CHAPTER 1 - A Case of Mistaken Identity

Mobius was saved! 
And then saved again. And again, and then again! Headlines were always ablaze with reports of the harrowing tales of the planet’s saviors, often led by a particularly popular and very speedy hedgehog. It felt like a year could hardly go by without some world-ending catastrophe rearing its ugly head, only to be thwarted again and again.
Be it a mad doctor with plans to turn all of the animals into robots or giant monsters born from the very planet itself. The notorious blue hedgehog was there, ready to clean up the situation with relative ease. Even when the issues arose off-planet, he was there. 
Sonic the Hedgehog. A household name all across Mobius. The fastest thing alive. Thanks to the famous blue blur, Mobius continues to exist in peace to this very day.
But that’s enough about him.

LOCATION: Green Hill Zone

The sun was shining brightly in the sky on this late spring day. The flickies were singing gleefully as they pounced from tree branch to branch, picking off the cicada nymphs as they attempted to shed the shell they’d spent the last seventeen years slowly outgrowing. The insects were emerging in the millions and would soon fill the peaceful serenity across Green Hill with a shrill buzz of their mating call.
They also made excellent bait for fishing, though the noisy red-eyed insect dangling from the hook might see things differently.
Advrik the Wolf, or simply Rik as he prefers to be called, is enjoying a peaceful bout of fishing beside a quiet lake somewhere in Green Hill. His slingpack tossed to the side and a small campfire smoldering just a few feet away from the water itself. The wolf, covered in a milk chocolate-colored brown fur and sliced up the middle with a creamy, buttery vanilla-like color, sat quietly, cross-legged with his blue fishing pole in hand. The bright yellow line tied to the tip of the rod hung limp as the bobber floated lazily atop the lake’s surface.
Rik had fished thousands of different bodies of water by this point in his life; having hailed from the Azure Lake Zone, he’d grown up fishing and knew all the ins and outs: What the fish would be looking for, how the time of day, weather or water conditions affected them. As an angler, these things became second nature after a while as one caught more and more fish.
However, that only applied to the known fish of this world. What brought Rik here today was something new, something… mysterious!

Years ago, when the evil Doctor Robotnik sparked the first robot uprising and sent his massive, moon-sized megalith, the ‘Death Egg’ flying ominously into space, Sonic the Hedgehog had already been racing towards the doctor to do battle and stop whatever nefarious plan he had hatched! The Death Egg was eventually destroyed with the help of the power from the mystical Chaos Emeralds. The colossal space station’s wreckage collided with Mobius shortly thereafter, causing the entire planet to tremble. Shortly thereafter, strange new undocumented fish and other aquatic species began popping up all over the planet.
Fishermen and sightseers alike were sending in reports all over the world, sometimes including pictures of brightly colored eel-like figures slithering through the water or two-headed snapping turtles with prism shells. Reports of new, unidentifiable—and uncatchable—species were coming in daily from regions as far away as Mushroom Hill and even the Sandopolis Zone.
This event, which had been the catalyst for Rik’s decision to leave his village and venture into the world, became known as the ‘Advent of the Egg-straterestrial Lifeforms’, sending ichthyologists into a frenzy as everyone scrambled to hook or capture these new creatures for study, but to this day, only one has ever successfully been capture, where it remains in a new branch of the Soleana Museum dedicated exclusively to these new species.

“Aw c’mon, man,” the wolf growled, tugging on the pole to tighten the line a bit. The cicada, on the other end, had ceased movement long ago. “At least let a bass or something grab it. I’m starving. Over here… And I’m talking to myself out loud again, too.” Sighing, he wedged the butt of the pole into a piled rock formation, then attached a tiny bell towards the tip.
He rubbed the sleepy blur from his red eyes and yawned, the rumbling from his tummy joining in the symphony of noises from the body. “Oh?” He patted his stomach, “I hear ya, pal. I’m trying my best here.” Fishing in Green Hill had started fine—at first. He skirted the Marble Ruins to the east and made a beeline through the woods. Taking out lone, malfunctioning Badniks along the way and freeing the trapped animals within.
His arrival in the zone had been full of optimism, like the start of a brand new adventure, and somewhat nostalgic at the same time. Tried as he may, figuring out that last bit was a tricky one—sure the waters here LOOKED like those back home, but then, so did every large body of water. It definitely hadn’t been that, so where was it coming from, exactly? 
Shrugging it off as he usually did, Rik located a settlement and then started asking questions, which the locals had been more than happy to divulge. Stuff like what were some popular fishing locations, had there been any sightings of new or unusual fish, what was the Badnik situation like?
The locals were more than forthcoming, pointing the wolf to the local inn tavern where he was but guaranteed info from the patrons there.
It had proved fruitful of course, even if one of the patrons had got up and left their corner booth in the far back almost immediately after he entered the building, like a reaction that his presence had instantly triggered just by being there. Weird as that had been, he ordered his food and then continued making small talk with the other patrons.
There had been no Egg-straterestrial fish sightings, unfortunately, but the info he had gathered was that fishing in Green Hill was amazing, and he was given directions to a very fish-rich location to the north.
The wolf was beginning to doubt the accuracy of that claim now.
Skunky fishing aside, he was enjoying his time in this part of the world. The grass and plant life were so alive it almost looked to move on its own, especially the giant sunflower-like plants that grew here. The grass, too, while far more saturated in color compared to the stuff that grew back home, was incredibly soft to the touch despite its jagged, multi-hued appearance.
Rik sat cross-legged, staring intently at the tip of his rod, just hoping for a bend, something to tell him that there was life here in this pond. For that little bell to jingle with excitement that something was pecking at his bait.
What he heard was the sound of a Wisp being chambered and ready to fire.

He didn’t turn, choosing to keep his sight on the rod, but did speak to the sneaky newcomer, “Listen, unless there’s some alien monster or a Badnik nearby that I’m not seeing, that thing better not be leveled at the back of my head.” He rose to his feet, pushing himself up with hands covered by old, torn gloves. He kept his back to the still unseen character, hoping they’d at least announce themselves no that their presence was known.
But no such luck. But they’d been close enough that he could see the vague reflection on the water’s surface now. 
And when their finger pressed on the trigger.
Rik was no Sonic the Hedgehog, but he was fast enough that getting out of the way of a shredding blast from a wispon was at least achievable, but his fishing pole had not been so lucky as the shot ripped straight through the old, worn-out bamboo rod.
His jump was followed by a quick boost in the air, sending him soaring and landing on the ground behind the would-be assailant. “Not cool, buddy. That fishing pole had been just like a fishing pole to me! It came all the way from Azure Lake—“ Another electrified blast from the person’s wispon ripped through the air. Rik dodged to the left with more than enough time to spare. The tell-tale sound of a wispon prepping to fire was its second-most biggest flaw, especially for those quick to react.
He skidded to a halt, then immediately launched into an offensive of his own. He collided with the assassin thanks to a well-timed homing attack. They handled the attack well. Whoever this was had been well-trained and very strong. 
Their hand immediately launched forward, palm wide open for a quick strike against his chest, flattening the thick tuft of fur that poofed out of his clavicle area. His kung-fu training kicking in, he swatted their hand away with the back of his right wrist, then launched his left hand foward in an opened-palm strike. It collided with their chest just below their shoulder with a “THWOP!” as they again launched a ball-fisted punch for his head. The strike to their chest froze the attack as their masked gaze quickly shifted to where the wolf’s palm had held them at chest level. 
The two combatants disengaged, retreating several feet away from each other in an impressive jumping act.
Whoever his attacker was was very well trained, Rik thought. It wasn’t an assassin, for that he was sure. They wouldn’t use a wispon, nor would the Wisp willingly partake in such an act. A bounty hunter, perhaps? If so, what had he ever done to land a bounty on his head?
The biggest revelation had been the second he realized where he’d seen his attacker before. Thinking back to the inn, that individual had left the building the second he arrived. He hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, but now, looking at the person leveling their wispon at him once again, he realized: They were the same! The odd-looking face mask, the blond hair, brown fur.
“Say, if you plan on destroying me here, could you at least tell me your name first and why exactly you have that cannon pointed at my head? I’m not a bad guy—“ 
CLICK, ZZRPT! Went the wispon, followed by a bolt of energy from the barrel.
BOING! Went Rik jumping up and over the blast before it collided with the hill behind him. 

This time, the would-be assailant met him mid-air with a homing attack of their own. Their fist met their mark this time, impacting his gut with far more force than he anticipated and knocking the wind out of him. His body contracted from the pain, exposing the back of his head, which was then met with a double-fisted hammer blow that sent him crashing to the ground like a meteorite, leaving an impressive crater in the soft soil of Green Hill.
The wolf retained consciousness; otherwise, he’d probably find himself being roboticized somewhere, he thought. They had to be an agent of Robotnik.
As he regained his footing, he quickly rolled over to his small campsite near the water’s edge and retrieved something from the ground. Leveling the pointed end with his attacker, he said, “Now listen, if you’re not going to at least tell me why you’re trying to take me down, then I’m going to start taking this fight seriously, ya hear me?” He ended his declaration with a flourish of a weapon of his own: A long, blue-marbled bo staff that was as long as he was tall. The glossy finish glimmered in the summer sun.
“Like it? It was given to me by—“
The assailant rushed him.
“Guess not,” Rik fell into a battle stance, gripping the staff with both hands, right hand holding the weapon pointed toward the ground. As his foe closed in, they gripped their wispon rifle with both hands and swung in a batting motion as they slammed on the brake and skidded across the soft ground. Barely enough time to react, Rik swung the staff around to meet the incoming weapon. Its superior reach over the rifle, smacking his rival upside the head with a loud SMACK!
Their swing failed to meet its mark, smashing into the wolf’s shoulder and dislocating it. Growling in agony, he quickly responded by tripping the enemy up by sweeping the staff between their legs. He immediately followed up with a homing attack before they could even hit the ground, sending them—and the mask that had concealed their face—spiraling backward.
They did not get back up.

Several minutes passed while Advrik struggled to sure himself up mentally to pop his shoulder back into place; all the while, he kept his eye on his downed foe. “Where had their wispon rifle gone?” He thought as he scoured the area, eventually finding the mask they had worn. It wasn’t a medical mask, and the material it was made of was light, so it wasn’t going to protect them from much of anything except…
They began to stir, elbows bending as they pressed themselves up from the ground several feet away. Their identity, at least what they were, was now becoming apparent: It was another wolf, a female one at that. Wolves weren’t uncommon by any means, but it had been some time since he’d met another one and even longer than that since he fought another one.
The part where they tried killing him, however, was a brand new experience.
This new wolf rubbed her head with one hand as she brushed the dirt and grass off with the other. Rik watched her with a careful glare. She never opened her eyes once the entire time, though she moved about like she could see just fine. Fascinating, Rik thought. 
It was when she raised her hand to touch her face that she realized her mask was gone, and her eyes—a sparkling cadet blue—opened wide; the emotion that flashed across her face was immediately obvious: Panic.
Rik rose to his feet, emerging from the shaded coverage of a nearby tree and approached the female wolf that was now frantically searching the area for what could have only been her mask. It was time to get some answers, he thought as he slowly and carefully approached her.

“Looking for this?” He said through a wince, his shoulder radically off balance with its twin. His red eyes met her blue for a brief second before she closed them again. Her hand shot outward, though no words followed.
“Why were you trying to kill me?” He asked but received no answer. The female wolf remained silent, arm outstretched. She quickly pointed to the mask, then flattened her palm once more.
He sighed, taking one last look at the mask in his hand, “Ya know, you don’t owe me any explanation for the mask, nor do I judge you for choosing to wear one. We’re all free to do as we wish, as long as it doesn’t hurt others, but… You did just try to put me six feet under a few minutes ago, so I really should shatter this thing across my knee…” 
The female wolf’s ears flattened against her head, and her posture fell apart. 
Rik just smirked. “But I’m not that kind of guy, so here,” He tossed it like a frisbee to the other wolf, who quickly snatched it up. “It’s a shame you feel you need to hide behind a mask, but you do you. And for what it’s worth, which is probably nothing to you, all things considered, you’re quite pretty.” He said as he turned, clutching his right arm with his left as he returned to his gear near the pond.
And then everything went dark. Maybe it was the pain from his dislocated shoulder that dulled his hearing, or maybe Rik had felt the fight was truly over, that returning her mask had formed an unspoken truce between them now. Regardless, the wolf had not heard the Wisp chambering itself or the resulting ZZRPT that proceeded it. Only a brief bolt of pain and then a meeting with the complete darkness that had followed it as he fell face-first into the muddy terrain, his body completely limp.

When he finally came to, it had been hours later. First, there was darkness accompanied by a gentle hum. As his body began to stir from what he had assumed had been death, the world around him began to take shape. From the darkness and the aura of technicolor that outlined objects within his blurred vision, a sterile environment that could have only been a hospital room came into view. His shoulder was now in a cast, but the pain from the dislocation was still blazing white.
That pain brought back every memory of the encounter by the lake. The masked wolf. The resulting fight. The whole time, the woman never said a single word; she just wanted to put him down for whatever reason. Had someone taken a hit out on him? But what for, he always avoids crowds and really hasn’t made much in the way of enemies—or friends, for that matter—since leaving Azure Lake. Robotnik certainlty wouldn’t have put much focus on him, considering how active Sonic the Hedgehog and his group of Freedom Fighters were against foiling his plans.
So what gives?!
He held his left hand up to his face as the last of the blur washed away. A single fleeting memory amidst the chaos of the brief hand-to-hand part of the fight came back. When he had placed his hand on their—on her!—chest. He hadn’t realized the assassin was a female by that point, but her sudden shift in tactics all made sense.
“Hoo boy, between that and calling her pretty after beating the crap out of her. Maybe I deserved getting shot in the back like that.” 
The door to his room opened gently following a soft rapt. A nurse dressed in standard pink scrubs appeared, the little nurse’s cap on his spiked head denoting his position. “Good morning, Mr. Rik. It’s good to see you back with us. We weren’t sure what to make of your injuries when we found you lying outside the hospital yesterday.”
“Yesterday?! I’d been out for an entire day?!” 
The nurse nodded. “Yes, sir. Getting hit by bolts of Ivory Wisp energy tends to do that to people. Tell me, do you still feel any pain? Numbness? How is your eyesight? I can’t imagine your shoulder is feeling too good right now.” 
Rik explained the pain in his shoulder and was promptly administered some pain medication. The nurse did a few more inspections before giving him what was essentially a clean bill of health, though he further clarified that the doctor in charge of setting his shoulder and overseeing his treatment would have to deliver the final say before letting him go free.
“Oh yes, and you have mail, it seems. It was found lying beside your body the other day.” The nurse removed a thick padded envelope from the bedside stand and handed it to the wolf. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some other patients to tend to.” He smiled, bowed, and left the room.

Rik awkwardly fumbled the envelope as he tried to open it with one hand. Inside was some cash and a little note card. On the card was a single sentence written in red ink. 

It read:
“Case of mistaken identity. You were not the wolf I was looking for. Please accept this money as an apology for shooting you in the back. 
Signed, Whisper.”

He wanted to laugh, but the pain currently ripping through his body stilled him. “Shoot first, ask questions later,” he whispered to himself. He counted the Mobiums within the envelope and was shocked by the amount within. He’d mourn the loss of his old bamboo pole but was ecstatic about the new one he could buy with this money.

Mobius was saved! 
And then saved again. And again, and again, and again! Headlines were always ablaze with reports of the harrowing tales of the planet’s saviors, often led by a particularly popular and very speedy hedgehog. It felt like a year could hardly go by without some world-ending catastrophe rearing its ugly head, only to be thwarted again and again.
Be it a mad doctor with plans to turn all of the animals into robots or giant monsters born from the very planet itself. The notorious blue hedgehog was there, ready to clean up the situation with relative ease. Even when the issues arose off-planet, he was there. 
Sonic the Hedgehog. A household name all across Mobius. The fastest thing alive. Thanks to the famous blue blur, Mobius continues to exist in peace to this very day.
But that’s enough about him.

LOCATION: Green Hill Zone

The sun was shining brightly in the sky on this late spring day. The flickies were singing gleefully as they pounced from tree branch to branch, picking off the cicada nymphs as they attempted to shed the shell they’d spent the last seventeen years slowly outgrowing. The insects were emerging in the millions and would soon fill the peaceful serenity across Green Hill with a shrill buzz of their mating call.
They also made excellent bait for fishing, though the noisy red-eyed insect dangling from the hook might see things differently.
Advrik the Wolf, or simply Rik as he prefers to be called, is enjoying a peaceful bout of fishing beside a quiet lake somewhere in Green Hill. His slingpack tossed to the side and a small campfire smoldering just a few feet away from the water itself. The wolf, covered in a milk chocolate-colored brown fur and sliced up the middle with a creamy, buttery vanilla-like color, sat quietly, cross-legged with his blue fishing pole in hand. The bright yellow line tied to the tip of the rod hung limp as the bobber floated lazily atop the lake’s surface.
Rik had fished thousands of different bodies of water by this point in his life; having hailed from the Azure Lake Zone, he’d grown up fishing and knew all the ins and outs: What the fish would be looking for, how the time of day, weather or water conditions affected them. As an angler, these things became second nature after a while as one caught more and more fish.
However, that only applied to the known fish of this world. What brought Rik here today was something new, something… mysterious!

Years ago, when the evil Doctor Robotnik sparked the first robot uprising and sent his massive, moon-sized megalith, the ‘Death Egg’ flying ominously into space, Sonic the Hedgehog had already been racing towards the doctor to do battle and stop whatever nefarious plan he had hatched! The Death Egg was eventually destroyed with the help of the power from the mystical Chaos Emeralds. The colossal space station’s wreckage collided with Mobius shortly thereafter, causing the entire planet to tremble. Shortly thereafter, strange new undocumented fish and other aquatic species began popping up all over the planet.
Fishermen and sightseers alike were sending in reports all over the world, sometimes including pictures of brightly colored eel-like figures slithering through the water or two-headed snapping turtles with prism shells. Reports of new, unidentifiable—and uncatchable—species were coming in daily from regions as far away as Mushroom Hill and even the Sandopolis Zone.
This event, which had been the catalyst for Rik’s decision to leave his village and venture into the world, became known as the ‘Advent of the Egg-straterestrial Lifeforms’, sending ichthyologists into a frenzy as everyone scrambled to hook or capture these new creatures for study, but to this day, only one has ever successfully been capture, where it remains in a new branch of the Soleana Museum dedicated exclusively to these new species.

“Aw c’mon, man,” the wolf growled, tugging on the pole to tighten the line a bit. The cicada, on the other end, had ceased movement long ago. “At least let a bass or something grab it. I’m starving. Over here… And I’m talking to myself out loud again, too.” Sighing, he wedged the butt of the pole into a piled rock formation, then attached a tiny bell towards the tip.
He rubbed the sleepy blur from his red eyes and yawned, the rumbling from his tummy joining in the symphony of noises from the body. “Oh?” He patted his stomach, “I hear ya, pal. I’m trying my best here.” Fishing in Green Hill had started fine—at first. He skirted the Marble Ruins to the east and made a beeline through the woods. Taking out lone, malfunctioning Badniks along the way and freeing the trapped animals within.
His arrival in the zone had been full of optimism, like the start of a brand new adventure, and somewhat nostalgic at the same time. Tried as he may, figuring out that last bit was a tricky one—sure the waters here LOOKED like those back home, but then, so did every large body of water. It definitely hadn’t been that, so where was it coming from, exactly? 
Shrugging it off as he usually did, Rik located a settlement and then started asking questions, which the locals had been more than happy to divulge. Stuff like what were some popular fishing locations, had there been any sightings of new or unusual fish, what was the Badnik situation like?
The locals were more than forthcoming, pointing the wolf to the local inn tavern where he was but guaranteed info from the patrons there.
It had proved fruitful of course, even if one of the patrons had got up and left their corner booth in the far back almost immediately after he entered the building, like a reaction that his presence had instantly triggered just by being there. Weird as that had been, he ordered his food and then continued making small talk with the other patrons.
There had been no Egg-straterestrial fish sightings, unfortunately, but the info he had gathered was that fishing in Green Hill was amazing, and he was given directions to a very fish-rich location to the north.
The wolf was beginning to doubt the accuracy of that claim now.
Skunky fishing aside, he was enjoying his time in this part of the world. The grass and plant life were so alive it almost looked to move on its own, especially the giant sunflower-like plants that grew here. The grass, too, while far more saturated in color compared to the stuff that grew back home, was incredibly soft to the touch despite its jagged, multi-hued appearance.
Rik sat cross-legged, staring intently at the tip of his rod, just hoping for a bend, something to tell him that there was life here in this pond. For that little bell to jingle with excitement that something was pecking at his bait.
What he heard was the sound of a Wisp being chambered and ready to fire.

He didn’t turn, choosing to keep his sight on the rod, but did speak to the sneaky newcomer, “Listen, unless there’s some alien monster or a Badnik nearby that I’m not seeing, that thing better not be leveled at the back of my head.” He rose to his feet, pushing himself up with hands covered by old, torn gloves. He kept his back to the still unseen character, hoping they’d at least announce themselves no that their presence was known.
But no such luck. But they’d been close enough that he could see the vague reflection on the water’s surface now. 
And when their finger pressed on the trigger.
Rik was no Sonic the Hedgehog, but he was fast enough that getting out of the way of a shredding blast from a wispon was at least achievable, but his fishing pole had not been so lucky as the shot ripped straight through the old, worn-out bamboo rod.
His jump was followed by a quick boost in the air, sending him soaring and landing on the ground behind the would-be assailant. “Not cool, buddy. That fishing pole had been just like a fishing pole to me! It came all the way from Azure Lake—“ Another electrified blast from the person’s wispon ripped through the air. Rik dodged to the left with more than enough time to spare. The tell-tale sound of a wispon prepping to fire was its second-most biggest flaw, especially for those quick to react.
He skidded to a halt, then immediately launched into an offensive of his own. He collided with the assassin thanks to a well-timed homing attack. They handled the attack well. Whoever this was had been well-trained and very strong. 
Their hand immediately launched forward, palm wide open for a quick strike against his chest, flattening the thick tuft of fur that poofed out of his clavicle area. His kung-fu training kicking in, he swatted their hand away with the back of his right wrist, then launched his left hand foward in an opened-palm strike. It collided with their chest just below their shoulder with a “THWOP!” as they again launched a ball-fisted punch for his head. The strike to their chest froze the attack as their masked gaze quickly shifted to where the wolf’s palm had held them at chest level. 
The two combatants disengaged, retreating several feet away from each other in an impressive jumping act.
Whoever his attacker was was very well trained, Rik thought. It wasn’t an assassin, for that he was sure. They wouldn’t use a wispon, nor would the Wisp willingly partake in such an act. A bounty hunter, perhaps? If so, what had he ever done to land a bounty on his head?
The biggest revelation had been the second he realized where he’d seen his attacker before. Thinking back to the inn, that individual had left the building the second he arrived. He hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, but now, looking at the person leveling their wispon at him once again, he realized: They were the same! The odd-looking face mask, the blond hair, brown fur.
“Say, if you plan on destroying me here, could you at least tell me your name first and why exactly you have that cannon pointed at my head? I’m not a bad guy—“ 
CLICK, ZZRPT! Went the wispon, followed by a bolt of energy from the barrel.
BOING! Went Rik jumping up and over the blast before it collided with the hill behind him. 

This time, the would-be assailant met him mid-air with a homing attack of their own. Their fist met their mark this time, impacting his gut with far more force than he anticipated and knocking the wind out of him. His body contracted from the pain, exposing the back of his head, which was then met with a double-fisted hammer blow that sent him crashing to the ground like a meteorite, leaving an impressive crater in the soft soil of Green Hill.
The wolf retained consciousness; otherwise, he’d probably find himself being roboticized somewhere, he thought. They had to be an agent of Robotnik.
As he regained his footing, he quickly rolled over to his small campsite near the water’s edge and retrieved something from the ground. Leveling the pointed end with his attacker, he said, “Now listen, if you’re not going to at least tell me why you’re trying to take me down, then I’m going to start taking this fight seriously, ya hear me?” He ended his declaration with a flourish of a weapon of his own: A long, blue-marbled bo staff that was as long as he was tall. The glossy finish glimmered in the summer sun.
“Like it? It was given to me by—“
The assailant rushed him.
“Guess not,” Rik fell into a battle stance, gripping the staff with both hands, right hand holding the weapon pointed toward the ground. As his foe closed in, they gripped their wispon rifle with both hands and swung in a batting motion as they slammed on the brake and skidded across the soft ground. Barely enough time to react, Rik swung the staff around to meet the incoming weapon. Its superior reach over the rifle, smacking his rival upside the head with a loud SMACK!
Their swing failed to meet its mark, smashing into the wolf’s shoulder and dislocating it. Growling in agony, he quickly responded by tripping the enemy up by sweeping the staff between their legs. He immediately followed up with a homing attack before they could even hit the ground, sending them—and the mask that had concealed their face—spiraling backward.
They did not get back up.

Several minutes passed while Advrik struggled to sure himself up mentally to pop his shoulder back into place; all the while, he kept his eye on his downed foe. “Where had their wispon rifle gone?” He thought as he scoured the area, eventually finding the mask they had worn. It wasn’t a medical mask, and the material it was made of was light, so it wasn’t going to protect them from much of anything except…
They began to stir, elbows bending as they pressed themselves up from the ground several feet away. Their identity, at least what they were, was now becoming apparent: It was another wolf, a female one at that. Wolves weren’t uncommon by any means, but it had been some time since he’d met another one and even longer than that since he fought another one.
The part where they tried killing him, however, was a brand new experience.
This new wolf rubbed her head with one hand as she brushed the dirt and grass off with the other. Rik watched her with a careful glare. She never opened her eyes once the entire time, though she moved about like she could see just fine. Fascinating, Rik thought. 
It was when she raised her hand to touch her face that she realized her mask was gone, and her eyes—a sparkling cadet blue—opened wide; the emotion that flashed across her face was immediately obvious: Panic.
Rik rose to his feet, emerging from the shaded coverage of a nearby tree and approached the female wolf that was now frantically searching the area for what could have only been her mask. It was time to get some answers, he thought as he slowly and carefully approached her.

“Looking for this?” He said through a wince, his shoulder radically off balance with its twin. His red eyes met her blue for a brief second before she closed them again. Her hand shot outward, though no words followed.
“Why were you trying to kill me?” He asked but received no answer. The female wolf remained silent, arm outstretched. She quickly pointed to the mask, then flattened her palm once more.
He sighed, taking one last look at the mask in his hand, “Ya know, you don’t owe me any explanation for the mask, nor do I judge you for choosing to wear one. We’re all free to do as we wish, as long as it doesn’t hurt others, but… You did just try to put me six feet under a few minutes ago, so I really should shatter this thing across my knee…” 
The female wolf’s ears flattened against her head, and her posture fell apart. 
Rik just smirked. “But I’m not that kind of guy, so here,” He tossed it like a frisbee to the other wolf, who quickly snatched it up. “It’s a shame you feel you need to hide behind a mask, but you do you. And for what it’s worth, which is probably nothing to you, all things considered, you’re quite pretty.” He said as he turned, clutching his right arm with his left as he returned to his gear near the pond.
And then everything went dark. Maybe it was the pain from his dislocated shoulder that dulled his hearing, or maybe Rik had felt the fight was truly over, that returning her mask had formed an unspoken truce between them now. Regardless, the wolf had not heard the Wisp chambering itself or the resulting ZZRPT that proceeded it. Only a brief bolt of pain and then a meeting with the complete darkness that had followed it as he fell face-first into the muddy terrain, his body completely limp.

When he finally came to, it had been hours later. First, there was darkness accompanied by a gentle hum. As his body began to stir from what he had assumed had been death, the world around him began to take shape. From the darkness and the aura of technicolor that outlined objects within his blurred vision, a sterile environment that could have only been a hospital room came into view. His shoulder was now in a cast, but the pain from the dislocation was still blazing white.
That pain brought back every memory of the encounter by the lake. The masked wolf. The resulting fight. The whole time, the woman never said a single word; she just wanted to put him down for whatever reason. Had someone taken a hit out on him? But what for, he always avoids crowds and really hasn’t made much in the way of enemies—or friends, for that matter—since leaving Azure Lake. Robotnik certainlty wouldn’t have put much focus on him, considering how active Sonic the Hedgehog and his group of Freedom Fighters were against foiling his plans.
So what gives?!
He held his left hand up to his face as the last of the blur washed away. A single fleeting memory amidst the chaos of the brief hand-to-hand part of the fight came back. When he had placed his hand on their—on her!—chest. He hadn’t realized the assassin was a female by that point, but her sudden shift in tactics all made sense.
“Hoo boy, between that and calling her pretty after beating the crap out of her. Maybe I deserved getting shot in the back like that.” 
The door to his room opened gently following a soft rapt. A nurse dressed in standard pink scrubs appeared, the little nurse’s cap on his spiked head denoting his position. “Good morning, Mr. Rik. It’s good to see you back with us. We weren’t sure what to make of your injuries when we found you lying outside the hospital yesterday.”
“Yesterday?! I’d been out for an entire day?!” 
The nurse nodded. “Yes, sir. Getting hit by bolts of Ivory Wisp energy tends to do that to people. Tell me, do you still feel any pain? Numbness? How is your eyesight? I can’t imagine your shoulder is feeling too good right now.” 
Rik explained the pain in his shoulder and was promptly administered some pain medication. The nurse did a few more inspections before giving him what was essentially a clean bill of health, though he further clarified that the doctor in charge of setting his shoulder and overseeing his treatment would have to deliver the final say before letting him go free.
“Oh yes, and you have mail, it seems. It was found lying beside your body the other day.” The nurse removed a thick padded envelope from the bedside stand and handed it to the wolf. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some other patients to tend to.” He smiled, bowed, and left the room.

Rik awkwardly fumbled the envelope as he tried to open it with one hand. Inside was some cash and a little note card. On the card was a single sentence written in red ink. 

It read:
“Case of mistaken identity. You were not the wolf I was looking for. Please accept this money as an apology for shooting you in the back. 
Signed, Whisper.”

He wanted to laugh, but the pain currently ripping through his body stilled him. “Shoot first, ask questions later,” he whispered to himself. He counted the Mobiums within the envelope and was shocked by the amount within. He’d mourn the loss of his old bamboo pole but was ecstatic about the new one he could buy with this money.