Chapter 2

-Flashback, 10 years prior, Third person POV

It was a clear sky on this sunny day, the sand was scorching hot while most desert creatures hid in the crevices and cracks of shade from the scattered rocks. On a record heat wave like this, most Mobians would be locked indoors or withing their oasis communities. Unfortunately, some have the misfortune of being left in the ocean of sand to die.

Such was the case of a run-away 11 year old red wolf who was abbandoned after straying to far from his class on a field trip to a canyon not to far away. The child wanted to explore more than the allowed platform, so with his prototype grapple launcher he swung to the other side unnoticed. However, when he tried to get back, the bus had already left, leaving him alone in the wasteland.

The boy walked for hours on end to get back to his home in Station Square, but to no avail, having been tricked and fooled by mirrages all day. His throat begged for water or any liquid as the only source he could think of was his sweat but even then it wasn't nursing. To top that off, the wind began blowing hard, forcing sand pellets to strike his pelt for hours on end.

Eventually an small lake of water caught his eye. 'Finally something!' The boy thought as he used the last of his stamina to dash to it. He had no plan but to just run into the water and swim, but as soon as he drew close, the water faded to the ocean of sand.

'Damn it!' The wolf yelled in his mind defeated. his legs shook as his body felt heavier and heavier for him to hold up. A small whimper escaped his maw as he dropped to his knees and began crying like a defenseless pup. The sand plume he kicked up by landing, was blown into his chest by the wind, forcing him on his gloved hands. "Someone please help me..." He whimpered in exhaustion.

Seconds rolled into minutes as time went on, the wind died down some leaving a clamer breeze behind, but no one came to the aid of the pup. That was until a hooded figure emerged over a nearby dune and saw the red fur contrasting with the yello sandy plain. The figure was dressed in a white hooded cloak, carried a belt of supplies and rations, and was armed with a walking stick. Quickly the figure rushed over to the wolf, retrieving a canteen of water from his cloak and letting its hood fall back. "Hey are you ok?" The figure asked reaching the crying wolf.

"T-they left me..." The wolf replied. "They left me out here..." He was still sniffling but was relieved to see another Mobian. He tried standing up, but the exhaustion was to much and fell on his rear.

"Easy there, you've been walking a while huh?" The figure asked holding out his canteen to the boy. The wolf looked up and accepted the offer, noticing the figure was a jackal with black and white fur, mismatched color eyes, and a white patch on his right eye giving the illusion of a scar. The wolf shyly nodded in return.

"Thank you for the water." The wolf said taking a sip. The jackal smiled some with an affirming nod.

"It's no trouble, though my dad would hate me for doing it." The jackal replied. A sigh escaped his mouth before he looked in the dirrection he came. "Speaking of which i better be going soon, don't want to miss food."

"O-ok..." The wolf said handing back the canteen, but the jackal rejected it.

"Keep it, I've got spares." The jackal told him. The wolf nodded at the jackal and tried standing up again. The jackal pulled him up as they stood eye level with each other.

"Thank you mister jackal." The wolf said with a smile, his glasses a little cracked from the fall he had. The jackal observed the wolf's smile of innocence and chuckled some, holding out a hand.

"My name's Zero." The now named Zero said. The wold met him halfway with his white gloved hand.

"Gadget." The wold replied before coughing some.

"You said you were left out here right?" Zero asked. Gadget meekly nodded. "Tell ya what, I can take you back to my home. Then you can rest until you feel ready to travel again." Gadget perked up.

"Really?!" He exclaimed shyly earning a nod."O-ok that sounds great." Zero smiled and turned his back on Gadget, beginning his trek with the red wolf close behind.

-Flashback end, Eggman base, Zero POV

I awoke again feeling the same sensations I did the first time, but now I knew where I was. Grunting in frustration, I scanned my surroundings to see Eggman's blurry form gone but the mishappen creatures in tanks still around me. 'I need to find a way out of here before the fat bastard shows up again.' I mused.

Trying again, I struggled in my restrains to no avail. Kicking the glass didnt help anything but hurting my toes even with my angled boots on. The only response it gave was a ringing noise in the liquid I was in. 'Damn it, what is this tank made of?' I felt a twitch of pain in my toe as i tried again to no avail.

Bubbles from my respirator rose in a quicker fassion, showing my attempted growl which was near impossible with a tube shoved down my neck. I halted my struggles as I got out of breath from my thrashing and looked in my tank for any helpful options. As I looked, I notticed the chain shackle with a bend in it when my arms were at rest. 'Hmm maybe...' I thought as I swung my arm limply to the glass. The chain hit the glass with a thud and small cricking sound from it chipping. 'Yes it worked.'

With an idea formed, I began to slowly band the chain on the glass to chip it more. The gem glowed softly as I did this, but I tried avoiding it until the glass wouldn't chip any more. I looked at the gem defeatedly and decided to try reaching for it but my chain stopped me. 'Stupid thing, I would smash you apart if I had my weapon!' I thought angrily. The gem glowed brighter and a familiar red sword phased into existence in my right hand. My mix matched eyes widded in surprise from this. 'Where did this...?!' The blade felt real in my hand as well, like the actual tutanum it was made of, which scared me some. Curiousity took over, and I angled it at my left wrist cuff before swinging.

The blade cut through like a hot knife through butter as the reidual force almost hit my chest. 'Woah!' I said internally surprised as the blade was passed to my left hand. 'Did this gem spawn a super sword?' Again I swung at my restriant, making sure not to hit my hand, and again the same result. Looking down at my chest, the gem was glowing brighter than before. 'I don't like the look of that.'

As soon as I thought that, the sword vanished and the gem's glow softened. 'The hell...whatever, I just need to escape.' I shook my head and pounded on the glass with my now freed hands. The glass cracked and chipped as I body slammed it repeatedly until finally it shattered. The blue liquid poured out of the tank, taking me in the current and depositing me out on the floor. The tube was still jammed in my neck, which I used every fiber of my being to yank out, bringing blood up with it, but my breathing was ok.

The blood stained my wet white face fur as I slowly stood up on my shaking knees like it was the first time in a while since I walked. 'Ok I seriously need to know how long I was out for.' I turned to Eggman's computer with an idea. 'Maybe this can tell me what I need.' Apporaching it slowly, I had my body ready for if Eggman returned, but thankfully nothing of the sort happened as I reached the console. It's safe to assume I had no clue what exactly to type since I had no tech backup, but I at least was thankful Eggman didn't put a password on it. "Let's see what dirty secretes you have doctor." I said aloud to myself as I browsed in his folders. "...Robot plans, no, Ways to kill Sonic, no even though that cocky kid could use a good talking to, Mustache selfies? Ugh...aha this looks interesting." I stated clicking a folder named 'Project Infinite.'

What I saw made me disgusted beyond belief. Inside were plans, DNA data of me, designs for devices like the one in my chest, and video footage of a clone of me with a silver mask on. The footage showed me tearing cities to ruin, families massacared, and a video of me kicking the blue blur's ass, the last one to me was ok since I was only hurting him. Reading on, the file went on to explain that altered memories from me were implanted into them to make them loyal and that the reason they were chosen over me was due to a mishap with the gem, which I found out to be called 'The Phantom Ruby.' Anger filled my body again, 'So that's what he meant by my memory failing him! A stupid clone used as a weapon with my face!' I pounded the holokeyboard in anger, which rightly broke the projector and crashing the computer. The gem was glowing again as my sword came into being, this time with one intent...to destroy these clones.

I went to every tank and slashed, hacked, kicked, punched, whatever I could do to destroy the room full of over 100 of them. I made it through about 34 of them before alarms began blaring, "Warning containment breach in primary DNA chamber!" A voice said as red lights blared. 'My cue to leave.' I figured as I halted my progress and dashed to what looked like a door.

As if on command, the door slid open as I ran to it and shut again after I exited. 'Now to find the door.' I dashed off ahead of me and reached a junction where egg-pawns stood ready to blast me. Being able to growl in anger, I slashed and diced through them with no trouble at all. 'Jeez Eggman's bots are shit these days.'

I took a left at the junction as the corridor turned into a rail to grind on, promting me to balance for dear life as the rail passed over a bottomless pit. Who the hell though that was a good idea I will probably never know as Egg-fliers shot in front of me, charging their arm canons. 'Shit!' I exclaimed mentally as I put my hands up to guard myself when they fired. Instead of pain and agony though I felt...fine. Looking to my hands, I saw a wallof red cubes between me and the fliers. Again confusion was on my face, but it turned into a smirk as I threw my hands forward, sending the cubes into the fliers. 'I can get used to this' I thought l, but internally slapped myself. 'Only for Eggman's troops and the egg-head himself though. This is something way to powerful for anything else.' The rails turned back into a path with more pawns in front of me.

I thrusted my hand forward and more cubes shot forward in a concentrated blast, ripping them to shreds. Sprinting past their parts, the path split off again. I hesitated for a moment and took the right path. The path took me past swarms of buzz-bombers and more pawns who all had the intent to kill me. My 'fake' sword sliced the pawns to bits while i avoided the bombers as best i could, some shots nailing my back, but only stinging. 'Cheep ass bots.' Smirking at the carnage, I reached a thrid junction but stayed straight.

Thankfully, I chose correctly because a few doors later I stood on a railing overlooking the ash filled ground bellow. 'Now how do i get down?' I pondered, but I couldn't think long before metallic footsteps echoed in the passageway and a missle shot past me. 'I guess jump!' With that, I jumped from the 10 story height an plumeted down to the ground.

I flipped in the air a few times before jaming my sword into the wall to slow my decent, stopping 10ft off the ground. Letting go of the sword caused me to land with a thud, but when I looked to see the sword stuck in the wall, it was gone. 'This is just getting confusing.' I couldn't dwell much on it though as the doors behind me opened to have a few more ostrich bots with missile banks aimed at me.

Seeing that, I dashed as fast as I could, faster than I thought possible for a jackal, away from the base, leaving the slower bots in the dust. Once I was a km away, I looked at my chest to see it glowing brightly. I slowly rubbed my right hand over the gem which made a clinking sound when I did so. 'Just what in Chaos' name is this thing? And what did Eggman do with it while I was knocked out?' I thought as I dashed away. 'Maybe the squad can tell me what happened, but first I need to get back.'