Hip's narration

After that mess with my "accident", I was brought back to health at the infirmary.

But the help had to make a desperate action to make sure I came out alive.

My limbs were extremely broken and the damage was too big to just put my hands through surgery.

If I didn't get this problem fixed, my arms and legs would be too weak, and it could've been easy for me to get sick or die from a disease.

I.......had to lose my hands and feet to live.

Good news was that an expert in robotics and biology had made special hands and feet to help me move and grab.

Bad news was that he couldn't make them life like, but just metal digits.

I was terrified and felt a little lonely, as well as devastated.

I'd always be different from everyone on the team no matter what I do to make people think otherwise.

I'm a freak and an ugly reminder of the enemy.

I lost my physical touch and the immediate trust of the soldiers around me.

Who would be friends with someone who had robot like limbs?

Why know me if my hands and feet just remind people of what they lost?

I'm literally the embodiment of everything that Eggman screwed up.

Every time I went on missions, all the soldiers went of and left me in the dust to do my own stuff.

Every time I offered to help, they glare at me, almost threatening to come over and beat me up.

I almost thought about just running out into no man's land and just taking something out before dying in combat.

At least mom would be waiting for me in heaven...right?

But things changed around some when I met him...

When I met my first real friend...

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Normal POV (with Bopper)

Resistance Base (Storage Room)

The black bear was carrying a large stack of crates down to the storage below to help Vector out.

It wasn't too much of a hassle, despite the numerous stares he got from people who couldn't believe how strong he was.

After he gets the stuff in the right spot, he sets them down and begins to walk away.

But then he hears a sniff not far from him, but it was more of a sad one.

Ben followed it until he reached the more isolated section of the storage room.

He found a young male orange bird wearing a read jersey and one of the Resistance headsets.

What stood out the most about him was the metal hands and feet he had to be replacements of what he lost.

Ben approached him. "What's wrong? Did you lose something?"

Ace looks at him and backs away. "Go away..."

Ben puts his hands up in defense. "Whoa! I'm not gonna hurt ya. I just want to know what's making you cry."

Ace answers. "Why do you care? Have you looked at me?"

Ben sits down next to him. "What? Those metal parts?"

Ace nods. "Yeah those metal parts."

Ben replies to him. "I think you look cool with them."

Ace looks at him with a puzzled face. "Really? You don't hate me for having these?"

Ben shook his head. "Nah! Why would I hate you for having these if they're the reason you're alive?"

Ace sighs. "But don't they remind you about what Eggman did? Or just remind you that my parts are the equivalent of robot parts?"

Ben denies it. "What happened to you wasn't because of you."

Ace just stays quiet, thinking into what he was saying.

Ben adds to the conversation. "Things like this just happen. We can't control what we want the world to do."

He then asks him. "Is that jersey you wear the one Samuel Jordan wore in his 5th consecutive championship?"

Ace smiles. "Yeah. He gave it to me during his retirement years as the owner of Westopolis Wildcats."

Ben grins back at him. "Neat. And it looks good on you."

Ace asks. "What's your favorite music?"

Ben shrugs. "Not sure, but I guess either country or whatever counts as workout music."

Ace then realizes something. "Wait...are you Benjamin Gruff? The champ who took the title as a kid?"

Ben face palms. "Should've kept my mouth shut on the music part."

Ace was a little excited. "Oh my gosh! You're a legend.....I mean...not as big as the leaders of the Resistance, but your first championship was epic!"

Ben nods. "Thanks for the credit, but I'm not here to promote myself. I got a home to protect."

Ace nods and extends a hand. "My name's Ace Featherstorm."

Ben takes it. "Cool name. I heard the Air Force had a Soar Featherstorm."

Ace chuckles. "Yeah, that's him. Most people think my dad is the other Soar from the news."

Ben chuckles back. "If only there was someone famous named George, then we'd be on the exact same page."

Ace nods. "Yeah. But it would be cool if my dad was both of them."

Ben tilts his head. "What do you mean? Like if Soar was together with your dad?"

Ace shook his head. "Nope. I was thinking maybe after he retired from the military, he'd have Soar's energy and youth. Maybe there's a universe where a combination of them exist?"

Ben wraps an arm around him. "I'm already thankful for my Pa. From what I heard, your dad fought his way to get to you."

Ace smiles. "Yeah. I'm not gonna forget that anytime soon."

Ben thinks. "We should have code names for each other if we ever go to a battlefield together."

Ace gets up. "Yeah! That would be so cool!"

Ben gets with him. "Ace may be cool, but we may need something unpredictable."

Ace nods. "Good point. Besides, what if Eggman hears our conversation and tries to confuse us with a doppelgänger?"

Ben thinks for a few minutes, but comes with an idea. "I'll call you Hip!"

Ace asks him. "Uh...why? That's out of the blue."

Ben points to a portal music player he had. "You got a big collection of music and you're from the city."

Ace thinks. "Huh...so you named me after hip-pop? Cool!"

Ben smirks. "How about the code name you use for me also be used for my next season after the war?"

Ace, now called Hip, starts thinking carefully, looking around the room for new ideas.

He spots a Boppin' Robots game, the two small robots still inside the ring for a fight.

Hip grins at Ben. "I'm calling you Bopper. Like the small robot game."

Ben, now called Bopper, looked over at what he meant. "Neat. I like it. It sounds like I'm ready to take a beating and win."

Hip offers a fist bump. "So we're Hip and Bopper from now on?"

Bopper punches his fist in return. "Yeah. This stays from here on out."

Hip crashes into a crate of tomatoes from Bopper using too much of his strength into the fist bump.

Bopper runs over and helps him up. "I'm sorry buddy, sometimes I don't know my own strength."

Hip recovers from feeling dizzy. "It's okay, I got sprayed by one of our skunk soldiers earlier. This should fix that for now."

Bopper and Hip enjoy a laugh from that moment before walking out of the room together.

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Bopper's narration

I never understood why people didn't like Hip, he was a really nice fella.

He was also really smart, being able to restore backup power to our facilities in a minute.

It kinda made up for the Resistance's local genius being absent from the team, which I heard he broke ever since his friend was taken.

I guess what my Pa said was true about city folk.

"If you spend too much time cooped up with a bunch of strangers in one region.....you go crazy."

Though Hip was different from those looney city people, he wasn't thinking about all the bad stuff.

As for Fury, he was still kinda getting there on finding his partner.

When he got here, he had few things in his possession.

-a headset

-a scarf

-a spare handgun he got from a dead soldier

-his pet Chao, Tito

Fury lost Tito for a while until he found him on the way to the Resistance base.

Tito was a great partner, but I'm talking about someone else who joined them.

Fury's actually friends with both a Chao and a Wisp.

He had trouble trying to get the Wispon he needed, most of which either hated his guts or he hated theirs.

When he tested the Red Wispon, it torched Fury's butt until he was nice and crispy.

Fury didn't pay attention to the Yellow Wispon and face planted into the wall.

The Blue Wispon almost got him crushed by a huge block.

The Green Wispon didn't listen to him and dragged him into the sky.

And the Asteroid Wispon refused to give Fury his protective barrier.

Sounds pretty hilarious, right?

By this point, the Resistance banned Fury from trying the Void Wispon.

Judging by what happened with the rest, they made a good choice.

For a while, Fury stuck with the basic the White Wispon, which was about as close to real gun than you think it was.

They didn't think to check one last Wispon that he could've been using in the entire war to be an MVP.

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Normal POV (with Fury)

Resistance Base (Generator Room)

Kyle mutters to himself after a long day of trying out different Wispons.

All they ever did was mess around with him and ruin his day.

Even the White Wisps had issues with him, so what's the point of using them?

Was everyone that afraid of using bullets?

Kyle tossed his White Wispon to the wall, knowing there wasn't any Wisps inside.

He threw it, scaring an Ivory Wisp out of it's hiding spot.

Kyle tried to calm it down. "Easy! Easy! I'm not here to grab you. I just came back here to blow off some steam."

Tito went over and talked with the Wisp after it stopped panicking. "Chao Chao Chao Chao?"

The Wisp made a few sounds, as if talking back to the Chao.

Kyle was confused. "You can understand each other?"

They both nod and the Lightning Wisp came over and gave him a bit of static.

Kyle jumps back. "Yikes! They aren't kidding when they saw lightning powers back a punch."

Wisp made a sound that was close to a laugh or some form of enjoyment.

A few minutes of explaining later...

Kyle tries to recap everything. "So your name is Jolt, hate getting in water and you have a buttload electricity inside you?"

Jolt nods and proves it by giving the generators more power.

Kyle asks him. "Why are you here? Don't you got a Wispon to help give power?"

After some translating on both sides, Jolt gave his reasons.

Apparently, Jolt didn't like having to be a temporary use in battle.

Whenever he was about to be sent off to rest, Jolt tried to help further by going through systems.

Even though he helped, the people who used him didn't like that he was rebellious in that way.

Kyle asks a new question. "How about you stick with me? I don't like taking orders either."

Jolt flew around him in excitement, glad that he found someone who understood him.

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Fury's narration

Me, Tito and Jolt kind of became a tough trio from the Resistance.

We didn't take anyone's nonsense when we went on missions, not even the leader's.

If a situation went to hell, we were going to be there to turn the tables.

But the war was really holding Jolt's full potential back, something he didn't like.

Someday, he was going to get the chance to show off, in several ways to count.

The team wasn't together just yet though.

We needed something to drag us to an alliance that would go behind Eggman's rear and give him the spanking of a lifetime.

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Hope you enjoyed the story so far.

If you have any questions please let me know.

I'll see you next time!