It should be stated that we don't know who Infinite truly was before he became Infinite. For all we know he's just an ordinary jackal who got really good at killing things and became the ultimate mercenary in a completely mundane sense – just through pure skill and experience. That in itself is not bad. If that was the intention with his character it's no wonder he gets defeated so easily by Shadow in the canon story we are given – but if not then... boy he really does look weak... BUT I believe the intention was for Infinite to be an "ultimate" in the mundane sense (no special powers, abilities or maguffins to give him a boost) and the same likely applies to Jackal Squad (because in the short time we see them, none of them exhibit any special abilities, same with Infinite).

It should also be stated that the Mobians seem very durable over all: even those without special maguffins to give them super powers (like Chaos Control, psychokinesis, pyrokinesis or essentially being Echidna Salior Moon) or attributes that they were naturally born with or gained and honed overtime (like Sonic's speed, Tails' ability to fly with his tails or Amy's amazingly all-around balanced stats) have been proven to withstand a lot of abuse. Completely normal characters like Rouge and Cream (who are Mobians without these special abilities) are competent as they are. So even if Infinite as a normal jackal is completely mundane, he's not weak in the sense that he can't take any abuse in a fight – he just can't complete with most of the main cast who for the most part all have a special power of some kind to assist them.

On a side note I'll also be improvising names for Jackal Squad. Fan art I've found for the entire squad make the squad consist of the ones we've seen in the comics (one with a bandanna, one with a red beret, one with slicked back hair and knives, a female one in a green top and wearing polka dot pants and Infinite himself. There are two more that are just silhouettes in the background.) The piece of fanart I've decided would be THE Jackal Squad consisted of two females and the rest are male (plus Infinite himself). The two jackals that were silhouettes in the Rise of Infinite comic can be left up to interpretation but one had a sword meaning there was another swordsman besides Infinite and the other was too far to give them any discerning personality based purely on a silhouette so that one is a freebie for us fanfickers.

So now that that's out of the way, lets get on with the story:

Chapter 2: Episode Shadow: Midnight Massacre

A few weeks later the jackal without a name was sent to the Mystic Ruins alone. The rest of his squadron awaited him, having been sent ahead of time to watch the facility as it was being cleared out, repaired, whatever it was. As he traveled he thought back on the doctor making that second proposal to him: the promise of a surgery that would give him the Phantom Ruby's power.

Mister Jackal? I have some important news for you. See, I've completed enough research to produce a few prototypes of the Phantom Ruby. But don't get too excited just yet – each one still needs some fine tuning and then there's you... See, you haven't been doing as well as you used to! You haven't eaten or slept normally for a very long time.

At that he would grumble and tell the doctor to get to the point.

Before any procedures can be done you need to get back to your old self again. If you can get yourself in a better physical condition then there's a larger chance of a procedure such as this being a success! If you can get even stronger than what you used to be, the chances of success will be even higher. But given your current condition the chances of success are about 50-50. Surgery is risky. ANY surgical procedure is risky. And because the Phantom Ruby is still so volatile we need to take extra precautions when handling it. You and I have had relatively little physical contact with the stone but touching it is one thing and having it implanted in your body is completely different!

Again, he demanded the doctor get to the damn point.

Simply put: you may be too weak for surgery in your current state.

That word... he growled at that word. Not knowing what came over him he barked, unable to use his words, thrashing about and breaking the cot in his bedroom – the metal bed frame bending to his will! Could a weak man do that?!

While the doctor did show his cowardice he continued:

Forgive me Mister Jackal. Clearly you are strong, but there's always room for improvement! I'm only telling you this because it's in your best interest! Honest! SO: I've come up with a regimen for you to help you get back to your old condition. Nothing too difficult; vitamin megadoses, a minimum of three meals per day, a time slot in the day devoted to exercise. I'll even have treaddesks installed in the lab so you may continue your study while working on your condition. And once you've improved we'll discuss the surgery further.

Of course he went through with it for himself as well as the ruby. He got himself as close to his original self before meeting that nefarious Doctor Eggman – to him a total hack who just so happened to stumble upon a great source of power the jackal wanted. To the rest of the world the man was a terrorist that could never be caught and charged seeking to destroy and conquer absolutely everything on the planet and onward! Never did the jackal imagine such a team up. He had never considered it – only having seen Eggman as a bounty and even then his technology was more valuable than the man himself. But then there was the ruby... Oh that beautiful gem...

Thinking about it made him salivate.

Fires in the distance.

The thick smog coming from the forest.

The sound of jackals screaming and whining in the distance – members of his squad!

He rushed over to each member as they sounded off in pain.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!"

the voice of the youngest member of Jackal Squad – Rosetta – screamed as she hid for cover behind the walls of ruins, rocket launcher in hand before a dark figure punched or kicked the girl's lights and teeth out. He witnessed her head his a jagged rock when she fell; somehow her weapon was confiscated and gone in the blink of an eye! He ran to the girl, her muzzle bleeding profusely and gargling her own blood and she looked up at her boss with sorry eyes, unable to form an apology.

"Rosetta, how did this happen? You were a damn professional!" he grabbed her by the straps of her tank top and picked her up, anger and bitterness in his voice. "You let a kick to the face stop you?!"

But no response, just sorry eyes that were glossing over.

"Rosetta, speak to me! You're not weak! You're not supposed to die like this!"

She tried to mouth out words – likely an apology or a final wish – but only soft wines and blood escaped the girls lips, head falling backwards and forcing the jackal without a name to lay her to rest among brambles and flowers.

...

It was laying the girl to rest that reminded him of the others. Where in the world had they gone? In a wild panic he started sniffing them out only to find that most had already met their ends.

Cairo: the most agile member of the squad who could dance through a barrage of throwing knives in a sand storm hadn't been fast enough to dodge the bullets that had tore through the jackal's chest, leaving him laying in a pool of his own blood and his favorite red beret dyeing itself even redder.

Luxor: the hair he normally kept swept back was now an ugly and beautiful silver mess spotted with blood, the poor jackal who was so concerned about his looks a petrified mess who died with his eyes open looking up at the rocks that crushed him to death.

Tanta: the second best swordsman of the squad died without his trusty sword in his hands, the carefully crafted steel beauty no where in sight as his hand emerged from the muddy sinkhole that swallowed him whole. Attempts to revive him were pointless – every orifice full of jungle sludge and his lungs unable to cough any of it up.

Giza: the other female jackal had burn wounds so severe on one side of her body that if all of her body had burnt, she would've been unrecognizable. When he stumbled upon her she was still gargling words and saliva but as soon as her boss found her and closed her eyes she passed on...

And the only one left...

"Ultimate life form?! Doesn't matter, I'll-!"

Oh... gods no... Not Alex...

The jackal ran toward the sound of his last remaining teammate, watching the jackal with the bandanna get thrown about in the air, kicked around like a child's toy until he fell to the ground with a thud and an agonizing groan.

The dark figure stood over him, stomping on Alex's chest with his giant, gaudy shoes. "Ultimate mercenary... What a joke. You people are no more than declawed kittens."

Immediately the jackal without a name took his ruby red blade, swinging at the black hedgehog standing over his teammate only for the creature to disappear before his eyes.

"Boss!"

"Don't talk Alex." he looked around, sniffing the air to get an idea of the black hedgehog's scent.

The jackal with the bandanna put a hand over his stomach, trying to get up despite the sharp pains in his sides. He couldn't abandon his boss. Taking the green dagger out of his belt he stood next to the jackal without a name, back to back and senses heightened.

Over there, in the trees! Hiding in the branches like a COWARD! The jackal without a name rushed to the trees, jumping from each one with his sword ready to be swung but something like a laser shooting past him and knocking over a tree that barely hit Alex (for he had rolled out of the way in the nick of time).

The hedgehog appeared on the ground again. "So you're the leader of this team of 'ultimate mercenaries' the Doctor ordered? Pathetic!"

The jackal without a name looked at the hedgehog with venomous eyes from his spot on a high branch above it all. "You..." primal venom showed in his voice. "You destroyed my squad."

"They were just a bunch of kids with no experience – all bark and no bite." the black hedgehog scoffed. "So are you the one they call the 'Ultimate Mercenary', Boss~?"

The jackal growled. "MURDERER! You killed every last one of them!" running toward the hedgehog and ready to stab his heart out he was mystified to find that as soon as he got close enough, the bastard disappeared and he got a round kick to the head that sent him flying toward his friend.

The hedgehog growled. "Worthless..."

Sitting over his friend in a protective manner and making sure he was still alive the jackal grit his teeth. "What was that?"

"You're a worthless mercenary. You've wasted not only my time, but also the lives of your former teammates. Those miserable punks were better off doing something else with their lives." Shadow grumbled. "The lives of crime they lived under your commands were pointless! They died for absolutely NOTHING."

"Who are you to talk?! You never knew them!" putting his blade between his fangs he took his leather gloves off to reveal sharpened claws. "THEY WERE MY ONLY FRIENDS YOU MONSTER!"

But just as before, as soon as the jackal got close enough the bastard teleported away, grabbing him by his long silver hair and throwing him to the ground with enough force to send him several feet into the earth. Jumping out while dizzy from impact rendered the jackal defenseless, a shoe hitting his back, it's heel digging into his spine.

"Just give up. You're fighting for the losing team. Go do something more productive with your life and get out of here." the hedgehog sighed. "You're lucky to even have you life you pathetic weakling."

He teleported away, pressure off the jackal's back but left with an aching head and a blow to the ego.

He slowly got up as his friend did. "Weak? He's calling me weak? Can you believe that Alex?!"

"Boss..." Alex took a communicator off of his head, handing it to his boss (who held it against his ear).

Eggman...

"Your squad was useless. I expected you to be the best mercenaries around and instead I get puppies that Shadow managed to put down like it was nothing!"

The jackal without a name bit his lip so hard it bled. "DON'T YOU DARE CALL THEM WEAK!"

"They were weak! If your squad was really talented they would've defeated Shadow without a single scratch on any of them!"

"Don't talk about them like that, Old Man!"

"Whatever. Seeing as how your pathetic squad was defeated staying at that base is too dangerous."

"But what about my surgery?! What about that power you promised me?!"

"That procedure can still happen but..." the doctor paused. "To be frank: you being so easily defeated by Shadow is very discouraging."

The jackal growled into the communicator feral and loud. "You promised me that power! My whole squad is DEAD because of YOU! You're the one who ordered them out here! You knew that damn hedgehog was coming here, didn't you?!"

On the other side of the communicator Eggman smirked from ear to ear. Shadow had been send out here by GUN – likely to investigate why so many robots and jackals started coming to the ruins of the jungle. Shadow was powerful enough to handle such jobs on his own, sparing many human lives in the process. Surely if this jackal mercenary and his squad were as powerful as they boasted they could take him on... Of course they failed...

He had carefully calculated this: dead or alive, the other jackals could still be of use to him so long as the jackal he called 'Mister Jackal' remained unharmed – a few bumps and bruises internally or externally were fine so long as he didn't die! Those animals seemed to be such well built creatures as evident with Shadow... It was only when the opportunity presented itself that Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik could follow in his grandfather's footsteps.

And what better way to take advantage of this particular test subject when he was at his lowest?

"Oh come now Mister Jackal! You said you were the ultimate mercenary!" Eggman boasted. "I suspect the changes you underwent during our weeks of studying have thrown you off your game. After all, rehabilitation isn't always easy. I apologize for throwing you into battle when you weren't ready."

"Cut the crap old man!"

"It still stands that your squad has failed. But..." Eggman paused. "There is hope for the lot of you yet..."

"Hope? What hope?! My squad is dead because -!"

"Because you were weak."

That word again, how he hated that word! How he wanted to rip that word to shreds until it was no longer a word!

"I... am... not... weak..."

"As you are now you were absolutely no match for Shadow. So in that sense: you are INDEED weak."

"I'm not... The damn hedgehog was cheating!"

"Shadow was born with power. You on the other hand-!"

"I'm not weak, Doctor! I'm the ultimate mercenary!" the jackal without a name growled and yet he sounded afraid, which Alex caught as he watched his boss tremble while hearing the doctor over the communicator. "I have talent! I have experience! I'm strong! I swear I'm strong! I'm...!"

And even in complete silence he heard the word he detested most...

The jackal without a name caught himself shaking as he rapidly grew cold, taking the communicator away from his ear and looking down at his gloved hands.

"I-I'm shaking... Me?! Me... Afraid...?" he cleched his fists hard enough to crack the communicator in half. "Urgh. Pathetic! He's calling ME weak? No! I am not weak!"

"B-Boss..."

"I'm... I'm not. I'm not weak! I am not weak. I am not weak. I am not WEAK!"

He screamed like a wild animal in agony from a fatal wound, the weak and raging sounds of a jackal gone berserk surely deafening the moon and the stars. He screamed with revelation. He wasn't weak. He would prove so to the world and show that damn Shadow the Hedgehog how HE was the weak one! He was weak for using cheap tactics! Using and abusing power that wasn't rightfully his! The real weakling was Shadow – too reliant on whatever power he was using instead of righting like a real man!

The jackal known as Alex (full name Alexandria – though it was far too feminine a name for him) could only watch in fear as the boss he had known transformed into something ugly; a shell of his former self that shouted on and on about how he was not weak! And then he made the fatal mistake of grabbing his boss by the arm to snap him back to his senses.

All he got was a large scratch on his chest that would surely scar if only the wound would close and the bleeding stop...

"I'm not weak..." in his boss's eyes was only malice that knew no friend. "I'm not going to let you treat me as though I am either. I won't let ANYONE call me WEAK!"

Alex (the poor jackal) looked down at his wounds in bewilderment, his only actions consisting of pressing down hard on his bleeding chest and backing away into the brambles. This was no longer the boss he called "boss". The jackal had lost his mind, looking at his former subordinate with venom in his eyes, licking his teeth and salivating madly as he took steps toward him!

"Say... YOU don't think I'm weak, do you?" the mad jackal laughed. "DO YOU?!"

"I don't think your weak! I never have! But the way your acting isn't norm-!" he coughed, tasting blood in his mouth when his former boss stabbed him with his claws.

"I'm not weak... In fact I'm better than weak! I surpass the strong! I surpass the mighty! In fact, I think I'm... Heh..." he thought back to that word he fell in loves with all those weeks ago with tearful eyes and the taste of blood on his tounge... What a beautiful word. "Yes... I'm infinite! I'll become infinite! I like that idea quite a lot, don't you?"

The jackal only known as Alex fainted from blood loss...

Chapter End

Before I get into my head canons for the jackals aside from Infinite, I will say one thing that I have a bit of beef with in regards to Sonic Forces: word from Sonic Team stated that this is a universe where only animals exist... Personally I think that's bullshit as the result of writing yourself into a hole and trying too hard to put the past games in the trash and trying to make Sonic fresh and new again.

Humans HAVE to exist in Sonic's world not only because of Eggman but also because of Shadow. Without humans existing on Mobius, Shadow's entire character arc in Sonic Adventure 2 becomes meaningless and Eggman is just sort of there... So yes, if I were the one writing Sonic Forces or if I were to rewrite the entire story from scratch, this would be a universe where humans exist on Mobius alongside the animals. I think the only reason they made up the excuse of "this is a universe of only animals" is just the result of writing themselves into a hole, trying to discredit the past games everyone loves and trying to market Sonic to a newer audience. So yes I may make an occasional reference to a human character of two throughout the saga because as a writer, I'm calling bullshit because in terms of story telling there NEED to be humans or else we have two characters who have huge holes in their stories.

That was a PSA in retconning details from your own franchise and trying to use the "it's a different universe" excuse.

Onto the jackals!

Head canons in regards to Jackal Squad names:

So my portrayal of Jackal Squad was entirely improvised and all of it's members as explained in the opening author's notes were based on both the comic for the four members (aside from Infinite) that we see and the other two were based on a piece of fan art I found that portrayed a team of seven with the addition of a second female jackal and another male jackal. I decided to give them Egyptian names – specifically names based on Egyptian cities

Again, just in case you want to use these names for your own interpretation of Jackal Squard, the names are: Alex/Alexandria (green bandana), Cairo (red beret), Luxor (slicked back hair), Tanta (the silhouetted jackal with the sword from the comic), Giza (the only visible female jackal in the comic with the polka dot pants) and Rosetta (the other silhouetted jackal from the comic that's the freebie for us fans to mess with)

The only Jackal Squad member who's name I didn't come up with on my own was "Alex" - or the jackal in the green bandanna we see in the comic (who is the only other jackal that has a speaking role, perhaps indicating he was very close to Infinite). That name came from a random piece of fan art I found on the Sonic the Hedgehog Amino. It was a piece of fan art that portrayed Infinite and the jackal with the bandanna closer to actual jackals (and I believe that post was called "The Hunt" if I'm not mistaken, though I can't recall the name of the artist). The name Alex fit perfectly with my head canon of Jackal Squad having Egyptian names and to give him the name of a city his full name would be "Alexandria" - just Alex for short. This story does not end happy for Alex...