Chapter 4 – Imminent
A/N: Hey everyone, thank you so much for all the positive feedback. I really appreciate it.
Enjoy!
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"Are you sure?" Knuckles asked. Sonic had immediately got both of his friends after the incident and told them everything. The three were now sitting in the living room.
"Guys, I know what I saw," Sonic sighed, sitting down on a chair. "I fought that thing. I've seen it disappear after I took it down,"
"But…how is that possible? We destroyed all the Phantom Ruby prototypes," Tails stated, scratching his head in confusion.
"Clearly not all of them," Knuckles grumbled, sitting on a chair backwards. "Did you see who casted that illusion?"
"No," Sonic said, shaking his head.
Tails crossed his arms in thought. "Well, it wouldn't make sense for it to be Eggman's doing since he's not exactly the most…subtle person around," he stated. The scientist had the tendency to put his face on nearly all his creations after all. "If he managed to get his hands on another Phantom Ruby, he'll probably be cooking up a new scheme and gloating to us about it instead of attacking someone like that,"
"That only leaves him," Knuckles said grimly.
"Hey, we don't know that for sure, Knux," Sonic replied.
The echidna rolled his eyes at him. "Come on, who else could it be? He liked spreading fear, remember?" he huffed. "So, what do we do now?"
"I say we gather the rest of the resistance and tell them about this," Tails said.
Knuckles grimaced. "Yeah…how about we don't do that,"
Tails gaped at him. "What? Knuckles, this isn't something we should be keeping to ourselves!"
"Why don't the three of us just deal with it? You know, like old times," the echidna offered with a grin, pounding his fists together. When Tails threw him a look, he sighed. "Look, everyone is still recovering from what happened, Tails. Imagine how they'll react if we told them this. I don't want them to freak out,"
The guardian turned to his blue friend. "Back me up here, Sonic,"
The hedgehog, who had been quiet for most of their argument, finally spoke up. "Sorry, Knux, but Tails is right. Everyone needs to know about this,"
Knuckles sighed in defeat and pulled out the walkie-talkie. "Alright, fine,"
In the next morning, all the members of the resistance showed up at their headquarters. Knuckles tensely stood in front of everyone and cleared his throat.
"Everyone, I'm…I'm afraid I have some bad news. We've discovered that Infinite might have returned,"
They all gasped and stared at him in shock before bombarding the echidna with questions.
"What? How?!"
"Who told you that?"
"Is he going to attack again?!"
"Calm down!" Knuckles exclaimed. "Look, we don't know for sure at the moment. Sonic saved someone from an illusionary monster yesterday. We already ruled out for it to be Eggman since it's not like him to do something like that so it only leaves the other person who used that power before,"
The Mobians turned to each other, murmuring worriedly about the chance of another war happening. Knuckles exchanged nervous glances with his two friends.
"That would explain a lot though," Vector said suddenly, getting everyone's attention.
"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.
Espio sighed and explained. "We were planning on telling you this when we got here. Just earlier today, something strange happened. We were passing by a reconstruction site when all the people there started fighting,"
Tails frowned. "But why?"
"We don't know. They just started attacking each other for no reason. We had to step in and break the fight. Once they eventually calmed down, they didn't know what came over them," the chameleon finished and the room fell quiet.
"That's….disturbing," Sonic said, knowing how much of an understatement that was.
Knuckles then noticed Rouge walking away at the corner of his eye and snapped out of it. "Hey, where do you think you're going?" he growled.
"Easy there, Knucky. I'm just gonna go tell the boys at G.U.N about this. They're looking for Infinite after all. If he really did regain his powers then they need to be warned," Rouge said.
Knuckles faltered. "Okay, you do that," he huffed.
"So….what's the plan now," Silver asked.
Knuckles paused as everyone eyed him expectantly. This was one of the reasons he didn't like being a leader. When he was first asked this, he found the request to be absurd. He always preferred to work alone, with the exception of Sonic and Tails sometimes, but with the world at stake and his two friends gone, he had taken on that role for everyone's sake.
He sighed and scratched his head in thought. "Well, the best thing we can do now is to keep an eye out. We still don't fully know what's going on and we need to be careful. If you see anything suspicious then report back immediately, alright?"
Everyone in the room nodded their affirmation though they still looked uncertain.
Sonic meanwhile was looking down, eyes distant. A sliver mask flashed in his mind and he grimaced, shaking the thought away. How can it be him though?
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Infinite was making his way through the forest. He suddenly stopped to gaze around for a minute and then sighed.
He finally had a destination in mind, but he had no idea which way to go. He had been so busy trying to escape his pursuers to the point where he no longer knew where he was. He looked up at the sky wistfully. If only I could still fly. He thought and absently walked forward only to feel himself step on a wire. "Huh?"
Immediately, a swift sound cut through the air and Infinite quickly rolled out of the way just as two wooden stakes nearly impaled him. The jackal sat there, panting for breath.
Standing up, he walked over and knelt down to examine the trap, quickly realizing that it was put here recently.
He began heading east, keeping all of his senses on high alert. Someone put that trap there and they were expecting him to come in that direction. He looked up at the pine trees around and knew he couldn't use them to escape if he needed to.
The sound of firing in the distance caused the jackal to start sprinting as fast as he could through the thick forest. In his haste to get away, his foot got caught into something and he cried out as he was lifted up into the air.
Hanging upside down, the jackal deadpanned. Seriously?
He couldn't believe he had stepped into a trap a second time! He really needed to get himself together. He took out his dagger and began swinging back and forth to build up momentum.
In that same moment, a bullet blew through the tree bark close to his back. Panicking, the jackal finally managed to throw himself up and grabbed onto the rope, cutting it instantly.
The second he landed on the ground, he quickly went to hide behind the tree as another bullet hit the spot he had been lying on. Infinite remained there as his pursuer made several more holes in the tree. He waited for the right moment and then quickly left his hiding spot when the firing ceased.
He knew he only had a few moments before his pursuer reloaded, wherever they were. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins as the sound of bullets flying through the air rang in his ears.
Oh no. Infinite grimaced when the end of the tree line was in sight. Once the trees were gone, he'll be vulnerable, but there was nowhere for him to hide here either.
Blinded by the light momentarily, the jackal found himself in a grassy field. An idea came to him and he rushed into it. The grass was long enough for him to hide in. He quickly pulled his hood up to cover his head and crouched down.
He then listened quietly. The sound of footsteps soon reached his ears. He looked through the grass blades and saw a human coming out of the forest. He had a thick beard and was wearing dark shades. A musket was held tightly in his hands as his eyes scanned the field.
Suddenly, the man began firing haphazardly at the field.
He's trying to draw me out. Infinite realized, gritting his teeth. He needed to stay still and not show himself to-
A wave of pain suddenly washed over his chest and the jackal nearly cried out. He covered his mouth with one hand while the other remained clutching his chest. Not now. Not now! He curled up on himself and screwed his eyes shut as the pain continued flaring in his chest. He mustn't make a sound. He will be discovered if he did!
Cracking an eye open, his heart skipped a beat when the end of gun pointed in his direction, but thankfully it didn't linger and moved away. He nearly sighed in relief and gave away his location.
The hunter soon gave up and turned around to leave. Infinite sat there for a few minutes before deeming it safe to move. He quietly sneaked through the thick grass until he made out to the other side.
The jackal continued making his way down the mountain and eventually found something, a road. There were cracks and holes it, obviously not made by vehicles. He narrowed his eyes and saw one of Eggman's giant robots in the distance. The broken mass of metal lay dauntingly in the valley below, moss growing over it. A battle must have taken place here some time ago.
Frowning, Infinite looked around before deciding to follow the old road. After walking for a while, he came across an abandoned gas station.
He raised a brow and walked toward it, feeling a bit uneasy with how quiet it was. He stared beyond the dirty glass of a convenience store window and decided to go inside when he saw no one there.
He struggled with the door for a moment before it finally budged and he stepped inside. Everything was covered in a layer of dust. Gazing about, Infinite grabbed a package from one of the isles and tossed it away immediately in repulsion when he saw the food inside was moldy.
It was clear nobody had been here in a long time, but then again many places were abandoned when the war began.
Sighing, the jackal went far into the store and sat behind one of the isles, closing his eyes and slowly drifting off. At least he found somewhere safe for now.
Elsewhere meanwhile, three figures stopped near the edge of a forest.
"This is where he has been last sighted. Be careful out there. I'm counting on you,"
"Understood," Shadow said and the commander hung up. He then turned to Rouge and Omega. "Let's go,"
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A/N: Thanks for reading.