Just a little story I came up with, about the new villian in Sonic Forces, Infinite, and how he came to be who he is today, and why he wears his mask. This is likely to be super off in the end, but hey… the hype is real over here! I'm driving my friends nuts! Anyway, enjoy! Oh! And also, the OC from the trailers, I'm just gonna call Pyro, kay? good!

I am Infinite

Pain.

It's all I feel. Terrible, crippling, excruciating pain. The entire left side of my face.

I can't move. Paralysed. My right eye is open, stuck that way. I see my fellows, some still breathing, twitching, but most as still as I.

My comrades. My family.

Heroes in the fire.

Breathing hurts. The smoke left from the explosion. The fire, The impact. I never saw it coming. Our enemy knew where we were. How?

I am aware of my heartbeat. Slow. faint. I will die soon. That is certain. I will join my fellow soldiers in the eternal dream.

Numb. It starts in my fingertips. My toes.

No more suffering.

My arms, legs.

No more pain.

My torso. My face. My eye closes.

Heart stops.

Darkness.

Light.

Bright, blinding, white light.

Aching in my chest, my face.

I'm alive… Why am I alive?

Heartbeat picks up. Beeping. I open my eyes. Only one obeys. I am greeted by smooth steel. A ceiling. Where am I? I don't recognise this place…

The aching in my chest worsens, not to mention my face. I hazard a look down.

Metal. Embedded in my fur. Right over my heart. Firmly fixed in my flesh. Part of me.

Panic. Beeping accelerates.

I twist frantically, throat rasping. There's a mirror to me left. I catch a glimpse of my face, and freeze.

Almost my entire left, horrendously mangled. My eye is gone. My remaining one has a red sclera, likely from broken blood vessels. Unfixable.

I'm utterly unrecognisable. A martyr. My once rather handsome face, the sleek black fur, white accents, now replaced by terrible scars.

A door slams open. In rushes a medic, who jabs a needle in my side. I suddenly calm, though against my will.

"Woah there mister… you're fine. Just calm down, 'kay?"

I whip to meet his gaze, and try to speak. My voice, though weak, is noticeably… different. Distorted. Unnatural.

"What have you done? I was out there… dying… dead, even… and now, this!"

"Commander wanted you alive. And to stay that way. You're still our most powerful soldier… and you know, you were also requested to meet the Commander once you recovered enough to stand-"

I lunge across the table, snarling something utterly primal, predatorial. The medic shrieks as in one swift movement, I rip open his neck. He drops, as dead as I had been.

I freeze. What..?

I've never hurt someone like that… never so personally... Never wanted to…

But it felt so good… why? I stare at my claws, soaked in fresh red, confused, and very, very scared.

"Aah.. he was rather annoying anyway. Evening, soldier."

I jump, snarling again. In front of me now stands the commander. A big, round human, with beady black eyes hiding behind a pair of glasses, and a huge mustache. He has a box in his hands, which he sets down on my bedstand, before stepping over the fresh corpse and settling in a chair.

"I… am aware of your current situation, my dear friend. The loss of all those lives must be hard on you."

He has no idea. No. idea.

"... and as a result, you probably want to know exactly what happened… you remember Pyro the wolf, correct?"

The rookie? Yeah I remember him. He was always very fond of that flamethrower. I nod, slowly.

"As I understand it, he went missing not long before the battle. Poof, gone. Well, it turns out that little mutt was in league with the resistance."

No. I can't believe this. Rookie? Pyro?! There was no proof!

"It may be better to show you…" The commander clicks on a small device, which suddenly pops up with a hologram image.

Sure enough, the little red wolf, his beloved fire weapon in his hands, and the leader of our enemy, The Blue hedgehog, Sonic.

Fury. I jerk my head away.

"... you want revenge, don't you?"

I stare at him with my remaining eye. Revenge… it sounds appealing. He will suffer the consequences of his betrayal. Die as the others had.

The commander pulls the box from before into his lap. I watch his every move.

"I have a proposition for you. You have great potential. I want you to lead my army against the resistance. Your thirst for revenge will present itself. Make you strong. Make you never ending. Make you Infinite…

He opens the box, pulling out a mask. It gleams, the steel freshly polished. The giant ear guards, the one eye opening like a rip in the metal and the other side, a black lightning bolt to conceal my scars. It looks menacing.

"This is for you. I had it made once I knew you were alive. Wear it, and you will become the ultimate power of my army. A symbol of the true rule of our world. Everyone will know your name… and those who are too weak to take you will submit or die. Do you accept?"

I take the mask in my hands. It's sinister beauty is enrapturing… If i do this, there is no turning back, but my need is too great to ignore.

I slide it onto my face.

The traitor will pay for his betrayal, as they all must. And once all the people he cares about are lying dead before him… only then will I allow him to die.

Because when everything you know has come and gone… who is gonna save you then?