Sonic gave chase after the Hooligans, and Bean was first up. Sonic sped up to him, but Bean conjured several humongous bombs, which it took Sonic several jumps from bomb to bomb without getting grazed to attack him. Sonic had to contact Spike to help out, and he analyzed the pattern Bean gave off when he threw his bombs and came up with a plan which had Sonic kick every single bomb Bean threw. Next was Bark. Sonic went into a one-on-one fight with him. Imagine a Tekken battle where Bark wins once, but Sonic eventually gains the upper hand and wins. Finally, he took on Fang, who also took this to a one-on-one standoff. Sonic still managed to get the upper hand, remembering the time he faced Fang in that tournament for the Chaos Emeralds. Infinite came up, disappointed but intrigued. "Well, you've improved since the last time. But you will still lose." He said, as he activated the Phantom Ruby. He then shot an energy beam at Sonic, who tried to dodge it but failed, knocking him off the snake and tumbling on the floor. Fang aimed his cork gun at Sonic, but Infinite stopped him. "Hold your gunfire, Fang. You may have failed, but believe me, he's not even worth the effort to finish off." "That's what she said!" said a giggly voice.
It was Falkewulf, and his two Witchcarters, Bearenger, who was standing on a tree branch with him, and Carrotia, who was levitating next to them. "Wha-when did you get here?" Bean asked. "WE WERE WATCHING YOU FAIL!" "Hey, darling." "Carrotia." "The Witchcarters." Fang said. "So, how'd your big failure go?" Carrotia asked. "Don't patronize us. Sonic just...got the upper hand, that's all." Bark said. "How about you, sweetie?" Carrotia asked Infinite. "Why are you calling me those names instead of Infinite?" "That's how lovers address each other, silly." "Lovers? I have no idea what you're talking about." "Of course you do! You're just playing hard to get." "I am?" "Either way, what'd you get on the hedgehog?" "It's strange, but..his abilities exceeded his previous data." "Well, unlike Eggman's bots, he can grow. In fact, he gets more powerful every second." "Well, I will teach him to hold his silver tongue the next time we meet. You can count on that." Then their watches beeped. "All Eggman warriors, I am holding a very important meeting in Green Hill. I expect everyone to be on time. Eggman out!" "Guess it'll have to wait for now. We'd better head to Green Hill before the boss blows his stack!" Fang said. With that, the villains headed for Green Hill.
Silver, Lilac, and Jet was headed for where Sonic was, and were shocked to see him on the floor. "Sonic! You okay?" Silver asked, as he used his telekinesis to pick him up. "Uhh, I'm fine, Silver. I...just have to know how Infinite gets his powers!" "Don't go obsessing about it, Sonic. Or the Legendary Wind Master over here might get some traction." Lilac said. "Hey!" "But we do need to know so we can beat this guy!" "True, true. Let's head back to base for now." Jet said.
So you're probably wondering, what's Tails and the littler Sonic doing? They were out scouting the land for people who needed help, but weren't having much luck. They were out flying over when Classic Sonic noticed the sandier Green Hill. "Strange, Tails. I see desert over there. This is Green Hill, right, kiddo?" "It is. Since Eggman took over, he thought it was a good idea to add a whole wide load of sand to the picture." "Speaking of which, I also see Robotnik down there too." "Okay, we'll hide so we can find out what he's planning. We're coming in for a landing." The Tornado 3-X opened up its landing gear, came in for a landing, and Tails and Classic Sonic hid in a bush, right next to where Eggman was. Tails then pressed a button on his watch. "Camouflage field, activate!" It turned Tails and Classic Sonic invisible, so the villains would never find them. "About time you got here." Eggman said to his minions, all of which had just arrived. "We left as soon as we got the message, Eggman." Mammoth Mogul said. "Ok, let the meeting begin!" All the villains cheered. "Great." Eggman picked up a holographic sheet that had all the villains names and read "Roll call".
"OK, let's get this roll call thing over with. Dr. Snively." "Here, uncle Eggman." Snively said. "Orbot and Cubot." "Here, boss!" The robotic giants shouted. "Infinite." Infinite raised his index and middle finger. "The Hard-Boiled Heavies." "Here." The five mechanical Egg Robos said. "The Egg Bosses." All of them raised their hands. "Scourge and the Suppression Squad." "All present and accounted for, Boss." "Rosy the Rascal." "Over here!" Rosy said in a sing-songy voice. "Lien-Da and Misty-Re." "Present." The two said. "Mephiles the Dark and Iblis." "Present." "PRESENT!" Mephiles and Iblis said, with Iblis screaming his. "Erazor Djinn." "Here." Djinn said. "Metal Sonic." "Present." Metal Sonic said. "Mammoth Mogul." "The one and only." Mogul said. "The Naugus Brothers." "Right here, boss!" Ixis and Walter said. "Wendy Witchcart." "Right here, dearie." Wendy said. "Falkewulf." Over here, boss!" He said. "Bearenger the Grizzly." "HERE!" "Carrotia the Rabbit." "Right here, boss." "Fang the Sniper." "Over here." "Bark the Polar Bear." "Right here." "Bean the Dynamite." "Here." "Zavok, Zazz and Zik." "Present." "Right here!" "Down here." "And Chaos." Chaos raised his hand.
"Great, now we can get this party started. First of all, you are all aware of the Resistance, right?" All the villains groaned. "Yes! They're like something on your shoe that you can't scrape off." Snively said. "Luckily for us, I have a plan, which I wrote on these sheets of holographic paper; just in case anyone's spying on us." The villains took the holographic papers and read the plan on it. "Ooh! This one looks promising to delete that resistance once and for all!" Cubot said. "And it'll happen in just 3 little days. Second, do any of you have a Phantom Ruby Prototype on you?" All the villains, except for Bean, pulled out jewels that looked like the Phantom Ruby. "Is that a problem, uncle?" Snively asked. "No. In fact, I was going to ask you to destroy them!" "What? I thought they would make a great buck." Fang said. "No, Fang! Only we, the majority, can use them; not even the Resistance can get their grubby little hands on them! So just destroy them, ok?" The villains placed the prototypes in a small pile, and, using their powers, blew them to bits. "And with that, the disposal of the Phantom Ruby Prototypes is now complete." Infinite said. "They were defective models. They could only read the DNA of the ones who triggered it." Eggman said. "Only beings of our strength of will could activate them." Mephiles said. "It doesn't matter now, with the lab locked down in Mystic Jungle." "Which reminds me, didn't you and the Hooligans run into Sonic there after he escaped, Infinite?" Mammoth Mogul asked. "Yes, Mogul, but he was powerless against us. There's no need for concern." "You let the rat LIVE?! That is a great source of concern!" Erazor said. "For Eggman, maybe." Carrotia said. "Carrotia has a point. He has defeated you for decades, yet we defeated him in our first encounter." Infinite agreed. "Phantom Ruby Prototypes? And the other me's alive?" Classic Sonic asked Tails, who were still there, invisible. "So, we proceed with this plan of yours, boss?" Orbot asked. "Of course we do. When it's finished, the resistance will be erased. The world will be nothing but ashes, from which a glorious Eggman Empire will rise!" Eggman said. "And the resistance will yield to the Eggman Empire's power! All will sumbit!" Ixis said. The villains cheered and laughed. "That's the spirit!" Eggman said, laughing. "This meeting's adjourned. Let's head back to Metropolis. We have a long 3 days ahead of us. But let me ask you one thing; What did you join me for?" "REVENGE!" Eggman laughed a bit. "And who are you gonna destroy?" "That stupid hedgehog!" The villains took off for Metropolis, laughing all the way, except for Snively.
Classic Sonic jumped out at him, and hit the Egg Pod he was in. "Sonic! How are you here already?!" "This isn't Sonic, Snively!" Tails said. "Well, technically, he is, but he's a Sonic from another dimension!" "Well, another dimension, eh? Other dimension or no, I'll still crush him all the same!" Snively said, as he released a spiked ball from underneath the pod. Classic Sonic just looked annoyed. "Oh, come on, this is just child's play!" Imagine the first time you beat the first boss in the first Sonic game. "Was that all you got, Snively?" Classic Sonic asked. "No, it wasn't, hedgehog! I'm just getting started!" Snively then pressed a button on the pod. It summoned a giant machine from the behind of his pod. "Behold….the Egg Dragoon!" Snively proclaimed, as he backed the pod into the empty cockpit of the Dragoon. The Dragoon shot at Classic Sonic with bullets and drills, the only things it could do. Tails had a backup plan thankfully. He and the Wisps had made copies of all the Wispons to make sure there was enough for everyone, and Tails pulled out the Quake Wispon from his Tornado 3-X and slammed it on the ground, jutting out 4 rocks that Classic Sonic used to hit Snively with. "You've got a lot of nerve for a pint-sized Sonic from another dimension! Still, this Egg Dragoon has only lost 10% of its combat strength." Snively said. "You're lying!" Classic Sonic cried. "You won't have to wait long to find out, hedgehog!" Tails slammed the Quake Wispon again, jutting out 5 rocks and Classic Sonic used them to hit the Egg Dragoon again. The Dragoon at critical damage, Snively launched out and the Pod tumbled to the floor. "Well, that was a grand battle. Too bad we're never going to do it again. In just three short days, my uncle's plan will annihilate the bothersome lot of you." "Really? What is it?" Classic Sonic asked. Tails shot him a look that just cried out "Are you kidding me?" "I'm not gonna tell you. It's like they say; the anticipation of the end is worse the end itself. Though not in this case, maybe." Snively said, and he flew off, in pursuit of the other villains. "Well, that doesn't sound good." "You think?"
Meanwhile, the other villains were preparing their next course of action. Infinite had decided to rest a while, because his battles were getting a bit tiring. Eggman asked Carrotia to escort him to his room. "And this is where you'll be sleeping for now." "Thank you, Carrotia." "You're welcome, sweetie. Now I know there's a lot of cute girls in this empire of Eggman's; so don't get any ideas, Cutie-pie!" "I have no idea what you're talking about." "Oh, I'm just kidding. See you tomorrow, honey!" "Good night for now, Carrotia." Infinite got in his bed, took his mask off and slept.
If you hadn't guessed from the several hints, Carrotia really, really loved Infinite. She loved him so much, she watched over him from the door. But in her heart, she could tell that while love was mandatory outside the Empire, within in the inner circle it was almost, well, outlawed. It depressed her that she might never be able to tell Infinite how she really felt about him, regardless of his mask, so much she started to….sing, for some reason. "My darling, while you sleep, all is well, we are workmates and that's swell, but the truth is that I have a secret to tell….I love you!" Carrotia sang. "People say it's wrong, it's not well, that a rabbit and a jackal are in love, but I know in my heart this was so meant to be!" "'Cause I love you so much, too bad we can't touch, if we did the boss would kill us, and that would be such a really big drag." Carrotia solemnly sang. "If only we could hug and could kiss, be in heavenly bliss, but Eggman would be so mad, that we'd look just like this, as we'd hemorrhage and gag, oh excuse me." Carrotia continued to sing, also picking up a skeleton she found on the floor. "Romeo and Juliet were in love but I bet it was nothing compared to the feeling I get around you..." "But you don't even know that I'm there, you don't see that I care, could it be that for me, you're not even aware that I'm perfect for you?" "Because I'm never-ever mean, never lie, and I'm sweeter than pie, and I'm thoughtful and gentle, and timid and shy, and tender and loving, and true!" "But darling, protect you I will, don't worry, just chill, cause there isn't a person that I wouldn't kill, for you.." Carrotia sang. "Can't you see, we were destined to be, for we have love, evil love?" "I know, yes, I know, that you can't hold me, your loving arms enfold me..." "Fate told me love, evil love... standing here, you're so near and yet so far…" Carrotia sang, even more sadly. "Here we are, what to do...oh, poo." She continued to sing. "You're my Romeo, I'm Juliet, we are so perfect and yet, if we touch, not by much, till, on all you can bet, it's good-bye and I'll cry, as we die….from our evil love…." Carrotia finished her song. "Hey, Carrotia, why were you singing in front of Infinite's door?" Fang asked. "Uh, no reason, Fang." Carrotia got up and left the room.
Well, that was really necessary. Let us never talk about it again. But try to figure out one thing; what did Carrotia see in Infinite? Was it his power? His leadership? His bad-boy attitude? His personal vendetta with a hero? What was it that made Carrotia love Infinite so much?