A lot of discrepancies got pointed out with my previous omake so I did a rewrite with those things in mind to be a bit more accurate to quest-canon.
Special thanks to
@Boohoo the 3rd and
@Soberan 123
Through the eyes of a Sniper
For over a year now, Whisper had felt hollow, as if most of her emotions were beyond her reach leaving only rage and guilt behind.
Her time with the Diamond Cutters, though short overall, had been best of her life; as the junior most member for some time, the others had been a bit protective which she'd considered annoying since they could have done more with their skills but she'd give so much to go back to that. The days when Claire would give little warnings about watching her footing or the weather, Smithy would triple then quadruple check everyone's gear to be sure the Wisp-tech was all functional, and Slinger being the older brother she never knew she wanted as they fought the good fight.
And then things changed when she'd met Mimic; finding his shapeshifting fit a niche they had lacked and his will to oppose Eggman had felt genuine, she'd convinced the others to let him join and things had seemed good for the following missions as he was brought up to speed. He fit in perfectly with their stealth focus and missions.
If only she hadn't...
Whisper's fist struck against the wall.
If she'd just been a bit more sceptical of him then maybe the Diamond Cutters would still be alive right now, she was sure that one of them would have a better idea of what to do in this crazy new world.
But she hadn't been and then when thing felt like they had been going well and they were ready to take out a lesser base, Mimic had brought them into a trap for Dr Eggman, who then unleashed a group of Shadow Androids on them. She'd only survived because Claire had told her to hang back but everyone else had died while she'd sat frozen in place knowing that any attempt to intervene would only be spitting on her team's actions. She just stayed there, in her tree, watching as her team died, still as a statue as tear-filled eyes watched her new family's bodies were removed to be destroyed, staying motionless to the point that Mimic had assumed she must have long since fled and faked up a confirmation of her death between the weapon she had dropped and his own mask to Eggman.
Whisper reached out a hand to one of the Wisps around her, the green one which had been Claire's partner, which nuzzled her in an effort to provide comfort. Despite everything, she'd been able to force herself to enter the base and retrieve the Wisps which had gone into hiding upon things going wrong; if she didn't have them then she was sure she would have gone mad long ago.
To this day, she didn't know whether Mimic had been a spy all along or if those oaths he'd sworn had actually been heartfelt only for him to sell them out for greed later on. Frankly, Whisper wasn't sure if she wanted to know; she couldn't really see the answer changing her response. She patted the gun at her side, Smithy's last creation, which she only knew how to keep in shape from all the checks he'd made them perform.
And then came the war.
Eggman had managed to capture Sonic before challenging the entire world at once and almost winning.
She'd stayed out of the limelight and did what she could from a distance, at times providing covering fire to those that had needed it, and others using careful positioning and the terrain to take out battalions.
Then came the finale where the Rookie and the recently freed Sonic had fought together and defeated the tyrant. With Eggman gone, vaporized, a lot of people had hoped, and various groups of survivors reaching out to each other to try and help build back some semblance of normality, things should have been on the mend.
Only for Neo Metal Sonic to appear a week later, declaring his intent to keep up the madman's legacy, gathering up loose badniks as he did, and the fight continued, though diminished as the survivors were still on a combat footing themselves. Skirmishes had continued for a few more weeks before everything changed.
And the Shattering happened; suddenly there were new lands and warlords to consider and the Green Hill Zone was under a new kind of invasion.
The appearance of the Valkyrie which brought ruin to Neo Metal Sonic had lit hope in some hearts that they might be a hero but they simply weren't that lucky and she was just the vanguard for their new neighbours to invade with.
The Restoration swapped leaders and kept trying to help people, GUN was cobbled together from remnants of multiple worlds, the Black Arm returned with Shadow as their herald, Zavok took over Eggman's old base as a means of revenge, and that was just the bigger things that happened locally.
And throughout this madness, Whisper persisted.
She stayed on the move, removed threats to people, looked for information worth leaking, and scouting the situation.
It was like the war had never ended.
Sitting in this small bunker barely big enough for her and the Wisps, Whisper took solace in their murmurs to calm her thoughts and stay in the present.
Months passed by and she kept on the move, following hints of wrongdoing and trying to deal with them. Her most recent mission had been the result of weeks; scouting the terrain, timing patrols, looking for weak points, locating prisoners and it has led to this.
An orange shot piercing the darkness was the first sign the guards had of something going wrong but those in position fell to coloured blasts before they could do anything.
Explosions occurred all over, vehicles tossed about, certain walls destroyed, weapon emplacements rendered useless, and the commander unable to give orders.
A message was received by the prisoners.
Shots continued to fire from the east, drawing the Empire's soldiers' attention away from certain passages as the prisoners received a signal to move, gathering up those who had trouble as they did.
For a full twenty minutes, a lone scout was able to keep the base guards and personnel in a state of panic before the attack suddenly stopped. The silence eerie.
The remaining forces gradually took stock and after checking on their own headcount, it was realised that the prisoners escape, their haste, numbers, and inexperience making it obvious which direction. It took a few hours for backup to arrive and a pursuit to be engaged.
Whisper had kept watch throughout the escapees' journey back, doubling around, laying traps, and sniping the enemies that seemed to have their heads most together. It took time but she was able to slow them enough that the prisoners escaped far enough that pursuing forces didn't dare extend far enough into enemy territory over this.
The "work camp" had brought up bad memories of the war; the crimes weren't the same but the malice behind felt similar enough it had been hard to breathe.
She shook her head and kept moving, planning to find a base to get an update on what else had been going on.
…
The news had her blinking in shock, while she wouldn't say Lanolin was weak, she certainly wouldn't have bet on her pulling out a win against
Shadow of all people. Whisper carefully tried to ignore the images flashing through her mind of her friends being beaten to death by the Hedgehog's lookalikes every time he was brought up. It seemed the Restoration's team-up with G.U.N had been worth it considering the damage that had been dealt to that base.
She could use this couldn't she?
After a defeat like that, the Black Arms forces were probably in disarray; it would mean going deep enough to lose contact with the Restoration but if she could penetrate their defences before they had the chance to recover...
This was a mistake.
Whisper tried to still pounding of her heart as she desperately looked around for something,
anything, that could give her a way out. She could feel the Wisps trembling with her; had she led the last remnants of her team to their deaths too?
After spending several days watching the area, she had found a possible opening and went for it, managing to enter the guarded area through the brief opportunity that had shown up and got close enough that a stronghold could be seen with her bare eye. Only, now, as three different units of Black Arm forces closed in on her current location, she realized that these patterns were more deceptive than expected as it left her pincered with maybe a few minutes until they found her.
Whisper inhaled a breath of tainted air and closed her eyes.
Knowing that an immediate death was the best she could hope for in this situation, Whisper exhaled, opened her eyes, and prepared to go down fighting. She tapped her ammo pack, indicating the Wisps should exit the gun.
Maybe if she caused enough ruckus, they could disperse and escape.
The Wisps slowly gathered out side looking at her worriedly as she smiled sadly at them, except for one.
Orange was still in the gun and stared at her resolutely; her partner knew what she was thinking and was determined to stay with her.
"
You guys can still make it if you leave now," she took out a few pieces of paper, hurriedly writing a single word on the back of one before holding them out, "
If you can get this to the Restoration, that'd be good."
They looked at her in shock then between themselves; she knew they hated this, she had when she was in that position but Green came forth and took the papers and her friends dimmed their lights and quietly slipped up to hide between the leaf filled branches.
A strange sense of certainty filled Whisper's body and made her limbs stop shaking; she wondered if this was made Claire always look so confident, "
'spose I can ask you about that soon, huh?"
Orange light shone from her mask and gun as her legs tensed in preparation to run.
But just as she was about to move...
A large yellow light burst into being in the gloomy sky a few klicks away, near the aliens' stronghold, along with the rushing sound of displaced air. Distant figures streaking down.
Black Arm forces started converging on that location and, in her half-hidden position, Whisper found herself noticing that the scouts that had been approaching her were among them.
She pulled her rifle up and looked down the scope to see what was going on and her heart skipped a beat.
The figures descending from the portal were Badniks.
Displaying a level of variety and coordination that Zavok's forces hadn't shown.
That meant
someone was in charge nearby; her swept over the battlefield and focused on the Blowfish in the sky, her eyes narrowed at the presence of a green Mobian. Something familiar about that came to mind but she focused on the present seeing the commander jump off the aircraft, barely dodging an Assassin's sword before revealing her scythe, clashing a few times before it fled.
Whisper considered trying to take a shot but at this distance, against an unpredictably moving target, she didn't like the odds.
She watched distantly for hours as the Mobain led the badniks to defeat the alien forces and stood silently as her Wisps gathered around, taking a small amount of comfort from the fact they wouldn't lose anyone else just yet but it was overshadowed by the dread she felt at what was coming next and the flickering anger that was building up again.
She watched as a smaller portal appeared and the Mobian left, the Badniks remaining behind.
Standing near the wreckage of a broken eggpawn whose radio was still working, she heard the announcement of what she feared.
Dr Eggman was back.
And yet, even as the music died down, the anger within her reignited and there was a part of her that was glad.
She could still take her shot at him.
Whisper was silent from her position on a hill a kilometre away from the action.
The safety of her rifle was on even as she had kept it locked on the mech that had appeared through a portal, even as she scanned the battlefield for anything that might provide an opportunity.
She kept her the blue light of her mask set on the mech as Zavok grew to immense size and charged the mech.
The battles between Eggman's forces and Zavok's minions were noted but put to the side as they didn't give the shot she wanted.
The interloping cat was quickly put out of mind as Whisper saw she was attacking Zavok, not blocking the way to Eggman; though a side of her lip did twitch at the sight Zavok taking personal offense at whatever it was that the cat said.
Eggman landed a damaging blow to Zavok's face.
The time was soon.
The safety of her rifle was switched off.
Zavok was fleeing.
A wind blew from behind her as she noticed the movement of Eggman's cockpit beginning to open so he could gloat, she aimed centre-target so as not to miss.
For the first time in months, Whisper spoke to someone other than her wisps, a prayer and dedication going out to the fallen.
"
Smithy" she fired.
"
Slinger" she fired.
"
Claire" she fired.
Eggman, bloodied, had fallen back into the cockpit, which was closing; no chance to charge another shot and hit him.
All three shots had hit the target; even as badniks were being sent in her direction by the lead invader, who from this closer view seemed to be a Pronghorn, Whisper considered the situation.
Eggman was definitely injured; if she could find a way to delay him from reaching assistance then it was possible she could exacerbate the condition.
Her eyes darted about looking for an option when a yellow glow lit up from inside the mech cockpit; the same light from the portal that brought the mech in. He was being teleported out.
Whisper allowed herself a shake of her head and a sigh at the failure before rushing off to the third of her six planned exit strategies from this sniper location.
Other opportunities could come, she wouldn't be able to finish the job if she was caught.
...
She had been watching as the leader of GUN parleyed with Eggman but the madman simply sent a drone instead of making a spectacle of himself.
It seemed that being shot has instilled a sense of caution in him, while he was injured at least.
Unfortunate; a change of tactics might be necessary.
Eggman, still being wary, did not seem like he would leave his base any time soon.
Whisper considered how to best strike at him; going after one of his lieutenants would be the best way to slow his progress in the meantime.
Based on how effective she had been against the Black Hand; the Pronghorn would be her first choice of target but she hadn't been active so far.
As she looked through the preparations being made within Eggman's territory, it became clear that there were two targets of note.
The first was "Conquering Storm", a Lynx Mobian, ninja "Eggboss", who seemed to hold a great deal of loyalty to Eggman and was being placed in charge of a group of badniks to attack Zavok's area. Taking out an attack dog would be worthwhile, especially since the title apparently meant she was a peer to the Pronghorn.
The second would be the dark-haired refugee from the Empire that Eggman likely had some manner of scheme for; she was instead being put in charge of a project to construct one of the madman's aggrandizing monuments and help set up for the future. By hindering his plans here, Eggman wouldn't be able to build up his forces as easily.
After weighing the options and information she had to hand, Whisper made her choice.
...
Whisper blinked in surprise at how one-sided the battle was.
She'd been expecting a roughly even brawl where she'd take advantage of the chaos to make a critical shot to change things but instead it seems like Zazz is crushing the ninja; well, she wouldn't begrudge an opportunity like this.
Taking note of where gravity would take the Eggboss as she fell after destroying another of the Zeti's badniks, Whisper pulled the trigger, sending a charged beam to take out the lynx's head for a more certain kill shot.
The wolf clicked her tongue as the lynx twisted to avoid taking any damage from the shot, even though it left her open to a blow from behind from the Zeti. That would be acceptable if the pink Zet could just...
And he failed to follow through.
Whisper clenched a fist at another target escaping her before moving to leave.
...
Within her foxhole, Whisper glared at the map of Egg City before angrily grabbing a dart and throwing it towards the boards; landing directly on Mimic's left eye.
She grabbed some more projectiles to help vent her frustration, digging a few more holes into both pictures.
Her scouting of the new city wasn't; she could give a rough estimate of population numbers and maybe a general vicinity for a few important pieces of infrastructure but nothing actually actionable.
She wouldn't be able to get anything like that without getting in the city and, while she had spotted several possible entry points, she wasn't stupid enough to go in without a possible exit in mind. And frankly, between the automated defences, the thankful Darcsens, and those weird skaters that went about the less populated areas with no pattern she could find, she wasn't as sure as she'd of liked to have been of those entrances.
A soft knock drew her attention and her hand darted to her rifle, aiming near the foxhole's entrance.
"Hey, it's Lanolin, can I come in?"
She made a vague sound in the back of her throat that the sheep took as affirmation and entered, looking around at the small space, the sleeping conditions, the dartboards, and the tense atmosphere between her and the Wisps. Something changed in the Restoration member's expression.
"This has gone far enough," Lanolin's tone was firm while still showing compassion, "I know you don't talk much but I'll ask you to listen for just a bit." The sheep moved further into the little base but at an angle so she didn't intrude on the sniper's personal space but also wasn't blocking the exit.
"You're too deep, I know you're hurting and want to hurt but you can't keep this up and you know it. You took the best shot you could while no one knew you were there and it landed and that's good but you can't lose yourself to the mission like this. I can see how your hands are shaking and the half-baked plans on the wall; you feel helpless and want to act but a reckless action here isn't going to solve anything and you know it."
Whisper's head tilted in consideration.
"It's only a matter of time before he sends a response to find you, now is the time to gather together, share information, and make a proper plan that could actually work. If you keep doing this, then your story will just become another 'crossed Eggman and then they died' tale. Remember
it isn't just your life you're throwing away."
Whisper flinched at the reminder and glanced at her worried Wisps; that's right, if she was found, Eggman might capture them too. The wolf's resolve cracked even before Lanolin delivered her final lines.
"I'm not going to force you to come with me but we could use your help... and I think you could use ours too...
"You proved to the world that it doesn't take Sonic to make Eggman bleed; let that be enough for now.
Please."
The sheep gave her one last look before leaving the foxhole and heading in the direction of Restoration territory.
Whisper, meanwhile, looked around her little base as her mind raced; the plans that were more like suicide, the knowledge that the fact that she hadn't been hunted down already was a big part luck, and friends she had left, who even now were trying to comfort her, that would be enslaved if she was found.
A shuddering breath left Whisper as she forced the manic anger inside her down.
The energy that had been driving her drained from her body as she grabbed her equipment and moved to follow.
.
