaped from around the corner and blasted their burst and lightning wispons. The destroyed robots were sent crashing backwards in flames, never to blast at anyone ever again. We cheered and raced on into the city. I landed and ran ahead again, drawing the robot’s fire so that they could be easily defeated by the more violent wispons.

Group after group of robots fell, sparking victorious cheers from my team as we charged on as an unstoppable force bound by strength, courage, and teamwork. A flash a crimson suddenly caught my eye, and my head and eyes turned quickly to the rooftop and squinted. A wolf! A teenage, red wolf holding a crimson-colored burst wispon was running along the roof of one of the tall, white buildings. I stared at the wolf for a moment before deciding that he must be a part of another group. I resumed running but watched the strange wolf out of the corner of my eye.

 I inhaled sharply as the wolf suddenly leapt off the roof of the building towards the roof of the building across the street. My brain whizzed through a half-second long calculation and confirmed that the wolf would safely land on the next building’s roof.

If only that was what happened next.

While the red wolf was in the air between the two buildings, the unexplainable happened. Out of thin air, a black and white jackal wearing a metal mask flew for the briefest of moments next to the startled wolf and then spiraled into the air above the city. From there, chaos reigned. A red and purple gem, a ruby I think, glowed brightly on the jackal’s chest before blasting blood-colored light waves into the air. In that single, terrifying instant, everything changed.

The entire world seemed to fall apart before my eyes as the rules of gravity ceased to exist. A scream ripped out of my lungs as I was sent flying, no, falling, upwards upside down into what used to be called the sky. Except there was no sky. Giant purple and black water monsters wearing huge metal masks as tall as the buildings began crashing across the city destroying things, as I roughly “landed” on the underside of a bridge that stretched between two buildings. A short distance away, most of my teammates had landed on the underside of another bridge but were now running away in terror.

 Everything was wrong. I was standing on the underside of the bridge, and from there I could see that the sky was below me, but the ground was above my head, where the sky should be. My heart jolted, and I began to sprint knowing that if I didn’t, I wouldn’t last for long. The water monsters were starting to smash the bridges and being on one while it was smashed (to put it lightly) would be quite terrible for my health.

My blood ran cold as a familiar voice cried for help from one of the other building’s bridges. Gizmo! I turned and began to run back the other direction. There! Gripping onto the side of the building but slowly starting to slide “up” the corner of the white concrete wall was Gizmo, desperately gripping his lightning wispon with one hand and hugging the rough wall with his body. My feet barely touched the ground as I ran to help my best friend.

“Gizmo, I’m coming,” I screamed, and leaped off the bridge. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see the red wolf leaping around destroying robots despite the shift in gravity. Then it happened again. The masked jackal whizzed past me and then flew past the red wolf before the blood-colored light tainted the air and once again everything was thrown out of balance.

I found myself standing in shock on the side of the building while the real ground with actual roads on it loomed to my right, and endless, cloudy sky filled the space to the far left. I stared up, dumbfounded, at the building far over my head attached to the misplaced ground. Then I remembered Gizmo. He was hanging off the side of the building, like a child who decided too late that he didn’t want to jump off the high dive, and was holding on with both hands while he gripped the handle of his wispon in his pointed teeth. I ran over to him, dropped my wispon, and grabbed him by his wrists. With a heave, I pulled him up onto (momentarily) solid ground.

“What is going on?” he gasped after returning his wispon to the grip of his right hand.

“I…I don’t know. I think it has something to do with that masked jackal that keeps flying around here. He zips by and a gem on his chest glows each time the world flips. By the way, did you see the red wolf that’s jumping around here? Perhaps he knows what’s going on.”

“Y-yeah, I did. I don’t know where he went though.” He shivered. “At least this change of scenery made those creepy water monster things go away. Now we just have the robots to worry about.”

“Indeed. I wonder why we haven’t gotten any calls or updates ye- OH NO!” I face palmed, then with trembling fingers turned on the small earpiece that I was supposed to have activated before the mission started. Horror spread across Gizmo’s face as he hurried to turn his on as well.

Instantly, transmissions filled my ears.

“Help, we need backup!”

“Our troops are scattering in confusion!”

“This is Eagle Squad, requesting reinforcements!”

“80 percent of our forces have been wiped out, and we’ve lost contact with the rest!”

“We will be lucky just to live to fight another day.”

“This is Fox Squad; we’re caught in enemy crossfire.”

“Run for it!”

“Operation Big Wave has been all washed out. All remaining troops get out while you still can. I repeat, get out while you still can.”

I stared at Gizmo, my heart racing. The troops were retreating! I stared blindly ahead for a moment, still trying to comprehend that Operation Big Wave had failed.

‘There are troops, there are people still in the city, trying to fight their way past the bots despite the crazy flip.’ I thought.

“We have to save as many people as we can then get them and ourselves back out. Are you with me Gizmo?”

Gizmo stared at me for a moment then gripped his wispon more tightly, a grim smirk on his face.

“Always am, always will be.”

Together we sprang forwards, off the side of the building and onto the next one. Immediately we were dive bombed by large, metal bees, known as “bee-bots” that shoot rapid amounts of small plasma blasts. The blasts were not lethal, but they were hard to avoid and painful, nonetheless. I blasted my hover wispon at them twice, releasing two blasts of air that each sent half of the bee-bots doing midair, backwards backflips. With a cry of rage, Gizmo leaped forwards and blasted his lightning wispon, releasing a long whiplike slash of crackling energy that tore into the bee-bots and destroyed them instantly.

My ears pricked upwards, then turned towards a faint sound like my own personal set of radars.

Screams.

“This way!” I yelled breaking into a sprint towards what used to be called the “top” of the building. “I can hear some people over there.”

Suddenly, the blood-colored haze swallowed the air for another, horrible moment and I could feel gravity’s pull suddenly changing priorities. This time, though, the world was flipped right way up. Which at this particular moment, due to the fact that we were standing on what was back to being the side of a wall about ten stories above the ground, was really, really bad.

Gravity took over, and we began to plunge, with a brief scream towards the fast-approaching ground. Wind rushed past us, and all sane thoughts blew away with it.

‘WE ARE GOING TO DIE! No, stop, THINK, there is always a way out.’

Five seconds until impact.

“Gizmo, grab my hand,” I yelled. He leaned forwards but couldn’t reach.

Four seconds until impact.

 Gizmo’s eyes gleamed with sudden inspiration then he snagged his wispon and stretched it out towards me.

Three seconds until impact.

I grabbed it and used it to pull him over to me.

Two seconds until impact.

I grabbed his arm tightly and thrust my wispon into the air.

One second until impact.

My wispon activated and with a harsh jerk that almost dislocated my arm pulled us upwards just in time for our feet to barely brush the ground. We dropped to the ground, gasping for breath, and shaking like leaves from head to toe.

I forced myself to regain my focus, and then quickly pressed down on a small button on my earpiece. I took a deep breath and spoke clearly.

“This is a member of Chameleon Squad. I and my teammate just survived the most recent flip. Are there any troops that are still in the city and need help? I repeat, are there any troops that need help?”

A couple seconds later I got a reply.

“There was a small group of soldiers just north of your position, but after everything turned right way up, transmissions stopped,” said a tired, female voice. “Get out while you still can.”

I sighed, then answered, “Understood.”

Turning to Gizmo, I said, “There were soldiers just north of here, but transmissions stopped. The girl on the intercom advised that we get out while we still can.”

Gizmo nodded, then said, “Yeah, that sounds like good advi- wait, who’s that?”

I followed his gaze and saw a figure leaping away over the top of a building. Whoever it was, was wearing a white mask, was dressed in a black and grey outfit, had brown fur, and was carrying an odd looking wispon that I had never seen before. The figure was also coming from the north. Whoever it was stopped for a moment and stared directly at us, despite the distance. He or she stretched its right hand to point back towards the north. The figure lowered its arm, turned, and faced away from us, then resumed leaping away.

“Wait!” I called to the retreating creature. The figure vanished from view, and I did not see it again.

“I think… I think there are still people over there.” I said. “Gizmo, will you help me?”

“When have I ever not helped you?!” he said with a laugh. “You’re my closest friend, and I will always stand by you. Let’s do this!”

I gripped my wispon, nodded to Gizmo, then side by side we broke into a sprint. I ran farther ahead and began to execute the tactic that we had long ago perfected. I got the robot’s attention, turned their blasts in my direction, and Gizmo skillfully sliced them into pieces with his lightning wispon’s crackling, electric whip.

The tactic worked well, but our adrenaline was starting to slow, and our energy was also trickling away. Being repeatedly jerked into the air was cutting down on my strength. Also, lightning wispons aren’t usually used because upon firing, the user usually gets pushed in the opposite direction that they fired and has to brace him or herself well to avoid getting shoved backwards. As it was, Gizmo and I were getting dangerously tired. But it was well worth it.

“THERE,” gasped Gizmo pointing towards a tattered void wispon on the ground. “Take a look around; I’l[MDM1] l cover you.”

I nodded, gasping for breath, and began to look around through the scattered wreckage while Gizmo fended off any robots dumb enough to get close.

THERE, behind a slab of broken concrete, was that a hand? I ran over to check. YES! Unconscious, limp, but alive were three battered soldiers lying unaware of the danger with their dented wispons a couple feet away from them.

“Gizmo, there are three people back here; the flip back upright probably made them fall and get knocked out. I- I think I can carry two out of here if you can take the last one. If we set off one last blast, then we can just try to sprint out of here.”

“Hey,” I said into my earpiece, “we found three people and we’re trying to get them out of the city. Any chance someone can come by and clear off some bots or carry one of the people, cause my friend and I are getting kinda tired.”

“Y-you found some people?!” said the girl on the other end in shock. “I don’t believe it, uh, I will see if I can find anyone to help. Never mind, I’ll just come myself. All right, I have your coordinates and I will see how soon I can get over there. Just hold on a little longer and everything will be fine.”

“Gizmo,” I called to my tiring friend, “someone is coming to help if we just hold on a little longer. We are going to make it!”

I slung two soldiers, a bird and a fox, over each shoulder and began to quickly trudge forwards. Gizmo dropped down and grabbed the last soldier, a small bear, and began to stride a little ahead of me. The attacks were starting to decrease in number, which was good because we might not have made it out otherwise.

I ran through some mental calculations. It would take us ten minutes to escape the city, but there was a chance that there might be some robots entering the city from the outside.

 The resistance usually traveled on foot, something Eggman always took advantage of due to the fact that he could get his “troops” almost anywhere in a short amount of time with his machines. Traveling on foot wasn’t usually an issue due to the fact that most of the resistance members had very high stamina and could travel on foot for extended periods of time. The commander had figured out at the beginning of the war that soldiers who had just fought a battle aren’t usually good at running, so he had at least one small, hidden base created near each city so that the tired soldiers would have a place to rest and hide briefly if the battle didn’t go well.

 Our goal upon escaping Metropolis was to get to one of those hidden bases and hunker down until we regained enough energy to travel to the main resistance base. We could be redeployed to another battle station a little later after recovering completely.

Three minutes later, a group of ten robots attacked. Again, the crackling whip slashed through the robots, and again we ran desperately onwards over the damaged streets and rubble.

By the next robot attack, Gizmo and I were stumbling and sweat was beginning to trickle down the side of our faces. The lightning wispon lashed out again, and I could see that my friend wouldn’t be standing for much longer. Then again, I wouldn’t be standing for too much longer either. We knew that it would take a miracle to get out, because Gizmo wouldn’t have the strength to stand, never mind run any more, if he had to fire his wispon again.

From around the corner, a deafening sound that I had never heard before mingled with the loud crash and smash of robots being destroyed echoed into my ears.

PIKO!!! PIKO!!! PIKO!!!

Oh my. Unless I was mistaken, that was the telltale sound of a piko hammer.

A pink, female hedgehog wearing a red dress leaped around the corner, the massive, fearsome hammer swinging in her grasp.

“THIS WAY,” she screamed. “I’LL CLEAR A PATH!”

After staring in a moment of stupefied silence, Gizmo and I ran after her with startled obedience. Man, she was fast!

With the pink hedgehog leading the way, we left the city at a much quicker pace, the only sign that we had been there at all being the lovely trail of busted robot bits.

“This way,” she called over her shoulder as we victoriously staggered out of the city.

From there, everything sort of blurred. We made our way over to the hidden bunker, and somewhere along the way, the pink hedgehog took one of the soldiers that I was carrying and the one that Gizmo was carrying.

Together, the three of us trekked until we entered a forest a quarter mile from the city. Hidden in the protective darkness was a wooden door in the ground that entered into the bunker dug below. The pink hedgehog opened the door and smoothly dropped down into the room below with a quiet thud. Right behind her, Gizmo and I dropped in and were greeted by a small, solid room with nine bunkbeds built into the walls and a couple of boxes of canned food and bottled water.

The girl breathed deeply, then placed the two soldiers that she was carrying in two of the bunkbeds. She took Gizmo’s wispon then helped him into a bed as well. She gently took my wispon as well, then the last soldier that I was carrying, before putting him into a bed, then me too.

Weariness clogged my senses, and the final thing I was aware of was the pink hedgehog sighing, setting down her hammer, and saying,

“If every soldier were like these two, the war would be won already.”

Fin

We can show the world what we can do

You are next to me and I’m next to you

Pushing on through until the battle’s won…