Chapter 3
It was a whole week after joining the Diamond Cutters before Surge finally got to go on her first mission.
“Finally!” She exclaimed in Lanolin’s tent. All of the Diamond Cutters were called in to report for their first mission since H.Q.’s destruction. “I’m ready to smash some shit!”
“I’ve got to agree with Surge,” Tangle admitted. “I wouldn’t mind just bashing some robots, something nice and simple!”
Whisper glanced at her girlfriend, but knew what she meant. A stress reliever might be nice.
“Well calm down you two,” Lanolin sighed, hoping this wouldn’t become another situation like Tangle and Sonic. Tangle absolutely had learned to be more patient over time, but Surge was still inexperienced, at least when it came to working as a team outside of her and Kit. “You don’t even know what the mission is yet.”
“Who cares!” Their speedy new member was perhaps a bit too excited at the prospect of wanton destruction. “I’m just glad I’m not cooped up in this crap hole anymore, no offense.”
“None taken.” Lanolin drawled out flatly. She was going to need to make sure she drilled patience into the girl's head.
“What’s the mission?” Whisper questioned, always the most focused member of the team.
“Eggman base,” Their leader began, pulling out a map showing a mountain range many miles away from where they were. “We have reason to believe this base in particular is where the good doctor took a very important person of interest, or at least information on his location.”
She gave a very pointed look at Surge. “So that means we’re looking for information or the person in question, not destroying the entire base indiscriminately.”
Surge grumbled and crossed her arms, but didn’t argue. Acting like she wasn’t going to wreck shop the moment she got there was too absurd for even her to argue.
“And who exactly are we looking for?” Tangle leaned over the map to get a better look as she spoke.
“The man who crashed his personal yacht into our base as a last ditch attempt to save his own skin.” Lanolin sounded really pissed for the first time since Surge had met her, and even she was a little intimidated. Though she didn’t have time to focus on the implications of that, as her heart dropped with the next words she said.
“We’re going after Clutch the Opossum.”
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“This is really freakin bad Drippy!”
Surge had tuned out most of the meeting after that point, not able to focus on it now that her panic spiked through the roof.
It got so bad Kit had to tug on her arm just to keep her grounded. If they weren’t so focused on the mission instructions the Diamond Cutters absolutely would have been suspicious about her reaction.
She really didn’t care if the team liked her or not, they could all piss off in her opinion. They were just a means to an end. But if they caught Clutch, and he ratted the two out as traitors, then they could kiss their hero's life goodbye.
Maybe, just maybe they would’ve heard them out, trusted that the two had made the right decision and decided to really commit to the restoration’s side, if it wasn’t for that damn Octopus Mimic.
He had been infiltrating the Diamond Cutters for a while, gained their trust. And if the hatred Mimic felt for Whisper was mutual, there was no way the two would be allowed to stay at the restoration, if they would even be allowed to walk away with their freedom.
If Clutch so much as implied the two knew of Duo’s treachery then Whisper wouldn’t waste a second in trying to kill them, and as much as Surge would love to beat the snot out of the wolf, she wouldn’t be able to claim innocence. She and Kit’s high life mooching off the restoration would be done.
“C-calm down ma’am!” Kit anxiously followed Surge as she left the makeshift restoration’s camp setup to return home. She was panicking, bad, sparks flying everywhere from her body. Any Restoration member they walked by got out of the way of the raging electric storm the tenrec had become.
“I’m not panicking!” Surge yelled, as if completely unaware of the situation she was in.
“Ma’am if you keep this up you're going to cause a panic!” Kit exclaimed, getting as close as he could without being fried. “And that’s just going to get the Diamond Cutters suspicious of us!”
She opened her mouth to argue, confrontational as always. But she stopped herself, took a deep breath, and then two… and then three.
The storm calmed down. Kit could feel the static electricity in the air dissipate.
“The hell are you all looking at!” She exploded at the onlookers. Even when calmer Surge was a tad above pissed off most of the time.
The attention she garnered quickly averted itself as no one wanted to get caught up in the aftermath of Surge’s anger.
“… Thanks Drippy.” Muttered after a moment of additional breathing. “That uh, wasn’t the smartest thing, huh?”
“It’s alright ma’am,” nothing had been broken, no one got hurt, the worst thing is maybe a few people around spread some rumors about the explosive anger the Tenrec had let out. But who cared about these nobodies, they didn’t matter.
To Kit only Surge mattered.
“Glad I got your brains to keep me from doing stupid crap,” she chuckled sourly. “Let’s just get out of here, I’m sick of people staring.”
Kit nodded and the two made their way back to the city.
Kit always hated this place. It was loud, crowded, and people didn’t understand the concept of personal space. All these no names milling about like their lives had any purpose, going to a dead end job to do nothing with their lives. Worst of all it always pissed Surge off, who had promised to only use her speed in emergencies in some sort of contract with the Restoration. That meant she had to walk through the crowds instead of speed her way through the city. Something about not causing chaos or destruction, it sounded stupid to him.
Sonic was allowed to do whatever he wanted. It was blatantly unfair if you asked the young fennec.
After what felt like an eternity the two finally made it back to their shared apartment. It was barren, the only notable exception was the bunk bed in the corner of the room. Similar to the one Starline had in his labs, it was one of the only things they liked in that damned place.
Surge quickly climbed the ladder to get on the top bunk and plopped face down onto her pillow.
“Ugh!” She screamed into the pillow to muffle the sound. “Why couldn’t those dumbasses just let that overgrown rat get his what’s for from Egghead! He’s gonna mess up the slime ball more than the Restoration ever could!”
Kit sat down on the lower bunk. “They want their own justice.”
Surge hung her body upside down from the bunk to look him in the eyes. “Yeah, sure, but he was going to receive a hell of a lot worse if they just let him get tortured by Egghead!”
Kit glanced down, knowing that Surge just needed an outlet to complain too, but still couldn’t help but try and explain the situation, even if he felt like she was going to yell at him whenever he did.
“But that’s not what they want, they don’t want him to suffer they-“
“Are a bunch of damn goody two shoes I know.” She fell forward, spinning in the air to land on her feet. Kit knew she did that just to look cool.
“Well, we need to figure out some way to stop them from finding the slime ball, preferably before they get any ideas of whose side we used to be on.” She began pacing back and forth on the cold wood of their apartment.
Kit immediately began whipping up plans, per his programming. Sabotage, miscommunication, throwing the others off. A lot of plans, all involving interfering with the team directly, which all carried the risk of getting caught. However, one plan did stick out to him, though he wasn’t sure how the Tenrec would react. She did want to go legit on the hero thing, even if it wasn’t in the same way Sonic or others of his ilk would operate.
“We could just kill him.” The blue Fennec offered, as if he were talking about an annoying fly rather than a living being.
Surge stopped her pacing, giving him an odd look. She went through multiple emotions, not sure how to react to the heartless plan. It would create a permanent solution to their little problem. Though, she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to hedge all her bets on murder.
“As much as I do love some bloodshed,” Surge made her way over to the lower bunk and lowered herself to sit next to Kit. “That brings up a lotta problems on its own. He ‘dies’ accidentally on our watch, and the Diamond Cutters might just kick us out for failing.”
Kit hummed to himself. “But it’s the only way to guarantee his silence.”
Surge raised her hands and shrugged her shoulders as if to declare her own lack of plans. “I ain’t disagreeing with you, but we might lose all the good crap we’ve already got if we lose the bastard in a mission. How about murder is the last resort, got it?”
The little water bender nodded, though he did look a little dour at coming up with a plan she didn’t approve of. He should have said something else, used a different plan, he had failed her-
His spiral was cut off with an affectionate noogie from the older woman, who was looking down at him with slight concern.
“Hey, I know that look,” she growled, only slightly menacingly. “Nuh uh, no more thinking bad of yourself, alright! We’re heroes, in control of ourselves! We’ll figure it out, we always do!”
Kit smiled and nodded, being literally incapable of feeling down with her orders. He didn’t care if the feeling was fake or programmed. Surge was happy with him, and that made him happy.
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The constant rumbling of the van driving over a dirt road was slowly driving Surge insane. Not only was she stuck in a tight space with some of her least favorite people in the world, she couldn’t even get a wink of sleep with the constant jolting and bumping the van endured with each slight bump and piece of rock it rolled over.
“I don’t know why I expected the elite squad of the Restoration to have a jet or a cool helicopter to drop y’all off everywhere, but seriously! This hunk of junk is all you have?!?” Surge had been constantly complaining on the way over, though she saw no problem with this.
Lanolin was driving the van, trying to ignore all the others and just get to the Eggman base as quickly as possible. It was a long drive uphill and through the mountains, and with all the complaints from not only Surge but also Tangle, she had really wished she brought more coffee. A lot more coffee.
Next to her in the passenger's seat was Whisper, the apparent Passenger Princess according to her Lemur girlfriend. Though the raging Tenrec had a slight suspicion she just didn’t want to be in the back face to face with her.
The best she could give the struggling vehicle was the spacious rear. It was uncomfortable, but she probably would’ve given up on the hero gig and just killed everyone present, besides Kit, if she had to sit directly next to Tangled for any substantial period of time.
There were two seat racks located on the walls of the van, two on the right were held by Surge and Kit, and one on the left was occupied by Tangle, though she transitioned from sitting straight up to laying down on all four seats in an attempt to wrangle any comfort out of the cold, harsh metal. She was arguably even worse at complaining than Surge.
“We usually have much nicer rides than this.” Tangle conceded, moving around even more to try and find a single comfortable position. “But with the Restoration, well you know, they can only afford to grant us so much, you know?”
Surge grunted in annoyance, wondering why they were even a unique team in the organization if they got shafted when they needed important equipment. “I coulda ran here and gotten lunch in half the time it’s take just to get to this point! You lot wouldn’t have even needed to come!”
“And let you run around unsupervised?” Whisper finally piped in. “I can’t imagine why we wouldn’t want that.”
“No one’s talking to you sunshine.” Surge pointed at the wolf angrily, not finding any amusement out of her comment. Tangle giggled slightly, but straightened herself and whistled innocently once the wrathful gaze was diverted towards her.
Still, she was hoping to get some time alone to hunt down the slippery opossum. Kit had come up with a pretty simple plan to get them alone, but it wasn’t a bad plan per say, just risky.
She needed to find some time to blitz through the base and look for him on her own. Kit would suggest she scouts ahead of the group, and she would take the opportunity to try and find Clutch to ensure his silence. One way or another.
Surge wasn’t one to complain about Kit’s logic, there was a reason she relied on him for all of their plans after all. This plan though… she couldn’t shake the thought this one wasn’t that well thought out. It was running on a lot of assumptions, biggest of all was that she would even be allowed to go ahead, considering the comment Whisper had just made she was even less sure about that.
“Nervous?” Tangle asked her. Surge’s confusion must have been easily read on her face because Tangle followed up by pointing at her leg. “Your leg, you’ve been bouncing it.”
Surge grunted in annoyance and looked down, and her leg was indeed bouncing. She hadn’t even noticed, and with her speed she was surprised her leg hadn’t turned into a jackhammer and torn through the floor of the van. She had to physically stop her leg. She didn’t want the others to think she was nervous, or at least the reason why she was.
“Just excited!” She lied, giving her iconic grin and leaning forward. “I’ve been too cooped up!”
“Well save it for the badniks, because we’re here.” Lanolin slowed the van to a stop. “There’s still a walk as we can’t park too close, but it’s time to go.”
“Finally!” Tangle yelled out, somehow even more energetic than Surge herself. “Let’s get out there, I can't even feel my legs anymore!”
The only reaction she received was her girlfriends giggling and Lanolin’s sigh. She really appreciated Tangle’s upbeat personality, but the fact it carried over to field missions was always irritating to her.
The two new recruits to the cause had already opened up the back of the van and got out, with Kit keeping an eye out of the area, the Fennec never giving himself a moment of reprieve, while Surge stretched out, preparing for the mission ahead.
The mountain top was cold, but the surrounding forest stopped a lot of the harsh winds from reaching them, and with Surge’s outfit of choice leaving her arms exposed to the elements she wasn’t complaining.
“Hey boss!” She turned to yell at Lanolin as she was shutting the door to the van. Whisper had quietly shut her own door and retrieved her equipment from where they had been stored in the back next to Tangle, who excitedly jumped out of the rear of the vehicle. “Need me to scout ahead! I’ll be there and back in half a second!”
Lanolin shook her head, poofy hair bouncing back and forth. “Whisper will scout ahead, you and Kit stick with us, just in case we get ambushed.”
“Oh come on, I can do whatever sunshine here can do in half a second she’s gonna be so much slower-“
Lanolin shut her up by tossing a small device in her direction, the speedsters quick instincts kicking in and grabbing it out of the air. “What’s this?”
“Communication device,” Lanolin informed her, currently inserting her own device into her ear.
“It goes in your ear.” Tangle added helpfully. Surge elected to ignore her.
As soon as she put the thing in her ear and turned it on, an annoying quiet voice entered the comms. “We’re clear, you can make your way to the base.”
It was Whisper's voice, but how could she have…
Surge didn’t even realize Whisper had disappeared, looking at where she last saw the wolf and seeing nothing. How the hell did she just vanish? Even the hyper observant Kit, who never let his guard down around the group, hadn’t even noticed her disappearing act.
“And that’s why she’s our scout.” Lanolin commented while passing the confused Tenrec, both smug with any opportunity to show up the cocky green blur, and with a genuine sense of pride for her own teammate.
Surge grumbled but followed soon after. She could have done the same thing, just a little louder, but a lot cooler!
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“She’s good.” Kit reluctantly admitted after an awkward silence the two had fallen into, following Tangle and Lanolin as they made their way towards the point, discussing battle plans and radioing in with Whisper to ensure their safe travel.
“Shut up drippy.” Surge was still upset about being shown up by the fox girl of all people.
Kit just sighed. That was the response he expected.
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“We’re here,” Lanolin had raised a hand to stop their march through the rough mountain side. Up ahead, a plateau below their position was swarmed with Egg pawns, some armed with guns, some with spears, all roaming around in front of a base built into the mountain side. From the high ground they were perched on they could easily scout out the area and plan a strategy for attacking the base. The biggest concern Lanolin faced was the battlefield itself. Their current position gave them the cover of the forest, trees and other foliage covering their position. If they wanted to undertake an aggressive approach however, the plateau was completely void of any natural cover, as any trees of plant life that had been growing there were likely destroyed by Eggman's invasive takeover.
The leader of the Diamond Cutters signaled for a group huddle. “Alright, here’s the plan…”
Surge… wasn’t really having any of it. Kit leaned into the huddle just to keep up appearances, but Surge couldn’t even pretend to care. She was just staring down at the unsuspecting badniks, thinking of all the creative ways she would rip each of them apart. She’d gotten real fed up playing the nice, friendly hero around the Restoration. She wanted action, destruction, and chaos.
That’s what she was made for.
“Surge?” Lanolin prodded, noticing the Tenrec’s complete lack of interest. “Were you listening to me?”
“Yeah sure,” Surge yawned into her hand. “Whatever you need to hear lady. Is it time to break things?”
“Surge…” Whisper growled out, but Tangle put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. Whisper calmed herself, remembering her promise to try and trust the Tenrec as she had promised, and play nice. Even if she made that very difficult.
“Let’s not kid ourselves here,” Surge stretched her back out and bent down into a runners position. “Drippy and I can carry you bozo’s any day of the week, so just sit back and watch the carnage!”
“Surge, wait!” Lanolin started, trying to prevent her from doing exactly what she had planned from the very beginning. Kit was already up and ready to follow her lead.
“Just try and keep up with us!” The bloodthirsty speedster yelled as she set off in a bolt of lightning.
With a warcry filled with both manic laughter and rage, she barreled straight into the battlefield.